HOLY BIBLE
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GENESIS

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Moses, the author of the five books of the Law (Deut. 31:9, 24; Luke 24:27, 44; John 1:45; 5:46; Acts 28:23; 2 Cor. 3:15).
Time of Writing: Probably about 1490 B.C., when Exodus was written (see introductory material in Exodus).
Place of Writing: In the wilderness east of Egypt.
Time Period Covered: From the beginning of creation (1:1) until approximately 1635 B.C., the death of Joseph (50:26).
Subject:
God Created, Satan Corrupted, Man Fell, and Jehovah Promised to Save
GENESIS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

I. God’s Creation
1:1 — 2:25
A. God’s Desire and Purpose
1:1 — 2:3
1. God’s Original Creation
1:1
Gn 1:1 1aIn the 2beginning 3God 4bcreated the 5heavens and the earth.
2. Judgment and Corruption
1:2a
Gn 1:2 1But the earth became 2awaste and emptiness, and 2darkness was on the surface of the 3deep,
3. God’s Restoration and Further Creation
1:2b — 2:3
a. The Spirit, the Word, and the Light Coming, the First Day
1:2b-5
4and the 5bSpirit of God was brooding upon the surface of the waters.
Gn 1:3 And God 1asaid, Let there be 1blight; and there was light.
Gn 1:4 And God saw that the light was agood, and God 1bseparated the light from the darkness.
Gn 1:5 And God called the light aDay, and the darkness He called Night. And bthere was evening and there was morning, one day.
b. The Waters under the Expanse Separated from the Waters above the Expanse, the Second Day
1:6-8
Gn 1:6 And God asaid, Let there be an 1expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it 2bseparate the waters from the waters.
Gn 1:7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the awaters which were above the expanse, and it was so.
Gn 1:8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And athere was evening and there was morning, a second day.1
c. The Earth Separated from the Seas and the Plant Life Generated, the Third Day
1:9-13
Gn 1:9 And God asaid, Let the waters under the heavens be bgathered together into one place, and let the 1cdry land appear; and it was so.
Gn 1:10 And God called the dry land 1Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called 1Seas; and God saw that it was agood.
Gn 1:11 And God asaid, Let the earth bsprout 1grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit caccording to their kind with their seed in them upon the earth; and it was so.
Gn 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed aaccording to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with their seed in them aaccording to their kind; and God saw that it was bgood.
Gn 1:13 And athere was evening and there was morning, a third day.
d. The Light-bearers Appearing, the Fourth Day
1:14-19
Gn 1:14 And God asaid, Let there be 1blight-bearers in the expanse of heaven to separate the day from the night, and let them be for 2csigns and for seasons and for days and years;
Gn 1:15 And let them be light-bearers in the expanse of heaven to give light on the earth; and it was so.
Gn 1:16 And God 1amade the two great light-bearers, the 2greater light-bearer to rule the day and the 3lesser light-bearer to rule the night, and the 4bstars.
Gn 1:17 And God aset them in the expanse of heaven to give light on the earth
Gn 1:18 And to 1rule over the day and over the night and to 1separate the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was agood.
Gn 1:19 And athere was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
e. The Living Creatures in the Water and in the Air Generated, the Fifth Day
1:20-23
Gn 1:20 And God asaid, Let the waters swarm with swarms of 1bliving animals, and let 2birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of heaven.
Gn 1:21 And God created the agreat sea creatures and every living animal that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird baccording to its kind; and God saw that it was cgood.
Gn 1:22 And God ablessed them, saying, Be bfruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.
Gn 1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
f. The Living Creatures on the Earth Generated, the Sixth Day
1:24-31
(1) The Animals of the Earth
vv. 24-25
Gn 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth aliving animals baccording to their kind, 1cattle and 2creeping things and 1animals of the earth baccording to their kind; and it was so.
Gn 1:25 And God made the animals of the earth aaccording to their kind and the cattle according to their kind and everything that creeps on the ground aaccording to its kind, and God saw that it was bgood.
(2) Man
vv. 26-28
(a) The Conference of the Godhead
v. 26
Gn 1:26 And God said, 1Let aUs make 2bman cin Our 3dimage, according to Our 3elikeness; and let 4them have 5fdominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every 6creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
(b) Created by God Male and Female
v. 27
Gn 1:27 And God created man ain His own image; in the image of God He created him; bmale and female He ccreated them.
(c) Blessed by God to Be Fruitful
v. 28
Gn 1:28 And God ablessed them; and God said to them, Be bfruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and 1subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
(3) Man and All Other Living Creatures Satisfied by God’s Provision
vv. 29-30
Gn 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb that produces seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree 1which has fruit that produces seed; they shall be for you as 2afood.
Gn 1:30 And to every animal of the earth and to every bird of heaven and to everything that creeps upon the earth, in which is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food; and it was so.
(4) Everything Being Very Good to God
v. 31
Gn 1:31 And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was 1very agood. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
GENESIS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

g. God Resting in Satisfaction, the Seventh Day
2:1-3
Gn 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished.
Gn 2:2 And on the aseventh day God finished His work which He had done, and He 1brested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Gn 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had 1created and made.
B. God’s Procedures to Fulfill His Purpose
2:4-25
1. The Background — No Rain from Heaven, No Man on the Ground, No Life in the Field,
Only a Mist from the Earth
vv. 4-6
Gn 2:4 1These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were 2created. 3When 4Jehovah God 2made earth and heaven,
Gn 2:5 And no aplant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up — for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to 1bwork the ground,
Gn 2:6 But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground —
2. The First Step — Creating Man as a Vessel to Contain God as Life
v. 7
Gn 2:7 Jehovah God 1formed 2man from the 3adust of the 4ground and breathed into his nostrils the 5bbreath of life, and man became a living 6csoul.
3. The Second Step — Having Man Receive God as Life
vv. 8-17
a. Placing Man in Front of the Tree of Life
vv. 8-9
Gn 2:8 And Jehovah God planted a agarden in 1Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
Gn 2:9 And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is 1pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the 2atree of life in the middle of the garden and the 3btree of the knowledge of good and evil.
b. Putting Man in the Garden with Its River
vv. 10-15
Gn 2:10 And a 1ariver went 2forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became 3four 4branches.
Gn 2:11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that goes around the whole land of aHavilah, where there is gold.
Gn 2:12 And the 1gold of that land is good; 1abdellium and 1bonyx stone are there.
Gn 2:13 And the name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that goes around the whole land of Cush.
Gn 2:14 And the name of the third river is aHiddekel; it is the one that goes east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Gn 2:15 And Jehovah God took the man and 1put him in the garden of Eden to 2work it and to 3keep it.
c. Allowing Man to Have Free Choice
vv. 16-17
Gn 2:16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, aOf every tree of the garden you may eat freely,
Gn 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall 1anot eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely 2bdie.
4. The Third Step — Working God into Man as Life to Be His Complement
vv. 18-25
a. Man, Typifying God, Needing to Have a Complement
vv. 18-20
Gn 2:18 And Jehovah God said, It is not agood for the 1man to be alone; I will make him a bhelper as his 2counterpart.
Gn 2:19 Now Jehovah God had formed afrom the ground every animal of the field and every bird of heaven. And He brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called any living animal, that was its name.
Gn 2:20 And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of heaven and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was 1not found a helper as his counterpart.
b. Man Gaining a Complement in and by Life
vv. 21-25
Gn 2:21 And Jehovah God caused a 1adeep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his 2ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.
Gn 2:22 And Jehovah God 1abuilt the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a 2woman and 3brought her to the man.
Gn 2:23 And the man said,
This time this is abone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called 1Woman / Because bout of 2Man this one was taken.
Gn 2:24 Therefore a aman shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and bthey shall become one 1flesh.
Gn 2:25 1And both the man and his wife were anaked and were not ashamed before each other.
GENESIS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

II. Man’s Fall through Satan’s Corruption
3:1 — 11:32
A. The First Fall — from God’s Presence to Man’s Conscience
3:1-24
1. The Serpent’s (Satan’s) Temptation and Man’s First Fall
vv. 1-7
Gn 3:1 Now the 1aserpent was more crafty than any other animal of the field that Jehovah God had made. And he said to the 2woman, 3Did God really say, bYou shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
Gn 3:2 And the woman 1said to the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
Gn 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, aYou shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.
Gn 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, aYou shall not surely die!
Gn 3:5 1For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become alike 2God, knowing good and evil.
Gn 3:6 And when the awoman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a bdelight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make oneself wise, she 1took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he cate.
Gn 3:7 1And the eyes of both of them were aopened, and they 2knew that they were naked; and they sewed 3fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
2. God Dealing with Man’s First Fall
vv. 8-24
a. Seeking Man
vv. 8-13
Gn 3:8 And they heard the 1sound of Jehovah God walking about in the garden in the 2cool of the day, and the man and his wife ahid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God among the trees of the garden.
Gn 3:9 And 1Jehovah God called to the man and said to him, 2Where are you?
Gn 3:10 And he said, I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I am anaked; so I hid myself.
Gn 3:11 And He said, 1Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
Gn 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.
Gn 3:13 And Jehovah God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The aserpent deceived me, and I ate.
b. Judging the Serpent
v. 14
Gn 3:14 And Jehovah God said to the serpent,
Because you have done this, / You are 1cursed more than all the cattle / And more than all the animals of the field: / Upon your 2stomach you will go, / And adust you will eat / All the days of your life.
c. The Promise regarding the Seed of the Woman
v. 15
Gn 3:15 And I will put enmity / Between you and the 1woman / And between your 2seed and her 3seed; / He will 4abruise you on the head, / But you will 4bruise him on the heel.
d. Disciplining Man through Suffering
vv. 16-19
Gn 3:16 To the woman He said,
I will greatly multiply / Your pain in your 1achildbearing; / In pain you will bring forth children. / And your desire will be to your husband, / And he will 1brule over you.
Gn 3:17 And to Adam He said, Because you listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree concerning which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it;
aCursed is the ground because of you; / In 1btoil will you eat of it / All the days of your life.
Gn 3:18 And athorns and thistles will it bring forth for you, / And you will eat the herb of the field;
Gn 3:19 By the sweat of your face / You will eat bread / Until you return to the ground, / Because from it you were taken; / For adust you are, / And bto dust you shall return.
e. Redemption Anticipated
vv. 20-21
Gn 3:20 And the man called his wife’s name 1Eve, because she was the mother of aall living.
Gn 3:21 And Jehovah God made coats of 1skin for Adam and for his wife and 2aclothed them.
f. Closing the Way to the Tree of Life
vv. 22-24
Gn 3:22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become like one of aUs, knowing good and evil; and now, 1lest he put forth his hand and take also from the btree of life and eat and live forever —
Gn 3:23 Then Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to work the aground from which he was taken.
Gn 3:24 So He drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the 1acherubim and a 1flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the btree of life.
GENESIS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

B. The Second Fall — from Man’s Conscience to Others’ Control
4:1-26
1. The Background
vv. 1-2
Gn 4:1 And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to 1Cain and said, I have aacquired a man, 2Jehovah.
Gn 4:2 And again she gave birth, to his brother 1Abel. And Abel was a 2atender of sheep, but Cain was a 3btiller of the ground.
2. Man’s Presumption, Anger, Murder, Lying, and Arrogance
vv. 3-9
Gn 4:3 And in the course of time Cain brought an 1offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground.
Gn 4:4 And Abel also brought an 1offering, from the afirstlings of his flock, that is, from their fat portions. And Jehovah had regard for Abel and for his offering.
Gn 4:5 But for aCain and for his offering He had 1no regard. And Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
Gn 4:6 And Jehovah said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?
Gn 4:7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, 1sin is crouching at the door; and his desire is for you, but you must rule over him.
Gn 4:8 And Cain said to Abel his brother, 1Let us go into the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and 2aslew him.
Gn 4:9 Then Jehovah said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, 1I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?
3. God Dealing with Man’s Second Fall —
Cursing Man and Making Him a Fugitive and a Wanderer
vv. 10-15
Gn 4:10 And He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s 1ablood is crying out to Me from the ground.
Gn 4:11 And now you are acursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s bblood from your hand.
Gn 4:12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a awanderer on the earth.
Gn 4:13 And Cain said to Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Gn 4:14 Now You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground, and from Your aface I will be hidden; and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will bkill me.
Gn 4:15 And Jehovah said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah put a mark on Cain, so that anyone who found him would not strike him.
4. Man Producing a Culture without God
vv. 16-24
Gn 4:16 And Cain went forth from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of 1Nod, east of Eden.
Gn 4:17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to 1Enoch; and he built a 2acity and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.
Gn 4:18 And Irad was born to Enoch, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.
Gn 4:19 And Lamech took two wives for himself: The name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah.
Gn 4:20 And Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and raise cattle.
Gn 4:21 And his brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.
Gn 4:22 And Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
Gn 4:23 And Lamech said to his wives,
Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice; / O wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech; / For I have slain a man for wounding me, / Even a young man for striking me.
Gn 4:24 If Cain is avenged asevenfold, / Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.
5. The Way to Escape Man’s Second Fall —
Man Realizing His Fragility and Calling on the Name of Jehovah
vv. 25-26
Gn 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again. And she gave birth to a son and called his name 1aSeth, for, she said, God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, because Cain slew him.
Gn 4:26 And to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name 1aEnosh. At that time men began to 2bcall upon the name of Jehovah.
GENESIS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

C. The Generations of the Saved
Revealing the Ultimate Issue of Man’s Fall and the Way to Escape It
5:1-32
1. The Ultimate Issue of Man’s Fall — Death
vv. 1-21, 25-27
Gn 5:1 This is the book of the 1agenerations of Adam. 2When God bcreated Adam, He made him in the 3likeness of God.
Gn 5:2 Male and female He created them, and He ablessed them and called 1their name Adam, on the day when they were created.
Gn 5:3 aAnd Adam 1lived one hundred thirty years and 1begot a son in his likeness according to his image, and he called his name bSeth.
Gn 5:4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, and he 1died.
Gn 5:6 And Seth lived one hundred five years and begot aEnosh.
Gn 5:7 And Seth lived after he had begotten Enosh eight hundred seven years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years, and he died.
Gn 5:9 And Enosh lived ninety years and begot Kenan.
Gn 5:10 And Enosh lived after he had begotten Kenan eight hundred fifteen years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:11 And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years, and he died.
Gn 5:12 And Kenan lived seventy years and begot Mahalalel.
Gn 5:13 And Kenan lived after he had begotten Mahalalel eight hundred forty years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:14 And all the days of Kenan were nine hundred ten years, and he died.
Gn 5:15 And Mahalalel lived sixty-five years and begot Jared.
Gn 5:16 And Mahalalel lived after he had begotten Jared eight hundred thirty years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:17 And all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety-five years, and he died.
Gn 5:18 And Jared lived a hundred sixty-two years and begot aEnoch.
Gn 5:19 And Jared lived after he had begotten Enoch eight hundred years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty-two years, and he died.
Gn 5:21 And Enoch lived sixty-five years and begot 1aMethuselah.
2. The Way to Escape Death — Walking with God
vv. 22-24
Gn 5:22 And Enoch 1awalked with God after he had begotten Methuselah three hundred years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years.
Gn 5:24 And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God 1atook him.
1. The Ultimate Issue of Man’s Fall — Death (cont’d)
vv. 25-27
Gn 5:25 And Methuselah lived one hundred eighty-seven years and begot Lamech.
Gn 5:26 And Methuselah lived after he had begotten Lamech seven hundred eighty-two years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, and he died.
3. The Family of Salvation Finding Comfort and Rest
vv. 28-32
Gn 5:28 And Lamech lived a hundred eighty-two years and begot a son.
Gn 5:29 And he called his name 1Noah, saying, This one will 2give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, which come because of the ground which Jehovah has acursed.
Gn 5:30 And Lamech lived after he had begotten Noah five hundred ninety-five years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 5:31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy-seven years, and he died.
Gn 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old. And Noah abegot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
GENESIS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

D. The Third Fall —
From Others’ Control to Human Government
6:1 — 8:3
1. The Evil Spirits Mingling with Man and Man Becoming Flesh
6:1-4
Gn 6:1 And when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
Gn 6:2 The 1sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they 2took wives for themselves from all whom they chose.
Gn 6:3 And Jehovah said, My 1aSpirit will not strive with man forever, for he indeed is 2bflesh; so his days will be cone hundred twenty years.
Gn 6:4 The 1aNephilim were on the earth in those days — and also afterward — when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; these were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
2. God Dealing with Man’s Third Fall — Blotting Out Man from the Earth
6:5-7
Gn 6:5 And Jehovah saw that the awickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every 1imagination of the thoughts of his bheart was only evil continually.
Gn 6:6 And Jehovah arepented that He had made man on the earth, and it bgrieved Him in His heart.
Gn 6:7 And Jehovah said, I will ablot out the man whom I have created from the surface of the ground, from man to beast to creeping things to the birds of heaven; for I repent that I have made them.
3. The Way of Salvation from the Third Fall
6:8 — 8:3
a. Walking with God
6:8-10
Gn 6:8 1But Noah afound 2favor in the sight of Jehovah.
Gn 6:9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a arighteous man, blameless in his generations; and Noah 1bwalked with God.
Gn 6:10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
b. Building the Ark
6:11 — 7:16
(1) Receiving the Revelation
6:11-21
Gn 6:11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gn 6:12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.
Gn 6:13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and now I am about to destroy them with the earth.
Gn 6:14 Make yourself an 1ark of 2gopher wood; you shall make rooms in the ark and shall cover it within and without with 3pitch.
Gn 6:15 And 1this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be 2three hundred 3cubits, its width 2fifty cubits, and its height 2thirty cubits.
Gn 6:16 You shall make an 1opening for light for the ark, and you shall finish it up to a cubit from the top; and you shall put the 2entrance of the ark in its side; you shall make it with 3lower, second, and third stories.
Gn 6:17 And now I am about to bring a aflood of water upon the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
Gn 6:18 But I will establish My 1acovenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
Gn 6:19 And of every living thing, of all flesh, two of every kind you shall bring into the ark to preserve them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
Gn 6:20 Of the birds according to their kind and of the cattle according to their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind will come to you in order to preserve them alive.
Gn 6:21 And for your part, take some of every kind of food that is edible, and gather it to yourself, and it will be for food for you and for them.
(2) Preparing the Ark
6:22
Gn 6:22 And aNoah did this; according to all that God bcommanded him, so he did.
GENESIS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

(3) Entering the Ark and Being Shut in the Ark by Jehovah
7:1-16
Gn 7:1 Then Jehovah said to Noah, Come into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be arighteous before Me in this generation.
Gn 7:2 Of every aclean animal you shall take with you seven pairs, a male and its female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and its female;
Gn 7:3 Also of the birds of heaven, seven pairs, male and female; to 1preserve their offspring alive on the surface of all the earth.
Gn 7:4 For in seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth 1aforty days and forty nights, and every living being that I have made I will blot out from the surface of the ground.
Gn 7:5 And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded him.
Gn 7:6 And Noah was 1six hundred years old when the aflood of waters came upon the earth.
Gn 7:7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him awent into the ark because of the waters of the flood.
Gn 7:8 Of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps upon the ground,
Gn 7:9 Two by two they came into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
Gn 7:10 And after the seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Gn 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day all the asprings of the great deep burst open, and the bwindows of heaven were opened.
Gn 7:12 And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Gn 7:13 On that very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,
Gn 7:14 They and every animal according to its kind and all the cattle according to their kind and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth according to its kind and every bird according to its kind — every bird, every winged creature.
Gn 7:15 And they went into the ark to Noah, atwo by two of all flesh in which was the breath of life.
Gn 7:16 And those who went in, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and Jehovah 1shut the door behind him.
c. Saved through Water
7:17 — 8:3
Gn 7:17 And the flood was on the earth aforty days; and the 1waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
Gn 7:18 And the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went about on the surface of the waters.
Gn 7:19 And when the waters had prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, all the high mountains that were under the entire heaven were acovered.
Gn 7:20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits higher, once the mountains were covered.
Gn 7:21 And all aflesh that moved upon the earth expired: birds and cattle and animals and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth and all mankind.
Gn 7:22 Everything in whose nostrils was the abreath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.
Gn 7:23 Thus He blotted out every living being that was upon the surface of the ground, from man to beast to creeping things to the birds of heaven; and they were blotted out from the earth. And only aNoah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.
Gn 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth one hundred fifty days.
GENESIS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Gn 8:1 And God aremembered Noah and all the animals and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God made a bwind pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
Gn 8:2 The asprings of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from the heavens was restrained.
Gn 8:3 And the waters receded steadily from upon the earth. So at the end of aone hundred fifty days the waters began to diminish.
E. Life in Resurrection
8:4 — 10:32
1. The Ark Resting upon the Mountains, Signifying Resurrection with Christ
8:4-5
Gn 8:4 And the ark came to 1rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Gn 8:5 And the waters diminished steadily until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
2. The Raven Being Sent Forth,
Signifying the Fleshly Ones Going Back to the World Judged by God
8:6-7
Gn 8:6 And at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.
Gn 8:7 And he sent out the 1raven; and it went out, going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.
3. The Dove Being Sent Forth,
Signifying the Spiritual Ones Staying with the Church and Caring for Life in the Spirit
8:8-12
Gn 8:8 And he sent out the adove from him to see if the waters had abated from the surface of the ground.
Gn 8:9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. And he put out his hand and took her and brought her to himself into the ark.
Gn 8:10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark.
Gn 8:11 And the dove came to him toward evening time, and there in her beak was a freshly plucked 1aolive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had abated from the earth.
Gn 8:12 And he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, and she did not return to him again.
4. Going Forth from the Ark in Resurrection
8:13-19
Gn 8:13 And in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw that now the surface of the ground was dry.
Gn 8:14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Gn 8:15 And God spoke to Noah, saying,
Gn 8:16 Go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you;
Gn 8:17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh — birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth — that they may swarm on the earth and be afruitful and multiply upon the earth.
Gn 8:18 So Noah 1went forth, as well as his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.
Gn 8:19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth from the ark according to their families.
5. Making Burnt Offerings to Jehovah on an Altar,
Signifying the Offering of Christ to God through the Cross
8:20-22
Gn 8:20 And Noah built an 1aaltar to Jehovah and took of every bclean beast and of every clean bird and 1offered 2burnt offerings on the altar.
Gn 8:21 And Jehovah smelled the 1asatisfying fragrance; and Jehovah said in His heart, I will never again 2bcurse the ground on account of man, for the imagination of man’s cheart is evil from his youth; dnor will I ever again smite everything living as I have done.
Gn 8:22 Throughout all the days that earth remains, / 1Seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, / And summer and winter, and aday and night / Shall not cease.
GENESIS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

6. Fulfilling God’s Purpose to Express and Represent Him
9:1-7
Gn 9:1 And God ablessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 1Be bfruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Gn 9:2 And the afear of you and the terror of you shall be upon every animal of the earth and upon every bird of heaven, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered.
Gn 9:3 Every moving thing that lives shall be 1afood for you; just as I gave you the green bherb, so I have given you everything.
Gn 9:4 But flesh with its life, that is, its ablood, you shall not eat.
Gn 9:5 And indeed your lifeblood I will require; from every aanimal I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother, I will brequire the life of man.
Gn 9:6 1Whoever sheds man’s blood, / By man shall his blood be shed, / For in the 2aimage of God / He made man.
Gn 9:7 And you, be afruitful and multiply; / Abound on the earth and multiply in it.
7. Living under God’s Covenant
9:8-17
a. No More Judgment through Death’s Waters
vv. 8-11
Gn 9:8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
Gn 9:9 And I Myself now establish My 1acovenant with you and with your seed after you
Gn 9:10 And with every living animal that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that came out of the ark, every animal of the earth.
Gn 9:11 And I establish My covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by the awaters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.
b. The Rainbow as the Sign of God’s Faithfulness in Keeping His Covenant
vv. 12-17
Gn 9:12 And God said, This is the asign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living animal that is with you, for perpetual generations:
Gn 9:13 I set My 1abow in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
Gn 9:14 And when I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds,
Gn 9:15 I will aremember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living animal of all flesh, and never again will the bwaters become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Gn 9:16 And the bow will be in the clouds, and I will look upon it to remember the aeverlasting covenant between God and every living animal of all flesh that is upon the earth.
Gn 9:17 And God said to Noah, This is the asign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
8. The Failure of the Leader and Deputy Authority
9:18-29
a. Caused by the Success of His Work
vv. 18-21
Gn 9:18 Now the sons of Noah who came forth from the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.
Gn 9:19 These three were the sons of Noah, and afrom these the whole earth was spread over.
Gn 9:20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
Gn 9:21 And he drank of the wine and became drunk. And he 1uncovered himself inside his tent.
b. Ham Exposing the Failure, and Shem and Japheth Covering the Failure
vv. 22-24
Gn 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the anakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
Gn 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders, and they walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned backward, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Gn 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine and learned what his younger son had done to him.
c. Ham’s Son Receiving the Curse, and Shem and Japheth Receiving the Blessing
vv. 25-29
Gn 9:25 And he said,
1Cursed be Canaan: / A servant of servants / Shall he be to his brothers.
Gn 9:26 And he said,
Blessed be Jehovah, / The God of 1Shem; / And let Canaan be his servant.
Gn 9:27 May God enlarge Japheth, / And let him dwell in the 1tents of Shem, / And let Canaan be his servant.
Gn 9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred fifty years.
Gn 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, and he died.
GENESIS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

9. The Nations Issuing Forth with Babel as the Consummation
10:1-32
Gn 10:1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, of Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Gn 10:2 The sons of aJapheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.
Gn 10:3 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
Gn 10:4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and 1Rodanim.
Gn 10:5 From these the islands and coastal regions of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his tongue, according to their families, in their nations.
Gn 10:6 And the sons of aHam: Cush and 1Mizraim and Put and Canaan.
Gn 10:7 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
Gn 10:8 And Cush begot 1Nimrod: He began to be a mighty one on the earth.
Gn 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah; therefore it is said, Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Jehovah.
Gn 10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was aBabel and Erech and Akkad and Calneh, in the land of bShinar.
Gn 10:11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-ir and Calah
Gn 10:12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that is, the great city.
Gn 10:13 And Mizraim begot the Ludim and the Anamim and the Lehabim and the Naphtuhim
Gn 10:14 And the Pathrusim and the Casluhim, from which came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim.
Gn 10:15 And Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn and Heth
Gn 10:16 And the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Girgashites
Gn 10:17 And the Hivites and the Arkites and the Sinites
Gn 10:18 And the Arvadites and the Zemarites and the Hamathites, and afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread out.
Gn 10:19 And the territory of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza, and as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
Gn 10:20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their tongues, in their lands, in their nations.
Gn 10:21 And also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born.
Gn 10:22 The sons of aShem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram.
Gn 10:23 And the sons of Aram: Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash.
Gn 10:24 And Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber.
Gn 10:25 And to aEber were born two sons: The name of the one was 1Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
Gn 10:26 And Joktan begot Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah
Gn 10:27 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah
Gn 10:28 And Obal and Abimael and Sheba
Gn 10:29 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.
Gn 10:30 And their dwelling was from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east.
Gn 10:31 These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their tongues, in their lands, according to their nations.
Gn 10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.
GENESIS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

F. The Fourth Fall — From Human Government to Rebellion under Satan’s Instigation
11:1-9
1. Building a City and a Tower to Rebel against God, to Renounce God,
and to Make a Name for Themselves
vv. 1-4
Gn 11:1 And the whole earth had one language and the same speech.
Gn 11:2 And as they journeyed east, they found a plain in the land of 1aShinar; and they dwelt there.
Gn 11:3 And they said to one another, Come, let us amake 1bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had tar for mortar.
Gn 11:4 And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a 1acity and a 2tower whose top is in the bheavens; and let us make a 2name for ourselves, lest we be cscattered over the surface of the whole earth.
2. God Dealing with Man’s Fourth Fall —
Scattering Them in Living and Confounding Them in Language
vv. 5-9
Gn 11:5 And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built.
Gn 11:6 And Jehovah said, Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and now nothing which they purpose to do will be kept from them.
Gn 11:7 Come, let 1aUs go down and there 2confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Gn 11:8 So Jehovah ascattered them from there over the surface of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
Gn 11:9 Therefore its name was called 1aBabel, because there Jehovah confounded the language of all the earth, and from there Jehovah scattered them over the surface of all the earth.
G. The Generations from Man’s Salvation through Water to Jehovah’s Calling
11:10-32
Gn 11:10 These are the agenerations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years after the flood.
Gn 11:11 And Shem lived after he had begotten Arpachshad five hundred years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:12 And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and begot Shelah.
Gn 11:13 And Arpachshad lived after he had begotten Shelah four hundred three years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:14 And Shelah lived thirty years and begot Eber.
Gn 11:15 And Shelah lived after he had begotten Eber four hundred three years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:16 And Eber lived thirty-four years and begot Peleg.
Gn 11:17 And Eber lived after he had begotten Peleg four hundred thirty years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:18 And Peleg lived thirty years and begot Reu.
Gn 11:19 And Peleg lived after he had begotten Reu two hundred nine years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:20 And Reu lived thirty-two years and begot Serug.
Gn 11:21 And Reu lived after he had begotten Serug two hundred seven years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:22 And Serug lived thirty years and begot Nahor.
Gn 11:23 And Serug lived after he had begotten Nahor two hundred years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:24 And Nahor lived twenty-nine years and begot Terah.
Gn 11:25 And Nahor lived after he had begotten Terah one hundred nineteen years, and he begot more sons and daughters.
Gn 11:26 And aTerah lived seventy years and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Gn 11:27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran begot aLot.
Gn 11:28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in 1aUr of the 2Chaldeans.
Gn 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves: The name of Abram’s wife was 1aSarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
Gn 11:30 And Sarai was abarren; she had no child.
Gn 11:31 And 1Terah took Abram his son and aLot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from bUr of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan, but when they came to 2Haran they settled there.
Gn 11:32 And the days of Terah were two hundred five years, and Terah died in Haran.
GENESIS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

III. Jehovah’s Calling
12:1 — 50:26
A. The First Aspect — The Experience of Abraham
12:1 — 25:18
1. God’s Calling
12:1-7a
Gn 12:1 1Now Jehovah 2said to Abram,
aGo from your land / And from your relatives / And from your 3father’s house / To the land that I will show you;
Gn 12:2 1And I will make of you a 2agreat nation, / And I will bless you / And make your name great; / And you shall be a bblessing.
Gn 12:3 And I will bless those who abless you, / And him who 1curses you I will curse; / And in you 2ball the families of the earth will be 3blessed.
Gn 12:4 So Abram awent as Jehovah had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out of Haran.
Gn 12:5 And Abram took Sarai his wife and aLot his brother’s son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the souls that they had acquired in Haran, and they 1went out to go to the bland of Canaan. And they 2came to the land of 3Canaan.
Gn 12:6 And Abram passed through the land to the place of aShechem, to the oak of Moreh. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Gn 12:7 And Jehovah 1appeared to Abram and said, To your 2aseed I will give this 2land.
2. Living by Faith
12:7b — 14:24
a. A Life of the Altar and the Tent
12:7b-8
And there he built an 3baltar to Jehovah who had appeared to him.
Gn 12:8 And he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of 1aBethel and pitched his 2btent, with Bethel on the west and 1Ai on the east; and there he built an caltar to Jehovah and 3dcalled upon the name of Jehovah.
b. The Trial of the Called
12:9 — 13:18
(1) Famine
12:9 — 13:4
Gn 12:9 And Abram journeyed onward, journeying toward the 1Negev.
Gn 12:10 And there was a 1afamine in the land; and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
Gn 12:11 And when he was about to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, I know indeed that you are a beautiful woman to look at;
Gn 12:12 And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife, and they will kill me; but they will keep you alive.
Gn 12:13 Now say you are my asister, that it may be well with me on account of you and 1I may live because of you.
Gn 12:14 And it came about that when Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
Gn 12:15 And Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her before Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
Gn 12:16 And he treated Abram well on account of her, and there were given to him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male servants and female servants and female donkeys and camels.
Gn 12:17 And Jehovah struck aPharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
Gn 12:18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
Gn 12:19 Why did you say, She is my sister, so that I took her to be my wife? Now then here is your wife; take her and go.
Gn 12:20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away 1with his wife and all that he had.
GENESIS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Gn 13:1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and aLot with him, into the Negev.
Gn 13:2 And Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.
Gn 13:3 And he continued on his journey from the Negev as far as 1aBethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
Gn 13:4 To the place of the aaltar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram bcalled on the name of Jehovah.
(2) The Brother’s Striving
13:5-18
Gn 13:5 And aLot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.
Gn 13:6 And the land could not support them that they might dwell together, for their apossessions were so great that they could not dwell together.
Gn 13:7 And there was 1strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. And at that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt in the land.
Gn 13:8 And Abram said to Lot, Let there please be no strife between me and you and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.
Gn 13:9 Is not the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.
Gn 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the entire plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere — this was before Jehovah had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah — like the agarden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
Gn 13:11 So Lot chose for himself the entire plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed east; and they separated themselves from each other.
Gn 13:12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and moved his tent aas far as Sodom.
Gn 13:13 Now the men of aSodom were very wicked and sinful toward Jehovah.
Gn 13:14 And 1Jehovah said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, Now lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
Gn 13:15 For all the land that you see I will give to you and to your aseed forever.
Gn 13:16 And I will make your seed as the 1adust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed can also be numbered.
Gn 13:17 Rise up; walk through the land according to its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you.
Gn 13:18 And Abram moved his 1atent and came and dwelt by the oaks of 2Mamre, which are in 3bHebron, and there he built an caltar to Jehovah.
GENESIS 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

c. The Victory of the Called
14:1-24
(1) The Brother Being Captured
vv. 1-12
Gn 14:1 And in the days of Amraphel the king of Shinar, Arioch the king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and Tidal the king of Goiim,
Gn 14:2 These kings made war with Bera the king of Sodom and with Birsha the king of Gomorrah, Shinab the king of Admah, and Shemeber the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).
Gn 14:3 All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (that is, the 1Salt Sea).
Gn 14:4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
Gn 14:5 And in the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and struck the aRephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim and the Zuzim in Ham and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim
Gn 14:6 And the Horites in Mount Seir as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness.
Gn 14:7 And they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.
Gn 14:8 And the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went forth and set the battle in array against them in the valley of Siddim,
Gn 14:9 Against Chedorlaomer the king of Elam and Tidal the king of Goiim and Amraphel the king of Shinar and Arioch the king of Ellasar, four kings against the five.
Gn 14:10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there; but those who survived fled to the ahill country.
Gn 14:11 And they took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went away.
Gn 14:12 And they took aLot, Abram’s brother’s son, and his possessions and departed, for he was dwelling in bSodom.
(2) Fighting for the Brother
vv. 13-17
Gn 14:13 And one who had escaped came and told Abram the 1aHebrew. Now he was dwelling by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner; and these were allies of Abram.
Gn 14:14 And when Abram heard that his abrother had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, bborn in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and pursued as far as Dan.
Gn 14:15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them and pursued them to Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
Gn 14:16 And he brought back all the possessions and also brought back Lot his brother and his possessions as well as the women and the people.
Gn 14:17 And after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
(3) Ministered To by Melchizedek
vv. 18-20
Gn 14:18 And 1aMelchizedek the king of 2bSalem brought out bread and wine. Now he was 3cpriest of dGod the Most High.
Gn 14:19 And he 1ablessed him and said,
Blessed be Abram of God the Most High, / 2bPossessor of heaven and earth;
Gn 14:20 And blessed be God the Most High, / Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
And 1Abram gave him a atenth of all.
(4) Overcoming the Temptation of Earthly Substance
vv. 21-24
Gn 14:21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the people, and take the possessions for yourself.
Gn 14:22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have alifted up my hand to Jehovah, God the Most High, bPossessor of heaven and earth,
Gn 14:23 That I will 1not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours, lest you say, I have made Abram rich;
Gn 14:24 Except only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men who went with me — Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
GENESIS 15

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3. Knowing Grace for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose
15:1 — 17:27
a. God’s Covenant with Abraham
15:1-21
(1) Concerning the Seed
vv. 1-6
Gn 15:1 1After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your 2ashield and your exceedingly great 2reward.
Gn 15:2 And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what will You give me, for I go achildless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?
Gn 15:3 And Abram said, Since You have given me no 1aseed, therefore, a 2servant in my house is my heir.
Gn 15:4 But then the word of Jehovah came to him, saying, This man shall not be your heir, but he who will come out from your own 1body shall be your heir.
Gn 15:5 And He brought him outside and said, Look now toward the heavens, and count the 1astars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, bSo shall your seed be.
Gn 15:6 And he 1abelieved Jehovah, and He accounted it to him as righteousness.
(2) Concerning the Land
vv. 7-21
Gn 15:7 Then He said to him, I am Jehovah who brought you out of aUr of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it.
Gn 15:8 And he said, O Lord Jehovah, 1how will I know that I will inherit it?
Gn 15:9 And He said to him, Bring Me a three-year-old 1heifer and a three-year-old female goat and a three-year-old ram and a turtledove and a young pigeon.
Gn 15:10 And he 1brought Him all these and acut them in two in the middle and laid the half of each opposite the other, but the bbirds he did not cut in two.
Gn 15:11 And the 1abirds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
Gn 15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, behold, a terror and great darkness fell upon him.
Gn 15:13 And He said to Abram, Know assuredly that your seed will be asojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will serve them; and they will 1bafflict them 2cfour hundred years.
Gn 15:14 But I will also ajudge that nation, whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with great bpossessions.
Gn 15:15 But as for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried in a good aold age.
Gn 15:16 And in the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the aAmorites is not yet complete.
Gn 15:17 And when the sun went down and it was dark, there came a smoking 1furnace and a 1torch of fire which passed between these pieces.
Gn 15:18 On that day Jehovah made a acovenant with Abram, saying,
To your bseed do I give this land, / From the 1river of Egypt to the great criver, the river Euphrates:
Gn 15:19 The land of the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites
Gn 15:20 And the Hittites and the Perizzites and the 1Rephaim
Gn 15:21 And the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
GENESIS 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

b. The Two Women — An Allegory
16:1-16
Gn 16:1 Now 1Sarai, Abram’s wife, abore him no children; and she had an Egyptian female servant, whose name was 1bHagar.
Gn 16:2 And Sarai said to Abram, Because aJehovah has prevented me from bearing, please go in to my female servant; perhaps I will 1have children through her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Gn 16:3 So after Abram had dwelt aten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her female servant, and gave her to Abram her husband to be a wife.
Gn 16:4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
Gn 16:5 And Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be upon you. I gave my female servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. May Jehovah judge between me and you.
Gn 16:6 And Abram said to Sarai, Your female servant is now in your hand; do to her what is good in your eyes. So Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from before her.
Gn 16:7 And the 1aAngel of Jehovah found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
Gn 16:8 And He said, Hagar, Sarai’s female servant, where did you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from before my mistress Sarai.
Gn 16:9 And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.
Gn 16:10 And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, I will greatly amultiply your seed, so that it will not be counted for multitude.
Gn 16:11 And the Angel of Jehovah said to her,
You have now conceived / And will bear a son, / And you shall call his name 1Ishmael, / Because Jehovah has heard of your affliction.
Gn 16:12 And he will be a wild ass of a man; / His hand will be against everyone, / And everyone’s hand, against him; / And he will settle down opposite all his brothers.
Gn 16:13 And she called the name of Jehovah who spoke to her, 1You are a 2God who reveals Himself, for she said, 3Do I even remain here after He has revealed Himself to me?
Gn 16:14 Therefore the well was called 1Beer-lahai-roi; there it is, between Kadesh and Bered.
Gn 16:15 And aHagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, 1Ishmael.
Gn 16:16 And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
GENESIS 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

c. God’s Covenant Confirmed with Circumcision
17:1-14
Gn 17:1 And when Abram was 1ninety-nine years old, Jehovah appeared to Abram and said to him,
I am the 2aAll-sufficient God; / 3Walk before Me, and be 3perfect.
Gn 17:2 And I will make My acovenant between Me and you, / And I will bmultiply you exceedingly.
Gn 17:3 And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,
Gn 17:4 As for Me, this is My acovenant with you, / And you shall become the bfather of a multitude of 1nations.
Gn 17:5 Your name shall no longer be called 1Abram, / But your name shall be 2aAbraham; / For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Gn 17:6 And I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make anations of you, and bkings will come forth from you.
Gn 17:7 And I will establish My acovenant between Me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be bGod to you and to your seed after you.
Gn 17:8 And I will give to you and to your aseed after you the land of your bsojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be ctheir God.
Gn 17:9 And God said to Abraham, And as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.
Gn 17:10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: Every male among you shall be 1acircumcised.
Gn 17:11 And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a 1asign of a covenant between Me and you.
Gn 17:12 And he who is 1eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house or bought with money from any aforeigner who is not of your seed.
Gn 17:13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised; thus My acovenant shall be in your flesh for an beverlasting covenant.
Gn 17:14 But as for the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be 1cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.
d. The Birth of Isaac Promised
17:15-27
Gn 17:15 And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name 1Sarai, but her name shall be 2Sarah.
Gn 17:16 And I will bless her, and I will also give you a ason 1by her. Indeed, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of bnations; kings of peoples will come forth from her.
Gn 17:17 Then Abraham fell upon his face and alaughed and said in his heart, Will a child be born to a man who is a bhundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?
Gn 17:18 And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before You!
Gn 17:19 But God said, No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a ason, and you shall call his name 1bIsaac; and I will 2establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.
Gn 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you; indeed, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will amultiply him exceedingly. bTwelve princes will he beget, and I will make of him a cgreat nation.
Gn 17:21 But My covenant I will aestablish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this 1bappointed time next year.
Gn 17:22 And when He finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
Gn 17:23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son and all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and acircumcised the flesh of their foreskin on the very same day, as God had said to him.
Gn 17:24 And Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Gn 17:25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Gn 17:26 On the very same day Abraham was circumcised as well as Ishmael his son.
Gn 17:27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
GENESIS 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

4. Living in Fellowship with God
18:1 — 24:67
a. Communion with God on the Human Level
18:1-22
Gn 18:1 And Jehovah appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre as he was sitting at the entrance of his atent in the heat of the day.
Gn 18:2 And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and there were three 1men standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to ameet them. And he bowed down to the earth
Gn 18:3 And said, My Lord, if I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass on from Your servant.
Gn 18:4 Please let a little water be fetched, and do awash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
Gn 18:5 And let me afetch a morsel of bread that you may sustain yourselves. After that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said.
Gn 18:6 And Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly prepare athree 1measures of fine flour, knead it, and make 2cakes.
Gn 18:7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a acalf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.
Gn 18:8 And he took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set them before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Gn 18:9 And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, There, in the tent.
Gn 18:10 And He said, I will certainly return to you according to the atime of life, and then Sarah your wife shall have a bson. And Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind Him.
Gn 18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were aold and advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah according to the manner of women.
Gn 18:12 And Sarah alaughed within herself, saying, After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my blord being old also?
Gn 18:13 And Jehovah said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I indeed bear a child when I am old?
Gn 18:14 aIs anything too marvelous for Jehovah? At the 1bappointed time I will return to you, according to the ctime of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Gn 18:15 Then Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh; for she was afraid. And He said, No, but you did laugh.
Gn 18:16 And the men rose up from there and looked down upon Sodom. And Abraham walked with them to send them away.
Gn 18:17 And Jehovah said, 1Shall I ahide from Abraham what I am about to do,
Gn 18:18 Since Abraham will indeed become a great and mighty nation, and aall the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
Gn 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of Jehovah by doing righteousness and justice, that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken concerning him.
Gn 18:20 And Jehovah said, The cry of aSodom and Gomorrah, how great it is; and their sin, how very heavy it is!
Gn 18:21 I shall go down and see whether they have done altogether according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.
Gn 18:22 And the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham 1remained astanding before Jehovah.
b. A Glorious Intercession
18:23-33
Gn 18:23 And Abraham came near and said, Will You indeed destroy the 1righteous with the wicked?
Gn 18:24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?
Gn 18:25 1Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from You! Shall the aJudge of all the earth not do justly?
Gn 18:26 And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.
Gn 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Now behold, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes.
Gn 18:28 Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five? And He said, I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.
Gn 18:29 And he spoke to Him yet again and said, Suppose forty are found there? And He said, I will not do it, because of the forty.
Gn 18:30 And he said, Oh may the Lord not be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there? And He said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.
Gn 18:31 And he said, Now behold, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there? And He said, I will not destroy it, because of the twenty.
Gn 18:32 And he said, Oh let the Lord not be angry if I speak yet once more. Suppose ten are found there? And He said, I will not destroy it, because of the ten.
Gn 18:33 And Jehovah went away as soon as He had finished 1speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
GENESIS 19

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c. The Negative Record of Lot
19:1-38
(1) A Defeated Righteous Man and a Pillar of Salt
vv. 1-29
Gn 19:1 aAnd the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and bLot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And when 1Lot saw them, he rose up to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground.
Gn 19:2 And he said, Now, my lords, please turn aside here to your servant’s house, and spend the night, and awash your feet; then you can rise up early and go on your way. But they said, No; we will spend the night in the square.
Gn 19:3 But he urged them strongly, and they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Gn 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of aSodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;
Gn 19:5 And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may 1know them.
Gn 19:6 And Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him.
Gn 19:7 And he said, Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
Gn 19:8 I have here two 1daughters who have not known a man. Please, let me bring them out to you, and do to them as is fitting in your eyes; only do not do anything to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.
Gn 19:9 But they said, Stand aside. Then they said, This one came here to asojourn, and already he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than we would have them. And they pressed hard against the man, against Lot, and came near in order to break down the door.
Gn 19:10 But the men stretched out their hand and brought Lot into the house to them and shut the door.
Gn 19:11 And they struck the men who were at the entrance of the house with 1blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the entrance.
Gn 19:12 And the men said to Lot, Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law or your sons and your daughters or anyone you have in the city — bring them out of the place.
Gn 19:13 For we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before Jehovah that Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.
Gn 19:14 And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, Rise up; ago forth from this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city. But it seemed to his sons-in-law as though he were joking.
Gn 19:15 And when the morning dawned, the angels urged aLot, saying, Rise up; take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be destroyed in the iniquity of the city.
Gn 19:16 But he 1lingered; so the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
Gn 19:17 And when they had brought them outside, He said, Escape for your life. Do not look abehind you, neither stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the hills, lest you be destroyed.
Gn 19:18 And Lot said to them, May it not be so, Lord;
Gn 19:19 Even though Your servant has found favor in Your sight, and You have magnified Your lovingkindness, which You have showed to me in preserving my life; I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Gn 19:20 Here, this city is nearby to flee to, and it is a little one. Please let me escape there — is it not a little one? — and 1I shall live.
Gn 19:21 And He said to him, I now grant you this request also, that I will not overthrow the city concerning which you have spoken.
Gn 19:22 Hurry, escape there; for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called 1Zoar.
Gn 19:23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Gn 19:24 Then Jehovah rained upon aSodom and upon Gomorrah bbrimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven.
Gn 19:25 And He overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.
Gn 19:26 But his awife looked back from behind him, and she became a 1bpillar of salt.
Gn 19:27 And Abraham rose up early in the morning and went to the place where he had astood before Jehovah.
Gn 19:28 And he looked down upon Sodom and Gomorrah and upon all the land of the plain. And as he looked, there it was: the smoke of the land was going up like the asmoke of a furnace.
Gn 19:29 And when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God aremembered Abraham and sent Lot out from the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities among which Lot dwelt.
(2) The Seed by Incest
vv. 30-38
Gn 19:30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave.
Gn 19:31 And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
Gn 19:32 Come, let us make our father drink wine; and let us lie with him, that we may preserve alive 1seed from our father.
Gn 19:33 And they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Gn 19:34 And the next day the firstborn said to the younger, I have now lain with my father last night. Let us make him drink wine tonight also; and you go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve alive seed from our father.
Gn 19:35 And they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger one arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
Gn 19:36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
Gn 19:37 And the firstborn bore a son and called his name 1aMoab; he is the father of the 2bMoabites to this day.
Gn 19:38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name 1Ben-ammi; he is the father of the children of aAmmon to this day.
GENESIS 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

d. A Hidden Weakness and a Shameful Intercession
20:1-18
Gn 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from 1there toward the region of the Negev and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar.
Gn 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, 1She is my asister. And Abimelech the king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
Gn 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a adream by night and said to him, You are now about to die because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.
Gn 20:4 But Abimelech had not come near her, so he said, Lord, will You slay even a righteous nation?
Gn 20:5 Did he himself not say to me, She is my sister? And even she herself said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.
Gn 20:6 And God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also prevented you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.
Gn 20:7 Now therefore return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet; and he will apray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.
Gn 20:8 And Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and spoke all these things in their hearing. And the men were very afraid.
Gn 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.
Gn 20:10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, 1What were you thinking, that you have done this thing?
Gn 20:11 And Abraham said, Because I 1thought, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will aslay me because of my wife.
Gn 20:12 But she is also truly my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Gn 20:13 And 1when aGod caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, This is your kindness which you must do to me: At every place where we go, say of me, He is my brother.
Gn 20:14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he 1returned Sarah his wife to him.
Gn 20:15 And Abimelech said, My land is now before you; dwell wherever it pleases you.
Gn 20:16 And to Sarah he said, I have now given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is now your 1vindication in the eyes of all who are with you. And in every respect you have been cleared.
Gn 20:17 And Abraham 1aprayed to God; and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female servants, so that they bore children.
Gn 20:18 For Jehovah had completely shut up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s awife.
GENESIS 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

e. The Birth and Growth of Isaac
21:1-8
Gn 21:1 1And Jehovah 2avisited Sarah as He had said, and Jehovah did to Sarah as He had bpromised.
Gn 21:2 And aSarah conceived and 1bore Abraham a bson in his old age, at the cappointed time of which God had spoken to him.
Gn 21:3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, 1aIsaac.
Gn 21:4 And Abraham 1acircumcised Isaac his son when he was 2eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Gn 21:5 And Abraham was a ahundred years old when Isaac his son was born to him.
Gn 21:6 And Sarah said, God has made me alaugh; everyone who hears will laugh with me.
Gn 21:7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.
Gn 21:8 And the child 1grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
f. Hagar and Ishmael Cast Out
21:9-14
Gn 21:9 And Sarah saw the ason of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, 1bmocking.
Gn 21:10 So she said to Abraham, 1aCast out this maidservant and her son, for the son of this maidservant shall bnot inherit with my son Isaac.
Gn 21:11 And the matter displeased Abraham greatly on account of his son.
Gn 21:12 And God said to Abraham, Do not be displeased on account of the boy and on account of your maidservant. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, for in aIsaac shall your bseed be called.
Gn 21:13 And of the son of the maidservant I will also make a anation, because he is your seed.
Gn 21:14 And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a waterskin full of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
g. Two Wells — Two Sources of Living
21:15-34
Gn 21:15 When the water in the waterskin was finished, she cast the child under one of the bushes.
Gn 21:16 And she went and sat herself down opposite him, a fair distance away, about a bowshot away, for she said, Do not let me look upon the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
Gn 21:17 And God heard the voice of the boy. And the aAngel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
Gn 21:18 Rise up; lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand, for I will make of him a great nation.
Gn 21:19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a 1well of water. And she went and filled the waterskin with water and gave the boy a drink.
Gn 21:20 And God was with the boy, and he grew. And he dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer.
Gn 21:21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Gn 21:22 And at that time Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do.
Gn 21:23 Now therefore aswear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity. According to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall do to me and to the land in which you have sojourned.
Gn 21:24 And Abraham said, I swear it.
Gn 21:25 And Abraham confronted Abimelech concerning the 1awell of water which Abimelech’s servants had taken by force.
Gn 21:26 And Abimelech said, I do not know who has done this thing; and you did not tell me about it, nor have I even heard of it until today.
Gn 21:27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech. And the two of them made a covenant.
Gn 21:28 And Abraham set 1seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
Gn 21:29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?
Gn 21:30 And he said, These seven ewe lambs you shall take from my hand, that it may be a witness for me that I dug this well.
Gn 21:31 Therefore he called that place 1aBeer-sheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.
Gn 21:32 So they made a 1covenant at Beer-sheba; and Abimelech rose up with Phicol the captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the 2Philistines.
Gn 21:33 And 1Abraham planted a 2tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he acalled on the name of Jehovah, the 3bEternal God.
Gn 21:34 And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.
GENESIS 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

h. The Offering Up of Isaac
22:1-24
Gn 22:1 Now after these things God atested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am.
Gn 22:2 And He said, Take now your son, your 1only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of 2aMoriah, and 3offer him there as a 4burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.
Gn 22:3 And Abraham 1rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son. And he split the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went to the place of which God had told him.
Gn 22:4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
Gn 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey; and I and the boy will go over there, and we will worship, and then we will return to you.
Gn 22:6 And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked together.
Gn 22:7 And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. And he said, The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Gn 22:8 And Abraham said, God Himself will aprovide the blamb for a burnt offering, my son. So the two of them walked on together.
Gn 22:9 And they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound aIsaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
Gn 22:10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
Gn 22:11 And the 1aAngel of Jehovah called to him from the heavens and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am.
Gn 22:12 And He said, Do not stretch out your hand upon the boy, nor do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.
Gn 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a 1ram, caught in the 2thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering in place of his son.
Gn 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place 1Jehovah-jireh, as it is said to this day, On the amount of Jehovah 2it will be bprovided.
Gn 22:15 And the aAngel of Jehovah called to Abraham a second time from the heavens
Gn 22:16 And said, By Myself I have asworn, declares Jehovah: Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son,
Gn 22:17 aI will surely bless you and will greatly multiply your seed like the 1bstars of the heavens and like the 1csand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the dgate of his enemies.
Gn 22:18 And in your 1seed aall the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have bobeyed My voice.
Gn 22:19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham dwelt in Beer-sheba.
Gn 22:20 And after these things it was told Abraham, saying, Milcah has now also borne children to your brother Nahor:
Gn 22:21 Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel the father of Aram
Gn 22:22 And Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel;
Gn 22:23 And Bethuel begot 1Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
Gn 22:24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.
GENESIS 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

i. The Death and Burial of Sarah
23:1-20
Gn 23:1 And the life of Sarah was one hundred twenty-seven years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.
Gn 23:2 And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, 1aHebron) in the land of Canaan. And Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
Gn 23:3 Then Abraham rose up from before his dead wife and spoke to the 1children of Heth, saying,
Gn 23:4 I am a stranger and a asojourner among you. Give me the possession of a burial place among you that I may bury my dead wife out of my sight.
Gn 23:5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,
Gn 23:6 Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God in our midst. In the 1choicest of our burial places bury your dead wife. None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead wife.
Gn 23:7 And Abraham rose up and bowed down to the people of the land, to the children of Heth.
Gn 23:8 And he spoke with them, saying, If it is your desire that I should bury my dead wife out of my sight, hear me, and entreat Ephron the son of Zohar for me,
Gn 23:9 That he would give me the cave of 1aMachpelah, which is his and which is at the end of his 2field. For the full price let him give it to me in your midst for the possession of a burial place.
Gn 23:10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, in the hearing of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,
Gn 23:11 No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field and the cave that is in it; to you I give it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you; bury your dead wife.
Gn 23:12 And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.
Gn 23:13 And he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, But if you will, please hear me; I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, that I may bury my dead wife there.
Gn 23:14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
Gn 23:15 My lord, listen to me. A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? Therefore bury your dead wife.
Gn 23:16 And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current with the merchant.
Gn 23:17 So the field of Ephron, which was in aMachpelah and which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it and all the trees that were in the field, which were in all its territory, were assured
Gn 23:18 To Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, in the presence of all who went in at the gate of his city.
Gn 23:19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
Gn 23:20 And the field and the cave that is in it were assured to Abraham for the possession of a burial place from the children of Heth.
GENESIS 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • • 60 • • • • 65 • • 

j. The Marriage of Isaac
24:1-67
Gn 24:1 And Abraham was old and advanced in age. And Jehovah had ablessed Abraham in all things.
Gn 24:2 1And Abraham said to his 2aservant, the oldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put your hand under my thigh;
Gn 24:3 And I will make you swear by Jehovah, the aGod of heaven and the God of earth, that you will 1not take a wife for my son from the bdaughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am dwelling.
Gn 24:4 But you shall go to my country and to my 1relatives, and take a awife for my son Isaac.
Gn 24:5 And the servant said to him, Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from where you came?
Gn 24:6 And Abraham said to him, 1Be certain not to take my son back there.
Gn 24:7 Jehovah, the aGod of heaven, who btook me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, To your cseed I will give this land, He will send His angel before you; and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
Gn 24:8 And if the woman is not willing to follow you, you shall be free from this oath of mine; only you shall not take my son back there.
Gn 24:9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.
Gn 24:10 And the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master and departed, having all kinds of his master’s good things in his hand. And he rose up and went to 1aAram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor.
Gn 24:11 And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, at the time when women go out to draw water.
Gn 24:12 And he said, O Jehovah, the God of my master aAbraham, 1please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham.
Gn 24:13 aI am standing here by the spring of water as the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
Gn 24:14 And may it be that the girl to whom I say, Please let down your pitcher that I may drink, and who says, Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink, may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant, for Isaac; and in this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.
Gn 24:15 But before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, coming out with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
Gn 24:16 And the girl was very beautiful in appearance, a 1virgin, and no man had known her. And she went down to the spring and filled her pitcher and came up.
Gn 24:17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, Please let me sip a little water from your pitcher.
Gn 24:18 And she said, Drink, my lord. And she hurried and lowered her pitcher on her hand and gave him a drink.
Gn 24:19 And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.
Gn 24:20 And she hurried and emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water, and she drew it for all his camels.
Gn 24:21 And the man gazed fixedly upon her in silence to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not.
Gn 24:22 And when the camels had finished drinking, the man took a golden 1anose-ring weighing 2half a shekel and two 1bracelets for her hands weighing 2ten gold shekels,
Gn 24:23 And said, Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge in?
Gn 24:24 And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.
Gn 24:25 She also said to him, We have plenty of straw and fodder and also a place to lodge.
Gn 24:26 And the man bowed and aworshipped Jehovah.
Gn 24:27 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of my master aAbraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His faithfulness toward my master. As for me, Jehovah has led me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.
Gn 24:28 And the girl ran and told her mother’s house about these things.
Gn 24:29 And Rebekah had a brother whose name was aLaban, and Laban ran out to the man, to the spring.
Gn 24:30 As soon as he had seen the nose-ring and the bracelets upon his sister’s hands, and had heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, This is what the man spoke to me, he went to the man. And there he was, standing by the camels at the spring.
Gn 24:31 And he said, Come in, O ablessed of Jehovah! Why do you stand outside when I have prepared the house and a place for the camels?
Gn 24:32 And the man came into the house, and 1Laban unloaded the camels. And he gave straw and fodder to the camels and water to awash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
Gn 24:33 And food was set before him to eat. But he said, I will not eat until I have stated my business. And he said, Speak on.
Gn 24:34 And he said, I am Abraham’s servant.
Gn 24:35 And Jehovah has ablessed my master greatly, and he has become great. And He has given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and male servants and female servants, and camels and donkeys.
Gn 24:36 And Sarah my master’s wife bore a ason to my master after she had become old. And he has given ball that he has to him.
Gn 24:37 And my master made me aswear, saying, You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell.
Gn 24:38 But you shall go to my father’s house and to my family, and take a wife for my son.
Gn 24:39 And I said to my master, Perhaps the woman will not follow me.
Gn 24:40 And he said to me, Jehovah, before whom I walk, will send His aangel with you and make your journey prosperous. And you shall take a wife for my son from my family, even from my father’s house.
Gn 24:41 Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my family and if they do not give her to you; you will be free from my oath.
Gn 24:42 And I came today to the spring and said, O Jehovah, the God of my master aAbraham, if now You will only make my journey on which I go prosperous!
Gn 24:43 aI am standing here by the spring of water, and may it be that the maiden who comes out to draw water, to whom I will say, Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,
Gn 24:44 And she will say to me, aDrink, and I will also draw water for your camels, may she be the woman whom Jehovah has appointed for my master’s son.
Gn 24:45 Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there came Rebekah, and her pitcher was on her shoulder. And she went down to the spring and drew water. And I said to her, Please let me drink.
Gn 24:46 And she hurried and let down her pitcher from her shoulder and said, Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink. So I drank, and she also gave the camels a drink.
Gn 24:47 And I asked her and said, Whose daughter are you? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him. And I put the anose-ring upon her nose and the bracelets upon her hands.
Gn 24:48 And I bowed and aworshipped Jehovah and blessed Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way to take the daughter of my master’s bbrother for his son.
Gn 24:49 And now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me so; but if not, tell me so, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.
Gn 24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The matter comes from Jehovah; we cannot speak to you bad or good.
Gn 24:51 Here is Rebekah before you: Take her, and go; and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as Jehovah has spoken.
Gn 24:52 And when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed down to the earth to Jehovah.
Gn 24:53 And the servant brought forth 1silver jewelry and gold jewelry and clothing and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother.
Gn 24:54 And they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and spent the night. And they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away to my master.
Gn 24:55 And her brother and her mother said, Let the girl stay with us a few days, ten or so; after that she may go.
Gn 24:56 And he said to them, Do not delay me, since Jehovah has made my journey prosperous. Send me away that I may go to my master.
Gn 24:57 And they said, Let us call the girl and ask 1her.
Gn 24:58 And they called Rebekah and said to her, Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go.
Gn 24:59 So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her anurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.
Gn 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
May you, our sister, become / aThousands of ten thousands, / And may your seed possess / The bgate of those who hate 1them.
Gn 24:61 And Rebekah arose with her maids, and they rode on the camels and followed the man. And the servant took Rebekah and went away.
Gn 24:62 Now Isaac had come from going to 1aBeer-lahai-roi, for he was dwelling in the region of the Negev.
Gn 24:63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming.
Gn 24:64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes; and when she saw Isaac, she sprang off the camel.
Gn 24:65 And she said to the servant, Who is this man who is walking in the field to meet us? And the servant said, It is my master. And she took her aveil and covered herself.
Gn 24:66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.
Gn 24:67 And Isaac 1brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother. And he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother.
GENESIS 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

5. Having No Maturity in Life
25:1-18
Gn 25:1 And Abraham took 1another wife, whose name was aKeturah.
Gn 25:2 And she bore him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and aMidian and Ishbak and Shuah.
Gn 25:3 And Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurim and the Letushim and the Leummim.
Gn 25:4 And the sons of Midian: Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.
Gn 25:5 And Abraham gave 1aall that he had to 2Isaac.
Gn 25:6 But to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts. And he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he was still living, eastward to the east country.
Gn 25:7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, one hundred seventy-five years.
Gn 25:8 And Abraham expired and died in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and he was gathered to his people.
Gn 25:9 And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of 1aMachpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which faces Mamre,
Gn 25:10 The field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth; there aAbraham was buried with Sarah his wife.
Gn 25:11 And after the death of Abraham, God 1blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac dwelt by aBeer-lahai-roi.
Gn 25:12 Now these are the generations of aIshmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s female servant, bore to Abraham.
Gn 25:13 And these are the names of the asons of Ishmael, by their names according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam
Gn 25:14 And Mishma and Dumah and Massa;
Gn 25:15 Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
Gn 25:16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their peoples.
Gn 25:17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, one hundred thirty-seven years. And he expired and died and was gathered to his people.
Gn 25:18 And they dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which faces Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He settled down opposite all his brothers.
B. The Second Aspect — The Experience of Isaac
25:19-21, 27-28; 26:1 — 27:4, 27b-41; 28:6-9
1. Gaining Twin Sons
25:19-21
Gn 25:19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot aIsaac.
Gn 25:20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.
Gn 25:21 And Isaac 1entreated Jehovah for his wife because she was barren. And Jehovah was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife aconceived.
C. The Third Aspect — The Experience of Jacob (with Joseph)
25:22-26, 29-34; 27:5-27a; 27:42 — 28:5; 28:10 — 50:26
1. Being Dealt With
25:22-26, 29-34; 27:5-27a; 27:42 — 28:5; 28:10 — 32:21
a. Being Chosen to Be Born Second
25:22-26
Gn 25:22 And the children struggled with each other within her. And she said, If it is so, why am I like this? And she went to inquire of Jehovah.
Gn 25:23 And Jehovah said to her,
1aTwo nations are in your womb, / And two peoples shall be separated from your bowels. / And the one people shall be bstronger than the other people. / And the older shall cserve the 2younger.
Gn 25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
Gn 25:25 And the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name 1Esau.
Gn 25:26 And after that his brother came forth, and his hand was 1aholding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called 2bJacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
2. Living in the Natural Life like Jacob
25:27-28; 28:6-9
Gn 25:27 And when the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in atents.
Gn 25:28 Now Isaac loved Esau because 1he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(1. Being Dealt With — cont’d)
b. Being Forced to Leave the Loving Mother and the Father’s Home
25:29-34; 27:5-27a; 27:42 — 28:5
(1) Supplanting the Birthright
25:29-34
Gn 25:29 And Jacob cooked a stew. And Esau came in from the field, and he was faint.
Gn 25:30 And Esau said to Jacob, Let me swallow down some of the red stew, that red stew there, for I am faint. Therefore his name was called 1aEdom.
Gn 25:31 And Jacob said, 1First sell me your birthright.
Gn 25:32 And Esau said, I am now about to die. Of what use then is this birthright to me?
Gn 25:33 And Jacob said, First swear to me. And he swore to him and sold his abirthright to Jacob.
Gn 25:34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose up and went away. Thus Esau 1despised his birthright.
GENESIS 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
3. Inheriting the Promise Given to His Father
26:1-5
Gn 26:1 And there was a famine in the land, besides the former afamine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Abimelech the king of the Philistines at Gerar.
Gn 26:2 And Jehovah appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I will tell you.
Gn 26:3 aSojourn in this land, and I will be bwith you and will 1bless you; for to you and to your cseed I will give all these lands, and I will destablish the eoath which I swore to Abraham your father.
Gn 26:4 And I will multiply your seed as the astars of heaven and will give to your seed all these lands; and in your seed ball the nations of the earth will be blessed,
Gn 26:5 Because Abraham aobeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
4. Having Natural Weakness like Abraham
26:6-11
Gn 26:6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
Gn 26:7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, 1She is my asister, for he was afraid to say, My wife, thinking, The men of this place might slay me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful in appearance.
Gn 26:8 And when he had been there a long time, Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked out through his window and saw, and there was Isaac playfully caressing Rebekah his wife.
Gn 26:9 And Abimelech called Isaac and said, So she is indeed your wife. How then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I thought I might die on account of her.
Gn 26:10 And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.
Gn 26:11 And Abimelech charged all the people, saying, He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
5. Reaping a Hundredfold and Becoming Great
26:12-14
Gn 26:12 And Isaac sowed in that land and gained in the same year a ahundredfold. And Jehovah bblessed him,
Gn 26:13 And the man became 1rich and continued to grow 1richer until he became very 1rich.
Gn 26:14 And he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great 1household, so that the Philistines envied him.
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
6. Finding Wells in Many Places
26:15-22
Gn 26:15 Now all the wells which his father’s servants had adug in the days of Abraham his father the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth.
Gn 26:16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.
Gn 26:17 So Isaac went away from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
Gn 26:18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father and which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham; and he called them by the same anames which his father had given them.
Gn 26:19 And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of 1springing water.
Gn 26:20 And the shepherds of Gerar strove with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, The water is ours. So he called the name of the well 1Esek, because they contended with him.
Gn 26:21 And they dug another well; and they strove over that also, so he called the name of it 1Sitnah.
Gn 26:22 And he moved away from there and dug another well, but they did not strive over it, so he called the name of it 1Rehoboth; and he said, Now Jehovah has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
7. God Confirming His Promise to Him at Beer-sheba,
the Unique Place of God’s Appearing for the Fulfillment of His Purpose
26:23-35
Gn 26:23 And he went up from there to Beer-sheba.
Gn 26:24 And Jehovah 1appeared to him the same night and said, I am the aGod of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am bwith you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed for My servant Abraham’s sake.
Gn 26:25 And he built an aaltar there and bcalled upon the name of Jehovah and pitched his ctent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Gn 26:26 And Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his 1adviser and Phicol the captain of his army.
Gn 26:27 And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?
Gn 26:28 And they said, We see plainly that Jehovah is with you; so we say, Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,
Gn 26:29 That you will not do us any harm, just as we have not touched you, and just as we have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ablessed of Jehovah.
Gn 26:30 And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
Gn 26:31 And they rose up early in the morning and aswore to one another. And Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
Gn 26:32 And the same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug and said to him, We have found water.
Gn 26:33 And he called it 1Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is 2aBeer-sheba to this day.
Gn 26:34 Now when Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith the adaughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Gn 26:35 And they caused abitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.
GENESIS 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • 

(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
8. Not Having Much Maturity in Life
27:1-4, 27b-41
Gn 27:1 Now when Isaac was old, and his eyes had become so adim that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, My son. And he said to him, Here I am.
Gn 27:2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.
Gn 27:3 Now then, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and ahunt game for me,
Gn 27:4 And prepare for me a tasty meal, such as I love, and bring it to me to eat, so that 1I may 2abless you before I die.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(1. Being Dealt With — cont’d)
(b. Being Forced to Leave Home — cont’d)
(2) Supplanting the Father’s Blessing
27:5-27a
Gn 27:5 Now Rebekah had been listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring it home,
Gn 27:6 Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, I just heard your father speaking to Esau your brother, saying,
Gn 27:7 Bring me game, and prepare for me a tasty meal so that I may eat it and bless you before Jehovah before my death.
Gn 27:8 Now therefore, my son, aobey my voice according to that which I command you.
Gn 27:9 Go now to the flock, and take two choice kids for me from there, and I will prepare them as a tasty meal for your father, such as he loves.
Gn 27:10 Then you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may abless you before his death.
Gn 27:11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a ahairy man, and I am a smooth man.
Gn 27:12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be as a 1deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a acurse and not a blessing.
Gn 27:13 And his mother said to him, Your curse be aon me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.
Gn 27:14 And he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared a tasty meal, such as his father loved.
Gn 27:15 And Rebekah took the best aclothes of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
Gn 27:16 And she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
Gn 27:17 And she put the tasty meal and the bread that she had prepared into the hand of Jacob her son.
Gn 27:18 And he came to his father and said, My father. And he said, Here I am. Who are you, my son?
Gn 27:19 And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Now rise up; sit up and eat some of my game, so that 1you may bless me.
Gn 27:20 And Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because Jehovah your God put it in my way.
Gn 27:21 And Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.
Gn 27:22 And Jacob came near to Isaac his father. And he felt him and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are Esau’s hands.
Gn 27:23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.
Gn 27:24 And he said, Are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am.
Gn 27:25 And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that 1I may abless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
Gn 27:26 Then his father Isaac said to him, Please come near and kiss me, my son.
Gn 27:27 So he came near and kissed him;
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
8. Not Having Much Maturity in Life (cont’d)
27:27b-41
and when 1Isaac smelled the smell of his garments, he 2ablessed him and said,
See, the smell of my son — / Like the smell of a field / Which Jehovah has blessed.
Gn 27:28 And may God give you / Of the adew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth, / And an abundance of bgrain and new wine.
Gn 27:29 Let peoples serve you, / And nations bow down to you. / Be lord over your brothers, / And let your mother’s asons bow down to you. / Cursed be those who curse you, / And bblessed be those who bless you.
Gn 27:30 And as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Gn 27:31 And he also had prepared a tasty meal and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father rise up, and eat some of his son’s game, that 1you may bless me.
Gn 27:32 And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.
Gn 27:33 And Isaac trembled very greatly and said, Who was it then who hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of it all before you came and blessed him? And blessed will he be.
Gn 27:34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a very great and abitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
Gn 27:35 And he said, Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.
Gn 27:36 And 1Esau said, Is he not rightly named aJacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my bbirthright, and behold now he has taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me?
Gn 27:37 And Isaac answered and said to Esau, I have already made him your alord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants; and with bgrain and new wine I have sustained him. And what then shall I do for you, my son?
Gn 27:38 And Esau said to his father, Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Gn 27:39 And Isaac his father answered and asaid to him,
Behold, 1of the bfatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, / And 1of the cdew of heaven from above.
Gn 27:40 Yet by your sword shall you live, / And you shall aserve your brother. / And when you 1become restless, / You shall bbreak his yoke from off your neck.
Gn 27:41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will slay my abrother Jacob.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(1. Being Dealt With — cont’d)
(b. Being Forced to Leave Home — cont’d)
(3) Being Instructed by His Mother to Go Away
27:42-46
Gn 27:42 And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah, so she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, Now your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.
Gn 27:43 Therefore, my son, obey my voice now, and rise up; flee to Laban my brother at Haran,
Gn 27:44 And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away,
Gn 27:45 Until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send word and bring you back from there. Why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?
Gn 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am aweary of my life because of the 1daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth like these, from the bdaughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?
GENESIS 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

(4) Being Blessed and Sent Away by His Father
28:1-5
Gn 28:1 And Isaac called Jacob and ablessed him; and he charged him and said to him, You shall not take a wife from the bdaughters of Canaan.
Gn 28:2 Rise up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take from there a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
Gn 28:3 And may the 1aAll-sufficient God bless you and make you bfruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
Gn 28:4 And may He give you the ablessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may possess this land of your bsojournings, which God gave to Abraham.
Gn 28:5 And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
(B. The Experience of Isaac — cont’d)
2. Living in the Natural Life like Jacob (cont’d)
28:6-9
Gn 28:6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him, he charged him, saying, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,
Gn 28:7 And that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.
Gn 28:8 So Esau saw that the adaughters of Canaan displeased Isaac his father.
Gn 28:9 Then Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, and the sister of Nebaioth to be his wife, in addition to the wives that he had.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(1. Being Dealt With — cont’d)
c. The Dream at Bethel
28:10-22
Gn 28:10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba and went toward aHaran.
Gn 28:11 And he came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and 1put it under his head, and he lay down in that place.
Gn 28:12 And he 1adreamed that there was a 2ladder set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the 3bangels of God were ascending and descending on it.
Gn 28:13 And there was Jehovah, standing above it; and He said, I am Jehovah, the 1aGod of Abraham your father and the 1God of Isaac. The 2land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your 2bseed.
Gn 28:14 And your seed will be as the adust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your seed will ball the families of the earth be blessed.
Gn 28:15 And, behold, I am awith you and will keep you wherever you go and will cause you to return to this land, for I will not bleave you until I have done what I have promised you.
Gn 28:16 And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know it.
Gn 28:17 And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the ahouse of God, and this is the 1gate of heaven.
Gn 28:18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the astone that he had put under his head, and he set it up as a pillar and poured boil on top of it.
Gn 28:19 And he called the name of that place 1aBethel, but the name of the city was bLuz previously.
Gn 28:20 And Jacob avowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and garments to put on,
Gn 28:21 So that I return to my father’s house in peace, then Jehovah will be amy God,
Gn 28:22 And this astone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house; and of all that You give me I will surely give one btenth to You.
GENESIS 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

d. Being Led in God’s Sovereignty to Meet Rachel and Laban
29:1-14
Gn 29:1 Then Jacob 1went on his journey and came to the land of the children of the east.
Gn 29:2 And he looked, and there in the field was a well, and there three flocks of sheep were lying beside it; for from that well they watered the flocks. And the stone on the mouth of the well was large.
Gn 29:3 And when all the flocks would gather there, they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep; then they would put the stone back on the mouth of the well in its place.
Gn 29:4 And Jacob said to them, My brothers, where are you from? And they said, We are from Haran.
Gn 29:5 And he said to them, Do you know Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We do know him.
Gn 29:6 And he said to them, Is it well with him? And they said, It is well, and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep.
Gn 29:7 And he said, Look, it is still full day; and it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go feed them.
Gn 29:8 And they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.
Gn 29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with the sheep which belonged to her father, for she was a shepherdess.
Gn 29:10 Now when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob drew near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
Gn 29:11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept.
Gn 29:12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s 1arelative and that he was Rebekah’s son. And she ran and btold her father.
Gn 29:13 And when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him. And he embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then 1Jacob related to Laban all these things.
Gn 29:14 And Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh. And he stayed with him a month.
e. Being Cheated by Laban to Marry Laban’s Two Daughters
29:15-30
Gn 29:15 And Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?
Gn 29:16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
Gn 29:17 And Leah’s eyes were 1dull, but Rachel was beautiful in form and beautiful in appearance.
Gn 29:18 And Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, I will aserve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.
Gn 29:19 And Laban said, It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man; stay with me.
Gn 29:20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but they seemed to him only a few days because of the love he had for her.
Gn 29:21 Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.
Gn 29:22 And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast.
Gn 29:23 But in the evening he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and he went in to her.
Gn 29:24 And Laban gave aZilpah his female servant to his daughter Leah to be her female servant.
Gn 29:25 And in the morning there she was, 1Leah! And he said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?
Gn 29:26 And Laban said, It is not done in this way in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn.
Gn 29:27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me for another seven years.
Gn 29:28 And Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter as a wife.
Gn 29:29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter aBilhah his female servant to be her female servant.
Gn 29:30 And he went in also to Rachel, and he also loved Rachel, more than Leah. And he aserved with 1Laban for another seven years.
f. The Competition, Envy, and Wrestling between Jacob’s Wives in Bearing Children
29:31 — 30:24
Gn 29:31 Now when Jehovah saw that Leah was ahated, He opened her womb; but Rachel was bbarren.
Gn 29:32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name 1aReuben, for she said, Because Jehovah has looked upon my affliction, surely now my husband will love me.
Gn 29:33 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, Because Jehovah has heard that I am hated, He has therefore given me this son also; so she called his name 1aSimeon.
Gn 29:34 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was called 1aLevi.
Gn 29:35 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise Jehovah. Therefore she called his name 1aJudah. Then she ceased bearing.
GENESIS 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • 

Gn 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no achildren, Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
Gn 30:2 And Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God, who has awithheld from you the fruit of the womb?
Gn 30:3 And she said, Here is my servant aBilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I also may 1bhave children through her.
Gn 30:4 And she gave him Bilhah her female servant as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
Gn 30:5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
Gn 30:6 And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son; therefore she called his name 1aDan.
Gn 30:7 And Bilhah Rachel’s female servant conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
Gn 30:8 And Rachel said, 1In wrestling with God, I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed; so she called his name 2aNaphtali.
Gn 30:9 Now when Leah saw that she ceased bearing, she took aZilpah her female servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Gn 30:10 And Zilpah Leah’s female servant bore Jacob a son.
Gn 30:11 And Leah said, How fortunate! So she called his name 1aGad.
Gn 30:12 And Zilpah Leah’s female servant bore Jacob a second son.
Gn 30:13 And Leah said, 1Happy am I! For the daughters will call me 1ablessed; so she called his name 2bAsher.
Gn 30:14 And Reuben went out in the days of wheat harvest and found amandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.
Gn 30:15 And she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? And would you take away my son’s mandrakes also? So Rachel said, Then he may lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.
Gn 30:16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes. So he lay with her that night.
Gn 30:17 And God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Gn 30:18 And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I gave my female servant to my husband; so she called his name 1aIssachar.
Gn 30:19 And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob.
Gn 30:20 And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will 1dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons; so she called his name 2aZebulun.
Gn 30:21 And afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
Gn 30:22 Then God aremembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and bopened her womb.
Gn 30:23 And she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my areproach.
Gn 30:24 And she called his name 1aJoseph, saying, May Jehovah add to me banother son.
g. Being Squeezed by Laban and Tricking Him, but Being Blessed by God
30:25 — 31:16
Gn 30:25 And when Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.
Gn 30:26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have aserved you, that I may go; for you indeed know my service by which I have served you.
Gn 30:27 And Laban said to him, If you please, I have divined that Jehovah has blessed me on account of you.
Gn 30:28 And he said, Name me your wages, and I will give it.
Gn 30:29 And 1Jacob said to him, You indeed know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me.
Gn 30:30 For you had little before I came, and it has spread into a multitude, and Jehovah has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own house also?
Gn 30:31 And he said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. Just do this one thing for me: Let me again feed your flock and keep it.
Gn 30:32 Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted animal, that is, every black animal among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such will be my wages.
Gn 30:33 So my righteousness will testify for me later, when you come concerning my wages, by what is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the sheep, if found with me, will be counted stolen.
Gn 30:34 And Laban said, Fine; let it be according to your word.
Gn 30:35 But on that day 1Laban removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons.
Gn 30:36 And he set a distance of a three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Gn 30:37 And Jacob took rods of fresh poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods.
Gn 30:38 And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, in the watering places where the flocks came to drink; and they bred when they came to drink.
Gn 30:39 And the flocks bred before the rods; and the flocks brought forth young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Gn 30:40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flock toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban, and he put his own herds apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
Gn 30:41 And whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the flock in the troughs so that they might breed among the rods;
Gn 30:42 But when the flock was feebler, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
Gn 30:43 And the man became spread out exceedingly, and had large aflocks, and female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
GENESIS 31

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Gn 31:1 Now 1Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father; and from what belonged to our father he has made all this 2wealth.
Gn 31:2 And Jacob saw Laban’s countenance, and now it was not favorable toward him as previously.
Gn 31:3 And Jehovah said to Jacob, aReturn to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be bwith you.
Gn 31:4 So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,
Gn 31:5 And he said to them, I see that your father’s countenance is not favorable toward me as previously, but the God of my father has been with me.
Gn 31:6 And you yourselves know that with all my strength I have aserved your father.
Gn 31:7 And your father has cheated me and changed my wages aten times, but God did not allow him to harm me.
Gn 31:8 If he spoke in this way, The speckled shall be your awages, then all the flock bore speckled; and if he spoke in this way, The streaked shall be your wages, then all the flock bore streaked.
Gn 31:9 Thus God has 1ataken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
Gn 31:10 And at the time the flock was breeding, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream; and there were the male goats, leaping upon the flock — streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Gn 31:11 And the 1aAngel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob; and I said, Here I am.
Gn 31:12 And He said, Lift up your eyes now, and see that all the male goats which leap upon the flock are streaked, speckled, and spotted; for 1I have aseen all that Laban is doing to you.
Gn 31:13 I am the 1God of aBethel, where you banointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to Me. Rise up now; go out from this land, and creturn to the land of your birth.
Gn 31:14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?
Gn 31:15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and has even entirely used up the money given for us.
Gn 31:16 Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father is ours and our children’s. So do now whatever God has said to you.
h. Fleeing from Laban and Being Pursued by Him
31:17-55
Gn 31:17 Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives upon the camels;
Gn 31:18 And he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had acquired, the livestock in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, in order to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
Gn 31:19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the 1ateraphim that were her father’s.
Gn 31:20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramaean by not telling him that he was fleeing.
Gn 31:21 So he fled with all that he had, and he rose up and crossed over the 1River and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Gn 31:22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled.
Gn 31:23 And he took his brothers with him and pursued after him the distance of a seven days’ journey; and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
Gn 31:24 And 1God came to Laban the Aramaean in a adream of the night and said to him, Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.
Gn 31:25 And Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had apitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his brothers also pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead.
Gn 31:26 And Laban said to Jacob, What are you doing adeceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?
Gn 31:27 Why did you flee secretly and steal away from me and not tell me, when I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre?
Gn 31:28 And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly.
Gn 31:29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the aGod of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.
Gn 31:30 And now, though you had to go because you longed greatly for your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?
Gn 31:31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid, for I 1thought that you might take your daughters from me by force.
Gn 31:32 The aone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our brothers indicate what there is with me that is yours, and take it. Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
Gn 31:33 And Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the two female servants’ tent, but he did not find them. Then he went from Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
Gn 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat upon them. And Laban rummaged through all the tent but did not find them.
Gn 31:35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before you, for the manner of women is upon me. So he searched but did not find the teraphim.
Gn 31:36 And Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my transgression? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me?
Gn 31:37 Although you have rummaged through all my possessions, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my brothers and your brothers, that they may decide between the two of us.
Gn 31:38 These twenty years have I been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.
Gn 31:39 That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I abore the loss of it myself. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
Gn 31:40 Thus I was: By day the dry heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.
Gn 31:41 These twenty years have I been in your house; I aserved you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages bten times.
Gn 31:42 If the aGod of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Dread of Isaac, had not been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.
Gn 31:43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?
Gn 31:44 So come now; let us amake a covenant, I and you; and let it be a witness between me and you.
Gn 31:45 So Jacob took a astone and set it up as a pillar.
Gn 31:46 And Jacob said to his brothers, Gather stones. So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
Gn 31:47 And aLaban called it 1Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it 2Galeed.
Gn 31:48 And Laban said, This heap is a awitness between me and you today. Therefore its name was called Galeed
Gn 31:49 And 1Mizpah, because he said, Jehovah watch between me and you when we are absent from one another.
Gn 31:50 If you afflict my daughters, and if you take wives besides my daughters — even though no man is with us — see, God is awitness between me and you.
Gn 31:51 And Laban said to Jacob, Here is this aheap, and here is the pillar which I have set between me and you.
Gn 31:52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a 1witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
Gn 31:53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the aGod of their father, judge between us. And Jacob swore by the Dread of his father Isaac.
Gn 31:54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brothers to eat a meal, and they ate a meal and spent the night in the mountain.
Gn 31:55 And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them, and Laban departed and returned to his place.
GENESIS 32

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

i. Fearing Esau
32:1-21
Gn 32:1 And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Gn 32:2 And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God’s acamp. So he called the name of that place 1bMahanaim.
Gn 32:3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother, into the land of aSeir, the field of Edom.
Gn 32:4 And he commanded them, saying, Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now;
Gn 32:5 And I have oxen and donkeys and flocks, and male servants and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord this, that I may afind favor in your sight.
Gn 32:6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you; and afour hundred men are with him.
Gn 32:7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into atwo camps;
Gn 32:8 And he said, If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp which is left will escape.
Gn 32:9 Then Jacob said, O aGod of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, who said to me, bReturn to your country and to your relatives, and I will do you good,
Gn 32:10 I am not worthy of all the lovingkindnesses and all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed over this Jordan, and now I have become atwo camps.
Gn 32:11 Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
Gn 32:12 But You have said, I will surely do you good and make your seed like the asand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
Gn 32:13 And he spent that night there. Then from what he had with him he took a 1apresent for Esau his brother:
Gn 32:14 Two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
Gn 32:15 Thirty nursing camels and their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
Gn 32:16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Cross over before me, and put a space between each drove.
Gn 32:17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, To whom do you belong? And where are you going? And whose animals are these before you?
Gn 32:18 Then you will say, Your servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent to my lord Esau; and now he also is behind us.
Gn 32:19 And he commanded also the second and the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, In this way you shall speak to Esau when you find him,
Gn 32:20 And you shall also say, Your servant Jacob is right behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.
Gn 32:21 So the present crossed over before him, and he himself spent that night in the camp.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
2. Being Broken
32:22 — 34:31
a. Wrestling with God
32:22-32
Gn 32:22 And he rose up that night and took his two wives and his two female servants and his eleven children and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok.
Gn 32:23 And he took them and sent them over the stream and sent over what he had.
Gn 32:24 And Jacob was left alone, and a 1man awrestled with him until the break of dawn.
Gn 32:25 And when 1the man saw that He did not prevail against him, He 2touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him.
Gn 32:26 And the 1man said, Let Me go, for the dawn is breaking. But 2Jacob said, I will anot let You go unless You bless me.
Gn 32:27 And He said to him, 1What is your name? And he said, Jacob.
Gn 32:28 And He said, Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but 1aIsrael; for you have bstruggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.
Gn 32:29 And Jacob asked Him and said, Please atell me Your name. But He said, Why is it that you ask My name? And He blessed him there1.
Gn 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place 1Peniel, for, he said, I have aseen God face to face, and yet my life has been preserved.
Gn 32:31 And the 1sun rose upon him as he crossed over Penuel, and he limped because of his hip.
Gn 32:32 Therefore the children of Israel do not eat the thigh muscle, which is upon the socket of the hip, to this day, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip at the thigh muscle.
GENESIS 33

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

b. Being Welcomed by Esau
33:1-16
Gn 33:1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and there was Esau coming, and afour hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and among Rachel and among the two female servants.
Gn 33:2 And he put the female servants and their children in front, and Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
Gn 33:3 And he himself passed on before them and bowed down to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.
Gn 33:4 And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and 1kissed him, and they wept.
Gn 33:5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The children whom God has agraciously given your servant.
Gn 33:6 Then the female servants came near, they and their children, and they bowed down.
Gn 33:7 And Leah also came near with her children, and they bowed down; and afterward Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed down.
Gn 33:8 And 1Esau said, What do you mean by all this acamp which I met? And he said, To find bfavor in the sight of my lord.
Gn 33:9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let what you have be yours.
Gn 33:10 And Jacob said, No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand; for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably.
Gn 33:11 Please take my ablessing which has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have all that I need. So he urged him, and he took it.
Gn 33:12 Then 1Esau said, Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you.
Gn 33:13 And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are frail and that the nursing flocks and herds are a concern to me; and if they overdrive them for one day, all the flock will die.
Gn 33:14 Let my lord please pass on before his servant, and I will lead on slowly according to the pace of the cattle which are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.
Gn 33:15 So Esau said, Let me please leave with you some of the people who are with me. And he said, What need is there? Let me afind favor in the sight of my lord.
Gn 33:16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
c. Returning to Canaan but Only to Shechem
33:17-20
Gn 33:17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth and 1built a house for himself and made booths for his livestock; therefore the name of the place is called 2Succoth.
Gn 33:18 And Jacob came 1safely to the city of 2Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and he camped before the city.
Gn 33:19 And he abought the piece of land, where he had pitched his btent, from the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.
Gn 33:20 And there he erected an 1aaltar and called it 2El-Elohe-Israel.
GENESIS 34

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

d. Still Needing the Dealing in His Circumstances
34:1-31
Gn 34:1 And aDinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
Gn 34:2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her and humbled her.
Gn 34:3 And his soul clung to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke 1affectionately to the girl.
Gn 34:4 And Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this young girl as a awife.
Gn 34:5 Now when Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter, his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob kept silent until they came in.
Gn 34:6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.
Gn 34:7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard of it. And the men were grieved and became very angry, because he had committed folly in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.
Gn 34:8 And Hamor spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him as a wife.
Gn 34:9 And make marriages with us: Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.
Gn 34:10 And you shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you; dwell and 1trade in it, and acquire holdings in it.
Gn 34:11 And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your sight, and whatever you say to me I will give.
Gn 34:12 Impose upon me a very large bridal price and gift, and I will give whatever you say to me; but give me the girl as a wife.
Gn 34:13 Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully; and because he had defiled Dinah their sister, they spoke
Gn 34:14 And said to them, We are not able to do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us.
Gn 34:15 Only on this condition will we consent to you: If you become like us, and every male among you is circumcised,
Gn 34:16 Then we will give our daughters to you and will take your daughters for ourselves; and we will dwell with you and become one people.
Gn 34:17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.
Gn 34:18 And their words seemed good to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son.
Gn 34:19 And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was honored above all the house of his father.
Gn 34:20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city and spoke with the men of their city, saying,
Gn 34:21 These men are with us peacefully; therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for here the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters for ourselves as wives, and let us give them our daughters.
Gn 34:22 Only on this condition will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised.
Gn 34:23 Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.
Gn 34:24 And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
Gn 34:25 Then on the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, aSimeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city 1unawares, and slew every male.
Gn 34:26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away.
Gn 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
Gn 34:28 They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys and whatever was in the city and whatever was in the field;
Gn 34:29 And they took captive and plundered all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, and even all that was in the houses.
Gn 34:30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have 1brought trouble upon me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I am afew in number, and they will gather themselves together against me and strike me; and I will be destroyed, I and my house.
Gn 34:31 And they said, Should he treat our sister like a harlot?
GENESIS 35

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
3. Being Transformed
35:1-29
a. Being Reminded by God at Bethel
vv. 1-15
Gn 35:1 And God said to Jacob, Rise up, go up to 1aBethel, and dwell there; and make an baltar there to the God who appeared to you when you cfled from your brother Esau.
Gn 35:2 Then Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, 1Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments.
Gn 35:3 And let us rise up and go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who aanswered me in the day of my distress and has been bwith me wherever I have gone.
Gn 35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hand and the 1rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem.
Gn 35:5 And as they journeyed, the aterror of God was upon the cities that were around them, so they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
Gn 35:6 And Jacob came to Luz (that is, aBethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.
Gn 35:7 And he built an 1aaltar there and called the place 2El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his bbrother.
Gn 35:8 And aDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; so its name was called 1Allon-bacuth.
Gn 35:9 And God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram and blessed him.
Gn 35:10 And God said to him,
Your name is Jacob; / Your name shall ano longer be called Jacob, / But 1bIsrael shall be your name.
Thus He called his name Israel.
Gn 35:11 And God said to him,
I am the 1aAll-sufficient God: / Be bfruitful and multiply; / A 2cnation and a company of nations shall come from you, / And kings shall come forth from your loins.
Gn 35:12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, / I will give to you; / And I will give the land to your aseed after you.
Gn 35:13 Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him.
Gn 35:14 And Jacob set up a 1pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a apillar of stone; and he poured out a 2drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
Gn 35:15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him aBethel.
b. Deeper and More Personal Dealings
vv. 16-26
(1) The Death of Rachel
vv. 16-20
Gn 35:16 And they journeyed from Bethel. And while there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth; and she had hard labor.
Gn 35:17 And while she was in hardest labor, the midwife said to her, Do not be afraid, for now you have another ason.
Gn 35:18 And as her soul was departing (for she 1died), she called his name 2Ben-oni; but his father called him 3aBenjamin.
Gn 35:19 So Rachel adied and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, bBethlehem).
Gn 35:20 And Jacob set up a 1pillar on her grave; that is the apillar of Rachel’s grave, which is there to this day.
(2) The Birthright Being Changed through the Defilement of Jacob’s Concubine
vv. 21-26
Gn 35:21 And 1Israel journeyed and pitched his atent beyond the tower of Eder.
Gn 35:22 And while Israel dwelt in that land, Reuben went and 1alay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were btwelve:
Gn 35:23 The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun.
Gn 35:24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
Gn 35:25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s female servant: Dan and Naphtali.
Gn 35:26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s female servant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
c. Entering into Full Fellowship
v. 27
Gn 35:27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba (that is, 1aHebron), where Abraham and Isaac had bsojourned.
d. Released from the Tie with His Father
vv. 28-29
Gn 35:28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years.
Gn 35:29 And Isaac expired and died and was gathered to his people, an old man and full of days; and Esau and Jacob his sons 1aburied him.
GENESIS 36

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • 

(The Descendants of Esau)
36:1-43
Gn 36:1 Now these are the generations of Esau (that is, aEdom).
Gn 36:2 Esau took his wives from the adaughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite;
Gn 36:3 And Basemath Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.
Gn 36:4 And Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel,
Gn 36:5 And Oholibamah bore Jeush and Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
Gn 36:6 And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all his household and his livestock and all his cattle and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went into a land away from his brother Jacob.
Gn 36:7 For their aproperty was too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they sojourned could not sustain them because of their livestock.
Gn 36:8 And Esau dwelt in Mount Seir; Esau is Edom.
Gn 36:9 And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir:
Gn 36:10 These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Esau’s wife Adah, Reuel the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.
Gn 36:11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam and Kenaz.
Gn 36:12 And Timna was a concubine to Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore aAmalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah.
Gn 36:13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath.
Gn 36:14 And these were the sons of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: And she bore to Esau Jeush and Jalam and Korah.
Gn 36:15 These are the 1clans of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: Clan Teman, Clan Omar, Clan Zepho, Clan Kenaz,
Gn 36:16 Clan Korah, Clan Gatam, Clan Amalek; these are the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Adah.
Gn 36:17 And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: Clan Nahath, Clan Zerah, Clan Shammah, Clan Mizzah; these are the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.
Gn 36:18 And these are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife: Clan Jeush, Clan Jalam, Clan Korah. These are the clans of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife.
Gn 36:19 These are the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these are their clans.
Gn 36:20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah
Gn 36:21 And Dishon and Ezer and Dishan; these are the clans of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
Gn 36:22 And the sons of Lotan were Hori and Heman; and Lotan’s sister was Timna.
Gn 36:23 And these are the sons of Shobal: Alvan and Manahath and Ebal, Shepho and Onam.
Gn 36:24 And these are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who found the 1hot springs in the wilderness as he fed the donkeys of Zibeon his father.
Gn 36:25 And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah.
Gn 36:26 And these are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran.
Gn 36:27 These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan and Akan.
Gn 36:28 These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
Gn 36:29 These are the clans of the Horites: Clan Lotan, Clan Shobal, Clan Zibeon, Clan Anah,
Gn 36:30 Clan Dishon, Clan Ezer, Clan Dishan. These are the clans of the Horites, according to their clans in the land of Seir.
Gn 36:31 And these are the kings who areigned in the land of Edom before a king of the children of Israel reigned:
Gn 36:32 Now Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
Gn 36:33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place.
Gn 36:34 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.
Gn 36:35 And Husham died; and Hadad the son of Bedad, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Avith.
Gn 36:36 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.
Gn 36:37 And Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the 1River reigned in his place.
Gn 36:38 And Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.
Gn 36:39 And Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his place. And the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
Gn 36:40 And these are the names of the clans of Esau, according to their families, according to their places, by their names: Clan Timna, Clan Alvah, Clan Jetheth,
Gn 36:41 Clan Oholibamah, Clan Elah, Clan Pinon,
Gn 36:42 Clan Kenaz, Clan Teman, Clan Mibzar,
Gn 36:43 Clan Magdiel, Clan Iram. These are the clans of Edom according to their habitations in the land of their possession. This is Esau the father of the aEdomites.
GENESIS 37

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
4. Being Matured
37:1-2a, 32-36; 42:1-5; 42:29 — 43:14; 45:25 — 47:10; 47:28 — 50:13
a. The Process of Maturity — Dealings in the Last Stage
37:1-2a, 32-36; 42:1-5; 42:29 — 43:14
(1) Being Robbed of the Treasure of His Heart (Joseph) under God’s Sovereign Hand
37:1-2a, 32-36
Gn 37:1 And 1Jacob dwelt in the land where his father had asojourned, in the land of Canaan.
Gn 37:2 These are the generations of Jacob.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
5. The Reigning Aspect of the Matured Israel as Seen in Joseph
37:2b-31; 38:1 — 41:57; 42:6-28; 43:15 — 45:24; 47:11-27; 50:14-26
a. Being a Shepherd and the Father’s Beloved
37:2b-4
1Joseph, when he was seventeen years old, was 2shepherding the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.
Gn 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph 1more than all his sons because he was the son of his aold age, and he had made him a bcoat of many colors.
Gn 37:4 And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
b. Viewing His People as Sheaves of Life and as the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars of Light
37:5-11
Gn 37:5 Then Joseph had a 1adream; and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
Gn 37:6 And he said to them, Listen to this dream which I have had:
Gn 37:7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose up and remained standing; and then your sheaves gathered around and abowed down to my sheaf.
Gn 37:8 And his brothers said to him, Will you indeed reign over us and actually be a ruler among us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
Gn 37:9 And he had still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Now I have had another dream: There were the asun and the moon and eleven stars, bbowing down to me.
Gn 37:10 And he told it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the ground to you?
Gn 37:11 And his brothers were ajealous of him, but his father bkept the saying in his heart.
c. Ministering to His Brothers according to the Father’s Will
37:12-17
Gn 37:12 Then his brothers went to shepherd their father’s flock in Shechem.
Gn 37:13 And Israel said to Joseph, Your brothers are now shepherding the flock in Shechem. Come, and I will 1send you to them. And he said to him, Here I am.
Gn 37:14 And he said to him, Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flock, and bring word back to me. So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
Gn 37:15 And a man found him; and there he was, wandering in the field, and the man asked him, saying, What are you seeking?
Gn 37:16 And he said, I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are shepherding the flock.
Gn 37:17 And the man said, They have moved on from here; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
d. Living as a Sheaf of Life
37:18-31
Gn 37:18 And when they saw him from a distance and before he came near to them, they 1conspired against him to put him to death.
Gn 37:19 And they said one to another, Here comes this master of dreams.
Gn 37:20 Now then, come and let us aslay him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, A wild beast has devoured him; then we will see what will become of his dreams.
Gn 37:21 But when Reuben heard it, he tried to deliver him out of their hand and said, aLet us not take his life.
Gn 37:22 And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood; throw him into this apit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him — that he might deliver him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
Gn 37:23 And when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his coat, the acoat of many colors that was on him;
Gn 37:24 And they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Gn 37:25 Then they sat down to eat food; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and there was a acaravan of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
Gn 37:26 Then Judah said to his brothers, What gain is there if we aslay our brother and conceal his blood?
Gn 37:27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let our hand not be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers listened to him.
Gn 37:28 So when some 1Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and they asold Joseph to the 1Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And these brought Joseph into Egypt.
Gn 37:29 And when Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.
Gn 37:30 And he returned to his brothers and said, The boy is not there; so as for me, what shall I do?
Gn 37:31 Then they took Joseph’s acoat and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the coat in the blood.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(4. Being Matured — cont’d)
(a. The Process of Maturity — cont’d)
(1) Being Robbed of the Treasure of His Heart (Joseph) under God’s Sovereign Hand (cont’d)
37:32-36
Gn 37:32 And they sent the coat of many colors and had it brought to their father and said, We found this; please examine it, and see whether it is your son’s coat or not.
Gn 37:33 And he recognized it and said, It is my son’s coat. A awild beast has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt btorn to pieces.
Gn 37:34 And Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days.
Gn 37:35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted and said, Surely I will go down to 1aSheol to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
Gn 37:36 Meanwhile the Midianites had 1sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, the acaptain of the guard.
GENESIS 38

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(5. The Reigning Aspect as Seen in Joseph — cont’d)
e. Living as a Star of Light
38:1 — 39:12
(1) His Brother Judah Indulging in Lust
38:1-30
Gn 38:1 Now at that time Judah went down from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
Gn 38:2 And Judah saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was aShua. And he took her and went in to her.
Gn 38:3 And she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name aEr.
Gn 38:4 And she conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan.
Gn 38:5 And yet again she bore a son and called his name Shelah, and 1she was in Chezib when she bore him.
Gn 38:6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was 1Tamar.
Gn 38:7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was awicked in the sight of Jehovah. And Jehovah put him to death.
Gn 38:8 And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother’s awife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up seed to your brother.
Gn 38:9 But since Onan knew that the seed would not be his, whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled it on the ground, so that he would not give seed to his brother.
Gn 38:10 But what he did was evil in the sight of Jehovah, so He put him to death also.
Gn 38:11 Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up. For he 1thought, He also may die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.
Gn 38:12 And in process of time Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and Judah was comforted and went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
Gn 38:13 And it was told to Tamar, saying, Your father-in-law is now going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.
Gn 38:14 And she removed from herself her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that aShelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as his wife.
Gn 38:15 And when 1Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face.
Gn 38:16 And he turned aside to her by the way and said, Come now, let me come in to you; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, What will you give me, that you may come in to me?
Gn 38:17 And he said, I will send you a kid from the flock. And she said, Only if you give me a pledge until you send it.
Gn 38:18 And he said, What pledge shall I give you? And she said, Your aseal and your cord and your staff that is in your hand. And he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
Gn 38:19 And she arose and went away, and removed her veil from herself and put on her widow’s garments.
Gn 38:20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand; but he did not find her.
Gn 38:21 Then he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the prostitute who was by the road at Enaim? And they said, There has been no prostitute here.
Gn 38:22 And he returned to Judah and said, I did not find her; and also the men of the place said, There has been no prostitute here.
Gn 38:23 And Judah said, Let her keep the things for herself, lest we become a laughing stock; you see, I sent her this kid, but you did not find her.
Gn 38:24 And about three months later it was told Judah, saying, Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the harlot; moreover, now she is pregnant by harlotry. And Judah said, Bring her out, and let her be burned.
Gn 38:25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, saying, I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong. And she said, Please note whose these are, the aseal and the cords and the staff.
Gn 38:26 And Judah took note of them and said, She is more righteous than I, because I did not give her to my son aShelah. And he did not know her again anymore.
Gn 38:27 And at the time of her delivery, there were twins in her womb.
Gn 38:28 And while she was giving birth, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, This one came out first.
Gn 38:29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother suddenly came out; and she said, What a breach you have made for yourself! Therefore his name was called 1aPerez.
Gn 38:30 And afterward his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand; and his name was called 1Zerah.
GENESIS 39

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

(2) Overcoming Lust and Shining in Darkness
39:1-12
Gn 39:1 Now Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, the acaptain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the bIshmaelites who had brought him down there.
Gn 39:2 And Jehovah was 1awith Joseph, and he became a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
Gn 39:3 And his master saw that Jehovah was with him and that Jehovah caused all that he did to aprosper in his hand.
Gn 39:4 And Joseph afound favor in his sight, and he ministered to him; and he made him overseer of his house and put all that he had in his 1bcharge.
Gn 39:5 And from the time he made him overseer in his house and put him over all that he had, Jehovah blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; and the ablessing of Jehovah was upon all that he had, in the house and in the field.
Gn 39:6 And he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and with him there, he was not concerned about anything except the food that he ate. And Joseph was handsome in form and handsome in appearance.
Gn 39:7 Now after these things his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, Lie with me.
Gn 39:8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, Behold, with me here, my master is not concerned about anything in the house, and he has put everything he has in my acharge.
Gn 39:9 There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great evil, and asin against God?
Gn 39:10 And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her.
Gn 39:11 And one such day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house were there in the house.
Gn 39:12 And she grabbed him by his garment, saying, Lie with me! But he left his garment in her hand, and 1afled and went outside.
f. Being Delivered into the Prison of Death
39:13 — 41:13
Gn 39:13 And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside,
Gn 39:14 She called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, See, he has brought in a Hebrew man to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I called out with a loud voice;
Gn 39:15 And when he heard that I lifted up my voice and called out, he left his garment beside me, and fled and went outside.
Gn 39:16 And she placed his garment beside her until his master came home.
Gn 39:17 And she spoke to him with these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought to us, came in to me to mock me.
Gn 39:18 And when I lifted up my voice and called out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.
Gn 39:19 And when his master heard the words of his wife that she had spoken to him, saying, This is the way your servant treated me; his anger burned.
Gn 39:20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the 1aprison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while he was there in the prison,
Gn 39:21 Jehovah was awith Joseph; and He extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
Gn 39:22 And the chief jailer put in Joseph’s acharge all the prisoners who were in the prison; and whatever was done there, he was the one to do it.
Gn 39:23 The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in his charge, because Jehovah was awith him; and whatever he did, Jehovah caused it to bprosper.
GENESIS 40

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

Gn 40:1 And after these things, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
Gn 40:2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief of the cupbearers and the chief of the bakers.
Gn 40:3 And he put them in custody at the house of the acaptain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was bconfined.
Gn 40:4 And the captain of the guard put Joseph in charge of them, and he ministered to them; and they were in custody for some time.
Gn 40:5 And the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, both of them had a dream, each man with his own dream in one night, and each dream with its own interpretation.
Gn 40:6 And Joseph came to them in the morning and looked at them, and they were troubled.
Gn 40:7 And he asked Pharaoh’s officials, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, saying, Why are your faces so sad today?
Gn 40:8 And they said to him, We have had a adream, and there is no one to interpret it. And Joseph said to them, 1Do not interpretations belong to bGod? Please tell it to me.
Gn 40:9 And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream there was a vine before me,
Gn 40:10 And on the vine were three branches. And as soon as it budded, its blossoms came out, and its clusters ripened into grapes.
Gn 40:11 And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.
Gn 40:12 And Joseph said to him, This is its ainterpretation: The three branches are three days.
Gn 40:13 Within three more days Pharaoh will alift up your head and restore you to your office, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer.
Gn 40:14 But remember my being with you when it is well with you, and please do me a kindness and make mention of me to Pharaoh and so have me brought out of this house.
Gn 40:15 For I was actually akidnapped out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have not done anything that they should put me into the bdungeon.
Gn 40:16 Now when the chief of the bakers saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, I also saw this in my dream: There were three baskets of white bread on my head.
Gn 40:17 And in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.
Gn 40:18 And Joseph answered and said, This is its ainterpretation: The three baskets are bthree days.
Gn 40:19 Within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will ahang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh from you.
Gn 40:20 And on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants; and he alifted up the head of the chief of the cupbearers and the head of the chief of the bakers among his servants.
Gn 40:21 And he arestored the chief of the cupbearers to his cupbearing, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand;
Gn 40:22 But the chief of the bakers he ahanged, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Gn 40:23 Yet the chief of the cupbearers did not aremember Joseph, but forgot him.
GENESIS 41

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • 

Gn 41:1 And at the end of 1two full years Pharaoh had a dream, and athere he was, standing by the 2River.
Gn 41:2 And there came up out of the River seven cows, fine-looking and fat-fleshed; and they grazed in the reed grass.
Gn 41:3 Then there came up after them seven other cows out of the River, ugly-looking and thin-fleshed; and they stood beside the other cows on the bank of the River.
Gn 41:4 And the ugly-looking and thin-fleshed cows ate up the seven fine-looking and fat cows. Then Pharaoh awoke.
Gn 41:5 And he slept and dreamed a second time. And there were seven ears of grain, coming up on one stalk, fat and good.
Gn 41:6 Then there were seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, that sprouted after them.
Gn 41:7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven fat and full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke, and it was a dream.
Gn 41:8 And in the morning his aspirit was troubled, so he sent and called for all the bmagicians of Egypt and all its wise men; and Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
Gn 41:9 Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my sins today.
Gn 41:10 Pharaoh was aangry with his servants, and he put me in custody at the house of the bcaptain of the guard, both me and the chief baker.
Gn 41:11 And we both had a adream in one night, I and he; each of us had a dream with its own interpretation.
Gn 41:12 And a young Hebrew man was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him our dreams, and he ainterpreted them for us; to each one he interpreted according to his dream.
Gn 41:13 And as he interpreted to us, so it happened; 1Pharaoh arestored me to my office, and he hanged the 2baker.
g. Being Resurrected from the Prison of Death
41:14-39
Gn 41:14 Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they brought him hastily aout of the 1dungeon; and he shaved himself and changed his garments, and he came to Pharaoh.
Gn 41:15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, but there is no one who can ainterpret it; and I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.
Gn 41:16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not of ame; bGod 1will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.
Gn 41:17 And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, In my dream, athere I was, standing on the bank of the River.
Gn 41:18 And there came up out of the River seven cows, fat-fleshed and fine-looking; and they grazed in the reed grass.
Gn 41:19 Then there came up after them seven other cows, poor and very ugly-looking and thin-fleshed; I had never seen such in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.
Gn 41:20 And the thin and ugly-looking cows ate up the first seven fat cows.
Gn 41:21 And when they had swallowed them, no one would have known that they had swallowed them, for they were still as ugly-looking as at the beginning. Then I awoke.
Gn 41:22 And I saw this in my dream: There were seven ears of grain, coming up on one stalk, full and good.
Gn 41:23 Then there were seven ears, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, that sprouted after them.
Gn 41:24 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the amagicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.
Gn 41:25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s dream is one dream; awhat God is about to do He has told Pharaoh.
Gn 41:26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dream is one.
Gn 41:27 And the seven thin and ugly-looking cows that came up after them are seven years, and so are the seven empty ears scorched by the east wind; they will be seven years of famine.
Gn 41:28 This matter is just as I have spoken to Pharaoh; awhat God is about to do He has shown to Pharaoh.
Gn 41:29 Seven years of great aabundance are now about to come throughout all the land of Egypt.
Gn 41:30 Then seven years of afamine will arise after them, and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will consume the land.
Gn 41:31 And the abundance will be unknown in the land because of that famine which follows, for it will be very severe.
Gn 41:32 And as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means that the matter is determined by God, and God will quickly bring it about.
Gn 41:33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out for a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.
Gn 41:34 Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers over the land and take a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance.
Gn 41:35 And let them agather all the food of these coming good years and lay up grain under Pharaoh’s authority for food in the cities, and let them keep it.
Gn 41:36 And let the food become a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that will be in the land of Egypt, so that the land does not perish in the famine.
Gn 41:37 And the word seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.
Gn 41:38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a man like this, in whom the aSpirit of God is?
Gn 41:39 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God let you know all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.
h. Being Enthroned with Authority and Receiving Glory and Gifts
41:40-44
Gn 41:40 You shall be 1aover my household, and according to your word all my people shall be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than you.
Gn 41:41 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you aover all the land of Egypt.
Gn 41:42 And Pharaoh took off his 1signet ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in 1garments of fine linen, and put a 1gold chain around his neck.
Gn 41:43 And he made him ride in the chariot of his second-in-command, and they cried out before him, Bow the knee! And he set him over all the land of Egypt.
Gn 41:44 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, yet without your consent no man will lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.
i. Becoming the Savior of the World, the Sustainer of Life (the Revealer of Secrets)
41:45-46
Gn 41:45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name 1Zaphenath-paneah, and he gave him 2Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
Gn 41:46 Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and passed through all the land of Egypt.
j. Supplying People with Food
41:47-57
Gn 41:47 And in the seven years of abundance the earth produced copiously.
Gn 41:48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which came upon the land of Egypt and put the food in the cities; he placed the food from the surrounding fields within each city.
Gn 41:49 And Joseph stored grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea until he stopped measuring it; for it was beyond measure.
Gn 41:50 And before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.
Gn 41:51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn 1aManasseh, for, he said, God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house.
Gn 41:52 And he called the name of the second 1Ephraim, for, he said, God has made me afruitful in the land of my affliction.
Gn 41:53 And the seven years of abundance that came upon the land of Egypt came to an end.
Gn 41:54 And the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. And there was afamine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
Gn 41:55 So when aall the land of Egypt became hungry, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, you shall do.
Gn 41:56 And when the famine was over 1all the face of the earth, Joseph opened 2all the storehouses of grain and asold grain to the Egyptians; and the famine became severe in the land of Egypt.
Gn 41:57 And all the earth came to Joseph in Egypt to abuy grain, because the bfamine was severe in all the earth.
GENESIS 42

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • 

(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(4. Being Matured — cont’d)
(a. The Process of Maturity — cont’d)
(2) Being Stricken with Famine and Forced to Send His Sons to Egypt to Buy Grain
42:1-5
Gn 42:1 Now when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you keep looking at one another?
Gn 42:2 And he said, I have now heard that there is grain in Egypt; 1ago down there, and buy grain for us from there, that we may live and not bdie.
Gn 42:3 So Joseph’s ten 1brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
Gn 42:4 But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother aBenjamin with his brothers, for he said, Perhaps bharm may befall him.
Gn 42:5 And the sons of Israel came to buy grain among the others who came, for the afamine was in the land of Canaan.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(5. The Reigning Aspect as Seen in Joseph — cont’d)
k. Being Recognized by the Children of Israel
42:6-28; 43:15 — 45:24
(1) Being Wise in Dealing with His Brothers and Showing Them Love
42:6-28
Gn 42:6 Now Joseph was the governor aover the land; it was he who sold grain to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bbowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
Gn 42:7 And Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he disguised himself to them and spoke aharshly with them. And he said to them, Where have you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.
Gn 42:8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
Gn 42:9 And Joseph remembered the adreams that he had dreamed about them, and he 1said to them, You are bspies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.
Gn 42:10 And they said to him, No, my lord; rather your servants have come to buy grain for food.
Gn 42:11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men; your servants have never been spies.
Gn 42:12 And he said to them, No; but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.
Gn 42:13 And they said, We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and at this moment the youngest is with our father today, and one is ano more.
Gn 42:14 But Joseph said to them, It is just as I spoke to you, saying, You are spies.
Gn 42:15 By this you shall be tested: As Pharaoh lives, you shall not go away from this place unless your ayoungest brother comes here.
Gn 42:16 Send one of you to get your brother while you remain bound, that your words may be tested whether there is truth in you. And if not, as Pharaoh lives, surely you are spies.
Gn 42:17 And he put them all together in 1custody three days.
Gn 42:18 And Joseph said to them on the third day, Do this and live, for I fear God.
Gn 42:19 If you are ahonest men, let one of your brothers remain bound in your place of custody; and the rest of you go, carry grain for the famine of your households.
Gn 42:20 And bring your youngest brother to me, that your words may be verified; and you will not die. And they did so.
Gn 42:21 And they said one to another, We are indeed aguilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come to us.
Gn 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not asin against the child? But you would not listen. So now also his bblood is required.
Gn 42:23 And they did not know that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them.
Gn 42:24 And he turned away from them and awept. Then he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took 1Simeon from among them and bound him before their eyes.
Gn 42:25 Then Joseph gave orders to afill their bags with grain and to restore every man’s silver pieces to his sack and to give them provisions for the way. And thus was it done for them.
Gn 42:26 And they loaded their grain upon their donkeys and departed from there.
Gn 42:27 And one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, and he saw his silver; there it was in the mouth of his asack.
Gn 42:28 And he said to his brothers, My silver has been returned; and here it is in my sack! And their heart stopped, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, What is this that God has done to us?
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(4. Being Matured — cont’d)
(a. The Process of Maturity — cont’d)
(3) Having His Second Son, Simeon, Detained in Egypt
42:29-38
Gn 42:29 And they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying,
Gn 42:30 The man, the lord of the land, spoke aharshly to us and took us for spies on the land.
Gn 42:31 But we said to him, We are honest men; we have never been aspies.
Gn 42:32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; the one is ano more, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.
Gn 42:33 And the man, the lord of the land, said to us, By this will I know that you are ahonest men: Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go.
Gn 42:34 And bring your ayoungest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies but honest men. I will give you your brother, and you may btrade in the land.
Gn 42:35 And when they emptied their sacks, there was each man’s bundle of silver pieces, in his asack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of silver, they were afraid.
Gn 42:36 And Jacob their father said to them, You have abereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin; all these things are against me.
Gn 42:37 And Reuben spoke to his father, saying, You may put to death my two sons if I do not bring him to you. Put him in my hand, and I will return him to you.
Gn 42:38 But he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. And if aharm should befall him on the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs in bsorrow to Sheol.
GENESIS 43

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

(4) Being Stricken with Severe Famine and Sending His Youngest Son, Benjamin
43:1-14
Gn 43:1 Now the afamine was severe in the land.
Gn 43:2 And when they had completely consumed the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, aGo back; buy us a little food.
Gn 43:3 But Judah spoke to him, saying, The man solemnly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face unless your abrother is with you.
Gn 43:4 If you are willing to send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you grain for food;
Gn 43:5 But if you are not willing to send him, we will not go down; for the man said to us, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
Gn 43:6 And Israel said, Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?
Gn 43:7 And they said, The man asked very carefully about us and about our relatives, saying, Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? So we told him about these things. Could we possibly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?
Gn 43:8 And Judah said to Israel his father, Send the boy with me, and we will rise up and go, that we may live and not adie, we and you and our little ones.
Gn 43:9 I myself will be surety for him; of my hand you may require him. If I do not abring him to you and set him before you, then I shall bear the blame of sinning before you forever.
Gn 43:10 For if we had not delayed, by now we could have returned twice.
Gn 43:11 And their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man — a little balm and a little honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.
Gn 43:12 And take double the silver in your hand, and carry back in your hand the silver that was returned in the mouth of your asacks; perhaps it was a mistake.
Gn 43:13 Take your brother also, and rise up; return to the man.
Gn 43:14 And may the 1aAll-sufficient God grant you 2mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am to be bbereaved of my children, I shall be bereaved.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(5. The Reigning Aspect as Seen in Joseph — cont’d)
(k. Being Recognized — cont’d)
(2) Testing His Brothers Further
43:15 — 44:34
Gn 43:15 So the men took this present, and they took double the silver in their hand and Benjamin; and they rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
Gn 43:16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to him who was over his house, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an 1animal, and prepare it; for the men will eat with me at noon.
Gn 43:17 And the man did as Joseph said, and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house.
Gn 43:18 And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, It is because of the silver that was returned in our sacks the first time, that we are being brought in, that he may come out against us and fall upon us and take us as slaves with our donkeys.
Gn 43:19 And they came near to the man who was over Joseph’s house and spoke to him at the door of the house,
Gn 43:20 And said, Please, my lord, we indeed came down the first time to abuy grain for food;
Gn 43:21 And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks, and there was each man’s silver, in the mouth of his asack, our silver in full weight. So we have brought it back in our hand.
Gn 43:22 And we have also brought down extra silver in our hand to buy grain for food. We do not know who put our silver in our sacks.
Gn 43:23 And he said, Be at peace; do not fear. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks; your silver came to me. Then he brought Simeon out to them.
Gn 43:24 And the man brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed their afeet; and he gave their donkeys fodder.
Gn 43:25 And they prepared the apresent for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they had heard that they would eat a meal there.
Gn 43:26 And when Joseph came into the house, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house and abowed down to the ground to him.
Gn 43:27 And he asked them about their welfare and said, Is your afather well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?
Gn 43:28 And they said, Your servant our father is well; he is still alive. And they bowed and paid him homage.
Gn 43:29 And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother aBenjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to you, my son.
Gn 43:30 And Joseph hurried — for his ainward parts burned for his brother — and sought a place to bweep. So he entered into his chamber and wept there.
Gn 43:31 Then he washed his face and came out, and he controlled himself and said, Serve the meal.
Gn 43:32 And they served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat a meal with the Hebrews, for that is an aabomination to the Egyptians.
Gn 43:33 And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth, and the men looked at one another in astonishment.
Gn 43:34 And he had portions brought to them from before him; however Benjamin’s portion was afive times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.
GENESIS 44

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

Gn 44:1 And he commanded him who was over his house, saying, aFill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack.
Gn 44:2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his silver for the grain. And he did so, according to the word that Joseph had spoken.
Gn 44:3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.
Gn 44:4 When they had just gone out of the city and were not yet far off, Joseph said to ahim who was over his house, Rise up, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you repaid evil for good?
Gn 44:5 Is not this that from which my lord drinks, and which he indeed uses for divining? You have done wrong in so doing.
Gn 44:6 And he overtook them and spoke these words to them.
Gn 44:7 And they said to him, Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.
Gn 44:8 See how we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver which we found in the mouth of our asacks. How then could we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house?
Gn 44:9 With awhomever of your servants it is found, let him die; and we ourselves will become my lord’s slaves.
Gn 44:10 And he said, Now also let it be according to your words: He with whom it is found will be my slave, and the rest of you will be blameless.
Gn 44:11 Then each man hurried and lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.
Gn 44:12 And he searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
Gn 44:13 Then they tore their garments, and each man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.
Gn 44:14 And aJudah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they bfell to the ground before him.
Gn 44:15 And Joseph said to them, What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed divine?
Gn 44:16 And Judah said, What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the ainiquity of your servants. Here we are, my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose hand the cup has been found.
Gn 44:17 But he said, Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose hand the cup has been afound, he will be my slave; but as for the rest of you, go up in peace to your father.
Gn 44:18 Then Judah came near to him and said, Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.
Gn 44:19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Do you have a father or a brother?
Gn 44:20 And we said to my lord, We have an old father and a young child of his aold age; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.
Gn 44:21 And you said to your servants, aBring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.
Gn 44:22 And we said to my lord, The boy cannot leave his father; for if he should leave his father, his father would adie.
Gn 44:23 And you said to your servants, Unless your ayoungest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.
Gn 44:24 And when we went up to your servant my father, we told him my lord’s words.
Gn 44:25 And our father said, Return, abuy us a little food.
Gn 44:26 But we said, We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.
Gn 44:27 And your servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bore me two asons;
Gn 44:28 And the one went away from me, and I said, Surely he has been atorn to pieces; and I have not seen him to this day.
Gn 44:29 And if you take this one also from me and harm befalls him, you will bring down my gray hairs in misery to aSheol.
Gn 44:30 Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, his life being bound up in the boy’s life,
Gn 44:31 When he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father in sorrow to Sheol.
Gn 44:32 For your servant became asurety for the lad to my father, saying, If I do not bring him to you, then I shall bear the blame of sinning before my father forever.
Gn 44:33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers.
Gn 44:34 For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would come on my father.
GENESIS 45

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

(3) Revealing His Exaltation and Glory to His Repentant Brothers
45:1-15
Gn 45:1 Then 1Joseph could not acontrol himself before all those who attended him; and he cried out, Have everyone go out from me. So there was no one standing with him when Joseph made himself bknown to his brothers.
Gn 45:2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
Gn 45:3 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph! Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, so troubled were they at his presence.
Gn 45:4 And Joseph said to his brothers, Please come closer to me. And they came closer. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you asold into Egypt.
Gn 45:5 And now do not be 1grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God asent me before you to bpreserve life.
Gn 45:6 For the famine has been in the midst of the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
Gn 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a 1remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.
Gn 45:8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler aover all the land of Egypt.
Gn 45:9 Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; acome down to me; do not delay.
Gn 45:10 And you shall dwell in the land of Goshen and be near to me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.
Gn 45:11 And there I will asustain you — for there are still five years of famine to come — so that you and your household and all that you have do not become impoverished.
Gn 45:12 And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my own mouth that speaks to you.
Gn 45:13 And you must tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen, and you must hurry and bring my father down here.
Gn 45:14 And he afell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin bwept upon his neck.
Gn 45:15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them, and after that his brothers talked with him.
(4) His Brothers Participating in the Enjoyment of His Reign
45:16-24
Gn 45:16 And when the report was heard in aPharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brothers have come, it was pleasing to Pharaoh and to his servants.
Gn 45:17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this: Load your beasts, and depart; go to the land of Canaan;
Gn 45:18 And take your father and your households, and come to me. And I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the afat of the land.
Gn 45:19 And you are commanded, Do this: Take awagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives; and bring your father, and come.
Gn 45:20 And do not be concerned for your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.
Gn 45:21 And the sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the way.
Gn 45:22 To each of them he gave changes of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and afive changes of garments.
Gn 45:23 And he sent to his father the following: ten donkeys loaded with the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, and bread and provision for his father on the way.
Gn 45:24 So he sent his brothers away; and as they departed, he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(4. Being Matured — cont’d)
b. The Manifestation of Maturity
45:25 — 47:10; 47:28 — 50:13
(1) Assigning No Blame at Hearing That Joseph Was Still Alive
45:25-28
Gn 45:25 So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father.
Gn 45:26 And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler aover all the land of Egypt. And his heart grew 1numb, for he did not believe them.
Gn 45:27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them; and when he saw the awagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the bspirit of Jacob their father revived.
Gn 45:28 And Israel said, 1It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.
GENESIS 46

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

(2) Offering Sacrifices to God at Beer-sheba
46:1-4
Gn 46:1 So Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba and 1offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
Gn 46:2 And God spoke to Israel in the avisions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here I am.
Gn 46:3 And He said, I am 1God, the God of your afather; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a bgreat nation there.
Gn 46:4 I Myself will ago down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph’s hand will close your eyes.
(3) Meeting Joseph Again
46:5-34
Gn 46:5 And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father and their little ones and their wives in the awagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Gn 46:6 And they took their livestock and their possessions, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and aJacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt.
Gn 46:7 His sons and his grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters, and all his offspring he brought with him to Egypt.
Gn 46:8 And these are the anames of the children of Israel, who came to Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Jacob’s firstborn, Reuben.
Gn 46:9 And the sons of aReuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi.
Gn 46:10 And the sons of aSimeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
Gn 46:11 And the sons of aLevi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
Gn 46:12 And the sons of aJudah: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
Gn 46:13 And the sons of aIssachar: Tola and Puvah and Iob and Shimron.
Gn 46:14 And the sons of aZebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel.
Gn 46:15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, along with his daughter aDinah. His sons and his daughters were thirty-three 1persons in all.
Gn 46:16 And the sons of aGad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi and Areli.
Gn 46:17 And the sons of aAsher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah, and Serah their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.
Gn 46:18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and she bore these to Jacob, sixteen persons.
Gn 46:19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin.
Gn 46:20 And to aJoseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath the daughter of Potiphera priest of On bore to him.
Gn 46:21 And the sons of aBenjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard.
Gn 46:22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob, fourteen persons in all.
Gn 46:23 And the sons of aDan: Hushim.
Gn 46:24 And the sons of aNaphtali: Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and Shillem.
Gn 46:25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob, seven persons in all.
Gn 46:26 All the persons who came with Jacob into Egypt, who came out of his loins, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons, were sixty-six persons in all.
Gn 46:27 And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were aseventy.
Gn 46:28 And he sent Judah before him to Joseph to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came to the land of Goshen.
Gn 46:29 And Joseph made his chariot ready and went up to Goshen to meet Israel his father. And when he appeared before him, he fell on his aneck and wept on his neck a good while.
Gn 46:30 And Israel said to Joseph, Let me die now since I have aseen your face and know that you are still alive.
Gn 46:31 And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, I will go up and atell Pharaoh, and will say to him, My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.
Gn 46:32 And the men are ashepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.
Gn 46:33 And when Pharaoh calls you and says, What is your occupation?
Gn 46:34 You shall say, Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers; that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an aabomination to the Egyptians.
GENESIS 47

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

(4) Blessing People All the Time
47:1-10; 47:28 — 49:28
(a) Blessing Pharaoh
47:1-10
Gn 47:1 Then Joseph went in and atold Pharaoh and said, My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and now they are in the land of Goshen.
Gn 47:2 And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.
Gn 47:3 And Pharaoh said to his brothers, aWhat is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are bshepherds, both we and our fathers.
Gn 47:4 And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to asojourn in the land because there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.
Gn 47:5 And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Your father and your brothers have come to you.
Gn 47:6 The land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the abest of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any capable men among them, make them overseers over my livestock.
Gn 47:7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob 1ablessed Pharaoh.
Gn 47:8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the 1years of your life?
Gn 47:9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The years of my asojourning are one hundred thirty years; bfew and evil have been the cyears of my life, and they have not attained to the years of the lives of my fathers during the days of their sojourning.
Gn 47:10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went forth from Pharaoh’s presence.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(5. The Reigning Aspect as Seen in Joseph — cont’d)
l. Reigning
47:11-27; 50:14-26
Gn 47:11 And Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
Gn 47:12 And Joseph asustained his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food according to the number of their little ones.
Gn 47:13 And there was no food in all the land, for the famine was so very severe that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
Gn 47:14 And Joseph 1collected all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they abought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.
Gn 47:15 And when the money from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan had been spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph saying, Give us food, for why should we die in your presence? For our money is gone.
Gn 47:16 And Joseph said, Bring your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.
Gn 47:17 And they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses and for the flocks of sheep and for the herds of cattle and for the donkeys; and he 1fed them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.
Gn 47:18 And when that year had ended, they came to him the second year and said to him, We cannot hide from my lord that our money has been spent, and the herds of cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord except our bodies and our lands.
Gn 47:19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we and our land will become servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.
Gn 47:20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s.
Gn 47:21 And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end.
Gn 47:22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an assigned portion from Pharaoh, and they lived off their portion which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.
Gn 47:23 Then Joseph said to the people, Now that I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed for you that you may sow the land.
Gn 47:24 And when harvest comes, you shall give a afifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own as seed of the field and as food for you and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.
Gn 47:25 And they said, You have saved our lives. May we find favor in the sight of my lord and be Pharaoh’s servants.
Gn 47:26 And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt that stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; aonly the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh’s.
Gn 47:27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of aGoshen; and they acquired possessions in it and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(4. Being Matured — cont’d)
(b. The Manifestation of Maturity — cont’d)
((4) Blessing People All the Time — cont’d)
(b) Blessing Joseph’s Sons
47:28 — 48:22
Gn 47:28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. Thus the days of Jacob, the ayears of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years.
Gn 47:29 And the time for Israel to die drew near. And he called his son Joseph and said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my 1athigh and deal with me in kindness and truth. Please do not bury me in Egypt;
Gn 47:30 But when I 1lie down with my afathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burial place. And he said, I will do as you have said.
Gn 47:31 And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. Then Israel abowed himself 1at the head of his bbed.
GENESIS 48

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Gn 48:1 Now after these things Joseph was told, Your father is sick. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Gn 48:2 And someone told Jacob and said, Your son Joseph is coming to you. So Israel strengthened himself and sat up on his bed.
Gn 48:3 And Jacob said to Joseph, The 1aAll-sufficient God appeared to me at bLuz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
Gn 48:4 And He said to me, Behold, I am going to make you afruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will bgive this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.
Gn 48:5 And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are 1mine; aEphraim and Manasseh will be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
Gn 48:6 And your offspring whom you beget after them will be yours; they will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
Gn 48:7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel adied 1to my sorrow in the land of Canaan on the way, while there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
Gn 48:8 And when Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, Who are these?
Gn 48:9 And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has agiven to me here. And he said, Bring them to me, please, that I may bbless them.
Gn 48:10 Now the eyes of Israel were adim with age, and he could not see. So 1Joseph brought them near to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
Gn 48:11 And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face, and now God has let me see your seed also.
Gn 48:12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees and bowed himself with his face to the ground.
Gn 48:13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near to him.
Gn 48:14 But aIsrael stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim’s head — although he was the younger — and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, 1guiding his hands with insight, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
Gn 48:15 And he blessed Joseph and said, / The 1God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, / The God who has ashepherded me 2all my life to this day,
Gn 48:16 The aAngel who has bredeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; / And may my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; / And may they be a teeming cmultitude in the midst of the earth.
Gn 48:17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his aright hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head onto Manasseh’s head.
Gn 48:18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand upon his head.
Gn 48:19 But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a 1amultitude of nations.
Gn 48:20 And he blessed them that day, saying,
By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, / God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.
Thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Gn 48:21 And Israel said to Joseph, Now I am about to die, but God will be awith you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.
Gn 48:22 Moreover I have agiven to you one 1portion more than your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
GENESIS 49

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

(c) Blessing His Own Sons
49:1-28
Gn 49:1 And Jacob called to his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may 1tell you what will happen to you in the alast days.
Gn 49:2 aAssemble yourselves, and listen, O sons of Jacob; / Yes, listen to Israel your father.
Gn 49:3 aReuben, you are my firstborn, / My might and the bfirstfruits of my vigor, / Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
Gn 49:4 Ebullient as water, you will 1not have the preeminence, / Because you went up to your father’s abed; / Then you defiled it — he went up to my couch.
Gn 49:5 1aSimeon and Levi are brothers; / Weapons of violence are their swords.
Gn 49:6 Come not into their council, O my soul; / Be not united with their assembly, O my aglory; / For in their anger they slew men, / And in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
Gn 49:7 1Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; / And their wrath, for it is cruel: / I will adivide them in Jacob, / And scatter them in Israel.
Gn 49:8 1aJudah, your brothers will praise you; / Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; / Your father’s bsons will bow down before you.
Gn 49:9 Judah is a ayoung 1blion; / From the prey, my son, you have gone 2up. / He 2couches, he stretches out like a lion, / And like a 3lioness; 4who will rouse him up?
Gn 49:10 The 1ascepter will not depart from Judah, / Nor the ruler’s staff from 2between his feet, / Until 3Shiloh bcomes, / And to Him shall be the obedience of the 4peoples.
Gn 49:11 Binding his 1foal to the vine, / And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, / He washes his 2garment in wine, / And his robe in the blood of grapes.
Gn 49:12 1Dark are his eyes with wine, / And white are his teeth with milk.
Gn 49:13 aZebulun will dwell at the shore of the sea, / And he will be a shore for 1ships, / And his flank will be toward 2bSidon.
Gn 49:14 aIssachar is a strong donkey, / 1Couching between the bsheepfolds.
Gn 49:15 And he saw a resting place that was good / And the 1land that was pleasant, / And he bowed his shoulder to bear, / And became a 2task-worker to bring 3tribute.
Gn 49:16 aDan will judge his people, / As one of the 1tribes of Israel.
Gn 49:17 Dan will be a 1serpent in the way, / A viper on the path, / That bites the horse’s heels, / So that his rider falls backward.
Gn 49:18 I have awaited for Your 1bsalvation, O Jehovah.
Gn 49:19 aGad, raiders will raid him, / But he will raid at 1their heel.
Gn 49:20 1aAsher’s food will be 2rich, / And he will yield royal dainties.
Gn 49:21 aNaphtali is a 1hind let loose; / He gives beautiful words.
Gn 49:22 aJoseph is a fruitful 1bough, / A fruitful bough by a fountain; / His branches run over the wall.
Gn 49:23 The archers bitterly attacked him, / And shot at him and harassed him;
Gn 49:24 But his bow remained firm, / And the arms of his hands were 1agile, / By the hands of the aMighty One of Jacob — / From there is the bShepherd, the cstone of Israel —
Gn 49:25 From the aGod of your father, who will help you, / And from the 1bAll-sufficient One, who will 2bless you / With cblessings of heaven above, / Blessings of the deep that lies beneath, / Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
Gn 49:26 The blessings of your father surpass / The blessings of my ancestors / To the utmost bound of the aeverlasting hills. / They will be on the head of Joseph, / And on the crown of the bhead of the one who was 1separate from his brothers.
Gn 49:27 aBenjamin is a 1ravenous wolf, / In the morning devouring the prey / And in the evening dividing the 2spoil.
Gn 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them when he blessed them; he blessed them, each one according to his blessing.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(4. Being Matured — cont’d)
(b. The Manifestation of Maturity — cont’d)
(5) Departing in an Excellent Way
49:29 — 50:13
Gn 49:29 And he charged them and said to them, I am being gathered to my people. 1Bury me with amy fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
Gn 49:30 In the cave that is in the field of aMachpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for the possession of a burial place —
Gn 49:31 There they aburied Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they bburied Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah —
Gn 49:32 The field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the children of Heth.
Gn 49:33 And when Jacob had finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and aexpired, and he was gathered to his people.
GENESIS 50

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

Gn 50:1 Then aJoseph fell upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.
Gn 50:2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.
Gn 50:3 And forty days were spent for this, for this is the time to be spent for embalming. And the Egyptians awept for him seventy days.
Gn 50:4 And when the days of weeping for him had passed, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, If I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,
Gn 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, Now I am about to die; in my agrave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me. Now therefore please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.
Gn 50:6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.
Gn 50:7 And Joseph went up to bury his father; and all the servants of Pharaoh went up with him, the elders of his house and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
Gn 50:8 And all the house of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.
Gn 50:9 And chariots also went up with him, as well as horsemen; and it was a very great company.
Gn 50:10 And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation; and he observed seven days of amourning for his father.
Gn 50:11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians. Therefore the name of it was called 1Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.
Gn 50:12 And thus his sons did to him as he commanded them;
Gn 50:13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of aMachpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bbought with the field for a possession of a burial place from Ephron the Hittite.
(C. The Experience of Jacob — cont’d)
(5. The Reigning Aspect as Seen in Joseph — cont’d)
l. Reigning (cont’d)
50:14-26
Gn 50:14 And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.
Gn 50:15 And when Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the evil which we did to him?
Gn 50:16 And they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father charged before he died, saying,
Gn 50:17 Thus shall you say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong. So now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the aGod of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Gn 50:18 And his brothers also went and afell down before him and said, We are here as your servants.
Gn 50:19 And Joseph said to them, 1Do not be afraid, for aam I in the place of God?
Gn 50:20 Even though you intended evil against me, God intended it for good, to do as it is this day, to apreserve alive a numerous people.
Gn 50:21 Now therefore do not be afraid; I will asustain you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spoke 1kindly to them.
Gn 50:22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household; and Joseph lived one hundred ten years.
Gn 50:23 And Joseph saw Ephraim’s achildren of the third generation; the children of bMachir the son of Manasseh were also born on Joseph’s knees.
Gn 50:24 And aJoseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up out of this land to the bland which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Gn 50:25 And Joseph made the children of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall 1bring my abones up from here.
Gn 50:26 And Joseph 1adied, being one hundred ten years old; and they bembalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
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EXODUS

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 
Outline

Author: Moses (Mark 12:26 and Luke 20:37, quoting Exo. 3:6; Mark 7:10, quoting Exo. 20:12), the author of the five books of the Law (Deut. 31:9, 24; Luke 24:27, 44; John 1:45; 5:46; Acts 28:23; 2 Cor. 3:15).
Time of Writing: Approximately 1490 B.C. (cf. 1 Kings 6:1) in the second year after the exodus, after the tabernacle was erected (40:17).
Place of Writing: In the wilderness and at Mount Sinai (19:1-2; 34:27-29).
Time Period Covered: From approximately 1706 B.C., when Jacob came to Egypt (1:1), until one year after the exodus from Egypt (40:17) in 1490 B.C. Most of the book covers a period of about one year (12:2; 19:1; 40:17).
Subject:
Christ Is the Redemption, Salvation, and Supply of God’s People and the Means for Them to Worship and Serve God So That in Him They May Be Built Up with God Together for Them and God to Meet, Communicate, and Dwell Mutually
EXODUS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

I. Enslaved
1:1-22
Ex 1:1 1Now these are the anames of the sons of Israel who came to 2Egypt with Jacob; each man came with his household:
Ex 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Ex 1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Ex 1:4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Ex 1:5 And all the 1persons who came forth from the loins of Jacob were aseventy 1persons, but Joseph was already in Egypt.
Ex 1:6 And Joseph 1adied, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
Ex 1:7 But the children of Israel were afruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was filled with them.
Ex 1:8 And a anew king rose up over Egypt, who did not know of Joseph.
Ex 1:9 And he said to his people, The people of the children of Israel are now more numerous and astronger than we.
Ex 1:10 Come, let us deal awisely with them, lest they multiply and, when some war occurs, they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.
Ex 1:11 So they set taskmasters over them to aafflict them with their bburdens. And they built storage cities for Pharaoh, 1Pithom and 1cRaamses.
Ex 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they amultiplied and the more they spread out so that they came to dread the children of Israel.
Ex 1:13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with harshness,
Ex 1:14 And they made their lives bitter with ahard labor in 1mortar and in 1brick and in all kinds of labor in the field; all their labor with which they made them serve was with harshness.
Ex 1:15 And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one whose name was Shiphrah and the other whose name was Puah;
Ex 1:16 And he said, aWhen you act as midwives for the Hebrew women and see them on the 1birthstool, if it is a 2son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a 2daughter, then she shall live.
Ex 1:17 But the midwives 1feared God and adid not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them but let the male children live.
Ex 1:18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this thing and let the male children live?
Ex 1:19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous: before the midwife comes to them, they give birth.
Ex 1:20 And God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong.
Ex 1:21 And because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.
Ex 1:22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every ason who is born1 you shall cast into the 2River, but every daughter you shall let live.
EXODUS 2

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II. Redeemed and Saved
2:1 — 15:21
A. Preparation of the Savior
2:1-25
Ex 2:1 And a man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as awife.
Ex 2:2 And the woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine child, she 1hid him athree months.
Ex 2:3 And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him a papyrus basket and plastered it with tar and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the River.
Ex 2:4 And his asister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
Ex 2:5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the River while her maidens walked alongside the River. And she saw the basket in the midst of the reeds and sent her female servant, and she brought it to her.
Ex 2:6 And she opened it and saw the child, and there was the boy, crying. And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
Ex 2:7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women for you that she may nurse the child for you?
Ex 2:8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child’s mother.
Ex 2:9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and anursed him.
Ex 2:10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her ason. And she called his name 1Moses and said, Because I drew him out of the water.
Ex 2:11 aAnd in those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and looked on their bburdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
Ex 2:12 And he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no one there, he struck the Egyptian down and hid him in the sand.
Ex 2:13 And he went out the next day, and there were two Hebrew men struggling together; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, Why are you beating your companion?
Ex 2:14 And he said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you thinking to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses became 1frightened and said, Surely the matter is known.
Ex 2:15 Now when Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses afled from Pharaoh to dwell in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
Ex 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
Ex 2:17 And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses rose up and helped them and watered their flock.
Ex 2:18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, Why have you come back so quickly today?
Ex 2:19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and he even drew water for us as well and watered the flock.
Ex 2:20 And he said to his daughters, And where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to eat a meal.
Ex 2:21 And Moses agreed to 1stay with the man, and he gave Moses aZipporah his daughter.
Ex 2:22 And she bore a son, and he called his name 1aGershom, for he said, I have been a bsojourner in a foreign land.
Ex 2:23 And in the course of those many days the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned because of the abondage. And they cried out, and their bcry went up to God because of their bondage.
Ex 2:24 And God aheard their groaning, and God bremembered His ccovenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Ex 2:25 And God alooked upon the children of Israel, and God took notice of them.
EXODUS 3

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B. God’s Calling of the Prepared One
3:1-22
Ex 3:1 Now 1Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness and came to the amountain of God, to Horeb.
Ex 3:2 aAnd the 1bAngel of Jehovah appeared to him in a 2flame of fire out of the midst of a 2cthornbush. And when he looked, there was the thornbush, burning with fire; but the thornbush was not consumed.
Ex 3:3 And Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this great sight, why the thornbush does not burn up.
Ex 3:4 And when Jehovah saw that he had turned aside to look, God acalled to him out of the midst of the bthornbush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.
Ex 3:5 And He said, Do not come near here. Remove your asandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is bholy ground.
Ex 3:6 And He said, I am the God of your father, the 1aGod of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Ex 3:7 And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the aaffliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their btaskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
Ex 3:8 And I have acome down to 1bdeliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to 1cbring them up out of that land to a dgood and spacious land, to a land flowing with 2emilk and honey, to the place of the fCanaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Ex 3:9 And now the acry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the boppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
Ex 3:10 So come now, and I will asend you to Pharaoh, that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
Ex 3:11 But Moses said to God, 1aWho am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
Ex 3:12 And He said, Surely I will be awith you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God upon this 1mountain.
Ex 3:13 Then Moses said to God, If I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? what shall I say to them?
Ex 3:14 And God said to Moses, 1aI AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, bI AM has sent me to you.
Ex 3:15 And God also said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 1Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of aAbraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My bname forever, and this is My cmemorial from generation to generation.
Ex 3:16 Go, and gather the aelders of Israel together, and say to them, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the bGod of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, I have surely cvisited you and seen what is being done to you in Egypt.
Ex 3:17 And I say, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the aCanaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with bmilk and honey.
Ex 3:18 And they will listen to your voice. And you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, aJehovah, the God of the 1Hebrews, has met with us; and now let us go a 2three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may bsacrifice to Jehovah our God.
Ex 3:19 But I know that the king of Egypt will anot let you go unless compelled by a bmighty hand.
Ex 3:20 So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My awonders which I will perform in the midst of it, and after that he will blet you go.
Ex 3:21 And I will give this people afavor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.
Ex 3:22 But every woman will ask of her neighbor and of any woman living in her house for articles of silver and aarticles of gold and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and on your daughters, and thus 1bplunder the Egyptians.
EXODUS 4

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C. Three Subjective Signs of Being Called and Sent by God
4:1-9
Ex 4:1 Then Moses answered and said, What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice, but say, Jehovah has not appeared to you?
Ex 4:2 And Jehovah said to him, What is this in your hand? And he said, A astaff.
Ex 4:3 And He said, Throw it on the ground. And he threw it on the ground, and it became a 1serpent; and Moses recoiled from it.
Ex 4:4 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand, and take it by its tail — so he stretched out his hand and seized it, and it became a staff in his hand —
Ex 4:5 That they may abelieve that Jehovah, the God of their fathers, the bGod of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has cappeared to you.
Ex 4:6 And Jehovah further said to him, Now put your hand into your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, there his hand was, aleprous, as white as snow.
Ex 4:7 And He said, Put your hand into your bosom again — so he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, there it was, restored like the rest of his aflesh —
Ex 4:8 And if they do not believe you or 1heed the first sign, then they may 2believe the next sign.
Ex 4:9 And if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then you shall take some of the water of the River and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you take out of the River will become ablood upon the dry ground.
D. The Male Help and the Female Help to the Called One
4:10-31
Ex 4:10 And Moses said to Jehovah, Please, Lord, I am not a man of words, neither in the past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am 1aslow of speech and slow of tongue.
Ex 4:11 And Jehovah said to him, Who gave man a amouth? Or who makes him adumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Jehovah?
Ex 4:12 Now go therefore, and I will be with your amouth and will bteach you what you shall speak.
Ex 4:13 And he said, Please, Lord, send word by sending someone else.
Ex 4:14 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Moses, and He said, Is there not 1Aaron your brother the Levite? I know that he can certainly speak. And even now he is coming out to ameet you; and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
Ex 4:15 And you shall aspeak to him and bput the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.
Ex 4:16 And he shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be as aGod to him.
Ex 4:17 And you shall take in your hand this astaff, with which you shall perform the signs.
Ex 4:18 And Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law. And he said to him, Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt and see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
Ex 4:19 And Jehovah said to Moses in Midian, Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who were aseeking your life have died.
Ex 4:20 So Moses took his wife and his asons, and mounted them upon a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bstaff of God in his hand.
Ex 4:21 And Jehovah said to Moses, When you go to return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the awonders which I have put in your power; but I will bharden his heart, and he will cnot let the people go.
Ex 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says Jehovah, Israel is My ason, My 1bfirstborn.
Ex 4:23 And I said to you, Let My son go that he may aserve Me; but you have refused to let him go. I will now bslay your son, your cfirstborn.
Ex 4:24 And at the lodging place on the way, Jehovah came upon him and sought to put him to death.
Ex 4:25 Then aZipporah took a flint and 1cut off her son’s foreskin and cast it at Moses’ feet, and she said, You are indeed a 2bridegroom of blood to me!
Ex 4:26 So He let him alone. It was then that she said, A bridegroom of blood, because of the circumcision.
Ex 4:27 And Jehovah said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to ameet Moses. And he went and came upon him at the bmountain of God, and he kissed him.
Ex 4:28 And Moses told Aaron all the awords of Jehovah with which He had sent him and all the signs with which He had charged him.
Ex 4:29 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the aelders of the children of Israel.
Ex 4:30 And Aaron spoke all the words which Jehovah had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs in the sight of the people.
Ex 4:31 And the people abelieved; and when they heard that Jehovah had bvisited the children of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, they cbowed and worshipped.
EXODUS 5

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E. God’s Demand and Pharaoh’s Resistance
5:1 — 13:22
1. The First Conflict between Jehovah and Pharaoh for the Release of Israel
5:1-23
Ex 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to 1Pharaoh, Thus says 2Jehovah the God of Israel, aLet My people go that they may hold a 3bfeast to Me in the wilderness.
Ex 5:2 But Pharaoh said, 1Who is Jehovah that I should listen to His voice to let Israel go? I do not know Jehovah, and I also will anot let Israel go.
Ex 5:3 And they said, The aGod of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a 1three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may bsacrifice to Jehovah our God; otherwise He will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.
Ex 5:4 Then the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why are you trying to release the people from their work? Get back to your aburdens.
Ex 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Look, the people of the land are now amany, yet you want them to cease from their burdens.
Ex 5:6 And the same day Pharaoh commanded the ataskmasters of the people and their 1bofficers, saying,
Ex 5:7 You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves.
Ex 5:8 And the quota of the bricks which they made previously, you shall still place upon them; you shall not diminish any of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, Let us go and asacrifice to our God.
Ex 5:9 Let the work be laid more heavily upon such men, so that they do it and not pay attention to false words.
Ex 5:10 And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, Thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
Ex 5:11 You go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, for none of your work will be reduced.
Ex 5:12 So the people scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
Ex 5:13 And the ataskmasters pressed them saying, Finish your work, the same daily assignment as when there was straw.
Ex 5:14 And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and told, Why have you not finished, both yesterday and today, the amount of bricks required of you previously?
Ex 5:15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, Why do you treat your servants this way?
Ex 5:16 No straw is given to your servants, and they say to us, Make bricks. And now your servants are being beaten, but it is the fault of your own people.
Ex 5:17 But he said, Idle is what you are, idle; therefore you say, Let us go and asacrifice to Jehovah.
Ex 5:18 So go now and work; and no straw shall be given you, but you shall deliver the quota of bricks.
Ex 5:19 And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble, when it was said, You shall not diminish any of the daily assignment of your bricks.
Ex 5:20 And they came upon Moses and Aaron, who were standing there to meet them when they came forth from Pharaoh.
Ex 5:21 And they said to them, Jehovah look upon you and judge, because you have made us odious in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants so as to put a sword in their hand to kill us.
Ex 5:22 Then Moses went back to Jehovah and said, Lord, why have You mistreated this people? Why is it that You have sent me?
Ex 5:23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has mistreated this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.
EXODUS 6

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2. God’s Further Training of Moses
6:1 — 7:7
Ex 6:1 And 1Jehovah said to Moses, Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh; for because of a amighty hand he will let them go, and because of a mighty hand he will bdrive them out of his land.
Ex 6:2 And God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am aJehovah.
Ex 6:3 And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as the 1aAll-sufficient God; but by My bname 2Jehovah I did not make Myself known to them.
Ex 6:4 And I also established My acovenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their bsojournings, in which they sojourned.
Ex 6:5 And I have also aheard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians have enslaved; and I have bremembered My covenant.
Ex 6:6 Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will aredeem you with an boutstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
Ex 6:7 And I will take you to Myself as My apeople, and I will be your bGod; and you shall cknow that I am Jehovah your God, the One who brought you out from under the dburdens of the Egyptians.
Ex 6:8 And I will bring you to the land which I 1aswore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you as a possession. I am Jehovah.
Ex 6:9 And Moses spoke this to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of anguish of spirit and aharsh bondage.
Ex 6:10 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 6:11 Go, speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
Ex 6:12 And Moses spoke before Jehovah, saying, The children of Israel do not now listen to me. How then will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am of auncircumcised lips?
Ex 6:13 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave them a charge for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
Ex 6:14 1These are the heads of their fathers’ houses. The sons of aReuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben.
Ex 6:15 And the sons of aSimeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of Simeon.
Ex 6:16 And these are the names of the sons of aLevi according to their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari; and the years of Levi’s life were one hundred thirty-seven years.
Ex 6:17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families.
Ex 6:18 And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel; and the years of Kohath’s life were one hundred thirty-three years.
Ex 6:19 And the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their generations.
Ex 6:20 And Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister for himself as awife, and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the years of Amram’s life were one hundred thirty-seven years.
Ex 6:21 And the sons of Izhar: aKorah and Nepheg and Zichri.
Ex 6:22 And the sons of aUzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Sithri.
Ex 6:23 And Aaron took Elisheba, the daughter of aAmminadab, the sister of bNahshon, for himself as wife; and she bore him cNadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Ex 6:24 And the sons of Korah: aAssir and Elkanah and Abiasaph; these are the families of the Korahites.
Ex 6:25 And Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took for himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife, and she bore him aPhinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their families.
Ex 6:26 It was this same Aaron and Moses to whom Jehovah said, aBring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their barmies.
Ex 6:27 It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt; it is the same Moses and Aaron.
Ex 6:28 And on the day when Jehovah spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,
Ex 6:29 Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, I am aJehovah; speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, all that I speak to you.
Ex 6:30 But Moses said before Jehovah, Behold, I am of auncircumcised lips. How then will Pharaoh listen to me?
EXODUS 7

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Ex 7:1 And Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made you God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother will be your 1aprophet.
Ex 7:2 You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
Ex 7:3 And I will aharden Pharaoh’s heart and will multiply My signs and My bwonders in the land of Egypt.
Ex 7:4 But Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay My hand upon Egypt and abring forth My barmies, My people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment.
Ex 7:5 And the Egyptians will aknow that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
Ex 7:6 And Moses and Aaron did so; as Jehovah commanded them, so did they do.
Ex 7:7 And Moses was aeighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.
3. The Second Conflict, Exposing the True Nature of Egyptian Living
7:8-14
Ex 7:8 And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Ex 7:9 When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Perform a awonder; then you shall say to Aaron, Take your bstaff, and throw it down before Pharaoh, so that it becomes a 1serpent.
Ex 7:10 And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and they did just as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Ex 7:11 Then Pharaoh also called for the awise men and the sorcerers. And they also, the 1magicians of Egypt, bdid the same with their secret spells;
Ex 7:12 That is, each one threw down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
Ex 7:13 And Pharaoh’s heart ahardened, and he did not listen to them, just as Jehovah had said.
Ex 7:14 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is astubborn; he brefuses to let the people go.
4. The Third Conflict: The First Plague — Blood
7:15-25
Ex 7:15 Go to 1Pharaoh in the amorning as he is going out to the water, and stand on the bank of the River to meet him. And you shall take in your hand the bstaff which was turned into a serpent.
Ex 7:16 And you shall say to him, aJehovah, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, bLet My people go that they may cserve Me in the wilderness. But until this very moment you have not listened.
Ex 7:17 Thus says Jehovah, By this you will aknow that I am Jehovah. I am now going to strike the water which is in the River with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to 1bblood.
Ex 7:18 And the fish that are in the River will die, and the River will become foul, and the Egyptians will loathe drinking water from the River.
Ex 7:19 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your astaff, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their watercourses, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.
Ex 7:20 And Moses and Aaron did just as Jehovah commanded; and he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the River in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the River was turned to ablood.
Ex 7:21 And the fish that were in the River died, and the River became foul, and the Egyptians could not drink water from the River; and the blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.
Ex 7:22 And the amagicians of Egypt bdid the same with their secret spells; and Pharaoh’s heart chardened, and he did not listen to them, just as Jehovah had said.
Ex 7:23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.
Ex 7:24 And all the Egyptians dug around the River for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the River.
Ex 7:25 And seven days passed after Jehovah had struck the River.
EXODUS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

5. The Fourth Conflict: The Second Plague — Frogs
8:1-15
Ex 8:1 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says Jehovah, aLet My people go that they may bserve Me.
Ex 8:2 But if you arefuse to let them go, I will now smite all your territory with 1frogs.
Ex 8:3 And the River shall swarm with frogs, and they will go up from the River and come into your house and into your bedchamber and upon your bed, and into the houses of your servants and upon your people, and into your ovens and into your kneading bowls.
Ex 8:4 And the frogs shall come up upon you and upon your people and upon all your servants.
Ex 8:5 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your hand with your astaff over the rivers, over the watercourses, and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.
Ex 8:6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the afrogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
Ex 8:7 And the amagicians bdid the same with their secret spells and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
Ex 8:8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, aEntreat Jehovah to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will blet the people go to csacrifice to Jehovah.
Ex 8:9 And Moses said to Pharaoh, May it please you, and not me, as to the time. When shall I make entreaty for you and for your servants and for your people, to cut off the frogs from you and from your houses so that they remain in the River only?
Ex 8:10 And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, It will be according to your word, that you may aknow that there is no one blike Jehovah our God.
Ex 8:11 And the frogs shall depart from you and from your houses and from your servants and from your people; they shall remain in the River only.
Ex 8:12 Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried out to Jehovah concerning the frogs which He had brought upon Pharaoh.
Ex 8:13 And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died in the houses, in the courts, and in the fields.
Ex 8:14 And they gathered them together, heap after heap, and the land stank.
Ex 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he 1ahardened his heart and did not listen to them, just as Jehovah had said.
6. The Fifth Conflict: The Third Plague — Lice
8:16-19
Ex 8:16 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your astaff, and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become 1blice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Ex 8:17 And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were lice on man and on beast; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Ex 8:18 And the amagicians bdid the same with their secret spells, to try to bring forth lice, but cthey could not; so there were lice on man and on beast.
Ex 8:19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the 1afinger of God. But Pharaoh’s heart bhardened, and he did not listen to them, just as Jehovah had said.
7. The Sixth Conflict: The Fourth Plague — Flies
8:20-32
Ex 8:20 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up early in the amorning, and present yourself before Pharaoh as he is going out to the water, and say to him, Thus says Jehovah, bLet My people go that they may serve Me.
Ex 8:21 For if you will not let My people go, then I will at once send swarms of 1flies against you and against your servants and against your people and against your houses; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, as well as the ground on which they are.
Ex 8:22 But on that day I will aset apart the land of Goshen, where My people are staying, so that no swarms of flies will be there, so that you may bknow that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land.
Ex 8:23 And I will put a 1aredemption between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall occur.
Ex 8:24 And Jehovah did so; and heavy swarms of aflies came into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses, and throughout the land of Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of flies.
Ex 8:25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, Go, asacrifice to your God in the 1land.
Ex 8:26 And Moses said, It would not be right to do so, for we will sacrifice to Jehovah our God what is an aabomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?
Ex 8:27 We must go a athree days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Jehovah our God just as He commands us.
Ex 8:28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go that you may sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Make aentreaty for me.
Ex 8:29 And Moses said, I am now going out from you, and I will entreat Jehovah that the swarms of flies would depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow; only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore by not letting the people go to sacrifice to Jehovah.
Ex 8:30 So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated Jehovah.
Ex 8:31 And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses, and He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; not one remained.
Ex 8:32 However Pharaoh ahardened his heart at this time also, and he did bnot let the people go.
EXODUS 9

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8. The Seventh Conflict: The Fifth Plague — Pestilence
9:1-7
Ex 9:1 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and speak to him, Thus says aJehovah, the God of the Hebrews, bLet My people go that they may serve Me.
Ex 9:2 For if you refuse to let them go and still retain them,
Ex 9:3 Then the ahand of Jehovah is going to be on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks with a very severe 1bpestilence.
Ex 9:4 And Jehovah will make a 1adistinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.
Ex 9:5 And Jehovah set an appointed time, saying, Tomorrow Jehovah will do this thing in the land.
Ex 9:6 And Jehovah did this thing on the next day; and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the children of Israel not one died.
Ex 9:7 And Pharaoh sent to inquire, and indeed there was not so much as one of the livestock of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was astubborn, and he did bnot let the people go.
9. The Eighth Conflict: The Sixth Plague — Boils
9:8-12
Ex 9:8 Then Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Take handfuls of 1ashes from a furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Ex 9:9 And it will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and will become boils breaking out with sores on man and on beast throughout all the land of Egypt.
Ex 9:10 So they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it toward heaven, and it became aboils breaking forth with sores on man and on beast.
Ex 9:11 And the magicians could not astand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians as well as on all the Egyptians.
Ex 9:12 And Jehovah 1ahardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as Jehovah had spoken to Moses.
10. The Ninth Conflict: The Seventh Plague — Hail
9:13-35
Ex 9:13 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up early in the amorning, and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus says bJehovah, the God of the Hebrews, cLet My people go that they may serve Me.
Ex 9:14 For this time I am going to send all My aplagues against 1you and on your servants and on your people, so that you may bknow that there is no one clike Me in all the earth.
Ex 9:15 For if by now I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would have been cut off from the earth.
Ex 9:16 But indeed afor this cause I have 1made you stand, to bshow you My power and to have My cname proclaimed throughout all the earth.
Ex 9:17 You are still exalting yourself against My people by anot letting them go.
Ex 9:18 Tomorrow about this time I am going to cause very heavy 1ahail to fall, such as has never occurred in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
Ex 9:19 Now therefore send men and secure your livestock and all that you have in the field; every man and beast that is found in the field and is not brought home when the hail comes down shall die.
Ex 9:20 He who feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses.
Ex 9:21 But he who did not pay attention to the word of Jehovah left his servants and his livestock in the field.
Ex 9:22 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be hail throughout all the land of Egypt, upon man and upon beast and upon all the vegetation of the field in the land of Egypt.
Ex 9:23 And Moses stretched out his astaff toward heaven; and Jehovah sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth, and Jehovah rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Ex 9:24 So there was very heavy hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, such as had not occurred in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Ex 9:25 And the hail struck everything that was in the field, both man and beast, throughout all the land of Egypt; and the ahail struck all the vegetation of the field and shattered every tree of the field.
Ex 9:26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the achildren of Israel were, was there no hail.
Ex 9:27 And Pharaoh sent a messenger and called for Moses and Aaron; and he said to them, I have asinned this time; Jehovah is the brighteous One, and I and my people are in the wrong.
Ex 9:28 aEntreat Jehovah, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail; and 1I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.
Ex 9:29 And Moses said to him, As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my ahands to Jehovah: The thunder will cease, and there will not be any more hail, that you may bknow that the cearth is Jehovah’s.
Ex 9:30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear Jehovah God.
Ex 9:31 (Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bud.
Ex 9:32 But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they had not come up.)
Ex 9:33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to Jehovah; and the thunder and hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth.
Ex 9:34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and ahardened his heart, he and his servants.
Ex 9:35 So Pharaoh’s heart ahardened, and he did bnot let the children of Israel go, just as Jehovah had spoken through Moses.
EXODUS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

11. The Tenth Conflict: The Eighth Plague — Locusts
10:1-20
Ex 10:1 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, for I have ahardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may show these signs of Mine in the midst of them,
Ex 10:2 And that you may arecount in the hearing of your son and your grandson how I made a mockery of Egypt and recount My signs which I have done among them, that you may bknow that I am Jehovah.
Ex 10:3 And Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him, Thus says aJehovah, the God of the Hebrews, How long will you refuse to bhumble yourself before Me? cLet My people go that they may serve Me.
Ex 10:4 For if you refuse to let My people go, then tomorrow I am going to bring swarming alocusts into your territory,
Ex 10:5 And they will cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land; and they will eat the rest of what has escaped — what is left to you from the hail — and will eat up every tree of yours that is sprouting in the field.
Ex 10:6 And your houses will be filled with them, as well as the houses of all your servants and the houses of all the Egyptians; something that neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen since the day that they came upon the earth until this day. Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Ex 10:7 And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go that they may serve Jehovah their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is destroyed?
Ex 10:8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, 1Go, serve Jehovah your God. But who exactly are going?
Ex 10:9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old; we will go with our sons and with our daughters, with our aflocks and with our herds, for we must hold Jehovah’s bfeast.
Ex 10:10 And he said to them, Let Jehovah indeed be with you if I ever let you go with your little ones as well. See here, 1you are up to some evil.
Ex 10:11 No! Go now, but the men only, and serve Jehovah, since that is what you are requesting. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
Ex 10:12 Then Jehovah said to Moses, aStretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the swarming locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat all the vegetation of the land, all that the hail has left.
Ex 10:13 So Moses stretched forth his astaff over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah drove an east 1wind upon the land all that day and all night; when it was morning, the east wind had brought the swarming blocusts.
Ex 10:14 And the swarming locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt in great mass. Before them there had anever been so many swarming locusts as they, nor after them will there ever be so many.
Ex 10:15 And they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened. And they ate all the avegetation of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, and nothing green remained on the trees or among the vegetation of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.
Ex 10:16 Then Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses and Aaron and said, I have asinned against Jehovah your God and against you.
Ex 10:17 Now therefore, please forgive my sin just this once, and aentreat Jehovah your God that He would only remove this death from me.
Ex 10:18 And he went out from Pharaoh and entreated Jehovah.
Ex 10:19 And Jehovah changed the wind into a very strong west wind, and it took up the swarming locusts and drove them into the Red Sea; not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt.
Ex 10:20 But Jehovah ahardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did bnot let the children of Israel go.
12. The Eleventh Conflict: The Ninth Plague — Darkness
10:21-29
Ex 10:21 Then Jehovah said to Moses, aStretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be 1bdarkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness that can be felt.
Ex 10:22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness throughout all the land of Egypt for three days.
Ex 10:23 They could not see one another, nor did anyone rise up from his place for three days, but all the children of aIsrael had light in their dwellings.
Ex 10:24 And Pharaoh called Moses and said, 1Go, serve Jehovah; only let your aflocks and your herds be detained. Your little ones may also go with you.
Ex 10:25 And Moses said, You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings so that we may asacrifice to Jehovah our God.
Ex 10:26 So our cattle also must go with us; not a hoof must be left behind, for we must take some of them to serve Jehovah our God, and we do not know with what we must serve Jehovah until we go there.
Ex 10:27 But Jehovah ahardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was bnot willing to let them go.
Ex 10:28 And Pharaoh said to him, Get away from me. Be sure that you do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.
Ex 10:29 And Moses said, You have spoken correctly. I will never again see your face.
EXODUS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

13. The Twelfth and Final Conflict: The Tenth Plague — The Slaughter of the Firstborn
11:1 — 13:22
a. Jehovah’s Sovereignty
11:1-10
Ex 11:1 Then Jehovah said to Moses, One more aplague will I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely bdrive you out from here completely.
Ex 11:2 Speak now in the hearing of the people that each man is to ask of his neighbor and each woman of her neighbor for aarticles of silver and articles of gold.
Ex 11:3 And Jehovah gave the people afavor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
Ex 11:4 And Moses said, Thus says Jehovah, About amidnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt,
Ex 11:5 And all the afirstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the bmillstones, and all the firstborn of cattle.
Ex 11:6 And there shall be a great acry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as has not been or ever will be again.
Ex 11:7 But a dog shall not bark at any of the children of Israel, at man or beast, that you may aknow that Jehovah makes a bdistinction between the Egyptians and Israel.
Ex 11:8 And all these servants of yours shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, aGet out, you and all the people who follow you; and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
Ex 11:9 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that My awonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
Ex 11:10 Thus Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but Jehovah ahardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did bnot let the children of Israel go out of his land.
EXODUS 12

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b. The Passover
12:1-36, 43-51
Ex 12:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
Ex 12:2 This month will be the 1abeginning of months for you; it shall be the first of the months of the year to you.
Ex 12:3 Speak to all the assembly of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month each man shall take a 1alamb according to his fathers’ house, a lamb for a 2household.
Ex 12:4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his 1neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the 2persons in the houses; according to each man’s eating you shall make your count for the lamb.
Ex 12:5 Your lamb shall be without ablemish, a 1year-old male; you may take it from the 2sheep or from the 2goats.
Ex 12:6 And you shall keep it until the 1afourteenth day of this month; then the 2whole congregation of the assembly of Israel shall kill it 3at btwilight.
Ex 12:7 And they shall take some of the 1ablood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the 2houses in which they eat it.
Ex 12:8 And they shall eat the 1flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with 2aunleavened bread with bitter herbs.
Ex 12:9 Do not eat any of it 1raw or 1boiled at all with water, but 1aroasted with fire — its 2head with its 2legs and with its 2inward parts.
Ex 12:10 And you shall not let any of it 1remain until the amorning, but any of it that remains until the morning you shall burn with fire.
Ex 12:11 And this is how you shall eat it: 1with your loins agirded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s 2bpassover.
Ex 12:12 For I will apass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the 1bfirstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. Also against all the 2gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am cJehovah.
Ex 12:13 And the ablood shall be a bsign for you upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there will be no plague upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Ex 12:14 And this day will be a 1memorial to you, and you shall akeep it as a 2feast to Jehovah; throughout your generations as a perpetual statute you shall keep it as a feast.
Ex 12:15 1Seven days you shall eat 2aunleavened bread; on the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that 3person shall be bcut off from Israel.
Ex 12:16 And on the first day you shall have a aholy convocation, and on the seventh day a holy convocation. 1No work at all shall be done on them, except to prepare what every person will eat; that alone may be done by you.
Ex 12:17 And you shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I have abrought your barmies out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as a perpetual statute.
Ex 12:18 In the first month, on the afourteenth day of the month in the evening, you shall eat bunleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.
Ex 12:19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether a sojourner or a native of the land.
Ex 12:20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.
Ex 12:21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, Draw out and take alambs according to your families, and slaughter the passover.
Ex 12:22 And you shall take a bunch of 1ahyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and you shall apply some of the bblood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts; and none of you shall go 2outside the centrance of his house until the morning.
Ex 12:23 For Jehovah will apass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two doorposts, Jehovah will pass over the entrance and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.
Ex 12:24 And you shall observe this matter as a statute for you and for your sons in perpetuity.
Ex 12:25 And when you come to the land which Jehovah will give you, as He has apromised, you shall observe this service.
Ex 12:26 And when your achildren say to you, What do you mean by this service?
Ex 12:27 You shall say, It is the apassover sacrifice to Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bbowed and worshipped.
Ex 12:28 And the children of Israel went and did so; just as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
Ex 12:29 And at amidnight Jehovah 1bstruck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle.
Ex 12:30 And Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great acry in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not someone dead.
Ex 12:31 And he called for Moses and Aaron in the night and said, Rise up, go out from the midst of my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as you have said.
Ex 12:32 Take both your aflocks and your herds, as you have said; and go and bless me also.
Ex 12:33 And the Egyptians 1aurged the people on, so as to hasten their departure out of the land, for they said, All of us will be dead.
Ex 12:34 And the people took their dough before it was 1leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
Ex 12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses, and they asked the Egyptians for aarticles of silver and gold and for clothing.
Ex 12:36 And Jehovah gave the people afavor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they 1bplundered the Egyptians.
c. Israel’s Exodus from Egypt
12:37-42; 13:1-22
Ex 12:37 And the children of Israel journeyed from aRameses to Succoth, about bsix hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.
Ex 12:38 And a 1amixed multitude went up also with them, as well as flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.
Ex 12:39 And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it had not been leavened because they were adriven out of Egypt and could not delay; nor had they prepared for themselves any provisions.
Ex 12:40 Now the time of the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt1, was 2afour hundred thirty years.
Ex 12:41 And at the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the aarmies of Jehovah bwent out from the land of Egypt.
Ex 12:42 It was for Jehovah a night of 1watching, to bring them out from the land of Egypt. That same night is a night of 1watching to Jehovah for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
b. The Passover (cont’d)
vv. 43-51
Ex 12:43 And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the passover: No 1foreigner shall eat of it.
Ex 12:44 However, any man’s servant who is bought with money, when you have acircumcised him, then he shall eat of it.
Ex 12:45 A asojourner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.
Ex 12:46 It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break any of its 1abones.
Ex 12:47 All the assembly of Israel shall keep it.
Ex 12:48 But if a astranger sojourns with you and will observe the Passover to Jehovah, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to observe it; and he will be like one who is a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
Ex 12:49 One alaw shall be for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.
Ex 12:50 And all the children of Israel did so; just as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
Ex 12:51 And on that very day Jehovah abrought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their 1barmies.
EXODUS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

c. Israel’s Exodus from Egypt (cont’d)
vv. 13:1-22
Ex 13:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 13:2 1Sanctify to Me all the afirstborn: Whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is Mine.
Ex 13:3 And Moses said to the people, aRemember this day on which you came out from Egypt, from the bslave house, for by 1cstrength of hand Jehovah dbrought you out from this place; and nothing eleavened shall be eaten.
Ex 13:4 On this day in the month of 1aAbib you are going out.
Ex 13:5 And when Jehovah brings you into the land of the aCanaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He bswore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with cmilk and honey, you shall observe this dservice in this month:
Ex 13:6 Seven days you shall eat aunleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to Jehovah.
Ex 13:7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days, and nothing leavened shall be seen with you, nor shall any leaven be seen with you in all your territory.
Ex 13:8 And you shall tell your ason in that day, saying, It is because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out of Egypt.
Ex 13:9 And it shall be for a asign to you upon your hand and for a 1memorial between your eyes, that the 2law of Jehovah may be in your mouth; for with a mighty hand Jehovah brought you out of Egypt.
Ex 13:10 You shall therefore akeep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.
Ex 13:11 And when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,
Ex 13:12 You shall set apart to Jehovah everything that aopens the womb and the first offspring of every beast which is yours; the males shall be Jehovah’s.
Ex 13:13 And every 1first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a alamb; and if you do not redeem it, you shall break its neck. And every 1firstborn male among your sons you shall bredeem.
Ex 13:14 And when your ason asks you in time to come, saying, What is this? you shall say to him, By strength of hand Jehovah bbrought us out from Egypt, from the cslave house.
Ex 13:15 And when Pharaoh ahardened himself bagainst letting us go, Jehovah cslew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I am one who sacrifices to Jehovah every male that opens the womb; and all the dfirstborn of my sons I redeem.
Ex 13:16 So it will be as a asign upon your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand Jehovah bbrought us out of Egypt.
Ex 13:17 Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not 1lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Perhaps the people will change their minds when they see war and will areturn to Egypt.
Ex 13:18 Thus God led the people 1aaround by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up arrayed for battle out of the land of Egypt.
Ex 13:19 And Moses took the 1bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the children of Israel solemnly swear, saying, aGod will surely visit you, and you shall bring my bbones up from here with you.
Ex 13:20 And they journeyed from aSuccoth and encamped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
Ex 13:21 And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of 1acloud to lead them on the way and by night in a pillar of 1fire to give them light, that they might go by day and by night.
Ex 13:22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night departed from before the people.
EXODUS 14

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F. Pharaoh’s Last Struggle and Israel’s Crossing of the Red Sea
14:1-31
Ex 14:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 14:2 Tell the children of Israel to turn back and camp before aPi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You shall camp before Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea.
Ex 14:3 And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are awandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has hemmed them in.
Ex 14:4 And I will 1aharden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue after them; and I will bglorify Myself through Pharaoh and through all his army, and the Egyptians will cknow that I am Jehovah. And they did so.
Ex 14:5 And when it was told to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the aheart of Pharaoh and his servants changed toward the people; and they said, What is this we have done, letting Israel go from serving us?
Ex 14:6 So he yoked his chariot and took his people with him.
Ex 14:7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
Ex 14:8 And Jehovah ahardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, so that he pursued after the children of Israel as the children of Israel were bgoing out 1boldly.
Ex 14:9 And the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army; and they aovertook them as they encamped by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.
Ex 14:10 And when Pharaoh approached, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and there the Egyptians were, marching after them; and they became very afraid, and the children of Israel acried out to Jehovah.
Ex 14:11 And they said to Moses, Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to adie in the wilderness? Why have you done this to us, bringing us out of Egypt?
Ex 14:12 Is this not the very thing that we spoke to you about in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been abetter for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
Ex 14:13 But Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid; stand firm, and see the asalvation of Jehovah, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will see no more again forever.
Ex 14:14 Jehovah will afight for you, and you will be 1still.
Ex 14:15 And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the children of Israel to move forward.
Ex 14:16 And you, lift up your astaff, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.
Ex 14:17 And I will now aharden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in after them; and I will bglorify Myself through Pharaoh and through all his army, through his chariots and through his horsemen.
Ex 14:18 Then the Egyptians will aknow that I am Jehovah when I glorify Myself through Pharaoh, through his chariots and through his horsemen.
Ex 14:19 And the 1aAngel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.
Ex 14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And the cloud was there with the 1darkness, yet it gave 1light by night to them. Thus one did not come near the other all night.
Ex 14:21 And when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night and made the sea adry land; and the waters were bdivided.
Ex 14:22 And the children of Israel 1went into the midst of the sea upon the adry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Ex 14:23 Then the Egyptians pursued; and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea.
Ex 14:24 And at the morning watch Jehovah looked down upon the camp of the Egyptians from within the pillar of afire and of cloud and threw the camp of the Egyptians into confusion.
Ex 14:25 And 1He caused their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from Israel, for Jehovah is fighting for them against the Egyptians.
Ex 14:26 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and over their horsemen.
Ex 14:27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea areturned to its level when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against it, and Jehovah cast the Egyptians off into the midst of the sea.
Ex 14:28 And as the waters returned, they 1acovered the chariots and the horsemen, even all the army of Pharaoh that went in after them into the sea; not even one of them was left.
Ex 14:29 But the children of Israel awalked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Ex 14:30 Thus Jehovah 1asaved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.
Ex 14:31 And when Israel saw the great power which Jehovah exercised against the Egyptians, the people feared Jehovah; and they abelieved in Jehovah and in His servant 1Moses.
EXODUS 15

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G. The Praising of the Saved Ones
15:1-21
1. The Song of Moses
vv. 1-19
Ex 15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel asang this 1song to Jehovah and spoke, saying,
bI will sing to Jehovah, for 2He has triumphed gloriously; / The horse and its rider He has cast into the sea.
Ex 15:2 1Jah is my astrength and song, / And He has become my 2bsalvation; / This is my God, and I will cpraise Him; / My father’s God, and I will dexalt Him.
Ex 15:3 Jehovah is a man of awar; / Jehovah is His bname.
Ex 15:4 Pharaoh’s achariots and his army He has thrown into the bsea; / And his choice officers have drowned in the Red Sea.
Ex 15:5 The deep waters acover them; / They went down into the depths like a stone.
Ex 15:6 Your aright hand, O Jehovah, is glorious in power; / Your right hand, O Jehovah, dashed the enemy in pieces.
Ex 15:7 And in the greatness of Your excellence / You overthrew those who rose up against You. / You sent forth Your burning wrath; / It consumed them like astubble.
Ex 15:8 And with the ablast of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up; / The flowing currents stood up like a bheap; / The deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
Ex 15:9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; / My desire will be satisfied upon them; / I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.
Ex 15:10 You blew with Your wind; the sea acovered them; / They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Ex 15:11 Who is alike You, O Jehovah, among the gods? / Who is like You, splendid in bholiness, / Awesome in cpraises, doing dwonders?
Ex 15:12 You stretched out Your right hand; / The earth swallowed them.
Ex 15:13 In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have aredeemed; / You have bguided them in Your strength to Your 1holy habitation.
Ex 15:14 The 1peoples heard; they trembled; / Pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
Ex 15:15 Then the chiefs of aEdom are dismayed; / The mighty men of bMoab — trembling has seized them; / All the inhabitants of Canaan have cmelted away.
Ex 15:16 aTerror and dread have fallen upon them; / By the greatness of Your arm they have become as still as bstone, / Until Your people passed over, O Jehovah, / Until the people whom You cpurchased passed over.
Ex 15:17 You will bring them in and aplant them in the bmountain of Your inheritance, / The place, O Jehovah, which You have made for Your dwelling, / The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.
Ex 15:18 Jehovah shall 1areign forever and ever.
Ex 15:19 For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and with his horsemen went into the asea, and Jehovah brought back the waters of the sea bupon them while the children of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea.
2. The Song of Miriam
vv. 20-21
Ex 15:20 And aMiriam the bprophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.
Ex 15:21 And Miriam 1responded to them,
aSing to Jehovah, for He has triumphed gloriously; / The horse and its rider He has cast into the sea.
III. Led
15:22 — 18:27
A. Israel’s Experience at Marah and Elim
15:22-27
Ex 15:22 Then Moses moved Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went 1three days in the wilderness and found 2no water.
Ex 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore its name was called 1aMarah.
Ex 15:24 And the people amurmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
Ex 15:25 And he cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a 1tree; and he cast it into the waters, and the awaters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He 2btested them.
Ex 15:26 And He said, If you will listen carefully to the voice of Jehovah your God and do what is right in His eyes and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the adiseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am 1Jehovah who bheals you.
Ex 15:27 And they came to 1aElim, where there were 2twelve springs of water and 2seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.
EXODUS 16

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B. The Experience of Manna — The Heavenly Diet
16:1-36
Ex 16:1 aAnd they journeyed from Elim, and all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure out of the land of Egypt.
Ex 16:2 And the whole assembly of the children of Israel 1amurmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness.
Ex 16:3 And the children of Israel said to them, If only we had adied by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the 1bfleshpots, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to ckill this whole congregation with hunger.
Ex 16:4 Then Jehovah said to Moses, I will now rain 1bread from aheaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may btest them, whether or not they will walk 2in My law.
Ex 16:5 And on the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.
Ex 16:6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, In the evening you will aknow that Jehovah has brought you out from the land of Egypt;
Ex 16:7 And in the morning you will see the aglory of Jehovah, for He bhears your murmurings against Jehovah. And what are we, that you cmurmur against us?
Ex 16:8 And Moses said, This you will see when Jehovah gives you flesh to eat in the evening and bread to the full in the morning, for Jehovah hears your murmurings which you murmur against Him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us but aagainst Jehovah.
Ex 16:9 And Moses said to aAaron, Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel, Come near bbefore Jehovah, for He has heard your murmurings.
Ex 16:10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and there the 1aglory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud.
Ex 16:11 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 16:12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, At atwilight you will eat flesh, and in the morning you will be filled with bread; and you shall bknow that I am Jehovah your God.
Ex 16:13 And at evening 1aquails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of 2bdew around the camp.
Ex 16:14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there upon the surface of the wilderness were fine round flakes, fine as the frost on the earth.
Ex 16:15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 1What is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the abread which Jehovah has given you to eat.
Ex 16:16 This is what Jehovah has commanded, Gather of it, each one according to his eating; you shall take an aomer a head, according to the number of your persons, each one for those who are in his tent.
Ex 16:17 And the children of Israel did so; and some gathered much, and some little.
Ex 16:18 And when they measured it with an omer, ahe who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack; each of them gathered according to his eating.
Ex 16:19 And Moses said to them, Let no man 1leave any of it until the morning.
Ex 16:20 But they did not listen to Moses, and some men left part of it until the morning; and it bred 1aworms and stank. And Moses was indignant with them.
Ex 16:21 And they gathered it morning by morning, each one according to his eating; and when the sun became hot, it melted.
Ex 16:22 And on the sixth day they gathered atwice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the leaders of the assembly came and told Moses.
Ex 16:23 And he said to them, This is what Jehovah has spoken, Tomorrow is a 1aSabbath of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to Jehovah. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside for yourselves to be kept until the morning.
Ex 16:24 And they put it aside until the morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor was there any aworm in it.
Ex 16:25 And Moses said, Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to Jehovah; today you will not find it in the field.
Ex 16:26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath; on it there will be none.
Ex 16:27 And on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none.
Ex 16:28 And Jehovah said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My 1laws?
Ex 16:29 See, Jehovah has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Let each of you stay in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Ex 16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
Ex 16:31 And the house of Israel called its name amanna, and it was like 1coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers made with honey.
Ex 16:32 And Moses said, This is what Jehovah has commanded, Let an 1omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.
Ex 16:33 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a 1apot, and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before Jehovah, to be kept throughout your generations.
Ex 16:34 As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the 1aTestimony to be kept.
Ex 16:35 And the children of Israel ate the manna aforty years, until they came to inhabitable land; they 1ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of bCanaan.
Ex 16:36 Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.
EXODUS 17

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C. The Living Water out of the Smitten Rock
17:1-7
Ex 17:1 And all the assembly of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin by their 1stages according to the command of Jehovah and encamped in aRephidim, and there was 2no water for the people to drink.
Ex 17:2 Therefore the people 1acontended with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why are you contending with me? Why do you btest Jehovah?
Ex 17:3 So the people thirsted there for water, and the people amurmured against Moses and said, For what reason did you bring us up out of Egypt; to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?
Ex 17:4 So Moses cried out to Jehovah, saying, What shall I do with this people? 1A little more, and they will stone me.
Ex 17:5 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your astaff with which you struck the River, and go.
Ex 17:6 I will be standing before you there upon the 1rock in Horeb; and you shall 2strike the arock, and 3water will come out of it so that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Ex 17:7 And he called the name of the place 1aMassah and 2bMeribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel and because they tested Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?
D. The Defeat of Amalek
17:8-16
Ex 17:8 Then 1aAmalek came and 2fought with Israel in Rephidim.
Ex 17:9 And Moses said to 1aJoshua, Choose men for us, and go out; fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the bstaff of God in my hand.
Ex 17:10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and aHur went up to the top of the hill.
Ex 17:11 And when Moses 1lifted his hand up, Israel prevailed; and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.
Ex 17:12 But Moses’ hands were 1heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
Ex 17:13 And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Ex 17:14 And Jehovah said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a book and 1recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly 2blot out the memory of aAmalek from under heaven.
Ex 17:15 And Moses built an aaltar and called the name of it 1Jehovah-nissi;
Ex 17:16 For he said, For there is a 1hand against the throne of 2Jah! Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
EXODUS 18

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E. A Portrait of the Kingdom
18:1-27
Ex 18:1 1Now 2aJethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt.
Ex 18:2 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Moses’ wife 1Zipporah, after he had sent her away,
Ex 18:3 And her two asons, of whom the name of one was 1Gershom, for 2Moses said, I have been a bsojourner in a foreign land;
Ex 18:4 And the name of the other was 1Eliezer, for he said, The God of my father was my help and adelivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.
Ex 18:5 So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped, at the amount of God.
Ex 18:6 And he sent word to Moses: I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.
Ex 18:7 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; and each asked the other’s welfare, and they came into the tent.
Ex 18:8 And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how Jehovah delivered them.
Ex 18:9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good which Jehovah had done to Israel, in that He had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Ex 18:10 And Jethro said, aBlessed be Jehovah, who has delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
Ex 18:11 Now I know that Jehovah is agreater than all gods, for it was demonstrated in this matter, when they dealt bproudly against the 1people.
Ex 18:12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a aburnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to beat food with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
Ex 18:13 And on the following day 1Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.
Ex 18:14 And when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?
Ex 18:15 Then Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God.
Ex 18:16 When they have a dispute, the matter comes to me; and I ajudge between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the bstatutes of God and His laws.
Ex 18:17 And Moses’ father-in-law said to him, The thing that you are doing is not good.
Ex 18:18 You will surely wear yourself out, both you and this people who are with you, for the thing is too heavy for you; you cannot do it aby yourself.
Ex 18:19 Listen now to my voice: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You stand for the people before God, and you bring the amatters to God.
Ex 18:20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they should awalk and the work that they should do.
Ex 18:21 You also should look for aable men among all the people who fear God, men of truth, who hate unjust gain; and place them over them, as 1leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens.
Ex 18:22 And let them ajudge the people at all times; and let them bbring every great matter to you, but every small matter let them judge themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will cbear the burden with you.
Ex 18:23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.
Ex 18:24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
Ex 18:25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people: leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens.
Ex 18:26 And they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
Ex 18:27 And Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his aown land.
EXODUS 19

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IV. Receiving Revelation
19:1 — 34:35
A. Brought into the Presence of God and into the Knowledge of Him
19:1-25
Ex 19:1 In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of aSinai.
Ex 19:2 And when they had journeyed from Rephidim and had come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped in front of the mountain.
Ex 19:3 And Moses 1went up to God, and Jehovah acalled to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel:
Ex 19:4 You have aseen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on 1beagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.
Ex 19:5 Now therefore if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My acovenant, then you shall be My 1bpersonal treasure from among all peoples, for call the earth is Mine.
Ex 19:6 And you shall be to Me a 1kingdom of apriests and a 1bholy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.
Ex 19:7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and set before them all these words which Jehovah had commanded him.
Ex 19:8 And all the people answered together and said, 1All that Jehovah has spoken awe will do. And Moses brought back the words of the people to Jehovah.
Ex 19:9 And Jehovah said to Moses, I am coming to you in a thick acloud, that the people may bhear when I speak with you and may also cbelieve you forever. Then Moses told the words of the people to Jehovah,
Ex 19:10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to the people, and 1asanctify them today and tomorrow; and have them wash their garments,
Ex 19:11 And be ready for the 1third day; for on the third day Jehovah will acome down on 2Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Ex 19:12 And you shall set 1limits for the people all around, saying, Be careful that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the amountain shall surely be put to death.
Ex 19:13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be astoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the btrumpet sounds a long blast, they may come up on the mountain.
Ex 19:14 And Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their garments.
Ex 19:15 And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not go anear a woman.
Ex 19:16 And on the third day, when it was morning, there was athunder and lightning, and a thick bcloud upon the mountain, and a very loud ctrumpet sound; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
Ex 19:17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the base of the mountain.
Ex 19:18 Now the whole of Mount Sinai smoked because Jehovah descended upon it in afire, and its bsmoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace; and the whole mountain cshook greatly.
Ex 19:19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God aanswered him 1in thunder.
Ex 19:20 And Jehovah came down upon aMount Sinai at the top of the mountain, and Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mountain; and Moses went up.
Ex 19:21 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Go down; charge the people not to break through to Jehovah to alook, lest many of them perish.
Ex 19:22 And let the priests who come anear to Jehovah also sanctify themselves, so that Jehovah does not bbreak forth upon them.
Ex 19:23 And Moses said to Jehovah, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You charged us, saying, Set limits around the mountain, and sanctify it.
Ex 19:24 And Jehovah said to him, Go, get down; then you shall come up again, you and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people force a way through to come up to Jehovah, so that He does not break forth upon them.
Ex 19:25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
EXODUS 20

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B. The Testimony of God (the Law) Revealing God to His People
20:1-17
Ex 20:1 aAnd God spoke all these 1words, saying,
Ex 20:2 I am 1aJehovah your God, who bbrought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house;
Ex 20:3 You shall have no aother gods 1before Me.
Ex 20:4 You shall not amake for yourself an 1idol, nor the 2form of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water beneath the earth.
Ex 20:5 You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not aserve them; for I, Jehovah your God, am a bjealous God, cvisiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Ex 20:6 Yet showing alovingkindness to 1thousands of generations of those who 2love Me and keep My commandments.
Ex 20:7 You shall not take the aname of Jehovah your God in vain, for Jehovah will not hold guiltless him who takes His name in vain.
Ex 20:8 Remember the 1aSabbath day so as to sanctify it.
Ex 20:9 aSix days you shall labor and do all your work,
Ex 20:10 But the aseventh day is a Sabbath 1to Jehovah your God; you shall not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your male servant nor your female servant, nor your cattle nor the sojourner with you, who is within your gates.
Ex 20:11 For in asix days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
Ex 20:12 aHonor your father and your mother, that your days may be extended upon the land which 1Jehovah your God is giving you.
Ex 20:13 1aYou shall not bkill.
Ex 20:14 aYou shall not commit adultery.
Ex 20:15 aYou shall not steal.
Ex 20:16 aYou shall not testify with false testimony against your neighbor.
Ex 20:17 You shall not 1acovet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.
C. The Negative Aspect of the Law
20:18-21
Ex 20:18 And all the people witnessed the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the atrumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people witnessed it, they 1trembled and stood at a distance.
Ex 20:19 And they said to Moses, aYou speak with us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak with us, so we do not bdie.
Ex 20:20 And Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to atest you and in order that the bfear of Him may be before you, so that you do not sin.
Ex 20:21 And the people stood at a distance, and Moses drew near to the deep adarkness where God was.
D. The Statutes of the Law concerning the Worship of God
20:22-26
Ex 20:22 And Jehovah said to Moses, 1Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, You yourselves have seen that I have 2aspoken to you from heaven.
Ex 20:23 You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of 1silver or agods of 1gold, you shall not make for yourselves.
Ex 20:24 An 1altar of 2earth you shall make for Me, and you shall 1sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My 3aname to be remembered, I will 4come to you and 4bbless you.
Ex 20:25 And if you make Me an altar of astone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool upon them, you have 1polluted them.
Ex 20:26 Neither shall you go up by 1steps to My altar, so that your 2nakedness may not be uncovered on it.
EXODUS 21

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E. The First Ordinance of the Law concerning Man’s Relationship with Others
21:1-6
Ex 21:1 Now these are the 1ordinances which you shall set before them.
Ex 21:2 If you buy a aHebrew 1servant, he shall serve six years; but in the seventh he shall go out 2bfree without payment to you.
Ex 21:3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.
Ex 21:4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
Ex 21:5 But if the servant plainly says, I 1alove my master, my wife, and my children; bI will not go out free;
Ex 21:6 Then his master shall bring him to 1aGod and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his 2bear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.
F. Sundry Ordinances of the Law
21:7 — 23:19
Ex 21:7 1And if a man asells his daughter as a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.
Ex 21:8 If she displeases her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he has no right to sell her to a foreign people, because he has dealt with her unfaithfully.
Ex 21:9 And if he designated her for his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.
Ex 21:10 If he takes another woman for himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
Ex 21:11 And if he does not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of silver.
Ex 21:12 He who 1strikes a man so that he adies shall surely be put to death.
Ex 21:13 But if he did not alie in wait for him, but God allowed him to fall by his hand, then I will appoint you a 1bplace where he may flee to.
Ex 21:14 And if a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to 1slay him with guile, you shall take him even from My aaltar so that he may die.
Ex 21:15 And he who astrikes his 1father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
Ex 21:16 And he who akidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.
Ex 21:17 And he who acurses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
Ex 21:18 And if men contend and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist so that he does not die but 1remains in bed;
Ex 21:19 If he can rise up and walk around outside on his staff, then he who struck him shall be guiltless; he shall only pay for the loss of his time, until he has made sure he is completely healed.
Ex 21:20 And if a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a rod, and the 1servant dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
Ex 21:21 But if he survives a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his 1property.
Ex 21:22 And if men struggle together, and they hit a pregnant woman, so that she has a miscarriage, but there is no further mishap, he shall surely be fined what the woman’s husband shall impose upon him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.
Ex 21:23 But if there is further mishap, then you shall give a alife for a life,
Ex 21:24 An aeye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,
Ex 21:25 A burning for a burning, a wound for a wound, a stripe for a stripe.
Ex 21:26 And if a man strikes the eye of his male servant or the eye of his female servant and destroys it, he shall let that one go free on account of that one’s eye.
Ex 21:27 And if he knocks out his male servant’s tooth or his female servant’s tooth, he shall let that one go free on account of that one’s tooth.
Ex 21:28 And if an ox agores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be guiltless.
Ex 21:29 But if the ox was accustomed to goring previously, and its owner had been warned, but he would not keep it in, and it killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
Ex 21:30 If a ransom is imposed on the 1owner, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed upon him.
Ex 21:31 If either it gores a son or it gores a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
Ex 21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
Ex 21:33 And if a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
Ex 21:34 The owner of the pit shall make restitution; he shall give silver to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
Ex 21:35 And if one man’s ox injures another’s so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.
Ex 21:36 Or if it is known that the ox was accustomed to goring previously and its owner would not keep it in, he shall surely give restitution, an ox for an ox, and the dead animal shall become his.
EXODUS 22

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Ex 22:1 If a man 1steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and afour sheep for a sheep.
Ex 22:2 If the thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguiltiness for him —
Ex 22:3 If the sun has risen upon him, there shall be bloodguiltiness for him — the thief shall indeed make restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
Ex 22:4 If what he has stolen is actually found alive in his possession, whether an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall restore double.
Ex 22:5 If a man lets a field or vineyard be grazed, that is, he lets his animal loose, and it grazes in another man’s field; from the best of his own field and from the best of his own vineyard he shall make restitution.
Ex 22:6 If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or what is growing in the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall surely make restitution.
Ex 22:7 If a man gives to his neighbor silver or goods to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief is found, he shall restore double.
Ex 22:8 If the thief is not found, then the owner of the house shall come near to 1aGod to determine whether or not he laid his hand on his 2neighbor’s goods.
Ex 22:9 For every case of transgression, whether concerning an ox, concerning a donkey, concerning a sheep, concerning clothing, or concerning any lost item about which one says, This is it, the case of both parties shall come before God; he whom God declares guilty shall restore double to his neighbor.
Ex 22:10 If a man gives to his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any animal to keep, and it dies or is injured or driven away, with no man seeing it;
Ex 22:11 The aoath of Jehovah shall be between them both, that he has not laid his hand on his neighbor’s goods; and its owner shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution.
Ex 22:12 But if it was certainly stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner.
Ex 22:13 If it was torn in pieces, let him bring it as evidence; he shall not make restitution for that which was torn.
Ex 22:14 And if a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution.
Ex 22:15 If its owner was with it, he shall not make restitution; if it was hired, 1only the hiring fee is due.
Ex 22:16 And if a man 1seduces a avirgin who is not engaged and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to become his wife.
Ex 22:17 If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay silver according to the dowry of virgins.
Ex 22:18 1You shall not allow a 2asorceress to live.
Ex 22:19 Whoever lies with an aanimal shall surely be put to death.
Ex 22:20 He who sacrifices to any agod, except to Jehovah only, shall be devoted to destruction.
Ex 22:21 And you shall not wrong a 1asojourner, nor shall you oppress him; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Ex 22:22 You shall not afflict any awidow or orphan.
Ex 22:23 If you afflict them at all and if they cry at all to Me, I will surely ahear their cry;
Ex 22:24 And My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans.
Ex 22:25 If you lend silver to My people, to the poor among you, you shall not be to him as a creditor; you shall not charge him ainterest.
Ex 22:26 If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a apledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.
Ex 22:27 For that is his only covering; it is his garment for his skin. On what shall he lie down? And when he cries to Me I will hear, for I am agracious.
Ex 22:28 You shall not revile 1God, nor acurse a ruler of your people.
Ex 22:29 You shall not delay to offer the fullness of your harvest and of the 1outflow of your presses. The 2afirstborn of your sons you shall give to Me.
Ex 22:30 You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. Seven days it shall be with its mother; on the 1aeighth day you shall give it to Me.
Ex 22:31 And you shall be 1aholy men to Me. And you shall not 2eat any flesh that is btorn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.
EXODUS 23

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Ex 23:1 You shall not bear a 1false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a amalicious witness.
Ex 23:2 You shall not follow a amultitude to do evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice,
Ex 23:3 Nor shall you be apartial to a poor man in his dispute.
Ex 23:4 If you come upon your 1aenemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bbring it back to him.
Ex 23:5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving it to him; you shall surely release it with him.
Ex 23:6 You shall not apervert the justice due to your needy neighbor in his dispute.
Ex 23:7 Keep far away from a false charge, and do not kill the ainnocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked man.
Ex 23:8 And you shall not take a abribe, for a bribe blinds those whose eyes are open and perverts the words of the righteous.
Ex 23:9 And you shall not oppress a asojourner; for you know the feelings of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Ex 23:10 And six years you shall asow your land and gather its produce;
Ex 23:11 But the 1seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat, and what they leave, the animals of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and with your olivegrove.
Ex 23:12 aSix days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall cease from work so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your female servant and the sojourner may be refreshed.
Ex 23:13 Now concerning everything which I have said to you, take heed to yourselves; and do not mention the aname of other gods, nor let their name be heard out of your mouth.
Ex 23:14 1aThree times a year you shall hold a feast to Me.
Ex 23:15 You shall keep the 1aFeast of Unleavened Bread; as I commanded you, seven days you shall eat bunleavened bread at the appointed time in the month of cAbib, for in it you came out from Egypt. And no one shall appear before Me dempty.
Ex 23:16 And you shall keep the 1aFeast of the Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labors from what you sow in the field, and the 2bFeast of Ingathering, at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors out of the field.
Ex 23:17 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah.
Ex 23:18 You shall not offer the 1blood of My sacrifice with anything aleavened, nor shall the 2fat of My feast remain all night until the morning.
Ex 23:19 The 1first of the afirstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Jehovah your God. You shall not 2bboil a kid in its mother’s milk.
G. The Angel of Jehovah for His People to Take Possession of the Promised Land
23:20-33
Ex 23:20 I am now sending an 1aAngel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
Ex 23:21 Be careful before Him, and 1listen to His voice; do not rebel against Him, for He will not pardon your transgression; for My 2name is in Him.
Ex 23:22 But if you will indeed listen to 1His voice and do all that 1I speak, then I will be an aenemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
Ex 23:23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you to the 1aAmorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.
Ex 23:24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor aserve them, nor bdo according to their works; but you shall utterly coverthrow them and break their pillars into pieces.
Ex 23:25 And you shall aserve Jehovah your God, and He will 1bbless your bread and your water; and I will take csickness away from your midst.
Ex 23:26 No one shall miscarry or be abarren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
Ex 23:27 I will send My aterror before you and will throw into confusion all the people to whom you will come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
Ex 23:28 And I will send ahornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
Ex 23:29 I will not adrive them out from before you in 1one year, lest the land become desolate and the banimals of the field multiply against you.
Ex 23:30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have become fruitful and inherit the land.
Ex 23:31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the 1sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the 2aRiver; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your bhand, and 3you shall drive them out from before you.
Ex 23:32 You shall make no 1acovenant with them or with their gods.
Ex 23:33 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a asnare to you.
EXODUS 24

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H. The Enactment of the Covenant
24:1-8
Ex 24:1 Then He said to Moses, 1Come up to Jehovah, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and aseventy of the elders of Israel; and worship at a distance.
Ex 24:2 And Moses alone shall come near to Jehovah, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.
Ex 24:3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of Jehovah and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, 1All the words which Jehovah has spoken we will ado.
Ex 24:4 And Moses awrote down all the words of Jehovah. And he rose up early in the morning and built an 1altar at the base of the mountain and twelve 2bpillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Ex 24:5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered 1burnt offerings and sacrificed 1peace offerings of bulls to Jehovah.
Ex 24:6 And Moses took half of the ablood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Ex 24:7 And he took the book of the acovenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, 1All that Jehovah has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.
Ex 24:8 So Moses took the blood and asprinkled it on the 1people and said, Here is the 2bblood of the ccovenant, which Jehovah has made with you in accordance with all these words.
I. The Vision of God
24:9-11
Ex 24:9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.
Ex 24:10 And they 1asaw the God of Israel, and under His feet there was something like a 2paved work of bsapphire, even like heaven itself for clearness.
Ex 24:11 And He did not stretch out His hand upon the nobles of the children of Israel. And they 1beheld God and ate and drank.
J. Moses’ Stay with God under His Glory
24:12-18
Ex 24:12 And Jehovah said to Moses, Come up to Me at the top of the mountain, and be there; and I will give you the atablets of stone with the law and the commandment, which I have inscribed for their instruction.
Ex 24:13 And 1Moses rose up with aJoshua his attendant, and Moses went up to the top of the bmountain of God.
Ex 24:14 And he had said to the elders, Wait here for us until we return to you. Both Aaron and aHur are here with you; whoever has a cause, let him come near to them.
Ex 24:15 And Moses went up to the top of the mountain, and the acloud covered the mountain.
Ex 24:16 And the aglory of Jehovah settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
Ex 24:17 And the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like consuming afire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of the children of Israel.
Ex 24:18 And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain 1aforty days and forty nights.
EXODUS 25

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K. The Vision of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture
25:1 — 30:38
1. Concerning the Materials and the Pattern
25:1-9
Ex 25:1 1Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 25:2 aTell the children of Israel to take for Me a 1heave offering. From every man whose bheart makes him willing you shall take My heave offering.
Ex 25:3 And this is the heave offering which you shall take from them: 1gold and silver and bronze,
Ex 25:4 And 1ablue and purple and scarlet strands, and 2fine linen, and 3goats’ hair,
Ex 25:5 And 1arams’ skins dyed red, and 2porpoise skins, and 3acacia wood,
Ex 25:6 1aOil for the light, 2bspices for the anointing oil and for the cfragrant incense,
Ex 25:7 aOnyx stones and bstones to be set for the cephod and for the breastplate.
Ex 25:8 And let them make a asanctuary for Me that I may dwell in their bmidst;
Ex 25:9 According to all that I show you, the 1apattern of the 2btabernacle and the 1pattern of all its furnishings, even so shall you make it.
2. The Ark of the Testimony with the Expiatory Cover
25:10-22
Ex 25:10 aAnd they shall make an 1bark of 2acacia wood: 3two and a half cubits shall be its length; and 3one and a half cubits, its width; and 3one and a half cubits, its height.
Ex 25:11 And you shall overlay it with pure 1gold; inside and outside you shall overlay it; and you shall make a 2rim of gold upon it all around.
Ex 25:12 And you shall cast four 1rings of gold for it, and put them on its four feet; and two 2rings shall be on one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
Ex 25:13 And you shall make 1poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
Ex 25:14 And you shall 1put the poles into the rings on the sides of the Ark to carry the Ark with them.
Ex 25:15 The poles shall be in the rings of the Ark; they shall not be taken from it.
Ex 25:16 And you shall 1put into the aArk the Testimony which I will give you.
Ex 25:17 aAnd you shall make an 1bexpiation cover of pure gold: 2two and a half cubits shall be its length, and 2one and a half cubits, its width.
Ex 25:18 And you shall make two 1cherubim of gold; of beaten work you shall make them, at the two ends of the expiation cover.
Ex 25:19 And make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; of 1one piece with the expiation cover you shall make the cherubim on its two ends.
Ex 25:20 And the cherubim shall spread out their 1awings above the cover, covering the expiation cover with their wings, with their 1faces toward one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the expiation cover.
Ex 25:21 And you shall 1put the aexpiation cover upon the Ark above it, and into the Ark you shall 2put the Testimony that I will give you.
Ex 25:22 And there I will 1ameet with you, and I will speak with you from above the expiation cover, from bbetween the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, of everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
3. The Table of the Bread of the Presence
25:23-30
Ex 25:23 aAnd you shall make a 1btable of 2acacia wood: 3two cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its width, and 4one and a half cubits its height.
Ex 25:24 And you shall overlay it with pure gold and make a 1rim of gold around it.
Ex 25:25 And you shall make a 1frame of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a 1rim of gold for its frame around it.
Ex 25:26 And you shall make for it four 1rings of gold and put the rings on the four corners that are on its four feet.
Ex 25:27 The rings shall be close to the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table.
Ex 25:28 And you shall make the 1poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with them.
Ex 25:29 And you shall make its 1aplates and its 1cups and its 1pitchers and its 1bowls with which to pour out drink offerings; of pure gold you shall make them.
Ex 25:30 And you shall set the 1abread of the 2Presence upon the table before Me always.
4. The Lampstand
25:31-40
Ex 25:31 aAnd you shall make a 1blampstand of 2pure gold. The lampstand with its 3base and its 3shaft shall be made of 4beaten work; its 5cups, its 5calyxes, and its 5blossom buds shall be of one piece with it.
Ex 25:32 And there shall be 1six branches going out of its sides; 1three branches of the lampstand out of one of its sides, and 1three branches of the lampstand out of its other side;
Ex 25:33 1Three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a calyx and a blossom bud; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a calyx and a blossom bud — so for the six branches going out of the lampstand.
Ex 25:34 And there shall be on the lampstand 1four cups made like almond blossoms, its calyxes and its blossom buds;
Ex 25:35 And a 1calyx under two branches of one piece with it, and a calyx under two branches of one piece with it, and a calyx under two branches of one piece with it, for the 2six branches going out of the lampstand.
Ex 25:36 Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it; all of it one beaten work of pure gold.
Ex 25:37 And you shall make its lamps, 1aseven; and set up its lamps to give 2light to the area in front of it.
Ex 25:38 And its tongs and its firepans shall be of pure gold.
Ex 25:39 It shall be made of a 1talent of pure gold, with all these utensils.
Ex 25:40 And see that you make them according to their apattern, which was shown to you in the mountain.
EXODUS 26

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5. The Covering of the Tabernacle
26:1-14
Ex 26:1 aNow the 1tabernacle you shall make with ten curtains of 2fine twined linen and 3bblue and purple and scarlet strands; you shall make them with 4cherubim, the work of a 5skillful workman.
Ex 26:2 The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain, four cubits; all the curtains shall have the same measurement.
Ex 26:3 1Five curtains shall be joined to one another; and the other 1five curtains shall be joined to one another.
Ex 26:4 And you shall make 1loops of blue strands on the edge of the one curtain at the end in the set; and likewise you shall make them in the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.
Ex 26:5 You shall make fifty loops on the one curtain, and you shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is in the second set; the loops shall be opposite one another.
Ex 26:6 And you shall make fifty 1clasps of gold, and join the curtains to one another with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may become one.
Ex 26:7 And you shall make curtains of 1goats’ hair for a 2tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains you shall make in all.
Ex 26:8 The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain, four cubits; the eleven curtains shall have the same measurement.
Ex 26:9 And you shall join five of the curtains by themselves and six of the curtains by themselves, and you shall double the sixth curtain over at the front of the tent.
Ex 26:10 And you shall make fifty 1loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outermost in the set, and fifty 1loops upon the edge of the curtain which is outermost in the second set.
Ex 26:11 And you shall make fifty 1clasps of bronze and put the clasps into the loops and join the tent together, so that it may become one.
Ex 26:12 And the 1overlapping part that is left over of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that is left over, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle.
Ex 26:13 And the 1cubit on the one side and the cubit on the other side, of what is left over in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and on that side, to cover it.
Ex 26:14 And you shall make a covering for the tent, of 1arams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of 2porpoise skins above it.
6. The Boards of the Tabernacle
26:15-30
Ex 26:15 aAnd you shall make the 1boards for the tabernacle of 2acacia wood, standing up.
Ex 26:16 Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and 1one and a half cubits, the width of each board.
Ex 26:17 Each board shall have two 1tenons, joined to one another; thus you shall do for all the boards of the tabernacle.
Ex 26:18 And you shall make the boards for the tabernacle, 1twenty boards for the south side southward.
Ex 26:19 And you shall make forty 1sockets of silver under the twenty boards, two sockets under one board for its two tenons and two sockets under the 2next board for its two tenons.
Ex 26:20 And for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, twenty boards;
Ex 26:21 And their forty sockets of silver, two sockets under one board and two sockets under the next board.
Ex 26:22 And for the rear of the tabernacle westward you shall make six boards.
Ex 26:23 And two boards you shall make for the corners of the tabernacle in the rear.
Ex 26:24 And they shall be 1double below, and at its top they shall be completely joined to a single ring; thus it shall be for both of them; they shall be for the two corners.
Ex 26:25 And there shall be 1eight boards with their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board and two sockets under the next board.
Ex 26:26 And you shall make 1bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,
Ex 26:27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward.
Ex 26:28 And the middle bar shall 1pass through in the center of the boards from end to end.
Ex 26:29 And you shall overlay the boards with 1gold, and make their 2rings of gold as holders for the bars; and you shall overlay the bars with gold.
Ex 26:30 And you shall set up the tabernacle according to its aplan, which you were shown in the mountain.
7. The Veil within the Tabernacle
26:31-35
Ex 26:31 aAnd you shall make a 1bveil of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.
Ex 26:32 And you shall 1hang it upon four 2pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their 3hooks shall be of gold, and they shall stand on four 4sockets of silver.
Ex 26:33 And you shall hang up the veil under the 1clasps and bring in the Ark of the Testimony there within the veil; and the aveil shall make a separation for you between the Holy Place and the bHoly of Holies.
Ex 26:34 And you shall put the aexpiation cover upon the Ark of the Testimony in the Holy of Holies.
Ex 26:35 And you shall set the table aoutside the veil, and the blampstand opposite the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south; and the table you shall put on the north side.
8. The Screen for the Entrance of the Tent
26:36-37
Ex 26:36 aAnd you shall make a 1bscreen for the 2entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer.
Ex 26:37 And for the screen you shall make five 1pillars of acacia and overlay them with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five sockets of 2bronze for them.
EXODUS 27

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9. The Altar of Burnt Offering
27:1-8
Ex 27:1 aAnd you shall make the 1baltar of 2acacia wood, a length of 3five cubits and a width of 3five cubits; the altar shall be 4square; and 5three cubits, its height.
Ex 27:2 And you shall make its 1ahorns upon its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with 2bronze.
Ex 27:3 And you shall make its pots to remove its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; all its 1utensils you shall make of bronze.
Ex 27:4 And you shall make a 1grating, a network of bronze for it; and on the net you shall make four bronze 2rings at its four ends.
Ex 27:5 And you shall put it below, under the 1ledge of the altar so that the net may reach 2halfway up the altar.
Ex 27:6 And you shall make 1poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze.
Ex 27:7 And its poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar when it is carried.
Ex 27:8 You shall make it hollow with boards; as it was ashown to you in the mountain, so shall they make it.
10. The Court of the Tabernacle
27:9-19
Ex 27:9 aAnd you shall make the 1bcourt of the tabernacle: On the south side southward there shall be 2hangings for the court of fine twined 3linen, a length of one hundred cubits for one side;
Ex 27:10 And its twenty 1pillars and their twenty sockets shall be of bronze; the 2hooks of the pillars and their 2connecting rods shall be of silver.
Ex 27:11 And likewise on the north side, in length there shall be hangings a length of one hundred cubits, and its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods shall be of silver.
Ex 27:12 And for the width of the court on the west side there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, with their ten pillars and their ten sockets.
Ex 27:13 And the width of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.
Ex 27:14 And there shall be fifteen cubits of hangings for the one side of the gate, with their three pillars and their three sockets.
Ex 27:15 And there shall be fifteen cubits of hangings for the other side, with their three pillars and their three sockets.
Ex 27:16 And for the 1gate of the court there shall be a ascreen of twenty cubits, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen, the work of an 2embroiderer; with their four pillars and their four sockets.
Ex 27:17 All the pillars around the court shall be connected with silver, with their hooks of silver and their sockets of bronze.
Ex 27:18 The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits; and the width, 1fifty at each end; and the height, 2five cubits; of fine twined linen, and their sockets of bronze.
Ex 27:19 All the utensils of the tabernacle used in all its service and all its 1pegs and all the 1pegs of the court shall be of 2bronze.
11. The Lighting of the Lamps
27:20-21
Ex 27:20 aAnd you shall command the children of Israel to bring to you pure 1oil of beaten olives for the light, to 2make the lamps burn continually.
Ex 27:21 In the 1Tent of Meeting, outside the veil which is 2before the Testimony, 3Aaron and his sons shall amaintain it in order from 4evening to morning before Jehovah; it shall be a perpetual statute to be observed throughout their generations by the children of Israel.
EXODUS 28

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12. The Garments for the Priesthood
28:1-43
Ex 28:1 And bring near to yourself 1aAaron your brother and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may serve Me as a 2priest — Aaron, bNadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.
Ex 28:2 And you shall make holy 1agarments for Aaron your brother, 2for glory and for beauty.
Ex 28:3 And you shall speak to all who are awise in heart, whom I have filled with the bspirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments to sanctify him, that he may serve Me as a priest.
Ex 28:4 And these are the 1garments which they shall make: a abreastplate and an 2ephod and a brobe and a ctunic of 3checkered work, a turban and a girding dsash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and for his sons that he may serve Me as a priest.
Ex 28:5 They therefore shall take the gold and the blue and the purple and the scarlet strands and the fine linen,
Ex 28:6 aAnd they shall make the ephod of 1gold thread, of blue and purple and scarlet strands, and fine twined linen, the work of a skillful workman.
Ex 28:7 It shall have two 1shoulder pieces joined to its two edges, so that it may be joined together.
Ex 28:8 And the skillfully woven aband, which is on it 1for its fastening, shall be like it in workmanship, of one piece with it; of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen.
Ex 28:9 And you shall take two 1aonyx stones and engrave on them the bnames of the sons of Israel,
Ex 28:10 Six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth.
Ex 28:11 With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones, according to the names of the sons of Israel; you shall make them enclosed in 1settings of gold.
Ex 28:12 And you shall put the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of 1remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before Jehovah on his two shoulders for a 1memorial.
Ex 28:13 And you shall make settings of gold,
Ex 28:14 And two 1chains of pure gold; you shall make them twisted, a corded work, and you shall put the chains of cords on the settings.
Ex 28:15 And you shall make a 1abreastplate of 2judgment, the work of a skillful workman; 3like the work of the ephod you shall make it; of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands, and of fine twined linen you shall make it.
Ex 28:16 It shall be 1square and 1doubled; a 2span its length and a 2span its width.
Ex 28:17 And you shall enclose in it enclosures of 1astones, 2four rows of stones: the first row shall be a row of a 3sardius, a topaz, and an emerald;
Ex 28:18 And the second row, a 1carbuncle, a sapphire, and a diamond;
Ex 28:19 And the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
Ex 28:20 And the fourth row, a 1chrysolite, and an onyx, and a jasper; they shall be set in gold in their enclosures.
Ex 28:21 And the stones shall be according to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve, according to their names; they shall be like the 1engravings of a signet, each according to its name, for the twelve tribes.
Ex 28:22 And you shall make on the breastplate twisted 1chains, a corded work of pure gold.
Ex 28:23 And you shall make on the breastplate two 1rings of gold and shall put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
Ex 28:24 And you shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the ends of the breastplate.
Ex 28:25 And you shall put the two other ends of the two cords on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front of it.
Ex 28:26 And you shall make two rings of gold, and you shall put them upon the two ends of the breastplate upon its edge, which is toward the ephod on the inside.
Ex 28:27 And you shall make two rings of gold and shall put them on the bottom of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod on the front of it, close to the place where it is joined, above the skillfully woven aband of the ephod.
Ex 28:28 And they shall bind the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a 1cord of blue strands, that it may be upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod and that the breastplate may not come loose from the ephod.
Ex 28:29 So Aaron shall bear the names of the asons of Israel in the breastplate of judgment on his heart when he goes into the sanctuary, for a 1memorial before Jehovah continually.
Ex 28:30 And you shall put in the breastplate of 1judgment the 2aUrim and the 3Thummim; and they shall be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before Jehovah, and Aaron shall bear the 1judgment of the children of Israel on his heart before Jehovah continually.
Ex 28:31 aAnd you shall make the 1robe of the ephod all of 2blue strands.
Ex 28:32 And there shall be an opening for the head in its center; around its opening there shall be a binding edge of woven work, like the opening of a 1coat of mail, so that it will not be torn.
Ex 28:33 And you shall make on its hem 1pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet strands, all around its hem, and 1bells of gold between them all around:
Ex 28:34 A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe all around.
Ex 28:35 And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the sanctuary before Jehovah and when he comes out, so that he may not die.
Ex 28:36 aAnd you shall make a 1plate of pure gold and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: 2HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH.
Ex 28:37 And you shall put it on a 1cord of blue strands, and it shall be on the turban; it shall be at the front of the turban.
Ex 28:38 And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall abear the iniquity of the 1holy things, which the children of Israel sanctify for all their 1holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before Jehovah.
Ex 28:39 aAnd you shall weave the 1tunic of fine linen, and you shall make a 1turban of fine linen, and you shall make a 1girding bsash, the work of an embroiderer.
Ex 28:40 And for Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics, and you shall make for them girding sashes, and you shall make for them high hats, for glory and for beauty.
Ex 28:41 And you shall put them upon Aaron your brother and upon his sons with him, and you shall aanoint them and 1bconsecrate them and sanctify them, that they may serve Me as priests.
Ex 28:42 And you shall make them linen atrousers to cover their 1naked flesh; they shall reach from the loins even to the thighs;
Ex 28:43 And they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons when they go into the Tent of Meeting or when they come near to the altar to minister in the sanctuary, that they may not bear iniquity and die. It shall be a perpetual statute for him and for his seed after him.
EXODUS 29

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13. The Sanctification of Aaron and His Sons to Be the Priests
29:1-46
Ex 29:1 And this is what you shall do to them to 1sanctify them to serve Me as priests: take one 2bull of the herd and two 2arams without blemish,
Ex 29:2 And unleavened 1bread and unleavened cakes 2amingled with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil — you shall make them of fine wheat flour.
Ex 29:3 And you shall put them into one basket and present them in the basket with the bull and the two rams.
Ex 29:4 And you shall bring Aaron and his sons near to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and 1awash them with water.
Ex 29:5 aAnd you shall take the bgarments and 1clothe Aaron with the tunic and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate, and gird him with the skillfully woven cband of the ephod;
Ex 29:6 And you shall place the aturban on his head and put the holy 1crown on the turban.
Ex 29:7 Then you shall take the 1aanointing oil and pour it on his head and banoint him.
Ex 29:8 And you shall bring his sons near and put tunics on them.
Ex 29:9 And you shall gird them with girding asashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind high hats on them; and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. So you shall bconsecrate Aaron and his sons.
Ex 29:10 aAnd you shall present the bull before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall 1blay their hands on the head of the bull.
Ex 29:11 And you shall 1slaughter the bull before Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Ex 29:12 And you shall take some of the 1blood of the bull and put some of it on the ahorns of the altar with your finger, and all the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar.
Ex 29:13 And you shall take all the 1afat that covers the inward parts and the appendage on the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and 2burn them on the altar.
Ex 29:14 But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall aburn with fire outside the camp; it is a 1bsin offering.
Ex 29:15 aAnd you shall also take the one bram, and Aaron and his sons shall clay their hands on the head of the ram.
Ex 29:16 And you shall slaughter the ram, and you shall take its 1blood and sprinkle it on and around the altar.
Ex 29:17 Then you shall cut the ram into its pieces and wash its inward parts and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head.
Ex 29:18 And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar; it is a 1aburnt offering to Jehovah; it is a 2bsatisfying fragrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Ex 29:19 aAnd you shall take the other bram, and Aaron and his sons shall clay their hands on the head of the ram.
Ex 29:20 Then you shall slaughter the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right 1aear and on the lobe of the right ear of his sons and on the thumb of their right 1hand and on the big toe of their right 1foot, and sprinkle the rest of the blood on and around the altar.
Ex 29:21 And you shall take some of the 1blood that is on the altar and some of the 1aanointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on his sons’ garments with him; and he and his garments shall be sanctified, as well as his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
Ex 29:22 You shall also take the fat from the ram, that is, the fat tail and the afat that covers the 1inward parts, and the appendage of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them and the right thigh (for it is a ram of bconsecration),
Ex 29:23 And one loaf of 1abread and one cake of oiled bread and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Jehovah;
Ex 29:24 And you shall put all these in the palms of Aaron and in the palms of his sons, and awave them as a 1wave offering before Jehovah.
Ex 29:25 And you shall 1take them from their hands and burn them on the altar upon the burnt offering for a asatisfying fragrance before Jehovah; it is an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Ex 29:26 And you shall take the 1breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration and wave it as a wave offering before Jehovah; and it shall be 2your portion.
Ex 29:27 And you shall sanctify the abreast of the wave offering and the thigh of the 1heave offering which was waved and which was heaved up from the ram of consecration, from that which is for Aaron and from that which is for his sons.
Ex 29:28 And it shall become a perpetual astatute for Aaron and his sons to be observed by the children of Israel, for it is a heave offering; and it shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their 1peace offerings, their heave offering to Jehovah.
Ex 29:29 (And the holy garments of Aaron shall belong to his sons after him, for them to be anointed in them and to be consecrated in them.
Ex 29:30 One of his sons, who is the priest in his place, shall put them on for 1aseven days when he comes into the Tent of Meeting to minister in the sanctuary.)
Ex 29:31 aAnd you shall take the ram of consecration and 1boil its flesh in a holy place.
Ex 29:32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the abread that is in the basket at the entrance of the 1Tent of Meeting.
Ex 29:33 So they shall aeat those things by which 1expiation was made, to consecrate them and to sanctify them; but a 2bstranger shall not eat them, because they are holy.
Ex 29:34 And if any of the flesh of the ram of consecration or any of the bread 1remains until the 2morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire; it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.
Ex 29:35 And thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons according to all that I have commanded you; you shall consecrate them aseven days.
Ex 29:36 And 1each day you shall 2offer a bull as a asin offering for expiation, and you shall 3cleanse the altar when you make expiation for it; and you shall anoint it to 3bsanctify it.
Ex 29:37 Seven days you shall make expiation for the altar and sanctify it, and the altar shall become most holy; whatever touches the aaltar shall be holy.
Ex 29:38 aNow this is what you shall 1offer on the altar: two lambs a year old, each day continually.
Ex 29:39 The one lamb you shall offer in the amorning, and the other lamb you shall offer at 1twilight.
Ex 29:40 And with the one lamb a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a 1drink offering.
Ex 29:41 And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; you shall offer it with the ameal offering and its drink offering as in the morning, for a bsatisfying fragrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Ex 29:42 It shall be a acontinual burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before Jehovah, where I will bmeet with you to speak to you there.
Ex 29:43 And there I will meet with the children of Israel; and it shall be sanctified by My aglory.
Ex 29:44 And I will sanctify the Tent of Meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will sanctify to serve Me as priests.
Ex 29:45 And I will dwell in the amidst of the children of Israel, and I will be their God.
Ex 29:46 And they shall aknow that I am Jehovah their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might 1dwell in the midst of them; I am Jehovah their God.
EXODUS 30

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14. The Golden Incense Altar
30:1-10
Ex 30:1 aAnd you shall make an 1baltar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of 2acacia wood.
Ex 30:2 Its 1length shall be a cubit, and its width, a cubit; it shall be square, and two cubits its height; its 2ahorns shall be of one piece with it.
Ex 30:3 And you shall overlay it with pure 1agold, its top and its sides around it and its horns; and you shall make a 2rim of gold around it.
Ex 30:4 And you shall make for it two 1rings of gold under its rim; on its two sides, on its opposite sides, you shall make them; and they shall be as holders for 1apoles with which to carry it.
Ex 30:5 And you shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
Ex 30:6 And you shall put it 1before the veil that is over the Ark of the Testimony, before the expiation cover that is over the Testimony, where I will ameet with you.
Ex 30:7 And Aaron shall aburn on it fragrant 1bincense; every morning when he 2dresses the lamps he shall burn it.
Ex 30:8 And when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a perpetual aincense before Jehovah throughout your generations.
Ex 30:9 You shall not offer any 1strange incense on it, or a 2burnt offering or a 2meal offering; and you shall not pour a 2drink offering on it.
Ex 30:10 And Aaron shall make 1aexpiation on its horns once a year; with the 2blood of the bsin offering of expiation conce a year he shall make expiation for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Jehovah.
15. The Expiation Silver
30:11-16
Ex 30:11 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 30:12 When you take the 1asum of the children of Israel, according to their numbering, every man shall give a bransom for 2himself to Jehovah when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.
Ex 30:13 This they shall give, each one who was enrolled among their numbering, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), ahalf a shekel as a 1heave offering to Jehovah.
Ex 30:14 Each one who was enrolled among their numbering, from 1twenty years old and over, shall give the heave offering of Jehovah.
Ex 30:15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel when you give the heave offering of Jehovah to make expiation for your souls.
Ex 30:16 And you shall take the expiation silver from the children of Israel and shall give it for the 1service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Jehovah to make expiation for your souls.
16. The Laver of Bronze
30:17-21
Ex 30:17 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 30:18 You shall also make a 1alaver of 2bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing. And you shall put it 3bbetween the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put 4water in it.
Ex 30:19 And Aaron and his sons shall 1awash their hands and their feet with water from it;
Ex 30:20 When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they may not 1die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering by fire to Jehovah,
Ex 30:21 They shall wash their hands and their feet, that they may not die. And it shall be a perpetual statute to them, for him and for his seed throughout their generations.
17. The Holy Anointing Oil
30:22-33
Ex 30:22 Moreover Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 30:23 You also take the finest aspices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred fifty shekels, and of fragrant calamus two hundred fifty shekels,
Ex 30:24 And of cassia five hundred shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.
Ex 30:25 And you shall make it a 1holy aanointing oil, a 2fragrant ointment compounded according to the work of a compounder; it shall be a 1holy anointing oil.
Ex 30:26 And with it you shall 1aanoint the Tent of Meeting and the Ark of the Testimony,
Ex 30:27 And the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense,
Ex 30:28 And the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base.
Ex 30:29 Thus you shall sanctify them that they may be most holy; whatever touches them shall be holy.
Ex 30:30 And you shall aanoint 1Aaron and his sons and sanctify them that they may serve Me as priests.
Ex 30:31 And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations.
Ex 30:32 Upon the 1flesh of man it shall not be poured, nor shall you make any 2like it, according to its composition; it is holy, and it shall be holy to you.
Ex 30:33 Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it upon a 1stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.
18. The Incense
30:34-38
Ex 30:34 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take fragrant 1aspices — stacte and onycha and galbanum — fragrant spices with pure 1frankincense; there shall be an 2equal part of each;
Ex 30:35 And you shall make of it 1aincense, a 2fragrant compound according to the work of a compounder, seasoned with 3bsalt, pure and holy.
Ex 30:36 And you shall 1beat some of it very fine, and put some of it 2before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will ameet with you; it shall be to you most holy.
Ex 30:37 And the incense which you shall make, you shall not make for 1yourselves according to its composition; it shall be holy to you for Jehovah.
Ex 30:38 Whoever shall make any like it, to smell it, shall be cut off from his people.
EXODUS 31

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L. The Workers of the Tabernacle, the Furniture, and the Priestly Garments
31:1-11
Ex 31:1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 31:2 aSee, I have called by name 1bBezalel the son of Uri, the son of cHur, of the tribe of Judah.
Ex 31:3 And I have filled him with the 1aSpirit of God, with bwisdom and with understanding and with knowledge and with all kinds of workmanship,
Ex 31:4 To fashion skillful designs, to work in 1gold and in silver and in bronze,
Ex 31:5 And in the 1cutting of stones for setting and in the 1carving of wood, to 1work in all kinds of workmanship.
Ex 31:6 And now, I Myself have appointed with him 1aOholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the 2tribe of Dan; band in the heart of all who are cwise in heart I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
Ex 31:7 The aTent of Meeting, and the bArk of the Testimony and the cexpiation cover that is on it, and all the utensils of the tent,
Ex 31:8 And the atable and its utensils, and the pure blampstand with all its utensils, and the caltar of incense,
Ex 31:9 And the aaltar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the blaver and its base,
Ex 31:10 And the finely worked agarments, both the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons for them to serve as priests,
Ex 31:11 And the aanointing oil, and the bincense of fragrant spices for the sanctuary. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.
M. The Sabbath in Relation to the Building Work of the Tabernacle
31:12-17
Ex 31:12 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 31:13 aSpeak also to the children of Israel, saying, You shall surely keep My 1Sabbaths; for it is a 2bsign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may cknow that I am Jehovah who sanctifies you.
Ex 31:14 Therefore you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. aEveryone who profanes it shall surely be put to 1death; for whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be 1cut off from among his people.
Ex 31:15 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to Jehovah; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
Ex 31:16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
Ex 31:17 It is a asign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the bseventh day He rested and was refreshed.
N. The Breaking of the Law
31:18 — 32:6
Ex 31:18 And when He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave to Moses the two 1tablets of the Testimony, atablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
EXODUS 32

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Ex 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, Come, make a 1agod for us who will go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
Ex 32:2 And Aaron said to them, Tear off the gold 1rings, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.
Ex 32:3 And all the people tore off the golden rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
Ex 32:4 And 1he took the gold from their hand and fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into a molten 2acalf; and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
Ex 32:5 And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; then Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to Jehovah.
Ex 32:6 And they rose up early on the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and athe people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
O. The Dealing with the Idol and the Idolaters
32:7-29
Ex 32:7 aAnd Jehovah spoke to Moses, Go, get down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have 1corrupted themselves.
Ex 32:8 They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and they have aworshipped it and have sacrificed to it and said, This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
Ex 32:9 And Jehovah said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed they are a astiff-necked people.
Ex 32:10 Now therefore let Me be, that My anger may burn against them and I may consume them; and I will make of you a great anation.
Ex 32:11 And Moses 1aentreated Jehovah his God and said, Jehovah, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Ex 32:12 aWhy should the Egyptians speak, saying, With evil intent He brought them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your burning anger, and repent of this ill against Your people.
Ex 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your aseed, and they shall inherit it forever.
Ex 32:14 Thus Jehovah repented of the evil which He said He would do to His people.
Ex 32:15 aThen Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both of their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
Ex 32:16 And the atablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.
Ex 32:17 And when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a sound of war in the camp.
Ex 32:18 But 1Moses said,
It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, / Neither is it the sound of the cry of defeat; / But it is the sound of singing that I hear.
Ex 32:19 And as soon as he drew near to the camp, he saw the acalf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and 1shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
Ex 32:20 aAnd he took the calf which they had made, and he burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it upon the water and made the children of Israel 1drink it.
Ex 32:21 And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you brought so great a sin upon them?
Ex 32:22 And Aaron said, Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know the people, that they are set on evil;
Ex 32:23 For they said to me, aMake a god for us who will go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
Ex 32:24 aSo I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.
Ex 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were without restraint (for Aaron had let them be without restraint to be a derision among those who rise up against them),
Ex 32:26 Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, 1Whoever is for Jehovah, come to me. And all the sons of aLevi gathered themselves to him.
Ex 32:27 And he said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Let each man put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each man kill his 1brother, and each man his 1companion, and each man his 1neighbor.
Ex 32:28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and that day about three thousand men among the people fell.
Ex 32:29 And Moses said, Consecrate yourselves today to Jehovah, for every man has been aagainst his son and against his brother, that He may bestow upon you a blessing today.
P. A Companion of God
32:30 — 33:23
Ex 32:30 And on the next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up to Jehovah; perhaps I can make 1expiation for your sin.
Ex 32:31 aAnd Moses returned to Jehovah and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made a god of gold for themselves.
Ex 32:32 And now if only You will forgive their sin; and if not, please blot me out of Your abook, which You have written.
Ex 32:33 And Jehovah said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
Ex 32:34 And now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Now My aAngel will go before you; nevertheless in the day when I 1visit, I will visit their sin upon them.
Ex 32:35 And Jehovah struck the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.
EXODUS 33

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Ex 33:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the aland of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To your bseed I will give it.
Ex 33:2 And I will send an 1aAngel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Ex 33:3 Go up to a land flowing with amilk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a bstiff-necked people.
Ex 33:4 And when the people heard this evil word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.
Ex 33:5 Now Jehovah had said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people; if I were to go up in your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Now therefore put off your ornaments from you, and I will 1decide what to do to you.
Ex 33:6 Thus the children of Israel were stripped of their 1ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.
Ex 33:7 Now Moses would take the tent and pitch it 1aoutside the camp, some distance from the camp; and he called it the btent of meeting. And everyone who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
Ex 33:8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and stand, every man at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses, until he entered the tent.
Ex 33:9 And whenever Moses entered the tent, the apillar of cloud would descend and stay at the entrance of the tent, and Jehovah would speak with Moses.
Ex 33:10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, every man at the entrance of his tent.
Ex 33:11 And Jehovah would speak to Moses aface to face, just as a man speaks to his 1companion. And 2Moses would return to the camp, but his attendant bJoshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart out of the tent.
Ex 33:12 And Moses said to Jehovah, See, You say to me, aBring up this people; but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.
Ex 33:13 Now therefore if I have found favor in Your sight, please let me know now Your aways, that I may know You, so that I may continue to find favor in Your sight. Consider also that this nation is Your bpeople.
Ex 33:14 And He said, My 1apresence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.
Ex 33:15 And he said to Him, If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
Ex 33:16 For how then shall it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, are adistinct from all the other people who are on the face of the earth?
Ex 33:17 And Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.
Ex 33:18 And he said, Please show me Your 1aglory.
Ex 33:19 And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the aname of Jehovah before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and bI will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Ex 33:20 But He said, You cannot see My face, for ano man shall see Me and live.
Ex 33:21 Then Jehovah said, Here, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon the rock;
Ex 33:22 And while My glory passes by, I will put you in a 1cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by.
Ex 33:23 And I will take away My hand, and you will see My back; but My face shall not be seen.
EXODUS 34

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Q. Moses’ Stay with God
34:1-35
Ex 34:1 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Cut two 1atablets of stone like the first ones, and I will bwrite upon the tablets the words which were on the first tablets, which you cshattered.
Ex 34:2 And be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain.
Ex 34:3 And no one shall come up with you, nor let anyone be seen anywhere on the amountain, nor let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.
Ex 34:4 So 1Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses 2rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, just as Jehovah had commanded him; and he took two tablets of stone in his hand.
Ex 34:5 And Jehovah adescended in the cloud and took His place there with him and 1proclaimed the bname of Jehovah.
Ex 34:6 Then Jehovah passed by before him and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, God acompassionate and gracious, blong-suffering, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth,
Ex 34:7 aKeeping lovingkindness with thousands of generations, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; but He will by no means clear the guilty, bbut visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the grandchildren, to the third and fourth generations.
Ex 34:8 And Moses made haste and bowed to the ground and worshipped.
Ex 34:9 And he said, If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, let the Lord please ago in our midst; although they are a bstiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for Your cinheritance.
Ex 34:10 And He said, Now I hereby make a acovenant: Before all your people I will perform 1wonders such as have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of Jehovah, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
Ex 34:11 Observe what I am commanding you today. I will adrive out before you the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Ex 34:12 Be careful that you do not make any acovenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are going, lest they become a snare in your midst.
Ex 34:13 But their aaltars you shall tear down, and their pillars you shall shatter, and their 1Asherahs you shall cut down
Ex 34:14 (For you shall not worship any other 1god; for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a ajealous God),
Ex 34:15 Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go as harlots after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, and you eat of his sacrifice;
Ex 34:16 And you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters go as harlots after their gods, and make your sons go as harlots after their gods.
Ex 34:17 You shall not make for yourself any molten gods.
Ex 34:18 aYou shall 1keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
Ex 34:19 All that aopens the womb is Mine, even the first male produced by all your livestock, of cattle or sheep.
Ex 34:20 And the first offspring of a 1donkey you shall redeem with a alamb; but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and they shall not appear before Me bempty.
Ex 34:21 aSix days you shall work, but on the 1seventh day you shall cease from labor. Even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall cease from labor.
Ex 34:22 And you shall keep the aFeast of Weeks, that is, of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the bFeast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
Ex 34:23 1aThree times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel.
Ex 34:24 1For I will 2adrive out nations before you and 2benlarge your borders, and no one shall 2covet your land when you go up to appear before Jehovah your God three times in the year.
Ex 34:25 aYou shall not slaughter the 1blood of My sacrifice with anything leavened, nor shall the sacrifice of the bFeast of the Passover remain all night until the 2morning.
Ex 34:26 The 1first of the afirstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of Jehovah your God. bYou shall not 2boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Ex 34:27 And Jehovah said to Moses, Write these words, for according to the 1speaking of these words I have made a acovenant with you and with Israel.
Ex 34:28 And he was there with Jehovah aforty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. And He wrote upon the btablets the words of the covenant, the Ten 1Commandments.
Ex 34:29 And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai — and the two atablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain — Moses did not know that the skin of his bface shone by reason of 1His speaking with him.
Ex 34:30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, at that time the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
Ex 34:31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the assembly returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.
Ex 34:32 And afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them in commandment all that Jehovah had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
Ex 34:33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a 1aveil over his face.
Ex 34:34 But whenever Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with Him, he would remove the 1veil until he came out; and when he came out and spoke to the children of Israel what he had been commanded,
Ex 34:35 The children of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. Then Moses would put the veil back on his face until he went in to speak with Him.
EXODUS 35

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V. Building the Tabernacle
35:1 — 40:38
A. The Making of the Tabernacle with Its Furniture and the Garments for the Priests
35:1 — 39:31
1. A Word concerning the Sabbath
35:1-3
Ex 35:1 And Moses gathered all the assembly of the children of Israel and said to them, These are the words which Jehovah has commanded you to do.
Ex 35:2 aSix days shall work be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a 1Sabbath of complete rest, holy to Jehovah; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
Ex 35:3 You shall kindle no fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.
2. The Offering of the Materials and the Preparing of the Workers
35:4 — 36:7
Ex 35:4 aAnd Moses spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, saying, This is what Jehovah has commanded, saying,
Ex 35:5 1Take from among yourselves a 2heave offering to Jehovah; whoever is of a willing aheart, let him bring it, the heave offering of Jehovah: gold and silver and bronze,
Ex 35:6 And blue and purple and scarlet strands, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
Ex 35:7 And rams’ skins dyed red, and porpoise skins, and acacia wood,
Ex 35:8 And oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
Ex 35:9 And onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.
Ex 35:10 And let every man who is 1awise in heart among you come and make all that Jehovah has commanded:
Ex 35:11 aThe tabernacle, its btent, and its covering; its clasps and its boards; its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;
Ex 35:12 The aArk and its poles, the expiation cover, and the bveil of the screen;
Ex 35:13 The atable and its poles and all its utensils, and the bbread of the Presence;
Ex 35:14 And the alampstand for the light and its utensils and its lamps, and the boil for the light;
Ex 35:15 And the aaltar of incense and its poles; and the banointing oil and the fragrant cincense; and the dscreen for the entrance, at the entrance of the tabernacle;
Ex 35:16 The aaltar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils; the blaver and its base;
Ex 35:17 The hangings of the acourt, its pillars, and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court;
Ex 35:18 The pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords;
Ex 35:19 The finely worked garments for ministering in the sanctuary, the holy agarments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons for them to serve as priests.
Ex 35:20 And all the assembly of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.
Ex 35:21 And they came, everyone whose heart 1lifted him up and everyone whose 1spirit made him awilling, and brought the bheave offering of Jehovah for the work of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments.
Ex 35:22 And they came, men together with women, as many as were of a willing aheart, and brought nose brings and earrings and signet rings and pendants, all kinds of articles of gold; even every man who waved a wave offering of gold to Jehovah.
Ex 35:23 And every man with whom was found ablue and purple and scarlet strands and fine linen and goats’ hair and rams’ skins dyed red and porpoise skins brought them.
Ex 35:24 Everyone who offered a heave offering of silver and bronze brought the heave offering of Jehovah, and every man with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service brought it.
Ex 35:25 And all the women who were awise in heart spun with their hands and brought what they had spun, the blue and the purple and the scarlet strands and the fine linen.
Ex 35:26 And all the women whose heart lifted them up in wisdom spun the goats’ hair.
Ex 35:27 And the leaders brought the onyx stones and the stones for setting for the ephod and for the breastplate,
Ex 35:28 And the spices and the oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.
Ex 35:29 The children of Israel brought a 1freewill offering to Jehovah, every man and woman whose aheart made them willing to bring for all the work, which Jehovah had commanded through Moses to be done.
Ex 35:30 aAnd Moses said to the children of Israel, See, Jehovah has called by name bBezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
Ex 35:31 And He has filled him with the aSpirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge, and with all kinds of workmanship;
Ex 35:32 Even to fashion skillful designs, to work in gold and in silver and in bronze,
Ex 35:33 And in the cutting of stones for setting and in the carving of wood, to work in all kinds of skillful workmanship.
Ex 35:34 And He has put in his heart to 1teach, both he and aOholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
Ex 35:35 He has filled them with awisdom of heart, to work all kinds of workmanship, of an 1engraver and of a skillful workman and of an embroiderer in blue and in purple and in scarlet strands and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do all kinds of workmanship and of those who fashion skillful designs.
EXODUS 36

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Ex 36:1 And aBezalel and bOholiab and every man who is cwise in heart, in whom Jehovah has put wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work for the service of the sanctuary, shall work according to all that Jehovah has commanded.
Ex 36:2 And Moses called aBezalel and Oholiab and every man who was bwise in heart, in whose heart Jehovah had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart 1lifted him up to come to the work to do it.
Ex 36:3 And they received from Moses every aheave offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to carry it out. And they still kept bringing to him freewill offerings every morning.
Ex 36:4 And all the wise men who did all the work of the sanctuary came, every man from his work which he was doing,
Ex 36:5 And spoke to Moses, saying, The people are bringing much more than enough for the service of the work which Jehovah commanded us to do.
Ex 36:6 And Moses gave commandment; and a proclamation was passed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman produce any more material for the heave offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.
Ex 36:7 For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to do it.
3. The Curtains and Coverings of the Tabernacle
36:8-19
Ex 36:8 aAnd all the bwise in heart among those who did the work 1made the tabernacle with ten 2curtains, of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet strands, with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman. 3cBezalel made them.
Ex 36:9 The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain, four cubits; all the curtains had the same measurement.
Ex 36:10 And he joined five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he joined to one another.
Ex 36:11 And he made loops of blue strands upon the edge of the one curtain at the end in the set; likewise he made them in the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.
Ex 36:12 He made fifty loops on the one curtain, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set; the loops were opposite one another.
Ex 36:13 And he made fifty clasps of gold and joined the curtains to one another with the clasps; so the tabernacle became one.
Ex 36:14 And he made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains he made in all.
Ex 36:15 The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain, four cubits; the eleven curtains had the same measurement.
Ex 36:16 And he joined five of the curtains by themselves, and six of the curtains by themselves.
Ex 36:17 And he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was outermost in the set, and fifty loops he made upon the edge of the curtain which was outermost in the second set.
Ex 36:18 And he made fifty clasps of bronze to join the tent together, that it might become one.
Ex 36:19 And he made a covering for the tent, of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of porpoise skins above it.
4. The Boards of the Tabernacle
36:20-34
Ex 36:20 aAnd he made the 1boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing up.
Ex 36:21 Ten cubits was the length of a board, and one and a half cubits, the width of each board.
Ex 36:22 Each board had two tenons joined to one another; thus he did for all the boards of the tabernacle.
Ex 36:23 And he made the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side southward.
Ex 36:24 And he made forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards, two sockets under one board for its two tenons and two sockets under the next board for its two tenons.
Ex 36:25 And for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty boards
Ex 36:26 And their forty sockets of silver, two sockets under one board and two sockets under the next board.
Ex 36:27 And for the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six boards.
Ex 36:28 And two boards he made for the corners of the tabernacle in the rear.
Ex 36:29 And they were double below, and at its top they were completely joined to a single ring; thus he did to both of them for the two corners.
Ex 36:30 And there were eight boards with their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets, two sockets under every board.
Ex 36:31 And he made bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle
Ex 36:32 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle at the rear westward.
Ex 36:33 And he made the middle bar to pass through in the center of the boards from end to end.
Ex 36:34 And he overlaid the boards with gold and made their rings of gold as holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.
5. The Veil within the Tabernacle
36:35-36
Ex 36:35 aAnd he made the 1veil of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen; he made it with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.
Ex 36:36 And he made for it four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold; their hooks were of gold. And he cast for them four sockets of silver.
6. The Screen for the Entrance of the Tent
36:37-38
Ex 36:37 aAnd he made a 1screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer,
Ex 36:38 And its five pillars with their hooks. And he overlaid their capitals and their connecting rods with gold, and their five sockets were of bronze.
EXODUS 37

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

7. The Ark of the Testimony
37:1-9
Ex 37:1 aAnd bBezalel made the 1Ark of acacia wood: two and a half cubits was its length; and one and a half cubits, its width; and one and a half cubits, its height.
Ex 37:2 And he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a rim of gold around it.
Ex 37:3 And he cast four rings of gold for it, on its four feet; and two rings were on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
Ex 37:4 And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
Ex 37:5 And he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the Ark to carry the Ark.
Ex 37:6 And he made an expiation cover of pure gold: two and a half cubits was its length, and one and a half cubits, its width.
Ex 37:7 And he made two cherubim of gold; of beaten work he made them, at the two ends of the expiation cover,
Ex 37:8 One cherub at the one end and one cherub at the other end; of one piece with the expiation cover he made the cherubim at its two ends.
Ex 37:9 And the cherubim spread out their wings above the cover, covering the expiation cover with their wings, with their faces toward one another; the faces of the cherubim were toward the expiation cover.
8. The Table of the Bread of the Presence
37:10-16
Ex 37:10 aAnd he made the 1table of acacia wood: two cubits was its length, and a cubit its width, and one and a half cubits its height.
Ex 37:11 And he overlaid it with pure gold and made a rim of gold around it.
Ex 37:12 And he made a frame of a handbreadth around it, and he made a rim of gold for its frame around it.
Ex 37:13 And he cast for it four rings of gold and put the rings on the four corners that were on its four feet.
Ex 37:14 The rings were close to the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table.
Ex 37:15 And he made the poles of acacia wood to carry the table and overlaid them with gold.
Ex 37:16 And he made the utensils which were to be upon the table: its plates and its cups and its bowls and its pitchers with which to pour out drink offerings, of pure gold.
9. The Golden Lampstand
37:17-24
Ex 37:17 aAnd he made the 1lampstand of pure gold. He made the lampstand with its base and its shaft of beaten work; its cups, its calyxes, and its blossom buds were of one piece with it.
Ex 37:18 And there were six branches going out of its sides; three branches of the lampstand out of one of its sides, and three branches of the lampstand out of its other side;
Ex 37:19 Three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a calyx and a blossom bud; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a calyx and a blossom bud — so for the six branches going out of the lampstand.
Ex 37:20 And on the lampstand were four cups made like almond blossoms, its calyxes and its blossom buds;
Ex 37:21 And a calyx under two branches of one piece with it, and a calyx under two branches of one piece with it, and a calyx under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of it.
Ex 37:22 Their calyxes and their branches were of one piece with it; all of it was one beaten work of pure gold.
Ex 37:23 And he made its seven lamps and its tongs and its firepans, of pure gold.
Ex 37:24 He made it of a talent of pure gold, and all its utensils.
10. The Altar of Incense
37:25-28
Ex 37:25 aAnd he made the 1altar of incense of acacia wood; a cubit was its length, and a cubit, its width, square; and two cubits, its height; its horns were of one piece with it.
Ex 37:26 And he overlaid it with pure gold, its top and its sides around it and its horns; and he made a rim of gold around it.
Ex 37:27 And he made for it two golden rings under its rim, on its two sides, on its opposite sides, as holders for poles with which to carry it.
Ex 37:28 And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
11. The Holy Anointing Oil and the Pure Incense
37:29
Ex 37:29 And he made the holy 1aanointing oil and the pure 1bfragrant incense, the work of a compounder.
EXODUS 38

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

12. The Altar of Burnt Offering
38:1-7
Ex 38:1 aAnd he made the 1altar of burnt offering, of acacia wood; five cubits was its length, and five cubits, its width, square; and three cubits, its height.
Ex 38:2 And he made its horns upon its four corners; its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze.
Ex 38:3 And he made all the utensils of the altar: the pots and the shovels and the basins, the forks and the firepans; all its utensils he made of bronze.
Ex 38:4 And he made a grating of network of bronze for the altar, under its ledge beneath, reaching halfway up.
Ex 38:5 And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grating of bronze, as holders for the poles.
Ex 38:6 And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze.
Ex 38:7 And he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it; he made it hollow, with boards.
13. The Laver of Bronze
38:8
Ex 38:8 aAnd he made the 1laver of bronze and its base of bronze from the mirrors of the serving women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
14. The Court of the Tabernacle
38:9-20
Ex 38:9 aAnd he made the 1court. On the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, one hundred cubits;
Ex 38:10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty sockets were of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods were of silver.
Ex 38:11 And on the north side, one hundred cubits; their twenty pillars and their twenty sockets were of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods were of silver.
Ex 38:12 And on the west side there were hangings of fifty cubits, with their ten pillars and their ten sockets; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods were of silver.
Ex 38:13 And the width of the east side eastward was fifty cubits.
Ex 38:14 The hangings for the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets;
Ex 38:15 And so for the other side; on both sides of the gate of the court were hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets.
Ex 38:16 All the hangings around the court were of fine twined linen.
Ex 38:17 And the sockets for the pillars were of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting rods were of silver; and the overlaying of their capitals was of silver; and all the pillars of the court were connected with silver.
Ex 38:18 And the screen for the gate of the court was the work of an embroiderer, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen; and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the width was five cubits, corresponding to the hangings of the court.
Ex 38:19 And their four pillars and their four sockets were of bronze; their hooks were of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their connecting rods were of silver.
Ex 38:20 And all the pegs of the tabernacle and of the court all around were of bronze.
15. Counting the Offered Materials
38:21-31
Ex 38:21 This is the sum of the things for the tabernacle, the aTabernacle of the Testimony, as they were 1counted according to the commandment of Moses for the service of the Levites by the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
Ex 38:22 aAnd bBezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Jehovah commanded Moses.
Ex 38:23 And with him was aOholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and a skillful workman and an embroiderer in blue and in purple and in scarlet strands and in fine linen.
Ex 38:24 All the gold that was used for the work, in all the work of the sanctuary, even the gold of the wave offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
Ex 38:25 And the silver of those who were numbered of the assembly was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary;
Ex 38:26 A beka a head, that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for each one who was enrolled among their numbering, from twenty years old and upward, for asix hundred three thousand, five hundred fifty men.
Ex 38:27 And the hundred talents of silver were for casting the asockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil; one hundred sockets for the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.
Ex 38:28 And of the one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made connecting rods for them.
Ex 38:29 And the bronze of the wave offering was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels.
Ex 38:30 And with it he made the sockets for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar
Ex 38:31 And the asockets around the court and the sockets of the gate of the court and all the bpegs of the tabernacle and all the pegs around the court.
EXODUS 39

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • 

16. Making the Garments for the Priests
39:1-31
Ex 39:1 aAnd from the blue and the purple and the scarlet strands, they made finely worked 1garments for ministering in the sanctuary, and made the holy bgarments for Aaron, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 39:2 And 1aBezalel made the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen.
Ex 39:3 And they beat the gold into thin sheets and cut them into threads, to work into the blue and into the purple and into the scarlet strands and into the fine linen, the work of a skillful workman.
Ex 39:4 They made shoulder pieces for it, joined to it; at the two edges it was joined.
Ex 39:5 And the skillfully woven band, which was on it 1for its fastening, was of one piece with it and like it in workmanship, of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 39:6 And they made the onyx stones enclosed in 1settings of gold, engraved with the engravings of a signet according to the names of the sons of Israel.
Ex 39:7 And he put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 39:8 aAnd he made the breastplate, the work of a skillful workman, like the work of the ephod, of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and of fine twined linen.
Ex 39:9 It was square; they made the breastplate doubled; a span its length and a span its width when doubled.
Ex 39:10 And they filled it with four rows of stones. The first row was a row of a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald;
Ex 39:11 And the second row, a 1carbuncle, a sapphire, and a diamond;
Ex 39:12 And the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
Ex 39:13 And the fourth row, a 1chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold in their enclosures.
Ex 39:14 And the stones were according to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each according to his name, for the twelve tribes.
Ex 39:15 And they made on the breastplate twisted chains, a corded work of pure gold.
Ex 39:16 And they made two settings of gold and two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
Ex 39:17 And they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the ends of the breastplate.
Ex 39:18 And the two other ends of the two cords they put on the two settings and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front of it.
Ex 39:19 And they made two rings of gold and put them on the two ends of the breastplate on its edge, which was toward the ephod on the inside.
Ex 39:20 And they made two rings of gold and put them on the bottom of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod on the front of it, close to the place where it is joined, above the skillfully woven band of the ephod.
Ex 39:21 And they bound the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a cord of blue strands, that it might be upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod and that the breastplate might not come loose from the ephod, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 39:22 aAnd he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue strands,
Ex 39:23 And the opening of the robe in its center like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding edge around its opening so that it would not be torn.
Ex 39:24 And they made on the hem of the robe pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet strands, twined.
Ex 39:25 And they made bells of pure gold and put the bells between the pomegranates on the hem of the robe all around, between the pomegranates;
Ex 39:26 A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe all around, to minister in; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 39:27 And they made the atunics of fine linen of woven work for Aaron and for his sons,
Ex 39:28 And the turban of fine linen, and the headdresses of high hats of fine linen, and the linen trousers of fine twined linen,
Ex 39:29 And the girding sash of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet strands, the work of an embroiderer, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 39:30 aAnd they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold and wrote an inscription upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH.
Ex 39:31 And they tied to it a cord of blue strands to fasten it on the turban above, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
B. The Work of the Tabernacle Presented to, Examined by, and Blessed by Moses
39:32-43
Ex 39:32 Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished, and the children of Israel did according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses; so they did.
Ex 39:33 aAnd they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars and its sockets;
Ex 39:34 And the covering of rams’ skins dyed red and the covering of porpoise skins, and the veil of the screen;
Ex 39:35 The Ark of the Testimony and its poles and the expiation cover;
Ex 39:36 The table, all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence;
Ex 39:37 The pure lampstand, its lamps, even the lamps set in order, and all its utensils, and the oil for the light;
Ex 39:38 And the golden altar and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense and the screen for the entrance of the tent;
Ex 39:39 The bronze altar, and its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils; the laver and its base;
Ex 39:40 The hangings of the court, its pillars, and its sockets; and the screen for the gate of the court, its cords, and its pegs; and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the Tent of Meeting;
Ex 39:41 The finely worked garments for ministering in the sanctuary, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons for them to serve as priests.
Ex 39:42 According to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.
Ex 39:43 And Moses saw all the work; and there it was — they had done it; just as Jehovah had commanded, so they had done. And Moses blessed them.
EXODUS 40

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • 

C. The Erecting of the Tabernacle
40:1-38
1. The Commandments of the Lord to Moses concerning the Raising Up of the Tabernacle
vv. 1-16
Ex 40:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Ex 40:2 On the 1afirst day of the first month you shall raise up the btabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
Ex 40:3 And you shall put the 1aArk of the Testimony there, and you shall screen the Ark with the bveil.
Ex 40:4 And you shall bring in the atable and arrange its setting, and you shall bring in the blampstand and set up its lamps.
Ex 40:5 And you shall put the agolden altar for incense before the Ark of the Testimony and set up the screen of the entrance to the tabernacle.
Ex 40:6 And you shall put the aaltar of burnt offering before the entrance of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
Ex 40:7 And you shall put the alaver between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water there.
Ex 40:8 And you shall set up the acourt all around and put up the screen of the gate of the court.
Ex 40:9 aAnd you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and sanctify it and all its utensils; and it shall be holy.
Ex 40:10 And you shall anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and sanctify the altar; and the altar shall be most holy.
Ex 40:11 And you shall anoint the laver and its base, and sanctify it.
Ex 40:12 And you shall bring Aaron and his sons near to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and wash them with water.
Ex 40:13 And you shall put the aholy garments upon Aaron, and you shall anoint him and sanctify him that he may serve Me as a priest.
Ex 40:14 You shall also bring his sons near and put tunics upon them,
Ex 40:15 And you shall anoint them as you have anointed their father that they may serve Me as priests; and their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting apriesthood throughout their generations.
Ex 40:16 Thus Moses did; according to all that Jehovah had commanded him, so he did.
2. The Erection of the Tabernacle
vv. 17-33
Ex 40:17 And in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the atabernacle was raised up.
Ex 40:18 And Moses raised up the tabernacle and put down its sockets and set up its boards and put in its bars and raised up its pillars.
Ex 40:19 And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it from above, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:20 Then he took the Testimony and put it into the aArk, and he set the poles onto the Ark and put the expiation cover upon the Ark above it.
Ex 40:21 And he brought the Ark into the tabernacle and set up the aveil for the screen and screened the Ark of the Testimony, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:22 Then he put the atable in the Tent of Meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil.
Ex 40:23 And he arranged the bread in order upon it before Jehovah, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:24 Then he put the lampstand in the Tent of Meeting opposite the table, on the south side of the tabernacle.
Ex 40:25 And he set up the alamps before Jehovah, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:26 Then he put the golden altar in the Tent of Meeting before the veil,
Ex 40:27 And he burned fragrant aincense on it, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:28 Then he set up the ascreen of the entrance to the tabernacle.
Ex 40:29 He also set the altar of aburnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meal offering, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:30 And he set the laver between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water there for awashing.
Ex 40:31 And Moses and Aaron and his sons would wash their hands and their feet with water from it;
Ex 40:32 Whenever they went into the Tent of Meeting and whenever they came near the altar, they washed; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Ex 40:33 And he raised up the acourt all around the tabernacle and the altar, and put up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.
3. The Glory of the Lord Filling the Tabernacle
vv. 34-35
Ex 40:34 Then the acloud covered the 1Tent of Meeting, and the 2bglory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.
Ex 40:35 And Moses was anot able to enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud settled on it and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.
4. Moving with God’s Dwelling Place
vv. 36-38
Ex 40:36 And whenever the 1acloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel set out on all their journeys;
Ex 40:37 But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day that it was taken up.
Ex 40:38 For the cloud of Jehovah was upon the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in 1it by night, in the sight of all the 2house of Israel on all their journeys.
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LEVITICUS

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Moses (Matt. 8:4, referring to Lev. 14:10-32; Rom. 10:5, quoting Lev. 18:5), the author of the five books of the Law (Deut. 31:9, 24; Luke 24:27, 44; John 1:45; 5:46; Acts 28:23; 2 Cor. 3:15).
Time of Writing: Approximately 1490 B.C. (cf. 1 Kings 6:1), in the second year after the exodus, after the tabernacle was erected (1:1).
Place of Writing: In the wilderness, near Mt. Sinai (1:1; Exo. 19:2).
Time Period Covered: One month, from the erection of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month in the second year after the exodus from Egypt (Exo. 40:17) to the first day of the second month of the same year (Num. 1:1), 1490 B.C.
Subject:
Christ Is Everything in the Fellowship, Service, and Life of God’s Redeemed
LEVITICUS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

I. Ordinances concerning Offerings
1:1 — 7:38
A. The Burnt Offering
1:1-17
Lv 1:1 1Then Jehovah acalled to Moses and 2spoke to him out of the 3bTent of Meeting, saying,
Lv 1:2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any one of you presents an 1offering to Jehovah, you shall present your offering from the 2cattle, of the herd or of the flock.
Lv 1:3 If his offering is a 1aburnt offering from the herd, he shall present it, a 2male bwithout 2blemish; he shall present it at the 3entrance of the Tent of Meeting, that he may be accepted before Jehovah.
Lv 1:4 And he shall alay his 1hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make 2bexpiation for him.
Lv 1:5 And he shall 1slaughter the young bull before Jehovah; and Aaron’s sons the 2priests shall present the 3blood and asprinkle the blood on and around the altar that is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 1:6 And he shall 1skin the burnt offering and 2cut it into its pieces.
Lv 1:7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange the wood in order on the fire.
Lv 1:8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the 1head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar;
Lv 1:9 But its inward parts and its legs he shall 1wash with water. Then the priest shall 2burn the whole on the altar, as a burnt offering, an offering by 3fire, a satisfying 4afragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 1:10 And if his offering is from the flock, of the sheep or of the goats, for a burnt offering, he shall present it, a male without blemish.
Lv 1:11 And he shall slaughter it on the side of the altar northward before Jehovah, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle its blood on and around the altar.
Lv 1:12 And he shall 1cut it into its pieces with its head and its fat, and the priest shall arrange them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar;
Lv 1:13 But the inward parts and the legs he shall wash with water. Then the priest shall present the whole and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 1:14 And if his offering to Jehovah is a burnt offering of 1birds, then he shall present his offering of aturtledoves or of young pigeons.
Lv 1:15 And the priest shall present it at the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar.
Lv 1:16 And he shall take away its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar toward the east, in the aplace of the 1ashes.
Lv 1:17 Then he shall tear it open by its wings awithout dividing it, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire; it is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
LEVITICUS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

B. The Meal Offering
2:1-16
Lv 2:1 And when anyone presents an offering of a 1ameal offering to Jehovah, his offering shall be of 2bfine flour; and he shall pour 3oil on it and put 4frankincense on it.
Lv 2:2 Then he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests, and ahe shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil with all its frankincense. And the priest shall burn it as its 1memorial portion on the altar, an offering by 2fire, a satisfying bfragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 2:3 And what is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; it is a thing most holy of Jehovah’s offerings by fire.
Lv 2:4 And when you present an offering of a meal offering baked in the 1oven, it shall be of fine flour, aunleavened 2cakes 3mingled with oil or unleavened 4wafers anointed with oil.
Lv 2:5 And if your offering is a meal offering baked on a flat plate, it shall be of 1fine flour mingled with oil, unleavened.
Lv 2:6 You shall 1break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a meal offering.
Lv 2:7 And if your offering is a meal offering made in a pot, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.
Lv 2:8 And you shall bring to Jehovah the meal offering that is made of these things and present it to the priest, and he shall bring it to the altar.
Lv 2:9 And the priest shall take up from the meal offering its memorial portion and shall burn it on the altar, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 2:10 And that which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; it is a thing most holy of Jehovah’s offerings by fire.
Lv 2:11 No meal offering that you present to Jehovah shall be made with 1aleaven, for you shall not burn any leaven or any 2honey as an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Lv 2:12 You may present them to Jehovah, as an offering of firstfruits, but they shall not be offered up for a satisfying fragrance on the altar.
Lv 2:13 And every offering of your meal offering you shall season with 1asalt, and you shall not omit the salt of the 2bcovenant of your God from your meal offering; with all your offerings you shall present salt.
Lv 2:14 And if you present a meal offering of firstfruits to Jehovah, you shall present for the meal offering of your 1firstfruits new grain roasted with fire, crushed grain of the fresh ear.
Lv 2:15 And you shall put oil on it and place frankincense on it; it is a meal offering.
Lv 2:16 And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of its crushed grain and some of its oil, with all its frankincense, as an offering by fire to Jehovah.
LEVITICUS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

C. The Peace Offering
3:1-17
Lv 3:1 And if his offering is a sacrifice of 1apeace offerings, if he presents it from the 2herd, whether male or female, he shall present it 3bwithout blemish before Jehovah.
Lv 3:2 And he shall 1alay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the 2entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bsprinkle the 3blood on and around the altar.
Lv 3:3 And from the sacrifice of peace offerings he shall present an offering by fire to 1Jehovah, the 2afat that covers the 2inward parts and all the fat that is on the inward parts;
Lv 3:4 And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins; and the appendage on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys.
Lv 3:5 And Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the aaltar upon the 1burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 3:6 And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offerings to Jehovah is from the flock, he shall present it, male or female, without blemish.
Lv 3:7 If he presents a 1lamb for his offering, then he shall present it before Jehovah.
Lv 3:8 And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood on and around the altar.
Lv 3:9 And from the sacrifice of peace offerings he shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah, its afat, the entire fat tail which he shall remove close to the backbone, and the fat that covers the inward parts and all the fat that is on the inward parts;
Lv 3:10 And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins; and the appendage on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys.
Lv 3:11 And the priest shall 1burn it on the altar; it is the afood of the offering by fire to Jehovah.
Lv 3:12 And if his offering is a goat, then he shall present it before Jehovah.
Lv 3:13 And he shall lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle its blood on and around the altar.
Lv 3:14 And from it he shall present his offering, as an offering by fire to Jehovah, the fat that covers the inward parts and all the fat that is on the inward parts;
Lv 3:15 And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins; and the appendage on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys.
Lv 3:16 And the priest shall burn them on the altar; it is the food of the offering by fire for a satisfying fragrance; all the fat is Jehovah’s.
Lv 3:17 It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places that you shall not eat any 1afat or any bblood.
LEVITICUS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

D. The Sin Offering
4:1-35
Lv 4:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 4:2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If anyone 1asins without intent, in any of the things which Jehovah has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them,
Lv 4:3 If the aanointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him present a 1bull of the herd bwithout 2blemish to Jehovah 3for a 4csin offering for his sin that he committed.
Lv 4:4 And he shall bring the bull to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before Jehovah, and he shall 1lay his hand on the head of the bull and slaughter the bull 2before Jehovah.
Lv 4:5 And the anointed priest shall take some of the 1blood of the bull and bring it ainto the Tent of Meeting,
Lv 4:6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and asprinkle some of the blood seven times before Jehovah in front of the veil of the sanctuary.
Lv 4:7 And the priest shall aput some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before Jehovah, which is in the Tent of Meeting; and all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the bbase of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 4:8 And all the 1afat of the bull of the sin offering he shall take off from it: the fat that covers the inward parts and all the fat that is upon the inward parts,
Lv 4:9 And the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the appendage upon the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys,
Lv 4:10 As it is taken off from the ox of the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall 1burn them on the altar of burnt offering.
Lv 4:11 And the 1skin of the bull and all its flesh with its head and with its legs, and the rest of its inward parts and its dung,
Lv 4:12 That is, all the rest of the bull he shall bring out to a clean place aoutside the camp, where the 1ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned.
Lv 4:13 Now if the whole assembly of Israel errs, and the matter escapes the notice of the congregation, and they have done any of the things which Jehovah commanded not to be done and become guilty,
Lv 4:14 And when the sin which they have committed becomes known, the congregation shall present a bull of the herd for a asin offering and bring it before the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 4:15 And the 1elders of the assembly shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before Jehovah, and one shall slaughter the bull before Jehovah.
Lv 4:16 And the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull to the Tent of Meeting,
Lv 4:17 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before Jehovah in front of the veil.
Lv 4:18 And some of the blood he shall put upon the horns of the altar which is before Jehovah, that is, in the Tent of Meeting; and all the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 4:19 And all its fat he shall take off from it and burn it on the altar.
Lv 4:20 Thus shall he do with the bull; just as he did with the bull of the sin offering, so shall he do with this. And the priest shall make aexpiation for them, and they will be bforgiven.
Lv 4:21 And he shall bring the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the congregation.
Lv 4:22 When a ruler asins and does without intent any one of all the things which Jehovah his God has commanded not to be done and becomes guilty,
Lv 4:23 If his sin in which he has sinned is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a amale goat, without blemish.
Lv 4:24 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and slaughter it in the place where they slaughter the burnt offering before Jehovah; it is a sin offering.
Lv 4:25 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.
Lv 4:26 And all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall make expiation for him on account of his sin, and he will be aforgiven.
Lv 4:27 And if any one of the common people asins without intent by doing any one of the things which Jehovah has commanded not to be done and becomes guilty,
Lv 4:28 If his sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a afemale goat, without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.
Lv 4:29 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.
Lv 4:30 And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.
Lv 4:31 And all its fat he shall remove, just as the fat is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah. And the priest shall make expiation for him, and he will be forgiven.
Lv 4:32 And if he brings a alamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring it, a female without blemish.
Lv 4:33 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it for a sin offering in the place where they slaughter the burnt offering.
Lv 4:34 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar.
Lv 4:35 And all its fat he shall remove, just as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn them on the altar upon Jehovah’s offerings by fire. And the priest shall make expiation for him concerning his sin that he has committed, and he will be aforgiven.
LEVITICUS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

E. The Trespass Offering
5:1 — 6:7
Lv 5:1 And if anyone 1sins when he hears the voice of aadjuration and he is a witness, either seeing or knowing about a matter, if he 2does not speak up, then he shall bear his iniquity.
Lv 5:2 Or if anyone touches any aunclean thing, whether the 1carcass of an unclean animal or the carcass of unclean cattle or the carcass of unclean 2swarming things, and it escapes his notice, and he is unclean, then he will be guilty.
Lv 5:3 Or if he touches the uncleanness of 1man, whatever his uncleanness is with which he becomes unclean, and it escapes his notice, when he comes to know it, then he will be guilty.
Lv 5:4 Or if anyone aswears 1rashly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man utters rashly with an oath, and it escapes his notice, when he comes to know it, then he shall be guilty in one of these things.
Lv 5:5 And when he is guilty in one of these things, he shall aconfess that in which he has sinned;
Lv 5:6 And he shall bring his 1atrespass offering to Jehovah for his sin which he has committed, a 2female from the flock, a sheep or a goat, as a 3sin offering; and the priest shall make expiation for him on account of his sin.
Lv 5:7 And if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring as his trespass offering to Jehovah for that in which he has sinned atwo turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a 1sin offering and the other for a 1burnt offering.
Lv 5:8 aAnd he shall bring them to the priest, who shall present first that which is for the sin offering; and the 1priest shall wring off its head at the front of its neck but shall not sever it;
Lv 5:9 And he shall sprinkle some of the 1blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar, and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the abase of the altar; it is a sin offering.
Lv 5:10 And he shall offer the second as a burnt offering according to the ordinance. And the priest shall make expiation for him on account of his sin which he has committed, and he will be aforgiven.
Lv 5:11 But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for that which he has sinned, the atenth of an ephah of 1fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no 2oil upon it nor put any 2frankincense upon it, for it is a sin offering.
Lv 5:12 And he shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take 1a handful of it as its memorial portion and 2burn it on the altar, upon Jehovah’s offerings by fire; it is a sin offering.
Lv 5:13 And the priest shall make expiation for him concerning his sin that he has committed in any one of these things, and he will be forgiven. And the 1rest shall be the priest’s, like the meal offering.
Lv 5:14 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 5:15 If anyone acts unfaithfully and sins without intent in the holy things of Jehovah, then he shall bring his trespass offering to Jehovah, a 1aram without blemish out of the flock according to your valuation in silver by bshekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering.
Lv 5:16 And he shall make 1restitution for the holy thing in which he has sinned, and he shall add to it a afifth part of it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make expiation for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and he will be forgiven.
Lv 5:17 And if anyone sins and does any one of the things which Jehovah has commanded not to be done, though he did not aknow, he is still guilty and shall bear his iniquity.
Lv 5:18 And he shall bring to the priest a aram without blemish out of the flock according to your valuation for a trespass offering. And the priest shall make expiation for him concerning the matter in which he erred without intent and did not know, and he will be forgiven.
Lv 5:19 It is a trespass offering; he is certainly guilty before Jehovah.
LEVITICUS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

Lv 6:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 6:2 If anyone sins and aacts unfaithfully against Jehovah and deceives his associate in regard to a bdeposit or a security, or by robbery, or has extorted from his associate,
Lv 6:3 Or has afound a lost item and lied about it, if he has sworn falsely in any one of all these things a man may do, and sins thereby;
Lv 6:4 Then if he has sinned and is guilty, he shall 1restore that which he took by robbery, or the thing which he got by extortion, or the deposit which was entrusted to him, or the lost item which he found,
Lv 6:5 Or anything about which he has sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in full, and shall add to it a afifth part of it. He shall give it to the one to whom it belongs, on the day 1he is found guilty.
Lv 6:6 And he shall bring to Jehovah his trespass offering, a aram without blemish out of the flock according to your valuation for a trespass offering; to the priest he shall bring it.
Lv 6:7 And the priest shall make expiation for him before Jehovah, and he will be aforgiven for any of the things which he may have done so as to be guilty.
F. The Law of the Burnt Offering
6:8-13
Lv 6:8 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 6:9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the 1law of the aburnt offering: The burnt offering shall be on the 2hearth on the altar 3all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be 4kept burning on it.
Lv 6:10 And the priest shall put on his alinen garment, and his linen trousers he shall put on his flesh; and he shall take up the 1ashes to which the fire has consumed the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.
Lv 6:11 Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes aoutside the camp to a clean place.
Lv 6:12 And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it must not go out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every 1morning, and he shall lay the 2burnt offering in order upon it and shall burn the afat of the 2peace offerings on it.
Lv 6:13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.
G. The Law of the Meal Offering
6:14-23
Lv 6:14 And this is the law of the ameal offering: The sons of Aaron shall present it 1before Jehovah before the altar.
Lv 6:15 1And one shall take up from it his handful of the fine flour of the meal offering and of its oil and all the frankincense which is on the meal offering, and he shall burn it on the altar for a satisfying fragrance as its memorial portion to Jehovah.
Lv 6:16 And what is aleft of it 1Aaron and his sons may beat; it shall be eaten 2without leaven in a holy place; in the 2court of the Tent of Meeting they shall eat it.
Lv 6:17 It shall not be baked with 1aleaven. I have given it as their portion of My offerings by fire; it is most holy, like the 2sin offering and like the 2trespass offering.
Lv 6:18 Every 1male among the children of Aaron shall eat of it; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations from Jehovah’s offerings by fire; whoever touches them shall be holy.
Lv 6:19 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 6:20 This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall present to Jehovah in the 1day when he is anointed: the 2atenth of an ephah of fine flour for a continual meal offering, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening.
Lv 6:21 On a flat plate it shall be prepared with oil; when it is mixed, you shall bring it; as a meal offering of baked pieces you shall present it as a satisfying afragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 6:22 And the priest anointed to be in his place from among his sons shall prepare it. It shall be a perpetual statute; it shall be wholly burned to Jehovah.
Lv 6:23 And every meal offering of the priest shall be wholly burned; it must not be eaten.
H. The Law of the Sin Offering
6:24-30
Lv 6:24 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 6:25 Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the asin offering: In the bplace where the 1burnt offering is slaughtered the sin offering shall be slaughtered before Jehovah; it is 2most holy.
Lv 6:26 The 1priest who offers it for sin shall aeat it. In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 6:27 Whatever touches its flesh shall be 1holy. And when any of its blood splashes on a garment, you shall 2awash whatever was splashed in a holy place.
Lv 6:28 But the aearthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be 1broken; and if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, it shall be 2scoured and rinsed in water.
Lv 6:29 Every 1male among the priests may eat of it; it is most holy.
Lv 6:30 And any sin offering of which some of the blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to make 1expiation in the Holy Place shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire.
LEVITICUS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • 

I. The Law of the Trespass Offering
7:1-10
Lv 7:1 And this is the law of the atrespass offering; it is 1most holy;
Lv 7:2 In the 1place where they slaughter the aburnt offering they shall slaughter the trespass offering, and its 2blood he shall sprinkle on and around the altar.
Lv 7:3 And he shall present from it all its 1afat: the fat tail, and the fat that covers the inward parts,
Lv 7:4 And the two akidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the appendage upon the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys.
Lv 7:5 And the priest shall burn them on the altar as an offering by fire to Jehovah; it is a trespass offering.
Lv 7:6 Every 1male among the priests may aeat of it; it shall be eaten in a 1holy place; it is most holy.
Lv 7:7 The trespass offering is like the sin offering; there is 1one law for them: The 2apriest who makes expiation with it shall have it.
Lv 7:8 And the priest who presents anyone’s burnt offering, that priest shall have for himself the 1askin of the burnt offering which he has presented.
Lv 7:9 And every meal offering that is baked in an oven and everything that is made in a pot or on a flat plate shall belong to the 1priest who presents it.
Lv 7:10 And every other meal offering, mingled with oil or dry, shall be for all the sons of Aaron, to each alike.
J. The Law of the Peace Offering
7:11-38
Lv 7:11 Now this is the law of the sacrifice of apeace offerings that one shall present to 1Jehovah:
Lv 7:12 If he presents it for a thanksgiving, then he shall present with the 1sacrifice of thanksgiving aunleavened cakes mingled with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil and saturated cakes of fine flour mingled with oil.
Lv 7:13 With cakes of 1aleavened bread he shall present his offering with the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving.
Lv 7:14 And from 1it he shall present one out of each offering as a aheave offering to Jehovah; it shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offerings.
Lv 7:15 And the flesh of the asacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall 1not leave any of it until the morning.
Lv 7:16 aBut if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he presents his sacrifice, and on the next day what remains of it shall be eaten;
Lv 7:17 But what remains of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire.
Lv 7:18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings is eaten at all on the third day, it will not be accepted, neither will it be reckoned to the one who presents it; it will be an 1abomination, and the person who eats of it shall bear his own 1iniquity.
Lv 7:19 And flesh that touches any 1unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire. And as for other flesh, anyone who is 1clean may eat such flesh.
Lv 7:20 But the person who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which belong to Jehovah, with his uncleanness upon him, that person shall be 1cut off from his people.
Lv 7:21 And when anyone touches any unclean thing, the uncleanness of man or an unclean beast or any unclean abomination, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which belong to Jehovah, that person shall be cut off from his people.
Lv 7:22 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 7:23 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall not eat any 1afat of an ox or of a sheep or of a goat.
Lv 7:24 And the fat of an animal that dies and the fat of an animal which is torn by beasts may be put to any other use, but 1ayou shall by no means eat it.
Lv 7:25 For whoever eats the 1fat of a beast from which someone presents an offering by fire to Jehovah, indeed the person who eats it shall be cut off from his people.
Lv 7:26 And you shall not eat any 1blood, either of bird or of beast, in any of your dwelling places.
Lv 7:27 Any person who eats any ablood, that person shall be cut off from his people.
Lv 7:28 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 7:29 1Speak to the children of Israel, saying, He who presents the sacrifice of his peace offerings to Jehovah shall bring his offering to Jehovah out of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.
Lv 7:30 His own hands shall bring Jehovah’s offerings by fire; the fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a 1awave offering before Jehovah.
Lv 7:31 And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the abreast shall be for Aaron and for his sons.
Lv 7:32 And the right thigh you shall give to the priest for a heave offering out of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.
Lv 7:33 The one among the sons of Aaron who presents the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right thigh as his portion.
Lv 7:34 For the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering I have taken from the children of Israel out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons for a perpetual statute to be observed by the children of Israel.
Lv 7:35 This is the 1aanointing portion of Aaron and the anointing portion of his sons, from Jehovah’s offerings by fire, in the day when he presented them to serve Jehovah as priests,
Lv 7:36 Which Jehovah commanded to be given them from the children of Israel in the day that He anointed them. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generations.
Lv 7:37 This is the alaw of the burnt offering and of the meal offering and of the sin offering and of the trespass offering and of the 1consecration and of the sacrifice of 2peace offerings,
Lv 7:38 Which Jehovah commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that He commanded the children of Israel to present their offerings to Jehovah in the wilderness of Sinai.
LEVITICUS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

II. Ordinances concerning Service
8:1 — 10:20
A. The Consecration of Aaron and His Sons
8:1-36
Lv 8:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 8:2 Take 1aAaron and his sons with him, and the bgarments and the canointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread;
Lv 8:3 And gather all the assembly at the 1entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 8:4 And Moses did just as Jehovah had commanded him, and the assembly was gathered at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 8:5 And Moses said to the assembly, This is what Jehovah has commanded to be done.
Lv 8:6 aAnd Moses brought Aaron and his sons near and 1washed them with water.
Lv 8:7 aAnd he 1put the btunic upon him and girded him with the girding sash and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and with it he bound it to him.
Lv 8:8 And he placed the breastplate upon him, and in the breastplate he put the aUrim and the Thummim.
Lv 8:9 And he placed the turban on his head, and on the turban, on its front, he placed the agolden plate, the holy crown, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Lv 8:10 And Moses took the anointing oil and 1aanointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and 2sanctified them.
Lv 8:11 And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the laver and its base, to sanctify them.
Lv 8:12 And he poured some of the aanointing oil on 1Aaron’s head and anointed him, to sanctify him.
Lv 8:13 And Moses abrought Aaron’s sons near, and 1clothed them with tunics and girded them with girding sashes and bound high hats on them, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Lv 8:14 aAnd he brought the 1bull of the 2sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering.
Lv 8:15 And Moses slaughtered it and took the blood and put some of it on and around the horns of the altar with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and sanctified it, to make expiation for it.
Lv 8:16 And he took all the fat that was on the inward parts and the appendage of the liver and the two kidneys and their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar.
Lv 8:17 But the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burned with fire aoutside the camp, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Lv 8:18 aAnd he presented the 1ram of the 2burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
Lv 8:19 And Moses slaughtered it and sprinkled the blood on and around the altar.
Lv 8:20 And he cut the ram into its pieces, and Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat.
Lv 8:21 And the inward parts and the legs he washed with water, and Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering for a satisfying fragrance; it was an offering by fire to Jehovah, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Lv 8:22 aAnd he presented the other ram, the 1ram of consecration, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
Lv 8:23 And Moses slaughtered it and took some of its blood and put it on the alobe of Aaron’s right 1ear and on the thumb of his right 1hand and on the big toe of his right 1foot.
Lv 8:24 And he brought Aaron’s sons near, and Moses put some of the blood on the lobe of their right ear and on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot; and Moses sprinkled the rest of the blood on and around the altar.
Lv 8:25 And he took the fat, that is, the fat tail and all the fat that was on the inward parts, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh;
Lv 8:26 And from the basket of unleavened bread that was before Jehovah, he took one unleavened cake and one cake of oiled bread and one wafer, and placed them on the fat portions and on the right thigh.
Lv 8:27 And he put all these in the palms of Aaron and in the palms of his sons, and he waved them as a wave offering before Jehovah.
Lv 8:28 And Moses took them from their palms and burned them on the altar upon the burnt offering. They were an offering of consecration for a satisfying fragrance; it was an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Lv 8:29 And Moses took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before Jehovah; it was Moses’ portion of the ram of consecration, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Lv 8:30 aAnd Moses took some of the 1anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, and on his sons and on his sons’ garments with him; and he sanctified Aaron, his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
Lv 8:31 And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, aBoil the flesh at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of consecration, just as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it.
Lv 8:32 And what is left of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn with fire.
Lv 8:33 And you shall not go out from the entrance of the Tent of Meeting for 1aseven days, until the days of your bconsecration are fulfilled, for it will take 2seven days to consecrate you.
Lv 8:34 As has been done this day, so Jehovah has commanded to do, to make expiation for you.
Lv 8:35 And at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting you shall stay day and night seven days, and keep the charge of Jehovah, that you may not 1die; for so I have been commanded.
Lv 8:36 And Aaron and his sons did all the things which Jehovah had commanded through Moses.
LEVITICUS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

B. The Initiation of the Priestly Service of Aaron and His Sons
9:1-21
Lv 9:1 Now on the 1aeighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel;
Lv 9:2 And he said to Aaron, Take for 1yourself a calf of the herd for a asin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and present them before Jehovah.
Lv 9:3 Then to the children of Israel you shall speak, saying, Take a amale goat for a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering;
Lv 9:4 And an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before Jehovah; and a ameal offering mingled with oil; for today Jehovah will bappear to you.
Lv 9:5 So they brought what Moses had commanded before the Tent of Meeting, and all the assembly came near and stood before Jehovah.
Lv 9:6 And Moses said, This is what Jehovah has commanded you to do, and the glory of Jehovah shall appear to you.
Lv 9:7 Then Moses said to Aaron, Come near to the altar and offer your asin offering and your burnt offering, and make expiation for byourself and for the people; and make the offering of the people and make expiation for them, just as Jehovah has commanded.
Lv 9:8 So Aaron came near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.
Lv 9:9 And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the ahorns of the altar, and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.
Lv 9:10 But the afat and the kidneys and the appendage of the liver of the sin offering he burned on the altar, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Lv 9:11 And the aflesh and the skin he burned with fire boutside the camp.
Lv 9:12 aThen he slaughtered the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, and he sprinkled it on and around the altar.
Lv 9:13 And they handed the burnt offering to him, piece by piece, and the head, and he burned them on the altar.
Lv 9:14 And he washed the inward parts and the legs and burned them upon the burnt offering on the altar.
Lv 9:15 Then he presented the 1people’s offering, and took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people and slaughtered it and aoffered it for sin, like the first.
Lv 9:16 And he presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance.
Lv 9:17 Then he presented the ameal offering and filled his hand with some of it and burned it on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning.
Lv 9:18 Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of 1apeace offerings which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, which he sprinkled on and around the altar.
Lv 9:19 And the fat portions of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail, and the fat which covers the inward parts and the kidneys and the appendage of the liver —
Lv 9:20 These fat portions they then put on the breasts; and he burned the fat portions on the altar.
Lv 9:21 And the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved for a awave offering before Jehovah, just as Moses had commanded.
C. The Issue of the Priestly Service
9:22-24
Lv 9:22 And Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and 1ablessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
Lv 9:23 And Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting. And they came out and 1blessed the people; and the glory of Jehovah 2aappeared to all the people.
Lv 9:24 Then 1afire came forth from before Jehovah and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they gave a ringing shout and fell on their faces.
LEVITICUS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

D. The Lesson and Regulations for the Priests
10:1-20
1. The Lesson of Nadab and Abihu
10:1-11
Lv 10:1 And 1Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in them and laid incense on it, and they presented 2strange afire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them.
Lv 10:2 And 1afire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, and they died before Jehovah.
Lv 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what Jehovah spoke, saying,
aIn those who come near to Me I will be 1sanctified, / And before all the people I will be 1glorified.
And Aaron was silent.
Lv 10:4 And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, Come near; carry your brothers from before the sanctuary to the 1outside of the camp.
Lv 10:5 So they came near and carried them in their tunics to the outside of the camp, just as Moses had said.
Lv 10:6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, Do not 1dishevel the hair of your heads, and do not 1tear your garments, that you may not die and that He may not be angry with all the assembly. But let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, 2weep for the burning which Jehovah has kindled.
Lv 10:7 And you shall not go out from the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the aanointing oil of Jehovah is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses.
Lv 10:8 Then Jehovah spoke to Aaron, saying,
Lv 10:9 1Drink no awine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations,
Lv 10:10 Both to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean;
Lv 10:11 And to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which Jehovah has spoken to them through Moses.
2. Regulations for the Priests
10:12-20
Lv 10:12 Then Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons who were left, Take the 1meal offering which aremains of Jehovah’s offerings by fire, and eat it unleavened beside the altar; for it is most holy.
Lv 10:13 And you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is ayour due and your sons’ due of Jehovah’s offerings by fire; for so I have been commanded.
Lv 10:14 And the 1breast of the wave offering and the 1thigh of the heave offering you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; for they have been given as your due and your sons’ due out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the children of Israel.
Lv 10:15 The thigh of the heave offering and the breast of the wave offering they shall bring with the offerings by fire of the fat portions to wave as a wave offering before Jehovah, and it shall become a perpetual statute for you and for your sons with you, just as Jehovah has commanded.
Lv 10:16 Then Moses diligently inquired about the agoat of the sin offering, but it had already been burned. So he was angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left, saying,
Lv 10:17 Why have you not aeaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary? For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to 1bear the iniquity of the assembly, to make 2expiation for them before Jehovah.
Lv 10:18 Now its ablood was not brought inside, into the sanctuary; you should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I commanded.
Lv 10:19 But Aaron spoke to Moses, See, today they have presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before Jehovah, and such things as these have befallen me! And if I had 1eaten the sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of Jehovah?
Lv 10:20 And when Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight.
LEVITICUS 11

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III. Ordinances concerning Living
11:1 — 22:33
A. Discernment in Diet and Abstaining from Death
11:1-47
Lv 11:1 1Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,
Lv 11:2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which you may 1aeat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
Lv 11:3 Whatever 1has a divided hoof, that is, has its hoof split in two, and chews the cud among the beasts, that you may eat.
Lv 11:4 However these you shall not eat: of those that only chew the cud or of those that only have a divided hoof: the acamel, for though it chews the cud, it does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean to you.
Lv 11:5 And the hyrax, for though it chews the cud, it does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean to you.
Lv 11:6 And the hare, for though it chews the cud, it does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean to you.
Lv 11:7 And the apig, for though it has a divided hoof, that is, it has its hoof split in two, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you.
Lv 11:8 You shall not eat of their flesh, nor shall you touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.
Lv 11:9 These you may eat of all that are in the water: anything in the water that has 1fins and scales, in the seas or in the rivers; these you may eat.
Lv 11:10 But anything that does not have fins and scales in the seas and in the rivers, of anything that swarms in the waters and of any living animal which is in the waters, they are an abomination to you,
Lv 11:11 And they shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses you shall regard as an abomination.
Lv 11:12 Anything in the water that does not have fins or scales is an abomination to you.
Lv 11:13 And these you shall regard as an abomination among the 1birds; they shall not be eaten; they are an abomination: the great avulture and the bearded vulture and the black vulture
Lv 11:14 And the kite and the falcon of every kind,
Lv 11:15 Every araven of every kind,
Lv 11:16 And the ostrich and the nighthawk and the sea gull and the hawk of every kind,
Lv 11:17 And the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl
Lv 11:18 And the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture
Lv 11:19 And the stork; the heron of every kind and the hoopoe and the bat.
Lv 11:20 All 1flying insects that go on all fours are an abomination to you.
Lv 11:21 Yet these you may eat of all flying insects that go on all fours, which have 1legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth;
Lv 11:22 These of them you may eat: the swarming alocust of every kind and the swallowing locust of every kind and the cricket of every kind and the grasshopper of every kind.
Lv 11:23 But all the other flying insects which have four feet are an abomination to you.
Lv 11:24 And by these you shall become unclean; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening,
Lv 11:25 And whoever carries any part of their carcass shall 1wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 11:26 For every beast which has a divided hoof but does not have its hoof split in two or chew the cud is unclean to you; everyone who touches them shall be unclean.
Lv 11:27 And whatever goes on its paws, among all beasts that go on all fours, are unclean to you; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the evening.
Lv 11:28 And the one who carries their carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; they are unclean to you.
Lv 11:29 And these are unclean to you among the 1swarming things that swarm on the earth: the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard of every kind,
Lv 11:30 And the gecko and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand lizard and the chameleon.
Lv 11:31 These are unclean to you among all the swarming things; whoever touches them when they are 1dead shall be unclean 2until the evening.
Lv 11:32 And anything on which one of them may fall when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any article of wood or clothing or skin or sackcloth; any article which is used for any work must be put into 1water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be clean.
Lv 11:33 And any earthen vessel into which any of them falls, whatever is in it shall be unclean, and the 1vessel you shall break.
Lv 11:34 Any 1food that could be eaten shall be unclean if water from such a vessel comes upon it, and any 1liquid that may be drunk shall be unclean if it was in any such vessel.
Lv 11:35 And everything on which part of their carcass falls shall be unclean — an oven or a stove shall be broken in pieces; they are unclean and shall continue to be unclean to you.
Lv 11:36 Nevertheless a 1spring or a cistern collecting water shall be clean, but whatever touches their carcass shall be unclean.
Lv 11:37 And if any part of their carcass falls on any 1seed for sowing, which is to be sown, it is clean.
Lv 11:38 But if water is put on the seed, and any part of their carcass fall on it, it is unclean to you.
Lv 11:39 And if any beast which you have for food dies, the one who touches its carcass shall be unclean until the evening.
Lv 11:40 And he who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; the one who carries its carcass shall also wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 11:41 Now every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth is an abomination; it shall not be eaten.
Lv 11:42 Whatever goes on its stomach and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, even all the swarming things that swarm on the earth, you shall not eat them, for they are an abomination.
Lv 11:43 You shall not make yourselves abominable with any swarming thing that swarms, nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, and so become defiled by them.
Lv 11:44 For I am Jehovah your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and abe holy, for bI am holy. And you shall not defile yourselves with any of the swarming things that move upon the earth.
Lv 11:45 For I am Jehovah, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God; ayou shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
Lv 11:46 This is the law of the beast and of the bird, and of every living animal that moves in the waters, and of every creature that swarms upon the earth;
Lv 11:47 To make a distinction between the unclean and the 1clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.
LEVITICUS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

B. Uncleanness in Human Birth
12:1-8
Lv 12:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 12:2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a 1woman conceives seed and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean 2seven days; as in the days of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.
Lv 12:3 And on the 1eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be 1acircumcised.
Lv 12:4 And she shall remain in the blood of her purifying 1thirty-three days; she shall not touch any 2sanctified thing, nor come into the 2sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are fulfilled.
Lv 12:5 But if she bears a female, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her impurity; and she shall remain in the blood of her purifying sixty-six days.
Lv 12:6 And when the days of her apurifying are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a year old blamb for a 1burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a 1sin offering to the priest to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 12:7 And he shall present it before Jehovah and make expiation for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether male or female.
Lv 12:8 And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take atwo turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make expiation for her, and she shall be clean.
LEVITICUS 13

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C. Uncleanness Issuing from within Man (Leprosy)
13:1-59
Lv 13:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Lv 13:2 When a man has a 1aswelling or an eruption or a bright spot on the skin of his 2body, and it becomes an infection of 1bleprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to 3Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests.
Lv 13:3 And the priest shall look at the infection in the skin of the body; and if the hair in the infection has turned 1awhite and the appearance of the infection is 2deeper than the skin of his body, it is the infection of leprosy. When the priest has looked at him, he shall pronounce him unclean.
Lv 13:4 And if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the infection seven days.
Lv 13:5 And the priest shall look at him on the seventh day; and if in his eyes the infection remains, and the infection has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall isolate him seven more days.
Lv 13:6 And the priest shall look at him again on the seventh day; and if the infection has 1faded, and the infection has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scab. And he shall wash his clothes and be clean.
Lv 13:7 But if the scab spreads further on the skin after he has showed himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall show himself again to the priest.
Lv 13:8 And the priest shall look; and if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy.
Lv 13:9 When the infection of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought to the priest;
Lv 13:10 And the priest shall look; and if there is a white swelling in the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is living 1raw flesh in the swelling,
Lv 13:11 It is a chronic leprosy on the skin of his body; and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not isolate him, for he is unclean.
Lv 13:12 And if the leprosy breaks out further on the skin, and the leprosy 1covers all the skin of the one who has the infection, from his head even to his feet, as far as the priest can see,
Lv 13:13 Then the priest shall look; and if the leprosy has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him who has the infection clean. It has all turned white; he is clean.
Lv 13:14 But whenever 1raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean.
Lv 13:15 And the priest shall look at the raw flesh and pronounce him unclean. The raw flesh is unclean; it is leprosy.
Lv 13:16 But if the raw flesh again turns white, then he shall come to the priest.
Lv 13:17 And the priest shall look at him; and if the infection has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him who has the infection clean; he is clean.
Lv 13:18 And when the body has a 1boil on its skin, and it has healed,
Lv 13:19 And in the place of the boil there is a white swelling or a reddish-white bright spot, then it shall be shown to the priest.
Lv 13:20 And the priest shall look; and if its appearance is below the surface of the skin, and the hair on it has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is the infection of leprosy; it has broken out in the boil.
Lv 13:21 But if the priest looks at it, and if there is no white hair in it, and it is not below the surface of the skin, but it has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days.
Lv 13:22 And if it spreads further in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infection.
Lv 13:23 But if the bright spot remains in its place and does not spread, it is only the scar of the boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.
Lv 13:24 Or when the 1flesh has on its skin a burn by fire, and the raw flesh of the burn becomes a bright spot, reddish-white or white,
Lv 13:25 Then the priest shall look at it; and if the hair in the bright spot has turned white, and its appearance is deeper than the skin, it is leprosy. It has broken out in the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is the infection of leprosy.
Lv 13:26 But if the priest looks at it, and if there is no white hair in the bright spot, and it is not below the surface of the skin, but it has faded, then the priest shall isolate him seven days.
Lv 13:27 And the priest shall look at him on the seventh day. If it spreads further in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is the infection of leprosy.
Lv 13:28 And if the bright spot remains in its place, and it has not spread in the skin, but it has faded, it is the swelling from the burn; and the priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is only the scar of the burning.
Lv 13:29 And if a man or woman has an infection on the 1head or on the 1beard,
Lv 13:30 Then the priest shall look at the infection; and if its appearance is deeper than the skin, and there is in it 1thin yellowish hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a scale; it is leprosy of the head or of the beard.
Lv 13:31 And if the priest looks at the infection of the scale, and if its appearance is 1not deeper than the skin, and there is 1no black hair in it, then the priest shall isolate the one who has the infection of the scale seven days.
Lv 13:32 And on the seventh day the priest shall look at the infection; and if the scale has not spread, and there is no yellowish hair in it, and the appearance of the scale is not deeper than the skin,
Lv 13:33 Then he shall 1shave himself, but the scale he shall not shave. And the priest shall isolate the one who has the scale seven days more.
Lv 13:34 And on the seventh day the priest shall look at the scale; and if the scale has not spread in the skin, and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean. And he shall 1wash his clothes and be clean.
Lv 13:35 But if the scale spreads further in the skin after his cleansing,
Lv 13:36 Then the priest shall look at him; and if the scale has spread in the skin, the priest need not seek for the yellowish hair; he is unclean.
Lv 13:37 But if, in 1the priest’s eyes, the scale has remained, and 2black hair has grown up in it, the scale is healed; he is clean. And the priest shall pronounce him clean.
Lv 13:38 And when a man or a woman has bright spots on the skin of their body, 1white bright spots,
Lv 13:39 Then the priest shall look; and if the bright spots on the skin of their body are a dull white, it is a rash that has broken out on the skin; he is clean.
Lv 13:40 And if a man 1loses the hair of his head, he is bald; he is clean.
Lv 13:41 And if he loses hair from his forehead and his temples, he is bald on the forehead; he is clean.
Lv 13:42 But if on the bald head or the bald forehead there is a reddish-white infection, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or on his bald forehead.
Lv 13:43 Then the priest shall look at him; and if the swelling of the infection is reddish-white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, like the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the body,
Lv 13:44 He is a aleprous man; he is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean; his infection is on his head.
Lv 13:45 And as for the leper in whom the infection is, his 1clothes shall be torn, and the 1hair of his head shall be let loose, and he shall 1cover his upper lip and cry, 1Unclean, unclean!
Lv 13:46 He shall be unclean all the days during which the infection is in him; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be aoutside the camp.
Lv 13:47 The 1agarment also that the infection of leprosy is in, whether it is a 2woolen garment or a 2linen garment,
Lv 13:48 Whether it is in 1warp or 1woof, of linen or of wool, whether in a skin or in anything made of skin,
Lv 13:49 If the infection is 1greenish or reddish in the garment or in the skin, or in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of skin, it is the infection of leprosy and shall be ashown to the priest.
Lv 13:50 And the priest shall look at the infection and isolate the article which has the infection for seven days.
Lv 13:51 Then he shall look at the infection on the seventh day. If the infection has spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in the skin, whatever the purpose the skin is used for, the infection is a malignant leprosy; it is unclean.
Lv 13:52 And he shall 1burn the garment, whether the warp or the woof, in wool or in linen, or anything of skin in which the infection occurs, for it is a malignant leprosy; it shall be burned in the fire.
Lv 13:53 And if the priest shall look, and if the infection has not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of skin,
Lv 13:54 Then the priest shall command that they 1wash the thing in which the infection is; and he shall isolate it for seven more days.
Lv 13:55 And after the article with the infection has been washed, the priest shall look at it; and if the infection has not changed its appearance, even though the infection has not spread, it is unclean. You shall burn it in the fire; it is a 1leprous decay, whether the bareness is on the inside or on the outside.
Lv 13:56 And if the priest looks, and if the infection has faded after it was washed, then he shall 1tear it out of the garment or out of the skin, whether from the warp or from the woof.
Lv 13:57 But if it appears again in the garment, whether in the warp or in the woof, or in anything of skin, it is spreading. You shall burn the article that the infection is in, in the fire.
Lv 13:58 And the garment, whether the warp or the woof, or any article of skin, which you shall wash, if the infection has departed from them, shall be washed a 1second time and shall be clean.
Lv 13:59 This is the law of the infection of leprosy in a garment of wool or linen, either in the warp or in the woof, or anything of skin, for pronouncing it clean or for pronouncing it unclean.
LEVITICUS 14

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D. The Cleansing of the Leper
14:1-32
Lv 14:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 14:2 This shall be the law of the leper on the day of his 1cleansing: He shall be 2abrought to the priest,
Lv 14:3 And the priest shall go forth 1aoutside the camp. Then the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been 2healed in the leper,
Lv 14:4 Then the priest shall command that two living clean 1birds and 2acedar wood and 2bscarlet strands and 2chyssop be taken for the one who is to be 3cleansed.
Lv 14:5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered in an earthen vessel over 1running water.
Lv 14:6 As for the 1living bird, he shall take it and the cedar wood and the scarlet strands and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the running water.
Lv 14:7 And he shall 1sprinkle it on the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy aseven times and shall pronounce him clean. Then he shall 2blet the living bird go into the open field.
Lv 14:8 And the one who is to be cleansed shall 1wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but he shall 2dwell outside his tent aseven days.
Lv 14:9 And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his 1hair; he shall shave his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair. Then he shall 2wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be aclean.
Lv 14:10 1And on the 2eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish and three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a ameal offering mingled with oil and one 3log of oil.
Lv 14:11 And the priest who makes him clean shall set the man to be cleansed and those things before Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 14:12 And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and present it as a atrespass offering and the log of oil, and wave them as a 1bwave offering before Jehovah.
Lv 14:13 Then he shall slaughter the male lamb in the 1place where they aslaughter the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary; for the trespass offering, like the sin offering, is the 2priest’s; it is most holy.
Lv 14:14 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the aright 1ear of the one who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right 1hand and on the big toe of his right 1foot.
Lv 14:15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of the priest’s left hand,
Lv 14:16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in the palm of his left hand and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Jehovah.
Lv 14:17 And from the rest of the oil that is in the palm of his hand the priest shall put some on the lobe of the right 1ear of the one who is to be cleansed and some on the thumb of his right 1hand and some on the big toe of his right 1foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering.
Lv 14:18 And the rest of the oil that is in the palm of the priest’s hand he shall put on the 1head of the one who is to be cleansed. Then the priest shall make 2expiation for him before Jehovah.
Lv 14:19 And the priest shall offer the 1sin offering and make expiation for the one who is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness, and afterward he shall slaughter the burnt offering.
Lv 14:20 And the priest shall offer the 1burnt offering and the 1meal offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make expiation for him, and he shall be clean.
Lv 14:21 But if he is 1poor and cannot afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a trespass offering to be waved to make expiation for him, and one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil,
Lv 14:22 And two aturtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he can afford; and the one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.
Lv 14:23 And on the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before Jehovah.
Lv 14:24 Then the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before Jehovah;
Lv 14:25 And he shall slaughter the lamb of the trespass offering. Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.
Lv 14:26 And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of the priest’s left hand,
Lv 14:27 And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in the palm of his left hand seven times before Jehovah.
Lv 14:28 And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in the palm of his hand on the lobe of the right ear of the one who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering.
Lv 14:29 And the rest of the oil that is in the palm of the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of the one who is to be cleansed, to make expiation for him before Jehovah.
Lv 14:30 And he shall offer one of the aturtledoves or young pigeons, such as he can afford,
Lv 14:31 Even such as he can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, with the meal offering; and the priest shall make expiation for the one who is to be cleansed before Jehovah.
Lv 14:32 This is the law for the one in whom there is the infection of leprosy, who cannot afford what is prescribed for his cleansing.
E. The Leprosy in a House
14:33-57
Lv 14:33 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Lv 14:34 When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put the infection of 1leprosy in a house in the land of your possession,
Lv 14:35 Then he to whom the house belongs shall come and tell the 1priest, saying, It seems to me that there is something like an infection in the house.
Lv 14:36 And the priest shall command that they 1empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the infection, so that everything which is in the house does not become unclean; and afterward the 2priest shall go in to look at the house.
Lv 14:37 And he shall look at the infection; and if the infection is on the walls of the house with greenish or reddish depressions, and their appearance is 1deeper than the surface of the wall,
Lv 14:38 Then the priest shall come out of the house to the entrance of the house and shut up the house aseven days.
Lv 14:39 And the priest shall return on the seventh day and inspect it. And if the infection has spread in the walls of the house,
Lv 14:40 Then the priest shall command that they 1take out the stones on which the infection is and throw them away outside the city into an unclean place.
Lv 14:41 And he shall have the house 1scraped inside all around, and they shall dump the plaster that they scrape off outside the city into an unclean place.
Lv 14:42 And they shall take other 1stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other plaster and 2replaster the house.
Lv 14:43 And if the infection returns and breaks out in the house after he has taken out the stones and after he has scraped the house and after it has been replastered,
Lv 14:44 Then the priest shall come in and look; and if the infection has spread in the house, it is a malignant leprosy in the house; it is unclean.
Lv 14:45 And he shall 1break down the house, its stones and its timber and all the plaster of the house, and he shall bring them outside the city into an unclean place.
Lv 14:46 Moreover, whoever goes into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the 1evening.
Lv 14:47 And whoever 1lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever 1eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
Lv 14:48 But if on the other hand the priest comes in and looks, and if the infection has 1not spread in the house after the house has been replastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the infection has been healed.
Lv 14:49 1And he shall take two birds and cedar wood and scarlet strands and hyssop to purify the house,
Lv 14:50 And he shall slaughter one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.
Lv 14:51 And he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet strands and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.
Lv 14:52 And he shall 1purify the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water and with the living bird and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the scarlet strands.
Lv 14:53 And he shall 1let the living bird go, outside the city into the open field. So he shall make expiation for the house, and it shall be 2clean.
Lv 14:54 This is the law for any kind of infection of leprosy and for a ascale
Lv 14:55 And for the leprosy of a agarment and for a bhouse
Lv 14:56 And for a aswelling and for an eruption and for a bright spot,
Lv 14:57 To teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.
LEVITICUS 15

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F. The Cleansing of the Discharges from the Body
15:1-33
Lv 15:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Lv 15:2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his 1body, his discharge is unclean.
Lv 15:3 And this shall be his uncleanness of his discharge: Whether 1there is a discharge from his body, or the discharge is blocked in his body, it is his uncleanness.
Lv 15:4 Every 1bed on which he who has the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.
Lv 15:5 And whoever touches his bed shall 1awash his clothes and 1bathe in water and be unclean 2until the evening.
Lv 15:6 And whoever sits on anything on which he who has the discharge sat shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:7 And whoever touches the flesh of the one who has the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:8 And if the one who has the discharge spits on someone who is clean, then he who has been spat on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:9 And every saddle on which the one who has the discharge rides shall be unclean.
Lv 15:10 And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening, and whoever carries those things shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:11 And whomever the one who has the discharge touches without having 1rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:12 And the earthen vessel that the one who has the discharge touches shall be 1abroken, and every vessel of wood shall be 1rinsed in water.
Lv 15:13 And when one who has the discharge is cleansed of his discharge, then he shall count 1seven days for himself for his cleansing; then he shall 1wash his clothes and 1bathe his body in running water, and he shall be clean.
Lv 15:14 And on the 1eighth day he shall take for himself two aturtledoves or two young pigeons and come before Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest.
Lv 15:15 And the priest shall offer them, one for a 1sin offering and the other for a 1burnt offering; and the priest shall make expiation for him before Jehovah for his discharge.
Lv 15:16 And if any man’s seed of copulation goes out from him, then he shall bathe his entire body in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:17 And any garment and any article made of skin on which the seed of copulation comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:18 If there is a woman with whom a man lies and there is a discharge of seed of copulation, both of them shall bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:19 And if a woman has a discharge, and her discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her impurity seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:20 And everything that she lies on in her impurity shall be unclean; everything also that she sits on shall be unclean.
Lv 15:21 And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:22 And whoever touches anything that she sits on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:23 And if it is on the bed or on anything on which she sits, when anyone touches it, he shall be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:24 And if any man actually lies with her and her impurity comes on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.
Lv 15:25 And if a woman has a adischarge of her blood for many days not at the time of her impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, during all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness she shall be as if in the days of her impurity; she is unclean.
Lv 15:26 Any bed on which she lies during all the days of her discharge shall be to her like the bed of her impurity; and everything on which she sits shall be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her impurity.
Lv 15:27 And whoever touches those things shall be unclean, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.
Lv 15:28 But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count seven days for herself; and afterward she shall be clean.
Lv 15:29 And on the eighth day she shall take for herself two aturtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 15:30 And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and the priest shall make expiation for her before Jehovah for the discharge of her uncleanness.
Lv 15:31 Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, so that they do not 1die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is in the midst of them.
Lv 15:32 This is the law for the one who has a discharge and for the one whose seed of copulation goes out from him and becomes unclean by it,
Lv 15:33 And for the one who is sick with her impurity, and for anyone who has a discharge, male or female, and for a man who lies with a woman who is unclean.
LEVITICUS 16

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G. The Expiation
16:1-34
Lv 16:1 1Then Jehovah spoke to Moses after the adeath of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before Jehovah and died.
Lv 16:2 And Jehovah said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother that he shall 1not enter at just any time into the Holy of Holies inside the veil before the expiation cover, which is upon the Ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud over the expiation cover.
Lv 16:3 In this way Aaron shall acome into the Holy of Holies: with a bbull of the herd for a sin offering and a cram for a burnt offering.
Lv 16:4 He shall put on the 1holy alinen tunic, and linen trousers shall be upon his body, and he shall gird himself with the linen girdle and be attired with the linen turban; these are the holy garments. And he shall 2bbathe his flesh in water and put them on.
Lv 16:5 And he shall take from the 1assembly of the children of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.
Lv 16:6 And Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering, which is for ahimself, and make 1expiation for himself and for his household.
Lv 16:7 And he shall take the two goats and set them before Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Lv 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats: one lot for Jehovah and the other lot for 1Azazel.
Lv 16:9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot for Jehovah fell, and offer it as a sin offering.
Lv 16:10 But the goat on which the lot for Azazel fell shall be made to stand alive before Jehovah to make expiation over it, that it may be sent away 1for Azazel into the awilderness.
Lv 16:11 And Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering, which is for ahimself, and shall make expiation for himself and for his household, and shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself.
Lv 16:12 And he shall take a acenser full of coals of fire from the altar before Jehovah, with his hands full of finely ground fragrant 1incense, and bring it inside the veil.
Lv 16:13 And he shall put the aincense upon the fire before Jehovah, that the cloud of the incense may cover the bexpiation cover that is over the Testimony, so that he does not die.
Lv 16:14 And he shall take some of the 1ablood of the bull and bsprinkle it with his finger upon the 2expiation cover toward the east, and before the expiation cover he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
Lv 16:15 Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring its ablood binside the veil, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it upon the expiation cover and before the expiation cover.
Lv 16:16 And he shall make expiation for the 1Holy of Holies because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions, for all their sins. And so he shall do for the 1Tent of Meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.
Lv 16:17 And 1no one shall be in the Tent of Meeting when he goes in to make expiation in the Holy of Holies until he comes out and has made expiation for himself and for his household and for all the congregation of Israel.
Lv 16:18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before Jehovah and make expiation for it, and he shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and aput it on and around the 1horns of the altar.
Lv 16:19 And he shall 1sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times; thus he will 2cleanse it and sanctify it from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel.
Lv 16:20 And when he has finished making aexpiation for the 1Holy of Holies and the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall present the 2live goat.
Lv 16:21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by means of the man who has been appointed.
Lv 16:22 Thus the goat shall bear away all their iniquities on itself to a solitary land, and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness.
Lv 16:23 And Aaron shall come into the Tent of Meeting and take off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the Holy of Holies, and leave them there.
Lv 16:24 And he shall 1bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments. Then he shall come out and 1offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make expiation for himself and for the people.
Lv 16:25 And the fat of the sin offering he shall 1burn on the altar.
Lv 16:26 And he who lets the goat go for Azazel shall 1wash his clothes and 1bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.
Lv 16:27 And the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make expiation in the Holy of Holies, shall be carried forth 1aoutside the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins and their flesh and their dung.
Lv 16:28 And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp.
Lv 16:29 And this shall become a perpetual statute for you; in the seventh month on the atenth day of the month you shall 1afflict your souls and 2not do any work, neither the native nor the sojourner who sojourns among you.
Lv 16:30 For on this day expiation shall be made for you, in order to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before Jehovah.
Lv 16:31 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It shall be a perpetual statute.
Lv 16:32 And the priest who is anointed and who is consecrated to serve as a priest in his father’s place shall make expiation; thus he shall put on the linen garments, even the holy garments.
Lv 16:33 And he shall make aexpiation for the 1holy sanctuary, and he shall make expiation for the Tent of Meeting and for the altar, and he shall make expiation for the priests and for all the people of the congregation.
Lv 16:34 And this shall become a perpetual statute for you, in order to make expiation for the children of Israel because of all their sins, 1aonce in the year. And just as Jehovah had commanded Moses, so he did.
LEVITICUS 17

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H. Taking Care of the Sacrifices and of the Blood
17:1-16
Lv 17:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 17:2 Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, This is what Jehovah has commanded, saying,
Lv 17:3 Anyone of the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat within the camp, or who slaughters it outside the camp,
Lv 17:4 And has not abrought it to the 1entrance of the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to Jehovah before the tabernacle of Jehovah, that man shall be accounted as guilty of bloodshed. He has shed blood, and that man shall be 2cut off from among his people.
Lv 17:5 This is so that the children of Israel will bring their sacrifices which they sacrifice in the open field, that they will bring them to Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to the priest and sacrifice them as sacrifices of 1apeace offerings to Jehovah.
Lv 17:6 And the priest shall 1asprinkle the blood on the altar of Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and 1burn the fat for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 17:7 And they shall 1no more sacrifice their asacrifices to the goat demons, to whom they 2prostitute themselves. This shall become a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations.
Lv 17:8 And you shall say to them, Anyone of the house of Israel or of the sojourners who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice
Lv 17:9 And does not abring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to Jehovah, that man shall be cut off from his people.
Lv 17:10 And anyone of the house of Israel or of the sojourners who sojourn among them, who eats any 1ablood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood and cut him off from among his people.
Lv 17:11 For the alife of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you to make expiation for your souls on the altar, for it is the bblood, by reason of the life, that makes expiation.
Lv 17:12 Therefore I said to the children of Israel, No person among you shall eat ablood, nor shall any sojourner who sojourns among you eat blood.
Lv 17:13 And anyone of the children of Israel or of the sojourners who sojourn among them, who in hunting takes an animal or bird that may be eaten, shall pour out its blood and 1cover it with dust.
Lv 17:14 For as to the life of all flesh, its blood is 1its very life; therefore I have said to the children of Israel, You shall not aeat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.
Lv 17:15 And every person who eats that which 1dies of itself or is 2torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall 3awash his clothes and 3bathe in water and be unclean until the 4evening; then he shall be clean.
Lv 17:16 But if he does not wash them or bathe his 1body, then he shall bear his iniquity.
LEVITICUS 18

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I. The Holy Living of the Holy People
18:1 — 20:27
Lv 18:1 Then Jehovah 1spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 18:2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 18:3 You shall not do as they do in the land of 1aEgypt, in which you dwelt; and you shall not do as they do in the land of 1bCanaan, where I am bringing you, nor shall you walk in their statutes.
Lv 18:4 You shall observe My 1ordinances, and you shall keep My 1statutes to walk in them; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 18:5 So you shall keep My statutes and My ordinances, by which, aif a man does them, he will 1live; I am Jehovah.
Lv 18:6 None of you shall approach to any of 1his aclose relatives to uncover their nakedness; I am Jehovah.
Lv 18:7 The nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Lv 18:8 The nakedness of your afather’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness.
Lv 18:9 The nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter, or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad, their nakedness you shall not uncover.
Lv 18:10 The nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for their nakedness is your own nakedness.
Lv 18:11 The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of your father — she is your sister — you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Lv 18:12 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh.
Lv 18:13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s flesh.
Lv 18:14 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.
Lv 18:15 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.
Lv 18:16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your abrother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
Lv 18:17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; you shall not take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are her flesh; it is wickedness.
Lv 18:18 And you shall not take a woman as wife in addition to her sister, as a rival to uncover her nakedness while she is alive.
Lv 18:19 And you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.
Lv 18:20 And you shall not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow countryman to become defiled with her.
Lv 18:21 And you shall not give any of your offspring to pass through the fire to aMolech, and so profane the name of your God; I am Jehovah.
Lv 18:22 You shall not lie with a amale as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.
Lv 18:23 And you shall not lie with any beast to defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down with it; it is confusion.
Lv 18:24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these things, for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have defiled themselves.
Lv 18:25 Because the land has become defiled, I 1visited its iniquity upon it, and the aland 2vomited out its inhabitants.
Lv 18:26 You therefore shall keep My statutes and My ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the sojourner who sojourns among you
Lv 18:27 (For the men of the land who were before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled);
Lv 18:28 That the land does not vomit you out when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation which was before you.
Lv 18:29 For all who do any of these abominations, those persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.
Lv 18:30 Therefore you shall keep My charge, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and you do not defile yourselves by them; I am Jehovah your God.
LEVITICUS 19

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Lv 19:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 19:2 Speak to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them, You shall be 1aholy, for I, Jehovah your God, am holy.
Lv 19:3 Each one of you shall fear his mother and his father, and you shall keep My Sabbaths; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 19:4 Do not turn to aidols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 19:5 aAnd when you offer a sacrifice of 1peace offerings to Jehovah, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.
Lv 19:6 It shall be eaten on the 1day you sacrifice it, or on the next day, but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire.
Lv 19:7 But if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be accepted.
Lv 19:8 And whoever eats it will bear his own iniquity, because he has profaned what is holy to Jehovah; and that person shall be cut off from his people.
Lv 19:9 And when you 1areap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Lv 19:10 And you shall not glean your vineyard nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 19:11 You shall not steal; neither shall you deceive nor deal falsely with one another.
Lv 19:12 And you shall not aswear falsely by My name, thus profaning the name of your God; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:13 You shall not oppress your neighbor nor rob him. The awages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
Lv 19:14 You shall not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:15 You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; you shall not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your fellow countryman.
Lv 19:16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, nor shall you 1profit by the blood of your neighbor; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart; but you shall surely areprove your fellow countryman, so that you do not bring sin upon yourself because of him.
Lv 19:18 You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall alove your neighbor as yourself; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:19 You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your 1cattle breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of 1seed, nor shall a 1garment made of two kinds of material come upon you.
Lv 19:20 And if a man lies down and has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave designated for another man, but not at all redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be an inquiry; they shall not be put to death, because she was not freed.
Lv 19:21 And he shall bring his trespass offering to Jehovah, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, a ram for a trespass offering.
Lv 19:22 And the priest shall make expiation for him before Jehovah with the ram of the trespass offering for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him.
Lv 19:23 And when you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as 1unharvestable. Three years it shall be 1unharvestable to you; it shall not be eaten.
Lv 19:24 But in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, for giving praise to Jehovah.
Lv 19:25 And in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their produce may increase for you; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 19:26 You shall not eat anything with blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.
Lv 19:27 You shall not round the corners of your heads, nor shall you mar the edges of your beard.
Lv 19:28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor inscribe any marks upon you; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land does not fall to harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness.
Lv 19:30 aYou shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:31 Do not turn to amediums or to spiritists; do not seek after them to be defiled by them; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 19:32 You shall arise up before the grayheaded and honor the face of the old man. And you shall fear your God; I am Jehovah.
Lv 19:33 And if a sojourner sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
Lv 19:34 The asojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 19:35 You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity.
Lv 19:36 aYou shall have just bbalances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Lv 19:37 And you shall observe all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them; I am Jehovah.
LEVITICUS 20

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Lv 20:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 20:2 Moreover you shall say to the children of Israel, Anyone of the children of Israel or of the sojourners who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his offspring to aMolech shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Lv 20:3 I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he has given one of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name.
Lv 20:4 And if the people of the land ever hide their eyes from that man when he gives some of his offspring to Molech, and do not put him to death,
Lv 20:5 Then I will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people him and all who prostitute themselves after him, to prostitute themselves after Molech.
Lv 20:6 And the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists to prostitute himself after them, I will even set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
Lv 20:7 aSanctify yourselves therefore, and be 1holy; for I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 20:8 And you shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Jehovah who sanctifies you.
Lv 20:9 If there is anyone who acurses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother; his bblood is upon him.
Lv 20:10 If there is a man who commits aadultery with another man’s wife, even one who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Lv 20:11 If there is a man who alies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Lv 20:12 If there is a man who lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have brought about confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
Lv 20:13 If there is a man who lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
Lv 20:14 If there is a man who takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there be no wickedness among you.
Lv 20:15 If there is a man who lies with a beast, he shall surely be put to death; and you shall slaughter the beast.
Lv 20:16 If there is a woman who approaches any beast to lie down with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast. They shall surely be put to death; their ablood shall be upon them.
Lv 20:17 If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a reproach, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.
Lv 20:18 If there is a man who lies with a woman having her sickness, and he uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood; and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
Lv 20:19 And you shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister nor of your father’s sister, for he has made naked his flesh; they shall bear their iniquity.
Lv 20:20 If there is a man who lies with his aunt, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. They shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
Lv 20:21 If there is a man who takes his abrother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
Lv 20:22 You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them, so that the aland into which I am bringing you to dwell in does not 1vomit you out.
Lv 20:23 And you shall not walk in the acustoms of the nation, which I am about to send away before you. Because they did all these things, so I abhorred them.
Lv 20:24 But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a 1land flowing with amilk and honey. I am Jehovah your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Lv 20:25 You shall therefore make a distinction between the 1clean beast and the 1unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you shall not make your souls abominable by any beast or by any bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.
Lv 20:26 And you shall be aholy to Me, because I Jehovah am holy, and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.
Lv 20:27 If there is a man or a woman who is a amedium or a spiritist, they shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones; their bblood shall be upon them.
LEVITICUS 21

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J. The Holy Living for the Priesthood
21:1-15
Lv 21:1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, aNo one shall 1defile himself for a dead person among his people,
Lv 21:2 Except for his relative who is near to him, for his mother and for his father and for his son and for his daughter and for his brother
Lv 21:3 And for his virgin sister, who is near to him, who has had no husband; for her he may defile himself.
Lv 21:4 He shall not defile himself, as a 1leader among his people, so as to profane himself.
Lv 21:5 They shall not make any 1baldness on their head or 1shave off the edges of their beard or make any 1cuttings in their flesh.
Lv 21:6 They shall be 1holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God, for they present Jehovah’s offerings by fire, the food of their God; therefore they shall be holy.
Lv 21:7 They shall not take a 1woman who is a harlot or profaned, nor shall they take a woman put away from her husband; for the 2priest is holy to his God.
Lv 21:8 You shall sanctify him therefore, for he presents the food of your God. He shall be aholy to you, for I Jehovah, who sanctifies you, am holy.
Lv 21:9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself through prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
Lv 21:10 And he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the 1aanointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to 1put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head go 1loose nor 1tear his clothes.
Lv 21:11 Neither shall he approach any dead person nor 1defile himself even for his father or for his mother.
Lv 21:12 Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the 1consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him; I am Jehovah.
Lv 21:13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
Lv 21:14 aA widow or a divorced woman or a profaned woman, a harlot, these he shall not take; but rather a virgin of his own people he shall take as wife.
Lv 21:15 And he shall not profane his seed among his people, for I am Jehovah who sanctifies him.
K. Disqualifications from the Priesthood
21:16-24
Lv 21:16 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 21:17 Speak to Aaron, saying, No one of your seed throughout their generations who has a 1defect shall approach to present the food of his God.
Lv 21:18 For no one who has a 1defect shall approach: one who is blind or lame or with a disfigured nose or with an extended limb,
Lv 21:19 Or one who has a broken foot or a broken hand,
Lv 21:20 Or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scale or crushed testicles.
Lv 21:21 No one of the seed of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall come near to present Jehovah’s offerings by fire. He has a defect; he shall not come near to present the food of his God.
Lv 21:22 He may 1eat the food of his God, both of the amost holy and of the bholy,
Lv 21:23 But he shall not go in unto the aveil or come near to the altar, because he has a defect, so that he does not profane My holy places; for I am Jehovah who sanctifies them.
Lv 21:24 So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel.
LEVITICUS 22

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L. Holiness in Enjoying the Holy Things
22:1-16
Lv 22:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 22:2 Tell Aaron and his sons to 1be careful with the 2holy things of the children of Israel, which they sanctify to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name; I am Jehovah.
Lv 22:3 Say to them, If anyone among all your seed throughout your generations approaches the holy things, which the children of Israel sanctify to Jehovah, and his 1uncleanness is upon him, that person shall be cut off from before Me; I am Jehovah.
Lv 22:4 No one of the seed of Aaron who is a aleper or who has a bdischarge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. And whoever touches anything that is unclean because of contact with a cdead person, or a man whose seed of copulation has gone from him,
Lv 22:5 Or whoever touches any acreeping thing by which he may be made unclean, or a man by whom he may be made unclean, whatever his uncleanness,
Lv 22:6 The person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has abathed his 1body in water.
Lv 22:7 And when the sun sets, he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because it is his afood.
Lv 22:8 He shall not eat an animal which has died or is torn by beasts to become unclean by it; I am Jehovah.
Lv 22:9 They shall therefore keep My charge, so that they do not bring sin upon themselves because of it and die by it because they profane it; I am Jehovah who sanctifies them.
Lv 22:10 No 1stranger may aeat any holy thing; a sojourner with a priest or a hired servant shall not eat any holy thing.
Lv 22:11 But if a priest acquires anyone through a purchase with his money, that one may eat of it; and those who are born in his house may aeat of his food.
Lv 22:12 And if a priest’s 1daughter is married to a stranger, she shall not eat of the heave offering of the holy things.
Lv 22:13 But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or divorced and has no child, and she returns to her afather’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; but no stranger may eat of it.
Lv 22:14 And if a man eats the holy thing in ignorance, then he shall add aone-fifth of its value to it and shall give the holy thing to the priest.
Lv 22:15 And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel that they offer to Jehovah,
Lv 22:16 And so cause them to bear the iniquity that brings guilt when they eat their holy things; for I am Jehovah who sanctifies them.
M. The Acceptable Way to Offer a Vow and a Freewill Offering
22:17-33
Lv 22:17 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 22:18 Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, When anyone of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents his aoffering, whether it is any of their 1bvows or any of their 1freewill offerings which they present to Jehovah for a burnt offering;
Lv 22:19 It shall be a male without ablemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats, for you to be accepted.
Lv 22:20 But whatever has a blemish, you shall not present, for it will not be acceptable for you.
Lv 22:21 And whoever presents a sacrifice of peace offerings to Jehovah to 1make a special avow or for a freewill offering, from the herd or from the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish in it.
Lv 22:22 You shall not present these to Jehovah: anything blind or injured or maimed or having a suppuration or eczema or scale; nor shall you make an offering by fire from them on the altar to Jehovah.
Lv 22:23 An ox or a lamb that has anything 1superfluous or lacking in its parts, that you may offer for a freewill offering; but it shall not be accepted for a vow.
Lv 22:24 And anything with its testicles bruised or crushed or broken or cut, you shall not present to Jehovah; you shall not do this in your land.
Lv 22:25 And from the hand of a 1foreigner you shall not present the food of your God from any of these, because their corruption is in them. There is a blemish in them; they shall not be accepted for you.
Lv 22:26 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 22:27 When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother; and from the 1aeighth day and onward it shall be accepted for the offering of an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Lv 22:28 But whether cow or sheep, you shall not slaughter both it and its young on one day.
Lv 22:29 And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jehovah, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.
Lv 22:30 On the 1asame day it shall be eaten; you shall leave none of it until the bmorning; I am Jehovah.
Lv 22:31 Therefore you shall keep My commandments and do them; I am Jehovah.
Lv 22:32 And you shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the children of Israel; I am Jehovah who sanctifies you,
Lv 22:33 Who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your aGod; I am Jehovah.
LEVITICUS 23

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IV. Ordinances concerning Feasts
23:1-44
A. The Weekly Feast — The Sabbath
vv. 1-3
Lv 23:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 23:2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, As to the appointed 1afeasts of Jehovah, which you shall proclaim as holy 2convocations, these are My appointed feasts.
Lv 23:3 aSix days work shall be done, but on the seventh day there is a 1Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work; it is a Sabbath to Jehovah in all your dwelling places.
B. The Annual Feasts
vv. 4-44
1. The Feast of the Passover
vv. 4-5
Lv 23:4 These are the appointed 1afeasts of Jehovah, even the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed time:
Lv 23:5 aIn the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month 1at twilight, is Jehovah’s 2bPassover,
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
vv. 6-8
Lv 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the aFeast of Unleavened Bread to Jehovah; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
Lv 23:7 aOn the 1first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor.
Lv 23:8 But you shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah 1seven days. On the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor.
3. The Feast of Firstfruits
vv. 9-14
Lv 23:9 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 23:10 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring the 1sheaf of the afirstfruits of your harvest to the priest;
Lv 23:11 And he shall awave the sheaf before Jehovah for your 1acceptance; on the bday after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lv 23:12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a 1aburnt offering to Jehovah.
Lv 23:13 And its 1meal offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering by fire to Jehovah for a satisfying fragrance. And its 2adrink offering shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.
Lv 23:14 And you shall eat 1no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that same day, until you have brought the offering of your God. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
4. The Feast of Pentecost
vv. 15-22
Lv 23:15 And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath; from the day that you brought the asheaf of the wave offering there shall be bseven complete 1Sabbaths.
Lv 23:16 You shall count 1afifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a bnew meal offering to Jehovah.
Lv 23:17 You shall bring out of your dwelling places 1two loaves as a wave offering; they shall be of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with aleaven, as firstfruits to Jehovah.
Lv 23:18 And you shall present with the bread seven lambs, a year old without blemish, and one bull of the herd and two rams; they shall be a 1burnt offering to Jehovah with their 1meal offering and their 1drink offerings, an offering by fire for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Lv 23:19 And you shall offer one male goat for a 1sin offering and two male lambs, a year old, for a sacrifice of 1peace offerings.
Lv 23:20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Jehovah with the two lambs; they shall be holy to Jehovah for the priest.
Lv 23:21 And you shall make a proclamation on that same day; you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do 1no work of labor. It shall be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
Lv 23:22 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely reap the corners of your field, nor shall you agather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the 1poor and for the 1sojourner; I am Jehovah your God.
5. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets
vv. 23-25
Lv 23:23 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 23:24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, aIn the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a complete rest, a memorial commemorated by the 1bblowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Lv 23:25 You shall do no work of labor, but you shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah.
6. The Feast of Expiation
vv. 26-32
Lv 23:26 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 23:27 aAnd on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of 1Expiation; you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall 2afflict your souls and present an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Lv 23:28 And you shall do 1no work on that same day, because it is a Day of Expiation, to make expiation on your behalf before Jehovah your God.
Lv 23:29 If there is any person who does not afflict himself on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people.
Lv 23:30 And if any person does any work on that same day, I will destroy that person from among his people.
Lv 23:31 You shall do no work; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
Lv 23:32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.
7. The Feast of Tabernacles
vv. 33-44
Lv 23:33 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 23:34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, aOn the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the 1bFeast of 2Tabernacles for 3seven days to Jehovah.
Lv 23:35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor.
Lv 23:36 1Seven days you shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah. On the 2aeighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no work of labor.
Lv 23:37 These are the appointed feasts of Jehovah, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present an offering by fire to Jehovah, burnt offerings and meal offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its own day,
Lv 23:38 Besides the Sabbaths of Jehovah and besides your gifts and besides all your vows and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to Jehovah.
Lv 23:39 Then on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have 1agathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of Jehovah seven days; on the first day shall be a complete rest, and on the eighth day shall be a complete rest.
Lv 23:40 And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the 1product of stately trees, branches of 2apalm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God for seven days.
Lv 23:41 And you shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month.
Lv 23:42 You shall dwell in 1booths seven days — all who are native in Israel shall dwell in abooths —
Lv 23:43 So that your 1descendants may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 23:44 And Moses declared to the children of Israel the appointed 1feasts of Jehovah.
LEVITICUS 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

V. Other Ordinances and Warnings
24:1 — 27:34
A. The Arrangement of the Lampstand and the Bread of the Presence
24:1-9
Lv 24:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, 1saying,
Lv 24:2 aCommand the children of Israel to bring to you 1pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to 2make the lamps burn continually.
Lv 24:3 Outside the veil of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting Aaron shall 1maintain it in order from evening to morning before Jehovah continually. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations.
Lv 24:4 He shall maintain the lamps in order on the pure alampstand before Jehovah continually.
Lv 24:5 And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve 1acakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.
Lv 24:6 And you shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the atable of pure gold before Jehovah.
Lv 24:7 And you shall put pure 1afrankincense on each row, so that it may be a memorial for the bread, an 2offering by fire to Jehovah.
Lv 24:8 Every 1Sabbath day continually he shall set it in order before Jehovah; it is an everlasting covenant for the children of Israel.
Lv 24:9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall aeat it in a 1holy place, for it is most holy to him of Jehovah’s offerings by fire, a perpetual statute.
B. The Death Judgment for Blaspheming the Holy Name
24:10-23
Lv 24:10 1Now the son of an Israelite woman, who was also the son of an Egyptian man, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a certain Israelite struggled together in the camp.
Lv 24:11 And the son of the Israelite woman 1ablasphemed the Name and cursed, and they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)
Lv 24:12 And they put him in custody so that it might be declared to them by the mouth of Jehovah.
Lv 24:13 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 24:14 Bring forth the one who has cursed outside the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the assembly stone him.
Lv 24:15 And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, Anyone who curses his God shall bear his sin.
Lv 24:16 And the one who blasphemes the name of Jehovah shall surely be put to adeath; all the assembly shall surely stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
Lv 24:17 And anyone who 1atakes the life of any human being shall surely be put to death.
Lv 24:18 And the one who 1takes the life of a beast shall make restitution for it, 2life for life.
Lv 24:19 And anyone who causes an injury to his fellow countryman, as he has done, so shall it be done to him:
Lv 24:20 A fracture for a fracture, an aeye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; just as he has caused an injury to a man, so it will be inflicted on him.
Lv 24:21 And one who kills a beast shall make restitution for it, but one who kills a human being shall be put to death.
Lv 24:22 You shall have one judgment for the sojourner as well as for the native, for I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 24:23 And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and they brought forth the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the children of Israel did just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
LEVITICUS 25

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C. The Sabbatical Years
25:1-55
1. The Sabbath Year
vv. 1-7
Lv 25:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
Lv 25:2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I am giving you, the land shall observe a 1aSabbath to Jehovah.
Lv 25:3 aSix years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce;
Lv 25:4 But in the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath of complete rest, a Sabbath to Jehovah; you shall 1not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
Lv 25:5 The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you shall not gather; the land shall have a year of complete rest.
Lv 25:6 And the Sabbath produce of the land shall be for 1food for you; for you and for your male slaves and for your female slaves, and for your hired servant and for your stranger, who sojourns with you,
Lv 25:7 And for your cattle and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its produce be for food.
2. The Jubilee (the Pentecostal Year)
vv. 8-17
Lv 25:8 And you shall count off 1seven Sabbaths of years to yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of seven Sabbaths of years, that is, forty-nine years.
Lv 25:9 Then you shall sound aloud the ram’s horn in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month; on the 1aDay of Expiation you shall sound the btrumpet throughout all your land.
Lv 25:10 And you shall sanctify the 1fiftieth year, and proclaim 2liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a 3ajubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his 2possession, and each of you shall return to his 2family.
Lv 25:11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; you shall 1not sow nor reap its aftergrowth nor gather from its unpruned vines.
Lv 25:12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce out of the field.
Lv 25:13 In this year of jubilee each one of you shall return to his possession.
Lv 25:14 And if you sell anything to your fellow countryman or buy from the hand of your fellow countryman, you shall not wrong one another.
Lv 25:15 aAccording to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your fellow countryman; according to the number of crop years remaining he shall sell to you.
Lv 25:16 According to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price; for it is the number of crop years that he sells to you.
Lv 25:17 And you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Jehovah your God.
3. Regulations regarding the Sabbatical Years
vv. 18-55
Lv 25:18 Thus you shall observe My statutes, and you shall keep My ordinances and observe them, so that you dwell securely in the land.
Lv 25:19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat to be satisfied and dwell securely in it.
Lv 25:20 And if you should say, What shall we eat the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our produce?
Lv 25:21 Then I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth produce for 1three years.
Lv 25:22 When you sow in the eighth year you will eat of the old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat the old produce.
Lv 25:23 And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, because the aland is 1Mine; for you are bstrangers and sojourners with Me.
Lv 25:24 And in all the land of your possession you shall provide for the 1redemption of the land.
Lv 25:25 If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his possession, then his redeemer, the nearest arelative, shall come and bredeem what his brother has sold.
Lv 25:26 But if a man does not have anyone to redeem it, but he obtains the means and finds it sufficient to redeem it,
Lv 25:27 Then let him calculate the ayears since its sale and restore the excess to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his possession.
Lv 25:28 But if he has not found sufficient means to restore it for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of the one who has purchased it until the year of ajubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.
Lv 25:29 And if anyone sells a dwelling 1house in a walled city, then he may redeem it until the end of a year from its sale; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
Lv 25:30 But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the one who purchased it throughout his generations; it shall not go out in the jubilee.
Lv 25:31 But the 1houses of the villages which have no wall all around them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
Lv 25:32 As for the acities of the Levites, that is, the 1houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have the permanent right of redemption.
Lv 25:33 And what can be redeemed from the Levites, that is, a house that was sold in a city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
Lv 25:34 But the 1field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
Lv 25:35 And if your 1brother becomes apoor, and 2he is unable to support himself as he lives beside you, then you shall support him, like a stranger and a sojourner, so that he may live beside you.
Lv 25:36 Do not take any interest or gain from him, but fear your God, so that your brother may live beside you.
Lv 25:37 You shall not give him your money at interest nor give him your food for gain.
Lv 25:38 aI am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
Lv 25:39 And if your brother beside you becomes poor, and he 1sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave.
Lv 25:40 He shall be beside you as a hired servant, as a sojourner; he shall serve beside you until the year of jubilee.
Lv 25:41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and return to his own family, and he shall return to the possession of his forefathers.
Lv 25:42 For they are My aservants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold.
Lv 25:43 You shall not rule over him with aseverity, but you shall fear your God.
Lv 25:44 And as for your male slaves and female slaves whom you may have, they shall come from the 1nations that are around you; from them you may buy male slaves and female slaves.
Lv 25:45 Moreover from the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, from them you may buy, and from their families who are with you, which they have begotten in your land; they also may be your possession.
Lv 25:46 And you shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to receive as a possession; you may use them as permanent slaves. But you shall not rule over your brothers the children of Israel, one over another, with severity.
Lv 25:47 And if a stranger or sojourner with you can afford it, and your 1brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to the descendants of the stranger’s family;
Lv 25:48 After he has sold himself, he may be redeemed; one of his abrothers may redeem him,
Lv 25:49 Or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or any of his close relatives of his family may redeem him; or if he can afford it, he may redeem himself.
Lv 25:50 And he shall reckon with the one who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years. The time he shall be with him shall be calculated like the time of a hired servant.
Lv 25:51 If there are still many years, in proportion to them he shall give back the amount for his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
Lv 25:52 And if there are only a few years remaining until the year of jubilee, so he shall reckon with him. In proportion to his years he shall give back the amount for his redemption.
Lv 25:53 Like a servant hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not rule with severity over him in your sight.
Lv 25:54 And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him.
Lv 25:55 For the children of Israel are My servants; they are My aservants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; I am Jehovah your God.
LEVITICUS 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • 

D. The Word of Warning
26:1-46
1. Not to Make Idols, to Keep God’s Sabbath, and to Reverence God’s Sanctuary
vv. 1-2
Lv 26:1 You shall not make for yourselves 1aidols, nor shall you raise up for yourselves a graven image or a pillar, nor shall you place a stone figure in your land to bow down to it; for I am Jehovah your God.
Lv 26:2 You shall keep My 1aSabbaths and reverence My 2sanctuary; I am Jehovah.
2. The Blessings upon Those Who Obey
vv. 3-13
Lv 26:3 If you 1walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them,
Lv 26:4 Then I will give you your 1arains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will yield their fruit.
Lv 26:5 Indeed your threshing will overtake the vintage, and the vintage will overtake the sowing time. Thus you will eat your bread unto satisfaction and dwell securely in your land.
Lv 26:6 And I will give you peace in the land, so that you will lie down and no one will make you afraid; and I will cause wild beasts to cease out of the land, and no sword will pass through your land.
Lv 26:7 And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.
Lv 26:8 And five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will achase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
Lv 26:9 And I will turn My face toward you and make you fruitful and amultiply you, and I will establish My bcovenant with you.
Lv 26:10 And you will eat the old supply long stored and will have to clear out the old because of the new.
Lv 26:11 And I will set My atabernacle among you; and My soul will not abhor you.
Lv 26:12 And I will walk aamong you and be your bGod, and you will be My people.
Lv 26:13 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you aout of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.
3. The Chastisements upon Those Who Disobey
vv. 14-39
Lv 26:14 aBut if you will not 1listen to Me and will not do all these commandments,
Lv 26:15 And if you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so that you will not do all My commandments, so as to break My acovenant;
Lv 26:16 I also will do this to you: I will appoint 1sudden terror over you, even consumption and fever, that will cause the eyes to fail and make the soul to pine away; and you will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
Lv 26:17 And I will set My face against you, and you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.
Lv 26:18 And if after these things you will not listen to Me, then I will 1chastise you aseven times more for your sins.
Lv 26:19 And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,
Lv 26:20 And your strength will be spent in vain, for your land will anot yield its produce, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
Lv 26:21 And if you walk contrary to Me and will not listen to Me, I will bring aseven times more 1plagues upon you according to your sins.
Lv 26:22 And I will send 1wild animals among you, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few in number, so that your roads will be deserted.
Lv 26:23 And if by these things you will not be corrected by Me, but walk contrary to Me,
Lv 26:24 Then I also will walk contrary to you; and I will 1strike you, I Myself, aseven times for your sins.
Lv 26:25 And I will bring a 1sword upon you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. And when you gather together within your cities, I will send 1pestilence among you, and you will be 1delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Lv 26:26 When I 1cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven; and they will return your bread 2by aweight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.
Lv 26:27 And if in spite of this you will not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me,
Lv 26:28 Then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I will 1chastise you, I Myself, aseven times for your sins.
Lv 26:29 And you will 1eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.
Lv 26:30 And I will destroy your ahigh places and cut down your altars to the sun and heap up your 1dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols, and My soul will abhor you.
Lv 26:31 And I will make your acities a 1waste and will make your bholy places desolate, and I will not smell the savor of your satisfying fragrances.
Lv 26:32 And I will make the land 1adesolate, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be astonished at it.
Lv 26:33 You however I will 1ascatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you; and your land will become a desolation, and your cities will become a waste.
Lv 26:34 Then the land will enjoy its 1aSabbaths during all the days of desolation while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
Lv 26:35 During all the days of desolation it will have the rest, which it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling upon it.
Lv 26:36 And as for those who remain among you, I will send faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf will 1put them to flight; and they will flee as one flees from the sword; and they will fall though ano one pursues.
Lv 26:37 And they will stumble over one another, as if fleeing before the sword, though no one pursues; and you will not be able to stand before your enemies.
Lv 26:38 And you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.
Lv 26:39 And those who are remaining among you will rot away because of their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they will rot away with them.
4. The People’s Repentance in Captivity and God’s Remembrance
vv. 40-46
Lv 26:40 But if they 1aconfess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also that they walked contrary to Me,
Lv 26:41 So that I also walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their auncircumcised heart is humbled, and then they accept the punishment of their iniquity;
Lv 26:42 Then I will 1aremember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac and also My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
Lv 26:43 For the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its aSabbaths while it is desolate without them. And they will accept the punishment of their iniquity because, even because, they rejected My ordinances, and their soul abhorred My statutes.
Lv 26:44 And yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will anot 1reject them, nor will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and to break My covenant with them; for I am Jehovah their God.
Lv 26:45 But for their sakes I will aremember the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations so that I might be their God; I am Jehovah.
Lv 26:46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which Jehovah made between Himself and the children of Israel at Mount Sinai through Moses.
LEVITICUS 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

E. Devotions for a Vow
27:1-34
1. The Devotion of a Person to God
vv. 1-8
Lv 27:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lv 27:2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When a man 1makes a special avow to Jehovah, it shall be according to your 2valuation of persons.
Lv 27:3 If your valuation is for the 1male from twenty years old even to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver according to the ashekel of the sanctuary.
Lv 27:4 And if it is for a 1female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.
Lv 27:5 And if it is for one aged from 1five years old even to twenty years old, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels.
Lv 27:6 And if it is for one aged from a 1month old even to five years old, then your valuation for the male shall be afive shekels of silver, and for the female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
Lv 27:7 And if it is for one aged from 1sixty years old and upward, if it is for a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
Lv 27:8 But if it is for him who is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the 1means of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.
2. The Devotion of an Animal to God
vv. 9-13
Lv 27:9 And if it is for an animal which may be presented to Jehovah as an offering, anything which may be given to Jehovah shall be 1holy.
Lv 27:10 He may not exchange it or asubstitute it, either a good one for a bad one or a bad one for a good one; but if he does indeed substitute animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall be holy.
Lv 27:11 And if his vow is for any 1aunclean animal, which may not be presented as an offering to Jehovah, then he shall set the animal before the priest,
Lv 27:12 And the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so shall it be.
Lv 27:13 But if he ever redeems it, then he shall add 1aone-fifth of it to your valuation.
3. The Devotion of a House
vv. 14-15
Lv 27:14 And if anyone 1consecrates his house to be holy to Jehovah, then the 2priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad; just as the priest values it, so shall it stand.
Lv 27:15 And if the one who consecrated it redeems his house, then he shall add 1aone-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall become his.
4. The Devotion of a Field
vv. 16-25
Lv 27:16 And if a man consecrates to Jehovah part of a 1field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the 2seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.
Lv 27:17 If he consecrates his field from the 1year of jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand.
Lv 27:18 But if he consecrates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the money 1for him according to the ayears which remain until the year of jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation.
Lv 27:19 And if the one who consecrated the field ever redeems it, then he shall aadd one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall revert to him.
Lv 27:20 But if he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore.
Lv 27:21 But the 1field, when it goes out in the ajubilee, shall be holy to Jehovah as a bdevoted field; its possession shall be the priest’s.
Lv 27:22 And if he consecrates to Jehovah a field which he has bought that is not part of the field of his possession,
Lv 27:23 Then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation until the year of jubilee, and on that day he shall give your valuation as holy to Jehovah.
Lv 27:24 In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, even to the one to whom the possession of the land belongs.
Lv 27:25 And every valuation of yours shall be according to the ashekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.
5. The Regulations for Devotion
vv. 26-34
Lv 27:26 However no one shall consecrate the 1firstborn among animals, which as a afirstborn already belongs to Jehovah; whether it is an ox or a sheep, it is Jehovah’s.
Lv 27:27 But if it is consecrated from among 1aunclean animals, then he shall ransom it according to your valuation and shall add to it bone-fifth of it. And if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.
Lv 27:28 Nevertheless anything which someone devotes to Jehovah out of all that he has, whether a human or an animal or a field of his possession, it shall not be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is 1most holy to Jehovah.
Lv 27:29 No human beings who are devoted to destruction shall be ransomed; they shall surely be put to death.
Lv 27:30 And all the atithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is 1Jehovah’s; it is holy to Jehovah.
Lv 27:31 And if anyone redeems any of his tithe, he shall add to it aone-fifth of it.
Lv 27:32 And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the shepherd’s rod, the tenth one shall be holy to Jehovah.
Lv 27:33 He shall not search whether it is good or bad, nor shall he asubstitute it; but if he does substitute it at all, then both it and that for which it is substituted shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.
Lv 27:34 These are the commandments which Jehovah commanded Moses on Mount Sinai for the children of Israel.
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NUMBERS

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Moses (33:2; Ezra 6:18, referring to Num. 3:6-7), the author of the five books of the Law (Deut. 31:9, 24; Luke 24:27, 44; John 1:45; 5:46; Acts 28:23; 2 Cor. 3:15).
Time of Writing: Approximately 1452 B.C., before the end of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years (32:13).
Place of Writing: In the plains of Moab by the Jordan River at Jericho (36:13).
Time Period Covered: Almost thirty-nine years, 1490-1452 B.C., from the second month of the second year after the exodus from Egypt (1:1) to the tenth month of the fortieth year (Deut. 1:3).
Subject:
Christ Is the Meaning of Life, the Testimony, the Center of God’s People, and the Leader, the Way, and the Goal of Their Journey and Fighting
NUMBERS 1

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I. Being Formed into an Army
1:1 — 9:14
A. Being Numbered
1:1-54
1. By the Families and Their Leaders according to Age
vv. 1-46
Nm 1:1 1Then Jehovah 2spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the 2Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the asecond year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Nm 1:2 aTake the sum of all the assembly of the children of Israel, by their 1families, by their fathers’ households, according to the bnumber of names, every male, head by head.
Nm 1:3 From 1atwenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth 2for military service in Israel, you and Aaron shall 3number them by their companies.
Nm 1:4 And with you there shall be a man from every tribe, each man the head of his fathers’ household.
Nm 1:5 And these are the anames of the men who shall stand with you. From Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Nm 1:6 From Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Nm 1:7 From Judah: Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Nm 1:8 From Issachar: Nethanel the son of Zuar.
Nm 1:9 From Zebulun: Eliab the son of Helon.
Nm 1:10 From the children of Joseph: from Ephraim: Elishama the son of Ammihud; from Manasseh: Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Nm 1:11 From Benjamin: Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Nm 1:12 From Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Nm 1:13 From Asher: Pagiel the son of Ochran.
Nm 1:14 From Gad: Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
Nm 1:15 From Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan.
Nm 1:16 These are the ones who were acalled from the assembly, the bleaders of the tribes of their fathers; they were the heads of the thousands of Israel.
Nm 1:17 And 1Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name.
Nm 1:18 And on the first day of the second month they gathered all the assembly together; and they 1registered themselves by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head.
Nm 1:19 As Jehovah commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
Nm 1:20 aAnd the children of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:21 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben: forty-six thousand five hundred.
Nm 1:22 From the children of Simeon, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, those who were numbered of them, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:23 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon: fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
Nm 1:24 From the children of Gad, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:25 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Gad: forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.
Nm 1:26 From the children of Judah, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:27 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Judah: seventy-four thousand six hundred.
Nm 1:28 From the children of Issachar, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:29 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Issachar: fifty-four thousand four hundred.
Nm 1:30 From the children of Zebulun, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:31 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Zebulun: fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
Nm 1:32 From the children of Joseph: from the children of Ephraim, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:33 Those who were numbered of them, from the tribe of Ephraim: forty thousand five hundred.
Nm 1:34 And from the children of Manasseh, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:35 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Manasseh: thirty-two thousand two hundred.
Nm 1:36 From the children of Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:37 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Benjamin: thirty-five thousand four hundred.
Nm 1:38 From the children of Dan, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:39 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Dan: sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
Nm 1:40 From the children of Asher, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:41 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Asher: forty-one thousand five hundred.
Nm 1:42 From the children of Naphtali, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service,
Nm 1:43 Those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Naphtali: fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Nm 1:44 These were the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, with the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each one for his fathers’ household.
Nm 1:45 So all who were numbered of the children of Israel by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth for military service in Israel,
Nm 1:46 Even all the numbered men were asix hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.
2. The Levites Not Numbered among the Army
vv. 47-54
Nm 1:47 But the 1Levites were anot numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe.
Nm 1:48 For Jehovah had spoken to Moses, saying,
Nm 1:49 Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take the sum of them among the children of Israel;
Nm 1:50 But you, appoint the aLevites over the 1bTabernacle of the Testimony and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; and they shall minister to it and shall encamp around the tabernacle.
Nm 1:51 And when the tabernacle sets out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the 1stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
Nm 1:52 And the children of Israel shall aencamp, each one by his own camp and each one by his own standard, according to their companies.
Nm 1:53 But the Levites shall encamp around the Tabernacle of the Testimony, that there be no wrath upon the assembly of the children of Israel. And the Levites shall keep the charge of the Tabernacle of the Testimony.
Nm 1:54 Thus did the children of Israel do; according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, so they did.
NUMBERS 2

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B. Encamping in Array
2:1-34
Nm 2:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Nm 2:2 The children of Israel shall 1aencamp each by his own 2standard with the ensigns of their fathers’ households; they shall encamp 3facing the Tent of Meeting on every side.
Nm 2:3 aAnd those who encamp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah, according to their companies; and the leader of the children of Judah: Nahshon the son of Amminadab;
Nm 2:4 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: seventy-four thousand six hundred.
Nm 2:5 And those who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar; and the leader of the children of Issachar: Nethanel the son of Zuar;
Nm 2:6 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: fifty-four thousand four hundred.
Nm 2:7 Then the tribe of Zebulun; and the leader of the children of Zebulun: Eliab the son of Helon;
Nm 2:8 And his company, that is, his numbered men: fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
Nm 2:9 All who were numbered of the camp of Judah: one hundred eighty-six thousand four hundred, according to their companies. They shall set out 1first.
Nm 2:10 aOn the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their companies; and the leader of the children of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur;
Nm 2:11 And his company, that is, his numbered men: forty-six thousand five hundred.
Nm 2:12 And those who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon; and the leader of the children of Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai;
Nm 2:13 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
Nm 2:14 Then the tribe of Gad; and the leader of the children of Gad: Eliasaph the son of Reuel;
Nm 2:15 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.
Nm 2:16 All who were numbered of the camp of Reuben: one hundred fifty-one thousand four hundred fifty, according to their companies. And they shall set out second.
Nm 2:17 aThen the Tent of Meeting shall set out, with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps; as they encamp, so shall they set out, every man in his place, by their standards.
Nm 2:18 aOn the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their companies; and the leader of the children of Ephraim: Elishama the son of Ammihud;
Nm 2:19 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: forty thousand five hundred.
Nm 2:20 And next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh; and the leader of the children of Manasseh: Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur;
Nm 2:21 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: thirty-two thousand two hundred.
Nm 2:22 Then the tribe of Benjamin; and the leader of the children of Benjamin: Abidan the son of Gideoni;
Nm 2:23 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: thirty-five thousand four hundred.
Nm 2:24 All who were numbered of the camp of Ephraim: one hundred eight thousand one hundred, according to their companies. And they shall set out third.
Nm 2:25 aOn the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan according to their companies; and the leader of the children of Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai;
Nm 2:26 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
Nm 2:27 And those who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher; and the leader of the children of Asher: Pagiel the son of Ochran;
Nm 2:28 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: forty-one thousand five hundred.
Nm 2:29 Then the tribe of Naphtali; and the leader of the children of Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan;
Nm 2:30 And his company, that is, those who were numbered of them: fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Nm 2:31 All who were numbered of the camp of Dan: one hundred fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They shall set out last by their standards.
Nm 2:32 These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel by their fathers’ households. All who were numbered in the camps according to their companies were asix hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.
Nm 2:33 But the Levites were anot numbered among the children of Israel, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Nm 2:34 Thus did the children of Israel do. According to all that Jehovah commanded Moses, so they encamped by their standards and so they set out, every one by their families, according to their fathers’ households.
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C. The Holy Service
3:1 — 4:49
Nm 3:1 Now these are the agenerations of Aaron and Moses at the time when Jehovah spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
Nm 3:2 And these are the names of the sons of Aaron: aNadab the firstborn and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar;
Nm 3:3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the aanointed priests, 1who were consecrated to serve as priests.
Nm 3:4 But 1aNadab and Abihu died before Jehovah when they offered strange fire before Jehovah in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the presence of Aaron their father.
Nm 3:5 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 3:6 aBring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him.
Nm 3:7 And they shall keep his charge and the charge of the whole assembly before the Tent of Meeting to do the service of the tabernacle.
Nm 3:8 And they shall keep all the 1afurnishings of the Tent of Meeting and the charge of the children of Israel to do the service of the tabernacle.
Nm 3:9 And you shall agive the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the children of Israel.
Nm 3:10 And you shall 1appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood; but the 2stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
Nm 3:11 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 3:12 As for Me, I have now ataken the 1Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine.
Nm 3:13 For all the afirstborn are Mine; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine; I am Jehovah.
Nm 3:14 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying,
Nm 3:15 Number the children of Levi by their fathers’ households, by their families; every male from a amonth old and upward you shall number.
Nm 3:16 And Moses numbered them according to the word of Jehovah, as he was commanded.
Nm 3:17 And these were the 1sons of Levi by their names: aGershon and Kohath and Merari.
Nm 3:18 And these are the names of the asons of Gershon according to their families: Libni and Shimei.
Nm 3:19 And the sons of aKohath by their families: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.
Nm 3:20 And the sons of aMerari according to their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers’ households.
Nm 3:21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimeites; these are the families of the Gershonites.
Nm 3:22 Those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, even those who were numbered of them were seven thousand five hundred.
Nm 3:23 The families of the Gershonites shall encamp behind the tabernacle on the west.
Nm 3:24 And the leader of the father’s household of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael.
Nm 3:25 aAnd the charge of the sons of Gershon in the Tent of Meeting shall be the tabernacle and the btent, its ccovering and the dscreen for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,
Nm 3:26 And the ahangings of the court, and the bscreen for the entrance of the court, which is around the tabernacle and around the altar, and its ccords for all its service.
Nm 3:27 And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites and the family of the Izharites and the family of the Hebronites and the family of the Uzzielites; these are the families of the Kohathites.
Nm 3:28 According to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.
Nm 3:29 The families of the sons of Kohath shall encamp on the side of the tabernacle to the south.
Nm 3:30 And the leader of the father’s household of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.
Nm 3:31 And their 1charge shall be the aArk and the btable and the clampstand and the daltars and the utensils of the sanctuary with which they minister and the escreen and all its service.
Nm 3:32 And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be leader of the leaders of the Levites and have the oversight of those who keep the charge of the sanctuary.
Nm 3:33 Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites and the family of the Mushites; these are the families of Merari.
Nm 3:34 And those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward: six thousand two hundred.
Nm 3:35 And the leader of the father’s household of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They shall encamp on the side of the tabernacle to the north.
Nm 3:36 And the appointed charge of the sons of Merari shall be the aboards of the tabernacle and its bbars and its cpillars and its dsockets and all its equipment and all the service pertaining to it,
Nm 3:37 And the apillars around the court and their sockets and their bpegs and their cords.
Nm 3:38 And those who encamp before the tabernacle to the east, before the Tent of Meeting toward the sunrise, shall be Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the 1charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
Nm 3:39 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of Jehovah, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward were twenty-two thousand.
Nm 3:40 And Jehovah said to Moses, Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.
Nm 3:41 And you shall atake the Levites for Me — I am Jehovah — instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the children of Israel.
Nm 3:42 And Moses numbered, just as Jehovah commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
Nm 3:43 And all the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.
Nm 3:44 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 3:45 Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be Mine; I am Jehovah.
Nm 3:46 And for the aredemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel over and above the number of the Levites,
Nm 3:47 You shall take afive shekels apiece per head; according to the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take them. (The shekel is twenty gerahs.)
Nm 3:48 And you shall give the money, by which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.
Nm 3:49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites;
Nm 3:50 From the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, a thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
Nm 3:51 And Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Jehovah, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
NUMBERS 4

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Nm 4:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Nm 4:2 Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ households,
Nm 4:3 From 1athirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, all who enter into the 2service to perform the skilled work in the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 4:4 This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting concerning the most holy things.
Nm 4:5 When the camp 1sets out, 2Aaron and his sons shall go in, and they shall take down the aveil of the screen and cover the bArk of the Testimony with it,
Nm 4:6 And they shall put on it a covering of 1aporpoise skin, and shall spread over it a cloth all of bblue strands, and shall put in its cpoles.
Nm 4:7 And over the atable of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the bplates and the cups and the bowls and the pitchers of the 1drink offering; and the continual cbread shall be on it.
Nm 4:8 And they shall spread over them a ascarlet cloth, and cover it with a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put in its bpoles.
Nm 4:9 And they shall take a blue cloth, and cover the alampstand of the light and its lamps and its tongs and its firepans and all its oil vessels with which they minister to it.
Nm 4:10 And they shall put it and all its utensils within a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put it on the carrying frame.
Nm 4:11 And over the golden aaltar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put in its poles.
Nm 4:12 And they shall take all the autensils of ministry with which they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a blue cloth, and cover them with a covering of porpoise skin, and shall put them on the carrying frame.
Nm 4:13 And they shall remove the ashes from the altar, and spread a apurple cloth over it.
Nm 4:14 And they shall put upon it all its utensils with which they minister at it, the firepans, the forks, and the shovels, and the basins — all the utensils of the altar; and they shall spread over it a covering of porpoise skin, and put in its poles.
Nm 4:15 And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, whenever the camp sets out, then the sons of Kohath shall come to acarry them; but they shall not touch the holy things, or they will die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 4:16 And the oversight of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be the 1aoil for the light and the fragrant bincense and the continual meal offering and the canointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle and all that is in it, the sanctuary and its furnishings.
Nm 4:17 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Nm 4:18 Do not let the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites;
Nm 4:19 But do this to them that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and 1assign each one of them to his service and to his burden;
Nm 4:20 But 1the Kohathites shall not go in to asee the sanctuary even for a moment; otherwise they will die.
Nm 4:21 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 4:22 Take the sum of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers’ households, by their families;
Nm 4:23 From thirty years old and upward to fifty years old you shall number them, everyone who enters to carry out the service to do the work in the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 4:24 This is the aservice of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in bearing burdens:
Nm 4:25 They shall carry the acurtains of the tabernacle, and the Tent of Meeting, its bcovering, and the covering of porpoise skin that is on top of it, and the cscreen for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,
Nm 4:26 And the ahangings of the court, and the bscreen for the entrance of the gate of the court, which is around the tabernacle and around the altar, and their ccords, and all the equipment for their service; and whatever is to be done with them, so shall they do.
Nm 4:27 All the service of the sons of the Gershonites shall be at the command of Aaron and his sons, in all their burden and in all their service; and you shall assign to them the charge of all they are to carry.
Nm 4:28 This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the Tent of Meeting, and their charge shall be under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
Nm 4:29 As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families, by their fathers’ households;
Nm 4:30 From thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old you shall number them, everyone who enters into the service to do the work of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 4:31 And this is the acharge of what they are to carry, according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the bboards of the tabernacle and its cbars and its pillars and its dsockets,
Nm 4:32 And the apillars around the court and their sockets and their pegs and their cords, with all their equipment and with all their service; and you shall assign by name the equipment they have been charged to carry.
Nm 4:33 This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
Nm 4:34 And Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the assembly numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their fathers’ households,
Nm 4:35 From thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service for work in the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 4:36 And those who were numbered of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred fifty.
Nm 4:37 These are those who were numbered of the families of the Kohathites, all who served in the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Jehovah through Moses.
Nm 4:38 And those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon by their families and by their fathers’ households,
Nm 4:39 From thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service for work in the Tent of Meeting,
Nm 4:40 Even those who were numbered of them, by their families, by their fathers’ households were two thousand six hundred thirty.
Nm 4:41 These were those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, everyone who served in the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Jehovah.
Nm 4:42 And those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, by their families, by their fathers’ households,
Nm 4:43 From thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service for work in the Tent of Meeting,
Nm 4:44 Even those who were numbered of them by their families were three thousand two hundred.
Nm 4:45 These were those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Jehovah through Moses.
Nm 4:46 All those who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the leaders of Israel numbered, by their families and by their fathers’ households,
Nm 4:47 From thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens in the Tent of Meeting,
Nm 4:48 Even those who were numbered of them were eight thousand five hundred eighty.
Nm 4:49 According to the commandment of Jehovah through Moses they were numbered, everyone according to his service and according to his burden; thus they were numbered by him, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
NUMBERS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

D. Dealing with Defilement
5:1-31
1. The Corporate Dealing
vv. 1-4
Nm 5:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 5:2 Command the children of Israel that they send out of the camp every 1aleper and everyone that has a 1bdischarge and everyone who is unclean because of a 1cdead person.
Nm 5:3 You shall send out both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp, where aI dwell in their midst.
Nm 5:4 And the children of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as Jehovah had spoken to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
2. The Individual Dealing
vv. 5-10
Nm 5:5 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 5:6 Speak to the children of Israel, When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit, so as to act unfaithfully toward Jehovah, and that person realizes his guilt,
Nm 5:7 Then they shall 1aconfess their sin which they have committed, and he shall 1make restitution according to its principal for his wrong and add to it bone-fifth of it and give it to the one whom he has wronged.
Nm 5:8 But if the man has no 1kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong goes to Jehovah for the priest, in addition to the 2aram of the expiation, by which expiation is made for him.
Nm 5:9 And every aheave offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present to the priest, shall be his.
Nm 5:10 And everyone’s holy things shall be his; whatever anyone gives to the priest, it becomes his.
3. Dealing with a Wife over Whom Her Husband Was Jealous
vv. 11-31
Nm 5:11 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 5:12 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, If any man’s wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully toward him,
Nm 5:13 And a man lies with her and has sexual relations, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her since she was not caught in the act;
Nm 5:14 And a spirit of 1ajealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she has defiled herself; or if a spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she has not defiled herself;
Nm 5:15 Then the man shall bring his wife to the 1priest and bring her offering for her, a tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour ano oil upon it nor put frankincense on it; for it is a 2meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
Nm 5:16 And the priest shall bring her near and set her before Jehovah.
Nm 5:17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
Nm 5:18 And the priest shall set the woman before Jehovah and let the 1hair of the woman’s head go loose and put the meal offering of remembrance in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest shall be the water of bitterness that brings the curse.
Nm 5:19 And the priest shall make her take an oath and shall say to the woman, If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
Nm 5:20 But if you have gone astray while under the authority of your husband and if you have defiled yourself, and a man besides your husband has lain with you —
Nm 5:21 Then the priest shall make the woman take an oath with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say to the woman — Jehovah make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Jehovah makes your thigh waste away and your womb swell;
Nm 5:22 And this water that brings the curse shall go into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh waste away. And the woman shall say, 1aAmen, Amen.
Nm 5:23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.
Nm 5:24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse; and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.
Nm 5:25 And the priest shall take the meal offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and he shall 1wave the meal offering before Jehovah and bring it to the altar.
Nm 5:26 And the priest shall take a handful of the meal offering as its memorial portion and burn it upon the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.
Nm 5:27 And when he has made her drink the water, then if she has defiled herself and has acted unfaithfully to her husband, the water that brings the curse will enter into her and become bitter, and her 1womb will swell, and her 1thigh will waste away; and the woman shall be a curse among her people.
Nm 5:28 But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she will be immune and able to conceive seed.
Nm 5:29 This is the law of jealousy when a wife, while under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself,
Nm 5:30 Or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he is jealous of his wife. He shall set the woman before Jehovah, and the priest shall apply to her all this law.
Nm 5:31 And the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her iniquity.
NUMBERS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

E. To Be Sanctified — To Be a Nazarite
6:1-21
Nm 6:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 6:2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When a man or a woman 1makes a aspecial vow, the vow of a 2bNazarite, to 3separate himself to Jehovah,
Nm 6:3 He shall separate himself from 1awine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, nor shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh or dried grapes.
Nm 6:4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.
Nm 6:5 All the days of his vow of separation ano 1razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to Jehovah; he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long.
Nm 6:6 aAll the days that he separates himself to Jehovah he shall not come near a 1dead person.
Nm 6:7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because 1his separation to God is upon his head.
Nm 6:8 All the days of his separation he is holy to Jehovah.
Nm 6:9 And if anyone dies very 1suddenly beside him so that he defiles the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head on the day he becomes clean; on the seventh day shall he ashave it.
Nm 6:10 And on the 1eighth day he shall bring atwo turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,
Nm 6:11 And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make expiation for him because he sinned by reason of the dead person. And he shall 1sanctify his head that same day.
Nm 6:12 And he shall 1separate to Jehovah the days of his separation and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a trespass offering, but the former days shall be void because his separation was defiled.
Nm 6:13 Now this is the law of the Nazarite when the 1days of his separation are afulfilled: He shall be brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 6:14 And he shall present his offering to Jehovah: one 1amale lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one 2female lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one 3bram without blemish for a peace offering,
Nm 6:15 And a 1basket of aunleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their meal offering and their 2bdrink offerings.
Nm 6:16 And the priest shall present them before Jehovah and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering.
Nm 6:17 And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings to Jehovah, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall also offer its meal offering and its drink offering.
Nm 6:18 And the Nazarite shall 1ashave the head of his separation at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and take the hair of the head of his separation and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.
Nm 6:19 And the priest shall take the boiled 1shoulder of the ram and one unleavened cake out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them into the hands of the Nazarite after he has shaved the head of his separation;
Nm 6:20 And the priest shall wave them for a awave offering before Jehovah. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and thigh of the heave offering. And afterward the Nazarite may drink wine.
Nm 6:21 This is the law of the Nazarite who vows, that is, of his offering to Jehovah for his separation, in addition to what he can afford; according to his vow which he vows, so he must do according to the law of his separation.
F. Being Blessed by God
6:22-27
Nm 6:22 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 6:23 Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, Thus you shall 1abless the children of Israel; you shall say to them,
Nm 6:24 Jehovah 1abless you and bkeep you;
Nm 6:25 Jehovah make His 1aface 2shine upon you and be bgracious to you;
Nm 6:26 Jehovah lift up His 1acountenance upon you and give you bpeace.
Nm 6:27 So shall they put My aname upon the children of Israel, that I Myself may bless them.
NUMBERS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • • 60 • • • • 65 • • • • 70 • • • • 75 • • • • 80 • • • • 85 • • • •

G. Offerings by the Twelve Tribes for the Worship of God
7:1-89
Nm 7:1 And on the day that Moses had finished setting up the atabernacle, and had 1banointed it and sanctified it and all its furnishings and the altar and all its utensils, and had anointed them and sanctified them,
Nm 7:2 The aleaders of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ households (they were the leaders of the tribes, who were over those who had been numbered), presented their offering.
Nm 7:3 And they brought their offering before Jehovah: 1six covered wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two of the leaders and an ox for each one; and they presented them before the tabernacle.
Nm 7:4 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 7:5 Take these from them that they may be used in doing the service of the Tent of Meeting; and you shall give them to the Levites, to each according to his service.
Nm 7:6 And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites.
Nm 7:7 Two wagons and four oxen he gave to the sons of aGershon according to their service;
Nm 7:8 And four wagons and eight oxen he gave to the sons of aMerari according to their service, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
Nm 7:9 But to the sons of aKohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary belonged to them; they bore this upon their shoulder.
Nm 7:10 And the leaders presented 1offerings for the adedication of the altar in the day that it was anointed; that is, the leaders presented their offering before the altar.
Nm 7:11 And Jehovah said to Moses, They shall present their offering, one leader each day, for the dedication of the altar.
Nm 7:12 And he who presented his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah.
Nm 7:13 And his offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine aflour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:14 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of aincense;
Nm 7:15 One abull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:16 One male of the agoats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:17 And for the sacrifice of apeace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Nm 7:18 On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, leader of Issachar, presented.
Nm 7:19 He presented as his offering one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:20 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:21 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:22 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:23 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nethanel the son of Zuar.
Nm 7:24 On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, leader of the children of Zebulun —
Nm 7:25 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:26 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:27 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:28 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:29 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliab the son of Helon.
Nm 7:30 On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, leader of the children of Reuben —
Nm 7:31 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:32 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:33 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:34 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:35 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Nm 7:36 On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, leader of the children of Simeon —
Nm 7:37 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:38 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:39 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:40 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:41 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Nm 7:42 On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, leader of the children of Gad —
Nm 7:43 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:44 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:45 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:46 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:47 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
Nm 7:48 On the seventh day Elishama the son of Ammihud, leader of the children of Ephraim —
Nm 7:49 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:50 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:51 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:52 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:53 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elishama the son of Ammihud.
Nm 7:54 On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, leader of the children of Manasseh —
Nm 7:55 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:56 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:57 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:58 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:59 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Nm 7:60 On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, leader of the children of Benjamin —
Nm 7:61 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:62 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:63 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:64 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:65 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Nm 7:66 On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, leader of the children of Dan —
Nm 7:67 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:68 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:69 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:70 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:71 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Nm 7:72 On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ochran, leader of the children of Asher —
Nm 7:73 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:74 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:75 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:76 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:77 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Pagiel the son of Ochran.
Nm 7:78 On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, leader of the children of Naphtali —
Nm 7:79 His offering was one silver plate; its weight was one hundred thirty shekels; one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
Nm 7:80 One golden cup of ten shekels, full of incense;
Nm 7:81 One bull of the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;
Nm 7:82 One male of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:83 And for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahira the son of Enan.
Nm 7:84 This was the adedication of the altar, in the day when it was anointed, by the leaders of Israel: twelve silver plates, twelve silver bowls, twelve golden cups;
Nm 7:85 Each silver plate weighing one hundred thirty shekels, and each bowl seventy; all the silver of the vessels was two thousand four hundred shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary;
Nm 7:86 The twelve golden cups, full of incense, weighing ten shekels each, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; all the gold of the cups was one hundred twenty shekels;
Nm 7:87 All the livestock for the burnt offering: twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve male lambs a year old and their meal offering; and twelve males of the goats for a sin offering;
Nm 7:88 And all the livestock for the sacrifice of peace offerings: twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty male goats, sixty male lambs a year old. This was the dedication of the altar, after it was anointed.
Nm 7:89 And when Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to aspeak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the expiation cover that was upon the Ark of the Testimony, from between the two bcherubim; and 1he spoke to Him.
NUMBERS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

H. Lighting the Lamps
8:1-4
Nm 8:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 8:2 Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the 1aseven lamps will give light in front of the lampstand.
Nm 8:3 And Aaron did so; he set up its lamps to give light in front of the lampstand, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Nm 8:4 Now this was the workmanship of the lampstand, abeaten work of gold; from its base to its flowers it was beaten work. According to the 1pattern which Jehovah had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.
I. The Presenting of the Levites (Serving Ones of the Priesthood)
8:5-26
1. Cleansing Them First
vv. 5-8
Nm 8:5 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 8:6 Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them.
Nm 8:7 And thus you shall do to them to 1cleanse them: Sprinkle the awater of purification upon them, and let them pass a brazor over all their flesh and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves.
Nm 8:8 Then let them take a bull of the herd and its meal offering, fine flour mingled with oil; and a second bull of the herd you shall take for a sin offering.
2. Presenting Them to God
vv. 9-22
Nm 8:9 And you shall present the Levites before the aTent of Meeting and gather the whole bassembly of the children of Israel.
Nm 8:10 And you shall present the Levites before Jehovah, and the children of Israel shall 1alay their hands upon the Levites.
Nm 8:11 And Aaron shall offer the Levites before Jehovah as a 1wave offering from the children of Israel, that they may do the service of Jehovah.
Nm 8:12 And the Levites shall 1alay their hands upon the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to Jehovah to make expiation for the Levites.
Nm 8:13 And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and before his sons, and offer them as a wave offering to Jehovah.
Nm 8:14 Thus you shall aseparate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.
Nm 8:15 Then after this the Levites may go in to do the service of the Tent of Meeting. So you shall cleanse them and offer them as a wave offering.
Nm 8:16 For they are wholly given to Me from among the children of Israel; I have ataken them for Myself instead of everyone who opens the womb, the firstborn of all the children of Israel.
Nm 8:17 For all the afirstborn among the children of Israel are Mine, both human and animal. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself.
Nm 8:18 And I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
Nm 8:19 And I have given the Levites as a agift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, and to make expiation for the children of Israel, that there may be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near to the sanctuary.
Nm 8:20 Thus did Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly of the children of Israel do to the Levites; according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did the children of Israel do to them.
Nm 8:21 And the Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes. Then Aaron offered them as a wave offering before Jehovah, and Aaron made expiation for them to cleanse them.
Nm 8:22 And after this the Levites went in to do their service in the Tent of Meeting before Aaron and before his sons; as Jehovah had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.
3. The Age for the Service of the Levites
vv. 23-26
Nm 8:23 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 8:24 This is what applies to the Levites: aFrom 1twenty-five years old and upward they shall go in to perform the service in the work of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 8:25 And from the age of fifty years they shall 1retire from the service in the work and shall serve no more.
Nm 8:26 But they may minister to their brothers in the Tent of Meeting, to keep the charge, but they themselves shall do no service. Thus you shall do with the Levites concerning their charges.
NUMBERS 9

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J. Keeping the Passover
9:1-14
Nm 9:1 Now Jehovah had spoken to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the 1first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Nm 9:2 Let the children of Israel keep the 1apassover at its appointed time.
Nm 9:3 On the afourteenth day of this month 1at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its 2statutes and according to all its 2ordinances you shall keep it.
Nm 9:4 Thus Moses told the children of Israel to keep the passover.
Nm 9:5 And they kept the passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that Jehovah commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.
Nm 9:6 But there were certain men who were unclean through contact with a adead person, so that they could not keep the passover on that day; so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.
Nm 9:7 And those men said to him, Although we are unclean through contact with a dead person, why must we be kept from presenting the offering of Jehovah at its appointed time among the children of Israel?
Nm 9:8 And Moses said to them, Stay here so I may hear what Jehovah will command concerning you.
Nm 9:9 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 9:10 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Any one of you or your descendants who becomes unclean through contact with a dead person or is on a distant journey shall still keep the passover to Jehovah.
Nm 9:11 In the asecond month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it; they shall eat it with bunleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Nm 9:12 They shall not leave any of it until the amorning, nor break a bbone of it; according to every statute of the passover they shall keep it.
Nm 9:13 But the 1man who is clean and is not on a journey yet refrains from keeping the passover, that person shall be cut off from his people, because he did not present Jehovah’s offering at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.
Nm 9:14 And if a astranger sojourns with you and keeps the passover to Jehovah; according to the statute of the passover and according to its ordinance, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native born in the land.
II. Journeying
9:15 — 20:29; 21:4-20; 33:1-49
A. The Guidance
9:15 — 10:10
1. By the Cloud
9:15-23
Nm 9:15 And on the day that the tabernacle was set up, the 1acloud covered the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony; and in the evening it was like the appearance of 1fire over the tabernacle until morning.
Nm 9:16 So it was always; the acloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.
Nm 9:17 And whenever the 1cloud was ataken up from over the tent, then after that the children of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel encamped.
Nm 9:18 At the commandment of Jehovah the children of Israel set out, and at the commandment of Jehovah they encamped; as long as the cloud settled upon the tabernacle, they remained encamped.
Nm 9:19 Even when the cloud extended its time over the tabernacle for many days, the children of Israel kept the charge of Jehovah and did not set out.
Nm 9:20 If sometimes the cloud was upon the tabernacle a few days, according to the commandment of Jehovah they remained encamped; then at the commandment of Jehovah they set out.
Nm 9:21 If sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning, when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they set out; or if it remained a day and a night, when the cloud was taken up, they set out.
Nm 9:22 Whether it was two days or a month or a longer time that the cloud extended its time over the tabernacle and settled above it, the children of Israel remained encamped and did not set out; but when it was taken up, they set out.
Nm 9:23 At the commandment of Jehovah they encamped, and at the commandment of Jehovah they set out. They kept the charge of Jehovah according to the commandment of Jehovah through Moses.
NUMBERS 10

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2. By the Two Trumpets
10:1-10
Nm 10:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 10:2 Make yourself two trumpets of 1silver; of abeaten work you shall make them; and you shall use them for summoning the assembly and for the setting out of the camps.
Nm 10:3 And when they ablow them, all the assembly shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 10:4 But if they blow only one, then the aleaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.
Nm 10:5 And when you blow an 1alarm, the camps that are encamped on the aeast side shall set out.
Nm 10:6 And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that are encamped on the asouth side shall set out. They shall blow an balarm for them to set out.
Nm 10:7 But when the congregation is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
Nm 10:8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall ablow the trumpets; and this shall be for you a perpetual statute throughout your generations.
Nm 10:9 And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an aalarm with the trumpets, so that you may be remembered before Jehovah your God and be saved from your enemies.
Nm 10:10 Also on your days of rejoicing and at your aappointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall 1bblow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a reminder on your behalf before your God; I am Jehovah your God.
B. Setting Out
10:11-36
1. The Guidance of the Cloud
vv. 11-13
Nm 10:11 Now it was in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was ataken up from over the Tabernacle of the Testimony.
Nm 10:12 And the children of Israel set out on their journeys from the wilderness of aSinai. Then the cloud 1settled down in the wilderness of bParan.
Nm 10:13 And they set out for the first time according to the commandment of Jehovah through Moses.
2. The Sequence of the Setting Out
vv. 14-28
Nm 10:14 aAnd the standard of the camp of the children of Judah set out bfirst according to their companies; and over the entire company was Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Nm 10:15 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethanel the son of Zuar.
Nm 10:16 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon.
Nm 10:17 And the tabernacle was ataken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bcarried the tabernacle, set out.
Nm 10:18 And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out according to their companies; and over the entire company was Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Nm 10:19 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Nm 10:20 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
Nm 10:21 And the Kohathites, who acarried the holy things, set out; and the tabernacle was set up before their arrival.
Nm 10:22 And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set out according to their companies; and over the entire company was Elishama the son of Ammihud.
Nm 10:23 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Nm 10:24 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Nm 10:25 And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps, set out according to their companies; and over the entire company was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Nm 10:26 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ochran.
Nm 10:27 And over the company of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan.
Nm 10:28 This was the order in which the children of Israel set out according to their companies, when they set out.
3. Trusting in Man
vv. 29-32
Nm 10:29 And Moses said to aHobab the son of bReuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, We are setting out to the place concerning which Jehovah said, I will cgive it to you. Come with us, and we will treat you well, for Jehovah has dpromised good to Israel.
Nm 10:30 But he said to him, I will not go; but rather I will go to my own land and to my relatives.
Nm 10:31 So 1Moses said, Please do not leave us, for you know where we can encamp in the wilderness, and you will be 2eyes for us.
Nm 10:32 And if you go with us, whatever good Jehovah does for us, we will do for you.
4. The Leading of the Ark
vv. 33-36
Nm 10:33 So they set out from the amountain of Jehovah three days’ journey, with the 1bArk of the Covenant of Jehovah setting out before them three days’ journey, to seek out a cresting place for them.
Nm 10:34 And the acloud of Jehovah was over them by day when they set out from the camp.
Nm 10:35 And when the Ark set out, Moses said,
1aRise up, O Jehovah, and let Your enemies be scattered; / And let those who hate You flee before You.
Nm 10:36 And when it came to rest, he said,
1Return, O 2Jehovah, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.
NUMBERS 11

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C. Failures
11:1 — 14:45
1. Murmuring Evil
11:1-3
Nm 11:1 And the people became like those who amurmur about their misfortune in the ears of Jehovah; and when Jehovah heard it, His banger was kindled, and the cfire of Jehovah burned among them and consumed some at the outskirts of the camp.
Nm 11:2 And the people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to Jehovah, and the fire abated.
Nm 11:3 And the name of that place was called 1Taberah because the fire of Jehovah had burned among them.
2. Lusting
11:4-35
Nm 11:4 And the 1amixed multitude that was among them blusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us meat to eat?
Nm 11:5 We remember the 1fish which we used to eat in aEgypt for nothing, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic;
Nm 11:6 But now our appetite has gone; there is nothing at all but 1this amanna to look at.
Nm 11:7 Now the manna was like 1acoriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium.
Nm 11:8 The people went about and agathered it and ground it between two millstones or beat it in a mortar; then they boiled it in pots and made cakes of it; and its btaste was like the taste of cakes baked in oil.
Nm 11:9 And when the adew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.
Nm 11:10 And Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each at the entrance of his tent; and the anger of Jehovah was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased.
Nm 11:11 And Moses said to Jehovah, Why have You treated Your servant badly, and why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have put the burden of all this people upon me?
Nm 11:12 Did I conceive all this people? Or did I abring them forth, so that You should say to me, Carry them in your bbosom, as a cnurse carries the nursing child, to the dland which You swore to give to their fathers?
Nm 11:13 From where should I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, Give us meat, so that we may eat!
Nm 11:14 I am not able to bear all this people aalone, for it is too heavy for me.
Nm 11:15 And if this is the way You deal with me, aplease kill me at once — if I have found favor in Your sight — and do not let me see my wretchedness.
Nm 11:16 So Jehovah said to Moses, Gather to Me 1aseventy, each one from the elders of Israel, whom you know are the elders of the people and their officers, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting, and have them stand there with you.
Nm 11:17 Then I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take of the aSpirit who is upon you and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the bburden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it alone.
Nm 11:18 And you shall say to the people, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. Therefore Jehovah will give you meat, and you shall eat.
Nm 11:19 You shall aeat not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,
Nm 11:20 But a whole month, until it comes out from your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected Jehovah who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, Why did we ever come out of Egypt?
Nm 11:21 But Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are asix hundred thousand on foot; and You have said, I will give them meat so that they may eat a whole month.
Nm 11:22 Will flocks and herds be slain for them, to satisfy them? Or will all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to satisfy them?
Nm 11:23 And Jehovah said to Moses, Has Jehovah’s hand become ashort? Now you will see whether My word will come to pass for you or not.
Nm 11:24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of Jehovah, and he gathered aseventy, each one from the elders of the people, and set them around the tent.
Nm 11:25 And Jehovah acame down in the cloud and spoke to him, and He took of the Spirit who was upon him, and put Him upon the seventy elders. And when the bSpirit rested upon them, they 1prophesied, but they did not do so again.
Nm 11:26 But two men had remained in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. (Now they were among those who were registered, but they had not gone out to the tent.) And they prophesied in the camp.
Nm 11:27 And a certain young man ran and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.
Nm 11:28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered and said, My lord Moses, arestrain them!
Nm 11:29 But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? aOh that 1all Jehovah’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!
Nm 11:30 And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
Nm 11:31 And a wind went forth from Jehovah and brought aquails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.
Nm 11:32 And the people rose up all that day and all the night and all the next day, and they gathered the quail. He who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
Nm 11:33 While the meat was still between their ateeth, before it was chewed, the banger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah struck the people with a very severe plague.
Nm 11:34 And the name of that place was called 1aKibroth-hattaavah because there they buried the people who blusted.
Nm 11:35 aFrom Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.
NUMBERS 12

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3. Slandering
12:1-16
Nm 12:1 And aMiriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had bmarried (for he had married a Cushite woman).
Nm 12:2 And they said, 1aHas Jehovah indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not also bspoken through us? And Jehovah heard it.
Nm 12:3 Now the man Moses was very 1ameek, more than anyone else who was on the face of the earth.
Nm 12:4 And suddenly Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron and to Miriam, You three come out to the Tent of Meeting. So the three of them came out.
Nm 12:5 aThen Jehovah 1came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam. And when they had both come forward,
Nm 12:6 He said, Hear now My words:
If there is a 1prophet among you, / I, Jehovah, will make Myself known to him in a avision; / I will speak with him in a bdream.
Nm 12:7 My servant Moses is not so; / 1aHe is faithful in all My house.
Nm 12:8 With him I speak aface to face, even openly, and not in riddles; / And he beholds the bform of Jehovah.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?
Nm 12:9 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them, and He departed.
Nm 12:10 And when the cloud had departed from over the tent; there aMiriam was, 1bleprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, leprous.
Nm 12:11 And Aaron said to Moses, Oh, my lord, please do not lay this sin upon us that we have so foolishly committed.
Nm 12:12 Please do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.
Nm 12:13 And Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, 1Please heal her, O God, please.
Nm 12:14 And Jehovah said to Moses, If her father had just spat in her face, would she not bear her shame seven days? Let her be shut up aoutside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.
Nm 12:15 So Miriam was shut up outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out until Miriam had been brought in again.
Nm 12:16 After that the people set out from aHazeroth and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.
NUMBERS 13

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4. Not Believing in God
13:1 — 14:38
a. God Commanding Moses to Send Twelve Men to Spy Out the Land of Canaan
13:1-20
Nm 13:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 13:2 1Send men to aspy out the 2land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; one man from each of their fathers’ tribes you shall send, every one a leader among them.
Nm 13:3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Jehovah, all of them leading men among the children of Israel.
Nm 13:4 And these were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
Nm 13:5 From the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;
Nm 13:6 From the tribe of Judah, aCaleb the son of Jephunneh;
Nm 13:7 From the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
Nm 13:8 From the tribe of Ephraim, aHoshea the son of Nun;
Nm 13:9 From the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;
Nm 13:10 From the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
Nm 13:11 From the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi;
Nm 13:12 From the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
Nm 13:13 From the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;
Nm 13:14 From the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
Nm 13:15 From the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
Nm 13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called 1Hoshea the son of Nun 2aJoshua.
Nm 13:17 And when Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, Go up this way into the Negev, and go up into the hill country;
Nm 13:18 And see what the land is like; and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;
Nm 13:19 And whether the land in which they dwell is good or bad; and whether the cities that they live in are like camps or with fortifications;
Nm 13:20 And whether the land is fat or lean; whether there are trees in it or not. Therefore strengthen yourselves and bring some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
b. The Twelve Men Going Up and Spying Out the Land
13:21-24
Nm 13:21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the 1entrance of Hamath.
Nm 13:22 And when they had gone up through the Negev, they came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of 1aAnak, were there. (Now bHebron was built seven years before cZoan in Egypt.)
Nm 13:23 Then they came to the aValley of Eshcol, and from there they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes; and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also cut off some of the pomegranates and some of the figs.
Nm 13:24 That place was called the Valley of 1Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.
c. The Twelve Men Returning
13:25 — 14:10
Nm 13:25 And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.
Nm 13:26 And they proceeded to come to Moses and to Aaron and to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to the whole assembly, and showed them the fruit of the land.
Nm 13:27 And they told him and said, We came to the land into which you sent us; and it indeed flows with amilk and honey, and this is its bfruit.
Nm 13:28 However, the apeople who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and we also saw the descendants of Anak there.
Nm 13:29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negev, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan.
Nm 13:30 But aCaleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
Nm 13:31 But the men who went up with him said, We are anot able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.
Nm 13:32 And they brought to the children of Israel an aevil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of bgreat size.
Nm 13:33 And there we saw the 1aNephilim (the descendants of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.
NUMBERS 14

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Nm 14:1 Then the whole assembly lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night.
Nm 14:2 And all the children of Israel amurmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole assembly said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
Nm 14:3 And why does Jehovah bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to areturn to Egypt?
Nm 14:4 And they said one to another, Let us appoint a acaptain, and let us return to Egypt.
Nm 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron 1afell on their faces before the whole congregation of the assembly of the children of Israel.
Nm 14:6 And aJoshua the son of Nun and bCaleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who spied out the land, ctore their clothes.
Nm 14:7 And they spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we passed to spy out is an exceedingly 1agood land.
Nm 14:8 If Jehovah is pleased with us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with amilk and honey.
Nm 14:9 Only 1do not rebel against Jehovah, nor should you fear the people of the land, for they are our abread. Their protection has been removed from them, and Jehovah is bwith us; do not fear them.
Nm 14:10 But the whole assembly said to astone them with stones. Then the bglory of Jehovah appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.
d. God’s Abhorring of the People of Israel
14:11-38
Nm 14:11 And Jehovah said to Moses, 1How long will this people despise Me? And how long will they anot believe in Me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
Nm 14:12 I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make of you a anation greater and mightier than they.
Nm 14:13 But Moses said to Jehovah, 1Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your amight You brought this people up from their midst,
Nm 14:14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Jehovah, are in the midst of this people; for You, O Jehovah, are seen in plain sight, and Your cloud stands over them, and You go before them in a apillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
Nm 14:15 Now if You put this people to death as one man, then the nations that have heard the report about You will speak, saying,
Nm 14:16 aBecause Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which He swore to give them, He has therefore slaughtered them in the wilderness.
Nm 14:17 And now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying,
Nm 14:18 Jehovah is aslow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generations.
Nm 14:19 aPardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.
Nm 14:20 Then Jehovah said, I have 1pardoned them according to your word;
Nm 14:21 But as surely as I live, and as all the earth will be afilled with the glory of Jehovah,
Nm 14:22 None of those men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tried Me these ten times and have not listened to My voice,
Nm 14:23 Shall see the land which I aswore to give to their fathers, nor shall any of those who despised Me see it.
Nm 14:24 Only My servant aCaleb, because he had a different spirit and has bfully followed Me, will I bring into the land which he entered; and his descendants shall take possession of it.
Nm 14:25 Now since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow, and set out into the wilderness by the way that leads to the Red Sea.
Nm 14:26 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Nm 14:27 How long shall I bear with this evil assembly, which amurmurs against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they are making against Me.
Nm 14:28 Say to them, As I live, declares Jehovah, just as you have spoken in My ears, so will I do to you.
Nm 14:29 Your corpses shall afall in this wilderness, and none of you who were numbered, according to the number you counted from btwenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me,
Nm 14:30 Shall come into the land, in which I 1aswore to settle you, except bCaleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
Nm 14:31 But your alittle ones, whom you said would become plunder, I will bring in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.
Nm 14:32 But as for you, your corpses shall afall in this wilderness.
Nm 14:33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness aforty years, and they shall suffer for your 1unfaithfulness until your corpses have been consumed in the wilderness.
Nm 14:34 According to the number of the days which you spied out the land, aforty days, a year for every day, you shall bear your iniquities, forty years; and you shall know My 1displeasure.
Nm 14:35 I, Jehovah, have spoken; surely I will do this to all this evil assembly who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be aconsumed, and there they shall die.
Nm 14:36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made the whole assembly to murmur against him by bringing up an aevil report against the land,
Nm 14:37 That is, those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah.
Nm 14:38 Only aJoshua the son of Nun and bCaleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land.
5. Transgressing the Word of God
14:39-45
Nm 14:39 And when Moses spoke these words to all the children of Israel, the people mourned greatly.
Nm 14:40 And they rose up early in the morning to go up to the top of the mountain, saying, Here we are; now awe will go up to the place which Jehovah has spoken of, for we have sinned.
Nm 14:41 But Moses said, Why do you 1again transgress the commandment of Jehovah? This will not succeed.
Nm 14:42 aDo not go up — for Jehovah is not among you — so that you are not struck down before your enemies.
Nm 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have 1turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you.
Nm 14:44 But they apresumed to go up to the top of the mountain, even though neither the 1bArk of the Covenant of Jehovah nor Moses had departed out of the midst of the camp.
Nm 14:45 Then the 1aAmalekites and the 1Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and struck them and beat them back as far as Hormah.
NUMBERS 15

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D. Ordinances
15:1-41
1. Concerning the Offerings
vv. 1-31
Nm 15:1 Then Jehovah 1spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 15:2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that you are to inhabit, which I am giving you,
Nm 15:3 And you make an offering by fire to Jehovah, a aburnt 1offering or a sacrifice, to 2make a bspecial vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a csatisfying fragrance to Jehovah, from the herd or from the flock,
Nm 15:4 aThe one who presents his offering shall present to Jehovah a bmeal offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of oil.
Nm 15:5 And you shall prepare wine for the adrink offering, a fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
Nm 15:6 Or for a ram you shall prepare as a meal offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mingled with a third of a hin of oil;
Nm 15:7 And for the drink offering you shall present a third of a hin of wine, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Nm 15:8 And when you prepare a herd animal for a burnt offering or for a sacrifice, to make a special vow or for apeace offerings to Jehovah,
Nm 15:9 Then you shall offer with the herd animal a meal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mingled with half a hin of oil;
Nm 15:10 And you shall present for the drink offering half a hin of wine, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Nm 15:11 Thus shall it be done for each ox or for each ram or for each of the male lambs or goats.
Nm 15:12 According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do for every one according to their number.
Nm 15:13 All who are native shall do these things in this way, in presenting an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Nm 15:14 And if a stranger sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wants to make an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah; just as you do, so he shall do.
Nm 15:15 For the congregation there shall be 1one statute for you and for the astranger who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the sojourner be before Jehovah.
Nm 15:16 One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.
Nm 15:17 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 15:18 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land into which I am bringing you,
Nm 15:19 Whenever you eat of the abread of the land, you shall offer up a bheave offering to Jehovah.
Nm 15:20 From the 1afirst of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a heave offering; as the heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up.
Nm 15:21 From the first of your dough you shall give to Jehovah a heave offering throughout your generations.
Nm 15:22 And if 1you asin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments which Jehovah has spoken to Moses,
Nm 15:23 That is, everything that Jehovah has commanded you through Moses, from the day that Jehovah gave commandment and onward throughout your generations,
Nm 15:24 Then, if it was done unintentionally, without the knowledge of the assembly, the whole assembly shall offer one bull of the herd for a burnt offering, for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah, with its meal offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a asin offering.
Nm 15:25 And the priest shall make 1aexpiation for the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was unintentional, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to Jehovah, and their sin offering before Jehovah for their error.
Nm 15:26 And the whole assembly of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them; for all the people were involved unintentionally.
Nm 15:27 And if one person asins unintentionally, then he shall present a female goat a year old for a sin offering.
Nm 15:28 And the priest shall make expiation before Jehovah for the person who sinned unintentionally, when he sins unintentionally, to make expiation for him; and he shall be forgiven.
Nm 15:29 You shall have one law for the one who does anything unintentionally, for one who is a native among the children of Israel and for the astranger who sojourns among them.
Nm 15:30 But the person who does anything with a 1high hand, whether a native or a sojourner, that one reviles Jehovah; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Nm 15:31 Because he has despised the word of Jehovah and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
2. Concerning the Breaking of the Sabbath
vv. 32-36
Nm 15:32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the aSabbath day.
Nm 15:33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole assembly.
Nm 15:34 And they put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
Nm 15:35 And Jehovah said to Moses, The man shall surely be 1aput to death; the whole assembly shall bstone him with stones outside the camp.
Nm 15:36 So the whole assembly brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
3. Concerning the People’s Dress
vv. 37-41
Nm 15:37 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 15:38 Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to make for themselves 1afringes on the borders of their garments throughout their generations and to put on the fringe of each border a 2cord of blue.
Nm 15:39 And it shall be a fringe for you, so that when you see it you will remember all the commandments of Jehovah and do them, so that you do not seek after your own heart and your own eyes, according to which you committed fornication;
Nm 15:40 That you shall remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God.
Nm 15:41 I am aJehovah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am Jehovah your God.
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E. Rebellion — A More Serious Failure
16:1 — 17:13
1. The Cause of the Rebellion and the Reaction of Moses
16:1-18
Nm 16:1 Now aKorah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with bDathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men
Nm 16:2 And rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, 1two hundred fifty leaders of the assembly, who were summoned to the meeting, well-known men.
Nm 16:3 And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take too much upon yourselves, for all the assembly are aholy, every one of them, and Jehovah is bamong them. Why then do you 1exalt yourselves above the congregation of Jehovah?
Nm 16:4 And when Moses heard this, he afell on his face.
Nm 16:5 And he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, 1In the morning Jehovah will make known awho is His and who is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; even the one whom He will bchoose He will bring near to Himself.
Nm 16:6 Do this: Take acensers for yourselves, Korah and all 1your company,
Nm 16:7 And put fire in them, and put incense on them before Jehovah tomorrow; and the man whom Jehovah chooses, he shall be holy. It is you who take too much upon yourselves, O sons of Levi!
Nm 16:8 And Moses said to Korah, Hear now, O sons of Levi:
Nm 16:9 Is it a small thing for you that the God of Israel has aseparated you from the assembly of Israel to bring you near to Himself to do the bservice of the tabernacle of Jehovah and to stand before the assembly to minister to them?
Nm 16:10 Or that He has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And do you seek the priesthood also?
Nm 16:11 Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against Jehovah; but Aaron, awhat is he that you bmurmur against him?
Nm 16:12 Then Moses sent word to call Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab; but they said, We will not come up!
Nm 16:13 Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with amilk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but must you also blord it over us?
Nm 16:14 Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with amilk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. 1Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up!
Nm 16:15 Then Moses became very angry and said to Jehovah, Do not aregard their offering. I have not taken a single bdonkey from them, nor have I done harm to any of them.
Nm 16:16 And Moses said to Korah, You and all your company be present before Jehovah, both you and they along with Aaron, tomorrow.
Nm 16:17 And let each of you take his censer and put incense on them, and each of you present his censer before Jehovah, two hundred fifty censers; you also and Aaron shall each present his censer.
Nm 16:18 So each took his censer and put fire in them and laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting with Moses and Aaron.
2. God’s Judgment
16:19-50
Nm 16:19 Thus Korah gathered the whole assembly against them at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and the aglory of Jehovah appeared to the whole assembly.
Nm 16:20 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Nm 16:21 aSeparate yourselves from among this assembly, so that I may consume them in a moment.
Nm 16:22 But they afell on their faces and said, O God, the God of the 1bspirits of all flesh, will one man sin and You be angry with the whole assembly?
Nm 16:23 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 16:24 Speak to the assembly, saying, Get away from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
Nm 16:25 Then Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.
Nm 16:26 And he spoke to the assembly, saying, Depart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing which belongs to them, or you will be swept away with all their sins.
Nm 16:27 So they got away from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood at the entrance of their tents, with their wives and their children and their little ones.
Nm 16:28 And Moses said, By this you shall know that Jehovah has asent me to do all these works, for it is not of myself.
Nm 16:29 If these people die as all human beings die, or if what befalls all human beings befalls them, then Jehovah has not sent me.
Nm 16:30 But if Jehovah brings about a anew thing, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they descend alive into 1Sheol, then you will understand that these men have despised Jehovah.
Nm 16:31 And as soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them was split open.
Nm 16:32 So the earth opened its mouth and aswallowed them up, along with their households and everyone who belonged to bKorah and all their possessions.
Nm 16:33 So they and all that belonged to them 1descended alive into Sheol; and the earth aclosed over them, and they perished from the midst of the congregation.
Nm 16:34 And all Israel who were around them fled at their outcry, for they said, The earth may swallow us up too!
Nm 16:35 And afire came forth from Jehovah and 1bconsumed the two hundred fifty men who presented the incense.
Nm 16:36 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 16:37 Tell aEleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take the censers up out of the burning and scatter the fire about; for they are holy.
Nm 16:38 The censers of those who have sinned against their own lives, let them be made into beaten plates for a acovering of the 1altar, for they presented them before Jehovah and they became holy. So they shall be a sign to the children of Israel.
Nm 16:39 And Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which those who were burned had offered; and they beat them out as a covering of the altar,
Nm 16:40 As a reminder to the children of Israel that no stranger who is not of the seed of aAaron may come near to bburn incense before Jehovah, so that he does not become like Korah and his company, just as Jehovah had spoken to him through Moses.
Nm 16:41 But on the next day the whole assembly of the children of Israel 1amurmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have caused the people of Jehovah to die.
Nm 16:42 But when the assembly gathered against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the Tent of Meeting, and there the acloud was, covering it; and the bglory of Jehovah appeared.
Nm 16:43 And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 16:44 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 16:45 aGet away from the midst of this assembly that I might consume them in a moment. And they bfell upon their faces.
Nm 16:46 And Moses said to Aaron, Take the censer and put afire in it from the altar, and lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the assembly, and make 1bexpiation for them. For wrath has gone forth from Jehovah; the plague has begun.
Nm 16:47 And Aaron took it as Moses had said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And indeed the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made expiation for the people.
Nm 16:48 And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was astopped.
Nm 16:49 Now those who adied by the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died on account of Korah.
Nm 16:50 So Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting when the plague had been stopped.
NUMBERS 17

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3. God’s Vindication
17:1-13
Nm 17:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 17:2 Speak to the children of Israel, and take from them 1arods, one for each father’s house, twelve rods from all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses; you shall write everyone’s name upon his rod.
Nm 17:3 And you shall write Aaron’s name upon the arod of Levi, for there shall be one rod for the head of each of their fathers’ houses.
Nm 17:4 And you shall place them in the Tent of Meeting before the 1Testimony, where I ameet with you.
Nm 17:5 And the rod of the man whom I achoose shall bud, and I will put a stop to the murmurings of the children of Israel against Me, which they bmurmur against you.
Nm 17:6 So Moses spoke to the children of Israel. And every one of their leaders gave him a rod, one rod for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods, with the rod of Aaron among their rods.
Nm 17:7 And Moses placed the rods before Jehovah in the Tent of the Testimony.
Nm 17:8 And on the next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony, and there was the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi: it had 1budded; it even put forth buds and produced blossoms and bore ripe aalmonds.
Nm 17:9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before Jehovah to all the children of Israel, and they looked; and each one took his rod.
Nm 17:10 Then Jehovah said to Moses, 1Put back the rod of Aaron before the Testimony to be kept as a asign against the rebels, so that you may put an end to their murmurings against Me, and they not die.
Nm 17:11 And Moses did so; just as Jehovah commanded him, so he did.
Nm 17:12 And the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Alas, we 1die out; we perish; all of us perish.
Nm 17:13 Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of Jehovah, dies. Are we to completely die out?
NUMBERS 18

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F. The Levitical Service and the Aaronic Priesthood, with Their Reward
18:1-32
1. The Levitical Service and the Aaronic Priesthood
vv. 1-7
Nm 18:1 Then Jehovah 1said to Aaron, You and your sons and your father’s household with you shall abear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the 2iniquity of your priesthood.
Nm 18:2 And your brothers also, the tribe of 1Levi, the tribe of your father, bring near with you, so that they may be joined to you and aminister to you, while you and your sons with you are before the Tent of the Testimony.
Nm 18:3 And they shall keep your charge and the charge of all the atent, but they shall bnot come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary and to the altar, so that they do not die, neither they nor you.
Nm 18:4 And they shall be joined to you and keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting for all the service of the tent, but a stranger shall not come near to you.
Nm 18:5 And you shall keep the charge of the 1sanctuary and the charge of the 1altar, so that there may be no more wrath upon the children of Israel.
Nm 18:6 And I Myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a 1agift to you, given to Jehovah, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 18:7 But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and awithin the veil, and you shall carry out your service. I give you the bpriesthood as a service of 1gift, but the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
2. The Reward
vv. 8-32
a. To Aaron and His Sons as the Priests
vv. 8-20
Nm 18:8 Then Jehovah spoke to Aaron, And I Myself have given you charge of My heave offerings, even all the holy things of the children of Israel; I have given them to you because of the aanointing, and to your sons, as a perpetual statute.
Nm 18:9 This shall be yours of the most holy things, 1kept from the fire. Every offering of theirs, even every ameal 2offering of theirs and every bsin offering of theirs and every ctrespass offering of theirs, which they shall render to Me, shall be 3most holy for you and for your sons.
Nm 18:10 As the most holy things you shall aeat it; every 1male shall eat it; it shall be holy to you.
Nm 18:11 This also is yours, the aheave offering of their gift, even all the bwave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to cyou and to your 1sons and to your 1daughters with you, as a perpetual statute; everyone who is clean in your house may deat it.
Nm 18:12 All the 1best of the aoil, and all the 1best of the new wine and of the grain, their bfirstfruits that they give to Jehovah, I have given to you.
Nm 18:13 The firstfruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Jehovah, shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.
Nm 18:14 Everything adevoted in Israel shall be yours.
Nm 18:15 Everything that aopens the womb of all flesh, which they present to Jehovah, whether human or animal, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of human beings you shall surely 1bredeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.
Nm 18:16 And those who are to be redeemed from a month old you shall redeem, according to your estimation, for afive shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
Nm 18:17 But the afirstborn of a cow or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood upon the altar and burn their fat as an offering by fire for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
Nm 18:18 But their flesh shall be yours; like the breast of the awave offering and like the right thigh, it shall be yours.
Nm 18:19 All the aheave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to Jehovah, I have given to you and to your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual statute. It is a 1bcovenant of salt forever before Jehovah for you and for your descendants with you.
Nm 18:20 And Jehovah said to Aaron, aYou shall have 1no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your bportion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
b. To the Levites as the Serving Ones in the Tent of Meeting
vv. 21-32
Nm 18:21 And to the children of Levi I have now given every 1atithe in Israel for an inheritance in return for their service which they carry out, the service of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 18:22 From now on the children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, so that they do not incur sin and die.
Nm 18:23 But the Levites shall do the aservice of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. And among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
Nm 18:24 For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave offering to Jehovah, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
Nm 18:25 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 18:26 Moreover you shall speak to the Levites and say to them, When you take from the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a 1aheave offering from it for Jehovah, a btithe of the tithe.
Nm 18:27 And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and the fullness of the wine press.
Nm 18:28 Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to Jehovah from all your tithes, which you receive from the children of Israel; and from it you shall give aJehovah’s heave offering to 1Aaron the priest.
Nm 18:29 Out of all your gifts you shall offer every heave offering of Jehovah, from all the best of it, the sanctified portion of it from them.
Nm 18:30 Therefore you shall say to them, When you heave from it the best of it, then it shall be reckoned to the Levites as though it were the produce of the threshing floor and the produce of the wine press.
Nm 18:31 And you may aeat it in every place, you and your households, for it is your 1reward in return for your service in the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 18:32 And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, so that you do not die.
NUMBERS 19

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G. The Water for Impurity
19:1-22
Nm 19:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Nm 19:2 This is the statute of the law which Jehovah has commanded, saying, Tell the children of Israel to bring you a 1red aheifer without defect, in which is no blemish and upon which a byoke has never come.
Nm 19:3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and someone shall bring it 1aoutside the camp and slaughter it in his presence.
Nm 19:4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and asprinkle its blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.
Nm 19:5 And the heifer shall be aburned in his sight; its skin and its flesh and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned.
Nm 19:6 And the priest shall take 1acedar wood and hyssop and scarlet strands, and cast them into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
Nm 19:7 Then the priest shall awash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; but the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
Nm 19:8 And he who burns 1the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
Nm 19:9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the 1aashes of the heifer and place them outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the assembly of the children of Israel as bwater for 2impurity; it is a sin offering.
Nm 19:10 And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And it shall be a perpetual statute to the children of Israel and to the stranger who sojourns among them.
Nm 19:11 One who touches the adead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days.
Nm 19:12 He shall apurify himself with it on the 1third day and on the 1seventh day, and then he shall be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he shall not be clean.
Nm 19:13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a human being who has died, and does not purify himself, adefiles the tabernacle of Jehovah; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the bwater for impurity was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
Nm 19:14 This is the law when a man dies in a tent: Anyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.
Nm 19:15 And every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, is unclean.
Nm 19:16 And whoever in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or a dead body or a human bone or a grave shall be unclean seven days.
Nm 19:17 And for the unclean they shall take of the aashes of the burning of the sin offering, and 1running water shall be added to them in a vessel;
Nm 19:18 And a clean person shall take ahyssop, and dip it in the water, and bsprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one who died or the grave.
Nm 19:19 And the clean person shall asprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day, and on the seventh day he shall purify him. And he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean in the evening.
Nm 19:20 But the man who shall be unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah; the awater for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.
Nm 19:21 So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
Nm 19:22 And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.
NUMBERS 20

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H. Further Failures
20:1-13, 23-29; 21:4-9
1. The Result of Miriam’s Failure
20:1
Nm 20:1 Then the children of Israel, the whole assembly, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh; and aMiriam 1died there and was buried there.
2. Contending for Water
20:2-13
Nm 20:2 And there was ano 1water for the assembly, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
Nm 20:3 And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If only we had expired when our brothers expired before Jehovah!
Nm 20:4 Why then have you brought the congregation of Jehovah into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die there?
Nm 20:5 Why then did you bring us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a aplace of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink.
Nm 20:6 And Moses and Aaron went from before the congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and afell upon their faces, and the bglory of Jehovah appeared to them.
Nm 20:7 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 20:8 Take the arod, and gather the assembly, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the 1brock before their eyes, so that it yields its 1water. Thus you shall bring forth water for them out of the rock and give the assembly and their livestock something to cdrink.
Nm 20:9 And Moses took the arod from before Jehovah, as He had commanded him.
Nm 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he asaid to them, Listen now, you 1brebels: Shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?
Nm 20:11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and astruck the rock with his rod twice; and abundant water came forth, and the assembly and their livestock drank.
Nm 20:12 And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in Me, to 1asanctify Me in the sight of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation binto the land which I have given them.
Nm 20:13 These are the waters of 1aMeribah, where the children of Israel contended with Jehovah, and He was sanctified among them.
I. Further Journeying
20:14-22; 21:10-20
1. From Kadesh to Mount Hor
20:14-22
Nm 20:14 Now Moses sent messengers from aKadesh to the king of 1Edom: Thus says your brother Israel, You know all the hardship that has befallen us;
Nm 20:15 How our fathers went down to aEgypt, and we bdwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians cill-treated us and our fathers;
Nm 20:16 And when we acried to Jehovah, He heard our voice and sent an bAngel and brought us forth out of Egypt; and now we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border.
Nm 20:17 Please alet us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, nor will we drink water from any well; we will go along the King’s Highway, not turning aside to the right or to the left, until we pass through your territory.
Nm 20:18 But Edom said to him, You shall not pass through 1my territory, or else I will come out against you with the sword.
Nm 20:19 Then the children of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway, and if I and my livestock drink some of your water, then I will pay its price. Allow me only this one thing, to pass through on foot.
Nm 20:20 However he said, You shall not pass through. And Edom came out against him with a large number of people and with a mighty hand.
Nm 20:21 So Edom arefused to give Israel passage through his territory, and Israel turned away from him.
Nm 20:22 Now when they ajourneyed from Kadesh, the children of Israel, the whole assembly, came to Mount Hor.
(H. Further Failures — cont’d)
3. The Result of Aaron’s Failure
20:23-29
Nm 20:23 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, saying,
Nm 20:24 Aaron shall be agathered to his people, for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you brebelled against My word at the waters of Meribah.
Nm 20:25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up Mount Hor;
Nm 20:26 And strip Aaron of his agarments and put them upon Eleazar his son; so Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.
Nm 20:27 So Moses did just as Jehovah had commanded, and they went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole assembly.
Nm 20:28 And when Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son, Aaron 1adied there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
Nm 20:29 And when the whole assembly saw that Aaron had expired, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron athirty days.
NUMBERS 21

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III. Fighting
21:1-3; 21:21 — 32:42; 33:50 — 36:13
A. Defeating the King of Arad
21:1-3
Nm 21:1 And when the 1aCanaanite, the king of 2Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.
Nm 21:2 And Israel made a avow to Jehovah and said, If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will butterly destroy their cities.
Nm 21:3 And Jehovah listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. Thus the name of the place was called 1Hormah.
(II. Journeying — cont’d)
(H. Further Failures — cont’d)
4. Speaking against God and Moses
21:4-9
Nm 21:4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go aaround the land of Edom; and 1the people became impatient on the way.
Nm 21:5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and there is no water; and our soul loathes this 1alight bread.
Nm 21:6 Then Jehovah sent fiery aserpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Nm 21:7 And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against Jehovah and against you; pray to Jehovah, that He may take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people.
Nm 21:8 Then Jehovah said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a 1pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.
Nm 21:9 And Moses made a 1abronze serpent and set it on the pole; and if a serpent had bitten any man, when he blooked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
(I. Further Journeying — cont’d)
2. Arriving at the Top of Pisgah
21:10-20
Nm 21:10 aAnd the children of Israel journeyed and encamped at Oboth.
Nm 21:11 And they journeyed from Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim in the wilderness which faces Moab toward the sunrise.
Nm 21:12 From there they journeyed and encamped in the valley of aZered.
Nm 21:13 From there they ajourneyed and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
Nm 21:14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah,
Waheb in Suphah, / And the valleys of the Arnon,
Nm 21:15 And the slope of the valleys / That inclines toward the seat of Ar / And leans toward the border of Moab.
Nm 21:16 And from there they journeyed to 1Beer; that is the well where Jehovah said to Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them awater.
Nm 21:17 Then Israel sang this song:
Spring up, O well! Sing to it!
Nm 21:18 The well, which the 1leaders sank, / Which the 1nobles of the people dug, / With the scepter, with their staffs.
And from the wilderness they journeyed to Mattanah;
Nm 21:19 And from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;
Nm 21:20 And from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, to the top of aPisgah, which looks down upon the desert.
(III. Fighting — cont’d)
B. Defeating Sihon the King of the Amorites
21:21-32
Nm 21:21 And Israel asent messengers to Sihon the king of the 1Amorites, saying,
Nm 21:22 aLet me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or into vineyard; we will not drink water from any well. We will go by the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.
Nm 21:23 aBut Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. And Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.
Nm 21:24 And Israel astruck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
Nm 21:25 And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all her villages.
Nm 21:26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.
Nm 21:27 Therefore those who speak in proverbs say,
Come to Heshbon; let it be built, / And let the city of Sihon be established.
Nm 21:28 aFor fire has gone forth from Heshbon, / A flame from the city of Sihon; / It has consumed Ar of Moab / 1And swallowed up the high places of the Arnon.
Nm 21:29 Woe to you, O Moab! / You have perished, O people of Chemosh; / He has given his sons as fugitives, / And his daughters have gone into captivity, / To an Amorite king, Sihon.
Nm 21:30 We have shot at them; / Heshbon is ruined as far as Dibon, / And we have laid waste as far as Nophah, / 1Fire spreads as far as Medeba.
Nm 21:31 Thus Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.
Nm 21:32 And Moses sent some to aspy out Jazer. And they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.
C. Defeating Og the King of Bashan
21:33-35
Nm 21:33 And they turned and went up on the way that leads to Bashan; and aOg the king of 1Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.
Nm 21:34 And Jehovah said to Moses, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who was dwelling at Heshbon.
Nm 21:35 So they struck him and his sons and all his people until there was no survivor left to him, and they possessed his land.
NUMBERS 22

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D. The Harassment by Balak and Balaam
22:1 — 25:18
1. Balak’s Evil Intention
22:1-40
Nm 22:1 And the children of Israel ajourneyed and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
Nm 22:2 And aBalak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
Nm 22:3 And Moab was very afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.
Nm 22:4 And 1Moab said to the elders of 1Midian, This multitude will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. Now Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.
Nm 22:5 And he sent messengers to 1aBalaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the 2River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, There is a people here who have come out from Egypt; now they cover the surface of the land and have settled over against me.
Nm 22:6 Now, therefore, please come; acurse this people for me, since they are mightier than I. Perhaps I may be able to strike them and drive them out of the land, for I know that whomever you bless is blessed and whomever you curse is cursed.
Nm 22:7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with fees for divination in their hand, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak.
Nm 22:8 And he said to them, Spend tonight here, and I will bring back word to you as 1Jehovah speaks to me. And the rulers of Moab stayed with Balaam.
Nm 22:9 And God came to Balaam and said, Who are these men with you?
Nm 22:10 And Balaam said to God, Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, has sent word to me, saying,
Nm 22:11 aThere is a people who came out of Egypt, and they cover the surface of the land. Now come; curse them for me; perhaps I will be able to fight against them and drive them out.
Nm 22:12 And God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them; you shall not 1curse the people, for they are 1ablessed.
Nm 22:13 So Balaam rose up in the morning and said to the rulers from Balak, Go to your land, for Jehovah has refused to let me go with you.
Nm 22:14 And the rulers of Moab rose up and went to Balak and said, Balaam refuses to come with us.
Nm 22:15 So Balak yet again sent rulers, more numerous and more honorable than these.
Nm 22:16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me,
Nm 22:17 For I will indeed honor you greatly; and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore; curse this people for me.
Nm 22:18 aAnd Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, Even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of Jehovah my God, to do less or more.
Nm 22:19 Now you therefore please stay here tonight also, so that I may know what more Jehovah might speak to me.
Nm 22:20 And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, Since the men have come to call you, rise up; 1go with them, but only what I speak to you shall you do.
Nm 22:21 And Balaam rose up in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the rulers of Moab.
Nm 22:22 And God’s anger was kindled because he was going, and the 1aAngel of Jehovah took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.
Nm 22:23 And when the donkey saw the Angel of Jehovah standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the way.
Nm 22:24 Then the Angel of Jehovah stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side.
Nm 22:25 And when the donkey saw the Angel of Jehovah, she pressed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again.
Nm 22:26 And the Angel of Jehovah went further and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left.
Nm 22:27 And when the donkey saw the Angel of Jehovah, she lay down under Balaam. Then Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.
Nm 22:28 And Jehovah opened the mouth of the adonkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?
Nm 22:29 And Balaam said to the donkey, Because you have mocked me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.
Nm 22:30 And the donkey said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you? And he said, No.
Nm 22:31 Then Jehovah opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the aAngel of Jehovah standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, and he bowed his head and fell on his face.
Nm 22:32 And the Angel of Jehovah said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I am here, having come out as an adversary, because your way was unrestrained before Me.
Nm 22:33 And the donkey saw Me and turned aside before Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, I would surely have killed you just now and let her live.
Nm 22:34 And Balaam said to the Angel of Jehovah, I have sinned, for I did not know that You were standing in the way against me. Now then, if it displeases You, I will turn back.
Nm 22:35 And the Angel of Jehovah said to Balaam, Go with the men; but you shall speak only the word that I shall speak to you. So Balaam went with the rulers from Balak.
Nm 22:36 And when Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, which is on the border of the Arnon, at the farthest point of the border.
Nm 22:37 And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not send word urgently to you to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I not indeed able to ahonor you?
Nm 22:38 And Balaam said to Balak, Here I am; I have come to you now. Am I able to speak anything at all? aThe word that God puts in my mouth, that I shall speak.
Nm 22:39 And Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth.
Nm 22:40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent them to Balaam and to the rulers who were with him.
2. Balaam’s Prophesying in Parables
22:41 — 24:25
a. The First Parable
22:41 — 23:12
Nm 22:41 And in the morning Balak took Balaam and brought him up to 1Bamoth-baal, and he saw from there the aedge of the people.
NUMBERS 23

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Nm 23:1 aThen Balaam said to Balak, Build me seven altars here, and have seven bulls and seven rams ready for me here.
Nm 23:2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken. And Balak and Balaam 1offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
Nm 23:3 And Balaam said to Balak, Stand near your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Jehovah will come to meet me; and whatever He shows me I will tell you. And he went to a bare height.
Nm 23:4 aAnd God met Balaam, and he said to Him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
Nm 23:5 And Jehovah put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, Return to Balak, and you shall speak this.
Nm 23:6 When he returned to him, there he was, standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the rulers of Moab.
Nm 23:7 And he took up his 1parable and said,
From Aram Balak brought me, / The king of Moab from the mountains of the East. / Come, acurse Jacob for me; / And come, denounce Israel!
Nm 23:8 How shall I curse whom God has anot cursed? / And how can I denounce whom Jehovah has not denounced?
Nm 23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, / And from the hills I behold him. / Here is a people who live 1aalone / And do not reckon themselves among the nations.
Nm 23:10 Who can acount the 1dust of Jacob, / Or number the fourth part of Israel? / Let 2me die the death of the upright, / And let my latter end be like theirs!
Nm 23:11 And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but now you have altogether blessed them.
Nm 23:12 And he answered and said, aShall I not take care to speak what Jehovah puts in my mouth?
b. The Second Parable
23:13-26
Nm 23:13 aAnd Balak said to him, Come now with me to another place from which you may see them. You will see only the outside edge of them and not see them all; then curse them for me from there.
Nm 23:14 So he took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of aPisgah, and built seven altars and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
Nm 23:15 And he said to Balak, Stand here near your burnt offering while I meet Jehovah there.
Nm 23:16 aAnd Jehovah met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, Return to Balak, and you shall speak this.
Nm 23:17 When he came to him, there he was, standing beside his burnt offering, and the rulers of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has Jehovah spoken?
Nm 23:18 And he took up his parable and said,
Arise, O Balak, and hear; / Listen to me, O son of Zippor:
Nm 23:19 aGod is not a man, that He should 1lie, / Nor a son of man, that He should repent. / Has He said, and will He not do it? / Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?
Nm 23:20 Now I have received a word to bless; / Since He has ablessed, then I cannot reverse it.
Nm 23:21 He has not beheld 1ainiquity in Jacob, / Nor has He seen trouble in Israel; / bJehovah their God is with them, / And the shout of a 2king is among them.
Nm 23:22 aGod is the One who brought them forth out of Egypt; / 1He has as it were the 2bhorns of the wild ox.
Nm 23:23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, / Nor is there any divination against Israel. / Now it shall be said of Jacob / And of Israel, What has God awrought!
Nm 23:24 See, a people rises up like a lioness, / And like a alion they lift themselves up. / They shall not lie down until they eat the prey / And drink the blood of the slain.
Nm 23:25 And Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
Nm 23:26 But Balaam answered and said to Balak, Did I not tell you, saying, aAll that Jehovah speaks, that I must do?
c. The Third Parable
23:27 — 24:13
Nm 23:27 aAnd Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.
Nm 23:28 And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks down upon the desert.
Nm 23:29 aAnd Balaam said to Balak, Build me seven altars here, and have seven bulls and seven rams ready for me here.
Nm 23:30 And Balak did just as Balaam had said, and he offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
NUMBERS 24

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Nm 24:1 And when Balaam saw that it pleased Jehovah to bless Israel, he did anot go as at the other times to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.
Nm 24:2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, and the aSpirit of God came upon him.
Nm 24:3 aAnd he took up his parable and said,
Balaam the son of Beor declares, / And the man whose eye is 1opened declares;
Nm 24:4 He declares, he who hears the words of God, / Who sees the vision of the aAll-sufficient One, / Falling down, but having his eyes uncovered:
Nm 24:5 aHow 1fair are your tents, O Jacob, / Your tabernacles, O Israel!
Nm 24:6 Like 1valleys they are spread forth, / Like agardens beside a river, / Like 2baloes which Jehovah has planted, / Like cedars beside cwater.
Nm 24:7 Water shall flow from his buckets, / And his seed shall be in many waters, / And his 1king shall be higher than aAgag, / And his kingdom shall be exalted.
Nm 24:8 aGod is the One who brought him forth out of Egypt; / He has as it were the 1horns of the wild ox. / He shall eat up the nations, his adversaries, / And shall break their bones in pieces, / And shatter them with his arrows.
Nm 24:9 aHe couches; he lies down like a lion / And like a lioness; who will rouse him up? / 1bBlessed is everyone who blesses you, / And cursed is everyone who curses you.
Nm 24:10 Then Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, I called you to acurse my enemies, but now you have altogether blessed them these three times.
Nm 24:11 Therefore now flee to your place! I said I would greatly ahonor you, but now Jehovah has kept you away from honor.
Nm 24:12 aAnd Balaam said to Balak, Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying,
Nm 24:13 Even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of Jehovah, to do either good or bad from my own heart? What Jehovah speaks, that I will speak.
d. The Fourth Parable
24:14-25
Nm 24:14 And now therefore, I am going to my people. Come, let me give you counsel as to what this people will do to your people in the last days.
Nm 24:15 aAnd he took up his parable and said,
Balaam the son of Beor declares, / And the man whose eye is opened declares;
Nm 24:16 He declares, he who hears the words of God / And obtains the knowledge of the aMost High, / Who sees the vision of the bAll-sufficient One, / Falling down, but having his eyes uncovered:
Nm 24:17 I see Him, but not now; / I behold Him, but not near. / There shall 1come forth a 2aStar out of Jacob, / And a 2bScepter shall rise out of Israel, / And He shall crush the corners of cMoab / And break down all the sons of Sheth.
Nm 24:18 And aEdom shall be dispossessed — / Seir, His 1enemies, shall also be dispossessed — / While Israel does valiantly.
Nm 24:19 And One from Jacob shall have dominion / And destroy the remnant from 1the city.
Nm 24:20 And he looked on 1Amalek and took up his parable and said,
aAmalek was the first of the nations, / But his latter end shall come to destruction.
Nm 24:21 And he looked on the Kenites and took up his parable and said,
Strong is your dwelling place, / And your nest is set in the rock.
Nm 24:22 Nevertheless Kain shall be burned / Until aAsshur carry you away captive.
Nm 24:23 And he took up his parable and said,
Alas, who shall live when God does this?
Nm 24:24 But ships shall come from the coast of aKittim, / And they shall afflict Asshur and shall afflict Eber; / And he also shall come to destruction.
Nm 24:25 And Balaam rose up and went back to his place, and Balak also went his way.
NUMBERS 25

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3. Israel’s Fall in Fornication and Idolatry
25:1-18
Nm 25:1 While Israel dwelt in Shittim, the people began to commit 1afornication with the daughters of Moab.
Nm 25:2 For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people aate and bowed down to their gods.
Nm 25:3 And Israel joined itself to aBaal-peor, and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel.
Nm 25:4 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people and ahang them up to Jehovah before the sun, so that the fierce anger of Jehovah may turn away from Israel.
Nm 25:5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each of you aslay his men who have joined themselves to Baal-peor.
Nm 25:6 Just then one of the children of Israel came and brought a aMidianite woman to his brothers in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
Nm 25:7 And when aPhinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the assembly and took a spear in his hand,
Nm 25:8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her stomach. So the plague among the children of Israel was stopped.
Nm 25:9 And those who died by the 1plague were atwenty-four thousand.
Nm 25:10 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 25:11 Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with My ajealousy among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My jealousy.
Nm 25:12 Therefore say, I now give him My acovenant of peace;
Nm 25:13 And it shall be to him and to his seed after him the covenant of an aeverlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made expiation for the children of Israel.
Nm 25:14 Now the name of the slain man of Israel, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s household among the Simeonites.
Nm 25:15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, head of the people of a father’s household in Midian.
Nm 25:16 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 25:17 Harass the aMidianites and strike them;
Nm 25:18 For they have harassed you with their deception with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.
NUMBERS 26

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E. The Renumbering of the People
26:1-65
Nm 26:1 Now after the plague Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,
Nm 26:2 Take the 1asum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, from 2twenty years old and upward, by their 2fathers’ households, all who are able to go forth for military service in Israel.
Nm 26:3 So 1Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
Nm 26:4 Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward, as Jehovah commanded Moses. Now the children of Israel, who came forth out of the land of Egypt were:
Nm 26:5 aReuben, the firstborn of Israel; the sons of Reuben: of Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the family of the Palluites;
Nm 26:6 Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.
Nm 26:7 These are the families of the Reubenites, and those who were numbered of them were forty-three thousand seven hundred thirty.
Nm 26:8 And the sons of Pallu: Eliab.
Nm 26:9 And the sons of Eliab: Nemuel and Dathan and Abiram. These are the aDathan and Abiram, who were bcalled by the assembly, who contended against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they contended against Jehovah;
Nm 26:10 aAnd the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, when the fire consumed two hundred fifty men; and they became a bsign.
Nm 26:11 But the sons of aKorah did 1not die.
Nm 26:12 The sons of aSimeon according to their families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites; of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites; of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites;
Nm 26:13 Of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites; of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites.
Nm 26:14 These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two thousand two hundred.
Nm 26:15 The sons of aGad according to their families: of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites; of Haggi, the family of the Haggites; of Shuni, the family of the Shunites;
Nm 26:16 Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites; of Eri, the family of the Erites;
Nm 26:17 Of Arod, the family of the Arodites; of Areli, the family of the Arelites.
Nm 26:18 These are the families of the sons of Gad according to those who were numbered of them, forty thousand five hundred.
Nm 26:19 The sons of aJudah: Er and Onan; but Er and Onan bdied in the land of Canaan.
Nm 26:20 And the sons of Judah according to their families were: of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites; of Perez, the family of the Perezites; of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites.
Nm 26:21 And the sons of Perez were: of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.
Nm 26:22 These are the families of Judah according to those who were numbered of them, seventy-six thousand five hundred.
Nm 26:23 The sons of aIssachar according to their families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites; of Puvah, the family of the Punites;
Nm 26:24 Of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites; of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.
Nm 26:25 These are the families of Issachar according to those who were numbered of them, sixty-four thousand three hundred.
Nm 26:26 The sons of aZebulun according to their families: of Sered, the family of the Seredites; of Elon, the family of the Elonites; of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites.
Nm 26:27 These are the families of the Zebulunites according to those who were numbered of them, sixty thousand five hundred.
Nm 26:28 The sons of aJoseph according to their families: Manasseh and Ephraim.
Nm 26:29 The sons of aManasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites; and Machir begat Gilead; of Gilead, the family of the Gileadites.
Nm 26:30 These are the sons of Gilead: of Iezer, the family of the Iezerites; of Helek, the family of the Helekites;
Nm 26:31 And of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites; and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites;
Nm 26:32 And of Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites; and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.
Nm 26:33 Now aZelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters, and the names of the 1daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
Nm 26:34 These are the families of Manasseh; and those who were numbered of them were fifty-two thousand seven hundred.
Nm 26:35 These are the sons of aEphraim according to their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthelahites; of Becher, the family of the Becherites; of Tahan, the family of the Tahanites.
Nm 26:36 And these are the sons of Shuthelah: of Eran, the family of the Eranites.
Nm 26:37 These are the families of the sons of Ephraim according to those who were numbered of them, thirty-two thousand five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph according to their families.
Nm 26:38 The sons of aBenjamin according to their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites; of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites; of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites;
Nm 26:39 Of Shephupham, the family of the Shuphamites; of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites.
Nm 26:40 And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: of Ard, the family of the Ardites; of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.
Nm 26:41 These are the sons of Benjamin according to their families; and those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand six hundred.
Nm 26:42 These are the sons of aDan according to their families: of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan according to their families.
Nm 26:43 All the families of the Shuhamites, according to those who were numbered of them, were sixty-four thousand four hundred.
Nm 26:44 The sons of aAsher according to their families: of Imnah, the family of the Imnites; of Ishvi, the family of the Ishvites; of Beriah, the family of the Berites.
Nm 26:45 From the sons of Beriah: of Heber, the family of the Heberites; of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites.
Nm 26:46 And the name of the daughter of Asher was Serah.
Nm 26:47 These are the families of the sons of Asher according to those who were numbered of them, fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Nm 26:48 The sons of aNaphtali according to their families: of Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites; of Guni, the family of the Gunites;
Nm 26:49 Of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites; of Shillem, the family of the Shillemites.
Nm 26:50 These are the families of Naphtali according to their families; and those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand four hundred.
Nm 26:51 These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel, asix hundred one thousand seven hundred thirty.
Nm 26:52 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 26:53 To these the land shall be adivided for an inheritance according to the number of names.
Nm 26:54 You shall aincrease the larger group’s inheritance, and you shall reduce the smaller group’s inheritance. Each shall be given their inheritance according to those who were numbered of them.
Nm 26:55 But the land shall be apportioned by 1alot; they shall inherit it according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.
Nm 26:56 According to the lot their inheritance shall be apportioned among the larger and the smaller groups.
Nm 26:57 And these are those who were numbered of the aLevites according to their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites.
Nm 26:58 These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. And aKohath begot Amram.
Nm 26:59 And the name of Amram’s wife was aJochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt; and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses and their bsister Miriam.
Nm 26:60 And to Aaron were born aNadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Nm 26:61 And 1aNadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before Jehovah.
Nm 26:62 And those who were numbered of them were atwenty-three thousand, every male from a month old and upward, for they were bnot numbered among the children of Israel, because 1cno inheritance was given to them among the children of Israel.
Nm 26:63 These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
Nm 26:64 But among these there was 1not one of those anumbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
Nm 26:65 For Jehovah had said of them, They shall surely die in the awilderness. And not one of them was left, except bCaleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
NUMBERS 27

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F. The Statute of Judgment for the Women’s Inheriting of the Land
27:1-11
1. The Request of the Daughters of Zelophehad
vv. 1-4
Nm 27:1 Then the 1adaughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the 2families of Manasseh the son of Joseph came near. And these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah and Tirzah.
Nm 27:2 aAnd they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, saying,
Nm 27:3 Our father died in the awilderness, and he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Jehovah in the company of bKorah; but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons.
Nm 27:4 Why should our father’s name be taken away from among his family because he had no son? Give us a 1apossession among our father’s brothers.
2. God’s Statute of Judgment
vv. 5-11
Nm 27:5 And Moses brought their case before Jehovah.
Nm 27:6 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 27:7 The daughters of Zelophehad speak rightly. You shall surely give them the 1apossession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers; and you shall cause the binheritance of their father to pass to them.
Nm 27:8 And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 1If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.
Nm 27:9 And if he does not have a daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.
Nm 27:10 And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers.
Nm 27:11 And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his arelative nearest to him among his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be a statute of judgment for the children of Israel, as Jehovah commanded Moses.
G. The Death of Moses, and His Successor
27:12-23
1. The Death of Moses (The Result of Moses’ Failure)
vv. 12-14
Nm 27:12 aAnd Jehovah said to Moses, Go up to this mountain of the Abarim and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.
Nm 27:13 And when you have seen it, you also shall be agathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother was bgathered,
Nm 27:14 Because you 1arebelled against My word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the assembly, and failed to 1sanctify Me at the waters before their eyes. (These are the waters of 2Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin.)
2. The Successor of Moses
vv. 15-23
Nm 27:15 And Moses spoke to Jehovah, saying,
Nm 27:16 Let Jehovah, the aGod of the 1spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the assembly,
Nm 27:17 Who will go out before them and who will come in before them, and who will lead them aout and who will bring them in; so that the assembly of Jehovah will not be like bsheep which have no 1shepherd.
Nm 27:18 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take aJoshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the bSpirit, and clay your hand upon him;
Nm 27:19 And set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole assembly, and give him a charge in their sight.
Nm 27:20 And you shall put some of your honor upon him, so that the whole assembly of the children of Israel may obey him.
Nm 27:21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, and he shall inquire for him by the judgment of the 1aUrim before Jehovah. At his word shall they go out and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even the whole assembly.
Nm 27:22 And Moses did as Jehovah commanded him, and he took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole assembly.
Nm 27:23 And he 1laid his hands upon him and gave him a charge just as Jehovah had spoken through Moses.
NUMBERS 28

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H. The Statutes
28:1 — 30:16
1. Concerning the Offerings
28:1 — 29:40
a. The Offerings by Fire, God’s Satisfying Fragrance
28:1-2
Nm 28:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 28:2 Command the children of Israel and say to them, My offering, My 1afood for My offerings by fire of a bsatisfying fragrance to Me, you shall be careful to present to Me at its appointed time.
b. A Continual Burnt Offering for Every Day
28:3-8
Nm 28:3 And you shall say to them, aThis is the offering by fire which you shall present to Jehovah: two male lambs a year old without blemish each day as a continual burnt offering.
Nm 28:4 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer 1at twilight;
Nm 28:5 Also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a 1meal offering, mingled with the fourth of a hin of beaten oil.
Nm 28:6 It is a continual burnt offering, which was set up on Mount Sinai for a satisfying fragrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Nm 28:7 aAnd its 1drink offering shall be the fourth of a hin for the one lamb; in the sanctuary you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to Jehovah.
Nm 28:8 And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; you shall offer it with the meal offering and its drink offering as in the morning, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.
c. A Burnt Offering for Every Sabbath
28:9-10
Nm 28:9 And on the Sabbath day two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, and its drink offering —
Nm 28:10 This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
d. A Burnt Offering for the Beginning of Every Month
28:11-15
Nm 28:11 And at the 1abeginnings of your months byou shall present a burnt offering to Jehovah: two bulls of the herd and one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 28:12 And three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, for each bull; and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, for the one ram;
Nm 28:13 And a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering for each lamb for a burnt offering, a satisfying fragrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Nm 28:14 And their adrink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, and a third of a hin for the ram, and a fourth of a hin for a lamb. This is the burnt offering of each month throughout the months of the year.
Nm 28:15 Also one male goat for a 1sin offering to Jehovah shall be offered in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
e. A Burnt Offering Following the Passover
28:16-25
Nm 28:16 And in the afirst month on the fourteenth day of the month shall be Jehovah’s 1bPassover.
Nm 28:17 And on the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast; seven days aunleavened bread shall be eaten.
Nm 28:18 aOn the first day there shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor;
Nm 28:19 But you shall present an offering by fire, a burnt offering to Jehovah: two bulls of the herd and one ram and seven male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish for you;
Nm 28:20 And you shall offer their meal offering of fine flour mingled with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for a bull and two-tenths for a ram;
Nm 28:21 You shall offer one-tenth for each lamb of the seven lambs;
Nm 28:22 And one male goat as a sin offering, to make expiation for you.
Nm 28:23 You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering.
Nm 28:24 In this way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah; it shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
Nm 28:25 And on the aseventh day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor.
f. A Burnt Offering for the Feast of Weeks
28:26-31
Nm 28:26 Also in the day of the afirstfruits, when you present a new meal offering to Jehovah in your bFeast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor;
Nm 28:27 But you shall present a burnt offering for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah: two bulls of the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old;
Nm 28:28 And their meal offering of fine flour mingled with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for one ram,
Nm 28:29 One-tenth for each lamb of the seven lambs;
Nm 28:30 And one male goat, to make expiation for you.
Nm 28:31 Besides the continual burnt offering and its meal offering, you shall offer them (they shall be without blemish for you) and their drink offerings.
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g. A Burnt Offering for the Day of the Blowing of Trumpets
29:1-6
Nm 29:1 aNow in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor. It is a day of blowing of trumpets for you.
Nm 29:2 And you shall offer a burnt offering for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah: one bull of the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:3 And their meal offering of fine flour mingled with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram,
Nm 29:4 And one-tenth for each lamb of the seven lambs;
Nm 29:5 And one male goat as a sin offering, to make expiation for you;
Nm 29:6 Besides the burnt offering of the new moon and its meal offering, and the continual burnt offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, for a satisfying fragrance, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
h. A Burnt Offering for the Day of Expiation
29:7-11
Nm 29:7 aAnd on the 1btenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall afflict your souls; you shall not do any work.
Nm 29:8 And you shall present a burnt offering to Jehovah for a satisfying fragrance: one bull of the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish for you;
Nm 29:9 And their meal offering of fine flour mingled with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram,
Nm 29:10 One-tenth for each lamb of the seven lambs;
Nm 29:11 One male goat as a sin offering; besides the sin offering of expiation and the continual burnt offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.
i. A Burnt Offering for the Feast of Tabernacles
29:12-38
Nm 29:12 aAnd on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no work of labor, and you shall hold a feast to Jehovah seven days.
Nm 29:13 And you shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah: thirteen bulls of the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;
Nm 29:14 And their meal offering of fine flour mingled with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths of an ephah for each ram of the two rams,
Nm 29:15 And one-tenth of an ephah for each lamb of the fourteen lambs;
Nm 29:16 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, its meal offering, and its drink offering.
Nm 29:17 And on the second day: twelve bulls of the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:18 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:19 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.
Nm 29:20 And on the third day: eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:21 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:22 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering and its meal offering and its drink offering.
Nm 29:23 And on the fourth day: ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:24 Their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:25 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, its meal offering, and its drink offering.
Nm 29:26 And on the fifth day: nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:27 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:28 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering and its meal offering and its drink offering.
Nm 29:29 And on the sixth day: eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:30 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:31 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, its meal offering, and its drink offerings.
Nm 29:32 And on the seventh day: seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:33 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:34 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering, its meal offering, and its drink offering.
Nm 29:35 aOn the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly; you shall do no work of labor,
Nm 29:36 But you shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;
Nm 29:37 Their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs by their number according to the ordinance;
Nm 29:38 And one male goat for a sin offering; besides the continual burnt offering and its meal offering and its drink offering.
j. All the Offerings for Every Day, for Every Sabbath,
for the Beginning of Every Month, and for All the Yearly Feasts
29:39-40
Nm 29:39 These you shall offer to Jehovah in your appointed 1afeasts, besides your vows and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings and for your meal offerings and for your drink offerings and for your peace offerings.
Nm 29:40 And Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.
NUMBERS 30

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2. Concerning Vows
30:1-16
Nm 30:1 And Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is what Jehovah has commanded:
Nm 30:2 When a man vows a 1avow to Jehovah or bswears an oath to bind himself by pledge, he shall cnot break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Nm 30:3 But when a 1woman vows a vow to Jehovah or binds herself by pledge in her 1father’s house in her youth,
Nm 30:4 And her father hears of her vow or her pledge by which she has bound herself, and her father is silent with respect to her; then all her vows will stand, and any pledge by which she has bound herself will stand.
Nm 30:5 But if her father disallows her on the day he hears, none of her vows or of her pledges by which she has bound herself will stand; and Jehovah will forgive her because her father disallowed her.
Nm 30:6 And if she gets married, while her avows are upon her or the rash utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself,
Nm 30:7 And her 1husband hears of it and is silent with respect to her on the day he hears it, then her vows will stand and her pledges by which she has bound herself will stand.
Nm 30:8 But if, on the day her husband hears of it, he disallows her, then he makes void her vow which is upon her and the rash utterance of her lips by which she has bound herself; and Jehovah will forgive her.
Nm 30:9 But the vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, everything by which she has bound herself, will stand against her.
Nm 30:10 And if she vowed in her husband’s house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath,
Nm 30:11 And her husband heard of it and was silent with respect to her and did not disallow her, then all her vows will stand and any pledge by which she has bound herself will stand.
Nm 30:12 But if her husband made them null and void on the day he heard of it, then whatever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning the pledging of herself will not stand; her husband has made them void, and Jehovah will forgive her.
Nm 30:13 As for every vow and every binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish it or her husband may make it void.
Nm 30:14 But if her husband is completely silent with respect to her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows or all her pledges which are upon her; he has established them because he was silent with respect to her on the day he heard it.
Nm 30:15 But if he makes them null and void some time after he has heard of it, then he shall bear her iniquity.
Nm 30:16 These are the statutes which Jehovah commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter while in her youth in her father’s house.
NUMBERS 31

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I. Overcoming the Midianites
31:1-54
1. The Commandment of Jehovah to Avenge the Sons of Israel on the Midianites
vv. 1-2
Nm 31:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 31:2 Thoroughly avenge the children of Israel on the 1aMidianites; afterward you will be bgathered to your people.
2. The Strategy of Moses
vv. 3-6
Nm 31:3 And Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm men from among you for the war, that they may come upon Midian to execute Jehovah’s vengeance on Midian.
Nm 31:4 A thousand from each tribe, of all the tribes of Israel, you shall send to the war.
Nm 31:5 So out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand for each tribe were committed, twelve thousand armed for war.
Nm 31:6 And Moses sent them, a thousand for each tribe, to the war, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest with them, to the war, with the avessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.
3. The Victory of the Israelites over the Midianites
vv. 7-12
Nm 31:7 And they warred against Midian, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses; and they akilled every male.
Nm 31:8 aAnd they killed the kings of Midian in addition to the others slain among them: Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; also bBalaam the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
Nm 31:9 And the children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and all their cattle and all their livestock and all their goods they plundered.
Nm 31:10 And all their cities in which they had settled and all their encampments, they burned with fire.
Nm 31:11 And they took all the spoil and all the booty, both of man and of beast.
Nm 31:12 And they brought the captives and the abooty and the spoil to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the assembly of the children of Israel, to the camp in the plains of Moab, which was beside the Jordan at Jericho.
4. The Purging and Purification of the Captives and the Spoil
vv. 13-24
Nm 31:13 And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the assembly went out to meet them outside the camp.
Nm 31:14 And Moses became angry with the officers of the company, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from aservice in the war.
Nm 31:15 And Moses said to them, Have you akept all the women alive?
Nm 31:16 It was athese who caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of bBalaam, to act unfaithfully against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, so that the cplague came upon the assembly of Jehovah.
Nm 31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with him.
Nm 31:18 But all the little ones among the women, who have not known a male by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Nm 31:19 And you, encamp outside the camp seven days, everyone who has killed any person and everyone who has touched any slain; 1apurify yourselves on the 2third day and on the 2seventh day, you and your captives.
Nm 31:20 And you shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of skin and everything made of goats’ hair and every article of wood.
Nm 31:21 And Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Jehovah has commanded Moses:
Nm 31:22 Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
Nm 31:23 Everything that can go into the fire, you shall pass through the afire, and it will become clean; but it shall be purified with the bwater for impurity; and everything that cannot go into the fire you shall pass through the water.
Nm 31:24 And you shall awash your 1clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and afterward you may come into the camp.
5. The Distribution of the Plunder, Both of Man and of Cattle
vv. 25-47
Nm 31:25 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 31:26 You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ households of the assembly, take the sum of the booty that was captured, both of man and of beast,
Nm 31:27 And ahalve the booty between those skilled in war who went out to battle and the whole assembly.
Nm 31:28 And levy a tribute to Jehovah from the men of war who went out to battle: aone living thing out of five hundred, of the persons and of the cattle and of the donkeys and of the flock;
Nm 31:29 Take it from their half and give it to 1Eleazar the priest, for aJehovah’s heave offering.
Nm 31:30 And of the children of Israel’s half, you shall take one seized out of fifty, of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, from all the beasts, and give them to the Levites, who keep the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah.
Nm 31:31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as Jehovah 1commanded Moses.
Nm 31:32 Now the booty that was left from the spoil, which the men of war had taken, was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,
Nm 31:33 And seventy-two thousand cattle,
Nm 31:34 And sixty-one thousand donkeys,
Nm 31:35 And thirty-two thousand persons in all, the women who had not known lying with a male.
Nm 31:36 And the half which was the portion of those who went out to war was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep.
Nm 31:37 And Jehovah’s tribute of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five.
Nm 31:38 And the cattle were thirty-six thousand, of which Jehovah’s tribute was seventy-two.
Nm 31:39 And the donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, of which Jehovah’s tribute was sixty-one.
Nm 31:40 And the human beings were sixteen thousand, of whom Jehovah’s tribute was thirty-two persons.
Nm 31:41 And Moses gave the tribute, Jehovah’s heave offering, to Eleazar the priest, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Nm 31:42 And of the children of Israel’s half, which Moses had separated from the men who had gone to war,
Nm 31:43 That is, the assembly’s half, was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,
Nm 31:44 And thirty-six thousand cattle,
Nm 31:45 And thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,
Nm 31:46 And sixteen thousand persons —
Nm 31:47 Now Moses took from the children of Israel’s half, one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them to the Levites, who kept the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
6. The Offering to Jehovah by the Officers of the Army
vv. 48-54
Nm 31:48 And the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses.
Nm 31:49 And they said to Moses, Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our charge, and not a man is missing from us;
Nm 31:50 And we have presented Jehovah’s offering, what every man has obtained, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and pendants, to make 1expiation for our souls before Jehovah.
Nm 31:51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of wrought articles.
Nm 31:52 And all the gold of the heave offering which they offered up to Jehovah, from the captains of thousands and from the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels.
Nm 31:53 The men of war had taken booty, each for himself.
Nm 31:54 So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the Tent of Meeting as a amemorial for the children of Israel before Jehovah.
NUMBERS 32

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J. The Prearrangement of the Distribution of the Good Land
32:1-42; 33:50 — 36:13
1. Concerning the Land East of the Jordan
32:1-42
a. The Request of the Two Tribes, Reuben and Gad
vv. 1-5
Nm 32:1 1Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great abundance of livestock. And when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that the place was indeed a place for livestock,
Nm 32:2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the assembly, saying,
Nm 32:3 Ataroth and Dibon and Jazer and Nimrah and Heshbon and Elealeh and Sebam and Nebo and Beon,
Nm 32:4 The aland which Jehovah struck before the assembly of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.
Nm 32:5 And they said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this 1land be given to your servants for a possession; do not make us 2cross over the Jordan.
b. The Rebuking and Warning of Moses
vv. 6-15
Nm 32:6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brothers go to war, while you stay here?
Nm 32:7 Now why would you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from crossing over into the land which Jehovah has given them?
Nm 32:8 aYour fathers did this when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.
Nm 32:9 When they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel from going into the land which Jehovah had given them.
Nm 32:10 aAnd Jehovah’s anger was kindled in that day, and He swore, saying,
Nm 32:11 Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not fully followed Me;
Nm 32:12 Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have afully followed Jehovah.
Nm 32:13 And Jehovah’s anger was kindled against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness aforty years, until the whole generation which had done evil in the sight of Jehovah was consumed.
Nm 32:14 And now you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to further increase the burning anger of Jehovah toward Israel.
Nm 32:15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy this entire people.
c. The Promise of the Two Tribes
vv. 16-19
Nm 32:16 And they came near to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones;
Nm 32:17 But we ourselves will be aarmed and ready to go before the children of Israel until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
Nm 32:18 We will not return to our houses until each one of the children of Israel has inherited his inheritance.
Nm 32:19 For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and further on, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan aeastward.
d. The Permission of Moses
vv. 20-42
Nm 32:20 And Moses said to them, If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves before Jehovah for battle,
Nm 32:21 And all of your armed men will cross over the Jordan before Jehovah until He has adriven out His enemies from before Him,
Nm 32:22 And the land is subdued before Jehovah, then afterward you shall return and be free of 1obligation toward Jehovah and toward Israel; and this land shall be yours for a possession before Jehovah.
Nm 32:23 But if you will not do so, then you have sinned against Jehovah; and know that your asin will find you out.
Nm 32:24 Build for yourselves cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what has proceeded out of your mouth.
Nm 32:25 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, Your servants will do as my lord commands.
Nm 32:26 Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle will be there in the cities of Gilead;
Nm 32:27 But your servants will cross over, everyone who is armed for war before Jehovah for battle, as my lord says.
Nm 32:28 So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel.
Nm 32:29 And Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben cross over the Jordan with you, everyone who is armed for battle before Jehovah, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead as a possession.
Nm 32:30 But if they do not cross over armed with you, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.
Nm 32:31 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As Jehovah has said to your servants, so will we do.
Nm 32:32 We will cross over armed before Jehovah into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance will remain with us beyond the Jordan.
Nm 32:33 And Moses gave to them, to the children of Gad and to the children of aReuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon the king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og the king of Bashan, the land according to its cities with their territories, the cities of the surrounding land.
Nm 32:34 And the children of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer
Nm 32:35 And Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah
Nm 32:36 And Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran as fortified cities, and folds for sheep.
Nm 32:37 And the children of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim
Nm 32:38 And Nebo and Baal-meon — their names being changed — and Sibmah, and they gave other names to the cities which they built.
Nm 32:39 And the children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it.
Nm 32:40 And Moses gave aGilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he dwelt in it.
Nm 32:41 And aJair the son of Manasseh went and took its villages and called them 1Havvoth-jair.
Nm 32:42 And Nobah went and took Kenath and its towns, and called it Nobah after his own name.
NUMBERS 33

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(II. Journeying — cont’d)
J. The Stations of the Journey
33:1-49
Nm 33:1 These are the 1journeys of the children of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the direction of Moses and Aaron.
Nm 33:2 And Moses wrote down the places that they went out from for their journeys according to the commandment of Jehovah; and these are their journeys according to the places they went out from.
Nm 33:3 Now they journeyed from aRameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the passover the children of Israel went out 1boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians,
Nm 33:4 While the Egyptians were burying those whom Jehovah had astruck down among them, all their firstborn; on their bgods Jehovah also executed judgments.
Nm 33:5 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses and encamped at aSuccoth.
Nm 33:6 And they journeyed from Succoth and encamped at aEtham, which is at the edge of the wilderness.
Nm 33:7 And they journeyed from Etham and turned back to aPi-hahiroth, which faces Baal-zephon; and they encamped before Migdol.
Nm 33:8 And they journeyed from 1Pi-hahiroth and passed through the amidst of the sea into the wilderness, and they went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham and encamped at bMarah.
Nm 33:9 And they journeyed from Marah and came to aElim. And in Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there.
Nm 33:10 And they journeyed from Elim and encamped by the Red Sea.
Nm 33:11 And they journeyed from the Red Sea and encamped in the awilderness of Sin.
Nm 33:12 And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin and encamped at Dophkah.
Nm 33:13 And they journeyed from Dophkah and encamped at Alush.
Nm 33:14 And they journeyed from Alush and encamped at aRephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink there.
Nm 33:15 And they journeyed from Rephidim and encamped in the awilderness of Sinai.
Nm 33:16 And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai and encamped at aKibroth-hattaavah.
Nm 33:17 And they journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah and encamped at aHazeroth.
Nm 33:18 And they journeyed from aHazeroth and encamped at Rithmah.
Nm 33:19 And they journeyed from Rithmah and encamped at Rimmon-perez.
Nm 33:20 And they journeyed from Rimmon-perez and encamped at Libnah.
Nm 33:21 And they journeyed from Libnah and encamped at Rissah.
Nm 33:22 And they journeyed from Rissah and encamped at Kehelathah.
Nm 33:23 And they journeyed from Kehelathah and encamped at Mount Shepher.
Nm 33:24 And they journeyed from Mount Shepher and encamped at Haradah.
Nm 33:25 And they journeyed from Haradah and encamped at Makheloth.
Nm 33:26 And they journeyed from Makheloth and encamped at Tahath.
Nm 33:27 And they journeyed from Tahath and encamped at Terah.
Nm 33:28 And they journeyed from Terah and encamped at Mithkah.
Nm 33:29 And they journeyed from Mithkah and encamped at Hashmonah.
Nm 33:30 And they journeyed from Hashmonah and encamped at aMoseroth.
Nm 33:31 And they journeyed from Moseroth and encamped at Bene-jaakan.
Nm 33:32 And they journeyed from Bene-jaakan and encamped at Hor-haggidgad.
Nm 33:33 And they journeyed from Hor-haggidgad and encamped at aJotbathah.
Nm 33:34 And they journeyed from Jotbathah and encamped at Abronah.
Nm 33:35 And they journeyed from Abronah and encamped at aEzion-geber.
Nm 33:36 And they journeyed from Ezion-geber and encamped in the awilderness of Zin, that is, Kadesh.
Nm 33:37 And they journeyed from Kadesh and encamped in aMount Hor at the edge of the land of Edom.
Nm 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up onto Mount Hor at the commandment of Jehovah and adied there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.
Nm 33:39 And Aaron was one hundred twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.
Nm 33:40 And the Canaanite, the aking of Arad, who was dwelling in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.
Nm 33:41 And they journeyed from aMount Hor and encamped at Zalmonah.
Nm 33:42 And they journeyed from Zalmonah and encamped at Punon.
Nm 33:43 And they journeyed from Punon and encamped at aOboth.
Nm 33:44 And they journeyed from Oboth and encamped at aIye-abarim on the border of Moab.
Nm 33:45 And they journeyed from Iyim and encamped at aDibon-gad.
Nm 33:46 And they journeyed from Dibon-gad and encamped in Almon-diblathaim.
Nm 33:47 And they journeyed from Almon-diblathaim and encamped in the mountains of the aAbarim before Nebo.
Nm 33:48 And they journeyed from the mountains of the Abarim and encamped in the aplains of Moab beside the Jordan at Jericho.
Nm 33:49 And they encamped beside the Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as aAbel-shittim in the plains of Moab.
(III. Fighting — cont’d)
(J. The Prearrangement of the Distribution of the Good Land — cont’d)
2. The Statutes for Inheriting the Good Land
33:50-56
Nm 33:50 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
Nm 33:51 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, aWhen you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
Nm 33:52 You shall 1adrive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and you shall bdestroy all their figured stones and destroy all their molten images and demolish all their high places;
Nm 33:53 And you shall take possession of the land and dwell in it, for to you I have given the land to possess it.
Nm 33:54 And you shall inherit the land by 1alot according to your families; to the larger you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to anyone, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the 1tribes of your fathers.
Nm 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain of them will become as splinters in your eyes and as athorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you are dwelling.
Nm 33:56 And just as I thought to do to them, aso will I do to you.
NUMBERS 34

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3. The Boundaries of the Good Land and Its Distributors
34:1-29
a. The Boundaries of the Good Land
vv. 1-15
Nm 34:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 34:2 Command the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan according to its aborders.
Nm 34:3 aAnd your southern section shall be from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern border shall begin from the end of the 1Salt Sea on the east.
Nm 34:4 And your border shall turn about south to the ascent of Akrabbim and pass on to Zin, and it shall go out to the south of Kadesh-barnea, even going out to Hazar-addar; then it shall pass on to Azmon.
Nm 34:5 Then the border shall turn from Azmon to the abrook of Egypt, and it shall go out to the sea.
Nm 34:6 And for the awestern border you shall have the 1Great Sea and its coast; this shall be your western border.
Nm 34:7 And this shall be your northern border: From the Great Sea you shall mark out a line for yourselves to Mount Hor.
Nm 34:8 From Mount Hor you shall mark out a line to the 1aentrance of Hamath; and the bborder shall go out to Zedad;
Nm 34:9 And the border shall go out to Ziphron, and it shall go out to Hazar-enan. This shall be your northern border.
Nm 34:10 And you shall mark out your aeastern border from Hazar-enan to Shepham;
Nm 34:11 And the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go down and reach the 1slope on the east of the 2Sea of Chinnereth;
Nm 34:12 And the border shall go down to the 1Jordan, and it shall go out to the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to its borders all around.
Nm 34:13 And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which you shall inherit by alot, which Jehovah has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe.
Nm 34:14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their fathers’ households and the tribe of the children of Gad according to their fathers’ households and the half-tribe of Manasseh have areceived their inheritance.
Nm 34:15 The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance 1beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.
b. The Distributors of the Good Land
vv. 16-29
Nm 34:16 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 34:17 These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: 1aEleazar the priest and 1Joshua the son of Nun.
Nm 34:18 And you shall take one leader from each tribe to divide the land for inheritance.
Nm 34:19 And these are the names of the men: For the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
Nm 34:20 And for the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.
Nm 34:21 For the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon.
Nm 34:22 And for the tribe of the children of Dan, a leader, Bukki the son of Jogli.
Nm 34:23 For the children of Joseph: For the tribe of the children of Manasseh, a leader, Hanniel the son of Ephod.
Nm 34:24 And for the tribe of the children of Ephraim, a leader, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan.
Nm 34:25 And for the tribe of the children of Zebulun, a leader, Elizaphan the son of Parnach.
Nm 34:26 And for the tribe of the children of Issachar, a leader, Paltiel the son of Azzan.
Nm 34:27 And for the tribe of the children of Asher, a leader, Ahihud the son of Shelomi.
Nm 34:28 And for the tribe of the children of Naphtali, a leader, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.
Nm 34:29 These are those whom Jehovah commanded to divide the inheritance to the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
NUMBERS 35

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4. The Cities Given to the Levites and the Cities of Refuge
35:1-34
a. The Cities Given to the Levites
vv. 1-8
Nm 35:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
Nm 35:2 Command the children of Israel to give to the aLevites some of the inheritance of their possession, cities to dwell in; and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands around their cities.
Nm 35:3 And the cities shall be for them to dwell in, and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their animals.
Nm 35:4 And the pasture lands of the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be from the city wall and outward, a thousand acubits all around.
Nm 35:5 And you shall measure from the outside of the city on the east side two thousand cubits and on the south side two thousand cubits and on the west side two thousand cubits and on the north side two thousand cubits, with the city in the center. This shall be their pasture lands for the cities.
Nm 35:6 And the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the six 1acities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.
Nm 35:7 All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be 1aforty-eight cities, they and their pasture lands.
Nm 35:8 And concerning the 1cities which you shall give from the possession of the children of Israel, from the larger tribe you shall take a alarger number, and from the smaller tribe you shall take a smaller number; each one, according to its inheritance which they will inherit, shall give some of its cities to the Levites.
b. The Cities of Refuge
vv. 9-34
Nm 35:9 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Nm 35:10 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
Nm 35:11 Then you shall designate for yourselves cities to be your acities of refuge, so that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally may flee there.
Nm 35:12 And the cities shall be for you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer may not die unless he stands before the assembly for judgment.
Nm 35:13 And the cities which you shall give shall be your six cities of refuge.
Nm 35:14 You shall give athree cities across the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.
Nm 35:15 For the children of Israel and for the 1stranger and for the 1sojourner among them, these six cities shall be for refuge, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
Nm 35:16 But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, and he died, he is a murderer; the 1murderer shall surely be aput to death.
Nm 35:17 And if he struck him with a stone in hand, by which one could die, and he did die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Nm 35:18 Or if he struck him with a wooden object in hand, by which one could die, and he did die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Nm 35:19 The aavenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death; when he encounters him, he shall put him to death.
Nm 35:20 And if he pushed him out of hatred or threw something upon him while lying in wait, and he died,
Nm 35:21 Or in enmity struck him with his hand, and he died, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he encounters him.
Nm 35:22 But if he pushed him suddenly without enmity, or threw upon him anything without lying in wait,
Nm 35:23 Or came upon him with any stone, by which someone could die, without seeing him and dropped it upon him, and he died, when he was not his enemy and did not seek his harm,
Nm 35:24 Then the assembly shall ajudge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.
Nm 35:25 And the assembly shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the assembly shall return him to his city of refuge to which he had fled; and he shall dwell in it until the death of the 1high priest, who was aanointed with the holy oil.
Nm 35:26 But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the boundary of his city of refuge to which he has fled,
Nm 35:27 And the avenger of blood finds him outside the boundary of his city of refuge and the avenger of blood slays the manslayer, he shall not have guilt for blood,
Nm 35:28 Because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return to the land of his possession.
Nm 35:29 And these things shall be for a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Nm 35:30 Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be slain upon the testimony of awitnesses; but one witness shall not testify against any person so that he die.
Nm 35:31 Moreover you shall not take a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.
Nm 35:32 And you shall not take a ransom for one who has fled to his city of refuge, so that he may return to live in the land before the death of the high priest.
Nm 35:33 Thus you shall not pollute the land in which you are, for blood apollutes the land. And no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the bblood of the one who shed it.
Nm 35:34 And you shall not defile the land in which you are dwelling, in the midst of which I atabernacle; for I Jehovah tabernacle in the bmidst of the children of Israel.
NUMBERS 36

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5. A Further Statute concerning the Females among Israel Inheriting the Good Land
36:1-13
Nm 36:1 And the heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the sons of aGilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the heads of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel;
Nm 36:2 And they said, Jehovah commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by alot to the children of Israel, and my lord was commanded by Jehovah to give the inheritance of bZelophehad our brother to his daughters.
Nm 36:3 But if they 1are married to one of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; so it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
Nm 36:4 And when the ajubilee of the children of Israel takes place, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
Nm 36:5 Then Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of Jehovah, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly.
Nm 36:6 This is what Jehovah commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them be 1married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father they shall marry.
Nm 36:7 aSo an inheritance of the children of Israel shall not go around from tribe to tribe, for each one of the children of Israel shall 1cling to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
Nm 36:8 And every adaughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall 1marry into one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that each one of the children of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers.
Nm 36:9 aSo an inheritance shall not go around from one tribe to another tribe, for each one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall cling to his own inheritance.
Nm 36:10 Just as Jehovah had commanded Moses, so the daughters of Zelophehad did;
Nm 36:11 That is, Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah and Noah, the daughters of aZelophehad, were married to their uncles’ sons.
Nm 36:12 They married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.
Nm 36:13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which Jehovah commanded through Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the 1Jordan at Jericho.
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DEUTERONOMY

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Outline

Author: Moses (Rom. 10:19, quoting Deut. 32:21; Neh. 13:1, referring to Deut. 23:3; Luke 20:28, referring to Deut. 25:5), the author of the five books of the Law (31:9, 24; Luke 24:27, 44; John 1:45; 5:46; Acts 28:23; 2 Cor. 3:15). The final chapter (ch. 34) was probably written by someone other than Moses.
Time of Writing: Approximately 1452 B.C., before the end of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years (Num. 32:13).
Place of Writing: In the plains of Moab (34:1).
Time Period Covered: The last two months of 1452 B.C., the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt (1:3; 34:8).
Subject:
Christ Is the Instructor and Leader of the People of God That They May Be Able to Enter into the Heavenly Territory and Participate in His Riches
DEUTERONOMY 1

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I. The Review of the Past
1:1 — 4:43
A. The Journey from the Mount of God to the Entry of the Holy Land
1:1-4
Dt 1:1 1These are the words which 2Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the 3Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
Dt 1:2 It is eleven days’ journey from 1Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the way that leads to Mount Seir.
Dt 1:3 And in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the afirst day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that Jehovah had commanded him for them,
Dt 1:4 After he had slain 1aSihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and 1bOg the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth and in Edrei.
B. God’s Charge to the Children of Israel to Enter the Good Land
1:5-8
Dt 1:5 Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses set himself to expound this law, saying,
Dt 1:6 1Jehovah our God aspoke to us at bHoreb, saying, You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.
Dt 1:7 Turn and set out, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland, and in the 1Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river aEuphrates.
Dt 1:8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which Jehovah swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their aseed after them.
C. The Appointing of Offices
1:9-18
Dt 1:9 And I spoke to you at that time, saying, aI am not able to bear you alone.
Dt 1:10 Jehovah your God has multiplied you, and now today you are as the astars of heaven in multitude.
Dt 1:11 Jehovah, the God of your fathers, add to you a thousandfold ones like you and bless you as He has promised you!
Dt 1:12 How can I alone bear the trouble and burden of you and your strife?
Dt 1:13 Choose for yourselves men who are awise and prudent and well attested, according to your tribes, and I will make them your bleaders.
Dt 1:14 And you answered me and said, The thing that you have said to do is good.
Dt 1:15 So I took the aleaders of your tribes, men who were wise and well attested, and I made them leaders over you, captains over thousands and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains over tens and officials for your tribes.
Dt 1:16 And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your brothers, and 1judge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner with him.
Dt 1:17 You shall anot respect persons in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear the face of man, for judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bbring to me; and I will hear it.
Dt 1:18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.
D. The Failure at Kadesh-barnea
1:19-46
Dt 1:19 And we set out from Horeb, and we went through all that great and awesome awilderness, which you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Jehovah our God commanded us; and we came to 1Kadesh-barnea.
Dt 1:20 And I said to you, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Jehovah our God is giving us.
Dt 1:21 See, Jehovah your God has set the land before you; go up, possess it, as Jehovah the God of your fathers has spoken to you. Do not fear, neither be dismayed.
Dt 1:22 Then all of you came near to me and said, Let us send men before us that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word concerning the way by which we should go up and the cities into which we should go.
Dt 1:23 And the thing pleased me, so I took atwelve men from among you, one for each tribe.
Dt 1:24 And they turned and went up into the hill country, and they came to the aValley of Eshcol; and they spied out 1the land.
Dt 1:25 And in their hands they took some of the fruit of the land, and they brought it down to us. And they brought word back to us and said, It is a good land which Jehovah our God is giving us.
Dt 1:26 Yet you would not go up. Rather you rebelled against the word of Jehovah your God;
Dt 1:27 And you amurmured in your tents and said, Because Jehovah hates us, He has brought us out from the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites in order to destroy us.
Dt 1:28 Where shall we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, aThe people are greater and taller than we; the cities are big and fortified up to heaven; and furthermore we have seen the children of the Anakim there.
Dt 1:29 Then I said to you, aDo not be terrified, neither be afraid of them.
Dt 1:30 Jehovah your God, who goes before you, He will afight for you according to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
Dt 1:31 And in the wilderness, where you have seen that Jehovah your God acarried you, as a man carries his bson, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.
Dt 1:32 Yet in spite of this word you did anot believe in Jehovah your God,
Dt 1:33 Who went before you in the way, to seek out for you a place for you to camp, in the afire by night to show you by which way you should go and in the cloud by day.
Dt 1:34 And Jehovah heard the voice of your words, and He became furious and swore, saying,
Dt 1:35 aNot one of these men, this evil generation, shall by any means see the good land which I have sworn to give to your fathers,
Dt 1:36 Except aCaleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it. And to him I will give the land on which he has trodden, and to his children, because he has fully followed Jehovah.
Dt 1:37 With me also Jehovah was angry on your account, saying, You also shall anot enter there;
Dt 1:38 aJoshua the son of Nun, who attends to you, he shall enter there. Strengthen him, for it is he who will cause Israel to inherit it.
Dt 1:39 Moreover your alittle ones, who you said would be prey, and your children, who this day do not know good and evil, they shall enter there. And to them I will give it, and they will possess it.
Dt 1:40 But as for you, aturn and set out into the wilderness by the way that leads to the Red Sea.
Dt 1:41 aThen you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Jehovah; we ourselves will go up and fight according to all that Jehovah our God has commanded us. And you girded yourselves, every man with his weapons of war, and thought it a light thing to go up to the hill country.
Dt 1:42 And Jehovah said to me, Say to them, You shall not go up and fight, for I am not among you, so that you are not struck down before your enemies.
Dt 1:43 So I spoke to you, but you did not listen; rather, you rebelled against the word of Jehovah and went up presumptuously to the hill country.
Dt 1:44 And the Amorites who dwell in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do; and they beat you back in Seir as far as Hormah.
Dt 1:45 And you returned and wept before Jehovah; but Jehovah did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you.
Dt 1:46 So you remained in Kadesh for many days, as many days as you remained.
DEUTERONOMY 2

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E. The Wandering from Kadesh-barnea to the Crossing Over of the Brook Zered
2:1-23
Dt 2:1 And we aturned and set out for the wilderness by the way that leads to the Red Sea, as Jehovah spoke to me; and we circled Mount Seir for many days.
Dt 2:2 Then Jehovah spoke to me, saying,
Dt 2:3 You have circled this mountain long enough; turn northward,
Dt 2:4 aAnd command the people, saying, You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Take careful heed to yourselves therefore;
Dt 2:5 Do not engage them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even as much as a footstep; for I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.
Dt 2:6 You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also obtain water from them with money, that you may drink.
Dt 2:7 For Jehovah your God has 1blessed you in all your doings; He knows your journeying through this great wilderness. These aforty years Jehovah your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.
Dt 2:8 So we passed on from our brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, away from the way of the Arabah, away from Elath and from Ezion-geber; and we turned and passed on by the way that leads to the wilderness of Moab.
Dt 2:9 And Jehovah said to me, aDo not harass Moab, nor engage them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession; for to the children of Lot I have given Ar as a possession.
Dt 2:10 (The Emim dwelt there before that, a people great and numerous and as tall as the 1Anakim;
Dt 2:11 They were considered 1Rephaim, as were the Anakim, but the Moabites called them Emim.
Dt 2:12 The Horites also dwelt in Seir before that, but the children of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them; and they dwelt there in their place, as Israel did with the land of their possession, which Jehovah gave to them.)
Dt 2:13 Now rise up and cross over the brook Zered. And we crossed over the brook Zered.
Dt 2:14 And the time that we spent in going from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was 1consumed from the midst of the camp, as Jehovah had asworn to them.
Dt 2:15 Moreover the hand of Jehovah was against them to purge them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed.
Dt 2:16 So when all the men of war were consumed from the midst of the people and dead,
Dt 2:17 Then Jehovah spoke to me, saying,
Dt 2:18 You are to pass through the territory of Moab, through Ar, today.
Dt 2:19 And when you come near to the children of Ammon, ado not harass them, nor engage them, for I will not give any of the land of the children of Ammon to you as a possession; for I have given it to the children of Lot as a possession.
Dt 2:20 (It was also considered a land of Rephaim; Rephaim formerly dwelt in it. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,
Dt 2:21 A people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakim. Yet Jehovah destroyed them from before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt there in their place;
Dt 2:22 As He did for the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. And they dispossessed them and have dwelt there in their place to this day.
Dt 2:23 And the Avvim, who dwell in the villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt there in their place.)
F. The Defeating of King Sihon and King Og,
and the Taking Possession of Their Lands East of Jordan
2:24 — 3:22
Dt 2:24 Rise up; set out and cross over the valley of the aArnon. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the 1Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle.
Dt 2:25 Today I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples under all heaven, who will hear the report of you and will tremble and quake because of you.
Dt 2:26 aThen I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,
Dt 2:27 Let me pass through your land. Only on the road I will go; I will not turn to the right or to the left.
Dt 2:28 You will sell me food for money, that I may eat; and you will give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot —
Dt 2:29 As the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites, who dwell in Ar, did for me — until I cross over the Jordan into the land which Jehovah our God is giving us.
Dt 2:30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass through 1his land, for Jehovah your God 2ahardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate for the purpose of delivering him into your hand, as he is today.
Dt 2:31 And Jehovah said to me, See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land up before you. Begin to possess it that you may occupy his land.
Dt 2:32 Then Sihon came out to meet us, he and all his people, for battle at Jahaz.
Dt 2:33 And Jehovah our God delivered him up before us, and we slew him and his sons and all his people.
Dt 2:34 And we captured all his cities at that time, and 1utterly destroyed every city — men, women, and children; we left no survivors.
Dt 2:35 We took only the cattle as our plunder, as well as the spoil of the cities which we captured.
Dt 2:36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a town too high for us; Jehovah our God delivered them all up before us.
Dt 2:37 But you did not go near the land of the children of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok, nor the cities of the hill country, nor any place that Jehovah our God commanded us not to.
DEUTERONOMY 3

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Dt 3:1 aThen we turned and went up on the way that leads to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us, he and all his people, for battle at Edrei.
Dt 3:2 But Jehovah said to me, Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to aSihon the king of the Amorites, who was dwelling in Heshbon.
Dt 3:3 And Jehovah our God also gave aOg the king of Bashan, as well as all his people, into our hand; and we slew them until there was no survivor left to him.
Dt 3:4 And we captured all his cities at that time; there was not a town that we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
Dt 3:5 All of these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a great many rural villages.
Dt 3:6 And we utterly destroyed them as we had done to Sihon the king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every city — men, women, and children.
Dt 3:7 But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder.
Dt 3:8 So at that time we 1took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were across the Jordan, from the valley of the aArnon to Mount bHermon
Dt 3:9 (The Sidonians call Hermon aSirion, and the Amorites call it bSenir),
Dt 3:10 aAll the cities of the Plateau and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salcah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
Dt 3:11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the aRephaim. His bedstead, a bedstead of iron, is indeed now in Rabbah of the children of Ammon. Its length is nine cubits and its width four cubits, according to the cubit of a man.)
Dt 3:12 So we possessed this land at that time. aFrom Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.
Dt 3:13 And the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob. (All that portion of Bashan is called the land of the Rephaim.
Dt 3:14 aJair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites; and he called 1it, that is, Bashan, after his own name, 2Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.)
Dt 3:15 And to Machir I gave Gilead.
Dt 3:16 And to the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave the region from Gilead even as far as the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley being the border, as far as the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;
Dt 3:17 aAnd the Arabah, with the Jordan as a border, from 1Chinnereth even as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.
Dt 3:18 aAnd I charged you at that time, saying, Jehovah your God has given you this land that you may possess it; all the men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the children of Israel.
Dt 3:19 Only your wives and your little ones and your livestock — I know that you have vast livestock — shall remain in your cities, which I have given you,
Dt 3:20 Until Jehovah gives arest to your brothers as He has to you, and they also possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving them across the Jordan, and you return, each man to his possession which I have given you.
Dt 3:21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Yours are the eyes that have seen all that Jehovah your God has done to these two kings; so will Jehovah do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross over.
Dt 3:22 Do not fear them, for it is Jehovah your God who is afighting for you.
G. Moses Prohibited from Entering the Good Land
and Joshua Assigned to Lead the People into the Good Land
3:23-29
Dt 3:23 And I pleaded with Jehovah at that time, saying,
Dt 3:24 O Lord Jehovah, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do things like what You have done and things like Your mighty deeds?
Dt 3:25 Let me please cross over and see the good land that is across the Jordan, this fine hill country and Lebanon.
Dt 3:26 But Jehovah was infuriated with me on your account and did not listen to me. And Jehovah said to me, 1Enough! Speak no more to Me about this matter.
Dt 3:27 aGo up to the top of Pisgah; and lift up your eyes to the 1west and to the north and to the south and to the east; and see it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.
Dt 3:28 But charge aJoshua, and strengthen and encourage him, for it is he who will cross over before this people and cause them to inherit the land which you will see.
Dt 3:29 And we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.
DEUTERONOMY 4

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H. Moses’ Hearty Advice to the Children of Israel
4:1-40
Dt 4:1 And now, O Israel, listen to the 1statutes and the 1ordinances which I am teaching you to do, in order that you may alive and go in and possess the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Dt 4:2 You shall anot add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you btake away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you.
Dt 4:3 Yours are the eyes that have seen that which Jehovah has done in aBaal-peor; for all the men who went after Baal-peor, Jehovah your God has destroyed from your midst.
Dt 4:4 But you who ajoined yourselves to Jehovah your God are alive, all of you, today.
Dt 4:5 See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as Jehovah my God commanded me, so that you would do them within the land which you are going in to possess.
Dt 4:6 Keep and do them therefore; for this will be your wisdom and prudence in the sight of the peoples who hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and prudent people.
Dt 4:7 For what great anation is there that has a god so bnear to it as Jehovah our God is whenever we 1ccall upon Him?
Dt 4:8 And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I am setting before you today?
Dt 4:9 But be careful and guard your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; rather, make them known to your children and to your grandchildren.
Dt 4:10 Especially do not forget the day when you stood before Jehovah your God at Horeb, when Jehovah said to me, Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live upon the earth and may teach their children as much.
Dt 4:11 And you came near and astood at the foot of the mountain; and the mountain was burning with bfire up into the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and deep darkness there.
Dt 4:12 And Jehovah spoke to you from the midst of the fire. The asound of words could you hear, but no bform could you see; there was only a voice.
Dt 4:13 And He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to do, the aTen 1Commandments; and He wrote them upon two btablets of stone.
Dt 4:14 And Jehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to do in the land which you are about to cross over into to possess.
Dt 4:15 So take careful heed to your souls, for you did not see any form at all on the day when Jehovah spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,
Dt 4:16 So that you do not spoil yourselves and make for yourselves an aidol, a form of any image, a figure of male or female,
Dt 4:17 A figure of any animal which is on the earth, a figure of any winged bird which flies in the sky,
Dt 4:18 A figure of anything that crawls on the ground, a figure of any fish that is in the water under the earth;
Dt 4:19 And take heed that, when you lift up your eyes to the sky and see the asun and the moon and the stars, all the bhost of heaven, you are not drawn away in worship to them and that you do not serve them, which Jehovah your God has assigned to all the peoples under all heaven.
Dt 4:20 But Jehovah has taken you and brought you forth from the airon furnace, from Egypt, that you would be to Him a people for His inheritance, as you are this day.
Dt 4:21 But Jehovah was aangry with me on your account and swore that I would bnot cross over the Jordan and that I would not enter the good land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Dt 4:22 For I am to die in this land; I am anot to cross over the Jordan. But you are crossing over and you will possess this good land.
Dt 4:23 Take heed to yourselves that you do not forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which He has made with you, and make for yourselves an idol, the form of anything, which Jehovah your God has forbidden you to make.
Dt 4:24 For Jehovah your God is a aconsuming fire, a bjealous God.
Dt 4:25 When you have brought forth children and grandchildren and have 1languished in the land, and you have spoiled yourselves by making an idol, the form of anything, and have done that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah your God so as to anger Him;
Dt 4:26 I call aheaven and earth to witness against you today that surely you will soon perish from off the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess; you will not extend your days upon it, but you will be utterly destroyed.
Dt 4:27 And Jehovah will ascatter you among the peoples, and you will be left bfew in number among the nations to which Jehovah will drive you.
Dt 4:28 And there you will serve gods which are the work of human ahands, mere wood and stone, which do not see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
Dt 4:29 And from there you will aseek Jehovah your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with ball your heart and with all your soul.
Dt 4:30 When you are in distress and all these things happen to you, when you are in the last days, you will return to Jehovah your God and listen to His voice.
Dt 4:31 For Jehovah your God is a acompassionate God; He will bnot fail you nor let you perish nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
Dt 4:32 For ask now regarding the former days, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, Has anything as great as this ever happened, or has anything like this ever been heard of?
Dt 4:33 Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the afire, as you have heard, and lived?
Dt 4:34 Has God ever ventured to go and take to Himself a nation from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, and by war and a amighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, like all that Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Dt 4:35 You were shown these things that you might know that it is Jehovah who is God; there is ano other besides Him.
Dt 4:36 From heaven He let you hear His voice that He might discipline you, and upon the earth He showed you His great fire, and His words you heard from the midst of the fire.
Dt 4:37 And because He aloved your fathers, He chose their seed after them and brought you out by His presence, by His great power, from Egypt,
Dt 4:38 aDriving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.
Dt 4:39 Know therefore today and bring it to heart that Jehovah is God in aheaven above and upon the earth below; there is no other.
Dt 4:40 Therefore keep His statutes and His commandments, which I am commanding you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, so that you may extend your days upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you 1forever.
I. Moses Setting Apart Three Cities of Refuge East of Jordan
4:41-43
Dt 4:41 Then Moses set apart three 1cities across the Jordan toward the rising of the sun,
Dt 4:42 That the amanslayer might flee there, who slays his neighbor without intent and did not hate him previously, and in fleeing to one of these cities he might live:
Dt 4:43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the Plateau, belonging to the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.
II. The Rehearsal of the Law
4:44 — 26:19
A. The Rehearsing of the Ten Commandments
4:44 — 5:31
Dt 4:44 And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel;
Dt 4:45 These are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they had gone out from Egypt,
Dt 4:46 Across the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of aSihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel slew when they had gone out from Egypt.
Dt 4:47 And they possessed his land and the land of aOg the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan toward the rising of the sun,
Dt 4:48 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the aArnon, even unto Mount 1Sirion, that is, Hermon,
Dt 4:49 And all the Arabah across the Jordan on the east even to the 1sea of the Arabah at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.
DEUTERONOMY 5

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Dt 5:1 And Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking in your hearing today, and learn them and keep them, so that you may do them.
Dt 5:2 Jehovah our God made a acovenant with us at Horeb.
Dt 5:3 Not with our fathers did Jehovah make this covenant, but with 1us, we who are all here alive today.
Dt 5:4 aFace to face Jehovah spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire —
Dt 5:5 aI was standing between Jehovah and you at that time to declare to you the word of Jehovah, for you were bafraid because of the fire and did not go up to the mountain — saying,
Dt 5:6 1aI am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house;
Dt 5:7 You shall have no other gods 1before Me.
Dt 5:8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, the form of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water beneath the earth.
Dt 5:9 You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Dt 5:10 Yet showing alovingkindness to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Dt 5:11 You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain, for Jehovah will not hold guiltless him who takes His name in vain.
Dt 5:12 Keep the Sabbath day so as to sanctify it, as Jehovah your God has commanded you.
Dt 5:13 aSix days you shall labor and do all your work,
Dt 5:14 But the aseventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah your God; you shall not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your ox nor your donkey nor any of your cattle nor the sojourner with you who is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as you do.
Dt 5:15 And you shall aremember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that Jehovah your God brought you out from there with a bmighty hand and an outstretched arm; hence, Jehovah your God commanded you to hold the Sabbath day.
Dt 5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as Jehovah your God has commanded you, that your days may be 1extended and that it may be 1well with you upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.
Dt 5:17 aYou shall bnot kill;
Dt 5:18 aNeither shall you commit adultery;
Dt 5:19 aNeither shall you steal;
Dt 5:20 Neither shall you testify as a vain witness against your neighbor;
Dt 5:21 aNeither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife, nor shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Dt 5:22 These words Jehovah spoke to all your congregation on the mountain from the midst of the afire, the cloud, and the deep darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them upon two btablets of stone and gave them to me.
Dt 5:23 And when you heard the voice from the midst of the adarkness, while the mountain burned with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders,
Dt 5:24 And said, Jehovah our God has just shown us His glory and His greatness, and His avoice we have heard from the midst of the fire; today we have seen that God speaks with man and yet he lives.
Dt 5:25 Therefore why should we die now? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of Jehovah our God any longer, we will die.
Dt 5:26 For who is there among all flesh who has heard the voice of the aliving God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and has lived?
Dt 5:27 You go near and hear all that Jehovah our God says; then you will speak to us all that Jehovah our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do.
Dt 5:28 And Jehovah heard the sound of your words while you spoke to me; and Jehovah said to me, I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have spoken to you; they have done well in all that they have spoken.
Dt 5:29 Oh that this heart of theirs would be in them always to fear Me and keep all My commandments so that it may go well with them and with their children forever!
Dt 5:30 Go, say to them, Return to your tents.
Dt 5:31 But you, stand here by Me that I may speak to you the whole commandment, and the statutes and the ordinances, which you will teach them to do in the land which I am giving them to possess.
B. The General Advice and Warnings
5:32 — 13:18
1. Keeping the Commandments, Statutes, and Ordinances of God
5:32 — 6:3
Dt 5:32 Keep them therefore so that you may do them, even as Jehovah your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left.
Dt 5:33 You shall walk in all the way that Jehovah your God has commanded you, so that you may alive and that it may go well with you and that you may extend your days in the land which you will possess.
DEUTERONOMY 6

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Dt 6:1 Now this is the 1commandment, the statutes and the ordinances, which Jehovah your God has commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land into which you are crossing over to possess;
Dt 6:2 That you may fear Jehovah your God and keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I am commanding you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life; and that your days may be extended.
Dt 6:3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be certain to do it, that it may go well with you and that you may be greatly increased, in a land flowing with amilk and honey, even as Jehovah, the God of your fathers, promised you.
2. Loving Jehovah Their God, and Keeping, Teaching, and Writing His Words
6:4-9
Dt 6:4 aHear, O Israel, 1Jehovah is our God; Jehovah is bone.
Dt 6:5 And you shall 1alove Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Dt 6:6 aAnd these words, which I command you today, shall be upon your bheart;
Dt 6:7 And you shall 1repeat them to your children, and speak about them when you sit in your house and when you journey on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up;
Dt 6:8 And you shall bind them on your hand as a asign, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes;
Dt 6:9 And you shall write them on the adoorposts of your house and on your gates.
3. Remembering Jehovah, Fearing Him, Serving Him, and Not Going after Other Gods
6:10-15
Dt 6:10 And when Jehovah your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to agive you great and fine cities that you did not build,
Dt 6:11 And ahouses full of every good thing that you did not fill, and hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant, and you have eaten and are satisfied;
Dt 6:12 Be careful that you do not aforget Jehovah who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house.
Dt 6:13 aIt is Jehovah your God whom you shall fear, and Him whom you shall bserve; and it is by His name only that you shall swear.
Dt 6:14 You shall not go after other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you —
Dt 6:15 For Jehovah your God is a ajealous God in the midst of you. Otherwise the anger of Jehovah your God will be kindled against you, and He will destroy you from off the face of the earth.
4. Not Testing Jehovah Their God, Diligently Keeping His Commandments,
Testimonies, and Statutes, and Doing That Which Is Right and Good in His Sight
6:16-19
Dt 6:16 You shall not atest Jehovah your God, as you tested Him at 1Massah.
Dt 6:17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of Jehovah your God and His testimonies and His statutes, which He has commanded you.
Dt 6:18 And you shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Jehovah so that it may go well with you and you may enter and possess the good land, concerning which Jehovah swore to your fathers
Dt 6:19 To drive out all your enemies from before you, as Jehovah has spoken.
5. Telling Their Sons about the Significance of the Testimonies, Statutes, and Ordinances
6:20-25
Dt 6:20 When your son asks you 1in the future, saying, What is the significance of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances that Jehovah our God commanded you?
Dt 6:21 Then you will asay to your son, We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and Jehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Dt 6:22 And Jehovah put forth before our eyes great and grievous signs and wonders in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his house.
Dt 6:23 Then He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, that He might give us the land which He swore to our fathers.
Dt 6:24 And Jehovah commanded us to do all these statutes so that we would fear Jehovah our God for our good always and He would preserve us alive, as we are this day.
Dt 6:25 And it will be righteousness to us if we are certain to do all this commandment before Jehovah our God, as He commanded us.
DEUTERONOMY 7

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6. Dealing with All the Nations around Them
7:1-8
Dt 7:1 When Jehovah your God brings you into the land which you are about to enter to possess, and clears away many 1nations from before you — the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, aseven nations more numerous and mightier than you —
Dt 7:2 And Jehovah your God delivers them up before you and you defeat them, you shall 1utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor shall you show them any favor.
Dt 7:3 And you shall not make marriage aalliances with them: bYour daughters you shall not give to their sons, and their daughters you shall not take for your sons;
Dt 7:4 For they will draw your sons away from following after Me to serve other gods, and the anger of Jehovah will burn against you and He will quickly destroy you.
Dt 7:5 But you shall deal with them in this way: Their aaltars you shall tear down, their pillars you shall shatter, their 1Asherahs you shall hew down, and their idols you shall burn with fire.
Dt 7:6 For you are a aholy people to Jehovah your God; it is you whom Jehovah your God has bchosen from among all the peoples which are upon the face of the earth to be a people for His 1cpersonal treasure.
Dt 7:7 It was not because you were more numerous than all the peoples that Jehovah has set His aaffection on you and has chosen you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples;
Dt 7:8 Rather, because Jehovah loved you and because He would keep the oath which He aswore to your fathers, Jehovah has brought you out with a mighty hand and ransomed you from the slave house, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
7. Knowing Jehovah Their God
7:9-15
Dt 7:9 Know therefore that it is Jehovah your God who is God, the afaithful God who bkeeps covenant and clovingkindness to the thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments,
Dt 7:10 But repays directly those who hate Him by destroying them. He will not be slow toward him who hates Him; He will repay him directly.
Dt 7:11 Therefore you shall keep the commandment, and the statutes and the ordinances, which I am commanding you today to do.
Dt 7:12 And it will be that because you listen to these ordinances, and keep them and do them, Jehovah your God will keep with you the covenant and the lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.
Dt 7:13 And He will love you and 1bless you and multiply you; He will also abless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock, on the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.
Dt 7:14 You will be more blessed than all other peoples; there will not be any abarren male or female among you or among your animals.
Dt 7:15 And Jehovah will remove every asickness from you, and none of the evil illnesses of Egypt, which you know about, will He put upon you; but He will give them to all who hate you.
8. Not Being Afraid of the Nations
but Remembering What Jehovah Their God Did and Will Do
7:16-26
Dt 7:16 And you shall devour all the peoples which Jehovah your God is giving you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a asnare to you.
Dt 7:17 If you say in your heart, These nations are greater than I, how will I be able to dispossess them?
Dt 7:18 You shall not be afraid of them; you must remember what Jehovah your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,
Dt 7:19 The great trials that your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm with which Jehovah your God brought you out; so will Jehovah your God do to all the peoples whom you are afraid of.
Dt 7:20 Furthermore, Jehovah your God will send the ahornet among them until those who are left and those who hide themselves from you are destroyed.
Dt 7:21 You shall not be terrified of them, for Jehovah your God is in your amidst, a great and awesome God.
Dt 7:22 And Jehovah your God will clear away these nations from before you 1alittle by little; you will not be able to consume them immediately, lest the beasts of the field multiply against you.
Dt 7:23 But Jehovah your God will deliver them up before you and rout them utterly until they are destroyed.
Dt 7:24 And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under heaven; no man will be able to astand against you until you destroy them.
Dt 7:25 The idols of their gods you shall burn with fire; you shall not desire the silver or gold upon them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an aabomination to Jehovah your God.
Dt 7:26 And you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you become a cursed thing like it; you shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.
DEUTERONOMY 8

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9. Remembering Why Jehovah Humbled and Tested Them in the Wilderness
8:1-5
Dt 8:1 The whole commandment which I am commanding you today, you shall keep and do, so that you may alive and multiply, and enter and possess the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers.
Dt 8:2 And you shall remember all the way that Jehovah your God has led you these aforty years in the wilderness in order to humble you and btest you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Dt 8:3 And He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the amanna, which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that bman lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by 1everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah.
Dt 8:4 Your aclothing did not wear out from upon you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
Dt 8:5 Know then in your heart that as a man adisciplines his son, so Jehovah your God was disciplining you;
10. Keeping the Commandments of Jehovah Their God in Order to Be Brought into a Good Land
8:6-10
Dt 8:6 Therefore keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him.
Dt 8:7 For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a 1good land, a aland of waterbrooks, of springs and of 2fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains;
Dt 8:8 A aland of bwheat and barley and cvines and dfig trees and epomegranates; a land of folive trees with oil and of ghoney;
Dt 8:9 A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity; you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you can mine copper.
Dt 8:10 And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you.
11. Not Forgetting Jehovah Their God
8:11-20
Dt 8:11 Be 1careful lest you forget Jehovah your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes, which I am commanding you today;
Dt 8:12 Lest when you have eaten and are asatisfied, and have built fine houses and dwell in them,
Dt 8:13 And your herd and your flock have multiplied, and your silver and your gold have multiplied, and all that you have has multiplied,
Dt 8:14 Your heart be lifted up and you forget Jehovah your God, Him who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house;
Dt 8:15 Who led you through the great and awesome awilderness, with its bfiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; who brought forth water for you out of flint crock;
Dt 8:16 Who fed you amanna in the wilderness, which your fathers had never known, that He might humble you and that He might test you in order to do good for you in the end;
Dt 8:17 And you say in your heart, My strength and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.
Dt 8:18 But you shall remember Jehovah your God, for it is He who gives you strength to gain wealth, so that He may establish His acovenant, which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Dt 8:19 And if you forget Jehovah your God at all and go after other gods and serve them and bow down to them, aI testify against you btoday that you will surely perish.
Dt 8:20 Like the nations which Jehovah is about to destroy before your face, so you will perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God.
DEUTERONOMY 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

12. Knowing That Jehovah Their God Will
Drive Out the Nations from before Them, Not because of the Uprightness of Their Heart
but because of the Wickedness of the Nations
9:1-7
Dt 9:1 Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross over the Jordan this day in order to enter in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, acities that are big and fortified up to heaven,
Dt 9:2 A people great and tall, the children of the 1aAnakim, whom you know about and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the children of Anak?
Dt 9:3 Know therefore today that Jehovah your God is the One crossing over before you as a consuming afire; it is He who will destroy them, and it is He who will subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as Jehovah has said to you.
Dt 9:4 Do not say in your heart when Jehovah your God drives them out from before you, Because of my righteousness, Jehovah has brought me in to possess this land. Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah is about to dispossess them from before you.
Dt 9:5 It is not because of your arighteousness nor because of the uprightness of your heart that you are entering in to possess their land, but Jehovah your God is about to dispossess them from before you because of the wickedness of these nations and so that Jehovah may establish the word that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Dt 9:6 Know therefore that it is not because of your righteousness that Jehovah your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a astiff-necked people.
Dt 9:7 Remember; do not forget that 1you made Jehovah your God afurious in the wilderness; from the day that you came forth from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Jehovah.
13. Moses’ Rehearsing the Story
of the Rebellion of the Children of Israel at the Mount of God
9:8 — 10:11
Dt 9:8 And especially at aHoreb you made Jehovah bfurious, and Jehovah was angry enough with you to destroy you.
Dt 9:9 When I went up to the amountain to receive the tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant which Jehovah made with you, I remained on the mountain bforty days and forty nights; I did not eat food nor drink water.
Dt 9:10 And Jehovah gave me the two atablets of stone, written with the finger of God; and on them was what was according to all the words which Jehovah had spoken with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
Dt 9:11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant.
Dt 9:12 Then Jehovah said to me, Arise, go adown quickly from here, for your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt, have spoiled themselves; they have bturned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten image.
Dt 9:13 aThen Jehovah spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and indeed they are a bstiff-necked people.
Dt 9:14 Let Me alone that I may destroy them and blot their name out from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.
Dt 9:15 aSo I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with bfire, and the two Tablets of the Covenant were in my two hands.
Dt 9:16 And I asaw that you had indeed sinned against Jehovah your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way that Jehovah had commanded you.
Dt 9:17 And I took hold of the two tablets and cast them out of my two hands and shattered them before your eyes.
Dt 9:18 Then I threw myself down before Jehovah as at the beginning, aforty days and forty nights; I did not eat food nor drink water, because of all your sin which you had sinned by doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah so as to anger Him.
Dt 9:19 For I was aafraid of the anger and the burning wrath with which Jehovah was angry enough against you to destroy you. But Jehovah blistened to me in that instance as well.
Dt 9:20 And Jehovah was very angry with Aaron, enough to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that time.
Dt 9:21 aThen I took your sin that you had made, the calf, and I burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I cast the dust of it into the brook that came down from the mountain.
Dt 9:22 And at aTaberah, at bMassah, and at cKibroth-hattaavah, you made Jehovah furious.
Dt 9:23 And when Jehovah asent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, you rebelled at the word of Jehovah your God and did bnot believe Him and did not listen to His voice.
Dt 9:24 You have been rebellious against Jehovah since the day I came to know you.
Dt 9:25 aSo I threw myself down before Jehovah for the bforty days and the forty nights; I threw myself down thus, for Jehovah had said He would destroy you.
Dt 9:26 aAnd I prayed to Jehovah and said, O Lord Jehovah, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have ransomed with Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Dt 9:27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people and at their wickedness and at their sin;
Dt 9:28 Lest the inhabitants of the land from which You have brought us out say, aBecause Jehovah was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.
Dt 9:29 But they are Your apeople and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out with Your great strength and with Your outstretched arm.
DEUTERONOMY 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Dt 10:1 aAt that time Jehovah said to me, Cut for yourself two tablets of bstone like the first ones, and come up to Me on the mountain; and make yourself an cark of wood.
Dt 10:2 And I will write upon the tablets the words which were on the first tablets, which you shattered; and you shall aplace them in the Ark.
Dt 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and acut two tablets of stone like the first ones; and I went up to the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
Dt 10:4 aAnd He wrote upon the tablets as He had done the first writing, the Ten 1Commandments, which Jehovah spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and Jehovah gave them to me.
Dt 10:5 aThen I turned and came down from the mountain, and I placed the btablets in the Ark that I had made. And there they have been, as Jehovah commanded me.
Dt 10:6 (And the children of Israel set out from 1aBeeroth Bene-jaakan for Moserah. There Aaron bdied, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son served as priest in his place.
Dt 10:7 From there they set out for Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of waterbrooks.
Dt 10:8 At that time Jehovah aseparated the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, to bstand before Jehovah to minister to Him and bless in His name until this day.
Dt 10:9 Therefore Levi has 1no portion nor ainheritance with his brothers; 1Jehovah is his inheritance, as Jehovah your God promised him.)
Dt 10:10 And I stayed on the mountain, as I had the first time, aforty days and forty nights. And Jehovah listened to me in that instance as well; Jehovah would not destroy you.
Dt 10:11 And Jehovah said to me, aArise, take up the journey before the people so that they may enter and possess the land which I have sworn to their fathers to give them.
14. Moses’ Charging the Children of Israel concerning Nine Matters
10:12-22
Dt 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does Jehovah your God ask of you except that you afear Jehovah your God so that you would bwalk in all His 1ways and 2clove Him and serve Jehovah your God with all your 3heart and with all your soul;
Dt 10:13 So that you would keep the commandments of Jehovah and His statutes, which I am commanding you today, for your good.
Dt 10:14 Behold, aheaven and the heaven of heavens belong to Jehovah your God, the bearth and all that is in it.
Dt 10:15 But on your fathers Jehovah set His aaffection to love them and to choose their seed after them, that is, you above all the peoples, as it is this day.
Dt 10:16 Circumcise then the foreskin of your aheart, and do not be bstiff-necked any longer;
Dt 10:17 For it is Jehovah your God who is the aGod of gods and the bLord of lords, the great God, cmighty and awesome, who does dnot regard persons and does not take bribes;
Dt 10:18 He executes justice for the aorphan and the widow, and He loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Dt 10:19 Therefore love the asojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Dt 10:20 aYou shall fear Jehovah your God; Him shall you serve and to Him shall you bhold fast and by His name shall you swear.
Dt 10:21 He is your apraise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen.
Dt 10:22 Your fathers went down into Egypt as aseventy souls; and now Jehovah your God has made you as the bstars of heaven in multitude.
DEUTERONOMY 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

15. Loving Jehovah Their God as Witnesses of What He Had Done
11:1-7
Dt 11:1 Therefore you shall alove Jehovah your God and keep His charge and His statutes and His ordinances and His commandments always.
Dt 11:2 And realize today that I am speaking not with your sons, who do not know and who have not seen the discipline of Jehovah your God, His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm;
Dt 11:3 And His signs and works, which He did in the midst of Egypt against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and against all his land;
Dt 11:4 And what He did to Egypt’s forces, to their horses and to their chariots, when He caused the water of the Red Sea to flow aover them while they were pursuing you; and Jehovah made them perish to this day;
Dt 11:5 And what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;
Dt 11:6 And what He did to aDathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and their households and their tents and all their substance that went with them, from the midst of all Israel.
Dt 11:7 But it is your eyes that have seen all the great work of Jehovah which He did.
16. The Children of Israel to Receive Blessings
by Keeping Moses’ Words of Advice and Warning
11:8-25
Dt 11:8 Therefore you shall keep the whole commandment which I am commanding you today so that you may be 1strong and that you may go in and possess the land into which you are crossing over to possess,
Dt 11:9 And so that you may extend your days upon the ground which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with amilk and honey.
Dt 11:10 For the land which you are entering in to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came forth, where you used to sow your seed and 1water by foot as in a vegetable garden.
Dt 11:11 But the land into which you are crossing over to possess is a aland of mountains and valleys; by virtue of heaven’s rain, it drinks in water.
Dt 11:12 It is a land which Jehovah your God cares for; always the 1aeyes of Jehovah your God are upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.
Dt 11:13 And if you are certain to listen to My commandments, which I am commanding you today, to alove Jehovah your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Dt 11:14 I will give rain for your land in its season, the 1aearly rain and the late rain, so that you may gather your grain and your new wine and your fresh oil.
Dt 11:15 And I will put grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and abe satisfied.
Dt 11:16 Be careful lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve aother gods and bow down to them,
Dt 11:17 And the anger of Jehovah burn against you and He ashut up heaven, so that there is no rain and the earth does not yield its produce and you perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah is giving you.
Dt 11:18 aTherefore you shall 1lay these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them on your hand as a bsign, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes;
Dt 11:19 And you shall ateach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit in your house and when you journey on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up;
Dt 11:20 And you shall write them on the adoorposts of your house and on your gates;
Dt 11:21 That your days may be multiplied, as well as the days of your children, upon the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the adays of heaven are above the earth.
Dt 11:22 For if you are certain to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to alove Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him,
Dt 11:23 Jehovah will adispossess all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
Dt 11:24 aEvery place on which the sole of your bfoot treads will be yours; from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the criver, the river Euphrates, even to the 1farmost sea will be your territory.
Dt 11:25 No man will be able to astand against you; Jehovah your God will put the dread and fear of you upon all the land on which you tread, as He has spoken to you.
17. Moses’ Setting a Blessing and a Curse before the Children of Israel
11:26-32
Dt 11:26 See, I am asetting before you today a 1blessing and a 1curse:
Dt 11:27 The blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today;
Dt 11:28 And the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God and you turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, to go after other gods whom you have not known.
Dt 11:29 And when Jehovah your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, you shall put the ablessing upon bMount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal.
Dt 11:30 Indeed they are across the Jordan beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who dwell in the Arabah before Gilgal beside the terebinths of Moreh.
Dt 11:31 For you are about to cross over the Jordan to enter and possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving you; and you will possess it and dwell in it.
Dt 11:32 Therefore be certain to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.
DEUTERONOMY 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

18. Moses’ Charging the Children of Israel concerning the Way to Worship God
12:1-32
Dt 12:1 These are the statutes and the ordinances that you shall be certain to do in the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.
Dt 12:2 You shall completely 1destroy all the places where the nations whom you will dispossess have served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every flourishing tree.
Dt 12:3 And you shall atear down their altars and crush their pillars; and their Asherahs you shall burn with fire, and the idols of their gods you shall cut down; and you shall destroy their name from that place.
Dt 12:4 You shall not do so to Jehovah your God.
Dt 12:5 But to the aplace which Jehovah your God will 1choose out of all your tribes to put His 1name, to His 1habitation, shall you seek, and there shall you go.
Dt 12:6 And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and your vows and your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock;
Dt 12:7 And there you shall eat before Jehovah your God, and you and your households shall rejoice in all your undertakings, in which Jehovah your God has blessed you.
Dt 12:8 You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each man adoing all that is right in his own eyes;
Dt 12:9 For until now you have not come to the arest and to the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you.
Dt 12:10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies surrounding you so that you dwell securely;
Dt 12:11 Then to the aplace where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and all your choice vows which you vow to Jehovah.
Dt 12:12 And you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God, you and your sons and daughters, and your male servants and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, for he has ano portion nor inheritance with you.
Dt 12:13 Be careful that you do not offer up your burnt offerings in every place that you see;
Dt 12:14 But in the place which Jehovah will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer up your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
Dt 12:15 Yet you may slaughter and eat meat awithin all your gates, in all that your soul desires, according to the blessing of Jehovah your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat it as the gazelle and the deer are eaten.
Dt 12:16 However, you shall not eat the 1ablood; you shall pour it out upon the earth like water.
Dt 12:17 You may not 1eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or of your new wine or of your fresh oil, nor the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vows which you vow or of your freewill offerings or of the heave offering of your hand;
Dt 12:18 But you shall eat them before Jehovah your God in the place which Jehovah your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, and your male servant and female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God in all your undertakings.
Dt 12:19 Be careful that you do anot forsake the Levite all your days upon the earth.
Dt 12:20 When Jehovah your God aenlarges your territory, as He has promised you, and you say, I will eat meat, because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat according to all that your soul desires.
Dt 12:21 If the place where Jehovah your God will choose to put His name is too far away from you, you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock, which Jehovah has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates according to all that your soul desires;
Dt 12:22 Indeed, as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean may eat it alike.
Dt 12:23 But make sure that you do not eat the 1blood; for the ablood is the 2life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
Dt 12:24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out upon the earth like water.
Dt 12:25 You shall not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of Jehovah.
Dt 12:26 But you shall take your holy things which you have and your vows, and go to the place which Jehovah will choose;
Dt 12:27 And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of Jehovah your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of Jehovah your God, and you shall eat the flesh.
Dt 12:28 Keep and listen to all these words which I am commanding you so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of Jehovah your God.
Dt 12:29 When Jehovah your God acuts off the nations before you, which you are entering to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,
Dt 12:30 Be careful that you are not aensnared in following them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not seek after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, so that I also may do likewise?
Dt 12:31 You shall not do so for Jehovah your God, for every abomination to Jehovah, which He hates, they have done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burned with fire to their gods.
Dt 12:32 The whole thing that I am commanding you, you shall be certain to do; you shall anot add to it, nor shall you take away from it.
DEUTERONOMY 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

19. Moses’ Charging the Children of Israel concerning Apostasy
13:1-18
Dt 13:1 If a aprophet or a bdreamer of dreams stands up in your midst and gives you a sign or wonder,
Dt 13:2 And the sign or the wonder occurs, about which he spoke to you, saying, 1Let us go after other gods whom you have not known, and let us serve them;
Dt 13:3 You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams; for Jehovah your God is testing you in order to know whether you alove Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Dt 13:4 You shall follow Jehovah your God; and you shall fear Him, keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ahold fast to Him.
Dt 13:5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has advocated apostasy from Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the slave house, in order to force you out of the way in which Jehovah your God has commanded you to walk. Thus you shall 1utterly aremove the evil from your midst.
Dt 13:6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is like your own soul to you entice you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods (which neither you nor your fathers have known,
Dt 13:7 Of the gods of the peoples who are surrounding you, those who are near you or those who are far from you, from one end of the earth to the other);
Dt 13:8 You shall not yield to him nor listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him; neither shall you spare him nor conceal him;
Dt 13:9 But you must slay him; ayour hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
Dt 13:10 And you shall astone him with stones so that he dies, because he sought to force you away from Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house.
Dt 13:11 And all Israel awill hear and will fear and will never do anything like this evil thing in your midst again.
Dt 13:12 If you hear in one of your cities, which Jehovah your God is giving you to dwell in, someone saying that
Dt 13:13 Some worthless men have agone out from your midst and have forced the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods (which you have not known);
Dt 13:14 Then you shall ainvestigate and examine carefully and inquire thoroughly. And if indeed the thing is true and certain — this abomination has been done in your midst —
Dt 13:15 You must slay the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its animals with the edge of the sword.
Dt 13:16 And all its spoil you shall gather at the middle of its open square, and you shall aburn the city and all its spoil with fire wholly to Jehovah your God. And it shall be a bmound only forever; it shall not be built again.
Dt 13:17 And nothing of what has been acursed shall cling to your hand, in order that Jehovah may turn from His burning anger and show you tenderness and be compassionate to you and multiply you as He swore to your fathers,
Dt 13:18 When you listen to the voice of Jehovah your God and keep all His commandments, which I am commanding you today, and do what is right in the sight of Jehovah your God.
DEUTERONOMY 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

C. The Rehearsing of the General Statutes and Ordinances
14:1 — 26:19
1. Concerning Being Jehovah’s Personal Treasure
14:1-2
Dt 14:1 1You are the achildren of Jehovah your God; you shall bnot cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the dead.
Dt 14:2 For you are a aholy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to be a people for His 1bpersonal treasure, from among all the peoples which are upon the face of the earth.
2. Concerning the Holy Diet
14:3-21
Dt 14:3 You shall not 1eat any abominable thing.
Dt 14:4 aThese are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat;
Dt 14:5 The deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, the mountain sheep.
Dt 14:6 And every animal that 1has a divided hoof, that is, has its hoof split in two, and that chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat.
Dt 14:7 However, these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud or of those that 1have a cleft hoof: the camel, the hare, and the hyrax; because although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean to you.
Dt 14:8 And the pig, because although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh, nor shall you touch their carcasses.
Dt 14:9 These you may eat of all that are in the water: Anything that has fins and scales you may eat,
Dt 14:10 But anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you.
Dt 14:11 You may eat any clean bird.
Dt 14:12 But these are what you shall not eat: the great vulture, the bearded vulture, and the black vulture;
Dt 14:13 The kite, the falcon, and the kite of every kind;
Dt 14:14 And all ravens of every kind;
Dt 14:15 The ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, and the hawk of every kind;
Dt 14:16 The little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
Dt 14:17 The pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,
Dt 14:18 The stork, the heron of every kind, the hoopoe, and the bat.
Dt 14:19 And all 1flying insects are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.
Dt 14:20 You may eat any clean flying animal.
Dt 14:21 You shall not eat any acarcass; to the sojourner who is within your gates you may give it that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. bYou shall not 1boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
3. Concerning the Worship of God
14:22-27; 15:19 — 16:17; 16:21 — 17:7; 23:21-23; 26:1-11
a. By Giving the Tithes of All the Produce of Both Their Cattle and Their Crop
14:22-27
Dt 14:22 You must agive a tenth of all the produce of your seed, which the field brings forth, year by year.
Dt 14:23 aAnd you shall eat 1before Jehovah your God, in the place where He will choose to cause His name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your fresh oil and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.
Dt 14:24 But if the way is so far away from you that you are not able to carry your tithe, because the place where Jehovah your God will choose to set His name is too far away from you when Jehovah your God has blessed you,
Dt 14:25 Then you shall aexchange it for money and bind up the money in your hand, and you shall go to the place which Jehovah your God will choose.
Dt 14:26 And you shall exchange the money for anything that your soul desires, for oxen, for sheep, for wine, for strong drink, or for anything that your soul would like; and you and your household shall eat there before Jehovah your God and rejoice.
Dt 14:27 But you shall anot forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has bno portion nor inheritance with you.
4. Concerning Aid to the Needy
14:28 — 15:18; 23:15-16, 19-20; 24:6, 10-15, 17-22; 26:12-15
a. The Aid by the Tithes at the End of Every Three Years
14:28-29; 26:12-15
Dt 14:28 At the end of every athree years you shall bring forth all the 1tithe of your produce for that year and lay it within your gates;
Dt 14:29 And the Levite shall come — for he has no portion nor inheritance with you — as well as the sojourner and the orphan and the widow who are within your gates; and they shall eat and be satisfied, so that Jehovah your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
DEUTERONOMY 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

b. The Release at the End of Every Seven Years
15:1-6
Dt 15:1 At the end of every aseven years you shall issue a release.
Dt 15:2 And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor shall release from his hand that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it from his neighbor or his brother, for Jehovah’s release has been proclaimed.
Dt 15:3 From the aforeigner you may exact the debt; but whatever of yours your brother has, your hand shall release.
Dt 15:4 However, there shall not be any needy among you (for Jehovah will surely bless you in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess),
Dt 15:5 But only if you carefully listen to the voice of Jehovah your God and are certain to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today.
Dt 15:6 For Jehovah your God will bless you as He has promised you. And you will alend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
c. The Lending to the Poor Brothers
15:7-11
Dt 15:7 If among you there is a 1aneedy one amidst your brothers within any of your gates in your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart and you shall not close up your hand from your needy brother;
Dt 15:8 But you must aopen your hand to him, and you must lend enough for his need in whatever he lacks.
Dt 15:9 Be careful that there is not within your heart a base thought 1like this: The seventh year, the year of release, is near; and your aeye be evil against your needy brother and you do not give him anything, and he cry against you to Jehovah, and it become sin to you.
Dt 15:10 You must agive to him, and your heart shall bnot be displeased when you give to him; for on account of this matter Jehovah your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.
Dt 15:11 For the aneedy will not cease being in the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying, You must open your hand to your brother, to the bpoor one with you and to the needy one with you in your land.
d. The Freeing of a Hebrew Male Servant or a Female Servant
15:12-18
Dt 15:12 1If your brother, a aHebrew man or woman, is bsold to you, he shall serve you six years; but in the seventh year you shall set him 2free.
Dt 15:13 And when you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed;
Dt 15:14 You must supply him richly from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your winepress; as Jehovah your God has blessed you, so shall you give to him.
Dt 15:15 And you shall aremember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that Jehovah your God ransomed you; therefore I am commanding you this thing today.
Dt 15:16 aAnd if he says to you, I will not go forth from you, because he loves you and your household, for it goes well with him to be with you;
Dt 15:17 Then you shall take an awl and run it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be your servant forever; and thus also shall you do to your female servant.
Dt 15:18 You shall not view it as a hardship when you set him free; for he served you for six years, saving you double the wages of a hired hand, and Jehovah your God will bless you in all that you do.
(3. Concerning the Worship of God — cont’d)
b. By Offering the Firstborn Males of the Herd and of the Flock
15:19-23
Dt 15:19 All afirstborn males that are brought forth in your herd and in your flock you shall sanctify to Jehovah your God; you shall not do work with your firstborn ox, nor shall you shear your firstborn sheep.
Dt 15:20 You and your household shall aeat it before Jehovah your God year by year in the place which Jehovah will choose.
Dt 15:21 And if there is a ablemish in it, lameness or blindness, any serious blemish, you shall not sacrifice it to Jehovah your God.
Dt 15:22 aYou shall eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it as the gazelle and the deer are eaten.
Dt 15:23 However, you shall not eat its ablood; you shall pour it out upon the earth like water.
DEUTERONOMY 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

c. By Keeping the Three Main Annual Festivals —
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles
16:1-17
Dt 16:1 Observe the month of aAbib, and hold the 1Passover to Jehovah your God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah your God brought you out of Egypt by bnight.
Dt 16:2 And you shall sacrifice the passover to Jehovah your God, from the flock and from the herd, in the aplace where Jehovah will choose to cause His name to dwell.
Dt 16:3 You shall not eat anything leavened with it; seven days you shall eat aunleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for in alarmed haste you came out of the land of Egypt); in order that you may bremember the day of your coming out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
Dt 16:4 And aleaven shall not be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrifice in the evening on the first day remain until bmorning.
Dt 16:5 You may not sacrifice the passover within any of your gates, which Jehovah your God is giving you;
Dt 16:6 Rather, in the aplace where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell, you shall sacrifice the passover in the bevening, as the sun sets, at the time that you came out of Egypt.
Dt 16:7 And you shall cook and eat it in the aplace which Jehovah your God will choose, and you shall turn in the morning and go to your tents.
Dt 16:8 Six days you shall eat aunleavened bread. And on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to Jehovah your God; you shall not do any work.
Dt 16:9 You shall count off for yourself aseven weeks. You shall begin to count the seven weeks from the time that you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.
Dt 16:10 And you shall hold the aFeast of Weeks to Jehovah your God according to the sufficiency of the freewill offering of your hand, which you will give, as Jehovah your God blesses you.
Dt 16:11 And you and your son and daughter, and your male servant and female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates and the sojourner and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst shall rejoice before Jehovah your God in the aplace where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell.
Dt 16:12 And you shall aremember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall keep and do these statutes.
Dt 16:13 You shall hold the aFeast of 1Tabernacles for seven days after your bingathering from your threshing floor and your winepress.
Dt 16:14 And you and your son and daughter, and your male servant and female servant, and the Levite and the sojourner and the orphan and the widow who are within your gates shall rejoice in your feast.
Dt 16:15 You shall keep the feast to Jehovah your God for seven days in the aplace which Jehovah will choose, for Jehovah your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings; therefore you shall be nothing but joyful.
Dt 16:16 aThree times a year all your males shall appear before Jehovah your God in the bplace which He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the cFeast of Tabernacles. And they shall not appear before Jehovah dempty-handed;
Dt 16:17 Each man shall give as he is able to give, according to the blessing of Jehovah your God, which He has given you.
5. Concerning the Government among the People
16:18-20; 17:8-20; 19:15-21; 21:1-9, 18-23; 22:13-30; 24:1-4, 7, 16; 25:1-3, 5-16
a. The Appointing of Judges and Officers
16:18-20
Dt 16:18 You shall appoint for yourself 1judges and aofficers 2in all your cities which Jehovah your God is giving you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous bjudgment.
Dt 16:19 You shall not distort justice; you shall anot respect persons, nor shall you take a bbribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.
Dt 16:20 Righteousness, and only righteousness, shall you pursue, in order that you may live and possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.
(3. Concerning the Worship of God — cont’d)
d. By Not Having Any Mixture of Idolatry
16:21-22
Dt 16:21 You shall not plant for yourself an 1Asherah of any kind of tree beside the 1altar of Jehovah your God, which you will make for yourself;
Dt 16:22 Nor shall you erect for yourself a pillar, something which Jehovah your God hates.
DEUTERONOMY 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

e. By Not Sacrificing Anything to Jehovah in Which There Is a Blemish
17:1
Dt 17:1 You shall not sacrifice to Jehovah your God any ox or sheep in which there is a ablemish, anything seriously wrong, for that is an abomination to Jehovah your God.
f. By Stoning to Death Those Who Transgressed God’s Covenant and Served Other Gods
17:2-7
Dt 17:2 If there is found in your midst, within any of your gates which Jehovah your God is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of Jehovah your God by transgressing His covenant,
Dt 17:3 And has gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, that is, to the asun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded you to do;
Dt 17:4 And it is told to you and you hear of it; then you shall ainvestigate thoroughly. And if indeed the thing is true and certain — this abomination has been done in Israel —
Dt 17:5 Then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing, to your gates, that very man or woman, and you shall astone them with stones so that they die.
Dt 17:6 At the word of atwo witnesses or three witnesses shall he who is to die be put to death; he shall not be put to death at the word of only one witness.
Dt 17:7 The ahand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. Thus you shall utterly bremove the evil from your midst.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
b. The Ordinance concerning a Complicated Civil Suit
17:8-13
Dt 17:8 If a case is too complicated for you to judge between one kind of homicide and another, or between one kind of civil suit and another, or between one kind of assault and another, being disputed cases within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the aplace which Jehovah your God will choose;
Dt 17:9 And you shall come to 1the Levitical priests and to the ajudge who is presiding in those days and investigate the matter; and they shall declare to you the sentence of judgment.
Dt 17:10 And you shall ado according to the word of the sentence that they declare to you from that place which Jehovah will choose; and you shall be certain to do according to all that they instruct you.
Dt 17:11 You shall do according to the word of the instruction with which they instruct you and according to the judgment which they speak to you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left from the sentence that they declare to you.
Dt 17:12 And the man who acts apresumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Jehovah your God, or to the judge, that man shall die. Thus you shall utterly bremove the evil from Israel.
Dt 17:13 And all the people will hear and will fear, and they will not act presumptuously anymore.
c. The Setting of a King over the People
17:14-20
Dt 17:14 When you enter the land which Jehovah your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it, and you say, I will set a 1aking over me like all the nations which surround me;
Dt 17:15 You must set a king over you whom Jehovah your God will achoose; from among your brothers you shall set a king over you; you may not put a foreigner, who is not your brother, over you.
Dt 17:16 However, he shall not amass 1horses to himself, and he shall not turn the people back to 1aEgypt so that he may amass horses, since Jehovah has said to you, You shall never again return that way.
Dt 17:17 And he shall not amass awives to himself, so that his heart does not turn aside; nor shall he amass silver and gold to himself in great amounts.
Dt 17:18 And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write out for himself a copy of this 1alaw in a book, out of that which is before the Levitical priests.
Dt 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, in order that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them,
Dt 17:20 So that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers and he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left; that he and his sons may aextend their days over their kingdom in the midst of Israel.
DEUTERONOMY 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

6. Concerning the Supply of the Levitical Priests and the Whole Tribe of Levi
18:1-8
Dt 18:1 aThe 1Levitical priests and the whole 1tribe of Levi shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall beat Jehovah’s cofferings by fire and His 2inheritance.
Dt 18:2 Thus they shall have no inheritance in the midst of their brothers; 1aJehovah is their inheritance, as He has promised them.
Dt 18:3 And this shall be the 1priests’ rightful due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: They shall give the priest the ashoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach.
Dt 18:4 You shall give him the firstfruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your fresh oil, and the first shearing of your sheep;
Dt 18:5 For Jehovah your God has chosen him and his sons out of all your tribes to astand and minister in Jehovah’s name always.
Dt 18:6 And if a 1Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he sojourns, and comes according to all his soul’s desire to the aplace which Jehovah will choose,
Dt 18:7 He shall minister in the name of Jehovah his God, like all his brothers, the Levites, who stand there before Jehovah.
Dt 18:8 They shall eat equal portions, besides the 1proceeds from the sale of his father’s estate.
7. Concerning the Prohibitions against Contacting Evil Spirits or the Spirits of the Dead
18:9-14
Dt 18:9 When you enter the land which Jehovah your God is giving you, you shall not learn to do things according to the abominations of those nations.
Dt 18:10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire; anyone who performs adivination, practices soothsaying, or interprets omens; or anyone who employs sorcery
Dt 18:11 Or casts spells; or anyone who consults a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit or inquires of the dead;
Dt 18:12 For everyone who does these things is an abomination to Jehovah; and on account of these abominations Jehovah your God is dispossessing them from before you.
Dt 18:13 You shall be ablameless toward Jehovah your God.
Dt 18:14 For these nations whom you are dispossessing listen to those who practice soothsaying and to those who perform divination, but Jehovah your God has not allowed you to do so.
8. Concerning Jehovah God’s Raising Up of a Prophet (the Coming Christ)
like Moses for the Children of Israel
18:15-19
Dt 18:15 A 1aProphet will Jehovah your God raise up for you from your midst, from among your brothers, like me; you shall blisten to Him.
Dt 18:16 This is according to all that you asked of Jehovah your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, aLet me not hear any more of the voice of Jehovah my God, and let me not see this great fire any longer, lest I die.
Dt 18:17 And Jehovah said to me, aThey have done well in what they have spoken.
Dt 18:18 A aProphet will I 1raise up for them from the midst of their brothers like you; and I will put My words in His mouth, and He will speak to them all that I command Him.
Dt 18:19 And the man who will anot listen to My words which He will speak in My name, I Myself will require it from him.
9. Concerning the False Prophet
18:20-22
Dt 18:20 But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name, which I did not command him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall adie.
Dt 18:21 And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?
Dt 18:22 When a prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the thing does anot happen nor come about, that is the thing which Jehovah has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
DEUTERONOMY 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

10. Concerning the Setting Apart of the Cities of Refuge
19:1-13
Dt 19:1 When Jehovah your God acuts off the nations whose land Jehovah your God is giving you and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
Dt 19:2 You shall set apart athree 1cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.
Dt 19:3 You shall survey the distances for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of your land, which Jehovah your God will give you as an inheritance, so that every manslayer may aflee there.
Dt 19:4 And this shall be the case of the manslayer who flees there and lives: He who slays his neighbor without intent and did not hate him previously —
Dt 19:5 As when a man goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and his hand goes to cut the tree with an axe, and the iron axehead slips off the handle and hits his neighbor so that he dies — he shall flee to one of these cities and live;
Dt 19:6 Lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart rages, and he overtake him because the distance is long and 1slay him; though he is not worthy of death, for he did not hate him previously.
Dt 19:7 Therefore I am commanding you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for yourself.
Dt 19:8 And if Jehovah your God aenlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers;
Dt 19:9 If you are certain to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God and to walk in His ways always; then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three,
Dt 19:10 That innocent blood may not be shed in the midst of your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for blood be upon you.
Dt 19:11 But if a man hates his neighbor and alies in wait for him, and he rises up against him and slays him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities;
Dt 19:12 Then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
Dt 19:13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall aremove the guilt of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with you.
11. Concerning the Moving of the Neighbor’s Boundary Marker
19:14
Dt 19:14 You shall anot move your neighbor’s 1boundary marker, which your ancestors have set, in your inheritance, which you will inherit in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
d. The Ordinance concerning Any Iniquity or Any Sin
19:15-21
Dt 19:15 aOne witness only shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin which he has committed; bat the word of ctwo witnesses or at the word of three witnesses shall a matter be established.
Dt 19:16 If a amalicious witness rises up against a man to testify against him of wrongdoing,
Dt 19:17 The two men who have the dispute shall stand before Jehovah, before the apriests and the judges who are serving in those days.
Dt 19:18 And the judges shall ainvestigate thoroughly; and if indeed the witness is a false witness, if he has testified falsely against his brother,
Dt 19:19 You shall do to him as he intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall utterly remove the evil from your midst.
Dt 19:20 And those who remain awill hear and will fear and will never again do anything like this evil thing in your midst.
Dt 19:21 And your eye shall not pity: a alife for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot.
DEUTERONOMY 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

12. Concerning the Children of Israel Going Forth into Battle against Their Enemies
20:1-20
Dt 20:1 When you go forth into 1battle against your enemies, and you see horse and achariot, a people more numerous than you, you shall not fear them; for Jehovah your God is bwith you, He who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Dt 20:2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people,
Dt 20:3 And he shall say to them, Hear, O Israel! You are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart fail; do not be afraid or alarmed or terrified of them.
Dt 20:4 For it is Jehovah your God who goes with you to afight for you against your enemies, to save you.
Dt 20:5 And the officers shall speak to the people, saying, Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
Dt 20:6 Is there any man who has planted a avineyard and has not 1partaken of it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man partake of it.
Dt 20:7 Is there any man who has gotten engaged to a awoman and has not taken her to himself? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her to himself.
Dt 20:8 And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, Is there any man who is 1afraid and whose heart fails? Let him go and return to his house, so that the heart of his brothers does not melt like his heart.
Dt 20:9 And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of the armies at the head of the people.
Dt 20:10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, you shall proclaim apeace to it.
Dt 20:11 And if it responds with peace to you and opens its gates to you, all the people found within it shall become your forced labor; and they shall serve you.
Dt 20:12 But if it does not make peace with you, but rather engages in battle with you, you shall besiege it.
Dt 20:13 And when Jehovah your God delivers it into your hand, you shall aslay every male in it with the edge of the sword.
Dt 20:14 But the awomen and the little ones and the beasts and all that is in the city, that is, all its spoil, you shall take as your plunder; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which Jehovah your God has given you.
Dt 20:15 Thus shall you do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not among the cities of these nations.
Dt 20:16 But of the cities of these peoples which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not allow anything that breathes to live;
Dt 20:17 But you must utterly 1adestroy them: the bHittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, just as Jehovah your God has commanded you,
Dt 20:18 So that they do not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they do for their gods and you asin against Jehovah your God.
Dt 20:19 When you besiege a city for many days, battling against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?
Dt 20:20 However, a tree that you know is not a tree for food, you shall destroy and cut down, so that you may build a siegework against the city, which engages you in battle, until it falls.
DEUTERONOMY 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
e. The Ordinance concerning One Who Murders a Man,
the Slain One Being Found Lying in the Field in the Good Land
21:1-9
Dt 21:1 If a slain man is found lying in the field in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess, it not being known who slew him,
Dt 21:2 Then your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities that surround the slain man.
Dt 21:3 And the city that is nearest the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd which has not been worked and has not drawn the ayoke;
Dt 21:4 And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a river valley that flows continually, which has not been plowed or sown, and break the neck of the heifer there in the river valley.
Dt 21:5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall draw near; for Jehovah your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in the name of Jehovah, and by their word shall every dispute and every assault be settled.
Dt 21:6 And all the elders of that city that is nearest the slain man shall awash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the river valley.
Dt 21:7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it done.
Dt 21:8 Cover Your people Israel, whom You have ransomed, O Jehovah, and do not set the guilt of ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel. And the guilt of the blood shall be covered from them.
Dt 21:9 Thus you shall utterly aremove the guilt of the innocent blood from your midst, for you do what is right in the sight of Jehovah.
13. Concerning Marrying a Beautiful Woman among the Captives
21:10-14
Dt 21:10 When you go out to fight against your enemies and Jehovah your God delivers them into your hands and you take them captive,
Dt 21:11 And you see a beautiful woman among the captives and desire her and would take her to yourself as a wife;
Dt 21:12 You shall bring her within your house, and she shall ashave her head, trim her nails,
Dt 21:13 And take her clothes of captivity away from her. And she shall dwell in your house and mourn her afather and mother for a full month. And afterward you shall go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall be a wife to you.
Dt 21:14 And if after a time you do not delight in her, you shall let her go awherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money; you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
14. Concerning the Right of the Firstborn Son
21:15-17
Dt 21:15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other despised, and both the abeloved and the despised have borne him sons; and if the firstborn son is of the despised woman;
Dt 21:16 Then in the day when he gives what he has to his sons as his inheritance, he may not make the son of the beloved woman the firstborn instead of the son of the despised one, who is the firstborn.
Dt 21:17 But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the despised woman, giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the afirstfruits of his vigor; the right of the firstborn is his.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
f. The Ordinance concerning a Stubborn and Rebellious Son
21:18-21
Dt 21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, one who does not listen to the voice of his father nor to the voice of his mother; and though they achastise him, he does not listen to them;
Dt 21:19 Then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him forth to the elders of his city and to the gate of his place.
Dt 21:20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.
Dt 21:21 Then all the men of his city shall astone him with stones so that he dies. Thus you shall utterly bremove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and will fear.
g. The Hanging of a Criminal on a Tree
21:22-23
Dt 21:22 And if in a man there is a sin, a cause worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you 1hang him on a tree;
Dt 21:23 His acorpse shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you must bury him on that day. For he who is hanged is 1baccursed of God, and you shall not defile your land, which Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance.
DEUTERONOMY 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

15. Concerning Taking Care of Others’ Interests
22:1-4, 8
Dt 22:1 You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying and neglect them; you must areturn them to your brother.
Dt 22:2 And if your brother is not nearby you, or if you do not know who he is, you shall bring it to your house. And it shall be with you until your brother demands it; then you shall return it to him.
Dt 22:3 And thus shall you do with his donkey; and thus shall you do with his clothing; and thus shall you do with any of your brother’s lost things, which he has lost and you have found. You may not neglect them.
Dt 22:4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen by the way and neglect them; you must alift them up with him.
16. Concerning Mixtures of Any Kind
22:5, 9-12
Dt 22:5 A woman shall not put on a man’s clothing, nor shall a man wear a woman’s garment; for everyone who does these things is an abomination to Jehovah your God.
17. Sparing the Producing Animals
22:6-7; 25:4
Dt 22:6 If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest in the way, in any tree or on the ground, and in it are young birds or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the young birds or upon the eggs, you shall not take the amother with the young.
Dt 22:7 You must let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you and that you may extend your days.
15. Concerning Taking Care of Others’ Interests (cont’d)
22:8
Dt 22:8 When you build a new house, you shall make a low wall around the edge of your roof so that you do not put the guilt of blood on your house if someone falls from it.
16. Concerning Mixtures of Any Kind (cont’d)
22:9-12
Dt 22:9 You shall not sow your vineyard with 1atwo kinds of seed, lest the full produce, the seed which you sow, be forfeited to the sanctuary, as well as the increase of the vineyard.
Dt 22:10 You shall not 1plow with an ox and a donkey atogether.
Dt 22:11 You shall not wear clothing of amixed materials, of wool and linen together.
Dt 22:12 You shall make 1twisted cords upon the four acorners of your garment with which you cover yourself.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
h. The Ordinances concerning Matters Related to Marriage
22:13-30
Dt 22:13 If a man takes a wife and goes in unto her, and later 1despises her,
Dt 22:14 And charges her with shameful deeds and spreads an evil report about her, and says, I took this woman, and when I drew near to her, I did not find her to be a virgin;
Dt 22:15 Then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring forth the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.
Dt 22:16 And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he despised her;
Dt 22:17 And now he charges her with shameful deeds, saying, I did not find your daughter to be a virgin. But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
Dt 22:18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him;
Dt 22:19 And they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, for he spread an evil report against a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he may anot send her away all his days.
Dt 22:20 But if this claim is true — the girl was not found to be a virgin —
Dt 22:21 They shall bring the girl out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones so that she dies; for she has done afolly in Israel by committing fornication in her father’s house. Thus you shall utterly bremove the evil from your midst.
Dt 22:22 If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, both of them shall die, the man who was lying with the woman and the woman. Thus you shall utterly remove the evil from Israel.
Dt 22:23 If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her;
Dt 22:24 You shall bring both of them out to the gate of that city and astone them with stones so that they die, the girl because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall utterly remove the evil from your midst.
Dt 22:25 But if the man finds the engaged girl in the field, and the man overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who was lying with her shall die.
Dt 22:26 But to the girl you shall not do anything; there is no sin worthy of death with the girl; for as it is when a man rises up against his neighbor and 1slays him, so is this matter.
Dt 22:27 For he found her in the field; the engaged girl cried out and there was no one to save her.
Dt 22:28 If a man finds a girl who is a virgin and is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found;
Dt 22:29 The man who was lying with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the girl’s father. And she shall be his wife, because he humbled her; he may not send her away all his days.
Dt 22:30 A man shall not take his afather’s wife, so that he does not uncover the skirt of his father’s garment.
DEUTERONOMY 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

18. Concerning the Losing of the Right to Enter the Congregation of Jehovah
23:1-8
Dt 23:1 He who has been 1wounded in the testicles or has the male organ cut off shall not enter the congregation of Jehovah.
Dt 23:2 An illegitimate child shall not enter the congregation of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation, no descendant of his shall enter the congregation of Jehovah.
Dt 23:3 An 1aAmmonite or a 1Moabite shall not enter the congregation of Jehovah; even to the btenth generation, no descendant of theirs shall enter the congregation of Jehovah forever;
Dt 23:4 Because they did not come to meet you with bread and water in the way when you were coming out of Egypt, and because they hired aBalaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia against you, to curse you.
Dt 23:5 But Jehovah your God would not listen to Balaam, and Jehovah your God turned the acurse into a blessing for you, for Jehovah your God loved you.
Dt 23:6 aYou shall not seek peace with them nor prosperity with them all your days forever.
Dt 23:7 You shall not abhor an 1Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a sojourner in his land.
Dt 23:8 The children of the third generation who have been begotten of them may enter the congregation of Jehovah.
19. Concerning Keeping the Camp Clean
23:9-14
Dt 23:9 When you as a camp go forth against your enemies, you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.
Dt 23:10 If there is among you a man who becomes unclean because of an accident in the night, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not enter into the midst of the camp.
Dt 23:11 But when evening approaches, he shall bathe in water; and when the sun goes down, he shall enter into the midst of the camp.
Dt 23:12 And you shall have an assigned place outside the camp, and there you shall go out;
Dt 23:13 And you shall have a spade among your tools, and when you relieve yourself outside the camp, you shall dig with it and turn to cover your excrement.
Dt 23:14 For Jehovah your God awalks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and deliver up your enemies before you; therefore your camp shall be holy, and He must not see any indecent thing among you, lest He turn back from going after you.
(4. Concerning Aid to the Needy — cont’d)
e. Taking Care of an Escaped Slave
23:15-16
Dt 23:15 You shall not 1adeliver to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you;
Dt 23:16 He shall dwell with you, even in your midst, in the place which he chooses among your towns, wherever he pleases; you shall not oppress him.
20. Concerning a Harlot and a Dog
23:17-18
Dt 23:17 There shall not be a cult prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor shall there be a cult prostitute among the sons of Israel.
Dt 23:18 You shall not bring the payment for a harlot or the price for a 1adog into the house of Jehovah your God for any vow, for both of them are an abomination to Jehovah your God.
(4. Concerning Aid to the Needy — cont’d)
f. Not Making a Brother Pay Interest
23:19-20
Dt 23:19 You shall not make your brother pay interest, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything on which one pays interest.
Dt 23:20 You may make a aforeigner pay interest; but you shall not make your brother pay interest, in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in all your undertakings upon the land which you are entering to possess.
(3. Concerning the Worship of God — cont’d)
g. By Keeping a Vow to Jehovah
23:21-23
Dt 23:21 aWhen you vow a 1vow to Jehovah your God, you shall not delay in paying it; for Jehovah your God would certainly require it of you, and it will become sin in you.
Dt 23:22 But if you refrain from vowing, it will not become sin in you.
Dt 23:23 What proceeds out of your lips you shall keep and do, as you have vowed to Jehovah your God voluntarily, which you have promised with your mouth.
21. Concerning the Neighbor’s Produce
23:24-25
Dt 23:24 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat grapes as your soul desires, until you are satisfied; but you shall not put any into a 1vessel of yours.
Dt 23:25 When you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck some aears with your hand; but you shall not wield a sickle upon your neighbor’s standing grain.
DEUTERONOMY 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
i. The Ordinance concerning Divorce
24:1-4
Dt 24:1 When a man takes a woman and marries her, if she does not find favor in his sight, because he has found some indecency in her; and he writes her a abill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house;
Dt 24:2 And she goes forth from his house and goes to be another man’s;
Dt 24:3 And the latter husband despises her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house; or if the latter husband, who has taken her as his wife, dies;
Dt 24:4 Then the former husband, who sent her away, may anot return to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled. For that is an abomination before Jehovah, and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22. Concerning a Man Taking a New Wife
24:5
Dt 24:5 When a man takes a new 1awife, he shall not go out with the army, nor shall he be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home for one year, and he shall make his wife happy, whom he has taken.
(4. Concerning Aid to the Needy — cont’d)
g. Taking a Handmill or an Upper Millstone as a Pledge
24:6
Dt 24:6 One shall not take a handmill or an upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes the livelihood as a pledge.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
j. The Ordinance concerning Kidnapping
24:7
Dt 24:7 If a man is found akidnapping someone from among his brothers of the children of Israel and deals with him as a slave or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die. Thus you shall utterly bremove the evil from your midst.
23. Concerning a Case of Leprosy
24:8-9
Dt 24:8 Be careful in a case of aleprosy to carefully keep and do all that the Levitical priests instruct you; as I commanded them, so shall you be certain to do.
Dt 24:9 Remember what Jehovah your God did to aMiriam on the way when you came out of Egypt.
(4. Concerning Aid to the Needy — cont’d)
h. Concerning Taking a Pledge from the Borrower
24:10-13
Dt 24:10 When you lend anything to your neighbor, you shall not enter his house in order to take his pledge.
Dt 24:11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you are lending shall bring the pledge out to you.
Dt 24:12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge;
Dt 24:13 You must areturn his pledge to him when the sun goes down, so that he may sleep in his mantle and bless you; and it will be righteousness to you before Jehovah your God.
i. Concerning the Wages Given to the Poor Hired Servant
24:14-15
Dt 24:14 You shall not oppress a poor and needy hired servant among your brothers or among the sojourners with you, who are in your land within your gates.
Dt 24:15 On the day he earns it, you shall give him his awages, and the bsun shall not go down upon it (for he is poor and his life depends on it); lest he cry against you to Jehovah and it become sin in you.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
k. The Ordinances concerning Fathers and Their Children
24:16
Dt 24:16 1aFathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
(4. Concerning Aid to the Needy — cont’d)
j. In Remembering the Need of a Sojourner, an Orphan, or a Widow
24:17-22
Dt 24:17 You shall not distort justice due a sojourner or an orphan, nor shall you take a widow’s garment as a pledge.
Dt 24:18 But you shall aremember that you were a slave in Egypt and that Jehovah your God ransomed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.
Dt 24:19 When you reap your harvest in your field and you forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not turn back to agather it; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, in order that Jehovah your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Dt 24:20 When you beat down the fruit of your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs afterward; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow.
Dt 24:21 When you cut the grapes from your vineyard, you shall not glean afterward; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow.
Dt 24:22 And you shall aremember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.
DEUTERONOMY 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
l. The Ordinance concerning a Dispute Brought before the Children of Israel
25:1-3
Dt 25:1 aIf there is a dispute between men, and they approach the court, and the judges judge them, they shall bjustify the righteous and condemn the wicked.
Dt 25:2 And if the wicked man is worthy of beating, the judge shall make him lie down and have him abeaten before him as is sufficient for his wickedness, by number.
Dt 25:3 aForty blows he may give him; he shall not exceed, lest, in exceeding, he beat him beyond these with many blows and your brother be 1degraded before your eyes.
17. Sparing the Producing Animals (cont’d)
25:4
Dt 25:4 aYou shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain.
(5. Concerning the Government among the People — cont’d)
m. The Ordinance concerning a Brother
Who Is Not Willing to Do the Duty of a Husband’s Brother
25:5-10
Dt 25:5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and he has no son, the awife of the deceased man shall not become the wife of a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in unto her and take her as his wife, and he shall do the bduty of a husband’s brother for her.
Dt 25:6 And the firstborn whom she bears shall 1assume the aname of his deceased brother, so that his name is not blotted out of Israel.
Dt 25:7 And if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, his brother’s wife shall go up to the agate to the elders and say, My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name in Israel to his brother; he is not willing to do the duty of a husband’s brother for me.
Dt 25:8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, I do anot desire to take her;
Dt 25:9 Then his brother’s wife shall draw near to him in the sight of the elders and remove his asandal from off his foot, and she shall spit in his face and respond and say, Thus shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.
Dt 25:10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him whose sandal has been removed.
n. The Ordinance concerning a Wife Who Helps a Fighting Husband Immorally
25:11-12
Dt 25:11 When two men fight together, a man and his brother, and the wife of the one comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and she puts forth her hand and takes hold of his private parts;
Dt 25:12 Then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.
o. The Ordinance concerning Weights and Measures
25:13-16
Dt 25:13 You shall not have in your bag 1adiffering weights, one heavy and one light.
Dt 25:14 You shall not have in your house adiffering measures, one large and one small.
Dt 25:15 A full and righteous weight you shall have, and a full and righteous measure you shall have, in order that your days may be aextended upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.
Dt 25:16 For everyone who does these things, everyone who does unrighteousness, is an abomination to Jehovah your God.
24. Not Forgetting to Blot Out the Memory of Amalek
25:17-19
Dt 25:17 Remember what aAmalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt,
Dt 25:18 That he met you on the way and struck you at the rear, struck all those who were worn out at your rear, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.
Dt 25:19 Therefore when Jehovah your God gives you rest from all your enemies surrounding you, in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the amemory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
DEUTERONOMY 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

(3. Concerning the Worship of God — cont’d)
h. By Offering Some of the First of All the Fruit of the Good Land
after Entering It and Possessing It as an Inheritance
26:1-11
Dt 26:1 And when you enter the land which Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,
Dt 26:2 You shall take some of the 1afirst of all the fruit of the ground which you shall bring from your land, which Jehovah your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the bplace where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell.
Dt 26:3 And you shall go to the priest who is serving in those days and say to him, I declare to Jehovah your God today that I have entered the land which Jehovah swore to our fathers to give us.
Dt 26:4 And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and place it before the altar of Jehovah your God.
Dt 26:5 And you shall respond and say before Jehovah your God, A 1perishing aAramaean was my father; and he went down to bEgypt and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a great and mighty and numerous nation.
Dt 26:6 And the Egyptians aill-treated us and afflicted us and put hard work upon us;
Dt 26:7 But we acried out to Jehovah, the God of our fathers, and Jehovah heard our voice, and saw our affliction and our labor and our oppression.
Dt 26:8 And Jehovah abrought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great terror and by signs and wonders.
Dt 26:9 And He has brought us to this place and has agiven us this land, a land flowing with bmilk and honey.
Dt 26:10 And now I have just brought the afirst of the fruit of the ground, which You, O Jehovah, have given me. And you shall place it before Jehovah your God and bow down before Jehovah your God.
Dt 26:11 And you and the Levite and the sojourner in your midst shall arejoice in all the good which Jehovah your God has given to you and to your household.
(4. Concerning Aid to the Needy — cont’d)
a. The Aid by the Tithes at the End of Every Three Years (cont’d)
26:12-15
Dt 26:12 When you have finished giving all the 1tithes of your produce in the athird year, the year of the btithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied.
Dt 26:13 And you shall say before Jehovah your God, I have removed what is holy from out of my house, and I have also given it to the Levite and the sojourner, to the orphan and the widow, according to Your whole commandment, which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed any of Your commandments and I have not forgotten them.
Dt 26:14 I have not eaten any of it in my sorrow, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I given any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of Jehovah my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me.
Dt 26:15 Look down from 1Your aholy habitation, from heaven, and 2bless Your people Israel and the ground which You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with bmilk and honey.
25. A Concluding Word
26:16-19
Dt 26:16 This day Jehovah your God is commanding you to 1do these statutes and ordinances; therefore you shall keep them and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Dt 26:17 It is Jehovah whom you have today declared to be your God and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes and His commandments and His ordinances, and will listen to His voice.
Dt 26:18 And it is Jehovah who has today declared you to be a people for His 1apersonal treasure, even as He promised you; and that you will keep all His commandments;
Dt 26:19 And that He will set you high aabove all the nations which He has made, for praise and for a name and for honor; and that you will be a bholy people to Jehovah your God, as He has spoken.
DEUTERONOMY 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

III. A Warning
27:1 — 28:68
A. Moses, with the Elders of Israel, Commanding the People to Keep
the Whole Commandment and to Declare the Curses in the Good Land
27:1-26
Dt 27:1 And Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying, Keep the whole commandment which I am commanding you today.
Dt 27:2 And in the day when you across over the Jordan into the land which Jehovah your God is giving you, you shall erect for yourself large stones; and you shall coat them with plaster.
Dt 27:3 And you shall awrite upon them 1all the words of this law when you cross over, in order that you may enter the land which Jehovah your God is giving you, a land flowing with bmilk and honey, as Jehovah, the God of your fathers, promised to you.
Dt 27:4 And when you cross over the Jordan, you shall erect these stones, concerning which I am commanding you today, on aMount Ebal; and you shall coat them with plaster.
Dt 27:5 aAnd you shall build there an 1altar to Jehovah your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an 2iron tool upon them;
Dt 27:6 With unhewn stones you shall build the altar of Jehovah your God. Then you shall offer up burnt offerings upon it to Jehovah your God;
Dt 27:7 And you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God.
Dt 27:8 Then you shall awrite upon the stones all the words of this law very clearly.
Dt 27:9 And Moses, with the Levitical priests, spoke to all Israel, saying, Be silent and hear, O Israel; this day you have become the people of Jehovah your God.
Dt 27:10 Therefore you shall listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, and do His commandments and His statutes, which I am commanding you today.
Dt 27:11 And Moses commanded the people on that day, saying,
Dt 27:12 These shall stand upon aMount Gerizim to bless the people when you cross over the Jordan: Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin;
Dt 27:13 And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal for acursing: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
Dt 27:14 And the Levites shall respond and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,
Dt 27:15 Cursed is the man who amakes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to Jehovah, the work of the craftsman’s hands, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, 1bAmen.
Dt 27:16 Cursed is he who adishonors his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:17 Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s aboundary marker. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:18 Cursed is he who leads astray a ablind man on the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:19 Cursed is he who distorts justice due a asojourner, an orphan, or a widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:20 Cursed is he who lies with his afather’s wife, for he uncovers the skirt of his father’s garment. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:21 Cursed is he who lies with any aanimal. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:22 Cursed is he who lies with his asister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:23 Cursed is he who lies with his amother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:24 Cursed is he who aslays his neighbor secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:25 Cursed is he who atakes payment to slay someone of innocent blood. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Dt 27:26 aCursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
DEUTERONOMY 28

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B. The Blessings That Would Overtake Them for Their Diligence
in Listening to Jehovah and Doing His Commandments
28:1-14
Dt 28:1 And if you listen diligently to the voice of Jehovah your God and are certain to do all His commandments, which I am commanding you today, Jehovah your God will set you high aabove all the nations of the earth;
Dt 28:2 And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of Jehovah your God.
Dt 28:3 aBlessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
Dt 28:4 Blessed shall be the afruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock.
Dt 28:5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Dt 28:6 Blessed shall you be when you acome in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
Dt 28:7 Jehovah will cause your enemies, who rise up against you, to be struck down before you; on one road they will come out against you, but on seven roads they will aflee before you.
Dt 28:8 Jehovah will command the blessing upon you in your astorehouses and in all your bundertakings; and He will bless you in the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.
Dt 28:9 Jehovah will establish you as a aholy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of Jehovah your God and walk in His ways.
Dt 28:10 And all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Jehovah’s name, and they will be afraid of you.
Dt 28:11 And Jehovah will give you an excess of prosperity in the afruit of your womb and in the fruit of your animals and in the fruit of your ground, upon the ground which Jehovah swore to your fathers to give you.
Dt 28:12 Jehovah will open up to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give arain for your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. And you will blend to many nations, but you will not borrow.
Dt 28:13 And Jehovah will make you the head and not the tail, and you will tend only upward, and you will not tend downward, if you will listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today to keep and to do.
Dt 28:14 And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
C. The Curses That Would Overtake Them for Their Failing
to Listen to Jehovah and Do His Commandments
28:15-68
Dt 28:15 But if you do anot listen to the voice of Jehovah your God and are not certain to do all His commandments and His statutes, which I am commanding you today, all these 1curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Dt 28:16 aCursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
Dt 28:17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Dt 28:18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock.
Dt 28:19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
Dt 28:20 Jehovah will send to you cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke in all your undertakings which you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your practices through which you have abandoned Me.
Dt 28:21 Jehovah will make a plague cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land which you are entering to possess.
Dt 28:22 Jehovah will strike you with aconsuming disease and fever and inflammation, and with burning heat and 1drought, and with blight and mildew; and these will pursue you until you perish.
Dt 28:23 And your asky, which is above your head, will be bronze, and the land, which is under you, iron.
Dt 28:24 Jehovah will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it will come down upon you until you are destroyed.
Dt 28:25 Jehovah will cause you to be struck down before your enemies; on one road you will go out against them, but on seven roads you will aflee before them. And you will be a source of shuddering to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Dt 28:26 And your acorpse will become food for all the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.
Dt 28:27 Jehovah will strike you with the aboils of Egypt, tumors, scabs, and itching, of which you cannot be healed.
Dt 28:28 Jehovah will strike you with madness, ablindness, and bewilderment of heart;
Dt 28:29 And you will be groping at noonday just as the ablind man gropes in darkness; and you will not succeed in your ventures, but will only be oppressed and plundered always; and no one will save you.
Dt 28:30 You will get engaged to a woman, but another man will ravish her; you will build a house, but you will not dwell in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not 1partake of it.
Dt 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered in your sight, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be torn away from before you, but it will not be returned to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, but no one will rescue them for you.
Dt 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while your eyes look on and fail from longing after them all the day, but you will be powerless.
Dt 28:33 A people whom you have not known will eat the fruit of your ground and all your hard-earned produce, and you will be only oppressed and crushed always.
Dt 28:34 And you will go mad because of the sight before your eyes which you will see.
Dt 28:35 Jehovah will strike you on the knees and legs with terrible aboils, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
Dt 28:36 Jehovah will bring you and your king, whom you will have set over you, to a nation which you and your fathers have not known; and there you will aserve other gods, mere wood and stone.
Dt 28:37 And you will become a source of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples to whom Jehovah will drive you.
Dt 28:38 You will put out much seed in the field, but you will harvest little; for the alocust will consume it.
Dt 28:39 You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will not drink the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worm will devour them.
Dt 28:40 You will have olive trees in all your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives will drop off.
Dt 28:41 You will beget sons and daughters, but they will not remain with you; for they will go into acaptivity.
Dt 28:42 The alocust will take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground.
Dt 28:43 The sojourner who is in your midst will rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower.
Dt 28:44 He will alend to you, and you will not lend to him; he will be the head and you will be the tail.
Dt 28:45 And all these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes, which He commanded you;
Dt 28:46 And they will be with you and with your seed as a sign and wonder forever.
Dt 28:47 Because you did anot serve Jehovah your God with rejoicing and gladness of heart on account of the abundance of all things,
Dt 28:48 You will serve your enemies, whom Jehovah will send out against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things; and He will put an iron ayoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
Dt 28:49 Jehovah will bring against you a nation from afar away, from the end of the earth, like the beagle that swoops down, a nation whose ctongue you will not understand,
Dt 28:50 A nation of fierce countenance, who will not regard an aold man’s person nor show favor to the young man.
Dt 28:51 And they will eat the fruit of your animals and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed; they will not leave for you grain, new wine, or fresh oil, the offspring of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they cause you to perish.
Dt 28:52 And they will abesiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land; and they will besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which Jehovah your God has given you.
Dt 28:53 aAnd you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom Jehovah your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
Dt 28:54 The man who is delicately bred and luxurious among you, he will begrudge his brother, the wife of his bosom, and the remnant of his children whom he has left,
Dt 28:55 Not giving to one of them any of the flesh of his children whom he will eat; because nothing is left with him in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you in all your towns.
Dt 28:56 The delicately bred and luxurious woman among you, who does not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground because of her luxuriousness and delicacy, she will begrudge the husband of her bosom and her son and daughter
Dt 28:57 The child who comes forth from her and her children whom she will bear; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and distress with which your enemy will distress you in your towns.
Dt 28:58 If you are not certain to do all the words of this law written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name — Jehovah your God —
Dt 28:59 Jehovah will make your plagues and the plagues of your seed extraordinary, great and persistent plagues, and malignant and persistent sicknesses.
Dt 28:60 And He will put upon you again all the aillnesses of Egypt, which you were afraid of, and they will cling to you.
Dt 28:61 Also, every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, Jehovah will raise up upon you until you are destroyed.
Dt 28:62 And you will be left few in number, whereas you were as the astars of heaven in multitude; for you did not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God.
Dt 28:63 And as Jehovah exulted over you to do you good and to multiply you, so will Jehovah exult over you to make you perish and to destroy you; and you will be torn off the land which you are entering to possess.
Dt 28:64 And Jehovah will ascatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will bserve other gods whom you and your fathers have not known, mere wood and stone.
Dt 28:65 And among those nations you will have no rest, nor will there be a resting place for the sole of your foot; but Jehovah will give you there a quivering heart and eyes failing with longing and a alanguishing soul.
Dt 28:66 And your life will be hung in suspense before you, and you will dread night and day; and you will have no assurance of your life.
Dt 28:67 In the morning you will say, Oh that it were evening! and in the evening you will say, Oh that it were morning! because of your heart’s dread with which you will dread and because of the sight before your eyes which you will see.
Dt 28:68 And Jehovah will bring you back to aEgypt in ships, by the way concerning which I said to you, You shall never again see it. And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies, as male slaves and as female slaves, but no one will buy you.
DEUTERONOMY 29

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IV. The Enactment of the Covenant
29:1 — 30:20
A. The Introductory Word
29:1-17
1. Based upon the Experiences of the Past
vv. 1-8, 16-17
Dt 29:1 These are the words of the 1acovenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the 1bcovenant that He made with them at Horeb.
Dt 29:2 And Moses called to all Israel and said to them, You have aseen all that Jehovah did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land,
Dt 29:3 The great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders.
Dt 29:4 But Jehovah has anot given you a 1heart to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear until this day.
Dt 29:5 And I have led you aforty years in the wilderness; your bclothing did not wear out from upon you, nor did your sandal wear out from upon your foot;
Dt 29:6 You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might aknow that I am Jehovah your God.
Dt 29:7 And when you came to this place, aSihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us in battle, and we slew them;
Dt 29:8 And we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.
2. The Objects and the Purpose of the Enactment of the Covenant
vv. 9-15
Dt 29:9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them in order that you may prosper in all that you do.
Dt 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before Jehovah your God, 1your leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel,
Dt 29:11 Your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner with you, who is in the midst of your camp, from the aman who chops your wood to the man who draws your water,
Dt 29:12 In order to enter into a covenant with Jehovah your God and into His aoath, which Jehovah your God is making with you today,
Dt 29:13 So that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, even as He has spoken to you and even as He aswore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Dt 29:14 However not with you alone do I make this acovenant and this oath;
Dt 29:15 But I make it with him who is here today standing with us before Jehovah our God and with him who is not here with us today.
1. Based upon the Experiences of the Past (cont’d)
vv. 16-17
Dt 29:16 For you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of the nations whom you passed through,
Dt 29:17 And you saw their detestable images and their idols, mere wood and stone, silver and gold, which were with them.
B. The Contents of the Covenant
29:18 — 30:10
Dt 29:18 Beware that there is not among you any man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away, even today, from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the 1gods of those nations; that there is not among you a 2aroot bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood;
Dt 29:19 And that when he hears the words of this 1oath, he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I will have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart; 2to the ruin of the moist with the dry.
Dt 29:20 Jehovah will not be willing to pardon him; but rather the anger of Jehovah and His jealousy will fume against that man, and all the oath that is written in this book will settle on him, and Jehovah will blot out his name from under heaven.
Dt 29:21 And Jehovah will separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel according to all the oaths of the covenant written in this book of the law.
Dt 29:22 And the following generation, your children who will rise up after you and the foreigner who will come from a distant land, will say, when they see the plagues of that land and its diseases with which Jehovah has made it sick;
Dt 29:23 And that all its land is sulfur and salt, a burning waste; that it is not sown, nor does it sprout, nor does any vegetation come up in it; that it is like the overthrow of aSodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Jehovah overthrew in His anger and burning wrath —
Dt 29:24 Indeed all the nations will say, aWhy has Jehovah done this to this land? Why the burning of this great anger?
Dt 29:25 And they will say, It is because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out from the land of Egypt;
Dt 29:26 And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods whom they had not known and He had not allotted to them.
Dt 29:27 And the anger of Jehovah burned against this land, bringing upon it all the acurses written in this book;
Dt 29:28 And Jehovah aplucked them off their land in anger and in burning wrath and in great indignation, and sent them to another land, as they are this day.
Dt 29:29 The things that are 1hidden belong to Jehovah our God; but the things that are 1revealed, to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
DEUTERONOMY 30

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Dt 30:1 And 1when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have aset before you; and you bring them to heart while among all the nations to whom Jehovah your God will drive you;
Dt 30:2 And you and your children areturn to Jehovah your God and listen to His voice, according to all that I am commanding you today, with all your heart and with all your soul;
Dt 30:3 Then Jehovah your God will aturn your captivity and be compassionate to you, and He will turn and bgather you from all the peoples among whom Jehovah your God has scattered you.
Dt 30:4 aIf any of you have been driven out to the ends of heaven, from there will Jehovah your God bgather you and from there will He take you.
Dt 30:5 And Jehovah your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it; and He will do good for you and will multiply you more than He did your fathers.
Dt 30:6 And Jehovah your God will circumcise your aheart and the heart of your seed, so that you will blove Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Dt 30:7 And Jehovah your God will put all these 1oaths upon your enemies and upon them who hate you and who have persecuted you.
Dt 30:8 And you will turn and listen to the voice of Jehovah, and you will do all His commandments, which I am commanding you today.
Dt 30:9 And Jehovah your God will give you an excess of prosperity in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your animals and in the fruit of your ground, for Jehovah will again exult over you for good as He exulted over your fathers;
Dt 30:10 If you listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes written in this book of the law; if you turn back to Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
C. The Concluding Word
30:11-20
Dt 30:11 For this commandment which I am commanding you today, it is not too 1difficult for you, nor is it distant.
Dt 30:12 1aIt is not in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us to make us hear it and do it?
Dt 30:13 Nor is it across the 1sea that you should say, Who will go across the sea for us and bring it to us to make us hear it and do it?
Dt 30:14 But the word is very near to you, even in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
Dt 30:15 See, I have aput before you today life and good, and death and evil.
Dt 30:16 1If you obey the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God and walk in His ways and keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then you will live and multiply, and Jehovah your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to possess.
Dt 30:17 But if your heart turns and you do not listen, but rather you are drawn away in worship to other gods and serve them,
Dt 30:18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish; your days will not be extended upon the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan to go and possess.
Dt 30:19 I call aheaven and earth to witness against you today: I have bset before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life that you and your seed may live,
Dt 30:20 In loving Jehovah your God by listening to His voice and aholding fast to Him; for 1He is your blife and the length of your days, that you may dwell upon the land which Jehovah cswore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
DEUTERONOMY 31

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V. The Final Exhortations and Charges
31:1-29
A. Moses’ Exhortation to the People
vv. 1-6
Dt 31:1 When Moses 1finished speaking these words to all Israel,
Dt 31:2 He said to them, I am a ahundred and twenty years old today; I can no longer bgo out and come in, and Jehovah has said to me, cYou shall not cross over this Jordan.
Dt 31:3 It is Jehovah your God who is acrossing over before you; it is He who will destroy these nations from before you, and you will dispossess them. bJoshua is the one who is crossing over before you, as Jehovah has spoken.
Dt 31:4 And Jehovah will do to them even as He did to aSihon and bOg, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land when He destroyed them.
Dt 31:5 And Jehovah will adeliver them up before you, and you will do to them according to the whole commandment, which I have commanded you.
Dt 31:6 aBe strong and take courage; do bnot fear, neither be terrified of them, for it is Jehovah your God who goes cwith you; He will dnot fail you nor forsake you.
B. Moses’ Exhortation to Joshua
vv. 7-8
Dt 31:7 And Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, aBe strong and take courage, for you will go with this people into the land which Jehovah swore to their fathers to give them; and you will cause them to inherit it.
Dt 31:8 But it is Jehovah who is going abefore you. He will be with you; He will bnot fail you nor forsake you. Do cnot fear, neither be dismayed.
C. Moses’ Exhortation to the Priests, the Sons of Levi, and the Elders of Israel
vv. 9-13
Dt 31:9 And Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bear the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, and to all the elders of Israel.
Dt 31:10 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every aseven years, at the appointed time of the year of release, at the Feast of 1Tabernacles,
Dt 31:11 When all Israel comes to aappear before Jehovah your God in the place which He will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Dt 31:12 Gather the people, the men, the women, and the little ones, and the sojourner with you, who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear Jehovah your God and be certain to do all the words of this law,
Dt 31:13 And that their achildren, who have not known these things, may hear and learn to fear Jehovah your God all the days that you live upon the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
D. Jehovah’s Command to Moses to Write a Song
vv. 14-23
Dt 31:14 And Jehovah said to Moses, Now your days draw near for you to adie. Call bJoshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting that I may charge him. So Moses went with Joshua, and they presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting.
Dt 31:15 And Jehovah appeared in the tent in a pillar of acloud; and the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.
Dt 31:16 And Jehovah said to Moses, You are now about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will rise up and go as harlots after the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are entering; and they will forsake Me and break My acovenant which I made with them.
Dt 31:17 And My anger will burn against them in that day, and I will forsake them and ahide My face from them; and they will be devoured, and many evils and troubles will befall them, so that they will say in that day, Is it not because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us?
Dt 31:18 And I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, for they turned to other gods.
Dt 31:19 And now write for yourselves this asong and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouth that I may have this song as a witness against the children of Israel.
Dt 31:20 For I will bring them into the land which I swore to their fathers, a land flowing with amilk and honey, and they will eat and become bsatisfied and cgrow fat, and they will turn to other gods and serve them and despise Me and break My covenant.
Dt 31:21 And when many evils and troubles befall them, this song will respond as a witness before them, because it will not be forgotten in the mouth of their seed; for I know their intention, which they are making even today before I bring them into the land which I have sworn to them.
Dt 31:22 So Moses wrote this song on that day and taught it to the children of Israel.
Dt 31:23 And He charged aJoshua the son of Nun and said, Be strong and take courage, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land which I have sworn to them; and I will be with you.
E. Moses’ Completion of the Writing
and His Charges to the Levites and to All the Elders of Israel
vv. 24-29
Dt 31:24 And when Moses finished writing the words of this law in a book until they were completed,
Dt 31:25 Moses charged the Levites who bear the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, saying,
Dt 31:26 Take this abook of the law and place it at the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah your God, that it may be there as a witness against you.
Dt 31:27 For I know your 1rebelliousness and your 1stiff neck: See, while I am yet here alive with you today, you have been rebelling against Jehovah; so how much more after my death!
Dt 31:28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak in their hearing these words and that I may call aheaven and earth to witness against them;
Dt 31:29 For I know that aafter my death you will utterly spoil yourselves and turn away from the way that I have commanded you; and evil will come upon you in the last days, for you will do what is evil in the sight of Jehovah so as to provoke Him to anger by your undertakings.
VI. The Song of Moses
31:30 — 32:47
A. The Contents of the Song
31:30 — 32:43
Dt 31:30 And Moses spoke in the hearing of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were completed.
DEUTERONOMY 32

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Dt 32:1 Give ear, O aheaven, and let me speak; / And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
Dt 32:2 Let my teaching drop like the arain; / Let my speech distill like the dew, / Like raindrops upon tender grass, / And like abundant bshowers upon herbage.
Dt 32:3 For the name of Jehovah will I declare. / Ascribe greatness to our God!
Dt 32:4 The aRock — perfect is His work, / For all His bways are justice: / A God of faithfulness and without injustice; / Righteous and upright is He.
Dt 32:5 Corruptly have they dealt with Him — their blemish is not His 1sons — / A twisted and acrooked generation are they.
Dt 32:6 Do you repay Jehovah with this, / Foolish and unwise people? / Is He not your aFather who bought you? / Was it not He who bmade you and established you?
Dt 32:7 Remember the days of long ago; / Consider the years of generation upon generation; / Ask your father, and he will inform you; / Your elders, and they will tell you.
Dt 32:8 When the aMost High gave the nations their inheritance, / When He bdivided the sons of 1man, / He set the cborders of the peoples / According to the number of Israel’s children.
Dt 32:9 For Jehovah’s portion is His people; / Jacob is the allotment of His ainheritance.
Dt 32:10 He found him in a land of awilderness, / And in a howling desert waste; / He encircled him, cared for him with all attention; / He guarded him like the bpupil of His eye.
Dt 32:11 As the aeagle rouses his nest, / Hovers over his young, / Spreads his bwings, takes them, / And bears them up upon his pinions;
Dt 32:12 So Jehovah alone aled him, / And there was bno strange god with Him.
Dt 32:13 He made him ride on the ahigh places of the earth, / And he ate the produce of the field; / And He made him suck bhoney out of a crag, / And coil out of flint rock:
Dt 32:14 Curd of cows and milk of sheep, / With fat of lambs, / And rams, the offspring of Bashan, and goats, / With the choicest awheat; / And the bblood of the grape you drank as fermenting wine.
Dt 32:15 But 1aJeshurun grew fat and kicked — / You have become bfat, you have grown thick, you have gorged yourself — / And forsook God, who made him, / And treated the cRock of his salvation disdainfully.
Dt 32:16 They made Him ajealous with strange gods; / With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
Dt 32:17 They sacrificed to 1ademons, to those who were no god, / To gods they did not know, / To new ones who had recently come up, / Before whom your fathers had not shuddered.
Dt 32:18 You have neglected the aRock who begot you / And have forgotten the God who travailed with you.
Dt 32:19 And Jehovah saw and held them in contempt, / Because of anger provoked by His asons and daughters.
Dt 32:20 And He said, I will ahide My face from them; / I will see what their latter end will be. / For they are a generation of perversions, / Children in whom is no faithfulness.
Dt 32:21 They have made Me ajealous with a non-God; / They have provoked Me to anger with their 1bvanities. / Hence I will make them cjealous with a dnon-people; / With a foolish nation I will provoke them to anger.
Dt 32:22 For a afire is kindled in My anger / And burns unto nethermost 1Sheol. / And it devours the earth and its produce / And sets ablaze the foundations of the mountains.
Dt 32:23 I will heap evils on them; / I will use up My aarrows against them.
Dt 32:24 They shall be sucked up by famine, / And eaten up by fire bolt / And bitter destruction; / And I will send the teeth of beasts against them, / With the venom of those that crawl in the dust.
Dt 32:25 The sword shall bereave outside, / And inside, terror; / Taking both the young man and the virgin, / The suckling with the gray-haired man.
Dt 32:26 I would have said, I will ascatter them, / I will cause the memory of them to cease from among men;
Dt 32:27 Except I dreaded the vexation from the enemy; / Lest their adversaries misjudge; / Lest they say, Our hand is exalted, / And it is not Jehovah who has wrought all this.
Dt 32:28 For they are a nation destitute of counsel, / And there is ano understanding in them.
Dt 32:29 If they had been wise, they would have comprehended athis, / They would have perceived their latter end.
Dt 32:30 How shall aone chase a thousand, / And two put ten thousand to flight, / Were it not that their Rock sold them, / And Jehovah delivered them up?
Dt 32:31 For their rock is not like our aRock; / And of this our enemies are judges.
Dt 32:32 For their vine is from Sodom’s vine, / And from Gomorrah’s fields; / Their grapes are the grapes of poison; / Clusters of bitterness have they.
Dt 32:33 Their wine is the venom of serpents / And the cruel poison of cobras.
Dt 32:34 Is this not laid up in store with Me, / Sealed up in My treasuries?
Dt 32:35 aVengeance is Mine and so is retribution, / For the time when their foot slips; / Because the day of their calamity has drawn near, / And the things destined to happen to them hasten.
Dt 32:36 aFor Jehovah will 1execute judgment for His people, / And He will have compassion on His servants, / When He sees that their support is gone, / And that neither fettered nor free remain.
Dt 32:37 And He will say, aWhere are their gods, / The rock they sought refuge in,
Dt 32:38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, / And drank the wine of their drink offering? / Let them rise up and help you; / Let 1them be a shelter over you.
Dt 32:39 See now that I, I am He, / And there is no god with Me.
It is I who kill, and I amake alive; / I wound, and it is I who bheal; / cAnd there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
Dt 32:40 For I alift up My hand to heaven / And say, As I blive forever:
Dt 32:41 If I sharpen My flashing sword, / And My hand takes hold of judgment, / I will repay My adversaries with vengeance, / And those who hate Me will I recompense.
Dt 32:42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, / And My sword will devour flesh — / With the blood of the slain and of the captives, / The flesh of the long-haired 1leaders of the enemy.
Dt 32:43 aShout 1joyously, you nations, with His people, / Because He will bavenge the blood of His servants, / And He will repay His adversaries with vengeance / And will cover the guilt of His land and of His people.
B. The Word of Moses and Joshua to the People
32:44-47
Dt 32:44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and aHoshea the son of Nun.
Dt 32:45 And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel.
Dt 32:46 And he said to them, Set your heart on all these words which I am testifying to you today. You shall command them to your achildren that they may be certain to do all the words of this law.
Dt 32:47 For it is not a matter too vain for you, because it is your alife; and by this matter you will extend your days upon the land into which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
VII. The Death of Moses, and His Successor
32:48-52; 34:1-12
A. The Death of Moses
32:48-52; 34:1-8
Dt 32:48 And Jehovah spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
Dt 32:49 aGo up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which faces Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel as a possession;
Dt 32:50 And die in the mountain to which you are going up, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;
Dt 32:51 Because 1you were unfaithful to Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because 1you did not 2sanctify Me among the children of Israel.
Dt 32:52 But from a distance you shall asee the land, yet you shall 1not go there into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.
DEUTERONOMY 33

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

VIII. The Blessing of Moses
33:1-29
A. The Introductory Word
vv. 1-5
Dt 33:1 And this is the 1blessing with which Moses, the aman of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death.
Dt 33:2 And he said,
Jehovah came from aSinai, / And He dawned upon them from Seir; / He shined forth from Mount Paran, / And He approached from the bmyriads of holy ones; / From His right hand a fiery claw went out to them.
Dt 33:3 Indeed, He aloves the people. / All His bsaints were in Your hand, / And they sat down at Your cfeet; / Everyone receives of Your words.
Dt 33:4 aMoses commanded us a law, / A possession of the congregation of Jacob.
Dt 33:5 And He was King in aJeshurun, / When the heads of the people gathered themselves, / The tribes of Israel together.
B. The Blessing
vv. 6-25
Dt 33:6 aMay 1Reuben live and not die, / Nor his men be few.
Dt 33:7 And this is the blessing concerning Judah; and he said,
Hear, O Jehovah, the voice of Judah, / And 1bring him to his people. / With his hands he contended for them; / And may You be a help against his 2adversaries.
Dt 33:8 And concerning Levi he said,
May Your Thummim and aUrim be with 1Your faithful man, / Whom You tested at Massah, / With whom You contended at the waters of bMeribah —
Dt 33:9 He who said of his afather and mother, / I do not 1regard him; / And his bbrothers he did not acknowledge, / And his children he did not recognize; / For they have kept Your speaking / And have guarded Your ccovenant.
Dt 33:10 They shall show Jacob Your ordinances, / And Israel Your law; / They shall put aincense before Your nostrils / And whole burnt offerings upon Your altar.
Dt 33:11 Bless, O Jehovah, his 1might, / And the work of his hands accept; / Wound thoroughly the loins of those who rise up against him / And of those who hate him, that they may not rise up again.
Dt 33:12 Concerning Benjamin he said,
The beloved of Jehovah shall dwell securely beside Him; / Jehovah shall cover over him all the day, / And He shall adwell between his shoulders.
Dt 33:13 And concerning Joseph he said,
May his land be ablessed of Jehovah / With the choicest things of heaven, with the bdew / And with the deep waters that couch beneath;
Dt 33:14 With the choicest of the crops of the sun, / And with the choicest of the yield of the 1moons;
Dt 33:15 With the top of the ancient amountains, / And with the choicest things of the eternal hills;
Dt 33:16 With the choicest things of the earth, and the fullness thereof, / And the favor of Him who dwelt in the athornbush. / May they come upon the head of Joseph, / And upon the top of the head of him who is separated among his brothers.
Dt 33:17 Like his firstborn ox, he has majesty; / And his horns are the ahorns of the wild ox; / With them he shall drive peoples / To the ends of the earth together. / Those are the ten thousands of 1Ephraim; / And those the thousands of 1Manasseh.
Dt 33:18 And concerning Zebulun he said,
Rejoice, Zebulun, for your 1going forth, / And Issachar, for your tents!
Dt 33:19 They shall call peoples to the amountain; / There they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; / For they shall suck the abundance of the seas / And the hidden treasures of the sand.
Dt 33:20 And concerning Gad he said,
Blessed be He who enlarges Gad. / He dwells as a lioness, / And tears off the arm, yea, even the top of the head.
Dt 33:21 And he provided the afirst part for himself, / For there the portion of a 1lawgiver is reserved; / And he came with the heads of the people; / He executed the righteousness of Jehovah / And His judgments with Israel.
Dt 33:22 And concerning Dan he said,
Dan is a lion’s whelp / That leaps forth from aBashan.
Dt 33:23 And concerning Naphtali he said,
O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, / And full of the blessing of Jehovah: / Possess the asea and the south.
Dt 33:24 And concerning Asher he said,
Blessed be Asher above the sons. / May he be the one favored of his brothers, / And the one dipping his foot in 1oil.
Dt 33:25 Your doorbolts shall be iron and copper; / And as your days are, so shall your strength be.
C. The Concluding Word
vv. 26-29
Dt 33:26 There is no one like the God of aJeshurun, / Who brides through the heavens as your help / And in His majesty through the skies.
Dt 33:27 The God of old is your 1ahabitation, / And underneath are eternal arms. / And He drove out the enemy before you / And said, Destroy!
Dt 33:28 So Israel dwelt securely, / The fountain of Jacob in solitude, / On a land of grain and new wine; / And the heavens over him drop their dew.
Dt 33:29 Happy are you, O Israel; who is alike you? / A people bsaved by Jehovah, / The shield of your chelp / And He who is the sword of your majesty! / So your enemies shall come cringing to you, / And you shall tread upon their high places.
DEUTERONOMY 34

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

(VII. The Death of Moses, and His Successor — cont’d)
A. The Death of Moses (cont’d)
34:1-8
Dt 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount aNebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And Jehovah showed him all the land: Gilead as far as Dan;
Dt 34:2 And all of Naphtali; and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh; and all the land of Judah as far as the asea beyond it;
Dt 34:3 And the Negev; and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
Dt 34:4 And Jehovah said to him, aThis is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To your bseed I will give it. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you will not go over there.
Dt 34:5 So aMoses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab according to the word of Jehovah.
Dt 34:6 And 1He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial site to this day.
Dt 34:7 And Moses was a ahundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not bdim, nor had his freshness left him.
Dt 34:8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for athirty days; thus, the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were completed.
B. The Successor of Moses
34:9-12
Dt 34:9 And 1Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had 2alaid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel listened to him and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Dt 34:10 And there has not arisen a aprophet since then in Israel like Moses, whom Jehovah knew bface to face,
Dt 34:11 For all the asigns and the wonders which Jehovah sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land,
Dt 34:12 And for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
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JOSHUA

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Joshua (24:26).
Time of Writing: 1452-1426 B.C. (see below).
Place of the Record: The plains of Moab (cf. Deut. 34:8-9) and Shechem in Canaan (24:1, 25-26).
Time Period Covered: About twenty-seven years, 1452-1426 B.C., from the first month of the forty-first year after the exodus (4:19) to the death of Joshua (24:29).
Subject:
Israel’s Occupying and Possessing the Good Land for the Carrying Out of God’s Economy
JOSHUA 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

I. Entering into the Good Land
1:1 — 5:15
A. God’s Commission
1:1-18
1. God’s Charge, Promise, and Encouragement to Joshua
vv. 1-9
Js 1:1 1After the death of Moses the aservant of Jehovah, Jehovah spoke to 2bJoshua the son of Nun, Moses’ attendant, saying,
Js 1:2 Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the 1land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel.
Js 1:3 aEvery place on which the sole of your foot 1btreads I have given to you, as I promised Moses.
Js 1:4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even to the great river, the ariver Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the 1Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.
Js 1:5 No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be awith you; bI will not fail you nor forsake you.
Js 1:6 aBe strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.
Js 1:7 Only be strong and very courageous, being certain to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you. Do not turn away from it to the right or to the left, that you may have success wherever you go.
Js 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall 1amuse upon it day and night so that you may be certain to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.
Js 1:9 Have I not commanded you? aBe strong and take courage; bdo not be afraid or dismayed. For Jehovah your God is cwith you wherever you go.
2. Joshua’s Charge to the People
vv. 10-15
Js 1:10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
Js 1:11 Go through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, Prepare provisions for yourselves, for in three days you are to across this Jordan to enter and possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving you to possess.
Js 1:12 And to the 1Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua spoke, saying,
Js 1:13 Remember the word which Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you, saying, aJehovah your God has given you rest and will give you this land.
Js 1:14 Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses has given you beyond the Jordan; but you yourselves shall cross over in abattle array before your brothers, all the mighty men of valor; and you shall help them,
Js 1:15 Until Jehovah gives rest to your brothers as He has to you, and they also possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession, and you will possess that which Moses the servant of Jehovah has given you beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun.
3. The People’s Response to Joshua
vv. 16-18
Js 1:16 And they answered Joshua, saying, All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.
Js 1:17 As in all things we listened to Moses, so we will listen to 1you. Only may Jehovah your God be with you, as He was with Moses.
Js 1:18 Any man who rebels against your command or does not listen to your words in all that you command him, let him be put to death. Only be strong and take courage.
JOSHUA 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

B. Spying Out the Land
2:1-24
1. Joshua’s Sending of the Two Spies
v. 1a
Js 2:1 Then Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent out from Shittim two men as aspies, saying, Go, view the land, especially Jericho.
2. Jehovah’s Providing of Rahab the Harlot
vv. 1b-22
And they went and entered the house of a woman who was a harlot, whose name was 1bRahab; and they lay down there.
Js 2:2 And the king of Jericho was told, saying, There are some men who have now come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the land.
Js 2:3 Then the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you and who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.
Js 2:4 And the woman atook the two men and hid them. And she said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
Js 2:5 And when it was time to shut the gate at dark, the men went out; I do not know where the men have gone. Pursue quickly after them, for you can overtake them.
Js 2:6 But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof.
Js 2:7 So the men pursued after them on the way toward the Jordan as far as the fords. And as soon as those who pursued after them went out, the gate was shut.
Js 2:8 And before 1the spies lay down, she went up to them on the roof;
Js 2:9 And she said to the men, I know that Jehovah has given you the land, and that the dread of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land amelt before you.
Js 2:10 For we have heard how Jehovah adried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to bSihon and to cOg, whom you 1utterly destroyed.
Js 2:11 When we heard, our hearts amelted; and there no longer remained any spirit in any man because of you; for Jehovah your God, 1He is bGod in heaven above and upon earth beneath.
Js 2:12 So now, swear to me by Jehovah, I beg you, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my afather’s house; and give me some token of trust,
Js 2:13 That you will preserve my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.
Js 2:14 And the men said to her, Our life 1for yours! If you do not utter anything of this matter concerning us, then when Jehovah gives the land to us, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.
Js 2:15 Then she alet them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the wall of the city and she dwelt on the wall.
Js 2:16 And she said to them, Go to the mountain, so that your pursuers do not come upon you; and hide yourselves there for three days, until your pursuers return; then afterward you can go on your way.
Js 2:17 And the men said to her, We will be released from this oath to you that you made us swear,
Js 2:18 Unless, when we enter the land, you tie this line of 1ascarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather your father and your mother and your brothers and all your bfather’s house to you in your house.
Js 2:19 And anyone who goes forth from the doors of your house into the street, his ablood will be upon his own head, and we will be innocent. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood will be upon our heads if a hand should come upon him.
Js 2:20 But if you utter anything of this matter concerning us, we will be released from this oath to you that you made us swear.
Js 2:21 And she said, According to your words, so shall it be. Then she sent them away, and they left. And she tied the ascarlet line in the window.
Js 2:22 And they left and came to the mountain, and they remained there for three days, until their pursuers returned. And although their pursuers searched the entire way, they could not find them.
3. The Two Spies’ Return and Report
vv. 23-24
Js 2:23 Then the two men returned and came down from the mountain, and they crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun. And they related to him all that had happened to them.
Js 2:24 And they said to Joshua, 1Jehovah has indeed given all the land into our ahand; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt before us.
JOSHUA 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

C. Crossing the River Jordan
3:1 — 4:24
Js 3:1 Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel; and they stayed there overnight, before they crossed over.
Js 3:2 And at the end of three days the officers went through the midst of the camp,
Js 3:3 And they commanded the people, saying, When you see the 1aArk of the Covenant of Jehovah your God and the Levitical priests bbearing it, you shall set out from your place and go after it.
Js 3:4 But there shall be a space between you and it of about two thousand cubits by measure. aDo not come near it, so that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before.
Js 3:5 And Joshua said to the people, aSanctify yourselves, for tomorrow Jehovah will do wondrous things in your midst.
Js 3:6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and cross over before the people. And they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people.
Js 3:7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, On this day I will begin to amagnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, I will be bwith you.
Js 3:8 And you shall command the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant, saying, When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.
Js 3:9 Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of Jehovah your God.
Js 3:10 And Joshua said, By this you will know that the aliving God is in your midst, and that He will most certainly bdispossess before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.
Js 3:11 The Ark of the Covenant of the aLord of all the earth is now bcrossing over before you into the Jordan.
Js 3:12 Therefore now take atwelve men for yourselves out of the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.
Js 3:13 And when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the Ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the waters of the Jordan; the waters of the Jordan, the waters that flow down from upstream, will be cut off, and they will 1stand in a aheap.
Js 3:14 And so it happened that when the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant were before the people.
Js 3:15 And when those who carried the Ark came to the aJordan, and the feet of the priests who carried the Ark dipped into the edge of the water (now the Jordan boverflowed all its banks throughout all the days of the harvest),
Js 3:16 The waters that flowed down from upstream stood and rose up in a heap a great distance away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that flowed down toward the sea of the 1Arabah, the 2Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people 3crossed over from opposite Jericho.
Js 3:17 And the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah stood firmly on adry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel was crossing over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely crossed over the Jordan.
JOSHUA 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

Js 4:1 And when all the nation had completely acrossed over the Jordan, Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying,
Js 4:2 Take for yourselves atwelve men from among the people, one man from each tribe;
Js 4:3 And command them, saying, Take up for yourselves from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, 1twelve astones; and bring them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.
Js 4:4 So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from among the children of Israel, one man from each tribe.
Js 4:5 And Joshua said to them, Pass on before the Ark of Jehovah your God into the middle of the Jordan, and every one of you lift up one stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,
Js 4:6 That this may be a sign among you. When your achildren ask in time to come, saying, What do these stones mean to you?
Js 4:7 You shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were acut off before the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. Thus these stones will be for a bmemorial to the children of Israel forever.
Js 4:8 And the children of Israel did as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, as Jehovah told Joshua to do, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. And they brought them over with them to the place where they were to lodge, and they laid them down there.
Js 4:9 Then Joshua erected 1twelve stones in the middle of the aJordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.
Js 4:10 And the priests who carried the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that Jehovah had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed over.
Js 4:11 And when all the people had completely crossed over, the Ark of Jehovah with the priests crossed over before the people.
Js 4:12 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in abattle array before the children of Israel, as Moses had told them to do;
Js 4:13 About forty thousand equipped for 1war crossed over before Jehovah into the plains of Jericho for battle.
Js 4:14 On that day Jehovah amagnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him as they had revered Moses all the days of his life.
Js 4:15 Then Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying,
Js 4:16 Command the priests who carry the Ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan.
Js 4:17 And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
Js 4:18 And when the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah came up out from the middle of the Jordan, when the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up onto the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went aover all its banks as before.
Js 4:19 And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in aGilgal, at the eastern edge of Jericho.
Js 4:20 And those twelve stones, which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua 1erected in Gilgal.
Js 4:21 And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What do these stones mean?
Js 4:22 You shall let your children know, saying, On adry ground Israel crossed over this Jordan.
Js 4:23 For Jehovah your God adried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you crossed over, as Jehovah your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we crossed over;
Js 4:24 That all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of Jehovah, that it is mighty; that you may fear Jehovah your God always.
JOSHUA 5

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D. The Preparation before the Attack
5:1-15
1. The Reaction of the Kings of the Amorites and the Canaanites
v. 1
Js 5:1 Now when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the 1Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard that Jehovah had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the children of Israel until 2they crossed over, their hearts amelted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the children of Israel.
2. The Circumcision of the New Israel
vv. 2-9
Js 5:2 At that time Jehovah said to Joshua, Make knives of flint, and 1circumcise again the children of Israel a second time.
Js 5:3 And Joshua made knives of flint and circumcised the children of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.
Js 5:4 And this is the reason Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the awilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt.
Js 5:5 Although all the people who came out were circumcised, all the people who were born in the wilderness on the way, after 1the others had come out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.
Js 5:6 For the children of Israel went for aforty years through the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war who had come out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not listen to the voice of Jehovah, they to whom Jehovah bswore that they would not see the land that Jehovah had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with cmilk and honey.
Js 5:7 And their children, whom He had raised up in place of them, these Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way.
Js 5:8 And when they had finished circumcising the whole nation, they remained in their place at the camp until they recovered.
Js 5:9 Then Jehovah said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the areproach of Egypt from off you. So the name of that place has been called 1Gilgal to this day.
3. The Keeping of the Passover
v. 10
Js 5:10 And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal; and they held the 1aPassover on the bfourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.
4. The Eating of the Produce of the Promised Land
vv. 11-12
Js 5:11 And on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
Js 5:12 And the 1amanna ceased on that day, when they ate of the produce of the land; and there was no longer manna for the children of Israel, but they ate of the yield of the land of Canaan that year.
5. The Vision Seen by Joshua
vv. 13-15
Js 5:13 Now once, when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked; and behold, there was a 1man standing opposite him, and His asword was drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, Are You for us or for our adversaries?
Js 5:14 And He said, Neither, but as the aCaptain of Jehovah’s army have I now come. Then Joshua fell to the ground upon his face and worshipped. And he said to Him, What does my Lord speak to His servant?
Js 5:15 And the Captain of Jehovah’s army said to Joshua, aRemove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is bholy. And Joshua did so.
JOSHUA 6

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II. Taking Possession of the Good Land
6:1 — 12:24
A. The Destruction of Jericho
6:1-27
Js 6:1 Now Jericho was 1shut up so tight because of the children of Israel that no one went out and no one went in.
Js 6:2 And Jehovah said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho and its king and the mighty men of valor into your ahand.
Js 6:3 And you shall acircle the city, all the men of valor, going around the city one time. Thus shall you do for six days.
Js 6:4 And seven priests shall carry seven atrumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark. Then on the seventh day you shall circle the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
Js 6:5 And when they give off the blast of the ram’s horn and you hear the trumpet sound, all the people shall shout with a great shout. And the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, each straight ahead.
Js 6:6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, aTake up the 1Ark of the Covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark of Jehovah.
Js 6:7 And he said to the people, Pass on and circle the city, and let the armed men pass on before the Ark of Jehovah.
Js 6:8 Then when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Jehovah passed on and blew the trumpets; and the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah went after them.
Js 6:9 And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets; and the rearguard went after the Ark, the trumpets continually blowing.
Js 6:10 And Joshua commanded the people, saying, 1You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word go forth from your mouth, until the day I say to you, Shout! Then you shall shout.
Js 6:11 So he had the Ark of Jehovah circle the city, going around it one time. And they came into the camp and lodged in the camp.
Js 6:12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the Ark of Jehovah.
Js 6:13 And the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns went before the Ark of Jehovah, continually blowing the trumpets; and the armed men went before them, and the rearguard went after the Ark of Jehovah, the trumpets continually blowing.
Js 6:14 And they acircled the city on the second day one time and returned to the camp. This they did for six days.
Js 6:15 Then on the seventh day they rose early, at the break of dawn, and circled the city in the same manner seven times. Only on that day did they circle the city seven times.
Js 6:16 And at the seventh time the priests blew the trumpets, and Joshua said to the people, Shout! For Jehovah has given you the city.
Js 6:17 And the city shall be devoted to Jehovah for destruction, it and all that is in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in her house, because she ahid the messengers we sent.
Js 6:18 But as for you, keep yourselves from what has been adevoted to destruction, lest you devote yourselves to destruction by taking of what has been devoted and you make the camp of Israel something devoted to destruction and bring btrouble to it.
Js 6:19 But all the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron, these are holy to Jehovah; they shall come into the treasury of Jehovah.
Js 6:20 So the people shouted and the trumpets were blown; and when the people heard the 1trumpet sound, the people 1shouted with a great shout, and the awall fell down flat. And the people went up into the city, each straight ahead, and they captured the city.
Js 6:21 And they utterly adestroyed all that was in the city with the edge of the sword: both men and women, young and old, and oxen and sheep and donkeys.
Js 6:22 And Joshua said to the atwo men who had spied out the land, Go to the house of the harlot, and bring out from there the woman and all that belongs to her, as you bswore to her.
Js 6:23 And the young men who had been spies went and brought out 1aRahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all that belonged to her; all her family they brought out and set outside the camp of Israel.
Js 6:24 And they aburned the city with fire and all that was in it; but the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put in the treasury of the house of Jehovah.
Js 6:25 And Joshua preserved Rahab the harlot and her father’s ahouse and all that belonged to her, and she has dwelt within Israel to this day; for she hid the messengers whom Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.
Js 6:26 Then at that time Joshua charged the people with an oath, saying, 1Cursed be the man before Jehovah who rises up to rebuild this city aJericho! At the cost of his firstborn son shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.
Js 6:27 So Jehovah was awith Joshua, and reports of him were in all the land.
JOSHUA 7

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B. The Destruction of Ai
7:1 — 8:35
1. The Defeat at Ai
7:1-26
Js 7:1 But the children of Israel acted unfaithfully in that which was devoted to destruction, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of that which was adevoted to destruction; and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the children of Israel.
Js 7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to aAi, which is beside Beth-aven, east of Bethel; and he spoke to them, saying, Go up and 1bspy out the land. So the men went up and spied out Ai.
Js 7:3 And they returned to Joshua and said to him, 1Not all the people need go up; let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not make all the people labor there, for 2the enemies are few.
Js 7:4 So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they 1afled before the men of Ai.
Js 7:5 And the men of Ai struck some of them, about thirty-six men; and they pursued them from before the gate unto Shebarim and struck them on the slope. And the heart of the people amelted and became like water.
Js 7:6 And Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the ground upon his face abefore the Ark of Jehovah until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads.
Js 7:7 And Joshua said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all? To give us over into the hand of the Amorites and cause us to perish? If only we had been content to dwell across the Jordan!
Js 7:8 O Lord, what can I say after Israel has turned its back before its enemies?
Js 7:9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our aname from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?
Js 7:10 Then Jehovah said to Joshua, Rise up! Why have you fallen upon your face?
Js 7:11 1Israel has sinned. Indeed they have trespassed My covenant, which I commanded them; indeed they have taken of that which was adevoted to destruction; indeed they have stolen; indeed they have been deceptive; indeed they have put it among their goods.
Js 7:12 Thus the children of Israel are not able to astand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become something devoted to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy that which was devoted to destruction from among you.
Js 7:13 Rise up, asanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, There is something devoted to destruction among you, O Israel; you will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove that which was devoted to destruction from among you.
Js 7:14 Therefore in the morning you shall be brought anear by your tribes; and the tribe which Jehovah takes shall draw near family by family; and the family which Jehovah takes shall draw near house by house; and the house which Jehovah takes shall draw near warrior by warrior.
Js 7:15 And he who is taken with that which was devoted to destruction shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has trespassed the covenant of Jehovah and because he has committed folly in Israel.
Js 7:16 So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was 1taken.
Js 7:17 And he brought the family of Judah near, and the family of the Zerahites was taken. And he brought the family of the Zerahites near warrior by warrior, and Zabdi was taken.
Js 7:18 And he brought the house of Zabdi near warrior by warrior, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
Js 7:19 And Joshua said to Achan, My son, agive glory to Jehovah the God of Israel, and 1make confession to Him. And tell me what you have done; do not hide anything from me.
Js 7:20 Then Achan answered Joshua and said, It is true; I have sinned against Jehovah the God of Israel; and this is what I did:
Js 7:21 When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle of 1aShinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And now they are hidden in the earth in my tent, with the silver under it.
Js 7:22 And Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. And there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it.
Js 7:23 And they took 1the things from within the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and spread them out before Jehovah.
Js 7:24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him took aAchan the son of Zerah and the silver and the mantle and the wedge of gold, and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his donkeys and his sheep and his tent and all that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor.
Js 7:25 And Joshua said, Why have you atroubled us? Jehovah will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him with bstones; and they burned them with fire when they had stoned them with stones.
Js 7:26 Then they erected over him a great heap of stones, which is there to this day; and Jehovah aturned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place is called the Valley of 1Achor to this day.
JOSHUA 8

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2. The Victory over Ai
8:1-29
Js 8:1 Then Jehovah said to Joshua, aDo not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and rise and go up to Ai. See, I have given the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land into your bhand.
Js 8:2 And you shall do to Ai and to its king as you adid to Jericho and to its king; except its bspoil and its cattle you shall take for your plunder. Set an ambush for the city behind it.
Js 8:3 So Joshua rose up with all the people of war to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.
Js 8:4 And he commanded them, saying, See, you shall lie in ambush for the city behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, and all of you be ready.
Js 8:5 And I and all the people who are with me will draw near to the city. Then when they come forth to meet us, as it was the first time, we will flee before them.
Js 8:6 And they will come out after us until we have drawn them out from the city, for they will say, They are fleeing before us as they did the afirst time. Thus we will flee before them.
Js 8:7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Jehovah your God will give it into your hand.
Js 8:8 And when you capture the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of Jehovah. See, I have commanded you.
Js 8:9 Then Joshua sent them forth; and they went to the place of ambush, and they stayed between aBethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. And Joshua spent that night among the people.
Js 8:10 And Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people; and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai.
Js 8:11 And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and came before the city. And they camped to the north of Ai, so that the valley was between them and Ai.
Js 8:12 Now he had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
Js 8:13 So they set the people, the whole camp, which was north of the city, and the rearguard to the west of the city. And Joshua went into the valley that night.
Js 8:14 Now when the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, at the assigned place, facing the Arabah; for he did not know that there was an aambush set for him behind the city.
Js 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them, and they fled by the way of the wilderness.
Js 8:16 Then all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua and thus were adrawn out of the city.
Js 8:17 And not a man was left in Ai or in Bethel who did not go forth after Israel, but they abandoned the city, leaving it open, and pursued after Israel.
Js 8:18 Then Jehovah said to Joshua, aStretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
Js 8:19 And the ambush rose up quickly from their place and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and captured it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.
Js 8:20 And when the men of Ai turned to see behind them, they looked, and there it was — the asmoke of the city going up to heaven; and they had no way to flee this way or that way when the people who had fled into the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
Js 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was rising, they turned and slew the men of Ai.
Js 8:22 And the others came out from the city to meet them, so that they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they struck them, so that no one was left to survive or escape.
Js 8:23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
Js 8:24 And when Israel had finished slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
Js 8:25 And all those who fell that day, both of men and of women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
Js 8:26 And Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
Js 8:27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for themselves as plunder, according to the word of Jehovah, which He commanded Joshua.
Js 8:28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a aheap forever; it is a desolation to this day.
Js 8:29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening time. And when the sun set, Joshua commanded, and they took his acorpse down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and they erected over him a great heap of stones, which is there to this day.
3. Joshua’s Recording and Reading of the Law to the People of Israel
8:30-35
Js 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel on Mount aEbal,
Js 8:31 As Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, aan altar of unhewn stones upon which no one had lifted up an iron tool. And they offered upon it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and they sacrificed peace offerings.
Js 8:32 And there he awrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the children of Israel.
Js 8:33 And all Israel and their elders and their officers and their judges stood on either side of the Ark in front of the Levitical priests who acarried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, both sojourner and native alike: half of them in front of Mount bGerizim and half of them in front of Mount cEbal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had first commanded, to bless the people of Israel.
Js 8:34 And afterward he read all the awords of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that was written in the book of the law.
Js 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel and the women and the little ones and the sojourners who went among them.
JOSHUA 9

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C. The Saving of Gibeon
9:1-27
Js 9:1 And when aall the kings who were across the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland and on all the shore of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of this,
Js 9:2 They gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord.
Js 9:3 But the inhabitants of aGibeon heard what Joshua had done to bJericho and to cAi,
Js 9:4 And so they too acted craftily. And they went out as though they were envoys; and they took old sacks upon their donkeys, and old torn up and bound up wineskins,
Js 9:5 And old patched sandals on their feet, and old garments upon themselves; and all the bread of their provisions was dry and had become moldy.
Js 9:6 And they went to Joshua at the camp of aGilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, From a faraway land we have come; now therefore make a bcovenant with us.
Js 9:7 And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Perhaps you dwell among us. How then can we make a covenant with you?
Js 9:8 And they said to Joshua, We will be your servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are you, and where are you coming from?
Js 9:9 And they said to him, From a very afar land your servants have come because of the name of Jehovah your God, for we bhave heard reports of Him and all that He did in Egypt
Js 9:10 And all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were across the Jordan, to aSihon the king of Heshbon and to bOg the king of Bashan, who was in Ashtaroth.
Js 9:11 So our elders and all the inhabitants of our land spoke to us, saying, Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them; and you shall say to them, We will be your servants; make then a covenant with us.
Js 9:12 This bread of ours was hot when we took it for our provisions from our houses on the day we went forth to come to you; and here it now is: it is dry and has become moldy.
Js 9:13 And these wineskins, which we filled, were new; and here they are: they are torn up. And these clothes and sandals of ours have become old because of the very long journey.
Js 9:14 And the men took some of their provisions, 1but they did not aask for the counsel of Jehovah.
Js 9:15 And Joshua made apeace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly swore an oath to them.
Js 9:16 Then at the end of three days, after they had made the covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them.
Js 9:17 And the children of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were aGibeon and Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.
Js 9:18 And the children of Israel did not strike them, for the leaders of the assembly had sworn to them by Jehovah the God of Israel; and all the assembly murmured against the leaders.
Js 9:19 Then all the leaders said to all the assembly, We have sworn to them by Jehovah the God of Israel; therefore now we cannot touch them.
Js 9:20 This we will do with them and let them live, so that wrath does not come upon us because of the oath that we swore to them.
Js 9:21 And the leaders said to them, Let them live. So they became awoodcutters and drawers of water for all the assembly, as the leaders had said concerning them.
Js 9:22 Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us, saying, We are very far from you; when you dwell among us?
Js 9:23 Now therefore you shall be cursed; and there shall never fail to be slaves from among you, woodcutters and drawers of water for the ahouse of my God.
Js 9:24 And they answered Joshua and said, Because it had been told to your servants for certain that Jehovah your God had commanded Moses His servant to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and we did this thing.
Js 9:25 And now here we are in your hand: Do as it seems good and upright in your sight to do to us.
Js 9:26 And he did so to them and delivered them from the hand of the children of Israel, and they did not slay them.
Js 9:27 And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and drawers of water for the assembly and for the altar of Jehovah, as they are to this day, in the aplace that He would choose.
JOSHUA 10

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D. The Destruction of All the Rest of the Nations in the Hill Country and the Lowland
West of the Jordan and on All the Shore of the Great Sea
10:1 — 12:24
1. The Destruction of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon
10:1-27
Js 10:1 1And when Adoni-zedek the king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken aAi and had utterly destroyed it (as he had done to bJericho and its king, so did he do to Ai and its king), and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made cpeace with Israel and were among them,
Js 10:2 They were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai and all its men were mighty men.
Js 10:3 So Adoni-zedek the king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham the king of Hebron and Piram the king of Jarmuth and Japhia the king of Lachish and Debir the king of Eglon, saying,
Js 10:4 Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel.
Js 10:5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, agathered together and went up, they and all their camps; and they camped against Gibeon and fought against it.
Js 10:6 And the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua at the camp at aGilgal, saying, Do not let your hand fail your servants. Come up to us quickly; and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who inhabit the hill country are gathered against us.
Js 10:7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor.
Js 10:8 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not be afraid of them, for I have given them into your ahand. No man among them will stand before you.
Js 10:9 So Joshua came upon them suddenly, for he journeyed from Gilgal all night long.
Js 10:10 And Jehovah threw them into a panic before Israel, and He struck them with a great stroke at Gibeon; and He pursued them on the way toward the ascent of Beth-horon; and He struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.
Js 10:11 And while they fled from before Israel, when they were on the descent of Beth-horon, Jehovah sent large stones upon them from heaven as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the ahailstones than the children of Israel slew with the sword.
Js 10:12 Then Joshua spoke to Jehovah on the day when Jehovah delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel,
Sun, be still over Gibeon; / And you, Moon, over the valley of Aijalon!
Js 10:13 And the asun was still, / And the moon stayed, / Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.
Is it not written in the book of bJashar? And the sun stayed in the middle of the heavens, and it did not hurry to set for about a whole day.
Js 10:14 And there was never a day like that day, before it or after it, when Jehovah listened to the voice of a man; for Jehovah afought for Israel.
Js 10:15 Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.
Js 10:16 And these five kings fled and ahid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.
Js 10:17 And it was told to Joshua, saying, The five kings have been found, hidden in the cave at Makkedah.
Js 10:18 And Joshua said, Roll large stones over the mouth of the cave, and station men by it in order to keep them.
Js 10:19 But you, do not stay here; pursue after your enemies, and attack them from behind. Do not allow them to go to their cities, for Jehovah your God has given them into your hand.
Js 10:20 And when Joshua and the children of Israel finished striking them with a very great stroke until they were consumed, though there were some survivors of them who survived and went into the fortified cities,
Js 10:21 All the people returned to the camp, to Joshua at Makkedah, in peace. No one spoke against any of the children of Israel.
Js 10:22 Then Joshua said, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out of the cave to me.
Js 10:23 And they did so; and they brought those kings out of the cave to him: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
Js 10:24 And when they brought out those five kings to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel; and he said to the chiefs of the men of war who went with him, Come near; put your afeet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet upon their necks.
Js 10:25 And Joshua said to them, Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and take courage, for thus will Jehovah do to all your enemies against whom you fight.
Js 10:26 And Joshua struck them after that and put them to death, and he ahung them on five trees; and they hung upon the trees until evening.
Js 10:27 And when the sun set, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden; and they put large stones over the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day.
2. The Destruction of the Thirty-one Kings of the Thirty-one Nations in the Hill Country and
the Lowland West of the Jordan and of Heshbon under King Sihon and Bashan
under King Og East of the Jordan
10:28 — 12:24
Js 10:28 And Joshua captured Makkedah on that day, and he struck it and its king with the edge of the sword. He autterly destroyed them and every soul that was in it; he left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.
Js 10:29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah, and he fought with Libnah.
Js 10:30 And Jehovah delivered it also with its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, as well as every soul that was in it; he left no survivors in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.
Js 10:31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish, and he camped against it and fought against it.
Js 10:32 And Jehovah delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword as well as every soul that was in it, just as he had done to Libnah.
Js 10:33 Then Horam the king of aGezer came up to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people, so that he left him no survivor.
Js 10:34 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon, and they camped against it and fought against it.
Js 10:35 And they captured it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword; and every soul that was in it he utterly destroyed on that day, just as he had done to Lachish.
Js 10:36 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to aHebron, and they fought against it.
Js 10:37 And they captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword as well as its king and all its cities and every soul that was in it. He left no survivor, just as he had done to Eglon; but he utterly destroyed it and every soul that was in it.
Js 10:38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to Debir, and he fought against it.
Js 10:39 And he captured it and its king and all its cities; and they struck them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed every soul that was in it; he left no survivor. As he had done to Hebron, and as he had done to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and its king.
Js 10:40 Thus Joshua struck the whole land: the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings; he left no survivor but autterly destroyed everything that breathed, as Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded.
Js 10:41 And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea even unto Gaza, and all the land of Goshen even unto Gibeon.
Js 10:42 Now all these kings and their lands Joshua took at one time, for Jehovah the God of Israel afought for Israel.
Js 10:43 Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at aGilgal.
JOSHUA 11

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Js 11:1 And when aJabin the king of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab the king of 1Madon and to the king of Shimron and to the king of Achshaph
Js 11:2 And to the kings who were on the north in the hill country and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth and in the lowland and in the highland of Dor on the west;
Js 11:3 To the Canaanites on the east and on the west; and the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country; and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
Js 11:4 And they went out, they and all their camps with them, a people as great as the asand on the seashore in number, and very many horses and chariots.
Js 11:5 And aall these kings met together, and they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight with Israel.
Js 11:6 Then Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow at this time I will adeliver all of them up slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their bchariots with fire.
Js 11:7 So Joshua and all the people of war with him went against them at the waters of Merom suddenly, and they fell on them.
Js 11:8 And Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them and pursued them to Great Sidon and to Misrephoth-maim and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward. And they struck them until no survivor was left to them.
Js 11:9 So Joshua did to them according to what Jehovah had spoken to him; he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
Js 11:10 Then Joshua returned at that time and took Hazor, and he struck its king with the sword; for Hazor had formerly been the head of all these kingdoms.
Js 11:11 And they struck every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it; nothing that breathed was left. And he aburned Hazor with fire.
Js 11:12 And all the cities of these kings with all their kings, Joshua took; and he struck them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded.
Js 11:13 However as for all the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned none of them except Hazor alone; Joshua burned it.
Js 11:14 And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the children of Israel took as their plunder; but they astruck every man with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them; they left nothing that breathed.
Js 11:15 As Jehovah had commanded Moses His servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Js 11:16 So Joshua took all that land, the ahill country and all the Negev and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland;
Js 11:17 From Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir, unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon. And he took all their kings and struck them and put them to death.
Js 11:18 Joshua made war with all these kings a long time.
Js 11:19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of aGibeon; they took all in battle.
Js 11:20 For it was 1of Jehovah to aharden their heart to meet Israel in battle so that He might utterly destroy them and that they might not receive mercy but be bdestroyed as Jehovah commanded Moses.
Js 11:21 And Joshua went at that time and cut off the 1aAnakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah and all the hill country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities.
Js 11:22 None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; only in Gaza, aGath, and Ashdod did some remain.
Js 11:23 So Joshua took the whole aland according to all that Jehovah had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land had brest from war.
JOSHUA 12

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Js 12:1 Now these are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel struck and whose land they possessed across the Jordan toward the rising of the sun from the river aArnon to Mount Hermon and all the eastern Arabah:
Js 12:2 aSihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the river Arnon, and from the city in the middle of the river valley, that is, half of Gilead even unto the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;
Js 12:3 And the eastern aArabah unto the Sea of Chinneroth, even unto the eastern side of the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, toward Beth-jeshimoth, that is, southward to the foot of the slopes of Pisgah;
Js 12:4 And the territory of aOg the king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the 1Rephaim, who dwelt in Ashtaroth and Edrei,
Js 12:5 And ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all Bashan to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, that is, half of Gilead, to the border of Sihon the king of Heshbon.
Js 12:6 Moses the servant of Jehovah and the children of Israel struck them. And Moses the servant of Jehovah gave 1this land as a possession to the aReubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Js 12:7 And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel struck across the Jordan on the west, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon unto Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir; and Joshua gave this land to the atribes of Israel as a possession according to their divisions,
Js 12:8 The land that is in the ahill country and in the lowland and in the Arabah and on the slopes and in the wilderness and in the Negev — the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites; the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Js 12:9 The king of aJericho, one; / The king of bAi, which is by Bethel, one;
Js 12:10 The king of aJerusalem, one; / The king of Hebron, one;
Js 12:11 The king of Jarmuth, one; / The king of Lachish, one;
Js 12:12 The king of Eglon, one; / The king of aGezer, one;
Js 12:13 The king of aDebir, one; / The king of Geder, one;
Js 12:14 The king of Hormah, one; / The king of Arad, one;
Js 12:15 The king of aLibnah, one; / The king of Adullam, one;
Js 12:16 The king of Makkedah, one; / The king of Bethel, one;
Js 12:17 The king of Tappuah, one; / The king of Hepher, one;
Js 12:18 The king of Aphek, one; / The king of 1Lasharon, one;
Js 12:19 The king of Madon, one; / The king of aHazor, one;
Js 12:20 The king of Shimron-meron, one; / The king of Achshaph, one;
Js 12:21 The king of Taanach, one; / The king of aMegiddo, one;
Js 12:22 The king of Kedesh, one; / The king of Jokneam in Carmel, one;
Js 12:23 The king of Dor in the highland of Dor, one; / The king of Goiim of Gilgal, one;
Js 12:24 The king of Tirzah, one. / Thirty-one kings in all.
JOSHUA 13

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III. Allotting the Good Land
13:1 — 22:34
A. The Land Remaining to Be Possessed
13:1-7
Js 13:1 Now Joshua was aold and advanced in age; and Jehovah said to him, You are old and advanced in age, and very much of the land remains to be possessed.
Js 13:2 This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and all that of the Geshurites,
Js 13:3 From the Shihor, which is before Egypt, unto the border of Ekron on the north (this is considered to be Canaanite), with afive lords of the Philistines: the Gazite and the Ashdodite, the Ashkelonite, the Gittite, and the Ekronite; and that of the Avvim
Js 13:4 In the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah, which belongs to the Sidonians, unto Aphek at the border of the aAmorites;
Js 13:5 And the land of the Gebalites and all Lebanon toward the rising of the sun, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of aHamath;
Js 13:6 All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, all the Sidonians. I Myself will adrive them out before the children of Israel; nevertheless 1ballot it to Israel as an inheritance as I have commanded you.
Js 13:7 And now 1divide this land as an inheritance to the anine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
B. The Land East of the Jordan Allotted to the Two and a Half Tribes by Moses
13:8 — 14:3a
Js 13:8 With 1the other half-tribe of Manasseh the aReubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave to them across the Jordan on the east, as Moses the servant of Jehovah gave to them:
Js 13:9 From aAroer, which is on the edge of the river Arnon, and from the city, which is in the middle of the river valley, and all the tableland from Medeba to Dibon;
Js 13:10 And all the cities of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon;
Js 13:11 And Gilead with the territory of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon and all Bashan unto Salecah;
Js 13:12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); and Moses astruck them and dispossessed them.
Js 13:13 Yet the children of Israel did not dispossess the Geshurites and the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.
Js 13:14 However to the tribe of Levi he did not give an ainheritance; the 1offerings of Jehovah the God of Israel by fire are their inheritance, as He had spoken to him.
Js 13:15 And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families.
Js 13:16 And for them the border was from aAroer, which is on the edge of the river Arnon, and from the city, which is in the middle of the river valley, and all the tableland by Medeba;
Js 13:17 Heshbon and all its cities which are in the tableland: Dibon and Bamoth-baal and Beth-baal-meon
Js 13:18 And Jahaz and Kedemoth and Mephaath
Js 13:19 And Kiriathaim and Sibmah and Zereth-shahar on the mountain of the valley
Js 13:20 And Beth-peor and the slopes of Pisgah and Beth-jeshimoth;
Js 13:21 That is, all the cities of the tableland and all the kingdom of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and whom Moses astruck with the leaders of Midian: Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the princes of Sihon who inhabited the land.
Js 13:22 And Balaam the son of Beor, who practiced divination, the children of Israel slew with the sword with those of them who were already slain.
Js 13:23 And the border of the children of Reuben was the Jordan and its border. This is the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities with their villages.
Js 13:24 And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad, according to their families.
Js 13:25 And for them the border was Jazer and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon to Aroer, which is before Rabbah;
Js 13:26 And from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim; and from aMahanaim to the border of Debir;
Js 13:27 And in the valley Beth-haram and Beth-nimrah and Succoth and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon the king of Heshbon; the Jordan and its border to the end of the Sea of Chinnereth, across the Jordan on the east.
Js 13:28 This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities with their villages.
Js 13:29 And Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh; and it was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families.
Js 13:30 And their border was from Mahanaim and all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og the king of Bashan, and all the 1atent villages of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities;
Js 13:31 And half of Gilead, and Ashtaroth and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir, according to their families.
Js 13:32 These are what Moses gave as inheritances in the plains of Moab across the Jordan at Jericho to the east.
Js 13:33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses did not give an ainheritance; 1Jehovah the God of Israel is their inheritance, as He had spoken to them.
JOSHUA 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

Js 14:1 And these are what the children of Israel received as ainheritances in the land of Canaan, which bEleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel gave to them as inheritances,
Js 14:2 By the 1alot of their inheritance, as Jehovah commanded through Moses for the nine tribes and the half-tribe.
Js 14:3 For Moses had given the inheritance of the atwo tribes and the half-tribe across the Jordan;
C. No Land Allotted to the Tribe of Levi
14:3b-5
but to the bLevites he did not give an inheritance among them.
Js 14:4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim; and they gave no portion to the Levites in the land, but only acities to dwell in with their pasture lands for their cattle and their substance.
Js 14:5 As Jehovah had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did; thus they divided the land.
D. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Judah
14:6 — 15:63
Js 14:6 Then the children of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal; and aCaleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, You know the bword that Jehovah spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh-barnea.
Js 14:7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me out from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I areturned such a word to him as was genuinely upon my heart.
Js 14:8 However my brothers who went up with me made the people’s heart amelt, but I fully bfollowed Jehovah my God.
Js 14:9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has atrodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, for you have fully followed Jehovah my God.
Js 14:10 And now, look, Jehovah has kept me alive, as He said, for these forty-five years, since the time Jehovah spoke this word to Moses while Israel walked through the wilderness. And now, look, today I am eighty-five years old.
Js 14:11 Today I am still as astrong as I was on the day Moses sent me out; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for battle and for going out and coming in.
Js 14:12 Now therefore give me this hill country, of which Jehovah spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that the 1aAnakim were there with great fortified cities. It may be that Jehovah will be with me, and I will dispossess them, as Jehovah said.
Js 14:13 So Joshua blessed him; and he gave 1aHebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
Js 14:14 Therefore Hebron has become the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day because he fully followed Jehovah the God of Israel.
Js 14:15 And the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba. (This Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war.
JOSHUA 15

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Js 15:1 aAnd the lot for the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families was unto the border of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin at the south; this was the southern extreme.
Js 15:2 And their southern border was from the end of the Salt Sea, from the tongue-shaped bay that faces south;
Js 15:3 And it went southward to the ascent of Akrabbim, and passed on to Zin, and went up south of Kadesh-barnea, and passed on to Hezron, and went up to Addar, and went around Karka,
Js 15:4 And passed on to Azmon, and went out to the brook of Egypt; and the end of the border was at the sea. This shall be your southern border.
Js 15:5 And the eastern border was the Salt Sea to the end of the Jordan. And the aborder on the northern side was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan.
Js 15:6 And the border went up to Beth-hoglah, and passed on to the north of Beth-arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben;
Js 15:7 And the border went up to Debir from the Valley of Achor, and turned northward toward Gilgal, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, which is south of the river valley; and the border passed on to the waters of En-shemesh; and its end was at En-rogel;
Js 15:8 Then the border went up by the 1Valley of Ben-hinnom to the south of the aJebusite slope (this is Jerusalem); and the border went to the top of the mountain that is before the Valley of Hinnom on the west, which is the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim;
Js 15:9 And the border turned from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah and went to the cities of Mount Ephron; then the border turned toward Baalah (this is Kiriath-jearim);
Js 15:10 And the border went around west of Baalah to Mount Seir, and passed by the northern slope of Mount Jearim (this is Chesalon), and went down to aBeth-shemesh, and passed on to bTimnah;
Js 15:11 And the border went to the slope of aEkron northward; and the border turned toward Shikkeron, and passed by Mount Baalah, and went to Jabneel; and the end of the border was at the sea.
Js 15:12 And the western border was the Great Sea and its coast. This is the border of the children of Judah all around according to their families.
Js 15:13 And to aCaleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a portion in the midst of the children of Judah according to the commandment of Jehovah to Joshua, that is, Kiriath-arba (Arba was the father of 1Anak); this is Hebron.
Js 15:14 And Caleb drove out the three sons of aAnak from there: Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak.
Js 15:15 aAnd he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher.)
Js 15:16 And Caleb said, Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and takes it, I will give to him Achsah my daughter as wife.
Js 15:17 Then aOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.
Js 15:18 And when she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you want?
Js 15:19 And she said, Give me a blessing, for you have given me land in the Negev; give me also springs of water. So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Js 15:20 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.
Js 15:21 And the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom on the south were Kabzeel and Eder and Jagur
Js 15:22 And Kinah and Dimonah and Adadah
Js 15:23 And Kedesh and Hazor and Ithnan;
Js 15:24 Ziph and Telem and Bealoth
Js 15:25 And Hazor-hadattah and Kerioth-hezron (this is Hazor);
Js 15:26 Amam and Shema and Moladah
Js 15:27 And Hazar-gaddah and Heshmon and Beth-pelet
Js 15:28 And Hazar-shual and aBeer-sheba and Biziothiah;
Js 15:29 Baalah and Iim and Ezem
Js 15:30 And Eltolad and Chesil and Hormah
Js 15:31 And aZiklag and Madmannah and Sansannah
Js 15:32 And Lebaoth and Shilhim and Ain and Rimmon: in all twenty-nine cities with their villages.
Js 15:33 In the lowland: aEshtaol and Zorah and Ashnah
Js 15:34 And Zanoah and En-gannim; Tappuah and Enam;
Js 15:35 Jarmuth and Adullam; Socoh and Azekah
Js 15:36 And Shaaraim and Adithaim and Gederah and Gederothaim: fourteen cities with their villages.
Js 15:37 Zenan and Hadashah and Migdal-gad
Js 15:38 And Dilean and Mizpeh and Joktheel;
Js 15:39 Lachish and Bozkath and Eglon
Js 15:40 And Cabbon and Lahmas and Chitlish
Js 15:41 And Gederoth; Beth-dagon and Naamah and Makkedah: sixteen cities with their villages.
Js 15:42 Libnah and Ether and Ashan
Js 15:43 And Iphtah and Ashnah and Nezib
Js 15:44 And Keilah and Achzib and Mareshah: nine cities with their villages.
Js 15:45 Ekron, with its 1towns and its villages;
Js 15:46 From Ekron even to the sea, all that were near Ashdod, with their villages.
Js 15:47 Ashdod, with its towns and its villages; Gaza, with its towns and its villages, unto the brook of Egypt and the Great Sea and its border.
Js 15:48 And in the hill country: Shamir and Jattir and Socoh
Js 15:49 And Dannah and Kiriath-sannah (this is Debir)
Js 15:50 And Anab and Eshtemoh and Anim
Js 15:51 And Goshen and Holon and Giloh: eleven cities with their villages.
Js 15:52 Arab and Dumah and Eshan
Js 15:53 And Janum and Beth-tappuah and Aphekah
Js 15:54 And Humtah and Kiriath-arba (this is aHebron) and Zior: nine cities with their villages.
Js 15:55 aMaon, Carmel, and Ziph; and Juttah
Js 15:56 And Jezreel and Jokdeam and Zanoah;
Js 15:57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah: ten cities with their villages.
Js 15:58 Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gedor;
Js 15:59 And Maarath and Beth-anoth and Eltekon: six cities with their villages.
Js 15:60 Kiriath-baal (this is Kiriath-jearim) and Rabbah: two cities with their villages.
Js 15:61 In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah;
Js 15:62 And Nibshan and the City of Salt and aEn-gedi: six cities with their villages.
Js 15:63 But as for the aJebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not bdispossess them; thus the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah in Jerusalem to this day.
JOSHUA 16

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E. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Joseph
16:1 — 17:18
1. From Jericho to Bethel and to the Sea
16:1-4
Js 16:1 And the lot for the children of Joseph went afrom the Jordan at bJericho, east of the waters of Jericho, to the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country to Bethel,
Js 16:2 And went from aBethel to Luz, and passed on to the border of the Archites at Ataroth,
Js 16:3 And went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Lower Beth-horon and to Gezer; and its end was the sea.
Js 16:4 And the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, received their inheritance.
2. The Land Allotted to the Children of Ephraim, the Second Son of Joseph
16:5-10
Js 16:5 And the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was thus: The border for their inheritance on the east was from Ataroth-addar to Upper Beth-horon;
Js 16:6 And the border went to the sea. aOn the north was Michmethath, and the border went around eastward to Taanath-shiloh, and passed by it to the east of Janoah,
Js 16:7 And went down from Janoah to Ataroth, then to Naarah, and reached Jericho, and went to the Jordan.
Js 16:8 From Tappuah the border went westward to the brook of Kanah; and its end was the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families,
Js 16:9 Together with the cities that were set apart for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.
Js 16:10 aYet they did not dispossess the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwell in the midst of Ephraim to this day and have become bforced labor.
JOSHUA 17

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3. The Land Allotted to Manasseh, the Firstborn of Joseph
17:1-18
Js 17:1 And this was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was Joseph’s afirstborn. To bMachir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, Gilead and Bashan had been given, since he was a man of war.
Js 17:2 Therefore the lot was for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their afamilies: for the children of Abiezer and for the children of Helek and for the children of Asriel and for the children of Shechem and for the children of Hepher and for the children of Shemida; these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families.
Js 17:3 But aZelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but 1daughters. And these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
Js 17:4 And they came before aEleazar the priest and before Joshua the son of Nun and before the leaders, saying, Jehovah commanded Moses to give us an binheritance among our brothers. Therefore he gave them an inheritance among their father’s brothers according to the commandment of Jehovah.
Js 17:5 And ten portions fell to Manasseh, besides the aland of Gilead and Bashan, which is across the Jordan,
Js 17:6 Because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons. And the land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the children of Manasseh.
Js 17:7 aAnd the border of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethath, which was opposite Shechem; and the border went south to the inhabitants of En-tappuah.
Js 17:8 The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh, but Tappuah, on the border of Manasseh, belonged to the children of Ephraim.
Js 17:9 And the border went down to the brook of Kanah. These cities to the south of the brook belonged to Ephraim, among the cities of Manasseh; and the border of Manasseh was to the north of the brook, and its end was the sea.
Js 17:10 To the south was Ephraim’s, and to the north was Manasseh’s, and the sea was his border. And they touched Asher on the north and Issachar on the east.
Js 17:11 And to Manasseh there belonged in Issachar and Asher, Beth-shean and its towns, and Ibleam and its towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of En-dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns (the third is Napheth).
Js 17:12 aYet the children of Manasseh could not dispossess these cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in this land.
Js 17:13 And when the children of Israel became strong, they made the Canaanites aforced labor; but they did not utterly dispossess them.
Js 17:14 Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me an inheritance of only one lot and one aportion, although I am still a numerous people, whom Jehovah has thus far blessed?
Js 17:15 And Joshua said to them, If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and cut out land there for yourself in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim; since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.
Js 17:16 And the children of Joseph said, The hill country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have achariots of iron, both those of Beth-shean and its towns and those in the valley of Jezreel.
Js 17:17 And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, You are a numerous people, and you have great strength; you shall not have one lot only,
Js 17:18 But the hill country shall be yours. Though it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and its end will be yours; for you shall dispossess the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong.
JOSHUA 18

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F. The Land to Be Allotted to the Rest of the Seven Tribes
18:1 — 19:51
1. Joshua’s Preparations for Allotting and Dividing the Land unto the Seven Tribes
18:1-10
Js 18:1 And the whole assembly of the children of Israel gathered together at aShiloh, and they set up the bTent of Meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.
Js 18:2 And among the children of Israel there remained seven tribes whose inheritance had not been divided to them.
Js 18:3 And Joshua said to the children of Israel, How long will you be slack about going to take possession of the land that Jehovah, the God of your fathers, has given you?
Js 18:4 Appoint three men for each tribe, and I will send them out. And they shall rise up and go through the land, and write a description of it with a view to its being their inheritance; and they shall come to me.
Js 18:5 And they shall divide it into seven portions: Judah shall stay at his border on the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay at their border on the north.
Js 18:6 And you shall describe the land in seven portions and bring the description here to me; then I will 1cast lots for you here before Jehovah our God.
Js 18:7 But the aLevites shall have no portion among you, for the priesthood of Jehovah is their inheritance. And bGad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh received their inheritance across the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of Jehovah had given to them.
Js 18:8 And the men rose up and went; and Joshua commanded those who went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land, and describe it; then return to me, and I will cast lots for you before Jehovah here in Shiloh.
Js 18:9 So the men went, and they passed through the land and described it by cities into seven portions in a book. Then they came to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh.
Js 18:10 And Joshua cast alots for them in Shiloh before Jehovah. And there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.
2. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Benjamin
18:11-28
Js 18:11 And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came out, according to their families. And the border of their lot went between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.
Js 18:12 aAnd their border on the northern side was from the Jordan, and the border went up alongside Jericho on the north, and went up through the hill country westward, and its end was at the wilderness of Beth-aven.
Js 18:13 And from there the border passed to Luz, on the southern side of Luz (this is aBethel); and the border went down to Ataroth-addar, at the mountain which is south of Lower Beth-horon.
Js 18:14 And the border turned from there and went around the west side southward, from the mountain that is to the south of Beth-horon; and its end was at Kiriath-baal (this is Kiriath-jearim), a city of the children of Judah. This was the west side.
Js 18:15 aThe south side was from the limit of Kiriath-jearim, and the border went from the west and went to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah;
Js 18:16 And the border went down to the limit of the mountain that is before the 1Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is north of the valley of the Rephaim; and it went down into the aValley of Hinnom, to the southern side of the Jebusite slope, and went down to En-rogel,
Js 18:17 And turned north, and went to En-shemesh, and went to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim; and it went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben;
Js 18:18 And it passed by the side before the Arabah northward, and went down to the Arabah;
Js 18:19 And the border passed by the northern side of Beth-hoglah, and the end of the border was at the northern bay of the Salt Sea at the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern border.
Js 18:20 And the Jordan borders it on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families, according to its borders all around.
Js 18:21 And the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were aJericho and Beth-hoglah and Emek-keziz
Js 18:22 And Beth-arabah and Zemaraim and aBethel
Js 18:23 And Avvim and Parah and Ophrah
Js 18:24 And Chephar-ammoni and Ophni and Geba: twelve cities with their villages.
Js 18:25 Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth
Js 18:26 And Mizpeh and Chephirah and Mozah
Js 18:27 And Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah
Js 18:28 And Zelah, Haeleph, and that of the aJebusite (this is 1Jerusalem), Gibeath, Kiriath: fourteen cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.
JOSHUA 19

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3. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Simeon
19:1-9
Js 19:1 And the second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of the children of Simeon, according to their families. And their inheritance was in the amidst of the inheritance of the children of Judah.
Js 19:2 aAnd they had for their inheritance Beer-sheba, or Sheba, and Moladah
Js 19:3 And Hazar-shual and Balah and Ezem
Js 19:4 And Eltolad and Bethul and Hormah
Js 19:5 And Ziklag and Beth-marcaboth and Hazar-susah
Js 19:6 And Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen: thirteen cities with their villages.
Js 19:7 Ain, Rimmon, and Ether, and Ashan: four cities with their villages.
Js 19:8 And all the villages which were around these cities as far as Baalath-beer, that is, Ramah of the Negev. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families.
Js 19:9 Out of the portion of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon because the portion of the children of Judah was too large for them; thus the children of Simeon received an inheritance in the amidst of their inheritance.
4. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Zebulun
19:10-16
Js 19:10 And the third lot came up for the children of aZebulun according to their families. And the border of their inheritance was as far as Sarid;
Js 19:11 And their border went up to the west, even to Maralah, and reached Dabbesheth; and it reached the brook that is before Jokneam.
Js 19:12 And it turned from Sarid eastward toward the rising of the sun to the border of Chisloth-tabor, and went to Daberath and up to Japhia;
Js 19:13 And from there it passed eastward toward the rising of the sun to Gath-hepher, to Eth-kazin, and went to Rimmon, where it turned to Neah;
Js 19:14 And the border went around from the north to Hannathon; and its end was the valley of Iphtahel,
Js 19:15 With Kattath and Nahalal and Shimron and Idalah and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.
Js 19:16 This was the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.
5. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Issachar
19:17-23
Js 19:17 For Issachar the fourth lot came out, for the children of Issachar according to their families.
Js 19:18 And their territory was Jezreel and Chesulloth and Shunem
Js 19:19 And Hapharaim and Shion and Anaharath
Js 19:20 And Rabbith and Kishion and Ebez
Js 19:21 And Remeth and En-gannim and En-haddah and Beth-pazzez;
Js 19:22 And the border reached aTabor and Shahazumah and Beth-shemesh; and the end of their border was at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.
Js 19:23 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities with their villages.
6. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Asher
19:24-31
Js 19:24 And the fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families.
Js 19:25 And their territory was Helkath and Hali and Beten and Achshaph
Js 19:26 And Allammelech and Amad and Mishal; and it reached aCarmel on the west and Shihor-libnath;
Js 19:27 And it turned toward the rising of the sun to Beth-dagon, and reached Zebulun and the valley of Iphtahel northward to Beth-emek and Neiel, and went to Cabul on the north
Js 19:28 And Ebron and Rehob and Hammon and Kanah as far as Great aSidon;
Js 19:29 And the border turned to Ramah and as far as the fortified city of aTyre; and the border turned to Hosah; and its end was at the sea at the region of Achzib;
Js 19:30 And Ummah and Aphek and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages.
Js 19:31 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.
7. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Naphtali
19:32-39
Js 19:32 For the children of aNaphtali the sixth lot came out, for the children of Naphtali according to their families.
Js 19:33 And their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, and Adami-nekeb and Jabneel unto Lakkum; and its end was the Jordan;
Js 19:34 And the border turned westward to Aznoth-tabor, and went from there to Hukkok, and reached Zebulun on the south, and reached Asher on the west and Judah at the Jordan toward the rising of the sun;
Js 19:35 And the fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath and Chinnereth
Js 19:36 And Adamah and Ramah and aHazor
Js 19:37 And Kedesh and Edrei and En-hazor
Js 19:38 And Iron and Migdal-el, Horem and Beth-anath and Beth-shemesh: nineteen cities with their villages.
Js 19:39 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages.
8. The Land Allotted to the Tribe of Dan
19:40-48
Js 19:40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.
Js 19:41 And the territory of their inheritance was aZorah and Eshtaol and Ir-shemesh
Js 19:42 And Shaalabbin and Aijalon and Ithlah
Js 19:43 And Elon and Timnah and Ekron
Js 19:44 And Eltekeh and Gibbethon and Baalath
Js 19:45 And Jehud and Bene-berak and Gath-rimmon
Js 19:46 And Me-jarkon and Rakkon with the border opposite 1aJapho.
Js 19:47 When the territory of the achildren of Dan was lost to them, the children of Dan went up and fought against 1Leshem; and they took it and struck it with the edge of the sword; and they took possession of it and inhabited it; and they called Leshem Dan, according to the name of Dan their father.
Js 19:48 This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.
9. The Inheritance Given to Joshua
19:49-51
Js 19:49 So they finished distributing the land as inheritances according to its borders. And the children of Israel gave Joshua the son of Nun an inheritance in the midst of them;
Js 19:50 According to the commandment of Jehovah they gave him the city that he asked for, that is, aTimnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the city and dwelt in it.
Js 19:51 These are the inheritances that aEleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel gave as inheritances by lot in bShiloh before Jehovah at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
JOSHUA 20

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G. The Cities of Refuge
20:1-9
1. For the Manslayer Who Kills a Person by Mistake and Unwittingly
vv. 1-6
Js 20:1 Then Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying,
Js 20:2 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Designate the 1acities of refuge, concerning which I spoke to you through Moses,
Js 20:3 So that the manslayer who kills a person by mistake and unwittingly may flee there. And they will be to you as a refuge from the aavenger of blood.
Js 20:4 And he shall flee to one of these cities and stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. And they shall take him into the city to themselves and give him a place; and he shall dwell among them.
Js 20:5 And if the avenger of blood pursues after him, they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, for he struck his neighbor unwittingly and had not hated him previously.
Js 20:6 And ahe shall dwell in that city until he can stand before the assembly for a judgment, until the death of the high priest who is at that time; then the manslayer shall return and enter into his own city and into his own house, into the city from which he fled.
2. Three in Canaan, West of the Jordan
v. 7
Js 20:7 And they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and Kiriath-arba (this is Hebron) in the ahill country of Judah.
3. Three in the Land East of the Jordan
vv. 8-9
Js 20:8 And across the Jordan at Jericho, to the east, they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plain out of the tribe of Reuben and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.
Js 20:9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourned among them, so that anyone who killed a person by mistake might flee there and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the assembly.
JOSHUA 21

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H. The Cities with Their Pasture Lands Allotted to the Levites
21:1-42
1. Claimed by Them at Shiloh and Given to Them by Lot
vv. 1-7
Js 21:1 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites approached aEleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel,
Js 21:2 And they spoke to them in aShiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, Jehovah commanded through Moses that we be given cities to dwell in with their bpasture lands for our cattle.
Js 21:3 So the children of Israel gave the Levites, according to the commandment of Jehovah, these cities with their pasture lands out of their inheritance:
Js 21:4 And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. And to the achildren of Aaron the priest who were of the Levites there went by lot thirteen cities out of the tribe of Judah and out of the tribe of the Simeonites and out of the tribe of Benjamin.
Js 21:5 And to the arest of the children of Kohath there went by lot ten cities out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim and out of the tribe of Dan and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Js 21:6 And to the achildren of Gershon there went by lot thirteen cities out of the families of the tribe of Issachar and out of the tribe of Asher and out of the tribe of Naphtali and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
Js 21:7 To the achildren of Merari according to their families there went twelve cities out of the tribe of Reuben and out of the tribe of Gad and out of the tribe of Zebulun.
2. To the Children of Aaron, One of the Families of the Kohathites
vv. 8-19
Js 21:8 So the children of Israel gave by lot to the Levites these cities with their pasture lands, as Jehovah had commanded through Moses.
Js 21:9 aAnd out of the tribe of the children of Judah and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon they gave these cities, which are here mentioned by name;
Js 21:10 aAnd they went to the children of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites, of the children of Levi; for the first lot was theirs.
Js 21:11 And they gave them Kiriath-arba (Arba was the father of Anak), which is Hebron, in the ahill country of Judah, with its pasture lands around it.
Js 21:12 But the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.
Js 21:13 And to the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the manslayer; and Libnah with its pasture lands
Js 21:14 And Jattir with its pasture lands and Eshtemoa with its pasture lands
Js 21:15 And Holon with its pasture lands and Debir with its pasture lands
Js 21:16 And Ain with its pasture lands and Juttah with its pasture lands and Beth-shemesh with its pasture lands: nine cities out of those two tribes.
Js 21:17 And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its pasture lands, Geba with its pasture lands,
Js 21:18 Anathoth with its pasture lands, and Almon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
3. To the Rest of the Children of Kohath
vv. 20-26
Js 21:20 aAnd as for the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites who remained of the children of Kohath, the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim were given.
Js 21:21 And they gave them Shechem with its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for the manslayer; and Gezer with its pasture lands
Js 21:22 And Kibzaim with its pasture lands and Beth-horon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:23 And out of the tribe of Dan: Eltekeh with its pasture lands, Gibbethon with its pasture lands,
Js 21:24 Aijalon with its pasture lands, Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:25 And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh: Taanach with its pasture lands and Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands: two cities.
Js 21:26 All the cities for the families of the children of Kohath who remained were ten, with their pasture lands.
4. To the Children of Gershon
vv. 27-33
Js 21:27 aAnd to the children of Gershon, one of the families of the Levites, they gave, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the manslayer; and Be-eshterah with its pasture lands: two cities.
Js 21:28 And out of the tribe of Issachar: Kishion with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands,
Js 21:29 Jarmuth with its pasture lands, En-gannim with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:30 And out of the tribe of Asher: Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands,
Js 21:31 Helkath with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:32 And out of the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the manslayer; and Hammoth-dor with its pasture lands and Kartan with its pasture lands: three cities.
Js 21:33 All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities, with their pasture lands.
5. To the Children of Merari
vv. 34-42
Js 21:34 aAnd to the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, they gave Jokneam with its pasture lands and Kartah with its pasture lands,
Js 21:35 Dimnah with its pasture lands, Nahalal with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:36 1And out of the tribe of Reuben: Bezer with its pasture lands and Jahaz with its pasture lands,
Js 21:37 Kedemoth with its pasture lands and Mephaath with its pasture lands: four cities.
Js 21:38 And out of the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the manslayer; and Mahanaim with its pasture lands,
Js 21:39 Heshbon with its pasture lands, Jazer with its pasture lands: four cities in all.
Js 21:40 These were all the cities for the children of Merari according to their families, which remained of the families of the Levites; and their lot was twelve cities.
Js 21:41 All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the children of Israel were aforty-eight cities with their pasture lands.
Js 21:42 Each of these cities had its pasture lands around it; so it was with all these cities.
I. The Fulfillment of Jehovah’s Promise to the Fathers of Israel
21:43-45
Js 21:43 So Jehovah gave Israel all the land that He had asworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and dwelt in it.
Js 21:44 And Jehovah gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And no one among all their enemies could astand before them; Jehovah delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Js 21:45 aNot a word failed of all the good things that Jehovah had spoken to the house of Israel; all came to pass.
JOSHUA 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

J. The Return of the Tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the Half-tribe of Manasseh
to Their Land East of the Jordan
22:1-34
Js 22:1 Then Joshua called the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Js 22:2 And he said to them, You have kept all that Moses the servant of Jehovah acommanded you, and you have listened to my voice in all that I have commanded you.
Js 22:3 You have not forsaken your brothers these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of Jehovah your God.
Js 22:4 And now Jehovah your God has given your brothers arest as He promised them. And now 1turn and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of Jehovah gave you bacross the Jordan.
Js 22:5 However be very careful to perform the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you, to alove Jehovah your God and to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and to cling to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Js 22:6 And Joshua blessed them and sent them away; and they went to their tents.
Js 22:7 Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given an inheritance in Bashan, and to the other half of it Joshua gave an inheritance with their brothers across the Jordan on the west. Furthermore, when Joshua sent them away to their tents and blessed them,
Js 22:8 He spoke to them, saying, Return with many riches to your tents and with very many cattle, with silver and with gold and with bronze and with iron and with very much clothing; adivide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.
Js 22:9 So the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went; and they departed from among the children of Israel out of aShiloh, which was in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they had taken possession of according to the commandment of Jehovah through Moses.
Js 22:10 And when they came into the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an 1altar there at the Jordan, an altar great in appearance.
Js 22:11 And the children of Israel heard the report, which said, Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar out in front of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan, on the side of the children of Israel.
Js 22:12 And when the children of Israel heard this, all the assembly of the children of Israel agathered together at Shiloh to go up in battle against them.
Js 22:13 And the children of Israel sent aPhinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead,
Js 22:14 And with him ten leaders, one aleader each to a fathers’ house of all the tribes of Israel; and they were each the head of their fathers’ houses among the thousands of Israel.
Js 22:15 And they went to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead and spoke to them, saying,
Js 22:16 Thus says all the assembly of Jehovah, What is this trespass that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning this day from following after Jehovah by building yourselves an aaltar to rebel against Jehovah this day?
Js 22:17 Was the iniquity of aPeor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves unto this day, though there was a plague upon the assembly of Jehovah,
Js 22:18 That you have turned this day from following after Jehovah? And now, if you rebel against Jehovah this day, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole assembly of Israel.
Js 22:19 But if the land of your possession is unclean, cross over into the land of the possession of Jehovah, awhere Jehovah’s tabernacle dwells, and take a possession in the midst of us. But do not rebel against Jehovah, nor rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar besides the altar of Jehovah our God.
Js 22:20 Did not aAchan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the matter of the devoted thing? But there was wrath upon the whole assembly of Israel, and that one man did not perish alone for his iniquity.
Js 22:21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and said to the heads of the thousands of Israel,
Js 22:22 The Mighty One, God Jehovah; the Mighty One, God Jehovah; He aknows, and may Israel itself know, whether it was in rebellion, or whether it was in trespass against Jehovah — may You not save us today —
Js 22:23 That we built an altar for ourselves to turn away from following after Jehovah; or if we did so to offer burnt offerings and meal offerings upon it or to make sacrifices of peace offerings upon it, may Jehovah Himself require it.
Js 22:24 But truly we have done this for a reason and out of a concern that in the future your achildren might speak to our children, saying, What have you to do with Jehovah the God of Israel?
Js 22:25 For Jehovah has made the Jordan a border between us and you, O children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no portion in Jehovah. Thus your children would cause our children to cease fearing Jehovah.
Js 22:26 Therefore we said, Let us now take action to build the altar, though not for burnt offering or for sacrifice;
Js 22:27 But it will be a awitness between us and between you, and between our generations after us, that we may do the service of Jehovah bbefore Him with our burnt offerings and our sacrifices and our peace offerings, and that your children may not say in the future to our children, You have no portion in Jehovah.
Js 22:28 And we said, When they say this to us and to our generations in the future, we will say, Look at the copy of the altar of Jehovah that our fathers made, though not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and you.
Js 22:29 Far be it from us that we would rebel against Jehovah and turn away today from following after Jehovah by building an altar for burnt offering, for meal offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar of Jehovah our God, which is before His tabernacle!
Js 22:30 And when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the assembly and the heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it seemed good in their sight.
Js 22:31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh, Today we know that Jehovah is in the amidst of us, because you have not committed this trespass against Jehovah. Now you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of Jehovah.
Js 22:32 So Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the children of Reuben and the children of Gad, from the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel; and they brought back word to them.
Js 22:33 And the matter seemed good in the sight of the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God and never spoke again of going up in battle against them to destroy the land in which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad dwelt.
Js 22:34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad named the altar; for, they said, it is a awitness between us that Jehovah is God.
JOSHUA 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

IV. Joshua’s Departure
23:1 — 24:33
A. Joshua’s Parting Word to the Elders, Heads, Judges, and Officers of Israel
23:1-16
Js 23:1 And many days after Jehovah had given Israel arest from all their enemies around them and Joshua was bold and advanced in age,
Js 23:2 Joshua acalled for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers; and he said to them, I am old and advanced in age;
Js 23:3 And you have aseen all that Jehovah your God has done to all these nations because of you, for it was Jehovah your God who bfought for you.
Js 23:4 See, I have aallotted to you all these nations that remain as an inheritance for your tribes, as well as all the nations that I cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun.
Js 23:5 And Jehovah your God, He will athrust them out before you and dispossess them out of your sight; and you will bpossess their land, as Jehovah your God spoke to you.
Js 23:6 Therefore be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, not turning away from it to the right or to the left,
Js 23:7 And not going unto these nations, these that remain with you; neither shall you make amention of the names of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow down to them;
Js 23:8 But you shall acling to Jehovah your God, as you have done to this day.
Js 23:9 For Jehovah has adispossessed great and strong nations because of you; but as for you, no one has stood before you to this day.
Js 23:10 One man of you achases a thousand, for it is Jehovah your God who bfights for you, as He has spoken to you.
Js 23:11 Be very careful therefore for yourselves, that you 1love Jehovah your God.
Js 23:12 But if you do indeed turn back and cling to the remainder of these nations, these that remain with you, and amarry into them, and go among them and they among you;
Js 23:13 Know for certain that Jehovah your God will no longer adispossess these nations out of your sight, but they will become a snare and a trap to you, and a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that Jehovah your God has given you.
Js 23:14 And now today I am agoing the way of all the earth; and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not a word has bfailed of all the good things that Jehovah your God spoke concerning you. All has come to pass for you; not one word of it has failed.
Js 23:15 But just as all the good things that Jehovah your God spoke concerning you have come upon you, so will Jehovah cause all the aevil things to come upon you, until He has destroyed you from this good land that Jehovah your God has given you.
Js 23:16 When you transgress the covenant of Jehovah your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them, the anger of Jehovah will burn against you, and you will aperish quickly from the good land that He has given you.
JOSHUA 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

B. Joshua’s Parting Word to All the Tribes of Israel with Their Elders, Heads, Judges, and Officers
24:1-33
Js 24:1 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; and he called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.
Js 24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt across the 1River long ago, aTerah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods.
Js 24:3 And I took your father aAbraham from across the River and brought him throughout all the land of bCanaan; and I multiplied his seed and gave him cIsaac.
Js 24:4 And I gave aJacob and Esau to Isaac. And I gave bMount Seir to Esau, that he might possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down into cEgypt.
Js 24:5 And I asent Moses and Aaron, and I bplagued Egypt by what I did in the midst of it; and afterward I cbrought you out.
Js 24:6 And I brought your fathers out from Egypt, and you came to the asea; and the Egyptians bpursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen unto the Red Sea.
Js 24:7 And when they acried out to Jehovah, He put deep bdarkness between you and the Egyptians; and He brought the sea upon them and ccovered them. And your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. And you dwelt in the dwilderness for many days.
Js 24:8 And I brought you into the aland of the Amorites, who dwelt beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land; and I destroyed them before you.
Js 24:9 Then aBalak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel; and he sent men and called for bBalaam the son of Beor to curse you.
Js 24:10 But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he altogether ablessed you, and I delivered you out of his hand.
Js 24:11 And you acrossed over the Jordan and came to bJericho; and the lords of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I gave them into your hand.
Js 24:12 And I sent the ahornet before you, and it drove them out from before you, that is, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your bsword or by your bow.
Js 24:13 And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you did not abuild, and you dwell in them; you eat of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.
Js 24:14 Now therefore fear Jehovah, and aserve Him in sincerity and faithfulness; and put away the gods whom your fathers served across the River and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah.
Js 24:15 And aif it seems wrong in your sight to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, either the gods from across the River, whom your fathers served, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But bas for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.
Js 24:16 And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we would forsake Jehovah to serve other gods;
Js 24:17 For Jehovah our God is the One who brought us and our fathers out from the land of Egypt, from the aslave house, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed;
Js 24:18 And Jehovah adrove out all the peoples from before us, that is, the Amorites who inhabit the land. We also will serve Jehovah, for He is our God.
Js 24:19 Then Joshua said to the people, You are not able to serve Jehovah, for He is a aholy God. He is a bjealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.
Js 24:20 If you forsake Jehovah and serve foreign gods, He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.
Js 24:21 And the people said to Joshua, No; but we will serve Jehovah.
Js 24:22 Then Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Jehovah on your own, to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses.
Js 24:23 Now therefore aput away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to Jehovah the God of Israel.
Js 24:24 And the people said to Joshua, Jehovah our God we will serve, and to His voice we will listen.
Js 24:25 So Joshua made a acovenant for the people that day, and he made a statute and an ordinance for them in Shechem.
Js 24:26 And Joshua awrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a great bstone and erected it there under the terebinth that was at the sanctuary of Jehovah.
Js 24:27 And Joshua said to all the people, This stone here shall be as a awitness against us; for it has heard all the words of Jehovah, which He has spoken to us; and it shall be as a witness against you, lest you act deceptively against your God.
Js 24:28 Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
Js 24:29 aAnd after these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.
Js 24:30 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Js 24:31 aAnd Israel served Jehovah throughout all the days of Joshua and throughout all the days of the elders whose days extended after Joshua’s and who knew all the work of Jehovah that He had done for Israel.
Js 24:32 And Joseph’s abones, which the children of Israel had brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem, in the portion of the field that Jacob had bbought from the children of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money; and 1it became the cinheritance of the children of Joseph.
Js 24:33 And aEleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in 1the hill of Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.
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JUDGES

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Probably Samuel.
Time of Writing: The eleventh century B.C.
Place of the Record: Canaan.
Time Period Covered: About 305 years, from about 1425 B.C. to 1120 B.C., from after Joshua’s death (1:1) to the death of Samson (16:30-31; cf. Acts 13:19-20).
Subject:
Israel’s Forsaking God, Suffering Defeat by Their Enemies, and Becoming Rotten
JUDGES 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

I. Israel’s Trusting in God
1:1 — 2:5
A. Judah’s Boldness and Victory
1:1-21
Jg 1:1 1And after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel 2ainquired of Jehovah, saying, Who will go up for us bfirst against the Canaanites, in order to fight against them?
Jg 1:2 And Jehovah said, aJudah shall go up. I have now given the land into his hand.
Jg 1:3 And Judah said to aSimeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, and we will fight against the Canaanites; and I will go also with you into your lot. And Simeon went with him.
Jg 1:4 So Judah went up, and Jehovah gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they struck ten thousand of their men in Bezek.
Jg 1:5 And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought with him; and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Jg 1:6 And Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him and caught him, and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes.
Jg 1:7 And Adoni-bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off gleaned scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
Jg 1:8 And the children of Judah fought against aJerusalem, and they took it and struck it with the edge of the sword; and they set the city on fire.
Jg 1:9 And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who inhabited the hill country and the Negev and the lowland.
Jg 1:10 aThen Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba.) And they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
Jg 1:11 And he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher.)
Jg 1:12 And Caleb said, Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and takes it, I will give to him Achsah my daughter as wife.
Jg 1:13 Then aOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.
Jg 1:14 And when she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for the field. And she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you want?
Jg 1:15 And she said to him, Give me a blessing, for you have given me land in the Negev; give me also springs of water. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Jg 1:16 And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is to the south of Arad. And they went and dwelt with the people.
Jg 1:17 Then Judah went with Simeon his brother and struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath; and they 1utterly destroyed it. And they called the name of the city 2Hormah.
Jg 1:18 And Judah took Gaza and its territory and Ashkelon and its territory and Ekron and its territory.
Jg 1:19 And Jehovah was awith Judah. And they took possession of the hill country, but they could not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, for they had chariots of iron.
Jg 1:20 And they gave Hebron to aCaleb, as Moses had spoken; and he dispossessed the three sons of 1Anak from there.
Jg 1:21 1But the aJebusites, who dwelt in Jerusalem, the children of Benjamin did not dispossess; thus the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
B. The House of Joseph Going Up to Fight against Bethel, Jehovah Being with Them,
and They Striking the People of the City with Their Sword
1:22-26
Jg 1:22 And the house of Joseph, they also, went up against Bethel; and Jehovah was awith them.
Jg 1:23 And the house of Joseph spied out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly aLuz.)
Jg 1:24 And those who watched saw a man coming out of the city; and they said to him, Show us now the entrance of the city, and we will show mercy to you.
Jg 1:25 And he showed them the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go.
Jg 1:26 And the man went into the land of the Hittites; and he built a city and called its name Luz, which is its name unto this day.
C. Some Defects
1:27-36
Jg 1:27 aAnd Manasseh did not dispossess Beth-shean with its towns or Taanach with its towns or the inhabitants of Dor with its towns or the inhabitants of Ibleam with its towns or the inhabitants of Megiddo with its towns, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.
Jg 1:28 And when Israel became strong, they made the Canaanites aforced labor; but they did not utterly dispossess them.
Jg 1:29 aAnd Ephraim did not dispossess the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt among them in Gezer.
Jg 1:30 Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol, but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became forced labor.
Jg 1:31 Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon and Ahlab and Achzib and Helbah and Aphik and Rehob;
Jg 1:32 But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites who inhabited the land, for they did not dispossess them.
Jg 1:33 Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth-anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites who inhabited the land. Yet the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.
Jg 1:34 And the Amorites pushed the children of aDan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down into the valley.
Jg 1:35 And the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed so that they became forced labor.
Jg 1:36 And the border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.
JUDGES 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

D. The Admonition of the Angel of Jehovah
(Christ as the Acting Jehovah in the Old Testament to Take Care of Israel)
2:1-5
Jg 2:1 Then the 1aAngel of Jehovah went up from bGilgal to Bochim. And He said, I caused you to cgo up out from Egypt, and I brought you into the land that I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break My dcovenant with you,
Jg 2:2 And you shall not make a acovenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars. But you did not listen to My voice. What is this that you have done?
Jg 2:3 Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they will be like athorns in your sides, and their gods will be a bsnare to you.
Jg 2:4 And when the Angel of Jehovah had spoken these words to all the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept.
Jg 2:5 And they called the name of that place 1Bochim. And they offered to Jehovah there.
II. Israel’s Forsaking of God
(Comprising Their Suffering of Defeats, Their Repentance, and God’s Deliverance)
2:6 — 16:31
A. The Reason for Israel’s Forsaking of God
2:6-10
Jg 2:6 aNow when Joshua sent the people away, each of the children of Israel went to his own inheritance to possess the land.
Jg 2:7 And the people aserved Jehovah throughout all the days of Joshua and throughout all the days of the elders whose days extended after Joshua’s and who saw all the great work of Jehovah that He had done for Israel.
Jg 2:8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, adied at the age of one hundred and ten years.
Jg 2:9 And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in 1aTimnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Jg 2:10 And all that generation as well were gathered to their fathers; and another generation, who did anot know Jehovah or the work that He had done for Israel, rose up after them.
B. The Cycle of the Miserable History of Israel’s Forsaking of God
2:11-20
Jg 2:11 And the children of Israel did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and aserved the Baals.
Jg 2:12 And they 1aforsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out from the land of Egypt; and they bfollowed after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who surrounded them; and they worshipped them and provoked Jehovah to anger.
Jg 2:13 And they forsook Jehovah and served aBaal and the Ashtaroth.
Jg 2:14 Then the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He adelivered them into the hands of plunderers; and they plundered them. And He bsold them into the hand of their enemies around them, and they were no longer able to stand before their enemies.
Jg 2:15 Whenever they went out, the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah ahad spoken and as Jehovah had sworn to them; and they were greatly distressed.
Jg 2:16 And Jehovah raised up ajudges, and they bsaved them out of the hands of those who plundered them.
Jg 2:17 Yet they did not listen to their judges either, but they went about as aharlots after other gods and worshipped them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, the way of obeying the commandments of Jehovah; this they did not do.
Jg 2:18 And when Jehovah raised up judges for them, Jehovah was awith the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies throughout all the days of the judge; for Jehovah would be moved to pity by their bgroaning because of those who oppressed them and crushed them.
Jg 2:19 But when the judge adied, they turned and acted more corruptly than their fathers by following after other gods in order to serve them and worship them; they did not cease from any of their practices or from their stubborn way.
Jg 2:20 And the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel; and He said, Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and they do not listen to My voice,
C. Jehovah’s Testing of Israel
2:21 — 3:6
Jg 2:21 I for My part will no longer adispossess from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
Jg 2:22 In order to atest Israel through them as to whether or not they will keep the way of Jehovah by walking in 1it, as their fathers kept it.
Jg 2:23 So Jehovah left these nations, not dispossessing them quickly, and did not deliver them into the hand of Joshua.
JUDGES 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

Jg 3:1 And these are the nations that Jehovah left in order that through them He might atest Israel (that is, all who had not known all the battles of Canaan),
Jg 3:2 But only so that the generations of the children of Israel might learn to know war, at least those who had not previously known 1the battles:
Jg 3:3 The afive lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
Jg 3:4 And they were for the testing of Israel, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Jehovah, which He commanded their fathers through Moses.
Jg 3:5 And the children of Israel 1dwelt among the aCanaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Jg 3:6 And they atook their daughters as their wives and gave their own daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.
D. The First Cycle, through Othniel
3:7-11a
Jg 3:7 And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and they forgot Jehovah their God and aserved the Baals and the Asherahs.
Jg 3:8 Therefore the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He asold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim the king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.
Jg 3:9 Then the children of Israel acried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah raised up a savior for the children of Israel, who bsaved them, that is, cOthniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
Jg 3:10 And the aSpirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to battle, and Jehovah delivered Cushan-rishathaim the king of Aram into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.
Jg 3:11 And the land had arest forty years.
E. The Second Cycle, through Ehud and Shamgar
3:11b-31
And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
Jg 3:12 Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. And Jehovah strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
Jg 3:13 And he gathered the children of Ammon and aAmalek to himself and went and struck Israel, and they took possession of the city of palms.
Jg 3:14 And the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
Jg 3:15 Then the children of Israel acried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah raised up a bsavior for them, that is, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a cleft-handed man. Now the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon the king of Moab by him.
Jg 3:16 And Ehud made himself a dagger that had two edges, a cubit long. And he strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes.
Jg 3:17 And he presented the tribute to Eglon the king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)
Jg 3:18 And when he finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute.
Jg 3:19 But he himself returned from the sculptured idols at Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he said, Hush. And all those who attended to him went out from him.
Jg 3:20 And when Ehud came to him, he was sitting alone in his cool upper room. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he rose up from his seat.
Jg 3:21 And Ehud reached with his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh, and he drove it into his belly.
Jg 3:22 And the hilt also went in, after the blade; and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger from his belly. And he went out into the courtyard.
Jg 3:23 Then Ehud went out onto the porch, and he closed the doors of the upper room on 1Eglon and locked them.
Jg 3:24 And when he had gone out, 1Eglon’s servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, He must be relieving himself in the cool chamber.
Jg 3:25 And they waited until they were ashamed, but still he was not opening the doors of the upper room. Then they took the key and opened them. And there was their lord, fallen to the ground dead.
Jg 3:26 And Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed by the sculptured idols and escaped to Seirah.
Jg 3:27 And when he arrived, he blew the horn in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came down with him from the hill country, and he was before them.
Jg 3:28 And he said to them, Follow closely after me, for Jehovah has adelivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites; and they let no man cross over.
Jg 3:29 And they struck about ten thousand Moabites at that time, all stout and all valiant men; and no man escaped.
Jg 3:30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had arest eighty years.
Jg 3:31 And after him there was aShamgar the son of Anath, who struck six hundred Philistines with an ox goad; and he also bsaved Israel.
JUDGES 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

F. The Third Cycle, through Deborah
4:1 — 5:31
Jg 4:1 Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah after Ehud died.
Jg 4:2 And Jehovah asold them into the hand of Jabin the king of Canaan, who reigned in bHazor. And the captain of his army was cSisera, who dwelt at Harosheth-hagoyim.
Jg 4:3 And the children of Israel acried out to Jehovah, for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the children of Israel severely twenty years.
Jg 4:4 Now 1Deborah was a aprophetess, the wife of Lappidoth. She judged Israel at that time.
Jg 4:5 And she would sit under the palm of Deborah, between aRamah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. And the children of Israel went up to her for judgment.
Jg 4:6 And she sent word and called to aBarak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, Jehovah the God of Israel has indeed commanded: Go and deploy your forces on Mount bTabor; and take with you ten thousand men from the children of Naphtali and from the children of Zebulun.
Jg 4:7 And I will draw out Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his throng, toward you at the river Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand.
Jg 4:8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go.
Jg 4:9 And she said, I will surely go with you. However there will be no glory for you on the journey you are taking, for Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah rose up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Jg 4:10 And Barak called aZebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up behind him; and Deborah went up with him.
Jg 4:11 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the children of aHobab the father-in-law of Moses. And he pitched his tent at the terebinth in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
Jg 4:12 And they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam went up to Mount Tabor.
Jg 4:13 And Sisera called all his chariots — nine hundred iron chariots — and all the people who were with him from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon.
Jg 4:14 And Deborah said to Barak, Rise up, for this is the day when Jehovah will deliver Sisera into your hand. Jehovah has indeed gone out abefore you. So Barak went bdown from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men after him.
Jg 4:15 And Jehovah threw aSisera and all his chariots and all his army into confusion with the edge of the sword before Barak, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
Jg 4:16 But Barak pursued after the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim. And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not even one was left.
Jg 4:17 Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of aJael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there had been peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
Jg 4:18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera; and she said to him, Turn here, my lord; turn here to me; do not be afraid. So he turned to her into her tent, and she covered him with a rug.
Jg 4:19 And he said to her, Give me please a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And she opened a skin of amilk and gave him a drink; then she covered him.
Jg 4:20 And he said to her, Stand at the entrance of the tent; and if anyone comes and asks you, saying, Is there a man here? you shall say, No.
Jg 4:21 Then Jael the wife of Heber took a atent peg and put a hammer in her hand and went quietly to him. And she drove the peg into his temple, and it pierced through to the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. And he died.
Jg 4:22 And Barak was at that moment pursuing Sisera when Jael came out to meet him. And she said to him, Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking. And he went with her; and there was Sisera, fallen dead with the peg in his temple.
Jg 4:23 So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
Jg 4:24 And the hand of the children of Israel became heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan until they destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan.
JUDGES 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

(The Song of Deborah and Barak)
5:1-31
Jg 5:1 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:
Jg 5:2 That the leaders took the lead in Israel, / That the people have willingly offered themselves, / Bless Jehovah.
Jg 5:3 Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes! / I will sing; I, to Jehovah. / I will sing praise to Jehovah / The God of Israel.
Jg 5:4 aO Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, / When You marched from the field of Edom, / The earth trembled, the heavens also dripped, / Indeed the clouds dripped water.
Jg 5:5 The mountains quaked at the presence of Jehovah, / Sinai there, at the presence of Jehovah the God of Israel.
Jg 5:6 In the days of aShamgar the son of Anath, / In the days of Jael, the highways were not used; / And travelers went / On the roundabout paths.
Jg 5:7 The villages ceased to act; / They ceased in Israel; / Until 1I, Deborah, rose up; / Until I rose up as a mother in Israel.
Jg 5:8 They chose new gods; / Then there was war in their gates. / Was a shield or a spear seen / Among forty thousand in Israel?
Jg 5:9 My heart is with the commanders of Israel, / Those who offered themselves willingly among the people. / Bless Jehovah!
Jg 5:10 Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, / You who sit on rich carpets, / And you who go upon the way.
Jg 5:11 Louder than the voice of those who distribute water among the watering places, / There they recount the righteous deeds of Jehovah, / His righteous acts toward His villages in Israel. / Then the people of Jehovah went down to the gates.
Jg 5:12 aAwake! Awake, Deborah! / Awake! Awake, speak forth a song! / Arise, Barak; / And lead bcaptive your captives, son of Abinoam.
Jg 5:13 Then a remnant of the nobles went down; / The people of Jehovah went adown with me against the mighty:
Jg 5:14 From Ephraim, those who took root in Amalek; / Following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; / From Machir commanders came down, / And from Zebulun those who wielded the staff of him who marshals.
Jg 5:15 And the princes in Issachar were with Deborah; / And Issachar was true to Barak; / Into the valley they were sent behind him. / Among the divisions of Reuben / There were great resolutions in heart.
Jg 5:16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds / Listening to the pipings for the flocks? / In the divisions of Reuben / There were great searchings of heart.
Jg 5:17 Gilead stayed across the Jordan. / And as for Dan, why did he remain with the ships? / Asher sat at the shore of the sea / And stayed at his landings.
Jg 5:18 aZebulun was a people that despised their own lives even unto death; / And Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
Jg 5:19 The kings came; they fought. / At that time the kings of Canaan fought / In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; / They took no gain of silver.
Jg 5:20 From heaven the stars fought; / From their courses they fought with Sisera.
Jg 5:21 The river Kishon swept them away, / The ancient river, the river Kishon. / March on, O my soul, with strength!
Jg 5:22 At that time the horse hooves stamped / With the prancing, the prancing of their mighty steeds.
Jg 5:23 Curse Meroz, says the aAngel of Jehovah; / Bitterly curse its inhabitants. / For they bdid not come to the aid of Jehovah, / To the aid of Jehovah against the mighty.
Jg 5:24 aBlessed among women shall bJael be, / The wife of Heber the Kenite; / Blessed among the women in the tent shall she be.
Jg 5:25 He asked for water; she gave him amilk. / In a bowl for nobles she presented him with cream.
Jg 5:26 She put her hand to the atent peg, / And her right hand to the workman’s hammer; / Then she struck Sisera; she smashed his head; / Indeed she shattered and pierced his temples.
Jg 5:27 At her feet he bowed; he fell; he lay down. / At her feet he bowed; he fell. / Where he bowed, there he fell, destroyed.
Jg 5:28 Through the window one looks forth and cries shrilly; / The mother of Sisera, through the lattice: / Why is his chariot so long in coming? / Why do the tracks of his chariots delay?
Jg 5:29 The wisest of her ladies answer her, / And she herself returns an answer to herself:
Jg 5:30 Have they not found and divided the spoil? / A girl, two girls, to 1each mighty man. / The spoil of dyed garments to Sisera, / The spoil of embroidered, dyed garments; / A dyed embroidery, two embroideries, / For the neck of the spoiler.
Jg 5:31 May all Your enemies so aperish, O Jehovah. / But may those who love Him be like the bsun / When it rises in its cmight.
And the land had drest forty years.
JUDGES 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

G. The Fourth Cycle, through Gideon
6:1 — 8:32
Jg 6:1 Then the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah adelivered them into the hand of bMidian for seven years.
Jg 6:2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the children of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains as well as the caves and the strongholds.
Jg 6:3 And whenever Israel sowed its seed, Midian rose up with aAmalek and the children of the east, and went up against them.
Jg 6:4 And they encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land until you come to Gaza, and they left no sustenance in Israel, or sheep or ox or donkey.
Jg 6:5 For they went up with their cattle and their tents and came in like a alocust swarm in number; both they and their camels were without number. And they came into the land to destroy it.
Jg 6:6 And Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian. And the children of Israel acried out to Jehovah.
Jg 6:7 And when the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah because of Midian,
Jg 6:8 Jehovah sent a man who was a prophet to the children of Israel. And he said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, It was I who abrought you up out of Egypt and brought you out from the bslave house;
Jg 6:9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you. And I adrove them out before you and gave you their land.
Jg 6:10 And I said to you, I am Jehovah your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you did not listen to My voice.
Jg 6:11 And the 1aAngel of Jehovah came and sat under the terebinth that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while bGideon his son was beating out the wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.
Jg 6:12 And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him and said to him, Jehovah is awith you, valiant warrior.
Jg 6:13 And Gideon said to Him, Please, my lord, if Jehovah is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous deeds that our afathers recount to us, saying, Did not Jehovah bring us up out of Egypt? But now Jehovah has abandoned us and bdelivered us into the hand of Midian.
Jg 6:14 Then 1Jehovah turned to him and said, Go in this strength of yours, and asave Israel from the hand of Midian. Indeed I have bsent you.
Jg 6:15 And he said to Him, Please, Lord, by what way can aI save Israel? My clan here is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the bleast in my father’s house.
Jg 6:16 And Jehovah said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you will strike the Midianites as one man.
Jg 6:17 And he said to Him, If now I have found favor in Your sight, perform a sign for me that it is You who are speaking with me.
Jg 6:18 aDo not depart from here until I come to You and bring my present and set it before You. And He said, I will remain until you return.
Jg 6:19 So Gideon went and prepared a kid and an ephah of flour in unleavened cakes. He put the flesh in a basket and put the broth in a pot, and he brought it out to Him under the terebinth. And he presented it.
Jg 6:20 And the 1Angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock; and pour out the broth. And he did so.
Jg 6:21 And the Angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in His hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And afire came up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the Angel of Jehovah went from his sight.
Jg 6:22 And Gideon saw that He was the Angel of Jehovah. And Gideon said, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! For I have aseen the Angel of Jehovah face to face.
Jg 6:23 And Jehovah said to him, Peace be with you. aDo not be afraid; you shall not die.
Jg 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there to Jehovah, and he called it 1aJehovah-shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Jg 6:25 And that night Jehovah said to him, Take your father’s bull, that is, the second bull, seven years old; and atear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the 1Asherah that is beside it.
Jg 6:26 And build an altar to Jehovah your God upon the top of this stronghold in the ordered manner. Then take that second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you will cut down.
Jg 6:27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and 1did as Jehovah had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father’s house and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it at night.
Jg 6:28 And when the men of the city rose up early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, broken down; and the Asherah beside it was cut down. And the second bull had been offered upon the altar that had been built.
Jg 6:29 And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after they inquired and sought about, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
Jg 6:30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.
Jg 6:31 And Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death while it is still morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself; for his altar has been broken down.
Jg 6:32 Therefore on that day he named 1Gideon 2aJerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, for he has broken down his altar.
Jg 6:33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east gathered together, and they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
Jg 6:34 And the aSpirit of Jehovah clothed Gideon; and he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called up behind him.
Jg 6:35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they were also called up behind him. And he sent messengers throughout Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
Jg 6:36 And Gideon said to God, If indeed You will save Israel through my hand, as You have said,
Jg 6:37 I am laying here a fleece of wool on the threshing floor: If there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground, I will know that You will save Israel through my hand, as You have said.
Jg 6:38 And so it happened. When he rose up early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung dew from the fleece, a bowlful of water.
Jg 6:39 Then Gideon said to God, aMay Your anger not burn against me, but allow me to speak only this one time. Allow me to make this test with the fleece only this one time. Let it be dry on the fleece only, and let there be dew on all the ground.
Jg 6:40 And God did so that night, so that it was dry on the fleece only and there was dew on all the ground.
JUDGES 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Jg 7:1 Then aJerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was to their north, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
Jg 7:2 And Jehovah said to Gideon, The people with you are 1too many for Me to deliver Midian into their hand; Israel might avaunt himself against Me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
Jg 7:3 Now then proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever is aafraid and trembling should return and depart from 1here. And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
Jg 7:4 Then Jehovah said to Gideon, The people are still too amany. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And he of whom I say to you, This one shall go with you, he shall go with you. And every one of whom I say to you, This one shall not go with you, he shall not go.
Jg 7:5 So he brought the people down to the water. And Jehovah said to Gideon, Everyone who 1laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.
Jg 7:6 And the number of those who lapped the water into their mouth with their hand was three hundred men, but the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water.
Jg 7:7 And Jehovah said to Gideon, Through the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and I will deliver Midian into your hand. But let all the other people go, each to his own place.
Jg 7:8 Then the people took provisions in their hand and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel away, each to his own tent, but retained the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
Jg 7:9 And that night Jehovah said to him, Arise; go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
Jg 7:10 But if you are afraid to go down, go down with Purah your young man into the camp;
Jg 7:11 And you will hear what they are saying. Then afterward your hands will be strengthened so that you can go down against the camp. So he went down with Purah his young man to the edge of the battle array that was in the camp.
Jg 7:12 Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay in the valley like a alocust swarm in multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand on the seashore is in multitude.
Jg 7:13 And when Gideon came, at that moment a man was recounting a dream to his companion; and he said, I have just had a dream. There was this round loaf of barley bread tumbling through the camp of Midian. And it came to the tent and struck it, so that it fell and turned upside down. And the tent collapsed.
Jg 7:14 And his companion answered and said, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his hand.
Jg 7:15 And when Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for Jehovah has adelivered the camp of Midian into your hand.
Jg 7:16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies; and he put trumpets into the hands of them all, as well as empty pitchers, with torches inside the pitchers.
Jg 7:17 And he said to them, Look at me, and do as I do. Right when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do just as I do.
Jg 7:18 When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, you also blow the trumpets around all the camp and say, For Jehovah and for Gideon!
Jg 7:19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. They had just then posted the watch. And they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.
Jg 7:20 And the three companies blew the trumpets and shattered the pitchers; and they held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets were in their right hands to blow. And they cried out, A sword for Jehovah and for Gideon!
Jg 7:21 And each man stood in his place around the camp. Then the whole camp ran off, and they shouted and fled.
Jg 7:22 And they blew the three hundred atrumpets, and Jehovah set each man’s bsword against his companion and against the whole camp. And the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
Jg 7:23 And the men of Israel were called up from Naphtali and from Asher and from all of Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.
Jg 7:24 Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and seize the waters against them as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. And every man of Ephraim was called up, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.
Jg 7:25 And they captured two princes of Midian, aOreb and Zeeb. And they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the wine press of Zeeb; and they pursued Midian. And they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.
JUDGES 8

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Jg 8:1 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you done this thing to us, that you did anot call us when you went to battle against Midian? And they contended with him sharply.
Jg 8:2 And he said to them, What have I done now to compare with you? Are not the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
Jg 8:3 It was into your hand that God gave the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their hostile spirit toward him asubsided when he said this word.
Jg 8:4 Then Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the three hundred men with him, weary yet pursuing.
Jg 8:5 And he said to the men of Succoth, Please give us loaves of bread for the people behind me, for they are weary and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.
Jg 8:6 But the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give bread to your army?
Jg 8:7 And Gideon said, Because of this, when Jehovah does deliver Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will trample your flesh on the thorns of the wilderness and the briers.
Jg 8:8 Then he went up from there to aPenuel and spoke to them in the same way; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.
Jg 8:9 And he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I return in peace, I will break down this tower.
Jg 8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their camps were with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of the entire camp of the children of the east; for there had fallen one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword.
Jg 8:11 And Gideon went up by way of the tent dwellers, east of Nobah and Jogbehah; and he struck the camp when the camp was off guard.
Jg 8:12 And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued after them. And he captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and threw all the camp into confusion.
Jg 8:13 And when Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle from the ascent of Heres,
Jg 8:14 He captured a young man from among the men of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the princes of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.
Jg 8:15 Then he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, aAre the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?
Jg 8:16 And he took the elders of the city and the thorns of the wilderness and the briers, and with them he 1trampled the men of Succoth.
Jg 8:17 And he broke down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.
Jg 8:18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What were the men whom you slew in Tabor like? And they said, As you are, so were they. Each one was like the children of a king in form.
Jg 8:19 And he said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Jehovah lives, if you had kept them alive, I would not slay you.
Jg 8:20 And he said to Jether his firstborn, Rise up; slay them. But the youth would not draw his sword, because he was fearful; for he was still a youth.
Jg 8:21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, You rise up, and fall on us; for there is as much strength as there is man. And Gideon rose up and slew aZebah and Zalmunna. And he took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
Jg 8:22 And the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson as well; for you have asaved us from the hand of Midian.
Jg 8:23 But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Jehovah will arule over you.
Jg 8:24 And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil. 1(The Midianites had golden earrings, for they were Ishmaelites.)
Jg 8:25 And they said, We will willingly give it. And they spread out a garment, and each of them threw an earring from his spoil there.
Jg 8:26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold. This was besides the crescents and the pendants and the purple garments that were upon the kings of Midian and besides the chains that were on their camels’ necks.
Jg 8:27 And Gideon made an aephod with it and placed it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel went as bharlots to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his house.
Jg 8:28 So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had arest forty years in the days of Gideon.
Jg 8:29 Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his house.
Jg 8:30 And Gideon had aseventy sons, the issue of his loins, for he had many wives.
Jg 8:31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him aAbimelech.
Jg 8:32 And Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
H. The Fifth Cycle, through Abimelech, Tola, and Jair
8:33 — 10:5
Jg 8:33 And as soon as Gideon died, the children of Israel turned again and went as 1aharlots after the Baals. And they made Baal-berith their god.
Jg 8:34 And the children of Israel did anot remember Jehovah their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies all around;
Jg 8:35 Nor did they show mercy to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, for all the good he had done to Israel.
JUDGES 9

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Jg 9:1 Then aAbimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers; and he spoke to them and to all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
Jg 9:2 Speak now in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem, What is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, aseventy men, rule over you, or that one man rule over you? Now remember that I am your bone and your flesh.
Jg 9:3 And his mother’s brothers spoke of him in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem with all these words; and their heart inclined toward Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.
Jg 9:4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith. And with it Abimelech hired worthless and wanton men, and they followed after him.
Jg 9:5 And he went to his father’s house in Ophrah and 1slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone; but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, for he ahid himself.
Jg 9:6 Then all the lords of Shechem and all the house of Millo gathered, and they went and made Abimelech king at the terebinth of the pillar that was in Shechem.
Jg 9:7 And when Jotham was told, he went and stood on the top of Mount aGerizim and lifted up his voice and called out and said to them, Listen to me, you lords of Shechem, that God may listen to you.
Jg 9:8 The trees once went forth to anoint a king over themselves. And they said to the 1olive tree, Reign over us.
Jg 9:9 But the olive tree said to them, Shall I leave my afatness, because of which God and men are honored by me, and go to wave over the trees?
Jg 9:10 Then the trees said to the 1fig tree, You come and reign over us.
Jg 9:11 But the afig tree said to them, Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?
Jg 9:12 Then the trees said to the 1vine, You come and reign over us.
Jg 9:13 But the vine said to them, Shall I leave my new awine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?
Jg 9:14 So all the trees said to the bramble, You come and reign over us.
Jg 9:15 And the abramble said to the trees, If you are truly anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge under my shade; but if not, may fire come forth from the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon!
Jg 9:16 Now therefore if you have dealt truly and with integrity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt in a good way toward Jerubbaal and toward his house, and if you have dealt with him as his hands have deserved —
Jg 9:17 (For my father fought for you and risked his life, and he delivered you from the hand of Midian.
Jg 9:18 But you have risen up today against the house of my father and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone; and you have made Abimelech the son of his female servant king over the lords of Shechem, for he is your brother.)
Jg 9:19 Now if you have dealt truly and with integrity toward Jerubbaal and toward his house today, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
Jg 9:20 But if not, may fire come forth from Abimelech and devour the lords of Shechem and the house of Millo, and may fire come forth from the lords of Shechem and the house of Millo and devour Abimelech!
Jg 9:21 And Jotham ran off and fled, and he came to Beer and remained there because of Abimelech his brother.
Jg 9:22 And Abimelech was prince over Israel three years.
Jg 9:23 And God sent an aevil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
Jg 9:24 So that the violence done to the aseventy sons of Jerubbaal 1might be avenged and so that their blood might be put upon Abimelech their brother, who slew them, and upon the lords of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to slay his brothers.
Jg 9:25 And the lords of Shechem set men in ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed everyone who passed by them on the way; and Abimelech was told.
Jg 9:26 And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem, and the lords of Shechem put their trust in him.
Jg 9:27 And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes of their vineyards and trod them, and had a festival. And they went to the house of their god and ate and drank, and they cursed Abimelech.
Jg 9:28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of aHamor, the father of Shechem; but why should we serve 1this man?
Jg 9:29 But, oh, that this people were put in my hand; then I would remove Abimelech. And he said of Abimelech, Increase your army and come out!
Jg 9:30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger burned.
Jg 9:31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech in 1Tormah, saying, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have now come to Shechem, and now they are stirring up the city against you.
Jg 9:32 And now rise up at night, you and the people with you, and wait in ambush in the field;
Jg 9:33 And in the morning, as soon as the sun rises, you shall rise up early and rush on the city. And right when he and the people with him come out against you, you shall do with him as you find occasion.
Jg 9:34 And Abimelech and all the people with him rose up at night and waited in ambush against Shechem in four companies.
Jg 9:35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city. And Abimelech and the people with him rose up from the ambush.
Jg 9:36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. But Zebul said to him, You are seeing the shadow of the mountains as though they were men.
Jg 9:37 And Gaal spoke again and said, Look, people are coming down from the height of the land, and one company is coming by the way of the terebinth of Meonenim.
Jg 9:38 Then Zebul said to him, Where is your boast now, that you said, Who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Is not this the people that you despised? Go out now, and fight them.
Jg 9:39 So Gaal went out before the lords of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.
Jg 9:40 And Abimelech pursued him, and 1Gaal fled from before him. And many wounded fell, up to the entrance of the gate.
Jg 9:41 And Abimelech dwelt in Arumah. And Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, so that they could not dwell in Shechem.
Jg 9:42 Then on the next day the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told.
Jg 9:43 And he took his people and divided them into three companies, and he waited in ambush in the field. And he looked, and there were the people coming out of the city. And he rose up against them and struck them.
Jg 9:44 And Abimelech and the companies that were with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, and two companies rushed upon all those who were in the field and struck them.
Jg 9:45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. And he took the city, and the people who were in it he slew; and he tore down the city and sowed it with salt.
Jg 9:46 And when the lords of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they went to the stronghold of the house of El-berith.
Jg 9:47 And Abimelech was told that all the lords of the tower of Shechem had gathered together.
Jg 9:48 And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a tree limb. And he lifted it up and put it on his shoulder, and he said to the people who were with him, What you see me doing, hurry and do as I have done.
Jg 9:49 So all the people also cut down each a limb. And they followed after Abimelech and set the limbs against the stronghold. And they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.
Jg 9:50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez; and he encamped against Thebez and took it.
Jg 9:51 But there was a strong tower in the middle of the city; and all the men and women and all the lords of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up to the roof of the tower.
Jg 9:52 And Abimelech came up to the tower and fought against it. And he came near the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire.
Jg 9:53 And a certain woman threw an upper amillstone upon Abimelech’s head, and it cracked his skull.
Jg 9:54 Then he called immediately to the young man who bore his armor and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me; otherwise they will say concerning me, A woman slew him. And his young man pierced him through, and he died.
Jg 9:55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they went away, each to his own place.
Jg 9:56 And God repaid the evil of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by slaying his aseventy brothers.
Jg 9:57 And God brought all the evil of the men of Shechem back upon their own heads, and the curse of aJotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.
JUDGES 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Jg 10:1 And after Abimelech Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to asave Israel; and he dwelt in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
Jg 10:2 And he judged Israel twenty-three years, and he died and was buried in Shamir.
Jg 10:3 And after him Jair the Gileadite rose up and judged Israel twenty-two years.
Jg 10:4 And he had thirty sons, who rode on thirty donkeys; and they had thirty cities (they are called aHavvoth-jair to this day), which were in the land of Gilead.
Jg 10:5 And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
I. The Sixth Cycle, through Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon
10:6 — 12:15
Jg 10:6 Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. And they aserved the Baals and the Ashtaroth and the gods of Aram and the gods of Sidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines, and they forsook Jehovah and did not serve Him.
Jg 10:7 And the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He asold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon.
Jg 10:8 And they oppressed and crushed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel who were across the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Jg 10:9 And the children of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was greatly distressed.
Jg 10:10 Then the children of Israel acried out to Jehovah, saying, bWe have sinned against You, for we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.
Jg 10:11 And Jehovah said to the children of Israel, Did I not save you from the aEgyptians and from the bAmorites and from the children of Ammon and from the cPhilistines?
Jg 10:12 And the Sidonians and Amalek and Maon oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hand.
Jg 10:13 But you forsook Me and served other gods; therefore I will not save you again.
Jg 10:14 Go and acry out to the gods that you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress.
Jg 10:15 But the children of Israel said to Jehovah, We have sinned. You do with us according to all that is good in Your sight. Only deliver us this day, we pray.
Jg 10:16 And they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served Jehovah. And His soul could no longer abear Israel’s misery.
Jg 10:17 Then the children of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead, and the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah.
Jg 10:18 And the people, that is, the princes of Gilead, said each to his companion, Who is the man who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
JUDGES 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

Jg 11:1 Now aJephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. And he was the son of a harlot, and Gilead had begotten Jephthah.
Jg 11:2 And Gilead’s wife bore him sons. And when the woman’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, You shall not have an inheritance in the house of our father, for you are the son of some other woman.
Jg 11:3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob. And worthless men collected around Jephthah, and they went out with him.
Jg 11:4 And after some time the children of Ammon fought with Israel.
Jg 11:5 And when the children of Ammon fought with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
Jg 11:6 And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our achief, and we will fight against the children of Ammon.
Jg 11:7 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Are you not the ones who hated me and drove me out from the house of my father? Why then do you come to me now that you are in distress?
Jg 11:8 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, This is the reason we have turned now to you, that you would come with us and fight against the children of Ammon and be for us the ahead of all the inhabitants of Gilead.
Jg 11:9 And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you are bringing me back to fight against the children of Ammon and Jehovah delivers them up before me, will I be your head?
Jg 11:10 And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Let Jehovah be a aWitness between us: As you have spoken, so shall we surely do.
Jg 11:11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah.
Jg 11:12 And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What is there between me and you, that you have come to me to fight against my land?
Jg 11:13 And the king of the children of Ammon said to Jephthah’s messengers, Because Israel took my aland when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as Jabbok and the Jordan. Now therefore restore it peacefully.
Jg 11:14 And Jephthah yet again sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon.
Jg 11:15 And he said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take the land of aMoab nor the land of the children of bAmmon.
Jg 11:16 But when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh,
Jg 11:17 aIsrael sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, May we please pass through your land? But the king of Edom would not hear of it. And they also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not allow it. So Israel remained in Kadesh.
Jg 11:18 And they went through the wilderness and went aaround the land of Edom and the land of Moab; and they went to the beast of the land of Moab and encamped beyond the Arnon. Thus they did not go through the territory of Moab, for the Arnon is the border of Moab.
Jg 11:19 aThen Israel sent messengers to Sihon the king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, May we please pass through your land to our place?
Jg 11:20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to cross through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped in Jahaz; and he fought with Israel.
Jg 11:21 And Jehovah the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. And Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that land.
Jg 11:22 And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
Jg 11:23 So now Jehovah the God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites for the sake of His people Israel. Should you then dispossess them?
Jg 11:24 Will you not take possession of that which Chemosh your god has dispossessed for you? Thus we will take possession of all that Jehovah our God adispossesses for our sake.
Jg 11:25 And now are you any better than aBalak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
Jg 11:26 While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?
Jg 11:27 So I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong in fighting against me. Jehovah the aJudge will judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
Jg 11:28 But the king of the children of Ammon would not listen to the words of Jephthah, which he sent him.
Jg 11:29 And the aSpirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah. And he passed through Gilead and through Manasseh; and he passed on to Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed on to the children of Ammon.
Jg 11:30 And Jephthah made a avow to Jehovah, and he said, If You will really deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
Jg 11:31 Whoever comes out through the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon will be Jehovah’s, and I will offer him up as a burnt offering.
Jg 11:32 And Jephthah passed on to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and Jehovah delivered them into his hand.
Jg 11:33 And he struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and to Abel-keramim, with a very great stroke. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
Jg 11:34 Then Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and there came his daughter out to meet him, with timbrels and with dances. Now she was an only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.
Jg 11:35 And when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, Ah, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me. For I have aopened my mouth to Jehovah, and I cannot retract it.
Jg 11:36 And she said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Jehovah; do with me according to what has gone forth from your mouth, seeing that Jehovah has executed vengeance for you on your enemies, on the children of Ammon.
Jg 11:37 And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: Let me be alone for two months that I may depart and descend upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
Jg 11:38 And he said, Go; and he sent her away for two months. And she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
Jg 11:39 And at the end of two months she returned to her father, and he did with her according to the vow that he had vowed; and she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel
Jg 11:40 That each year the daughters of Israel would go to 1lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.
JUDGES 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

Jg 12:1 Then the amen of Ephraim were gathered together, and they crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight against the children of Ammon and not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you.
Jg 12:2 And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in great strife with the children of Ammon; but when I called out to you, you did not save me from their hand.
Jg 12:3 So when I saw that there would be no help from you, I put my life in my own hand and crossed over to the children of Ammon; and Jehovah delivered them into my hand. So why have you come up against me this day to fight against me?
Jg 12:4 And Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead together and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim because they said, You are fugitives from Ephraim, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Jg 12:5 And the Gileadites took the afords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when a fugitive of Ephraim said, Let me cross over, the men of Gilead would say to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And if he said, No,
Jg 12:6 They would say to him, Then asay, Shibboleth. And he would say, Sibboleth; for he could not say it correctly. Then they would seize him and slay him at the fords of the Jordan. And at that time forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell.
Jg 12:7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
Jg 12:8 Then after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
Jg 12:9 And he had thirty sons; and he sent out thirty daughters abroad and brought in thirty foreign daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
Jg 12:10 And Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.
Jg 12:11 Then after him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel. And he judged Israel ten years.
Jg 12:12 And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
Jg 12:13 Then after him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.
Jg 12:14 And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode upon seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years.
Jg 12:15 And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
JUDGES 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

J. The Seventh Cycle, through Samson
13:1 — 16:31
Jg 13:1 Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah adelivered them into the hand of the bPhilistines cforty years.
Jg 13:2 And there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne ano children.
Jg 13:3 And the 1aAngel of Jehovah 2appeared to the woman and said to her, Now you are barren and have borne no children; but you will conceive and bear a son.
Jg 13:4 And now be careful not to drink awine or strong drink nor to eat anything unclean;
Jg 13:5 For you shall conceive and bear a son. And ano razor shall come upon his head, for the boy will be a 1Nazarite to God from the womb; and he will begin to bsave Israel from the hand of the cPhilistines.
Jg 13:6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A 1aman of God came to me; and His appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask Him where He was from, nor did He tell me His name;
Jg 13:7 But He said to me, You shall conceive and bear a son. And now do not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean; for the boy will be a Nazarite to God from the womb until the day of his death.
Jg 13:8 Then Manoah entreated Jehovah and said, Oh, my Lord! Let the man of God, whom You sent, come again to us, I pray; and let Him teach us what we should do with the boy that is to be born.
Jg 13:9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the Angel of God came again to the woman while she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.
Jg 13:10 And the woman hurried and ran off; and she told her husband and said to him, The man who came to me that day has just appeared to me.
Jg 13:11 And Manoah rose up and followed his wife and came to the man. And he said to Him, Are You the man who spoke to this woman? And He said, I am.
Jg 13:12 And Manoah said, Now when Your words come to pass, what rule shall the boy follow, and what shall he do?
Jg 13:13 And the Angel of Jehovah said to Manoah, Observe all that I spoke to this woman.
Jg 13:14 She is not to eat of anything that comes forth from the grapevine, nor is she to drink wine or strong drink, nor is she to eat anything unclean; she shall observe all that I commanded her.
Jg 13:15 aAnd Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah, Let us detain You, we pray, that we may prepare a kid for You.
Jg 13:16 And the Angel of Jehovah said to Manoah, If you detain Me, I will not eat your food; but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it up to Jehovah. For Manoah did not know that He was the Angel of Jehovah.
Jg 13:17 Then Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah, What is Your name, so that when Your words come to pass, we may honor You?
Jg 13:18 And the Angel of Jehovah said to him, aWhy do you ask about My name, since it is 1bwonderful?
Jg 13:19 And Manoah took the kid with the meal offering and offered it up upon the rock to Jehovah; and He acted wondrously, while Manoah and his wife looked on.
Jg 13:20 And when the flame went up from the altar to heaven, the Angel of Jehovah went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.
Jg 13:21 And the Angel of Jehovah did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of Jehovah.
Jg 13:22 And Manoah said to his wife, aWe will surely die, for we have seen God.
Jg 13:23 But his wife said to him, If Jehovah had been pleased to kill us, He would not have taken a burnt offering and a meal offering from our hand, nor would He have shown us all these things or let us hear a thing like this at this time.
Jg 13:24 And the woman bore a son, and she called his name aSamson. And the boy bgrew up, and Jehovah blessed him.
Jg 13:25 And the aSpirit of Jehovah began to move him at 1Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
JUDGES 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

Jg 14:1 And Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a 1woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines.
Jg 14:2 And he went up and told his father and mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me as a wife.
Jg 14:3 But his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the adaughters of your brothers or among all my people, that you must go and get a woman of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me.
Jg 14:4 But his father and mother did not know this was of Jehovah, for He was looking for an opportunity against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines aruled over Israel.
Jg 14:5 So Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. And as they came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion roared against him.
Jg 14:6 And the aSpirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and he 1btore it apart as one might tear a kid apart with his bare hands. And he did not tell his father and mother what he had done.
Jg 14:7 And he went down and spoke to the woman, and she pleased Samson.
Jg 14:8 Then after some time, while he was returning to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And there it was, with a swarm of bees in the lion’s body, and ahoney.
Jg 14:9 And he scraped it out into his hands and went away, eating it as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the body of the lion.
Jg 14:10 And his father went down to the woman; and Samson held a feast there, for so the young men used to do.
Jg 14:11 And when they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
Jg 14:12 And Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a ariddle to you. If you fully explain it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, I will give you thirty fine linen garments and thirty changes of clothing;
Jg 14:13 But if you cannot explain it to me, you shall give me thirty fine linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. And they said to him, Put forth your riddle, let us hear it.
Jg 14:14 And he said to them, / Out of the eater came forth food, / And out of the strong came forth sweetness.
And they could not explain the riddle after three days.
Jg 14:15 Then on the 1fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us; otherwise we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here in order to impoverish us? Is it not so?
Jg 14:16 So Samson’s wife wept before him and said, You only hate me, and you do not love me: You have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, but you have not explained it to me. And he said to her, Look, I have not explained it to my own father and mother. Should I then explain it to you?
Jg 14:17 And she wept before him the rest of the seven days that they had the feast. But on the seventh day he explained it to her, for she apressed him. Then she explained the riddle to the children of her people.
Jg 14:18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before sunset,
What is asweeter than honey, / And what is stronger than a lion?
And he said to them,
If you had not plowed with my heifer, / You would not have found out my riddle.
Jg 14:19 Then the aSpirit of Jehovah rushed upon him; and he went down to Ashkelon and struck thirty men among them; and he took their clothing and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.
Jg 14:20 And Samson’s wife was given to his best man, who had been his friend.
JUDGES 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

Jg 15:1 Then after some time, during the days of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a kid. And he said, Let me go into the chamber to my wife; but her father would not allow him to go in.
Jg 15:2 And her father said, I surely thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your best man. Is not her younger sister better than she? Let her be yours instead of her.
Jg 15:3 Then Samson said to them, This time I will be blameless with regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.
Jg 15:4 And Samson went and caught three hundred afoxes; and he took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in between every two tails.
Jg 15:5 Then he set the torches on fire and sent the foxes into the Philistines’ standing grain and burned up the shocks and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and the olive groves.
Jg 15:6 And the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his best man. And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire.
Jg 15:7 And Samson said to them, If this is how you act, I will surely take revenge on you, and then I will stop.
Jg 15:8 And he struck them hip and thigh, a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the acleft of the rock of Etam.
Jg 15:9 And the Philistines rose up and encamped in Judah, and they spread out against Lehi.
Jg 15:10 And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they said, We have come up to bind Samson, so that we can do to him as he has done to us.
Jg 15:11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam; and they said to Samson, Do you not know that the aPhilistines rule over us? Then what is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, As they have done to me, so I have done to them.
Jg 15:12 And they said to him, We have come down to bind you up so that we can deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves.
Jg 15:13 And they spoke to him, saying, No, we will only bind you and deliver you into their hand, but we certainly will not put you to death. And they bound him with two new aropes and brought him up from the rock.
Jg 15:14 When he came into Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the aSpirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax when it burns in fire; and his bonds melted from off his hands.
Jg 15:15 And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass; and he stretched out his hand and took it, and struck a athousand men with it.
Jg 15:16 And Samson said, / With the jawbone of an ass, / A heap upon a double heap; / With the jawbone of an ass, / I have struck a thousand men dead.
Jg 15:17 And when he finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place 1Ramath-lehi.
Jg 15:18 And he was very thirsty, and he called on Jehovah, saying, You have granted this great victory by the hand of Your servant. And will I now die of thirst and fall into the hand of the auncircumcised?
Jg 15:19 But God broke open the hollow place that is in Lehi, and awater came forth from it. And when he drank, his bspirit returned and he was revived; therefore he called the name of that place 1En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
Jg 15:20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
JUDGES 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

Jg 16:1 And Samson went down to Gaza; and there he saw a harlot and went in unto her.
Jg 16:2 And this was told to the Gazites, saying, Samson has come here. So they surrounded him and set an ambush for him all night long in the gate of the city. And they were quiet all night long, saying among themselves, We will stay here until the light of morning; then we will slay him.
Jg 16:3 But Samson lay only until midnight; then he rose at midnight and grasped the doors of the gate of the city and the two aposts, and he plucked them up along with the bar; and he put them on his shoulders and brought them up to the top of the mountain that is in front of Hebron.
Jg 16:4 Then after this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Jg 16:5 And the lords of the Philistines came to her; and they said to her, Entice him, and find out how it is that his astrength is so great, and how we can prevail against him and bind him so that we may afflict him; and we each will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
Jg 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, Tell me please, How is it that your strength is so great, and how could you be bound so that you could be afflicted?
Jg 16:7 And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven new cords that are not dried out, I will become weak and be like any other man.
Jg 16:8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven new cords that were not dried out, and she bound him with them.
Jg 16:9 And there was an ambush staying with her in the inner chamber; and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he snapped the cords, as when a strand of tow is snapped when it touches fire. So his strength was not known.
Jg 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, You have just mocked me and told me lies; now tell me please, How can you be bound?
Jg 16:11 And he said to her, If they bind me up with new aropes with which no work has been done, I will become weak and be like any other man.
Jg 16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them; and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And there was an ambush staying in the inner chamber. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
Jg 16:13 Then Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you can be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web 1and fasten them with the pin onto the wall, I will become weak and be like any other man.
Jg 16:14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web; and she fastened them with the pin. Then she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke from his sleep and plucked up the pin of the loom and the web.
Jg 16:15 Then she said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? These athree times you have mocked me and have not told me how it is that your strength is so great.
Jg 16:16 And after she apressed him with her words every day and urged him, his soul was tired to death.
Jg 16:17 And he told her all his heart and said to her, aNo razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a bNazarite to God from my mother’s womb. If I were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak and be like all men.
Jg 16:18 And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent word and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and they brought the silver in their hand.
Jg 16:19 And she put him to sleep in her lap and called for a man; and she had him shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his astrength left 1him.
Jg 16:20 Then she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he did not know that aJehovah had left him.
Jg 16:21 And the Philistines grabbed him and gouged out his eyes. And they took him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters; and he aground at the mill in the prison house.
Jg 16:22 But the hair on his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off.
Jg 16:23 And the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to aDagon their god and to rejoice. And they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
Jg 16:24 And when the people saw him they praised their god, for they said, Our god has delivered our enemy into our hand, even him who desolated our land, who slew many of us.
Jg 16:25 And when their hearts were merry, they said, Call for Samson, that he may entertain us. So they called for Samson from the prison house, and he performed before them. Then they made him stand between the pillars.
Jg 16:26 And Samson said to the youth who held him by his hand, Let me feel the pillars upon which the house rests, that I may rest against them.
Jg 16:27 Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who were looking on while Samson performed.
Jg 16:28 And Samson called on Jehovah and said, O Lord Jehovah, aremember me, I pray; and strengthen me, I pray, this one time only, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines at once for my two eyes.
Jg 16:29 And Samson grasped the two middle apillars upon which the house rested and leaned against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left.
Jg 16:30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed in his death were more than those that he killed in his life.
Jg 16:31 Then his brothers and all his father’s house went down and bore him away, and they brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. Now he had judged Israel twenty years.
JUDGES 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

III. Israel’s Becoming Corrupted
17:1 — 21:25
A. The Abominable Chaos in Their Worship
17:1 — 18:31
Jg 17:1 Now there was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.
Jg 17:2 And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke it in my hearing — look, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed of Jehovah be my son!
Jg 17:3 And he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I do consecrate the silver to Jehovah from my hand to my son to make a sculptured 1aidol and a molten image. Now therefore I will return it to you.
Jg 17:4 And when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the afounder, who made them into a sculptured idol and a molten image. And it was in the house of Micah.
Jg 17:5 And the man Micah had a 1house of gods; and he made an aephod and teraphim, and 2consecrated one of his sons to become his priest.
Jg 17:6 In those days there was 1ano king in Israel; everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
Jg 17:7 And there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was a sojourner there.
Jg 17:8 And the man left the city Bethlehem in Judah to dwell wherever he could find a place. And he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he made his way.
Jg 17:9 And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? And he said to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am traveling in order to dwell wherever I can find a place.
Jg 17:10 And Micah said to him, Stay with me, and be a father and a priest to me; and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and an array of clothing and your food. So the Levite went with him.
Jg 17:11 And the Levite was content to stay with the man; and the young man was to him like one of his sons.
Jg 17:12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his apriest and was in the house of Micah.
Jg 17:13 Then Micah said, Now I know that Jehovah will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest.
JUDGES 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

Jg 18:1 In those days there was ano king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the bDanites sought for themselves an inheritance to dwell in, for unto that day the lot had not fallen for them on an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
Jg 18:2 So the children of Dan sent from their family five men from among all of them, men of valor, from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it out. And they said to them, Go and search out the land. And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah; and they lodged there.
Jg 18:3 When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite man, so they turned aside there and said to him, Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?
Jg 18:4 And he said to them, Such and such has Micah done for me; and he has ahired me to be his priest.
Jg 18:5 And they said to him, Inquire now of God that we may know if our way on which we are going will be prosperous.
Jg 18:6 And the priest said to them, Go in peace; your way on which you are going is before Jehovah.
Jg 18:7 Then the five men left and came to Laish. And they saw the people who were in it, dwelling securely after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land who possessed authority and might humble them in anything; and they were far from the Sidonians and had nothing to do with anyone.
Jg 18:8 And they came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers said to them, What can you say?
Jg 18:9 And they said, Arise; and let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and it is very good. So do you sit still? Do not be slow about going and entering the land to possess it.
Jg 18:10 When you go, you will come to a secure people; and the land is very spacious. God has indeed delivered it into your hand, a place where nothing on earth is lacking there.
Jg 18:11 So six hundred men girded with weapons of war set out from there, from the family of Dan, from aZorah and Eshtaol.
Jg 18:12 And they went up and encamped in Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Because of this, that place is called 1Mahaneh-dan to this day; it is there behind Kiriath-jearim.
Jg 18:13 And they passed from there into the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.
Jg 18:14 Then the five men who had gone to spy the land of Laish answered and said to their brothers, Do you know that in these houses there are an aephod and teraphim and a sculptured idol and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you should do.
Jg 18:15 And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite man, the house of Micah; and they asked him concerning his welfare.
Jg 18:16 And the six hundred men of the children of Dan, girded with their weapons of war, stood at the entrance of the gate.
Jg 18:17 And the five men who had gone to spy the land went up and entered there to seize the sculptured idol and the ephod and the teraphim and the molten image. And the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girded with weapons of war.
Jg 18:18 And when these men entered the house of Micah and seized the sculptured idol and the ephod and the teraphim and the molten image, the priest said to them, What are you doing?
Jg 18:19 And they said to him, Quiet down; put your hand over your mouth, and go with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one man or for you to be a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?
Jg 18:20 And the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod and teraphim and the sculptured idol, and went into the midst of the people.
Jg 18:21 And they turned and departed; and they put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them.
Jg 18:22 When they were some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses that were near the house of Micah were gathered together; and they overtook the children of Dan.
Jg 18:23 And they called out to the children of Dan. And they turned and faced them and said to Micah, What is bothering you, that you have been gathered together?
Jg 18:24 And he said, You have taken away my gods that I have made, along with the priest, and have gone off. And what do I still have? How then can you say to me, What is bothering you?
Jg 18:25 And the children of Dan said, Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest men of fierce temper fall on you and you lose your life and the lives of your household.
Jg 18:26 And the children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.
Jg 18:27 So they took that which Micah had made and the priest that had been his, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
Jg 18:28 And there was no one to deliver it; for it was far from Sidon, and they had nothing to do with anyone. Now it was in the valley that is by Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and dwelt in it.
Jg 18:29 And they called the name of the city aDan, according to the name of Dan their father who had been born to Israel. However the name of the city was Laish formerly.
Jg 18:30 And the children of Dan erected the sculptured idol; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of 1Moses, he and his sons, became priests to the tribe of aDan until the day of the bcaptivity of the land.
Jg 18:31 Thus they 1set up the sculptured idol that Micah had made the whole time that the house of God was in aShiloh.
JUDGES 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

B. The Sodomitical Corruption in Their Morality
19:1-30
1. The Story of Corruption
vv. 1-26
Jg 19:1 Now in those days, when there was ano king in Israel, there was a certain Levite dwelling in the far end of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from bBethlehem in Judah.
Jg 19:2 But his concubine went about as a harlot, and she departed from him to her father’s house, to Bethlehem in Judah; and she was there for a period of four months.
Jg 19:3 Then her husband rose up and came after her to speak to her affectionately and to bring her back, bringing with him his young man and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the young woman saw him, he rejoiced to see him.
Jg 19:4 And his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, detained him; and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank, and they spent the night there.
Jg 19:5 And on the fourth day, they rose up early in the morning and got up to go. But the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law, Sustain yourself with a morsel of bread, and afterward you can go.
Jg 19:6 So they sat down, and the two of them ate and drank together. And the father of the young woman said to the man, Will you not, I beg you, astay overnight and let your heart be merry?
Jg 19:7 And the man got up to go; but his father-in-law urged him, and he spent the night there again.
Jg 19:8 Then on the fifth day he rose up early in the morning to go; but the father of the young woman said, Sustain yourself, I beg you, and linger until the day has declined. So the two of them ate.
Jg 19:9 And when the man got up to go, with his concubine and his young man, his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, Look now, the day is waning toward evening; spend the night, I beg you. Look, the day is drawing to a close. Spend the night here, and let your heart be merry; then rise up early tomorrow for your journey and go home.
Jg 19:10 But the man did not want to spend the night, so he rose up and left. And he arrived at aJebus (that is, Jerusalem); and with him were a couple of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him.
Jg 19:11 And when they were at Jebus, the day was far spent; and the young man said to his master, Come now, and let us turn aside toward this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it.
Jg 19:12 And his master said to him, We will not turn aside toward a city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to aGibeah.
Jg 19:13 And he said to his young man, Come and let us approach one of these places; and we will spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.
Jg 19:14 And they passed on and went further; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
Jg 19:15 And they turned aside there to go in and spend the night in Gibeah. And he went into the city and sat in the square of the city, but no one took them into his house to lodge them.
Jg 19:16 Then in the evening there came an old man out of the field from his work. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was a sojourner in Gibeah. And the men of that place were Benjaminites.
Jg 19:17 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the wayfarer in the square of the city. And the old man said, Where are you traveling to, and where have you come from?
Jg 19:18 And he said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the far end of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah; and I am going to 1my house, and no one takes me into his house.
Jg 19:19 There are both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread and wine also for myself and your female servant and the young man who is with your servants; there is no need of anything.
Jg 19:20 And the old man said, Peace be with you. Just let all your needs come upon me; just do not spend the night in the asquare.
Jg 19:21 And he brought him to his house and gave his donkeys fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
Jg 19:22 And while they were making their hearts merry, the men of the city, worthless men, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man who went into your house that we may know him.
Jg 19:23 And the master of the house came out to them and said to them, No, my brothers; do not do this aevil thing, I beg you. Since this man has come into my house, do not commit this folly.
Jg 19:24 Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out, I beg you; and humble them and do to them what seems good in your sight. But to this man do not do such folly.
Jg 19:25 But the men did not want to listen to him; so the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them; and they knew her. And they abused her all night long until morning; and they let her go when the dawn broke.
Jg 19:26 And in the early morning the woman came and fell at the entrance of the man’s house, where her lord had been until it was light.
2. The Spreading of This Story of Corruption throughout All the Territory of Israel
vv. 27-30
Jg 19:27 And her lord rose up in the morning and opened the doors of the house, and he went out to go on his way. And there was his concubine, fallen at the entrance of the house with her hands upon the threshold.
Jg 19:28 And he said to her, Get up, and let us go. But there was no answer. And he put her upon the donkey; and the man rose up and went to his place.
Jg 19:29 And when he came to his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her up limb by limb into twelve pieces; and he sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
Jg 19:30 And when everyone saw this, they said, No such thing has ever happened or been seen since the day the children of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, and take counsel and speak.
JUDGES 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • 

C. The Terrible Slaughter among Their Tribes
20:1 — 21:25
Jg 20:1 Then all the children of Israel went out; and the assembly gathered as aone man unto Jehovah at Mizpah, bfrom Dan as far as Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead.
Jg 20:2 And the leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the congregation of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew the sword.
Jg 20:3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Tell us, How did this evil thing happen?
Jg 20:4 And the Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, answered and said, I and my concubine came to Gibeah, which is in Benjamin, to spend the night.
Jg 20:5 And the 1men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house at night to get me. It was me that they intended to slay, but they humbled my concubine until she died.
Jg 20:6 Therefore I took hold of my concubine and cut her up and sent her throughout all the land of Israel’s inheritance, for they have committed wickedness and folly in Israel.
Jg 20:7 Behold, all you children of Israel, give your advice and counsel here.
Jg 20:8 And all the people rose up as one man, saying, None of us will go to our tents, nor will any of us return to our houses.
Jg 20:9 But now this is the thing that we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
Jg 20:10 And we will take ten men per hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred per thousand, and a thousand per ten thousand, to get provisions for the people, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may deal with them according to all the folly which they have committed in Israel.
Jg 20:11 So all the men of Israel, knit together as one man, were gathered against the city.
Jg 20:12 And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the 1tribe of Benjamin, saying, What is this evil thing that has happened among you?
Jg 20:13 Now therefore deliver up the worthless men who are in Gibeah, and we will kill them and aput away evil from Israel. But the 1Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.
Jg 20:14 And the children of Benjamin gathered together at Gibeah from their cities to go to battle with the children of Israel.
Jg 20:15 And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day from the cities: twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, apart from the inhabitants of Gibeah who were numbered, seven hundred choice men.
Jg 20:16 Of all these people seven hundred choice men were left-handed; all these could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
Jg 20:17 And the men of Israel were numbered apart from Benjamin: four hundred thousand men who drew the sword; all these were men of war.
Jg 20:18 And the children of Israel rose up and went up to Bethel, and they inquired of God and said, Who will go up for us afirst into battle with the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah first.
Jg 20:19 So the children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
Jg 20:20 And the men of Israel went up into battle with Benjamin. And the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.
Jg 20:21 Then the children of Benjamin came forth from Gibeah and struck down to the ground on that day twenty-two thousand men in Israel.
Jg 20:22 And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and set the battle in array again in the place where they had set it in array the first day.
Jg 20:23 Now the children of Israel had gone up and wept before Jehovah into the evening; and they had inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I again approach the battle with the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah had said, Go up against him.
Jg 20:24 And the children of Israel drew near to the children of Benjamin on the second day.
Jg 20:25 And Benjamin went forth from Gibeah to meet them on the second day, and they struck down to the ground another eighteen thousand men among the children of Israel; all of these were ones who drew the sword.
Jg 20:26 Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up and came to Bethel. And they wept and sat there before Jehovah, and they fasted on that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah.
Jg 20:27 And the children of Israel ainquired of Jehovah (for the Ark of the Covenant of God was there in those days;
Jg 20:28 And aPhinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I again go out into battle with the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And Jehovah said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.
Jg 20:29 aAnd Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah.
Jg 20:30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day and set themselves in array against Gibeah as at other times.
Jg 20:31 And the children of Benjamin went out to meet the people; they were adrawn away from the city. And they began to strike some of the people, about thirty men of Israel, slaying them as at other times, on the highways which lead into the open field, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
Jg 20:32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are stricken down before us as they were at first. And the children of Israel said, Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.
Jg 20:33 Then all the men of Israel rose up from their places and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar; and Israel’s ambush left their place at Maareh-geba.
Jg 20:34 And ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came against Gibeah. And the battle was fierce, but 1the children of Benjamin did not know that disaster was very near to them.
Jg 20:35 And Jehovah struck down Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day; all these were ones who drew the sword.
Jg 20:36 And the children of Benjamin saw that they were stricken down. Now the men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, for they trusted in the ambush that they had set against Gibeah.
Jg 20:37 And the ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah; and the ambush proceeded and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
Jg 20:38 And the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,
Jg 20:39 And then the men of Israel would turn into the battle. So Benjamin had begun to strike, killing about thirty men among the men of Israel; for they said, They are certainly stricken down before us as in the first battle.
Jg 20:40 But when the cloud began to go up from the city like a pillar of asmoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and there was the whole city, going up in smoke to heaven.
Jg 20:41 And the men of Israel turned; and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was very near to them.
Jg 20:42 Then they turned before the men of Israel into the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and those from the cities struck them down in between.
Jg 20:43 They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them, and trampled them at the resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the rising of the sun.
Jg 20:44 And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all of these were men of valor.
Jg 20:45 And they turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, but the men of Israel gleaned five thousand of them in the highways; and they pursued after them as far as Gidom and struck two thousand of them.
Jg 20:46 So all who fell of Benjamin on that day were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all of these were men of valor.
Jg 20:47 But six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they dwelt at the rock of Rimmon four months.
Jg 20:48 And the men of Israel returned to the children of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city with the cattle and all that was found there; moreover all the cities that were found they set on fire.
JUDGES 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Jg 21:1 Now the men of Israel swore in aMizpah, saying, None of us shall give his daughter to a Benjaminite as a bwife.
Jg 21:2 And the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and they lifted up their voice and wept greatly.
Jg 21:3 And they said, Why, O Jehovah God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that there is one tribe missing in Israel today?
Jg 21:4 And in the morning the people rose early and built an altar there, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Jg 21:5 And the children of Israel said, Who did not come up into the congregation to Jehovah from all the tribes of Israel? For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who did not come up to Jehovah at Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.
Jg 21:6 And the children of Israel were grieved concerning Benjamin their brother, and they said, Today a tribe has been cut down from Israel.
Jg 21:7 What shall we do about wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Jehovah not to give them any of our daughters as wives?
Jg 21:8 And they said, Is there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not come to Jehovah at Mizpah? Now there was no one from aJabesh-gilead who had come to the congregation at the camp.
Jg 21:9 For when the people were numbered, there was no one from among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.
Jg 21:10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand of the valiant there and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, including women and children.
Jg 21:11 And this is the thing that you shall do: Every male and every woman who has lain with a male you shall 1utterly destroy.
Jg 21:12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known men by lying with a male; and they brought them to the camp at aShiloh, which was in the land of Canaan.
Jg 21:13 And the whole assembly sent men and spoke to the children of Benjamin, who were at the arock of Rimmon; and they proclaimed peace to them.
Jg 21:14 And the Benjaminites returned at that time. And they gave them the women who had been kept alive from among the women of Jabesh-gilead; but there were not enough for them.
Jg 21:15 And the people were grieved concerning Benjamin, for Jehovah had made a breach among the tribes of Israel.
Jg 21:16 So the elders of the assembly said, What shall we do about wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed from Benjamin?
Jg 21:17 And they said, There should be some possession for those of Benjamin who have escaped, that no tribe would be blotted out of Israel.
Jg 21:18 But we cannot give them any of our daughters as wives. For the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.
Jg 21:19 And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah each year in aShiloh (which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah).
Jg 21:20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
Jg 21:21 And immediately when you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the dances, come out of the vineyards, and each of you shall catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh; then go into the land of Benjamin.
Jg 21:22 And when their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, Give them to us as a gift, for we did not take a wife in battle for each man, nor did you give them to them and thereby incur guilt for yourselves now.
Jg 21:23 And the children of Benjamin did so and took wives, whom they carried off, according to their number from those who danced. And they went and returned to their inheritance, and they rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them.
Jg 21:24 And the children of Israel departed from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his family; and they went forth from there, each man to his inheritance.
Jg 21:25 In those days there was 1ano king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
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RUTH

Chapters
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Outline

Author: According to the contents of the book, its author should be Samuel.
Time of Writing: The eleventh century B.C., after the rule of the judges and in the time of the kings (cf. 4:22).
Place of the Record: Moab (1:1) and Bethlehem in Judah (1:22).
Time Period Covered: About eleven years (1:4; 4:13), from about 1322 B.C. to about 1312 B.C.
Subject:
A Complete Prefigure of the Gentile Sinners’ Being Brought, with Israel, God’s Elect, into the Divine Inheritance through the Redemption of Christ in Their Union with Him
RUTH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

I. Elimelech’s Swerving from the Rest in God’s Economy
1:1-2
Ru 1:1 Now in the days when the ajudges 1ruled, there was a 2bfamine in the land. And a man from 3cBethlehem in Judah 4went down to dwell as a sojourner in the country of 5Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
Ru 1:2 And the man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there.
II. Naomi’s Returning to the Rest in God’s Economy
1:3-7, 19-22
Ru 1:3 And Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, 1died; and she was left with her two sons.
Ru 1:4 And they took wives for themselves from among the 1Moabite women. One’s name was Orpah, and the second’s name was 2aRuth. And they dwelt there about ten years.
Ru 1:5 And both Mahlon and Chilion died, and the woman was left without her two children and her husband.
Ru 1:6 Then she rose up with her daughters-in-law in order to 1return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that Jehovah had avisited His people by giving them food.
Ru 1:7 So she went forth from the place where she had been, along with her two daughters-in-law; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
III. Ruth’s Choosing for Her Goal
1:8-18
Ru 1:8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go and return, each of you, to your mother’s house. May Jehovah deal kindly with you, just as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
Ru 1:9 May Jehovah grant you to find arest, each of you in the house of your husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
Ru 1:10 And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people.
Ru 1:11 And Naomi said, Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your ahusbands?
Ru 1:12 Return, my daughters, go; for I am too old to have a husband. If I said, I have hope; even if I had a husband tonight and even bore sons;
Ru 1:13 Would you then wait until they were agrown? Would you then refrain from having a husband? No, my daughters; it has been far more bitter for me than it should be for you, for the hand of Jehovah has gone forth against me.
Ru 1:14 And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth aclung to her.
Ru 1:15 And she said, Your sister-in-law has now returned to her people and to her gods; return with your sister-in-law.
Ru 1:16 But Ruth said, Do not entreat me to leave you and turn away from following after you. For awherever you go, I 1will go, and wherever you dwell, I will dwell; and byour people will be my people, and your 2God will be my God.
Ru 1:17 Where you die, I will die; and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more as well, if anything but death parts me from you.
Ru 1:18 And when 1Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she ceased speaking to her about it.
II. Naomi’s Returning to the Rest in God’s Economy (cont’d)
1:19-22
Ru 1:19 So the two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them; and the women said, Is this Naomi?
Ru 1:20 And she said to them, Do not call me 1Naomi; call me 2aMara; for the bAll-sufficient One has 3dealt very bitterly with me.
Ru 1:21 I went out full, but Jehovah has brought me back aempty. Why do you call me Naomi, when Jehovah has 1afflicted me and the All-sufficient One has dealt harshly with me?
Ru 1:22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the 1barley harvest.
RUTH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

IV. Ruth’s Exercising of Her Right
2:1-23
Ru 2:1 Now Naomi had a arelative of her husband’s, a man of great wealth, from Elimelech’s family; and his name was 1bBoaz.
Ru 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Let me go to the 1field and 2aglean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter.
Ru 2:3 So she went. And she came and 1gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to glean in a portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.
Ru 2:4 And just then Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, Jehovah be with you. And they said to him, Jehovah abless you.
Ru 2:5 And Boaz said to his young man who was set over the reapers, Whose young woman is that?
Ru 2:6 And the young man who was set over the reapers answered and said, She is the young aMoabite woman who returned with Naomi from the country of Moab;
Ru 2:7 And she said, Let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she has come and continued since morning until now, and she has sat in the house for only a little while.
Ru 2:8 And Boaz said to Ruth, 1Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field, and also do not pass from here but stay close to my young women.
Ru 2:9 Keep your eyes on the field that they reap; follow after them. 1I have charged my young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, you shall go to the vessels and drink of what the young men have drawn.
Ru 2:10 And she fell upon her face and bowed herself to the ground, and she said to him, Why have I found favor in your sight that you regard me, though I am a foreigner?
Ru 2:11 And Boaz answered and said to her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, as well as how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people whom you did not know before.
Ru 2:12 May Jehovah recompense your work, and may you have a full reward from Jehovah the God of Israel, under whose awings you have come to take refuge.
Ru 2:13 And she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your servant girl, though I am not like even one of your servant girls.
Ru 2:14 And Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come here and eat some food; and dip your morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers, and he extended some parched grain to her. And she ate and was satisfied, and she had some left.
Ru 2:15 And when she rose up to glean, Boaz charged his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the standing grain, and do not reproach her.
Ru 2:16 And also pull out some from the abundles for her, and leave it for her to glean; and do not rebuke her.
Ru 2:17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. And she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
Ru 2:18 And she took it up and went into the city. And her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. 1Ruth also brought out and gave to her what she had left after she had been earlier satisfied.
Ru 2:19 And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be he who paid such attention to you. And she told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with and said, The name of the man whom I worked with today is Boaz.
Ru 2:20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of Jehovah, whose lovingkindness has not failed for the living and for the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man is close to us; he is one of our 1akinsmen.
Ru 2:21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, He also said to me, You shall stay close by my young men who are with me until they have completed the whole harvest that I have.
Ru 2:22 And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that others do not meet you in any other field.
Ru 2:23 So she stayed close to Boaz’s young women and gleaned until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.
RUTH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

V. Ruth’s Seeking for Her Rest
3:1-18
Ru 3:1 And Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, 1I must seek some 2aresting place for you, that it may go well with you.
Ru 3:2 And now is not Boaz our arelative, with whose young women you have been? Behold, he is winnowing the barley tonight at the threshing floor.
Ru 3:3 Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes; and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
Ru 3:4 And when he lies down, notice the place where he lies, and go and uncover his feet, and lie down. And he will tell you what you should do.
Ru 3:5 And she said to her, All that you 1say, I will do.
Ru 3:6 And she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law had charged her.
Ru 3:7 And Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was merry. And he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And she 1came in secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down.
Ru 3:8 Then at midnight the man was startled; and he turned over, and a woman was there, lying at his feet.
Ru 3:9 And he said, Who are you? And she said, I am Ruth, your female servant. Spread your acloak over your female servant, for you are a 1kinsman.
Ru 3:10 And he said, Blessed be you of Jehovah, my daughter. You have shown your latter kindness to be better than your first by not going after the choice young men, whether poor or rich.
Ru 3:11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. All that you say, I will do for you; for all the 1assembly of my people know that you are a aworthy woman.
Ru 3:12 And now it is true that I am a 1akinsman, yet there is a 1kinsman closer than I.
Ru 3:13 Stay for the night; and in the morning if he will do the kinsman’s aduty, fine; let him do it. But if he is not willing to do the kinsman’s duty for you, I will do it for you, as Jehovah lives. Lie down until morning.
Ru 3:14 And she lay at his feet until morning, then rose up before one could recognize another; for he said, Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.
Ru 3:15 And he said, Bring the cloak that is on you, and hold it open. And she held it open, and he measured out six measures of barley and laid it on her. And 1he went into the city.
Ru 3:16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, How are you, my daughter? And she told her all that the man had done for her.
Ru 3:17 And she said, These six measures of barley he gave me, for he 1said, Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.
Ru 3:18 And she said, Stay here, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter today.
RUTH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

VI. Ruth’s Reward for God’s Economy
4:1-22
Ru 4:1 Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat there. And just then the akinsman of whom Boaz had spoken came by. And 1Boaz said, Turn aside and sit here, 2friend. And he turned aside and sat down.
Ru 4:2 And he took ten men from among the aelders of the city and said, Sit here. And they sat down.
Ru 4:3 And he said to the kinsman, Naomi, who has returned from the country of Moab, has put up for sale the portion of the field that belonged to our brother Elimelech.
Ru 4:4 So I thought that I should disclose this to you and say, Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you can redeem it, redeem it; but if you cannot redeem it, tell me so that I will know; for there is no one to aredeem it ahead of you, and I am after you. And he said, I will redeem it.
Ru 4:5 Then Boaz said, On the day you buy the field from Naomi’s hand, 1you must also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead man, in order to raise up the dead man’s aname upon his inheritance.
Ru 4:6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, or else I will mar my own inheritance. You redeem for yourself what I should redeem, for I cannot redeem it.
Ru 4:7 Now such was the custom formerly in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging that to establish any matter a man would draw off his asandal and give it to his neighbor; this was the way of attesting it in Israel.
Ru 4:8 So when the kinsman said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.
Ru 4:9 And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witnesses today, that I buy from Naomi’s hand all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s.
Ru 4:10 Furthermore Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I acquire as my own wife so that I may raise up the dead man’s name upon his inheritance and the dead man’s name may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.
Ru 4:11 And all the people who were in the gate and the elders said, We are witnesses. May Jehovah make the woman who has come into your house like aRachel and like Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. And prosper in Ephrathah, and gain a name in Bethlehem.
Ru 4:12 And may your house be like the house of 1aPerez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the seed that Jehovah gives you by this young woman.
Ru 4:13 So Boaz took 1Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in unto her, and Jehovah made her conceive; and she bore a son.
Ru 4:14 And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be Jehovah, who has not left you today without a kinsman; and may his name be famous in Israel.
Ru 4:15 And he will be to you as a restorer of life and a sustainer in your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.
Ru 4:16 And Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and she became his nurse.
Ru 4:17 And the women neighbors gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Ru 4:18 aNow these are the 1generations of Perez: Perez begot Hezron,
Ru 4:19 And Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab,
Ru 4:20 And Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon,
Ru 4:21 And Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed,
Ru 4:22 And Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David1.
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FIRST SAMUEL

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
Outline

Author: Originally, 1 and 2 Samuel were one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. First Samuel 1 — 24 was written by Samuel (1 Chron. 29:29; 1 Sam. 25:1). The remainder of 1 Samuel and all of 2 Samuel were written by Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer (1 Chron. 29:29).
Time of Writing: The eleventh century B.C.
Place of Writing: Ephraim and Judah.
Time Period Covered: About 155 years, approximately 1171-1017 B.C.
Subject of 1 & 2 Samuel:
The Illustrations of the Way to Enjoy the God-given Good Land
1 SAMUEL 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

I. The History concerning Samuel
1:1 — 8:22
A. His Origin and Birth
1:1-20
1S 1:1 1Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was aElkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite.
1S 1:2 And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah had ano children.
1S 1:3 And this man went up from his city ayear by year to worship and to sacrifice to Jehovah of hosts in bShiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of Jehovah, were there.
1S 1:4 And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters.
1S 1:5 But he would give a double portion to Hannah, for it was Hannah whom he loved; but 1Jehovah had shut up her womb.
1S 1:6 And her rival provoked her bitterly to irritate her, because Jehovah had shut up her womb.
1S 1:7 And so it happened year after year; when she went up to the house of Jehovah, 1the other provoked her this way; and she wept and would not eat.
1S 1:8 And Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, why are you weeping, and why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?
1S 1:9 Then after the eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah rose up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat at the doorpost of the 1atemple of Jehovah.
1S 1:10 And she was bitter in soul and 1prayed to Jehovah and wept much.
1S 1:11 And she made a avow and said, O Jehovah of hosts, if You will indeed blook upon the affliction of Your female servant and remember me and not forget Your female servant, but give to Your female servant a male child, then I will give him to Jehovah for all the days of his life, and cno 1razor will come upon his head.
1S 1:12 And while she continued praying a long time before Jehovah, Eli watched her mouth.
1S 1:13 And Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought that she was drunk.
1S 1:14 And Eli said to her, How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine from you.
1S 1:15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord. I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before Jehovah.
1S 1:16 Do not take your female servant for a worthless woman; for out of the greatness of my anxiety and provocation I have been speaking all this time.
1S 1:17 Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have requested from Him.
1S 1:18 And she said, Let your servant find favor in your sight. And the woman went her way; and she ate, and her countenance was sad no more.
1S 1:19 And they rose up early in the morning and worshipped before Jehovah; and they returned and came to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and Jehovah aremembered her.
1S 1:20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son; and she called his name 1Samuel, For, she said, I asked for him of Jehovah.
B. His Youth
1:21 — 2:11
1S 1:21 And the man Elkanah went up with all his house to offer the yearly sacrifice to Jehovah and his vow.
1S 1:22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, When the child is weaned, then I will abring him up, so that he may appear before Jehovah and stay there forever.
1S 1:23 And Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what is good in your sight; stay until you have weaned him. Only, may Jehovah establish His word. So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she weaned him.
1S 1:24 And as soon as she weaned him, she brought him up with her, along with three bulls and one ephah of flour and a skin of wine; and she brought him to the house of Jehovah in aShiloh, although the child was young.
1S 1:25 And they slaughtered the bull and brought the child to Eli.
1S 1:26 And she said, Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here by you, praying to Jehovah.
1S 1:27 It was for this child that I prayed, and Jehovah has granted me my request that I arequested from Him.
1S 1:28 Therefore I, for my part, have 1lent him to Jehovah; all the days that he lives, he is lent to Jehovah. And he worshipped Jehovah there.
1 SAMUEL 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

1S 2:1 aAnd Hannah prayed and said: / My heart exults in Jehovah; / My bhorn is exalted in Jehovah; / My mouth is enlarged against my enemies, / Because I rejoice in Your 1csalvation.
1S 2:2 There is none aholy like Jehovah, / For there is none besides You; / Nor is there a brock like our God.
1S 2:3 Talk no more so very proudly; / Do not let arrogance go forth from your mouth; / For Jehovah is a God of aknowledge, / 1And actions are bweighed by Him.
1S 2:4 The bows of the mighty men are broken, / And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
1S 2:5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for food, / And those who were ahungry are not so any longer. / She who was bbarren has borne seven, / And she who had many children languishes.
1S 2:6 Jehovah kills and makes aalive; / He brings down to Sheol and bbrings up.
1S 2:7 Jehovah makes poor and makes rich; / He makes low and also alifts up.
1S 2:8 aHe raises the poor from the dust, / From the ash heap He lifts the needy, / That He may seat them with princes / And cause them to inherit the bthrone of glory. / For the pillars of the cearth are Jehovah’s, / And He has set the world upon them.
1S 2:9 He will keep the feet of His faithful ones, / But the wicked will be silenced in darkness; / For not by astrength shall any man prevail.
1S 2:10 Those who strive with Jehovah will be shattered; / Against them He will thunder in heaven. / Jehovah will ajudge the ends of the earth; / And He will give strength to His king / And exalt the bhorn of His anointed.
1S 2:11 And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child 1aministered to Jehovah before 2Eli the priest.
C. His Relationship with the Stale and Waning Aaronic Priesthood
2:12 — 7:17
1. Observing the Deterioration of the Degraded Aaronic Priesthood
2:12-26
1S 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not aknow Jehovah,
1S 2:13 Nor did they regard the priests’ rightful adue with the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the flesh was boiling,
1S 2:14 And he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot; all that the fork brought up, the priest took with it. Thus they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
1S 2:15 Indeed before they burned the afat, the priest’s attendant would come and say to the man sacrificing, Give some flesh to roast for the priest, for he will not accept boiled flesh from you, but only raw.
1S 2:16 And if the man said to him, Let them burn up the fat first, then take as much as your soul desires; he would say, No, but you shall give it now; otherwise, I will take it by force.
1S 2:17 And the sin of the young men was very great before Jehovah, for the men despised the offering of Jehovah.
1S 2:18 And Samuel ministered before Jehovah, as a boy wearing a linen aephod.
1S 2:19 And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it up to him yearly when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
1S 2:20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, May Jehovah give you seed by this woman in place of the one she requested of Jehovah; and they would go back to their place.
1S 2:21 1And Jehovah visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel agrew before Jehovah.
1S 2:22 Now Eli was very old, and he heard of all that his sons did to all Israel and how they lay with the women who were engaged in service at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
1S 2:23 And he said to them, 1Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.
1S 2:24 No, my sons; for it is not a good report 1that I hear Jehovah’s people spreading.
1S 2:25 If one man sins against another man, God will arbitrate for him; but if a man sins against Jehovah, who will arbitrate for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for Jehovah was pleased to kill them.
1S 2:26 And the boy Samuel continued to agrow in stature and in favor both with Jehovah and with men.
2. Realizing God’s Severe Judgment on the House of Eli
2:27 — 3:21
1S 2:27 And a man of God came to Eli and said to him, Thus says Jehovah, I arevealed Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt 1as slaves to Pharaoh’s house.
1S 2:28 And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My apriest, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, and to wear the ephod before Me. And I gave the house of your father all the offerings by fire of the children of Israel.
1S 2:29 Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering, which I have commanded in My habitation, and honor your sons more than Me by making yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?
1S 2:30 Therefore Jehovah the God of Israel declares, I surely said that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me aforever; but now Jehovah declares, Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who spurn Me will be lightly esteemed.
1S 2:31 The days are now coming when I will acut off your arm and the arm of the house of your father, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
1S 2:32 And you shall see the adistress of My habitation in the midst of all the good that 1I will do to Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
1S 2:33 And that man of yours whom I do not cut off from My altar shall be left to consume your eyes and to grieve your soul, and all the increase of your house shall die 1by the swords of men.
1S 2:34 And this will be the sign to you, which will come upon your two sons, upon Hophni and Phinehas: In one day both of them shall die.
1S 2:35 And I will raise up for Myself a faithful 1apriest, who will do according to what is in My 2heart and in My 2mind; and I will build him a sure bhouse; and che will 3go before My anointed continually.
1S 2:36 And everyone who is left of your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and for a loaf of bread, and will say, Please put me in one of the priests’ offices that I may eat a morsel of bread.
1 SAMUEL 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

1S 3:1 And the boy Samuel aministered to Jehovah before Eli. Now the word of Jehovah was 1brare in those days; visions were not widespread.
1S 3:2 And at that time Eli lay in his place, and his eyesight had begun to grow adim, so that he could not see.
1S 3:3 And the alamp of God had not yet gone out. And Samuel lay in the temple of Jehovah, where the Ark of God was.
1S 3:4 Then Jehovah called to Samuel. And he said, Here I am.
1S 3:5 And he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. And he said, I did not call. Go back and lie down. And he went and lay down.
1S 3:6 And Jehovah called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel rose up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. And he said, I did not call, my son. Go back and lie down.
1S 3:7 Now Samuel did not yet know Jehovah, and the word of Jehovah had not yet been revealed to him.
1S 3:8 Then Jehovah called Samuel again, the third time. And he rose up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that it was Jehovah calling the boy.
1S 3:9 And Eli said to Samuel, Go and lie down, and if He calls you, you shall say, Speak, O Jehovah; for Your servant is listening. And Samuel went and lay down in his place.
1S 3:10 Then Jehovah came and astood by and called as at the other times, Samuel! Samuel! And Samuel said, Speak, for Your servant is listening.
1S 3:11 And Jehovah said to Samuel, 1I am about to do something in Israel which will make both ears of anyone who hears of it atingle.
1S 3:12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have aspoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.
1S 3:13 For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever because of the iniquity which he knew; for his sons brought the curse upon themselves, and he did not restrain them.
1S 3:14 And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of the house of Eli shall not be expiated by sacrifice or by offering forever.
1S 3:15 And Samuel lay down until the morning, when he opened the doors of the house of Jehovah. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.
1S 3:16 But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel my son. And he said, Here I am.
1S 3:17 And he said, What was the word that He spoke to you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you, and even more, if you hide from me any of the word which He spoke to you.
1S 3:18 So Samuel told him everything and did not hide anything from him. And he said, He is Jehovah; let Him do what is good in His sight.
1S 3:19 And Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him and let none of his words afall to the ground.
1S 3:20 And all Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, knew that aSamuel had been established as a 1prophet of Jehovah.
1S 3:21 And Jehovah continued to appear in aShiloh, for Jehovah revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Jehovah.
1 SAMUEL 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

3. Knowing the Misfortune of the Ark of God
under the Superstition of the Degraded and Rotten Aaronic Priesthood
4:1 — 7:2
1S 4:1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. And Israel went forth against the Philistines in battle; and they encamped near Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
1S 4:2 And the Philistines arrayed themselves against Israel; and when the battle spread, Israel was struck down before the Philistines. And they slew about four thousand men of the array in the field.
1S 4:3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, Why has Jehovah struck us down today before the Philistines? Let us take for ourselves the 1aArk of the Covenant of Jehovah from bShiloh that it may come into our midst, and thus save us from the hand of our enemies.
1S 4:4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they took up from there the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah of hosts who is enthroned between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God.
1S 4:5 And when the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, and the earth resounded.
1S 4:6 And the Philistines heard the sound of the shout and said, What does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean? Then they found out that the Ark of Jehovah had come into their camp.
1S 4:7 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into their camp. And they said, Woe to us! For there has never been such a thing as this before.
1S 4:8 Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that astruck the Egyptians with every kind of plague in the wilderness.
1S 4:9 Be strong and be men, O Philistines, lest you become servants to the Hebrews as they have been servants to you. Be men then and fight.
1S 4:10 And the Philistines fought, and they struck Israel; and every man fled to his tent. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.
1S 4:11 And the aArk of God was 1taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, bdied.
1S 4:12 And a man of Benjamin ran from the array and came to Shiloh on the same day, with his clothes torn and earth upon his head.
1S 4:13 And when he came, there was Eli, sitting on his seat by the roadside watching; for his heart trembled for the Ark of God. And when the man came to tell the news to the city, the whole city cried out.
1S 4:14 And when Eli heard the sound of the cry, he said, What does this sound of commotion mean? And the man hurried and came and told Eli.
1S 4:15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were aset, and he could not see.
1S 4:16 And the man said to Eli, I am he who has come from the array, and I fled from the array today. And he said, How did the matter go, my son?
1S 4:17 And he who brought the news answered and said, Israel fled before the Philistines, and there was a great slaughter among the people; and even your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the Ark of God has been taken.
1S 4:18 And when he mentioned the Ark of God, 1Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate. And he broke his neck and 2died, for he was an old man and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.
1S 4:19 And his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to deliver; and when she heard the report that the Ark of God had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she bowed down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.
1S 4:20 And around the time that she died, the women who stood around her said, Do not fear, for you have borne a son. But she did not answer or pay attention.
1S 4:21 And she named the child 1Ichabod, 2meaning, The glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God had been taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
1S 4:22 And she said, The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been taken.
1 SAMUEL 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

1S 5:1 When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
1S 5:2 And the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and they set it next to Dagon.
1S 5:3 And when the Ashdodites arose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground, before the Ark of Jehovah. And they took Dagon and put him back in his place.
1S 5:4 And when they arose early in the morning of the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face to the ground, before the Ark of Jehovah. And Dagon’s head and the palms of his hands were cut off, lying on the threshold; 1only Dagon’s trunk was left to him.
1S 5:5 Because of this, neither the priests of Dagon nor any who enter the house of Dagon tread upon Dagon’s threshold in Ashdod to this day.
1S 5:6 But the ahand of 1Jehovah was heavy upon the Ashdodites, and He devastated them and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders.
1S 5:7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The Ark of the God of Israel cannot stay with us, for His hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god.
1S 5:8 Therefore they sent for and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to themselves, and they said, What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? And they said, Let the Ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath. And they brought the Ark of the God of Israel there.
1S 5:9 Then after they brought it there, the ahand of Jehovah was against the city, causing a very great panic. And He struck the men of the city, from small to great; and they broke out with tumors.
1S 5:10 Then they sent the Ark of God to Ekron. But when the Ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.
1S 5:11 And they sent for and gathered all the princes of the Philistines, and they said, Send away the Ark of the God of Israel; and let it return to its place, so that it does not kill us and our people. For the panic of death was throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there,
1S 5:12 And the men who did not die were stricken with tumors. And the cry of the city went up to heaven.
1 SAMUEL 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

1S 6:1 Now the Ark of Jehovah was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
1S 6:2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, What shall we do with the Ark of Jehovah? Make known to us how we should send it forth to its place.
1S 6:3 And they said, If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but be sure to return Him a atrespass offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be made known to you why His hand has not turned away from you.
1S 6:4 And they said, What is the trespass offering that we should return to Him? And they said, Five golden 1tumors and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was upon you all and upon your lords.
1S 6:5 Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that devastate the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His ahand on you and your gods and your land.
1S 6:6 Why then should you aharden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had dealt severely with them, did they not let 1the people go, and they went?
1S 6:7 So now take and prepare a new acart and two milch cows on which the yoke has never come, and tie the cows to the cart, and bring their calves home, away from them.
1S 6:8 And take the Ark of Jehovah and put it on the cart; and in a box by the side of it, place the articles of gold which you are returning to Him as a trespass offering; and send it away that it may go.
1S 6:9 Then watch: If it goes up toward its own border at Beth-shemesh, it is He who has done us this great harm. But if it does not, we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.
1S 6:10 And the men did so and took two milch cows and tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.
1S 6:11 And they put the Ark of Jehovah on the cart with the box and the gold mice and the images of their tumors.
1S 6:12 And the cows went straight in the way toward Beth-shemesh; they went on one road, lowing as they went; and they did not turn to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
1S 6:13 Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the Ark, they rejoiced to see it.
1S 6:14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite and stood still there. And there was a great stone there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered up the cows as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
1S 6:15 Then the Levites took down the Ark of Jehovah and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold; and they placed them on the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered up burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to Jehovah.
1S 6:16 And when the five lords of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that day.
1S 6:17 And these are the gold tumors that the Philistines returned to Jehovah as a trespass offering: for Ashdod, one; for Gaza, one; for Ashkelon, one; for Gath, one; for Ekron, one;
1S 6:18 And the gold mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five lords, both of fortified cities and country villages, as far as the 1great stone on which they rested the Ark of Jehovah, which is there to this day, in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemeshite.
1S 6:19 And He struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they alooked into the Ark of Jehovah; and He struck seventy men 1among the people. And the people mourned because Jehovah struck the people with a great slaughter.
1S 6:20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who can stand before Jehovah, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?
1S 6:21 And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of aKiriath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have returned the Ark of Jehovah; come down and take it up to you.
1 SAMUEL 7

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1S 7:1 And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the Ark of Jehovah and brought it to the 1ahouse of Abinadab on the hill, and they consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the Ark of Jehovah.
1S 7:2 And it was a long time from the day that the Ark began to abide in Kiriath-jearim, for it was twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah.
4. Serving as a Priest and as a Judge over Israel
7:3-17
1S 7:3 Then Samuel 1spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you are areturning with all your heart to Jehovah, bremove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from your midst, and direct your heart to Jehovah and cserve only Him; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.
1S 7:4 Then the children of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served only Jehovah.
1S 7:5 And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to Jehovah for you.
1S 7:6 And they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before Jehovah, and they fasted that day. And they said there, We have sinned against Jehovah. And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.
1S 7:7 Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel gathered themselves at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
1S 7:8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Do not stop crying to Jehovah our God for us, so that He will save us from the hand of the Philistines.
1S 7:9 And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to Jehovah. And aSamuel cried out to Jehovah for Israel, and Jehovah answered him.
1S 7:10 And while Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines approached for battle against Israel. And Jehovah thundered with a great voice that day against the Philistines and threw them into a panic; and they were struck down before Israel.
1S 7:11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and they struck them as far as below Beth-car.
1S 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen; and he called its name 1Ebenezer and said, Thus far Jehovah has helped us.
1S 7:13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they no longer came into the territory of Israel. And the ahand of Jehovah was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
1S 7:14 And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were returned to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel rescued their territory from the hand of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
1S 7:15 And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
1S 7:16 And he went year by year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all those places.
1S 7:17 Then he would return to Ramah, for his house was there. And he judged Israel there and built an altar to Jehovah there.
1 SAMUEL 8

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D. The Ending of Samuel’s Ministry
8:1-22
1S 8:1 Now when Samuel was old, he made his sons ajudges over Israel.
1S 8:2 And the name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba.
1S 8:3 But his sons did 1not follow in his ways, but turned aside after unjust again and took bbribes and perverted justice.
1S 8:4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
1S 8:5 And they said to him, You are now old, and your sons do not follow in your ways. Appoint now for us a aking to judge us like all the 1nations.
1S 8:6 But the matter displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Then Samuel prayed to Jehovah.
1S 8:7 And Jehovah said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people according to all that they have said to you; for it is anot you whom they have rejected, but they have 1brejected Me from being King over them.
1S 8:8 Like all the deeds that they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt to this very day by forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they do also to you.
1S 8:9 Now therefore listen to their voice, but you shall solemnly warn them and declare to them the apractice of the king who will reign over them.
1S 8:10 So Samuel spoke all the words of Jehovah to the people, who had asked him for a king.
1S 8:11 And he said, This will be the practice of the king who will reign over you: He will take your asons and appoint them for himself to his chariots and as his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots;
1S 8:12 And he will appoint them for himself as captains of thousands and as captains of fifties, and to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and the equipment for his chariots.
1S 8:13 And he will take your adaughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
1S 8:14 And he will take your best afields and bvineyards and olive groves, and give them to his servants.
1S 8:15 And he will exact a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards, and give it to his eunuchs and servants.
1S 8:16 And he will take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
1S 8:17 He will exact a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his servants.
1S 8:18 And you will cry out in that day on account of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but Jehovah will not answer you in that day.
1S 8:19 But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, No; but there will be a king over us,
1S 8:20 That we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
1S 8:21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he spoke them in the hearing of Jehovah.
1S 8:22 Then Jehovah said to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and 1appoint a aking to them. And Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go, each one to his city.
1 SAMUEL 9

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II. The History concerning Saul
9:1 — 15:35
A. Saul’s Origin
9:1-2
1S 9:1 Now there was a man from Benjamin whose name was aKish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of 1wealth.
1S 9:2 And he had a son whose name was 1Saul, a choice and handsome man; and there was not a man among the children of Israel more handsome than he; from his shoulders and up he was taller than all the people.
B. God’s Anointing Saul as King
9:3 — 10:27
1S 9:3 Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost; and Kish said to Saul his son, Take with you one of the servants, and rise up and go to search for the donkeys.
1S 9:4 And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and he passed through the land of Shalishah; but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then he passed through the land of Benjamin, but they did not find them.
1S 9:5 When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, and let us return; otherwise, my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and will worry about us.
1S 9:6 But he said to him, There is a aman of God here in this city, and he is a man held in honor; all that he says happens without fail. Let us now go there; perhaps he will tell us about our journey that we have set out on.
1S 9:7 And Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what will we bring the man? For the food is gone from our bags, and there is no present to bring the man of God. What do we have?
1S 9:8 And the servant answered Saul again and said, Here in my hand is a quarter shekel of silver, and I can give it to the man of God; then he will tell us our way.
1S 9:9 (Formerly in Israel a man spoke this way when he went to inquire of God, Come, and let us go to the aseer; for today’s prophet was formerly called a seer.)
1S 9:10 Then Saul said to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.
1S 9:11 As they went up the ascent into the city, they found some girls coming out to draw water; and they said to them, Is the seer here?
1S 9:12 And they answered them and said, He is; there he is ahead of you. Hurry now; for he has just come to the city today, because the people have a sacrifice at the ahigh place today.
1S 9:13 Right when you enter the city, you will find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he is the one who ablesses the sacrifice. Right after that, those who have been invited will eat. Go up now then, for you will find him right away.
1S 9:14 So they went up into the city. As they came into the midst of the city, there came Samuel out toward them, going up to the high place.
1S 9:15 Now Jehovah had revealed this to Samuel a day before Saul came, saying,
1S 9:16 At about this time tomorrow I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall aanoint him ruler over My people Israel; and he will save My people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon My people because their bcry has come to Me.
1S 9:17 And when Samuel saw Saul, Jehovah declared to him, aHere is the man of whom I spoke to you. This man shall rule over My people.
1S 9:18 And Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, please, where is the seer’s house?
1S 9:19 And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today; and in the morning I will send you away, and I will tell you all that is in your heart.
1S 9:20 And as for your donkeys that have now been lost three days, do not even consider them; for they have been found. And for whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father’s house?
1S 9:21 And Saul answered and said, Am I not a aBenjaminite, of the bsmallest of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?
1S 9:22 And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them to the hall, and put them in the chief place among those who had been invited; and there were about thirty men.
1S 9:23 And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion that I gave, concerning which I said to you, Set it by you.
1S 9:24 And the cook took up the athigh and what was attached to it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel said, Here is what has been reserved. Set it before you and eat, because it has been kept for you for the appointed time, when I said I was inviting the people. So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
1S 9:25 And when they came down from the high place to the city, he spoke with Saul upon the roof.
1S 9:26 And they rose early; and around the break of dawn Samuel called to Saul on the roof, saying, Rise up, and I will send you away. So Saul rose up, and they both went outside, he and Samuel.
1S 9:27 As they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to go on ahead of us — and the servant went on — but you stand here now, and I will let you hear the word of God.
1 SAMUEL 10

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1S 10:1 Then Samuel took the vial of aoil and poured it upon his head, and he kissed him and said, 1bJehovah anoints you ruler over His cinheritance.
1S 10:2 When you depart from me today, you will find two men by aRachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The donkeys that you went to look for have been found; and now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and is worried about you, saying, What shall I do about my son?
1S 10:3 Then you will go on further from there and come to the terebinth of Tabor; and three men will meet you there, going up to God at Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.
1S 10:4 And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, and you will take them from their hand.
1S 10:5 After that you will come to 1the hill of God, where the Philistines’ garrison is. And as you come to the city there, you will encounter a group of prophets coming down from the ahigh place, preceded by harp and tambourine and pipe and lyre; and they will be prophesying.
1S 10:6 And the aSpirit of Jehovah will rush upon you; and you will bprophesy with them and be turned into another man.
1S 10:7 And when these signs happen to you, do as you find occasion, for God is with you.
1S 10:8 And you shall go down before me to aGilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer up burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. You shall wait bseven days, until I come to you; then I will make known to you what you shall do.
1S 10:9 And so when he turned his back to depart from Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs happened that day.
1S 10:10 And when they came there to 1the hill, there was the group of prophets, coming to meet him. And the aSpirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them.
1S 10:11 And when all who had known him previously saw that now he was prophesying with the prophets, the people said one to another, What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also aamong the prophets?
1S 10:12 And someone from there answered and said, And who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
1S 10:13 And when he finished prophesying, he came to the high place.
1S 10:14 And Saul’s uncle said to him and his servant, Where did you go? And he said, To look for the donkeys; and when we saw that they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.
1S 10:15 And Saul’s uncle said, Tell me then what Samuel said to you.
1S 10:16 And Saul said to his uncle, He told us clearly that the donkeys had been found. But he did not tell him about the matter of the kingdom that Samuel had spoken of.
1S 10:17 Then Samuel gathered the people together to Jehovah at Mizpah.
1S 10:18 And he said to the children of Israel, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I abrought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.
1S 10:19 But today you have rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your calamities and distresses, and have said, 1No; but set a aking over us. And now present yourselves bbefore Jehovah according to your tribes and according to your thousands.
1S 10:20 So Samuel brought all the atribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was 1btaken.
1S 10:21 And he brought the tribe of Benjamin near according to its families, and the family of Matri was taken. And Saul the son of Kish was taken. But when they sought him, he could not be found.
1S 10:22 Therefore they aasked of Jehovah again, Is there yet another man coming here? And Jehovah said, There he is; he has hidden himself among the baggage.
1S 10:23 And they ran and took him from there. And when he stood up among the people, he was taller than all the people from his shoulders and up.
1S 10:24 And Samuel said to all the people, See him whom Jehovah has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people. And all the people shouted and said, Long live the king!
1S 10:25 Then Samuel told the people the 1apractice of the kingdom, and he wrote it in a book and laid it before Jehovah. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.
1S 10:26 And Saul also went to his house at Gibeah, and the men of valor, whose hearts God had touched, went with him;
1S 10:27 But some worthless men said, How can this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no present. But he kept silent.
1 SAMUEL 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

C. Saul’s Conquest of the Ammonites
11:1-13
1S 11:1 Then aNahash the Ammonite went up and encamped against bJabesh-gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.
1S 11:2 And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that all your right eyes be gouged out; and I will make it a reproach upon all Israel.
1S 11:3 And the elders of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers throughout all the territory of Israel. And if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.
1S 11:4 Then the messengers went to Gibeah of Saul, and they spoke these words in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voice and wept.
1S 11:5 And Saul was just coming from the field after the oxen, and Saul said, What is wrong with the people that they weep so? And they related to him the words of the men of Jabesh.
1S 11:6 And the aSpirit of God rushed upon Saul as he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.
1S 11:7 And he took a yoke of oxen and cut them into apieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by means of the messengers, saying, Whoever does not come forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen. And the dread of Jehovah fell upon the people, and they came forth as one man.
1S 11:8 And he mustered them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah were thirty thousand.
1S 11:9 And they said to the messengers who had come, Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead, Tomorrow you will have deliverance by the time the sun is hot. So the messengers went and told this to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.
1S 11:10 And the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us all that seems good in your sight.
1S 11:11 And on the next day Saul put the people into three companies, and they came into the midst of the camp at the morning watch. And they struck Ammon until the day was hot; and those who remained were so scattered that not two of them remained together.
1S 11:12 And the people said to Samuel, Who said, aShall Saul reign over us? Bring the men that we may put them to death.
1S 11:13 But Saul said, No man shall be put to death on this day, for today Jehovah has accomplished deliverance in Israel.
D. Samuel’s Reminder to Israel
11:14 — 12:25
1S 11:14 Then Samuel said to the people, Come and let us go to aGilgal and there renew the 1kingdom.
1S 11:15 And all the people went to Gilgal. And there they made Saul king before Jehovah in Gilgal, and there they sacrificed peace offerings before Jehovah, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
1 SAMUEL 12

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1S 12:1 And Samuel said to all Israel, I have now listened to your voice according to all that you have asaid to me, and I have placed a king over you.
1S 12:2 And now, here is the king who goes before you. But I am aold and gray, and my sons are here with you, and I have gone before you from my youth until this day.
1S 12:3 1Here I am; testify against me before Jehovah and before His anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I adefrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe in order to blind my eyes with it? Then I will restore it to you.
1S 12:4 And they said, You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from anyone’s hand.
1S 12:5 And he said to them, Jehovah is Witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. And they said, He is witness.
1S 12:6 And Samuel said to the people, It is Jehovah who appointed Moses and Aaron and who abrought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
1S 12:7 Now therefore stand here, that I may plead with you before Jehovah concerning all the righteous acts of Jehovah, which He did to you and to your fathers.
1S 12:8 When Jacob went to aEgypt, and your fathers bcried out to Jehovah, Jehovah csent Moses and Aaron; and they dbrought your fathers out from Egypt and caused them to dwell in this place.
1S 12:9 But they forgot Jehovah their God, and He sold them into the hand of aSisera, the captain of Hazor’s army, and into the hand of the bPhilistines and into the hand of the king of cMoab; and they fought against them.
1S 12:10 Then they acried out to Jehovah and said, We have sinned, for we have forsaken Jehovah and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth; but deliver us now from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.
1S 12:11 And Jehovah sent aJerubbaal and 1Bedan and bJephthah and cSamuel, and He delivered you from the hand of your enemies all around; and you dwelt securely.
1S 12:12 And when you saw that aNahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 1No; but a king will reign over us, though Jehovah your God was your bKing.
1S 12:13 Now therefore here is the king whom ayou have chosen and whom you have asked for. See then, Jehovah has set a bking over you.
1S 12:14 If you fear Jehovah and serve Him and listen to His voice and do not rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow Jehovah your God, fine.
1S 12:15 But if you do not listen to the voice of Jehovah, but rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, then the hand of Jehovah will be against you, as it was against your fathers.
1S 12:16 Now therefore stand here and see this great thing that Jehovah will do before your eyes.
1S 12:17 Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to Jehovah, that He send thunder and rain; and you will know and see that your wickedness which you have done in the sight of Jehovah by asking for a king for yourselves is great.
1S 12:18 And Samuel called to Jehovah, and Jehovah sent athunder and rain on that day. And all the people feared Jehovah and Samuel greatly.
1S 12:19 Then all the people said to Samuel, Pray to Jehovah your God for your servants that we would not die, for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking for a king for ourselves.
1S 12:20 And Samuel said to the people, Do not be afraid. You have done all this evil, yet do not turn away from following Jehovah, but serve Jehovah with all your heart.
1S 12:21 And do not turn away, for your turning away would be after avain idols, which cannot profit or deliver you, for they are vanity.
1S 12:22 For because of His great name Jehovah will not forsake His people, for Jehovah has been pleased to make you a apeople for Himself.
1S 12:23 Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I would 1sin against Jehovah by ceasing to pray for you, but I will instruct you in the good and right way.
1S 12:24 Only, fear Jehovah and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you.
1S 12:25 But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be consumed.
1 SAMUEL 13

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E. Saul’s Conquest of the Philistines
13:1 — 14:52
1S 13:1 Saul 1was…years old when he began to reign; and he reigned over Israel two years.
1S 13:2 And Saul chose three thousand men from Israel for himself; and two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. And the rest of the people he sent away, every man to his tent.
1S 13:3 And Jonathan struck the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear!
1S 13:4 And when all Israel heard that Saul had struck the garrison of the Philistines and also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines, the people gathered themselves behind Saul at Gilgal.
1S 13:5 And the Philistines assembled themselves for battle with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and people like the sand that is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
1S 13:6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in distress (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in thickets and among rocks and in cellars and in pits.
1S 13:7 And some Hebrews crossed over the Jordan into the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people trembled behind him.
1S 13:8 And he waited for aseven days, until the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal. And the people scattered from him.
1S 13:9 Then Saul said, Bring the aburnt offering and the peace offerings to me. And he 1offered up the burnt offering.
1S 13:10 And just as he finished offering up the burnt offering, there came Samuel; and Saul went out to meet him and greet him.
1S 13:11 And Samuel said, What have you done? And Saul said, When I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you had not come at the appointed time and that the Philistines assembled themselves at Michmash,
1S 13:12 I said, Now the Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of Jehovah. Therefore I forced myself to offer up the burnt offering.
1S 13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of Jehovah your God, which He commanded you. For now Jehovah would have established your kingdom over Israel forever;
1S 13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue. Jehovah has asought a 1man according to His heart for Himself, and Jehovah has appointed 1him ruler over His people; for you have not kept that which Jehovah commanded you.
1S 13:15 Then Samuel rose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul mustered the people who were with him, about six hundred men.
1S 13:16 And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were with them dwelt in Geba of Benjamin, and the Philistines encamped in Michmash.
1S 13:17 And the raiders came out from the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual;
1S 13:18 And another company turned toward Beth-horon; and another company turned toward the border that overlooks the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.
1S 13:19 Now there was ano smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines had said, Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears;
1S 13:20 Therefore all Israel would go down to the Philistines so that each might sharpen his plowshare or his mattock or his ax or his hoe.
1S 13:21 1And the price was two-thirds of a shekel for plowshares and for mattocks and for three-pronged forks and for axes and for setting the goads.
1S 13:22 So on the day of the battle there was 1not a sword or spear to be found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and with Jonathan, but such were found with Saul and Jonathan his son.
1S 13:23 And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.
1 SAMUEL 14

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1S 14:1 Now one day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armor, Come and let us cross over to the garrison of the Philistines that is on the other side; but he did not tell his father.
1S 14:2 And Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree that is in Migron; and the people with him were about six hundred men,
1S 14:3 Including Ahijah the son of aAhitub, bIchabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of Jehovah in cShiloh, wearing an dephod; and the people did not know that Jonathan went.
1S 14:4 And in the pass by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the garrison of the Philistines, there was a rocky crag on one side, and another rocky crag on the other side; and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other was Seneh.
1S 14:5 The one crag rose up on the north before Michmash; and the other, on the south before Geba.
1S 14:6 And Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. Perhaps Jehovah will act on our behalf, for there is no constraint on Jehovah to save by many or by few.
1S 14:7 And his armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart. Go to it; I am here with you according to your heart.
1S 14:8 And Jonathan said, Now we will cross over to the men and disclose ourselves to them.
1S 14:9 If they say this to us, Wait until we come to you; then we will stand in our place and not go up to them.
1S 14:10 But if they say this, Come up to us; then we will go up, for Jehovah will have delivered them into our hand, and this will be the sign of it to us.
1S 14:11 And both of them disclosed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, The Hebrews are now coming out of the aholes that they hid themselves in.
1S 14:12 And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, Come up to us, and we will show you something. Then Jonathan said to his armor bearer, Come up after me, for Jehovah has delivered them into the hand of Israel.
1S 14:13 And Jonathan went up on his hands and feet with his armor bearer behind him; and 1the Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer went behind him killing them.
1S 14:14 And that first slaughter that Jonathan and his armor bearer made was of about twenty men in half a furrow of an acre of land.
1S 14:15 And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; even the garrison and the raiders were in a panic; and the earth quaked. And there came to be a 1very great panic.
1S 14:16 And Saul’s watchmen in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and the multitude was just then melting away, and they were going here and there.
1S 14:17 Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Call a muster, and see who has gone from us. And they called a muster, and Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.
1S 14:18 And Saul said to Ahijah, Bring the Ark of God here; for the aArk of God was at that time with the children of Israel.
1S 14:19 And while Saul spoke to the priest, the tumult that was in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase. Then Saul said to the priest, Withdraw your hand.
1S 14:20 And Saul and all the people who were with him gathered together and went into the battle. And each man’s sword was against his companion; the tumult was very great.
1S 14:21 And the aHebrews who had previously been with the Philistines and who had gone up with them into the camp all around, they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.
1S 14:22 Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had ahidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled, even they followed them closely in the battle.
1S 14:23 Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day, and the battle crossed over beyond Beth-aven.
1S 14:24 And the men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food before the evening, when I am avenged of my enemies. So none of the people even tasted food.
1S 14:25 And all those from the land came upon a honeycomb, and there was ahoney on the surface of the ground.
1S 14:26 And when the people came to the honeycomb, there was ahoney flowing; but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people were afraid of the oath.
1S 14:27 But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath; and he put forth the end of his staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and he put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.
1S 14:28 Then someone from among the people responded and said, Your father sternly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food today; and so the people are faint.
1S 14:29 Then Jonathan said, My father has troubled the land. Look how my eyes lit up because I tasted a bit of this honey.
1S 14:30 How much more if today the people had eaten up the spoil from their enemies, which they found, for now the slaughter among the Philistines has not been great.
1S 14:31 Now they had struck down the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon, and the people were very faint.
1S 14:32 And the people flew upon the spoil; and they took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.
1S 14:33 And it was reported to Saul, saying, The people are now sinning against Jehovah by eating the spoil with the 1ablood. And he said, You have dealt treacherously. Roll a large stone to me today.
1S 14:34 And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say to them, Let each man bring his ox here to me, and each his sheep; and slay them here and eat; and do not sin against Jehovah by eating these things with the blood. And all the people brought their oxen with them there that night and slew them there.
1S 14:35 And Saul built an aaltar to Jehovah; it was the first altar that he built to Jehovah.
1S 14:36 And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man among them. And they said, Do all that is good in your sight. But the apriest said, Let us draw near to God here.
1S 14:37 And Saul inquired of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You deliver them into the hand of Israel? But He did not answer him that day.
1S 14:38 Then Saul said, Come here, all you chiefs of the people; and find out how this sin has happened today.
1S 14:39 For as Jehovah lives, who saves Israel, even if it is with Jonathan my son, he shall surely be put to death. But there was no one among all the people who answered him.
1S 14:40 And he said to all Israel, You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son shall be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, Do what is good in your sight.
1S 14:41 Then Saul said to Jehovah the God of Israel, Show perfectly. And Jonathan and Saul were taken by alot, but the people escaped.
1S 14:42 And Saul said, Cast the lot between me and Jonathan my son. And Jonathan was taken.
1S 14:43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done. And Jonathan told him and said, I did indeed taste a bit of honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am; I must die.
1S 14:44 And Saul said, God do so 1to me and more so, for you shall surely die, Jonathan.
1S 14:45 Then the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who has executed this great salvation in Israel? Far from it! As Jehovah lives, not a hair of his head shall fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan so that he did not die.
1S 14:46 Then Saul went up from following the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.
1S 14:47 Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies all around, against Moab and against the children of Ammon and against Edom and against the kings of Zobah and against the Philistines. And wherever he turned, he did them harm.
1S 14:48 And he performed valiantly and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel from the hand of those who had plundered them.
1S 14:49 Now the sons of Saul were aJonathan and Ishvi and Malchi-shua. And the names of his two daughters were these: The name of the firstborn was bMerab, and the name of the younger was cMichal.
1S 14:50 And the name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the captain of his army was aAbner the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle.
1S 14:51 And Kish was Saul’s father; and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abiel.
1S 14:52 And there was severe war against the Philistines all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant man, he atook him for himself.
1 SAMUEL 15

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F. Saul’s Disobedience in His Conquest of the Amalekites
15:1-35
1S 15:1 And Samuel said to Saul, Jehovah sent me to aanoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the words of Jehovah.
1S 15:2 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I will punish the 1aAmalekites for what they did to Israel when they set themselves against them in the way as they came up out of Egypt.
1S 15:3 Go now and strike the Amalekites; and 1autterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, oxen and sheep, camel and donkey.
1S 15:4 And Saul summoned the people and mustered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah.
1S 15:5 And Saul came to the city of the Amalekites and set an ambush in the river valley.
1S 15:6 And Saul said to the aKenites, Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites; otherwise, I will destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. And the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
1S 15:7 Then Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah as you go toward Shur, which is opposite Egypt.
1S 15:8 And he captured aAgag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
1S 15:9 But Saul and the people 1spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings, and the lambs and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything that was despised and worthless, this they utterly destroyed.
1S 15:10 And the word of Jehovah came to Samuel, saying,
1S 15:11 I arepent that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not fulfilled My words. And Samuel was angry, and he bcried to Jehovah all night long.
1S 15:12 Then Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, saying, Saul went to Carmel and has now set up a 1monument afor himself, and he has returned and passed on down to Gilgal.
1S 15:13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of Jehovah! I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah.
1S 15:14 And Samuel said, What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear?
1S 15:15 And Saul said, They have been brought from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to 1sacrifice to Jehovah your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
1S 15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop, and I will tell you what Jehovah spoke to me last night. And he said to him, Speak.
1S 15:17 And Samuel said, Though you are asmall in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? And Jehovah has anointed you king over Israel.
1S 15:18 And Jehovah sent you on a journey and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.
1S 15:19 Why then did you not obey the voice of Jehovah, but flew upon the spoil and did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah?
1S 15:20 And Saul said to Samuel, I surely did obey the voice of Jehovah, and I went on the journey that Jehovah sent me on. And I have brought Agag the king of the Amalekites and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1S 15:21 But of the spoil the people took sheep and oxen, the chief of those things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in Gilgal.
1S 15:22 And Samuel said, / Does Jehovah delight in aburnt offerings and sacrifices / As much as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? / Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, / And to heed, than the fat of rams.
1S 15:23 For 1rebellion is like the sin of divination, / And insubordination is like idolatry and teraphim. / Because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, / He has also 2arejected you from being king.
1S 15:24 And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Jehovah and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
1S 15:25 Now therefore pardon my sin, I beg you, and return with me so that I may worship Jehovah.
1S 15:26 But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of Jehovah, and Jehovah has rejected you from being king over Israel.
1S 15:27 And when Samuel turned around to go, 1Saul seized the corner of his cloak, and it tore.
1S 15:28 And Samuel said to him, Jehovah has atorn the kingdom of Israel away from you today and has given it to an 1associate of yours, who is better than you.
1S 15:29 Moreover the Eminence of Israel does not lie nor arepent, for He is not a man that He should repent.
1S 15:30 Then 1Saul said, I have sinned. Honor me now, I beg you, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me so that I may worship Jehovah your God.
1S 15:31 So Samuel returned after Saul, and Saul worshipped Jehovah.
1S 15:32 Then Samuel said, Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites near to me. And Agag came to him cheerfully, for Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death has turned.
1S 15:33 And Samuel said, Just as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before Jehovah in Gilgal.
1S 15:34 And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.
1S 15:35 And Samuel never again saw Saul unto the day of his death, though Samuel amourned for Saul. And Jehovah brepented that He had made Saul king over Israel.
1 SAMUEL 16

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III. The History concerning David
1 Sam. 16:1 — 2 Sam. 24:25
A. Prepared by God to Be a Man according to the Heart of God
1 Sam. 16:1 — 2 Sam. 1:27
1. Chosen by God
16:1-10
1S 16:1 And Jehovah said to Samuel, How long will you amourn for Saul, though I have brejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with coil, and 1go; I will send you to dJesse the eBethlehemite; for I have 2selected for Myself a king among his sons.
1S 16:2 And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me. And Jehovah said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to Jehovah.
1S 16:3 Then call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will make known to you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for Me the one whom I name to you.
1S 16:4 So Samuel did what Jehovah said and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him, and they said, Do you come peaceably?
1S 16:5 And he said, Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to Jehovah. aSanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice.
1S 16:6 And when they came, he saw aEliab and said, Surely Jehovah’s anointed is now before Him.
1S 16:7 But Jehovah said to Samuel, Do not regard his aappearance and the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For it is not how man sees that matters; for man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the bheart.
1S 16:8 Then Jesse called aAbinadab and had him pass before Samuel; and 1Samuel said, Jehovah has not chosen this one either.
1S 16:9 And Jesse had Shammah pass by; and he said, Jehovah has not chosen this one either.
1S 16:10 And Jesse had 1seven of his sons pass before Samuel; and Samuel said to Jesse, Jehovah has not chosen these.
2. Trained by God in Humility
16:11
1S 16:11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are these all the young men you have? And he said, There is still the 1ayoungest, but he is now tending the bsheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send for him, and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.
3. Anointed
16:12-23
1S 16:12 So he sent for him and brought him in. Now he was aruddy and had beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And Jehovah said, Arise; anoint him, for this is he.
1S 16:13 And Samuel took the horn of oil and aanointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the bSpirit of Jehovah 1rushed cupon 2David from that day forward. Then Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
1S 16:14 And the Spirit of Jehovah adeparted from Saul, and an evil spirit from Jehovah terrorized him.
1S 16:15 And Saul’s servants said to him, See now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.
1S 16:16 Let our lord speak. Your servants are before you; they will seek out a man who is skilled in playing the lyre. And when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will aplay it by hand, and you will be well.
1S 16:17 And Saul said to his servants, Select for me a man who can play well, and bring him to me.
1S 16:18 And one of the attendants answered and said, I have just seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skilled in playing and a mighty man of valor and a man of war and prudent in speech and of good presence, and Jehovah is with him.
1S 16:19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me 1David your son, who is among the asheep.
1S 16:20 And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a kid, and sent them by David his son to Saul.
1S 16:21 And David came to Saul and 1entered his service. And 2Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.
1S 16:22 And Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, Let David enter my service, for he has found favor in my sight.
1S 16:23 So whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took his lyre and aplayed it by hand, and Saul was refreshed and was well; and the evil spirit departed from him.
1 SAMUEL 17

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4. Tested and Approved in Trusting God and Defeating Goliath
17:1-58
1S 17:1 And the Philistines assembled their armies for battle, and they assembled in Socoh, which belongs to Judah. And they encamped between Socoh and Azekah in Ephes-dammim.
1S 17:2 And Saul and the men of Israel were assembled, and they encamped in the valley of Elah. And they set the battle in array against the Philistines.
1S 17:3 And the Philistines stood on one mountain on one side, and Israel stood on another mountain on the other side; and the valley was between them.
1S 17:4 And a champion came forth from the camps of the Philistines. His name was aGoliath, from Gath, and he was six cubits and a span tall.
1S 17:5 And there was a bronze helmet upon his head; and he was clothed with scaled armor, and the weight of the armor was five thousand bronze shekels.
1S 17:6 And he had bronze greaves upon his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.
1S 17:7 And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred iron shekels; and his shield bearer went before him.
1S 17:8 And he stood and called out to the ranks of Israel and said to them, Why do you come out to set the battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you, Saul’s servants? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.
1S 17:9 If he is able to fight with me and strike me down, we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and strike him down, you will be our servants and serve us.
1S 17:10 And the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight together.
1S 17:11 Now when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
1S 17:12 Now David was the son of that Ephrathite from Bethlehem-judah, named aJesse, who had beight sons. And the man was an old man in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men.
1S 17:13 And the three oldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who had gone into the battle were aEliab the firstborn and the second to him Abinadab and the third Shammah;
1S 17:14 And David was the ayoungest. And the three oldest went after Saul,
1S 17:15 But David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s asheep at Bethlehem.
1S 17:16 And the Philistine approached morning and evening, and he presented himself aforty days.
1S 17:17 And Jesse said to David his son, Take an ephah of this parched grain for your brothers and these ten loaves, and take them quickly to your brothers’ camp.
1S 17:18 Also bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand; and see how your brothers are doing, and take some token from them.
1S 17:19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
1S 17:20 And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper. And he took up the goods and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the entrenchment as the army was going forth to the battle line and shouting for the battle.
1S 17:21 And Israel and the Philistines set the battle in array, array against array.
1S 17:22 And David left the things he had in the hand of the keeper of the equipment, and he ran to the array and went and greeted his brothers.
1S 17:23 And just as he was speaking with them, the champion, whose name was aGoliath, the Philistine from Gath, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and he spoke according to the same words; and David heard.
1S 17:24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from before him; and they were very afraid.
1S 17:25 And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he comes up to defy Israel. But as for the man who strikes him down, the king will make him rich with great riches; and he will give him his daughter and make the house of his father 1free in Israel.
1S 17:26 Then David spoke to the men who were standing with him, saying, What shall be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and turns away reproach from Israel? For who is this auncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the ranks of the bliving God?
1S 17:27 And the people spoke to him according to these words, saying, Thus shall it be done to the man who strikes him down.
1S 17:28 And Eliab his oldest brother heard him speaking to the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the evil of your heart, that you came down to see the battle.
1S 17:29 And David said, What have I done now? Is there no cause?
1S 17:30 And he turned around from him to another and spoke according to the same words, and the people responded to him according to the first words.
1S 17:31 And when the words that David spoke were heard, they were reported to Saul; and he had him brought.
1S 17:32 And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
1S 17:33 But Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth and he has been a man of war since his youth.
1S 17:34 And David said to Saul, Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock,
1S 17:35 I would go out after it and strike it and deliver the lamb from its mouth. And when it rose up against me, I would seize it by its beard and strike it and kill it.
1S 17:36 Both the lion and the bear did your servant strike; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God.
1S 17:37 And David said, Jehovah, who adelivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and may Jehovah be with you.
1S 17:38 And Saul put his own garment on David, and he placed a bronze helmet on his head and put his armor on him.
1S 17:39 And David girded his sword over his garment and tried to go, for he had not tried the armor. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go in these because I have not tried them. And David took them off.
1S 17:40 Then he took his staff in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them into the shepherd’s bag that he had, that is, in his pouch; and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.
1S 17:41 And the Philistine came on and approached David, and the man who bore the shield was before him.
1S 17:42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he scorned him; for he was but a ayouth and ruddy and handsome in appearance.
1S 17:43 And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
1S 17:44 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the field.
1S 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the aname of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied.
1S 17:46 On this day Jehovah will deliver you up into my hand, and I will strike you and remove your head from you. And I will give the corpses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of heaven and to the animals of the earth on this day. And all the earth will aknow that there is a God in Israel;
1S 17:47 And all this congregation will know that it is not by sword or spear that Jehovah asaves, for the battle is Jehovah’s and He will deliver you into our hand.
1S 17:48 And when the Philistine rose up and came and drew near to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
1S 17:49 And David put forth his hand into his bag and took a stone from there. And he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
1S 17:50 Thus David aprevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.
1S 17:51 Then David ran and stood beside the Philistine, and he took 1the Philistine’s asword and drew it out of its sheath and made certain he was dead by striking off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their mighty man was dead, they fled.
1S 17:52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose up and shouted and pursued the Philistines until you come to Gai and to the gates of Ekron. And the Philistines lay slain along the way to Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.
1S 17:53 And the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camps.
1S 17:54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
1S 17:55 Now when Saul saw David going forth to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner the captain of the army, Whose son is this youth, Abner? And Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.
1S 17:56 And the king said, Inquire whose son this young man is.
1S 17:57 So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul; and the Philistine’s head was in his hand.
1S 17:58 And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man? And David said, The son of your servant aJesse the Bethlehemite.
1 SAMUEL 18

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5. Persecuted and Tried by Saul
1 Sam. 18:1 — 2 Sam. 1:27
a. Jonathan’s Love of David
18:1-5
1S 18:1 Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan became knit with the soul of David; and Jonathan aloved him like his own soul.
1S 18:2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house.
1S 18:3 Then Jonathan and David made a acovenant, because he loved him like his own soul.
1S 18:4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and he gave it to David, as well as his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt.
1S 18:5 And David went forth; on every mission that Saul sent him he acted prudently. Therefore Saul set him over the men of battle, and it was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.
b. Saul’s Envy of David
18:6-9
1S 18:6 But when the men came home, as David returned from striking the Philistines, the women came out of all the towns of Israel singing and dancing to meet Saul the king, with tambourines and joyful songs and stringed instruments.
1S 18:7 And the women sang to one another as they played, and they said,
aSaul has struck down his thousands; / But David, his ten thousands.
1S 18:8 And Saul was very 1angry, for this saying displeased him. And he said, They ascribe ten thousands to David, but to me they ascribe only thousands. And what more can he have except the kingdom?
1S 18:9 So Saul eyed David from that day on.
c. Saul’s Device to Kill David
18:10 — 20:42
1S 18:10 Then on the next day an aevil spirit from God rushed upon Saul; and he bprophesied in the midst of the house while David played the lyre by hand, as he had day by day. And the spear was in Saul’s hand.
1S 18:11 Then Saul threw the spear; for he said, I will astrike David even to the wall. But David 1fled from him twice.
1S 18:12 And Saul was afraid of David, for Jehovah was awith him and had departed from Saul.
1S 18:13 So Saul removed him from being with him and made him the captain of a thousand. And he awent out and came in before the people.
1S 18:14 And David acted prudently in all his campaigns, and Jehovah was with him.
1S 18:15 And when Saul saw that he acted very prudently, he stood in awe of him.
1S 18:16 And all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
1S 18:17 And Saul said to David, See, my oldest daughter Merab I will give to you as awife; only be valiant for me and fight Jehovah’s bbattles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
1S 18:18 And David said to Saul, Who am aI, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be a son-in-law to the king?
1S 18:19 But at the time when aMerab the daughter of Saul was to be given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.
1S 18:20 Now Michal the daughter of Saul loved David, and it was told Saul; and the matter pleased him.
1S 18:21 And Saul said, I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be upon him. Therefore Saul said to David, For the second time, you may be my son-in-law today.
1S 18:22 Then Saul commanded his servants, Speak to David privately, saying, See, the king is pleased with you, and all his servants love you. So now become the king’s son-in-law.
1S 18:23 And Saul’s servants spoke these words in David’s ears. And David said, Is it such a light thing in your sight for me to become a son-in-law to the king, since I am a poor man and lightly esteemed?
1S 18:24 And Saul’s servants told him, saying, This is what David said.
1S 18:25 Then Saul said, Thus shall you say to David, The king has no desire for a dowry but for a hundred Philistine foreskins, that he may be avenged of the king’s enemies. For Saul planned to have David fall by the ahand of the Philistines.
1S 18:26 So when his servants told David these things, David was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. And when the time had not yet expired,
1S 18:27 David rose up and went, he and his men; and he struck down two hundred Philistine men. And David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him aMichal his daughter as wife.
1S 18:28 And Saul saw and knew that Jehovah was with David. And Michal the daughter of Saul loved him.
1S 18:29 And Saul was even more afraid of David, and Saul was David’s enemy from then on.
1S 18:30 Then the princes of the Philistines went forth; and as often as they went forth, David succeeded more than all the servants of Saul. So his name was very highly esteemed.
1 SAMUEL 19

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1S 19:1 And Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, took great adelight in David.
1S 19:2 And 1Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father is seeking to kill you. Now therefore be on guard in the morning, and stay in some secret place, and hide yourself.
1S 19:3 And I will go out and stand by my father’s side in the field where you are. And I will speak about you to my father; and if I learn anything, I will tell you.
1S 19:4 So Jonathan spoke well about David to Saul his father and said to him, May the king not sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been very good for you.
1S 19:5 For he risked his life when he astruck down the Philistine, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by having David killed without cause?
1S 19:6 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan; and Saul swore, As Jehovah lives, he shall not be put to death.
1S 19:7 Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
1S 19:8 And there was war again. And David went out and fought against the Philistines. And he struck them with a great slaughter, and they fled from before him.
1S 19:9 Then there came an aevil spirit from Jehovah upon Saul, and he sat in his house with his spear in his hand while David played the lyre by hand.
1S 19:10 And Saul sought to astrike David even to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence. And 1Saul struck the wall with his spear, but David fled and bescaped that night.
1S 19:11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, If you do not save your life tonight, in the morning you will be killed.
1S 19:12 So Michal let David adown through the window, and he went away and fled and escaped.
1S 19:13 Then Michal took the ateraphim and laid it in the bed. And she put a net of goats’ hair on its head and covered it with clothing.
1S 19:14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
1S 19:15 And Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, Bring him up to me on his bed that I may kill him.
1S 19:16 And when the messengers went in, there was the teraphim in the bed with a net of goats’ hair on its head.
1S 19:17 Then Saul said to Michal, Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go so that he has slipped away? And Michal said to Saul, He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill you?
1S 19:18 So David fled and slipped away and came to aSamuel at Ramah, and he told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt at Naioth.
1S 19:19 Then it was told Saul, saying, David is now at Naioth in Ramah.
1S 19:20 So Saul sent messengers to seize David; and when they saw the company of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing and presiding over them, the aSpirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers, and they also prophesied.
1S 19:21 And it was told Saul, and he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul again sent messengers the third time, and they also prophesied.
1S 19:22 Then he himself went to Ramah. And he came to the great well that is in Secu; and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And someone said, They are now at Naioth in Ramah.
1S 19:23 So he went there, toward Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him as well, and he went on and aprophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
1S 19:24 And he also stripped off his clothes and also prophesied before Samuel, and he lay naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, Is Saul also aamong the prophets?
1 SAMUEL 20

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1S 20:1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said to Jonathan, What have I done? What is my iniquity, or what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?
1S 20:2 And he said to him, Far from it! You shall not die. My father does nothing great or small that he does not disclose to me. So why should my father hide this matter from me? Such would not happen.
1S 20:3 Then David swore again and said, Your father fully knows that I have found favor in your sight; so he says, Do not let Jonathan know about this; otherwise, he will be grieved. But truly as Jehovah alives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
1S 20:4 And Jonathan said to David, Whatever you say, I will do for you.
1S 20:5 And David said to Jonathan, It is the anew moon tomorrow, and I am to sit with the king at the meal. But let me go, and I will hide myself in the field until the following evening.
1S 20:6 If your father misses me at all, you shall say, David earnestly asked leave of me to run to aBethlehem his city, for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all his family.
1S 20:7 If he says in this way, Fine; then your servant will have peace. But if he becomes angry at all, know that evil has been determined by him.
1S 20:8 Deal kindly then with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a acovenant of Jehovah with you. But if there is any iniquity in me, you kill me. Why then should you bring me to your father?
1S 20:9 And Jonathan said, Far be it from you! For if I knew at all that evil has been determined by my father to come upon you, would I not tell it to you?
1S 20:10 Then David said to Jonathan, Who will tell me whether or not your father has responded to you harshly?
1S 20:11 And Jonathan said to David, Come and let us go out into the field. And they both went out into the field.
1S 20:12 And Jonathan said to David, By Jehovah, the God of Israel: When I search out my father about this time tomorrow, or on the following day, and if he is good toward David, I will surely send word to you and disclose it to you.
1S 20:13 May Jehovah do so to Jonathan, and even more, if it pleases my father to do you evil, and I do not disclose it to you and send you away to go in peace. And may Jehovah be awith you as He was with my father.
1S 20:14 And while I am still alive, do show me the alovingkindness of Jehovah, that I may not die;
1S 20:15 And never cut off your lovingkindness from my house, not even when Jehovah has cut off David’s enemies to the man from the face of the earth.
1S 20:16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, And Jehovah will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.
1S 20:17 And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he aloved him as he loved his own soul.
1S 20:18 Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon; and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty.
1S 20:19 And when you have waited three days, you shall go far down and come to the place where you hid yourself while all this was happening; and you shall remain at the stone Ezel.
1S 20:20 And I will shoot three arrows to its side, as though I were shooting at a mark.
1S 20:21 And just then I will send a boy, saying, Go; find the arrows. If I say to the boy, The arrows are there to this side of you; gather them; then come, for you have peace and there is no problem, as Jehovah lives.
1S 20:22 But if I speak in this way to the young man, The aarrows are there beyond you; then go, for Jehovah has sent you away.
1S 20:23 And concerning this matter that I and you have spoken of, it is Jehovah who is abetween me and you forever.
1S 20:24 So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat at the meal to eat.
1S 20:25 And the king sat on his seat as at other times, on his seat near the wall; and Jonathan rose up, and Abner sat down beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.
1S 20:26 But Saul said nothing that day about it, for he thought, Something has happened to him; he is anot clean; surely he is not clean.
1S 20:27 And on the day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why has the son of Jesse come neither yesterday nor today to the meal?
1S 20:28 And Jonathan answered Saul, David asked leave of me earnestly to go to aBethlehem.
1S 20:29 And he said, Let me go, I beg you; for our family has a sacrifice in that city, and my brother commanded me to be there. So now if I have found favor in your sight, let me slip away to see my brothers. Therefore he has not come to the king’s table.
1S 20:30 And Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?
1S 20:31 For as long as the son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established. Now therefore send someone and bring him to me, for he is as good as dead.
1S 20:32 And Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, Why must he be put to death? What has he done?
1S 20:33 But Saul threw his spear at him in order to astrike him down. So Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to put David to death.
1S 20:34 And Jonathan rose up from the table in burning anger and did not eat any food on the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved about David because his father had shamed him.
1S 20:35 Then in the morning Jonathan went forth to the field for the appointment with David, and a small boy was with him.
1S 20:36 And he said to his boy, Run and find the arrows that I am shooting. While the boy was running, he shot the aarrow beyond him.
1S 20:37 And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called out after the boy and said, The arrow is there beyond you.
1S 20:38 And Jonathan called out to the boy, Hurry up quickly; do not stay there. And Jonathan’s boy gathered the arrows and came to his master.
1S 20:39 And the boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
1S 20:40 Then Jonathan gave his equipment to his boy and said to him, Go; bring them to the city.
1S 20:41 And when the boy went, David rose up from his hiding place toward the south and fell on his face to the ground; and he bowed himself three times. And they kissed each other; and they wept for each other, but David more greatly.
1S 20:42 And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, because both of us have sworn in the name of Jehovah, saying, May Jehovah be abetween me and you and between my seed and your seed forever. Then 1David rose up and left, and Jonathan went into the city.
1 SAMUEL 21

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d. David’s Being Supplied with the Holy Bread of the Presence
and with the Sword of Goliath by the Priest Ahimelech
21:1-9
1S 21:1 aAnd David went to bNob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, Why are you alone, and no one with you?
1S 21:2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with some matter, and he said to me, Let no man know anything about the matter that I have sent you on and charged you with. So I have made an appointment with my young men at such and such a place.
1S 21:3 Now then what do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever there is to be found.
1S 21:4 And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand; yet there is holy abread, but only if the young men have kept themselves from women.
1S 21:5 And David answered the priest and said to him, Women have indeed been kept from us, as previously when I went forth; and the vessels of the young men were holy, even if it was a common journey. How much more then today will their vessels be holy!
1S 21:6 So the priest gave him what was holy, for there was no bread there except the 1bread of the Presence, which was taken from before Jehovah, to be replaced by hot bread at the time it was taken.
1S 21:7 Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before Jehovah. His name was aDoeg the Edomite, the chief of the shepherds that belonged to Saul.
1S 21:8 And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not a spear or a sword here on hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my equipment with me, for the king’s matter was urgent.
1S 21:9 And the priest said, The asword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take it, take it; for there is no other here but that one. And David said, There is none like it; give it to me.
e. David’s Fleeing from Saul and Going to Achish the King of Gath
21:10-15
1S 21:10 Then David rose up and fled that day from before Saul, and he went to aAchish the king of Gath.
1S 21:11 But the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David the king of the land? Is this not him of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying,
aSaul has struck down his thousands; / But David, his ten thousands?
1S 21:12 And David took these words to heart and feared Achish the king of Gath greatly.
1S 21:13 So he disguised his sanity in their sight and acted like a amadman before them, and he made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
1S 21:14 And Achish said to his servants, Look, you see that the man is mad. Why have you brought him to me?
1S 21:15 Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to me to be a madman before me? Shall this one come into my house?
1 SAMUEL 22

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f. David’s Staying in the Cave of Adullam, in Mizpeh of Moab,
and in the Forest of Hereth of Judah
22:1-5
1S 22:1 Then David went from there and escaped to the acave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down to him there.
1S 22:2 And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented gathered to him, and he became captain over them. And with him were about four hundred men.
1S 22:3 And David went from there to Mizpeh of aMoab. And he said to the king of Moab, Let my father and mother go forth and be with you until I know what God will do for me.
1S 22:4 And he brought them before the king of Moab, and they remained with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
1S 22:5 And aGad the prophet said to David, Do not stay in the stronghold; depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
g. Saul’s Killing Ahimelech the Priest and His Family because of David
22:6-23
1S 22:6 Then Saul heard that David and the men with him had been discovered. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height; and his spear was in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.
1S 22:7 And Saul said to his servants standing around him, Hear now, you Benjaminites: Will the son of Jesse give every one of you afields and vineyards, will he make every one of you captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,
1S 22:8 That every one of you has conspired against me, so that no one discloses it to me when my son makes a acovenant with the son of Jesse, and none of you is sorry for me or discloses it to me when my son stirs up my servant against me to ambush me as on this day?
1S 22:9 Then aDoeg the Edomite, who was set over Saul’s servants, answered and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub at Nob.
1S 22:10 And he ainquired of Jehovah for him and gave him provisions, and he gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
1S 22:11 Then the king sent men to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob. And all of them came to the king.
1S 22:12 And Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. And he said, Here I am, my lord.
1S 22:13 And Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him food and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, so that he rises up against me to ambush me as on this day?
1S 22:14 And Ahimelech answered the king and said, And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law and has access to your council and is honored in your house?
1S 22:15 Was it just today that I began to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me! May the king not impute anything to his servant nor to all my father’s house, for your servant knows nothing of this matter, small or great.
1S 22:16 But the king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your afather’s house.
1S 22:17 Then the king said to the runners who were standing around him, Turn, and 1kill the priests of Jehovah, because their hand is also with David, and because they knew that he was fleeing and they did not disclose it to me. But the king’s servants would not put forth their hand to attack the priests of Jehovah.
1S 22:18 And the king said to Doeg, You turn, and attack the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests. And on that day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
1S 22:19 And he struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, infants and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
1S 22:20 But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub escaped, whose name was aAbiathar, and he fled after David.
1S 22:21 And Abiathar told David that Saul had slain the priests of Jehovah.
1S 22:22 And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for all the lives of your father’s house.
1S 22:23 Remain with me, and do not be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you will be kept safe with me.
1 SAMUEL 23

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h. David’s Defeating the Philistines and Staying in Keilah
23:1-12
1S 23:1 And some told David, saying, The Philistines are now fighting against Keilah and robbing the threshing floors.
1S 23:2 And David ainquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go and strike these Philistines? And Jehovah said to David, Go and strike the Philistines, and save Keilah.
1S 23:3 And David’s men said to him, Here we are, afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines!
1S 23:4 So David inquired yet again of Jehovah. And Jehovah answered him and said, Rise up; go down to Keilah, for I have delivered the Philistines into your hand.
1S 23:5 Then David and his men went to Keilah and fought against the Philistines and carried off their cattle and struck them down with a great slaughter. And David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
1S 23:6 Now it so happened that when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he came down with an aephod in his hand.
1S 23:7 Then it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, God has 1delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, because he has entered a city with gates and bars.
1S 23:8 And Saul summoned all the people to battle, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
1S 23:9 But when David learned that Saul was planning evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod here.
1S 23:10 And David said, O Jehovah the God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah in order to destroy the city on my account.
1S 23:11 Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O Jehovah the God of Israel, do tell Your servant. And Jehovah said, He will come down.
1S 23:12 And David said, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And Jehovah said, They will deliver you.
i. David’s Remaining in the Wilderness of Ziph
23:13-28
1S 23:13 So David and his men, about six hundred men, rose up and went forth from Keilah; and they went about wherever they could. And when it was told Saul that David had slipped away from Keilah, he ceased his going forth.
1S 23:14 And David remained in the wilderness in strongholds, and he remained in the hill country in the awilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.
1S 23:15 And David saw that Saul went forth to seek his life, and David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh.
1S 23:16 Then Jonathan the son of Saul rose up and went to David at Horesh, and he strengthened his hand in God.
1S 23:17 And he said to him, Do not be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father will not find you; and you will become aking over Israel, and I will be second to you; and even Saul my father knows that.
1S 23:18 And the two of them made a acovenant before Jehovah. And David remained in Horesh, and Jonathan went to his house.
1S 23:19 Then some aZiphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, David is indeed hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the bhill of Hachilah, which is south of the desert!
1S 23:20 Now then, O king, come down, according to all your soul’s desire to come down; and we will deliver him into the hand of the king.
1S 23:21 And Saul said, Blessed are you of Jehovah, for you have had compassion on me.
1S 23:22 Go now, and make sure once more; and find out and look into his place, where he sets foot, who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very cunning.
1S 23:23 And look about and learn of all his hiding places where he lurks, and come back to me with sure information; then I will go with you, and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
1S 23:24 And they rose up and went to Ziph before Saul. And David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of the desert.
1S 23:25 And Saul and his men went to seek him. And when some told David this, he went down to the rock and remained in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard of it, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.
1S 23:26 And Saul went on one side of the mountain, while David and his men went on the other side of the mountain. And David hurried to get away from Saul, while Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men in order to capture them.
1S 23:27 Then a messenger came to Saul, saying, Hurry and come, for the Philistines have raided the land.
1S 23:28 So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and he went to meet the Philistines; therefore they call that place the Rock of Escape.
j. David’s Remaining in the Strongholds of En-gedi
23:29 — 24:2
1S 23:29 And David went up from there and remained in the strongholds of En-gedi.
1 SAMUEL 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

1S 24:1 And when Saul returned from following the Philistines, some told him, saying, David is now in the awilderness of En-gedi.
1S 24:2 And Saul took three thousand choice men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
k. Saul’s Falling into the Hand of David but David Not Killing Him
24:3-22
1S 24:3 And he came to the sheepfolds along the way, and a cave was there. And Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost part of the acave.
1S 24:4 And David’s men said to him, The day is here of which Jehovah said to you, I am about to agive your enemy into your hand. Do then to him according to what seems good in your sight. So David rose up and cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak without being noticed.
1S 24:5 But afterward David’s heart asmote him because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak.
1S 24:6 And he said to his men, 1Jehovah forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord, Jehovah’s aanointed, as stretch out my hand against him; for he is Jehovah’s anointed.
1S 24:7 So David checked his men with these words and would not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way.
1S 24:8 Then David rose up afterward and came out of the cave. And he called after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and paid him homage.
1S 24:9 And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to men’s words that say, David now seeks your harm?
1S 24:10 Just this day your eyes have seen that Jehovah gave you into my hand today in the cave. And though some told me to kill you, 1I spared you and said, I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is Jehovah’s anointed.
1S 24:11 Now my father, look, indeed, look at the corner of your cloak in my hand; for in that I cut off the corner of your cloak and did not kill you, know and see that there is no harm or transgression in my hand. And though I have not sinned against you, you ahunt after my life in order to take it.
1S 24:12 May Jehovah ajudge between me and you, and may Jehovah avenge me of you; but my hand will not be against you.
1S 24:13 As the proverb of the ancients says, Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness; but my hand will not be against you.
1S 24:14 After whom does the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog; a single aflea.
1S 24:15 May Jehovah then be Judge and decide between me and you. And may He see and plead my cause and release me through His judgment out of your hand.
1S 24:16 And when David finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and 1wept.
1S 24:17 And he said to David, You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me with good, while I have repaid you with evil.
1S 24:18 And you have declared today how you did good to me, because Jehovah delivered me up into your hand, but you would not kill me.
1S 24:19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he send him away safely? May Jehovah therefore reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
1S 24:20 And now I indeed know that you will surely be aking and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.
1S 24:21 Now therefore aswear to me by Jehovah that you will not cut off my seed after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.
1S 24:22 So David swore to Saul. And Saul went to his house, and David and his men went up to the stronghold.
1 SAMUEL 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • •

l. Samuel’s Death
25:1a
1S 25:1 Then aSamuel 1died, and all Israel gathered together and bmourned for him; and they buried him at his house in Ramah.
m. David’s Dealing with Nabal and Abigail
25:1b-44
And David rose up and went down into the wilderness of Paran.
1S 25:2 Now there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very wealthy: He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And at that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
1S 25:3 And the man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman had good discernment and was beautiful in appearance. But the man was hard, and he was evil in his doings; and he was a Calebite.
1S 25:4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
1S 25:5 So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.
1S 25:6 And thus shall you say, Live long; and peace be to you, and apeace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
1S 25:7 Now therefore I hear that you have shearers; your shepherds have now been with us, and we have not harmed them, nor has there been anything missing from them, all the time they were in Carmel.
1S 25:8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let these young men find favor in your sight, for we come in a good time. Give whatever you may have on hand to your servants and to your son David.
1S 25:9 So David’s young men went and spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David; then they waited.
1S 25:10 But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, Who is David, or who is the son of Jesse? There are many aservants today who break away from their masters.
1S 25:11 Shall I then take my food and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?
1S 25:12 Then David’s young men turned back on their way. And they returned and came and told him all these things.
1S 25:13 And David said to his men, Each man gird on his sword. And each man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And they went up after David, about four hundred men. And two hundred remained awith the baggage.
1S 25:14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, David has just sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he shouted insultingly at them.
1S 25:15 But the men were very good to us; and we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything all the time we went with them when we were in the fields.
1S 25:16 They were a awall to us both by night and by day all the time we were with them tending the sheep.
1S 25:17 Now therefore know and consider what you will do, because evil has been determined against our master and against all his house; for he is so worthless a man that no one can speak to him.
1S 25:18 Then Abigail hurried and took atwo hundred loaves of bread and two skins of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched grain and one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she put them on her donkeys.
1S 25:19 And she said to her young men, Go on before me; I am coming right behind you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
1S 25:20 And as she rode on her donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain, David and his men at that moment came down toward her; and she met them.
1S 25:21 Now David had said, 1It was certainly in vain that I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that he has; for he has repaid me evil for good.
1S 25:22 May God do so to David’s enemies, and even more, if I aleave so much as a male child of all that he has until morning.
1S 25:23 And when Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from her donkey and fell on her face before David; and she bowed herself to the ground.
1S 25:24 And she fell at his feet and said, Upon me alone, my lord, be this iniquity; and let your female servant speak in your hearing, and hear the words of your female servant.
1S 25:25 May my lord not take this worthless man Nabal to heart. For as his name is, so he is: 1Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your female servant did not see my lord’s young men, whom you sent.
1S 25:26 And now, my lord, as Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, since Jehovah has awithheld you from entering into bloodshed and from bavenging yourself by your own hand, now therefore let your enemies and those who seek harm against my lord be like Nabal.
1S 25:27 And now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
1S 25:28 Please forgive the transgression of your female servant, for Jehovah will no doubt make a asure house for my lord, because my lord bfights the battles of Jehovah; and no evil will be found in you throughout your days.
1S 25:29 And though men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, my lord’s life will be abound up in the bundle of the living with Jehovah your God; and the lives of your enemies He will sling out, as from the hollow of the sling.
1S 25:30 And when Jehovah has done to my lord according to all the good He has spoken concerning you and has appointed you aruler over Israel,
1S 25:31 This will not be a qualm of conscience to you or a stumbling block in heart to my lord, that you shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when Jehovah has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your female servant.
1S 25:32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me.
1S 25:33 And blessed be your discretion; and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from entering into bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
1S 25:34 For surely as Jehovah the God of Israel lives, who has awithheld me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, indeed there would not have been bleft to Nabal even a male child until morning’s light.
1S 25:35 So David took from her hand what she brought to him. And he said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your voice and have accepted your person.
1S 25:36 And Abigail went to Nabal. And just then he was having a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, and he was extremely drunk; therefore she told him nothing, small or great, until the light of morning.
1S 25:37 And in the morning, when the wine had left Nabal, his wife told him these things. And his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.
1S 25:38 And about ten days later Jehovah struck Nabal, and he died.
1S 25:39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Jehovah, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach at the hand of Nabal and who has awithheld His servant from evildoing; and Jehovah has returned the evildoing of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent men to propose to Abigail, that he might take her to himself as 1bwife.
1S 25:40 And when David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to himself as wife.
1S 25:41 And she rose up and fell on her face to the ground. And she said, Here is your female servant, as a slave to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.
1S 25:42 And Abigail hurried and rose up; and she rode on a donkey, with her five young women following her. And she went after the messengers of David, and she became his wife.
1S 25:43 David also took aAhinoam of Jezreel; and both of them became his bwives.
1S 25:44 Now Saul had given aMichal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
1 SAMUEL 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

n. Jehovah’s Delivering Saul into the Hand of David but David Not Killing Him
26:1-25
1S 26:1 And the aZiphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, David is hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite the desert!
1S 26:2 And Saul rose up and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with him athree thousand choice men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
1S 26:3 And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite the desert, by the road. And David remained in the wilderness, but he saw that Saul had come into the wilderness after him.
1S 26:4 And David sent spies and knew for certain that Saul had come.
1S 26:5 So David rose up and went to the place where Saul encamped. And David looked on the place where Saul and aAbner the son of Ner, the captain of his army, lay. Now Saul was lying within the entrenchment, and the people were encamped around him.
1S 26:6 And David responded and spoke to Ahimelech the Hittite and aAbishai the son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul at the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with you.
1S 26:7 So David and Abishai went to the people by night; and there lay Saul, sleeping within the entrenchment, and his aspear was stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay around him.
1S 26:8 And Abishai said to David, God has adelivered your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore let me strike him with the spear even to the ground with one stroke, and I will not do it twice.
1S 26:9 But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against Jehovah’s 1aanointed and be guiltless?
1S 26:10 And David said, As Jehovah lives, Jehovah will strike him down, or his day will come to die, or he will go down in battle and perish.
1S 26:11 Jehovah forbid that I should stretch out my hand against Jehovah’s anointed. Now therefore take the spear that is by his head and the water jug, and let us go.
1S 26:12 So David took the spear and the water jug by Saul’s head, and they went away. And no one saw it or knew about it, nor did anyone awake, for all of them were sleeping; for a adeep sleep from Jehovah had fallen upon them.
1S 26:13 And David crossed over to the other side and stood on the top of the hill far off; a great distance was between them.
1S 26:14 And David called out to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer, Abner? And Abner answered and said, Who are you that calls out to the king?
1S 26:15 And David said to Abner, Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord.
1S 26:16 This thing is not good that you have done. As Jehovah lives, you are as good as dead because you did not guard your lord, Jehovah’s anointed. Now therefore, see where the king’s spear and the water jug that were by his head are.
1S 26:17 And Saul recognized David’s voice; and he said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.
1S 26:18 And he said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand?
1S 26:19 Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is Jehovah who has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering; but if it is the sons of men, let them be cursed before Jehovah; for they have 1driven me out today, so that I cannot share in Jehovah’s ainheritance, saying, Go, serve other gods.
1S 26:20 Now therefore do not let my blood fall to the ground apart from the presence of Jehovah; for the king of Israel has come forth to seek a single aflea, as one might hunt a partridge in the mountains.
1S 26:21 And Saul said, I have sinned. Return, my son David; for I will not harm you anymore, because my life was precious in your sight this day. I have indeed acted foolishly and have made a very great mistake.
1S 26:22 And David answered and said, Here is the spear, O king. Let one of the young men cross over and get it.
1S 26:23 And Jehovah will repay to each man his righteousness and faithfulness: Because Jehovah has adelivered you into my hand today, and I would not stretch out my hand against Jehovah’s anointed;
1S 26:24 Then just as great as your life was in my eyes this day, so great may my life be in Jehovah’s eyes that He would deliver me from all distress.
1S 26:25 And Saul said to David, Blessed are you, my son David. You shall most certainly both do and prevail. And David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.
1 SAMUEL 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

o. David’s Escaping to and Staying in the Land of the Philistines
27:1 — 28:2
1S 27:1 And David said in his heart, I will now one day perish at the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within all the territory of Israel. Thus I will escape from his hand.
1S 27:2 So David rose up and 1crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to aAchish the son of Maoch, the king of Gath.
1S 27:3 And David and his men remained with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each man with his household: David and his two awives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite.
1S 27:4 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer sought him.
1S 27:5 And David said to Achish, If now I have found favor in your sight, let me be given a place in one of the country towns; and I will dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?
1S 27:6 So Achish gave him aZiklag that day; therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day.
1S 27:7 And the length of time that David remained in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
1S 27:8 Now David and his men went up and attacked the aGeshurites and the Girzites and the bAmalekites, for they were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur and unto the land of Egypt.
1S 27:9 And David struck the land; and he left neither man nor woman alive but took the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish.
1S 27:10 Then Achish said, 1Against whom have you conducted an attack today? And David said, Against the south of Judah and against the south of the Jerahmeelites and against the south of the Kenites.
1S 27:11 Now David left neither man nor woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he said, Perhaps they will tell of us, saying, Thus did David do. And such was his custom as long as he dwelt in the country of the Philistines.
1S 27:12 And Achish trusted David, saying, He has made himself utterly odious to his people Israel; therefore he shall be my servant forever.
1 SAMUEL 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

1S 28:1 Then in those days the Philistines gathered their camps together for war to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, Know assuredly that you shall go out with me into the camp, you and your men.
1S 28:2 And David said to Achish, This being so, you will know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore I will make you my bodyguard for life.
p. Saul’s Tragic Ending Pretold by Samuel
28:3-25
1S 28:3 Now aSamuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him; and they had buried him in Ramah, that is, in his own city. And Saul had the bmediums and the soothsayers put out of the land.
1S 28:4 And the Philistines gathered together, and they came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa.
1S 28:5 And when Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
1S 28:6 And Saul ainquired of Jehovah; but Jehovah did not answer him, not by dreams or by the bUrim or by the prophets.
1S 28:7 Then said Saul to his servants, Seek for me a woman who is a 1medium that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, There is now a woman who is a medium at En-dor.
1S 28:8 Then Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes. And he and two men with him went, and they came to the woman by night. And he said, aConsult a departed spirit for me, and bring up to me the one whom I tell you.
1S 28:9 But the woman said to him, Look, you know what Saul has done, that he has cut off the mediums and the soothsayers from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life to make me die?
1S 28:10 Then Saul swore to her by Jehovah, saying, As Jehovah lives, no punishment shall happen to you for this thing.
1S 28:11 So the woman said, Whom shall I bring up to you? And he said, Bring up Samuel to me.
1S 28:12 Now when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.
1S 28:13 And the king said to her, Do not be afraid. But what do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see 1some divine being coming up out of the earth.
1S 28:14 And he said to her, What is his appearance? And she said, An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a cloak. Then Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid him homage.
1S 28:15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Saul said, I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines wage war against me, and God has aturned away from me and answers me no more, neither through the prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.
1S 28:16 And Samuel said, Why then have you inquired of me? For Jehovah has turned away from you and become your adversary.
1S 28:17 And Jehovah has done for Himself just as He spoke through me, for aJehovah has torn the kingdom out from your hand and given it to an associate of yours, to David.
1S 28:18 Because you did anot listen to the voice of Jehovah and did not execute His burning anger upon the Amalekites, therefore Jehovah has done this thing to you this day.
1S 28:19 And Jehovah will also give Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow 1ayou and your sons will be with me; Jehovah will also give the camp of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
1S 28:20 Then immediately Saul fell his full length to the ground, and he was very afraid because of Samuel’s words. And there was no strength in him, for he had not eaten food all day and all night.
1S 28:21 And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was very troubled. And she said to him, Indeed, your servant has listened to your voice; and I have put my life in my hand and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.
1S 28:22 Now therefore, you listen also to the voice of your servant, and let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.
1S 28:23 But he refused and said, I will not eat. Then his servants, as well as the woman, compelled him, and he listened to their voice; and he rose up from the ground and sat on the bed.
1S 28:24 And the woman had a afattened calf in the house; and she hurried and killed it, and took flour and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread with it.
1S 28:25 And she brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. And they rose up and went away that night.
1 SAMUEL 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

q. David’s Being Sovereignly Kept Away by God
from Joining the Philistines’ Camp to Fight against Israel
29:1-11
1S 29:1 And the Philistines agathered all their camps together at Aphek; and Israel encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel.
1S 29:2 And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands; and David and his men passed on at the rear with Achish.
1S 29:3 And the princes of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or even these ayears? And I have found nothing wrong in him since the day he deserted to me to this day.
1S 29:4 But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him. And the princes of the Philistines said to him, 1Make the man go back, that he may return to his place that you have assigned him, so that he does not go down with us into the battle and does not become our adversary in the battle. For with what might this man reconcile himself to his master? Will it not be with the heads of these men?
1S 29:5 Is this not David, of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying,
aSaul has struck down his thousands; / But David, his ten thousands?
1S 29:6 And Achish called David and said to him, As Jehovah lives, you are upright, and it is acceptable in my sight that you go forth and come in with me in the camp; for I have not found evil in you since the day you came to me to this day. But you are not acceptable to the lords.
1S 29:7 Now therefore return and go in peace, so that you do not do anything displeasing to the lords of the Philistines.
1S 29:8 And David said to Achish, But what have I done? And what wrong have you found in your servant since the day I began to be with you to this day, that I should not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?
1S 29:9 And Achish answered and said to David, I know that you are as acceptable to me as an aangel of God; nevertheless the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us into the battle.
1S 29:10 Now therefore rise up early in the morning with your master’s servants who came with you; indeed rise up early in the morning, and when you have daylight, go.
1S 29:11 So David rose up early, he and his men, to go in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
1 SAMUEL 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

r. David’s Conquering the Amalekites and Capturing Their Captives
30:1-31
1S 30:1 And when David and his men came to aZiklag on the third day, the bAmalekites had made a raid upon the south and upon Ziklag; and they had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire.
1S 30:2 And they had taken the women and all who were in it captive, both small and great; they had killed none, but had carried them off, and had gone on their way.
1S 30:3 And David and his men came to the city; and there it was, burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.
1S 30:4 And David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no strength to weep.
1S 30:5 And David’s two awives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
1S 30:6 And David was very distressed because the people spoke of astoning him, for the soul of all the people was bitter, every man because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God.
1S 30:7 And David said to aAbiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Bring the ephod to me. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
1S 30:8 And David 1ainquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I pursue after this band? Will I overtake them? And He said to him, Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them, and you will certainly deliver them.
1S 30:9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him; and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left stayed behind.
1S 30:10 And David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross over the brook Besor.
1S 30:11 And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. And they gave him food, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink.
1S 30:12 And they gave him a piece of fig cake and two raisin cakes; and he ate, and his aspirit returned to him; for he had eaten no food and had drunk no water for three days and three nights.
1S 30:13 And David said to him, To whom do you belong and where are you from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, the servant of an Amalekite man; and my master abandoned me because I fell sick three days ago.
1S 30:14 We attacked the south of the Cherethites and what belongs to Judah and the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.
1S 30:15 And David said to him, Can you lead me down to this band? And he said, Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hand of my master, and I will lead you down to this troop.
1S 30:16 And he led him down; and there they were, spread over the whole land, eating and drinking and celebrating because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
1S 30:17 And David struck them from twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped except for four hundred young men, who rode upon camels and fled.
1S 30:18 And David delivered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David delivered his two wives.
1S 30:19 And nothing was missed by them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken; David brought everything back.
1S 30:20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before the other cattle and of which they said, This is David’s 1spoil.
1S 30:21 Then David came to the atwo hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left behind at the brook Besor. And they went forth to meet David and to meet the people who were with him; and David came near to the people and greeted them.
1S 30:22 And all the wicked and worthless men among the men that had gone with David responded; and they said, Because they did not go with us, we will not give them anything of the spoil that we have delivered, except every man his wife and his children that they may lead them off and go away.
1S 30:23 Then said David, You shall not do so, my brothers, with that which Jehovah has given us, who has kept us and given this band that came against us into our hand.
1S 30:24 And who will listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who astays by the baggage; they shall bshare alike.
1S 30:25 And from that day forward he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.
1S 30:26 And David came to Ziklag, and he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his companions, saying, Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of Jehovah:
1S 30:27 For those in Bethel, and for those in Ramoth of the south, and for those in Jattir,
1S 30:28 And for those in Aroer, and for those in Siphmoth, and for those in Eshtemoa,
1S 30:29 And for those in Racal, and for those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and for those in the cities of the Kenites,
1S 30:30 And for those in Hormah, and for those in Bor-ashan, and for those in Athach,
1S 30:31 And for those in Hebron, and for all the places where David himself and his men had gone about.
1 SAMUEL 31

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

s. Saul’s End
31:1-13
1S 31:1 aNow the Philistines were fighting against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.
1S 31:2 And the Philistines chased Saul and his sons; and the Philistines struck down 1aJonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, Saul’s sons.
1S 31:3 And the battle bore heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers.
1S 31:4 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was very aafraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.
1S 31:5 And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died with him.
1S 31:6 So aSaul and his three sons and his armor bearer, as well as all his men, 1died that day together.
1S 31:7 And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and who were on the other side of the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
1S 31:8 And the next day the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
1S 31:9 And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor; and they sent them all around, throughout the land of the Philistines in order to announce the good news in the houses of their idols and to the people.
1S 31:10 And they put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of aBeth-shan.
1S 31:11 And when the inhabitants of aJabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
1S 31:12 All the valiant men rose up and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
1S 31:13 And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
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SECOND SAMUEL

Chapters
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Outline

For Author, Time of Writing, etc., see introductory material in 1 Samuel.
2 SAMUEL 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

t. David’s Reaction
1:1-27
2S 1:1 1Now after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the aslaughter of the Amalekites, David remained in Ziklag two days.
2S 1:2 And on the third day there came a man from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid him homage.
2S 1:3 And David said to him, Where did you come from? And he said to him, From the camp of Israel I have escaped.
2S 1:4 And David said to him, What has happened? Tell me. And he said that the people had fled from the battle and that also many of the people had fallen and died and that also Saul and Jonathan his son were adead.
2S 1:5 And David said to the young man that told him these things, How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?
2S 1:6 And the young man that told him these things said, By chance I happened to be upon aMount Gilboa; and just then Saul leaned on his spear, and just then the chariots and horsemen pursued closely after him.
2S 1:7 And when he looked behind him, he saw me; and he called to me. And I said, Here I am.
2S 1:8 And he said to me, Who are you? And I said to him, I am an Amalekite.
2S 1:9 Then he said to me, Stand over me, and kill me; for anguish has seized me because my life is yet wholly within me.
2S 1:10 So I stood over him and put him to death, for I knew that he would not live after his fall; and I took the crown that was upon his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them to my lord here.
2S 1:11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, as did all the men who were with him.
2S 1:12 And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of Jehovah and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
2S 1:13 And David said to the young man who told him these things, Where are you from? And he said, I am the son of an Amalekite stranger.
2S 1:14 And David said to him, 1How is it that you were not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy Jehovah’s aanointed?
2S 1:15 Then David called one of the young men and said, Come near; afall on him. And he struck him, and he died.
2S 1:16 And David said to him, Your ablood be upon your head, for your mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed Jehovah’s anointed.
2S 1:17 And David sang this dirge over Saul and over Jonathan his son;
2S 1:18 And he commanded them to teach the children of Judah The Song of the Bow. It is now written in the book of aJashar:
2S 1:19 The beauty of Israel lies slain upon your high places. / How the amighty have fallen!
2S 1:20 Tell it not in aGath; / Bear not the news of it in the streets of Ashkelon; / Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, / Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
2S 1:21 O mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, / Nor fields of heave offerings. / For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, / The shield of Saul, no more anointed with oil.
2S 1:22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, / The abow of Jonathan has not turned back, / And the sword of Saul has not returned empty.
2S 1:23 Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives, / And in their death they were not divided. / They were swifter than eagles; / They were stronger than lions.
2S 1:24 O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with splendor, / Who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
2S 1:25 How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! / Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
2S 1:26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; so very pleasant were you to me. / Your alove to me was wonderful, beyond the love of women.
2S 1:27 How the mighty have fallen, / And the weapons of war perished!
2 SAMUEL 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

B. Crowned by the People to Be the King for the Kingdom of God on the Earth
2:1 — 24:25
1. Crowned by the People
2:1 — 5:25
a. Crowned by the Tribe of Judah
2:1 — 4:12
2S 2:1 And after this David ainquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah? And Jehovah said to him, Go up. And David said, Where shall I go up? And He said, To bHebron.
2S 2:2 So David went up there, as well as his two awives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
2S 2:3 And David brought up his men who were with him, each man with his household; and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.
2S 2:4 And the men of Judah came, and there they 1anointed David aking over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, It is the men of bJabesh-gilead who have buried Saul.
2S 2:5 And David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, Blessed are you of Jehovah, because you have shown this kindness to your master, to Saul, and buried him.
2S 2:6 And now may Jehovah show kindness and faithfulness to you; and I also will 1repay you for this good, because you have done this thing.
2S 2:7 And now may your hands be strong, and you be valiant; for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.
2S 2:8 But aAbner the son of Ner, the captain of Saul’s army, took 1Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim.
2S 2:9 And he made him king over Gilead and over the Ashurites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over all Israel.
2S 2:10 Ish-bosheth the son of Saul was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. However the house of Judah followed David.
2S 2:11 And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was aseven years and six months.
2S 2:12 And Abner the son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul went forth from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
2S 2:13 And aJoab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went forth and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, these on the one side of the pool and those on the other side of the pool.
2S 2:14 And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men arise and compete before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.
2S 2:15 And they arose and went over by number, twelve for Benjamin and for Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.
2S 2:16 And each seized his opponent by the head, and his sword went into his opponent’s side; and they fell down together. And that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is at Gibeon.
2S 2:17 And the battle was very severe that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were routed before the servants of David.
2S 2:18 And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, aJoab and Abishai and Asahel. Now Asahel was swift of foot, like one of the gazelles which are in the field.
2S 2:19 And Asahel pursued after Abner; and as he went, he did not turn to the right hand or to the left from behind Abner.
2S 2:20 Then Abner looked behind him and said, Is that you, Asahel? And he said, It is I.
2S 2:21 And Abner said to him, Turn away to your right or to your left, and seize one of the young men, and take his armor for yourself. But Asahel would not turn away from following him.
2S 2:22 And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn away from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to Joab your brother?
2S 2:23 But he refused to turn away, so Abner astruck him in the stomach with the end of his spear; and the spear came out behind him. And he fell down there and died in that place. And everyone who came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.
2S 2:24 But Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner. And as the sun went down, they came to the hill of Ammah, which is before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.
2S 2:25 And the children of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner and became one troop, and they stood on the top of a hill.
2S 2:26 And Abner called out to Joab and said, Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be bitter in the end? Then how long shall it be before you command the people to return from following their brothers?
2S 2:27 And Joab said, As God lives, if you had not spoken, then surely the people would have gone up each one from following his brother in the morning only.
2S 2:28 And Joab blew the trumpet, and all the people stood still; and they pursued after Israel no more, neither did they fight anymore.
2S 2:29 And Abner and his men walked all that night through the Arabah. And they crossed over the Jordan and went through all the 1Bithron, and they came to Mahanaim.
2S 2:30 And Joab returned from following Abner. And he gathered all the people together, and among David’s servants there were nineteen men missing plus Asahel.
2S 2:31 And the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin and among Abner’s men three hundred and sixty men, who died.
2S 2:32 And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men walked all night, and the day dawned on them at Hebron.
2 SAMUEL 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • •

2S 3:1 Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; but David became continually 1stronger, and the house of Saul became continually weaker.
2S 3:2 aAnd in Hebron 1sons were born to David. His firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;
2S 3:3 And his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai the king of aGeshur;
2S 3:4 And the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;
2S 3:5 And the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.
2S 3:6 And while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner made himself strong in the house of Saul.
2S 3:7 Now Saul had a concubine whose name was aRizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And 1Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Why did you go in to my father’s concubine?
2S 3:8 Then Abner became very angry about the words of Ish-bosheth; and he said, Am I a dog’s head that belongs to Judah? Today I show kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hand of David; yet you charge me today with iniquity concerning this woman.
2S 3:9 May God do so to Abner, and even more, if I do not do for David as Jehovah has asworn to him,
2S 3:10 To transfer the akingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from bDan even to Beer-sheba!
2S 3:11 And he could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.
2S 3:12 And Abner sent messengers to David where he was, saying, To whom shall the land belong? and saying, Make your covenant with me; and then my hand will be with you, to turn all Israel to you.
2S 3:13 And 1David said, Fine, I will make a covenant with you; but I require one thing of you, namely, you shall not see my face, unless you first bring aMichal, Saul’s daughter, when you come to see my face.
2S 3:14 Then David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth Saul’s son, saying, Deliver my wife Michal to me, whom I aespoused for a hundred Philistine foreskins.
2S 3:15 And Ish-bosheth sent men and had her taken from her husband, from aPaltiel the son of Laish.
2S 3:16 And her husband went along with her to Bahurim, walking and weeping after her. But Abner said to him, Go; return. And he returned.
2S 3:17 Now Abner had conferred with the elders of Israel, saying, For some time now you have been seeking for David to be king over you.
2S 3:18 So do it now, for Jehovah has spoken of David, saying, By My servant David I will save My people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines and out of the hand of all their enemies.
2S 3:19 And Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin; and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel and that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin.
2S 3:20 So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David held a feast for Abner and for the men who were with him.
2S 3:21 And Abner said to David, I will rise up and go and gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you and that you may reign over all that your soul desires. And David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.
2S 3:22 And there came the servants of David and Joab from an attack, and they brought great spoil with them. But Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace.
2S 3:23 And when Joab and all the army that was with him came, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner has come to the king; and he has sent him away, and he has gone in peace.
2S 3:24 Then Joab went to the king and said, What have you done? Abner has just come to you. Why is it that you have sent him away and he has gone?
2S 3:25 You know Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, to discover your going out and your coming in, and to know everything that you do.
2S 3:26 And when Joab went out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, who brought him back from the well of Sirah, though David did not know about it.
2S 3:27 And when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him privately. And there he struck him in the stomach, so that he died for the bloodshed of aAsahel his brother.
2S 3:28 Then afterward, when David heard of it, he said, I and my kingdom are innocent of the bloodshed of aAbner the son of Ner before Jehovah forever.
2S 3:29 May it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue or who is a leper or who leans on a staff or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!
2S 3:30 So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.
2S 3:31 And David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and gird yourselves with asackcloth, and mourn over Abner. And King David followed the bier.
2S 3:32 And they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
2S 3:33 And the king lamented for Abner and said,
Should Abner die / As a fool dies?
2S 3:34 Your hands were not bound, / Nor were your feet put into fetters. / As a man falls before wicked men, you fell. / And all the people wept over him again.
2S 3:35 And all the people came to make David eat food while it was still day; but David swore, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down!
2S 3:36 And all the people took note of it, and it pleased them; as everything that the king did pleased all the people.
2S 3:37 And all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death.
2S 3:38 And the king said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
2S 3:39 And today I am weak, even though anointed king; and these men, the sons of aZeruiah, are too difficult for me. May Jehovah reward the evildoer according to his evil!
2 SAMUEL 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

2S 4:1 Now when Saul’s son Ish-bosheth heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel was dismayed.
2S 4:2 And Saul’s son had two men, the captains of bands. The name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the second Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin; for Beeroth is also considered to belong to Benjamin.
2S 4:3 And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there until this day.
2S 4:4 Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who had crippled feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. And his nurse took him up and fled. And as she hurried to flee, he fell and was made lame. And his name was 1aMephibosheth.
2S 4:5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and around the time of the heat of the day they came into the house of Ish-bosheth, while he was taking his noonday rest.
2S 4:6 And they came into the midst of the house, as though they were taking wheat. And they stabbed him in the stomach. And Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
2S 4:7 Now they had come into the house as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they struck him and killed him and beheaded him. And they took his head and traveled by the way of the Arabah all night.
2S 4:8 And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron; and they said to the king, Here is the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. And Jehovah has granted my lord the king to be avenged this day of Saul and of his seed.
2S 4:9 Then David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, As Jehovah lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all distress,
2S 4:10 aWhen one told me, saying, Saul is now dead! thinking he was a bearer of good news, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag — that was the reward I gave him for the news.
2S 4:11 How much more when wicked men slay a righteous person in his own house upon his bed! And now should I not demand his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth?
2S 4:12 Then David commanded his young men, and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the sepulcher of Abner in Hebron.
2 SAMUEL 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

b. Crowned by All the Other Tribes
5:1-5
2S 5:1 aThen all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron; and they spoke, saying, Here we are; we are your bone and your flesh.
2S 5:2 Even previously, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And Jehovah said to you, You shall ashepherd My people Israel, and you shall be ruler over Israel.
2S 5:3 And all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. And King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Jehovah, and they aanointed David 1king over Israel.
2S 5:4 David was athirty years old when he began to reign; he reigned bforty years.
2S 5:5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah aseven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
c. Established by God as King with His Kingdom Exalted for the Sake of God’s People Israel
5:6-25
2S 5:6 aAnd the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the bJebusites, the inhabitants of the land. And they spoke to David, saying, You shall not come in here: Even the blind and the lame will drive you back! (thinking, David cannot come in here.)
2S 5:7 But David took the stronghold of aZion, which is now the city of David.
2S 5:8 And David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him go up to the watercourse and strike the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul. Therefore they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
2S 5:9 So David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from the 1Millo and inward.
2S 5:10 And David became greater and greater; and Jehovah the God of hosts was 1with him.
2S 5:11 aAnd bHiram the king of Tyre sent messengers to David, as well as ccedar timbers and carpenters and masons; and they built David a house.
2S 5:12 And David perceived that Jehovah had established him as king over Israel and that He had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.
2S 5:13 And David took more 1concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.
2S 5:14 aAnd these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab and bNathan and Solomon
2S 5:15 And Ibhar and Elishua and Nepheg and Japhia
2S 5:16 And Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet.
2S 5:17 Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; and David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
2S 5:18 And the Philistines came and spread out in the valley of Rephaim.
2S 5:19 Then David ainquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand? And Jehovah said to David, Go up, for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand.
2S 5:20 So David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there. And he said, Jehovah has broken forth upon my enemies before me like the breaking forth of a flood. Therefore he called the name of that place 1Baal-perazim.
2S 5:21 And 1the Philistines left their images there, and David and his men carried them away.
2S 5:22 And the Philistines came up again and spread out in the valley of Rephaim.
2S 5:23 And David inquired of Jehovah, and He said, You shall not go up; go around behind them and come upon them opposite the balsam trees.
2S 5:24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act decisively; for then Jehovah will have gone forth before you to strike the army of the Philistines.
2S 5:25 And David did as Jehovah had commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines from 1Gibeon until you come to Gezer.
2 SAMUEL 6

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2. David’s Care for God’s Habitation on the Earth
6:1 — 7:29
a. Taking Care of the Habitation of the Ark of God
6:1-23
2S 6:1 And David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.
2S 6:2 aAnd David rose up and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the 1bArk of God, which is called by the Name, the name of Jehovah of hosts, who is enthroned between the ccherubim.
2S 6:3 And they set the Ark of God upon a new acart and brought it out of the house of bAbinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
2S 6:4 And they brought it with the Ark of God out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Ahio went before the Ark.
2S 6:5 And David and all the house of Israel played before Jehovah on all manner of instruments of cypress wood, with lyres and with harps and with tambourines and with sistrums and with cymbals.
2S 6:6 And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out for the Ark of God and took hold of it; for the oxen had stumbled.
2S 6:7 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his 1error; and he 2died there by the Ark of God.
2S 6:8 And David was angry because Jehovah had broken forth with an outburst upon Uzzah; and that place has been called 1Perez-uzzah to this day.
2S 6:9 And David was afraid of Jehovah that day; and he said, How shall the Ark of Jehovah come to me?
2S 6:10 So David did not want to remove the Ark of Jehovah to himself in the 1city of David. But David carried it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
2S 6:11 And the Ark of Jehovah remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and Jehovah ablessed Obed-edom and all his household.
2S 6:12 And it was told King David, saying, Jehovah has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that he has because of the Ark of God. aSo David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the bcity of David with rejoicing.
2S 6:13 And when those who bore the Ark of Jehovah had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.
2S 6:14 And David danced with all his might before Jehovah; and David was girded with a linen 1aephod.
2S 6:15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of Jehovah with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
2S 6:16 And when the Ark of Jehovah came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked down through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before Jehovah; and she despised him in her heart.
2S 6:17 And they brought in the Ark of Jehovah and set it in its place in the midst of the atent that David had pitched for it. And David offered up burnt offerings and bpeace offerings before Jehovah.
2S 6:18 And when David finished offering up the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Jehovah of hosts.
2S 6:19 And he apportioned to all the people, to the whole multitude of Israel, to both men and women, to each one, a cake of bread and a 1portion of meat and a cake of raisins. And all the people went away, each to his own house.
2S 6:20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul went forth to meet David; and she said, How the king of Israel has made himself honorable today, uncovering himself today in the sight of the maids of his servants as some worthless fellow might shamelessly uncover himself!
2S 6:21 And David said to Michal, It was before Jehovah, who achose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of Jehovah, over Israel; so I played before Jehovah.
2S 6:22 And I will yet be more lightly esteemed than this, and I will be base in my own sight; but by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them will I be honored.
2S 6:23 And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until the day of her death.
2 SAMUEL 7

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b. Wanting to Build a House for God
7:1-29
2S 7:1 aAnd as the king dwelt in his house and Jehovah gave him rest all around from all his enemies,
2S 7:2 The king said to aNathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells within bcurtains.
2S 7:3 And Nathan said to the king, All that is in your heart go and do, for Jehovah is with you.
2S 7:4 And in that night the word of Jehovah came to Nathan, saying,
2S 7:5 Go and say to My servant David, Thus says Jehovah, Is it you who will abuild Me a house for Me to dwell in?
2S 7:6 For I ahave not dwelt in a house, since the day I brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt to this day; but I went about in a tent and in a btabernacle.
2S 7:7 In all My agoing about among all the children of Israel, did I ever speak a word to any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?
2S 7:8 And now thus shall you say to My servant David, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I took you from the apasture, from following the sheep, that you might be ruler over My people, over Israel;
2S 7:9 And I have been with you in every place that you have gone and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make a great name for you, like the name of the great ones who are on the earth.
2S 7:10 And I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will aplant them there, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more; and the sons of wickedness will ill-treat them no more as before,
2S 7:11 Even since the time when I commanded that there be ajudges over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover Jehovah declares to you that Jehovah will make you a 1house.
2S 7:12 When your days are fulfilled and you asleep with your fathers, I will raise up your 1bseed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his 2ckingdom.
2S 7:13 It is 1he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom aforever.
2S 7:14 I will be his aFather, and he will be My 1son. 2If he commits iniquity, I will bstrike him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men;
2S 7:15 But My alovingkindness will not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I put away before you.
2S 7:16 And your 1house and your 1akingdom will be made sure forever before you; your 1throne will be established forever.
2S 7:17 According to all these words and according to this whole vision did Nathan speak to David.
2S 7:18 Then King David went and sat before Jehovah; and he said, aWho am I, O Lord Jehovah, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?
2S 7:19 And this was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord Jehovah; but You have spoken also of the house of Your servant for a great while to come; and is this the custom for man, O Lord Jehovah?
2S 7:20 And what more can David say to You? For You aknow Your servant, O Lord Jehovah.
2S 7:21 For Your word’s sake and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to make Your servant know it.
2S 7:22 Therefore You are great, O Lord Jehovah; for there is anone like You, nor is there any God bbesides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
2S 7:23 And who is like Your people Israel, a nation unique on the earth, whom God went to aredeem to Himself as a people in order to make a name for Himself and to do for You what is great and awesome for Your land and before Your people, whom You have redeemed to Yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
2S 7:24 And You have established Your people Israel to be a apeople to You forever, and You, O Jehovah, became their God.
2S 7:25 And now, O Jehovah God, confirm forever the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, and do as You have spoken.
2S 7:26 And may Your name be magnified forever when men say, Jehovah of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of Your servant David will be established before You.
2S 7:27 For You, O Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to Your servant, saying, I will build you a house; therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You.
2S 7:28 And now, O Lord Jehovah, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have spoken this good matter to Your servant;
2S 7:29 Now therefore may it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may be before You forever; for You, O Lord Jehovah, have spoken it. And with Your blessing may the house of Your servant be blessed forever.
2 SAMUEL 8

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3. David’s Conquest over His Enemies for the Strengthening of His Kingdom
8:1 — 10:19
a. David’s Conquests over the Philistines, Moab, Zobah, Syria, and Edom
8:1-14
2S 8:1 aAnd after this David struck the Philistines and subdued them. And David took 1control of the chief city out of the hand of the Philistines.
2S 8:2 And he struck aMoab. And making them lie down on the ground, he measured them with a measuring line; and he measured out two lengths of them to be put to death and one full length to be kept alive. And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.
2S 8:3 Then David struck Hadadezer the son of Rehob, the king of Zobah, when he went to recover his power at the 1River.
2S 8:4 And David took from him a thousand seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough of them for a hundred chariots.
2S 8:5 And when the 1Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer the king of Zobah, David struck twenty-two thousand men among the Syrians.
2S 8:6 And David put garrisons among the Syrians of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And Jehovah preserved David wherever he went.
2S 8:7 And David took the ashields of gold that were with the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.
2S 8:8 And from Betah and Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, King David took very much bronze.
2S 8:9 Then when Toi the king of Hamath heard that David had struck down all the army of Hadadezer,
2S 8:10 Toi sent Joram his son to King David to greet him and congratulate him for fighting against Hadadezer and striking him down, for Hadadezer had been at war with Toi. And in 1Joram’s hand were articles of silver and of gold and of bronze.
2S 8:11 King David aconsecrated these also to Jehovah along with the silver and gold that he consecrated from all the nations that he had subdued:
2S 8:12 From the 1Syrians and from the Moabites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from the Amalekites and from the spoil of Hadadezer the son of Rehob, the king of Zobah.
2S 8:13 And David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, that is, eighteen thousand men.
2S 8:14 And he put garrisons in aEdom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons; and all the Edomites became servants to David. And Jehovah preserved David wherever he went.
b. David’s Reign in Justice and Righteousness
8:15-18
2S 8:15 So David reigned over all Israel, and David executed justice and righteousness for all his people.
2S 8:16 aAnd Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder.
2S 8:17 And Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of aAbiathar were priests, and Seraiah was scribe.
2S 8:18 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada 1was over the 2Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David’s sons were his 3chief ministers.
2 SAMUEL 9

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c. David’s Showing Kindness to Mephibosheth the Son of Jonathan
9:1-13
2S 9:1 And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show akindness to him for Jonathan’s sake?
2S 9:2 Now there was a servant of the house of Saul, whose name was Ziba; and they called him to David. And the king said to him, Are you aZiba? And he said, I am your servant.
2S 9:3 And the king said, Is there yet anyone at all of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him? And Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan; he is acrippled in his feet.
2S 9:4 Then the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is just now in the house of Machir the son of Amiel in Lo-debar.
2S 9:5 And King David sent men and took him from the house of Machir the son of Amiel, from Lo-debar.
2S 9:6 And aMephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he said, Your servant is here.
2S 9:7 And David said to him, Do not be afraid, for I will surely show 1kindness to you for the sake of Jonathan your father; and I will restore to you all the land of your father Saul, and you will eat food at my atable continually.
2S 9:8 And he paid him homage and said, What is your servant that you should look upon a dead adog like me?
2S 9:9 And the king called Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him, All that belongs to Saul and to all his house I give to your master’s son.
2S 9:10 And you shall work the land for him, you and your sons and your servants; and you shall bring in the produce that your master’s son may have food to eat; and Mephibosheth, your master’s son, will eat food continually at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
2S 9:11 Then Ziba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so will your servant do. And Mephibosheth, said David, shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.
2S 9:12 And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all who dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth.
2S 9:13 And Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem because he ate at the king’s table continually. And he was crippled in both his feet.
2 SAMUEL 10

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d. David’s Conquests over Ammon and Syria
10:1-19
2S 10:1 aAnd after this the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place.
2S 10:2 And David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of aNahash, just as his father showed kindness to me. And David sent word through his servants to comfort him concerning his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.
2S 10:3 But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, Do you really think that David is honoring your father just because he sent some men to you to comfort you? Has not David sent his servants to you in order to search out the city and to spy on it and to overthrow it?
2S 10:4 So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half their beards and cut away half their garments at the buttocks, and he sent them away.
2S 10:5 Now when they told this to David, he sent some to meet them, for the men were very ashamed. And the king said, Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back, then return.
2S 10:6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand men.
2S 10:7 And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of mighty men.
2S 10:8 And the children of Ammon went forth and set the battle in array at the entrance of the gate; but the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and of Maacah were alone in the field.
2S 10:9 Now when Joab saw that there were battle lines against him before and behind, he chose some of the choice men in Israel and set them in array against the Syrians.
2S 10:10 And the rest of the people he put under the charge of Abishai his brother and set them in array against the children of Ammon.
2S 10:11 And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; and if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come to help you.
2S 10:12 Be strong and let us be bold for the sake of our people and for the sake of the cities of our God, and may Jehovah do what seems good in His sight.
2S 10:13 So Joab and the people who were with him approached the battle against the Syrians, and 1the Syrians fled before him.
2S 10:14 And the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians fled, and they fled from before Abishai and entered the city. And Joab returned from the children of Ammon and entered Jerusalem.
2S 10:15 Now when the Syrians saw that they had been routed before Israel, they gathered themselves together.
2S 10:16 And Hadadezer sent word and brought forth the Syrians who were beyond the 1River. And they came to Helem, and Shobach the captain of the army of Hadadezer was before them.
2S 10:17 And it was told David, and he gathered all Israel together and passed over the Jordan and came to Helem. And the Syrians set themselves in array to meet David, and they fought with him.
2S 10:18 And the Syrians fled before Israel. And David slew seven hundred charioteers of the Syrians and forty thousand horsemen; and he struck Shobach the captain of their army, and he died there.
2S 10:19 And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Syrians were afraid to help the children of Ammon anymore.
2 SAMUEL 11

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4. David’s Indulging Sin
11:1-27
2S 11:1 aAnd at the turn of the year, at the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent out Joab and his servants with him and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2S 11:2 And late one afternoon David rose from his bed and went for a walk on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
2S 11:3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, This is none other than Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam and wife of aUriah the Hittite.
2S 11:4 And David sent messengers and took her; and she came to him, and he 1lay with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.
2S 11:5 And the woman conceived; and she sent word and told David and said, I am pregnant.
2S 11:6 Then David sent word to Joab: Send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David.
2S 11:7 And Uriah came to him, and David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the battle was going.
2S 11:8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house, and wash your feet. And Uriah went forth from the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.
2S 11:9 But Uriah lay down at the entrance to the king’s house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.
2S 11:10 And they told David, saying, Uriah did not go down to his house. Then David said to Uriah, Have you not just come from a journey? Why have you not gone down to your house?
2S 11:11 And Uriah said to David, The Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in ahuts, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live and your soul lives, I shall by no means do this thing!
2S 11:12 And David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the following.
2S 11:13 Then David invited him to eat and drink in his presence, and he made him drunk. Then in the evening he went forth to lie down on his bed with the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.
2S 11:14 Then in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
2S 11:15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Put Uriah in the forefront of the hardest battle, and withdraw from him that he may be struck down and die.
2S 11:16 So when Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew the valiant men were.
2S 11:17 And the men of the city went forth and fought with Joab; and some of the people, some of the servants of David, fell. And Uriah the Hittite died also.
2S 11:18 And Joab sent a messenger to tell David all the things concerning the battle;
2S 11:19 And he commanded the messenger, saying, When you have finished telling the king all the things concerning the battle,
2S 11:20 If the king’s anger rises up and he says to you, Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
2S 11:21 Who struck down aAbimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone upon him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.
2S 11:22 So the messenger went, and he came and told David all that Joab had sent him for.
2S 11:23 And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
2S 11:24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants died. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.
2S 11:25 Then David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your fighting against the city and overthrow it. And encourage him.
2S 11:26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.
2S 11:27 And when the mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to his house; and she became his awife and bore a son to him. But the thing that David did displeased Jehovah.
2 SAMUEL 12

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5. God’s Punishing Condemnation
12:1-15a
2S 12:1 Then Jehovah sent aNathan to David. And he went to him and said to him, Two men lived in a city, one rich and the other poor.
2S 12:2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
2S 12:3 But the poor man had nothing but one small ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he nourished it, and it grew up together with him and his children; it ate of the morsels of his food and drank out of his own cup and lay on his bosom; indeed it was like a daughter to him.
2S 12:4 And there came a traveler to the rich man. But 1the rich man refused to take something from his own flock and herd to dress for the wayfarer who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and dressed it for the man who had come to him.
2S 12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As Jehovah lives, the man who has done this is worthy of death;
2S 12:6 And he shall restore the ewe lamb afourfold because he has done this thing and because he had no pity.
2S 12:7 Then Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I aanointed you king over Israel, and I bdelivered you from the hand of Saul;
2S 12:8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if this were too little, I would have added to you such and such things.
2S 12:9 Why have you despised the word of Jehovah by doing what is evil in His sight? You have astruck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife as your bwife and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2S 12:10 Now therefore the 1asword will not depart from your house forever because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
2S 12:11 Thus says Jehovah, I will now raise up trouble against you from within your house; and I will take your awives before your eyes and will give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
2S 12:12 For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and even before the sun.
2S 12:13 And David said to Nathan, I have asinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said to David, Jehovah has also put away your bsin; you will not die.
2S 12:14 Nevertheless, because you have given the enemies of Jehovah much occasion to ablaspheme Him because of this thing, the son who is born to you shall also surely die.
2S 12:15 Then Nathan went to his house.
6. God’s Punishing Judgment on David
12:15b — 20:26
a. The Death of the Child Born of Uriah’s Wife
12:15b-23
And Jehovah struck the child whom Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he was very sick.
2S 12:16 And David besought God for the child; and David fasted and went in and spent all night lying on the ground.
2S 12:17 And the elders of his house stood over him to raise him from the ground; but he did not want to, nor would he eat food with them.
2S 12:18 And on the seventh day the child died. And David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, While the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice; how then can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do himself some harm.
2S 12:19 And David saw that his servants were whispering, and David perceived that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
2S 12:20 Then David rose up from the ground and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went to the house of Jehovah and worshipped. Then he went to his house; and when he requested it, they set food before him, and he ate.
2S 12:21 And his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but as soon as the child died, you rose up and ate bread.
2S 12:22 And he said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I thought, Who knows? Jehovah may be gracious to me, and the child may live.
2S 12:23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will ago to him, but he will bnot come back to me.
b. The Birth of Solomon
12:24-25
2S 12:24 And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife and went in unto her and lay with her. And she bore a son, and he called his name 1aSolomon. And Jehovah loved him;
2S 12:25 And He sent word through Nathan the prophet and called his name 1Jedidiah for Jehovah’s sake.
c. David’s Conquest over the Children of Ammon
12:26-31
2S 12:26 aNow Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon and took the royal city.
2S 12:27 And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah; indeed I have taken the city of water.
2S 12:28 Now therefore gather the rest of the people, and encamp against the city, and take it; otherwise I myself will take the city, and it will be called by my name.
2S 12:29 So David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it.
2S 12:30 And he took the crown of their king from off his head. And the weight of it was a talent of gold, and it had precious stones; and it was put upon David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount.
2S 12:31 And he brought out the people who were in it and set them under saws and iron cutting tools and iron axes and made them pass through the brick kilns; and thus did he do to all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
2 SAMUEL 13

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d. The Incest of Amnon the Son of David with His Sister Tamar
13:1-22
2S 13:1 And some time after this, it so happened that aAbsalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was bTamar; and cAmnon the son of David loved her.
2S 13:2 And Amnon was so distraught that he made himself sick because of Tamar his sister; for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.
2S 13:3 Now Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother; and Jonadab was a very crafty man.
2S 13:4 And he said to him, Why are you, O son of the king, so downcast morning after morning? Will you not tell me? And Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.
2S 13:5 And Jonadab said to him, Lie down on your bed, and pretend to be sick; and when your father comes to see you, tell him, Please let Tamar my sister come and give me bread to eat, and let her make me food in my sight that I may see it and eat from her hand.
2S 13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let Tamar my sister come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat them from her hand.
2S 13:7 Then David sent word home to Tamar, saying, Go now to your brother Amnon’s house, and make him food.
2S 13:8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house; and he was lying down. And she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes.
2S 13:9 And she took the pan and emptied it before him, but he refused to eat. Then Amnon said, Have all the men go out from me. And all the men went out from him.
2S 13:10 And Amnon said to Tamar, Bring the food into my room so that I may eat from your hand. And Tamar took the cakes that she had made and brought them to Amnon her brother in his room.
2S 13:11 And when she brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, Come lie with me, my sister.
2S 13:12 And she said to him, No, my brother. Do not 1force me, for such a thing should anot be done in Israel. Do not commit this folly.
2S 13:13 And where will I carry my shame? And you, you will be like one of the foolish men in Israel. Now therefore, speak to the king, I beg you; for he will not withhold me from you.
2S 13:14 But he would not listen to her voice. And being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her.
2S 13:15 Then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred, for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, Rise up and go.
2S 13:16 But she said to him, Do not cause this greater wrong by asending me away, greater than the other that you have done to me. But he would not listen to her.
2S 13:17 And he called his young man who served him and said, Send this woman away from me outside, and bolt the door behind her.
2S 13:18 Now she had a long garment with sleeves, for the virgin daughters of the king dressed themselves in such robes. So his servant brought her outside and bolted the door behind her.
2S 13:19 And Tamar put ashes upon her head and rent the long garment with sleeves that was upon her, and she put her hand on her head and went off, crying aloud as she went.
2S 13:20 Then Absalom her brother said to her, Has Amnon your brother been with you? But be quiet now, my sister. He is your brother; do not take this thing to heart. And Tamar remained in her brother Absalom’s house, desolate.
2S 13:21 And when King David heard about all these things, he was very angry.
2S 13:22 But Absalom did not speak anything good or evil to Amnon, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced Tamar his sister.
e. The Murder of Amnon by Absalom the Son of David
13:23-39
2S 13:23 Then after two full years, while Absalom had sheep shearers in Baal-hazor, which is by Ephraim, Absalom invited all the king’s sons.
2S 13:24 And Absalom came to the king and said, Your servant now has sheep shearers. May the king and his servants go now with your servant.
2S 13:25 But the king said to Absalom, No, my son; let us not all go, or we will be a burden to you. And he pressed him, but he would not go; yet he gave him his blessing.
2S 13:26 Then Absalom said, If not, then let Amnon my brother go with us. And the king said to him, Why should he go with you?
2S 13:27 But Absalom pressed him, and he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him.
2S 13:28 And Absalom commanded his attendants, saying, Watch now when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I say to you, Strike Amnon, then kill him. Do not be afraid; is it not I who have commanded you? Be strong and valiant.
2S 13:29 And Absalom’s attendants did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. And all the king’s sons rose up, and each mounted his mule and fled.
2S 13:30 And while they were on the way, the report came to David, namely, Absalom has struck down all the king’s sons, and not one of them is left.
2S 13:31 And the king rose up and rent his garments and lay on the ground, and all his servants stood by with their garments rent.
2S 13:32 Then Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, answered and said, Let not my lord think that all the young men, the sons of the king, have been killed, for Amnon alone is dead. For this has been determined by Absalom since the day 1Amnon forced Tamar his sister.
2S 13:33 Now therefore let my lord the king not take the matter to heart, thinking that all the king’s sons are dead; for only Amnon is dead.
2S 13:34 But Absalom fled. And the young man who kept watch lifted up his eyes and looked, and there they were, a multitude of people coming from the road behind him at the side of the mountain.
2S 13:35 Then Jonadab said to the king, Here come the king’s sons; as your servant has said, so has it been.
2S 13:36 And when he had finished speaking, there came the king’s sons, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And the king and all his servants also wept exceedingly.
2S 13:37 But Absalom fled and went to Talmai the son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day.
2S 13:38 So Absalom fled and went to Geshur. And he was there three years.
2S 13:39 And David the king longed to go out to Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.
2 SAMUEL 14

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f. Joab’s Device to Bring Absalom Back
14:1-24
2S 14:1 And Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was set on Absalom.
2S 14:2 So Joab sent word to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. And he said to her, Pretend to be in mourning, and put on mourning garments, and do not anoint yourself with oil; but be like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.
2S 14:3 And go to the king and speak with him in this way. And Joab put the words in her mouth.
2S 14:4 And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid him homage and said, Help, O king!
2S 14:5 And the king said to her, What troubles you? And she said, Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.
2S 14:6 And your servant had two sons. And the two struggled with each other in the field, and there was no one to part them. So the one struck down the other and killed him.
2S 14:7 And now the whole family has risen up against your servant, and they say, Give over that one who struck down his brother that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has slain, even if we destroy the aheir also. Thus they will quench my coal which is left without leaving to my husband a bname or a remainder on the face of the earth.
2S 14:8 Then the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will issue a command concerning you.
2S 14:9 And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, O my lord the king, the iniquity be upon me and upon the house of my father, and the king and his throne be guiltless.
2S 14:10 And the king said, If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you anymore.
2S 14:11 And she said, May the king remember Jehovah your God, so that the aavenger of blood may kill no more and they destroy not my son. And he said, As Jehovah lives, not a hair from your son shall fall to the ground.
2S 14:12 Then the woman said, Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king. And he said, Speak.
2S 14:13 And the woman said, Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word, the king is like one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one.
2S 14:14 For we must die and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered again. Yet God does not take away life, but devises ways that the banished one would not be cast out from Him.
2S 14:15 Now therefore that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people made me afraid; and your servant said, I will now speak to the king; perhaps the king will perform his servant’s request.
2S 14:16 For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
2S 14:17 Then your servant said, Let the word of my lord the king be a comfort to me, for as an aangel of God is, so is my lord the king in discerning good and evil; and may Jehovah your God be with you.
2S 14:18 And the king answered and said to the woman, Do not hide the matter from me which I will ask of you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king speak.
2S 14:19 And the king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, As your soul lives, O my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or left of anything that my lord the king has said; for your servant Joab commanded me, and it is he who has put all these words in the mouth of your servant.
2S 14:20 In order to change the appearance of the matter, your servant Joab did this thing; and my lord is wise, as wise as an angel of God, knowing all that there is in the land.
2S 14:21 Then the king said to Joab, I will now do this thing; go therefore, and bring the young man Absalom back.
2S 14:22 And Joab fell on his face to the ground and paid homage and blessed the king; and Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, O my lord the king, in that the king has granted his servant’s request.
2S 14:23 Then Joab rose up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
2S 14:24 And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, but let him not see my face. So Absalom turned to his own house and did not see the king’s face.
g. Absalom’s Beauty and His Children
14:25-27
2S 14:25 Now there was none in Israel to be praised more greatly for his beauty than Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
2S 14:26 And when he cut the hair of his head (and it was at the end of each year that he cut it, for it became heavy on him and he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, according to the king’s weight.
2S 14:27 And to Absalom were born three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar; she was a woman of beautiful appearance.
h. Absalom’s Seeking to See His Father David
14:28-33
2S 14:28 And Absalom dwelt in Jerusalem for two full years and did not see the king’s face.
2S 14:29 Then Absalom sent for Joab so that he might send him to the king, but he would not come to him. And he sent for him yet a second time, but he would not come.
2S 14:30 Then he said to his servants, See, Joab’s portion of land is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire. So Absalom’s servants set the portion of land on fire.
2S 14:31 And Joab rose up and came to Absalom at his house; and he said to him, Why did your servants set my portion of land on fire?
2S 14:32 And Absalom said to Joab, I sent for you, saying, Come now that I may send you to the king to say, Why have I come from Geshur? It would have been better for me to be there still. Now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there is any iniquity in me, let him put me to death.
2S 14:33 So Joab went to the king and spoke to him, and he called for Absalom. And he came to the king and bowed himself with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.
2 SAMUEL 15

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i. Absalom’s Revolt
15:1 — 19:8a
2S 15:1 And after this Absalom aprepared for himself a chariot and horses and fifty men to run before him.
2S 15:2 And Absalom would rise up early and stand beside the way into the gate; and when any man who had a cause that should have come to the king for judgment came, Absalom would call to him and say, What city are you from? And he would say, Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.
2S 15:3 Then Absalom would say to him, See, your matters are good and right, but there is no one appointed by the king to hear you.
2S 15:4 And Absalom would say, Oh that I were made a judge in the land, that every man who had a cause or a matter to be judged would come to me, and I would do him justice!
2S 15:5 And so when any man came near to pay him homage, he would put forth his hand and take hold of him and kiss him.
2S 15:6 And Absalom acted in this way to all the Israelites who came to the king for judgment. And Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
2S 15:7 And at the end of forty years Absalom said to the king, Let me go now and repay my vow, which I vowed to Jehovah in Hebron.
2S 15:8 For your servant vowed a vow while I was dwelling in aGeshur in Syria, saying, If Jehovah will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, I will 1worship Jehovah.
2S 15:9 And the king said to him, Go in peace. So he rose up and went to Hebron.
2S 15:10 But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, When you hear the sound of the trumpet, you shall say, Absalom is king in Hebron.
2S 15:11 And with Absalom there went two hundred men from Jerusalem, who had been called and went innocently; they did not know anything.
2S 15:12 And while he was offering the sacrifices, Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, a counselor of David, from his city Giloh. And the conspiracy gained strength, and the people with Absalom increased continually.
2S 15:13 Then a messenger came to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.
2S 15:14 And David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, Rise up, and let us flee; for none of us will escape from Absalom otherwise. Hurry and go, lest he quickly overtake us and bring harm down upon us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.
2S 15:15 And the king’s servants said to the king, In all that my lord the king chooses, here we are, your servants.
2S 15:16 So the king went forth, and all his house after him. But the king left ten concubines to keep the house.
2S 15:17 And the king went forth, and all the people after him; and they stopped at the last house.
2S 15:18 And all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.
2S 15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why are you also going with us? Return and abide with the king, for you are a foreigner as well as an exile from your place.
2S 15:20 You came just recently, so should I today make you wander with us, while I go about wherever I can? Return and take your brothers back; lovingkindness and truth be with you.
2S 15:21 But Ittai answered the king and said, As Jehovah lives and as my lord the king lives, in whatever place my lord the king will be, whether for death or for life, there shall your servant most certainly be.
2S 15:22 And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite and all his men and all the little ones with him passed over.
2S 15:23 And all the land wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over. And the king passed over the brook aKidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
2S 15:24 And there came aZadok also and all the Levites with him, bbearing the Ark of the Covenant of God; and they set the Ark of God down, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished passing over from the city.
2S 15:25 Then the king said to Zadok, Take the Ark of God back into the city. If I should find favor in the sight of Jehovah, He will bring me back and show me it and His habitation.
2S 15:26 But if He should say thus, I am not pleased with you, let Him then do with me as it seems good in His asight.
2S 15:27 And the king said to Zadok the priest, You are a seer; return to the city in peace with Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan the son of Abiathar, your two sons with you.
2S 15:28 See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.
2S 15:29 So Zadok and Abiathar brought the Ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.
2S 15:30 And David went up the ascent to the aMount of Olives, weeping as he went up, and he had his head covered and he went barefoot. And all the people who were with him each covered his own head; and they went up, weeping as they went up.
2S 15:31 Then someone told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, Turn, I pray, the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness, O Jehovah.
2S 15:32 Then when David came to the summit, where God was worshipped, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn and with earth on his head.
2S 15:33 And David said to him, If you pass over with me, you will be a burden to me.
2S 15:34 But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I am your servant, O king; as I was your father’s servant in the past, so will I be your servant now; then you will defeat the counsel of Ahithophel for me.
2S 15:35 And will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be with you there? Therefore whatever you hear from the king’s house you shall tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
2S 15:36 And there with them will be their two sons, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok and Jonathan the son of Abiathar; and through them you shall send to me whatever you hear.
2S 15:37 So aHushai, David’s friend, came to the city; and Absalom came to Jerusalem.
2 SAMUEL 16

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2S 16:1 And when David was a little past the summit, aZiba, Mephibosheth’s attendant, came to meet him with a pair of saddled asses and upon them two hundred loaves of bread and a hundred clusters of raisins and a hundred summer fruit and a skin of wine.
2S 16:2 And the king said to Ziba, Why do you have these? And Ziba said, The asses are for the king’s household to ride on, and the bread and the summer fruit are for the young men to eat, and the wine is for those who faint in the wilderness to drink.
2S 16:3 And the king said, And where is your master’s son? And Ziba said to the king, He is now dwelling in Jerusalem, for he said, 1Today the house of Israel will restore to me the kingdom of my father.
2S 16:4 And the king said to Ziba, Now all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours. And Ziba said, I bow myself to you. May I find favor in your sight, O my lord the king.
2S 16:5 And when King David came to Bahurim, a man of the family of the house of Saul came forth from there, whose name was aShimei, the son of Gera; he came forth, cursing as he came forth.
2S 16:6 And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right and on his left.
2S 16:7 And Shimei spoke thus in his cursing, Go away, go away, you man of bloodshed and worthless fellow.
2S 16:8 Jehovah has returned upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and Jehovah has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son; and now you have been taken in your own mischief, for you are a man of bloodshed.
2S 16:9 Then aAbishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.
2S 16:10 But the king said, aWhat have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if Jehovah has told him to curse David, who then can say, Why have you done so?
2S 16:11 And David said to Abishai and all his servants, Now my son, who came forth from my body, seeks my life; how much more then this Benjaminite will do so. Leave him alone and let him curse, for Jehovah has told him to do so.
2S 16:12 It may be that Jehovah will look on the wrong done to me and that Jehovah will repay me with good for his cursing on this day.
2S 16:13 And David and his men went on their way. And Shimei went along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went; and he threw stones at him and cast dust upon him.
2S 16:14 And the king and all the people who were with him arrived weary, and he refreshed himself there.
2S 16:15 Meanwhile Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem; and Ahithophel was with him.
2S 16:16 And when Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, Long live the king! Long live the king!
2S 16:17 And Absalom said to Hushai, Is this your kindness to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?
2S 16:18 And Hushai said to Absalom, No; but the one whom Jehovah and this people and all the men of Israel choose, his will I be, and with him will I dwell.
2S 16:19 Furthermore, whom should I serve? Should it not be in the presence of his son? As I served in the presence of your father, so will I be in your presence.
2S 16:20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, Give your counsel as to what we should do.
2S 16:21 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in unto your father’s aconcubines whom he left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself abhorrent to your father; then the hands of all those who are with you will be strong.
2S 16:22 So they spread a tent for Absalom upon the roof, and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
2S 16:23 Now the counsel of Ahithophel that he gave in those days was as if one inquired of the oracle of God; all the counsel of Ahithophel was thus, both with David and with Absalom.
2 SAMUEL 17

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2S 17:1 Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
2S 17:2 And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed. And I will terrorize him, and all the people who are with him will flee; then I will strike down the king only.
2S 17:3 And I will bring all the people back to you; the return of the whole depends on what happens to the man whom you are seeking. All the people will be at peace.
2S 17:4 And the word seemed right in the sight of Absalom and in the sight of all the elders of Israel.
2S 17:5 Then Absalom said, Call now for Hushai the Archite also that we may hear what he also has to say.
2S 17:6 So Hushai came to Absalom; and Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken in this way. Shall we do what he says? If not, you speak.
2S 17:7 And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.
2S 17:8 Hushai said moreover, You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men and bitter in soul, like a abear robbed of her whelps in the field; and your father is a man of war and will not lodge with the people.
2S 17:9 He is now hidden in some pit or some other place; and when some of them fall at the beginning, whoever hears of it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who are with Absalom.
2S 17:10 And even he who is valiant, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will utterly melt in fear; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and that those who are with him are valiant men.
2S 17:11 But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together unto you, from Dan to Beer-sheba, like the sand that is by the sea in multitude, and that you go into battle in person.
2S 17:12 Then we will come upon him in some place where he will be found, and we will light upon him as dew falls upon the ground; and we will not leave among him and among the men who are with him even one.
2S 17:13 And if he should withdraw into a city, all Israel will carry ropes to that city, and we will pull it into the river, until not even a stone is found there.
2S 17:14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel; for Jehovah had ordained the defeat of the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that Jehovah might bring evil upon Absalom.
2S 17:15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus and thus did I counsel.
2S 17:16 Now therefore send word quickly and tell David, saying, Do not lodge tonight at the 1fords of the wilderness, but pass over by all means; otherwise, the king will be swallowed up, as well as all the people who are with him.
2S 17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying in En-rogel, and a female servant would go and tell them, and they would go and tell King David; for they could not risk being seen coming into the city.
2S 17:18 But a young man saw them, and he told Absalom. And both of them went off quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his courtyard; and they went down into it.
2S 17:19 And his wife took the covering and spread it over the mouth of the well, and she astrew grain over it; and the matter was unknown.
2S 17:20 Then Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house and said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, They have crossed over the brook of water. And when they searched for them and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
2S 17:21 And after they departed, they came up out of the well and went and told King David. And they said to David, Rise up and cross quickly over the water, for thus has Ahithophel given counsel against you.
2S 17:22 So David rose up with all the people who were with him, and they crossed over the Jordan; by morning’s light there was not one left who had not crossed over the Jordan.
2S 17:23 And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and rose up and went to his house in his city; and he set his house in order and ahanged himself. And he died and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.
2S 17:24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom crossed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
2S 17:25 And Absalom set aAmasa over the army, instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in unto Abigail the daughter of Nahash, Zeruiah’s sister, Joab’s mother.
2S 17:26 And Israel and Absalom camped in the land of Gilead.
2S 17:27 And when David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Amiel of Lo-debar, and aBarzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
2S 17:28 Brought beds and basins and earthen vessels and wheat and barley and meal and parched grain and beans and lentils and other parched grain
2S 17:29 And honey and butter and sheep and cheese from the herd to David and the people who were with him for them to eat; for they said, The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.
2 SAMUEL 18

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2S 18:1 Then David mustered the people who were with him, and he set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.
2S 18:2 And David sent the people out, a third under the hand of Joab and a third under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the people, I myself will surely go forth with you also.
2S 18:3 But the people said, You shall not go forth; for if we flee off, they will not care about us; and if half of us die, they will not care about us. 1But you are worth ten thousand of us; therefore it is better for you to be available to help us from the city.
2S 18:4 And the king said to them, What seems best in your sight I will do. So the king stood at the side of the gate, and all the people went forth by hundreds and by thousands.
2S 18:5 And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave the command to all the captains concerning Absalom.
2S 18:6 And the people went forth into the field against Israel, and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.
2S 18:7 And the people of Israel were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter of twenty thousand there on that day.
2S 18:8 And the battle was spread there over the face of all the land, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
2S 18:9 And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David, and Absalom was riding upon his mule. And the mule went under the tangled branches of a great terebinth; and his ahead was caught in the terebinth, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth while the mule that was under him went on.
2S 18:10 And a certain man saw this; and he told Joab and said, I have just seen Absalom hanging from a terebinth.
2S 18:11 And Joab said to the man who told him this, And you have just seen this. Why did you not strike him down to the ground there? For I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt.
2S 18:12 And the man said to Joab, Though I would receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not put forth my hand against the son of the king; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Take care of the young man Absalom, whoever you be.
2S 18:13 On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously with his life (there is nothing hidden from the king), you would have set yourself against me.
2S 18:14 Then Joab said, I will not linger here with you. And he took three staves in his hand and thrust them through Absalom’s heart while he was still alive in the midst of the terebinth.
2S 18:15 And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom and struck him, and they killed him.
2S 18:16 And Joab ablew the trumpet; and the people returned from pursuing after Israel, for Joab restrained the people.
2S 18:17 And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest, and they cast up over him a very great mound of stones. And all Israel fled, every man to his tent.
2S 18:18 Now Absalom, while he was alive, had taken a pillar which was in the king’s valley and raised it up for himself, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. And he called the pillar by his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.
2S 18:19 Then aAhimaaz the son of Zadok said, Let me now run and announce the news to the king, that Jehovah has avenged him of his enemies.
2S 18:20 And Joab said to him, You shall anot be the bearer of the news this day, but you shall announce the news on another day; yet on this day you shall not announce the news, for the king’s son is dead.
2S 18:21 And Joab said to the Cushite, Go, tell the king what you have seen. And the Cushite bowed to Joab and ran.
2S 18:22 Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said yet again to Joab, But come what may, let me also run after the Cushite. And Joab said, Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?
2S 18:23 But come what may, he said, I will run. And he said to him, Run. And Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed the Cushite.
2S 18:24 Now David was sitting between the two gates. And the watchman went up on the roof of the gate to the wall; and lifted up his eyes and looked, and there came a man running alone.
2S 18:25 And the watchman called out and told the king. And the king said, If he is alone, there is news in his mouth. And he continued coming and drew near.
2S 18:26 Then the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called out to the gatekeeper and said, Here comes a man running alone. And the king said, This one also brings news.
2S 18:27 And the watchman said, I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a good man and comes with good news.
2S 18:28 And Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, All is well; and he bowed down to the king on his face to the ground. And he said, Blessed be Jehovah your God, who has delivered up the men who have lifted up their hand against my lord the king.
2S 18:29 And the king said, Is all well with the young man Absalom? And Ahimaaz said, When Joab sent the king’s servant and me your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was.
2S 18:30 And the king said, Turn aside, and stand here. And he turned aside and stood there.
2S 18:31 Just then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, Good news for my lord the king, for today Jehovah has avenged you of all who have risen up against you.
2S 18:32 And the king said to the Cushite, Is all well with the young man Absalom? And the Cushite said, May the enemies of my lord the king and all those who rise up against you to harm you be like that young man!
2S 18:33 And the king was badly shaken, and he went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he spoke thus, O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son!
2 SAMUEL 19

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2S 19:1 And Joab was told: The king now weeps and mourns for Absalom.
2S 19:2 And the victory that day was turned to mourning for all the people, for the people heard it said that day that the king was grieved concerning his son.
2S 19:3 And the people stole into the city that day as shamed people steal away when they flee in battle.
2S 19:4 And the king covered his face and cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!
2S 19:5 Then Joab came to the king at his house and said, Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who saved your life today and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines,
2S 19:6 In that you love those who hate you and hate those who love you; for you have made it clear today that princes and servants are nothing to you. But I realize today that if Absalom had lived and we all had died today, then it would have been fine in your sight.
2S 19:7 Now therefore rise up; go forth and comfort the hearts of your servants. For I swear by Jehovah that if you do not go forth, not a man will remain with you tonight; and that will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.
2S 19:8 So the king rose up and sat in the gate.
j. The Peaceful Settlements in David’s Kingdom after Absalom’s Revolt
19:8b-43
And all the people were told, saying, The king is now sitting in the gate. And all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled, every man to his tent.
2S 19:9 And all the people quarreled throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the aPhilistines; and now he has fled out of the land because of Absalom.
2S 19:10 But Absalom, whom we anointed as king over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?
2S 19:11 And King David sent word to aZadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, seeing that the word of all Israel has come to the king1?
2S 19:12 You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring the king back?
2S 19:13 And you shall say to aAmasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me, and even more, if you do not become captain of the army before me continually in the place of bJoab.
2S 19:14 And he turned the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, and they sent word to the king, saying, Return, you and all your servants.
2S 19:15 So the king returned and came to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan.
2S 19:16 And aShimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite who was from Bahurim, hurried and went down with the men of Judah to meet King David.
2S 19:17 And there were a thousand men with him from Benjamin; and aZiba, the attendant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him were there. And they rushed down to the Jordan before the king.
2S 19:18 And the crossing was being made in order to bring the king’s household over and to do whatever was good in his sight. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan.
2S 19:19 And he said to the king, Let not my lord consider me guilty; and do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king went forth from Jerusalem, that the king should take it to heart.
2S 19:20 For your servant knows that I have sinned; and now I have come today, the first of all the house of Joseph to come down, to meet my lord the king.
2S 19:21 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, for he has cursed Jehovah’s anointed?
2S 19:22 And David said, aWhat have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah, that you should be an adversary to me today? Should any man in Israel be put to death today? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel?
2S 19:23 And the king said to Shimei, You will not die. And the king swore so to him.
2S 19:24 Then aMephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. Now he had neither taken care of his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he came back in peace.
2S 19:25 And when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, Why did you not come with me, Mephibosheth?
2S 19:26 And he said, O my lord the king, my servant deceived me; for your servant said, I will saddle myself a donkey that I may ride on it and go with the king. For your servant is alame.
2S 19:27 And 1Ziba slandered your servant before my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an aangel of God; therefore do what is good in your sight.
2S 19:28 For all my father’s house were but men worthy of death before my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who aeat at your table. What further right then do I have to cry out more to the king?
2S 19:29 And the king said to him, Why speak any more of your affairs? I say that you and Ziba shall divide the land.
2S 19:30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, Let him even take it all, since my lord the king has arrived at his house in peace.
2S 19:31 Then aBarzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and he crossed over the Jordan with the king, to escort him through the Jordan.
2S 19:32 And Barzillai was very old, eighty years of age; and he had provided the king with food while he remained in Mahanaim, for he was a very great man.
2S 19:33 And the king said to Barzillai, Cross over with me, and I will provide you with food in Jerusalem at my side.
2S 19:34 But Barzillai said to the king, How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?
2S 19:35 I am aeighty years old today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat and what I drink? Can I hear anymore the voice of singing men and women? Why then should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king?
2S 19:36 Your servant would just cross a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why then should the king reward me with such a reward?
2S 19:37 Let your servant return that I may die in my city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant aChimham, let him cross over with my lord the king; and do with him what is good in your sight.
2S 19:38 And the king said, Chimham shall cross over with me, and I will do with him what is good in your sight; and whatever you wish for me to do, I will do for you.
2S 19:39 And all the people crossed over the Jordan, and the king crossed over. And the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own place.
2S 19:40 So the king crossed over to Gilgal, and Chimham crossed over with him. And all the people of Judah, and half the people of Israel as well, brought the king over.
2S 19:41 Then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan along with the men of David with him?
2S 19:42 And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s expense? Or has he given us any gift?
2S 19:43 And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, We have aten parts in the king, and in David too we have more than you. Why then have you despised us? And were we not the first to speak of bringing our king back? But the speaking of the men of Judah was more prevailing than the speaking of the men of Israel.
2 SAMUEL 20

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k. The Rebellion of Sheba
20:1-22
2S 20:1 Now there was a worthless fellow there whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the atrumpet and said,
We have no bportion in David, / Nor do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. / Every man to his tents, O Israel!
2S 20:2 And all the men of Israel went up from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri, but the men of Judah clung to their king, from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
2S 20:3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten aconcubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them under guard; and he provided for them but did not go in unto them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living like widows.
2S 20:4 Then the king said to aAmasa, Call the men of Judah to me in three days, and you be present here.
2S 20:5 And Amasa went to call Judah, but he delayed beyond the time that 1David appointed to him.
2S 20:6 Then David said to Abishai, Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. You take servants of your lord and pursue after him; otherwise he will find himself some fortified cities and escape out of our sight.
2S 20:7 So the men of Joab went out after him, along with the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men; and they went forth from Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.
2S 20:8 When they were at the large stone that is in aGibeon, Amasa came to meet them. And Joab was in military dress, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath, fastened on his loins; and when he went forward, it fell out.
2S 20:9 And aJoab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? And he took hold of Amasa’s beard with his right hand to bkiss him.
2S 20:10 But aAmasa did not notice the sword which was in Joab’s hand. And 1Joab bstruck him in the stomach with it and poured out his bowels onto the ground, and he did not strike him a second time; and he died. And Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
2S 20:11 And one of Joab’s young men stood by him and said, Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab.
2S 20:12 And Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road, and the man saw that all the people stood still. And when he saw that all who came by him were stopping, he carried Amasa off the road into the field and put a garment over him.
2S 20:13 As soon as he was removed from the road, all the men went on after Joab to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.
2S 20:14 And 1Sheba went on throughout all the tribes of Israel to Abel and to Beth-maacah and unto all the Berites; and they gathered together and also went after him.
2S 20:15 And they came and besieged him at Abel of Beth-maacah; and they cast up a siege mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart. And all the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.
2S 20:16 And a wise woman from the city cried out, Listen! Listen! Say to Joab, Come near here that I may speak to you.
2S 20:17 And he came near to her; and the woman said, Are you Joab? And he said, I am. And she said to him, Listen to the words of your female servant. And he said, I am listening.
2S 20:18 Then she spoke, saying, They used to speak in former times, saying, They shall surely ask for counsel in Abel; and thus they would end matters.
2S 20:19 I am of the peaceable and faithful of Israel; you are seeking to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the ainheritance of Jehovah?
2S 20:20 And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I would swallow up or destroy.
2S 20:21 The matter is not so, but a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab, His head will immediately be thrown over the wall to you.
2S 20:22 So the woman went to all the people in her awisdom; and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. And he blew the trumpet, and they dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
l. The Re-establishment of the Kingdom of David
20:23-26
2S 20:23 aNow Joab was over all the army of Israel, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites,
2S 20:24 And Adoram was over the forced labor, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder,
2S 20:25 And Sheva was scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests,
2S 20:26 And Ira the Jairite was also a 1chief minister to David.
2 SAMUEL 21

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7. The Last Stage of David’s Kingship
21:1 — 24:25
a. David’s Taking Care of the Famine for the People
21:1-14
2S 21:1 And there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David ainquired of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, It is because of Saul and because of his house of bloodshed, for he put those bGibeonites to death.
2S 21:2 So the king called for the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel but were of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them. But Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.
2S 21:3 And David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And how shall I make expiation that you may bless the ainheritance of Jehovah?
2S 21:4 And the Gibeonites said to him, It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul and his house, and it is not for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, Whatever you say I will do for you.
2S 21:5 Then they said to the king, The man who consumed us and who made plans against us to destroy us so that we would not remain within any of the territory of Israel,
2S 21:6 Let seven men from among his sons be given to us, and we will hang them unto Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah. And the king said, I will give them.
2S 21:7 But the king spared aMephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the boath of Jehovah that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
2S 21:8 So the king took the two sons of aRizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of 1bMerab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
2S 21:9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they hanged them on the mountain before Jehovah, and the seven perished together. And they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of the abarley harvest.
2S 21:10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain from heaven fell on 1their bodies; and she did not allow the birds of heaven to come upon them by day or the beasts of the field by night.
2S 21:11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
2S 21:12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of aJabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day when the Philistines slew Saul in Gilboa.
2S 21:13 So he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.
2S 21:14 And they buried the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the grave of Kish his father; and they did all that the king had commanded. And God aresponded to the entreaty for the land after that.
b. David’s Conquest over the Philistines
21:15-22
2S 21:15 And again the Philistines were at war with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought with the Philistines. And David became faint.
2S 21:16 And Ishbi-benob, who was one of the children of the giant and whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, was girded with new weapons; and he intended to slay David.
2S 21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him and struck down the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, You shall not go forth with us again into battle, lest you quench the alamp of Israel.
2S 21:18 aThen after this there was war again with the Philistines at Gob; and Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was one of the children of the giant.
2S 21:19 And there was war with the Philistines, again at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
2S 21:20 And again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born to the giant.
2S 21:21 And he adefied Israel; and Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, slew him.
2S 21:22 These four had been born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hands of his servants.
2 SAMUEL 22

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c. David’s Thanking and Praising to God in a Song
22:1-51
2S 22:1 aAnd David spoke the words of this 1song to Jehovah on the day when Jehovah bdelivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
2S 22:2 And he said: Jehovah is my crag and my afortress and my Deliverer;
2S 22:3 1My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; / My ashield and the bhorn of my salvation, my high retreat and my refuge; / My Savior, You save me from violence.
2S 22:4 I called upon Jehovah, who is worthy of praise, / And from my enemies I was saved.
2S 22:5 For the waves of death encompassed me; / The torrents of destruction assailed me.
2S 22:6 The acords of Sheol surrounded me; / The snares of death confronted me.
2S 22:7 In my distress I acalled upon Jehovah / And called to my God. / And He heard my voice from His temple, / And my cry came to His ears.
2S 22:8 Then the earth shook and quaked, / And the foundations of the heavens trembled and shook about, / For He was furious.
2S 22:9 Smoke went up from His nostrils, / And fire from His mouth devoured; / Coals blazed forth from Him.
2S 22:10 He bowed the heavens down and adescended, / And deep darkness was under His feet.
2S 22:11 He rode upon a cherub and did fly; / He was seen upon the wings of the wind.
2S 22:12 And He made darkness pavilions around Him: / Dark waterclouds, thick clouds of the skies.
2S 22:13 Out of the brightness before Him / Fiery coals were kindled.
2S 22:14 Jehovah thundered from heaven, / And the Most High uttered His voice.
2S 22:15 And He sent forth arrows and scattered 1my enemies; / Lightning bolts, and discomfited them.
2S 22:16 The achannels of the sea were seen, / The foundations of the habitable land were laid bare, / By the rebuke of Jehovah, / At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
2S 22:17 He reached forth from on high; He took me; / He adrew me out of great waters.
2S 22:18 He delivered me from my strong enemy / And from those who hate me, for they were too mighty for me.
2S 22:19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, / But Jehovah became my support.
2S 22:20 He brought me forth to a place broad and free; / He rescued me, for He took delight in me.
2S 22:21 Jehovah has recompensed me according to my righteousness; / According to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me.
2S 22:22 For I have kept the ways of Jehovah / And have not acted wickedly by turning away from my God.
2S 22:23 For all His judgments were before me, / And as for His statutes, I did not turn away from them.
2S 22:24 I was perfect toward Him, / And I kept myself from my iniquity.
2S 22:25 Therefore Jehovah recompensed me according to my righteousness, / According to my cleanness in His sight.
2S 22:26 With the faithful You show Yourself faithful, / With the perfect man You show Yourself perfect,
2S 22:27 With the pure You show Yourself pure, / And with the perverse You show Yourself contrary.
2S 22:28 And You save the afflicted people, / But Your eyes are upon the haughty that You may bring them down;
2S 22:29 For You are my alamp, O Jehovah. / And Jehovah lights up my darkness;
2S 22:30 For by You I can run up against a troop; / By my God I can leap over a wall.
2S 22:31 As for God, His way is perfect; / The word of Jehovah is atried. / He is a bshield to all who take refuge in Him.
2S 22:32 For who is God other than Jehovah, / And who is a rock except our God?
2S 22:33 God is my strong fortress, / And He 1makes my way perfect;
2S 22:34 aHe makes 1my feet like hinds’ feet / And sets me on my bhigh places;
2S 22:35 aHe teaches my hands to wage war / So that my arms may bend a bronze bow.
2S 22:36 And You have given me the ashield of Your salvation, / And Your condescending gentleness has made me great.
2S 22:37 You have broadened the places of my steps under me, / And my feet have not slipped.
2S 22:38 I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, / And I did not turn back until they were consumed.
2S 22:39 And I devoured them and shattered them, so that they did not rise up; / Indeed, they have fallen under my feet.
2S 22:40 And You girded me with strength for war; / You brought down under me those who rose up against me.
2S 22:41 You also made my enemies turn their back to me, / And I annihilated those who hated me.
2S 22:42 They looked, but there was no one to save them; / They looked to Jehovah, but He did not answer them.
2S 22:43 Then I beat them like the dust of the earth; / I pounded them, I stamped them, like the mud of the streets.
2S 22:44 And You rescued me from the strivings of my people; / You have kept me as the head of the nations; / A people whom I have anot known serves me.
2S 22:45 Foreigners come cringing to me; / At the mere hearing of a report, they obey me;
2S 22:46 Foreigners are discouraged / And 1come quaking out of their fortresses.
2S 22:47 Jehovah alives; and blessed be my rock, / And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,
2S 22:48 The God who executes vengeance for me / And brings down peoples under me,
2S 22:49 And who brings me forth from my enemies. / Yes, You exalted me above those who rise up against me; / From the violent man You delivered me.
2S 22:50 aTherefore I give thanks to You among the nations, O Jehovah; / And I sing psalms to Your name.
2S 22:51 It is He who magnifies salvation to His aking / And executes lovingkindness to His banointed, / To David and to his cseed forever.
2 SAMUEL 23

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d. David’s Last Words
23:1-7
2S 23:1 Now these are the last words of David:
The declaration of David the son of Jesse, / And the declaration of the man who has been raised up on high, / The aanointed of the God of Jacob, / The one lovely in the psalms of Israel.
2S 23:2 The aSpirit of Jehovah spoke through me, / And His word was on my tongue.
2S 23:3 The God of Israel spoke, / The aRock of Israel spoke to me, / 1Who rules among men righteously, / Who rules with the fear of God,
2S 23:4 And is like the light of the morning when the asun rises, / A morning without clouds, / As when the tender grass sprouts up from the earth / At the sun’s shining after a rain.
2S 23:5 For is not my house so with God? / For He has made an eternal acovenant with me, / Ordered in all things and secure. / For all my salvation and all my desire, / Will He not indeed make them grow?
2S 23:6 But the wicked, all of them, will be / Like thorns to be thrust away, / Because they cannot be taken with the hand.
2S 23:7 But the man who touches them / Must arm himself with an iron rod or with the shaft of a spear; / And they will be burned with fire in their place.
e. David’s Mighty Men
23:8-39
2S 23:8 aThese are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite; he was the 1chief of the captains; the same is Adino the Eznite, who fought against eight hundred, who were slain at one time.
2S 23:9 After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the son of an Ahohite, one among the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were gathered 1there for battle, and the men of Israel went away.
2S 23:10 He rose up and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary; and his hand clung to the sword, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation that day; and the people returned after him, but only to strip the slain.
2S 23:11 And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. Now the Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of land full of lentils, and the people fled before the Philistines.
2S 23:12 But he stationed himself in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck the Philistines, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation.
2S 23:13 Now three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time in the cave of aAdullam; and the Philistine troop was encamped in the valley of bRephaim.
2S 23:14 Now at that time David was in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was at that time in Bethlehem.
2S 23:15 And David said longingly, If only someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!
2S 23:16 And the three mighty men burst through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate. And they carried it and brought it to David, but he would not drink it; rather he poured it out to Jehovah.
2S 23:17 And he said, Far be it from me, O Jehovah, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.
2S 23:18 And aAbishai the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. And he brandished his spear against three hundred, who were slain; and he had a name among the three.
2S 23:19 He was indeed the most honored among the 1thirty, and he became their leader; but he did not attain to the three.
2S 23:20 And aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, was great in mighty deeds. He struck the two sons of Ariel the Moabite; he also went down and struck a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.
2S 23:21 And he struck an Egyptian, an imposing man. And the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the hand of the Egyptian and slew him with his own spear.
2S 23:22 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and he had a name among the three mighty men.
2S 23:23 He was more honored than the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.
2S 23:24 aAsahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem;
2S 23:25 Shammah the Harodite; Elika the Harodite;
2S 23:26 Helez the Paltite; Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite;
2S 23:27 Abiezer the Anathothite; Mebunnai the Hushathite;
2S 23:28 Zalmon the Ahohite; Maharai the Netophathite;
2S 23:29 Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite; Ittai the son of Ribai from Gibeah of the children of Benjamin;
2S 23:30 Benaiah the Pirathonite; Hiddai from the brooks of Gaash;
2S 23:31 Abi-albon the Arbathite; Azmaveth the Barhumite;
2S 23:32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite; of the sons of Jashen, Jonathan;
2S 23:33 Shammah the Hararite; Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite;
2S 23:34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai; the son of the Maachathite; Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite;
2S 23:35 Hezrai the Carmelite; Paarai the Arbite;
2S 23:36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah; Bani the Gadite;
2S 23:37 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai the Beerothite, the armor 1bearer to Joab the son of Zeruiah;
2S 23:38 Ira the Ithrite; Gareb the Ithrite;
2S 23:39 aUriah the Hittite. They were thirty-seven in all.
2 SAMUEL 24

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f. David’s Last Sin
24:1-25
2S 24:1 aAnd again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel; and 1he moved David against them, saying, Go, bnumber Israel and Judah.
2S 24:2 And the king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, Go now throughout all the tribes of Israel, from aDan to Beer-sheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.
2S 24:3 And Joab said to the king, Now may Jehovah your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king may see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?
2S 24:4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went forth before the king to count the people of Israel.
2S 24:5 And they crossed the Jordan and encamped at Aroer to the right of the city, which was in the midst of the river valley, toward Gad and unto Jazer.
2S 24:6 Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon.
2S 24:7 And they came to the stronghold of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went on to the south of Judah at Beer-sheba.
2S 24:8 And when they had gone about throughout all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
2S 24:9 And Joab gave the number of the count of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
2S 24:10 And David’s aheart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Jehovah, I have bsinned greatly in what I have done; but now, O Jehovah, put away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.
2S 24:11 And when David rose up in the morning, the word of Jehovah came to aGad the prophet, David’s seer, saying,
2S 24:12 Go and speak to David, Thus says Jehovah, I am offering you three things; choose one of them for Me to do for you.
2S 24:13 So Gad went to David and told him these things. And he said to him, Shall seven years of afamine come upon you in your land? Or shall you flee before your adversaries for three months while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Consider now and see what word I should return to Him who sent me.
2S 24:14 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait; let us fall into the hand of Jehovah, for His acompassions are great; and do not let me fall into the hand of man.
2S 24:15 So Jehovah sent a apestilence in Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand people died among the people from Dan to Beer-sheba.
2S 24:16 And when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Jehovah arepented of the harm. And He said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough; now hold back your hand. And the angel of Jehovah was by the bthreshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
2S 24:17 And David spoke to Jehovah when he saw the aangel striking the people and said, It is I who have sinned, and it is I who have acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against the house of my father.
2S 24:18 And Gad came to David on that day; and he said to him, Go up and raise up an altar to Jehovah on the 1athreshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
2S 24:19 And David went up according to Gad’s word, as Jehovah had commanded.
2S 24:20 And Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming over toward him. And Araunah went forth and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
2S 24:21 And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing floor from you to build an altar to Jehovah, that the plague may be astayed among the people.
2S 24:22 And Araunah said to David, May my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing ainstruments and the yokes for the oxen for the wood —
2S 24:23 All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king. Then Araunah said to the king, May Jehovah your God aaccept you.
2S 24:24 But the king said to Araunah, No; but I will surely buy it from you for a price, and I will not offer to Jehovah my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2S 24:25 And there David abuilt an altar to Jehovah, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And Jehovah responded to the entreaty for the land, and the plague was stayed in Israel.
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FIRST KINGS

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 
Outline

Author: Originally, 1 and 2 Kings were one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. Nothing in 1 and 2 Kings indicates who the author was. Some Jewish and Christian teachers have supposed that Jeremiah wrote them.
Time of Writing: Some time during the Babylonian captivity of Israel and after 562 B.C. (2 Kings 25:27).
Place of Writing: Probably in Jerusalem.
Time Period Covered: The two books cover 452 years: 1 Kings covers 118 years, from 1015 to 897 B.C., that is, from the death of David (2:10) to the reign of Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, king of Israel (22:51); 2 Kings covers 334 years, from 896 B.C. to 562 B.C., that is, from the reign of Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel (3:1-3) to the captivity, during the reign of Evil-merodach in Babylon (25:27).
Subject of 1 & 2 Kings:
God’s Governmental Dealing, in God’s Economy, with the Devastation and Ruin of the Divine Kingship on Earth by the Kings, and the Tragic Issue of the Just Dealing of God
1 KINGS 1

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I. The Old Age and Decease of David
1:1 — 2:11
A. Being Old and Fading Away
1:1-4
1K 1:1 1Now when King 2David was old and advanced in 3years, they covered him with clothing, but he could not get warm.
1K 1:2 So his servants said to him, Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king and serve him; and let her lie in your bosom so that my lord the king may get warm.
1K 1:3 Thus they sought for a beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and they found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king.
1K 1:4 And the young woman was very beautiful, and she served the king and ministered to him; but the king did not know her.
B. Making Solomon the Successor to His Throne
1:5-53
1K 1:5 Then aAdonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared a chariot and horsemen for himself and fifty men to run before him.
1K 1:6 And his father had never displeased him by saying, Why have you done thus and thus? And he also was very handsome, and his mother bore him after Absalom.
1K 1:7 And he conferred with 1aJoab the son of Zeruiah and with bAbiathar the priest; and following Adonijah, they helped him.
1K 1:8 But aZadok the priest and bBenaiah the son of Jehoiada and cNathan the prophet and Shimei and Rei and the mighty men who belonged to David were not with Adonijah.
1K 1:9 And Adonijah sacrificed sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel; and he called all his brothers, the sons of the king, and all the men of Judah, the servants of the king.
1K 1:10 But he did not call Nathan the prophet and Benaiah and the mighty men and aSolomon his brother.
1K 1:11 Then Nathan spoke to Bath-sheba, Solomon’s mother, saying, Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith reigns and our lord David does not know it?
1K 1:12 Now therefore come and let me give you counsel to save your life and the life of your son Solomon.
1K 1:13 Go in at once to King David and say to him, Did you not, O my lord the king, swear to your female servant, saying, Solomon your son shall areign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? Then why does Adonijah reign?
1K 1:14 Just when you are there and still speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.
1K 1:15 So Bath-sheba went in to the king in the chamber. And the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king.
1K 1:16 And Bath-sheba bowed and paid homage to the king. And the king said, What do you wish?
1K 1:17 And she said to him, My lord, you swore by Jehovah your God to your female servant, saying, aSolomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne.
1K 1:18 But now, at this moment Adonijah reigns, and 1you, my lord the king, know nothing of it.
1K 1:19 And he has sacrificed oxen and fatlings and sheep abundantly and has called for all the king’s sons and for Abiathar the priest and for Joab the captain of the army, but he has not called for Solomon your servant.
1K 1:20 And you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you, that you would declare to them who will sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him.
1K 1:21 Otherwise when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be counted as offenders.
1K 1:22 And just while she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.
1K 1:23 And they told the king, saying, Nathan the prophet is here. And he came in before the king and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground.
1K 1:24 And Nathan said, O my lord the king, have you said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne?
1K 1:25 For he has gone down today and sacrificed oxen and fatlings and sheep abundantly and has called for all the king’s sons and for the captains of the army and for Abiathar the priest; and now they are eating and drinking before him, and they say, May King Adonijah live!
1K 1:26 But he has not called for me, me your servant, and for Zadok the priest and for Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and for Solomon your servant.
1K 1:27 Has this thing been done by my lord the king, and you have not made known to your servants who shall sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him?
1K 1:28 Then King David answered and said, Call Bath-sheba to me. And she came in before the king and stood before the king.
1K 1:29 And the king swore and said, As Jehovah lives, who has aredeemed my soul out of all adversity,
1K 1:30 Indeed as I have sworn to you by Jehovah the God of Israel, saying, Solomon your son shall areign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my place; so indeed will I do this day.
1K 1:31 Then Bath-sheba bowed her face to the ground and paid homage to the king, and she said, May my lord King David live forever.
1K 1:32 And King David said, Call Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada to me. And they came in before the king.
1K 1:33 And the king said to them, Take the servants of your lord with you, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.
1K 1:34 And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet aanoint him there as king over Israel; and blow the trumpet and say, May King Solomon live!
1K 1:35 Then come up after him; and he shall come and sit upon my throne, and he shall reign in my place; for I have appointed him as aruler over Israel and over Judah.
1K 1:36 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, aAmen! May Jehovah, the God of my lord the king, so ordain!
1K 1:37 As Jehovah ahas been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon; and may He make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.
1K 1:38 So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and caused Solomon to ride upon King David’s mule, and they brought him to Gihon.
1K 1:39 And Zadok the priest took the horn of aoil from the Tent of Jehovah and banointed Solomon; and they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, May King Solomon live!
1K 1:40 And all the people went up after him; and the people were playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, and the land shook with the sound of them.
1K 1:41 And Adonijah and all the invited guests with him heard it as they finished eating. And Joab heard the sound of the trumpet and said, Why is there the sound of the city in an uproar?
1K 1:42 Just as he was still speaking, aJonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. And Adonijah said, Come in; for you are a worthy man and bring good news.
1K 1:43 And Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, Alas! Our lord King David has made Solomon king!
1K 1:44 And the king has sent with him Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king’s mule.
1K 1:45 And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him as king in Gihon; and they have gone up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the sound that you heard.
1K 1:46 And Solomon is also sitting upon the athrone of the kingdom.
1K 1:47 Moreover the king’s servants came to bless our lord King David, saying, May your God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and may He make his throne greater than your throne; and the king abowed himself upon his bed.
1K 1:48 And thus also did the king say, aBlessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who has given me today one to sit on my throne while my eyes may see it.
1K 1:49 And all the invited guests who were with Adonijah became frightened and rose up; and they went away, each on his own way.
1K 1:50 And Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon; and he rose up and went away, and he took hold of the ahorns of the altar.
1K 1:51 And it was told Solomon, saying, Now Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; for he has just now taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not kill his servant with the sword.
1K 1:52 And Solomon said, If he is a worthy man, not a ahair of his will fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.
1K 1:53 So King Solomon sent men and had him brought down from the altar. And he came and paid homage to King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, Go to your house.
1 KINGS 2

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C. Giving the Final Charge to Solomon His Son as the Successor to the Davidic Throne
2:1-9
1K 2:1 When 1David’s time to adie drew near, he commanded 1Solomon his son, saying,
1K 2:2 I am agoing the way of all the earth. Be bstrong therefore and cbe a man;
1K 2:3 And keep the commandment of Jehovah your God by walking in His ways, by keeping His statutes, His commandments, and His ordinances and His testimonies as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn;
1K 2:4 That Jehovah may establish His word which He aspoke concerning me, saying, If your children take heed to their way by walking before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail — He said — to be a man upon the bthrone of Israel for you.
1K 2:5 Furthermore you know what 1Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, by that which he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to aAbner the son of Ner and to bAmasa the son of Jether, whom he slew; and he shed the blood of war in peace and put the blood of war upon his girdle around his loins and upon his sandals that are on his feet.
1K 2:6 Do therefore according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray-haired head go down into Sheol in peace.
1K 2:7 And show mercy to the sons of aBarzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for so they drew near to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.
1K 2:8 And now there is with you aShimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a terrible curse on the day I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Jehovah, saying, I shall not kill you with the sword.
1K 2:9 Now therefore do not hold him guiltless; for you are a wise man, and you will know what to do to him. And you shall bring his gray-haired head down into Sheol with blood.
D. Ceasing in His Life on Earth
2:10-11
1K 2:10 And David aslept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David.
1K 2:11 aAnd the time that David reigned over Israel was forty years: in Hebron he reigned seven years, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years.
II. The Reign of the Kings
1 Kings 2:12 — 2 Kings 25:30
A. The Reign of Solomon
2:12 — 11:43a
1. Ending the Factors of Rebellion for the Establishment of His Kingdom
2:12-46
1K 2:12 And Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.
1K 2:13 Then aAdonijah the son of Haggith came to Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.
1K 2:14 Then he said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Speak.
1K 2:15 And he said, You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel looked to me to reign; but the kingdom has turned and has become my brother’s, for it was of Jehovah to be his.
1K 2:16 Now therefore I ask one thing of you; do not refuse me. And she said to him, Speak.
1K 2:17 And he said, Please tell Solomon the king — for he will not refuse you — to give me aAbishag the Shunammite as my wife.
1K 2:18 And Bath-sheba said, Fine; I will speak to the king for you.
1K 2:19 So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and bowed himself before her; and he sat on his throne and had a throne set for the king’s mother, and she sat at his right hand.
1K 2:20 And she said, Let me ask one small thing of you; do not refuse me. And the king said to her, Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.
1K 2:21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as his wife.
1K 2:22 And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, since he is my older brother, indeed for him and for Abiathar the priest and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.
1K 2:23 Then King Solomon swore by Jehovah saying, God do so to me, and even more, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.
1K 2:24 Now therefore as Jehovah lives, who has established me and seated me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as He has promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death today.
1K 2:25 So King Solomon sent aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he struck him down so that he died.
1K 2:26 And to Abiathar the priest, the king said, Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you are worthy of death; but I will not kill you at this time, for you abore the Ark of the Lord Jehovah before David my father and you bsuffered affliction in all that my father suffered.
1K 2:27 So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being a priest to Jehovah, fulfilling the word of Jehovah which He had aspoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
1K 2:28 And the report came to Joab, for Joab had followed after Adonijah, though he had not followed after Absalom. And Joab fled into the Tent of Jehovah, and he took hold of the ahorns of the altar.
1K 2:29 And when it was told King Solomon that Joab had fled into the Tent of Jehovah and that he was just then beside the aaltar, Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go and strike him down.
1K 2:30 And Benaiah came to the Tent of Jehovah and said to him, Thus says the king, Come out. And he said, No; rather I will die here. Then Benaiah brought word to the king again, saying, Thus has Joab said, and thus has he answered me.
1K 2:31 And the king said to him, Do as he has spoken, and strike him down and bury him, that you may remove the ablood which Joab has shed without cause from me and from my father’s house.
1K 2:32 And Jehovah will return his blood upon his head because he struck down two men more righteous and better than himself and slew them with the sword, though my father David did not know of it, that is, aAbner the son of Ner, the captain of the army of Israel, and bAmasa the son of Jether, the captain of the army of Judah.
1K 2:33 So their blood shall return upon Joab’s head and upon his seed’s head forever, but to David and to his seed and to his house and to his throne there shall be peace forever from Jehovah.
1K 2:34 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness.
1K 2:35 And the king put aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king put bZadok the priest in Abiathar’s place.
1K 2:36 Then the king sent word and called for aShimei. And he said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there; and you shall not go forth from there to any place whatever.
1K 2:37 For on the day that you go forth and cross over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die; your blood will be upon your own head.
1K 2:38 And Shimei said to the king, This word is good; as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.
1K 2:39 Then at the end of three years two of Shimei’s servants ran off to Achish the son of Maacah, the king of Gath; and they told Shimei, saying, Your servants are now in Gath.
1K 2:40 So Shimei rose up and saddled his donkey and went to Gath, unto Achish, to seek his servants. And Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath.
1K 2:41 And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned.
1K 2:42 So the king sent word and called for Shimei; and he said to him, Did I not make you swear by Jehovah and solemnly warn you, saying, On the day that you go forth and travel to any place whatever, know for certain that you shall surely die? And you said to me, This word that I have heard is good.
1K 2:43 Why then have you not kept the oath of Jehovah and the commandment that I charged you with?
1K 2:44 And the king said to Shimei, You yourself know all the evil, which your heart is conscious of, that you did to David my father; and Jehovah will return your evil upon your own head.
1K 2:45 But King Solomon will be blessed, and the athrone of David will be established before Jehovah forever.
1K 2:46 So the king gave commands to Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck him down so that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
1 KINGS 3

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2. Marrying the Daughter of the King of Egypt
3:1
1K 3:1 And Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he took 1Pharaoh’s adaughter and brought her to the city of David until he completed the building of his bhouse and the chouse of Jehovah and the dwall of Jerusalem all around.
3. Seeking for God
3:2-4
1K 3:2 The people however were sacrificing in the high places, for there had still not been built a house for the name of Jehovah up to those days.
1K 3:3 And Solomon loved Jehovah, walking in the statutes of David his father; however he sacrificed and burned incense in the 1high places.
1K 3:4 aAnd the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer on that altar.
4. Seeking for Wisdom
3:5-15
1K 3:5 aIn Gibeon Jehovah appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, Ask what I should give you.
1K 3:6 And Solomon said, You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth and righteousness and in uprightness of heart with You; and You have kept for him this great lovingkindness and have given him a son to sit upon his throne, as it is this day.
1K 3:7 And now, O Jehovah my God, You have made Your servant king in the place of David my father, though I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.
1K 3:8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people, whom You have chosen, a vast people that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude.
1K 3:9 Give therefore to Your servant an aunderstanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?
1K 3:10 And this word seemed good in the sight of the 1Lord, that Solomon had asked for this matter.
1K 3:11 And God said to him, Because you have aasked for this matter and have not asked for long life for yourself and have not asked for riches for yourself and have not asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for discernment for yourself to understand justice;
1K 3:12 I now do according to your words. I now give you a heart of awisdom and understanding, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor will one rise up after you like you.
1K 3:13 And I also give you that for which you did not ask, both riches and glory, so that there will be no one among kings like you all your days.
1K 3:14 And if you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David your father walked, I will extend your days.
1K 3:15 Then Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he went to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of 1Jehovah, and he offered up burnt offerings and offered peace offerings and made a feast for all his servants.
5. Judging the Case of the Two Harlots’ Quarreling
3:16-28
1K 3:16 At that time two harlots came to the king and stood before him.
1K 3:17 And the one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.
1K 3:18 And on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house; only we two were in the house.
1K 3:19 And this woman’s son died during the night, because she lay on him.
1K 3:20 So she rose up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your female servant was sleeping and laid him in her bosom, and her dead son she laid in my bosom.
1K 3:21 Then when I rose up in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I examined him in the morning, that was not my son whom I had given birth to.
1K 3:22 And the other woman said, No! The live one is my son, and the dead one is your son. And the first said, No! The dead one is your son, and the live one is my son. And they went on arguing like this before the king.
1K 3:23 Then the king said, This one says, This is my son, the live one, and the dead one is your son; and that one says, No! The dead one is your son, and the live one is my son.
1K 3:24 And the king said, Get me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
1K 3:25 And the king said, Divide the live child between the two, and give half to one and half to the other.
1K 3:26 And the woman whose son was the live one said to the king (for her compassions for her son burned within), Oh, my lord, give the live child to her, and do not by any means kill him! But the other said, He shall neither be mine nor yours; divide him.
1K 3:27 And the king answered and said, Give her the live child, and do not by any means kill him; she is his mother.
1K 3:28 And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had exercised, and they feared the king; for they saw that the awisdom of God was within him to execute justice.
1 KINGS 4

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6. The Organization of His Governmental Administration
4:1-19
1K 4:1 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.
1K 4:2 And these were the officials with him: aAzariah the son of Zadok, the priest;
1K 4:3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;
1K 4:4 And aBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were high priests;
1K 4:5 And Azariah the son of aNathan was over the superintendents; and Zabud the son of Nathan was the principal officer, the king’s friend;
1K 4:6 And Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labor.
1K 4:7 And Solomon had twelve superintendents over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his house; each month of the year one had to provide food.
1K 4:8 And these are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
1K 4:9 Ben-deker, in Makaz and in Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elon-beth-hanan;
1K 4:10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him pertained Socoh and all the land of Hepher);
1K 4:11 Ben-abinadab, in all the highland of Dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife);
1K 4:12 Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-shean, which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;
1K 4:13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him pertained the villages of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; and to him pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);
1K 4:14 Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
1K 4:15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife);
1K 4:16 Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and 1Bealoth;
1K 4:17 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
1K 4:18 Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;
1K 4:19 Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan (and there was only one superintendent in that land).
7. His Prosperity under the Rich Blessing of God
4:20 — 5:18
1K 4:20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the asand that is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing.
1K 4:21 And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the 1aRiver to the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt; they bbrought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
1K 4:22 And Solomon’s provisions for one day were thirty 1cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal,
1K 4:23 Ten fattened oxen and twenty pastured oxen and a hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelles and roebucks and fattened fowl.
1K 4:24 For he had dominion over all the area west of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had apeace on all sides around him.
1K 4:25 And Judah and Israel dwelt securely, every man under his avine and under his fig tree, from bDan to Beer-sheba, throughout all Solomon’s days.
1K 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen.
1K 4:27 And those superintendents provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each in his month; they left nothing lacking.
1K 4:28 And they also brought to the place where it should be, barley and straw for the horses and steeds, each according to his charge.
1K 4:29 And God gave Solomon awisdom and very much understanding and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore.
1K 4:30 And Solomon’s 1wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of aEgypt.
1K 4:31 For he became wiser than all men, wiser than aEthan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame was among all the surrounding nations.
1K 4:32 And he spoke three thousand aproverbs, and his bsongs numbered a thousand and five.
1K 4:33 And he discoursed about trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that shoots forth out of the wall; he also discoursed about animals and about birds and about creeping things and about fish.
1K 4:34 And they 1came from all the peoples to hear the awisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
1 KINGS 5

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1K 5:1 Now aHiram the king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David.
1K 5:2 aAnd Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying,
1K 5:3 You know about David my father that he was not able to abuild a house for the name of Jehovah his God because of the warfare that his enemies surrounded him with, until Jehovah put them under the soles of his feet.
1K 5:4 But now Jehovah my God has given me arest all around; there is no adversary or evil occurrence.
1K 5:5 And now I intend to abuild a house for the name of Jehovah my God according to what Jehovah spoke to David my father, saying, Your son, whom I will put on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.
1K 5:6 Now therefore command that they cut for me cedars from Lebanon. And my servants will be with your servants, and I will give you payment for your servants, according to whatever you say; for you know that among us there is no one who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.
1K 5:7 And when Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be Jehovah this day, who has given David a wise son over this great people.
1K 5:8 And Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, I have heard the message which you have sent me. I will do all your desire concerning 1cedar timber and 1cypress timber.
1K 5:9 My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you direct me; and I will break them apart there, and you can carry them off. And you can fulfill my desire by giving food to my household.
1K 5:10 So Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber, all that he desired.
1K 5:11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand 1cors of wheat as food for his household and twenty cors of the finest oil; this did Solomon give to Hiram year by year.
1K 5:12 And Jehovah gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
1K 5:13 And King Solomon levied forced labor out of all Israel, and the forced labor amounted to thirty thousand men.
1K 5:14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: one month they were in Lebanon, and two months they were at home. And Adoniram was over the forced labor.
1K 5:15 And Solomon had seventy thousand burden bearers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains,
1K 5:16 Besides Solomon’s three thousand three hundred chief officers over the work, who directed the people who did the work.
1K 5:17 And the king commanded, and they quarried great astones, costly stones, in order to lay the foundation of the house with hewn stone.
1K 5:18 And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites fashioned the stone and prepared the timber and the stones in order to build the house.
1 KINGS 6

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8. Building the Temple of God as well as His Own Palaces
6:1 — 8:66
a. The Temple
6:1-38
1K 6:1 Then in the four hundred eightieth year after the children of Israel had come forth out of the land of Egypt, in the afourth year of his reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (this is the second month), 1Solomon began to build the 2bhouse of Jehovah.
1K 6:2 And the house which King Solomon built to Jehovah was 1asixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.
1K 6:3 And the aportico that was before the temple of the house was twenty cubits long, across the width of the house, and ten cubits deep, in front of the house.
1K 6:4 And for the house he made 1awindows with 2fixed lattices.
1K 6:5 And against the wall of the house he built a structure with stories all around, next to the walls of the house all around the 1temple and the 2innermost sanctuary; and he made 3side chambers all around.
1K 6:6 The lowest 1story was five cubits wide; and the middle, six cubits wide; and the third, seven cubits wide; for he provided for outsets to the house all around the outside, so that the beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house.
1K 6:7 And the house, when it was being built, was built of finished 1astone, cut at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor ax nor any iron tool was heard in the house when it was being built.
1K 6:8 The 1door of the middle side chamber was on the right side of the house; and they went up by winding stairs into the middle story, and from the middle into the third.
1K 6:9 So he built the house and finished it, and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.
1K 6:10 And he built the stories against all the house, five cubits high; and the structure was held to the house by cedar timbers.
1K 6:11 Then the word of Jehovah came to Solomon, saying,
1K 6:12 As for this house that you are building, if you walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will establish My word with you, which I spoke to David your father;
1K 6:13 And I will dwell in the amidst of the children of Israel, and I will not forsake My people Israel.
1K 6:14 So Solomon built the house and finished it.
1K 6:15 And he built the walls of the house within with 1cedar boards; from the floor of the house to the wall of the ceiling he covered them on the inside with wood. And he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of 1cypress.
1K 6:16 And he built twenty cubits of the rear part of the house with cedar boards from the floor to the walls of the ceiling; and he built it within as an innermost sanctuary, as the aHoly of Holies.
1K 6:17 And the house, that is, the 1temple before the Holy of Holies, was forty cubits long.
1K 6:18 And there was cedar on the house within, carved with gourds and open flowers. It was all cedar; there was no stone showing.
1K 6:19 aAnd he prepared an innermost sanctuary in the midst of the house within, in order to put the 1bArk of the Covenant of Jehovah there.
1K 6:20 And the interior of the innermost sanctuary was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high; and he overlaid it with pure 1gold, and he overlaid the cedar 2altar.
1K 6:21 And Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold; and he drew gold chains before the innermost sanctuary, and overlaid 1it with gold.
1K 6:22 So he overlaid all the house with gold, until all the house was complete; and the whole aaltar, which belonged to the innermost sanctuary, he overlaid with gold.
1K 6:23 And in the innermost sanctuary he made two cherubim of 1olive wood, ten cubits high.
1K 6:24 And the one wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the second wing of the cherub was five cubits; ten cubits from the end of its one wing to the end of its other wing.
1K 6:25 And the second cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim had one measure and one shape.
1K 6:26 The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the second cherub.
1K 6:27 And he put the cherubim in the midst of the inner house. And the awings of the cherubim were spread out so that the wing of the one cherub was touching the wall and the wing of the second cherub was touching the second wall; and their other wings were touching at the middle of the house, wing to wing.
1K 6:28 And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
1K 6:29 And he carved all the walls of the house all around with engraved carvings of 1cherubim and 1palm trees and open flowers, in both the inner chamber and the outer one.
1K 6:30 And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, in both the inner chamber and the outer one.
1K 6:31 And for the entrance of the innermost sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were a fifth of the breadth of the wall.
1K 6:32 And there were two doors of olive wood. And he carved carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers upon them, and he overlaid them with gold and spread the gold upon the cherubim and the palm trees.
1K 6:33 So also he made for the entrance of the temple doorposts of olive wood, out of a fourth of the breadth of the wall,
1K 6:34 And two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door folded, and the two leaves of the second door folded.
1K 6:35 And he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers on them, and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied over the carved work.
1K 6:36 And he built the 1inner court with three courses of hewn stone and a course of cedar beams.
1K 6:37 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid, in the month of Ziv;
1K 6:38 And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul (which is the eighth month) the house was completed in all its parts and according to all its specifications. Thus he was seven years building it.
1 KINGS 7

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b. His Palaces Built in Association with God’s Dwelling
7:1-12
1K 7:1 And Solomon was thirteen years building his own 1ahouse, and he finished all his house.
1K 7:2 And he built the Lebanon Forest House, a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.
1K 7:3 And it was roofed with cedar above the forty-five beams that were upon the pillars, fifteen in a row.
1K 7:4 And there were window frames in three rows, and window was next to window in three tiers.
1K 7:5 And all the doorways and doorposts had square frames, and window was next to window in three tiers.
1K 7:6 And he made the portico of pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, with a portico before them and with pillars and a threshold before them.
1K 7:7 And he made the throne portico, where he would execute judgment, the judgment portico; and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.
1K 7:8 And his house that he was to dwell in, in the court to the rear of the throne portico, was of the same workmanship. He also made a house for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife, like this portico.
1K 7:9 All these were of costly stones, cut according to measure, sawed with saws, within and without, from the foundation to the coping, and from the outside to the great court.
1K 7:10 And the foundation was of costly stones, large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.
1K 7:11 And above were costly stones, cut according to measure, and cedar.
1K 7:12 And the great court surrounding had three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams, as did the inner court of the house of Jehovah and the portico of the house.
c. Hiram, Solomon’s Workman
7:13-14
1K 7:13 aAnd King Solomon sent for 1Hiram and brought him from Tyre.
1K 7:14 He was the son of a widow and of the tribe of 1Naphtali, and his father was a man of 2Tyre, a bronze worker; and he was full of awisdom and understanding and skill to do all kinds of work in bronze. And he 3came to King Solomon and did all his work.
d. The Two Bronze Pillars
7:15-22
1K 7:15 aAnd he formed the two bronze 1pillars; 2eighteen cubits was the height of 3each pillar, and a line of 2twelve cubits encompassed 3each pillar.
1K 7:16 And he made two 1capitals of molten bronze to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the second capital was five cubits.
1K 7:17 There were nets of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals that were at the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital, and seven for the second capital.
1K 7:18 So he made the pillars; and there were two rows of pomegranates around the one network, to cover the capitals that were at the top of the 1pillars. And he did the same for the second capital.
1K 7:19 And the capitals that were at the top of the pillars in the portico were of lily work, four cubits in diameter.
1K 7:20 So then the capitals that were on the two pillars were above and close to the bulge that was beside the network. And there were two hundred pomegranates, in rows around 1both capitals.
1K 7:21 And he erected the apillars at the portico of the temple. When he erected the right pillar, he called its name 1Jachin; and when he erected the left pillar, he called its name 2Boaz.
1K 7:22 And at the top of the pillars was lily work. And the work on the pillars was completed.
e. The Bronze Sea with Ten Bronze Lavers
7:23-40a
1K 7:23 aAnd he made the 1molten sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, fully round; and it was five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits encompassed it.
1K 7:24 And under its brim there were gourds all around, encircling it, ten to a cubit, surrounding the sea all around; the gourds were cast in two rows when they were cast.
1K 7:25 It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing north and three facing west and three facing south and three facing east; and the sea was upon them, and all their hindquarters were within.
1K 7:26 And it was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was like the work of a cup’s brim, like the flower of a lily; it held two thousand baths.
1K 7:27 And he made the ten bases of bronze; one base was four cubits long and four cubits wide, and it was three cubits high.
1K 7:28 And this was the work of each base: They had panels, and the panels were between frames.
1K 7:29 And on the panels that were between the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. And above the frames was a pedestal, and below the lions and oxen there were wreaths of hanging work.
1K 7:30 And each base had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. And its four feet had supports; underneath the laver the supports had been cast, with wreaths at the side of each.
1K 7:31 And the mouth of 1the laver was within this crown, and it rose above it by one cubit; and its mouth was round like the work of a pedestal; it was a cubit and a half across; and upon its mouth were engravings as well, and its panels were square, not round.
1K 7:32 And the four wheels were underneath the panels, and the wheel axles were in the base; each wheel was a cubit and a half high.
1K 7:33 And the work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axles and their rims and their spokes and their hubs were all molten.
1K 7:34 And there were four supports at the four corners of each base; its supports were part of the base.
1K 7:35 And at the top of the base there was a round band half a cubit high; and at the top of the base, its stays and its panels were of one piece.
1K 7:36 And on the surfaces of the stays and on its panels he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, as there was space on each, with wreaths all around.
1K 7:37 In this manner he made the ten bases; all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.
1K 7:38 aAnd he made ten bronze lavers; each laver held forty baths; each laver was four cubits across; there was one laver upon every one of the ten bases.
1K 7:39 And he set the bases, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; aand the sea he set on the right side of the house, on the east side at the south.
1K 7:40 aAnd Hiram made the 1pots and the shovels and the bowls.
f. Hiram’s Work for Solomon
7:40b-47
Thus Hiram finished doing all the work that he was doing for King Solomon in the house of Jehovah:
1K 7:41 The two pillars, and the two bowls of the capitals that were at the top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were at the top of the pillars;
1K 7:42 And the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars;
1K 7:43 And the ten bases and the ten lavers upon the bases;
1K 7:44 And the one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea;
1K 7:45 And the pots and the shovels and the bowls; all these vessels that Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of Jehovah were of burnished bronze.
1K 7:46 The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.
1K 7:47 And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed because of the very great number; the weight of bronze could not be ascertained.
g. The Vessels of the Temple
7:48-51
1K 7:48 And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of Jehovah: the golden 1aaltar; and the golden 2btable upon which the bread of the Presence was put;
1K 7:49 And the 1alampstands of pure gold, five on the right and five on the left, before the innermost sanctuary; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold;
1K 7:50 And the large cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the small cups and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges, for the doors of the inner house, the Holy of Holies, and for the doors of the house of the temple, of gold.
1K 7:51 Thus all the work that King Solomon did in the house of Jehovah was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had asanctified, the silver and the gold and the vessels, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of Jehovah.
1 KINGS 8

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h. The Dedication of the Temple
8:1-66
(1) The Tabernacle Being Merged with the Temple
vv. 1-11
1K 8:1 aThen Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the children of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem in order to bring up the bArk of the Covenant of Jehovah from the city of David, which is Zion.
1K 8:2 And all the men of Israel assembled themselves before King Solomon at the afeast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
1K 8:3 And when all the elders of Israel came, the priests took up the Ark;
1K 8:4 And they brought up the Ark of Jehovah and the 1Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; and the priests and Levites brought them up.
1K 8:5 And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel, who had assembled before him and were with him before the Ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen which could not be counted or numbered for multitude.
1K 8:6 And the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the innermost sanctuary of the house, into the aHoly of Holies under the wings of the cherubim.
1K 8:7 For the cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles overhead.
1K 8:8 And the poles extended out so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the Holy Place before the innermost sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and they are there to this day.
1K 8:9 There was nothing in the Ark except the two stone atablets, which Moses placed there at Horeb when Jehovah made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.
1K 8:10 aAnd when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of Jehovah;
1K 8:11 And the priests were not able to stand and minister because of the cloud, for the 1aglory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.
(2) Solomon’s Blessing and Declaration to the People
vv. 12-21
1K 8:12 aThen Solomon said, Jehovah has said that He would dwell in bdeep darkness.
1K 8:13 I have surely abuilt You a lofty house, a place for You to bdwell in forever.
1K 8:14 And the king turned about and blessed all the congregation of Israel while all the congregation of Israel stood.
1K 8:15 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to David my father and fulfilled it with His hand, saying,
1K 8:16 Since the day when I brought My people Israel out from Egypt, I have not chosen a city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house for My aname that it might be there; but I bchose David to be over My people Israel.
1K 8:17 And it was on David my father’s aheart to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel;
1K 8:18 But Jehovah said to David my father, Because it was on your heart to build a house for My name, you have done well that it was on your heart;
1K 8:19 However you will not abuild the house, but your 1son, who will come forth from your loins, he will build the house for My name.
1K 8:20 And Jehovah has established His word which He spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit upon the athrone of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and I have built the house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
1K 8:21 And there I have set a place for the aArk, in which is the covenant of Jehovah, which He made with our fathers when He brought them out from the land of Egypt.
(3) Solomon’s Prayer
vv. 22-53
1K 8:22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in front of all the congregation of Israel and spread his hands toward heaven.
1K 8:23 And he said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, there is no god like You, in heaven above or on the earth below, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;
1K 8:24 You who have kept with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled with Your hand this day.
1K 8:25 And now, O Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You promised him, saying, aThere shall not fail you a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your children keep their way by walking before Me as you have walked before Me.
1K 8:26 Now therefore, O God of Israel, may Your word that You spoke to Your servant David my father be confirmed.
1K 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the aheavens and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain You; how much less this bhouse which I have built.
1K 8:28 Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, and listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today;
1K 8:29 That Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, My aname will be there, to blisten to the prayer which Your servant will pray toward this place.
1K 8:30 And listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear then in Your dwelling place in the 1heavens; and when You hear, forgive.
1K 8:31 If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house;
1K 8:32 Then hear in the heavens and act and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his way on his head and justifying the righteous by giving to him according to his righteousness.
1K 8:33 When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn to You and confess Your name and pray and make supplication to You in this house;
1K 8:34 Then hear in the heavens, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers.
1K 8:35 When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them;
1K 8:36 Then hear in the heavens and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel; indeed teach them the good way in which they should walk, and bring rain upon Your land, which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.
1K 8:37 If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, swarming locust or consuming locust, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;
1K 8:38 Whatever prayer, whatever supplication, which will be made by any man of all Your people Israel, each knowing the plague of his own heart, when he spreads out his hands toward this house;
1K 8:39 Then hear in the heavens Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You alone know the hearts of all the children of men;
1K 8:40 That they may afear You all the days that they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.
1K 8:41 And also concerning the foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel but comes from a distant country for the sake of Your name
1K 8:42 (For they will hear about Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house;
1K 8:43 Then hear in the heavens Your dwelling place, and act according to all that the foreigner calls upon You for, that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and that they may fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.
1K 8:44 If Your people go out to battle against their enemy by the way which You have sent them, and they pray to Jehovah toward the city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name;
1K 8:45 Then hear their prayer and their supplication in the heavens and maintain their cause.
1K 8:46 If they have sinned against You (for there is no man who does not asin) and You are angry with them and deliver them up to the enemy, so that they are carried away captive unto the land of the enemy, far away or nearby;
1K 8:47 But if they take it to heart in the land where they were carried captive, and they repent and make supplication ato You in the land of those who carried them away captive, saying, We have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly;
1K 8:48 And if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who have carried them captive, and they pray to You toward their 1land that You have given to their fathers, the 1city that You have chosen, and the 1house that I have built for Your name;
1K 8:49 Then hear their prayer and their supplication in the heavens Your dwelling place and maintain their cause,
1K 8:50 And forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who lead them captive, that they might have compassion on them
1K 8:51 (For they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out from Egypt, from the midst of an iron afurnace);
1K 8:52 That Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and to the supplication of Your people Israel to listen to them whenever they call upon You.
1K 8:53 For You have aseparated them from all the peoples of the earth to be Your binheritance, as You spoke through Moses Your servant, when You brought our fathers out from Egypt, O Lord Jehovah.
(4) Solomon’s Further Blessing to the People
vv. 54-61
1K 8:54 aAnd when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to Jehovah, he rose up from before the altar of Jehovah, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread toward the heavens.
1K 8:55 And he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
1K 8:56 Blessed be Jehovah, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. Not one word of all His good promises which He spoke through Moses His servant has failed.
1K 8:57 May Jehovah our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; let Him not forsake us nor abandon us,
1K 8:58 That He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, which He commanded our fathers.
1K 8:59 And let these words of mine, with which I made supplication to Jehovah, be near to Jehovah our God day and night to maintain the cause of His servant and the 1cause of His people Israel as each day requires;
1K 8:60 That all the peoples of the earth may know that aJehovah is God; there is none else.
1K 8:61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments as on this day.
(5) Solomon and the People Offering a Vast Quantity of Sacrifices to God
vv. 62-64
1K 8:62 aAnd the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before Jehovah.
1K 8:63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to Jehovah: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Jehovah.
1K 8:64 aOn that day the king sanctified the middle of the court that was before the house of Jehovah, for there he offered the 1burnt offering and the 1meal offering and the fat of 1peace offerings because the bronze altar which was before Jehovah was too small to receive the burnt offering and the meal offering and the fat of peace offerings.
(6) Solomon and His People Holding a Feast for Fourteen Days
vv. 65-66
1K 8:65 And Solomon held a feast at that time and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Jehovah our God, seven days and seven more days, fourteen days in all.
1K 8:66 On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and happy in heart for all the goodness which Jehovah had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people.
1 KINGS 9

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9. The Highest Peak of Solomon’s Glory among the Nations
9:1 — 10:29
a. Jehovah’s Acceptance of His Prayer and Jehovah’s Promise to Establish His Throne Forever
9:1-9
1K 9:1 aAnd when 1Solomon had finished building the house of Jehovah and the king’s house and everything that Solomon desired to make,
1K 9:2 Jehovah appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had aappeared to him at Gibeon.
1K 9:3 And Jehovah said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication which you have made before Me; I have sanctified this house which you have built by putting My aname there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there continually.
1K 9:4 And as for you, if you walk before Me, as David your father walked, with a perfect and upright heart by doing according to all that I have commanded you and keep My statutes and My ordinances,
1K 9:5 Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel aforever, as I promised to David your father, saying, bYou will not lack a man on the throne of Israel.
1K 9:6 But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me and do not keep My commandments and My statutes, which I have put before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,
1K 9:7 Then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land which I have given them, and the house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.
1K 9:8 And this house will become 1heaps, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss and say, Why has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house?
1K 9:9 And they will say, Because they forsook Jehovah their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods and worshipped them and served them; therefore Jehovah brought all this evil upon them.
b. His Alliance with Hiram
9:10-14
1K 9:10 aAnd at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Jehovah and the king’s house,
1K 9:11 Since Hiram the king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar wood and with cypress wood and with gold, according to all that he desired, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
1K 9:12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him.
1K 9:13 And he said, What are these cities which you have given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul, as it is unto this day.
1K 9:14 And Hiram sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.
c. Building Further Cities
9:15-24
1K 9:15 Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied to build the house of Jehovah and his own house and the 1Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.
1K 9:16 (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire and had slain the Canaanites who lived in the city and given it as a dowry to his daughter, the wife of Solomon.)
1K 9:17 And Solomon rebuilt Gezer and lower Beth-Horon,
1K 9:18 And Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,
1K 9:19 And all the storage cities that Solomon had, even the cities for chariots, and the cities for horsemen and what Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.
1K 9:20 All of the people that were aleft of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel,
1K 9:21 Their children who were left after them in the land whom the children of Israel were not able to destroy utterly, Solomon levied as forced labor, as they are unto this day.
1K 9:22 But Solomon did not make slaves of the children of Israel; for they were the men of war and his servants and his officers and his captains and the officers over his chariots and his horsemen.
1K 9:23 These were the chief of the officers over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people doing the work.
1K 9:24 As soon as Pharaoh’s adaughter came up from the city of David into her house which 1Solomon had built for her, he built the Millo.
d. His Offerings Three Times a Year
9:25
1K 9:25 And athree times a year Solomon offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built to Jehovah, and he burned incense with them on the altar which was before Jehovah. Thus he finished the house.
e. Building a Navy with Hiram’s Cooperation
9:26-28
1K 9:26 King Solomon also built ships in Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.
1K 9:27 And Hiram sent his servants in the ships, sailors who knew the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
1K 9:28 And they went to Ophir and took four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon.
1 KINGS 10

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f. The Queen of Sheba Coming to Pay Her Honor to Him and Listen to His Words of Wisdom
10:1-10, 13
1K 10:1 aAnd the bqueen of Sheba had heard of Solomon’s fame in connection with the name of Jehovah, and she came to test him with hard questions.
1K 10:2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels bearing spices and with very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she spoke all that was on her heart to him.
1K 10:3 And Solomon answered every matter of hers; there was nothing hidden from the king that he did not answer her.
1K 10:4 And when the queen of Sheba saw aall the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built
1K 10:5 And the food of his table and the seating of his servants and the service and apparel of his ministers and his cupbearers and his burnt offerings that he offered up at the house of Jehovah, there was no more spirit in her.
1K 10:6 And she said to the king, The word that I heard in my land concerning your deeds and your wisdom is true,
1K 10:7 But I did not believe the words until I came and my own eyes saw. And indeed the half was not told to me; your wisdom and prosperity far exceed the report that I heard.
1K 10:8 Happy are your men! aHappy are these your servants, who attend you continually and hear your wisdom!
1K 10:9 Blessed be Jehovah your God, who has delighted in you and set you upon the throne of Israel. aBecause Jehovah loves Israel forever, He has made you king to execute justice and brighteousness.
1K 10:10 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great store of spices and some precious stones; never again did so great an abundance of spices come as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
g. Hiram’s Fleet Bringing Precious Goods for the Temple of God and Solomon’s Palace
10:11-12
1K 10:11 Moreover Hiram’s fleet, which carried gold from Ophir, brought a great many almug trees and precious stones.
1K 10:12 And the king made of the almug trees a banister for the house of Jehovah and for the king’s house, and lyres and harps for the singers; such almug trees have not come nor have been seen again to this day.
f. The Queen of Sheba Coming to Pay Her Honor to Him
and Listen to His Words of Wisdom (cont’d)
10:13
1K 10:13 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked for, besides that which King Solomon gave her from his bounty. And she returned and went to her own land, she and her servants.
h. Enriched with Tribute and Tariff from the Nations,
and Building a Defense
10:14-29
1K 10:14 aNow the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,
1K 10:15 Besides that which came through the traders and through the traffic of the merchants and through all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land.
1K 10:16 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; he put six hundred shekels of gold upon each large shield.
1K 10:17 And he made three hundred smaller ashields of beaten gold; he put three minas of gold upon each smaller shield. And the king put them in the Lebanon Forest House.
1K 10:18 And the king made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold.
1K 10:19 The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was rounded at its back; and there were armrests on either side next to the place of the seat, and two lions stood next to the armrests.
1K 10:20 And twelve lions stood there upon the six steps on either side. Nothing like it had ever been made in any kingdom.
1K 10:21 And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold; none were of silver, which was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.
1K 10:22 For the king had at sea a fleet from Tarshish as well as Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the fleet from Tarshish came bearing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks.
1K 10:23 And King aSolomon excelled all the bkings of the earth in wealth and in cwisdom.
1K 10:24 And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
1K 10:25 And they each brought their tribute, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes and weapons and spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.
1K 10:26 aAnd Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen together; and he had a thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
1K 10:27 And the king caused silver to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem; and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.
1K 10:28 And the horses that Solomon had came from Egypt and from Kue; the king’s traders bought them from Kue at a fixed price.
1K 10:29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty shekels, and thus they brought them out to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria by their own means.
1 KINGS 11

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10. The Tragedy of Israel’s History
11:1-43a
a. Solomon’s Fall
vv. 1-8
1K 11:1 But King Solomon 1loved many aforeign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter — Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
1K 11:2 From among the nations concerning which Jehovah had said to the children of Israel, You shall anot go among them, nor shall they come among you, for they will surely turn your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.
1K 11:3 And he had seven hundred princess wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
1K 11:4 And when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was anot perfect toward Jehovah his God like the heart of David his father.
1K 11:5 And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable thing of the Ammonites.
1K 11:6 And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and did not fully afollow Jehovah as David his father had done.
1K 11:7 Then Solomon built a 1high place to Chemosh the detestable thing of Moab in the mountain that is before Jerusalem and to Molech the detestable thing of the children of Ammon.
1K 11:8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
b. God’s Chastisement
vv. 9-40
(1) God Becoming Angry with Solomon and Determining to Tear the Kingdom Away from Him
and Give It to His Servant (the Division of the Kingdom of Israel)
vv. 9-13
1K 11:9 1So Jehovah became angry with Solomon because his heart turned away from Jehovah the God of Israel, who had aappeared to him twice,
1K 11:10 And who had commanded him concerning this very matter, not to go after other gods; but he did not keep that which Jehovah had commanded.
1K 11:11 And Jehovah said to Solomon, Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will surely atear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
1K 11:12 However I will not do it in your days, because of David your father; I will tear it out of your son’s hand.
1K 11:13 But I will not tear the whole kingdom away from you; I will give 1one atribe to your son because of David My servant and because of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.
(2) The Actions of God’s Chastisements
vv. 14-40
1K 11:14 And Jehovah raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the king’s seed in Edom.
1K 11:15 Now when David was in aEdom and Joab the captain of the army went up to bury the slain, he struck down all the males in Edom;
1K 11:16 For Joab and all Israel remained there for six months, until he had cut down every male in Edom.
1K 11:17 But Hadad fled, he and some Edomite men from among his father’s servants with him, and went into Egypt; and Hadad was a young boy then.
1K 11:18 Thus they arose from Midian and went to Paran, and they took men from Paran with them and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who gave him a house and appointed him a portion of food and gave him land.
1K 11:19 And Hadad found so much favor in the sight of Pharaoh that Pharaoh gave him the sister of his wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen, as his wife.
1K 11:20 And the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, and Tahpenes weaned him in Pharaoh’s house, and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house among Pharaoh’s sons.
1K 11:21 And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David aslept with his fathers and that Joab the captain of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart that I may go to my own land.
1K 11:22 But Pharaoh said to him, But what have you lacked while with me that now you are seeking to go to your own land? And he said, Nothing; only let me depart.
1K 11:23 And God raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer the king of aZobah.
1K 11:24 And he gathered men to himself and became the captain of the band when David slew those of Zobah; and they went to Damascus and dwelt there; and they reigned in Damascus.
1K 11:25 And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon in addition to the evil that Hadad did; and he abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria.
1K 11:26 And aJeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, also a widow, lifted up his hand against the king.
1K 11:27 And this was the reason he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon was building the 1Millo, closing up the breach of the city of David his father.
1K 11:28 And the man Jeroboam was an able man; and Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, so he set him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.
1K 11:29 And at that time Jeroboam went forth from Jerusalem, and the prophet aAhijah the Shilonite found him on the way. And 1Ahijah was wearing a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the field.
1K 11:30 And Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and atore it into twelve pieces.
1K 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for yourself; for thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am now tearing the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and giving the ten tribes to you
1K 11:32 (But the one tribe will be his because of My servant David and because of Jerusalem, the city that I have achosen out of all the tribes of Israel),
1K 11:33 Because they have forsaken Me and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Chemosh the god of Moab and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon and have not walked in My ways by doing what is upright in My sight and by keeping My statutes and My ordinances as David his father did.
1K 11:34 But I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him leader all the days of his life because of David My servant, whom I chose and who kept My commandments and My statutes.
1K 11:35 Yet I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and will give it to you, that is, the ten tribes;
1K 11:36 And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may have a alamp always before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My name.
1K 11:37 And I will take you, and you will reign according to all that your soul desires; and you will be king over Israel.
1K 11:38 And if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways and do what is upright in My sight by keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David; and I will give you Israel.
1K 11:39 And I will afflict the seed of David because of this, but not forever.
1K 11:40 Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam rose up and fled into Egypt to aShishak the king of Egypt; and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
c. Solomon’s Decease after Reigning over All Israel for Forty Years
vv. 41-43a
1K 11:41 aAnd the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did as well as his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
1K 11:42 And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
1K 11:43 And Solomon 1slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father.
B. The Reigns of Rehoboam over Judah and of Jeroboam over Israel
11:43b — 14:31a
1. Rehoboam Continuing the Reign after Solomon
11:43b
And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
1 KINGS 12

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2. Rehoboam Suffering the Division of the Kingdom and Losing Ten Tribes
12:1-24
1K 12:1 aThen Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
1K 12:2 And when aJeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon; and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;
1K 12:3 And they sent word to him and called him), Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,
1K 12:4 Your father made our 1ayoke hard. Now therefore make the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us lighter, and we will serve you.
1K 12:5 And he said to them, Go away for another three days, then return to me. And the people went away.
1K 12:6 Then King Rehoboam took acounsel with the elders who attended Solomon his father while he was alive, saying, What counsel do you give me to return as an answer to this people?
1K 12:7 And they spoke to him, saying, If today you will be a servant to this people and serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants always.
1K 12:8 But he forsook the counsel of the elders with which they counseled him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who attended him.
1K 12:9 And he said to them, What counsel do you give me that we may return an answer to this people who have spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke that your father put upon us?
1K 12:10 And the young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus shall you say to this people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter on us; thus shall you speak to them, My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.
1K 12:11 And now, whereas my father laid a heavy yoke upon you, I will increase your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
1K 12:12 And Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had spoken, saying, Return to me on the third day.
1K 12:13 And the king answered the people harshly; and he forsook the counsel of the elders that they had given him
1K 12:14 And spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will increase your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
1K 12:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was of Jehovah that He might establish His word which Jehovah had spoken through aAhijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
1K 12:16 And when all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people returned an answer to the king, saying, What aportion do we have in David? Neither do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now see to your own house, O David. And Israel went to their tents.
1K 12:17 But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
1K 12:18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to get up into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.
1K 12:19 So Israel has rebelled against the house of David until this day.
1K 12:20 And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent word to him and called him to the assembly; and they made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.
1K 12:21 aAnd when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand choice warriors, to wage war with the house of Israel in order to return the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
1K 12:22 But the word of God came to aShemaiah the man of God, saying,
1K 12:23 Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, saying,
1K 12:24 Thus says Jehovah, You shall not go up and wage war with your brothers the children of Israel. Every man return to his house; for this matter is of Me. So they listened to the word of Jehovah and returned and went their way according to the word of Jehovah.
3. The Apostasy of Jeroboam
12:25-33
1K 12:25 Then Jeroboam built up aShechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and he dwelt in it; and he went forth from there and built up bPenuel.
1K 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
1K 12:27 If this people go up to make sacrifices in the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will 1return to their lord, to Rehoboam the king of Judah; and they will slay me and return to Rehoboam the king of Judah.
1K 12:28 And the king took counsel and made two 1acalves of gold. And he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your bgods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
1K 12:29 And he set one in aBethel, and he put the other one in Dan.
1K 12:30 And this thing became a 1asin; and the people went to worship the one as far as Dan.
1K 12:31 And he made a 1ahouse of 2high places and appointed bpriests from among the people who were not from the sons of Levi.
1K 12:32 And Jeroboam ordained a afeast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; he did likewise at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
1K 12:33 And he went up to the altar that he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day, in the eighth month, that is, the month he had devised in his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense.
1 KINGS 13

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4. God’s Judgment on the Altar at Bethel Made by Jeroboam
13:1-32
1K 13:1 And at that moment there came a aman of God from Judah by the word of Jehovah to Bethel while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn incense.
1K 13:2 And he cried out against the altar by the word of Jehovah and said, Altar, O altar, thus says Jehovah: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and he will sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and men’s abones will they burn upon you.
1K 13:3 And he gave a sign that day, saying, This is the sign that Jehovah has spoken: The altar here will be torn apart, and the ashes that are upon it will be poured out.
1K 13:4 And when the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from over the altar, saying, Lay hold of him! And his hand, which he had stretched out against him, withered, and he could not draw it back to himself.
1K 13:5 And the altar was torn apart, and the ashes were poured forth from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of Jehovah.
1K 13:6 And the king responded and said to the man of God, Entreat Jehovah your God, I beg you, and aintercede for me that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated Jehovah, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it had been formerly.
1K 13:7 Then the king said to the man of God, Come home with me, and have something to eat; and I will give you a gift.
1K 13:8 But the man of God said to the king, If you agave me half your household, I would not go with you; and I will not eat food nor drink water in this place;
1K 13:9 For thus was I commanded by the word of Jehovah, saying, You shall not eat food nor drink water, nor shall you return by the way that you came.
1K 13:10 So he went by another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
1K 13:11 Now there was a certain old prophet dwelling in Bethel. And his 1sons came and related to him all the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words that he had spoken to the king, they also related to their father.
1K 13:12 And their father said to them, Which way did he go? Now his sons had seen which way the man of God, who came from Judah, had gone.
1K 13:13 And he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.
1K 13:14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under a terebinth. And he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.
1K 13:15 And he said to him, Come home with me, and eat some food.
1K 13:16 But he said, I cannot return with you and go with you; neither will I eat food nor drink water with you in this place.
1K 13:17 For I was told by the word of Jehovah, You shall not eat food nor drink water there, nor shall you return by going on the way that you came there.
1K 13:18 And the old man said, I also am a prophet like you, and an angel has spoken to me by the word of Jehovah, saying, Bring him back with you to your house that he may eat food and drink water. He lied to him.
1K 13:19 So he returned with him and ate food in his house and drank water.
1K 13:20 And while they were sitting at the table, the word of Jehovah came to the prophet who brought him back;
1K 13:21 And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Because you have rebelled against the word of Jehovah and did not keep the command that Jehovah your God commanded you,
1K 13:22 But returned and ate food and drank water in the place concerning which He said to you, Do not eat food and do not drink water; your corpse shall not come to the grave of your fathers.
1K 13:23 And after he had eaten food and had drunk water, the old man saddled the donkey for him, that is, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
1K 13:24 And as he went, a alion met him on the way and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion stood beside the corpse also.
1K 13:25 And some men soon passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside the corpse, and they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
1K 13:26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, It is the man of God, who rebelled against the word of Jehovah; and Jehovah has given him to the lion, which tore him apart and killed him, according to the word of Jehovah which He spoke to him.
1K 13:27 Then he spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle the donkey for me; and they saddled it.
1K 13:28 And he went and found his corpse thrown on the road and the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse, nor had it torn the donkey apart.
1K 13:29 And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back; and it was brought to the city of the old prophet for mourning and for burial.
1K 13:30 And he laid his corpse in his own grave and mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!
1K 13:31 And after he had buried him, he spoke to his sons, saying, When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; beside his bones lay my abones.
1K 13:32 For the word that he cried out by the word of Jehovah against the aaltar that is in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.
5. The Further Apostasy of Jeroboam
13:33-34
1K 13:33 After this matter Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but he again made apriests for the high places from among the people; whoever desired it, he 1consecrated to be priests of the high places.
1K 13:34 And this matter became a asin to the house of Jeroboam, so as even to cut it off and destroy it from the face of the earth.
1 KINGS 14

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6. Ahijah’s Prophecy concerning the Tragic Ending of Jeroboam
14:1-18
1K 14:1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became ill.
1K 14:2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, Rise up now, and adisguise yourself so that no one will recognize that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. bAhijah the prophet is there; it is he who spoke concerning me, that I should be king over this people.
1K 14:3 And take in your hand ten loaves and some cakes and a cruse of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.
1K 14:4 And Jeroboam’s wife did so; that is, she rose up and went to Shiloh, and she came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his aeyes were fixed because of his age.
1K 14:5 But Jehovah said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam has now come to seek a word from you concerning her son, for he is ill. Thus and thus shall you speak to her. And it will be that when she comes in, she will pretend to be another woman.
1K 14:6 So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she entered through the door, he said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another woman? For I have a hard message for you.
1K 14:7 Go and tell Jeroboam, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Because I exalted you from among the people and made you aruler over My people Israel,
1K 14:8 And I atore away the kingdom from the house of David and gave it to you; and yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was upright in My sight,
1K 14:9 But you have done more evil than all who were before you and have gone and amade for yourself other gods and idols, so as to provoke Me to anger; and you have cast Me behind your back —
1K 14:10 Because of this then, I am now bringing evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, bond and free, in Israel; and I will sweep up after the house of Jeroboam as a man might sweep up dung until it is all gone.
1K 14:11 aHim of Jeroboam’s who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and him who dies in the field, the birds of heaven will eat; for Jehovah has spoken it.
1K 14:12 Rise up then, and go to your house: When your feet enter the city, the child will die.
1K 14:13 And all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s will go into the grave, because in him some agood thing toward Jehovah the God of Israel was found among the house of Jeroboam.
1K 14:14 And Jehovah will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the ahouse of Jeroboam this day and even now.
1K 14:15 And Jehovah will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and He will uproot Israel out of this agood land, which He gave to their fathers, and will bscatter them beyond the 1River, because they made their Asherahs, provoking Jehovah to anger.
1K 14:16 And He will give Israel up on account of the asins of Jeroboam, by which he sinned and by which he caused Israel to sin.
1K 14:17 And Jeroboam’s wife rose up and departed, and she came to aTirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the boy died.
1K 14:18 And all Israel buried him and mourned for him according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.
7. Jeroboam Reigning over the Ten Tribes of Israel,
and His Life Being Ended by the Severe Punishment of God
14:19-20
1K 14:19 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he awaged war and how he reigned, they are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1K 14:20 And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers. And Nadab his son reigned in his place.
8. Rehoboam Enthroned and Reigning over Judah
14:21-24
1K 14:21 aAnd Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where Jehovah had chosen, out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
1K 14:22 And Judah did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and provoked Him to jealousy because of the sins which they committed, above all the sins which their fathers had committed.
1K 14:23 And they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherahs on every high hill and under every flourishing tree,
1K 14:24 And there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They acted according to all the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.
9. Rehoboam Defeated and Robbed by the King of Egypt
14:25-28
1K 14:25 aThen in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
1K 14:26 And he took away the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king’s house; indeed he took away all. And he took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
1K 14:27 And King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them into the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house.
1K 14:28 And whenever the king went into the house of Jehovah, the guards carried them and returned them to the guardroom.
10. Rehoboam Fighting with Jeroboam Continually and Being Buried in the City of David
14:29-31a
1K 14:29 aAnd the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
1K 14:30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
1K 14:31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
C. The Reign of Abijam over Judah
14:31b — 15:8a
And Abijam his son reigned in his place.
1 KINGS 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

1K 15:1 aAnd in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.
1K 15:2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.
1K 15:3 And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God like the heart of David his father.
1K 15:4 Yet for 1David’s sake Jehovah his God gave him a alamp in Jerusalem, raising up his son after him and establishing Jerusalem;
1K 15:5 Because David did what was upright in the sight of Jehovah and did not turn aside from anything that He had commanded him all the days of his life, except in the 1matter of aUriah the Hittite.
1K 15:6 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.
1K 15:7 aAnd the rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was bwar between Abijam and Jeroboam.
1K 15:8 aAnd Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David.
D. The Reign of Asa over Judah
15:8b-24
And Asa his son reigned in his place.
1K 15:9 And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king in Judah.
1K 15:10 And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem, and his 1mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.
1K 15:11 aAnd Asa did what was upright in the sight of Jehovah, as David his father had done.
1K 15:12 And he put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
1K 15:13 aAnd he also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for 1Asherah. And Asa cut down her abominable image and burned it at the brook Kidron.
1K 15:14 But the high places were anot removed; otherwise the heart of Asa was perfect with Jehovah all his days.
1K 15:15 And he brought into the house of Jehovah the things his father had sanctified and the things he sanctified, silver and gold and vessels.
1K 15:16 And there was war between Asa and Baasha the king of Israel all their days.
1K 15:17 aAnd Baasha the king of Israel went up against Judah; and he built Ramah to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa the king of Judah.
1K 15:18 And Asa took all the silver and gold that was left among the treasures of the ahouse of Jehovah as well as the treasures of the king’s house, and gave them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them forth to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying,
1K 15:19 There is an alliance between me and you, between my father and your father. I am now sending you a present of silver and gold; go and break your alliance with Baasha the king of Israel, so that he goes away from me.
1K 15:20 And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of forces that he had against the cities of Israel, and he struck Ijon and Dan and Abel-beth-maacah and all Chinneroth with all the land of Naphtali.
1K 15:21 And when Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and dwelt in Tirzah.
1K 15:22 Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah; no one was exempt. And they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had built it; and King Asa built with these Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.
1K 15:23 aAnd the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Yet in the time of his old age he was 1diseased in his feet.
1K 15:24 And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father. And aJehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.
E. The Reign of Nadab over Israel
15:25-31
1K 15:25 And aNadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa the king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.
1K 15:26 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and walked in the way of his father and in his sin by which he caused Israel to asin.
1K 15:27 And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha struck him down in Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.
1K 15:28 And Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa the king of Judah, and he reigned in his place.
1K 15:29 And as soon as he became king, he struck down all the ahouse of Jeroboam; he left to Jeroboam not one who had breath, until he had destroyed them, according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite,
1K 15:30 Because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and by which he caused Israel to sin, because of his provocation by which he provoked Jehovah the God of Israel to anger.
1K 15:31 And the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
F. The Reign of Baasha over Israel
15:32 — 16:7
1K 15:32 aAnd there was war between Asa and Baasha the king of Israel all their days.
1K 15:33 In the third year of Asa the king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel in Tirzah for twenty-four years.
1K 15:34 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin by which he caused Israel to asin.
1 KINGS 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

1K 16:1 And the word of Jehovah came to aJehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,
1K 16:2 aBecause I exalted you out of the dust and made you a leader over My people Israel, yet you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have caused My people Israel to sin, thereby provoking Me to anger by their sins;
1K 16:3 I am now sweeping up after Baasha and after his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
1K 16:4 Him of Baasha who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and him who dies in the field, the birds of heaven will eat.
1K 16:5 And the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
1K 16:6 And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. And Elah his son reigned in his place.
1K 16:7 Moreover through the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani the word of Jehovah came against Baasha and against his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of Jehovah, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands and by being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck 1it down.
G. The Reign of Elah over Israel
16:8-14
1K 16:8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa the king of Judah Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah for two years.
1K 16:9 And his servant aZimri, the captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. While he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah,
1K 16:10 Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa the king of Judah; and he reigned in his place.
1K 16:11 And as soon as he began to reign, just as he sat on his throne, he struck down all the house of Baasha; there was not a male left to him, neither kinsman nor friend.
1K 16:12 Thus Zimri destroyed all the ahouse of Baasha according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke against Baasha through Jehu the prophet,
1K 16:13 Because of all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, which they committed and by which they caused Israel to sin, thereby provoking Jehovah the God of Israel to anger with their idols.
1K 16:14 And the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
H. The Reign of Zimri over Israel
16:15-20
1K 16:15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa the king of Judah Zimri began to reign for seven days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against aGibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
1K 16:16 And when the people who were encamped there heard it said, Zimri has conspired and even struck down the king, all Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp.
1K 16:17 And Omri went up, and all Israel with him, from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah.
1K 16:18 And when Zimri saw that the city had been taken, he went up to the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house over him with fire and died,
1K 16:19 Because of his sins that he committed by doing what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did, causing Israel to sin.
1K 16:20 And the rest of the acts of Zimri and his conspiracy that he conspired, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
I. The Reign of Omri over Israel
16:21-28a
1K 16:21 At that time the people of Israel were divided into two: Half of the people went after Tibni the son of Ginath, making him king, and half after Omri.
1K 16:22 But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath; and Tibni died, and Omri began to reign.
1K 16:23 In the thirty-first year of Asa the king of Judah Omri began to reign over Israel for twelve years; he reigned six years in Tirzah.
1K 16:24 And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built upon the hill and called the name of the city that he built aSamaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.
1K 16:25 And aOmri did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and was more evil than all who were before him.
1K 16:26 And he went in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sin by which he caused Israel to sin, thereby provoking Jehovah the God of Israel to anger with their idols.
1K 16:27 And the rest of the acts of Omri that he did and his might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
1K 16:28 And Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria.
J. The Reign of Ahab over Israel
16:28b — 22:40
1. Beginning to Reign over Israel
16:28b-29
And Ahab his son reigned in his place.
1K 16:29 And Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa the king of Judah. And Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
2. Doing What Was Evil in the Eyes of Jehovah More Than All Who Were before Him
16:30-33
1K 16:30 And Ahab the son of Omri did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, more than all who were before him.
1K 16:31 And as if it were a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as his wife 1aJezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians; and he went and served bBaal and worshipped him.
1K 16:32 And he raised up an altar to Baal in the ahouse of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
1K 16:33 And Ahab made the aAsherah. And Ahab did more to provoke Jehovah the God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who had been before him.
3. In His Days Jericho Being Rebuilt, Bringing In the Curse Prophesied
16:34
1K 16:34 In his days Hiel the Bethelite abuilt bJericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and he set up its gates at the cost of Segub his youngest son, according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through Joshua the son of Nun.
1 KINGS 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

4. God’s Dealing with Ahab through Elijah the Prophet
17:1 — 19:9a
a. Shutting Up the Heavens from Rain
17:1-24
(1) Elijah Warning Ahab
v. 1
1K 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, from among the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Jehovah the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor 1arain during these years, except by my word.
(2) God Sending Elijah to Live on Water from the Brook and on Food Brought by Ravens
vv. 2-7
1K 17:2 And the word of Jehovah came to him, saying,
1K 17:3 Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is before the Jordan.
1K 17:4 And you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
1K 17:5 And he went and did according to the word of Jehovah; that is, he went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which is before the Jordan.
1K 17:6 And the ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
1K 17:7 Then after a while the brook dried up, for there had been no rain in the land.
(3) God Sending Elijah to a Widow to Feed Him
vv. 8-24
(a) Elijah Miraculously Providing Meal and Oil for the Widow, instead of Being Fed by Her
vv. 8-16
1K 17:8 And the word of Jehovah came to him, saying,
1K 17:9 Rise up and go to aZarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. I have just commanded a 1widow there to keep you fed.
1K 17:10 And he rose up and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the entrance of the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, I beg you, bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
1K 17:11 And she went to get it. Then he called to her and said, I beg you, bring me a piece of bread in your hand.
1K 17:12 And she said, As Jehovah your God lives, I have nothing baked, but only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a jar; and I am now gathering a few sticks that I may go and prepare it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
1K 17:13 And Elijah said to her, Do not fear. Go, do as you have said. But make me a little cake out of it first, and bring it out to me; then make something for yourself and for your son afterward.
1K 17:14 For thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, The barrel of meal will not give out, nor will the jar of aoil fail, until the day that Jehovah sends rain upon the face of the earth.
1K 17:15 And she went and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her house ate for many days.
1K 17:16 The 1barrel of meal did not give out, nor did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Jehovah, which He had spoken through Elijah.
(b) Elijah Raising Up the Widow’s Dead Son
vv. 17-24
1K 17:17 Then after these things the ason of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
1K 17:18 And she said to Elijah, What have I done to you, O aman of God, that you have come to me to recall my iniquity and kill my son?
1K 17:19 And he said to her, Bring me your son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into the upper chamber where he was staying, and he laid him upon his own bed.
1K 17:20 And he cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, have You also brought evil upon the widow, to whom I am a guest, by slaying her son?
1K 17:21 And he astretched himself upon the child three times and cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, I beg You, let this child’s soul come into him again!
1K 17:22 And Jehovah listened to the voice of Elijah; and the child’s soul came into him again, and he lived.
1K 17:23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and agave him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son is alive.
1K 17:24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God and that the word of Jehovah in your mouth is truth.
1 KINGS 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • 

b. Opening Up the Heavens to Rain
18:1-46
(1) God Sending Elijah to Ahab
vv. 1-2
1K 18:1 Then after many days the word of Jehovah came to aElijah in the third year, saying, Go, present yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the face of the earth.
1K 18:2 And Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. And the famine was severe in Samaria.
(2) Ahab Meeting Elijah through Obadiah
vv. 3-16
1K 18:3 And Ahab called for Obadiah, who was over his house. (Now Obadiah feared Jehovah greatly.
1K 18:4 And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a acave and kept them fed with bread and water.)
1K 18:5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land, to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and the mules alive and not lose some of the animals.
1K 18:6 And they divided the land between them in order to pass through it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
1K 18:7 And while Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him at that moment; and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, Is it indeed you, my lord Elijah?
1K 18:8 And he said to him, It is I. Go and say to your lord, Elijah is here.
1K 18:9 And he said, What sin have I committed, that you give your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death?
1K 18:10 As Jehovah your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom that my lord has not sent men into in order to seek you; and when they said, He is not here, he had an oath taken from the kingdom or nation that they had not found you there.
1K 18:11 And now you say, Go and say to your lord, Elijah is here.
1K 18:12 And it will happen that when I go away from you, the aSpirit of Jehovah will carry you off, I know not where; and when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will slay me, although I your servant have feared Jehovah since my youth.
1K 18:13 Was it not told my lord awhat I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah, that I hid a hundred of Jehovah’s prophets by fifties in a cave and kept them fed with bread and water?
1K 18:14 And now you say, Go and say to your lord, Elijah is here; and he will slay me.
1K 18:15 Then Elijah said, As Jehovah of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will present myself to him today.
1K 18:16 Then Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and he told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.
(3) The Test on Mount Carmel to Prove Who the Real God Is
vv. 17-40
1K 18:17 And when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is that you, the troubler of Israel?
1K 18:18 And he said, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah and have gone after the aBaals.
1K 18:19 And now send word, and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, as well as the afour hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.
1K 18:20 So Ahab sent word to all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
1K 18:21 Then Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go hopping between atwo opinions? bIf Jehovah is God, follow Him; but if Baal is, follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.
1K 18:22 And Elijah said to the people, I alone am left as a prophet of Jehovah, but Baal’s aprophets are four hundred and fifty men.
1K 18:23 Let them therefore give us two bulls. And let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and put it on the wood, but let them apply no fire; and I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood, and I will apply no fire.
1K 18:24 Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Jehovah; and the God who answers by afire, He will be God. And all the people answered and said, The word seems good.
1K 18:25 And Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, for there are many of you. And call on the name of your god, but apply no fire.
1K 18:26 So they took the bull which had been given them and prepared it; and they acalled on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us! But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they leaped around the altar that had been made.
1K 18:27 Then at noon Elijah mocked them and said, Cry out with a loud voice, for he is a god; for he is meditating or has wandered off or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will awake.
1K 18:28 And they cried out with a loud voice and cut themselves, according to their custom, with swords and spears until blood gushed out all over them.
1K 18:29 And when noon had passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering up of the ameal offering; but there was no voice nor any that answered nor any attention paid.
1K 18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Jehovah which was abroken down.
1K 18:31 And Elijah took atwelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob (to whom the word of Jehovah came, saying, bIsrael shall be your name);
1K 18:32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of Jehovah, and he made a trench around the altar, with a capacity of two measures of seed.
1K 18:33 And he arranged the wood and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, Fill four jars with water, and pour the water on the burnt offering and on the wood.
1K 18:34 And he said, Do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, Do it a third time. And they did it a third time.
1K 18:35 And the water went around the altar, and he filled the trench also with water.
1K 18:36 Then at the time of the offering up of the meal offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Jehovah, God of aAbraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be bknown today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things by Your word.
1K 18:37 Answer me, O Jehovah; answer me, that this people may know that You, O Jehovah, are God and that You have turned their heart back again.
1K 18:38 And the afire of Jehovah fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
1K 18:39 And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces and said, aJehovah — He is God! Jehovah — He is God!
1K 18:40 And Elijah said to them, aSeize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape! And they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
(4) The Great Downpour of Rain
vv. 41-46
1K 18:41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up; eat and drink, for there is the sound of an abundance of rain.
1K 18:42 And Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he bowed down on the earth and put his face between his knees.
1K 18:43 And he said to his attendant, Go up now; look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, There is nothing. And he said seven times, Go back.
1K 18:44 And at the seventh time the attendant said, Now there is a acloud, small as a man’s hand, coming up out of the sea. And Elijah said, Go up and say to Ahab, Prepare a chariot and go down, so that the rain does not stop you.
1K 18:45 And in the meantime the heavens became black with clouds, and there was wind and a great arain. And Ahab mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel.
1K 18:46 And the 1ahand of Jehovah was upon Elijah; and he bgirded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
1 KINGS 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

c. Elijah Being Threatened by Jezebel, the Wife of Ahab
19:1-9a
1K 19:1 And Ahab told aJezebel all that Elijah had done and all about how he had bslain all the prophets with the sword.
1K 19:2 And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, The gods do so to me and even more, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the life of one of them!
1K 19:3 And because he was afraid, he rose up and went away for his life; and he came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his attendant there.
1K 19:4 And he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a certain broom shrub; and he requested for himself that he might die and said, aIt is enough; now, O Jehovah, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.
1K 19:5 And he lay down and slept under the broom shrub. And suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, Rise up and eat.
1K 19:6 And he looked, and there at his head was a cake, baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.
1K 19:7 And the aangel of Jehovah came again the second time and touched him and said, Rise up and eat; for the journey is too great for you.
1K 19:8 And he rose up and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food aforty days and forty nights to bHoreb the mount of God.
1K 19:9 And there he went into a acave and lodged there.
5. Jehovah’s Commission to Elijah in His Discouragement
19:9b-18
And at that time the word of Jehovah came to him; and He said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?
1K 19:10 And he said, I have been very ajealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and bslain Your prophets with the sword; and I alone am cleft, and they seek to take my life.
1K 19:11 And He said, Go out, and stand upon the amountain before Jehovah. And suddenly Jehovah passed by, and a great, strong bwind rent the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before Jehovah — Jehovah was not in the wind. And after the wind, an cearthquake — Jehovah was not in the earthquake.
1K 19:12 And after the earthquake, a fire — Jehovah was not in the fire. And after the fire, 1a gentle, quiet avoice.
1K 19:13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his aface in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And then a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?
1K 19:14 And he said, I have been very ajealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and slain Your prophets with the sword; and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.
1K 19:15 And Jehovah said to him, Go; return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you come there, anoint Hazael as king over Syria;
1K 19:16 And aJehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint as king over Israel; and bElisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
1K 19:17 And him who escapes the sword of aHazael, bJehu will kill; and him who escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.
1K 19:18 Yet aI have left Myself 1seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.
6. Elijah Finding Elisha and Gaining Him to Follow Him and Replace Him
19:19-21
1K 19:19 And he went from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat. And he was plowing with twelve yokes before him, and he was with the twelfth. And Elijah went over to him and threw his amantle upon him.
1K 19:20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, aLet me kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to you?
1K 19:21 And he returned from him and took the yoke of oxen and slaughtered them; and he boiled their flesh with the aimplements of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. And he rose up and went after Elijah and bministered to him.
1 KINGS 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • 

7. Dealing with Ben-hadad the King of Syria
20:1-43
1K 20:1 And aBen-hadad the king of Syria assembled all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, as well as horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and fought against it.
1K 20:2 And he sent messengers to the city to Ahab the king of Israel and said to him, Thus says Ben-hadad,
1K 20:3 Your silver and your gold are mine; your best wives and children also are mine.
1K 20:4 And the king of Israel answered and said, As you say, O my lord the king, I and all that I have are yours.
1K 20:5 And the messengers came again and said, Thus speaks Ben-hadad, saying, I sent word to you, saying, You shall give me your silver and your gold and your wives and your children;
1K 20:6 But tomorrow at this time I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and your servants’ houses; and whatever is pleasant in your sight, they will put in their hand and take away.
1K 20:7 And the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, Look now, and see how this man seeks trouble; for he sent word to me for my wives and my children and my silver and my gold; and I did not deny him.
1K 20:8 And all the elders and all the people said to him, Do not listen to him, nor shall you give consent.
1K 20:9 And he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, Tell my lord the king, All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I cannot do. And the messengers departed and brought word back to him.
1K 20:10 And Ben-hadad sent word to him and said, The gods do so to me and even more, if the dust of Samaria will provide even a handful for all the people who follow me!
1K 20:11 And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him who puts on his armor boast like him who takes it off.
1K 20:12 And when he heard this word, as he and the kings in the tents were drinking, he said to his servants, Set yourselves in position. And they set themselves in position against the city.
1K 20:13 Then at that moment a certain prophet approached Ahab the king of Israel and said, Thus says Jehovah, Have you seen all this great multitude? I am now adelivering it into your hand today, and you will know that I am Jehovah.
1K 20:14 And Ahab said, Through whom? And he said, Thus says Jehovah, Through the attendants of the leaders of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall begin the battle? And he said, You.
1K 20:15 And he numbered the attendants of the leaders of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he numbered all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand.
1K 20:16 And they went out at noon; and Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him.
1K 20:17 And the attendants of the leaders of the provinces went out first. And Ben-hadad sent out men, and they told him, saying, Some men have come forth from Samaria.
1K 20:18 And he said, If they have come forth for peace, take them alive; or if they have come forth for war, take them alive.
1K 20:19 But these had come forth from the city, the attendants of the leaders of the provinces and the army that followed them.
1K 20:20 And each man struck down his 1opponent; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. And Ben-hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with the horsemen.
1K 20:21 And the king of Israel went forth and struck down the horses and chariots, and he struck down the Syrians with a great slaughter.
1K 20:22 And the prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him, Go; strengthen yourself, and consider and see what you should do; for at the areturn of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.
1K 20:23 And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, Their gods are gods of the amountains; therefore they were stronger than we. But if we fight against them in the plain, we will surely be stronger than they.
1K 20:24 So do this: Remove the kings, each from his place, and put governors in their places.
1K 20:25 And you number an army, like the army that you lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain. We will surely be stronger than they. And he listened to their voice and did so.
1K 20:26 And at the return of the year Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight with Israel.
1K 20:27 And the children of Israel were numbered and supplied with food, and they went to meet them. And the children of Israel encamped before them like atwo little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the land.
1K 20:28 And the man of God approached and spoke to the king of Israel and said, Thus says Jehovah, Because the Syrians have said, aJehovah is a God of the mountains, but He is not a God of the valleys, I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand; and you will know that I am Jehovah.
1K 20:29 And they camped, one army against the other, for seven days. Then on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel struck down a hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day.
1K 20:30 And the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on the twenty-seven thousand of them who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city, hiding from one room to another.
1K 20:31 And his servants said to him, Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. We beg you, let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will preserve your life.
1K 20:32 And they girded asackcloth on their loins and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, I beg you, preserve my life. And he said, Is he still alive? He is my brother.
1K 20:33 And the men were looking for some sign and quickly caught what came from him; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. And he said, Go and bring him. And Ben-hadad came forth to him, and he brought him up into the chariot.
1K 20:34 And Ben-hadad said to him, The acities that my father took from your father I will restore; and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. And I, said Ahab, will send you away with this treaty. So he made a treaty with him and sent him away.
1K 20:35 And a certain one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion by the word of Jehovah, Strike me. But the man refused to strike him.
1K 20:36 Then he said to him, Because you have not listened to the voice of Jehovah, as soon as you depart from me, the alion will strike you down. And when he had departed from him, the lion found him and struck him down.
1K 20:37 Then he found another man and said, Strike me. And the man struck him violently and wounded him.
1K 20:38 And the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, and he disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.
1K 20:39 And when the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and then a man turned aside and brought another man to me and said, Guard this man; if he is missing at all, your life will be for his life, or you will pay a talent of silver.
1K 20:40 And because your servant was doing things here and there, he got away. And the king of Israel said to him, So be your judgment; you have determined it yourself.
1K 20:41 Then he quickly took the bandage away from over his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets.
1K 20:42 And he said to him, Thus says Jehovah, Because you have released out of your hand the man whom I had adevoted to destruction, your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.
1K 20:43 And the king of Israel went to his house sullen and vexed, and he came to Samaria.
1 KINGS 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

8. Taking Naboth’s Vineyard by Force in Injustice
21:1-29
1K 21:1 And after these things, it so happened that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, alongside the palace of Ahab the king of Samaria.
1K 21:2 And Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your avineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden; for it is nearby, alongside my house. And I will give you in its place a better vineyard than it; or if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.
1K 21:3 And Naboth said to Ahab, Jehovah forbid that I give the ainheritance of my fathers to you!
1K 21:4 And Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.
1K 21:5 And Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, Why is your spirit so sullen that you will not eat any food?
1K 21:6 And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it; and he said, I will not give you my vineyard.
1K 21:7 And Jezebel his wife said to him, Do you now exercise sovereignty over Israel? Rise up, eat some food, and let your heart be glad: I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
1K 21:8 And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city.
1K 21:9 And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.
1K 21:10 And put two worthless fellows before him, and they shall testify against him, saying, You acursed God and the king. Then carry him out, and stone him that he may die.
1K 21:11 And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did according to the instructions that Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them.
1K 21:12 They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.
1K 21:13 And the two worthless fellows came and sat before him; and the worthless men testified against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth cursed God and the king. And they acarried him out of the city and stoned him with stones, and he died.
1K 21:14 And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead.
1K 21:15 And when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, Rise up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive but dead.
1K 21:16 And when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.
1K 21:17 And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1K 21:18 Rise up and go down to meet Ahab the king of Israel, who is in Samaria. He is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it.
1K 21:19 And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Have you killed and also taken possession? Then you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says Jehovah, In the place where the dogs licked up the ablood of Naboth, the dogs will lick up your blood also.
1K 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, my enemy? And he said, I have found you because you have asold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of Jehovah.
1K 21:21 I am now bringing evil upon you, and I will take away your posterity and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond and free, in Israel;
1K 21:22 And I will make your house like the house of aJeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of bBaasha the son of Ahijah because of the provocation by which you have provoked Me to anger and caused Israel to sin.
1K 21:23 And concerning Jezebel, Jehovah also spoke, saying, The dogs will eat aJezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.
1K 21:24 Him of Ahab’s who adies in the city, the dogs will eat; and him who dies in the field, the birds of heaven will eat.
1K 21:25 (Indeed there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of Jehovah because aJezebel his wife urged him on.
1K 21:26 And he acted very abominably in going after idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.)
1K 21:27 And when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted; and he lay in sackcloth and went about acarefully.
1K 21:28 And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1K 21:29 Do you see how Ahab humbles himself before Me? Because he humbles himself before Me, I will not bring the evil upon him in his days; in his ason’s days I will bring the evil upon his house.
1 KINGS 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • 

9. His Miserable Ending
22:1-40
1K 22:1 And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.
1K 22:2 Then in the third year aJehoshaphat the king of Judah bcame down to the king of Israel.
1K 22:3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that aRamoth-gilead is ours, and yet we keep quiet without taking it out of the hand of the king of Syria?
1K 22:4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me into battle at Ramoth-gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, aI will be as you are; my people will be as your people; my horses, as your horses.
1K 22:5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, aAsk today, I beg you, for the word of Jehovah.
1K 22:6 And the king of Israel assembled the aprophets, about four hundred men, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, and the 1Lord will give it into the king’s hand.
1K 22:7 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not yet another aprophet of Jehovah here, that we might inquire of him?
1K 22:8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil. It is Micaiah the son of Imlah. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
1K 22:9 Then the king of Israel called a certain officer and said, Quickly bring Micaiah the son of Imlah.
1K 22:10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting, each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
1K 22:11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron; and he said, Thus says Jehovah, With these you will push the Syrians until you have destroyed them.
1K 22:12 And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and succeed; for Jehovah will deliver it into the king’s hand.
1K 22:13 And the messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, See, the words of the prophets, being of one accord, seem good to the king. Let your word, I beg you, be like the word of one of them, and speak good.
1K 22:14 And Micaiah said, As Jehovah lives, athat which Jehovah says to me, that will I speak.
1K 22:15 And when he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain? And he said to him, Go up, and succeed; for Jehovah will deliver it into the hand of the king.
1K 22:16 And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Jehovah?
1K 22:17 And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, like asheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master; let each of them return to his house in peace.
1K 22:18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil?
1K 22:19 And Micaiah said, Hear therefore the word of Jehovah, I saw Jehovah sitting upon His athrone, and all the host of heaven bstanding by Him, on His right hand and on His left.
1K 22:20 And Jehovah said, Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said after this manner, and another said after that manner.
1K 22:21 And there came forth a certain spirit and stood before Jehovah and said, I will entice him.
1K 22:22 And Jehovah said unto him, How? And he said, I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, You shall entice him and surely prevail. Go forth, and do so.
1K 22:23 So now Jehovah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and Jehovah has spoken evil concerning you.
1K 22:24 Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah approached and astruck Micaiah upon the cheek and said, Which way did the Spirit of Jehovah pass from me to speak to you?
1K 22:25 And Micaiah said, You will see on that day when you go from room to room to hide yourself.
1K 22:26 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son.
1K 22:27 And you shall say, Thus says the king, Put this man in aprison, and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction, until I come in peace.
1K 22:28 And Micaiah said, If you return in peace at all, aJehovah has not spoken by me. And he said, bListen, O peoples, all of 1you!
1K 22:29 And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.
1K 22:30 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle; but you put on your robes. And the king of Israel adisguised himself and went into the battle.
1K 22:31 And the king of Syria commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, but with the aking of Israel only.
1K 22:32 And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Surely this is the king of Israel. And they turned against him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cried out.
1K 22:33 And when the captains of the chariots perceived that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
1K 22:34 And a man drew a bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. And the king of Israel said to his charioteer, Turn your hand, and drive me out of the camp; for I am awounded.
1K 22:35 And the battle increased that day; and the king was propped up in his chariot before the Syrians, and he died in the evening; and the blood of the wound ran out into the hollow of the chariot.
1K 22:36 And the cry went throughout the army at the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own land!
1K 22:37 And the king died and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria.
1K 22:38 And someone washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked his ablood where the harlots bathed, according to the word of Jehovah, which He had spoken.
1K 22:39 And the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did and the aivory house that he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
1K 22:40 And Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
K. The Reign of Jehoshaphat over Judah
22:41-50
1K 22:41 aAnd Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab the king of Israel.
1K 22:42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.
1K 22:43 And he walked in all the away of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of Jehovah. Nevertheless the high places were bnot removed; the people offered sacrifices and burned incense still on the high places.
1K 22:44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
1K 22:45 And the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
1K 22:46 And the remainder of the male cult prostitutes, which were left in the days of his father Asa, he put away from out of the land.
1K 22:47 And there was no king in Edom; a deputy was king.
1K 22:48 Jehoshaphat made aships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.
1K 22:49 Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat was not willing.
1K 22:50 And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jehoram his son reigned in his place.
L. The Reign of Ahaziah over Israel
1 Kings 22:51 — 2 Kings 1:18
1K 22:51 aAhaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah; and he reigned two years over Israel.
1K 22:52 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.
1K 22:53 And he served aBaal and worshipped him and provoked Jehovah the God of Israel to anger, according to all that his father had done.
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SECOND KINGS

Chapters
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Outline

For Author, Time of Writing, etc., see introductory material in 1 Kings.
2 KINGS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

L. The Reign of Ahaziah over Israel (cont’d)
1:1-18
2K 1:1 And aMoab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
2K 1:2 And Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria and became ill. And he sent messengers and said to them, Go and inquire of 1aBaal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I will recover from this sickness.
2K 1:3 But the Angel of Jehovah said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise; go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?
2K 1:4 Now therefore thus says Jehovah, You shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. And Elijah departed.
2K 1:5 And when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, Why have you returned?
2K 1:6 And they said to him, A man came up to meet us and said to us, Go and return to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says Jehovah, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send men to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.
2K 1:7 And he said to them, What sort of man was he who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?
2K 1:8 And they said to him, A ahairy man, and he was girded with a leather girdle around his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.
2K 1:9 And he sent a captain of fifty with his fifty to him. And the captain went up to him, and there he was, sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to him, O man of God, the king says, Come down!
2K 1:10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I am a man of God, let afire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
2K 1:11 And again the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty. And the captain answered and said to him, O man of God, thus says the king, Come down quickly.
2K 1:12 And Elijah answered and said to them, If I am the man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
2K 1:13 And again the king sent a captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up; and he came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and he entreated him and said to him, O man of God, may my soul and the soul of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.
2K 1:14 Already fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of fifty and their fifties; and now may my soul be precious in your sight.
2K 1:15 And the 1Angel of Jehovah said to Elijah, Go down with him; do not be afraid of him. And he rose up and went down with him to the king.
2K 1:16 Then he said to him, Thus says Jehovah, Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron — was it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? — therefore you shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.
2K 1:17 And he died according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah had spoken. And aJehoram began to reign in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, because he had no son.
2K 1:18 And the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 KINGS 2

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M. The Rapture of Elijah
2:1-18
2K 2:1 And when Jehovah was about to atake up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, 1Elijah went with 1Elisha from Gilgal.
2K 2:2 And Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, for Jehovah has sent me as far as Bethel. And Elisha said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.
2K 2:3 Then the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that Jehovah will take away your master from over your head today? And he said, I too know it; be silent.
2K 2:4 And Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, for Jehovah has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And they came to Jericho.
2K 2:5 And the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho approached Elisha and said to him, Do you know that Jehovah will take away your master from over your head today? And he said, I too know it; be silent.
2K 2:6 And Elijah said to him, Stay here, for Jehovah has sent me to the Jordan. And he said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on.
2K 2:7 And fifty men from the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan.
2K 2:8 And Elijah took his 1amantle and wrapped it together and struck the water; and it bparted to this side and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
2K 2:9 And when they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I should do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.
2K 2:10 And he said, You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, so will it be to you; but if not, it will not be so.
2K 2:11 And as they went on and talked, suddenly a achariot of fire and horses of fire appeared; and they separated the two of them. And bElijah 1cwent up by a whirlwind into heaven.
2K 2:12 And Elisha saw it and cried, aMy father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he did not see him anymore. And he grasped his clothes and 1tore them in two pieces.
2K 2:13 And he picked up Elijah’s amantle, which had fallen from him, and returned and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
2K 2:14 And he took Elijah’s mantle, which had fallen from him, and struck the water and said, Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah? And when he also struck the water, it parted to this side and that, and Elisha crossed over.
2K 2:15 And when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, The 1spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
2K 2:16 And they said to him, Here with your servants are fifty strong men; let them go and seek your master, lest the aSpirit of Jehovah has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said, You shall not send them.
2K 2:17 But when they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, Send them. So they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.
2K 2:18 And they returned to him while he stayed at Jericho; and he said to them, Did I not say to you, Do not go?
N. Elisha’s Ministry of Grace
2:19-25; 4:1 — 6:7
1. Healing the Bad Water of Jericho
2:19-22
2K 2:19 And the men of the city said to Elisha, The location of the city is good, as my lord can see; but the water is bad, and the land is barren.
2K 2:20 And he said, Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it. And they brought it to him.
2K 2:21 And he went out to the source of the water and threw salt there; and he said, Thus says Jehovah, I have 1healed this water; there will not be any more death or barrenness from there.
2K 2:22 So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha, which he spoke.
2. Cursing the Mocking Boys
2:23-25
2K 2:23 And he went up from there to Bethel. And as he was going up on the way, some little boys came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, aGo up, baldhead; go up, baldhead.
2K 2:24 And he turned around and looked at them and 1cursed them in the name of Jehovah. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two children among them.
2K 2:25 And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
2 KINGS 3

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O. The Reign of Jehoram over Israel
3:1-27; 6:8 — 8:15
1. Fighting against the King of Moab
3:1-27
2K 3:1 Now aJehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years.
2K 3:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not as his father and his mother had done, for he put away the pillar of aBaal, which his father had made.
2K 3:3 Yet he clung to the 1sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to asin; he did not turn away from 2them.
2K 3:4 Now Mesha the king of Moab was a sheep breeder, who would pay as atribute to the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams.
2K 3:5 And when Ahab adied, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
2K 3:6 And King Jehoram went forth from Samaria on that day and mustered all Israel.
2K 3:7 And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to Moab to fight? And he said, I will go up: aI will be as you are; my people will be as your people; my horses, as your horses.
2K 3:8 And he said, By which way shall we go up? And he said, By the way of the wilderness of Edom.
2K 3:9 So the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom set out, and they circled about on a journey of seven days. And there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them.
2K 3:10 And the king of Israel said, Alas! Jehovah has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.
2K 3:11 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no aprophet of Jehovah here, by whom we may inquire of Jehovah? And one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to bpour water on the hands of Elijah.
2K 3:12 And Jehoshaphat said, The word of Jehovah is with him. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
2K 3:13 And Elisha said to the king of Israel, What do I have in this that concerns you? Go to the aprophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. And the king of Israel said to him, No; for Jehovah has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.
2K 3:14 And Elisha said, As Jehovah of hosts, before whom I stand, lives, were it not that I regard aJehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not even look at you or see you.
2K 3:15 But now bring me a amusician. And as the musician played, the bhand of Jehovah came upon him.
2K 3:16 And he said, Thus says Jehovah, Make this valley trenches, all trenches!
2K 3:17 For thus says Jehovah, You will not see wind, nor will you see rain; but that valley will be filled with awater, and you will drink, as will your cattle and your animals.
2K 3:18 And this is but a small thing in the sight of Jehovah, for He will deliver Moab into your hand.
2K 3:19 And you will strike every fortified city and every choice city, and every good tree you will fell, and all the springs of water you will stop, and every fine portion of land you will mar with stones.
2K 3:20 And in the amorning, at about the time of the offering up of the meal offering, there came water from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with water.
2K 3:21 Now when all Moab heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, any of those old enough to strap on armor and upward were called out; and they stationed themselves at the border.
2K 3:22 And when they rose up early in the morning, the sun shone on the water; and the Moabites saw the water before them as red as blood.
2K 3:23 And they said, This is blood; the kings have no doubt fought against themselves, and each has struck down his companion. Now therefore to the spoil, O Moab!
2K 3:24 And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they went among them and struck down the Moabites.
2K 3:25 And they overturned the cities, and on every fine portion of land each man threw his stone and filled it up, and every spring of water they stopped, and every good tree they felled. Only at Kir-hareseth did they leave stones standing, but the slingers encircled it and struck it.
2K 3:26 And when the king of Moab saw that the battle went hard against him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew the sword, in order to break through to the king of Edom; but they were not able to do it.
2K 3:27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to reign in his place, and offered him up as a burnt offering upon the wall. And great wrath came upon Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their land.
2 KINGS 4

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N. Elisha’s Ministry of Grace (cont’d)
4:1 — 6:7
3. Calling the Things Not Being as Being
4:1-17, 42-44
2K 4:1 Now a certain woman from among the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared Jehovah. And the creditor has come to take my two achildren to himself as servants.
2K 4:2 And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? And she said, Your servant has nothing at all in the house, except a jar of aoil.
2K 4:3 And he said, Go and borrow vessels outside, from all your neighbors, empty vessels, and not just a few.
2K 4:4 Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and each one you fill set aside.
2K 4:5 So she went away from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons; and they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out into them.
2K 4:6 And when she had 1filled the vessels, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. But he said to her, There is no other vessel. And the oil stopped.
2K 4:7 And she went and told the man of God. And he said, Go and sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons can live off the rest.
2K 4:8 And one day Elisha was passing through Shunem; and there was a wealthy woman there, who compelled him to have a meal. So whenever he passed through, he would turn aside and have a meal there.
2K 4:9 And she said to her husband, Now I know that this man who continually passes through unto us is a holy 1man of God.
2K 4:10 Let us make a little walled upper room and put a bed and a table and a chair and a lamp for him; and when he comes to us, he can turn aside there.
2K 4:11 Then one day he came there, and he turned aside into the upper room and lay down there.
2K 4:12 And he said to aGehazi his attendant, Call this Shunammite. And he called her, and she stood before him.
2K 4:13 And he said to him, Say to her, You have gone to all this trouble for us; what can be done for you? Should you be spoken of to the king or to the captain of the army? And she said, I dwell in the midst of my people.
2K 4:14 And he said, What then can be done for her? And Gehazi said, Indeed she has no son, and her husband is old.
2K 4:15 Then he said, Call her. And he called her, and she stood at the door.
2K 4:16 And he said, At this time anext year you shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, O man of God, do not deceive your servant.
2K 4:17 And the woman conceived and bore a son at that time the next year, as Elisha had told her.
4. Resurrecting the Dead
4:18-37
2K 4:18 And when the child grew up, one day he went out to his father among the reapers;
2K 4:19 And he said to his father, My head! My head! And he said to his attendant, Carry him to his mother.
2K 4:20 And when he had carried him in and brought him to his mother, the child lay upon her lap until noon, then died.
2K 4:21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and she shut the door behind him and went out.
2K 4:22 Then she called her husband and said, Send me one of the attendants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and return.
2K 4:23 And he said, Why will you go to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. But she said, It will be fine.
2K 4:24 Then she saddled the donkey and said to her attendant, Urge the beast, and do not restrain the ride for me unless I tell you.
2K 4:25 So she went. And she came to the man of God at Mount aCarmel. And when the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his attendant, That is the Shunammite over there.
2K 4:26 Run now to meet her, and say to her, Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she said, It is well.
2K 4:27 And when she came to the man of God on the mountain, she clung to his feet. And Gehazi approached to push her away, but the man of God said, Leave her alone; for she is bitter in soul, and Jehovah has hidden the matter from me and has not told me about it.
2K 4:28 And she said, Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, aDo not mislead me?
2K 4:29 Then he said to Gehazi, aGird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do bnot greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not respond to him. And clay my staff upon the face of the boy.
2K 4:30 And the mother of the boy said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And he rose up and followed her.
2K 4:31 And Gehazi passed on before them and set the staff upon the boy’s face, but there was no sound or reaction. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, saying, The boy has not awakened.
2K 4:32 And when Elisha went into the house, there was the dead boy, laid out on his bed.
2K 4:33 And he went in and ashut the door behind the two of them, and he prayed to Jehovah.
2K 4:34 Then he got up and alay on the child, and he put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his palms on his palms; and he stretched himself over him, and the flesh of the child became warm.
2K 4:35 And he got down and walked about in the house once to and fro. Then he got up and stretched himself over him, and the boy sneezed seven times. Then the boy 1opened his eyes.
2K 4:36 And he called Gehazi and said, Call that Shunammite. So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, Take up your son.
2K 4:37 And she came and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground. And she took up her ason and went out.
5. Nullifying the Poison of the Wild Gourds with Flour
4:38-41
2K 4:38 Then Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a afamine in the land. And the sons of the prophets sat before him. And he said to his attendant, Put on the big pot, and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.
2K 4:39 And one went out into the field to gather herbs. And he found a wild vine and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds. And he came and cut them up into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were.
2K 4:40 And they poured out the stew for the men to eat. And while they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, O man of God, there is poison in the pot. And they were not able to eat it.
2K 4:41 And he said, Then bring some 1flour. And he threw it into the pot and said, Pour it out for the people that they may eat. And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
3. Calling the Things Not Being as Being (cont’d)
4:42-44
2K 4:42 Then a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought to the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, aGive it to the people that they may eat.
2K 4:43 And his servant said, How can I set this before a hundred people? And he said, Give it to the people that they may eat; for thus says Jehovah, They shall eat and have some left.
2K 4:44 So he set it before them; and they ate, and there was 1some left, according to the word of Jehovah.
2 KINGS 5

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6. Healing Leprosy
5:1-27
2K 5:1 Now aNaaman, the captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man in the sight of his master and highly respected, because by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria. But the man, though a mighty man of valor, was a leper.
2K 5:2 And the Syrians had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
2K 5:3 And she said to her mistress, If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.
2K 5:4 And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, Thus and thus did the girl who is from the land of Israel say.
2K 5:5 Then the king of Syria said, Go then, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he went and took with him aten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.
2K 5:6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read: And now, when this letter comes to you, I am sending Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.
2K 5:7 And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to put to death and to agive life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Therefore consider now and see how he seeks an occasion against me.
2K 5:8 And when Elisha the aman of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.
2K 5:9 And Naaman came with his horses and his chariot and stood at the entrance of the house of Elisha.
2K 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and awash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored; and you shall be bclean.
2K 5:11 But Naaman became furious and went away and said, I thought, He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
2K 5:12 Are not the 1Abana and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
2K 5:13 And his servants came near and spoke to him and said, My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, Wash and be clean?
2K 5:14 So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh was 1restored to be like the aflesh of a little boy, and he was bclean.
2K 5:15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him and said, Now I know that there is no aGod in all the earth except with Israel. And now, please accept a present from your servant.
2K 5:16 But he said, As Jehovah lives, before whom I stand, I will areceive nothing. And Naaman urged him to take it, but he refused.
2K 5:17 And Naaman said, Then if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth, for your servant will no more offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to other gods, but to Jehovah only.
2K 5:18 In this matter may Jehovah pardon your servant: When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there and leans on my arm, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may Jehovah pardon your servant in this matter.
2K 5:19 And he said to him, Go in peace. And when he had gone from him a little way,
2K 5:20 Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God said, Now my master has spared Naaman this Syrian by not receiving from his hand that which he brought. As Jehovah lives, I will run after him and take something from him.
2K 5:21 So Gehazi pursued Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well?
2K 5:22 And he said, All is well. My master has sent me, saying, Now at this moment two young men from among the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim; please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.
2K 5:23 And Naaman said, Please take two talents. And he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his attendants; and they carried them before him.
2K 5:24 And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house. And he sent the men away, and they departed.
2K 5:25 And he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, Where have you come from, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant has not gone anywhere.
2K 5:26 And he said to him, Did not my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive silver and to receive clothing and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants?
2K 5:27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to you and to your seed forever. And he went out from his presence a aleper as white as snow.
2 KINGS 6

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7. Causing the Ax Head to Float by Means of a Wooden Stick
6:1-7
2K 6:1 Then the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, The place here where we dwell before you is too narrow for us.
2K 6:2 Let us go to the Jordan and each take a beam from there, and let us make for ourselves a place there, where we may dwell. And he said, Go.
2K 6:3 And someone said, Please go with your servants. And he said, I will go.
2K 6:4 And he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down the trees.
2K 6:5 But as one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, Alas, my master! It was borrowed.
2K 6:6 And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and threw it there and made the iron 1float.
2K 6:7 And he said, Take it up for yourself. And he stretched out his hand and took it.
O. The Reign of Jehoram over Israel (cont’d)
6:8 — 8:15
2. Ben-hadad the King of Syria Waging War against Israel
6:8-23
2K 6:8 Now the king of Syria waged war against Israel. And he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall my camp be.
2K 6:9 And the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you do not pass such a place, for the Syrians are going down there.
2K 6:10 And the king of Israel sent word to the place that the man of God told him about. 1So the king alerted 2the place and put it on guard not merely once or twice.
2K 6:11 And the heart of the king of Syria was enraged over this matter. And he called his servants and said to them, Tell me, which of us sides with the king of Israel?
2K 6:12 And one of his servants said, None, O my lord the king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, atells the king of Israel the words which you speak in your bedroom.
2K 6:13 And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send for him and seize him. And it was told him, saying, He is in Dothan.
2K 6:14 And he sent horses and chariots and a massive army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city.
2K 6:15 And the servant of the man of God rose early and went out, and there it was: an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. And his attendant said to him, Alas, my master! What shall we do?
2K 6:16 And he said, Do not fear, for they who are with us are amore than they who are with them.
2K 6:17 And Elisha prayed and said, O Jehovah, open his eyes that he may see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the attendant, and he saw: The mountain was full of ahorses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2K 6:18 And when the 1Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to Jehovah and said, Strike this nation with blindness. And He struck them with blindness according to Elisha’s word.
2K 6:19 Then Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. And he brought them to Samaria.
2K 6:20 And when they came to Samaria, Elisha said, O Jehovah, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And Jehovah opened their eyes and they saw that they were in the midst of Samaria.
2K 6:21 And when he saw them, the king of Israel said to Elisha, Shall I strike them? Shall I strike them, my father?
2K 6:22 And he said, You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken captive by your sword and your bow? Set bread and water before them, and let them aeat and drink and go back to their master.
2K 6:23 Then he prepared a great 1feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Syria no longer came into the land of Israel.
3. Ben-hadad the King of Syria Besieging Samaria
6:24 — 7:20
2K 6:24 And after this Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army and went up and abesieged Samaria.
2K 6:25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and they besieged it until the head of a donkey was sold for eighty pieces of silver and a fourth part of a 1kab of doves’ dung was sold for five pieces of silver.
2K 6:26 And once, as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, Help me, O my lord the king.
2K 6:27 And he said, If Jehovah does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?
2K 6:28 And the king said to her, What is your trouble? And she said, This woman said to me, Give up your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.
2K 6:29 So we boiled my ason and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, Give up your son that we may eat him; but she hid her son.
2K 6:30 And when the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by upon the wall, the people could see that he had sackcloth upon his flesh underneath.
2K 6:31 And he said, God ado so to me, and even more, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today.
2K 6:32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the aelders were sitting with him. And the king had sent a man from before him. Before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, Do you see that this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? When the messenger comes, see that you shut the door and hold the door closed against him. Surely the sound of his master’s feet is behind him.
2K 6:33 While he was still talking with them, the 1king came down to him and said, This evil is from Jehovah; why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?
2 KINGS 7

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2K 7:1 And Elisha said, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus says Jehovah, At about this time tomorrow a 1seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley will be sold for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.
2K 7:2 Then the captain on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God and said, Even if Jehovah made awindows in heaven, could this thing happen? And he said, Your eyes shall indeed see it, but you shall not eat from it.
2K 7:3 Now there were four aleprous men at the entrance of the gate. And they said to one another, Why are we sitting here until we die?
2K 7:4 If we say, Let us enter the city, the famine is in the city and we will die there; but if we sit here, we will also die. Now therefore let us go and desert to the camp of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will die.
2K 7:5 So they rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, there was not a man there.
2K 7:6 Now the Lord had made the camp of the Syrians hear the asound of chariots and the sound of horses, the sound of a great army; and each man said to his brother, Now the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come against us.
2K 7:7 And they rose up and fled in the twilight, and they abandoned their tents and their horses and their donkeys, indeed the whole camp just as it was, and fled for their lives.
2K 7:8 So when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they entered one tent and began to eat and drink. And they took silver and gold and clothing from there, and went and hid them. And they went back and entered another tent and took things from there and went and hid them.
2K 7:9 Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good tidings, and we remain silent. If we delay until the morning’s light, our iniquity will find us out. Now therefore, come and let us go and tell the king’s household.
2K 7:10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them saying, We went to the camp of the Syrians, and there was not a man there nor even the sound of a man; but the horses were tied, and the donkeys were tied, and the tents were left as they were.
2K 7:11 And the gatekeepers proclaimed it and told the king’s household within.
2K 7:12 And the king rose up in the night and said to his servants, I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us: They know that we are hungry; and they have gone out from the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out from the city, we will take them alive; and into the city we will go.
2K 7:13 And one of his servants answered and said, Let some men take five of the remaining horses that are left in 1the city — they are like all the multitude of Israel which remain in 1the city; they are like all the multitude of Israel which have perished — and let us send them and see.
2K 7:14 So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the army of Syria, saying, Go and see.
2K 7:15 And when they went after them toward the Jordan, all the way was full of garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown off in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
2K 7:16 And the people went forth and plundered the camp of the Syrians. And a aseah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Jehovah.
2K 7:17 Now the king had appointed the captain on whose arm he leaned to have charge of the gate; and the people trampled him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king had come down to him.
2K 7:18 So just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two seahs of barley will be sold for a shekel and a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel at about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria;
2K 7:19 And the captain had answered the man of God and said, aEven if Jehovah made windows in heaven, could this thing happen? and the man of God had said, Your eyes shall indeed see it, but you shall not eat from it;
2K 7:20 So it happened to him; for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
2 KINGS 8

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4. Elisha Telling of a Seven-year Famine Ordered by God
8:1-6
2K 8:1 Now Elisha had spoken to the awoman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Rise up, and you and your household go and dwell wherever you can; for Jehovah has called for a bfamine, and it will also come upon the land for cseven years.
2K 8:2 So the woman rose up and did according to the word of the man of God. And she and her household went and dwelt in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
2K 8:3 And at the end of the seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. And she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and her land.
2K 8:4 And the king was talking to aGehazi the attendant of the man of God, saying, Recount to me all the great things that Elisha has done.
2K 8:5 And while Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead boy to life, there came the woman whose son he had restored to life, crying to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, O my lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.
2K 8:6 And the king asked the woman, and she recounted it to him. And the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, Restore all that was hers and all the produce of her land from the day that she left the country until now.
5. Elisha’s Friendly Contact with Ben-hadad the King of Syria
8:7-15
2K 8:7 And Elisha went to Damascus. And aBen-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And it was told him, saying, The man of God has come here.
2K 8:8 And the king said to aHazael, Take a gift with you, and go to meet the man of God; and inquire of Jehovah through him, saying, Will I recover from this bsickness?
2K 8:9 So Hazael went to meet him; and he took a gift with him, even all good things of Damascus, forty camel loads. And he came and stood before him and said, Your son Ben-hadad the king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, Will I recover from this sickness?
2K 8:10 And Elisha said to him, 1Go and say to him, You shall certainly recover; however Jehovah has shown me that he shall certainly die.
2K 8:11 And he fixed his gaze and stared at him until he was ashamed. Then the man of God began to weep.
2K 8:12 And Hazael said, Why are you weeping, my lord? And he said, Because I know the evil that you will do to the achildren of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their choice young men you will slay with the sword, and their little ones you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open.
2K 8:13 And Hazael said, But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha said, Jehovah has shown me that you will be king over aSyria.
2K 8:14 And he went from Elisha and came to his master. And his master said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And he said, He told me that you shall certainly recover.
2K 8:15 But on the next day he took the heavy covering over Ben-hadad and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, so that he died; and Hazael reigned in his place.
P. The Reign of Jehoram over Judah
8:16-24a
2K 8:16 Now in the fifth year of aJoram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 8:17 aHe was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
2K 8:18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel and as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
2K 8:19 But Jehovah would not destroy Judah, because of 1David His servant, as He had promised him that for his sake He would provide a alamp for his children always.
2K 8:20 In his days aEdom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and they installed a king over themselves.
2K 8:21 So 1Joram crossed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him. And he rose up at night and struck the Edomites all around him and the captains of the chariots, but his people fled to their tents.
2K 8:22 So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, as it is to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.
2K 8:23 And the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 8:24 And Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the acity of David.
Q. The Reign of Ahaziah over Judah
8:24b-29
And Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
2K 8:25 In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, aAhaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 8:26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the 1daughter of Omri the king of Israel.
2K 8:27 And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab; for he was a son-in-law to the house of Ahab.
2K 8:28 And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to fight with Hazael the king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. And the Syrians astruck Joram.
2K 8:29 And Joram the king returned to heal in Jezreel of his wounds that the Syrians had inflicted on him in Ramah when he fought with Hazael the king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in aJezreel, for he was sick.
2 KINGS 9

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R. The Reign of Jehu over Israel
9:1 — 10:36
2K 9:1 And Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, aGird up your loins, and take this flask of boil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
2K 9:2 And when you arrive there, look there for aJehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi; and go in and make him rise up from among his brothers, and bring him to an inner room.
2K 9:3 Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, Thus says Jehovah, I have aanointed you king over Israel. Then open the door and flee, and do not delay.
2K 9:4 So the young man, the prophet’s attendant, went to Ramoth-gilead.
2K 9:5 And when he came, there the captains of the army were sitting. And he said, I have a word for you, O captain. And Jehu said, To which one of all of us? And he said, To you, O captain.
2K 9:6 And he rose up and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of Jehovah, over Israel.
2K 9:7 And you shall strike the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the ablood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of Jehovah at the hand of 1bJezebel.
2K 9:8 And the whole house of aAhab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond and free, in Israel;
2K 9:9 And I will make the house of Ahab like the ahouse of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of bBaasha the son of Ahijah;
2K 9:10 And the dogs shall aeat Jezebel in the lot of Jezreel, and there will be none to bury her. Then he opened the door and fled.
2K 9:11 And when Jehu came out to the servants of his master, someone said to him, Is all well? Why did this amad fellow come to you? And he said to them, You know the man and his ranting.
2K 9:12 And they said, That is a lie; please tell us. And he said, Thus and thus he said to me, saying, Thus says Jehovah, I have anointed you king over Israel.
2K 9:13 Then they moved quickly; and every man took his agarment and put it under him on the bare steps; and they blew the btrumpet and said, Jehu is king!
2K 9:14 And Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against 1Joram. (Now Joram had been defending aRamoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of bHazael the king of Syria,
2K 9:15 But Jehoram the king returned to be healed in Jezreel of the awounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought Hazael the king of Syria). And Jehu said, If this is your desire, let no fugitive depart from the city and go and tell it in Jezreel.
2K 9:16 So Jehu rode off in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying ill there. And aAhaziah the king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
2K 9:17 And the watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu’s multitude as he came, and he said, I see a multitude. And Jehoram said, Take a horseman, and send him to meet them; and let him say, Is there peace?
2K 9:18 So the horseman went to meet him and said, Thus says the king, Is there peace? And Jehu said, What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me. And the watchman reported, saying, The messenger went to them but did not return.
2K 9:19 And he sent out a second horseman; and he came to them and said, Thus says the king, Is there peace? And Jehu said, What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.
2K 9:20 And the watchman reported, saying, He went to them but did not return; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, because he drives furiously.
2K 9:21 And Jehoram said, Yoke the chariot! And someone yoked his chariot. And aJehoram the king of Israel and Ahaziah the king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu; and they found him in the lot of bNaboth the Jezreelite.
2K 9:22 And when Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, Is there peace, Jehu? And he said, What peace can there be, so long as the harlotries and sorceries of Jezebel your mother are so many?
2K 9:23 And Jehoram turned the 1reins and tried to flee. And he said to Ahaziah, Treachery, Ahaziah!
2K 9:24 And Jehu drew his bow with full strength and struck Jehoram between his arms; and the arrow went through his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
2K 9:25 And Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, Take him up, and throw him in the lot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how you and I were riding together behind Ahab his father, and Jehovah uttered this oracle against him:
2K 9:26 Surely I have seen the ablood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares Jehovah; and I will repay you in this lot, declares Jehovah. And now, take him up and throw him in the lot, according to the word of Jehovah.
2K 9:27 And aAhaziah the king of Judah saw this and fled toward the garden house; and Jehu pursued after him and said, Strike him too in his chariot. So they struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.
2K 9:28 And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his grave with his fathers in the city of David.
2K 9:29 And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, aAhaziah began to reign over Judah.
2K 9:30 And Jehu came to Jezreel; and Jezebel heard of it. And she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and she looked out the window.
2K 9:31 And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, Is all well, aZimri, you murderer of 1your master?
2K 9:32 And he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? And two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
2K 9:33 And he said, Throw her down. And they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her.
2K 9:34 And he came in, and ate and drank, and said, Attend now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.
2K 9:35 But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than her skull and her feet and the palms of her hands.
2K 9:36 And they returned and reported it to him. And he said, This is the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 1In the lot of Jezreel the dogs will aeat the flesh of Jezebel;
2K 9:37 And the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung upon the surface of the field in the lot of Jezreel, so that they will not say, This is Jezebel.
2 KINGS 10

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2K 10:1 Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria, and Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the rulers of Jezreel, the elders, and to the 1guardians of the children of Ahab, saying,
2K 10:2 Now then, when this letter comes to you, since your master’s sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons,
2K 10:3 Look for the best and fittest of your master’s sons, and set him on the throne of his father, and fight for your master’s house.
2K 10:4 But they feared very greatly and said, If the two kings could not stand before him, how then can we stand before him?
2K 10:5 And he who was over the household and he that was over the city and the elders and the guardians of the children sent word to Jehu, saying, We are your servants; all that you say to us, we will do. We will not make anyone king. What is good in your sight, do.
2K 10:6 Then he wrote a letter to them a second time, saying, If you are mine and listen to my voice, take the heads of the sons of your master, and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time. Now the king’s sons, seventy men, were with the great men of the city, who had brought them up.
2K 10:7 And when the letter reached them, they took the king’s asons and slaughtered them, seventy men; and they placed their heads in baskets and sent them to him in Jezreel.
2K 10:8 And the messenger came and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said, Put them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.
2K 10:9 And in the morning he went out and stood and said to all the people, You are righteous. I aconspired against my master and have killed him; but who struck all these?
2K 10:10 Know therefore that nothing of the word of Jehovah, which Jehovah aspoke concerning the house of Ahab, shall bfall to the earth; for Jehovah has done that which He spoke through His servant Elijah.
2K 10:11 So Jehu killed all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his acquaintances and his priests, until he left him no one remaining.
2K 10:12 Then he rose up and departed and came into Samaria. And while he was at the 1shepherds’ meeting place on the way,
2K 10:13 Jehu came upon the brothers of Ahaziah the king of Judah; and he said, Who are you? And they said, We are the brothers of Ahaziah, and have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.
2K 10:14 And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive and slew them, forty-two men, at the pit of the 1meeting place; and he left not one of them remaining.
2K 10:15 And when he departed from there, he came upon aJehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? And Jehonadab said, It is. And Jehu said, If it is, give me your hand. And he gave him his hand, and Jehu took him up to himself into the chariot.
2K 10:16 And he said, Come with me, and see my azeal for Jehovah. So they made him ride in his chariot.
2K 10:17 And when he came to Samaria, he struck all who were left to aAhab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke to Elijah.
2K 10:18 And Jehu gathered all the people together and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much.
2K 10:19 Now call to me all the aprophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be missing. For I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal. Whoever is missing will not live. But Jehu acted in subtlety, in order that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.
2K 10:20 And Jehu said, Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it.
2K 10:21 And Jehu sent word throughout all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came; and there was not one left who did not come. And they came to the house of Baal, and the ahouse of Baal was filled from one end to the other.
2K 10:22 And he said to the one who was over the wardrobe, Bring out garments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought out the garments to them.
2K 10:23 And Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab came to the house of Baal; and he said to the worshippers of Baal, Search and see that none of the servants of Jehovah are here with you; only the worshippers of Baal should be here.
2K 10:24 And they came to offer sacrifice and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside; and he had said, He who allows any of the men to escape whom I bring into your hands will give up his life instead.
2K 10:25 And when he finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guards and to the captains, Go in and slay them; let no one get out. And they struck them with the edge of the sword. And the guards and the captains threw them out, and they went to the 1inner room of the house of Baal.
2K 10:26 And they brought out the pillars of the house of Baal and burned them.
2K 10:27 And they broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal and made it a latrine, as it is to this day.
2K 10:28 Thus Jehu eradicated Baal from Israel.
2K 10:29 However as regards the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 1by which he caused Israel to asin, Jehu did not turn away from them, that is, the 2golden calves which were in Bethel and in Dan.
2K 10:30 And Jehovah said to Jehu, 1Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes and have dealt with the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons to the afourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
2K 10:31 But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of Jehovah the God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, by which he caused Israel to sin.
2K 10:32 In those days Jehovah began to acut away portions of land in Israel, and bHazael struck them in all the borders of Israel
2K 10:33 From the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of Arnon, both aGilead and Bashan.
2K 10:34 And the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2K 10:35 And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.
2K 10:36 Now the time which Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
2 KINGS 11

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S. The Illegitimate Reign of Athaliah over Judah
11:1-16
2K 11:1 aNow when bAthaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and destroyed all the royal seed.
2K 11:2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took aJoash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were to be killed; 1she put him and his nurse into the bedchamber. So they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.
2K 11:3 And he was with her, hidden in the house of Jehovah, for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
2K 11:4 aThen in the seventh year Jehoiada sent word and gathered the captains of the hundreds over the Carites and over the guards and brought them to him at the house of Jehovah. And he made a covenant with them and put them under an oath in the house of Jehovah, then showed them the king’s son.
2K 11:5 And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that you shall do: A third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath shall keep watch over the king’s house;
2K 11:6 And another third shall keep watch in the gate of Sur; and another third shall keep watch at the gate behind the guards. You shall keep watch over the house for a defense.
2K 11:7 And the two divisions of you, all who go off duty on the Sabbath, shall keep watch over the house of Jehovah for the king.
2K 11:8 And you shall surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever enters the ranks shall be put to death; and you shall be with the king in his goings and comings.
2K 11:9 And the captains of the hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded them. And each took his men, those who came on duty on the Sabbath with those who went off duty on the Sabbath; and they came to Jehoiada the priest.
2K 11:10 And the priest gave the spears and ashields that had belonged to King David, which were in the house of Jehovah, to the captains of the hundreds.
2K 11:11 And the guards stood, each man with his weapons in his hand, from the right flank of the house to the left flank of the house, by the altar and by the house, to guard the king all around.
2K 11:12 And he brought the king’s son out and gave him the crown and the testimony. And they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, Long live the king!
2K 11:13 Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went to the people at the house of Jehovah.
2K 11:14 And she looked, and there was the king, standing by the apillar, according to the custom, with captains and their trumpets near the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew the trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, Treason! Treason!
2K 11:15 And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds who had been set over the army and said to them, Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her kill with a sword; for the priest said, She shall not be killed in the house of Jehovah.
2K 11:16 And they made way for her, and she went to the house of the king through the horses’ entrance and was killed there.
T. The Reign of Joash (Jehoash) over Judah
11:17 — 12:21
2K 11:17 And Jehoiada made a acovenant between Jehovah and the king and the people that they would be Jehovah’s people, and also between the king and the people.
2K 11:18 And all the people of the land went to the ahouse of Baal and broke it down: The altars to him and his images they shattered to pieces, and they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of Jehovah.
2K 11:19 And 1Jehoiada gathered the captains of the hundreds and the Carites and the guards and all the people of the land. And they brought the king down from the house of Jehovah and came by way of the guard gate to the house of the king, and he sat upon the throne of the kings.
2K 11:20 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; for they had slain Athaliah with the sword at the house of the king.
2K 11:21 1aJehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.
2 KINGS 12

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2K 12:1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.
2K 12:2 And Jehoash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
2K 12:3 However the 1high places were anot removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2K 12:4 And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the sanctified things which goes into the house of Jehovah — the amoney of everyone who passes through the numbering, the money of each person’s assessment, and all the money that comes up in the heart of anyone to bring into the house of Jehovah —
2K 12:5 Let the priests take, each man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair what is broken in the house, wherever anything is found broken.
2K 12:6 But as of the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired what was broken in the house.
2K 12:7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the priests and said to them, Why have you not been repairing what is broken in the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but deliver it for what is broken in the house.
2K 12:8 And the priests agreed that they would neither take money from the people nor repair what was broken in the house.
2K 12:9 Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid, and he aput it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Jehovah. And the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money that came into the house of Jehovah into it.
2K 12:10 And whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest would go up and bind the money that came into the house of Jehovah in bags and acount it.
2K 12:11 And they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who adid the work, who had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and these would pay it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of Jehovah,
2K 12:12 And to the masons and to the stone hewers and for the purchase of timber and hewn stone, to repair what was broken in the house of Jehovah, and for any other outlay to repair the house.
2K 12:13 But there were no cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, or any vessels of gold or any vessels of silver prepared for the house of Jehovah out of the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah;
2K 12:14 For they gave it all to those who did the work, who repaired the house of Jehovah with it.
2K 12:15 And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hands they had given the money to use for doing the work, for these worked faithfully.
2K 12:16 The money from the atrespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of Jehovah; it was the bpriests’.
2K 12:17 aAt that time bHazael the king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. And Hazael set his face to go up toward Jerusalem.
2K 12:18 And Jehoash the king of Judah took all the sanctified things which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers the kings of Judah, had sanctified and his own sanctified things and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the ahouse of Jehovah and the house of the king; and he sent it to Hazael the king of Syria. And he went up from Jerusalem.
2K 12:19 And the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 12:20 aAnd his servants rose up and formed a conspiracy. And they struck Joash down in the house of Millo, on the way that leads down to Silla.
2K 12:21 And it was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who astruck him down; and he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 13

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U. The Reign of Jehoahaz over Israel
13:1-9a
2K 13:1 In the twenty-third year of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, the king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned seventeen years.
2K 13:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and followed after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat 1by which he caused Israel to asin; he did not turn away from them.
2K 13:3 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel; and He gave them continually into the hand of aHazael the king of Syria and into the hand of bBen-hadad the son of Hazael.
2K 13:4 (And Jehoahaz entreated Jehovah; and Jehovah listened to him, for He asaw the oppression of Israel, for the king of Syria oppressed them.
2K 13:5 And Jehovah gave Israel a deliverer, and they went out from under the hand of Syria; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as they had before.
2K 13:6 However they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, by which he caused Israel to sin, but walked in them. And also the 1Asherah remained standing in Samaria.)
2K 13:7 For he left to Jehoahaz of the people not more than fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, for the king of Syria destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
2K 13:8 And the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz and all that he did and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2K 13:9 And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria.
V. The Reign of Jehoash (Joash) over Israel
13:9b-25
And Joash his son reigned in his place.
2K 13:10 In the thirty-seventh year of 1Joash the king of Judah, 2Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned sixteen years.
2K 13:11 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin; he walked in them.
2K 13:12 aAnd the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did and his might with which he fought with bAmaziah the king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2K 13:13 And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne. And Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
2K 13:14 Now when Elisha was 1ill with his illness by which he eventually died, Joash the king of Israel went down to him and wept over him and said, My father! My father! The achariots of Israel and its horsemen!
2K 13:15 And Elisha said to him, Take a bow and arrows; and he took a bow and arrows to him.
2K 13:16 And he said to the king of Israel, Grasp the bow; and he grasped the bow. And Elisha put his hands over the hands of the king,
2K 13:17 And he said, Open the window toward the east; and he opened it. And Elisha said, Shoot; and he shot. And he said, Jehovah’s arrow of 1victory, an arrow of victory against Syria; for you will strike Syria in Aphek until you have consumed it.
2K 13:18 And he said, Take the arrows; and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Strike the ground; and he struck the ground three times then stopped.
2K 13:19 And the man of God became angry with him and said, You should have struck it five or six times; then you would have struck Syria until you had consumed them. But now you shall strike Syria only athree times.
2K 13:20 And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land at the coming in of the new year.
2K 13:21 And it so happened that as the people were burying a man, they saw a band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And as soon as the man 1touched the bones of Elisha, he acame to life and stood up on his feet.
2K 13:22 And Hazael the king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
2K 13:23 But Jehovah was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His acovenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He would not destroy them; and He has not cast them from His presence until now.
2K 13:24 And Hazael the king of Syria died, and Ben-hadad his son reigned in his place.
2K 13:25 And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz retook the cities out of the hand of aBen-hadad the son of Hazael that he had taken in war out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father; Joash struck him bthree times and crecovered the cities of Israel.
2 KINGS 14

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W. The Reign of Amaziah over Judah
14:1-22
2K 14:1 aIn the second year of Joash the son of 1Joahaz, the king of Israel, bAmaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 14:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his mother’s name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.
2K 14:3 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done.
2K 14:4 However the high places were anot removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2K 14:5 And when the kingdom was established in his hand, he struck down his servants who had astruck down his father the king.
2K 14:6 But the children of the murderers he did not put to death, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, in which Jehovah commanded, saying, aFathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
2K 14:7 aHe struck ten thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt; and he captured Sela in battle and called the name of it Joktheel, as it is to this day.
2K 14:8 aThen Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, Come, let us confront each other.
2K 14:9 And Jehoash the king of Israel sent word to Amaziah the king of Judah, asaying, The thornbush that was in Lebanon sent word to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as his wife; but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thornbush.
2K 14:10 You have surely struck Edom, and your heart has alifted you up. Glorify yourself, but remain in your home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you and Judah with you fall?
2K 14:11 But Amaziah would not listen; so Jehoash the king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah the king of Judah confronted each other in Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.
2K 14:12 And Judah was defeated before Israel, and they fled, each man to his tent.
2K 14:13 And Jehoash the king of Israel captured Amaziah the king of Judah the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah in Beth-shemesh; and he came to Jerusalem and tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the agate of Ephraim to the bCorner Gate, four hundred cubits.
2K 14:14 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the ahouse of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king’s house as well as hostages, and returned to Samaria.
2K 14:15 aAnd the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did and his might and how he fought with Amaziah the king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2K 14:16 And Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. And Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.
2K 14:17 aAnd Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel.
2K 14:18 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 14:19 And they formed a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; and they sent men after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.
2K 14:20 And they brought him on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.
2K 14:21 And all the people of Judah took 1Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2K 14:22 It was he who built Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah the king slept with his fathers.
X. The Reign of Jeroboam over Israel
14:23-29
2K 14:23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, the king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria; he reigned forty-one years.
2K 14:24 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 1by which he caused Israel to asin.
2K 14:25 He arestored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the 1sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Jehovah the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant bJonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was of Gath-hepher.
2K 14:26 For Jehovah asaw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was neither bond nor free left, nor was there anyone to help Israel.
2K 14:27 And Jehovah did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven but saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
2K 14:28 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he warred and how he restored for Israel aDamascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2K 14:29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, with the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 15

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Y. The Reign of Azariah (Uzziah) over Judah
15:1-7
2K 15:1 In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, 1aAzariah the son of Amaziah, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 15:2 aHe was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
2K 15:3 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
2K 15:4 However the high places were anot removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2K 15:5 aAnd Jehovah struck the king, so that he was a 1leper until the day of his death; and he dwelt in a bseparate house. And Jotham, the king’s son, was over the household, judging the people of the land.
2K 15:6 And the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 15:7 And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Jotham his son reigned in his place.
Z. The Reign of Zechariah over Israel
15:8-12
2K 15:8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned six months.
2K 15:9 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as his fathers had done; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 1by which he caused Israel to asin.
2K 15:10 And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him and astruck him down before the people. So he killed him and reigned in his place.
2K 15:11 And the rest of the acts of Zechariah are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
2K 15:12 This was the word of Jehovah which He spoke to Jehu, saying, Your sons to the afourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel; and it was so.
AA. The Reign of Shallum over Israel
15:13-15
2K 15:13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of 1Uzziah the king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samaria.
2K 15:14 And Menahem the son of Gadi went up from aTirzah and came to Samaria. And he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him. And he reigned in his place.
2K 15:15 And the rest of the acts of Shallum and the conspiracy which he formed are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
BB. The Reign of Menahem over Israel
15:16-22a
2K 15:16 Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah; because they did not open to him, he struck it; all its pregnant women he ripped open.
2K 15:17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel; he reigned ten years in Samaria.
2K 15:18 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin, throughout all his days.
2K 15:19 aPul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that he would support his efforts to keep the kingdom in his hand.
2K 15:20 And Menahem exacted the money from Israel, from all the great men of wealth, each one man giving fifty shekels of silver, so that he could give it to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria returned and did not stay there in the land.
2K 15:21 And the rest of the acts of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2K 15:22 And Menahem slept with his fathers.
CC. The Reign of Pekahiah over Israel
15:22b-26
And Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.
2K 15:23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned two years.
2K 15:24 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin.
2K 15:25 And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him. And he struck him down, along with Argob and Arieh, in Samaria in the citadel of the king’s house; and with him were fifty men from among the Gileadites. So he killed him and reigned in his place.
2K 15:26 And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
DD. The Reign of Pekah over Israel
15:27-31
2K 15:27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah the king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned twenty years.
2K 15:28 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin.
2K 15:29 In the days of Pekah the king of Israel aTiglath-pileser the king of Assyria came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of bNaphtali; and he carried them away captive to Assyria.
2K 15:30 And aHoshea the son of Elah formed a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and he struck him down and killed him and reigned in his place in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
2K 15:31 And the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
EE. The Reign of Jotham over Judah
15:32-38a
2K 15:32 aIn the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 15:33 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
2K 15:34 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.
2K 15:35 However the high places were anot removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah.
2K 15:36 And the rest of the acts of Jotham that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 15:37 In those days Jehovah began to send aRezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.
2K 15:38 And Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father.
FF. The Reign of Ahaz over Judah
15:38b — 16:20
And Ahaz his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 16

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2K 16:1 aIn the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of Jehovah his God, as David his father had done,
2K 16:3 But walked in the way of the kings of Israel; and he even caused his son to pass through the afire, according to the babominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.
2K 16:4 And he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places and on the hills and under every flourishing atree.
2K 16:5 Then aRezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle. And they besieged Ahaz, but they were not able to fight with him.
2K 16:6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria restored Elath to Syria and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath and have dwelt there to this day.
2K 16:7 And Ahaz sent messengers to aTiglath-pileser the king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me.
2K 16:8 And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the ahouse of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria.
2K 16:9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. And the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and he took it and carried the people of it away captive to Kir. And he killed Rezin.
2K 16:10 And King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria at Damascus, and he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to aUrijah the priest the form of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all its workmanship.
2K 16:11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent him from Damascus. Urijah the priest made it that way before King Ahaz came from Damascus.
2K 16:12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king approached the altar and aoffered upon it.
2K 16:13 And he burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar.
2K 16:14 And the bronze aaltar which was before Jehovah, he brought forward from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it by the side of his altar on the north.
2K 16:15 And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the amorning burnt offering and the evening meal offering, and the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. And the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.
2K 16:16 And Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz had commanded.
2K 16:17 And King Ahaz cut off the panels of the abases and removed the laver from off them; and he took down the bsea from off the bronze coxen that were under it and put it upon a pavement of stone.
2K 16:18 And the covered way for use on the Sabbath, which they had built in the house, and the king’s entry outside, he removed from the house of Jehovah because of the king of Assyria.
2K 16:19 aAnd the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 16:20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 17

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GG. The Reign of Hoshea over Israel
17:1-41
2K 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, aHoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel; he reigned for nine years.
2K 17:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not like the kings of Israel that had been before him.
2K 17:3 Against him aShalmaneser the king of Assyria came up, and Hoshea became his servant and rendered presents to him.
2K 17:4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So the king of Egypt and did not send up a present to the king of Assyria as he had from year to year. And the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.
2K 17:5 And the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, and he went up against Samaria and besieged it three years.
2K 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria 1took aSamaria and carried Israel away into Assyria; and he placed them in bHalah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the cMedes.
2K 17:7 And this happened because the children of Israel sinned against Jehovah their God, who had brought them up aout of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and had feared other gods;
2K 17:8 And they walked in the statutes of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel and those of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
2K 17:9 And the children of Israel secretly did things against Jehovah their God that were not right; and they built high places in all their cities for themselves, from the watchmen’s tower to the fortified city.
2K 17:10 And they set up for themselves pillars and Asherahs on every high hill and under every flourishing tree;
2K 17:11 And there they burned incense in all the high places, as did the nations that Jehovah had carried away from before them, and they did wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger;
2K 17:12 And they served aidols, concerning which Jehovah had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
2K 17:13 And Jehovah testified against Israel and against Judah through all the 1aprophets and all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways; and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.
2K 17:14 But they would not hear; and they stiffened their anecks, which became like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Jehovah their God.
2K 17:15 And they rejected His statutes and His acovenant, which He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies, which He had testified unto them; and they followed bvanity and became cvain, and went after the nations that were around them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them not to act like them.
2K 17:16 And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God and made for themselves molten images, that is, two acalves; and they made an bAsherah and worshipped all the chost of heaven; and they served dBaal.
2K 17:17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through afire and practiced divination and enchantments; and they bsold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, in order to provoke Him to anger.
2K 17:18 Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and He removed them out of His sight; nothing remained except the atribe of Judah.
2K 17:19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God but awalked in the statutes of Israel, which they had made.
2K 17:20 And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel; and He afflicted them and adelivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
2K 17:21 For He atore Israel from the house of David. Now they had made Jeroboam the son of Nebat bking, and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following Jehovah and made them commit a great 1csin.
2K 17:22 And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them,
2K 17:23 Until Jehovah removed Israel from His sight, as He had said through all His servants the prophets. And Israel was carried away from their own land to aAssyria; as it is unto this day.
2K 17:24 And the king of aAssyria brought people from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of 1bSamaria in place of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.
2K 17:25 And when they began dwelling there, they did not fear Jehovah, so Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
2K 17:26 And they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations that you have carried away and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and now they are killing them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land.
2K 17:27 And the king of Assyria gave a command, saying, Take there one of the priests whom you have carried away from there; and let 1him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the custom of the God of the land.
2K 17:28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in aBethel, and he taught them how to fear Jehovah.
2K 17:29 And every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they dwelt.
2K 17:30 And the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima,
2K 17:31 And the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
2K 17:32 So they feared Jehovah; and they made for themselves from all their classes priests for the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the houses of the high places.
2K 17:33 They afeared Jehovah but served their own gods after the custom of the nations, from which they had been carried away.
2K 17:34 Unto this day they have done according to their former customs: They do not fear Jehovah; nor do they act according to their statutes and their ordinances, nor according to the law and commandment that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named aIsrael.
2K 17:35 And Jehovah had made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them.
2K 17:36 But Jehovah alone, who abrought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him shall you fear, and Him shall you worship, and to Him shall you sacrifice.
2K 17:37 And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote out for you, you shall be certain to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.
2K 17:38 And you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, neither shall you fear other gods;
2K 17:39 But you shall fear Jehovah your God, and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
2K 17:40 But they did not listen but acted according to their former customs.
2K 17:41 So these nations afeared Jehovah but served their graven images, as well as their children and their children’s children; as their fathers had done, so they have done unto this day.
2 KINGS 18

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HH. The Reign of Hezekiah over Judah
18:1 — 20:21a
1. Hezekiah’s Prosperity
18:1-8
2K 18:1 aAnd in the third year of bHoshea the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah, began to reign.
2K 18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.
2K 18:3 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done.
2K 18:4 He aremoved the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherah and broke in pieces the bronze bserpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel had burned incense to it; and he called it 1Nehushtan.
2K 18:5 He trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel, so that after him there was ano one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any among those who were before him.
2K 18:6 And he clung to Jehovah; he did not turn away from following after Him but kept His commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses.
2K 18:7 And Jehovah was with him; everywhere he went, he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.
2K 18:8 He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the watchmen’s tower to the fortified city.
2. The Invasion of the Assyrians
18:9 — 19:37
a. The Invasion under Shalmaneser the King of Assyria
18:9-12
2K 18:9 aAnd in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.
2K 18:10 And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
2K 18:11 And the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;
2K 18:12 For they would not listen to the voice of Jehovah their God but transgressed His covenant, that is, all that Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded; and they would not listen to it nor do it.
b. The Attacking and Challenging of Sennacherib the King of Assyria with Insult and Blasphemy
18:13 — 19:37
2K 18:13 1aAnd in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
2K 18:14 And Hezekiah the king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, I have sinned; withdraw from me. I will bear whatever you impose upon me. And the king of Assyria imposed upon Hezekiah the king of Judah a levy of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
2K 18:15 And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the ahouse of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king’s house.
2K 18:16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the temple of Jehovah and the posts that Hezekiah the king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria.
2K 18:17 And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-saris and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great force. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they came up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road to the Fuller’s Field.
2K 18:18 And they called out to the king. And aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and bShebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.
2K 18:19 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust?
2K 18:20 You say (but it is a vain word), There is counsel and strength for war. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?
2K 18:21 You now have put your trust in the staff of this broken reed, in aEgypt, in that which, if a man should lean on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it; so is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.
2K 18:22 And if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship only before this altar in Jerusalem?
2K 18:23 Now therefore give pledges to my master, the king of Assyria; and I will give you two thousand horses, if indeed you are able to set the riders on them.
2K 18:24 How then can you refuse one official of the least of my master’s servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
2K 18:25 Have I now come up apart from Jehovah against this place to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
2K 18:26 And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebnah and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Please speak to your servants in 1aAramaic, because we understand it; and do not speak with us in the 2Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are upon the wall.
2K 18:27 But the Rab-shakeh said to them, Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?
2K 18:28 And the Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language and spoke and said, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:
2K 18:29 Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, because he is not able to deliver you out of 1my hand.
2K 18:30 Neither let Hezekiah cause you to trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
2K 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, Make 1your peace with me, and come out to me; and let each eat from his own avine and each from his own fig tree, and let each drink the waters of his own cistern,
2K 18:32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your aland, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. So do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us.
2K 18:33 aHave any of the gods of the nations delivered at all their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2K 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
2K 18:35 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
2K 18:36 But the people were silent and did not answer him a word, because of the commandment of the king that said, You shall not answer him.
2K 18:37 Then aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh.
2 KINGS 19

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2K 19:1 aAnd when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with bsackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.
2K 19:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, who had covered themselves with sackcloth, to 1aIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
2K 19:3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of affliction and rebuke and contempt, for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
2K 19:4 It may be that Jehovah your God will hear all the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Jehovah your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the aremnant which is left.
2K 19:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
2K 19:6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you say to your master, Thus says Jehovah, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
2K 19:7 Indeed, I will put a spirit in him, so that he will hear a report and return to his land. And I will cause him to fall by the asword in his own land.
2K 19:8 And the Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, because he had heard that the king had departed from aLachish.
2K 19:9 And he heard a report about Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia, which said, He has now come forth to make war with you. And he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
2K 19:10 Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah the king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
2K 19:11 Indeed, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And will you be delivered?
2K 19:12 aHave the gods of the nations whom my fathers have destroyed delivered them: Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden, who were in Telassar?
2K 19:13 Where are the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah?
2K 19:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah.
2K 19:15 And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah and said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, You who are enthroned between the acherubim, You alone are the bGod of all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.
2K 19:16 Incline Your ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open Your eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who has sent him to reproach the living God.
2K 19:17 Truly, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
2K 19:18 And have cast their gods into the fire, because they were not gods but the awork of men’s hands, wood and stone; so they destroyed them.
2K 19:19 And now, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Jehovah, are God.
2K 19:20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.
2K 19:21 This is the word which Jehovah has spoken concerning him:
The virgin daughter of aZion / Has despised you and laughed at you; / The daughter of Jerusalem / Has shaken her head behind you.
2K 19:22 Whom have you reproached and reviled? / Against whom have you lifted up your voice / And lifted up your eyes haughtily? / Against the Holy One of Israel.
2K 19:23 By your messengers you have reproached the Lord, / And you have said, In the multitude of my chariots / I have come up to the height of the mountains, / To the sides of Lebanon; / And I have cut down its tall cedars, / And the choicest of its cypresses; / And I have entered into its farthest lodging place, / And its luxuriant forest.
2K 19:24 I have dug / And have drunk foreign waters, / And with the sole of my feet I have dried up / All the rivers of 1Egypt.
2K 19:25 Have you not heard / That long ago I adid it
And that from the days of old I had formed it? / Now I have brought it to pass, / That you should destroy fortified cities / And make them into ruinous heaps.
2K 19:26 Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength; / They were dismayed and felt ashamed; / They were like vegetation of the field / And green shoots of tender grass, / Like agrass which grows on the housetops / And is scorched before it has grown up.
2K 19:27 But I aknow your sitting down, / And your going out and your coming in, / And your raging against Me.
2K 19:28 Because your raging against Me / And your arrogance have come up into My ears, / I will put My ahook in your nose, / And My bridle in your lips; / And I will turn you back on the way by which you came.
2K 19:29 And this shall be the sign to you: This ayear you shall eat that which grows up of itself, and in the second year that which shoots up from the same, and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
2K 19:30 And the aremnant of those who have escaped of the house of Judah will again take broot downward and bear fruit upward.
2K 19:31 For a remnant will go forth out of Jerusalem, and from Mount Zion those who have escaped. The azeal of Jehovah 1of hosts will perform this.
2K 19:32 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria,
He shall not come to this city, / Nor shoot an arrow there; / Neither shall he come against it with a shield / And build up a mound against it.
2K 19:33 By the way on which he came, / By the same shall he return, / And into this city he shall not come, / Declares Jehovah.
2K 19:34 And around this city I will put an aenclosure, / To save it, / For My own sake, / And for the sake of David, My bservant.
2K 19:35 And that night an aangel of Jehovah went out and struck the Assyrians’ camp, a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they rose up early in the morning, all of them were corpses, dead.
2K 19:36 Then Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and went back to dwell in Nineveh.
2K 19:37 And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer 1his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 20

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3. The Healing of Jehovah
20:1-11
2K 20:1 aIn those days Hezekiah became mortally ill; and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, Thus says Jehovah, bPut your house in order, for you are about to die and will not live.
2K 20:2 And he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Jehovah, saying,
2K 20:3 Now, O Jehovah, please remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept many tears.
2K 20:4 And Isaiah had not gone out of the middle 1court when the word of Jehovah came to him, saying,
2K 20:5 Return and speak to Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says Jehovah, the God of David your father, I have aheard your prayer; I have seen your btears. I will now heal you: On the third day you will go up to the house of Jehovah;
2K 20:6 And I will add to your life fifteen years; and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will put an aenclosure around this city for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant.
2K 20:7 And Isaiah said, Bring a cake of figs. And they brought it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
2K 20:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What will be the asign that Jehovah will heal me and that I will go up to the house of Jehovah on the third day?
2K 20:9 And Isaiah said, This will be the sign from Jehovah to you, that Jehovah will do this thing which He has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?
2K 20:10 And Hezekiah said, It is an easy matter for the shadow to go down ten steps. No; rather let the shadow go backward ten steps.
2K 20:11 And Isaiah the prophet cried to Jehovah; and He brought the shadow on the steps, which had descended on the steps of Ahaz, ten asteps backward.
4. The Failure of Hezekiah
20:12-19
2K 20:12 aAt that time 1Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
2K 20:13 And Hezekiah listened to athem and showed them all his btreasury, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the fine oil, and his armory and everything which was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
2K 20:14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? And from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come from a distant land, from Babylon.
2K 20:15 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said, They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.
2K 20:16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Jehovah:
2K 20:17 The days are now coming when everything that is in your house and that your fathers have laid up as a treasure unto this day will be carried away to aBabylon; nothing will be left, says Jehovah.
2K 20:18 And they will atake away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
2K 20:19 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of Jehovah which you have spoken is good. He said moreover, Indeed there will be peace and truth in my days.
5. Hezekiah Bringing Water into the City and His End
20:20-21a
2K 20:20 aAnd the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 20:21 aAnd Hezekiah slept with his fathers.
II. The Reign of Manasseh
20:21b — 21:18a
And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 21

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2K 21:1 aManasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2K 21:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel.
2K 21:3 And he rebuilt the ahigh places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he raised up altars to Baal and made an Asherah, as bAhab the king of Israel had done; and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.
2K 21:4 And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, concerning which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem will I put aMy name.
2K 21:5 And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two acourts of the house of Jehovah.
2K 21:6 And he caused his son to pass through fire and practiced soothsaying and enchantments, and appointed mediums and spiritists; he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah beyond measure, provoking Him to anger.
2K 21:7 And he put the engraved image of the Asherah that he had made in that house concerning which Jehovah had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put aMy name forever;
2K 21:8 And I will no longer cause the foot of Israel to awander away from the land that I gave their fathers, if only they will be certain to act according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.
2K 21:9 But they would not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations which Jehovah had destroyed from before the children of Israel.
2K 21:10 And Jehovah spoke through His servants the prophets, saying,
2K 21:11 Because 1aManasseh the king of Judah has done these abominations and has done more evil than all that the bAmorites did, who were before him, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols;
2K 21:12 Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am now bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that both aears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
2K 21:13 And over Jerusalem I will stretch the aline of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a pan, wiping it and turning it upside down.
2K 21:14 And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies;
2K 21:15 Because they have done what is evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt even to this day.
2K 21:16 And Manasseh also shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another, besides his sin by which he caused Judah to sin, doing what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
2K 21:17 aAnd the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 21:18 aAnd Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza.
JJ. The Reign of Amon
21:18b-26a
And Amon his son reigned in his place.
2K 21:19 aAmon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
2K 21:20 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had done.
2K 21:21 And he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and he served the idols that his father had served and worshipped them;
2K 21:22 And he forsook Jehovah, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of Jehovah.
2K 21:23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and they killed the king in his own house.
2K 21:24 But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
2K 21:25 And the rest of the acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 21:26 And he was buried in his grave in the garden of Uzza.
KK. The Reign of Josiah
21:26b — 23:30a
And Josiah his son reigned in his place.
2 KINGS 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

2K 22:1 aJosiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath.
2K 22:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah and walked in all the way of David his father and did not turn to the right or to the left.
2K 22:3 aIn the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying,
2K 22:4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him sum up the amoney that is brought to the house of Jehovah, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.
2K 22:5 And let them deliver it into the hand of those who do the work, who have the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and let them deliver it to those who ado the work who are in the house of Jehovah, for the repair of what was broken in the house,
2K 22:6 To the carpenters and the builders and the masons, and for the purchase of timber and hewn stones to repair the house.
2K 22:7 But do not ask them for an aaccounting of the money delivered into their hand, for they work faithfully.
2K 22:8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the abook of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
2K 22:9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, Your servants have emptied out the money which was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who have the oversight of the house of Jehovah.
2K 22:10 And Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it aloud before the king.
2K 22:11 And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.
2K 22:12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and Achbor the son of Micaiah and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,
2K 22:13 Go; inquire of Jehovah for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for the aanger of Jehovah which is kindled against us is great, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book by doing according to all that is written concerning us.
2K 22:14 So Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter), and they spoke to her.
2K 22:15 And she said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel: Tell the man who has sent you to me,
2K 22:16 Thus says Jehovah, I am now bringing evil to this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read;
2K 22:17 Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, so as to provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands. Therefore My anger is kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.
2K 22:18 But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall you say to him: Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, regarding the words which you have heard,
2K 22:19 Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Jehovah when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a adesolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, declares Jehovah.
2K 22:20 Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought back word to the king.
2 KINGS 23

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2K 23:1 aThen the king sent men, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2K 23:2 And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were with him, as well as the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and he aread aloud, in their hearing, all the words of the bbook of the covenant, which had been found in the house of Jehovah.
2K 23:3 And the king stood beside the pillar and made a acovenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, so as to establish the words of this covenant which were written in this book. And all the people stood with the covenant.
2K 23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that were made for aBaal and for Asherah and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
2K 23:5 And he did away with the idol priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and the areas surrounding Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to aBaal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the bhost of heaven.
2K 23:6 aAnd he brought the Asherah from the house of Jehovah out of Jerusalem to the brook Kidron and burned it in the brook Kidron and ground it to dust and cast its dust on the graves of the children of the people.
2K 23:7 He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of Jehovah, where the women were weaving 1hangings for the Asherah.
2K 23:8 Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he abroke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city.
2K 23:9 However the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
2K 23:10 And he defiled aTopheth, which is in the 1valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or his daughter pass through fire to Molech.
2K 23:11 And he did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Jehovah, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the officer, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
2K 23:12 And the altars which were on the roof at the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two acourts of the house of Jehovah, the king tore down; and he removed them quickly from there and cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
2K 23:13 And the high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built to Ashtoreth, the detestable thing of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab, and to Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled.
2K 23:14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherahs and filled their places with human bones.
2K 23:15 And furthermore the 1aaltar which was at Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who bcaused Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and high place he broke down. And he burned the high place and beat it into dust and burned the Asherah.
2K 23:16 Then Josiah turned and saw the graves which were there in the mountain, and he sent men and took the abones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of Jehovah, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
2K 23:17 Then he said, What is this monument which I see? And the men of the city said to him, It is the grave of the aman of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar in Bethel.
2K 23:18 And he said, Let him rest; let no man move his bones. So they left his bones alone with the abones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
2K 23:19 And Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel made, provoking Jehovah to anger, and did to them according to all that he had done in Bethel.
2K 23:20 And all the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
2K 23:21 And the king commanded all the people saying, Hold the aPassover to Jehovah your God according to all that is written in this book of the covenant.
2K 23:22 Surely ano Passover like this had been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.
2K 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held to Jehovah in Jerusalem.
2K 23:24 And moreover Josiah utterly removed the amediums and the soothsayers and the teraphim and the idols and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the bbook that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Jehovah.
2K 23:25 And before him there was no king like him who turned to Jehovah with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the law of Moses, and after him ano one has risen up like him.
2K 23:26 However 1Jehovah did not turn from His great burning anger with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations by which aManasseh provoked Him.
2K 23:27 And Jehovah said, I will aremove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off this city which I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, bMy name will be there.
2K 23:28 And the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 23:29 aIn his days bPharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went out to meet him; and when 1Pharaoh Neco saw him at Megiddo, he killed him.
2K 23:30 And his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his grave.
LL. The Reign of Jehoahaz
23:30b-33
aAnd the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in the place of his father.
2K 23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
2K 23:32 And he did what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.
2K 23:33 And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him in aRiblah, in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
MM. The Beginning of the Reign of Jehoiakim
23:34 — 24:6a
2K 23:34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father and achanged his name to Jehoiakim. And he took Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt, and he bdied there.
2K 23:35 And Jehoiakim gave silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the silver according to Pharaoh’s word. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from each man according to his estimation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
2K 23:36 aJehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah.
2K 23:37 And he did what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.
2 KINGS 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

2K 24:1 In his days aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.
2K 24:2 And Jehovah sent against him bands of the aChaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the children of Ammon; and He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through his servants the prophets.
2K 24:3 Surely it was at the command of Jehovah that this came to pass against Judah, to aremove them out of His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,
2K 24:4 And also for the ainnocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and Jehovah would not forgive.
2K 24:5 aAnd the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2K 24:6 And aJehoiakim slept with his fathers.
NN. The Reign of Jehoiachin
24:6b-9; 25:27-30
And bJehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
2K 24:7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again, for the king of aBabylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
2K 24:8 aJehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was bNehushta, the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.
2K 24:9 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father had done.
OO. Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon Besieging Jerusalem
24:10-16
2K 24:10 At that time the servants of aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.
2K 24:11 And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came against the city while his servants were besieging it.
2K 24:12 And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his eunuchs; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of 1his reign.
2K 24:13 And he brought out from there all the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king’s house. And he cut in pieces all the golden avessels which Solomon the king of Israel had made in Jehovah’s temple, as Jehovah had said.
2K 24:14 And he carried away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land.
2K 24:15 And he carried aJehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; and the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his eunuchs and the leading men of the land, he bcarried away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2K 24:16 And all the seven thousand men of valor and the one thousand craftsmen and smiths, all mighty men fit for war, even these the king of Babylon carried away into exile to Babylon.
PP. The Reign of Zedekiah
24:17-20
2K 24:17 Then the king of Babylon made 1Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah king in his place, and he changed his name to aZedekiah.
2K 24:18 1aZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
2K 24:19 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
2K 24:20 For it was through the anger of Jehovah that this came to pass in Jerusalem and in Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah arebelled against the king of Babylon.
2 KINGS 25

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QQ. The Fall of Jerusalem and the Carrying Away of Judah into Exile
25:1-21
2K 25:1 aIn the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his whole army, against bJerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a csiege wall against it all around.
2K 25:2 So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
2K 25:3 On the ninth day of the fourth month, the afamine was so severe within the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
2K 25:4 Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were all around the city; and the king went on the way toward the Arabah.
2K 25:5 And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
2K 25:6 And athey seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment upon him.
2K 25:7 And they slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes then put out Zedekiah’s aeyes and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.
2K 25:8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (this was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
2K 25:9 And he burned the ahouse of Jehovah and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every large house he burned with fire.
2K 25:10 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the bodyguard abroke down the walls around Jerusalem.
2K 25:11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who adeserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard bcarried away into exile.
2K 25:12 But the captain of the bodyguard left some of the apoorest of the land to be vinedressers and field workers.
2K 25:13 aAnd the Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze bpillars, which were in the house of Jehovah, and the cbases and the bronze dsea, which were in the house of Jehovah. And they carried their bronze to Babylon.
2K 25:14 And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the cups and all the bronze avessels with which they ministered.
2K 25:15 And the captain of the bodyguard took away the firepans and the bowls: that which was of gold, for its gold, and that which was of silver, for its silver.
2K 25:16 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.
2K 25:17 The aheight of one 1pillar was eighteen cubits, and a bronze capital was upon it; and the height of the capital was three cubits; and a network and pomegranates were upon the capital all around, all of bronze; and the second pillar was like these with a network.
2K 25:18 aAnd the captain of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers.
2K 25:19 And from the city he took one eunuch, who was overseer of the men of war, and five men from the king’s inner circle who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.
2K 25:20 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah.
2K 25:21 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; so Judah was carried away into 1exile out of its land.
RR. The Governing of Gedaliah
25:22-26
2K 25:22 And for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon left behind, he appointed aGedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan over them.
2K 25:23 aAnd when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and Johanan the son of Kareah and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
2K 25:24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.
2K 25:25 In the seventh month, aIshmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came with ten men with him; and they struck down Gedaliah and he died. And they did the same to the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
2K 25:26 And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces rose up and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
NN. The Reign of Jehoiachin (cont’d)
25:27-30
2K 25:27 aIn the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin the king of Judah from prison.
2K 25:28 And he spoke with him kindly and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
2K 25:29 And Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and ate his food in his presence continually all the days of his life.
2K 25:30 And for his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.
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FIRST CHRONICLES

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Outline

Author: Originally, 1 and 2 Chronicles were one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. They were probably written by Ezra (cf. 2 Chron. 36:22-23 and Ezra 1:1-3a).
Time of Writing: Probably after 458 B.C., during the reign of Artaxerxes the king of Persia (Ezra 7:1), when Ezra returned from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:31-32).
Place of Writing: Perhaps in Jerusalem.
Time Period Covered: The two books cover 520 years: 1 Chronicles covers about forty-one years (excluding the forefathers’ genealogy in chs. 1 — 9), from 1056 B.C. to 1015 B.C., that is, from the death of Saul (ch. 10) to the death of David (29:28); 2 Chronicles covers about 479 years, from 1015 B.C. to 536 B.C., that is, from the reign of Solomon (1:1) to the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia (36:22).
Subject of 1 & 2 Chronicles:
A Full Chronology of God’s Move in Man’s History from Adam through Samuel to Israel’s Return from Their Captivity, with a Presentation of Some of the Important Details of God’s Dealing with the Kings of Judah
1 CHRONICLES 1

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I. The Genealogy from Adam to the Twelve Tribes of Israel
1 Chron. 1:1 — 9:44
A. The Genealogy from Adam to Abraham
1:1-27
1Ch 1:1 1aAdam, bSeth, Enosh,
1Ch 1:2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,
1Ch 1:3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech,
1Ch 1:4 Noah, aShem, Ham, and Japheth.
1Ch 1:5 aThe sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.
1Ch 1:6 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Diphath and Togarmah.
1Ch 1:7 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Rodanim.
1Ch 1:8 aThe sons of Ham: Cush and Mizraim, Put and Canaan.
1Ch 1:9 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabta and Raama and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raama: Sheba and Dedan.
1Ch 1:10 And Cush begot Nimrod: He began to be a mighty one on the earth.
1Ch 1:11 aAnd Mizraim begot the Ludim and the Anamim and the Lehabim and the Naphtuhim
1Ch 1:12 And the Pathrusim and the Casluhim, from which came the Philistines, and the Caphtorim.
1Ch 1:13 And Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn and Heth
1Ch 1:14 And the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Girgashites
1Ch 1:15 And the Hivites and the Arkites and the Sinites
1Ch 1:16 And the Arvadites and the Zemarites and the Hamathites.
1Ch 1:17 aThe sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram and Uz and Hul and Gether and Meshech.
1Ch 1:18 And Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber.
1Ch 1:19 And to Eber were born two sons: The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
1Ch 1:20 And Joktan begot Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah
1Ch 1:21 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah
1Ch 1:22 And Ebal and Abimael and Sheba
1Ch 1:23 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.
1Ch 1:24 aShem, Arpachshad, Shelah,
1Ch 1:25 Eber, Peleg, Reu,
1Ch 1:26 Serug, Nahor, Terah,
1Ch 1:27 Abram (the same is aAbraham).
B. The Genealogy of Abraham
1:28-34
1Ch 1:28 The sons of Abraham: aIsaac and Ishmael.
1Ch 1:29 aThese are their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam;
1Ch 1:30 Mishma and Dumah; Massa, Hadad, and Tema;
1Ch 1:31 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah; these were the sons of Ishmael.
1Ch 1:32 aAnd the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: She bore Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.
1Ch 1:33 And the sons of Midian: Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.
1Ch 1:34 And Abraham begot 1Isaac. The sons of Isaac: aEsau and 2bIsrael.
C. The Genealogy of Esau
1:35-54
1Ch 1:35 aThe sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jaalam and Korah.
1Ch 1:36 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman and Omar, Zephi and Gatam, Kenaz and Timna and Amalek.
1Ch 1:37 The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.
1Ch 1:38 aAnd the sons of Seir: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan.
1Ch 1:39 And the sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. And Lotan’s sister: Timna.
1Ch 1:40 The sons of Shobal: Alian and Manahath and Ebal, Shephi and Onam. And the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah.
1Ch 1:41 The 1son of Anah: Dishon. And the sons of Dishon: Hamran and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran.
1Ch 1:42 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan, Jaakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
1Ch 1:43 aAnd these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before a king of the children of Israel reigned: Bela the son of Beor; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
1Ch 1:44 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place.
1Ch 1:45 And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.
1Ch 1:46 And Husham died; and Hadad the son of Bedad, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Avith.
1Ch 1:47 And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.
1Ch 1:48 And Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River reigned in his place.
1Ch 1:49 And Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.
1Ch 1:50 And Baal-hanan died, and Hadad reigned in his place. And the name of his city was Pai; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
1Ch 1:51 And Hadad died. And the 1clans of Edom were: Clan Timna, Clan Aliah, Clan Jetheth,
1Ch 1:52 Clan Oholibamah, Clan Elah, Clan Pinon,
1Ch 1:53 Clan Kenaz, Clan Teman, Clan Mibzar,
1Ch 1:54 Clan Magdiel, Clan Iram. These were the clans of Edom.
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D. The Genealogy of Israel
2:1 — 9:44
1. The Sons of Israel
2:1-2
1Ch 2:1 These are the 1sons of Israel: aReuben, bSimeon, cLevi and dJudah, eIssachar and Zebulun,
1Ch 2:2 aDan, bJoseph and cBenjamin, dNaphtali, eGad and Asher.
2. The Genealogy of Judah
2:3 — 4:23
1Ch 2:3 The sons of 1Judah: aEr and Onan and Shelah, which three were born to him by 2Bath-shua the Canaanitess. And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Jehovah; and He slew him.
1Ch 2:4 And 1aTamar his daughter-in-law bore him 1bPerez and Zerah. The sons of Judah were five in all.
1Ch 2:5 The sons of aPerez: Hezron and Hamul.
1Ch 2:6 And the sons of Zerah: Zimri and Ethan and Heman and Calcol and Dara; five of them in all.
1Ch 2:7 And the 1son of Carmi: Achar, the atroubler of Israel, who transgressed by what was accursed.
1Ch 2:8 And the son of Ethan: Azariah.
1Ch 2:9 And the sons of aHezron, who were born to him: Jerahmeel and Ram and Chelubai.
1Ch 2:10 And Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, the prince of the children of Judah;
1Ch 2:11 And Nahshon begot Salma, and Salma begot 1Boaz,
1Ch 2:12 And Boaz begot Obed, and Obed begot Jesse;
1Ch 2:13 And Jesse begot his firstborn aEliab, and Abinadab the second, and Shimea the third,
1Ch 2:14 Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth,
1Ch 2:15 Ozem the sixth, aDavid the seventh;
1Ch 2:16 And their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the sons of aZeruiah: Abishai and Joab and Asahel, three.
1Ch 2:17 And Abigail bore aAmasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
1Ch 2:18 And Caleb the son of Hezron had children by Azubah his wife, and by Jerioth; her sons are these: Jesher and Shobab and Ardon.
1Ch 2:19 And Azubah died; and Caleb took Ephrath to himself, and she bore him aHur.
1Ch 2:20 And Hur begot Uri, and Uri begot aBezalel.
1Ch 2:21 And afterward Hezron went to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead and took her when he was sixty years old; and she bore him Segub.
1Ch 2:22 And Segub begot Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.
1Ch 2:23 And Geshur and Aram took the villages of Jair from them, with Kenath and its villages, sixty cities. All these were sons of Machir the father of Gilead.
1Ch 2:24 And after the death of Hezron in Caleb-ephrathah, Abijah, Hezron’s wife, bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.
1Ch 2:25 And the sons of Jerahmeel, the firstborn of Hezron, were: Ram the firstborn and Bunah and Oren and Ozem and Ahijah.
1Ch 2:26 And Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam.
1Ch 2:27 And the sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerahmeel, were Maaz and Jamin and Eker.
1Ch 2:28 And the sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada. And the sons of Shammai: Nadab and Abishur.
1Ch 2:29 And the name of Abishur’s wife was Abihail, and she bore him Ahban and Molid.
1Ch 2:30 And the sons of Nadab: Seled and Appaim; and Seled died without sons.
1Ch 2:31 And the 1son of Appaim: Ishi; and the 1son of Ishi: Sheshan; and the 1son of Sheshan: Ahlai.
1Ch 2:32 And the sons of Jada, the brother of Shammai: Jether and Jonathan; and Jether died without sons.
1Ch 2:33 And the sons of Jonathan: Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel.
1Ch 2:34 And Sheshan had no sons but daughters; and Sheshan had an Egyptian servant, whose name was Jarha.
1Ch 2:35 And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as his wife, and she bore him Attai.
1Ch 2:36 And Attai begot Nathan, and Nathan begot Zabad,
1Ch 2:37 And Zabad begot Ephlal, and Ephlal begot Obed,
1Ch 2:38 And Obed begot Jehu, and Jehu begot Azariah,
1Ch 2:39 And Azariah begot Helez, and Helez begot Eleasah,
1Ch 2:40 And Eleasah begot Sismai, and Sismai begot Shallum,
1Ch 2:41 And Shallum begot Jekamiah, and Jekamiah begot Elishama.
1Ch 2:42 And the sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel, were Mesha his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.
1Ch 2:43 And the sons of Hebron: Korah and Tappuah and Rekem and Shema.
1Ch 2:44 And Shema begot Raham, the father of Jorkeam. And Rekem begot Shammai;
1Ch 2:45 And the son of Shammai was Maon; and Maon was the father of Beth-zur.
1Ch 2:46 And Ephah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran and Moza and Gazez; and Haran begot Gazez.
1Ch 2:47 And the sons of Jahdai: Regem and Jotham and Geshan and Pelet and Ephah and Shaaph.
1Ch 2:48 Maacah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah;
1Ch 2:49 And she bore Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbena and the father of Gibea. And the daughter of Caleb was Achsah.
1Ch 2:50 These are the sons of Caleb. The 1sons of Hur, the firstborn of aEphrathah: Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim,
1Ch 2:51 Salma the father of Bethlehem, Hareph the father of Beth-gader.
1Ch 2:52 And Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim had sons: Haroeh and half of the Menuhoth.
1Ch 2:53 And the families of Kiriath-jearim were the Ithrites and the Puthites and the Shumathites and the Mishraites; from them came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites.
1Ch 2:54 The sons of Salma: Bethlehem and the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab and half the Manahathites, the Zorites.
1Ch 2:55 And the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came from Hammath, the father of the house of aRechab.
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1Ch 3:1 aAnd these are the sons of David, who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelitess;
1Ch 3:2 The third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai the king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith;
1Ch 3:3 The fifth, Shephatiah by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah his wife.
1Ch 3:4 Six were born to him in Hebron. And he reigned there aseven years and six months; and he reigned in Jerusalem bthirty-three years.
1Ch 3:5 aAnd these were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea and Shobab and 1Nathan and 1bSolomon: four, by 2Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel;
1Ch 3:6 And Ibhar and Elishama and Eliphelet
1Ch 3:7 And Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia
1Ch 3:8 And Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet, nine.
1Ch 3:9 All were sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines; and aTamar was their sister.
1Ch 3:10 aAnd Solomon’s son was 1Rehoboam; Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,
1Ch 3:11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,
1Ch 3:12 Amaziah his son, 1Azariah his son, Jotham his son,
1Ch 3:13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son,
1Ch 3:14 Amon his son, Josiah his son.
1Ch 3:15 aAnd the sons of Josiah: the firstborn Johanan, the second 1Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.
1Ch 3:16 And the 1son of Jehoiakim: 2Jeconiah his son; Zedekiah his son.
1Ch 3:17 And the sons of aJeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son,
1Ch 3:18 And Malchiram and Pedaiah, and Shenazzar, Jecamiah, Hoshama, and Neda-biah.
1Ch 3:19 And the sons of Pedaiah were 1aZerubbabel and Shimei. And the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister;
1Ch 3:20 And Hashubah and Ohel and Berechiah and Hasadiah and Jushab-hesed, five.
1Ch 3:21 And the 1sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Isaiah, the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah.
1Ch 3:22 And the sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah; and the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush and Igal and Bariah and Neariah and Shaphat, six.
1Ch 3:23 And the sons of Neariah: Elioenai and Hezekiah and Azrikam, three.
1Ch 3:24 And the sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah and Eliashib and Pelaiah and Akkub and Johanan and Delaiah and Anani, seven.
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1Ch 4:1 The sons of Judah: aPerez, Hezron, and Carmi, and Hur and Shobal.
1Ch 4:2 And Reaiah the son of Shobal begot Jahath; and Jahath begot Ahumai and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites.
1Ch 4:3 And these were the sons of the father of Etam: Jezreel and Ishma and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi;
1Ch 4:4 And Penuel the father of Gedor and Ezer the father of Hushah; these were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem.
1Ch 4:5 And Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah.
1Ch 4:6 And Naarah bore him Ahuzzam and Hepher and Temeni and Haahashtari; these were the sons of Naarah.
1Ch 4:7 And the sons of Helah: Zereth, 1Izhar, and Ethnan.
1Ch 4:8 And Koz begot Anub and Zobebah and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum.
1Ch 4:9 And Jabez was held in more honor than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with pain.
1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that You would richly bless me and 1aenlarge my border, and that Your hand would be with me, and that You would so keep me from evil that it would not grieve me! And God caused what he had requested to come to pass.
1Ch 4:11 And Chelub the brother of Shuah begot Mehir, who was the father of Eshton.
1Ch 4:12 And Eshton begot Bethrapha and Paseah and Tehinnah the father of Ir-nahash; these were the men of Recah.
1Ch 4:13 And the sons of Kenaz: aOthniel and Seraiah; and the 1son of Othniel: Hathath.
1Ch 4:14 And Meonothai begot Ophrah; and Seraiah begot Joab the father of 1Geharashim, for they were craftsmen.
1Ch 4:15 And the sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam; and the 1son of Elah: 2Kenaz.
1Ch 4:16 And the sons of Jehallelel: Ziph and Ziphah, Tiria and Asareel.
1Ch 4:17 And the 1sons of Ezrah: Jether and Mered and Epher and Jalon; and Bithiah conceived and bore to Mered Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa.
1Ch 4:18 (But his Judahite wife bore Jered the father of Gedor and Heber the father of Soco and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah.) And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.
1Ch 4:19 And the sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham: the father of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.
1Ch 4:20 And the sons of Shimon: Amnon and Rinnah, Ben-hanan and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi: Zoheth and Ben-zoheth.
1Ch 4:21 The sons of aShelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah and Laadah the father of Mareshah and the families of the house of those who worked with fine linen at Beth-ashbea
1Ch 4:22 And Jokim and the men of Cozeba and Joash and Saraph, who ruled over Moab, and Jashubi-lehem. (But the records are ancient.)
1Ch 4:23 These were the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gedarah; they dwelt there with the king for his work.
3. The Genealogy of Simeon
4:24-43
1Ch 4:24 The sons of aSimeon: Nemuel and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul;
1Ch 4:25 Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son.
1Ch 4:26 And the sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son;
1Ch 4:27 And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many sons; neither did all their family multiply like the sons of Judah.
1Ch 4:28 aAnd they dwelt at Beer-sheba and Moladah and Hazar-shual,
1Ch 4:29 And at Bilhah and at Ezem and at Tolad
1Ch 4:30 And at Bethuel and at Hormah and at Ziklag
1Ch 4:31 And at Beth-marcaboth and at Hazar-susim and at Beth-biri and at Shaaraim. These were their cities until the reign of David.
1Ch 4:32 And their villages were Etam and Ain, Rimmon and Tochen and Ashan, five cities;
1Ch 4:33 As well as all their villages which were around these cities, as far as Baal. These were their dwelling places and their genealogical enrollment.
1Ch 4:34 And Meshobab and Jamlech and Joshah the son of Amaziah
1Ch 4:35 And Joel and Jehu the son of Joshibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel,
1Ch 4:36 And Elioenai and Jaakobah and Jeshohaiah and Asaiah and Adiel and Jesimiel and Benaiah
1Ch 4:37 And Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah —
1Ch 4:38 These mentioned by name were leaders in their families; and their fathers’ houses increased greatly.
1Ch 4:39 And they went to the entrance of Gedor, as far as the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.
1Ch 4:40 And they found 1rich and good pasture and a spacious and quiet and peaceful land, for they who had formerly dwelt there were of Ham.
1Ch 4:41 And these written by name came in the days of aHezekiah the king of Judah, and struck their tents and the Meunim who were found there, and destroyed them utterly, as they are to this day; and they have dwelt in place of them; for there was pasture there for their flocks.
1Ch 4:42 And some of them from among the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to Mount Seir, having at their head Pelatiah and Neariah and Rephaiah and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi;
1Ch 4:43 And they struck down the rest of the aAmalekites who had escaped; and they have dwelt there to this day.
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4. The Genealogy of Reuben
5:1-10
1Ch 5:1 And the sons of 1aReuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of bJoseph the son of Israel; but he was not to be enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright,
1Ch 5:2 For aJudah prevailed among his brothers, and bfrom him was the leader, but the birthright was Joseph’s) —
1Ch 5:3 The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: aHanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.
1Ch 5:4 The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
1Ch 5:5 Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son,
1Ch 5:6 Beerah his son, whom aTilgath-pilneser the king of Assyria carried away captive; he was the leader of the Reubenites.
1Ch 5:7 And his brothers by their families, in the genealogical enrollment of their generations, were: Jeiel the chief and Zechariah
1Ch 5:8 And Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon;
1Ch 5:9 And he dwelt on the east as far as the entrance to the wilderness from the river Euphrates; for their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.
1Ch 5:10 And in the days of Saul they waged war with the aHagarites, who fell by their hand; and they dwelt in their tents throughout the east side of Gilead.
5. The Genealogy of Gad
5:11-17
1Ch 5:11 And the children of Gad dwelt opposite them in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah.
1Ch 5:12 Joel was the head and Shapham the next, then Jaanai, and Shaphat in Bashan.
1Ch 5:13 And their brothers according to their fathers’ houses were Michael and Meshullam and Sheba and Jorai and Jacan and Zia and Eber, seven.
1Ch 5:14 These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz:
1Ch 5:15 Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, was the head of their fathers’ house.
1Ch 5:16 And they dwelt in Gilead in Bashan and in its towns and in all the pasture lands of Sharon as far as their limits.
1Ch 5:17 All these were enrolled in genealogies in the days of aJotham the king of Judah and in the days of bJeroboam the king of Israel.
6. An Insertion concerning
the Children of Reuben, the Gadites, and the Half-tribe of Manasseh
5:18-26
1Ch 5:18 The children of Reuben and the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh were among the valiant men, men who carried shield and sword, and drew the bow and were skillful in war — forty-four thousand seven hundred sixty ready for war.
1Ch 5:19 And they waged war with the aHagarites and Jetur and Naphish and Nodab;
1Ch 5:20 And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, as well as all who were with them; for they 1cried out to God in the battle, and He was entreated for them because they trusted in Him.
1Ch 5:21 And they took their livestock: their fifty thousand camels, and two hundred fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand donkeys, as well as one hundred thousand people.
1Ch 5:22 For many fell down slain, for the war was of God. And they dwelt in their place until the acaptivity.
1Ch 5:23 And the children of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land, from Bashan as far as Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon; they were many.
1Ch 5:24 And these were the heads of their fathers’ houses: Epher and Ishi and Eliel and Azriel and Jeremiah and Hodaviah and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers’ houses.
1Ch 5:25 But they trespassed against the God of their fathers, and went as harlots after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.
1Ch 5:26 And the God of Israel astirred up the spirit of bPul the king of Assyria and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser the king of Assyria; and He carried them away, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to cHalah and Habor and Hara and to the river Gozan, where they are to this day.
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7. The Genealogy of Levi
6:1-81
1Ch 6:1 aThe sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
1Ch 6:2 And the sons of Kohath: aAmram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel.
1Ch 6:3 And the children of Amram: aAaron and Moses and Miriam. bAnd the sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1Ch 6:4 Eleazar begot aPhinehas; Phinehas begot Abishua,
1Ch 6:5 And Abishua begot Bukki, and Bukki begot Uzzi,
1Ch 6:6 And Uzzi begot Zerahiah, and Zerahiah begot Meraioth;
1Ch 6:7 Meraioth begot Amariah, and Amariah begot Ahitub,
1Ch 6:8 And Ahitub begot aZadok, and Zadok begot Ahimaaz,
1Ch 6:9 And Ahimaaz begot Azariah, and Azariah begot Johanan,
1Ch 6:10 And Johanan begot Azariah (it was he who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem);
1Ch 6:11 aAnd Azariah begot Amariah, and Amariah begot Ahitub,
1Ch 6:12 And Ahitub begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Shallum,
1Ch 6:13 And Shallum begot aHilkiah, and Hilkiah begot Azariah,
1Ch 6:14 And Azariah begot Seraiah, and Seraiah begot Jehozadak,
1Ch 6:15 And aJehozadak went into captivity when Jehovah bcarried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
1Ch 6:16 aThe sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.
1Ch 6:17 And these are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei.
1Ch 6:18 And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel.
1Ch 6:19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. And these are the families of Levi according to their fathers:
1Ch 6:20 Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son,
1Ch 6:21 Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his son.
1Ch 6:22 The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, aKorah his son, Assir his son,
1Ch 6:23 Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son,
1Ch 6:24 Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Shaul his son.
1Ch 6:25 And the sons of Elkanah: Amasai and Ahimoth.
1Ch 6:26 As for Elkanah, the sons of Elkanah: Zophai his son, and Nahath his son,
1Ch 6:27 Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, aElkanah his son.
1Ch 6:28 And the sons of Samuel: the firstborn 1aJoel and Abijah.
1Ch 6:29 The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzza his son,
1Ch 6:30 Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son.
1Ch 6:31 And these are they whom David set over the 1service of song in the house of Jehovah after the aArk was at rest.
1Ch 6:32 And they ministered before the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting with singing until Solomon built the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem; and they attended to their service according to their order.
1Ch 6:33 And these are they who attended and their sons: Of the sons of the Kohathites: 1aHeman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of 1Samuel,
1Ch 6:34 The son of aElkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah,
1Ch 6:35 The son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai,
1Ch 6:36 The son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah,
1Ch 6:37 The son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah,
1Ch 6:38 The son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel;
1Ch 6:39 And his brother aAsaph, who stood at his right hand: Asaph, the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea,
1Ch 6:40 The son of Michael, the son of Baaseiah, the son of Malchijah,
1Ch 6:41 The son of Ethni, the son of Zerah, the son of Adaiah,
1Ch 6:42 The son of Ethan, the son of Zimmah, the son of Shimei,
1Ch 6:43 The son of Jahath, the son of Gershom, the son of Levi.
1Ch 6:44 And their brothers the sons of Merari were on the left hand: aEthan the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch,
1Ch 6:45 The son of Hashabiah, the son of Amaziah, the son of Hilkiah,
1Ch 6:46 The son of Amzi, the son of Bani, the son of Shemer,
1Ch 6:47 The son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari, the son of Levi.
1Ch 6:48 And their brothers the Levites were given to all the service of the tabernacle of the house of God.
1Ch 6:49 And Aaron and his sons made offerings upon the aaltar of burnt offering and upon the baltar of incense for all the work of the Holy of Holies and in order to make cexpiation for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.
1Ch 6:50 aAnd these are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,
1Ch 6:51 Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,
1Ch 6:52 Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,
1Ch 6:53 Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.
1Ch 6:54 And these are their dwelling places according to their encampments, within their borders. To the sons of Aaron, to the family of the aKohathites (for to them did the lot come):
1Ch 6:55 aAnd they gave them Hebron in the land of Judah and its pasture lands surrounding it;
1Ch 6:56 But the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
1Ch 6:57 And to the children of Aaron they gave the 1city of refuge, Hebron; and Libnah and its pasture lands, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:58 And Hilen and its pasture lands, Debir and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:59 And Ashan and its pasture lands, and Beth-shemesh and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:60 And out of the tribe of Benjamin: Geba and its pasture lands, and Alemeth and its pasture lands, and Anathoth and its pasture lands. All their cities were thirteen cities, according to their families.
1Ch 6:61 And to the rest of the children of aKohath were given by lot out of the family of the tribe, out of the half-tribe, half of Manasseh, ten cities.
1Ch 6:62 And to the children of aGershom, according to their families, out of the tribe of Issachar and out of the tribe of Asher and out of the tribe of Naphtali and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
1Ch 6:63 To the children of aMerari were given by lot, according to their families, out of the tribe of Reuben and out of the tribe of Gad and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.
1Ch 6:64 And the children of Israel gave the cities and their pasture lands to the Levites.
1Ch 6:65 And they gave by lot those cities which were mentioned by name out of the tribe of the children of Judah and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon and out of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.
1Ch 6:66 aAnd some of the families of the children of Kohath had cities of their territory from the tribe of Ephraim.
1Ch 6:67 And they gave them the city of refuge Shechem and its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim, and Gezer and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:68 And Jokmeam and its pasture lands, and Beth-horon and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:69 And Aijalon and its pasture lands, and Gath-rimmon and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:70 And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh: Aner and its pasture lands, and Bileam and its pasture lands, for the rest of the families of the children of Kohath.
1Ch 6:71 aTo the children of Gershom were given out of the family of the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan and its pasture lands, and Ashtaroth and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:72 And out of the tribe of Issachar: Kedesh and its pasture lands, Daberath and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:73 And Ramoth and its pasture lands, and Anem and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:74 And out of the tribe of Asher: Mashal and its pasture lands, and Abdon and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:75 And Hukok and its pasture lands, and Rehob and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:76 And out of the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee and its pasture lands, and Hammon and its pasture lands, and Kiriathaim and its pasture lands.
1Ch 6:77 aTo the rest of the children of Merari were given out of the tribe of Zebulun: Rimmono and its pasture lands, and Tabor and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:78 And on the other side of the Jordan by Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, out of the tribe of Reuben: Bezer in the wilderness and its pasture lands, and Jahzah and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:79 And Kedemoth and its pasture lands, and Mephaath and its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:80 And out of the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead and its pasture lands, and Mahanaim and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:81 And Heshbon and its pasture lands, and Jazer and its pasture lands.
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8. The Genealogy of Issachar
7:1-5
1Ch 7:1 aAnd the sons of Issachar were Tola and Puah, Jashub and Shimron, four.
1Ch 7:2 And the sons of Tola: Uzzi and Rephaiah and Jeriel and Jahmai and Ibsam and Shemuel, the heads of their fathers’ houses. The sons of Tola were mighty men of valor in their generations; their anumber in the days of David was twenty-two thousand six hundred.
1Ch 7:3 And the sons of Uzzi: Izrahiah; and the sons of Izrahiah: Michael and Obadiah and Joel and Isshiah; all five of them were chief men.
1Ch 7:4 And with them by their generations, according to their fathers’ houses, were bands for war, thirty-six thousand; for they had many wives and sons.
1Ch 7:5 And their brothers among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of valor, enrolled by genealogy, in all eighty-seven thousand.
9. The Genealogy of Benjamin
7:6-12; 8:1-40
1Ch 7:6 aThe sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Jediael, three.
1Ch 7:7 And the sons of Bela: Ezbon and Uzzi and Uzziel and Jerimoth and Iri, five; they were the heads of fathers’ houses, mighty men of valor, and were enrolled by genealogy, twenty-two thousand thirty-four.
1Ch 7:8 And the sons of Becher: Zemirah and Joash and Eliezer and Elioenai and Omri and Jeremoth and Abijah and Anathoth and Alemeth; all these were the sons of Becher.
1Ch 7:9 And they were enrolled by genealogy by their generations, the heads of their fathers’ houses, mighty men of valor, twenty thousand two hundred.
1Ch 7:10 And the 1son of Jediael: Bilhan; and the sons of Bilhan: Jeush and Benjamin and Ehud and Chenaanah and Zethan and Tarshish and Ahishahar.
1Ch 7:11 All these were the sons of Jediael, according to the heads of their fathers’ houses, mighty men of valor, seventeen thousand two hundred, ready for the service of war.
1Ch 7:12 And Shuppim and Huppim, the children of Ir; Hushim, the son of Aher.
10. The Genealogy of Naphtali
7:13
1Ch 7:13 aThe sons of Naphtali: Jahziel and Guni and Jezer and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.
11. The Genealogy of Manasseh
7:14-19
1Ch 7:14 aThe sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his Syrian concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead.
1Ch 7:15 And Machir took a wife, the sister of Huppim and Shuppim; and the name of their sister was Maacah. And the name of the second son was aZelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters.
1Ch 7:16 And Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.
1Ch 7:17 And the son of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.
1Ch 7:18 And his sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod and Abiezer and Mahlah.
1Ch 7:19 And the sons of Shemidah were Ahian and Shechem and Likhi and Aniam.
12. The Genealogy of Ephraim
7:20-29
1Ch 7:20 aAnd the sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah and Bered his son and Tahath his son and Eleadah his son and Tahath his son
1Ch 7:21 And Zabad his son and Shuthelah his son and Ezer and Elead. And the men of Gath who had been born in the land slew them, because they came down to take their cattle.
1Ch 7:22 And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.
1Ch 7:23 And he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son; and he called his name 1Beriah, for it was when misfortune was in his house.
1Ch 7:24 And his daughter was Sheerah; and she built lower and upper Beth-horon and Uzzen-sheerah.
1Ch 7:25 And Rephah was his son, as well as Resheph and Telah his son and Tahan his son,
1Ch 7:26 Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son,
1Ch 7:27 Nun his son, aJoshua his son.
1Ch 7:28 And their possession and dwelling places were Bethel and its villages, and Naaran to the east, and Gezer to the west and its villages, and Shechem and its villages as far as to 1Ayyah and its villages.
1Ch 7:29 And 1in the hands of the children of Manasseh were Beth-shean and its villages, Taanach and its villages, Megiddo and its villages, Dor and its villages. In these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel.
13. The Genealogy of Asher
7:30-40
1Ch 7:30 aThe sons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah; and Serah was their sister.
1Ch 7:31 And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel, who is the father of Birzaith.
1Ch 7:32 And Heber begot Japhlet and Shomer and Hotham and Shua their sister.
1Ch 7:33 And the sons of Japhlet: Pasach and Bimhal and Ashvath; these are the sons of Japhlet.
1Ch 7:34 And the sons of 1Shemer: Ahi and Rohgah and Jehubbah and Aram.
1Ch 7:35 And the 1sons of his brother Helem: Zophah and Imna and Shelesh and Amal.
1Ch 7:36 The sons of Zophah: Suah and Harnepher and Shual and Beri and Imrah,
1Ch 7:37 Bezer and Hod and Shamma and Shilshah and Ithran, and Beera.
1Ch 7:38 And the sons of Jether: Jephunneh and Pispah and Ara.
1Ch 7:39 And the sons of Ulla: Arah and Hanniel and Rizia.
1Ch 7:40 All these were the sons of Asher, the heads of fathers’ houses, choice and mighty men of valor, chiefs of the princes. And the number of them enrolled by genealogy for the service in war was twenty-six thousand men.
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9. The Genealogy of Benjamin (cont’d)
8:1-40
1Ch 8:1 aAnd Benjamin begot Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third,
1Ch 8:2 Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth.
1Ch 8:3 And Bela had sons: Addar and Gera and Abihud
1Ch 8:4 And Abishua and Naaman and Ahoah
1Ch 8:5 And Gera and Shephuphan and Huram.
1Ch 8:6 And these are the sons of aEhud (these were the heads of fathers’ houses of the inhabitants of Geba; and they carried them away to Manahath,
1Ch 8:7 Namely, Naaman and Ahijah and Gera; he carried them into exile); and he begot Uzza and Ahihud.
1Ch 8:8 And Shaharaim begot children in the field of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara his wives.
1Ch 8:9 And he begot by Hodesh his wife: Jobab and Zibia and Mesha and Malcham
1Ch 8:10 And Jeuz and Sachia and Mirmah; these were his sons, the heads of fathers’ houses.
1Ch 8:11 And by Hushim he begot Abitub and Elpaal.
1Ch 8:12 And the sons of Elpaal: Eber and Misham and Shemed, who built Ono and Lod and its villages;
1Ch 8:13 And Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers’ houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon; they drove away the inhabitants of Gath.
1Ch 8:14 And Ahio, Shashak, and Jeremoth,
1Ch 8:15 And Zebadiah and Arad and Eder
1Ch 8:16 And Michael and Ishpah and Joha were the sons of Beriah.
1Ch 8:17 And Zebadiah and Meshullam and Hizki and Heber
1Ch 8:18 And Ishmerai and Izliah and Jobab were the sons of Elpaal.
1Ch 8:19 And Jakim and Zichri and Zabdi
1Ch 8:20 And Elienai and Zillethai and Eliel
1Ch 8:21 And Adaiah and Beraiah and Shimrath were the sons of Shimei.
1Ch 8:22 And Ishpan and Eber and Eliel
1Ch 8:23 And Abdon and Zichri and Hanan
1Ch 8:24 And Hananiah and Elam and Anthothijah
1Ch 8:25 And Iphdeiah and Penuel were the sons of Shashak.
1Ch 8:26 And Shamsherai and Shehariah and Athaliah
1Ch 8:27 And Jaareshiah and Elijah and Zichri were the sons of Jeroham.
1Ch 8:28 These were heads of fathers’ houses, according to their generations, chief men; these dwelt in Jerusalem.
1Ch 8:29 aAnd in Gibeon there dwelt the father of Gibeon, and his wife’s name was Maacah;
1Ch 8:30 And his firstborn son was Abdon, then Zur and Kish and Baal and Nadab
1Ch 8:31 And Gedor and Ahio and Zecher 1and Mikloth.
1Ch 8:32 And Mikloth begot Shimeah. And these also dwelt opposite their brothers in Jerusalem, with their brothers.
1Ch 8:33 And Ner begot Kish; and aKish begot Saul; and bSaul begot Jonathan and Malchishua and Abinadab and Esh-baal.
1Ch 8:34 And the son of aJonathan was Merib-baal; and bMerib-baal begot Micah.
1Ch 8:35 And the sons of Micah: Pithon and Melech and Tarea and Ahaz.
1Ch 8:36 And Ahaz begot Jehoaddah; and Jehoaddah begot Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri; and Zimri begot Moza;
1Ch 8:37 And Moza begot Binea; Rapha was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.
1Ch 8:38 And Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan; all these were the sons of Azel.
1Ch 8:39 And the sons of Eshek his brother were Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third.
1Ch 8:40 And the sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor, archers; and they had many children and grandchildren, one hundred fifty. All these were of the sons of Benjamin.
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14. The Genealogy of the Returned Children of Israel
9:1-34
1Ch 9:1 So all Israel was enrolled by genealogy, and they are now written in the book of the kings of Israel; and aJudah was carried away captive to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.
1Ch 9:2 aNow the first ones to dwell in their possessions in their bcities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants.
1Ch 9:3 And some of the children of Judah and some of the children of Benjamin and some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh dwelt in Jerusalem:
1Ch 9:4 Uthai the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Bani, of the children of Perez the son of Judah;
1Ch 9:5 And of the Shilonites: Asaiah the firstborn and his sons.
1Ch 9:6 And of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel and their brothers, six hundred ninety.
1Ch 9:7 And of the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hassenuah;
1Ch 9:8 And Ibneiah the son of Jeroham: and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri; and Meshullam the son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah;
1Ch 9:9 And their brothers, according to their generations, nine hundred fifty-six; all these men were heads of fathers’ houses according to their fathers’ houses.
1Ch 9:10 And of the priests: Jedaiah and Jehoiarib and Jachin;
1Ch 9:11 aAnd Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;
1Ch 9:12 And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah; and Maasai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;
1Ch 9:13 And their brothers, heads of their fathers’ houses, one thousand seven hundred sixty able men for the work of the service of the house of God.
1Ch 9:14 And of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;
1Ch 9:15 And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal; and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph;
1Ch 9:16 And Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun; and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites.
1Ch 9:17 And the gatekeepers: Shallum and Akkub and Talmon and Ahiman and their brothers. Shallum was the chief,
1Ch 9:18 Being stationed until then at the king’s gate on the east. These were the gatekeepers for the camps of the children of Levi.
1Ch 9:19 And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of 1Korah, and his brothers of his father’s house, the aKorahites, were over the work of the service as keepers of the thresholds of the tent; and their fathers had been over the camp of Jehovah, keepers of the entrance.
1Ch 9:20 And aPhinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over them in time past; Jehovah was with him.
1Ch 9:21 Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was gatekeeper of the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
1Ch 9:22 All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the thresholds were two hundred twelve. These were enrolled by genealogy in their villages; David and Samuel the seer appointed them because of their faithfulness.
1Ch 9:23 So they and their sons had charge of the gates of the house of Jehovah, the house of the tent, as guards.
1Ch 9:24 On the four sides were the gatekeepers, toward the east, west, north, and south.
1Ch 9:25 And their brothers in their villages were to come in every seven days from time to time to be with them:
1Ch 9:26 For the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were faithful and were over the chambers and over the treasuries in the house of God.
1Ch 9:27 And they spent the night around the house of God because the charge of the watch was upon them; and they had charge of opening it morning by morning.
1Ch 9:28 And some of them had charge of the vessels of service; for these were counted when they were brought in, and they were counted when they were taken out.
1Ch 9:29 And some of them also were appointed over the furniture, and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, and over the fine flour and the wine and the oil and the frankincense and the spices.
1Ch 9:30 And some of the sons of the priests prepared the acompounding of the spices.
1Ch 9:31 And Mattithiah, one of the Levites, who was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with the things that were baked in pans.
1Ch 9:32 And some of their brothers from the sons of the Kohathites were over the rows of abread, to prepare them every Sabbath.
1Ch 9:33 And these are the singers, heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites, who dwelt in the chambers and were free from other service, for they were employed in their work day and anight.
1Ch 9:34 These were heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their generations, chief men; these dwelt at Jerusalem.
15. The Genealogy of the House of Saul
9:35-44
1Ch 9:35 aAnd in Gibeon there dwelt the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, and his wife’s name was Maacah;
1Ch 9:36 And his firstborn son was Abdon, then Zur and Kish and Baal and Ner and Nadab
1Ch 9:37 And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth.
1Ch 9:38 And Mikloth begot Shimeam. And these also dwelt opposite their brothers in Jerusalem, with their brothers.
1Ch 9:39 And Ner begot Kish; and Kish begot Saul; and Saul begot Jonathan and Malchishua and Abinadab and Esh-baal.
1Ch 9:40 And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-baal begot Micah.
1Ch 9:41 And the sons of Micah: Pithon and Melech and Tahrea 1and Ahaz.
1Ch 9:42 And Ahaz begot Jarah; and Jarah begot Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri; and Zimri begot Moza;
1Ch 9:43 And Moza begot Binea; and Rephaiah was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.
1Ch 9:44 And Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan; these were the sons of Azel.
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II. The History concerning the Kings over All Israel
1 Chron. 10:1 — 2 Chron. 9:31a
A. Saul’s End
10:1-14
1Ch 10:1 1aAnd the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.
1Ch 10:2 And the Philistines chased Saul and his sons; and the Philistines struck down aJonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, Saul’s sons.
1Ch 10:3 And the battle bore heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was wounded by the archers.
1Ch 10:4 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was very aafraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.
1Ch 10:5 And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died.
1Ch 10:6 So Saul and his three sons died, and all his house died together.
1Ch 10:7 And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
1Ch 10:8 And the next day the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
1Ch 10:9 And they stripped him and took his head and his armor, and they sent them all around, throughout the land of the Philistines in order to announce the good news to their idols and to the people.
1Ch 10:10 And they put his armor in the house of their gods, and they fastened his head in the house of aDagon.
1Ch 10:11 And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
1Ch 10:12 All the valiant men rose up and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons; and they brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones under the terebinth at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
1Ch 10:13 So Saul died on account of his unfaithfulness which he committed against Jehovah, because of the aword of Jehovah which he did not keep, and also because he asked the counsel of a bmedium, inquiring of it.
1Ch 10:14 And he did not inquire of Jehovah; therefore He killed him and turned the akingdom to David the son of Jesse.
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B. The Reign of David
11:1 — 29:30
1. Crowned and Established as King
11:1-9
1Ch 11:1 1aThen all Israel gathered themselves to David at Hebron, saying, Here we are, your bone and your flesh.
1Ch 11:2 Even previously, when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And Jehovah your God said to you, It is you who shall ashepherd My people Israel, and you shall be ruler over My people Israel.
1Ch 11:3 And all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. And David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Jehovah, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of Jehovah spoken by Samuel.
1Ch 11:4 aAnd David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus; and the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land there.
1Ch 11:5 And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, You shall not come in here. But David took the stronghold of Zion, which is now the city of David.
1Ch 11:6 And David said, Whoever strikes the Jebusites first will be the chief and the captain. And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became chief.
1Ch 11:7 So David dwelt in the stronghold; therefore they called it the city of David.
1Ch 11:8 And he built the city all around, from the Millo even unto the surrounding area, and Joab repaired the rest of the city.
1Ch 11:9 And David became greater and greater, and Jehovah of hosts was with him.
2. His Mighty Men
11:10 — 12:40
1Ch 11:10 And these are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who showed themselves strong with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king according to the word of Jehovah concerning Israel.
1Ch 11:11 aAnd these are the number of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he brandished his spear against three hundred, and they were slain at one time.
1Ch 11:12 After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite; he was among the three mighty men.
1Ch 11:13 He was with David at Pas-dammim, and the Philistines gathered themselves there for battle, and there was a plot of land full of barley there; and the people fled before the Philistines.
1Ch 11:14 But they stationed themselves in the midst of the plot and delivered it and struck the Philistines, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation.
1Ch 11:15 Now three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David in the cave of Adullam while the army of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.
1Ch 11:16 Now at that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was in Bethlehem at that time.
1Ch 11:17 And David said longingly, If only someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!
1Ch 11:18 And the three burst through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate. And they carried it and brought it to David, but David would not drink it; rather he poured it out to Jehovah.
1Ch 11:19 And he said, Far be it from me, before my God, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives? For at the risk of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.
1Ch 11:20 And Abishai the brother of Joab was chief of the three. And he brandished his spear against three hundred, who were slain; and he had a name among the three.
1Ch 11:21 He was indeed honored among the two of the 1thirty, and he became their leader; but he did not attain to the three.
1Ch 11:22 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, was great in mighty deeds. He struck the two sons of Ariel the Moabite; he also went down and struck a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.
1Ch 11:23 And he struck an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. And the Egyptian had a spear in his hand like a weaver’s beam, but he went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the hand of the Egyptian and slew him with his own spear.
1Ch 11:24 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and he had a name among the three mighty men.
1Ch 11:25 He was indeed more honored than the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.
1Ch 11:26 And the mighty men of the armies were: Asahel the brother of Joab; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem;
1Ch 11:27 Shammoth the 1Harodite; Helez the Pelonite;
1Ch 11:28 Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite; Abiezer the Anathothite;
1Ch 11:29 Sibbecai the Hushathite; Ilai the Ahohite;
1Ch 11:30 Maharai the Netophathite; Heled the son of Baanah the Netophathite;
1Ch 11:31 Ithai the son of Ribai from Gibeah of the children of Benjamin; Benaiah the Pirathonite;
1Ch 11:32 Hurai from the brooks of Gaash; Abiel the Arbathite;
1Ch 11:33 Azmaveth the Baharumite; Eliahba the Shaalbonite;
1Ch 11:34 Of the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan the son of Shagee the Hararite;
1Ch 11:35 Ahiam the son of Sacar the Hararite; Eliphal the son of Ur;
1Ch 11:36 Hepher the Mecherathite; Ahijah the Pelonite;
1Ch 11:37 Hezro the Carmelite; Naarai the son of Ezbai;
1Ch 11:38 Joel the brother of Nathan; Mibhar the son of Hagri;
1Ch 11:39 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai the Beerothite, the armor bearer to Joab the son of Zeruiah;
1Ch 11:40 Ira the Ithrite; Gareb the Ithrite;
1Ch 11:41 aUriah the Hittite; Zabad the son of Ahlai;
1Ch 11:42 Adina the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a chief of the Reubenites, and thirty with him;
1Ch 11:43 Hanan the son of Maacah and Joshaphat the Mithnite;
1Ch 11:44 Uzzia the Ashterathite; Shama and Jeiel the sons of Hotham the Aroerite;
1Ch 11:45 Jediael the son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite;
1Ch 11:46 Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai and Joshaviah the sons of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite;
1Ch 11:47 Eliel and Obed and Jaasiel the Mezobaite.
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1Ch 12:1 Now these are those who came to David at aZiklag while he was still hidden away because of Saul the son of Kish, and they were among the mighty men who helped him in battle.
1Ch 12:2 They drew the bow, and with both right and left hands they could sling stones and shoot arrows with the bow; they were from among the brothers of Saul from Benjamin.
1Ch 12:3 The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth; and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite;
1Ch 12:4 And Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty and over the thirty; and Jeremiah and Jahaziel and Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite;
1Ch 12:5 Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite;
1Ch 12:6 Elkanah and Isshiah and Azarel and Joezer and Jashobeam, the Korahites;
1Ch 12:7 And Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.
1Ch 12:8 And some of the Gadites separated themselves unto David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men fit for the service of war, who could wield shield and spear and whose faces were like the faces of lions; and they were as swift as gazelles upon the mountains:
1Ch 12:9 Ezer the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third,
1Ch 12:10 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth,
1Ch 12:11 Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh,
1Ch 12:12 Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth,
1Ch 12:13 Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh.
1Ch 12:14 These from among the sons of Gad were heads of the army; he who was least was equal to a hundred, and the greatest to a thousand.
1Ch 12:15 These are the ones who crossed over the Jordan in the first month, when it overflowed all its banks; and they put to flight all those of the valleys, to the east and to the west.
1Ch 12:16 And some of the children of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the stronghold.
1Ch 12:17 And David went out to meet them; and he responded and said to them, If you have come to me in peace in order to help me, my heart will be knit to you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, though there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers see and reprove.
1Ch 12:18 Then the Spirit 1came upon Amasai, the head of the thirty, and he said,
We are yours, O David, / And are with you, O son of Jesse. / Peace, peace be with you, / And peace with those who help you; / For your God helps you.
And David received them and made them heads of the troops.
1Ch 12:19 And some from Manasseh fell away to David when he came with the Philistines for battle against Saul. (But they did not help them, for the lords of the Philistines, upon deliberation, sent him away, saying, He will fall back to his master Saul at the cost of our heads.)
1Ch 12:20 As he went to Ziklag, some fell away to him: Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were from Manasseh.
1Ch 12:21 And they helped David against the band of raiders, for they were all mighty men of valor, and they were captains of the army.
1Ch 12:22 Indeed day by day they came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like the army of God.
1Ch 12:23 And these are the numbers of the heads of those who were armed for war and came to David at Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul unto him according to the word of Jehovah:
1Ch 12:24 The children of Judah who carried shield and spear were six thousand eight hundred, armed for war;
1Ch 12:25 Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war, seven thousand one hundred;
1Ch 12:26 Of the children of Levi, four thousand six hundred.
1Ch 12:27 And Jehoiada was the leader of the house of Aaron; and with him were three thousand seven hundred;
1Ch 12:28 As well as Zadok, a young mighty man of valor; and from his father’s house, twenty-two captains;
1Ch 12:29 And of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand; for until that time the greater part of them kept their allegiance to the house of Saul;
1Ch 12:30 And of the children of Ephraim, twenty thousand eight hundred mighty men of valor, men of renown in their fathers’ houses;
1Ch 12:31 And of the half-tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand, who were designated by name to come and make David king.
1Ch 12:32 And of the children of Issachar, men who understood the times that they might know what Israel should do, the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their command;
1Ch 12:33 Of Zebulun, those who were able to go forth in war, who could set the battle in array with all the equipment of war, were fifty thousand, and they helped David without a double heart;
1Ch 12:34 And of Naphtali, one thousand captains, and with them, with shield and spear, thirty-seven thousand;
1Ch 12:35 And of the Danites who could set the battle in array, twenty-eight thousand six hundred;
1Ch 12:36 And of Asher, those who were able to go forth in war, who could set the battle in array, forty thousand;
1Ch 12:37 And on the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, with all the equipment of war for the battle, one hundred twenty thousand.
1Ch 12:38 All these, men of war who could order the battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest of Israel as well were of one heart to make David king.
1Ch 12:39 And they were there with David for three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had provided for them.
1Ch 12:40 Moreover those near them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on asses and on camels and on mules and on oxen — provisions of flour, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, and oxen and sheep, in abundance; for there was joy in Israel.
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3. Taking Care of the Habitation of the Ark of God
13:1 — 16:43
1Ch 13:1 And David took counsel with the captains of the thousands and of the hundreds, with every leader.
1Ch 13:2 And David said to all the congregation of Israel, If it seems good to you, and it is from Jehovah our God, let us send far and wide to our brothers who remain in all the land of Israel and to the priests and the Levites who are with them in their cities with pasture lands, that they may gather themselves to us.
1Ch 13:3 And let us bring back the aArk of our God to ourselves, for we did not inquire of it in the days of Saul.
1Ch 13:4 And all the congregation said that they would do so, for the matter was right in the sight of all the people.
1Ch 13:5 And David gathered all Israel together from the 1Shihor of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath to bring the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.
1Ch 13:6 aAnd David went up with all Israel to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim, which is Judah’s, to bring up from there the Ark of God, of Jehovah, who is enthroned between the cherubim, which is called by the Name;
1Ch 13:7 And they set the Ark of God upon a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and Ahio drove the cart.
1Ch 13:8 And David and all Israel played before God with all their strength, even with songs and with lyres and with harps and with tambourines and with cymbals and with trumpets.
1Ch 13:9 And when they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzzah stretched out his hand to take hold of the Ark; for the oxen had stumbled.
1Ch 13:10 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah, and He struck him because he stretched out his hand ato the Ark; and he died there before God.
1Ch 13:11 And David was angry because Jehovah had broken forth with an outburst upon Uzzah, and he called that place Perez-uzzah, as it is to this day.
1Ch 13:12 And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the Ark of God to myself?
1Ch 13:13 So David did not remove the Ark to himself to the city of David, but he carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
1Ch 13:14 And the Ark of God remained with the house of Obed-edom in his house three months, and Jehovah blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that he had.
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1Ch 14:1 aAnd Hiram the king of Tyre sent messengers to David, as well as cedar timbers and masons and carpenters to build a house for him.
1Ch 14:2 And David perceived that Jehovah had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of His people Israel.
1Ch 14:3 And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David begot more sons and daughters.
1Ch 14:4 aAnd these are the names of those who were born, whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon
1Ch 14:5 And Ibhar and Elishua and Elpelet
1Ch 14:6 And Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia
1Ch 14:7 And Elishama and Beeliada and Eliphelet.
1Ch 14:8 Now when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; and David heard of it and went out against them.
1Ch 14:9 And the Philistines came and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim.
1Ch 14:10 Then David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand? And Jehovah said to him, Go up, and I will deliver them into your hand.
1Ch 14:11 And they went up to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there. And David said, God has broken forth upon my enemies by my hand like the breaking forth of a flood. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.
1Ch 14:12 And they left their gods there; and David gave the order, and they were aburned with fire.
1Ch 14:13 And the Philistines made yet another raid in the valley.
1Ch 14:14 And David inquired again of God, and God said to him, You shall not go up after them; go around behind them, and come upon them opposite the balsam trees.
1Ch 14:15 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall go out to battle; for God will have gone forth before you to strike the 1army of the Philistines.
1Ch 14:16 And David did as God had commanded him, and they struck down the army of the Philistines from Gibeon even unto Gezer.
1Ch 14:17 And David’s fame went forth among all the lands, and Jehovah put the fear of him upon all the nations.
1 CHRONICLES 15

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1Ch 15:1 And David made houses for himself in the city of David, and he prepared a place for the Ark of God and pitched a atent for it.
1Ch 15:2 Then David said, None should bear the Ark of God except the Levites, for Jehovah has chosen them to abear the Ark of Jehovah and to minister to Him forever.
1Ch 15:3 So David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem in order to bring up the 1Ark of Jehovah to its place, which he had prepared for it.
1Ch 15:4 And David gathered the sons of Aaron and the Levites:
1Ch 15:5 Of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the leader, and his brothers, one hundred twenty;
1Ch 15:6 Of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the leader, and his brothers, two hundred twenty;
1Ch 15:7 Of the sons of Gershom, Joel the leader, and his brothers, one hundred thirty;
1Ch 15:8 Of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the leader, and his brothers, two hundred;
1Ch 15:9 Of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the leader, and his brothers, eighty;
1Ch 15:10 Of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the leader, and his brothers, one hundred twelve.
1Ch 15:11 And David called for aZadok and bAbiathar the priests and the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah and Joel, Shemaiah and Eliel and Amminadab;
1Ch 15:12 And he said to them, You are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your brothers, and bring up the Ark of Jehovah the God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it.
1Ch 15:13 For because you did not bring it up the first time, Jehovah our God abroke forth upon us; for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.
1Ch 15:14 So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves in order to bring up the Ark of Jehovah the God of Israel.
1Ch 15:15 And the sons of the Levites bore the Ark of God as Moses had commanded, according to the word of Jehovah, upon their shoulders with the apoles upon them.
1Ch 15:16 And David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers with musical instruments — harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals — to raise sounds of joy.
1Ch 15:17 So the Levites appointed aHeman the son of Joel; and of his brothers, bAsaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, cEthan the son of Kushaiah;
1Ch 15:18 And with them their brothers of the second order: Zechariah, 1and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni, Eliab and Benaiah and Maaseiah and Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom and Jeiel, the doorkeepers.
1Ch 15:19 So the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were appointed to sound aloud with bronze cymbals;
1Ch 15:20 And Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah with harps set to 1alamoth;
1Ch 15:21 And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel and Azaziah were appointed to lead with lyres set to 1sheminith.
1Ch 15:22 And Chenaniah, the leader of the Levites, was over the song; he instructed about the song, because he was skillful.
1Ch 15:23 And Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the Ark.
1Ch 15:24 And Shebaniah and Joshaphat and Nethanel and Amasai and Zechariah and Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, blew the atrumpets before the Ark of God; and Obed-edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the Ark.
1Ch 15:25 aSo David and the elders of Israel and the captains of thousands went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah from the house of Obed-edom with rejoicing.
1Ch 15:26 And because God helped the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.
1Ch 15:27 And David was clothed with a fine linen robe, as were all the Levites who bore the Ark and the singers and Chenaniah, the song leader of the singers; and David had on a linen aephod.
1Ch 15:28 So all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah with shouting and with the sound of the horn and with trumpets and with cymbals, sounding aloud with harps and lyres.
1Ch 15:29 And when the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked down through a window and saw King David dancing and playing; and she despised him in her heart.
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1Ch 16:1 And they brought the Ark of God and set it in the midst of the atent that David had pitched for it. And they offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.
1Ch 16:2 And when David finished offering up the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Jehovah.
1Ch 16:3 And he apportioned to everyone of Israel, to both men and women, to each one, a cake of bread and a 1portion of meat and a cake of raisins.
1Ch 16:4 And he aappointed some of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of Jehovah and to commemorate and thank and praise Jehovah the God of Israel:
1Ch 16:5 Asaph the chief; and second to him Zechariah; Jeiel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with harps and with lyres; and Asaph sounding aloud with cymbals;
1Ch 16:6 And Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the Ark of the Covenant of God.
1Ch 16:7 On that day, at that time, David first ordained the giving of thanks to Jehovah by the hand of aAsaph and his brothers.
1Ch 16:8 aGive thanks to Jehovah; bcall upon His name; / Make known His deeds among the peoples.
1Ch 16:9 Sing to Him; sing psalms to Him; / Muse upon all His wondrous deeds.
1Ch 16:10 Glory in His holy name; / Let the heart of those who seek Jehovah rejoice.
1Ch 16:11 Seek Jehovah and His strength; / aSeek His face continually.
1Ch 16:12 Remember His wondrous deeds, which He has done, / His signs and the judgments of His mouth,
1Ch 16:13 O seed of Israel His servant, / O children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
1Ch 16:14 He is Jehovah our God; / His judgments are in all the earth.
1Ch 16:15 Remember His covenant forever, / The word that He commanded to a thousand generations,
1Ch 16:16 The acovenant that He made with Abraham, / And His boath unto Isaac.
1Ch 16:17 And He confirmed it unto aJacob as a statute, / Unto Israel as an eternal covenant,
1Ch 16:18 Saying, To you I will agive the land of Canaan, / The portion of your inheritance;
1Ch 16:19 When you were men afew in number, / Indeed very few and bstrangers in 1the land;
1Ch 16:20 And they awent about from nation to nation, / And from one kingdom to another people.
1Ch 16:21 He allowed no man to oppress them; / Indeed He arebuked kings for their sake.
1Ch 16:22 Saying, Do not touch My anointed ones, / And do My aprophets no harm.
1Ch 16:23 aSing to Jehovah all the earth; / Proclaim His salvation from day to day.
1Ch 16:24 Declare His glory among the nations, / His wondrous deeds among all the peoples.
1Ch 16:25 For Jehovah is great and much to be praised, / And He is to be feared above all gods.
1Ch 16:26 For all the gods of the peoples are aidols, / But Jehovah made the heavens.
1Ch 16:27 Majesty and splendor are before Him; / Strength and gladness are in His place.
1Ch 16:28 Ascribe to Jehovah, O families of the peoples, / Ascribe to Jehovah, glory and strength;
1Ch 16:29 Ascribe to Jehovah the glory of His name; / Bring an offering, and come before Him. / Worship Jehovah in holy splendor;
1Ch 16:30 Tremble before Him, all the earth. / Indeed the world has been established; it will not be moved;
1Ch 16:31 Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad; / And let them say among the nations, Jehovah areigns!
1Ch 16:32 Let the sea and its fullness roar; / Let the field and all that is in it exult;
1Ch 16:33 Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy / Before Jehovah, for He is acoming / To judge the earth.
1Ch 16:34 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
1Ch 16:35 And say, aSave us, O God of our salvation; / And gather us and deliver us out of the nations, / That we may give thanks to Your holy name, / That we may glory in Your praise.
1Ch 16:36 Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, / From eternity to eternity.
And all the people said, aAmen, and praised Jehovah.
1Ch 16:37 So there before the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah he aleft Asaph and his brothers to minister before the Ark continually, as every day’s work dictated;
1Ch 16:38 As well as Obed-edom and his sixty-eight 1relatives, with Obed-edom the son of Jeduthun and Hosah as gatekeepers;
1Ch 16:39 And Zadok the priest and his brothers the priests before the 1tabernacle of Jehovah in the high place which was at Gibeon,
1Ch 16:40 To offer up burnt offerings to Jehovah upon the burnt offering altar continually aevery morning and every evening, according to all that was written in the law of Jehovah, which He commanded Israel.
1Ch 16:41 And with them were aHeman and bJeduthun and the rest of those who had been chosen, who had been mentioned by name, to give thanks to Jehovah, for His lovingkindness endures forever.
1Ch 16:42 And with them were Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those who were to sound aloud and with instruments for the songs of God, and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the gate.
1Ch 16:43 aAnd all the people, each one, departed to his house; and David returned to bless his house.
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4. Wanting to Build a House for God
17:1-27
1Ch 17:1 1aAnd as David dwelt in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah dwells under curtains.
1Ch 17:2 And Nathan said to David, All that is in your heart do, for God is with you.
1Ch 17:3 And in that night the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
1Ch 17:4 Go and say to David My servant, Thus says Jehovah, It will not be you who abuilds Me a house to dwell in.
1Ch 17:5 For I have not dwelt in a house, since the day I brought up Israel to this day; but I have been from tent to tent and from tabernacle to tabernacle.
1Ch 17:6 In all My going about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to ashepherd My people, saying, Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?
1Ch 17:7 And now thus shall you say to My servant David, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you might be ruler over My people Israel;
1Ch 17:8 And I have been with you in every place that you have gone and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make a name for you, like the name of the great ones who are on the earth.
1Ch 17:9 And I will appoint a aplace for My people Israel and will plant them there, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more; and the sons of wickedness will waste them away no more as before,
1Ch 17:10 Even since the time when I commanded that there be judges over My people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I declare to you that Jehovah will build you a ahouse.
1Ch 17:11 When your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your aseed after you, which will be from your sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
1Ch 17:12 It is he who will abuild a house for Me, and I will establish his throne forever.
1Ch 17:13 I will be his aFather, and he will be My bson; and My lovingkindness I will not take from him, as I took it away from him who was before you.
1Ch 17:14 And I will set him in My house and My kingdom forever, and his throne will be established forever.
1Ch 17:15 According to all these words and according to this whole vision did Nathan speak to David.
1Ch 17:16 Then King David went and sat before Jehovah; and he said, Who am I, O Jehovah God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?
1Ch 17:17 And this was a small thing in Your sight, O God; but You have spoken of the house of Your servant for a great while to come; and You have regarded me according to the custom for a man of high degree, O Jehovah God.
1Ch 17:18 What more can David add to say to You concerning this honoring of Your servant? For You know Your servant.
1Ch 17:19 O Jehovah, for Your servant’s sake and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to make known all these great things.
1Ch 17:20 O Jehovah, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
1Ch 17:21 And who is like Your people Israel, a nation unique on the earth, which God went to redeem to Himself as a people in order to make for Yourself a name of greatness and awesomeness to drive out nations from before Your people, whom You have redeemed out of Egypt?
1Ch 17:22 And You have made Your people Israel to be a people to You forever, and You, O Jehovah, became their God.
1Ch 17:23 And now, O Jehovah, may the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as You have spoken.
1Ch 17:24 And may Your name be established and magnified forever when men say, Jehovah of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel; and the house of David Your servant will be established before You.
1Ch 17:25 For You, O my God, have revealed to Your servant, that You will build him a ahouse; therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray before You.
1Ch 17:26 And now, O Jehovah, You are God, and You have spoken this good matter concerning Your servant;
1Ch 17:27 Now therefore You have been pleased to bless the house of Your servant, that it may be before You forever; for You, O Jehovah, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.
1 CHRONICLES 18

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5. His Conquests
18:1 — 20:8
a. Over the Philistines, Moab, Zobah, Syria, and Edom
18:1-17
1Ch 18:1 aAnd after this David struck the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Gath and her villages out of the hand of the Philistines.
1Ch 18:2 And he struck Moab, and the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.
1Ch 18:3 Then David struck Hadadezer the king of Zobah at Hamath, when he went to establish his power at the river Euphrates.
1Ch 18:4 And David took from him one thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough of them for a hundred chariots.
1Ch 18:5 And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer the king of Zobah, David struck twenty-two thousand men among the Syrians.
1Ch 18:6 And David put garrisons among the Syrians of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And Jehovah preserved David wherever he went.
1Ch 18:7 And David took the 1shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.
1Ch 18:8 And from Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took very much bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze.
1Ch 18:9 Then when Tou the king of Hamath heard that David had struck down all the army of Hadadezer the king of Zobah,
1Ch 18:10 He sent Hadoram his son to King David to greet him and congratulate him for fighting against Hadadezer and striking him down, for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou. And Hadoram brought all kinds of articles of gold and of silver and of bronze.
1Ch 18:11 King David aconsecrated these also to Jehovah along with the silver and gold that he had carried from all the nations: from the Edomites and from the Moabites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from the Amalekites.
1Ch 18:12 Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck down the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, that is, eighteen thousand men.
1Ch 18:13 And he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became servants to David. And Jehovah preserved David wherever he went.
1Ch 18:14 So David reigned over all Israel and executed justice and righteousness for all his people.
1Ch 18:15 And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder.
1Ch 18:16 And Zadok the son of Ahitub and Abimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Shavsha was scribe.
1Ch 18:17 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David’s sons were chief at the king’s side.
1 CHRONICLES 19

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b. Over Ammon and Syria
19:1 — 20:3
1Ch 19:1 aAnd after this Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place.
1Ch 19:2 And David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun to comfort him.
1Ch 19:3 But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Do you really think that David is honoring your father just because he sent to you some men to comfort you? Have not his servants come to you in order to search out and to overthrow and to spy on the land?
1Ch 19:4 So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved them and cut away half their garments at the hips, and he sent them away.
1Ch 19:5 Now when they went and told David about the men, he sent some to meet them, for the men were very ashamed. And the king said, Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back, then return.
1Ch 19:6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia and from the Syrians of Maacah and from Zobah.
1Ch 19:7 So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots and the king of Maacah and his people, who came and camped before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered together from their cities and came to the battle.
1Ch 19:8 And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of mighty men.
1Ch 19:9 And the children of Ammon went forth and set the battle in array at the entrance of the city, but the kings who had come were alone in the field.
1Ch 19:10 Now when Joab saw that there were battle lines against him before and behind, he chose some of the choice men in Israel and set them in array against the Syrians.
1Ch 19:11 And the rest of the people he put under the charge of Abishai his brother, and they arrayed themselves against the children of Ammon.
1Ch 19:12 And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; and if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you.
1Ch 19:13 Be strong and let us be bold for the sake of our people and for the sake of the cities of our God, and may Jehovah do what seems good in His sight.
1Ch 19:14 So Joab and the people who were with him approached the battle against the Syrians, and 1the Syrians fled before him.
1Ch 19:15 And the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians fled, and they also fled from before Abishai his brother and entered the city. And Joab entered Jerusalem.
1Ch 19:16 Now when the Syrians saw that they had been routed before Israel, they sent messengers and brought forth the Syrians who were beyond the 1River with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer before them.
1Ch 19:17 And it was told David, and he gathered all Israel together and passed over the Jordan and came to them and set his men in array against them. When David set his men in array to meet the Syrians in battle, they fought with him.
1Ch 19:18 And the Syrians fled before Israel. And David slew seven thousand charioteers of the Syrians and forty thousand footmen, and he put Shophach the captain of the army to death.
1Ch 19:19 And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed before Israel, they made peace with David and served him. So the Syrians were not willing to help the children of Ammon anymore.
1 CHRONICLES 20

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1Ch 20:1 aThen at the time of the turn of the year, at the time when kings go forth to battle, Joab led the army and devastated the land of the children of Ammon. And he went and besieged Rabbah while David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it.
1Ch 20:2 And David took the crown of their king from off his head and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and in it were precious stones; and it was put upon David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount.
1Ch 20:3 And he brought out the people who were in it and hewed them with saws and iron cutting tools and axes, and thus did David do to all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
c. Over the Philistines
20:4-8
1Ch 20:4 aThen after this a war arose with the Philistines at Gezer; and Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Sippai, one of the children of the giants; and they were subdued.
1Ch 20:5 And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of aGoliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
1Ch 20:6 And again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all; and he also had been born to the giant.
1Ch 20:7 And he defied Israel; and Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, slew him.
1Ch 20:8 These had been born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hands of his servants.
1 CHRONICLES 21

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6. His Last Sin
21:1 — 22:1
1Ch 21:1 aAnd bSatan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
1Ch 21:2 And David said to Joab and to the captains of the people, Go and count Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring the results to me, that I may know their number.
1Ch 21:3 And Joab said, May Jehovah add to His people a hundred times as many as they are. But, O my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord request this? Why should he become a cause of guilt to Israel?
1Ch 21:4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed over Joab, and Joab went forth and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem.
1Ch 21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. And all Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah was four hundred seventy thousand men who drew the sword.
1Ch 21:6 But he did anot number Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s word was abhorrent to Joab.
1Ch 21:7 And this matter displeased God, and He struck Israel.
1Ch 21:8 And David said to God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing; but now put away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.
1Ch 21:9 And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
1Ch 21:10 Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says Jehovah, I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, that I may do it to you.
1Ch 21:11 So Gad went to David and said to him, Thus says Jehovah, Take for yourself
1Ch 21:12 Either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your adversaries, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of Jehovah, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. And now see what word I should return to Him who sent me.
1Ch 21:13 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait; let me fall into the hand of Jehovah, for His acompassions are very great; and do not let me fall into the hand of man.
1Ch 21:14 So Jehovah sent a pestilence in Israel, and seventy thousand people of Israel fell.
1Ch 21:15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was destroying it, Jehovah saw and arepented of the harm. And He said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now hold back your hand. And the angel of Jehovah was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Ch 21:16 And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of Jehovah standing between the earth and the heavens, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.
1Ch 21:17 And David said to God, Was it not I who ordered the numbering of the people? And it is I who have sinned and acted very wickedly. But these asheep, what have they done? O Jehovah my God, let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against the house of my father, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.
1Ch 21:18 And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise up an altar to Jehovah on the 1athreshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Ch 21:19 And David went up at Gad’s word, which he spoke in the name of Jehovah.
1Ch 21:20 And Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves; and Ornan was threshing wheat.
1Ch 21:21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David. And he went forth from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
1Ch 21:22 And David said to Ornan, Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to Jehovah. For the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
1Ch 21:23 And Ornan said to David, Take it; and may my lord the king do whatever seems good in his sight. Look, I have given the oxen for the burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for the wood and the wheat for the meal offering — all this I give.
1Ch 21:24 But King David said to Ornan, No; but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for Jehovah and offer up burnt offerings that cost me nothing.
1Ch 21:25 So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site.
1Ch 21:26 And there David built an altar to Jehovah, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called on Jehovah, and He answered him with afire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.
1Ch 21:27 And Jehovah commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.
1Ch 21:28 At that time, when David saw that Jehovah had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.
1Ch 21:29 And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering at that time were in the high place at aGibeon.
1Ch 21:30 And David was not able to go before it to inquire of God because he was terrified of the sword of the angel of Jehovah.
1 CHRONICLES 22

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1Ch 22:1 Then David said, This is the ahouse of Jehovah God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
7. His Preparations for the Building of the Temple of God
22:2-19
1Ch 22:2 1And David ordered the gathering of the sojourners who were in the land of Israel. And he appointed masons to hew the wrought stones for the building of the house of God.
1Ch 22:3 And David 1aprepared iron in abundance for the nails of the doors of the gates and for the clasps; and bronze in abundance, without weight;
1Ch 22:4 And cedar trees without number, for the Sidonians and the Tyrians brought cedar trees in vast quantity to David.
1Ch 22:5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built to Jehovah must be exceedingly great in fame and glory throughout all lands; I will therefore make preparations for it. So David prepared an abundance before his death.
1Ch 22:6 Then he called for Solomon his son and commanded him to build a house for Jehovah the God of Israel.
1Ch 22:7 And David said to 1Solomon, My son, as for me, it was on my aheart to build a house for the name of Jehovah my God.
1Ch 22:8 But the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, You have shed blood abundantly and have waged great wars. You shall anot build a house for My name, for you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight.
1Ch 22:9 Behold, a son will be born to you. He will be a man of 1rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies around him, for aSolomon will be his name, and I will give bpeace and quiet to Israel throughout his days.
1Ch 22:10 It is 1he who will abuild a house for My name; and he will be My son, and I will be his bFather; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
1Ch 22:11 Now, my son, may Jehovah be with you; and may you prosper and abuild the house of Jehovah your God, as He has spoken concerning you.
1Ch 22:12 Only, let Jehovah give you ainsight and understanding, and let Him give you charge over Israel that you may keep the law of Jehovah your God;
1Ch 22:13 Then you will prosper if you are certain to perform the statutes and ordinances with which Jehovah charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and be bold; do not be afraid or dismayed.
1Ch 22:14 Now then in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah one hundred thousand talents of gold and one million talents of silver and bronze and iron without weight, for it is in abundance; and timber and stone I have prepared; and you may add to these.
1Ch 22:15 And with you there are workmen in abundance, masons and workers in stone and wood and all manner of men who are skillful in every kind of work.
1Ch 22:16 To the gold and silver and bronze and iron there is no number. Arise and do it, and may Jehovah be with you.
1Ch 22:17 And David commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,
1Ch 22:18 Indeed Jehovah your God is with you. And He has given you arest all around. For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land has been subdued before Jehovah and before His people.
1Ch 22:19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah your God; and arise and build the sanctuary of Jehovah God, in order to bring the aArk of the Covenant of Jehovah and all the holy vessels of God to the house that is to be built for the name of Jehovah.
1 CHRONICLES 23

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8. His Arrangement of the Order of the Services of the Priests and the Levites
23:1 — 26:32
a. Making Solomon His Son King over Israel
23:1
1Ch 23:1 Now when David was old and full of days, he made aSolomon his son king over Israel.
b. The Divisions of the Services of the Levites
23:2-32
1Ch 23:2 And he gathered all the leaders of Israel and the 1priests and the 1Levites.
1Ch 23:3 And the Levites were numbered from 1athirty years old and upward; and their number, head by head and man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.
1Ch 23:4 Of these twenty-four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah, and six thousand were officers and judges,
1Ch 23:5 And four thousand were gatekeepers, and four thousand were to praise Jehovah with the instruments that I have made for praising, said David.
1Ch 23:6 And David formed them into adivisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
1Ch 23:7 aOf the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei.
1Ch 23:8 The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief and Zetham and Joel, three.
1Ch 23:9 The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth and Haziel and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers’ houses of Ladan.
1Ch 23:10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei.
1Ch 23:11 And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons; therefore they became a father’s house in one reckoning.
1Ch 23:12 aThe sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four.
1Ch 23:13 The sons of aAmram: Aaron and Moses; and bAaron was separated that he might sanctify the most holy things forever, he and his sons, by burning cincense before Jehovah, by ministering to Him, and by blessing in His name forever.
1Ch 23:14 And as for Moses the aman of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.
1Ch 23:15 The sons of Moses: aGershom and Eliezer.
1Ch 23:16 The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the chief.
1Ch 23:17 And the sons of Eliezer were: Rehabiah the chief; and Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.
1Ch 23:18 The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief.
1Ch 23:19 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
1Ch 23:20 The sons of Uzziel: Micah the chief and Isshiah the second.
1Ch 23:21 aThe sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.
1Ch 23:22 And Eleazar died and had no sons, only daughters; and their brothers the sons of Kish took them as their wives.
1Ch 23:23 The sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three.
1Ch 23:24 These were the sons of Levi according to their fathers’ houses, the heads of the fathers’ houses of those who had been counted, by the number of names, head by head, who did the work for the service of the house of Jehovah, from atwenty years old and upward.
1Ch 23:25 For David said, Jehovah the God of Israel has given arest to His people, and He will dwell in Jerusalem forever;
1Ch 23:26 And also the Levites need not acarry the tabernacle and all its vessels for its service.
1Ch 23:27 For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered from twenty years and upward.
1Ch 23:28 For their station was alongside the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah in the courts and in the chambers and in the purifying of all the holy things, that is, the work of the service of the house of God;
1Ch 23:29 And for the rows of abread and the fine flour of the meal offering and the unleavened wafers and what is baked in the pan and what is mixed with oil and all measures of quantity and size;
1Ch 23:30 And to stand morning by morning to thank and praise Jehovah, and likewise in the evening;
1Ch 23:31 And to offer all the burnt offerings to Jehovah, according to the number ordained for them, on the aSabbaths, at the 1new moons, and on the appointed feasts, continually before Jehovah;
1Ch 23:32 And they were to keep the charge of the aTent of Meeting and the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brothers for the bservice of the house of Jehovah.
1 CHRONICLES 24

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c. The Ordering of the Priests in Twenty-four Divisions
24:1-19
1Ch 24:1 And the divisions of the sons of Aaron were these: the sons of Aaron: aNadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1Ch 24:2 But 1Nadab and Abihu adied before their father and had no children; therefore Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests.
1Ch 24:3 And David with aZadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar divided them according to their offices in their service.
1Ch 24:4 Since more chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than the sons of Ithamar, they were divided thus: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, heads of fathers’ houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers’ houses, eight.
1Ch 24:5 And they were divided by lot, each like the others; for there were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God, both from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar.
1Ch 24:6 And Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, from among the Levites, recorded them in the presence of the king and the leaders and Zadok the priest and Ahimelech the son of aAbiathar and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and of the Levites, one fathers’ house being drawn for Eleazar and one drawn for Ithamar.
1Ch 24:7 Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
1Ch 24:8 The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
1Ch 24:9 The fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
1Ch 24:10 The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to aAbijah,
1Ch 24:11 The ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
1Ch 24:12 The eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1Ch 24:13 The thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
1Ch 24:14 The fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
1Ch 24:15 The seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez,
1Ch 24:16 The nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezkel,
1Ch 24:17 The twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul,
1Ch 24:18 The twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.
1Ch 24:19 These were their offices in their service for coming into the house of Jehovah according to the aarrangement given to them by Aaron their father, as Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded him.
d. The Rest of the Levites Casting Lots for Their Duty
24:20-31
1Ch 24:20 And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.
1Ch 24:21 Of Rehabiah: of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief.
1Ch 24:22 Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath.
1Ch 24:23 And the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.
1Ch 24:24 The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir.
1Ch 24:25 The brother of Micah, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah.
1Ch 24:26 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Jaaziah: Beno.
1Ch 24:27 The sons of Merari: of Jaaziah were Beno and Shoham and Zaccur and Ibri.
1Ch 24:28 Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.
1Ch 24:29 Of Kish: the sons of Kish: Jerahmeel.
1Ch 24:30 And the sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites according to their fathers’ houses.
1Ch 24:31 These likewise acast lots even as their brothers the sons of Aaron in the presence of David the king and Zadok and Ahimelech and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and of the Levites, the head of the fathers’ houses even as his younger brother.
1 CHRONICLES 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

e. Setting Apart Some of the Sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun
into Twenty-four Divisions for Singing
25:1-31
1Ch 25:1 Moreover David and the leaders of the army set apart for the service some of the sons of aAsaph and 1bHeman and cJeduthun to dprophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals. And the list of those who did the work according to their service was:
1Ch 25:2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah and Asharelah, the sons of Asaph, under the hand of Asaph, who prophesied under the king’s direction.
1Ch 25:3 Of Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah and Zeri and Jeshaiah 1and Shimei and Hashabiah and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun with the lyre, who prophesied in giving thanks and praising Jehovah.
1Ch 25:4 Of Heman: the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth;
1Ch 25:5 All these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer, for 1exalting His power with the words of God; and God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
1Ch 25:6 All these were under the direction of their father for song in the house of Jehovah, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God, Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the direction of the king.
1Ch 25:7 And the number of them, with their brothers who were instructed in singing to Jehovah, all of whom were skillful, was two hundred eighty-eight.
1Ch 25:8 And they acast lots for their duties, all alike, the small as well as the great, the teacher as well as the student.
1Ch 25:9 Now the first lot came forth for Asaph to Joseph; the second to Gedaliah, he and his brothers and his sons, twelve;
1Ch 25:10 The third to Zaccur, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:11 The fourth to Izri, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:12 The fifth to Nethaniah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:13 The sixth to Bukkiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:14 The seventh to Jesharelah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:15 The eighth to Jeshaiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:16 The ninth to Mattaniah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:17 The tenth to Shimei, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:18 The eleventh to Azarel, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:19 The twelfth to Hashabiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:20 For the thirteenth, Shubael, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:21 For the fourteenth, Mattithiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:22 For the fifteenth to Jeremoth, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:23 For the sixteenth to Hananiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:24 For the seventeenth to Joshbekashah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:25 For the eighteenth to Hanani, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:26 For the nineteenth to Mallothi, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:27 For the twentieth to Eliathah, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:28 For the twenty-first to Hothir, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:29 For the twenty-second to Giddalti, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:30 For the twenty-third to Mahazioth, his sons and his brothers, twelve;
1Ch 25:31 For the twenty-fourth to Romamti-ezer, his sons and his brothers, twelve.
1 CHRONICLES 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

f. The Divisions of the Doorkeepers
26:1-19
1Ch 26:1 For the divisions of the doorkeepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph.
1Ch 26:2 And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,
1Ch 26:3 Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh.
1Ch 26:4 And Obed-edom had sons: Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third and Sacar the fourth and Nethanel the fifth,
1Ch 26:5 Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the eighth; for God ablessed him.
1Ch 26:6 And to Shemaiah his son were sons born, who ruled over the house of their father, for they were mighty men of valor.
1Ch 26:7 The sons of Shemaiah: Othni and Rephael and Obed and Elzabad, whose brothers, Elihu and Semachiah, were valiant men.
1Ch 26:8 All these were among the sons of Obed-edom: they and their sons and their brothers, men of strength able for the service, sixty-two of Obed-edom.
1Ch 26:9 And Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, valiant men, eighteen.
1Ch 26:10 And Hosah, of the children of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (for although he was not the firstborn, his father made him chief),
1Ch 26:11 Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth; all the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen.
1Ch 26:12 To these divisions of the doorkeepers, the chief men, were given duties like those of their brothers, to minister in the house of Jehovah.
1Ch 26:13 And they acast 1lots, the small as well as the great, according to their fathers’ houses, for every gate.
1Ch 26:14 And the lot for the east fell to Shelemiah. Then for Zechariah his son, a counselor with insight, they cast lots; and his lot went out for the north.
1Ch 26:15 For Obed-edom it went out for the south; and for his sons it went out for the storehouse.
1Ch 26:16 For Shuppim and Hosah it went out for the west, by the gate of Shallecheth on the ascending road. Guard corresponded to guard.
1Ch 26:17 On the east: six Levites; on the north: four a day; on the south: four a day; and for the storehouse: two by two;
1Ch 26:18 At the colonnade to the west: four at the road and two at the colonnade.
1Ch 26:19 These were the divisions of the doorkeepers, from the sons of the Korahites and from the sons of Merari.
g. Assigning Some of the Levites to Keep the Treasures
of the House of God and of the Dedicated Gifts
26:20-28
1Ch 26:20 And of the Levites, Ahijah was over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the dedicated gifts.
1Ch 26:21 The sons of Ladan, the sons of the Gershonites belonging to Ladan, the heads of the fathers’ houses belonging to Ladan the Gershonite: Jehieli.
1Ch 26:22 The sons of Jehieli: Zetham and Joel his brother, who were over the treasures of the house of Jehovah.
1Ch 26:23 Of the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites,
1Ch 26:24 Shebuel the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was ruler over the treasures.
1Ch 26:25 And his brothers: From Eliezer came Rehabiah his son and Jeshaiah his son and Joram his son and Zichri his son and Shelomoth his son.
1Ch 26:26 This Shelomoth and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated gifts, which David the king and the heads of the fathers’ houses, the captains over thousands and hundreds and the captains of the army, had adedicated;
1Ch 26:27 Out of the spoil won in battles they dedicated these to repair the house of Jehovah.
1Ch 26:28 And all that Samuel the seer and Saul the son of Kish and Abner the son of Ner and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated, and whoever had dedicated anything, was under the hand of Shelomoth and his brothers.
h. Appointing Some of the Levites to the Outward Duties over Israel,
as Officers and Judges
26:29-32
1Ch 26:29 Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were appointed to the outward duties over Israel, as officers and judges.
1Ch 26:30 Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, men of valor, one thousand seven hundred, had the oversight of Israel beyond the Jordan to the west for all the business of Jehovah, and for the service of the king.
1Ch 26:31 Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was chief. (As for the Hebronites, in the fortieth year of David’s reign a search was made according to their generations by fathers’ houses, and among them mighty men of valor were found at Jazer-gilead.)
1Ch 26:32 And his brothers, men of valor, were two thousand seven hundred, heads of fathers’ houses, whom King David made overseers over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of the Manassites, for every matter pertaining to God and for the affairs of the king.
1 CHRONICLES 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

9. The Officers in the Administration of David’s Government
27:1-34
a. The Officers Who Served the King
vv. 1-15
1Ch 27:1 And these are the children of Israel by their number, the heads of fathers’ houses, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and their officers who 1served the king in all the matters of the divisions that came in and went out month by month throughout all the months of the year; for every division there were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:2 Over the first division for the first month was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:3 He was from the children of Perez, the chief of all the captains of the army for the first month.
1Ch 27:4 And over the division of the second month was Dodai the Ahohite and his division, with Mikloth being the leader; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:5 The third captain of the army for the third month was Benaiah the chief, the son of Jehoiada the priest; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:6 This is that aBenaiah who was the mighty man of the thirty and who was over the thirty; and in his division was Ammizabad his son.
1Ch 27:7 The fourth for the fourth month was aAsahel the brother of Joab and Zebadiah his son after him; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:8 The fifth for the fifth month was the captain Shamhuth the Izrahite and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:9 The sixth for the sixth month was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:10 The seventh for the seventh month was Helez the Pelonite, from the children of Ephraim; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:11 The eighth for the eighth month was Sibbecai the Hushathite, from the Zerahites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:12 The ninth for the ninth month was Abiezer the Anathothite, from the Benjamites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:13 The tenth for the tenth month was Maharai the Netophathite, from the Zerahites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:14 The eleventh for the eleventh month was Benaiah the Pirathonite, from the children of Ephraim; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
1Ch 27:15 The twelfth for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.
b. The Captains Who Ruled over the Twelve Tribes and the House of Aaron
vv. 16-24
1Ch 27:16 And 1over the tribes of Israel were these: for the Reubenites was Eliezer the son of Zichri, the leader; for the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maacah;
1Ch 27:17 For Levi, Hashabiah the son of Kemuel; for Aaron, Zadok;
1Ch 27:18 For Judah, Elihu, one of the brothers of David; for Issachar, Omri the son of Michael;
1Ch 27:19 For Zebulun, Ishmaiah the son of Obadiah; for Naphtali, Jeremoth the son of Azriel;
1Ch 27:20 For the children of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Azaziah; for the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel the son of Pedaiah;
1Ch 27:21 For the other half of Manasseh, in Gilead, Iddo the son of Zechariah; for Benjamin, Jaasiel the son of Abner;
1Ch 27:22 For Dan, Azarel the son of Jeroham. These were the captains of the tribes of Israel.
1Ch 27:23 But David did not take the number of those from twenty years old and under, because Jehovah had said He would increase Israel like the astars of heaven.
1Ch 27:24 Joab the son of Zeruiah had begun to anumber them but did bnot finish; and because of this, wrath came upon Israel. Nor was the number put into the account in the chronicles of King David.
c. The Officers over the King’s Treasures and the Overseers of the King’s Property
vv. 25-31
1Ch 27:25 And over the king’s treasures was Azmaveth the son of Adiel; and over the treasures in the fields, in the cities, and in the villages and in the towers was Jonathan the son of Uzziah;
1Ch 27:26 And over those who did the work of the field for tilling the ground was Ezri the son of Chelub;
1Ch 27:27 And over the vineyards was Shimei the Ramathite; and over the produce of the vineyards in the wine cellars was Zabdi the Shiphmite;
1Ch 27:28 And over the olive trees and the asycamore trees that were in the lowland was Baal-hanan the Gederite; and over the oil stores was Joash;
1Ch 27:29 And over the cattle that grazed in aSharon was Shitrai the Sharonite; and over the cattle that were in the valleys was Shaphat the son of Adlai;
1Ch 27:30 And over the camels was Obil the Ishmaelite; and over the asses was Jehdeiah the Meronothite; and over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagrite.
1Ch 27:31 All these were the overseers of the property that belonged to King David.
d. David’s Counselors, Teachers, Friends, and the Captain of His Army
vv. 32-34
1Ch 27:32 In addition, Jonathan, David’s uncle, was a counselor, a man of understanding, and a scribe; and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni was with the king’s sons;
1Ch 27:33 And aAhithophel was the king’s counselor; and bHushai the Archite was the king’s friend;
1Ch 27:34 And after Ahithophel was Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, then aAbiathar; and the captain of the king’s army was bJoab.
1 CHRONICLES 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

10. Assembling All the Leaders of Israel at Jerusalem
28:1 — 29:25
a. His Address to the Assembly
28:1-8
1Ch 28:1 And David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel: the leaders of the tribes, and the leaders of the divisions who served the king, and the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, and the overseers of all the property and cattle of the king and of his sons, with the eunuchs and the mighty men, indeed all the mighty men of valor.
1Ch 28:2 And David the king rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brothers and my people: I had it in my aheart to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah and for the bfootstool of our God, and I prepared materials for building it.
1Ch 28:3 But God said to me, aYou shall not build a house for My name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.
1Ch 28:4 But Jehovah the God of Israel achose me out of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever; for He chose bJudah as leader, and in the house of Judah the house of my father, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me, making me king over all Israel.
1Ch 28:5 And out of all my sons — for Jehovah has given me many sons — He has chosen aSolomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel.
1Ch 28:6 And He said to me, 1Solomon your son, he shall abuild My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his Father.
1Ch 28:7 And I will aestablish his kingdom forever, if he is resolute in doing My commandments and My ordinances, as on this day.
1Ch 28:8 And now in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Jehovah, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek after all the commandments of Jehovah your God in order that you may apossess the good land and leave it as an inheritance forever to your children after you.
b. Charging Solomon His Son to Serve God and to Build the Temple of God
28:9-21
1Ch 28:9 And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve Him with your whole heart and with a willing soul, for Jehovah searches all the ahearts and understands every imagination of the thoughts. If you bseek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you away forever.
1Ch 28:10 See now that Jehovah has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary — be strong and do it.
1Ch 28:11 Then David gave Solomon his son the 1pattern of the portico of the temple and its buildings and its storehouses and its upper rooms and its inner rooms and the building for the expiation cover;
1Ch 28:12 And the apattern of all that he had by the Spirit, for the courts of the house of Jehovah, and for all the chambers around, and for the treasuries of the house of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated gifts;
1Ch 28:13 And for the divisions of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of Jehovah, and for all the vessels of the service of the house of Jehovah;
1Ch 28:14 And for the gold, by 1weight of the gold for all the vessels of each kind of service; for all the vessels of silver, by weight for all the vessels for each kind of service;
1Ch 28:15 And for the weight of the alampstands of gold and their lamps of gold, by weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and for the weight of the lampstands of silver, by weight for the lampstand and its lamps, according to the service of each kind of lampstand;
1Ch 28:16 And for the gold, by weight for the tables of the rows of bread for each table, and for the silver for the tables of silver;
1Ch 28:17 And for the flesh hooks and the basins and the pitchers, of pure gold; and for the bowls of gold, by weight for each bowl; and for the bowls of silver, by weight for each bowl;
1Ch 28:18 And for the incense aaltar of refined gold, by weight; and gold for the figure of the chariot, that is, the bcherubim, spreading out their wings and covering the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah.
1Ch 28:19 All this, said David, has He made clear by a writing from the hand of Jehovah upon me, all the details of the pattern.
1Ch 28:20 And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and be bold and do it; do not be afraid or dismayed, for Jehovah God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until the completion of all the work for the service of the house of Jehovah.
1Ch 28:21 And here are the divisions of priests and Levites for all the service of the house of God, and with you in all the work will be every willing man with wisdom for any service; also the leaders and all the people will be wholly at your command.
1 CHRONICLES 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

c. His Preparation for the Building of the Temple of God
Stirring Up the Leaders of Israel to Willingly Offer Their Gifts
29:1-9
1Ch 29:1 And David the king said to all the assembly, Solomon my son, he alone whom God has chosen, is young and tender, and the work is great because the 1palace is not for man but for Jehovah God.
1Ch 29:2 And as much as was in my power I have aprepared for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and the bronze for the things of bronze and the iron for the things of iron and the wood for the things of wood, onyx stones and inlaid stones, stones of antimony and variegated stones, and every kind of precious stone and marble stones in abundance.
1Ch 29:3 Furthermore, because I set my affection on the house of my God, and since I have a private treasure of gold and silver, I give it for the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for this holy house:
1Ch 29:4 Three thousand talents of gold, from the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the houses,
1Ch 29:5 Gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and for all the work by the hands of the craftsmen. And who will offer willingly, 1consecrating himself today to Jehovah?
1Ch 29:6 And the leaders of the fathers’ houses and the leaders of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands and of hundreds with the overseers of the king’s work offered willingly;
1Ch 29:7 And they gave for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, and ten thousand talents of silver, and eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.
1Ch 29:8 And those with whom gems were found gave them to the treasure of the house of Jehovah through Jehiel the Gershonite.
1Ch 29:9 Then the people rejoiced because they offered willingly; for with their whole heart they offered willingly to Jehovah. And David the king also rejoiced with great joy.
d. His Blessing to Jehovah in the Sight of All the Assembly
29:10-20a
1Ch 29:10 And David blessed Jehovah in the sight of all the assembly. And David said, You are ablessed, O Jehovah, God of Israel, our Father, from eternity to eternity.
1Ch 29:11 Yours, O Jehovah, is the agreatness and the power and the splendor and the victory and the majesty, indeed all that is in heaven and on earth; Yours, O Jehovah, is the bkingdom, and You are exalted as Head over all.
1Ch 29:12 Both riches and glory proceed from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all.
1Ch 29:13 Now therefore, our God, we thank You and praise Your glorious name.
1Ch 29:14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should have strength to offer so willingly in this way? For all things are from You, and from Your hand we have given to You.
1Ch 29:15 For we are astrangers before You and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days upon earth are like a bshadow, and there is no hope.
1Ch 29:16 O Jehovah our God, as for all this abundance that we have prepared for building You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours.
1Ch 29:17 I know also, O my God, that You try the aheart and take pleasure in uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have offered willingly all these things; and now I have seen with joy Your people, who are present here, offering willingly to You.
1Ch 29:18 O Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of Your people’s heart and establish their aheart toward You.
1Ch 29:19 And to Solomon my son give a wholeness of heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and to do all and build the palace for which I have prepared these things.
1Ch 29:20 Then David said to all the assembly, Bless Jehovah your God.
e. The Reaction of All the Assembly
29:20b-25
And all the assembly blessed Jehovah, the God of their fathers; and they bowed down and paid homage to Jehovah and the king.
1Ch 29:21 And they offered sacrifices to Jehovah and offered up burnt offerings to Jehovah on the next day — one thousand bulls, one thousand rams, one thousand lambs, with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel.
1Ch 29:22 And they ate and drank before Jehovah on that day with great joy. And they made Solomon the son of David king a second time and aanointed him as ruler for Jehovah, and bZadok as priest.
1Ch 29:23 And Solomon sat upon the throne of Jehovah as king in place of David his father and prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.
1Ch 29:24 And all the leaders and mighty men and also all the sons of King David submitted themselves to Solomon the king.
1Ch 29:25 And Jehovah magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed upon him a royal majesty that had never been on any king before him over Israel.
11. Ceasing His Life on Earth
29:26-30
1Ch 29:26 Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel.
1Ch 29:27 And the time which he reigned over Israel was aforty years; in Hebron he reigned seven years, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three.
1Ch 29:28 And David died at a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor; and Solomon his son reigned in his place.
1Ch 29:29 And the acts of David the king, the first and the last, are there written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer and in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the chronicles of Gad the seer,
1Ch 29:30 With all his reign and his might and the times that befell him and Israel and all the kingdoms of the lands.
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SECOND CHRONICLES

Chapters
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Outline

For Author, Time of Writing, etc., see introductory material in 1 Chronicles.
2 CHRONICLES 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

C. The Reign of Solomon
1:1 — 9:31a
1. Seeking for Wisdom
1:1-12
2Ch 1:1 And 1Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and Jehovah his God was with him and magnified him exceedingly.
2Ch 1:2 And Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every leader of all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ houses.
2Ch 1:3 And Solomon and all the assembly with him went up to the ahigh place that was in Gibeon, for the bTent of Meeting of God was there, which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness.
2Ch 1:4 However David had brought up the aArk of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.
2Ch 1:5 And the abronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there before the tabernacle of Jehovah, and Solomon and the assembly inquired at it.
2Ch 1:6 And Solomon went up there before Jehovah to the bronze altar, which was at the Tent of Meeting, and he aoffered upon it one thousand burnt offerings.
2Ch 1:7 aDuring that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Ask what I should give you.
2Ch 1:8 And Solomon said to God, You have shown great lovingkindness to David my father and have made me king in his place.
2Ch 1:9 And now, O Jehovah God, may Your promise to David my father be fulfilled, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the adust of the earth.
2Ch 1:10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?
2Ch 1:11 Then God said to Solomon, Because this is on your heart and you have not asked for riches, wealth, or honor, nor for the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king;
2Ch 1:12 Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and riches and wealth and honor I will give you, such as no kings who were before you have had, nor any after you will have.
2. His Prosperity under the Rich Blessing of God
1:13 — 2:18
2Ch 1:13 Then Solomon came to Jerusalem 1from the high place that was in Gibeon, from the Tent of Meeting; and he reigned over Israel.
2Ch 1:14 aAnd Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen together; and he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
2Ch 1:15 And the king caused silver and gold to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem; and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.
2Ch 1:16 And the horses that Solomon had came from Egypt and from Kue; the king’s traders bought them from Kue at a fixed price.
2Ch 1:17 And they could import from Egypt a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred fifty shekels, and thus they brought them out to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria by their own means.
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2Ch 2:1 Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the name of Jehovah and his royal palace.
2Ch 2:2 And Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens and eighty thousand men as stonecutters in the mountains and three thousand six hundred men to oversee them.
2Ch 2:3 aAnd Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As you did to David my father, in that you sent him cedars to build a house for him to dwell in, so do for me.
2Ch 2:4 I am now about to build a house for the name of Jehovah my God to sanctify to Him, for the burning of afragrant incense before Him and the arranging of the brows of bread continually and the offering up of burnt offerings in the cmorning and in the evening, on Sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of Jehovah our God, this being an ordinance for Israel forever.
2Ch 2:5 And the house which I am building will be great; for greater is our God than all the gods.
2Ch 2:6 But who is able to build Him a house? For the aheavens and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain Him. And who am I, that I should build Him a house, except to burn incense before Him?
2Ch 2:7 So now send me a man, skillful in working with gold and with silver and with bronze and with iron and with purple and crimson and blue cloth, and who knows how to make engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father prepared.
2Ch 2:8 Send me timber of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut the timber of Lebanon. And now my servants will be with your servants,
2Ch 2:9 To prepare for me timber in abundance; for the house which I am building will be great and wonderful.
2Ch 2:10 And now I will give to your servants, the hewers who cut timber, twenty thousand 1cors of crushed wheat and twenty thousand cors of barley and twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of oil.
2Ch 2:11 And Huram the king of Tyre answered by letter, sending it to Solomon, saying, Because Jehovah loves His people, He has made you king over them.
2Ch 2:12 Huram also said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who has given King David a wise son 1endowed with discernment and understanding, who will build a house for Jehovah and his royal palace.
2Ch 2:13 aAnd now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, 1Huram-abi,
2Ch 2:14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father is a man of Tyre, who knows how to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron, in stones and in wood, in purple, in blue cloth, and in fine linen and in crimson cloth and who knows how to make all kinds of engraving, and to fashion any design which is given to him, to work with your skillful men and the skillful men of my lord David your father.
2Ch 2:15 And now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine of which he spoke;
2Ch 2:16 And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, and you can bring it up to Jerusalem.
2Ch 2:17 And Solomon numbered all the men who were asojourners who were in the land of Israel after the census which David his father had made of them, and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.
2Ch 2:18 And he appointed seventy thousand of them as burden bearers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.
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3. Building the Temple of God as well as His Own Palaces
3:1 — 7:10
a. The Temple
3:1-14, 16
2Ch 3:1 And Solomon began to abuild the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem on 1bMount Moriah, where He had appeared to David his father, at the place that David prepared, on the cthreshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2Ch 3:2 aAnd he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
2Ch 3:3 And these are the foundations which Solomon laid to build the house of God. The 1length in cubits, according to the former standard, was sixty cubits, and it was twenty cubits wide.
2Ch 3:4 And the portico that was at the front was as long as the width of the house, twenty cubits; and its height was one hundred twenty cubits. And he overlaid it within with pure gold.
2Ch 3:5 And the 1greater house he overlaid with acypress wood, and he overlaid it with fine gold and put palm trees and chains on it.
2Ch 3:6 And he adorned the house with aprecious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim.
2Ch 3:7 And he overlaid the house — the beams, the thresholds, and its walls and its doors — with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.
2Ch 3:8 aAnd he made the house of the Holy of Holies; its length, across the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold amounting to six hundred talents.
2Ch 3:9 And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold, and the upper chambers he overlaid with gold.
2Ch 3:10 And he made two cherubim of sculptured work in the house of the Holy of Holies, and they overlaid them with gold.
2Ch 3:11 And the wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits; the wing of one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub.
2Ch 3:12 And the wing of the other cherub, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, was attached to the wing of the first cherub.
2Ch 3:13 The wings of these cherubim were spread out twenty cubits in length; and they stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house.
2Ch 3:14 And he made the aveil of blue and purple and crimson cloth and fine linen, and he put cherubim upon it.
b. The Two Bronze Pillars
3:15, 17
2Ch 3:15 aAnd at the front of the house he made two 1bpillars, thirty-five cubits high; and the capital that was on the top of each was five cubits high.
a. The Temple (cont’d)
3:16
2Ch 3:16 And he made chains in the innermost sanctuary and set them on the tops of the pillars, and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains.
b. The Two Bronze Pillars (cont’d)
3:17
2Ch 3:17 And he erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left; and he called the name of the one on the right 1Jachin and the name of the one on the left 2Boaz.
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c. The Bronze Altar
4:1
2Ch 4:1 And he made an aaltar of bronze; its length was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits, and its height was ten cubits.
d. The Bronze Sea with the Ten Bronze Lavers
4:2-6
2Ch 4:2 aAnd he made the molten sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, fully round; and it was five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits encompassed it.
2Ch 4:3 And under it there were 1figures of oxen all around, encircling it, 2for ten cubits, surrounding the sea all around; the oxen were cast in two rows when they were cast.
2Ch 4:4 It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing north and three facing west and three facing south and three facing east; and the sea was upon them, and all their hindquarters were within.
2Ch 4:5 And it was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was like the work of a cup’s brim, like the flower of a lily; it could hold three thousand baths.
2Ch 4:6 And he made ten abasins in which to wash, to rinse the things for the burnt offering, and he set five on the right and five on the left; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
e. The Vessels of the Temple
4:7-8
2Ch 4:7 Then he made the ten golden alampstands according to the ordinance for them, and he put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left.
2Ch 4:8 And he made ten atables and placed them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left; and he made one hundred golden bowls.
f. The Courts
4:9-10
2Ch 4:9 And he made the court of the priests and the great court and the doors of the court, and he overlaid their doors with bronze.
2Ch 4:10 aAnd he put the sea on the right side of the house, on the east side southward.
g. Huram’s Work for Solomon
4:11 — 5:1
2Ch 4:11 aAnd Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. Thus Huram finished doing the work that he was doing for King Solomon in the house of God:
2Ch 4:12 The two pillars and the bowls and the two capitals that were at the top of the pillars and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were at the top of the pillars;
2Ch 4:13 And the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.
2Ch 4:14 He also made the bases, and he made the basins upon the bases;
2Ch 4:15 And the one sea and the twelve oxen under it.
2Ch 4:16 And the pots and the shovels and the forks and all their vessels that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of Jehovah were of burnished bronze.
2Ch 4:17 The king cast them in the plain of the Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.
2Ch 4:18 And Solomon made all these vessels in great number, for the weight of bronze could not be ascertained.
2Ch 4:19 And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God: the golden altar; and the tables upon which the bread of the Presence was put;
2Ch 4:20 And the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn according to their ordinance before the innermost sanctuary;
2Ch 4:21 And the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold, of purest gold;
2Ch 4:22 And the snuffers and the bowls and the small cups and the firepans, of pure gold; and the entrance of the house, its innermost doors for the Holy of Holies, and the doors of the house of the temple, of gold.
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2Ch 5:1 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of Jehovah was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had sanctified, even the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.
h. The Dedication of the Temple
5:2 — 7:10
(1) The Tabernacle Being Merged with the Temple
5:2-14
2Ch 5:2 aThen Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah from the city of David, which is Zion.
2Ch 5:3 And all the men of Israel assembled themselves before the king at the feast, which is in the seventh month.
2Ch 5:4 And when all the elders of Israel came, the aLevites took up the Ark.
2Ch 5:5 And they brought up the Ark and the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and Levites brought them up.
2Ch 5:6 And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel, who had assembled before him before the Ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen which could not be counted or numbered for multitude.
2Ch 5:7 And the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the innermost sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies under the wings of the cherubim.
2Ch 5:8 And the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles overhead.
2Ch 5:9 And the poles extended out, so that the ends of the poles could be seen coming out from the Ark before the innermost sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and they are there to this day.
2Ch 5:10 There was nothing in the Ark except the two atablets, which Moses put there at Horeb when Jehovah made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
2Ch 5:11 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves without regard to their divisions),
2Ch 5:12 All the Levitical singers, Asaph, aHeman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers clothed in fine linen, with cymbals and with harps and lyres, were standing east of the altar; and one hundred twenty priests who blew the trumpets were with them.
2Ch 5:13 And when the trumpeters and the singers were one to make themselves heard with one voice in praising and in giving thanks to Jehovah, and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets and with cymbals and with musical instruments in praise to Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness is forever; then the house, the house of Jehovah, was filled with a cloud.
2Ch 5:14 And the priests were not able to stand and minister because of the cloud, for the aglory of Jehovah filled the house of God.
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(2) Solomon’s Blessing and Declaration to the People
6:1-11
2Ch 6:1 aThen Solomon said, Jehovah has said that He would dwell in deep bdarkness.
2Ch 6:2 Yet I have built You a lofty house, even a aplace for You to dwell in forever.
2Ch 6:3 And the king turned about and blessed all the congregation of Israel while all the congregation of Israel stood.
2Ch 6:4 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to David my father and fulfilled it with His hands, saying,
2Ch 6:5 aSince the day when I brought My people out from the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house for My name that it might be there; nor did I choose a man to be a ruler over My people Israel;
2Ch 6:6 But I have achosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I have chosen bDavid to be over My people Israel.
2Ch 6:7 And it was on David my father’s heart to abuild a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel;
2Ch 6:8 But Jehovah said to David my father, Because it was on your heart to build a house for My name, you have done well that it was on your heart;
2Ch 6:9 However you will not build the house, but your 1son, who will come forth from your loins, he will build the house for My name.
2Ch 6:10 And Jehovah has established His word which He spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit upon the throne of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and I have built the house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
2Ch 6:11 And there I have set the Ark, in which is the acovenant of Jehovah, which He made with the children of Israel.
(3) Solomon’s Prayer
6:12-42
2Ch 6:12 Then he stood before the altar of Jehovah in front of all the congregation of Israel and spread out his hands.
2Ch 6:13 Now Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long and five cubits wide and three cubits high and had put it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in front of all the congregation of Israel and spread out his hands toward the heavens.
2Ch 6:14 And he said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, there is no god like You, in heaven or on earth, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;
2Ch 6:15 You who have kept with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled with Your hand this day.
2Ch 6:16 And now, O Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You promised him, saying, aThere shall not fail you a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your children keep their way by walking in My law as you have walked before Me.
2Ch 6:17 Now therefore, O Jehovah, God of Israel, may Your word that You spoke to Your servant David be confirmed.
2Ch 6:18 But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, the aheavens and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain You, how much less this house which I have built.
2Ch 6:19 Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, and listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant is praying before You;
2Ch 6:20 That Your aeyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant will bpray toward this place.
2Ch 6:21 And listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they apray toward this place. Hear then from Your dwelling place, from the heavens; and when You hear, bforgive.
2Ch 6:22 If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an aoath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your baltar in this house;
2Ch 6:23 Then hear from the heavens and act and judge Your servants, repaying the wicked by bringing his way on his head and justifying the righteous by giving to him according to his righteousness.
2Ch 6:24 And if Your people Israel are adefeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn and bconfess Your name and pray and make supplication before You in this house;
2Ch 6:25 Then hear from the heavens, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and to their fathers.
2Ch 6:26 When the heavens are shut up and there is ano rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them;
2Ch 6:27 Then hear in the heavens and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel; indeed teach them the good way in which they should walk, and bring rain upon Your land, which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.
2Ch 6:28 If there is famine in the land, if there is apestilence, if there is blight or mildew, swarming locust or consuming locust, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their 1cities, whatever plague, and whatever sickness there is;
2Ch 6:29 Whatever prayer, whatever supplication, which will be made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own plague and his own pain, when he spreads out his hands toward this house;
2Ch 6:30 Then hear from the heavens Your dwelling place, and forgive and render to each man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You alone know the hearts of the children of men;
2Ch 6:31 That they may afear You to walk in Your ways all the days that they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.
2Ch 6:32 And also concerning the foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel but comes from a distant country for the sake of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house;
2Ch 6:33 Then hear from the heavens, from Your dwelling place, and act according to all that the foreigner calls upon You for, that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and that they may fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.
2Ch 6:34 If Your people go out to battle against their enemies by the way which You have sent them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name;
2Ch 6:35 Then hear their prayer and their supplication from the heavens, and maintain their cause.
2Ch 6:36 If they have sinned against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them up to the enemy, so that they are carried away captive unto a land, far away or nearby;
2Ch 6:37 But if they take it to heart in the land where they were carried captive, and they arepent and make supplication to You in the land of those who carried them away captive, saying, We have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly;
2Ch 6:38 And if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and they pray toward their land that You have given to their fathers, and the city that You have chosen, and to the house that I have built for Your name;
2Ch 6:39 Then hear their prayer and their supplications from the heavens, from Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.
2Ch 6:40 Now, O my God, may Your eyes be aopen and Your ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
2Ch 6:41 And now aarise, O Jehovah God, to Your resting place, / You and the Ark of Your strength. / Let Your priests, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, / And let Your saints rejoice in what is good.
2Ch 6:42 O Jehovah God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed one, / Remember Your lovingkindness to aDavid Your servant.
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(4) The Glory of Jehovah Filling the House
7:1-3
2Ch 7:1 aAnd when Solomon had finished praying, the bfire came down from heaven and devoured the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the cglory of Jehovah filled the house.
2Ch 7:2 And the priests were not able to enter the house of Jehovah, for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 7:3 And all the children of Israel, seeing the fire coming down and the glory of Jehovah upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and worshipped and thanked Jehovah, saying, For He is good; for His lovingkindness endures forever.
(5) Solomon and the People Offering a Vast Quantity of Sacrifices to God
7:4-7
2Ch 7:4 aAnd the king and all the people offered sacrifices before Jehovah.
2Ch 7:5 And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
2Ch 7:6 And the priests stood at their posts and the Levites with the musical instruments of Jehovah, which David the king had made for praising Jehovah (for His lovingkindness endures forever) whenever David praised with their help. And the priests sounded the trumpets opposite them, and all Israel was standing.
2Ch 7:7 And Solomon sanctified the middle of the court that was before the house of Jehovah, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering and the meal offering and the fat.
(6) Solomon and His People Holding a Feast for Fourteen Days
7:8-10
2Ch 7:8 And Solomon held a feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt.
2Ch 7:9 And on the eighth day they held a asolemn assembly, for they held the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days;
2Ch 7:10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and happy in heart for the goodness that Jehovah had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel His people.
4. The Highest Peak of His Glory among the Nations
7:11 — 9:28
a. Jehovah’s Acceptance of His Prayer and Jehovah’s Promise to Establish His Throne Forever
7:11-22
2Ch 7:11 aThus Solomon finished the house of Jehovah and the king’s house; and all that had come up in Solomon’s heart to do in the house of Jehovah and in his own house he successfully accomplished.
2Ch 7:12 And Jehovah appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have achosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
2Ch 7:13 If I shut up the heavens so that there is ano rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,
2Ch 7:14 And My people, who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways; then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.
2Ch 7:15 Now My aeyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer from this place.
2Ch 7:16 For now I have chosen and have sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there continually.
2Ch 7:17 And as for you, if you walk before Me, as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you and keep My statutes and My ordinances;
2Ch 7:18 Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, You will anot lack a man to be ruler in Israel.
2Ch 7:19 But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments that I have put before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them;
2Ch 7:20 Then I will pluck them out of My land which I have given them, and this house, which I have sanctified for My name, I will cast out of My sight and make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.
2Ch 7:21 And concerning this house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, aWhy has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house?
2Ch 7:22 And they will say, Because they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods, and they worshipped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this evil upon them.
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b. His Alliance with Huram
8:1-2
2Ch 8:1 aAnd at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of Jehovah and his own house,
2Ch 8:2 1He built the cities which Huram had given to 1him and settled the children of Israel there.
c. Building Further Cities
8:3-11
2Ch 8:3 Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overcame it.
2Ch 8:4 And he built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he built in Hamath.
2Ch 8:5 And he built upper Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,
2Ch 8:6 And Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, even all the cities for the chariots, and the cities for the horsemen and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.
2Ch 8:7 All the people who were left of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,
2Ch 8:8 From their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel had not destroyed utterly, these Solomon levied as aforced labor, as they are unto this day.
2Ch 8:9 But Solomon did not make slaves of the children of Israel for his work, for they were the men of war and the officers over his captains and the officers over his chariots and his horsemen.
2Ch 8:10 And these were the chief of the officers of King Solomon, two hundred fifty, who ruled over the people.
2Ch 8:11 Then Solomon brought up aPharaoh’s daughter from the city of David into the house which he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David the king of Israel, for the places where the Ark of Jehovah has entered are holy.
d. His Offerings, Daily and at the Appointed Feasts
8:12-16
2Ch 8:12 Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to Jehovah on the altar of Jehovah which he had built before the portico,
2Ch 8:13 Even as required daily, offering them up according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths and on the new moons and on the appointed feasts athree times in a year, at the bFeast of Unleavened Bread and at the cFeast of Weeks and at the dFeast of Tabernacles.
2Ch 8:14 And according to the ordinance of David his father, he appointed the adivisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their bcharges to praise and to minister before the priests even as required daily, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for thus was the commandment of David the cman of God.
2Ch 8:15 And they did not turn aside from the commandment of the king concerning the priests and the Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries.
2Ch 8:16 So all the work of Solomon was carried out, from the day of the foundation of the house of Jehovah even until its completion. Thus the house of Jehovah was finished.
e. His Navy and the Cooperation with Huram
8:17-18
2Ch 8:17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the shore of the 1sea, in the land of Edom.
2Ch 8:18 And Huram sent him ships by his servants, and servants who knew the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and took four hundred fifty talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon.
2 CHRONICLES 9

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f. The Queen of Sheba Coming to Pay Him Honor and to Listen to His Words of Wisdom
9:1-9, 12
2Ch 9:1 aAnd the bqueen of Sheba had heard of Solomon’s fame, and she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue and with camels bearing spices and much gold and precious stones to test Solomon with hard questions. And when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him all that was on her heart.
2Ch 9:2 And Solomon answered every matter of hers, and there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he did not answer her.
2Ch 9:3 And when the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built
2Ch 9:4 And the food of his table and the seating of his servants and the service and apparel of his ministers and his cupbearers and their apparel and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah, there was no more spirit in her.
2Ch 9:5 And she said to the king, The word that I heard in my land concerning your deeds and your wisdom is true,
2Ch 9:6 But I did not believe their words until I came and my own eyes saw. And indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me, and you exceed the report that I heard.
2Ch 9:7 Happy are your men! And happy are these your servants, who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom!
2Ch 9:8 Blessed be Jehovah your God, who has delighted in you and set you upon His throne as king for Jehovah your God. Because your God loves Israel to establish them forever, He has placed you as king over them to execute justice and righteousness.
2Ch 9:9 And she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold and a very great store of spices and precious stones, and there had never been spices like those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
g. Huram’s Servants Bringing Precious Goods for the Temple of God and Solomon’s Palace
9:10-11
2Ch 9:10 Moreover Huram’s servants and Solomon’s servants who brought gold from Ophir brought algum trees and precious stones.
2Ch 9:11 And the king made of the algum trees steps for the house of Jehovah and for the king’s house and lyres and harps for the singers; such as these had not been seen before in the land of Judah.
f. The Queen of Sheba Coming to Pay Him Honor and to Listen to His Words of Wisdom (cont’d)
9:12
2Ch 9:12 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked for, besides that which she brought to the king. And she turned and went to her own land, she and her servants.
h. Enriched with the Tribute by the Kings of the Nations and
the Tariff on the Traders and Merchants
9:13-24, 26-27
2Ch 9:13 aNow the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,
2Ch 9:14 Besides that which was brought by the traders and the merchants and by all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land, who brought gold and silver to Solomon.
2Ch 9:15 And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; he put six hundred shekels of beaten gold upon each large shield.
2Ch 9:16 And he made three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold; he put three hundred shekels of gold upon each smaller shield. And the king put them in the Lebanon Forest House.
2Ch 9:17 And the king made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.
2Ch 9:18 And the throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to the throne, and there were armrests on either side next to the place of the seat, and two lions stood next to the armrests.
2Ch 9:19 And twelve lions stood there upon the six steps on either side. Nothing like it had ever been made in any kingdom.
2Ch 9:20 And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold; silver was considered as nothing in the days of Solomon.
2Ch 9:21 For the king had a fleet which went to Tarshish with Huram’s servants. Once every three years the fleet from Tarshish came bearing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks.
2Ch 9:22 And King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.
2Ch 9:23 And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
2Ch 9:24 And they each brought their tribute, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, weapons and spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.
i. Building a Defense of Chariots and Cavalry
9:25, 28
2Ch 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots; and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
h. Enriched with the Tribute
by the Kings of the Nations and the Tariff on the Traders and Merchants (cont’d)
9:26-27
2Ch 9:26 And he was the ruler over all the kings from the 1aRiver unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt.
2Ch 9:27 And the king caused silver to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem, and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.
i. Building a Defense of Chariots and Cavalry (cont’d)
9:28
2Ch 9:28 And they brought horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands.
5. His Decease after Reigning over All Israel for Forty Years
9:29-31a
2Ch 9:29 aAnd the rest of the acts of Solomon, the first and the last, are they not written in the chronicles of bNathan the prophet and in the prophecy of cAhijah the Shilonite and in the visions of dIddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
2Ch 9:30 And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
2Ch 9:31 And Solomon slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father.
III. The History concerning the Kings of Judah
9:31b — 36:23
A. The Reign of Rehoboam
9:31b — 12:16a
1. Continuing the Reign after Solomon
9:31b
And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
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2. Suffering the Division of the Kingdom and Losing Ten Tribes
10:1 — 11:4
2Ch 10:1 aThen Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
2Ch 10:2 And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had afled from Solomon the king; and Jeroboam returned from Egypt;
2Ch 10:3 And they sent word to him and called him), Jeroboam and all of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,
2Ch 10:4 Your father made our yoke hard. Now therefore make the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us lighter, and we will serve you.
2Ch 10:5 And he said to them, Go away for another three days, then return to me. And the people went away.
2Ch 10:6 Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who attended Solomon his father while he was alive, saying, What counsel do you give me to return as an answer to this people?
2Ch 10:7 And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be good to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants always.
2Ch 10:8 But he forsook the counsel of the elders with which they counseled him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who attended him.
2Ch 10:9 And he said to them, What counsel do you give me that we may return an answer to this people who have spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke that your father put upon us?
2Ch 10:10 And the young men who grew up with him spoke with him, saying, Thus shall you say to the people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter on us; thus shall you say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.
2Ch 10:11 And now, whereas my father laid a heavy yoke upon you, I will increase your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
2Ch 10:12 And Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had spoken, saying, Return to me on the third day.
2Ch 10:13 And the king answered them harshly; and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders
2Ch 10:14 And spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, I will make your yoke heavy, and I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
2Ch 10:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was of God that Jehovah might establish His word which He had spoken through aAhijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
2Ch 10:16 And when all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people returned an answer to the king, saying, What portion do we have in David? Neither do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. Each one to your tents, O Israel. Now see to your own house, O David. And all Israel went to their tents.
2Ch 10:17 But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
2Ch 10:18 Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the forced labor, and the children of Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to get up into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.
2Ch 10:19 So Israel has rebelled against the house of David until this day.
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2Ch 11:1 aAnd when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand choice warriors, to wage war with Israel in order to return the kingdom to Rehoboam.
2Ch 11:2 But the word of Jehovah came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
2Ch 11:3 Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,
2Ch 11:4 Thus says Jehovah, You shall not go up and wage war with your brothers. Every man return to his house; for this matter is of Me. So they listened to the words of Jehovah and returned from going against Jeroboam.
3. Reigning over Judah and Benjamin
11:5-23
2Ch 11:5 1And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem and built cities for defense in Judah.
2Ch 11:6 He built Bethlehem and Etam and Tekoa
2Ch 11:7 And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam
2Ch 11:8 And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph
2Ch 11:9 And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah
2Ch 11:10 And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fortified cities.
2Ch 11:11 And he strengthened the fortresses and put commanders in them, as well as stores of food and oil and wine,
2Ch 11:12 And in every city, shields and spears; and he made them exceedingly strong. And Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.
2Ch 11:13 And the 1priests and the Levites who had been throughout all Israel presented themselves to him out of all their territory;
2Ch 11:14 For the Levites abandoned their pasture lands and their property and went to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out so that they could not afunction as priests to Jehovah.
2Ch 11:15 And he appointed priests for himself for the high places and for the 1goats and the acalves that he had made.
2Ch 11:16 And those from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts to seek Jehovah the God of Israel came after them to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 11:17 And they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.
2Ch 11:18 And Rehoboam took to himself for his wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.
2Ch 11:19 And she bore him sons: Jeush and Shemariah and Zaham.
2Ch 11:20 And after her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith.
2Ch 11:21 And Rehoboam aloved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines. (For he had taken 1eighteen bwives and 1sixty concubines and begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)
2Ch 11:22 And Rehoboam 1appointed Abijah the son of Maacah to be chief prince, the leader among his brothers; for he intended to make him king.
2Ch 11:23 And he acted wisely and dispersed all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to all the fortified cities; and he gave them food in abundance and sought many wives for them.
2 CHRONICLES 12

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4. Defeated and Robbed by the King of Egypt
12:1-12
2Ch 12:1 And when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and when it was strong, he and all Israel with him forsook the law of Jehovah.
2Ch 12:2 Then in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, aShishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had been unfaithful to Jehovah,
2Ch 12:3 With one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were without number: Libyans, Sukkiim, and Cushites.
2Ch 12:4 And he captured the fortified cities which belonged to Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
2Ch 12:5 And aShemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who were gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak; and he said to them, Thus says Jehovah, You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you, delivering you into the hand of Shishak.
2Ch 12:6 So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, Jehovah is righteous.
2Ch 12:7 And when Jehovah saw that they had humbled themselves the word of Jehovah came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but I will give them a little deliverance, and My awrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak;
2Ch 12:8 For they will become his servants that they may know the difference between serving Me and serving the kingdoms of the lands.
2Ch 12:9 aAnd Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king’s house; indeed he took away all. And he took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
2Ch 12:10 And King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them into the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the entrance of the king’s house.
2Ch 12:11 And whenever the king went into the house of Jehovah, the guards came and carried them and returned them to the guardroom.
2Ch 12:12 And when he humbled himself, the anger of Jehovah turned away from him, and He did not destroy them completely; and also things in Judah were good.
5. Fighting with Jeroboam of Israel and Being Buried in the City of David
12:13-16a
2Ch 12:13 aSo King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where Jehovah had chosen, out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
2Ch 12:14 And he did what was evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek Jehovah.
2Ch 12:15 aAnd the acts of Rehoboam, the first and the last, are they not written in the chronicles of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer according to the genealogical records? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
2Ch 12:16 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.
B. The Reign of Abijah
12:16b — 14:1a
And Abijah his son reigned in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 13

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2Ch 13:1 aIn the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah.
2Ch 13:2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Micaiah, the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
2Ch 13:3 And Abijah began the battle with an army of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand choice men. And Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand choice men, mighty men of valor.
2Ch 13:4 And Abijah stood up on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel:
2Ch 13:5 Do you not know that Jehovah the God of Israel gave the akingdom over Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons, by a 1covenant of salt?
2Ch 13:6 But aJeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord.
2Ch 13:7 And worthless men, just scoundrels, gathered around him and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender in heart and could not withstand them.
2Ch 13:8 And now you think that you can withstand the kingdom of Jehovah in the hand of the sons of David because you are a great multitude and with you are the agolden calves that Jeroboam made as gods for you.
2Ch 13:9 Have you not cast out the apriests of Jehovah, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And you made for yourselves bpriests like those of the peoples of other lands, so that anyone who comes to 1consecrate himself with a bull of the herd and seven rams becomes a priest of what are not gods.
2Ch 13:10 But as for us, Jehovah is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests who minister to Jehovah are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites are in their work.
2Ch 13:11 And they aoffer in smoke to Jehovah burnt offerings morning by morning and evening by evening as well as fragrant incense, and they set the rows of bread upon the pure table, and they care for the golden lampstand and its lamps that it may burn evening by evening; for we keep the charge of Jehovah our God, but you have forsaken Him.
2Ch 13:12 And here with us is God at our head and His priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound out against you. O children of Israel, do not afight against Jehovah, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.
2Ch 13:13 Now Jeroboam had sent an ambush around to come up from behind them. So they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.
2Ch 13:14 And when Judah looked back, the battle was right on them, before and behind; and they cried out to Jehovah, and the priests sounded the trumpets.
2Ch 13:15 And the men of Judah shouted; and when the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
2Ch 13:16 And the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand.
2Ch 13:17 And Abijah and his people struck a great blow on them, so that five hundred thousand choice men from Israel fell slain.
2Ch 13:18 Thus the children of Israel were subdued at that time; and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 13:19 And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel and its villages, and Jeshanah and its villages, and Ephron and its villages.
2Ch 13:20 And Jeroboam never regained power during the days of Abijah; but Jehovah struck him, and he died.
2Ch 13:21 And Abijah grew stronger; and he took to himself 1fourteen awives and begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
2Ch 13:22 aAnd the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways and his words are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.
2 CHRONICLES 14

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2Ch 14:1 aAnd Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David.
C. The Reign of Asa
14:1b — 16:14
And Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.
2Ch 14:2 aAnd Asa did what was good and upright in the sight of Jehovah his God;
2Ch 14:3 For he removed the foreign altars and the high places and smashed the pillars and hewed down the Asherahs,
2Ch 14:4 And he commanded Judah to pursue Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and perform the law and the commandment.
2Ch 14:5 And from all the cities of Judah he removed the 1high places and the incense altars. And the kingdom was quiet before him.
2Ch 14:6 And he built fortress cities in Judah; for the land was quiet and there was no war against him during those years, because Jehovah had given him rest.
2Ch 14:7 For he said to Judah, Let us build these cities and put around them walls with towers, gates, and bars. The land is still before us because we have pursued Jehovah our God; we have pursued Him, and He has given us rest all around. So they built and prospered.
2Ch 14:8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who bore shields and spears and of two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin who bore hand shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor.
2Ch 14:9 And Zerah the 1Cushite went out to them with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.
2Ch 14:10 And Asa went out before him and set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
2Ch 14:11 And Asa called out to Jehovah his God and said, O Jehovah, there is none besides You to help us, between the mighty and those without strength. Help us, O Jehovah our God, for we trust in You, and ain Your name we have come against this multitude. O Jehovah, You are our God; do not let mortal man prevail against You.
2Ch 14:12 And Jehovah struck the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled.
2Ch 14:13 And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar; and so many of the Cushites fell that 1they could not recover, for they were shattered before Jehovah and before His army. And they carried away very much spoil.
2Ch 14:14 And they struck all the cities surrounding Gerar, for the fear of Jehovah was upon them. And they plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.
2Ch 14:15 And they also struck the cattle tents and carried away sheep in abundance and camels, and they returned to Jerusalem.
2 CHRONICLES 15

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2Ch 15:1 And the aSpirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded.
2Ch 15:2 And he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is awith you while you are with Him; and if you pursue Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
2Ch 15:3 Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.
2Ch 15:4 But in their distress they turned to Jehovah the God of Israel and sought Him, and He was found by them.
2Ch 15:5 For in those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great afflictions were upon all the inhabitants of the lands.
2Ch 15:6 For they were crushed, nation against nation and city against city, for God afflicted them with every distress.
2Ch 15:7 But you be strong and do not let your hands fail, for there is reward for your labor.
2Ch 15:8 And when Asa heard these words, that is, the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he strengthened himself and put away the 1detestable things from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. And he restored the altar of Jehovah, which was before the portico of Jehovah.
2Ch 15:9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the sojourners with them from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon, for many from Israel threw in their lot with him when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him.
2Ch 15:10 So they gathered themselves at Jerusalem in the third month in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
2Ch 15:11 And they sacrificed to Jehovah on that day from the spoil they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
2Ch 15:12 And they entered into a acovenant to pursue Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul,
2Ch 15:13 And covenanted that anyone who did not pursue Jehovah the God of Israel would be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
2Ch 15:14 And they swore to Jehovah with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with horns.
2Ch 15:15 And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for with all their heart they swore and with all their desire they sought Him. And He was found by them, and Jehovah gave them rest all around.
2Ch 15:16 aAnd he also removed Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother because she had made for 1Asherah an abominable image; and Asa cut down her abominable image and crushed it to powder and burned it at the brook Kidron.
2Ch 15:17 But the high places were not taken away from Israel; otherwise Asa’s heart was perfect all his days.
2Ch 15:18 And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had sanctified and that he had sanctified — silver and gold and vessels.
2Ch 15:19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
2 CHRONICLES 16

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2Ch 16:1 aIn the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha the king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah that he might prevent anyone from going out or coming to Asa the king of Judah.
2Ch 16:2 And Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the king’s house and sent them to Ben-hadad the king of Syria who was dwelling in Damascus, saying,
2Ch 16:3 There is an alliance between me and you as there was between my father and your father. I am now sending you silver and gold; go, break your alliance with Baasha the king of Israel, so that he goes away from me.
2Ch 16:4 And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa. And he sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they struck Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim and all the store cities of Naphtali.
2Ch 16:5 And when Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work.
2Ch 16:6 And Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had built it, and built Geba and Mizpah with them.
2Ch 16:7 And at that time aHanani the seer came to Asa the king of Judah and said to him, Because you have btrusted in the king of Syria and have not trusted in Jehovah your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.
2Ch 16:8 Were not the aCushites and the Lubim a large host, with a very great abundance of chariots and horsemen? And because you trusted in Jehovah, He gave them into your hands.
2Ch 16:9 For the aeyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is perfect toward Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter; hence from this time on you will have bwars.
2Ch 16:10 Then Asa became angry with the seer and put him in aprison in stocks, for he was in a rage against him because of this matter. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.
2Ch 16:11 aAnd the acts of Asa, the first and the last, are there written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 16:12 And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became 1diseased in his feet; his disease was very severe, yet even in his disease he pursued not Jehovah but the physicians.
2Ch 16:13 And Asa slept with his fathers and died in the forty-first year of his reign.
2Ch 16:14 And they buried him in his own grave, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David. And they laid him in the resting place, which he had filled with various kinds of aspices blended in the perfumer’s art, and they made a very great burning for him.
2 CHRONICLES 17

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D. The Reign of Jehoshaphat
17:1 — 21:1a
2Ch 17:1 And Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place, and he strengthened himself against Israel.
2Ch 17:2 And he put forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had taken.
2Ch 17:3 And Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former aways of David his father; and he did not pursue the Baals
2Ch 17:4 But pursued the God of his father and walked in His commandments and did not do as Israel had done.
2Ch 17:5 Therefore Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand. And all Judah gave tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance.
2Ch 17:6 And his heart was exalted in the ways of Jehovah; and even more, he removed the high places and the Asherahs from Judah.
2Ch 17:7 And in the third year of his reign he 1sent his officials Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah to ateach in the cities of Judah;
2Ch 17:8 And with them he sent the Levites Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and with them, Elishama and Jehoram, the priests.
2Ch 17:9 And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of Jehovah; and they went around all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.
2Ch 17:10 And the afear of Jehovah was upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they waged no war against Jehoshaphat.
2Ch 17:11 And some of the Philistines would bring presents to Jehoshaphat and silver as tribute; even the Arabians would bring him flocks, seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats.
2Ch 17:12 And Jehoshaphat grew exceedingly great, and he built fortresses and store cities in Judah.
2Ch 17:13 And he conducted many works in the cities of Judah and had men of war, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem.
2Ch 17:14 And this was the muster of them according to their fathers’ house: of Judah, the captains of thousands: Adnah the captain, and with him three hundred thousand mighty men of valor;
2Ch 17:15 And next to him was Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred eighty thousand;
2Ch 17:16 And next to him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who offered himself willingly to Jehovah, and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor.
2Ch 17:17 And of Benjamin: Eliada, a mighty man of valor, and with him two hundred thousand men armed with bow and shield;
2Ch 17:18 And next to him was Jehozabad, and with him one hundred eighty thousand armed for war.
2Ch 17:19 These were those who served the king, besides those whom the king had put in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.
2 CHRONICLES 18

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(The Miserable Ending of Ahab the King of Israel)
18:1-34
2Ch 18:1 And Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor, and he aallied himself in marriage with Ahab.
2Ch 18:2 aAnd after a number of years he came down to Ahab in Samaria. And Ahab slaughtered sheep and oxen in abundance for him and for the people who were with him, and persuaded him to go up against Ramoth-gilead.
2Ch 18:3 And Ahab the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And 1Jehoshaphat said to him, I will be as you are; my people will be as your people; we will be with you in battle.
2Ch 18:4 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Ask today, I beg you, for the word of Jehovah.
2Ch 18:5 And the king of Israel assembled the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, Shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, and God will give it into the king’s hand.
2Ch 18:6 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not yet another prophet of Jehovah here, that we might inquire of him?
2Ch 18:7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but always evil. He is Micaiah the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
2Ch 18:8 Then the king of Israel called a certain officer and said, Quickly bring Micaiah the son of Imla.
2Ch 18:9 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, sitting on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
2Ch 18:10 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron, and he said, Thus says Jehovah, With these you will push the Syrians until you have destroyed them.
2Ch 18:11 And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and succeed; for Jehovah will deliver it into the king’s hand.
2Ch 18:12 And the messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, See, the words of the prophets, being of one accord, seem good to the king. So let your word, I beg you, be like one of them, and speak good.
2Ch 18:13 And Micaiah said, As Jehovah lives, that which my God says, that will I speak.
2Ch 18:14 And when he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And he said, Go up, and succeed; for they will be delivered into your hand.
2Ch 18:15 And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Jehovah?
2Ch 18:16 And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, like asheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master; let each of them return to his house in peace.
2Ch 18:17 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil?
2Ch 18:18 And Micaiah said, Hear therefore the word of Jehovah, aI saw Jehovah sitting on His throne and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left.
2Ch 18:19 And Jehovah said, Who shall entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said after this manner, and another said after that manner.
2Ch 18:20 And there came forth a certain spirit and stood before Jehovah and said, I will entice him. And Jehovah said unto him, How?
2Ch 18:21 And he said, I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, You shall entice him and surely prevail. Go forth, and do so.
2Ch 18:22 So now Jehovah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, and Jehovah has spoken evil concerning you.
2Ch 18:23 Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah approached and astruck Micaiah upon the cheek and said, Which way did the Spirit of Jehovah pass from me to speak to you?
2Ch 18:24 And Micaiah said, You will see on that day when you go from room to room to hide yourself.
2Ch 18:25 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son.
2Ch 18:26 And you shall say, Thus says the king, Put this man in prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction until I return in peace.
2Ch 18:27 And Micaiah said, If you return in peace at all, Jehovah has not spoken by me. And he said, Listen, O peoples, all of you!
2Ch 18:28 And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.
2Ch 18:29 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle; but you put on your robes. And the king of Israel adisguised himself, and they went into the battle.
2Ch 18:30 And the king of Syria commanded the captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, but with the king of Israel only.
2Ch 18:31 And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, This is the king of Israel. And they surrounded him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cried out. And Jehovah helped him, and God diverted them from him.
2Ch 18:32 And when the captains of the chariots perceived that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
2Ch 18:33 And a man drew a bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. And the king of Israel said to his charioteer, Turn your hand, and drive me out of the camp; for I am wounded.
2Ch 18:34 And the battle increased that day; and the king of Israel was propped up in his chariot before the Syrians until the evening, and he died at the time of the setting of the sun.
2 CHRONICLES 19

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2Ch 19:1 Then Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in Jerusalem in peace.
2Ch 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him; and he said to King Jehoshaphat, 1Should you help the wicked and love those who hate Jehovah? Because of this matter wrath has come upon you from Jehovah.
2Ch 19:3 Nevertheless there are some good things found in you, for you have purged the Asherahs out of the land and have set your heart to pursue God.
2Ch 19:4 And Jehoshaphat dwelt in Jerusalem. And he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 19:5 And he set up ajudges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city.
2Ch 19:6 And he said to the judges, Consider what you are doing, for you judge not for man but for Jehovah, and He is with you in pronouncing judgment.
2Ch 19:7 Now therefore let the fear of Jehovah be upon you; be careful how you act, for there is no iniquity with Jehovah our God, anor respect of persons, nor the taking of bribes.
2Ch 19:8 And also in Jerusalem Jehoshaphat set up some of the aLevites and priests and heads of the fathers’ houses in Israel for the judgment of Jehovah and for disputes. And they came back to Jerusalem.
2Ch 19:9 And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you do in the fear of Jehovah, faithfully and with a perfect heart.
2Ch 19:10 And for every dispute that comes to you from among your brothers who dwell in their cities, whether concerning bloodshed or concerning 1law or commandment, statute or ordinance, you shall warn them, so that they are not guilty before Jehovah and so that wrath does not come upon you and your brothers. Thus shall you act, and you will not be guilty.
2Ch 19:11 And now Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters concerning Jehovah; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, is over you in all matters concerning the king. And the Levites will serve before you as officers. Be strong and take action, and may Jehovah be with the good.
2 CHRONICLES 20

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2Ch 20:1 Then after this the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with them some of the 1Meunim came against Jehoshaphat for battle.
2Ch 20:2 And some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude has come upon you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are now in Hazazon-tamar (this is En-gedi).
2Ch 20:3 And Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to apursue Jehovah, and he proclaimed a bfast throughout all Judah.
2Ch 20:4 And Judah gathered themselves to seek help from Jehovah; indeed out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek Jehovah.
2Ch 20:5 And Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Jehovah, before the new court;
2Ch 20:6 And he said, O Jehovah, the God of our fathers, are You not God in aheaven? And are You not ruler over all the bkingdoms of the nations? And in Your hand is strength and might, and there is no one who can stand against You.
2Ch 20:7 Did You not, O our God, adispossess the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the seed of Abraham Your bfriend?
2Ch 20:8 And they have dwelt in it and built in it for You a sanctuary for Your name, saying,
2Ch 20:9 If evil comes upon us, the sword or judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand abefore this house and before You — for Your name is in this house — and cry unto You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.
2Ch 20:10 And now at this moment the achildren of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they bturned away from them and did not destroy them —
2Ch 20:11 At this moment they are rewarding us by coming to cast us out of Your possession, which You gave us as a possession.
2Ch 20:12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no strength before this great multitude that is coming against us, and we do not know what to do; but our eyes are aupon You.
2Ch 20:13 And all Judah stood before Jehovah with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
2Ch 20:14 Then the aSpirit of Jehovah came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly;
2Ch 20:15 And he said, Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says Jehovah to you, Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the abattle is not yours but God’s.
2Ch 20:16 Tomorrow go down against them. They are coming up at the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the river valley before the wilderness of Jeruel.
2Ch 20:17 It is not for you to fight in this battle. Station yourselves; stand and see the asalvation of Jehovah among you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid nor dismayed. Tomorrow go out to meet them, for Jehovah is with you.
2Ch 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before Jehovah to worship Jehovah.
2Ch 20:19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites, rose up to praise Jehovah the God of Israel with an exceedingly loud voice.
2Ch 20:20 And they rose up early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. aBelieve in Jehovah your God, and you will be established; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.
2Ch 20:21 And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them to sing to Jehovah and give thanks in holy array as they went out before the army and say, Give thanks to Jehovah, for His lovingkindness endures forever.
2Ch 20:22 And when they began to shout in song and to praise, Jehovah set ambushes for the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who were coming out against Judah; and they were struck.
2Ch 20:23 And the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to absolutely destroy and demolish them; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every man ahelped to destroy his neighbor.
2Ch 20:24 And Judah came to the wilderness watchtower and looked upon the multitude; and there they were, fallen corpses on the ground, and no one escaped.
2Ch 20:25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the spoil of them as plunder, they found among them in abundance both possessions and corpses and precious vessels, and stripped these for themselves, more than they could carry. And they spent three days taking spoil, for there was much.
2Ch 20:26 And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of 1Beracah (for there they blessed Jehovah; therefore they have called the name of that place the valley of Beracah to this day).
2Ch 20:27 And they turned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat at their head, to go back to Jerusalem with rejoicing; for Jehovah had caused them to rejoice over their enemies.
2Ch 20:28 And they came to Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets, to the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 20:29 And the afear of God was upon all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that Jehovah had fought with the enemies of Israel.
2Ch 20:30 So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God had given him rest all around.
2Ch 20:31 aAnd Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah; he was thirty-five years old when he began to reign. And he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.
2Ch 20:32 And he walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn away from it, doing what was right in the sight of Jehovah.
2Ch 20:33 However the high places were anot removed, nor as yet did the people set their heart after the God of their fathers.
2Ch 20:34 aAnd the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the first and the last, are there written in the chronicle of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is inserted in the book of the kings of Israel.
2Ch 20:35 Then after this, Jehoshaphat the king of Judah ajoined himself to Ahaziah the king of Israel; he acted wickedly in so doing.
2Ch 20:36 And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-geber.
2Ch 20:37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, 1Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, Jehovah has destroyed your works. And the ships were shattered and were unable to go to Tarshish.
2 CHRONICLES 21

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2Ch 21:1 aAnd Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David.
E. The Reign of Jehoram
21:1b-20
And Jehoram his son reigned in his place.
2Ch 21:2 And he had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariahu and Michael and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat the king of 1Judah.
2Ch 21:3 And their father gave them many gifts of silver and gold and precious things, along with fortified cities in Judah; but the kingdom he gave to Jehoram, for he was the afirstborn.
2Ch 21:4 And when Jehoram rose up over the kingdom of his father and strengthened himself, he slew all his brothers with the sword as well as the princes of Israel.
2Ch 21:5 aJehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 21:6 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel and as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his awife; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
2Ch 21:7 But Jehovah would not destroy the house of David, because of the 1acovenant He had made with David and since He had promised that He would provide a blamp for him and for his children always.
2Ch 21:8 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and they installed a king over themselves.
2Ch 21:9 So Jehoram crossed over with his captains and all his chariots with him. And he rose up at night and struck the Edomites all around him and the captains of the chariots.
2Ch 21:10 So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, as it is to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time from under his hand, for he had forsaken Jehovah, the God of his fathers.
2Ch 21:11 He also made high places in the hill country of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotries and led Judah astray.
2Ch 21:12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says Jehovah, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of aJehoshaphat your father and in the ways of bAsa the king of Judah
2Ch 21:13 But have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotries, as the house of aAhab committed harlotries, and also have slain your brothers, those of your father’s house, who were better than you,
2Ch 21:14 Jehovah is now striking your people and your children and your wives and all your possessions with a great plague;
2Ch 21:15 And you yourself will be severely ill with a disease of your bowels, to the point that your bowels will come out day by day because of the illness.
2Ch 21:16 And Jehovah astirred up the spirit of the Philistines and Arabians who are next to the Cushites against Jehoram.
2Ch 21:17 And they came up against Judah and broke through into it and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king’s house as well as his sons and his wives; and no son was left to him except aJehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.
2Ch 21:18 And after all this, Jehovah struck him in his bowels with the incurable illness.
2Ch 21:19 And in the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the illness, and he died with severe illnesses. And his people did not make a burning for him, like the burning they had made for his fathers.
2Ch 21:20 He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed with no one’s regret; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
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F. The Reign of Ahaziah
22:1-9
2Ch 22:1 And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made 1Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men who had come up to the camp with the Arabians had slain all the older sons; so aAhaziah the son of Jehoram the king of Judah reigned.
2Ch 22:2 Ahaziah was 1twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was aAthaliah, the 2daughter of Omri.
2Ch 22:3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in acting wickedly.
2Ch 22:4 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his own destruction.
2Ch 22:5 He walked also in their counsel and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab the king of Israel to battle against Hazael the king of Syria at aRamoth-gilead. And the Syrians struck 1Joram,
2Ch 22:6 And he returned to heal in Jezreel because of the wounds that they had inflicted on him in Ramah when he fought with Hazael the king of Syria. And 1aAhaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was sick.
2Ch 22:7 Now the downfall of Ahaziah was of God, because he went to aJoram. And when he arrived, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had banointed to cut off the house of Ahab.
2Ch 22:8 And when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of aAhab, he found the captains of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers serving Ahaziah; and he slew them.
2Ch 22:9 And he sought for aAhaziah, and they caught him; for he had been hiding in Samaria. And they brought him to Jehu and killed him. And they buried him, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who pursued Jehovah with all his heart. And the house of Ahaziah did not have the strength to retain the kingdom.
G. The Illegitimate Reign of Athaliah
22:10 — 23:15
2Ch 22:10 aAnd when bAthaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and 1destroyed all the royal seed of the house of Judah.
2Ch 22:11 But Jehoshabeath the daughter of the king took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the sons of the king who were being killed. And she put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest — for she was the sister of Ahaziah — hid him from Athaliah, so that she could not kill him.
2Ch 22:12 And he was with them, hidden in the house of God, for six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land.
2 CHRONICLES 23

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2Ch 23:1 aThen in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself and took the captains of the hundreds — Azariah the son of Jeroham and Ishmael the son of Johanan and Azariah the son of Obed and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah and Elishaphat the son of Zichri — into a covenant with him.
2Ch 23:2 And they went around in Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the chief fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
2Ch 23:3 And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And 1Jehoiada said to them, Now, the king’s son shall reign, as Jehovah aspoke concerning the sons of David.
2Ch 23:4 This is the thing that you shall do: A third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be the doorkeepers;
2Ch 23:5 And another third shall keep watch in the king’s house, and another third shall keep watch in the Gate of the Foundation, and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 23:6 But let no one come into the house of Jehovah except the priests and the ministering aLevites; they can come because they are holy; but all the people shall keep the charge of Jehovah.
2Ch 23:7 And the Levites shall surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever enters the house shall be put to death; and you shall be with the king in his comings and goings.
2Ch 23:8 And the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded them. And each took his men, those who came on duty on the Sabbath with those who went off duty on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the divisions.
2Ch 23:9 And Jehoiada the priest gave the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David, which were in the house of God, to the captains of the hundreds.
2Ch 23:10 And he set all the people, each man with his javelin in his hand, from the right flank of the house to the left flank of the house, by the altar and by the house, to guard the king all around.
2Ch 23:11 And they brought the king’s son out and put the crown on him and gave him the atestimony, and they made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, Long live the king!
2Ch 23:12 Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went to the people at the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 23:13 And she looked, and there was the king, standing by the pillar at the entrance, with the captains and their trumpets near the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew the trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments were leading the praise. And Athaliah tore her clothes and said, Treason! Treason!
2Ch 23:14 And Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of the hundreds who had been set over the army and said to them, Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her shall be killed with a sword; for the priest said, They shall not kill her in the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 23:15 And they made way for her, and she went to the king’s house through the entrance of the horses’ gate; and they killed her there.
H. The Reign of Joash
23:16 — 24:27a
2Ch 23:16 And Jehoiada made a acovenant between himself and all the people and the king that they would be Jehovah’s people.
2Ch 23:17 And all the people went to the house of aBaal and broke it down: The altars to him and his images they broke up, and they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.
2Ch 23:18 And Jehoiada placed officers of the house of Jehovah under the authority of the Levitical priests whom David had aapportioned over the house of Jehovah, to offer up the burnt offerings of Jehovah, as was written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, according to the order of David.
2Ch 23:19 And he set the adoorkeepers at the doors of the house of Jehovah so that no one would enter who was unclean in any respect.
2Ch 23:20 And 1Jehoiada gathered the captains of the hundreds and the nobles and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the house of Jehovah. And they went through the upper gate to the king’s house and set the king upon the throne of the kingdom.
2Ch 23:21 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; for they had slain Athaliah with the sword.
2 CHRONICLES 24

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2Ch 24:1 aJoash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.
2Ch 24:2 And Joash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah all the adays of Jehoiada the priest.
2Ch 24:3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he begot sons and daughters.
2Ch 24:4 Now after this it came up in Joash’s heart to restore the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 24:5 And he gathered the priests and Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah, and collect from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year; and you shall do the matter quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly.
2Ch 24:6 So the king called for Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, Why have you not required of the Levites to bring from Judah and from Jerusalem the atax levied by Moses the servant of Jehovah on the congregation of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?
2Ch 24:7 For the sons of the wicked aAthaliah had broken up the house of God and even used the holy things of the house of Jehovah for the Baals.
2Ch 24:8 And the king gave orders, and they made a chest and put it outside, by the gate of the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 24:9 And they made a proclamation in Judah and in Jerusalem to bring to Jehovah the tax levied by Moses the servant of God on Israel in the wilderness.
2Ch 24:10 And all the officers and all the people rejoiced, and they brought their taxes and cast them into the chest until they had finished.
2Ch 24:11 And whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officer by the Levites, and whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king’s scribe and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. They did so daily, and they collected a large amount of money.
2Ch 24:12 And the king and Jehoiada would give it to those who did the work of service of the house of Jehovah, and they would hire stone hewers and carpenters to restore the house of Jehovah, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 24:13 And those who did the work worked, and the restoration work progressed in their hands; and they restored the house of God to its proper proportions and strengthened it.
2Ch 24:14 And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada and made with it avessels for the house of Jehovah, vessels for service and for offering up burnt offerings, and cups and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered up burnt offerings in the house of Jehovah continually all the days of Jehoiada.
2Ch 24:15 And when Jehoiada became old and full of days, he died; and he was one hundred thirty years old when he died.
2Ch 24:16 And they buried him in the city of David with the kings, because he had done well in Israel and with God and His house.
2Ch 24:17 And after the death of Jehoiada the captains of Judah came and bowed down to the king; then the king listened to them.
2Ch 24:18 And they forsook the house of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and they served the Asherahs and the idols; so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.
2Ch 24:19 And He asent prophets to them to bring them back to Jehovah; and they btestified to them, but they did not pay attention.
2Ch 24:20 Then the aSpirit of God clothed bZechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you transgress the commandments of Jehovah, so that you do not prosper? For you have forsaken Jehovah, and He has forsaken you.
2Ch 24:21 So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they astoned him to death in the court of the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 24:22 Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which aJehoiada his father had shown him, and he slew his son; and when he died he said, May Jehovah see and avenge!
2Ch 24:23 aAnd at the turn of the year the army of the Syrians came up against him and came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
2Ch 24:24 Although the army of the Syrians had come with a small number of men, Jehovah delivered into their hand a very great army, because they had forsaken Jehovah, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.
2Ch 24:25 aAnd when they went from him — for they left him in great sickness — his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest and slew him on his bed; and he died, and they buried him in the city of David. However they did not bury him among the tombs of the kings.
2Ch 24:26 Now those who conspired against him were Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess.
2Ch 24:27 And concerning his sons and the many oracles against him and his laying the foundations of the house of Jehovah, indeed these things are written in the record of the book of the kings.
I. The Reign of Amaziah
24:27b — 25:28
And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 25

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2Ch 25:1 aAmaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem.
2Ch 25:2 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, but not with a perfect heart.
2Ch 25:3 And when the kingdom was firmly in his control, he slew those servants who had struck down his father the king;
2Ch 25:4 But their children he did not put to death, but acted according to what is written in the law in the book of Moses, where Jehovah commanded, saying, aFathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
2Ch 25:5 And Amaziah gathered Judah together and arranged them according to the fathers’ houses, by captains of thousands and by captains of hundreds, throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from atwenty years old and upward and found them to be three hundred thousand chosen men able to go out to war, who could handle spear and shield.
2Ch 25:6 He also hired from Israel one hundred thousand mighty men of valor for one hundred talents of silver.
2Ch 25:7 But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, do not let the army of Israel go out with you, for Jehovah is anot with Israel, not with any of the children of Ephraim.
2Ch 25:8 Rather go by yourself and do it; be strong for the battle. Otherwise God will cast you down before your enemies, for in God there is power to help or cast down.
2Ch 25:9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, And what shall be done with the hundred talents of silver, which I have given to the company of Israel? And the man of God said, Jehovah can give you much more than this.
2Ch 25:10 So Amaziah separated them (the company that had come to him from Ephraim) and let them go to their own place. And their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned to their place in fierce anger.
2Ch 25:11 And Amaziah strengthened himself and led forth his people. And he went to the Valley of Salt and astruck down ten thousand of the children of Seir;
2Ch 25:12 And the children of Judah captured ten thousand alive. And they brought them to the top of Sela and cast them down from the top of Sela, so that all of them were dashed to pieces.
2Ch 25:13 But the men of the company whom Amaziah had sent back from going into battle with him raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon; and they struck down three thousand of them and took much spoil.
2Ch 25:14 And after Amaziah came from striking the Edomites, he brought the agods of the children of Seir and set them up as his gods; and he worshipped before them and burned incense to them.
2Ch 25:15 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Amaziah; and He sent a prophet to him and said to him, Why do you seek after the gods of the people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?
2Ch 25:16 And when he spoke to him, 1the king said to him, Have we made you a counselor to the king? Stop; why should you be struck down? So the prophet stopped and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you, for you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.
2Ch 25:17 aThen Amaziah the king of Judah took counsel and sent word to Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, Come, let us confront each other.
2Ch 25:18 And Joash the king of Israel sent word to Amaziah the king of Judah, saying, aThe thornbush that was in Lebanon sent word to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as his wife; but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thornbush.
2Ch 25:19 You say that you have just struck Edom, and your heart exalts you to glorify yourself. Remain now in your home; why should you stir up trouble so that you and Judah with you fall?
2Ch 25:20 But Amaziah would not listen, for it was of God, so that He might deliver them into his hand, for they had sought after the agods of Edom.
2Ch 25:21 So 1Jehoash the king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah the king of Judah confronted each other in Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.
2Ch 25:22 And Judah was defeated before Israel, and they fled, each man to his tent.
2Ch 25:23 And Joash the king of Israel captured Amaziah the king of Judah the son of Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz in Beth-shemesh, and he brought him to Jerusalem and tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits.
2Ch 25:24 And he took all the agold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-edom and the treasures of the king’s house as well as hostages, and returned to Samaria.
2Ch 25:25 aAnd Amaziah the son of 1Joash, the king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel.
2Ch 25:26 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, the first and the last, are they not there, written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?
2Ch 25:27 And from the time that Amaziah turned away from following Jehovah, they formed a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; and they sent men after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.
2Ch 25:28 And they brought him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.
2 CHRONICLES 26

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J. The Reign of Uzziah
26:1-23a
2Ch 26:1 And all the people of Judah took 1aUzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah.
2Ch 26:2 It was he who built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept with his fathers.
2Ch 26:3 aUzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jechiliah, from Jerusalem.
2Ch 26:4 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Amaziah his father had done.
2Ch 26:5 And he set himself to seek after God during the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought after Jehovah, God caused him to prosper.
2Ch 26:6 And he went out and waged war against the Philistines. And he broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines.
2Ch 26:7 And God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians who dwelt in Gur-baal and against the Meunim.
2Ch 26:8 And the Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah; and his fame went as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong.
2Ch 26:9 And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and he fortified them.
2Ch 26:10 And he built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle, both in the lowlands and in the plain; he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fruitful fields, for he loved the soil.
2Ch 26:11 Furthermore Uzziah had an army of soldiers that went out to war in companies according to the number of their muster done by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains.
2Ch 26:12 The whole number of heads of fathers’ houses, of mighty men of valor, was two thousand six hundred.
2Ch 26:13 And under their hand was an army force of three hundred seven thousand five hundred who could make war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.
2Ch 26:14 And Uzziah prepared for them, for all the army, shields and spears and helmets and body armor and bows and sling stones.
2Ch 26:15 And in Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and at the corners for shooting with arrows and great stones. And his fame went out far abroad, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
2Ch 26:16 But when he had become astrong, his heart became buplifted, to his own destruction. And he trespassed against Jehovah his God and cwent into the temple of Jehovah to burn incense upon the incense daltar.
2Ch 26:17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with 1Azariah were eighty priests of Jehovah who were valiant men.
2Ch 26:18 And they withstood Uzziah the king and said to him, It does not belong to you, Uzziah, to burn aincense to Jehovah, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed and there will be no honor for you from Jehovah God.
2Ch 26:19 Then Uzziah became angry, and in his hand was a censer for burning incense. And when he became angry with the priests, aleprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of Jehovah beside the incense altar.
2Ch 26:20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there he was, leprous on his forehead; and they rushed him out of there, and he himself also hurried out to go out, for aJehovah had stricken him.
2Ch 26:21 So Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death; and he dwelt in a aseparate house as a bleper, for he was cut off from the house of Jehovah. And Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
2Ch 26:22 And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, wrote down the rest of the acts of aUzziah, the first and the last.
2Ch 26:23 And Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field which belonged to the kings, for they said, He is a leper.
K. The Reign of Jotham
26:23b — 27:9a
And Jotham his son reigned in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

2Ch 27:1 aJotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
2Ch 27:2 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah according to all that his father Uzziah had done; only he did not aenter into the temple of Jehovah. Yet the people still acted corruptly.
2Ch 27:3 He built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah and built much on the wall of the Ophel.
2Ch 27:4 And he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built fortresses and towers.
2Ch 27:5 And he fought with the king of the children of Ammon and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him that same year one hundred talents of silver and ten thousand 1cors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. This much did the children of Ammon pay him also in the second and third years.
2Ch 27:6 So Jotham became strong, because he ordered his ways before Jehovah his God.
2Ch 27:7 aAnd the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways are there written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2Ch 27:8 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 27:9 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David.
L. The Reign of Ahaz
27:9b — 28:27a
And Ahaz his son reigned in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 28

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2Ch 28:1 aAhaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of Jehovah as David his father had done,
2Ch 28:2 But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even made molten images for the Baals.
2Ch 28:3 And he burned incense in the 1valley of the son of Hinnom and burned his children in fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.
2Ch 28:4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every flourishing tree.
2Ch 28:5 Therefore Jehovah his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they struck him and carried away captive from him a great multitude. And they brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, and he struck a great blow on him.
2Ch 28:6 For aPekah the son of Remaliah slew one hundred twenty thousand in Judah on one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 28:7 And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah, the king’s son, and Azrikam, the ruler of the house, and Elkanah, who was second to the king.
2Ch 28:8 And the children of Israel carried away captive two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters of their abrothers, and also plundered much spoil from them; and they brought the spoil to Samaria.
2Ch 28:9 But a prophet of Jehovah was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that was coming to Samaria and said to them, Now, because Jehovah, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, He has given them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven.
2Ch 28:10 And now you intend to subjugate the children of Judah and Jerusalem as your male and female slaves. Is there not even with you anything but trespasses against Jehovah your God?
2Ch 28:11 Now therefore listen to me, and return the captives that you have carried away captive from among your brothers, for the burning anger of Jehovah is upon you.
2Ch 28:12 Then some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan and Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum and Amasa the son of Hadlai, rose up against those coming from the war;
2Ch 28:13 And they said to them, You shall not bring the captives here, for you intend to bring a trespass against Jehovah upon us to add to our sins and our trespass; for our trespass is great, and there is burning anger upon Israel.
2Ch 28:14 So the soldiers left the captives and the plunder before the leaders and all the assembly.
2Ch 28:15 And those men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all who were naked among them. And they clothed them and gave them sandals and afed them and gave them something to drink, and they anointed them and carried all the feeble among them on asses and brought them to Jericho, the city of palms, to their brothers. And they returned to Samaria.
2Ch 28:16 At that time King Ahaz asent word to the kings of Assyria to help him,
2Ch 28:17 For again the Edomites came and struck Judah and carried away captives.
2Ch 28:18 And the Philistines raided the cities of the lowlands and the south of Judah and took Beth-shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco with its villages and Timnah with its villages and Gimzo with its villages; and they dwelt there.
2Ch 28:19 For Jehovah humbled Judah on account of Ahaz the king of Israel, for he cast off restraint in Judah and trespassed greatly against Jehovah.
2Ch 28:20 And aTilgath-pilneser the king of Assyria came against him and distressed him and did not strengthen him.
2Ch 28:21 For Ahaz took away a portion of the ahouse of Jehovah and of the house of the king and the officials and gave it to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.
2Ch 28:22 And at the time of his distress, he added to his trespass against Jehovah, this same King Ahaz;
2Ch 28:23 For he sacrificed to the agods of Damascus, which had struck him, for he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, to them will I sacrifice, so that they will help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.
2Ch 28:24 And Ahaz gathered together the avessels of the house of God and cut the vessels of the house of God into pieces, and he shut up the bdoors of the house of Jehovah and made himself caltars in every corner in Jerusalem.
2Ch 28:25 And in every city of Judah he made high places for burning incense to other gods and provoked Jehovah, the God of his fathers, to anger.
2Ch 28:26 aNow the rest of his acts and all his ways, the first and the last, are there written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 28:27 And Ahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel.
M. The Reign of Hezekiah
28:27b — 32:33a
1. Restoring the House of Jehovah and Bringing Out the Impurity from the Holy Place
28:27b — 29:36
And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 29

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2Ch 29:1 1aHezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2Ch 29:2 And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done.
2Ch 29:3 He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the adoors of the house of Jehovah and brepaired them.
2Ch 29:4 And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them at the east square.
2Ch 29:5 And he said to them, Listen to me, you Levites: Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers; and bring out the impurity from the holy place.
2Ch 29:6 For our fathers were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah our God, and they forsook Him and turned their faces from the 1dwelling place of Jehovah, and they turned their backs on Him.
2Ch 29:7 They also shut up the adoors of the portico and extinguished the lamps; and they did not burn the incense, nor did they offer up the burnt offering in the holy place to the God of Israel.
2Ch 29:8 Therefore the wrath of Jehovah was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He made them an object of horror, astonishment, and hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
2Ch 29:9 For indeed, our fathers fell by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are captives because of this.
2Ch 29:10 Now it is on my heart to make a acovenant with Jehovah the God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us.
2Ch 29:11 My sons, do not now be negligent, for Jehovah has chosen you to stand before Him to aminister to Him and to be His ministers and burn incense.
2Ch 29:12 Then the Levites rose up: Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from among the sons of the Kohathites; and from among the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah;
2Ch 29:13 And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
2Ch 29:14 And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
2Ch 29:15 And they gathered their brothers together and sanctified themselves. And they went in, according to the command of the king by the words of Jehovah, to acleanse the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 29:16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of Jehovah to cleanse it; and they brought out into the court of the house of Jehovah all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Jehovah, and the Levites took it to carry it outside to the brook Kidron.
2Ch 29:17 And they began on the afirst day of the first month to sanctify the house, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of Jehovah; then they sanctified the house of Jehovah for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
2Ch 29:18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, We have cleansed the whole house of Jehovah: the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels and the table of the rows of bread with all its vessels.
2Ch 29:19 And all the avessels that King Ahaz cast out during his reign when he trespassed we have prepared and sanctified, and they are now before the altar of Jehovah.
2Ch 29:20 Then Hezekiah the king rose up early and gathered all the leaders of the city and went up to the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 29:21 And they brought aseven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven male goats as a bsin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he ordered the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them up on the altar of Jehovah.
2Ch 29:22 So they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar; then they slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar, and they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar.
2Ch 29:23 Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and the congregation, and they laid their hands on them.
2Ch 29:24 And the priests slaughtered them and offered their blood as a sin offering upon the altar to make aexpiation for all Israel, for the king had commanded the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.
2Ch 29:25 And he set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with acymbals, with harps, and with lyres in the way David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet had commanded, for the commandment was from Jehovah through His prophets.
2Ch 29:26 And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests, with the trumpets.
2Ch 29:27 And Hezekiah ordered the offering up of the burnt offering at the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began also, as well as the trumpets with the accompaniment of the instruments of David the king of Israel.
2Ch 29:28 And the whole congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters trumpeted — all this until the burnt offering was finished.
2Ch 29:29 And when the offering was finished, the king and all who were found with him bowed down and worshipped.
2Ch 29:30 And Hezekiah the king and the leaders commanded the Levites to praise Jehovah with the words of aDavid and of Asaph the seer. And they praised with rejoicing and bowed down and worshipped.
2Ch 29:31 Then Hezekiah responded and said, Now you 1have consecrated yourselves to Jehovah; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Jehovah. So the congregation brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing in heart brought burnt offerings.
2Ch 29:32 And the anumber of burnt offerings that the congregation brought was seventy cattle, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to Jehovah.
2Ch 29:33 And the things consecrated were six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep;
2Ch 29:34 However the priests were too few and could not aflay all the burnt offerings, so their brothers the Levites aided them until the work was finished and until the rest of the priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in sanctifying themselves.
2Ch 29:35 And besides the abundance of burnt offerings there were also the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of Jehovah was established.
2Ch 29:36 And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, for the thing had happened so suddenly.
2 CHRONICLES 30

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2. Recovering the Passover
30:1 — 31:1
2Ch 30:1 And Hezekiah sent word to 1all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh telling them to come to the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem to hold the aPassover to Jehovah the God of Israel.
2Ch 30:2 For the king and his officers and all the congregation in Jerusalem had taken counsel to hold the Passover in the asecond month,
2Ch 30:3 Because they could not hold it at that time, for the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number nor had the people gathered to Jerusalem.
2Ch 30:4 And the matter seemed right in the sight of the king and in the sight of all the congregation.
2Ch 30:5 So they established a decree to send a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, telling them to come to hold the Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel in Jerusalem; for they had not held it 1for a long time, as it was decreed in writing.
2Ch 30:6 And as the king had commanded, the runners went with the letters from the hand of the king and his officers throughout all Israel and Judah, saying, You children of Israel, areturn to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of bAssyria.
2Ch 30:7 And do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against Jehovah, the God of their fathers, so that He made them a desolation, as you now see.
2Ch 30:8 Do not now be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; yield to Jehovah, and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve Jehovah your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you.
2Ch 30:9 For when you turn to Jehovah, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land, for Jehovah your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.
2Ch 30:10 So the runners passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
2Ch 30:11 Nevertheless some men from Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
2Ch 30:12 Moreover the hand of God was on Judah, giving them aone heart to perform the commandment of the king and the officers by the word of Jehovah.
2Ch 30:13 And many people gathered at Jerusalem to hold the aFeast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great congregation.
2Ch 30:14 And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they removed all the incense altars and threw them into the brook Kidron.
2Ch 30:15 Then they slaughtered the passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the asecond month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 30:16 And they stood at their station after their custom, according to the law of Moses, the man of God: The priests sprinkled the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites.
2Ch 30:17 For there were many in the congregation who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were charged with slaughtering the passover sacrifices for everyone who was not aclean, to sanctify them to Jehovah.
2Ch 30:18 For a great number of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh and Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as aprescribed; for Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May Jehovah the Good expiate for everyone
2Ch 30:19 Who has prepared his heart to seek after God, after Jehovah, the God of his fathers, even though he is not according to the rules of purification for the sanctuary.
2Ch 30:20 And Jehovah heard Hezekiah and 1healed the people.
2Ch 30:21 And the children of Israel who were found at Jerusalem held the aFeast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great rejoicing, and the Levites and the priests praised Jehovah day by day, with loud instruments played to Jehovah.
2Ch 30:22 And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who showed themselves well-skilled in their service to Jehovah, and so they ate the food of the appointed feast for seven days, sacrificing sacrifices of peace offerings and extolling Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 30:23 And the whole congregation took counsel to hold the feast another seven days, and they held the feast those seven days with rejoicing.
2Ch 30:24 For Hezekiah the king of Judah acontributed one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep to the congregation, and the leaders contributed one thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep to the congregation, and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.
2Ch 30:25 And all the congregation of Judah with the priests and the Levites and all the congregation who came from Israel and the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and dwelt in Judah rejoiced,
2Ch 30:26 And there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of aSolomon the son of David, the king of Israel, there had not been the like in Jerusalem.
2Ch 30:27 Then the Levitical priests rose up and ablessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer went up to His bholy habitation, to heaven.
2 CHRONICLES 31

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2Ch 31:1 And when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and abroke down the pillars and hewed down the Asherahs and pulled down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh until they destroyed them all. And all the children of Israel returned to their cities, each man to his own possessions.
3. Setting the Services of the Priests and the Levites in Order
31:2-21
2Ch 31:2 And Hezekiah 1appointed the adivisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each of the priests and the Levites according to his service, for the burnt offering and for the peace offerings, to minister and give thanks and praise in the gates of the 2temple of Jehovah.
2Ch 31:3 Also he appointed the king’s portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, the amorning and evening burnt offerings and the burnt offerings of the bSabbaths and the cnew moon and the appointed feasts, as written in the law of Jehovah.
2Ch 31:4 And he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to give the aportion for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the law of Jehovah.
2Ch 31:5 And when the commandment went out, the children of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of the grain and of the new wine and of the fresh oil and of the honey and of all the produce of the field; and they brought the atithe of everything in abundance.
2Ch 31:6 And the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah also brought the tithe of the herd and of the flock and the tithe of the dedicated things, which had been dedicated to Jehovah their God, and laid them heap upon heap.
2Ch 31:7 In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and in the seventh month they finished.
2Ch 31:8 And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed Jehovah and His people Israel.
2Ch 31:9 And Hezekiah inquired of the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps;
2Ch 31:10 And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, spoke to him and said, Since the time that the people began to bring the contributions into the house of Jehovah, there has been eating and satisfaction and an abundance left over, for Jehovah has ablessed His people and this great amount is left over.
2Ch 31:11 Then Hezekiah gave orders to prepare storechambers in the house of Jehovah, and they prepared them.
2Ch 31:12 And they brought in the contribution and the tithe and dedicated things faithfully. And Conaniah the Levite was ruler over them, and Shimei his brother was second,
2Ch 31:13 And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were overseers under Conaniah and Shimei his brother by appointment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.
2Ch 31:14 And Kore the son of Imna the Levite, the gatekeeper on the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the contributions of Jehovah and the most holy things.
2Ch 31:15 And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, serving faithfully in the cities of the priests, to distribute the portion to their brothers by divisions, great and small alike,
2Ch 31:16 Except for those who were enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upward, all who went to the house of Jehovah for their day-to-day duties, for their service in their offices by their divisions.
2Ch 31:17 Now concerning the enrollment of the priests by genealogy, it was by their fathers’ houses; and that of the Levites of those atwenty years old and upward was by their offices in their divisions.
2Ch 31:18 And the enrollment by genealogy included all their little ones, their wives, and their sons and daughters, the whole congregation of them; for they sanctified themselves faithfully in holiness.
2Ch 31:19 And for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were in the pasture lands of their cities, in each and every city, there were men who were mentioned by name, to distribute portions to all the males among the priests and to all who were enrolled by genealogy among the Levites.
2Ch 31:20 And Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and upright and faithful before Jehovah his God.
2Ch 31:21 And in every work that he began in service to the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandment, to seek after his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered.
2 CHRONICLES 32

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4. Building a Defense against the Invasion of the Assyrians
32:1-23
2Ch 32:1 After these things and this faithfulness, aSennacherib the king of Assyria came and entered Judah. And he encamped against the fortified cities and intended to break into them for himself.
2Ch 32:2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that his face was set to fight against Jerusalem,
2Ch 32:3 He took counsel with his officers and mighty men to stop the water of the fountains that were outside the city, and they helped him.
2Ch 32:4 So many people gathered together and stopped all the fountains and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find an abundance of water?
2Ch 32:5 And he took courage and built up all the awall that was broken down and 1erected towers on it and built another wall outside; and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David and made weapons and shields in abundance.
2Ch 32:6 And he set battle captains over the people and gathered them to himself in the square at the gate of the city. And he encouraged them, saying,
2Ch 32:7 Be strong and be bold; do not be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria or because of all the multitude that is with him, for there is Someone agreater with us than with him:
2Ch 32:8 With him is an arm of aflesh, but bwith us is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah.
2Ch 32:9 After this aSennacherib the king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem — now he was before Lachish and all his forces were with him — to Hezekiah the king of Judah and to all Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,
2Ch 32:10 aThus says Sennacherib the king of Assyria, In what are you trusting, that you remain in a siege in Jerusalem?
2Ch 32:11 Is not Hezekiah trying to persuade you to give yourselves up to die by famine and by thirst, saying, Jehovah our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria?
2Ch 32:12 aWas it not the same Hezekiah who took away His high places and His altars and who commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Before one altar you shall worship, and upon it shall you burn incense?
2Ch 32:13 Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? aWere the gods of the nations of the lands at all able to deliver their land out of my hand?
2Ch 32:14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers destroyed who could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God would be able to deliver you out of my hand?
2Ch 32:15 Now therefore do not let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way, and do not believe him; for there is no god of any nation or kingdom who was able to deliver his people out of my hand and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!
2Ch 32:16 And his servants said still more against Jehovah God and against Hezekiah His servant.
2Ch 32:17 And he wrote letters to cast contempt on Jehovah the God of Israel and to speak against Him, saying, Like the gods of the nations of the lands that did not deliver their people out of my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people out of my hand.
2Ch 32:18 aAnd they cried out in a loud voice in the Jews’ language against the people of Jerusalem who were upon the wall in order to frighten them and terrify them, so that they might take the city.
2Ch 32:19 And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem as they had against the gods of the peoples of the land, the work of men’s hands.
2Ch 32:20 But Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, aprayed about this, and they cried out to heaven.
2Ch 32:21 aAnd Jehovah sent an angel, who annihilated all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and the captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he entered the house of his god, some of those who had come forth from his bowels felled him there with the sword.
2Ch 32:22 Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and out of the hand of everyone, and He 1protected them on all sides.
2Ch 32:23 And many brought gifts to Jehovah at Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah the king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all the nations thereafter.
5. His Illness and Recovery
32:24-26
2Ch 32:24 aIn those days Hezekiah became mortally ill, and he prayed to Jehovah. And He spoke to him and gave him a sign.
2Ch 32:25 But Hezekiah did not respond according to the benefit he had received, for his heart was aproud; therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 32:26 But Hezekiah ahumbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
6. His Prosperity and End
32:27-33a
2Ch 32:27 Now Hezekiah had very much wealth and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver and gold and precious stones and for spices and shields and all kinds of valuable goods,
2Ch 32:28 As well as storehouses for produce of grain and new wine and fresh oil, and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and flocks in sheepfolds.
2Ch 32:29 And he built cities and acquired many flocks and herds, for God had given him very many possessions.
2Ch 32:30 And it was this Hezekiah who stopped the upper spring of the water of Gihon and directed it down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
2Ch 32:31 So also in the matter of the 1aenvoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the wonders that had happened in the land, God forsook him only to btest him and know all that was in his heart.
2Ch 32:32 And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his deeds of faithfulness are there written in the vision of aIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the book of the bkings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 32:33 aAnd Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of David’s sons; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him when he died.
N. The Reign of Manasseh
32:33b — 33:20a
And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 33

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2Ch 33:1 aManasseh was btwelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 33:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.
2Ch 33:3 And he rebuilt the ahigh places that Hezekiah his father had torn down; and he raised up altars to the Baals and made Asherahs, and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.
2Ch 33:4 And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, concerning which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem will My aname be forever.
2Ch 33:5 And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 33:6 And he caused his children to pass through fire in the 1valley of the son of Hinnom, and practiced soothsaying and enchantments and sorcery, and appointed mediums and spiritists; he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah beyond measure, provoking Him to anger.
2Ch 33:7 And he put the engraved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, concerning which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have achosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;
2Ch 33:8 And I will no longer aremove the foot of Israel from the land that I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will be certain to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses.
2Ch 33:9 And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more 1evil than the nations which Jehovah had destroyed before the children of Israel.
2Ch 33:10 And Jehovah spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not listen.
2Ch 33:11 Therefore Jehovah brought upon them the captains of the army which belonged to the king of Assyria, and they took Manasseh captive with hooks and bound him in bronze fetters and took him to aBabylon.
2Ch 33:12 And in his distress he entreated Jehovah his God and ahumbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2Ch 33:13 And he prayed to Him, and He was entreated by him and heard his supplication; and He brought him back to Jerusalem to his akingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah indeed was God.
2Ch 33:14 And afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David on the west side of the Gihon in the valley even to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and he surrounded the Ophel with it and raised it very high. And he put the valorous captains in all the fortified cities in Judah.
2Ch 33:15 And he removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of Jehovah and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of Jehovah and in Jerusalem, and he cast them out of the city.
2Ch 33:16 And he restored the altar of Jehovah, and he sacrificed on it sacrifices of peace offerings and thank offerings; and he commanded Judah to serve Jehovah the God of Israel.
2Ch 33:17 Nevertheless the people still sacrificed at the high places but did so to Jehovah their God.
2Ch 33:18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Jehovah the God of Israel are there, written among the records of the kings of Israel.
2Ch 33:19 His prayer also and how God was entreated by him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the sites where he built high places and set up the Asherahs and the idols before he humbled himself are there written among the records of 1Hozai.
2Ch 33:20 aAnd Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house.
O. The Reign of Amon
33:20b-25a
And Amon his son reigned in his place.
2Ch 33:21 aAmon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 33:22 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had done. And Amon sacrificed to all the idols that Manasseh his father had made and served them.
2Ch 33:23 And he did not humble himself before Jehovah as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon multiplied trespass.
2Ch 33:24 And his servants conspired against him and killed him in his own house.
2Ch 33:25 But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon.
P. The Reign of Josiah
33:25b — 35:27
And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
2 CHRONICLES 34

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2Ch 34:1 aJosiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah and walked in the ways of David his father and did not turn to the right or to the left.
2Ch 34:3 And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still 1young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. And in the twelfth year he began to apurge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places and the Asherahs and the idols and the molten images.
2Ch 34:4 And they tore down the altars to the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were set upon them he hewed down; and the Asherahs and the idols and the molten images he shattered and ground them to dust and scattered it upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
2Ch 34:5 And he burned the bones of the priests upon their own altars and so purged Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:6 And in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around,
2Ch 34:7 He also tore down the altars and beat the Asherahs and idols into dust, and he hewed down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:8 aAnd in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphat the son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the governor of the city and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder to brepair the house of Jehovah his God.
2Ch 34:9 And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from the hands of Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:10 And they delivered it into the hand of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and those who did the work, who worked in the house of Jehovah, used it to mend and repair the house.
2Ch 34:11 And they gave it to the carpenters and the builders for the purchase of hewn stones and timber for couplings and to make beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had destroyed.
2Ch 34:12 And the men did the work faithfully, and the overseers over them were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to supervise; and the Levites who were all skilled in musical instruments
2Ch 34:13 Were over the burden bearers and supervised all who did the work from task to task; and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.
2Ch 34:14 And when they brought out the money that had been brought into the house of Jehovah, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the alaw of Jehovah given through Moses.
2Ch 34:15 And Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
2Ch 34:16 And Shaphan brought the book to the king and in addition brought back word to the king, saying, All that was committed to the hand of your servants they are doing.
2Ch 34:17 They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Jehovah and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and into the hand of those who do the work.
2Ch 34:18 Then Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read aloud in it before the king.
2Ch 34:19 And when the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.
2Ch 34:20 And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and Abdon the son of Micah and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,
2Ch 34:21 Go; inquire of Jehovah for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that has been found; for great is the awrath of Jehovah that has been poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Jehovah by doing according to all that is written in this book.
2Ch 34:22 And Hilkiah and those whom the king had commanded went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they spoke to her to that effect.
2Ch 34:23 And she said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me,
2Ch 34:24 Thus says Jehovah, I am now bringing evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book that they have read aloud before the king of Judah.
2Ch 34:25 Because they have aforsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, so as to provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.
2Ch 34:26 But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall you say to him: Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, regarding the words which you have heard,
2Ch 34:27 Because your heart was tender, and you ahumbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants and humbled yourself before Me and tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, declares Jehovah.
2Ch 34:28 I will then gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place and upon its inhabitants. And they brought word back to the king.
2Ch 34:29 aAnd the king sent word and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:30 And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people, both great and small; and he read aloud, in their hearing, all the words of the book of the covenant, which had been found in the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 34:31 And the king stood up where he was and made a acovenant before Jehovah to walk after Jehovah and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul by performing the words of the covenant which were written in this book.
2Ch 34:32 And he made all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin enter into the covenant. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 34:33 And Josiah removed all the abominations out of all the lands that belonged to the children of Israel, and he made all who were found in Israel serve Jehovah their God; throughout his days they did not turn from following after Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
2 CHRONICLES 35

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

2Ch 35:1 And Josiah held the aPassover to Jehovah in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the passover sacrifice on the bfourteenth day of the first month.
2Ch 35:2 And he set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 35:3 And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were sanctified to Jehovah, Put the holy aArk into the house that Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel, built; it shall no longer be the burden on your shoulders. Now serve Jehovah your God and His people Israel,
2Ch 35:4 And prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your adivisions according to what David the king of Israel wrote and according to the document of Solomon his son.
2Ch 35:5 And stand in the holy place for the groups of the fathers’ houses of your brothers, the common people, and let each division of Levites stand for a portion of a father’s house.
2Ch 35:6 And slaughter the passover sacrifice, and sanctify yourselves and prepare it for your brothers, to act according to the word of Jehovah given through Moses.
2Ch 35:7 And Josiah acontributed to the common people lambs and kids from the flock, all for the passover offerings, to all who were found there, thirty thousand animals in number, and three thousand cattle; these were from the king’s possessions.
2Ch 35:8 And his officers contributed a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites; Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the passover offerings two thousand six hundred from the flock and three hundred cattle.
2Ch 35:9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, contributed to the Levites for the passover offerings five thousand from the flock and five hundred cattle.
2Ch 35:10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the command of the king.
2Ch 35:11 And they slaughtered the passover sacrifices; and while the priests sprinkled the ablood that they received from their hand, the Levites bflayed them.
2Ch 35:12 And they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the groups of the fathers’ houses of the common people to offer to Jehovah, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so they did with the cattle.
2Ch 35:13 And they aroasted the passover in fire according to the ordinance, and they bboiled the holy offerings in pots and in cauldrons and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the common people.
2Ch 35:14 And afterward they provided for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites provided for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
2Ch 35:15 And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the command of David and aAsaph and Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer. And the gatekeepers were at each gate; they did not need to turn from their service, for their brothers the Levites provided for them.
2Ch 35:16 Thus all the service of Jehovah was prepared that same day, in order to hold the Passover and offer up burnt offerings upon the altar of Jehovah according to the command of King Josiah.
2Ch 35:17 And the children of Israel who were found there held the Passover at that time, and the Feast of aUnleavened Bread for seven days.
2Ch 35:18 And a Passover like that had anever been held in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel hold such a Passover as was held by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were found there and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
2Ch 35:19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was held.
2Ch 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco the aking of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and bJosiah went out against him.
2Ch 35:21 And 1Neco sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come up against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry. Refrain for your own sake from interfering with God, who is with me, and He will not destroy you.
2Ch 35:22 But Josiah would not turn his face from him, but he adisguised himself so that he might fight with him; and he did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God but came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
2Ch 35:23 And the archers shot at King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I have been wounded severely.
2Ch 35:24 So his servants took him out of the chariot and put him in the achariot of his second-in-command, and they brought him to Jerusalem; and he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
2Ch 35:25 And Jeremiah alamented for Josiah. And all the male singers and female singers speak of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, for they have made it a custom in Israel; and they are there written in the lamentations.
2Ch 35:26 aNow the rest of the acts of Josiah and his good deeds according to what is written in the law of Jehovah
2Ch 35:27 And his acts, first and last, are there written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2 CHRONICLES 36

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

Q. The Reign of Jehoahaz
36:1-3
2Ch 36:1 aThen the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in the place of his father in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:2 1Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:3 And the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
R. The Reign of Jehoiakim
36:4-5, 8a
2Ch 36:4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Joahaz his brother and carried him away to Egypt.
2Ch 36:5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God.
S. Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon Carrying the Vessels
of the Temple into Babylon
36:6-7, 10a
2Ch 36:6 Against him aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came up and bound him in bronze fetters to carry him to Babylon.
2Ch 36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried away some of the avessels of the house of Jehovah to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.
R. The Reign of Jehoiakim (cont’d)
36:8a
2Ch 36:8 aNow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did and that which was found against him are there written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
T. The Reign of Jehoiachin
36:8b-9
And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
2Ch 36:9 Jehoiachin was aeight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
S. Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon
Carrying the Vessels of the Temple into Babylon (cont’d)
36:10a
2Ch 36:10 And at the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent men and abrought him to Babylon with the precious bvessels of the house of Jehovah.
U. The Reign of Zedekiah
36:10b-13
And he made cZedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:11 1aZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:12 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet whose speaking was from the mouth of Jehovah.
2Ch 36:13 And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning to Jehovah the God of Israel.
V. The Deportation to Babylon
36:14-23
1. The Cause
vv. 14-16
2Ch 36:14 Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people acted exceedingly unfaithfully according to all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of Jehovah which He had sanctified in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:15 And Jehovah, the God of their fathers, asent word to them 1day after day through His messengers because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
2Ch 36:16 But they mocked the messengers of God and adespised His words and scoffed at His bprophets until the wrath of Jehovah rose up against His people, until there was no remedy.
2. The Deportation
vv. 17-20a
2Ch 36:17 Therefore He brought up aagainst them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on old man or feeble; He delivered them all into his hand.
2Ch 36:18 And all the avessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
2Ch 36:19 And they aburned down the house of God; and they broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned down all its palaces with fire, and all its precious vessels were given up to destruction.
2Ch 36:20 And those who escaped from the sword he acarried away to Babylon,
3. The Duration of the Captivity of Israel
vv. 20b-21
and they became servants to him and to his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
2Ch 36:21 So as to fulfill the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its asabbaths: As long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, until bseventy years were fulfilled.
4. The Proclamation of Their Release by Cyrus the King of Persia
vv. 22-23
2Ch 36:22 aAnd in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, so that the bword of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah cstirred up the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia; and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,
2Ch 36:23 Thus says aCyrus the king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth has Jehovah the God of bheaven given to me; and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up!
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EZRA

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 
Outline

Author: Ezra, a descendant of Aaron (7:1-5), and a priest and a scribe skilled in the law of Moses (7:6, 11-12).
Time of Writing: After 457 B.C.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem.
Time Period Covered: This book covers a period of about eighty years, from 536 B.C. to 457 B.C., from the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia (1:1) to the first day of the first month following the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king of Persia (10:17; 7:7).
Subject:
The Return of the Children of Israel from Their Captivity and the Rebuilding of the House of God as the Initiation of God’s Recovery among His Elect for His Testimony on the Earth according to His Economy
EZRA 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

I. The Return of the Captivity under the Kingly Leadership of Zerubbabel
1:1 — 6:22
A. The Decree of Cyrus the King of Persia
1:1-4
Ezr 1:1 1aNow in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, so that the bword of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah 2cstirred up the spirit of 3Cyrus the king of Persia; and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,
Ezr 1:2 Thus says aCyrus the king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth has Jehovah the bGod of heaven given to me; and He has charged me to build Him a 1house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Ezr 1:3 Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him; and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and let him build the house of Jehovah the God of Israel — He is God — who is in Jerusalem.
Ezr 1:4 And everyone who is left, in whatever place he sojourns, let the men of his place support him with silver and with gold and with goods and with cattle, besides the freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.
B. The Response of the Heads of the Fathers’ Houses of Judah and Benjamin,
the Priests, and the Levites
1:5-6
Ezr 1:5 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites rose up, even everyone whose spirit God had astirred up to go up to build the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem.
Ezr 1:6 And all those around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with cattle and with precious things, besides all that was offered willingly.
C. The Cooperation of King Cyrus
1:7-11
Ezr 1:7 Also King Cyrus brought out the 1avessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and had put in the house of his gods;
Ezr 1:8 And Cyrus the king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer and had them enumerated to 1aSheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
Ezr 1:9 And this was atheir number: thirty gold dishes, one thousand silver dishes, twenty-nine knives,
Ezr 1:10 Thirty gold bowls, four hundred ten silver bowls of a different kind, and one thousand other vessels.
Ezr 1:11 There were five thousand four hundred vessels of gold and silver in all. Sheshbazzar brought up all of them with those of the captivity who were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
EZRA 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • • 60 • • • • 65 • • • • 70 

D. The Number of the Returned Captives
2:1-67
Ezr 2:1 aNow these were the children of the province who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had bcarried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each man to his city.
Ezr 2:2 These came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
Ezr 2:3 The children of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two.
Ezr 2:4 The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two.
Ezr 2:5 The children of Arah, seven hundred seventy-five.
Ezr 2:6 The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred twelve.
Ezr 2:7 The children of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
Ezr 2:8 The children of Zattu, nine hundred forty-five.
Ezr 2:9 The children of Zaccai, seven hundred sixty.
Ezr 2:10 The children of Bani, six hundred forty-two.
Ezr 2:11 The children of Bebai, six hundred twenty-three.
Ezr 2:12 The children of Azgad, one thousand two hundred twenty-two.
Ezr 2:13 The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-six.
Ezr 2:14 The children of Bigvai, two thousand fifty-six.
Ezr 2:15 The children of Adin, four hundred fifty-four.
Ezr 2:16 The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.
Ezr 2:17 The children of Bezai, three hundred twenty-three.
Ezr 2:18 The children of Jorah, one hundred twelve.
Ezr 2:19 The children of Hashum, two hundred twenty-three.
Ezr 2:20 The children of Gibbar, ninety-five.
Ezr 2:21 The children of Bethlehem, one hundred twenty-three.
Ezr 2:22 The men of Netophah, fifty-six.
Ezr 2:23 The men of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight.
Ezr 2:24 The children of Azmaveth, forty-two.
Ezr 2:25 The children of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three.
Ezr 2:26 The children of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one.
Ezr 2:27 The men of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two.
Ezr 2:28 The men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty-three.
Ezr 2:29 The children of Nebo, fifty-two.
Ezr 2:30 The children of Magbish, one hundred fifty-six.
Ezr 2:31 The children of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
Ezr 2:32 The children of Harim, three hundred twenty.
Ezr 2:33 The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-five.
Ezr 2:34 The children of Jericho, three hundred forty-five.
Ezr 2:35 The children of Senaah, three thousand six hundred thirty.
Ezr 2:36 The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy-three.
Ezr 2:37 The children of Immer, one thousand fifty-two.
Ezr 2:38 The children of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven.
Ezr 2:39 The children of Harim, one thousand seventeen.
Ezr 2:40 The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the children of Hodaviah, seventy-four.
Ezr 2:41 The singers: the children of aAsaph, one hundred twenty-eight.
Ezr 2:42 The children of the agatekeepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all one hundred thirty-nine.
Ezr 2:43 The atemple servants: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,
Ezr 2:44 The children of Keros, the children of Siaha, the children of Padon,
Ezr 2:45 The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagabah, the children of Akkub,
Ezr 2:46 The children of Hagab, the children of Shamlai, the children of Hanan,
Ezr 2:47 The children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah,
Ezr 2:48 The children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam,
Ezr 2:49 The children of Uzza, the children of Paseah, the children of Besai,
Ezr 2:50 The children of Asnah, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephisim,
Ezr 2:51 The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,
Ezr 2:52 The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,
Ezr 2:53 The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah,
Ezr 2:54 The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.
Ezr 2:55 The children of Solomon’s servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Hassophereth, the children of Peruda,
Ezr 2:56 The children of Jaalah, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,
Ezr 2:57 The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Ami.
Ezr 2:58 All the temple servants and the children of Solomon’s servants were three hundred ninety-two.
Ezr 2:59 And these were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not give evidence of their fathers’ houses nor their descendants, whether they were of Israel:
Ezr 2:60 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred fifty-two.
Ezr 2:61 And of the children of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife from among the daughters of aBarzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name.
Ezr 2:62 These sought their registry among those who were enrolled by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were considered defiled and were excluded from the priesthood.
Ezr 2:63 And the governor told them that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up with aUrim and Thummim.
Ezr 2:64 aThe whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty,
Ezr 2:65 Besides their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred male singers and female singers.
Ezr 2:66 Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their mules, two hundred forty-five;
Ezr 2:67 Their camels, four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty.
E. The Willing Offering for the House of Jehovah
2:68-70
Ezr 2:68 aAnd some of the heads of fathers’ houses, when they came to the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for the house of God to restore it on its foundation.
Ezr 2:69 They gave to the treasury of the work, according to their ability, sixty-one thousand darics of gold and five thousand minas of silver and one hundred priestly garments.
Ezr 2:70 So the priests and the Levites and some of the people and the singers and the gatekeepers and the temple servants dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.
EZRA 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

F. The Rebuilding of the Altar of God
3:1-6a
Ezr 3:1 And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as aone man to Jerusalem.
Ezr 3:2 Then 1aJeshua the son of Jozadak rose up, along with his brothers the priests and bZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer cburnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the dman of God.
Ezr 3:3 And they set up the altar upon its bases, for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Jehovah, burnt offerings of the amorning and evening.
Ezr 3:4 And they held the 1aFeast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the bdaily burnt offerings by number according to the ordinance as the duty of every day required;
Ezr 3:5 And afterward they offered the continual burnt offering and the offerings of the anew moons and of all the bappointed feasts of Jehovah that were sanctified and of everyone who offered willingly a freewill offering to Jehovah.
Ezr 3:6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer up burnt offerings to Jehovah;
G. The Rebuilding of the House of God
3:6b-13
however the afoundation of the temple of Jehovah had not yet been laid.
Ezr 3:7 They also gave money to the stone hewers and to the carpenters, and afood and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring bcedar trees from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa according to the authorization granted them by cCyrus the king of Persia.
Ezr 3:8 Now in the second year after they came to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, aZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all those who came out of captivity to Jerusalem began by appointing the Levites, from btwenty years old and upward, to have oversight over the work of the house of Jehovah.
Ezr 3:9 Then Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, as aone man, with Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, and with the sons of Henadad and their sons and their brothers the Levites, to have oversight over the workmen in the house of God.
Ezr 3:10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Jehovah, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the asons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Jehovah according to the directions of David the king of Israel.
Ezr 3:11 And they sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness is forever upon Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Jehovah, because the afoundation of the house of Jehovah was laid.
Ezr 3:12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, the old men who had seen the first ahouse, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes; and many shouted aloud for joy,
Ezr 3:13 So that the people could not discern the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.
EZRA 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

H. The Frustration
4:1-24
Ezr 4:1 Now when the 1aadversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to Jehovah the God of Israel,
Ezr 4:2 They drew near to Zerubbabel and to the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, Let us build with you; for we seek your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon the king of aAssyria, who brought us up here.
Ezr 4:3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, You have anothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to Jehovah the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.
Ezr 4:4 Then the people of the land aweakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building.
Ezr 4:5 And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus the king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius the king of Persia.
Ezr 4:6 And in the reign of aAhasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
Ezr 4:7 And in the days of aArtaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his companions wrote to Artaxerxes the king of Persia; and the script of the letter was written in bAramaic and translated into Aramaic.
Ezr 4:8 1Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows
Ezr 4:9 (Then Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, the judges, and the officials, the Tarpelites, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is the Elamites,
Ezr 4:10 And the rest of the nations, whom the great and noble Osnappar carried into exile and settled in the city of aSamaria and in the rest of the province beyond the River, wrote. And now
Ezr 4:11 This is the copy of the letter that they sent to him): To Artaxerxes the king, from your servants the men beyond the River. And now
Ezr 4:12 Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us to Jerusalem; they are arebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and have repaired the foundations.
Ezr 4:13 Now let it be known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, taxes, or tolls; and in the end it will cause damage to the kings.
Ezr 4:14 Now because 1we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s dishonor, we therefore have sent this letter to inform the king,
Ezr 4:15 So that a search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers, and you may find in the book of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city and one that causes damage to kings and provinces and that they have stirred up sedition within it in times past; for which reason this city was laid waste.
Ezr 4:16 We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are finished, then you will have no portion beyond the River.
Ezr 4:17 Then the king sent an answer to Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their companions who dwelt in Samaria and in the rest of the province beyond the River: Greetings. And now
Ezr 4:18 The letter which you sent to us has been read before me in translation.
Ezr 4:19 And a decree has been issued by me, and a search has been made; and it was found that this city in times past has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it,
Ezr 4:20 And that there have been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who have aruled over all the lands beyond the River; and tribute, taxes and tolls were paid to them.
Ezr 4:21 Now make a decree to stop these men, so that this city is not rebuilt until a decree is made by me.
Ezr 4:22 And take care not to be negligent in this. Why should damage grow to the detriment of the kings?
Ezr 4:23 Then when the copy of King Artaxerxes’s letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their companions, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force and power.
Ezr 4:24 So the work of the house of God, which is in Jerusalem, ceased; and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius the king of Persia.
EZRA 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

I. The Rebuilding Work Continuing through the Encouragement and Help
of the Prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah
5:1-2
Ezr 5:1 Now the 1prophets, aHaggai the prophet and bZechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.
Ezr 5:2 Then aZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to bbuild the house of God, which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
J. The Confirmation of the Decree of Darius the King of Persia
5:3 — 6:12
Ezr 5:3 At the same time Tattenai the governor beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their companions came to them and spoke to them in this way, Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this wall?
Ezr 5:4 Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were constructing this building.
Ezr 5:5 But the aeye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them, until a report went to Darius; and then an answer was returned by letter concerning it.
Ezr 5:6 This is the copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and his companions the officials, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king;
Ezr 5:7 They sent a report to him in which was written as follows, To Darius the king, all peace.
Ezr 5:8 Let it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with large stones, and timber is being laid in the walls; and this work is being conducted with diligence and prospers in their hands.
Ezr 5:9 Then we asked those elders, speaking to them in this way, Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this wall?
Ezr 5:10 We also asked them their names in order to inform you, so that we might write down the names of the men who were at their head.
Ezr 5:11 And they returned us an answer in this way, saying, We are the servants of the aGod of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the bhouse that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.
Ezr 5:12 But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to anger, He gave them into the hand of aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away to Babylon.
Ezr 5:13 But in the first year of aCyrus the king of Babylon, King Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.
Ezr 5:14 And also the gold and silver avessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these King Cyrus took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one whose name was bSheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;
Ezr 5:15 And he said to him, Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the ahouse of God be rebuilt in its place.
Ezr 5:16 Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God, which is in Jerusalem; and since that time even until now it has been under construction and has not yet been finished.
Ezr 5:17 Now therefore if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there in Babylon, to see whether it is the case that a decree was made by King Cyrus for the building of this house of God in Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this.
EZRA 6

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Ezr 6:1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.
Ezr 6:2 And a scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and on it this was written as a record:
Ezr 6:3 In the first year of King Cyrus, King aCyrus made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem: Let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices; and let its foundations be raised, its height being sixty cubits, and its width sixty cubits,
Ezr 6:4 With three layers of large stones, and one layer of timber; and let the expenses be given out of the king’s house.
Ezr 6:5 And also let the gold and silver avessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought again to the temple which is in Jerusalem, to its place; and you shall put them in the house of God.
Ezr 6:6 Now therefore, Tattenai the governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your companions the officials, in the province beyond the River, keep far away from there.
Ezr 6:7 Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God on its site.
Ezr 6:8 Moreover I make a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God: From the property of the king, even the tribute of the province beyond the River, expenses are to be given in full to these men that the work not cease.
Ezr 6:9 And whatever is needed, young bulls and rams and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are in Jerusalem, let it be given to them day by day without fail,
Ezr 6:10 That they may offer incense to the God of heaven and apray for the life of the king and his sons.
Ezr 6:11 Also I have made a decree that whoever alters this word, timber shall be pulled out from his house, and he shall be lifted up and impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill on account of this.
Ezr 6:12 And may the God who has caused His aname to dwell there overthrow any king or people who put forth their hand to alter this or to destroy this house of God, which is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have made a decree; let it be carried out with all diligence.
K. The Completion of the Rebuilding of the House of God
6:13-15
Ezr 6:13 Then Tattenai the governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, carried out everything with all diligence according to what Darius the king had sent order to do.
Ezr 6:14 And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the aprophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they bfinished building according to the command of the God of Israel and according to the decree of cCyrus and dDarius and eArtaxerxes the king of Persia.
Ezr 6:15 And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
L. The Dedication of the Rebuilt House of God
6:16-18
Ezr 6:16 And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, celebrated the adedication of this house of God with joy.
Ezr 6:17 And they offered for the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
Ezr 6:18 And they set the priests in their courses and the Levites in their adivisions for the service of God, which is in Jerusalem, as it is written in the bbook of Moses.
M. The Keeping of the Passover by the Children of the Captivity
6:19-22
Ezr 6:19 And the children of the captivity held the Passover on the afourteenth day of the first month.
Ezr 6:20 For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were pure. Then they slaughtered the apassover for all the children of the captivity and for their brothers the priests and for themselves.
Ezr 6:21 And the children of Israel who returned from the captivity and all who had separated themselves from the defilement of the nations of the land to join them, to seek Jehovah the God of Israel, ate the passover
Ezr 6:22 And held the aFeast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for Jehovah had made them joyful and had turned the bheart of the 1king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
EZRA 7

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II. The Return of the Captivity under the Priestly Leadership of Ezra
7:1 — 10:44
A. The Return of the Captivity under Ezra
7:1 — 8:36
1. The Beginning of the Return through the Request of Ezra to the King
7:1-10
Ezr 7:1 Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king of Persia, 1Ezra the son of aSeraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
Ezr 7:2 The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
Ezr 7:3 The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
Ezr 7:4 The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
Ezr 7:5 The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest;
Ezr 7:6 This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a ascribe skilled in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all his 1request according to the 2bhand of Jehovah his God upon him.
Ezr 7:7 Some of the achildren of Israel and some of the bpriests, and the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers and the ctemple servants also went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of dArtaxerxes the king.
Ezr 7:8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king;
Ezr 7:9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem according to the good ahand of his God upon him.
Ezr 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it and to teach His 1statutes and ordinances in Israel.
2. The Decree of Artaxerxes the King of Persia to Ezra
7:11-28
Ezr 7:11 Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah and of His statutes for Israel:
Ezr 7:12 1Artaxerxes, the king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace. And now
Ezr 7:13 I make a decree that any of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites in my kingdom who offer themselves willingly to go to Jerusalem may go with you.
Ezr 7:14 Inasmuch as you have been sent by the king and his aseven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your hand,
Ezr 7:15 And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have offered willingly to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:16 As well as all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people and the priests, who offered willingly for the house of their God, which is in Jerusalem;
Ezr 7:17 With this money therefore you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings; and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God, which is in Jerusalem.
Ezr 7:18 And whatever seems good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, you may do according to the will of your God.
Ezr 7:19 And the vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver in full before the God of Jerusalem.
Ezr 7:20 And the rest of the needs for the house of your God, which you have occasion to provide, you may provide for it out of the king’s treasure house.
Ezr 7:21 And I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are in the province beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, it shall be done with all diligence,
Ezr 7:22 Up to one hundred talents of silver and up to one hundred cors of wheat and up to one hundred baths of wine and up to one hundred baths of oil and salt without prescribing how much.
Ezr 7:23 Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven. For why should wrath come upon the kingdom of the king and his sons?
Ezr 7:24 We also inform you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, taxes, or tolls upon any of the priests and Levites, the singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or servants of this house of God.
Ezr 7:25 And you, Ezra, according to the awisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are in the province beyond the River, all those who know the laws of your God; and teach anyone who does not know them.
Ezr 7:26 And everyone who will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed upon him with all diligence, whether to death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment.
Ezr 7:27 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this into the king’s aheart, to beautify the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:28 And has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the mighty officers of the king. And I was strengthened according to the ahand of Jehovah my God upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel leading men to go up with me.
EZRA 8

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3. The Genealogical Enrollment of Those Who Returned from Captivity
8:1-20
Ezr 8:1 Now these are the heads of their fathers’ houses and the genealogical enrollment of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:
Ezr 8:2 Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of the sons of David, Hattush.
Ezr 8:3 Of the sons of Shecaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him one hundred fifty males were enrolled by genealogy.
Ezr 8:4 Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males.
Ezr 8:5 Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males.
Ezr 8:6 And of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males.
Ezr 8:7 And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males.
Ezr 8:8 And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael; and with him eighty males.
Ezr 8:9 Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred eighteen males.
Ezr 8:10 And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him one hundred sixty males.
Ezr 8:11 And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai; and with him twenty-eight males.
Ezr 8:12 And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan; and with him one hundred ten males.
Ezr 8:13 And of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones; and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males.
Ezr 8:14 And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males.
Ezr 8:15 And I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I observed the people and the priests, I found none of the sons of Levi there.
Ezr 8:16 Then I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, leading men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, who were teachers.
Ezr 8:17 And I sent them to Iddo the leading man at the place Casiphia; and I told them what to say to Iddo and his brothers the temple servants at the place Casiphia, namely, to bring ministers to us for the house of our God.
Ezr 8:18 And according to the good ahand of our God upon us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; namely, Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen men;
Ezr 8:19 And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;
Ezr 8:20 And of the atemple servants, whom David and the leaders had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred twenty temple servants — all of them were mentioned by name.
4. Ezra’s Proclamation of a Fast Before They Left Babylon
8:21-23
Ezr 8:21 Then I proclaimed a afast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a straight way for ourselves and for our little ones and for all our possessions.
Ezr 8:22 For I was ashamed to ask for troops and horsemen from the king to help us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken to the king, saying, The ahand of our God is for good upon all those who seek Him, but His power and His wrath is against all those who forsake Him.
Ezr 8:23 So we fasted and sought our God for this, and He was entreated by us.
5. Ezra’s Provision for the Offerings for the House of God
8:24-30
Ezr 8:24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading men of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them,
Ezr 8:25 And weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the 1heave offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counselors and his princes, and all Israel there present had offered.
Ezr 8:26 I weighed out into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver and one hundred silver vessels of one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold
Ezr 8:27 And twenty bowls of gold of one thousand darics, and two vessels of fine polished bronze as precious as gold.
Ezr 8:28 And I said to them, You are aholy to Jehovah, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Jehovah, the God of your fathers.
Ezr 8:29 Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and the leaders of the fathers’ houses of Israel at Jerusalem in the chambers of the house of Jehovah.
Ezr 8:30 So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.
6. The Journey and Arrival of the Returned Captivity
8:31-34
Ezr 8:31 Then we set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the ahand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from people set in ambush on the way.
Ezr 8:32 And we came to aJerusalem and remained there three days.
Ezr 8:33 And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed out in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui.
Ezr 8:34 Everything was numbered and weighed, and all its weight was recorded at that time.
7. The Offerings to God by the Returned Captivity
8:35
Ezr 8:35 The children of those who had been carried away, who acame out of captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve male goats for a sin offering, all as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
8. The Returned Captivity’s Delivery of the King’s Decrees
to the King’s Satraps and to the Governors beyond the River
8:36
Ezr 8:36 And they delivered the king’s decrees to the king’s satraps and to the governors beyond the River, and these supported the people and the house of God.
EZRA 9

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B. The Purification of the Returned Captives from the Defilement of Foreign Wives
9:1 — 10:44
1. Initiated by the Officials of the Returned Captives
9:1-2
Ezr 9:1 Now when these things had been completed, the officials approached me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have anot separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
Ezr 9:2 For they have taken some of their 1daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the aholy seed have bmingled themselves with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this unfaithfulness.
2. Ezra’s Reaction
9:3-15
Ezr 9:3 And when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled out hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled.
Ezr 9:4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of those of the captivity was gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening meal offering.
Ezr 9:5 And at the time of the evening meal offering I rose up from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and aspread out my hands to Jehovah my God.
Ezr 9:6 And I said, O my God, I am ashamed and aembarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God; for our biniquities have multiplied over our head, and our guilt has increased up to the heavens.
Ezr 9:7 Since the days of our fathers up to this day we have been exceedingly guilty; and because of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests, have been delivered up into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder, and to shamefacedness, as it is this day.
Ezr 9:8 And now for a brief moment favor has been shown by Jehovah our God to leave us a aremnant to escape and to give us a bpeg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
Ezr 9:9 For we are slaves, yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to raise up the ahouse of our God and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Ezr 9:10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments,
Ezr 9:11 Which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, The land which you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations, with which they have filled it from one end to another, and with their defilement.
Ezr 9:12 Now therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither atake their daughters for your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.
Ezr 9:13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us those who have escaped as this,
Ezr 9:14 Shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples that do these abominations? Will You not be angry with us until You have consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor any who escape?
Ezr 9:15 O Jehovah the God of Israel, You are righteous; for we have been left a aremnant of those who have escaped, as it is this day. Here we are before You in our guilt, although none can stand before You because of this.
EZRA 10

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3. The Congregation’s Reaction
10:1-5
Ezr 10:1 Now while Ezra aprayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the bhouse of God, a very large gathering of men and women and children was gathered together to him out of Israel; for the people wept very bitterly.
Ezr 10:2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully against our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this.
Ezr 10:3 Now therefore let us make a acovenant with our God to put away all the wives and those born of them according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.
Ezr 10:4 Arise, for the matter is your responsibility, but we are with you; be strong, and do it.
Ezr 10:5 Then Ezra arose and made the leaders of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do according to this word; so they swore.
4. The Final Decision
10:6-44
Ezr 10:6 Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he aate no bread and drank no water, for he was mourning because of the unfaithfulness of those of the captivity.
Ezr 10:7 And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;
Ezr 10:8 And that whoever did not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited, and he himself should be separated from the congregation of the captivity.
Ezr 10:9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the open square in front of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.
Ezr 10:10 And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, You have acted unfaithfully and have married foreign women to increase the guilt of Israel.
Ezr 10:11 Now therefore make confession to Jehovah the God of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.
Ezr 10:12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, It is so; we must do as you have said.
Ezr 10:13 But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside; neither is this a task for one day or two, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter.
Ezr 10:14 Let our leaders represent the whole congregation, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times and with them the elders of every city and their judges, until the fierce anger of our God is turned away from us on account of this matter.
Ezr 10:15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
Ezr 10:16 And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest and certain heads of fathers’ houses were set apart according to their fathers’ houses, all of them by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.
Ezr 10:17 And they finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.
Ezr 10:18 And among the sons of the priests who had married foreign women there were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah.
Ezr 10:19 And they apledged that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a bram of the flock for their guilt.
Ezr 10:20 And of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
Ezr 10:21 And of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah.
Ezr 10:22 And of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
Ezr 10:23 And of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
Ezr 10:24 And of the singers: Eliashib. And of the gatekeepers: Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.
Ezr 10:25 And of Israel: of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, and Izziah, and Malchijah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.
Ezr 10:26 And of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Elijah.
Ezr 10:27 And of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza.
Ezr 10:28 And of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai.
Ezr 10:29 And of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, Jeremoth.
Ezr 10:30 And of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.
Ezr 10:31 And of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
Ezr 10:32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.
Ezr 10:33 Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei.
Ezr 10:34 Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel,
Ezr 10:35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi,
Ezr 10:36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
Ezr 10:37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu,
Ezr 10:38 And Bani, and Binnui, Shimei,
Ezr 10:39 And Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah,
Ezr 10:40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
Ezr 10:41 Azarel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah,
Ezr 10:42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph.
Ezr 10:43 Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, and Joel, Benaiah.
Ezr 10:44 All these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had children.
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NEHEMIAH

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 
Outline

Author: Nehemiah, who was cupbearer to Artaxerxes the king of Persia and Babylon (1:11).
Time of Writing: After 433 B.C.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem.
Time Period Covered: This book covers a period of at least twelve years, from 445 B.C. to 433 B.C., from the twentieth year (1:1) to some time after the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king of Persia and Babylon (13:6-7).
Subject:
The Rebuilding of the Wall of the City of Jerusalem as a Continual Recovery among God’s Elect for His Testimony for the Accomplishment of His Economy
NEHEMIAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

I. The Rebuilding of the City of Jerusalem under Nehemiah
1:1 — 7:73
A. The Report of the Condition of Jerusalem
1:1-3
Ne 1:1 The words of 1Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. 2Now in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital,
Ne 1:2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and some men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who were left from the captivity, and about 1Jerusalem.
Ne 1:3 And they said to me, The remnant who are left from the captivity there in the province are in an exceedingly bad state and reproach, and the awall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.
B. Nehemiah’s Prayer by Fasting
1:4-11
Ne 1:4 And when I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and I mourned for some days; and I fasted and aprayed before the bGod of heaven,
Ne 1:5 And said, I beseech You, O Jehovah the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments:
Ne 1:6 Let Your ear be attentive and Your aeyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant, which I pray before You now day and night, concerning the children of Israel, Your servants, while I bconfess the sins of the children of Israel that we have sinned against You. Indeed, I and the house of my father have sinned;
Ne 1:7 We have been most corrupt toward You and have not kept the 1commandments and the statutes and the ordinances that You commanded Moses Your servant.
Ne 1:8 Remember now the 1word that You commanded Moses Your servant, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will ascatter you among the peoples;
Ne 1:9 But if you areturn to Me and keep My commandments and perform them, though your outcasts are under the bends of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.
Ne 1:10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.
Ne 1:11 I beseech You, O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants, who take delight in fearing Your name; and cause Your servant to prosper today, and grant him to find compassion before this man. Now I was cupbearer to the king.
NEHEMIAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

C. The King’s Favor in Giving Permission to Nehemiah
2:1-8
Ne 2:1 Then in the month of Nisan, in the atwentieth year of bArtaxerxes the king, while wine was being set before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence.
Ne 2:2 And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, since you are not ill? This is nothing other than sadness of heart. Then I was greatly frightened.
Ne 2:3 And I said to the king, 1May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the acity, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in waste and its gates are consumed with fire?
Ne 2:4 And the king said to me, What do you request? So I prayed to the aGod of heaven.
Ne 2:5 And I said to the king, If it please the king and if your servant has found favor before you, that you would send me to Judah to the city of my fathers’ graves that I may arebuild it.
Ne 2:6 And the king said to me (and the queen was sitting beside him), How long will your going be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a date.
Ne 2:7 Then I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given to me for the governors beyond the 1River, so that they will let me pass through until I come to Judah;
Ne 2:8 And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the Park, which belongs to the king, so that he would give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace that belongs to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I will be entering. And the king gave these to me according to the good 1ahand of my God, which was upon me.
D. Nehemiah’s Journey to Jerusalem and His Personal Observation
2:9-16
Ne 2:9 So I went to the governors beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. And the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen.
Ne 2:10 And when aSanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite 1servant heard of this, it displeased them greatly that a man had come seeking the good of the children of Israel.
Ne 2:11 Thus I came to aJerusalem and was there three days.
Ne 2:12 And I arose at night, I and some few men with me. And I told no man what my aGod had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me except the animal I rode on.
Ne 2:13 And I went out at night by the Valley Gate, toward the Jackals’ Spring and the Dung Gate, and inspected the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down and whose gates had been consumed with fire.
Ne 2:14 Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no place for the animal under me to pass through.
Ne 2:15 And I went up at night by the brook and inspected the wall, and turned back and went in by the Valley Gate and so returned.
Ne 2:16 And the rulers did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing; and I had not as yet told it to the Jews and the priests and the nobles and the rulers and the rest who were to do the work.
E. The Rebuilding of the Wall of Jerusalem
2:17-20
Ne 2:17 Then I said to them, You see the bad state we are in, that Jerusalem lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us abuild up the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a breproach.
Ne 2:18 And I told them about the hand of my God, which was good upon me, and also about the king’s words, which he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build; and they strengthened their hands for the good work.
Ne 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arabian heard of it, they amocked us and despised us; and they said, What is this thing that you will do? Will you rebel against the king?
Ne 2:20 And I answered them and said to them, 1The aGod of heaven Himself will make us prosper; therefore we His servants will rise up and build. But you have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem.
NEHEMIAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

F. A Record of the Building of the Wall
3:1-32
Ne 3:1 Then aEliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests and built the bSheep Gate. They consecrated it and erected its doors; even as far as the Tower of the Hundred they consecrated it and as far as the cTower of Hananel.
Ne 3:2 And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.
Ne 3:3 And the sons of Hassenaah built the aFish Gate: They laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
Ne 3:4 And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz made repairs. And next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel made repairs. And next to them Zadok the son of Baana made repairs.
Ne 3:5 And next to them the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles would not put their necks to the service of their 1Lord.
Ne 3:6 And Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Old Gate: They laid its beams and set up its doors and its bolts and its bars.
Ne 3:7 And next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite with the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah made repairs to the throne of the governor beyond the River.
Ne 3:8 Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they fortified Jerusalem even unto the Broad Wall.
Ne 3:9 And next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs.
Ne 3:10 And next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah made repairs.
Ne 3:11 Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section, including the Tower of the Furnaces.
Ne 3:12 And next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters.
Ne 3:13 Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate: They built it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, as well as one thousand cubits of the wall to the Dung Gate.
Ne 3:14 And Malchijah the son of Rechab, the ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem repaired the Dung Gate: He built it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
Ne 3:15 And Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate: He built it and covered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, as well as the wall of the Pool of aShelah by the King’s Garden, even to the stairs that go down from the City of David.
Ne 3:16 After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, made repairs, from a place opposite the aSepulchres of David and as far as the pool that was made and as far as the House of the Mighty Men.
Ne 3:17 After him the Levites, under Rehum the son of Bani, made repairs. Next to him Hashabiah, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, made repairs for his district.
Ne 3:18 After him their brothers, under Bavvai the son of Henadad, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, made repairs.
Ne 3:19 And next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section, opposite the ascent to the armory at the turning of the wall.
Ne 3:20 After him Baruch the son of Zabbai diligently repaired another section, from the turning of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
Ne 3:21 After him Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz repaired another section, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.
Ne 3:22 And after him the priests, the men from the plain, made repairs.
Ne 3:23 After them Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah made repairs beside his own house.
Ne 3:24 After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to the turning of the wall, then to the corner.
Ne 3:25 Palal the son of Uzai made repairs from in front of the turning of the wall, and on the tower that projects out from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him was Pedaiah the son of Parosh.
Ne 3:26 (Now the temple servants dwelt on the Ophel, as far as the point opposite the Water Gate on the east, and the tower that projects out.)
Ne 3:27 After him the Tekoites repaired another section, opposite the great tower that projects out and to the wall of the Ophel.
Ne 3:28 Above the aHorse Gate the priests made repairs, each one opposite his own house.
Ne 3:29 After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs opposite his own house. And after him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs.
Ne 3:30 After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired a second section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah made repairs, opposite his quarters.
Ne 3:31 After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate and as far as the ascent of the corner.
Ne 3:32 And between the ascent of the corner and the aSheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.
NEHEMIAH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

G. The Frustration of the Enemy
4:1-23
Ne 4:1 And when aSanballat heard that we were building the wall, he became angry and was greatly enraged; and he mocked the Jews.
Ne 4:2 And he spoke to his brothers and the army of Samaria and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the dust heaps, though they are burned?
Ne 4:3 And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Even their stone wall that they are building, if a fox were to go up on it, he would breach it.
Ne 4:4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised; and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them as spoil in the land of captivity;
Ne 4:5 And do not cover their iniquity and do not let their sin be blotted out before You, for they made provocations before the builders.
Ne 4:6 So we built the awall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a heart to work.
Ne 4:7 And when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem was advancing, that the breaches were beginning to be closed up, they became very angry;
Ne 4:8 And all of them aconspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and cause confusion in it.
Ne 4:9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.
Ne 4:10 And Judah said, / The strength of the burden bearers fails, / And the debris is great; / And we are not able / To build the wall.
Ne 4:11 And our adversaries said, They will not know, nor even see, until we come into their midst and slay them and cause the work to stop.
Ne 4:12 And when the Jews who dwelt near them came, they said to us ten times, They will come up against us from all the places that you turn to.
Ne 4:13 So I set men in the lowest places behind the wall, on the exposed areas, and I set the people by families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
Ne 4:14 And when I saw the situation, I rose up and said to the nobles and the rulers and the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them; remember the great and awesome Lord, and 1fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.
Ne 4:15 And when our enemies heard that their counsel was known to us and that God frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each man to his work.
Ne 4:16 And from that day half of my servants labored in the work, and half of them held the spears and the shields and the bows and the armor; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
Ne 4:17 Those who built the wall and those who carried burdens took the loads with one hand doing the work and with the other holding a weapon.
Ne 4:18 And as for the builders, each had his sword strapped to his side, and so they built; and he who sounded the trumpet was beside 1me.
Ne 4:19 And I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated on the wall, each far from the other.
Ne 4:20 In whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, gather yourselves to us there. Our God will afight for us.
Ne 4:21 So we labored in the work; and half of them held spears from the start of dawn until the stars came out.
Ne 4:22 I also said to the people at that time, Let every man and his servant spend the nights inside Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and work by day.
Ne 4:23 So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; 1each had his weapon at his right hand.
NEHEMIAH 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

H. The Settlement of the Interior Problem
5:1-19
1. The People’s Complaint concerning the Nobles’ and Rulers’ Imposing Interest on the People
vv. 1-5
Ne 5:1 And there was a great acry of the people and their wives against their brothers the Jews,
Ne 5:2 For there were some who said, With our sons and our daughters we are many; therefore we must get grain that we may eat and live.
Ne 5:3 And there were some who said, We have apledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain in this famine.
Ne 5:4 And there were some who said, We have borrowed money against our fields and our vineyards for the king’s tribute.
Ne 5:5 Yet now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children; and now we are bringing our sons and daughters into abondage as slaves. And some of our daughters have already been brought into bondage; and it is not in our power to deliver them, for our fields and vineyards belong to others.
2. Nehemiah’s Rebuke and Resolution
vv. 6-13
Ne 5:6 And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.
Ne 5:7 And when I had considered this matter in my heart, I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said to them, You men are charging ainterest, each man against his brother! And I set a great assembly against them.
Ne 5:8 And I said to them, We have abought back our brothers the Jews who have been sold to the nations according to the best of our ability. So would you even sell your brothers that they would have to be sold back to us? And they held their peace and could find not a word to answer.
Ne 5:9 Then I said, The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the afear of our God because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?
Ne 5:10 And even I, my brothers, and my servants lend them money and grain. Let us now abandon such taking of interest.
Ne 5:11 aRestore now to them, as of today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, as well as the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, new wine, and fresh oil that you charge them as interest.
Ne 5:12 And they said, We will restore it, and we will require nothing from them; so will we do, even as you say. Then I called for the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.
Ne 5:13 I also ashook out the lap of my garment and said, May God shake out in the same way every man from his house and from his possessions who does not perform this promise; even so may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, bAmen; and they praised Jehovah. And the people acted according to this promise.
3. Nehemiah’s Good Example
vv. 14-19
Ne 5:14 Moreover from the time that the king appointed me to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of aArtaxerxes the king, twelve years, I and my brothers did 1not eat the food appointed for the governor.
Ne 5:15 But the former governors, who were before me, laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them food and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants tyrannized the people. But I did not do so, because of the afear of God.
Ne 5:16 And I also applied myself to the work on this wall. And we did not acquire fields, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
Ne 5:17 And there were at my table one hundred fifty men, Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations that surrounded us.
Ne 5:18 And what was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowl was prepared for me, as well as all kinds of wine in abundance every ten days. Yet for this I did not demand the food appointed for the governor, for the service was heavy upon this people.
Ne 5:19 Remember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
NEHEMIAH 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

I. The Further Frustration of the Enemy
6:1-14
Ne 6:1 And when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian and the rest of our enemies that I had built the awall and that no breach remained in it (though as yet I had not set up the doors in the gates),
Ne 6:2 Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me, saying, Come; let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. But they intended to do me harm.
Ne 6:3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it to come down to you?
Ne 6:4 And they sent word to me four times in this way, and I answered them in this way.
Ne 6:5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in this way the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand,
Ne 6:6 In which was written: It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; therefore you are building the wall. And, according to these words, you are to be their king.
Ne 6:7 And you have also set up prophets to declare in Jerusalem concerning you, saying, There is a king in Judah! And now a report will be made to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.
Ne 6:8 Then I sent word to him, saying, None of these things that you are saying have happened; rather you have invented them in your own heart.
Ne 6:9 For all of them tried to frighten us, thinking, Their hands will be weakened from working, and it will not be done. But now strengthen my hands!
Ne 6:10 And I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who had shut himself up. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple; and let us shut the doors of the temple, for they are coming to slay you; indeed at night they are coming to slay you.
Ne 6:11 But I said, Should a man like me flee? And who, being like me, would go into the temple 1to save his life? I will not go in.
Ne 6:12 Then I perceived that surely God had not sent him but that he spoke this prophecy against me and that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
Ne 6:13 He had been hired for this reason, that I would be frightened and that I would act in such a way as to sin; then they would have cause for an evil report in order to reproach me.
Ne 6:14 Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets, who tried to frighten me.
J. The Completion of the Building
6:15 — 7:4
Ne 6:15 So the awall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days.
Ne 6:16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that surrounded us were afraid and fell very low in their own eyes, for they knew that this work was done with the help of our God.
Ne 6:17 Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them;
Ne 6:18 For many in Judah were sworn to his cause because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife.
Ne 6:19 They also spoke of his good deeds before me and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.
NEHEMIAH 7

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Ne 7:1 And when the awall was built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers and the singers and Levites had been appointed,
Ne 7:2 I gave my brother Hanani, as well as Hananiah the commander of the citadel, charge over Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than most.
Ne 7:3 And I said to them, Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while some are standing guard, let them shut the doors, and you bar them; and appoint watches from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, each at his own watch and each opposite his own house.
Ne 7:4 Now the city was wide and large; but the people were few in it and no houses had been built.
K. Enrolling the Returned Captives for the Increase of the Population of Jerusalem
7:5-73
Ne 7:5 Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the rulers and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who had first come up, and I found this written in it:
Ne 7:6 aThese are the children of the province who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away and who returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each man to his city;
Ne 7:7 Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
Ne 7:8 The children of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two.
Ne 7:9 The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two.
Ne 7:10 The children of Arah, six hundred fifty-two.
Ne 7:11 The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred eighteen.
Ne 7:12 The children of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
Ne 7:13 The children of Zattu, eight hundred forty-five.
Ne 7:14 The children of Zaccai, seven hundred sixty.
Ne 7:15 The children of Binnui, six hundred forty-eight.
Ne 7:16 The children of Bebai, six hundred twenty-eight.
Ne 7:17 The children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty-two.
Ne 7:18 The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-seven.
Ne 7:19 The children of Bigvai, two thousand sixty-seven.
Ne 7:20 The children of Adin, six hundred fifty-five.
Ne 7:21 The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.
Ne 7:22 The children of Hashum, three hundred twenty-eight.
Ne 7:23 The children of Bezai, three hundred twenty-four.
Ne 7:24 The children of Hariph, one hundred twelve.
Ne 7:25 The children of Gibeon, ninety-five.
Ne 7:26 The men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred eighty-eight.
Ne 7:27 The men of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight.
Ne 7:28 The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two.
Ne 7:29 The men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three.
Ne 7:30 The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one.
Ne 7:31 The men of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two.
Ne 7:32 The men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred twenty-three.
Ne 7:33 The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two.
Ne 7:34 The children of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.
Ne 7:35 The children of Harim, three hundred twenty.
Ne 7:36 The children of Jericho, three hundred forty-five.
Ne 7:37 The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-one.
Ne 7:38 The children of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred thirty.
Ne 7:39 The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy-three.
Ne 7:40 The children of Immer, one thousand fifty-two.
Ne 7:41 The children of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven.
Ne 7:42 The children of Harim, one thousand seventeen.
Ne 7:43 The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the children of Hodevah, seventy-four.
Ne 7:44 The singers: the children of Asaph, one hundred forty-eight.
Ne 7:45 The gatekeepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, one hundred thirty-eight.
Ne 7:46 The temple servants: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,
Ne 7:47 The children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon,
Ne 7:48 The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagaba, the children of Salmai,
Ne 7:49 The children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the children of Gahar,
Ne 7:50 The children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda,
Ne 7:51 The children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Paseah,
Ne 7:52 The children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephushesim,
Ne 7:53 The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,
Ne 7:54 The children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,
Ne 7:55 The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah,
Ne 7:56 The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.
Ne 7:57 The children of Solomon’s servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida,
Ne 7:58 The children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,
Ne 7:59 The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Amon.
Ne 7:60 All the temple servants and the children of Solomon’s servants were three hundred ninety-two.
Ne 7:61 And these were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not give evidence of their fathers’ houses nor their descendants, whether they were of Israel:
Ne 7:62 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred forty-two.
Ne 7:63 And of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife from among the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called after their name.
Ne 7:64 These sought their registry among those who were enrolled by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were considered defiled and were excluded from the priesthood.
Ne 7:65 And the governor told them that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up with aUrim and Thummim.
Ne 7:66 aThe whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty,
Ne 7:67 Besides their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred forty-five male singers and female singers.
Ne 7:68 1Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their mules, two hundred forty-five;
Ne 7:69 Their camels, four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty.
Ne 7:70 And some from among the heads of fathers’ houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury one thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred thirty priests’ garments.
Ne 7:71 And some of the heads of fathers’ houses gave into the treasury of the work twenty thousand darics of gold and two thousand two hundred minas of silver.
Ne 7:72 And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold and two thousand minas of silver and sixty-seven priests’ garments.
Ne 7:73 So the priests and the Levites and the gatekeepers and the singers and some of the people and the temple servants and all Israel dwelt in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.
NEHEMIAH 8

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II. The Reconstitution of the Nation of God’s Elect
8:1 — 13:31
A. The Renewing of the Covenant under Ezra
8:1 — 10:39
1. Coming Back to God by Coming Back to His Law, His Word
8:1-18
Ne 8:1 And all the people gathered as aone man in the open area that was before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the 1law of Moses, which Jehovah had commanded to Israel.
Ne 8:2 And 1Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.
Ne 8:3 And he aread in it before the open area that was before the Water Gate from first light until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
Ne 8:4 And Ezra the ascribe stood upon a wooden platform that had been made for that purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah and Shema and Anaiah and Uriah and Hilkiah and Maaseiah at his right hand; and at his left hand, Pedaiah and Mishael and Malchijah and Hashum and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
Ne 8:5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people); and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
Ne 8:6 And Ezra blessed Jehovah the great God; and all the people answered, 1aAmen, Amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground.
Ne 8:7 Also Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites helped the people understand the law; and the people stood in their place.
Ne 8:8 And they read in the book, in the law of God, interpreting and giving the sense, so that they understood the reading.
Ne 8:9 And Nehemiah, who was the agovernor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who helped the people understand said to all the people, This day is bholy unto Jehovah your God; do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
Ne 8:10 Then he said to them, Go your way; eat the fat, and drink the sweet wine, and send portions to him for whom nothing has been prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of Jehovah is your strength.
Ne 8:11 So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Be quiet, for the day is holy; and do not be grieved.
Ne 8:12 And all the people went their way to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Ne 8:13 And on the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe, that is, in order to gain 1insight into the words of the law.
Ne 8:14 And they found it written in the law that Jehovah had commanded through Moses that the children of Israel dwell in 1abooths during the feast in the seventh month,
Ne 8:15 And that they publish and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the mountain and bring olive branches and wild olive branches and myrtle branches and palm branches and branches of other leafy trees to make abooths, as it is written.
Ne 8:16 So the people went out and brought them, and all made booths for themselves on their aroofs and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God and in the open area before the Water Gate and in the open area before the Gate of Ephraim.
Ne 8:17 And all the assembly of those who returned from the captivity made booths and dwelt in the abooths, for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the children of Israel had not done so; and there was very great rejoicing.
Ne 8:18 And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he aread in the book of the law of God. And they held the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the 1ordinance.
NEHEMIAH 9

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2. Making a Clear Confession to God of Their Past and Making a Firm Covenant with God
9:1 — 10:39
Ne 9:1 Now on the atwenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, with earth 1on their heads.
Ne 9:2 And the descendants of Israel aseparated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
Ne 9:3 And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth part they confessed and worshipped Jehovah their God.
Ne 9:4 Then Jeshua and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood up on the Levites’ platform and cried out with a loud voice to Jehovah their God.
Ne 9:5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Jehovah your God from eternity to eternity:
And may Your glorious name be blessed, / Which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
Ne 9:6 You are Jehovah, / You alone; / You have amade heaven, / The heaven of heavens with all its host, / The earth and all that is on it, / The seas and all that is in them; / And You give life to all of them; / And the host of heaven worships You.
Ne 9:7 You are Jehovah God, / Who chose aAbram / And brought him forth from Ur of the Chaldees / And gave him the name bAbraham.
Ne 9:8 And You found his heart faithful before You / And made a acovenant with him, / To give him the land of the Canaanites, / The Hittites, the Amorites, / And the Perizzites and the Jebusites and the Girgashites, / To give it to his seed. / And You have fulfilled Your promises, / For You are righteous.
Ne 9:9 And You saw the aaffliction of our fathers in Egypt / And heard their bcry by the Red Sea,
Ne 9:10 And You performed asigns and wonders on Pharaoh, / And on all his servants, and on all the people of his land; / For You knew that they acted arrogantly toward them; / And You made Yourself a name, as it is to this day.
Ne 9:11 And You adivided the sea before them, / So that they might pass through the midst of the sea on the dry land; / But their pursuers You threw into the bdepths, / Like a stone into mighty waters.
Ne 9:12 Then in a apillar of cloud You led them by day, / And in a pillar of fire by night, / To light the way for them, / On which they should go.
Ne 9:13 And You came down upon Mount aSinai / And spoke with them from heaven. / And You gave them just ordinances and true laws, / Good statutes and commandments.
Ne 9:14 And You made known to them / Your holy aSabbath / And prescribed commandments and statutes and a law for them / Through Moses Your servant.
Ne 9:15 And You gave them abread from heaven / For their hunger, / And You made water come forth from a brock for them / For their thirst. / And You told them to enter / In order to possess the land, / Which You swore / To give them.
Ne 9:16 But they and our fathers acted arrogantly / And stiffened their neck and would not listen to Your commandments.
Ne 9:17 And they refused to listen / And would not remember Your wondrous acts, / Which You had done among them. / And they stiffened their neck and appointed a aleader / To return to their slavery in Egypt. / But You are a God of forgiveness, / Gracious and compassionate, / Long-suffering and abounding in lovingkindness; / So You did not forsake them.
Ne 9:18 Indeed when they made for themselves / A molten acalf, / And said, This is your God, / Who brought you up out of Egypt, / And showed great contempt;
Ne 9:19 You, in Your great compassion, / Did not forsake them in the wilderness; / The pillar of cloud did not depart from over them by day, / To guide them on their way; / Nor the pillar of fire by night, / To light the way for them, on which they should go.
Ne 9:20 And You gave Your good aSpirit / To instruct them, / And did not withhold Your bmanna from their mouth, / And gave them water for their thirst.
Ne 9:21 Indeed for aforty years You sustained them in the wilderness; / They did not lack; / bTheir clothes did not wear out, / And their feet did not swell.
Ne 9:22 And You gave them kingdoms and peoples, / And divided these to them as boundaries. / So they took possession of the land of aSihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, / And the land of bOg the king of Bashan.
Ne 9:23 And their children You multiplied / Like the astars of heaven, / And You brought them into the land / That You told their fathers / To enter and bpossess.
Ne 9:24 And the children entered / And possessed the land; / And You subdued before them / The inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites; / And You gave them into their hand, / With their kings and the peoples of the land, / That they might do with them as they pleased.
Ne 9:25 And they atook their fortified cities / And a fertile land, / And took possession of their houses, / Full of every good thing, / Hewn cisterns, vineyards, and olive groves, / And fruit trees in abundance; / And they ate and were satisfied and grew fat, / And they delighted in Your great goodness.
Ne 9:26 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You / And cast Your law behind their back. / And they aslew Your prophets, / Who had testified against them / In order to turn them back to You; / And they showed great contempt.
Ne 9:27 Therefore You adelivered them into the hand of their oppressors, / And they oppressed them; / But when they bcried out to You in the time of their oppression, / You heard from heaven, / And according to Your great compassions You gave them cdeliverers, / Who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors.
Ne 9:28 Then after they had rest, / They again did evil before You; / And You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, / And they had dominion over them. / But when they cried out to You again, / You heard from heaven /
And delivered them amany times / According to Your compassions.
Ne 9:29 And You testified against them in order to turn them back to Your law, / But they acted arrogantly and would not listen to Your commandments; / And they sinned against Your ordinances / (By which, if a man adoes them, he will live), / And they turned a stubborn shoulder / And stiffened their neck and would not listen.
Ne 9:30 Yet You bore with them / For many years / And testified to them by Your aSpirit / Through Your prophets, / But they would not give heed; / So You delivered them / Into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
Ne 9:31 Nevertheless in Your abundant compassions / You did not make an end of them; / And You did not forsake them, / For You are a gracious and compassionate God.
Ne 9:32 And now, our God, / The great, the mighty, and the awesome God, / Who keeps covenant and lovingkindness, / Do not let all the hardship seem small in Your sight / Which has come upon us, on our kings, on our rulers, / And on our priests and on our prophets / And on our fathers and on all Your people, / Since the days of the kings of aAssyria / Until this day.
Ne 9:33 But You are righteous / In all that has come upon us, / For You have acted faithfully / While we have acted wickedly;
Ne 9:34 And our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers / Have not performed Your law / Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies, / By which You testified against them.
Ne 9:35 But they, in their kingdom and in Your great goodness, / Which You gave them, / And in the broad and afat land / That You put before them, / Did not serve You, nor did they turn / From their evil works.
Ne 9:36 Here we are, slaves today; / And as for the land that You gave to our fathers / To eat of its fruit and its goodness, / Here we are, slaves upon it.
Ne 9:37 And its abundant aproduce is for the kings / Whom You have put over us because of our sins; / And they rule over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, / And we are in great distress.
Ne 9:38 And because of all this we are making a firm covenant and setting it in writing, and upon the sealed document are the names of our rulers, our Levites, and our priests.
NEHEMIAH 10

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Ne 10:1 And those who are upon the sealed document are: aNehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,
Ne 10:2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
Ne 10:3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,
Ne 10:4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
Ne 10:5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
Ne 10:6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
Ne 10:7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
Ne 10:8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.
Ne 10:9 And the Levites: namely, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;
Ne 10:10 And their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
Ne 10:11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
Ne 10:12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
Ne 10:13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.
Ne 10:14 The heads of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,
Ne 10:15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
Ne 10:16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
Ne 10:17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
Ne 10:18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
Ne 10:19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
Ne 10:20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
Ne 10:21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
Ne 10:22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
Ne 10:23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
Ne 10:24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
Ne 10:25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
Ne 10:26 And Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,
Ne 10:27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
Ne 10:28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had aseparated themselves from the peoples of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all who had knowledge and who had understanding,
Ne 10:29 Join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a 1curse and an oath, to walk in the law of God, which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to keep and do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, as well as His ordinances and His statutes;
Ne 10:30 And swear that we will not agive our daughters to the peoples of the land nor take their daughters for our sons;
Ne 10:31 And if the peoples of the land bring in wares or any grain on the aSabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day; and we will forego the crops of the bseventh year and the exaction of every debt.
Ne 10:32 We also lay upon ourselves obligations to acharge ourselves one-third shekel yearly for the service of the house of our God,
Ne 10:33 For the rows of bread, and for the continual meal offering, and for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings, to make expiation for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.
Ne 10:34 And we the priests, the Levites, and the people have cast lots for the wood offering, in order to bring it to the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of Jehovah our God as it is written in the law;
Ne 10:35 And in order to bring the afirstfruits of our land and the firstfruits of all the fruit of every tree year by year to the house of Jehovah,
Ne 10:36 As well as the afirstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law; and in order to bring the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God.
Ne 10:37 We will also bring the afirst of our dough and our heave offerings and of the fruit of every tree and the new wine and the fresh oil to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the 1btithe of our land to the Levites; for they, the Levites, are those who receive the tithes in all our rural towns.
Ne 10:38 And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes; and the Levites shall bring the tithe of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse.
Ne 10:39 For the children of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the heave offering of the grain, of the new wine, and of the fresh oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary, the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers are; and we will not forsake the house of our God.
NEHEMIAH 11

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B. The Reforming of the Nation
11:1 — 13:31
1. The Arrangement of the Dwellings and the Appointment of the Officers
11:1-36
Ne 11:1 And the rulers of the people dwelt in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots in order to bring one in ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the aholy city, while nine-tenths remained in the other cities.
Ne 11:2 And the people 1blessed all the men who offered themselves willingly to dwell in Jerusalem.
Ne 11:3 Now these are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem (but in the cities of Judah all dwelt in their possession in their cities, that is, Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the temple servants, and the children of Solomon’s servants):
Ne 11:4 And in Jerusalem some of the children of Judah and some of the children of Benjamin dwelt. Of the children of Judah: Athaiah the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children of Perez;
Ne 11:5 And Maaseiah the son of Baruch, the son of Col-hozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite.
Ne 11:6 All the sons of Perez who dwelt in Jerusalem were four hundred sixty-eight valiant men.
Ne 11:7 And these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah;
Ne 11:8 And after him Gabbai and Sallai: nine hundred twenty-eight.
Ne 11:9 And Joel the son of Zichri was their overseer; and Judah the son of Hassenuah was second over the city.
Ne 11:10 Of the priests: Jedaiah the son of Joiarib, Jachin,
Ne 11:11 Seraiah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God,
Ne 11:12 And their brothers who did the work of the house, eight hundred twenty-two; and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah,
Ne 11:13 And his brothers, heads of fathers’ houses, two hundred forty-two; and Amashsai the son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer,
Ne 11:14 And their brothers, mighty men of valor, one hundred twenty-eight; and their overseer was Zabdiel the son of Haggedolim.
Ne 11:15 And of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni;
Ne 11:16 And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the heads of the Levites, who were over the outside work of the house of God;
Ne 11:17 And Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, who was the first to begin the thanksgiving in prayer, with Bakbukiah, the second among his brothers; and Abda the son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun.
Ne 11:18 All the Levites in the aholy city were two hundred eighty-four.
Ne 11:19 And the gatekeepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, who kept watch at the gates, were one hundred seventy-two.
Ne 11:20 And the rest of Israel, the priests and the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his own inheritance.
Ne 11:21 But the temple servants dwelt on the Ophel. And Ziha and Gishpa were over the temple servants.
Ne 11:22 And the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the singers, for the work of the house of God.
Ne 11:23 For there was a commandment from the king concerning them and fixed provisions for the singers, as each day required.
Ne 11:24 And Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the children of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king’s hand in all matters concerning the people.
Ne 11:25 And as for the villages, with their fields, some of the children of Judah dwelt in Kiriath-arba and its villages, and in Dibon and its villages, and in Jekabzeel and its outlying villages,
Ne 11:26 And in Jeshua, and in Moladah, and Beth-pelet,
Ne 11:27 And in Hazar-shual, and in Beer-sheba and its villages,
Ne 11:28 And in Ziklag, and in Meconah and in its villages,
Ne 11:29 And in En-rimmon, and in Zorah, and in Jarmuth,
Ne 11:30 Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and its fields, Azekah and its villages. So they encamped from Beer-sheba as far as the valley of Hinnom.
Ne 11:31 And the children of Benjamin dwelt from Geba onward, at Michmash and Aija, and at Bethel and its villages,
Ne 11:32 At Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,
Ne 11:33 Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,
Ne 11:34 Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,
Ne 11:35 Lod, and Ono, the valley of craftsmen.
Ne 11:36 And certain courses of the Levites in Judah were joined to Benjamin.
NEHEMIAH 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • 

2. A Record of the Priests and Levites
12:1-26
Ne 12:1 Now these are the 1priests and the Levites who went up with aZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua: bSeraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,
Ne 12:2 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,
Ne 12:3 Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,
Ne 12:4 Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah,
Ne 12:5 Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,
Ne 12:6 Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah.
Ne 12:7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the heads of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.
Ne 12:8 And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving, he and his brothers.
Ne 12:9 And Bakbukiah and Unno, their brothers, were opposite them, by their service groups.
Ne 12:10 And Jeshua begot Joiakim, and Joiakim begot Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada,
Ne 12:11 And Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua.
Ne 12:12 And in the days of Joiakim, the priests, the heads of fathers’ houses, were: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;
Ne 12:13 Of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;
Ne 12:14 Of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;
Ne 12:15 Of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;
Ne 12:16 Of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;
Ne 12:17 Of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;
Ne 12:18 Of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;
Ne 12:19 And of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;
Ne 12:20 Of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;
Ne 12:21 Of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.
Ne 12:22 As for the Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan and Jaddua, the heads of fathers’ houses were recorded, as well as the priests, in the reign of Darius the Persian.
Ne 12:23 The sons of Levi, the heads of fathers’ houses, were written in the book of the chronicles until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.
Ne 12:24 And the heads of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers opposite them, to praise and give thanks, according to the commandment of David the aman of God, service group next to service group.
Ne 12:25 Mattaniah and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub were gatekeepers keeping the watch at the storehouses of the gates.
Ne 12:26 These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of aNehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest, the scribe.
3. The Dedication of the Rebuilt Wall
12:27-43
Ne 12:27 And at the adedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites from all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem in order to hold the dedication with rejoicing and thanksgiving and singing with cymbals, harps, and lyres.
Ne 12:28 So the sons of the singers gathered together from the plain around Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites
Ne 12:29 And from Beth-gilgal and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built outlying villages for themselves around Jerusalem.
Ne 12:30 And the priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.
Ne 12:31 Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great companies that gave thanks and went in procession. One went to the right upon the wall toward the Dung Gate;
Ne 12:32 And after them went Hoshaiah, and half of the leaders of Judah,
Ne 12:33 And Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,
Ne 12:34 Judah, and Benjamin, and Shemaiah, and Jeremiah,
Ne 12:35 And some of the priests’ sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph;
Ne 12:36 And his brothers, Shemaiah and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the aman of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them.
Ne 12:37 And at the Fountain Gate, and straight in front of them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, to the Water Gate on the east.
Ne 12:38 And the second company that gave thanks went to meet them, and I after them, with half of the people, upon the wall, above the Tower of the Furnaces, to the Broad Wall,
Ne 12:39 And above the Gate of Ephraim, and by the Old Gate, and by the aFish Gate and the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, to the bSheep Gate; and they stopped at the Gate of the Guard.
Ne 12:40 So the two companies that gave thanks stood in the house of God, as well as I and half of the rulers with me;
Ne 12:41 And the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets;
Ne 12:42 And Maaseiah and Shemaiah and Eleazar and Uzzi and Jehohanan and Malchijah and Elam and Ezer. And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah as the overseer.
Ne 12:43 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had caused them to rejoice greatly; and the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.
4. The Appointment of the Services of the Priests and Levites and the Supply of Their Needs
12:44-47
Ne 12:44 And on that day men were appointed over the chambers for the stores, for the heave offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them, according to the cities’ fields, the 1portions assigned by the law for the priests and the Levites, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who served.
Ne 12:45 And they kept the charge of their God and the charge of the purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and Solomon his son.
Ne 12:46 For in the days of David and Asaph, long ago, there were leaders of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
Ne 12:47 And in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers as each day required; and they consecrated portions for the aLevites, and the Levites consecrated portions for the sons of bAaron.
NEHEMIAH 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

5. The Clearance Exercised on Israel as God’s Elect
13:1-30a
Ne 13:1 On that day they aread in the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and it was found written in it that bno 1Ammonite or Moabite should enter the assembly of God forever,
Ne 13:2 For they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and water, but hired aBalaam against them to curse them; yet our God turned the bcurse into a blessing.
Ne 13:3 And when they heard the law, they aseparated all the bmixed multitude from Israel.
Ne 13:4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who had been appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, because he was related to aTobiah,
Ne 13:5 Had prepared for him a large chamber where previously they had put the meal offering, the frankincense, and the vessels, as well as the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, as commanded for the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers, and the heave offerings for the priests.
Ne 13:6 But during all this time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the athirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king of Babylon I went to the king; then after some time I asked leave from the king.
Ne 13:7 And I came to Jerusalem and perceived the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.
Ne 13:8 And it grieved me much; therefore I cast all the household utensils of Tobiah out of the chamber.
Ne 13:9 Then I gave commands, and they apurified the chambers; and I returned the vessels of the house of God, the meal offering, and the frankincense there.
Ne 13:10 I also found out that the aportions of the Levites had not been given to them and thus the Levites and the singers, who performed the service, had gone back, each to his own fields.
Ne 13:11 So I contended with the rulers and said, Why has the house of God been forsaken? Then I gathered them together and set them in their stations.
Ne 13:12 And all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the fresh oil to the storehouses.
Ne 13:13 And I appointed treasurers over the storehouses, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah; and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were counted faithful, and it was their charge to distribute to their brothers.
Ne 13:14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not blot out my loyal deeds, which I have done for the house of my God and for its services.
Ne 13:15 In those days I saw some in Judah treading wine presses on the aSabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on their donkeys, as well as wine, grapes and figs, and every kind of load, and they were bringing them into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I protested on the day that they sold food.
Ne 13:16 And Tyrians who dwelt there were also bringing in fish and every kind of merchandise, and selling it on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem.
Ne 13:17 Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?
Ne 13:18 Did not your fathers act this way, and did not our God bring all this trouble upon us and upon this city? But you bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath.
Ne 13:19 And when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors be shut and commanded that they not be opened until after the Sabbath; and I set some of my servants at the gates so that no load could enter on the aSabbath day.
Ne 13:20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.
Ne 13:21 But I testified against them and said to them, Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.
Ne 13:22 And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and that they should come and keep the gates, in order to sanctify the Sabbath day. For this also remember me, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness.
Ne 13:23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had amarried women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab;
Ne 13:24 And as for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod; and none of them could speak the language of Judah, but they spoke the language of the respective peoples.
Ne 13:25 And I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them swear by God, saying, You shall anot give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
Ne 13:26 Did not Solomon the king of Israel sin in these matters? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was abeloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; yet the bforeign wives caused even him to sin.
Ne 13:27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil by acting unfaithfully against our God in marrying foreign women?
Ne 13:28 And one of the sons of Joiada the son of Eliashib the high priest was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, so I chased him away from me.
Ne 13:29 Remember them, O my God; for they have adefiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
Ne 13:30 Thus I 1cleansed them from everything foreign.
6. Nehemiah Appointing Duties for the Priests and Levites
for the Wood Offering and the Firstfruits
13:30b-31
And I appointed duties for the priests and the Levites, each in his work,
Ne 13:31 And for the wood offering, at the appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
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ESTHER

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 
Outline

Author: Probably Mordecai (9:20, 23), Esther’s cousin, who raised her (2:5, 7).
Time of Writing: Around 474 B.C., in the twelfth month of the twelfth year of Ahasuerus (9:20, 18; 3:7).
Place of Writing: Susa, capital of the Persian Empire (1:2).
Time Period Covered: This book covers a period of at least ten years, from 484 B.C. to 474 B.C., from the third year of Ahasuerus (Xerxes) the king of Persia (1:3) to some time after the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of Ahasuerus (9:18; 3:7).
Subject:
The Very God Who Chose Israel as His Elect Becoming a Hidden God to Them to Take Care of Them Secretly and to Save Them Openly While Acting in Secrecy during Their Captivity among the Gentile Nations
ESTHER 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

I. The Secret Care of the Hiding God for His Oppressed Elect in Their Dispersion as Seen in Esther
1:1 — 2:23
A. Establishing a Top King in the Gentile World
1:1-2
Es 1:1 1Now in the days of 2Ahasuerus (this is the aAhasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over one hundred twenty-seven provinces)
Es 1:2 In those days when King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Susa the capital,
B. Causing the King to Depose His Queen
1:3-22
Es 1:3 In the third year of his reign, he held a abanquet for all his princes and his servants. The army of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces were before him
Es 1:4 As he showed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the splendor of his great majesty for many days, for one hundred eighty days.
Es 1:5 And when these days were completed, the king held a banquet for seven days for all the people found in Susa the capital, both great and small, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.
Es 1:6 There were white cotton curtains and blue hangings tied with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and marble pillars, as well as couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of porphyry, white marble, mother-of-pearl, and mosaics.
Es 1:7 And drinks were served in vessels of gold, and the vessels were different from one another; and the royal wine was abundant, according to the king’s bounty.
Es 1:8 And the drinking was, by commandment, without constraint; for so the king had ordered all the officials of his house to do as each man desired.
Es 1:9 Also Vashti the queen held a banquet for the women in the royal house that belonged to King Ahasuerus.
Es 1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
Es 1:11 To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the peoples and the princes; for she was beautiful in appearance.
Es 1:12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command given through the king’s eunuchs; and the king became very angry, and his wrath burned within him.
Es 1:13 Then the king said to the wise men, who knew the times (for such was the custom of the king toward all who knew law and justice;
Es 1:14 And those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face and sat first in the kingdom):
Es 1:15 According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus given through the eunuchs?
Es 1:16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen has done wrong not only to the king but also to all the princes and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
Es 1:17 For this deed of the queen will go out to all women, causing them to view their husbands contemptibly as they say, King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought to his presence, but she did not come.
Es 1:18 And this day the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will speak likewise to all the king’s princes, and contempt and wrath will abound.
Es 1:19 If it please the king, let a royal order go forth from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be overruled, that Vashti come no more into the presence of King Ahasuerus and that the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.
Es 1:20 And when the king’s decree which he will make is heard throughout all his kingdom, vast though it is, all women will give honor to their husbands, great and small.
Es 1:21 And this word pleased the king and the princes, and the king did according to Memucan’s word.
Es 1:22 So he sent letters to all the king’s provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, that every man should be master in his own house and speak in the language of his own people.
ESTHER 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

C. Raising Up a Jewish Orphan Virgin to Be Crowned as Queen
2:1-23
Es 2:1 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.
Es 2:2 Then the king’s attendants who served him said, Let young virgins, beautiful in appearance, be sought for the king;
Es 2:3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the young virgins, beautiful in appearance, to Susa the capital, to the house of the women and into the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given to them.
Es 2:4 And let the young woman who pleases the king become queen in place of Vashti. And the word pleased the king, and he did so.
Es 2:5 There was a Jew in Susa the capital whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite,
Es 2:6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been acarried away with Jeconiah the king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
Es 2:7 And he was foster father to 1Hadassah, that is, 2Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother; and the young woman was beautiful in form and appearance. And when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her to himself as his daughter.
Es 2:8 So when the king’s commandment and his decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered to Susa the capital into the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken to the king’s house into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women.
Es 2:9 And the young woman pleased him, and she obtained kindness in his presence. And he quickly gave her her cosmetics and her portions as well as the seven choice young maids who were to be given her from the king’s house. And he transferred her and her young maids to the best place in the house of the women.
Es 2:10 Esther did not make known her apeople or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to make these known.
Es 2:11 And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the house of the women to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.
Es 2:12 Now when the turn of each young woman came to go in to King Ahasuerus, at the end of the twelve months of her preparation according to the regulation for the women (for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of amyrrh and six months with spices and with the women’s cosmetics),
Es 2:13 The young woman would go in to the king in this way: Anything that she desired was given her to go with her from the house of the women to the house of the king.
Es 2:14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go again in to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
Es 2:15 Now when the turn of Esther the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her to himself as his daughter, came to go in to the king, she requested nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her.
Es 2:16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
Es 2:17 And the king loved Esther more than all the other women. And she obtained favor and kindness with him more than all the other virgins, so he set the royal acrown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.
Es 2:18 And the king held a great abanquet for all his princes and his servants, Esther’s banquet; and he made it a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king’s bounty.
Es 2:19 And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate.
Es 2:20 Esther had not yet made known her akindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her, as she had when he was bringing her up.
Es 2:21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, aBigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, among those who were in charge of the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
Es 2:22 And the thing became known to Mordecai, and he atold Esther the queen; and Esther told the king in Mordecai’s name.
Es 2:23 And when the matter was investigated and found to be so, the two of them were hanged on the gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.
ESTHER 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

II. The Open Salvation Accomplished by the Hiding God in Secrecy
for His Persecuted Elect in Their Captivity as Seen in Mordecai
3:1 — 10:3
A. Haman’s Plot to Destroy All the Jews in Medo-Persia
3:1-15
Es 3:1 After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the 1aAgagite, and he 2advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
Es 3:2 And all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for so had the king commanded concerning him. But Mordecai adid not bow down or pay homage.
Es 3:3 Then the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate said to Mordecai, Why do you transgress the king’s command?
Es 3:4 And when they had spoken to him day after day and he did not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew.
Es 3:5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with rage.
Es 3:6 But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who the people of Mordecai were; therefore Haman sought to adestroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were throughout the kingdom of Ahasuerus.
Es 3:7 In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast aPur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day and from month to month, until it fell on the btwelfth month, that is, the month Adar.
Es 3:8 And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples throughout all the provinces of your kingdom; and their laws adiffer from those of all the people, nor do they keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.
Es 3:9 If it please the king, let it be decreed in writing that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s affairs, that they may bring it into the king’s treasuries.
Es 3:10 Then the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the aAgagite, the Jews’ benemy.
Es 3:11 And the king said to Haman, The silver has been given to you, as well as the people, to do with them as it seems good to you.
Es 3:12 Then the king’s scribes were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and it was decreed in writing, according to all that Haman commanded, to the king’s satraps and to the governors who were over each province and to the princes of every people, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own tongue; in the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king’s signet ring.
Es 3:13 And letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to slay, and to aannihilate all the Jews, both young and old, children and women, in one day, that is, the bthirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their spoil.
Es 3:14 A copy of the written decree to be issued as law in all the provinces was published to all the peoples so that they would be ready for that day.
Es 3:15 The couriers went out, driven in haste by the king’s command; and the decree was issued in Susa the capital. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.
ESTHER 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

B. Mordecai’s Confrontation of Haman’s Plot
through Esther’s Close and Intimate Contact with the King
4:1 — 8:2
Es 4:1 Now when Mordecai learned about all that had been done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes; and he went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly.
Es 4:2 And he went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.
Es 4:3 And throughout every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with 1afasting and weeping and wailing; many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Es 4:4 And Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was greatly distressed. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might remove his sackcloth from him; but he would not accept them.
Es 4:5 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to serve her, and she commanded him to go out to Mordecai to find out what this was and why it was.
Es 4:6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai at the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate.
Es 4:7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
Es 4:8 And he also gave him a copy of the written decree which was issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show Esther and tell her about it and charge her to go in to the king to supplicate him and make a request for her people before him.
Es 4:9 And Hathach came and told Esther Mordecai’s words.
Es 4:10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and ordered him to answer Mordecai:
Es 4:11 All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that for any man or woman who comes in to the king at the inner court who has not been called for, there is but one law, that he be put to death, unless the king holds out his ascepter of gold to him that he may live; and I have not been called to come in to the king during these past thirty days.
Es 4:12 And they told Mordecai Esther’s words.
Es 4:13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, Do not imagine that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the Jews.
Es 4:14 For if you remain asilent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Es 4:15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
Es 4:16 Go; assemble all the Jews who are to be found in Susa, and afast for me; and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day; I also and my maids will fast in the same way. And so will I go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.
Es 4:17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
ESTHER 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Es 5:1 And on the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, in front of the king’s house. And the king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal house, opposite the entrance to the house.
Es 5:2 And when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther his ascepter of gold, which was in his hand; and Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter.
Es 5:3 Then the king said to her, What troubles you, Queen Esther? And what is your request? It shall be given to you, even to the ahalf of my kingdom.
Es 5:4 And Esther said, If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet I have prepared for him.
Es 5:5 Then the king said, Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther says. And the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
Es 5:6 And the king said to Esther during the banquet of wine, What is your petition? For it shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to the ahalf of the kingdom it shall be done.
Es 5:7 Then Esther answered and said, My petition and my request is this:
Es 5:8 If I have found favor in the king’s sight, and if it please the king to grant my petition and do what I request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them; and tomorrow I will do as the king says.
Es 5:9 And Haman went out that day joyful and glad in heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and that he did not arise or tremble because of him, Haman was filled with aanger against Mordecai.
Es 5:10 But Haman restrained himself and went to his house. And he sent word and had his friends and Zeresh his wife brought to him.
Es 5:11 And Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things in which the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and the king’s servants.
Es 5:12 Haman also said, Even Esther the queen let no one come with the king to the banquet that she had prepared except me, and tomorrow also I am invited by her, together with the king.
Es 5:13 Yet all this means to me nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king’s gate.
Es 5:14 Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, Let a agallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it; then go with the king to the banquet rejoicing. And the word seemed good to Haman, and he had the gallows made.
ESTHER 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Es 6:1 On that night the king could anot sleep, so he gave orders to bring the book of the records of the bchronicles; and they were read before the king.
Es 6:2 And it was found written that Mordecai had given a report concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, among those who were in charge of the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
Es 6:3 And the king said, What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Then the king’s servants who attended him said, Nothing has been done for him.
Es 6:4 And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s house to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the agallows that he had prepared for him.
Es 6:5 And the king’s servants said to him, Haman is now standing in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.
Es 6:6 So Haman came in; and the king said to him, What shall be done for the man whom the king desires to honor? Now Haman said in his heart, Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?
Es 6:7 And Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king desires to honor,
Es 6:8 Let a royal arobe be brought, one which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden and on whose head a royal crown has been set.
Es 6:9 And let the robe and the horse be delivered into the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes; and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and make him aride on horseback through the street of the city; and let them bproclaim before him, Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.
Es 6:10 Then the king said to Haman, Quickly take the robe and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits in the king’s gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have said.
Es 6:11 Then Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and made him ride through the street of the city; and he proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king desires to honor.
Es 6:12 And Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.
Es 6:13 And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends all that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the seed of the aJews, you will not prevail against him; but you shall surely fall before him.
Es 6:14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurriedly brought Haman to the abanquet that Esther had prepared.
ESTHER 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

Es 7:1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Esther the queen.
Es 7:2 And the king said again unto Esther on the second day during the banquet of wine, What is your petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to the ahalf of my kingdom it shall be done.
Es 7:3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and that of my apeople as my request;
Es 7:4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to aperish. And if we had been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the adversary is not worth the annoyance to the king.
Es 7:5 Then King Ahasuerus spoke and said to Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, who presumes to do so?
Es 7:6 And Esther said, An adversary and an aenemy, this wicked Haman. Then Haman became terrified before the king and the queen.
Es 7:7 And the king arose in his anger from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden, and Haman stood up to make a request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.
Es 7:8 And when the king returned from the palace garden into the house of the banquet of wine, Haman was prostrate on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, Will he even humble the queen in front of me in this house? When the word went forth from the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
Es 7:9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king, said, And also there is the agallows standing in Haman’s house, fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good on behalf of the king. And the king said, Hang him on it.
Es 7:10 So they hanged aHaman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s anger subsided.
ESTHER 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

Es 8:1 On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had disclosed what he was to her.
Es 8:2 And the king took off his asignet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
C. The Open, Triumphant Victory of the Jews over Their Enemies —
The Open Salvation of Their Hiding God
8:3 — 10:3
Es 8:3 And Esther spoke again before the king; and she fell down at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to overturn the aevil plan of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had plotted against the Jews.
Es 8:4 Then the king held out the ascepter of gold to Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king.
Es 8:5 And she said, If it please the king, and if I have found favor before him, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to areverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote in order to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.
Es 8:6 For how can I bear to see the evil that will befall my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?
Es 8:7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, I have now given Esther the house of Haman, and him have they hanged on the gallows because he stretched out his hand against the Jews.
Es 8:8 Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which has been written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be reversed.
Es 8:9 Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month. And it was decreed in writing, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews and to the satraps and governors and the princes of the provinces, which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and in their own language.
Es 8:10 And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and asealed it with the king’s signet ring; and he sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king’s service, bred of the royal stud,
Es 8:11 In which letters the king allowed the Jews that were in every city to assemble and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all the power of the people and province that might assault them, their little ones, and their women, and to plunder their spoil,
Es 8:12 On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the athirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
Es 8:13 A copy of the written decree to be issued as law in every province was published to all the peoples so that the Jews would be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.
Es 8:14 So the couriers, riding on swift steeds that were used in the king’s service, went out, driven in haste by the king’s command; and the decree was issued in Susa the capital.
Es 8:15 And Mordecai went forth from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, and with a large crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and apurple; and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.
Es 8:16 For the Jews there was light and joy, and gladness and honor.
Es 8:17 And throughout every province and throughout every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was for the Jews joy and gladness, a afeast and a good day. And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.
ESTHER 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

Es 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree were about to be executed, on the day that the Jews’ enemies hoped to rule over them (but it aturned out to the contrary, so that the Jews had rule over them that hated them),
Es 9:2 The Jews assembled in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hand on those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.
Es 9:3 And all the princes of the provinces and the satraps and the governors and those who did the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.
Es 9:4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai became greater and greater.
Es 9:5 And the Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword and with slaughter and destruction, and they did as it pleased them to those who hated them.
Es 9:6 And in Susa the capital the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.
Es 9:7 And Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha
Es 9:8 And Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha
Es 9:9 And Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha,
Es 9:10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew’s enemy, they slew; but they did not lay their hand on the aspoil.
Es 9:11 On that day the number of those who were slain in Susa the capital was brought before the king.
Es 9:12 And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Susa the capital as well as the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? And it shall be granted to you. Or what is your further request? And it shall be done.
Es 9:13 Then Esther said, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
Es 9:14 And the king commanded it to be so done; and a decree was issued in Susa, and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.
Es 9:15 And the Jews who were in Susa assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and slew three hundred men in Susa, but they did not lay their hand on the aspoil.
Es 9:16 And the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled and stood for their lives, and they had rest from their enemies. And they slew seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they did not lay their hand on the spoil.
Es 9:17 This happened on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
Es 9:18 But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth day of the month and on the fourteenth of the month; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of afeasting and rejoicing.
Es 9:19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in towns in the open, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of rejoicing and feasting, and a good day, and a day of sending portions to one another.
Es 9:20 And Mordecai wrote these things down, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
Es 9:21 Enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,
Es 9:22 As the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and as the month which was aturned for them from sorrow to rejoicing and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing, and of sending portions to one another and gifts to the bpoor.
Es 9:23 And the Jews undertook what they had begun to do and what Mordecai had written to them to do.
Es 9:24 For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast aPur, that is, the lot, to vex them and destroy them;
Es 9:25 But when 1Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that his wicked plot, which he had plotted against the Jews, should return upon his own head and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Es 9:26 Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter and what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them,
Es 9:27 The Jews established and made a custom for themselves and their seed and all who joined themselves to them, that they would not fail to keep these two days according to what has been written about them and according to the appointed time for them, year by year;
Es 9:28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the remembrance of them fade from their seed.
Es 9:29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.
Es 9:30 And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, that is, words of peace and truth,
Es 9:31 Establishing these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had established for them and as they had established for themselves and for their seed in the matter of the fastings and their cry.
Es 9:32 And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
ESTHER 10

vv. 1 • • 

Es 10:1 Now King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.
Es 10:2 And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
Es 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was asecond to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews and well-regarded by the multitude of his brothers, one who bsought the good of his people and who spoke for the welfare of all his seed.
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JOB

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 
Outline

Author: Job.
Time of Writing: According to the way of Job’s nomadic living (1:3) and the way he offered the burnt offering for his children, it seems that this book was written at the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (1:5; Gen. 22:13; 31:54), about 2000 B.C., five hundred years before Moses wrote the Pentateuch.
Place of Writing: The land of Uz (1:1), an area associated with Edom (Lam. 4:21), west of the Arabian desert.
Time Period Covered: The period of time that this book covers cannot be determined with accuracy; however, after his trials Job lived another 140 years (42:16), making the period of this book close to two hundred years, somewhere around 2000 B.C.
Subject:
The Purpose of God’s Dealing with His Holy One
JOB 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

I. Introduction
1:1 — 2:10
A. Job the Man
1:1-5
Jb 1:1 1There was a man in the land of 2Uz whose name was 3aJob; and this man was 4bperfect and upright, and he feared God and turned away from evil.
Jb 1:2 And aseven sons and three daughters were born to him.
Jb 1:3 And his possessions were seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred female donkeys and a great many servants; and this man was greater than all the sons of the east.
Jb 1:4 And his sons would go and hold feasts in each one’s house, each on his own day, and they would send word and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Jb 1:5 And when the days of feasting ran their course, Job would send word and 1sanctify them; and he would rise early in the morning and offer 1aburnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, Perhaps my children have sinned and have 2cursed God in their heart. Job did this continually.
B. A Council Held in Heaven concerning Job
1:6-12a
Jb 1:6 Then one day, when the 1asons of God came to present themselves bbefore Jehovah, 2cSatan also came 3among them.
Jb 1:7 And Jehovah said to Satan, Where have you come from? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, From aroving the earth and going about in it.
Jb 1:8 And Jehovah said to Satan, Have you 1considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a aperfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.
Jb 1:9 Then Satan aanswered Jehovah and said, 1Does Job fear God without cause?
Jb 1:10 Have You not set a ahedge around him and his household and all that he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his possessions are spread throughout the land.
Jb 1:11 But stretch forth Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.
Jb 1:12 And Jehovah said to Satan, Here is all that he has, in your hand; 1only do not stretch forth your hand against him.
C. Satan Attacking Job and Job Suffering Trials in the Matter of His Possessions and Children
1:12b-22
And Satan went forth from Jehovah’s presence.
Jb 1:13 Then one day, when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their firstborn brother,
Jb 1:14 A messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were feeding beside them;
Jb 1:15 And the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away, and they struck the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to relate these things to you.
Jb 1:16 While this one was still speaking, another came and said, The 1fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and devoured them; and I alone have escaped to relate these things to you.
Jb 1:17 While this one was still speaking, another came and said, The Chaldeans formed three companies and raided the camels and took them, and they struck the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to relate these things to you.
Jb 1:18 While this one was still speaking, another came and said, Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their firstborn brother;
Jb 1:19 And suddenly a great wind came from beyond the desert and struck the four corners of the house, so that it fell upon the young people and they died; and I alone have escaped to relate these things to you.
Jb 1:20 Then Job rose up and tore his clothes and shaved his head and fell to the earth and worshipped.
Jb 1:21 And he said, / aNaked I came out of my mother’s womb, / And naked I will breturn there. / Jehovah cgives and Jehovah takes away; / Blessed be the name of Jehovah.
Jb 1:22 In all this Job did anot sin, nor did he charge God with unseemliness.
JOB 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

D. A Council Held Again in Heaven concerning Job
2:1-6
Jb 2:1 aThen one day, when the 1sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah, 2bSatan also came among them to present himself before Jehovah.
Jb 2:2 And Jehovah said to Satan, Where have you come from? And Satan answered Jehovah and said, From aroving the earth and going about in it.
Jb 2:3 And Jehovah said to Satan, Have you 1considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still holds fast his aintegrity, though you have moved Me against him to destroy him without cause.
Jb 2:4 Then Satan aanswered Jehovah and said, Skin for skin! Indeed all that a man has he will give for the sake of his life.
Jb 2:5 But stretch forth Your hand, and touch his bone and his flesh; and he will surely curse You to Your face.
Jb 2:6 And Jehovah said to aSatan, Here he is, in your hand; 1only spare his life.
E. Satan Attacking Job, and Job Suffering the Trial in His Body
2:7-10
Jb 2:7 And Satan went forth from Jehovah’s presence and struck Job with severe aboils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
Jb 2:8 And he took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and he sat among the ashes.
Jb 2:9 Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your aintegrity? Curse God and die.
Jb 2:10 But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Should we receive the good from God but not receive the ill? In all this Job did anot sin with his lips.
II. The Debates between Job and His Three Friends
2:11 — 32:1
A. The Coming and Consoling of Job’s Three Friends
2:11-13
Jb 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this misfortune that came upon him, each came from his place, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they together made an appointment to come to console him and comfort him.
Jb 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes from a distance and did not recognize him, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they all tore their clothes and cast dust over their heads toward heaven.
Jb 2:13 And they sat with him on the ground aseven days and seven nights; but 1none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.
JOB 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

B. Job’s Cursing of the Day of His Birth
3:1-26
Jb 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and 1acursed the day of his birth.
Jb 3:2 And Job responded and said,
Jb 3:3 Let the day on which I was born perish, / And the night which said, A man has been conceived.
Jb 3:4 Let that day be darkness; / Let God not seek it from above, / Nor let light shine upon it.
Jb 3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death reclaim it; / Let a cloud dwell upon it; / Let the things that blacken the day terrify it.
Jb 3:6 As for that night, let deep darkness take hold of it; / Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; / Let it not come up in the number of the months.
Jb 3:7 Behold, let that night be barren; / Let no joyous shout come in it.
Jb 3:8 Let those curse it who curse the day, / Who are ready to rouse leviathan.
Jb 3:9 Let its predawn stars be dark; / Let it wait for light and there be none, / And do not let it see the eyelids of the dawn.
Jb 3:10 For it did not shut up the doors of the awomb that bore me, / Nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
Jb 3:11 Why did I not 1die at birth, / Come forth from the womb and expire?
Jb 3:12 Why did the knees receive me? / And why the breasts, that I should suck?
Jb 3:13 For now I would have lain down and been undisturbed; / I would have slept; then I would have been at rest
Jb 3:14 With kings and counselors of the earth, / Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
Jb 3:15 Or with princes who had gold, / Who filled their houses with silver.
Jb 3:16 Or like a miscarriage that has been concealed, I would not have been, / Like infants that do not see the light.
Jb 3:17 There the wicked cease from their troubling, / And there the weary rest.
Jb 3:18 Captives are altogether at ease; / They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
Jb 3:19 The small and the great are there, / And the servant is free from his master.
Jb 3:20 Why does He give light to him who suffers / And life to the bitter in soul,
Jb 3:21 Who wait for adeath, but it is not there; / And dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
Jb 3:22 Who rejoice to the point of exultation / And are glad when they have found the grave;
Jb 3:23 To the man whose way is hidden / And whom God has ahedged in?
Jb 3:24 For my sighing comes as my food, / And my groaning pours out like water.
Jb 3:25 For I dread something, and it comes upon me; / And what I fear comes to me.
Jb 3:26 I have no ease and I have no quiet / And I have no rest, but trouble comes.
JOB 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

C. The First Round of Debates
4:1 — 11:20
1. Eliphaz’s Answer to Job by Rebuking
4:1 — 5:27
Jb 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Jb 4:2 If one attempts a word with you, will you be wearied by it? / But who can refrain from speaking?
Jb 4:3 Indeed, you have instructed many, / And you have strengthened the weak ahands.
Jb 4:4 Your words have raised up him who was stumbling, / And you have made the bowing aknees firm.
Jb 4:5 But now it comes to you, and you are wearied by it; / It touches you, and you are disturbed.
Jb 4:6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, / And the aintegrity of your ways your hope?
Jb 4:7 Remember now, who, being innocent, has ever perished? / And where have the upright ever been cut off?
Jb 4:8 According to what I have seen, those who plow 1iniquity / And those who asow trouble reap the same.
Jb 4:9 By the abreath of God they perish, / And by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
Jb 4:10 The roaring of the lion and the sound of the fierce lion / And the teeth of the young lions are broken;
Jb 4:11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, / And the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
Jb 4:12 But a matter has stolen in unto me, / And my ear has received a whisper of it.
Jb 4:13 In perplexing thoughts of the night visions, / When deep sleep falls upon men,
Jb 4:14 Dread came upon me, and trembling, / And caused all my bones to dread.
Jb 4:15 And a spirit passed before my face; / The hair of my flesh bristled.
Jb 4:16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; / A form stood before my eyes; / I heard a murmur of a voice:
Jb 4:17 Can a mortal man be more arighteous than God? / Can a man be purer than his Maker?
Jb 4:18 If He puts no trust in His servants, / And He charges His angels with aerror,
Jb 4:19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, / Whose foundation is in adust, / Who are crushed like a moth!
Jb 4:20 From morning to evening they are smashed to pieces; / Without any considering it, they 1continually perish.
Jb 4:21 Should their tent cord be plucked up within them, / They die, and not in wisdom.
JOB 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Jb 5:1 Call now! Is there anyone who will answer you? / And to which of the holy ones will you turn?
Jb 5:2 Surely avexation slays the fool, / And jealousy kills the simpleton.
Jb 5:3 I have seen the fool taking root, / But suddenly I cursed his habitation.
Jb 5:4 His children are far from safety, / And they are crushed in the gate; and there is no one to deliver them.
Jb 5:5 The hungry eat his harvest / And 1even take it out from the thorns, / And the 2thirsty pant after 3his wealth.
Jb 5:6 For evil does not come forth from the dust, / Nor does trouble spring forth from the ground.
Jb 5:7 But man is born unto atrouble, / Just as sparks fly upward.
Jb 5:8 But as for me, I would seek after God, / And I would commit my cause to God,
Jb 5:9 Who does great things that cannot be asearched, / Wonderful deeds that cannot be numbered;
Jb 5:10 Who gives arain upon the surface of the earth / And sends water upon the surface of the fields;
Jb 5:11 Who sets on ahigh those who are lowly / And puts those who bmourn safely above all.
Jb 5:12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, / So that their hands achieve no enterprise.
Jb 5:13 aHe seizes the bwise in their own craftiness, / And the counsel of the wily is brought to a sudden end.
Jb 5:14 By day they encounter darkness, / And at noon they grope about as in the night.
Jb 5:15 But He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, / From the hand of the strong.
Jb 5:16 Thus the poor have hope, / And Injustice stops her mouth.
Jb 5:17 Indeed, ablessed is the man whom God corrects; / Therefore do not reject the 1bchastening of the 2Almighty.
Jb 5:18 For He wounds, but He binds up; / He strikes, but His hands aheal.
Jb 5:19 In six troubles He will deliver you; / Indeed in seven no evil will touch you.
Jb 5:20 In famine He will redeem you from death, / And in battle, from the power of the sword.
Jb 5:21 From the scourge of the tongue you will be hidden, / And you will not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
Jb 5:22 At destruction and at famine you will laugh, / And you will not be afraid of the animals of the earth.
Jb 5:23 For you will be in an alliance with the stones of the field, / And the animals of the field will be at peace with you.
Jb 5:24 And you will know that your tent is at peace, / And you will inspect your fold and miss nothing.
Jb 5:25 And you will know that your seed will be great, / And your offspring like the grass of the earth.
Jb 5:26 You will come to the grave at a ripe old age, / Like a shock of grain 1coming up in its season.
Jb 5:27 This is it. We have searched it out; it is so. / Hear then and know it for yourself.
JOB 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

2. Job’s Vindication
6:1 — 7:21
Jb 6:1 Then Job 1answered and said,
Jb 6:2 Oh that my 1vexation were weighed indeed, / And that my ruin were lifted onto the scales together with it!
Jb 6:3 For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas; / Therefore my words have been rash.
Jb 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me, / The poison of which my spirit drinks up; / The terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Jb 6:5 Does the wild ass bray over its grass? / Or does the ox low over its fodder?
Jb 6:6 Is what is savorless eaten without salt? / Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
Jb 6:7 My soul refuses to touch them; / They are like putrid food to me.
Jb 6:8 Oh that I might have my request, / And that God would grant me what I long for;
Jb 6:9 That God would be willing to crush me; / That He would release His hand and cut me off!
Jb 6:10 Then there would still be comfort for me; / And I would exult, even in writhing pain that does not spare, / That I did not 1deny the words of the aHoly One.
Jb 6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait? / And what is my end, that I should be patient?
Jb 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? / Or is my flesh bronze?
Jb 6:13 Is there any help for me at all within me, / And has wisdom been driven away from me?
Jb 6:14 To him who is fainting there should be kindness from his friend, / Else he will forsake the fear of the Almighty.
Jb 6:15 My brothers have dealt as treacherously as a desert abrook, / As the rivulets of the desert brooks that pass away,
Jb 6:16 Which are turbid because of the ice, / And into which the snow hides itself.
Jb 6:17 When they are scorched, they are completely consumed; / When it is hot, they are dried up from their place.
Jb 6:18 Caravans divert their ways for them; / They go up into the waste and perish.
Jb 6:19 The caravans of Tema look for them; / The companies of Sheba long for them.
Jb 6:20 They are put to shame because they are confident; / They go there and are confounded.
Jb 6:21 So now you have become such; / You see a terrible thing and are afraid.
Jb 6:22 Have I said, Give me something? / Or, Pay a bribe for me out of your wealth?
Jb 6:23 Or, Deliver me from the hand of the adversary? / Or, From the hand of the oppressors redeem me?
Jb 6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent; / Cause me to understand how I have erred.
Jb 6:25 How forceful are upright words! / But what does this reproving from you reprove?
Jb 6:26 Do you think you can reprove words? / But the words of a desperate man are for the wind.
Jb 6:27 You would even cast lots over the orphan / And bargain over your friend.
Jb 6:28 Now then be pleased to look upon me, / For surely I will not lie to your face.
Jb 6:29 Turn now; let there be no injustice. / Indeed turn; my righteousness is still here.
Jb 6:30 Is there any injustice on my tongue? / Can my palate not discern calamities?
JOB 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Jb 7:1 Does not man have a term of hard service on earth? / And are his adays not like the days of a hired hand?
Jb 7:2 Like a servant who longs for the shade, / And like a hired hand who waits for his pay,
Jb 7:3 So I am made to inherit months of vanity, / And nights of trouble are appointed to me.
Jb 7:4 If I lie down, I say, / When will I arise? But the evening is long, / And I am full of tossings until the dawn.
Jb 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt clods; / My skin crusts and then oozes again.
Jb 7:6 My adays are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle / And are spent 1without hope.
Jb 7:7 Remember that my life is a abreath; / My eye will not see good again.
Jb 7:8 The eye of him who sees me will not look on me; / Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.
Jb 7:9 The cloud is consumed and agoes away: / Likewise he who goes down into bSheol does not come up.
Jb 7:10 He areturns no more to his house, / Nor does his place know him anymore.
Jb 7:11 For my part, I also will not restrain my mouth; / I will speak in the distress of my spirit; / I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Jb 7:12 Am I the sea, or a sea serpent, / That You must set a watch over me?
Jb 7:13 When I say, My bed will comfort me, / My couch will bear up my complaint;
Jb 7:14 Then You scare me with dreams / And terrify me with visions,
Jb 7:15 So that my soul would choose strangulation / And death rather than my bones.
Jb 7:16 I 1loathe life; I would not live forever. / Leave me alone, for my days are a mere breath.
Jb 7:17 aWhat is bmortal man that You magnify him, / And that You consider him,
Jb 7:18 And that You visit him every morning, / You try him every moment?
Jb 7:19 How long before You look away from me, / Before You abandon me until I swallow my spittle?
Jb 7:20 If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O Watcher of man? / Why have You made me Your target so that I have become a burden to You?
Jb 7:21 And why do You not forgive my transgression / And take away my iniquity? / For now I may lie down in the adust; / And You will seek me out, and I will not be.
JOB 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

3. Bildad’s Rebuttal
8:1-22
Jb 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite 1answered and said,
Jb 8:2 How long will you speak these things? / And how long will the words of your mouth be like a mighty wind?
Jb 8:3 Does God pervert ajustice? / Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
Jb 8:4 If your achildren have sinned against Him, / He has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
Jb 8:5 If you seek earnestly after God / And make supplication unto the Almighty,
Jb 8:6 If you are pure and upright, / Then surely He will rouse Himself for you / And restore well-being to your righteous habitation.
Jb 8:7 And though your beginning was small, / Your end will be very great.
Jb 8:8 For inquire now of the former generation, / And attend to what their fathers have sought out.
Jb 8:9 For we are of yesterday and know nothing, / Because our days upon the earth are a ashadow.
Jb 8:10 Will they not teach you and talk to you / And utter forth words from their heart?
Jb 8:11 Can papyrus shoot up without marsh? / Can reeds grow without water?
Jb 8:12 While it is still in its greenness and not cut down, / It awithers before all other grasses.
Jb 8:13 So are the paths of all who forget God; / And the hope of the profane perishes,
Jb 8:14 Whose confidence is cut off, / And whose trust is a spider’s web.
Jb 8:15 He leans upon his house, but it will not stand; / He holds fast to it, but it will not endure.
Jb 8:16 He is full of sap before the sun, / And his shoots go forth over his garden.
Jb 8:17 His roots are entwined around a stone heap; / He looks upon a place of stones.
Jb 8:18 If 1one destroys him from his place, / Then it denies him, saying, I have not seen you.
Jb 8:19 Indeed, that is the joy of his way; / And others spring forth out of the dust.
Jb 8:20 Indeed, God will not reject a perfect man, / Nor will He support evildoers.
Jb 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter / And your lips with shouting.
Jb 8:22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, / And the tent of the wicked will be no more.
JOB 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

4. Job’s Unyieldingness
9:1 — 10:22
Jb 9:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 9:2 I do indeed know that it is so. / But how can a man be arighteous before God?
Jb 9:3 If he is pleased to contend with Him, / He cannot answer Him one thing in a thousand.
Jb 9:4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength — / Who has ever resisted Him and come through whole? —
Jb 9:5 He who 1aremoves mountains, and they do not know it, / When He overturns them in His anger;
Jb 9:6 Who ashakes the earth from its place, / And its pillars shake;
Jb 9:7 Who commands the asun, and it does not rise, / And seals up the stars;
Jb 9:8 Who alone astretched forth the heavens / And btrod upon the heights of the sea;
Jb 9:9 Who made the aBear, bOrion, and the Pleiades, / And the chambers of the south;
Jb 9:10 Who does great things that cannot be searched, / Indeed, wonderful deeds that cannot be numbered.
Jb 9:11 Indeed, He passes by me, but I do not see Him; / And He goes by, but I do not perceive Him.
Jb 9:12 Indeed, He snatches away; who can stop Him? / Who can say to Him, aWhat are You doing?
Jb 9:13 God does not turn back His anger; / Under Him 1Rahab’s helpers stoop.
Jb 9:14 How then can I answer Him / And choose my words properly with Him?
Jb 9:15 I, though righteous, could not answer Him; / I could only plead for mercy before my 1Judge.
Jb 9:16 If I called out and He answered me, / I do not believe that He would hearken to my voice.
Jb 9:17 For He crushes me with a whirlwind / And multiplies my wounds without cause.
Jb 9:18 He does not permit me to catch my breath, / But fills me with bitterness.
Jb 9:19 If we speak of strength, indeed, He is mighty! / Or if of ajudgment, Who, says He, can appoint Me a time?
Jb 9:20 Though I am righteous, my mouth would condemn me; / Though I am perfect, 1it would prove me perverse.
Jb 9:21 I am aperfect; I do not regard my soul; / I despise my life.
Jb 9:22 It is all one; therefore I say, / He destroys the perfect and the wicked.
Jb 9:23 If some scourge suddenly kills, / He derides the 1despair of the innocent.
Jb 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; / He covers the faces of its judges. / If not He, then who is it?
Jb 9:25 And my adays are swifter than a running messenger; / They flee away, they do not see good;
Jb 9:26 They go by like reed boats, / Like an eagle swooping on the prey.
Jb 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, / I will put off my sad countenance and look cheerful;
Jb 9:28 I fear all my pains: / I know that You will not hold me innocent.
Jb 9:29 I will be accounted wicked; / Why then do I labor in vain?
Jb 9:30 If I awash myself with 1soap / And cleanse my hands with lye,
Jb 9:31 Yet You will plunge me into the pit, / And my own garments will abhor me.
Jb 9:32 For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, / That we should enter into litigation together.
Jb 9:33 There is no referee between us, / Who may lay his hand upon us both.
Jb 9:34 Let Him take His rod away from me, / And let not the dread of Him terrify me;
Jb 9:35 Then I would speak and not be afraid; / For I am not such.
JOB 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Jb 10:1 My soul loathes my own alife; / I will let my complaint have free course in me; / I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Jb 10:2 I will say to God, Do not account me wicked; / Make known to me why You acontend with me.
Jb 10:3 Does it seem good to You to oppress, / To despise the toil of Your hands / And shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Jb 10:4 Do You have eyes of flesh? / Or do You see as a man sees?
Jb 10:5 Are Your days like the days of a man, / Or Your years like the days of a mighty man,
Jb 10:6 That You would seek out my iniquity / And search for my sin,
Jb 10:7 Even though You know that I am not wicked / aAnd that there is none who can deliver out of Your hand?
Jb 10:8 Your hands have ashaped me and made me altogether, / Yet You destroy me.
Jb 10:9 Remember now that You have made me like aclay; / And will You return me to the bdust?
Jb 10:10 Have You not poured me out like milk / And curdled me like cheese?
Jb 10:11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh / And awoven me together with bones and sinews.
Jb 10:12 You have granted me life and lovingkindness, / And Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
Jb 10:13 But You have 1ahidden these things in Your heart; / I know that this is with You:
Jb 10:14 If I sin, You mark me, / And You do not acquit me of my iniquity;
Jb 10:15 If I am wicked, woe unto me; / If I am righteous, I acannot lift up my head, / Being filled with dishonor and looking on my affliction.
Jb 10:16 And if 1my head should be lifted up, You would hunt me down like a lion, / And You would again demonstrate wonders on me.
Jb 10:17 You renew Your witnesses against me / And increase Your anger against me; / Attacking waves and a host are against me.
Jb 10:18 And why have You brought me out of the awomb? / I should have died that no eye had seen me;
Jb 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; / I should have been carried from birth to the grave.
Jb 10:20 Are not my days few? Cease then, / And let me alone, that I may be somewhat 1revived,
Jb 10:21 Before I go, and never areturn, / To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,
Jb 10:22 The land of gloom like deep darkness, / The ashadow of death without order, / Which shines like deep darkness.
JOB 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

5. Zophar’s Blind Argument
11:1-20
Jb 11:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
Jb 11:2 Should a multitude of words not be answered? / And should a man of much talk be justified?
Jb 11:3 Shall your empty talk silence men? / And will you mock, and there be none to shame you?
Jb 11:4 For you say, My doctrine is pure, / And I am clean in Your eyes.
Jb 11:5 But, oh, that God would speak / And open His lips to you,
Jb 11:6 And that He would tell you the secrets of wisdom! / For there are two sides to sound reason. / Know then that God has forgotten some of your iniquity.
Jb 11:7 Can you find out the 1adepths of God? / Can you find out the blimit of the Almighty?
Jb 11:8 It is the height of heaven — what can you do? / It is deeper than Sheol — what can you know?
Jb 11:9 Its measure is longer than that of the earth / And broader than the sea.
Jb 11:10 If He passes by and imprisons / And summons an assembly, who can stop Him?
Jb 11:11 For He knows men of falsehood, / And He sees iniquity without considering it.
Jb 11:12 But an 1empty-headed man acquires intelligence / When the 1foal of a wild ass is born as a man.
Jb 11:13 If you would set your heart right / And stretch your hands out to Him —
Jb 11:14 If there is iniquity in your hand, put it far away, / And do not let wrong dwell in your tents —
Jb 11:15 Then indeed you would lift up your face without blemish, / And you would be asteadfast and would not be afraid.
Jb 11:16 For you will forget your misery; / You will remember it as waters that have passed away.
Jb 11:17 And your time here will rise more brightly than the noonday; / Dark though it may be, it will be like the morning.
Jb 11:18 And you will be secure, for there is hope; / And you will search about and lie down in security.
Jb 11:19 Indeed you will lie down, and there will be none to terrify you; / And many will entreat your favor.
Jb 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail, / And fleeing will be lost to them, / And their hope will be to breathe out their life.
JOB 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

D. The Second Round of Debates
12:1 — 20:29
1. Job’s Superiority Complex in the Matter of Knowing God
12:1 — 13:2
Jb 12:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 12:2 Surely then you are the people, / And wisdom will die with you.
Jb 12:3 I also have understanding as you do; / I am not inferior to you. / And who does not know things like these?
Jb 12:4 I have become a laughingstock to 1my friends, / I, who have called out to God and He answers 2me. / The righteous man, the perfect man, is a alaughingstock.
Jb 12:5 There is contempt for calamity in the thought of him who is at ease: / It is prepared for those whose foot slips.
Jb 12:6 The tents of robbers prosper, / And those who provoke God have security, / Those who carry their god in their own 1might.
Jb 12:7 But ask now of the beasts, and they will ateach you; / And of the birds of heaven, and they will tell you.
Jb 12:8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; / And the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Jb 12:9 Who among all these does not know / That the hand of Jehovah has done this,
Jb 12:10 In whose hand is the 1alife of every living thing / And the 1breath of all flesh of man?
Jb 12:11 Does not the ear atry words / Even as the palate tastes food for itself?
Jb 12:12 In aged men, you say, there is wisdom, / And in length of days there is understanding.
Jb 12:13 But with Him are awisdom and might; / Counsel and understanding are His.
Jb 12:14 Indeed, He breaks down, and it cannot be rebuilt; / He shuts a man up, and the door cannot be opened.
Jb 12:15 Indeed, He withholds the awaters, and they dry up; / And He bsends them forth, and they overturn the earth.
Jb 12:16 With Him are strength and effectual wisdom; / The deceived and the deceiver are His.
Jb 12:17 He leads acounselors away stripped, / And He makes fools of judges.
Jb 12:18 He loosens the fetters of kings / And binds their loins with a belt.
Jb 12:19 He leads priests away stripped, / And He overturns dignitaries.
Jb 12:20 He removes the utterance of the trusty / And takes away the counsel of the elders.
Jb 12:21 He pours contempt upon the princes / And loosens the belt of the strong.
Jb 12:22 He uncovers the depths out of darkness / And abrings to light the shadow of death.
Jb 12:23 He makes nations great and destroys them; / He expands nations and leads them off.
Jb 12:24 He removes the understanding of the heads of the people of the earth / And causes them to wander in a pathless waste.
Jb 12:25 They grope in darkness, and there is no light; / And He causes them to stagger like a drunken man.
JOB 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

Jb 13:1 Indeed, my eye has seen all this; / My ear has heard and understood it.
Jb 13:2 What you know, I also know; / I am not inferior to you.
2. Job’s Accusing His Friends of Being False
13:3-19
Jb 13:3 But I would speak to the Almighty, / And I desire to aargue with God.
Jb 13:4 Yet you are plasterers of lies; / aPhysicians of no value are you all.
Jb 13:5 Oh that you would be altogether silent, / And this would be your wisdom!
Jb 13:6 Hear now my argument, / And hearken to the contentions of my lips.
Jb 13:7 Will you speak wrongly for God / And speak deceitfully for Him?
Jb 13:8 Will you be partial to Him? / Will you contend for God?
Jb 13:9 Will it be well with you when He searches you out? / Or will you adeceive Him as one might deceive a man?
Jb 13:10 He will surely reprove you / If you are secretly partial.
Jb 13:11 Will not His majesty make you afraid / And His dread fall on you?
Jb 13:12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes; / Your defenses are defenses of clay.
Jb 13:13 Be silent before me, and I myself will speak; / And let come on me what may.
Jb 13:14 1I will take my flesh in my teeth / And put my life in my hand.
Jb 13:15 Indeed, He will kill me; I have no hope. / Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.
Jb 13:16 This also will be my salvation, / That no profane man may come before Him.
Jb 13:17 Hear carefully my words, / And let my declaration be in your ears.
Jb 13:18 Here now, I have aarranged my case; / I know that I will be vindicated.
Jb 13:19 Who will contend with me? / For then I would be silent and die.
3. Job’s Arguments with God
13:20 — 14:22
Jb 13:20 Only do not do two things to me, / Then I will not hide from Your face:
Jb 13:21 Withdraw Your hand far from me, / And do not let Your terror frighten me.
Jb 13:22 Then call, and I will answer; / Or let me speak, and You respond to me.
Jb 13:23 How many are my iniquities and sins? / Make my transgression and my sin aknown to me.
Jb 13:24 Why do You ahide Your face / And consider me as Your benemy?
Jb 13:25 Will You harass a driven leaf / And pursue dry chaff?
Jb 13:26 For You write bitter things against me / And cause me to inherit the iniquities of my youth;
Jb 13:27 And You put my feet in astocks / And mark all my paths; / You set a limit for the soles of my feet.
Jb 13:28 And such a one is like some rotten thing that wastes away, / Like a garment eaten by amoths.

JOB 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Jb 14:1 Man, born of woman, / Is of afew days and full of trouble.
Jb 14:2 He comes forth like a ablossom and 1is cut down, / He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
Jb 14:3 And do You open Your eyes upon such a one / And bring me into alitigation with You?
Jb 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out from the unclean? / No one!
Jb 14:5 Since his days are adetermined, / And the number of his months is with You; / Since You have appointed his bounds, and he cannot go beyond;
Jb 14:6 Look away from him that he may rest, / Until he fulfills his day like a hired hand.
Jb 14:7 For there is hope for a tree: / If it is cut down, it will asprout again, / And its tender shoot will not cease.
Jb 14:8 Though its root grows old in the earth, / And its trunk dies in the dirt,
Jb 14:9 At the scent of water it will bud / And will produce branches like a new plant.
Jb 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; / Yes, a man expires, and then awhere is he?
Jb 14:11 The waters of the sea recede, / And the river becomes parched and dried up:
Jb 14:12 So a man lies down and does not rise up; / Until the aheavens are no more, 1he will not awake, / Nor will 1he be roused from 2his sleep.
Jb 14:13 Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol, / That You would conceal me until Your anger has passed, / That You would set me an appointed time and remember me!
Jb 14:14 If a man dies, will he live again? / All the days of my service I would wait, / Until a change for me should come.
Jb 14:15 You would call, and I would answer You; / You would long after the work of Your hands.
Jb 14:16 For now You number my steps. / Do You not watch over my sin?
Jb 14:17 My transgression has been sealed up in a bag, / And You have fastened up my iniquity.
Jb 14:18 However the mountain falls and crumbles, / And the rock moves from its place;
Jb 14:19 Waters wear away stones; / Their torrents wash away the dust of the earth: / So You destroy the hope of man.
Jb 14:20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes away; / You change his countenance and send him away.
Jb 14:21 His sons gain honor, but he does not know it; / And they become insignificant, but he does not perceive it.
Jb 14:22 Only the pain of his own flesh does he feel, / And his own soul mourns for him.

JOB 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

4. Eliphaz’s Rebuke and Warning
15:1-35
Jb 15:1 And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Jb 15:2 Should a wise man answer with the knowledge of wind, / And should he fill his belly with the east wind?
Jb 15:3 Should he argue with useless talk / And with words by which he cannot avail?
Jb 15:4 Indeed you do away with the fear of God / And restrain meditation before God.
Jb 15:5 For your iniquity instructs your mouth, / And you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Jb 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; / And your own lips testify against you.
Jb 15:7 Are you the first man born? / Or were you brought forth before the hills?
Jb 15:8 Did you listen in on the asecret council of God? / And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
Jb 15:9 What do you know that we do not know? / What do you understand that is not with us?
Jb 15:10 Both the grayheaded and the aged are among us, / Older than your father.
Jb 15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, / Or the word spoken gently to you?
Jb 15:12 Why does your heart take you away? / And why do your eyes flash,
Jb 15:13 That you turn your spirit against God / And let words go forth from your mouth?
Jb 15:14 What is mortal man, that he can be aclean, / Or he who is bborn of a woman, that he can be crighteous?
Jb 15:15 Indeed, He puts no trust in His holy ones; / Even the aheavens are not clean in His eyes.
Jb 15:16 How much less one who is abominable and corrupt! / How much less a man who drinks wrong like water!
Jb 15:17 1I will tell you; hear me; / And what I have seen, that will I recount,
Jb 15:18 What wise men have declared, / And have not hidden, from their fathers;
Jb 15:19 To whom alone the land was given, / And no stranger passed in their midst:
Jb 15:20 For all his days the wicked man travails in pain, / And numbered years are stored up for the ruthless man.
Jb 15:21 The sound of terrors is in his ears; / While he is at peace, the destroyer will come upon him.
Jb 15:22 He does not believe that he will return from the darkness, / And he is spied out for the sword.
Jb 15:23 He wanders for bread — where is it? / He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand.
Jb 15:24 Distress and straits terrify him; / They prevail against him, like a king prepared for the attack;
Jb 15:25 Because he stretched out his hand against God, / And against the Almighty he acted mightily,
Jb 15:26 Running against Him with a stiff neck, / With the thick bosses of his shield;
Jb 15:27 Because he covered his face with his fatness / And gathered fat upon his loins;
Jb 15:28 And he dwelt in desolated cities, / In houses which should not have been inhabited, / Which were appointed to become heaps.
Jb 15:29 He will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure; / Nor will 1his produce bend down to the earth.
Jb 15:30 He will not go away from darkness; / The flame will dry up his shoots, / And by the breath of His mouth he will go away.
Jb 15:31 Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; / For vanity will be his recompense.
Jb 15:32 It will be fully paid before his day, / And his branch will not be flourishing.
Jb 15:33 He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, / And he will cast off his blossom like an olive tree.
Jb 15:34 For the company of the profane will be barren, / And fire will devour the tents of bribery.
Jb 15:35 They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, / And their heart prepares deceit.

JOB 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

5. Job’s Rejection of His Friends’ Words
16:1-6
Jb 16:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 16:2 I have heard many such things; / Troubling acomforters are you all.
Jb 16:3 Do words of wind have an end? / Or what has provoked you that you so respond?
Jb 16:4 I also could speak like you, / If your soul were in my soul’s stead; / I could join my words together against you / And shake my head at you.
Jb 16:5 I could strengthen you with my mouth, / And the movement of my lips would mitigate your pain.
Jb 16:6 If I speak, my pain is not mitigated; / And if I forbear, how much departs from me?
6. Job’s Desire That God Would Plead for Him
16:7 — 17:16
Jb 16:7 But now He has worn me out; / You have desolated all my company.
Jb 16:8 And You have seized me; it is a testimony against me; / And my leanness rises up against me; it testifies to my face.
Jb 16:9 In His wrath He has torn me to pieces and been adverse toward me; / He has agnashed His teeth at me. / My bAdversary sharpens His eyes at me.
Jb 16:10 With their mouth they gape at me; / They strike my cheek reproachfully; / They mass themselves together against me.
Jb 16:11 God has delivered me over to the unjust / And cast me down into the hands of the wicked.
Jb 16:12 I was at ease, and He broke me apart; / Indeed He took me by my neck and dashed me to pieces. / And He set me up as His atarget;
Jb 16:13 His archers surrounded me; / He split open my kidneys and did not desist; / He poured out my gall upon the earth.
Jb 16:14 He broke me open with breach upon breach; / He ran at me like a mighty man of war.
Jb 16:15 I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin / And have cast my horn into the dust.
Jb 16:16 My face is reddened with weeping, / And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
Jb 16:17 Though there is no violence in my hands, / And my prayer is pure.
Jb 16:18 O earth, do not cover my ablood; / And let there be no resting place for my crying out.
Jb 16:19 Even now, there in heaven is my aWitness, / And He who vouches for me is in the heights.
Jb 16:20 My friends deride me; / My eye pours out tears to God,
Jb 16:21 That He would plead for a man in his case with God / And for a son of man in his case with his neighbor.
Jb 16:22 For when years few in number have come, / I will go the way from which I cannot return.
JOB 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

Jb 17:1 My spirit is abroken; / My days are extinct; / The graveyard is ready for me.
Jb 17:2 Surely there are mockers with me, / And my eye lingers on their provocation.
Jb 17:3 Lay down now a pledge for me with Yourself; / Who is he who will 1strike hands with me?
Jb 17:4 For You have hidden their heart from insight; / Therefore You will not exalt them.
Jb 17:5 He who denounces his friends for a share of the profit taken, / Even the eyes of his children will fail.
Jb 17:6 But He has made me a abyword of the people, / And I have become one on whom they may spit.
Jb 17:7 And my eye has grown dim because of the sorrow, / And my members are all like a shadow.
Jb 17:8 The upright are appalled at this, / And the innocent stir themselves up against the profane man.
Jb 17:9 Yet the righteous man will hold fast to his way, / And he whose ahands are clean will wax yet stronger.
Jb 17:10 But all of you, come back now, / And I will not find a wise man among you.
Jb 17:11 My days have passed; broken are my plans, / The cherished thoughts of my heart.
Jb 17:12 They change night into day; / The light is near, they say in the face of darkness.
Jb 17:13 If I wait for aSheol as my house; / If I spread my couch in the darkness;
Jb 17:14 If I call out to the pit, You are my father; / You are my mother and my sister, to the worm;
Jb 17:15 Where then is my hope? / Indeed, my hope, who will see it?
Jb 17:16 It will go down to the bars of Sheol, / When, at the same time, we have rest in the adust.
JOB 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

7. Bildad’s Rebuke and Warning
18:1-21
Jb 18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
Jb 18:2 How long will you hunt for words? / Consider, and afterward we will speak.
Jb 18:3 Why are we considered to be like beasts / And have become unclean in your eyes?
Jb 18:4 You who tear yourself in your anger, / Will the earth be forsaken for your sake, / Or will the rock be removed from its place?
Jb 18:5 Indeed the light of the wicked goes out, / And the flame of his fire does not shine.
Jb 18:6 The light is darkness in his tent, / And his lamp above him goes out.
Jb 18:7 The steps of his strength are confined, / And his counsel has cast him down.
Jb 18:8 For he has been cast into a net by his own feet, / And he walks about on the webbing of a pitfall.
Jb 18:9 A snare grabs him by the heel; / A trap lays hold on him.
Jb 18:10 A rope is hidden for him on the ground, / And a trap for him, on the path.
Jb 18:11 Terrors frighten him all around / And chase him at his heels.
Jb 18:12 His strength is famished, / And calamity is prepared at his side.
Jb 18:13 It devours the members of his body; / The firstborn of death devours his members.
Jb 18:14 He is rooted out of his tent, in which he trusts; / And he is made to march to the king of terrors.
Jb 18:15 That which is not his dwells in his tent; / Brimstone is scattered upon his habitation.
Jb 18:16 Beneath, his roots are dried up; / And above, his branch is withered.
Jb 18:17 The memory of him perishes from the earth, / And he has no name on the open plain.
Jb 18:18 He is thrust out from the light to the darkness / And driven from the world.
Jb 18:19 He has ano posterity and no progeny among his people, / And there are none remaining where he sojourned.
Jb 18:20 Those who come after will be astonished at his day, / As those who went before were horrified.
Jb 18:21 Surely these are the dwellings of the unjust, / And this is the place of him who does not aknow God.
JOB 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

8. Job’s Complaint against His Friends in Their Wrong Reproach
19:1-5
Jb 19:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 19:2 How long will you grieve my soul / And crush me with your words?
Jb 19:3 These aten times you have reproached me; / You are not ashamed to deal wrongly with me.
Jb 19:4 And be it that I have erred, / My error remains with me.
Jb 19:5 If you indeed magnify yourselves against me / And use my reproach in argument against me,
9. Job’s Complaint toward God in His Severe Stripping
19:6-29
Jb 19:6 Know then that God has 1subverted my cause / And compassed me about with His net.
Jb 19:7 Indeed, I cry out, Violence! and I am not answered; / I call for help, and there is no justice.
Jb 19:8 He has awalled up my way so that I cannot pass; / And He has put darkness upon my paths.
Jb 19:9 He has stripped my 1glory from me / And taken away the 1crown on my head.
Jb 19:10 He has broken me all around, and I am gone; / And my 1hope is plucked up like a tree.
Jb 19:11 He has also kindled His 1anger against me, / And in Himself He considers me as His 1aadversary.
Jb 19:12 His troops come together / And cast up their highway against me / And encamp all around my tent.
Jb 19:13 He has removed my brothers far from me, / And those who know me are wholly estranged from me.
Jb 19:14 My relatives have failed me, / And my acquaintances have forgotten me.
Jb 19:15 Those who sojourn in my house and my maids consider me as a stranger; / I am a foreigner in their eyes.
Jb 19:16 To my servant I call out, but he does not answer; / I entreat him with my mouth.
Jb 19:17 My breath is strange to my wife; / And 1my supplications, to the children of my mother’s womb.
Jb 19:18 Even little children despise me: / I arise and they speak against me.
Jb 19:19 All the men whom I take counsel with abhor me, / And those whom I love have turned against me.
Jb 19:20 My abones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, / And I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Jb 19:21 Pity me, pity me, O my friends; / For the ahand of God has touched me.
Jb 19:22 Why do you persecute me as God does / And are not satisfied with eating my flesh?
Jb 19:23 Oh, that my words were now written! / Oh, that they were inscribed in a abook!
Jb 19:24 That with an airon pen and with lead / They were engraved in rock forever!
Jb 19:25 But I know that my 1aRedeemer lives, / And at the last He will stand upon the earth;
Jb 19:26 And after this body of mine is destroyed, / Outside my flesh I will alook on God,
Jb 19:27 Whom I, even I, will look on for myself, / And my eyes will see; I, and no other. / My inward parts that long for God are consumed within me.
Jb 19:28 If you say, How will we persecute him? / For the root of the matter is found in him;
Jb 19:29 Be fearful of the sword, / For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, / That you may know that there is a judgment.
JOB 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

10. Zophar’s Anger and Teaching toward Job
20:1-29
Jb 20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
Jb 20:2 Because of this, my disquieting thoughts answer me; / And hence my haste is in me.
Jb 20:3 I hear the reproof that humiliates me, / And the aspirit of my understanding answers me.
Jb 20:4 Do you not know this from of old, / Since man was set upon the earth,
Jb 20:5 That the joyous shouting of the wicked is short, / And the rejoicing of the profane is but for a moment?
Jb 20:6 Though his arrogance goes up to aheaven, / And his head touches the clouds;
Jb 20:7 Like his own dung he perishes forever; / Those who have seen him say, Where is he?
Jb 20:8 Like a dream he flies away and is not found; / Indeed he is chased away like a vision of the night.
Jb 20:9 The eye looks on him then sees him no more, / Nor does his place observe him anymore.
Jb 20:10 His children seek the favor of the poor, / And his hands return his wealth.
Jb 20:11 His bones are full of youthful vigor, / Yet 1it lies down with him in the adust.
Jb 20:12 Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, / Though he hides it under his tongue,
Jb 20:13 Though he favors it and will not forsake it, / But holds it in his mouth;
Jb 20:14 His food in his bowels is changed; / It is the avenom of asps within him.
Jb 20:15 He swallows down riches and vomits them up; / God casts them forth from his stomach.
Jb 20:16 He sucks the poison of asps; / The tongue of the viper slays him.
Jb 20:17 He will not look on the rivers, / The streams flowing with honey and butter.
Jb 20:18 He will return what he toiled for and will not swallow it down; / And he will not rejoice according to the wealth of his trading.
Jb 20:19 For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor; / He has violently seized a house that he did not build.
Jb 20:20 Because he knew no respite in his craving, / Of that which he desired he will save nothing.
Jb 20:21 There will be nothing left of what he has devoured; / Thus his prosperity will not endure.
Jb 20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be distressed; / The hand of everyone in trouble will come against him.
Jb 20:23 In order to fill his belly, / 1God will send the burning fierceness of His wrath on him / And will rain it upon him as his food.
Jb 20:24 He will flee from the iron weapon, / But the bronze bow will strike him through.
Jb 20:25 He draws the arrow out, and it comes out of his body; / Indeed the glittering point goes forth from his gall. / Terrors come upon him.
Jb 20:26 Total darkness is laid up as his treasures; / A fire not fanned by man will devour him; / It will feed on what is left in his tent.
Jb 20:27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity, / And the earth will rise up against him.
Jb 20:28 The increase of his house will depart / As things swept away in the aday of His wrath.
Jb 20:29 This is the wicked man’s portion from God / And the inheritance decreed to him by God.
JOB 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

E. The Third Round of Debates
21:1 — 32:1
1. Job’s Conclusion concerning Prosperity and Calamity in Human Life
21:1-34
a. His Calming Word to His Friends
vv. 1-6
Jb 21:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 21:2 Listen carefully to my word, / And let this be your consolations.
Jb 21:3 Bear with me, and I will speak; / And after I have spoken, mock on.
Jb 21:4 As for me, is my complaint to man? / And why should my spirit not be impatient?
Jb 21:5 Look at me and be appalled; / And put your hand over your mouth.
Jb 21:6 Even when I remember, I am troubled, / And horror takes hold of my flesh.
b. The Prosperity of the Wicked
vv. 7-16
Jb 21:7 Why do the awicked live, / Grow old, even become mighty in riches?
Jb 21:8 Their seed is established with them in their sight, / And their offspring, before their eyes.
Jb 21:9 Their houses are free from dread, / And the arod of God is not upon them.
Jb 21:10 1Their bull breeds and does not fail; / 1Their cow calves and does not miscarry.
Jb 21:11 They send forth their little ones like a herd, / And their children dance.
Jb 21:12 They lift up their voices to the tambourine and lyre, / And they rejoice at the sound of the flute.
Jb 21:13 They spend their days in prosperity, / And in a moment they go down into aSheol.
Jb 21:14 And they say unto God, aDepart from us, / For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
Jb 21:15 aWhat is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? / And what profit is there, that we should pray to Him?
Jb 21:16 Indeed, their prosperity is not in their own hand. / The counsel of the wicked is far from 1Him.
c. Job’s Questions concerning God’s Recompense to the Wicked
vv. 17-34
Jb 21:17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, / So that their calamity comes upon them, / So that 1God distributes sorrows in His anger?
Jb 21:18 Do they become like straw before the wind / And like chaff that the storm carries off?
Jb 21:19 You say, God stores up the punishment of his iniquity for his children. / I say, Let Him recompense him, so that he knows it.
Jb 21:20 Let his eyes see his destruction, / And let him drink the wrath of the Almighty.
Jb 21:21 For what is there for him to delight in, in his house after him, / When the number of his months is cut off?
Jb 21:22 Will someone teach knowledge to God, / Seeing that He judges those who are on high?
Jb 21:23 One dies in his full strength, / Being completely at ease and quiet;
Jb 21:24 His pails are full of milk, / And the marrow of his bones is moist.
Jb 21:25 But another dies in bitterness of soul / And does not taste of good.
Jb 21:26 They lie down alike in the adust, / And the worm covers them.
Jb 21:27 Indeed, I know your thoughts, / And the devices by which you would wrong me.
Jb 21:28 For you say, Where is the house of the prince? / Where is the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?
Jb 21:29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads? / And do you not regard their evidence,
Jb 21:30 That the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, / That they are led forth at the day of overflowing wrath?
Jb 21:31 Who will declare his way to his face? / And who will repay him what he has done?
Jb 21:32 When he is borne to the grave, / A watch is kept over the tomb.
Jb 21:33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; / And all men go in procession after him, / And those who went before him are without number.
Jb 21:34 Why then do you comfort me with vanity? / For your responses leave only falsehood behind.
JOB 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

2. Eliphaz’s Logic concerning the Recompense of Good and Evil
22:1-30
Jb 22:1 And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Jb 22:2 Can a man of might be of any use to God? / No, a man of insight is of use only to himself.
Jb 22:3 Is it a matter of delight to the Almighty that you are righteous? / Or is it a gain to Him that you make your ways perfect?
Jb 22:4 Is it because of your fear of Him that He reproves you, / That He enters into judgment with you?
Jb 22:5 Is not your wickedness great, / And is there no end to your iniquities?
Jb 22:6 For you have taken apledges from your brothers without cause / And stripped the naked of their clothing.
Jb 22:7 You have not given water to the weary to drink, / And you have withheld bread from the ahungry.
Jb 22:8 And as for the man of power, the earth was his; / And the man of honor dwelt in it.
Jb 22:9 You have sent away the widows empty, / And the arms of the orphans have been crushed.
Jb 22:10 Therefore snares are all around you; / And sudden dread troubles you,
Jb 22:11 Or darkness, so that you cannot see; / And an abundance of waters covers you.
Jb 22:12 Is not God at the height of aheaven? / And look at the highest of the stars, how lofty they are!
Jb 22:13 And you say, What does God aknow? / Can He judge through the deep darkness?
Jb 22:14 Thick clouds are a covering to Him, so He cannot see; / And He walks upon the circle of the heavens.
Jb 22:15 Will you keep the old way, / Which wicked men have trodden?
Jb 22:16 Such were snatched away before their time, / Whose foundation was poured forth like a stream;
Jb 22:17 Who said to God, Depart from us; / And, What can the Almighty accomplish for 1us?
Jb 22:18 Yet He fills their houses with good things. / But the counsel of the wicked is far from 1Him.
Jb 22:19 The righteous see and rejoice, / And the innocent deride them,
Jb 22:20 Saying, Surely those who rose up against us are cut off, / And the remnant of them the fire has devoured.
Jb 22:21 1Be well disposed to Him and at peace with Him; / By such, good will come upon you.
Jb 22:22 Receive instruction from His mouth, / And lay up His words in your aheart.
Jb 22:23 If you return to the aAlmighty, you will be built up. / If you put injustice far away from your tents,
Jb 22:24 And place your gold nuggets in the dust / And your gold of Ophir in the stones of the brooks,
Jb 22:25 Then the Almighty will be your gold nuggets / And precious silver to you.
Jb 22:26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, / And you will lift up your countenance ato God.
Jb 22:27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you; / And you will repay your vows.
Jb 22:28 You will also decree something, and it will be established for you; / And light will shine on your ways.
Jb 22:29 When they cast you down, you will say, I am up! / And the alowly person He will save.
Jb 22:30 He will deliver him who is not innocent; / Yes, 1you will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.
JOB 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

3. Job’s Desire to Clear Up His Case with God
23:1-17
Jb 23:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 23:2 Today also my complaint is 1bitter; / My stroke is heavy because of my groaning.
Jb 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might afind Him, / That I might come to His seat!
Jb 23:4 I would apresent my cause in order before Him, / And I would fill my mouth with arguments.
Jb 23:5 I would know the words which He would answer me, / And I would understand what He would speak to me.
Jb 23:6 Would He contend with me in the greatness of His power? / No; but He would give heed to me.
Jb 23:7 There the upright man can argue with Him; / So I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
Jb 23:8 Behold, I go 1forward, but He is not there; / And 1backward, but I do not perceive Him;
Jb 23:9 To the 1left, where He acts, but I cannot look on Him; / He ahides Himself on the 1right, so I cannot see Him.
Jb 23:10 But He aknows the way that I take; / Should He btry me, I would come forth as gold.
Jb 23:11 My foot has held fast to His steps; / I have kept His way and have not turned aside.
Jb 23:12 As for the commandment of His lips, I have not turned back from it; / I have treasured the awords of His mouth 1more than my apportioned food.
Jb 23:13 But He is of one mind, and who can turn Him? / And what His soul desires, that will He do.
Jb 23:14 For He performs what has been appointed to me, / And many such things are with Him.
Jb 23:15 Therefore I am terrified at His presence; / I consider and am in dread of Him.
Jb 23:16 So God has made my heart faint, / And the Almighty has terrified me;
Jb 23:17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, / Nor did He cover the deep darkness from my face.
JOB 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

4. Job’s Knowledge concerning God in His Dealings with All Kinds of Men
24:1-25
Jb 24:1 Why are times of judgment not stored up by the Almighty? / And why do those who know Him not see His days?
Jb 24:2 Some remove alandmarks; / They seize the flock and pasture them.
Jb 24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless / And take the widow’s ox as a apledge.
Jb 24:4 They turn the needy out of the way; / The poor of the land are made to hide together.
Jb 24:5 Indeed, like wild asses in the desert, / They go forth to their work, / Diligently seeking some prey; / The wilderness provides them food for their children.
Jb 24:6 In the field they harvest their fodder, / And they glean the vintage of the wicked.
Jb 24:7 They spend the night naked, without clothing; / And have no covering in the cold.
Jb 24:8 They are wet from the mountain showers, / And for lack of shelter they embrace the rock.
Jb 24:9 Some pluck the fatherless from the breast, / And what the poor has on, as a apledge.
Jb 24:10 They go about naked, without clothing; / And being hungry, they take up the sheaves.
Jb 24:11 Between their walls they press out oil; / They tread the winepresses yet suffer thirst.
Jb 24:12 From the city men groan, / And the soul of the wounded cries out; / Yet God does not regard the folly.
Jb 24:13 These are among those who rebel against the light; / They are not acquainted with its ways, / Nor do they abide in its paths.
Jb 24:14 The murderer rises at dawn; / He kills the poor and the needy; / And at night he is like a thief.
Jb 24:15 The eye of the adulterer also watches for the twilight, / Saying, Not an eye will see me; / And he disguises his face.
Jb 24:16 They dig through houses in the dark; / By day they shut themselves in: / They do not know the light.
Jb 24:17 For morning is to all of them like the shadow of death, / Because they are acquainted with the terrors of the shadow of death.
Jb 24:18 Swift are they upon the face of the waters; / Their portion is cursed in the earth; / There is none who turns toward the vineyards.
Jb 24:19 Drought and heat snatch the snow water, / As aSheol snatches those who have sinned.
Jb 24:20 The womb forgets him; / The worm finds him sweet; / He is aremembered no more; / And wrongdoing is broken like a tree.
Jb 24:21 He despoils the barren woman who does not bear, / And does no good for the widow.
Jb 24:22 But God preserves the mighty by His power; / He arises, and no one is certain of life.
Jb 24:23 He grants 1a man to be secure, and he rests on it; / And His eyes are upon their ways.
Jb 24:24 They are exalted a alittle while, then they are no more; / And they are brought low; like all others, they are gathered in / And are cut off like the tops of the ears of grain.
Jb 24:25 And if it is not so, then who will prove me a liar / And bring my words to nought?
JOB 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

5. Bildad’s Concluding Word
25:1-6
Jb 25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
Jb 25:2 Dominion and dread are with Him; / He makes peace in His high places.
Jb 25:3 Is there any number to His armies? / And upon whom does His light not aarise?
Jb 25:4 How then can a man be arighteous with God? / bAnd how can one born of a woman be pure?
Jb 25:5 Indeed, even the moon has no brightness, / And the stars are not pure in His eyes.
Jb 25:6 How much less a man, a maggot; / And the son of man, a aworm!
JOB 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

6. Job’s Final Speaking to His Three Friends
26:1 — 32:1
a. Rebuking Bildad Sarcastically
26:1-4
Jb 26:1 Then Job answered and said,
Jb 26:2 How you have helped him who is without power! / How you have saved the arm of him who is without strength!
Jb 26:3 How you have counseled him who is without wisdom / And have plentifully declared sound knowledge!
Jb 26:4 To whom have you uttered words? / And whose 1spirit has come forth from you?
b. Showing Off His Superior Knowledge concerning the Unlimited Power of God
26:5-14
Jb 26:5 The deceased are made to tremble / Beneath the waters, and those who inhabit them.
Jb 26:6 1aSheol is naked before Him, / And 2Abaddon has no covering.
Jb 26:7 He stretches out the anorth over the void; / He hangs the earth upon 1bnothing.
Jb 26:8 He binds up the awaters in His thick clouds, / And the cloud is not rent under them.
Jb 26:9 He covers the face of His throne; / He spreads His acloud over it.
Jb 26:10 He drew a acircle on the surface of the waters / As a bboundary of the light and the darkness.
Jb 26:11 The pillars of heaven shook / And were astounded at His rebuke.
Jb 26:12 By His power He stilled the sea, / And by His understanding He struck down 1Rahab.
Jb 26:13 By His 1Spirit the heavens became beauty; / His hand pierced the fleeing aserpent.
Jb 26:14 Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; / And how small a whisper do we hear of Him! / But as for the thundering of His mightiness, who can comprehend it?
JOB 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

c. Holding Fast Insistently to His Righteousness and Integrity
27:1-7
Jb 27:1 Then Job again took up his discourse and said,
Jb 27:2 As God lives, who has taken away my right, / And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul,
Jb 27:3 As long as my abreath is in me / And the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
Jb 27:4 Surely my lips will not speak anything wrong, / Nor will my tongue utter deceit.
Jb 27:5 Far be it from me to declare you righteous! / Until I die, I will not put away my aintegrity from me.
Jb 27:6 To my arighteousness I will hold fast, I will not let it go; / My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
Jb 27:7 May my enemy be like a wicked man, / And may he who rises up against me be like someone unjust.
d. Teaching His Friends High-mindedly concerning the Hope of the Profane Man
27:8-23
Jb 27:8 For what is the hope of the profane man when God cuts him off, / When He takes away his asoul?
Jb 27:9 Will God hear his cry / When distress comes upon him?
Jb 27:10 Does he take delight in the Almighty? / Will he call upon God at all times?
Jb 27:11 I will teach you about the hand of God; / What is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
Jb 27:12 Indeed, all of you have seen it yourselves; / And why then have you become altogether vain?
Jb 27:13 This is the portion with God for a wicked man, / And the inheritance that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
Jb 27:14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; / And his offspring will not be satisfied with bread;
Jb 27:15 Those who remain of him will be buried in death, / And his widows will not lament.
Jb 27:16 Though he aheaps up silver like dust / And prepares garments like clay,
Jb 27:17 He may aprepare them, but the righteous will wear them; / And the innocent will divide the silver.
Jb 27:18 He builds his house as a moth does / And like a hut that a watchman makes.
Jb 27:19 He lies down rich but 1will be rich no more; / He opens his eyes, and he is not.
Jb 27:20 Terrors overtake him like waters; / At night a whirlwind steals him away.
Jb 27:21 The east wind carries him off, and he goes; / And it sweeps him out of his place.
Jb 27:22 And God hurls at him and does not spare; / He hastily flees from His hand.
Jb 27:23 Men clap their hands at him / And hiss him out of his place.
JOB 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

e. Showing Off His High-pitched Knowledge concerning
the Way to Find Wisdom and Understanding
28:1-28
Jb 28:1 There is certainly a mine for silver, / And a place for gold to be arefined.
Jb 28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth, / And copper is smelted from rock.
Jb 28:3 The miner sets an end to the darkness, / And to the very end he searches out / The stones of deep darkness and of 1gloom.
Jb 28:4 He breaks open a shaft apart from where men dwell; / They are forgotten by the foot; / They are suspended apart from men, they sway about.
Jb 28:5 The earth — from it comes forth afood, / Yet underneath it, it is turned up as it were by fire.
Jb 28:6 Its stones are the place of sapphires, / And its dust has gold.
Jb 28:7 It is a path known by no bird of prey, / And the falcon’s eye has not seen it.
Jb 28:8 The proud beasts have not trodden it; / The fierce lion does not pass along it.
Jb 28:9 1The miner sends forth his hand into the flinty rock; / He overturns the mountains by its roots.
Jb 28:10 He cuts out channels in the rocks, / And his eye sees every precious thing.
Jb 28:11 He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, / And that which is hidden he abrings out to the light.
Jb 28:12 aBut where shall wisdom be found? / And where is the place of understanding?
Jb 28:13 Man does not know its price, / Nor is it found in the land of the living.
Jb 28:14 The deep says, It is not in me; / And the sea says, It is not with me.
Jb 28:15 Rare gold cannot be given for it, / Nor can silver be weighed out for its price.
Jb 28:16 It cannot be balanced with the gold of Ophir, / With precious onyx or with sapphire.
Jb 28:17 Gold and glass cannot compare with it, / Nor can vessels of fine gold be exchanged for it.
Jb 28:18 Coral and crystal cannot be mentioned with it; / Indeed the acquisition of awisdom is above that of pearls.
Jb 28:19 The topaz of 1Cush cannot compare with it, / Nor can it be balanced with pure gold.
Jb 28:20 aFrom where then does wisdom come? / And where is the place of understanding?
Jb 28:21 For it is hidden from the eyes of all living / And concealed from the birds of heaven.
Jb 28:22 1Abaddon and Death say, / We have heard a report of it with our ears.
Jb 28:23 God understands the way to it; / He knows its place.
Jb 28:24 For He sees to the ends of the earth; / He beholds all that is under heaven.
Jb 28:25 When He gave weight to the wind / And apportioned the water by measure,
Jb 28:26 When He made a decree for the rain / And a way for the thunderbolt;
Jb 28:27 Then He saw it and declared it; / He established it and even searched it out.
Jb 28:28 And He said to man, / Indeed, the afear of the Lord, that is wisdom; / And to depart from evil is understanding.
JOB 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

f. Dwelling on His Excellent Past
29:1-25
Jb 29:1 Then Job again took up his discourse and said,
Jb 29:2 Oh that I were as in the months of old, / As in the days when God watched over me;
Jb 29:3 When His lamp shone over my head, / And by His light I walked through darkness;
Jb 29:4 As I was in the days of my 1prime, / When aintimate counsel with God was over my tent;
Jb 29:5 When the Almighty was yet with me, / And my children were around me;
Jb 29:6 When my steps were bathed in milk, / And the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
Jb 29:7 When I went out to the gate of the city, / When I prepared my seat in the square,
Jb 29:8 The young men saw me and hid themselves, / And the aged rose up and stood.
Jb 29:9 Princes refrained from talking / And laid their hand over their mouth.
Jb 29:10 The voice of the nobles was hushed, / And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Jb 29:11 For when the ear heard me, it blessed me; / And when the eye saw me, it bore witness to me;
Jb 29:12 Because I delivered the poor man who cried out, / And the orphan who had no one to help him.
Jb 29:13 The blessing of him who was perishing came upon me, / And I made the widow’s heart shout for joy.
Jb 29:14 I put on arighteousness, and it clothed me; / My justice was like a robe and a turban.
Jb 29:15 I was eyes to the blind, / And I was feet to the lame.
Jb 29:16 I was a father to the needy, / And the cause of him whom I did not know I investigated.
Jb 29:17 I broke the jaws of the unjust / And made him drop the prey from his teeth.
Jb 29:18 Then I said, I will die in my nest, / And I will multiply my days like the sand.
Jb 29:19 My root is spread out to the water, / And dew abides on my branch at night.
Jb 29:20 My glory is always new with me, / And my bow is renewed in my hand.
Jb 29:21 Men listened to me and waited, / And they were silent for my counsel.
Jb 29:22 After my words they spoke not again, / And my speech distilled like adew upon them.
Jb 29:23 And they waited for me as for the rain, / And they opened their mouth wide as for the late rain.
Jb 29:24 I smiled on them — they could not believe it; / And they did not cast down the light of my countenance.
Jb 29:25 I chose the way for them and sat as chief, / And I dwelt as a king among the troops, / As one who comforts those who mourn.
JOB 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

g. Sighing over His Miserable Present
30:1-31
Jb 30:1 But now those who are younger than I / Hold me in derision, / Those whose fathers I disdained / To put with the dogs of my flock.
Jb 30:2 Indeed, what good is the strength of their hands to me? / Their vigor has perished from them.
Jb 30:3 Withered up through want and hunger, / They gnaw at the dry ground, / A gloom of waste and desolation.
Jb 30:4 They pick the mallow upon the bushes, / And the roots of the broom shrub are their food.
Jb 30:5 They are driven from the company of men; / Men cry after them as after a thief;
Jb 30:6 So that they must dwell in the most dreadful ravines, / In caves of the earth and in the rocks.
Jb 30:7 Among the bushes they bray; / Under the nettles they huddle.
Jb 30:8 Sons of fools, indeed sons of nameless men, / They have been stricken from the land.
Jb 30:9 And now I have become their song, / And I am a abyword to them.
Jb 30:10 They abhor me; they stand aloof from me; / And they do not withhold their spit from my face.
Jb 30:11 For He has loosened 1my cord and afflicted me; / Therefore they have cast off restraint in my presence.
Jb 30:12 At my right hand a brood rises up; / They send my feet running / And cast up against me their ways of destruction.
Jb 30:13 They break up my path; / They promote my calamity, / Though there is no profit to them.
Jb 30:14 As through a wide breach they come in; / Amid the ruin they roll on.
Jb 30:15 Terrors are turned upon me; / My honor is pursued as by a wind, / And my prosperity passes away like a acloud.
Jb 30:16 And now my asoul is poured out within me; / Days of affliction have taken hold of me.
Jb 30:17 The night rends my bones from me, / And my gnawing pains do not rest.
Jb 30:18 With great force my garments are distorted; / It binds me like the collar of my coat.
Jb 30:19 He has cast me into the mire, / And I am like adust and ashes.
Jb 30:20 I cry unto You, but You do not answer me; / I stand up, and You stare at me.
Jb 30:21 You have turned to become cruel to me; / With the might of Your hand You pursue me.
Jb 30:22 You lift me up into the wind; You make me ride on it; / And You dissolve me in the storm.
Jb 30:23 For I know that You will bring me into death, / And to the ahouse appointed for all living.
Jb 30:24 Nevertheless does not a man put forth his hand when he falls, / Or because of his disaster therefore cry out?
Jb 30:25 Did I not weep for him who had hard days? / Was my soul not grieved for the needy?
Jb 30:26 When I expected good, evil came; / And when I waited for light, darkness came.
Jb 30:27 My inward parts are in turmoil and are not still; / Days of affliction have drawn near to me.
Jb 30:28 I go about in sunless mourning. / I rise up in the congregation; I cry for help.
Jb 30:29 I am a brother to jackals / And a companion to ostriches.
Jb 30:30 My skin is black and falling from me, / And my bones burn with heat.
Jb 30:31 My lyre has become mourning, / And my pipe, the voice of those who weep.
JOB 31

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

h. Boasting of His Uprightness, Righteousness, Integrity, and Perfection
31:1-40
Jb 31:1 I made a covenant with my eyes; / How then can I agaze upon a virgin?
Jb 31:2 What then is the portion from God above, / Or the inheritance of the Almighty on high?
Jb 31:3 Is it not calamity for the unjust / And misfortune for the workers of iniquity?
Jb 31:4 Does He not see my ways / And count all my steps?
Jb 31:5 If I have walked with falsehood, / And my foot has hastened after deceit —
Jb 31:6 Let Him weigh me in a righteous abalance, / And let God know my bintegrity —
Jb 31:7 If my step has turned from the way, / And my heart has gone after my own eyes, / And if any spot has stuck to my hands;
Jb 31:8 May I sow and another eat; / Indeed may my produce be rooted up.
Jb 31:9 If my heart has been enticed into following after a woman, / Or I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door;
Jb 31:10 May my wife grind for another, / And may others kneel over her.
Jb 31:11 For that would have been a heinous act, / And it would be wickedness, to be punished by the judges.
Jb 31:12 For it is a fire that devours to 1Abaddon / And would root up all my increase.
Jb 31:13 If I have despised the cause of my servant or my maid / When they contended with me,
Jb 31:14 What then will I do when God rises up? / And when He visits me, what will I answer Him?
Jb 31:15 Did not He who made me in the awomb make him? / And was it not One who fashioned us in the womb?
Jb 31:16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, / Or have let the eyes of the widow fail,
Jb 31:17 Or have eaten my morsel alone / Without the orphan eating of it —
Jb 31:18 Rather, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, / And from my mother’s womb I guided 1the widow —
Jb 31:19 If I have seen someone perishing from alack of clothing / Or that the needy had no covering;
Jb 31:20 If his loins have not blessed me, / And he has not been made warm with the fleece of my sheep;
Jb 31:21 If I have raised my hand against the orphan / Because I saw that I had support among those in the gate;
Jb 31:22 May my shoulder blade fall from the shoulder, / And may my arm be broken at the elbow.
Jb 31:23 For calamity from God is dreadful to me, / And because of His majesty I can do nothing.
Jb 31:24 If I have made gold my ahope, / And have called fine gold my confidence;
Jb 31:25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great / And because my hand had acquired much;
Jb 31:26 If I have looked at the sun when it shone / Or the moon going on in splendor,
Jb 31:27 And my heart has been secretly enticed, / And my mouth has kissed my hand;
Jb 31:28 It too would be wickedness, to be punished by the judges, / For I would have denied God above.
Jb 31:29 If I have rejoiced at the misfortune of him who hated me, / Or have exulted when evil found him —
Jb 31:30 Rather, I have not allowed my mouth to sin / By asking for his life with a curse —
Jb 31:31 If the men of my tent have not said, / Who can find one who has not been filled with 1our master’s meat? —
Jb 31:32 The sojourner has not lodged in the street; / I have opened my doors to the highway —
Jb 31:33 If I have acovered my transgressions 1as bAdam did / By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
Jb 31:34 Because I so dreaded the great multitude, / And the contempt of the families so frightened me, / That I was silent and did not go out my door —
Jb 31:35 Oh, that I had someone to hear me! / Here is my signature! Let the Almighty aanswer me. / And let my accuser write up the charge.
Jb 31:36 Surely I would carry 1it on my shoulder; / I would bind it onto me like a crown;
Jb 31:37 I would declare to Him the number of my steps; / Like a prince I would approach Him!
Jb 31:38 If my land cries out against me, / And its furrows weep together;
Jb 31:39 If I have eaten its strength without money, / And have caused its owners to lose their life;
Jb 31:40 May thorns come forth instead of wheat, / And pungent weeds instead of barley. / The words of Job are 1ended.
JOB 32

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

i. Job’s Three Friends Ceasing to Answer Him
32:1
Jb 32:1 Then these three men ceased answering Job, for he was arighteous in his own eyes.
III. Elihu’s Answer to Job
32:2 — 37:24
A. His First Correction and Refutation of Job
32:2 — 33:33
Jb 32:2 And the 1anger of 2Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled. Against Job was his anger kindled because he ajustified himself rather than God;
Jb 32:3 And against his three friends was his anger kindled because they had found no answer but had condemned Job.
Jb 32:4 Now Elihu had waited to speak with Job, because they were older than he.
Jb 32:5 But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, his anger was kindled.
Jb 32:6 So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said,
I am young, / And you are aged; / Therefore I shrank back and was afraid / To declare to you what I know.
Jb 32:7 I said, Let age speak, / And let the multitude of years make wisdom known.
Jb 32:8 But 1there is a 2aspirit in man, / And the 2bbreath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
Jb 32:9 It is not the great who are wise, / Nor the old who understand justice.
Jb 32:10 Therefore I say, Hear me; / I also will declare what I 1know.
Jb 32:11 Indeed, I have waited out your words; / I have given ear to your reasonings, / While you searched for what to say.
Jb 32:12 Indeed I gave you my full attention; / But no one here could refute Job; / None of you answered his words.
Jb 32:13 Do not say, We have found wisdom; / God will defeat him, not man.
Jb 32:14 But he did not arrange his words against me; / Neither will I respond to him with your speeches.
Jb 32:15 They are dismayed; they answer no more; / Words fail them.
Jb 32:16 Then should I wait? For they do not speak, / For they stand still; they answer no more.
Jb 32:17 I also will answer what has been apportioned to me; / I also will declare what I know.
Jb 32:18 For I am full of words; / The spirit in my inward parts constrains me.
Jb 32:19 Indeed, my inward parts are like wine that is not vented; / Like anew wineskins, they are about to burst.
Jb 32:20 Let me speak, that there may be relief for me; / Let me open my lips and answer.
Jb 32:21 Let me not, I beg you, arespect any man’s person, / Nor flatter any man;
Jb 32:22 For I do not know how to flatter — / My Maker would soon bear me off.
JOB 33

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Jb 33:1 But now, Job, hear my speaking, / And give ear to all my words.
Jb 33:2 Indeed now, I have opened my mouth; / My tongue has spoken in my mouth.
Jb 33:3 My words manifest the uprightness of my heart, / And what my lips know they speak sincerely.
Jb 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, / And the abreath of the Almighty has enlivened me.
Jb 33:5 If you can, respond to me; / Arrange your words before me; take your stand.
Jb 33:6 Indeed, I am before God as you are; / I too was cut out of aclay.
Jb 33:7 So no fear of me can terrify you, / Nor can my pressure be heavy upon you.
Jb 33:8 You have surely spoken in my hearing, / And I have heard the voice of your words, saying,
Jb 33:9 I am aclean and without transgression; / I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me.
Jb 33:10 See, He finds occasions for hostility against me; / He considers me as His aenemy.
Jb 33:11 He puts my feet in astocks; / He watches all my paths.
Jb 33:12 However, in this you are not right, I will answer you, / For God is greater than man.
Jb 33:13 Why do you contend with Him, / Saying that He does not answer for any of His affairs?
Jb 33:14 For God speaks in one way, / Indeed in two ways, without any perceiving it —
Jb 33:15 In a adream, a night vision, / When deep sleep falls upon men / In the slumberings upon their beds —
Jb 33:16 Then He opens the aears of men / And seals up their instruction,
Jb 33:17 That He may turn man aside from his doing / And hide pride from man.
Jb 33:18 He keeps his soul from the pit, / And his life from perishing by the sword.
Jb 33:19 He is also chastened with pain upon his bed / And with continual strife in his bones,
Jb 33:20 So that his life abhors bread, / And his soul, fancy food.
Jb 33:21 His flesh is so consumed that it cannot be seen, / And his bones that had not been seen stick out.
Jb 33:22 And his soul draws near to the pit, / And his life, to the destroyers.
Jb 33:23 If there is with him an angel, / An interpreter, one of a thousand, / To declare to man what is right for him,
Jb 33:24 Then He will be gracious to him and will say, / Redeem him from going down into the pit; / I have found a ransom.
Jb 33:25 His flesh will be fresher than in childhood; / He will return to the days of his youth.
Jb 33:26 He will pray to God, and He will accept him, / So that he sees His face with joyous shouting; / And 1God restores to man his righteousness.
Jb 33:27 He will sing to men and say, / I sinned and perverted what was right, / But it was not paid back to me.
Jb 33:28 He has aredeemed my soul from perishing in the pit, / And my life will see the light.
Jb 33:29 Indeed, all these things God accomplishes for a man, / Twice, even three times,
Jb 33:30 To bring his soul back from the pit, / To enlighten him with the alight of the living.
Jb 33:31 Take heed, Job; hear me. / Be silent, and I will speak.
Jb 33:32 If you have anything to say, answer me; / Speak, for I desire to justify you.
Jb 33:33 If not, you listen to me; / Be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.
JOB 34

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • 

B. His Second Correction and Refutation of Job
34:1-37
Jb 34:1 Then Elihu continued and said,
Jb 34:2 Hear my words, you wise men; / And you who know, give ear to me.
Jb 34:3 For the aear tries words / As the palate tastes food.
Jb 34:4 Let us choose for ourselves what is right; / Let us know among ourselves what is agood.
Jb 34:5 For Job has said, I am righteous, / And God has 1taken away my aright;
Jb 34:6 Should I lie against my right? / My arrow wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.
Jb 34:7 What man is like Job, / Who drinks up scoffing like water,
Jb 34:8 Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity / And walks with wicked men?
Jb 34:9 For he has said, It does not aprofit a man / To delight himself in God.
Jb 34:10 Therefore, you men of understanding, hear me: / Far be it from God that He would do evil, / And from the Almighty that He would commit iniquity.
Jb 34:11 For He will arender a man’s work to him / And will cause a man to find that which is according to his own way.
Jb 34:12 Indeed in all certainty God will not do evil, / And the Almighty will not pervert justice.
Jb 34:13 Who has ever put the aearth in His charge? / Or who has ever set in order the whole world?
Jb 34:14 If He were to consider Himself only, / He would gather back to Himself His aspirit and His breath;
Jb 34:15 All flesh would perish together, / And man would return to adust.
Jb 34:16 If then you have understanding, hear this; / Give ear to the voice of my words.
Jb 34:17 Shall one who hates justice govern? / And will you condemn the just and mighty One,
Jb 34:18 He who says to a king, You worthless one! / And to nobles, You wicked one!
Jb 34:19 He who does not arespect the persons of princes, / Nor regard the rich man more than the poor, / For they are all the work of His hands?
Jb 34:20 In a moment they die, and in the middle of the night / The people are shaken, and they pass away; / And the mighty are taken away, but by no human hand.
Jb 34:21 For His aeyes are upon the ways of a man, / And He sees all his steps.
Jb 34:22 There is no darkness and no shadow of death / Where the workers of iniquity may ahide themselves.
Jb 34:23 For He does not need to consider a man further, / That he should go to God in litigation.
Jb 34:24 He breaks mighty men in pieces without inquiry / And puts others in their stead.
Jb 34:25 Hence He knows their actions, / And He overturns them in the night so that they are crushed.
Jb 34:26 He strikes them as He would evil men, / In a place where all can see;
Jb 34:27 Because they turned aside from following after Him / And would not regard any of His ways,
Jb 34:28 So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him, / And He heard the cry of the afflicted.
Jb 34:29 When He is silent, who can condemn Him? / When He hides His face, who can behold Him? / He does so toward a nation and toward a man alike,
Jb 34:30 That no profane man would reign, that there would be no snares for the people.
Jb 34:31 For has anyone ever said to God, / I have borne chastisement; I will offend no more;
Jb 34:32 What I do not see teach me; / If I have committed iniquity, I will do it no more?
Jb 34:33 Should He recompense to fit you, since you have rejected it? / For you must choose, and not I. / So speak what you know.
Jb 34:34 Men of understanding will say to me, / As well as the man of wisdom who hears me,
Jb 34:35 Job has spoken without knowledge, / And his words are without insight.
Jb 34:36 I wish that Job were tried to the limit / Because of his answering like evil men.
Jb 34:37 For he adds 1rebellion to his sin; / Among us he 2claps his hands / And multiplies his words against God.
JOB 35

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

C. His Third Correction and Refutation of Job
35:1-16
Jb 35:1 Then Elihu continued and said,
Jb 35:2 Do you consider this to be just? / Do you say, My arighteousness is more than God’s,
Jb 35:3 So that you say, What aadvantage is there to 1me, / What do I profit, more than if I had sinned?
Jb 35:4 I will respond to you with words, / And to your companions with you.
Jb 35:5 Look unto heaven and see; / And behold the skies: They are higher than you.
Jb 35:6 If you asin, what do you accomplish against Him? / And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?
Jb 35:7 If you are arighteous, what can you bgive to Him, / Or what does He receive from your hand?
Jb 35:8 Your wickedness affects a man like you, / And your righteousness, a son of man.
Jb 35:9 Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; / They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.
Jb 35:10 But no one says, Where is God my aMaker, / Who gives bsongs in the night,
Jb 35:11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth / And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?
Jb 35:12 There they cry, but He does not answer, / Because of the pride of evil men.
Jb 35:13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry, / And the Almighty does not regard it.
Jb 35:14 How much less when you say that you do not behold Him, / That the cause is before Him and you are waiting on Him!
Jb 35:15 But now, because He has not visited in His anger / Nor regarded such great arrogance,
Jb 35:16 Job opens his mouth in vanity; / He multiplies words without knowledge.
JOB 36

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

D. His Final Word to Job
36:1 — 37:24
Jb 36:1 And Elihu added this and said,
Jb 36:2 Bear with me a little, and I will show you; / For there is more to say for God.
Jb 36:3 I will bring my knowledge from afar / And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
Jb 36:4 For truly my words are not false; / One perfect in 1knowledge is with you.
Jb 36:5 Indeed, God is mighty and does not despise; / He is mighty in strength of understanding.
Jb 36:6 He does not preserve the wicked man alive, / But gives justice to the afflicted.
Jb 36:7 He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; / And with kings on the throne, / He sets them forever, and they are exalted.
Jb 36:8 And if they are bound in fetters, / If they are caught in the cords of affliction,
Jb 36:9 He shows them their work / And their transgressions, that they have acted arrogantly.
Jb 36:10 He also opens their ear to instruction / And commands that they return from iniquity.
Jb 36:11 If they hear and serve Him, / They will spend their days in prosperity / And their years in pleasantness.
Jb 36:12 But if they do not hear, they will pass away by the sword / And die without knowledge.
Jb 36:13 But those who are profane in heart alay up anger; / They do not cry for help when He binds them.
Jb 36:14 They die in youth, / And their life ends among the most defiled.
Jb 36:15 He rescues the afflicted by their affliction / And opens their ear through oppression.
Jb 36:16 Indeed He allures you from the jaws of distress / Into a spacious place, where there is no constraint; / And what is upon your table is full of fatness.
Jb 36:17 But you are filled with the judgment of the wicked; / Judgment and litigation have taken hold of you.
Jb 36:18 Beware lest wrath allures you into scoffing, / And do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
Jb 36:19 Will your cry keep you from being in distress, / Or all the forces of your strength?
Jb 36:20 Do not long for the night, / When people are taken from their place.
Jb 36:21 Take heed; do not turn toward iniquity; / For you have chosen this rather than affliction.
Jb 36:22 Indeed, God is exalted in His power: / Who is a teacher like Him?
Jb 36:23 Who has appointed His way for Him? / And who says, You have done wrong?
Jb 36:24 Remember to magnify His work, / Of which men sing.
Jb 36:25 All mankind has gazed on it; / Man beholds it from afar.
Jb 36:26 Indeed, God is great, and we do not know Him; / The number of His years we also cannot search out.
Jb 36:27 For He draws up the drops of water / Which distill into arain from His mist,
Jb 36:28 Which the skies pour down / And drop upon man abundantly.
Jb 36:29 Can they indeed understand the spreading of the clouds, / The thunderings of His pavilion?
Jb 36:30 Indeed, He scatters His lightning around Him / And covers the roots of the sea.
Jb 36:31 For by these He judges the peoples; / He gives afood in abundance.
Jb 36:32 He fills His hands with lightning / And commands it to strike the mark.
Jb 36:33 Its noise tells of Him; / The cattle as well tell concerning Him who is coming.
JOB 37

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

Jb 37:1 At this, too, my heart trembles / And leaps from its place.
Jb 37:2 Hear attentively the noise of His voice / And the sound that goes forth from His mouth.
Jb 37:3 He sends it forth under the whole heaven, / And His lightning unto the ends of the earth.
Jb 37:4 After it a voice roars; / He thunders with the voice of His majesty / And does not withhold 1the lightning / When His voice is heard.
Jb 37:5 God thunders wondrously with His voice; / He does great things that we cannot comprehend.
Jb 37:6 For He says to the asnow, Fall on the earth, / And to the rain shower and His mighty showers of rain.
Jb 37:7 He seals the hand of every man, / That all men may know His doing.
Jb 37:8 Then the beast enters its lair / And remains in its dens.
Jb 37:9 Out of its chamber comes the whirlwind, / And from scattering winds, cold.
Jb 37:10 From the breath of God aice is yielded, / And the expanse of waters is frozen.
Jb 37:11 He also loads the thick clouds with moisture; / He scatters His lightning clouds;
Jb 37:12 And they turn about by His guidance, / That they may accomplish / All that He has commanded them / Upon the surface of the inhabited earth;
Jb 37:13 Whether for scourge or for His land / Or for lovingkindness’ sake, He causes it to happen.
Jb 37:14 Give ear to this, Job; / Stand still and consider the wondrous acts of God.
Jb 37:15 Do you know how God lays His charge upon them / And causes His lightning clouds to shine?
Jb 37:16 Do you know about the balancing of the thick clouds, / The wondrous acts of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
Jb 37:17 You whose garments heat up / When, because of the asouth wind, the earth is still,
Jb 37:18 Can you spread out the skies with Him, / The skies which are as hard as a molten mirror?
Jb 37:19 Teach us what to say to Him; / We cannot arrange our words because of the darkness.
Jb 37:20 Should it be said to Him, I will speak? / Or should a man say that he will be swallowed up?
Jb 37:21 But now men do not look at the light, / Which is brilliant in the skies / When the wind has passed and cleared them.
Jb 37:22 Out of the north comes golden splendor; / Upon God is the awesomeness of majesty.
Jb 37:23 The Almighty — we cannot find Him out; / He is excellent in power, / And justice and the abundance of righteousness He will not damage.
Jb 37:24 Therefore men fear Him; / He does not look upon any who are wise of heart.
JOB 38

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • 

IV. The Dialogue between God and Job
38:1 — 42:6
A. Jehovah Answering Job out of the Whirlwind
38:1-3; 40:1-14
Jb 38:1 aThen Jehovah 1answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
Jb 38:2 Who is this who darkens counsel / By words without aknowledge?
Jb 38:3 aGird up now your loins like a mighty man; / For I will ask of you, and you shall inform Me.
B. God Appearing to Job with the Divine Unveilings
38:4 — 39:30; 40:15 — 41:34
1. Concerning the Universe
38:4-38
Jb 38:4 1Where were you when I laid the 2afoundations of the earth? / Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Jb 38:5 Who set its measurements — if you know? / Or who stretched the measuring line over it?
Jb 38:6 Onto what were its bases sunk, / Or who laid its cornerstone,
Jb 38:7 When the 1morning astars sang together / And all the 1bsons of God shouted for joy?
Jb 38:8 And who hedged in the asea with doors / When it burst forth, issuing from the womb,
Jb 38:9 When I made clouds its clothing / And deep adarkness its swaddling clothes,
Jb 38:10 And I broke out My aboundaries for it / And set up bars and doors,
Jb 38:11 And I said, To here you shall come and no farther, / And here shall your proud awaves be stopped?
Jb 38:12 Have you ever commanded the morning since your days began? / Have you ever caused the dawn to know its place,
Jb 38:13 So that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, / And the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Jb 38:14 1The earth is changed like clay under a seal, / And 2all things on it stand forth like a garment.
Jb 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, / And the high arm is broken.
Jb 38:16 Have you entered into the springs of the asea, / Or have you walked about in the recesses of the bdeep?
Jb 38:17 Have the agates of death been revealed to you, / Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Jb 38:18 Have you comprehended the full expanse of the earth? / Declare it, if you know it all.
Jb 38:19 Where is the way to the dwelling of the light? / And the darkness, where is its place,
Jb 38:20 That you may take it to its boundary, / And that you may perceive the paths to its house?
Jb 38:21 You know, for you were born then, / And the number of your days is great.
Jb 38:22 Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow, / Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
Jb 38:23 aWhich I have reserved for the day of calamity, / For the day of battle and of war?
Jb 38:24 Where is the way to the place where the light is divided, / To the place where the east wind scatters upon the earth?
Jb 38:25 Who cut a channel for the rain torrent, / Or a way for the thunderbolt,
Jb 38:26 To make it arain on a land where no man is, / On a wilderness in which there is no man;
Jb 38:27 To satisfy the waste and desolate land / And to cause the shoots of agrass to sprout?
Jb 38:28 Does the rain have a father? / Or who begot the drops of dew?
Jb 38:29 From whose womb does the aice come forth? / And the frost of heaven, who gave birth to it?
Jb 38:30 The waters hide themselves and become like stone, / And the surface of the deep is frozen.
Jb 38:31 Can you fasten the bands of the aPleiades, / Or loosen the cords of Orion?
Jb 38:32 Can you lead forth the 1Mazzaroth in their season? / Or can you guide the Bear with its cubs?
Jb 38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? / Do you establish their arule on the earth?
Jb 38:34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, / So that a flood of water would cover you?
Jb 38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they would go / And say to you, Here we are?
Jb 38:36 Who has put awisdom in the inward parts, / Or given understanding to the 1mind?
Jb 38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom, / Or who can tip over the water jars of heaven,
Jb 38:38 When the dust runs into a mass / And the clods stick together?
2. Concerning the Animals
38:39 — 39:30
Jb 38:39 Can you hunt prey for the lioness, / Or satisfy the appetite of the young alions,
Jb 38:40 When they crouch in their dens, / When they lie in wait in the thicket?
Jb 38:41 Who provides for the araven its prey / When its young ones cry out to God / And wander about for lack of food?
JOB 39

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

Jb 39:1 Do you know the time when the mountain agoats bring forth? / Can you mark the time when the bhinds calve?
Jb 39:2 Can you number the months that they must fulfill? / Or do you know the time when they bring forth?
Jb 39:3 They crouch down; they give birth to their young ones; / They send forth their offspring.
Jb 39:4 Their young become strong; they grow up in the open field; / They go forth and do not return to them.
Jb 39:5 Who has sent out the awild ass free? / Or who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,
Jb 39:6 Whose home I have made the wilderness, / And the salt land, his dwelling place?
Jb 39:7 He scorns the tumult of the city; / He does not hear the shouts of the driver.
Jb 39:8 He searches out the mountains for his pasture / And seeks after every green thing.
Jb 39:9 Will the awild ox be willing to serve you / Or spend the night by your manger?
Jb 39:10 Can you bind the wild ox to the furrows with his ropes? / Or will he plow the valleys behind you?
Jb 39:11 Will you trust in him because his strength is great? / Or will you leave your labor to him?
Jb 39:12 Will you have confidence in him that he will bring in your seed / And gather your grain to your threshing floor?
Jb 39:13 The wings of the aostrich flap joyously: / Are they the pinion and plumage of lovingkindness?
Jb 39:14 For she leaves her eggs on the earth / And warms them in the dust.
Jb 39:15 And she forgets that a foot may crush them / Or that an animal of the field may trample them.
Jb 39:16 She is hard with her children, as if they were not hers; / Though her labor may be in vain, she has no fear;
Jb 39:17 Because God has caused her to forget wisdom / And has not appointed understanding to her.
Jb 39:18 At that time when she lifts herself up on high, / She scorns the horse and its rider.
Jb 39:19 Have you given the ahorse his might? / Have you clothed his neck with the quivering mane?
Jb 39:20 Have you made him to leap like a locust? / His majestic snorting is terrible.
Jb 39:21 1He paws in the valley, / And he rejoices in his strength; / He goes forth to meet weapons.
Jb 39:22 He laughs at fear and is not dismayed, / And he does not turn back from the sword.
Jb 39:23 A quiver of arrows rattles against him, / The flashing spear and the javelin.
Jb 39:24 With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground, / And he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
Jb 39:25 As often as the trumpet sounds, he says, Aha! / And from afar he smells the battle, / The thundering of captains and the shouting.
Jb 39:26 Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, / Stretching his wings to the south?
Jb 39:27 Is it at your command that the aeagle mounts up / And makes his nest on high?
Jb 39:28 On the cliff he dwells and makes his lodging, / Upon the point of the cliff and the stronghold.
Jb 39:29 From there he spies out food; / His eyes gaze on it from afar.
Jb 39:30 And his young ones suck up the blood; / And where the slain are, athere he is.
JOB 40

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

A. Jehovah Answering Job out of the Whirlwind (cont’d)
40:1-14
Jb 40:1 And Jehovah answered Job and said,
Jb 40:2 Shall one who finds fault acontend with the Almighty? / Let him who bargues with God answer it.
Jb 40:3 Then Job answered Jehovah and said,
Jb 40:4 Indeed, I am worthless. What shall I reply to You? / I lay my hand over my amouth.
Jb 40:5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; / And twice, and I will proceed no further.
Jb 40:6 And Jehovah answered Job out of the awhirlwind and said,
Jb 40:7 aGird up now your loins like a mighty man; / For I will ask of you, and you shall inform Me.
Jb 40:8 Will you indeed annul My judgment? / aWill you condemn Me so that you may be justified?
Jb 40:9 Or do you have an arm like God’s, / And can you thunder with a voice like His?
Jb 40:10 aDeck yourself now with majesty and excellency, / And array yourself with honor and splendor.
Jb 40:11 Pour forth the overflowings of your anger, / And look upon everyone who is proud, and abase him.
Jb 40:12 Look upon everyone who is aproud; bring him down; / And tread down the wicked where they stand.
Jb 40:13 Hide them in the dust together; / Bind their faces in the hidden place.
Jb 40:14 Then even I will praise you, / That your own right hand can save you.
(B. God Appearing to Job with the Divine Unveilings — cont’d)
3. Again concerning the Animals
40:15 — 41:34
Jb 40:15 Behold now the 1behemoth, which I amade as well as you: / He eats grass like the ox.
Jb 40:16 Behold now, his strength is in his loins, / And his power is in the muscles of his belly.
Jb 40:17 He bends his tail like a cedar; / The sinews of his thighs knit together.
Jb 40:18 His bones are like bronze tubes; / His limbs, like iron bars.
Jb 40:19 He is the first of God’s ways; / Only his Maker can approach him with His sword.
Jb 40:20 For the mountains yield food for him, / Where every animal of the field plays.
Jb 40:21 Under the lotus plants he lies down, / In the covert of the reed and the marsh.
Jb 40:22 The lotus plants cover him with their shade; / The willows of the brook surround him.
Jb 40:23 Indeed, if a river overflows, he does not tremble; / He is confident, though the Jordan rushes against his mouth.
Jb 40:24 Will anyone catch him while he is watching, / Or pierce his nose with a snare?
JOB 41

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

Jb 41:1 Can you draw out 1leviathan with a hook, / Or press down his tongue with a cord?
Jb 41:2 Can you put a rope in his nose, / Or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Jb 41:3 Will he make many supplications unto you, / Or speak soft words to you?
Jb 41:4 Will he make a covenant with you / That you would take him as a servant forever?
Jb 41:5 Will you play with him as with a bird, / Or bind him for your maidens?
Jb 41:6 Will the traders bargain over him? / Will they divide him up among merchants?
Jb 41:7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons, / Or his head with fishing spears?
Jb 41:8 Lay your hand on him, / And remember the battle — you will never do it again!
Jb 41:9 Indeed, any hope for him is vain; / Will not one be even cast down at the sight of him?
Jb 41:10 No one is so fierce as to stir him up; / Who then is he who would stand before Me?
Jb 41:11 aWho has first given to Me that I should repay him? / Whatever is under the whole heaven bis Mine.
Jb 41:12 I will not be silent about his limbs / Or about the account of his mighty deeds or about the beauty of his frame.
Jb 41:13 Who can strip off his outer garment? / Who can go within his double jaws?
Jb 41:14 Who can open the doors of his face? / Around his teeth is terror.
Jb 41:15 His pride is his rows of scales, / Shut up as with a tight seal.
Jb 41:16 One is so near the other / That the air cannot pass between them.
Jb 41:17 Each is joined to the other; / They stick together and cannot be separated.
Jb 41:18 His sneezes flash forth light, / And his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
Jb 41:19 Out of his mouth go forth flaming torches; / Sparks of fire leap out.
Jb 41:20 Out of his nostrils comes smoke, / As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
Jb 41:21 His breath kindles coals, / And a flame comes from his mouth.
Jb 41:22 In his neck abides strength, / And terror dances before him.
Jb 41:23 The folds of his flesh are joined together; / They are firm upon him and immovable.
Jb 41:24 His heart is as firm as stone, / Indeed as firm as the lower millstone.
Jb 41:25 At his rising up, 1the mighty fear; / They are beside themselves with consternation.
Jb 41:26 The sword that reaches him cannot avail, / Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
Jb 41:27 He considers iron shafts as straw, / And bronze ones as rotted wood.
Jb 41:28 The arrow does not make him flee; / With him slingstones turn to stubble.
Jb 41:29 Clubs are considered as stubble; / He laughs at the quivering javelin.
Jb 41:30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds; / He spreads himself like a 1threshing sledge upon the mire.
Jb 41:31 He makes the deep boil like a cauldron; / He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
Jb 41:32 Behind him he makes a shining wake; / One would think the deep to be white-haired.
Jb 41:33 On earth there is none his equal, / Who is made without fear.
Jb 41:34 He beholds everything that is high; / He is king over all the sons of pride.
JOB 42

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

C. Job Gaining God in His Personal Experience and Abhorring Himself
42:1-6
Jb 42:1 Then Job answered Jehovah and said,
Jb 42:2 I know that You acan do all things / And that no purpose of Yours can be restrained.
Jb 42:3 Who is this who hides counsel without aknowledge? / Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, / Things too bwonderful for me, which I did not know.
Jb 42:4 Hear now, and I will speak; / aI will ask of You, and You shall inform me.
Jb 42:5 I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has 1aseen You;
Jb 42:6 Therefore I 1abhor myself, and I arepent / In dust and ashes.
V. Jehovah’s Dealing with the Three Friends of Job
42:7-9
Jb 42:7 And after Jehovah had spoken these words to Job, Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My anger is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken concerning Me that which is right, as My servant Job 1has.
Jb 42:8 Now therefore take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer them as a aburnt offering for yourselves. And My servant Job will bpray for you; for I will accept him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken concerning Me that which is right, as My servant Job has.
Jb 42:9 So 1Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Jehovah told them; and Jehovah accepted Job.
VI. Job’s End
42:10-17
Jb 42:10 And Jehovah aturned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and Jehovah gave Job 1btwice as much as he had before.
Jb 42:11 And all his brothers and all his sisters and all his previous acquaintances came to him and ate bread with him in his house. And they consoled and comforted him for all the misfortune that Jehovah had brought upon him. And each gave to him a piece of money, and each, a gold ring.
Jb 42:12 Thus Jehovah blessed Job’s latter aend more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand bsheep and six thousand camels and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand female donkeys.
Jb 42:13 And he had aseven sons and three daughters.
Jb 42:14 And he named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.
Jb 42:15 And in all the land no women were found as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
Jb 42:16 And after this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children and his grandchildren, even four generations.
Jb 42:17 And Job died, old and full of days1.
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PSALMS

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 
Outline

Author: David wrote seventy-three psalms (3 — 9; 11 — 32; 34 — 41; 51 — 65; 68 — 70; 86; 101; 103; 108 — 110; 122; 124; 131; 133; 138 — 145); the sons of Korah, twelve (42 — 49; 84 — 85; 87 — 88); Asaph, twelve (50; 73 — 83); Solomon, two (72; 127); Ethan, one (89); and Moses, one (90). The authors of the other forty-nine psalms are unknown.
Time of Writing: Beginning in the eleventh century B.C. (except Psalm 90, written by Moses in the fifteenth century B.C.).
Place of Writing: Mainly Jerusalem.
Subject:
The Expressions of the Sentiments, Feelings, Impressions, and Experiences of Godly Men Seeking and Contacting God through Their Praises, Prayers, and Singing with Exultation
BOOK ONE
Psalms 1 — 41
Indicating That God’s Intention Is to Turn the Seeking Saints from the Law to Christ
That They May Enjoy the House of God — the Church
PSALM 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

Ps 1:1 1aBlessed is the man / Who does not walk / In the counsel of the wicked, / Nor stand on the path of sinners, / Nor bsit in the seat of mockers;
Ps 1:2 Rather his adelight is in the 1law of Jehovah, / And in His law he bmeditates by day and by night.
Ps 1:3 And he will be like a atree / Transplanted beside streams of water, / Which yields its fruit in its season, / And whose foliage does not wither; / And everything he does 1prospers.
Ps 1:4 The wicked are not so, / But are like achaff, / Which the wind drives away.
Ps 1:5 Therefore the wicked will not astand in the judgment; / Nor the sinners, in the assembly of the righteous.
Ps 1:6 For Jehovah aknows the way of the righteous, / But the way of the wicked will perish.
PSALM 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

Ps 2:1 1aWhy are the 2bnations in an uproar, / And why do the 2peoples contemplate a vain thing?
Ps 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand, / And the rulers sit in acounsel together, / Against Jehovah and against His 1bAnointed:
Ps 2:3 Let us break apart Their abonds / And cast Their ropes away from us.
Ps 2:4 He who sits in the heavens alaughs; / The 1Lord has them in derision.
Ps 2:5 Then He will speak to them in His anger, / And in His burning wrath He will terrify them:
Ps 2:6 But I have installed My 1King / Upon 2aZion, My holy mountain.
Ps 2:7 I will recount the decree of Jehovah; / He said to Me: 1aYou are My Son; / bToday I have begotten You.
Ps 2:8 Ask of Me, / And I will give the nations as Your inheritance / And the alimits of the earth as Your possession.
Ps 2:9 You will break them with an airon rod; / You will shatter them like a potter’s bvessel.
Ps 2:10 1Now therefore, O kings, be prudent; / Take the admonition, O judges of the earth.
Ps 2:11 Serve Jehovah with afear, / And rejoice with trembling.
Ps 2:12 1aKiss the Son / Lest He be angry and you perish from the way; / For His anger may suddenly be kindled. / 2bBlessed are all those who 1ctake refuge in Him.
PSALM 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

A aPsalm of David, when he bfled from Absalom his son
Ps 3:1 1Jehovah, how many are my adversaries! / Many are those who rise up against me!
Ps 3:2 Many are those who say of my soul, / There is no salvation for him in God! 1Selah
Ps 3:3 But You, O Jehovah, are a ashield around me, / My bglory and the One who lifts up my head.
Ps 3:4 With my voice I call out to Jehovah, / And He answers me from His aholy mountain. Selah
Ps 3:5 I lay down and slept; / I awoke, for Jehovah sustains me.
Ps 3:6 I will not fear the myriads of the people / Who have set themselves against me all around.
Ps 3:7 Arise, O Jehovah; / Save me, O my God! / Oh that You would 1strike all my enemies on the cheek; / And break the teeth of the wicked.
Ps 3:8 aSalvation is of Jehovah: / Your blessing be upon Your people. Selah
PSALM 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments. A aPsalm of David
Ps 4:1 When I call out, answer me, / O God of my 1righteousness; / Make room for me when I am in straits; / Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
Ps 4:2 O sons of men, how long will my glory be made a reproach? / How long will you love vanity, will you seek a lie? Selah
Ps 4:3 But know that Jehovah 1sets apart the faithful man for Himself. / Jehovah hears when I call out to Him.
Ps 4:4 aBe angry, yet do not sin; / Consider in your heart upon your bed, / And be silent. Selah
Ps 4:5 Offer sacrifices of righteousness, / And trust in Jehovah.
Ps 4:6 Many are those who say, Who will show us any good? / Lift up upon us the alight of Your countenance, O Jehovah.
Ps 4:7 You have put joy in my heart, / More than when the 1grain and new wine of others abound.
Ps 4:8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep, / For You alone, O Jehovah, cause me to dwell in safety.
PSALM 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

To the choir director: for the wind instruments. A aPsalm of David
Ps 5:1 To my words give ear, O Jehovah; / Consider my moaning.
Ps 5:2 Give heed to the sound of my cry, / My aKing and my God; / For to You do I pray.
Ps 5:3 O Jehovah, in the morning / You will hear my voice; / In the morning I will set forth my words in order to You, / And I will watch.
Ps 5:4 1For You are not a God who delights in wickedness; / Evil will not sojourn with You.
Ps 5:5 Those who boast will not stand / Before Your eyes; / You hate all workers of iniquity.
Ps 5:6 You will destroy those who speak lies. / Jehovah abhors a man of bloodshed and deceit.
Ps 5:7 But as for me, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness / I will come into Your ahouse; / I will bow down toward Your bholy temple / In fear of You.
Ps 5:8 O Jehovah, lead me in Your righteousness / On account of those who lie in wait for me; / Make Your way straight before me.
Ps 5:9 For there is no truth in their mouth; / Their inward part is corruption itself; / aTheir throat is an open bgrave; / They cflatter with their tongue.
Ps 5:10 1Hold them guilty, O God; / Let them fall by their own counsels; / Because of the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, / For they have rebelled against You.
Ps 5:11 But let all who atake refuge in You rejoice; / Let them shout for joy forever; / And may You spread a cover over them; / And those who love Your name / Will exult in You.
Ps 5:12 For You will bless the righteous man, O Jehovah; / You will surround him with favor as with a shield.
PSALM 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments, on the octave. A aPsalm of David
Ps 6:1 aO Jehovah, do not rebuke me in Your anger, / Nor 1chasten me in Your burning wrath.
Ps 6:2 Be gracious to me, O Jehovah, for I am languishing; / Heal me, O Jehovah, for my bones are shaken,
Ps 6:3 And my soul is greatly shaken. / But as for You, O Jehovah, how long?
Ps 6:4 Return, O Jehovah; deliver my soul; / Save me for Your lovingkindness’ sake.
Ps 6:5 For in adeath there is no remembrance of You; / In 1Sheol who can give thanks to You?
Ps 6:6 I am weary with my groaning; / Every night I cause my bed to swim; / With my tears I dissolve my couch.
Ps 6:7 My eye is wasted because of grief; / It has aged because of all those who vex me.
Ps 6:8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, / For Jehovah has heard the sound of my weeping.
Ps 6:9 Jehovah has heard my supplication; / Jehovah receives my prayer.
Ps 6:10 All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; / They will turn back; they will be put to shame suddenly.
PSALM 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

A *Shiggaion aof David, which he sang to Jehovah on account of Cush the bBenjaminite
Ps 7:1 O Jehovah my God, in You do I atake refuge. / Save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me;
Ps 7:2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion, / Tearing it apart without anyone to deliver it.
Ps 7:3 O Jehovah my God, if I have done this, / If there is 1unrighteousness in my hands,
Ps 7:4 If I have recompensed with evil him who was at peace with me / 1(Rather, I have delivered him who vexed me without cause);
Ps 7:5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake me, / And let him trample my life to the ground / And lay my glory down in the dust. Selah
Ps 7:6 Arise, O Jehovah, in Your anger; / Lift Yourself up against the overflowing wrath of those who vex me, / And awake for me: You have commanded judgment.
Ps 7:7 And let the assembly of the peoples surround You, / And over it return on high.
Ps 7:8 Jehovah will execute ajudgment on the peoples; / Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness / And according to my integrity that is with me.
Ps 7:9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, / But establish the righteous man. / For the righteous God / aTries the hearts and the inward parts.
Ps 7:10 My shield is with God, / Who saves the upright in heart.
Ps 7:11 God is a righteous aJudge / And a God who has indignation every day.
Ps 7:12 If one does not turn, He will whet His sword. / He bends His bow and makes it ready.
Ps 7:13 And He prepares instruments of death against him; / He has made His arrows fiery shafts.
Ps 7:14 Behold, the evil man travails with iniquity; / He conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.
Ps 7:15 He digs a pit and hollows it out, / Then he falls into the hole that he has made.
Ps 7:16 His mischief returns upon his own head, / And upon the crown of his own head his violence comes down.
Ps 7:17 I will give thanks to Jehovah according to His righteousness, / And I will sing psalms to the name of Jehovah the Most High.
PSALM 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

To the choir director: on the *gittith. A aPsalm of David
Ps 8:1 1O Jehovah our Lord, / How 2excellent is Your aname / In all the earth, / You who have set Your glory over the heavens!
Ps 8:2 aOut of the mouths of 1bbabes and 1sucklings / You have 2established strength / Because of Your 3adversaries, / To stop the 3enemy and the 3avenger.
Ps 8:3 When I see Your 1heavens, the works of Your fingers, / aThe moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
Ps 8:4 aWhat is 1mortal man, that You 2remember him, / And the son of man, that You 2visit him?
Ps 8:5 You have made 1Him a little lower than 2angels / And have 3crowned Him with glory and honor.
Ps 8:6 For You have caused Him to 1arule over the works of Your hands; / You have put ball things cunder His feet:
Ps 8:7 All sheep and oxen, / As well as the beasts of the field,
Ps 8:8 The birds of heaven and the fish of the sea, / Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
Ps 8:9 1O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth!
PSALM 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

To the choir director: *according to muth-labben. A aPsalm of David
Ps 9:1 1I will give thanks to You, O Jehovah, with all my heart; / I will tell out all Your wonders.
Ps 9:2 I will rejoice and exult in You; / I will sing psalms to Your name, O Most High.
Ps 9:3 When my 1enemies turn back, / They stumble and perish at Your presence.
Ps 9:4 For You have upheld my right and my cause; / You sit on the throne, 1judging righteously.
Ps 9:5 You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; / You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
Ps 9:6 The enemies are finished; they are in perpetual ruins; / And You have uprooted their cities; the very memory of them has perished.
Ps 9:7 But Jehovah sits enthroned forever; / He has established His throne for judgment.
Ps 9:8 And it is He who ajudges the world with righteousness; / He executes judgment on the peoples with equity.
Ps 9:9 And Jehovah is a ahigh retreat for the oppressed, / A high retreat in times of distress.
Ps 9:10 And those who know Your name put their trust in You, / For You have not forsaken those who seek You, O Jehovah.
Ps 9:11 Sing psalms to Jehovah, the aInhabitant of bZion; / Declare His deeds among the peoples,
Ps 9:12 For He who avenges bloodshed remembers those who were slain; / He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
Ps 9:13 Be gracious to me, O Jehovah; look on my affliction from those who hate me, / You who raise me from the gates of death,
Ps 9:14 That I may tell out all Your praises / And, in the gates of the adaughter of Zion, bexult in Your csalvation.
Ps 9:15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they have made; / In the net that they hid, their own foot is caught.
Ps 9:16 Jehovah has made Himself known; He has executed 1justice; / The wicked have been snared in the work of their hands. 2Higgaion. Selah
Ps 9:17 The wicked will be turned back to Sheol, / All the nations who forget God.
Ps 9:18 For not always will the needy be forgotten, / Nor will the hope of the afflicted perish forever.
Ps 9:19 Arise, O Jehovah! Let not mortal man prevail; / Let the nations be judged in Your sight.
Ps 9:20 Put them in fear, O Jehovah; / Let the nations know that they are mortal men. Selah
PSALM 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Ps 10:1 1Why, O Jehovah, do You stand afar off? / Why do You hide Yourself in times of distress?
Ps 10:2 Arrogantly the wicked hotly pursue the poor — / May they be caught in the plots that they devise!
Ps 10:3 For the wicked man boasts of the desire of his soul, / And the rapacious man curses, even despises, Jehovah.
Ps 10:4 The wicked man, according to the haughtiness of his countenance, / Says, He will not require it; / All his thoughts are this: aThere is no God!
Ps 10:5 His ways succeed at all times; / Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; / As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.
Ps 10:6 He has said in his heart, I will not be shaken; / I will be in no trouble 1forever.
Ps 10:7 His amouth is full of curses and of deceit and oppression; / Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
Ps 10:8 He sits in the ambushes of the open villages; / In hidden places he murders the innocent; / His eyes secretly watch for the unfortunate.
Ps 10:9 He lurks in secret like a lion in its covert; / He lurks ready to seize the poor; / He seizes the poor, drawing them up in his net.
Ps 10:10 He stoops, he crouches, / And the unfortunate fall by his mighty claws.
Ps 10:11 He has said in his heart, God has forgotten; / He has hidden His face; He will never asee this.
Ps 10:12 Arise, O Jehovah; O God, lift up Your hand. / Do not forget the poor.
Ps 10:13 Why does the wicked man despise God / And say in his heart, You will not require it?
Ps 10:14 You do see! For You observe mischief and vexation, / To requite it with Your own hand. / To You the unfortunate one acommits his cause; / You have been the help of the orphan.
Ps 10:15 Break the arm of the wicked man and the evildoer; / Seek out his wickedness until You find no more.
Ps 10:16 Jehovah is aKing forever and ever; / The nations have perished from His land.
Ps 10:17 You have heard the desire of the lowly, O Jehovah; / You will establish their heart; You will cause Your ears to listen,
Ps 10:18 In order to execute justice for the orphan and the oppressed one, / That the mortal man of the earth may terrorize no longer.
PSALM 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

To the choir director. aOf David
Ps 11:1 In Jehovah have I ataken refuge. How can you say to my soul, / Flee to 1the mountains like a bird?
Ps 11:2 For behold, the wicked bend the bow; / They ready their arrow on the string / To shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
Ps 11:3 When the foundations are destroyed, / What will the righteous man do?
Ps 11:4 Jehovah is in His holy atemple; / Jehovah — His bthrone is in heaven. / His eyes behold; / His 1eyelids try the sons of men.
Ps 11:5 Jehovah tries the righteous man; / But the wicked man and him who loves violence, His soul hates.
Ps 11:6 He will rain down snares upon the wicked; / aFire and brimstone and a scorching wind will be the portion of their cup.
Ps 11:7 For Jehovah is righteous; He loves righteous deeds. / The upright man will behold His face.
PSALM 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

To the choir director: on the octave. A aPsalm of David
Ps 12:1 Save, O Jehovah; for the faithful man is no more, / For the trustworthy have vanished from among the sons of men.
Ps 12:2 Each man speaks falsehood with his neighbor; / With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
Ps 12:3 May Jehovah cut off all the flattering lips, / The atongue speaking great things,
Ps 12:4 Those who said, With our tongue we will prevail; / Our lips are our own: Who is our lord?
Ps 12:5 Because of the devastation of the poor, because of the sighing of the needy, / I will now arise, says Jehovah; / I will set him in the safety that he longs for.
Ps 12:6 The words of Jehovah are apure words, / Silver refined in a furnace on the earth, / Purified seven times.
Ps 12:7 You, O Jehovah, will keep them; / You will guard them from this generation forever.
Ps 12:8 The wicked go about all around, / While vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
PSALM 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 13:1 How long, O Jehovah? Will You forget me continually? / How long will You hide Your face from me?
Ps 13:2 How long will I take counsel in my soul / And sorrow in my heart day after day? / How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Ps 13:3 Consider and answer me, O Jehovah my God; / Enlighten my eyes lest I asleep the sleep of death,
Ps 13:4 Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him, / And my adversaries exult when I am shaken.
Ps 13:5 But I trust in Your lovingkindness; / My heart will exult in Your asalvation;
Ps 13:6 I will sing to Jehovah, / For He has dealt bountifully with me.
PSALM 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

To the choir director. aOf David
Ps 14:1 aThe fool has said in his heart, / bThere is no God. / They are corrupt; they commit abominable deeds; / cThere is none who does good.
Ps 14:2 aJehovah looked down from heaven / Upon the sons of men / bTo see if there was anyone who had insight, / Who seeks after God.
Ps 14:3 They have all turned aside; / They are together perverse. / There is none who does good; / There is not even one.
Ps 14:4 Have they no knowledge, all the workers of iniquity, / Who eat up my people as they would eat up bread / And do not call upon Jehovah?
Ps 14:5 There they were in great fear, / For God is among the generation of the righteous.
Ps 14:6 You put the counsel of the afflicted to shame, / But Jehovah is their arefuge.
Ps 14:7 Oh that the asalvation of Israel might come forth from bZion! / When Jehovah cturns the captivity of His people, / Jacob will exult, Israel will rejoice.
PSALM 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 

A aPsalm of David
Ps 15:1 1O Jehovah, who may sojourn in Your 2tent? / aWho may dwell on Your bholy mountain?
Ps 15:2 1He who walks in integrity / And does righteousness / And speaks truth from his heart.
Ps 15:3 He does not slander with his tongue; / He does not do evil to his friend, / Nor does he take up a reproach against his neighbor.
Ps 15:4 In his eyes a reprobate is despised, / But he honors those who fear Jehovah. / Should he swear to his harm, / He does not change.
Ps 15:5 He does not lend his money on interest, / Nor accept a bribe against the innocent. / He who does these things will not be shaken forever.
PSALM 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

A *Michtam aof David
Ps 16:1 1Preserve me, O God, for I 2atake refuge in You.
Ps 16:2 1I say to Jehovah, 2You are my Lord; / aNo good have I beyond You;
Ps 16:3 As for the 1saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent; / All my adelight is in them.
Ps 16:4 The sorrows of them who bartered for some other 1god will be multiplied; / Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, / Nor will I take up their names upon my lips.
Ps 16:5 Jehovah is the 1aportion of my inheritance and of my bcup; / You maintain my lot.
Ps 16:6 The 1ameasuring lines have fallen on pleasant places for me; / Indeed the inheritance is beautiful to me.
Ps 16:7 I will bless Jehovah, who 1counsels me; / Indeed in the nights my ainward parts instruct me.
Ps 16:8 aI have 1set Jehovah before me continually; / Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Ps 16:9 Therefore my heart rejoices and my 1aglory exults; / Even my flesh 2dwells securely.
Ps 16:10 For You will not abandon my 1soul to aSheol, / Nor let Your bHoly One see the 2cpit.
Ps 16:11 You will make known to me the 1apath of blife; / In Your 2cpresence is fullness of joy; / At Your 2right hand there are dpleasures forever.
PSALM 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

A Prayer aof David
Ps 17:1 1Hear, O Jehovah, what is righteous; / Give heed to my cry; / Give ear to my prayer, / Which is not made with lips of deceit.
Ps 17:2 May a judgment for me come forth from Your presence; / May Your eyes regard equity.
Ps 17:3 You have aexamined my heart; You have visited me by night; / You have btried me: You have found nothing. / I have resolved that my mouth will not transgress.
Ps 17:4 Regarding the works of man, by the word of Your lips, / I have kept myself from the paths of the violent man.
Ps 17:5 My steps have held fast to Your atracks; / My footsteps have not slipped.
Ps 17:6 I call on You, for You will answer me, O God; / Incline Your ear to me; hear my speaking.
Ps 17:7 Wondrously display Your 1lovingkindness, / You who save by Your right hand / Those who take arefuge in You from them who rise up against them.
Ps 17:8 Guard me like the apupil of Your eye; / In the bshadow of Your wings hide me
Ps 17:9 From the presence of the wicked who oppress me, / From my deadly enemies, who close in upon me.
Ps 17:10 They have shut up their fat hearts; / With their mouths they speak arrogantly.
Ps 17:11 Now they have surrounded 1us in our steps; / They have fixed their eyes on casting us down to the ground.
Ps 17:12 He is like a lion that is eager to tear, / And like a young lion lurking in hidden places.
Ps 17:13 Arise, O Jehovah, 1confront him; bring him down. / With Your sword rescue my soul from the wicked man,
Ps 17:14 From mortal men with Your hand, O Jehovah, / From mortal men of the world, whose portion is in this life, / And whose belly You fill with Your treasure; / They are satisfied with children, / And they leave their abundance for their little ones.
Ps 17:15 As for me, in 1righteousness I will behold Your face; / When I aawake, I will be satisfied with Your 1blikeness.
PSALM 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 

To the choir director. aOf David, the servant of Jehovah, bwho *spoke to Jehovah the words of this song on the day when Jehovah delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and he said:
Ps 18:1 I love You, O Jehovah, my 1astrength.
Ps 18:2 aJehovah is my crag and my bfortress and my Deliverer; / My God, my crock, in whom I dtake refuge; / My eshield and the fhorn of my salvation, my ghigh retreat.
Ps 18:3 I called upon Jehovah, who is worthy of praise,
And from my enemies I was saved.
Ps 18:4 The cords of death encompassed me; / And the torrents of destruction assailed me.
Ps 18:5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me; / The snares of death confronted me.
Ps 18:6 In my distress I 1called upon Jehovah / And cried out to my God. / He heard my voice from His atemple, / And my cry before Him came to His ears.
Ps 18:7 Then the earth shook and quaked, / And the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook about, / For He was furious.
Ps 18:8 Smoke went up from His nostrils, / And fire from His mouth devoured; / Coals blazed forth from Him.
Ps 18:9 He abowed the heavens and descended, / And deep darkness was under His feet.
Ps 18:10 He rode upon a acherub and did fly; / He darted upon the bwings of the wind.
Ps 18:11 He made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion around Him: / Dark waterclouds, thick clouds of the skies.
Ps 18:12 Out of the brightness before Him there broke through His clouds / aHail and fiery coals.
Ps 18:13 Then Jehovah thundered in heaven, / And the Most High uttered His voice1.
Ps 18:14 And He sent forth His arrows and scattered 1my enemies; / And He shot forth lightning bolts and discomfited them.
Ps 18:15 The channels of the 1asea were seen, / And the foundations of the habitable land were laid bare / At Your rebuke, O Jehovah, / At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
Ps 18:16 He reached forth from on high; He took me; / He drew me out of great waters.
Ps 18:17 He delivered me from my strong enemy / And from those who hate me, for they were too mighty for me.
Ps 18:18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, / But Jehovah became my support.
Ps 18:19 He brought me forth to a place broad and free; / He rescued me, for He took delight in me.
Ps 18:20 Jehovah has 1recompensed me according to my righteousness; / According to the cleanness of my hands He has 1repaid me.
Ps 18:21 For I have kept the ways of Jehovah / And have not acted wickedly by turning away from my God.
Ps 18:22 For all His judgments were before me, / And I did not turn His statutes away from me.
Ps 18:23 I was perfect toward Him, / And I kept myself from my iniquity.
Ps 18:24 Therefore Jehovah recompensed me according to my righteousness, / According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
Ps 18:25 aWith the faithful You show Yourself faithful, / With a perfect man You show Yourself perfect,
Ps 18:26 With the pure You show Yourself pure, / And with the perverse You show Yourself contrary.
Ps 18:27 For it is You who save the afflicted people, / But the haughty eyes You bring down;
Ps 18:28 For it is You who light my alamp; / Jehovah my God lights up my darkness;
Ps 18:29 For by You I can run up against a troop; / Indeed by my God I can aleap over a wall.
Ps 18:30 As for God — His way is perfect; / The word of Jehovah is atried. / He is a bshield to all who ctake refuge in Him.
Ps 18:31 For who is God other than Jehovah, / And who is a arock but our God?
Ps 18:32 The God who girds me with strength / And makes my way perfect,
Ps 18:33 Who makes my feet like ahinds’ feet / And sets me on my bhigh places,
Ps 18:34 Who ateaches my hands to wage war / So that my arms may bend a bronze bow.
Ps 18:35 And You have given me the shield of Your salvation, / And Your right hand supports me; / And Your condescending gentleness has made me great.
Ps 18:36 You have broadened the places of my steps under me, / And my feet have not slipped.
Ps 18:37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them, / And I did not turn back until they were consumed.
Ps 18:38 I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise up; / They fell under my feet.
Ps 18:39 And You girded me with strength for war; / You brought down under me those who rose up against me.
Ps 18:40 You also made my enemies turn their back to me, / And I annihilated those who hated me.
Ps 18:41 They cried out, but there was no one to save them; / They cried out to Jehovah, but He did not answer them.
Ps 18:42 Then I beat them like dust before the wind; / Like the mud of the streets I 1pounded them.
Ps 18:43 You rescued me from the strivings of the people; / You have made me the ahead of the nations; / A people whom I had bnot known serves me.
Ps 18:44 At the mere hearing of a report, they obey me; / Foreigners come acringing to me;
Ps 18:45 Foreigners are discouraged / And come aquaking out of their fortresses.
Ps 18:46 Jehovah lives; and blessed be my arock, / And exalted be the bGod of my salvation,
Ps 18:47 The God who executes vengeance for me / And subdues peoples under me,
Ps 18:48 Who rescues me from my enemies. / Indeed You exalted me above those who rise up against me; / From the violent man You delivered me.
Ps 18:49 aTherefore I give thanks to You among the nations, O Jehovah; / And I will bsing psalms to Your name.
Ps 18:50 It is He who magnifies salvation to His king / And executes lovingkindness to His anointed, / To David and to his 1seed aforever.
PSALM 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 19:1 The aheavens bdeclare the glory of God, / And the cexpanse proclaims the work of His hands.
Ps 19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, / And night to night tells out knowledge.
Ps 19:3 There is no speech and there are no words; / Their voice is not heard.
Ps 19:4 aIn all the earth their line has gone forth, / And their words to the end of the world. / In 1the heavens He has made a tent for the sun,
Ps 19:5 And he, like a abridegroom, goes forth from his canopy; / He rejoices like a mighty man running the course.
Ps 19:6 His going forth is from the end of the heavens, / And his circuit is unto their ends; / And there is nothing hidden from his heat.
Ps 19:7 The 1law of Jehovah is aperfect, / Restoring the soul; / The 1testimony of Jehovah is faithful, / bMaking the simple wise;
Ps 19:8 The precepts of Jehovah are right, / Making the heart ajoyous; / The commandment of Jehovah is clear, / bEnlightening the eyes;
Ps 19:9 The fear of Jehovah is pure, / Enduring forever; / The ajudgments of Jehovah are truth / And altogether righteous.
Ps 19:10 More to be desired are they than agold, / Even much refined gold; / bSweeter also than honey / And the drippings of the honeycomb.
Ps 19:11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned; / In keeping them there is much reward.
Ps 19:12 Who can discern his errors? / 1Clear me of my secret faults.
Ps 19:13 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; / Do not let them have dominion over me; / Then I will be blameless and cleared / Of great transgression.
Ps 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart / Be acceptable before You, / O Jehovah, my arock and my bRedeemer.
PSALM 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 20:1 1May Jehovah answer you in the day of trouble; / May the name of the God of Jacob set you on high.
Ps 20:2 May He send you help from the asanctuary / And support you from bZion.
Ps 20:3 May He remember all your meal offerings / And accept your burnt offering. Selah
Ps 20:4 May He give you according to your heart’s desire / And fulfill all your intention.
Ps 20:5 May we shout victoriously in Your salvation / And raise the abanner in the name of our God. / May Jehovah fulfill all your petitions.
Ps 20:6 Now I know / That Jehovah saves His aanointed; / He will answer him from His holy heaven / With mighty acts of salvation from His right hand.
Ps 20:7 Some boast in achariots, and some in horses; / But we boast in the bname of Jehovah our God.
Ps 20:8 They are humbled and fallen, / But we have risen and stand upright.
Ps 20:9 1aSave, O Jehovah! / May the king answer us when we call.
PSALM 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 21:1 O Jehovah, in Your strength the king rejoices, / And in Your salvation how greatly does he exult.
Ps 21:2 You have given him his heart’s desire / And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
Ps 21:3 For You meet him with blessings of goodness; / You have set a crown of refined gold on his head.
Ps 21:4 He asked alife of You; You granted it to him: / Length of days forever and ever.
Ps 21:5 His glory is great in Your salvation; / You have laid majesty and splendor upon him;
Ps 21:6 For You have made him to be blessings forever; / You have made him glad with rejoicing in Your presence.
Ps 21:7 For the king trusts in Jehovah; / And because of the lovingkindness of the Most High, he is not shaken.
Ps 21:8 Your hand finds all Your enemies; / Your right hand finds those who hate You.
Ps 21:9 You make them like a furnace of fire / When Your presence appears. / Jehovah swallows them in His anger, / And fire devours them.
Ps 21:10 You destroy their fruit from the earth, / And their seed from among the sons of men.
Ps 21:11 Although they intend evil against You, / And they think up a scheme, they will not prevail.
Ps 21:12 For You make them turn their back; / You aim with Your bowstrings at their faces.
Ps 21:13 Be 1exalted, O Jehovah, in Your strength; / We will sing and psalm Your might.
PSALM 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

To the choir director: according to the *hind of the dawn. A aPsalm of David
Ps 22:1 1aMy God, my God, why have You 2forsaken me? / 3Why are You so far from saving me, / From the words of my groaning?
Ps 22:2 O my God, I call out in the day, but You do not answer; / And in the night, but there is no rest for me.
Ps 22:3 But You are holy, You who sit enthroned / Upon the praises of Israel.
Ps 22:4 In You our fathers atrusted; / They trusted and You rescued them.
Ps 22:5 To You they cried out and were delivered; / In You they trusted and were not put to shame.
Ps 22:6 1But I am a aworm and not a man, / A reproach of men and one bdespised by the people.
Ps 22:7 All who see me aderide me; / They sneer at me; they bshake their heads, saying,
Ps 22:8 1aHe bcommitted himself to Jehovah; let Him rescue him; / Let Him deliver him since He takes pleasure in him.
Ps 22:9 1But You are the One who drew me forth from the awomb, / Who made me trust while at my mother’s breasts.
Ps 22:10 I was cast upon You from abirth; / From my mother’s womb You have been my God.
Ps 22:11 Do not be far from me, / For trouble is near, / For there is none to help me.
Ps 22:12 1Many abulls surround me; / The mighty bulls of Bashan encompass me.
Ps 22:13 They open their mouth at me, / Like a ravening and roaring alion.
Ps 22:14 I am poured out like water, / And all my abones are out of joint. / My heart is like wax; / It is melted within 1me.
Ps 22:15 My strength is adried up like a shard, / And my tongue is stuck to my jaws; / 1You have put me in the dust of death.
Ps 22:16 For adogs surround me; / A company of evildoers encloses me; / 1They bpierce my chands and feet.
Ps 22:17 I count all my abones; / They look, they bstare at me.
Ps 22:18 They divide my garments to themselves, / And for my clothing they acast lots.
Ps 22:19 1But You, O Jehovah, be not far off; / O my help, hasten to aid me.
Ps 22:20 Deliver my soul from the sword, / 1aMy precious life from the power of the bdog;
Ps 22:21 Save me from the mouth of the alion; / Indeed 1while I am in the horns of wild oxen, answer me.
Ps 22:22 aI will declare Your name to my 1bbrothers; / In the midst of the 2assembly I will praise 3You.
Ps 22:23 You who fear Jehovah, 1praise Him! / All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him! / And stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel!
Ps 22:24 For He has not despised nor detested / The affliction of him who is afflicted; / And He has not hidden His face from him; / But when he cried out to Him, He heard.
Ps 22:25 From You comes my praise in the great assembly; / My vows will I pay before those who fear Him.
Ps 22:26 The lowly will eat and be asatisfied; / Those who seek after Jehovah will praise Him — / May your hearts live forever!
Ps 22:27 All the aends of the earth / Will remember and return to Jehovah, / And all families of the 1nations / Will worship before You;
Ps 22:28 For the akingdom is Jehovah’s, / And 1He rules among the nations.
Ps 22:29 All the flourishing of the earth / Will eat and worship. / All who go down into the dust will abow down before Him, / Even he who does not keep his soul alive.
Ps 22:30 A 1aseed will serve Him; / That which concerns the Lord will be told to a coming bgeneration.
Ps 22:31 They will come and declare His righteousness / To a people yet to be born, that He has done this.
PSALM 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

A aPsalm of David
Ps 23:1 1Jehovah is my 2aShepherd; I will black nothing.
Ps 23:2 He makes me lie down in 1green apastures; / He leads me beside 2bwaters of rest.
Ps 23:3 He 1arestores my soul;
He bguides me on the 2paths of righteousness / For His 3cname’s sake.
Ps 23:4 Even though I walk / Through the 1valley of the ashadow of death, / I do not fear evil, / For You are with me; / Your 2brod and Your 2staff, / They comfort me.
Ps 23:5 You spread a 1atable before me / In the presence of my adversaries; / You 2banoint my head with oil; / My 3ccup runs over.
Ps 23:6 Surely 1goodness and lovingkindness will follow me / All the days of my life, / And I will dwell in the 1ahouse of Jehovah / For the length of my days.
PSALM 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

A aPsalm of David
Ps 24:1 1The aearth is Jehovah’s, and its bfullness, / The habitable land and those who dwell in it.
Ps 24:2 For it is He who afounded it upon the seas / And established it upon the streams.
Ps 24:3 1aWho may ascend the 2mountain of Jehovah, / And who may stand in His holy place?
Ps 24:4 He who has aclean hands and a bpure heart, / Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood / Or sworn deceitfully.
Ps 24:5 He will receive blessing from Jehovah, / And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Ps 24:6 This is the generation of those who seek Him, / Those who aseek Your face, even Jacob. Selah
Ps 24:7 1Lift up your heads, O 2agates; / And be lifted up, O 3long enduring 2doors; / And the 4King of bglory will come in.
Ps 24:8 Who is the King of glory? / Jehovah astrong and mighty! / Jehovah mighty in bbattle!
Ps 24:9 Lift up your heads, O gates; / And lift up, O long enduring doors; / And the King of glory will come in.
Ps 24:10 Who is this King of glory? / Jehovah of hosts — / He is the King of glory! Selah
PSALM 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

aOf David
Ps 25:1 1To You, O Jehovah, / I alift up my soul.
Ps 25:2 O my God, I atrust in You; / Do not let me be bashamed; / Do not let my enemies exult over me.
Ps 25:3 Indeed may all who wait on You not be ashamed; / May those who deal treacherously without cause be ashamed.
Ps 25:4 aMake Your ways known to me, O Jehovah; / Teach me Your paths.
Ps 25:5 Guide me in Your truth, and teach me; / For You are the God of my salvation; / I wait on You all the day long.
Ps 25:6 Remember Your compassions, O Jehovah, / And Your acts of kindness, for they are from of old.
Ps 25:7 The 1sins of my youth and my transgressions, do not remember; / According to Your lovingkindness, remember me, / For the sake of Your goodness, O Jehovah.
Ps 25:8 Jehovah is good and upright; / Therefore He instructs sinners concerning the way.
Ps 25:9 He guides the lowly in justice / And teaches the lowly His way.
Ps 25:10 All the paths of Jehovah are lovingkindness and truth / To those who observe His covenant and His 1testimonies.
Ps 25:11 For the sake of Your aname, O Jehovah, / Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Ps 25:12 Who then is the man who fears Jehovah? / Him will He instruct concerning the way that he should choose.
Ps 25:13 His soul will dwell in 1prosperity, / And his seed will possess the aland.
Ps 25:14 The aintimate 1counsel of Jehovah is to those who fear Him, / And His 1covenant will He make known to them.
Ps 25:15 My eyes are continually turned to Jehovah, / For He will bring my feet out of the net.
Ps 25:16 Turn toward me, and be gracious to me, / For I am alone and afflicted.
Ps 25:17 1Relieve the troubles of my heart, / And bring me out of my distresses.
Ps 25:18 Look on my affliction and my suffering, / And forgive all my sins.
Ps 25:19 Look on my enemies, for they are many; / Indeed they hate me with a violent hatred.
Ps 25:20 Keep my soul, and deliver me; / Do not let me be put to shame, / For I atake refuge in You.
Ps 25:21 May 1integrity and 1uprightness preserve me, / For I wait on You.
Ps 25:22 Redeem Israel, O God, / Out of all his troubles.
PSALM 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

aOf David
Ps 26:1 Judge me, O Jehovah; / For I have walked in my 1integrity, / And in Jehovah I have atrusted; / I will not waver.
Ps 26:2 Examine me, O Jehovah, and atry me; / Test my binward parts and my heart.
Ps 26:3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, / And I have awalked in Your truth.
Ps 26:4 I do not asit with men of falsehood, / Nor will I associate with hypocrites.
Ps 26:5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, / Nor will I sit with the wicked.
Ps 26:6 I awash my hands in innocence / And go around Your altar, O Jehovah,
Ps 26:7 Making myself heard with the voice of thanksgiving / And telling out all Your wonderful deeds.
Ps 26:8 O Jehovah, I alove the habitation of Your house, / And the place where Your glory 1babides.
Ps 26:9 Do not gather my soul with sinners, / Nor my life with men of bloodshed,
Ps 26:10 In whose hand is a wicked scheme, / And whose right hand is full of bribes.
Ps 26:11 But as for me, I walk in my integrity; / Redeem me and be gracious to me.
Ps 26:12 My foot stands on level ground; / In the assemblies I will bless Jehovah.
PSALM 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

aOf David
Ps 27:1 Jehovah is my alight and my bsalvation; / Whom shall I fear? / Jehovah is the strength of my life; / Whom shall I dread?
Ps 27:2 When evildoers come near me / To devour my flesh, / It is they, my adversaries and my enemies, / Who stumble and fall.
Ps 27:3 If an army camps against me, / My heart does not fear; / If a battle arises against me, / In spite of this I am confident.
Ps 27:4 One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the 1ahouse of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To bbehold the 2cbeauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple.
Ps 27:5 For He will conceal me in His shelter / In the day of trouble; / He will hide me in the ahiding place of His tent; / He will raise me up upon a rock.
Ps 27:6 And now my head is lifted up / Above my enemies who surround me. / And I will offer in His tent / aSacrifices of shouts of joy: / I will sing and bpsalm to Jehovah.
Ps 27:7 Hear, O Jehovah, when I call with my voice, / And be gracious to me and answer me.
Ps 27:8 When You say, aSeek My face, / To You my heart says, Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek.
Ps 27:9 Do not hide Your face from me; / Do not turn Your servant away in Your anger; / You have been my help. / Do not abandon me or forsake me, / O God of my salvation.
Ps 27:10 If my father and my mother forsake me, / Jehovah will take me up.
Ps 27:11 Teach me, O Jehovah, Your way, / And lead me on a level path / Because of those who lie in wait for me.
Ps 27:12 Do not give me over / To the will of my adversaries; / For afalse witnesses have risen up against me, / And those who breathe out threats.
Ps 27:13 1I have believed / That I would see the goodness of Jehovah / In the land of the living.
Ps 27:14 Wait for Jehovah; / Be strong, and let your heart be encouraged. / Yes, wait for Jehovah.
PSALM 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

aOf David
Ps 28:1 To You, O Jehovah, do I call out; / My arock, do not be deaf to me, / Lest, if You are silent to me, / I become like those who go down into the pit.
Ps 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications / When I cry out to You, / When I alift up my hands / Unto Your innermost sanctuary.
Ps 28:3 Do not drag me away with the wicked / And with the workers of iniquity, / Who speak peace to their neighbors / While evil is in their heart.
Ps 28:4 1Repay them according to what they have done / And according to the evil of their deeds; / aAccording to the work of their hands repay them; / Return to them their due.
Ps 28:5 For they do not regard the acts of Jehovah / Or the work of His hands; / He will tear them down / And not rebuild them.
Ps 28:6 Blessed be Jehovah, / For He has heard the voice of my supplications.
Ps 28:7 Jehovah is my strength and my ashield; / My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; / Therefore my heart exults; / And with my song do I give thanks to Him.
Ps 28:8 Jehovah is 1their strength; / And He is a stronghold of salvation to His anointed.
Ps 28:9 Save Your people, / And bless Your inheritance; / And ashepherd them and carry them forever.
PSALM 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

A aPsalm of David
Ps 29:1 1aAscribe to Jehovah, O sons of the Mighty, / Ascribe to Jehovah glory and strength;
Ps 29:2 Ascribe to Jehovah the glory of His name; / Worship Jehovah in holy 1splendor.
Ps 29:3 The voice of Jehovah is over the waters; / The God of aglory bthunders, / Jehovah over the great waters.
Ps 29:4 The voice of Jehovah is powerful; / The voice of Jehovah is full of majesty.
Ps 29:5 The voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars; / Indeed Jehovah breaks the cedars of Lebanon in pieces;
Ps 29:6 And He makes Lebanon askip like a calf, / And 1Sirion like a young wild ox.
Ps 29:7 The voice of Jehovah cleaves out flames of fire.
Ps 29:8 The voice of Jehovah shakes the wilderness; / Jehovah shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
Ps 29:9 The voice of Jehovah 1causes the hinds to calve / And strips the forests bare; / And in His temple all say, Glory!
Ps 29:10 Jehovah sat enthroned at the Flood, / And Jehovah sits as aKing forever.
Ps 29:11 May Jehovah give strength to His people. / May Jehovah bless His people with peace.
PSALM 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

A Psalm; a Song for the aDedication of the House. bOf David
Ps 30:1 I extol You, O Jehovah, for You have drawn me up / And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
Ps 30:2 O Jehovah my God, / I cried out to You, / And You healed me.
Ps 30:3 O Jehovah, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; / You have preserved me alive 1that I would not go down into the pit.
Ps 30:4 Sing psalms to Jehovah, you who are His faithful ones; / And 1apraise His holy 2memorial.
Ps 30:5 For His anger lasts but a moment, / His favor, a lifetime; / Weeping may linger in the evening, / But a ringing shout goes up in the morning.
Ps 30:6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, / I will never be shaken.
Ps 30:7 O Jehovah, by Your favor You had made my 1mountain stand strong. / You hid Your face; I was troubled.
Ps 30:8 To You, O Jehovah, I called out; / And to 1Jehovah I made my supplication.
Ps 30:9 What profit is there in my blood if I go down into the pit? / Will the dust apraise You? Will it declare Your 1faithfulness?
Ps 30:10 Hear, O Jehovah, and be gracious to me. / O Jehovah, be my help.
Ps 30:11 You have turned for me my mourning into adancing; / You have loosened my sackcloth / And girded me with rejoicing,
Ps 30:12 That my 1aglory might sing psalms to You and not be silent. / O Jehovah my God, I will praise You forever.
PSALM 31

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 31:1 aIn You, O Jehovah, do I btake refuge; / Never let me be put to shame. / 1Rescue me in Your righteousness.
Ps 31:2 Incline Your ear to me; / Deliver me speedily. / Be to me a 1arock of protection, / A fortress, to save me.
Ps 31:3 For You are my crag and my fortress; / Therefore for Your name’s sake / Lead me and guide me.
Ps 31:4 Bring me out of the net / That they have secretly laid for me, / For You are my protection.
Ps 31:5 1aInto Your hand I commit my spirit; / Redeem me, O Jehovah, God of truth.
Ps 31:6 I hate those who regard 1vanities of falsehood, / But I trust in Jehovah.
Ps 31:7 I will exult and rejoice in Your lovingkindness, / Since You have seen my affliction; / You know the distress of my soul.
Ps 31:8 And You have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; / You have made my feet stand in a place broad and free.
Ps 31:9 Be gracious to me, O Jehovah, for I am in 1distress. / My eye is wasted away with grief, / Indeed my soul and body.
Ps 31:10 For my life has been consumed in asorrow, / And my years, in sighing. / My strength fails because of my iniquity, / And my bones have wasted away.
Ps 31:11 Because of all my adversaries, / I have become a reproach, / And especially so to my neighbors, / And something dreaded to my acquaintances; / Those who see me on the street flee from me.
Ps 31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man out of mind; / I am like a destroyed vessel.
Ps 31:13 For I hear the aslander of many; / Terror is on every side. / When they take bcounsel together against me, / They scheme to take my life.
Ps 31:14 But I atrust in You, O Jehovah; / I say, You are my God.
Ps 31:15 My atimes are in Your hand; / Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue me.
Ps 31:16 Cause Your face to ashine upon Your servant; / Save me in Your lovingkindness.
Ps 31:17 O Jehovah, do not let me be put to shame when I call out to You; / Let the wicked be put to shame; let them be silent in Sheol.
Ps 31:18 Let the lips of falsehood be made dumb, / Which speak arrogantly against the righteous / With pride and contempt.
Ps 31:19 How great is Your goodness, / Which You have stored up for those who fear You, / Which You have accomplished in the sight of the sons of men / For those who atake refuge in You!
Ps 31:20 You hide them in the ahiding place of Your presence / Apart from the conspiracies of men; / You lay them away secretly in a shelter / Apart from the contention of tongues.
Ps 31:21 Blessed be Jehovah, / For He displayed His lovingkindness wondrously / To me in a fortified city.
Ps 31:22 I, on my part, had said in my alarm, / I am cut off before Your eyes; / But instead You heard / The voice of my supplications / When I cried out to You.
Ps 31:23 aLove Jehovah, all you who are His faithful ones; / Jehovah guards the trustworthy, / And recompenses abundantly / Him who acts haughtily.
Ps 31:24 Be strong, and let your heart be encouraged, / All you who 1hope in Jehovah.
PSALM 32

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

aOf David. A *Maschil
Ps 32:1 1aBlessed is he whose transgression is 2bforgiven; / Whose sin is ccovered.
Ps 32:2 Blessed is the man to whom / Jehovah does not impute iniquity / And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Ps 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away / Through my groaning all day long.
Ps 32:4 For day and night Your ahand / Was heavy upon me; / My life bsap was dried up / As in the drought of summer. Selah
Ps 32:5 I aacknowledged my sin to You, / And I did not cover my iniquity. / I said, I will confess my transgressions to Jehovah. / Then You bforgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Ps 32:6 Because of this let everyone who is faithful / Pray to You at a time when You may be found; / Surely when great waters overflow, / They will not reach him.
Ps 32:7 You are my ahiding place; / You preserve me from trouble; / You surround me with the ringing shouts of deliverance. Selah
Ps 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you concerning the way you should go; / I will counsel you; my eye is upon you.
Ps 32:9 Do not be like a horse or like a mule, without understanding; / Whose trappings consist of abit and bridle to restrain them, / Else they do not come near you.
Ps 32:10 Many are the sorrows that the wicked have; / But he who trusts in Jehovah is encompassed by lovingkindness.
Ps 32:11 Rejoice in Jehovah and exult, O 1righteous ones; / And give a ringing shout, all you who are 1upright in heart.
PSALM 33

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Ps 33:1 Rejoice in Jehovah, O righteous ones. / Praise is becoming to the upright.
Ps 33:2 Give thanks to Jehovah with the lyre; / With the harp of ten strings sing psalms to Him.
Ps 33:3 Sing Him a anew song; / Play skillfully with a joyous shout.
Ps 33:4 For the word of Jehovah is right, / And all His work is done in faithfulness.
Ps 33:5 He loves righteousness and justice; / The earth is afull of the lovingkindness of Jehovah.
Ps 33:6 By the aword of Jehovah the heavens were made, / And all their host, by the breath of His mouth.
Ps 33:7 He gathers the water of the asea like a bheap; / He puts the deep waters into storage places.
Ps 33:8 Let all the earth fear Jehovah; / Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
Ps 33:9 For He aspoke, and it was; / He bcommanded, and it stood.
Ps 33:10 Jehovah brings the acounsel of the nations to nothing; / He frustrates the intentions of the peoples.
Ps 33:11 The acounsel of Jehovah stands forever; / The intentions of His heart stand from generation to generation.
Ps 33:12 aBlessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, / The people whom He has bchosen as His own possession.
Ps 33:13 Jehovah looks from heaven; / He sees all the sons of men.
Ps 33:14 From the site of His habitation He gazes / At all the inhabitants of the earth,
Ps 33:15 He who fashions the hearts of them all, / He who discerns all their works.
Ps 33:16 No king is saved by a great army; / A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
Ps 33:17 A horse is a vain thing for salvation, / And it cannot deliver by its great power.
Ps 33:18 Behold, the aeye of Jehovah is upon those who fear Him, / Upon those who 1hope in His lovingkindness,
Ps 33:19 To adeliver their soul from death / And to preserve them alive in famine.
Ps 33:20 Our soul waits on Jehovah; / He is our help and our shield;
Ps 33:21 For in Him our heart rejoices, / Because in His holy name we trust.
Ps 33:22 May Your lovingkindness, O Jehovah, be upon us, / Even as we have hoped in You.
PSALM 34

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

aOf David, when he bdisguised his sanity before *Abimelech, who drove him out, and he departed
Ps 34:1 1I will 2bless Jehovah at all times; / His praise will continually be in my mouth.
Ps 34:2 My soul makes its boast in Jehovah; / The lowly hear and they rejoice.
Ps 34:3 aMagnify Jehovah with me, / And let us exalt His name together.
Ps 34:4 I sought Jehovah, and He answered me; / And He delivered me from all that terrified me.
Ps 34:5 They looked to Him and were radiant; / And their faces will never be abashed.
Ps 34:6 This poor man called out, and Jehovah heard; / And He 1saved him out of all his troubles.
Ps 34:7 The aangel of Jehovah bencamps / Around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.
Ps 34:8 1aTaste and see that Jehovah is good; / 2bBlessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
Ps 34:9 Fear Jehovah, you who are His saints; / For there is no lack with those who fear Him.
Ps 34:10 The young lions hunger and starve, / But those who seek Jehovah will not lack any good thing.
Ps 34:11 Come, children; hear me. / I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.
Ps 34:12 aWho is the man who desires life, / Who loves having days in order to see good?
Ps 34:13 Guard your atongue from evil, / And your lips from speaking deceit.
Ps 34:14 aTurn away from evil and do good; / Seek peace and pursue it.
Ps 34:15 The eyes of Jehovah are set toward the righteous, / And His ears, toward their cry.
Ps 34:16 The face of Jehovah is against those who do evil, / To cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Ps 34:17 The righteous cry out, and Jehovah hears; / And He saves them out of all their troubles.
Ps 34:18 Jehovah is near to those who are broken in heart, / And He saves those who are acontrite in spirit.
Ps 34:19 Many are the troubles of the righteous man, / But Jehovah delivers him from all of them.
Ps 34:20 He keeps all his abones; / 1Not one of them is broken.
Ps 34:21 Evil will slay the wicked, / And those who hate the righteous man will be condemned.
Ps 34:22 Jehovah redeems the soul of His servants, / And none who atake refuge in Him will be condemned.
PSALM 35

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

aOf David
Ps 35:1 1Strive, O Jehovah, with those who strive with me; / 1Battle against those who battle against me.
Ps 35:2 Take hold of buckler and shield, / And rise up as my help.
Ps 35:3 Draw out also the spear, and close up the way / Against those who pursue me; / Say to my soul, / I am your salvation.
Ps 35:4 aLet those who seek my life / Be put to shame and humiliated; / Let those who devise evil for me / Be turned back and confounded.
Ps 35:5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, / With the aangel of Jehovah driving them on.
Ps 35:6 Let their way be darkness and slipperiness itself, / With the angel of Jehovah pursuing them.
Ps 35:7 For without cause they hid their net for me; / Without cause they dug a pit for me.
Ps 35:8 Let adestruction come upon him unawares, / And let his net, which he hid, catch him; / Let him fall into it, into destruction.
Ps 35:9 Then my soul will exult in Jehovah; / It will rejoice in His salvation.
Ps 35:10 All my bones will say, / Jehovah, who is like You, / Who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him, / And the poor and needy from him who robs him?
Ps 35:11 Malicious awitnesses rise up; / They ask me about things I know nothing of.
Ps 35:12 They repay me evil for good; / I am bereaved in soul.
Ps 35:13 But I, when they were sick, / Had sackcloth as my clothing; / I afflicted my soul with fasting, / And my prayer areturned to my own bosom.
Ps 35:14 I conducted myself as if it had been my friend or my brother; / Like one mourning for his mother, I bowed down gloomily.
Ps 35:15 But at my stumbling they rejoice and gather together; / The attackers, whom I did not know / Gather together against me; / They tear at me and do not cease.
Ps 35:16 As profane mocking parasites, / They agnash their teeth at me.
Ps 35:17 O Lord, how long will You look on? / Rescue my soul from their destruction, / My 1precious life from the lions.
Ps 35:18 I will give You thanks in the great congregation; / Among a mighty people I will praise You.
Ps 35:19 Do not let those who are wrongly my enemies rejoice over me; / Do not let those who ahate me without cause narrow their eyes at me.
Ps 35:20 For they do not speak apeace, / But devise words of deceit / Against the quiet people of the land.
Ps 35:21 And they open their mouth wide against me; / They say, Aha! Aha! Our eyes have seen it.
Ps 35:22 You have seen, O Jehovah; do not be silent. / O Lord, do not be far from me.
Ps 35:23 Awake, and stir Yourself for my cause, / For my claim, O my God and my Lord.
Ps 35:24 Vindicate me according to Your righteousness, O Jehovah my God; / And do not let them rejoice over me.
Ps 35:25 Do not let them say in their heart, / aAha! 1That is what we wanted. / Do not let them say, We have swallowed him up.
Ps 35:26 May those who rejoice at my trouble / Be ashamed and confounded together; / May those who magnify themselves against me / Be clothed with shame and humiliation.
Ps 35:27 May those who delight in the vindication of my righteousness / Give a ringing shout and rejoice, / And may they say continually, / Jehovah be amagnified, / Who delights in the well-being of His servant.
Ps 35:28 And my tongue will declare Your righteousness / And Your praise all day long.
PSALM 36

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

To the choir director. Of the servant of Jehovah; aof David
Ps 36:1 Transgression speaks to the wicked / Within 1his heart; / aThere is no bdread of God / Before his eyes.
Ps 36:2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes, / That his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
Ps 36:3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; / He has ceased being wise and doing good.
Ps 36:4 He plans wickedness on his bed; / He sets himself on a way that is not good; / He does not reject evil.
Ps 36:5 1O Jehovah, aYour lovingkindness is in the heavens; / Your faithfulness reaches unto the skies.
Ps 36:6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; / Your judgments are like the great deep; / You preserve man and beast, O Jehovah.
Ps 36:7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! / Thus the sons of men take arefuge in the shadow of Your bwings.
Ps 36:8 They are saturated with the 1afatness of Your 2house, / And You cause them to drink of the briver of Your pleasures.
Ps 36:9 For with You is the afountain of blife; / In Your clight we see light.
Ps 36:10 Continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, / And Your righteousness to those who are upright in heart.
Ps 36:11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant come upon me, / Nor let the hand of the wicked drive me away.
Ps 36:12 There the workers of iniquity are fallen; / They are cast down and unable to rise.
PSALM 37

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

aOf David
Ps 37:1 1Do not be incensed because of evildoers; / Do not be envious of wrongdoers.
Ps 37:2 For they soon awither like grass / And fade away like green herbage.
Ps 37:3 Trust in Jehovah, and do good; / Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Ps 37:4 Delight yourself in Jehovah, / And He will give you the requests of your heart.
Ps 37:5 aCommit your way to Jehovah, / And trust in Him; and He will act.
Ps 37:6 And He will cause your righteousness to go forth like alight, / And your justness like noonday.
Ps 37:7 Be still before Jehovah, and wait for Him; / Do not be incensed because of him who enjoys prosperity on his way, / Because of the man who performs his evil schemes.
Ps 37:8 Cease from aanger and forsake wrath; / Do not be incensed; it leads only to evil.
Ps 37:9 For the evildoers will be cut off; / But those who wait on Jehovah, / They will ainherit the land.
Ps 37:10 And in a little while longer there will be no wicked man; / Indeed, you will look diligently for his place, and he will not be there.
Ps 37:11 But the alowly will inherit the land / And delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Ps 37:12 The wicked man makes evil schemes against the righteous man / And agnashes his teeth at him.
Ps 37:13 The Lord will laugh at him, / For He sees that his day will come.
Ps 37:14 The wicked have drawn out the sword / And bent their bow, / To cast the poor and the needy down, / To slaughter those who are upright in their way.
Ps 37:15 Their sword will enter their own heart, / And their bows will be broken.
Ps 37:16 Better is the alittle that the righteous man has / Than the abundance of many wicked.
Ps 37:17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken, / But Jehovah upholds the righteous.
Ps 37:18 Jehovah knows the days of the perfect, / And their inheritance will be forever.
Ps 37:19 They will not be put to shame in a time of evil, / And in the days of famine they will be satisfied.
Ps 37:20 But the wicked will perish, / And the enemies of Jehovah will be like the glory of the pastures: / They are consumed; in smoke they are consumed.
Ps 37:21 The wicked borrow but do not repay, / But the righteous is gracious and gives.
Ps 37:22 For those ablessed by Him will binherit the land, / But those cursed by Him will be cut off.
Ps 37:23 A man’s asteps are established by Jehovah, / And He delights in his way.
Ps 37:24 If he falls, he is not utterly cast down; / For Jehovah upholds him by the hand.
Ps 37:25 I was once a young man; now I am old. / Yet I have not seen the righteous man forsaken, / Nor his seed seeking bread.
Ps 37:26 He is always gracious and alends, / And his seed becomes a blessing.
Ps 37:27 aTurn away from evil and do good, / And abide forever.
Ps 37:28 For Jehovah loves justice / And does not abandon His faithful ones; / They are kept forever; / But the seed of the wicked is cut off.
Ps 37:29 The righteous will inherit the land, / And they will abide in it forever.
Ps 37:30 The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, / And his tongue speaks justice.
Ps 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart; / His steps do not slip.
Ps 37:32 The wicked man watches for the righteous man / And seeks to slay him.
Ps 37:33 Jehovah does not leave him in his hand, / Nor let him be condemned when he is judged.
Ps 37:34 Wait for Jehovah, / And keep His way; / And He will exalt you to inherit the land; / When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
Ps 37:35 I have seen the wicked man terrorizing, / And spreading himself like a luxuriant native tree.
Ps 37:36 Then someone passes by, and behold, he is not there; / I search for him, and he is not found.
Ps 37:37 Observe the perfect man, and watch the upright man; / For there is a future for the man of apeace.
Ps 37:38 But the transgressors will be altogether destroyed; / The future of the wicked will be cut off.
Ps 37:39 And the salvation of the righteous is from Jehovah; / He is their stronghold in a time of distress.
Ps 37:40 And Jehovah helps them and rescues them; / He rescues them from the wicked, / And saves them, for they atake refuge in Him.
PSALM 38

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

A aPsalm of David, for remembrance
Ps 38:1 1aO Jehovah, do not rebuke me in Your indignation, / Nor chasten me in Your burning wrath.
Ps 38:2 For Your arrows have sunk deep in me, / And Your hand has come down heavy upon me.
Ps 38:3 There is no soundness in my flesh due to Your indignation; / There is no wholeness in my bones due to my sin.
Ps 38:4 For my iniquities have passed over my head; / Like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
Ps 38:5 My wounds are odious and festering / Due to my foolishness.
Ps 38:6 I am bent down and bowed utterly; / I go about all day long mourning.
Ps 38:7 For my loins are filled with burning, / And there is no soundness in my flesh.
Ps 38:8 I am benumbed and crushed utterly; / I cry out due to the 1groaning of my heart.
Ps 38:9 O Lord, all my desire is before You, / And my groaning is not hidden from You.
Ps 38:10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me; / And as for the light of my eyes, neither is it with me.
Ps 38:11 Those who love me and those who are my friends stand aloof from my plague, / And my relatives stand afar away.
Ps 38:12 And those who seek my soul lay traps for me, / And those who pursue my misfortune speak of destruction, / And they contemplate deceit all day long.
Ps 38:13 But I, like a deaf man, cannot hear; / And I am like a dumb man, who cannot open his amouth.
Ps 38:14 Indeed I am like a man who does not hear / And in whose mouth there are no reproofs.
Ps 38:15 For in You, O Jehovah, do I hope; / You will respond, O Lord my God.
Ps 38:16 For I said, May they never rejoice over me! / When my foot slips, they magnify themselves over me.
Ps 38:17 For I am ready to stumble, / And my pain is before me continually.
Ps 38:18 For I declare my iniquity; / I am anxious because of my sin.
Ps 38:19 But my enemies are vigorous; they are strong; / And those who wrongly hate me are many.
Ps 38:20 Those also who repay evil for good / Are my adversaries because I pursue what is good.
Ps 38:21 Do not abandon me, O Jehovah; / O my God, do not be far away from me.
Ps 38:22 Hasten to help me, / O Lord, my asalvation.
PSALM 39

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director, to Jeduthun. A aPsalm of David
Ps 39:1 I said, I will keep my ways, / So that I do not sin with my atongue; / I will keep a muzzle on my mouth / When the wicked are before me.
Ps 39:2 I was dumb and silent; / I held my peace, even from good; / And my pain was stirred up.
Ps 39:3 My heart was hot within me; / While I mused, the fire burned; / I spoke with my tongue:
Ps 39:4 O Jehovah, cause me to know my end, / And the measure of my adays, what it is. / May I know how transient I am.
Ps 39:5 Behold, You have made my adays as mere handbreadths, / And my lifetime is as nothing before You; / Surely every man 1at his best is altogether 2bvanity. Selah
Ps 39:6 Surely man goes about as a semblance; / Surely they bustle about in vain: / He aheaps up riches yet knows not / bWho will gather them.
Ps 39:7 And now what am I waiting for, O Lord? / My hope — it is in You.
Ps 39:8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; / Do not make me the fool’s reproach.
Ps 39:9 I was adumb; I did not open my mouth; / For You have done this.
Ps 39:10 Remove Your plague from me; / By the hostility of Your hand I am consumed.
Ps 39:11 With rebukes You chasten a man because of iniquity, / And cause what is desirous to him to disappear like a moth. / Surely every man is avanity. Selah
Ps 39:12 Hear my prayer, O Jehovah; / And give ear to my cry; / Do not hold Your peace at my tears. / For I am a stranger with You, / A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Ps 39:13 Look away from me, that I may be cheerful, / Before I go away and am no more.
PSALM 40

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 40:1 I waited patiently on Jehovah, / And He inclined to me / And heard my cry.
Ps 40:2 Then He brought me up out of a pit of destruction, / Out of the miry clay; / And He set my feet upon a rock, / Establishing my steps.
Ps 40:3 Then He put a anew song in my mouth, / A praise to our God. / Many see it and fear, / And they trust in Jehovah.
Ps 40:4 1aBlessed is the man / Who makes Jehovah his trust / And does not turn to the proud / Or to those who turn aside after deception.
Ps 40:5 Many, O Jehovah my God, are the wonderful deeds which You have done / And Your athoughts toward us; / They cannot be set in order unto You. / Were I to declare and speak of them, / They would be too numerous to recount.
Ps 40:6 1aYou do not delight in 2bsacrifice and 2offering; / You have 3prepared cears for Me; / You do not require burnt offering and sin offering.
Ps 40:7 Then I said, / Behold, I have 1come; / In the 2scroll of the book / It is written concerning Me.
Ps 40:8 I delight in doing Your will, O My God; / Indeed Your law is within My ainward parts.
Ps 40:9 I bear tidings of righteousness / In the great acongregation. / Behold, I will not withhold My lips; / O Jehovah, You know.
Ps 40:10 I have not hidden Your righteousness / Within My heart; / I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; / I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.
Ps 40:11 You, O Jehovah, do not withhold / Your compassions from me; / May Your lovingkindness and Your truth / Preserve me continually.
Ps 40:12 For evils encompass me until they cannot be counted; / My iniquities have so overtaken me / That I cannot see; / They are more numerous than the hairs of my head; / Thus my heart fails me.
Ps 40:13 aBe pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me; / O Jehovah, hasten to help me.
Ps 40:14 aMay those who seek my life to destroy it / Be put to shame and confounded together; / May those who take delight in my misfortune / Be turned back and humiliated.
Ps 40:15 May those who say to me, aAha! Aha! / Be desolate because of their shame.
Ps 40:16 May all those who seek You / Be glad and rejoice in You; / May those who love Your salvation say continually, / May Jehovah be amagnified!
Ps 40:17 But I am poor and needy; / May the Lord think about me. / You are my help and my Deliverer; / O my God, do not delay.
PSALM 41

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 41:1 Blessed is he who considers the apoor; / In the day of evil Jehovah will deliver him.
Ps 41:2 May Jehovah keep him and preserve him alive; / May he be 1blessed in the land; / And do not give him over to the will of his enemies.
Ps 41:3 Jehovah will sustain him on his sickbed; / You make all his bed in his illness.
Ps 41:4 I said, O Jehovah, be gracious to me; / Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.
Ps 41:5 My enemies speak evil against me: / When will he die and his name perish?
Ps 41:6 And if he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. / His heart gathers iniquity to itself; / When he goes out, he speaks it.
Ps 41:7 All who hate me whisper together against me; / Against me they devise my misfortune.
Ps 41:8 1Some evil illness, they say, has been poured out on him; / And when he lies down, he will not rise again.
Ps 41:9 1Even my familiar afriend, in whom I trusted, / bWho cate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Ps 41:10 But You, O Jehovah, be gracious to me and raise me up / That I may 1recompense them.
Ps 41:11 By this I know that You delight in me, / That my enemy has not shouted in triumph over me.
Ps 41:12 And as for me, You uphold me in my 1integrity, / And You set me in Your presence forever.
Ps 41:13 aBlessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, / From eternity to eternity. / bAmen and Amen.

BOOK TWO
Psalms 42 — 72
Indicating that the Saints Experience God and His House and City
through the Suffering, Exalted, and Reigning Christ
PSALM 42

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

To the choir director. A *Maschil aof the sons of bKorah
Ps 42:1 1As the ahart pants / After the bstreams of water, / So my soul 2pants / For You, O 3God.
Ps 42:2 My soul athirsts for God, / For the living God. / When will I come and bappear / Before God?
Ps 42:3 My tears have been my food / Day and night, / While they say to me all day long, / Where is your God?
Ps 42:4 These things I 1remember, / And I pour out my soul within me: / That I passed through with the throng; / I led them to the ahouse of God / With the voice of a joyous shout and 2praise, / The bfestal multitude.
Ps 42:5 aWhy are you cast down, O my soul? / And why are you disquieted within me? / Hope in God, for I will yet 1praise Him / For the salvation of His 2bcountenance.
Ps 42:6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; / Therefore I 1remember You / From the land of the Jordan and the aHermons, / From Mount Mizar.
Ps 42:7 Deep calls unto deep / At the sound of Your water spouts; / All Your awaves and Your billows / Pass over me.
Ps 42:8 By day Jehovah commands / His lovingkindness, / And by anight His song is with me, / A prayer to the God of my life.
Ps 42:9 I say to God my arock, / Why have You forgotten me? / Why do I go mourning / Because of the oppression of the enemy?
Ps 42:10 As with a shattering in my bones, / My adversaries reproach me, / While they say to me all day long, / Where is your God?
Ps 42:11 aWhy are you cast down, O my soul? / And why are you disquieted within me? / Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, / The bsalvation of my countenance and my God.
PSALM 43

vv. 1 • • • 5 

Ps 43:1 1Render judgment for me, O God; / And plead my cause / Before an unfaithful nation; / From the deceitful and unjust man / Deliver me.
Ps 43:2 For You are the God of my protection. / Why have You rejected me? / Why do I go about mourning / Because of the oppression of the enemy?
Ps 43:3 Send forth Your 1alight and Your btruth; / They will lead me; / They will bring me to Your choly mountain / And to Your dtabernacles.
Ps 43:4 And I will go to the 1aaltar of God, / To God my exceeding joy; / And I will praise You with the harp, / O God, my God.
Ps 43:5 aWhy are you cast down, O my soul? / And why are you disquieted within me? / Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, / The salvation of my countenance and my God.
PSALM 44

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

To the choir director. aOf the sons of Korah. A *Maschil
Ps 44:1 1O God, we have heard with our ears; / Our fathers have recounted it to us, / The awork You did in their days, / In the days of old.
Ps 44:2 You, by Your hand, / Have adispossessed nations, but You have bplanted 1our fathers; / You afflicted peoples, but You spread 1our fathers forth.
Ps 44:3 For they did not possess the land by their sword, / Nor did their arm save them; / Rather it was Your aright hand and Your arm, / And the light of Your bcountenance; / For You delighted in them.
Ps 44:4 You are my aKing, O God; / Command salvation for Jacob.
Ps 44:5 Through You we thrust back our adversaries; / Through Your name we trample those who rise up against us.
Ps 44:6 For I will not trust in my bow, / Nor will my sword save me.
Ps 44:7 But You save us from our adversaries, / And You put to shame those who hate us.
Ps 44:8 In God we aboast all day long, / And we praise Your name forever. Selah
Ps 44:9 1Nevertheless You have rejected us and humiliated us, / And You have not gone forth with our armies.
Ps 44:10 You have caused us to turn back from the adversary, / And those who hate us take spoil for themselves.
Ps 44:11 You have given us over like asheep to be eaten / And have bscattered us among the nations.
Ps 44:12 You have asold Your people for nothing / And have not gone high on their price.
Ps 44:13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, / A mocking and a derision to those around us.
Ps 44:14 You have made us a aproverb among the nations, / Something to shake the head at among the peoples.
Ps 44:15 All day long my humiliation is before me, / And the shame of my face covers me,
Ps 44:16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, / Because of the presence of the enemy and of him who avenges himself.
Ps 44:17 All this has come upon us; but we have 1not forgotten You, / Nor have we been false to Your covenant.
Ps 44:18 Our heart has not turned back, / Nor have our steps deviated from Your way;
Ps 44:19 But You have crushed us in the place of jackals / And have covered us with the shadow of death.
Ps 44:20 If we have forgotten the name of our God / Or spread out our hands to a strange god,
Ps 44:21 Will God not search this out? / For He aknows the hidden things of the heart.
Ps 44:22 But afor Your sake we are slain all day long; / We are considered as bsheep for slaughter.
Ps 44:23 Awake! Why are You sleeping, O 1Lord? / Arise! Do not reject us forever.
Ps 44:24 Why do You hide Your face / And forget our affliction and our oppression?
Ps 44:25 For our soul bows down to the dust; / Our body clings to the earth.
Ps 44:26 Rise up; be our help, / And redeem us for Your lovingkindness’ sake.
PSALM 45

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

To the choir director: according to *Shoshannim. aOf the sons of Korah. A *Maschil; a song of *love
Ps 45:1 My heart aoverflows with a good matter; / I speak what I have composed concerning the 1bKing. / My 2ctongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Ps 45:2 You are 1afairer than the sons of men; / bGrace is poured upon Your lips; / Therefore God has cblessed You forever.
Ps 45:3 Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One, / In Your 1majesty and Your 1splendor.
Ps 45:4 And in Your splendor ride on 1victoriously / Because of truth and 2ameekness and righteousness; / And let Your right hand 3teach You 4awesome deeds.
Ps 45:5 Your arrows are sharp: / The peoples fall under You; / The arrows are in the heart of the King’s enemies.
Ps 45:6 aYour bthrone, O 1God, is forever and ever; / The 2scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your 3kingdom.
Ps 45:7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; / Therefore God, 1Your God, has aanointed You / With the 2oil of gladness above Your 2companions.
Ps 45:8 All Your 1garments smell of amyrrh and aloes, of cassia; / From 2palaces of ivory, harpstrings have made You glad.
Ps 45:9 1The 2daughters of kings are among Your most prized; / The 3queen stands at Your right hand in the 4gold of Ophir.
Ps 45:10 Hear, O 1daughter, and see; and incline your ear; / And aforget your people and your father’s house;
Ps 45:11 Thus the King will desire your 1beauty. / Because He is your 2Lord, / Worship Him.
Ps 45:12 And the 1daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; / The 1rich among the people will entreat your favor.
Ps 45:13 The king’s 1daughter is all glorious within the royal abode; / Her agarment is a 2woven work inwrought with gold.
Ps 45:14 She will be led to the King in 1embroidered clothing; / The 2avirgins behind her, her 2companions, / Will be brought to You.
Ps 45:15 They will be led with rejoicing and exultation; / They will aenter the King’s 1palace.
Ps 45:16 In the place of Your 1fathers will be Your 1sons; / You will make them 1aprinces in all the earth.
Ps 45:17 I will cause Your 1aname to be remembered in all generations; / Therefore the peoples will praise You forever and ever.
PSALM 46

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

To the choir director. aOf the sons of Korah. According to *alamoth. A Song
Ps 46:1 1God is our arefuge and strength; / A help in distress, He is most readily found.
Ps 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, / Though the earth change, / And the amountains slip into the heart of the seas;
Ps 46:3 Though the waters of the sea roar and foam; / Though the mountains shake at its swelling. Selah
Ps 46:4 There is a 1ariver whose streams gladden the 2bcity of God, / The holy place of the ctabernacles of the Most High.
Ps 46:5 God is in the amidst of her; she will 1not be moved; / God helps her at the dawn of the morning.
Ps 46:6 The nations rage; the kingdoms are moved. / He utters His voice; the earth melts.
Ps 46:7 Jehovah of hosts is with us; / The God of Jacob is our ahigh retreat. Selah
Ps 46:8 Come, see the works of Jehovah, / How He has made desolations on earth.
Ps 46:9 He makes awars cease unto the end of the earth; / He breaks the bow and cuts the spear to pieces; / He burns the war wagons with fire.
Ps 46:10 1Be astill and know that I am God. / I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted on earth.
Ps 46:11 Jehovah of hosts is with us; / The God of Jacob is our high retreat. Selah
PSALM 47

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

To the choir director. aOf the sons of Korah. A Psalm
Ps 47:1 Clap your hands, all you peoples; / Shout to God with the voice of a triumphant sound.
Ps 47:2 For Jehovah Most High is awesome: / A great 1aKing over all the earth.
Ps 47:3 He subdues peoples under us, / And nations under our afeet.
Ps 47:4 He chose our inheritance for us, / The excellency of Jacob, whom He loved. Selah
Ps 47:5 God ascends amidst shouting; / Jehovah, at the sound of a trumpet.
Ps 47:6 Sing psalms to God, sing psalms; / Sing psalms to our aKing, sing psalms.
Ps 47:7 For God is the King of all the earth; / Sing psalms with aunderstanding.
Ps 47:8 God reigns over the nations; / God asits upon His holy throne.
Ps 47:9 The princes of the peoples have been gathered / As the people of the God of Abraham; / For the shields of the earth belong to God; / He is greatly exalted.
PSALM 48

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

A Song; a aPsalm of the sons of Korah
Ps 48:1 1aGreat is Jehovah, / And much to be praised / In the 2bcity of our God, / In His choly 2mountain.
Ps 48:2 aBeautiful in elevation, / The joy of the whole earth, / Is Mount 1bZion, the csides of the north, / The dcity of the great King.
Ps 48:3 God has made Himself known / In her 1palaces as a ahigh retreat.
Ps 48:4 For, behold, the kings have assembled themselves; / They passed by together.
Ps 48:5 They saw; therefore they were astounded. / They were dismayed; they hurried off in alarm.
Ps 48:6 Trembling seized them there; / Writhing, like that of a woman in labor;
Ps 48:7 With an east wind You shattered / The ships of Tarshish.
Ps 48:8 As we have heard, / So we have seen / In the city of Jehovah of hosts, / In the city of our God. / God will aestablish her forever. Selah
Ps 48:9 We consider, O God, Your lovingkindness / In the midst of Your temple.
Ps 48:10 As Your aname is, O God, / So is Your praise / Unto the ends of the earth; / Your right hand is full of righteousness.
Ps 48:11 Let Mount aZion brejoice; / Let the daughters of Judah exult / Because of Your judgments.
Ps 48:12 Walk about aZion, and go around her; / Count her 1towers.
Ps 48:13 Consider carefully her abulwarks; / Pass between her palaces; / That you may recount it to the bgeneration following.
Ps 48:14 For this God is our God forever and ever. / He will 1aguide us even unto death.
PSALM 49

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

To the choir director. aOf the sons of Korah. A Psalm
Ps 49:1 1Hear this, all you peoples; / Give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,
Ps 49:2 Both low and high, / Rich and poor together;
Ps 49:3 My mouth will speak wisdom, / And the 1meditation of my heart will be that of understanding.
Ps 49:4 I will incline my ear to a parable; / I will disclose my riddle upon the harp.
Ps 49:5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, / When the iniquity of those who supplant me surrounds me,
Ps 49:6 Those who atrust in their 1wealth / And boast in the multitude of their 1riches?
Ps 49:7 None can by any means redeem his brother / Or give to God 1a ransom for him
Ps 49:8 (For the redemption of their asoul is costly / And must be given up forever),
Ps 49:9 That he would yet alive always / And not see bcorruption.
Ps 49:10 For he will see that wise men die; / The foolish one and the senseless one perish alike / And aleave their wealth to others.
Ps 49:11 Their inward thought is that their houses will remain forever, / That their habitations will remain from generation to generation; / They call lands after their own names.
Ps 49:12 But man in honor does not remain; / He is like the beasts that perish.
Ps 49:13 Such is the way of those who are 1self-confident, / And of those after them who approve of their sayings. Selah
Ps 49:14 Like a flock, they are appointed for Sheol; / Death will shepherd them. / 1And straight to the grave they will descend, / And their form will be for Sheol to consume / That there be no abode for them.
Ps 49:15 But God will redeem my soul / From the power of Sheol, / For He will receive me. Selah
Ps 49:16 Do not fear when a man becomes rich, / When the glory of his house increases.
Ps 49:17 For when he dies, he will atake nothing; / His glory will not descend after him.
Ps 49:18 Though he ablessed his soul while he lived — / And men praise you when you do good for yourself —
Ps 49:19 1It will go to the generation of his fathers; / They will never see light.
Ps 49:20 A man in honor but without understanding / Is like the beasts that perish.
PSALM 50

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

A aPsalm of Asaph
Ps 50:1 The aMighty One, God Jehovah, / Speaks and summons the earth / From the brising of the sun to its setting.
Ps 50:2 Out of 1aZion, the perfection of bbeauty, / God 2cshines forth.
Ps 50:3 Our God has come and will not be silent; / aFire devours before Him, / And around Him it is exceedingly tempestuous.
Ps 50:4 He calls to the heavens above, / And to the earth that He may ajudge His people:
Ps 50:5 aGather My saints to Me, / Those who have made a 1bcovenant with Me by sacrifice.
Ps 50:6 Then the aheavens declare His righteousness, / For God Himself is Judge. Selah
Ps 50:7 aHear, O My people, and I will speak; / O Israel, and I will btestify 1against you: / I am God, your God.
Ps 50:8 I will not reprove you because of your sacrifices, / And your aburnt offerings are before Me continually.
Ps 50:9 I will not take a bull from your house / Nor goats from your folds,
Ps 50:10 For every animal of the forest is Mine, / The cattle upon a thousand hills.
Ps 50:11 I know every bird of the mountains, / And I am aware of everything that moves in the field.
Ps 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you; / For the world is Mine and the afullness thereof.
Ps 50:13 Shall I eat the flesh of bulls / Or drink the blood of goats?
Ps 50:14 aOffer to God a sacrifice of 1thanksgiving, / And repay your bvows to the Most High;
Ps 50:15 And 1call upon Me in the day of trouble: / I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.
Ps 50:16 But to the wicked God says, / What right do you have to declare My statutes / And take up My covenant in your mouth,
Ps 50:17 Seeing that you hate correction / And cast My words behind you?
Ps 50:18 When you see a thief, you take pleasure in him; / And your portion is with adulterers.
Ps 50:19 You let your mouth loose for evil, / And your tongue frames deceit.
Ps 50:20 You sit and speak against your brother; / You defame the son of your mother.
Ps 50:21 These things you do, and I keep silent; / You think that I am altogether like you. / I will rebuke you and set forth the matter in order before your eyes.
Ps 50:22 Consider this then, you who forget God, / Lest I tear you apart and there be none to deliver you.
Ps 50:23 Whoever offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies Me; / And to him who sets his way right I will show the salvation of God.
PSALM 51

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David, when *bNathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to cBath-sheba
Ps 51:1 1Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; / According to the greatness of Your compassions 2ablot out my transgressions.
Ps 51:2 aWash me thoroughly from my iniquity, / And from my sin cleanse me.
Ps 51:3 For I do know my transgressions, / And my sin is before me continually.
Ps 51:4 Against You and You alone have I asinned, / And I have done what is evil in Your sight. / Therefore You are brighteous when You speak; / You are clear when You judge.
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was 1brought forth in iniquity, / And ain sin did my mother bconceive me.
Ps 51:6 Behold, You delight in truth in the 1ainward parts; / And in the 1bhidden part You would make known wisdom to me.
Ps 51:7 Purge my sin with 1ahyssop, and I will be clean; / Wash me, and I will be bwhiter than snow.
Ps 51:8 Let me hear gladness and joy, / That the bones which You have broken may exult.
Ps 51:9 Hide Your face from my sins, / And ablot out all my iniquities.
Ps 51:10 Create in me a 1aclean heart, O God, / And 2brenew a steadfast spirit within me.
Ps 51:11 Do not cast me from Your 1apresence, / And do not take the 2bSpirit of Your holiness away from me.
Ps 51:12 Restore to me the agladness of Your salvation, / And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Ps 51:13 I will teach transgressors Your ways, / And sinners will turn back to You.
Ps 51:14 Deliver me from the guilt of abloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation; / And my tongue will ring forth Your righteousness.
Ps 51:15 O Lord, open my lips, / And my mouth will declare Your praise.
Ps 51:16 For You do not delight in sacrifice; / Otherwise I would offer it; / You take no pleasure in aburnt offerings.
Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken aspirit; / A broken and a bcontrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Ps 51:18 Do 1good in Your good pleasure unto aZion; / bBuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Ps 51:19 Then You will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, / In burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; / Then they will offer bulls upon Your altar.
PSALM 52

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

To the choir director. A *Maschil aof David, when bDoeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, David has come to the house of Ahimelech
Ps 52:1 1Why do you boast in evil, O mighty one? / God’s lovingkindness endures continually.
Ps 52:2 Your tongue devises destruction; / It is like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
Ps 52:3 You have loved evil rather than good, / Falsehood rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
Ps 52:4 You have loved all the devouring words, / O deceitful tongue.
Ps 52:5 God will likewise 1break you down forever; / He will take you and pluck you up from your tent, / And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
Ps 52:6 And the righteous will see it and fear, / And they will laugh at him, saying,
Ps 52:7 Behold, this is that mighty man / Who did not make God his 1strength, / But atrusted in the multitude of his riches / And strengthened himself in his desire.
Ps 52:8 But I, like a flourishing aolive tree / In the house of God, / Trust in God’s lovingkindness / Forever and ever.
Ps 52:9 I will give You thanks forever, / For You have acted; / And I will hope in Your name in the presence of Your faithful ones, / For it is good.
PSALM 53

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

To the choir director: according to *mahalath. A *Maschil aof David
Ps 53:1 aThe 1fool has said in his heart, / There is no God. / They are corrupt and commit abominable deeds; / bThere is none who does good.
Ps 53:2 God looked down from heaven / Upon the sons of men / To see if there was anyone who had insight, / Who aseeks after God.
Ps 53:3 aAll of them have turned back; / They are together perverse. / There is none who does good; / There is not even one.
Ps 53:4 Have they no knowledge, the workers of iniquity, / Who eat up my people as they would eat up bread / And do not call upon God?
Ps 53:5 There they were in great fear, / Where there was no fear. / For God scattered the abones / Of him who encamped against you. / You put them to shame / Because God has rejected them.
Ps 53:6 Oh that the 1salvation of Israel might come forth from aZion! / When God bturns the captivity of His people, / Jacob will exult, Israel will rejoice.
PSALM 54

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments. A *Maschil aof David, when the bZiphites came and said to Saul, David is indeed hiding among us!
Ps 54:1 O God, 1save me by Your name, / And execute judgment for me by Your might.
Ps 54:2 O God, hear my prayer; / Give ear to the words of my mouth.
Ps 54:3 For strangers have risen up against me, / And those who terrorize seek my life; / They do not aset God before them. Selah
Ps 54:4 Behold, God is my aHelper; / The Lord is among those who sustain my soul.
Ps 54:5 He will return the evil to those who lie in wait for me. / Annihilate them in Your 1faithfulness.
Ps 54:6 I will offer a freewill offering to You; / I will 1praise Your name, O Jehovah, for it is good.
Ps 54:7 For He has delivered me from all distress, / And my eye looks triumphantly upon my enemies.
PSALM 55

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments. A *Maschil aof David
Ps 55:1 1aGive ear, O God, to my prayer; / And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
Ps 55:2 Give heed to me, and answer me. / I grow restless in my complaint and moan,
Ps 55:3 Because of the voice of the enemy, / Because of the oppression of the wicked man; / For they adrop iniquity upon me, / And in anger they make me their enemy.
Ps 55:4 My heart writhes within me, / And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Ps 55:5 Fear and trembling have come upon me, / And shuddering overwhelms me.
Ps 55:6 And I say, Oh that I had awings like a dove! / Then I would fly away and be at rest.
Ps 55:7 Indeed I would wander far away; / I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah
Ps 55:8 I would hasten my escape / From the storm wind and the tempest.
Ps 55:9 Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongue; / For I have seen violence and contention in the city.
Ps 55:10 Day and night they go around it, / Upon its walls; / And iniquity and trouble are in the midst of it.
Ps 55:11 Utter ruin is in the midst of it, / And oppression and deceit / Do not depart from its streets.
Ps 55:12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; / Otherwise I could bear it. / It is not he who hates me who magnifies himself against me; / Otherwise I could hide myself from him.
Ps 55:13 But it is you, 1my equal, / My close afriend and my acquaintance.
Ps 55:14 We were in sweet counsel together; / We walked with the throng in the ahouse of God.
Ps 55:15 1Let death surprise them; / May they go down into Sheol alive. / For evil is in their dwelling, in the midst of them.
Ps 55:16 As for me, I call out to God, / And Jehovah will save me.
Ps 55:17 Evening and morning and at noontime / I complain and moan, / And He hears my voice.
Ps 55:18 He has redeemed my soul in peace / From the battle against me, / For many are they who strive with me.
Ps 55:19 God hears and answers them — / Even He who sits enthroned from of old — Selah / Because with them there is no change, / And they do not fear God.
Ps 55:20 1He put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; / He profaned his covenant.
Ps 55:21 Smooth were the buttery words of his mouth, / But his heart was war; / More soothing than oil were his words, / But they were in fact drawn swords.
Ps 55:22 aCast your burden upon Jehovah, / And He will sustain you; / He will never allow the righteous to be moved.
Ps 55:23 But You, O God, will bring them down / Into the pit of decay.
Men of bloodshed and deceit / Will not live out half their days; / But I will trust in You.
PSALM 56

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director: according to the *dove on the distant terebinths. aOf David. A *Michtam, when the bPhilistines seized him in Gath
Ps 56:1 1Be gracious to me, O God; for man tramples me; / All day long he, fighting, oppresses me.
Ps 56:2 Those who lie in wait for me trample me all day long, / For many are those who arrogantly fight against me.
Ps 56:3 When I am afraid, / I trust in You.
Ps 56:4 In God, whose word I praise, / aIn God do I trust, and I will not be bafraid. / What can flesh do to me?
Ps 56:5 All day long they wrest my words; / All their thoughts are against me for evil.
Ps 56:6 They gather themselves; they lurk; / They awatch my steps, / As they have waited to take my life.
Ps 56:7 Will there be deliverance for them in spite of their iniquity? / In anger cast down the peoples, O God.
Ps 56:8 You have counted my wanderings. / Put my tears into Your bottle. / Are they not in Your abook?
Ps 56:9 Then my enemies will turn back / When I call; / This I know, / That God is for me.
Ps 56:10 In God, whose word I praise, / In Jehovah, whose word I praise,
Ps 56:11 aIn God do I trust; I will not be afraid. / What can man do to me?
Ps 56:12 Your vows, O God, are on me; / I will render thank offerings to You.
Ps 56:13 aFor You have delivered my soul from death, / Indeed, my feet from stumbling, / That I may walk before God / In the blight of the living.
PSALM 57

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

To the choir director: *Do not destroy. aOf David. A *Michtam, when he fled from Saul, in the bcave
Ps 57:1 1Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me; / For my soul atakes refuge in You; / Indeed in the shadow of Your bwings I will take refuge, / Until the destruction passes by.
Ps 57:2 I call out to God the aMost High, / To the God who accomplishes all things for me.
Ps 57:3 He sends forth from heaven and saves me; / He reproaches him who would trample me; Selah / God sends forth / His lovingkindness and His 1faithfulness.
Ps 57:4 My soul is among lions; / I lie down among those who blaze forth, the sons of men, / Whose teeth are spears and arrows, / And whose tongue is a sharp sword.
Ps 57:5 aBe exalted above the heavens, O God; / Let Your glory be above all the earth.
Ps 57:6 They have prepared a net for my steps; / My soul is bowed down. / They have dug a pit before me; / They have fallen into it themselves. Selah
Ps 57:7 My heart is steadfast, O God; / aMy heart is steadfast. / I will sing, indeed I will sing psalms.
Ps 57:8 Awake, my aglory; / Awake, O harp and lyre! / I will awaken the dawn.
Ps 57:9 aI will give thanks to You among the peoples, O Lord; / I will sing psalms to You among the nations.
Ps 57:10 For Your alovingkindness is as great as the heavens; / And Your faithfulness reaches unto the skies.
Ps 57:11 aBe exalted above the heavens, O God; / Let Your glory be above all the earth.
PSALM 58

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

To the choir director: *Do not destroy. aOf David. A *Michtam
Ps 58:1 1Do you indeed, O 2judges, speak righteousness? / Do you judge in uprightness, O sons of men?
Ps 58:2 No, in heart you perform injustice; / You weigh out the violence of your hands on earth.
Ps 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; / They err from their birth, speaking lies.
Ps 58:4 Their venom is like the venom of a serpent; / They are like the deaf cobra that has shut its ear,
Ps 58:5 Which does not hear the sound of the charmers / Or the wise spellbinder.
Ps 58:6 O God, break their teeth in their mouth; / Break off the fangs of the young lions, O Jehovah.
Ps 58:7 Let them melt like water that runs off. / When he shoots his arrows, / Let them be as though they were cut off.
Ps 58:8 Let them be like a snail that melts and goes away, / Like a woman’s miscarriage, which by no means sees the sun.
Ps 58:9 Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, / Whether green or burning, He will sweep them away.
Ps 58:10 The righteous man will rejoice when he sees vengeance; / He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Ps 58:11 And men will say, Indeed there is fruit for the righteous man; / Indeed there is a God who ajudges on earth.
PSALM 59

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

To the choir director: *Do not destroy. aOf David. A *Michtam, when Saul sent men, and they bwatched the house in order to kill him
Ps 59:1 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; / Set me on high, secure from those who rise up against me.
Ps 59:2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, / And save me from men of bloodshed.
Ps 59:3 For behold, they lie in wait for my soul; / The strong gather themselves against me. / Not because of any transgression of mine nor because of any sin of mine, O Jehovah,
Ps 59:4 Not for any fault of mine, they run and ready themselves; / Awake to meet me, and see.
Ps 59:5 Indeed You, O Jehovah, God of hosts, God of Israel, / Arise to punish all the nations; / Have no mercy upon any who treacherously commit iniquity. Selah
Ps 59:6 They return in the evening; / They growl like a dog / And go around the city.
Ps 59:7 Behold, they belch forth with their mouth; / Swords are in their lips; / For, Who, they say, hears?
Ps 59:8 But You, O Jehovah, alaugh at them; / You have all the nations in derision.
Ps 59:9 O 1my strength, I will watch for You; / For God is my ahigh retreat.
Ps 59:10 My God in His lovingkindness will meet me; / God will let me look triumphantly upon those who lie in wait for me.
Ps 59:11 Do not slay them, lest my people forget; / Scatter them by Your power, and bring them down, / O Lord our shield.
Ps 59:12 For the sin of their mouth, / For the word of their lips, / Let them even be taken in their arrogance, / And because of the cursing and the lying that they speak.
Ps 59:13 Consume them in wrath; consume them so that they are no more; / And men will know that God rules in Jacob / Unto the ends of the earth. Selah
Ps 59:14 They return in the evening; / They growl like a dog / And go around the city.
Ps 59:15 They wander about for food; / And if they are not filled, they 1linger.
Ps 59:16 1But I will sing of Your strength; / And I will joyfully sing of Your alovingkindness in the morning. / For You have been my bhigh retreat / And a crefuge in the day of my distress.
Ps 59:17 O my strength, unto You I will sing psalms, / For God is my high retreat, / My God of lovingkindness.
PSALM 60

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

To the choir director: according to the *lily of the testimony. A *Michtam aof David, for instruction, when he struggled with bAram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned and struck twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt
Ps 60:1 O God, You have rejected us; You have broken out upon us; / You have been angry. Restore us.
Ps 60:2 You have caused the earth to quake; You have split it open. / Heal the breaks in it, for it totters.
Ps 60:3 You have shown Your people hard things; / You have made us drink wine to stagger us.
Ps 60:4 You have given a abanner to those who fear You, / To be displayed because of the truth. Selah
Ps 60:5 aThat Your beloved ones may be delivered, / Save with Your right hand, and answer 1us.
Ps 60:6 God has spoken in His 1aholiness: I will exult; / I will divide Shechem / And measure out the Valley of Succoth.
Ps 60:7 Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine, / And Ephraim is the helmet for My head; / Judah is My ascepter.
Ps 60:8 aMoab is My washbowl; / Upon bEdom I will cast My sandal; / Philistia, shout aloud because of Me.
Ps 60:9 Who will bring me into the besieged city? / Who will lead me to Edom?
Ps 60:10 Will not You, O God, who arejected us / And who did not go forth, O God, with our armies?
Ps 60:11 Give us help from the adversary, / For a salvation by man is vain.
Ps 60:12 In God we will do valiantly, / And it is He who will atread down our adversaries.
PSALM 61

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments. aOf David
Ps 61:1 Hear, O God, my cry; / Give heed to my prayer.
Ps 61:2 From the end of the earth / I will call out unto You / When my heart faints; / Lead me to the arock that is higher than I.
Ps 61:3 For You are a arefuge to me, / A strong tower before the enemy.
Ps 61:4 Let me sojourn in Your atent forever; / Let me take brefuge in the covering of Your cwings. Selah
Ps 61:5 For You, O God, have heard my vows; / You have given me the inheritance of those who fear Your name.
Ps 61:6 You will add adays to the days of the king; / May his years be like generation after generation.
Ps 61:7 May he dwell forever before God; / Appoint lovingkindness and 1faithfulness, that they may preserve him.
Ps 61:8 So I will sing psalms to Your name forever, / As I 1repay my vows day by day.
PSALM 62

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

To the choir director, to Jeduthun. A aPsalm of David
Ps 62:1 My soul waits in silence for God alone; / My salvation is from Him.
Ps 62:2 He alone is my arock and my salvation, / My bhigh retreat; I will not be greatly shaken.
Ps 62:3 How long will you assail a man / So that you may slay him, all of you, / Like a leaning wall or a tottering fence?
Ps 62:4 They only make plans to thrust him down from his dignity; / They take delight in lies; / With their mouth they bless, / But inwardly they curse. Selah
Ps 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God alone, / For my expectation is from Him.
Ps 62:6 He alone is my arock and my salvation, / My bhigh retreat; I will not be shaken.
Ps 62:7 On God my salvation and my glory depend; / The arock of my strength, my brefuge, is in God.
Ps 62:8 Trust in Him at all times, O people; / aPour out your heart before Him; / God is a brefuge to us. Selah
Ps 62:9 Men of low degree are but a vapor; / Men of high degree, a lie. / In the balances they go up; / Together they are less than a avapor.
Ps 62:10 Do not trust in oppression, / And do not vainly hope in robbery; / If wealth increases, / Do not set your heart on it.
Ps 62:11 Once has God spoken; / Twice have I heard this, / That strength belongs to God.
Ps 62:12 To You also, O Lord, belongs lovingkindness; / For You arepay every man according to his work.
PSALM 63

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

A aPsalm of David, when he was in the bwilderness of Judah
Ps 63:1 O God, You are my God; I seek You diligently. / My soul athirsts for You, / My flesh faints in longing for You, / In a dry and weary land without water.
Ps 63:2 So I have looked upon You in the asanctuary, / Seeing Your power and Your glory.
Ps 63:3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, / My lips praise You.
Ps 63:4 Thus I bless You while I live; / I alift up my hands in Your name.
Ps 63:5 My soul is asatisfied as with the rich fatness, / And my mouth praises You with lips of joyous shouting,
Ps 63:6 When I remember You while on my bed, / When I consider You in the night watches.
Ps 63:7 For You have been my help, / And in the shadow of Your awings I will shout for joy.
Ps 63:8 My soul pursues after You; / Your right hand upholds me.
Ps 63:9 But those who seek my 1life to destroy it / Will go into the alower parts of the earth;
Ps 63:10 They will be given over to the power of the sword; / They will be the portion of foxes.
Ps 63:11 But the king will rejoice in God; / Everyone who swears by Him will boast; / For the mouth of those who speak falsehood will be stopped.
PSALM 64

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 64:1 Hear, O God, my voice in my complaint; / Preserve my life from the enemy’s dread.
Ps 64:2 Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers, / From the throng of the workers of iniquity,
Ps 64:3 Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword, / Who have aimed their arrow, their bitter word,
Ps 64:4 To shoot in secret places at the 1perfect man. / They shoot suddenly at him and do not fear.
Ps 64:5 They firm up for themselves an evil matter; / They talk of laying snares secretly; / They say, Who will see them?
Ps 64:6 They seek out injustices, saying: / We have completed a carefully sought-out plan. / Indeed each man’s inward thought / And heart are deep.
Ps 64:7 But God will shoot an arrow at them; / Suddenly they are wounded.
Ps 64:8 They are made to stumble over each other by their own tongue; / All who see them shake their heads.
Ps 64:9 And all men will fear / And declare what has been done by God, / And they will ponder His work.
Ps 64:10 The righteous man will rejoice in Jehovah and atake refuge in Him, / And all the upright in heart will boast.
PSALM 65

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David; a Song
Ps 65:1 Praise befits You, O God, in aZion; / And to You is the vow paid.
Ps 65:2 O You who ahear prayer, / To You all bflesh comes.
Ps 65:3 Iniquities prevail against me; / As for our transgressions, You make apropitiation for them.
Ps 65:4 Blessed is he whom You have achosen and bring bnear / To cdwell in Your courts. / We will be dsatisfied with the goodness of Your house, / Of Your holy temple.
Ps 65:5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, / O aGod of our salvation, / You who are the trust of all the bends of the earth / And of the remotest sea;
Ps 65:6 Who established the mountains in His strength, / Girded with might;
Ps 65:7 Who astilled the roaring of the seas, / The roaring of their billows, / And the tumult of the peoples.
Ps 65:8 And they who dwell in the uttermost parts / Are afraid of Your signs; / You make the exitways of the morning and the evening / Shout for joy.
Ps 65:9 You visit the earth and awater it; / You enrich it greatly: / The briver of God is full of water. / You provide 1men grain, for so You have prepared 2the earth.
Ps 65:10 Saturating its furrows, settling its ridges, / You soften it with ashowers; / You bless its sprouting forth.
Ps 65:11 You place a crown on a year with Your goodness, / And Your wagon tracks drop fatness;
Ps 65:12 The wilderness pastures overflow, / And the hills gird themselves with exultation.
Ps 65:13 The meadows are clothed with the flock, / And the valleys cover themselves in grain; / They shout for joy; indeed they asing.
PSALM 66

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

To the choir director. A Song; a Psalm
Ps 66:1 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
Ps 66:2 1Sing forth the glory of His name; / Make glorious His praise.
Ps 66:3 Say to God, How awesome are Your deeds! / Because of the greatness of Your strength, Your enemies come cringing to You.
Ps 66:4 All the earth will aworship You / And sing psalms to You; / They will sing psalms to Your name. Selah
Ps 66:5 Come and see the works of God; / He is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men.
Ps 66:6 He turned the sea into adry land; / Through the river they crossed on foot. / There we rejoiced in Him.
Ps 66:7 He rules by His amight forever; / His eyes observe the nations: / Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
Ps 66:8 Bless our God, O peoples; / And make the voice of His praise heard,
Ps 66:9 Who has kept our soul in life / And does not allow our feet to slip.
Ps 66:10 For You have atried us, O God; / You have brefined us as silver is refined.
Ps 66:11 You have brought us into the net; / You have put a heavy burden on our loins.
Ps 66:12 You have made men ride over our heads; / We have gone through afire and water; / But You have brought us forth into abundance.
Ps 66:13 I will come into Your house with burnt offerings; / I will pay my vows to You,
Ps 66:14 Which my lips uttered / And my mouth spoke when I was in distress.
Ps 66:15 I will offer to You burnt offerings of fatlings / With the smoke of rams; / I will offer cattle with goats. Selah
Ps 66:16 Come, hear, all you who fear God, / And I will recount what He has done for my soul.
Ps 66:17 To Him I called out with my mouth, / And 1He was extolled with my tongue.
Ps 66:18 If I regarded iniquity in my heart, / The Lord did anot hear.
Ps 66:19 But indeed God has heard; / He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.
Ps 66:20 Blessed be God, / Who has not turned my prayer away / Nor His lovingkindness from me.
PSALM 67

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments. A Psalm; a Song
Ps 67:1 God be gracious to us and bless us; / May He make His face ashine upon us; Selah
Ps 67:2 That Your way may be known on earth, / And Your salvation among all the nations.
Ps 67:3 Let the peoples praise You, O God; / Let the peoples praise You, all of them.
Ps 67:4 Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, / For You will judge the peoples equitably / And will guide the nations on the earth. Selah
Ps 67:5 Let the peoples praise You, O God; / Let the peoples praise You, all of them.
Ps 67:6 The earth has yielded its increase; / God, our God, blesses us.
Ps 67:7 God blesses us; / And all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
PSALM 68

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

To the choir director. aOf David. A Psalm; a Song
Ps 68:1 1Let God aarise; let His 2enemies be scattered; / And let those who hate Him flee before Him.
Ps 68:2 As smoke is driven away, You will drive them away; / As wax melts before fire, / The wicked will perish abefore God.
Ps 68:3 But the righteous will rejoice; they will exult before God / And be glad with rejoicing.
Ps 68:4 Sing to God; sing psalms to His name; / 1Triumph in Him who rides through the adeserts — / For 2bJah is His name — and 1exult before Him.
Ps 68:5 A Father to the 1orphans and a Judge for the widows / Is God in His holy ahabitation.
Ps 68:6 God causes the solitary to dwell in a household; / He brings the prisoners forth into prosperity; / But the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
Ps 68:7 aO God, when You went forth bbefore Your people, / When You marched through the desert, Selah
Ps 68:8 The earth atrembled, the heavens also dripped, / At the presence of God; / Sinai there quaked / At the presence of God, the God of Israel.
Ps 68:9 You shed forth bountiful arain, O God; / You confirmed Your inheritance when it languished.
Ps 68:10 Your living flock dwelt in 1the land; / In Your goodness You provided for the poor, O God.
Ps 68:11 The Lord gives the command; / The 1awomen who 2bear the bglad tidings are a great host.
Ps 68:12 The 1kings of the armies flee. / They flee! / And 2she who 3abides at home / aDivides the 4spoil.
Ps 68:13 Though you 1lie among the sheepfolds, / There are 2dove wings covered with asilver, / And its pinions, with greenish-yellow gold.
Ps 68:14 When the 1Almighty scattered / The 2akings in 3the land, / It snowed on Zalmon.
Ps 68:15 O 1mighty mountain, O mountain of Bashan, / O many-peaked mountain, O mountain of Bashan:
Ps 68:16 Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountains, / At the 1amountain on which God desires to dwell? / Indeed Jehovah will dwell there forever.
Ps 68:17 The achariots of God are twenty thousand, / Thousands upon thousands; / The Lord is among them, / As at bSinai, in the sanctuary.
Ps 68:18 You have 1aascended on high; You have led captive 2those taken captive; / You have received 3gifts among men, / Even the rebellious ones also, / That 4Jehovah God may 5dwell among them.
Ps 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who day by day 1loads us with 2good; / God is our salvation. Selah
Ps 68:20 God is to us / A God of deliverance, / And with Jehovah the Lord / Are the 1goings forth even from adeath.
Ps 68:21 Indeed God will 1smash / The ahead of His enemies, / The hairy crown / Of him who goes about in his guiltiness.
Ps 68:22 The Lord said, I will bring them again from Bashan; / I will bring them again from the depths of the sea,
Ps 68:23 That you may 1bathe your foot in blood, / That the tongue of your dogs may have their portion from the enemies.
Ps 68:24 1They have seen Your 1goings, O God, / The goings of my God, my aKing, in the 1sanctuary:
Ps 68:25 Singers go before; players after; / In the midst of 1virgins sounding the tambourines.
Ps 68:26 Bless God in the congregations, / Even 1Jehovah, O you who are of the afountain of Israel.
Ps 68:27 There are little 1aBenjamin, who rules them, / And the princes of 2bJudah in their company, / The princes of 3cZebulun, the princes of 4dNaphtali.
Ps 68:28 Your God has commanded your strength; / 1Strengthen, O God, that which You have done for us.
Ps 68:29 Because of Your temple at Jerusalem, / 1Kings will bring a agift to You.
Ps 68:30 Rebuke the 1animals of the reeds, / The herd of the bulls among the calves of the peoples, / Trampling on those who lust after silver; / Scatter the 2peoples who take delight in war.
Ps 68:31 Nobles will come out of aEgypt; / 1bCush will quickly stretch out its hands to God.
Ps 68:32 O akingdoms of the bearth, / Sing to God, / Sing psalms to the Lord, Selah
Ps 68:33 To Him who rides upon the ancient aheaven of heavens. / Behold, He utters His voice, a mighty voice.
Ps 68:34 Ascribe strength to God; / His excellence is over Israel, / And His strength is in the skies.
Ps 68:35 You are awesome, O God, from Your sanctuaries. / The God of Israel, He gives strength and power to the people. / Blessed be God!
PSALM 69

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

To the choir director: according to *Shoshannim. aOf David
Ps 69:1 1Save me, O God; for the waters / Threaten my life.
Ps 69:2 I sink in deep mire, / And there is no place to stand; / I have come to the depths of water, / And the flood flows over me.
Ps 69:3 I am weary of my crying; / My throat is parched; / My eyes fail / While I wait for my God.
Ps 69:4 More numerous than the hairs of my head / Are those who ahate me without cause; / Mighty are those who would destroy me, / Those who are wrongly my enemies. / What I did not steal, / I must then restore.
Ps 69:5 O God, You know my foolishness, / And my sins of guilt are not hidden from You.
Ps 69:6 Do not let those who wait on You be put to shame because of me, / O Lord Jehovah of hosts; / Do not let those who seek You be humiliated because of me, / O God of Israel.
Ps 69:7 Because for Your sake I have borne areproach; / Humiliation has covered my face.
Ps 69:8 I have become a stranger to my abrothers, / And a foreigner to my mother’s children.
Ps 69:9 For the azeal of Your house has devoured me, / And the breproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
Ps 69:10 When I awept, when my soul was in fasting, / That became a reproach to me.
Ps 69:11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, / I became a aproverb to them.
Ps 69:12 Those who sit in the gate atalk about me, / And I am the mocking song of those who drink liquor.
Ps 69:13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, / O Jehovah, in an aacceptable time; / O God, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness answer me, / In the faithfulness of Your salvation.
Ps 69:14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; / May I be delivered from those who hate me, / And out of the depths of water.
Ps 69:15 Do not let the flood of water flow over me, / Nor let the deep swallow me, / Nor let the pit close its mouth over me.
Ps 69:16 Answer me, O Jehovah; for Your lovingkindness is good; / According to the abundance of Your compassions turn to me.
Ps 69:17 And do not hide Your face from Your servant, / For I am in distress; hurry and answer me.
Ps 69:18 Draw near to my soul; redeem it; / Ransom me because of my enemies.
Ps 69:19 You know my areproach / And my shame and my humiliation; / All my adversaries are before You.
Ps 69:20 Reproach has broken my heart, / And I am sick; / I looked for pity, but there was none; / And for comforters, but I found anone.
Ps 69:21 But they gave me agall for my food, / And for my bthirst they gave me cvinegar to drink.
Ps 69:22 1aMay their table become a snare before them / And a trap when they are at peace.
Ps 69:23 May their eyes be darkened so that they cannot asee; / And make their loins shake continually.
Ps 69:24 Pour out Your indignation upon them; / And may the burning fierceness of Your anger overtake them.
Ps 69:25 aMay their camp be desolate; / May there be no one to dwell in their tents.
Ps 69:26 For they persecute him whom You have astricken, / And they recount the pain of those whom You have wounded.
Ps 69:27 Add iniquity to their iniquity, / And do not let them come into Your righteousness.
Ps 69:28 May they be blotted out of the abook of life, / And may they not be written with the righteous.
Ps 69:29 But I am poor and pained; / May Your salvation, O God, set me on high.
Ps 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song / And will amagnify Him with thanksgiving;
Ps 69:31 And it will be better to Jehovah than an ox / Or a bull with horns and hooves.
Ps 69:32 The meek have seen it; they rejoice. / You who seek God, let your heart revive.
Ps 69:33 For Jehovah listens to the needy, / And He does not despise His prisoners.
Ps 69:34 aLet the heavens and the earth praise Him, / The seas and everything that moves in them.
Ps 69:35 For God will save aZion / And build the cities of Judah; / And they will abide there and possess it.
Ps 69:36 And the seed of His servants will inherit it, / And those who love His name will dwell in it.
PSALM 70

vv. 1 • • • 5 

To the choir director. aOf David, for remembrance
Ps 70:1 aO God, hasten to deliver me; / O Jehovah, hasten to help me.
Ps 70:2 aMay those who seek my life / Be put to shame and confounded; / May those who take delight in my misfortune / Be turned back and humiliated;
Ps 70:3 May those who say, Aha! Aha! / Turn away because of their shame;
Ps 70:4 May all those who seek You / Be glad and rejoice in You; / And may those who love Your salvation / Say continually, / May God be magnified!
Ps 70:5 But I am poor and needy; / O God, hasten to me. / You are my help and my Deliverer; / O Jehovah, do not delay.
PSALM 71

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

Ps 71:1 aIn You, O Jehovah, do I btake refuge; / Never let me be put to shame.
Ps 71:2 In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; / Incline Your ear to me and save me.
Ps 71:3 Be to me a arock of habitation for me to come to continually. / You have given command to save me, / For You are my rock and my bfortress.
Ps 71:4 My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked, / From the hand of the unjust and cruel;
Ps 71:5 For You are my hope, O Lord Jehovah, / My trust from my youth.
Ps 71:6 On You I have been sustained since abirth; / It was You who took me from my mother’s bwomb; / My praise is continually of You.
Ps 71:7 I am like a wonder to many, / But You are my strong arefuge.
Ps 71:8 My mouth is filled with Your praise, / With Your 1glory, all day long.
Ps 71:9 Do not cast me off in the time of aold age; / When my strength fails, do not forsake me.
Ps 71:10 For my enemies speak concerning me, / And those who watch for my soul take acounsel together,
Ps 71:11 Saying, God has forsaken him; / Pursue and lay hold of him, for there is no one to deliver him.
Ps 71:12 O God, do not be far away from me; / My God, hasten to help me.
Ps 71:13 May those who are the adversaries to my soul / Be put to shame and consumed; / May those who seek my misfortune / Wrap themselves in reproach and humiliation.
Ps 71:14 But I will hope continually / And will add yet more to all Your praise.
Ps 71:15 My mouth will recount Your righteousness, / Your salvation, all day long; / For I do not know its full numbers.
Ps 71:16 I will come with the proof of the mighty acts of the Lord Jehovah; / I will remind men of Your righteousness, Yours alone.
Ps 71:17 O God, You have taught me from my youth; / And until now I have declared Your wondrous deeds.
Ps 71:18 So even into my aold age and grayheadedness, / O God, do not forsake me, / Until I have declared Your strength / Unto the next generation, / Your might unto everyone who is to come.
Ps 71:19 And Your righteousness, O God, is so high, / You who have done agreat things. / O God, bwho is like You?
Ps 71:20 You who have shown 1me / Many great troubles / Will arevive 1me again / And bring 1me up again / From the depths of the earth.
Ps 71:21 You will increase my greatness / And will turn and comfort me.
Ps 71:22 I will also praise You with the harp, / I will praise Your 1faithfulness, my God; / I will sing psalms to You with the lyre, / O Holy One of Israel.
Ps 71:23 My lips will give a ringing shout / When I sing psalms to You, / And my soul, which You have redeemed.
Ps 71:24 My tongue also will declare / Your righteousness all day long; / For they are put to shame, for they are confounded, / They who seek my misfortune.
PSALM 72

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

aOf Solomon
Ps 72:1 O God, give Your judgments to the 1king, / And Your righteousness to the son of the king.
Ps 72:2 He will judge Your people in 1arighteousness, / And Your poor with 1justice.
Ps 72:3 The mountains will bear apeace to the people, / And the hills, in righteousness.
Ps 72:4 He will judge the poor of the people; / He will save the children of the needy / And crush the oppressor.
Ps 72:5 They will fear You as long as the sun endures / And as long as the moon endures / Throughout the generations.
Ps 72:6 He will 1drop like rain upon mown grass, / Like abundant ashowers dripping on the earth.
Ps 72:7 In His days the righteous will flourish, / And there will be an abundance of peace / Until the amoon is no more.
Ps 72:8 And He will have adominion from sea to sea / And from the 1bRiver unto the ends of the earth.
Ps 72:9 The desert dwellers will bow down before Him, / And His enemies will lick the dust.
Ps 72:10 The kings of Tarshish and of the 1coastlands / Will pay tribute; / The kings of Sheba and Seba / Will present agifts.
Ps 72:11 And all the akings will bow down before Him; / All the nations will serve Him.
Ps 72:12 For He will deliver the needy man when he cries, / And the poor man who has no one to help him.
Ps 72:13 He will have pity on the weak and needy, / And the souls of the needy He will save.
Ps 72:14 From oppression and violence / He will redeem their soul, / And their blood will be aprecious in His sight.
Ps 72:15 So He shall live and to Him shall be given / The agold of Sheba; / And prayer shall be made continually for Him; / He shall be blessed all the day long.
Ps 72:16 There will be an abundance of grain on the earth, / Even at the tops of the mountains. / Its fruit will wave like the forests of Lebanon, / And those of the city will blossom like the foliage of the earth.
Ps 72:17 His name will be forever; / As long as the sun endures, His name will spread; / And men will be ablessed in Him; / All the nations will call Him bblessed.
Ps 72:18 1aBlessed be Jehovah God, the God of Israel, / Who alone does wondrous deeds;
Ps 72:19 And blessed be His glorious name forever; / And may His aglory fill the whole earth. / bAmen and Amen.
Ps 72:20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

BOOK THREE
Psalms 73 — 89
Indicating that the Saints, in Their Experiences,
Realize That the House and the City of God with All the Enjoyments Thereof
Can Be Preserved and Maintained Only
with Christ Properly Appreciated and Exalted by God’s People
PSALM 73

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

A aPsalm of Asaph
Ps 73:1 1Surely God is good to Israel, / To those who are 2apure in heart.
Ps 73:2 But as for me, my feet were nearly 1turned aside; / My steps had almost slipped.
Ps 73:3 For I was envious of the arrogant, / When I saw the aprosperity of the wicked.
Ps 73:4 For they have no pangs in their death, / And their body is well nourished.
Ps 73:5 They do not find themselves in the hardship of men, / Nor are they plagued like other men.
Ps 73:6 Therefore pride is a necklace for them, / Violence covers them like a garment.
Ps 73:7 Their eyes bulge out from fatness; / The imaginations of their heart overflow.
Ps 73:8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; / They speak loftily.
Ps 73:9 They set their mouth against the heavens, / And their atongue walks about on the earth.
Ps 73:10 Therefore His people return here, / And waters of abundance are drained by them;
Ps 73:11 And they say, How does God know? / And is there knowledge with the Most High?
Ps 73:12 Behold, these are the wicked; / And always at ease, they aheap up riches.
Ps 73:13 Surely I have purified my heart in 1vain, / And I have awashed my hands in innocence.
Ps 73:14 For I have been plagued all day long / And chastened every morning.
Ps 73:15 If I had said, I will speak thus; / Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
Ps 73:16 When I considered this in order to understand it, / It was a troublesome task in my sight,
Ps 73:17 Until I went into the 1asanctuary of God; / Then I perceived their end.
Ps 73:18 Surely You set them in slippery places; / You cast them down into ruins.
Ps 73:19 How they are made desolate in a moment! / They are utterly consumed by terrors.
Ps 73:20 Like a dream, when one awakes, You, O Lord, / Upon arising, will despise their image.
Ps 73:21 When my heart was embittered, / And inwardly I was pricked;
Ps 73:22 I was brutish and knew nothing; / I was like a abeast before You.
Ps 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually awith You; / You have taken hold of my bright hand.
Ps 73:24 You will guide me with Your counsel, / And afterward You will receive me in aglory.
Ps 73:25 1Whom do I have in heaven but You? / And besides You there is nothing I adesire on earth.
Ps 73:26 My flesh and my heart fail, / But God is the arock of my heart and my 1bportion forever.
Ps 73:27 For behold, those who are far from You will perish; / You destroy all who go about as harlots away from You.
Ps 73:28 But as for me, adrawing near to God is good for me; / I have made the Lord Jehovah my brefuge, / That I may declare all Your works.
PSALM 74

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

A *Maschil aof Asaph
Ps 74:1 1Why, O God, have You acast us off forever? / Why does Your anger smoke against the bsheep of Your pasture?
Ps 74:2 Remember Your 1assembly, which You have apurchased of old, / Which You have redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance, / And Mount 1bZion, where You dwell.
Ps 74:3 Lift up Your steps unto the perpetual ruins; / The enemy has damaged everything in the asanctuary.
Ps 74:4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your assembly place; / They have set up their symbols as signs.
Ps 74:5 It looked like when men bring up axes / On the thicket of the trees.
Ps 74:6 And now they have struck down with hatchet and hammer / Its acarved work altogether.
Ps 74:7 They have aset fire to Your sanctuary; / They have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.
Ps 74:8 They said in their heart, Let us oppress them completely. / They have burned down all God’s assembly places in the land.
Ps 74:9 We do not see our signs; there is no longer a aprophet, / Nor is there anyone among us who knows how long.
Ps 74:10 How long, O God, will the adversary reproach? / Will the enemy despise Your name forever?
Ps 74:11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your aright hand? / Bring it forth from the midst of Your bosom; destroy them.
Ps 74:12 1But God is my aKing of old, / Accomplishing salvation in the midst of the earth.
Ps 74:13 You adivided the sea by Your strength; / You broke the heads of the sea serpents on the waters.
Ps 74:14 You crushed the heads of the 1leviathan; / You gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.
Ps 74:15 You broke open the afountain and the torrent; / You bdried up the ever-flowing streams.
Ps 74:16 The day is Yours; the night also is Yours; / You prepared the moon and the sun.
Ps 74:17 You established all the aborders of the earth: / You formed the summer and the winter.
Ps 74:18 Remember this: The enemy has reproached Jehovah, / And a foolish people has despised Your name.
Ps 74:19 Do not give the soul of Your turtledove to the wild beast; / Do not forget the life of Your poor forever.
Ps 74:20 Regard the acovenant, / For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
Ps 74:21 Do not let him who is oppressed return ashamed. / May the poor and needy praise Your name.
Ps 74:22 Arise, O God; contend for Your own cause; / Remember how the foolish man reproaches You all day long.
Ps 74:23 Do not forget the voice of Your adversaries; / The roar of those who rise up against You goes up continually.
PSALM 75

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

To the choir director: *Do not destroy. A aPsalm of Asaph; a Song
Ps 75:1 1We give thanks to You, O God; we give thanks, / For Your name is near; men tell of Your wondrous deeds.
Ps 75:2 When I choose the appointed 1time, / It is I who ajudge with equity.
Ps 75:3 The earth and all who dwell in it melt; / I have established its pillars. Selah
Ps 75:4 I said to the boastful, Do not boast; / And to the wicked, Do not lift up the horn.
Ps 75:5 Do not lift your horn on high; / Do not speak arrogantly with a haughty neck.
Ps 75:6 For neither from the east nor from the west, / And neither from the 1south, does exaltation come;
Ps 75:7 For God is the Judge: / He puts this one down and aexalts that one.
Ps 75:8 For there is a acup in the hand of Jehovah, / And the wine foams; it is full of mixture, / And He pours from it; indeed its dregs will all the wicked of the earth / Drain off and drink up.
Ps 75:9 But as for me, I will declare forever, / I will sing psalms to the God of Jacob.
Ps 75:10 And all the horns of the wicked will I cut off, / But the horns of the righteous man will be exalted.
PSALM 76

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

To the choir director: on the stringed instruments. A aPsalm of Asaph; a Song
Ps 76:1 1God is known in Judah; / His name is great in Israel.
Ps 76:2 And in 1aSalem is His tabernacle, / And His dwelling place, in 2bZion.
Ps 76:3 1There He broke the flashing arrows of the abow, / The shield and the sword and the battle. Selah
Ps 76:4 More glorious are You, / More excellent than the mountains of prey.
Ps 76:5 The stouthearted are despoiled; / They slept their sleep, / And none of the men of strength / Have found their hands.
Ps 76:6 At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, / Both chariot and horse fall into adeep sleep.
Ps 76:7 You, indeed You, are to be feared; / And who may astand before You once You are angry?
Ps 76:8 You caused judgment to be heard from the heavens; / The earth feared and was still,
Ps 76:9 When God rose for judgment, / To save all the meek of the earth. Selah
Ps 76:10 For the wrath of man will praise You; / You will gird Yourself with the remainder of wrath.
Ps 76:11 Make vows and pay them to Jehovah your God; / Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared.
Ps 76:12 He will cut off the spirit of the princes; / He is terrible to the kings of the earth.
PSALM 77

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

To the choir director, to Jeduthun. aOf Asaph. A Psalm
Ps 77:1 1My voice calls out to God, and I will cry out; / My voice calls out to God, and He will give ear to me.
Ps 77:2 In the day of my distress I sought the Lord; / My hand was stretched out in the night, and it did not drop. / My soul refused to be comforted.
Ps 77:3 I remember God, and I moan; / I complain, and my spirit faints. Selah
Ps 77:4 You hold open my eyelids; / I am disturbed and cannot speak.
Ps 77:5 I consider the days of old, / The years of ancient times;
Ps 77:6 I remember my asong in the night; / I muse with my own heart, and my bspirit carefully searches.
Ps 77:7 Will the Lord 1acast us off forever, / And will He never be favorable to us again?
Ps 77:8 Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? / Has the promise come to an end for all generations?
Ps 77:9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? / Or has He in anger shut up His compassions? Selah
Ps 77:10 Then I said, This is my infirmity; / 1But I recall the years of the right hand of the Most High.
Ps 77:11 I will bring to remembrance the deeds of 1Jehovah, / For I will remember Your wonders from of old.
Ps 77:12 aAnd I will meditate on all that You have done / And muse on Your doings.
Ps 77:13 O God, Your way is in the 1asanctuary; / Who is so bgreat a god as God?
Ps 77:14 You are the God who does wonders; / You have made known Your strength among the peoples.
Ps 77:15 You aredeemed Your people with Your arm, / The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
Ps 77:16 The awaters saw You, O God; / The waters saw You; they were afraid; / Indeed the depths trembled.
Ps 77:17 The clouds poured forth water; / The skies sent forth a sound; / Indeed Your arrows went here and there.
Ps 77:18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; / Lightning illuminated the world; / The earth atrembled and quaked.
Ps 77:19 Your way was in the asea, / And Your paths in the great waters; / And Your footsteps were not known.
Ps 77:20 You led Your people like a aflock / By the hand of Moses and Aaron.
PSALM 78

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • • 60 • • • • 65 • • • • 70 • • 

A *Maschil aof Asaph
Ps 78:1 aGive ear, O my people, to my 1instruction; / Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
Ps 78:2 aI will open my mouth in a bparable; / I will utter riddles from of old,
Ps 78:3 Which we have heard and known, / And our fathers have related to us.
Ps 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, / But will relate to the generation to come / The praises of Jehovah and His strength / And His wondrous deeds that He has done.
Ps 78:5 Indeed He has established a testimony in Jacob / And appointed a law in Israel, / Which He commanded our fathers / That they should make them known to their achildren;
Ps 78:6 That the generation to come, / The children to be born, may know them, / Who should arise and relate them to their children;
Ps 78:7 That they might set their hope in God, / And not forget the deeds of God, / But observe His commandments;
Ps 78:8 That they might not be like their fathers, / A stubborn and rebellious generation, / A ageneration that did not set their bheart right, / And whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Ps 78:9 The children of Ephraim, armed archers with bows, / Turned back in the day of battle.
Ps 78:10 They did not keep the covenant of God, / And they refused to walk in His law.
Ps 78:11 And they forgot His doings / And His wondrous deeds that He had shown them.
Ps 78:12 He did something awonderful in the sight of their fathers / In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Ps 78:13 He adivided the sea and caused them to pass through, / And He made the water stand as a bheap.
Ps 78:14 And He led them with the acloud by day / And all the night with a light of fire.
Ps 78:15 He split arocks in the wilderness / And gave them abundant drink, as from the depths.
Ps 78:16 He also brought forth streams from the rock / And made water run down like rivers.
Ps 78:17 Yet they still continued to sin against Him, / To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
Ps 78:18 And they put God to the atest in their heart, / By asking for food according to their desire.
Ps 78:19 They also spoke against God; / They said, Can God prepare a atable in the bwilderness?
Ps 78:20 Behold, He struck the arock, / And water gushed out, / And streams overflowed; / Can He also give us bread, / Or provide meat for His people?
Ps 78:21 Therefore Jehovah heard and was aangry. / And a fire was kindled against Jacob, / And also anger went up against Israel;
Ps 78:22 Because they did anot believe in God, / And they did not trust in His salvation.
Ps 78:23 Yet He commanded the skies above / And opened the doors of heaven;
Ps 78:24 And He rained down upon them amanna to eat / And gave them the bfood of heaven.
Ps 78:25 Man ate the bread of the mighty; / He sent them full provision.
Ps 78:26 He made the east awind blow in the heavens / And guided the south wind by His strength.
Ps 78:27 And He rained upon them meat like dust, / And winged abirds like the sand of the seas.
Ps 78:28 And He made it fall in the midst of their camp, / Around their habitations.
Ps 78:29 So they ate and were well filled; / Indeed what they desired He brought to them.
Ps 78:30 They were not estranged from what they desired; / Their food was still in their mouths
Ps 78:31 When the aanger of God went up against them / And slew some of their fattest ones / And struck down the choice men of Israel.
Ps 78:32 In spite of all this they still sinned / And did anot believe in His wondrous deeds.
Ps 78:33 Therefore He consumed their days with vanity, / And their years with terror.
Ps 78:34 When He slew them, they ainquired after Him, / And they returned and diligently sought God.
Ps 78:35 And they remembered that God was their arock, / And the Most High God, their Redeemer.
Ps 78:36 But they flattered Him with their mouth / And lied to Him with their tongue.
Ps 78:37 For their aheart was not steadfast toward Him, / Nor were they faithful to His covenant.
Ps 78:38 But He, being amerciful, forgave their iniquity / And did not destroy them; / Indeed He turned back His anger many times / And did not stir up all His wrath.
Ps 78:39 And He remembered that they were aflesh, / A 1bwind that goes away and does not return.
Ps 78:40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness / And agrieved Him in the desert!
Ps 78:41 And they repeatedly put God to the atest / And provoked the bHoly One of Israel.
Ps 78:42 They did not remember His hand, / The day when He ransomed them from the adversary;
Ps 78:43 aWhen He set His signs in Egypt / And His wonders in the field of Zoan;
Ps 78:44 And He turned their rivers into ablood, / As well as their streams, so that they could not drink.
Ps 78:45 He sent among them a swarm of aflies, which devoured them; / And bfrogs, which destroyed them.
Ps 78:46 And He gave their increase to the consuming alocust, / And their labor to the swarming locust.
Ps 78:47 He killed their vines with ahail, / And their sycamores with 1ice stones.
Ps 78:48 He gave over their acattle also to the hail / And their herds to the lightning bolts.
Ps 78:49 He sent among them the burning fierceness of His anger, / Overflowing wrath and indignation and trouble, / A mission of angels of evils.
Ps 78:50 He leveled a path for His anger; / He did not spare their soul from death, / But gave their life over to the apestilence.
Ps 78:51 And He astruck all the firstborn in Egypt, / The firstfruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
Ps 78:52 But He set forth His people like sheep / And led them like a aflock in the wilderness.
Ps 78:53 And He led them to safety, so that they did not fear; / But the sea acovered their enemies.
Ps 78:54 And He brought them forth to His holy border, / The amountain, which His right hand had acquired.
Ps 78:55 And He adrove out the nations before them / And allotted them as an binheritance by line, / And He made the tribes of Israel dwell there in their tents.
Ps 78:56 Yet they put Him to the test and rebelled against God the Most High, / And did not keep His testimonies.
Ps 78:57 And they turned back and dealt treacherously, as their fathers had done; / They turned aside like a deceitful bow.
Ps 78:58 Indeed they provoked Him to anger with their ahigh places / And made Him bjealous with their graven images.
Ps 78:59 God heard, and He was angered; / And He greatly abhorred Israel.
Ps 78:60 Thus He forsook the tabernacle in aShiloh, / The tent in which He dwelt among men;
Ps 78:61 And He gave over His 1aArk into captivity, / And His 2glory into the hand of the adversary.
Ps 78:62 He also delivered His people to the sword / And was angry with His inheritance.
Ps 78:63 Fire devoured their young men, / And their virgins had no marriage song.
Ps 78:64 Their priests afell by the sword, / And their widows did not lament.
Ps 78:65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, / Like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.
Ps 78:66 And He struck His adversaries and sent them back; / He put an everlasting reproach upon them.
Ps 78:67 And He rejected the tent of Joseph, / And the tribe of Ephraim He did not choose.
Ps 78:68 Rather He achose the tribe of Judah, / Mount bZion, which He loved.
Ps 78:69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights, / Like the earth that He has founded forever.
Ps 78:70 Moreover He chose David His servant / And took him from the asheepfolds;
Ps 78:71 From following after the ewes He brought him / To 1ashepherd Jacob His people / And Israel His inheritance.
Ps 78:72 And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, / And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
PSALM 79

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

A aPsalm of Asaph
Ps 79:1 O God, the anations have come into Your inheritance; / They have defiled Your holy temple; / They have turned bJerusalem into heaps.
Ps 79:2 They have given the adead bodies of Your servants / As food for the birds of heaven, / The flesh of Your saints to the animals of the earth.
Ps 79:3 They have poured out their blood like water around Jerusalem, / And there was no one to bury them.
Ps 79:4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, / A mocking and a derision to those around us.
Ps 79:5 How long, O Jehovah? Will You be angry forever? / Will Your ajealousy burn like fire?
Ps 79:6 aPour out Your wrath upon the nations / Who do bnot know You, / And upon the kingdoms / Who do not call upon Your name.
Ps 79:7 For they have devoured Jacob / And have desolated his habitation.
Ps 79:8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers; / May Your compassions quickly meet us, / For we have been brought very low.
Ps 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, / For the glory of Your name; / And deliver us and expiate our sins, / For Your name’s sake.
Ps 79:10 Why should the nations say, / Where is their God? / May the aavenging of the blood of Your servants, which has been poured out, / Be known among the nations in our sight.
Ps 79:11 May the sighing of the prisoner come before You. / According to the greatness of Your power preserve those appointed to die,
Ps 79:12 And render to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom / Their reproach, with which they have reproached You, O Lord.
Ps 79:13 And we, Your people and the asheep of Your pasture, / Will give You thanks forever; / From generation to generation we will tell out Your praise.
PSALM 80

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

To the choir director: according to *shoshannim-eduth. aOf Asaph. A Psalm
Ps 80:1 O aShepherd of Israel, give ear, / You who lead Joseph like a bflock; / You who care enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth.
Ps 80:2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh / Stir up Your might, / And come to save us.
Ps 80:3 O God, restore us; / And cause Your face to ashine, and we will be saved.
Ps 80:4 O Jehovah God of hosts, / How long will You fume / Against the prayer of Your people?
Ps 80:5 You have fed them with the bread of tears / And have made them drink tears in large measure.
Ps 80:6 You have made us a cause of strife to our neighbors, / And our enemies deride us among themselves.
Ps 80:7 O God of hosts, restore us; / And cause Your face to ashine, and we will be saved.
Ps 80:8 You brought a 1avine out of Egypt; / You bdrove out nations and planted it;
Ps 80:9 You cleared the ground before it, / And it took deep root and filled the land.
Ps 80:10 The mountains were covered with its shadow, / And its boughs were like the cedars of God.
Ps 80:11 It put forth its branches unto the sea, / And its shoots unto the 1aRiver.
Ps 80:12 Why have You broken down its ahedges, / So that all who pass by on the way pluck it?
Ps 80:13 The boar from the forest ravages it, / And that which moves through the field feeds on it.
Ps 80:14 O God of hosts, turn, we beseech You; / Look down from heaven and see, / And 1visit this vine,
Ps 80:15 Even the astock which Your right hand has planted / And the 1son whom You have strengthened for Yourself.
Ps 80:16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down; / They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
Ps 80:17 Let Your ahand be upon the 1man of Your right hand, / Upon the bson of man whom You have strengthened for Yourself;
Ps 80:18 Then we will not turn back from You. / Revive us, and we will 1acall upon Your name.
Ps 80:19 O Jehovah God of hosts, restore us; / Cause Your face to ashine, and we will be saved.
PSALM 81

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

To the choir director: on the *gittith. aOf Asaph
Ps 81:1 1Sing for joy to God our strength; / Make a ajoyful noise to the God of Jacob.
Ps 81:2 Lift up a song and sound the tambourine, / The pleasant lyre with the harp.
Ps 81:3 Blow the atrumpet at the new moon, / At the full moon, on our feast day.
Ps 81:4 For that is a 1statute of Israel, / An ordinance of the God of Jacob.
Ps 81:5 He appointed it as a testimony in Joseph / When He went out over the land of Egypt. / I heard a language that I did not know:
Ps 81:6 I turned 1your shoulder from the aburden; / Your hands were freed from the basket.
Ps 81:7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you; / I answered you from the secret place of thunder; / I proved you at the waters of aMeribah. Selah
Ps 81:8 aHear, O My people, and I will testify 1against you: / O Israel, if you would listen to Me!
Ps 81:9 There shall be no astrange god among you, / Neither shall you worship any bforeign god.
Ps 81:10 I am aJehovah your God, / Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt; / Open your bmouth wide, and I will fill it.
Ps 81:11 But My people did not listen to My voice, / And Israel would not consent to Me.
Ps 81:12 So I agave them over to the stubbornness of their heart: / They walked after their own counsels.
Ps 81:13 Oh that My people had listened to Me, / That Israel had walked in My ways!
Ps 81:14 I would have soon subdued their enemies / And turned My hand against their adversaries.
Ps 81:15 Those who hate Jehovah would have come cringing to Him, / And their time would be forever.
Ps 81:16 And He would have fed them with the finest of awheat; / Indeed with bhoney from the rock I would have satisfied you.
PSALM 82

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

A aPsalm of Asaph
Ps 82:1 God stands in the congregation of God; / He ajudges in the midst of the 1gods.
Ps 82:2 How long will you judge unjustly / And respect the persons of the wicked? Selah
Ps 82:3 Judge the poor and the orphan; / Execute justice for the afflicted and the destitute;
Ps 82:4 Rescue the poor and the needy; / Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
Ps 82:5 1You do not know, nor do you understand; / You go about in darkness; / All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Ps 82:6 aI said, You are gods, / And all of you are bsons of the Most High.
Ps 82:7 Nevertheless you will die like men / And fall like one of the princes.
Ps 82:8 Arise, O God; 1ajudge the earth; / For You will 1binherit all the nations.
PSALM 83

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

A Song; a aPsalm of Asaph
Ps 83:1 O God, do not keep silent; / Do not be quiet, and do not be still, O God.
Ps 83:2 For, behold, Your enemies are in tumult, / And those who hate You lift up their heads.
Ps 83:3 They 1devise crafty counsel against Your people, / And conspire against Your 2ahidden ones.
Ps 83:4 They have said, Come and let us adestroy them from being a nation, / That the name of Israel may no longer be remembered.
Ps 83:5 For they have aconspired together with one heart; / It is against You that they have made an alliance:
Ps 83:6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, / Moab and the Hagarites,
Ps 83:7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, / Philistia along with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Ps 83:8 Assyria is also joined with them; / They have been a help to the children of Lot. Selah
Ps 83:9 Do with them as with aMidian, / As with bSisera and Jabin, at the brook Kishon:
Ps 83:10 They were destroyed at aEndor; / They became dung for the earth.
Ps 83:11 Make their nobles like aOreb and Zeeb, / And all their princes like bZebah and Zalmunna,
Ps 83:12 Who said, Let us possess for ourselves / The habitations of God.
Ps 83:13 1O my God, make them like a tumbleweed, / Like stubble before the wind.
Ps 83:14 Like fire that burns a forest / And like a flame that sets mountains on fire,
Ps 83:15 So pursue them with Your tempest, / And terrify them with Your storm.
Ps 83:16 Fill their faces with shame, / That they may seek Your name, O Jehovah.
Ps 83:17 May they be ashamed and dismayed forever, / And may they be confounded and perish;
Ps 83:18 That they may know that You alone, whose name is Jehovah, / Are the aMost High over all the earth.
PSALM 84

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

To the choir director: on the *gittith. aOf the sons of Korah. A Psalm
Ps 84:1 aHow 1lovely are Your 2btabernacles, / O Jehovah of hosts!
Ps 84:2 My soul 1longs, indeed even 1faints, / For the acourts of Jehovah; / My heart and my flesh cry out / To the living God.
Ps 84:3 At Your 1two altars even the 2asparrow has found a 3bhome; / And the 2swallow, a 3nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my cKing and my God.
Ps 84:4 Blessed are those who adwell in Your 1house; / They will yet be praising You. Selah
Ps 84:5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the 1highways to Zion.
Ps 84:6 Passing through the valley of 1aBaca, / They make it a 2spring; / Indeed the 3early rain covers it with blessings.
Ps 84:7 They go from strength to strength; / Each aappears before God in 1bZion.
Ps 84:8 O Jehovah God of hosts, hear my prayer; / Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah
Ps 84:9 Behold our 1shield, O God; / And look upon the face of Your 1anointed.
Ps 84:10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand; / I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God / Than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
Ps 84:11 For Jehovah God is a 1asun and a bshield; / Jehovah gives grace and glory; / He does not withhold anything good / From 2those who walk uprightly.
Ps 84:12 O Jehovah of hosts, ablessed is the 1man / Who trusts in You.
PSALM 85

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director. aOf the sons of Korah. A Psalm
Ps 85:1 1You have been pleased, O Jehovah, with Your land; / You have aturned the captivity of Jacob.
Ps 85:2 You have aforgiven the iniquity of Your people; / You have covered all their sin. Selah
Ps 85:3 You have taken away all Your wrath; / You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.
Ps 85:4 1Restore us, O God of our salvation, / And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.
Ps 85:5 Will You be angry with us forever? / Will You extend Your anger from generation to generation?
Ps 85:6 Will You not again arevive us, / That Your people may rejoice in You?
Ps 85:7 Show us, O Jehovah, Your lovingkindness, / And grant us Your salvation.
Ps 85:8 I will hear what God Jehovah will speak, / For He will speak apeace / To His people and to His faithful ones; / But let them not turn again unto folly.
Ps 85:9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, / That glory may dwell in our land.
Ps 85:10 Lovingkindness and truth have met together; / aRighteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Ps 85:11 Truth has sprung forth from the earth, / And righteousness has looked down from heaven.
Ps 85:12 Indeed Jehovah will give what is agood, / And our land will give its increase.
Ps 85:13 Righteousness will go before Him / And make His footsteps a way to walk in.
PSALM 86

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

A Prayer aof David
Ps 86:1 1Incline Your ear, O Jehovah; answer me; / For I am poor and needy.
Ps 86:2 Keep my soul; for I am faithful; / Save Your servant who trusts in You, O You who are my God.
Ps 86:3 Be gracious to me, O Lord; / For to You do I call out all day long.
Ps 86:4 Cause the soul of Your servant to rejoice, / For unto You, O Lord, do I alift up my soul.
Ps 86:5 For You, O Lord, are good and ready to forgive / And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.
Ps 86:6 aGive ear, O Jehovah, to my prayer, / And give heed to the voice of my supplications.
Ps 86:7 In the day of my distress I call upon You, / For You answer me.
Ps 86:8 There is none alike You among the gods, O Lord; / Nor are there any works like Yours.
Ps 86:9 All the nations which You have made will come / And aworship before You, O Lord; / And they will glorify Your name.
Ps 86:10 For You are great, and You do wondrous deeds; / You alone are God.
Ps 86:11 Teach me, O Jehovah, Your way; / I will walk in Your truth. / Make my heart single in fearing Your name.
Ps 86:12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; / And I will glorify Your name forever.
Ps 86:13 For Your lovingkindness is great toward me, / And You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
Ps 86:14 O God, the proud have risen up against me, / And a company of violent men seek my life; / And they do not aset You before them.
Ps 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a acompassionate and gracious God, / Long-suffering and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
Ps 86:16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; / Give Your strength to Your servant, / And save the son of Your female servant.
Ps 86:17 Show me a token of goodness, / That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed; / For You, O Jehovah, have helped me and comforted me.
PSALM 87

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

aOf the sons of Korah. A Psalm; a Song
Ps 87:1 His 1afoundation is in the bholy mountains.
Ps 87:2 Jehovah aloves the 1bgates of 2cZion / More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Ps 87:3 Glorious things are spoken of you, / O acity of God. Selah
Ps 87:4 I will make mention of 1Rahab and Babylon as those who know Me; / Behold, Philistia and Tyre along with 2Cush: / 3This one was born there, they say.
Ps 87:5 But of aZion it will be said, / 1This one and that one were born in her, / And the Most High Himself will bestablish her.
Ps 87:6 Jehovah will count / When He records the peoples: / This 1One was born there. Selah
Ps 87:7 Then singing as well as dancing, they will say, / All my asprings are in 1you.
PSALM 88

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

A Song; a aPsalm of the sons of Korah. To the choir director: according to *mahalath leannoth. A *Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.
Ps 88:1 O Jehovah, the God of my 1salvation, / I have cried out aby day and in the night before You.
Ps 88:2 May my prayer come before You; / Incline Your ear to my cry.
Ps 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles, / And my life draws near to Sheol.
Ps 88:4 I am accounted among those who go down into the pit; / I am like a man without any 1help,
Ps 88:5 Abandoned among the dead, / Like the slain that lie in the grave, / Whom You remember no more, / And they are cut off from Your hand.
Ps 88:6 You have put me in the lowest pit, / In the dark places, in the depths.
Ps 88:7 Your wrath lies heavily upon me, / And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah
Ps 88:8 You have put my acquaintances afar from me; / You have made me an abomination to them. / I am shut in and cannot go out.
Ps 88:9 My eye wastes away at the affliction; / I have called out to You, O Jehovah, every day; / I have spread out my hands to You.
Ps 88:10 Will You perform wonders for the dead? / Will the adeceased rise up and praise You? Selah
Ps 88:11 Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave, / Or Your faithfulness in 1Abaddon?
Ps 88:12 Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness, / Or Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Ps 88:13 But I, O Jehovah, have cried out to You; / And in the morning my prayer comes before You.
Ps 88:14 Why, O Jehovah, have You rejected my soul? / Why do You hide Your face from me?
Ps 88:15 I have been afflicted and about to die since my youth; / I bear Your terrors; I am 1overwhelmed.
Ps 88:16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me; / Your terrors have cut me off.
Ps 88:17 They surrounded me like water all day long; / They altogether encompassed me.
Ps 88:18 You have put far from me / Lover and friend; / My acquaintances are in darkness.
PSALM 89

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • 

A *Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite
Ps 89:1 1I will sing of the lovingkindness of Jehovah forever; / From generation to generation I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth.
Ps 89:2 For I have said, Lovingkindness will be built up forever; / In the heavens themselves You will establish Your faithfulness.
Ps 89:3 I have made a acovenant with My chosen one; / I have bsworn to David My servant:
Ps 89:4 I will establish your seed aforever, / And I will build up your throne from generation to generation. Selah
Ps 89:5 And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O Jehovah, / Indeed Your faithfulness in the congregation of the holy ones.
Ps 89:6 For who in the skies can be compared to Jehovah? / Who among the sons of the mighty is like Jehovah,
Ps 89:7 Like God, greatly feared in the council of the holy ones / And awesome beyond all around Him?
Ps 89:8 O Jehovah God of hosts, who is alike You, the mighty 1Jah? / Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
Ps 89:9 You rule the swelling of the sea: / When its waves rise up, You astill them.
Ps 89:10 You crushed 1Rahab like one slain; / You ascattered Your enemies with the arm of Your strength.
Ps 89:11 The aheavens are Yours; the bearth also is Yours; / The cworld and its fullness You have founded.
Ps 89:12 You created the north and the south; / Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.
Ps 89:13 You have an arm with might; / Your ahand is strong; Your right hand is high.
Ps 89:14 aRighteousness and justice are the 1foundation of Your throne; / Lovingkindness and truth go before Your face.
Ps 89:15 Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout; / They walk, O Jehovah, in the alight of Your countenance.
Ps 89:16 In Your name they exult all day long, / And in Your righteousness they are exalted.
Ps 89:17 For You are the 1glory of their strength, / And in Your favor our horn is exalted.
Ps 89:18 For our shield belongs to Jehovah, / And our king, to the Holy One of Israel.
Ps 89:19 Then You spoke in vision / Of aYour 1Holy One, and You said, / I have given help to One who is mighty; / I have exalted One chosen from My people.
Ps 89:20 I have afound 1David My Servant; / With My holy oil I have banointed Him,
Ps 89:21 With whom My hand will be established; / My arm will also strengthen Him.
Ps 89:22 The enemy will not exact anything from Him, / Nor will the son of wickedness afflict Him.
Ps 89:23 And I will crush His adversaries before Him, / And I will strike those who hate Him.
Ps 89:24 And My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with Him, / And in My name His horn will be exalted.
Ps 89:25 And I will set His hand on the asea / And His right hand on the rivers.
Ps 89:26 He will call upon Me, saying, You are My aFather, / My God and the brock of My salvation.
Ps 89:27 I will also make Him the aFirstborn, / The bhighest of the kings of the earth.
Ps 89:28 I will keep My lovingkindness for Him forever, / And My covenant will stand firm with Him.
Ps 89:29 And I will establish His aseed forever, / And His bthrone as the days of heaven.
Ps 89:30 If His achildren forsake My law / And do not walk in My ordinances,
Ps 89:31 If they profane My statutes / And do not keep My commandments,
Ps 89:32 I will punish their transgression with a rod / And their iniquity with stripes.
Ps 89:33 But My lovingkindness I will not utterly take away from Him, / Nor will I be false to My own faithfulness.
Ps 89:34 I will not profane My covenant, / Nor will I change what has gone forth from My lips.
Ps 89:35 Once I have sworn by My holiness; / I will not lie to David.
Ps 89:36 His aseed shall endure forever, / And His throne, like the sun before Me;
Ps 89:37 It shall be established forever like the moon; / And the witness in the skies is firm. Selah
Ps 89:38 But You have acast off and rejected; / You have been angry with Your anointed.
Ps 89:39 You have abhorred the covenant of Your servant; / You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
Ps 89:40 You have broken down all his walls; / You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
Ps 89:41 All who pass by on the way plunder him; / He has become a reproach to his neighbors.
Ps 89:42 You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries; / You have caused all his enemies to rejoice.
Ps 89:43 Indeed You have turned back the edge of his sword / And have not made him stand in the battle.
Ps 89:44 You have made his brightness cease / And have cast down his throne to the ground.
Ps 89:45 You have shortened the days of his youth; / You have covered him with shame. Selah
Ps 89:46 How long, O Jehovah? Will You hide Yourself forever? / How long will Your wrath burn like fire?
Ps 89:47 Remember how short my time is — / For what vanity You have created all the sons of men!
Ps 89:48 What man will live and not see death? / Will he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
Ps 89:49 Where are Your former acts of lovingkindness, O 1Lord, / Which You aswore to David in Your faithfulness?
Ps 89:50 Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, / How I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty peoples,
Ps 89:51 With which Your enemies have reproached, O Jehovah, / With which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed.
Ps 89:52 aBlessed be Jehovah forever. / bAmen and Amen.

BOOK FOUR
Psalms 90 — 106
Indicating That the Saints, Being Joined to Christ,
Are One with God So That He Can Recover His Title over the Earth
through Christ in His House and City
PSALM 90

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

A Prayer of Moses, the aman of God
Ps 90:1 O Lord, You have been our 1adwelling place / In all generations.
Ps 90:2 Before the amountains were brought forth, / And before You gave birth to the earth and the world, / Indeed from beternity to eternity, You are God.
Ps 90:3 You return man to adust / And say, Return, you sons of men.
Ps 90:4 For a athousand years in Your sight / Are like yesterday when it passes by / And like a watch in the night.
Ps 90:5 You sweep them away as with a rain flood; they are as in a sleep: / In the morning they are like agrass that comes up anew.
Ps 90:6 In the morning it flourishes and comes up anew; / In the evening it is cut down, and it dries up.
Ps 90:7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, / And by Your wrath we have been troubled.
Ps 90:8 You have set our iniquities before You, / Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
Ps 90:9 For all our days have passed away in Your overflowing wrath; / We bring our years to an end like a sigh.
Ps 90:10 The 1days of our years are aseventy years, / Or, if because of strength, beighty years; / But their pride is labor and sorrow, / For it is soon cgone, and we fly away.
Ps 90:11 Who knows the power of Your anger, / And Your overflowing wrath according to the fear that is due You?
Ps 90:12 Teach us then to anumber our days / That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Ps 90:13 Return, O Jehovah! How long? / And repent concerning Your servants.
Ps 90:14 Satisfy us in the amorning with Your lovingkindness / That we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days.
Ps 90:15 Cause us to rejoice according to the days that You have afflicted us, / According to the years that we have seen evil.
Ps 90:16 Let Your work appear to Your servants, / And Your splendor, to their children.
Ps 90:17 And let the 1favor of the Lord our God be upon us, / And establish the work of our hands upon us; / Indeed the work of our hands, establish it.
PSALM 91

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

Ps 91:1 He who 1dwells in the asecret place of the Most High / Will abide in the bshadow of the 2Almighty.
Ps 91:2 I say of Jehovah, / My arefuge and My fortress, / My God in whom I trust!
Ps 91:3 For He will deliver You / From the snare of the fowler, / From the deadly pestilence.
Ps 91:4 With His pinions He will cover You, / And under His awings You will btake refuge; / His truth is a shield and a buckler.
Ps 91:5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, / Or of the arrow that flies by day,
Ps 91:6 Or of the pestilence that walks in darkness, / Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
Ps 91:7 A thousand will fall at Your side, / And ten thousand at Your right hand; / But it will not come near to You.
Ps 91:8 You will only look on with Your eyes / And see the recompense of the wicked.
Ps 91:9 For 1You have made Jehovah, who is my arefuge, / Even the Most High, 1Your bhabitation;
Ps 91:10 No evil will befall You, / Nor will any plague come near Your tent.
Ps 91:11 aFor He will give His 1bangels charge concerning You / To keep You in all Your ways.
Ps 91:12 They will bear You up in their hands, / Lest You dash Your foot against a stone.
Ps 91:13 You will tread upon the 1lion and the 1cobra; / You will trample the young lion and the aserpent.
Ps 91:14 Because 1He has set His love upon Me, I will rescue Him; / I will set Him on high, because He has known My name.
Ps 91:15 He will call upon Me, and I will answer Him. / I will be with Him in distress; / I will deliver Him and honor Him.
Ps 91:16 With an aextension of His days I will satisfy Him, / And I will show Him My salvation.
PSALM 92

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

A Psalm; a Song for the Sabbath day
Ps 92:1 It is good to 1give thanks to Jehovah / And to sing psalms to Your name, O Most High;
Ps 92:2 To adeclare Your lovingkindness in the bmorning / And Your faithfulness in the nights,
Ps 92:3 Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon a harp, / Upon the 1higgaion of the lyre.
Ps 92:4 For You have made me rejoice, O Jehovah, because of what You have done; / Because of the works of Your hands I will shout for joy.
Ps 92:5 How great are Your works, O Jehovah! / So very deep are Your thoughts!
Ps 92:6 A senseless man does not know them, / Nor does a fool understand 1them.
Ps 92:7 When the wicked sprout like grass, / And all the workers of iniquity blossom, / It is so that they may be destroyed forever.
Ps 92:8 But You are on high forever, O Jehovah.
Ps 92:9 For behold, Your enemies, O Jehovah; / For behold, Your enemies will perish; / All the workers of iniquity will be scattered.
Ps 92:10 But You have exalted my 1horn like that of a wild ox; / I am 2aanointed with fresh oil.
Ps 92:11 And my eye has seen its desire for my enemies; / My ears have heard their desire for the evildoers who rise up against me.
Ps 92:12 The righteous man will 1flourish like the apalm tree; / He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Ps 92:13 aPlanted in the house of Jehovah, / They will flourish in the bcourts of our God.
Ps 92:14 They will still bring forth fruit in old age; / They will be afull of sap and green;
Ps 92:15 To declare that Jehovah is upright; / He is my arock, and there is bno unrighteousness in Him.
PSALM 93

vv. 1 • • • 5 

Ps 93:1 Jehovah 1areigns; He is bclothed with majesty. / Jehovah is clothed, He has girded Himself, with strength. / Indeed the world has been 2established; it will not be moved.
Ps 93:2 Your athrone is established from of old; / You are from eternity.
Ps 93:3 The floods have lifted up, O Jehovah; / The floods have lifted up their voice; / The floods lift up their roaring.
Ps 93:4 More than the voices of many waters, / Than the mighty breakers of the sea, / Jehovah on high is mighty!
Ps 93:5 Your testimonies are very sure; / Holiness befits Your house, / O Jehovah, forevermore.
PSALM 94

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

Ps 94:1 O God of vengeance, O Jehovah, / O God of vengeance, 1shine forth!
Ps 94:2 Lift Yourself up, O aJudge of the earth; / Render the reward upon the proud.
Ps 94:3 How long, O Jehovah, will the wicked, / How long will the wicked exult?
Ps 94:4 They burst out; they speak arrogantly; / All the workers of iniquity boast.
Ps 94:5 They crush Your people, O Jehovah, / And afflict Your inheritance.
Ps 94:6 They slay the widow and the stranger, / And they murder orphans.
Ps 94:7 And they say, 1Jehovah does anot see, / And the God of Jacob does not consider.
Ps 94:8 Consider, you senseless ones among the people; / And you foolish ones, when will you become wise?
Ps 94:9 He who planted the aear, does He not hear? / And He who formed the eye, does He not see?
Ps 94:10 He who 1disciplines the nations, / He who teaches man knowledge, does He not reprove?
Ps 94:11 aJehovah knows the thoughts of man, / That they are vanity.
Ps 94:12 aBlessed is the man / Whom You bdiscipline, O Jehovah, / And teach out of Your law;
Ps 94:13 That You may give him rest from the days of evil / Until the pit is dug for the wicked.
Ps 94:14 For Jehovah will anot abandon His people, / Nor will He forsake His inheritance.
Ps 94:15 For judgment will 1return unto righteousness, / And all the upright in heart will follow it.
Ps 94:16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? / Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
Ps 94:17 Unless Jehovah had been my help, / My soul would have soon dwelt in silence.
Ps 94:18 When I said, My foot has slipped, / Your lovingkindness, O Jehovah, upheld me.
Ps 94:19 When my disquieting thoughts within me are many, / Your comfortings delight my soul.
Ps 94:20 Shall the seat of destruction be united with You, / Which devises trouble through its statutes?
Ps 94:21 They band together against the soul of the righteous man / And condemn innocent blood.
Ps 94:22 But Jehovah has been my high tower, / And my God the arock of my brefuge;
Ps 94:23 And He will return their iniquity upon them / And destroy them in their own evil; / Jehovah our God will destroy them.
PSALM 95

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

Ps 95:1 Come, let us sing for joy to Jehovah; / Let us make a ajoyful noise to the brock of our salvation.
Ps 95:2 Let us acome before His presence with thanksgiving; / Let us make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.
Ps 95:3 For Jehovah is a agreat God / And a 1great bKing above all gods.
Ps 95:4 In His hand are the depths of the earth, / The heights of the mountains are His also.
Ps 95:5 The sea is His, and He made it; / And His hands formed the adry land.
Ps 95:6 Come, let us worship and bow down; / Let us kneel before Jehovah our aMaker.
Ps 95:7 For He is our God, / And we are the people of His apasture / And the flock of His hand. / bToday, if you hear His voice,
Ps 95:8 Do not aharden your heart as at 1bMeribah, / As in the day of 2Massah in the wilderness;
Ps 95:9 aWhen your fathers btested Me; / They tried Me, even though they had seen My work.
Ps 95:10 For aforty years I loathed that bgeneration, / And I said, They are a people who go astray in heart; / And they do not know My 1cways;
Ps 95:11 Therefore I aswore in My anger: / bThey shall by no means enter into My 1rest!
PSALM 96

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

Ps 96:1 Sing to Jehovah a anew song; / bSing to Jehovah, all the earth.
Ps 96:2 Sing to Jehovah, bless His name; / Proclaim His salvation from day to day.
Ps 96:3 Declare His glory among the 1nations, / His wondrous deeds among all the 2peoples.
Ps 96:4 For Jehovah is agreat and much to be praised; / He is to be feared above all gods.
Ps 96:5 For all the agods of the peoples are idols, / But Jehovah made the heavens.
Ps 96:6 Majesty and splendor are before Him; / Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
Ps 96:7 aAscribe to Jehovah, O families of the peoples, / Ascribe to Jehovah, glory and strength;
Ps 96:8 Ascribe to Jehovah the glory of His name; / Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
Ps 96:9 Worship Jehovah in holy 1splendor; / Tremble before Him, all the earth.
Ps 96:10 Say among the nations, Jehovah areigns; / Indeed the world has been 1established; it will not be moved; / He will bjudge the peoples with equity.
Ps 96:11 Let the heavens rejoice and the aearth be glad; / bLet the sea and its fullness roar.
Ps 96:12 Let the field and all that is in it exult; / Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
Ps 96:13 aBefore Jehovah, for He is coming; / For He is coming to judge the earth; / He will bjudge the world with righteousness, / And the peoples with His truth.
PSALM 97

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

Ps 97:1 Jehovah 1areigns! Let the earth be glad; / Let the many islands rejoice.
Ps 97:2 Clouds and adeep darkness surround Him; / 1bRighteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
Ps 97:3 A afire goes before Him / And burns up His adversaries all around.
Ps 97:4 His alightning illumines the world; / The earth sees and trembles.
Ps 97:5 The mountains amelt like wax at the bpresence of Jehovah, / At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
Ps 97:6 The aheavens declare His righteousness, / And all the peoples see His bglory.
Ps 97:7 Let all who serve a graven image be ashamed, / Who make their boast in idols; / aWorship Him, all you 1gods.
Ps 97:8 Zion hears and arejoices, / And the daughters of Judah are glad, / Because of Your judgments, O Jehovah.
Ps 97:9 For You, O Jehovah, are amost high over all the earth; / You are exalted far above all gods.
Ps 97:10 O you who love Jehovah, hate evil! / He preserves the souls of His faithful ones; / He adelivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Ps 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous man, / And rejoicing for the upright in heart.
Ps 97:12 Rejoice in Jehovah, O righteous ones; / And 1apraise 2His holy memorial.
PSALM 98

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

A Psalm
Ps 98:1 Sing to Jehovah a anew song, / For He has done wonderful things. / His bright hand and His holy carm / Have accomplished salvation for Him.
Ps 98:2 Jehovah has made His asalvation known; / In the sight of the nations / He has revealed His brighteousness.
Ps 98:3 He aremembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness / Toward the house of Israel; / All the ends of the earth have seen / The bsalvation of our God.
Ps 98:4 Make a ajoyful noise to Jehovah, all the earth; / Break forth, and sing for joy, and sing psalms.
Ps 98:5 Sing psalms to Jehovah with the lyre, / With the lyre and the sound of melody.
Ps 98:6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn / Make a ajoyful noise before the bKing, Jehovah.
Ps 98:7 aLet the sea and its fullness roar, / The world and those who inhabit it.
Ps 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands; / Let the mountains sing for joy together
Ps 98:9 aBefore Jehovah, for He is coming / To judge the earth. / He will bjudge the world with righteousness / And the peoples with equity.
PSALM 99

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

Ps 99:1 Jehovah 1areigns; let the peoples tremble. / He bis enthroned between the cherubim; let the earth shake.
Ps 99:2 Jehovah is agreat in bZion, / And He is exalted over all the peoples.
Ps 99:3 Let them praise Your great and awesome name — / It is holy —
Ps 99:4 And the strength of the King, who loves justice. / You have established equity; / You have executed / Justice and righteousness in Jacob.
Ps 99:5 Exalt Jehovah our God, / And worship at His afootstool; / Holy is He.
Ps 99:6 aMoses and bAaron among His priests, / And cSamuel among those who dcalled on His name — / They called out to Jehovah, / And He answered them.
Ps 99:7 In the apillar of cloud He spoke to them; / They kept His testimonies and the statute that He gave them.
Ps 99:8 O Jehovah our God, You answered them; / You were a forgiving God to them, / Yet One avenging their deeds.
Ps 99:9 Exalt Jehovah our God, / And worship on His aholy mountain; / For holy is Jehovah our God.
PSALM 100

vv. 1 • • • 5 

A Psalm *of thanksgiving
Ps 100:1 1Make a ajoyful noise to Jehovah, all the earth.
Ps 100:2 Serve Jehovah with rejoicing; / aCome before His presence with joyful singing.
Ps 100:3 Know that it is Jehovah who is God; / It is He who has amade us and 1not we ourselves. / We are His people and the bsheep of His pasture.
Ps 100:4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving, / His acourts with praise; / Give thanks to Him; bless His name.
Ps 100:5 For Jehovah is agood; His lovingkindness is forever, / And His faithfulness is to all generations.
PSALM 101

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

aOf David. A Psalm
Ps 101:1 1I will sing of 2alovingkindness and justice; / To You, O Jehovah, I will sing psalms.
Ps 101:2 I will give careful heed to the perfect way. / When will You come to me? / I will walk in the perfectness of my heart / Within my house.
Ps 101:3 I will not set anything base / Before my eyes; / I hate what those who turn aside do; / It will not cling to me.
Ps 101:4 A perverse heart will depart from me; / No evil will I know.
Ps 101:5 He who secretly slanders his neighbor, / Him I will destroy; / He who is of a haughty look and a proud heart, / Him I will not tolerate.
Ps 101:6 My eyes are on the faithful of the land, / That they may abide with me; / He who walks in the perfect way, / He will minister to me.
Ps 101:7 He who practices deceit / Will not dwell within my house; / He who speaks lies will not be maintained / In my sight.
Ps 101:8 Morning by morning I will destroy / All the wicked of the land, / In order to cut off from the acity of Jehovah / All the workers of iniquity.
PSALM 102

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

A Prayer of an afflicted one, when he is fainting and pours out his complaint before Jehovah
Ps 102:1 O Jehovah, ahear my 1prayer; / And let my cry come unto You.
Ps 102:2 Do not hide Your face from me / On the day of my distress; / Incline Your ear to me; / On the day when I call out, answer me quickly.
Ps 102:3 For my days are consumed in asmoke, / And my bones burn like a hearth.
Ps 102:4 My heart is stricken like grass and dried up; / Indeed I have even forgotten to eat my bread.
Ps 102:5 Because of the voice of my groaning / My bones cling to my flesh.
Ps 102:6 I am like a apelican of the wilderness; / I have become like an owl of the desolate places.
Ps 102:7 I awatch, and I am like / A lone 1bsparrow on a housetop.
Ps 102:8 All day long my enemies reproach me; / Those who deride me use me as a curse.
Ps 102:9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, / And have mixed my drink with weeping,
Ps 102:10 Because of Your indignation and Your wrath; / For You have taken me up and cast me away.
Ps 102:11 My days are like a ashadow that declines, / And I am dried up like bgrass.
Ps 102:12 aBut You, O Jehovah, abide forever; / And Your bmemorial is from generation to generation.
Ps 102:13 You will arise and have compassion on 1aZion, / For it is time to be gracious to her; the bappointed time has come.
Ps 102:14 For Your servants take pleasure in her 1astones, / And show favor to her 1dust.
Ps 102:15 And the nations will fear the name of Jehovah, / And all the kings of the earth, Your glory;
Ps 102:16 For Jehovah has 1abuilt up bZion; / He has appeared in His cglory.
Ps 102:17 He has regarded the prayer of the destitute, / And has not despised their prayer.
Ps 102:18 This will be written for a generation to come, / And a people to be created will praise 1Jehovah.
Ps 102:19 For He has alooked down from the height of His sanctuary; / From heaven Jehovah beheld the earth,
Ps 102:20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner, / To release those appointed to die;
Ps 102:21 That the 1aname of Jehovah may be declared in bZion, / And His praise, in Jerusalem,
Ps 102:22 When the peoples are gathered together, / And the akingdoms, to serve Jehovah.
Ps 102:23 He has weakened my strength in the way; / He has shortened my days.
Ps 102:24 I said, My God, / Do not take me away in the middle of my days; / Your years are throughout all generations.
Ps 102:25 1aOf old You laid the bfoundation of the earth, / And the heavens are the cwork of Your hands.
Ps 102:26 aThey will perish, but You bendure; / Indeed all of them will wear out like a cgarment; / Like clothing You will change them, / And they will be changed.
Ps 102:27 But You are the asame, / And Your years are without end.
Ps 102:28 The children of Your servants will continue, / And their seed will be established before You.
PSALM 103

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

aOf David
Ps 103:1 1aBless Jehovah, O my soul; / And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Ps 103:2 Bless Jehovah, O my soul; / And do not forget all His benefits:
Ps 103:3 He apardons all your iniquities; / He bheals all your diseases;
Ps 103:4 He redeems your life from the pit; / He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassions;
Ps 103:5 He satisfies the 1prime of your life with good, / So that your youth is renewed like the aeagle.
Ps 103:6 Jehovah executes righteous acts, / And judgments for all who are oppressed.
Ps 103:7 He made His 1aways known to Moses; / His 1bacts, to the children of Israel.
Ps 103:8 aJehovah is compassionate and gracious, / Long-suffering and abundant in lovingkindness.
Ps 103:9 aHe will not always contend with us, / Nor will He keep His banger forever.
Ps 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our asins, / Nor has He recompensed us according to our iniquities.
Ps 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, / So great is His lovingkindness upon those who fear Him.
Ps 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, / So far has He removed our atransgressions from us.
Ps 103:13 As compassionate as a afather is toward his children, / So compassionate is Jehovah toward those who fear Him.
Ps 103:14 For He knows our frame; / He remembers that we are adust.
Ps 103:15 Man — his days are like agrass; / He flourishes like a field bflower:
Ps 103:16 For the wind passes over it, and it is no more; / And its own place knows of it no longer.
Ps 103:17 But Jehovah’s lovingkindness is from eternity / Unto eternity upon those who fear Him, / And His righteousness is to the children’s children;
Ps 103:18 To those who keep His covenant / And remember His precepts so as to do them.
Ps 103:19 Jehovah has established His athrone in the heavens, / And His kingdom rules over all.
Ps 103:20 Bless Jehovah, you His angels, / Who are mighty in strength to perform His word, / By obeying the voice of His word.
Ps 103:21 Bless Jehovah, all you His hosts, / You His ministers who execute His will.
Ps 103:22 Bless Jehovah, all you His works, / In all places of His dominion. / Bless Jehovah, O my soul.
PSALM 104

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

Ps 104:1 1aBless Jehovah, O my soul. / O Jehovah my God, You are very great. / You are clothed with majesty and splendor,
Ps 104:2 Wrapped with alight as with a garment; / You bstretch out the heavens like a tent curtain.
Ps 104:3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the 1waters; / He makes the clouds His chariot; / He walks upon the wings of the wind.
Ps 104:4 He makes awinds His messengers, / Flames of fire His ministers.
Ps 104:5 He established the aearth upon its foundations, / So that it cannot be moved forever and ever.
Ps 104:6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; / The waters stood above the amountains.
Ps 104:7 At Your arebuke they fled; / At the voice of Your thunder they rushed away —
Ps 104:8 The amountains rose, the valleys sank — / To the place that You established for them.
Ps 104:9 You set a aborder that they may not pass over, / That they may not turn back to cover the earth.
Ps 104:10 He makes the asprings gush forth in the valleys; / They run among the mountains;
Ps 104:11 They give drink to every beast of the field; / The wild asses quench their thirst.
Ps 104:12 The birds of heaven dwell alongside them; / They utter their voice among the branches.
Ps 104:13 He awaters the mountains from His upper chambers. / The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.
Ps 104:14 He causes the agrass to grow for the cattle, / And bherbage for man’s use, / That he may bring forth food from the earth:
Ps 104:15 Even awine that cheers man’s heart, / bOil that makes his face shine, / And bread that sustains man’s cheart.
Ps 104:16 The trees of Jehovah are afull of sap, / The cedars of Lebanon, which He planted,
Ps 104:17 Where the birds build their nests; / As for the stork, the cypresses are her house.
Ps 104:18 The high mountains are for the wild goats; / The cliffs are a refuge to the rock badgers.
Ps 104:19 He made the moon to mark aseasons; / The bsun knows the time of its going down.
Ps 104:20 You make darkness, and it is night, / In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
Ps 104:21 The young lions roar after their prey, / Even to seek their food from God.
Ps 104:22 The sun rises: they retreat / And lie down in their dens.
Ps 104:23 Man goes forth to his work / And to his alabor until evening.
Ps 104:24 How many are Your works, O Jehovah! / In wisdom You have made all of them; / The earth is full of Your creatures.
Ps 104:25 Yonder is the sea, great and extensively wide; / There the creeping things are, even without number, / The small animals with the great.
Ps 104:26 There the ships go; / Leviathan is there, whom You have formed / To play in it.
Ps 104:27 They all wait for You, / That You may give them afood at the proper time.
Ps 104:28 You give to them; they gather. / You open Your hand; they are satisfied with good.
Ps 104:29 You hide Your face; they are troubled. / You take away their breath; they perish, / And return to their adust.
Ps 104:30 You send forth Your aSpirit; they are created, / And You renew the surface of the ground.
Ps 104:31 May the glory of Jehovah endure forever! / May Jehovah rejoice in His works,
Ps 104:32 He who looks on the earth, and it trembles; / He who touches the mountains, and they asmoke!
Ps 104:33 aI will sing to Jehovah while I live; / I will sing psalms to my God while I yet have being.
Ps 104:34 May my musing be sweet to Him; / I will rejoice in Jehovah.
Ps 104:35 May the sinners be consumed from off the earth, / And may the wicked be no more. / Bless Jehovah, O my soul. / 1aHallelujah.
PSALM 105

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 

Ps 105:1 aGive thanks to Jehovah; bcall upon His name; / Make known His deeds among the peoples.
Ps 105:2 Sing to Him; sing psalms to Him; / Muse upon all His wondrous deeds.
Ps 105:3 Glory in His holy name; / Let the heart of those who seek Jehovah rejoice.
Ps 105:4 aSeek Jehovah and His strength; / bSeek His face continually.
Ps 105:5 Remember His wondrous deeds, which He has done, / His signs and the judgments of His mouth,
Ps 105:6 O seed of Abraham His servant, / O children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
Ps 105:7 He is Jehovah our God; / His judgments are in all the earth.
Ps 105:8 He has remembered His 1covenant forever, / The word that He commanded to a thousand generations,
Ps 105:9 The covenant that He made with aAbraham, / And His oath unto bIsaac.
Ps 105:10 And He confirmed it unto aJacob as a statute, / Unto Israel as an eternal covenant,
Ps 105:11 Saying, To you I will agive the land of Canaan, / The portion of your inheritance;
Ps 105:12 When they were men few in number, / Indeed very afew and bstrangers in 1the land.
Ps 105:13 And they went about from nation to nation, / From one kingdom to another people.
Ps 105:14 He aallowed no man to oppress them; / Indeed He brebuked kings for their sake.
Ps 105:15 Saying, Do not touch My anointed ones, / And do My prophets no harm.
Ps 105:16 And He called a afamine upon the land; / He broke the whole staff of bread.
Ps 105:17 He sent a man abefore them; / Joseph was bsold as a servant.
Ps 105:18 They afflicted his feet with fetters; / He himself was aplaced in irons.
Ps 105:19 Until the time when his word acame to pass, / The word of Jehovah tried him.
Ps 105:20 The king sent men and afreed him, / Even the ruler of the peoples, and let him go.
Ps 105:21 He made him lord of his house / And aruler over all his possessions,
Ps 105:22 To imprison his princes at will, / And to teach his elders wisdom.
Ps 105:23 Then Israel came into aEgypt, / And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
Ps 105:24 And He made His people very afruitful, / And caused them to be mightier than their adversaries.
Ps 105:25 He turned their heart to hate His people, / To deal acraftily with His servants.
Ps 105:26 He asent Moses His servant, / And Aaron, whom He had chosen.
Ps 105:27 aThey set His signs among them, / And wonders in the land of Ham.
Ps 105:28 He sent adarkness and made it dark; / And they did not rebel against His words.
Ps 105:29 He turned their waters into ablood, / And killed their fish.
Ps 105:30 Their land teemed with afrogs, / Even in the chambers of their kings.
Ps 105:31 He spoke, and a swarm of aflies came; / There were blice within all their borders.
Ps 105:32 He gave them ahail for rain, / And flaming fire in their land.
Ps 105:33 He struck their vines and their fig trees, / And He abroke the trees of their borders.
Ps 105:34 He spoke, and the swarming alocusts came, / And the licking locusts, even without number.
Ps 105:35 And they ate every herb in their land, / And they ate the fruit of their ground.
Ps 105:36 He astruck all the firstborn in their land, / The firstfruits of all their vigor.
Ps 105:37 And He brought them out with silver and agold, / And there was none among His tribes who stumbled.
Ps 105:38 Egypt rejoiced at their agoing forth, / For a dread of them had fallen upon them.
Ps 105:39 He spread a acloud for a covering, / And a fire to give light by night.
Ps 105:40 They asked, and He brought aquails; / And He satisfied them with the bbread of heaven.
Ps 105:41 He opened the arock, and water gushed forth; / It ran in the dry places like a river.
Ps 105:42 For He remembered His holy word / And Abraham His servant.
Ps 105:43 And He brought forth His people with gladness, / His chosen ones with a ringing shout.
Ps 105:44 And He gave them the lands of the nations, / And they took apossession of the labor of the peoples,
Ps 105:45 So that they might keep His statutes / And observe His laws. / 1aHallelujah.
PSALM 106

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • 

Ps 106:1 1aHallelujah. / bGive thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 106:2 Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah, / Or declare all His praise?
Ps 106:3 Blessed are those who maintain justice, / Who execute righteousness at all times.
Ps 106:4 Remember me, O Jehovah, with Your favor toward Your people; / Visit me with Your salvation,
Ps 106:5 That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones, / That I may rejoice in the joy of Your nation, / That I may glory with Your inheritance.
Ps 106:6 We ahave sinned with our fathers; / We committed iniquity; we have acted wickedly.
Ps 106:7 Our fathers in Egypt / Did not understand Your wonders; / They did not remember the multitude of Your aacts of lovingkindness, / But brebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
Ps 106:8 But He saved them for His name’s sake, / That He might make His power known.
Ps 106:9 Thus He arebuked the Red Sea, and it bdried up; / And He led them through the depths as through the wilderness.
Ps 106:10 And He asaved them from the hand of him who hated them, / And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
Ps 106:11 The water then acovered their adversaries; / Not one of them was left.
Ps 106:12 Then they abelieved His words; / They bsang His praise.
Ps 106:13 Soon they forgot His works; / They did not wait for His counsel,
Ps 106:14 But alusted exceedingly in the wilderness, / And btempted God in the desert.
Ps 106:15 And He gave them their request, / But He sent leanness into their soul.
Ps 106:16 And they were ajealous of Moses in the camp / And of Aaron, the holy one of Jehovah.
Ps 106:17 The earth opened, and it aswallowed up Dathan / And covered the company of Abiram.
Ps 106:18 And a afire burned among their company; / A flame engulfed the wicked.
Ps 106:19 They made a acalf in Horeb, / And worshipped a molten image.
Ps 106:20 Thus they exchanged their aglory / For the image of an ox that eats grass.
Ps 106:21 They forgot God their Savior, / Who had done great things in Egypt,
Ps 106:22 Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham, / Awesome things by the Red Sea.
Ps 106:23 Therefore He said that He would adestroy them, / And would have, had not Moses His chosen one / Stood in the breach before Him / To turn away His wrath from destroying them.
Ps 106:24 Then they despised the apleasant land; / They did bnot believe in His word;
Ps 106:25 Rather they amurmured in their tents; / They did not listen to the voice of Jehovah.
Ps 106:26 Therefore He lifted up His hand and swore to them / That He would make them afall in the wilderness,
Ps 106:27 And that He would make their seed fall among the nations, / And that He would adisperse them among the lands.
Ps 106:28 Then they joined themselves to aBaal-peor, / And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
Ps 106:29 Thus they provoked Him to anger by their actions, / And the plague broke out among them.
Ps 106:30 Then aPhinehas stood up and intervened, / And the plague was stayed;
Ps 106:31 And it has been accounted to him as arighteousness / From generation to generation unto eternity.
Ps 106:32 Then they angered Him at the waters of aMeribah, / So that it went ill with Moses on account of them;
Ps 106:33 For they rebelled against His Spirit, / And he aspoke rashly with his lips.
Ps 106:34 They did not adestroy the peoples, / As Jehovah had commanded them;
Ps 106:35 But they amingled themselves with the nations / And learned their practices.
Ps 106:36 And they aserved their idols, / Which became a snare to them.
Ps 106:37 They also sacrificed their sons / And their daughters to ademons,
Ps 106:38 And poured out innocent blood, / The blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; / And the land was apolluted with bloodshed.
Ps 106:39 Thus they were defiled by their practices, / And went about as aharlots by their actions.
Ps 106:40 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against His people, / And He abhorred His inheritance.
Ps 106:41 And He agave them over into the hand of the nations: / And those who hated them ruled over them,
Ps 106:42 And their enemies aoppressed them, / And they were subdued under their hand.
Ps 106:43 Many times He delivered them, / But they were rebellious in their counsel, / And they were brought low in their iniquity.
Ps 106:44 Yet He regarded their distress / When He heard their cry,
Ps 106:45 And for their sake He remembered His acovenant, / And repented according to the multitude of His acts of lovingkindness;
Ps 106:46 And He caused them to find acompassion / With all their captors.
Ps 106:47 aSave us, O Jehovah our God; / And gather us out of the nations, / That we may give thanks to Your holy name, / That we may glory in Your praise.
Ps 106:48 aBlessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, / From eternity to eternity. / And let all the people say, bAmen. / Hallelujah.
BOOK FIVE
Psalms 107 — 150
Indicating That the House and the City of God
Become the Praise, Safety, and Desire of the Saints, and
That Christ Comes to Reign over the Whole Earth
through the House and the City of God — the Church
PSALM 107

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • 

Ps 107:1 aGive thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 107:2 Let the 1aredeemed of Jehovah say so, / Whom He redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
Ps 107:3 And 1agathered out of the lands, / From the east and from the west, / From the north and from the south.
Ps 107:4 They 1wandered in the awilderness, on the desert way; / They found no city of habitation.
Ps 107:5 Hungry and thirsty, / Their soul fainted within them.
Ps 107:6 Then they cried out to Jehovah in their trouble, / And He delivered them from their distresses.
Ps 107:7 And He led them on a straight way / That they might come to a city of habitation.
Ps 107:8 Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His lovingkindness / And for His wondrous deeds to the children of men.
Ps 107:9 For He asatisfies the thirsty soul, / And the bfamished soul He fills with good.
Ps 107:10 Some inhabited adarkness and the shadow of death, / And were bound in affliction and irons,
Ps 107:11 Because they rebelled against the words of God / And spurned the counsel of the Most High;
Ps 107:12 Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; / They stumbled, and there was no one to help them.
Ps 107:13 Then they cried out to Jehovah in their trouble, / And He saved them from their distresses.
Ps 107:14 He brought them out of adarkness and the shadow of death, / And He broke apart their bonds.
Ps 107:15 Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His lovingkindness / And for His wondrous deeds to the children of men.
Ps 107:16 For He breaks down the doors of bronze / And cuts down the bars of iron.
Ps 107:17 Some were fools, because of their way of transgression; / And because of their iniquities, they were afflicted.
Ps 107:18 Their soul loathed all food, / And they drew near to the gates of death.
Ps 107:19 Then they cried out to Jehovah in their trouble, / And He saved them out of their distresses.
Ps 107:20 He sent forth His word and ahealed them, / And He delivered them from the pits of destruction.
Ps 107:21 Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His lovingkindness / And for His wondrous deeds to the children of men.
Ps 107:22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving / And declare His doings in joyful song.
Ps 107:23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, / Conducting business on the mighty waters,
Ps 107:24 These see Jehovah’s doings / And His wondrous deeds in the deep.
Ps 107:25 For He commanded and raised up a storm wind, / And it lifted up 1the waves of the sea.
Ps 107:26 1They mounted up to the heavens; they went down to the depths; / Their soul melted in the calamity.
Ps 107:27 They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, / And all their skill was swallowed up.
Ps 107:28 Then they cried out to Jehovah in their trouble, / And He brought them out of their distresses.
Ps 107:29 He made the storm be still, / And 1the waves of the sea were acalm;
Ps 107:30 And they rejoiced that they were quiet, / And He brought them to the haven they desired.
Ps 107:31 Let them give thanks to Jehovah for His lovingkindness / And for His wondrous deeds to the children of men.
Ps 107:32 And let them exalt Him in the congregation of the people / And praise Him in the assembly of the elders.
Ps 107:33 He turns arivers into a wilderness, / And springs of water into thirsty ground;
Ps 107:34 Fruitful land into a asalt flat, / Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
Ps 107:35 He turns a wilderness into a pool of water, / And a dry land into asprings of water.
Ps 107:36 And He makes the hungry dwell there, / That they may prepare a city of habitation
Ps 107:37 And sow fields and plant vineyards / And get a fruitful yield.
Ps 107:38 He also blesses them, and they are multiplied greatly; / And He does not let their cattle decrease.
Ps 107:39 When they are diminished and bowed down / Through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
Ps 107:40 He pours contempt on princes, / And makes them wander in a pathless waste.
Ps 107:41 But He raises the needy man high above affliction / And makes his families like flocks.
Ps 107:42 The upright see it and rejoice; / And all iniquity stops its mouth.
Ps 107:43 Who is awise? Then let him observe these things / And consider the lovingkindness of Jehovah.
PSALM 108

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

A Song; a aPsalm of David
Ps 108:1 aMy heart is fixed, O God; / I will sing, indeed I will sing psalms, / Even with my glory.
Ps 108:2 Awake, O harp and lyre! / I will awaken the dawn.
Ps 108:3 I will give thanks to You among the peoples, O Jehovah; / And I will sing psalms to You among the nations.
Ps 108:4 For Your lovingkindness is higher than the heavens, / And Your 1faithfulness reaches to the sky.
Ps 108:5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God; / And let Your glory be above all the earth.
Ps 108:6 aThat Your beloved ones may be delivered, / 1Save with Your right hand, and answer 2us.
Ps 108:7 God has spoken in His 1holiness: I will exult; / I will divide Shechem / And measure out the Valley of Succoth.
Ps 108:8 Gilead is Mine; Manasseh is Mine; / And Ephraim is the helmet for My head; / Judah is My ascepter.
Ps 108:9 Moab is My washbowl; / Upon Edom I will cast My sandal; / Over Philistia I will shout.
Ps 108:10 Who will bring me into the fortified city? / Who will lead me to Edom?
Ps 108:11 Will not You, O God, who arejected us / And who did not go forth, O God, with our armies?
Ps 108:12 Give us help from the adversary, / For salvation by man is vain.
Ps 108:13 In God we will do valiantly, / And it is He who will tread down our adversaries.
PSALM 109

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

To the choir director. aOf David. A Psalm
Ps 109:1 1O God of my praise, do not be silent;
Ps 109:2 For the mouth of the wicked man and the mouth of deceit are opened against me; / They speak to me with a lying tongue.
Ps 109:3 And with words of hatred they have surrounded me / And have fought against me without cause.
Ps 109:4 In return for my love they have become my adversaries, / But I am all prayer.
Ps 109:5 And they have set against me evil in return for good / And hatred in return for my love.
Ps 109:6 Appoint a wicked man over him, / And let an adversary stand at his right hand.
Ps 109:7 When he is judged, let him come forth wicked; / And let his prayer be counted as sin.
Ps 109:8 May his days be few; / aMay another take his office.
Ps 109:9 May his children be orphans, / And his wife a widow.
Ps 109:10 And may his children wander all about and beg, / And may they seek food far from their desolated ruins.
Ps 109:11 May the creditor seize all that he has, / And may strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.
Ps 109:12 May there be no one to extend him mercy, / Nor anyone to be kind to his orphans.
Ps 109:13 May his posterity be cut off; / In the generation following may 1his name be blotted out.
Ps 109:14 May his fathers’ iniquity be remembered before Jehovah, / And may his mother’s sin not be blotted out.
Ps 109:15 May they be before Jehovah continually, / So that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;
Ps 109:16 Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness, / But persecuted the poor and needy and brokenhearted, / To put them to death.
Ps 109:17 Indeed he loved cursing, so it came on him; / And he took no delight in blessing, so it was far from him.
Ps 109:18 And he clothed himself with cursing like his garment, / So it came into his inward parts like water / And into his bones like oil.
Ps 109:19 Let it be to him like the cloak that he wraps around himself, / And as a belt with which he constantly girds himself.
Ps 109:20 This is the reward from Jehovah for my adversaries / And for those who speak evil against my soul.
Ps 109:21 But You, O Jehovah Lord, deal with me, / For Your name’s sake; / Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me.
Ps 109:22 For I am poor and needy, / And my heart is wounded within me.
Ps 109:23 I am gone like a shadow that declines; / I am shaken off like the locust.
Ps 109:24 My knees wobble through fasting, / And my flesh has become lean, without fatness.
Ps 109:25 I have also become a areproach to them: / When they see me, they bshake their heads.
Ps 109:26 Help me, O Jehovah my God; / Save me according to Your lovingkindness;
Ps 109:27 And they will know that this is Your hand, / That it is You, O Jehovah, who have done it.
Ps 109:28 Let them curse, but You bless; / When they arise, they will be put to shame, / And Your servant will rejoice.
Ps 109:29 May my adversaries be clothed with humiliation, / And may they wrap themselves with their own shame as with a mantle.
Ps 109:30 I will give much thanks to Jehovah with my mouth, / And in the midst of the multitude I will praise Him;
Ps 109:31 For He stands at the right hand of the needy / To save him from those who judge his soul.
PSALM 110

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

aOf David. A Psalm
Ps 110:1 1aJehovah declares to my Lord, / Sit at My 2bright hand / Until I make Your enemies / Your 3footstool.
Ps 110:2 Jehovah will send forth / The ascepter of Your strength from 1bZion: / cRule in the midst of Your enemies.
Ps 110:3 Your people will 1offer themselves awillingly / In the day of Your warfare, / In the 2splendor of their consecration. / Your young men will be to You / Like the 3bdew from the womb of the dawn.
Ps 110:4 aJehovah has sworn, / And He will bnot change: / cYou are a 1dPriest eforever / According to the 2order of 3fMelchizedek.
Ps 110:5 The 1Lord is at Your aright hand; / He will shatter kings in the day of His banger.
Ps 110:6 He will execute ajudgment among the nations; / He will fill the place with corpses; / He will shatter the head / Over a 1great land.
Ps 110:7 He will drink from the 1brook by the way; / Therefore He will 2lift up His head.
PSALM 111

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

Ps 111:1 1aHallelujah! / 2I will give thanks to Jehovah with all my heart / In the council of the upright and bin the assembly.
Ps 111:2 aGreat are the 1works of Jehovah, / And sought out by all who delight in them.
Ps 111:3 His work is majesty and splendor, / And His righteousness endures forever.
Ps 111:4 He has caused His wondrous deeds to be remembered; / Jehovah is gracious and compassionate.
Ps 111:5 He gives food to those who fear Him; / He remembers His covenant forever.
Ps 111:6 He has shown His people the power of His works / By giving them the aheritage of the nations.
Ps 111:7 The works of His hands are truth and justice; / All His precepts are sure:
Ps 111:8 They are maintained forever and ever, / They are executed in truth and uprightness.
Ps 111:9 He has sent aredemption to His people; / He has commanded His covenant forever; / bHoly and awesome is His name.
Ps 111:10 The afear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; / All who practice 1His precepts have a good understanding. / His praise endures forever.
PSALM 112

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

Ps 112:1 1aHallelujah! / 2Blessed is the man who bfears Jehovah, / Who delights greatly in His commandments.
Ps 112:2 His seed will be mighty on the earth; / The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Ps 112:3 Wealth and riches are in his house, / And his righteousness endures forever.
Ps 112:4 Light in the darkness arises to the upright; / They are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
Ps 112:5 It is well with the man who is gracious and alends; / He will maintain his cause in judgment.
Ps 112:6 For he will never be moved; / The righteous man will be remembered forever.
Ps 112:7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; / His heart is steadfast, trusting in Jehovah.
Ps 112:8 His heart is sustained, he is not afraid, / Until he sees what should happen to his adversaries.
Ps 112:9 aHe has scattered abroad; he has bgiven to the needy; / His righteousness endures forever; / His horn will be exalted with honor.
Ps 112:10 The wicked man will see it and be angry; / He will gnash his teeth and melt away; / The desire of the wicked will perish.
PSALM 113

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

Ps 113:1 1aHallelujah! / Praise, you servants of Jehovah, / Praise the name of Jehovah.
Ps 113:2 Let the name of Jehovah be ablessed, / From now and to eternity.
Ps 113:3 From the arising of the sun to its setting / The name of Jehovah is to be praised.
Ps 113:4 Jehovah is high above all the nations, / And His aglory is above the heavens.
Ps 113:5 aWho is like Jehovah our God, / Who has set His throne on high,
Ps 113:6 Who humbles Himself to behold / The heavens and the earth?
Ps 113:7 aHe raises the poor from the dust; / From the ash heap He lifts the needy;
Ps 113:8 That He may seat them with princes, / With the princes of His people.
Ps 113:9 He causes the abarren woman to keep house / As a joyful mother of children. / Hallelujah.
PSALM 114

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

Ps 114:1 When Israel awent forth from Egypt, / The house of Jacob from among a people of unintelligible speech,
Ps 114:2 Judah became His asanctuary, / Israel, His dominion.
Ps 114:3 The asea saw and fled; / The bJordan turned back.
Ps 114:4 The mountains skipped like rams, / The hills, like lambs.
Ps 114:5 What troubles you, O sea, that you flee? / O Jordan, that you turn back?
Ps 114:6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? / O hills, like lambs?
Ps 114:7 Tremble at the apresence of the Lord, O earth, / At the presence of the God of Jacob,
Ps 114:8 Who turns the arock into a pool of water, / The flint into a fountain of water.
PSALM 115

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Ps 115:1 Not to us, O Jehovah, not to us, / But to Your name give aglory, / For the sake of Your lovingkindness and Your 1truth.
Ps 115:2 aWhy should the nations say, / Where then is their God?
Ps 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; / He does whatever He pleases.
Ps 115:4 aTheir idols are mere silver and gold, / The work of human bhands.
Ps 115:5 They have mouths, but they do anot speak; / They have eyes, but they do bnot see.
Ps 115:6 They have ears, but they do not hear; / They have noses, but they do not smell.
Ps 115:7 They have hands, but they do not feel; / They have feet, but they do not walk; / They make no sound in their throat.
Ps 115:8 Those who make them, / All who atrust in them, / Are 1like them.
Ps 115:9 O Israel, atrust in Jehovah. / He is their help and their shield.
Ps 115:10 O house of Aaron, trust in Jehovah. / He is their help and their shield.
Ps 115:11 O you who fear Jehovah, trust in Jehovah. / He is their help and their shield.
Ps 115:12 Jehovah has been mindful of us; He will bless us; / He will bless the house of Israel; / He will bless the house of Aaron;
Ps 115:13 He will bless those who fear Jehovah, / Both small and great.
Ps 115:14 May Jehovah give you increase, / Both you and your children.
Ps 115:15 May you be blessed of Jehovah, / aMaker of heaven and earth.
Ps 115:16 The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah, / But He has given the aearth to the children of men.
Ps 115:17 The adead do not praise 1Jehovah, / Nor do any that go down into silence.
Ps 115:18 But we will bless Jehovah / From now and to eternity. / 1aHallelujah.
PSALM 116

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

Ps 116:1 I love Jehovah because He hears / My voice, my supplications,
Ps 116:2 Because He inclines His ear to me; / Therefore I will call upon Him all my days.
Ps 116:3 The bonds of death encompassed me, / And the distresses of Sheol fell upon me; / I fell upon trouble and sorrow.
Ps 116:4 But I acalled upon the name of Jehovah. / O Jehovah, I pray, deliver my soul.
Ps 116:5 Jehovah is gracious and righteous, / Indeed our God is compassionate.
Ps 116:6 Jehovah preserves the simple: / I was brought low, and He saved me.
Ps 116:7 Return to your rest, O my soul; / For Jehovah has dealt bountifully with you.
Ps 116:8 aFor You have delivered my soul from death, / My eyes from tears, / My feet from stumbling.
Ps 116:9 I will walk before Jehovah / In the 1land of the living.
Ps 116:10 aI believed, 1therefore I spoke; / I was afflicted greatly.
Ps 116:11 I said in my haste, / aAll men are liars.
Ps 116:12 What shall I areturn to Jehovah / For all His benefits toward me?
Ps 116:13 I will take up the 1acup of salvation / And 1bcall upon the name of Jehovah.
Ps 116:14 I will pay my vows to Jehovah, / Oh, in the presence of all His people.
Ps 116:15 aPrecious in the sight of Jehovah / Is the bdeath of His faithful ones.
Ps 116:16 O Jehovah! / Surely I am Your aservant; / I am Your servant, the son of Your female servant; / You have loosed my bonds.
Ps 116:17 To You I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, / And I will acall upon the name of Jehovah.
Ps 116:18 I will pay my vows to Jehovah, / Oh, in the presence of all His people,
Ps 116:19 In the acourts of the house of Jehovah, / In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. / bHallelujah.
PSALM 117

vv. 1 • 

Ps 117:1 aPraise Jehovah, all you nations; / Laud Him, all you peoples.
Ps 117:2 For His lovingkindness is great toward us, / And the faithfulness of Jehovah is forever. / 1aHallelujah.
PSALM 118

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

Ps 118:1 Give 1thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 118:2 Let Israel say, / His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 118:3 Let the house of Aaron say, / His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 118:4 Let those who fear Jehovah say, / His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 118:5 Out of my distress I acalled upon 1Jehovah; / 1Jehovah answered me and set me in a place bbroad and free.
Ps 118:6 Jehovah is for me; aI will not be afraid. / What can man do to me?
Ps 118:7 Jehovah is for me as my Helper, / And I will see what should happen to those who hate me.
Ps 118:8 It is better to atake refuge in Jehovah / Than to trust in man.
Ps 118:9 It is better to take refuge in Jehovah / Than to trust in princes.
Ps 118:10 All nations surrounded me; / In the name of Jehovah I indeed cut them down!
Ps 118:11 They surrounded me; yes, they surrounded me; / In the name of Jehovah I indeed cut them down!
Ps 118:12 They surrounded me like bees; / They were extinguished like a fire of thorns; / In the name of Jehovah I indeed cut them down!
Ps 118:13 1I was pushed hard that I might fall; / But Jehovah helped me.
Ps 118:14 aJehovah is my strength and my song, / And He has become my 1salvation.
Ps 118:15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation / Is in the tents of the righteous. / The aright hand of Jehovah does valiantly;
Ps 118:16 The right hand of Jehovah is exalted; / The right hand of Jehovah does valiantly.
Ps 118:17 I will not die, but live, / And declare the works of Jehovah.
Ps 118:18 Jehovah has severely chastened me, / But He has not given me over to adeath.
Ps 118:19 Open to me the agates of righteousness: / I will enter in through them; I will give thanks to Jehovah.
Ps 118:20 This is the gate of Jehovah; / The righteous shall aenter in through it.
Ps 118:21 I will give thanks to You, for You have answered me / And have become my salvation.
Ps 118:22 aThe 1stone which the 1builders rejected / Has become the 2head of the bcorner.
Ps 118:23 This is from Jehovah; / It is wonderful in our sight.
Ps 118:24 This is the 1aday that Jehovah has made; / Let us exult and rejoice in it.
Ps 118:25 O Jehovah, 1do asave, we pray! / O Jehovah, do send 2prosperity, we pray!
Ps 118:26 aBlessed is He who 1comes in the name of Jehovah; / We bless you from the house of Jehovah.
Ps 118:27 Jehovah is God, / And He has given us light; / Bind the sacrifice of the feast with cords / To the ahorns of the altar.
Ps 118:28 You are my God, and I give thanks to You. / You are my God; I will exalt You.
Ps 118:29 Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
PSALM 119

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • • 60 • • • • 65 • • • • 70 • • • • 75 • • • • 80 • • • • 85 • • • • 90 • • • • 95 • • • • 100 • • • • 105 • • • • 110 • • • • 115 • • • • 120 • • • • 125 • • • • 130 • • • • 135 • • • • 140 • • • • 145 • • • • 150 • • • • 155 • • • • 160 • • • • 165 • • • • 170 • • • • 175 • 

*a (Aleph)
Ps 119:1 Blessed are those whose way is perfect, / Who awalk in the 1law of Jehovah.
Ps 119:2 Blessed are those who keep His 1testimonies, / Who 2aseek Him with all their heart.
Ps 119:3 Surely they do no wrong; / They walk in His ways.
Ps 119:4 You have commanded that Your precepts / Be diligently kept.
Ps 119:5 Oh that my ways may be established / So as to keep Your 1statutes!
Ps 119:6 Then I will not be put to shame, / When I regard all Your commandments.
Ps 119:7 I will give thanks to You with uprightness of heart / When I learn Your righteous ordinances.
Ps 119:8 I will keep Your statutes; / Do not utterly forsake me.
b (Beth)
Ps 119:9 With what should a young man keep his way pure? / By guarding it according to Your 1word.
Ps 119:10 With all my heart I have sought You; / Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
Ps 119:11 In my aheart I have treasured up Your word / That I might not sin against You.
Ps 119:12 Blessed are You, O Jehovah; / Teach me Your statutes.
Ps 119:13 With my lips I have declared / All the ordinances of Your mouth.
Ps 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies / As much as in all riches.
Ps 119:15 I will 1muse upon Your precepts / And regard Your ways.
Ps 119:16 I will take delight in Your statutes; / I will not forget Your word.
g (Gimel)
Ps 119:17 Deal bountifully with Your servant that I may live / And keep Your word.
Ps 119:18 aOpen my eyes that I may behold / Wondrous things out of Your law.
Ps 119:19 I am a asojourner in the earth; / Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Ps 119:20 My soul is crushed with longing / For Your ordinances at all times.
Ps 119:21 You have rebuked the proud, the cursed, / Who wander from Your commandments.
Ps 119:22 Roll away from me reproach and contempt, / For I have kept Your testimonies.
Ps 119:23 Princes as well have sat and spoken against me, / But Your servant amused upon Your statutes.
Ps 119:24 Also Your testimonies are my delight; / They are my counselors.
d (Daleth)
Ps 119:25 My soul clings to the dust; / aEnliven me according to Your word.
Ps 119:26 I have recounted my ways, and You have answered me; / Teach me Your statutes.
Ps 119:27 Cause me to understand the way of Your precepts, / And I will muse upon Your wondrous deeds.
Ps 119:28 My soul melts because of grief; / Strengthen me according to Your word.
Ps 119:29 Remove from me the way of falsehood, / And graciously grant me Your law.
Ps 119:30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness; / Your ordinances I have set before me.
Ps 119:31 I cling to Your testimonies; / O Jehovah, do not put me to shame.
Ps 119:32 I run the way of Your commandments, / For You aenlarge my heart.
h (He)
Ps 119:33 Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of Your statutes; / And I will keep it to the end.
Ps 119:34 Give me understanding, and I will observe Your law; / Indeed I will keep it with all my heart.
Ps 119:35 Cause me to go on the path of Your commandments, / For in it I delight.
Ps 119:36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies / And not to unjust gain.
Ps 119:37 Turn my eyes from beholding vanity, / And enliven me in Your ways.
Ps 119:38 Confirm to Your servant Your word, / Which is for fearing You.
Ps 119:39 Turn away my reproach, which I fear; / For Your ordinances are good.
Ps 119:40 Behold, I have longed after Your precepts; / Enliven me in Your righteousness.
w (Vav)
Ps 119:41 May Your lovingkindness also come to me, O Jehovah, / Your salvation according to Your word.
Ps 119:42 Thus I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, / For I trust in Your word.
Ps 119:43 And do not take the word of truth utterly from my mouth, / For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
Ps 119:44 Thus I will keep Your law continually, / Forever and ever.
Ps 119:45 And I will walk at liberty, / For I have sought Your precepts.
Ps 119:46 I will also speak of Your testimonies before akings / And not be ashamed.
Ps 119:47 And I will take delight in Your commandments, / Which I love.
Ps 119:48 And I will 1lift up my hand to Your commandments, which I love; / And I will amuse upon Your statutes.
z (Zayin)
Ps 119:49 Remember the word to Your servant / In which You have made me hope.
Ps 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction, / For Your word has 1aenlivened me.
Ps 119:51 The proud have derided me greatly; / I have not swerved from Your law.
Ps 119:52 I have remembered Your ordinances from long ago, / O Jehovah, and have comforted myself.
Ps 119:53 Raging indignation seizes me because of the wicked, / Who forsake Your law.
Ps 119:54 Your statutes have become my songs of praise / In the house of my pilgrimage.
Ps 119:55 I have remembered Your name / In the night, O Jehovah, / And have kept Your law.
Ps 119:56 This has been mine, / That I have kept Your precepts.
ch (Heth)
Ps 119:57 Jehovah is my aportion; / I have promised to keep Your words.
Ps 119:58 I entreated Your 1favor with my whole heart; / Be gracious to me according to Your word.
Ps 119:59 I considered my ways / And turned my feet toward Your testimonies.
Ps 119:60 I hurried and did not delay / To keep Your commandments.
Ps 119:61 The cords of the wicked surround me, / But I have not forgotten Your law.
Ps 119:62 At amidnight I rise up to give thanks to You / Because of Your righteous ordinances.
Ps 119:63 I am a companion to all who fear You / And to those who keep Your precepts.
Ps 119:64 Your lovingkindness, O Jehovah, afills the earth; / Teach me Your statutes.
t (Teth)
Ps 119:65 You have dealt well with Your servant, / O Jehovah, according to Your word.
Ps 119:66 Teach me proper discernment and knowledge, / For I believe in Your commandments.
Ps 119:67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray; / But now I keep Your word.
Ps 119:68 You are agood and One who does good; / Teach me Your statutes.
Ps 119:69 The proud have plastered lies against me; / With my whole heart I will keep Your precepts.
Ps 119:70 Their heart is heavy as with fat; / But I delight in Your law.
Ps 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, / That I might learn Your statutes.
Ps 119:72 The law of Your mouth is better to me / Than thousands of pieces of agold and silver.
y (Yodh)
Ps 119:73 Your hands have amade me and fashioned me; / Give me understanding that I may learn Your commandments.
Ps 119:74 Those who fear You will see me and rejoice, / For I have hoped in Your word.
Ps 119:75 I know, O Jehovah, that Your judgments are righteous / And that in faithfulness You afflicted me.
Ps 119:76 Let Your lovingkindness, I beseech You, be my comfort, / According to Your word to Your servant.
Ps 119:77 Let Your compassions come to me, and I will live; / For Your law is my delight.
Ps 119:78 Let the proud be put to shame, for they have subverted my cause with a lie; / But I will muse upon Your precepts.
Ps 119:79 Let those who fear You turn to me, / And they will know Your testimonies.
Ps 119:80 May my heart be perfect in Your statutes, / That I may not be put to shame.
k (Kaph)
Ps 119:81 My soul faints while longing for Your salvation; / I hope in Your word.
Ps 119:82 My eyes faint while longing for Your word, / As I say, When will You comfort me?
Ps 119:83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke; / But I do not forget Your statutes.
Ps 119:84 How many are the days of Your servant? / When will You execute justice upon my persecutors?
Ps 119:85 The proud have dug pits for me, / Those who are not according to Your law.
Ps 119:86 All Your commandments are faithful; / They persecute me falsely; help me.
Ps 119:87 They have almost consumed me upon the earth; / But I have not forsaken Your precepts.
Ps 119:88 aEnliven me according to Your lovingkindness, / And I will keep the testimony of Your mouth.
l (Lamedh)
Ps 119:89 Forever, O Jehovah, / Does Your aword stand firm in heaven.
Ps 119:90 Your faithfulness is from generation to generation; / You established the earth, and it abides.
Ps 119:91 They abide to this day according to Your ordinances, / For all things are Your servants.
Ps 119:92 Unless Your law had been my delight, / I would have perished in my affliction.
Ps 119:93 I will never forget Your precepts, / For by them You have enlivened me.
Ps 119:94 I aam Yours; save me, / For I have sought Your precepts.
Ps 119:95 The wicked have waited for me in order to destroy me, / But I consider Your testimonies.
Ps 119:96 I have seen an end to all perfection, / But Your commandment is all-expansive.
m (Mem)
Ps 119:97 Oh, how I love Your law! / All day long it is my musing.
Ps 119:98 Your commandments make me awiser than my enemies, / For they are always with me.
Ps 119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers, / For Your testimonies are my musing.
Ps 119:100 I understand more than the aged, / For I have kept Your precepts.
Ps 119:101 I have withheld my feet from every evil way, / That I might keep Your word.
Ps 119:102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, / For You have taught me.
Ps 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! / aSweeter than honey to my mouth!
Ps 119:104 Through Your precepts I gain understanding; / Therefore I hate every false way.
n (Nun)
Ps 119:105 Your word is a alamp to my feet / And a blight to my path.
Ps 119:106 I have sworn and will confirm it, / That I will keep Your righteous ordinances.
Ps 119:107 I have been greatly afflicted; / O Jehovah, aenliven me according to Your word.
Ps 119:108 Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Jehovah; / And teach me Your ordinances.
Ps 119:109 My soul is continually in my hand, / But I do not forget Your law.
Ps 119:110 The wicked have laid a trap for me, / But I do not stray from Your precepts.
Ps 119:111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever, / For they are the gladness of my heart.
Ps 119:112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes / Forever, to the end.
s (Samekh)
Ps 119:113 I hate those who are double-minded, / But I love Your law.
Ps 119:114 You are my hiding place and my shield; / In Your word do I hope.
Ps 119:115 Depart from me, you evildoers, / That I may keep the commandments of my God.
Ps 119:116 Uphold me according to Your word that I may live, / And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
Ps 119:117 Hold me up that I may be safe, / And I will regard Your statutes continually.
Ps 119:118 You spurn all those who stray from Your statutes, / For their deceitfulness is vain.
Ps 119:119 You do away with all the wicked ones of the earth like dross; / Therefore I love Your testimonies.
Ps 119:120 My flesh trembles for fear of You, / And I am afraid of Your judgments.
` (Ayin)
Ps 119:121 I have performed justice and righteousness; / Do not leave me to my oppressors.
Ps 119:122 Guarantee Your servant’s well-being; / Do not let the proud oppress me.
Ps 119:123 My eyes faint while longing for Your salvation / And for Your righteous word.
Ps 119:124 Deal with Your servant according to Your lovingkindness, / And teach me Your statutes.
Ps 119:125 I am Your servant; give me understanding, / That I may know Your testimonies.
Ps 119:126 It is time for Jehovah to act, / For they have broken Your law.
Ps 119:127 Therefore I love Your commandments / More than agold, indeed, more than fine gold;
Ps 119:128 Therefore I esteem all Your precepts concerning all things to be right, / And I hate every false way.
p (Pe)
Ps 119:129 Your testimonies are wonderful; / Therefore my soul keeps them.
Ps 119:130 The 1opening of Your words gives alight, / Imparting understanding to the simple.
Ps 119:131 I opened my mouth wide and panted, / For I longed for Your commandments.
Ps 119:132 Turn to me, and be gracious to me, / As is Your custom with those who love Your name.
Ps 119:133 Establish my footsteps in Your word, / And do not let any iniquity have dominion over me.
Ps 119:134 Redeem me from man’s oppression, / That I may keep Your precepts.
Ps 119:135 Cause Your aface to shine on Your servant, / And teach me Your statutes.
Ps 119:136 My eyes ashed streams of water, / Because 1men do not keep Your law.
ts (Tsadhe)
Ps 119:137 You are righteous, O Jehovah; / And Your judgments are upright.
Ps 119:138 You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness / And great faithfulness.
Ps 119:139 My azeal has consumed me, / For my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
Ps 119:140 Your word is very apure, / And Your servant loves it.
Ps 119:141 I am small and despised, / But I do not forget Your precepts.
Ps 119:142 Your righteousness is an eternal righteousness, / And Your law is truth.
Ps 119:143 Distress and anguish have come upon me, / But Your commandments are my delight.
Ps 119:144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; / Give me understanding, and I will live.
q (Qoph)
Ps 119:145 I called with my whole heart; answer me, O Jehovah. / I will keep Your statutes.
Ps 119:146 I called upon You; save me, / And I will observe Your testimonies.
Ps 119:147 I anticipated the adawn and cried out; / I hoped in Your words.
Ps 119:148 My eyes anticipated the night watches, / That I might amuse upon Your word.
Ps 119:149 Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; / O Jehovah, according to Your ordinances enliven me.
Ps 119:150 Those who persecute me with evil intent draw near; / They are far from Your law.
Ps 119:151 You are near, O Jehovah; / And all Your commandments are truth.
Ps 119:152 Of old I have known from Your testimonies / That You have founded them forever.
r (Resh)
Ps 119:153 Look at my affliction, and deliver me; / For I have not forgotten Your law.
Ps 119:154 Plead my case, and redeem me; / aEnliven me according to Your word.
Ps 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked, / For they do not seek Your statutes.
Ps 119:156 Great are Your compassions, O Jehovah; / Enliven me according to Your ordinances.
Ps 119:157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, / But I have not swerved from Your testimonies.
Ps 119:158 I saw the treacherous and loathed them, / Because they did not keep Your word.
Ps 119:159 See how I have loved Your precepts; / O Jehovah, aenliven me according to Your lovingkindness.
Ps 119:160 The sum of Your aword is truth, / And all Your righteous ordinances are forever.
sh (Shin)
Ps 119:161 Princes have persecuted me without cause, / But my heart stands in awe of Your words.
Ps 119:162 I rejoice at Your word, / Like one who finds great spoil.
Ps 119:163 I hate and abhor falsehood, / But I love Your law.
Ps 119:164 aSeven times a day I praise You / For Your righteous ordinances.
Ps 119:165 There is great peace for those who love Your law, / And there is no occasion of stumbling for them.
Ps 119:166 I have hoped for Your salvation, O Jehovah; / And I have done Your commandments.
Ps 119:167 My soul has kept Your testimonies, / And I love them very much.
Ps 119:168 I have kept Your precepts and Your testimonies, / For all my ways are before You.
t (Tav)
Ps 119:169 Let my cry come before You, O Jehovah; / Give me understanding according to Your word.
Ps 119:170 Let my supplication come before You; / Deliver me according to Your word.
Ps 119:171 Let my lips pour forth praise, / For You teach me Your statutes.
Ps 119:172 Let my tongue sing of Your word, / For all Your commandments are righteousness.
Ps 119:173 Let Your hand be ready to help me, / For I have chosen Your precepts.
Ps 119:174 I have longed for Your salvation, O Jehovah, / And Your law is my delight.
Ps 119:175 Let my soul live, and it will praise You; / And let Your ordinances help me.
Ps 119:176 I have gone astray like a alost sheep; seek Your servant, / For I have not forgotten Your commandments.
PSALM 120

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 120:1 1In my 2distress I called out to Jehovah, / And He answered me.
Ps 120:2 O Jehovah, deliver my soul from lying lips, / From a atongue of deceit.
Ps 120:3 What should be given to you, / And what further shall be done to you, / O tongue of deceit?
Ps 120:4 The sharp arrows of a mighty man, / With the burning coals of the broom tree!
Ps 120:5 Woe is me, for I sojourn in 1Meshech, / I dwell among the tents of 1Kedar.
Ps 120:6 Long has my soul had its dwelling / With him who hates peace.
Ps 120:7 I am for peace; but when I speak, / They are for war.
PSALM 121

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 121:1 1I will lift up my eyes to the 2ahills. / From where will my help come?
Ps 121:2 My ahelp comes from Jehovah, / Who made heaven and earth.
Ps 121:3 He will not let your foot slip; / He who keeps you will not slumber.
Ps 121:4 Behold, Israel’s Keeper / Will neither slumber nor sleep.
Ps 121:5 Jehovah is your Keeper; / Jehovah is your ashade at your right hand.
Ps 121:6 The asun will not strike you by day, / Nor the moon by night.
Ps 121:7 Jehovah will keep you from all evil; / He will keep your soul.
Ps 121:8 Jehovah will keep your going out and your coming in / From now and to eternity.
PSALM 122

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

A aSong of Ascents. bOf David
Ps 122:1 I rejoiced when they said to me, / Let us go to the 1ahouse of Jehovah.
Ps 122:2 Our feet 1are standing / Within your agates, O Jerusalem.
Ps 122:3 Jerusalem has been abuilt as a city / That has been bcompacted together;
Ps 122:4 To which the tribes 1ago up, / The tribes of 2Jehovah — / A testimony for Israel — / To give thanks to the name of Jehovah.
Ps 122:5 For there thrones are set for judgment, / Thrones of the house of David.
Ps 122:6 Pray for the apeace of bJerusalem. / Those who love you will prosper.
Ps 122:7 Peace be within your abulwarks, / And prosperity within your citadels.
Ps 122:8 For my brothers’ and companions’ sake I will now say, / Peace be within you.
Ps 122:9 For the sake of the ahouse of Jehovah our God / I will seek your good.
PSALM 123

vv. 1 • • •

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 123:1 To You do I lift up my aeyes, / You who sit enthroned in heaven.
Ps 123:2 Behold, as the eyes of the servants / Look to the hand of their masters, / As the eyes of a servant girl / Look to the hand of her mistress, / So our eyes look to Jehovah our God, / Until He is 1gracious to us.
Ps 123:3 Be gracious to us, O Jehovah, be gracious to us; / For we are greatly filled with contempt.
Ps 123:4 Our soul is greatly filled / With the scorn of those who are at ease, / With the contempt of the proud.
PSALM 124

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

A aSong of Ascents. bOf David
Ps 124:1 1If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, / Let Israel say,
Ps 124:2 If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side / When men rose up against us;
Ps 124:3 Then they would have swallowed us up alive / When their anger burned against us;
Ps 124:4 Then the waters would have washed us away; / The stream would have passed over our soul;
Ps 124:5 Then the 1proud waters / Would have passed over our soul.
Ps 124:6 Blessed be Jehovah, who has not given us / As prey to their teeth.
Ps 124:7 Our soul has escaped like a bird, / Out of the snare of the fowlers; / The snare is broken, / And we have escaped.
Ps 124:8 Our ahelp is in the name of Jehovah, / Who made heaven and earth.
PSALM 125

vv. 1 • • • 5 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 125:1 Those who atrust in Jehovah are like Mount bZion, / Which cannot be moved but abides forever.
Ps 125:2 Jerusalem — mountains surround her; / And Jehovah 1asurrounds His people / From now and to eternity.
Ps 125:3 For the scepter of wickedness will not rest / Upon the allotment of the righteous, / That the righteous would not put forth / Their hands to iniquity.
Ps 125:4 Do good, O Jehovah, to the 1good / And to those upright in their hearts.
Ps 125:5 But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, / Jehovah will lead them off with the workers of iniquity. / aPeace be upon Israel.
PSALM 126

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 126:1 When Jehovah aturned again the 1captivity of Zion, / We were like those who dream.
Ps 126:2 At that time our mouth was filled with laughter / And our tongue with a ringing shout. / At that time they said among the nations, / Jehovah has done 1agreat things for them.
Ps 126:3 Jehovah has done great things for us; / We are joyful.
Ps 126:4 Turn 1again, O Jehovah, our captivity / Like the streams in the south.
Ps 126:5 Those who sow in atears / Will breap with a ringing shout.
Ps 126:6 He who goes forth and weeps, / Bearing 1seed for scattering, / Will no doubt come in with a ringing shout, / Bearing his sheaves with him.
PSALM 127

vv. 1 • • • 5 

A aSong of Ascents. bOf Solomon
Ps 127:1 1Unless Jehovah abuilds the 2house, / Those who build it blabor in vain. / Unless Jehovah ckeeps the 2city, / The guard watches in vain.
Ps 127:2 It is 1vain for you to rise up early, / To stay up late, / To eat the bread of toil; / All the same, He gives to His beloved while they sleep.
Ps 127:3 Behold, 1achildren are the heritage of Jehovah, / The fruit of the womb a reward.
Ps 127:4 Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, / So are the children of one’s youth.
Ps 127:5 Blessed is the man / Who fills his quiver with them. / 1He will not be put to shame / When 1he speaks with enemies in the gate.
PSALM 128

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 128:1 1Blessed is everyone who fears Jehovah, / Who walks in His ways.
Ps 128:2 You will indeed eat the labor of your hands; / You will be blessed, and it will go well with you.
Ps 128:3 Your wife will be like a afruitful vine / In the innermost parts of your house. / Your children will be like bolive shoots / Round about your table.
Ps 128:4 Thus will the man be blessed / Who fears Jehovah.
Ps 128:5 Jehovah 1bless you 2from aZion; / And may you see the 1prosperity of Jerusalem / All the days of your life.
Ps 128:6 May you also see the children of your children. / aPeace be upon Israel.
PSALM 129

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 129:1 Many times have they afflicted me since my youth, / Let Israel say,
Ps 129:2 Many times have they afflicted me since my youth, / Yet they did not prevail against me.
Ps 129:3 The plowers plowed on my back; / They made their furrows long.
Ps 129:4 Jehovah is righteous; / He has cut the cords of the wicked.
Ps 129:5 May all who 1hate Zion / Be put to shame and turned back.
Ps 129:6 May they be like grass on the housetops, / Which withers before it grows up,
Ps 129:7 With which the reaper does not fill his hand, / Or he who binds sheaves, his bosom.
Ps 129:8 Nor may those who pass by say, / The blessing of Jehovah be upon you! / We bless you in the name of Jehovah.
PSALM 130

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 130:1 Out of the depths I have acalled upon You, O Jehovah.
Ps 130:2 O Lord, hear my voice; / Let Your ears be attentive / To the voice of my supplications.
Ps 130:3 If You, O 1Jehovah, marked iniquities, / Who, O Lord, would stand?
Ps 130:4 But with You there is 1aforgiveness, / That You would be 2feared.
Ps 130:5 I wait for Jehovah; my soul waits, / And in His word I hope.
Ps 130:6 My soul waits for the Lord / More than watchmen for the morning, / Yes, watchmen for the morning.
Ps 130:7 Hope in Jehovah, O Israel; / For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, / And with Him abundantly there is redemption;
Ps 130:8 And it is He who will redeem Israel / aFrom all its iniquities.
PSALM 131

vv. 1 • • 

A aSong of Ascents. bOf David
Ps 131:1 O Jehovah, my 1heart is not proud, / Nor are my eyes haughty; / Nor do I go about in things too great / Or too wondrous for me.
Ps 131:2 Surely I have calmed / And quieted my soul, / Like a 1weaned achild with its mother; / Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Ps 131:3 Hope in Jehovah, O Israel, / From now and to eternity.
PSALM 132

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 132:1 Remember, O Jehovah, for 1David’s sake / All his 2afflictions;
Ps 132:2 How ahe swore to Jehovah / And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:
Ps 132:3 I shall not go into the tent of my house; / I shall not go up onto the couch of my bed;
Ps 132:4 I shall not give sleep to my eyes, / Slumber to my eyelids;
Ps 132:5 Until I find a place for Jehovah, / A atabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob.
Ps 132:6 Behold, we heard of it in aEphrathah; / We found it in the bfields of 1Jaar.
Ps 132:7 We will go into His atabernacle; / We will worship at His bfootstool.
Ps 132:8 aArise, O Jehovah, unto Your resting place, / You and the Ark of Your strength.
Ps 132:9 Let Your priests be clothed with arighteousness, / And let Your faithful ones give a ringing shout.
Ps 132:10 For the sake of David Your servant, / Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed One.
Ps 132:11 Jehovah has sworn unto David in truth; / He will not turn from it: / Of the 1afruit of your body I will set One upon your throne.
Ps 132:12 aIf your children keep My covenant / And My testimonies that I will teach them, / Their children also will sit / Upon your throne forever.
Ps 132:13 For Jehovah has chosen 1aZion; / He has desired it for His habitation.
Ps 132:14 1This is My 2aresting place forever; / Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.
Ps 132:15 I will abundantly bless its provision; / I will satisfy its poor with bread.
Ps 132:16 And its priests I will aclothe with salvation, / And its faithful ones will shout with a ringing shout.
Ps 132:17 There I will cause a 1ahorn of David to shoot forth; / I have prepared a blamp for My anointed one.
Ps 132:18 I will clothe his enemies with shame, / But on him his crown will shine.
PSALM 133

vv. 1 • • 

A aSong of Ascents. bOf David
Ps 133:1 1Behold, 2how good and 2how pleasant it is / For brothers to dwell in 3unity!
Ps 133:2 It is like the fine 1aoil upon the head / That 2ran down upon the beard, / Upon bAaron’s beard, / That ran down upon the chem of his garments;
Ps 133:3 Like the 1adew of bHermon / That came down upon the 2mountains of cZion. / For there Jehovah commanded the dblessing: / 3eLife forever.
PSALM 134

vv. 1 • • 

A aSong of Ascents
Ps 134:1 1Bless Jehovah now, / All you aservants of Jehovah / Who stand by night in the house of Jehovah.
Ps 134:2 aLift up your hands in the sanctuary, / And bless Jehovah.
Ps 134:3 May Jehovah, who made heaven and earth, / aBless you 1from bZion.
PSALM 135

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Ps 135:1 1aHallelujah! Praise the name of Jehovah; / Praise Him, you 2bservants of Jehovah,
Ps 135:2 Who astand in the house of Jehovah, / In the courts of the house of our God.
Ps 135:3 Praise 1Jehovah, for Jehovah is agood; / Sing psalms to His name, for it is pleasant.
Ps 135:4 For Jehovah has achosen Jacob for Himself, / Israel for His bpersonal treasure.
Ps 135:5 For I know that Jehovah is agreat / And that our Lord is above all gods.
Ps 135:6 Whatever Jehovah pleases He does / In heaven and on earth, / In the seas and all the depths.
Ps 135:7 aHe causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; / He makes lightning for the rain; / He brings forth wind from His treasuries.
Ps 135:8 He astruck the firstborn of Egypt, / Both of man and of beast.
Ps 135:9 He sent asigns and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, / Upon Pharaoh and all his servants.
Ps 135:10 He struck many nations / And aslew mighty kings:
Ps 135:11 aSihon the king of the Amorites / And Og the king of Bashan / And all the kingdoms of Canaan.
Ps 135:12 And He gave their land as an ainheritance, / An inheritance to Israel His people.
Ps 135:13 O Jehovah, Your name is forever; / O Jehovah, Your memorial is from generation to generation.
Ps 135:14 aFor Jehovah will 1execute judgment for His people, / And He will have compassion concerning His servants.
Ps 135:15 aThe bidols of the nations are mere silver and gold, / The work of human chands.
Ps 135:16 They have mouths, but they do not speak; / They have eyes, but they do not see.
Ps 135:17 They have ears, but they do not give ear; / And there is no breath in their mouths.
Ps 135:18 Those who make them, / All who trust in them, / Will be like them.
Ps 135:19 O house of aIsrael, 1bless Jehovah. / O house of Aaron, bless Jehovah.
Ps 135:20 O house of Levi, bless Jehovah. / O you who fear Jehovah, bless Jehovah.
Ps 135:21 Blessed be Jehovah from aZion, / Who bdwells in Jerusalem. / Hallelujah.
PSALM 136

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

Ps 136:1 1Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good; / For His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 136:2 Give thanks to the God of gods, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 136:3 Give thanks to the aLord of lords, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:4 To Him who alone does great wonders, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:5 To Him who by aunderstanding bmade the heavens, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:6 To Him who spread forth the aearth over the waters, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:7 To Him who made the agreat lights, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:8 The sun for ruling the day, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:9 The moon and the stars for ruling the night, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:10 To Him who astruck Egypt in their firstborn, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:11 And abrought forth Israel from their midst, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:12 With a mighty ahand and an outstretched arm, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:13 To Him who adivided the Red Sea apart, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:14 And brought Israel over through the midst of it, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:15 And shook off Pharaoh and his force into the aRed Sea, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:16 To Him who marched His people through the awilderness, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:17 To Him who astruck great kings, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:18 And slew majestic kings, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:19 Sihon the king of the Amorites, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:20 And Og the king of Bashan, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:21 And gave their land as an inheritance, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:22 An inheritance to Israel His servant, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:23 Who remembered us in our low estate, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:24 And rescued us from our adversaries, / For His lovingkindness is forever;
Ps 136:25 Who gives afood to all flesh, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
Ps 136:26 Give thanks to the aGod of heaven, / For His lovingkindness is forever.
PSALM 137

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

Ps 137:1 By the arivers of Babylon, / There we sat down; indeed, we bwept / When we 1remembered cZion.
Ps 137:2 On the willows in the midst of it / We hung up our lyres,
Ps 137:3 For there our captors required of us songs, / And those who tormented us required of us mirth, saying, / Sing for us / One of the asongs of Zion.
Ps 137:4 How can we sing the song of Jehovah / In a foreign land?
Ps 137:5 If I aforget you, O Jerusalem, / Let my right hand forget its skill.
Ps 137:6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, / If I do not remember you, / If I do not prefer aJerusalem / Above my chief joy.
Ps 137:7 Remember, O Jehovah, / 1Against the children of aEdom, / The day of Jerusalem, / Who said, Lay it bare! Lay it bare, / Down to its foundation!
Ps 137:8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be devastated, / Happy will he be who arepays you / The recompense of what you have rendered to us.
Ps 137:9 Happy will he be who seizes your little ones / And dashes them against the rock.
PSALM 138

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

aOf David
Ps 138:1 I will 1give You thanks with all my heart; / Before the gods I will sing psalms to You.
Ps 138:2 I will bow toward Your holy atemple / And give thanks to Your name / For Your lovingkindness and Your truth, / For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
Ps 138:3 On the day that I called out, You answered me; / You encouraged me with strength in my soul.
Ps 138:4 All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O Jehovah; / For they have heard the words of Your mouth.
Ps 138:5 And they will sing of the ways of Jehovah, / For great is the glory of Jehovah.
Ps 138:6 For though Jehovah is high, He aregards the lowly; / And the bhaughty He knows from afar.
Ps 138:7 Though I awalk in the midst of trouble, / You will preserve me; / Against the wrath of my enemies You will bstretch out Your hand, / And Your right hand will save me.
Ps 138:8 Jehovah will complete that which concerns me. / O Jehovah, Your lovingkindness is forever; / Do not forsake the works of Your own hands.
PSALM 139

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

To the choir director. aOf David. A Psalm
Ps 139:1 O Jehovah, You have 1asearched me and bknown me.
Ps 139:2 You know when I asit down and when I rise up; / You understand my thoughts from afar.
Ps 139:3 You thoroughly asearch my path and my lying down, / And You are acquainted with all my ways.
Ps 139:4 For a word is not yet on my tongue, / And already You, O Jehovah, know it completely.
Ps 139:5 You have closed in on me behind and before / And have laid Your hand on me.
Ps 139:6 Oh, knowledge too wonderful for me! / It is so high; I cannot attain to it.
Ps 139:7 Where shall I go, away from Your Spirit, / And where shall I flee afrom Your presence?
Ps 139:8 If I ascend into aheaven, You are there; / If I make my bed in Sheol, there You are.
Ps 139:9 If I take the wings of the dawn / And settle at the limits of the sea,
Ps 139:10 There also Your hand will alead me, / And Your right hand will take hold of me.
Ps 139:11 And if I say, Surely darkness will cover me, / And the light around me will be night;
Ps 139:12 Even the adarkness is not dark to You, / And night shines like day; / The darkness is like the light.
Ps 139:13 For it was You who aformed my inward parts; / You wove me together in my mother’s womb.
Ps 139:14 I will praise You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made; / Your aworks are wonderful, / And my soul knows it well.
Ps 139:15 My frame was not hidden from You / When I was made in secret, / aSkillfully fashioned in the depths of the earth.
Ps 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; / And in Your book all of them were written: / The days that were ordained for me, / When not one of them was yet.
Ps 139:17 And how precious are Your athoughts to me, O God! / How great is the sum of them!
Ps 139:18 If I should count them, they would be more than the sand. / When I awake, I am still with You.
Ps 139:19 Oh that You, O God, would 1slay the wicked — / Depart from me therefore, you men of bloodshed —
Ps 139:20 Those who speak of You with evil intent, / Who as Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Ps 139:21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O Jehovah? / And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
Ps 139:22 I hate them with a perfect hatred; / They have become my own enemies.
Ps 139:23 aSearch me, O God, and know my heart; / Try me, and know my anxious thoughts;
Ps 139:24 And see if there is some 1harmful way in me, / And lead me on the eternal way.
PSALM 140

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

To the choir director. A aPsalm of David
Ps 140:1 1Deliver me, O Jehovah, from evil men; / From violent men preserve me;
Ps 140:2 Who devise evil schemes in their hearts / And continually stir up wars.
Ps 140:3 They have sharpened their tongues like that of a serpent; / The apoison of adders is under their lips. Selah
Ps 140:4 Keep me, O Jehovah, from the hands of the wicked; / From violent men preserve me; / Who devise schemes to thrust me down.
Ps 140:5 The proud have hidden a trap for me and cords; / They have spread a net by the wayside; / They have set snares for me. Selah
Ps 140:6 I said to Jehovah, You are my God; / Give ear, O Jehovah, to the voice of my supplications.
Ps 140:7 O Jehovah Lord, strength of my salvation, / You have covered my head in the day of battle.
Ps 140:8 O Jehovah, do not grant the desires of the wicked man; / Do not let his evil scheme advance, / Lest he be exalted. Selah
Ps 140:9 As for the head of those who surround me, / May the mischief of their own lips cover them.
Ps 140:10 May burning coals drop down upon them; / May they be thrown down into the fire, / Into deep pits, never to rise again.
Ps 140:11 Let no slanderer be established in the land; / Let evil hunt down the violent man speedily.
Ps 140:12 I know that Jehovah will maintain the cause of the afflicted / And justice for the needy.
Ps 140:13 Surely the righteous will give thanks to Your name; / The upright will dwell in Your presence.
PSALM 141

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

A aPsalm of David
Ps 141:1 O Jehovah, I have called upon You; hasten to me. / Give ear to my voice when I call out to You.
Ps 141:2 Let my aprayer be set before You as incense, / The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.
Ps 141:3 Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; / Keep the door of my lips.
Ps 141:4 Do not let my heart turn to anything evil, / To practice deeds of wickedness / With men who commit iniquity; / And let me not eat of their delicacies.
Ps 141:5 Let the righteous strike me in kindness and reprove me; / Let not my head refuse aoil upon the head, / For still my prayer is against their evil deeds.
Ps 141:6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock, / And they hear my words, that they are pleasant.
Ps 141:7 As when one plows and breaks up the earth, / Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
Ps 141:8 For my eyes are upon You, O Jehovah Lord; / In You I atake refuge; do not pour out my soul.
Ps 141:9 Keep me from the trap they have set for me / And from the snares of the workers of iniquity.
Ps 141:10 May the wicked 1fall into their own nets / While I alone pass by.
PSALM 142

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

A *Maschil aof David, when he was in the bcave. A Prayer
Ps 142:1 With my voice I cry to Jehovah; / With my voice I make my supplication to Jehovah.
Ps 142:2 I pour out my complaint before Him; / I declare my trouble before Him.
Ps 142:3 When my spirit fainted within me, / You knew my path. / On the way on which I walked / They have hidden a trap for me.
Ps 142:4 Look on my right hand and see, / For there is no one who regards me; / Refuge has failed me; / No one cares for me.
Ps 142:5 I cried to You, O Jehovah; / I said, You are my arefuge, / My bportion in the land of the living.
Ps 142:6 Give heed to my cry, / For I have been brought very low; / Deliver me from those who persecute me, / For they are stronger than I.
Ps 142:7 Bring my soul out of prison, / That I may give thanks to Your name. / The righteous will surround me, / For You will deal bountifully with me.
PSALM 143

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

A aPsalm of David
Ps 143:1 O Jehovah, hear my prayer; / Give ear to my supplications; / Answer me in Your faithfulness and in Your righteousness;
Ps 143:2 And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, / For ano one alive is righteous in Your sight.
Ps 143:3 For the enemy has persecuted my soul; / He has crushed my life down to the ground; / He has caused me to dwell in dark places, like those who have been long dead.
Ps 143:4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; / My heart is appalled in the midst of me.
Ps 143:5 aI remember the days of old; / I meditate upon all that You have done; / I muse upon the work of Your hands.
Ps 143:6 I spread out my hands to You; / My soul athirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
Ps 143:7 Hurry and answer me, O Jehovah; / My spirit fails. / Do not hide Your face from me, / Lest I become like those who go down into the pit.
Ps 143:8 Cause me to hear Your alovingkindness in the morning, / For in You I trust. / Make known to me the way on which I should walk, / For to You I lift up my soul.
Ps 143:9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Jehovah; / 1I have fled to You for a arefuge.
Ps 143:10 Teach me to do Your will, / For You are my God; / Let Your agood Spirit lead me / In a plain country.
Ps 143:11 For Your name’s sake, O Jehovah, preserve me alive; / In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.
Ps 143:12 And in Your lovingkindness 1cut off my enemies / And destroy all those who oppress my soul, / For I am Your aservant.
PSALM 144

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

aOf David
Ps 144:1 Blessed be Jehovah my arock, / Who teaches my hands for war / And my fingers for battle:
Ps 144:2 My Lord of lovingkindness and my fortress, / My ahigh retreat and my Deliverer, / My shield and He in whom I btake refuge, / Who subdues my people under me.
Ps 144:3 O Jehovah, awhat is man, that You take knowledge of him, / And the son of mortal man, that You think of him?
Ps 144:4 Man is like a abreath; / His days are like a passing shadow.
Ps 144:5 O Jehovah, bow Your heavens down and descend; / Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
Ps 144:6 Flash forth lightning, and scatter them; / Send forth Your arrows, and discomfit them.
Ps 144:7 Stretch forth Your hand from on high; / Rescue me and deliver me / From the great waters, / From the hand of foreigners;
Ps 144:8 Whose mouth speaks deceit, / And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Ps 144:9 O God, I will sing a anew song to You; / Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing psalms to You,
Ps 144:10 Who gives salvation to kings, / Who arescues David His servant from the hurtful sword.
Ps 144:11 Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, / Whose mouth speaks deceit, / And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Ps 144:12 1May our sons be like aplants / Grown up in their youth; / May our daughters be like corner pillars / Hewn out in fashion for a palace;
Ps 144:13 May our barns be full, / Furnishing produce of all kinds; / May our sheep bring forth thousands / And ten thousands in our fields;
Ps 144:14 May our oxen be fully laden; / May there be no breaking in to rob or going forth to fight, / Or outcry in our streets.
Ps 144:15 Blessed are the people who are so; / aBlessed are the people whose God is Jehovah.
PSALM 145

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

A Song of Praise. aOf David
Ps 145:1 1I will 2extol You, O my God and aKing; / And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Ps 145:2 Every day I will bless You, / And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Ps 145:3 aGreat is Jehovah, and much to be praised; / And His greatness is unsearchable.
Ps 145:4 One generation will laud Your works to another, / And they will declare Your mighty acts.
Ps 145:5 Upon the glorious splendor of Your majesty / And upon Your wondrous works I will muse.
Ps 145:6 And men will speak of the might of Your awesome deeds, / And I will declare Your greatness.
Ps 145:7 They will utter the memory of Your great goodness / And will sing for joy of Your righteousness.
Ps 145:8 aJehovah is gracious and compassionate, / Long-suffering and great in lovingkindness.
Ps 145:9 Jehovah is good to all, / And His compassions are upon all His works.
Ps 145:10 All Your works will praise You, O Jehovah; / And Your faithful ones will bless You.
Ps 145:11 They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom / And tell of Your power,
Ps 145:12 To make known to the sons of men 1Your mighty acts / And the glorious splendor of 1Your kingdom.
Ps 145:13 Your kingdom is an aeternal kingdom, / And Your dominion is throughout all generations.
Ps 145:14 Jehovah upholds all who are falling / And raises up all who are bowed down.
Ps 145:15 The eyes of everyone wait for You, / And You give them their afood in due season.
Ps 145:16 You open up Your hand / And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Ps 145:17 Jehovah is arighteous in all His ways, / And faithfully kind in all His doings.
Ps 145:18 Jehovah is anear to all who bcall upon Him, / To all who call upon Him in truth.
Ps 145:19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him, / And He will hear their cry and save them.
Ps 145:20 Jehovah preserves all who love Him, / But He will 1destroy all the wicked.
Ps 145:21 My mouth will speak the praise of Jehovah, / And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.
PSALM 146

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

Ps 146:1 1aHallelujah! / Praise Jehovah, O my soul!
Ps 146:2 aI will praise Jehovah while I live; / I will sing psalms to my God while I yet have being.
Ps 146:3 Do not trust in 1aprinces, / In a son of man, with whom there is no salvation.
Ps 146:4 His breath goes forth; he returns to his earth; / On that day his plans perish.
Ps 146:5 Blessed is the man whose ahelp is the God of Jacob, / Whose hope is in Jehovah his God,
Ps 146:6 Who amade heaven and earth / And the sea, and all that is in them; / Who keeps faith forever;
Ps 146:7 Who executes judgment for the oppressed; / Who gives food to the famished. / Jehovah afrees the prisoners;
Ps 146:8 Jehovah aopens the eyes of the blind; / Jehovah raises up those who are bowed down; / Jehovah loves the righteous;
Ps 146:9 Jehovah preserves the sojourners; / He upholds the orphan and the widow; / But He subverts the way of the wicked.
Ps 146:10 Jehovah will areign forever, / Your God, O Zion, 1forever and ever. / Hallelujah!
PSALM 147

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

Ps 147:1 1aHallelujah! / For it is good to sing psalms to our God; / For it is pleasant; praise is fitting.
Ps 147:2 Jehovah abuilds up Jerusalem; / He bgathers the 1outcasts of Israel.
Ps 147:3 He heals the abrokenhearted / And binds up their wounds.
Ps 147:4 He counts the number of the astars; / He calls them all by their names.
Ps 147:5 aGreat is our Lord, and mighty in power; / His understanding is infinite.
Ps 147:6 Jehovah auplifts the lowly; / He brings the 1wicked down to the ground.
Ps 147:7 aSing unto Jehovah with thanksgiving; / Sing psalms to our God with the lyre;
Ps 147:8 Who covers the heavens with clouds, / Who prepares rain for the earth, / Who causes grass to grow on the mountains,
Ps 147:9 Who gives to the beast its food, / And to the young aravens who cry.
Ps 147:10 He takes no delight in the strength of horses; / Nor pleasure in the legs of man.
Ps 147:11 Jehovah takes pleasure in those who fear Him, / In those who hope in His lovingkindness.
Ps 147:12 aLaud Jehovah, O Jerusalem; / Praise your God, O Zion;
Ps 147:13 For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; / He has blessed your children within you.
Ps 147:14 He makes peace in your borders; / He satisfies you with the finest wheat.
Ps 147:15 He sends forth His command to the earth; / His word aruns very swiftly.
Ps 147:16 He gives snow like wool; / He scatters frost like ashes;
Ps 147:17 He casts His hail like crumbs — / Who can stand before His cold?
Ps 147:18 He sends forth His word and melts them; / He causes His wind to blow; the waters flow.
Ps 147:19 He adeclares His word to Jacob, / His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.
Ps 147:20 He has not dealt so with any other nation; / And as for His ordinances, they have not known them. / Hallelujah!
PSALM 148

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Ps 148:1 1aHallelujah! / Praise Jehovah from the heavens; / Praise Him in the bheights.
Ps 148:2 Praise Him, all His aangels; / Praise Him, all His hosts.
Ps 148:3 Praise Him, asun and moon; / Praise Him, all stars of light.
Ps 148:4 Praise Him, you aheaven of heavens, / And you bwaters that are above the heavens.
Ps 148:5 Let them praise the name of Jehovah; / For He acommanded, and they were created.
Ps 148:6 And He established them forever and ever; / He gave the decree which shall not pass away.
Ps 148:7 Praise Jehovah from the earth, / You asea monsters and all the depths;
Ps 148:8 Fire and hail, snow and smoke; / Stormy wind that executes His word;
Ps 148:9 Mountains and all hills; / Fruit trees and all cedars;
Ps 148:10 All animals wild and tame; / Creeping things and birds of flight;
Ps 148:11 Kings of the earth and all peoples; / Princes and all judges of the earth;
Ps 148:12 Choice young men as well as virgins; / Old men with young men.
Ps 148:13 Let them praise the name of Jehovah, / For His name alone is exalted; / His glory is above the earth and the heavens.
Ps 148:14 And He has raised up a ahorn for His people, / The praise of all His faithful ones, / The children of Israel, a people bnear to Him. / Hallelujah!
PSALM 149

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

Ps 149:1 1aHallelujah! / Sing a bnew song to Jehovah; / Sing His praise in the congregation of His faithful ones.
Ps 149:2 Let Israel rejoice in his Maker; / Let the children of aZion exult in their bKing.
Ps 149:3 Let them praise His name with dancing; / Let them sing psalms to Him with the tambourine and the lyre.
Ps 149:4 For Jehovah takes pleasure in His people; / He aadorns the lowly with salvation.
Ps 149:5 Let the faithful ones exult in glory; / Let them give a ringing shout upon their beds.
Ps 149:6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats, / And a two-edged sword in their hand,
Ps 149:7 To execute vengeance on the nations / And punishment among the peoples;
Ps 149:8 To bind their kings with fetters / And their nobles with chains of iron;
Ps 149:9 To execute upon them the judgment written. / This honor is for all His faithful ones. / Hallelujah!
PSALM 150

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

Ps 150:1 1aHallelujah! / Praise God in His bsanctuary; / Praise Him in the expanse that manifests His power.
Ps 150:2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; / Praise Him according to His vast greatness.
Ps 150:3 Praise Him with the blast of the trumpet; / Praise Him with the harp and lyre;
Ps 150:4 Praise Him with the tambourine and with dancing; / Praise Him with the stringed instrument and the pipe.
Ps 150:5 Praise Him with the loud cymbals; / Praise Him with the loud clanging cymbals.
Ps 150:6 Let aeverything that has breath praise 1Jehovah. / Hallelujah!
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PROVERBS

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
Outline

Author: The main writers and collectors are Solomon (1:1; 10:1; 25:1; cf. 1 Kings 4:32; Eccl. 12:9) and Hezekiah (25:1), who added some proverbs of the forefathers in chs. 25 — 29. Chapter 30 is attributed to Agur, and ch. 31 to King Lemuel; nothing definite is known concerning either man.
Time of Writing: About 1000 B.C. (Solomon’s portion, chs. 1 — 24) and about 700 B.C. (Hezekiah’s portion, chs. 25 — 29). The time of writing for chs. 30 — 31 is unknown.
Place of Writing: Probably Jerusalem.
Subject:
Words of Wisdom Teaching People How to Behave and How to Build Up Their Character in the Human Life
PROVERBS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

I. The Collection of Solomon
1:1 — 24:34
A. The Principles for Man to Live a Proper Human Life
1:1 — 9:18
Pr 1:1 The 1aproverbs of Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel:
Pr 1:2 For knowing wisdom and instruction; / For discerning words of understanding;
Pr 1:3 For receiving instruction in wise conduct, / Righteousness, justice, and equity;
Pr 1:4 For giving prudence to the simple, / Knowledge and discretion to the young man;
Pr 1:5 That the wise man may hear and increase in learning, / And he who has understanding may acquire sound counsel;
Pr 1:6 For understanding proverb and figure, / The words of the wise and their difficult sayings.
Pr 1:7 The 1afear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; / Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Pr 1:8 Hear, my son, the instruction of your 1afather, / And do not reject the teaching of your 1mother;
Pr 1:9 For they will be a wreath of grace for your head / And ornaments for your neck.
Pr 1:10 My son, if sinners entice you, / Do not consent.
Pr 1:11 If they say, Come with us; let us lie in wait for blood; / Let us ambush the innocent without cause;
Pr 1:12 Let us swallow them alive like 1Sheol, / And whole, like those who go down into the pit.
Pr 1:13 We will find all manner of precious goods; / We will fill our houses with booty;
Pr 1:14 Throw in your lot with us; / We will all have one purse —
Pr 1:15 My son, do not walk with them on this way; / Keep your foot from their path.
Pr 1:16 For their afeet run toward evil, / And they hasten to shed blood.
Pr 1:17 For in vain is the net spread / In the eyes of any bird;
Pr 1:18 Yet they lie in wait for their own blood; / They ambush their own lives!
Pr 1:19 Such are the ways of everyone greedy for gain; / It takes away the life of its owners.
Pr 1:20 1Wisdom acries out in the street; / 2She utters her voice in the open squares.
Pr 1:21 At the head of the tumultuous street she cries; / At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
Pr 1:22 How long, O simple ones, will you love simpleness, / And will scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, / And will fools hate knowledge?
Pr 1:23 Turn yourselves at my reproof — / Immediately I will apour out my spirit on you; / I will make my words known to you.
Pr 1:24 Because I acalled and you refused; / I stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
Pr 1:25 And you neglected all my counsel / And would have none of my reproof;
Pr 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; / I will mock when what you dread comes,
Pr 1:27 When what you dread comes like a storm, / And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, / When distress and anguish come upon you.
Pr 1:28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; / They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
Pr 1:29 Because they hated knowledge / And did not choose the fear of Jehovah,
Pr 1:30 And would have none of my counsel / And despised all my reproof;
Pr 1:31 They shall eat of the fruit of their own way / And be filled with their own devices.
Pr 1:32 For the turning away of the simple will kill them, / And the prosperity of the foolish will cause them to perish;
Pr 1:33 But he who listens to me will dwell securely / And will live at ease, without the dread of evil.
PROVERBS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Pr 2:1 aMy son, if you receive my words / And treasure up my commandments within you,
Pr 2:2 Making your ear attentive to wisdom / And inclining your heart to understanding;
Pr 2:3 Indeed, if you cry out for discernment / And lift up your voice for understanding;
Pr 2:4 If you seek her like silver / And search for her like hidden treasures,
Pr 2:5 Then you will understand the fear of Jehovah / And find the knowledge of God.
Pr 2:6 For Jehovah agives wisdom; / From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
Pr 2:7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; / He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
Pr 2:8 Guarding the paths of justice / And keeping the way of His faithful ones.
Pr 2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice / And equity, indeed, every good path.
Pr 2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart, / And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
Pr 2:11 Discretion will watch over you; / Understanding will keep you:
Pr 2:12 To deliver you from the way of evil, / From the man who speaks perverse things,
Pr 2:13 From those who forsake the paths of uprightness / To walk in the ways of darkness,
Pr 2:14 Who rejoice in doing evil / And delight in the perverseness of evil,
Pr 2:15 Whose paths are crooked, / And who are devious in their ways;
Pr 2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, / From the adulteress who flatters with her words,
Pr 2:17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth / And forgets the covenant of her God;
Pr 2:18 For her house sinks down to death, / And her paths lead to the dead;
Pr 2:19 None who go to her ever return, / Nor do they attain to the apaths of life;
Pr 2:20 That you may walk in the way of good men / And keep the paths of the righteous;
Pr 2:21 For the upright will dwell in the aland, / And the perfect will remain in it;
Pr 2:22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, / And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.
PROVERBS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

Pr 3:1 My son, do not forget my instruction, / But let your heart keep my commandments;
Pr 3:2 For length of days and years of life / And peace will they add to you.
Pr 3:3 Do not let lovingkindness and truth forsake you: / Bind them around your neck; / Write them upon the atablet of your heart.
Pr 3:4 Thus you will find 1favor and 2a reputation for fine understanding / In the sight of God and man.
Pr 3:5 aTrust in Jehovah with all your heart, / And do not rely on your own understanding;
Pr 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, / And He will make your paths straight.
Pr 3:7 Do not be awise in your own eyes; / Fear Jehovah, and depart from evil.
Pr 3:8 It will be healing to your body / And refreshment to your bones.
Pr 3:9 Honor Jehovah with your substance / And with the afirstfruits of all your produce;
Pr 3:10 Then your abarns will be filled with plenty, / And your vats will burst open with new wine.
Pr 3:11 My son, do not despise the 1achastening of Jehovah, / Nor be weary of His discipline;
Pr 3:12 aFor whom Jehovah loves He disciplines, / Even as a father, the son in whom he delights.
Pr 3:13 1Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, / And the man who gains understanding.
Pr 3:14 For her profit is better than the profit of silver, / And her income is better than gold.
Pr 3:15 aShe is more precious than corals, / And nothing you desire compares with her.
Pr 3:16 Length of days is in her right hand; / In her left hand are riches and honor.
Pr 3:17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, / And all her paths are peace.
Pr 3:18 She is a atree of life to those who lay hold of her, / And happy are those who hold her fast.
Pr 3:19 Jehovah by 1wisdom founded the aearth; / He established the heavens by understanding;
Pr 3:20 By His knowledge the adepths were broken open / And the skies drop down the bdew.
Pr 3:21 My son, do not let these depart from your sight: / Keep sound wisdom and discretion;
Pr 3:22 And they will be life for your soul / And a graceful ornament for your neck.
Pr 3:23 Then you will walk on your way securely, / And your foot will not stumble.
Pr 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; / But you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.
Pr 3:25 Do not abe afraid of sudden fear, / Nor of the destruction of the wicked when it comes;
Pr 3:26 For Jehovah will be your confidence, / And He will keep your foot from being caught.
Pr 3:27 Do not withhold good from those ato whom it is due, / When it is in the power of your hand to do so.
Pr 3:28 Do not say to your neighbor, Go, and come back; / And tomorrow I will give it — when you have it with you.
Pr 3:29 Do not devise harm against your neighbor, / While he lives securely beside you.
Pr 3:30 Do not strive with a man without cause, / If he has done you no harm.
Pr 3:31 Do not envy a man of violence, / And do not choose any of his ways;
Pr 3:32 For the perverse man is an abomination to Jehovah, / But His intimate counsel is with the upright.
Pr 3:33 The curse of Jehovah is in the house of the wicked man, / But He blesses the dwelling place of the righteous.
Pr 3:34 To scorners He is scornful, / But to the ahumble He gives grace.
Pr 3:35 The wise will inherit 1honor, / 2But fools increase their own disgrace.
PROVERBS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Pr 4:1 aHear, my sons, the instruction of a father, / And be attentive, that you may gain understanding;
Pr 4:2 For I give you good teaching; / Do not forsake my instruction.
Pr 4:3 For I was a son to my father, / aTender and the only beloved in the sight of my mother.
Pr 4:4 And he taught me and said to me, / Let your heart hold fast to my words; / Keep my commandments and live;
Pr 4:5 Get awisdom; get understanding; / Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
Pr 4:6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; / Love her, and she will guard you.
Pr 4:7 The beginning of wisdom is this: / Get wisdom; and in all your getting, get understanding.
Pr 4:8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; / She will honor you if you embrace her.
Pr 4:9 She will give a garland of grace for your head; / A crown of beauty will she bestow on you.
Pr 4:10 Hear, my son, and receive my words, / And the years of your life will be many.
Pr 4:11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom; / I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
Pr 4:12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; / And when you run, you will not stumble.
Pr 4:13 Take hold of instruction; do not let go; / Guard her, for she is your life.
Pr 4:14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, / And do not walk in the way of the evil.
Pr 4:15 Avoid it; do not pass by it; / Turn away from it and pass on by.
Pr 4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; / And they are robbed of their sleep unless they cause someone to stumble.
Pr 4:17 For they eat the bread of wickedness / And drink the wine of violence.
Pr 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the alight of 1dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
Pr 4:19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; / They do not know what they astumble over.
Pr 4:20 aMy son, be attentive to my words; / Incline your ear to my sayings.
Pr 4:21 Do not let them depart from your sight; / Keep them in the midst of your heart.
Pr 4:22 For they are life to those who find them, / And ahealing to all their flesh.
Pr 4:23 aKeep your heart with all vigilance, / For bfrom it are the issues of life.
Pr 4:24 Put away from you crooked speech, / And put perverse talk far from you.
Pr 4:25 Let your eyes look directly ahead, / And let your gaze be straight in front of you.
Pr 4:26 Make straight the path of your feet, / And all your ways will be established.
Pr 4:27 Do not turn to the right or to the left; / Turn your foot away from evil.
PROVERBS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

Pr 5:1 aMy son, be attentive to my wisdom; / Incline your ear to my understanding,
Pr 5:2 That you may keep discretion, / And your lips may guard knowledge.
Pr 5:3 For the lips of a 1strange woman drip honey, / And her mouth is smoother than oil;
Pr 5:4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, / Sharp as a atwo-edged sword.
Pr 5:5 Her feet go down to death; / Her steps hold fast to Sheol.
Pr 5:6 She does not make straight the path of life: / Her ways wander, and she does not know it.
Pr 5:7 aAnd now, my sons, listen to me, / And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Pr 5:8 Keep your way far from her, / And do not go near the door of her house;
Pr 5:9 Lest you give your honor to others, / And your years to the cruel;
Pr 5:10 Lest strangers be filled with your wealth, / And your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
Pr 5:11 And you mourn at your end, / When your flesh and your body are consumed,
Pr 5:12 And you say, How I have hated instruction, / And my heart has despised reproof!
Pr 5:13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers / Nor inclined my ear to my instructors;
Pr 5:14 I was almost into every evil / In the midst of the congregation and assembly.
Pr 5:15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, / And running water out of your own well.
Pr 5:16 Should your springs be shed forth, / Like streams of water in the streets?
Pr 5:17 Let them be yours alone, / And not for strangers with you.
Pr 5:18 Let your fountain be blessed, / And rejoice in the awife of your youth,
Pr 5:19 A lovely ahind and a graceful doe. / Let her breasts satisfy you at all times. / May you be ravished with her love always.
Pr 5:20 For why should you be ravished, my son, with a strange woman / And embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
Pr 5:21 For the ways of a man are before the aeyes of Jehovah, / And He ponders all his paths.
Pr 5:22 The wicked man is taken by his own iniquities, / And he is held fast by the cords of his own sin.
Pr 5:23 He will die for lack of instruction, / And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.
PROVERBS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

Pr 6:1 My son, if you have become a surety for your neighbor, / If you have given your hands as a pledge for a stranger,
Pr 6:2 You are snared by the words of your mouth; / You are caught by the words of your mouth.
Pr 6:3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, / Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor: / Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.
Pr 6:4 Do not give asleep to your eyes, / Nor slumber to your eyelids.
Pr 6:5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand / And like a bird from the fowler’s hand.
Pr 6:6 Go to the aant, you sluggard; / Consider its ways, and be wise,
Pr 6:7 Which, having no chief, / Officer, or ruler,
Pr 6:8 Prepares its food in summer / And gathers its sustenance in the harvest.
Pr 6:9 How long, sluggard, will you lie there? / When will you arise from your sleep?
Pr 6:10 aA little sleep, a little slumber, / A little folding of the hands to rest,
Pr 6:11 And your poverty will come upon you like a robber, / And your want, like an armed man.
Pr 6:12 A worthless man, a wicked man, / Goes around with a perverse mouth,
Pr 6:13 Winking with his eyes, signaling with his feet, / Pointing with his fingers;
Pr 6:14 With perverseness in his aheart, he is devising evil continually; / He injects discord.
Pr 6:15 Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; / In a moment he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.
Pr 6:16 There are six things that Jehovah hates; / Indeed, seven that are an abomination to His soul:
Pr 6:17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, / And hands that shed innocent blood,
Pr 6:18 A heart that devises wicked schemes, / aFeet that hurry to run to evil,
Pr 6:19 A false witness who utters lies, / And one who injects adiscord among brothers.
Pr 6:20 aMy son, keep the commandment of your father, / And do not reject the teaching of your mother;
Pr 6:21 aBind them continually on your heart; / Tie them around your neck.
Pr 6:22 When you awalk about, it will guide you, / When you lie down, it will watch over you; / And when you awake, it will talk with you.
Pr 6:23 For the commandment is a alamp, and the teaching a light, / And the reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
Pr 6:24 To keep you from the evil woman, / From the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
Pr 6:25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, / Nor let her catch you with her eyelids;
Pr 6:26 For the price of a harlot is a loaf of bread, / But the wife of another man hunts for the precious soul.
Pr 6:27 Can a man take fire in his bosom / And his clothes not be burned?
Pr 6:28 Can a man walk on hot coals / And his feet not be scorched?
Pr 6:29 So it is with him who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; / No one who touches her will be unpunished.
Pr 6:30 The thief is not despised if he steals / To satisfy himself when he is hungry;
Pr 6:31 But if he is found out, he shall restore sevenfold; / He must give over all the substance of his house.
Pr 6:32 He who commits aadultery with a woman lacks sense; / He who does it destroys his own soul.
Pr 6:33 He will find wounds and dishonor, / And his reproach will not be wiped away.
Pr 6:34 For jealousy is the rage of a man, / And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
Pr 6:35 He will not regard any ransom, / Nor will he be content if you give him great gifts.
PROVERBS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Pr 7:1 aMy son, keep my words, / And treasure up my commandments within you.
Pr 7:2 Keep my commandments, and live; / And my teaching, like the apple of your eye.
Pr 7:3 Bind them on your fingers; / Write them on the atablet of your heart.
Pr 7:4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister, / And call understanding your close friend,
Pr 7:5 That they may keep you from the strange woman, / From the adulteress who flatters with her words.
Pr 7:6 For at the window of my house / I looked out through my lattice,
Pr 7:7 And I saw among the simple ones, / I discerned among the youths, / A young man lacking sense,
Pr 7:8 Passing along the street near her corner; / And he takes the way to her house,
Pr 7:9 In the twilight, in the evening of the day, / In the deep of night and darkness.
Pr 7:10 And there comes a woman to meet him, / Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
Pr 7:11 She is rowdy and defiant; / Her feet do not stay at home —
Pr 7:12 Now in the street, now in the squares, / And at every corner she lies in wait.
Pr 7:13 And she grabs him and kisses him; / And with an impudent face she says to him,
Pr 7:14 I had to make offerings; / Today I have paid my vows.
Pr 7:15 Therefore I have come out to meet you, / To earnestly seek your presence; and I have found you.
Pr 7:16 I have decked my couch with coverings, / Colored spreads of the linen of Egypt;
Pr 7:17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, / Aloes, and cinnamon.
Pr 7:18 Come, let us drink our fill of love until the morning; / Let us delight ourselves with love.
Pr 7:19 For my husband is not at home; / He has gone on a long journey.
Pr 7:20 He has taken the money bag with him; / He will come home at the full moon.
Pr 7:21 With her great persuasiveness she beguiles him; / With her smooth talk she compels him.
Pr 7:22 He goes after her immediately, / As an ox goes to the slaughter, / Or as someone in fetters, to the correction of the fool,
Pr 7:23 Until an arrow pierces through his liver. / As a bird hastens to the snare, / So he does not know that this will cost him his life.
Pr 7:24 aAnd now, my sons, listen to me, / And pay attention to the words of my mouth.
Pr 7:25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; / Do not stray into her paths.
Pr 7:26 For many are those whom she has brought down wounded, / And numerous are all who have been slain by her.
Pr 7:27 Her house is the way to Sheol, / Going down to the chambers of death.
PROVERBS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

Pr 8:1 Does not wisdom acall, / And understanding lift up her voice?
Pr 8:2 On the top of the heights, by the way, / Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
Pr 8:3 Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, / At the entrance of the doors, she cries aloud:
Pr 8:4 To you, O men, I call; / And my voice is to the sons of men.
Pr 8:5 O simple ones, understand prudence; / And, O fools, be of an understanding heart.
Pr 8:6 Hear, for I will speak noble things; / And the opening of my lips will yield right things.
Pr 8:7 For my mouth will utter truth, / And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
Pr 8:8 All the awords of my mouth are in righteousness; / There is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
Pr 8:9 They are all straight to him who understands, / And right to those who find knowledge.
Pr 8:10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; / And knowledge rather than choice gold.
Pr 8:11 aFor wisdom is better than corals, / And nothing that you desire compares with her.
Pr 8:12 1I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, / And I find knowledge and discretion.
Pr 8:13 The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil; / Pride and arrogance and the evil way / And the perverse mouth, I hate.
Pr 8:14 Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; / I am understanding; I have might.
Pr 8:15 By me kings areign, / And rulers decree justice.
Pr 8:16 By me princes rule, / And nobles — all who judge righteously.
Pr 8:17 I love those who love me, / And those who aseek me diligently will find me.
Pr 8:18 Riches and honor are with me, / Enduring wealth and righteousness.
Pr 8:19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold; / And my yield than choice silver.
Pr 8:20 I walk in the away of righteousness, / In the midst of the paths of justice,
Pr 8:21 That I may cause those who love me to inherit substance / And that I may fill their treasuries.
Pr 8:22 Jehovah possessed me in the abeginning of His way, / Before His works of old.
Pr 8:23 I was set up from eternity, / From the beginning, before the earth was.
Pr 8:24 When there were no depths, I was abrought forth, / When there were no fountains abounding with water.
Pr 8:25 Before the mountains were settled, / Before the hills, I was brought forth;
Pr 8:26 When He had not yet made the earth and the fields, / Nor the first dust of the world.
Pr 8:27 When He aestablished the heavens, I was there; / When He inscribed a bcircle upon the surface of the deep,
Pr 8:28 When He made afirm the skies above, / When the fountains of the deep became strong,
Pr 8:29 When He set for the sea its aboundary, / That the waters should not transgress His commandment, / When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Pr 8:30 Then I was by Him, as a master workman; / And I was daily His adelight, / Rejoicing always before Him,
Pr 8:31 Rejoicing in His habitable earth; / And my delight was in the sons of men.
Pr 8:32 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me; / For blessed are they who keep my ways.
Pr 8:33 Hear instruction, and be wise; / And do not neglect it.
Pr 8:34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, / Watching daily at my doors, / Waiting at my doorposts.
Pr 8:35 For whoever finds me finds alife, / And will obtain favor from Jehovah.
Pr 8:36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; / All who hate me love death.
PROVERBS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Pr 9:1 Wisdom has built her house; / She has hewn out her seven pillars;
Pr 9:2 She has slaughtered her beasts; / She has mingled her wine; / She has also set her table;
Pr 9:3 She has sent forth her maidens; / She calls from the highest places of the city:
Pr 9:4 Whoever is simple, let him turn in here; / As for him who lacks sense, she says to him,
Pr 9:5 Come, eat of my bread, / And drink of the awine which I have mingled.
Pr 9:6 Forsake foolishness, and live, / And walk in the way of understanding.
Pr 9:7 He who corrects a scorner gets dishonor for himself, / And he who reproves a wicked man blemishes himself.
Pr 9:8 Do not reprove a scorner, lest he hate you; / Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Pr 9:9 Impart something to a wise man, and he will become wiser still; / Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
Pr 9:10 aThe fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, / And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Pr 9:11 For by me your days will be multiplied, / And the years of your life will be increased.
Pr 9:12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; / And if you are scornful, you alone will bear it.
Pr 9:13 The woman Foolishness is rowdy; / She is simple and knows nothing.
Pr 9:14 And she sits at the door of her house, / On a seat in the heights of the city,
Pr 9:15 To call to those who pass by, / Who go straight on their ways:
Pr 9:16 Whoever is simple, let him turn in here; / And as for him who lacks sense, she says to him,
Pr 9:17 Stolen waters are sweet, / And bread gotten in secret is pleasant.
Pr 9:18 But he does not know that the dead are there, / That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
PROVERBS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

B. A Contrast between Doing Righteousness in Wisdom and Doing Wickedness in Folly
10:1 — 19:29
Pr 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon.
aA wise son makes a father glad, / But a foolish son is a grief to his mother.
Pr 10:2 aTreasures of wickedness profit nothing, / But righteousness delivers from death.
Pr 10:3 Jehovah will not allow the soul of the righteous man to go hungry, / But He thrusts away the desire of the wicked.
Pr 10:4 A slack hand causes poverty, / But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Pr 10:5 He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, / But he who sleeps at harvest time is a son who brings shame.
Pr 10:6 Blessings are upon the head of the righteous man, / 1But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
Pr 10:7 The memory of the righteous man is blessed, / But the name of the wicked will rot.
Pr 10:8 The wise in heart will receive commandments, / But the foolish in speech will be cast down.
Pr 10:9 He who walks in integrity walks securely, / But he who perverts his ways will be known.
Pr 10:10 He who winks with the eye causes grief, / And the foolish in speech will be cast down.
Pr 10:11 The mouth of the righteous man is a fountain of life, / But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
Pr 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, / But love acovers all transgressions.
Pr 10:13 In the lips of one who has understanding wisdom is found, / But a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.
Pr 10:14 Wise men treasure up knowledge, / But the mouth of a fool is imminent destruction.
Pr 10:15 aThe rich man’s substance is his strong city; / The ruin of the poor is their poverty.
Pr 10:16 The wages of the righteous man lead to life; / The income of the wicked man, to sin.
Pr 10:17 He who heeds instruction is on the path of life, / But he who forsakes reproof goes astray.
Pr 10:18 He who conceals hatred has lying lips, / And he who utters slander is a fool.
Pr 10:19 When there are many words transgression does not cease, / But he who arestrains his lips is prudent.
Pr 10:20 The tongue of the righteous man is like choice silver; / The heart of the wicked is worth little.
Pr 10:21 The lips of the righteous man feed many, / But fools die for lack of sense.
Pr 10:22 It is the blessing of Jehovah that makes rich, / And He adds no sorrow with it.
Pr 10:23 Carrying out a wicked scheme is like sport to a fool, / But so is wisdom to a man of understanding.
Pr 10:24 The fear of the wicked man will come upon him, / And the desire of the righteous will be granted.
Pr 10:25 When the whirlwind passes, the wicked man is no more; / But the righteous man is an everlasting foundation.
Pr 10:26 Like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes, / So is the sluggard to those who send him.
Pr 10:27 The fear of Jehovah prolongs days, / But the years of the wicked will be shortened.
Pr 10:28 The hope of the righteous is joy, / But the expectation of the wicked will perish.
Pr 10:29 The way of Jehovah is a stronghold to the upright, / But it is ruin to the workers of iniquity.
Pr 10:30 The righteous man will never be moved, / But the wicked will not dwell in the land.
Pr 10:31 The mouth of the righteous man brings forth wisdom, / But the perverse tongue will be cut off.
Pr 10:32 The lips of the righteous man know what is acceptable, / But the mouth of the wicked is perverse.
PROVERBS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

Pr 11:1 A false abalance is an abomination to Jehovah, / But a full weight is His delight.
Pr 11:2 When pride comes, then comes dishonor; / But wisdom is with the humble.
Pr 11:3 The integrity of the upright will guide them, / But the perverseness of the treacherous will destroy them.
Pr 11:4 aRiches do not profit in the day of wrath, / But righteousness delivers from death.
Pr 11:5 The righteousness of the perfect man will make his way straight, / But the wicked man will fall by his own wickedness.
Pr 11:6 The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, / But the treacherous will be taken in their own craving.
Pr 11:7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish; / And the hope of the strong perishes.
Pr 11:8 The righteous man is delivered out of trouble, / And the wicked man comes into it instead of him.
Pr 11:9 With his mouth the profane man destroys his neighbor, / But through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.
Pr 11:10 When it goes well with the righteous, the city exults; / And when the wicked perish, there is a ringing shout.
Pr 11:11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, / But it is torn down by the mouth of the wicked.
Pr 11:12 He who despises his neighbor lacks sense, / But a man of understanding keeps silent.
Pr 11:13 aHe who goes about as a gossip reveals secrets, / But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.
Pr 11:14 Where no sound counsel is, the people fall; / But in the amultitude of counselors there is safety.
Pr 11:15 He who is surety for a stranger will surely be troubled, / But he who hates giving pledges is secure.
Pr 11:16 A gracious woman lays hold of honor, / And violent men lay hold of riches.
Pr 11:17 The amerciful man rewards his own soul, / But the cruel troubles his own flesh.
Pr 11:18 The wicked man earns deceitful wages, / But he who asows righteousness gets a true reward.
Pr 11:19 He who is steadfast in righteousness shall attain to life, / And he who pursues evil advances to his own death.
Pr 11:20 Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to Jehovah, / But those who are perfect in their way are His delight.
Pr 11:21 1Be assured: The evil man will not go unpunished; / But the seed of the righteous will be delivered.
Pr 11:22 Like a nose-ring of gold in a pig’s snout, / So is a beautiful woman who is without discretion.
Pr 11:23 The desire of the righteous is only good, / But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
Pr 11:24 There is one who ascatters and increases yet more, / And there is one who withholds what is appropriate but ends up only in want.
Pr 11:25 The ablessing soul will prosper, / And he who waters will also be watered himself.
Pr 11:26 As for him who withholds grain, the people will curse him; / But blessing will be upon the head of him who sells it.
Pr 11:27 He who diligently seeks good seeks favor; / But as for him who searches after evil, it will come to him.
Pr 11:28 He who atrusts in his riches will fall, / But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.
Pr 11:29 He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, / And a fool will be servant to the wise in heart.
Pr 11:30 The fruit of the righteous man is a tree of life, / And he who is wise wins asouls.
Pr 11:31 If the righteous man will be arecompensed on the earth, / How much more the wicked man and the sinner!
PROVERBS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

Pr 12:1 Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, / But he who hates reproof is stupid.
Pr 12:2 A good man will obtain the favor of Jehovah, / But a man of wicked devices He will condemn.
Pr 12:3 A man will not be established by wickedness, / But the root of the righteous will not be moved.
Pr 12:4 A aworthy woman is the bcrown of her husband, / But she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
Pr 12:5 The thoughts of the righteous are just, / But the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
Pr 12:6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, / But the mouth of the upright will deliver them.
Pr 12:7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, / But the house of the righteous will stand.
Pr 12:8 A man will be praised according to his prudence, / But he who is of a perverse heart will be despised.
Pr 12:9 Better is he who is lightly esteemed and has a servant, / Than he who honors himself and lacks bread.
Pr 12:10 A righteous man regards the life of his beast, / But the inward parts of the wicked are cruel.
Pr 12:11 aHe who tills his land will have plenty of bread, / But he who pursues worthless things lacks sense.
Pr 12:12 The wicked man desires the catch of evil men, / But the root of the righteous yields fruit.
Pr 12:13 In the transgression of the lips there is a snare for the evil man, / But the righteous man will come out of trouble.
Pr 12:14 A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, / And the result of man’s deeds will be rendered to him.
Pr 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his aown eyes, / But a wise man listens to counsel.
Pr 12:16 A fool’s anger is known 1at once, / But a prudent man conceals shame.
Pr 12:17 He who utters truth tells forth righteousness; / But a false witness, deceit.
Pr 12:18 There is one who speaks rashly like the piercings of a sword, / But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Pr 12:19 The lip of truth shall be established forever, / But a lying tongue is only for a moment.
Pr 12:20 Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, / But counselors of peace have joy.
Pr 12:21 No harm will happen to the righteous man, / But the wicked are filled with trouble.
Pr 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to Jehovah, / But those who deal faithfully are His delight.
Pr 12:23 A prudent man conceals knowledge, / But the heart of fools proclaims folly.
Pr 12:24 The hand of the diligent will rule, / But the slothful will be under forced labor.
Pr 12:25 aAnxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, / But a good bword brings it joy.
Pr 12:26 The righteous man is a guide to his neighbor, / But the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Pr 12:27 The slothful man does not roast his game, / But the precious substance of men is to the diligent.
Pr 12:28 In the way of righteousness is life, / And in its pathway there is no death.
PROVERBS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Pr 13:1 A wise son 1hears his father’s instruction, / But a scorner does not listen to rebuke.
Pr 13:2 A man will eat good from the fruit of his mouth, / But the desire of the treacherous is violence.
Pr 13:3 He who guards his amouth keeps his soul, / But he who opens wide his lips will have destruction.
Pr 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desires and has nothing, / But the soul of the diligent will be made fat.
Pr 13:5 A righteous man hates what is false, / But a wicked man is odious and is confounded.
Pr 13:6 Righteousness guards him who is blameless in the way, / But wickedness overthrows the sinner.
Pr 13:7 There is one who pretends to be rich yet has nothing; / There is one who pretends to be poor yet has great awealth.
Pr 13:8 The ransom of a man’s life is his riches, / But the poor hears no threatening.
Pr 13:9 The light of the righteous rejoices, / But the lamp of the wicked goes out.
Pr 13:10 Through pride comes nothing but strife, / But wisdom is with those who receive counsel.
Pr 13:11 Wealth obtained by vanity will be diminished, / But he who gathers by labor increases it.
Pr 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, / But when what is desired comes, it is a tree of life.
Pr 13:13 Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, / But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
Pr 13:14 The teaching of the wise is a afountain of life, / To turn one aside from the snares of death.
Pr 13:15 Good understanding gives favor, / But the way of the treacherous is hard.
Pr 13:16 Every prudent man works with knowledge, / But a fool displays his folly.
Pr 13:17 A wicked messenger falls into evil, / But a faithful envoy brings healing.
Pr 13:18 Poverty and shame will come to him who refuses correction, / But he who regards reproof will be honored.
Pr 13:19 A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, / But it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.
Pr 13:20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, / But the acompanion of fools will be troubled.
Pr 13:21 Evil pursues sinners, / But good recompenses the righteous.
Pr 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, / But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous man.
Pr 13:23 The fallow ground of the poor yields much food, / But it is destroyed through injustice.
Pr 13:24 He who spares his rod hates his son, / But he who loves him achastens him early.
Pr 13:25 The righteous man eats to the satisfying of his soul, / But the belly of the wicked will lack.
PROVERBS 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 

Pr 14:1 The wise woman builds her house, / But the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
Pr 14:2 He who walks in his uprightness fears Jehovah, / But he who is perverse in his ways despises Him.
Pr 14:3 In the mouth of a fool is a rod for his pride, / But the lips of the wise will preserve them.
Pr 14:4 Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, / But much increase comes by the strength of the ox.
Pr 14:5 A faithful witness will not lie, / But a false witness utters lies.
Pr 14:6 A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, / But knowledge comes easily to one who has understanding.
Pr 14:7 Go from the presence of a foolish man, / For you will not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.
Pr 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent man is to understand his way, / But the folly of fools is deceit.
Pr 14:9 1A trespass offering mocks fools, / But among the upright there is good will.
Pr 14:10 The heart knows its own bitterness, / And a stranger does not share in its joy.
Pr 14:11 The house of the wicked will be destroyed, / But the tent of the upright will flourish.
Pr 14:12 aThere is a way which seems right to a man, / But the end of it is the ways of death.
Pr 14:13 Even in alaughter the heart is sorrowful, / And the end of joy is grief.
Pr 14:14 The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, / And a good man will be satisfied from himself.
Pr 14:15 The simple man believes every word, / But the prudent man considers his steps.
Pr 14:16 A wise man fears and departs from evil, / But the fool is arrogant and is confident.
Pr 14:17 He who is quick to aanger will deal foolishly, / And a man of wicked devices is hated.
Pr 14:18 The simple inherit folly, / But the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
Pr 14:19 The evil bow down before the good, / And the wicked, at the gates of the righteous man.
Pr 14:20 The poor man is hated even by his own neighbor, / But the arich man has many friends.
Pr 14:21 He who despises his neighbor sins, / But happy is he who is gracious to the poor.
Pr 14:22 Do not they who devise evil go astray? / But lovingkindness and truth are with those who devise good.
Pr 14:23 In all labor there is profit, / But mere talk leads only to poverty.
Pr 14:24 The crown of the wise is their riches, / But the folly of fools is only folly.
Pr 14:25 A truthful witness delivers souls, / But he who utters lies causes deceit.
Pr 14:26 In the fear of Jehovah is strong confidence, / And his children will have a place of refuge.
Pr 14:27 The fear of Jehovah is a afountain of life, / That one may turn aside from the snares of death.
Pr 14:28 In a multitude of people is the king’s glory, / But in an absence of people is the ruin of the prince.
Pr 14:29 He who is aslow to anger is of great understanding, / But he who has a hasty spirit exalts folly.
Pr 14:30 A tranquil heart is life to the flesh, / But envy is rottenness to the bones.
Pr 14:31 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, / But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.
Pr 14:32 The wicked man is thrust down in his evildoing, / But the righteous man has a refuge when he dies.
Pr 14:33 Wisdom rests quietly in the heart of one who has understanding, / But in the inward part of fools it makes itself known.
Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, / But sin is a reproach to any people.
Pr 14:35 The king’s favor is toward a servant who acts prudently, / But his overflowing wrath will be toward him who causes shame.
PROVERBS 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

Pr 15:1 A asoft answer turns away anger, / But a grievous word stirs up anger.
Pr 15:2 The tongue of the wise utters knowledge well, / But the mouth of fools pours out folly.
Pr 15:3 The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, / Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Pr 15:4 A soothing tongue is a tree of life, / But perverseness in it is a breaking of the spirit.
Pr 15:5 A fool despises his father’s correction, / But he who regards reproof gets prudence.
Pr 15:6 In the house of the righteous man there is much treasure, / But in the income of the wicked there is trouble.
Pr 15:7 The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, / But the heart of fools does not do so.
Pr 15:8 The asacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Jehovah, / But the prayer of the upright is His delight.
Pr 15:9 The way of the wicked man is an abomination to Jehovah, / But He loves one who apursues righteousness.
Pr 15:10 There is grievous correction for one who forsakes the way, / And he who hates reproof will die.
Pr 15:11 Sheol and 1Abaddon lie open before Jehovah. / How much more the hearts of the children of men!
Pr 15:12 A scorner does not love him who reproves him; / He will not go to the wise.
Pr 15:13 A ajoyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, / But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
Pr 15:14 The heart of one who has understanding seeks knowledge, / But the mouth of fools feeds on folly.
Pr 15:15 All the days of the afflicted are evil, / But he who is of a cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Pr 15:16 aBetter is a little with the fear of Jehovah / Than great treasure and turmoil with it.
Pr 15:17 Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is / Than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
Pr 15:18 A wrathful man stirs up contention, / But he who is aslow to anger quiets strife.
Pr 15:19 The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, / But the path of the upright is paved.
Pr 15:20 aA wise son makes a father glad, / But a foolish man despises his mother.
Pr 15:21 Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, / But a man of understanding makes straight his going.
Pr 15:22 Where there is no counsel, plans are frustrated; / But in the multitude of counselors they are established.
Pr 15:23 A man has joy in the apt answer of his mouth; / And a aword in its season, how good it is!
Pr 15:24 To the wise man the way of life leads upward, / That he may depart from Sheol below.
Pr 15:25 Jehovah will tear down the house of the proud, / But He will establish the territory of the widow.
Pr 15:26 Evil plans are an abomination to Jehovah, / But pleasant words are pure.
Pr 15:27 He who is greedy for again troubles his own house, / But he who hates bribes will live.
Pr 15:28 The heart of the righteous man ponders how to answer, / But the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
Pr 15:29 Jehovah is far from the wicked, / But He hears the aprayer of the righteous.
Pr 15:30 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, / And good news makes the bones fat.
Pr 15:31 The ear that listens to the reproof of life / Will lodge among the wise.
Pr 15:32 He who ignores instruction despises his own soul, / But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding.
Pr 15:33 aThe fear of Jehovah is the instruction of wisdom, / And humility goes before honor.
PROVERBS 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

Pr 16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, / But the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah.
Pr 16:2 aAll the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, / But Jehovah weighs the spirits.
Pr 16:3 aCommit your works to Jehovah, / And your purposes will be established.
Pr 16:4 Jehovah has amade everything for its own purpose, / Yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pr 16:5 aEvery one who is proud in heart is an abomination to Jehovah; / 1Be assured: He will not be unpunished.
Pr 16:6 By alovingkindness and truth iniquity is expiated, / And by the fear of Jehovah men depart from evil.
Pr 16:7 When a man’s ways please Jehovah, / He causes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Pr 16:8 aBetter is a little with righteousness, / Than great income with injustice.
Pr 16:9 A man’s heart devises his way, / But Jehovah directs his steps.
Pr 16:10 A divine decision is on the lips of the king; / His mouth will not transgress in judgment.
Pr 16:11 A ajust balance and just scales are Jehovah’s; / All the weights of the bag are His work.
Pr 16:12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness, / For the throne is established by righteousness.
Pr 16:13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings, / And they love one who speaks right.
Pr 16:14 The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, / But a wise man will appease it.
Pr 16:15 In the light of the king’s countenance is life, / And his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.
Pr 16:16 How much better it is to acquire wisdom than gold, / And to acquire understanding is to be chosen above silver.
Pr 16:17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; / He who keeps his way preserves his soul.
Pr 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, / And a ahaughty spirit before a fall.
Pr 16:19 It is better to be of a alowly spirit with the poor, / Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Pr 16:20 He who gives heed to the word will find good, / And 1blessed is he who trusts in Jehovah.
Pr 16:21 The wise in heart will be called discerning, / And the sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
Pr 16:22 Insight is a fountain of life to him who has it, / But the correction of fools is folly.
Pr 16:23 The heart of the wise man instructs his mouth / And adds persuasiveness to his lips.
Pr 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, / Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Pr 16:25 aThere is a way which seems right to a man, / But the end of it is the ways of death.
Pr 16:26 The appetite of the laboring man labors for him; / For his mouth urges him on.
Pr 16:27 A worthless man digs up evil, / And on his lips there is a scorching afire.
Pr 16:28 A perverse man spreads strife, / And a whisperer separates close friends.
Pr 16:29 A man of violence entices his neighbor / And leads him in a way that is not good.
Pr 16:30 He who shuts his eyes does so to devise perverse things; / He who compresses his lips brings evil to pass.
Pr 16:31 The gray head is a crown of glory; / It will be found in the way of righteousness.
Pr 16:32 He who is aslow to anger is better than the mighty; / And he who rules his bspirit, than he who captures a city.
Pr 16:33 The alot is cast into the lap, / But everything it decides is from Jehovah.
PROVERBS 17

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Pr 17:1 aBetter is a dry morsel and quietness with it / Than a house full of feasting with strife.
Pr 17:2 A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, / And will share in the inheritance among brothers.
Pr 17:3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, / But Jehovah atries the hearts.
Pr 17:4 An evildoer gives heed to wicked lips, / And a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.
Pr 17:5 aWhoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; / He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished.
Pr 17:6 Grandchildren are the acrown of old men, / And the glory of children is their fathers.
Pr 17:7 Excellent speech is not fitting for a fool; / Much less are lying lips for a noble man.
Pr 17:8 A bribe is like a precious stone in the eyes of its possessor: / Wherever he turns, he prospers.
Pr 17:9 He who acovers a transgression seeks love, / But he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
Pr 17:10 A rebuke strikes deeper into him who has understanding / Than a hundred stripes into a fool.
Pr 17:11 An evil man seeks only rebellion; / Therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
Pr 17:12 Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man / Rather than a fool in his folly.
Pr 17:13 Whoever rewards evil for good, / Evil will not depart from his house.
Pr 17:14 The beginning of contention is like letting out water; / Therefore abandon strife before it breaks out.
Pr 17:15 He who justifies the wicked man, and he who condemns the righteous man, / Both of them are an abomination to Jehovah.
Pr 17:16 Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, / When he has no sense?
Pr 17:17 A friend loves at all times, / And a brother is born for adversity.
Pr 17:18 A man lacking sense gives his hand as a pledge / And becomes surety in the presence of his neighbor.
Pr 17:19 He who loves transgression loves strife; / He who raises high his entrance seeks destruction.
Pr 17:20 He who has a crooked heart finds no good, / And he who has a perverse tongue falls into evil.
Pr 17:21 He who begets a fool does so to his sorrow, / And the father of a fool has no joy.
Pr 17:22 A ajoyful heart is good medicine, / But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
Pr 17:23 A wicked man receives a bribe from the bosom, / To pervert the ways of justice.
Pr 17:24 Wisdom is before the face of him who has understanding, / But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
Pr 17:25 A foolish son is a grief to his father, / And bitterness to her who bore him.
Pr 17:26 To also punish the righteous man is not good, / Nor to strike nobles for their uprightness.
Pr 17:27 He who restrains his words has knowledge, / And he who is cool in spirit is one who has understanding.
Pr 17:28 Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise; / When he shuts his lips, he is counted prudent.
PROVERBS 18

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Pr 18:1 He who separates himself seeks his own desire / And rages against all sound wisdom.
Pr 18:2 A fool has no delight in understanding, / But only that his heart may reveal itself.
Pr 18:3 When the wicked man comes, contempt also comes; / And with dishonor comes reproach.
Pr 18:4 The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters, / A gushing stream, a fountain of wisdom.
Pr 18:5 To respect the person of the wicked man is not good, / Nor to turn aside the righteous man in judgment.
Pr 18:6 A fool’s lips bring strife, / And his mouth invites blows.
Pr 18:7 A fool’s mouth is his ruin, / And his lips are the snare of his soul.
Pr 18:8 aThe words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, / And they go down into the innermost parts of one’s being.
Pr 18:9 He also who is slack in his work / Is brother to him who is a destroyer.
Pr 18:10 The name of Jehovah is a astrong tower; / The righteous man runs into it and is safe.
Pr 18:11 aThe rich man’s substance is his strong city / And like a high wall in his own imagination.
Pr 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, / aBut humility goes before honor.
Pr 18:13 As for him who gives an answer before he hears, / It is folly and shame.
Pr 18:14 The spirit of a man can sustain his sickness, / But a broken spirit who can bear?
Pr 18:15 aThe heart of one who has understanding acquires knowledge, / And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
Pr 18:16 A man’s gift makes room for him / And brings him before great men.
Pr 18:17 The first to plead his case seems just, / Until his neighbor comes and cross-examines him.
Pr 18:18 The alot causes contentions to cease / And decides between the mighty.
Pr 18:19 A abrother offended is harder to be gained than a strong city, / And contentions are like the bars of a castle.
Pr 18:20 With the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach will be satisfied; / With the produce of his lips he will be satisfied.
Pr 18:21 Death and life are in the apower of the tongue, / And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Pr 18:22 Whoever finds a awife finds a good thing, / And obtains favor from Jehovah.
Pr 18:23 The poor man utters supplications, / But the rich man aanswers roughly.
Pr 18:24 A man of many friends comes to destruction, / But there is a true afriend that sticks closer than a brother.
PROVERBS 19

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Pr 19:1 aBetter is a poor man who walks in his integrity / Than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
Pr 19:2 Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, / And he who makes haste with his feet sins.
Pr 19:3 The foolishness of a man subverts his way, / And his heart is indignant toward Jehovah.
Pr 19:4 Wealth adds many friends, / But the poor man is separated from his friend.
Pr 19:5 aA false witness will not go unpunished, / And he who utters lies will not escape.
Pr 19:6 Many will entreat the favor of the generous man, / And every man is a friend to one who gives gifts.
Pr 19:7 All the brothers of the poor man hate him; / How much more do his friends go far from him! / He pursues them with words, but they are not there.
Pr 19:8 He who acquires sense loves his own soul; / He who keeps understanding will find good.
Pr 19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished, / And he who utters lies will perish.
Pr 19:10 Delicate living is not fitting for a fool; / Much less for a servant to rule over princes.
Pr 19:11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, / And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.
Pr 19:12 The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, / But his favor is like dew upon the grass.
Pr 19:13 A foolish son is the ruin of his father, / And the acontentions of a wife are a continual dripping.
Pr 19:14 House and awealth are an inheritance from fathers, / But a prudent bwife is from Jehovah.
Pr 19:15 Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, / And the idle soul will suffer hunger.
Pr 19:16 He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul; / He who is careless of his ways will die.
Pr 19:17 He who has pity upon a apoor man blends to Jehovah, / And He will repay him for his good deed.
Pr 19:18 aDiscipline your son, for there is hope; / But do not set your heart on destroying him.
Pr 19:19 A man of great awrath will bear the penalty; / For if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.
Pr 19:20 Listen to counsel, and receive instruction, / That you may be wise at the end of your days.
Pr 19:21 There are many devices in a man’s heart, / But it is the acounsel of Jehovah that will stand.
Pr 19:22 What is desirable in a man is his kindness, / And a poor man is better than a liar.
Pr 19:23 The afear of Jehovah leads to life, / And he who has it will lodge in contentment; / He will not be visited with evil.
Pr 19:24 The asluggard buries his hand in the dish, / And will not even bring it back to his mouth.
Pr 19:25 Strike a scorner, and the simple will learn prudence; / And reprove one who has understanding, and he will understand knowledge.
Pr 19:26 He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother / Is a son that causes shame and brings reproach.
Pr 19:27 Cease listening, my son, to instruction, / And you will stray from the words of knowledge.
Pr 19:28 A worthless witness mocks justice, / And the mouth of the wicked swallows up iniquity.
Pr 19:29 Judgments are prepared for scorners, / And blows for the back of fools.
PROVERBS 20

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C. Admonitions and Teachings
20:1 — 24:34
Pr 20:1 aWine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; / And whoever errs by it does not become wise.
Pr 20:2 The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion; / He who provokes him to anger sins against his own life.
Pr 20:3 It is an honor for a man to keep away from strife, / But every fool rushes headlong into it.
Pr 20:4 The asluggard will not plow because of winter; / Therefore he will beg in harvest and have nothing.
Pr 20:5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, / But a man of understanding will draw it out.
Pr 20:6 Many a man will proclaim his own kindness, / But who can find a faithful man?
Pr 20:7 A righteous man who walks in his integrity, / Blessed are his children after him.
Pr 20:8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment / Scatters away all evil with his eyes.
Pr 20:9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean; / I am pure from my sin?
Pr 20:10 aDiffering weights and differing measures, / Both of them are an abomination to Jehovah.
Pr 20:11 Even a child makes himself known by his deeds, / Whether his work is pure and whether it is upright.
Pr 20:12 The hearing aear and the seeing eye — / Jehovah has made both of them.
Pr 20:13 Do not love asleep, or else you will come to poverty; / Open your eyes, and be satisfied with bread.
Pr 20:14 It is bad, it is bad, says the buyer; / But when he has gone away, then he boasts in his purchase.
Pr 20:15 There is gold and an abundance of corals, / But the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Pr 20:16 aTake his garment when he becomes surety for a stranger, / And hold the pledge when he becomes surety for foreigners.
Pr 20:17 The bread of falsehood is sweet to a man, / But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.
Pr 20:18 Every plan is established by counsel, / And by sound counsel make war.
Pr 20:19 aHe who goes about as a gossip reveals secrets; / Therefore do not associate with one who opens his lips wide.
Pr 20:20 Whoever acurses his father or his mother, / His lamp will go out in deep darkness.
Pr 20:21 An inheritance gained hurriedly at the beginning / Will not be blessed in the end.
Pr 20:22 Do anot say, I will recompense evil; / Wait for Jehovah, and He will save you.
Pr 20:23 aDiffering weights are an abomination to Jehovah, / And false scales are not good.
Pr 20:24 A man’s asteps are ordered by Jehovah; / How then can man understand his own way?
Pr 20:25 It is a snare to a man to rashly say, It is holy, / And after making the vows to begin to consider.
Pr 20:26 A wise king winnows the wicked / And drives the threshing wheel over them.
Pr 20:27 The 1aspirit of man is the 2lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being.
Pr 20:28 Lovingkindness and truth preserve the king, / And his throne is upheld by kindness.
Pr 20:29 The glory of young men is their strength, / And the honor of old men is gray hair.
Pr 20:30 Stripes that wound purge away evil, / And strokes reach the innermost parts of the inner being.
PROVERBS 21

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Pr 21:1 The aking’s heart is like streams of water in the hand of Jehovah; / He turns it wherever He wishes.
Pr 21:2 Every away of a man is right in his own eyes, / But Jehovah weighs the bhearts.
Pr 21:3 To do righteousness and justice / Is more acceptable to Jehovah than asacrifice.
Pr 21:4 A high look and a proud heart — / The lamp of the wicked — is sin.
Pr 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead only to plentifulness, / But everyone who is hasty comes only to want.
Pr 21:6 The getting of treasures by a lying tongue / Is a fleeting vapor, a 1snare of death.
Pr 21:7 The violence of the wicked will sweep them away / Because they refuse to do justice.
Pr 21:8 The way of a guilty man is crooked; / But as for the pure, his work is right.
Pr 21:9 aIt is better to dwell in a corner of a housetop / Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
Pr 21:10 The soul of the wicked man desires evil; / His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes.
Pr 21:11 When the scorner is punished, the simple man becomes wise; / And when the wise man is instructed, he receives knowledge.
Pr 21:12 The righteous One considers the house of the wicked man, / Overthrowing the wicked to their ruin.
Pr 21:13 Whoever acloses his ear to the cry of the poor man / Also will cry and will not be heard.
Pr 21:14 A gift in secret pacifies anger; / And a present in the bosom, strong wrath.
Pr 21:15 It is joy to the righteous man to do justice, / But it is destruction to the workers of iniquity.
Pr 21:16 The man who wanders from the way of understanding / Will rest in the assembly of the dead.
Pr 21:17 He who aloves pleasure will be a poor man; / He who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Pr 21:18 The wicked man is a ransom for the righteous man, / And the treacherous man is in the place of the upright.
Pr 21:19 aIt is better to dwell in a desert land / Than with a contentious and vexing woman.
Pr 21:20 There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise man, / But a foolish man swallows it up.
Pr 21:21 He who pursues righteousness and kindness / Finds life, righteousness, and honor.
Pr 21:22 A wise man scales the city of the mighty / And brings down the strength in which they trust.
Pr 21:23 Whoever aguards his mouth and his tongue / Keeps his soul from troubles.
Pr 21:24 Proud, Haughty, Scorner are the names / Of him who works in the arrogance of pride.
Pr 21:25 The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, / For his hands refuse to work.
Pr 21:26 All day long one covets greedily, / But the righteous man gives and does not hold back.
Pr 21:27 aThe sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; / How much more when he brings it with evil intent!
Pr 21:28 A false witness will perish, / But the man who hears will speak so as to endure.
Pr 21:29 A wicked man hardens his face; / But as for the upright, he establishes his ways.
Pr 21:30 There is no wisdom nor understanding / Nor acounsel that can avail against Jehovah.
Pr 21:31 The horse is prepared for the day of battle, / But avictory belongs to Jehovah.
PROVERBS 22

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Pr 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, / And favor is better than silver and gold.
Pr 22:2 The rich and the poor have this in common: / Jehovah is the amaker of them all.
Pr 22:3 aA prudent man sees evil and hides himself, / But the simple pass on and suffer punishment for it.
Pr 22:4 The reward of humility and the fear of Jehovah / Are riches and honor and life.
Pr 22:5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; / He who guards his soul will keep far from them.
Pr 22:6 aTrain up a child according to the way he should go; / Even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Pr 22:7 The rich man rules over the poor, / And the borrower is servant to the lender.
Pr 22:8 He who asows injustice will reap iniquity, / And the rod of his wrath will fail. 1
Pr 22:9 He who is agenerous will be blessed, / For he gives some of his bread to the poor.
Pr 22:10 Cast out the scorner, and contention will go out; / Indeed, strife and dishonor will cease.
Pr 22:11 He who loves apureness of heart / And whose speech is gracious will have the king as his friend.
Pr 22:12 The eyes of Jehovah preserve knowledge, / But He overthrows the words of the treacherous man.
Pr 22:13 aThe sluggard says, There is a lion outside! / I will be slain in the streets!
Pr 22:14 The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; / He with whom Jehovah is indignant will fall in there.
Pr 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; / But the arod of correction will drive it far from him.
Pr 22:16 He who oppresses the poor to multiply his gain, / And he who gives to the rich will only come to want.
Pr 22:17 Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, / And apply your heart to my knowledge;
Pr 22:18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; / Let them be ready on your lips.
Pr 22:19 So that your trust may be in Jehovah, / I have made them known to you today, even to you.
Pr 22:20 Have not I written to you 1excellent things / Of counsels and knowledge,
Pr 22:21 To make you know the certainty of the words of truth, / That you may answer back words of truth to those who send you?
Pr 22:22 Do not rob the poor, because he is poor; / Nor oppress the afflicted in the gate;
Pr 22:23 For Jehovah will aplead their cause, / And rob the life of those who rob them.
Pr 22:24 Make no friendship with a man who is given to anger, / And with a wrathful man do not go;
Pr 22:25 Lest you learn his ways / And get a snare for your soul.
Pr 22:26 Do not be one of those who give their hand as a pledge / Or one of those who are a surety for debts.
Pr 22:27 If you have nothing with which to pay, / Why should your bed be taken away from under you?
Pr 22:28 Do not remove the ancient aboundary marker, / Which your fathers have set up.
Pr 22:29 Do you see a man skilled in his work? / He will stand before kings; / He will not stand before obscure men.
PROVERBS 23

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Pr 23:1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, / Consider carefully 1who is before you;
Pr 23:2 And put a knife to your throat / If you are a man of great appetite.
Pr 23:3 Do not desire his delicacies, / For they are deceitful food.
Pr 23:4 Do not weary yourself to become arich; / Cease from your consideration of it.
Pr 23:5 When you set your eyes upon it, it is gone; / For awealth certainly makes itself wings, / Like an eagle that flies toward heaven.
Pr 23:6 Do not eat the bread of one who is envious, / And do not desire his delicacies;
Pr 23:7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. / He says to you, Eat and drink; / But his heart is not with you.
Pr 23:8 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten, / And waste your pleasant words.
Pr 23:9 aDo not speak in the hearing of a fool, / For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Pr 23:10 aDo not remove the ancient boundary marker, / Or go into the fields of the fatherless;
Pr 23:11 For their aRedeemer is strong; / He will plead their cause against you.
Pr 23:12 Apply your heart to instruction, / And your ears to words of knowledge.
Pr 23:13 Do not withhold acorrection from a child; / If you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
Pr 23:14 If you beat him with the rod, / You will deliver his soul from aSheol.
Pr 23:15 My son, if your heart is wise, / My own heart will also rejoice;
Pr 23:16 My inward parts will also exult, / When your lips speak right things.
Pr 23:17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, / But live in the fear of Jehovah all day long;
Pr 23:18 For surely there is a latter end, / And your hope will not be cut off.
Pr 23:19 Listen, my son, and be wise, / And direct your heart in the way.
Pr 23:20 Do not be among those who get drunk with wine, / Among gluttonous eaters of flesh;
Pr 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, / And drowsiness will clothe them with rags.
Pr 23:22 Listen to your afather who begot you, / And do not despise your mother when she is old.
Pr 23:23 Buy atruth, and do not sell it; / Buy wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Pr 23:24 The father of the righteous man will greatly exult, / And he who begets a wise child will rejoice in him.
Pr 23:25 Let your father and your mother rejoice, / And let her who bore you exult.
Pr 23:26 My son, give me your heart, / And let your eyes 1observe my ways.
Pr 23:27 For a harlot is a deep pit, / And an adulteress is a narrow well.
Pr 23:28 Indeed, she lies in wait as a robber, / And increases the number of the treacherous among men.
Pr 23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? / Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
Pr 23:30 Those who linger late over awine, / Those who go to seek out mixed wines.
Pr 23:31 Do not look upon the wine when it is red, / When it sparkles in the cup, / When it goes down smoothly;
Pr 23:32 In the end it bites like a serpent, / And stings like an adder.
Pr 23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, / And your heart will utter perverse things;
Pr 23:34 And you will be like one who lies down while at sea, / Or like one who lies down at the top of a mast.
Pr 23:35 They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt; / They beat me, but I did not feel it; / When will I awake? I will seek another drink.
PROVERBS 24

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Pr 24:1 Do not be envious of evil men, / Nor desire to be with them;
Pr 24:2 For their heart meditates violence, / And their lips talk of mischief.
Pr 24:3 Through awisdom a house is built, / And by understanding it is established,
Pr 24:4 And by knowledge the rooms are filled / With all precious and pleasant riches.
Pr 24:5 A wise man is strong, / And a man of knowledge increases power.
Pr 24:6 For by sound counsel you can wage your war, / And in the multitude of acounselors there is 1victory.
Pr 24:7 Wisdom is too high for a fool; / He does not open his mouth in the gate.
Pr 24:8 He who devises to do evil, / Men will call him a mischief-maker.
Pr 24:9 The devising of folly is sin, / And the scorner is an abomination to men.
Pr 24:10 If you faint in the day of adversity, / Your strength is limited.
Pr 24:11 Deliver those who are being taken away to death, / And those who are staggering to be slain, oh, hold back!
Pr 24:12 If you say, Look, we did not know this — / Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? / And He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? / And will He not render to every man according to his work?
Pr 24:13 My son, eat ahoney, for it is good, / And the drippings from the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:
Pr 24:14 Know that wisdom is such for your soul; / If you find it, then there will be a latter end, / And your hope will not be cut off.
Pr 24:15 Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous man; / Do not destroy his resting place;
Pr 24:16 For a righteous man falls seven times and arises up again, / But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
Pr 24:17 Do anot rejoice when your enemy falls, / And do not let your heart exult when he is overthrown;
Pr 24:18 Lest Jehovah see it, and it displease Him, / And He turn away His anger from him.
Pr 24:19 Do not be incensed because of evildoers; / Do not be envious of the wicked;
Pr 24:20 For there will be no future for the evil man; / The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Pr 24:21 My son, afear Jehovah and the king, / And do not associate with those who are given to change;
Pr 24:22 For their calamity will rise suddenly, / And who knows the misfortune of both of them?
Pr 24:23 These also are sayings of the wise: / It is not good to have respect of persons in ajudgment.
Pr 24:24 He who says to the wicked man, You are righteous, / Peoples will curse him; nations will abhor him.
Pr 24:25 But those who rebuke the wicked man will have delight, / And a good blessing will come upon them.
Pr 24:26 He who gives an honest answer / Kisses the lips.
Pr 24:27 Prepare your work outside, / And make it ready for yourself in the field, / And afterward build your house.
Pr 24:28 Do not be a awitness against your neighbor without cause, / And do not deceive with your lips.
Pr 24:29 Do not say, I will do to him as he has done to me; / I will render to the man according to his work.
Pr 24:30 I passed by the field of the sluggard, / And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense;
Pr 24:31 And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; / Its surface was covered with nettles, / And its stone wall was broken down.
Pr 24:32 When I looked, I considered it; / I saw it and received instruction:
Pr 24:33 aA little sleep, a little slumber, / A little folding of the hands to rest,
Pr 24:34 And your poverty will come upon you like a robber, / And your want, like an armed man.
PROVERBS 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

II. The Collection of Hezekiah — Admonitions and Teachings
25:1 — 29:27
Pr 25:1 These also are aproverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah the king of Judah copied.
Pr 25:2 It is the glory of God to aconceal a matter, / But the glory of kings is to search a matter out.
Pr 25:3 As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, / So the heart of kings is unsearchable.
Pr 25:4 Take away the dross from the silver, / And a vessel comes out for the smith;
Pr 25:5 Take away the wicked man from before the king, / And his throne will be established in righteousness.
Pr 25:6 Do not claim honor for yourself in the presence of the king, / And do anot stand in the place of great men;
Pr 25:7 For it is better that it is said to you, Come up here, / Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the noble, / Whom your eyes have seen.
Pr 25:8 Do not go out hastily to strive; / Otherwise what will you do in the end, / When your neighbor puts you to shame?
Pr 25:9 aArgue your case with your neighbor himself, / And do bnot reveal the secret of another;
Pr 25:10 Lest he who hears it revile you, / And the evil report of you does not go away.
Pr 25:11 A aword fitly spoken / Is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
Pr 25:12 Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold / Is a wise reprover to a listening ear.
Pr 25:13 Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest / Is a faithful messenger to those who send him, / For he refreshes the soul of his masters.
Pr 25:14 Like clouds and wind awithout rain / Is one who boasts of his gifts falsely.
Pr 25:15 By forbearance a ruler may be persuaded, / And a soft tongue can break the bone.
Pr 25:16 Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, / Lest you become filled up with it and vomit it.
Pr 25:17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, / Otherwise he will become weary of you and hate you.
Pr 25:18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor / Is like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow.
Pr 25:19 Confidence in a treacherous man in time of trouble / Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.
Pr 25:20 He who sings songs to a troubled heart / Is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, / Or like vinegar on soda.
Pr 25:21 aIf your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; / And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
Pr 25:22 For you will heap coals of fire upon his head, / And Jehovah will reward you.
Pr 25:23 The north wind brings forth rain; / And a backbiting tongue, an angry countenance.
Pr 25:24 aIt is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop / Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
Pr 25:25 Like cold water to a thirsty soul, / So is good news from a far country.
Pr 25:26 Like a muddied fountain and a polluted spring / Is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked man.
Pr 25:27 It is not good to eat much honey, / Nor is it glory for men to search out their own glory.
Pr 25:28 Like a city that is broken down, without walls, / Is a man whose aspirit is without restraint.
PROVERBS 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

Pr 26:1 Like snow in summer and like rain in harvest, / So honor is not fitting for a fool.
Pr 26:2 Like the sparrow in its fluttering, like the swallow in its flying, / So a curse without cause does not alight.
Pr 26:3 A whip for the horse! A abridle for the donkey! / And a rod for the back of fools!
Pr 26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, / Lest you also be like him.
Pr 26:5 Answer a fool according to his folly, / Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Pr 26:6 He who sends a message by the hand of a fool / Cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.
Pr 26:7 Like the legs of the lame which hang down, / So is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Pr 26:8 Like one who binds a stone in a sling, / So is he who gives honor to a fool.
Pr 26:9 Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard, / So is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Pr 26:10 Like an archer who wounds everyone, / So is he who hires a fool or who hires those who pass by.
Pr 26:11 Like a adog that returns to its vomit / Is a fool who repeats his folly.
Pr 26:12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? / There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Pr 26:13 aThe sluggard says, There is a roaring lion on the way; / A lion is in the streets!
Pr 26:14 As the door turns upon its hinges, / So does the sluggard upon his bed.
Pr 26:15 aThe sluggard buries his hand in the dish; / He gets weary by bringing it to his mouth again.
Pr 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes / Than seven men who can answer discreetly.
Pr 26:17 He who passes by and meddles with strife that does not belong to him, / Is like one who takes a dog by the ears.
Pr 26:18 Like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows, and death,
Pr 26:19 So is the man who deceives his neighbor, / And says, Was I not joking?
Pr 26:20 For lack of wood the fire goes out, / And where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.
Pr 26:21 As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, / So is a contentious man to kindle strife.
Pr 26:22 aThe words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, / And they go down into the innermost parts of one’s being.
Pr 26:23 Burning lips and a wicked heart / Are like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross.
Pr 26:24 He who hates disguises it with his lips, / But he lays up deceit within him;
Pr 26:25 When he speaks graciously, do not believe him; / For there are seven abominations in his heart;
Pr 26:26 Though his hatred covers itself with guile, / His wickedness will be revealed before the assembly.
Pr 26:27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, / And he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.
Pr 26:28 A lying tongue hates those it crushes, / And a flattering mouth works ruin.
PROVERBS 27

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Pr 27:1 Do not boast about atomorrow, / For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
Pr 27:2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; / A foreigner, and not your own lips.
Pr 27:3 A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty, / But a fool’s vexation is heavier than both of them.
Pr 27:4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming, / But who can stand before jealousy?
Pr 27:5 Open arebuke is better / Than love that is hidden.
Pr 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, / But the akisses of an enemy are profuse.
Pr 27:7 The full soul loathes a honeycomb, / But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Pr 27:8 Like a bird that wanders from her nest, / So is a man who wanders from his place.
Pr 27:9 Oil and perfume rejoice the heart; / So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.
Pr 27:10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend / To go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity: / Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away.
Pr 27:11 My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, / That I may answer him who reproaches me.
Pr 27:12 aA prudent man sees evil and hides himself; / But the simple pass on and suffer punishment for it.
Pr 27:13 aTake the garment of him who is surety for a stranger, / And hold one in pledge who is surety for a foreign woman.
Pr 27:14 He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, / Arousing him early in the morning, / It will be reckoned as a curse to him.
Pr 27:15 A continual adripping on a very rainy day / And a contentious woman are alike;
Pr 27:16 He who would restrain her restrains the wind, / And grasps oil with his right hand.
Pr 27:17 Iron sharpens iron; / So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Pr 27:18 Whoever tends a fig tree will aeat its fruit, / And he who takes care of his master will be honored.
Pr 27:19 As in water face reflects face, / So the heart of man reflects man.
Pr 27:20 aSheol and 1Abaddon are never satisfied, / And the beyes of man are never satisfied.
Pr 27:21 aThe refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, / And a man is tried by the praise given him.
Pr 27:22 Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, / His folly will not depart from him.
Pr 27:23 Know well the condition of your flocks, / And pay attention to your herds —
Pr 27:24 For riches are not forever, / Nor does a crown endure from generation to generation —
Pr 27:25 Then when the grass has disappeared, and the tender grass is seen, / And the herbs of the mountains have been gathered in,
Pr 27:26 The lambs will be for your clothing, / And the goats will bring the price of a field;
Pr 27:27 And there will be goats’ milk enough for your food, / For the food of your household, / And for the sustenance for your maidens.
PROVERBS 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

Pr 28:1 The wicked aflee when no man pursues, / But the righteous are as bold as a lion.
Pr 28:2 When a land revolts, it has many rulers; / But by him who has understanding and knowledge it endures.
Pr 28:3 A destitute man who oppresses the poor / Is like a driving rain which leaves no food.
Pr 28:4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, / But those who keep the law contend with them.
Pr 28:5 Evil men do not understand justice, / But those who aseek Jehovah understand all things.
Pr 28:6 aBetter is a poor man who walks in his integrity / Than he who is perverse in his ways though he is rich.
Pr 28:7 Whoever keeps the law is an understanding son, / But he who is a companion of gluttons shames his father.
Pr 28:8 He who increases his substance by interest and usury / Gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.
Pr 28:9 He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, / Even his prayer is an abomination.
Pr 28:10 Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way / Will himself fall into his own pit, / But the perfect will inherit good.
Pr 28:11 The rich man is wise in his own conceit, / But the poor man who has understanding searches him out.
Pr 28:12 When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; / But when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.
Pr 28:13 He who covers his transgressions will not prosper, / But whoever aconfesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
Pr 28:14 1Blessed is the man who always fears, / But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Pr 28:15 Like a roaring lion and a roving bear / Is a wicked ruler over a poor people.
Pr 28:16 The ruler who lacks understanding is also a great oppressor, / But he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.
Pr 28:17 A man who is burdened with a person’s blood / 1Will be a fugitive until death; / Let no man support him.
Pr 28:18 Whoever walks uprightly will be delivered, / But he who is perverse in his ways will fall all at once.
Pr 28:19 aHe who tills his land will have plenty of bread, / But he who pursues worthless things will have plenty of poverty.
Pr 28:20 A faithful man will abound with blessings, / But he who makes haste to be arich will not go unpunished.
Pr 28:21 To have respect of persons is not good, / Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.
Pr 28:22 A man who is envious hastens after wealth, / And does not know that want will come upon him.
Pr 28:23 He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor / Than he who flatters with the tongue.
Pr 28:24 Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, / It is no transgression, / Is the companion of a man who destroys.
Pr 28:25 A greedy person stirs up contention, / But he who trusts in Jehovah will prosper.
Pr 28:26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, / But he who walks wisely will be delivered.
Pr 28:27 He who agives to the poor man will not lack, / But he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.
Pr 28:28 When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; / But when they perish, the righteous increase.
PROVERBS 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Pr 29:1 He who hardens his neck after being often reproved / Will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.
Pr 29:2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice; / But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.
Pr 29:3 Whoever loves wisdom makes his father glad, / But he who keeps company with aharlots wastes his substance.
Pr 29:4 The king by justice establishes the land, / But a man who takes bribes overthrows it.
Pr 29:5 A man who flatters his neighbor / Spreads a net for his steps.
Pr 29:6 In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, / But the righteous man sings and rejoices.
Pr 29:7 The righteous man knows the rights of the poor; / The wicked man has no understanding of such knowledge.
Pr 29:8 Scorners set a city aflame, / But wise men turn away wrath.
Pr 29:9 If a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, / The fool is either angry or laughs, and there is no rest.
Pr 29:10 The bloodthirsty hate one who is perfect, / And they seek the life of the upright.
Pr 29:11 A fool utters all his anger, / But a wise man holds it back.
Pr 29:12 If a ruler pays attention to a false word, / All his servants are wicked.
Pr 29:13 The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: / Jehovah gives light to the eyes of them both.
Pr 29:14 If a king judges the poor in truth, / His throne will be established forever.
Pr 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, / But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
Pr 29:16 When the wicked increase, transgression increases; / But the righteous will see their fall.
Pr 29:17 Correct your son, and he will give you rest; / He will also give delight to your soul.
Pr 29:18 Where there is no avision, the people cast off restraint; / But happy is he who keeps the law.
Pr 29:19 A servant will not be corrected by words alone; / For though he understands, there will be no response.
Pr 29:20 Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? / There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Pr 29:21 He who delicately brings up his servant from a child / Will have him as a son in the end.
Pr 29:22 An angry man stirs up contention, / And a furious man abounds in transgression.
Pr 29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, / But he who is of a alowly spirit will obtain honor.
Pr 29:24 Whoever is partner with a thief hates his own soul; / He hears the adjuration and utters nothing.
Pr 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, / But whoever puts his atrust in Jehovah will be 1exalted.
Pr 29:26 Many seek the ruler’s favor, / But ajustice for man comes from Jehovah.
Pr 29:27 An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, / And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked man.
PROVERBS 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

III. The Word of Agur — General Words of Wisdom
30:1-33
Pr 30:1 The words of Agur the son of Jakeh. The oracle. / The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:
Pr 30:2 Surely I am more astupid than any man, / And do not have a man’s understanding;
Pr 30:3 And I have not learned wisdom, / Nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.
Pr 30:4 Who has aascended into heaven and descended? / Who has gathered the wind in His fists? / Who has wrapped up the waters in His garment? / Who has bestablished all the ends of the earth? / What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if you know?
Pr 30:5 aEvery word of God is tried; / He is a shield to those who btake refuge in Him.
Pr 30:6 Do anot add to His words, / Lest He reprove you and you be found a liar.
Pr 30:7 Two things I have asked of You; / Do not refuse me before I die:
Pr 30:8 Remove far from me falsehood and lies. / Give me neither poverty nor riches; / Feed me with the afood that is my portion,
Pr 30:9 Lest I become full and deny You and say, Who is Jehovah? / Or lest I become poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Pr 30:10 Do not slander a servant to his master, / Lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
Pr 30:11 There is a generation that curse their father, / And do not bless their mother.
Pr 30:12 There is a generation that are apure in their own eyes, / And yet are not bwashed from their filthiness.
Pr 30:13 There is a generation — oh how lofty are their eyes, / And their eyelids are raised arrogantly.
Pr 30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, / And their jaw teeth like knives, / To devour the afflicted from off the earth, / And the needy from among men.
Pr 30:15 The leech has two daughters, crying, Give, give. / There are three things that are never satisfied, / Indeed, four that do not say, Enough:
Pr 30:16 Sheol and the barren womb, / The earth that is not satisfied with water, / And the fire that does not say, Enough.
Pr 30:17 The eye that mocks his father / And despises to obey his mother, / The ravens of the valley will pick it out, / And the young eagles will eat it.
Pr 30:18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me, / Indeed four which I do not know:
Pr 30:19 The way of an aeagle in the sky, / The way of a serpent upon a rock, / The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, / And the way of a man with a maiden.
Pr 30:20 This is the way of an adulterous woman: / She eats and wipes her mouth / And says, I have done no wickedness.
Pr 30:21 Under three things the earth quakes, / And under four, it cannot bear up:
Pr 30:22 Under a servant when he is king, / And a fool when he is filled with food;
Pr 30:23 Under a hated woman when she gets married, / And a servant girl who is heir to her mistress.
Pr 30:24 Four things are small on the earth, / But they are exceedingly wise:
Pr 30:25 The aants are a clan without strength, / Yet they prepare their food in the summer;
Pr 30:26 The rock badgers are a clan without might, / Yet they make their houses in the rocks;
Pr 30:27 The swarming locusts have no king, / Yet all of them go out in ranks;
Pr 30:28 The lizard can be grasped with the hands, / Yet she is in kings’ palaces.
Pr 30:29 There are three things which are stately in their step, / Indeed four which are stately in walking:
Pr 30:30 The lion, which is mightiest among beasts, / And does not turn back before any;
Pr 30:31 The strutting cock girded in the loins, or a male goat, / And a king who has a band of soldiers with him.
Pr 30:32 If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, / Or if you have thought an evil scheme, / Put your hand upon your mouth.
Pr 30:33 For the churning of milk produces butter, / And the wringing of the nose brings forth blood, / So the pressing of wrath brings forth strife.
PROVERBS 31

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

IV. The Word of King Lemuel
31:1-31
Pr 31:1 The words of King Lemuel. The oracle which his mother taught him.
Pr 31:2 What, my son? and what, O son of my womb? / And what, O son of my vows?
Pr 31:3 Do not give your strength to women, / Nor your ways to that which destroys kings.
Pr 31:4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; / Nor for princes to say, Where is strong drink?
Pr 31:5 Lest they drink and forget what is decreed, / And pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
Pr 31:6 Give strong drink rather to one who is perishing, / And wine to the bitter in soul;
Pr 31:7 Let him drink and forget his poverty, / And remember his misery no more.
Pr 31:8 Open your mouth for the dumb, / And for the rights of all those who are passing away.
Pr 31:9 Open your mouth; judge righteously, / And minister justice to the poor and needy.
Pr 31:10 Who can find a aworthy woman? / For her price is far above corals.
Pr 31:11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, / And he will have no lack of gain.
Pr 31:12 She does him good and not evil / All the days of her life.
Pr 31:13 She seeks wool and flax, / And delights to work with her hands.
Pr 31:14 She is like the merchant ships; / She brings her food from afar.
Pr 31:15 She rises also while it is still night / And gives food to her household, / And their task to her serving girls.
Pr 31:16 She considers a field and buys it; / With the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
Pr 31:17 She girds her loins with strength / And makes strong her arms.
Pr 31:18 She samples her merchandise to be sure it is good; / Her lamp does not go out by night.
Pr 31:19 She lays her hands to the distaff, / And her hands hold on to the spindle.
Pr 31:20 She astretches out her hand to the afflicted, / And she reaches out her hands to the needy.
Pr 31:21 She does not fear for her household when it snows, / For all her household are clothed with ascarlet.
Pr 31:22 She makes coverings for herself; / Her clothing is fine linen and apurple.
Pr 31:23 Her husband is known in the gates, / When he sits among the aelders of the land.
Pr 31:24 She makes linen garments and sells them / And delivers girdles to the merchant.
Pr 31:25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, / And she happily looks forward to the time to come.
Pr 31:26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, / And the 1law of kindness is on her tongue.
Pr 31:27 She watches closely over the ways of her household / And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Pr 31:28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; / Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
Pr 31:29 Many daughters have done worthily, / But you surpass them all.
Pr 31:30 Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain; / But a woman who fears Jehovah, she will be praised.
Pr 31:31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, / And let her works praise her in the gates.
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ECCLESIASTES

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Solomon (1:1, 12; 12:9; cf. 1 Kings 4:32).
Time of Writing: About 977 B.C., after Solomon’s fall (1 Kings 11:1-8).
Place of Writing: Jerusalem (1:1, 12).
Subject:
The Teachings of Solomon, Showing That the Human Life in the Corrupted World Is a Vanity, a Chasing after the Wind
ECCLESIASTES 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

I. The Opening Word
1:1-11
Ec 1:1 The words of the 1aPreacher, the bson of David, the king in Jerusalem.
Ec 1:2 1aVanity of vanities, says the Preacher; / Vanity of vanities; 2all is bvanity.
Ec 1:3 aWhat advantage does a man have in all his work / Which he does bunder the sun?
Ec 1:4 A generation goes and a generation comes, / But the earth astands forever.
Ec 1:5 Also, the sun arises, and the sun sets / And hurries to its place where it rises.
Ec 1:6 Going to the south, then turning to the north, / Turning about continually, the wind goes on; / And following its circuits, the wind returns.
Ec 1:7 All the rivers run to the sea, / Yet the sea is not full; / To the place where the rivers run, / There they run again.
Ec 1:8 All things are wearisome; / No one is able to tell it; / The aeye is not satisfied with seeing, / Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
Ec 1:9 aWhat has been is what will be, / And what has been done is what will be done, / And there is nothing new bunder the sun.
Ec 1:10 Is there anything of which one can say, See, this is new? / Already it has been, in the ages that were before us.
Ec 1:11 There is ano remembrance of those who were before; / And also those who will come to be afterward, for them there will be no remembrance / With those who come to be after them.
II. The Writer’s Experiments
1:12 — 6:12
A. In Wisdom and Knowledge
1:12-18
Ec 1:12 I, the aPreacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Ec 1:13 And I set my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom 1all that is done aunder the heavens. It is grievous btravail that God has given to the children of men to travail in.
Ec 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed, all is vanity and a 1achasing after wind.
Ec 1:15 What is acrooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
Ec 1:16 I spoke to my own heart, saying, Now I have magnified and increased my wisdom more than all who have been over Jerusalem abefore me; and my heart has observed in abundance wisdom and knowledge.
Ec 1:17 And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I perceived that this also is a chasing after wind.
Ec 1:18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
ECCLESIASTES 2

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B. In Pleasure
2:1-11
Ec 2:1 I said in my heart, Come now, I will test out pleasure; so 1taste enjoyment. But indeed, this also is vanity.
Ec 2:2 I said of laughter, Madness! and of pleasure, What does it accomplish?
Ec 2:3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine while my heart guided me with wisdom, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the children of men to do aunder the heavens the few days of their lives.
Ec 2:4 I enlarged my works: I abuilt houses for myself; I planted vineyards for myself;
Ec 2:5 I made gardens and parks for myself, and planted in them trees of every kind of fruit.
Ec 2:6 I made water ponds for myself from which to water a forest of growing trees.
Ec 2:7 I bought male and female servants, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than all that had been before me in Jerusalem.
Ec 2:8 I gathered also asilver and gold for myself and the treasures of kings and provinces; I got for myself male singers and female singers and the delights of the children of men, 1concubine after concubine.
Ec 2:9 And I became great and increased more than all who had been abefore me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me.
Ec 2:10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I did not keep my heart from any pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.
Ec 2:11 Then I turned to all the works that my hands had done and the labor by which I had labored in doing them, and indeed, all was vanity and a achasing after wind; and there was no advantage under the sun.
C. In Being a Wise Man or a Fool
2:12-26
Ec 2:12 And I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what will the man do who comes after the king? Only that which has been done already.
Ec 2:13 And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
Ec 2:14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness; yet I also perceived that aone fate happens to them all.
Ec 2:15 And I said in my heart, As it happens to the fool, so also will it happen to me. Why then have I been so wise? And I said in my heart, This also is vanity.
Ec 2:16 For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no remembrance forever, seeing that in the days to come all will be forgotten. And how the wise man dies just like the fool!
Ec 2:17 So I hated life, for the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me, because everything is vanity and a achasing after wind.
Ec 2:18 And I hated all my labor for which I had labored under the sun, because I will aleave it to the man who comes after me.
Ec 2:19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master over all my labor for which I have labored and in which I exercised wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
Ec 2:20 Therefore I turned and gave my heart up to despair of all the labor for which I had labored aunder the sun;
Ec 2:21 For there is a man whose labor has been with wisdom and with knowledge and with skill, and to a man who has not labored on it he gives it as his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
Ec 2:22 For what will a man have with all his labor and with the striving of his heart by which he labors under the sun?
Ec 2:23 For all his days are sorrow, and his travail is vexation; even at night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
Ec 2:24 There is nothing better for man than to 1aeat and to drink and to make his soul taste enjoyment in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
Ec 2:25 For who can eat or who can enjoy 1without Him?
Ec 2:26 For to the man who is good in His sight He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He gives the travail of gathering and heaping up that it may be given to him who is good in God’s sight. This also is vanity and a achasing after wind.
ECCLESIASTES 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

D. In Fate under God’s Sovereignty
3:1-15
Ec 3:1 For everything there is a season, / And a atime for every purpose under heaven:
Ec 3:2 A time to be aborn, and a time to bdie; / A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
Ec 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; / A time to tear down, and a time to build up;
Ec 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; / A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ec 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; / A time to embrace, and a time to arefrain from embracing;
Ec 3:6 A time to seek, and a time to lose; / A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
Ec 3:7 A time to tear, and a time to sew; / A time to abe silent, and a time to bspeak;
Ec 3:8 A time to alove, and a time to bhate; / A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ec 3:9 What profit does the worker have in all that he labors?
Ec 3:10 I have seen the atravail that God has given the children of men to travail in.
Ec 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its own time; also He has put 1eternity in their heart, yet so that man does not afind out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ec 3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to 1arejoice and do good in their lifetime;
Ec 3:13 Moreover, that every man should aeat and drink and taste enjoyment in all his labor; it is the gift of God.
Ec 3:14 I know that whatever God does, it will be forever; nothing can be added to it, nor can anything be taken from it. God has so done, that all would fear Him.
Ec 3:15 aThat which is has already been, and that which will be has already been; and God seeks what has 1passed.
E. In Ranks and Classes in Human Society
3:16 — 4:16
Ec 3:16 Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment, wickedness is there; and in the place of righteousness, wickedness is there.
Ec 3:17 I said in my heart, God will ajudge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and every work.
Ec 3:18 I said in my heart, This is so for the sake of the children of men, that God may prove them and that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.
Ec 3:19 For what happens to the children of men happens also to beasts; even the same thing happens to them both: As the one dies, so dies the other; and they all have one 1breath; and man has no advantage over the beast; for all is vanity.
Ec 3:20 All go to one place: all are of adust, and all return to dust.
Ec 3:21 Who knows the 1breath of the children of men, that it goes upward; or the 1breath of the beasts, that it goes downward to the earth?
Ec 3:22 Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should arejoice in his works, for that is his portion. For who will bring him to see what will be after him?
ECCLESIASTES 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

Ec 4:1 Then again I saw all the acts of oppression that are done under the sun; and indeed, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of the oppressors was power, and they had no comforter.
Ec 4:2 And I praised the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive.
Ec 4:3 And better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Ec 4:4 Then I saw all labor and all skill in work, that it is man’s jealousy for his neighbor. This also is vanity and a achasing after wind.
Ec 4:5 The fool folds his hands together and consumes his own flesh.
Ec 4:6 aBetter is a handful with quietness than two hands full with labor and a chasing after wind.
Ec 4:7 Then again I saw vanity under the sun.
Ec 4:8 There is one alone and without a second; also he has no son or brother. Yet there is no end to all his labor; moreover his aeye is not satisfied with riches. For whom then, he says, do I labor and deprive myself of good? This also is vanity and grievous travail.
Ec 4:9 aTwo are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor;
Ec 4:10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls and does not have another to lift him up!
Ec 4:11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?
Ec 4:12 And while a man may prevail against the one, the two will withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ec 4:13 Better is a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to be admonished.
Ec 4:14 For one can come forth from prison to reign, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.
Ec 4:15 I saw all the living that went about under the sun with the youth, the successor, who stood up in place of 1him.
Ec 4:16 There was no end to all the people, to all before whom he stood, yet even those who come after will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a achasing after wind.
ECCLESIASTES 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

F. In Contacting God
5:1-7
Ec 5:1 1Guard your asteps when you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the bsacrifice of fools; for they do not know that they are doing evil.
Ec 5:2 Do not be arash with your mouth, and let not your heart hastily utter anything before God; for God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.
Ec 5:3 For a dream comes through a multitude of travail, and a fool’s voice through a multitude of words.
Ec 5:4 When you make a avow to God, do not delay in paying it; for He takes no pleasure in fools. bPay what you vow.
Ec 5:5 It is better that you do not vow than that you vow and not pay.
Ec 5:6 Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the works of your hands?
Ec 5:7 For in the multitude of dreams and in many words are also vanities. Rather, fear God.
G. In Sundry Illustrations
5:8 — 6:12
Ec 5:8 If you see the oppression of the poor and the wresting of justice and righteousness in a province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one higher official watches over another high official, and there are higher officials over them.
Ec 5:9 And a king who cultivates the field is always an advantage for a land.
Ec 5:10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with income. This also is vanity.
Ec 5:11 When goods increase, those who eat them increase; so what advantage do their owners have except to see them with their aeyes?
Ec 5:12 Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats little or much; but the fullness of the rich will not let him sleep.
Ec 5:13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owner to his own hurt,
Ec 5:14 And those riches were lost in a bad venture; and having begotten a son, he had nothing in his hand.
Ec 5:15 As he came forth from his mother’s awomb, he will return naked as he came; and he will take nothing of his labor that he may carry in his hand.
Ec 5:16 And this also is a grievous evil: in all points, as he came, so will he go; so what is the advantage to him who has labored for the wind?
Ec 5:17 Throughout all his days he also eats in darkness and has much vexation and sickness and resentment.
Ec 5:18 Here is what I have seen to be good and what is pleasant: to 1aeat and to drink and to taste enjoyment in all his labor by which he labors under the sun during the few days of his life, which God has bgiven him; for this is his portion.
Ec 5:19 Moreover, for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has empowered him to eat of them and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor — this is the gift of God.
Ec 5:20 For he will not 1brood much over the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.
ECCLESIASTES 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

Ec 6:1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy upon man:
Ec 6:2 A man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that nothing is lacking to his soul of all that he desires, and yet God adoes not empower him to eat of it, but a stranger eats it. This is vanity and an evil plague.
Ec 6:3 If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good and even does not get a proper burial, I say that the astillborn is better off than he;
Ec 6:4 For it comes in vanity and goes off in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;
Ec 6:5 Moreover it has not seen the sun and does not know anything; this one has rest rather than that one.
Ec 6:6 Indeed, even if he lives a thousand years twice and does not taste enjoyment, do not all go to one place?
Ec 6:7 All a man’s labor is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not filled.
Ec 6:8 For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have in knowing how to walk before the living?
Ec 6:9 Better is seeing with the eyes than wandering with the soul. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Ec 6:10 aThat which is has already been 1determined, and it is known what man is and that he cannot contend with him who is stronger than he.
Ec 6:11 For there are many things which will increase vanity. What is the advantage to man?
Ec 6:12 For who knows what is good for a man in life during the few days of his vain life, which he will spend as a shadow? aFor who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
ECCLESIASTES 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

III. The Writer’s Searching and Testing
7:1 — 12:12
A. Words of Wisdom
7:1 — 11:8; 12:9-12
Ec 7:1 A agood name is better than precious ointment, / And the day of death, than the day of one’s birth.
Ec 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning / Than to go to the house of feasting, / Because that is the end of every man, / And the living takes it to heart.
Ec 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter, / For by the sadness of face the heart is made good.
Ec 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, / But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Ec 7:5 It is better for one to hear the rebuke of a wise man / Than for one to hear the song of fools.
Ec 7:6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, / So is the laughter of fools. / This also is 1vanity.
Ec 7:7 Surely oppression makes a wise man mad, / And a bribe destroys the heart.
Ec 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; / Better is patience of spirit than haughtiness of spirit.
Ec 7:9 Do not be quick in your spirit to become aangry, / For anger rests in the bosom of fools.
Ec 7:10 Do not say, How is it that the former days were better than these? / For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Ec 7:11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, / And an advantage to those who see the sun.
Ec 7:12 For wisdom is a defense, as money is a defense; / But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of those who have it.
Ec 7:13 Consider the work of God, / For who can straighten what He has made acrooked?
Ec 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, / And in the day of adversity consider. / God has made the one as well as the other, / So that man may not find out anything about what is after him.
Ec 7:15 I have seen everything in my days of vanity: There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.
Ec 7:16 Do not be overly righteous, and do not be overly wise; why should you destroy yourself?
Ec 7:17 Do not be overly wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die when it is anot your time?
Ec 7:18 It is better for you to take hold of the one without letting go of the other, for he who fears God will come out of it with them all.
Ec 7:19 Wisdom strengthens the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
Ec 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on the earth who does good and does not asin.
Ec 7:21 Also, do not give heed to all words spoken, lest you hear your servant cursing you.
Ec 7:22 For your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others also.
Ec 7:23 All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
Ec 7:24 That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?
Ec 7:25 I turned and my heart was set to know and to search and seek out wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness.
Ec 7:26 And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is traps and snares, whose hands are fetters. One who is well-pleasing to God escapes from her, but the sinner is taken by her.
Ec 7:27 See, this is what I have found, says the Preacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum,
Ec 7:28 Which my soul is still seeking but has not found. One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found.
Ec 7:29 See, this alone have I found, that God made aman upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
ECCLESIASTES 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

Ec 8:1 Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness of his face is changed.
Ec 8:2 I say, Keep the commandment of the king, and that, because of the oath before God.
Ec 8:3 Do not hurry to leave him; do not 1join in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases.
Ec 8:4 For the king’s word is powerful, and who will say to him, What are you doing?
Ec 8:5 He who keeps the commandment will know nothing evil, and a wise man’s heart will know the proper time and manner.
Ec 8:6 For there is a proper atime and manner for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy upon him;
Ec 8:7 aFor he does not know what will be, for who can tell him how it will be?
Ec 8:8 There is no man who has power over his 1breath to retain his breath, and no one has power over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the battle, nor will wickedness deliver its own master.
Ec 8:9 All this I have seen, and I applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun when a man overpowers another man to his hurt.
Ec 8:10 And then I saw the wicked buried, who before had gone in and come forth from the holy place and were forgotten in the city where they had thus acted. This also is vanity.
Ec 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not aexecuted speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set within them to do evil.
Ec 8:12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will be well with the God-fearing who are in fear before Him;
Ec 8:13 But it will not be well with the wicked man, nor will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he is not in fear before God.
Ec 8:14 There is a vanity that is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom things ahappen according to the deeds of the wicked and there are wicked men to whom things happen according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this also is vanity.
Ec 8:15 So I praised pleasure, because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to 1aeat and to drink and to rejoice; for that will stay with him in his labor during the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
Ec 8:16 When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the travail that is done on the earth (even though 1man’s eyes do not see sleep day or night),
Ec 8:17 Then I saw every work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, because however man labors to seek it out, he will not find it out; and even if the wise man says that he will come to know it, he is not able to find it out.
ECCLESIASTES 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Ec 9:1 For all this I laid on my heart, so that I might explain all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God; man knows neither love nor hate; all is before them.
Ec 9:2 All things are alike to all: One thing happens to the righteous man and to the wicked man, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him who sacrifices and to him who does not sacrifice; as the good man is, so is the sinner; he who swears is like him who fears an oath.
Ec 9:3 This is an evil among all that is done under the sun, that one thing happens to all; moreover the heart of the children of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live; and aafter that, they go to the dead.
Ec 9:4 For there is hope for whoever is joined to all the living — surely a living dog is better than a dead lion —
Ec 9:5 For the living know that they will adie; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the bmemory of them is forgotten.
Ec 9:6 Their love, their hate, and their envy have already perished, nor do they have some portion yet in all that is done under the sun forever.
Ec 9:7 Go; 1eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
Ec 9:8 Let your garments always be awhite, and do not let boil be lacking on your head.
Ec 9:9 aEnjoy life with the wife whom you have loved all the days of your life of vanity which He has given you under the sun, all the days of your vanity; for this is your portion in life and in your labor by which you have labored under the sun.
Ec 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
Ec 9:11 Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor is the battle to the mighty, nor is even the bread to the wise, nor are riches to those who have understanding, nor is favor to those who have knowledge; but time and chance happen to them all.
Ec 9:12 For also man does not know his time: Like fish that are caught in a deadly net and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of men are aensnared in an evil time when it falls suddenly on them.
Ec 9:13 This also I have seen as wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me.
Ec 9:14 There was a small acity with a few men in it; and a great king came against it and surrounded it and built great siegeworks against it.
Ec 9:15 And in it there was found a poor wise man, and he delivered the city by his wisdom; yet no one remembered that poor man.
Ec 9:16 So I said, Wisdom is better than strength; but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heard.
Ec 9:17 The words of the wise man spoken quietly are heeded more than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
Ec 9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
ECCLESIASTES 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

Ec 10:1 Dead flies cause the perfumer’s ointment to stink, to ferment; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
Ec 10:2 A wise man’s heart inclines to his right, but a fool’s heart inclines to his left.
Ec 10:3 And also, when the fool walks on the way, his sense fails him, and he tells everyone that he is a fool.
Ec 10:4 If the ruler’s spirit rises up against you, do not leave your place; for composure allays great offenses.
Ec 10:5 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, like an error that proceeds from the ruler:
Ec 10:6 Folly is set in many high places, and rich men sit in a low place.
Ec 10:7 I have seen servants on horses and princes walking on the earth like servants.
Ec 10:8 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent;
Ec 10:9 Whoever quarries stones will be hurt by them, and whoever splits logs will be endangered by them.
Ec 10:10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not whet the edge, then he must apply more strength; but wisdom has the advantage of giving success.
Ec 10:11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed, then there is no advantage in a charmer.
Ec 10:12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool swallow him up.
Ec 10:13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is folly, and the end of his talk is wicked madness.
Ec 10:14 Yet the fool multiplies words. aNo man knows what will be; and what will be after him, who can tell him?
Ec 10:15 The labor of fools wears them out, because they do not know even how to get to town.
Ec 10:16 Woe to you, O land whose king is a ayoung boy and whose princes feast in the morning!
Ec 10:17 Happy are you, O land whose king is the son of nobles and whose princes feast at the proper time, for strength and not for drunkenness!
Ec 10:18 Through slothfulness the rafters sag, and through idleness of hands the house leaks.
Ec 10:19 1They make a feast for laughter, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.
Ec 10:20 Do not curse the king even in your thought, and do not curse a rich man in your bedroom; for a bird of aheaven will carry the sound, or something with wings will tell the matter.
ECCLESIASTES 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

Ec 11:1 Cast your bread upon the surface of the waters, for you will find it in many days.
Ec 11:2 aGive a portion to seven, and even to eight, for you do not know what calamity will happen on the earth.
Ec 11:3 If the clouds are full, they pour forth rain on the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, in the place where it falls, there will it be.
Ec 11:4 He who watches the wind will anot sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.
Ec 11:5 Just as you do not know what the path of the awind is or how the bones are bformed in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.
Ec 11:6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not hold back your hands; for you do not know which will prosper, this one or that, or whether both alike will be good.
Ec 11:7 The light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
Ec 11:8 Indeed if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in all of them; but let him remember the days of adarkness, for they will be many. All that comes is vanity.
B. Advice to Young Men
11:9 — 12:1
Ec 11:9 Rejoice, 1young man, in your childhood, and let your heart be merry in the days of your youth; and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you to ajudgment.
Ec 11:10 So remove vexation from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for childhood and the dawn of life are vanity.
ECCLESIASTES 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Ec 12:1 Remember also your aCreator in the days of your byouth, before the 1evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, I have no pleasure in them;
C. The Sad Portrait of Man’s Old Age
12:2-8
Ec 12:2 Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are 1darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
Ec 12:3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the men of strength bow themselves and the women who grind cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows see dimly;
Ec 12:4 And when the doors are shut on the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one arises at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of asong are brought low;
Ec 12:5 When also men are afraid of what is high, and terrors are on the way; and the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper is a burden, and the caperberry is ineffective (for man will go to his everlasting home while mourners go around in the street);
Ec 12:6 Before the silver cord is undone, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the cistern,
Ec 12:7 And the adust returns to the earth as it was, and the bbreath returns to God who cgave it.
Ec 12:8 aVanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
A. Words of Wisdom (cont’d)
12:9-12
Ec 12:9 And in addition to being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered and studied and arranged many aproverbs.
Ec 12:10 The Preacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth rightly.
Ec 12:11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like well-driven nails are the collections of them; they are given by one aShepherd.
Ec 12:12 And of what is beyond these, my son, beware: Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
IV. The Concluding Word
12:13-14
Ec 12:13 The end of the matter, when all has been heard, is this: 1aFear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man.
Ec 12:14 For God will bring every deed to 1ajudgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
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SONG OF SONGS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   
Outline

Author: Solomon (1:1).
Time of Writing: Around 1000 B.C.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem.
Subject:
The History of Love in an Excellent Marriage, Revealing the Progressive Experience of an Individual Believer’s Loving Fellowship with Christ
SONG OF SONGS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

SS 1:1 The 1aSong of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
I. Drawn to Pursue Christ for Satisfaction
1:2 — 2:7
A. Attracted to Run after Christ
1:2-4a
SS 1:2 Let him akiss me with the 1kisses of his bmouth! / For your clove is better than wine.
SS 1:3 Your anointing oils have a pleasant afragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the 1bvirgins love you.
SS 1:4 1aDraw me; we will brun after you —
B. Fellowshipping with Christ Resulting in Entering into the Church Life
1:4b-8
The king has brought me into his 2cchambers — / We will be glad and 3rejoice in you; / We will 3extol your love more than wine. / Rightly do they love you.
SS 1:5 I am 1black but lovely, O adaughters of Jerusalem, / Like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
SS 1:6 Do not look at me, because I am black, / Because the sun has 1scorched me. / My mother’s sons were angry with me; / They made me keeper of the vineyards, / But my own vineyard I have not kept.
SS 1:7 Tell me, you whom my soul loves, 1Where do you pasture your flock? / Where do you make it lie down at 2noon? / For why should I be like one who is veiled / Beside the flocks of your companions?
SS 1:8 If you yourself do not know, / You afairest among women, / 1Go forth on the footsteps of the bflock, / And pasture your young goats / By the shepherds’ tents.
C. Transformed by the Remaking of the Spirit
1:9-16a; 2:1-3a
SS 1:9 I compare you, 1my alove, / To a 2bmare among Pharaoh’s chariots.
SS 1:10 Your 1cheeks are lovely with plaits of ornaments, / Your 1aneck with 2strings of jewels.
SS 1:11 1We will make you 2plaits of gold / With 2studs of silver.
SS 1:12 While the king was at his 1table, / My spikenard gave forth its fragrance.
SS 1:13 My beloved is to me a 1bundle of amyrrh / That lies at night between my breasts.
SS 1:14 My beloved is to me a cluster of ahenna flowers / In the vineyards of 1bEn-gedi.
SS 1:15 aOh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your 1eyes are like bdoves.
SS 1:16 Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved; indeed, pleasant!
D. Satisfied with the Rest and Enjoyment in Christ
1:16b-17; 2:3b-7
Indeed, our 1couch is green.
SS 1:17 The beams of our house are cedars; / Our rafters are cypresses.
SONG OF SONGS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

C. Transformed by the Remaking of the Spirit (cont’d)
2:1-3a
SS 2:1 I am a 1rose of 2aSharon, / A blily of the valleys.
SS 2:2 As a 1lily among athorns, / So is my love among the daughters.
SS 2:3 As the 1apple tree among the trees of the wood, / So is my beloved among the sons:
D. Satisfied with the Rest and Enjoyment in Christ (cont’d)
2:3b-7
In his shade I delighted and sat down, / And his fruit was sweet to my taste.
SS 2:4 He brought me into the 1banqueting house, / And his banner over me was love.
SS 2:5 Sustain me with raisin cakes, / Refresh me with apples, / For I am asick with love.
SS 2:6 aHis left hand is under my head, / And his right hand embraces me.
SS 2:7 aI 1adjure you, O bdaughters of Jerusalem, / By the gazelles or by the hinds of the fields, / Not to rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.
II. Called to Be Delivered from the Self through the Oneness with the Cross
2:8 — 3:5
A. By Christ’s Resurrection Power through His Fellowship
2:8-9
SS 2:8 The voice of my beloved! Now he comes, / 1Leaping upon the mountains, / Skipping upon the hills.
SS 2:9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young ahart. / Now he stands behind our 1wall; / He is looking through the 2windows, / He is glancing through the 2lattice.
B. Entreated and Encouraged
2:10-13
SS 2:10 My beloved 1responds and says to me, / 2aRise up, my love, / My beauty, and 2come away;
SS 2:11 For now the 1winter is past; / The rain is over and gone.
SS 2:12 1Flowers appear on the earth; / The time of singing has come, / And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
SS 2:13 The fig tree has ripened its figs, / And the avines are in blossom — they give forth their fragrance. / 1bRise up, my love, / My beauty, and come away.
C. Called to Be in Oneness with the Cross
2:14-15
SS 2:14 1My adove, in the clefts of the rock, / In the covert of the precipice,
Let me see your countenance, / Let me hear your voice; / For your voice is sweet, / And your countenance is lovely.
SS 2:15 Catch the 1afoxes for us, / The little foxes, / That ruin the vineyards / While our vineyards are in blossom.
D. The Lover’s Rejection and Failure
2:16 — 3:1
SS 2:16 aMy beloved is 1mine, and I am his; / He pastures his flock among the lilies.
SS 2:17 1aUntil the day dawns and the shadows flee away, / Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young bhart / On the mountains of 2Bether.
SONG OF SONGS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

SS 3:1 On my bed night after night / I 1sought ahim whom my soul loves; / I sought him, but found him not.
E. The Lover’s Waking Up and Recovery
3:2-4
SS 3:2 I will 1arise now and go about in the city; / In the streets and in the squares / I will seek him whom my soul loves. / I sought him, but found him not.
SS 3:3 The 1awatchmen who go about in the city found me — / Have you seen him whom my soul loves?
SS 3:4 Scarcely had I passed them / When I found him whom my soul loves; / I held him and would not let go / Until I had brought him into my 1mother’s house / And into the 1chamber of her who conceived me.
F. Christ’s Charge to the Meddling Believers
3:5
SS 3:5 aI 1adjure you, O bdaughters of Jerusalem, / By the gazelles or by the hinds of the fields, / Not to rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.
III. Called to Live in Ascension as the New Creation in Resurrection
3:6 — 5:1
A. The New Creation
3:6 — 4:6
1. By the Lover’s Complete Union with Christ
3:6-11
SS 3:6 1Who is 2she who comes up from the awilderness / Like bpillars of smoke, / Perfumed with cmyrrh and frankincense, / With all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
SS 3:7 There is Solomon’s 1bed; / Sixty mighty men surround it, / Of the mighty men of Israel.
SS 3:8 All of them wield the sword and are expert in war; / Each man has his sword at his thigh / Because of the night alarms.
SS 3:9 King Solomon made himself a 1palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon.
SS 3:10 Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid with love / From the adaughters of Jerusalem.
SS 3:11 Go forth, O adaughters of Zion, / And 1look at King Solomon with the 2crown / With which his mother crowned him / On the day of his 3espousals, / Yes, on the day of the gladness of his heart.
SONG OF SONGS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

2. The Beauty of the Lover, the Bride, as the New Creation
4:1-5
SS 4:1 aOh, you are beautiful, my love! / Oh, you are beautiful! Your 1eyes are like doves behind your veil; / Your 1hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Mount Gilead.
SS 4:2 aYour 1teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes / That have come up from the washing, / All of which have borne twins, / And none of them is bereaved of her young.
SS 4:3 Your 1lips are like a ascarlet thread, / And your mouth is lovely; / Your cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate / Behind your veil.
SS 4:4 Your 1aneck is like the tower of David, / Built for an armory: / A thousand bucklers hang on it, / All the shields of the mighty men.
SS 4:5 aYour two 1breasts are like two fawns, / Twins of a gazelle, / That feed among the lilies.
3. Her Deeper Pursuit
4:6
SS 4:6 aUntil the day 1dawns and the shadows flee away, / I, for my part, will go to the mountain of bmyrrh / And to the hill of frankincense.
B. Called to Live in Ascension
4:7-15
1. His Calling
vv. 7-8
SS 4:7 You are altogether 1beautiful, my love, / And there is no ablemish in you.
SS 4:8 Come with me from 1Lebanon, my abride; / With me from 2Lebanon come. / Look from the top of 3Amana, / From the top of 4Senir and 5bHermon, / From the 6lions’ dens, / From the 6leopards’ mountains.
2. Her Silent Answer
v. 9
SS 4:9 You have 1ravished my heart, my 2sister, my bride; / You have 1ravished my heart with one glance of your eyes, / With one strand of your anecklace.
3. His Private Enjoyment of Her
vv. 10-15
SS 4:10 How beautiful is your 1love, my sister, my bride! / How much better is your alove than wine, / And the bfragrance of your ointments / Than all spices!
SS 4:11 Your 1lips drip fresh honey, my bride; / Honey and milk are under your tongue; / And the fragrance of your garments / Is like the afragrance of Lebanon.
SS 4:12 A 1garden enclosed is my 2sister, my bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
SS 4:13 Your shoots are an 1orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard,
SS 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; / aCalamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / bMyrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices.
SS 4:15 A 1fountain in gardens, / A 1well of aliving water, / And 1streams from Lebanon.
C. Living a Life of Love
4:16 — 5:1
1. The Answer of the Bride
4:16
SS 4:16 Awake, O 1north wind; / And come, O 1south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its aspices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his bgarden / And eat his choicest fruit.
SONG OF SONGS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

2. The Answer of the Beloved
5:1
SS 5:1 I have come into my agarden, my 1sister, my bride; / I have gathered my bmyrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my choney; / I have drunk my wine with my milk. / Eat, O 2friends; / Drink, and drink deeply, O beloved ones!
IV. Called More Strongly to Live within the Veil through the Cross after Resurrection
5:2 — 6:13
A. The Stronger Call of the Cross after Resurrection and Her Failure
5:2 — 6:3
1. The Beloved’s Calling
5:2
SS 5:2 I 1sleep, but my heart is awake. / A sound! My beloved is aknocking. / 2Open to me, my sister, my love, / My bdove, my perfect one; / For my head is drenched with dew, / My locks with the cdrops of night.
2. Her Refusal
5:3
SS 5:3 I have 1put off my garment; / How can I put it on again? / I have 1washed my feet; / How can I dirty them again?
3. Her Opening of the Door
5:4-5
SS 5:4 My beloved put his 1hand into the opening of the door, / And my inner parts yearned for him.
SS 5:5 I rose up to 1open to my beloved; / And my hands dripped with amyrrh, / My fingers with liquid myrrh, / Upon the handles of the bolt.
4. The Beloved’s Hiding
5:6
SS 5:6 I opened to my beloved, / But my beloved had withdrawn; he was gone. / My soul failed when he spoke; / I sought ahim, but found him not; / I called him — he answered me not.
5. Her Being Wounded
5:7
SS 5:7 The awatchmen who go about the city found me. / They struck me; they wounded me; / The keepers of the walls took my veil from me.
6. Her Seeking Help from the Common Believers
5:8
SS 5:8 I adjure you, O 1adaughters of Jerusalem, / If you find my beloved, / What shall you tell him? / That I am bsick with love.
7. The First Question Asked of Her
5:9
SS 5:9 What is your beloved more than some other’s beloved, / O you most beautiful among women? / What is your beloved more than some other’s beloved, / That you adjure us so?
8. Her Impression of Her Beloved
5:10-16
SS 5:10 My beloved is 1dazzling white yet ruddy, / 2Distinguished among ten thousand.
SS 5:11 His 1head is the finest gold; / His alocks are wavy, / As black as a raven.
SS 5:12 aHis 1eyes are like doves / Beside the streams of water, / Bathed in milk, / Fitly set.
SS 5:13 His 1cheeks are like a bed of spices, / Mounds of sweetly fragrant herbs; / His lips are lilies, / Dripping with liquid amyrrh.
SS 5:14 His 1hands are tubes of gold, / Set with beryl; / His belly is an ivory work, / Overlaid with sapphires.
SS 5:15 His 1legs are pillars of white marble, / Set upon bases of gold; / His appearance is like Lebanon, / As excellent as the cedars.
SS 5:16 His amouth is sweetness itself, / And he is altogether desirable. / This is my beloved, and this is my friend, / O bdaughters of Jerusalem.

SONG OF SONGS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

9. The Second Question Asked of Her
6:1
SS 6:1 1Where has your beloved gone, / O you most beautiful among women? / Where has your beloved turned, / That we may seek him with you?
10. Her Reply
6:2-3
SS 6:2 My beloved has gone down to his 1agarden, / To the beds of spices, / To feed in the gardens / And gather lilies.
SS 6:3 aI am 1my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; / He pastures his flock among the blilies.
B. A Life within the Veil
6:4-13
1. The Beloved’s Praise
vv. 4-10
SS 6:4 You are as beautiful, my love, as 1Tirzah, / As lovely as 1Jerusalem, / As aterrible as an 2army with banners.
SS 6:5 Turn your 1eyes away from me, / For they overwhelm me. / aYour 2hair is like a flock of goats / That repose on Mount Gilead.
SS 6:6 Your 1teeth are like a flock of ewes / That have come up from the washing, / All of which have borne twins, / And none of them is bereaved of her young.
SS 6:7 Your 1cheeks are like a piece of pomegranate / Behind your veil.
SS 6:8 There are sixty 1queens and eighty 1concubines / And 1avirgins without number.
SS 6:9 My adove, my perfect one, is but one; / She is the only one of her mother; / She is the choice one of her who bore her. / The daughters saw her, and they called her blessed; / The queens and the concubines, / They also praised her.
SS 6:10 Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, / As beautiful as the 1moon, / As clear as the 1sun, / As aterrible as an 2army with banners?
2. The Lover’s Work
v. 11
SS 6:11 I went down to the 1orchard of nuts / To see the freshness of the valley, / To see whether the vine had abudded, / Whether the pomegranates were in bloom.
3. The Lover’s Progress and Victory
vv. 12-13
SS 6:12 Before I was aware, / My soul set me among the 1chariots of my noble people.
SS 6:13 Return, return, O 1Shulammite; / Return, return, that we may gaze at you. / Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of 2atwo camps?
SONG OF SONGS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

V. Sharing in the Work of the Lord
7:1-13
A. Equipped as a Worker in the Work of the Lord
vv. 1-9a
1. The Spirit’s Review of the Virtues of the Lover
vv. 1-5
SS 7:1 1How beautiful are your footsteps in 2asandals, / O 3prince’s daughter! / Your rounded 2thighs are like jewels, / The work of the hands of a skilled artist.
SS 7:2 Your 1navel is a round goblet / That never lacks mixed wine; / Your 1belly is a heap of wheat, / Fenced in by lilies.
SS 7:3 aYour two 1breasts are like two fawns, / Twins of a gazelle.
SS 7:4 Your 1aneck is like a tower of ivory; / Your 1eyes, like the pools in Heshbon / By the gate of Bath-rabbim; / Your 1nose is like the tower of Lebanon, / Which faces Damascus.
SS 7:5 Your 1head upon you is like Carmel, / And the 1locks of your head like purple. / The king is fettered by your tresses.
2. The Beloved’s Inserted Words of Praise
vv. 6-9a
SS 7:6 How 1beautiful and how pleasant in delights / You are, O love!
SS 7:7 This your stature is like a palm tree, / And your breasts are like the clusters.
SS 7:8 I said, I will climb the 1palm tree; / I will take hold of its branches; / And let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, / And the fragrance of your nose like apples,
SS 7:9 And the roof of your mouth like the best wine —
B. Working Together with Her Beloved
vv. 9b-13
1Going down smoothly for my beloved, / Gliding through the lips of those who sleep.
SS 7:10 aI am my beloved’s, / And his desire is for me.
SS 7:11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the 1fields; / Let us lodge in the 1villages.
SS 7:12 Let us rise up early for the 1vineyards; / Let us see if the vine has abudded, / If the blossom is open, / If the pomegranates are in bloom; / There I will give you my love.
SS 7:13 The 1amandrakes give forth fragrance, / And over our doors are all choice fruits, / bNew as well as old. / These, my beloved, I have stored up for you.

SONG OF SONGS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

VI. Hoping to Be Raptured
8:1-14
A. Groaning for Her Flesh
v. 1
SS 8:1 Oh that you were like a 1brother to me, / Who nursed at my mother’s breasts! / If I found you 2outside, I would kiss you, / And none would despise me.
B. Hoping to Be Saved from Her Groaning for the Flesh,
Indicating Her Hope to Be Raptured
vv. 2-4
SS 8:2 I would lead you and bring you / Into my 1mother’s house, / Who has instructed me; / I would make you drink spiced wine / From the juice of my pomegranate.
SS 8:3 aHis left hand would be under my head, / And his right hand would embrace me.
SS 8:4 aI 1adjure you, O bdaughters of Jerusalem, / Do not rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases.
C. Before the Rapture
vv. 5-14
SS 8:5 Who is this who comes up from the awilderness, / 1Leaning on her beloved? / 2I awakened you under the apple tree: / There your mother was in labor with you; / There she was in labor and brought you forth.
SS 8:6 Set me as a 1aseal on your heart, / As a seal on your arm; / For love is as strong as death, / Jealousy is as cruel as 2Sheol; / Its flashes are the flashes of fire, / A flame of 3Jehovah.
SS 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, / Nor do floods drown it. / If a man gave all the substance of his house for love, / It would be utterly despised.
SS 8:8 We have a little 1sister, / And she has no breasts: / What shall we do for our sister / On the day when she is spoken for?
SS 8:9 If she is a 1wall, / We will build on her a battlement of silver; / And if she is a 1door, / We will enclose her with boards of cedar.
SS 8:10 I am a 1wall, and my breasts are like towers; / Then I was in his eyes like one who has found peace.
SS 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at 1Baal-hamon: / He let out the avineyard to keepers; / Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
SS 8:12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. / You will have the thousand, O Solomon; / And those who keep its fruit, two hundred.
SS 8:13 O you who dwell in the gardens, / My companions listen for your 1avoice; / Let me hear it.
SS 8:14 1aMake haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices.
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ISAIAH

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 
Outline

Author: Isaiah (1:1; Matt. 3:3; John 12:38-41; Rom. 15:12).
Time of Writing: The late eighth and early seventh centuries B.C.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem.
Time Period Covered: About sixty-four years, from around 760 B.C., a few years before the death of King Uzziah (Azariah), to about 696 B.C., a few years after the death of Hezekiah (6:1; 1:1).
Subject:
The Salvation of Jehovah through the Incarnated, Crucified, Resurrected, Ascended, and Coming Christ
ISAIAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

I. The Salvation of Jehovah to His Beloved People and the Nations
1:1 — 12:6
A. Jehovah the Father’s Complaint against His Children Israel,
His Chastisement of Them, and His Loving Exhortation and Promise to Them
1:1 — 5:30
Is 1:1 The avision of 1Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of bUzziah, cJotham, dAhaz, and eHezekiah, the kings of Judah:
Is 1:2 aHear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, / For Jehovah has spoken: / I have brought up 1bchildren, and I have raised them; / And yet they have rebelled against Me.
Is 1:3 The ox knows his owner, / And the donkey, his master’s manger; / But Israel does anot know, / My people do not much consider.
Is 1:4 Alas, sinful nation, / A people heavy with iniquity, / aSeed of evildoers, / Children acting corruptly! / They have forsaken Jehovah; / They have despised the Holy One of Israel; / They have become estranged and have gone backward.
Is 1:5 1Where will you be stricken again? / Will you continue your 2apostasy? / The whole head has become sick, / And the whole heart faint;
Is 1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, / There is no soundness in it, / Only bruises and blows / And raw wounds — / They have not been pressed out nor abound up / Nor softened with oil.
Is 1:7 Your land is a desolation; / Your cities are burned with fire; / Your field — in your sight / Strangers devour it; / It is a desolation, like something overthrown by strangers.
Is 1:8 And the adaughter of Zion is left / Like a booth in a vineyard, / Like a hut in a cucumber field, / Like a besieged city.
Is 1:9 aUnless Jehovah 1of hosts / Had left to us a surviving few, / We would have been like bSodom, / We would have resembled Gomorrah.
Is 1:10 Hear the word of Jehovah, / You rulers of Sodom; / Hearken to the instruction of our God, / You people of Gomorrah.
Is 1:11 What is the multitude of your asacrifices to Me? / Says Jehovah. / I have had My fill of burnt offerings of rams / And the fat of fed cattle; / The blood of bulls and lambs / And goats, I do not delight in.
Is 1:12 When you come to aappear before Me, / Who has required this of your hand, / To trample My courts?
Is 1:13 Bring no more vain offerings; / Incense is an abomination to Me. / New moon and Sabbath, the calling of convocations — / I cannot bear iniquity and the solemn assembly.
Is 1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts / My soul ahates; / They have become a burden on Me; / I am weary of bearing them.
Is 1:15 Thus, when you spread forth your ahands, / I will hide My eyes from you; / Even though you multiply your prayers, / I will not hear. / Your hands are full of bblood;
Is 1:16 1aWash yourselves; cleanse yourselves. / Turn away the evil of your deeds / From before My eyes. / Cease doing what is bevil;
Is 1:17 Learn to do good. / Seek justice; / Correct the ruthless. / Defend the aorphan; / Plead for the widow.
Is 1:18 Come now and let us reason together, / Says Jehovah. / Though your sins are like scarlet, / They will be as awhite as 1snow; / Though they are as red as crimson, / They will be like 1wool.
Is 1:19 If you are willing and listen, / You will eat the good of the land;
Is 1:20 But if you refuse and rebel, / You will be devoured by the sword; / For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.
Is 1:21 How the faithful city / Has become a aharlot! / She who was full of justice, / She in whom righteousness once lodged, / But now murderers!
Is 1:22 Your silver has become dross; / Your wine diluted with water;
Is 1:23 Your rulers are rebellious / And companions of thieves; / They all love bribes / And chase after rewards; / They do not defend the orphan, / Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.
Is 1:24 Hence, the Lord Jehovah of hosts, / The Mighty One of Israel, declares: / Ah, I will ease Myself of My 1adversaries, / And I will avenge Myself of My 1enemies;
Is 1:25 And I will turn My hand against you. / I will thoroughly apurge away your dross as with lye, / And I will remove all your alloy.
Is 1:26 And I will restore your judges as at the first / And your counselors as at the beginning. / Afterward you will be called the city of righteousness, / The faithful city.
Is 1:27 Zion will be ransomed with justice, / And her returning ones with righteousness.
Is 1:28 And there will be the shattering of rebels and sinners together, / And those who forsake Jehovah will meet their end.
Is 1:29 For 1you will be ashamed of the 2terebinths / That you have taken pleasure in; / And you will be embarrassed at the gardens / That you have chosen.
Is 1:30 For you will be like a terebinth / Whose leaves are falling, / And like a garden / In which there is no water;
Is 1:31 And the strong man will become 1tow, / And his work a spark; / And they will both burn together, / And there will be none to extinguish them.
ISAIAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Is 2:1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
(The Restoration of the Nation of Israel)
2:2-5
Is 2:2 aBut in the blast days / The 1cmountain of the house of Jehovah will be established / On the top of the mountains; / And it will be lifted up above the hills; / And all the dnations will stream to it,
Is 2:3 And many peoples will come and say, / aCome and let us go up to the bmountain of Jehovah, / To the house of the God of Jacob, / That He may instruct us 1in His ways, / And that we may walk in His paths. / For from Zion will go forth 2instruction, / And the word of Jehovah from cJerusalem;
Is 2:4 And He will 1judge between the nations, / And will decide matters for many peoples. / aAnd they will beat their swords into plowshares, / And their spears into pruning knives; / Nation will not lift up sword against nation, / Nor will they learn bwar anymore.
Is 2:5 House of Jacob, come and let us awalk in the light of Jehovah.
Is 2:6 For You have abandoned Your people, / The house of Jacob; / Because they are full of customs from the east, / And they are soothsayers like the Philistines, / And they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
(Jehovah’s Humiliating Judgment on the Haughty Nations)
2:7-22
Is 2:7 Their land is full of 1silver and gold, / And their treasures are limitless; / Their land is also full of horses, / And their chariots are limitless.
Is 2:8 And their land is afull of idols; / They bow down to the work of their hands, / To that which their fingers have made.
Is 2:9 Thus the ordinary man is humbled, and the man of distinction is abased — / But do not forgive them.
Is 2:10 Enter into the arock, / And hide in the dust, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty.
Is 2:11 Man’s 1ahaughty look will be abased, / And the loftiness of men will be humbled; / But Jehovah alone will be exalted / In that day.
Is 2:12 For Jehovah of hosts will have a 1day / Over everything proud and lofty, / And over everything lifted up that it may be abased;
Is 2:13 Over all the 1cedars of Lebanon, / Which are lofty and lifted up, / And over all the 1oaks of Bashan;
Is 2:14 Over all the 1lofty mountains, / And over all the 1hills that are lifted up;
Is 2:15 Over every high tower, / And over every fortified wall;
Is 2:16 Over all the ships of Tarshish, / And over all their pleasant 1artifacts.
Is 2:17 And the ahaughtiness of the ordinary man will be humbled, / And the loftiness of the men of distinction will be abased; / But Jehovah alone will be exalted / In that day.
Is 2:18 And the idols will vanish completely.
Is 2:19 And men will go into caves in the arocks / And into holes in the dust, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty, / When He arises to make the earth tremble.
Is 2:20 In that day a man will cast / His idols of silver and his idols of gold, / Which they made for themselves to bow down to, / To the moles and to the bats,
Is 2:21 So that they may go into the crevices of the rocks / And into the clefts of the cliffs, / From the dread of Jehovah, / And from the splendor of His majesty, / When He arises to make the earth tremble.
Is 2:22 Stop regarding man, / Whose life breath is in his nostrils. / For of what value is he considered to be?
ISAIAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

Is 3:1 For now the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Is ataking away from Jerusalem and from Judah / Every kind of support — / All the support of bread / And all the support of water;
Is 3:2 The mighty man and the man of war, / The judge and the prophet, / And the diviner and the elder;
Is 3:3 The captain of fifty and the highly regarded; / And the counselor, the wise magician, and the knowledgeable enchanter.
Is 3:4 And I will make ayouths their rulers, / And capriciousness will rule over them.
Is 3:5 And the people will be oppressed, each by the other, / And each by his neighbor. / The youth will be arrogant to the elder, / And the contemned one to the one who is honored.
Is 3:6 When a man takes hold of his brother / In his father’s house and says, / You have clothing, you be our ruler, / And these ruins will be under your hand;
Is 3:7 He will solemnly say, / I will not be the one who binds your wounds, / For in my house there is no 1food or clothing; / Do not appoint me as 1ruler of the people.
Is 3:8 For Jerusalem stumbles, / And Judah falls, / Because their speech and their actions are against Jehovah, / To rebel against the eyes of His glory.
Is 3:9 The countenance of their faces witnesses against them, / And they declare their sin like aSodom; / They do not hide it. / Woe to their soul! / For they have brought evil upon themselves.
Is 3:10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, / For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
Is 3:11 Woe to the wicked man! It will go badly with him; / For the result of his deeds will be done to him.
Is 3:12 My people — their oppressors are children, / And women rule over them. / O My people, those who lead you are leading you astray; / And the path for your ways they have hidden.
Is 3:13 Jehovah stands firm to contend, / And He stands to judge the people.
Is 3:14 Jehovah will enter into judgment / With the elders of His people and their rulers. / It is you who have consumed the vineyard; / The spoil of the poor is in your houses.
Is 3:15 What do you mean by crushing My people / And grinding the faces of the poor? / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
Is 3:16 Moreover Jehovah said, / Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, / And walk around with outstretched necks / And lusting eyes, / And trip along with quick, little steps, / And rattle the anklets on their feet;
Is 3:17 The Lord will strike the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, / And Jehovah will expose their secret parts.
Is 3:18 In that day the Lord will remove the beauty of their anklets, headbands, and crescents;
Is 3:19 The ear pendants, the bracelets, and the costly veils;
Is 3:20 The headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the bottles of aromas, and the amulets;
Is 3:21 The finger rings and the nose rings;
Is 3:22 The formal gowns, the frocks, the wraps, and the purses;
Is 3:23 The mirrors, the fine linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.
Is 3:24 And instead of a sweet smell there will be rottenness; / And instead of a belt, an encircling rope; / Instead of well-set hair, baldness; / And instead of fine garments, the girding of oneself with sackcloth; / A brand instead of beauty.
Is 3:25 Your men will fall by the sword, / And your mighty, in battle;
Is 3:26 Then her gates will mourn and lament, / And she, being desolated, will sit on the ground.
ISAIAH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

Is 4:1 And seven 1women will grasp / One man in that day, / Saying, We will eat our own bread / And wear our own clothes; / Just let us bear your name; / Take away our areproach.
(The Ushering In of the God-man, Christ, Issuing In the Restoration of the Nation of Israel)
4:2-6
Is 4:2 In 1that day the 2aShoot of Jehovah will be beauty and glory, and the 2fruit of the earth, excellence and splendor, to those of Israel who have escaped.
Is 4:3 And he who is left over in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been awritten down in Jerusalem for life;
Is 4:4 When the Lord has awashed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and has cleansed away the bloodstains of Jerusalem from her midst, by the 1judging Spirit and the burning Spirit.
Is 4:5 Jehovah will create over the entire region of Mount Zion and over all her convocations a acloud of smoke by day, and the brightness of a bfiery flame by night; for the glory will be a 1canopy over all.
Is 4:6 And there will be a tabernacle as a daytime shade from the heat and as a refuge and a acover from storm and rain.
ISAIAH 5

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Is 5:1 Let me sing of my Beloved, / A song of my Beloved concerning His avineyard. / My Beloved had a vineyard / On a 1fertile hill.
Is 5:2 And He dug it up and cleared away its stones, / And He planted it with the choicest vine. / Then He built a tower in the middle of it, / And hewed out a wine vat in it. / And He looked for it to produce grapes, / But it produced only wild grapes.
Is 5:3 So then, you inhabitants of Jerusalem / And you men of Judah, / Judge between Me / And My vineyard.
Is 5:4 What more could I have done for My vineyard / That I have not already done for it? / Why then, when I looked for it to produce grapes, / Did it produce only wild grapes?
Is 5:5 And now I will make known to you / What I will now do to My vineyard: / I will remove its ahedge, and it will be consumed; / I will break down its wall, and it will become a trampled place.
Is 5:6 And I will make it a waste; / It will not be pruned, nor will it be hoed; / But thorns and thistles will come on it. / And I will command the clouds / Not to rain upon it.
Is 5:7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, / And the men of Judah, the plant of His good pleasure; / And He expected justice, but instead, bloodshed! / He expected righteousness, but instead, an outcry of distress!
Is 5:8 Woe to those who join house to house, / Who lay field to field, / Till there is no place left, / And you dwell alone in the midst of the land!
Is 5:9 In my ears Jehovah of hosts has sworn: / Many houses shall indeed become desolate; / Great ones and fine ones shall be without inhabitants.
Is 5:10 For ten acres of vineyard will produce a mere 1bath of wine, / And a 2homer of seed will produce an 3ephah of grain.
Is 5:11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning / That they may run after liquor, / To those who linger into the evening / That wine may inflame them!
Is 5:12 Lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, / And wine are the essence of their banquets; / And they do not consider what has been done by Jehovah, / Nor do they regard the work of His hands.
Is 5:13 Hence, my people go into aexile / For lack of knowledge; / Their 1nobility become famished men, / And their multitudes, parched with thirst.
Is 5:14 Hence, Sheol enlarges its appetite / And opens its mouth wide, without limit, / And Jerusalem’s splendor descends, and her din / And her uproar and the jubilant within her.
Is 5:15 Thus the ordinary man is humbled, and the man of distinction is abased; / And the eyes of the ahaughty are abased;
Is 5:16 But Jehovah of hosts is exalted in judgment, / And the holy God 1shows Himself 2holy in righteousness.
Is 5:17 Then lambs will graze there as in their pasture, / And strangers will eat the wastelands of 1fat men.
Is 5:18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with ropes of vanity, / And sin as with cart ropes;
Is 5:19 Who say, He should hurry up; / He should hasten His work, / So that we may see it; / And the counsel of the Holy One of Israel / Should draw near and happen, / So that we may know it!
Is 5:20 Woe to those who acall evil good, / And good evil; / Who put darkness for light, / And light for darkness; / Who put bitter for sweet, / And sweet for bitter!
Is 5:21 Woe to those who are awise in their own eyes, / And prudent in their own sight!
Is 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine, / And men of valor in mixing liquor;
Is 5:23 Who acquit the criminal as a result of a bribe, / But refuse righteousness to the righteous!
Is 5:24 Therefore as a tongue of fire consumes the stubble, / And the chaff sinks in flames, / Their root will be like decay, / And their bud will disappear like dust; / For they have rejected the instruction of Jehovah of hosts / And despised the speaking of the Holy One of Israel.
Is 5:25 For this reason the anger of Jehovah burns against His people, / And He stretches out His ahand over them and strikes them. / And the mountains quake, and their corpses are / Like garbage in the middle of the street. / In spite of all this His anger is not turned away; / Rather, His hand is still stretched out.
Is 5:26 He also lifts up a astandard to a distant 1nation, / And bwhistles to it from the cends of the earth; / And indeed it comes with dswift speed.
Is 5:27 None of them is weary, and none stumbles among them; / No one slumbers or sleeps; / And their belts are not loosened at their waists, / Nor are their sandal thongs broken.
Is 5:28 The arrows of these are sharpened, / And all their bows are drawn; / The hooves of their horses are considered to be like flint, / And their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
Is 5:29 Their roar is like a lion’s, / And they roar like young lions; / When they growl and seize prey, / They carry it away safe, and there is none to rescue it.
Is 5:30 And they will growl over it in that day, / Like the roaring of the sea. / When one will look upon the land, indeed, there will be darkness and distress, / And the light will be darkened with its clouds.
ISAIAH 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

B. The Vision of Christ in Glory
6:1-7
Is 6:1 In the year that King aUzziah died I saw the 1bLord sitting on a high and lofty throne, and the train of His 2robe filled the temple.
Is 6:2 Seraphim 1hovered over 2Him, each having six wings: With atwo he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
Is 6:3 And one called to the other, saying:
1aHoly, holy, holy, Jehovah of hosts; / The whole bearth is filled with His glory.
Is 6:4 And the 1foundations of the threshold 2shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was afilled with 2smoke.
Is 6:5 Then I said,
Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of 1aunclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of 1unclean lips I dwell; / Yet my eyes have bseen the King, Jehovah of hosts.
Is 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with an 1ember in his hand, which he had taken from the aaltar with a pair of tongs.
Is 6:7 And he touched my amouth with it and said,
Now that this has touched your lips, / Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is 1purged.
C. Christ’s Warning Commission to Isaiah
6:8-13
Is 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall 1I send? Who will go for 1aUs? And I said, bHere am I; send me.
Is 6:9 And He said, 1Go and say to this people,
aHear indeed, but do not perceive; / And see indeed, but do bnot understand.
Is 6:10 aMake the bheart of this people numb; / Dull their ears, / And seal their ceyes; / Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their dears, / And their heart perceive and return, and they are 1ehealed.
Is 6:11 And I said, For how long, Lord? And He said,
Until cities lie devastated, / Without inhabitants, / And houses are without people, / And the land is adevastated and a waste;
Is 6:12 And Jehovah has sent men far away from it, / And desolate places abound in the midst of the land.
Is 6:13 But there will still be a tenth part in it; / And it in turn is to be burned / Like a terebinth or an oak, / Whose stump remains after its felling; / Its stump will be a aholy seed.
ISAIAH 7

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D. God’s Dealing With the Unbelief of Ahaz the King of Judah
7:1 — 8:8
Is 7:1 In the days of aAhaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they were not able to prevail against it.
Is 7:2 And it was reported to the house of David that Aram allied with 1Ephraim, and his heart and the heart of his people quivered as the trees of the forest quiver in the face of a wind.
Is 7:3 Then Jehovah said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and 1Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the aupper pool, on the road to the Fuller’s Field;
Is 7:4 And say to him, Be careful and be quiet; do not fear, and do not be fainthearted because of these two smoking firebrand stubs, at the burning anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.
Is 7:5 Because Aram and Ephraim and the son of Remaliah have planned evil against you, saying,
Is 7:6 Let us go up against Judah and make it sick with terror and break it open for ourselves, and let us set the son of Tabel in its midst as king;
Is 7:7 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, / It shall not stand, and it shall not happen;
Is 7:8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, / And the head of Damascus is Rezin; / aAnd in another sixty-five years / Ephraim will be shattered as a people.
Is 7:9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, / And the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah; / If you do not believe, surely you will not remain standing.
Is 7:10 Then Jehovah spoke further to Ahaz, saying,
Is 7:11 Ask for a sign from Jehovah your God; 1make it as deep as 2Sheol, or make it as high as high can go.
Is 7:12 And Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not atry Jehovah.
Is 7:13 And he said, Hear now, O house of David, is it too small a thing for you to exhaust the patience of men that you will exhaust the patience of my God as well?
Is 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: aBehold, the bvirgin will conceive and will cbear a son, and she will call his name 1dImmanuel.
Is 7:15 He will eat acurds and honey 1until he knows how to refuse evil and choose good.
Is 7:16 For before this boy knows how to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.
Is 7:17 Jehovah will bring upon you and your people and the house of your father such days as have not been asince the days when Ephraim turned away from Judah; He will bbring upon you the king of Assyria.
Is 7:18 And in that day Jehovah will awhistle for the 1flies which are at the ends of the rivers of Egypt and for the 1bees which are in the land of Assyria.
Is 7:19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and the clefts of the cliffs and on all the thornbushes and on all watering places.
Is 7:20 In that day the Lord will shave with the arazor hired from beyond the 1River, with the king of Assyria, the 2head and the 2hair of the legs; and it will take away the 2beard as well.
Is 7:21 And in that day each man will keep alive only a milk cow and two females of the flock.
Is 7:22 And because of the abundance of milk produced, he will eat curds; for everyone left behind in the midst of the land will eat curds and honey.
Is 7:23 And in that day every place where there could be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become thorns and thistles.
Is 7:24 Men will come there with arrows and bow, for all the land will be thorns and thistles.
Is 7:25 And to all the hills that once were hoed with the hoe you will not go for fear of thorns and thistles; but they will become a place for cattle to roam in and for sheep to trample.
ISAIAH 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Is 8:1 Then Jehovah said to me, Take a large tablet and awrite on it in plain letters, For 1Maher-shalal-hash-baz;
Is 8:2 And I will take faithful witnesses, aUrijah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
Is 8:3 And I went to the prophetess, and she 1conceived and bore a son. And Jehovah said to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz,
Is 8:4 For abefore this boy knows how to call, Father, and, Mother, they will carry off the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria.
Is 8:5 Then Jehovah spoke further to me, saying,
Is 8:6 Because these people have rejected / The gently flowing 1waters of aShiloah, and exult / In Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
Is 8:7 Now therefore the Lord is bringing up upon them / The mighty and abundant 1awaters of the Euphrates, / The king of Assyria and all his glory; / And it will overflow all its channels, / And go over all its banks.
Is 8:8 It will sweep through Judah; it will overflow and rise / Until it reaches the neck; / And the spreading out of its wings / Will fill the breadth of Your 1land, O aImmanuel.
E. Christ as Immanuel
8:9-22
Is 8:9 Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; / Hearken, all you distant places of the earth: / Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; / Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.
Is 8:10 Take acounsel, yet it will be frustrated; / Speak the word, yet it will not stand; / For bGod is with us.
Is 8:11 For Jehovah spoke to me in this way with great force and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
Is 8:12 You shall not call it conspiracy / All that this people calls conspiracy; / And you shall not afear what they fear nor hold it in awe.
Is 8:13 You shall asanctify Jehovah of hosts; / He shall be the One to fear and He shall be the One to hold in awe.
Is 8:14 Then He will become a 1asanctuary, yet a 1bstone to strike against / And a 1rock of cstumbling / To both houses of Israel, / A trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Is 8:15 And many will stumble 1at these, / And will fall and be broken to pieces, / And will be snared and taken captive.
Is 8:16 Bind up the 1testimony; seal the instruction among my disciples;
Is 8:17 And I will await on Jehovah, who bhides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look eagerly for Him.
Is 8:18 aSee, 1I and the 1children whom Jehovah has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, who abides on Mount Zion.
Is 8:19 When they say to you, Inquire of the necromancers and the familiar spirits, who twitter and mutter; say to them, Should not a people inquire of their God? Should they go to the dead on behalf of the living —
Is 8:20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because in them there is no dawn.
Is 8:21 And they go through it hard-pressed and hungry; and when they are hungry, they rage and curse their king and their God. They turn their faces upward,
Is 8:22 And they look to the earth, but there is only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish and being thrust into darkness.
ISAIAH 9

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F. The Unveiling of Christ as the Great Light and the Wonderful One Issuing
from Jehovah’s Chastisement on the Kingdom of Israel and His Judgment on Assyria
9:1 — 10:34
1. The Unveiling of Christ as the Great Light
9:1-5
Is 9:1 But gloom does not remain in the place where there was anguish: formerly He treated the aland of Zebulun and the land of bNaphtali contemptibly, but afterward He treats the way of the 1sea, across the Jordan, with glory, 2Galilee of the nations.
Is 9:2 The people who walked in the adarkness / Have seen a great 1blight; / Upon those who dwell in the land of the cshadow of death / 1Light has shined.
Is 9:3 You have 1amultiplied the nation; / You have increased their gladness; / They are glad before You as with the gladness of harvest, / As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Is 9:4 For You break the yoke of their burden / And the staff on their shoulder, / The rod of their oppressor, / As in the day of 1aMidian.
Is 9:5 For all the boots / Of those who in boots trample in the battle-quake / And the garments / Rolled in ablood / Are for burning; / They are fuel for bfire.
2. The Unveiling of Christ as the Wonderful One
9:6-7
Is 9:6 For a 1child is aborn 2to us, / A 1Son is bgiven 2to us; / And the 3government / Is upon His shoulder; / And His name will be called / 4cWonderful Counselor, / 5Mighty dGod, / 5Eternal eFather, / 6Prince of fPeace.
Is 9:7 To the increase of His 1government / And to His 1peace there is ano end, / Upon the 2bthrone of David / And over His kingdom, / To establish it / And to uphold it / In justice and righteousness / From now to ceternity. / The dzeal of Jehovah of hosts / Will accomplish this.
3. Jehovah’s Chastisement on the Kingdom of Israel
9:8 — 10:4
Is 9:8 The Lord sends out a word against 1Jacob, / And it descends upon 1Israel.
Is 9:9 And all the people know it, / Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, / Saying in pride and haughtiness of heart,
Is 9:10 The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone; / The sycamores have been felled, but we will put cedars in their place.
Is 9:11 Then Jehovah exalts the adversaries of Rezin against them / And goads their enemies on.
Is 9:12 Aram from the east and the Philistines from the west: / They devour Israel with an open mouth. / By all this His anger is not turned; / His hand is still outstretched.
Is 9:13 Yet the people do anot turn to Him who strikes them, / Nor do they seek Jehovah of hosts.
Is 9:14 Then Jehovah cuts off from Israel head and tail, / Palm branch and marsh reed ain one day.
Is 9:15 The elder and the highly regarded — he is the head; / The prophet and the teacher of falsehood — he is the tail.
Is 9:16 And those who lead this people are those who amislead them; / And those who are led are those who are confused.
Is 9:17 Because of this the Lord will not rejoice in their young men, / And He will not have compassion on their orphans and widows; / For all of them are profane and evildoers, / And every mouth speaks foolishness. / By all this His anger is not turned; / His hand is still outstretched.
Is 9:18 For wickedness burns like a fire; / It devours thorn and thistle, / And burns in the forest thickets; / And they roll up into a column of smoke.
Is 9:19 At the overflowing wrath of Jehovah of hosts a land is burned up, / And the people are like fuel for fire; / No one spares even his brother.
Is 9:20 One carves on the right side, but is hungry; / And another eats on the left side, but is not satisfied. / Each eats the flesh of his own arm:
Is 9:21 Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh; / These together against Judah. / By all this His anger is not turned; / His hand is still outstretched.
ISAIAH 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

Is 10:1 Woe to those who decree decrees of iniquity, / To the busy writers who are busy writing trouble,
Is 10:2 In order to turn the poor away from judgment, / And to tear justice away from the afflicted among my people; / That widows may be their spoil, / And they may plunder orphans.
Is 10:3 And what will you do for the 1aday of visitation, / And for the devastation that comes from afar? / To whom will you flee for help? / And where will you leave your 2glory,
Is 10:4 Unless one crouches behind prisoners, / And they fall behind the slain? / By all this His anger is not turned; / His hand is still outstretched.
4. Jehovah’s Judgment on Assyria
10:5-34
Is 10:5 Woe to Assyria, the 1arod of My anger! / The 1staff which is in their hand is My indignation.
Is 10:6 Against a profane nation I send them out, / And against the people of My overflowing wrath I command them, / To make spoil of the spoil and to make plunder of the plunder, / To make them a trampling ground, like street mire.
Is 10:7 But they do not think so, / And their heart does not conceive it so; / For destroying is in their heart, / And the cutting down of no few nations.
Is 10:8 For they say, / Are not my princes all kings?
Is 10:9 Is not Calno like aCarchemish, / Or Hamath like Arpad, / Or Samaria like bDamascus?
Is 10:10 Since my hand has reached / The kingdoms of the idols, / And their graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
Is 10:11 Shall I not do, as I have done / To Samaria and its idols, / The same to Jerusalem and its images?
Is 10:12 But when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He says, I will punish the fruit of the king of aAssyria’s haughtiness of heart and the glory of his haughty eyes.
Is 10:13 For he has said, / By the strength of my own hand I have done it, / And by my own wisdom; for I have understanding. / And I have aremoved the boundaries of the peoples; / And their stored possessions I have plundered. / And like a bull, I brought down those who sit on thrones.
Is 10:14 And my hand reached in, like in a nest, / For the wealth of the peoples; / And like one who gathers abandoned eggs, / I myself gathered in all the earth; / And none fluttered a wing, / Or opened a beak and chirped.
Is 10:15 Should the ax glorify itself above ahim who chops with it? / Or should the saw magnify itself above him who wields it? / It would be like the rod wielding him who lifts it up, / Like the staff lifting up him who is not wood.
Is 10:16 Therefore the Lord Jehovah of hosts will send / Leanness to his fat ones; / And under his glory He will kindle a kindling, / Like the kindling of fire.
Is 10:17 And the aLight of Israel will become a fire, / And his Holy One a flame; / And it will burn and devour his thorns / And his thistles in one day.
Is 10:18 The glory of his forest and of his garden land / He will destroy, both soul and body; / And he will be like a sick man wasting away.
Is 10:19 And what is left of the trees of his forest will be so few in number / That a young boy could record them.
Is 10:20 Then in that day the aremnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have 1escaped will no longer rely upon him who strikes them, but they will brely upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
Is 10:21 A aremnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
Is 10:22 aFor though your people, O Israel, are like the 1sand of the sea, only a remnant among them will return. Annihilation is strictly decided, overflowing with righteousness.
Is 10:23 For utter destruction and a strict decision is the Lord Jehovah of hosts performing in the midst of the whole land.
Is 10:24 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah of hosts, O My people dwelling in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you the way aEgypt did.
Is 10:25 For in a very alittle while My indignation will be bcompleted, and My anger will be turned toward their destruction.
Is 10:26 And against them Jehovah of hosts will rouse up a whip like the stroke against aMidian at the rock of Oreb; and His bstaff will be over the sea, and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt.
Is 10:27 And in that day their burden will be removed from your ashoulders, and their yoke from off your neck; and the yoke will be broken due to the fatness.
Is 10:28 1He acomes against Aiath; / He passes through Migron; / At Michmash he deposits his gear.
Is 10:29 They go through the pass, saying, / Geba will be our lodging overnight. / Ramah is quaking; / Gibeah of Saul flees away.
Is 10:30 Scream with your voice, O daughter of Gallim! / Listen carefully, Laishah! O poor Anathoth!
Is 10:31 Madmenah flees; / The inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge.
Is 10:32 So it is this very day when he halts at Nob. / He swings his hand over the mountain of the 1daughter of aZion, / Over the hill of Jerusalem.
Is 10:33 But now the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Is lopping off the boughs with an awful crash: / Those which are tall in height are hewn down, / And those which are lofty are laid low.
Is 10:34 And He chops away the forest thickets with an iron ax; / And Lebanon falls at the hands of a majestic One.
ISAIAH 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

G. The Restoration Brought In through Christ
11:1-16
Is 11:1 Then a 1asprout will come forth from the stump of bJesse, / And a 1branch from his croots will bear dfruit.
Is 11:2 And the 1aSpirit of Jehovah will rest upon Him, / The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, / The Spirit of counsel and might, / The Spirit of the knowledge and fear of Jehovah.
Is 11:3 He will delight in the fear of Jehovah: / He will neither judge by awhat His eyes see, / Nor decide by what His ears hear.
Is 11:4 But He will judge the poor in arighteousness, / And decide with equity for the afflicted of the land. / And He will strike the land with the rod of His mouth, / And with the bbreath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
Is 11:5 Righteousness will be that which 1agirds His loins, / And faithfulness will be that which 1girds His hips.
Is 11:6 aAnd the 1wolf will dwell with the lamb; / And the leopard will lie down with the kid, / And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; / And a young boy will lead them about.
Is 11:7 The cow and the bear will graze; / Their young will lie down together; / And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
Is 11:8 The nursing child will play by the cobra’s hole, / And upon the viper’s den / The weaned child will stretch his hand.
Is 11:9 They will not harm nor destroy / In all aMy holy mountain, / For the bearth will be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, / As water covers the sea.
Is 11:10 And in that day the 1aroot of Jesse, / Who stands as a 2banner to the peoples — / bHim will the 3nations seek, / And His resting place will be the 4glory.
Is 11:11 And in that day the Lord, / By His hand for the 1second time again, / Will 2recover the aremnant of His people / Who remain, from Assyria and from Egypt, / From Pathros, Cush, and Elam, / From Shinar, Hamath, and the islands of the sea.
Is 11:12 He will lift up a 1standard to the nations, / And will agather the outcasts of Israel; / And the dispersed of Judah He will assemble / From the bfour corners of the earth.
Is 11:13 And 1Ephraim’s jealousy will depart, / And the adversaries in Judah will be cut off; / Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, / Nor will Judah be hostile to Ephraim.
Is 11:14 And they will fly down upon the shoulders of the Philistines on the west; / Together they will plunder the children of the east. / Edom and Moab will come into the grasp of their hand, / And the children of Ammon will submit to them.
Is 11:15 And Jehovah will 1utterly destroy the 2tongue of the sea of Egypt; / And will wave His hand over the 2River with the scorching of His wind, / And He will strike it into seven streams, / And march men through it adryshod.
Is 11:16 And there will be a ahighway from Assyria / For the remnant of His people which remain, / As there was for Israel / In the day that they bcame up from the land of Egypt.
ISAIAH 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

H. The Salvation Enjoyed by Jehovah’s Beloved People
12:1-6
Is 12:1 And you will say ain that day, / I will 1praise You, O Jehovah. You were angry with me, / But Your anger has turned and You have consoled me.
Is 12:2 1God is now my asalvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For 2Jah 1Jehovah is my 3bstrength and song, / And He has become my salvation.
Is 12:3 Therefore you will draw 1awater with rejoicing / From the 2springs of salvation,
Is 12:4 And you will say in that day, / aGive thanks to Jehovah; 1bcall upon His name! / 2cMake His deeds known among the peoples; / Remind them that His name is exalted.
Is 12:5 aSing psalms to Jehovah, for He has done something majestic! / Let it be made known in all the earth!
Is 12:6 Cry out and give a 1aringing shout, O inhabitant of Zion, / For great in your midst is the bHoly One of Israel.
ISAIAH 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

II. The Judgment of Jehovah upon the Nations Unveiling Satan’s Oneness with the Nations,
Showing Jehovah’s Sovereign Rule over the Nations, Benefiting Jehovah’s Beloved Israel, and
Providing the Wonderful Christ as the Savior to Meet the Need
of the Beloved Israel and the Judged Nations
13:1 — 23:18
A. The Judgment of Jehovah —
To Destroy Babylon because of Its Cruel Destruction of Many Nations
13:1 — 14:23
Is 13:1 The burden concerning 1Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
Is 13:2 Upon a bare mountain raise up a standard; / Lift up your voice to them. / Wave your hand that they may enter / The gates of the nobles.
Is 13:3 I Myself have commanded My sanctified ones; / I have also called My mighty ones to My wrath, / Those who exult in My majesty.
Is 13:4 The sound of a tumult in the mountains, / Like that of many peoples! / The sound of an uproar of the kingdoms, / Of nations gathered together! / Jehovah of hosts is mustering / An army for battle.
Is 13:5 They are coming from a distant land, / From the ends of heaven — / Jehovah and the instruments of His indignation — / To ruin all the land.
Is 13:6 aHowl, for the 1day of Jehovah has drawn bnear! / As destruction from the Almighty, it will come.
Is 13:7 Because of this all the hands will drop, / And every human heart will melt;
Is 13:8 And people will be dismayed. / aPangs and anguish will seize them; / Like a woman bgiving birth, they will writhe. / Each man will look toward his neighbor dumbfounded; / Their faces are inflamed.
Is 13:9 Now the day of Jehovah is coming — / Cruel and with overflowing wrath and burning anger — / To make the land a desolation; / And He will destroy its sinners off of it.
Is 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations / Will not shine forth their light; / The sun will be adark at its rising, / And the moon will not let its light shine.
Is 13:11 And I will punish the world for its evil, / And the wicked for their iniquity; / I will stop the arrogance of the proud, / And the haughtiness of the terrible I will abase.
Is 13:12 I will make mortal man rarer than pure gold, / And mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
Is 13:13 Hence, I will make the heavens ashake, / And the earth will quake out of its place, / At the overflowing wrath of Jehovah of hosts, / In the day of His burning anger.
Is 13:14 And like the hunted gazelle / And sheep without someone to gather them, / Each man will turn to his own people, / And each will flee to his own land.
Is 13:15 Everyone found will be pierced through, / And everyone caught will fall by the sword.
Is 13:16 And their little ones will be dashed to pieces / Before their eyes; / Their houses will be plundered, / And their wives will be attacked.
Is 13:17 Now 1I rouse up the Medes against them, / Who will not esteem silver highly, / Nor take delight in gold.
Is 13:18 Their bows will shatter the young men; / And they will not have compassion on the fruit of the womb: / Their eyes will have no pity on children.
Is 13:19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, / The aglory of the Chaldeans’ majesty, / bWill be as when God overthrew / cSodom and Gomorrah:
Is 13:20 It will not be ainhabited forever; / It will not be dwelt in from generation to generation. / And the Arab will not set up his tent there, / Nor will the shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
Is 13:21 But desert aanimals will lie down there, / And their houses will be full of 1wild dogs; / There ostriches will dwell, / And 2wild goats will prance there;
Is 13:22 Hyenas will respond in their 1citadels, / And jackals in their exquisite palaces. / Her time is about to come, / And her days will not be prolonged.
ISAIAH 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

Is 14:1 When Jehovah has 1acompassion on Jacob and again chooses Israel and settles them in their land, the bsojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
Is 14:2 And nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will take possession of them in the land of Jehovah as male and female servants; and they will lead captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppressed them.
Is 14:3 In the day when Jehovah gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the hard service that was done by you as slaves,
Is 14:4 You will lift up this discourse concerning the king of Babylon and you will say:
How the oppressor has ceased! / How the 1raging has ceased!
Is 14:5 Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked, / The rod of rulers;
Is 14:6 That struck the peoples in wrath, / With strikes that would not stop; / That ruled the nations in anger, / With pursuit that would not let up.
Is 14:7 All the earth rests and is undisturbed; / They break forth with a aringing shout.
Is 14:8 Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, / And the cedars of Lebanon: / Since you are brought down, no tree cutter / Will come up against us.
Is 14:9 aSheol beneath is excited because of you, / That it will meet you when you come. / It rouses the dead because of you, / All the 1great ones of the earth. / It makes all the kings of the nations / Rise from their thrones.
Is 14:10 All of them will respond / And say to you, / Even you have been weakened, just as we have; / You have become like us.
Is 14:11 Your majesty has been brought down to Sheol, / Even the sound of your harps. / Beneath you maggots are spread; / Worms are your covering.
(The Judgment of Jehovah Issuing In the Unveiling of Satan’s Kingdom of Darkness
behind the Nations and His Oneness with the Powers of the Nations)
14:12-15
Is 14:12 How you have afallen from heaven, / O 1Daystar, son of the dawn! / How you have been hewn down to earth, / You who made nations fall prostrate!
Is 14:13 But you, you said in your heart: / 1I will aascend to heaven; / Above the stars of God / I will bexalt my throne. / And I will sit upon the mount of assembly / In the 2uttermost parts of the north.
Is 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; / I will make myself alike the Most High.
Is 14:15 But you will be abrought down to 1Sheol, / To the uttermost parts of the pit.
Is 14:16 Those who see you will gaze at you; / They will ponder concerning you, asking, / Is this the man who made the earth tremble, / The one who shook kingdoms;
Is 14:17 Who made the world like a wilderness / And tore down its cities; / Who did not release his captives to their homes?
Is 14:18 All the kings of the nations, / All of them, lie in glory, / Each in his own house.
Is 14:19 But you have been thrown out away from your tomb, / Like some shoot that is viewed with disgust; / Or like the garments of the slain, of those pierced with the sword, / Who go down to the stones of the pit; / Like a corpse that has been trampled under.
Is 14:20 You shall not be united with them in burial, / For you have destroyed your land, / You have slain your people; / The seed of evildoers / Will never be renowned.
Is 14:21 Prepare a slaughterhouse for his children / Because of the iniquity of their fathers, / So that they do not rise up and possess the land, / And fill the surface of the world with cities.
Is 14:22 And I will rise up against them, / Declares Jehovah of hosts. / And I will acut off from Babylon name and remnant, / And posterity and progeny, declares Jehovah.
Is 14:23 And I will make it a possession for porcupines / And muddied pools of water, / And I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, / Declares Jehovah of hosts.
B. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Break Assyria because of Its Yoke and Burden upon Israel
14:24-27
Is 14:24 Jehovah of hosts has sworn, saying, / Surely just as I conceived it, so has it happened; / And just as I have purposed it, so shall this stand,
Is 14:25 That I will break aAssyria in bMy land, / And upon My mountains I will trample him. / Then his yoke will be taken off of them, / And his burden will be removed from off their shoulders.
Is 14:26 This is the purpose that I have purposed over all the earth, / And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
Is 14:27 For Jehovah of hosts has purposed it, and who will frustrate it? / And thus His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
C. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Destroy Philistia because of Its Damage to Zion
14:28-32
Is 14:28 In the year that King aAhaz died this burden came:
Is 14:29 Do not rejoice, all of you, Philistia, / That the arod that strikes you is broken, / For from the serpent’s root a viper will come forth, / And his bfruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
Is 14:30 And the poorest of the poor will feed, / And the needy will lie down securely. / And I will kill your root by famine, / And he will slay your remnant.
Is 14:31 Howl, O gate! Cry out, O city! / The whole of you, Philistia, is melted away. / For from the north smoke has come, / And there are no stragglers in his ranks.
Is 14:32 And what shall one answer this nation’s messengers? / That Jehovah has afounded Zion, / And in her the bpoor of His people take refuge.
ISAIAH 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

D. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Devastate Moab because of Its Pride
15:1 — 16:14
Is 15:1 The burden concerning Moab:
Indeed in a night it is devastated — / Ar of Moab is cut off. / Indeed in a night it is devastated — / Kir of Moab is cut off.
Is 15:2 They have gone up to their temple and to Dibon, / That is, to their high places, to weep. / Over Nebo and over Medeba / Moab howls; / aUpon all their heads is baldness; / Every beard is shaved off.
Is 15:3 In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth; / On their roofs / And in their open squares everyone will howl, / Melting in tears.
Is 15:4 And Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; / Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz. / Because of this the armed men of Moab raise a cry; / Their soul quivers within them.
Is 15:5 My heart acries out for Moab; / Its fugitives reach as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah: / By the ascent of Luhith / With weeping they will go up; / On the way that leads to Horonaim / They will raise up a cry of destruction;
Is 15:6 The waters of Nimrim / Will be a devastation; / The foliage will be dried up, the grass wasted away; / There will be nothing green.
Is 15:7 As a result, the abundance they have produced / And placed in reserve / Will be carried off / To the poplar brook.
Is 15:8 For the cry has gone about / The border of Moab; / Their howling goes as far as Eglaim, / Even to Beer-elim their howling reaches.
Is 15:9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, / For I will bring upon Dimon additional things: / Lions upon those in Moab who escape / And upon the remnant of the land.
ISAIAH 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Is 16:1 Send a lamb of tribute / To the ruler of the land, / From Sela across the wilderness / To the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
Is 16:2 Like wandering birds, / Like a scattered nest, / Will the daughters of Moab be / At the fords of the Arnon.
Is 16:3 Give us counsel, / Make a judgment concerning us. / Make your shadow at high noon / Like night to us. / Hide the outcasts; / Do not expose him who wanders.
Is 16:4 1Let the outcasts of Moab / Dwell with you; / Be a hiding place to them / From the destroyer. / When the extortioner finishes / And destruction ends, / When the oppressor is completely gone from the land,
Is 16:5 Then will a throne be aestablished in lovingkindness, / And upon it 1One will sit in 2truth / In the tent of David, / Judging and pursuing justice / And hastening righteousness.
Is 16:6 aWe have heard of the pride of Moab — / He is extremely proud — / Of his haughtiness and pride and insolence; / His boastings are all untrue.
Is 16:7 Therefore Moab will howl for Moab; / They all will howl. / For the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth / You will mourn, utterly stricken.
Is 16:8 Because the fields of Heshbon have withered, / And the vine of Sibmah, too. / The lords of the nations / Have trampled under its choicest vines, / Which reached as far as Jazer, / Which meandered into the desert. / Its shoots spread abroad; / They crossed over to the sea.
Is 16:9 aTherefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, / For the vine of Sibmah; / I will soak you with my tears, / Heshbon and Elealeh. / For the harvest shout is hushed / Over your summer fruit and over your reapings.
Is 16:10 Rejoicing is taken away, and exultation from the fruited field; / In the vineyards there will be no singing for joy; no shouts will be uttered. / The treader will not tread out wine in the presses — / I have made the harvest shout stop.
Is 16:11 aTherefore for Moab my bowels will moan like a lyre, / And my inward parts for Kir-heres.
Is 16:12 And when Moab appears, / When they weary themselves at their high place, / And come to their sanctuary to pray, / It will not avail.
Is 16:13 This is the word which Jehovah spoke concerning Moab long ago.
Is 16:14 And now Jehovah has spoken, saying, Within three years, like the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be disgraced, with all its great multitude, and its remnant will be small — a mere trifle, nothing great.
ISAIAH 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

E. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Ruin and Forsake Damascus because of Its Invasion into Israel
17:1 — 18:7
Is 17:1 The burden concerning aDamascus:
See, Damascus — turned from being a city, / It will become a heap of ruin.
Is 17:2 The cities of Aroer will be forsaken; / They will be for flocks / That lie down with no one to frighten them.
Is 17:3 And fortified cities will cease to be in Ephraim, / As well as the kingdom in Damascus; / And the remnant of Syria / Will be like the glory of the children of Israel, / Declares Jehovah of hosts.
Is 17:4 In that day the glory of Jacob will fade, / And the fat of his flesh will become lean.
Is 17:5 And it will be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain, / And his arms reap the ears; / And it will be as when one gleans the ears / In the valley of Rephaim.
Is 17:6 Yet agleanings will be left in it, / Like at the shaking of an olive tree — / Two or three fruit at the very top, / Four or five in the boughs of the fruiting tree — / Declares Jehovah the God of Israel.
Is 17:7 In that day man will alook to his bMaker, / And his eyes will behold the Holy One of Israel.
Is 17:8 And he will not look to the altars, the works of his hands; / And what his fingers have made he will not regard, / That is, the Asherahs and the images to the sun.
Is 17:9 In that day his cities of protection will be / Like abandoned places of the forest and like the mountaintop / Which was abandoned before the children of Israel; / And there will be desolation.
Is 17:10 For you have forgotten the 1aGod of your salvation, / And the 1Rock of your stronghold you have not remembered. / Therefore you plant plants of delight / And set them with plant cuttings to a strange god.
Is 17:11 On the day that you plant them you fence them in carefully, / And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; / But the harvest is a heap on a day of sickness / And incurable pain.
Is 17:12 Woe! The roar of many peoples, / Who roar like the aroaring of the seas; / The din of nations, / Who crash like the crashing of mighty bwaters!
Is 17:13 The nations crash like the crashing of many waters. / But He will rebuke them; / And they will flee far away, / And will be chased like mountain chaff before the wind / And like a whirlwind of dust before storm wind.
Is 17:14 At evening time, indeed, there is calamity; / Before the morning they are no more. / This is the portion of those who plunder us, / And the allotment of those who take us as spoil.
ISAIAH 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

Is 18:1 Woe to the land of the whirring of wings, / Which is beyond the rivers of 1aCush,
Is 18:2 The land that sends envoys on the sea, / Even in papyrus vessels upon the surface of the water. / Go, swift messengers, / To a nation tall and smooth of skin, / To a people feared from there and beyond, / A nation of command upon command and of treading down others, / Whose land the rivers cut through.
Is 18:3 All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, / When the standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it; / And when the horn is blown, you will hear it.
Is 18:4 For thus has Jehovah spoken to me, / I will be quiet and observe in My lodging place, / Like glowing heat in the sunshine, / Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
Is 18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud is full / And the flower becomes the ripening grape, / He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives, / And the tendrils He will remove and cut away.
Is 18:6 They will be left together for the mountain birds / And for the beasts of the earth. / And the birds will spend summer on them, / And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
Is 18:7 At that time a agift will be brought to Jehovah of hosts 1from a people tall and smooth of skin, even from a people feared from there and beyond, a nation of command upon command and of treading down others, whose land the rivers cut through, unto the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion.
ISAIAH 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

F. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Strike and Desolate Egypt because of Its Idols and Wise Men
19:1-25
Is 19:1 The burden concerning aEgypt: / See, Jehovah is riding upon a swift bcloud, / And He is coming to Egypt. / And the cidols of Egypt will quiver at His presence, / And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
Is 19:2 Thus I will spur on Egyptian against Egyptian; / And each will fight against his brother, and each against his neighbor, / City against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
Is 19:3 The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them, / And their counsel I will swallow up; / Then they will seek after idols and mediums, / And after spirits of the dead and familiar spirits.
Is 19:4 And I will shut the Egyptians up under the hand of ahard masters, / And a mighty king will rule over them, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
Is 19:5 And the waters from the sea will be adried up, / And the river will be desolate and dry.
Is 19:6 The river canals will astink; / The streams of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and be desolate. / The reeds and rushes will rot;
Is 19:7 The plants at the Nile, at the mouth of the Nile, / And every place sown by the Nile / Will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.
Is 19:8 The fishermen will mourn; / And all who cast the hook into the Nile will lament; / And those who spread nets upon the waters will languish.
Is 19:9 Moreover, those who work with combed flax will be confounded, / As well as those who weave linen.
Is 19:10 And the pillars of the land will be crushed, / And every wage worker will be sullen in soul.
Is 19:11 Mere fools are the princes of aZoan; / The counsel of the wisest of Pharaoh’s counselors has become stupidity. / How can you say to Pharaoh, / I am a son of the wise men, a son of ancient kings?
Is 19:12 Where are they? aWhere are your wise men? / Let them tell you and let them know / What Jehovah of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
Is 19:13 The princes of Zoan have become fools; the princes of Memphis are beguiled; / They have misled Egypt, who are the cornerstone of her tribes.
Is 19:14 Jehovah has mixed within her a spirit of distortings, / And they have misled Egypt in all that it does, / As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
Is 19:15 And there will be no work for Egypt, / Which the head or the tail, the palm branch or the marsh reed, may do.
Is 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and they will tremble and be in dread before the waving of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which He will be waving over them.
Is 19:17 And the land of Judah will become a source of crazed terror to Egypt — everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the purpose of Jehovah of hosts, which He purposes against them.
Is 19:18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the alanguage of Canaan and swearing to Jehovah of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.
Is 19:19 In that day there will be an aaltar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to Jehovah near its border;
Is 19:20 And it will become a sign and a testimony to Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry unto Jehovah because of their oppressors, and He will send them a 1Savior and Mighty One; and He will deliver them.
Is 19:21 And Jehovah will make Himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah in that day; they will 1worship Him with sacrifice and aoffering and will vow a vow to Jehovah and accomplish it.
Is 19:22 And Jehovah will strike Egypt, striking yet healing; and they will turn to Jehovah, and He will be entreated of by them and will heal them.
Is 19:23 In that day there will be a ahighway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
Is 19:24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a ablessing in the midst of the land,
Is 19:25 With which Jehovah of hosts will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people and Assyria the awork of My hands and Israel My inheritance.
ISAIAH 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

G. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Take Egypt into Captivity and to Send Cush into Exile
Because Cush Has Become Israel’s Expectation and Egypt, Their Boast
20:1-6
Is 20:1 In the year that the 1Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it,
Is 20:2 At that time Jehovah spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet. And he did so, going about stripped and barefooted.
Is 20:3 And Jehovah said, Just as My aservant Isaiah has gone about stripped and barefoot for three years as a bsign and a wonder against Egypt and Cush,
Is 20:4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young men and old men, stripped and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to Egypt’s shame.
Is 20:5 And they will be dismayed and ashamed of Cush, their 1expectation, and of Egypt, their 1boast.
Is 20:6 And the inhabitant of this coastland will say in that day, Such is now our expectation, to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And how shall we escape?
ISAIAH 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

H. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Destroy Babylon because of Its Idols
21:1-10
Is 21:1 The burden concerning the wilderness of the sea:
Like storm winds / In the 1Negev passing through, / It comes from the wilderness / From an awesome land.
Is 21:2 A harsh vision / Has been announced to me; / The unfaithful one deals unfaithfully, / And the destroyer destroys. / Go up, Elam; / Lay siege, Media; / I have put an end / To all her groaning.
Is 21:3 Therefore my loins / Are full of anguish; / Pangs have taken hold of me / Like the pangs of a woman in labor. / I am bent over at the hearing of it; / I am terrified at the seeing of it.
Is 21:4 My heart reels; / Shuddering overwhelms me. / The twilight that I love / Has become a source of trembling to me.
Is 21:5 Setting the table! / Spreading out the rug! / Eating! Drinking! / Rise, princes; / Oil the shields.
Is 21:6 For thus says / The Lord to me, / Go, set a watchman; / Let him report what he sees.
Is 21:7 And he saw riders, / A team of horsemen; / Riders of donkeys, / Riders of camels; / And he attends with attention, / With much attention.
Is 21:8 And he calls out like a lion: / On the watchtower, Lord, / I stand continually by day; / At my guardpost / I am stationed / Every night.
Is 21:9 And now there come / Riding men, / A team of horsemen. / And one answers and says, / aFallen, fallen is Babylon! / And all the bidols of her gods / Has He shattered to the ground.
Is 21:10 My athreshed ones, / And the son of the threshing floor! / What I have heard / From Jehovah of hosts, / The God of Israel, / I have declared to you.
I. Jehovah to Have No Judgment on Dumah
21:11-12
Is 21:11 The burden concerning 1Dumah: / Someone is calling to me from Seir: / Guard, what remains of the night? / Guard, what remains of the night?
Is 21:12 The guard says, / Morning is coming, / But so also is night; / If you will ask, ask; / Return, come.
J. The Judgment of Jehovah —
To Desolate Arabia by the Harshness of Battle because of Its Warlikeness
21:13-17
Is 21:13 The burden against Arabia: / In the thicket of Arabia you must spend the night, / You nomad clans of the Dedanim.
Is 21:14 They bring water / To meet the thirsty; / The inhabitants of the land of Tema / Meet with bread those who flee;
Is 21:15 For they flee from swords — / From the drawn sword, / From the bent bow, / And from the harshness of battle.
Is 21:16 For thus has the Lord said to me, Within a year, like a wage worker’s year, all the glory of Kedar will end,
Is 21:17 And the remainder of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for Jehovah the God of Israel has spoken.
ISAIAH 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

K. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Trample Down the City of Jerusalem —
the Valley of Vision — because of Its Unforgivable Iniquity
22:1-25
Is 22:1 The burden concerning the 1valley of vision:
What then troubles you / That all have gone up to the housetops?
Is 22:2 You who are full of noise, you tumultuous city, / You exultant town, / Your slain were not slain with the sword, / Nor are they dead because of battle.
Is 22:3 All your rulers have afled together; / Apart from the bow they have been captured. / All of you who were found have been captured together, / Though they had fled far away.
Is 22:4 Therefore I said, Look away from me! / Let me aweep bitterly. / Do not hasten to comfort me / About the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Is 22:5 For there is a day of aturmoil and trampling down and confusion / With the Lord Jehovah of hosts / In the valley of vision, a breaking down of walls / And crying to the mountains.
Is 22:6 And Elam took up the quiver, / With chariots of men and horsemen; / And Kir uncovered the shield.
Is 22:7 Then your choicest valleys / Were afull of chariots, / And the horsemen firmly fixed themselves at the gate;
Is 22:8 And he removed the covering of Judah. / And you looked in that day / To the weapons of the aForest House,
Is 22:9 While the breaches of the city of David / You saw to be many. / So you gathered the awater of the lower pool;
Is 22:10 And the houses of Jerusalem you counted, / And tore down the houses to afortify the wall.
Is 22:11 Then you made a areservoir between the walls / For the water of the old pool. / But you did not look to its very bMaker, / And Him who formed it long ago you did not regard.
Is 22:12 Therefore the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Called you in that day / To weeping and to amourning, / To head shaving and to wearing sackcloth.
Is 22:13 But now there is gladness and joy, / The slaying of cattle and the slaughtering of sheep, / The eating of meat and the drinking of wine; / aEating and drinking, for tomorrow we die!
Is 22:14 But in my ears Jehovah of hosts revealed this: / This iniquity shall by no means be covered for you until you die, / Says the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
Is 22:15 Thus says the Lord Jehovah of hosts: / Get up, go to this steward, / To Shebna, who is over the king’s house, and say,
Is 22:16 What are you doing here, and whom do you have here / That you have hewn a atomb for yourself here, / As he who has hewn a tomb on the heights, / As he who has cut out a resting place for himself in the rock?
Is 22:17 Jehovah soon throws you far away, O mighty one, / And He grasps you firmly;
Is 22:18 He will wind you up tightly; / Like a ball He will toss you into a wide land. / There you will die; and there the chariots of your glory / Will become the disgrace of the house of your master.
Is 22:19 And I will drive you from your position, / And from your standing He will pull you down.
(Christ — A Father to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the House of Judah
and a Peg Driven into a Sure Place to Become a Throne of Glory for His Father’s House)
22:20-25
Is 22:20 And in that day / I will call to My servant 1aEliakim the son of Hilkiah,
Is 22:21 And I will clothe him with your tunic, / And I will strengthen him with your girding sash, / And I will put your dominion into his hand; / And he will become a 1father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem / And to the house of Judah.
Is 22:22 And I will set the 1akey of the house of David upon his shoulder — / When he opens, no one will shut; / When he shuts, no one will open.
Is 22:23 And I will drive him as a 1apeg into a sure place, / And he will become a 2throne of glory for his father’s house.
Is 22:24 And they will hang upon him all the 1glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all the smallest vessels, from the 2bowls to all the jars.
Is 22:25 In that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, the 1peg driven into the sure place will be removed, even cut away, and it will fall; and the burden that was upon it will be cut down; for Jehovah has spoken.
ISAIAH 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

L. The Judgment of Jehovah — To Destroy Tyre by the Assyrians
because of Its Pride of All Beauty and All Its Honored Men
23:1-18
Is 23:1 The burden concerning aTyre: / Howl, O ships of Tarshish, / For 1it is destroyed — lacking house, / Lacking entrance. From as far away as the land of 2Kittim / It is told to them.
Is 23:2 Hush, you inhabitants of the coastland, / You, whom the merchants of Sidon, / Who cross the sea, have replenished.
Is 23:3 And by way of many waters / The grain of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; / And she was profit to the nations.
Is 23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, / The stronghold of the sea, saying, / I have not been in labor nor given birth; / Neither have I brought up young men, / Nor have I raised virgins.
Is 23:5 When the report reaches Egypt, / They will writhe in pain at the report concerning Tyre.
Is 23:6 Cross over to Tarshish; / Howl, you inhabitants of the coastland.
Is 23:7 Is this your jubilant city, / Whose antiquity is from the days of antiquity, / Whose feet carried her off afar to sojourn?
Is 23:8 Who has purposed this / Against Tyre, the giver of crowns, / Whose merchants were princes, / Whose traders were the honorable of the earth?
Is 23:9 Jehovah of hosts has purposed it, / To defile the pride of all beauty, / To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
Is 23:10 Overflow your land like a river, O daughter of Tarshish; / There is no more restraint.
Is 23:11 He has stretched out His hand over the sea; / He has shaken kingdoms. / Jehovah has given commandment concerning Canaan / To destroy its strongholds.
Is 23:12 And He has said, You shall not continue to exult any longer, / O crushed virgin daughter of Sidon. / Arise; cross over to Kittim — / There also you will have no rest.
Is 23:13 See the land of the 1Chaldeans, this people! They were not — the Assyrians assigned it to desert animals; they raised their siege towers; they stripped their citadels; they brought it to ruin.
Is 23:14 Howl, O ships of Tarshish, / For your stronghold is destroyed.
Is 23:15 In that day Tyre will be forgotten for aseventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of the seventy years Tyre will be like her in the harlot’s song:
Is 23:16 Take a harp; / Compass the city, / Forgotten harlot. / Play well; / Abound in song, / That you may be remembered.
Is 23:17 And at the end of the seventy years Jehovah will visit Tyre. And she will return to the wages of her harlotry and will be a harlot to all the kingdoms of the earth on land’s surface.
Is 23:18 And her profit and the wages of her harlotry will be dedicated to Jehovah; it will not be stored up, nor will it be hoarded, for her profit will be for those who dwell before Jehovah, as their sufficient food and their choice clothing.
ISAIAH 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

III. Jehovah’s Dealing with His Beloved Israel Issuing In Israel’s Revival and Return to God
and Ushering In Christ with the Restoration of All Things
24:1 — 35:10
A. Jehovah’s Reaction to Israel’s Degradation and
His Reaction to the Nations’ Excessive Action on Israel Issuing In Israel’s Turn to Jehovah
and Their Return to the Holy Land for Restoration
24:1 — 27:13
Is 24:1 Jehovah now makes the aearth desolate and lays it waste; He distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants:
Is 24:2 As it is with the people, so will it be with the priest; / As it is with the servant, so will it be with the master; / As it is with the maid, so will it be with the mistress; / As it is with the buyer, so will it be with the seller; / As it is with the lender, so will it be with the borrower; / As it is with the creditor, so will it be with him to whom he gives credit.
Is 24:3 The earth will be utterly desolated / And utterly spoiled, / For Jehovah has spoken this word.
Is 24:4 The earth dries up and fades away; / The world languishes and fades away; / The exalted of the people of the earth languish.
Is 24:5 And the earth is apolluted under the weight of its inhabitants; / For they have transgressed laws, they have violated statutes, / They have broken an eternal covenant.
Is 24:6 Therefore a curse devours the earth / And the inhabitants of it are held guilty; / Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, / And few men are left.
Is 24:7 The new wine mourns; the vine languishes; / All the merryhearted sigh.
Is 24:8 The mirth of the tambourines aceases; / The noise of those who exult stops; / The mirth of the lyre ceases.
Is 24:9 Men do not drink wine in song; / Liquor is bitter to those who drink it.
Is 24:10 The city of chaos is broken down; / Every house is shut up that none may enter.
Is 24:11 A cry for wine is in the streets; / All joy is darkened; / The mirth of the land is departed.
Is 24:12 In the city desolation remains, / And the gate is crushed to ruins.
Is 24:13 For thus will it be in the midst of the earth, / Among the peoples: / Like the shaking of an olive tree, / Like the gleanings when the grape harvest is completed.
Is 24:14 They will lift up their voice; they will give a ringing shout; / Because of the majesty of Jehovah they will cry out from the west.
Is 24:15 Therefore in the east glorify Jehovah, / Even the aname of Jehovah the God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
Is 24:16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs: / 1Glory to the righteous One! / But I say, Leanness to me! Leanness to me! Woe to me! / The unfaithful deal unfaithfully! / Indeed the unfaithful deal most unfaithfully!
Is 24:17 aDread, pit, and bsnare / Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
Is 24:18 And he who flees from the sound of dread / Will fall into the pit, / And he who comes up out of the pit / Will be taken in the snare; / For the windows from on high are open, / And the foundations of the earth shake.
Is 24:19 The earth is broken asunder; / The earth is split through and through; / The earth is shaken violently.
Is 24:20 The earth staggers back and forth like a drunkard / And sways about like a field hut. / And its transgression weighs heavily upon it; / It will fall and will not rise again.
Is 24:21 And in that day Jehovah will punish / On high the 1host on high, / And the akings of the earth on the earth.
Is 24:22 And they will be gathered together, / Like prisoners gathered in a dungeon; / And will be shut up in prison, / And after many days they will be punished.
Is 24:23 Then the amoon will be abashed, and the sun will be ashamed; / For Jehovah of hosts will reign / In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, / And His glory will be before His elders.
ISAIAH 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

Is 25:1 O Jehovah, You are my God; / I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name, / For You have done wonderful things — / Counsels of old, in faithfulness, perfect faithfulness.
Is 25:2 For You have made of a city a heap, / Of a fortified town a ruin. / A palace of strangers becomes no city at all; / It will never be rebuilt.
Is 25:3 Therefore a strong people will glorify You; / The cities of terrifying nations will fear You.
Is 25:4 For You have been a stronghold to the weak, / A stronghold to the needy in his distress, / A arefuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; / For the breath of those who terrify is like a tempest against a wall.
Is 25:5 Like the heat in a drought, / You will subdue the uproar of strangers; / Like the heat through the shadow of a cloud, / The song of those who terrify will be brought low.
Is 25:6 And Jehovah of hosts will make on this amountain / For all the 1peoples / A feast of fat things, / A feast of wine matured on the lees, / Of fat things full of marrow, / And of filtered wine matured on the lees.
Is 25:7 And on this mountain He will swallow up / The 1covering that covers up all the peoples, / Even the aveil that veils all the nations.
Is 25:8 He will swallow up adeath 1forever; / And the Lord Jehovah will wipe away the btears from all faces; / And the reproach of His people He will remove from all the earth; / For Jehovah has spoken.
Is 25:9 And it will be said in that day, / Here, this is our God, / For whom we have awaited that He may save us. / This is Jehovah, for whom we have waited; / Let us be glad and brejoice in His salvation.
Is 25:10 For the hand of Jehovah will rest on this mountain, / And Moab will be threshed in his place, / Even as straw is threshed in the water of a dung heap.
Is 25:11 And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it, / As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim; / But Jehovah will abase his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
Is 25:12 And the lofty fortification of your walls He will bring down, / Lay low, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.
ISAIAH 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Is 26:1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city; / He will set up salvation as walls and a rampart.
Is 26:2 aOpen the gates / So that the righteous nation may enter, / They who maintain faithfulness.
Is 26:3 You will keep the steadfast of mind / In perfect apeace / Because he trusts in You.
Is 26:4 Trust in Jehovah forever and ever, / For in Jah Jehovah we have an eternal arock.
Is 26:5 For He has brought down those who dwell on high, / The lofty city; / He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground; / He casts it into the dust.
Is 26:6 The foot will trample it, the foot of the poor, / The steps of the weak.
Is 26:7 The path of the righteous is smoothness; / O You who are upright, You make the path of the righteous level.
Is 26:8 Indeed in the 1path of Your judgments, / O Jehovah, we have awaited for You. / Your name, that is, Your memorial, / Is the desire of our soul.
Is 26:9 My soul desires You in the anight; / Indeed my spirit within me seeks You at the dawn; / For when Your judgments are in the earth, / The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Is 26:10 Though the wicked is shown grace, / He does not learn righteousness; / In the land of straightforwardness he deals unjustly / And does not perceive the majesty of Jehovah.
Is 26:11 O Jehovah, Your hand is lifted up, / But they do not see it. / They will see Your zeal for the people and will be put to shame; / Indeed fire will adevour Your adversaries.
Is 26:12 O Jehovah, You will ordain apeace for us, / For You have also performed all our works for us.
Is 26:13 O Jehovah our God, other 1lords besides You have been master to us, / But through You alone do we amention Your name.
Is 26:14 The dead will not live, / The deceased will not rise; / Therefore You have visited and destroyed them, / And You have caused all memory of them to perish.
Is 26:15 aYou have 1increased the nation, O Jehovah; / You have increased the nation — You are bglorified; / You have far 1extended all the edges of the land.
Is 26:16 O Jehovah, in distress they 1asought You; / They whispered out a prayer, for Your chastening was upon them.
Is 26:17 As a apregnant woman draws near to giving birth, / She writhes and cries out in her pain; / So we have been before You, O Jehovah.
Is 26:18 We were pregnant; we writhed; we gave birth, as it were, to wind. / We have not accomplished deliverance for the earth, / Nor have the inhabitants of the world been born.
Is 26:19 Your dead will alive; my corpses will brise. / cAwake and give a ringing shout, you who dwell in dust, / For your dew is like the dew of the dawn, / And the earth will bring forth the deceased.
Is 26:20 Come, my people, enter your rooms, / And ashut your doors behind you; / Hide for a short moment / Until the indignation has passed;
Is 26:21 For Jehovah is now acoming forth from His place / To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; / And the earth will reveal her bloodshed / And will no longer conceal her slain.
ISAIAH 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

Is 27:1 In that day Jehovah will punish, / With His harsh, great, and mighty sword, / 1aLeviathan the fleeing serpent, / And leviathan the crooked serpent; / And He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Is 27:2 In that day: / A avineyard of 1wine, bsing of it!
Is 27:3 I, Jehovah, am its akeeper; / Every moment I water it. / Lest anyone visit harm upon it, / By night and by day I guard it.
Is 27:4 I have no wrath. / Oh that I had thorns and thistles! / In battle I would march against them; / I would burn them completely.
Is 27:5 Or let him grasp at My strength; / Let him make peace with Me; / Let him make peace with Me.
Is 27:6 In the days to come Jacob will atake root; / Israel will blossom and bud; / And they will fill the surface of the world with their produce.
Is 27:7 Has He struck them like those who struck them? / Have they been slain like those slain by Him?
Is 27:8 By expulsion and by banishing them, You contended with them; / He sent them away with His harsh wind in the day of the east wind.
Is 27:9 Thus by this the iniquity of Jacob will be expiated, / And this is all the fruit of the aremoval of their sin; / When they make all the stones of their altar / Like chalk stones beaten to powder — / Asherahs and sun images will not stand.
Is 27:10 For the fortified city is isolated; / The habitation is given up and abandoned like a wilderness. / There the calf will feed, / And there he will lie down and consume its branches.
Is 27:11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off; / Women come and make a fire with them; / For they are anot a people of understanding. / Therefore He who made them will not have compassion on them, / And He who formed them will not show favor to them.
Is 27:12 And in that day Jehovah will beat out the 1grain from the flowing stream of the 2River / Unto the brook of Egypt; / And you will be agleaned / One by one, O you children of Israel.
Is 27:13 And in that day a great atrumpet will be blown, / And the ones lost in the land of Assyria will come, / As well as the outcasts in the land of Egypt, / And they will worship Jehovah / On the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
ISAIAH 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

B. Jehovah’s Punishment on Ephraim’s Drunkards
Issuing In Jehovah’s Restoration and Ushering In the Trustworthy Christ
28:1-29
Is 28:1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of 1Ephraim / And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, / Which is at the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome by wine.
Is 28:2 Indeed the Lord has 1someone strong and mighty; / As a ahailstorm and a tempest of destruction, / As a storm of mighty overflowing waters, / He will cast down to the earth with His hand.
Is 28:3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim / Will be trodden under foot;
Is 28:4 And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, / Which is at the head of the fat valley, / Will be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, / Which when someone looks upon it he sees it, / And in an instant it is in his hand, and he swallows it up.
Is 28:5 In that day Jehovah of hosts / Will become a 1acrown of glory and a 1diadem of beauty to the bremnant of His people,
Is 28:6 And a spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment / And strength to those who turn away the battle at the gate.
Is 28:7 But these also reel with wine / And stagger from liquor: / The priest and the prophet reel from liquor; / They are swallowed up with wine; / They stagger from liquor, / They reel in their visions, / They totter in their judgments.
Is 28:8 For all the tables are full of vomit and filth; / There is no place clean.
Is 28:9 Whom will he teach knowledge? / And whom will he instruct with the report? / Those weaned from amilk? / Those drawn from the breasts?
Is 28:10 For his words are: 1Rule upon rule, rule upon rule; / Line upon line, line upon line; / Here a little, there a little.
Is 28:11 aFor with stammering lips / And with a 1foreign tongue / He will speak to this people,
Is 28:12 He who said to them, / This is rest; give rest to the weary; / And, This is repose. / But they would not hear.
Is 28:13 Therefore Jehovah’s word to them will be: / 1Rule upon rule, rule upon rule; / Line upon line, line upon line; / Here a little, there a little; / That they may go and stumble backward, / And be broken, snared, and taken.
Is 28:14 Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, / You scoffing men, / Who rule this people / Who are in 1Jerusalem:
Is 28:15 Because you have said, We have made / A covenant with adeath, / And with Sheol / We have made an agreement: / When the overflowing scourge passes through, / It will not come upon us; / For we have made falsehood our refuge / And have hidden ourselves in deception.
Is 28:16 Therefore thus says / The Lord Jehovah: / aIndeed I lay a 1bstone in Zion as a foundation, / A tested stone, / A precious 1cornerstone as a foundation firmly established; / cHe who believes will not hasten away.
Is 28:17 And I will make justice the line / And righteousness the plummet; / And the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, / And the waters will overflow the secret place.
Is 28:18 And your covenant with death will be annulled, / And your agreement with Sheol will not stand; / When the aoverflowing scourge passes through, / You will be a trampling ground to it.
Is 28:19 As often as it passes through, / It will take hold of you. / For morning by morning it will pass through, / By day and by night; / And it will be nothing but terror / To understand the report of it.
Is 28:20 For the bed is too short for a man to stretch on, / And the sheet is too narrow for him to wrap himself in.
Is 28:21 For Jehovah will 1rise as on Mount aPerazim, / He will be agitated as in the valley of bGibeon, / To do His deed, His strange deed, / And to do His work, His most different work.
Is 28:22 Now therefore do not be mockers, / Lest your fetters become stronger; / For I have heard from the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Of complete and decisive adestruction upon the whole earth.
Is 28:23 Hearken and hear my voice; / Attend and hear my speech.
Is 28:24 Does the 1plowman plow all day long to sow his seed? / Does he open and harrow his ground continually?
Is 28:25 Does he not, once he levels the surface, / Scatter dill and broadcast cummin, / And put the wheat in rows and the barley in its appointed place / And the rye where it belongs?
Is 28:26 For his God instructs him toward such discretion / And teaches him so.
Is 28:27 For dill is not threshed with a sharp tool, / Nor is the cart wheel turned upon the cummin; / But dill is beaten out with a rod, / And cummin with a stick.
Is 28:28 Bread grains are ground, / Yet one does not thresh and thresh forever. / And once the wheel of his cart and his horses drive over it, / One does not grind it.
Is 28:29 This also comes forth from Jehovah of hosts, / He who makes His counsel aextraordinary and His sound wisdom great.
ISAIAH 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

C. Jehovah’s Judgment on the Hypocrisy of Jerusalem’s Worshippers
Issuing In the Restoration
29:1-24
Is 29:1 Woe to 1Ariel, to Ariel, / The city where David camped! / Add year to year; let the feasts run their course.
Is 29:2 But I will distress Ariel, / And she will become mourning and lamentation / And will be like an Ariel to Me.
Is 29:3 And I will aencamp in a circle against you, / And will besiege you with palisades, / And will raise up siegeworks against you.
Is 29:4 And you will be brought down; from the ground you will speak, / And your speech will come from low in the dust. / And your voice will be like that of a departed spirit from the ground, / And your speech will twitter from the dust.
Is 29:5 But the multitude of your enemies will be like fine dust, / And the multitude of those who terrorize will be like chaff that passes away; / And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.
Is 29:6 From Jehovah of hosts you will be visited, / With thunder and earthquake and great noise, / With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of consuming fire.
Is 29:7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, / Even all who fight against her and her stronghold and who distress her, / Will be like a dream, like a vision in the night.
Is 29:8 And as when a hungry man dreams and finds himself eating, / But he awakens and what he desires is not there; / Or as when a thirsty man dreams and finds himself drinking, / But he awakens and is indeed faint and what he desires is far from him; / So will the multitude of all the nations be / That fight against Mount Zion.
Is 29:9 Linger and be astounded, / Blind yourselves and be blind. / They are drunk, but not with wine; / They stagger, but not with liquor.
Is 29:10 aFor Jehovah has poured out upon you / A spirit of deep sleep / And has shut your beyes, the prophets; / And your heads, the seers, He has covered.
Is 29:11 And all the vision will be to you like the words of a book that has been sealed, which when they give to him who is literate, saying, Please read this, he will say, I am not able to, for it is sealed.
Is 29:12 Then the book will be given to him who is illiterate, saying, Please read this, and he will say, I am illiterate.
Is 29:13 And the Lord said, / aBecause this people 1draws near with their mouth, / And with their lips they honor Me, / Yet they remove their heart far from Me, / And their fear for Me / Is a commandment of men merely learned;
Is 29:14 Therefore, indeed, I will once again / Do something awondrous with this people, something wondrously marvelous; / And the wisdom of their wise men will bperish, / And the understanding of those who understand will be hidden.
Is 29:15 Woe to those who 1hide deeply / Their counsel from Jehovah, / And whose deeds are in the dark / And who say, Who sees us? And, Who knows us?
Is 29:16 You turn things upside down! / Shall the potter be considered to be like the clay, / That awhat is made should say of him who made it, He did not make me, / Or what is formed should say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?
Is 29:17 1Is it not yet a little while / Before Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, / And the fruitful field will be considered to be a forest.
Is 29:18 And in that day the adeaf will hear the words of the book, / And out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see,
Is 29:19 And the aafflicted will increase their joy in Jehovah, / And the needy of mankind will exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Is 29:20 For he who terrorizes will cease to be, and the scorner will be consumed, / And all who watch for iniquity will be cut off,
Is 29:21 Those who make a man sin by his words / And ensnare him who judges at the gate / And turn aside the righteous with an empty argument.
Is 29:22 Therefore thus says Jehovah, who aredeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob,
Jacob will not now be ashamed, / Nor will his face now turn pale;
Is 29:23 But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, / They will asanctify My name / And sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, / And hold the bGod of Israel in awe.
Is 29:24 And those who have erred in spirit will come to understand, / And the murmurers will learn teaching.
ISAIAH 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

D. Jehovah’s Dealing with Israel’s Reliance on Egypt and His Dealing with the Nations
Issuing In Israel’s Turn to Him and In His Return to Israel with the Restoration
30:1 — 31:9
Is 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, / Declares Jehovah, / Who devise counsel, but not of Me, / And who 1make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, / In order to add / Sin upon sin;
Is 30:2 Who go down to 1aEgypt, / Yet do not bask of My mouth, / To take refuge in the refuge of Pharaoh, / And to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt.
Is 30:3 Therefore the refuge of Pharaoh will be your shame, / And shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.
Is 30:4 For their princes are at Zoan, / And their ambassadors have come to Hanes.
Is 30:5 All are ashamed / Of a people that cannot profit them, / Nor be a help or profit to them, / But rather a shame and also a reproach.
Is 30:6 The burden concerning the beasts of the 1Negev: / Through the land of distress and anguish, / From which come lioness and lion, / Viper and flying fiery serpent, / They carry their riches upon young donkeys’ backs / And their treasures upon camels’ humps / To a people that cannot profit them;
Is 30:7 For Egypt ahelps in a vain and empty way. / Therefore I call her / Rahab, who sits still.
Is 30:8 Go now; write it on a tablet before them, / And inscribe it on a scroll, / That it may be, for the time to come, / 1As a witness forever.
Is 30:9 For this is a rebellious people, / False children, / Children who refuse to hear / The instruction of Jehovah;
Is 30:10 Who say to those who see, Do not see; / And to those who have visions, Do anot give us true visions; / Speak pleasant things to us; / Give us illusions as your visions;
Is 30:11 Get out of the way; / Turn aside from the path; / Cause the Holy One of Israel / To cease from before us.
Is 30:12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, / Because you despise this word / And trust in oppression and guile, / And rely on them,
Is 30:13 Therefore this iniquity / Will be to you / Like a breach ready to fall, / Sticking out on a high wall, / Whose crashing comes / In an instant, suddenly.
Is 30:14 And its crashing will be like the crashing of the potters’ avessel: / Crushed — he will not spare; / And there will not be found / Among the crushed pieces a shard / With which to take fire from the hearth / Or to draw water from the cistern.
Is 30:15 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, / In 1areturning and brest you will be saved; / In quietness and in trust will be your strength; / But you were cnot willing,
Is 30:16 And said, No, for we will flee on horses; / Therefore you will flee. / And, We will ride upon the swift; / Therefore those who chase you will be swift.
Is 30:17 One thousand will aflee at the rebuke of one; / At the rebuke of five you will flee, / Until you are left / Like a bare mast upon a mountaintop / And a standard on a hill.
Is 30:18 And therefore Jehovah waits to be gracious to you, / And therefore He remains on high to have compassion on you; / For Jehovah is a God of justice; / aBlessed are all those who bwait for Him.
Is 30:19 For a people will adwell in Zion at Jerusalem — / You will weep no more; / He will be most gracious to you at the sound of your cry; / When He hears it, He will answer you.
Is 30:20 And though the Lord has given you / The abread of adversity and the water of oppression, / Your 1Teacher will no longer bhide Himself in a corner, / But your eyes will see your Teacher.
Is 30:21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, / This is the away, walk in it, / When you turn to the right or turn to the left.
Is 30:22 And you will defile the silver covering of your graven images / And the gold plating of your molten idols; / You will scatter them like some dirty thing; / You will say to it, Go away!
Is 30:23 Then He will give rain for your seed, / Which you will sow in the ground, / And the bread of the increase of the ground; / And it will be fat and plenteous. / Your livestock will feed in that day / In a vast pasture.
Is 30:24 And the oxen and donkeys that work the ground / Will eat salted fodder that has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
Is 30:25 And upon every high amountain / And upon every prominent hill / There will be brooks and bstreams of water / In the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Is 30:26 And the alight of the moon will be like the light of the sun, / And the light of the sun will be 1sevenfold, like the light of seven days, / On the day when Jehovah binds up the breach of His people / And heals the wound left from His stroke.
Is 30:27 Behold, the name of Jehovah comes from a distance, / Burning with His anger and heavy with smoke; / His lips are full of indignation, / And His tongue is like a devouring fire;
Is 30:28 His breath, like an overflowing stream, / Reaches up to the neck, / To asift the nations with the sieve of 1nothingness; / And a bridle that leads them to err is in the jaws of the peoples.
Is 30:29 You will have a song / As in the night when the feast is sanctified, / And gladness of heart as when one marches to the flute / To go to the amountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.
Is 30:30 And Jehovah will cause the majesty of His voice to be heard / And the descending of His arm to be seen, / With the blasting of anger and the flame of devouring fire, / In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.
Is 30:31 For at the voice of Jehovah, aAssyria will be dismayed; / With a staff He will strike.
Is 30:32 And every pass of the appointed rod, / Which Jehovah will lay upon him, / Will be with tambourines and harps; / And in battles of brandishing weapons He will fight against them.
Is 30:33 For 1aTopheth has been arranged since long ago; / Indeed it has been prepared for the king; / He made it deep; He made it large. / The pile in it is of fire and much wood; / The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of bbrimstone, / Sets it on fire.
ISAIAH 31

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

Is 31:1 Woe to those who go down to aEgypt for help; / They rely on horses / And trust in bchariots because they are many / And in horsemen because they are very strong; / But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, / Nor cseek Jehovah!
Is 31:2 But He also is wise and will bring ill upon them; / And He does not turn back His words, / But will rise up against the house of evildoers / And against the help of the workers of iniquity.
Is 31:3 The Egyptians are mere men and not God, / And their horses are mere flesh and not spirit; / Thus Jehovah will stretch out His hand, / And he who helps will stumble and he who is helped will fall, / And all of them will be consumed together.
Is 31:4 For Jehovah has spoken thus to me, / As the lion or the lion cub / aRoars over its prey / And because of it a crowd of shepherds / Is called out, / But it is not frightened by their voice, / Nor overcome by their noise; / So Jehovah of hosts will descend / To bwage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.
Is 31:5 Like flying birds / So Jehovah of hosts will aprotect Jerusalem; / He will protect and deliver it; / He will pass over and rescue it.
Is 31:6 Return to Him from whom men have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
Is 31:7 For in that day each man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you as a sin.
Is 31:8 And the aAssyrian will fall by the sword not of a man, / And the sword not of man will devour him. / Thus he will flee from a sword, / And his young men will be forced into labor.
Is 31:9 And his rock will pass away in terror, / And his princes will be dismayed by the standard, / Declares Jehovah, whose afire is in Zion / And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
ISAIAH 32

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

E. Jehovah’s Destruction of the Nations for Christ to Be the King to Bring In the Restoration for Israel
32:1 — 35:10
Is 32:1 Indeed a 1aKing will reign according to 2righteousness, / And the 1rulers will rule according to 2justice.
Is 32:2 And a 1man will be like a arefuge from the wind / And a covering from the tempest, / Like bstreams of water in a dry place, / Like the shadow of a massive rock in a wasted land.
Is 32:3 And the 1eyes of those who see will anot be dim, / And the ears of those who hear will attend.
Is 32:4 And the heart of the hasty will understand knowledge, / And the tongue of those who stammer will hasten to speak elegantly.
Is 32:5 The fool will no longer be called noble, / Nor will the cheat be said to be generous;
Is 32:6 For the fool will speak foolishness, / And his heart will commit iniquity / By committing profaneness / And by speaking error against Jehovah, / By leaving the soul of the hungry empty / And by causing drink for the thirsty to fail.
Is 32:7 And as for the cheat, his tools are evil; / He devises wicked schemes / To destroy the poor with false words / Even when the needy speaks rightly.
Is 32:8 But the noble man devises noble things, / And upon noble things he stands.
Is 32:9 Rise up, O women who are at ease, / And hear my voice; / O daughters of complacency, / Hearken to my words.
Is 32:10 In a year and some days / You will be troubled, O complacent ones; / For the vintage is at its end; / The ingathering will not come.
Is 32:11 Tremble, O women at ease; / Be troubled, O complacent ones. / Strip yourselves and be bare, / And gird your loins with sackcloth.
Is 32:12 They beat their breasts / For the pleasant fields, / For the fruitful vine.
Is 32:13 Upon the land of my people / Will come up thorns and briers, / Indeed upon all the jubilant houses / In the exultant city.
Is 32:14 Because the palace will be abandoned; / The multitude of the city will be forsaken; / The 1Hill and the watchtower / Will become caves forever, / A joy for wild asses, / A pasture for flocks;
Is 32:15 Until the aSpirit is poured upon us from on high, / And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, / And the fruitful field is considered to be a forest.
Is 32:16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, / And righteousness will remain in the fruitful field;
Is 32:17 And the awork of righteousness will be peace, / And the result of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
Is 32:18 And my people will live in a peaceful habitation / And in secure dwellings and carefree resting places.
Is 32:19 And it will hail when the forest comes down, / And the city will be utterly laid low.
Is 32:20 Blessed are you who sow beside all the water, / Who send there the feet of the ox and the donkey.
ISAIAH 33

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

Is 33:1 Woe to you who destroy and were not destroyed, / And to him who deals unfaithfully and was not dealt with unfaithfully! / When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; / And when you cease to deal unfaithfully, they will deal unfaithfully with you.
Is 33:2 O Jehovah, be gracious to us; we have awaited for You; / Be 1our arm every morning, / bOur salvation also in the time of distress.
Is 33:3 At the noise of the tumult the peoples flee; / At the lifting up of Yourself the nations were scattered.
Is 33:4 And your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers; / As locusts rush to and fro, men will rush to and fro upon it.
Is 33:5 Jehovah is aexalted, for He dwells on high; / He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
Is 33:6 And there will be stability for your times: / A wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; / The fear of Jehovah is his treasure.
Is 33:7 Indeed their heroes cry in the streets; / The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
Is 33:8 The highways are desolate; / The traveler ceases to travel. / He has broken the covenant; he despises the cities; / He does not regard man.
Is 33:9 The land mourns and languishes; / Lebanon is ashamed and withers away; / Sharon is like a desert, / And Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
Is 33:10 Now I will arise, says Jehovah, / Now I will be exalted; now I will be lifted up.
Is 33:11 You will conceive chaff; you will give birth to stubble; / Your own breath, like fire, will devour you;
Is 33:12 And the peoples will be like the burning of lime, / Like cut down thorns that are burned in the fire.
Is 33:13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; / And know, you who are near, My might.
Is 33:14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; / Trembling has seized the profane: / Who among us can dwell with consuming fire? / Who among us can dwell with aeverlasting burning?
Is 33:15 He who walks in righteousness and speaks uprightness; / He who rejects gains seized by extortion; / He who shakes his hands lest they hold on to a bribe, / Who stops his ears so as not to hear of bloodshed / And shuts his eyes so as not to look at evil.
Is 33:16 This one will dwell on the heights; / His lofty retreat will be the rocky strongholds; / His bread will be given to him; his water will be sure.
Is 33:17 Your eyes will see the aKing in His beauty; / They will behold a land that is very far away.
Is 33:18 Your heart will meditate on terror: / Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? / Where is he who counts the towers?
Is 33:19 You will not see a fierce people, / A people of unintelligible speech, hardly audible, / Of a stammering tongue which cannot be understood.
Is 33:20 Look upon Zion, the acity of our appointed feasts; / Your eyes will see Jerusalem, / A secure bhabitation, a tent that will not be removed; / Its stakes will never be pulled up, / And none of its cords will be torn apart.
Is 33:21 But there the Majestic, Jehovah, will be for us / A place of arivers and broad streams, / On which no boat with oars will go / And no majestic ship will pass.
Is 33:22 For 1Jehovah is our aJudge, / Jehovah is our bLawmaker, / Jehovah is our cKing; He will save us.
Is 33:23 Your tackle has been slackened; / It does not support its mast firmly, / Nor does it spread out the sail. / Then the prey of abundant spoil is divided; / The lame take the plunder.
Is 33:24 And the inhabitant will not say, I am sick; / The people who dwell there will be aforgiven their iniquity.
ISAIAH 34

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

Is 34:1 Draw near, O nations, to hear; / And listen, O peoples! / Let the earth and all that fills it hear, / The world and all that springs forth from it.
Is 34:2 For Jehovah’s indignation is upon all the nations, / And His wrath is upon all their aarmies; / He has utterly destroyed them; / He has delivered them unto the slaughter.
Is 34:3 Thus their slain are cast away, / And from their corpses their astench will come up; / And the mountains will be melted with their blood.
Is 34:4 And all the armies of heaven will be dissolved, / And the aheavens will be rolled up like a scroll, / And all their host will wither away, / As the leaf withers from the vine, / Or blike a leaf withering from the fig tree.
Is 34:5 For My asword has drunk its fill in heaven. / Now it will descend in judgment upon bEdom / And upon the people whom I have devoted to judgment.
Is 34:6 Jehovah’s sword is full of blood; / It has fattened itself with fat, / With the blood of lambs and goats, / With the fat of the kidneys of rams; / For Jehovah has a 1sacrifice in aBozrah / And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Is 34:7 Wild oxen will also go down with them, / The young bulls with the bulls; / And their land will drink its fill of their blood, / And their dust will become fat with their fat.
Is 34:8 For Jehovah has a aday of vengeance, / A year of recompense for Zion’s contention.
Is 34:9 And 1its streams will be turned into pitch, / And its dust into brimstone; / And its land will become burning pitch.
Is 34:10 It will not be quenched by night or by day; / Its asmoke will go up forever; / It will be desolate from generation to generation; / No one will pass through it forever and ever.
Is 34:11 But the pelican and the porcupine will inherit it, / And the owl and the raven will dwell in it; / And He will stretch over it / The line of nothingness and the plummet weights of emptiness.
Is 34:12 As for its nobles, there is no one there whom they may call to assume the kingdom, / And all its princes will be nothing.
Is 34:13 And thorns will come up in its citadels, / Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities; / And it will be a ahabitation for jackals, / And an abode for ostriches.
Is 34:14 aDesert animals will meet with hyenas; / And the 1demon will call to his kind, / Indeed there 2Lilith will settle / And find a resting place for herself.
Is 34:15 There the owl will make its nest and lay eggs, / And hatch them and gather them under its protection; / Indeed there the vultures will be gathered together, / Each with its kind.
Is 34:16 aSeek from the bbook of Jehovah and read. / Not one of these will be missing; / Not one will lack her mate; / For His mouth has commanded it, / And it is His Spirit who has gathered them.
Is 34:17 And He has cast the lot for them, / And His hand has divided it by line unto them; / They will inherit it forever; / From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
ISAIAH 35

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

Is 35:1 The awilderness and the desert will be glad; / And the 1desert will exult and blossom / Like the rose.
Is 35:2 It will blossom and blossom, / And even exult with exultation and a ringing shout. / The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, / The splendor of Carmel and Sharon; / They will see the glory of Jehovah, / The splendor of our God.
Is 35:3 Strengthen the weak ahands, / And confirm the shaking knees.
Is 35:4 Say to those who are of anxious heart, / Be strong; fear not; / Indeed your God / Will come with vengeance, / With the recompense of God; / He will come and save you.
Is 35:5 Then the eyes of the ablind will be 1opened, / And the ears of the bdeaf will be unstopped;
Is 35:6 Then the alame will leap like a hart, / And the tongue of the bdumb will give a ringing shout; / For water will cbreak forth in the wilderness, / And streams in the desert.
Is 35:7 And the desert mirage will become a pool, / And the thirsty ground, springs of water; / In the habitation of jackals, their resting place, / There will be grass with reeds and rushes.
Is 35:8 And a highway will be there, and a way, / And it will be called, The Way of Holiness. / The unclean awill not pass on it, / But it will be for him who walks on the way; / No fools will err in it.
Is 35:9 There will be no lion there, / Nor will any ravenous animal go up on it; / They will not be found there; / But the redeemed will walk on it.
Is 35:10 aAnd the ransomed of Jehovah will return / And will come to Zion with a ringing shout, / And eternal joy will be upon their heads. / They will lay hold on gladness and joy, / And sorrow and bsighing will flee away.
ISAIAH 36

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IV. An Example of Seeking After Jehovah and Trusting in Him
36:1 — 39:8
A. Hezekiah’s Seeking After Jehovah for His Situation
36:1 — 37:38
Is 36:1 aIn the fourteenth year of King 1Hezekiah, Sennacherib the bking of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
Is 36:2 aAnd the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great force. And he stood at the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the Fuller’s Field.
Is 36:3 aThen bEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
Is 36:4 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, aThus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What is this confidence in which you trust?
Is 36:5 I say, It is but a vain word that you say, There is counsel and strength for war. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?
Is 36:6 You now have put your trust in the staff of this broken areed, in Egypt, which, if a man should lean on it, will go into his hand and pierce it, for so is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.
Is 36:7 And if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars aHezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship only before bthis altar?
Is 36:8 Now therefore give pledges to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if indeed you are able to set riders on them.
Is 36:9 How then can you refuse one official of the least of my master’s servants and put your trust in aEgypt for chariots and horsemen?
Is 36:10 And have I now come up apart from Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
Is 36:11 And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Please speak to your servants in aAramaic, because we understand it; and do not speak to us in the bJews’ language, in the ears of the people upon the wall.
Is 36:12 But the Rab-shakeh said, Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?
Is 36:13 Then the Rab-shakeh stood and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria:
Is 36:14 Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, because he is not able to deliver you;
Is 36:15 Neither let Hezekiah cause you to trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Is 36:16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me, and let each eat from his own avine and each from his own fig tree, and let each drink the waters of his own cistern;
Is 36:17 Until I come and take you away to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Is 36:18 aBe careful lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Is 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
Is 36:20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
Is 36:21 But they were silent and did not answer him a word, because of the commandment of the king that said, You shall not answer him.
Is 36:22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh.
ISAIAH 37

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Is 37:1 aAnd when King Hezekiah heard, he 1tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.
Is 37:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, who had covered themselves in sackcloth, to aIsaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet.
Is 37:3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of affliction, rebuke, and contempt, for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
Is 37:4 It may be that Jehovah your God will hear the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Jehovah your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the aremnant which is left.
Is 37:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Is 37:6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says Jehovah, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
Is 37:7 Indeed I will put a spirit in him, so that he will hear a report and return to his land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Is 37:8 And the Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, because he had heard that the king had departed from Lachish.
Is 37:9 And he heard a report about Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia which said, He has come forth to make war with you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Is 37:10 In this way you shall speak to Hezekiah the king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Is 37:11 Indeed you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them utterly. And will you be delivered?
Is 37:12 Have the gods of the nations, whom my fathers destroyed, delivered them: Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden, who were in Telassar?
Is 37:13 Where are the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah?
Is 37:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah.
Is 37:15 aAnd Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying,
Is 37:16 O Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel, You who are enthroned between the acherubim, You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth; You bmade the heavens and the earth.
Is 37:17 Incline Your ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open Your eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent messengers to reproach the living God.
Is 37:18 Truly, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their land,
Is 37:19 And have cast their gods into the fire, because they were anot gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; so they destroyed them.
Is 37:20 And now, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone are Jehovah.
Is 37:21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria,
Is 37:22 This is the word which Jehovah has spoken concerning him:
The virgin adaughter of Zion / Has despised you and laughed at you; / The daughter of Jerusalem / Has shaken her head behind you.
Is 37:23 Whom have you reproached and reviled? / Against whom have you lifted up your voice / And lifted up your eyes haughtily? / Against the Holy One of Israel.
Is 37:24 By your servants you have reproached the Lord, / And you have said, In the multitude of my chariots, / I have come up to the heights of the mountains, / To the sides of Lebanon. / And I will cut down its tall cedars, / And the choicest of its cypresses: / I will enter into its farthest height / And its luxuriant forest.
Is 37:25 I have dug; / I have drunk water; / With the sole of my foot I have dried up / All the rivers of 1Egypt.
Is 37:26 Have you not heard / That long ago I did it; / And from the days of old I had formed it? / Now I have brought it to pass, / That you should destroy fortified cities, / And make them into ruinous heaps.
Is 37:27 Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength; / They were dismayed and felt ashamed; / And they were like vegetation of the field / And green shoots of tender grass, / Like grass which grows on the housetops / And 1is scorched before it has grown up.
Is 37:28 But I know your sitting down, / And your going out and your coming in, / And your raging against Me.
Is 37:29 Because your raging against Me / And your arrogance has come up into My ears, / I will put My hook in your nose / And My bridle in your lips, / And aturn you back on the way by which you came.
Is 37:30 This shall be the sign to you: This year you shall eat that which grows up of itself, and the second year that which shoots up from the same, and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Is 37:31 And the aremnant of those who have escaped of the house of Judah will again take broot downward and bear fruit upward.
Is 37:32 For a remnant will go forth out of Jerusalem, and from Mount Zion those who have escaped. The azeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.
Is 37:33 Therefore, thus says Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria,
He shall not come to this city, / Nor shoot an arrow there; / Neither shall he come against it with shields, / And build up a mound against it.
Is 37:34 By the way on which he came, / By the same shall he return, / And into this city he shall not come, / Declares Jehovah.
Is 37:35 And around this city I will put an aenclosure / To save it, / For My 1own sake / And for the sake of 1David, My servant.
Is 37:36 Then the aangel of Jehovah went out and struck the Assyrians’ camp, a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, all of them were corpses, dead.
Is 37:37 Then Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and went back to dwell in Nineveh.
Is 37:38 And when he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons slew him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
ISAIAH 38

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B. Hezekiah’s Seeking After Jehovah for His Health
38:1-22
Is 38:1 aIn those days Hezekiah became mortally ill; and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, Thus says Jehovah, bPut your house in order, for you are about to die and will not live.
Is 38:2 And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Jehovah,
Is 38:3 And said, Now, O Jehovah, please remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept many tears.
Is 38:4 Then the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, saying,
Is 38:5 Go and speak to Hezekiah, Thus says Jehovah, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; I will now add to your life 1fifteen years.
Is 38:6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will put an aenclosure around this city.
Is 38:7 aAnd this will be the bsign from Jehovah to you, that Jehovah will do this thing which He has spoken.
Is 38:8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which has gone down with the sun on the steps of Ahaz, to go back ten steps. So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the steps on which it had gone down.
Is 38:9 The writing of Hezekiah the king of Judah when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
Is 38:10 I said, In the middle of my days, / I will go into the agates of Sheol; / I have been deprived of the rest of my years.
Is 38:11 I said, I will not see Jah, / Jah in the land of the living; / I will not look on man any longer, / While I am with those who dwell where everything has ceased.
Is 38:12 Like a shepherd’s tent, / My adwelling has been pulled up and removed from me. / Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life. / He will cut me off 1from the loom; / From day until night You make an end of me.
Is 38:13 I have stilled myself until the morning; / Like a lion, so He breaks all my bones; / From day until night You make an end of me.
Is 38:14 Like a swallow and a crane, so I twitter; / Like a dove, I mourn; / My eyes look languishingly above; / O Lord, I am oppressed; be my surety.
Is 38:15 What shall I say? He has both spoken to me, / And He Himself has done it; / I will walk 1deliberately all my years, / Because of the bitterness of my soul.
Is 38:16 O Lord, upon these things men live; / And in all of these things is the life of my spirit; / Therefore may You restore my strength / And make me live.
Is 38:17 Indeed for peace I had bitterness, yes, bitterness; / But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of destruction, / Because You have acast behind Your back / All my sins.
Is 38:18 For 1aSheol cannot thank You, / And Death cannot praise You; / They that go down to the pit / Cannot hope in Your truth.
Is 38:19 The living, the living, he will praise You, / As I do today; / A father shall make known / Your truth to his achildren.
Is 38:20 Jehovah is ready to save me; / Therefore we will sing my songs, / With stringed instruments, / All the days of our life, / In the house of Jehovah.
Is 38:21 aThen Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs and rub it upon the boil, and he will live.
Is 38:22 Hezekiah had also said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Jehovah?
ISAIAH 39

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C. Hezekiah’s Failure in the Enjoyment of the Peaceful Situation and Sound Health
39:1-8
Is 39:1 aAt that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah because he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered.
Is 39:2 And Hezekiah was glad for them and showed them 1his treasury, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the fine oil, and his whole armory and everything which was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
Is 39:3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? And from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come to me from a distant land, from Babylon.
Is 39:4 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said, They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.
Is 39:5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Jehovah of hosts:
Is 39:6 The days are now coming when everything that is in your house and that your fathers have laid up as a treasure unto this day will be carried away to aBabylon; nothing will be left, says Jehovah.
Is 39:7 And they will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, and they will become aeunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
Is 39:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of Jehovah which you have spoken is agood. He said moreover, Indeed there will be peace and truth in 1my days.
ISAIAH 40

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V. The Servant of Jehovah and the Salvation Brought In by Him to Israel and the Nations,
with the Restoration of All Things, Consummating in the New Heaven and New Earth
40:1 — 66:24
A. Jehovah’s Word of Comfort to Israel
40:1-31
Is 40:1 1aComfort, oh, comfort My people, / Says your God.
Is 40:2 Speak unto the heart of Jerusalem, / And cry out to her, / That her warfare has finished, / That the penalty for her iniquity has been accepted; / For she has received from the hand of Jehovah adouble / For all her sins.
Is 40:3 aThe voice of one who cries / In the wilderness: bMake clear / The way of 1Jehovah; / Make straight in the 2desert / A chighway for our 1God.
Is 40:4 aEvery valley will be lifted up, / And every mountain and hill will be made low, / And the crooked places will become straight, / And the brough places, a broad plain.
Is 40:5 Then the 1aglory of Jehovah will be revealed, / And all flesh will see it together, / Because the mouth of Jehovah has 2spoken.
Is 40:6 A voice said, Cry out. / And he said, What shall I cry? / aAll 1flesh is bgrass / And all its glory is like the flower of the field;
Is 40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, / Because the breath of Jehovah blows upon it. / Surely the people are grass.
Is 40:8 aThe grass withers and the flower fades, / But the 1bword of our God will stand forever.
Is 40:9 Go up to a high mountain, / O Zion, who brings aglad tidings; / Lift up your voice with power, / O Jerusalem, who brings glad tidings; / Lift it up; do not be afraid. / Say to the cities of Judah, / 1bBehold your God!
Is 40:10 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty One, / And His aarm will 1rule for Him. / Behold, His breward is with Him, / And His 1recompense before Him.
Is 40:11 He will feed His aflock as a 1bShepherd; / In His arm He will gather the lambs; / In His bosom He will carry them. / He will lead those who are nursing the young.
Is 40:12 Who has measured the awaters in the hollow of his hand, / Who has calculated the extent of the heavens with a handspan, / And measured out the dust of the earth by a measure, / And weighed the mountains in scales / And the hills in balances?
Is 40:13 Who has adirected the Spirit of Jehovah, / Or who has made matters known to Him as His bcounselor?
Is 40:14 With whom did He consult and who instructed Him, / And taught Him in the path of justice, / And taught Him knowledge, / And caused Him to know the way of understanding?
Is 40:15 Indeed the nations are like a 1drop from a bucket, / And are accounted as specks of dust on the scales. / Indeed He takes up the islands as very fine powder.
Is 40:16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, / Nor are its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
Is 40:17 All the nations are as anothing before Him; / They are counted by Him as less than nothing and bvanity.
Is 40:18 To whom then will you aliken God? / Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
Is 40:19 When the workman has cast an idol, / A goldsmith overlays it with gold / Also refining chains of silver for it.
Is 40:20 He that is so impoverished that he lacks an offering / Chooses wood that will not rot, / And seeks a skillful craftsman for himself / To prepare an idol that will not be moved.
Is 40:21 aDo you not know? Have you not heard? / Has it not been told to you from the beginning? / Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Is 40:22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, / And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; / Who astretches out the heavens like a curtain, / And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
Is 40:23 Who brings the princes to nought; / He makes the judges of the earth as nothing.
Is 40:24 They have scarcely been planted; / They have scarcely been sown; / Their stem has scarcely taken root in the earth; / Nevertheless He blows on them and they are withered, / And the storm wind carries them away like stubble.
Is 40:25 To whom will you 1aliken Me, / That I should be compared? Says the Holy One.
Is 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, / And see who has created these 1things, / Who brings out their host by anumber; / He calls all of them by name. / Through the greatness of His might and the strength of His power / Not one of them is missing.
Is 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, / And why do you speak, O Israel, / My way is hidden from Jehovah, / And my judgment has been passed over by my God?
Is 40:28 Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The aCreator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary? / There is bno searching out of His understanding.
Is 40:29 He gives apower to the faint, / And to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength.
Is 40:30 Although youths will faint and become weary, / And young men will collapse exhausted;
Is 40:31 Yet those who 1await on Jehovah will renew their strength; / They will mount up with 2wings like beagles; / They will run and will not become weary; / They will walk and will not faint.
ISAIAH 41

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B. Christ as the Servant of Jehovah
41:1 — 66:24
1. As Typified by Cyrus the King of Persia and by Israel
41:1-29
Is 41:1 1Listen to Me in silence, O coastlands. / Let the people renew their strength; / Let them approach, then let them speak; / Let us come together for judgment.
Is 41:2 Who has stirred up someone from the aeast, / Called 1him in righteousness to His feet? / He gave up the nations before bhim, / And caused him to have dominion over kings. / He made them like dust with his sword, / Like driven stubble with his bow.
Is 41:3 He pursues them and passes on in safety, / He will not come on a way known to his feet.
Is 41:4 Who has wrought this and done this, / Calling the generations from the beginning? / I, Jehovah, am the afirst, / And with the last, I am 1He.
Is 41:5 The coastlands saw it and were afraid; / The ends of the earth trembled; / They drew near and came.
Is 41:6 Each one helps his neighbor, / And each one says to his brother, Be strong.
Is 41:7 So the acraftsman encourages the goldsmith, / And he who smoothes metal with a hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, / Saying that the soldering is good; / And he fastens it with nails so that it should not be moved.
Is 41:8 But you, 1Israel, My aservant, / Jacob, whom I have bchosen, / The seed of Abraham My cfriend;
Is 41:9 You whom I have taken from the aends of the earth, / And from its extremities have called, / And said to you, You are My servant; / I have chosen you and have not cast you away.
Is 41:10 Do anot be afraid, for I am bwith you; / Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. / I will strengthen you; surely I will help you; / Surely I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.
Is 41:11 Indeed all those who were incensed against you / Will be ashamed and confounded; / The men who strive against you / Will be as nothing and will perish.
Is 41:12 You will seek but not find / The men who contend with you; / The men who war with you / Will be as nothing and as without existence.
Is 41:13 For I am Jehovah your God, / Who takes hold of your right hand, / Who says to you, Do anot be afraid; / I will help you.
Is 41:14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, / You afew men of Israel; / I will help you, declares Jehovah, / Even your bRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Is 41:15 Now I will make you into a sharp threshing instrument, / One that is new and possessing teeth. / You shall thresh the mountains and make them powder, / And you shall make the hills like chaff.
Is 41:16 You shall winnow them, and the wind will carry them away / And the storm wind will scatter them. / And you will rejoice in Jehovah, / You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Is 41:17 When the poor and needy seek for water, and there is none, / And their tongue is dry from thirst, / I, Jehovah, will answer them; / As the God of Israel I will anot forsake them.
Is 41:18 I will open up arivers on the bare heights, / And in the midst of the valleys, springs. / bI will make the wilderness into a pool of water, / And the dry land into springs of water.
Is 41:19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, / The acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree; / I will place in the desert the fir tree, / The pine tree, and the box tree together;
Is 41:20 That they may see and know, / And consider and understand together, / That the hand of Jehovah has done this, / And the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Is 41:21 Present your 1case, says Jehovah; / Bring forward your arguments, says the King of Jacob.
Is 41:22 Let them bring forth and declare to us / What will take place; / Let them show what the former things were, / That we may consider them, / And may know the end of them; / Or let us hear the things that are coming.
Is 41:23 Declare to us the things that are coming afterward, / That we may know that you are gods; / Indeed do good or do evil, / That we may look at one another anxiously and be afraid together.
Is 41:24 You are indeed nothing, / And your work is of no consequence; / He who chooses you is an abomination.
Is 41:25 I have raised up aone from the north and he has come; / From the brising of the sun he will call upon My name. / He will come upon rulers as upon mortar, / As the potter treads the clay.
Is 41:26 Who has declared it from the beginning that we may know, / And in advance that we may say, He is right? / Indeed there was no one who declared it; indeed no one who let us hear; / Indeed no one who heard your words.
Is 41:27 Formerly I said to Zion, Here, here they are; / And to Jerusalem, I will give someone who preaches aglad tidings.
Is 41:28 But I looked and there was no man, / And from among these there was no counselor, / Who, when I asked, would give Me an answer.
Is 41:29 Indeed all of them are vanity; / Their works are of no consequence; / Their molten images are a wind and a waste.
ISAIAH 42

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2. As a Covenant for the People and a Light for the Nations
42:1-25
Is 42:1 aHere is My 1bServant, whom I uphold, / My cchosen One din whom My soul delights; / I have put My 2eSpirit upon Him, / And He will bring forth 3justice to the nations.
Is 42:2 He will not 1cry out, nor lift up His voice, / Nor make His voice heard in the street.
Is 42:3 A 1bruised reed He will not break; / And a 1dimly burning flax He will not extinguish; / He will bring forth justice in truth.
Is 42:4 He will not 1faint, nor will He 2be discouraged, / Until He has established 3justice in the earth; / And the coastlands will wait for His instruction.
Is 42:5 Thus says God Jehovah, / Who created the aheavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the bearth and what springs up from it, / Who gives cbreath to the people upon it / And 1spirit to those who walk on it:
Is 42:6 I am Jehovah; I have acalled You in righteousness; / I have held You by the hand; / I have kept You and I have given You / As a 1bcovenant for the people, as a 2clight for the nations;
Is 42:7 To open the eyes of the ablind, / To bring the prisoner out from the bprison, / Those who dwell in darkness from the prison house.
Is 42:8 I am Jehovah, that is My name, / And I will not agive My glory to another, / Nor My praise to idols.
Is 42:9 Indeed, the former things have come to pass, / And anew things I am telling you; / Before they spring forth / I will let you hear them.
Is 42:10 Sing a anew song to Jehovah; / Sing His praise from the end of the earth; / You who go down to the sea and all that fills it, / You coastlands and their inhabitants.
Is 42:11 Let the wilderness and its cities, / The villages which Kedar inhabits, lift up their voices; / Let the inhabitants of 1Sela sing for joy; / Let them shout from the tops of the mountains.
Is 42:12 Let them give glory to Jehovah, / And declare His praise in the coastlands.
Is 42:13 Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man, / Like a aman of war He will stir up His jealousy; / He will raise a war cry; He will even roar. / He will prevail over His enemies.
Is 42:14 For a long time I have been silent; / I have kept still, I have restrained Myself. / Now I will cry like a woman in travail; / I will 1gasp and pant at the same time.
Is 42:15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills, / And all of their vegetation I will dry up; / And I will make the rivers into islands; / I will dry up the pools.
Is 42:16 I will bring the blind on a way they do not know; / I will guide them in paths they do not know; / I will make the adarkness into light before them, / And bcrooked things straight. / These are the things / I will do for them and will not forsake them.
Is 42:17 They who have turned back will be utterly put to shame, / That is, those who trust in graven images, / Those who say to molten images, / You are our gods.
Is 42:18 You who are adeaf, Hear; / And you who are blind, Look, that you may see.
Is 42:19 Who is blind except My 1servant, / And as deaf as My messenger, whom I will send? / Who is as blind as the one at peace with Me, / And as blind as the servant of Jehovah?
Is 42:20 You have seen many things and do not observe them; / His ears are open, but he does anot hear.
Is 42:21 Jehovah is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; / He will magnify the law and make it honorable.
Is 42:22 But this is a people plundered and spoiled: / All of them are trapped in holes, / And they are hidden in prison houses; / They have become plunder, and there is no one to deliver; / They have become spoil, and there is no one to say, Restore them.
Is 42:23 Who among you will give ear to this? / Who will pay attention and listen to the coming things?
Is 42:24 Who gave Jacob to the plunderers, / And Israel to the robbers? / Was it not Jehovah, against whom we have sinned, / And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, / And whose law they would not obey?
Is 42:25 Therefore He poured out upon them the heat of His anger / And the strength of battle; / And it set them on fire round about, yet they did not realize it; / And it burned against them, and they did not take it to aheart.
ISAIAH 43

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3. As Typified by Cyrus to Be Jehovah’s Shepherd and to Fulfill All the Desires of Jehovah
43:1 — 45:25
a. Jehovah’s Word of Comfort and Encouragement to Israel
43:1-28
Is 43:1 But now thus says Jehovah / Who created you, O Jacob, and who aformed you, O Israel: / Do bnot fear, because I have credeemed you; / I have dcalled you by your name; you are Mine.
Is 43:2 When you apass through the waters, I will be bwith you, / And through the rivers, they will not flow over you. / And when you cwalk through the fire, you will not be burned, / And the flame will not consume you.
Is 43:3 Because I am Jehovah your God, / The Holy One of Israel, your Savior, / I have given Egypt as your ransom, / 1Cush and Seba instead of you.
Is 43:4 Since you were precious in My eyes, / Since you have been honorable and I have loved you, / I will give up men in your place, / And peoples in exchange for your life.
Is 43:5 Do anot fear, because I am with you; / I will bring your seed from the east, / And bgather you from the west.
Is 43:6 I will say to the north, Give them up, / And to the south, Do not keep them back. / Bring My asons from afar, / And My daughters from the end of the earth,
Is 43:7 Everyone who is called by My aname, / Whom I have created, bformed, and even made cfor My 1glory.
Is 43:8 Bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes, / And those who are adeaf yet have ears.
Is 43:9 Let all the nations be gathered together, / And let the peoples assemble. / Who among them can declare this / And relate to us the former things? / Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified, / And let them hear and say, It is true.
Is 43:10 You are My 1awitnesses, declares Jehovah, / And My 1bservant whom I have chosen, / In order that you may know and believe Me / And understand that I am He. / Before Me there was no 2God formed, / Neither will there be any after Me.
Is 43:11 I, even I, am Jehovah; / And there is ano Savior besides Me.
Is 43:12 I have declared, and I have saved, and I have let them hear; / There is ano strange god among you. / And you are My witnesses, declares Jehovah, / And I am God.
Is 43:13 Indeed, 1before the day was, aI am He, / And there is no one who can deliver 2from My hand. / I will work and who will reverse it?
Is 43:14 Thus says Jehovah, / Your aRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel, / For your sake I have sent to Babylon, / And I will bring down all of them as fugitives, / Even the Chaldeans, whose rejoicing is in the ships.
Is 43:15 I am Jehovah, your Holy One, / The aCreator of Israel, your King.
Is 43:16 Thus says Jehovah, / Who has made a way in the sea, / And a path in the mighty waters,
Is 43:17 Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, / The army and the powerful together. / They will lie down, they will not rise; / They are extinct, they are quenched like flax.
Is 43:18 Do not call to mind the former things, / Nor consider the things of old.
Is 43:19 Indeed, I am doing a anew thing; / It will now spring forth; / Do you not know it? / I will even make a way in the wilderness, / bRivers in the desert.
Is 43:20 The animals of the field will honor Me, / The jackals and the ostriches, / Because I have given them water in the wilderness, / Rivers in the desert, / To give a drink to My people, My chosen ones.
Is 43:21 This people I have aformed for Myself; / They will show forth My praise.
Is 43:22 But you have anot called upon Me, O Jacob, / But you have grown weary of Me, O Israel.
Is 43:23 You have not brought Me a sheep for your burnt offerings, / And you have not honored Me with your sacrifices; / I have not made you serve Me with a meal offering, / Nor wearied you with incense.
Is 43:24 You did not buy acalamus for Me with money, / And you did not fill Me with the fat of your sacrifices. / Indeed, you have burdened Me with your sins; / You have wearied Me with your iniquities.
Is 43:25 I, even I, am He who awipes away your transgressions for My own sake, / And I will not remember your bsins.
Is 43:26 Put Me in remembrance; let us plead in judgment together: / Declare your case that you may be justified.
Is 43:27 Your first father sinned, / And your mediators transgressed against Me.
Is 43:28 Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, / And I delivered up Jacob to destruction, / And Israel to reviling.
ISAIAH 44

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b. Jehovah’s Word of Shepherding to His Servant Israel
44:1-28
Is 44:1 But now hear, O Jacob, My aservant, / And Israel, whom I have chosen.
Is 44:2 Thus says Jehovah your aMaker / And the One who bformed you from the womb, who will help you, / Do not fear, O Jacob, My servant, / And 1cJeshurun whom I have chosen,
Is 44:3 For I will pour awater upon the thirsty land, / And streams upon the dry ground; / I will bpour out My Spirit upon your seed, / And My blessing upon your offspring.
Is 44:4 They will spring up among the grass, / Like poplars beside the flowing streams of water.
Is 44:5 One will say, I am Jehovah’s; / Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; / Another will write with his hand, I am Jehovah’s; / He will name himself with the name Israel.
Is 44:6 Thus says Jehovah the King of Israel, / And his aRedeemer, Jehovah of hosts, / I am the bFirst and I am the Last, / And apart from Me there is no God.
Is 44:7 And who can proclaim as I can? / Then let him declare it and recount it in order for Me, / Since I set forth the people of ancient times. / Let them declare to them both the coming things / And the things which will take place.
Is 44:8 Do not tremble and do not be afraid. / Have I not related to you from that time and declared it? / And you are My 1awitnesses. Is there a God besides Me? / Or is there any other bRock? I do not know of any.
Is 44:9 All those who make idols are a waste. / And the things they delight in will not profit them. / And those who are witnesses for them do not see, / And they do not know, that they may be put to shame.
Is 44:10 Who has formed a agod or cast an bidol / That is of no profit?
Is 44:11 Indeed, all those joined to him will be put to shame, / For the craftsmen are only men. / Let all of them be gathered together, let them stand up; / Let them be afraid and be put to shame together.
Is 44:12 The ironsmith 1sharpens a cutting tool, / And works over the coals, / And forms 2the idol with hammers, / And he works it with the strength of his arm. / Yet he becomes hungry and has no strength; / If he does not drink water, he faints.
Is 44:13 The carpenter stretches out a line; / He marks it out with a marking tool; / He works it with planes, / And marks it with a compass. / He makes it according to the likeness of a man, / Like the beautiful appearance of man, to dwell in a house.
Is 44:14 Someone prepares to cut down cedars for himself, / Or he takes a cypress or an oak; / He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest; / He plants an ash, and the rain nourishes it.
Is 44:15 It is also something for a man to burn; / He takes one of them and warms himself; / He even kindles a fire and bakes bread. / With the same he also makes a god and worships it; / He makes it into a graven image and bows down before it.
Is 44:16 Half of it he burns in a fire; / Over this half he eats flesh, / And he roasts a roast and is satisfied. / He also warms himself and says, Ha! / I am warm, I have seen fire.
Is 44:17 The rest of it he makes into a god, into his idol; / He bows down to it and worships it / And prays to it and says, / Deliver me, for you are my god.
Is 44:18 They do not know, and they do not understand, / For He has covered their eyes so that they cannot see, / And their minds so that they cannot understand.
Is 44:19 And no one considers in his heart, / And there is no knowledge or understanding to say, / I have burned half of it in the fire, / And I have even baked bread over its coals; / I have roasted flesh and eaten it. / Then shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? / Shall I fall down before a block of wood?
Is 44:20 He feeds on ashes; / A deceived heart has led him astray; / And he cannot deliver his soul; / Nor does he say, Is this not a lie in my right hand?
Is 44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob, / And Israel, for you are My 1aservant. / I have bformed you; you are My servant; / O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.
Is 44:22 I have awiped away, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, / And like a cloud, your sins. / Return unto Me, for I have redeemed you.
Is 44:23 aSing for joy, O heavens, for Jehovah has accomplished it. / Shout, O blower parts of the earth; / Break forth with singing, O mountains, / The forest and every tree in it; / For Jehovah has redeemed Jacob / And is 1glorified in Israel.
Is 44:24 Thus says Jehovah who redeemed you / And aformed you from the womb, / I am Jehovah who makes all things, / Who alone bstretches out the heavens, / Who spread out the earth (Who was with Me?);
Is 44:25 Who frustrates the signs of liars, / And makes fools of the diviners; / Who turns back the wise men, / And makes their knowledge afoolish;
Is 44:26 Who confirms the word of His servant, / And fulfills the counsel of His messengers; / Who says to Jerusalem, She will be inhabited, / And to the cities of Judah, They will be built, / And I will raise up their ruins;
Is 44:27 Who says to the depths, Be dried up, / And I will dry up your rivers;
Is 44:28 Who says to aCyrus, He is My 1shepherd, / And he will fulfill all My desire, / Even by saying of Jerusalem, She will be built, / And of the temple, Her foundations will be laid.
ISAIAH 45

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c. A Servant and a Witness of Jehovah
45:1-25
Is 45:1 Thus says Jehovah to His anointed, / To 1Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, / To subdue the nations before him; / And I will loosen the loins of kings; / To open before him double doors / So that the gates will not be shut:
Is 45:2 I will go before you / And make level the arough places; / I will shatter the doors of bronze / And cut through the bars of iron,
Is 45:3 And give to you the treasures of darkness / And the hidden riches of secret places, / That you may know that I am Jehovah, who calls you by your name, / The God of Israel.
Is 45:4 For the sake of My aservant, Jacob, / And Israel, My bchosen one, / I have also called you by your name; / I have surnamed you, although you do not know Me.
Is 45:5 I am Jehovah and there is no one else; / Besides Me there is no aGod; / I girded you, although you do not know Me;
Is 45:6 That they might know from the rising of the sun and from the west / That there is no one abesides Me. / I am Jehovah and there is no one else;
Is 45:7 He who forms the alight and creates darkness, / He who makes peace and creates evil, / I am Jehovah who makes all these things.
Is 45:8 Drip down, O heavens, from above, / And let the clouds 1flow down arighteousness; / Let the earth 1open / And bbring forth salvation and righteousness; / Let them spring forth together; / I, Jehovah, have created it.
Is 45:9 Woe to him who strives with the One who formed him — / A potsherd among the earthen potsherds. / aShall the bclay say to the One who forms it, What are You making? / And your work say, He has no hands?
Is 45:10 Woe to him who says to his father, What are you begetting? / Or to a woman, What are you bringing forth?
Is 45:11 Thus says Jehovah, / The Holy One of Israel and the One who formed him, / Ask Me about the things to come concerning My asons, / And concerning the bwork of My hands, command Me.
Is 45:12 I have amade the earth, / And bcreated man upon it; / My own hands cstretched out the heavens, / And I commanded all of their host.
Is 45:13 I araised 1him up in righteousness, / And will make straight all his ways; / He will bbuild My city, / And send away My captives, / Neither for a price nor for a reward, / Says Jehovah of hosts.
Is 45:14 Thus says Jehovah, / The wealth of Egypt, and the merchandise of 1Cush, / And the Sabeans, men of stature, / Will pass to you and will be yours. / They will walk behind you; they will come over in chains / And bow down to you and petition you, saying, / Surely God ais with you, and there is no one else; / There is bno other God.
Is 45:15 Surely You are a God who ahides Himself, / O God of Israel, the Savior.
Is 45:16 All of them will be ashamed and even confounded; / Those who make idols go in confusion together.
Is 45:17 Israel has been saved by Jehovah / With an aeternal salvation; / You will not be ashamed or confounded / Forever and ever.
Is 45:18 For thus says Jehovah, / Who acreated the heavens — / He is the God / Who formed the earth and made it; / He established it; / He did not create it 1bwaste, / But He formed it to be inhabited: / I am Jehovah and there is no one else;
Is 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, / In a dark place of the earth; / I did not say to the seed of Jacob, / Seek Me in vain. / I, Jehovah, speak righteousness, / Declaring things that are right.
Is 45:20 Gather yourselves together and come; / Draw near together, / You who have escaped from the nations. / Those who set up their wooden idol / And pray unto a god who cannot save / Have no knowledge.
Is 45:21 Declare and present your case; / Indeed, let them take counsel together. / Who related this long ago; / Who declared it afrom that time? / Was it not I, Jehovah? / And there is bno other God besides Me; / A righteous God and Savior, / And there is no one except Me.
Is 45:22 Turn to Me and be saved, / All the aends of the earth, / For I am God and there is no one else.
Is 45:23 I have asworn by Myself; / A word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness / And will not return, / That bevery knee shall bow to Me, / And every tongue shall swear.
Is 45:24 It shall be said of Me, Only in Jehovah / Is there 1righteousness and 1strength. / To Him shall men come, / And all those who are burning in anger against Him shall be ashamed.
Is 45:25 In Jehovah all the seed of Israel / Shall be 1justified and shall glory.
ISAIAH 46

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4. As Typified by Cyrus to Release Jehovah’s Captives of the Beloved Israel from Babylon
46:1 — 48:22
Is 46:1 1aBel has bowed down; 2Nebo stoops; / Their idols are on beasts and cattle; / The things which you carry are a 3burden, / A load for a weary beast.
Is 46:2 They stoop and have bowed down together; / They are not able to escape the burden; / But they themselves have gone into acaptivity.
Is 46:3 Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, / And all the aremnant of the house of Israel, / You who have been bborne from birth, / Who have been carried from the womb,
Is 46:4 Even unto old age, aI am He; / Even unto your gray-haired years, I will bear you. / I have made and I will carry, / And I will bear and deliver.
Is 46:5 aTo whom will you liken Me, / And with whom will you make Me equal / And compare Me, that we should be considered alike?
Is 46:6 Those who lavish agold from the purse / And weigh silver in scales / And hire a goldsmith, and he makes a god — / They bow down and even worship it;
Is 46:7 They lift it up on their shoulder; they carry it / And set it in its place, and it stands. / It will not move from its place; / Someone even cries out to it, and it does not answer, / Nor save him from his distress.
Is 46:8 Remember this and stand fast; / Put this in your heart, O transgressors.
Is 46:9 Remember the former things of old, / That I am God and there is no one else; / I am God and there is no one like Me,
Is 46:10 Who declares the end from the beginning / And things which have not been done from ancient times, / Saying, My acounsel will stand, / And all My desire I will accomplish;
Is 46:11 Who calls for a 1bird of prey from the aeast, / And from a distant land a man to be My counselor. / Indeed, I have spoken; surely I will bring it to pass. / I have purposed; surely I will do it.
Is 46:12 Listen to Me, O hardhearted ones, / Who are far from righteousness.
Is 46:13 I will bring My righteousness anear — it is not far off; / And My salvation will not delay; / And I will give salvation in Zion, / And to Israel My glory.
ISAIAH 47

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Is 47:1 Come down and sit in the dust, / O virgin daughter of Babylon; / Sit on the ground where there is no throne, / O daughter of the Chaldeans; / For you will no longer be called / Tender and delicate.
Is 47:2 Take millstones and agrind meal; / Remove your veil; / Strip off your flowing skirt; uncover your thigh; / Cross over the rivers.
Is 47:3 Your nakedness will be uncovered; / Your shame will also be seen; / I will take vengeance and will not spare any man.
Is 47:4 Our aRedeemer, Jehovah of hosts is His name, / The Holy One of Israel.
Is 47:5 Sit in silence and go in darkness, / O daughter of the Chaldeans; / For you will no longer be called / The aqueen of kingdoms.
Is 47:6 I was angry with My people; / I profaned My inheritance, / And I have delivered them up into your hand. / You have not shown any mercy to them; / You have made your yoke / Very heavy upon the elderly.
Is 47:7 You have said, I will be / A aqueen forever; / You did not put these things into your heart; / You did not remember the end of 1them.
Is 47:8 And now hear this, O lover of pleasure, / Who dwells securely / aAnd says in 1your heart, / I am, and there is none besides me; / I will not 2dwell as a bwidow, / And I will not know loss of children.
Is 47:9 But these two things will come upon you / Suddenly, in aone day: / Loss of children and widowhood; / In full measure they will come upon you / In spite of the multitude of your bsorceries; / In spite of the great power of your spells.
Is 47:10 And you felt secure in your wickedness; / You said, No one sees me. / Your wisdom and your knowledge / Have seduced you, / And you said in your heart, / I am, and there is none besides me.
Is 47:11 But evil will come upon you, / And you will not know its origin; / Disaster will fall upon you / Which you cannot expiate for; / Desolation will come upon you suddenly, / About which you do not know.
Is 47:12 Stand now with your enchantments / And the multitude of your asorceries, / With which you have labored from your youth; / Perhaps you can profit; / Perhaps you will inspire terror.
Is 47:13 You are wearied with the multitude of your counsels. / Let the astrologers, who gaze at the stars, / Who predict according to the new moons, / Stand up and save you from what is coming upon you.
Is 47:14 Indeed, they are like stubble; / Fire consumes them; / They cannot deliver themselves / From the power of the flame; / There is no coal for warming themselves, / Nor the light of a fire to sit before.
Is 47:15 So will those with whom you have labored be to you, / Those who have atraded with you from your youth; / Each one will wander off in his own direction; / There will be no one to save you.
ISAIAH 48

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Is 48:1 Hear this, O house of Jacob, / Who are called by the name of aIsrael; / And who came out from the 1waters of Judah, / Who swear by the name of Jehovah / And make mention of the God of Israel, / But not in truth nor in righteousness.
Is 48:2 For they call themselves after the holy city / And lean upon the God of Israel; / Jehovah of hosts is His name.
Is 48:3 I have adeclared the former things from the beginning; / And they went out from My mouth, and I let them hear them; / I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
Is 48:4 Because I knew that you are obstinate, / And your aneck is an iron sinew, / And your forehead bronze;
Is 48:5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago; / Before things came to pass I let you hear; / Lest you should say, My idol has done them, / And my graven image and my molten image commanded them.
Is 48:6 You have heard; look at all this. And will you not declare it? / From this time I will let you hear anew things / And hidden things which you have not known.
Is 48:7 They have been created now, and not long ago; / And before this day you have not even heard them; / Lest you should say, Indeed, I knew them.
Is 48:8 You also have not heard and have not known; / Your ears were not even open from that time; / For I knew that you would deal very treacherously / And would be called a transgressor from the womb.
Is 48:9 For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, / And for the sake of My praise I will restrain it for you, / In order not to cut you off.
Is 48:10 Indeed, I have arefined you but not like silver; / I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
Is 48:11 For My own sake, yes, for My own sake, I will do it, / For how can My name be profaned? / And I will not give My glory to another.
Is 48:12 Listen to Me, O Jacob, / And Israel, whom I called; / I am He; I am the aFirst, / I am also the Last.
Is 48:13 Indeed, My hand alaid the foundations of the earth, / And My right hand bspread out the heavens; / When I call to them, / They stand together.
Is 48:14 Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! / Who among them has declared these things? / Jehovah loves 1ahim; he will do His pleasure / On Babylon, and His arm will be upon the Chaldeans.
Is 48:15 I, even I, have spoken; indeed, I have called him; / I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
Is 48:16 Draw near to Me and listen to this: / From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; / From the time it took place, I was there. / And now the Lord Jehovah / Has asent 1me and His 2Spirit.
Is 48:17 Thus says Jehovah, your aRedeemer, / The Holy One of Israel, / I am Jehovah your God, / Who teaches you to do that which is profitable, / Who bleads you in the way that you should go.
Is 48:18 If only you had hearkened to My commandments! / Then your apeace would have been like a river, / And your righteousness like the waves of the sea,
Is 48:19 And your seed would have been like the asand, / And the offspring of your bowels like the gravel; / His name would not have been cut off / Or destroyed before Me.
Is 48:20 aCome out from 1Babylon; / Flee from the Chaldeans; / With a voice of shouting declare; / Let them hear this, / Send it out unto the end of the earth; / Say, Jehovah has redeemed / His bservant Jacob.
Is 48:21 And they did not thirst / When He led them through the dry places; / He caused water to flow / From the arock for them; / And He split the rock, / And the waters gushed out.
Is 48:22 aThere is no peace, says Jehovah, for the wicked.
ISAIAH 49

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5. As Typified by Isaiah
the Prophet of Jehovah for a Covenant of the People to Restore the Land
49:1-50:11
a. The Three Persons of the Servant of Jehovah
49:1-9a
Is 49:1 Listen to 1me, O coastlands, / And hearken, you peoples from afar. / Jehovah has called me afrom the womb; / From the bowels of my mother He has made mention of my name.
Is 49:2 And He has made my mouth like a asharp sword; / He has concealed me in the shadow of His hand, / And He has made me a polished arrow; / He has hidden me in His quiver.
Is 49:3 And He said to me, You are My aservant, / 1Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Is 49:4 But I said, I have 1labored in vain; / I have used up my strength for nothing and vanity; / Yet surely the justice due to me is with Jehovah, / And my recompense with my God.
Is 49:5 And now says Jehovah, / Who formed 1Me from the 2womb to be His Servant, / To bring Jacob back to Him, / So that Israel would be gathered to Him; / And I will be glorified in the sight of Jehovah, / And My God will be My strength.
Is 49:6 He says, It is too small a thing that You would be My Servant / To raise up the tribes of Jacob / And bring back the preserved of Israel; / aI will also set You as a 1light of the nations / That You may be My 2bsalvation unto the ends of the earth.
Is 49:7 Thus says Jehovah, / The aRedeemer of Israel, his Holy One, / To the 1bdespised One, the One abhorred by the nation, / The One subjected to tyrants, / Kings will see and arise, / And princes will bow down; / Because of Jehovah, who is cfaithful, / The Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.
Is 49:8 aThus says Jehovah, / In an acceptable time I have answered You, / And in a day of salvation I have helped You; / And I will preserve You and give You for a 1bcovenant of the people, / To restore the 2land, to 3apportion the desolate inheritances,
Is 49:9 To say to the prisoners, Come forth, / To say to those who are in darkness, Show yourselves.
b. The Blessed Return of the Captives
49:9b-13
1They will feed along the roads, / And their pasture will be on all the bare heights;
Is 49:10 They will not ahunger or thirst; / Neither the scorching heat nor the sun will bstrike them; / For He who has compassion on them will lead them / And will cguide them beside the springs of water;
Is 49:11 And I will make all My amountains into a road, / And My highways will be raised up.
Is 49:12 Indeed, these will come from a distance, / And indeed these will come afrom the north and the west, / And these from the land of the 1Sinim.
Is 49:13 Give a aringing shout, O heavens, and exult, O earth, / And break forth into shouting, O mountains; / For Jehovah has comforted His people / And will have compassion on His afflicted ones.
c. How Jehovah Treasures Zion
49:14-21
Is 49:14 But Zion has said, Jehovah has forsaken me, / And the Lord has forgotten me.
Is 49:15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, / That she would not have acompassion on the son of her womb? / Even though they may forget, / Yet I will not forget you.
Is 49:16 Indeed, I have aengraved you upon the palms of My hands; / Your walls are continually before Me.
Is 49:17 1Your children make haste; / Your destroyers and those who lay you waste / Will go forth from you.
Is 49:18 Lift up your eyes and look around; / All of these gather themselves together and come to you. / As I live, declares Jehovah, / You will put all of them on like an aornament / And gird yourself with them like a bride.
Is 49:19 For your waste and desolate places / And your devastated land — / For you will be too constricted now because of its inhabitants, / And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
Is 49:20 The children of whom you were bereaved / Will yet say in your ears, / This place is too constricted for me; / Make room for me that I may dwell here.
Is 49:21 Then you will say in your heart, / Who has borne these for me, / Since I have been bereaved of children and am barren, / An exile and driven about? / And who brought these up? / Indeed, I was left alone; / From where did these come?
d. Jehovah Lifting Up His Hand to the Nations and His Banner unto the Peoples
for the Gathering of the Dispersed Captives of Zion
49:22-26
Is 49:22 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, / Indeed, I will lift up My hand to the nations, / And unto the peoples I will lift up My banner; / And they will abring your sons in their arms, / And they will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Is 49:23 And kings will be your foster fathers; / And their princesses will be those who anurse you; / They will bow down to you with their faces toward the earth / And lick the dust of your feet; / And you will know that I am Jehovah; / Those who bwait on Me will not be ashamed.
Is 49:24 Can the booty be taken from the astrong man, / Or the lawful captives be delivered?
Is 49:25 Surely, thus says Jehovah, / Even the captive may be taken from the strong man, / And the booty may be released from the tyrant; / For I will strive with those who strive with you, / And I will save your children;
Is 49:26 And I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; / And they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; / Then all flesh will know / That I am Jehovah your Savior / And your aRedeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
ISAIAH 50

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

e. The Reason for Zion’s Being Forsaken
50:1-3
Is 50:1 Thus says Jehovah, / Where is the abill of your mother’s divorce / With which I have put her away? / Or to which of My creditors / Have I sold you? / Indeed, for your iniquities you were bsold, / And for your transgressions your mother was put away.
Is 50:2 Why when I came was there no man? / And when I acalled why was there no one to answer? / Is My hand bso short that it cannot redeem? / Or do I have no power to deliver? / Indeed, at My rebuke I cdry up the sea; / I make the rivers a wilderness; / Their dfish stink because there is no water, / And die of thirst.
Is 50:3 I clothe the heavens with ablackness, / And make bsackcloth their covering.
f. The Instruction the Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah, Typifying Christ) Received and the Life He Lived
50:4-9
Is 50:4 The Lord Jehovah has agiven 1me / The tongue of the instructed, / That I should know how to sustain the bweary with a word. / He awakens me morning by morning; / He awakens my ear / To hear as an instructed one.
Is 50:5 The Lord Jehovah has opened my aear; / And I was bnot rebellious, / Nor did I turn back.
Is 50:6 1I gave my back to those who astrike me / And my bcheeks to those who pluck out the hair; / I did not hide my face / From humiliation and cspitting.
Is 50:7 The Lord Jehovah helps me; / Therefore I have not been dishonored; / Therefore I have set my aface like a flint, / And I know that I will not be put to shame.
Is 50:8 The One who justifies me is near; who will contend with me? / Let us stand up together! / Who is my adversary in judgment? / Let him come near to me.
Is 50:9 Indeed, the Lord Jehovah helps me, / Who is the one who condemns me? / Indeed, they will all wear out like a agarment; / The bmoth will consume them.
g. How He Who Fears Jehovah and Hears the Voice of His Servant
Has Light While Walking in Darkness
50:10-11
Is 50:10 Who among you fears Jehovah; / Who hears the voice of His servant; / Who walks in darkness / And has no light? / Let him trust in the name of Jehovah, / And rely on his God.
Is 50:11 Indeed, all of you who kindle a fire, / Who surround yourselves with firebrands, / Walk into the light of your fire / And into the firebrands which you have lit. / You will have this from My hand: / You will lie down in torment.
ISAIAH 51

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

6. In Relation to Jehovah’s Loving Dealing with His Beloved Israel
51:1 — 52:12
a. Jehovah’s Calling of Israel
51:1-3
Is 51:1 Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, / Who seek after Jehovah, / Look to the 1rock from which you were hewn, / And to the excavation of the quarry from which you were dug.
Is 51:2 Look to Abraham your father, / And to Sarah who travailed with you; / For I acalled him when he was one person, / And bblessed him and multiplied him.
Is 51:3 For Jehovah has comforted Zion; / He has comforted all her waste places, / And made her wilderness like Eden, / And her desert like the agarden of Jehovah. / Gladness and joy will be found in her, / Thanksgiving and the voice of song.
b. Jehovah’s Righteousness and Salvation for Israel
51:4-8
Is 51:4 Hearken to Me, O My people; / Give ear to Me, O My nation; / For ainstruction will go out from Me; / And I will set My judgment as a blight for the peoples.
Is 51:5 My righteousness is near; My salvation has gone forth; / My arms will judge the peoples; / The coastlands will wait for Me / And place their hope in My arm.
Is 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, / And look upon the earth beneath; / For the aheavens will vanish away like smoke, / And the earth will wear out like a bgarment, / And those who dwell there will die in like manner; / But My salvation will be forever, / And My righteousness will not be abolished.
Is 51:7 Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, / A people in whose heart is My instruction, / Do not fear the reproach of man; / Do not be terrified at their revilings.
Is 51:8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, / And the worm will eat them like wool; / But My righteousness will be forever, / And My salvation from generation to generation.
c. Jehovah’s Arm for Israel
51:9-16
Is 51:9 aAwake, awake! Put on strength, / O 1barm of Jehovah; / Awake as in the days of old, / As in the generations of past ages. / Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, / Who pierced through the dragon?
Is 51:10 Was it not You who adried up the sea, / The waters of the great deep; / Who made the depths of the sea into a way / For the redeemed to pass through?
Is 51:11 aTherefore the 1ransomed of Jehovah will return / And will come to bZion with a ringing shout, / And eternal joy will be upon their heads. / They will lay hold on gladness and joy, / And csorrow and sighing will flee away.
Is 51:12 I, even I, am He who will comfort you. / Who are you that you are afraid of man who will die, / And of the son of man who will be made like agrass,
Is 51:13 That you have forgotten Jehovah who made you, / Who astretched out the heavens / And laid the foundations of the earth, / That you have been continually afraid every day, / Because of the fury of the oppressor / When he sets himself up to destroy you? / But where is the fury of the oppressor?
Is 51:14 The one who is bowed down will soon be released / And will not die in the pit, / Nor will his bread be lacking.
Is 51:15 I am Jehovah your God, / Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, / Jehovah of hosts is His name.
Is 51:16 And I have put My words in your mouth, / And I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, / To 1plant the aheavens and lay the foundations of the earth, / And to say to Zion, You are My people.
d. Jehovah’s Encouragement to Jerusalem
51:17-23
Is 51:17 Wake yourself up, wake yourself up; / Stand up, O Jerusalem, / You who have adrunk from the hand of Jehovah / The cup of His wrath; / The bowl of the cup of staggering / You have drunk; you have drained it out.
Is 51:18 There is no one to guide her / Among all the children whom she has brought forth; / There is no one to take her by the hand / Among all the children she has raised up.
Is 51:19 These two things have happened to you; / Who will lament for you? / Desolation and destruction, and famine and sword. / How will I comfort you?
Is 51:20 Your sons have fainted; / They lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net, / Full of the wrath of Jehovah, / The rebuke of your God.
Is 51:21 Therefore hear this now, O afflicted one, / You who are drunk but not with wine:
Is 51:22 Thus says your Lord Jehovah and your God / Who pleads the cause of His people, / Indeed, I have taken from your hand / The cup of staggering; / You will no longer need to drink / The bowl of the cup of My wrath anymore;
Is 51:23 And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, / Who have said to your soul, Bow down / That we may walk over you; / And you have made your back like the ground, / Like the street for them to cross over.
ISAIAH 52

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

e. Jehovah’s Encouragement to Zion
52:1-6
Is 52:1 aAwake! Awake! Put on / Your strength, O Zion; / Put on your beautiful garments, / O Jerusalem, O bholy city; / For the uncircumcised and the cunclean / Will no longer come into you.
Is 52:2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, / Sit down, O Jerusalem; / Loose yourself from the bonds on your neck, / O captive daughter of Zion.
Is 52:3 For thus says Jehovah, You are those who have been asold for nothing, and you will be bredeemed without money.
Is 52:4 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, At first My people went down to aEgypt to sojourn there; then the bAssyrian oppressed them without cause.
Is 52:5 Now then what do I have here, declares Jehovah, since My people have been taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them howl, declares Jehovah, and My name is continually ablasphemed all day long.
Is 52:6 Therefore My people will know My name; therefore in that day they will know that I am He who speaks; here I am.
f. Jehovah’s Good News for Zion and Jerusalem
52:7-10
Is 52:7 aHow beautiful on the mountains / Are the bfeet of him who brings good news, / Of him who announces peace, who brings news of good things, / Who announces salvation; / Of him who says to Zion, 1Your God reigns!
Is 52:8 The voice of your watchmen! They lift up their voice; / They give a ringing shout together; / For they will see with their very own eyes / When Jehovah restores Zion.
Is 52:9 Break forth, give a ringing shout together, / You wasted places of Jerusalem, / For Jehovah has comforted His people, / He has redeemed Jerusalem.
Is 52:10 Jehovah has bared His holy 1arm / In the sight of all the nations, / And all the ends of the earth will see / The asalvation of our God.
g. Jehovah’s Charge to Israel to Depart from Babylon
52:11-12
Is 52:11 aDepart! Depart! Go out from 1there! / Do not touch any unclean thing! / Go out from the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, / You who bear the 2vessels of Jehovah!
Is 52:12 For you will not go out in haste, / And you will not go in flight; / For Jehovah will ago before you, / And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
7. The Prosperity of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah in Relation to Israel’s Return
from Captivity and Her Restoration
52:13-15
Is 52:13 Indeed, My 1aServant will act 2wisely and will prosper; / He will be 3bexalted and lifted up and very high.
Is 52:14 Even as many were astonished at 1Him — / His 2visage was amarred more than that of any man, / And His form more than that of the sons of men —
Is 52:15 So will He 1surprise many nations; / Kings will 1shut their mouths because of Him; / aFor what had not been 2recounted to them they will see, / And what they had not bheard of they will contemplate.
ISAIAH 53

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

8. Christ’s Dynamic Redemption through His Vicarious Death and Reproductive Resurrection
in Relation to His Being the Covenant for Israel’s Security
53:1 — 54:17
a. His Dynamic Redemption through His Vicarious Death and Reproductive Resurrection
53:1-12
Is 53:1 aWho has believed our 1report? / And to whom has the barm of Jehovah been 1revealed?
Is 53:2 1For He grew up like a tender 2plant before Him, / And like a aroot out of dry ground. / He has no 3attracting form nor bmajesty that we should look upon Him, / Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him.
Is 53:3 He was adespised and forsaken of men, / A man of 1sorrows and acquainted with grief; / And like one from whom men hide their faces, / He was despised; and we did not esteem Him.
Is 53:4 aSurely He has 1borne our 2sicknesses, / And carried our 2sorrows; / 3Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, / Smitten of God and afflicted.
Is 53:5 1But He was awounded because of our transgressions; / He was crushed because of our iniquities; / The chastening for our peace was upon Him, / And by His bstripes we have been 2healed.
Is 53:6 We all like asheep have gone astray; / Each of us has turned to his own way, / And Jehovah has caused the iniquity of 1us all / To 2fall on Him.
Is 53:7 He was 1oppressed, and it was He who was afflicted, / Yet He did anot open His mouth; / bLike a lamb that is led to the slaughter / And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, / So He did not open His mouth.
Is 53:8 1aBy oppression and by judgment He was taken away; / And as for His 2generation, who among them had the thought / That He was bcut off out of the land of the living / For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?
Is 53:9 And they 1assigned His grave with the wicked, / But with a arich man in His 2death, / Although He had done 3no violence, / Nor was there any bdeceit in His mouth.
Is 53:10 But Jehovah was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief. / When He makes Himself an 1aoffering for sin, / He will see a 2seed, He will 3extend His bdays, / And the 4pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand.
Is 53:11 He will see the 1fruit of the travail of His soul, / And He will be 2satisfied; / By the 3knowledge of Him, the righteous One, My aServant, will 4make the many brighteous, / And He will cbear their iniquities.
Is 53:12 Therefore I will divide to Him a aportion with the 1Great, / And He will divide the 2spoil with the 1Strong; / Because He bpoured out His 3life unto death / And was 4cnumbered with the transgressors, / Yet He alone dbore the sin of many / And 4einterceded for the transgressors.
ISAIAH 54

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

b. His Being the Covenant for Israel’s Security
54:1-17
Is 54:1 aGive a ringing shout, O barren one, you who have not borne; / Break forth into joyful shouting and cry out, you who have not been in labor; / For bmore numerous are the children of the desolate one / Than the children of the married woman, says Jehovah.
Is 54:2 Enlarge your tent site, / Let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; / Spare not; / Lengthen your cords, / And strengthen your pegs;
Is 54:3 For on the right and on the left you will break open, / And your aseed will possess the nations / And will cause the desolate cities to be inhabited.
Is 54:4 Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; / Neither be humiliated, for you will not be ashamed; / But you will forget the shame of your youth, / And the areproach of your widowhood you will no longer remember.
Is 54:5 For your aMaker is your 1bHusband; / Jehovah of hosts is His name. / And the Holy One of Israel is your cRedeemer; / He is called the dGod of all the earth.
Is 54:6 For Jehovah has called you, / Like a wife who has been forsaken and is grieved in spirit, / Even like a wife of one’s youth when she has been rejected, / Says your God.
Is 54:7 For a short moment I forsook you, / But with great compassion I will agather you.
Is 54:8 In a flood of wrath I hid / My face from you for a moment, / But with eternal lovingkindness I will have mercy on you, / Says Jehovah your aRedeemer.
Is 54:9 For this is like the waters of aNoah to Me, / When I swore that the waters of Noah / Would not overflow the earth ever again; / So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, / Nor will I rebuke you.
Is 54:10 For the mountains may adepart, / And the hills may shake, / But My blovingkindness will not depart from you, / And My 1covenant of peace will not shake, / Says Jehovah who has compassion on you.
Is 54:11 O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, / Indeed, I Myself will lay down your stones in dark mortar, / And will lay your foundations with asapphires.
Is 54:12 And I will make your battlements of rubies, / And your gates of carbuncles, / And all your borders will be precious stones.
Is 54:13 And all your children will be ataught of Jehovah, / And the peace of your children will be great.
Is 54:14 In righteousness you will be established; / You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear, / And far from terror, for it will not come near you.
Is 54:15 Indeed, they may fiercely attack you, but it is not of Me; / Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.
Is 54:16 Indeed, it is I who have created the blacksmith / Who blows the fire of the coals, / And brings out a weapon for its work; / And it is I who have created the destroyer to ruin.
Is 54:17 1No weapon that is formed against you will prosper, / And every tongue that rises up to judge you, you will condemn. / This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, / And their righteousness which is of Me, declares Jehovah.
ISAIAH 55

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

9. Christ’s Being an Eternal Covenant to Israel, Even the Sure Mercies Shown to David,
in Relation to Israel’s Prosperity
55:1 — 56:12
a. Christ Being the Center of the Divine Provisions to Israel
55:1-5
Is 55:1 Ho! Everyone who athirsts, 1come to the 2waters, / And you who have no money; / Come, bbuy and eat; / Yes, come, buy wine and cmilk / Without money and without price.
Is 55:2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, / And the result of your alabor for what does not satisfy? / Hear Me attentively, and eat what is good, / And let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Is 55:3 Incline your ear and come to Me; / Hear, so that your soul may live; / And I will make an eternal 1acovenant with you, / Even the 2bsure mercies shown to 3David.
Is 55:4 Indeed, I have given 1Him as a aWitness to the peoples, / A Leader and a Commander to the peoples.
Is 55:5 Indeed, you will call a nation that you do not know, / And a nation that does not know you will run to you, / Because of Jehovah your God, even the Holy One of Israel, / For He has 1aglorified you.
b. Seeking Jehovah and Returning to Him and His Word
55:6-13
Is 55:6 1aSeek Jehovah while He may be found; / 2bCall upon Him while He is near.
Is 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, / And the 1evildoer, his thoughts; / And let him areturn to Jehovah, and He will have compassion on him; / And to our God, for He will pardon abundantly.
Is 55:8 For My 1thoughts are not your thoughts, / And your ways are not My 1ways, declares Jehovah.
Is 55:9 For as the aheavens are higher than the earth, / So My ways are higher than your ways, / And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Is 55:10 For just as the arain comes down / And the snow from heaven, / And does not return there, / Until it waters the earth / And makes it bear and sprout forth, / That it may give bseed to the csower and bread to the eater;
Is 55:11 So will My aword be which goes forth from My mouth; / It will not return to Me 1vainly, / But it will accomplish what I delight in, / And it will prosper in the matter to which I have 2sent it.
Is 55:12 For you will ago out with rejoicing, / And you will be led forth in peace; / The mountains and the hills / Will bbreak forth before you with a ringing shout, / And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Is 55:13 In place of the thornbush, the fir tree will come up; / In place of the brier, the myrtle will come up; / And it will be to Jehovah as a 1name, / As an eternal 1sign that will not be cut off.
ISAIAH 56

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

c. Preserving Justice and Doing Righteousness for Prosperity and Jehovah’s Acceptance
56:1-8
Is 56:1 Thus says Jehovah, / Preserve 1justice and do righteousness, / For My 1salvation is aabout to come / And My 1righteousness is about to be revealed.
Is 56:2 Blessed is the man who does this, / And the son of man who takes hold of it, / Who keeps the 1Sabbath so as not to profane it / And keeps his hand from doing any evil.
Is 56:3 And let not the son of a foreigner / Who has joined himself to Jehovah speak, saying, / Jehovah will surely separate me from His people; / Nor let the eunuch say, / Now I am a dry tree.
Is 56:4 For thus says Jehovah, / To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths / And choose what pleases Me, / And hold fast My covenant,
Is 56:5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial and a name / Better than that of sons and daughters; / I will give them an eternal name / Which will not be cut off.
Is 56:6 Also the children of the foreigner who join themselves to Jehovah, / To minister to Him and to love the name of Jehovah, / To be servants to Him, / Everyone who keeps the Sabbath so as not to profane it / And holds fast My covenant,
Is 56:7 Even these will I cause to come to My holy mountain / And to rejoice in My house of prayer; / Their aburnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable upon My altar; / For bMy house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.
Is 56:8 The Lord Jehovah, who agathers the outcasts of Israel, declares: / Yet will I gather 1others to Him besides those gathered to Him already.
d. The Rebuking of the Blind Watchmen and the Self-seeking Shepherds
56:9-12
Is 56:9 All you animals of the field, come to eat, / All you animals of the forest.
Is 56:10 His watchmen are ablind; / All of them know nothing; / All of them are dumb bdogs, / They cannot bark; / Dreamers who lie down / And love to slumber.
Is 56:11 And these dogs are greedy; / They know no satisfaction. / And they are shepherds / Who lack understanding. / All of them have turned to their own way, / Each to his own gain, to the last of them.
Is 56:12 Come, they say, let me get some wine, / And let us drink down some liquor; / And tomorrow will be like today, / Only much more abundant.
ISAIAH 57

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

10. The Evil Condition and the Need of the Wicked of the House of Jacob
Who Have Nothing to Do with Christ as the Servant of Jehovah
57:1 — 58:14
a. It Being Better for the Righteous and the Godly to Die
That They May Be Separated from the Wicked
57:1-2
Is 57:1 The righteous man perishes, / And no one takes it to heart; / And godly men are being swept away, / While no one considers / That the righteous man is being swept away from evil.
Is 57:2 He enters into peace; / They rest in their 1beds, / Each who walks uprightly.
b. The Evils of the Wicked of the House of Jacob
57:3-10
Is 57:3 But draw near here, / You children of a sorceress, / You seed of an adulterer and of her who prostitutes herself.
Is 57:4 Whom are you mocking, / And against whom are you opening your mouth wide / And sticking out your tongue? / Are you not children of transgression, / A seed of falsehood,
Is 57:5 Who inflame yourselves among the 1terebinths, / Under every flourishing tree, / Who slaughter the children in the valleys / Under the clefts of the rocks?
Is 57:6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion, / They, yes, they are your lot. / Indeed, to them you have poured out a drink offering, / You have offered a meal offering. / Shall I ease Myself of these?
Is 57:7 Upon a high and lofty mountain / You have set your bed. / Indeed, you went up there / To offer sacrifice.
Is 57:8 And behind the door and doorpost / You have put your reminder. / For apart from Me, you have uncovered yourself and gone up; / You have extended your bed; / And you have made an agreement for yourself with them; / You loved their bed; you saw their nakedness.
Is 57:9 And you went to the king with oil, / And you increased your perfumes; / You sent your envoys far away / And debased yourself even as far as Sheol.
Is 57:10 You were wearied with the length of your way, / Yet you did not say, It is hopeless; / You found the renewing of your strength, / Therefore you did not weaken.
c. The Wicked of the House of Jacob Not Remembering Jehovah and Not Fearing Him
57:11-13a
Is 57:11 And whom have you been worried about and feared, / That you have lied and not remembered Me, / Nor taken it to heart? / Was I not silent, and that for a long time, / Yet you did not fear Me?
Is 57:12 I will declare your righteousness / And your works, / Yet they will not profit you.
Is 57:13 When you cry out, let your heaps of idols deliver you. / But the wind will carry them all away; / A breath will take them away.
d. Jehovah’s Blessing to Him Who Takes Refuge in Him
57:13b-21
But he who takes 1arefuge in Me will inherit the land / And possess My holy mountain.
Is 57:14 And it will be said, / Cast up, cast up; aprepare the way; / Take up the obstacle out of the way of My people.
Is 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One, / Who inhabits eternity, whose name is aHoly: / I will dwell in the high and holy place, / And with the contrite and blowly of 1spirit, / To revive the spirit of the lowly / And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Is 57:16 aFor I will not contend forever, / Nor will I always be angry; / For the spirit would faint before Me, / And the souls which I have made.
Is 57:17 Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, / And I struck him; I hid Myself and was angry; / And he went on, turning away in the way of his heart.
Is 57:18 I have seen his ways / And will heal him; / And I will lead him and restore comfort to him / And to his mourning ones,
Is 57:19 Creating the fruit of the lips: / Peace, peace to him who is afar off and to him who is near, / Says Jehovah; and I will bheal him.
Is 57:20 But the 1wicked are like the atossed sea, / For it cannot be calm, / And its waters toss up mire and mud.
Is 57:21 aThere is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.
ISAIAH 58

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

e. The Hypocrisy of the House of Jacob
58:1-9a
Is 58:1 Cry loudly; do not hold back; / Raise your voice like a atrumpet, / And declare to My people their transgression / And to the house of Jacob their sins.
Is 58:2 Yet they seek Me day by day / And take delight in knowing My ways, / Like a nation that has done righteousness / And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God. / They ask Me for righteous judgments; / They take adelight in approaching God.
Is 58:3 Why have we 1afasted, and yet You do not see? / Why have we afflicted our soul, and yet You do not acknowledge? / Indeed, on the day of your fast you 2find delight, / And oppress all your laborers.
Is 58:4 Indeed, you afast for contention and strife, / And to strike with a fist of wickedness; / You do not fast, in the way you do today, / To make your voice heard on high.
Is 58:5 Is such the afast that I choose, / The day when a man afflicts his soul? / Is it for bowing his head like a rush / And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as his bed? / Will you call this a fast, / And an acceptable day to Jehovah?
Is 58:6 Is this not the fast that I choose, / To loosen the bonds of wickedness, / To undo the bands of the yoke, / And to let the oppressed go afree, / And to break every yoke?
Is 58:7 Is it not to adivide your bread to the bhungry, / And to bring the wandering poor home; / When you see the naked, to cover him, / And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Is 58:8 Then your alight will break forth like the dawn, / And your recovery will speedily spring forth. / And your righteousness will go before you; / The bglory of Jehovah will guard you from behind.
Is 58:9 Then you will call, and Jehovah will answer; / You will cry out, and He will say, Here I am.
f. The Instruction of Jehovah to the House of Jacob
58:9b-14
If you remove the yoke from your midst, / The pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness,
Is 58:10 And if you draw out your soul to the hungry / And satisfy the desires of the afflicted; / Then your light will rise in the darkness, / And your gloom will be like midday;
Is 58:11 And Jehovah will aguide you continually, / And satisfy your soul in the dry times, / And strengthen your bones; / And you will be like a watered bgarden, / And like a cspring of water, / Whose waters do not deceive.
Is 58:12 And those who are of you will arebuild the ancient ruins; / You will raise up the foundations of generation upon generation; / And you will be called the repairer of the breach, / The restorer of the paths in which to dwell.
Is 58:13 If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, / From doing whatever you please on My holy day, / And call the aSabbath a delight, / That which is holy to Jehovah honorable, / And honor it, not doing your own ways, / Nor finding your own pleasure and speaking idle words;
Is 58:14 Then you will have delight in Jehovah; / And I will cause you to ride upon the aheights of the earth, / And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father; / For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.
ISAIAH 59

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

11. As the Redeemer to Save Jacob from Their Sins and Iniquities
and Become Israel’s Light and Glory Forever
59:1 — 60:22
a. Jehovah’s Hand Not Being So Short That It Cannot Save
59:1-2
Is 59:1 No, Jehovah’s hand is not aso short that it cannot save; / Nor is His ear so heavy that it cannot hear.
Is 59:2 But your iniquities have become a separation / Between you and your God, / And your sins have hidden His face / From you so that He does anot hear.
b. The Sins and Iniquities of Jacob
59:3-8
Is 59:3 For your hands are defiled with ablood, / And your fingers with iniquity; / Your lips have spoken falsehood, / Your tongue has muttered injustice.
Is 59:4 No one sues righteously, / And no one pleads in truth; / They trust in vanity and speak lies; / aThey conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
Is 59:5 They hatch adders’ eggs / And weave the spider’s web; / He who eats of their eggs dies, / And that which is crushed breaks forth into a viper.
Is 59:6 Their webs will not become garments, / Nor will they cover themselves with their works; / Their works are works of iniquity, / And an act of violence is in their palms.
Is 59:7 aTheir feet run toward evil, / And they hasten to shed innocent blood; / Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; / bDesolation and destruction are in their highways.
Is 59:8 aThe way of peace they do not know, / And there is no justice in their course; / They have made their paths crooked; / Whoever goes on it does not know peace.
c. The Issue of Jacob’s Sins and Iniquities
59:9-15a
Is 59:9 Therefore justice is far from us, / And righteousness does not overtake us; / We look eagerly for light, but, ah, darkness, / For brightness, but we walk in gloom.
Is 59:10 We agrope like bblind men at the wall; / We grope like those without eyes; / We stumble at midday as we would at dusk; / Among the 1prospering we are like dead men.
Is 59:11 All of us roar like bears / And moan incessantly like doves; / We look eagerly for justice, but there is none, / For salvation, but it is far from us.
Is 59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You, / And our sins respond to You against us; / For our transgressions are with us, / And as for our iniquities, we know what they are:
Is 59:13 Transgressing and denying Jehovah, / And turning away from our God; / Speaking oppression and revolt, / Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Is 59:14 And justice is turned back, / And righteousness stands far off; / For truth has stumbled in the street, / And uprightness cannot come in.
Is 59:15 And truth is lacking, / And he who turns from evil becomes plunder.
d. The Saving of Jehovah’s Arm (Christ as the Servant of Jehovah
Having the Dynamic Might of Jehovah) toward Jacob
59:15b-21
And Jehovah saw it, and it was evil in His sight / That there was no justice.
Is 59:16 And He saw that there was ano man, / And He was bappalled that there was no intercessor. / Therefore His 1carm accomplished salvation for Him, / And His righteousness sustained Him.
Is 59:17 Thus He put on righteousness as a abreastplate, / And a bhelmet of salvation upon His head; / And He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing / And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
Is 59:18 According to their dealings, so will He repay: / Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; / To the coastlands He will repay with recompense.
Is 59:19 So they will fear the name of Jehovah from the west, / And His glory from the arising of the sun; / When the adversary comes like a flood, / The Spirit of Jehovah will lift up a standard against him.
Is 59:20 aAnd a 1bRedeemer will come to Zion, / And unto those who turn from transgression in Jacob, / Declares Jehovah.
Is 59:21 And as for Me, this is My 1covenant with them, says Jehovah: My 2aSpirit which is upon you and My 2bwords which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed’s seed, says Jehovah, from now and forever.
ISAIAH 60

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

e. Christ as the Servant of Jehovah Becoming Israel’s Light and Glory Forever
60:1-22
Is 60:1 Arise! aShine! For your 1light has come, / And the 1bglory of Jehovah has risen upon you.
Is 60:2 For, behold, the adarkness will cover the earth, / And deep darkness the peoples; / But Jehovah will rise upon you, / And His glory will be seen upon you.
Is 60:3 And nations will come to your alight, / And kings to the brightness of your 1rising.
Is 60:4 Lift up your eyes around you and see: / They all agather together; they come to you; / Your sons will come from far away, / And your daughters will be carried on the hip.
Is 60:5 Then you will see and you will beam, / And your heart will be in awe and will swell with joy, / For the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, / The awealth of the nations will come to you.
Is 60:6 A multitude of camels will cover you, / The young camels of Midian and Ephah; / All those from Sheba will come; / They will carry agold and frankincense, / And they will bear the good news of Jehovah’s praises.
Is 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you; / The rams of Nebaioth will minister to you; / They will go up acceptably upon My altar, / And I will beautify the house of My beauty.
Is 60:8 Who are these who fly like a cloud, / And like the doves to their dovecote?
Is 60:9 Surely the coastlands will look eagerly for Me; / And the ships of Tarshish will come first, / To bring your children from afar, / Their silver and their gold with them, / Unto the name of Jehovah your God / And unto the Holy One of Israel; for He has beautified you.
Is 60:10 And the children of foreigners will build up your walls, / And their kings will minister to you; / For in My wrath I struck you, / But in My favor I had compassion on you.
Is 60:11 And your gates will be open continually; / They will anot be closed day or night, / So that they may bring to you the bwealth of the nations / And their kings being led in procession.
Is 60:12 For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you will aperish, and the nations will be utterly wasted.
Is 60:13 The 1glory of Lebanon will come to you, / The fir tree, the pine tree, and the box tree together, / To beautify the place of My sanctuary; / And I will make the place for My afeet glorious.
Is 60:14 And the sons of those who afflicted you / Will come abowing down to you, / And all those who despised you will bow down / At the soles of your feet; / And they will call you the City of Jehovah, / The bZion of the Holy One of Israel.
Is 60:15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, / So that no one would pass through you, / I will make you an eternal excellency, / A joy from generation to generation.
Is 60:16 And you will suck the milk of nations / And suck the breast of akings; / Thus you will know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior / And your bRedeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Is 60:17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold, / And instead of iron I will bring silver; / And instead of wood there will be bronze, / And instead of stones there will be iron; / And I will make peace your officers, / And righteousness your rulers.
Is 60:18 Violence will no longer be heard in your land, / Nor desolation and destruction within your borders; / But you will call your awalls Salvation, / And your gates Praise.
Is 60:19 You will no longer have the asun for your light by day, / Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; / But Jehovah will be an eternal 1blight to you, / And your God your 2beauty.
Is 60:20 Your sun will no longer go down, / Nor will your moon withdraw; / For Jehovah will be an eternal light to you, / And the days of your mourning will be ended.
Is 60:21 Then all your people will be righteous; / They will possess the land forever, / The branch of My aplanting, / The work of My hands, / That I may be 1beautified.
Is 60:22 The least one will become a thousand, / And the smallest a strong nation. / I, Jehovah, will hasten it in its time.
ISAIAH 61

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

12. The Ministry of the Anointed of Jehovah, Christ as the Servant of Jehovah,
Issuing In the Restoration of Israel
61:1 — 63:19
a. The Ministry of the Anointed of Jehovah
61:1-3
Is 61:1 1aThe bSpirit of the 2Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has canointed Me / To bring dgood news to the afflicted; / He has sent Me to ebind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, / To proclaim fliberty to the captives, / And the opening of the eyes to those who are bound;
Is 61:2 To proclaim the 1aacceptable year of Jehovah / And the 1day of vengeance of our God; / To bcomfort all who mourn;
Is 61:3 To grant to those who mourn in Zion, / To give to them a headdress instead of ashes, / The oil of gladness instead of amourning, / The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness; / That they may be called the terebinths of righteousness, / The bplanting of Jehovah, that He may be glorified.
b. The Restoration of Israel
61:4 — 63:19
Is 61:4 And they will arebuild the ancient ruins; / They will raise up the former desolations; / And they will repair the cities of waste, / The desolations of generation upon generation.
Is 61:5 And strangers will stand and feed your flocks, / And the sons of the foreigner will be your plowmen and vinedressers.
Is 61:6 But you will be called the 1apriests of Jehovah; / People will speak of you as the ministers of our God. / You will eat the bwealth of nations, / And you will boast in their glory.
Is 61:7 Instead of your shame there will be a double portion, / And instead of humiliation they will give a ringing shout for their portion. / Therefore in their land they will possess double; / Eternal joy will be theirs.
Is 61:8 For I, Jehovah, love ajustice; / I hate robbery 1with wrong; / And I will faithfully give them their recompense, / And I will make an eternal bcovenant with them.
Is 61:9 Then their seed will be known among the nations, / And their offspring in the midst of the peoples; / All who see them will acknowledge them, / That they are the seed whom Jehovah has blessed.
Is 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in Jehovah, / My soul will exult in my God; / For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, / He has wrapped me with the robe of righteousness; / I am like a bridegroom who wears the headdress of the priest, / And like a abride who adorns herself with her jewels.
Is 61:11 For as the earth brings forth its sprout, / And as the garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, / So will the Lord Jehovah cause righteousness and praise / To spring up before all the nations.
ISAIAH 62

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

Is 62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, / And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, / Until her 1righteousness goes forth like brightness, / And her 1salvation like a burning torch.
Is 62:2 And the nations will see your righteousness, / And all the kings, your glory; / And you will be called by a new name, / Which the mouth of Jehovah will designate.
Is 62:3 You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, / And a royal turban in the palm of your God.
Is 62:4 And it will no longer be said to you, Forsaken! / Nor to your land will it be said any longer, Desolate! / But you will be called, My delight is in her, / And your land, Married; / For Jehovah delights in you, / And your land will be married.
Is 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, / Your sons will marry you; / And with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride / Your God will rejoice over you.
Is 62:6 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, / I have appointed watchmen; / All day and all night / They will never keep silent. / You who remind Jehovah, / Do not be dumb;
Is 62:7 And do not give Him quiet / Until He establishes / And until He makes Jerusalem / A 1praise in the earth.
Is 62:8 Jehovah has sworn by His right hand / And by His strong arm: / Surely I will never again give your grain / As food for your enemies, / And surely the children of the foreigner will not drink your new wine / For which you have labored;
Is 62:9 But they who have gathered it will eat it, / And they will praise Jehovah, / And they who have collected it will drink it / In the courts of My holiness.
Is 62:10 Go through, go through the gates; / Prepare the way for the people; / Cast up, cast up the highway; / Free it of stones; / Raise up a 1standard for the peoples.
Is 62:11 See, Jehovah has announced / To the end of the earth: / Say to the daughter of Zion, / Your salvation is now coming; / Now His reward is with Him / And His recompense before Him.
Is 62:12 And they will call them, The holy people, / The redeemed of Jehovah; / And you will be called, Sought after! / A city not forsaken!
ISAIAH 63

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

Is 63:1 1Who is this who comes from Edom / With ared-stained garments, from bBozrah? / This One who is majestic in His apparel, / Marching in the greatness of His strength? / It is I who speak in righteousness, / Mighty to save.
Is 63:2 Why are You red in apparel, / And Your garments like those of him who treads in the 1awinepress?
Is 63:3 I have trodden the wine trough alone, / And from the peoples there was no man with Me. / And I trod them in My anger / And trampled them in My wrath; / And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, / And I have stained all My apparel.
Is 63:4 For the aday of recompense was in My heart, / And the year of My redemption had come.
Is 63:5 And I alooked and there was no one to help; / And I was appalled that there was no one to uphold. / Therefore My own barm accomplished salvation for Me, / And My wrath, it upheld Me.
Is 63:6 And I trod down the peoples in My anger / And made them drunk in My wrath, / And I poured out their lifeblood upon the earth.
Is 63:7 I will make mention of the lovingkindnesses of Jehovah, / The praises of Jehovah, / According to all that Jehovah has bestowed on us / And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, / Which He has bestowed on them according to His compassions / And according to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.
Is 63:8 For He said, Surely, they are My people, / Children who will not deal falsely; / So He became their Savior.
Is 63:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, / And the 1aAngel of His presence saved them; / In His love and in His mercy / He redeemed them, / And He bbore them up and carried them / All the days of old.
Is 63:10 But they rebelled and agrieved / His 1bSpirit of holiness; / Therefore He turned to become their enemy; / He fought against them.
Is 63:11 1Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people: / Where is He who abrought them up out of the sea / With the 2shepherds of His flock? / Where is He who put bin their midst / His Spirit of holiness;
Is 63:12 Who made His glorious arm / Go at the right hand of Moses; / Who adivided the waters before them, / To make for Himself a name forever;
Is 63:13 Who led them through the adepths, / Like a horse in the wilderness, / And they did not stumble?
Is 63:14 Like the cattle which go down into the valley, / The Spirit of Jehovah caused them to rest. / Thus did You lead Your people, / To make for Yourself a glorious aname.
Is 63:15 aLook down from heaven, / And see from the habitation of Your holiness and Your beauty: / Where are Your zeal and Your mighty acts? / The stirring of Your inward parts / And Your compassions are restrained toward me.
Is 63:16 For You are our 1aFather, / Since Abraham does not know us, / And Israel does not acknowledge us. / You, Jehovah, are our Father; / Our 1bRedeemer from eternity is Your name.
Is 63:17 Why, O Jehovah, do You cause us to wander from Your ways / And harden our hearts so that we do not fear You? / Return for the sake of Your servants, / The tribes of Your inheritance.
Is 63:18 Your holy people have possessed Your sanctuary for a little while; / Our adversaries have trodden it down.
Is 63:19 We have become like those over whom You have never ruled, / Like those who have not been called by Your name.
ISAIAH 64

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

13. The Second Coming of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah, Bringing In the Restoration of Israel
and of All Things, Which Consummates in the New Heaven and New Earth
64:1 — 66:24
Is 64:1 Oh that You would rend the aheavens, that You would 1come down — / That the mountains would bshake at Your presence —
Is 64:2 Like fire that kindles brushwood, / Like fire that causes water to boil, / To make Your name known to Your adversaries, / That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
Is 64:3 When You did awesome things that we did not expect, / You came down, the mountains shook at Your presence.
Is 64:4 For from of old, men have not aheard, / Nor perceived with the ear, / Neither has eye seen a God besides You, / Who acts for him who bwaits for Him.
Is 64:5 You meet him who rejoices and does arighteousness, / Those who remember You in Your ways. / Yes, You were angry, for we sinned; / We have been in them for a long time, and shall we be saved?
Is 64:6 For all of us became like him who is unclean, / And all aour righteousnesses are like a bsoiled garment; / And we all wither like a leaf, / And our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away.
Is 64:7 And there is no one who 1acalls upon Your name, / Who stirs himself up to blay hold of You; / For You have chidden Your face from us / And have 2consumed us by our iniquities.
Is 64:8 But now, Jehovah, You are our 1aFather; / We are the bclay; and You, our Potter; / And all of us are the work of Your hand.
Is 64:9 Do not be angry to an extreme, O Jehovah, / Neither remember iniquity forever; / Look now, we pray: We all are Your people.
Is 64:10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; / Zion is a wilderness, / aJerusalem a desolation.
Is 64:11 Our holy and beautiful ahouse, / Where our fathers praised You, / Is burned with fire; / And all the things that we delighted in have become a ruin.
Is 64:12 Will You restrain Yourself from these, O Jehovah? / Will You keep silent and afflict us to an extreme?
ISAIAH 65

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Is 65:1 aI let Myself be inquired of by those who did not ask for Me, / And found by those who did not seek Me. / I said, Here I am; here I am; / To a nation that was not called by My name.
Is 65:2 aI have stretched out My hands all day long / To a rebellious people, / Who walk in a way that is not good, / After their own thoughts;
Is 65:3 A people who provoke Me to anger / To My face continually, / Who sacrifice in gardens / And burn incense upon the bricks;
Is 65:4 Who sit among the graves / And lodge overnight in the secret places; / Who eat swine’s flesh / And the broth of abominations in their pots;
Is 65:5 Who say, Keep to yourself, / Do not come near me; for I am holier than you. / These are smoke in My nose, / A fire that burns all day.
Is 65:6 It is written here before Me: / I will not keep silent without first recompensing; / And I will recompense, into their bosom,
Is 65:7 Your iniquities and the ainiquities of your fathers together, / Says Jehovah, / Who have burned incense upon the mountains / And have scorned Me upon the hills; / Therefore I will measure their work first / Into their bosom.
Is 65:8 Thus says Jehovah, / As the new wine is found in the cluster, / And someone says, Do not destroy it, / For there is a blessing in it; / So will I do for My servants’ sake, / In order not to destroy them all.
Is 65:9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, / And out of Judah one who will possess My mountains; / And My achosen ones will possess it, / And My servants will dwell there.
Is 65:10 And Sharon will be an abode for the flock, / And the valley of Achor a resting place for the herd, / For My people who have sought Me.
Is 65:11 But you who forsake Jehovah, / Who forget My holy mountain, / Who prepare a atable to Fortune / And fill vessels with drink offerings to Destiny,
Is 65:12 I will destine you to the sword, / And you all will bow down to the slaughter; / Because I called you, but you did not answer; / I spoke, but you did not listen; / But you did evil in My sight / And chose that in which I did not delight.
Is 65:13 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, / Indeed, My servants shall eat, / But you shall ahunger; / Indeed, My servants shall drink, / But you shall thirst; / Indeed, My servants shall rejoice, / But you shall be put to shame;
Is 65:14 Indeed, My servants shall give a ringing shout / Because of a heart of joy, / But you shall cry out / Because of a heart of pain, / And because of a broken spirit you shall wail.
Is 65:15 And you will leave your name as a curse to My chosen ones, / And the Lord Jehovah will slay you; / And He will call His servants by another name,
Is 65:16 So that he who blesses himself in the earth / Will bless himself in the 1God of afaithfulness, / And he who swears in the earth / Will swear by the God of faithfulness; / Because the former troubles are forgotten / And because they are hidden from My sight.
Is 65:17 For I am now creating 1anew heavens / And a new earth, / And the bformer things will not be remembered, / Nor will they ccome up in the heart.
Is 65:18 1But rejoice and exult forever, / In what I create, / For I am now creating Jerusalem as an exultation / And her people as a rejoicing.
Is 65:19 And I will exult in Jerusalem / And rejoice in My people; / And there will no longer be heard in her / The voice of aweeping and the voice of crying.
Is 65:20 There will no longer be in her / An infant who reaches the age of only a few days / Nor an old man who does not fill up his days; / For the lad will die at a hundred years of age, / And the sinner, being a hundred years of age, will be cursed.
Is 65:21 And they will build houses and inhabit them, / And they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Is 65:22 They will not build and another inhabit; / They will not plant and another eat; / For like the days of a atree are the days of My people, / And My chosen ones will enjoy the work of their hands to the full;
Is 65:23 They will not labor in vain, / Nor bear children unto turmoil; / For they are the seed of those blessed of Jehovah, / And their offspring with them.
Is 65:24 And it will be that before they call, I will answer; / Even while they are speaking, I will hear.
Is 65:25 1The awolf and the lamb will feed as one, / And the lion will eat straw like the ox, / And bdust will be the serpent’s food; / They will not harm nor destroy / In all My holy mountain, says Jehovah.
ISAIAH 66

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

Is 66:1 Thus says Jehovah, / aHeaven is My throne, / And the earth the bfootstool for My feet. / Where then is the 1house that you will build for Me, / And where is the place of My rest?
Is 66:2 For all these things My hand has made, / And so all these things have come into being, declares Jehovah. / But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is apoor / And of a bcontrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.
Is 66:3 He who kills an ox is like him who slays a man; / He who sacrifices a lamb, like him who breaks a dog’s neck; / He who offers a meal offering is like him who offers the blood of swine; / He who burns incense is like him who blesses an idol. / As surely as they have chosen their own ways, / And their soul delights in their abominations;
Is 66:4 Just as surely I will choose what will treat them ill, / And I will bring upon them what they dread; / Because I acalled, but no one answered; / I spoke, but they did not listen; / But they did evil in My sight, / And chose that in which I did not delight.
Is 66:5 Hear the word of Jehovah, / You who tremble at His word: / Your brothers who hate you, / Who cast you out because of My name, said, / Let Jehovah be glorified / So that we may see your joy. / But they will be put to shame.
Is 66:6 A voice of tumult from the city! / A voice from the temple! / The voice of Jehovah giving full / Recompense to His enemies.
Is 66:7 Before she travailed, / She brought forth; / Before her pain came, / She gave birth to a man.
Is 66:8 Who has heard of such a thing? / Who has seen such things? / Can a land be born in one day? / Or can a nation be brought forth all at once? / For as soon as Zion travailed, / She brought forth her children.
Is 66:9 Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth? / Says Jehovah. / Or shall I who cause to bring forth shut the womb? / Says your God.
Is 66:10 Be joyful with Jerusalem and exult for her, / All you who love her; / Rejoice with her in joy, / All you who mourn over her,
Is 66:11 So that you may nurse and be satisfied / With her breasts of consolations, / So that you may draw out from her and take excellent delight / In the abundance of her glory.
Is 66:12 For thus says Jehovah, / I now am extending to her / Peace like a ariver, / And the 1glory of the nations / Like an overflowing stream; / And you will bnurse, you will be ccarried on the hip, / And you will be bounced on the knees.
Is 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, / So will I comfort you; / And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
Is 66:14 And you will see this, and your heart will rejoice, / And your abones will flourish like new grass; / And the hand of Jehovah will be made known to His servants, / And He will be indignant toward His enemies.
Is 66:15 For behold, Jehovah will come with afire, / And His chariots will be like a whirlwind, / To render His anger with fury / And His rebuke with flames of fire.
Is 66:16 For with fire Jehovah will execute judgment, / And with His asword, upon all flesh; / And those slain by Jehovah will be many.
Is 66:17 Those who sanctify and purify themselves for the gardens, / Following after one in the midst, / Eating swine’s flesh / And what is abominable and even mice, / Will come to an end together, declares Jehovah.
Is 66:18 But 1I — their works and their thoughts I will repay; the time is coming to gather all the nations and tongues; and they will come and see My glory.
Is 66:19 And I will set a sign among them and will send those who have escaped from them unto the nations: to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, to those who draw the bow; to Tubal and 1Javan, to the distant coastlands that have not heard My fame nor seen My glory; and they will declare My glory among the nations.
Is 66:20 And they will abring all your brothers from all the nations as a 1meal offering to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in wagons and on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain, Jerusalem, says Jehovah, just as the children of Israel bring their meal offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah.
Is 66:21 And I will also take some of them for apriests and for Levites, says Jehovah.
Is 66:22 For as the 1anew heavens / And new earth, which I make, / Remain before Me, declares Jehovah, / So will your seed and your name remain.
Is 66:23 And from new moon to new moon / And from Sabbath to Sabbath / All flesh will acome / To bow down before Me, says Jehovah.
Is 66:24 Then they will go forth and look / On the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; / For their aworm will not die, / Nor will their bfire be quenched; / And they will be an abhorrence to all flesh.
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JEREMIAH

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 
Outline

Author: Jeremiah (1:1).
Time of Writing: The late seventh and early sixth centuries B.C.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem and Egypt.
Time Period Covered: This book covers a period of at least forty-one years, from 629 B.C., the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign (1:2), until some time after 588 B.C., after Gedaliah the governor of Judah was murdered (41:2) and Jeremiah was carried away to Egypt (43:6-8).
Subject:
Christ Being Made the Righteousness of Jehovah to God’s Elect as Their Center and Circumference, in God’s Dealings with Israel and the Nations
JEREMIAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

I. Jeremiah’s Call and Commission
1:1-19
A. Introduction
vv. 1-3
Je 1:1 The words of 1Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
Je 1:2 To whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of aJosiah the son of Amon the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Je 1:3 It came also in the days of aJehoiakim the son of Josiah the king of Judah until the end of the eleventh year of bZedekiah the son of Josiah the king of Judah, until the ccaptivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
B. Jeremiah’s Call
vv. 4-8
Je 1:4 Now the word of Jehovah came to me, saying:
Je 1:5 Before I aformed you in the womb, I bknew you; / And before you came forth from the womb, I csanctified you. / I have 1appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
Je 1:6 Then I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! / Indeed, I do not know how to aspeak, / For I am a youth.
Je 1:7 But Jehovah said to me, / Do not say, I am a youth; / For everywhere I send you, you shall go; / And everything I command you, you shall speak.
Je 1:8 Do anot be afraid of their faces, / For I am bwith you to deliver you, declares Jehovah.
C. Jeremiah’s Commission
vv. 9-19
Je 1:9 Then Jehovah stretched out His hand and touched my amouth; and Jehovah said to me,
Now I have bput My words in your mouth.
Je 1:10 See, I have appointed you this day / Over the nations and over the kingdoms / To 1apluck up and to break down, / To destroy and to tear down, / To build up and to plant.
Je 1:11 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a rod of an 1aalmond tree.
Je 1:12 And Jehovah said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.
Je 1:13 Then the word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a 1boiling apot, and it is facing away from the north.
Je 1:14 And Jehovah said to me, Out of the anorth evil will be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Je 1:15 For I am now calling all the families from the kingdoms of the north, declares Jehovah, and they will come and set each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.
Je 1:16 And I will utter My judgment on them concerning all their wickedness by which they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods and have worshipped the aworks of their own hands.
Je 1:17 You therefore agird up your loins, and rise up and speak to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you in their presence.
Je 1:18 aAnd I am now making you today into a 1fortified city and into an iron pillar and into bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.
Je 1:19 And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you, declares Jehovah, to deliver you.
JEREMIAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • 

II. Israel’s Sin against Jehovah and Jehovah’s Punishment upon Israel
2:1 — 45:5
A. Israel’s Two Evils — Forsaking Jehovah, the Fountain of Living Waters,
and Hewing Out for Themselves Broken Cisterns
2:1 — 3:5
Je 2:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Je 2:2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah: / I remember concerning you the kindness of your ayouth, / The blove of your 1bridal days, / When you cfollowed after Me in the wilderness, / In a land that was not sown.
Je 2:3 Israel was aholiness to Jehovah, / The bfirstfruits of His 1increase; / All who ate of it were guilty; / Evil came upon them, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 2:4 Hear the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel.
Je 2:5 Thus says Jehovah: / What iniquity did your fathers find in Me / That they went far away from Me / And walked after 1avanity / And became vain?
Je 2:6 And they did not say, Where is Jehovah, / Who abrought us up from the land of Egypt, / Who brought us through the wilderness, / Through a land of deserts and pits, / Through a land of drought and the shadow of death, / Through a land that no one passes through / And where no man dwells?
Je 2:7 And I brought you into the aland of the fruited field, / To eat its fruit and its goodness. / But you came and defiled My land / And made My inheritance an abomination.
Je 2:8 The priests did not say, / Where is Jehovah? / And those who handle the law did not know Me, / And the shepherds transgressed against Me, / And the prophets prophesied by Baal / And followed after things that did not benefit them.
Je 2:9 Therefore I will yet contend with you, declares Jehovah; / And with your children’s children I will contend.
Je 2:10 For pass over to the coastlands of Kittim and see, / And send someone to Kedar and consider carefully, / And see if there has ever been anything like this.
Je 2:11 Has a nation ever exchanged its gods, / Even though they are ano gods? / But My people have exchanged their 1bglory / For that which does not benefit them.
Je 2:12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, / And be horrified; be very desolate, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 2:13 For My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The 1afountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves 1cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water.
Je 2:14 Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn slave? / Why has he become a prey?
Je 2:15 The young lions roared over him; / They sounded their voices. / And they have made his land a waste; / His cities are burned, without inhabitant.
Je 2:16 Also the children of Memphis and Tahpanhes / Have shaved the crown of your head.
Je 2:17 Have you not done this to yourself / By your forsaking Jehovah your God / When He was leading you in the way?
Je 2:18 And now what do you have on the road to 1aEgypt, / To drink the waters of the 2Shihor? / And what do you have on the road to 1Assyria, / To drink the waters of the 3River?
Je 2:19 Your own wickedness will correct you, / And your 1apostasies will reprove you. / Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, / That you have forsaken Jehovah your God / And that My fear is not in you, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
Je 2:20 For long ago you broke your yoke; / You tore off your bonds; / And you said, I will not serve! / Indeed upon every high hill / And under every flourishing tree / You have lain down, you have committed 1fornication.
Je 2:21 Yet I, I had aplanted you as a choice bvine, / Wholly a faithful seed. / How then have you turned yourself before Me / Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
Je 2:22 For though you wash yourself with lye / And make use of much soap, / Your iniquity remains as a stain before Me, / Declares the Lord Jehovah.
Je 2:23 How can you say, I am not defiled; / I have not gone after the Baals? / Look at your way in the valley; / Know what you have done. / You are like a swift young camel entangling her ways,
Je 2:24 Like a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, / Panting after the wind in her desire. / In her passion who can turn her away? / None that seek her will weary themselves: / They will find her in her month.
Je 2:25 Keep your foot from being unshod / And your throat from thirst; / But you said, It is hopeless. / No! For I have loved strangers, / And I will go after them.
Je 2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, / So the house of Israel is ashamed — / They, their kings, their princes, / And their priests and their prophets,
Je 2:27 Who say to a tree, You are my father; / And to a stone, You have brought me forth — / For they have turned their back to Me, / And not their faces. / Yet in a time of their trouble they will say, / Arise and save us.
Je 2:28 But where are your agods, whom you made for yourselves? / Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; / For baccording to the number of your cities / Are your gods, O Judah.
Je 2:29 Why do you contend with Me? / You have all transgressed against Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 2:30 In vain I have stricken your children: / They have taken no correction. / Your own sword has devoured your aprophets / Like a destroying lion.
Je 2:31 O generation, attend to the word of Jehovah: / Have I been a wilderness to Israel, / Or a land of deep darkness? / Why do My people say, We roam about; / We will no longer come to You?
Je 2:32 Can the virgin forget her 1ornaments, / Or the bride her 1aattire? / But My people have bforgotten Me / For days 2without number.
Je 2:33 How you prepare your ways / To seek love! / Therefore you have even taught / Wicked women your ways.
Je 2:34 Also on your skirts is found / The lifeblood of the innocent poor. / You did not find them breaking in, / But killed them because of all these things.
Je 2:35 But you said, I am innocent; / Surely His anger will turn from me. / I am about to enter into judgment with you, / Because you say, I have not sinned.
Je 2:36 Why do you go about so much / To change your way? / You will be put to shame by Egypt also, / Even as you were put to shame by Assyria.
Je 2:37 Indeed, from it you will go forth / With your hands upon your head; / For Jehovah has rejected those in whom you trust, / And you will not prosper by them.
JEREMIAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Je 3:1 It is said, / aIf a man divorces his wife / And she goes from him / And becomes another man’s wife, / Will he return to her again? / Will not that land be / Utterly polluted? / But you have committed fornication with many lovers. / 1Yet breturn to Me, declares Jehovah.
Je 3:2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see: / Where have you not been ravished? / By the roads you sat for them, / Like an Arab in the desert; / And you have polluted the land / With your fornication and your wickedness.
Je 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, / And there has been no spring rain. / But you have had a harlot’s forehead; / You refused to be ashamed.
Je 3:4 Have you not just now called out to Me, My aFather, / You are the guide of my youth?
Je 3:5 Will He preserve His anger forever? / Will He keep it perpetually? / This you have spoken; yet you have done what evil things / That you could.
B. Israel’s Return or Jehovah’s Correction for Her Apostasy
3:6 — 4:31
1. Israel the Wife’s Apostasy
3:6-11
Je 3:6 Then Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what 1Israel the apostate has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree and committed fornication there.
Je 3:7 And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to Me; but she did not return, and her treacherous asister Judah saw it.
Je 3:8 And I saw that because of all the adultery that Israel the apostate committed I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce, yet her sister Judah the treacherous did not fear but went and committed fornication also.
Je 3:9 And because she treated her fornication lightly, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
Je 3:10 And yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but instead falsely, declares Jehovah.
Je 3:11 And Jehovah said to me, Israel the apostate has shown herself to be more righteous than Judah the treacherous.
2. Israel the Wife’s Return — A Loving Pleading of Jehovah the Husband
3:12 — 4:2
Je 3:12 Go and proclaim these words to the 1anorth, and say, / 2Return, O Israel the apostate, declares Jehovah; / And I will not let My countenance fall toward you; / For I am merciful, declares Jehovah; / bI will not keep My anger forever.
Je 3:13 Only aacknowledge your iniquity, / That you have transgressed against Jehovah your God / And have turned your ways here and there to strangers under every flourishing tree, / And have not listened to My voice, declares Jehovah.
Je 3:14 Return, O apostate children, declares Jehovah, for I am a aHusband to you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and will bring you to Zion.
Je 3:15 And I will give you ashepherds according to My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.
Je 3:16 And when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares Jehovah, they will no longer say, The 1aArk of the Covenant of Jehovah! And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it or visit it; and it will not be made again.
Je 3:17 At that time they will call Jerusalem the athrone of Jehovah, and all the nations will be 1bgathered to it because the name of Jehovah is at Jerusalem; and they will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Je 3:18 In those days the house of 1Judah will walk with the house of 1Israel, and they will come together from the land of the anorth to the land which I have given to their fathers as an inheritance.
Je 3:19 But I said, / How I will put you among the sons, / And give you a pleasant land, / An inheritance of the most ornate of the nations! / And I said, You will call Me, My aFather, / And will not turn away from Me.
Je 3:20 Surely as a woman acts treacherously by departing from her husband, / So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, declares / Jehovah.
Je 3:21 A voice is heard on the bare heights, / The weeping, the supplications, of the children of Israel; / For they have perverted their way; / They have forgotten Jehovah their God.
Je 3:22 aReturn, O apostate children; / I will heal you of your apostasies. / Now we come to You, / For You are Jehovah our God.
Je 3:23 Surely in vain have we hoped for aanything from the hills; / The mountains are a tumult; / Surely in Jehovah our God / Is the salvation of Israel.
Je 3:24 But shame has devoured the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
Je 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, since our youth even unto this day; and we have not listened to the voice of Jehovah our God.
JEREMIAH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

Je 4:1 If you will return, O Israel, declares Jehovah, / aReturn to Me; / And if you put away your detestable things from My presence / And do not wander,
Je 4:2 And swear, As Jehovah lives, / In truth and in justice and in righteousness, / Then the nations will abless themselves in Him, / And in Him they will glory.
3. Jehovah the Husband’s Correction
4:3-31
Je 4:3 For thus says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, / Break up your 1fallow ground, / And do not asow among thorns.
Je 4:4 aCircumcise yourselves to Jehovah, / And remove the foreskins of your heart, / Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, / Lest My wrath go forth like fire / And burn, and there be no one to quench it / Because of the evil of your deeds.
Je 4:5 Declare in Judah / And proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: / Blow the trumpet in the land; / Cry aloud and say, / Gather yourselves and let us go / Into the fortified cities.
Je 4:6 Raise up a standard toward Zion. / Seek refuge; ado not stay; / For I am bringing evil from the 1bnorth, / And great destruction.
Je 4:7 A 1lion has come up from his thicket, / And a destroyer of nations has set out. / He has gone forth from his place / To make your land a waste; / Your cities will be ruins, / Without an inhabitant.
Je 4:8 For this, gird yourselves with sackcloth, / Wail and howl; / For the burning anger of Jehovah / Has not turned away from us.
Je 4:9 And in that day, declares Jehovah, the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astounded.
Je 4:10 And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah, surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You will have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.
Je 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people, not for winnowing nor for purging
Je 4:12 (A wind too strong for these), will come 1from Me; now I will also utter judgments against them.
Je 4:13 Here he is coming up like clouds, / And his chariots like the whirlwind; / His horses are swifter than aeagles. / Woe to us for we are devastated!
Je 4:14 aWash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, / That you may be saved. / How long will your evil thoughts / Lodge within you?
Je 4:15 For a voice declares from Dan / And announces affliction from the hill country of Ephraim.
Je 4:16 Make mention to the nations; yes, / Announce against Jerusalem. / Besiegers are coming from a distant land / And utter their voice against the cities of Judah.
Je 4:17 Like those who watch over a field, they are against her all around / Because she has rebelled against Me, declares Jehovah.
Je 4:18 Your way and your deeds / Have caused these things to happen to you. / This is your wickedness. Indeed it is bitter! / Indeed it reaches to your heart!
Je 4:19 My bowels, my bowels; I am writhing. / Oh, the walls of my heart! / My aheart is moaning within me; / I cannot be silent; / For you hear, O my soul, the sound of the btrumpet, / The alarm of war.
Je 4:20 Destruction upon destruction is proclaimed, / For the whole land is devastated. / Suddenly my tents are devastated, / And my curtains in a moment.
Je 4:21 How long will I see the standard, / And hear the sound of the trumpet?
Je 4:22 For My people are foolish; / They do not know Me. / They are stupid children / And have no understanding. / They are wise to do evil, / But they do not know to do good.
Je 4:23 I looked at the aearth, and there it was, bwaste and emptiness; / And at the heavens, and they had no light.
Je 4:24 I looked at the mountains, and there they were, shaking, / And all the hills were swaying.
Je 4:25 I looked, and there was ano man, / And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
Je 4:26 I looked, and there was the fruitful land, a wilderness, / And all its cities were torn down / Before Jehovah, before His burning anger.
Je 4:27 For thus says Jehovah, / The whole land will be a desolation, / But I will not make a afull end;
Je 4:28 For this the earth will mourn, / And the heavens above will be dark; / Because I have spoken, I have purposed; / And I have not repented, nor will I turn from it.
Je 4:29 At the sound of horsemen and archers / Every city flees; / They go into the thickets / And climb up on the rocks. / Every city is forsaken, / And not even one inhabits them.
Je 4:30 And you, O desolate one, what will you do? / Although you dress in scarlet, / Although you are adorned with ornaments of gold,
Although you enlarge your aeyes with paint, / In vain do you beautify yourself; / Your lovers despise you; / They seek your life.
Je 4:31 For I heard a cry like that of a awoman in travail, / Anguish like that of a woman bringing forth her first child, / The sound of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath; / She stretches out her hands, saying, / Woe is me, / For my soul is fainting before murderers.
JEREMIAH 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

C. Jehovah the Husband’s Further Complaint against Israel (Actually Judah)
the Wife’s Wickednesses in Detail
5:1-31
Je 5:1 1Go to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, / And look now and know, / And seek in her open squares / If you can find aa man, / If there is anyone who executes justice, / Who seeks faithfulness; / And I will pardon her.
Je 5:2 And although they say, As Jehovah lives, / Nevertheless they swear falsely.
Je 5:3 O Jehovah, are not Your eyes upon faithfulness? / You have stricken them, / But they did not writhe; / You have consumed them, / But they refused to take correction. / They have made their faces harder than rock; / They have refused to turn.
Je 5:4 Then I said, But they are the poor; / They are foolish; / For they do not know the way of Jehovah, / The 1ordinance of their God.
Je 5:5 I will go to the great / And speak with them; / Surely these know the way of Jehovah, / The ordinance of their God. / But together they both have broken the yoke; / They have torn off the bonds.
Je 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them; / A wolf of the 1deserts will destroy them. / A leopard is watching their cities; / Everyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces; / Because they multiplied their transgressions, / And their apostasies are great in number.
Je 5:7 Why should I pardon you? / Your children have forsaken Me / And sworn by those who are anot gods. / When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery / And trooped to the house of harlots.
Je 5:8 Like well-fed horses they roam about, / Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Je 5:9 aShall I not 1punish because of these things? / Declares Jehovah; / And on a nation such as this / Shall My soul not avenge itself?
Je 5:10 Go up through her vine rows and destroy, / But do not make a afull end; / Strip away her bbranches, / For they are not Jehovah’s.
Je 5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah / Have dealt very treacherously with Me, declares Jehovah.
Je 5:12 They have denied Jehovah / And have said, He is not; / And evil will not come upon us, / Nor will we see sword and famine;
Je 5:13 And the prophets will become wind, / And 1the word is not in them; / Thus it will be done to them.
Je 5:14 Therefore thus says Jehovah / The God of hosts: / Because 1they have spoken this word, / I am now making My awords / A fire in your mouth, / And this people wood; / And it will consume them.
Je 5:15 I am now bringing upon you / A nation from aafar, / O house of Israel, declares Jehovah. / It is an enduring nation, / It is an ancient nation; / A nation whose language you do not know, / Nor can you understand what they say.
Je 5:16 Their quiver is like an open grave; / All of them are mighty men.
Je 5:17 And they will eat up your aharvest and your bread; / They will eat up your sons and your daughters; / They will eat up your flocks and your herds; / They will eat up your vines and your fig trees; / They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities, / In which you trust.
Je 5:18 Yet even in those days, declares Jehovah, I will not make a afull end of you.
Je 5:19 And when 1they say, Why has Jehovah our God done all these things to us? you shall say to them, As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
Je 5:20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, / And announce it in the house of Judah, saying,
Je 5:21 Now hear this, / O people, who are foolish and without understanding, / Who have aeyes but do not see, / Who have ears but do not hear:
Je 5:22 Do you not fear Me, declares Jehovah; / Do you not tremble at My presence; / Who have set the sand as a aboundary for the sea / By an eternal statute, so it cannot pass over it? / Although its waves toss, they cannot prevail; / Although they roar, they cannot pass over it.
Je 5:23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; / They have turned aside and have gone away.
Je 5:24 And they do not say in their heart, / Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives us arain, / Both 1the early rain and the late rain, in its season, / Who preserves the appointed weeks of the harvest for us.
Je 5:25 Your iniquities have turned these things away, / And your sins have withheld from you what is good.
Je 5:26 For wicked men are found among My people; / They lie in wait like fowlers crouching; / They set a trap, / They catch men.
Je 5:27 Like a cage full of birds, / So their houses are full of deceit; / Therefore they have become great and rich.
Je 5:28 They are fat; they are sleek; / Indeed they surpass in deeds of wickedness; / They do not judge the cause, / The cause of the orphan, but they prosper; / And the right of the needy they do not judge.
Je 5:29 aShall I not punish because of these things? / Declares Jehovah; / And on a nation such as this / Shall My soul not avenge itself?
Je 5:30 An appalling and horrible thing / Has happened in the land:
Je 5:31 The prophets prophesy afalsely, / And the priests rule by their own 1authority; / And My people love it this way. / But what will you do at the end of it?
JEREMIAH 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

D. Jehovah the Husband’s Determination in Correcting the Wife
6:1-30
Je 6:1 Seek refuge, O children of Benjamin, / From the midst of Jerusalem; / And blow the trumpet in Tekoa / And raise up a signal on 1Beth-haccherem; / For evil looks down from the 2north, / And great destruction.
Je 6:2 The comely and delicate one, / The daughter of Zion, I will cut off.
Je 6:3 Shepherds will come to her / With their flocks; / They will pitch tents against her all around; / They will feed each one in his place.
Je 6:4 1Prepare war against her; / Rise up, and let us go up at noon. / Woe to us, for the day has declined, / For the shadows of evening are lengthening.
Je 6:5 Rise up, and let us go up at night / And destroy her palaces.
Je 6:6 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Cut down her trees and build up / A amound against Jerusalem. / This is the city to be punished; / In her midst there is only oppression.
Je 6:7 As a cistern keeps its waters fresh, / So she has kept her wickedness fresh. / Violence and destruction are heard in her; / Sickness and wounds are always before Me.
Je 6:8 Be admonished, O Jerusalem, / Lest My adesire for you depart, / Lest I make you a desolation, / An uninhabited land.
Je 6:9 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / They will thoroughly 1glean like a vine / The remnant of Israel; / Pass your hand again over the branches / Like a grape gatherer.
Je 6:10 To whom shall I speak and testify, / That they may hear? / Indeed, their aear is uncircumcised, / And they are unable to listen. / See, the word of Jehovah has become a reproach to them; / They have no delight in it.
Je 6:11 Yet I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; / I am weary of aholding it in. / Pour it out upon the children in the street / And upon the assembly of the young men together; / For even the husband with the wife will be taken; / The old man, with the one who is full of days.
Je 6:12 aAnd their houses will be turned over to others, / Fields and wives together; / For I will stretch out My hand / Over the inhabitants of the land, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 6:13 For from the least of them to the greatest of them, / Everyone is wresting unjust gain; / And from the prophet to the priest, / Everyone is dealing falsely.
Je 6:14 aAnd they have healed / The brokenness of My people slightly, / Saying, bPeace, peace; / Although there is no peace.
Je 6:15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? / They were not at all ashamed; / They did not even know to blush. / Therefore they will fall with those who fall; / At the time I punish them, they will stumble, / Says Jehovah.
Je 6:16 Thus says Jehovah, / Stand by the ways and see, / And ask for the ancient paths; / Ask where the good way is, and walk in it; / And you will find arest for your souls. / But they said, We will not walk in it.
Je 6:17 So I set watchmen over you, saying, / Listen to the sound of the trumpet. / But they said, We will not listen.
Je 6:18 Therefore hear, O nations, / And understand, O assembly, / What I will do to them.
Je 6:19 Listen, O earth; I am now bringing evil / On this people, / The fruit of their thoughts; / Because they have not listened to My words, / And they have also rejected My law.
Je 6:20 For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, / And sweet cane from a distant land? / Your aburnt offerings are not acceptable, / And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.
Je 6:21 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I am now laying before this people stumbling blocks, / And fathers and sons together / Will stumble against them; / A neighbor and his friend will perish.
Je 6:22 Thus says Jehovah, / aSee, a people is coming from the land of the bnorth, / And a great nation is stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.
Je 6:23 They grasp bow and spear; / They are cruel and have no mercy; / Their voice roars like the sea; / And they ride upon horses, / Set in array as a man for battle / Against you, O daughter of Zion.
Je 6:24 We have heard its report; / Our hands are feeble; / Distress has seized us, / Pain like a awoman in childbirth.
Je 6:25 Do not go out into the field, / And do not walk on the road; / For the enemy has a sword; / Terror is on every side.
Je 6:26 O daughter of my people, gird yourself in sackcloth / And roll in ashes; / aMourn as for an only son, / A most bitter wailing; / For suddenly the destroyer / Will come upon us.
Je 6:27 I have set you as a trier among My people, as a fortress, / That you may know and try their way.
Je 6:28 All of them are most rebellious, / Going about as slanderers; / They are bronze and iron; / All of them act corruptly.
Je 6:29 The bellows are burned; / The lead is consumed by the fire; / The refining continues in vain, / For the wicked are not removed.
Je 6:30 Men will call them rejected silver, / Because Jehovah has rejected them.
JEREMIAH 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

E. Israel’s (Actually Judah’s) Hypocritical Worship to Jehovah
7:1 — 10:25
Je 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 7:2 Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah, and proclaim this word there and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah, who enter through these gates to worship Jehovah.
Je 7:3 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, aAmend your ways and your deeds, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Je 7:4 Do not trust in the words of falsehood that say, The 1temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, these buildings are the temple of Jehovah.
Je 7:5 But if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice between a man and his neighbor,
Je 7:6 If you do not 1oppress the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor go after other gods to your own ruin;
Je 7:7 Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from eternity to eternity.
Je 7:8 See, you are trusting in words of falsehood that do not benefit you.
Je 7:9 Will you asteal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal and go after other gods which you have not known,
Je 7:10 Then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered! — that you may do all these abominations?
Je 7:11 Has this ahouse which is called by My name become a den of brobbers in your eyes? Yet I, even I, have seen it, declares Jehovah.
Je 7:12 But go now to My place which was in 1aShiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at first, and see bwhat I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
Je 7:13 And now, because you have done all these works, declares Jehovah, and I spoke to you, arising up early and speaking, but you did not listen, and I called you, but you did not answer;
Je 7:14 Therefore I will do to the house that is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave you and your fathers as I have done to aShiloh.
Je 7:15 And I will cast you out from before Me, as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.
Je 7:16 aAnd as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a ringing cry or a prayer for them; and do not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you.
Je 7:17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Je 7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the 1queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
Je 7:19 Are they provoking Me to anger? declares Jehovah. Are they not provoking themselves, to the shaming of their own faces?
Je 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.
Je 7:21 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh.
Je 7:22 For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Je 7:23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, aHear My voice, and bI will be your God, and you will be My people; and walk in all the way which I command you, that it may go well with you.
Je 7:24 But they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward.
Je 7:25 From the day that your fathers came out from the land of Egypt unto this day I have asent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
Je 7:26 But they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.
Je 7:27 So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
Je 7:28 And you shall say to them, This is the nation which did not listen to the voice of Jehovah their God and did not take correction; the truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth.
Je 7:29 aCut off your 1hair and throw it away, / And take up a lamentation on the bare heights; / For Jehovah has rejected and forsaken / The generation of His overflowing wrath.
Je 7:30 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight, declares Jehovah; athey have set their detestable things in the bhouse which is called by My name, to defile it.
Je 7:31 And they have built the high places of aTopheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, something I did not command, nor did it come up in My heart.
Je 7:32 Therefore, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place.
Je 7:33 And the corpses of this people will become food for the abirds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.
Je 7:34 And I will cause the avoice of gladness and the voice of joy to cease, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem; for the land will become a waste.
JEREMIAH 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Je 8:1 At that time, declares Jehovah, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.
Je 8:2 And they will spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and which they have gone after and which they have sought and which they have worshipped; and they will not be gathered up or aburied; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground.
Je 8:3 And adeath will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places where I have driven them, declares Jehovah of hosts.
Je 8:4 And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah,
Do men fall and not rise again? / If one turns away, does he not return?
Je 8:5 Why has this people Jerusalem / Turned away in perpetual apostasy? / They hold fast to deceit; / They refuse to turn back.
Je 8:6 I have listened carefully and heard; / They have not spoken rightly; / There is no one who arepents of his wickedness, / Saying, What have I done? / Everyone turns to his own course, / Like a horse rushing headlong into battle.
Je 8:7 Even the stork in the sky / Knows its appointed times, / And the turtledove and the swallow and the crane / Keep the time of their coming; / But My people do not know / The ordinance of Jehovah.
Je 8:8 How can you say, We are wise, / And the law of Jehovah is with us? / But look, the false pen of the scribes / Has turned it into falsehood.
Je 8:9 The awise men are put to shame; / They are dismayed and are taken;
See, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; / And what wisdom do they have?
Je 8:10 aTherefore I will bgive their wives to others, / Their fields to those who will possess them; / For from the small unto the great, / Everyone is wresting unjust gain; / From the prophet even to the priest, / Everyone is dealing falsely.
Je 8:11 And they have healed / The brokenness of the daughter of My people slightly, / Saying, Peace, peace, / Although there is no peace.
Je 8:12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? / They were not at all ashamed; / They did not even know to blush. / Therefore they will fall with those who fall; / At the time of their 1punishment they will stumble, / Says Jehovah.
Je 8:13 I will utterly take them away, / Declares Jehovah; / There are no grapes on the vine, / And there are ano figs on the fig tree; / Even the leaves are withered; / And what I gave them has passed away from them.
Je 8:14 Why do we sit? Gather yourselves, / And let us go up to the fortified cities / And be silent there, / Because Jehovah our God has silenced us / And made us drink poisonous water, / Because we have sinned against Jehovah.
Je 8:15 aWe hoped for peace, but no good came; / For a time of healing, but there was terror.
Je 8:16 The snorting of their horses / Is heard from Dan; / At the sound of the neighing of their stallions / The whole land quakes. / And they come and devour the land and its fullness, / The city and those who dwell in it.
Je 8:17 For I will send among you aserpents, / Adders, for which there is no enchantment; / And they will bite you, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 8:18 Oh that there were comforting to me in sorrow! / My heart within me is faint.
Je 8:19 It is the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people / From a land very afar away: / Is Jehovah not in bZion? / Is her cKing not in her? / Why have they provoked Me to danger / With their graven images and with strange idols?
Je 8:20 The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, / And we are not saved.
Je 8:21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken. / I amourn; horror has taken hold of me.
Je 8:22 Is there no abalm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why then has the recovery of the daughter of my people / Not occurred?
JEREMIAH 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

Je 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, / And my eye a fountain of tears, / That I might 1aweep day and night / For the slain of the daughter of my people!
Je 9:2 Oh that I had a traveler’s lodging place in the wilderness / That I might leave my people and go away from them, / For all of them are adulterers and an assembly of treacherous men.
Je 9:3 They bend their tongue like their bow; / Falsehood, and not truth, / Prevails in the land; / For they proceed from evil to evil, / And they do anot know Me, declares Jehovah.
Je 9:4 Let each man be on guard against his neighbor / And not confide in any brother; / For every brother only supplants, / And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
Je 9:5 And everyone deceives his neighbor / And does not speak the truth; / They teach their tongue to speak falsehood; / They weary themselves committing iniquity.
Je 9:6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; / Through deceit they refuse to know Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 9:7 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Indeed, I will arefine them and test them; / For what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?
Je 9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; / It speaks deceit. / Each speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, / But in his heart he lays an ambush for him.
Je 9:9 aShall I not punish them for these things? / Declares Jehovah; / And on a nation such as this / Shall My soul not avenge itself?
Je 9:10 For the mountains I will take up a 1weeping and wailing, / And for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation; / Because they have been burned up so that no one passes through, / And the sound of cattle is not heard; / Both the birds of the sky and the beasts / Have fled and have gone.
Je 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem a aheap of ruins, / A habitation of jackals; / And I will make the cities of Judah / A desolation without inhabitant.
Je 9:12 Who is the wise man who can understand this, and he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he might declare it? Why is the land destitute, burned like the wilderness, so that no one passes through?
Je 9:13 And Jehovah said, Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to My voice or walked in 1My law,
Je 9:14 But have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them;
Je 9:15 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I will feed them, this people, with awormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.
Je 9:16 And I will ascatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers knew, and send the sword after them until I have consumed them.
Je 9:17 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Consider, and call for the mourning women to come, / And send for the skillful women to come;
Je 9:18 Let them hasten and take up a wailing for 1us, / That 1our eyes may shed tears / And 1our eyelids may pour forth water.
Je 9:19 For a voice of wailing / Was heard from Zion:
How we are ruined! / We are utterly put to shame! / For we have forsaken the land / Because they have cast down our dwellings.
Je 9:20 Therefore listen, O women, to the word of Jehovah, / And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; / And teach your daughters wailing, / And let each teach her neighbor a lamentation.
Je 9:21 For death has come up through our windows; / It has entered our palaces / To cut off the children from the streets, / The young men from the open squares.
Je 9:22 Speak: Thus declares Jehovah, / And the corpses of men will fall / Like dung on the surface of the field / And like a sheaf after the reaper, / And there will be no one to gather them.
Je 9:23 Thus says Jehovah, / Let not the wise man aglory in his wisdom, / And let not the mighty man glory in his might; / Let not the rich man glory in his riches.
Je 9:24 But let him who glories glory in this, / That he has insight and knows Me, / That I am Jehovah who exercises lovingkindness, / Justice, and righteousness on earth; / For in these things I delight, declares Jehovah.
Je 9:25 Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will punish all those who are 1circumcised and yet 1uncircumcised:
Je 9:26 Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all those who cut the corners of their hair, who inhabit the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is auncircumcised in heart.
JEREMIAH 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Je 10:1 Hear the word which Jehovah speaks to you, O house of Israel.
Je 10:2 Thus says Jehovah, / Do not learn the way of the nations, / And do not be terrified by the asigns of the heavens, / Although the nations are terrified by them.
Je 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity, / Because their god is a tree cut from the forest, / The work of the ahands of a craftsman with an ax.
Je 10:4 He adorns it with silver and with gold; / They fasten it with nails and hammers / So that it cannot totter.
Je 10:5 They are like a 1post in a cucumber field, / And they cannot speak; / They must be carried / Because they cannot walk. / Do not be afraid of them, / For they cannot do evil, / And neither is it in them to do good.
Je 10:6 There is anone like You, O Jehovah; / You are great, / And Your name is great in might.
Je 10:7 Who would not fear You, / O aKing of the nations? / For it befits You, / For among all the wise of the nations / And in all their kingdoms / There is none like You.
Je 10:8 But they are altogether stupid and foolish; / The instruction of their idols is mere wood.
Je 10:9 Beaten silver / Is brought from Tarshish, / And gold from Uphaz, / The work of a craftsman / And of the hands of a goldsmith. / Their clothing is blue and purple; / All of them are the work of skillful men.
Je 10:10 But Jehovah is the true God; / He is the aliving God and the eternal bKing. / At His wrath the earth quakes, / And the nations cannot endure His indignation.
Je 10:11 1Thus you shall say to them, The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth, these will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.
Je 10:12 aIt is He who made the bearth by His power, / Who established the cworld by His wisdom, / And by His understanding He stretched out the dheavens.
Je 10:13 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, / aAnd He causes the vapors to rise from the ends of the earth; / He makes lightning for the rain / And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
Je 10:14 Every man is stupid, without knowledge; / Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol; / For his molten image is falsehood, / And there is no breath in them.
Je 10:15 They are vanity, the work of delusion; / At the time of their punishment they will perish.
Je 10:16 The aPortion of Jacob is not like these; / For He is the One who formed everything, / And Israel is the tribe of His binheritance; / Jehovah of hosts is His name.
Je 10:17 Gather up your bundle from the ground, / O inhabitant under siege.
Je 10:18 For thus says Jehovah, / I will sling out / The inhabitants of the land / At this time, / And I will bring distress on them, / That they may find it.
Je 10:19 Woe is me because of my hurt! / My wound is grievous. / But I said, Truly this is my affliction, / And I must bear it.
Je 10:20 My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; / My children have gone from me and they are not; / There is no one who will spread out my tent again / And set up my curtains.
Je 10:21 For the shepherds are stupid / And have not sought Jehovah; / Therefore they have not prospered, / And all their flock is ascattered.
Je 10:22 The sound of a report! Here it comes, / Even a great commotion 1from the land of the north, / To make the cities of Judah / A desolation, a habitation of jackals.
Je 10:23 I know, O Jehovah, / That a man’s way is not in himself; / It is not in the man who walks / To direct his step.
Je 10:24 aCorrect me, O Jehovah, but in measure, / Not in Your anger lest You bring me to nothing.
Je 10:25 aPour out Your wrath on the nations / Who do not bknow You / And upon the families / Who do not call upon Your name; / For they have devoured Jacob, yes, devoured him and brought him to an end, / And they have desolated his habitation.
JEREMIAH 11

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F. Israel’s (Actually Judah’s) Breaking of Jehovah’s Covenant
11:1 — 13:27
Je 11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 11:2 Listen to the words of this covenant and speak them to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Je 11:3 And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not listen to the words of this 1covenant,
Je 11:4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron afurnace, saying, Listen to My voice and do the things according to all which I command you; and you will be My people and bI will be your God,
Je 11:5 That I may establish the aoath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land bflowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I answered and said, cAmen, Jehovah.
Je 11:6 And Jehovah said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant and do them.
Je 11:7 For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, arising up early and warning, saying, Listen to My voice.
Je 11:8 But they did not listen or incline their ear, but all walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart; therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they have not done them.
Je 11:9 And Jehovah said to me, A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Je 11:10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to listen to My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have 1broken My acovenant which I made with their fathers.
Je 11:11 Therefore thus says Jehovah, I am about to bring 1evil upon them, from which they cannot escape; and they will cry to Me, but I will not listen to them.
Je 11:12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
Je 11:13 For aaccording to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.
Je 11:14 And as for you, do not apray for this people, nor lift up a ringing cry or a prayer for them; for I will not hear when they call to Me because of their trouble.
Je 11:15 What has My abeloved to do in My house, / Since she has committed lewdness with many / And the holy flesh has passed from you? / When you do evil, then you rejoice.
Je 11:16 Jehovah called your name, / A flourishing aolive tree, beautiful in fruit and form; / With the sound of a great tumult / He has set fire to it, / And its branches are broken.
Je 11:17 And Jehovah of hosts, who aplanted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done for themselves, to provoke Me to anger by burning incense to Baal.
Je 11:18 And Jehovah made it known to me, so I knew; then You showed me their deeds.
Je 11:19 And I was like a gentle alamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name be remembered no longer.
Je 11:20 aBut, O Jehovah of hosts, who judges righteously, / Who btests the inward parts and the heart, / Let me see Your 1vengeance on them, / For I have revealed my cause to You.
Je 11:21 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, Do not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, that you may not die by our hand;
Je 11:22 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, I am about to punish them: The young men will die by the sword; their sons and their daughters will die by famine;
Je 11:23 And they will have no remnant, because I will bring evil to the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.
JEREMIAH 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

Je 12:1 You are righteous, O Jehovah, / When I plead my cause with You; / Yet I will speak with You of Your judgments: / 1Why does the way of the awicked prosper? / Why are all those who deal treacherously at ease?
Je 12:2 You have planted them; they have also taken root; / They go on and bring forth fruit. / You are near, in their mouth, / But far from their inward parts.
Je 12:3 And You, O Jehovah, aknow me; You see me / And btry my heart toward You. / Pull them out like sheep for the slaying, / And set them apart for the day of slaughter.
Je 12:4 How long will the land mourn / And the grass of every field dry up? / Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it, / Beasts and birds are swept away, / Because they said, He will not see our end.
Je 12:5 If you have run with footmen and they have wearied you, / How then will you compete with horses? / If you are secure in a land of peace, / How then will you do in the 1amajesty of the Jordan?
Je 12:6 For even your brothers and the house of your father, / Even they have dealt treacherously with you; / Even they have cried aloud after you. / Do not believe them, although they speak good things to you.
Je 12:7 I have forsaken My house; / I have abandoned My inheritance; / I have given the beloved of My soul / Into the hand of her enemies.
Je 12:8 My inheritance has become to Me / Like a lion in the forest; / She lifted up her voice against Me, / Therefore I hated her.
Je 12:9 Is My inheritance a speckled bird of prey to Me? / Are the birds of prey against her all around? / Go, gather all the beasts of the field; / Bring them to devour.
Je 12:10 Many shepherds have destroyed My avineyard; / They have trampled down My portion; / They have made My pleasant portion / A desolate wilderness.
Je 12:11 They have made it a desolation; / Desolate, it mourns to Me; / The whole land has been desolated / Because no one lays it to heart.
Je 12:12 Upon all the bare heights in the wilderness / Destroyers have come, For the sword of Jehovah devours / From one end of the land to the other end of the land; / No flesh has peace.
Je 12:13 They have sown wheat, and they reap thorns; / They have worn themselves out, but they profit nothing; / Therefore be ashamed of your produce / Because of the burning anger of Jehovah.
Je 12:14 Thus says Jehovah concerning all My evil neighbors, who have touched the inheritance which I caused My people Israel to inherit, I am about to pluck them up out of their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah out from their midst.
Je 12:15 And after I have plucked them up, I will areturn and have compassion on them and bring them again, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.
Je 12:16 And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, saying, As Jehovah lives, even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people.
Je 12:17 But if they do not listen, I will pluck up that nation, plucking it up and destroying it, declares Jehovah.
JEREMIAH 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Je 13:1 Thus said Jehovah to me, Go and buy yourself a linen girdle, and put it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
Je 13:2 So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah and put it upon my loins.
Je 13:3 And the word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying,
Je 13:4 Take the girdle which you bought, which is upon your loins, and rise up; go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.
Je 13:5 And I went and I hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah had commanded me.
Je 13:6 And at the end of many days Jehovah said to me, Rise up; go to the Euphrates, and take from there the girdle which I commanded you to hide there.
Je 13:7 And I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the girdle from the place where I had hidden it; and there the girdle was, spoiled and good for nothing.
Je 13:8 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Je 13:9 Thus says Jehovah, Even so I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
Je 13:10 This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart and go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will be even like this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Je 13:11 For as this girdle clings to the loins of a man, so I have caused all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah to cling to Me, declares Jehovah, that they might be to Me a people and a name and a praise and a glory; but they would not listen.
Je 13:12 And you shall speak to them this word, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Every wineskin will be filled with wine. And they will say to you, Do we not know very well that every wineskin will be filled with wine?
Je 13:13 Then you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah, I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land and the kings who sit in David’s place on his throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness,
Je 13:14 And I will dash them one against the other, both the fathers and the sons together, declares Jehovah; I will not spare or pity or have compassion so as not to destroy them.
Je 13:15 Hear and give ear and do not be proud, / For Jehovah has spoken.
Je 13:16 Give glory to Jehovah your God, / Before He brings darkness, / And before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains; / And you will look for light, / But He will turn it into a shadow of death / And make it deep darkness.
Je 13:17 And if you will not hear it, / My soul will 1weep in secret places for your pride; / And my eye will 1aweep bitterly and shed tears, / Because the bflock of Jehovah has been taken captive.
Je 13:18 Say to the king and to the queen mother, / Humble yourselves and sit down, / For your beautiful crown / Has come down from your heads.
Je 13:19 The cities of the south have been shut up, / And there is no one to open them; / All Judah has been taken into exile, / Wholly taken into exile.
Je 13:20 Lift up your eyes, / And see those who come from the anorth. / Where is the flock that was given to you, / Your beautiful sheep?
Je 13:21 What will you say when He appoints over you as head / Those whom you yourself have trained to be your friends? / Will not apains take hold of you, / Like those of a bwoman in travail?
Je 13:22 And if you say in your heart, / Why have these things happened to me? / It is because of the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are uncovered, / That your heels suffer violence.
Je 13:23 Can the 1Cushite change his skin, / Or the leopard his spots? / Then you also may be able to do good, / Who are aaccustomed to do evil.
Je 13:24 Therefore I will scatter them like chaff driven / By the wind of the wilderness.
Je 13:25 This is your lot, / The portion measured out to you from Me, / Declares Jehovah, / Because you have forgotten Me / And have trusted in falsehood.
Je 13:26 I will also strip your skirts off over your head, / And your shame will be seen.
Je 13:27 Your adulteries and your neighings, / The lewdness of your fornication / Upon the hills, in the field, / Your detestable things — I have seen. / Woe to you, O Jerusalem! / How long a time will you still not be clean?
JEREMIAH 14

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G. Jehovah’s Punishment of Israel (Actually Judah) with Drought
14:1 — 15:9
1. Jehovah’s Message concerning Their Drought
14:1-6
Je 14:1 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the 1drought:
Je 14:2 Judah mourns, / And her gates languish; / In black they mourn on the ground, / And the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
Je 14:3 And their nobles send their servants for water; / They come to cisterns, / And they find ano water; / They return with their vessels empty; / They are ashamed and confounded / And cover their heads.
Je 14:4 Because the ground is cracked, / For there has been no rain on the earth, / The farmers are ashamed; / They cover their heads.
Je 14:5 For even the hind in the field gives birth and abandons its young / Because there is no grass.
Je 14:6 And the wild asses stand on the bare heights; / They pant after the wind like jackals; / Their eyes fail, / For there is no herbage.
2. Jeremiah the Prophet’s Intercession
14:7 — 15:9
a. His Intercession
14:7-9
Je 14:7 Although our iniquities testify against us, / O Jehovah, act for Your aname’s sake, / For our apostasies have become many; / We have sinned against You.
Je 14:8 O aHope of Israel, / Its Savior in a time of distress, / Why should You be like a sojourner in the land, / Like a traveler who turns aside to lodge for the night?
Je 14:9 Why should You be like an astonished man, / Like a mighty man who is unable to save? / Yet You are in our amidst, O Jehovah, / And we are called by Your bname; / Do not leave us.
b. Jehovah’s Refusal
14:10-12
Je 14:10 Thus says Jehovah to this people, Even so they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore Jehovah has no delight in them; now He will aremember their iniquity and punish their sins.
Je 14:11 And Jehovah said to me, Do not apray for the welfare of this people.
Je 14:12 When they fast, I will not listen to their cry; when they offer up a burnt offering and a meal offering, I will not accept them; but by sword and by famine and by pestilence I will consume them.
c. The Prophet’s Prayer concerning the False Prophets, and Jehovah’s Answer
14:13-16
Je 14:13 And I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Indeed, the prophets say to them, You will not see sword, nor will you have famine, for I will give you assured peace in this place.
Je 14:14 And Jehovah said to me, The prophets prophesy afalsehood in My name; I did not send them or command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision and divination and a worthless thing and the deceit of their own heart.
Je 14:15 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, although I did not send them, yet they say, A sword and famine will not be in this land: By sword and by famine those prophets will be consumed.
Je 14:16 And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them — them, their wives, and their sons and their daughters — and I will pour out their own wickedness on them.
d. The Reaction of the Prophet, Who Was One with the Punishing Jehovah
14:17-18
Je 14:17 And you shall speak this word to them, / Let 1my eyes run down with atears / Night and day, and let them not cease; / For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with great brokenness, / A very grievous wound.
Je 14:18 If I go forth into the field — / Look, those slain by the sword; / And if I come into the city — / Look, those diseased with famine. / For both the prophet and the priest / Will go about in a land that they do not know.
e. The Prophet’s Further Intercession
14:19-22
Je 14:19 Have You utterly arejected Judah? / Or does Your soul loathe Zion? / Why have You stricken us / So that there is no healing for us? / bWe looked for peace, but no good came; / And for a time of healing, but there was terror.
Je 14:20 We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, / The iniquity of our fathers, for we have asinned against You.
Je 14:21 Do not hold us in contempt, for Your name’s sake; / Do not dishonor Your throne of glory; / Remember and do not break Your covenant with us.
Je 14:22 Are there among the avanities of the nations any that can bring rain, / Or in the heavens any that can give showers? / Are You not He, O Jehovah our God? / Therefore we wait for You, / For You have made all these things.
JEREMIAH 15

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f. Jehovah’s Answer
15:1-4
Je 15:1 And Jehovah said to me, aEven though bMoses and cSamuel were to stand before Me, My soul would not turn toward this people. Send them out of My sight and let them go.
Je 15:2 And when they say to you, Where shall we go? Then you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah,
aThose who are for death to death, / And those who are for the sword to the sword, / And those who are for famine to famine, / And those who are for captivity to captivity.
Je 15:3 And I will visit them with four kinds of punishment, declares Jehovah: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
Je 15:4 And I will make them a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of 1aManasseh the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
g. The Punishing Jehovah’s Sighing for His Punished People
15:5-9
Je 15:5 For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, / And who will lament for you; / And who will turn aside to ask / After your welfare?
Je 15:6 You have aforsaken Me, / Declares Jehovah. / You keep going backward, / And I have stretched out My hand against you / And have destroyed you; / I have become 1weary of brepenting.
Je 15:7 And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork / In the gates of the land; / I have bereaved them of children / And destroyed My people; / They have anot turned back from their ways.
Je 15:8 Their widows have increased before Me / More than the sand of the seas; / I have brought to them, / Against the mother of the young men, / A spoiler at noon; / I have caused anguish and terror / To fall on her suddenly.
Je 15:9 She who has borne seven languishes; / She has breathed out her life. / Her sun has gone down while it is still day; / She is put to shame and confounded. / And the rest of them I will give up to the sword / Before their enemies, / Declares Jehovah.
H. Jehovah’s Further Commission to Jeremiah
15:10 — 16:9
Je 15:10 1Woe is me, my mother, because you abore me, / A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land. / I have not lent with interest, / Nor have they lent to me; / Yet everyone curses me.
Je 15:11 Jehovah said, Surely I will set you free for your good; / Indeed I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you / In a time of trouble and in a time of distress.
Je 15:12 Can one break 1iron, / Iron from the north, or bronze?
Je 15:13 1aYour wealth and your treasures / I will give as plunder without price, / And that for all your sins, / And within all your borders.
Je 15:14 I will cause your enemies to bring it / Into a land you do not know; / For a fire is kindled in My anger, / Which will burn against you.
Je 15:15 O Jehovah, You know; / Remember me and visit me, / And 1avenge me of my persecutors. / Do not let Your long-suffering for them prevail and have me taken away; / Know that for Your sake I bear areproach.
Je 15:16 Your words were found and I 1aate them, / And Your bword became to me / The gladness and joy of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, / O Jehovah, God of hosts.
Je 15:17 I did not asit in the assembly of mockers, nor did I exult. / Because of Your hand I sat alone, / For You have filled me with indignation.
Je 15:18 Why is my pain unceasing, / And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? / Will You indeed be to me like a deceitful brook? / Like waters that fail?
Je 15:19 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / If 1you areturn, I will restore you; / You will stand before Me; / And if you 2bring out the precious from the worthless, / You will be as My mouth; / They will turn to you, / But you will not turn to them.
Je 15:20 aAnd I will make you to this people / A 1fortified wall of bronze; / And they will fight against you, / But they will not prevail against you; / For I am with you / To save you and deliver you, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 15:21 And I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked / And redeem you from the hand of those who terrorize.
JEREMIAH 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Je 16:1 The word of Jehovah also came to me, saying,
Je 16:2 1You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.
Je 16:3 For thus says Jehovah concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning their mothers who bear them and concerning their fathers who beget them in this land:
Je 16:4 aThey will die grievous deaths and will not be mourned or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and will be consumed by sword and by famine, and their bcorpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
Je 16:5 For thus says Jehovah, Do not enter the house of mourning, and do not go to mourn, and do not lament for them, for I have taken away My peace from this people, declares Jehovah, My lovingkindness and compassions.
Je 16:6 Both the great and the small will die in this land; they will not be buried, nor will they be mourned; and no one will cut himself or make himself bald for them.
Je 16:7 Nor will they break bread for them in mourning to comfort anyone for the dead or give them a cup of consolation to drink for his father or for his mother.
Je 16:8 And you shall not enter the house of feasting to sit with them and eat and drink.
Je 16:9 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, aI will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of gladness and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
I. Jehovah’s Further Statement of Judah’s (as Israel’s) Sins
16:10 — 17:27
Je 16:10 And when you tell this people all these words and they say to you, Why has Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? And what is our iniquity? And what is our sin which we have sinned against Jehovah our God?
Je 16:11 Then you shall say to them, Because your fathers have aforsaken Me, declares Jehovah, and they have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them; but Me they have forsaken, and My law they have not kept.
Je 16:12 And you have done more evil than your fathers; for indeed, you go about, each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to Me.
Je 16:13 And I will cast you far away from this land into a land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will not show favor to you.
Je 16:14 aTherefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when it will no longer be said, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
Je 16:15 But, As Jehovah lives, who 1brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where He had driven them; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their fathers.
Je 16:16 I am soon sending many fishermen, declares Jehovah, and they will catch them; and afterward I will send many hunters, and they will hunt for them from every mountain and from every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.
Je 16:17 For My eyes are upon all their ways; they are not concealed from My face, neither is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.
Je 16:18 But first I will recompense adouble for their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned My land with the corpses of their detestable things, and their abominations have filled My inheritance.
Je 16:19 O Jehovah, my strength and my stronghold, / My arefuge in the day of distress; / To You the nations come / From the ends of the earth and say, / Surely our fathers inherited falsehood / And vanity, in which there is no profit.
Je 16:20 Shall a man make gods for himself, / Though they are ano gods?
Je 16:21 Therefore now, I am causing them to know; / At this time I will cause them to know / My hand and My might, / And they will know that My name is Jehovah.
JEREMIAH 17

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Je 17:1 The sin of Judah is written / With an airon pen; / With the point of an adamant it is engraved / On the tablet of their bheart / And on the horns of your altars,
Je 17:2 While their children remember / Their altars and their 1Asherahs / Beside flourishing trees / Upon high hills.
Je 17:3 aO My mountain in the field, / Your wealth and all your treasures / I will give as plunder, / Your high places, because of sin, / Within all your borders.
Je 17:4 And you 1yourself will let go of your inheritance, / Which I gave to you; / And I will cause you to serve your enemies / In a land which you do not know; / For you have kindled a fire in My anger, / Which will burn forever.
Je 17:5 Thus says Jehovah, / Cursed is the man who trusts in man / And makes flesh his arm / And whose heart turns away from Jehovah.
Je 17:6 And he will be like a shrub in the desert / And will not see when good comes; / But he will dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, / A land of salt and uninhabited.
Je 17:7 Blessed is the man who atrusts in Jehovah / And whose trust Jehovah is.
Je 17:8 And he will be like a 1atree transplanted beside water, / Which sends out its roots by a stream, / And will not be afraid when heat comes; / For its leaves remain flourishing, / And it will not be anxious in the year of drought / And will not cease to bear fruit.
Je 17:9 The 1aheart is deceitful above all things, / And it is incurable; / Who can know it?
Je 17:10 I, Jehovah, asearch the heart / And test the inward parts, / Even to give to each one according to his ways, / According to the fruit of his deeds.
Je 17:11 As a partridge broods over what she has not laid, / A man makes riches but not rightly; / In the midst of his days they will leave him, / And at his end he will be a fool.
Je 17:12 A throne of glory set on high from the beginning / Is the place of our sanctuary.
Je 17:13 You are the ahope of Israel, O Jehovah; / All who forsake You will be put to shame. / Those who turn away from Me will be written in the earth / Because they 1forsook Jehovah, / The bfountain of living waters.
Je 17:14 Heal me, O Jehovah, and I will be healed; / Save me and I will be saved, / For You are my praise.
Je 17:15 Indeed, they say to me, / aWhere is the word of Jehovah? / Let it come now!
Je 17:16 But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, / And I have not desired a day of disaster. / You know that what came out of my lips / Was before Your face.
Je 17:17 Do not become a terror to me; / You are my arefuge in an evil day.
Je 17:18 Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, do not let me be put to shame; / Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. / Bring upon them an evil day, / And break them with a double destruction.
Je 17:19 Thus said Jehovah to me, Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and through which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,
Je 17:20 And say to them, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates:
Je 17:21 Thus says Jehovah, Take heed to your souls and bear no burden on the 1aSabbath day, nor bring anything through the gates of Jerusalem.
Je 17:22 And do not bring out any burden from your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work; but sanctify the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Je 17:23 But they did not listen or incline their ear; rather they stiffened their neck that they might not hear or receive correction.
Je 17:24 But if indeed you listen to Me, declares Jehovah, and bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but sanctify the Sabbath day and do not do any work on it,
Je 17:25 aThen kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding on chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will come through the gates of this city; and this city will be inhabited forever.
Je 17:26 And they will come from the cities of Judah and the places surrounding Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland and from the hill country and from the 1Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices and meal offerings and frankincense and bringing thanksgiving to the house of Jehovah.
Je 17:27 But if you do not listen to Me to sanctify the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden when coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and will not be extinguished.
JEREMIAH 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

J. Jehovah as the Potter and Israel as the Pottery
18:1 — 20:18
1. Jehovah as the Sovereign Potter
18:1-10
Je 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 18:2 Arise and go down to the 1potter’s house, and there I will let you hear My words.
Je 18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and he was there doing work at his wheel.
Je 18:4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand; so he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good for the potter to make.
Je 18:5 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Je 18:6 Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, as this potter does? declares Jehovah. Indeed, as the clay is in the hand of the apotter, so you are in My hand, O house of Israel.
Je 18:7 At the moment that I speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to pluck it up or to break it down or to destroy it,
Je 18:8 And if that nation concerning which I have spoken aturns from its evil, I will brepent of the evil that I intended to do to it.
Je 18:9 And at the moment that I speak about a nation or a kingdom, to build it up or to plant it,
Je 18:10 And if it does evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit it.
2. The Evil Condition of Israel
18:11-23
Je 18:11 1And now speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Look, I am forming evil against you and devising a plan against you. aReturn now, each one of you from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.
Je 18:12 But they say, It is hopeless! For we will walk after our own devices and everyone will do according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.
Je 18:13 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / Ask now among the nations, / Who has heard such things? / The 1avirgin of Israel / Has done a very horrible thing.
Je 18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon / Leave the rock of the field? / Or will the cold flowing waters / Coming from afar be dried up?
Je 18:15 But My people have aforgotten Me; / They burn incense to vanity,
And they have been stumbled in their ways / From the 1ancient paths / To walk on 1bypaths, / On a way which is not cast up,
Je 18:16 aTo make their land an astonishment, / A thing to be hissed at forever. / Everyone who passes by will be astonished / And shake his head.
Je 18:17 Like the east wind I will scatter them / Before the enemy; / I will show them My aback and not My face / In the day of their calamity.
Je 18:18 Then they said, Come, let us adevise plots against Jeremiah; for the law will not perish from the priest or counsel from the wise man or a word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Je 18:19 Give heed to me, O Jehovah, / And listen to the voice of those who contend with me.
Je 18:20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? / For they have dug a pit for my life. / Remember how I stood before You / To speak good for their sake, / To turn away Your wrath from them.
Je 18:21 Therefore 1deliver up their children to famine, / And give them over to the power of the sword; / And let their wives become / Bereaved of child and be widows; / And let their men be slaughtered to death, / Their young men struck by the sword in battle.
Je 18:22 Let a cry be heard from their houses / When You suddenly bring upon them a troop; / For they have dug a pit to capture me / And have hidden snares for my feet.
Je 18:23 Yet You, O Jehovah, know / All their counsel against me for my death. / Do not be propitious to their iniquity, / And do not blot out their sin from before You; / But let them be overthrown before You; / Deal with them in the time of Your anger.
JEREMIAH 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

3. Israel as a Potter’s Earthenware Jar to Be Broken
19:1-13
Je 19:1 Thus says Jehovah, Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests;
Je 19:2 And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words which I will speak to you,
Je 19:3 And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring evil upon this place, at which the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle;
Je 19:4 Because they have forsaken Me and have estranged this place from Me and have burned incense in it to other gods, which neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent,
Je 19:5 aAnd they have built the high places of bBaal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come up in My heart.
Je 19:6 Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when this place will no longer be called 1Topheth, or the valley of the son of 1Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.
Je 19:7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their acorpses to the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the earth for food.
Je 19:8 And I will make this city an aastonishment and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss at all its wounds.
Je 19:9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their asons and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat his neighbor’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life distress them.
Je 19:10 And you shall break the jar in the sight of the men who go with you.
Je 19:11 And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, So I will break this people and this city in the same way as one breaks the potter’s avessel so that it cannot be repaired anymore, and they will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place to bury.
Je 19:12 Thus I will deal with this place, declares Jehovah, and with its inhabitants, so as to make this city like Topheth.
Je 19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like the place Topheth, defiled because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt aincense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.
4. Jeremiah’s Repeated Prophecy concerning Israel
19:14-15
Je 19:14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the house of Jehovah and said to all the people,
Je 19:15 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring to this city and upon all its cities all the evil that I have spoken against it because they have stiffened their aneck so as not to hear My words.
JEREMIAH 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

5. Israel’s Persecution of Jeremiah
20:1-2, 7-10
Je 20:1 Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
Je 20:2 And Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the astocks that were at the upper gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of Jehovah.
6. Jehovah’s Dealing with Israel
20:3-6
Je 20:3 And on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, Jehovah no longer calls your name Pashhur, but 1Magor-missabib.
Je 20:4 For thus says Jehovah, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes look on; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will exile them to aBabylon and strike them with the sword.
Je 20:5 I will also give all the wealth of this city and all its gains and all its precious things; indeed all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them and capture them and bring them to Babylon.
Je 20:6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity and you will go to Babylon and die there and be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied falsely.
5. Israel’s Persecution of Jeremiah (cont’d)
20:7-10
Je 20:7 You have enticed me, O Jehovah, and I let myself be enticed; / You have laid hold of me and have prevailed. / I have become a alaughingstock all day long; / Everyone mocks me.
Je 20:8 For whenever I speak, I cry out; / I proclaim violence and destruction; / For the word of Jehovah has become to me / A reproach and a derision all day long.
Je 20:9 But if I say, I will not mention Him / Or speak anymore in His name, / Then it is in my heart like a aburning fire, / Shut up in my bones, / And I am weary of holding it in, / Nor can I.
Je 20:10 aFor I hear the slander of many, / Terror on every side: / Denounce; yes, let us denounce him. / Every familiar bfriend / Is watching for my stumbling: / Perhaps he will be deceived so we can prevail against him / And take our revenge on him.
7. Jeremiah’s Accusation against Israel
20:11-13
Je 20:11 But Jehovah is with me like a mighty one who terrifies; / Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail; / They will be greatly ashamed, for they have not prospered, / With an eternal humiliation that will not be forgotten.
Je 20:12 aBut, O Jehovah of hosts, who tries the righteous, / Who sees the inward parts and the heart, / Let me see Your vengeance on them, / For I have revealed my cause to You.
Je 20:13 Sing to Jehovah; / Praise Jehovah; / For He has delivered the soul of the poor / From the hand of the evildoers.
8. Jeremiah’s Cursing of the Day of His Birth
20:14-18
Je 20:14 aCursed be the day / On which I was born; / Let not the day be blessed / On which my mother bore me.
Je 20:15 Cursed be the man who brought good news / To my father, saying, / A male child has been born to you, / Causing him much joy.
Je 20:16 And let that man be like the cities / Which Jehovah aoverthrew and did not repent, / And let him hear the cry in the morning / And the alarm in the noontime;
Je 20:17 Because he did not put me to death at the womb, / That my mother might be my grave, / And her womb always pregnant.
Je 20:18 Why is this? Did I come out from the womb / To see trouble and sorrow, / That my days may be spent in shame?
JEREMIAH 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

K. Jehovah’s Condemnation of and Punishment upon the Kings of Judah with Their People
21:1 — 23:8
Je 21:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when King aZedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
Je 21:2 Inquire for us of Jehovah, for 1aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps Jehovah will deal with us according to all His wonderful deeds, so that he goes up from us.
Je 21:3 Then Jeremiah said to them, Thus you will say to Zedekiah,
Je 21:4 Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hand and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will gather them together into the midst of this city.
Je 21:5 I Myself will afight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm and in anger and wrath and great indignation.
Je 21:6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence.
Je 21:7 And afterward, declares Jehovah, I will adeliver Zedekiah the king of Judah and his servants and the people who remain in this city after the pestilence and after the sword and after the famine into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he will strike them with the edge of the sword and will not pity them or spare them or have compassion on them.
Je 21:8 And to this people you shall say, Thus says Jehovah, I am setting abefore you the bway of life and the way of death.
Je 21:9 aHe who remains in this city will die by sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live and have his own life as spoil.
Je 21:10 For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, declares Jehovah; it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
Je 21:11 And to the house of the king of Judah say, Hear the word of Jehovah,
Je 21:12 O house of David, thus says Jehovah: / Execute judgment every morning, / And deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, / Lest My wrath go forth like fire / And burn, and there be no one to extinguish it, / Because of the evil of your deeds.
Je 21:13 Indeed, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, / O rock of the plateau, declares Jehovah, / Those who say, Who will come down against us, / And who will enter into our habitations?
Je 21:14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, / Declares Jehovah, / And I will kindle a afire in her forest, / And it will devour all that is around her.
JEREMIAH 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

Je 22:1 Thus says Jehovah, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there,
Je 22:2 And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people, who enter through these gates:
Je 22:3 Thus says Jehovah, Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow; nor shed innocent blood in this place.
Je 22:4 aFor if you indeed do this thing, then kings sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses — 1the king and his servants and his people will come through the gates of this house;
Je 22:5 But if you do not listen to these things, I swear by Myself, declares Jehovah, that this house will become a aruin.
Je 22:6 For thus says Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah,
You are Gilead to Me, / The summit of Lebanon; / Yet I will surely make you a wilderness, / Cities that are not inhabited.
Je 22:7 And I will set apart adestroyers against you, / Each with his weapons; / And they will cut down your choice cedars / And cast them into the fire.
Je 22:8 aAnd many nations will pass by this city, and they will say each one to his neighbor, Why has Jehovah done this to this great city?
Je 22:9 And they will say, It is because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.
Je 22:10 Do not weep for the one who died, nor lament for him; / But weep bitterly for the one who goes away, / For he will no longer return and see / The land of his birth.
Je 22:11 For thus says Jehovah concerning 1aShallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went away from this place: He will not return there anymore;
Je 22:12 But in the place where they have exiled him he will adie and never see this land again.
Je 22:13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness / And his upper rooms by injustice, / Who uses his neighbor’s service without awages / And does not give him recompense for his work,
Je 22:14 Who says, I will build myself a large house / With spacious upper chambers, / And cuts out for it windows; and it is paneled with cedar / And painted with vermilion.
Je 22:15 Are you a king because you / Excel in cedar? / Did not your father eat and drink, / And execute judgment and righteousness? Thus it was well with him.
Je 22:16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; thus it was well. / Is not this to know Me? / Declares Jehovah.
Je 22:17 But you have eyes and a heart / Only for your unjust gain / And for shedding innocent blood / And for oppression and doing violence.
Je 22:18 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning aJehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah,
They will not wail for him, saying, / Alas, my brother! or, Alas, sister! / They will not wail for him, saying, / Alas, lord! or, Alas, his majesty!
Je 22:19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey — / Dragged and cast out / Beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Je 22:20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out; / And lift up your voice in Bashan, / And cry out from Abarim, / For all your lovers have been shattered.
Je 22:21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; / But you said, I will not listen. / This has been your way from your youth, / That you have not listened to My voice.
Je 22:22 The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, / And your lovers will go into captivity; / Then you will be ashamed and confounded / Because of all your wickedness.
Je 22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, / Nested among the cedars, / How you will be pitied when pains come to you, / Anguish like that of a woman giving birth.
Je 22:24 As I live, declares Jehovah, Even though 1aConiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a bsignet ring on My right hand, yet I would tear you off,
Je 22:25 And I would agive you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whom you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Je 22:26 I will acast you and your mother who bore you far away into another land where you were not born, and there you will die.
Je 22:27 But to the land to which they desire to return, they will not return.
Je 22:28 Is this man aConiah a despised, shattered container? / Or is he a vessel no one delights in? / Why are he and his seed thrown away / And cast into a land which they do not know?
Je 22:29 O land, land, land, / Hear the word of Jehovah:
Je 22:30 Thus says Jehovah, / Write down this man as childless, / A man who will not prosper in his days; / For none of his 1seed will prosper / By sitting on the throne of David / Or by ruling again in Judah.
JEREMIAH 23

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

Je 23:1 Woe to the ashepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, declares Jehovah.
Je 23:2 Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd My people, You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited them; I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds, declares Jehovah.
(Jehovah’s Promise of Restoration to Israel)
23:3-8
Je 23:3 Then I will agather the bremnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply.
Je 23:4 And I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear or be dismayed, nor will any be missing, declares Jehovah.
Je 23:5 aIndeed, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will raise up to David a righteous 1bShoot; / And He will reign as 2King and act prudently / And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Je 23:6 In His days Judah will be saved, / And Israel will dwell securely; / And this is His name by which He will be called, / 1aJehovah 2our 3brighteousness.
Je 23:7 aTherefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when they will no longer say, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Je 23:8 But, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of aall the lands where I had driven them, that they might dwell in their own land.
L. Jehovah’s Condemnation of and Punishment upon the Prophets of Judah
with the Priests and with the People
23:9-40
Je 23:9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me; / All my bones fail. / I have become like a man who is drunk, / Even like a mighty man who is overcome by wine, / Because of Jehovah / And because of the words of His holiness.
Je 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; / For the land mourns because of the curse. / The pastures of the wilderness are dried up, / And the course they run is evil, / And their might is not right.
Je 23:11 For both the prophet and the priest are profane; / Even in My house I have found their wickedness, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 23:12 Therefore their way will become like slippery paths for them; / In the darkness they will be driven and will fall in it; / For I will bring evil on them / In the year of their punishment, declares Jehovah.
Je 23:13 And in the prophets of Samaria / I have seen an offensive thing: / They prophesied by Baal / And led My people Israel astray.
Je 23:14 And yet in the prophets of Jerusalem / I have seen a horrible thing: / The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; / And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, / So that none turn / From their wickedness. / All of them have become to Me like aSodom / And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Je 23:15 aTherefore thus says Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: / I will feed them with bwormwood / And give them poisonous water to drink, / For profaneness has gone forth / From the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land.
Je 23:16 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you; / They are leading you to 1vanity; / They speak a vision of their own heart, / Not out of the mouth of Jehovah.
Je 23:17 They say continually to those who despise Me, / Jehovah has spoken, You will have peace; / And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, / They say, Evil will not come upon you.
Je 23:18 For who has stood in the 1council of Jehovah, / That he should perceive and hear His word? / Who has given heed to His word and listened?
Je 23:19 aLook, the storm wind of Jehovah! Wrath has gone forth, / Even a whirling tempest; / It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.
Je 23:20 The anger of Jehovah will not turn back / Until He has executed and until He has accomplished / The purposes of His heart; / In the last days / You will understand it clearly.
Je 23:21 I did not send the prophets, / But they ran forth; / I did not speak to them, / Yet they prophesied.
Je 23:22 But if they had stood in My council / And had caused My people to hear My words, / They would have turned them from their evil way / And from the evil of their deeds.
Je 23:23 Am I a God who is near, declares Jehovah, / And not a God who is far off?
Je 23:24 Can a man hide ahimself in secret places, / So that I will not see him? declares Jehovah. / Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? / Declares Jehovah.
Je 23:25 I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsehood in My name, saying, I have dreamed; I have dreamed.
Je 23:26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood and who are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
Je 23:27 Who think to cause My people to forget My name with their dreams which they tell, each one to his neighbor, even as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?
Je 23:28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell the dream; and he with whom is My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the 1straw to the 1grain? declares Jehovah.
Je 23:29 Is not My word thus — like 1afire, declares Jehovah, and like a 1hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Je 23:30 Therefore indeed, I am against the prophets, declares Jehovah, who 1steal My words, each one from his neighbor.
Je 23:31 Indeed, I am against the prophets, declares Jehovah, who use their tongues and declare, He has declared.
Je 23:32 Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares Jehovah, and who tell them and lead My people astray by their lies and by their recklessness, although I did not send them or command them; neither do they profit this people at all, declares Jehovah.
Je 23:33 And when this people or the prophet or priest asks you, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? then you shall say to them, What burden? I will even cast you off, declares Jehovah.
Je 23:34 And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, The burden of Jehovah, I will punish that man and his household.
Je 23:35 Thus you shall say every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, What has Jehovah answered? or, What has Jehovah spoken?
Je 23:36 And you shall mention no more the burden of Jehovah, for every man’s word will be his own burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, Jehovah of hosts, our God.
Je 23:37 Thus you shall say to the prophet, What has Jehovah answered you? or, What has Jehovah spoken?
Je 23:38 But if you say, The burden of Jehovah, therefore thus says Jehovah, Because you have said this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Jehovah,
Je 23:39 Therefore, I will utterly forget you and cast away from My presence you and the city which I gave to you and to your fathers.
Je 23:40 And I will bring upon you eternal reproach and eternal humiliation, which will not be forgotten.
JEREMIAH 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

M. Judah’s Captivity
24:1 — 25:38
1. Jeremiah’s Vision of Two Baskets of Figs
24:1-10
Je 24:1 Jehovah showed me, and there were two baskets of 1figs placed before the temple of Jehovah, after aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon had exiled Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah and the craftsmen and the smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon.
Je 24:2 One basket had very good afigs, like first ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten because of their rottenness.
Je 24:3 And Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs. The good figs are very good; the bad figs are very bad, which cannot be eaten because of their rottenness.
Je 24:4 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Je 24:5 Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so I will regard those who are exiled of Judah, whom I have sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, for good.
Je 24:6 And I will set My eyes upon them for good and will abring them back to this land and bbuild them up and not tear them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them.
Je 24:7 And I will give them a aheart to know Me, that I am Jehovah; and they will be bMy people, and cI will be their God; for they will return to Me with their whole heart.
Je 24:8 And like the bad afigs that cannot be eaten because of their rottenness, thus says Jehovah, so I will make Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and 1those who dwell in the land of Egypt —
Je 24:9 I will even make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a 1proverb and a 1byword and a curse in all the places where I will drive them.
Je 24:10 And I will send asword and famine and pestilence upon them until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.
JEREMIAH 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • 

2. Jeremiah’s Prophecy concerning All the People of Judah
25:1-38
Je 25:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah (that is, the first year of 1Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon),
Je 25:2 Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
Je 25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even unto this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Jehovah came to me, and I spoke to you, arising up early and speaking, but you have not listened.
Je 25:4 And Jehovah asent to you all His servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear,
Je 25:5 Saying, Turn now every one from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell upon the land which Jehovah has given you and your fathers from eternity to eternity;
Je 25:6 And do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them; and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.
Je 25:7 Yet you have not listened to Me, declares Jehovah, that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.
Je 25:8 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, Because you have not listened to My words,
Je 25:9 I will send for and take all the families of the anorth, declares Jehovah, that is, for bNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and an eternal reproach.
Je 25:10 aAnd I will cause the voice of gladness and the voice of joy to perish from them, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
Je 25:11 And this whole land will become a desolation and a waste, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 1aseventy years.
Je 25:12 Then after the seventy years have been fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity, declares Jehovah, as well as the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it an eternal adesolation.
Je 25:13 And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have spoken against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the anations.
Je 25:14 For many nations and great kings will make them serve them, even them, and I will recompense them according to their doing and according to the work of their hands.
Je 25:15 For thus said Jehovah the God of Israel to me, Take this acup of the wine of wrath from My hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink it.
Je 25:16 And they will drink and stagger and become mad because of the sword which I am sending among them.
Je 25:17 And I took the cup from Jehovah’s hand and made all the nations to whom Jehovah sent me drink it:
Je 25:18 aJerusalem and the cities of Judah and her kings, her princes, to make them a desolation, a waste, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day;
Je 25:19 Pharaoh, the king of aEgypt, and his servants and his princes and all his people;
Je 25:20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the aPhilistines (even Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod);
Je 25:21 aEdom and bMoab and the children of cAmmon;
Je 25:22 And all the kings of aTyre and all the kings of Sidon and the kings of the islands across the sea;
Je 25:23 And Dedan and Tema and Buz and all who cut the corners of their hair;
Je 25:24 And all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people who dwell in the wilderness;
Je 25:25 And all the kings of Zimri and all the kings of aElam and all the kings of Media;
Je 25:26 And all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the surface of the ground and the king of 1aSheshach will drink it after them.
Je 25:27 And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Drink and be drunk, and vomit and fall, and rise no longer, because of the sword which I am sending among you.
Je 25:28 And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, You shall surely drink it.
Je 25:29 For I am now abeginning to bring evil on the city which is called by My name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares Jehovah of hosts.
Je 25:30 Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words and say to them,
aJehovah will roar from on high, / And He will utter His voice from His holy habitation; / He will roar mightily against His habitation; / He will respond with a shout like those who tread grapes, / Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
Je 25:31 The tumult comes to the ends of the earth, / For Jehovah has a adispute with the nations. / He is entering into bjudgment with all flesh / And will give up the wicked to the sword, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 25:32 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Evil is now going forth / From nation to nation, / And a great storm wind is being stirred up / From the uttermost parts of the earth.
Je 25:33 And those slain by Jehovah on that day will be from one end of the earth unto the other end of the earth; they will not be amourned or gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground.
Je 25:34 Howl, O shepherds, and cry out / And roll in ashes, O majestic ones of the flock; / For your days of slaughter have been fulfilled, / And I will disperse you, so that you fall like a precious vessel.
Je 25:35 And refuge will perish from the shepherds, / And an escape from the majestic ones of the flock.
Je 25:36 The sound of the cry of the shepherds! / And the howl of the majestic ones of the flock! / For Jehovah is destroying their pasture;
Je 25:37 And the habitations of peace are destroyed / Because of the burning anger of Jehovah.
Je 25:38 Like a young alion He has left His lair, / For their land has become a waste, / Because of the 1oppressing sword / And because of His burning anger.
JEREMIAH 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

N. Judah’s Reaction to Jeremiah
26:1-24
Je 26:1 In the beginning of the reign of aJehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from Jehovah, saying,
Je 26:2 Thus says Jehovah, Stand in the acourt of the house of Jehovah and speak to all the cities of Judah, who come to worship in the house of Jehovah, all the words which I command you to speak to them, and do not take away a word.
Je 26:3 Perhaps they will listen and turn, every one from his evil way, that I may repent of the evil which I intend to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.
Je 26:4 And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah, If you will not listen to Me to walk in My law, which I have set before you,
Je 26:5 To listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I asend to you, rising up early and sending them — and you have not listened —
Je 26:6 Then I will make this house like 1aShiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth.
Je 26:7 And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah.
Je 26:8 And when Jeremiah had finished speaking everything that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, You will surely die!
Je 26:9 Why have you prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be a desolation, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah.
Je 26:10 And the princes of Judah heard these things, and they went up from the king’s house to the house of Jehovah and took their seat at the entrance of the new gate of the house of Jehovah.
Je 26:11 And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying, A sentence of death on this man! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.
Je 26:12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words which you have heard.
Je 26:13 Now therefore aamend your ways and your deeds and listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, and Jehovah will brepent of the evil which He has spoken against you.
Je 26:14 But as for me, here I am, in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your eyes.
Je 26:15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon her inhabitants; for truly Jehovah has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.
Je 26:16 Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, This man is not worthy of a sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God.
Je 26:17 And some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,
Je 26:18 aMicah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts,
bZion will be plowed as a field, / And Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, / And the cmountain of the 1house as the high places of a forest.
Je 26:19 Did Hezekiah the king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not afear Jehovah and entreat the favor of Jehovah, and did not Jehovah repent of the evil which He had spoken against them? But we are about to bring a great evil on ourselves.
Je 26:20 And there was another man who prophesied in the name of Jehovah, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land words like all those of Jeremiah.
Je 26:21 And when King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard, he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt.
Je 26:22 And King Jehoiakim sent certain men to Egypt, that is, Elnathan the son of Achbor and men with him to Egypt;
Je 26:23 And they brought Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him with the sword and threw his corpse into the graves of the common people.
Je 26:24 Nevertheless the hand of aAhikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was 1not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.
JEREMIAH 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

O. Jeremiah’s Genuine Prophecies versus the Others’ False Prophecies
27:1 — 29:32
1. Concerning Nebuchadnezzar as Bonds and Yokes on Israel and the Nations around Her
27:1-15
Je 27:1 In the beginning of the reign of 1aZedekiah the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 27:2 Thus said Jehovah to me, Make for yourself bonds and ayoke bars, and put them on your neck;
Je 27:3 And send them to the king of Edom and to the king of Moab and to the king of the children of Ammon and to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah the king of Judah.
Je 27:4 And command them to go to their masters, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus you shall say to your masters,
Je 27:5 It is I who made the aearth, and the people and the animals who are on the face of the earth, by My great power and by My outstretched arm; and I give it to bwhomever it seems right in My own eyes.
Je 27:6 And now I have given all these lands into the hand of aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and I have also given him the beasts of the field to serve him.
Je 27:7 And all the nations will serve him and his son and his son’s son until the atime of his own land comes, when many nations and great kings will make him serve them.
Je 27:8 But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with sword and with famine and with pestilence, declares Jehovah, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Je 27:9 But as for you, do not listen to your prophets and to your 1diviners and to your dreams and to your 1soothsayers and to your 1sorcerers who speak to you, saying, You will not serve the king of Babylon.
Je 27:10 For they prophesy afalsehood to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish.
Je 27:11 But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave in its own land, declares Jehovah, to till it and dwell there.
Je 27:12 And I spoke to Zedekiah the king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Je 27:13 Why will you die, you and your people, by sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as Jehovah has spoken concerning the nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?
Je 27:14 And do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You will not serve the king of Babylon; for they are prophesying afalsehood to you.
Je 27:15 For I have not sent them, declares Jehovah; but they prophesy falsely in My name, with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.
2. Concerning the Bringing Back of the Vessels of the House of Jehovah
27:16-22
Je 27:16 And I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, The avessels of the house of Jehovah will now shortly be brought back from Babylon; for they are prophesying bfalsehood to you.
Je 27:17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation?
Je 27:18 But if they are prophets and if the word of Jehovah is with them, let them intercede to Jehovah of hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of Jehovah and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.
Je 27:19 For thus says Jehovah of hosts concerning the apillars and concerning the sea and concerning the bases and concerning the rest of the vessels which are left in this city,
Je 27:20 Which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did not take when he took into exile aJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.
Je 27:21 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels which are left in the house of Jehovah and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem,
Je 27:22 They will be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day I visit them, declares Jehovah; then I will bring them up and restore athem to this place.
JEREMIAH 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

3. Concerning the Breaking of the Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and
the Bringing Back of the Vessels of the House of Jehovah and All the Exiles from Judah to Babylon
28:1-17
Je 28:1 And in that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Jehovah in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
Je 28:2 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the ayoke of the king of Babylon.
Je 28:3 Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the avessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took from this place and carried to Babylon.
Je 28:4 And Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, I will bring back to this place, declares Jehovah; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Je 28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of Jehovah.
Je 28:6 And the prophet Jeremiah said, aAmen! May Jehovah do so. May Jehovah establish your words which you have prophesied and bring back the vessels of the house of Jehovah and all the exiles from Babylon to this place.
Je 28:7 Nevertheless hear now this word which I am about to speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people.
Je 28:8 The prophets who were before me and before you since long ago prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of evil and of pestilence.
Je 28:9 The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of that prophet acomes to pass, then the prophet will be known as one whom Jehovah has truly sent.
Je 28:10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the ayoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it.
Je 28:11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Even so I will break the ayoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two full years. Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
Je 28:12 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Je 28:13 Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah, You have broken the wooden yoke bars, but you have made in their place iron yoke bars.
Je 28:14 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put an airon yoke upon the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given the beasts of the field to him.
Je 28:15 And the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, Listen now, O Hananiah, Jehovah has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in afalsehood.
Je 28:16 Therefore thus says Jehovah, I will send you from the face of the earth. This year you will die because you have spoken arebellion against Jehovah.
Je 28:17 And the prophet Hananiah died in that very year in the seventh month.
JEREMIAH 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

4. Concerning the Destiny of the Captives in Babylon and of Those Who Remain in Judah
29:1-32
Je 29:1 And these are the words of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon
Je 29:2 (After King aJeconiah and the queen mother and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and the smiths had gone out from Jerusalem),
Je 29:3 By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah the king of Judah sent to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon at Babylon, saying:
Je 29:4 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
Je 29:5 Build ahouses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.
Je 29:6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there and do not become few.
Je 29:7 And seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and apray to Jehovah for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
Je 29:8 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets, who are in your midst, and your diviners deceive you; and do not listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed.
Je 29:9 For they prophesy to you falsely in My name; and I have not sent them, declares Jehovah.
Je 29:10 For thus says Jehovah, When 1aseventy years are fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
Je 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think about you, declares Jehovah, thoughts of peace and not for evil, to give you a latter end and a hope.
Je 29:12 Then you will 1acall upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you;
Je 29:13 And you will aseek Me and find Me if you search for Me with all your heart;
Je 29:14 And I will be found by you, declares Jehovah. And I will turn your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares Jehovah, and abring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.
Je 29:15 If you say, Jehovah has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,
Je 29:16 Indeed thus says Jehovah concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go out with you into exile:
Je 29:17 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I am about to send upon them asword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile bfigs, which cannot be eaten because of rottenness.
Je 29:18 And I will pursue them with sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them;
Je 29:19 Because they have not listened to My words, declares Jehovah, which I asent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending; but you did not listen, declares Jehovah.
Je 29:20 Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Je 29:21 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you falsehood in My name, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he will strike them before your eyes.
Je 29:22 And because of them a curse will be taken up by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, May Jehovah make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
Je 29:23 Because they have committed folly in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken a word of falsehood in My name, which I did not command them to do; indeed I am the One who knows and am witness, declares Jehovah.
Je 29:24 And you shall speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
Je 29:25 Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
Je 29:26 Jehovah has made you a priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, that there should be officers in the house of Jehovah over every madman who prophesies so that you might put him in the stocks and in the iron collar.
Je 29:27 And now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who prophesies to you?
Je 29:28 For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, It will be a long time; build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.
Je 29:29 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.
Je 29:30 Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Je 29:31 Send word to all the exiles, saying, Thus says Jehovah concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, when I did not send him, and has made you trust in falsehood,
Je 29:32 Therefore thus says Jehovah, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed: He will not have anyone living among this people and will not see the good that I am about to do to My people, declares Jehovah, because he has spoken arebellion against Jehovah.
JEREMIAH 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

P. Jehovah’s Promise concerning the Restoration of Israel
30:1 — 33:26
1. Jehovah to Turn the Captivity of Israel and Judah
and to Bring Them Back to the Land after His Chastisement of Them
30:1 — 31:40
Je 30:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 30:2 Thus speaks Jehovah the God of Israel, saying, Write in a book all the words which I have spoken to you.
Je 30:3 Yes indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will aturn the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, says Jehovah, and I will bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.
Je 30:4 And these are the words which Jehovah spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah:
Je 30:5 For thus says Jehovah, / We have heard a voice of trembling, / Of fear and not of peace.
Je 30:6 Ask now and see / Whether a man can give birth. / Why do I see every man / With his hands on his loins like a awoman about to give birth / And every face turned pale?
Je 30:7 Alas! For that aday is great, / And there is none like it; / And it is a time of 1distress for Jacob, / But he will be saved out of it.
Je 30:8 And on that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, I will break his yoke from your neck and tear off your bonds, and strangers will no longer make him serve them.
Je 30:9 But they will serve Jehovah their God and 1aDavid their King, whom I will raise up for them.
Je 30:10 aTherefore do not fear, O Jacob My servant, declares Jehovah, / And do not be dismayed, O Israel; / For indeed, I will save you from afar, / And your seed from the land of their captivity; / And Jacob will return and be undisturbed and at ease, / And no one will frighten him.
Je 30:11 For I am with you, declares Jehovah, to save you; / For I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have scattered you; / But I will not make a afull end of you, / But will bcorrect you in measure / And will by no means leave you unpunished.
Je 30:12 For thus says Jehovah, / Your hurt is aincurable; / Your wound is grievous.
Je 30:13 There is none to judge your judgment, to bind your wound; / There are no healing medicines for you.
Je 30:14 All your lovers have forgotten you; / They do not search for you; / For I have struck you with the striking of an enemy, / With the chastisement of one who is cruel, / Because of the greatness of your iniquity; / Your sins are numerous.
Je 30:15 Why do you cry out over your hurt? / Your pain is incurable. / Because of the greatness of your iniquity, / Because your sins are numerous, / I have done these things to you.
Je 30:16 Therefore all those who consume you will be consumed, / And all those who distress you, every one of them, will go into captivity; / And those who plunder you will become plunder, / And all those who prey on you I will make a prey.
Je 30:17 For I will bring you arecovery / And will heal you of your wounds, declares Jehovah; / Because they have called you an outcast, saying, / She is Zion, whom no one searches after.
Je 30:18 Thus says Jehovah, / I will aturn the captivity of the tents of Jacob / And have bcompassion on his dwelling places; / And the city will be rebuilt on its mound, / And the palace will be inhabited after its own manner.
Je 30:19 And out from them will come thanksgiving / And the voice of those who make merry. / And I will multiply them, so that they will not be few; / And I will cause them to be honored, so that they will not be small.
Je 30:20 And 1their children will be as they were of old, / And 1their assembly will be established before Me; / And I will punish all those who oppress 2them,
Je 30:21 And their leader will be one of them. / And their aruler will come out from their midst, / And I will bring him bnear, and he will approach Me. / For who else would be bold enough / To approach Me? declares Jehovah.
Je 30:22 And you will be My people, / And aI will be your God.
Je 30:23 Look, the storm wind of Jehovah! / Wrath has gone forth, / A whirling tempest; / It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.
Je 30:24 The burning anger of Jehovah will not turn back, / Until He has executed and until He has accomplished / The purposes of His heart; / In the last days / You will understand it.
JEREMIAH 31

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Je 31:1 At that time, declares Jehovah, aI will be the God of all the families of Israel, and bthey will be My people.
Je 31:2 Thus says Jehovah,
The people who survived the sword / Found favor in the wilderness — / Even Israel, when I went to give him rest.
Je 31:3 Jehovah appeared to me from afar, saying, / Indeed I have aloved you with an eternal love, / Therefore I have bdrawn you with lovingkindness.
Je 31:4 I will abuild you again, and you will be built, / O virgin of Israel. / Again you will adorn yourself with your tambourines / And will go forth in the dance of those who make merry.
Je 31:5 Again you will plant vineyards / On the mountains of Samaria; / The planters will plant / And will partake of the fruit.
Je 31:6 For there will be a day when watchmen call out / In the hill country of Ephraim, / Saying, aArise and let us go up to Zion, / To Jehovah our God.
Je 31:7 For thus says Jehovah, / Give a ringing shout with joy for Jacob, / And cry out at the head of the nations; / Announce, praise, and say, / O Jehovah, save Your people, / The remnant of Israel.
Je 31:8 I will abring them / From the land of the north, / And I will bgather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, / The blind and the lame among them, / The pregnant woman and she who is travailing together, / A great assembly; they will return here.
Je 31:9 They will come with aweeping, / And with supplications I will lead them. / I will cause them to walk by the bwaterbrooks / In a straight way, in which they will not stumble; / For I am a cFather to Israel, / And Ephraim is My dfirstborn.
Je 31:10 Hear the word of Jehovah, O nations, / And declare in the coastlands from afar, / And say, He who scattered Israel will gather him / And keep him, as a shepherd his flock.
Je 31:11 For Jehovah has aransomed Jacob / And redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than he.
Je 31:12 And they will come and sing in the aheight of Zion, / And they will flow forth to the bgoodness of Jehovah — / To the grain and to the new wine and to the fresh oil / And to the young of the flock and of the herd; / And their soul will be like a cwatered garden, / And they will not dlanguish anymore.
Je 31:13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, / And the young men and the old men together, / And I will aturn their mourning to gladness / And comfort them and cause them to rejoice after their sorrow.
Je 31:14 And I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, / And My people will be satisfied with My goodness, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 31:15 Thus says Jehovah, / aA voice is heard in Ramah, / A wailing, a very bitter weeping. / Rachel is weeping for her children; / She refuses to be comforted for her children, / Because they are bno more.
Je 31:16 Thus says Jehovah, / Hold back your voice from weeping / And your eyes from tears; / For there is a reward for your work, declares Jehovah; / And they will return from the land of the enemy.
Je 31:17 And there is hope for your latter end, declares Jehovah, / That your children will return to their own border.
Je 31:18 Indeed I have heard Ephraim lamenting, / You have chastised me, and I was chastised, / Like an untrained calf; / Bring me back that I may be restored, / For You are Jehovah my God.
Je 31:19 For after I aturned back, I repented; / And after I was instructed, / I struck myself on the thigh. / I was ashamed and even confounded, / For I bear the reproach of my youth.
Je 31:20 Is Ephraim a precious son to Me? / Or a child of My good pleasure? / For as often as I speak against him, / I surely remember him more; / Therefore My bowels moan for him; / I will surely have mercy on him, declares Jehovah.
Je 31:21 Set up road markers for yourself; / Make signposts for yourself; / Pay attention to the highway, / The way you went; / Return, O virgin of Israel; / Return to these cities of yours.
Je 31:22 How long will you wander here and there, / O apostate daughter? / For Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth: / A female will encompass a mighty man.
Je 31:23 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Once more they will say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I turn again their captivity,
Jehovah bless you, 1O ahabitation of brighteousness, / O 1mountain of choliness.
Je 31:24 And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in it, the farmers and they who wander with the flocks.
Je 31:25 For I have satisfied the weary soul and filled every languishing soul.
Je 31:26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
Je 31:27 Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.
Je 31:28 And as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares Jehovah.
Je 31:29 In those days they will no longer say,
aThe fathers eat sour grapes, / And the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Je 31:30 For everyone will adie for his own iniquity; every man who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.
Je 31:31 Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will make a 1anew covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
Je 31:32 Not like the 1acovenant which I made with their fathers in the day I btook them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their cHusband, declares Jehovah.
Je 31:33 aBut this is the bcovenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My 1law in their cinward parts and 2dwrite it upon their hearts; and eI will be their 3God, and they will be My people.
Je 31:34 And they will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will 1aknow Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah, for I will 2bforgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more3.
Je 31:35 Thus says Jehovah, / Who gives the asun for light by day / And the order of the moon and the stars for light by night, / Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — / Jehovah of hosts is His name —
Je 31:36 If this order departs / From before Me, declares Jehovah, / Then the seed of Israel will also cease / From being a nation before Me 1forever.
Je 31:37 Thus says Jehovah, / If the heavens above can be measured, / And the foundations of the earth below can be examined carefully, / Then I will also cast off all the seed of Israel / For all they have done, declares Jehovah.
Je 31:38 Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when the city will be abuilt unto Jehovah from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
Je 31:39 And the measuring line will go out even further beyond it to the hill of Gareb and will turn toward Goah.
Je 31:40 And the whole valley of corpses and of fatty ashes and all the fields as far as the brook of Kidron unto the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east will be aholy to Jehovah; it will not be uprooted or torn down anymore forever.
JEREMIAH 32

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2. The Imprisonment and Condemnation of Jeremiah by Zedekiah
32:1-5
Je 32:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of aZedekiah the king of Judah. That year was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
Je 32:2 Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
Je 32:3 For Zedekiah the king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, saying, aThus says Jehovah, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it;
Je 32:4 And Zedekiah the king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes;
Je 32:5 And he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him, declares Jehovah; though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not prosper?
3. Jeremiah’s Buying of the Field in Anathoth
32:6-15
Je 32:6 And Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Je 32:7 Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, Buy for yourself my field which is in Anathoth, for you have the aright of redemption to buy it.
Je 32:8 And Hanamel, my uncle’s son, came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Jehovah and said to me, Buy my field which is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, for you have the right of possession, and the right of redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of Jehovah.
Je 32:9 And I bought the field which was in Anathoth from Hanamel, my uncle’s son, and I weighed out for him the money, seventeen shekels of silver.
Je 32:10 And I signed and sealed the deed and called witnesses and weighed out the money on scales.
Je 32:11 Then I took the deed of purchase, the sealed part, containing the terms and conditions, and the open part;
Je 32:12 And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel, my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.
Je 32:13 And I commanded aBaruch in their presence, saying,
Je 32:14 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these deeds, this deed of purchase, both the one which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel that they may remain many days.
Je 32:15 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, 1Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.
4. Jeremiah’s Dealing with Jehovah concerning the Field
32:16-25
Je 32:16 And after I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Jehovah, saying,
Je 32:17 Ah, Lord Jehovah! It is You who have amade the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. bNothing is too wonderful for You,
Je 32:18 Who show alovingkindness to thousands of generations but repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. O great and mighty God, whose name is Jehovah of hosts,
Je 32:19 Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to each according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;
Je 32:20 aWho have set bsigns and wonders unto this day in the land of Egypt and in Israel and among mankind and have made a name for Yourself, as in this day.
Je 32:21 And You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror.
Je 32:22 And You gave them this land, which You had sworn to their fathers to give them, a aland flowing with milk and honey.
Je 32:23 And they entered and took possession of it, but they did not listen to Your voice or walk in Your law. They have not done anything of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this evil to happen to them.
Je 32:24 See the siege mounds, which come up to the city to capture it. And the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans, who are fighting against it, by sword and famine and pestilence. And what You have spoken has come to pass, even as You see it.
Je 32:25 But You, O Lord Jehovah, said to me, Buy for yourself the field with money and call witnesses. Yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
5. Jehovah’s Answer to Jeremiah
32:26-44
Je 32:26 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Je 32:27 Indeed, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh. Is aanything too wonderful for Me?
Je 32:28 Therefore thus says Jehovah, I am now giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he will take it.
Je 32:29 And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire, and they will burn it and the houses upon whose roofs 1the people have offered incense to aBaal and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
Je 32:30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done aevil in My sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked Me to anger by the work of their hands, declares Jehovah.
Je 32:31 For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and of My wrath, from the day that they built it even unto this day, so that I should remove it from My sight;
Je 32:32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger — they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Je 32:33 And they have turned their back to Me and not their face, although I taught them, arising up early and teaching; but they would not listen so as to receive instruction.
Je 32:34 aAnd they set up their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.
Je 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom in order to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, something I did not command them to do, nor did it come up in My heart that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Je 32:36 And now therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, It has been given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and by famine and by pestilence.
Je 32:37 Indeed, I will 1agather them out from all the lands where I have driven them in My anger and in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety.
Je 32:38 And they will be My people, and aI will be their God;
Je 32:39 And I will give them 1aone heart and one way, to fear Me all the days, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
Je 32:40 And I will make an 1eternal acovenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put My fear into their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me.
Je 32:41 And I will arejoice over them to do them good, and I will bplant them in this land in faithfulness with all My heart and with all My soul.
Je 32:42 For thus says Jehovah, Just as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promised them.
Je 32:43 And fields will be bought in this land of which you are saying, It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Je 32:44 They will buy fields with money and sign and seal deeds and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and all around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah and in the cities of the hill country and in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the 1Negev, for I will turn their captivity, declares Jehovah.
JEREMIAH 33

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6. The Word of Jehovah as a Reaffirmation of His Promise concerning the Restoration of Israel
33:1-26
Je 33:1 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still shut up in the court of the guard, saying,
Je 33:2 Thus says Jehovah who does it, Jehovah who formed it to establish it — Jehovah is His name —
Je 33:3 aCall unto Me, and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden things, which you do not know.
Je 33:4 For thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which were torn down as a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword,
Je 33:5 And who came to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill 1the houses with the corpses of men whom I have struck in My anger and My wrath, and this city from which I have hidden My face because of all their wickedness:
Je 33:6 I am about to bring it arecovery and healing and will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth.
Je 33:7 And I will aturn the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel and bbuild them up as in the former time.
Je 33:8 And I will acleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against Me, and bforgive all their iniquities, by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.
Je 33:9 And 1it will be a name of gladness and a praise and a glory to Me before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good that I am about to do for them; and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and because of all the peace that I am about to provide for it.
Je 33:10 Thus says Jehovah, Again there will be heard in this place concerning which you say, It is a waste, without man and without beast, and in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,
Je 33:11 The avoice of gladness and the voice of joy and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the voice of those who say, bPraise Jehovah of hosts, for Jehovah is good, for His lovingkindness is forever, as they bring a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the house of Jehovah; for I will turn the captivity of the land, as in the former time, says Jehovah.
Je 33:12 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, Again there will be in this place which is a waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds making their flock lie down.
Je 33:13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev and in the land of Benjamin and all around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flock will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them, says Jehovah.
Je 33:14 aIndeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will establish the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
Je 33:15 In those days and at that time I will cause a 1aShoot of righteousness to shoot forth unto David, and He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Je 33:16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely; and this is the name by which 1she will be called: aJehovah our brighteousness.
Je 33:17 For thus says Jehovah, David will never lack a man to asit on the throne of the house of Israel,
Je 33:18 And the Levitical priests will never lack a man before Me to offer up a burnt offering and to offer up a meal offering and to make a sacrifice continually.
Je 33:19 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Je 33:20 Thus says Jehovah, 1If you can break My covenant with respect to the aday and My covenant with respect to the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time,
Je 33:21 Then also My covenant can be broken with David My servant, so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests as My ministers.
Je 33:22 As the 1host of heaven cannot be anumbered and the 1sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the bseed of David My servant and the cLevites who minister to Me.
Je 33:23 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Je 33:24 Have you not seen what this people has spoken, saying, The two families which Jehovah has chosen, these He has rejected? And they despise My people, so that they are no longer a nation in their sight.
Je 33:25 Thus says Jehovah, If My covenant with respect to day and night does not stand, if I have not established the statutes of heaven and earth,
Je 33:26 Then I will also reject the seed of Jacob and David My servant and will not take rulers from his seed to be over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will turn their captivity and will have compassion on them.
JEREMIAH 34

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Q. Israel’s Stubbornness in Their Sinning against Jehovah and
Jeremiah’s Firmness in His Speaking for Jehovah
34:1 — 45:5
1. Before the Fall of Jerusalem
34:1 — 38:28
a. Nebuchadnezzar’s Invasion and Zedekiah’s Destiny
34:1-7
Je 34:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying,
Je 34:2 aThus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Go and speak to Zedekiah the king of Judah and say to him, Thus says Jehovah, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire;
Je 34:3 And you will not escape from his hand but will surely be captured and given into his hand; and your aeyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go into Babylon.
Je 34:4 Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah, Thus says Jehovah concerning you, You will not die by the sword.
Je 34:5 You will die in peace; and as there were burnings for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so men will burn spices for you and wail for you, saying, Alas, lord! Indeed, it is I who have spoken the word, declares Jehovah.
Je 34:6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah the king of Judah in Jerusalem
Je 34:7 When the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah, for these were the fortified cities that remained among the cities of Judah.
b. Zedekiah’s Dishonesty in Keeping God’s Commandment, and Jehovah’s Punishment
34:8-22
Je 34:8 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim aliberty to them,
Je 34:9 That every one should aset free his male servant and every one his female servant, who is a Hebrew male or a Hebrew female, so that bno one should exact service of them, that is, of a Jew his brother.
Je 34:10 And all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant obeyed, so as to set free every one his male servant and every one his female servant, so that no one would exact service of them again; and they obeyed and set them free.
Je 34:11 But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants, whom they had set free, and they brought them into subjection as male servants and as female servants.
Je 34:12 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 34:13 Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,
Je 34:14 At the end of every aseven years each of you shall set free his brother who is a Hebrew, who was sold to you and has served you six years, and you shall set him free from you; but your fathers did not listen to Me or incline their ear.
Je 34:15 And though you had turned in these days and done what is right in My eyes to proclaim liberty, each one to his neighbor, and made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name;
Je 34:16 You turned back and profaned My name when you took back each one his male servant and each one his female servant, whom you had set free according to their desire, and brought them into subjection to be your male servants and your female servants.
Je 34:17 Therefore thus says Jehovah, You have not listened to Me to proclaim liberty each one to his brother and each one to his neighbor; I am now proclaiming liberty to you, declares Jehovah, to asword and to pestilence and to famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Je 34:18 And I will give the men who transgressed My covenant and did not establish the words of the covenant which they made before Me when they acut the calf in two and passed between its parts,
Je 34:19 The princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf —
Je 34:20 Indeed, I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their acorpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
Je 34:21 And Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.
Je 34:22 I hereby give the command, declares Jehovah, to bring them back to this city; and they will afight against it and capture it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
JEREMIAH 35

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c. The Example of the Rechabites
35:1-19
Je 35:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying,
Je 35:2 Go to the house of the aRechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of Jehovah, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
Je 35:3 So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites,
Je 35:4 And I brought them to the house of Jehovah, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold.
Je 35:5 And I set before the members of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, Drink wine.
Je 35:6 But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall not drink wine, you and your sons, forever.
Je 35:7 And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard or have one; but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may live many days on the land where you are sojourning.
Je 35:8 And we have listened to the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, to all that he commanded us: to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters,
Je 35:9 And not to build houses for us to dwell in; neither do we have a vineyard or a field or seed.
Je 35:10 But we have dwelt in tents and have listened to and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
Je 35:11 But when Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came up against the land we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem from before the army of the Chaldeans and from before the army of the Syrians. So we are dwelling in Jerusalem.
Je 35:12 Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Je 35:13 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Go and say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words? declares Jehovah.
Je 35:14 The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, by which he commanded his sons to drink no wine, have been established, and they have drunk no wine unto this day, for they have obeyed the command of their father. But I have spoken to you, arising up early and speaking, yet you have not listened to Me.
Je 35:15 I have also asent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Turn now every one from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them; and you will dwell in the land which I gave to you and to your fathers; but you did not incline your ear or listen to Me.
Je 35:16 But the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have established the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, yet this people have not listened to Me.
Je 35:17 Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of hosts, the God of Israel: I am about to bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil which I have spoken against them; because I spoke to them, but they did not listen; and I called to them, but they did not answer.
Je 35:18 But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Because you have listened to the commandment of Jonadab your father and have kept all his commandments and have done according to all that he commanded you;
Je 35:19 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab will never lack a man to stand before Me forever.
JEREMIAH 36

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

d. Jehoiakim’s Stubbornness in Burning Jeremiah’s Book of Prophecy, and Jehovah’s Punishment
36:1-32
Je 36:1 And in the afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
Je 36:2 Take a ascroll book and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah and concerning all the bnations from the day I spoke to you, from the days of cJosiah even to this day.
Je 36:3 Perhaps the house of Judah will listen to all the evil which I intend to do to them so that they may turn, each one from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Je 36:4 Then Jeremiah called aBaruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah, which He had spoken to him, on a scroll book.
Je 36:5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am restrained; I cannot go to the house of Jehovah;
Je 36:6 Therefore you shall go and read in the scroll on which you have written from my mouth the words of Jehovah in the ears of the people in the house of Jehovah on the aday of fasting; and you shall also read them in the ears of all Judah who come from their cities.
Je 36:7 Perhaps their supplication will come before Jehovah, and each one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath which Jehovah has spoken against this people.
Je 36:8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, to read in the book the words of Jehovah in the house of Jehovah.
Je 36:9 And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a afast before Jehovah for all the people in Jerusalem and for all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.
Je 36:10 Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah in the book in the house of Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the house of Jehovah, in the ears of all the people.
Je 36:11 When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of Jehovah from the book,
Je 36:12 He went down to the king’s house into the chamber of the scribe. And there they were, all the princes sitting there: Elishama the scribe and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah and Elnathan the son of Achbor and Gemariah the son of Shaphan and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah and all the other princes.
Je 36:13 And Micaiah told them all the words which he had heard when Baruch read in the book in the ears of the people.
Je 36:14 Then all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll in which you read in the ears of the people and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
Je 36:15 And they said to him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
Je 36:16 And when they heard all the words, they turned in fear one to another and said to Baruch, Indeed we must report all these words to the king.
Je 36:17 And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us please, how did you write all these words? Was it from his mouth?
Je 36:18 Then Baruch said to them, He read to me all these words from his mouth, and I wrote with ink in the book.
Je 36:19 Then the princes said to Baruch, Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.
Je 36:20 So they went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they reported all the words in the ears of the king.
Je 36:21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes who stood by the king.
Je 36:22 Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and the 1fire of the brazier was burning before him.
Je 36:23 And as Jehudi would read three or four columns, 1the king would cut it with a scribe’s knife and throw the pieces into the fire which was in the brazier, until the whole scroll was consumed in the fire which was in the brazier.
Je 36:24 And the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid and did not rend their garments.
Je 36:25 Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
Je 36:26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah the son of Azriel and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but Jehovah hid them.
Je 36:27 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
Je 36:28 Take again another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.
Je 36:29 And concerning Jehoiakim the king of Judah you shall say, Thus says Jehovah, You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written in it, saying, The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and will cause man and beast to cease from it?
Je 36:30 Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the king of Judah, He will have no one to asit on the throne of David, and his corpse will be bcast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.
Je 36:31 And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah all the evil which I have spoken against them. But they would not listen.
Je 36:32 Then 1Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim the king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many more words like those were added to them.
JEREMIAH 37

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

e. The First Step of Jeremiah’s Imprisonment
37:1-21
Je 37:1 And aZedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim.
Je 37:2 But he did not listen, neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land, to the words of Jehovah, which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.
Je 37:3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Pray to Jehovah our God for us.
Je 37:4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison.
Je 37:5 And the army of Pharaoh had come out of aEgypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
Je 37:6 Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
Je 37:7 Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Thus you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: Pharaoh’s army, which came out to you to help, is now returning to its own land of Egypt.
Je 37:8 The Chaldeans will again return and afight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.
Je 37:9 Thus says Jehovah, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely go away from us; for they will not go away.
Je 37:10 For even if you had struck down the whole army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and only wounded men remained among them, they would rise up each one in his tent and burn this city with fire.
Je 37:11 And when the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the presence of the army of Pharaoh,
Je 37:12 Jeremiah tried to go out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive a aportion there among the people.
Je 37:13 When he was at the Gate of Benjamin, there was a captain of the guard there whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are deserting to the Chaldeans!
Je 37:14 And Jeremiah said, It is false! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans. But he did not listen to him. And Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
Je 37:15 And the princes were angry with Jeremiah and astruck him and put him in prison, in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made it into a prison.
Je 37:16 When Jeremiah came to the dungeon and to the cells, Jeremiah remained there many days.
Je 37:17 And Zedekiah the king sent and took him out; and the king questioned him in his house secretly and said, Is there any word from Jehovah? And Jeremiah said, There is. And he said, You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
Je 37:18 And Jeremiah also said to Zedekiah the king, In what have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
Je 37:19 And where are your aprophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?
Je 37:20 And now hear, O my lord the king; let my supplication come before you, and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
Je 37:21 So Zedekiah the king commanded, and they placed Jeremiah in the court of the guard, and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread was gone from the city. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
JEREMIAH 38

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

f. The Second Step of Jeremiah’s Imprisonment
38:1-28
Je 38:1 And Shephatiah the son of Mattan and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur and Jucal the son of Shelemiah and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,
Je 38:2 aThus says Jehovah, He who remains in this city will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as spoil and live.
Je 38:3 Thus says Jehovah, This city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.
Je 38:4 Then the princes said to the king, Now let this man be aput to death, because of the way he is weakening the hands of the men of war who are left in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.
Je 38:5 Then King Zedekiah said, He is now in your hand, for the king can do nothing against you.
Je 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the 1apit of Malchijah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the pit there was no water but only mire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire.
Je 38:7 When aEbed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch, heard, while he was in the king’s house, that they had put Jeremiah into the pit (now the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin),
Je 38:8 Ebed-melech went out from the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying,
Je 38:9 O my lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit; and he will die in the place where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.
Je 38:10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, Take from here thirty men with you, and bring Jeremiah the prophet up out of the pit before he dies.
Je 38:11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the king’s house under the treasury and took old rags and worn-out garments from there, and let them down with ropes into the pit to Jeremiah.
Je 38:12 And Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, Put the old rags and garments under your armpits below the ropes. And Jeremiah did so.
Je 38:13 So they drew Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the pit, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.
Je 38:14 Then King Zedekiah sent men and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance which is in the house of Jehovah; and the king said to Jeremiah, I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from me.
Je 38:15 And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I tell you, indeed will you not put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.
Je 38:16 Then King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly, saying, As Jehovah lives, who made these lives of ours, I will not put you to death or give you into the hand of those men who seek your life.
Je 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, Thus says Jehovah the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will indeed asurrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, you will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your house will live.
Je 38:18 But if you do not surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will aburn it with fire, and you will not escape out of their hand.
Je 38:19 Then Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, that they will give me into their hand and they will abuse me.
Je 38:20 And Jeremiah said, They will not give you up. Listen now to the voice of Jehovah in what I am speaking to you, and it will be well with you, and your soul will live.
Je 38:21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that Jehovah has shown me:
Je 38:22 Then all the women who have been left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon, and the women will say concerning the king,
Your familiar friends / Have deceived you and prevailed over you; / While your feet sank in the mire, / They turned away from you.
Je 38:23 And they will alead out all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and you will cause this city to be burned with fire.
Je 38:24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, Let no one know of these words, and you will not die.
Je 38:25 But if the princes hear that I have spoken with you and they come to you and say to you, Tell us now what you said to the king; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; now what did the king say to you?
Je 38:26 Then you shall say to them, I made my supplication before the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.
Je 38:27 Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him. And he told them according to all these words which the king commanded. So they ceased to speak with him, for the matter had not been heard.
Je 38:28 So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.
JEREMIAH 39

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

2. In the Fall of Jerusalem
39:1-10
a. The Capture of Jerusalem
vv. 1-3
Je 39:1 aAnd when Jerusalem was captured (in the ninth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and his whole army came to Jerusalem and besieged it;
Je 39:2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city),
Je 39:3 All the princes of the king of Babylon came and sat down in the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sechim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
b. The Punishment of Zedekiah
vv. 4-10
Je 39:4 And when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went out from the city by night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and he went out by the way toward the 1Arabah.
Je 39:5 And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments on him.
Je 39:6 Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the asons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.
Je 39:7 And he 1put out Zedekiah’s aeyes and bound him with bronze fetters to bring him to Babylon.
Je 39:8 And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
Je 39:9 And the rest of the people who remained in the city, both the deserters who deserted to him and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried away into exile to Babylon.
Je 39:10 But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields at that time.
3. After the Fall of Jerusalem — The Release of Jeremiah from the Court of the King’s Guard
39:11-14
Je 39:11 And Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon commanded concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying,
Je 39:12 Take him and look after him, and do no evil to him, but deal with him just as he tells you.
Je 39:13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent men, and Nebushazban the Rab-saris and Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon
Je 39:14 Also sent men and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard and gave him to aGedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. And he dwelt among the people.
4. Before the Fall of Jerusalem — The Destiny of Ebed-melech
39:15-18
Je 39:15 Now the word of Jehovah had come to Jeremiah when he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying,
Je 39:16 Go and speak to aEbed-melech the Cushite, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring My words against this city for evil and not for good; and they will come to pass before you on that day.
Je 39:17 But I will deliver you on that day, declares Jehovah, and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
Je 39:18 For I will surely save you, and you will not fall by the sword, but you will have your own life as spoil, because you have put your trust in Me, declares Jehovah.
JEREMIAH 40

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

5. After the Fall of Jerusalem
40:1 — 44:30
a. The Release of Jeremiah from the Chains among the Exiles
40:1-6
Je 40:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah after Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him while he was bound in chains among all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah, who were being exiled to Babylon.
Je 40:2 Now the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, Jehovah your God spoke this evil against this place.
Je 40:3 And Jehovah has caused it to come to pass and done as He had spoken, because all of you have asinned against Jehovah and have not listened to His voice; therefore this thing has come upon you.
Je 40:4 And now I release you today from the chains which are on your hands. If it is good in your sight to come to Babylon with me, come, and I will look after you; but if it is evil in your sight to come with me to Babylon, let it be so. See, all the land is before you; wherever it is good and right in your sight to go, there go.
Je 40:5 While he had still not turned away, he said, Return to aGedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it is right in your sight to go. And the captain of the bodyguard gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go.
Je 40:6 And Jeremiah came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.
b. The History of the Remnant of Judah from Gedaliah to Johanan
40:7 — 44:30
(1) The Gathering of the Remnant of Judah to Gedaliah
40:7-12
Je 40:7 aAnd when all the captains of the forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and had committed to him men and women and little children and those of the poor of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon,
Je 40:8 They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
Je 40:9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and aserve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.
Je 40:10 Now as for me, I will dwell in Mizpah to stand before the Chaldeans who come to us; but you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil and put them in your storage vessels, and dwell in your cities which you have taken.
Je 40:11 And all the Jews who were in Moab and among the children of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the lands also heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah and had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.
Je 40:12 And all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruit in great abundance.
(2) The Murder of Gedaliah
40:13 — 41:10
Je 40:13 And Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
Je 40:14 And they said to him, Are you at all aware that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life? But 1Gedaliah the son of Ahikam would not believe them.
Je 40:15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, Let me go and strike Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no one will know. Why should he take your life and all the Jews who are gathered to you be scattered and the remnant of Judah perish?
Je 40:16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, Do not do this thing, for you are speaking falsehood concerning Ishmael.
JEREMIAH 41

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Je 41:1 aAnd in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And there they ate bread together in Mizpah.
Je 41:2 Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and put him to death, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land.
Je 41:3 And Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is, with Gedaliah in Mizpah, as well as the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.
Je 41:4 And on the next day after he had put Gedaliah to death, and no one knew about it,
Je 41:5 Men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men, with shaved beards and torn garments, having cut themselves and having meal offerings and incense in their hand to bring to the ahouse of Jehovah.
Je 41:6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went; and as he met them he said to them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.
Je 41:7 And when they came into the midst of the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, he and the men who were with him, slaughtered them and cast them into the pit.
Je 41:8 But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, Do not kill us, for we have hidden stores of wheat and barley and oil and honey in the field. So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their brothers.
Je 41:9 And the pit into which Ishmael cast all the corpses of the men whom he had slain because of Gedaliah (it was the one which aAsa the king had made on account of Baasha the king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled with the slain.
Je 41:10 Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people who were in Mizpah: the king’s daughters and all the people who were left in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; so Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and went out to cross over to the children of Ammon.
(3) Johanan’s Victory over Ishmael
41:11-15
Je 41:11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces who were with him heard of all the evil which Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,
Je 41:12 They took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and they found him by the great apool which was in Gibeon.
Je 41:13 And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him, they rejoiced.
Je 41:14 And so all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and came back and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.
Je 41:15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the children of Ammon.
(4) The Direction of Johanan and the Remnant of Judah
41:16-18
Je 41:16 aThen Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces with him took all the remnant of the people whom he brought back from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: mighty men, men of war, and women and little children and eunuchs whom he brought back from Gibeon.
Je 41:17 And they went and stayed in Geruth aChimham, which is near Bethlehem, in order to go and enter into 1Egypt
Je 41:18 Because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had aappointed over the land.
JEREMIAH 42

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

(5) The Dishonesty of the Remnant and the Leaders in Asking Jeremiah to Pray for Them
42:1 — 43:7
Je 42:1 And all the captains of the forces and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah and all the people, from the small even unto the great, came near
Je 42:2 And said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let our supplication come before you, and apray for us to Jehovah your God for all this remnant — for we are left only a few out of many, as your eyes see us —
Je 42:3 That Jehovah your God may tell us the way in which we should go and the thing which we should do.
Je 42:4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard. I will pray to Jehovah your God according to your words; and whatever Jehovah answers you, I will tell you; I will not withhold anything from you.
Je 42:5 And they said to Jeremiah, May Jehovah be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do according to every word with which Jehovah your God sends you to us.
Je 42:6 Whether it is good or whether it is evil, we will listen to the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send you, that it may be well with us, when we listen to the voice of Jehovah our God.
Je 42:7 And at the end of ten days the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah.
Je 42:8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him and all the people, from the small even unto the great,
Je 42:9 And said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before Him:
Je 42:10 If you will still remain in this land, I will abuild you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil which I have done to you.
Je 42:11 Do not fear the king of Babylon, whom you fear. Do not fear him, declares Jehovah, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
Je 42:12 And I will show compassions to you, that he may have compassion on you and may bring you back to your own land.
Je 42:13 But if you say, We will not remain in this land, so that you do not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God,
Je 42:14 Saying, No, but we will go to the land of 1Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there;
Je 42:15 Then hear now the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, If indeed you set your faces to go to aEgypt and go to sojourn there,
Je 42:16 Then the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, about which you are worried, will follow hard after you there in Egypt; and you will die there.
Je 42:17 And all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt, to sojourn there, will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or any who have escaped from the evil which I will bring on them.
Je 42:18 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, As My anger and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. And you will become an execration and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach, and you will see this place no more.
Je 42:19 Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt! Know assuredly that today I have testified against you,
Je 42:20 That you deceived yourselves when you sent me to Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us to Jehovah our God, and whatever Jehovah our God says, tell this to us, and we will do it.
Je 42:21 And today I have told you, but you have not listened to the voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which He has sent me to you.
Je 42:22 And now therefore know assuredly that you will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and sojourn.
JEREMIAH 43

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

Je 43:1 And when Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of Jehovah their God, with which Jehovah their God had sent him to them, all these words,
Je 43:2 Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the proud men spoke to Jeremiah, saying, 1You are speaking falsehood; Jehovah our God has not sent you to say, You shall not go to Egypt to sojourn there.
Je 43:3 But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us so as to give us into the hand of the Chaldeans that they may put us to death or take us into exile to Babylon.
Je 43:4 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces and all the people did not listen to the voice of Jehovah to remain in the land of Judah.
Je 43:5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations where they had been driven in order to sojourn in the land of Judah,
Je 43:6 The men and the women and the little children and the king’s daughters and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah;
Je 43:7 And they came to the land of Egypt (for they did not listen to the voice of Jehovah) and came as far as Tahpanhes.
(6) The Word of Jehovah through Jeremiah concerning the Destiny
of the Remnant of Judah in Egypt
43:8 — 44:14
Je 43:8 Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
Je 43:9 Take large stones in your hand, and hide them in the mortar in the brickwork which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes in the sight of the Jews.
Je 43:10 And say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am going to send and take aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I will set his throne above these stones which I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them.
Je 43:11 And he will come and strike the land of Egypt: those who are for death to death, and those who are for captivity to captivity, and those who are for the sword to the sword.
Je 43:12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and carry them away captive; and he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment; and he will go out from there in peace.
Je 43:13 And he will smash the pillars of Beth-shemesh, which is in the land of Egypt, and he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.
JEREMIAH 44

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

Je 44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwelt in the land of Egypt, who dwelt at Migdol and at Tahpanhes and at Memphis and in the land of Pathros, saying,
Je 44:2 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah; and see, today they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them,
Je 44:3 Because of their wickedness which they did to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense to serve other gods, which they did not know, neither they, you, nor your fathers.
Je 44:4 Yet I asent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Do not do this abominable thing which I hate.
Je 44:5 But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn incense to other gods.
Je 44:6 And My wrath and My anger poured forth and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as they are this day.
Je 44:7 And now thus says Jehovah the God of hosts, the God of Israel, Why do you do a great evil against your souls, so as to cut off from yourselves man and woman, little one and nursing child, from the midst of Judah, leaving yourselves no remnant,
Je 44:8 aProvoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to sojourn, so that you might be cut off and that you might become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
Je 44:9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your afathers and the wickedness of the kings of Judah and the wickedness of their wives and your own wickedness and the wickedness of your wives, which they did in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Je 44:10 They have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared or walked in My law or in My statutes, which I set before you and before your fathers.
Je 44:11 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I will aset My face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
Je 44:12 And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go to the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all be consumed; in the land of Egypt they will fall; by sword and by famine they will be consumed. From the small even unto the great, by sword and by famine they will die; and they will become an execration, an astonishment, and a curse and a reproach.
Je 44:13 And I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem: with sword, with famine, and with pestilence.
Je 44:14 And there will not be one who has escaped nor a survivor of the remnant of Judah, who went to sojourn there in the land of Egypt, even to return to the land of Judah, where they desire to return to dwell; for they will not return, except for some who will escape.
(7) The Argument between a Great Assemblage and Jeremiah the Prophet
44:15-30
Je 44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods and all the women who stood by, a great assemblage, even all the people who dwelt in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, saying,
Je 44:16 As for the word which you have spoken to us in the name of Jehovah, we will not listen to you.
Je 44:17 But we will surely do everything which has gone out of our mouth, burning incense to the 1queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves and our fathers, our kings, and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for we had plenty of food and were well off and did not see evil.
Je 44:18 But since we ceased burning incense to the aqueen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by sword and by famine.
Je 44:19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, did we make cakes to her, making images of her and pouring out libations to her, without our husbands?
Je 44:20 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people concerning the men and concerning the women, even concerning all the people who had given him that answer, saying,
Je 44:21 As for the incense which you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them, and did it not come up in His heart?
Je 44:22 And Jehovah was no longer able to bear it because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you committed; therefore your land has become a desolation and an astonishment and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
Je 44:23 Because you burned incense and because you sinned against Jehovah and did not listen to the voice of Jehovah or walk in His law or in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is this day.
Je 44:24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt:
Je 44:25 Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows by which we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her. Establish then your vows, and by all means perform your vows.
Je 44:26 Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt, I have sworn by My great name, says Jehovah: My name shall no longer be called upon by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Jehovah lives.
Je 44:27 I will be awatchful over them for evil and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by sword and by famine until there is an end of them.
Je 44:28 And those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number, and all the remnant of Judah who came to the land of Egypt to sojourn there will know whose word will be established, Mine or theirs.
Je 44:29 And this will be a sign to you, declares Jehovah, that I will punish you in this place, so that you will know that My words will surely be established against you for evil:
Je 44:30 Thus says Jehovah, I will give aPharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave bZedekiah the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.
JEREMIAH 45

vv. 1 • • • 5 

6. Before the Fall of Jerusalem — The Word of Jehovah to Baruch
45:1-5
Je 45:1 The word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to aBaruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying,
Je 45:2 Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, concerning you, O Baruch:
Je 45:3 You said, Woe is me! For Jehovah has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have not found rest.
Je 45:4 Thus you shall say to him, Thus says Jehovah, What I have built I am about to tear down; and what I have planted I am about to pluck up, even this whole land.
Je 45:5 And are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for I am about to bring evil upon all flesh, declares Jehovah, but I will give your own life to you as spoil in all places where you may go.
JEREMIAH 46

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

III. Jehovah’s Punishment and Judgment upon the Nations Involved with God’s Elect, Israel
46:1 — 51:64
Je 46:1 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the 1anations:
A. Upon Egypt
46:2-26
Je 46:2 Concerning 1aEgypt: Concerning the army of bPharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon struck down in the cfourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah:
Je 46:3 Prepare the buckler and shield, / And draw near to battle.
Je 46:4 Harness the horses, / And mount the steeds; / And take your stand with helmets on; / Polish the spears; / Put on the armor.
Je 46:5 Why have I seen it? / They are dismayed; / They are turning backward; / And their mighty men are crushed and flee in hasty flight, / And they do not look back; terror is on every side, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 46:6 Let not the swift one flee away / And the mighty man escape; / In the north by the river Euphrates / They have stumbled and fallen.
Je 46:7 Who is this who rises up like the Nile, / Like rivers whose awaters surge?
Je 46:8 Egypt rises up like the Nile, / Even like rivers whose waters surge. / And he says, I will rise up and will cover the land; / I will destroy the city and the inhabitants in it.
Je 46:9 Go up, O horses, / And drive furiously, O chariots; / And let the mighty men go forth: / Cush and Put, who handle the shield, / And the 1Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.
Je 46:10 For athis day belongs to the Lord Jehovah of hosts, / A day of vengeance to avenge Himself on His adversaries; / And the sword will devour and be satisfied, / And it will drink its fill of their blood; / For there is a bsacrifice to the Lord Jehovah of hosts / In the land of the north by the river Euphrates.
Je 46:11 Go up to aGilead and take balm, / O virgin daughter of Egypt. / In vain you have used many medicines — / There is no healing for you.
Je 46:12 The nations have heard of your disgrace, / And your cry has filled the earth; / For mighty man has stumbled against mighty man; / Both of them have fallen together.
Je 46:13 The word which Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon to strike the land of aEgypt:
Je 46:14 Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; / Proclaim also in Memphis and in Tahpanhes. / Say, Take your stand, and prepare yourself; / For the sword has devoured all around you.
Je 46:15 Why are your mighty men prostrate? / He does not stand, because Jehovah has cast him down.
Je 46:16 He made many stumble; / A man even fell against his neighbor; / And they said, Arise and let us return / To our own people and to the land of our birth, / Away from the sword of the oppressor.
Je 46:17 There they cried, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is but a noise; / He has let the appointed time pass by.
Je 46:18 As I live, says the aKing, / Whose name is Jehovah of hosts, / Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, / And Carmel is by the sea, so he will come.
Je 46:19 Prepare for yourself baggage for captivity, / O inhabitant, O daughter of Egypt; / For Memphis will become a waste, / And it will be burned, without inhabitant.
Je 46:20 Egypt is a beautiful heifer; / A 1gadfly from the anorth has come 2on her.
Je 46:21 Also her hired men in her midst / Are like fattened calves. / But they have also turned back; / They have fled together; they did not stand. / For the day of their calamity has come on them, / The time of their punishment.
Je 46:22 Her sound is like that of a serpent going away; / For they go forth in force, / And with axes they come against her, / Like those who fell trees.
Je 46:23 They will cut down her forest, declares Jehovah, / Although it is impenetrable; / For they are more numerous than locusts / And are without number.
Je 46:24 The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; / She is given into the hand of a people from the north.
Je 46:25 Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, says, I will apunish 1Amon of No and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him.
Je 46:26 And I will give them into the hand of those who seek their life, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants; and 1afterward she will be inhabited as in the days of old, declares Jehovah.
(A Word of Comfort to Israel)
46:27-28
Je 46:27 1aBut as for you, O Jacob My servant, do not bfear; / And do not be dismayed, O Israel. / For indeed I will save you from afar / And your seed from the land of their captivity; / And Jacob will return and be undisturbed / And at ease, and no one will frighten him.
Je 46:28 As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear, declares Jehovah, / For I am with you; / For I will make a full end of all the nations / To which I have driven you; / Yet I will not make a afull end of you, / But will correct you in measure / And will by no means leave you unpunished.
JEREMIAH 47

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • 

B. Upon the Philistines
47:1-7
Je 47:1 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the 1aPhilistines before Pharaoh struck Gaza.
Je 47:2 Thus says Jehovah, / See, 1awaters are rising up from the bnorth / And will become an overflowing stream; / And they will overflow the land and all that fills it, / The city and those who dwell in it; / And men will cry out, / And every inhabitant of the land will howl.
Je 47:3 At the sound of the stamping of the hooves of his stallions, / At the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, / The fathers will not turn back for their children, / Because of the feebleness of their hands,
Je 47:4 Because of the day which is coming, / To destroy all the Philistines, / To cut off from Tyre and Sidon / Every helper who survives; / For Jehovah will destroy the Philistines, / The remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
Je 47:5 Baldness has come upon Gaza; / Ashkelon has been cut off. / O remnant of their valley, / How long will you cut yourself?
Je 47:6 Alas, O asword of Jehovah, / How long until you are quiet? Put yourself into your sheath; / Rest and be still.
Je 47:7 How can 1it be quiet, / When Jehovah has commanded it? / Against Ashkelon and against the seacoast — / There He has appointed it.
JEREMIAH 48

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • 

C. Upon Moab
48:1-47
Je 48:1 Concerning 1aMoab: / Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: / Woe to Nebo, for it is destroyed; / Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is captured; / The lofty retreat is put to shame and dismayed.
Je 48:2 The praise of Moab is no more; / In Heshbon they have devised evil against her, saying: / Come and let us cut her off from being a nation. / You also, O 1Madmen, will be brought to silence; / A sword will go after you.
Je 48:3 The sound of a cry from Horonaim, / Desolation and great destruction!
Je 48:4 Moab is destroyed; / Her young have caused a cry to be heard.
Je 48:5 For by the ascent of Luhith / Continual weeping will go up; / For by the descent of Horonaim / They have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.
Je 48:6 Flee, save your life, / And be like a shrub in the wilderness.
Je 48:7 For because of your trust in your works and in your treasures, / You also will be captured; / And 1aChemosh will go forth into exile; / His priests and his princes together.
Je 48:8 And a destroyer will come to every city, / And no city will escape; / The valley will also perish, / And the plateau will be destroyed, / As Jehovah has said.
Je 48:9 Give wings to Moab, / That she may afly and go away; / And her cities will become a waste, / Without inhabitant in them.
Je 48:10 Cursed is he who does the awork of Jehovah 1negligently, / And cursed is he who keeps his sword from blood.
Je 48:11 Moab has been at ease from his youth; / And he is asettled on his lees / And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel; / Nor has he gone into exile. / Therefore his taste remains in him, / And his scent is not changed.
Je 48:12 Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will send pourers to him, and they will pour him out and empty his vessels and shatter 1his jars.
Je 48:13 And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of aBethel, their confidence.
Je 48:14 How can you say, We are mighty men / And valiant men for war?
Je 48:15 Moab has been destroyed, / And its cities have gone up in smoke, / And its choice young men have gone down to slaughter, / Declares the aKing, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
Je 48:16 The calamity of Moab is near to coming, / And his affliction hastens quickly.
Je 48:17 Lament for him, all who are around him / And all who know his name; / Say, How the strong rod is broken, / The glorious staff.
Je 48:18 Come down from glory and sit in thirst, / O daughter who dwells in Dibon, / For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you; / He has destroyed your strongholds.
Je 48:19 Stand by the way and watch, / O inhabitant of Aroer; / Ask him who flees and her who escapes, / And say, What has happened?
Je 48:20 Moab is put to shame, for it is shattered. / Howl and cry out; / Declare in Arnon / That Moab is devastated.
Je 48:21 And judgment has come upon the land of the Plateau, on Holon and on Jahzah and on Mephaath
Je 48:22 And on Dibon and on Nebo and on Beth-diblathaim
Je 48:23 And on Kiriathaim and on Beth-gamul and on Beth-meon
Je 48:24 And on Kerioth and on Bozrah and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
Je 48:25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares Jehovah.
Je 48:26 Make him drunk, because he amagnified himself against Jehovah; so Moab will wallow in his vomit and will also be in derision.
Je 48:27 For was not Israel a derision to you? Or was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
Je 48:28 Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, / O inhabitants of Moab, / And be like a dove who nests / On the sides of the mouth of the pit.
Je 48:29 We have heard of the apride of Moab — / He is extremely proud — / Of his loftiness and his pride and his arrogance / And of the haughtiness of his heart.
Je 48:30 I know of his insolence, declares Jehovah; / His boastings are all untrue; / They have accomplished nothing.
Je 48:31 Therefore I will awail for Moab, / I will even cry out for all Moab; / There will be mourning for the men of Kir-heres.
Je 48:32 With more than the weeping of Jazer / I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah. / Your shoots have crossed over to the sea; / They have reached as far as the sea, to Jazer; / On your summer fruit and on your vintage / The destroyer has fallen.
Je 48:33 Rejoicing and exultation are taken away / From the fruited field and from the land of Moab. / And I have caused the wine from the wine presses to cease; / No one will tread them with the harvest shout; / The harvest shout will be no harvest shout.
Je 48:34 From the cry of Heshbon as far as Elealeh, even as far as Jahaz, they have uttered their voice, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become a devastation.
Je 48:35 And I will bring to an end in Moab the one who offers up in high places and burns incense to his gods, declares Jehovah.
Je 48:36 Therefore My heart will moan for Moab like flutes; for the men of Kir-heres My heart will also moan like flutes. As a result, the abundance he has produced has perished.
Je 48:37 For every head is bald, and every beard is shaved off; there are cuts on all the hands, and sackcloth on the loins.
Je 48:38 On all the roofs of Moab and in her open squares there is wailing everywhere, for I have broken Moab like a avessel which no one desires, declares Jehovah.
Je 48:39 How it is shattered! they howl. How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.
Je 48:40 For thus says Jehovah, / One will swoop down like an aeagle / And spread its bwings against Moab.
Je 48:41 1Kerioth is captured, / And the strongholds are seized, / And the heart of the mighty men of Moab in that day / Will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
Je 48:42 And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, / Because he magnified himself against Jehovah.
Je 48:43 aDread, pit, and snare / Are upon you, O inhabitant of Moab, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 48:44 He who flees from dread / Will fall into the pit, / And he who comes up out of the pit / Will be taken in the snare; / For I will bring upon her, upon Moab, / The year of their punishment, declares Jehovah.
Je 48:45 In the shadow of Heshbon / Those who flee stand without strength; / aFor fire has gone forth from Heshbon / And a flame from the midst of Sihon; / And it has consumed the corner of Moab / And the top of the head of the sons of tumult.
Je 48:46 Woe to you, O Moab! / The people of Chemosh have perished, / For your sons have been taken captive, / And your daughters have gone into captivity.
Je 48:47 1But I will aturn again the captivity of Moab / In the last days, declares Jehovah. / Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
JEREMIAH 49

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D. Upon the Children of Ammon
49:1-6
Je 49:1 Concerning the children of 1aAmmon: / Thus says Jehovah, / Does Israel have no sons? / Or has he no heir? / Why has 2Malcam possessed Gad, / And why do his people dwell in his cities?
Je 49:2 Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, / When I will cause the alarm of war to be heard / Against Rabbah of the children of Ammon. / And it will become a mound of desolation, / And its villages will be burned with fire. / And Israel will dispossess those who dispossess him, / Says Jehovah.
Je 49:3 Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; / Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah. / Gird yourselves with sackcloth and wail, / And run to and fro among the enclosures; / For Malcam will go into aexile, / Together with his priests and his princes.
Je 49:4 Why do you boast in your valleys? / Your valley is flowing away, / O apostate daughter, / Who trusts in her treasures, saying, / Who will come against me?
Je 49:5 I will bring dread upon you, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts, / From all around you; / And each one will be driven out headlong, / And no one will gather him who flees.
Je 49:6 1But afterward I will aturn again / The captivity of the children of Ammon, / Declares Jehovah.
E. Upon Edom
49:7-22
Je 49:7 Concerning 1aEdom: / Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Is there no more bwisdom in Teman? / Has counsel perished from those who understand? / Is their wisdom spent?
Je 49:8 Flee, turn back, dwell in hidden places, / O inhabitants of Dedan, / For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him / At the time I punish him.
Je 49:9 aIf the grape gatherers came to you, / Would they not leave gleanings? / If thieves came by night, / Would they not destroy only enough for themselves?
Je 49:10 But I have stripped Esau bare; / I have exposed his secret places, / And he is not able to conceal himself. / His seed is destroyed, and his brothers and his neighbors; / And he is no more.
Je 49:11 Leave your 1orphans behind; I will preserve them alive, / And let your 1widows trust in Me.
Je 49:12 For thus says Jehovah, Those whose judgment was not to drink the acup will certainly drink it. And will you by any means be left unpunished? You will not be left unpunished, for you will certainly drink it.
Je 49:13 For I have sworn by Myself, declares Jehovah, that aBozrah will become a waste, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all her cities will become eternal desolations.
Je 49:14 aI have heard a report from Jehovah, / And an envoy is sent among the nations, saying, / Gather yourselves together, and come against her, / And arise for war.
Je 49:15 For, indeed, I have made you small among the nations, / Despised among men.
Je 49:16 Your terribleness, the pride of your heart, / Has beguiled you, / O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, / Who grasp the height of the hill. / Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s, / I will bring you down from there, declares Jehovah.
Je 49:17 And Edom will become an astonishment; everyone who passes by her will be astonished and will hiss at all her wounds.
Je 49:18 As when aSodom and Gomorrah were overthrown with its neighbors, says Jehovah, no one will dwell there, nor will a son of man sojourn in her.
Je 49:19 aIndeed, one will come up like a lion from the bmajesty of the Jordan against a secure habitation, for I will suddenly make them run away from her; and whoever is chosen I will appoint over her. For who is like Me? And who can appoint Me a time? And who is that shepherd who can stand before Me?
Je 49:20 Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, which He purposed against Edom, and His thoughts, which He has thought against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they will drag them off, the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their habitation a desolation because of them.
Je 49:21 The earth quaked at the sound of their fall. There is a cry; the sound of it has been heard in the Red Sea.
Je 49:22 Indeed, He will mount up and swoop down like an aeagle, and spread out His wings over 1Bozrah; and the heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in blabor.
F. Upon Damascus
49:23-27
Je 49:23 Concerning 1aDamascus: / Hamath and Arpad are put to shame / Because they have heard an evil report. / They melt; anxiety is on the sea; / It cannot be quiet.
Je 49:24 Damascus has become feeble; / She has turned to flee, / And panic has taken hold of her; / Pain and anguish seize her, / Like a woman agiving birth.
Je 49:25 How the city of praise is not forsaken, / The town of My joy.
Je 49:26 Therefore her young men will fall in her open squares, / And all the men of war will be silenced in that day, declares Jehovah of hosts.
Je 49:27 And I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, / And it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.
G. Upon Kedar and the Kingdoms of Hazor
49:28-33
Je 49:28 Concerning 1aKedar and the kingdoms of 1Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon struck down:
Thus says Jehovah:
Arise, go up against Kedar, / And destroy the children of the east.
Je 49:29 And they will take away their tents and their flocks; / Their curtains and all their vessels / And their camels they will carry away for themselves, / And they will call out to one another, Terror is on every side!
Je 49:30 Flee, wander far away, dwell in hidden places, / O inhabitants of Hazor, declares Jehovah; / For Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon / Has taken counsel against you / And has devised a plan against you.
Je 49:31 Arise, go up against a nation without care, / One that dwells securely, declares Jehovah. / It has no gates and bars; / They dwell alone.
Je 49:32 And their camels will become plunder, / And the multitude of their livestock spoil; / And I will scatter those who cut the corners of their hair into every wind, / And I will bring their calamity from every side of them, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 49:33 And Hazor will become a ahabitation of jackals, / An eternal desolation; / No one will dwell there; / Neither will a son of man sojourn in it.
H. Upon Elam
49:34-39
Je 49:34 The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning 1aElam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, saying,
Je 49:35 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / I am about to break the bow of Elam, / The chief part of their might.
Je 49:36 And I will bring against Elam afour winds / From the four ends of the heavens, / And I will scatter them into all these winds, / And there will not be a nation / To which those who are driven out from Elam will not go.
Je 49:37 And I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies / And before those who seek their life; / And I will bring evil upon them, / Even My burning anger, declares Jehovah. / And I will send the sword after them, / Until I make an end of them.
Je 49:38 And I will set My throne in Elam, / And I will destroy king and princes from there, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 49:39 1But in the last days, / I will aturn again the captivity of Elam, / Declares Jehovah.
JEREMIAH 50

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I. Upon Babylon
50:1 — 51:64
Je 50:1 The word which Jehovah spoke concerning 1aBabylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
Je 50:2 Declare among the nations and proclaim; / Lift up a banner, proclaim it. / Do not conceal it, but say, / aBabylon is captured; / 1Bel is put to shame; / 1Merodach is shattered; / Her images are put to shame; / Her idols are dismayed.
Je 50:3 For a 1nation has come up against her from the anorth; / It will make her land a waste, / And there will be bno inhabitant in it; / Both man and beast have fled; they are gone away.
Je 50:4 In those days and at that time, declares Jehovah, / The children of Israel will come, / Both they and the children of Judah atogether; / They will go along with bweeping as they go, / And they will cseek Jehovah their God.
Je 50:5 They will ask for the way to Zion / With their faces toward it, saying: / Come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah / In an eternal acovenant that will not be forgotten.
Je 50:6 My people are lost asheep; / Their shepherds have led them astray; / They have made them turn aside on the mountains; / They have gone from mountain to hill; / They have forgotten their resting place.
Je 50:7 All who found them have devoured them, / And their adversaries have said, We are not guilty, / Because they have sinned against Jehovah, / The 1ahabitation of righteousness, / Even Jehovah, the bhope of their fathers.
Je 50:8 1aFlee from the midst of Babylon, / And go out from the land of the Chaldeans, / And be as male goats / Before the flock.
Je 50:9 For I am about to stir up and bring up against Babylon / An assembly of great nations from the land of the north; / And they will set themselves in array against her, / And she will be taken captive from there. / Their arrows will be like those of an expert mighty man; / None will return empty-handed.
Je 50:10 And Chaldea will become spoil; / All those who spoil her will be satisfied, declares Jehovah.
Je 50:11 Because you rejoiced, because you exulted, / O you who plunder My ainheritance, / Because you spring about as a threshing heifer, / And you neigh like stallions,
Je 50:12 Your mother has been greatly ashamed; / She who bore you has become a reproach: / Indeed, she has become the last of the nations, / A wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
Je 50:13 Because of the wrath of Jehovah she will not be inhabited, / But she will become a complete adesolation; / For every one who passes by Babylon will be astonished / And will hiss at all her wounds.
Je 50:14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, / All those who bend the bow; / Shoot at her; spare no arrow; / Because she has sinned against Jehovah;
Je 50:15 Raise a shout against her all around. / She has surrendered; her buttresses have fallen, / Her walls have been torn down; / For this is the vengeance of Jehovah: / Take 1vengeance on her; / aAs she has done, so do to her.
Je 50:16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, / And the one who handles a sickle in the time of harvest;
Because of the sword of the oppressor / Each one will turn to his people, / And each one flee to his own land.
Je 50:17 Israel is a scattered sheep; / Lions have driven him away.
First the aking of Assyria devoured him, and last this bNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
Je 50:18 Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of aAssyria.
Je 50:19 And I will bring Israel back to his ahabitation, / And he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, / And in the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead / His soul will be satisfied.
Je 50:20 In those days and at that time, declares Jehovah, / The ainiquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none; / And the sin of Judah, but it will not be found; / For I will forgive those whom I will leave as a remnant.
Je 50:21 Go up against her, against the land of 1Merathaim / And against the inhabitants of Pekod. / Desolate and utterly destroy them, declares Jehovah, / And do according to all that I commanded you.
Je 50:22 aThe sound of war is in the land, / And great destruction.
Je 50:23 How the ahammer of the whole earth / Is cut down and broken! / How Babylon has become an astonishment / Among the nations!
Je 50:24 I have set a snare for you, and you also have been taken captive, / O Babylon, and you did not know; / You were found, and you also were seized, / Because you engaged in war with Jehovah.
Je 50:25 Jehovah has opened His armory / And has brought out the weapons of His wrath, / For this is the work of the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Against the land of the Chaldeans.
Je 50:26 Come against her from every side; / Open her granaries. / Pile her up like heaps; / Destroy her utterly; / Let nothing of her remain.
Je 50:27 Slay all her oxen; / Let them go down to slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come, / The time of their punishment.
Je 50:28 There is a sound of those who flee and escape / From the land of Babylon, / To adeclare in Zion / The vengeance of Jehovah our God, / The 1vengeance for His temple.
Je 50:29 Summon 1archers against Babylon, / All those who bend the bow. / Encamp against her all around; / Let there be no escape. / aRecompense her according to her work; / According to all that she has done, so do to her. / For she has acted proudly against Jehovah, / Against the Holy One of Israel.
Je 50:30 aTherefore her young men will fall in her open squares, / And all her men of war will be silenced in that day, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 50:31 aIndeed, I am against you, O 1Pride, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts; / For your day has come, / The time that I punish you.
Je 50:32 And Pride will stumble and fall, / And there will be no one to raise him up. / And I will kindle a fire in his cities, / And it will devour all that is around him.
Je 50:33 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / The children of Israel / And the children of Judah are oppressed together; / And all who took them captive held them fast; / They refused to let them go.
Je 50:34 Their aRedeemer is strong; / Jehovah of hosts is His name. / He will surely plead their cause, / That He may give rest to the land / But trouble to the inhabitants of Babylon.
Je 50:35 The sword is against the Chaldeans, declares Jehovah, / And against the inhabitants of Babylon / And against her princes and against her wise men.
Je 50:36 The sword is against the liars, and they will become fools; / The sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
Je 50:37 The sword is against 1their horses and against 1their chariots / And against all the mingled people who are in her midst, / And they will become like women. / The sword is against her treasuries, / And they will be plundered.
Je 50:38 Drought is upon her waters, / And they will dry up; / For it is a land of graven images, / And they are mad over terrifying idols.
Je 50:39 Therefore desert aanimals will dwell there with hyenas, / And ostriches will dwell in her. / It will bnot be inhabited forever; / It will not be dwelt in from generation to generation.
Je 50:40 As when God overthrew aSodom / And Gomorrah with its neighbors, / Declares Jehovah, / So no one will dwell there; / Nor will a son of man sojourn in it.
Je 50:41 aA people is now coming from the bnorth, / And a great nation and many kings / Are stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.
Je 50:42 They grasp bow and spear; / They are cruel and have no mercy. / Their voice roars like the sea, / And they ride upon horses, / Set in array as a man for battle / Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
Je 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, / And his hands are feeble; / Distress has seized him, / Pain like a woman in achildbirth.
Je 50:44 aIndeed, one will come up like a lion / From the bmajesty of the Jordan against a secure habitation; / For I will suddenly make them run away from her; / And whoever is chosen I will appoint over her. / For who is like Me? And who can appoint Me a time? / And who is that shepherd who can stand before Me?
Je 50:45 Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, / Which He purposed against aBabylon, / And His thoughts, which He has thought / Against the land of the Chaldeans: / Surely they will drag them off, the little ones of the flock; / Surely He will make their habitation a desolation because of them.
Je 50:46 At the sound of Babylon being seized / The earth trembles, / And a cry is heard among the nations.
JEREMIAH 51

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Je 51:1 Thus says Jehovah,
I will stir up against Babylon and against the inhabitants of 1Leb-kamai / A destroying wind.
Je 51:2 And I will send 1strangers against Babylon, and they will winnow her, / And they will empty her land / When they come against her from every side / In the evil day.
Je 51:3 Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, / And against him who stands up in his armor; / And do not spare her young men, / But utterly destroy all her army.
Je 51:4 And they will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans / And pierced through in her streets.
Je 51:5 For neither Israel nor Judah is forsaken / By his God, by Jehovah of hosts; / But 1their land is full of guilt / Against the Holy One of Israel.
Je 51:6 1aFlee from the midst of Babylon, / And let each man save his life; / Do not be cut off in her iniquity; / For this is a time of vengeance to Jehovah; / He will give full recompense to her.
Je 51:7 Babylon has been a golden acup in Jehovah’s hand / That has made all the earth drunk. / The nations have drunk of her bwine; / Therefore the nations have become mad.
Je 51:8 Suddenly Babylon has afallen and become broken; / Howl over her; / Take balm for her pain, / If perhaps she may be healed.
Je 51:9 We tried to heal Babylon, but she is not healed; / aForsake her, and let each one of us go to his own land; / For her judgment has reached to bheaven / And has been lifted up to the clouds.
Je 51:10 Jehovah has brought forth our arighteousnesses; / Come and let us brelate in Zion / The work of Jehovah our God.
Je 51:11 Polish the arrows, / Take up the shields.
Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the aMedes, because His purpose is against Babylon, to destroy her; for this is the 1vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance for His temple.
Je 51:12 Lift up a standard against the walls of Babylon; / Make the watch strong. / Set the watchmen; / Prepare the ambushers; / For Jehovah has both purposed and done / What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
Je 51:13 O you who dwell by many awaters, / Abundant in treasures, / Your end has come, / The measure of your unjust gain.
Je 51:14 Jehovah of hosts has sworn by Himself, / I will surely fill you with men like alocusts, / And they will raise a shout of victory over you.
Je 51:15 aIt is He who made the earth by His power, / Who established the world by His wisdom, / And by His understanding He bstretched out the heavens.
Je 51:16 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, / aAnd He causes the vapors to rise from the ends of the earth; / He makes lightning for the rain / And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
Je 51:17 Every man is stupid, without knowledge; / Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol; / For his molten image is falsehood, / And there is no breath in them.
Je 51:18 They are avanity, the work of delusion; / At the time of their punishment they will perish.
Je 51:19 The aPortion of Jacob is not like these; / For He is the One who formed everything, / And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; / Jehovah of hosts is His name.
Je 51:20 He says, You are My ahammer, / My weapons of war; / And with you I will shatter nations, / And with you I will destroy kingdoms,
Je 51:21 And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider, / And with you I will shatter the chariot and its rider,
Je 51:22 And with you I will shatter man and woman, / And with you I will shatter old man and young, / And with you I will shatter young man and virgin,
Je 51:23 And with you I will shatter the shepherd and his flock, / And with you I will shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen, / And with you I will shatter governors and officials.
Je 51:24 And I will arepay Babylon / And all the inhabitants of Chaldea / With all their evil which they have done / In Zion before your eyes, declares Jehovah.
Je 51:25 Indeed, I am against you, O mountain of destruction, / Declares Jehovah, / Which destroys the whole earth; / And I will stretch out My hand upon you / And roll you down from the rocks / And make you a burning mountain.
Je 51:26 And they will not take from you a stone for the corner / Or a stone for the foundations; / For you will be an eternal adesolation, declares Jehovah.
Je 51:27 Lift up a standard in the land; / Blow a trumpet among the nations; / Prepare the nations against her; / Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; / Appoint an officer against her; / Bring up the horses like terrifying locusts.
Je 51:28 Prepare the nations against her, / The kings of the aMedes, / 1Their governors and all 1their officials, / And all the land of 2their dominion.
Je 51:29 And the land trembles and writhes, / For the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon stand, / To make the land of Babylon a waste, / aWithout inhabitant.
Je 51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting; / They remain in strongholds; / Their might has failed; they have become like women. / Her dwellings are on fire; her bars are broken.
Je 51:31 Runner runs to meet runner, / And messenger to meet messenger, / To announce to the king of Babylon / That his city has been captured from end to end.
Je 51:32 And the crossing places have been seized, / And they burn the marshes with fire, / And the men of war are terrified.
Je 51:33 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, / The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor / At the time when it is trodden; / Yet a little while and the time of harvest will come to her.
Je 51:34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; / He has crushed me; / He has made me an empty vessel; / He has swallowed me up like a dragon; / He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; / He has washed me out.
Je 51:35 The violence done to me and my flesh be on Babylon! / The inhabitant of Zion will say; / And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea! / Jerusalem will say.
Je 51:36 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I will indeed plead your cause / And execute vengeance for you; / And I will dry up her sea / And make her fountain dry.
Je 51:37 And Babylon will become a heap of ruins, / A ahabitation of jackals, / An astonishment and a hissing, / Without inhabitant.
Je 51:38 They will roar together like young lions; / They will growl like lions’ whelps.
Je 51:39 When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink; / And I will make them drunk, that they may be merry / And sleep an eternal sleep / And not wake up, declares Jehovah.
Je 51:40 And I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, / Like rams with male goats.
Je 51:41 How Sheshach has been captured, / And the praise of all the earth seized! / How Babylon has become an astonishment / Among the nations!
Je 51:42 The sea has come up over Babylon; / She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
Je 51:43 Her cities have become a waste, / A dry land and a desert, / A land in which no one dwells, / Through which no person passes.
Je 51:44 And I will punish 1Bel in Babylon / And bring what he has swallowed out of his mouth; / And the nations will not stream unto him any longer; / Even the wall of Babylon will fall down.
Je 51:45 1aCome out from the midst of her, My people, / And let each man save his life / From the burning anger of Jehovah.
Je 51:46 And lest your heart faint / And you become afraid at the report that will be heard in the land — / For the report will come in one year; / And after that a report in another year / And violence in the earth, / Ruler against ruler —
Je 51:47 Therefore indeed, days are coming, / When I will punish the idols of Babylon; / And her whole land will be put to shame, / And all her slain will fall in her midst.
Je 51:48 And the heavens and the earth and all which is in them / Will give a aringing shout over Babylon; / For out of the north the destroyers will come against her, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 51:49 Babylon is also to fall for the slain of Israel, / As the slain of all the earth have fallen for Babylon.
Je 51:50 You who have escaped the sword, / Go and do not stand still; / Remember Jehovah from afar, / And let aJerusalem come up in your heart.
Je 51:51 We have been put to shame, for we have heard reproach; / Disgrace has covered our faces; / For strangers have come / Into the holy places of the house of Jehovah.
Je 51:52 Therefore indeed, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will punish her idols, / And throughout her land the wounded will groan.
Je 51:53 Though Babylon mount up to the aheavens, / And though she fortify the height of her strength, / Destroyers will come from Me to her, / Declares Jehovah.
Je 51:54 The sound of a cry from Babylon, / And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
Je 51:55 For Jehovah is destroying Babylon, / And He will cause the loud voice to perish from her. / And 1their waves roar like many waters; / The noise of their voice is raised.
Je 51:56 For a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon, / And her mighty men are taken captive; / Their bows are broken into pieces; / For Jehovah is a aGod of recompense; / He will repay in full.
Je 51:57 And I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, / Her governors and her officials and her mighty men; / And they will sleep an eternal sleep / And not wake up, declares the King, / Whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
Je 51:58 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly laid bare; / Her high gates will be burned with fire. / So the peoples will have labored in vain; / And the nations, only for fire; and they will have wearied themselves.
Je 51:59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with aZedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.)
Je 51:60 And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
Je 51:61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words;
Je 51:62 And say, O Jehovah, You have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that nothing should dwell in it, neither man nor animal, for it will be an eternal desolation.
Je 51:63 And as soon as you have finished reading this book, you shall bind a astone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,
Je 51:64 And say, Thus Babylon will sink and will not rise up because of the evil which I will bring upon it, and they will weary themselves. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
JEREMIAH 52

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IV. A Supplement to the History of Captivity
52:1-34
A. The Fall of Jerusalem
vv. 1-16
Je 52:1 1aZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
Je 52:2 And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Je 52:3 For it was through the anger of Jehovah that this came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Je 52:4 aAnd in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his whole army, against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around.
Je 52:5 So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
Je 52:6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe within the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
Je 52:7 Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled; and they went out from the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were all around the city; and they went by the way toward the 1Arabah.
Je 52:8 And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
Je 52:9 And they seized the aking and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments on him.
Je 52:10 Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah at Riblah.
Je 52:11 And he 1put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze fetters. And the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his adeath.
Je 52:12 And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (this was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
Je 52:13 And he aburned the house of Jehovah and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every large house he burned with fire.
Je 52:14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the bodyguard broke down all the awalls around Jerusalem.
Je 52:15 And the poor of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried away into aexile.
Je 52:16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left some of the apoorest of the land to be vinedressers and field workers.
B. The Plunder of the Temple
vv. 17-23
Je 52:17 And the Chaldeans broke in pieces the abronze 1pillars, which were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases and the bronze sea, which were in the house of Jehovah. And they carried all their bronze to Babylon.
Je 52:18 And they took away the apots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the small cups and all the bronze vessels with which they ministered.
Je 52:19 And the captain of the bodyguard took away the large cups and the firepans and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the small cups and the bowls: that which was of gold, for its gold, and that which was of silver, for its silver.
Je 52:20 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen, which were under the bases, which King Solomon made for the house of Jehovah, the bronze of all these vessels was abeyond weight.
Je 52:21 And as for the apillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and it was twelve cubits in circumference, and it was four fingers in thickness; it was hollow.
Je 52:22 And a bronze capital was upon it; and the height of each capital was five cubits; and the network and pomegranates were upon the capital all around, all of bronze; and the second pillar and the pomegranates were like these.
Je 52:23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates toward the open air; all the apomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.
C. The Exile of the People of Judah
vv. 24-27
Je 52:24 And the captain of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers.
Je 52:25 And from the city he took one eunuch, who was overseer of the men of war, and seven men from the king’s inner circle who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.
Je 52:26 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah.
Je 52:27 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; so Judah was carried away into exile out of its land.
D. The Number of Those Exiled by Nebuchadnezzar from Judah
vv. 28-30
Je 52:28 These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried into exile: in the aseventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;
Je 52:29 In the aeighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons from Jerusalem;
Je 52:30 In the atwenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried from the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons into exile. There were four thousand six hundred persons in all.
E. The Lifting Up of Jehoiachin King of Judah
vv. 31-34
Je 52:31 aAnd in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin the king of Judah and brought him out of prison.
Je 52:32 And he spoke with him kindly and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
Je 52:33 And Jehoiachin changed his prison garments and ate his food before him continually all the days of his life.
Je 52:34 And for his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day, all the days of his life until the day of his death.
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LAMENTATIONS

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Jeremiah (according to 1:1 in the Septuagint; cf. also 2 Chron. 35:25).
Time of Writing: Shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 588 B.C.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem.
Subject:
The Expression of Jeremiah’s Sorrow and Love over the Holy City and the Holy People of God
LAMENTATIONS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

I. The First Lamentation — A Lamentation over the Desolation of the Holy City
1:1-22
A. Her Distressing Circumstances
vv. 1-11
La 1:1 1How the city sits alone / That was full of people! / She who was once great among the nations / Has become like a widow; / She who was a princess among the provinces / Has become tributary.
La 1:2 Bitterly she weeps in the night, / And her tears are on her cheeks. / There is no one to acomfort her / Among all her lovers; / All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; / They have become her enemies.
La 1:3 aJudah has gone into exile, away from affliction / And away from great servitude; / She dwells among the bnations / But finds no rest; / All her pursuers have overtaken her / In the midst of distress.
La 1:4 The ways of Zion mourn, / For no one comes to the appointed feast; / All her gates are desolate; / Her priests groan; / Her virgins are afflicted, / And she is in bitterness.
La 1:5 Her adversaries have become the ahead; / Her enemies prosper; / For Jehovah has afflicted her / Because of the multitude of her transgressions; / Her little ones have gone into bcaptivity / Before the adversary.
La 1:6 And all her majesty has departed / From the daughter of Zion; / Her princes have become like deer / That find no pasture, / And they have fled without strength / Before the pursuer.
La 1:7 In the days of her affliction and her 1wanderings, / Jerusalem remembers / All her precious things / Which were in the days of old, / When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, / And there was no one to help her. / The adversaries saw her; / They mocked at her downfall.
La 1:8 Jerusalem has asinned grievously; / Therefore she has become an impurity. / All who honored her despise her, / Because they have seen her nakedness; / And she groans / And turns backwards.
La 1:9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; / She did not remember her latter end; / Therefore she has come down astonishingly; / There is no one to acomfort her. / O Jehovah, see my affliction, / For the enemy has magnified himself.
La 1:10 The adversary has spread out his hand / Over all her precious things, / For she has seen the nations / Enter her asanctuary, / Concerning whom You commanded that they should not enter / Into Your bassembly.
La 1:11 All her people groan; / They seek bread;
They have given their precious things for food / To restore their soul. / See, O Jehovah, and look, / For I have become despised.
B. Her Entreating the Sympathy of the Passers-by
vv. 12-19
La 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all who pass by the way? / Look and see / If there is any pain like my pain / Which is dealt to me, / Whom Jehovah has afflicted / In the day of His burning anger.
La 1:13 He has sent fire from on high / Into my bones, and it prevails against them; / He has spread out a net for my feet; / He has turned me back; / He has made me a desolation / And faint all the day.
La 1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand; / They are knit together; / They have come up upon my neck; / He has made my strength fail; / The Lord has delivered me into hands / From which I am not able to rise up.
La 1:15 The Lord has made light of all my mighty men / In my midst; / He has called an assembly against me / To crush my young men. / The Lord has trodden, as in a awinepress, / The virgin daughter of Judah.
La 1:16 For these things I weep; / My eye, my aeye runs down with water, / For the comforter who should revive my soul / Is far from me; / My children have become desolate, / Because the enemy has prevailed.
La 1:17 Zion stretches out her hands, / Yet there is no one to acomfort her. / Jehovah has commanded concerning Jacob / That those around him should be his adversaries; / Jerusalem has become an impurity / Among them.
La 1:18 Jehovah is righteous, / For I have rebelled against His commandment. / Hear now, all the peoples, / And see my pain; / My virgins and my young men / Have gone into captivity.
La 1:19 I have called to my lovers; / They have deceived me; / My priests and my elders / Have perished in the city, / While they sought food for themselves / To restore their souls.
C. Her Prayer to Jehovah
vv. 20-22
La 1:20 See, O Jehovah, for I am in distress, / My bowels are in ferment; / My heart is overturned within me, / For I have been very rebellious. / In the street the sword bereaves; / In the house it is like death.
La 1:21 They have heard that I groan; / There is no one to comfort me; / All my enemies have heard of my trouble; / They are glad that You have done it. / You will bring the day that You have proclaimed, / And they will be like me.
La 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before You, / And deal with them / As You have dealt with me / For all my transgressions; / For my sighs are many, / And my heart is faint.
LAMENTATIONS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

II. The Second Lamentation — A Lamentation over the Destruction of the Holy City
2:1-22
A. Jehovah the Lord’s Destruction of the Holy City
vv. 1-10
La 2:1 How the Lord in His anger / Has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud! / He has cast from heaven to earth / The glory of Israel, / And has not remembered His afootstool / In the day of His anger.
La 2:2 The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob; / He has not spared; / He has torn down in His overflowing wrath / The strongholds of the daughter of Judah. / He has brought them down to the ground; / He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
La 2:3 He has cut off in fierce anger / All the horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn His right hand / From before the enemy. / He has burned among Jacob like a flame of fire; / It consumes all around.
La 2:4 He has bent His bow like an enemy; / He has set His right hand like an adversary / And has slain all that was pleasant to the eye. / In the tent of the daughter of Zion / He has poured out His wrath like fire.
La 2:5 The Lord has become like an aenemy; / He has swallowed up Israel; / He has swallowed up all her palaces; / He has destroyed her strongholds / And multiplied in the daughter of Judah / Mourning and lamentation.
La 2:6 And He has violently taken away His 1pavilion like a garden; / He has destroyed the place of His assembly; / Jehovah has caused the appointed feast and the Sabbath / To be forgotten in Zion; / He has despised, in the indignation of His anger, / The king and the priest.
La 2:7 The Lord has cast off His altar; / He has abhorred His sanctuary; / He has delivered up into the hand of the enemy / The walls of her palaces. / They have made a noise in the house of Jehovah / As though it were the day of an appointed feast.
La 2:8 Jehovah has thought to destroy / The walls of the daughter of Zion; / He has stretched out the aline / And has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; / And He has made the rampart and the wall to mourn; / They languish together.
La 2:9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; / He has destroyed and broken her bars; / Her aking and her princes are among nations / Where there is no law; / Her bprophets also do not find / A vision from Jehovah.
La 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion / Sit on the ground; they are silent. / They have cast dust upon their head; / They have girded themselves with sackcloth. / The virgins of Jerusalem / Hang down their head to the ground.
B. The Prophet’s Lament
vv. 11-19
La 2:11 My eyes are consumed with atears; / My bowels are in ferment; / My liver is poured out on the earth, / Because of the brokenness of the daughter of my people, / Because the little ones and the nursing children / Faint in the streets of the city.
La 2:12 They say to their mothers, / Where is the grain and the wine? / When they faint like one wounded / In the streets of the city, / When they pour out their soul / Into their mothers’ bosom.
La 2:13 What shall I testify to you? What shall I liken you to, / O daughter of Jerusalem? / What shall I compare you to, that I may comfort you, / O virgin daughter of Zion? / For your breach is great like a sea. / Who will heal you?
La 2:14 Your aprophets have seen for you / Vanity and folly, / And they have not uncovered your iniquity / To turn again your captivity; / But they have seen for you burdens / Of vanity and of causes of banishment.
La 2:15 All those who pass on the way / Clap their hands at you; / They hiss and wag their head / At the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, / Is this the city which they called, / aThe perfection of beauty, / The joy of the whole earth?
La 2:16 All your enemies / Have opened their mouth against you; / They hiss and gnash the teeth; / They say, We have swallowed her up. / This is certainly the day that we have looked for; / We have found it; we have seen it.
La 2:17 Jehovah has done what He apurposed; / He has fulfilled His word, / Which He commanded from the days of old; / He has torn down and has not spared, / And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; / He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
La 2:18 Their heart cried out to the Lord: / O wall of the daughter of Zion, / Let atears run down like a stream / Day and night; / Give yourself no respite; / Let not the pupil of your eye cease.
La 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night / At the beginning of the watches; / Pour out your heart like water / Before the face of the Lord; / aLift up your hands toward Him / For the life of your little ones, / Who faint because of famine / At the head of every street.
C. Her Prayer to Jehovah
vv. 20-22
La 2:20 See, O Jehovah, and look, / With whom You have dealt thus? / Shall the women eat their fruit, / The little ones nursed by them? / Shall the priest and the prophet be slain / In the sanctuary of the Lord?
La 2:21 The youth and the old man / Lie on the ground in the streets; / My virgins and my young men / Have fallen by the sword; / You have slain them in the day of Your anger; / You have slaughtered; You have not spared.
La 2:22 You have called for, as though in the day of an appointed feast, / My terrors on every side, / And in the day of Jehovah’s anger / There was none who escaped or remained; / Those whom I have nursed and brought up / My enemy has consumed.
LAMENTATIONS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • • 60 • • • • 65 • 

III. The Third Lamentation —
A Lamentation over the Afflicted Prophet Identified with His Punished People
3:1-66
A. The Prophet’s (Representing His People’s) Affliction
vv. 1-20
La 3:1 1I am the man who has seen affliction / By the rod of His wrath.
La 3:2 He has driven me and brought me / Into darkness and not light.
La 3:3 Surely against me He has turned His hand / Again and again all the day.
La 3:4 He has wasted my flesh and my skin; / He has broken my bones.
La 3:5 He has built up a siege against me / And encircled me with gall and travail.
La 3:6 He has made me dwell in dark places, / Like those who have long been dead.
La 3:7 He has walled me about so that I cannot go forth; / He has made my bronze chain heavy.
La 3:8 Indeed, when I cry out and call for help, / He shuts out my prayer.
La 3:9 He has walled in my ways with hewn stone; / He has made my paths crooked.
La 3:10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, / Like a lion in hidden places.
La 3:11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; / He has made me desolate.
La 3:12 He bent His bow / And set me as a target for the arrow.
La 3:13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver / To enter my inward parts.
La 3:14 I have become a aderision to all my people, / Their mocking song all the day.
La 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness; / He has made me drunk with wormwood.
La 3:16 He has also crushed my teeth with gravel; / He has covered me with ashes.
La 3:17 And You have removed my soul far from peace; / I have forgotten prosperity.
La 3:18 And I said, My strength has perished / As well as my hope in Jehovah.
La 3:19 Remember my affliction and my 1wandering, / The wormwood and the gall.
La 3:20 My soul remembers them well / And is bowed down within me.
B. The Prophet’s (Representing His People’s) Hope
vv. 21-39
La 3:21 This I recall to my heart; / Therefore I have hope.
La 3:22 It is Jehovah’s alovingkindness that we are not 1consumed, / For His bcompassions do not fail;
La 3:23 They are new 1every amorning; / Great is Your 2bfaithfulness.
La 3:24 Jehovah is my 1aportion, says my soul; / Therefore I hope in Him.
La 3:25 Jehovah is good to those who 1await on Him, / To the soul that seeks Him.
La 3:26 It is good for one to hope, and to do so in silence, / For the salvation of Jehovah.
La 3:27 It is good for a man to bear / The yoke in his youth.
La 3:28 Let him sit alone and be silent, / Because He has laid it upon him.
La 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust — / Perhaps there is hope.
La 3:30 Let him give his acheek to him who strikes him; / Let him be filled with reproach.
La 3:31 For the Lord will not / aCast off forever.
La 3:32 But even if He causes grief, He will have compassion / According to the multitude of His lovingkindness;
La 3:33 For He does not afflict willingly / Or grieve the children of men.
La 3:34 The crushing under his foot / Of all the prisoners of the earth,
La 3:35 The turning aside of the justice due a man / Before the face of the Most High,
La 3:36 The wronging of a man in his cause — / Will not the Lord see all these?
La 3:37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, / What the Lord has not commanded?
La 3:38 Out of the amouth of the Most High / Do there not proceed bevil things and something good?
La 3:39 Why does a living man complain, / A man for the punishment of his sins?
C. The Prophet’s Request to His People
vv. 40-54
La 3:40 Let us examine our ways and try them, / And let us aturn again to Jehovah.
La 3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands / Unto God in the heavens.
La 3:42 We have transgressed and rebelled; / You have not pardoned.
La 3:43 You have covered Yourself with anger and have pursued us; / You have slain; You have not spared.
La 3:44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud / That prayer might not pass through.
La 3:45 You have made us aoffscouring and refuse / In the midst of the peoples.
La 3:46 All our enemies have opened / Their mouths against us.
La 3:47 aFear and the pit are upon us, / Devastation and destruction.
La 3:48 My eye aruns down with streams of water / For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
La 3:49 My eye pours forth and does not stop; / There is no cessation,
La 3:50 Until Jehovah looks down / And sees from the heavens.
La 3:51 My eye pains my soul / Because of all the daughters of my city.
La 3:52 They have hunted me down like a bird, / They who are my enemies without cause.
La 3:53 They have brought my life to its end in the pit / And have thrown a stone upon me.
La 3:54 Water streamed over my head; / I said, I have been cut off.
D. The Prophet’s (Representing His People’s) Prayer to Jehovah
vv. 55-66
La 3:55 I 1acalled upon Your name, O Jehovah, / From the lowest pit.
La 3:56 You have heard my voice; do not hide / Your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
La 3:57 You drew anear in the day that I called upon You; / You said, Do not fear.
La 3:58 Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s case; / You have redeemed my life.
La 3:59 You have seen, O Jehovah, my oppression; / Judge my cause.
La 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, / All their plans, against me.
La 3:61 You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, / All their plans against me,
La 3:62 The lips of those who rise up against me / And their meditation against me all the day.
La 3:63 Look upon their sitting down and their rising up; / I am their mocking song.
La 3:64 aYou will render to them a recompense, O Jehovah, / According to the work of their hands.
La 3:65 You will give them hardness of heart; / Your curse be upon them.
La 3:66 You will pursue them in anger and will destroy them / From aunder the heavens of Jehovah.
LAMENTATIONS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

IV. The Fourth Lamentation — A Lamentation over the Punished People
4:1-22
A. Afflicted with the Lack of Food in Their Siege
vv. 1-10
La 4:1 How the gold has become dim! / How the most pure gold has changed! / The astones of the sanctuary lie poured out / At the head of every street.
La 4:2 The precious sons of Zion, / Comparable to fine gold, / How they are esteemed as aearthen pitchers, / The work of the hands of a potter.
La 4:3 Even the jackals present the breast; / They nurse their young ones; / But the daughter of my people has become cruel, / Like the ostriches in the wilderness.
La 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaves / To the roof of his mouth for thirst; / The little ones ask for bread, / But no one breaks it for them.
La 4:5 Those who fed on delicacies / Are desolate in the streets; / Those who were brought up in scarlet / Embrace dung heaps.
La 4:6 And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater / Than the sin of aSodom, / Which was overthrown as in a moment; / And no hands were laid on her.
La 4:7 Her nobles were purer than snow; / They were whiter than milk; / They were redder in body than corals; / Their figure was like sapphire.
La 4:8 Their visage is adarker than black coal; / They are not recognized in the streets. / Their skin has shriveled up on their bones; / It has dried up; it has become like wood.
La 4:9 Those who were slain by the sword are better / Than those slain by famine; / For these pine away stricken through, / Because of the lack of the produce of the field.
La 4:10 The hands of compassionate women / Have boiled their own children; / They have become their food / In the destruction of the daughter of my people.
B. Consumed by the Burning Anger of Jehovah’s Wrath
vv. 11-20
La 4:11 Jehovah has accomplished His wrath; / He has poured out His burning anger. / And He has kindled a fire in Zion, / And it has consumed its foundations.
La 4:12 The kings of the earth did not believe, / Neither did any of the inhabitants of the world, / That the adversary and the enemy would enter / Into the gates of Jerusalem.
La 4:13 It is because of the sins of her prophets, / And the iniquities of her priests, / Who have shed the ablood of the righteous / In her midst.
La 4:14 They have wandered about blind in the streets; / They are polluted with blood; / So that men cannot touch / Their garments.
La 4:15 They cried out to them, Depart! aUnclean! / Depart, depart; do not touch! / When they fled away and wandered about, men said among the nations, / They will no longer sojourn there.
La 4:16 The anger of Jehovah has scattered them; / He will no longer regard them. / They did not honor the priests, / Nor did they favor the elders.
La 4:17 Our eyes do yet fail, / Looking in vain for our help; / In our watching we watched / For a nation that could not save.
La 4:18 They hunted our steps, / So that we cannot walk in our streets; / Our end drew near; our days were fulfilled; / For our end had come.
La 4:19 Our pursuers were swifter / Than the aeagles of heaven; / They hotly pursued us on the mountains; / They lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
La 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the aanointed of Jehovah, / Has been captured in their pits, / Of whom we said, Under his shadow / We will live among the nations.
C. Their Hope in the Future
vv. 21-22
La 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, / Who dwells in the land of Uz. / Yet the cup will pass through to you also; / You will become drunk and make yourself naked.
La 4:22 The apunishment for your iniquity has been accomplished, O daughter of Zion; / He will no longer take you into exile. / But He will 1punish your iniquity, O daughter of bEdom; / He will uncover your sins.
LAMENTATIONS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

V. The Fifth Lamentation —
A Lamentation as a Prayer for the Holy People as the Conclusion of the Fourth Lamentation
5:1-22
La 5:1 aRemember, O Jehovah, what has come upon us; / Look and see our reproach.
La 5:2 Our ainheritance has been turned over to strangers, / Our houses to foreigners.
La 5:3 We are orphans without father; / Our mothers are like widows.
La 5:4 We have drunk our water for money; / Our wood comes to us at a price.
La 5:5 On our necks are our pursuers; / We are weary; we have no rest.
La 5:6 We have given our hand to aEgypt / And to Assyria, so as to be satisfied with bread.
La 5:7 Our fathers sinned and they aare not, / And we ourselves bear their iniquities.
La 5:8 Slaves rule over us; / There is no one to deliver us from their hand.
La 5:9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives / Because of the sword from the wilderness.
La 5:10 Our skin is ablack like an oven / Because of the burning heat of famine.
La 5:11 They have ravished the women in Zion, / The virgins in the cities of Judah.
La 5:12 Princes were hanged by them. / The faces of the elders were not honored.
La 5:13 The young men bore the mill, / And the young boys stumbled under the wood.
La 5:14 The old men have ceased from the gate, / The young men from their music.
La 5:15 The joy of our heart has ceased; / Our dance has been turned into mourning.
La 5:16 The crown has fallen from our head. / Woe to us! For we have sinned.
La 5:17 Because of this our heart is faint; / Because of these things our eyes are dim;
La 5:18 Because of Mount aZion, which is desolate — / Foxes rove in it.
La 5:19 aYou, O Jehovah, 1abide forever; / Your bthrone is from generation to generation.
La 5:20 1Why do You forget us forever / And forsake us for so long a time?
La 5:21 1aTurn us back to You, O Jehovah, and we will be turned; / Renew our days as before.
La 5:22 Or have You 1utterly rejected us? / Are You 1exceedingly angry with us?
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EZEKIEL

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 
Outline

Author: Ezekiel (1:3).
Time of Writing: The sixth century B.C.
Place of Writing: By the river Chebar, in the village of Tel-abib (1:1; 3:15), not far from the city of Babylon.
Time Period Covered: A period of twenty-two years, from 595 B.C., the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity (1:2), to 573 B.C., the twenty-seventh year (29:17).
Subject:
God’s Appearing to Man in Glory, His Judgment upon Both His People and the Nations, and His Recovery of His Chosen People for the Building Up of a Dwelling Place as a Mutual Abode and Complete Expression for and of Himself
EZEKIEL 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

I. Introduction
1:1-3
Ezk 1:1 Now in the 1thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, while I was among the captives by the 2river Chebar, the 3heavens were aopened and I saw 4bvisions of God.
Ezk 1:2 On the fifth of the month (it was the 1fifth year of King aJehoiachin’s captivity)
Ezk 1:3 The 1word of Jehovah came expressly to 2Ezekiel the 3priest, the son of 2Buzi, in the land of the 4Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the 5ahand of Jehovah was upon him there.
II. A Vision of the Appearance of the Glory of Jehovah for
His Manifestation, His Move, and His Administration
1:4-28
A. The Wind, the Cloud, the Fire, and the Electrum
v. 4
Ezk 1:4 And I looked, and there came a astorm 1wind from the 2bnorth, a great 3ccloud and a 4fire flashing incessantly; and there was a brightness around it, and from the midst of it there was something like the sight of 5delectrum, from the midst of the fire.
B. The Four Living Creatures
vv. 5-14
Ezk 1:5 And from the midst of it there came the likeness of 1four aliving creatures. And this was their appearance: They had the likeness of a 2bman.
Ezk 1:6 And every one had four 1afaces, and every one of them had four 2bwings.
Ezk 1:7 And their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a acalf’s 1foot; and they sparkled like the sight of burnished bbronze.
Ezk 1:8 And the 1ahands of a man were under their wings on their four sides. And the four of them had their faces and their wings thus:
Ezk 1:9 Their awings were 1joined one to another; they did not bturn as they went; each went 2straight forward.
Ezk 1:10 As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a 1aman; and the four of them had the face of a 1blion on the right side, and the four of them had the face of an 1ox on the left side, and the four of them had the face of an 1eagle.
Ezk 1:11 1And thus their faces were. And their wings were spread out upward; two wings of each were 2joined one to another, and atwo 3covered their bodies.
Ezk 1:12 And each awent 1straight forward; wherever the 2Spirit was to bgo, they went; they did not turn as they went.
Ezk 1:13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their aappearance was like burning 1coals of fire, like the appearance of 1torches; 2the fire went to and fro among the living creatures, and the fire was 3bright; and out of the fire went forth 4lightning.
Ezk 1:14 And the living creatures 1ran ato and fro like the appearance of a blightning bolt.
C. The High and Awesome Wheels
vv. 15-21
Ezk 1:15 And as I watched the living creatures, I saw a 1awheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, for each of their four 2faces.
Ezk 1:16 The aappearance of the wheels and their workmanship were like the sight of 1bberyl. And the four of them had 2one likeness; that is, their appearance and their workmanship were as it were 3a wheel within a wheel.
Ezk 1:17 Whenever they went, they went in their 1four directions; they did not turn as they went.
Ezk 1:18 As for their rims, they were 1high and they were 1awesome; and the rims of the four of them were full of 2aeyes all around.
Ezk 1:19 And whenever the living creatures 1awent, the wheels went beside them; and whenever the living creatures were lifted up above the earth, the wheels were lifted up also.
Ezk 1:20 Wherever the 1Spirit was to ago, 2they went — wherever the Spirit was to go. And the wheels were lifted up alongside 2them, for the 1Spirit of the living creature was in the bwheels.
Ezk 1:21 Whenever those went, these went; and whenever those stood still, these stood still; and whenever those were lifted up above the earth, the wheels were lifted up alongside them; for the Spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
D. The Expanse like the Sight of Awesome Crystal
vv. 22-25
Ezk 1:22 And over the heads of the living creature there was the likeness of an 1aexpanse, like the sight of awesome bcrystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
Ezk 1:23 And under the expanse one pair of their wings went 1straight out, one toward the other; each had another pair 2covering their bodies on this side and on that side.
Ezk 1:24 And I heard the asound of their wings, like the sound of great bwaters, like the 1voice of the Almighty, as they went; it was the sound of a tumult, like the sound of an army. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.
Ezk 1:25 And there was a 1voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood still, they dropped their wings.
E. The Man on the Throne
vv. 26-28
Ezk 1:26 And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a 1athrone, like the appearance of a 2bsapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a 3man, above it.
Ezk 1:27 aThen I saw something like the sight of 1electrum, like the appearance of fire encased all around, from the appearance of His loins and upward; and from the appearance of His loins and downward, I saw something like the appearance of 1fire. And there was brightness all around Him.
Ezk 1:28 Like the appearance of the 1arainbow that is in the cloud on a day of rain, such was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. And when I saw it, I bfell on my face and I heard the voice of someone speaking.
EZEKIEL 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

III. God Judging His People and the Heathen Nations as a Consuming Fire
2:1 — 32:32
A. God’s Judgment of Israel in Their Degradation
2:1 — 24:27
1. Ezekiel’s Call and Commission
2:1 — 3:27
Ezk 2:1 Then He said to me, aSon of man, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.
Ezk 2:2 And the Spirit aentered into me when He spoke to me and caused me to stand up on my feet. And I heard Him who spoke to me.
Ezk 2:3 And He said to me, Son of man, I am asending you to the children of Israel, to 1rebellious heathen who have brebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me unto this very day;
Ezk 2:4 And they are impudent and ahard-hearted children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 2:5 And they, whether they ahear or not — for they are a brebellious house — they will cknow that a prophet has been in their midst.
Ezk 2:6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them and do not be afraid of their words; though 1thistles and athorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions, do not be afraid of their words and do not be dismayed at their faces; for they are a rebellious house.
Ezk 2:7 And you shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or not; for they are 1rebellious.
Ezk 2:8 But you, son of man, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and aeat what I give you.
Ezk 2:9 And I looked, and there was a hand, put forth toward me; and in it there was a scroll book.
Ezk 2:10 And He spread it before me. And it was written on the front and back, and on it were written lamentations, mourning, and woe.
EZEKIEL 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Ezk 3:1 Then He said to me, aSon of man, eat what you find; beat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.
Ezk 3:2 So I opened my mouth, and He gave me that scroll to eat.
Ezk 3:3 And He said to me, Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your inward parts with this scroll that I am giving you. And I aate it, and it was like honey in my mouth in its bsweetness.
Ezk 3:4 Then He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them.
Ezk 3:5 For you are being sent not to a people of strange speech and unintelligible language but to the house of Israel,
Ezk 3:6 Not to many peoples of strange speech and unintelligible language, whose words you cannot understand. If I were to send you to such, they would hear you;
Ezk 3:7 But the house of Israel is not willing to hear you, for they are not willing to hear Me, because all the house of Israel is aobstinate and stiff-hearted.
Ezk 3:8 I am now making your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.
Ezk 3:9 Like adamant, harder than aflint, I am making your forehead; do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their faces, for they are a brebellious house.
Ezk 3:10 Moreover He said to me, Son of man, all My words that I will speak to you take into your heart and hear with your ears.
Ezk 3:11 And go to those of the acaptivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah; whether they hear or not.
Ezk 3:12 Then the aSpirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of a great quaking, saying: Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from His place!
Ezk 3:13 And I heard the asound of the wings of the living creatures touching one another and the sound of the wheels alongside them and the sound of a great quaking.
Ezk 3:14 And the aSpirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the rage of my spirit, and the bhand of Jehovah was strong upon me.
Ezk 3:15 And I came to those of the captivity at Tel-abib who dwelt by the river Chebar; and where they dwelt, there I sat for seven days in their midst appalled.
Ezk 3:16 And at the end of seven days the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 3:17 aSon of man, I have appointed you as a 1bwatchman to the house of Israel, and you will hear the word from My mouth and will give them warnings from Me.
Ezk 3:18 When I say to a wicked one, You shall surely die, and you do not warn him nor speak to warn the wicked one from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked one will die for his iniquity, but his ablood I will require at your hand.
Ezk 3:19 Yet if you warn the wicked one and he does not turn from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity and you have 1delivered your soul.
Ezk 3:20 And when a righteous one turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Because you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and his righteous actions, which he had done, will not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.
Ezk 3:21 And if you warn a righteous one so that the righteous one does not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he was warned; and you have delivered your soul.
Ezk 3:22 And the ahand of Jehovah was upon me there; and He said to me, Arise, go forth to the plain, and there I will speak with you.
Ezk 3:23 So I arose and went forth to the plain. And the aglory of Jehovah stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
Ezk 3:24 Then the aSpirit entered into me and caused me to stand up on my feet; and He spoke with me and said to me, Go, shut yourself up within your house.
Ezk 3:25 As for you, son of man, they will now put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them.
Ezk 3:26 And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be adumb and not one who reproves them, for they are a rebellious house.
Ezk 3:27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Let him who hears hear, and let him who refuses refuse; for they are a arebellious house.
EZEKIEL 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

2. The Judgment on Jerusalem
4:1 — 5:17
Ezk 4:1 Now you, ason of man, take a tile and set it before you; and inscribe on it a city, Jerusalem;
Ezk 4:2 And lay a asiege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it, and set up camps against it, and set battering rams all around it.
Ezk 4:3 And take an iron plate and set it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face against it; and it will be under siege, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.
Ezk 4:4 Moreover lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it.
Ezk 4:5 And I have appointed to you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; and you will bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
Ezk 4:6 And when you have completed them, lie down again, on your right side; and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah for forty days; I have appointed to you a aday for each year.
Ezk 4:7 Then toward the siege of Jerusalem you shall set your face with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it.
Ezk 4:8 And I will then put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, until you have completed the days of your siege.
Ezk 4:9 And take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make them into bread for yourself. For the number of days that you lie on your side, for three-hundred ninety days, you shall eat it.
Ezk 4:10 And your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it.
Ezk 4:11 And the water that you drink shall be a sixth of a hin by measure; at fixed times you shall drink it.
Ezk 4:12 And as a barley cake you shall eat it; on human excrement you shall bake it in their sight.
Ezk 4:13 And Jehovah said, Thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread aunclean among the nations to which I will drive them.
Ezk 4:14 Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah. Indeed my soul has never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have not aeaten anything that has died of itself or has been torn to pieces, nor has any babominable flesh entered into my mouth.
Ezk 4:15 And He said to me, See, I give you cow’s dung instead of human excrement, and you will make your bread over it.
Ezk 4:16 Then He said to me, Son of man, I am now abreaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they will eat bread by weight and in anxiety, and they will drink water by measure and in horror;
Ezk 4:17 Because they will lack bread and water, and they will be horrified at each other and will arot in their iniquity.
EZEKIEL 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

Ezk 5:1 And you, ason of man, take a sharp sword; take it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and over your beard; then take scales to weigh with, and divide 1the hair.
Ezk 5:2 One-third you shall burn with fire in the middle of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city; and one-third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw a sword after them.
Ezk 5:3 And you shall take from there a afew in number and bind them in the edges of your garment.
Ezk 5:4 And you shall take again from them and cast them into the midst of the fire; and you shall burn them in the fire; from them fire will go forth against all the house of Israel.
Ezk 5:5 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and around her are countries.
Ezk 5:6 But she has rebelled against My 1ordinances in wickedness more than the nations and against My 1statutes more than the countries that surround her, for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.
Ezk 5:7 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have been more turbulent than the nations that surround you and have not walked in My statutes and have not kept My ordinances and have not even kept the ordinances of the nations that surround you;
Ezk 5:8 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.
Ezk 5:9 And I will do among you that which I have not done and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.
Ezk 5:10 Therefore fathers will eat the sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments upon you, and I will ascatter all your remnant toward all the winds.
Ezk 5:11 Therefore aas I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and all your abominations, therefore I will also 1withdraw My beye that it not pity you, nor will I spare.
Ezk 5:12 One-third of you will die by apestilence, and they will be consumed by famine in the midst of you; and one-third will fall by the sword surrounding you; and one-third I will bscatter toward all the winds, and I will draw a sword after them.
Ezk 5:13 Thus My anger will be spent, and I will cause My wrath to rest upon them, and I will be comforted; and they will know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in My zeal when I spend My wrath upon them.
Ezk 5:14 Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that surround you, in the sight of all who pass by.
Ezk 5:15 Thus 1you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations that surround you, when I execute judgments upon you in anger and wrath and furious rebukes. I, Jehovah, have spoken.
Ezk 5:16 When I send against them the evil arrows of famine, which are for destruction and which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread.
Ezk 5:17 Thus I will send upon you afamine and evil beasts, and they will make you childless; and pestilence and blood will pass through you, and I will bring a sword upon you. I, Jehovah, have spoken.
EZEKIEL 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

3. The Judgment on the Land of Israel
6:1 — 7:27
Ezk 6:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 6:2 aSon of man, set your bface toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
Ezk 6:3 And say, Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah. Thus says the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys, I am now bringing a sword upon you, and I will destroy your ahigh places.
Ezk 6:4 And your altars will be desolated, and your sun images will be broken; and I will make your slain fall before your idols.
Ezk 6:5 And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.
Ezk 6:6 In all the places that you dwell the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolated, so that your altars may be laid waste and desolated, and your idols may be broken and brought to an end, and your sun images may be cut down, and your works may be blotted out.
Ezk 6:7 And the slain will fall in your midst, and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 6:8 But I will leave a 1aremnant, in that you will have those who have escaped the sword among the nations, when you are scattered among the countries.
Ezk 6:9 And those of you who escape will aremember Me among the nations to which they are carried away, how I am broken with their heart of harlotry, which turned away from Me, and with their eyes that go as harlots after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils that they have done, for all their abominations.
Ezk 6:10 And they will know that I am Jehovah; I have not said in vain that I would do this ill to them.
Ezk 6:11 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they will fall by sword, famine, and pestilence.
Ezk 6:12 He who is far off will die by the pestilence, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who is left remaining and is besieged will die by the famine; thus I will spend My wrath on them.
Ezk 6:13 Then you will aknow that I am Jehovah, when their slain are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy terebinth, the places where they offered a sweet savor to all their idols.
Ezk 6:14 So I will stretch out My ahand against them and will make the land desolate, indeed, more desolate than the wilderness of Diblath, in all the places that they dwell; and they will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

Ezk 7:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 7:2 Now you, ason of man, thus says the Lord Jehovah to the land of Israel, An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
Ezk 7:3 Now the end is upon you. And I will send My anger against you and will judge you according to your ways, and I will bring upon you all your abominations.
Ezk 7:4 aAnd My beye will not pity you, nor will I spare; but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be in your midst; and you will cknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 7:5 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Ill, a unique ill! It has now come.
Ezk 7:6 An end is coming; the end is coming! It has awakened against you; it has now come.
Ezk 7:7 Doom has come to you, you who inhabit the land; the time has come; the day is near — tumult and not the joyful shout on the mountains.
Ezk 7:8 Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you; and I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you.
Ezk 7:9 aMy eye will not pity, nor will I spare. I will render to you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in your midst; and you will know that it is I, Jehovah, who strikes.
Ezk 7:10 Indeed the day — it has now come. Doom has gone forth. The rod has blossomed; pride has budded;
Ezk 7:11 Violence has risen up as a rod of wickedness. Nothing of them remains: nothing of their multitude, nothing of their wealth, and no eminence among them.
Ezk 7:12 The time has come; the day has drawn near. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is against all their multitude.
Ezk 7:13 For the seller will not return to what he has sold, while they live among the living; for the vision, which regards all 1the land’s multitude, will not be turned; not one of them will assure his life by his iniquity.
Ezk 7:14 They have blown the atrumpet and have made everything ready, but no one goes to the battle; for My wrath is against all the land’s multitude.
Ezk 7:15 The sword is outside, and pestilence and famine are inside: He who is in the field will die by the sword, and he who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence.
Ezk 7:16 And those of them who escape will escape, and they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each for his iniquity.
Ezk 7:17 All hands will adrop, and all knees will melt into water.
Ezk 7:18 And they will gird themselves with sackcloth, and shuddering will cover them; and on all their faces there will be shame, and baldness on all their heads.
Ezk 7:19 Their silver will they cast into the streets, and their gold will be an impurity; their asilver and their gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of Jehovah’s overflowing wrath. They cannot satisfy their souls nor fill their inward parts, for their iniquity has become a stumbling block to them.
Ezk 7:20 And they turned the beauty of His ornaments into pride; and they made the images of their abominations, of their detestable things, with it; therefore I make it an impurity to them.
Ezk 7:21 And I will give it into the hands of strangers as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it.
Ezk 7:22 I will also turn My face from them, and they will aprofane My secret place; indeed the robbers will enter it and profane it.
Ezk 7:23 Make a chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence.
Ezk 7:24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses; and I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places will be profaned.
Ezk 7:25 Anguish comes; and they seek peace, but there is none.
Ezk 7:26 Disaster upon disaster will come, and there will be rumor upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a aprophet, but instruction will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
Ezk 7:27 The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their ways I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them; and they will aknow that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

4. The Glory of Jehovah Departing
8:1 — 11:25
Ezk 8:1 And in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, as I sat in my house and the elders of Judah sat before me, the ahand of the Lord Jehovah fell upon me there.
Ezk 8:2 Then I looked, and there was a alikeness like the appearance of 1fire: from His loins and downward, the appearance of fire; and from His loins and upward something like the appearance of brightness, like the sight of 2belectrum.
Ezk 8:3 And He stretched out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and the aSpirit lifted me up between the earth and heaven and bbrought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God, to the entrance of the gate of the inner court that faces north, where the seat of the idol of 1jealousy was, which cprovokes to jealousy.
Ezk 8:4 And the aglory of the God of Israel was there, like the appearance that I saw in the plain.
Ezk 8:5 Then He said to me, aSon of man, Lift up your eyes now toward the north. Thus I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and there, toward the north at the altar gate, was this idol of jealousy at the entry.
Ezk 8:6 And He said to me, Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing here, that I should be far from My sanctuary? But you will yet see greater abominations.
Ezk 8:7 Then He brought me to the entrance of the court; and I looked, and there was a hole in the wall.
Ezk 8:8 And He said to me, Son of man, dig now through the wall. So I dug through the wall, and there was now an entrance.
Ezk 8:9 And He said to me, Go and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.
Ezk 8:10 Thus I entered and looked, and there were every form of creeping thing and detestable beast and all the idols of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around.
Ezk 8:11 And standing before them were seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each with his censer in his hand and the smell of the incense cloud went up.
Ezk 8:12 And He said to me, Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each in the room of his engraved images? For they say, Jehovah does not see us; Jehovah has aforsaken the land.
Ezk 8:13 And He said to me, You will yet again see greater abominations that they are committing.
Ezk 8:14 Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of Jehovah that was toward the north; and women weeping for 1Tammuz were sitting there.
Ezk 8:15 And He said to me, Do you see, son of man? You will yet again see greater abominations than these.
Ezk 8:16 Then He brought me into the inner court of the house of Jehovah; and there, at the entrance of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah and their faces toward the east; and they were aworshipping the sun toward the east.
Ezk 8:17 And He said to me, Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they also fill the land with violence and again and again provoke Me to anger? And now they are putting the branch to their nose.
Ezk 8:18 Therefore I will also deal with them in wrath. My aeye will not pity, nor will I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.
EZEKIEL 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

Ezk 9:1 Then He cried out in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Draw near, you who 1oversee the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Ezk 9:2 And then six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his shattering weapon in his hand; and there was one man among them, clothed in alinen, with a scribe’s inkhorn by his side. And they went and stood beside the bronze altar.
Ezk 9:3 And the aglory of the God of Israel 1went up from the cherub on which it had been to the threshold of the house. And He called out to the man clothed in linen, who had the scribe’s inkhorn by his side.
Ezk 9:4 And Jehovah said to him, Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a 1amark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and bgroan because of all the abominations that are committed in its midst.
Ezk 9:5 And to the others He said in my hearing, Pass through the city behind him and strike; do not let your eye pity, and do not spare.
Ezk 9:6 Utterly slay the old man and the young man, and the maiden, the little child, and the women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark. And you shall begin at My sanctuary. Thus they began with the elders who were before the house.
Ezk 9:7 And He said to them, Defile the house and fill the courts with the slain; go forth. And they went forth and struck the people in the city.
Ezk 9:8 And as they were striking them and I was left alone, I afell on my face, and I cried out and said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Are You bdestroying the whole remnant of Israel in Your pouring out of Your wrath upon Jerusalem?
Ezk 9:9 And He said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great; and the land is full of blood, and the city, full of perverted justice; for they say, Jehovah has aforsaken the land, and Jehovah does not see.
Ezk 9:10 But as for Me, My aeye will not pity, nor will I spare; I will bring their ways upon their head.
Ezk 9:11 And the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, brought back a report, saying, I have done as You have commanded me.
EZEKIEL 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

Ezk 10:1 1Then I looked, and there, in the aexpanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, appeared the likeness of a throne over them, like the appearance of a sapphire stone.
Ezk 10:2 And He spoke to the man clothed in alinen and said, Go in between the whirling wheels, under the cherub, and fill the hollow of your hands with bcoals of fire from between the cherubim, and cscatter them over the city. And he went in, in my sight.
Ezk 10:3 And the cherubim were standing on the right side of the house when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.
Ezk 10:4 And the aglory of Jehovah rose up from the cherub to a place above the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of Jehovah.
Ezk 10:5 And the asound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of the Almighty God when He speaks.
Ezk 10:6 And when He had commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, the man went and stood beside the wheel.
Ezk 10:7 And the cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim toward the fire that was between the cherubim, and he took some up and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen; and the man took it and went forth.
Ezk 10:8 And with the cherubim appeared the form of a man’s ahand under their wings.
Ezk 10:9 And I looked, and there were four awheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the sight of bberyl.
Ezk 10:10 And as for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, as it were a wheel within a wheel.
Ezk 10:11 As they went, they went in their four directions; they adid not turn as they went, but to the place that the head faced they followed; they did not turn as they went.
Ezk 10:12 And their whole body, their backs, their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of aeyes all around, their wheels belonging to the four of them.
Ezk 10:13 The wheels were called in my hearing the whirling wheels.
Ezk 10:14 And every one had four afaces. The first face was the face of a cherub; the second face was the face of a man; the third, the face of a lion; and the fourth, the face of an eagle.
Ezk 10:15 Then the cherubim rose up. This was the living creature that I had seen by the river Chebar.
Ezk 10:16 And whenever the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and whenever the cherubim lifted their wings to rise up from the earth, the wheels also did not turn from beside them.
Ezk 10:17 When those stood still, these stood still; and when those rose up, these rose up with them; for the aSpirit of the living creature was in them.
Ezk 10:18 And the aglory of Jehovah went forth from over the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubim.
Ezk 10:19 aAnd the cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight when they went forth, and the wheels were next to them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of Jehovah, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
Ezk 10:20 This was the living creature that I had seen beneath the God of Israel aby the river Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.
Ezk 10:21 Each one had four afaces, and each one had four wings; and the likeness of a man’s hands was under their wings.
Ezk 10:22 And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces that I had seen by the river Chebar, both their appearance and themselves. Each went 1straight forward.
EZEKIEL 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

Ezk 11:1 And the aSpirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of Jehovah that faces east; and there, at the entrance of the gate, were twenty-five men. And among them I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, rulers of the people.
Ezk 11:2 And He said to me, aSon of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give evil counsel in this city,
Ezk 11:3 Who say, It is not the time to build houses; the city is the apot and we are the flesh.
Ezk 11:4 Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man.
Ezk 11:5 Then the aSpirit of Jehovah fell upon me and said to me, Say, Thus says Jehovah, You speak in this way, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come up in your spirit.
Ezk 11:6 You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.
Ezk 11:7 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Your slain whom you have put in the midst of the city, they will be the flesh, and the city, the pot; but you 1I will bring forth from the midst of it.
Ezk 11:8 You have feared the sword, so I will bring a sword upon you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 11:9 I will bring you forth from the midst of it and will give you into the hands of strangers; and I will execute judgments upon you.
Ezk 11:10 You will fall by the sword; I will judge you in the borders of Israel, and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 11:11 The city will not be a pot to you so that you will be in its midst as flesh; I will judge you in the borders of Israel.
Ezk 11:12 And you will know that I am Jehovah; for you have not walked in My statutes, nor have you done My ordinances, but you have done according to the ordinances of the nations that surround you.
Ezk 11:13 And when I prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died; and I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice, and I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Are You making a full end to the remnant of Israel?
Ezk 11:14 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 11:15 Son of man, your brothers, your brothers, your kinsmen and the whole house of Israel, all of them, are the ones to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Stay far away from Jehovah; to us was this land given as an inheritance.
Ezk 11:16 Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Though I have sent them far away among the nations and though I have ascattered them among the countries, I have been a 1bsanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they went.
Ezk 11:17 Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will agather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
Ezk 11:18 And they will come there and take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.
Ezk 11:19 1aAnd I will give them one bheart, and a new cspirit I will put within 2them; and I will take the dheart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
Ezk 11:20 That they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them; and they will be aMy people, and I will be their God.
Ezk 11:21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their ways upon their heads, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 11:22 Then the cherubim lifted up their awings, and the wheels were next to them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
Ezk 11:23 And the 1aglory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the 2mountain which is beast of the city.
Ezk 11:24 And the aSpirit lifted me up and brought me to Chaldea, to the captives, in a vision by the Spirit of God. And the vision that I had seen went up from me.
Ezk 11:25 Then I told the captives all the things that Jehovah had shown me.
EZEKIEL 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

5. God Confirming the Prophecies of Judgment
12:1 — 24:27
a. Through Ezekiel as a Sign of Disgrace
12:1-28
(1) Ezekiel’s Baggage
vv. 1-16
Ezk 12:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 12:2 aSon of man, you are dwelling in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but bdo not see and have cears to hear but do not hear; for they are a drebellious house.
Ezk 12:3 Therefore you, son of man, prepare for yourself baggage for captivity, and go into captivity by day in their sight; indeed you shall go into captivity from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will see that they are a rebellious house.
Ezk 12:4 And you shall bring your baggage forth by day in their sight like baggage for captivity, and you shall go forth in the evening in their sight as captives go forth.
Ezk 12:5 In their sight you shall dig through the wall and bring your baggage through it.
Ezk 12:6 In their sight you shall take it up on your shoulder; in the dark you shall bring it forth. You shall cover your face so that you cannot see the ground, for I have given you as a asign to the house of Israel.
Ezk 12:7 And I did as I was commanded: I brought forth my baggage by day like baggage for captivity, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my hand; in the dark I brought forth the baggage; on my shoulder I took it up in their sight.
Ezk 12:8 Then the word of Jehovah came to me in the morning, saying,
Ezk 12:9 Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, What are you doing?
Ezk 12:10 Say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, This burden pertains to the prince in Jerusalem and to all the house of Israel, which is in it.
Ezk 12:11 Say, I am a sign of you. As I have done, so will it be done to them. They will go into exile, into captivity;
Ezk 12:12 And the aprince who is in their midst will take up his baggage on his shoulder in the dark and will go forth; they will dig through the wall in order to bring his baggage forth through it; he will hide his face so that he does not see the 1land with his eyes.
Ezk 12:13 I will also spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare; and I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he will not see it and will die there.
Ezk 12:14 And all who surround him to help him and all his armies, I will ascatter into every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
Ezk 12:15 And they will know that I am Jehovah, when I ascatter them among the nations and disperse them among the countries.
Ezk 12:16 But I will keep a asmall number of men from among them from sword, from famine, and from pestilence that they may recount all their abominations among the nations to which they go; and they will know that I am Jehovah.
(2) Ezekiel’s Trembling
vv. 17-28
Ezk 12:17 Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 12:18 Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxious carefulness;
Ezk 12:19 And say to the people of the land, Thus says the Lord Jehovah to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel, They will eat their bread with anxious carefulness and drink their water with horror so that 1their land may be emptied of its fullness because of the violence of all who dwell in it.
Ezk 12:20 And the inhabited cities will be laid waste, and the land will be a desolation; and you will know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 12:21 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 12:22 Son of man, what is this proverb that you all have concerning the land of Israel, saying, The days are aprolonged and every vision fails?
Ezk 12:23 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will bring this proverb to an end, so that they will no longer have the proverb in Israel. But say to them, The days have drawn near as well as the fulfillment of every vision.
Ezk 12:24 For there will no longer be vain vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel.
Ezk 12:25 For it is I, Jehovah, who speaks; whatever word I speak will be performed; it will no longer be delayed; for in your days, O arebellious house, I will speak a word and I will perform it, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 12:26 And again the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 12:27 Son of man, the house of Israel now says, The vision that he sees pertains to things many days from now, and he prophesies concerning distant times.
Ezk 12:28 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, No words of Mine will be delayed any longer, but the word that I have spoken will be performed, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

b. Against the False Prophets
13:1-23
Ezk 13:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 13:2 aSon of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who bprophesy out of their heart, Hear the word of Jehovah:
Ezk 13:3 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!
Ezk 13:4 Your prophets, O Israel, have become like afoxes among ruins.
Ezk 13:5 You have not gone up to the abreaches nor built up the wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in the battle in the day of Jehovah.
Ezk 13:6 aThey have seen vanity and deceptive divination, they who say, Jehovah declares! when Jehovah has not sent them; but they expect that He will fulfill their word.
Ezk 13:7 Have you not seen a vain vision and spoken deceptive divination when you say, Jehovah declares! and I have not spoken?
Ezk 13:8 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have spoken vanity and have seen deceptive visions, therefore I am now against you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 13:9 And My hand will be upon the prophets who see vanity and perform deceptive divination; they shall not be in the council of My people, nor shall they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you will know that I am the Lord Jehovah;
Ezk 13:10 Because, indeed because, they have led My people astray, saying, aPeace, when there is no peace; but it is as if someone builds up a bwall, and immediately they plaster it over with untempered mortar.
Ezk 13:11 Tell those who plaster over with untempered mortar that it will fall. There will be a flooding arain; and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a tempestuous wind will break it down.
Ezk 13:12 Indeed when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?
Ezk 13:13 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will cause a tempestuous wind to break forth in My wrath, and there will be a flooding rain in My anger, and hailstones to consume it in wrath.
Ezk 13:14 And I will tear down the wall that you plastered over with untempered mortar and will tear it down to the ground, so that its foundation is uncovered; and it will fall, and you will be consumed in the midst of it; and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 13:15 And I will spend My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it over with untempered mortar; and I will say to you, The wall is not there, and those who plaster it over are not there,
Ezk 13:16 The prophets of Israel, who prophesy concerning Jerusalem and see visions of peace for her, when there is no peace, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 13:17 And you, son of man, set your face toward the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their heart, and prophesy against them
Ezk 13:18 And say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the women who sew bands on all the wrists and make caps for the heads of persons of every stature, so as to hunt down souls! Will you hunt down the souls of My people while you preserve alive the souls of others for yourselves?
Ezk 13:19 And you have profaned Me before My people for some handfuls of barley and for some pieces of bread by putting to death some people who should not die and preserving alive other people who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to your lies.
Ezk 13:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now against your bands with which you hunt down souls there as you would birds; and I will tear them off your arms and will release the souls, which souls you hunt down as you would birds.
Ezk 13:21 I will also tear off your caps and will deliver My people from your hand, and they will no longer be in your hand to be hunted down; and you will know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 13:22 Because you discouraged the heart of the righteous man with lies, though I Myself did not pain him, and strengthened the hands of the wicked man so that he would not turn from his evil way and you would cause him to live,
Ezk 13:23 Therefore you will no longer see vanity and you will no longer practice divination, but I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

c. Against the Idolatrous Elders
14:1-23
Ezk 14:1 Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me.
Ezk 14:2 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 14:3 aSon of man, these men have 1set up their idols in their hearts and have put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I be inquired of at all by them?
Ezk 14:4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Each and every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and goes to the prophet, I, Jehovah, will be found to be answering according to this, according to the multitude of his idols;
Ezk 14:5 That I may lay hold of the house of Israel in their heart, who have become estranged from Me because of all their idols.
Ezk 14:6 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Repent, and turn away from your idols; and turn your faces away from all your abominations;
Ezk 14:7 For each and every man of the house of Israel or of the sojourners who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and goes to the prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I, Jehovah, will be found to be answering him by Myself;
Ezk 14:8 And I will set My face against that man, and I will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 14:9 But if the prophet is enticed to speak a word, I, Jehovah, have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.
Ezk 14:10 And they will bear their iniquity: As the iniquity of the prophet is, so the iniquity of him who inquires of him shall be,
Ezk 14:11 That the house of Israel may no longer astray from Me and may no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions, but that they may be bMy people and I may be their God, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 14:12 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 14:13 Son of man, when a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand over it and break its staff of bread and send a famine against it and cut off man and beast from it;
Ezk 14:14 Though these three men, aNoah, bDaniel, and cJob, were in the dmidst of it, they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 14:15 If I were to cause wild beasts to pass through the land so that they 1destroyed its inhabitants and it became so desolate that no one would pass through it because of the beasts,
Ezk 14:16 Though these three men were in the midst of it, as I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, they could not deliver even their sons and daughters; they alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
Ezk 14:17 Or if I were to bring a sword upon that land and were to say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I were to cut off man and beast from it;
Ezk 14:18 Though these three men were in the midst of it, as I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, they could not deliver even their sons and daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
Ezk 14:19 Or if I were to send pestilence into that land and were to pour out My wrath upon it in blood so as to cut off man and beast from it,
Ezk 14:20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in the midst of it, as I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, they could not deliver even a son or daughter; they would deliver only their own souls by their righteousness.
Ezk 14:21 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, How much more then when I send My 1afour severe judgments upon Jerusalem, sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence, to cut off man and beast from it!
Ezk 14:22 Yet there will be a aremnant left in it that will be brought forth, both sons and daughters. They will come forth to you, and you will see their ways and their doings; and you will be comforted for the ill that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it.
Ezk 14:23 And they will comfort you when you see their ways and their doings; and you will know that it was not without cause that I have done all that I have done to it, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

d. Against the Inhabitants of Jerusalem as a Vine Tree
15:1-8
Ezk 15:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 15:2 aSon of man, what becomes of the wood of the 1vine in comparison to every other kind of wood, of the pruned branch in comparison to that which was on the trees of the forest?
Ezk 15:3 Will wood from it be taken to make anything? Or will men take a peg from it to hang any vessel on?
Ezk 15:4 Indeed it is put into the fire as afuel; the fire consumes its two ends, and its middle is scorched. Is it good for anything?
Ezk 15:5 Indeed when it was whole, it was not made into anything. How much less, when fire has consumed it and it has been scorched, can it still be made into anything!
Ezk 15:6 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Like the wood of the avine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire as fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Ezk 15:7 And I will set My face against them: They have gone forth from the fire, yet the fire will consume them; and you will aknow that I am Jehovah when I set My face against them.
Ezk 15:8 And I will make the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 16

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e. Against Jerusalem as an Adulterous Wife
16:1-63
Ezk 16:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 16:2 aSon of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
Ezk 16:3 And say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem, Your aorigin and your birth are from the land of Canaan; your bfather was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite.
Ezk 16:4 As for your birth, on the day that you were aborn your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Ezk 16:5 No eye pitied you enough to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown into the open field because you were loathed on the day that you were born.
Ezk 16:6 And I passed by you and saw you kicking about in your blood, and I said to you while you were in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, Live!
Ezk 16:7 I caused you to aincrease like the sprouts of the field; and you increased and grew big, and you came to full beauty; your breasts became firm and your hair grew; but you were naked and bare.
Ezk 16:8 Then I passed by you and saw you; and then was your time a time of love. And I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness; indeed I swore unto you and entered into a 1covenant with you, declares the Lord Jehovah, and you became aMine.
Ezk 16:9 Then I washed you with water; yes, I washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
Ezk 16:10 I also clothed you with an embroidered garment and put sandals of porpoise skin on you, and I bound your head with fine linen and covered you with silk.
Ezk 16:11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck;
Ezk 16:12 And I put a ring in your nose and earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.
Ezk 16:13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was fine linen and silk and embroidery; you ate fine flour and honey and oil. And you became so very beautiful, and you prospered so as to become royalty.
Ezk 16:14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your abeauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor, which I had put upon you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 16:15 But you trusted in your beauty and went about as a harlot because of your renown, and you poured out your fornications upon everyone who passed by; your beauty became his.
Ezk 16:16 And you took some of your agarments and made high places of varied colors for yourself, and you committed fornication upon them, things that had never happened before, nor should have been.
Ezk 16:17 And you took your beautiful articles, made of My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made images of men for yourself and committed fornication with them.
Ezk 16:18 And you took your garments of embroidery and covered them, and you offered My oil and My incense before them.
Ezk 16:19 And My bread, which I had given you, the fine flour and oil and honey that I fed you with, you offered before them as a sweet savor; thus it was, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 16:20 Moreover you took your sons and daughters, whom you had borne unto Me, and you sacrificed them to those idols to be devoured. Were your fornications a small matter,
Ezk 16:21 That you slaughtered My children and delivered them up to pass through fire unto those idols?
Ezk 16:22 And in all your abominations and fornications you did not remember the days of your ayouth, when you were naked and bare and you were kicking about in your blood.
Ezk 16:23 Then after all your wickedness (Woe, woe to you! declares the Lord Jehovah)
Ezk 16:24 You built yourself a mound and made yourself an elevation in every open square.
Ezk 16:25 At the head of every street you built your elevation and caused your beauty to be abhorred; and you spread your legs to everyone who passed by and multiplied your fornications.
Ezk 16:26 You also committed fornication with the sons of aEgypt, your neighbors, great of flesh, and multiplied your fornications to provoke Me to anger.
Ezk 16:27 Indeed then I stretched out My hand over you and diminished the food apportioned to you; and I delivered you to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the aPhilistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.
Ezk 16:28 You also committed fornication with the sons of aAssyria because you were not satisfied; and you committed fornication with them and were still not satisfied.
Ezk 16:29 Furthermore you multiplied your fornications into the land of merchants, aChaldea, yet you were still not satisfied by this.
Ezk 16:30 How feeble is your heart, declares the Lord Jehovah, in that you do all these things, the actions of an unrestrained harlot!
Ezk 16:31 When you built your mound at the head of every street and you made your elevation in every open square, you were not like a harlot, by disdaining payment.
Ezk 16:32 The adulterous wife takes strangers instead of her husband.
Ezk 16:33 Men give gifts to all harlots, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers and bribed them to come to you from all around for your fornications.
Ezk 16:34 Thus you are perverse compared to other women in your fornications, in that they do not go after you as a prostitute, but you give payment and no payment is given to you; therefore you are perverse.
Ezk 16:35 Therefore, you harlot, hear the word of Jehovah:
Ezk 16:36 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered through your fornications with your lovers and with all your abominable idols and because of the blood of your children, whom you gave to them,
Ezk 16:37 Therefore I am about to gather all your lovers whom you have pleased, indeed, all those whom you loved, with all those whom you hated; thus I will agather them against you from all around, and I will uncover your nakedness to them so that they may see all your nakedness.
Ezk 16:38 And I will judge you with the judgment that falls on adulterous women and on women who shed blood, and I will bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy.
Ezk 16:39 And I will give you into their hand; and they will tear down your mounds and break down your elevations; athey will also strip you of your garments and take your beautiful articles, and they will leave you naked and bare.
Ezk 16:40 And they will raise up a crowd against you and will stone you with stones and will cut you to pieces with their swords.
Ezk 16:41 And they will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. And I will stop you from being a harlot, and also you will no longer give payment.
Ezk 16:42 Thus I will cause My wrath against you to rest, and My jealousy will turn from you; and I will be quiet and angry no more.
Ezk 16:43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have 1raged against Me in all these things, therefore, I, for My part, will bring your ways upon your head, declares the Lord Jehovah; and you will not commit this lewdness in addition to all your abominations.
Ezk 16:44 Indeed everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb concerning you, saying, As the mother is, so is her daughter.
Ezk 16:45 You are the daughter of your mother, she who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, they who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your afather was an Amorite.
Ezk 16:46 And your older sister is aSamaria with her daughters, who lives to your left; and your sister who is younger than you, who lives to your right, is bSodom with her daughters.
Ezk 16:47 But you have not walked merely according to their ways and have not acted merely according to their abominations; but, as if such were too small a thing, you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they did.
Ezk 16:48 As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, aSodom your sister, she with her daughters, has not done as you have done, you with your daughters.
Ezk 16:49 Indeed this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, abundance of bread, and careless ease were with her and her daughters, but she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy;
Ezk 16:50 And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it.
Ezk 16:51 And Samaria has not committed the half of your sins, but you have multiplied your abominations more than they and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have committed.
Ezk 16:52 Bear then also your disgrace, which you have adjudged to your sisters; through your sins which you have committed more abominably than they, they are more righteous than you; indeed then be also put to shame and bear your disgrace, in that you have made your sisters appear to be more righteous.
Ezk 16:53 But I will aturn their captivity, the captivity of Sodom with her daughters and the captivity of Samaria with her daughters, as well as the captivity of your captives with them;
Ezk 16:54 That you may bear your disgrace and be disgraced for all that you have done, in that you were a comfort to them.
Ezk 16:55 And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters, will return to their former state, and Samaria with her daughters will return to their former state; and you with your daughters will return to your former state.
Ezk 16:56 Indeed, was not Sodom your sister a byword in your mouth on the day of your pride,
Ezk 16:57 Before your wickedness was uncovered? So now you are the reproach of the daughters of 1Aram and all who are around her and of the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you.
Ezk 16:58 You have borne your own lewdness and abominations, declares Jehovah.
Ezk 16:59 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
Ezk 16:60 Nevertheless I will remember My acovenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an eternal bcovenant for you.
Ezk 16:61 Then you will remember your ways and you will be disgraced when you receive your sisters, the ones older than you and the ones younger than you; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.
Ezk 16:62 And I will establish My covenant with you, and you will aknow that I am Jehovah,
Ezk 16:63 That you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I make apropitiation for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 17

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f. Through a Parable of Two Eagles and a Vine
17:1-24
Ezk 17:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 17:2 aSon of man, put forth a riddle, and utter a parable to the house of Israel;
Ezk 17:3 And say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, A great 1aeagle with great wings, long pinions, and full plumage of many colors came to Lebanon and btook away the top of the cedar.
Ezk 17:4 He cropped off its topmost young 1twig and brought it to a land of merchants; he set it in a city of traders.
Ezk 17:5 He also took some of the seed of the land and put it in a fertile field; he took it and set it by abundant waters like a willow,
Ezk 17:6 That it might sprout and become a low, running vine with its branches turned toward him and its roots under him. And it became a vine and produced offshoots and sent forth boughs.
Ezk 17:7 And there was another great 1eagle with great wings and much plumage; and then this vine abent its roots toward him, and from the beds where it was planted it sent out its branches toward him that he might water it.
Ezk 17:8 In a good field by abundant waters it had been transplanted so that it would produce branches and bear fruit, that it might be a magnificent vine.
Ezk 17:9 Say then, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit so that it withers? All its fresh sprouting leaves will wither, even without great strength or a mighty people pulling it up from its roots.
Ezk 17:10 And indeed, though it has been transplanted, will it thrive? Will it not wither completely once the east wind touches it? In the beds where it was planted it will wither.
Ezk 17:11 Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 17:12 Say now to the arebellious house, Do you not know what these things mean? Say, Indeed the bking of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and he took its 1king and its rulers and brought them to him at Babylon.
Ezk 17:13 And he took 1someone of the royal seed and made a acovenant with him and put him under an oath. He also took the mighty men of the land,
Ezk 17:14 That the kingdom might be humble, that it might not lift itself up, but by keeping his covenant, it might stand.
Ezk 17:15 But he arebelled against him by sending his messengers to Egypt that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does these things escape? Can he break the covenant and slip away?
Ezk 17:16 As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, surely in the land of the king who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, with him in the midst of aBabylon he will die.
Ezk 17:17 And Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not aid him in battle, when they cast up mounds and build siegeworks to cut off many lives.
Ezk 17:18 Indeed, he despised the oath by breaking the covenant; yes, he even gave his hand and yet did all these things; he will not slip away.
Ezk 17:19 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, As I live, surely My oath, which he despised, and My covenant, which he broke, I will bring upon his head.
Ezk 17:20 And I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare; and I will bring him to Babylon and will enter into judgment with him there concerning his unfaithfulness by which he has been unfaithful to Me.
Ezk 17:21 And all his 1choice men with all his armies will fall by the sword, and those who are left will be ascattered into every wind; and you will know that I, Jehovah, have spoken.
Ezk 17:22 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will also take a 1twig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out; from the topmost of its young twigs I will crop off a tender one, and I will transplant it upon a high and prominent mountain.
Ezk 17:23 On the high mountain of Israel I will transplant it; and it will bear branches and produce fruit and will become a magnificent cedar; and under it all birds of every kind will nest; in the shade of its branches they will nest.
Ezk 17:24 And all the trees of the field will know that I, Jehovah, have brought down the exalted tree and have exalted the lowly tree, that I have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree bud. I, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will do it.
EZEKIEL 18

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g. Against the Parable of the Sour Grapes
18:1-32
Ezk 18:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 18:2 What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, aThe fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
Ezk 18:3 As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, the use of this parable will no longer be with you in Israel.
Ezk 18:4 Indeed all souls are Mine; indeed as is the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins, he shall adie.
Ezk 18:5 But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness,
Ezk 18:6 And does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and does not defile his neighbor’s awife or come near a menstruous woman;
Ezk 18:7 And if a man does not oppress anyone but restores to the debtor his pledge, does not plunder but agives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment;
Ezk 18:8 If he does not lend with interest or collect with an increase; if he withdraws his hand from iniquity and exercises true justice between man and man;
Ezk 18:9 If he walks in My statutes and keeps My ordinances to do truth — he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 18:10 But if he begets a violent son, one who sheds blood or does only one of these things
Ezk 18:11 (Though he himself has done none of these things); if he even eats upon the mountains or defiles his neighbor’s wife,
Ezk 18:12 Oppresses the poor and needy, commits plunder, does not restore the pledge, or lifts his eyes to the idols and commits abomination,
Ezk 18:13 Lends with interest or collects with an increase; then will he live? He shall not live. He has committed all these abominations; he shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him.
Ezk 18:14 But if he begets a son, and the son sees all the sins of his father that he has done, and he sees and does not do the like;
Ezk 18:15 He does not eat upon the mountains and does not lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife,
Ezk 18:16 Does not oppress anyone, does not keep the pledge and does not plunder, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment,
Ezk 18:17 Takes his hand off the poor and does not collect with interest or increase, does My ordinances and walks in My statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live.
Ezk 18:18 As for his father, because he practiced extortion, plundered his brother, and did that which was not good in the midst of his people, indeed he shall die for his iniquity.
Ezk 18:19 Yet you say, Why? Does not the son share the punishment for the father’s ainiquity? When the son has practiced justice and righteousness and has kept all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live.
Ezk 18:20 The soul who sins, he shall adie; the son shall not share the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor shall the father share the punishment for the son’s iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous man shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked man shall be upon him.
Ezk 18:21 But if the wicked man turns from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
Ezk 18:22 None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of his righteousness that he has practiced he shall live.
Ezk 18:23 Do I take pleasure in the adeath of the wicked, declares the Lord Jehovah, and not in his turning away from his ways that he may live?
Ezk 18:24 But when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity and commits all the abominations that the wicked man commits, will he live? aNone of his righteousness that he has practiced shall be bremembered. Because of his unfaithfulness in which he has acted unfaithfully and because of his sin which he has sinned, because of them, he shall die.
Ezk 18:25 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not fair? Is it not your ways that are not fair?
Ezk 18:26 When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity and dies as a consequence, because of his iniquity that he has practiced he shall die.
Ezk 18:27 Again, when a wicked man turns from his wickedness that he has practiced and practices justice and righteousness, he shall save his life.
Ezk 18:28 Because he sees and turns from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
Ezk 18:29 Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not fair. Are My ways not fair, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not fair?
Ezk 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his ways, declares the Lord Jehovah. 1aRepent, and turn away from all your transgressions so that iniquity will not become a stumbling block to you.
Ezk 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed, and get yourselves a anew heart and a new spirit; for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezk 18:32 For I take no pleasure in the adeath of him who dies, declares the Lord Jehovah; therefore turn and live.
EZEKIEL 19

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h. Through Ezekiel’s Lamentation for the Princes of Israel
19:1-14
Ezk 19:1 But you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
Ezk 19:2 And say,
What was your mother? / A lioness among lions. / She lay in the midst of young lions; / She brought up her whelps.
Ezk 19:3 When she raised up aone of her whelps, / He became a young lion; / And he learned to take prey; / He devoured men.
Ezk 19:4 Then the nations heard of him; / He was captured in their pit, / And they abrought him with hooks / To the land of Egypt.
Ezk 19:5 When she saw that she had waited, / That her hope was lost, / She took aanother one of her whelps; / She made him a young lion.
Ezk 19:6 And he went about among the lions; / He became a young lion. / And he learned to take prey; / He devoured men.
Ezk 19:7 And he 1destroyed their citadels / And laid waste their cities; / And the land and its fullness were horrified / At the sound of his roaring.
Ezk 19:8 Then the nations set against him / All around from the provinces / And spread their net over him; / He was captured in their pit.
Ezk 19:9 And they put him in a cage with hooks / And abrought him to the king of Babylon — / They brought him into strongholds — / That his voice would no longer be heard / Upon the mountains of Israel.
Ezk 19:10 Your mother was like a avine in your 1vineyard, / Transplanted beside the waters; / It was fruitful and full of branches / Because of abundant waters.
Ezk 19:11 And it had strong branches / For scepters of those who rule; / And its height was exalted among the leafy boughs, / And it was visible in its height because of the multitude of its branches.
Ezk 19:12 But it was plucked up in wrath; / It was cast down to the ground; / And the east wind dried up its fruit; / Its strong branch was broken off and it withered; / The afire consumed it.
Ezk 19:13 And now it is transplanted in the wilderness, / In a dry and thirsty land.
Ezk 19:14 And fire has gone forth from its branch; / It has consumed its offshoots and its fruit, / So that there is ano strong branch in it, / A scepter to rule.
This is a lamentation and it has become a lamentation.
EZEKIEL 20

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i. Through Jehovah’s Response to the Elders’ Inquiring of Jehovah
20:1-44
Ezk 20:1 Now in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Jehovah, and they sat before me.
Ezk 20:2 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 20:3 aSon of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live, I will not be inquired of by you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 20:4 Will you judge them, will you judge, son of man? Make them know the abominations of their fathers,
Ezk 20:5 And say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, On the day when I achose Israel and 1lifted up My hand to the seed of the house of Jacob and bmade Myself known to them in the land of Egypt; when I lifted up My hand to them, saying, I am Jehovah your God;
Ezk 20:6 On that day I lifted up My hand to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a 1land that I had spied out for them, aflowing with milk and honey, which is the 1bglory of all the lands.
Ezk 20:7 And I said to them, Cast away, each of you, the detestable things of your eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the aidols of Egypt; I am Jehovah your God.
Ezk 20:8 But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not, each one, cast away the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Thus I thought to pour out My wrath upon them and to spend My anger on them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
Ezk 20:9 But I did something for My name’s sake that it might not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in the midst of whom they were, in whose sight I had made Myself known to them in order to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
Ezk 20:10 Therefore I caused them to ago forth from the land of Egypt, and I brought them into the wilderness.
Ezk 20:11 And I gave them My astatutes and made known to them My ordinances, by which, if a man does them, he will blive.
Ezk 20:12 And also I gave them My aSabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might bknow that I am Jehovah who sanctifies them.
Ezk 20:13 But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the awilderness; they did not walk in My statutes, and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man does them, he will live; and they greatly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I thought to pour out My wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
Ezk 20:14 But I did something for My name’s sake that it might not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had caused them to go forth.
Ezk 20:15 Yet I also alifted up My hand to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all the lands;
Ezk 20:16 Because they rejected My ordinances and did not walk in My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, for their heart went after idols.
Ezk 20:17 But My eye pitied them, so that I did not destroy them, and I did anot bring them to their end in the wilderness.
Ezk 20:18 And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances, and do not defile yourselves with their idols.
Ezk 20:19 I am Jehovah your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them;
Ezk 20:20 And sanctify My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you might know that I am Jehovah your God.
Ezk 20:21 But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes and they were not careful to do My ordinances, by which, if a man does them, he will live; they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I thought to pour out My wrath upon them to spend My anger on them in the wilderness.
Ezk 20:22 Yet I withdrew My hand and did something for My name’s sake that it might not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.
Ezk 20:23 I also lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness that I would ascatter them among the nations and would disperse them among the countries,
Ezk 20:24 Because they did not do My ordinances, but rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were directed to the idols of their fathers.
Ezk 20:25 And I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they would not live,
Ezk 20:26 And I declared them unclean because of their gifts, in that they caused everything that opens the womb to pass through fire, that I might make them desolate so that they would know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 20:27 Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Still yet in this your fathers blasphemed Me by acting unfaithfully against Me:
Ezk 20:28 When I had brought them into the land which I had lifted up My hand to give them, they saw every high hill and every leafy tree; and there they offered their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering, and there they made their sweet savor, and there they poured out their drink offerings.
Ezk 20:29 Then I said to them, What is the high place to which you go? Therefore the name of it is called Bamah to this day.
Ezk 20:30 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Do you defile yourselves in the way of your fathers? And do you go about as a harlot after their detestable things?
Ezk 20:31 And when you offer up your gifts, when you make your children pass through fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols until today. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, I will not be inquired of by you.
Ezk 20:32 And that which comes up in your spirit shall by no means occur, that which you say, We will be alike the nations, like the families of the countries, serving wood and stone.
Ezk 20:33 As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, surely with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I will rule over you.
Ezk 20:34 And I will bring you out from the peoples and will agather you from the countries among which you have been scattered, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out.
Ezk 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and I will enter into judgment with you there face to face.
Ezk 20:36 As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 20:37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
Ezk 20:38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out from the land of their sojourning, but not one will enter into the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 20:39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord Jehovah, aGo, serve every one his idols; but afterward, you shall surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will no longer profane with your gifts and with your idols.
Ezk 20:40 For on My holy amountain, on the 1mountain of the height of Israel, declares the Lord Jehovah, there will the whole house of Israel, all of them, serve Me in the land; there will I accept them and there will I require your contributions and the firstfruits of your offerings with all your holy things.
Ezk 20:41 As a sweet savor I will accept you, when I abring you out from the peoples and bgather you from the countries among which you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.
Ezk 20:42 And you will know that I am Jehovah, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give to your fathers.
Ezk 20:43 aAnd there you will remember your ways and all your doings by which you defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have done.
Ezk 20:44 And you will know that I am Jehovah, when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, declares the Lord Jehovah.
j. Through a Parable of a Consuming Forest Fire
20:45-49
Ezk 20:45 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 20:46 Son of man, set your face toward Teman, and utter something against the south and prophesy against the forest field of the 1Negev;
Ezk 20:47 And say to the forest of the Negev, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now kindling a fire in you, and it will consume in you every tender atree and every dry tree; the flaming flame will not be quenched, and every surface will be scorched by it, from the south to the north.
Ezk 20:48 And all flesh will see that I, Jehovah, kindled it; it will not be quenched.
Ezk 20:49 Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! They say of me, Does he not just use parables?
EZEKIEL 21

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k. By the Sword of Jehovah against the Holy Places and the Land of Israel
21:1-32
Ezk 21:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 21:2 aSon of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and utter something against the holy places and prophesy against the land of Israel;
Ezk 21:3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus says Jehovah, I am now against you, and I will draw My asword out of its sheath, and I will cut off from you the righteous man and the wicked.
Ezk 21:4 Because I will cut off from you the righteous man and the wicked, therefore My sword will go forth out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north.
Ezk 21:5 And all flesh will know that I, Jehovah, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it will not return again.
Ezk 21:6 But you, son of man, groan! With the shaking of loins and with bitterness groan in their sight.
Ezk 21:7 And when they say to you, Why do you groan, you shall say, Because of the report that comes; and every heart will melt and every hand will be feeble and every spirit will faint and every knee will flow into water. It is about to come and it will happen, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 21:8 Again the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 21:9 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord, Say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished.
Ezk 21:10 It is sharpened to slaughter utterly, polished to flash like lightning. Or shall we rejoice, saying, The 1scepter of my son despises all other wood?
Ezk 21:11 And it is given to be polished, that it may be wielded in the hand. The sword — it is sharpened and it is polished, that it may be given into the hand of the slayer.
Ezk 21:12 Cry out and howl, son of man, for it will come against My people. It will come against all the princes of Israel; they are cast at the sword with My people; therefore 1strike your thigh.
Ezk 21:13 For a trial has been made. And what if even the scepter that despises is no more? declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 21:14 You therefore, son of man, prophesy and clap your hands together; and let the sword be doubled a third time, the sword for the slain; it is the sword for a great slain one that encircles them.
Ezk 21:15 In order that hearts may fail and that occasions of falling may multiply at all their gates, I have given the 1slaughtering sword. Ah! It has been made to flash like lightning; it is drawn for slaying.
Ezk 21:16 Gather yourself up, go to the right; set yourself, go to the left, to wherever your edge is appointed.
Ezk 21:17 And I, even I, will clap My hands together and will cause My wrath to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.
Ezk 21:18 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 21:19 And you, son of man, appoint two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; out of one land both will come. And make a signpost; make it at the fork in the road to each city.
Ezk 21:20 You shall appoint a way for the sword to come, either to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, or to fortified Jerusalem in Judah.
Ezk 21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork in the two roads, using divination; he shakes his arrows, he inquires of the 1teraphim, he 2observes the liver.
Ezk 21:22 Into his right hand came the divination for Jerusalem, to set up the battering ram, to open his mouth in killing, to lift up his voice with a shout, to set the battering rams against the gates, to cast up a mound, to build a asiege wall.
Ezk 21:23 Yet to those in Jerusalem it will be as a false divination in their sight, to those who have sworn solemn oaths; but He brings the iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
Ezk 21:24 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear, because you have come to remembrance, you will be taken with the hand.
Ezk 21:25 And you, profane, awicked prince of Israel, whose day has come at the time of the 1iniquity of the end,
Ezk 21:26 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Remove the turban, and take off the crown; what is will not be. aExalt the lowly, and lay low the exalted.
Ezk 21:27 Ruins, ruins, ruins will I make it; and this also will be no more, until 1He acomes whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.
Ezk 21:28 And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah concerning the children of Ammon and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword, drawn for the slaughter, polished to consume, that it may flash like lightning —
Ezk 21:29 While they see vanity for you, while they divine deception for you — to bring you down upon the necks of the wicked slain, whose day has come at the time of the iniquity of the end.
Ezk 21:30 Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your aorigin, I will judge you.
Ezk 21:31 And I will pour out My indignation upon you; with the fire of My overflowing wrath I will blow against you, and I will give you into the hand of brutal men, skilled in destruction.
Ezk 21:32 You will be fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the midst of the land; you will not be remembered; for I, Jehovah, have spoken.
EZEKIEL 22

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l. Through Ezekiel’s Declaration of Jerusalem’s Abominations
22:1-16
Ezk 22:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 22:2 Now you, ason of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Therefore make her know all her abominations.
Ezk 22:3 And you shall say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, A city that asheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols, against her own good, that she may defile herself!
Ezk 22:4 You are guilty for 1the blood which you have shed and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the countries.
Ezk 22:5 Those who are near and those who are far off from you will mock you, who are ill-reputed and in great tumult.
Ezk 22:6 Indeed the princes of Israel, each according to his power, were within you to shed blood.
Ezk 22:7 They have lightly esteemed father and mother within you; they have treated the stranger with oppression in the midst of you, and the orphan and the widow they have ill-treated within you.
Ezk 22:8 You have despised My holy things and have profaned My Sabbaths.
Ezk 22:9 Slanderous men are within you in order to shed blood, and within you they have eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.
Ezk 22:10 In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their father; they have humbled women in their uncleanness within you.
Ezk 22:11 And one has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter, within you.
Ezk 22:12 Within you they have taken bribes in order to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase and have wrested unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion and have forgotten Me, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 22:13 Therefore I have now struck My hand against your wrested unjust gain which you have made and at the bloodshed which is in the midst of you.
Ezk 22:14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days when I will deal with you? I, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will do it.
Ezk 22:15 And I will ascatter you among the nations and disperse you among the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness from you.
Ezk 22:16 And you will be profaned through yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
m. Against Jerusalem as a Smelting Furnace
22:17-22
Ezk 22:17 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 22:18 Son of man, the house of Israel has become adross to Me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.
Ezk 22:19 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because all of you have become dross, therefore I am now gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.
Ezk 22:20 As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the afurnace to blow fire upon it and smelt it, so will I gather you in My anger and in My wrath; and I will lay you there and smelt you.
Ezk 22:21 Yes, I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of My overflowing wrath, and you will be smelted in the midst of it.
Ezk 22:22 As silver is smelted in the midst of the furnace, so will you be smelted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, Jehovah, have poured out My wrath upon you.
n. Against the Various Kinds of People among the Children of Israel
22:23-31
Ezk 22:23 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 22:24 Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation.
Ezk 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion taking prey: They have devoured souls; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have increased the number of her widows in the midst of her.
Ezk 22:26 Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made ano distinction between the holy and the profane, nor have they made the difference known between the unclean and the clean; and from My Sabbaths they have hidden their eyes; and I am profaned in the midst of them.
Ezk 22:27 Her rulers within her are like awolves taking prey, by shedding blood and destroying souls in order to wrest unjust gain.
Ezk 22:28 And her prophets have plastered over their deeds with untempered mortar for them, seeing avanity and performing deceptive divination for them, saying, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah has not spoken.
Ezk 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and have committed plunder and have oppressed the poor and needy and have mistreated the stranger without justice.
Ezk 22:30 And I sought aa man among them who would build up the wall and bstand in the breach before Me for the sake of the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found cno one.
Ezk 22:31 Therefore I have poured out My indignation upon them; in the fire of My overflowing wrath I have consumed them; I have brought their own way upon their heads, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 23

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o. Against Jerusalem and Samaria as Two Adulterous Sisters
23:1-49
Ezk 23:1 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 23:2 aSon of man, there were two bwomen, the daughters of one mother;
Ezk 23:3 And they committed fornication in aEgypt; in their youth they committed fornication; there their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosoms were handled.
Ezk 23:4 And their names were 1Oholah, the older one, and 2Oholibah, her sister; and they abecame Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, 3Samaria is Oholah, and 3Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Ezk 23:5 And Oholah committed fornication instead of remaining with Me, and she lusted after her lovers, after the aAssyrians, who were close to her,
Ezk 23:6 Who were clothed in purple, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding horses.
Ezk 23:7 And she bestowed her fornication upon them, all of them the choice men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols, she defiled herself.
Ezk 23:8 And she did not abandon her fornication from her time in Egypt; for in her youth they had lain with her, and they had handled her virgin bosom, and they had poured out their fornication upon her.
Ezk 23:9 Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the aAssyrians whom she lusted after.
Ezk 23:10 They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and daughters, and they slew her with the sword. And she became a byword among women, and they executed judgments upon her.
Ezk 23:11 And her sister Oholibah 1saw this, but she was more acorrupt in her lust than she and more corrupt in her fornication than the fornication of her sister.
Ezk 23:12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, who were close to her, clothed splendidly, horsemen riding horses, all of them desirable young men.
Ezk 23:13 Then I saw that she was defiled. Both had taken the same way.
Ezk 23:14 And she increased her fornication: When she saw men portrayed upon the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,
Ezk 23:15 Girded with belts upon their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, like the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth;
Ezk 23:16 She lusted after them, her eyes seeing them; and she sent messengers to them in aChaldea.
Ezk 23:17 And the Babylonians came to her at the bed of love and defiled her with their fornication. And when she had been defiled by them, her desire for them departed.
Ezk 23:18 Thus she uncovered her fornication and she uncovered her nakedness, and My adesire for her departed, as My desire for her sister had departed.
Ezk 23:19 Yet she multiplied her fornication by recalling the days of her youth, when she committed fornication in the land of Egypt.
Ezk 23:20 And she lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Ezk 23:21 Thus you sought after the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.
Ezk 23:22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now rousing your lovers against you, from whom your desire departed, and am bringing them against you from all around:
Ezk 23:23 The aBabylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and officials all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
Ezk 23:24 And they will come against you with weapons, chariots and wheels, and with a company of peoples; they will set shield and buckler and helmet against you all around. And I will set judgment before them, and they will judge you according to their judgments.
Ezk 23:25 And I will set My jealousy against you that they may deal with you in wrath; they will remove your nose and your ears, and your residue will fall by the sword; they will take your sons and your daughters, and they will consume your residue with fire.
Ezk 23:26 aThey will also strip you of your garments and take your beautiful articles.
Ezk 23:27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and to your fornication brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.
Ezk 23:28 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now giving you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom your desire has departed.
Ezk 23:29 And they will deal with you in hatred and will take all that you have gained; and they will abandon you, naked and bare, and the nakedness of your fornication will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your fornication.
Ezk 23:30 These things will be done to you because you have gone after the nations as a harlot, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.
Ezk 23:31 You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her acup into your hand.
Ezk 23:32 Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
You will drink your sister’s cup, / Deep and wide; / You will be a laughingstock and a mockery; / It contains much.
Ezk 23:33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, / The cup of horror and desolation, / The cup of your sister Samaria.
Ezk 23:34 And you will adrink it and drain it / And gnaw at its shards; / And you will tear out your breasts; / For I have spoken, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 23:35 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have aforgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, bear now as well your lewdness and your fornication.
Ezk 23:36 And Jehovah said to me, Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare their abominations to them.
Ezk 23:37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; indeed they have committed adultery with their idols and have also caused their children, whom they bore unto Me, to pass through fire to 1their idols, to be devoured.
Ezk 23:38 Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My aSabbaths.
Ezk 23:39 For when they slaughtered their children to their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and they have even done this ain the midst of My house.
Ezk 23:40 Furthermore, they sent for men who come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and indeed they came; for them you bathed, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments;
Ezk 23:41 And you sat upon a splendid bed with a table prepared before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil.
Ezk 23:42 And the sound of a multitude without care was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with people of the common sort, who put bracelets upon the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.
Ezk 23:43 Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, Will they now commit fornication with her when she is thus?
Ezk 23:44 But they went in to her as they would to a woman who is a harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.
Ezk 23:45 And righteous men, they will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.
Ezk 23:46 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, Bring up a company against them, and give them up to terror and plunder.
Ezk 23:47 And the company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.
Ezk 23:48 Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be admonished not to conduct themselves in the way of your lewdness.
Ezk 23:49 And they will bring your lewdness upon you, and you will bear the sins of having your idols, and you will know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 24

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p. Through a Parable of a Boiling Pot
24:1-14
Ezk 24:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying,
Ezk 24:2 aSon of man, write down the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid bsiege to Jerusalem this very day.
Ezk 24:3 And utter a parable to the arebellious house, and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
Put on a bpot — put it on; / And also pour water into it;
Ezk 24:4 Gather into it its pieces, / Every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; / Fill it with choice bones.
Ezk 24:5 Take the choice of the flock, / And also put a pile of 1wood under it; / Bring it to a vigorous boil; / Indeed let its bones be boiled in it.
Ezk 24:6 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the abloody city, to the pot in which there is rust and whose rust has not gone out of it! Take its pieces out of it piece by piece; no lot has fallen upon it.
Ezk 24:7 For her blood was within her; she put it on a bare rock; she did not pour it upon the ground to cover it with dust.
Ezk 24:8 In order to stir up wrath, to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon a bare rock, so that it might not be covered.
Ezk 24:9 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the bloody city! I will also make the pile great.
Ezk 24:10 Heap on the wood, light the fire, boil the meat well, and mix in spices, and let the bones be burned.
Ezk 24:11 Then stand it empty upon its coals, so that it may get hot and its bronze may glow, so that its filthiness may be burned away in it and its rust may be consumed.
Ezk 24:12 She has wearied herself with toil, yet her great rust has not gone out of her. Let her rust be in the fire.
Ezk 24:13 Because of your lewd filthiness — because I tried to cleanse you, but you did not get clean, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness anymore, until I have caused My wrath toward you to rest.
Ezk 24:14 I, Jehovah, have spoken. The time is coming, and I will do it; I will not refrain, nor will I spare, nor will I repent. According to your ways and according to your doings 1I will judge you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
q. Through Ezekiel Again as a Sign of Disgrace in the Matter of Losing His Wife
24:15-27
Ezk 24:15 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 24:16 Son of man, I am about to take away the delight of your eyes from you with a blow. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears come.
Ezk 24:17 Groan silently; make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban upon you, and put your sandals upon your feet, and do not cover your lips, and do not eat the bread of men.
Ezk 24:18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded.
Ezk 24:19 And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things you are doing signify to us?
Ezk 24:20 So I said to them, The word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 24:21 Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will aprofane My sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, and that which your soul longs after; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.
Ezk 24:22 And you will do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor shall you eat the bread of men.
Ezk 24:23 And your turbans shall be upon your heads, and your sandals, upon your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan one to another.
Ezk 24:24 Thus Ezekiel will be a asign to you. You shall do just as all he has done. And when it comes, you will know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 24:25 As for you, son of man, surely on the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and what they have set their heart on, their sons and their daughters,
Ezk 24:26 On that day one who has escaped will come to you to report it in your ears.
Ezk 24:27 On that day your mouth will be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be dumb. So you shall become a sign to them, and they will aknow that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 25

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B. God’s Judgment of the Heathen Nations
25:1 — 32:32
1. Upon Ammon
25:1-7
Ezk 25:1 1Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 25:2 aSon of man, set your face against the children of bAmmon and prophesy concerning them.
Ezk 25:3 And you shall say to the children of 1Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you said, Aha! against My sanctuary when it was adesecrated, and against the land of Israel when it was desolated, and against the house of Judah when it went off into exile;
Ezk 25:4 Therefore I am about to deliver you up to the children of the east to be dispossessed, and they will set up their encampments among you and put their dwellings among you. It is they who will eat your fruit and drink your milk.
Ezk 25:5 And I will make Rabbah pasture land for camels and the cities of the children of Ammon folds for flocks, and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 25:6 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the amalice within you against the land of Israel,
Ezk 25:7 Therefore now I have stretched out My hand against you, and I will deliver you as booty to the nations and cut you off from the peoples and destroy you from the lands; I will destroy you that you may know that I am Jehovah.
2. Upon Moab
25:8-11
Ezk 25:8 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because 1aMoab 2has said, Look, the house of Judah is just like all the other nations!
Ezk 25:9 Therefore I am about to open up the flank of Moab, taking cities from the cities on its frontier, the pride of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, even to Kiriathaim.
Ezk 25:10 I will also deliver it along with the children of Ammon to the children of the east to be dispossessed, so that the children of Ammon might not be remembered among the nations.
Ezk 25:11 So I will execute judgments against Moab that they may know that I am Jehovah.
3. Upon Edom
25:12-14
Ezk 25:12 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because 1aEdom has acted full of vengeance against the house of Judah and has incurred serious guilt by taking vengeance on them,
Ezk 25:13 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will also stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from them man and beast and make it a desolation. From Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword.
Ezk 25:14 And I will inflict My avengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they shall act in Edom according to My anger and My wrath. Then they will know My vengeance, declares the Lord Jehovah.
4. Upon Philistia
25:15-17
Ezk 25:15 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because the 1aPhilistines have acted in vengeance and have been full of vengeance acting with bmalice within them to destroy with a perpetual enmity,
Ezk 25:16 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am about to stretch out My hand against the Philistines and cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seashore.
Ezk 25:17 And I will execute a great vengeance upon them with chastisements of wrath that they may know that I am Jehovah, when I have inflicted My vengeance on them.
EZEKIEL 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

5. Upon Tyre
26:1 — 28:19
Ezk 26:1 And in the 1eleventh year, on the first of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 26:2 aSon of man, because 1bTyre has spoken against Jerusalem, saying, Aha! She is broken, the gateway of the peoples! She has been turned over to me; I will be filled; now she has been desolated.
Ezk 26:3 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now against you, O Tyre, and I will stir up many nations against you, just as the sea stirs up its waves.
Ezk 26:4 And they will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her and make her bare rock.
Ezk 26:5 She will be a place in the midst of the sea where nets are spread, for I have spoken, declares the Lord Jehovah; and she will become spoil to the nations.
Ezk 26:6 And her daughters who are in the field will be slain by the sword that they might aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 26:7 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am about to bring against Tyre from the north 1aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, the king of kings, with horses, chariots, horsemen, a company, and many people.
Ezk 26:8 He will slay your daughters in the field by the sword, and he will lay a siege wall against you and cast up a mound against you and raise up a shield against you.
Ezk 26:9 And he will set his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.
Ezk 26:10 Because of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots when he enters through your gates like those who enter a breached city.
Ezk 26:11 With the hooves of his horses he will trample down all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword, and the pillars of your strength will topple to the ground.
Ezk 26:12 And they will plunder your wealth and take your merchandise as spoil, and they will break down your walls and tear down your pleasant houses, and they will put your stones and your timber and your dust into the water.
Ezk 26:13 And I will cause the noise of your songs to cease, and the sound of your harps will no longer be heard.
Ezk 26:14 And I will make you bare rock. You will be a place where nets are spread; you shall no longer be built; for I, Jehovah, have spoken, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 26:15 Thus says the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: How the coastlands will shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter occurs in your midst!
Ezk 26:16 Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground and tremble every moment and be astonished at you.
Ezk 26:17 And they will take up a lamentation over you and say to you,
How you have perished, O inhabited one, / From the sea, O praised city, / Which was strong by the sea, / She and her inhabitants, / Who imposed their terror on all her inhabitants!
Ezk 26:18 Now the coastlands will tremble / On the day of your fall; / The coastlands which are by the sea / Will indeed be troubled because of your departure.
Ezk 26:19 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, When I make you a desolate city, like cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the mighty waters cover you,
Ezk 26:20 I will bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the alower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so you will not be inhabited, nor shine out glory in the land of the living.
Ezk 26:21 I will make you a terror, and you will not exist. Although you will be sought after, you will never again be found, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • 

Ezk 27:1 The word of Jehovah came again to me, saying,
Ezk 27:2 Now you, ason of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre;
Ezk 27:3 And say to Tyre, O you who dwell at the entry to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
You, O Tyre, have said, / I am aperfect in beauty.
Ezk 27:4 Your borders are in the heart of the seas; / Your builders have perfected your beauty.
Ezk 27:5 They have made all your planks of fir trees from Senir; / They have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.
Ezk 27:6 They have made your oars of the oaks of Bashan; / They have made your boards of cypresses inlaid with ivory from the coasts of 1Kittim.
Ezk 27:7 Your sail was of fine embroidered linen from Egypt, to be your ensign; / Your awning was of blue and purple material from the coasts of Elishah.
Ezk 27:8 The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers; / Your skilled men, who were in you, O Tyre, were your helmsmen.
Ezk 27:9 The elders of Gebal and her skilled men were in you caulking your seams. / All the ships of the sea and their sailors were within you to barter for your merchandise.
Ezk 27:10 The men of Persia and Lydia and Put were in your army as your men of war. / They hung shields and helmets on you; they endowed you with your splendor.
Ezk 27:11 The men of Arvad 1and Helek were on your walls all around, and valiant men were in your towers; they hung their shields on your walls all around; they perfected your beauty.
Ezk 27:12 Tarshish conducted business with you because of the abundance of all your wealth. For your wares they gave silver, iron, tin, and lead.
Ezk 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your traders; for your merchandise they gave ahuman beings and vessels of bronze.
Ezk 27:14 From Beth-togarmah they gave for your wares horses, steeds for riding, and mules.
Ezk 27:15 The people of Dedan were your traders; many coastlands conducted business on your behalf; they brought back as payment to you ivory tusks and ebony.
Ezk 27:16 Syria conducted business with you because of the abundance of your products; they gave for your wares carbuncles, purple and embroidered cloth, fine linen, coral, and rubies.
Ezk 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel were your traders; they gave for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, resin, honey, oil, and balm.
Ezk 27:18 Damascus conducted business with you for the abundance of your products, because of the abundance of all wealth. They gave the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
Ezk 27:19 Vedan and Javan traded for your wares from Uzal. Among your merchandise were wrought iron, cassia, and calamus.
Ezk 27:20 Dedan was your trader in precious clothes for riding.
Ezk 27:21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar conducted business on your behalf in lambs, rams, and goats; for these they conducted business with you.
Ezk 27:22 The traders of Sheba and Raamah were your traders; they gave for your wares the best of all spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold.
Ezk 27:23 Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traders of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were your traders.
Ezk 27:24 These were your traders in the finest fabrics, in rolls of blue and embroidered cloth, and in chests of fine woven articles, tightly bound with cords, among your merchandise.
Ezk 27:25 The ships of Tarshish transported your merchandise for you;
And you were replenished and made very glorious / In the heart of the seas.
Ezk 27:26 Those who rowed you have brought you into great waters, / But the east wind has shipwrecked you in the heart of the seas.
Ezk 27:27 Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise, / Your sailors, your pilots, / Those who caulked your seams, / The dealers in your merchandise, / And all your men of war, who are in you, / With all your company who are in your midst, / Will sink into the heart of the seas / On the day of your fall.
Ezk 27:28 At the sound of the cry of your pilots / The pasture lands will shake.
Ezk 27:29 And all who handle the oar / Will come down out of their ships; / The sailors and all the pilots of the sea / Will stand upon the land,
Ezk 27:30 And they will make their voice heard for you / And cry out bitterly, / And they will throw dust upon their heads; / They will wallow in ashes.
Ezk 27:31 And they will make themselves bald for you / And gird themselves with sackcloth, / And they will weep for you in bitterness of soul / With bitter mourning.
Ezk 27:32 And in their wailing they will take up a lamentation for you / And lament over you, saying, / aWho is like Tyre, / Like her silenced in the midst of the sea?
Ezk 27:33 When your wares went out over the seas, / You satisfied many peoples. / With the abundance of your wealth and your merchandise / You aenriched the kings of the earth.
Ezk 27:34 Now you are shipwrecked by the sea / In deep water, / Your merchandise and all your company / Go down in your midst.
Ezk 27:35 All the inhabitants of the coasts / Are astonished at you, / And their kings shudder excessively; / Their countenance is troubled.
Ezk 27:36 Those who conducted business with you among the peoples hiss at you; / You have become a source of terror, / And you will no longer exist.
EZEKIEL 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

Ezk 28:1 The word of Jehovah came again to me, saying,
Ezk 28:2 aSon of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, bI am 1a god — I sit in the seat of 2God in the midst of the seas; yet you are a cman and not 1a god, although you set your heart as if it were the heart of God.
Ezk 28:3 Indeed you are wiser than aDaniel; there is no secret hidden from you;
Ezk 28:4 By your wisdom and by your understanding you have made your wealth and accumulated gold and silver in your treasuries.
Ezk 28:5 By your great wisdom and by your trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has become lifted up because of your wealth.
Ezk 28:6 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have set your heart as if it were the heart of God,
Ezk 28:7 Therefore I am about to bring strangers upon you, the most ruthless of the nations; and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will defile your splendor.
Ezk 28:8 To the apit they will bring you down, and in the heart of the seas you will die the death of those who are slain.
Ezk 28:9 Will you indeed say in the presence of the one who slays you, I am God? But you are a man and not a god in the hand of the one who wounds you.
Ezk 28:10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 28:11 Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation for the 1king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, O you who sealed up 2perfection, full of wisdom and aperfect in beauty,
Ezk 28:13 You were in 1Eden, the garden of God. Every aprecious stone was your 2covering, sardius, topaz, diamond, 3chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, 4carbuncle, and emerald, with gold. The workmanship of your 5tambourines and your 5pipes was prepared with you on the day that you were created.
Ezk 28:14 You were the 1anointed acherub who covered the 2Ark; indeed I set you, so that you were upon the holy 3mountain of God; you walked up and down in the midst of the 4stones of fire.
Ezk 28:15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
Ezk 28:16 By the abundance of your 1trading they filled your midst with violence, and you sinned. So I cast you out as profane from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Ezk 28:17 Your heart was 1lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness. I 2cast you to the ground; I presented you before kings that they may look at you.
Ezk 28:18 By the multitude of your iniquities in the unrighteousness of your trading you have profaned your 1sanctuaries. Therefore I sent forth fire from your midst; it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those who look at you.
Ezk 28:19 All who know you among the peoples are astonished at you. You have become a source of terror, and you will be no more forever.
6. Upon Sidon
28:20-26
Ezk 28:20 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 28:21 Son of man, set your face toward 1Sidon, and prophesy against it,
Ezk 28:22 And say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I am against you, O aSidon, and I will be glorified in your midst. And they will bknow that I am Jehovah when I have executed judgments in her, and I am sanctified in her.
Ezk 28:23 And I will send pestilence into her and blood into her streets, and the wounded will fall in her midst with the sword against her from all around, and they will know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 28:24 And there will no longer be a pricking brier or a painful athorn for the house of Israel, inflicted by any of those around them who despised them. And they will know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 28:25 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, When I have agathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered and have been sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, they will bdwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.
Ezk 28:26 And they will dwell securely in it, and they will build houses and plant vineyards. They will dwell securely when I have executed judgments on all those surrounding them who despise them, and they will know that I am Jehovah their God.
EZEKIEL 29

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

7. Upon Egypt
29:1 — 32:32
Ezk 29:1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 29:2 aSon of man, set your face against Pharaoh, the king of 1bEgypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
Ezk 29:3 Speak and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
Indeed I am against you, / Pharaoh king of Egypt, / The great monster that lies / In the midst of his Nile streams, / That said, My Nile belongs to me; / I even made it for myself.
Ezk 29:4 But I will put hooks in your jaws, / And I will cause the fish of your Nile streams to cling to your scales; / And I will bring you up out of the midst of your Nile streams, / With all the fish of your Nile streams clinging to your scales.
Ezk 29:5 And I will cast you out into the wilderness, / You and all the fish of your Nile streams. / You will fall on the open field; / You will not be brought together or gathered. / To the beasts of the earth / And to the birds of the sky / I have given you as food,
Ezk 29:6 That all the inhabitants of Egypt may aknow that I am Jehovah, / Because they have been a reed bstaff to the house of Israel.
Ezk 29:7 When they grasped you by your hand, / You broke and tore all their shoulders; / And when they leaned upon you, / You shattered and made all their loins unsteady.
Ezk 29:8 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am about to bring a sword upon you, and I will cut off from you man and beast.
Ezk 29:9 And the land of Egypt will be a desolation and a waste, and they will know that I am Jehovah. Because he has said, The Nile is mine, and I made it;
Ezk 29:10 Therefore, indeed, I am against you and your Nile streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, even to the border with Ethiopia.
Ezk 29:11 No human foot will pass through it, not even an animal foot will pass through it; it will not be inhabited forty years.
Ezk 29:12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolate countries, and her cities will be the most desolate among ruined cities for forty years. And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.
Ezk 29:13 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from among the peoples where they have been scattered,
Ezk 29:14 And I will turn the captivity of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathros, into the land of their origin. And there they will be a lowly kingdom.
Ezk 29:15 It will be the lowliest of the kingdoms. It will no longer lift itself up above the nations, and I will diminish them so that they will no longer rule the nations.
Ezk 29:16 And it will no longer be the aconfidence of the house of Israel, but rather a reminder of iniquity when they turned toward them. Then they will know that I am the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 29:17 And in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 29:18 Son of man, aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon forced his army into hard labor against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder rubbed raw. Yet neither he nor his army had wages from Tyre for the labor that he had expended against it.
Ezk 29:19 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am about to give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he will carry off her multitude and take her spoil and seize her plunder, and it will be the wages for his army.
Ezk 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he labored, because they worked for Me, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 29:21 In that day I will cause a 1ahorn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will give you an open mouth in their midst. Then they will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 30

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

Ezk 30:1 The word of Jehovah came to me again, saying,
Ezk 30:2 aSon of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
Howl! Alas for the day!
Ezk 30:3 For the day has drawn near, even the aday of Jehovah has drawn near; / It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.
Ezk 30:4 And a sword will come upon Egypt, / And anguish will be in Ethiopia, / When the slain will fall in Egypt; / And they will take away her multitude, / And her foundations will be broken down.
Ezk 30:5 Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, 1Libya, and the children of the land of the covenant will fall by the sword with them.
Ezk 30:6 Thus says Jehovah,
Those who support Egypt will fall, / And the pride of her strength will come down; / They will fall by the sword within her, / From Migdol to Syene, / Declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 30:7 And they will be desolate in the midst of desolate countries, and her cities will be the most desolate among ruined cities.
Ezk 30:8 And they will aknow that I am Jehovah, when I have set fire to Egypt and all her helpers are destroyed.
Ezk 30:9 In that day messengers will go forth from before Me in ships to make the confident Ethiopians afraid, and there will be anguish among them just as on the day of Egypt. For indeed it comes.
Ezk 30:10 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of aNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon.
Ezk 30:11 He and his people with him, the most ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land, and they will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.
Ezk 30:12 And I will make the Nile streams dry and sell the land into the hands of evil men, and I will make the land and all that is in it desolate by the hand of strangers. I, Jehovah, have spoken.
Ezk 30:13 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will also destroy the idols, and I will make an end of the images from Memphis; and a prince from the land of Egypt will never again arise; and I will put fear into the land of Egypt.
Ezk 30:14 And I will make Pathros desolate and set fire to Zoan and execute judgments on Thebes.
Ezk 30:15 And I will pour out My wrath upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude in Thebes.
Ezk 30:16 And I will set fire to Egypt; Sin will writhe in anguish, and Thebes will be breached, and Memphis will have adversaries daily.
Ezk 30:17 The young men of On and Pi-beseth will fall by the sword, and these cities will go into captivity.
Ezk 30:18 At Tahpanhes also the day will withdraw itself, when I will break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her strength will cease in her; she will be covered with a cloud, and her daughters will go into captivity.
Ezk 30:19 Thus I will execute judgments upon Egypt, and they will know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 30:20 And in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 30:21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt; and indeed it has not been bound to apply healing medicines, nor firmly bandaged to bind it to be strong enough to grasp a sword.
Ezk 30:22 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I am against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and I will break both his arms, the strong arm and the one that was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.
Ezk 30:23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.
Ezk 30:24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him with the groanings of one who is being slain.
Ezk 30:25 And I will strengthen the arms of the aking of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they will know that I am Jehovah, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will stretch it out over the land of Egypt.
Ezk 30:26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries. Then they will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 31

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Ezk 31:1 And in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 31:2 aSon of man, say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his multitude:
Whom are you like in your greatness?
Ezk 31:3 Indeed Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon / With beautiful branches and forest shade / And great aheight, / And its top shoots were among the thick boughs.
Ezk 31:4 Waters nourished it, / The deep springs made it grow; / Its rivers flowed around / The place it was planted; / And it flowed out its channels / To all the trees of the field.
Ezk 31:5 Therefore its height was exalted / Above all the trees of the field, / And its boughs were multiplied, / And its branches lengthened, / Because of abundant waters, as it spread.
Ezk 31:6 All the abirds of the sky / Made their nests in its boughs, / And all the beasts of the field / Bore their young under its branches, / And in its shade / All great nations dwelt.
Ezk 31:7 Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, / In the length of its branches; / For its roots were beside abundant waters.
Ezk 31:8 Cedars in the agarden of God could not hide it; / Cypresses could not compare to its boughs, / And plane trees could not equal its branches; / No tree in the garden of God could compare to it in its beauty.
Ezk 31:9 I made it beautiful / By the multitude of its branches, / So that all the trees of Eden, / Which were in the garden of God, envied it.
Ezk 31:10 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you are exalted in height — it set its top shoots among the thick boughs, and its heart is alifted up in its height —
Ezk 31:11 Therefore I will deliver it into the hands of the mighty one of the nations; he will surely deal with it. I have driven it out according to its wickedness.
Ezk 31:12 And strangers, the most ruthless of the nations, have acut it down and left it on the mountains, and its branches have fallen into all the valleys, and its boughs lie broken by all the ravines of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have abandoned its shade and left it.
Ezk 31:13 Upon its fallen trunk / All the birds of the sky will dwell, / And upon its branches / All the beasts of the field will be.
Ezk 31:14 This is so that none of the well-watered trees will exalt themselves in their height by setting their top shoots among the thick boughs, and none of the well-watered trees will stand next to them in their height; for all of them have been delivered to death, to the alowest parts of the earth among the children of men who descend into the pit.
Ezk 31:15 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, On the day it descended to Sheol I caused a mourning; I covered the deep springs for it, and I restrained its rivers, and the great waters were shut up. I also made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted on account of it.
Ezk 31:16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I acast it down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all who drink water, were comforted in the lowest parts of the earth.
Ezk 31:17 They also descended with it into Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; indeed to those who were its arm, who dwelt under its shade among the nations.
Ezk 31:18 Which among the trees of Eden then are you like in glory and in greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lowest parts of the earth; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 32

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

Ezk 32:1 And in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 32:2 aSon of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him,
You likened yourself to a lion of the nations, / Yet you are like a monster in the seas; / And you gushed forth with your rivers / And muddied the waters with your feet / And fouled their rivers.
Ezk 32:3 Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
I will spread My net upon you / With a company of many peoples, / And they will bring you up in My dragnet.
Ezk 32:4 And I will abandon you upon the land; / I will cast you out into the open field, / And I will cause all the birds of the sky to settle upon you / And satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you.
Ezk 32:5 And I will lay your flesh upon the mountains / And fill the valleys with your 1corpse.
Ezk 32:6 I will also drench the land with your outpoured blood / As far as the mountains, / And the ravines will be full of you.
Ezk 32:7 And when I extinguish you, / I will cover the heavens and adarken their stars; / I will cover the sun with a cloud, / And the moon will not give its light.
Ezk 32:8 All the bright lights of heaven / I will darken over you / And send darkness upon your land, / Declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 32:9 I will also bring anguish to the hearts of many peoples, when I bring news of your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.
Ezk 32:10 Yes, I will astonish many peoples because of you, and their kings will shudder excessively over you, when I brandish My sword before them; they will also tremble continually, everyone for his own life, on the day of your fall.
Ezk 32:11 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, The king of Babylon’s sword will come upon you.
Ezk 32:12 By the swords of the mighty, / All of them the ruthless of the nations, / I will cause your multitude to fall; / And they will devastate the pride of Egypt, / And all its multitude will be destroyed.
Ezk 32:13 I will also destroy all its beasts / From beside abundant waters; / No longer will human feet muddy them, / Nor will the hooves of beasts muddy them.
Ezk 32:14 Then I will make their waters clear / And their rivers flow like oil, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 32:15 When I make the land of Egypt desolate, / A land destitute of what filled it, / When I strike all its inhabitants, / They will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 32:16 This is the lamentation with which they will lament. The daughters of the nations will lament with it; over Egypt and over all her multitude they will lament with it, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 32:17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 32:18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, her and the daughters of mighty nations, to the lowest parts of the earth, with those who descend to the pit.
Ezk 32:19 Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.
Ezk 32:20 They will fall in the midst of those slain by the sword; she is delivered to the sword. Drag her away with all her multitudes.
Ezk 32:21 The strong among the mighty will speak to him and his allies from the midst of Sheol; they have gone down; they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
Ezk 32:22 Assyria and all her company are there with their graves all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword,
Ezk 32:23 Whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is all around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who had struck terror in the land of the living.
Ezk 32:24 aElam and all her multitude are there, all around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have descended uncircumcised into the lowest parts of the earth, who had struck their terror in the land of the living and bore their disgrace with those who descend to the pit.
Ezk 32:25 They have made her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; their graves are all around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Although their terror was struck in the land of the living, they now bear their disgrace with those who descend to the pit. They are placed among the slain.
Ezk 32:26 aMeshech, Tubal, and all their multitude are there; their graves are all around them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Although they had struck their terror in the land of the living,
Ezk 32:27 They will not lie with the mighty uncircumcised who fell, who descended to Sheol with their weapons of war and laid their swords under their heads and their iniquities upon their bones, even though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
Ezk 32:28 But you will be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised and lie with those slain by the sword.
Ezk 32:29 aEdom is there, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are placed with those slain by the sword; they will lie with the uncircumcised and with those who descend to the pit.
Ezk 32:30 The princes of the north, all of them, and all the aSidonians are there, who descended with the slain; they are put to shame in spite of the terror they struck by their might. They also lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword and bear their shame with those who descend to the pit.
Ezk 32:31 Pharaoh will see them and be comforted over all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 32:32 For I have put his terror in the land of the living, and he will be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 33

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IV. God Recovering His People by Life
33:1 — 39:29
A. Setting Up a Watchman
33:1 — 34:10
Ezk 33:1 1Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 33:2 aSon of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them, Whenever I bring the bsword upon a land and the people of the land take a man from their midst and set him up as their cwatchman,
Ezk 33:3 And when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blows the atrumpet and warns the people;
Ezk 33:4 Then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and ignores the warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his ablood will be on his own head.
Ezk 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and ignored the warning; his own ablood will be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.
Ezk 33:6 But if the watchman sees the sword come and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned and the sword comes and takes someone away from them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
Ezk 33:7 It is you, O son of man, whom I have appointed as a 1watchman to the house of Israel; therefore when you hear the word from My mouth, give them warning from Me.
Ezk 33:8 When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you will surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.
Ezk 33:9 Yet if you warn the wicked man of his way to turn from it and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, and you have 1adelivered your soul.
Ezk 33:10 And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, This is what you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and because of them we are wasting away. How then can we live?
Ezk 33:11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, aI have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn away from his way and live. Turn away, turn away from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezk 33:12 And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him on the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked will not stumble him on the day he turns away from his wickedness. The righteous cannot be kept alive just because of his 1righteousness on the day he sins.
Ezk 33:13 When I say concerning the righteous man, He will surely live, but if he has confidence in his righteousness and practices iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered. As for his iniquity that he practiced, in it he will die.
Ezk 33:14 Again, when I say to the wicked man, You will surely die, but if he turns away from his sin and practices justice and righteousness —
Ezk 33:15 If the wicked man restores a pledge, makes restitution for what he took in robbery, walks in the statutes of life, practicing no iniquity — he will surely live; he will not die.
Ezk 33:16 aNone of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him; he has practiced justice and righteousness; he will surely live.
Ezk 33:17 aYet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not fair; but as for them, their way is not fair.
Ezk 33:18 When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, he will even die in it.
Ezk 33:19 And when a wicked man turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them.
Ezk 33:20 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his ways.
Ezk 33:21 And in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city has been astruck down.
Ezk 33:22 Now the ahand of Jehovah had come upon me in the evening, before the coming of the one who had escaped; and He had opened my mouth before he came to me in the morning. Therefore my bmouth was opened, and I was no longer dumb.
Ezk 33:23 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 33:24 Son of man, the inhabitants of those ruined places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was aone person, and he was given the land as an inheritance; but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for an inheritance.
Ezk 33:25 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, You eat meat with the ablood and lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood. Will you indeed possess the land?
Ezk 33:26 You depend on your sword; you have committed abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Will you indeed possess the land?
Ezk 33:27 Thus will you say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, As I live, surely those who are in the ruined places will fall by the sword, and he who is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of pestilence.
Ezk 33:28 And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of her strength will cease, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate without anyone passing through.
Ezk 33:29 Then will they know that I am Jehovah, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste, because of all their abominations which they have committed.
Ezk 33:30 And as for you, son of man, the children of your people talk about you by the walls and in the entrances of the houses and speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, Come now, and hear what is the word that comes forth from Jehovah.
Ezk 33:31 And they come to you just as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they ahear your words but bdo not do them; for with their cmouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.
Ezk 33:32 And indeed you are to them like a very lovely song of one with a pleasant voice, who can play an instrument well; for they hear your words but do not do them.
Ezk 33:33 And when this comes about — indeed it comes — then they will know that a prophet has been among them.
EZEKIEL 34

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Ezk 34:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 34:2 aSon of man, prophesy against the bshepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the shepherds of Israel who cfeed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the sheep?
Ezk 34:3 You eat the fat, and you clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the sheep.
Ezk 34:4 The weak you have not strengthened, and the sick one you have not healed, and the broken one you have not bound up, and the one that was driven away you have not brought back, and the lost one you have not asought; but with strength and rigor you have bruled over them.
Ezk 34:5 And they were scattered awithout a shepherd, and they became food to all the beasts of the field and were scattered.
Ezk 34:6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill. Indeed My sheep were scattered over all the surface of the earth; not even one searched for or sought after them.
Ezk 34:7 Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah.
Ezk 34:8 As I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, surely inasmuch as My sheep became prey, and My sheep became food to all the beasts of the field because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My sheep;
Ezk 34:9 Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah:
Ezk 34:10 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I am against the shepherds, and I will require My sheep at their hand and stop them from feeding the sheep, and the shepherds will no longer feed themselves; but I will deliver My sheep from their mouth so that they may not be food for them.
B. Coming to Be a Shepherd
34:11-31
Ezk 34:11 For thus says the Lord Jehovah, 1I Myself, even I, will asearch for My sheep and seek them out.
Ezk 34:12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day when he is among his sheep which are scattered, so I will seek out My sheep; and I will deliver them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
Ezk 34:13 And I will 1bring them out from the peoples and agather them from the countries and bring them into their own land, and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the 2bstreams and in all the inhabited places of the land.
Ezk 34:14 I will feed them with good apasture, and their dwelling place will be upon the mountains of the heights of Israel; there they will 1blie down in a good dwelling place, and on rich pasture they will feed upon the mountains of Israel.
Ezk 34:15 I Myself will ashepherd My flock, and I will cause them to lie down, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 34:16 I will aseek the lost one and bring back the one that was driven away and bind up the broken one and strengthen the sick one; but the fat one and the strong one I will destroy — I will feed them with judgment.
Ezk 34:17 And as for you, O My flock, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will 1judge between one sheep and another, between the arams and the male goats.
Ezk 34:18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture and trample down the rest of your pasture with your feet and drink the clear water and foul the rest with your feet?
Ezk 34:19 Meanwhile My flock must feed on what is trampled by your feet and drink what is fouled by your feet.
Ezk 34:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah to them, It is I who am about to judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.
Ezk 34:21 Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted all the weak with your horns until you scattered them abroad,
Ezk 34:22 I will rescue My flock, and they will no longer be prey; and I will judge between one sheep and another.
Ezk 34:23 And I will set up over them one aShepherd, My Servant 1David, and He will feed them; He will feed them, and He will be their Shepherd.
Ezk 34:24 And I, Jehovah, will be their God, and My Servant David will be a 1aPrince among them. I, Jehovah, have spoken.
Ezk 34:25 And I will make with them a 1acovenant of peace and banish evil beasts from the land, so that they will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.
Ezk 34:26 And I will make them and the places around My hill a 1blessing, and I will cause the showers to come down in their season; there will be ashowers of 1blessing.
Ezk 34:27 And the trees of the field will yield their fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure in their land; then they will aknow that I am Jehovah, when I break the bars of their byoke and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them.
Ezk 34:28 And they will no longer be prey to the nations, nor will the beasts of the earth devour them; but they will adwell securely, and no one will make them afraid.
Ezk 34:29 And I will raise up for them a planting place of renown, and they will no longer be consumed with famine in the land and no longer bear the disgrace of the nations.
Ezk 34:30 Thus they will know that I, Jehovah their aGod, am 1with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 34:31 And you are My aflock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 35

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C. Further Judgment of Edom
35:1-15
Ezk 35:1 Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 35:2 aSon of man, set your face against 1Mount bSeir, and prophesy against it,
Ezk 35:3 And say to it, Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
Indeed I am against you, O Mount Seir, / And I will stretch out My hand against you / And make you a desolation and a waste.
Ezk 35:4 I will lay your cities waste, / And you will be desolate; / And you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 35:5 Because you have had a perpetual aenmity and handed the children of Israel over to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, in the time of the punishment of the end;
Ezk 35:6 Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.
Ezk 35:7 Thus I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns.
Ezk 35:8 And I will fill its mountains with its slain. Those slain by the sword will fall in your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines.
Ezk 35:9 I will make you a perpetual adesolation, and your cities will not be inhabited, and you will know that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 35:10 Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries will belong to me, and we will possess 1them — even though Jehovah was there —
Ezk 35:11 Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord Jehovah, I will deal with you according to your anger and according to your jealousy, which you displayed in your hatred of them, and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you.
Ezk 35:12 And you will know that I, Jehovah, have heard all your reviling which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are desolate; they have been given to us to devour.
Ezk 35:13 And you have magnified yourselves against Me with your mouth and multiplied your words against Me; I have heard.
Ezk 35:14 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.
Ezk 35:15 As you arejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be desolate, O Mount Seir and all Edom, the whole 1land. Then they will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 36

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D. Recovery of the Good Land
36:1-21
Ezk 36:1 And you, ason of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah.
Ezk 36:2 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because the enemy has said against you, Aha! Even the ancient high places have become our possession!
Ezk 36:3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because, even because, they have desolated and crushed you from every side so that you might become the possession of the remnant of the nations, and you have been taken up in the talk of different tongues and in the whispering of people;
Ezk 36:4 Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah. Thus says the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys, to the desolate ruins and to the forsaken cities, which have become plunder and a mocking to the remnant of the nations which are all around;
Ezk 36:5 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the remnant of the nations and against Edom, all of whom have appointed My land to themselves for a apossession with the joy of all their heart, with despising in their soul, for their pasture and plunder.
Ezk 36:6 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I am speaking in My jealousy and in My wrath because you have borne the disgrace of the nations.
Ezk 36:7 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, I swear, saying, Surely the nations that surround you will bear their own disgrace.
Ezk 36:8 But you, O 1mountains of Israel, you will shoot forth your branches and ayield your fruit for My people Israel, for their coming is near.
Ezk 36:9 For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be tilled and sown;
Ezk 36:10 And I will multiply people upon you, the entire house of Israel, all of it! The cities will also be inhabited, and the waste places will be arebuilt.
Ezk 36:11 I will also multiply upon you man and beast, and they will increase and be fruitful, and I will make you inhabited as you were formerly, and I will make it better for you than when you began. Then you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 36:12 Yes, I will cause men to walk upon you, My people Israel; and they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer bereave them of children again.
Ezk 36:13 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because they are saying of you, You are a land that adevours men and bereaves your nation of children;
Ezk 36:14 Therefore you will no longer devour men or any longer bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 36:15 And I will no longer let you hear the disgrace of the nations nor any longer bear the reproach of the peoples, and you will no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 36:16 Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 36:17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they adefiled it by their way and by their doings; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
Ezk 36:18 Therefore I poured out My wrath upon them because of the blood which they had poured out upon the land and because they had defiled it with their idols.
Ezk 36:19 And I ascattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. According to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
Ezk 36:20 And when they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, inasmuch as it was said of them, These are the people of Jehovah, and they have gone forth out of His land.
Ezk 36:21 But I had regard for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.
E. Inward Recovery
36:22-33
Ezk 36:22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am not doing this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for 1aMy holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.
Ezk 36:23 And I will asanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations will know that I am Jehovah, declares the Lord Jehovah, when I am sanctified in you in their sight.
Ezk 36:24 And I will take you from the nations and agather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
Ezk 36:25 And I will sprinkle 1clean water upon you, and you will be aclean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
Ezk 36:26 aI will also give you a 1new bheart, and a 1new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Ezk 36:27 And I will put 1My aSpirit within you and cause you to 2walk in My statutes, and My ordinances you shall keep and do.
Ezk 36:28 And you shall dwell in the aland which I gave to your fathers; and you will be My bpeople, and I will be your God.
Ezk 36:29 And I will save you from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.
Ezk 36:30 And I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the produce of the field, that you may no longer receive the reproach of famine among the nations.
Ezk 36:31 aThen you will remember your evil ways and your doings that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
Ezk 36:32 It is not for your sake that I am doing this, declares the Lord Jehovah; let it be known to you. Be ashamed and humiliated on account of your ways, O house of Israel.
Ezk 36:33 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt.
F. Making the Land like the Garden of Eden
36:34-36
Ezk 36:34 And the land that was desolate will be tilled instead of being desolate in the sight of all who passed by.
Ezk 36:35 And they will say, This land that was desolate has become like the 1agarden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
Ezk 36:36 Then the nations that are left all around you will know that I, Jehovah, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate. I, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will do it.
G. Increasing the House of Israel with Men like a Flock
36:37-38
Ezk 36:37 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Moreover for this I will be 1ainquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them; I will bincrease them with men like a flock.
Ezk 36:38 Like the holy flock for sacrifices, like the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so will the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 37

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H. The Visions of the Dry Bones and the Two Sticks,
Showing the Regenerating and Renewing of God’s People
37:1-28
1. The Dead, Dry, and Scattered Bones Being Formed into an Army
vv. 1-14
Ezk 37:1 The ahand of Jehovah came upon me, and He brought me out in the bSpirit of Jehovah and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of 1bones.
Ezk 37:2 And He caused me to pass all around among them, and there were very many on the surface of the valley, and they were also very dry.
Ezk 37:3 And He said to me, aSon of man, can these bones blive? And I answered, O Lord Jehovah, You know.
Ezk 37:4 Then He said to me, 1Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah.
Ezk 37:5 Thus says the Lord Jehovah to these bones: I will cause 1abreath to enter into you, and you shall live.
Ezk 37:6 And I will put sinews on you and bring flesh back on you and cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you will aknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly, a rattling; and the bones 1came together, bone to its bone.
Ezk 37:8 And I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh came back, and skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.
Ezk 37:9 Then He said to me, Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the awind, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.
Ezk 37:10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the abreath came into them; and they 1lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Ezk 37:11 Then He said to me, Son of man, these abones are the whole house of Israel. Now they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.
Ezk 37:12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Now I will open your agraves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bbring you into the land of Israel.
Ezk 37:13 And you will know that I am Jehovah, when I open your graves and bring you up out of your graves, O My people.
Ezk 37:14 And I will put My aSpirit in you, and you shall live; and I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, Jehovah, have spoken and that I have performed it, declares Jehovah.
2. The Two Pieces of Wood Being Joined Together for the Building of the House of God
vv. 15-28
Ezk 37:15 The word of Jehovah came again to me, saying,
Ezk 37:16 And you, son of man, take one piece of 1awood, and write upon it, For Judah and for the children of Israel associated with him; then take another piece of 1wood, and write upon it, For Joseph, the piece of wood of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel associated with him;
Ezk 37:17 And bring them together, one side to the other, into one piece of wood, that they may become united in your hand.
Ezk 37:18 And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, Will you not tell us what you mean by these?
Ezk 37:19 Say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am about to take the piece of wood of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him; and I will put them upon it, that is, the piece of wood of Judah, and make them one piece of wood, and they will be one in My hand.
Ezk 37:20 And the pieces of wood on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes.
Ezk 37:21 And you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am about to take the children of Israel from among the nations, where they have gone, and I will agather them from all around and bring them into their own land.
Ezk 37:22 And I will make them one anation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king to all of them; and they will no longer be two nations, nor will they be divided into two kingdoms anymore at all.
Ezk 37:23 They will not defile themselves any longer with their idols, or their detestable things, or any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, in which they have sinned, and I will acleanse them. Therefore they will be My people, and I will be their God.
Ezk 37:24 And My Servant 1aDavid will be King over them, and they all will have one bShepherd. They will also walk in My ordinances and observe My statutes and do them.
Ezk 37:25 And they will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers dwelt; and they will dwell in it, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever. And David My Servant will be their Prince forever.
Ezk 37:26 I will also make a acovenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them there and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forever,
Ezk 37:27 And My atabernacle will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My bpeople.
Ezk 37:28 Then the nations will know that I am Jehovah, who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary will be in their midst forever.
EZEKIEL 38

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I. Further Judgment of Israel’s Enemies — Gog and Magog
38:1 — 39:29
Ezk 38:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Ezk 38:2 aSon of man, set your face toward 1bGog of the land of 1Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
Ezk 38:3 And say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.
Ezk 38:4 And I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you and all your army forth, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords;
Ezk 38:5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
Ezk 38:6 Gomer and all its hordes, Beth-togarmah from the remotest parts of the north and all its hordes, many peoples with you.
Ezk 38:7 Get ready; indeed get yourself ready, you and all your company who have gathered to you, and become their guard.
Ezk 38:8 After many days you will be visited; in the last years you will come into the land which was brought back from the sword, and whose people were gathered from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which have been a perpetual waste. Now they have been brought out from the peoples, and all of them dwell securely.
Ezk 38:9 And you will ago up, coming like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes and many peoples with you.
Ezk 38:10 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, On that day things will come up in your heart, and you will devise an evil device.
Ezk 38:11 And you will say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will come upon those at rest, dwelling securely, all of them dwelling without walls, without bars or doors;
Ezk 38:12 To seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the once waste places, now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the middle of the earth.
Ezk 38:13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all their young lions, will say to you, Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your company to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?
Ezk 38:14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Surely on that day when My people Israel are dwelling securely, you will recognize it;
Ezk 38:15 And you will acome from your place from the remotest parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army;
Ezk 38:16 And you will acome up against My people Israel, like a cloud to cover the land. In the last days I will bring you against My land so that the nations may know Me, when I am sanctified through you, O Gog, before their eyes.
Ezk 38:17 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Are you the one of whom I spoke in earlier times through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?
Ezk 38:18 And on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord Jehovah, My wrath will come up in My nostrils.
Ezk 38:19 For in My jealousy and in My afiery wrath I have spoken, Surely on that day there will be a great bearthquake in the land of Israel;
Ezk 38:20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep upon the earth, and every human being on the surface of the earth will quake at My presence, and mountains will be thrown down, and slopes will slide, and every wall will fall to the ground.
Ezk 38:21 And I will call to all My mountains for a sword against him, declares the Lord Jehovah; every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
Ezk 38:22 And I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain torrential rain and great hailstones, afire and brimstone, upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him.
Ezk 38:23 And I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and make Myself known in the sight of many nations, and they will know that I am Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 39

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Ezk 39:1 And you, ason of man, prophesy against 1bGog and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Indeed I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.
Ezk 39:2 And I will turn you around and drive you on and bring you up from the remotest parts of the north, and I will abring you upon the mountains of Israel;
Ezk 39:3 And I will strike your bow out of your left hand and make your arrows fall out of your right hand.
Ezk 39:4 You will fall upon the mountains of Israel, you, all your hordes, and the peoples with you. I will give you up as food to every kind of scavenging bird and to the beasts of the field.
Ezk 39:5 You will fall upon the open field, for I have spoken it, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 39:6 And I will send afire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the isles, and they will bknow that I am Jehovah.
Ezk 39:7 And I will make known My aholy name in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not allow My holy name to be profaned anymore. Then the nations will know that I am Jehovah, the Holy One in Israel.
Ezk 39:8 Indeed it is coming and will take place, declares the Lord Jehovah. This is the day of which I have spoken.
Ezk 39:9 And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel will go out and set fire to the weapons and burn them: bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, and javelins and spears; and they will fuel fires with them for seven years.
Ezk 39:10 They will not carry in wood from the field nor fell any from the forests, for they will fuel fires with the weapons. And they will spoil their spoilers and plunder their plunderers, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 39:11 And on that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the valley of those who pass through, east of the sea; and it will stop those who pass through. And there they will bury Gog and all his multitude, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog.
Ezk 39:12 And the house of Israel will spend seven months burying them in order to cleanse the land.
Ezk 39:13 Indeed all the people of the land will bury them; and it will bring fame to them on the day that I am glorified, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 39:14 And they will set apart men for continual employment, who will pass through the land; and with those who pass through will come those who bury those who remain upon the surface of the land, to cleanse it. They will search up to the end of seven months.
Ezk 39:15 And those who pass through the land will pass through; and when anyone sees a human bone, he will erect a marker by it, until those responsible for burials have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.
Ezk 39:16 And Hamonah will also be the name of a city. So they will cleanse the land.
Ezk 39:17 And you, son of man, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Speak to every kind of abird and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and bcome; gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice which I sacrifice for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood.
Ezk 39:18 You shall eat the aflesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as of rams, lambs and male goats, bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
Ezk 39:19 And you shall eat fat until you are satisfied and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
Ezk 39:20 And you will be satisfied at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men and with all the men of war, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 39:21 And I will establish My aglory among the nations, and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid upon them.
Ezk 39:22 So the house of Israel will know that I am Jehovah their God from that day onward.
Ezk 39:23 And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their ainiquity because they trespassed against Me, and I hid My face from them. So I bgave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.
Ezk 39:24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.
Ezk 39:25 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Now I will aturn the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for My holy name.
Ezk 39:26 And they shall bear their disgrace and all their trespasses with which they have trespassed against Me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and no one will make them afraid.
Ezk 39:27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, I will be sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.
Ezk 39:28 And they will know that I am Jehovah their God because I brought them into captivity among the nations and have gathered them to their own land; and I will never again leave any of them there.
Ezk 39:29 And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will have apoured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 40

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V. The Vision of the Holy Building of God
40:1 — 48:35
A. The Time and the Place
40:1-2
Ezk 40:1 1In the 2atwenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the 3beginning of the year, on the 3tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was bstruck down, on that same day the chand of Jehovah was upon me, and He brought me there.
Ezk 40:2 In the visions of God He abrought me into the 1land of Israel and set me down bupon a very 1high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure like a city.
B. The Vision of a Man
40:3
Ezk 40:3 And He brought me there, and there was a 1man, whose appearance was like the appearance of 1abronze, with a line of flax and a measuring 2breed in His hand, standing in the gate.
C. The Vision of the Holy Temple
40:4 — 44:31
1. The Outer Court
40:4-27
Ezk 40:4 And the man said to me, aSon of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I show you, because for this purpose you have been brought here, that it may be shown to you. Tell all that you see to the house of Israel.
Ezk 40:5 Now there was a 1awall all around the outside of the house, and in the man’s hand there was a bmeasuring reed six cubits long, each cubit being a 2cubit and a handbreadth. So He measured the thickness of the structure, one reed; and the height, one reed.
Ezk 40:6 Then He came to the 1gate which faces toward the east and went up its steps, and He measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep; and each threshold was one reed deep.
Ezk 40:7 And every 1guardroom was one reed long and one reed wide, and the space between the guardrooms was five cubits, and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate toward the house was one reed.
Ezk 40:8 He measured also the 1porch of the gate toward the house, one reed.
Ezk 40:9 Then He measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and its posts, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was toward the house.
Ezk 40:10 And there were three guardrooms on one side and three on the other side of the gate, which was facing east; and the three of them had the same measurement, and the posts had the same measurement on both sides.
Ezk 40:11 And He measured the width of the entrance of the gate, 1ten cubits; and the total length of the gate was thirteen cubits.
Ezk 40:12 And there was a border before the guardrooms, one cubit on this side, and a border, one cubit on that side; and the guardrooms were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side.
Ezk 40:13 And He measured the total gate width from the roof edge of one guardroom to the roof edge of the other, twenty-five cubits. The entrances of the guardrooms were opposite each other.
Ezk 40:14 He also made a measurement of the posts, sixty cubits in all; and the gate surrounded a court which reached to the posts.
Ezk 40:15 And the distance from the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner porch of the gate was fifty cubits.
Ezk 40:16 And the guardrooms and their posts had 1alatticed windows within and all around the gate. The porches also had windows within and all around, and 2bpalm trees were on each post.
Ezk 40:17 Then He brought me into the aouter court, and there were 1chambers and a pavement made for the court all around; thirty chambers were upon the pavement.
Ezk 40:18 And the pavement flanked the gates, its width equal to the length of the gates; that is, the lower pavement.
Ezk 40:19 Then He measured the distance from the front of the lower gate to the front of the outside of the inner court gate, a hundred cubits, both on the east and on the north.
Ezk 40:20 Then He measured the gate of the outer court which faced toward the north, its length and its width.
Ezk 40:21 And it had three guardrooms on this side and three on that side. And its posts and its porch were of the same measurement as the first gate; its length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezk 40:22 And its windows and its porch and its apalm trees were of the same measurement as the gate which faced toward the east, and seven steps led up to it, and its porch was in front of them.
Ezk 40:23 And there was a gate to the ainner court opposite the outer gate, both on the north and on the east. And He measured the distance from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.
Ezk 40:24 And He led me toward the south, and there was a gate toward the south, and He measured its posts and its porch according to those same measurements.
Ezk 40:25 And 1the gate and its porch had windows all around just like those other windows; the length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezk 40:26 And there were seven steps going up to it, and its porch was in front of them; and it had palm trees upon its posts, one on each side.
Ezk 40:27 And there was a gate to the inner court toward the south, and He measured the distance from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits.
2. The Inner Court
40:28-47
Ezk 40:28 Then He brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and He measured the south gate according to those 1same measurements,
Ezk 40:29 And its guardrooms and its posts and its porches according to those same measurements; and it had windows in and around it and its porches; the length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezk 40:30 And there were porches all around, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide.
Ezk 40:31 And its porches were toward the outer court, and apalm trees were upon its posts, and its steps had 1eight steps.
Ezk 40:32 And He brought me into the inner court toward the east, and He measured the gate according to those same measurements,
Ezk 40:33 And its guardrooms and its posts and its porches according to those same measurements; and it had windows in and around it and its porches; the length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezk 40:34 And its porches were toward the outer court, and apalm trees were upon its posts on each side, and its steps had eight steps.
Ezk 40:35 And He brought me to the north gate, and He measured it according to those same measurements,
Ezk 40:36 Its guardrooms, its posts, and its porches; and it had windows in and around it; the length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezk 40:37 And its 1porches were toward the outer court, and palm trees were upon its posts, on each side, and its steps had eight steps.
Ezk 40:38 And a 1chamber with its entrance was by the posts at the gates; there they awashed the burnt offering.
Ezk 40:39 And in the porch of the gate were two 1tables on this side and two tables on that side on which to slay the burnt offering, the asin offering, and the trespass offering.
Ezk 40:40 And on one side outside, as one goes up to the entrance of the gate toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side, which belonged to the porch of the gate, were two tables.
Ezk 40:41 Four tables were on this side and four tables on that side beside the gate; eight tables on which they slaughtered the sacrifices.
Ezk 40:42 And there were four tables for the burnt offering, made of ahewn stone, a cubit and a half long and a cubit and a half wide and one cubit high, on which they laid the instruments with which they slaughtered the burnt offering and the sacrifice;
Ezk 40:43 And double hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened on the inside all around. And upon the tables was the flesh of the offering.
Ezk 40:44 And outside the inner gate in the inner court were 1two chambers, one at the side of the north gate facing toward the south; one at the side of the 2south gate facing toward the north.
Ezk 40:45 And He said to me, This chamber that faces toward the south is for the priests, the akeepers of the charge of the house;
Ezk 40:46 And the chamber that faces toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the aaltar. These are the sons of bZadok, who come near to Jehovah to minister to Him from among the sons of Levi.
Ezk 40:47 And He measured the court, a square, one hundred cubits long and one hundred cubits wide; and the 1aaltar was 2in front of the house.
3. The Temple
40:48 — 41:26
Ezk 40:48 Then He brought me to the aporch of the house and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side; and 1the width of the gate was fourteen cubits, plus the side indents in the gate, three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side.
Ezk 40:49 The length of the porch was twenty cubits and the width 1twelve cubits, and 2ten steps led up to it; and there were 3pillars by the posts, one on this side and another on that side.
EZEKIEL 41

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Ezk 41:1 And He brought me to the temple and measured the posts; six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other side was the width of the 1post.
Ezk 41:2 And the width of the entrance was 1ten cubits, and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other side. And He measured the length of the 2outer temple, forty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits.
Ezk 41:3 Then He went into the inner temple and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the width on either side of the entrance, seven cubits.
Ezk 41:4 And He measured the alength of the inner temple, twenty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits, before the outer temple; and He said to me, This is the Holy of Holies.
Ezk 41:5 Then He measured the wall of the house, 1six cubits thick; and the width of every side chamber, four cubits, all around the house on every side.
Ezk 41:6 And the 1side chambers were in 2three astories, one over another, with thirty units in each story; and they extended to the wall, which the house had for the side chambers all around to be supports, so that there would not be supports inserted into the wall of the house.
Ezk 41:7 And the side chambers that went around the house became 1wider as they went up by stories. Because the surrounding of the house aincreased upward around the house, therefore the house had width upward; and so one went up from the lowest story to the highest through the middle story.
Ezk 41:8 I also saw that the house had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six along cubits.
Ezk 41:9 The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits; and 1space that was left alongside the side chambers belonged to the house.
Ezk 41:10 And between the 1chambers and the house was a width of twenty cubits all around the house on every side.
Ezk 41:11 And the entrances of the side chambers were toward the space that was left, one entrance toward the north and another entrance toward the south; and the width of the place that was left was five cubits all around.
Ezk 41:12 And the 1building that was in front of the separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits wide; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.
Ezk 41:13 So He measured the house, a hundred cubits long; and the separate place at the back and the building with its walls, a hundred cubits long;
Ezk 41:14 And the width of the front of the house and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits.
Ezk 41:15 And He measured the length of the building before the separate place, which was behind it, and its galleries on one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits. And the outer temple, the inner temple, the porches of the court,
Ezk 41:16 The thresholds, the 1alatticed windows, and the galleries of the surrounding side chambers with their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with 2wood all around, even from the ground to the windows (now the windows were latticed),
Ezk 41:17 To the top of the entrance, both in the inner house and outside. And on all the walls all around inside and outside, by measurement,
Ezk 41:18 Were both acarved 1cherubim and 1bpalm trees. And a palm tree was between two cherubim, and every cherub had two faces.
Ezk 41:19 So there was the face of a 1aman toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a 1lion toward the palm tree on the other side. So it was carved in and around the whole house.
Ezk 41:20 From the ground to the top of the entrance cherubim and palm trees were carved, even on the wall of the temple.
Ezk 41:21 The temple doorposts were squared. And at the front of the sanctuary was something in appearance like the appearance of
Ezk 41:22 A wooden 1aaltar, 2three cubits high, and its length 2two cubits; and its corners, its length, and its walls were made of wood. And He said to me, This is the 1btable that is before Jehovah.
Ezk 41:23 Now the temple and the sanctuary had 1adouble doors.
Ezk 41:24 And the double doors had two swinging leaves, two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other.
Ezk 41:25 And carved on these, on the doors of the temple, were 1cherubim and 1palm trees, just like those carved on the walls. And there was a threshold of wood upon the front of the porch outside.
Ezk 41:26 And there were alatticed 1windows and 1palm trees on either side, on the sides of the porch, the side chambers of the house, and the thresholds.
EZEKIEL 42

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4. The Holy Chambers for the Priests to Eat the Most Holy Things
42:1-14
Ezk 42:1 Then He brought me out into the aouter court, the way toward the north, and He brought me into the 1chamber that was adjacent to the separate place and which was adjacent to the building toward the north.
Ezk 42:2 The length of the side of the northern entrance was a hundred cubits, and the width was fifty cubits.
Ezk 42:3 Adjacent to the twenty-cubit space of the inner court and adjacent to the pavement of the outer court was agallery facing gallery on the 1third story.
Ezk 42:4 And before the chambers on the inside was a walkway of ten cubits’ width, a way of one hundred cubits; and their entrances were toward the north.
Ezk 42:5 Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more space away from these than from the lower and the middle stories in the building.
Ezk 42:6 For they were arranged in three stories, and they did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper story was set back from the ground more than the lower and middle stories.
Ezk 42:7 There was also an outside wall beside the chambers, toward the outer court in front of the chambers; its length was fifty cubits.
Ezk 42:8 For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits, while those facing the temple were a hundred cubits.
Ezk 42:9 And at the foot of these chambers was an entrance on the east side to enter them from the outer court;
Ezk 42:10 By the breadth of the wall of the court to the 1south, beside the separate place and beside the building, there were chambers,
Ezk 42:11 With a way before them. Their appearance was like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north; just as their length, so also was their width; and all their exits were according to both their arrangements and their entrances.
Ezk 42:12 So the entrances of the chambers that were toward the south were entered through an entrance toward the east at the head of the corresponding way, directly beside the wall.
Ezk 42:13 Then He said to me, The north chambers and the south chambers which are beside the separate place are holy chambers, where the priests who are near to Jehovah shall aeat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most bholy things, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering, for the place is holy.
Ezk 42:14 When the priests enter, they shall not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their agarments in which they have ministered, because they are holy. And they shall put on other garments and approach the area designated for the people.
5. The Land Surrounding the Temple
42:15-20
Ezk 42:15 Now when He had finished measuring the inner house, He brought me out through the gate which faces toward the east and ameasured it all around.
Ezk 42:16 He measured on the east 1side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.
Ezk 42:17 He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around.
Ezk 42:18 He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
Ezk 42:19 He turned to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
Ezk 42:20 He measured it on four sides. It had a wall all around, the length afive hundred reeds and the width five hundred reeds, to make a separation between what was holy and what was common.
EZEKIEL 43

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6. The Return of God’s Glory to the House
43:1-12
Ezk 43:1 Then He brought me to the gate, that is, the gate that faces toward the aeast.
Ezk 43:2 And the 1aglory of the God of Israel was there, coming from the way of the east, and His bvoice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth was cilluminated with His glory.
Ezk 43:3 And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, that is, like the avision that I had seen when He came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I had seen by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face.
Ezk 43:4 And the aglory of Jehovah came into the house through the 1gate which faced toward the east.
Ezk 43:5 And the Spirit atook me up and brought me into the inner court, and just then the glory of Jehovah bfilled the 1house.
Ezk 43:6 And I heard someone speaking to me out of the house, and a 1aman stood beside me.
Ezk 43:7 And He said to me, aSon of man, this is the bplace of My 1throne and the place of the 1csoles of My feet, where I will 1dwell in the midst of the children of Israel dforever. And the house of Israel will no longer defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their 2fornication and by their kings’ dead bodies on their high places.
Ezk 43:8 When they placed their threshold by My threshold and their doorpost beside My doorpost, there was only the wall between Me and them, and they have defiled My holy name by their abominations which they have committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger.
Ezk 43:9 Now let them put away their fornication and the dead bodies of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.
Ezk 43:10 You, O son of man, describe the 1house to the house of Israel, that they may feel humiliated because of their iniquities, and let them measure the pattern.
Ezk 43:11 And if they feel humiliated because of all that they have done, make known to them the adesign of the house, its arrangement, its exits, its entrances, its whole design, and all its statutes — indeed its whole design and all its laws; and write them down in their sight, that they may keep its whole design and all its statutes, and do them.
Ezk 43:12 This is the law of the house: Its entire area on the top of and all around the 1mountain shall be most 1holy. Indeed this is the law of the house.
7. The Altar
43:13-27
Ezk 43:13 Now these are the measurements of the aaltar by cubits (the bcubit is a 1cubit and a handbreadth). The 2bottom shall be a cubit in height, a cubit in depth, and its surrounding 3border on its 3edge, a span. Now this is the base of the altar.
Ezk 43:14 And from the top of the bottom upon the ground to the top of the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and one cubit in depth; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and a cubit in depth.
Ezk 43:15 And the altar hearth shall be four cubits in height; and from the altar hearth there shall also be 1four horns projecting upward.
Ezk 43:16 And the altar hearth shall be 1twelve cubits long by twelve cubits wide, square on its four sides.
Ezk 43:17 And the greater ledge shall be fourteen cubits long by fourteen cubits wide on its four sides, and its surrounding 1border shall be half a cubit, and its bottom shall be a cubit all around, and its asteps shall face 2east.
Ezk 43:18 And He said to me, Son of man, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, These are the statutes of the altar to be observed on the day when they make it, for offering up 1burnt offerings on it and for sprinkling 1ablood upon it.
Ezk 43:19 You shall give the Levitical priests who are of the seed of Zadok, who draw near to Me to minister to Me, declares the Lord Jehovah, a abull of the herd for a sin offering.
Ezk 43:20 And you shall take some of its ablood and put it on its four horns, on the four corners of the ledge, and upon the surrounding border. Thus you shall purify it and make expiation for it.
Ezk 43:21 You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall be aburnt in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary.
Ezk 43:22 And on the second day you shall present a male goat without blemish for a sin offering, and they shall purify the altar, just as they purified it with the bull.
Ezk 43:23 When you have finished purifying it, you shall present a bull of the herd without blemish and a ram of the flock without blemish.
Ezk 43:24 And you shall present them before Jehovah, and the priests shall throw asalt upon them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
Ezk 43:25 aEach day for seven days you shall offer a goat for a sin offering; they shall also offer a bull of the herd and a ram out of the flock without blemish.
Ezk 43:26 Seven days they shall make expiation for the altar and cleanse it, and so 1consecrate it.
Ezk 43:27 And when they have fulfilled the days, on the aeighth day and onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings upon the altar; and I will accept you, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 44

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8. The Service in the House of Jehovah
44:1-31
Ezk 44:1 Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces aeast, but it was shut.
Ezk 44:2 And Jehovah said to me, This gate will remain shut; it will not be opened, nor will any man enter through it, for Jehovah the God of Israel has aentered through it; therefore it will remain shut.
Ezk 44:3 As for the 1Prince, He will sit in it as a prince to eat food before Jehovah; He will enter through the porch of the gate and go out the same way.
Ezk 44:4 Then He brought me through the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and just then the glory of Jehovah afilled the 1house of Jehovah, and I fell upon my face.
Ezk 44:5 And Jehovah said to me, aSon of man, pay attention, and look with your eyes, and listen with your ears to all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of Jehovah and all its laws; and pay attention to the entrance of the house, with every exit of the sanctuary.
Ezk 44:6 And you shall say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, aEnough, O house of Israel, of all your abominations,
Ezk 44:7 Inasmuch as you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, to profane it, My house, when you presented My bread, the fat and the blood. And in addition to all your abominations, 1you broke My covenant.
Ezk 44:8 And you have not kept the charge of My holy things, but you have set your own keepers of My charge in My sanctuary.
Ezk 44:9 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, No foreigner, 1auncircumcised in heart and 1uncircumcised in flesh, of any of the foreigners who are among the children of Israel shall enter into My sanctuary.
Ezk 44:10 But the aLevites 1who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear their iniquity.
Ezk 44:11 Yet they shall minister in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.
Ezk 44:12 Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord Jehovah, that they shall bear their iniquity.
Ezk 44:13 And they shall not come near to Me to serve Me as a priest, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their disgrace and their abominations which they have committed.
Ezk 44:14 Yet I will appoint them keepers of the charge of the house, for all its service and for all that will be done in it.
Ezk 44:15 But the Levitical priests, the sons of aZadok, who kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to present to Me the 1fat and the 1blood, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 44:16 It is they who will enter My sanctuary, and it is they who will come near to My atable to minister to Me, and they will keep My charge.
Ezk 44:17 And when they enter the gates of the inner court they shall be clothed with 1alinen garments, and no 1wool will come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and inside it.
Ezk 44:18 They shall have linen aturbans on their heads and have linen trousers over their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.
Ezk 44:19 And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall 1take off their agarments with which they minister and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments so that they do not bsanctify the people with their garments.
Ezk 44:20 They shall neither 1ashave their heads, nor let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.
Ezk 44:21 And none of the priests shall drink 1awine when they enter the inner court.
Ezk 44:22 aAnd they shall not 1take as their wives a widow or a divorced woman, but rather they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
Ezk 44:23 And they shall teach My people the adifference between the holy and the profane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
Ezk 44:24 And in a dispute they shall stand as a ajudge; according to My ordinances they shall give judgment concerning it. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed 1feasts, and they shall sanctify My 2Sabbaths.
Ezk 44:25 aAnd they shall not go to any 1dead person to defile themselves. Only for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or a sister who has had no husband may they defile themselves.
Ezk 44:26 And aafter he has been cleansed, they shall number 1seven days for him.
Ezk 44:27 And on the day he enters the sanctuary, into the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall present his 1sin offering, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 44:28 And they shall have an inheritance: 1I am their ainheritance. And you shall not give them a possession in Israel — 1I am their possession.
Ezk 44:29 They shall 1aeat the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.
Ezk 44:30 And the afirst of all the firstfruits of everything, and every heave offering of everything, of all your heave offerings, shall be the priests’. You shall also give the priests the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house.
Ezk 44:31 The priests shall not eat of anything that adies of itself or is torn by beasts, either a bird or an animal.
EZEKIEL 45

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D. The Offerings to Jehovah
45:1 — 46:24
1. The Holy Heave Offering of Land
45:1-8
Ezk 45:1 Moreover when you divide the land for inheritance by alot, you shall offer a bheave offering of land to Jehovah, a holy portion of the land; its length shall be twenty-five thousand reeds long, and its width 1twenty thousand reeds; it shall be holy within all its surrounding border.
Ezk 45:2 From this there will be reserved for the holy place a afive hundred reed by five hundred reed square all around, and fifty cubits for its surrounding suburbs.
Ezk 45:3 You shall also measure from this measurement a length of twenty-five thousand reeds and a width of ten thousand reeds, and ain it will be the sanctuary, the most holy place.
Ezk 45:4 It is a aholy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to Jehovah, and it shall be a place for their houses as well as a holy area for the sanctuary.
Ezk 45:5 And an area atwenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand reeds in width shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the house, for their own possession, for 1cities to live in.
Ezk 45:6 And alongside the holy heave offering you shall grant a possession for the acity, five thousand reeds in width and twenty-five thousand reeds in length; it shall be for the whole house of Israel.
Ezk 45:7 And you shall set aside for the aprince on both sides of the holy heave offering and of the city’s possession, adjacent to the holy heave offering and adjacent to the city’s possession, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east. Thus the total length corresponds to one of the tribal portions from the western border to the eastern border.
Ezk 45:8 In the land it shall be his apossession in Israel. And My princes shall no longer oppress My people, but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
2. The Offerings of the Princes and People of Israel
45:9 — 46:24
Ezk 45:9 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease from your evicting of My people, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 45:10 You shall have ajust balances, a just ephah, and a just bath.
Ezk 45:11 The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, so that the bath may contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer. Its measure shall be according to the homer.
Ezk 45:12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall make up your mina.
Ezk 45:13 This is the heave offering which you shall offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of 1wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley;
Ezk 45:14 And a set portion of oil (that is, the bath of oil), a tenth of a bath from the cor, which is ten baths, that is, a homer (for ten baths are a homer);
Ezk 45:15 And one lamb out of two hundred from the flock from the well-watered pastures of Israel — for a meal offering, for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings to make aexpiation for them, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 45:16 All the people of the land shall be bound to give this heave offering to the prince in Israel.
Ezk 45:17 But it will be the prince’s portion to provide the 1burnt offerings, the meal offerings, and the drink offerings in the feasts, on the new moons, and on the Sabbaths, in all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make 2expiation for the house of Israel.
Ezk 45:18 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, In the 1first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull of the herd without blemish, and you shall purify the asanctuary.
Ezk 45:19 And the priest shall take some of the ablood of the sin offering and put it upon the doorposts of the house, and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and upon the doorposts of the gate of the inner court.
Ezk 45:20 And so you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who asins unintentionally and for the simple. So you shall make expiation for the house.
Ezk 45:21 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the 1aPassover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Ezk 45:22 And on that day the prince shall prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a asin offering.
Ezk 45:23 And during the aseven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to Jehovah, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering.
Ezk 45:24 And he shall prepare a ameal offering, an ephah for a bull, an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah.
Ezk 45:25 In the seventh month, on the afifteenth day of the month, at the 1feast, he shall make the same provision seven days for the sin offering, for the burnt offering, for the meal offering, and for the oil.
EZEKIEL 46

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Ezk 46:1 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut the asix working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
Ezk 46:2 And the prince shall aenter through the porch of the gate from the outside and stand by the doorpost of the gate, and the priests will prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate; then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.
Ezk 46:3 And the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate before Jehovah on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.
Ezk 46:4 And the aburnt offering that the prince shall present to Jehovah on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish;
Ezk 46:5 And the ameal offering shall be an ephah for the ram, and the meal offering for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil for an ephah.
Ezk 46:6 And on the day of the 1new moon he shall offer a bull of the herd without blemish, six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without blemish.
Ezk 46:7 And he shall prepare a meal offering, an ephah for the bull and an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs as he can afford, and a hin of oil for an ephah.
Ezk 46:8 And when the prince enters, he shall come in through the porch of the gate, and he shall go out the same way.
Ezk 46:9 But when the people of the land acome before Jehovah at the appointed feasts, whoever enters through the north gate to worship shall go out through the south gate, and whoever enters through the south gate shall go out through the north gate; he shall not return through the gate by which he came in, but shall go out straight ahead.
Ezk 46:10 And the prince shall come in among them when they enter, and when they go out, they shall go out together.
Ezk 46:11 And at the feasts and at the appointed feasts the ameal offering shall be an ephah for a bull and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil for an ephah.
Ezk 46:12 And when the prince prepares a freewill offering, a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to Jehovah, someone will open for him the gate that faces aeast; and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and someone shall shut the gate after he has gone out.
Ezk 46:13 And you shall provide a alamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to Jehovah daily, 1every morning you shall provide it.
Ezk 46:14 And you shall provide with it a meal offering every morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour. It is a meal offering to Jehovah continually, a perpetual statute.
Ezk 46:15 Thus they shall provide the lamb and the meal offering and the oil every morning for a continual burnt offering.
Ezk 46:16 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance. It shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance.
Ezk 46:17 But if he gives some of his inheritance as a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his until the ayear of liberty; then it shall return to the prince. His inheritance shall remain only for his sons.
Ezk 46:18 Moreover the prince shall not take any of the people’s ainheritance, casting them out of their own possession. He shall give an inheritance to his sons from his own possession so that none of My people are scattered away from their possession.
Ezk 46:19 Then He brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests, which face north. And there was a 1place there, at the rear toward the west.
Ezk 46:20 And He said to me, This is the place where the priests shall aboil the trespass offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bbake the meal offering, so that they do not bring them out into the outer court, thereby sanctifying the people.
Ezk 46:21 Then He brought me out into the outer court and led me past the four corners of the court; and there in each corner of the court was a 1court.
Ezk 46:22 In the four corners of the court there were enclosed courts, forty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. These four enclosed courts in the corners were of one measurement.
Ezk 46:23 And there was a wall all around them, around all four, and boiling places were made at the base of the walls all around.
Ezk 46:24 Then He said to me, These are the boiling houses, where those who minister in the house shall boil the sacrifices of the people.
EZEKIEL 47

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E. The Holy Land and the Holy City
47:1 — 48:35
1. The Vision of the Water Flowing Out from the House
47:1-12
Ezk 47:1 Then He brought me back to the entrance of the house, and there was 1awater flowing out from under the threshold of the house to the 2east (for the house faced east); and the water flowed down below the 3south side of the house, on the south of the 4altar.
Ezk 47:2 Then He brought me out by the way of the north gate and led me around on the way outside to the outer gate, on the way to the gate that faces east; and there the water was running out on the south side.
Ezk 47:3 When the 1man went out to the east with the line in His hand, He 2ameasured a 3thousand cubits; and He led me through the water, water that was to the ankles.
Ezk 47:4 Then He measured a thousand cubits and led me through the water, water that was to the knees. Then He measured a thousand cubits and led me through the water, water that was to the loins.
Ezk 47:5 Then He measured a thousand cubits, and it was a ariver that I could not pass through; for the water had risen, enough water to 1swim in, a river that could not be crossed.
Ezk 47:6 And He said to me, aSon of man, have you seen this? Then He led me and brought me back along the bank of the river.
Ezk 47:7 And when I returned, there were very many atrees on the bank of the river, on one side and on the other.
Ezk 47:8 Then said He to me, This water flows out toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah and goes to the sea; when it flows into the 1sea, the water of the sea is 2ahealed.
Ezk 47:9 And every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes shall 1live, and there will be very many 2fish when this water comes there. And the water of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.
Ezk 47:10 And fishermen will stand beside 1the sea from 2En-gedi even to 3En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish shall be according to their kinds, like the fish of the 4Great Sea, very many.
Ezk 47:11 But its 1swamps and its 1marshes will not be healed; they shall be left for salt.
Ezk 47:12 And on the banks on both sides of the river will grow all kinds of atrees for food. Their bleaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail; but they will bring forth new fruit every month, because the water for them flows out of the sanctuary. And their fruit shall be for food, and their cleaves for healing.
2. The Borders of the Land
47:13-23
Ezk 47:13 Thus says the Lord Jehovah, This is the boundary by which you shall divide up the 1land as an inheritance for the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph shall have two aportions.
Ezk 47:14 And you shall divide it for an inheritance, each one equally with the other, for I swore to agive it to your fathers, and this land will fall to you as an inheritance.
Ezk 47:15 This shall be the aborder of the land: on the north side, from the 1Great Sea by the way of Hethlon, to the 2entrance of Hamath, and on to Zedad;
Ezk 47:16 Berothah, Sibraim (which is between the territory of Damascus and the territory of Hamath), to Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran.
Ezk 47:17 Thus the border shall extend from the sea to Hazar-enan on the border of the territory of Damascus, and on the north toward the north is the territory of Hamath. This is the north side.
Ezk 47:18 And on the east side, from between Hauran and Damascus, and from between Gilead and the land of Israel, that is, the Jordan, you shall measure from the north border to the 1eastern sea. This is the east side.
Ezk 47:19 And the south side toward the south, the aborder shall go from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribah-kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, and to the Great Sea. This is the south side toward the south.
Ezk 47:20 And the west side shall be the Great Sea, from the south border to opposite the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side.
Ezk 47:21 So you shall apportion this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.
Ezk 47:22 And you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among yourselves and among the asojourners who sojourn among you, who bring forth sons among you. And they shall be to you just like the native among the sons of Israel; they shall be allotted an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
Ezk 47:23 And in whatever tribe the sojourner sojourns, you shall give him his inheritance there, declares the Lord Jehovah.
EZEKIEL 48

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3. The Allotment of the Land
48:1-35
Ezk 48:1 Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, along the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, and Hazar-enan on the border of the territory of Damascus with Hamath to the north (with their sides extending from east to west), aDan, one portion.
Ezk 48:2 And alongside the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, aAsher, one portion.
Ezk 48:3 And alongside the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, aNaphtali, one portion.
Ezk 48:4 And alongside the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, aManasseh, one portion.
Ezk 48:5 And alongside the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, aEphraim, one portion.
Ezk 48:6 And alongside the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, aReuben, one portion.
Ezk 48:7 And alongside the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, aJudah, one portion.
Ezk 48:8 And alongside the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the 1aheave offering of land which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand reeds in width, and in length just like one of the portions of the tribes from the east side to the west side; and the 2sanctuary shall be in its midst.
Ezk 48:9 The heave offering that you shall offer to Jehovah shall be twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand reeds in width.
Ezk 48:10 And for these, that is, for the apriests, shall be the holy heave offering — on the north twenty-five thousand reeds in length, on the west ten thousand reeds in width, on the east ten thousand reeds in width, and on the south twenty-five thousand reeds in length; and the sanctuary of Jehovah shall be in its midst.
Ezk 48:11 This is for the priests who are sanctified from among the sons of aZadok, who have kept My charge, who did not go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
Ezk 48:12 And it shall be theirs as a heave offering from the heave offering of the land, most holy, alongside the territory of the Levites.
Ezk 48:13 And alongside the territory of the priests, the aLevites shall have a portion twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand reeds in width. The whole length shall be twenty-five thousand reeds, and its width ten thousand reeds.
Ezk 48:14 And they shall not sell or exchange or transfer any of it; it is the firstfruits of the land, for it is holy to Jehovah.
Ezk 48:15 And the five thousand reeds remaining of the width, alongside the twenty-five thousand reeds, shall be for common use: for the acity, for dwellings, and for suburbs; and the city shall be in its midst.
Ezk 48:16 And these shall be its measurements: the north side four thousand five hundred reeds, the south side four thousand five hundred reeds, on the east side four thousand five hundred reeds, and the west side four thousand five hundred reeds.
Ezk 48:17 And the city shall have suburbs: two hundred fifty reeds to the north, two hundred fifty reeds to the south, two hundred fifty reeds to the east, and two hundred fifty reeds to the west.
Ezk 48:18 And the remaining length, alongside the holy heave offering, shall be ten thousand reeds to the east and ten thousand reeds to the west, and it shall be alongside the holy heave offering. And its produce shall be food for those who labor in the city.
Ezk 48:19 And those who labor in the city, from all the tribes of Israel, shall work it.
Ezk 48:20 The entire heave offering of land shall be twenty-five thousand reeds by twenty-five thousand reeds. You shall offer the holy heave offering, a square, including the possession of the city.
Ezk 48:21 And what is remaining on both sides of the holy heave offering and of the city’s possession shall be for the aprince; adjacent to the twenty-five thousand reeds of the heave offering unto the eastern border, and to the west adjacent to the twenty-five thousand reeds of the heave offering to the western border, alongside the portions of the tribes, it shall be for the prince. And the holy heave offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in its midst.
Ezk 48:22 And it shall be distinct from the possession of the Levites and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of what belongs to the prince. The remaining area lying between the territory of Judah and the territory of Benjamin shall be for the prince.
Ezk 48:23 And as for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, aBenjamin, one portion.
Ezk 48:24 And alongside the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, aSimeon, one portion.
Ezk 48:25 And alongside the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, aIssachar, one portion.
Ezk 48:26 And alongside the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, aZebulun, one portion.
Ezk 48:27 And alongside the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, aGad, one portion.
Ezk 48:28 And alongside the border of Gad, at the south side to the south, the aborder shall be from Tamar to the waters of Meribah-kadesh to the brook of Egypt to the Great Sea.
Ezk 48:29 This is the land which you shall divide by alot to the tribes of Israel for an inheritance, and these are their portions, declares the Lord Jehovah.
Ezk 48:30 And these are the exits of the city: On the north side, which measures four thousand five hundred reeds,
Ezk 48:31 (Now the agates of the 1city shall be according to the names of the tribes of Israel) 2three gates to the north: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one;
Ezk 48:32 And on the east side, which is four thousand five hundred reeds, another three gates: the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one;
Ezk 48:33 And on the south side, which measures four thousand five hundred reeds, another three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one;
Ezk 48:34 On the west side, which is four thousand five hundred reeds, their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one.
Ezk 48:35 It shall be eighteen thousand reeds all around, and the aname of the city from that day shall be, 1bJehovah Is There.
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DANIEL

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 
Outline

Author: Daniel.
Time of Writing: The sixth century B.C.
Place of Writing: Babylon.
Time Period Covered: A period of seventy-two years, from 606 B.C., the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign (1:1), to 534 B.C., the third year of Cyrus’s reign (10:1).
Subject:
The Destiny of Israel Apportioned Out by God — The Contents of the Seventy Weeks
DANIEL 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

I. The Issue of the Degradation of God’s Elect — The Captivity to Babylon
1:1-2
Dn 1:1 1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim the king of Judah aNebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
Dn 1:2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim the king of Judah into his hand with some of the avessels of the house of God; and he brought them into the land of 1bShinar to the house of his god, and he brought the 2vessels into the treasury of his god.
II. The Victory, in Their Captivity, of the Young Descendants
(Including Daniel) of God’s Degraded Elect over Satan’s Further Devices
1:3 — 6:28
A. Over the Demonic Diet
1:3-21
Dn 1:3 1Then the king told Ashpenaz, the chief of his eunuchs, to abring some of the sons of Israel, including some from the royal seed and from the nobility,
Dn 1:4 Children in whom was no defect, who were good in appearance, who showed insight in all awisdom, understanding in knowledge, and apprehension in thought, and in whom was the ability to stand in the king’s palace. And he told him to teach them the learning and 1language of the Chaldeans.
Dn 1:5 And the king appointed to them a daily portion from the king’s 1choice provision and from the wine that he drank, and appointed that they should be brought up for three years so that at the end 2of the time they might astand before the king.
Dn 1:6 Now among these from the sons of Judah were 1aDaniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Dn 1:7 And the leader of the eunuchs gave them names: he gave Daniel the name aBelteshazzar; Hananiah, the name bShadrach; Mishael, the name Meshach; and Azariah, the name Abed-nego.
Dn 1:8 But Daniel 1set his heart not to adefile himself with the king’s choice provision and with the wine that 2the king drank, so he requested of the leader of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Dn 1:9 And God granted Daniel afavor and compassion in the sight of the leader of the eunuchs;
Dn 1:10 And the leader of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink; for why should he see your faces being more morose than those of the children who are of your own age? Then you would bring guilt upon my head before the king.
Dn 1:11 Then Daniel said to the steward whom the leader of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
Dn 1:12 Please test your servants for aten days, and let vegetables be given to us to eat and water to drink.
Dn 1:13 Then let our countenances be watched in your presence, as well as the countenances of the children who eat the king’s choice provision; and do with your servants according to what you see.
Dn 1:14 So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.
Dn 1:15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared better, and they were more fully fleshed than all the children who ate the king’s choice provision.
Dn 1:16 Therefore the steward withheld their portion of the choice provision and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables.
Dn 1:17 Now as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and insight in all learning and awisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all bvisions and dreams.
Dn 1:18 Then at the end of the days when the king had said that the children should be brought in, the leader of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar;
Dn 1:19 And the king spoke with them. And among them all none were found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they stood in the presence of the king.
Dn 1:20 And in every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.
Dn 1:21 And Daniel continued until the 1first year of aCyrus the king.
DANIEL 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • •

B. Over the Devilish Blinding That Prevents People from Seeing the Great Human Image
(the Totality of Human Government throughout Human History)
in Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
2:1-49
1. Nebuchadnezzar’s Marvelous Dream
vv. 1-13
Dn 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams and his spirit was atroubled and his bsleep left him.
Dn 2:2 And the king ordered the call for the amagicians, conjurers, sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to declare to the king his dreams; and they came in and stood before the king.
Dn 2:3 And the king said to them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.
Dn 2:4 Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in aAramaic, 1O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.
Dn 2:5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The command from me is published: If you do not make the dream and its interpretation known to me, you shall be cut into pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
Dn 2:6 But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive gifts and a reward and much honor from me. Therefore declare the dream and its interpretation to me.
Dn 2:7 They answered a second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will declare the interpretation.
Dn 2:8 The king answered and said, I know for certain that you are trying to buy time because you have seen that the command from me is published.
Dn 2:9 But if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one decree for you; for you have agreed together to speak false and corrupt words before me until the time is changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I will know that you can declare its interpretation to me.
Dn 2:10 The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man upon the earth who can declare the matter for the king, because no great king or ruler has ever asked any magician, conjurer, or Chaldean for something like this.
Dn 2:11 And the thing that the king asks is rare, and there is no one else who can declare it before the king except the agods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.
Dn 2:12 Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and he gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
Dn 2:13 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions so that they might be slain.
2. Daniel’s Vision from God concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
vv. 14-45
a. God’s Vision Given to Daniel
vv. 14-23
Dn 2:14 Then Daniel responded in counsel and with discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.
Dn 2:15 He answered and said to Arioch, the king’s commander, Why is the decree from before the king so harsh? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
Dn 2:16 Daniel then went in and sought from the king that he would give him a time to declare the interpretation to the king.
Dn 2:17 Then 1Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to aHananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions,
Dn 2:18 That they might request compassions from before the aGod of the heavens concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Dn 2:19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night avision. Then Daniel blessed the God of the heavens.
Dn 2:20 Daniel answered and said,
Let the aname of God / Be blessed from eternity to eternity, / For wisdom and might are His.
Dn 2:21 And it is He who changes the times and seasons; / aHe deposes kings and causes kings to ascend. / He gives wisdom to the wise / And knowledge to those who have understanding.
Dn 2:22 He areveals the deep things and the hidden things; / He knows what is obscured in the bdarkness, / And the clight dwells with Him.
Dn 2:23 To You, O God of my fathers, I render thanks and praise, / For You have given me wisdom and might; / And You have now made known to me what we requested of You, / For You have made known the king’s matter to us.
b. Daniel’s Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
vv. 24-45
(1) Daniel’s Exalting of God
vv. 24-30
Dn 2:24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.
Dn 2:25 Then Arioch brought Daniel hurriedly before the king and spoke in this way to him, I have found a man among the captives of Judah who will make the interpretation known to the king.
Dn 2:26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?
Dn 2:27 Daniel answered before the king and said, As to the mystery which the king has inquired about, no wise men, no conjurers, magicians, or diviners, are able to declare it to the king.
Dn 2:28 But there is a 1aGod in the heavens who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the last days. This is your dream, even the visions of your head upon your bed.
Dn 2:29 As for you, O king, your thoughts on your bed came upon what would happen after these times, and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will happen.
Dn 2:30 But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me because of some wisdom that is in me more than in any other living person, but so that the interpretation may be made known to the king and that you may understand the thoughts of your heart.
(2) The Contents of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream — A Great Human Image and Its Destiny
vv. 31-45
Dn 2:31 You, O king, were watching, and there was a single great 1aimage. This image, large and its brightness surpassing, stood opposite you; and its appearance was frightful.
Dn 2:32 Concerning this image, its 1head was of fine agold, its 1breast and its arms of silver, its 1abdomen and its thighs of bbronze,
Dn 2:33 Its 1legs of airon, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
Dn 2:34 You were watching until a 1astone was cut out without hands, and it 2struck the image at its feet of iron and clay and 2bcrushed them.
Dn 2:35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed 1all at once, and they became like achaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that 2no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great 3bmountain and filled the cwhole earth.
Dn 2:36 This is the dream; and we will tell its interpretation before the king.
Dn 2:37 You, O king, are aking of kings, to whom the bGod of the heavens has given kingship, power, and strength and glory.
Dn 2:38 And wherever the children of men, the abeasts of the field, or the birds of the sky dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over all of them. You are the bhead of gold.
Dn 2:39 And after you aanother kingdom will arise, inferior to you; and there will be another kingdom, a bthird one, of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.
Dn 2:40 And there will be a afourth kingdom as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters everything; and like iron that smashes all these, it will crush and smash.
Dn 2:41 And in that you saw the afeet and the toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom will be a 1confused mass; but there will be some of the 2firmness of iron in it, for you saw the iron mixed with the 3earthy clay.
Dn 2:42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be fragile.
Dn 2:43 And in that you saw the iron mixed with the earthy clay, they will be mixed together through the seed of men, but they will not cleave to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.
Dn 2:44 And in the days of those kings the aGod of the heavens will raise up a bkingdom which will cnever be destroyed, and its reign will not be left to another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms; and it will stand forever.
Dn 2:45 Inasmuch as you saw that out of the mountain a astone was cut without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen afterward; and the dream is certain, and its interpretation trustworthy.
3. Nebuchadnezzar’s Honoring of Daniel
vv. 46-49
Dn 2:46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar afell on his face and worshipped Daniel and commanded that they offer an oblation and incense to him.
Dn 2:47 The king answered Daniel and said, It is certain that your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a aRevealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.
Dn 2:48 Then the king made Daniel great and gave many great gifts to him; and he made him aruler over the whole province of Babylon and bchief of the prefects over all the wise men of Babylon.
Dn 2:49 And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed aShadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon; but Daniel was at the king’s court.
DANIEL 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

C. Over the Seduction of Idol Worship
3:1-30
Dn 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an 1aimage of gold, its height sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Dn 3:2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the chief judges, the treasury officials, the law officials, the judges, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Dn 3:3 Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the chief judges, the treasury officials, the law officials, the judges, and all the 1rulers of the provinces assembled themselves for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Dn 3:4 Then a herald proclaimed loudly, To you it is commanded, O peoples, anations, and languages,
Dn 3:5 At the time that you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, you shall fall down and aworship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up;
Dn 3:6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into the midst of a blazing furnace of afire in that very hour.
Dn 3:7 Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, 1bagpipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Dn 3:8 Because of this at that time certain Chaldeans drew near and aaccused the Jews.
Dn 3:9 They responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king, O king, live forever!
Dn 3:10 You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image;
Dn 3:11 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be thrown into the midst of a blazing furnace of fire.
Dn 3:12 There are certain Jews, whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon — aShadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego — these men have not respected you, O king; they do not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up.
Dn 3:13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury commanded men to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; then they brought these men before the king.
Dn 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them, Do you, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, purposely not serve my agods nor bworship the golden image that I have set up?
Dn 3:15 Now then, if, at the time when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, you are ready to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well; but if you do not worship, you will be thrown into the midst of a blazing furnace of fire in that very hour; and who is that god who will adeliver you out of my hands?
Dn 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, there is no need for us to give you an answer in this matter.
Dn 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to adeliver us from the blazing furnace of fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
Dn 3:18 But if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image that you have set up.
Dn 3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the countenance of his face was changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. He responded and commanded that the furnace be made seven times hotter than it was usually heated.
Dn 3:20 And he commanded certain mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and throw them into the blazing furnace of fire.
Dn 3:21 Then these men were bound in their shirts, tunics, and mantles, and other clothing, and thrown into the midst of the blazing furnace of fire.
Dn 3:22 For this reason, because the king’s word was so harsh and the furnace had been heated to an extreme, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
Dn 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the blazing furnace of fire bound up.
Dn 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and stood up in haste; he responded and said to his counselors, Did we not throw three men into the midst of the fire bound up? They answered and said to the king, Certainly, O king.
Dn 3:25 He answered and said, Look, I see four men loose, awalking in the midst of the fire; and they are not harmed. And the appearance of the 1fourth is like a bson of the gods.
Dn 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the blazing furnace of fire. He responded and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, aservants of God the bMost High, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire.
Dn 3:27 And the satraps, prefects, and governors, and the king’s counselors, being gathered together, saw concerning these men that the fire had ano effect on their bodies and that the hair of their heads was not singed, nor had their clothes been affected, nor had the smell of fire come upon them.
Dn 3:28 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent His aangel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him and 1changed the king’s word and yielded their bbodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.
Dn 3:29 Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language that speaks something offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego shall be cut into pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.
Dn 3:30 Then the king caused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to prosper in the province of Babylon.
DANIEL 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • 

D. Over the Covering That Hinders People
from Seeing the Ruling of the Heavens by the God of the Heavens
4:1-37
1. Nebuchadnezzar’s Praise concerning God
vv. 1-3
Dn 4:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in the whole earth: May your apeace abound!
Dn 4:2 It pleases me to declare the signs and wonders that God the Most High has done for me.
Dn 4:3 How great are His signs, / And how mighty are His wonders! / His kingdom is an aeternal kingdom, / And His dominion is from generation to generation.
2. Nebuchadnezzar’s Testimony
vv. 4-18
Dn 4:4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and was flourishing in my palace.
Dn 4:5 I saw a dream and it frightened me, and the imaginings upon my bed and the avisions of my head alarmed me.
Dn 4:6 Therefore I made the decree to bring before me all the wise men of Babylon that they might make the interpretation of the dream known to me.
Dn 4:7 Then the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners came in, and I told the dream to them; but they acould not make its interpretation known to me.
Dn 4:8 But at last there came in before me Daniel, whose name is aBelteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is a bspirit of the holy gods; and I told the dream to him, saying,
Dn 4:9 O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery troubles you, here are the visions of my dream that I have seen; now tell me its interpretation.
Dn 4:10 Now these were the visions of my head upon my bed: I was watching and there was a atree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.
Dn 4:11 The tree grew great and became strong, / And its height reached to heaven, / And the sight of it to the end of all the earth.
Dn 4:12 Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, / And in it was food for all. / The beasts of the field found shade under it, / And the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches; / And all flesh fed from it.
Dn 4:13 I was watching in the visions of my head upon my bed, and there was a awatcher, indeed, a bholy one, coming down from heaven.
Dn 4:14 He cried out loudly and spoke in this way, / aCut down the tree and cut off its branches; / Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit; / Let the beasts flee from under it, / And the birds from its branches.
Dn 4:15 Yet leave its stump of roots / In the earth, / But with an iron and bronze band around it, / In the tender grass of the field; / And let him be wet with the dew of heaven, / And let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth;
Dn 4:16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man, / And let a beast’s heart be given to him; / And let seven aperiods of time pass over him.
Dn 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the decision is a command of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the 1Most High is the aRuler over the kingdom of men and bgives it to whomever He wills and sets up over it the lowliest of men.
Dn 4:18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, inasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are anot able to make the interpretation known to me; but you are able, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.
3. Daniel’s Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
vv. 19-26
Dn 4:19 Then Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him. The king responded and said, Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies!
Dn 4:20 The tree that you saw, which grew great and became strong, and whose height reached to heaven and the sight of it to all the earth,
Dn 4:21 And whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, and under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the sky lodged —
Dn 4:22 It is you, O king, who have grown great and become strong, for your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the end of the earth.
Dn 4:23 And in that the king saw a watcher, indeed, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Cut down the tree and destroy it; yet leave its stump of roots in the earth, but with an iron and bronze band around it, in the tender grass of the field; and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him;
Dn 4:24 This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king:
Dn 4:25 aYou shall be driven out from among mankind, and with the beasts of the field shall your dwelling place be; and you shall be made to eat grass as bulls do and shall be wet with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you come to know that the Most High is the Ruler over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He wills.
Dn 4:26 And in that it was commanded that the stump of roots of the tree be left, your kingdom will be assured to you after you have come to know that the 1aheavens do rule.
4. Daniel’s Counsel to Nebuchadnezzar
v. 27
Dn 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: Break off your sins by doing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; perhaps there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.
5. The Fulfillment of the Dream Coming upon Nebuchadnezzar
vv. 28-33
Dn 4:28 All this came upon Nebuchadnezzar the king.
Dn 4:29 At the end of 1twelve months he was walking upon the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.
Dn 4:30 The king responded and said, Is this not aBabylon the great, which I have built up as a royal house by the might of my power and for the bglory of my majesty?
Dn 4:31 While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice came down from heaven: To you it is spoken, King Nebuchadnezzar: The kingdom has passed on from you;
Dn 4:32 aAnd from among mankind you shall be driven out, and with the 1beasts of the field shall your dwelling place be; you shall be made to eat grass as bulls do; and 2seven periods of time will pass over you, until you come to know that the Most High is the Ruler over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He wills.
Dn 4:33 In that very hour the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and from among mankind he was driven out, and he began to eat grass as bulls do, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.
6. Nebuchadnezzar’s Return to Normality and His Testimony
vv. 34-37
Dn 4:34 And at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my 1reason returned to me; and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored the aever-living One;
For bHis dominion is an eternal dominion, / And His kingdom is from generation to generation;
Dn 4:35 And all the inhabitants of earth are considered as anothing, / But He bdoes according to His will in the army of heaven / And among the inhabitants of the earth; / And there is no one who can resist His hand / Or say to Him, cWhat are You doing?
Dn 4:36 At that time my reason returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and my splendor returned to me; and my counselors and my lords sought me out, and I was established in my kingdom, and surpassing greatness was added to me.
Dn 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the King of the heavens, because all His works are truth and His ways justice, and because He is able to abase those who walk in apride.
DANIEL 5

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E. Over the Ignorance concerning
the Result of the Debauchery before God and the Insult to His Holiness
5:1-31
1. Belshazzar’s Debauchery before God and His Insult to His Holiness
vv. 1-4
Dn 5:1 1Belshazzar the king 2made a great feast for a thousand of his lords; and he 2drank wine before the thousand.
Dn 5:2 Belshazzar, 1under the influence of the wine, commanded men to bring the gold and silver avessels that Nebuchadnezzar his forefather had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
Dn 5:3 Then they brought the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
Dn 5:4 They drank wine and praised the 1agods of gold and of silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
2. The Writing by the Hand Sent from God
vv. 5-9
Dn 5:5 At that amoment the fingers of a man’s hand came forth and wrote opposite the lampstand upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. And the king saw that part of the hand that wrote.
Dn 5:6 Then the king’s countenance changed and his thoughts alarmed him; and the joints of his hips loosened and his knees began to knock together.
Dn 5:7 The king cried loudly to bring the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners. The king responded and said to the wise men of Babylon, Any man who reads this writing and declares its interpretation to me shall be clothed in purple and shall have a chain of gold around his neck and shall rule as the athird ruler in the kingdom.
Dn 5:8 Then all the king’s wise men came, but they could not read the writing anor make its interpretation known to the king.
Dn 5:9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed; his countenance was further changed, and his lords were perplexed.
3. Daniel’s Interpretation of the Writing on the Wall
vv. 10-29
Dn 5:10 The queen mother, because of the words of the king and his lords, came to the banquet house. The queen mother responded and said, O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you, nor let your countenance change.
Dn 5:11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a aspirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your forefather light and insight and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar your forefather — your forefather, O king — made him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners,
Dn 5:12 Because an aexcellent spirit and knowledge and insight, and the interpretation of dreams, the declaring of riddles, and the resolving of problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named bBelteshazzar. Let Daniel now be called, and he will declare the interpretation.
Dn 5:13 Then Daniel was brought before the king. The king responded and said to Daniel, Are you Daniel, one of the captives of Judah, whom my forefather the king brought from Judah?
Dn 5:14 Now I have heard about you that a spirit of the gods is in you and that light and insight and surpassing wisdom are found in you.
Dn 5:15 And now the wise men, the conjurers, have been brought in before me that they might read this writing and make its interpretation known to me, but they cannot declare the interpretation of the thing.
Dn 5:16 But I have heard about you that you can give interpretations and resolve problems. If you can now read the writing and make its interpretation known to me, you shall be clothed in purple and shall have a chain of gold around your neck and shall rule as the third ruler in the kingdom.
Dn 5:17 Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your agifts remain with you, or give your rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing for the king and make the interpretation known to him.
Dn 5:18 Regarding 1you, O king, God the Most High agave to Nebuchadnezzar your forefather kingship, greatness, glory, and majesty;
Dn 5:19 And because of the greatness which He gave to him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him; whomever he wished he slew, and whomever he wished he kept alive, and whomever he wished he raised up, and whomever he wished he brought down.
Dn 5:20 But when his heart was alifted up and his spirit became so arrogant that he conducted himself in pride, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken away from him.
Dn 5:21 aAnd he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like that of the beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys; men fed him with grass as they do bulls, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he came to know that God the Most High is the Ruler over the kingdom of men and sets over it whomever He wills.
Dn 5:22 And you his descendant, Belshazzar, have anot humbled your heart, though you knew all this;
Dn 5:23 But you have exalted yourself against the Lord of the heavens; and they have brought the avessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the bgods of silver and of gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see nor hear nor know. But the God in whose hand is your cbreath and to whom all your ways belong, you have not honored.
Dn 5:24 Then that part of the hand was sent from before Him, and this writing was inscribed.
Dn 5:25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: 1MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
Dn 5:26 This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE — God has numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end;
Dn 5:27 TEKEL — You have been weighed in the ascales and found to be lacking.
Dn 5:28 PERES — Your kingdom has been divided and given to the aMedes and Persians.
Dn 5:29 Then Belshazzar commanded; and they clothed Daniel in purple and put a chain of gold around his neck, and they made the proclamation concerning him that he should rule as the third ruler in the kingdom.
4. The Destiny of Belshazzar
vv. 30-31
Dn 5:30 In that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was 1slain.
Dn 5:31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.
DANIEL 6

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F. Over the Subtlety That Prohibited the Faithfulness of the Overcomers in the Worship of God
6:1-28
1. The Exaltation of Daniel as One of the Overcomers in the Captivity
of God’s Elect in Medo-Persia
vv. 1-3
Dn 6:1 It pleased Darius to set up over the kingdom a hundred and twenty satraps, who would be throughout the whole akingdom;
Dn 6:2 And over them, three chief ministers — of whom Daniel was one — so that these satraps might give account to them and the king might not suffer loss.
Dn 6:3 Then this Daniel distinguished himself among the chief ministers and satraps because in him there was an aexcellent spirit, and the king considered setting him over the whole kingdom.
2. The Subtle Attack of Satan on Daniel concerning the Worship of God
vv. 4-9
Dn 6:4 Then the chief ministers and satraps sought to find a ground for accusation against Daniel from the perspective of the kingdom, but they could find no ground for accusation or fault, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or fault was found related to him.
Dn 6:5 Then these men said, We will not find any ground for accusation against this Daniel unless we find something related to him due to the law of his God.
Dn 6:6 Then these chief ministers and satraps came to prevail upon the king and said thus to him, King Darius, live forever!
Dn 6:7 All the chief ministers of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors, have taken counsel together that the king should establish a statute and make firm an edict that anyone who makes a 1petition within the next thirty days to any god or man besides you, O king, shall be cast into the lions’ den.
Dn 6:8 Now, O king, establish the edict and sign the writing, so that it is not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot pass away.
Dn 6:9 Therefore King Darius signed the writing, that is, the edict.
3. Daniel’s Faithfulness in the Worship of God
v. 10
Dn 6:10 Now when 1Daniel came to know that the writing had been signed, he went to his house (in his upper room he had windows open 2toward aJerusalem) and bthree times daily he knelt on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, because he had always done so previously.
4. The Accusation of the Opposers
vv. 11-15
Dn 6:11 Then these men assembled and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God.
Dn 6:12 Then they came near and spoke before the king concerning the king’s edict: Did you not sign an edict that anyone who petitions, within the next thirty days, any god or man besides you, O king, shall be cast into the lions’ den? The king answered and said, The thing is certain, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot pass away.
Dn 6:13 Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, one of the captives from Judah, has not respected you, O king, or the edict that you have signed, but three times daily makes his petition.
Dn 6:14 Then the king, when he heard the thing, was very displeased with himself and set his heart on delivering Daniel; and until the sun set, he made efforts to deliver him.
Dn 6:15 Then these men came to prevail upon the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no edict or statute which the king establishes can be changed.
5. Daniel’s Suffering of the Persecution
vv. 16-18
Dn 6:16 Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king responded and said to Daniel, Your God, whom you aserve continually, He will deliver you.
Dn 6:17 And a stone was brought and set over the mouth of the den. And the king asealed it with his signet ring and with the signet rings of his lords that nothing might be changed regarding Daniel.
Dn 6:18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no entertainment was brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.
6. God’s Deliverance of Daniel
vv. 19-24
Dn 6:19 Then the king arose at dawn at the first light, and went in haste to the lions’ den.
Dn 6:20 And when he had come near the den, he shouted to Daniel with a sad voice; the king responded and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the aliving God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to bdeliver you from the lions?
Dn 6:21 Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever!
Dn 6:22 My God has sent His aangel and has shut the blions’ mouth, and they have not hurt me, inasmuch as before Him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.
Dn 6:23 Then the king was very pleased concerning him, and he commanded that they take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and he was found completely unhurt, because he had trusted in his God.
Dn 6:24 Then the king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel and threw them into the lions’ den, them, their children, and their wives; and they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
7. God’s Victory over Satan in the Worship of God on the Earth
vv. 25-28
Dn 6:25 1Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in the whole land: May your apeace abound!
Dn 6:26 I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel;
For He is the living God / And enduring forever; / And His akingdom is one which will not be destroyed, / And His dominion will be unto the end.
Dn 6:27 He delivers and rescues, / And He does signs and wonders / In heaven and on earth; / It is He who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.
Dn 6:28 And this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of aCyrus the Persian.
DANIEL 7

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III. The Visions of the Overcoming Daniel
7:1 — 12:13
A. Concerning the Four Beasts out of the Mediterranean Sea
7:1-28
1. The Year of the Vision (About 555 B.C.)
v. 1
Dn 7:1 In the 1first year of Belshazzar the king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and 2avisions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote down the dream; he related the sum of the matters.
2. The Four Beasts out of the Mediterranean Sea
vv. 2-8, 11-12
Dn 7:2 Daniel responded and said, I was watching in my vision by night, and there were the 1four awinds of heaven, stirring up the 2Great Sea.
Dn 7:3 And four great 1beasts acame up from the sea, each different from the other.
Dn 7:4 The 1first was like a alion and had the wings of an beagle. I watched until its wings were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man; and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dn 7:5 And there was 1aanother beast, a second one, resembling a bbear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and they said thus to it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dn 7:6 After this I watched and there was 1aanother beast, like a bleopard; and it had four wings of a bird on its back; and the beast had cfour heads, and dominion was given to it.
Dn 7:7 After this I watched in the night visions, and there was a 1afourth beast, dreadful and frightful and exceedingly strong; and it had large iron teeth; it devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had bten horns.
Dn 7:8 I was considering the horns; then there was another horn, a 1asmall one, which came up among them; and bthree of the first horns were uprooted from before it. And there were 2eyes like the eyes of a man in this horn and a 2mouth speaking cgreat things.
3. God and His Universal Dominion
vv. 9-10
Dn 7:9 I watched / Until athrones were set, / And the bAncient of Days sat down. / His clothing was like cwhite 1snow, / And the dhair of His head was like pure 1wool; / His throne was flames of 2fire, / Its ewheels, burning fire.
Dn 7:10 A astream of bfire issued forth / And came out from before Him. / cThousands of thousands ministered to Him, / And ten thousands of ten thousands stood before Him. / The 1court of judgment sat, / And the dbooks were opened.
2. The Four Beasts out of the Mediterranean Sea (cont’d)
vv. 11-12
Dn 7:11 I watched then because of the sound of the great things that the horn was aspeaking; I watched until the bbeast was 1slain and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
Dn 7:12 And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an 1extension of life was given to them for a season and a time.
4. The Coming of the Son of Man — Christ
vv. 13-14
Dn 7:13 I watched in the night visions, / And there with the clouds of heaven / One like a 1aSon of Man was coming; / And He came to the bAncient of Days, / And they brought Him near before Him.
Dn 7:14 And to Him was 1agiven dominion, glory, and a bkingdom, / That all the cpeoples, nations, and languages might serve Him. / His dominion is an eternal dominion, which will not pass away; / And His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.
5. The Interpretation of the Vision
vv. 15-28
Dn 7:15 As for me, Daniel, my aspirit within me was distressed, and the visions of my head alarmed me.
Dn 7:16 I came near to one of those standing by and asked of him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made the interpretation of the things known to me:
Dn 7:17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings who will arise from the earth.
Dn 7:18 But the 1asaints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, indeed, forever and ever.
Dn 7:19 Then I wished to know the exact meaning of the afourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, which devoured, crushed, and trampled under the remainder with its feet,
Dn 7:20 And of the aten horns that were on its head, and the other bhorn that came up, and before which three horns fell, even that horn that had eyes and a mouth speaking great things and whose appearance was greater than that of its companions.
Dn 7:21 I watched and that horn 1awaged war with the saints and prevailed against them,
Dn 7:22 Until the aAncient of Days came; and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came when the bsaints possessed the kingdom.
Dn 7:23 Thus he said, The fourth beast will be the afourth kingdom upon the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms; and it will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.
Dn 7:24 And as for the aten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise, and banother will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones; and he will subdue three kings.
Dn 7:25 And he will aspeak things against the Most High and wear out the bsaints of the Most High; and his intention will be to change the 1ctimes and the 1law; and they will be given into his hand for 2a dtime and times and half a time.
Dn 7:26 But the acourt of judgment will sit, and they will take away his dominion, so as to bannihilate and destroy it unto the end.
Dn 7:27 And the akingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; His kingdom is an beternal kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.
Dn 7:28 Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts alarmed me greatly, and my countenance was changed, but I akept the matter in my heart.
DANIEL 8

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B. Concerning a Ram and a Male Goat with Its Successors — Persia and Greece
8:1-27
1. The Year of the Vision (About 553 B.C.)
v. 1
Dn 8:1 In the 1third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king a avision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that appeared to me at the beginning.
2. The Place of the Vision
v. 2
Dn 8:2 And I looked in the vision, and while I looked, now I was in the fortress of aShushan, which is in the province of Elam; and while I looked in the vision, I was beside the river Ulai.
3. The Vision concerning a Ram and a Male Goat with Its Successors
vv. 3-14
Dn 8:3 Then I lifted my eyes, and I looked, and there was a 1aram, standing before the river, and he had two horns. And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other; and the higher one came up last.
Dn 8:4 I saw the ram 1pushing westward, northward, and southward; and no beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could deliver from his power; but he 2adid as he pleased, and he became great.
Dn 8:5 And while I considered this, there was a 1male goat, coming from the west over the face of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a 2conspicuous ahorn between his eyes.
Dn 8:6 And he came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran toward him in his mighty wrath.
Dn 8:7 And I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and 1broke his two horns; and the ram had no strength to withstand him, but the goat threw him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was none to deliver the ram from his power.
Dn 8:8 And the male goat became very 1great. But once he became strong, the great horn was 1broken, and in its place 2afour conspicuous ones came up toward the four winds of heaven.
Dn 8:9 And out of one of them came forth a 1little ahorn, which grew very great toward the bsouth, toward the east, and toward that which is cbeautiful.
Dn 8:10 And it grew great, 1as high as the ahost of heaven; and it caused some of the host and some of the bstars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them.
Dn 8:11 Indeed, he grew in greatness to that of the 1aPrince of the host; and 2from Him the bdaily sacrifice was ctaken away, and the place of His dsanctuary was thrown down.
Dn 8:12 And an army was given to him together with the daily sacrifice because of transgression; and he cast truth down to the ground, and he took action and prospered.
Dn 8:13 Then I heard a 1holy one speaking; and another 1holy one said to the particular one who was speaking, How long will the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the atransgression that desolates apply, so that the sanctuary and the host are trampled down?
Dn 8:14 And he said to me, For 1atwo thousand three hundred nights and days; then the sanctuary will be 2cleansed.
4. The Interpretation of the Vision
vv. 15-27
Dn 8:15 And when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought an understanding of it; and immediately there was someone with an appearance like that of a man standing before me.
Dn 8:16 And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of the Ulai; and He called out and said, aGabriel, cause this man to understand the vision.
Dn 8:17 So he came near to where I stood; and when he came, I was afraid, and I afell on my face; but he said to me, Understand, O son of man, that the vision pertains to the bend time.
Dn 8:18 And as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep asleep on my face upon the ground; but he btouched me and made me stand in my place.
Dn 8:19 And he said, I now make known to you what will happen at the end of the indignation, for the vision pertains to the appointed time of the aend.
Dn 8:20 The aram that you saw, which had the two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia.
Dn 8:21 And the hairy agoat is the king of 1Javan; and the great horn which was between its eyes is the first bking.
Dn 8:22 And the broken horn and the afour horns that arose in its place are four kingdoms that will arise from his nation, but not with his power.
Dn 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, / When the transgressors have afilled up their transgressions, / A 1king will barise, / 2Of fierce countenance and skilled in 3ambiguities.
Dn 8:24 And his power will be mighty, but not by his own apower. / And he will destroy in an extraordinary manner / And will prosper and take action. / He will destroy mighty men / And the bholy people.
Dn 8:25 Through his craftiness / He will also cause adeceit to prosper in his hand; / And he will bmagnify himself in his heart; / And he will destroy many who are complacently secure. / And against the cPrince of princes he will stand up; / But he will be dbroken, yet not by human hands.
Dn 8:26 And the vision of the evenings and the mornings, / Which has been told, is true. / But ashut the vision up, / For it pertains to something many days from now.
Dn 8:27 Then I, Daniel, was spent, and I was sick for days. Then I arose and conducted the king’s affairs; but I was astonished at the vision, and there was no one to explain it.
DANIEL 9

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C. Concerning Israel in the Seventy Weeks Apportioned Out to Them
9:1-27
1. The Year of the Vision (About 538 B.C.)
vv. 1-2a
Dn 9:1 In the first year of aDarius the son of Ahasuerus, a Median descendant who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans,
Dn 9:2 In the first year of his reign
2. The Cause of the Vision
v. 2b
I, Daniel, understood by means of the 1Scriptures the number of the years, which came as the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, that is, aseventy years.
3. The Way to Obtain the Vision
vv. 3-23
Dn 9:3 So I set my face toward the Lord God to 1seek Him in aprayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Dn 9:4 And I prayed to Jehovah my God and confessed; and I said, Ah, Lord, the agreat and awesome God, who keeps covenant and blovingkindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments,
Dn 9:5 We have asinned and have committed iniquity, and we have acted wickedly and rebelled, to the point of even turning away from Your commandments and from Your judgments.
Dn 9:6 And we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our chief men, and our fathers, as well as to all the people of the land.
Dn 9:7 To You, Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us, shamefacedness, as it is this day, that is, to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off in all the lands to which You have driven them because of their trespass by which they have trespassed against You.
Dn 9:8 O Jehovah, to us belongs shamefacedness, to our kings, our chief men, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
Dn 9:9 To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;
Dn 9:10 And we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God, to walk in His instruction, which He set before us through the hand of His servants the prophets.
Dn 9:11 Indeed, all Israel has transgressed Your law, to the point of even turning away so as not to obey Your voice; thus the acurse has been poured out upon us, the very oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.
Dn 9:12 And He has confirmed His words which He aspoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us great ill; for under all heaven there has not been done anything like that which bhas been done in Jerusalem.
Dn 9:13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this ill has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of Jehovah our God by turning from our iniquities and attending to Your truth.
Dn 9:14 Therefore Jehovah has been vigilant with the ill and has brought it upon us, for Jehovah our God is righteous in all the deeds that He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
Dn 9:15 And now, O Lord our God, who have abrought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made for Yourself a name, as it is this day, we have sinned, we have been wicked.
Dn 9:16 O Lord, in accordance with all the 1manifestations of Your righteousness, may Your anger and Your wrath be turned away, I pray, from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy amountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.
Dn 9:17 And now hear, O our God, the prayer of Your servant and his supplications, and cause Your face to ashine upon Your sanctuary that has been desolated, for the Lord’s sake.
Dn 9:18 O my God, incline Your ear and ahear; open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city that is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You based upon any righteous doings that we have done, but based upon Your great compassion.
Dn 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! Do not delay, for Your own sake, O my God; for Your city and Your people are called by Your own name.
Dn 9:20 And while I was still speaking and praying and aconfessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God,
Dn 9:21 Even while I was speaking in prayer, the man 1aGabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, reached me in my utter exhaustion about the time of the bevening oblation.
Dn 9:22 And he informed me and talked with me and said, Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.
Dn 9:23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went forth, and I have come to tell you, for you are apreciousness itself. Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
4. The Contents of the Vision — The Seventy Weeks
vv. 24-27
Dn 9:24 1Seventy weeks are apportioned for your people and for your holy city, to close the transgression, and to 2make an end of sins, and to make apropitiation for iniquity, and to bring in the 3brighteousness of the ages, and to 4seal up vision and prophet, and to 5canoint the Holy of Holies.
Dn 9:25 Know therefore and comprehend: From the issuing of the decree to arestore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of bMessiah the cPrince will be 1seven weeks and 1sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with 2street and trench, even in distressful times.
Dn 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be 1acut off and will have nothing; and the bpeople of the 2prince who will come will destroy the city and the csanctuary; and the end of it will be with a flood, and even to the end there will be 3war; desolations are determined.
Dn 9:27 And 1he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week; and in the amiddle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and 2will replace the sacrifice and the oblation with 3babominations of the desolator, even until the complete destruction that has been determined is poured out upon the desolator.
DANIEL 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

D. Concerning the Destiny of Israel
10:1 — 12:13
1. The Year of the Vision (About 534 B.C.)
10:1a
Dn 10:1 In the 1third year of aCyrus the king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named bBelteshazzar;
2. The Main Subject of the Vision — The Great Distress
10:1b
and the word was true and concerning a great 2distress. And he understood the word and had an understanding of the vision.
3. The Scene in the Universe — The Spiritual World behind the Physical —
Before the Release of the Vision
10:2 — 11:1
a. Daniel, a Man on the Earth, Setting His Heart to Understand the Future of Israel
10:2-3
Dn 10:2 In those days I, Daniel, had been mourning for 1three full weeks.
Dn 10:3 I ate no desirable food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I aanoint myself at all, until the three full weeks were completed.
b. The Excellent Christ, the Centrality and Universality of
God’s Move on the Earth, Appearing to Daniel
10:4-9
Dn 10:4 And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the great river, that is, the 1Hiddekel,
Dn 10:5 I lifted up my eyes and I looked, and there was a certain 1man, aclothed in linen, whose loins were bgirded with the fine gold of Uphaz.
Dn 10:6 His body also was like aberyl, His face like the appearance of blightning, His eyes like torches of cfire, His arms and His feet like the gleam of polished dbronze, and the esound of His words like the sound of a multitude.
Dn 10:7 And I, Daniel, 1alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did anot see the vision; instead, a great dread fell on them, and they fled to hide themselves.
Dn 10:8 Thus I was left alone and I saw this great vision; and no strength was left in me, but my color turned 1deathly pale; and I retained no strength.
Dn 10:9 Yet I heard the sound of His words; and when I heard the sound of His words, I fell into a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground.
c. The Evil Prince of the Kingdom of Persia Withstanding the Sent Angelic Messenger,
and Michael Coming to Help Him
10:10-17
Dn 10:10 And at that moment a hand atouched me and sent me trembling on my knees and the palms of my hands.
Dn 10:11 And 1he said to me, Daniel, man of apreciousness, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand in your place, for I have now been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.
Dn 10:12 And he said to me, Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you aset your heart to understand this matter and to afflict yourself before your God, your words were bheard; and I have come because of your words.
Dn 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days; but now aMichael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I remained there alone with the kings of Persia.
Dn 10:14 Thus I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the last days, yet the vision pertains to something many days from now.
Dn 10:15 And when he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face to the ground and was dumb.
Dn 10:16 And at that moment one who resembled the sons of men touched my lips; and I opened my mouth and spoke, and I said to him who stood before me, Sir, because of the vision my anguish has turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
Dn 10:17 For how can such a servant of my lord speak with such as my lord? For as for me, just now there is no strength in me, nor has there been breath left in me.
d. The Angelic Messenger to Return to Fight with the Evil Prince of Persia,
and the Evil Prince of Greece Being about to Come
10:18-21
Dn 10:18 Then the one who was in appearance like a man touched me again and strengthened me;
Dn 10:19 And he said, Do not be afraid, man of preciousness. Peace to you. Be strong, yes, be strong. And when he spoke to me, I received strength and said, Speak, sir, for you have strengthened me.
Dn 10:20 Then he said, Do you know why I have come to you? And now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia; so I go forth, and the prince of 1Javan is now about to come.
Dn 10:21 However I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who holds strongly with me against these ones except aMichael your prince.
DANIEL 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 

e. The Angelic Messenger Standing Up to Support and Strengthen Darius
11:1
Dn 11:1 And 1I, in the first year of aDarius the Mede, stood up to support and strengthen him.
4. The Contents of the Vision — Concerning the Destiny of Israel
11:2 — 12:13
a. Related to the King of the South (Egypt) and the King of the North (Syria)
11:2-45
Dn 11:2 And now I will tell you the 1truth. There will yet arise three kings in Persia; then the afourth will gain great riches, more than all of them; and once he becomes strong because of his riches, he will stir up the whole empire against the realm of 2Javan.
Dn 11:3 And a 1mighty aking will arise there, and he will rule with great dominion and do as he pleases.
Dn 11:4 But once he arises, his kingdom will be 1broken and divided toward the afour winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom will be plucked up and given to others besides 2his descendants.
Dn 11:5 And the 1king of the south will become strong, as well as one of his princes, who will grow in strength above him and have dominion; his dominion will be a great dominion.
Dn 11:6 And at the end of some years they will join themselves together. And the daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north and make a treaty; but she will not retain the strength of her arm, nor will he and his arm stand; but she will be given up, along with those who brought her into the alliance and him who begot her and supported her in those times.
Dn 11:7 But a shoot from her roots will arise in his place, and he will come against the army and enter into the fortress of the king of the north; and he will deal with them and show his strength.
Dn 11:8 And also their gods with their cast images, with their precious vessels of silver and gold, he will carry off into captivity in Egypt; and for some years he will refrain from the king of the north.
Dn 11:9 And 1the king of the north will come to the kingdom of the king of the south, but he will return to his own land.
Dn 11:10 But his sons will stir themselves up to war and will gather a multitude of great forces; and one will come unrelentingly and will overflow and pass through and will return and wage war, even up to the fortress of 1the king of the south.
Dn 11:11 And the king of the south will be enraged and will come forth to fight with him, with the king of the north. Then 1the king of the north will raise up a great multitude, but the multitude will be given into the hand of 2the king of the south.
Dn 11:12 When the multitude is carried away, the heart of 1the king of the south will be lifted up; and he will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not prevail.
Dn 11:13 For the king of the north will return, and he will raise up a multitude greater than the first; and at the end of some years he will come unrelentingly with a great army and with much materiel.
Dn 11:14 And in those times many will rise up against the king of the south; and the violent ones of your people will lift themselves up to establish the vision, but they will fall.
Dn 11:15 Then the 1king of the north will come and cast up a siege mound and capture the fortified city; and the forces of the south will not stand, nor his choice people, for there will be no strength to stand.
Dn 11:16 But he who comes against 1the king of the south will do as he pleases; and no one will stand before him. And he will stand in the 2abeautiful land, and destruction will be in his hand.
Dn 11:17 And he will set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and with him there will be 1terms of peace that he will act upon. And he will give 2the king of the south a youthful daughter, to destroy it; yet she will not be able to stand for him, but will be of no use to him.
Dn 11:18 Then he will turn his face to the 1coastlands and will capture many. But a leader, for his own sake, will put an end to the reproach caused by him; indeed, he will turn his reproach back on him.
Dn 11:19 Then 1the king of the north will turn his face to the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and will not be found.
Dn 11:20 Then there will arise in his place one who will cause an oppressor to pass through the 1splendor of the kingdom; yet within a few days he will be broken, but not while venting his anger nor pursuing battle.
Dn 11:21 Then there will arise in his place a 1adespicable person, to whom the honor of a kingdom will not be given; but he will come in a time of security and will seize the kingdom by smooth and cunning words and actions.
Dn 11:22 And the overflowing forces will be flooded over before him and broken, even also the 1prince of the covenant.
Dn 11:23 And once he has made an alliance with him, he will practice adeceit and will go up and become mighty with a small group of people.
Dn 11:24 In a time of security he will enter even the richest parts of the kingdom and will do that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers; prey, spoil, and riches will he scatter among them, and against strongholds he will devise strategies, but only for a while.
Dn 11:25 And he will stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south will stir himself up to wage war with an extremely great and mighty army of his own; but he will not stand, for strategies will have been devised against him.
Dn 11:26 And those who eat of his choice provision will destroy him; and his army will overflow, and many will fall down slain.
Dn 11:27 And as for both of these kings, their hearts will be to do evil, and they will speak lies across one table; but what they do will not succeed, for the aend is still at the appointed time.
Dn 11:28 Then 1the king of the north will return to his land with great riches; but his heart will be set against the holy covenant, and he will take action and will return to his land.
Dn 11:29 At the appointed time he will return and come against the south; but this latter time will not be like the former time.
Dn 11:30 For ships of 1aKittim will come against him; therefore he will be disheartened and will turn away; and he will be enraged at the holy covenant and will take action. When he turns away, he will focus his attention on those who forsake the holy covenant.
Dn 11:31 And forces from him will arise and 1profane the sanctuary, establishing the fortress and removing the daily asacrifice; and they will set up the 2babomination that desolates.
Dn 11:32 And with his smooth words he will cause those who act wickedly toward the covenant to be profane. But the 1people who know their God will show strength and take action.
Dn 11:33 And 1those with insight among the people will cause the many to understand; yet they will fall by sword and by flames, by captivity and by plundering for some days.
Dn 11:34 And when they fall, they will be helped with a little help; and many will join themselves to them in word only.
Dn 11:35 And some of those with insight will fall, in order to arefine 1the people and to purify and cleanse them, until the time of the bend, for the end is still at the appointed time.
Dn 11:36 And the king will do as he pleases; and he will 1aexalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and against the God of gods he will speak extraordinary things; and he will prosper until the indignation is complete; for what has been determined will be done.
Dn 11:37 And he will not regard the gods of his fathers or the desire of women, anor will he regard any other god; for he will magnify himself above all.
Dn 11:38 But he will honor instead the god of fortresses; indeed a god whom his fathers did not know he will honor with gold, silver, precious stones, and treasures.
Dn 11:39 And he will take action against the most fortified of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will increase the honor of those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over many, and he will divide the land to them as a reward.
Dn 11:40 And at the time of the end the king of the south will push against him, and the king of the north will storm back at him with chariots and horsemen and many ships; and he will enter the countries and overflow and pass through.
Dn 11:41 He will also enter the 1abeautiful land, and many countries will fall; but these will slip away from his hand: bEdom, Moab, and the foremost of the children of Ammon.
Dn 11:42 Then he will stretch forth his hand against the countries, and for the land of Egypt there will be no escape.
Dn 11:43 And he will have control over the hidden stores of gold and silver and over all the precious things of the Egyptians; and the Libyans and 1Cushites will follow in his steps.
Dn 11:44 But news from the east and from the north will trouble him, and he will go forth with great wrath destroying and exterminating many.
Dn 11:45 And he will pitch the tents of his palace between the sea and the 1abeautiful holy mountain; but he will 2come to his bend, and there will be no one to help him.
DANIEL 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

b. Related to the Archangel Michael’s Standing for Israel
12:1-13
Dn 12:1 And at that 1time 2aMichael, the great prince who stands for the children of your people, will arise; and there will be a time of bdistress, such as cnever occurred since there came to be a nation until that time; and at that time your people, every one found written in the 3dbook, will be delivered.
Dn 12:2 And many of those who are asleeping in the dust of the ground will bawake, some to 1clife eternal and some to reproach, to 1eternal contempt.
Dn 12:3 And those who have insight will 1ashine like the shining of the heavenly expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the bstars, forever and ever.
Dn 12:4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and aseal the book until the time of the bend; many will go here and there, and knowledge will be increased.
Dn 12:5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and there were two others standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that bank of the river.
Dn 12:6 And one said to the man clothed in alinen, who was above the water of the river, How long will it be until the end of these wonders?
Dn 12:7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the water of the river, as He lifted up His right ahand and His left hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever that there would be 1a btime and times and half a time; and when the shattering of the power of the holy people is completed, all these things will be ccompleted.
Dn 12:8 And I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, My Lord, what will the latter end of these things be?
Dn 12:9 And He said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the aend.
Dn 12:10 Many will be purified, 1cleansed, and arefined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.
Dn 12:11 And from the time that the 1daily asacrifice is removed and the babomination that desolates is set up, there will be a 2cthousand two hundred and ninety days.
Dn 12:12 Blessed is he who waits and reaches the 1thousand three hundred and thirty-five days!
Dn 12:13 But you, go your way until the end, and you will arest and 1rise again in your lot at the bend of the days.
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HOSEA

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14
Outline

Author: Hosea (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: A period of about sixty years, from approximately 785 B.C., during the reign of Uzziah (Azariah), king of Judah, to approximately 725 B.C., during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah (1:1).
Place of His Ministry: The northern kingdom of Israel.
Object of His Ministry: The northern kingdom of Israel.
Subject:
Jehovah as Salvation to the Adulterous and Apostate Israel in Receiving Her Back and Restoring Her
HOSEA 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Ho 1:1 1The word of Jehovah which came to 2Hosea the son of Beeri in the days of aUzziah, bJotham, cAhaz, and dHezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of eJeroboam the son of Joash the king of Israel.
II. A Wife of Harlotries
1:2 — 3:5
A. The Prophet Hosea Taking a Wife of Harlotries
1:2-9
Ho 1:2 At the beginning of Jehovah’s speaking to Hosea, Jehovah said to Hosea,
Go, take to yourself a 1wife of 2harlotries / And children of harlotries, / For the land is entirely given over to aharlotry, / And thus departs from Jehovah.
Ho 1:3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. And she conceived and bore him a son.
Ho 1:4 And Jehovah said to him,
Call his name 1Jezreel, / For yet a little while / And I will 2avenge the abloodshed of Jezreel / Upon the house of Jehu / And will bring an bend to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
Ho 1:5 And in that day / I will break the abow of Israel / In the valley of Jezreel.
Ho 1:6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And He said to him,
Call her name 1Lo-ruhamah, / For I will no longer have compassion / On the ahouse of Israel, / That I should forgive them at all.
Ho 1:7 But on the ahouse of Judah I will have compassion and will save them by Jehovah their God, and I will not save them by bow or by sword or by battle, by horses or by horsemen.
Ho 1:8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.
Ho 1:9 And He said,
Call his name 1Lo-ammi, / For you are anot My people, / And I will not belong to you.
B. Promise of Restoration
1:10 — 2:1
Ho 1:10 But the 1number of the children of Israel will be like the 2asand of the sea, / Which cannot be measured or numbered; / bAnd in the place where it will be said to them, You are not My people, / It will be said to them, You are the 3csons of the living God.
Ho 1:11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be agathered together, / And they will appoint for themselves one head, and they will go up from the land, / For great will be the day of 1Jezreel.
HOSEA 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

Ho 2:1 Say to your brothers, 1Ammi, / And to your sisters, 2Ruhamah.
C. The Harlotries of the Wife of the Prophet Hosea
2:2-13
Ho 2:2 Contend with your amother; contend. / For she is 1not My wife, / And I am 1not her Husband. / And let her turn away her bharlotries from her face, / And her adulteries from between her breasts,
Ho 2:3 Lest I strip her naked / And set her out as in the day she was aborn / And make her a wilderness / And make her a dry land / And slay her with thirst.
Ho 2:4 And on her children I will not have compassion, / For they are the children of harlotries.
Ho 2:5 For their mother has gone about as a aharlot; / She who conceived them has acted shamefully; / For she has said, / I will go after my 1lovers, / Who give me my bread and my water, / My wool and my flax, / My oil and my drink.
Ho 2:6 Therefore I will now hedge up / 1Her way with thorns; / And I will build up a wall against her, / So that she will not find her paths.
Ho 2:7 And she will pursue her lovers / But will not overtake them; / And she will seek them but not find them; / And she will say, 1I will go / And areturn to my first bHusband, / For it was better for me then than now.
Ho 2:8 For she adid not know / That it was I who gave her / The grain and the new wine and the fresh oil, / And who multiplied to her silver / And gold, which they 1used for Baal.
Ho 2:9 Therefore I will take back / My grain in its time / And My new wine in its appointed season, / And I will snatch away My wool and My flax, / Which were to cover her nakedness.
Ho 2:10 And now I will uncover her lewdness / In the sight of her lovers, / And no one will deliver her from My hand.
Ho 2:11 And I will bring all her mirth to an end, / Her afeasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, / And all her appointed assemblies.
Ho 2:12 And I will desolate her vine and her fig tree, / Of which she said, / These are my payments / That my lovers have given me; / And I will make them a forest, / And the beasts of the field will devour them.
Ho 2:13 And I will visit the days of the Baals upon her, / In which she burned incense to them / And adorned herself with her nose rings and her jewels / And went after her lovers / And forgot Me, / Declares Jehovah.
D. Jehovah’s Restoration of the Adulterous and Apostate Israel
2:14-23
Ho 2:14 Therefore I am now luring her, / And I will bring her into the awilderness / And will bspeak to her heart.
Ho 2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from there / And the valley of aAchor as a door of hope; / And she will respond there as in the days of her byouth / And as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Ho 2:16 And in that day, declares Jehovah, / You will call Me My aHusband / And will no longer call Me 1Baali.
Ho 2:17 For I will take away the names of the Baals from her mouth, / And they will no longer be remembered by their name.
Ho 2:18 And I will make a 1acovenant for them / In that day / With the beasts of the field / And with the birds of heaven / And the creeping things of the earth; / And bow and sword and battle / I will bbreak from the land, / And I will cause them to lie down in csafety.
Ho 2:19 And I will abetroth you to Myself forever; / Indeed I will betroth you to Myself / In righteousness and justice / And in lovingkindness and compassions;
Ho 2:20 Indeed I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness, / And you will know Jehovah.
Ho 2:21 And in that day / I will answer, declares Jehovah; / I will answer the heavens, / And they will answer the earth,
Ho 2:22 And the earth will answer the 1grain / And the 1new wine and the 1fresh oil, / And they will answer Jezreel.
Ho 2:23 And I will sow her for Myself in the land; / And I will have compassion on 1Lo-ruhamah, / And I will say to 2Lo-ammi, aYou are My people; / And they will say, My God.
HOSEA 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 

E. The Confirmation of God’s Faithful Restoration of Israel
3:1-5
Ho 3:1 Then Jehovah said to me, Go 1again, love a woman who is loved by her companion yet who is an adulteress, even as Jehovah has aloved the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.
Ho 3:2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley and a half-homer of barley.
Ho 3:3 And I said to her, You will abide for me for 1many days; you shall not go about as a harlot nor be another man’s; and I will be the same toward you.
Ho 3:4 For the children of Israel will aabide for many days without king and without prince and without sacrifice and without pillar and without ephod and teraphim.
Ho 3:5 Afterward the children of Israel will return and aseek Jehovah their God and 1bDavid their King, and they will come with fear to Jehovah and to His goodness in the 2clast days.
HOSEA 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

III. A People of Apostasy
4:1 — 13:16
A. The Sins of Israel and the Punishments of Jehovah
4:1 — 5:14; 6:4-10
1. Concerning the People in General
4:1-3
Ho 4:1 Hear the word of Jehovah, / O children of Israel; / For Jehovah has a acontroversy / With the inhabitants of the land. / For there is no 1faithfulness or kindness / And bno knowledge of God in the land.
Ho 4:2 Rather there are swearing and deceiving and murder / And stealing and adultery; / They are violent, / And bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Ho 4:3 Because of this the land mourns, / And all the inhabitants languish within it, / With the beasts of the field / And with the birds of heaven; / Indeed, even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
2. Concerning the Priests
4:4-10
Ho 4:4 Yet let no man contend, / And let no man reprove; / For your people are like those who contend with the priest.
Ho 4:5 And 1you will stumble in the day, / And the prophet also will stumble / With you in the night; / And I will destroy your mother.
Ho 4:6 My people are destroyed / Because of a alack of 1that knowledge. / For you have rejected 1that knowledge, / And I will reject you, so that you will not be a priest to Me; / Since you have forgotten the law of your God, / I also will forget your children.
Ho 4:7 The more 1they were multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; / I will change their glory into ashame.
Ho 4:8 They feed on the sin of My people, / And 1their soul desires their iniquity.
Ho 4:9 And it will be that as it is with the people, 1so it will be with the priest; / Thus I will visit their ways upon them, / And I will recompense their doings to them.
Ho 4:10 And they will eat but will anot be filled; / And they will commit fornication but will not increase; / For they have ceased giving heed to Jehovah.
3. Concerning Fornication, Wine, and Harlotries
4:11-14
Ho 4:11 Fornication and wine / And new wine 1take away their heart.
Ho 4:12 My people inquire at their 1wooden post, / And their rod informs them of things; / For a spirit of harlotries makes them err, / And they have gone about as aharlots away from their God.
Ho 4:13 Upon the tops of the mountains they offer sacrifices, / And upon the hills they burn incense, / Under oak, poplar, and terebinth, / Because its shade is good. / Therefore your daughters go about as harlots, / And your brides commit adultery.
Ho 4:14 I will not 1punish your daughters when they go about as harlots / Nor your brides when they commit adultery; / For the men themselves go off with harlots, / And they offer sacrifices with the 2prostitutes; / And the people who have no understanding will be cast down.
4. Concerning Israel’s Stubbornness
4:15-19
Ho 4:15 Though you, Israel, go about as a harlot, / Let not Judah trespass; / And do not come to 1aGilgal, / Nor go up to 2bBeth-aven, / Nor swear, As Jehovah lives.
Ho 4:16 For Israel is astubborn, / Like a stubborn heifer; / Will Jehovah now pasture them / Like a lamb in a spacious place?
Ho 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols; / Leave him alone.
Ho 4:18 Their liquor has ended; / They have given themselves up to harlotry; / Her 1rulers dearly love shame.
Ho 4:19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, / And they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
HOSEA 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

5. Mainly concerning the Priests, the House of the King, and the Princes
5:1-14; 6:4-10
Ho 5:1 Hear this, O priests; / And listen, O house of Israel; / And, O house of the king, give ear. / For to you belongs the judgment, / For you have been a snare at Mizpah / And a net spread over Tabor.
Ho 5:2 And the revolters have gone deep 1into slaughtering, / Though I am a chastisement to them all.
Ho 5:3 I know Ephraim, / And Israel is not hidden from Me; / For now, Ephraim, you have gone about as a aharlot; / Israel is defiled.
Ho 5:4 Their doings do not permit them / To turn to their God; / For a spirit of harlotries is within them, / And they do not know Jehovah.
Ho 5:5 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, / And Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity; / Judah also will stumble with them.
Ho 5:6 With their flocks and with their herds they will go / To aseek Jehovah, / But they will not find Him; / He has withdrawn Himself from them.
Ho 5:7 They have acted treacherously against Jehovah, / For they have begotten strange children. / Now the new moon will devour them / With their apportionments.
Ho 5:8 Blow the horn in Gibeah, / The trumpet in Ramah; / Sound an alarm at aBeth-aven: / Behind you, O Benjamin!
Ho 5:9 Ephraim will be a desolation / In the day of correction; / Among the tribes of Israel / I have made known what is sure.
Ho 5:10 The princes of Judah have become / Like those who move a aboundary mark. / I will pour out upon them / My overflowing wrath like water.
Ho 5:11 Ephraim is oppressed, / Crushed by judgment, / For he was determined to walk / After man’s command.
Ho 5:12 Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim / And like rottenness to the house of Judah.
Ho 5:13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, / And Judah his awound, / Ephraim went to bAssyria / And sent word to the warrior king; / But he cannot heal you, / And the wound will not depart from you.
Ho 5:14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim / And like a young lion to the house of Judah. / I, I will tear them and go away; / I will carry them off, and there will be no one to deliver them.
B. The Return of the Apostate People
5:15 — 6:3, 11
Ho 5:15 I will go away, I will return to My place, / aUntil they acknowledge their offense / And seek My face; / In their affliction they will seek Me 1earnestly.
HOSEA 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

Ho 6:1 Come and let us areturn to Jehovah; / For He has torn us, but He will bheal us, / And He has stricken us, but He will bind us up.
Ho 6:2 He will enliven us after 1two days; / On the 1athird day He will raise us up, / And we will live in His presence.
Ho 6:3 Therefore let us know, let us pursue knowing Jehovah: / 1His going forth is as sure as the adawn, / And He will come to us as the rain, / As the late rain which bwaters the earth.
5. Mainly concerning the Priests, the House of the King, and the Princes (cont’d)
6:4-10
Ho 6:4 What shall I do with you, O 1Ephraim? / What shall I do with you, O Judah? / For your lovingkindness is like a morning cloud / And like dew that departs early.
Ho 6:5 Therefore I hewed them to pieces by the prophets; / I slew them by the awords of My mouth, / And 1My judgments went forth as light.
Ho 6:6 aFor I delight in lovingkindness and not bsacrifice, / And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Ho 6:7 But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant; / There they have acted treacherously against Me.
Ho 6:8 Gilead is a city of those who commit iniquity; / It is tracked with blood.
Ho 6:9 And like bands of robbers lying in wait for a man, / The company of priests murder on the way to Shechem; / Indeed they commit wickedness.
Ho 6:10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrid thing: / The harlotry of Ephraim is there; / Israel has defiled itself.
B. The Return of the Apostate People (cont’d)
6:11
Ho 6:11 Also, O Judah, there is a 1harvest appointed for you, / When I will aturn the captivity of My people.
HOSEA 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

C. The Sins of Israel in Forsaking Jehovah
7:1-16
Ho 7:1 When I would aheal Israel, / Then the 1iniquity of Ephraim is discovered / As well as the evil deeds of Samaria; / For they practice falsehood. / And the thief comes inside; / The band of robbers makes raids outside.
Ho 7:2 And they do not say in their hearts / That I aremember all their evil. / Now their doings are all around them; / They are before My bface.
Ho 7:3 They make the king glad with their evil, / And the princes, with their lies.
Ho 7:4 All of them practice adultery; / They are like an oven heated by the baker: / He ceases from stirring the fire, / After kneading the dough, until it is aleavened.
Ho 7:5 On the feast day of our king / The princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine; / He stretched out his hand with scorners.
Ho 7:6 For they have made their heart ready / Like an oven while they lie in wait: / All night long / Their baker sleeps, / But in the morning 1the oven burns / Like a flaming fire.
Ho 7:7 All of them are hot like an oven, / And they devour their 1judges; / All their kings fall; / There is no one among them who acalls on Me.
Ho 7:8 Ephraim — among the peoples / He mixes himself; / Ephraim is a cake / 1Not turned.
Ho 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, / And he himself does not know it; / Indeed gray hairs are all over him, / And he himself does not know it.
Ho 7:10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face; / Yet they have not returned to Jehovah their God, / And they have not sought Him, because of all this.
Ho 7:11 And Ephraim has become like a silly dove / Without 1understanding: / They call to aEgypt; / They go to Assyria.
Ho 7:12 When they go, / I will spread My net over them; / I will bring them down like the birds of heaven; / I will chasten them according to the report given to their assembly.
Ho 7:13 Woe to them! For they have wandered from Me. / Devastation to them! For they have transgressed against Me. / And I would have redeemed them, / But they have spoken lies against Me.
Ho 7:14 And they did not cry unto Me in their heart / When they howled in their beds. / For grain and new wine they assemble themselves; / They rebel against Me.
Ho 7:15 Though I trained them and strengthened their arms, / They devise evil against Me.
Ho 7:16 They return, but not to Him who is on high; / They are like a 1deceitful bow. / Their princes will fall by the sword / Because of the rage of their tongue. / This will be their derision / In the land of aEgypt.
HOSEA 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

D. Jehovah’s Punishments on Israel because of Their Forsaking of Him
8:1-14
Ho 8:1 A trumpet to your lips! / Like an aeagle he comes against the house of Jehovah, / Because they have trespassed My 1bcovenant / And have transgressed against My 1law.
Ho 8:2 They will cry unto Me, / My God, we — Israel — know You.
Ho 8:3 Israel has cast off what is good; / The enemy will pursue him.
Ho 8:4 They have set up akings, but not by Me; / They have set up princes, but I did not acknowledge it. / With their silver and their gold they made / Idols for themselves, / That they might be cut off.
Ho 8:5 Your 1acalf has cast you off, O 1Samaria; / My anger burns against them. / How long will they be incapable of 2innocence?
Ho 8:6 For from Israel is this! / A workman made it; / Thus it is no God. / The calf of Samaria / Will be shattered to pieces.
Ho 8:7 For they have asown wind, / And they will reap a whirlwind. / It has no stalk; should there be a sprout, / It will not produce flour; / If it should produce, / Strangers will swallow it up.
Ho 8:8 Israel has been swallowed up; / Now they have become among the nations / Like a vessel in which no one takes pleasure.
Ho 8:9 For they have gone up to aAssyria / Like a wild ass gone alone by itself; / Ephraim has bhired lovers.
Ho 8:10 Indeed though they have hired such among the nations, / I will now agather them; / And they will begin to be diminished because of the burden / Of the bking of the princes.
Ho 8:11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, / Altars will be to him for sin.
Ho 8:12 I wrote for him the ten thousand things of My law, / But they are considered as a strange thing.
Ho 8:13 As for the sacrifices of My offerings, / They sacrifice flesh and eat it, / But Jehovah has ano delight in them. / Now He will bremember their iniquity, / And He will punish their sins; / They will return to cEgypt.
Ho 8:14 For Israel has forgotten his aMaker / And has built palaces, / And Judah has multiplied fortified cities; / But I will send 1fire into his cities, / And it will devour its citadels.
HOSEA 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

E. The Idolatry of Israel
against Jehovah and the Punishments of Jehovah upon Israel
9:1 — 10:15
Ho 9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, / To exult like the nations. / For you have gone as a aharlot away from your God; / You have loved payment / Upon every grain floor.
Ho 9:2 The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them, / And the new wine will fail her.
Ho 9:3 They will not dwell in the land of Jehovah; / But Ephraim will return to aEgypt, / And in Assyria they will eat bwhat is unclean.
Ho 9:4 They will not pour out offerings of wine to Jehovah, / Neither will their sacrifices be pleasing to Him; / They will be to them as the bread of mourning; / All who eat them will be unclean, / For their bread will be for themselves; / It will not come into the house of Jehovah.
Ho 9:5 What will you do / In the day of assembly / And in the day of the feast of Jehovah?
Ho 9:6 For they will go because of destruction; / Egypt will gather them; / 1Moph will bury them. / As for their desirable 2things of silver, nettles will dispossess them; / Thistles will be in their tents.
Ho 9:7 The days of the visitation have come; / The days of the recompense have come; / Israel will know it. / The prophet is a fool, / The 1inspired man is mad, / Because of the greatness of your iniquity / And because of the greatness of the enmity.
Ho 9:8 Ephraim was a 1watchman / With my God. / As for the 2prophet, a fowler’s trap / Is in all his ways; / Enmity is in the house of his God.
Ho 9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves / As in the days of 1aGibeah; / He will remember their iniquity; / He will punish their sins.
Ho 9:10 I 1found Israel / Like grapes in the wilderness; / I saw your fathers / As the first ripe fruit on the fig tree at its beginning. / They went to aBaal-peor / And sanctified themselves unto the shameful thing, / And they became detestable, like the thing that they loved.
Ho 9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory / Will fly away like a bird — / No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
Ho 9:12 For even if they bring up their children, / I will bereave them, so that not a man is left. / Indeed woe also to them / When I aturn away from them.
Ho 9:13 Ephraim, as I have seen him, / Is planted like Tyre in a meadow; / But Ephraim will bring forth / His children to the slayer.
Ho 9:14 Give them, O Jehovah — / What will You give them? / Give them a miscarrying womb / And dry breasts.
Ho 9:15 All their evil is in aGilgal, / For there I hated them. / Because of the evil of their doings / I will drive them from My house, / I will love them no more; / All their princes are rebels.
Ho 9:16 Ephraim is stricken; / Their root is dried up; / They will not bear fruit. / Indeed though they bring forth, / I will kill the beloved fruit of their womb.
Ho 9:17 My God has rejected them, / For they did not listen to Him. / And they will be awanderers among the nations.
HOSEA 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

Ho 10:1 Israel is a luxuriant avine; / He brings forth fruit for 1himself. / According to the abundance of his fruit / He has multiplied altars; / According to the goodness of their land / They have made pillars well.
Ho 10:2 Their heart is adivided; / Now they will be found guilty. / He Himself will break down their altars; / He will destroy their pillars.
Ho 10:3 For now they will say, / We have 1ano king, / For we did not fear Jehovah; / And the king, what can he do for us?
Ho 10:4 They speak mere words, / Swearing falsely / While making a covenant; / And judgment sprouts forth like poisonous weeds / In the furrows of the field.
Ho 10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria will fear / For the acalves of 1Beth-aven; / For its people will mourn over it, / And its idol priests 2will tremble for it, / For its glory, / Because it has departed from it.
Ho 10:6 Indeed it will be carried to aAssyria: / A present to the warrior king. / Ephraim will be taken in shame, / And Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.
Ho 10:7 aSamaria will be cut off with her king / And will be like twigs on the surface of the water.
Ho 10:8 And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, / Will be destroyed. / The thorn and the thistle will come up / Upon their altars; / And they will say to the amountains, Cover us! / And to the hills, Fall on us!
Ho 10:9 Since the days of aGibeah / You have sinned, O Israel; / There they have stood. / Did not the bbattle / Overtake them in Gibeah / Because of the children of iniquity?
Ho 10:10 When I so desire, I will chastise them; / And the peoples will be agathered against them, / When they are bound for their 1double iniquity.
Ho 10:11 And Ephraim is a trained heifer / That loves to tread the grain; / But I have passed the yoke / Over her fair neck: / I will make Ephraim draw the plow; / Judah will plow; / Jacob will break his clods.
Ho 10:12 1aSow unto righteousness for yourselves; / Reap according to lovingkindness; / Break up your 2fallow ground; / For it is time to seek Jehovah / Until He comes and rains / Righteousness on you.
Ho 10:13 You have plowed wickedness; / You have reaped injustice; / You have eaten the fruit of lying. / For you have trusted in your way, / In the multitude of your mighty men.
Ho 10:14 And a 1tumult will arise among your peoples; / And all your fortresses will be devastated, / As aShalman devastated Beth-arbel / In the day of battle: / The mother was dashed in pieces with the children.
Ho 10:15 Thus Bethel will cause this to happen to you / Because of your great evil: / At 1dawn the king of Israel / Will be utterly cut off.
HOSEA 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

F. Jehovah’s Unchanging Love Subduing Israel’s Stubborn Unchastity
11:1 — 13:16
Ho 11:1 When Israel was a achild, I 1loved him, / And bout of Egypt I called My 2cson.
Ho 11:2 As 1they called them, / So they went from them; / To the aBaals they sacrificed, / And to the idols they burned incense.
Ho 11:3 And it was I who taught Ephraim to walk / (He atook them in His arms), / But they did not know that I bhealed them.
Ho 11:4 I drew them 1with cords of a man, / With bands of love;
And I was to them like those / Who lift off the 2yoke on their jaws; / And I gently caused them to 2eat.
Ho 11:5 They will not return to the land of Egypt, / But the Assyrian will be their king, / For they refused to return to Me.
Ho 11:6 And the sword will whirl about in their cities / And will consume their bars, / And it will devour them because of their own counsels.
Ho 11:7 Indeed My people are bent upon turning away from Me; / Though they call them to Him who is on high, / None at all exalts Him.
Ho 11:8 How shall I give you up, O Ephraim? / How shall I deliver you up, O Israel? / How can I make you like 1aAdmah? / How can I treat you like 1Zeboim? / My heart is turned within Me; / All My bcompassions have warmed.
Ho 11:9 I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; / I will not return to destroy Ephraim; / For I am God and anot man, / The bHoly One in the midst of you, / And I will not come in wrath.
Ho 11:10 They will walk after Jehovah; / He will aroar like a lion. / For He will roar, / And the children will come trembling from the bwest.
Ho 11:11 They will come trembling like a bird from Egypt / And like a adove from the land of Assyria. / And I will cause them to bdwell in their houses, / Declares Jehovah.
Ho 11:12 Ephraim encompasses Me with lies, / And the house of Israel, with deceit; / And Judah is yet unsteadfast with God / And with the Holy One, the Faithful One.
HOSEA 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Ho 12:1 Ephraim feeds on wind / And follows the east wind continually; / He multiplies lies and violence. / They make a covenant with aAssyria, / And oil is carried into Egypt.
Ho 12:2 Jehovah has also a acontroversy with Judah / And will punish Jacob according to his ways; / According to his doings He will recompense him.
Ho 12:3 In the womb he agrasped his brother by the heel, / And in his full strength he contended with God.
Ho 12:4 Indeed he acontended with the 1Angel and prevailed; / He wept and made supplication to Him. / At bBethel he found Him; / And there He spoke with us,
Ho 12:5 Even Jehovah the God of hosts; / Jehovah is His memorial.
Ho 12:6 And you, areturn there to your God; / Keep lovingkindness and justice, / And bwait on your God continually.
Ho 12:7 He is a merchant; / In his hand are balances of deceit; / He loves to extort.
Ho 12:8 And Ephraim said, / I have surely become rich; / I have found wealth for myself. / In all my labors / They will find with me / No iniquity, which would be sin.
Ho 12:9 aBut I have been Jehovah your God / Since the land of Egypt; / Yet again I will cause you to dwell in btents / As in the days of the appointed feast.
Ho 12:10 I have also spoken unto the prophets: / And I have multiplied vision, / And through the prophets I have used similitudes.
Ho 12:11 Is aGilead iniquity? They are altogether vanity. / In bGilgal they sacrifice oxen; / Indeed their altars are like heaps / In the furrows of a field.
Ho 12:12 And Jacob fled into the country of 1aAram; / And Israel bserved for a wife, / And for a wife he kept sheep.
Ho 12:13 And by a aprophet Jehovah brought Israel up from Egypt, / And by a prophet he was kept.
Ho 12:14 Ephraim aprovoked Him to bitter anger; / Therefore his Lord will leave his bloodshed upon him / And will recompense him with his own reproach.
HOSEA 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

Ho 13:1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. / He exalted himself in Israel; / But he trespassed through aBaal and died.
Ho 13:2 And now they sin more and more / And make molten images for themselves out of their silver, / Idols according to their own understanding, / All of it the work of craftsmen. / Of them they say, / Let the men who sacrifice / Kiss the calves.
Ho 13:3 Therefore they will be like a morning cloud / And like dew that departs early, / Like chaff driven by a storm wind from the threshing floor / And like smoke from a window vent.
Ho 13:4 But I have been Jehovah your God / Since the land of Egypt; / And you were to know no god except Me, / For there is no asavior besides Me.
Ho 13:5 I knew you in the awilderness, / In the land of great drought.
Ho 13:6 According to their pasturage they became afull; / They became full, and their heart was exalted; / Therefore they have bforgotten Me.
Ho 13:7 Thus I will be to them like a alion; / Like a leopard I will watch them along the way.
Ho 13:8 I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs, / And I will tear away the covering of their heart; / And I will devour them there like a lioness; / The beast of the field will tear them to pieces.
Ho 13:9 It is your destruction, O Israel, / That you are against Me, against your help.
Ho 13:10 Where then is your king, / That he may save you in all your cities, / And your judges of whom you said, / aGive me a king and some princes?
Ho 13:11 I gave you a 1aking in My anger / And btook him away in My overflowing wrath.
Ho 13:12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; / His sin is laid up in store.
Ho 13:13 The apains of a woman giving birth will come upon him. / He is an unwise son; / For he should not delay at the time / The children break forth.
Ho 13:14 From the power of 1Sheol I will ransom them; / From adeath I will redeem them. / bWhere are your plagues, O death? / Where is your destruction, O 1Sheol? / 2Repentance will be hidden from My eyes.
Ho 13:15 Even if he should be fruitful among his brothers, / An east wind will come, / A wind of Jehovah / Coming up from the wilderness, / And his spring will become dry, / And his fountain will be dried up. / He will plunder the treasure / Of every desirable vessel.
Ho 13:16 aSamaria will be guilty, / For she rebelled against her God. / They will fall by the sword; / Their children will be dashed in pieces, / And their pregnant women will be ripped up.
HOSEA 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

IV. The Restoration of Israel
14:1-9
Ho 14:1 aReturn, O Israel, / To Jehovah your God, / For you have fallen by your iniquity.
Ho 14:2 Take words with you, / And return to Jehovah; / Say to Him, / Forgive all iniquity, / And take us graciously; / Thus we will render 1our alips as bulls.
Ho 14:3 Assyria will not save us; / We will not ride upon horses. / Neither will we say again to the work of our hands, Our God! / Because in You the orphan finds compassion.
Ho 14:4 1I will aheal their apostasy; / I will love them freely; / For My anger has turned away from him.
Ho 14:5 I will be like the adew to Israel; / He will bud like the 1blily / And will send forth his roots like the 2trees of Lebanon.
Ho 14:6 His 1shoots will go forth; / And his 2splendor will be like that of the aolive tree, / And his 3bfragrance, like that of the trees of Lebanon.
Ho 14:7 Those who 1sit under his shade will return; / They will revive like 2grain / And will 3bud like the vine; / His 4renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
Ho 14:8 Ephraim says, What have I yet to do with idols? / I respond and look on him. / I am like a 1green afir tree; / 2From Me your fruit is found.
Ho 14:9 Who is wise? / Then let him understand these things. / Who is intelligent? Then let him know them. / For the aways of Jehovah are right, / And the righteous will walk in them, / But the transgressors will stumble in them.
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JOEL

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Joel (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 800 B.C., probably after the prophet Elisha.
Place of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Object of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Subject:
The Devastation of the Human Government on Israel in Four Stages and Christ’s Destruction of the Devastators and His Reign among Israel in the Restoration
JOEL 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Jl 1:1 The word of Jehovah which came to 1Joel the son of Pethuel.
II. The Plague of the Locusts (the Nations)
1:2 — 2:11
Jl 1:2 1Hear this, you elders, / And give heed, all you inhabitants of the land. / Has this ever happened in your days, / Or even in the days of your fathers?
Jl 1:3 Tell your children about it, / And let your children tell their children, / And let their children tell the next generation.
Jl 1:4 What the 1cutting alocust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; / And what the swarming locust has left, the licking locust has eaten; / And what the licking locust has left, the consuming locust has eaten.
Jl 1:5 Awake, drunkards, and weep; / Howl, all you who drink wine, / Because of the fresh wine; / For it has been cut off from your mouth.
Jl 1:6 For a 1anation has come up against My land, / Mighty and without number; / Its bteeth are the teeth of a lion, / And it has the cutting teeth of a lioness.
Jl 1:7 It has made My avine a desolation, / And My bfig tree a heap of splinters. / It has stripped it bare and cast it away; / Its branches are white.
Jl 1:8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth / Over the husband of her youth.
Jl 1:9 The ameal offering and the drink offering are cut off / From the house of Jehovah; / The priests, the ministers of Jehovah, mourn.
Jl 1:10 The field is a waste; / The land mourns, / For the grain is a waste; / The new wine is dried up; / The fresh oil languishes.
Jl 1:11 Be ashamed, O farmers; / Howl, O vinedressers, / For the wheat and for the barley, / Because the harvest of the field has perished.
Jl 1:12 The vine is dried up, / And the fig tree languishes, / The pomegranate and the palm and the apple tree — / All the trees of the field are dried up; / Indeed gladness has withered away / From the children of men.
Jl 1:13 Gird yourselves and lament, O priests; / Howl, O ministers of the altar. / Come, pass the night in asackcloth, / O ministers of my God. / For the meal offering and the drink offering / Are held back from the house of your God.
Jl 1:14 Sanctify a afast; / Call a solemn assembly; / Gather the elders / And all the inhabitants of the land / To the house of Jehovah your God; / And cry unto Jehovah.
Jl 1:15 Alas for the day! / For the 1aday of Jehovah has drawn near, / And as the destruction from the Almighty it will come.
Jl 1:16 Is not our food / Cut off before our eyes, / Joy and exultation / From the house of our God?
Jl 1:17 The seeds have shriveled / Under their 1clods; / The storehouses have been desolated; / The barns have been torn down; / For the grain is dried up.
Jl 1:18 How the beasts groan! / The herds of cattle are confused, / For they have no pasture; / The flocks of sheep also suffer punishment.
Jl 1:19 To You, O Jehovah, I cry out; / For afire has devoured / The pastures of the wilderness, / And the flame has set ablaze / All the trees of the field.
Jl 1:20 The beasts of the field also / Cry to You, / For the waterways / Are dried up, / And fire has devoured / The pastures of the wilderness.
JOEL 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

Jl 2:1 Blow a atrumpet in Zion; / Sound an alarm in My holy mountain; / Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, / For the bday of Jehovah comes; / For it draws near:
Jl 2:2 aA day of bdarkness and gloominess, / A day of clouds and deep darkness, / Like the dawn spread over the mountains — / A cpeople great and mighty. / dThere has not been any like them / Since eternity, / And there will not be any more after them, / Even until the years of the generation of the generations.
Jl 2:3 A afire devours before them, / And after them a flame blazes. / Before them the land is like the garden of bEden, / After them, like a desolate cwilderness; / And indeed no one escapes them.
Jl 2:4 Their appearance is like the appearance of ahorses; / And as horsemen, so they run.
Jl 2:5 Like the asound of chariots / Upon the mountaintops they leap, / Like the sound of a flame of fire / That devours the stubble, / Like a mighty people / Set in battle array.
Jl 2:6 aAt their presence the peoples writhed in anguish; / All faces became pale.
Jl 2:7 They run like mighty men; / Like men of battle they climb the wall. / And they march, each in his ways, / And do not break their ranks.
Jl 2:8 Nor do they crowd each other; / They march, each on his highway. / Though they fall among weapons, / They do not break off their progress.
Jl 2:9 They rush at the city; / They run against the wall; / They go up into the houses; / In through the windows / They go, like a thief.
Jl 2:10 The earth aquakes before them; / The heavens shake; / The bsun and the moon grow dark, / And the stars withdraw their shining.
Jl 2:11 And Jehovah utters His voice / Before His army, / For His camp is very great, / For He who executes His word is mighty. / For the aday of Jehovah is great / And very terrible, / And who can endure it?
III. The Turn of Jehovah to His Elect, Israel
2:12-32
Jl 2:12 Yet even now, / Declares Jehovah, / aTurn to Me with all your heart / And with fasting and weeping and mourning;
Jl 2:13 And rend your ahearts, / And not your bgarments, / And turn to Jehovah your God, / For He is gracious and ccompassionate, / Long-suffering and abundant in lovingkindness / And repentant of evil.
Jl 2:14 aWho knows whether He will turn and repent / And leave a blessing behind Him, / A 1meal offering and a 1drink offering / To Jehovah your God?
Jl 2:15 1Blow a atrumpet in Zion; / 2Sanctify a bfast; / Call a 3solemn assembly;
Jl 2:16 Gather the people; / Sanctify the congregation; / Assemble the elders; / Gather the children / And those who suck the breasts; / Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, / And the bride from her canopy.
Jl 2:17 Let the apriests, the ministers of Jehovah, / Weep between the porch and the baltar, / And let them say, / Look with pity, O Jehovah, upon Your people; / And do not give Your inheritance over to reproach, / That the nations should rule over them. / cWhy should they say among the peoples, / Where is their God?
Jl 2:18 Then Jehovah became jealous for 1His land, / And He spared His people.
Jl 2:19 And Jehovah answered and said to His people, / I am about to send you / The agrain and the new wine and the fresh oil, / And you will be satisfied with it; / And I will no longer make you / A reproach among the nations,
Jl 2:20 But the anorthern army / I will remove far from you; / And I will drive it into a land / Barren and desolate, / With its face toward the eastern sea / And its end toward the western sea. / And its bstench will go up, / And its foul smell will go up, / For it has done great things.
Jl 2:21 Do not fear, O land; / Be glad and rejoice, / For Jehovah has done great things.
Jl 2:22 Do not fear, O beasts of the field, / For the pastures of the wilderness turn green. / For the tree bears its fruit; / The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
Jl 2:23 O children of Zion, / Be glad and rejoice / In Jehovah your God. / For He gives you / The aearly rain in righteousness, / And He makes the rain come down for you: / The 1early rain and the 1late rain / At the beginning of the season.
Jl 2:24 And the threshing floors will be full of grain, / And the wine vats will overflow with new wine and fresh oil.
Jl 2:25 And I will restore to you the years / That the swarming alocust has eaten, / The licking locust and the consuming locust and the cutting locust, / My great army / That I sent among you.
Jl 2:26 And you will eat to the afull and be satisfied, / And you will praise the name of Jehovah your God, / Who has dealt wondrously with you; / And My people will never be ashamed.
Jl 2:27 And you will know that I am in the amidst of Israel, / And that I am Jehovah your bGod and there is none else. / And My people will never be ashamed.
Jl 2:28 aAnd afterward I will 1pour out My bSpirit upon all flesh, / And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; / Your old men shall dream dreams; / Your young men shall see visions.
Jl 2:29 Indeed even upon the male and female slaves / In those days I will pour out My aSpirit.
Jl 2:30 And I will 1show awonders in the heavens and on earth: / Blood and bfire and pillars of csmoke.
Jl 2:31 The asun shall be turned into darkness, / And the moon into blood, / Before the great and terrible / 1bDay of Jehovah comes.
Jl 2:32 And everyone who 1acalls on the name of Jehovah shall be saved; / For in Mount bZion and in Jerusalem will be an escape, / As Jehovah has said, / Even for the cremnant / Whom Jehovah dcalls.
JOEL 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

IV. The Judgment of Christ upon the Nations — The Judgment upon the Living
3:1-15
Jl 3:1 For indeed, in those days and at that time / When I aturn the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
Jl 3:2 I will 1agather all the nations / And will bring them down to the bvalley of 2Jehoshaphat; / And I will enter into 3judgment with them there / Because of My people and My inheritance Israel, / Whom they have scattered among the nations. / And they have divided My land
Jl 3:3 And have cast lots for My people; / And they have given a boy for a prostitute / And sold a girl for wine to drink.
Jl 3:4 Indeed then, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon / And all the regions of Philistia? / Will you repay Me with a recompense? / But if you recompense Me, / Swiftly, speedily, / I will return your recompense upon your own head.
Jl 3:5 In that you have taken My silver and My gold, / And have brought My fine precious things into your temples,
Jl 3:6 And have sold to the children of the 1Javanim / The children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem, / In order to remove them / Far from their borders;
Jl 3:7 I will rouse them out of the place / To which you have sold them, / And will return your recompense upon your own head.
Jl 3:8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters / Into the hand of the children of Judah, / And they will sell them to the Sabeans, / To a nation that is far off, / For Jehovah has spoken.
Jl 3:9 Proclaim this among the anations: / Prepare the battle; / bRouse the mighty men; / Let all the men of battle / Draw near; let them go up.
Jl 3:10 Beat your aplowshares into swords, / And your pruning knives into spears; / Let the weak say, / I am mighty.
Jl 3:11 Hurry and come, / All you surrounding nations, / And be gathered. / There cause Your 1mighty ones to adescend, O Jehovah!
Jl 3:12 Let the nations rouse themselves and come up / To the avalley of Jehoshaphat. / For there I will sit to judge / All the surrounding bnations.
Jl 3:13 Send forth the asickle, / For the harvest is ripe; / Come, tread, / For the bwinepress is full; / The wine vats overflow, / For their evil is great.
Jl 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes, / In the valley of decision; / For the aday of Jehovah has drawn near / In the valley of decision.
Jl 3:15 The asun and the moon grow dark, / And the stars withdraw their shining.
V. The Victory of Christ over the Nations and His Reign among Israel
3:16-21
Jl 3:16 aAnd Jehovah will roar from Zion, / And from Jerusalem He will utter His voice, / And the heavens and the earth will shake. / But Jehovah will be a 1bshelter to His people / And a 1stronghold to the children of Israel.
Jl 3:17 Thus you will know that I am Jehovah your God, / aDwelling in Zion, My bholy mountain. / And Jerusalem will be holy, / And strangers will pass through her no longer.
Jl 3:18 And in that day / 1The mountains will drop down afresh wine, / And the hills will bflow with milk; / And all the waterways of Judah / Will flow with water, / And a 2cfountain will go forth from the house of Jehovah, / And it will water the valley of Shittim.
Jl 3:19 1aEgypt will be a desolation, / And bEdom will be a desolate wilderness, / Because of the violence against the children of Judah, / In that they have shed innocent blood in their land.
Jl 3:20 But Judah will abide forever, / And Jerusalem, from generation to generation;
Jl 3:21 And I will acquit them of their bloodshed that I had not acquitted them of, / For Jehovah adwells in Zion.
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AMOS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  
Outline

Author: Amos (1:1a).
Time of His Ministry: About 787 B.C. (1:1b).
Place of His Ministry: Bethel, in the northern kingdom of Israel (7:13).
Object of His Ministry: The northern kingdom of Israel.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Judgments on Israel and the Surrounding Nations, with the Issue of Restoration
AMOS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1-2
Am 1:1 The words of 1Amos, who was among the sheep tenders from Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of aUzziah the king of Judah and in the days of bJeroboam the son of Joash, the king of Israel, two years before the cearthquake.
Am 1:2 And he said,
aJehovah will roar from Zion, / And from Jerusalem He will utter His voice; / And the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, / And the top of Carmel will dry up.
II. Jehovah’s Judgments on the Surrounding Nations
1:3 — 2:3
A. On Damascus
1:3-5
Am 1:3 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of 1three transgressions of aDamascus, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away 2the punishment; / Because they have threshed bGilead / With sharp threshing tools of iron.
Am 1:4 And I will send fire into the house of Hazael, / And it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
Am 1:5 And I will break the bar of Damascus, / And I will cut off the inhabitant of the valley of 1Aven
And him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; / And the people of 2Aram will go into acaptivity unto Kir, / Says Jehovah.
B. On Gaza
1:6-8
Am 1:6 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of aGaza, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment; / Because they carried away captive the entire captivity / In order to bdeliver them up to Edom.
Am 1:7 And I will send fire to the wall of Gaza, / And it will devour its palaces.
Am 1:8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from aAshdod / And him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon, / And I will turn My hand against Ekron; / And the remnant of the Philistines will perish, / Says the Lord Jehovah.
C. On Tyre
1:9-10
Am 1:9 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of aTyre, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment; / Because they delivered up the entire captivity to bEdom / And did not remember a covenant among brothers.
Am 1:10 And I will send fire to the wall of Tyre, / And it will devour its palaces.
D. On Edom
1:11-12
Am 1:11 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of aEdom, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment; / Because he pursued his bbrother with the sword / And stifled his compassions; / And his anger raged continually, / And he kept his overflowing wrath perpetually.
Am 1:12 And I will send fire upon Teman, / And it will devour the palaces of Bozrah.
E. On Ammon
1:13-15
Am 1:13 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of the children of 1aAmmon, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment;
Because they ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead / In order to enlarge their bborder.
Am 1:14 And I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah, / And it will devour its palaces / With shouting in the day of battle, / With a tempest in the day of the storm wind.
Am 1:15 And their king will go into acaptivity, / He and his princes together, / Says Jehovah.
AMOS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

F. On Moab
2:1-3
Am 2:1 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of 1aMoab, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment; / Because he burned the bones / Of the king of Edom into lime.
Am 2:2 And I will send fire upon Moab, / And it will devour the palaces of Kerioth; / And Moab will die amid tumult, / With shouting, with the sound of a trumpet.
Am 2:3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst of it / And will slay all its princes with him, / Says Jehovah.
III. Jehovah’s Judgments on Judah and Israel
2:4-16
A. On Judah
vv. 4-5
Am 2:4 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of Judah, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment; / Because they have rejected the law of Jehovah / And have not kept His statutes; / And their lies have caused them to err, / The lies which their fathers walked after.
Am 2:5 And I will send afire upon Judah, / And it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
B. On Israel
vv. 6-16
Am 2:6 Thus says Jehovah,
Because of three transgressions of Israel, / Indeed, because of four, I will not turn away the punishment;
Because they have sold the righteous for silver / And the aneedy for a pair of sandals —
Am 2:7 They who pant after the dust of the earth upon the heads of the poor, / And turn aside the way of the meek. / And a man and his father go in unto the same young woman, / In order to profane My holy name.
Am 2:8 And upon garments taken as pledge they lay themselves down / Beside every altar, / And in the house of their God they drink / The wine of those who have been fined.
Am 2:9 But I destroyed the aAmorite before them, / Whose height was like the bheight of the cedars, / And he was as strong as the oaks; / Yet I destroyed his fruit from above / And his roots from beneath.
Am 2:10 And I abrought you up from the land of Egypt / And led you in the wilderness for bforty years, / To possess the land of the Amorites.
Am 2:11 And I raised up some of your sons as prophets / And some of your young men as aNazarites. / Is it not indeed so, O children of Israel? / Declares Jehovah.
Am 2:12 But you made the Nazarites drink wine / And commanded the prophets, saying, Do anot prophesy.
Am 2:13 Indeed I will press on you, / As a cart that is full of sheaves presses.
Am 2:14 And flight will perish from the swift, / And the strong will not strengthen his force, / Nor will the mighty deliver his soul;
Am 2:15 And he who wields the bow will not stand, / And he who is swift of foot will not deliver himself, / And he who rides the horse will not deliver his soul.
Am 2:16 And he who is stout-hearted among the mighty men / Will flee away naked in that day, / Declares Jehovah.
AMOS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

IV. Jehovah’s Contending with the House of Jacob
3:1 — 9:10
A. Jehovah’s Three Reproofs to Israel
3:1 — 5:27
1. The First Reproof
3:1-15
Am 3:1 Hear this word that Jehovah has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
Am 3:2 Only you have I known / Of all the afamilies of the earth; / Therefore I will visit upon you / All your iniquities.
Am 3:3 1Will two walk together / If they have not met at an appointed place?
Am 3:4 Will the lion roar in the forest / When he has no prey? / Will a young lion utter his voice from his den / If he has not seized anything?
Am 3:5 Will a bird fall into a trap on the earth / When there is no snare laid for it? / Will a trap spring up off the ground / When it has seized nothing at all?
Am 3:6 Can a atrumpet be blown in a city / And the people not dread? / Can there be ill in a city / And Jehovah did not do it?
Am 3:7 Surely the Lord Jehovah will not do anything unless He areveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
Am 3:8 The lion has roared — / Who will not fear? / The Lord Jehovah has spoken — / Who can but prophesy?
Am 3:9 Cause it to be heard in the palaces of Ashdod / And in the palaces of the land of Egypt, and say, / Assemble yourselves in the mountains of Samaria, / And see what great tumults are in the midst of it / And what oppressions are within it;
Am 3:10 And they do not know to do what is right, / Declares Jehovah, / They who store up violence and devastation in their palaces.
Am 3:11 Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, / An aadversary! Indeed one surrounding the land; / And he will bring down your strength from you, / And your palaces will be plundered.
Am 3:12 Thus says Jehovah,
As the shepherd rescues / Out of the mouth of the lion / Two legs or a piece of the ear, / So will the children of Israel / Who dwell in Samaria be rescued, / With the corner of a bed / And a silk cushion of a couch.
Am 3:13 Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts.
Am 3:14 For in the day when I visit / The transgressions of Israel upon him, / I will visit the aaltars of 1Bethel, / And the horns of the altar will be cut off / And will fall to the ground.
Am 3:15 And I will strike the 1winter house / Along with the 1summer house; / And the houses of ivory will perish, / And many houses will come to an end, / Declares Jehovah.
AMOS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

2. The Second Reproof
4:1-13
Am 4:1 Hear this word, / O heifers of Bashan, which are on the mountain of Samaria, / Who oppress the poor / And crush the needy, / Who say to their lords, / Bring, and let us drink.
Am 4:2 The Lord Jehovah has sworn by His holiness / Indeed days are coming upon you / When one will take you away with hooks, / And your posterity, with fish hooks.
Am 4:3 And you will go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead of her; / And you will cast yourselves into Harmon, declares Jehovah.
Am 4:4 Come to aBethel, and transgress; / To bGilgal, and multiply transgression; / And bring your csacrifices every morning / And your dtithes every three days,
Am 4:5 And offer in smoke a thank offering out of what is aleavened; / And proclaim freewill offerings; make them known; / For you love them, O children of Israel, / Declares the Lord Jehovah.
Am 4:6 And I also have given you / Cleanness of teeth in all your cities / And want of bread in all your places. / Yet you have anot returned to Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Am 4:7 And I have also withheld the rain from you / When there was yet three months until the harvest;
And I made it rain on one city, / But on another city I did not make it rain; / One portion was rained on, / And the portion that was not rained on dried up.
Am 4:8 And two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water, / But they were not satisfied. / Yet you have not returned to Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Am 4:9 I have stricken you with blight and mildew; / The multitudes of your gardens and your vineyards, / And your fig trees and your olive trees, the cutting alocust has devoured. / Yet you have not returned to Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Am 4:10 I have sent among you apestilence after the manner of Egypt; / I have slain your choice young men with the sword, taking your horses / captive; / And I have caused the stench of your camp to go up even into your own nostrils. / Yet you have not returned to Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Am 4:11 I have overturned cities among you, / As when God overturned aSodom and Gomorrah; / And you were like a brand plucked out of the bburning. / Yet you have not returned to Me, / Declares Jehovah.
Am 4:12 Therefore this is what I will do to you, O Israel; / And because I will do this to you, / 1aPrepare to meet your God, O Israel.
Am 4:13 For it is He who forms the mountains and creates the wind / And declares to man what His thought is; / He who makes the morning adarkness / And treads upon the bhigh places of the earth — / Jehovah the God of hosts is His name!
AMOS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

3. The Third Reproof
5:1-27
Am 5:1 Hear this word that I take up as a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
Am 5:2 Fallen and no more to rise / Is the avirgin of Israel; / She has been cast down upon her land; / There is none to raise her up.
Am 5:3 For thus says the Lord Jehovah,
The city that sent forth a thousand / Will have a hundred left,
And that which sent forth a hundred / Will have ten left, / To the house of Israel.
Am 5:4 For thus says Jehovah to the house of Israel, / aSeek Me, and live;
Am 5:5 And do not seek aBethel, / Nor go to bGilgal, / Nor pass on to Beer-sheba; / For Gilgal will surely go into captivity, / And Bethel will become vanity.
Am 5:6 Seek Jehovah, and live; / Lest He rush upon the house of Joseph like fire, / And it devour it, and there be none to extinguish the fire in Bethel.
Am 5:7 They turn justice to wormwood / And thrust righteousness down to the ground.
Am 5:8 He who amakes the Pleiades and Orion / And turns the bshadow of death into the morning / And darkens the day with the night; / He who calls for the cwater of the sea / And pours it upon the surface of the earth, / Jehovah is His name,
Am 5:9 Who causes destruction to flash forth upon the strong, / So that destruction comes upon the fortress.
Am 5:10 They hate him who reproves in the 1gate, / And him who speaks with integrity they abhor.
Am 5:11 Therefore because you trample upon the poor / And take a forced gift of wheat from them; / You have built houses of hewn stone, / But you will anot dwell in them; / You have planted desirable vineyards, / But you will not drink their wine.
Am 5:12 For I know that your transgressions are many / And that your sins are mighty, / You who vex the righteous and take 1ransom payment / And turn aside justice for the needy in the gate.
Am 5:13 Therefore he who has insight will keep silent at this time, for it is an evil time.
Am 5:14 Seek good and not evil, / In order that you may live; / And so Jehovah the God of hosts will be with you, / As you say.
Am 5:15 Hate evil and love good, / And set up justice in the gate. / Perhaps Jehovah the God of hosts will be gracious / To the remnant of Joseph.
Am 5:16 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / The God of hosts, the Lord: / In all the open plazas there will be wailing, / And in all the streets they will say, Alas! Alas! / And they will call the farmer to mourning, / And for wailing to those skilled in lamentation.
Am 5:17 In all the vineyards there will be wailing, / For I will pass through your midst, says Jehovah.
Am 5:18 Woe to you who desire / The 1aday of Jehovah! / What good is the day of Jehovah to you? / It will be darkness and not light,
Am 5:19 As when a man flees from before a lion / And encounters a bear, / Or goes into the house and leans his hand against the wall, / And a serpent bites him.
Am 5:20 Will not the day of Jehovah be adarkness and not light, / Even deep darkness and no brightness to it?
Am 5:21 I hate, I despise, your 1afeasts, / And I will not 2delight in your solemn assemblies.
Am 5:22 For if you offer up to Me burnt offerings / And your meal offerings, I will not accept them; / Nor will I regard the peace offerings of your fatted animals.
Am 5:23 Take the noise of your songs away from Me, / For I will not hear the melody of your harps.
Am 5:24 But let 1justice roll down like water, / And 1righteousness, like an ever-flowing ariver.
Am 5:25 aDid you bring Me sacrifices and meal offerings / In the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?
Am 5:26 Indeed, you took up 1Sikkuth your king / And Kiyyun your images, the star of your gods that you made for yourselves.
Am 5:27 Thus I will bring you into captivity / aBeyond Damascus, says Jehovah; / The God of hosts is His name.
AMOS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

B. The Plagues of the Five Signs Seen by Amos
6:1 — 9:10
1. The Introduction
6:1-14
Am 6:1 aWoe to those who are at ease in Zion / And to those who are secure in the mountain of Samaria, / The distinguished among the chief of the nations, / To whom the house of Israel comes!
Am 6:2 Go over into aCalneh, and see; / And go from there to Hamath the great; / Then go down to bGath of the Philistines. / Are they better than these kingdoms? / Or is their territory greater than your territory?
Am 6:3 You who thrust away the evil day / And cause the seat of violence to draw near,
Am 6:4 You who lie upon beds of ivory / And sprawl out upon your couches / And eat the lambs from the flock / And the calves from the midst of the stall,
Am 6:5 You who prattle to the tune of the harp, / Who make for yourselves ainstruments of song like David,
Am 6:6 You who drink wine in sacrificial bowls / And anoint yourselves with the finest oils; / Yet you are not grieved about the destruction of Joseph.
Am 6:7 Therefore they will now go into acaptivity with the first of the captives, / And the cry of revelry from those who sprawled themselves out will pass away.
Am 6:8 The Lord Jehovah has asworn by Himself, / Declares Jehovah the God of hosts, / I abhor the pride of Jacob, / And his palaces I hate; / Therefore I will deliver up the city and its fullness.
Am 6:9 And if ten men remain in one house, they will die.
Am 6:10 When his kinsman, that is, he who should burn his body, takes him up to bring his bones from the house, and says to him who is in the innermost part of the house, Are there any more with you, and that one says, None; then he will say, Hush, for the name of Jehovah should not be mentioned.
Am 6:11 For it is Jehovah who commands, / And He will strike the great house into fragments / And the little house into pieces.
Am 6:12 Do horses run on rock? / Or does one plow there with oxen? / But you have turned justice into poison, / And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,
Am 6:13 You who rejoice in that which is nothing, / You who say, Have we not taken / By our own strength horns for ourselves?
Am 6:14 For I am about to raise up a anation over you, / O house of Israel, declares Jehovah the God of hosts, / And they will oppress you / From the entrance of Hamath / To the brook of the Arabah.
AMOS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

2. The Plague of the First Sign — Locusts to Eat the Herbage of the Land
7:1-3
Am 7:1 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and there He was, forming 1alocusts in the beginning of the springing up of the spring crop; and it was the spring crop after the king’s mowings.
Am 7:2 And when their eating of the herbage of the land was complete, I said, 1O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech You! aHow will Jacob stand, for he is small?
Am 7:3 Jehovah arepented concerning this: It shall not be, says Jehovah.
3. The Plague of the Second Sign — Fire to Devour the Great Deep and the Land
7:4-6
Am 7:4 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and there the Lord Jehovah was, calling to contend with them with afire; and it devoured the great deep, and it devoured the land.
Am 7:5 Then I said, O Lord Jehovah, Stop, I beseech You! aHow will Jacob stand, for he is small?
Am 7:6 Jehovah repented concerning this: This also shall not be, says the Lord Jehovah.
4. The Plague of the Third Sign — A Plumb Line in the Lord’s Hand
7:7-9
Am 7:7 Thus He showed me, and there the Lord was, standing upon a perfectly plumbed wall; and in His hand was a 1aplumb line.
Am 7:8 And Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Amos? And I said, A plumb line. And the Lord said, I am now setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not pass them by anymore.
Am 7:9 And the 1ahigh places of Isaac will be desolated, / And the 1sanctuaries of Israel will be made waste; / And I will rise up against the house of bJeroboam with a csword.
5. The Frustration of Amaziah the Priest of Bethel
7:10-17
Am 7:10 Then Amaziah the 1priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam the king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to endure all his words.
Am 7:11 For thus says Amos, By the sword Jeroboam will die, and Israel will surely go into acaptivity out from its land.
Am 7:12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, Go, you seer; flee into the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there;
Am 7:13 But in aBethel you shall not ever prophesy again, for it is the king’s sanctuary and it is the royal residence.
Am 7:14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; rather I am a aherdsman and a dresser of sycamores.
Am 7:15 And Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said to me, Go, prophesy to My people Israel.
Am 7:16 And now hear the word of Jehovah: You say, You shall not prophesy against Israel, nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.
Am 7:17 Therefore thus says Jehovah,
Your wife will go about as a harlot in the city, / And your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, / And your land will be divided by the line, / And you yourself will die in a land that is unclean; / And Israel will indeed go into captivity / Out from its land.
AMOS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

6. The Plague of the Fourth Sign —
Summer Fruit, Signifying That the Time Is Ripe and the End Has Come upon Israel
8:1-14
Am 8:1 Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, and there was a basket of 1summer fruit.
Am 8:2 And He said, What do you see, Amos? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then Jehovah said to me,
The end has come upon My people Israel; / I will not pass them by anymore.
Am 8:3 And the asongs of the temple will be wailings / In that day, declares the Lord Jehovah. / The corpses will be many; / In every place / They will cast them. Hush!
Am 8:4 Hear this, you who pant after the needy / To destroy the wretched of the earth,
Am 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? / And the Sabbath, that we may lay open the wheat? / In order to make the ephah small and the shekel large / And to falsify the balances for deceit;
Am 8:6 That we may buy the poor for silver / And the aneedy for a pair of sandals, / And sell the refuse of the wheat.
Am 8:7 Jehovah has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, / I shall by no means forget any of their deeds forever.
Am 8:8 Will the land not quake because of this, / And will all who dwell in it not mourn? / Indeed all of it will arise up like the 1River, / And it will be driven and will sink like the river of Egypt.
Am 8:9 And in that day, / Declares the Lord Jehovah, / I will cause the sun to ago down at noon, / And I will bdarken the land in the light of day.
Am 8:10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning / And all your songs into lamentation; / And I will bring up sackcloth upon all the loins / And baldness upon every head; / And I will make it like the mourning for an aonly child / And the end of it like a bitter day.
Am 8:11 Indeed days are coming, / Declares the Lord Jehovah, / When I will send a hunger into the land, / Not a hunger for bread / Nor a thirst for water, / But for hearing the 1awords of Jehovah.
Am 8:12 And they will totter from sea to sea, / And from the north even to the east; / They will rove about, seeking the word of Jehovah, / But they will not find it.
Am 8:13 In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men / Will swoon because of thirst.
Am 8:14 They who swear by the trespass of Samaria / And say, As your god lives, O Dan! / And, As the way of Beer-sheba lives! / Indeed they will fall and not rise up again.
AMOS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

7. The Plague of the Fifth Sign —
The Lord Standing upon the Altar, Signifying That the Lord Is Ready to Destroy Israel
9:1-10
Am 9:1 I asaw the Lord 1standing upon the altar. And He said,
Strike the capitals of the pillars / That the thresholds may shake. / And break them off upon the heads of them all, / And the last of them I will slay with the sword: / Any one of them who flees will not flee away, / And any one of them who escapes will not slip by.
Am 9:2 aThough they dig into 1Sheol, / From there My hand will take them; / And though they go up into bheaven, / From there I will bring them down.
Am 9:3 And though they hide at the top of Carmel, / From there I will seek them and take them. / And though they hide themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, / There I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.
Am 9:4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, / There I will command the sword, and it will slay them; / And I will set My eyes upon them / For evil and not for good.
Am 9:5 For the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Is the One who touches the land and it melts, / And all those who dwell in it mourn; / And all of it arises like the 1River, / And it sinks like the river of Egypt.
Am 9:6 He is the One who builds His aupper stories in the heavens / And has founded His vault over the earth; / He is the One who calls for the bwater of the sea / And pours it upon the surface of the earth; / Jehovah is His name.
Am 9:7 Are you not like the children of the 1Cushites / To Me, O children of Israel? / Declares Jehovah. / Have I not brought up Israel / Out from the land of Egypt, / And the Philistines out from 2Caphtor, / And 3Aram out from Kir?
Am 9:8 Yes, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah / Are on the sinful kingdom, / And I will destroy it / From off the face of the earth, / Except that I will anot 1utterly destroy the house of Jacob, / Declares Jehovah.
Am 9:9 For I will command / And ashake the house of Israel among all the nations, / As grain is shaken in the sieve; / Yet a kernel will not fall to the ground.
Am 9:10 All the sinners of My people / Will die by the sword, / Those who say, Evil will not overtake us / Nor come before us on all sides.
V. The Restoration of the House of Israel,
with the Rebuilding of the Fallen Tabernacle of David for the Kingdom of Christ
9:11-15
Am 9:11 aIn that day I will raise up / The fallen 1btabernacle of David, / And I will wall up its breaches / And raise up its ruins / And build it up as it was in the days of old;
Am 9:12 That they may possess the aremnant of Edom and all the nations which are called by My name, declares Jehovah who does this.
Am 9:13 Indeed days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When the plowman will overtake the reaper, / And the grape treader, him who sows the seed; / And the mountains will drip sweet awine, / And all the hills will melt.
Am 9:14 And I will aturn the captivity of My people Israel, / And they will build the bdesolated cities and inhabit them; / And they will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them, / And make gardens and eat the fruit from them.
Am 9:15 And I will aplant them upon their land, and they will bnot be plucked up again from their land, which I have given to them, says Jehovah your God.
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OBADIAH

Verses
1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 
Outline

Author: Obadiah (v. 1).
Time of His Ministry: About 880 or 587 B.C.; it is hard to determine which date is correct.
Place of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Object of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Dealing with Esau, and Jacob’s Victory for the Kingdom of Jehovah
I. The Introductory Word
v. 1a
Ob 1 The vision of 1Obadiah.
II. Jehovah’s Dealing with Edom
vv. 1b-9
Thus says the Lord Jehovah concerning 2aEdom, / bWe have heard a report from Jehovah, / And an envoy has been sent among the nations: / Arise, and let us rise up against it for battle.
Ob 2 Indeed I have made you small among the nations; / You are very despised.
Ob 3 The pride of your heart has beguiled you, / O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, / Whose habitation is lofty, / Who says in his heart, / Who will bring me down to the ground?
Ob 4 Though you set yourself on high like the eagle / And though you make your nest among the stars, / I will abring you down from there, / Declares Jehovah.
Ob 5 If athieves came to you, / If spoilers in the night — / How you would be cut off! — / Would they not steal only their fill? / If grape gatherers came to you, / Would they not leave gleanings?
Ob 6 How thoroughly searched Esau is! / How sought out his hidden treasures are!
Ob 7 All the men of your 1confederacy / Have sent you away to the border; / The men who were at peace with you / Have deceived you; they have prevailed against you. / They make your bread / A snare under you. / There is no understanding in him.
Ob 8 Will I not in that day, / Declares Jehovah, / Destroy the wise men from Edom, / And understanding from the mountain of Esau?
Ob 9 And your mighty men will be dismayed, O Teman, / So that each one is cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.
III. The Evils of Edom
vv. 10-14
Ob 10 Because of the aviolence against your 1brother Jacob, / Shame will cover you, and you will be cut off bforever.
Ob 11 In the day that you stood on the side, / In the day that strangers took his substance captive / And foreigners entered into his gates / And acast lots over Jerusalem, / You also were like one of them.
Ob 12 But do not look to the day of your brother, / To the day of his misfortune; / aNeither rejoice concerning the children of Judah / In the day of their destruction, / Nor boast / In the day of distress.
Ob 13 Do not enter the gate of My people / In the day of their calamity; / Do not look, even you, on his affliction / In the day of his calamity, / Nor send forth your hands on his substance / In the day of his calamity.
Ob 14 And do not stand at the crossroads / To cut off those of his who escape, / Nor deliver those of his who survive / In the day of distress.
IV. The Day of Jehovah upon All the Nations
vv. 15-16
Ob 15 For the 1aday of Jehovah is near / Upon all the nations: / 2As you have done, it bwill be done to you; / Your recompense will return upon your head.
Ob 16 For as you, O people of Judah, have adrunk the cup of wrath upon My holy mountain, / All the nations will drink the same continually; / Indeed they will drink and swallow down, / And they will be as though they had not been.
V. The Issue of Jehovah’s Dealing
vv. 17-21
Ob 17 1But in Mount aZion / There will be those who have escaped, / And it will be holy. / And the house of Jacob will possess / Their possessions.
Ob 18 And the house of Jacob will be a fire, / And the house of Joseph a flame; / And the house of Esau will be as stubble, / And they will burn among them and devour them; / And there will be no survivor / To the house of Esau, / For Jehovah has spoken.
Ob 19 And those of the south will possess the mountain of Esau, / And those of the lowlands, the Philistines; / Indeed they will possess the field of Ephraim / And the field of Samaria, / And Benjamin will possess Gilead.
Ob 20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, / Who are among the Canaanites, will possess as far as Zarephath; / And the captivity of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, / Will possess the cities of the south.
Ob 21 And saviors will come up on Mount Zion / To judge the mountain of Esau, / And the akingdom will be Jehovah’s.
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JONAH

Chapters
 1   2   3   4  
Outline

Author: Jonah (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 862 B.C., at the time of the prophet Elisha (896-838 B.C.).
Place of His Ministry: Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
Object of His Ministry: The people of Nineveh (1:2; 3:2).
Subject:
Jehovah’s Salvation Reaching Even unto the Gentile City Nineveh
JONAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Jnh 1:1 Now the word of Jehovah came to 1aJonah the son of Amittai, saying,
II. Jonah’s Fleeing from Jehovah’s Commission
1:2-17
Jnh 1:2 Arise, go to 1aNineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.
Jnh 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee to 1Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah, and he went down to aJoppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare for it and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish bfrom the presence of Jehovah.
Jnh 1:4 But Jehovah hurled a great awind toward the sea, and there was a great tempest on the sea, and the ship seemed to be about to break up.
Jnh 1:5 Then the mariners became afraid, and each called out to his god. And they acast out the equipment that was on the ship into the sea to lighten themselves of it. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost part of the vessel and lain down and fallen fast basleep.
Jnh 1:6 So the ship captain approached him and said to him, How can you be fast asleep? Arise, call on your God. Perhaps God will give thought to us, and we will not perish.
Jnh 1:7 And each man said to his companion, Come, let us acast lots that we may know on whose account this misfortune has befallen us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Jnh 1:8 Then they said to him, Tell us now, On whose account has this misfortune befallen us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?
Jnh 1:9 And he said to them, I am a aHebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of the heavens, who bmade the sea and the dry land.
Jnh 1:10 And the men became greatly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Jehovah, because he had told them so.
Jnh 1:11 And they said to him, What shall we do with you that the sea may be quiet for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
Jnh 1:12 Then he said to them, Lift me up and cast me into the sea, and the sea will be quiet for you. For I know that it is on my account that this great tempest has come upon you.
Jnh 1:13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get back to the dry land, but they could not, because the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
Jnh 1:14 And they cried out to Jehovah and said, Ah, Jehovah, let us not perish, we pray, for this man’s life, and do not put innocent blood upon us; for You, Jehovah, have done as You pleased.
Jnh 1:15 Then they lifted Jonah up and cast him into the sea, and the sea aceased its raging.
Jnh 1:16 And the men were greatly afraid of Jehovah, and they offered a sacrifice to Jehovah and vowed vows.
Jnh 1:17 And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah up, and Jonah was in the astomach of the fish for 1three days and three nights.
JONAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

III. Jonah’s Repenting
2:1-10
Jnh 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the stomach of the fish,
Jnh 2:2 And he said,
I acalled out because of my distress / To Jehovah, and He answered me; / From the belly of 1bSheol I cried out for help; / You heard my voice.
Jnh 2:3 You flung me into the adepths, into the heart of the sea, / And the flood surrounded me; / bAll Your breakers and Your billows / Passed over me.
Jnh 2:4 Therefore I said, I ahave been driven out / From before Your eyes; / Yet I will look again / bToward Your holy temple.
Jnh 2:5 Water encompassed me, even to my soul; / The deep surrounded me; / Seaweed was wrapped about my head.
Jnh 2:6 To the bottom of the sea mountains I went down; / The earth with its bars was around me forever. / Then You ahave brought up my life from the 1pit, / O Jehovah my God.
Jnh 2:7 When my soul fainted within me, / I remembered Jehovah, / And my prayer acame to You / In Your holy temple.
Jnh 2:8 Those who regard empty vanities / Forsake the lovingkindness to them;
Jnh 2:9 But I will asacrifice to You / With the voice of thanksgiving; / That which I have vowed I will fully pay. / bSalvation is of Jehovah.
Jnh 2:10 And Jehovah spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry land.
JONAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

IV. Jonah’s Preaching
3:1-10
Jnh 3:1 Then the word of Jehovah came to Jonah a second time, saying,
Jnh 3:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city; and proclaim to it the proclamation that I will speak to you.
Jnh 3:3 So Jonah 1arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was an 2exceedingly great city, a three days’ journey in size.
Jnh 3:4 And Jonah began to go through the city a day’s journey and cried out and said, Yet aforty days and Nineveh will be overturned!
Jnh 3:5 And the men of aNineveh believed God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Jnh 3:6 And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and put away his majestic clothes from him and covered himself with asackcloth and sat in ashes.
Jnh 3:7 And he issued a proclamation and declared in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his great men, saying, Let neither man nor beast nor herd nor flock taste anything; let them not feed, nor let them drink water.
Jnh 3:8 And let man and beast be covered in sackcloth, and let them call to God strongly. And let each turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
Jnh 3:9 aWho knows whether God will turn and repent, and will turn from His burning anger so that we do not perish?
Jnh 3:10 And God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, and God arepented for the evil that He said He would do to them; and He did not do it.
JONAH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

V. Jonah’s Prejudice
4:1-11
Jnh 4:1 But it displeased Jonah greatly, and he was angry.
Jnh 4:2 And he prayed to Jehovah and said, Ah, Jehovah, was this not what I said when I was still in my land? Therefore I anticipated it by fleeing to Tarshish, for I know that You are a agracious and compassionate God, long-suffering and abundant in lovingkindness and repentant of evil.
Jnh 4:3 And now, Jehovah, atake my life, I pray, from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.
Jnh 4:4 And Jehovah said, Do you do well to be angry?
Jnh 4:5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat to the east of the city. And he made a booth for himself there and sat underneath it in the shade until he could see what would happen to the city.
Jnh 4:6 And Jehovah God prepared a 1castor-oil tree; and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, that it might deliver him from his misfortune. And Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the tree.
Jnh 4:7 But God prepared a worm when the dawn came up the next day, and it struck the tree, and the tree withered.
Jnh 4:8 And when the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind. And the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he fainted. And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
Jnh 4:9 And God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry about the tree? And he said, I do well to be angry unto death.
Jnh 4:10 And Jehovah said, You had pity on the tree that you did not labor for nor cause to grow, which came into being overnight and perished overnight;
Jnh 4:11 And I, should I not have 1pity on aNineveh, the great city, in which are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and many 2cattle?
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MICAH

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   
Outline

Author: Micah (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 750-710 B.C., at the time of Isaiah and Hosea.
Place of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Object of His Ministry: The whole nation of Israel, including Judah.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Reproof on Israel and His Restoration of Israel
MICAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Mi 1:1 The word of Jehovah which came to 1aMicah the Morashtite in the days of bJotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
II. Jehovah’s Reproof on Israel
1:2 — 2:11; 3:1-12
Mi 1:2 1aHear, all you peoples, / And give heed, O earth and its fullness; / And let the Lord Jehovah be a witness against you, / The Lord from His holy btemple.
Mi 1:3 For Jehovah is about to come forth from His aplace, / And He will come down and tread upon the bhigh places of the earth.
Mi 1:4 And the mountains will be amelted under Him, / And the valleys will be cleft, / Like wax before fire, / Like water poured down a slope.
Mi 1:5 All this is because of the transgression of Jacob / And because of the sins of the house of Israel. / What is the transgression of Jacob? / Is it not Samaria? / And what are the high places of Judah? / Are they not Jerusalem?
Mi 1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria / A aheap of ruins in a field, / Places for the planting of vineyards; / And I will pour her stones down into the valley / And uncover her foundations.
Mi 1:7 And all her engraved idols will be smashed, / And all her gifts for harlotry will be burned with fire, / And all her images I will make a desolation; / For from the harlot’s hire she has gathered them, / And unto the harlot’s hire they will return.
Mi 1:8 Because of this I will wail and howl; / I will go about abarefoot and naked. / I will make a wailing like the jackals / And a lamentation like the ostriches.
Mi 1:9 For her awound is incurable, / For it has come as far as Judah; / It reaches as far as the gate of my people, / As far as Jerusalem.
Mi 1:10 aDo not declare it in Gath; / Do not weep at all. / In Beth-le-aphrah / I rolled myself in the dust.
Mi 1:11 Pass away on your own, / O inhabitress of Shaphir, / In shameful nakedness; / The inhabitress of Zaanan / Has not gone forth; / There is lamentation in Beth-ezel; / It will take from you its support.
Mi 1:12 For the inhabitress of Maroth / Waits in pain for good, / For evil has come down from Jehovah / To the gate of Jerusalem.
Mi 1:13 Bind the chariot to the steeds, O inhabitress of aLachish. / She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, / For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
Mi 1:14 Therefore you will give a parting gift / To Moresheth-gath: / The houses of Achzib will be a deception / To the kings of Israel.
Mi 1:15 Further, I will bring upon you the possessor, / O inhabitress of Mareshah; / The glory of Israel will come / As far as Adullam.
Mi 1:16 Shave yourself and cut off your hair / For the children of your delights; / Enlarge your baldness like an eagle, / For they have gone from you into acaptivity.

MICAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

Mi 2:1 Woe to those who devise wickedness / And who prepare evil upon their beds! / In the light of the morning they do it / Because 1it is in the power of their hand to do so.
Mi 2:2 And they covet fields and seize them, / And houses, and take them away; / And they oppress a person and his house, / And a man and his inheritance.
Mi 2:3 Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I am now devising evil against this afamily, / From which you will not remove your necks; / And you will not go about haughtily, / For it is an evil time.
Mi 2:4 In that day they will take up a proverb concerning you, / And they will lament a lamenting lament; they will say, / We are utterly ruined; / He has changed the portion of my people. / How He removes it from me! / He has apportioned our fields to the rebellious.
Mi 2:5 Therefore you will have no one who casts the line by lot / In the congregation of Jehovah.
Mi 2:6 aDo not prophesy, they prophesy. / If the true prophets do not prophesy concerning these things, / The reproaches will not be turned back.
Mi 2:7 Will it be said, O house of Jacob, / Is the Spirit of Jehovah 1hasty? / Are these His doings? / Do not My words benefit / Him who walks uprightly?
Mi 2:8 But recently My people / Have risen up as an enemy; / You strip away the mantle / From off the garment / Of those who pass by securely, / Those who turn away from conflict.
Mi 2:9 The women of My people you cast out, / From their pleasant houses; / From their young children you take away / My splendor forever.
Mi 2:10 Arise and go, / For this is not your resting place, / Because of the uncleanness / That brings destruction, indeed grievous destruction.
Mi 2:11 If a man going about / After wind and falsehood lies, saying, / I will aprophesy to you / Concerning wine and liquor; / He would indeed become a prophet of this people.
III. Jehovah’s Comfort to Israel
2:12-13; 4:1 — 5:15
Mi 2:12 I will surely 1gather all of you, O Jacob; / I will surely assemble the aremnant of Israel. / I will place them together like the bsheep of Bozrah, / Like the flock in the midst of its pasture; / They will make much noise because of the many men.
Mi 2:13 He who breaks through goes up before them; / They break through and pass through the gate, / And they go forth through it. / And their King goes forth before them; / Indeed aJehovah is at their head.
MICAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

II. Jehovah’s Reproof on Israel (cont’d)
3:1-12
Mi 3:1 And I said, / Hear now, you heads of Jacob / And you rulers of the house of Israel: / Is it not for you / To know justice?
Mi 3:2 You who hate good / And love evil, / You who tear away their skin from off them / And their flesh from off their bones,
Mi 3:3 And who devour the flesh of My people / And strip off their skin from off them / And break their bones in pieces / And chop them as for the pot / And like meat in a cauldron.
Mi 3:4 Then they will cry out to Jehovah, / But He will not answer them; / Indeed He will ahide His face from them at that time, / Just as they were evil in their doings.
Mi 3:5 Thus says Jehovah concerning the aprophets / Who cause My people to err, / Who, when they have something to bite with their teeth, / Cry, Peace, / But if there is one who does not give something for their mouths, / They prepare for war against him.
Mi 3:6 Therefore there will be night to you, without vision, / And darkness to you, without divination. / And the sun will go down on the prophets, / And the day will be black over them.
Mi 3:7 And the seers will be put to shame, / And the diviners will be ashamed; / And they will all cover their mouths, / For there will be ano answer from God.
Mi 3:8 But as for me, I am afull / Of power, with the Spirit of Jehovah, and of justice and might, / To declare to Jacob his transgression / And to Israel his sin.
Mi 3:9 Hear now this, you heads of the house of Jacob / And you rulers of the house of Israel: / You who abhor justice / And pervert all uprightness,
Mi 3:10 aWho build Zion by bloodshed / And Jerusalem by iniquity.
Mi 3:11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, / And her priests teach for hire, / And her prophets divine for money; / But they lean on Jehovah, saying, / Is not Jehovah in our midst? / Evil will not come upon us.
Mi 3:12 Therefore on account of you / aZion will be plowed as a field, / And Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, / And the bmountain of the house will become the high places of a forest.
MICAH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

III. Jehovah’s Comfort to Israel (cont’d)
4:1 — 5:15
Mi 4:1 1aBut in the last days / The bmountain of the house of Jehovah / Will be established on the top of the mountains; / And it will be lifted up above the hills; / And the peoples will stream to it.
Mi 4:2 And many nations will come and say, / Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah / And to the house of the God of Jacob; / That He may instruct us in His ways, / And that we may walk in His paths; / For from Zion will go forth instruction, / And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.
Mi 4:3 And He will judge between many peoples / And will decide matters for numerous nations from afar. / And they will abeat their swords into plowshares / And their spears into pruning knives; / Nation will not lift up sword against nation, / Nor will they learn bwar anymore.
Mi 4:4 And they will each sit underneath his avine / And underneath his fig tree, / And no one will disturb them; / For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts has spoken.
Mi 4:5 For all the peoples will walk, / Each in the name of his god; / But we will awalk / In the name of Jehovah our God / Forever and ever.
Mi 4:6 In that day, / Declares Jehovah, / I will gather her that limps, / And her that has been driven out I will collect, / As well as her that I have afflicted;
Mi 4:7 And I will make her that limps a aremnant, / And her that has been cast far away a mighty nation; / And Jehovah will breign over them in Mount Zion / From then on, and even forever.
Mi 4:8 And you, O tower of the flock, / O hill of the daughter of Zion, / To you will it come, / Indeed the first dominion will come, / The kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.
Mi 4:9 Why do you now cry out aloud? / Is there no king among you? / Has your counselor perished, / That pain has seized you like a awoman delivering a child?
Mi 4:10 Suffer the pain and thrust forth, / O daughter of Zion, like a woman delivering a child. / For now you will go forth from the city / And dwell in the field; / And you will go into Babylon. / And there you will be delivered; / There Jehovah will redeem you / From the hand of your enemies.
Mi 4:11 And now many nations / Are agathered against you, / They who say, Let her be profaned, / And let our eyes gaze on Zion.
Mi 4:12 But they do not know / The athoughts of Jehovah, / And they do not understand His counsel; / For He has gathered them like sheaves for the bthreshing floor.
Mi 4:13 Arise and athresh, O daughter of Zion; / For I will make your horn iron, / And I will make your hooves bronze; / And you will bcrush many peoples to powder. / And I will devote their profit to Jehovah, / And their substance to the cLord of the whole earth.
MICAH 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

Mi 5:1 Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; / He has laid a siege against us. / With a rod they strike on the acheek / The Judge of Israel.
Mi 5:2 (But you, O aBethlehem Ephrathah, / So little to be among the thousands of Judah, / From you there will 1bcome forth to Me / He who is to be 2Ruler in Israel; / And His 1goings forth are from cancient times, / From the days of eternity.)
Mi 5:3 Therefore He will give them up until the time / When she who is in labor delivers the child; / Then the remainder of His brothers will return, / Along with the children of Israel.
Mi 5:4 And He will stand and afeed His flock in the strength of Jehovah, / In the majesty of the name of Jehovah His God; / And they will abide, for now He will be great / Unto the ends of the earth.
Mi 5:5 And this One will be the apeace. / When Assyria comes into our land / And when he treads in our palaces, / We will raise up against him seven shepherds / And eight princes of men.
Mi 5:6 And they will waste the land of Assyria with the sword / And the land of aNimrod at its entrances. / And 1He will save us from Assyria, / When he comes into our land / And when he treads in our border.
Mi 5:7 And the 1aremnant of Jacob will be / In the midst of many peoples / Like bdew from Jehovah, / Like abundant showers upon the herbage, / Which do not tarry for man / And do not wait for the sons of men.
Mi 5:8 And the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, / In the midst of many peoples, / Like a alion among the beasts of the forest, / Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, / Who, if he should pass through, tramples under / And tears up, and there is none to deliver from him.
Mi 5:9 Your hand will be raised up against your adversaries, / And all your enemies will be cut off.
Mi 5:10 In that 1day, / Declares Jehovah, / I will cut off your horses from the midst of you / And will destroy your chariots.
Mi 5:11 And I will cut off the cities of your land / And will throw down all your strongholds.
Mi 5:12 And I will cut off the sorceries from your hand, / And you will not have soothsayers.
Mi 5:13 And I will cut off your idols / And your pillars from your midst; / And you will no longer worship / The awork of your hands.
Mi 5:14 And I will pluck up your Asherahs from your midst, / And I will destroy your cities.
Mi 5:15 And I will execute avengeance in anger and wrath / Upon the nations that have not listened.
MICAH 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

IV. Jehovah’s Contention with Israel
6:1-16
A. Taking the Past History as a Base
vv. 1-5
Mi 6:1 Hear now what Jehovah says: / Arise, contend before the mountains, / And let the hills hear your voice.
Mi 6:2 Hear, O mountains, Jehovah’s contention, / And you enduring foundations of the earth; / For Jehovah has a acontention with His people, / And with Israel He will dispute.
Mi 6:3 O My people, what have I done to You? / And with what have I wearied you? Testify against Me.
Mi 6:4 For I abrought you up out of the land of Egypt, / And from the slave house I redeemed you; / And I sent before you Moses, / Aaron, and bMiriam.
Mi 6:5 O My people, remember now what Balak the king of Moab counseled, / And what aBalaam the son of Beor answered him, / From bShittim to Gilgal, / That you may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.
B. Aspiring after Israel’s Genuine Worship and Sincere Service
vv. 6-8
Mi 6:6 With what shall I come before Jehovah / And bow myself before the high God? / Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, / With one-year-old calves?
Mi 6:7 Will Jehovah be apleased with thousands of rams, / With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? / Shall I give my 1firstborn for my transgression, / The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
Mi 6:8 He has declared to you, O man, what is good; / And what does Jehovah require of you, / 1But that you would execute ajustice and love mercy / And walk humbly with your God?
C. Stating the Cause and Effect — Israel’s Sins and Jehovah’s Punishment
vv. 9-16
Mi 6:9 The voice of Jehovah cries out to the city, / And wisdom looks upon Your name. / Hear the rod and Him who appointed it.
Mi 6:10 Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, / And a scant measure that is abominable?
Mi 6:11 Shall I be pure with wicked balances / And with a bag of deceitful weights?
Mi 6:12 For the rich men of 1the city are full of violence, / And those who inhabit it speak falsehood, / And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Mi 6:13 Thus I also have made you sick by striking you; / I have made you desolate because of your sins.
Mi 6:14 You will eat, but you will not be satisfied; / And your emptiness will remain in the midst of you; / And you will take away, / But you will not rescue, / And what you rescue I will give up to the sword.
Mi 6:15 You will asow, / But you will not reap; / You will tread olives, / But you will not anoint yourself with oil, / And the new wine, / But you will not drink wine.
Mi 6:16 For the statutes of aOmri are kept, / And all the works of the house of bAhab; / And you walk in their counsels, / That I may make you a desolation, / And the inhabitants of the city a hissing; / And you will bear the reproach of My people.
MICAH 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

V. The Prophet’s Observation and Expectation
7:1-20
A. His Observation of Discouragement
vv. 1-6
Mi 7:1 Woe is me! For I am like gatherings of summer fruit / And like agleanings of the vintage; / There is no cluster to eat, / Nor first-ripe fig, which my soul desires.
Mi 7:2 The godly man has perished from the land, / And there is none upright among men; / They all lie in wait for bloodshed; / They each hunt their brother with a net.
Mi 7:3 Both hands are set upon evil, to do it well: / The prince asks for it, / And the judge agrees, for a reward, / And the great man, he utters the evil desire of his soul, / And they weave it together.
Mi 7:4 The best one among them is like a abrier; / The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. / The day of your watchmen, your visitation, has come; / Now will be their confounding.
Mi 7:5 Do not trust in a neighbor; / Do not put your confidence in a friend; / Keep the doors of your mouth / From her who lies in your bosom.
Mi 7:6 For the son treats the afather like a fool; / The daughter rises up against her mother, / The daughter-in-law, against her mother-in-law; / A man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
B. His Expectation of Encouragement
vv. 7-20
Mi 7:7 But as for me, I will alook for Jehovah; / I will wait for the God of my salvation; / My God will hear me.
Mi 7:8 Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy; / When I afall, I will rise up; / When I sit in the darkness, / Jehovah will be a light to me.
Mi 7:9 I will bear the indignation of Jehovah — / For I have sinned against Him — / Until He plead my cause / And execute justice for me; / He will bring me forth into the light; / I will see His righteousness.
Mi 7:10 Then my enemy will see / And shame will cover / Her who said to me, / Where is Jehovah your God? / My eyes will see her: / At that time she will become trampled / Like mud in the streets.
Mi 7:11 A day for building your walls! / In that day the decree will be far away;
Mi 7:12 In that day they will come even unto you / From aAssyria and from the cities of Egypt, / And from Egypt even to the 1River, / And from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.
Mi 7:13 But the land will become desolate / Because of the inhabitants in it, due to the fruit of their doings.
Mi 7:14 aShepherd Your people with Your rod, / The flock of Your inheritance, / Who dwell alone in the forest / In the midst of Carmel; / Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead / As in the days of old.
Mi 7:15 As in the days of your agoing forth out from the land of Egypt, / I will show 1you wonders.
Mi 7:16 The nations will see and be ashamed / Of all their might; / They will put the hand over the mouth; / Their ears will be deaf.
Mi 7:17 They will alick the dust like a serpent; / Like crawling things of the earth, / They will come quivering from their enclosed places; / To Jehovah our God / They will turn in fear and be afraid because of You.
Mi 7:18 aWho is a God like You, / 1bPardoning iniquity / And passing over the transgression / Of the cremnant of His inheritance? / He does not retain His anger forever, / For He delights in lovingkindness.
Mi 7:19 He will again have compassion on us; / He will tread our iniquities underfoot. / And You will acast into the depths of the sea / All their sins.
Mi 7:20 You will perform truth to Jacob, / And lovingkindness to Abraham, / Which You have sworn to our fathers / From the days of old.
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NAHUM

Chapters
 1   2   3   
Outline

Author: Nahum (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 713 B.C., the year in which Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, invaded Judah (2 Kings 18:13 — 19:37).
Place of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Object of His Ministry: Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Judgment on Nineveh as the Capital of the Evil Assyria
NAHUM 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Na 1:1 The burden concerning 1aNineveh. The book of the vision of 2Nahum the Elkoshite.
II. Jehovah as the Majestic Judge
1:2-7
Na 1:2 Jehovah is a ajealous God and One who avenges; / Jehovah avenges and is full of wrath; / Jehovah takes vengeance on His adversaries, / And reserves wrath for His enemies.
Na 1:3 Jehovah is along-suffering and great in power / And will by no means clear the guilty. / Jehovah — His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, / And the bclouds are the dust of His feet.
Na 1:4 He arebukes the sea and makes it dry, / And He dries up all the rivers. / Bashan and Carmel languish, / And the sprout of Lebanon languishes.
Na 1:5 The mountains aquake because of Him, / And the hills bmelt, / And the earth is heaved up at His presence, / Indeed the world, and all that inhabit it.
Na 1:6 aWho can stand before His indignation, / And who can maintain himself in the fierceness of His anger? / His wrath is poured out like fire, / And the rocks are broken down by Him.
Na 1:7 Jehovah is good, / A stronghold in a day of distress; / And He aknows those who take brefuge in Him.
III. Jehovah’s Judgment on Nineveh
1:8 — 3:19
A. The Verdict concerning Nineveh’s Destruction and the Promise of Comfort to Judah
1:8-15
Na 1:8 But with an overflowing 1aflood / He will make a full end of 2her place, / And He will pursue His enemies into darkness.
Na 1:9 What do you adevise against Jehovah? / He will make a full end; / Distress will not arise a second time.
Na 1:10 For though they are entangled like thorns / And like those drunken with their drink, / They will be consumed as fully as dry stubble.
Na 1:11 One went forth from you / Who devises evil against Jehovah, / Who counsels wickedness.
Na 1:12 Thus says Jehovah, / Though they are complete in number and even numerous, / Even so they will be cut down; and 1they will pass away. / And though I have afflicted you, / I will afflict you ano more.
Na 1:13 And now I will break 1his ayoke from off you / And will snap your bonds asunder.
Na 1:14 And Jehovah has commanded concerning you: / No more of your name will be sown; / Out of the house of your gods I will cut off / The graven idol and the molten idol; / I will make your grave, for you are worthless.
Na 1:15 aSee, upon the mountains / The feet of him who bears the 1glad news, / Who announces peace! / Keep your feasts, O Judah; / Complete your vows; / For the wicked one will never again / Pass through you; / He will be completely cut off.
NAHUM 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

B. A Vision of the Destruction of Nineveh
2:1-13
Na 2:1 1He who ascatters has come up before you: / Keep the fortress, / Watch the way, / Strengthen the loins, / Fortify the power greatly.
Na 2:2 For Jehovah restores / The excellency of Jacob / As the excellency of Israel; / For the emptiers have emptied them out / And destroyed their avine branches.
Na 2:3 The shield of His mighty men is red; / The valiant men are clad in scarlet; / The chariots flash with the shining of steel / In the day of His preparation, / And the spears are brandished.
Na 2:4 In the streets the chariots rush madly; / They dash to and fro in the open squares; / Their appearance is like that of torches; / They dart like lightning.
Na 2:5 1The Assyrian king remembers his glorious ones: / They stumble in their march; / They hasten to the wall 2of the city, / But the besiegers’ shelter is prepared.
Na 2:6 The 1gates of the rivers are opened, / And the palace is dissolved.
Na 2:7 And it is determined: 1She is uncovered; she is carried away; / And her maidens moan, / As with the sound of doves, / Beating their breasts.
Na 2:8 Though Nineveh has been like a pool of water all her days, / Now they are fleeing. / Stand! Stand! But no one turns back.
Na 2:9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! / And there is no end to what has been prepared. / Oh, the glory of all the desirable vessels!
Na 2:10 Emptiness and void and waste! / And the heart melts, and the knees knock, / And aanguish is in all the loins, / And the faces of all of them become pale.
Na 2:11 Where is the den of lions / And the feeding place of young lions, / Where the lion and the lioness walked, / And the lion’s whelp; and no one frightened them?
Na 2:12 The lion tore in pieces, enough for his whelps, / And strangled for his lionesses / And filled his caves with torn prey / And his dens with torn animals.
Na 2:13 Indeed I am against you, / Declares Jehovah of hosts; / And I will burn 1your chariots in smoke, / And the sword will devour your young lions; / And I will cut off your prey from the earth; / And the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.
NAHUM 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

C. The Devastation of the People of Nineveh
3:1-17
Na 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! / She is all full of lies and pillage; / The prey does not depart.
Na 3:2 The sound of the whip, / And the sound of the rattling wheel; / And the horse galloping, / And the chariot jolting by,
Na 3:3 The horseman making the horse to rear up, / And the sword flashing, / And the spear glittering; / And a multitude of the slain, / And a mass of corpses, / And no end to the bodies — / They stumble among their bodies.
Na 3:4 This because of the multitude of harlotries / Of the well-favored harlot, / The mistress of sorceries, / Who sells nations by her harlotries / And families by her sorceries.
Na 3:5 Indeed I am against you, declares Jehovah of hosts; / And I will throw open your skirts upon your face, / And I will show the nations your nakedness, / And the kingdoms your shame.
Na 3:6 And I will cast abominable filth upon you / And make you appear foolish and make you like a spectacle.
Na 3:7 And everyone who sees you / Will flee from you and say, / Nineveh is laid waste. / Who will lament for her? / Where will I seek / Some to comfort you?
Na 3:8 Are you better than 1No-amon, / Who sat beside the canals / With waters all around her, / Whose bulwark was the 2sea / And water was her wall?
Na 3:9 1Cush was her strength, / As well as Egypt, and it was without end; / 2Put and the Libyans / Were among 3her helpers.
Na 3:10 She too was carried away; / She went into captivity; / Her little ones too were dashed to pieces / At the head of every street, / And for her nobles / They cast lots, / And all her great men / Were bound in chains.
Na 3:11 You too will be drunken; / You will be hidden. / You too will seek / A stronghold from the enemy.
Na 3:12 All your fortresses will be like afig trees / With first ripe figs: / If they are shaken, they will fall / Into the mouth of the eater.
Na 3:13 Indeed your people are like women / In the midst of you; / Unto your enemies the gates of your land / Are wide open; / Fire devours your bars.
Na 3:14 Draw for yourself water for the siege! / Strengthen your fortresses! / Go into the clay, / And tread in the mortar! / Make the brick kiln 1ready!
Na 3:15 There will the fire devour you; / The sword will cut you off; / It will devour you like the alocust. / Enlarge yourself like the locust; / Enlarge yourself like the locust swarm.
Na 3:16 You have multiplied your merchants / Like the stars of heaven; / The locust strips everything and flies away.
Na 3:17 Your princes are like the alocust swarm, / And your officials are like hordes of 1locusts, / Which camp in the hedges / On a cold day, / But when the sun arises, they flee away, / And the place where they are is unknown.
D. The Miserable End of the King of Assyria
3:18-19
Na 3:18 Your shepherds slumber, / O king of aAssyria; / Your nobles sleep. / Your people are scattered upon the mountains, / And there is no one to gather them.
Na 3:19 There is no alleviating of your injury; / Your wound is grievous. / All who hear the report of you / Clap their hands over you; / For upon whom has your wickedness / Not passed continually?
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HABAKKUK

Chapters
 1   2   3   
Outline

Author: Habakkuk (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 626 B.C., close to the time of the Babylonian invasion and the first exile to Babylon (606 B.C.).
Place of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Object of His Ministry: The southern kingdom of Judah.
Subject:
The Righteous Judgment of God First on Israel by the Chaldeans and Then on the Chaldeans by the Nations
HABAKKUK 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Hb 1:1 The burden which 1Habakkuk the prophet saw.
II. The First Dialogue between the Prophet and Jehovah
1:2-11
A. The Prophet’s Inquiring of Jehovah
vv. 2-4
Hb 1:2 How long, O Jehovah, shall I cry / And You do anot hear? / I cry out to You, Violence! / And You do not save.
Hb 1:3 Why do You cause me to see iniquity / And look upon wrong? / Indeed destruction and violence are before me; / And there is strife, and contention arises.
Hb 1:4 Therefore the law is ineffective, / And justice never goes forth; / For the wicked encompasses the righteous, / Therefore justice goes forth perverted.
B. Jehovah’s Answer to the Prophet
vv. 5-11
Hb 1:5 Look among the nations, and see, / And be aamazed, utterly amazed. / For I am doing a work in your days / Which you would not believe if it were told you.
Hb 1:6 For I am about to raise up the aChaldeans, / That bitter and hasty nation / That marches through the breadth of the earth / To possess habitations that are not 1theirs.
Hb 1:7 They are terrible and dreadful; / Their judgment and their authority issue from themselves.
Hb 1:8 And their horses are swifter than leopards / And more agile than the wolves of evening. / And their horsemen prance about; / Indeed their horsemen come from aafar; / They fly like an beagle that hastens to devour.
Hb 1:9 All of them come to do violence; / The set of their faces is forward, / And they gather captives like sand.
Hb 1:10 Indeed they scoff at kings, / And potentates are a derision to them; / They deride every fortress, / For they heap up dirt and take it.
Hb 1:11 Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass over / And thus become guilty; this — their strength — is their god.
III. The Second Dialogue between the Prophet and Jehovah
1:12 — 2:20
A. The Prophet’s Inquiring of Jehovah
1:12 — 2:1
Hb 1:12 Are You not from aeverlasting, O Jehovah, / My God, my Holy One? We will not die. / O Jehovah, You have appointed 1them for bjudgment; / And You, O Rock, have established 1them for correction.
Hb 1:13 You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil / And who cannot look upon wrong, / Why do You alook upon them who deal treacherously / And keep silent when the wicked man swallows up him who is 1more righteous than he?
Hb 1:14 And You make man like the fish of the sea, / Like the creeping things, who have no one to rule for them.
Hb 1:15 They take all of them up with a ahook; / They drag them off in their net / And gather them into their seine; / So they rejoice and exult.
Hb 1:16 Therefore they offer asacrifices to their net / And burn incense to their seine, / For by them their portion is fat / And their food is plenteous.
Hb 1:17 Will they then empty their net / And continually slay the nations without sparing?
HABAKKUK 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

Hb 2:1 I will stand at my awatch / And station myself on the fortress, / And I will watch to see what He will bspeak to me / And what I will reply concerning my complaint.
B. Jehovah’s Answer to the Prophet
2:2-20
Hb 2:2 Then Jehovah answered me and said,
aWrite the 1vision, and render it plainly upon tablets, / 2That even he who runs by may read it.
Hb 2:3 For the vision is yet for the aappointed time, / And it hastens toward the end and will not lie. / Though it tarries, wait for it; / For it will surely bcome; it will not delay.
Hb 2:4 See, he who is puffed up, his soul is not upright within him, / 1But athe righteous one will 2live by his faith.
(Five Woes to the Chaldeans)
vv. 5-20
Hb 2:5 Furthermore his wine is treacherous: / A boasting man, he does not abide at home, / He who enlarges his appetite like 1Sheol, / And is like death and cannot be satisfied, / But gathers to himself all the nations / And collects for himself all the peoples.
Hb 2:6 Will not all of these take up a parable against him, / Indeed a mocking song and a riddle against him, and say, / Woe to him who increases what is not his (For how long?) / And who loads himself with the burden of pledges?
Hb 2:7 Will not those who bite you rise up suddenly, / And those who shake you awake, / And you will become booty to them?
Hb 2:8 Because you have aplundered many nations; / All the remnant of the peoples will 1plunder you, / Because of the bloodshed of men and the violence done to the land, / To the city, and to all the inhabitants in it.
Hb 2:9 Woe to him who by violence takes evil gain for his house, / So as to place his nest on high / That he may be delivered from the hand of evil!
Hb 2:10 You have devised shame against your own house / By cutting off many peoples, / And have sinned against your own soul.
Hb 2:11 For the astone will cry out from the wall, / And the rafter will answer it from the timber.
Hb 2:12 aWoe to him who builds a city by bloodshed / And establishes a town by iniquity!
Hb 2:13 Indeed is it not of Jehovah of hosts / That the peoples toil for the afire / And the nations weary themselves for vanity?
Hb 2:14 For the aearth will be 1filled / With the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah / As water covers the sea.
Hb 2:15 Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink, / Adding in 1his poison, / And also making him drunk / In order to look at their nakedness!
Hb 2:16 You are sated with shame, not glory. / You also, drink and be shown to be uncircumcised! / The acup of Jehovah’s right hand will come around to you, / And disgrace will be upon your glory.
Hb 2:17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover you, / As well as the destruction of the beasts which frightened them, / Because of the bloodshed of men and the violence done to the land, / To the city, and to all the inhabitants in it.
Hb 2:18 What profit is the graven aidol that its maker should engrave it, / Or the molten idol, even the teacher of lies, / That he who forms its form depends on it / To make dumb idols?
Hb 2:19 Woe to him who says to wood, Awake! / And, Arise! to silent stone. / Will it teach him? / Behold, it is set in gold and silver, / And there is no breath at all within it.
Hb 2:20 But Jehovah is in His holy atemple: / Be bsilent before Him, all the earth!
HABAKKUK 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

IV. The Prophet’s Song to Jehovah in Prayer, Lauding, and Trusting in Him
3:1-19
A. In Prayer
vv. 1-2
Hb 3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet in 1shigionoth.
Hb 3:2 O Jehovah, I have heard the report concerning You and am afraid. / O Jehovah, 1arevive Your work / In the midst of the years; / In the midst of the years make it known; / In wrath remember compassion.
B. In Lauding
vv. 3-15
Hb 3:3 God comes from Teman, / Even the aHoly One from Mount Paran. 1Selah / His splendor covers the heavens, / And the earth is filled with His praise.
Hb 3:4 And His brightness is like the light: / Rays come forth from His hand, / And the hiding of His power is there.
Hb 3:5 Before Him goes pestilence, / And the afire bolt comes forth at His feet.
Hb 3:6 He stands and 1measures the earth; / He looks and startles the nations; / And the ancient mountains are ashattered into dust, / And the everlasting hills sink down; / His goings are eternal.
Hb 3:7 I see the tents of 1Cushan / Under affliction; / The tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.
Hb 3:8 Is it against the rivers, O Jehovah, / Against the rivers that Your anger is kindled? / Is Your overflowing wrath against the sea / That You aride upon Your horses, / Upon Your chariots of salvation?
Hb 3:9 Your bow is bared utterly; / The rods of discipline are sworn according to Your word. Selah / You cleave the earth with rivers.
Hb 3:10 The mountains see You; they awrithe; / The tempest of water passes by; / The deep utters its voice, / It lifts its hands high.
Hb 3:11 The sun and the moon stand astill in their high abode / At the light of Your arrows going forth, / At the brightness of Your glittering spear.
Hb 3:12 In wrath You march through the earth, / In anger You athresh the nations.
Hb 3:13 You go forth for the asalvation of Your people, / For the salvation of Your anointed one, / You strike the head from the house of the wicked one, / Laying bare the foundation, even to the neck. Selah
Hb 3:14 You pierce, with his own staves, / The heads of his warriors. / They come out like a whirlwind to scatter me; / Their exultation is as if to devour the poor in secret.
Hb 3:15 You tread the sea with Your horses, / The heap of mighty waters.
C. In Trusting in Jehovah
vv. 16-19
Hb 3:16 I heard and my body trembled; / My lips quivered at the sound. / Rottenness entered my bones, / And I tremble in my place, / Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, / When 1he who attacks us comes up against the people.
Hb 3:17 For the fig tree will not sprout, / And there will be no yield on the vines; / The labor on the olive tree will fail, / And the fields will make no food; / The flock will be cut off from the fold, / And there will be no herd in the stalls.
Hb 3:18 Yet I will aexult in Jehovah; / I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
Hb 3:19 Jehovah the Lord is my astrength; / And He makes my feet like bhinds’ feet / And will cause me to walk on my chigh places. / For the choir director, with 1my stringed instruments.
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ZEPHANIAH

Chapters
 1   2   3   
Outline

Author: Zephaniah (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 630 B.C., at the time of Habakkuk and Jeremiah, not long before the beginning of the Babylonian captivity (606 B.C.).
Place of His Ministry: Judah.
Object of His Ministry: The territory of Judah and Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Judgment on Israel and on the Nations and His Salvation to the Gentiles and to Israel
ZEPHANIAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Zp 1:1 The word of Jehovah that came to 1Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of aJosiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah.
II. Jehovah’s Judgment
1:2 — 3:8
A. On Israel
1:2 — 2:3
Zp 1:2 I will utterly remove everything / From off the face of the earth, / Declares Jehovah.
Zp 1:3 I will remove man and beast; / I will remove the abirds of heaven and the fish of the sea, / And the bstumbling blocks with the wicked; / And I will cut off man / From the face of the earth, / Declares Jehovah.
Zp 1:4 And I will stretch out My hand against Judah / And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, / And I will cut off the remnant of aBaal from this place, / And the name of the idol priests with the priests,
Zp 1:5 And those who worship upon the housetops / The ahost of heaven, / And the worshippers who swear to Jehovah / And swear by 1Malcam,
Zp 1:6 And those who have been turned back from going after Jehovah / And have not sought Jehovah / And have not inquired of Him.
Zp 1:7 Be asilent before the Lord Jehovah, / For the 1bday of Jehovah is near; / For Jehovah has prepared a 2csacrifice; / He has 3consecrated those whom He has called.
Zp 1:8 And in the day of the sacrifice of Jehovah / I will punish the princes / And the sons of the king / And all who wear / The clothing of foreigners.
Zp 1:9 And in that day I will punish / All who leap over the threshold, / Who fill their master’s house / With violence and deceit.
Zp 1:10 And in that day, declares Jehovah, / There will be the sound of an outcry from the Fish Gate / And wailing from the second district / And a great crashing from the hills.
Zp 1:11 Wail, O inhabitants of Maktesh, / For all the people of Canaan are destroyed, / All who are laden with silver are cut off.
Zp 1:12 And at that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps, / And I will punish the men / Who have asettled on their lees, / Who bsay in their heart, / Jehovah will not do good, / Nor will He do evil.
Zp 1:13 And their wealth will become plunder, / And their houses, a desolation. / Indeed they will abuild houses but not inhabit them, / And they will plant bvineyards but not drink the wine from them.
Zp 1:14 The agreat day of Jehovah is near; / It is near and hastens greatly. / The sound of the day of Jehovah! / The mighty man bitterly cries there.
Zp 1:15 That day is a aday of overflowing wrath, / A day of trouble and distress, / A day of waste and ruin, / A day of bdarkness and gloom, / A day of clouds and deep darkness,
Zp 1:16 A day of trumpet and alarm / Against the fortified cities / And against the high battlements.
Zp 1:17 And I will bring distress upon the men, / So that they walk about like the ablind, / For they have sinned against Jehovah; / And their blood will be poured out like dust, / And their bowels like dung.
Zp 1:18 Neither their asilver nor their gold / Will be able to deliver them / In the day of the overflowing wrath of Jehovah; / But the whole land will be devoured by the bfire of His jealousy, / For He will make an end, nothing other than sudden destruction, / Of all the inhabitants of the land.
ZEPHANIAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

Zp 2:1 1aGather yourselves together, yes, gather, / O nation that has no shame,
Zp 2:2 Before the decree has effect, / (The day passes like chaff) / Before there comes upon you / The burning anger of Jehovah, / Before there comes upon you / The day of Jehovah’s anger.
Zp 2:3 aSeek Jehovah, / All you meek of the earth, / Who have performed His judgments. / Seek righteousness; / Seek meekness; / Perhaps you will be hidden / In the day of Jehovah’s anger.
B. On the Nations
2:4-15
1. On the Philistines
vv. 4-7
Zp 2:4 For aGaza will be a forsaken city, / And Ashkelon will become a desolation; / As for Ashdod, they will drive it out at noontime, / And Ekron will be rooted up.
Zp 2:5 Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, / O nation of Cherethites! / The word of Jehovah is against you, / O Canaan, O land of the Philistines: / I will destroy you so that there will be no inhabitant.
Zp 2:6 And the seacoast will be pastures with shepherds’ caves / And folds for flocks.
Zp 2:7 And the area will be / For the aremnant of the house of Judah; / They will feed their flocks upon them. / In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening, / For Jehovah their God will visit them / And turn again their captivity.
2. On Moab and Ammon
vv. 8-11
Zp 2:8 I have heard the reproaching of aMoab / And the revilings of the children of bAmmon, / By which they have reproached My people / And magnified themselves against their border.
Zp 2:9 Therefore as I live, / Declares Jehovah of hosts, / The God of Israel, / Moab will surely be like Sodom, / And the children of Ammon like Gomorrah, / A possession of scrubs / And salt pits / And a perpetual desolation; / The remnant of My people will spoil them, / And the residue of My nation will inherit them.
Zp 2:10 This will they have for their pride, for they reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Jehovah of hosts.
Zp 2:11 Jehovah will be terrible to them, for He will make all the gods of the earth vanish, and all the coastlands of the nations will aworship Him, each from his own place.
3. On the Cushites
v. 12
Zp 2:12 You 1aCushites also / Will be slain by My sword.
4. On Assyria
vv. 13-15
Zp 2:13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north / And will destroy aAssyria, / And will make bNineveh a desolation / And a desert, like the wilderness.
Zp 2:14 And herds will stretch out in the midst of her, / And animals of every kind; / Both the pelican and the porcupine / Will lodge in her capitals. / Their voice will sing in the windows; / Desolation is upon the threshold; / For He has laid the cedar work bare.
Zp 2:15 aThis is the jubilant city / That dwelt securely, / That said in her heart, I am, / And there is none besides me. / How she has become a desolation, / A place for animals to stretch out! / Everyone who passes by her will hiss / And wave his hand at her.
ZEPHANIAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

C. On Israel
3:1-7
Zp 3:1 Woe to the 1rebellious and defiled one, / To the oppressing city!
Zp 3:2 She has anot listened to the voice; / She has not taken the correction. / She has not trusted in Jehovah; / She has not drawn near to her God.
Zp 3:3 Her princes in the midst of her / Are roaring lions. / Her judges are wolves of the evening; / They have left nothing until the morning.
Zp 3:4 Her prophets are vainglorious; / They are men of treachery. / Her priests have defiled the sanctuary; / They have done violence to the law.
Zp 3:5 Jehovah is righteous in the amidst of her; / He does no wrong; / Morning by morning He bbrings His justice to light; / He does not fail; but he who is wrong knows no shame.
Zp 3:6 I have cut off nations; / Their battlements are desolated; / I have made their streets a waste, / So that no one passes through; / Their cities are destroyed, / So that there is no one, / So that there is no inhabitant.
Zp 3:7 I said, Only fear Me; / Take the correction; / That her habitation might not be cut off, / According to all that I have appointed concerning her. / But they rose up early to corrupt / All their deeds.
D. On All the Nations
3:8
Zp 3:8 Therefore await on Me, declares Jehovah, / For the day when I rise up to the prey. / For My decision is to assemble the nations, / To gather kingdoms together, / That I may pour out upon them My wrath, / All My burning anger; / For in the bfire of My jealousy / All the earth will be devoured.
III. Jehovah’s Salvation
3:9-20
A. To the Gentiles
v. 9
Zp 3:9 For then I will change the language of the peoples / Into a 1pure alanguage / That they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, / To bserve Him with one 2accord.
B. To Israel
vv. 10-20
Zp 3:10 From beyond the rivers of 1Cush My suppliants, / The daughter of My dispersed, will bring My meal offering.
Zp 3:11 In that day you will not be put to shame because of all your deeds, / By which you have transgressed against Me; / For then I will take away from your midst / Those who exult in your majesty, / And you will never again be haughty / On My holy mountain.
Zp 3:12 And I will leave in the midst of you / An afflicted and poor people, / And they will take refuge in the name of Jehovah.
Zp 3:13 The remnant of Israel will not do wrong; / And they will not speak lies, / Nor will there be found in their mouth / A deceitful tongue; / For they will have pasture and lie down, / And there will be no one to frighten them.
Zp 3:14 Give a aringing shout, O daughter of Zion! / Shout in triumph, O Israel! / Rejoice and exult with all your heart, / O daughter of Jerusalem!
Zp 3:15 Jehovah has taken away your judgments; / He has turned aside your 1enemy. / The 2King of Israel, Jehovah, is in the amidst of you; / You will not 3see evil again.
Zp 3:16 In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, / Fear not, O Zion; / Let not your hands drop.
Zp 3:17 Jehovah your God in the midst of you / Is a mighty One who saves; / He will be jubilant over you with arejoicing; / He will rest in His love; / He will exult over you with a ringing shout.
Zp 3:18 I will gather those who mourn for the appointed assembly, / Who were of you. / The reproach was a burden upon 1them.
Zp 3:19 Indeed at that time / I will deal with all who afflict you; / And I will save that which is lame, / And that which has been driven away I will gather. / And I will make them a praise and a name / In every land where their shame had been.
Zp 3:20 At that time I will bring you in, / And at that time I will gather you; / For I will cause you to be a name and a praise / Among all the peoples of the earth, / When I aturn again your captivity before your eyes, / Says Jehovah.
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HAGGAI

Chapters
 1   2   
Outline

Author: Haggai (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 520 B.C., the second year of Darius Hystaspes (1:1; Ezra 4 — 6; different from both the Darius in Daniel 9:1; 11:1 and the one in Nehemiah 12:22), at the time of Zechariah (Ezra 5:1).
Place of His Ministry: Jerusalem.
Object of His Ministry: The captives who returned to Jerusalem (1:1).
Subject:
Jehovah’s Dealing with the Returned Captives for the Building of His House
HAGGAI 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Hg 1:1 In the asecond year of 1Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came through 2Haggai the prophet unto 3bZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and unto cJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
II. Jehovah’s Rebuke and Charge concerning the Delay of the Building of His House
1:2-15
A. Jehovah’s Rebuke
vv. 2-6
Hg 1:2 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people says, The time has not come, the time for the house of Jehovah to be built.
Hg 1:3 Then the word of Jehovah came through aHaggai the prophet, saying,
Hg 1:4 1Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled-up houses, while this ahouse lies waste?
Hg 1:5 Now therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, Consider your ways.
Hg 1:6 You ahave sown much, but you bring in 1little; you eat, but there is no satisfaction; you drink, but there is no being filled with drink; you dress yourselves, but there is no warmth in doing so; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.
B. Jehovah’s Charge
vv. 7-8
Hg 1:7 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, Consider your ways.
Hg 1:8 Go up to the mountain and 1bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it and will be glorified, says Jehovah.
C. Jehovah’s Further Rebuke
vv. 9-11
Hg 1:9 You looked for much, and yet it amounted to little; and when you brought it home, I blew on it. Why? declares Jehovah of hosts. Because of My house that lies waste while you each 1run to your own house.
Hg 1:10 Therefore over you the heavens withhold their adew, and the earth withholds its yield.
Hg 1:11 Indeed I called for a adrought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the grain and upon the new wine and upon the fresh oil and upon that which the ground brings forth and upon man and upon beast and upon all the toil of the hands.
D. The People’s Response
vv. 12-15
Hg 1:12 And aZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people listened to the voice of Jehovah their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people were in fear before Jehovah.
Hg 1:13 Then Haggai, Jehovah’s messenger, spoke in Jehovah’s message to the people, saying, I am with you, declares Jehovah.
Hg 1:14 And Jehovah astirred up the 1spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the 1spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the 1spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did 2work in the bhouse of Jehovah of hosts their God,
Hg 1:15 On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
HAGGAI 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

III. The Prophecy concerning the House of Jehovah in the Millennium and
the Promise concerning the Messiah in the Coming Kingdom
2:1-23
A. The Prophecy concerning the House of Jehovah in the Millennium
vv. 1-9
Hg 2:1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came through Haggai the prophet, saying,
Hg 2:2 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying,
Hg 2:3 Who is left among you who saw this ahouse in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not as bnothing in your eyes?
Hg 2:4 Yet now abe strong, O Zerubbabel, declares Jehovah; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, declares Jehovah, and work; for I am with you, declares Jehovah of hosts.
Hg 2:5 Both the word which I covenanted with you when you came forth from Egypt and My aSpirit endure among you; do not fear.
Hg 2:6 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, 1Yet once more — it is but a little while — I will ashake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land;
Hg 2:7 And I will shake all the nations, and the 1Desire of all the nations will acome; and I will bfill this house with glory, says Jehovah of hosts.
Hg 2:8 The silver is aMine, and the gold is Mine, declares Jehovah of hosts.
Hg 2:9 The latter glory of this house will be agreater than the former, says Jehovah of hosts; and in this place I will give peace, declares Jehovah of hosts.
B. The People’s Uncleanness and Jehovah’s Dealing with Them and Then Blessing Them
vv. 10-19
Hg 2:10 In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah came to Haggai the prophet, saying,
Hg 2:11 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, Ask now the priests for instruction, saying,
Hg 2:12 If one carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt he touches bread or boiled food or wine or oil or any other food, will it become holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
Hg 2:13 Then Haggai said, If one who is unclean because of a acorpse touches any of these, will it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It will be unclean.
Hg 2:14 Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people and so is this nation before Me, declares Jehovah, and so is all the work of their hands. Thus what they offer there is 1unclean.
Hg 2:15 And now, consider from this day and previously, before a stone was set upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah,
Hg 2:16 Before these days were, someone would come to a grain heap for twenty measures, and there would be only ten; someone would come to a vat to draw fifty troughfuls, and there would be only twenty.
Hg 2:17 I struck you with ablight and with mildew and with hail on all the work of your hands; but on your part, none turned to Me, declares Jehovah.
Hg 2:18 Consider from this day and previously, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the aday when the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was laid; consider.
Hg 2:19 Is there yet seed in the barn? Indeed even the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit; from this day I will bless you.
C. The Promise concerning the Messiah (Typified by Zerubbabel) in the Coming Kingdom
vv. 20-23
Hg 2:20 And the word of Jehovah came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,
Hg 2:21 Speak to 1Zerubbabel the governor of Judah, saying, I will ashake the heavens and the earth.
Hg 2:22 And I will overthrow the throne of the akingdoms and will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, each by the sword of his brother.
Hg 2:23 In that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant, declares Jehovah, and make you as a asignet; for I have bchosen you, declares Jehovah of hosts.
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ZECHARIAH

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14
Outline

Author: Zechariah (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: From about 520 B.C., the second year of Darius Hystaspes (1:1; Ezra 4 — 6; different from both the Darius in Daniel 9:1; 11:1 and the one in Nehemiah 12:22), to about 518 B.C., the fourth year of Darius (7:1).
Place of His Ministry: Jerusalem (7:2-4).
Object of His Ministry: The captives returning to Jerusalem.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Hearty Consolation and Promise to His Chastised Chosen People through the Redemption of Christ, Who in His Humiliation Became Their Suffering Companion in Their Captivity
ZECHARIAH 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

I. The Introductory Word
1:1-6
Zc 1:1 In the eighth month, in the asecond year of 1Darius, the word of Jehovah came to 2bZechariah the prophet, the son of 3Berechiah, the son of 4Iddo, saying,
Zc 1:2 Jehovah was extremely angry with your fathers;
Zc 1:3 Therefore say to them, Thus says Jehovah 1of hosts, 2aReturn to Me, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts.
Zc 1:4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets acried, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, Turn from your evil ways and from your evil deeds; but they did not hear nor hearken to Me, declares Jehovah.
Zc 1:5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Zc 1:6 But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers, so that they returned and said, As Jehovah of hosts has athought to do with us, according to our ways and according to our deeds, so has He done with us?
II. The Visions of Consolation and Promise
1:7 — 6:15
A. The Vision of a Man as the Angel of Jehovah
Riding on a Red Horse and Standing among the Myrtle Trees
1:7-17
Zc 1:7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Jehovah came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
Zc 1:8 I saw during the night, and behold, a 1man was riding upon a 2ared horse; and He was standing among the 3myrtle trees that were in the bottoms; and behind Him there were 4red, reddish-brown, and white horses.
Zc 1:9 Then I said, What are these, sir? And the angel who spoke with me said to me, I will show you what these are.
Zc 1:10 And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are those whom Jehovah has 1sent to go to and fro on the earth.
Zc 1:11 And they answered the Angel of Jehovah, who was standing among the myrtle trees, and they said, We have gone to and fro on the earth, and indeed all the earth sits astill and is quiet.
Zc 1:12 Then the Angel of Jehovah answered and said, O Jehovah of hosts, how long will You not have compassion on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant for these aseventy years?
Zc 1:13 And Jehovah answered the angel who spoke with me with good words, with comforting words.
Zc 1:14 So the angel who spoke to me said to me, Cry out, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts: I am greatly 1ajealous for Jerusalem and for Zion;
Zc 1:15 And I am extremely angry with the nations, who are at ease; for I was only a little aangry, but their help increased the affliction.
Zc 1:16 Therefore thus says Jehovah, I return to Jerusalem with acompassions; My bhouse will be built in it, declares Jehovah of hosts, and a 1cmeasuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.
Zc 1:17 Cry out again, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, My cities will again overflow with good, and Jehovah will again acomfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem.
B. The Vision of the Four Horns and the Four Craftsmen
1:18-21
Zc 1:18 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there were 1four horns.
Zc 1:19 And I said to the angel who spoke with me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the ahorns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
Zc 1:20 Then Jehovah showed me 1four craftsmen.
Zc 1:21 And I said, What do these come to do? And he spoke, saying, These are the horns that have so ascattered Judah that no man lifts up his head, but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who have lifted up the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.
ZECHARIAH 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

C. The Vision of a Man with a Measuring Line in His Hand
2:1-13
Zc 2:1 Then I lifted up my eyes and I looked, and there was a 1man, and in His hand was a 2ameasuring line.
Zc 2:2 And I said, Where are You going? And He said to me, To ameasure 1Jerusalem; to see how great its breadth is and how great its length is.
Zc 2:3 Then at that point the angel who spoke with me went forth and another angel came forth to meet him.
Zc 2:4 And he said to him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem will lie as an open region due to the multitude of men and cattle within it,
Zc 2:5 For I will be her 1wall of fire round about, declares Jehovah, and I will be the 1aglory within her.
Zc 2:6 Ho! Ho! aFlee from the land of the north, declares Jehovah, for I have 1spread you out like the bfour winds of the heavens, declares Jehovah.
Zc 2:7 Ho, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.
Zc 2:8 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, 1After the glory 2He has sent 2Me against the nations who plunder you; for he who touches you touches the 3apupil of His eye.
Zc 2:9 For I am now waving My hand over them, and they will be plunder for those who served them; and you will aknow that Jehovah of hosts has sent Me.
Zc 2:10 Give a aringing shout and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for now 1I am coming, and I will dwell in your bmidst, declares Jehovah.
Zc 2:11 And many anations will join themselves to Jehovah in that day and will become My people; and I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that Jehovah of hosts has sent Me to you.
Zc 2:12 And Jehovah will inherit Judah as His aportion upon the holy land, and He will again choose Jerusalem.
Zc 2:13 1aHush, all flesh, before Jehovah! For He is roused up from His bholy habitation.
ZECHARIAH 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

D. The Vision of Joshua the High Priest Perfected, Established, and Strengthened
by the Angel of Jehovah with Zerubbabel the Governor of Judah
3:1-10
Zc 3:1 Then He showed me 1aJoshua the high priest standing before the Angel of Jehovah and 2Satan standing at his bright hand to be his adversary.
Zc 3:2 And Jehovah said to Satan, Jehovah arebuke you, Satan! Indeed, Jehovah, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the bfire?
Zc 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with 1filthy agarments and was standing before the Angel.
Zc 3:4 And He answered and spoke to those standing before Him, saying, 1Remove the filthy garments from him. Then He said to him, See, I hereby make your iniquity pass from you and aclothe you with stately robes.
Zc 3:5 And 1He said, Let them put a 2clean aturban upon his head. And they put the clean turban upon his head and clothed him with garments while the Angel of Jehovah stood by.
Zc 3:6 And the Angel of Jehovah testified to Joshua, saying,
Zc 3:7 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, If you will walk in My ways and if you will keep My charge, then you will both judge My house and keep My courts, and I will grant you to walk among these standing here.
Zc 3:8 Hear then, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you — for they are men of symbol — for I am about to bring forth My 1aservant, the bshoot.
Zc 3:9 For here is the 1astone that I have set before Joshua — upon one stone are 2bseven eyes. I will 3engrave its engraving, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will 4remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
Zc 3:10 In that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, each of you will invite his neighbor to come under the 1avine and under the fig tree.
ZECHARIAH 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

E. The Vision of the Lampstand of Gold and Two Olive Trees
4:1-14
Zc 4:1 1Then the angel who spoke with me returned and roused me as a man is roused from his sleep.
Zc 4:2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see that there is a 1alampstand all of gold, with its bowl on top of it and its bseven lamps upon it, with 2seven pipes for each of the lamps on top of it;
Zc 4:3 And there are 1two aolive trees beside it, one to the right of the bowl and one to the left.
Zc 4:4 And I answered and spoke to the angel who spoke with me, saying, What are these, sir?
Zc 4:5 And the angel who spoke with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, sir.
Zc 4:6 And he answered and spoke to me, saying, 1This is the word of Jehovah to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by amight nor by power, but by My 2Spirit, says Jehovah of hosts.
Zc 4:7 Who are you, O great amountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain, and he will 1bring forth the btopstone with cshouts of Grace, grace to it!
Zc 4:8 Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Zc 4:9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the afoundation of this house, and his hands will bfinish it; and you will cknow that Jehovah of hosts has sent Me to you.
Zc 4:10 For who has despised the day of asmall things? For these 1seven rejoice when they see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel; they are the beyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth.
Zc 4:11 Then I answered and said to him, What are these two aolive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left?
Zc 4:12 And I answered a second time and said to him, What are the two olive 1branches that are by the side of the two golden spouts, 2which empty the 3gold from themselves?
Zc 4:13 And he spoke to me, saying, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, sir.
Zc 4:14 And he said, These are the two asons of oil, who stand by the bLord of the whole earth.
ZECHARIAH 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

F. The Vision of the Flying Scroll
5:1-4
Zc 5:1 1Then I lifted up my eyes again and I saw, and there was a 2flying ascroll.
Zc 5:2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a flying scroll, its 1length twenty cubits and its breadth ten cubits.
Zc 5:3 Then he said to me, This is the 1acurse that goes forth over the face of all the land; for everyone who 2steals will be purged according to what is on one side, and everyone who 2swears will be purged according to what is on the other side.
Zc 5:4 I will cause 1it to go forth, declares Jehovah of hosts; and it will enter the house of him who steals and the house of him who swears falsely by My name; and it will lodge overnight within his house and aconsume it, both with its timbers and its stones.
G. The Vision of the Ephah Vessel
5:5-11
Zc 5:5 Then the angel who spoke with me went forth and said to me, Lift up now your eyes and see what this is that goes forth.
Zc 5:6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the 1ephah vessel that goes forth; and he said, This is their 2appearance in all the land;
Zc 5:7 (Then a lead cover was lifted up) and this is a 1woman sitting within the ephah vessel.
Zc 5:8 Then he said, This is Wickedness. And he threw her down into the midst of the ephah vessel and threw the 1lead weight over its opening.
Zc 5:9 Then I lifted up my eyes and I looked, and there were 1two women going forth, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork. And they lifted up the ephah vessel between the earth and the heavens.
Zc 5:10 And I said to the angel who spoke with me, Where are they taking the ephah vessel?
Zc 5:11 And he said to me, 1To build a house for her in the land of aShinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.
ZECHARIAH 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

H. The Vision of the Four Chariots
6:1-8
Zc 6:1 Then I lifted up my eyes again and I looked, and there were 1four chariots coming forth from between the 2two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of 3bronze.
Zc 6:2 With the first chariot were ared 1horses, and with the second chariot were black horses,
Zc 6:3 And with the third chariot were white horses, and with the fourth chariot were strong, speckled horses.
Zc 6:4 And I answered and said to the angel who spoke with me, What are these, sir?
Zc 6:5 And the angel answered and said to me, These are the afour winds of heaven who go forth from presenting themselves to the Lord of the whole earth.
Zc 6:6 With 1one of the winds the black horses went forth to the land of the anorth, and the white horses went forth after them, and the speckled horses went forth to the land of the south.
Zc 6:7 And the strong horses went forth and sought to proceed to go to and fro on the earth. And He said, Proceed to ago to and fro on the earth; and they went to and fro on the earth.
Zc 6:8 Then He called out to me and spoke to me, saying, See, these who are going forth to the land of the north have given My Spirit 1arest in the land of the north.
I. The Concluding Word to Confirm the Eight Visions by the Crowning of Joshua as a Type of Christ
6:9-15
Zc 6:9 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Zc 6:10 Take from them of the captivity, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have come from Babylon.
Zc 6:11 Indeed, take the silver and gold, and make a 1splendid acrown and put it upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest,
Zc 6:12 And speak to him, saying, Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, saying, Here is a man, whose name is the aShoot; and he will shoot forth from his place and will 1build the btemple of Jehovah.
Zc 6:13 Indeed, it is he who will build the temple of Jehovah; and he will bear majesty and will sit and rule on his throne; and he will be a apriest on his throne; and the counsel of peace will be 1between the two of them.
Zc 6:14 And the splendid crown will be as a 1reminder in the temple of Jehovah to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah.
Zc 6:15 And those who are afar off will come and build the temple of Jehovah, and you will bknow that Jehovah of hosts has sent Me to you. And it will happen, if you fully obey the voice of Jehovah your God.
ZECHARIAH 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

III. The Advice to Israel to Turn from the Vanity of Their Ritualistic Religion
to the Reality of a Godly Life, and the Desire of Jehovah to Restore Israel
7:1 — 8:23
Zc 7:1 And in the fourth year of Darius the king the word of Jehovah came to aZechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chislev.
Zc 7:2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to entreat the favor of Jehovah
Zc 7:3 By speaking to the priests who belong to the house of Jehovah of hosts and to the prophets, saying, Shall I 1weep in the fifth month and separate myself, as I have done these many years?
Zc 7:4 Then the word of Jehovah of hosts came to me, saying,
Zc 7:5 Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, When you afasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even for these bseventy years, was it at all for Me that you fasted?
Zc 7:6 And when you eat and when you drink, are you not the ones eating and are you not the ones drinking?
Zc 7:7 Are not these the words which Jehovah proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous and had cities round about her, when the 1Negev and the lowlands were inhabited?
Zc 7:8 And the word of Jehovah came to Zechariah, saying,
Zc 7:9 Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, saying, Judge with judgment of truth, and show lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother;
Zc 7:10 And do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the stranger and the poor; and let none of you think evil in your hearts about his brother.
Zc 7:11 But they refused to listen, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and closed their ears from hearing;
Zc 7:12 And they set their hearts like adamant so as not to hear the instruction and the words which Jehovah of hosts sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Jehovah of hosts.
Zc 7:13 And as He called and they would not hear, so they called and I would not hear, says Jehovah of hosts;
Zc 7:14 But with a storm I ascattered them away upon all the nations, whom they did not know. Thus the land is desolate behind them, so that no one passes through it and no one returns to it; for they have made the bdesirable land desolate.
ZECHARIAH 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

Zc 8:1 1And the word of Jehovah of hosts came, saying,
Zc 8:2 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I am ajealous for Zion with great jealousy; indeed, I am jealous for her with great wrath.
Zc 8:3 Thus says Jehovah, I areturn to Zion, and I will dwell bwithin Jerusalem; and Jerusalem will be called the cCity of Truth, and the dmountain of Jehovah of hosts, the Holy Mountain.
Zc 8:4 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, Yet again old men and old women will dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in his hand due to the multitude of his days.
Zc 8:5 And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
Zc 8:6 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, If it seems too 1wonderful in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too wonderful in My sight? declares Jehovah of hosts.
Zc 8:7 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I am about to asave My people from the land of the east and from the land of the going down of the sun.
Zc 8:8 And I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem; and they will be My apeople and I will be their God in btruth and in righteousness.
Zc 8:9 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, 1Let your hands be strong, you who in these days hear these words from the mouth of the prophets who were there in the aday when the foundation of the house of Jehovah of hosts, that is, the temple, was laid so that it might be built.
Zc 8:10 For before those days a man’s awages amounted to nothing, and an animal’s wages were nothing; and for him who went out or came in there was no peace, because of the adversary; for I set all men each against his neighbor.
Zc 8:11 But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as I was in the former days, declares Jehovah of hosts;
Zc 8:12 For there will be peace for the seed: The vine will give forth its afruit, and the land will give forth its produce, and the heavens will give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
Zc 8:13 And just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong.
Zc 8:14 For thus says Jehovah of hosts, Just as I intended to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to anger, says Jehovah of hosts, and I did not repent,
Zc 8:15 So again I intend in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; do not fear.
Zc 8:16 These are the things which you shall do: Each man speak atruth to his neighbor; judge with truth and the judgment of peace in your gates;
Zc 8:17 And let none of you think evil in your hearts about his neighbor; and do not love a false oath; for all these are the things I hate, declares Jehovah.
Zc 8:18 Then the word of Jehovah of hosts came to me, saying,
Zc 8:19 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the afifth month and the fast of the bseventh month and the fast of the tenth month will become joy and rejoicing and cheerful feasts to the house of Judah; therefore love truth and peace.
Zc 8:20 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, 1Peoples will again come, even the inhabitants of many cities;
Zc 8:21 And the inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, Let us go at once to entreat the favor of Jehovah and to seek Jehovah of hosts; and the other: I will go too.
Zc 8:22 Indeed, many peoples and strong nations will come to aseek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of Jehovah.
Zc 8:23 Thus says Jehovah of hosts, In those days, from all the 1languages of the anations, ten men will take hold, indeed, they will take hold of the skirt of a Jewish man, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.
ZECHARIAH 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

IV. The Prophecies of Encouragement Centered on Christ
9:1 — 14:21
A. The Prophecy concerning the Nations around Judah in Relation to Israel
9:1-17
1. Concerning the Destruction Carried Out on the Nations around Judah
by Alexander the Great, the King of the Grecian Empire
(336-323 B.C., with the Influence of His Four Successors Extending to 44 B.C.)
vv. 1-7
Zc 9:1 1The burden of the word of Jehovah against the 2land of Hadrach, / And aDamascus will be its resting place / (For Jehovah has an eye on man, / Especially on the tribes of Israel),
Zc 9:2 And Hamath also, which borders on it; / Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise.
Zc 9:3 For aTyre built herself a stronghold / And heaped up silver like dust / And gold like the mire of the streets.
Zc 9:4 The Lord is about to take possession of her, / And He will strike her might in the sea, / And she will be consumed with fire.
Zc 9:5 aAshkelon will see it and be afraid; / Gaza also, and it will writhe much in anguish; / And Ekron, for her expectation will have been confounded. / And the king will perish from Gaza, / And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.
Zc 9:6 And a mixed race will dwell in Ashdod, / And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
Zc 9:7 And I will remove his blood from his mouth / And his detestable things from between his teeth; / And he also will remain unto our God; / And he will be like a leader in Judah, / And Ekron will be like a Jebusite.
2. The Lord Protecting Jerusalem with Its Temple as His House
v. 8
Zc 9:8 And I will aencamp around My 1house because of an army, / Because of him who passes by and returns; / And no oppressor will pass over them anymore; / For now I see with My eyes.
3. Christ Temporarily Welcomed as the King into Jerusalem in a Lowly Form
vv. 9-10
Zc 9:9 1Exult greatly, O adaughter of Zion; / Shout, O bdaughter of Jerusalem! / Now your cKing comes to you. / He is righteous and bears salvation, / Lowly and riding upon a donkey, / Even upon a dcolt, the foal of a donkey,
Zc 9:10 1And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim / And the horse from Jerusalem, / And the battle bow will be cut off; / And He will speak peace unto the nations, / And His adominion will be from sea to sea / And from the 2River unto the ends of the earth.
4. Concerning the Victory of the Jewish Maccabean Heroes over
Antiochus Epiphanes the King of Syria (175-164 B.C.)
vv. 11-17
Zc 9:11 1As for you also, because of the ablood of your covenant, / I have breleased your captives from the pit, where there is no water.
Zc 9:12 Turn to the stronghold, O prisoners with hope. / This very day I am declaring that I will restore adouble to you.
Zc 9:13 For I will bend Judah for Myself, / And I will fill a bow with Ephraim; / And I will stir up your asons, O Zion, / Against your sons, O 1Javan; / And I will make you like a warrior’s sword.
Zc 9:14 And Jehovah will appear above 1them, / And His arrow will go forth like lightning; / And the Lord Jehovah will blow the atrumpet, / And He will go in the whirlwinds of the south.
Zc 9:15 Jehovah of hosts will adefend them; / And they will devour and trample the sling stones. / And they will drink; they will be noisy as if with wine; / And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, / Like the corners of the altar.
Zc 9:16 And Jehovah their God will save them in 1that day as the flock of His people, / For they will be like the stones of a crown, sparkling in His land.
Zc 9:17 For how 1great is their goodness, and how great their beauty! / Grain will make the young men flourish, / And new wine, the virgins.
ZECHARIAH 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

B. The Prophecy concerning the Lord’s Loving Visitation to Israel
10:1-12
Zc 10:1 Ask 1arain of Jehovah / At the time of spring rain, / Of Jehovah who makes the lightning, / And He will give them showers of rain, / To everyone herbage in the field.
Zc 10:2 For the 1teraphim have spoken 2vanity, / And the diviners have seen a lie / And have spoken false dreams; / They comforted in vain. / Therefore the people have wandered like sheep; / They are afflicted because there is ano shepherd.
Zc 10:3 My anger is kindled against the shepherds, / And I will punish the 1amale goats; / For Jehovah of hosts has 2visited His flock, the house of Judah, / And will make them like His 3horse of majesty in battle.
Zc 10:4 From 1him will come forth the cornerstone, from him the apeg, / From him the battle bow, / From him every ruler together.
Zc 10:5 And they will be as mighty men trampling their enemies / In the mire of the streets in the battle; / And they will fight, for Jehovah is with them; / And the riders of horses will be put to shame.
Zc 10:6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, / And I will save the house of Joseph; / And I will abring them back, for I have had compassion on them; / And they will be as though I had not rejected them; / For I am Jehovah their God, and I will answer them.
Zc 10:7 And they of Ephraim will be like a mighty man, / And their hearts will rejoice as if with wine; / Indeed, their children will see it and rejoice; / Their heart will exult in Jehovah.
Zc 10:8 I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them; / And they will amultiply as they have multiplied.
Zc 10:9 And I will asow them among the peoples; and in distant lands they will bremember Me; / And they will live with their children and return.
Zc 10:10 I will also bring them back from the land of aEgypt / And gather them out of Assyria; / And to the land of Gilead and Lebanon I will bring them; / And there will not be enough room found for them.
Zc 10:11 And He will pass through the sea of distress / And strike the waves in the sea, / And all the depths of the Nile will adry up; / And the pride of Assyria will be brought down, / And the scepter of Egypt will depart.
Zc 10:12 And 1I will strengthen them in Jehovah, / And they will awalk about in His name, / Declares Jehovah.
ZECHARIAH 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

C. The Prophecy concerning the Living of Israel under the Oppression of the Roman Empire
11:1-17
1. The Destruction Carried Out in the Neighborhood of Israel by the Roman Empire
vv. 1-3
Zc 11:1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, / That the 1fire may devour your cedars.
Zc 11:2 Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, / Because the majestic trees are devastated. / Howl, O oaks of Bashan, / For the impenetrable forest is brought down.
Zc 11:3 The sound of the howling of shepherds! / For their majesty is devastated. / The sound of the roaring of young lions! / For the pride of Jordan is devastated.
2. The Children of Israel Falling into Their Neighbor’s Hand and into
the Hand of Their Neighbor’s King — Living under the Tyranny of the Roman Empire
vv. 4-6
Zc 11:4 Thus says Jehovah my God, Shepherd the flock of slaughter,
Zc 11:5 Whose owners slaughter them and are not punished; and they who sell them say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I am rich; and their own shepherds do not spare them.
Zc 11:6 For I will no longer spare the inhabitants of the land, declares Jehovah; but I am about to cause each man to fall into his 1neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.
3. Jehovah (as Jesus) Shepherding the Afflicted of the Flock of Israel
vv. 7-11, 14
Zc 11:7 So 1I shepherded the flock of slaughter, and thereby the afflicted of the flock. And I took to myself two staffs; one I called 2Favor, and the other I called Bonds; and I shepherded the flock.
Zc 11:8 Then I destroyed the 1three shepherds in one month; for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also detested me.
Zc 11:9 Then I said, I will not shepherd you. What is to die will die, and what is to be destroyed will be destroyed, and those who are left will each eat one another’s flesh.
Zc 11:10 And I took my staff, Favor, and I 1broke it in pieces so as to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
Zc 11:11 And it was broken in that day; and thus the afflicted of the flock, who watched me, knew that it was the word of Jehovah.
4. The Messiah, as the Proper Shepherd of Israel,
Detested, Attacked, Rejected, and Sold for the Price of a Slave
vv. 12-13
Zc 11:12 And I said to them, If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, 1do not bother. So they weighed out my wages, 2athirty pieces of silver.
Zc 11:13 And Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the apotter, that magnificent price that I am priced with by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter, into the house of Jehovah.
3. Jehovah (as Jesus) Shepherding the Afflicted of the Flock of Israel (cont’d)
v. 14
Zc 11:14 Then I 1broke my second staff, Bonds, in pieces, so as to break the brotherhood abetween Judah and Israel.
5. The Children of Israel Left to the Foolish and Worthless Shepherds
vv. 15-17
Zc 11:15 And Jehovah said to me, Again, take the equipment of a 1foolish shepherd.
Zc 11:16 For I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit those who are perishing, nor seek the scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor sustain what stands, but will devour the flesh of the fat ones and tear off their hooves.
Zc 11:17 Woe to the worthless ashepherd, / Who abandons the flock! / The sword will fall on his arm / And on his right eye. / His arm will be utterly withered, / And his right eye will be totally darkened.
ZECHARIAH 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

D. The Prophecy concerning Israel’s Destiny in the Great War of Armageddon,
in Their Household Salvation, and in the Millennium
12:1 — 14:21
1. In the Great War of Armageddon
12:1-14
Zc 12:1 1The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who astretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the 2bspirit of man within him,
Zc 12:2 I am about to make Jerusalem a acup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples; and when what happens in 1siege is upon Jerusalem, it will be upon Judah as well.
Zc 12:3 And in that aday I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples; all who burden themselves with her will be cut up. Indeed all the nations of the earth will be bgathered against her.
Zc 12:4 In that day, declares Jehovah, I will strike every horse with bewilderment and its arider with madness; and I will open My eyes upon the house of Judah and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
Zc 12:5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem, by Jehovah of hosts their God, are my strength.
Zc 12:6 In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a afire pot on wood and like a torch of fire among sheaves, and they will consume all the surrounding peoples on the right and on the left. And Jerusalem will dwell again in her own place, in Jerusalem.
Zc 12:7 And Jehovah will save the tents of Judah first, so that the beauty of the house of David and the beauty of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be magnified above Judah.
Zc 12:8 In that day Jehovah will adefend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the 1Angel of Jehovah before them.
Zc 12:9 And in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that acome against Jerusalem.
Zc 12:10 And I will apour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the 1bSpirit of grace and of supplications; and they will 2look upon Me, whom 3they have 4cpierced; and they will wail over Him with wailing as for an 5only dson and cry bitterly over Him with bitter crying as for a 5firstborn son.
Zc 12:11 In that day there will be great awailing in Jerusalem, like the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of bMegiddon.
Zc 12:12 And the land will awail, every family by itself: the 1family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of bNathan by itself, and their wives by themselves;
Zc 12:13 The family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves;
Zc 12:14 All the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
ZECHARIAH 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • •

2. The Divine Provision and the Sovereign Preparation for the Household Salvation of Israel
13:1-9
a. The Divine Provision of a Redeemer with His Redemption
vv. 1-7a
Zc 13:1 In that day there will be an 1opened afountain for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, bfor sin and for impurity.
Zc 13:2 And in that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass from the land.
Zc 13:3 And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother, who begot him, will say to him, You shall not live, for you have spoken falsely in the name of Jehovah; and his father and mother, who begot him, will pierce him through when he prophesies.
Zc 13:4 And in that day the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; and they will not wear a ahairy garment in order to deceive.
Zc 13:5 But He will say, I am 1ano prophet; I am a tiller of the ground; for a man sold Me in My youth.
Zc 13:6 And someone will say to Him, What are these awounds between Your arms? And He will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of those who 1love Me.
Zc 13:7 Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, / And against the man who is My 1Fellow, / Declares Jehovah of hosts.
b. The Sovereign Preparation of a People to Receive the Redeemer with His Redemption
vv. 7b-9
aStrike the Shepherd, / That the sheep may be bscattered; / And I will turn My hand upon the 2little ones.
Zc 13:8 And in all the land, declares Jehovah, / 1Two parts in it will be cut off and will die, / But the third part will be left in it.
Zc 13:9 And I will bring the third part through afire / And brefine them as silver is refined / And try them as gold is tried. / They will call on My name, / And I will answer them; / I will say, They are My cpeople, / And they will say, Jehovah is my God.
ZECHARIAH 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

3. In the Millennium
14:1-21
Zc 14:1 Indeed a day is coming for Jehovah when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.
Zc 14:2 For I will agather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be captured, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished; and 1half of the city will go forth into captivity, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Zc 14:3 Then Jehovah will go forth and afight against those nations, as when He fights in a day of battle.
Zc 14:4 And His 1feet will stand in that day on the aMount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split at its middle toward the east and toward the west into a very great valley, so that half of the mountain will remove to the north and half of it to the south.
Zc 14:5 And you will flee into the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach unto Azel; yes, you will flee, just as you fled before the aearthquake in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah. And Jehovah my God will bcome, and all the saints with 1Him.
Zc 14:6 And in that day there will be ano light; 1the shining ones will withdraw.
Zc 14:7 For it will be a kind of day aknown only to Jehovah, neither day nor night; but at evening time there will be light.
Zc 14:8 And in that day 1living awaters will go forth from Jerusalem; half of them toward the 2eastern sea and half of them toward the 3western sea; it will be there in summer and in winter.
Zc 14:9 And Jehovah will be 1aKing over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah will be the one God and His name the one name.
Zc 14:10 All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem will be raised and will dwell in her place, from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of aHananel to the king’s winepresses.
Zc 14:11 And people will dwell in her, and there will be ano more curse, for Jerusalem will bdwell securely.
Zc 14:12 And this will be the plague with which Jehovah will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are standing on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.
Zc 14:13 And in that day a great panic from Jehovah will be among them; and each will seize his neighbor’s hand, and his hand will rise up against his neighbor’s hand.
Zc 14:14 And Judah will also fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered together, gold and silver and garments, in great abundance.
Zc 14:15 And as this plague is, so will the plague be on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey, and all the cattle that are in those camps.
Zc 14:16 And everyone left from all the nations that went forth against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to aworship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the bFeast of Tabernacles.
Zc 14:17 And whichever of the families of the earth does anot go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them there will be 1no rain.
Zc 14:18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and enter, there will be no rain upon them; there will be the plague with which Jehovah strikes the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zc 14:19 This will be the sin of Egypt and the sin of all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zc 14:20 In that day on the horses’ bells will be, aHoliness to Jehovah; and the 1pots in the house of Jehovah will be like the basins before the altar.
Zc 14:21 Indeed every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holiness to Jehovah of hosts; and all those who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them; and there will never again be a 1aCanaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts in that day.
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MALACHI

Chapters
 1   2   3   4  
Outline

Author: Malachi (1:1).
Time of His Ministry: About 430 B.C., at Nehemiah’s time.
Place of His Ministry: Jerusalem.
Object of His Ministry: The Israelites who had returned from captivity.
Subject:
Jehovah’s Dealing with the Sons of Levi (the Priests among Israel) and with the Sons of Jacob (the People of Israel)
MALACHI 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

I. The Introductory Word
1:1
Ml 1:1 The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel through 1Malachi.
II. Jehovah’s Love for Jacob
1:2-5
Ml 1:2 I have aloved you, says Jehovah; but you say, How have You loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother, declares Jehovah? Yet I loved bJacob;
Ml 1:3 But Esau I hated, and I made his mountains a adesolation, and gave his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness.
Ml 1:4 Though 1Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build up the waste places; thus says Jehovah of hosts, They will build up, but I will throw down; and they will be called the territory of wickedness and the people with whom Jehovah is indignant forever.
Ml 1:5 And your eyes will see it, and you yourselves will say, Jehovah is magnified 1over the territory of Israel.
III. Jehovah’s Dealing with the Sons of Levi
1:6 — 3:4
A. The Degradation of the Priests
1:6-14
Ml 1:6 A son honors his father, and a servant his lord. Therefore if I am a aFather, where is My bhonor? And if I am the cLord, where is My dfear? says Jehovah of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, How have we despised Your name?
Ml 1:7 You offer defiled food upon My altar. And you say, How have we defiled You? In that you say, The atable of Jehovah is despicable.
Ml 1:8 And when you offer what is blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer what is lame and sick, is it not evil? Present it, if you will, to your governor. Will he be pleased with you or accept your person? says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 1:9 And now, if you will, entreat the favor of God, that He may be gracious to us. This is what is from your hand. Will He accept any of your persons? says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 1:10 Oh, that there were even someone among you who would shut the doors so that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain! I have no delight in you, says Jehovah of hosts; and I am not pleased with the sacrifice from your hand.
Ml 1:11 For from the arising of the sun even unto its setting My name will be great among the nations. And in every place incense will be offered to My name as well as a pure sacrifice, for My name will be great among the nations, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 1:12 But you profane it by saying, The atable of the Lord is defiled, and the produce on it, its food, is despicable.
Ml 1:13 And you say, Ah, how tiresome it is! and sniff at it in contempt, says Jehovah of hosts. Then you bring what has been stolen and what is lame and what is sick, and you offer it as a sacrifice. Should I be pleased with what comes from your hand? says Jehovah.
Ml 1:14 Rather, cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and when he makes a vow, he offers what is ablemished to the Lord; for I am a great bKing, says Jehovah of hosts, and My name is feared among the nations.
MALACHI 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

B. The Priests’ Breaking of Jehovah’s Commandment and Their Corrupting of Jehovah’s Covenant
2:1-9
Ml 2:1 And now this commandment is for you, O priests.
Ml 2:2 If you will not hear and take it to heart to give glory to My name, says Jehovah of hosts, I will send the curse among you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have cursed them already because you have not taken it to heart.
Ml 2:3 I will rebuke your seed and spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your feasts; and they will take you away with it.
Ml 2:4 And you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My acovenant may remain with Levi, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 2:5 My acovenant was with him as life and peace; and I gave these to him that he might fear; and he did fear Me, and he did stand in awe of My name.
Ml 2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and no wrong was found in his lips; in peace and uprightness he walked with Me, and he turned many away from iniquity.
Ml 2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the amessenger of Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 2:8 But you have turned away from the way; you have caused many to astumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 2:9 Therefore I also have made you despicable and base before all the people to the same extent that you have not kept My ways but have been respecters of persons in the law.
C. The Treachery of Judah (Actually the Priests) and Their Profaneness toward Jehovah
2:10-12
Ml 2:10 Have we not all aone Father? Has not bone God created us? Why are we treacherous, each one to his brother, thus profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Ml 2:11 Judah has been treacherous, and an abomination has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the asanctuary of Jehovah, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
Ml 2:12 As regards the man who does this, Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob him who wakes and him who answers and him who offers a sacrifice to Jehovah of hosts.
D. Jehovah’s Hatred of the Treachery of Man (Mainly Referring to the Priests) toward His Wife
2:13-17
Ml 2:13 And this second thing you do: You cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and sighing, so that He no longer regards the sacrifice or receives it with pleasure from your hand.
Ml 2:14 Yet you say, For what reason? Because Jehovah has been the witness between you and the 1awife of your youth, to whom you have been treacherous; yet she is your companion and your wife of bcovenant.
Ml 2:15 But adid He not make them one? And the remnant of the Spirit was His. And why the one? He sought the 1seed of God. Take heed then to your 2spirit, and let no one be treacherous to the wife of his youth.
Ml 2:16 For I hate adivorce, says Jehovah the God of Israel; and he who does it 1behaves in violence, says Jehovah of hosts. Take heed then to your spirit, and do not be treacherous.
Ml 2:17 You have wearied Jehovah with your words; but you say, How have we wearied Him? By saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and He delights in them; or, Where is the God of justice?
MALACHI 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

E. To Refine and Purify the Priests by His Coming as the Messenger of Jehovah
3:1-4
Ml 3:1 I am about to asend 1My messenger, and he will bclear the way before Me; and suddenly the Lord, whom you seek, will come to His temple. And the 2cAngel of the covenant, whom you 3ddesire, He will come, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 3:2 And who will endure the aday of His coming? And who will bstand when He appears? For He is like a 1refiner’s cfire and like fullers’ soap.
Ml 3:3 And He will sit as a arefiner and a purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold and like silver, and they will offer to Jehovah a sacrifice in righteousness.
Ml 3:4 And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem will be pleasing to Jehovah, as in the days of old and as in the former years.
IV. Jehovah’s Dealing with the Sons of Jacob
3:5 — 4:6
A. Jehovah’s Judgment by His Drawing Near
3:5-6
Ml 3:5 And I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely and against those who aoppress the hired worker for his hire, and the widow and the orphan, and those who turn the 1stranger aside, and who do not fear Me, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 3:6 For I, Jehovah, do anot change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are bnot consumed.
B. Jehovah’s Advice to the Sons of Jacob
3:7-12
Ml 3:7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. aReturn to Me, and I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts. But you say, How shall we return?
Ml 3:8 Will a man 1rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But you say, How have we robbed You? In atithes and offerings.
Ml 3:9 With the curse you are cursed, yet you, even the whole nation, rob Me.
Ml 3:10 Bring the whole atithe to the storehouse that there may be 1food in My house; and prove Me, if you will, by this, says Jehovah of hosts, whether I will open to you the bwindows of heaven and pour out 2cblessing for you until there is no room for it.
Ml 3:11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and for your sake he will not destroy the fruit of the ground; and for your sake the vine will not lose its fruit in the field, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 3:12 And all the nations will call you ablessed, for you will be a bland of delight, says Jehovah of hosts.
C. Jehovah’s Encouragement to Those Who Fear Him and Serve Him
3:13-18
1. The Words of Some of the Sons of Jacob Being Strongly against Jehovah
vv. 13-15
Ml 3:13 Your words have been strongly aagainst Me, says Jehovah; but you say, What have we spoken against You?
Ml 3:14 You say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge and have walked 1mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?
Ml 3:15 And now we call the arrogant blessed; not only have those who act wickedly been built up, but they also try God and escape.
2. The Word of Encouragement by Jehovah
vv. 16-18
Ml 3:16 Then those who feared Jehovah spoke to one another, each with his neighbor. And Jehovah gave heed and listened, and a 1abook of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared Jehovah and considered His name.
Ml 3:17 And they will be aMine, says Jehovah of hosts, a personal treasure, in the 1day that I prepare; and I will spare them, as a man spares his son who serves him.
Ml 3:18 And you will return and discern between him who is righteous and him who is wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.
MALACHI 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • 

D. Jehovah’s Warning by the Day of Jehovah
4:1-6
Ml 4:1 For indeed the 1aday comes, bburning like a furnace, and all the proud ones and all the ones who act wickedly will be cstubble; and the coming day will set them ablaze, says Jehovah of hosts, so that it will not leave them root or branch.
Ml 4:2 But unto you who fear My name will the 1aSun of righteousness arise with 2bhealing in His wings, and you will go forth and leap about like well-fed calves.
Ml 4:3 And you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I prepare, says Jehovah of hosts.
Ml 4:4 Remember the alaw of Moses My servant, which I commanded him in bHoreb for all Israel, that is, the 1statutes and the 1ordinances.
Ml 4:5 I am about to send 1aElijah the prophet to you before the great and terrible 2bday of Jehovah comes;
Ml 4:6 And he will aturn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a bcurse.
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 
Outline

Author: Matthew, also called Levi, formerly a tax collector, later an apostle (9:9; Luke 5:27), as indicated by the omitted reference to him as the host of the reception in 9:10 and by the special mentioning of him as the tax collector in 10:3.
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 37-40, shortly after the Lord’s resurrection (28:15) and prior to the destruction of the temple (24:2).
Place of Writing: Probably the land of Judea.
Recipients: The Jews in general, as indicated by the absence of explanations about Jewish customs and festivals (15:2, cf. Mark 7:2-3; Matt. 26:17, cf. Mark 14:12).
Subject:
The Gospel of the Kingdom — Proving That Jesus Christ Is the King-Savior
MATTHEW 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

I. The King’s Antecedents and Status
1:1 — 2:23
A. His Genealogy and Office — Called Christ
1:1-17
Mt 1:1 The book of the ageneration of 1Jesus 2bChrist, the 3cson of David, the 4dson of Abraham:
Mt 1:2 Abraham begot 1aIsaac, and Isaac begot 2bJacob, and Jacob begot 3cJudah and his 4dbrothers,
Mt 1:3 And Judah begot 1aPharez and Zarah of 2Tamar, and Pharez begot bHezron, and Hezron begot Aram,
Mt 1:4 And Aram begot Aminadab, and Aminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon,
Mt 1:5 And Salmon begot Boaz of 1aRahab, and 2bBoaz begot Obed of 3cRuth, and Obed begot 4dJesse,
Mt 1:6 And Jesse begot 1aDavid the 2bking. And David begot 3cSolomon of her who had been the 4dwife of Uriah,
Mt 1:7 And Solomon begot 1aRehoboam, and Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa,
Mt 1:8 And Asa begot Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and 1Joram begot Uzziah,
Mt 1:9 And Uzziah begot Jotham, and Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah,
Mt 1:10 And Hezekiah begot Manasseh, and Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.
Mt 1:11 And 1Josiah begot 2aJeconiah and his 3brothers at the time of the 4bdeportation to Babylon.
Mt 1:12 And after the 1deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah begot aSalathiel, and Salathiel begot 2bZerubbabel,
Mt 1:13 And Zerubbabel begot Abiud, and Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor,
Mt 1:14 And Azor begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud,
Mt 1:15 And Eliud begot Eleazar, and Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob,
Mt 1:16 And 1Jacob begot 2aJoseph the husband of 3bMary, of whom was cborn dJesus, who is called 4eChrist.
Mt 1:17 Thus 1all the generations from Abraham 2until David are fourteen generations, and from David 3until the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon 4until the Christ, fourteen generations.
[A Chart of the Generation of Jesus Christ]
B. His Origin and Name — Born a God-man, Named Jesus, Called Emmanuel by Men
1:18-25
Mt 1:18 Now the aorigin of Jesus Christ was in this way: His mother, bMary, after she had been engaged to Joseph, before they came together, was found to be with child 1of the cHoly Spirit.
Mt 1:19 And Joseph her husband, being 1arighteous and not willing to bdisgrace her openly, intended to 2send her away secretly.
Mt 1:20 But while he pondered these things, behold, an aangel of the Lord appeared to him in a bdream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which has been 1begotten in her is 2of the cHoly Spirit.
Mt 1:21 And she will bear a ason, and you shall call His name 1bJesus, for it is He who will csave His people from their sins.
Mt 1:22 Now all this has happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the 1prophet might be afulfilled, saying,
Mt 1:23 “Behold, the avirgin shall be with child and shall bear a 1son, and they shall call His name 2bEmmanuel” (which is translated, cGod 3with us).
Mt 1:24 And when Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to himself his wife.
Mt 1:25 And he did not know her until she 1bore a son. And he called His name aJesus.
MATTHEW 2

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C. His Youth and Growth — Called a Nazarene
2:1-23
1. Sought and Worshipped by the Gentile Magi
vv. 1-12
Mt 2:1 Now after Jesus was aborn in 1bBethlehem of Judea in the days of cHerod the king, behold, dmagi from the eeast arrived in Jerusalem,
Mt 2:2 Saying, Where is He who has been born 1aKing of the Jews? For we saw His 2bstar at its rising and have come to cworship Him.
Mt 2:3 And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
Mt 2:4 And gathering together all the chief 1apriests and bscribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
Mt 2:5 And they said to him, In aBethlehem of Judea, for so it is written through the prophet:
Mt 2:6 a“And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, by no means are you the least among the 1princes of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a bRuler, One who will cshepherd My people Israel.”
2. Envied by Herod the King
vv. 7-8
Mt 2:7 Then Herod, secretly calling the magi, determined accurately from them the time that the star appeared.
Mt 2:8 And sending them to Bethlehem, he said, Go and find out accurately about the child. And when you find Him, report to me, so that I also may come and worship Him.
Mt 2:9 And after they heard the king, they went their way, and behold, the 1astar which they saw at its rising led them until it came and stood over the place where the child was.
Mt 2:10 And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
Mt 2:11 And they came into the 1house and saw the achild with bMary His mother. And falling down, they 2worshipped Him; and opening their treasures, they offered 3cgifts to Him, dgold and efrankincense and fmyrrh.
Mt 2:12 And because they had been divinely instructed in a adream not to 1return to Herod, they departed by 2another way to their country.
3. Fleeing to Egypt
vv. 13-15
Mt 2:13 Now when they had departed, behold, an aangel of the Lord appeared in a bdream to Joseph, saying, Arise, take the child and His mother and flee into cEgypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is going to seek the child to destroy Him.
Mt 2:14 And he arose and took the child and His mother by night and departed into Egypt,
Mt 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod, in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be 1afulfilled, saying, b“Out of Egypt I called My 2cSon.”
4. Sought by Herod the King for Destruction
vv. 16-18
Mt 2:16 Then Herod, seeing that he had been mocked by the magi, became greatly enraged, and sending out men, he 1did away with all the boys who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders from two years old and under, according to the time that he had accurately determined from the magi.
Mt 2:17 At that time what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was afulfilled, saying,
Mt 2:18 a“A voice in Ramah was heard, weeping and great lamentation: 1Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are no more.”
5. Returning to Dwell in Nazareth
vv. 19-23
Mt 2:19 And when Herod had died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a adream to Joseph in Egypt,
Mt 2:20 Saying, Arise, take the child and His mother and go into the land of Israel, for those who seek the 1life of the child have adied.
Mt 2:21 And he arose and took the child and His mother and entered into the land of Israel.
Mt 2:22 But because he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; and having been divinely instructed in a adream, he departed into the regions of 1bGalilee.
Mt 2:23 And he came and settled in a city called 1aNazareth, so that what was spoken through the 2prophets might be bfulfilled, He shall be called a 3Nazarene.
MATTHEW 3

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II. The King’s Anointing
3:1 — 4:11
A. Recommended
3:1-12
Mt 3:1 Now in those days 1aJohn the Baptist appeared, preaching in the 2bwilderness of Judea
Mt 3:2 And saying, 1aRepent, for the 2bkingdom of the heavens has 3drawn near.
Mt 3:3 For this is he who was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, a“A voice of one crying in the 1wilderness, 2bPrepare the way of the Lord; 2make straight His paths.”
Mt 3:4 Now this John had his garment of 1acamel’s hair and a bleather girdle around his loins, and his food was 1clocusts and wild honey.
Mt 3:5 At that time aJerusalem and all Judea and all the surrounding region of the bJordan went out to him,
Mt 3:6 And they were 1abaptized by him in the 2bJordan River as they cconfessed their sins.
Mt 3:7 But when he saw many of the 1aPharisees and 2bSadducees coming to his cbaptism, he said to them, Offspring of dvipers, who prompted you to flee from the coming ewrath?
Mt 3:8 Produce then fruit aworthy of your repentance.
Mt 3:9 And do not presume to say within yourselves, We have aAbraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able, out of these bstones, to 1raise up cchildren to Abraham.
Mt 3:10 And already the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every atree therefore that does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the bfire.
Mt 3:11 I baptize you in awater unto brepentance, but cHe who is coming after me is stronger than I, whose dsandals I am not worthy to carry. He Himself will baptize you in the Holy eSpirit and 1ffire,
Mt 3:12 Whose awinnowing fan is in His hand. And He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing floor and will bgather His 1wheat into the barn, but the 1chaff He will burn up with unquenchable cfire.
B. Anointed
3:13-17
Mt 3:13 Then Jesus came from aGalilee to the Jordan to John to be 1bbaptized by him.
Mt 3:14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, It is I who have need of being baptized by You, and You come to me?
Mt 3:15 But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to afulfill all 1righteousness. Then he permitted Him.
Mt 3:16 And 1having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the 2heavens were aopened to Him, and He saw the 3Spirit of God descending like a 4bdove and coming cupon Him.
Mt 3:17 And behold, a avoice out of the heavens, saying, 1This is My bSon, the Beloved, in whom I have found My cdelight.
MATTHEW 4

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C. Tested
4:1-11
Mt 4:1 Then 1Jesus was led up into the awilderness by the Spirit to be 2btempted by the 3cdevil.
Mt 4:2 And when He had afasted 1bforty days and forty nights, afterward He became chungry.
Mt 4:3 And the 1atempter came and said to Him, If You are the 2bSon of God, speak that these 3stones may become loaves of bread.
Mt 4:4 But He answered and said, 1It is written, 2a“Man shall not live on 3bread alone, but on every 4bword that proceeds out through the 5mouth of God.”
Mt 4:5 Then the devil took Him into the aholy city and set Him on the 1wing of the 2btemple,
Mt 4:6 And said to Him, If You are the aSon of God, 1cast Yourself down; for 2it is written, b“To His angels He shall give charge concerning You, and on their hands they shall bear You up, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.”
Mt 4:7 Jesus said to him, 1Again, it is written, a“You shall not 2test the Lord your God.”
Mt 4:8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the 1akingdoms of the bworld and their cglory.
Mt 4:9 And he said to Him, 1All these will I give You if You will fall down and aworship me.
Mt 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, Go away, 1aSatan! For it is written, b“You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him 2conly shall you serve.”
Mt 4:11 Then the devil 1left Him, and behold, 2aangels came and ministered to Him.
III. The King’s Ministry
4:12 — 11:30
A. The Beginning of the Ministry
4:12-25
Mt 4:12 Now when He heard that aJohn was delivered up, He 1withdrew into bGalilee.
Mt 4:13 And leaving aNazareth, He came and dwelt in bCapernaum, which is beside the sea in the borders of cZebulun and dNaphtali,
Mt 4:14 In order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying,
Mt 4:15 a“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, 1Galilee of the Gentiles:
Mt 4:16 The people sitting in darkness have seen a 1great alight; and to those sitting in the region and shadow of death, to them light has risen.”
Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim and to say, 1aRepent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.
Mt 4:18 And while He was walking abeside the 1Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, bSimon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, 2casting a 3net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Mt 4:19 And He said to them, aCome after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Mt 4:20 And immediately leaving the nets, they 1afollowed Him.
Mt 4:21 And going on from there, He saw another two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and aJohn his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, 1mending their nets; and He bcalled them.
Mt 4:22 And immediately leaving the boat and their father, they 1afollowed Him.
Mt 4:23 And Jesus went about in all of Galilee, teaching in their 1asynagogues and proclaiming the 2bgospel of the kingdom and chealing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Mt 4:24 And the report concerning Him went out into all of Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those afflicted with various diseases and torments and those apossessed by demons and epileptics and paralytics; and He healed them.
Mt 4:25 And great 1acrowds followed Him from Galilee and 2Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
MATTHEW 5

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B. The Decree of the Kingdom’s Constitution
5:1 — 7:29
1. Concerning the Nature of the Kingdom People
5:1-12
Mt 5:1 And when He saw the acrowds, He 1went up to the bmountain. And after He sat down, His 2disciples came to Him.
Mt 5:2 And aopening His mouth, He taught them, saying,
Mt 5:3 1Blessed are the 2apoor in 3spirit, for theirs is the 4bkingdom of the heavens.
Mt 5:4 Blessed are those who 1amourn, for they shall be 2bcomforted.
[A Chart Showing the Difference Between the Kingdom of the Heavens and the Kingdom of God]
Mt 5:5 Blessed are the 1ameek, for they shall 2binherit the earth.
Mt 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and athirst for 1brighteousness, for they shall be 2csatisfied.
Mt 5:7 Blessed are the 1amerciful, for they shall be 2shown mercy.
Mt 5:8 Blessed are the 1apure in heart, for they shall 2bsee God.
Mt 5:9 Blessed are the 1apeacemakers, for they shall be called the 2bsons of God.
Mt 5:10 Blessed are those who are 1apersecuted for the sake of brighteousness, for 2theirs is the ckingdom of the heavens.
Mt 5:11 Blessed are you when they 1areproach and bpersecute you, and while speaking lies, say every cevil thing against you 2because of Me.
Mt 5:12 aRejoice and exult, for your 1breward is great in the heavens; for so they cpersecuted the 2prophets who were before you.
2. Concerning the Influence of the Kingdom People
5:13-16
Mt 5:13 1You are the 2asalt of the earth. But if the salt has become 3btasteless, with what shall it be salted? It is cno longer good for anything except to be 4dcast out and 5trampled underfoot by men.
Mt 5:14 You are the 1alight of the world. It is impossible for a 2bcity situated upon a mountain to be hidden.
Mt 5:15 Nor do men light a alamp and place it under the 1bushel, but on the 2blampstand; and it shines to all who are in the house.
Mt 5:16 In the same way, let your light ashine before men, so that they may see your 1bgood works and 2cglorify your 3Father who is in the heavens.
3. Concerning the Law of the Kingdom People
5:17-48
Mt 5:17 1Do not think that I have come to abolish the alaw or the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to 2bfulfill.
Mt 5:18 For truly I say to you, Until 1aheaven and earth pass away, one 2iota or one 3serif shall by no means pass away from the law until all come to pass.
Mt 5:19 Therefore whoever annuls one of the aleast of these 1commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called the bleast in the ckingdom of the heavens; but whoever practices and teaches them, he shall be called dgreat in the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 5:20 For I say to you that unless your 1arighteousness surpasses that of the 2scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means 3benter into the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 5:21 You have heard that it was said to the ancients, a“You shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be liable to the bjudgment.”
Mt 5:22 But 1I say to you that everyone who is 2aangry with his 3brother shall be liable to the 4bjudgment. And whoever says to his 3brother, 5Raca, shall be liable to the judgment of the 6cSanhedrin; and whoever says, 7Moreh, shall be liable to the 8dGehenna of fire.
Mt 5:23 Therefore if you are offering your 1agift at the 2baltar and there you remember that your cbrother has 3something against you,
Mt 5:24 Leave your gift there before the altar, and 1first go and 2be areconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Mt 5:25 Be well disposed 1quickly toward your 2aopponent at law, while you are with him 3on the way, lest the opponent 4deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.
Mt 5:26 Truly I say to you, You shall by no means 1come out from there until you apay the last 2quadrans.
Mt 5:27 You have heard that it was said, a“You shall not commit adultery.”
Mt 5:28 But I say to you that everyone who alooks at a woman in order to lust after her has already committed badultery with her in his 1cheart.
Mt 5:29 So if your right aeye stumbles you, 1pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into 2bGehenna.
Mt 5:30 And if your right ahand stumbles you, 1cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to pass away into bGehenna.
Mt 5:31 And it was said, aWhoever 1divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.
Mt 5:32 But I say to you that 1everyone who adivorces his wife, except for the cause of 2fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries her who has been divorced commits adultery.
Mt 5:33 Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, 1a“You shall not break an oath, but you shall 2brender to the Lord your oaths.”
Mt 5:34 But I tell you anot to swear at all; neither by 1bheaven, because it is the throne of God;
Mt 5:35 Nor by the aearth, because it is the footstool of His feet; nor unto Jerusalem, because it is the bcity of the great King;
Mt 5:36 Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
Mt 5:37 But let your word be, 1aYes, yes; No, no; for anything more than these is 2of 3the bevil one.
Mt 5:38 You have heard that it was said, a“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”
Mt 5:39 But I tell you anot to resist him who is evil; rather whoever bslaps you on your right cheek, 1turn to him the other also.
Mt 5:40 And to him who wishes to asue you and take your 1tunic, yield to him your cloak also;
Mt 5:41 And whoever compels you to go one 1mile, go with him two.
Mt 5:42 To him who asks of you, 1agive; and from him who wants to bborrow from you, do not turn away.
Mt 5:43 You have heard that it was said, a“You shall love your neighbor and hate your benemy.”
Mt 5:44 But I say to you, aLove your enemies, and bpray for those who cpersecute you,
Mt 5:45 So that you may become 1asons of your Father who is in the heavens, because He causes His sun to brise on the evil and the good and 2sends crain on the just and the unjust.
Mt 5:46 For if you alove those who love you, what 1reward do you have? Do not even the 2tax collectors do the same?
Mt 5:47 And if you greet only your brothers, what better thing are you doing? Do not even the aGentiles do the same?
Mt 5:48 You therefore shall be 1aperfect bas your heavenly Father is perfect.
MATTHEW 6

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4. Concerning the Righteous Deeds of the Kingdom People
6:1-18
Mt 6:1 1But take care not to do your 2righteousness 3before men in order to be agazed at by them; otherwise, you have no reward with your 4Father who is in the heavens.
Mt 6:2 Therefore when you agive alms, do not 1sound a trumpet before you as the 2bhypocrites do in the 3synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be cglorified by men. Truly I say to you, They have their reward in full.
Mt 6:3 But you, when you give alms, do not let your 1left hand know what your right hand is doing,
Mt 6:4 So that your alms may be in 1asecret; and your Father who 2sees in secret will 3brepay you.
Mt 6:5 And when you pray, you shall not be like the ahypocrites, because they love to bpray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, They have 1their reward in full.
Mt 6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your 1private room, and ashut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in bsecret will repay you.
Mt 6:7 And in praying do 1not babble empty words as the Gentiles do; for they suppose that in their amultiplicity of words they will be heard.
Mt 6:8 Therefore do not be like them, for your Father aknows the things that you have need of before you 1ask Him.
Mt 6:9 aYou then pray 1in this way: Our bFather who is in the heavens, 2Your name be csanctified;
Mt 6:10 Your akingdom come; Your bwill be done, as in heaven, so also on 1earth.
Mt 6:11 1Give us 2today our 3daily bread.
Mt 6:12 And 1aforgive us our debts, as we also have 1forgiven our debtors.
Mt 6:13 And do 1not bring us into atemptation, but bdeliver us from 2the cevil one. 3For Yours is the 4dkingdom and the epower and the fglory forever. 5gAmen.
Mt 6:14 1For if you aforgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also;
Mt 6:15 But if you do anot forgive men their offenses, neither will your Father forgive your offenses.
Mt 6:16 And when you 1afast, do not be like the sullen-faced hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that they may bappear to men to be fasting. Truly I say to you, They have their reward in full.
Mt 6:17 But you, when you fast, aanoint your head and wash your face,
Mt 6:18 So that you may not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in asecret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
5. Concerning the Material Riches of the Kingdom People
6:19-34
Mt 6:19 1Do anot store up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where bmoth and rust consume and where thieves dig through and steal.
Mt 6:20 But 1store up for yourselves atreasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not bdig through nor steal.
Mt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your 1aheart be also.
Mt 6:22 The alamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is 1single, your whole body will be full of light;
Mt 6:23 But if your eye is 1evil, your whole body will be dark. If then the 2light that is in you is adarkness, how great is the darkness!
Mt 6:24 No one can 1serve atwo masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will 2hold to one and despise the other. You cannot 1serve God and 3bmammon.
Mt 6:25 Because of this, I say to you, aDo not be banxious for your 1life, what you should eat or what you should drink; nor for your body, what you should put on. Is not the 1life 2more than food, and the body than clothing?
Mt 6:26 Look at the abirds of heaven. They do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father nourishes them. Are you not of more value than they?
Mt 6:27 Who among you by being anxious can add one cubit to 1his stature?
Mt 6:28 And why are you aanxious concerning bclothing? Consider well the 1clilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil, neither do they spin thread.
Mt 6:29 But I tell you that not even aSolomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these.
Mt 6:30 And if God so arrays the agrass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is cast into the furnace, will He not much more bclothe you, you of clittle faith?
Mt 6:31 Therefore do not be aanxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?
Mt 6:32 For all these things the Gentiles are anxiously seeking. For your 1heavenly Father knows that you aneed all these things.
Mt 6:33 But seek first His 1akingdom and His 1brighteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Mt 6:34 Therefore do not be aanxious for 1btomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself; sufficient for the day is its own 2evil.
MATTHEW 7

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6. Concerning the Principles of the Kingdom People in Dealing with Others
7:1-12
Mt 7:1 1aDo 2not judge, that you be not judged.
Mt 7:2 For 1with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what ameasure you measure, it shall be measured to you.
Mt 7:3 And why do you look at the asplinter which is in your brother’s eye, but the beam in your eye you do not 1consider?
Mt 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the splinter from your eye, and behold, the beam is in your eye?
Mt 7:5 1aHypocrite, first remove the beam from your eye, and then you will 2see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.
Mt 7:6 Do not give 1that which is aholy to the 2bdogs, neither cast your 1cpearls before the 2dhogs, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn and tear you.
Mt 7:7 1aAsk and it shall be given to you; bseek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.
Mt 7:8 For everyone who 1asks receives, and he who 2seeks finds, and to him who 3knocks it shall be opened.
Mt 7:9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks him for a aloaf, will give him a stone?
Mt 7:10 Or also when he asks for a afish, will give him a serpent?
Mt 7:11 If you then being aevil know how to give good gifts to your children, 1how much more will your Father who is in the heavens give 2bgood things to those who ask Him!
Mt 7:12 Therefore all that you wish men would ado to you, so also you do to them; for this is the 1blaw and the prophets.
7. Concerning the Ground of the Kingdom People’s Living and Work
7:13-29
Mt 7:13 1Enter in through the anarrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that 2leads to 3bdestruction, and many are those who enter through it.
Mt 7:14 Because 1anarrow is the bgate and constricted is the cway that leads to 2life, and dfew are those who find it.
Mt 7:15 Beware of afalse prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are 1ravenous bwolves.
Mt 7:16 By their afruits you will recognize them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or bfigs from thistles?
Mt 7:17 Even so every agood tree produces bgood fruit, but the corrupt tree produces cbad fruit.
Mt 7:18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.
Mt 7:19 Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and acast into the fire.
Mt 7:20 So then, by their afruits you will recognize them.
Mt 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, aLord, Lord, will 1benter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who cdoes the dwill of My Father who is in the heavens.
Mt 7:22 Many will say to Me in 1that day, Lord, Lord, was it not in Your name that we prophesied, and in Your name acast out demons, and in Your name did many bworks of power?
Mt 7:23 And then I will declare to them: I never 1aknew you. bDepart from Me, you workers of clawlessness.
Mt 7:24 aEveryone therefore who hears these words of Mine and bdoes them shall be likened to a cprudent man who built his house upon the 1drock.
Mt 7:25 And the 1rain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and they beat against that house; and it did 2not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Mt 7:26 And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does anot do them shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the 1sand.
Mt 7:27 And the arain descended, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and they dashed against that house; and it 1fell, and its fall was great.
Mt 7:28 And when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were aastounded at His teaching,
Mt 7:29 For He taught them aas One having 1bauthority and not like their scribes.
MATTHEW 8

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C. The Continuation of the Ministry
8:1 — 9:34
1. Signs with Dispensational Significance
8:1-17
Mt 8:1 And when He 1came down from the amountain, great bcrowds followed Him.
Mt 8:2 aAnd behold, a 1bleper, coming near, 2cworshipped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can cleanse me.
Mt 8:3 And stretching out His hand, He 1atouched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed! And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Mt 8:4 And Jesus said to him, See that you tell ano one; but go, 1show yourself to the bpriest, and offer the cgift which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.
Mt 8:5 aAnd when He entered into bCapernaum, a 1ccenturion came to Him, beseeching Him
Mt 8:6 And saying, Lord, my servant is lying in the house paralyzed, terribly tormented.
Mt 8:7 And He said to him, I will come and heal him.
Mt 8:8 But the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not fit for You to enter under my roof; but only speak a aword, and my servant will be healed.
Mt 8:9 For I also am a man under 1authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.
Mt 8:10 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed, Truly I say to you, 1With no one in Israel have I found such great faith.
Mt 8:11 But I say to you that many will come 1afrom the east and the west and will recline at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the 2kingdom of the heavens,
Mt 8:12 But the 1sons of the kingdom will be acast out into the 2outer darkness. In that place there will be the 3bweeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Mt 8:13 And Jesus said to the centurion, Go; as you have believed, so be it adone to you. And his servant was healed in that bhour.
Mt 8:14 aAnd Jesus, coming into Peter’s house, saw 1his bmother-in-law lying down and in a fever.
Mt 8:15 And He atouched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served Him.
Mt 8:16 And when evening fell, they brought to Him 1many who were demon-possessed, and He cast out the spirits with a aword, and 1all those who were ill He healed,
Mt 8:17 So that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be afulfilled, saying, 1b“He Himself took away our infirmities and cbore our diseases.”
2. The Way to Follow the King
8:18-22
Mt 8:18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to 1depart to the other side.
Mt 8:19 aAnd a scribe came near and said to Him, Teacher, I will 1follow You wherever You 2go.
Mt 8:20 And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have roosts, but the 1aSon of Man has 2nowhere to lay His head.
Mt 8:21 And another of the disciples said to Him, Lord, apermit me first to 1go and bury my father.
Mt 8:22 But Jesus said to him, aFollow Me, and let the 1bdead bury their own 1cdead.
3. The Authority of the King
8:23 — 9:8
a. Over the Winds and the Sea
8:23-27
Mt 8:23 aAnd when He stepped into the boat, His disciples followed Him.
Mt 8:24 And behold, there arose a great 1atempest in the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves; but He was sleeping.
Mt 8:25 And they came near and roused Him, saying, Lord, asave us; we are perishing!
Mt 8:26 And He said to them, Why are you acowardly, you of blittle 1faith? Then He arose and 2crebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a 3great dcalm.
Mt 8:27 And the men marveled, saying, What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea 1obey Him?
b. Over the Demons
8:28-34
Mt 8:28 aAnd when He came to the other side, into the region of the Gadarenes, two possessed by demons met Him, as they were coming out of the tombs, so exceedingly fierce that no one was able to pass by on that road.
Mt 8:29 And behold, they cried out, saying, 1aWhat do we have to do with You, 2bSon of God? Have You come here 3before the ctime to torment us?
Mt 8:30 Now there was, a good way off from them, a herd of many hogs feeding.
Mt 8:31 And the demons 1entreated Him, saying, If You cast us out, send us into the herd of hogs.
Mt 8:32 And He said to them, 1Go! And they came out and went into the hogs. And behold, the whole herd 2rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and they died in the waters.
Mt 8:33 And those who were feeding them fled and went away into the city and reported everything, including what had happened to those possessed by demons.
Mt 8:34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they entreated Him to 1adepart from their borders.
MATTHEW 9

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c. To Forgive Sins
9:1-8
Mt 9:1 And stepping into a boat, He crossed over and came to His 1aown city.
Mt 9:2 aAnd behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And Jesus, 1seeing their bfaith, said to the paralytic, Take ccourage, child; your 2sins are dforgiven.
Mt 9:3 And behold, some of the 1scribes said within themselves, This man 2ablasphemes.
Mt 9:4 And Jesus, 1aknowing their 2thoughts, said, Why are you bthinking evil things in your hearts?
Mt 9:5 For which is 1easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, 2Rise and walk?
Mt 9:6 But that you may know that the aSon of Man has 1authority on earth to bforgive sins — then He said to the paralytic, Rise, 2ctake up your bed and 3go to your house.
Mt 9:7 And he 1rose and went away to his house.
Mt 9:8 And when the crowds saw this, they afeared and bglorified God, who had given such authority to men.
4. Rejoicing with the Sinners
9:9-13
Mt 9:9 aAnd as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man sitting at the tax office, called 1bMatthew, and He said to him, 2cFollow Me. And he rose and 3followed Him.
Mt 9:10 And as He was reclining at table in the 1house, behold, many 2atax collectors and bsinners came and reclined together with Jesus and His disciples.
Mt 9:11 And when the 1Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, 2Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?
Mt 9:12 Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a 1physician, but those who are 2ill.
Mt 9:13 But go and 1learn what this means, a“I desire 2mercy and not bsacrifice,” for I did not come to call the 3crighteous, but dsinners.
5. Being Incompatible with Religion
9:14-17
Mt 9:14 aThen the bdisciples of John came to Him, saying, 1Why do we and the Pharisees 2cfast 3much, but Your ddisciples do 4not fast?
Mt 9:15 And Jesus said to them, The 1sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn as long as the 2abridegroom is with them, can they? But bdays will come when the bridegroom will be 3taken away from them, and then they will cfast.
Mt 9:16 No one puts a patch of 1unfulled cloth on an 2old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.
Mt 9:17 Neither do they put 1new wine into 2aold wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into 3bfresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
6. Signs with Dispensational Significance Repeated
9:18-34
Mt 9:18 1aAs He was speaking these things to them, behold, a 2ruler came and bworshipped Him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.
Mt 9:19 And Jesus rose and followed him, and so did His disciples.
Mt 9:20 And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a 1ahemorrhage for 2twelve years 3approached from behind and touched the 4bfringe of His garment,
Mt 9:21 For she said within herself, If only I atouch His garment, 1I will be 2healed.
Mt 9:22 And Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Take acourage, daughter; your bfaith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that hour.
Mt 9:23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s 1house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,
Mt 9:24 He said, Depart, for the girl has not died but is asleeping. And they laughed scornfully at Him.
Mt 9:25 But when the 1crowd had been aput out, He entered and btook hold of her hand, and the girl 2rose up.
Mt 9:26 And this areport went out into all that land.
Mt 9:27 aAnd as Jesus passed on from there, two 1blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, Have mercy on us, 2bSon of David!
Mt 9:28 And when He came into the 1house, the blind men came to Him; and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.
Mt 9:29 Then He atouched their eyes, saying, According to your bfaith, let it be cdone to you.
Mt 9:30 And their 1aeyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them saying, bSee that no one knows!
Mt 9:31 But they went out and aspread reports about Him in all that land.
Mt 9:32 And as they were going out, behold, they brought to Him a 1adumb man possessed with a demon.
Mt 9:33 And when the demon was cast out, the dumb man 1aspoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, Never has anything like this been bseen in Israel.
Mt 9:34 But the Pharisees said, By the 1aruler of the demons He casts out the demons.
D. The Enlargement of the Ministry
9:35 — 11:1
1. The Need of Shepherding and Reaping
9:35-38
Mt 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and the avillages, bteaching in their synagogues and preaching the 1gospel of the kingdom and healing 2every disease and every sickness.
Mt 9:36 And seeing the crowds, He was moved with acompassion for them, because they were 1harassed and cast away like 2bsheep not having a 2shepherd.
Mt 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, The 1aharvest is great, but the workers few;
Mt 9:38 Therefore 1beseech the 2Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out aworkers 3into His harvest.
MATTHEW 10

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2. The Selection and Sending Out of the Workers
10:1-5a
Mt 10:1 aAnd He called His 1twelve disciples to Him and gave them 2authority over unclean spirits, so that they would cast them out and bheal every disease and every sickness.
Mt 10:2 aAnd the names of the twelve 1apostles are these: first, bSimon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and cJames the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Mt 10:3 aPhilip and Bartholomew; bThomas and 1cMatthew the 2tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and 3Thaddaeus;
Mt 10:4 Simon the 1Cananaean, and Judas 2aIscariot, who also 3betrayed Him.
Mt 10:5 These twelve Jesus asent forth, charging them,
3. The Way to Spread the Gospel of the Kingdom to the House of Israel
10:5b-15
saying, Do not go into the way of the 1bGentiles, and do not enter into any city of the 1cSamaritans.
Mt 10:6 But go rather to the lost asheep of the house of bIsrael.
Mt 10:7 And as you go, proclaim, saying, The akingdom of the heavens has 1drawn near.
Mt 10:8 aHeal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. bFreely you have received; freely give.
Mt 10:9 aDo 1not acquire for yourselves gold nor silver nor copper for your belts;
Mt 10:10 No bag for the journey nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff; for the aworker is worthy of his food.
Mt 10:11 And into whatever city or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy; and there remain until you depart.
Mt 10:12 And as you enter into the house, greet it.
Mt 10:13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
Mt 10:14 And whoever does not receive you nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or city, ashake off the dust from your feet.
Mt 10:15 Truly I say to you, It will be 1more tolerable for the land of aSodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
4. Persecution and the Way to Meet It
10:16-33
Mt 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as asheep in the midst of bwolves. Be therefore 1prudent as cserpents and guileless as ddoves.
Mt 10:17 And abeware of men, for they will 1deliver you up to 2bsanhedrins, and in their synagogues they will cscourge you.
Mt 10:18 And you will also be brought before 1governors and akings for My sake, for a btestimony to them and to the Gentiles.
Mt 10:19 aBut when they deliver you up, do not be banxious about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;
Mt 10:20 For you are not the ones speaking, but the 1aSpirit of your Father is the One speaking in you.
Mt 10:21 And 1brother will deliver up brother to death, and father his child; and achildren will rise up against their parents and put them to death.
Mt 10:22 And you will be ahated by all because of My name. But he who has bendured to the end, this one shall be 1saved.
Mt 10:23 And when they persecute you in this acity, bflee into another. For truly I say to you, You shall by no means 1finish the cities of Israel until the cSon of Man comes.
Mt 10:24 A adisciple is not 1above the teacher, nor a bslave above his master.
Mt 10:25 It is sufficient for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the Master of the house 1aBeelzebul, how much more those of His household!
Mt 10:26 aTherefore do not fear them; for there is nothing bcovered which will not be revealed, and chidden which will not be made known.
Mt 10:27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, proclaim on the ahousetops.
Mt 10:28 And do not afear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather bfear 1Him who is able to cdestroy both soul and body in 2dGehenna.
Mt 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for an 1assarion? And not one of them will fall to the earth apart from your Father.
Mt 10:30 But even the ahairs of your head are all numbered.
Mt 10:31 Therefore do not fear; you are of amore value than many sparrows.
Mt 10:32 Everyone therefore who will aconfess 1in Me before men, I also will bconfess 2in him before My Father who is in the heavens;
Mt 10:33 But whoever will 1adeny Me before men, I also will 1deny him before My Father who is in the heavens.
5. The Disturbance Brought In by the King and the Way of the Cross to Follow Him
10:34-39
Mt 10:34 aDo not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I have not 1come to bring peace, but a sword.
Mt 10:35 For I have come to set men at variance: a man against his afather, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
Mt 10:36 And a man’s aenemies will be those of his 1household.
Mt 10:37 He who loves afather or mother 1above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me;
Mt 10:38 And he who does not 1take his across and bfollow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Mt 10:39 He who 1finds his asoul-life shall 1lose it, and he who loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.
6. The King’s Identification with the Sent Ones
10:40 — 11:1
Mt 10:40 He who 1areceives you receives Me, and he who breceives Me receives Him who has sent Me.
Mt 10:41 He who 1areceives a 2prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who 1receives a 2righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
Mt 10:42 And whoever gives to one of these alittle ones only a bcup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his 1reward.
MATTHEW 11

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Mt 11:1 And when Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to ateach and to preach in their cities.
E. The King’s Poise and Attitude toward Every Situation
11:2-30
1. Strengthening His Imprisoned Forerunner
vv. 2-6
Mt 11:2 aNow when John heard in the bprison of the cworks of the Christ, he sent word through his disciples
Mt 11:3 And said to Him, 1Are You the aComing One, or should we expect 2another?
Mt 11:4 And Jesus answered and said to them, Go, report to John the things that you hear and see:
Mt 11:5 The 1ablind receive their sight and the 2lame walk; the 3blepers are cleansed and the 4deaf hear; and the 5dead are raised and the 6cpoor have the gospel announced to them;
Mt 11:6 And blessed is he who is not 1astumbled because of Me.
2. Appraising His Forerunner
vv. 7-15
Mt 11:7 And as these went away, Jesus began to 1say to the crowds concerning John, What did you go out into the awilderness to 2look at? A 3breed shaken by the wind?
Mt 11:8 But what did you go out to 1see? A 2man arrayed in soft aclothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in the houses of kings.
Mt 11:9 But why did you go out? To see a aprophet? Yes, I say to you, and 1much more than a prophet.
Mt 11:10 This is he concerning whom it is written, a“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.”
Mt 11:11 Truly I say to you, Among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is 1least 2in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he.
Mt 11:12 But from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of the heavens is taken by 1aviolence, and violent men seize it.
Mt 11:13 For all the aprophets and the law prophesied 1until John;
Mt 11:14 And if you are willing to receive 1it, he is 2aElijah, who is to come.
Mt 11:15 He who has aears to hear, let him hear.
3. Lamenting and Reproaching the Stubborn and Unrepentant Generation
vv. 16-24
Mt 11:16 But to what shall I liken this ageneration? It is like little children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to the others
Mt 11:17 And say, We have 1played the flute to you, and you did not dance; we have 1sung a dirge, and you did not mourn.
Mt 11:18 For John came 1neither aeating nor bdrinking; and they say, He has a 2cdemon.
Mt 11:19 The aSon of Man came 1beating and drinking; and they say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a 2friend of ctax collectors and sinners. Yet 3dwisdom is justified by her 4works.
Mt 11:20 Then He began to reproach the cities in which most of His aworks of power took place, because they did not repent:
Mt 11:21 aWoe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, bBethsaida! For if the works of power which took place in you had taken place in cTyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in dsackcloth and eashes.
Mt 11:22 But I say to you, It will be 1amore tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
Mt 11:23 And you, aCapernaum, who have been bexalted to heaven, cto 1dHades you will be brought down. For if the works of power which took place in you had taken place in Sodom, it would have remained until today.
Mt 11:24 But I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of aSodom in the day of judgment than for you.
4. Acknowledging the Father’s Will with Extolment
vv. 25-27
Mt 11:25 aAt that time Jesus 1answered and said, I 2extol You, Father, 3bLord of heaven and of earth, because You have hidden 4these things from the 5wise and intelligent and have revealed them to 6infants.
Mt 11:26 Yes, Father, for thus it has been well-pleasing 1in Your sight.
Mt 11:27 1aAll things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one fully 2bknows the Son except the Father; neither does anyone fully 2cknow the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son wills to dreveal Him.
5. Calling the Burdened to Rest and the Way to Rest
vv. 28-30
Mt 11:28 aCome to Me all who 1btoil and are burdened, and I will give you 2rest.
Mt 11:29 1Take My 2yoke upon you and alearn from Me, for I am 3bmeek and 3lowly in heart, and you will find crest for your 4souls.
Mt 11:30 For My 1yoke is 2aeasy and My 1burden is light.
MATTHEW 12

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IV. The King’s Being Rejected
12:1 — 27:66
A. The Establishment of Rejection
12:1-50
1. The Cause of Rejection
vv. 1-14
Mt 12:1 1aAt that time Jesus went on the bSabbath through the grainfields. And His disciples became hungry and began to pick cears of grain and eat.
Mt 12:2 But the Pharisees, seeing this, said to Him, Behold, Your disciples are doing what is 1anot lawful to do on the Sabbath.
Mt 12:3 But He said to them, Have you not 1aread what 2bDavid did when he became hungry, and those who were with him;
Mt 12:4 How he entered into the house of God, and they ate the abread of the Presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, except for the bpriests only?
Mt 12:5 Or have you not 1aread in the law that on the bSabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
Mt 12:6 But I say to you that something 1agreater than the btemple is here.
Mt 12:7 But if you knew what this means, a“I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mt 12:8 For the aSon of Man is 1Lord of the Sabbath.
Mt 12:9 And adeparting from there, He came into their synagogue.
Mt 12:10 And behold, a man who had a withered 1hand was there. And they asked Him, saying, Is it alawful to heal on the Sabbath? so that they might baccuse Him.
Mt 12:11 And He said to them, What man will there be among you who will have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and alift it out?
Mt 12:12 Of how much amore value then is a man than a sheep! So then it is blawful to do well on the Sabbath.
Mt 12:13 Then He said to the man, Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out and it was 1restored, as sound as the other.
Mt 12:14 But the Pharisees, going out, took acounsel against Him as to how they might 1bdestroy Him.
2. Rejection Causing the King’s Turn to the Gentiles
vv. 15-21
Mt 12:15 But Jesus, knowing it, withdrew from there. And many afollowed Him, and He healed them all;
Mt 12:16 And He charged them anot to make Him known,
Mt 12:17 In order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be afulfilled, saying,
Mt 12:18 a“Behold, My 1Servant whom I have chosen, My bBeloved in whom My soul has found delight. I will put My cSpirit upon Him, and He will announce 2justice to the 3Gentiles.
Mt 12:19 He will not strive nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
Mt 12:20 A 1bruised reed He will not break, and smoking 2flax He will not quench until He brings forth justice unto victory.
Mt 12:21 And in His name will the Gentiles ahope.”
3. The Climax of Rejection
vv. 22-37
Mt 12:22 aThen there was brought to Him one possessed by a demon, 1bblind and cdumb, and He healed him, so that the dumb man spoke and saw.
Mt 12:23 And all the crowds were amazed and said, Is this not the 1aSon of David?
Mt 12:24 But the Pharisees, hearing this, said, This man does not cast out the demons except by 1aBeelzebul, bruler of the demons.
Mt 12:25 aBut bknowing their thoughts, He said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself becomes desolate, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
Mt 12:26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his 1akingdom stand?
Mt 12:27 And if I, by aBeelzebul, cast out the demons, by whom do your sons bcast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
Mt 12:28 But if I, by the 1aSpirit of God, cast out the demons, then the 2bkingdom of God has come upon you.
Mt 12:29 Or how can anyone enter into the 1house of the 2strong man and aplunder his 3goods unless he first 4binds the strong man? And then he will thoroughly plunder his house.
Mt 12:30 1He who is not with Me is aagainst Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
Mt 12:31 aTherefore I say to you, Every sin and bblasphemy will be forgiven men, but 1blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Mt 12:32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever 1speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, aneither in this 2bage nor in the one to come.
Mt 12:33 Either make the tree good and its afruit good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt; for 1by the fruit the tree is known.
Mt 12:34 Offspring of avipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the bheart the mouth speaks.
Mt 12:35 The good man, out of his good treasure, brings forth good things, and the evil man, out of his evil treasure, brings forth evil things.
Mt 12:36 And I say to you that every 1idle word which men shall speak, they will render an aaccount concerning it in the day of bjudgment.
Mt 12:37 For by your 1awords you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
4. The Sign to the Rejecting Generation
vv. 38-42
Mt 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, Teacher, we want to see a 1asign from You.
Mt 12:39 aBut He answered and said to them, An bevil and adulterous 1generation seeks after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Mt 12:40 For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish athree days and three nights, so will the bSon of Man be in the 1cheart of the earth dthree days and three nights.
Mt 12:41 aNinevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they brepented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something 1cmore than Jonah is here.
Mt 12:42 The aqueen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something 1bmore than Solomon is here.
5. The Rejecting Generation Becoming Worse
vv. 43-45
Mt 12:43 aWhen the unclean spirit goes out from the man, it roams through 1waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it.
Mt 12:44 Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came out. And it comes and finds it unoccupied, swept, and decorated.
Mt 12:45 Then it goes and takes along with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter in and settle down there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Thus shall it be also with 1this aevil generation.
6. Rejection Resulting in the King’s Forsaking
vv. 46-50
Mt 12:46 aWhile He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His bmother and His cbrothers stood outside seeking to speak to Him.
Mt 12:47 And someone said to Him, Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.
Mt 12:48 But He answered and said to him who spoke to Him, 1Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?
Mt 12:49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, Behold, My mother and My brothers!
Mt 12:50 For whoever 1adoes the will of My Father who is in the heavens, he is My bbrother and sister and mother.
MATTHEW 13

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B. The Unveiling of the Kingdom’s Mysteries
13:1-52
1. The Preliminary Work of the Kingdom
vv. 1-23
Mt 13:1 1aOn that day Jesus went out of the bhouse and sat beside the sea.
Mt 13:2 And great crowds were gathered to Him, so that He stepped into a 1aboat and sat, and all the crowd stood on the shore.
Mt 13:3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, 1Behold, the 2asower went out to sow.
Mt 13:4 And as he sowed, some 1aseeds fell 2bbeside the way, and the 3bbirds came and devoured them.
Mt 13:5 And others fell on the 1arocky places, where they did not have much earth, and immediately they sprang up because they had no bdepth of earth.
Mt 13:6 But when the 1asun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered.
Mt 13:7 And others fell on the 1athorns, and the thorns came up and choked them.
Mt 13:8 But others fell on the 1agood earth and yielded fruit, one a bhundredfold, and one sixtyfold, and one thirtyfold.
Mt 13:9 He who has 1aears to hear, let him hear.
Mt 13:10 aAnd the disciples came and said to Him, Why do You speak in parables to them?
Mt 13:11 And He answered and said to them, Because to you it has been given to know the 1amysteries of the bkingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given.
Mt 13:12 For 1awhoever has, it shall be given to him, and he will abound; but 2whoever does not have, even that which he has shall be taken away from him.
Mt 13:13 For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do anot see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Mt 13:14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, a“In hearing you shall hear and by no means understand, and seeing you shall see and by no means perceive.
Mt 13:15 For the heart of this people has become fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their aeyes they have closed, lest they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and they turn around, and I will heal them.”
Mt 13:16 But ablessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
Mt 13:17 For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to aperceive the things that you 1see, and have not perceived them, and to hear the things that you 1hear, and have not heard them.
Mt 13:18 aYou therefore hear the parable of the one who sowed.
Mt 13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the 1aevil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown beside the way.
Mt 13:20 And the one sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
Mt 13:21 Yet he does not have root in himself but lasts only for a time, and when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately he is astumbled.
Mt 13:22 And the one sown in the thorns, this is he who hears the word, and the aanxiety of the bage and the deceitfulness of criches utterly choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Mt 13:23 But the one sown on the good earth, this is he who hears the word and understands, who by all means bears afruit and produces, one a hundredfold, and one sixtyfold, and one thirtyfold.
2. The Establishment of the Kingdom and Its False Constituents
vv. 24-30
Mt 13:24 Another parable He set before them, saying, The 1akingdom of the heavens has become like a bman sowing good cseed in his cfield.
Mt 13:25 But while the 1men slept, his aenemy came and sowed 2btares in the midst of the 3wheat and went away.
Mt 13:26 And when the blade sprouted and produced fruit, then the tares appeared also.
Mt 13:27 And the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then did the tares come from?
Mt 13:28 And he said to them, An enemy has done this. And the slaves said to him, Do you want us then to go and 1collect them?
Mt 13:29 But he said, No, lest while 1collecting the tares, you uproot the wheat along with them.
Mt 13:30 Let both 1grow together until the aharvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, bCollect first the tares and bind them into bundles to cburn them up, but the dwheat gather into my barn.
3. The Abnormal Development of the Outward Appearance of the Kingdom
vv. 31-32
Mt 13:31 aAnother parable He set before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like a 1bmustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
Mt 13:32 And which is smaller than all the seeds; but when it has grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a 1tree, so that the 2abirds of heaven come and roost in its branches.
4. The Inward Corruption of the Outward Appearance of the Kingdom
vv. 33-35
Mt 13:33 aAnother parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like 1bleaven, which a 2cwoman took and hid in dthree measures of 3meal until the whole was leavened.
Mt 13:34 All these things Jesus spoke in aparables to the crowds, and apart from a parable He spoke nothing to them,
Mt 13:35 So that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, a“I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things bhidden 1cfrom the foundation of the world.”
5. The Establishment of the Kingdom and Its False Constituents (Continued)
vv. 36-43
Mt 13:36 Then, leaving the crowds, He went into the ahouse. And His disciples came to Him, saying, Make the bparable of the tares of the field clear to us.
Mt 13:37 And He answered and said, He who sows the good seed is the aSon of Man;
Mt 13:38 And the field is the world; and the 1good seed, these are the asons of the kingdom; and the 1tares are the bsons of the evil one;
Mt 13:39 And the enemy who sowed them is the adevil; and the harvest is the bconsummation of the age; and the reapers are angels.
Mt 13:40 Therefore just as the tares are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the consummation of the age.
Mt 13:41 The aSon of Man will send His angels, and they will collect out of 1His bkingdom all the cstumbling blocks and those who practice dlawlessness,
Mt 13:42 And will cast them into the 1afurnace of fire. In that place there will be the 2bweeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Mt 13:43 Then the 1righteous will ashine forth like the sun in the 2bkingdom of their Father. He who has cears to hear, let him hear.
6. The Kingdom Hidden in the God-created Earth
v. 44
Mt 13:44 The kingdom of the heavens is like a 1treasure hidden in the 2afield, which a 3man found and bhid, and in his joy goes and sells all that he has, and cbuys that field.
7. The Church Produced out of the Satan-corrupted World
vv. 45-46
Mt 13:45 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a 1merchant seeking fine pearls;
Mt 13:46 And finding one 1apearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bbought it.
8. The Eternal Gospel and Its Result
vv. 47-50
Mt 13:47 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a 1anet cast into the 2sea and gathering from 3every species,
Mt 13:48 Which, when it was filled, they brought onto the shore, and sat down and collected the 1good into vessels; but the 1foul they cast out.
Mt 13:49 So it will be at the aconsummation of the age: the angels will go forth and separate the evil from the midst of the righteous,
Mt 13:50 And will cast them into the 1afurnace of fire. In that place there will be the 2bweeping and the gnashing of teeth.
9. The Treasure of Things New and Old
vv. 51-52
Mt 13:51 Have you understood all these things? They said to Him, Yes.
Mt 13:52 And He said to them, For this reason every ascribe bdiscipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a householder who brings forth out of his 1treasure things cnew and old.
C. The Increase of Rejection
13:53 — 16:12
1. Rejection by His Countrymen
13:53-58
Mt 13:53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there.
Mt 13:54 aAnd He came into His own country and taught them in their bsynagogue, so that they were castounded and said, Where did this man get this dwisdom and these works of power?
Mt 13:55 Is not this the 1carpenter’s ason? Is not His bmother called Mary, and His cbrothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
Mt 13:56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?
Mt 13:57 And they were astumbled because of Him. But Jesus said to them, A bprophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.
Mt 13:58 And He did 1not do many works of power there because of their unbelief.
MATTHEW 14

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2. Rejection by the Heathen Tetrarch
14:1-13
Mt 14:1 aAt that time bHerod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus,
Mt 14:2 And he said to his servants, This is aJohn the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and because of this these bworks of power 1are operating through him.
Mt 14:3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in aprison on account of bHerodias, the wife of Philip his brother.
Mt 14:4 For John had been saying to him, It is anot lawful for you to have her.
Mt 14:5 And though he desired to kill him, he feared the crowd because they aheld him as a bprophet.
Mt 14:6 But when Herod’s abirthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in their midst and pleased Herod;
Mt 14:7 Hence, he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.
Mt 14:8 And she, being instigated by her mother, said, Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.
Mt 14:9 And the king was grieved, yet because of the oaths and those reclining at table with him, he commanded it to be given.
Mt 14:10 And he sent men and 1beheaded John in the prison.
Mt 14:11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.
Mt 14:12 And his adisciples came and took the corpse and buried it; and they came and reported the matter to Jesus.
Mt 14:13 aAnd when Jesus heard this, He 1withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place privately. And when the crowds heard of it, they 2followed Him on foot from the cities.
3. The Miracle of Feeding Five Thousand
14:14-21
Mt 14:14 And going forth, He saw a great crowd, and He was moved with acompassion for them and healed their sick.
Mt 14:15 Now when evening fell, the disciples came to Him, saying, This place is deserted and the hour is already 1late. Send the crowds away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
Mt 14:16 But Jesus said to them, They do not need to go away. You 1agive them something to 2eat.
Mt 14:17 And they said to Him, We do not have anything here except five 1loaves and two 1fish.
Mt 14:18 And He said, 1Bring them here to Me.
Mt 14:19 And after commanding the crowds to 1recline on the grass, He took the afive loaves and the two fish, and 2blooking up to heaven, He cblessed and 3dbroke the loaves and 4gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.
Mt 14:20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over of the abroken pieces, 1twelve handbaskets full.
Mt 14:21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, apart from women and children.
4. The Miracle of Walking on the Sea
14:22-33
Mt 14:22 aAnd immediately He 1compelled the disciples to step into the boat and to go before Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away.
Mt 14:23 And after He sent the crowds away, He went up to the mountain privately to 1apray. And when 2night fell, He was there alone.
Mt 14:24 Now the boat was already 1in the midst of the sea, being battered by the waves, for the wind was contrary.
Mt 14:25 And in the 1fourth awatch of the night He came to them, 2bwalking on the sea.
Mt 14:26 And the disciples, seeing Him walking on the sea, were astartled, saying, It is a ghost! And they cried out for fear.
Mt 14:27 But immediately Jesus talked to them, saying, Take acourage. 1It is I. Do bnot be afraid.
Mt 14:28 And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
Mt 14:29 And He said, Come. And Peter, coming down from the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
Mt 14:30 But 1seeing the strong wind, he became frightened; and as he began to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, asave me!
Mt 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him and said to him, You of alittle faith, why did you 1bdoubt?
Mt 14:32 And when they got up into the boat, the 1wind ceased.
Mt 14:33 And those who were in the boat aworshipped Him, saying, Truly You are the 1bSon of God.
5. Healing by the Fringe of the King’s Garment
14:34-36
Mt 14:34 aAnd they crossed over and came to land at bGennesaret.
Mt 14:35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding region and brought to Him all who were ill.
Mt 14:36 And they begged Him that they might only touch the 1afringe of His garment. And as many as btouched were completely 2healed.
MATTHEW 15

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6. The Accusation by the Traditional Religionists
15:1-20
Mt 15:1 aThen some Pharisees and scribes 1came to Jesus from bJerusalem, saying,
Mt 15:2 Why do Your disciples 1transgress the atradition of the elders? For they do bnot wash their hands when they eat bread.
Mt 15:3 And He answered and said to them, Why do you also 1transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
Mt 15:4 For God said, 1a“Honor your father and your mother,” and, “He who 2bspeaks evil of father or mother, let him 3be put to death.”
Mt 15:5 But you say, Whoever says to his father or his mother, Whatever you would have been profited by me is now a 1gift to God,
Mt 15:6 Shall by no means honor his father or his mother; and you have deprived the word of God of its authority because of your tradition.
Mt 15:7 1aHypocrites! Well has Isaiah prophesied concerning you, saying,
Mt 15:8 a“This people honors Me with their lips, but their 1heart stays far away from Me;
Mt 15:9 But in 1vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the acommandments of men.”
Mt 15:10 And He called the crowd to Him and said to them, aHear and understand:
Mt 15:11 It is not that which enters into the mouth that adefiles the man; but that which proceeds out of the mouth, this 1defiles the man.
Mt 15:12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were stumbled when they heard this word?
Mt 15:13 And He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has 1not aplanted shall be brooted up.
Mt 15:14 Let them be. They are 1ablind guides of the blind; and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.
Mt 15:15 And Peter answered and said to Him, Explain this parable to us.
Mt 15:16 And He said, Are you also still awithout understanding?
Mt 15:17 Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the astomach and is expelled into the drain?
Mt 15:18 But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those adefile the man.
Mt 15:19 For out of the aheart come 1bevil reasonings, murders, cadulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies.
Mt 15:20 These are the things which defile the man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile the man.
7. The Faith of a Gentile Woman
15:21-28
Mt 15:21 aAnd Jesus went from there and withdrew into the parts of 1bTyre and Sidon.
Mt 15:22 And behold, a 1aCanaanite woman came out from those borders and cried out, saying, Have mercy on me, 2Lord, bSon of David! My daughter suffers terribly from demon possession.
Mt 15:23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, Send her away, for she is crying out after us.
Mt 15:24 But He answered and said, I was not 1sent except to the lost sheep of the ahouse of Israel.
Mt 15:25 But she came and 1aworshipped Him, saying, 2Lord, help me!
Mt 15:26 But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children’s 1bread and throw it to the 2little adogs.
Mt 15:27 And she said, Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat of the 1crumbs which fall from their masters’ atable.
Mt 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your afaith! Be it bdone to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that chour.
8. Healing for the Glorification of God
15:29-31
Mt 15:29 aAnd Jesus departed from there and came beside the bSea of 1Galilee; and He went up to the cmountain and sat there.
Mt 15:30 And great crowds came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the dumb, and many other sick ones; and they 1laid them at His feet, and He healed them,
Mt 15:31 So that the crowd marveled, because they saw the adumb speaking, the crippled healthy and the lame walking, and the bblind seeing. And they cglorified the dGod of Israel.
9. The Miracle of Feeding Four Thousand
15:32-39
Mt 15:32 aAnd Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, I am moved with bcompassion for the crowd, because for three days now they have remained with Me and they do not have anything to eat. And I am 1not willing to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.
Mt 15:33 And the disciples said to Him, Where can we get so many loaves in this 1desolate place to asatisfy so great a crowd?
Mt 15:34 And Jesus said to them, 1How many loaves do you have? And they said, Seven, and a few small fish.
Mt 15:35 And after He commanded the crowd to recline on the ground,
Mt 15:36 He 1took the aseven loaves and the fish, and giving bthanks, He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.
Mt 15:37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over of the abroken pieces, seven baskets full.
Mt 15:38 And those who ate were four thousand men, apart from women and children.
Mt 15:39 And after He sent the crowds away, He stepped into the boat and came to the borders of Magadan.
MATTHEW 16

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10. Temptation by the Fundamentalists and the Modernists
16:1-12
Mt 16:1 aAnd the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and btesting Him asked Him to show them a 1csign out of heaven.
Mt 16:2 But He answered and said to them, 1When evening falls, you say, There will be fair weather, for the sky is red;
Mt 16:3 And in the morning, It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and gloomy. The 1face of the sky you know how to adiscern, but you cannot 2discern the signs of the times.
Mt 16:4 An aevil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, except the 1sign of bJonah. And He cleft them and went away.
Mt 16:5 And when the disciples came to the other side, they had forgotten to take 1bread.
Mt 16:6 And Jesus said to them, Watch and beware of the aleaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Mt 16:7 But they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we did not take bread.
Mt 16:8 And Jesus, knowing it, said, Why are you reasoning among yourselves, you of alittle faith, because you have no bread?
Mt 16:9 Do you not yet understand nor remember the afive loaves of the five thousand and how many 1handbaskets you took up?
Mt 16:10 Nor the aseven loaves of the four thousand and how many 1baskets you took up?
Mt 16:11 How is it that you do not understand that it was not about bread that I spoke to you? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Mt 16:12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the 1teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
D. The Path of Rejection
16:13 — 23:39
1. Before Going to Judea
16:13 — 18:35
a. The Revelation of Christ and the Church
16:13-20
Mt 16:13 aNow when Jesus came into the parts of 1Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the 2bSon of Man is?
Mt 16:14 And they said, 1Some, aJohn the Baptist; and others, bElijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Mt 16:15 He said to them, But you, who do you say that I am?
Mt 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the 1aChrist, the 1bSon of the 2cliving God.
Mt 16:17 And Jesus answered and said to him, aBlessed are you, bSimon 1Barjona, because 2cflesh and blood has not drevealed this to you, but My 3Father who is in the heavens.
Mt 16:18 And I 1also say to you that you are 2aPeter, and upon 3this brock I will 4cbuild My 5dchurch, and the 6egates of fHades shall not prevail gagainst it.
Mt 16:19 I will give to you the 1akeys of the 2kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you 3bbind on the earth shall 4have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you 3loose on the earth shall 4have been loosed in the heavens.
Mt 16:20 Then He charged the disciples 1not to tell aanyone that He was the Christ.
b. The First Unveiling of the Crucifixion and Resurrection
16:21-27
Mt 16:21 aFrom that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He 1must go to bJerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be ckilled and on the third day be raised.
Mt 16:22 And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by 1no means happen to You!
Mt 16:23 But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, 1aSatan! 2You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are 3not setting your bmind on the things of God, but on the things of men.
Mt 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him 1deny 2himself and take up his 3across and 4follow Me.
Mt 16:25 For whoever wants to save his asoul-life shall 1lose it; but whoever 2loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.
Mt 16:26 For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his 1soul-life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life?
Mt 16:27 1For the aSon of Man is to bcome in the cglory of His Father with His dangels, and then He will 2erepay each man according to his doings.
c. Transfiguration in the Miniature of the Kingdom
16:28 — 17:13
Mt 16:28 Truly I say to you, There are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the Son of Man 1acoming in His kingdom.
MATTHEW 17

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Mt 17:1 aAnd after six days Jesus btook with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and 1brought them up to a 2chigh mountain privately.
Mt 17:2 And He was 1atransfigured before them, and His face shone like the bsun, and His garments became as cwhite as the light.
Mt 17:3 And behold, 1aMoses and bElijah appeared to them, conversing with Him.
Mt 17:4 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make 1three atents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
Mt 17:5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright acloud overshadowed them, and behold, a bvoice out of the cloud, saying, 1This is My Son, the cBeloved, in whom I have found My delight. dHear 2Him!
Mt 17:6 And when the disciples aheard this, they bfell on their face and were greatly frightened.
Mt 17:7 And Jesus came to them and atouched them and said, Arise, and do not be afraid.
Mt 17:8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw 1no one except Jesus Himself alone.
Mt 17:9 aAnd as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the 1vision to no one until the bSon of Man is craised from the dead.
Mt 17:10 And the disciples asked Him, saying, Why then do the scribes say that 1aElijah must come first?
Mt 17:11 And He answered and said, 1Elijah indeed is coming and will arestore all things;
Mt 17:12 But I say to you that 1aElijah has already come; and they did not recognize him, but bdid with him the things they wished. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer by them.
Mt 17:13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them concerning John the Baptist.
d. The Casting Out of an Epileptic Demon
17:14-21
Mt 17:14 aAnd when they came to the crowd, a man came to Him, falling on his knees before Him and saying,
Mt 17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son, for he 1has epilepsy and suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire and often into the water.
Mt 17:16 And I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to heal him.
Mt 17:17 And Jesus answered and said, O aunbelieving and bperverted generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.
Mt 17:18 And Jesus arebuked it, and the demon came out from him; and the boy was healed from that hour.
Mt 17:19 Then the disciples, coming to Jesus privately, said, Why were we not able to cast it out?
Mt 17:20 And He said to them, Because of your alittle faith; for truly I say to you, If you have faith like a bmustard seed, you will say to this cmountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be dimpossible to you.
Mt 17:21 1But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
e. The Second Unveiling of the Crucifixion and Resurrection
17:22-23
Mt 17:22 aAnd while they 1were gathering together in bGalilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,
Mt 17:23 And they will akill Him, and on the third day He will be raised. And they were greatly grieved.
f. The Application of the Revelation and Vision of Christ’s Sonship
17:24-27
Mt 17:24 And when they came to aCapernaum, those who take up the 1btemple tax came to Peter and said, Does not your Teacher pay the 1temple tax?
Mt 17:25 He said, 1Yes. And when he came into the house, Jesus 2anticipated him, saying, What do you athink, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth receive custom or poll tax, from their sons or from strangers?
Mt 17:26 And when he said, From strangers, Jesus said to him, So then the 1sons are free.
Mt 17:27 But that we do not astumble them, 1go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. And when you open its mouth, you will find a 2stater; take that and 3give it to them for Me 4and you.
MATTHEW 18

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g. Relationships in the Kingdom
18:1-35
Mt 18:1 aIn that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who then is bgreatest 1in the kingdom of the heavens?
Mt 18:2 And He called a little child to Him and stood him in their midst
Mt 18:3 And said, Truly I say to you, Unless you turn and become like alittle children, you shall by no means benter into the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 18:4 He therefore who will ahumble himself like this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 18:5 And whoever receives one such little child 1because of My name, receives Me;
Mt 18:6 And whoever astumbles one of these little ones who believe into Me, it is 1more profitable for him that a 2great bmillstone be hung around his neck and he be drowned in the open sea.
Mt 18:7 Woe to the world because of astumbling blocks! For it is necessary for stumbling blocks to come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes.
Mt 18:8 If your ahand or your foot stumbles you, 1cut it off and cast it from you; it is better for you to enter into life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal bfire.
Mt 18:9 And if your aeye stumbles you, 1pluck it out and cast it from you; it is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and be cast into the 2Gehenna of fire.
Mt 18:10 See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their aangels in the heavens continually behold the face of My Father who is in the heavens.
Mt 18:11 1For the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost.
Mt 18:12 aWhat do you think? bIf any man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and seek the one that has gone astray?
Mt 18:13 And if it so happens that he finds it, truly I say to you that he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.
Mt 18:14 In the same way, it is not the will of 1your Father who is in the heavens that one of these little ones aperish.
Mt 18:15 Moreover if your brother asins against you, go, 1breprove him 2between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
Mt 18:16 But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three awitnesses every word may be established.
Mt 18:17 And if he refuses to hear them, 1tell it to the 2achurch; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you 3just like the bGentile and the ctax collector.
Mt 18:18 Truly I say to you, Whatever you 1abind on the earth shall 2have been bound in heaven, and whatever you 1loose on the earth shall 2have been loosed in heaven.
Mt 18:19 Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are 1in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they 2ask, 3it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens.
Mt 18:20 For where there are 1two or three 2gathered into My name, there am I in their amidst.
Mt 18:21 Then Peter came and said to Him, Lord, how often shall my brother asin against me and I bforgive him? Up to cseven times?
Mt 18:22 Jesus said to him, I do not say to you, Up to seven times, but, Up to seventy times seven.
Mt 18:23 For this reason the kingdom of the heavens has become like a 1king who desired to 2asettle accounts with his slaves.
Mt 18:24 And when he began to settle them, one who owed him 1ten thousand talents was brought to him.
Mt 18:25 But since he did not have the means to arepay, the master commanded him to be bsold, as well as his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
Mt 18:26 Then the slave fell down and worshipped him, saying, Be patient with me and I will repay you all.
Mt 18:27 And the master of that slave was moved with compassion and released him and 1forgave him the loan.
Mt 18:28 But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a 1hundred denarii, and he took hold of him and began to choke him, saying, Repay me what you owe.
Mt 18:29 Then his fellow slave fell down and begged him, saying, Be patient with me and I will repay you.
Mt 18:30 But he would not; instead, he went away and threw him into prison until he would repay what was owed.
Mt 18:31 Then his fellow slaves, seeing what had taken place, were greatly 1grieved and came and explained fully to their master all that had taken place.
Mt 18:32 Then his master called him to him and said to him, aEvil slave, all that debt I forgave you, because you begged me.
Mt 18:33 Should you not also have had amercy on your fellow slave even bas I had mercy on you?
Mt 18:34 And his master became angry and 1delivered him to the torturers until he would arepay all that was owed.
Mt 18:35 So also will My heavenly Father do to you if each of you does anot forgive his brother bfrom your hearts.
MATTHEW 19

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2. After Arriving in Judea
19:1 — 20:16
Mt 19:1 And when Jesus finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the borders of Judea abeyond the Jordan.
a. Healing the Following Crowd
19:2
Mt 19:2 And great crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.
b. Further Temptation by the Fundamentalists
19:3-12
Mt 19:3 aAnd some Pharisees came to Him, 1btesting Him and saying, Is it lawful for a man to 2divorce his wife for any cause?
Mt 19:4 And He answered and said, Have you anot read that 1He who bcreated them from the beginning made them male and female,
Mt 19:5 And said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be ajoined to his wife; and the two shall be one flesh”?
Mt 19:6 So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has yoked together, let man not aseparate.
Mt 19:7 They said to Him, Why then did Moses 1command us to give her a acertificate of divorce and divorce her?
Mt 19:8 He said to them, Moses, because of your ahardness of heart, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the 1beginning it has not been so.
Mt 19:9 But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for 1fornication, and marries another, commits aadultery; 2and he who marries her who has been divorced commits adultery.
Mt 19:10 His disciples said to Him, If the case of the man with his wife is 1like this, it is not profitable to marry.
Mt 19:11 And He said to them, 1Not all men can 2accept this word, but only those to whom it has been agiven.
Mt 19:12 For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs 1who made themselves eunuchs abecause of the 2kingdom of the heavens. He who can accept it, let him accept it.
c. Laying Hands on the Children
19:13-15
Mt 19:13 aThen little children were brought to Him that He might lay His hands on them and pray, but the disciples brebuked them.
Mt 19:14 But Jesus said, Allow the little children and do not prevent them from coming to Me, for aof 1such is the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 19:15 And after He laid His hands on them, He went on from there.
d. The Way for a Rich Man to Enter into the Kingdom
19:16-26
Mt 19:16 aAnd behold, someone came to Him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may 1have beternal life?
Mt 19:17 And He said to him, Why do you ask Me concerning what is good? There is only 1One who is 2agood. But if you want to 3benter into life, 4ckeep the commandments.
Mt 19:18 He said to Him, Which ones? And Jesus said, “You shall anot murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness;
Mt 19:19 aHonor your father and mother; and you shall blove your neighbor as yourself.”
Mt 19:20 The young man said to Him, All these things I have kept. What do I still lack?
Mt 19:21 Jesus said to him, If you want to be 1aperfect, go, bsell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have ctreasure in the heavens; and come, 2dfollow Me.
Mt 19:22 But the young man, hearing this word, went away 1sorrowing, for he had many possessions.
Mt 19:23 aAnd Jesus said to His disciples, Truly I say to you, Only with difficulty will a brich man enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 19:24 And again I say to you, It is 1easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the akingdom of 2God.
Mt 19:25 And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, Who then can be 1saved?
Mt 19:26 And looking upon them, Jesus said to them, With men this is 1impossible, but with God all things are 1apossible.
e. The Reward of the Kingdom
19:27 — 20:16
Mt 19:27 Then Peter answered and said to Him, Behold, we have left all and afollowed You. What then will there be for us?
Mt 19:28 And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that you who have followed Me, in the 1arestoration, when the bSon of Man sits on the cthrone of His glory, you also shall dsit on twelve thrones, 2ejudging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mt 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or abrothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My name’s sake shall 1receive 2a hundred times as much and shall 3inherit beternal life.
Mt 19:30 But many 1afirst will be last, and many last first.
MATTHEW 20

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Mt 20:1 1For the kingdom of the heavens is like a 2man, who is a householder, who went out early in the 3morning to hire 4workmen for his 5avineyard.
Mt 20:2 And having 1agreed with the workmen for a 2denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Mt 20:3 And he went out about the 1third hour and saw others standing 2idle in the 3marketplace,
Mt 20:4 And to those he said, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went.
Mt 20:5 And again he went out about the 1sixth and the 2ninth hour and did likewise.
Mt 20:6 And about the 1eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and said to them, Why have you been standing here all the day idle?
Mt 20:7 They said to him, Because 1no one has hired us. He said to them, You 2also go into the vineyard.
Mt 20:8 And when 1evening fell, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, Call the workmen and pay them their wages, beginning from the 2last ones to the first.
Mt 20:9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, they received each a denarius.
Mt 20:10 And when the 1first ones came, they supposed that they would receive more. And they themselves also received each a denarius.
Mt 20:11 And when they received it, they murmured against the householder,
Mt 20:12 1Saying, These last ones worked one hour, and you have made them 2equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
Mt 20:13 But he answered 1one of them and said, 2aFriend, I am doing nothing unrighteous to you. Did you not 3agree with me for a denarius?
Mt 20:14 1Take what is yours and go. I 1want to give to this last one even as I have given to you.
Mt 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I 1wish with what is mine? Or is your eye 2evil because I am 1good?
Mt 20:16 Thus shall the 1alast be first and the first last.
3. On the Way to Jerusalem
20:17 — 21:11
a. The Third Unveiling of the Crucifixion and Resurrection
20:17-19
Mt 20:17 aAnd as Jesus was going up to bJerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside privately, and on the way He said to them,
Mt 20:18 Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes. And they will condemn Him to 1adeath,
Mt 20:19 And adeliver Him to the Gentiles to bmock and to scourge and to ccrucify Him, and on the dthird day He will be raised.
b. The Throne of the Kingdom and the Cup of the Cross
20:20-28
Mt 20:20 aThen the mother of the 1sons of bZebedee came to Him with her sons, worshipping and asking something of Him.
Mt 20:21 And He said to her, What do you want? She said to Him, Say that these two sons of mine will asit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your kingdom.
Mt 20:22 But Jesus answered and said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to 1drink the acup which I am about to drink? They said to Him, We are able.
Mt 20:23 He said to them, My cup you shall indeed adrink, but to sit on My right and on My left, this is 1not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.
Mt 20:24 And when the ten heard this, they were indignant concerning the two brothers.
Mt 20:25 aBut Jesus called them to Him and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great exercise authority over them.
Mt 20:26 It shall not be so among you; but whoever wants to become agreat among you shall be your 1servant,
Mt 20:27 And whoever wants to be first among you shall be your 1aslave;
Mt 20:28 Just as the aSon of 1Man did not come to be served, but to bserve and to give His 2life as a cransom for many.
c. The Healing of the Two Blind Men
20:29-34
Mt 20:29 aAnd as they were going out from Jericho, a great crowd followed Him.
Mt 20:30 And behold, two ablind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, Lord, 1bSon of David!
Mt 20:31 And the crowd arebuked them so that they would be silent, but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!
Mt 20:32 And Jesus, standing still, called them and said, What do you want Me to do for you?
Mt 20:33 They said to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Mt 20:34 And Jesus, moved with acompassion, touched their eyes, and immediately they received their sight and followed Him.
MATTHEW 21

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d. A Warm Welcome to the Meek King
21:1-11
Mt 21:1 aAnd when they 1drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of bOlives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
Mt 21:2 Saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will 1find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and lead them to Me.
Mt 21:3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The 1Lord has need of them; 2and immediately he will send them.
Mt 21:4 aNow this took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet might be bfulfilled, saying,
Mt 21:5 a“Say to the 1daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, bmeek and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, a 2foal of a beast of burden.”
Mt 21:6 And the disciples went and did as Jesus directed them,
Mt 21:7 And led the donkey and the colt. And they put their 1garments on them, and He sat upon them.
Mt 21:8 And most of the crowd spread their own agarments in the road, and others cut 1bbranches from the trees and spread them in the road.
Mt 21:9 And the crowds who went before Him and those who followed cried out, saying, 1Hosanna to the 2aSon of David! bBlessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the chighest!
Mt 21:10 And when He aentered into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this?
Mt 21:11 And the crowds said, This is the aprophet Jesus from bNazareth of Galilee.
4. In Jerusalem
21:12 — 23:39
a. Cleansing the Temple
21:12-16
Mt 21:12 aAnd Jesus entered into the temple and cast out all those who were selling and buying in the temple. And He overturned the tables of the bmoney changers and the seats of those who were selling the cdoves,
Mt 21:13 And He said to them, It is written, a“My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it a bden of robbers.
Mt 21:14 And the ablind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
Mt 21:15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that He did and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, aHosanna to the Son of David, they were 1indignant.
Mt 21:16 And they said to Him, Do You hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you anever read, b“Out of the mouth of cinfants and sucklings You have perfected praise”?
b. Lodging in Bethany
21:17
Mt 21:17 And leaving them, He went aout of the city to 1bBethany and lodged there.
c. Cursing the Nation of Israel
21:18-22
Mt 21:18 aNow in the morning as He returned to the city, He became 1bhungry.
Mt 21:19 And seeing a 1afig tree on the way, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And He said to it, May there 2no longer be fruit from you forever! And the fig tree was instantly 3dried up.
Mt 21:20 And when the disciples saw this, they marveled, saying, How did the fig tree instantly dry up?
Mt 21:21 And Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have afaith and do not bdoubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this cmountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen.
Mt 21:22 And all that you aask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive.
d. Tested
21:23 — 22:46
(1) By the Chief Priests and Elders concerning His Authority
21:23 — 22:14
Mt 21:23 aAnd when He came into the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to Him as He was bteaching and said, By what authority do You do these things? And cwho gave You this authority?
Mt 21:24 And Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one 1thing, which if you tell Me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Mt 21:25 The baptism of John, from where did it come, from aheaven or from men? And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Why then did you not believe him?
Mt 21:26 But if we say, From men, we fear the crowd, for all hold John as a aprophet.
Mt 21:27 And they answered Jesus and said, We do 1not know. He too said to them, 2Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
(a) The Shifting of the Birthright
21:28-32
Mt 21:28 But what do you think? A man had two children. And he came to his first son and said, Child, go today and work in the avineyard.
Mt 21:29 And he answered and said, I do not want to; yet later he regretted and went.
Mt 21:30 And he came to the other and said likewise. And he answered and said, I will, sir; yet he did not go.
Mt 21:31 Which of the two did the will of the father? They said, The 1first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that the atax collectors and the bharlots are going into the kingdom of cGod before you.
Mt 21:32 For John came to you in the away of 1righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him. And you, when you saw it, did not later regret it to believe him.
(b) The Transfer of the Kingdom of God
21:33-46
Mt 21:33 aHear another parable. There was a man, a 1householder, who planted a 1bvineyard and put a chedge around it, and dug a dwinepress in it, and built a tower; and he leased it out to 1vinedressers and went eabroad.
Mt 21:34 And when the time to harvest the fruit drew near, he asent his 1slaves to the vinedressers to get his fruit.
Mt 21:35 And the vinedressers took his slaves and 1abeat one, and bkilled another, and cstoned another.
Mt 21:36 Again, he sent some other slaves, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
Mt 21:37 Then later he sent to them his 1ason, saying, They will respect my son.
Mt 21:38 But the vinedressers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 1This is the aheir. Come, let us bkill him and take possession of his inheritance.
Mt 21:39 And they atook him and cast him 1bout of the vineyard and ckilled him.
Mt 21:40 Therefore when the master of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?
Mt 21:41 They said to Him, He will miserably 1adestroy those evil men and will lease the vineyard to 2other vinedressers, who will give the bfruit to him in their seasons.
Mt 21:42 Jesus said to them, Have you anever read in the Scriptures, b“The 1stone which the 1builders rejected, this has become the 2chead of the corner. This was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?
Mt 21:43 Therefore I say to you that the 1kingdom of aGod shall be taken from you and shall be given to a 2nation producing its bfruit.
Mt 21:44 And 1he who falls on this astone shall be broken to pieces; but on 2whomever it falls, it shall bcrush him to powder and scatter him like chaff.
Mt 21:45 And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking concerning them.
Mt 21:46 And though they sought to aseize Him, they feared the crowds because they held Him as a bprophet.
MATTHEW 22

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(c) The Kingdom’s Wedding Feast
22:1-14
Mt 22:1 And Jesus answered and spoke again in aparables to them, saying,
Mt 22:2 aThe 1bkingdom of the heavens has become like a 2cking who prepared a 3dwedding feast for his 2son.
Mt 22:3 And he sent his 1slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast, yet they would not come.
Mt 22:4 Again, he sent 1other slaves, saying, Tell those who have been called, Behold, I have prepared my 2dinner: my 3oxen and my 3afatted cattle have been slain, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast.
Mt 22:5 But they disregarded it and went off, one to his own field and another to his business,
Mt 22:6 And the rest took hold of his slaves, atreated them shamefully, and bkilled them.
Mt 22:7 And the king became angry, and he sent his 1troops and adestroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Mt 22:8 Then he said to his slaves, The wedding feast is ready, but those who have been called were 1anot worthy.
Mt 22:9 Go therefore to the 1crossroads, and as many as you find, call to the wedding feast.
Mt 22:10 And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both evil and good, and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining at table.
Mt 22:11 But when the king came in to look at those reclining at table, he saw there a man who was not aclothed with a 1wedding garment,
Mt 22:12 And he said to him, aFriend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mt 22:13 Then the king said to the 1servants, Bind his feet and hands, and 2acast him out into the outer darkness. In that place there will be the 3weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Mt 22:14 For many are 1acalled but few are 1bchosen.
(2) By the Disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians concerning Giving Tribute to Caesar
22:15-22
Mt 22:15 aThen the 1Pharisees went and took bcounsel how they might ensnare Him in His cwords.
Mt 22:16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the 1aHerodians, saying, Teacher, we know that You are true and that You teach the way of God in truth and 2do not fear anyone, for You do not 3regard the bperson of men.
Mt 22:17 Tell us therefore, What do You think? 1Is it lawful to give tribute to aCaesar, or not?
Mt 22:18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, Why do you atempt Me, 1hypocrites?
Mt 22:19 1Show Me the coin for the tribute. And they brought to Him a 2denarius.
Mt 22:20 And He said to them, Whose is this image and inscription?
Mt 22:21 They said, Caesar’s. Then He said to them, Render then the 1things that are Caesar’s ato Caesar and the 2things that are God’s to God.
Mt 22:22 And when they heard this, they marveled. And they left Him and went away.
(3) By the Sadducees concerning Resurrection
22:23-33
Mt 22:23 aOn that day some 1bSadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to Him and questioned Him,
Mt 22:24 Saying, Teacher, Moses said, If anyone dies and does not have children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his awife and raise up seed to his brother.
Mt 22:25 Now there were seven brothers with us. And the first married and died, and having no seed, he left his wife to his brother;
Mt 22:26 Likewise also the second and the third until the seventh.
Mt 22:27 And last of all the woman died.
Mt 22:28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.
Mt 22:29 And Jesus answered and said to them, You err, anot 1knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Mt 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Mt 22:31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not aread that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
Mt 22:32 a“I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”? He is not the God of the dead, but of the 1living.
Mt 22:33 And when the crowds heard this, they were aastounded at His teaching.
(4) By a Lawyer concerning the Great Commandment in the Law
22:34-40
Mt 22:34 aBut the Pharisees, when they heard that He had muzzled the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.
Mt 22:35 And one of them, a 1alawyer, asked Him a question, btesting Him,
Mt 22:36 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mt 22:37 And He said to him, a“You shall blove the Lord your God 1with all your heart and 1with all your soul and 1with all your mind.”
Mt 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mt 22:39 And the second is like it: a“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mt 22:40 On these 1two commandments hang all athe Law and the Prophets.
(5) Muzzling All the Testers by the Question concerning Christ
22:41-46
Mt 22:41 aNow while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus questioned them,
Mt 22:42 Saying, What do you think concerning the 1Christ? Whose son is He? They said to Him, aDavid’s.
Mt 22:43 He said to them, How then does David in 1aspirit call Him Lord, saying,
Mt 22:44 a“The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies bunderneath Your feet”?
Mt 22:45 If then David calls Him 1Lord, how is He his 1son?
Mt 22:46 And 1ano one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone from that day dare to question Him anymore.
MATTHEW 23

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e. Rebuking the Religionists
23:1-36
(1) Their Hypocrisy
vv. 1-12
Mt 23:1 aThen Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples,
Mt 23:2 Saying, The 1ascribes and the 2bPharisees have seated themselves in cMoses’ seat;
Mt 23:3 Therefore all that they tell you, ado and keep; but do not do according to their bworks, for they say things and do not do them.
Mt 23:4 And they bind burdens, aheavy and hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.
Mt 23:5 And all their works they do to be aseen by men, for they broaden their 1bphylacteries and enlarge the 2cfringes of their garments,
Mt 23:6 And they love the aplace of honor at the dinners and the chief seats in the synagogues
Mt 23:7 And the asalutations in the marketplaces and to be called by men, 1bRabbi.
Mt 23:8 But you, do not be called Rabbi, for 1One is your aTeacher, and you are all bbrothers.
Mt 23:9 And do not call anyone on earth your father, for 1One is your aFather, 2He who is in the heavens.
Mt 23:10 Neither be called 1instructors, because 2One is your Instructor, the Christ.
Mt 23:11 And the agreatest among you shall be your servant.
Mt 23:12 And he who will aexalt himself shall be humbled, and he who will bhumble himself shall be exalted.
(2) Their Eightfold Woe
vv. 13-36
Mt 23:13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, 1hypocrites! For you aclose off the kingdom of the heavens in the face of men; for you do 2bnot enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to enter.
Mt 23:14 1But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you adevour the widows’ houses, even while for a pretense you make long prayers. For this reason you shall receive greater 2judgment.
Mt 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you go about the sea and the dry land to make one aproselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a bson of 1cGehenna as yourselves.
Mt 23:16 Woe to you, ablind bguides, who say, Whoever cswears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, 1he is bound.
Mt 23:17 Fools and blind men, which is greater, the gold or the temple which 1asanctifies the gold?
Mt 23:18 And, Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the agift which is upon it, he is bound.
Mt 23:19 Blind men, which is greater, the gift or the altar which 1asanctifies the gift?
Mt 23:20 Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all the things upon it;
Mt 23:21 And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who adwells in it;
Mt 23:22 And he who swears by aheaven swears by the bthrone of God and by Him who sits upon it.
Mt 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ayou bgive a tenth of the mint and the anise and the cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law — 1cjustice and dmercy and faithfulness. But these you should have done and 2not neglected the others.
Mt 23:24 aBlind guides, who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel!
Mt 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ayou bcleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inwardly they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
Mt 23:26 Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the dish so that their outside also may become clean.
Mt 23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you resemble awhitewashed bgraves, which outwardly appear beautiful but inwardly are full of dead men’s cbones and all duncleanness.
Mt 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Mt 23:29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you abuild up the graves of the prophets and adorn the tombs of the righteous,
Mt 23:30 And say, If we had been there in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Mt 23:31 So then you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who amurdered the prophets.
Mt 23:32 And you, afill up the measure of your fathers!
Mt 23:33 Serpents! Brood of avipers! How shall you escape the judgment of bGehenna?
Mt 23:34 aTherefore, behold, I bsend to you 1cprophets and wise men and dscribes. Some of them you will ekill and crucify, and some of them you will fscourge in your synagogues and gpersecute from hcity to city,
Mt 23:35 So that upon you may come all the righteous ablood shed on the earth, from the bblood of righteous Abel to the blood of cZachariah, son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
Mt 23:36 Truly I say to you, 1All these things shall come upon this ageneration.
f. Forsaking Jerusalem with Its Temple
23:37-39
Mt 23:37 aJerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and bstones those who are sent to her! How often 1I desired to gather your cchildren together, the way a hen gathers her brood under her dwings, and you would not!
Mt 23:38 Behold, your 1house is left to you 2adesolate.
Mt 23:39 For I say to you, You shall by no means see Me from now on until you say, aBlessed is He who 1comes in the name of the Lord.
MATTHEW 24

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E. The Prophecy of the Kingdom
24:1 — 25:46
1. Concerning Israel
24:1-31
a. From Christ’s Ascension to the Consummation of the Age
vv. 1-14
Mt 24:1 aAnd Jesus came out 1from the 2temple and was going away, and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the 2temple.
Mt 24:2 But He answered and said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, There shall by ano means be left here a stone upon a stone, which shall not be 1thrown down.
Mt 24:3 aAnd as He sat on the 1bMount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, 2When will these things be? And what will be the csign of Your 3dcoming and of the econsummation of the age?
Mt 24:4 And Jesus 1answered and said to them, 2See that no one aleads you astray.
Mt 24:5 For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray.
Mt 24:6 And you will be hearing of 1wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for it must happen; but the 2aend is not yet.
Mt 24:7 For 1nation will rise up aagainst nation, and 1kingdom against kingdom; and there will be 2bfamines and 3earthquakes in various places.
Mt 24:8 All these things are the beginning of 1birth pangs.
Mt 24:9 Then they will deliver 1you up to atribulation and will bkill you, and you will be chated by all the nations because of My name.
Mt 24:10 And at that time many will be stumbled and will deliver up one another and will hate one another.
Mt 24:11 And many afalse prophets will arise and will lead many astray.
Mt 24:12 And because lawlessness will be multiplied, the alove of the many will grow cold.
Mt 24:13 But he who has aendured to the end, this one shall be 1saved.
Mt 24:14 And this 1agospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a 2testimony to all the nations, and then the 3bend will come.
b. At the Consummation of the Age
vv. 15-31
(1) The Transpiring of the Great Tribulation
vv. 15-26
Mt 24:15 1aTherefore when you see the 2babomination of 3cdesolation, which was spoken of through dDaniel the prophet, standing in the 4holy place (let him who reads eunderstand),
Mt 24:16 Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains;
Mt 24:17 Let him who is on the ahousetop not come down to take the things out of his house;
Mt 24:18 And let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garment.
Mt 24:19 But woe to those who are 1pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days.
Mt 24:20 And pray that your flight may not be in 1winter, nor on a 2Sabbath,
Mt 24:21 For at that time there will be 1agreat tribulation, such as has not occurred from the beginning of the world until now, nor shall by any means ever occur.
Mt 24:22 And unless those days had been cut 1short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the 2achosen, those days will be cut short.
Mt 24:23 At that time if anyone says to you, Behold, ahere is the 1Christ! or, Here! do not believe it.
Mt 24:24 For 1afalse Christs and 2bfalse prophets will arise and will 3show great csigns and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the dchosen.
Mt 24:25 Behold, I have told you beforehand.
Mt 24:26 aTherefore if they say to you, Behold, He is in the 1wilderness, do not go forth; Behold, He is in the 2inner rooms, do not believe it.
(2) Christ’s Coming to the Earth
vv. 27-30
Mt 24:27 For just as the 1lightning comes forth from the east and shines to the west, so will the 2acoming of the Son of Man be.
Mt 24:28 Wherever the 1acorpse is, there will the 1vultures be gathered together.
Mt 24:29 aAnd immediately 1after the tribulation of those days, the 2sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Mt 24:30 And at that time the 1asign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the 2btribes of the 2land will 3mourn, and they will see the cSon of Man coming 4don the clouds of heaven with 5power and great glory.
(3) The Gathering of Israel
v. 31
Mt 24:31 And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will 1agather His bchosen together from the cfour winds, from one end of the dheavens to the other end.
2. Concerning the Church
24:32 — 25:30
a. Watching and Being Ready
24:32-44
Mt 24:32 1aBut learn the parable from the 2bfig tree: As soon as its branch has 3become tender and 4puts forth its leaves, you know that the 5summer is near.
Mt 24:33 So also you, when you see 1all these things, know that 2it is near, at the doors.
Mt 24:34 Truly I say to you that this 1ageneration shall by no means pass away until all these things happen.
Mt 24:35 Heaven and earth will apass away, but My bwords shall by no means pass away.
Mt 24:36 But concerning that aday and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of the heavens nor the 1Son, but the Father only.
Mt 24:37 aFor just as the 1days of Noah were, so will the bcoming of the Son of Man be.
Mt 24:38 1For as they were in those days before the flood, 2eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day in which aNoah entered into the ark,
Mt 24:39 And they did not know that judgment was coming until the flood came and took all away, so also will the acoming of the Son of Man be.
Mt 24:40 1aAt that time two 2men will be 3in the field; one is 4taken and one is left.
Mt 24:41 Two 1women will be 2grinding at the mill; one is 3taken and one is left.
Mt 24:42 1aWatch btherefore, for you do not know on what day 1your Lord comes.
Mt 24:43 But know this, that if the 1householder had known in which watch the 2athief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his 1house to be broken into.
Mt 24:44 For this reason you also be aready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is 1coming.
b. Being Faithful and Prudent
24:45-51
Mt 24:45 Who then is the 1afaithful and 1prudent slave, whom the master has set over his 2household to 3give them food at the proper time?
Mt 24:46 1Blessed is that slave whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
Mt 24:47 Truly I say to you that he will aset him 1over all his possessions.
Mt 24:48 But if that 1evil slave says in his heart, My master adelays,
Mt 24:49 And begins to 1beat his fellow slaves and 2eats and drinks with the adrunken,
Mt 24:50 The master of that slave will come on a aday when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know,
Mt 24:51 And will 1cut him asunder and appoint his 2portion with the 3hypocrites. In that place there will be the 4aweeping and the gnashing of teeth.
MATTHEW 25

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c. A Parable for Watchfulness
25:1-13
Mt 25:1 At that time the 1akingdom of the heavens will be likened to 2ten 3bvirgins, who took their 4clamps and 5went forth to dmeet the 6ebridegroom.
Mt 25:2 And 1afive of them were 2bfoolish and 1five were cprudent.
Mt 25:3 For the foolish, when they took their lamps, did not take 1oil with them;
Mt 25:4 But the prudent took oil in their 1avessels with their lamps.
Mt 25:5 And while the bridegroom adelayed, they all became 1bdrowsy and 2cslept.
Mt 25:6 But at 1midnight there was a 2acry, Behold, the bridegroom! Go forth to 3meet him!
Mt 25:7 Then all those virgins 1aarose and 2trimmed their own lamps.
Mt 25:8 And the foolish said to the prudent, 1Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are 2going out.
Mt 25:9 But the prudent answered, saying, Perhaps there will 1not be enough for us and for you; go rather to 2athose who sell, and 3bbuy for yourselves.
Mt 25:10 And as they were going away to buy, the bridegroom 1acame; and 2those who were 3bready 4went in with him to the 5cwedding feast. And the 6door was dshut.
Mt 25:11 And later the rest of the virgins 1came also, saying, aLord, lord, open to us!
Mt 25:12 But he answered and said, Truly I say to you, I do 1not know you.
Mt 25:13 1aWatch therefore, for you do not know the bday nor the hour.
d. A Parable for Faithfulness
25:14-30
Mt 25:14 aFor the 1kingdom of the heavens is just like a 2man about to go 2babroad, who called his own 3cslaves and delivered to them 4his dpossessions.
Mt 25:15 To one he gave five 1atalents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his 2own ability. And he went abroad.
Mt 25:16 Immediately he who had received the five talents went and 1traded with them and 2gained another five.
Mt 25:17 Similarly, he who had received the two gained another two.
Mt 25:18 But he who had received the 1one went off and 2dug in the earth and 3hid his master’s money.
Mt 25:19 Now after a 1long time the master of those slaves 2came and 3asettled accounts with them.
Mt 25:20 And he who had received the five talents 1came and brought another five talents, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents; behold, I have gained 2another five talents.
Mt 25:21 His master said to him, Well done, good and afaithful slave. You were faithful over a 1few things; I will bset you 2over 3many things. Enter into the 4cjoy of your master.
Mt 25:22 And he who had received the two talents also came and said, Master, you delivered to me two talents; behold, I have gained another two talents.
Mt 25:23 His master said to him, 1Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will 2set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master.
Mt 25:24 Then he who had received the one talent also 1came and said, Master, I 2knew about you, that you are a 3hard man, reaping where you did 4not sow, and gathering where you did 4not 5winnow.
Mt 25:25 And I was 1afraid and 2went off and hid your talent in the earth; behold, 3you have what is yours.
Mt 25:26 And his master answered and said to him, aEvil and bslothful slave, you knew that 1I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow.
Mt 25:27 Therefore you should have 1deposited my money with the money changers; and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with 2interest.
Mt 25:28 1Take away therefore the talent from him and 2give it to him who has the ten talents.
Mt 25:29 For 1ato everyone who has, more shall be given, and he shall abound; but from him who does not have, even that which he has shall be taken away from him.
Mt 25:30 And 1acast out the useless slave into the 2outer darkness. In that place 3there will be the 4bweeping and the gnashing of teeth.
3. Concerning the Nations
25:31-46
a. Christ Coming to Be Enthroned in Glory
v. 31
Mt 25:31 1But when the 2aSon of Man 3bcomes in His 4glory and all the angels with Him, at that time He will sit on the 5cthrone of His glory.
b. Gathering All the Nations for the Exercising of Judgment
vv. 32-46
Mt 25:32 And all the 1anations will be gathered bbefore Him, and He will separate them from one another, just as the 2cshepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Mt 25:33 And He will set the sheep on His 1aright hand and the goats on the left.
Mt 25:34 Then the aKing will say to those on His right hand, Come, you who are bblessed of My Father, 1inherit the kingdom prepared for you 2cfrom the foundation of the world.
Mt 25:35 For I was 1hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me a adrink; I was a stranger and you took Me in,
Mt 25:36 Naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.
Mt 25:37 Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when have we seen You hungry and have fed You, or thirsty and have given You a drink?
Mt 25:38 And when have we seen You a stranger and have taken You in, or naked and have clothed You?
Mt 25:39 And when have we seen You sick or in prison and have come to You?
Mt 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you have 1done it to one of 2these, the aleast of My 3bbrothers, you have done it to 4cMe.
Mt 25:41 Then He will say also to those on the left, Go away from Me, you who are cursed, into the 1aeternal fire 2prepared for the devil and his bangels.
Mt 25:42 For I was hungry and you did not give Me anything to eat; I was thirsty and you did not give Me a drink;
Mt 25:43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me.
Mt 25:44 Then they also will answer, saying, Lord, when have we seen You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?
Mt 25:45 Then He will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you 1did not do it to one of the least of these, neither have you done it to aMe.
Mt 25:46 And these shall go away into eternal 1punishment, but the 2righteous 3ainto eternal life.
MATTHEW 26

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F. The Completion of Rejection
26:1 — 27:66
1. The Fourth Unveiling of the Crucifixion
26:1-2
Mt 26:1 And when Jesus finished all these words, He said to His disciples,
Mt 26:2 You know that after two days the 1aPassover takes place, and the Son of Man is being bdelivered up to be crucified.
2. Plotted Against by Religion
26:3-5
Mt 26:3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were agathered together in the courtyard of the high priest, who was called bCaiaphas,
Mt 26:4 And they took acounsel together to bseize Jesus by craftiness and ckill Him.
Mt 26:5 But they said, 1Not at the feast, lest there be an auproar among the people.
3. Loved by the Beloved Disciples
26:6-13
Mt 26:6 aNow when Jesus was in bBethany, in the house of Simon the 1leper,
Mt 26:7 A woman came to Him, having an alabaster flask of ointment of great value, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table.
Mt 26:8 But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this 1waste?
Mt 26:9 For this could have been sold for much and given to the apoor.
Mt 26:10 But Jesus, knowing it, said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a noble deed to Me.
Mt 26:11 For the apoor you have with you always, 1but you do bnot always have Me.
Mt 26:12 For in pouring out this ointment on My body, she has done it 1for My aburial.
Mt 26:13 Truly I say to you, Wherever 1this agospel is proclaimed in the whole world, 2what this woman has done shall also be told as a bmemorial of her.
4. Betrayed by the False Disciple
26:14-16
Mt 26:14 1aAt that time one of the twelve, the one called bJudas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
Mt 26:15 And said, What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver Him to you? And they weighed out to him 1athirty pieces of silver.
Mt 26:16 And from then on he sought opportunity to adeliver Him up.
5. Keeping the Last Passover
26:17-25
Mt 26:17 aNow on the first day of the 1bFeast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the passover?
Mt 26:18 And He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The aTeacher says, My btime is near. I am keeping the passover at your house with My disciples.
Mt 26:19 And the disciples did as Jesus directed them, and they prepared the passover.
Mt 26:20 aAnd when evening fell, He reclined at table with the twelve.
Mt 26:21 And as they were eating, He said, Truly I say to you that aone of you will betray Me.
Mt 26:22 And being greatly grieved, each one of them began to say to Him, I am not the one, am I, Lord?
Mt 26:23 And He answered and said, The one who dips his hand with Me in the dish, this one will betray Me.
Mt 26:24 The Son of Man is going away, even as it is awritten concerning Him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.
Mt 26:25 And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, I am not the one, am I, aRabbi? He said to him, 1bYou have said it yourself.
6. Establishing the King’s Feast
26:26-30
Mt 26:26 aAnd as they were 1eating, Jesus took 2bread and bblessed it, and He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat; this is My 2body.
Mt 26:27 And He took a 1acup and gave bthanks, and He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you,
Mt 26:28 For this is My 1ablood of the 2bcovenant, which is being poured out for cmany for dforgiveness of sins.
Mt 26:29 But I say to you, I shall by no means drink of this 1product of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in the 2akingdom of My Father.
Mt 26:30 aAnd after 1singing a hymn, they went out to the bMount of Olives.
7. Warning the Disciples
26:31-35
Mt 26:31 Then Jesus said to them, You will all be stumbled because of Me this night, for it is written, “I will asmite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be bscattered.”
Mt 26:32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you into aGalilee.
Mt 26:33 Then Peter answered and said to Him, If all will be stumbled because of You, I will never be stumbled.
Mt 26:34 Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you that in this night, before a arooster crows, you will deny Me three times.
Mt 26:35 Peter said to Him, Even if I must adie with You, I will by no means deny You. And all the disciples said likewise.
8. Pressed in Gethsemane
26:36-46
Mt 26:36 aThen Jesus came with them to a bplace called 1Gethsemane, and He said to the disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray.
Mt 26:37 And taking Peter and the two asons of Zebedee aside, He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
Mt 26:38 Then He said to them, My asoul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with Me.
Mt 26:39 And going forward a little, He fell on His face and aprayed, saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this 1bcup pass from Me; yet not as I cwill, but as You will.
Mt 26:40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, So were you not able to watch with Me for one hour?
Mt 26:41 aWatch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The 1spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mt 26:42 Again, going away a second time, He prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your awill be done.
Mt 26:43 And coming again, He found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
Mt 26:44 And leaving them, He went away again and prayed a athird time, saying the same word again.
Mt 26:45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the ahour has drawn near, and the Son of Man is being delivered up into the hands of sinners.
Mt 26:46 Arise, let us be going. Behold, the one who is betraying Me has drawn near.
9. Arrested by Religion
26:47-56
Mt 26:47 aAnd while He was still speaking, behold, bJudas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Mt 26:48 Now the one who was betraying Him had given them a sign, saying, Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him.
Mt 26:49 And immediately he came to Jesus and said, 1Rejoice, aRabbi, and bkissed Him affectionately.
Mt 26:50 But Jesus said to him, aFriend, 1bwhat are you here for? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
Mt 26:51 And behold, 1one of those with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his asword, and struck the slave of the high priest and took off his bear.
Mt 26:52 Then Jesus said to him, Return your sword to its place, for all those who take up the asword will perish by the sword.
Mt 26:53 Or do you think that I cannot 1beseech My Father, and He will 1provide Me at once with more than twelve 1legions of aangels?
Mt 26:54 How then shall the aScriptures be fulfilled which say that it must happen 1this way?
Mt 26:55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to arrest Me? Day after day I sat in the temple ateaching, and you did not seize Me.
Mt 26:56 But all this has happened in order that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left Him and afled.
10. Judged by the Sanhedrin
26:57-68
Mt 26:57 aAnd those who seized Jesus led Him away to bCaiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.
Mt 26:58 And Peter afollowed Him at a distance to the courtyard of the high priest; and entering within, he sat with the attendants to see the end.
Mt 26:59 Now the chief priests and the whole aSanhedrin were seeking bfalse testimony against Jesus so that they might put Him to death,
Mt 26:60 And they did not find it, though many false witnesses came forward. But later atwo came
Mt 26:61 And said, This man said, 1I am able to adestroy the temple of God and build it up in three days.
Mt 26:62 And the high priest stood up and said to Him, Do You answer 1anothing? What is it that these testify bagainst You?
Mt 26:63 But Jesus remained 1asilent. bAnd the high priest said to Him, I charge You to cswear by the living God to tell us 2dif You are the eChrist, the Son of God.
Mt 26:64 Jesus said to him, aYou have said rightly. Nevertheless I say to you, From now on you will see the 1bSon of Man csitting at the right hand of Power and dcoming on the eclouds of heaven.
Mt 26:65 Then the high priest atore his garments, saying, He has bblasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard the blasphemy.
Mt 26:66 What do you think? And they answered and said, He is worthy of adeath.
Mt 26:67 Then they aspat in His face and beat Him with their fists, and others bslapped Him,
Mt 26:68 Saying, 1Prophesy to us, Christ! aWho is the one who hit You?
11. Denied by Peter
26:69-75
Mt 26:69 aNow Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a 1servant girl came to him and said, You also were with Jesus the Galilean.
Mt 26:70 But he denied it before all, saying, I do not know what you are talking about!
Mt 26:71 And after he had gone out to the porch, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, This man was with Jesus the aNazarene.
Mt 26:72 And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man!
Mt 26:73 And after a little while 1those who were standing there came to Peter and said, Surely you also are one of them, for your aspeech also makes it clear that you are.
Mt 26:74 Then he began to 1curse and to swear: I do not know the man! And immediately a rooster crowed.
Mt 26:75 And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, Before a arooster crows, you will deny Me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly.
MATTHEW 27

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12. Judged by Pilate
27:1-26
Mt 27:1 aNow when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took bcounsel against Jesus to put Him to death.
Mt 27:2 And having bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to 1aPilate the governor.
Mt 27:3 Then aJudas, who betrayed Him, seeing that He was condemned, 1regretted and returned the bthirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Mt 27:4 Saying, I have sinned in betraying ainnocent blood. But they said, What is that to us? You see to that yourself!
Mt 27:5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple and departed, and he went away and ahanged himself.
Mt 27:6 And the 1chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, It is not lawful to put them into the 2temple atreasury, since it is blood money.
Mt 27:7 And after taking counsel, they bought with it the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers.
Mt 27:8 Therefore that field has been called the aField of Blood to this day.
Mt 27:9 At that time what was spoken through 1Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, a“And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that had been priced, whom they of the sons of Israel had priced,
Mt 27:10 And they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
Mt 27:11 aAnd Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying, Are You the bKing of the Jews? And Jesus said, cIt is as you say.
Mt 27:12 And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered 1anothing.
Mt 27:13 Then Pilate said to Him, Do You not hear how many things they testify aagainst You?
Mt 27:14 And He did 1anot answer him, not even to one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.
Mt 27:15 aNow at the feasts the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd one prisoner whom they wanted.
Mt 27:16 And they had at that time a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.
Mt 27:17 Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, 1Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?
Mt 27:18 For he knew that it was because of envy that they had delivered Him up.
Mt 27:19 And while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that arighteous man, for I have suffered much today in a 1bdream because of Him.
Mt 27:20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to aask for Barabbas and to destroy Jesus.
Mt 27:21 And the governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release to you? And they said, Barabbas.
Mt 27:22 Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, Let Him be crucified!
Mt 27:23 But he said, Why, awhat evil has He done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let Him be crucified!
Mt 27:24 And Pilate, seeing that nothing was gained but rather that an auproar was taking place, took water and 1bwashed his hands before the crowd, saying, 2I am innocent of this 3cman’s blood. You see to it yourselves.
Mt 27:25 And all the people answered and said, His ablood be upon us and upon our children!
Mt 27:26 Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus he 1ascourged and delivered up to be 2crucified.
13. Mocked by the Heathen Soldiers
27:27-32
Mt 27:27 aThen the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the 1bpraetorium and gathered about Him the whole cohort.
Mt 27:28 And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe around Him,
Mt 27:29 And they wove a crown of 1athorns and placed it on His head and put a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled before Him and bmocked Him, saying, 2Rejoice, King of the Jews!
Mt 27:30 And they aspat on Him and took the reed and beat Him on the head.
Mt 27:31 And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His garments on Him, and 1led Him away to crucify Him.
Mt 27:32 aAnd as they were going out, they found a man of 1bCyrene, Simon by name; this one they compelled to take up His cross.
14. Crucified
27:33-56
a. Killed and Mocked by Men
vv. 33-44
Mt 27:33 And when they had come to a place called 1Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull,
Mt 27:34 aThey gave Him 1wine to drink, mingled with bgall. And when He tasted it, He would 2not drink.
Mt 27:35 And when they had crucified Him, they 1adivided His garments among themselves, casting lots.
Mt 27:36 And they sat down and aguarded Him there.
Mt 27:37 aAnd they set in writing over His head the charge against Him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Mt 27:38 At that time atwo 1robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.
Mt 27:39 And those who were passing by blasphemed Him, awagging their heads
Mt 27:40 And saying, You who adestroy the temple and build it up in three days, bsave Yourself! 1cIf You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!
Mt 27:41 aLikewise also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked Him and said,
Mt 27:42 He saved others; Himself He 1cannot save. He is aKing of Israel; let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe on Him.
Mt 27:43 He trusts in God; let Him arescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, I am the Son of God.
Mt 27:44 And in the same way the robbers who were crucified with Him also areproached Him.
b. Judged and Forsaken by God
vv. 45-50
Mt 27:45 aNow from the 1sixth hour darkness fell over all the land until the 1ninth hour.
Mt 27:46 And about the 1ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, aMy God, My God, 2why have You forsaken Me?
Mt 27:47 And some of those standing there, when they heard this, said, This man is calling Elijah.
Mt 27:48 And immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he soaked it with 1avinegar and put it on a reed, and gave it to Him to drink.
Mt 27:49 But the rest said, Let Him be. Let us see if Elijah is coming to save Him.
Mt 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and 1ayielded up His spirit.
c. The Effect of His Crucifixion
vv. 51-56
Mt 27:51 And behold, the 1aveil of the temple was split in two 2from top to bottom, and the 3earth was shaken and the 4rocks were split,
Mt 27:52 And the 1tombs were opened, and many 2bodies of the saints who had fallen aasleep were raised.
Mt 27:53 And they 1came out of the tombs after His resurrection and entered into the holy city and 2appeared to many.
Mt 27:54 Now the centurion and those with him aguarding Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that happened, became greatly frightened, saying, Truly this was the bSon of God.
Mt 27:55 And many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, aministering to Him,
Mt 27:56 Among whom were aMary the Magdalene, and 1Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the bmother of the sons of Zebedee.
15. Buried by a Rich Man
27:57-66
Mt 27:57 aAnd when 1evening fell, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.
Mt 27:58 This man came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded that it be given to him.
Mt 27:59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean, fine linen cloth.
Mt 27:60 And he 1laid it in his own anew tomb, which he had bhewn in the rock. And having rolled a cgreat stone in front of the door of the tomb, he went away.
Mt 27:61 And aMary the Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.
Mt 27:62 On the next day, which is the day after the 1preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered unto Pilate,
Mt 27:63 Saying, Sir, we have remembered that while He was still living, that adeceiver said, bAfter three days I will arise.
Mt 27:64 Therefore, give orders for the grave to be secured until the third day, lest His disciples come and asteal Him away and say to the people, He has been raised from the dead. And the last deception will be worse than the first.
Mt 27:65 Pilate said to them, Take a aguard. Go and make the tomb as secure as you know how.
Mt 27:66 And they went and secured the grave, 1asealing the stone, with the guard being there.
MATTHEW 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

V. The King’s Victory
28:1-20
A. Resurrected
vv. 1-15
Mt 28:1 aNow late on the Sabbath, as it began to 1dawn toward the 2bfirst day of the week, cMary the Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
Mt 28:2 And behold, there was a great 1earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended out of heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
Mt 28:3 And his appearance was like alightning, and his garment as bwhite as snow.
Mt 28:4 And for fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
Mt 28:5 And the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are seeking Jesus, the crucified.
Mt 28:6 1He is not here, for He has been araised, even as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
Mt 28:7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has been raised from the dead, and behold, He goes before you into 1aGalilee. There you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.
Mt 28:8 And they went away quickly from the tomb with 1fear and great joy and ran to report this to His disciples.
Mt 28:9 And behold, Jesus 1met them, saying, 2Rejoice! And they came to Him and took hold of His feet and aworshipped Him.
Mt 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and report to My 1abrothers that they should go into 2bGalilee, and there they will see Me.
Mt 28:11 And as they were going, behold, some from the aguard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.
Mt 28:12 And after the chief priests had gathered with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,
Mt 28:13 Saying, Say this, 1His disciples came by night and astole Him away while we slept.
Mt 28:14 And if this comes to the agovernor’s ears, we will 1persuade him and make sure that you have nothing to worry about.
Mt 28:15 And they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this account has been widely 1spread among the Jews until this very day.
B. Reigning
vv. 16-20
Mt 28:16 And the eleven disciples went to aGalilee, to the 1mountain where Jesus directed them.
Mt 28:17 And when they saw Him, they aworshipped Him, though some 1doubted.
Mt 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All 1authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Mt 28:19 Go 1therefore and 2disciple all the anations, 3baptizing them 4into the 5name of the 6Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mt 28:20 1Teaching them to aobserve all that I have bcommanded you. And behold, I am 2cwith you all the days until the 3dconsummation of the age.
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 
Outline

Author: Mark; see details in note 11 in ch. 1.
Time of Writing: The words spoken in 13:2 seem to indicate that this book was written before the destruction of the holy temple. Perhaps it was written between A.D. 67 and 70, after the death of the apostle Paul.
Place of Writing: Perhaps Rome; see 2 Timothy 4:11.
Recipients: Frequent explanations of Jewish names, customs, and festivals in this book (3:17; 5:41; 7:3, 11; 14:12; 15:42) prove that it was written to the Gentiles, specifically the Romans.
Subject:
The Gospel of God — Proving That Jesus Christ Is the Slave-Savior
MARK 1

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I. The Beginning of the Gospel and the Initiation of the Slave-Savior
1:1-13
A. The Beginning of the Gospel — By the Ministry of the Forerunner
vv. 1-8
1. As Prophesied
vv. 1-3
Mk 1:1 The 1beginning of the 2gospel of 3Jesus Christ, 4the aSon of God,
Mk 1:2 1Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: a“Behold, 2I send My 3messenger before 4Your face, who will 5prepare Your way,
Mk 1:3 aA 1voice of one crying in the 2wilderness: 3Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths.”
2. Preaching the Baptism of Repentance
vv. 4-6
Mk 1:4 aJohn 1came baptizing in the 2bwilderness and preaching a 3cbaptism of drepentance 4for eforgiveness of sins.
Mk 1:5 And all the aregion of 1Judea went out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were 2baptized by him in the 3Jordan River, as they bconfessed their sins.
Mk 1:6 And John was 1clothed in camel’s ahair and had a leather girdle around his loins, and he ate blocusts and wild choney.
3. Introducing the Slave-Savior
vv. 7-8
Mk 1:7 And he preached, saying, 1aHe who is stronger than I comes after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
Mk 1:8 I have baptized you in 1awater, but He Himself will baptize you in the Holy 1bSpirit.
B. The Initiation of the Slave-Savior
vv. 9-13
1. Baptized
vv. 9-11
Mk 1:9 And in those days Jesus acame from 1bNazareth of Galilee and was 2baptized 3in the Jordan by John.
Mk 1:10 And 1aimmediately, coming up out of the water, He saw the 2heavens being bparted and the cSpirit as a 3dove descending upon Him4.
Mk 1:11 And a avoice came out of the heavens: 1You are My Son, the bBeloved; in You I have found My cdelight.
2. Tested
vv. 12-13
Mk 1:12 And aimmediately the Spirit 1thrust Him out into the bwilderness.
Mk 1:13 And He was in the wilderness 1forty days, being atempted by 2Satan; and He was with the wild animals, and the bangels ministered to Him.
II. The Ministry of the Slave-Savior for the Spreading of the Gospel
1:14 — 10:52
A. The Contents of the Gospel Service
1:14-45
1. Proclaiming the Gospel
vv. 14-20
Mk 1:14 And after John was adelivered up, Jesus came into 1Galilee, 2bproclaiming the cgospel 3of God,
Mk 1:15 And saying, The time is afulfilled and the 1bkingdom of God has drawn near. 2cRepent and 3dbelieve in the 4gospel.
Mk 1:16 And apassing beside the 1bSea of Galilee, He saw cSimon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, 2casting a 3dnet in the sea, for they were fishermen.
Mk 1:17 And Jesus said to them, Come after Me, and I will cause you to become fishers of men.
Mk 1:18 And aimmediately leaving the nets, they 1bfollowed Him.
Mk 1:19 And going on a little, He saw James the son of Zebedee and aJohn his brother, who also were in their boat, 1mending the nets.
Mk 1:20 And aimmediately He bcalled them, and leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, they 1went after Him.
2. Teaching the Truth
vv. 21-22
Mk 1:21 And they awent into bCapernaum, and cimmediately, on the Sabbath, He entered into the 1dsynagogue and 2taught.
Mk 1:22 And they were aastounded at His bteaching, for He taught them as One having 1authority and not like the scribes.
3. Casting Out Demons
vv. 23-28
Mk 1:23 And aimmediately, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean 1spirit, and he cried out, saying,
Mk 1:24 1What have we to ado with You, Jesus, bNazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I cknow who You are — the dHoly One of God.
Mk 1:25 And Jesus arebuked him, saying, Be bquiet and come out of him!
Mk 1:26 And the aunclean spirit, bconvulsing him and shouting with a cloud voice, came out of him.
Mk 1:27 And they were all aamazed, so that they discussed among themselves, saying, What is this? A bnew teaching! With 1cauthority He orders even the unclean spirits, and they dobey Him.
Mk 1:28 And aimmediately the report concerning Him went out everywhere into all the surrounding region of Galilee.
4. Healing the Sick
vv. 29-39
Mk 1:29 And immediately, going out of the synagogue, they came into the ahouse of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Mk 1:30 And Simon’s amother-in-law was lying down with a 1fever, and bimmediately they told Him about her.
Mk 1:31 And He came to her and raised her up, aholding her hand, and the fever 1left her, and she 2served them.
Mk 1:32 And when evening fell and the sun had set, they brought to Him all those who were ill and those who were demon-possessed.
Mk 1:33 And the whole city was agathered together at the door.
Mk 1:34 And He 1healed many who were ill with various adiseases, and He 2cast out many demons and did bnot allow the demons to speak, because 3they cknew Him.
Mk 1:35 And rising very aearly in the morning, while it was still night, He went out and went away to a deserted place, and there He 1bprayed.
Mk 1:36 And Simon and those with him hunted for Him,
Mk 1:37 And they found Him and said to Him, All are seeking You.
Mk 1:38 And He said to them, Let us go aelsewhere into the nearby towns that I may 1bpreach there also, because for 2this purpose I ccame out.
Mk 1:39 And He went preaching in their asynagogues in the whole of Galilee and casting out the demons.
5. Cleansing the Leper
vv. 40-45
Mk 1:40 And a 1aleper came to Him, entreating Him and bfalling on his knees and saying to Him, If You are willing, You can ccleanse me.
Mk 1:41 And He was moved with 1compassion, and 2stretching out His hand, He touched him and said to him, I am 1willing; be 3cleansed!
Mk 1:42 And aimmediately the leprosy left him, and he was bcleansed.
Mk 1:43 And sternly acharging him, immediately He thrust him out,
Mk 1:44 And said to him, See that you 1say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the apriest and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.
Mk 1:45 But he went out and began to aproclaim it much and to spread the 1matter abroad, so that He could 2no longer enter openly into a city, but He stayed outside in bdeserted places. And they ccame to Him from everywhere.
MARK 2

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B. The Ways of Carrying Out the Gospel Service
2:1 — 3:6
1. Forgiving the Sins of the Sick
2:1-12
Mk 2:1 And 1He entered again into aCapernaum after a few days, and it was heard that He was 2at home.
Mk 2:2 And many were agathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even at the door. And He spoke to them the word.
Mk 2:3 And they came, bringing to Him a 1aparalytic carried by four men.
Mk 2:4 And being unable to bring him to Him because of the crowd, they 1removed the aroof where He was. And when they had dug through, they lowered the 2mat on which the paralytic was lying.
Mk 2:5 And Jesus, seeing their 1afaith, said to the paralytic, 2Child, your 3sins are bforgiven.
Mk 2:6 But some of the 1scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,
Mk 2:7 Why is this man speaking this way? He is ablaspheming! Who can forgive bsins except One, 1God?
Mk 2:8 And aimmediately Jesus, 1bknowing fully in His spirit that they were reasoning this way within themselves, said to them, Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
Mk 2:9 Which is 1easier: to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise and take up your mat and walk?
Mk 2:10 But that you may know that the aSon of 1Man has authority to forgive sins on earth — He said to the paralytic,
Mk 2:11 To you I say, 1Rise, atake up your mat and go to your house.
Mk 2:12 And he 1rose and immediately 2took up the mat and 3went out before them all, so that they were all aamazed and bglorified God, saying, We have never seen anything like this!
2. Feasting with Sinners
2:13-17
Mk 2:13 And He went out again beside the asea. And all the bcrowd came to Him, and He 1taught them.
Mk 2:14 1And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the 2atax office, and He said to him, Follow Me. And he rose and 3followed Him.
Mk 2:15 And as He reclined at table in his house, many atax collectors and sinners were reclining together with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many, and they were following Him.
Mk 2:16 And the 1ascribes of the Pharisees, seeing that He ate with sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Mk 2:17 And when Jesus heard this, He said to them, Those who are strong have no need of a 1physician, but those who are ill; I did not acome to call the brighteous, but 2sinners.
3. Causing His Followers to Be Merry without Fasting
2:18-22
Mk 2:18 1And the adisciples of John and the Pharisees were bfasting. And they came and csaid to Him, dWhy do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?
Mk 2:19 And Jesus said to them, The sons of the bridechamber cannot fast while the abridegroom is with them, can they? For as long a time as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
Mk 2:20 But adays will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
Mk 2:21 No one sews a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment; otherwise, that which fills it up pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
Mk 2:22 And no one puts new wine into aold wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine is ruined as well as the wineskins; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins.
4. Caring for His Followers’ Hunger Rather than for Religion’s Regulation
2:23-28
Mk 2:23 1And He apassed through the grainfields on the bSabbath, and His disciples began to go along, picking the cears of grain.
Mk 2:24 And the 1Pharisees said to Him, Look! Why are they doing on the aSabbath what is bnot lawful?
Mk 2:25 And He said to them, Have you anever read what 1bDavid did when he had need and became hungry, he and those with him;
Mk 2:26 How he entered into the house of God during the time of aAbiathar the high priest and ate the bbread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to ceat except the priests, and he gave also to those who were with him?
Mk 2:27 And He said to them, The aSabbath came into being for man, and 1not man for the bSabbath.
Mk 2:28 So then the aSon of Man is 1Lord even of the Sabbath.
MARK 3

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5. Caring for the Relief of the Suffering One Rather than for the Ritual of Religion
3:1-6
Mk 3:1 1And He entered again into the synagogue; and there was a aman there who had a withered hand.
Mk 3:2 And they were awatching Him closely to see if He would heal him on the bSabbath, so that they might caccuse Him.
Mk 3:3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, Rise and stand in the midst.
Mk 3:4 And He said to them, Is it alawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to 1save 2life or to kill? But they remained silent.
Mk 3:5 And alooking around at them with 1anger and being greatly grieved with the bhardness of their heart, He said to the man, cStretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was 2restored.
Mk 3:6 And the 1Pharisees went out and aimmediately took bcounsel with the cHerodians against Him as to how they might ddestroy Him.
C. Auxiliary Acts of the Gospel Service
3:7-35
1. Avoiding the Crowd
vv. 7-12
Mk 3:7 And Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the asea, and a great multitude from Galilee bfollowed; and from Judea
Mk 3:8 And from Jerusalem and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan and around aTyre and Sidon, a great bmultitude, hearing what things He did, came to Him.
Mk 3:9 And He told His disciples to have a little 1aboat ready near Him because of the crowd, so that they would not bthrong Him;
Mk 3:10 For He 1healed many, so that as many as had 2aafflictions 3pressed toward Him to btouch Him.
Mk 3:11 And the aunclean spirits, when they beheld Him, fell before Him and bcried out, saying, You are the cSon of God!
Mk 3:12 And He 1charged them many times anot to make Him known.
2. Appointing the Apostles
vv. 13-19
Mk 3:13 And He went up to the mountain and acalled to Him those whom He Himself wanted, and they went to Him.
Mk 3:14 And He 1appointed 2twelve, 3whom He also named apostles, so that they might be with Him and that He might send them to 4preach
Mk 3:15 And to have the aauthority to 1cast out the demons.
Mk 3:16 1And He appointed the atwelve: and to Simon He 2gave the name bPeter;
Mk 3:17 And James the son of aZebedee, and bJohn the brother of James, and He gave them the name, 1Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder;
Mk 3:18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and aMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean,
Mk 3:19 And aJudas Iscariot, who also 1betrayed Him.
3. Not Eating because of the Need
vv. 20-21
Mk 3:20 And 1He came into a ahouse, and again a crowd came together, so that they could 2bnot even eat bread.
Mk 3:21 And when His arelatives heard about it, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, 1He is bbeside Himself.
4. Binding Satan and Plundering His House
vv. 22-30
Mk 3:22 1And the 2scribes who came down from aJerusalem bsaid, He chas 3dBeelzebul, and by the 4eruler of the demons He casts out the demons.
Mk 3:23 And He called them to Himself and said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?
Mk 3:24 And if a 1akingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom is not able to stand;
Mk 3:25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand;
Mk 3:26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand but has come to an end.
Mk 3:27 But no one can enter into the house of the strong man and thoroughly aplunder his 1goods unless he first 2bbinds the strong man, and then he will thoroughly plunder his house.
Mk 3:28 Truly I say to you that all sins will be aforgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they bblaspheme,
Mk 3:29 But whoever blasphemes against the 1Holy aSpirit has no forgiveness forever, but is guilty of an 2everlasting sin.
Mk 3:30 He said this because they said, He has an unclean spirit.
5. Denying His Relatives and Acknowledging Only Those Who Do the Will of God
vv. 31-35
Mk 3:31 And aHis 1mother and His bbrothers came, and standing outside, cthey sent word to Him and called Him.
Mk 3:32 And a crowd sat around Him, and they said to Him, Behold, Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are outside seeking You.
Mk 3:33 And He answered them and said, 1Who is My mother and My brothers?
Mk 3:34 And alooking around at those sitting in a circle around Him, He said, Behold, My mother and My bbrothers!
Mk 3:35 For whoever 1adoes the will of God, this one is 2My brother and sister and mother.
MARK 4

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D. Parables of the Kingdom of God
4:1-34
1. The Parable of the Sower
vv. 1-20
Mk 4:1 1And again He began to 2teach abeside the bsea, and a very great crowd was gathered unto Him, so that He stepped into a cboat in the sea and sat down, and all the crowd was on the land, facing the sea.
Mk 4:2 And He taught them many things in parables and said to them in His ateaching:
Mk 4:3 Listen! Behold, the 1asower went out to 2sow.
Mk 4:4 And as he sowed, some seed fell beside the way, and the birds came and devoured it.
Mk 4:5 And other seed fell on the rocky place, where it did not have much earth, and aimmediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
Mk 4:6 And when the sun arose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered.
Mk 4:7 And other seed fell into the athorns, and the thorns came up and utterly choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
Mk 4:8 And others fell into the good earth and yielded fruit, coming up and growing; and one abore thirtyfold, and one sixtyfold, and one a bhundredfold.
Mk 4:9 And He said, He who has aears to hear, let him hear.
Mk 4:10 And when He was aalone, those around Him, with the twelve, asked Him about the parables.
Mk 4:11 And He said to them, To you it has been given to know the 1amystery of the kingdom of God, but to those boutside, all things 2are in cparables,
Mk 4:12 In order that aseeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and bnot understand, lest they cturn and it be forgiven them.
Mk 4:13 And He said to them, Do you not 1know this aparable? And how will you 1know all the parables?
Mk 4:14 The asower sows the bword.
Mk 4:15 And these are the ones beside the way, where the word is sown; and when they hear, aimmediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown into them.
Mk 4:16 And likewise, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places, who, when they ahear the word, immediately receive it with joy.
Mk 4:17 Yet they have no root in themselves, but last only afor a time; then when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they are bstumbled.
Mk 4:18 And others are the ones being sown into the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
Mk 4:19 And the aanxieties of the age and the bdeceitfulness of criches and the lusts for other things enter in and utterly choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Mk 4:20 And these are the ones sown on the good earth: those who hear the word and receive it and abear fruit, one thirtyfold, and one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold.
2. The Parable of the Lamp
vv. 21-25
Mk 4:21 And He said to them, Does the 1alamp come so that it may be placed under the 2bushel or under the bed? Does it not come that it may be placed on the 3lampstand?
Mk 4:22 For nothing is ahidden except that it may be manifested, nor has anything become concealed but that it may come into the open.
Mk 4:23 If anyone has aears to hear, let him hear.
Mk 4:24 And He said to them, Take heed what you hear. 1With what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you, and it shall be added to you.
Mk 4:25 For he who 1ahas, it shall be given to him; and he who does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
3. The Parable of the Seed
vv. 26-29
Mk 4:26 And He said, So is the 1akingdom of God: as if a 2man cast 3bseed on the earth,
Mk 4:27 And 1sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and 2lengthens — how, he does not know.
Mk 4:28 The 1earth bears fruit 2by itself: first a blade, then an ear, then full grain in the ear.
Mk 4:29 But when the fruit is ripe, aimmediately he sends forth the 1bsickle, because the harvest has come.
4. The Parable of the Mustard Seed
vv. 30-34
Mk 4:30 1And He said, How shall we liken the akingdom of God, or in what parable shall we 2present it?
Mk 4:31 It is like a amustard seed, which, when it is sown on the earth, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth.
Mk 4:32 And when it is sown, it comes up and becomes 1greater than all the herbs and produces great branches, so that the 1birds of heaven can roost under its shade.
Mk 4:33 And in many such 1parables He spoke the aword to them as they were bable to hear;
Mk 4:34 And without a aparable He did not speak to them; but bprivately to His own disciples He explained all things.
E. The Move of the Gospel Service
4:35 — 10:52
1. Calming the Wind and the Sea
4:35-41
Mk 4:35 And He said to them on that day when evening had fallen, Let us ago over to the other side.
Mk 4:36 1And leaving the crowd, they took Him along, just as He was, in the aboat; and other boats were with Him.
Mk 4:37 And there arose a great awindstorm, and the waves beat into the bboat, so that the boat was already beginning to fill up.
Mk 4:38 And He was in the stern, 1sleeping on the cushion. And they woke Him and said to Him, Teacher, does it not matter to You that we are perishing?
Mk 4:39 And having awoken, He 1arebuked the wind and said to the sea, Be silent! Be still! And the wind bceased and there was a cgreat calm.
Mk 4:40 And He said to them, Why are you acowardly in this way? How is it that you do not have bfaith?
Mk 4:41 And they became greatly frightened and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea 1aobey Him?
MARK 5

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2. Casting Out a Legion of Demons
5:1-20
Mk 5:1 1And they came to the other aside of the sea, into the region of the bGerasenes.
Mk 5:2 And when He came out of the boat, aimmediately, from out of the tombs, a man with an bunclean spirit met Him,
Mk 5:3 Who had his dwelling among the 1tombs. And no one could bind him any longer, not even with a chain,
Mk 5:4 Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Mk 5:5 And continually night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he cried out and gashed himself with stones.
Mk 5:6 And when he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and aworshipped Him,
Mk 5:7 And crying out with a aloud voice, 1he said, 2What do I have to do bwith You, Jesus, Son of the cMost High God? I dadjure You by God, do not torment me!
Mk 5:8 For He had said to him, Come out of the man, unclean 1spirit.
Mk 5:9 And He questioned him, What is your name? And he said to Him, aLegion is my name, because we are many.
Mk 5:10 And he entreated Him much not to send them out of the region.
Mk 5:11 Now there on the mountainside was a great herd of hogs feeding.
Mk 5:12 And 1they entreated Him, saying, Send us to the hogs, so that we may enter into them.
Mk 5:13 And 1He gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered into the hogs, and the herd, about two thousand, rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.
Mk 5:14 And those who were feeding them fled and reported it in the city and in the countryside. And they came to see what had happened.
Mk 5:15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man sitting down, clothed, and sane, the man who had had the alegion, and they became frightened.
Mk 5:16 And those who had seen it related to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man and concerning the hogs.
Mk 5:17 And they began to entreat Him to adepart from their borders.
Mk 5:18 And as He got into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might stay with Him.
Mk 5:19 And He did not allow him, but said to him, Go to your house, to your own people, and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.
Mk 5:20 And he departed and began to proclaim in 1aDecapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and all marveled.
3. Healing the Woman with a Flow of Blood and Raising Up a Dead Girl
5:21-43
Mk 5:21 And when Jesus had acrossed over again in the boat to the other bside, a great crowd gathered to Him, and He was beside the sea.
Mk 5:22 1And aone of the brulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name, and seeing Him, fell at His feet;
Mk 5:23 And he entreated Him much, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and alay Your hands on her that she may be 1healed and live.
Mk 5:24 And He went with him, and a great crowd followed Him and apressed upon Him.
Mk 5:25 And a 1woman was there, who had a aflow of blood for btwelve years.
Mk 5:26 She had suffered much under many physicians and had spent everything she had and had not benefited at all, but rather became worse.
Mk 5:27 When she heard the things concerning Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and atouched His garment,
Mk 5:28 For she said, If I touch even His garments, I will be 1healed.
Mk 5:29 And aimmediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she knew in her body that she was cured of the baffliction.
Mk 5:30 And immediately Jesus, realizing in Himself that 1apower had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, Who btouched My garments?
Mk 5:31 And His disciples said to Him, You see the crowd 1apressing upon You and You say, Who touched Me?
Mk 5:32 And He looked around to see her who had done this.
Mk 5:33 But the woman, 1frightened and trembling, knew what had happened to her, and she came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.
Mk 5:34 And He said to her, 1Daughter, your afaith has 2healed you. Go 3in bpeace and be 4well from your affliction.
Mk 5:35 While He was still speaking, some came from the house of the aruler of the synagogue, saying, Your daughter has died. Why bbother the Teacher any longer?
Mk 5:36 But Jesus, 1overhearing the word spoken, said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be afraid — only believe.
Mk 5:37 And He did not allow anyone to accompany Him except aPeter and James and bJohn the brother of James.
Mk 5:38 And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and He saw a commotion and people weeping and wailing greatly.
Mk 5:39 And He entered in and said to them, Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child has not died but is asleeping.
Mk 5:40 And they laughed scornfully at Him. But He, aputting them all out, took the father of the child and the mother and those with Him and went in to where the child was.
Mk 5:41 And He atook hold of the child’s hand and said to her, 1Talitha koum! which being interpreted is, Little girl, to you I say, bArise!
Mk 5:42 And aimmediately the little girl rose up and walked about, for she was btwelve years old. And immediately, they were camazed with great amazement.
Mk 5:43 And He strongly commanded them that 1ano one should know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
MARK 6

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4. Being Despised by Men
6:1-6
Mk 6:1 And He went out from there and acame into His own country, and His disciples followed Him.
Mk 6:2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to 1teach in the asynagogue; and many hearing were bastounded, saying, Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to this man, and how is it that such works of power take place through His hands?
Mk 6:3 Is not this the 1carpenter, the son of Mary, and abrother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? And they were bstumbled because of Him.
Mk 6:4 And Jesus said to them, A aprophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own relatives and in his own house.
Mk 6:5 And He could 1not do any work of power there, except to alay His hands upon a few of the sick and 2heal them.
Mk 6:6 And He amarveled because of their unbelief; and He went around the bvillages in a circuit, teaching.
5. Sending the Disciples
6:7-13
Mk 6:7 And He acalled the twelve to Him and began to send them out two by two and gave them 1bauthority over the unclean spirits;
Mk 6:8 And He charged them not to atake anything for the journey except only a staff: 1no bread, no bag, no money in their belt;
Mk 6:9 But to have sandals tied on; and said, Do not put on two 1tunics.
Mk 6:10 And He said to them, Wherever you enter into a house, there remain until you 1depart from that place.
Mk 6:11 And whatever place does not receive you nor hear you, as you go out from there, ashake off the dust under your feet for a testimony 1against them.
Mk 6:12 And they went forth and 1aproclaimed that men should brepent,
Mk 6:13 And they 1cast out many demons and aanointed many of the sick with oil and healed them.
6. The Martyrdom of the Forerunner
6:14-29
Mk 6:14 And King Herod aheard of it, for His name had become known, and they said, bJohn the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and because of this these works of power 1are operating through him.
Mk 6:15 But others said, He is aElijah; and others said, He is a bprophet, like one of the prophets.
Mk 6:16 But Herod, hearing of it, said, He whom I abeheaded, John, this one was raised!
Mk 6:17 For Herod himself had sent men and seized John and bound him in aprison on account of bHerodias, the wife of Philip his brother, because he had married her.
Mk 6:18 For John had been saying to Herod, It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your abrother.
Mk 6:19 Thus, Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to kill him and could not,
Mk 6:20 For Herod feared aJohn, knowing that he was a brighteous and holy man, and kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed yet cheard him gladly.
Mk 6:21 And an opportune day came, when Herod on his abirthday made a bbanquet for his courtiers and the commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
Mk 6:22 And when the daughter of Herodias herself entered and danced, she pleased Herod and those reclining at table with him. The king said to the girl, Ask of me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.
Mk 6:23 And he swore to her earnestly, Whatever you ask of me, I will give to you, up to ahalf of my kingdom.
Mk 6:24 And she went out and said to her mother, What should I ask for? And she said, The head of John the baptizer.
Mk 6:25 And coming in aimmediately with haste to the king, she asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
Mk 6:26 And the king was very grieved, yet because of the oaths and those reclining at table, he did not want to refuse her.
Mk 6:27 And aimmediately the king sent a guard and ordered him to bring his head. And he went out and 1bbeheaded him in the prison,
Mk 6:28 And brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
Mk 6:29 And when his adisciples heard about it, they came and took his corpse and put it in a tomb.
7. Feeding the Five Thousand
6:30-44
Mk 6:30 And the aapostles gathered together to Jesus and breported to Him all that they did and all that they taught.
Mk 6:31 And He said to them, Come by yourselves privately to a adeserted place and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they did 1not even have opportunity to beat.
Mk 6:32 1And they awent away in the boat to a deserted place privately.
Mk 6:33 And many saw them going away and arecognized them, and they ran together there on foot from all the cities and got there before them.
Mk 6:34 And getting out, He saw a great crowd, and He was 1moved with acompassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things.
Mk 6:35 And when the hour had already become late, His disciples came to Him and said, This place is deserted, and the hour is already late;
Mk 6:36 aSend them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy for themselves something to eat.
Mk 6:37 But He answered and said to them, You agive them something to eat. And they said to Him, Shall we go away and buy two hundred 1denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?
Mk 6:38 And He said to them, aHow many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they found out, they said, Five, and two fish.
Mk 6:39 And He ordered them to have all recline 1by companies on the green grass.
Mk 6:40 And they sat down 1in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.
Mk 6:41 And He took the five loaves and the two fish and, alooking up to heaven, He bblessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among all.
Mk 6:42 And they all ate and were satisfied.
Mk 6:43 And they took up 1twelve full handbaskets of the broken pieces of bread and of the fish.
Mk 6:44 And those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.
8. Walking on the Sea
6:45-52
Mk 6:45 1And aimmediately He bcompelled His disciples to step into the boat and cgo before to the other side, toward dBethsaida, while He sent the crowd away.
Mk 6:46 And after He said farewell to them, He went away to the amountain to 1bpray.
Mk 6:47 And when evening fell, the aboat was in the midst of the sea and He was alone on the land.
Mk 6:48 And seeing them distressed as they rowed, for the wind was contrary to them, He came toward them about the fourth watch of the night, 1walking on the sea, and He intended to pass by them.
Mk 6:49 But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out,
Mk 6:50 For they all saw Him and were astartled. But bimmediately He spoke with them and said to them, Take ccourage. 1It is I. Do not be dafraid.
Mk 6:51 And He went up unto them into the boat, and the wind aceased. And they were greatly bastonished in themselves beyond measure,
Mk 6:52 For they did not aunderstand concerning the loaves, but rather their heart was hardened.
9. Healing Everywhere
6:53-56
Mk 6:53 And they acrossed over to the land and came to bGennesaret and moored there.
Mk 6:54 And when they came out of the boat, aimmediately the people brecognized Him,
Mk 6:55 And they ran about that whole region and began to carry around on amats those who were ill to any place where they heard that He was.
Mk 6:56 And wherever He entered into avillages or into cities or into the countryside, they laid those who were sick in the bmarketplaces and begged Him that they might touch if even the 1fringe of His garment; and as many as ctouched Him were 2healed.
MARK 7

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10. Teaching concerning the Things That Defile from Within
7:1-23
Mk 7:1 1And the aPharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to Him when they had come from bJerusalem
Mk 7:2 And 1had seen that some of His disciples ate bread with common hands, that is, aunwashed.
Mk 7:3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews, unless they 1carefully wash their hands, do not eat, holding the atradition of the 2elders;
Mk 7:4 And when they come from the marketplace, unless they 1wash themselves, they do not eat. And there are amany other things which they have received to hold, the bdipping of cups and pitchers and copper vessels2.)
Mk 7:5 And the 1Pharisees and the scribes questioned Him, Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with common hands?
Mk 7:6 And He said to them, Well has Isaiah prophesied concerning you 1hypocrites, as it is written, a“This people honors Me with their blips, but their heart stays far away from Me;
Mk 7:7 But in vain do they 1worship Me, teaching as teachings the commandments of amen.”
Mk 7:8 While leaving the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men1.
Mk 7:9 And He said to them, You nicely 1aset aside the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition.
Mk 7:10 For Moses said, a“Honor your father and your mother,” and, b“He who speaks evil of father or mother, 1let him be put to death.”
Mk 7:11 But you say: If a man says to his father or his mother, Whatever you would have been profited by me is now 1corban (that is, a agift to God),
Mk 7:12 Allow him to no longer do anything for his father or his mother.
Mk 7:13 Thus you deprive the word of God of its authority by your tradition which you have handed down. And amany things similar to these you do.
Mk 7:14 And He called the crowd to Him again and said to them, Hear Me, all of you, and aunderstand.
Mk 7:15 There is nothing outside of a man which entering into him can 1defile him, but the things coming out of a man are the things which defile a man.
Mk 7:16 1If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
Mk 7:17 And when He entered into a ahouse from the crowd, His disciples questioned Him concerning the bparable.
Mk 7:18 And He said to them, Are you also in the same manner without aunderstanding? Do you not understand that everything that enters from outside into a man is not able to defile him,
Mk 7:19 Because it does not enter into his heart, but into the astomach, and goes out into the drain? (In saying this, He made all foods bclean.)
Mk 7:20 And He said, That which goes out of the man, that adefiles the man.
Mk 7:21 For from within, out of the aheart of men, proceed evil reasonings, fornications, thefts, bmurders,
Mk 7:22 aAdulteries, bcovetousness, wickedness, 1deceit, licentiousness, 2envy, cblasphemy, arrogance, foolishness.
Mk 7:23 All these 1wicked things proceed from within and defile the man.
11. Casting a Demon out of a Canaanite Daughter
7:24-30
Mk 7:24 1And He rose up from there and awent away into the borders of bTyre 2and Sidon. And entering into a chouse, He wanted 3no one to know about it; yet He could not escape notice.
Mk 7:25 But a woman whose little daughter had an aunclean spirit heard about Him, and bimmediately she came and fell at His feet.
Mk 7:26 Now the woman was a aGreek, 1Syrophoenician by race. And she asked Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Mk 7:27 And He said to her, aFirst let the bchildren be satisfied, for it is not good to take the children’s cbread and throw it to the 1little ddogs.
Mk 7:28 And she answered and said to Him, Yes, Lord, but even the little dogs under the atable eat of the little children’s crumbs.
Mk 7:29 And He said to her, Because of this word, ago. The 1demon has gone out of your daughter.
Mk 7:30 And she went away to her house and found the little child lying on the couch and the demon gone out.
12. Healing a Deaf and Dumb Man
7:31-37
Mk 7:31 And again He acame out of the borders of bTyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of 1cGalilee in the midst of the borders of 2dDecapolis.
Mk 7:32 And they brought to Him 1one who was adeaf and who bspoke with difficulty, and they entreated Him to clay His hand on him.
Mk 7:33 And He took him aside from the crowd privately and 1put His fingers into his ears, and He aspat and touched his tongue.
Mk 7:34 And alooking up to heaven, He bgroaned and said to him, 1Ephphatha! that is, Be opened!
Mk 7:35 And aimmediately his ears were opened, and the bond on his tongue was released and he spoke clearly.
Mk 7:36 And He charged them 1not to tell aanyone. But the more He charged them, so much the more they bproclaimed it.
Mk 7:37 And they were utterly aastounded, saying, He has done all things well; He makes both the deaf hear and the dumb speak.
MARK 8

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13. Feeding the Four Thousand
8:1-10
Mk 8:1 1In those days, since there was again a great crowd and they did not have anything to eat, He called the disciples to Him and asaid to them,
Mk 8:2 I am 1moved with compassion for the crowd, because for three days now they have 1remained with Me and they do 1not have anything to eat.
Mk 8:3 And if I send them away to their home hungry, they will 1faint on the way; and some of them have 1come from a distance.
Mk 8:4 And His disciples answered Him, Where will anyone be able to get enough to satisfy these people with bread here in this desolate place?
Mk 8:5 And He asked them, How many loaves do you have? And they said, Seven.
Mk 8:6 And He charged the crowd to recline on the ground. And taking the seven loaves, He agave thanks and broke them, and gave them to His disciples to set before them, and they set them before the crowd.
Mk 8:7 And they had a few small fish, and having blessed them, He said that these also should be set before them.
Mk 8:8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the asurplus of broken pieces, 1seven baskets.
Mk 8:9 And 1there were about four thousand people. And He sent them away.
Mk 8:10 And aimmediately He got into the boat with His disciples and came into the parts of 1Dalmanutha.
14. Not Giving a Sign to the Pharisees
8:11-13
Mk 8:11 1And the 2aPharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a 3bsign from heaven and ctempting Him.
Mk 8:12 And He 1agroaned deeply in His spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I tell you, 2No sign shall be given to this generation.
Mk 8:13 And leaving them, He again got into a boat and went away to the other side.
15. Warning concerning the Leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod
8:14-21
Mk 8:14 And they forgot to take bread, and except for one loaf, they did not have any with them in the boat.
Mk 8:15 And He charged them, saying, Watch! Beware of the 1aleaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of bHerod.
Mk 8:16 And they reasoned with one another, 1saying, It is because we do not have bread.
Mk 8:17 And Jesus, aknowing it, said to them, Why are you reasoning because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor bunderstand? Do you have your heart chardened?
Mk 8:18 Having eyes, do you anot see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?
Mk 8:19 When I broke the afive loaves for the five thousand, how many handbaskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to Him, Twelve.
Mk 8:20 And when I broke the aseven for the four thousand, how many baskets filled with broken pieces did you take up? And they said, Seven.
Mk 8:21 And He said to them, Do you not yet aunderstand?
16. Healing a Blind Man in Bethsaida
8:22-26
Mk 8:22 And they came to aBethsaida. And they brought to Him a 1blind man and entreated Him to touch him.
Mk 8:23 And He 1atook hold of the hand of the blind man and 2led him forth outside the village. And He 3bspat on his eyes and 4claid His hands on him and asked him, Do you see anything?
Mk 8:24 And he looked up and said, I 1see men, for I see them as trees, walking.
Mk 8:25 Then again He laid His hands upon his eyes, and the man looked intently and was 1restored, and he began to see all things clearly.
Mk 8:26 And He sent him to his house, saying, Do 1not even enter into the village2.
17. Unveiling His Death and Resurrection the First Time
8:27 — 9:1
Mk 8:27 1And Jesus and His disciples went out into the villages of aCaesarea Philippi. And on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, bWho do men say that I am?
Mk 8:28 And they told Him, saying, aJohn the Baptist; and others, bElijah; but others, one of the prophets.
Mk 8:29 And He questioned them, But you, who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said to Him, You are the aChrist!
Mk 8:30 And He charged them 1not to tell aanyone concerning Him.
Mk 8:31 1And He abegan to teach them that the bSon of Man must suffer many things and be crejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be dkilled and after ethree days frise.
Mk 8:32 And He spoke this word aopenly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.
Mk 8:33 But turning around and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, Get behind Me, aSatan! For you are not setting your bmind on the things of God, but on the things of men.
Mk 8:34 And He called the crowd to Him with His disciples and said to them, If anyone wants to follow after Me, let him deny himself and take up his across and follow Me.
Mk 8:35 For whoever wants to save his asoul-life shall lose it; but whoever will lose his soul-life for My sake and the bgospel’s shall save it.
Mk 8:36 For what does it profit a man to again the whole world and forfeit his soul-life?
Mk 8:37 For what could a man give in aexchange for his soul-life?
Mk 8:38 For whoever is aashamed of Me and of My words in this badulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when He ccomes in the glory of His Father with the dholy angels.
MARK 9

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Mk 9:1 And He said to them, Truly I say to you, there are some of those standing here who shall by no means ataste death until they see the bkingdom of God having come in cpower.
18. Being Transfigured on the Mount
9:2-13
Mk 9:2 1And after six days Jesus atook with Him bPeter and James and John, and brought them up alone into a high mountain privately. And He was 2ctransfigured before them,
Mk 9:3 And His garments became asparkling, exceedingly bwhite, such as no fuller on earth could whiten them.
Mk 9:4 And Elijah with Moses appeared to them, and they were conversing with Jesus.
Mk 9:5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, aRabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three btents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
Mk 9:6 For he did anot know what to answer, for they had become extremely frightened.
Mk 9:7 And a acloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a bvoice came out of the cloud: This is My Son, the cBeloved. dHear Him!
Mk 9:8 And suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone, but Jesus only with them.
Mk 9:9 And as they were acoming down from the mountain, He ordered them 1not to relate to banyone the things which they had seen, except when the Son of Man has crisen from the dead.
Mk 9:10 And they kept the word, discussing among themselves what rising from the dead was.
Mk 9:11 And they asked Him, saying, Why do the scribes say that aElijah must come first?
Mk 9:12 And He said to them, Elijah does indeed come first and arestore all things. And how is it that it is bwritten of the Son of Man that He should csuffer many things and be dcounted as nothing?
Mk 9:13 But I tell you that aElijah has 1indeed come, and they did to him the things that they wished, even as it is written of him.
19. Casting Out a Dumb Spirit
9:14-29
Mk 9:14 And when 1they came to the disciples, 1they saw a great crowd around them, and some 2ascribes disputing with them.
Mk 9:15 And aimmediately, when all the crowd saw Him, they were bamazed, and they ran to Him and greeted Him.
Mk 9:16 And He questioned them, What are you disputing with them?
Mk 9:17 1And aone from the crowd answered Him, bTeacher, I brought to You my son, who has a cdumb spirit;
Mk 9:18 And wherever it seizes him, it 1throws him down, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth; and he is wasting away. And I told Your disciples to acast it out, and they were not able.
Mk 9:19 And He answered them and said, 1O unbelieving generation! How long shall I be awith you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.
Mk 9:20 And they brought him to Him. And when it saw Him, the spirit aimmediately bconvulsed him greatly, and falling on the earth, he rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
Mk 9:21 And He questioned his father, How long has this been happening to him? And he said, From childhood.
Mk 9:22 And it has often thrown him both into fire and into water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, 1have compassion on us and help us.
Mk 9:23 And Jesus said to him, 1You say, If You can. All things are possible to him who abelieves.
Mk 9:24 aImmediately, crying out, the father of the child said, I believe; bhelp my unbelief!
Mk 9:25 And Jesus, seeing that a crowd was running together toward them, arebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, bDumb and deaf spirit, I order you, 1come out of him and enter into him no more.
Mk 9:26 And after crying out and aconvulsing him terribly, it came out. And he became as though he were dead so that many said that he died.
Mk 9:27 But Jesus 1atook hold of his hand and raised him, and he stood up.
Mk 9:28 And when He entered into the ahouse, His disciples questioned Him privately, Why were we not able to cast it out?
Mk 9:29 And He said to them, This kind cannot come out by any means except prayer1.
20. Unveiling His Death and Resurrection the Second Time
9:30-32
Mk 9:30 And they went out from there and passed through aGalilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it,
Mk 9:31 For He was ateaching His disciples. And He said to them, The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men, and they will bkill Him; and when He has been killed, after three days He will rise.
Mk 9:32 But they did not aunderstand this saying and were afraid to question Him.
21. Teaching concerning Humility
9:33-37
Mk 9:33 And they came to aCapernaum. And when He was in the house, He bquestioned them, What were you reasoning about on the way?
Mk 9:34 And they were silent, for they had argued with one another on the way about who was agreater.
Mk 9:35 And He sat down and called the twelve and said to them, If anyone wants to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.
Mk 9:36 And He took a alittle child and set him in their midst; and 1taking him into His arms, He said to them,
Mk 9:37 Whoever areceives one of such little children 1because of My name, 2receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.
22. Teaching concerning Tolerance for Unity
9:38-50
Mk 9:38 aJohn said to Him, Teacher, we saw someone bcasting out demons in Your cname, and we 1forbade him because he does not follow us.
Mk 9:39 But Jesus said, Do 1not forbid him, for there is ano one who will do a work of power in My name and be able soon to speak evil of Me.
Mk 9:40 For 1he who is not against us is for us.
Mk 9:41 For whoever gives 1you a acup of water to drink because you bear the name that you are 2bChrist’s, truly I say to you that he shall by no means lose his 3reward.
Mk 9:42 And whoever stumbles one of 1these alittle ones who believe into Me, it is better for him if a 2great millstone is placed around his neck and he is thrown into the sea.
Mk 9:43 And if your 1ahand stumbles you, 2cut it off; it is better for you to enter into 3life maimed than to have two hands and go away into 4Gehenna, into 5unquenchable bfire.
Mk 9:44 See note 441.
Mk 9:45 And if your foot stumbles you, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into Gehenna1.
Mk 9:46 See note 461.
Mk 9:47 And if your aeye stumbles you, cast it out; it is better for you to enter into the 1bkingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into Gehenna,
Mk 9:48 Where their 1worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
Mk 9:49 For everyone shall be 1salted with 2fire3.
Mk 9:50 1Salt is good, but if the salt becomes 2unsalty, with what will you restore its saltiness? Have salt in yourselves and be at apeace with one another.
MARK 10

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23. Coming to Judea
10:1
Mk 10:1 And He rose up afrom there and came into the 1borders of Judea and bbeyond the Jordan; and again crowds came together to Him, and as He was accustomed, again He 2taught them.
24. Teaching against Divorce
10:2-12
Mk 10:2 1And some 2Pharisees came and asked Him whether it was lawful for a man to 3divorce a wife, so as to atempt Him.
Mk 10:3 And He answered and said to them, What did Moses command you?
Mk 10:4 And they said, Moses allowed us to write a acertificate of divorce and divorce her.
Mk 10:5 And Jesus said to them, Because of your ahardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you.
Mk 10:6 But from the abeginning of creation, He bmade them male and female.
Mk 10:7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother 1and shall be ajoined to his wife;
Mk 10:8 And the two shall be aone flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Mk 10:9 Therefore what God has ayoked together, let man not bseparate.
Mk 10:10 And in the house the disciples questioned Him again concerning this.
Mk 10:11 And He said to them, Whoever adivorces his wife and marries another commits badultery against her.
Mk 10:12 And if she adivorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
25. Blessing Little Children
10:13-16
Mk 10:13 And they abrought little children to Him so that He might touch them, but the disciples brebuked them.
Mk 10:14 But Jesus, seeing it, was 1indignant and said to them, 2Allow the alittle children to come to Me. Do bnot forbid them, for of 3such is the ckingdom of God.
Mk 10:15 Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the akingdom of God like a blittle child shall by no means enter into it.
Mk 10:16 And ataking them into His arms, He fervently blessed them, blaying His hands on them.
26. Teaching concerning the Rich and the Entrance into the Kingdom of God
10:17-31
Mk 10:17 1And as He went out into the road, someone ran to Him and akneeling before Him basked Him, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit ceternal life?
Mk 10:18 And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? aNo one is good except One — bGod.
Mk 10:19 You know the commandments: a“Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”
Mk 10:20 And he said to Him, Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.
Mk 10:21 And Jesus, alooking upon him, was 1bmoved with love for him and said to him, One thing you lack: go; the things you have, csell and give to the poor, and you will have dtreasure in heaven; and come, efollow Me2.
Mk 10:22 And at the word his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowing, for he ahad many possessions.
Mk 10:23 And Jesus, alooking around, said to His disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have briches to enter into the ckingdom of God!
Mk 10:24 And the disciples were aamazed at His words. But Jesus again answered and said to them, bChildren, how difficult it is 1for those who trust in riches to center into the kingdom of God!
Mk 10:25 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Mk 10:26 But they were aastonished beyond measure and said 1among themselves, Then who can be saved?
Mk 10:27 aLooking upon them, Jesus said, With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are bpossible with God.
Mk 10:28 Peter began to say to Him, Behold, we have left all and afollowed You.
Mk 10:29 Jesus said, Truly I say to you, There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the agospel’s sake,
Mk 10:30 But that he shall receive a hundred atimes as much now at this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with bpersecutions, and in the ccoming age, deternal 1life.
Mk 10:31 But many afirst will be last, and the last first.
27. Unveiling His Death and Resurrection the Third Time
10:32-34
Mk 10:32 Now they were on the road, agoing up to bJerusalem, and Jesus led the way before them. And they were camazed, and those who followed were afraid. And He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that were about to happen to Him:
Mk 10:33 Behold, we are going up to aJerusalem, and the Son of Man will be 1delivered to the chief priests and to the 2scribes. And they will condemn Him to 3bdeath and deliver Him to the Gentiles,
Mk 10:34 And they will amock Him and bspit at Him and cscourge Him, and they will dkill Him. And after three days He will rise.
28. Teaching concerning the Way to the Throne
10:35-45
Mk 10:35 1And James and John, the sons of aZebedee, came to Him, saying to Him, Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we bask You.
Mk 10:36 And He said to them, What do you want Me to ado for you?
Mk 10:37 And they said to Him, Grant to us to asit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your bglory.
Mk 10:38 But Jesus said to them, You do anot know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the 1bcup which I drink, or to be baptized with the 1baptism with which I am baptized?
Mk 10:39 And they said to Him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, The cup which I drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you shall be baptized.
Mk 10:40 But to sit on My right or on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
Mk 10:41 And when the ten heard this, they began to be indignant concerning James and John.
Mk 10:42 And Jesus called them to Him and asaid to them, You know that those who are esteemed as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
Mk 10:43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wants to become agreat among you shall be your servant,
Mk 10:44 And whoever wants to be first among you shall be the aslave of all.
Mk 10:45 For even the 1Son of Man did not come to be served, but to aserve and to bgive His 2life as a 3cransom for dmany.
29. Healing Bartimaeus
10:46-52
Mk 10:46 And they acame to bJericho. And as He was going out from Jericho, as well as His disciples and a large crowd, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a 1cblind beggar, sat by the road.
Mk 10:47 And when he heard that it was Jesus the aNazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, 1bSon of David, have cmercy on me!
Mk 10:48 And many arebuked him so that he would be silent, but he cried out much more, Son of David, have mercy on me!
Mk 10:49 And Jesus, standing still, said, 1Call him here. And they called the blind man, saying to him, Take courage. Rise. He is calling you.
Mk 10:50 And throwing his garment aside, he leaped up and came to Jesus.
Mk 10:51 And Jesus answered him and said, 1What do you want Me to ado for you? And the blind man said to Him, bRabboni, that I may receive my sight!
Mk 10:52 And Jesus said to him, Go; your afaith has 1healed you. And bimmediately he received his sight and followed Him on the road.
MARK 11

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III. The Preparation of the Slave-Savior for His Redemptive Service
11:1 — 14:42
A. Entering into Jerusalem and Lodging in Bethany
11:1-11
Mk 11:1 1And when they drew near to aJerusalem, at bBethphage and cBethany, at the dMount of Olives, He esent two of His disciples,
Mk 11:2 And said to them, Go into the village opposite you, and aimmediately upon entering into it, you will 1find a colt tied, on which bno man has yet sat; untie it and bring it.
Mk 11:3 And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say, The Lord has need of it and will immediately send it here again.
Mk 11:4 And they went away and found a colt tied by a door, outside on the street, and they untied it.
Mk 11:5 And some of the ones standing there said to them, What are you doing untying the colt?
Mk 11:6 And they spoke to them even as Jesus had said. And they let them do it.
Mk 11:7 And they brought the 1acolt to Jesus and threw their 2bgarments on it, and He sat on it.
Mk 11:8 And many spread their garments in the road, and others spread 1layers of 2branches full of 3tender leaves, having cut them out of the fields.
Mk 11:9 And those who went before and those who followed cried out, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the aname of the Lord!
Mk 11:10 Blessed is the coming akingdom of our father bDavid! Hosanna in the chighest!
Mk 11:11 And He entered into aJerusalem, into the temple; and when He had looked around at all things, since the hour was already late, He went bout to cBethany with the twelve.
B. Cursing the Fig Tree and Cleansing the Temple
11:12-26
Mk 11:12 1And on the next day, when athey had gone out from Bethany, He became bhungry.
Mk 11:13 And seeing at a distance a afig tree having leaves, He came to see if perhaps He would find anything on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing except bleaves, for it was not the season for figs.
Mk 11:14 And He answered and said to it, May 1no one eat fruit from you 2forever! And His disciples heard it.
Mk 11:15 And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered into the atemple and began to 1cast out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the bmoney changers and the seats of those who were selling the cdoves;
Mk 11:16 And He would not let anyone carry a vessel through the temple.
Mk 11:17 And He 1taught and said to them, Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of aprayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a bden of robbers.
Mk 11:18 And the chief priests and the 1scribes heard this, and they asought how they might destroy Him, for they feared Him, for all the crowd was bastounded at His teaching.
Mk 11:19 And every day when evening fell, they went aoutside the city.
Mk 11:20 And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the afig tree bwithered from the roots.
Mk 11:21 And Peter remembered and said to Him, aRabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.
Mk 11:22 And Jesus answered and said to them, Have afaith in God.
Mk 11:23 Truly I say to you that whoever says to this amountain, Be taken up and cast into the bsea, and does not cdoubt in his heart, but believes that what he says happens, he will have it.
Mk 11:24 For this reason I say to you, All things that you pray and aask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them.
Mk 11:25 And when you astand praying, 1bforgive, if you have 2anything cagainst anyone, so that your dFather who is in the heavens may also forgive you your offenses.
Mk 11:26 1But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in the heavens forgive your offenses.
C. Being Tested and Examined
11:27 — 12:44
1. By the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Elders
11:27 — 12:12
Mk 11:27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the atemple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him,
Mk 11:28 And said to Him, By what authority do You do these things, or who gave You this aauthority to do these things?
Mk 11:29 And Jesus said to them, I will question you about one thing; answer Me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Mk 11:30 The abaptism of John, was it from bheaven or from men? Answer Me.
Mk 11:31 And they reasoned with one another saying, If we say, From heaven, He will say, Why then did you anot believe him?
Mk 11:32 But should we say, From men? — they afeared the crowd, for all held that bJohn was really a cprophet.
Mk 11:33 And they answered Jesus and said, We do 1not know. And Jesus said to them, 2Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
MARK 12

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Mk 12:1 1And He began to aspeak to them in bparables: A man planted a cvineyard and put a hedge around it and dug a vat for a dwinepress and built a tower; and he leased it out to evinedressers and went fabroad.
Mk 12:2 And he sent a aslave to the vinedressers at the proper time so that from the vinedressers he might take of the fruit of the vineyard.
Mk 12:3 And they took him and abeat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Mk 12:4 And again he sent to them another slave; and that one they struck on the head and dishonored.
Mk 12:5 And he sent another, and that one they akilled; and so with many others, beating some and killing others.
Mk 12:6 He had yet one, a abeloved son; he sent him to them last, saying, They will respect my son.
Mk 12:7 But those vinedressers said to one another, This is the aheir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!
Mk 12:8 And they took him and akilled him and threw him bout of the vineyard.
Mk 12:9 What then will the amaster of the vineyard do? He will come and bdestroy the vinedressers and will give the vineyard to 1cothers.
Mk 12:10 Have you not even read this Scripture, “The stone which the abuilders rejected, this has become the head of the 1corner.
Mk 12:11 This was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?
Mk 12:12 And they asought to seize Him, yet they bfeared the crowd, for they perceived that it was with them in view that He spoke the parable. And cleaving Him, they went away.
2. By the Pharisees and Herodians
12:13-17
Mk 12:13 1And they asent to Him some of the 2Pharisees and bHerodians that they might catch Him in His cspeech.
Mk 12:14 And they came and said to Him, Teacher, we know that You are true and 1do not fear anyone, for You do not regard the 2aperson of men, but teach the bway of God in truth. Is it lawful to give ctribute to dCaesar, or not? Should we give, or should we not give?
Mk 12:15 But He, knowing their ahypocrisy, said to them, Why do you btempt Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may look at it.
Mk 12:16 And they brought one. And He said to them, Whose is this image and inscription? And they said to Him, Caesar’s.
Mk 12:17 And Jesus said to them, The things that are Caesar’s arender to Caesar, and the bthings that are God’s cto God. And they marveled greatly at Him.
3. By the Sadducees
12:18-27
Mk 12:18 1And some aSadducees came to Him, who say that there is bno resurrection, and they cquestioned Him, saying,
Mk 12:19 Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if anyone’s brother dies and leaves a awife behind and leaves no child, his brother should take the wife and raise up seed to his brother.
Mk 12:20 There were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and when he died, he left no seed;
Mk 12:21 And the second took her and died, leaving behind no seed; and the third similarly;
Mk 12:22 And the seven left no seed. Last of all the woman also died.
Mk 12:23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.
Mk 12:24 Jesus said to them, Is it not because of this that you err, that you do anot know the Scriptures nor the bpower of God?
Mk 12:25 For when they arise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in the heavens.
Mk 12:26 But concerning the dead, that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the section concerning the abush, how God spoke to him, saying, “I am the bGod of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”?
Mk 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the aliving. You err greatly.
4. By a Scribe
12:28-34
Mk 12:28 And 1one of the 2scribes approached and heard them 3disputing; and perceiving that He answered them well, he aquestioned Him, Which is the first commandment of all?
Mk 12:29 Jesus answered, The first is: “Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is aone Lord;
Mk 12:30 And you shall alove the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole 1strength.”
Mk 12:31 The second is this: “You shall alove your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than 1these.
Mk 12:32 And the scribe said to Him, Well said, Teacher; in truth You have said that He is one and there is not another abesides Him;
Mk 12:33 And to love Him from the whole heart and from the whole understanding and from the whole strength and to love one’s neighbor as himself is much more than all the burnt aofferings and sacrifices.
Mk 12:34 And Jesus, seeing that he answered intelligently, said to him, You are not far from the akingdom of God. And no one bdared to question Him anymore.
5. Muzzling All the Mouths
12:35-37
Mk 12:35 1And Jesus, while He was 2ateaching in the temple, answered and bsaid, How is it that the 3cscribes say that the Christ is the son of David?
Mk 12:36 David himself said in the aHoly Spirit, “The Lord said to my Lord, bSit at My right hand until I put Your enemies cunderneath Your feet.”
Mk 12:37 David himself calls Him Lord, and how is He ahis 1son? And the great crowd bheard Him gladly.
6. Warning against the Scribes
12:38-40
Mk 12:38 And in His ateaching He bsaid, Beware of the cscribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and like greetings in the marketplaces
Mk 12:39 And achief seats in the synagogues and bplaces of honor at the dinners,
Mk 12:40 Who adevour the widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These shall receive bgreater 1judgment.
7. Praising the Poor Widow
12:41-44
Mk 12:41 And He sat down opposite the atreasury and 1bwatched how the crowd cast 2cmoney into the treasury. And many rich people cast in much.
Mk 12:42 And one apoor widow came and cast in two lepta, which is a 1quadrans.
Mk 12:43 And He called His disciples to Him and said to them, Truly I say to you that this poor widow has cast in more than all those who were casting into the treasury,
Mk 12:44 For they all cast in out of their surplus, but she, out of her lack, has cast in all that she had, her whole aliving.
MARK 13

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D. Preparing the Disciples for His Death
13:1 — 14:42
1. Telling Them the Things to Come
13:1-37
Mk 13:1 1And as He was going out of the atemple, 2one of His disciples said to Him, Teacher, behold, 3what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!
Mk 13:2 And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? 1There shall by no means be left here a astone upon a stone which shall not be thrown down.
Mk 13:3 1And as He sat on the aMount of Olives opposite the temple, bPeter and cJames and John and dAndrew easked Him privately,
Mk 13:4 Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign awhen all these things are about to be accomplished?
Mk 13:5 And Jesus began to say to them, aSee that no one bleads you astray.
Mk 13:6 Many will come in My aname, saying, I am the Christ! and will lead many astray.
Mk 13:7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be aalarmed; it must happen, but the bend is not yet.
Mk 13:8 For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be aearthquakes in various places; there will be bfamines. These things are the beginning of birth pangs.
Mk 13:9 1But you, take heed to yourselves. They will adeliver you to bsanhedrins, and in the synagogues you will be cbeaten, and before 2governors and dkings you will stand for My sake, for a testimony to them.
Mk 13:10 Yet the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the anations.
Mk 13:11 And when they lead you away and deliver you up, do not be aanxious beforehand about what you should speak1, but bwhatever is given to you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who are speaking, but the Holy cSpirit.
Mk 13:12 And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a afather his child; and children will rise up against their parents and put them to death.
Mk 13:13 And you will be hated by all on account of My aname. But he who has bendured to the end, this one shall be saved.
Mk 13:14 1But when you asee the abomination of bdesolation2 standing 3where it should not (let him who reads understand), then let those in cJudea flee to the mountains;
Mk 13:15 And let him who is on the ahousetop not come down, nor enter in, to take anything out of his house;
Mk 13:16 And let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garment.
Mk 13:17 But woe to those who are apregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days.
Mk 13:18 And pray that 1it may not happen in winter,
Mk 13:19 For those days will be a time of atribulation such as has bnot occurred from the cbeginning of the creation which God created until now, nor shall by any means ever occur.
Mk 13:20 And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the achosen, whom He chose, He bshortened the days.
Mk 13:21 And then if anyone says to you, Behold, ahere is the Christ! Behold, there! do not believe it.
Mk 13:22 For false Christs and afalse prophets will arise and will 1show bsigns and wonders to cdeceive, if possible, the chosen.
Mk 13:23 But you, abeware; 1I have told you all things bbeforehand.
Mk 13:24 But in those adays, bafter that ctribulation, the sun will be ddarkened, and the moon will not give its light,
Mk 13:25 And the stars will be afalling out of heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Mk 13:26 And then they will see the aSon of Man bcoming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Mk 13:27 And then He will send the angels, and He will agather together His chosen from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven.
Mk 13:28 1But learn the parable from the afig tree: as soon as its branch has become tender and puts forth its bleaves, you know that the summer is near.
Mk 13:29 So also you, when you see these things happening, know that 1it is near, aat the doors.
Mk 13:30 Truly I say to you that this generation shall by no means pass away until all these things happen.
Mk 13:31 Heaven and earth will apass away, but My bwords shall by no means pass away.
Mk 13:32 But concerning that aday or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the bFather.
Mk 13:33 aBeware, be balert1; for you do not know when the time is.
Mk 13:34 It is like a man who is about to go aabroad, having left his house and given to his slaves authority, to each his work, and who commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Mk 13:35 aWatch therefore, for you do not know when the Master of the house comes, whether in the 1evening or at midnight or at cockcrowing or in the morning;
Mk 13:36 Lest He come suddenly and find you asleeping.
Mk 13:37 And what I say to you, I say to all: aWatch!
MARK 14

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2. Being Conspired Against, Betrayed, and Loved
14:1-11
Mk 14:1 1Now the aPassover and the Feast of bUnleavened Bread were ctwo days away. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to dseize Him by craftiness and ekill Him,
Mk 14:2 For they said, Not at the feast, lest there be a atumult by the people.
Mk 14:3 1And while He was in aBethany in the bhouse of Simon the cleper, as He reclined at table, a woman came, having an alabaster flask of ointment, of very costly pure nard, and she broke the alabaster flask and poured it over His head.
Mk 14:4 But there were some who were indignantly commenting among themselves: Why has this waste of the ointment 1been made?
Mk 14:5 For this ointment could have been sold for over athree hundred 1denarii and given to the bpoor. And they were infuriated with her.
Mk 14:6 But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a noble deed on Me.
Mk 14:7 For you always have the apoor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you do not always have 1Me.
Mk 14:8 1She has done what she could; she has 2anointed My body beforehand for the aburial.
Mk 14:9 And truly I say to you, Wherever the gospel is 1proclaimed in the whole aworld, what this woman has done shall also be told as a bmemorial of her.
Mk 14:10 And aJudas Iscariot, one of the btwelve, went off to the chief priests to cdeliver Him up to them.
Mk 14:11 And when they heard this, they rejoiced and promised to give him 1money. And he sought a way to 2deliver Him up opportunely.
3. Instituting His Supper
14:12-26
Mk 14:12 And on the first day of the 1Feast of aUnleavened Bread, when they 2sacrificed the bpassover, His disciples said to Him, Where do You want us to go and prepare so that You may eat the passover?
Mk 14:13 And He asent two of His disciples and said to them, Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him;
Mk 14:14 And wherever he enters, say to the 1master of the house, The aTeacher says, Where is My guest room, where I may eat the bpassover with My disciples?
Mk 14:15 And he will show you a large aupper room, furnished and ready. And there prepare for us.
Mk 14:16 And the disciples went out and came into the city and found it even as He had told them, and they prepared the passover.
Mk 14:17 And when aevening fell, He came with the twelve.
Mk 14:18 And as they were reclining at table and 1eating, Jesus said, Truly I say to you that 2one of you will abetray Me, one who is beating with Me.
Mk 14:19 They began to be grieved and to say to Him one by one, Surely not I? 1
Mk 14:20 And He said to them, It will be one of the twelve, 1one who dips with Me in the dish.
Mk 14:21 For the Son of Man is 1going away, even as it is awritten concerning Him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.
Mk 14:22 1And as they were 2eating, He took abread and bblessed it, and He broke it and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My cbody.
Mk 14:23 And He took a cup and gave thanks, and He gave it to them; and they all drank of it.
Mk 14:24 And He said to them, This is My ablood of the 1covenant, which is being poured out for bmany.
Mk 14:25 Truly I say to you, I shall by no means drink of the 1product of the vine anymore until that day when I drink it new in the akingdom of God.
Mk 14:26 And after asinging a hymn, they went out to the bMount of Olives.
4. Warning the Disciples
14:27-31
Mk 14:27 And Jesus said to them, You will all be astumbled1, because it is written, “I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep will be bscattered.”
Mk 14:28 But after I have been raised, I will go before you into aGalilee.
Mk 14:29 But Peter said to Him, Even if all will be stumbled, yet I will not!
Mk 14:30 And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you that today in this night, before a arooster crows twice, you will 1deny Me three times.
Mk 14:31 But he went on speaking more intensely, Even if I must adie with You, I will by no means deny You! And they all said similarly.
5. Experiencing Gethsemane — Charging the Disciples to Watch and Pray
14:32-42
Mk 14:32 1And they came to a place named Gethsemane, and He asaid to His disciples, Sit here while I pray.
Mk 14:33 And He took aPeter and James and John with Him and began to be 1awestruck and deeply distressed.
Mk 14:34 And He said to them, My soul is exceedingly asorrowful, even to death. Remain here and bwatch.
Mk 14:35 And going forward a little, He fell on the ground and aprayed that, if it were possible, the 1bhour would pass from Him.
Mk 14:36 And He said, aAbba Father, all things are bpossible to You; remove this ccup from Me; yet not what I dwill, but what 1You will.
Mk 14:37 And He came and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping? Were you not able to watch for one hour?
Mk 14:38 aWatch and bpray that you may not come into ctemptation. The dspirit is willing, but the eflesh is weak.
Mk 14:39 And going away again, He prayed, saying the same thing.
Mk 14:40 And coming again, He found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy. And they did anot know what to answer Him.
Mk 14:41 And He came the third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough. The ahour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being bdelivered into the hands of sinners.
Mk 14:42 Arise, let us be going. Behold, the one betraying Me has drawn near.
IV. The Death and Resurrection
of the Slave-Savior for the Accomplishing of God’s Redemption
14:43 — 16:18
A. His Death
14:43 — 15:47
1. Arrested
14:43-52
Mk 14:43 And aimmediately, while He was still bspeaking, cJudas, one of the twelve, appeared, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
Mk 14:44 Now the one who was abetraying Him had given them a signal, saying, Whomever I kiss, He is the one. Seize Him and lead Him away securely.
Mk 14:45 And when he came, he aimmediately approached Him and said, bRabbi! and ckissed Him affectionately.
Mk 14:46 And they laid hands on Him and aseized Him.
Mk 14:47 But a certain 1one of those standing by drew his asword and struck the slave of the high priest, and took off his ear.
Mk 14:48 And Jesus answered and said to them, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to arrest Me?
Mk 14:49 Day after day I was with you in the 1temple 2ateaching and you did not seize Me. But may the bScriptures be cfulfilled.
Mk 14:50 And they all aleft Him and fled.
Mk 14:51 And a certain young man was accompanying Him, clothed with a linen cloth over his naked body; and they seized him.
Mk 14:52 But he left the linen cloth behind and fled naked.
2. Judged
14:53 — 15:15
a. By the Jewish Leaders, Representing the Jews
14:53-72
Mk 14:53 1And they 2aled Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Mk 14:54 And Peter afollowed Him at a distance until he was within the bcourtyard of the high priest. And he was there sitting with the cattendants and warming himself in the light of the fire.
Mk 14:55 Now the chief priests and the whole 1aSanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death, and they could not find it.
Mk 14:56 For many gave afalse testimony against Him, yet the testimonies were not consistent.
Mk 14:57 And asome stood up and testified falsely against Him, saying,
Mk 14:58 We heard Him say, I will adestroy this temple made with bhands, and 1in three days I will build another made without hands.
Mk 14:59 And neither in this regard was their testimony consistent.
Mk 14:60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and questioned Jesus, saying, Do You not answer anything? What is this that these testify against You?
Mk 14:61 But He was silent and did not answer aanything. Again the high priest questioned Him and said to Him, Are bYou the cChrist, the Son of the 1dBlessed?
Mk 14:62 And Jesus said, 1I am. And you shall see the aSon of Man sitting at the bright hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
Mk 14:63 And the high priest, atearing his 1garments, said, What further need do we have of witnesses?
Mk 14:64 You heard the 1ablasphemy! How does it appear to you? And they all condemned Him as being worthy of bdeath.
Mk 14:65 And some began to 1aspit at Him and to bblindfold His face and to cbeat Him with their fists and to say to Him, 2Prophesy! And the attendants, 3dslapping Him about, took Him.
Mk 14:66 1And while Peter was below in the acourtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came,
Mk 14:67 And seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with the aNazarene, Jesus.
Mk 14:68 But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are talking about. And he went outside into the forecourt, and a rooster crowed.
Mk 14:69 And the servant girl, seeing him, began again to say to those standing by, This man is one of them!
Mk 14:70 But again he denied it. And after a little while, those standing by again said to Peter, Surely you are one of them, for you are a aGalilean as well1.
Mk 14:71 But he began to 1curse and to swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak!
Mk 14:72 And aimmediately a brooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered the word, how Jesus had said to him, Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times. And thinking upon it, he wept.
MARK 15

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b. By the Roman Governor, Representing the Gentiles
15:1-15
Mk 15:1 And aimmediately in the morning the bchief priests held a cconsultation with the elders and scribes and the whole 1Sanhedrin, and having bound Jesus, they led Him away and ddelivered Him to 2ePilate.
Mk 15:2 And Pilate aquestioned Him, Are You the bKing of the Jews? And answering him, He said, It is as you say.
Mk 15:3 And the chief priests aaccused Him of many things.
Mk 15:4 And Pilate again questioned Him, saying, Do You answer nothing? See how many things they are accusing You of.
Mk 15:5 But Jesus made 1ano further answer, so that Pilate marveled.
Mk 15:6 Now at the afeasts he released to them one prisoner whom they requested.
Mk 15:7 And there was one named Barabbas, bound with the ainsurrectionists who had committed bmurder in the insurrection.
Mk 15:8 And the crowd 1came up and began to ask him to do even as he had been accustomed to do for them.
Mk 15:9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release to you the aKing of the Jews?
Mk 15:10 For he knew that it was because of envy that the chief priests had delivered Him up.
Mk 15:11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd that instead he should arelease Barabbas to them.
Mk 15:12 And Pilate again answered and said to them, What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?
Mk 15:13 And again they cried out, 1aCrucify Him!
Mk 15:14 But Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has He done? But they cried out the more, Crucify Him!
Mk 15:15 And Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released to them Barabbas and 1ascourged Jesus and delivered Him up to be 2crucified.
3. Crucified
15:16-41
Mk 15:16 1And the asoldiers led Him away within the courtyard, that is, the 2bpraetorium, and called together the whole ccohort.
Mk 15:17 And they clothed Him in 1apurple and wove a bthorny crown and put it 2around His head.
Mk 15:18 And they began to salute Him: 1Rejoice, aKing of the Jews!
Mk 15:19 And they beat His head with a reed and aspat at Him. And kneeling down, they bowed before Him.
Mk 15:20 And when they had amocked Him, they stripped Him of the purple and put His garments on Him. And they bled Him out to crucify Him.
Mk 15:21 1And they acompelled a certain passerby coming from the country, bSimon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and cRufus, to take up His cross.
Mk 15:22 And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is interpreted, the aPlace of a Skull.
Mk 15:23 And they 1tried to give Him wine mixed with amyrrh, but He did not take it.
Mk 15:24 And they crucified Him and divided His garments, casting alots for them to see what each should take.
Mk 15:25 Now it was the 1athird hour and they crucified Him.
Mk 15:26 And there was an inscription of the charge against Him inscribed: THE aKING OF THE JEWS.
Mk 15:27 And with Him they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.
Mk 15:28 1And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, a“And He was counted with the lawless.”
Mk 15:29 And those who were passing by ablasphemed Him, bwagging their heads and saying, cAha! 1You who ddestroy the temple and build it in three days,
Mk 15:30 1Save Yourself and come down from the cross!
Mk 15:31 Likewise also the chief priests with the scribes amocked Him with one another and said, He saved others; bHimself He cannot save.
Mk 15:32 Let the Christ, the aKing of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with Him also breproached Him.
Mk 15:33 And when the 1sixth hour came, adarkness fell over the whole land until the 2ninth hour.
Mk 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus acried with a bloud voice, 1Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is interpreted, cMy God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Mk 15:35 And some of those standing by heard this and said, Behold, He is calling for Elijah.
Mk 15:36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with avinegar, and putting it on a reed, gave it to Him to drink, saying, Let Him be. Let us see if Elijah is coming to take Him down.
Mk 15:37 And Jesus let out a aloud cry and expired.
Mk 15:38 And the aveil of the temple was split in two from top to bottom.
Mk 15:39 And the acenturion standing by opposite Him, seeing that He expired in this way, said, Truly this man was the bSon of God.
Mk 15:40 And there were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary the aMagdalene, and 1Mary the mother of the 2younger James and of Joses, and 3Salome,
Mk 15:41 Who, when He was in Galilee, followed Him and aministered to Him, as well as many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
4. Buried
15:42-47
Mk 15:42 And when 1evening had fallen, since it was the day of apreparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
Mk 15:43 aJoseph, 1the honorable member of the Council, from Arimathea, who was also himself bawaiting the ckingdom of God, came; and gathering courage, he went in to dPilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Mk 15:44 And Pilate marveled that He had already died, and calling to him the acenturion, he questioned him whether He had been dead long.
Mk 15:45 And when he found out from the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph.
Mk 15:46 And Joseph purchased a piece of fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the fine linen. And he 1laid Him in a atomb which was hewn out of rock and rolled a stone against the bdoor of the tomb.
Mk 15:47 And Mary the aMagdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where He was laid.
MARK 16

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B. His Resurrection
16:1-18
1. Discovered by Three Sisters
vv. 1-8
Mk 16:1 1And when the aSabbath was past, Mary the bMagdalene, and 2Mary the mother of James, and 3Salome bought cspices so that they might come and 4anoint Him.
Mk 16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the atomb as the sun rose.
Mk 16:3 And they said to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?
Mk 16:4 And when they looked up, they saw that the astone had been rolled away, for it was extremely large.
Mk 16:5 And when they entered into the tomb, they saw aa young man sitting on the right, clothed in a white robe, and they were balarmed.
Mk 16:6 And he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You are seeking Jesus the aNazarene, who has been crucified. He has been 1raised; He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him.
Mk 16:7 But go, tell His disciples 1and Peter that He is going before you into aGalilee. There you will see Him, even as He told you.
Mk 16:8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
2. Appearing to Mary
vv. 9-11
Mk 16:9 1Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He aappeared first to Mary the bMagdalene, from whom He had 2cast out cseven demons.
Mk 16:10 She went and areported to those who had been with Him, who were mourning and bweeping.
Mk 16:11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did anot believe.
3. Appearing to Two Disciples
vv. 12-13
Mk 16:12 And after these things, He aappeared in a different form to btwo of them as they were walking on their way into the countryside.
Mk 16:13 And they went away and reported to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
4. Appearing to the Eleven Disciples and
Charging Them with the Universal Spreading of the Gospel
vv. 14-18
Mk 16:14 And afterward He aappeared to the eleven as they were reclining at table, and He reproached their unbelief and bhardness of heart, because they did cnot believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
Mk 16:15 And He said to them, Go into all the aworld and 1proclaim the gospel to 2ball the creation.
Mk 16:16 He who 1abelieves and is bbaptized shall be csaved, but he who does 2dnot believe shall be condemned.
Mk 16:17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My aname they will cast out demons; they will 1speak with new btongues;
Mk 16:18 They will pick up aserpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it shall by no means harm them; they will blay hands on the sick, and they will be cwell.
V. The Ascension of the Slave-Savior for His Exaltation
16:19
Mk 16:19 So then the Lord Jesus, after speaking to them, was 1taken up into aheaven and sat at the bright hand of God.
VI. The Slave-Savior’s Universal Spreading of the Gospel through His Disciples
16:20
Mk 16:20 And they went out and 1preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the accompanying asigns.
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

Chapters
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Outline

Author: Luke; see note 31 in ch. 1.
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 60, before Acts was written (Acts 1:1).
Place of Writing: Probably Caesarea, when Paul was imprisoned there (cf. Acts 23:33; 24:27; 27:1).
Recipients: Theophilus (1:3); see note 32 in ch. 1.
Subject:
The Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins — Proving That Jesus Christ Is the Man-Savior
LUKE 1

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I. Introduction
1:1-4
Lk 1:1 1Inasmuch as 2many have undertaken to 3draw up a narrative concerning the 4matters which have been fully accomplished among us,
Lk 1:2 Even as 1those who from the beginning became aeyewitnesses and 2ministers of the 3word have 4delivered them to us,
Lk 1:3 It seemed good to 1me also, having carefully investigated all things from the first, to write them out for you in an aorderly fashion, most bexcellent 2cTheophilus,
Lk 1:4 So that you may fully know the certainty of the things concerning which you were instructed.
II. The Preparation of the Man-Savior in His Humanity with His Divinity
1:5 — 4:13
A. His Forerunner’s Conception
1:5-25
Lk 1:5 In the days of aHerod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zachariah, of the 1course of Abijah; and his wife was of the daughters of bAaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Lk 1:6 And 1they were both 2arighteous before God, 3bwalking in all the commandments and 4ordinances of the Lord, cblameless.
Lk 1:7 And they had 1no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in their days.
Lk 1:8 And while he served as priest in the aorder of his course before God,
Lk 1:9 According to the custom of the priestly service, the lot fell to him to enter into the atemple of the Lord and 1burn incense.
Lk 1:10 And all the multitude of the people were 1apraying outside at the hour of the burning of incense.
Lk 1:11 And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the aaltar of incense.
Lk 1:12 And Zachariah was troubled when he saw him, and afear fell upon him.
Lk 1:13 But the angel said to him, Do anot be afraid, Zachariah, because your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will 1bear you a son, and you shall call his name 2bJohn.
Lk 1:14 And you will have joy and exultation, and many will rejoice at his birth.
Lk 1:15 For he will be agreat in the sight of the Lord, and he shall by 1bno means drink wine and liquor. And he will be filled with the 2cHoly Spirit, even from his mother’s dwomb,
Lk 1:16 And many of the sons of Israel he will turn to the Lord their God.
Lk 1:17 And it is he who will go abefore Him in the spirit and power of 1Elijah to turn the bhearts of the fathers to the children, and the cdisobedient 2to the 3prudence of the righteous, to dprepare for the Lord a people made ready.
Lk 1:18 And Zachariah said to the angel, By what shall I know this? For I am an aold man and my wife is advanced in 1years.
Lk 1:19 And the aangel answered and said to him, I am bGabriel, who stands before God, and I was sent to speak to you and to announce the good news of these things to you.
Lk 1:20 And behold, you shall be asilent and not able to speak until the day that these things happen, because you did 1not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.
Lk 1:21 And the people were waiting for Zachariah, and they marveled at his delaying in the atemple.
Lk 1:22 And when he came out, he was not able to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a avision in the temple. And he made signs to them and remained dumb.
Lk 1:23 And when the days of his service were fulfilled, he went to his house.
Lk 1:24 And after these days Elizabeth his wife conceived and stayed in seclusion for five months, saying,
Lk 1:25 In this way has the Lord dealt with me in the days in which He looked upon me to take away my areproach among men.
B. His Conception
1:26-56
Lk 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel aGabriel was sent from God to a city of 1Galilee named bNazareth,
Lk 1:27 To a avirgin engaged to a man named bJoseph, of the house of 1cDavid; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Lk 1:28 And he came to her and said, Rejoice, you who have been graced! The Lord is awith you.1
Lk 1:29 And she was greatly troubled at this saying and began reasoning what kind of greeting this might be.
Lk 1:30 And the angel said to her, Do anot be afraid, Mary, for you have found bgrace with God.
Lk 1:31 And behold, you will aconceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name 1bJesus.
Lk 1:32 He will be agreat and will be called bSon of the 1cMost High; and the Lord God will give to Him the dthrone of 2eDavid His father,
Lk 1:33 And He will 1reign over the house of Jacob aforever, and of His 2kingdom there will be bno end.
Lk 1:34 But Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I have not known a man?
Lk 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, The 1Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the aMost High will 2overshadow you; therefore also the 3bholy thing which is born will be called the cSon of God.
Lk 1:36 And behold, Elizabeth your relative, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who is called barren,
Lk 1:37 Because no word will be 1aimpossible 2with God.
Lk 1:38 And Mary said, Behold, the slave of the Lord. May it happen to me according to your word. And the aangel departed from her.
Lk 1:39 And Mary rose up in those days and went to the ahill country with haste, to a city of Judah,
Lk 1:40 And entered into the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth.
Lk 1:41 And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the 1baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the aHoly Spirit.
Lk 1:42 And she lifted up her voice with a loud cry and said, 1aBlessed are you among women, and blessed is the 2bfruit of your womb!
Lk 1:43 And how has this happened to me, that the mother of my 1aLord should come to me?
Lk 1:44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby leaped with exultation in my womb.
Lk 1:45 1And blessed is she who has 2abelieved, because there will be a 3completion of the things spoken to her from the Lord.
Lk 1:46 And Mary said, 1My asoul 2bmagnifies the Lord,
Lk 1:47 And my aspirit 1has bexulted in God my cSavior;
Lk 1:48 Because He has alooked upon the low estate of His slave. For behold, from now on all generations will count me bblessed,
Lk 1:49 Because the 1aMighty One has done bgreat things for me, and choly is His name.
Lk 1:50 And His 1amercy is unto bgenerations and generations, unto those who cfear Him.
Lk 1:51 He has exercised might with His aarm; He has scattered those who are bproud in the understanding of their heart.
Lk 1:52 He has brought down apotentates from thrones and has bexalted the chumble;
Lk 1:53 The ahungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.
Lk 1:54 He has upheld Israel His aservant to bremember mercy,
Lk 1:55 Even 1as He spoke to our fathers, to aAbraham and to his seed forever.
Lk 1:56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.
C. His Forerunner’s Birth and Youth
1:57-80
Lk 1:57 Now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
Lk 1:58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy with her, and they rejoiced with her.
Lk 1:59 And on the eighth day they came to acircumcise the little child, and they tried to call him after the name of his father, Zachariah.
Lk 1:60 Yet his mother answered and said, No, but he shall be called aJohn.
Lk 1:61 And they said to her, There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.
Lk 1:62 And they gestured to his father as to what he would want him to be called.
Lk 1:63 And asking for a tablet, he wrote, saying, John is his name. And they all marveled.
Lk 1:64 And his 1mouth was opened instantly, and his atongue loosed, and he began to speak, blessing God.
Lk 1:65 And afear came on all those dwelling around them, and in all the bhill country of Judea all these 1things were spread about.
Lk 1:66 And all who heard these things put them in their aheart, saying, What then will this little child be? For indeed the hand of the Lord was bwith him.
Lk 1:67 And Zachariah his father was filled with the aHoly Spirit and prophesied, saying,
Lk 1:68 aBlessed be the Lord, the God of bIsrael, because He has cvisited and accomplished 1dredemption for His people,
Lk 1:69 And raised a 1ahorn of salvation for us in the house of bDavid His servant,
Lk 1:70 Even 1as He spoke through the mouth of His holy aprophets 2from of old —
Lk 1:71 aSalvation from our enemies and from the bhand of all who hate us,
Lk 1:72 To accomplish 1mercy with our fathers and to 2aremember His holy bcovenant,
Lk 1:73 The 1aoath which He swore to Abraham our father,
Lk 1:74 To grant us that we, having been delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might 1serve Him without fear,
Lk 1:75 In 1aholiness and brighteousness before Him all our days.
Lk 1:76 And you also, little child, shall be called a aprophet of the bMost High, for you will go cbefore the 1Lord to 2dprepare His ways,
Lk 1:77 To give knowledge of asalvation to His people by the bforgiveness of their sins,
Lk 1:78 Because of the merciful acompassions of our God, in which the rising 1bsun will cvisit us from on high,
Lk 1:79 To shine upon those sitting in adarkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of bpeace.
Lk 1:80 And the little child agrew and became strong in 1spirit, and he was in the bwilderness until the day of his presentation to Israel.
LUKE 2

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D. His Birth
2:1-20
Lk 2:1 And in those days a decree went out from aCaesar Augustus for a bcensus to be taken of all the inhabited earth.
Lk 2:2 This was the 1first census that took place when Quirinius agoverned Syria.
Lk 2:3 And all went to be registered, each to his own city.
Lk 2:4 And aJoseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of bNazareth into Judea, to David’s city, which is called cBethlehem, because he was of the 1house and family of David,
Lk 2:5 To be registered with Mary, who was engaged to him and was apregnant.
Lk 2:6 And while they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bear,
Lk 2:7 And she 1abore her bfirstborn son; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a 2manger because there was no place for them in the cinn.
Lk 2:8 And there were 1shepherds in the same region, spending their nights in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.
Lk 2:9 And an aangel of the Lord bstood by them, and the cglory of the Lord shone around them; and they dfeared greatly.
Lk 2:10 And the angel said to them, Do anot be afraid; for behold, I bannounce to you good news of cgreat joy, which will be for dall the people,
Lk 2:11 Because today a aSavior has been bborn to you in cDavid’s city, who is dChrist the eLord.
Lk 2:12 And this will be the 1sign to you: you will find a 2baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
Lk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly aarmy, 1bpraising God and saying,
Lk 2:14 1aGlory in the bhighest places to God, and on cearth 1dpeace among 2men of His egood pleasure.
Lk 2:15 And when the angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds spoke to one another, Let us go then to Bethlehem and see this 1thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Lk 2:16 And they came in haste and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.
Lk 2:17 And when they had seen this, they made known the word which was spoken to them concerning this little child.
Lk 2:18 And all those who heard marveled at the things spoken to them by the shepherds.
Lk 2:19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her aheart.
Lk 2:20 And the shepherds returned, aglorifying and praising God for all the things which they had heard and seen, even as it was spoken to them.
E. His Youth
2:21-52
1. Circumcised and Named
v. 21
Lk 2:21 And when eight days were fulfilled to acircumcise Him, His name was called bJesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
2. Presented and Adored
vv. 22-39
Lk 2:22 And when the days for their apurification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they bbrought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord
Lk 2:23 (Even as it is written in the alaw of the Lord, b“Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),
Lk 2:24 And to give a sacrifice according to what is said in the 1law of the Lord: 2A pair of turtledoves or two young doves.
Lk 2:25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was 1arighteous and bdevout, cwaiting for the 2dconsolation of Israel, and the eHoly Spirit was upon him.
Lk 2:26 And it had been divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit that he would anot see death before he had seen the Lord’s bChrist.
Lk 2:27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the little child Jesus for them to do according to the custom of the alaw concerning Him,
Lk 2:28 He received Him into his arms and ablessed God and said,
Lk 2:29 Now You release Your slave, Master, according to Your word, in apeace;
Lk 2:30 For my eyes have seen Your 1asalvation,
Lk 2:31 Which You have prepared before the face of all the peoples,
Lk 2:32 A 1alight for revelation to the Gentiles and the bglory of Your people Israel.
Lk 2:33 And His father and mother marveled at the things being spoken about Him.
Lk 2:34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, Behold, this One is 1appointed for the afalling and rising up of many in Israel and for a 2sign bspoken against —
Lk 2:35 And a 1sword will pierce through your own soul also — so that the reasonings of many hearts may be 2revealed.
Lk 2:36 And there was one Anna, a aprophetess, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of bAsher. She was well advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity,
Lk 2:37 1And she was a awidow up to the age of eighty-four, who did not depart from the temple, 2serving God with bfastings and petitions cnight and day.
Lk 2:38 And at that very hour she came up and returned thanks to God, and spoke concerning Him to all those awaiting for the 1bredemption 2of Jerusalem.
Lk 2:39 And when they had finished all things according to the alaw of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, 1bNazareth.
3. Growing and Advancing
vv. 40-52
Lk 2:40 And the little child 1grew and became strong, being filled with 2awisdom, and the 3grace of God was upon Him.
Lk 2:41 And His parents went year by year to aJerusalem at the Feast of the bPassover.
Lk 2:42 And when He became 1twelve years old, they went up according to the 2acustom of the feast.
Lk 2:43 And when they had completed the days, while they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it.
Lk 2:44 But supposing that He was in the company, they went a day’s journey and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances.
Lk 2:45 And when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him.
Lk 2:46 And after three days they found Him in the atemple, sitting in the midst of the bteachers, both hearing them and questioning them.
Lk 2:47 And all those who heard Him were aamazed at His understanding and His answers.
Lk 2:48 And when they saw Him, they were astounded; and His mother said to Him, Child, why have You treated us like this? Behold, Your father and I, being 1greatly distressed, have been seeking You.
Lk 2:49 And He said to them, Why is it that you were seeking Me? Did you not know that I 1must be 2in the things of 3aMy Father?
Lk 2:50 And they did anot understand the word which He spoke to them.
Lk 2:51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was 1subject to them. And His mother carefully kept all these things in her aheart.
Lk 2:52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom and 1stature and in the 2agrace manifested in Him before God and men.
LUKE 3

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F. His Inauguration
3:1 — 4:13
1. Introduced
3:1-20
Lk 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the government of Tiberius aCaesar, while bPontius Pilate was cgovernor of Judea, and dHerod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
Lk 3:2 During the high priesthood of Annas and aCaiaphas, the word of God came to bJohn the son of Zachariah in the 1cwilderness.
Lk 3:3 And he came into all the region surrounding the Jordan, proclaiming a 1baptism of arepentance 2for bforgiveness of sins,
Lk 3:4 As it is written in the book of the words of aIsaiah the prophet, 1b“A voice of one crying in the wilderness, cPrepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths.
Lk 3:5 Every 1ravine shall be filled up, and every amountain and hill shall be leveled; and the bcrooked places shall become a straight way, and the rough ways smooth.
Lk 3:6 And all 1flesh shall see the 2asalvation of God.”
Lk 3:7 He said therefore to the crowds going out to be baptized by him, 1Offspring of avipers, who prompted you to flee from the coming bwrath?
Lk 3:8 Produce then fruits aworthy of your repentance, and do not begin to say within yourselves, We have bAbraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able out of these stones to 1raise up children to Abraham.
Lk 3:9 And already also the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not produce agood fruit is cut down and cast into the 1fire.
Lk 3:10 And the crowds asked him, saying, aWhat then shall we do?
Lk 3:11 And he answered and said to them, He who has two 1atunics, let him share with the one who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.
Lk 3:12 And atax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?
Lk 3:13 And he said to them, aExact nothing more than what you have been ordered to.
Lk 3:14 And some serving in the military also questioned him, saying, And we, what shall we do? And he said to them, Extort nothing from anyone by force, nor 1take anything by false accusation, and be content with your wages.
Lk 3:15 Now while the people were in 1expectation and all were reasoning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might possibly be the Christ,
Lk 3:16 John answered and said to all, I 1baptize you in awater, but He who is stronger than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He Himself will baptize you in the bHoly Spirit and fire,
Lk 3:17 Whose winnowing fan is in His hand to thoroughly cleanse His athreshing floor and to gather the wheat into His bbarn, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable 1cfire.
Lk 3:18 So, exhorting them with many other things also, he 1aannounced the gospel to the people.
Lk 3:19 But Herod the tetrarch, because he was reproved by him concerning aHerodias, his brother’s wife, and concerning all the evil things which Herod did,
Lk 3:20 Added this also above all: he shut John up in aprison.
2. Baptized
3:21
Lk 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized and as Jesus was 1abaptized and was praying, heaven was opened,
3. Anointed
3:22
Lk 3:22 And the 1aHoly Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him. And a voice came out of heaven: You are My Son, the bBeloved; in You I have found My delight.
4. His Status
3:23-38
Lk 3:23 And He, Jesus, when He abegan to minister, was about 1thirty years old, being, 2so it was thought, the 3son of 4bJoseph, the son of Heli,
Lk 3:24 The son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
Lk 3:25 The son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,
Lk 3:26 The son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
Lk 3:27 The son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of 1aZerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, the son of Neri,
Lk 3:28 The son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
Lk 3:29 The son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,
Lk 3:30 The son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
Lk 3:31 The son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of 1aNathan, the son of bDavid,
Lk 3:32 The son of aJesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon,
Lk 3:33 The son of Aminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Hezron, the son of Pharez, the son of Judah,
Lk 3:34 The son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of aTerah, the son of Nahor,
Lk 3:35 The son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Sala,
Lk 3:36 The son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of aNoah, the son of Lamech,
Lk 3:37 The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Maleleel, the son of Cainan,
Lk 3:38 The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of 1Adam, the 2son of 3God.
LUKE 4

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5. His Test
4:1-13
Lk 4:1 And 1Jesus, full of the 2aHoly Spirit, returned from the bJordan and was led 3by the cSpirit in the dwilderness, while being tempted for forty days by the devil.
Lk 4:2 And He did not eat anything in those days, and when they were concluded, He became hungry.
Lk 4:3 And the devil said to Him, If You are the Son of God, speak to this stone that it become bread.
Lk 4:4 And Jesus answered him, It is written, a“Man shall not live on bread alone1.”
Lk 4:5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in a moment of time.
Lk 4:6 And the devil said to Him, To You I will give all this aauthority and their glory, because to me it 1has been delivered, and to whomever I want I give it.
Lk 4:7 If You therefore worship before me, it shall all be Yours.
Lk 4:8 And Jesus answered and said to him,1 It is written, a“You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you 2serve.”
Lk 4:9 And he led Him into Jerusalem and set Him on the 1wing of the temple and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here;
Lk 4:10 For it is written, a“To His angels He shall give charge concerning You to protect You,
Lk 4:11 And on their hands they shall bear You up, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.”
Lk 4:12 And Jesus answered and said to him, It is said, a“You shall not 1test the Lord your God.”
Lk 4:13 And when the devil had concluded every temptation, he went away from Him 1until an opportune time.
III. The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes
4:14 — 19:27
A. In Galilee
4:14 — 9:50
1. Proclaiming the Jubilee of Grace
4:14-30
Lk 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the 1aSpirit into bGalilee. And 2creports about Him went out through all the surrounding region.
Lk 4:15 And He 1ataught in their 2bsynagogues and was 3glorified by all.
Lk 4:16 And He acame to bNazareth, where He had been brought up, and according to His ccustom He entered on the dSabbath day into the esynagogue and stood up to fread.
Lk 4:17 And the scroll of the prophet aIsaiah was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
Lk 4:18 a“The 1bSpirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has canointed Me to 2dannounce the gospel to the 3epoor; He has sent Me to proclaim frelease to the 4captives, and 5recovery of sight to the 6gblind, to send away in release those who are 7hoppressed,
Lk 4:19 To proclaim the 1acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee.”
Lk 4:20 And when He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant, He sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
Lk 4:21 And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been afulfilled in your hearing.
Lk 4:22 And all bore witness to Him and amarveled at the 1words of bgrace proceeding out of His mouth, and they said, Is not this 2cJoseph’s son?
Lk 4:23 And He said to them, Surely you will say this proverb to Me, Physician, heal ayourself! What we heard happening in bCapernaum, do here also in Your own country.
Lk 4:24 And He said, Truly I say to you that no prophet is acceptable in his own country.
Lk 4:25 But in truth I say to you, There were many widows in Israel in the days of aElijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;
Lk 4:26 And to none of them was Elijah sent, except to the city of 1aSarepta of bSidon, to a 2woman who was a widow.
Lk 4:27 And there were many alepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them were cleansed, except bNaaman the Syrian.
Lk 4:28 And all in the synagogue were filled with aanger when they heard these things,
Lk 4:29 And they rose up and acast Him out of the city and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built so that they might throw Him down the cliff.
Lk 4:30 But He, 1passing through their midst, awent away.
2. Carrying Out His Fourfold Commission —
Teaching, Casting Out Demons, Healing, and Preaching
4:31-44
Lk 4:31 And He acame down to bCapernaum, a city of Galilee. And He ctaught them on the dSabbath.
Lk 4:32 And they were aastounded at His teaching, because His word was with 1bauthority.
Lk 4:33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had a 1aspirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,
Lk 4:34 1Ah! 2aWhat do we have to do with You, Jesus, bNazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I cknow who You are — the dHoly One of God.
Lk 4:35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be aquiet and come out from him. And throwing him down in the midst, the demon came out from him without harming him at all.
Lk 4:36 And amazement came upon all, and they spoke to one another, saying, What is this word? For with 1aauthority and bpower He orders the unclean spirits, and they come out.
Lk 4:37 And 1areports went out concerning Him into every place of the surrounding region.
Lk 4:38 And He rose up and went from the synagogue and aentered into the house of Simon. And 1Simon’s mother-in-law was 2suffering with a high 3fever, and they asked Him concerning her.
Lk 4:39 And standing over her, He arebuked the fever, and it left her. And she instantly rose up and served them.
Lk 4:40 And when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He alaid His hands on each one of them and healed them.
Lk 4:41 And demons also came out from many, acrying out and saying, You are the bSon of God! And He rebuked them and would cnot allow them to speak, because they knew that He was the dChrist.
Lk 4:42 And when aday came, He departed and went into a bdeserted place. And the crowds csought Him, and they came up to Him and tried to hold on to Him so that He would not go away from them.
Lk 4:43 But He said to them, I must 1aannounce the gospel of the 2kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for 3this I was sent.
Lk 4:44 And He 1preached in the asynagogues of 2Judea.
LUKE 5

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3. Attracting the Occupied
5:1-11
Lk 5:1 And as the crowd pressed upon Him to hear the word of God, He was astanding by the 1lake of bGennesaret.
Lk 5:2 And He 1saw two boats lying by the lake, and the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing the nets.
Lk 5:3 And He got into one of the aboats, which was 1Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and from the boat taught the crowds.
Lk 5:4 And when He ceased speaking, He said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your anets for a catch.
Lk 5:5 And Simon answered and said, 1Master, through the whole night we toiled and caught anothing; but based on Your word I will let down the nets.
Lk 5:6 And when they did this, they enclosed a great number of afish, and their nets began to tear apart.
Lk 5:7 And they signaled to their companions in the other boat to come and assist them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
Lk 5:8 And when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a asinful man, Lord.
Lk 5:9 For amazement had taken possession of him and all who were with him, because of the catch of the fish which they took;
Lk 5:10 And likewise also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were 1partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on you will be 2acatching men alive.
Lk 5:11 And when they had brought the boats to the land, they aleft all and bfollowed Him.
4. Cleansing the Contaminated
5:12-16
Lk 5:12 And while He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a 1aman full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he bfell on his face and begged Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can cleanse me.
Lk 5:13 And stretching out His hand, He touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed! And immediately the leprosy left him.
Lk 5:14 And He charged him to tell ano one: But go away, show yourself to the bpriest, and offer the gift for your cleansing, even as cMoses directed, for a dtestimony to them.
Lk 5:15 But the word concerning Him spread abroad all the more, and agreat crowds came together to hear Him and to be bhealed from their infirmities.
Lk 5:16 But He Himself often withdrew in the awilderness and 1bprayed.
5. Healing the Paralytic
5:17-26
Lk 5:17 And on one of the days He was teaching, and there were Pharisees and ateachers of the law sitting there, who had come out of every bvillage of Galilee and cJudea and Jerusalem. And the dpower of the Lord 1was with Him to heal.
Lk 5:18 And behold, some men abrought on a bed a 1bman who was paralyzed, and they sought a way to carry him in and lay him before Him.
Lk 5:19 And since they could not find by what way they might carry him in because of the crowd, they went up onto the housetop and let him down with the cot through the tiles into the midst, in front of Jesus.
Lk 5:20 And seeing their afaith, He said, Man, your sins are bforgiven you.
Lk 5:21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this who speaks ablasphemies? Who can bforgive sins except God alone?
Lk 5:22 But Jesus, aknowing fully their reasonings, answered and said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts?
Lk 5:23 Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk?
Lk 5:24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to aforgive sins — He said to the one paralyzed, To you I say, Rise and take up your cot and go to your house.
Lk 5:25 And he rose up at once before them and took up that upon which he was lying and went away to his house, aglorifying God.
Lk 5:26 And astonishment took hold of all, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen extraordinary things today.
6. Calling the Despised
5:27-39
Lk 5:27 And after these things He went out and beheld a 1atax collector named Levi bsitting at the tax office, and He said to him, Follow Me.
Lk 5:28 And leaving all, he rose up and afollowed Him.
Lk 5:29 And Levi gave a great reception for Him in his 1house; and there was a great crowd of atax collectors and others who were reclining at table with them.
Lk 5:30 And the Pharisees and their ascribes murmured at His disciples, saying, Why do you beat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?
Lk 5:31 And Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill;
Lk 5:32 I have not come to call the arighteous, but bsinners to crepentance.
Lk 5:33 And they asaid to Him, The 1bdisciples of John cfast often and make petitions, likewise also those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink.
Lk 5:34 And Jesus said to them, You cannot make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the abridegroom is with them, can you?
Lk 5:35 But the adays will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.
Lk 5:36 And He also spoke a parable to them: No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise, 1he will tear the new garment, and also the patch from the new will not match the old.
Lk 5:37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the wineskins, and it will be poured out and the wineskins will be ruined;
Lk 5:38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
Lk 5:39 And no one who has drunk the old desires the new, for he says, The old is better.
LUKE 6

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7. Breaking the Deformed Sabbatical Regulation for People’s Satisfaction and Liberation
6:1-11
Lk 6:1 1And 2one aSabbath He was going through the grainfields, and His disciples were picking and eating the bears of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
Lk 6:2 And some of the aPharisees said, Why are you doing what is bnot lawful to do on the Sabbath?
Lk 6:3 And Jesus answered them and said, Have you not even read this that aDavid did when he became hungry, he and those who were with him;
Lk 6:4 How he entered into the house of God, and taking the abread of the Presence, he ate it and gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests alone?
Lk 6:5 And He said to them, The aSon of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
Lk 6:6 And 1on another Sabbath He entered into the asynagogue and 2taught. And there was a bman there, and his right hand was withered.
Lk 6:7 And the scribes and the Pharisees were awatching Him closely to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find reason to baccuse Him.
Lk 6:8 But He aknew their reasonings and said to the man who had the withered hand, Rise and stand in the midst. And he rose up and stood.
Lk 6:9 And Jesus said to them, I ask you, Is it alawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a 1life or to destroy it?
Lk 6:10 And alooking around at all of them, He said to him, Stretch out your hand. And he did, and his hand was restored.
Lk 6:11 But they were filled with 1arage and bdiscussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
8. Appointing Twelve Apostles
6:12-16
Lk 6:12 And in these days He went out to the mountain to 1apray, and He spent the whole night in 2prayer to God.
Lk 6:13 And when it became day, He 1acalled His bdisciples to Him, and He chose from them twelve, whom He also named capostles:
Lk 6:14 aSimon, whom He also named bPeter, and cAndrew his brother and dJames and John and ePhilip and Bartholomew
Lk 6:15 And aMatthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus and Simon, who was called Zealot,
Lk 6:16 And aJudas the 1brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became the traitor.
9. Teaching His Disciples the Highest Morality
6:17-49
Lk 6:17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a agreat crowd of His disciples, and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of bTyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases.
Lk 6:18 And those who were troubled by unclean aspirits were healed.
Lk 6:19 And all the crowd sought to atouch Him, because bpower was going out from Him and healing all.
Lk 6:20 And He alifted up His eyes to His disciples and bsaid, 1Blessed are the 2cpoor, for yours is the 3dkingdom of God.
Lk 6:21 Blessed are those who ahunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who bweep now, for you shall laugh.
Lk 6:22 Blessed are you when men ahate you and when they separate you from them and breproach you and ccast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
Lk 6:23 aRejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the bprophets.
Lk 6:24 1But awoe to you who are brich, for you have 2creceived your consolation in full.
Lk 6:25 Woe to you who are satiated now, for you shall ahunger. Woe to you who are blaughing now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Lk 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false aprophets.
Lk 6:27 But to you who hear I say, 1Love your aenemies; do well to those who hate you;
Lk 6:28 aBless those who curse you; bpray for those who revile you.
Lk 6:29 To him who abeats you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.
Lk 6:30 To everyone who asks of you, agive; and from him who takes away your things, do not require their return.
Lk 6:31 And just as you want men to ado to you, do to them likewise.
Lk 6:32 And if you alove those who love you, what 1thanks is it to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
Lk 6:33 For if you also do good to those who do good to you, what thanks is it to you? Even sinners do the same.
Lk 6:34 And if you alend to those from whom you hope to receive, what thanks is it to you? Even sinners lend to sinners that they may get back the equal amount.
Lk 6:35 But love your aenemies, and do good and blend, 1expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be csons of the dMost High; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
Lk 6:36 Be full of compassion, even aas your Father also is full of bcompassion.
Lk 6:37 And 1do anot judge, and you shall by no means be judged; and do bnot condemn, and you shall by no means be condemned; crelease, and you will be released;
Lk 6:38 aGive, and it will be given to you; a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will give into your 1bosom. For with what bmeasure you measure, it shall be measured to you in return.
Lk 6:39 And He also spoke a parable to them: 1A 2blind man cannot aguide a blind man, can he? Will not both fall into a pit?
Lk 6:40 A adisciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who has been perfected will be like his teacher.
Lk 6:41 And why do you 1look at the asplinter which is in your brother’s eye, but the beam which is in your bown eye you do not consider?
Lk 6:42 How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me remove the splinter which is in your eye, you yourself not seeing the beam which is in your eye? 1Hypocrite, first remove the beam from your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the splinter which is in your brother’s eye.
Lk 6:43 For there is ano good tree that produces corrupt fruit, nor again a corrupt tree that produces good fruit.
Lk 6:44 For each tree is aknown by its own fruit. For men do not collect figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a thornbush.
Lk 6:45 The good man, out of the agood treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good, and the evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is evil; for bout of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks.
Lk 6:46 And why do you call Me, aLord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?
Lk 6:47 1Everyone who comes to Me and ahears My words and does them, I will show you whom he is like.
Lk 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood came, the river broke out against that house, yet it was not strong enough to shake it, because it had been built well.
Lk 6:49 But he who hears and does not do is like a man who built a house upon the earth without a foundation, against which the river broke out, and immediately it acollapsed, and the crash of that house was great.
LUKE 7

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10. Curing the Dying One
7:1-10
Lk 7:1 After He completed all His words in the 1hearing of the people, He 2aentered into bCapernaum.
Lk 7:2 And a certain acenturion’s slave, who was highly valued by him, was ill and about to die.
Lk 7:3 And when he heard about Jesus, he sent to Him some elders of the Jews, requesting that He would come and 1completely heal his slave.
Lk 7:4 And when they came to Jesus, they entreated Him earnestly, saying, He is worthy of Your granting this to him,
Lk 7:5 For he loves our nation, and he himself built the asynagogue for us.
Lk 7:6 And Jesus went with them. But already, when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, Lord, do anot trouble Yourself, for I am not fit for You to enter under my roof;
Lk 7:7 Therefore, I did not count even myself worthy to come to You. But speak a aword, and let my servant be healed.
Lk 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it.
Lk 7:9 And when Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turning to the crowd following Him, He said, I say to you, Not even in Israel have I found such great afaith.
Lk 7:10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
11. Showing Pity to the Weeping Widow by Raising Up Her Only Son
7:11-17
Lk 7:11 And 1soon afterward He went into a city called Nain, and His disciples went with Him, as well as a large crowd.
Lk 7:12 And as He came near the gate of the city, behold, one who had died was being carried out, an aonly son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a considerable crowd from the city was with her.
Lk 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, He was 1moved with acompassion for her and said to her, Do bnot weep.
Lk 7:14 And He came near and touched the bier, and those carrying it stood still. And He said, Young man, to you I say, aArise.
Lk 7:15 And the adead man sat up and began to speak. And He bgave him to his mother.
Lk 7:16 And afear took hold of all, and they bglorified God, saying, A great cprophet has been raised up among us, and, God has dvisited His people!
Lk 7:17 And this report concerning Him went out in the whole of 1Judea and in all the surrounding region.
12. Strengthening His Forerunner
7:18-35
Lk 7:18 And 1John’s adisciples breported to him concerning all these things.
Lk 7:19 And John called a certain two of his disciples to him and sent them to 1the Lord, saying, Are You the aComing One, or should we expect another?
Lk 7:20 And the men came to Him and said, John the Baptist sent us to You, saying, Are You the Coming One, or should we expect another?
Lk 7:21 In that hour He ahealed many from diseases and afflictions and evil spirits, and to many who were bblind He graciously gave sight.
Lk 7:22 And He answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the ablind receive their sight, the blame walk, the clepers are cleansed and the ddeaf hear, the edead are raised, the fpoor have the gospel 1announced to them.
Lk 7:23 And 1blessed is he who is not astumbled because of Me.
Lk 7:24 And when the messengers of John went away, He began to say to the crowds concerning John, What did you go out into the awilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind?
Lk 7:25 But what did you go out to see? A man arrayed in soft garments? Behold, those who live in splendid apparel and luxury are in royal palaces.
Lk 7:26 But what did you go out to see? A aprophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet.
Lk 7:27 This is he concerning whom it is written, a“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.”
Lk 7:28 I say to you, Among those born of women there is no one greater than John, yet he who is least in the akingdom of God is greater than he.
Lk 7:29 And when all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they aacknowledged that God was righteous, since they had been bbaptized with the cbaptism of John.
Lk 7:30 But the aPharisees and the 1blawyers 2rejected the ccounsel of God for themselves since they had not been baptized by him.
Lk 7:31 And Jesus said, To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like?
Lk 7:32 They are like little children sitting in the amarketplace and calling to one another, who say, We have played the flute to you, and you did not dance; we have sung a dirge, and you did not weep.
Lk 7:33 For John the Baptist has come neither aeating bread bnor drinking wine, and you say, He has a demon.
Lk 7:34 The Son of Man has come aeating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a bfriend of tax collectors and sinners.
Lk 7:35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.
13. Forgiving Sinners
7:36-50
Lk 7:36 Now a certain one of the Pharisees asked Him to aeat with him. And He entered into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Lk 7:37 And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner, and when she learned that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, she 1brought an alabaster flask of aointment.
Lk 7:38 And she stood behind Him at His feet weeping and began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with the 1ahair of her head, and she kissed His feet 2affectionately and anointed them with the 3ointment.
Lk 7:39 But when the aPharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said within himself, This man, 1if He were a bprophet, would know cwho and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him, because she is a sinner.
Lk 7:40 And Jesus 1answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, Teacher, say it.
Lk 7:41 A certain moneylender had 1two adebtors: one owed five hundred 2denarii and the other fifty.
Lk 7:42 But since they had 1nothing with which to repay, he graciously 2aforgave them both. Which of them 3therefore will love him more?
Lk 7:43 Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he graciously forgave the more. And He said to him, You have judged correctly.
Lk 7:44 And turning to the woman, He said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered into your house; you did not 1give Me water for My afeet, but she, with her tears, has wet My feet and with her hair has wiped them.
Lk 7:45 You did not give Me a akiss, but she, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet affectionately.
Lk 7:46 You did not anoint My head with aoil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment.
Lk 7:47 For this reason I say to you, Her sins which are amany are forgiven, because she 1loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, he 1loves little.
Lk 7:48 And He said to her, 1Your sins are aforgiven.
Lk 7:49 And those who were reclining at table with Him began to say within themselves, 1aWho is this who even forgives sins?
Lk 7:50 But He said to the woman, Your 1afaith has saved you. Go 2in bpeace.
LUKE 8

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14. Ministered to by Women
8:1-3
Lk 8:1 And soon afterward He journeyed from city to city and avillage to village, 1preaching and 2bannouncing the gospel of the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with Him,
Lk 8:2 As well as certain 1awomen who were healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, who was called Magdalene, from whom bseven demons had gone out,
Lk 8:3 And aJoanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many other women, who ministered to 1them out of their possessions.
15. Teaching with Parables
8:4-18
Lk 8:4 And while a great crowd was coming together and those from city to city were journeying to Him, He spoke by way of a aparable:
Lk 8:5 The 1sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell beside the way, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of heaven devoured it.
Lk 8:6 And other seed fell on the rock, and as it grew, it withered because it had no moisture.
Lk 8:7 And other seed fell in the midst of the athorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it off.
Lk 8:8 And other seed fell into the good earth, and when it grew, it produced fruit a ahundredfold. When He had said these things, He called out, He who has ears to hear, let him bhear.
Lk 8:9 And His disciples questioned Him as to what this parable might be.
Lk 8:10 And He said, To you it has been given to know the amysteries of the 1kingdom of God, but to the rest they are in parables, in order that bseeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
Lk 8:11 Now the aparable is this: The seed is the bword of God.
Lk 8:12 And those beside the way are those who heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they would not believe and be asaved.
Lk 8:13 And those on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with ajoy; yet these have no root, who believe only for a while, and in time of btrial they draw back.
Lk 8:14 And that which fell into the thorns, these are those who heard and, going away, are utterly choked by aanxieties and briches and cpleasures of this 1life, and do not bring any fruit to maturity.
Lk 8:15 But that which is in the good earth, these are those who in a anoble and good heart hear the word and hold it fast and bbear fruit with cendurance.
Lk 8:16 Now ano one who has lit a 1blamp covers it with a vessel or puts it underneath a bed, but he puts it on a lampstand in order that those who come in may see the light.
Lk 8:17 For nothing is ahidden which shall not become manifest, nor concealed which shall not by all means be made known and come into the open.
Lk 8:18 aTake heed therefore how you bhear, for whoever chas, it shall be given to him, and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.
16. Identifying His Real Relatives
8:19-21
Lk 8:19 And His 1mother and abrothers bcame up to Him and were not able to get to Him because of the crowd.
Lk 8:20 And it was reported to Him, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside wanting to see You.
Lk 8:21 But He answered and said to them, My mother and My brothers are these who ahear the word of God and do it.
17. Quelling the Storm
8:22-25
Lk 8:22 And on one of the days He and His disciples 1got into a aboat. And He said to them, Let us go over to the bother side of the clake. And they launched out.
Lk 8:23 And while they were sailing, He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down upon the lake, and they began to fill with water and were in danger.
Lk 8:24 And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, 1Master, Master, we are perishing! And being awakened, He arebuked the wind and the surging of the water, and they bceased, and there was a ccalm.
Lk 8:25 And He said to them, Where is your faith? And they abecame frightened and marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this, that He orders even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?
18. Casting Out a Legion of Demons
8:26-39
Lk 8:26 And they 1sailed down to the region of the aGerasenes, which is across from Galilee.
Lk 8:27 And when He went out onto the land, a certain man out of the city, who had demons, met Him, and for a considerable time he had not put on clothes and did not remain in a house but among the tombs.
Lk 8:28 And when he saw Jesus, he acried out and fell before Him and said in a loud voice, What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the bMost High God? I beseech You, do not torment me.
Lk 8:29 For He had charged the aunclean spirit to come out from the man; for many times it had seized him and he had been bound with chains and shackles and was kept under watch, yet every time he tore the bonds apart and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.
Lk 8:30 And Jesus questioned him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, because many demons had entered into him.
Lk 8:31 And they entreated Him not to order them to depart into the aabyss.
Lk 8:32 Now there was a herd of many ahogs feeding there on the mountain. And they entreated Him to permit them to enter into them, and He gave them permission.
Lk 8:33 And the demons came out from the man and entered into the hogs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the alake and was drowned.
Lk 8:34 And when those who were feeding them saw what had happened, they fled and reported it in the city and in the countryside.
Lk 8:35 And the people went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had come out, asitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and sane, and they became frightened.
Lk 8:36 And those who had seen it reported to them how the demon-possessed man had been 1healed.
Lk 8:37 And all the multitude from the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Him to adepart from them, for they were seized with great bfear; and He got into a boat and returned.
Lk 8:38 And the man from whom the demons had come out begged to be with Him, but He sent him away, saying,
Lk 8:39 Return to your house, and relate what great things God has done for you. And he departed, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
19. Healing a Woman with a Flow of Blood and Raising Up a Dead Girl
8:40-56
Lk 8:40 Now as Jesus was 1areturning, the crowd welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him.
Lk 8:41 And behold, a 1man came whose name was Jairus, and this man was a aruler of the synagogue. And he fell at Jesus’ feet and entreated Him to enter into his house,
Lk 8:42 Because he had an aonly daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. And as He went, the crowds 1pressed against Him.
Lk 8:43 And a woman who had a aflow of blood for twelve years and who 1had spent all her livelihood on physicians and yet could not be healed by anyone,
Lk 8:44 Approached Him from behind and touched the afringe of His garment, and instantly her flow of blood stopped.
Lk 8:45 And Jesus said, Who is the one who touched Me? And when all denied it, Peter1 said, Master, the crowds are pressing and crushing You.
Lk 8:46 But Jesus said, Someone touched Me, for I perceived that apower had gone out from Me.
Lk 8:47 And when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him and declared before all the people the reason why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed.
Lk 8:48 And He said to her, Daughter, your afaith has 1healed you. Go 2in peace.
Lk 8:49 While He was still speaking, someone came from the house of the ruler of the synagogue, saying, Your daughter has died; do anot trouble the bTeacher any longer.
Lk 8:50 But Jesus, hearing it, answered him, Do not be afraid — only believe, and she will be healed.
Lk 8:51 And He came to the house and did not allow anyone to enter with Him, except aPeter and 1John and James and the father of the child and the mother.
Lk 8:52 And all were weeping and mourning for her; but He said, Do anot weep, for she has not died but is bsleeping.
Lk 8:53 And they laughed scornfully at Him, knowing that she had died.
Lk 8:54 But He atook hold of her hand and called out, saying, Child, barise!
Lk 8:55 And her aspirit returned and she rose up instantly; and He directed that something be given to her to eat.
Lk 8:56 And her parents were amazed, but He charged them to tell ano one what had happened.
LUKE 9

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20. Sending the Twelve Apostles to Spread His Ministry
9:1-9
Lk 9:1 And He acalled together the twelve1 and gave them power and 2bauthority over all the demons and to heal diseases.
Lk 9:2 And He asent them to proclaim the 1bkingdom of God and to cheal the sick.
Lk 9:3 And He said to them, aTake nothing for the journey, neither a staff nor a bag 1nor bread nor money, nor have two tunics apiece.
Lk 9:4 And into whatever house you enter, remain there and from there go out.
Lk 9:5 And as many as do not receive you, as you go out from that city, ashake off the dust from your feet for a btestimony against them.
Lk 9:6 And they went out and passed through village after village, announcing the gospel and healing everywhere.
Lk 9:7 And aHerod the tetrarch bheard of all that was happening and was utterly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead,
Lk 9:8 And by some that aElijah had appeared, and by others that a certain prophet of the ancients had risen up.
Lk 9:9 And Herod said, John I 1abeheaded, but who is this concerning whom I hear such things? And he bsought to see Him.
21. Feeding the Five Thousand
9:10-17
Lk 9:10 And when the apostles returned, they arelated to Him the things they had done. And btaking them aside, He withdrew privately into a city called Bethsaida.
Lk 9:11 But the acrowds found out and followed Him, and He welcomed them and spoke to them concerning the bkingdom of God; and those who had need of healing He chealed.
Lk 9:12 And the 1day began to decline, and the twelve came and said to Him, aSend the crowd away so that they may go into the surrounding villages and 2countryside to lodge and find provisions, because we are here in a deserted place.
Lk 9:13 But He said to them, You agive them something to eat. But they said, We have no more than bfive loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.
Lk 9:14 For there were about five thousand men. And He said to His disciples, Make them recline in 1groups of about fifty each.
Lk 9:15 And they did so and made them all recline.
Lk 9:16 And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and alooking up to heaven, He bblessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
Lk 9:17 And they ate and were all satisfied. And what was left over among them was taken up, 1twelve handbaskets of broken pieces.
22. Recognized as the Christ
9:18-21
Lk 9:18 And as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He 1questioned them, saying, aWho do the crowds say that I am?
Lk 9:19 And they answered and said, aJohn the Baptist, and others bElijah, and others that a certain prophet of the ancients has risen up.
Lk 9:20 And He said to them, But you, who do you say that I am? And Peter answered and said, The aChrist of God.
Lk 9:21 But He charged them and commanded them to tell this to ano one,
23. Unveiling His Death and Resurrection the First Time
9:22-26
Lk 9:22 aSaying, The bSon of Man must suffer many things, and be 1crejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the dthird day be raised.
Lk 9:23 And He said to them all, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his across bdaily and follow Me.
Lk 9:24 For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall 1lose it; but whoever 1loses his soul-life for My sake, this one shall save it.
Lk 9:25 For what is a man profited if he 1gains the whole world but loses or 1forfeits himself?
Lk 9:26 For whoever is aashamed of Me and of My words, of this one will the Son of Man be ashamed when He bcomes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the choly angels.
24. Transfigured on the Mount
9:27-36
Lk 9:27 But I say to you truly, There are some of those standing here who shall by ano means btaste death until they see the kingdom of God.
Lk 9:28 And about 1eight days after these words, He atook with Him bPeter and John and James, and went up into the mountain to cpray.
Lk 9:29 And as He prayed, the appearance of His face became adifferent, and His garment 1dazzling bwhite.
Lk 9:30 And behold, two men were conversing with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,
Lk 9:31 Who appeared in glory and spoke of His adeparture, which He was about to complete in Jerusalem.
Lk 9:32 Now Peter and those with him had been overcome with asleep, but when they had fully woken up, they saw His bglory and the two men who were standing with Him.
Lk 9:33 And as they were departing from Him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three atents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah — not knowing what he was saying.
Lk 9:34 And while he said these things, a acloud appeared and overshadowed them; and they became frightened as they entered into the cloud.
Lk 9:35 And a avoice came out of the cloud, 1saying, This is My Son, the 2Chosen One. bHear Him!
Lk 9:36 And when the voice 1had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and reported to ano one in those days anything of what they had seen.
25. Casting a Demon out of a Man’s Son
9:37-43a
Lk 9:37 And on the following day, when they came down from the mountain, a great crowd met Him.
Lk 9:38 And behold, a aman from the crowd called out, saying, Teacher, I beg You to look upon my son, for he is my bonly child.
Lk 9:39 And behold, a spirit takes him, and suddenly he cries out, and it athrows him into convulsions with foaming; and it hardly goes away from him, all the time crushing him.
Lk 9:40 And I begged Your disciples to acast it out, and they could not.
Lk 9:41 And Jesus answered and said, O unbelieving and aperverted generation! How long shall I be bwith you and bear with you? Bring your son here.
Lk 9:42 And just as he was coming to Him, the demon threw him down and greatly convulsed him. But Jesus arebuked the bunclean spirit and healed the child and cgave him back to his father.
Lk 9:43 And all were astounded at the amajesty of God.
26. Unveiling His Death the Second Time
9:43b-45
And while all were marveling at all the things which He did, He bsaid to His disciples,
Lk 9:44 Put these words into your ears; for the aSon of Man is about to be bdelivered into the hands of men.
Lk 9:45 But they did anot understand this saying, and it was bconcealed from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him concerning this saying.
27. Teaching concerning Humility and Tolerance
9:46-50
Lk 9:46 And areasoning came in among them as to which of them was bgreatest.
Lk 9:47 And Jesus, seeing the reasoning of their aheart, took hold of a little child and stood him beside Himself,
Lk 9:48 And He said to them, Whoever areceives this little child 1because of My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for he who is least among you all, this one is bgreat.
Lk 9:49 And aJohn answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons bin Your name, and we 1cforbade him because he does not follow with us.
Lk 9:50 But Jesus said to him, Do 1not forbid him, for 2he who is anot against you is for you.
B. From Galilee to Jerusalem
9:51 — 19:27
1. Rejected by the Samaritans
9:51-56
Lk 9:51 And as the days were being fulfilled for Him to be ataken up, He steadfastly set His face to go to 1bJerusalem.
Lk 9:52 And He sent messengers abefore His face. And they went and entered into a village of the bSamaritans to prepare for Him.
Lk 9:53 And they did not receive Him, because His aface was set to go to Jerusalem.
Lk 9:54 And seeing this, the disciples James and John said, Lord, do You want us to 1command afire to come down from heaven and consume them2?
Lk 9:55 But turning, He rebuked them 1and said, 2You do not know of what kind of spirit you are.
Lk 9:56 1The Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s 2lives but to save them. And they went into another village.
2. Instructing People How to Follow Him
9:57-62
Lk 9:57 And as they went along the road, 1someone said to Him, I will afollow You wherever You go.
Lk 9:58 And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have roosts, but the Son of Man does 1not have a place where He may lay His head.
Lk 9:59 And He said to 1another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, permit me to go first and bury my father.
Lk 9:60 But He said to him, Let the 1dead bury their own dead, but you go and 2announce the akingdom of God everywhere.
Lk 9:61 And 1another also said, I will follow You, Lord; but first apermit me to say farewell to those in my house.
Lk 9:62 But Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand on the 1plow and looks abehind is fit for the bkingdom of God.
LUKE 10

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3. Appointing Seventy Disciples to Spread His Ministry
10:1-24
Lk 10:1 Now after these things, the Lord appointed 1seventy others and asent them 2two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to come.
Lk 10:2 And He said to them, The aharvest is great, but the workers few; therefore, 1beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers 2into His harvest.
Lk 10:3 Go; behold, I send you as alambs in the midst of wolves.
Lk 10:4 Do 1anot carry a purse, nor a bag, nor sandals; and greet bno one on the way.
Lk 10:5 And into whatever house you enter, first say, aPeace to this house.
Lk 10:6 And if a 1son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon 2it; but if not, it shall areturn upon you.
Lk 10:7 And in that house aremain, beating and drinking the things from them, for the cworker is worthy of his wages. Do not move from house to house.
Lk 10:8 And into whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is aset before you;
Lk 10:9 And aheal the sick who are in it and say to them, The 1bkingdom of God has drawn near to you.
Lk 10:10 But into whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,
Lk 10:11 Even the adust from your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; yet know this, that the kingdom of God has drawn near.
Lk 10:12 I say to you that it will be 1more tolerable for aSodom in that day than for that city.
Lk 10:13 Woe to you, aChorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the bworks of power which took place in you had taken place in cTyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in dsackcloth and ashes.
Lk 10:14 Yet it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.
Lk 10:15 And you, Capernaum, who have been aexalted to heaven, to 1bHades you will be cbrought down.
Lk 10:16 He who hears you hears Me, and he who arejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who bsent Me.
Lk 10:17 And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us ain Your name.
Lk 10:18 And He said to them, I was watching Satan 1fall like lightning out of heaven.
Lk 10:19 Behold, I have given you the 1aauthority to tread upon 2bserpents and 2scorpions and over all the 1power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Lk 10:20 However do not rejoice in this, that the aspirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are brecorded in the heavens.
Lk 10:21 1In that hour He exulted in the Holy Spirit and asaid, I extol You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the bwise and intelligent and have revealed them to cbabes. Yes, Father, for thus it has been dwell pleasing in Your sight.
Lk 10:22 aAll things have been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is bexcept the Son and him to whom the Son wills to creveal Him.
Lk 10:23 And turning to the disciples, He said privately, aBlessed are the eyes which see the things that you see.
Lk 10:24 For I tell you that many aprophets and kings have wanted to bperceive the things that you see, and have not perceived them, and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them.
4. Portraying Himself as the Good Samaritan with the Highest Morality
10:25-37
Lk 10:25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put Him to the 1test, asaying, Teacher, 2what should I do to 3inherit eternal life?
Lk 10:26 And He said to him, What is written in the law? How do you read it?
Lk 10:27 And he answered and said, a“You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and 1with your whole soul and 1with your whole strength and 1with your whole mind, and byour neighbor as yourself.”
Lk 10:28 And He said to him, You have answered correctly; ado this, and you shall have life.
Lk 10:29 But he, wanting to 1justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
Lk 10:30 Jesus, taking up the question, said, A 1certain man was going 2down from 3Jerusalem to 3aJericho, and he fell among 4robbers, who having both 5stripped him and 6beaten him, went away, 7leaving him half dead.
Lk 10:31 And by coincidence a certain 1priest was going down on that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Lk 10:32 And likewise also a 1Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side.
Lk 10:33 But a certain 1aSamaritan, who was journeying, came upon him; and when he saw him, he was moved with bcompassion;
Lk 10:34 And he came to him and 1abound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on them. And placing him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him.
Lk 10:35 And on the next day he took out two 1adenarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, Take care of him; and whatever you spend in addition to this, when I return, I will repay you.
Lk 10:36 Which of these three, does it seem to you, has 1become a neighbor to him who fell into the hands of the robbers?
Lk 10:37 And he said, 1The one who showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him, Go, and you do likewise.
5. Received by Martha
10:38-42
Lk 10:38 Now as they went, He entered into a certain 1village, and a certain woman named 2aMartha breceived Him into her home.
Lk 10:39 And she had a sister called 1Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s afeet and was listening to His word.
Lk 10:40 But Martha was 1abeing drawn about with much serving, and she came up to Him and said, Lord, does it not matter to You that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to do her part with me.
Lk 10:41 But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are aanxious and troubled about many things;
Lk 10:42 But there is need of aone thing, for Mary has chosen the 1bgood part, which shall not be taken away from her.
LUKE 11

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6. Teaching concerning Prayer
11:1-13
Lk 11:1 And while He was in a certain place praying, when He ceased, a certain one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.
Lk 11:2 And He said to them, aWhen you 1pray, say, 2bFather, Your name be csanctified; Your dkingdom come.
Lk 11:3 Give us each day our daily abread.
Lk 11:4 And aforgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone bindebted to us. And do not bring us into ctemptation1.
Lk 11:5 And He said to them, Who among you will have a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves,
Lk 11:6 Since a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him;
Lk 11:7 And that one, from inside, will answer and say, Do not trouble me; the door is already shut and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything?
Lk 11:8 I say to you, Even though he will not rise up and give him anything because he is his friend, surely because of his shameless persistence he will rise and give him what he needs.
Lk 11:9 1aAnd I say to you, bAsk and it shall be given to you; cseek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.
Lk 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.
Lk 11:11 But what father among you 1whose son shall ask for a fish will instead of a fish hand him a snake?
Lk 11:12 Or if he shall also ask for an egg will hand him a scorpion?
Lk 11:13 If you then being aevil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father who is from heaven give the 1bHoly Spirit to those who 2ask Him!
7. Rejected by the Evil Generation
11:14-32
Lk 11:14 1And once He was acasting out a demon, and it was dumb. And when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the crowds marveled.
Lk 11:15 But some of them said, By 1aBeelzebul, the ruler of the demons, He casts out the demons.
Lk 11:16 And others, atempting Him, bsought from Him a sign out of heaven.
Lk 11:17 1But aHe, bknowing their 2thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself becomes desolate, and a house divided against a house falls.
Lk 11:18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I cast out the demons.
Lk 11:19 But if I by Beelzebul acast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
Lk 11:20 But if I by the 1finger of God cast out the demons, then the akingdom of God has come upon you.
Lk 11:21 When the astrong man, fully armed, guards his own 1homestead, his possessions are in peace.
Lk 11:22 But when one 1stronger than he comes upon him and aovercomes him, he takes away his whole armor in which he had trusted and bdistributes his spoil.
Lk 11:23 1He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
Lk 11:24 1When the unclean aspirit goes out from the man, it roams through waterless places, seeking rest, and not finding it, it says, I will return to my house from which I came out.
Lk 11:25 And it comes and finds it swept and decorated.
Lk 11:26 Then it goes and takes along other spirits more evil than itself, seven of them, and they enter and settle down there. And the last state of that man becomes aworse than the first.
Lk 11:27 And as He said these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, aBlessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.
Lk 11:28 But He said, Blessed rather are those who ahear the word of God and keep it.
Lk 11:29 1And as the crowds were thronging together, He began to say, aThis generation is an evil generation; it bseeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it except the sign of cJonah.
Lk 11:30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.
Lk 11:31 The aqueen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will bcondemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the cwisdom of Solomon, and behold, something dmore than Solomon is here.
Lk 11:32 aNinevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they brepented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something more than Jonah is here.
8. Warning Not to Remain in Darkness
11:33-36
Lk 11:33 No one, after lighting a 1alamp, puts it in the cellar or under the 2bushel, but on the 3lampstand, in order that those who enter in may see the light.
Lk 11:34 The alamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is 1single, your whole body also is 2full of light; but when it is 3bevil, your body also is dark.
Lk 11:35 Watch out therefore that the 1light which is in you is not darkness.
Lk 11:36 If therefore your whole body is full of light and does not have any dark part, the whole will be full of light as when the lamp with its rays illuminates you.
9. Rebuking the Pharisees and Lawyers
11:37-54
Lk 11:37 Now as He spoke, a Pharisee asked Him to have the 1morning ameal with him; and He went in and reclined at table.
Lk 11:38 But the Pharisee, seeing it, marveled that He had not first 1awashed before the meal.
Lk 11:39 But the Lord said to him, Again, you Pharisees acleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inside is full of extortion and wickedness.
Lk 11:40 aFoolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?
Lk 11:41 But agive the things which are 1within as alms, and behold, all things are bclean to you.
Lk 11:42 But woe to you, Pharisees! For you agive a tenth of the bmint and the rue and every herb, and pass by 1cjustice and love for God. But these you should have done and 2not passed by the others.
Lk 11:43 Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the achief seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the bmarketplaces.
Lk 11:44 Woe to you! For you are like the unseen atombs, and the men who walk over them do not know it.
Lk 11:45 And one of the alawyers answered and said to Him, Teacher, by saying these things, you 1insult us also.
Lk 11:46 And He said, Woe to you lawyers also! For you burden men with burdens ahard to bear, yet you yourselves do not 1touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
Lk 11:47 Woe to you! For you abuild up the 1tombs of the prophets, and your fathers bkilled them.
Lk 11:48 You are witnesses then and fully approve of the works of your fathers, because they killed them, and you build up their tombs.
Lk 11:49 Therefore the 1wisdom of God also has said, I will asend to them bprophets and apostles, and some of them they will ckill and persecute,
Lk 11:50 In order that the ablood of all the prophets which has been poured out bfrom the foundation of the world may be crequired of this generation,
Lk 11:51 From the blood of aAbel to the blood of bZachariah, who perished between the altar and the house. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of 1this generation.
Lk 11:52 Woe to you alawyers! For you have taken away the key of bknowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and those who were entering, you 1chindered.
Lk 11:53 And when He went out from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to provoke Him to speak concerning many things,
Lk 11:54 aLying in wait for Him in order to 1catch bsomething out of His mouth.
LUKE 12

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10. Warning to Beware of the Pharisees’ Hypocrisy and concerning the Denial of the Man-Savior
12:1-12
Lk 12:1 1Meanwhile, when the myriads of the crowd were gathered together so that they trampled on one another, He began to say to His disciples first, Beware of the aleaven of the Pharisees, which is bhypocrisy.
Lk 12:2 But there is nothing acovered up which will not be revealed, and bhidden which will not be known.
Lk 12:3 Therefore what you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in the private rooms will be proclaimed on the ahousetops.
Lk 12:4 And I say to you My afriends, Do not bfear those who kill the body and afterward have nothing more that they can do.
Lk 12:5 But I will 1show you whom you should fear: fear 2Him who, after killing, has authority to acast into 3Gehenna; yes, I tell you, fear this One.
Lk 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two 1assaria? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
Lk 12:7 But even the ahairs of your head have all been numbered. Do not be afraid; you are of bmore value than many csparrows.
Lk 12:8 Moreover, I tell you, Everyone who aconfesses 1in Me before men, the bSon of Man will also cconfess 2in him before the dangels of God;
Lk 12:9 But he who adenies Me before men will be 1bdenied before the angels of God.
Lk 12:10 And everyone who will say a word against the aSon of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who 1blasphemes against the bHoly Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
Lk 12:11 And when they bring you before the asynagogues and the brulers and the authorities, do not be canxious about how or what you should reply in defense, or what you should say;
Lk 12:12 For the Holy 1Spirit will teach you in that hour what should be said.
11. Warning Not to Be Covetous
12:13-34
Lk 12:13 And someone out of the crowd said to Him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Lk 12:14 But He said to him, Man, awho appointed Me a judge or a divider over you?
Lk 12:15 And He said to them, aWatch and guard yourself from all bcovetousness, for no one’s life is in the abundance of his possessions.
Lk 12:16 And He told them a parable, saying, The land of a certain arich man brought forth abundantly.
Lk 12:17 And he reasoned in himself, saying, What shall I do, for I have no place where I may gather my 1crops?
Lk 12:18 And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will gather there all my wheat and my goods.
Lk 12:19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many ayears; rest, beat, drink, be merry.
Lk 12:20 But God said to him, aFoolish one, this night 1they are requiring your bsoul from you; and the things which you have cprepared, dwhose will they be?
Lk 12:21 So is he who stores up atreasure for himself and is not 1brich toward God.
Lk 12:22 1And He said to His disciples, Therefore I say to you, Do not be aanxious for your 2life, what you should eat; nor for your body, what you should put on;
Lk 12:23 For the life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Lk 12:24 Consider the aravens. They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn; yet God nourishes them. How much bmore valuable are you than the birds!
Lk 12:25 And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his stature?
Lk 12:26 If then you cannot do even the least, why are you anxious about the rest?
Lk 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow; they do not toil nor even spin thread; but I tell you, Not even aSolomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these.
Lk 12:28 Now if God so arrays the grass in the field, which is here today and tomorrow is cast into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, you of alittle faith!
Lk 12:29 And you, do not seek what you shall eat and what you shall drink, and do not 1be aunsettled.
Lk 12:30 For all these things the Gentiles of the world are anxiously seeking, but your Father knows that you aneed these things.
Lk 12:31 However, seek His akingdom, and these things shall be badded to you.
Lk 12:32 Do not abe afraid, little bflock, because your Father has been cwell pleased to give you the 1dkingdom.
Lk 12:33 aSell your possessions and bgive alms; make for yourselves purses which do not become old, an unfailing 1treasure in the heavens, where thief does not come near nor even moth corrupts;
Lk 12:34 For where your treasure is, there also your 1aheart will be.
12. Teaching to Be Watchful and Faithful
12:35-48
Lk 12:35 Let your loins be agirded and your blamps burning,
Lk 12:36 And you be like men waiting for their own master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and aknocks they may open to him immediately.
Lk 12:37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master, when he comes, will find awatching. Truly I tell you that he will bgird himself and will have them crecline at table, and he will 1come to them and dserve them.
Lk 12:38 And if he comes in the second watch, or if in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
Lk 12:39 1But 2know this, that if the amaster of the house had 2known in what hour the bthief was coming, he would3 not have allowed his house to be 4cbroken into.
Lk 12:40 You also, be aready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is bcoming.
Lk 12:41 And Peter said, Lord, are You saying this parable to us, or also to aall?
Lk 12:42 And the Lord said, Who then is the afaithful and bprudent csteward, whom the master will set over his service to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
Lk 12:43 aBlessed is that slave whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
Lk 12:44 Truly I tell you that he will aset him over all his possessions.
Lk 12:45 But if that slave says in his heart, My master is adelaying his coming, and begins to beat the male servants and the female servants and to eat and to drink and become bdrunk,
Lk 12:46 The master of that slave will come on a aday when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint his portion with the unbelievers.
Lk 12:47 And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not prepare or do according to his will, will receive many alashes;
Lk 12:48 But he who did anot know, yet did things worthy of stripes, will receive few lashes. But to everyone to whom bmuch has been given, much will be required from him; and to whom much has been 1committed, they will ask of him all the more.
13. Longing to Be Released through His Death
12:49-53
Lk 12:49 I have come to cast 1afire on the earth, and 2how I wish that it were already kindled!
Lk 12:50 But I have a 1baptism to be baptized with, and how I am 2pressed until it is accomplished!
Lk 12:51 Do you think that I have acome to give peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather 1bdivision.
Lk 12:52 For from now on there will be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three.
Lk 12:53 They will be divided: father against son and ason against father; mother against her daughter and daughter against her mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
14. Teaching concerning the Discernment of Time
12:54-59
Lk 12:54 And He said also to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say that a ashower is coming, and so it happens.
Lk 12:55 And when you see a asouth wind blowing, you say that there will be scorching heat, and it happens.
Lk 12:56 1aHypocrites, you know how to 2bdiscern the 3face of the earth and of the sky. 4How is it then that you do not know how to 5discern this time?
Lk 12:57 And why do you not ajudge also of 1yourselves what is right?
Lk 12:58 1For as you are going with your aopponent at law to a magistrate, 2endeavor to be released from him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge; and the judge will deliver you up to the officer, and the officer will throw you into prison.
Lk 12:59 I tell you, You shall by no means come out from there until you have paid the very last 1alepton.
LUKE 13

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15. Teaching concerning Repentance
13:1-9
Lk 13:1 1Now there were some present at the same time who reported to Him concerning the aGalileans whose blood bPilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
Lk 13:2 And He answered and said to them, Do you think that these Galileans were sinners beyond all the Galileans because they suffered these things?
Lk 13:3 No, I tell you; but unless you arepent, you shall all likewise bperish.
Lk 13:4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in aSiloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were debtors beyond all the men dwelling in Jerusalem?
Lk 13:5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you shall all similarly perish.
Lk 13:6 1And He told 2this parable: A certain man had a afig tree planted in his bvineyard. And he came seeking fruit on it and did not find any.
Lk 13:7 And he said to the vinedresser, Behold, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I have not found any. aCut it down therefore. Why does it also 1make the ground useless?
Lk 13:8 But he answered and said to him, Master, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and throw on manure.
Lk 13:9 And if it produces fruit in the future, good; otherwise, cut it down.
16. Healing a Bent-double Woman on the Sabbath
13:10-17
Lk 13:10 And He was teaching in one of the asynagogues on the Sabbath.
Lk 13:11 And behold, there was a woman who had a 1aspirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was 2bent double and could not stand erect at all.
Lk 13:12 And Jesus, seeing her, called her to Him and said to her, Woman, you are released from your infirmity.
Lk 13:13 And He alaid His hands on her, and instantly she was made erect and began to bglorify God.
Lk 13:14 But the aruler of the synagogue, being 1indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, answered and said to the crowd, There are bsix days in which man should work; therefore, come on them and be healed, and cnot on the Sabbath day.
Lk 13:15 But the Lord answered him and said, 1aHypocrites! Does not each of you on the bSabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away and water it?
Lk 13:16 And this woman, being a 1daughter of aAbraham whom 2bSatan has bound, behold, for eighteen years, should she not have been released from this bond on the 3Sabbath day?
Lk 13:17 And when He said these things, all those opposing Him were put to ashame, and all the crowd rejoiced over all the bglorious things that were being done by Him.
17. Teaching concerning the Kingdom of God as a Grain of Mustard and as Leaven
13:18-21
Lk 13:18 1He said therefore, What is the akingdom of God like, and to what shall I liken it?
Lk 13:19 It is like a amustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of heaven roosted in its branches.
Lk 13:20 And again He said, To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?
Lk 13:21 It is like aleaven, which a woman took and hid in bthree measures of meal until the cwhole was leavened.
18. Teaching concerning the Entrance into the Kingdom of God
13:22-30
Lk 13:22 And He journeyed throughout the cities and avillages, teaching and making His way toward bJerusalem.
Lk 13:23 And someone said to Him, Lord, are there only a few who are being asaved?
Lk 13:24 And He said to them, aStruggle to enter through the 1bnarrow door, because many, I tell you, will seek to enter, yet will not be 2able.
Lk 13:25 Once the Master of the house has risen and ashuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, bLord, open to us, then He will answer and say to you, I do not know you, nor where you are from.
Lk 13:26 Then you will begin to say, We aate in Your presence and drank, and You taught in our streets.
Lk 13:27 And He will say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from. aGo away from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness.
Lk 13:28 There will be 1aweeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the 2kingdom of God, but you being cast boutside.
Lk 13:29 And they will come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and will recline at table in the akingdom of God.
Lk 13:30 And behold, there are some 1last who will be first, and there are some 2first who will be last.
19. Journeying Uninterruptedly toward Jerusalem
13:31-35
Lk 13:31 In the same hour some aPharisees came up, saying to Him, Get out and go from here, for bHerod wants to 1kill you.
Lk 13:32 And He said to them, Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and accomplish healings 1today and tomorrow, and on the athird day I 2am bperfected.
Lk 13:33 However, I 1must journey today and tomorrow and on the following day because it is not acceptable for a aprophet to perish outside of bJerusalem.
Lk 13:34 aJerusalem, Jerusalem, who 1kills the prophets and bstones those who are sent to her! How often I desired to cgather your children together, the way a hen gathers her own brood under her dwings, and you ewould not!
Lk 13:35 Behold, your 1house is left to you. And I say to you, You shall by no means see Me until the time comes when you say, aBlessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
LUKE 14

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20. Healing a Man of Dropsy on the Sabbath
14:1-6
Lk 14:1 And as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to aeat bread, they were 1bwatching Him closely.
Lk 14:2 And behold, there was before Him a certain man suffering from 1dropsy.
Lk 14:3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the alawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the bSabbath or not?
Lk 14:4 But they were quiet. And He took hold of him and healed him and sent him away.
Lk 14:5 And He said to them, Which of you having a 1adonkey or an ox that falls into a well will not immediately pull it out on the Sabbath day?
Lk 14:6 And they were anot able to reply to these things.
21. Teaching the Invited and the Inviting One
14:7-14
Lk 14:7 And He told a parable to those who had been invited, when He noticed how they were choosing the aplaces of honor, saying to them,
Lk 14:8 When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not recline in the place of honor, lest someone more honorable than you may have been invited by him,
Lk 14:9 And he who invited you and him come and say to you, Give this one that place; and then you begin with shame to occupy the last place.
Lk 14:10 But when you are invited, go and recline in the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, Friend, acome up higher. Then you will have glory before all those reclining with you.
Lk 14:11 For everyone who exalts himself shall be ahumbled, and he who bhumbles himself shall be exalted.
Lk 14:12 And He said also to the one who had invited Him, When you make a morning meal or a dinner, do not call your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and it become a arepayment to you.
Lk 14:13 But when you give a reception, invite the 1poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
Lk 14:14 And you will be blessed, because they do not have anything with which to repay you; for it will be repaid to you in the 1aresurrection of the righteous.
22. Teaching concerning the Acceptance of God’s Invitation
14:15-24
Lk 14:15 And one of those reclining at table with Him, hearing these things, said to Him, aBlessed is he who shall eat bread in the bkingdom of God.
Lk 14:16 And He said to him, A certain man was making a 1great dinner and invited many;
Lk 14:17 And he sent his slave at the dinner hour to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all things are now ready.
Lk 14:18 And they all with one consent began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I need to go out and see it. I ask you, have me excused.
Lk 14:19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to prove them. I ask you, have me excused.
Lk 14:20 And another said, I have amarried a wife, and because of this I cannot come.
Lk 14:21 And the slave came up and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and told his slave, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the apoor and crippled and blind and lame.
Lk 14:22 And the slave said, Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.
Lk 14:23 And the master said to the slave, Go out into the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
Lk 14:24 For I tell you that none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.
23. Teaching How to Follow the Man-Savior
14:25-35
Lk 14:25 And there were great crowds going along with Him, and He turned and said to them,
Lk 14:26 1If anyone acomes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and moreover, even his own bsoul-life, he cannot be My disciple.
Lk 14:27 Whoever does not carry his own 1across and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Lk 14:28 For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, whether he has 1enough to complete it?
Lk 14:29 Lest perhaps, once he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all those looking on will begin to mock him,
Lk 14:30 Saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Lk 14:31 Or what king, going to engage another king in war, will not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
Lk 14:32 Otherwise, while he is yet at a distance, he sends an envoy and asks for the terms of peace.
Lk 14:33 In the same way therefore everyone of you who does not aforsake all his own possessions cannot be My disciple.
Lk 14:34 1Therefore 2salt is good; but if even the salt becomes tasteless, with what will its saltiness be restored?
Lk 14:35 It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure pile; they will throw it aout. He who has ears to hear, let him bhear.
LUKE 15

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24. Unveiling the Saving Love of the Triune God toward Sinners
15:1-32
a. By the Parable of a Shepherd Seeking a Sheep
vv. 1-7
Lk 15:1 Now all the atax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him.
Lk 15:2 And both the Pharisees and the ascribes bmurmured among themselves, saying, This man welcomes csinners and deats with them.
Lk 15:3 And He told them this 1parable, saying,
Lk 15:4 Which man of you, who has a ahundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the 1bwilderness and go after the one which is clost until he dfinds it?
Lk 15:5 And when he finds it, he 1lays it on his ashoulders, rejoicing.
Lk 15:6 And when he comes into his house, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was alost.
Lk 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one asinner repenting than over ninety-nine brighteous persons who have no need of repentance.
b. By the Parable of a Woman Seeking a Coin
vv. 8-10
Lk 15:8 Or what woman having ten 1silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, does not light a 2lamp and 3sweep the house and 4seek carefully until she finds it?
Lk 15:9 And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I lost.
Lk 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the aangels of God over one sinner repenting.
c. By the Parable of a Father Receiving His Son
vv. 11-32
Lk 15:11 And He said, A certain man had two sons.
Lk 15:12 And the younger of them said to the father, Father, give me the 1share of the estate that falls to me. And he adistributed to them his 2living.
Lk 15:13 And not many days after, the younger son, having gathered everything together, went abroad to a 1distant country and there squandered his estate by living 2dissolutely.
Lk 15:14 And when he had spent all, a severe famine occurred throughout that country, and he began to be in want.
Lk 15:15 And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to 1feed hogs.
Lk 15:16 And he longed to be asatisfied with the 1carob pods which the hogs were eating, and no one gave him anything.
Lk 15:17 But when he acame to himself, he said, 1How many of my father’s hired servants abound in bread, but I am perishing here in famine!
Lk 15:18 I will 1rise up and go ato my father, and I will say to him, Father, 2I have sinned against bheaven and cbefore you.
Lk 15:19 I am 1no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your 2hired servants.
Lk 15:20 And he rose up and came to his own father. But while he was still a along way off, his father 1saw him and was moved with compassion, and he 2ran and 3bfell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.
Lk 15:21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Lk 15:22 1But the father said to his slaves, Bring out 2quickly 3the 4best 5robe and put it on him, and put a 6ring on his hand and 7sandals on his feet.
Lk 15:23 And bring the 1afattened calf; 2slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry,
Lk 15:24 Because this son of mine was 1dead and alives again; he was 1lost and has been found. And they began to be merry.
Lk 15:25 Now his 1older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing,
Lk 15:26 And calling to him one of the servants, he inquired what these things might be.
Lk 15:27 And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has received him back healthy.
Lk 15:28 But he became angry and was not willing to enter. And his father came out and entreated him.
Lk 15:29 But he answered and said to his father, Behold, so many years I have been 1slaving for you and have never 2neglected a command of yours, and you have never given me a goat that I might be merry with my friends;
Lk 15:30 But when this son of yours came, who devoured your 1living with aharlots, you slaughtered for him the fattened calf.
Lk 15:31 And he said to him, Child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
Lk 15:32 But we had to be merry and rejoice, because this brother of yours was 1dead and has come to life, and he was lost and has been found.
LUKE 16

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25. Teaching to Be Prudent Stewards
16:1-13
Lk 16:1 1And He said also to the disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a 2steward, and this one was accused to him of squandering his possessions.
Lk 16:2 And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear concerning you? Render the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.
Lk 16:3 And the steward said within himself, What shall I do, because my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to 1dig; I am ashamed to 2beg.
Lk 16:4 I know what I will do so that when I am removed from the stewardship they may 1receive me into their own houses.
Lk 16:5 And when he had called to him each one of his master’s debtors, he said to the first, How much do you owe my master?
Lk 16:6 And he said, A hundred 1measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.
Lk 16:7 Then to another he said, And you, how much do you owe? And he said, A hundred 1measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill and write eighty.
Lk 16:8 And the master praised the aunrighteous steward because he had acted 1prudently; for the 2sons of bthis age are more cprudent in their dealings with their own generation than the 3sons of dlight.
Lk 16:9 And I say to you, 1Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of 2unrighteousness, so that when it 3fails, they may receive you into the 4aeternal tabernacles.
Lk 16:10 He who is afaithful in the 1least is faithful also in 1much; and he who is unrighteous in the least is unrighteous also in much.
Lk 16:11 If therefore you have not become faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you what is 1true?
Lk 16:12 And if you have not become faithful in that which belongs to 1another, who will give to you that which is 2your own?
Lk 16:13 No household servant can 1serve atwo masters; for either he will hate the one and 2love the other, or he will 2hold to one and despise the other. You cannot 1serve God and 3mammon.
26. Teaching concerning the Entrance into the Kingdom of God
16:14-18
Lk 16:14 And the aPharisees, being blovers of money, heard all these things and 1were csneering at Him.
Lk 16:15 And He said to them, You are those who ajustify yourselves in the bsight of men, but God knows your chearts; for that which is exalted among men is an 1dabomination in the sight of God.
Lk 16:16 The 1law and the prophets were 2until John; from that time the 3kingdom of God is proclaimed as the 4gospel, and everyone 5aforces his way into it.
Lk 16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to apass away than for one 1serif of the law to 2fail.
Lk 16:18 Everyone who 1adivorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman who is divorced from her husband commits badultery.
27. Warning the Rich
16:19-31
Lk 16:19 Now there was 1a certain rich man, and he clothed himself in apurple and fine linen, making merry every day in splendor.
Lk 16:20 And a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores
Lk 16:21 And longing to be asatisfied with the things falling from the rich man’s btable; moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
Lk 16:22 And the beggar died, and he was carried away by the aangels into 1Abraham’s bbosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
Lk 16:23 And in 1aHades he lifted up his eyes, being in btorment, and saw Abraham from afar and Lazarus in his bosom.
Lk 16:24 And he called out and said, aFather Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my btongue, because I am in anguish in this cflame.
Lk 16:25 But Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you fully received your good things, and Lazarus likewise bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
Lk 16:26 And besides all these things, between us and you a great 1chasm is fixed, so that those wanting to pass from here to you cannot, neither from there to us may any cross over.
Lk 16:27 And he said, Then I ask you, Father, to send him to the house of my father —
Lk 16:28 For I have five brothers — so that he may solemnly testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.
Lk 16:29 But Abraham said, They have 1aMoses and the prophets; let them hear them.
Lk 16:30 But he said, No, Father Abraham; but if someone risen from the dead would go to them, they will repent.
Lk 16:31 But he said to him, If they do 1not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.
LUKE 17

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28. Teaching concerning Stumbling, Forgiveness, and Faith
17:1-6
Lk 17:1 And He said to His disciples, It is impossible for causes of astumbling not to come, but bwoe to him through cwhom they come.
Lk 17:2 It is more profitable for him if a amillstone is put around his neck and he is hurled into the sea than to stumble one of these little ones.
Lk 17:3 aTake heed to yourselves. If your brother bsins, crebuke him; and if he repents, dforgive him.
Lk 17:4 And if he sins against you aseven times in a day and turns again to you seven times, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him.
Lk 17:5 And the apostles said to the Lord, 1aIncrease our faith.
Lk 17:6 But the Lord said, If you have afaith like a bmustard seed, you would have said to this csycamine tree, Be uprooted and be planted in the sea; and it would have obeyed you.
29. Teaching concerning Service
17:7-10
Lk 17:7 But which of you, having a slave who is plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, Come immediately and recline at table?
Lk 17:8 Will he not rather say to him, Prepare something that I may dine, and agird yourself and serve me until I eat and drink; and after that you will eat and drink?
Lk 17:9 He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were ordered, does he?
Lk 17:10 So also you, when you do all the things which are ordered you, say, We are aunprofitable slaves; we have done what we ought to have done.
30. Cleansing Ten Lepers
17:11-19
Lk 17:11 And as He was going to aJerusalem, He passed between bSamaria and cGalilee.
Lk 17:12 And as He entered into a certain village, ten 1aleprous men, who stood at a distance, met Him.
Lk 17:13 And they raised their voice, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!
Lk 17:14 And when He saw them, He said to them, Go and show yourselves to the apriests. And as they 1went, they were cleansed.
Lk 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, aglorifying God with a loud voice;
Lk 17:16 And he afell on his face at His feet, thanking Him. And he was a bSamaritan.
Lk 17:17 And Jesus answered and said, Were not the ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they?
Lk 17:18 Were none found who returned to agive glory to God except this foreigner?
Lk 17:19 And He said to him, Rise up and go; your afaith has 1healed you.
31. Teaching concerning the Kingdom of God and the Rapture of the Overcomers
17:20-37
Lk 17:20 And when He was questioned by the aPharisees as to bwhen the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, The 1ckingdom of God does 2not come with observation;
Lk 17:21 Nor will they say, Behold, ahere it is! or, There! For behold, the 1kingdom of God is in the midst of 2you.
Lk 17:22 And He said to the disciples, The adays will come when you will long to see one of the bdays of the Son of Man, and you will 1not see it.
Lk 17:23 And they will say to you, Behold, there! Behold, here! Do not go away, nor run after them.
Lk 17:24 For just as 1lightning flashing from one end 2of heaven shines to the other end 2of heaven, so will the Son of Man be in His aday.
Lk 17:25 But first He must suffer many things and be arejected by this generation.
Lk 17:26 1aAnd even as it happened in the 2bdays of Noah, so will it be also in the cdays of the Son of Man:
Lk 17:27 They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day in which Noah entered into the aark and the bflood came and destroyed them all.
Lk 17:28 Likewise, even as it happened in the adays of bLot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
Lk 17:29 But on the day in which Lot went out from aSodom, it rained fire and bbrimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
Lk 17:30 It will be in the same way on the day in which the Son of Man is arevealed.
Lk 17:31 In that day, he who will be on the ahousetop and his goods in the house, let him 1not come down to take them away; and he who is in the field, likewise, let him not turn back to the things behind.
Lk 17:32 Remember 1Lot’s wife.
Lk 17:33 Whoever seeks to 1preserve his asoul-life will lose it, and whoever loses it will preserve it alive.
Lk 17:34 1I tell you, In that night there will be atwo on one bed; the one will be 2btaken and the other will be left.
Lk 17:35 There will be two women agrinding together; the one will be taken but the other will be left.
Lk 17:36 1Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.
Lk 17:37 And they answered and said to Him, Where, Lord? And He said to them, Where the 1body is, there also will the avultures be gathered together.
LUKE 18

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32. Teaching concerning Persistent Prayer
18:1-8
Lk 18:1 And He told them a aparable to the end that they ought always to bpray and cnot lose heart,
Lk 18:2 Saying, There was a certain judge in a certain city who did anot fear God and did not regard man.
Lk 18:3 And there was a 1widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 2Avenge me of my 3opponent.
Lk 18:4 And for a time he would not; but afterward he said within himself, Even though I do not fear God nor regard man,
Lk 18:5 Yet because this widow causes me trouble, I will avenge her, lest by continually coming she wear me out.
Lk 18:6 And the Lord said, Hear what the aunrighteous judge says.
Lk 18:7 And will not God by all means carry out the aavenging of His bchosen ones, who cry to Him cday and night, though He is dlong-suffering over them?
Lk 18:8 I tell you that He will carry out their avenging quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man 1acomes, will He find 2faith on the earth?
33. Teaching concerning the Entrance into the Kingdom of God
18:9-30
a. Humbling Oneself
vv. 9-14
Lk 18:9 And 1He told this parable also to certain ones who atrusted in themselves that they were brighteous and despised the rest:
Lk 18:10 Two men awent up to the temple to pray, the one a bPharisee and the other a tax collector.
Lk 18:11 The Pharisee astood and prayed these things to himself: God, I thank You that I am 1not like the rest of men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Lk 18:12 I 1afast twice a 2week; I bgive a tenth of all that I get.
Lk 18:13 But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would anot even lift up his eyes to heaven, but bbeat his breast, saying, God, be 1propitiated to me, the csinner!
Lk 18:14 I tell you, This man went down to his house ajustified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself shall be bhumbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
b. Being like a Little Child
vv. 15-17
Lk 18:15 And they were bringing to Him also their ababies that He might touch them. But when the disciples saw this they brebuked them.
Lk 18:16 But Jesus called them to Him, saying, Allow the little children to come to Me, and do not 1aforbid them, for of such is the 2bkingdom of God.
Lk 18:17 Truly I say to you, Whoever does not receive the akingdom of God like a 1blittle child shall by no means enter into it.
c. Renouncing All and Following the Man-Savior
vv. 18-30
Lk 18:18 And a 1certain ruler questioned Him, asaying, Good Teacher, 2what shall I do to binherit ceternal life?
Lk 18:19 But Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One — God.
Lk 18:20 You know the commandments: “Do anot commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, bhonor your father and mother.”
Lk 18:21 And he said, aAll these things I have kept from my youth.
Lk 18:22 And hearing this, Jesus said to him, Still you lack one thing: all that you have, asell and distribute to the bpoor, and you will have treasure in the cheavens; and come, dfollow Me.
Lk 18:23 But when he aheard these things, he became very sorrowful, for he was exceedingly rich.
Lk 18:24 And Jesus, seeing that he became very sorrowful, said, How difficult it is for those who have ariches to go into the kingdom of God.
Lk 18:25 For it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a 1needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Lk 18:26 And those who heard said, 1Then who can be saved?
Lk 18:27 But He said, The things that are impossible with men are apossible with God.
Lk 18:28 And Peter said, Behold, we have aleft our own things and have bfollowed You.
Lk 18:29 And He said to them, Truly I say to you that there is no one who has left house or wife or abrothers or parents or children 1for the sake of the bkingdom of God,
Lk 18:30 Who shall not by all means receive back many times as much in 1this time, and in the acoming age, beternal life.
34. Unveiling His Death and Resurrection the Third Time
18:31-34
Lk 18:31 And taking the atwelve aside, He said to them, Behold we are bgoing up to cJerusalem, and all things which have been written through the prophets regarding the Son of Man will be daccomplished,
Lk 18:32 For He will be 1adelivered up to the Gentiles and will be bmocked and outrageously treated and cspat upon;
Lk 18:33 And when they have ascourged Him, they will kill Him; and on the bthird day He will rise.
Lk 18:34 And they understood none of these things, and this saying was ahidden from them, and they did not know what was being said.
35. Healing a Blind Man near Jericho
18:35-43
Lk 18:35 And as He 1adrew near to bJericho, a certain cblind man was sitting by the road, begging.
Lk 18:36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this might be.
Lk 18:37 And they told him that Jesus the aNazarene was passing by.
Lk 18:38 And he shouted, saying, Jesus, 1aSon of David, have mercy on me!
Lk 18:39 And those going before arebuked him so that he would be silent, but he cried out much more, Son of David, have mercy on me!
Lk 18:40 And Jesus, standing still, commanded that he be led to Him. And when he drew near, He questioned him,
Lk 18:41 1What do you want Me to ado for you? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight!
Lk 18:42 And Jesus said to him, Receive your sight; your afaith has 1healed you.
Lk 18:43 And instantly he received his sight and followed Him, aglorifying God. And all the people, seeing it, gave bpraise to God.
LUKE 19

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36. Saving Zaccheus
19:1-10
Lk 19:1 And He entered and was passing through 1aJericho.
Lk 19:2 And behold, there was a man whose name was called Zaccheus; and he was a chief 1tax collector, and he was rich.
Lk 19:3 And he was seeking to asee Jesus, who He was, and could not because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
Lk 19:4 And he ran on ahead and climbed up in a 1asycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
Lk 19:5 And as He came to the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay in your house.
Lk 19:6 And he hurried and came down, and received Him, rejoicing.
Lk 19:7 And when they saw it, they all amurmured, saying, He has gone in to lodge with a sinful man.
Lk 19:8 And Zaccheus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, the 1half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the apoor, and if I have 2taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore 3four times as much.
Lk 19:9 And Jesus said to him, Today asalvation has come to this house, because he 1also is a son of bAbraham.
Lk 19:10 For the Son of Man has come to 1aseek and to save that which is blost.
37. Teaching concerning Faithfulness
19:11-27
Lk 19:11 And as they were listening to these things, He spoke 1further a parable, because He was near aJerusalem and they supposed that the bkingdom of God was to 2appear immediately.
Lk 19:12 He said therefore, A 1certain man of noble birth 2went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and to 3return.
Lk 19:13 And he called 1aten of his own slaves and gave them ten 2minas, and he said to them, Do business 3until I come.
Lk 19:14 But his 1acitizens hated him and sent an envoy after him, saying, 2We do not want this man to reign over us.
Lk 19:15 And when he came back, having received the kingdom, he commanded that those slaves to whom he had given the money should be called to him so that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
Lk 19:16 And the first appeared, saying, Master, your mina has gained ten minas.
Lk 19:17 And he said to him, Well done, good slave. Because you have become afaithful in the least, 1have authority bover ten cities.
Lk 19:18 And the second came, saying, Your mina, master, has made five minas.
Lk 19:19 And he said to this one as well, And you, be over 1five cities.
Lk 19:20 1And the other came, saying, Master, behold your mina, which I 2kept laid away in a ahandkerchief;
Lk 19:21 For I was afraid of you, because you are a 1harsh man: you withdraw what you did not deposit, and you reap what you did anot sow.
Lk 19:22 He said to him, Out of your mouth I will 1judge you, awicked slave. You knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
Lk 19:23 Why then did you not put my money 1in the bank, and when I came, I would have collected it with interest?
Lk 19:24 And to those standing by he said, Take the mina away from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.
Lk 19:25 And they said to him, Master, he has ten minas.
Lk 19:26 I tell you that to everyone who ahas, more shall be given, but from him who does not have, even that which he has shall be taken away.
Lk 19:27 However, these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and 1aslay them before me.
IV. The Man-Savior’s Presentation of Himself to Death for Redemption
19:28 — 22:46
A. Entering into Jerusalem Triumphantly
19:28-40
Lk 19:28 And having said these things, He went on before them, 1going up to aJerusalem.
Lk 19:29 1And as He drew near to aBethphage and bBethany, near the cmount which is called Olivet, He dsent two of the disciples,
Lk 19:30 Saying, Go into the village opposite you, in which, as you are entering, you will find a colt tied, on which ano man has ever yet sat; untie it and lead it here.
Lk 19:31 And if anyone asks you, Why are you untying it? thus shall you say, Because the Lord has need of it.
Lk 19:32 And those who were sent went away and afound it even as He had told them.
Lk 19:33 And as they were untying the acolt, its masters said to them, Why are you untying the colt?
Lk 19:34 And they said, Because the Lord has need of it.
Lk 19:35 And they brought it to Jesus. And when they had thrown their garments on the colt, they put Jesus on it.
Lk 19:36 And as He went, they 1spread their own agarments in the road.
Lk 19:37 And as He was already drawing near to the descent of the Mount of Olives, all the multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and apraise God with a loud voice for all the works of power which they had bseen,
Lk 19:38 Saying, Blessed is the aKing who comes in the bname of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the chighest!
Lk 19:39 And some of the Pharisees from the crowd asaid to Him, Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.
Lk 19:40 And He answered and said, I tell you, If these shall be silent, the astones will cry out.
B. Lamenting over Jerusalem
19:41-44
Lk 19:41 And as He drew near, He saw the city and awept over it,
Lk 19:42 Saying, If you knew in this day, even you, the athings that are for your 1peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.
Lk 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a arampart before you, and will bencircle you, and will press you in on every side,
Lk 19:44 And they will 1level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave a astone upon a stone in you, because you did not know the time of your 2bvisitation.
C. Cleansing the Temple and Teaching in It
19:45-48
Lk 19:45 And He aentered into the temple and began to cast out those who were selling,
Lk 19:46 Saying to them, It is written, “And My ahouse shall be a house of prayer,” but you have made it a den of brobbers.
Lk 19:47 And He ataught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the leaders of the people sought to bdestroy Him;
Lk 19:48 Yet they could not find anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging upon Him, listening.
LUKE 20

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D. Passing through the Final Examinations
20:1 — 21:4
1. Of the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Elders
20:1-19
Lk 20:1 And on one of the days, as 1He was ateaching the people in the btemple and announcing the good news, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders ccame upon Him,
Lk 20:2 And spoke, saying to Him, Tell us by what aauthority You do these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?
Lk 20:3 And He answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing, and you tell Me:
Lk 20:4 The abaptism of John, was it from bheaven or from men?
Lk 20:5 And they reasoned together among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven, He will say, Why did you anot believe him?
Lk 20:6 But if we say, From men, all the people will stone us to death, for they are persuaded that John was a aprophet.
Lk 20:7 And they answered that they did not know where it was from.
Lk 20:8 And Jesus said to them, 1Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Lk 20:9 1And He began to speak to the people this aparable: A certain man bplanted a cvineyard and leased it out to dvinedressers and went eabroad for a considerable time.
Lk 20:10 And at the proper time he asent a slave to the vinedressers so that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard; but the vinedressers bbeat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Lk 20:11 And he went on to send another slave, but they beat that one also, and dishonored him, and sent him away empty-handed.
Lk 20:12 And he went on to send a third, but that one also they wounded and threw out.
Lk 20:13 And the master of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my son, the abeloved; they will 1probably respect this one.
Lk 20:14 But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, This is the aheir; let us kill him that the inheritance may become ours.
Lk 20:15 And they threw him aout of the vineyard and bkilled him. What then will the master of the vineyard do to them?
Lk 20:16 He will come and adestroy these vinedressers and will give the vineyard to bothers. And when they heard this, they said, May it never happen!
Lk 20:17 But He looked at them, and said, What then is this that is written, a“The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner”?
Lk 20:18 Everyone who falls on that astone shall be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it shall crush him to powder and scatter him like bchaff.
Lk 20:19 And the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on Him in that hour; yet they feared the people, for they perceived that it was with them in view that He spoke this parable.
2. Of the Pharisees and Herodians
20:20-26
Lk 20:20 1And they awatched Him closely and bsent spies who cfeigned themselves to be righteous, in order that they might lay hold on some dword of His, so as to edeliver Him up to the rule and authority of the fgovernor.
Lk 20:21 And they questioned Him, saying, Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, 1and do not accept man’s aperson, but teach the bway of God in truth.
Lk 20:22 Is it lawful for us to pay ataxes to bCaesar, or not?
Lk 20:23 But He perceived their acraftiness and said to them,
Lk 20:24 Show Me a adenarius. Whose image and inscription does it have? And they said, Caesar’s.
Lk 20:25 And He said to them, Therefore arender the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.
Lk 20:26 And they were not able to lay hold of a asaying of His in the presence of the people; and marveling at His answer, they kept silent.
3. Of the Sadducees
20:27-38
Lk 20:27 1And some of the aSadducees, who say there is no bresurrection, came to Him and cquestioned Him,
Lk 20:28 Saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If anyone’s brother has a awife and dies, and this one is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up seed to his brother.
Lk 20:29 There were then seven brothers. And the first took a wife and died childless;
Lk 20:30 And the second1;
Lk 20:31 And the third took her; and similarly the seven also did not leave children and died.
Lk 20:32 Finally the woman also died.
Lk 20:33 In the resurrection, therefore, which one’s wife does the woman become? For the seven had her as wife.
Lk 20:34 And Jesus said to them, The asons of this age bmarry and are given in marriage,
Lk 20:35 But those who are counted aworthy to obtain that 1age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage;
Lk 20:36 For neither can they adie anymore, for they are equal to bangels, and they are csons of God, being sons of the dresurrection.
Lk 20:37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses disclosed in the section concerning the abush, when he calls the Lord the God of bAbraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Lk 20:38 Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all men are aliving.
4. Muzzling All the Examiners
20:39-44
Lk 20:39 And some of the scribes answered and said, Teacher, You have spoken awell.
Lk 20:40 For they 1ano longer dared to question Him about anything.
Lk 20:41 1And He asaid to them, How is it that they say that the Christ is bDavid’s son?
Lk 20:42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, a“The Lord said to my Lord, bSit at My right hand,
Lk 20:43 Until I set Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.”
Lk 20:44 David therefore calls Him Lord, and how is He ahis 1son?
5. Warning against the Scribes
20:45-47
Lk 20:45 And as all the people were listening, He asaid to His disciples,
Lk 20:46 1Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love agreetings in the bmarketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues and cplaces of honor at the dinners,
Lk 20:47 Who devour widows’ houses, and for a 1pretense make long prayers. These shall receive agreater 2judgment.
LUKE 21

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6. Praising the Poor Widow
21:1-4
Lk 21:1 And He looked up and 1saw the arich bcasting their 2gifts into the ctreasury.
Lk 21:2 And He saw a certain 1impoverished widow casting there two alepta.
Lk 21:3 And He said, Truly I tell you that this apoor widow has cast in more than all of them,
Lk 21:4 For all these out of their surplus have cast in something into the gifts, but she out of her lack has cast in all the aliving that she had.
E. Preparing the Disciples for His Death
21:5 — 22:46
1. Telling Them of Things to Come
21:5-36
a. The Destruction of the Temple
vv. 5-6
Lk 21:5 1And as some were speaking about the atemple, that it was adorned with 2beautiful stones and 3consecrated offerings, He said,
Lk 21:6 As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left a astone upon a stone which will not be thrown down.
b. The Plagues between His Ascension and the Great Tribulation
vv. 7-11
Lk 21:7 And they questioned Him, saying, Teacher, when therefore will these things be? And what will be the sign awhen these things are about to take place?
Lk 21:8 And He said, aSee that you are not led astray, for many will come in My bname, saying, I am the Christ! and, The time has drawn near! Do not go after them.
Lk 21:9 And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first; but the end does not come immediately.
Lk 21:10 Then He said to them, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
Lk 21:11 And there will be great aearthquakes, and in various places bfamines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great csigns from heaven.
c. The Persecution of His Disciples in the Church Age
vv. 12-19
Lk 21:12 But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, adelivering you up to the synagogues and bprisons, cbringing you before dkings and governors for the sake of My name.
Lk 21:13 It will turn out to you for a testimony.
Lk 21:14 Settle it therefore in your hearts not to atake thought beforehand how to reply in defense,
Lk 21:15 For I will give you a amouth and wisdom which all those opposing you will not be able to bresist or refute.
Lk 21:16 And you will be 1delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.
Lk 21:17 And you will be ahated by all because of My name,
Lk 21:18 Yet a ahair of your head shall by no means perish.
Lk 21:19 In your aendurance you will 1possess your souls.
d. The Great Tribulation and His Coming
vv. 20-27
Lk 21:20 1But when you asee Jerusalem bsurrounded by armies, then know that her desolation has drawn near.
Lk 21:21 Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those in her midst get out, and let not those in the country enter into her,
Lk 21:22 Because these are days of avengeance, that all the things written may be fulfilled.
Lk 21:23 Woe to those who are apregnant and to those nursing babies in those days, for there will be great 1distress upon the land and bwrath to this people.
Lk 21:24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be atrampled by the 1Gentiles until the times of the 1Gentiles are bfulfilled.
Lk 21:25 And there will be signs in the asun and moon and stars, and upon the earth anguish of nations in perplexity at the broaring of the sea and the billows,
Lk 21:26 Men 1fainting from fear and expectation of the things coming upon the 2inhabited earth, for the powers of the heavens will be ashaken.
Lk 21:27 And then they will see the aSon of Man bcoming in a cloud with power and great cglory.
e. The Disciples’ Redemption and the Overcomers’ Rapture
vv. 28-36
Lk 21:28 And when these things begin to happen, stand erect and lift up your heads, because your aredemption is drawing near.
Lk 21:29 1And He told them a parable: Look at the afig tree and all the trees.
Lk 21:30 As soon as they sprout leaves, you see it and know of yourselves that the summer is already near.
Lk 21:31 So also you, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
Lk 21:32 Truly I tell you that athis generation shall by no means pass away until all things happen.
Lk 21:33 Heaven and earth shall apass away, but My bwords shall by no means pass away.
Lk 21:34 But atake heed to yourselves lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with 1debauchery and bdrunkenness and the canxieties of life, and that day come upon you 2suddenly as a dsnare.
Lk 21:35 For it will come in upon all those 1adwelling on the face of all the earth.
Lk 21:36 But be awatchful at every time, bbeseeching that you would 1prevail to 2escape 3all these things which are about to happen and 4cstand before the Son of Man.
2. Teaching Daily in the Temple
21:37-38
Lk 21:37 Now during the day He was in the temple ateaching, but during the night He bwent out and stayed on the mountain called cOlivet.
Lk 21:38 And all the people would come early in the amorning to Him in the temple to hear Him.
LUKE 22

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3. His Opposers Conspiring to Kill Him and a False Disciple Plotting to Betray Him
22:1-6
Lk 22:1 1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the aPassover, was drawing bnear.
Lk 22:2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to ado away with Him, for they bfeared the people.
Lk 22:3 And aSatan entered into bJudas who was called cIscariot and was of the number of the twelve.
Lk 22:4 And he went away and conferred with the chief priests and aofficers as to how he might deliver Him up to them.
Lk 22:5 And they rejoiced and promised to give him 1amoney.
Lk 22:6 And he consented and sought opportunity to adeliver Him up to them apart from the crowd.
4. Instituting His Supper That the Disciples Might Participate in His Death
22:7-23
Lk 22:7 And the day of 1Unleavened Bread came, on which the apassover had to be 2sacrificed.
Lk 22:8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the passover for us, so that we may eat it.
Lk 22:9 And they said to Him, Where do You want us to prepare it?
Lk 22:10 And He told them, Behold, as you are entering into the city, a man carrying an earthen jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house which he enters.
Lk 22:11 And you shall say to the master of the house, The aTeacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the passover with My disciples?
Lk 22:12 And that one will show you a large aupper room furnished; prepare there.
Lk 22:13 And they left and afound it even as He had told them, and they prepared the passover.
Lk 22:14 And when the hour came, He areclined at table, and the apostles with Him.
Lk 22:15 And He said to them, With desire I have desired to 1eat this passover with you before I suffer,
Lk 22:16 For I tell you that I shall by no means eat it until 1it is fulfilled in the akingdom of God.
Lk 22:17 And He received a cup and gave athanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves;
Lk 22:18 For I tell you, I shall by no means drink from now on of the 1product of the vine until the akingdom of God comes.
Lk 22:19 1And He took a aloaf and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My bbody which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
Lk 22:20 And similarly the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the anew covenant established in My bblood, which is being poured out for you.
Lk 22:21 But behold, the ahand of the 1one bbetraying Me is cwith Me at the table.
Lk 22:22 For the Son of Man is going according to what has been adetermined, but woe to that man through whom He is betrayed!
Lk 22:23 And they began to discuss among themselves who then of them it was who was about to do this.
5. Teaching the Disciples concerning Humility and Foretelling What Will Happen to Them
22:24-38
Lk 22:24 1And a 2contention 1also occurred among them as to which of them seemed to be agreatest.
Lk 22:25 And He asaid to them, The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors.
Lk 22:26 But you shall not be so; but let the agreatest among you become like the youngest, and the one who bleads like the one who 1serves.
Lk 22:27 For who is greater, the one who reclines at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am in your midst as the one who aserves.
Lk 22:28 But you are those who have remained with Me throughout My atrials.
Lk 22:29 And I 1appoint to you, even as My Father has 1appointed to Me, a akingdom,
Lk 22:30 That you may eat and drink at My 1table in My akingdom; and you will sit on bthrones cjudging the twelve dtribes of Israel.
Lk 22:31 1Simon, Simon, behold, aSatan has asked to have you all to bsift you as wheat.
Lk 22:32 But I have amade petition concerning you that your faith would not fail; and you, once you have turned again, bestablish your brothers.
Lk 22:33 And he said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with You both to aprison and to bdeath.
Lk 22:34 But He said, I tell you, Peter, a arooster will not crow today until you deny three times that you know Me.
Lk 22:35 And He said to them, When I sent you awithout purse and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you? And they said, Nothing.
Lk 22:36 And He said to them, But now, let him who has a purse take it, likewise also a bag; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and 1buy one.
Lk 22:37 For I tell you that this which is written must be accomplished in Me, “And He was acounted with the lawless.” For indeed that which concerns Me has its 1bfulfillment.
Lk 22:38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two aswords. And He said to them, It is 1enough.
6. Praying concerning the Sufferings of His Death and Charging the Disciples to Pray
22:39-46
Lk 22:39 And He came out and went according to His custom to the aMount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him.
Lk 22:40 And when He came to the 1aplace, He bsaid to them, cPray that you do not enter into temptation.
Lk 22:41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He aknelt down and bprayed,
Lk 22:42 Saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this 1acup from Me; yet, not My bwill, but 2Yours be done.
Lk 22:43 1And an aangel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.
Lk 22:44 And being in aagony He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.
Lk 22:45 And when He rose up from prayer and came to the disciples, He found them sleeping from 1sorrow,
Lk 22:46 And He said to them, Why are you sleeping? Rise up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.
V. The Death of the Man-Savior
22:47 — 23:56
A. Arrested
22:47-65
Lk 22:47 aWhile He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and he who is called bJudas, one of the twelve, was going before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.
Lk 22:48 But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?
Lk 22:49 And those around Him, seeing what would happen, said, Lord, shall we strike with the asword?
Lk 22:50 And a certain one of them struck the slave of the high priest and took off his right aear.
Lk 22:51 But Jesus answered and said, 1Let them go this far. And touching his ear, He healed him.
Lk 22:52 And Jesus said to the chief priests and aofficers of the temple and elders who had come up against Him, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs?
Lk 22:53 While I was with you day by day in the 1atemple, you did not stretch out your hands against Me. But this is your bhour and the cauthority of darkness.
Lk 22:54 And having arrested Him, they aled Him away, and brought Him into the house of the high priest.
(Denied by Peter)
vv. 54b-62
But Peter bfollowed at a distance.
Lk 22:55 And when they had lit a fire in the middle of the acourtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.
Lk 22:56 And a certain servant girl, seeing him seated in the light of the fire, looked intently at him and said, This man was with Him too.
Lk 22:57 But he denied it, saying, I do not know Him, woman.
Lk 22:58 And after a short time, another person, seeing him, said, You also are one of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not!
Lk 22:59 And after about one hour had passed, 1another one insisted, saying, Surely this man was also with Him, for he is also a aGalilean.
Lk 22:60 But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are saying. And instantly, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.
Lk 22:61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, Before a arooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.
Lk 22:62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Lk 22:63 And the men who were holding Him mocked Him and abeat Him.
Lk 22:64 And they blindfolded Him and questioned Him, saying, 1Prophesy! aWho is the one who hit You?
Lk 22:65 And they said many other things against Him, ablaspheming.
B. Judged
22:66 — 23:25
1. By the Jewish Sanhedrin
22:66-71
Lk 22:66 And when it became day, the assembly of the elders of the people, both achief priests and scribes, were gathered together, and they led Him away to their 1Sanhedrin, saying,
Lk 22:67 aIf You are the bChrist, tell us. But He said to them, If I tell you, you shall by no means believe;
Lk 22:68 And if I ask you, you shall by no means answer.
Lk 22:69 But from now on the 1Son of Man will be seated at the aright hand of the power of God.
Lk 22:70 And they all said, Are You then the 1Son of God? And He said to them, aYou say rightly that I am.
Lk 22:71 And they said, What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His mouth.
LUKE 23

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2. By the Roman Rulers
23:1-25
Lk 23:1 And the entire multitude of them rose up and aled Him before 1Pilate.
Lk 23:2 And they began to accuse Him, saying, We found this man 1perverting our nation and forbidding people to apay taxes to bCaesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a cKing.
Lk 23:3 And Pilate aasked Him, saying, Are You the bKing of the Jews? And answering him, He said, 1It is as you csay.
Lk 23:4 And Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, I find ano fault in this man.
Lk 23:5 But they were vehement, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout the whole of Judea, beginning from 1aGalilee even to 1this place.
Lk 23:6 And when Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a aGalilean.
Lk 23:7 And when he realized that He was of aHerod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him up to Herod, who also himself was in Jerusalem in those days.
Lk 23:8 And when Herod saw Jesus, he rejoiced greatly, for he had wanted to asee Him for a considerable time, because he had bheard about Him, and was hoping to see some csign done by Him.
Lk 23:9 And he questioned Him with 1many words, but He answered him 2nothing.
Lk 23:10 And the chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing Him.
Lk 23:11 And Herod with his soldiers, having adespised Him and bmocked Him, cthrew around Him splendid clothing and sent Him back to Pilate.
Lk 23:12 And both aHerod and Pilate became friends with one another on that very day, for they had previously been at enmity toward each other.
Lk 23:13 And Pilate, calling together the chief priests and the arulers and the people,
Lk 23:14 Said to them, You have brought this man to me as one who 1aturns the people away, and behold, I have examined Him before you and found bno fault in this man regarding the accusations you bring against Him.
Lk 23:15 No, neither has Herod, for he sent Him back to us, and behold, nothing worthy of death has been done by Him.
Lk 23:16 I will therefore adiscipline Him and brelease Him.
Lk 23:17 1aNow he was obliged to release to them one prisoner at the feast.
Lk 23:18 But they cried out all together, saying, Take this man aaway and brelease to us Barabbas.
Lk 23:19 He was one who, for a certain ainsurrection that occurred in the city and for murder, had been thrown into the prison.
Lk 23:20 But Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again;
Lk 23:21 But they continued to shout, saying, Crucify, crucify Him!
Lk 23:22 But he said to them a third time, Why, what evil has this man adone? I have found bno cause of death in Him; I will therefore cdiscipline Him and release Him.
Lk 23:23 But they pressed him with loud voices, asking that He be 1acrucified, and their voices prevailed.
Lk 23:24 And Pilate 1gave sentence that their request be carried out,
Lk 23:25 And he released him who had been thrown into prison for ainsurrection and murder, whom they asked for; but Jesus he bdelivered up to their will.
C. Crucified
23:26-49
1. Suffering the Persecution of Men
vv. 26-43
Lk 23:26 And as they led Him away, they laid hold of 1aSimon, a certain Cyrenian, coming from the country, and they placed the cross upon him to carry it behind Jesus.
Lk 23:27 And a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him followed Him.
Lk 23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, 1aDaughters of bJerusalem, do not weep over Me, but weep over yourselves and over your children.
Lk 23:29 For behold, the adays are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs which have not borne, and the breasts which have not bnourished.
Lk 23:30 Then they will begin to say to the amountains, Fall on us! and to the hills, Cover us!
Lk 23:31 For if they do these things with the 1tree full of sap, what will happen with the one that is adry?
Lk 23:32 And atwo others also, who were criminals, were led with Him to be executed.
Lk 23:33 And when they came to the place called The 1aSkull, there they bcrucified Him and the ccriminals, one on the right and one on the left.
Lk 23:34 And Jesus said, Father, aforgive them, for they do bnot know what they are doing. And dividing His garments, they cast clots.
Lk 23:35 And the people stood by, alooking on. And the brulers also csneered, saying, He dsaved others; let Him save eHimself if this is the fChrist of God, the gChosen One!
Lk 23:36 And the soldiers also amocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him 1bvinegar,
Lk 23:37 And saying, If You are the aKing of the Jews, save Yourself!
Lk 23:38 And there was also an inscription over Him1: THIS IS THE aKING OF THE JEWS.
Lk 23:39 And one of the criminals who were hanged there ablasphemed Him, saying, Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!
Lk 23:40 But the other, answering, rebuked him and said, Do you not even fear God, since you are in the same 1judgment?
Lk 23:41 And we justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing 1amiss.
Lk 23:42 1And he said, Jesus, remember me when You acome into Your kingdom.
Lk 23:43 And He said to him, 1Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in 2Paradise.
2. Suffering the Judgment of God for Sinners to Accomplish a Vicarious Death for Them
vv. 44-49
Lk 23:44 And it was now about the 1asixth hour, and bdarkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,
Lk 23:45 1The sun’s light failing; and the 2aveil of the temple was split down the middle.
Lk 23:46 And crying with a aloud voice, Jesus said, Father, into Your hands 1I bcommit My spirit. And saying this, He expired.
Lk 23:47 Now when the acenturion saw what had happened, he bglorified God, saying, Certainly this man was crighteous.
Lk 23:48 And all the crowds who came together at this spectacle, when they beheld the things that happened, returned, beating their abreasts.
Lk 23:49 And all those who aknew Him, and the bwomen who accompanied Him from Galilee, stood at a cdistance, observing these things.
D. Buried
23:50-56
Lk 23:50 And behold, there was a man named 1aJoseph, who was a member of the Council, and a good and righteous man
Lk 23:51 (This man had not consented to their counsel and action), from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was aexpecting the kingdom of God.
Lk 23:52 This man came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Lk 23:53 And he took it down and wrapped it in a fine linen cloth, and 1laid Him in a tomb hewn in the rock, where ano one had ever lain.
Lk 23:54 And it was the day of 1preparation, and the Sabbath was 2coming on.
Lk 23:55 And the women who had come together with Him out of Galilee followed after and beheld the tomb and how His body was laid.
Lk 23:56 And they returned and prepared aspices and bointment. And on the cSabbath they 1rested according to the commandment.
LUKE 24

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VI. The Resurrection of the Man-Savior
24:1-49
A. Discovered by the Women
vv. 1-11
Lk 24:1 Now aon the 1first day of the week, at early dawn, 2they 3came to the tomb, bringing the bspices which they had prepared.
Lk 24:2 And they found the astone rolled away from the tomb;
Lk 24:3 But when they entered, they did anot find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Lk 24:4 And while they stood perplexed about this, behold, atwo bmen stood by them in 1cdazzling clothing.
Lk 24:5 And they became afrightened and bowed their faces to the ground, and the men said to them, Why are you seeking the bliving One among the dead?
Lk 24:6 He is not here but has been 1raised. Remember how He aspoke to you while He was still in bGalilee,
Lk 24:7 Saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the athird day rise up.
Lk 24:8 And they aremembered His words.
Lk 24:9 And returning from the tomb, they areported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Lk 24:10 Now they were aMary the Magdalene and bJoanna and 1Mary the mother of James and the rest of the women with them, who told these things to the apostles.
Lk 24:11 And these words appeared 1to them as 2nonsense, and they did anot believe them.
B. Investigated and Confirmed by Peter
v. 12
Lk 24:12 But aPeter rose up and ran to the tomb; and stooping to look in, he saw the blinen cloths alone, and he went away to his own home, marveling at what had happened.
C. Appearing to Two Disciples
vv. 13-35
Lk 24:13 And behold, atwo of them were going on the same day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty 1stadia away from Jerusalem.
Lk 24:14 And they were talking to each other concerning all these things which had occurred.
Lk 24:15 And while they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself drew near and 1went with them.
Lk 24:16 But their eyes were akept from recognizing Him.
Lk 24:17 And He said to them, What are these words which you are exchanging with one another while you are walking? And they stood still, looking sad.
Lk 24:18 And one of them, Cleopas by name, answered and said to Him, Do You alone dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem and not know the things which have taken place in it in these days?
Lk 24:19 And He said to them, What things? And they 1said to Him, The things concerning Jesus the aNazarene, who was a 2bProphet cpowerful in work and word before God and all the people;
Lk 24:20 And how the chief priests and our arulers bdelivered Him up to the csentence of death and dcrucified Him.
Lk 24:21 But we were hoping that He was the One who was about to aredeem Israel. Indeed, besides all these things, it is now going on the third day since these things took place.
Lk 24:22 But moreover some awomen from among us amazed us. Being at the tomb early
Lk 24:23 And anot finding His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of bangels, who said that He is cliving.
Lk 24:24 And some of those with us went to the atomb and found it even as the women also said, but they did not see Him.
Lk 24:25 And He said to them, O 1afoolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Lk 24:26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to asuffer these things and 1enter into His bglory?
Lk 24:27 And beginning from aMoses and from all the bprophets, He explained to them clearly in 1all the cScriptures the things concerning dHimself.
Lk 24:28 And they drew near to the village where they were going, and He acted as though He would go farther.
Lk 24:29 And they constrained Him, saying, Stay with us, because it is near evening and the day is already gone by. And He went in to astay with them.
Lk 24:30 And as He reclined at table with them, He took the loaf and ablessed it, and having broken it, He began handing it to them.
Lk 24:31 And their eyes were 1opened, and they recognized Him; and 2He disappeared from them.
Lk 24:32 And they said to one another, Was not our heart burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening to us the aScriptures?
Lk 24:33 And they rose up that very hour and returned to 1Jerusalem, and they found the aeleven and those with them assembled together,
Lk 24:34 Saying, The Lord really has been raised and has aappeared to Simon.
Lk 24:35 And they related the things that occurred on the road, and how He was made aknown to them in the breaking of the bread.
D. Appearing to the Apostles and Those with Them and Commissioning Them
vv. 36-49
Lk 24:36 And as they were speaking these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, aPeace to you.
Lk 24:37 But they were terrified and became afrightened and thought they beheld a 1spirit.
Lk 24:38 And He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart?
Lk 24:39 See My ahands and My feet, that it is I Myself. bTouch Me and see, for a spirit does not have 1flesh and bones as you behold Me having.
Lk 24:40 And when He had said this, He ashowed them His hands and His feet.
Lk 24:41 And while they still 1did not believe for ajoy and were marveling, He said to them, Do you have anything here to beat?
Lk 24:42 And they handed Him a piece of broiled afish;
Lk 24:43 And He took it and aate before them.
Lk 24:44 And He said to them, These are My words which I aspoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things written in the 1Law of bMoses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me must be fulfilled.
Lk 24:45 Then He 1aopened their mind to understand the Scriptures;
Lk 24:46 And He said to them, Thus it is awritten, that the Christ would bsuffer and rise up from the dead on the cthird day,
Lk 24:47 And that repentance for 1aforgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His bname to all the cnations, beginning from dJerusalem.
Lk 24:48 You are awitnesses of these things.
Lk 24:49 And behold, I send forth the 1apromise of My Father upon you; but as for you, 2stay in the city until you 3put on bpower from on chigh.
VII. The Ascension of the Man-Savior
24:50-53
Lk 24:50 And He led them out as far as 1aBethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.
Lk 24:51 And while He blessed them, He parted from them and was 1carried up into aheaven.
Lk 24:52 And they aworshipped Him and returned to bJerusalem with great cjoy,
Lk 24:53 And were continually in the atemple, bblessing God. 1
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

Chapters
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Outline

Author: The apostle John (21:20, 24), son of Zebedee (Matt. 10:2), whose brother was James and whose mother was Salome (Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 90.
Place of Writing: Perhaps Ephesus.
Recipients: All believers, both in Judea and throughout the Gentile lands, as indicated by the translations offered by John in 1:38; 5:2; and 19:13.
Subject:
The Gospel of Life — Proving That Jesus Christ Is God the Savior Coming as Life to Propagate Himself
JOHN 1

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I. The Eternal Word Incarnated Coming to Bring God into Man
1:1 — 13:38
A. Introduction to Life and Building
1:1-51
1. The Word in Eternity Past, Who Was God, through Creation
Coming as Life and Light to Bring Forth the Children of God
vv. 1-13
Jn 1:1 1aIn the beginning was the 2bWord, and the Word was 3with God, and the 4Word was 5cGod.
Jn 1:2 1He was 2in the beginning with God.
Jn 1:3 aAll things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being.
Jn 1:4 In Him was 1alife, and the life was the 2blight of men.
Jn 1:5 And the alight shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Jn 1:6 There came a man 1sent from God, whose name was John.
Jn 1:7 1He came for a testimony that he might testify concerning the light, that all might believe through him.
Jn 1:8 He was not the light, but came that he might testify concerning the light.
Jn 1:9 This was the atrue light which, coming into the world, benlightens every man.
Jn 1:10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, yet the world did not know Him.
Jn 1:11 He came to His own, yet those who were His own did not receive Him.
Jn 1:12 But as many as 1areceived Him, to them He gave the authority to become 2children of God, to those who 1believe into His name,
Jn 1:13 Who were begotten not 1of 2blood, nor 1of the 2will of the flesh, nor 1of the 2will of man, but 1of God.
2. The Word Becoming Flesh, with Grace in Fullness and with Reality,
to Declare God in the Only Begotten Son of God
vv. 14-18
Jn 1:14 And the 1Word became 2aflesh and 3btabernacled among us (and 4cwe beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten 5from the Father), full of 6dgrace and 6ereality.
Jn 1:15 John testified concerning Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, aHe who is coming after me has become ahead of me, because He was before me.
Jn 1:16 For 1of His afullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
Jn 1:17 For the 1law was given through Moses; 1agrace and 1reality 2came through Jesus Christ.
Jn 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the 1only begotten Son, who is 2in the bosom of the Father, He has 3adeclared Him.
3. Jesus as the Lamb of God, with the Holy Spirit as the Dove,
Making the Believers Stones for the Building of the House of God with the Son of Man
vv. 19-51
a. Religion Looking for a Great Leader
vv. 19-28
Jn 1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?
Jn 1:20 And he confessed and did not deny, and he confessed, I am not the aChrist.
Jn 1:21 And they asked him, What then? Are you aElijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the bProphet? And he answered, No.
Jn 1:22 They said then to him, Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?
Jn 1:23 He said, I am a avoice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord!” as Isaiah the prophet said.
Jn 1:24 And those who had been sent were of the Pharisees.
Jn 1:25 And they asked him and said to him, Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?
Jn 1:26 John answered them, saying, I abaptize in water; but among you stands One whom you do not know,
Jn 1:27 He who is coming after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.
Jn 1:28 These things took place in 1Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
b. Jesus Introduced as a Lamb with a Dove
vv. 29-34
Jn 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the 1aLamb of God, who takes away the bsin of the 2world!
Jn 1:30 This is He of whom I said, aA man is coming after me who has become ahead of me, because He was before me.
Jn 1:31 And I did not know Him, but in order that He might be manifested to Israel, for this reason I came baptizing in water.
Jn 1:32 And John testified, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a 1adove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.
Jn 1:33 And I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water, He said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
Jn 1:34 And I have seen and have testified that this is the aSon of God.
c. Bringing Forth Stones for God’s Building
vv. 35-51
Jn 1:35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
Jn 1:36 And looking at Jesus walking, he said, Behold, the aLamb of God!
Jn 1:37 And the two disciples heard him speak this, and they followed Jesus.
Jn 1:38 And Jesus, turning and beholding them following, said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to Him, Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?
Jn 1:39 He said to them, Come, and you will see. They went therefore and saw where He was staying, and they stayed with Him that day; it was about the 1tenth hour.
Jn 1:40 One of the two who heard this from John and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
Jn 1:41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the 1Messiah (which translated means 1Christ).
Jn 1:42 He led him to Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which is interpreted, 1aPeter).
Jn 1:43 The next day He wanted to go forth into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, Follow Me.
Jn 1:44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
Jn 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus, the 1son of Joseph, from Nazareth.
Jn 1:46 And Nathanael said to him, Can anything good be from Nazareth? Philip said to him, aCome and see.
Jn 1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and said concerning him, Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile!
Jn 1:48 Nathanael said to Him, How do You know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
Jn 1:49 Nathanael answered Him, Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the 1aKing of Israel.
Jn 1:50 Jesus answered and said to him, Is it because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree that you believe? You shall see agreater things than these.
Jn 1:51 And He said to him, 1Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see 2aheaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the 3Son of Man.
JOHN 2

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B. Life’s Principle and Life’s Purpose
2:1-22
1. Life’s Principle — To Change Death into Life
vv. 1-11
a. Christ Coming in Resurrection to the People in Their Enjoyment
vv. 1-2
Jn 2:1 And the 1athird day a 2wedding took place in 3bCana of 4cGalilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jn 2:2 And Jesus also was invited, as well as His disciples, to the wedding.
b. Their Human Life Running Out and Their Being Filled with Death
vv. 3-7
Jn 2:3 And when the 1wine 2ran out, the 3mother of Jesus said to Him, They have no wine.
Jn 2:4 And Jesus said to her, 1Woman, 2what do I have in this that concerns you? aMy hour has not yet come.
Jn 2:5 His mother said to the servants, Whatever He says to you, do.
Jn 2:6 Now there were 1six stone waterpots lying there, according to the 2Jews’ rite of purification, holding 3two or three measures each.
Jn 2:7 Jesus said to them, Fill the waterpots with 1water. And they filled them up to the brim.
c. Christ Changing Their Death into Life Eternal
vv. 8-11
Jn 2:8 And He said to them, Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast. And they took it to him.
Jn 2:9 And when the master of the feast tasted the 1awater which had become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom
Jn 2:10 And said to him, Every man sets out the good wine first, and when they have drunk freely, then that which is worse; you have kept the good wine until now.
Jn 2:11 This 1beginning of 2asigns Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee and 3manifested His glory, and His disciples believed into Him.
2. Life’s Purpose — To Build the House of God
vv. 12-22
a. Christ Cleansing the Temple
vv. 12-17
Jn 2:12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they remained there not many days.
Jn 2:13 And the aPassover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Jn 2:14 And aHe found in the 1btemple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting there.
Jn 2:15 And 1having made a whip out of 2cords, He drove them all out of the temple, as well as the sheep and the oxen, and He poured out the money of the moneychangers and overturned their tables.
Jn 2:16 And to those who were selling the doves He said, Take these things away from here; do not make aMy Father’s house a house of merchandise.
Jn 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, a“The zeal of Your house shall devour Me.”
b. The Body of Jesus, the Temple, Destroyed and Raised Up in Resurrection
vv. 18-22
Jn 2:18 The Jews then answered and said to Him, What sign do You show us, seeing that You do these things?
Jn 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this 1temple, and in 2three days I will araise it up.
Jn 2:20 Then the Jews said, This temple was built in forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days?
Jn 2:21 But He spoke of the atemple of His body.
Jn 2:22 When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the aScripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.
C. Life Meeting the Need of Man’s Every Case
2:23 — 11:57
1. The Need of the Moral — Life’s Regenerating
2:23 — 3:36
a. The Lord’s Commitment Not in Miracles but in Life
2:23 — 3:1
Jn 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed into His name when they saw the signs which He did.
Jn 2:24 But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men,
Jn 2:25 And because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for aHe Himself knew what was in man.
JOHN 3

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Jn 3:1 1But there was a man of the Pharisees named aNicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
b. Regeneration by the Divine Spirit in the Human Spirit
3:2-13
Jn 3:2 This one came to Him by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a 1teacher, for no one can do these asigns that You do unless bGod is with him.
Jn 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is 1aborn anew, he cannot 2see the 3bkingdom of God.
Jn 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?
Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is aborn 1of 2water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Jn 3:6 That which is aborn 1of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born 1of the 2Spirit is 2spirit.
Jn 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 1You must be born anew.
Jn 3:8 The 1awind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes; so is everyone who is born 2of the Spirit.
Jn 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be?
Jn 3:10 Jesus answered and said to him, You are a teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?
Jn 3:11 Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak that which we know and atestify of that which we have seen, and yet you do not receive our testimony.
Jn 3:12 If I told you of the 1things on earth and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of the 1things in heaven?
Jn 3:13 And ano one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended out of heaven, the bSon of Man, 1who is in heaven.
c. Satan’s Evil Nature in Man’s Flesh Being Judged on the Cross through the Death of Christ
in the Form of the Serpent That the Believers May Have Eternal Life
3:14-21
Jn 3:14 And as aMoses blifted up the 1serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
Jn 3:15 That everyone who believes into Him may have 1eternal life.
Jn 3:16 For God so aloved the 1world that He bgave His conly begotten Son, that everyone who 2dbelieves into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.
Jn 3:17 For God did not send the Son into the world to 1condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Jn 3:18 He who believes into Him is not 1condemned; but he who does not believe has been 1condemned already, because he has not believed into the name of athe only begotten Son of God.
Jn 3:19 And this is the 1condemnation, that the alight has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil.
Jn 3:20 For everyone who 1practices evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works be 2reproved.
Jn 3:21 But he who does the 1truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they are wrought in God.
d. The Regenerated People Becoming the Bride of Christ as His Increase
3:22-30
Jn 3:22 After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He spent some time with them and abaptized.
Jn 3:23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized;
Jn 3:24 For aJohn had not yet been thrown into prison.
Jn 3:25 There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about apurification.
Jn 3:26 And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, He who was with you aacross the Jordan, of whom you have btestified, behold, He is cbaptizing and all are coming to Him.
Jn 3:27 John answered and said, A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.
Jn 3:28 You yourselves testify of me that I said, aI am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.
Jn 3:29 aHe who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full.
Jn 3:30 He must 1increase, but I must decrease.
e. The Immeasurable Son of God for Man’s Believing unto Eternal Life
3:31-36
Jn 3:31 1aHe who comes from above is above all; he who is 2from the earth is 2of the earth and speaks 2out of the earth. bHe who comes 2from heaven is above all.
Jn 3:32 What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies, and ano one receives His testimony.
Jn 3:33 He who receives His testimony has sealed that God is true.
Jn 3:34 For He whom God has sent speaks the 1words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure.
Jn 3:35 aThe Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand.
Jn 3:36 He who abelieves into the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
JOHN 4

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2. The Need of the Immoral — Life’s Satisfying
4:1-42
a. A Thirsty Savior and a Thirsty Sinner
vv. 1-8
Jn 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and abaptizing more disciples than John
Jn 4:2 (Although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but rather His disciples),
Jn 4:3 He left aJudea and went away bagain into Galilee.
Jn 4:4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
Jn 4:5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, anear the piece of land that Jacob gave to Joseph his son;
Jn 4:6 And Jacob’s 1well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from the journey, sat thus by the 1well; it was about the 2sixth hour.
Jn 4:7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me something to drink.
Jn 4:8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
b. The Emptiness of Religion’s Tradition and the Fullness of Life’s Living Water
vv. 9-14
Jn 4:9 The Samaritan woman then said to Him, How is it that You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman? (aFor Jews have no dealings with 1Samaritans.)
Jn 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the agift of God and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you bliving water.
Jn 4:11 The woman said to Him, Sir, You have no bucket, and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water?
Jn 4:12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, as well as his sons and his cattle?
Jn 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who 1drinks of this water shall thirst again,
Jn 4:14 But whoever adrinks of the water that I will give him shall bby no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into 1ceternal life.
c. The Way to Take the Living Water
vv. 15-26
(1) To Make Confession of Sins
vv. 15-18
Jn 4:15 The woman said to Him, Sir, agive me this water so that I will not thirst nor come here to draw.
Jn 4:16 He said to her, Go, 1call your husband and come here.
Jn 4:17 The woman answered and said, I do not have a husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I do not have a husband,
Jn 4:18 For you have had 1five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.
(2) To Contact God the Spirit in the Human Spirit and in Truthfulness
vv. 19-24
Jn 4:19 The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Jn 4:20 1aOur fathers worshipped bin this mountain, yet you say that cin Jerusalem is the place where men must worship.
Jn 4:21 Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, aan hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
Jn 4:22 aYou worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews.
Jn 4:23 But aan hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father bin spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him.
Jn 4:24 1God is 2Spirit, and those who 3worship Him must worship ain 4spirit and 5truthfulness.
(3) To Believe That Jesus Is the Christ
vv. 25-26
Jn 4:25 The woman said to Him, I know that aMessiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will declare all things to us.
Jn 4:26 Jesus said to her, 1I, who speak to you, am He.
d. A Living Testimony with a Marvelous Harvest
vv. 27-42
Jn 4:27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, What are You seeking? or, Why are You speaking with her?
Jn 4:28 Then the woman 1left her waterpot and went away into the city, and said to the people,
Jn 4:29 Come, see a man who told me all that I have done. 1aIs this not the Christ?
Jn 4:30 They went out of the city and came to Him.
Jn 4:31 In the meantime, the disciples urged Him, saying, Rabbi, eat.
Jn 4:32 But He said to them, 1I have food to eat that you do not know about.
Jn 4:33 The disciples therefore said to one another, Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?
Jn 4:34 Jesus said to them, My food is ato do the will of Him who sent Me and bto finish His work.
Jn 4:35 Do you not say that there are yet four months and then the aharvest comes? Behold, I tell you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
Jn 4:36 He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit 1unto 2eternal life, in order that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
Jn 4:37 For in this the saying is true, One sows and another reaps.
Jn 4:38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; 1others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
Jn 4:39 And many of the Samaritans from that city believed into Him because of the word of the woman who testified, He told me all that I have done.
Jn 4:40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to remain with them, and He remained there two days.
Jn 4:41 And many more believed because of His word.
Jn 4:42 And they said to the woman, It is no longer because of your speaking that we believe, for we ourselves have heard and know that this One is truly the aSavior of the world.
3. The Need of the Dying — Life’s Healing
4:43-54
a. Christ Coming Back to Visit the Place of Weak and Fragile People
vv. 43-46a
Jn 4:43 And after the two days He went forth from there into Galilee,
Jn 4:44 For Jesus Himself testified that aa prophet has 1no honor in his own country.
Jn 4:45 Then when He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all that He did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.
Jn 4:46 He then came again to 1aCana of 2Galilee, where He had bmade the water wine.
b. The Weak and Fragile People Dying
vv. 46b-49
And there was a certain royal official, whose son was sick in Capernaum.
Jn 4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.
Jn 4:48 Jesus therefore said to him, Unless you see asigns and wonders, you will by no means believe.
Jn 4:49 The royal official said to Him, Sir, come down before my little child dies.
c. Healing by the Life-giving Word and through Believing
vv. 50-54
Jn 4:50 Jesus said to him, Go, your son lives. The man believed the 1word which Jesus said to him and went his way.
Jn 4:51 And as he was now going down, his slaves met him and said that his child was living.
Jn 4:52 So he asked them the hour in which he got better. They said then to him, Yesterday at the 1seventh hour the fever left him.
Jn 4:53 Then the father knew that it was in that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives; and he believed, he and his whole house.
Jn 4:54 Again, this 1asecond sign Jesus performed when He came out of Judea into Galilee.
JOHN 5

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4. The Need of the Impotent — Life’s Enlivening
5:1-47
a. The Inadequacy of Religion’s Law-keeping and the Sufficiency of the Son’s Life-giving
vv. 1-9
Jn 5:1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Jn 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the 1aSheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew 2Bethesda, having 3five porticoes.
Jn 5:3 1In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, 2waiting for the moving of the water.
Jn 5:4 For an 1angel went down from time to time in the pool and 2stirred up the water; the first then to step in after the stirring up of the water was made 3well of whatever disease he was being held by.
Jn 5:5 And a certain 1man was there, who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness.
Jn 5:6 When Jesus saw this one lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, 1He said to him, Do you want to get well?
Jn 5:7 The sick man answered Him, 1Sir, 2I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.
Jn 5:8 Jesus said to him, aRise, take up your 1mat and walk.
Jn 5:9 And immediately the man 1became well, and he 2took up his mat and walked. Now it was the aSabbath on that day;
b. Religion’s Opposition to Life
vv. 10-16
Jn 5:10 Therefore the Jews said to the one who had been healed, It is the aSabbath, and 1bit is not lawful for you to take up your mat.
Jn 5:11 But he answered them, He who made me well, that One said to me, Take up your mat and walk.
Jn 5:12 They asked him, Who is the man who said to you, Take up your mat and walk?
Jn 5:13 But he who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, there being a crowd in that place.
Jn 5:14 After these things Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, Behold, you have become well; 1asin no more so that nothing worse happens to you.
Jn 5:15 The man went away and told the Jews that Jesus was the One who made him well.
Jn 5:16 And because of this the Jews persecuted Jesus 1and asought to kill Him, because He did these things on the Sabbath.
c. The Son Equal with the Father in Giving Life and Executing Judgment
vv. 17-30
Jn 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father is 1working until now, and I also am working.
Jn 5:18 Because of this therefore the Jews 1sought all the more to akill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His own Father, making Himself 2equal with bGod.
Jn 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, aThe Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
Jn 5:20 For athe Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and bgreater works than these He will show Him that you may marvel.
Jn 5:21 For just as the Father araises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wills.
Jn 5:22 For neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all ajudgment to the Son,
Jn 5:23 In order that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
Jn 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears My word and abelieves Him who sent Me has 1eternal life, and does not come into 2judgment but has bpassed out of 3death into life.
Jn 5:25 Truly, truly, I say to you, An hour is coming, and it is now, when the 1adead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will 1live.
Jn 5:26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to also have alife in Himself;
Jn 5:27 And He gave Him authority to execute ajudgment because He is the 1Son of Man.
Jn 5:28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which 1all in the tombs will hear His avoice
Jn 5:29 And will come forth: athose who have done good, to the 1bresurrection of life; and those who have 2practiced evil, to the 3cresurrection of 4judgment.
Jn 5:30 aI can do nothing from Myself; as I hear, I judge, and bMy judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will but the cwill of Him who sent Me.
d. The Son’s Fourfold Testimony
vv. 31-47
Jn 5:31 If aI testify concerning Myself, My testimony is not true.
(1) The Testimony of John the Baptist
vv. 32-35
Jn 5:32 There is another who testifies concerning Me, and I know that the testimony which he testifies concerning Me is true.
Jn 5:33 You have sent people to John, and ahe has testified to the 1truth.
Jn 5:34 But it is not from man that I receive My testimony, but I say these things that you may be saved.
Jn 5:35 He was the lamp that was burning and shining, and you were willing to exult for a while in his light.
(2) The Testimony of the Son’s Work
v. 36
Jn 5:36 But I have the testimony which is greater than that of John, for the aworks which the Father has given Me to finish, the works themselves which I do, testify concerning Me that the Father has 1bsent Me.
(3) The Testimony of the Father
vv. 37-38
Jn 5:37 And the aFather who sent Me, He has 1testified concerning Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor have you seen His form,
Jn 5:38 And you do not have His word abiding in you, for Him whom He sent, this One you do not believe.
(4) The Testimony of the Scriptures
vv. 39-47
Jn 5:39 You 1search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me.
Jn 5:40 Yet you are not willing to 1come to Me that you may have life.
Jn 5:41 I do not receive glory from men.
Jn 5:42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.
Jn 5:43 I have come 1ain the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
Jn 5:44 How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the only God?
Jn 5:45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; there is one who accuses you: Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
Jn 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for ahe wrote concerning Me.
Jn 5:47 But aif you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?
JOHN 6

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5. The Need of the Hungry — Life’s Feeding
6:1-71
a. The Hungry World and the Feeding Christ
vv. 1-15
Jn 6:1 After these things Jesus went away across the 1Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
Jn 6:2 And a great crowd followed Him, because they saw the asigns which He did on those who were sick.
Jn 6:3 And Jesus went up to the 1mountain and sat there with His disciples.
Jn 6:4 Now the 1aPassover, the feast of the Jews, was near.
Jn 6:5 aJesus then lifting up His eyes and seeing that a great crowd was coming toward Him, said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
Jn 6:6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He was about to do.
Jn 6:7 Philip answered Him, Two hundred 1denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that each one may take a little.
Jn 6:8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him,
Jn 6:9 There is a little boy here who has 1five 2barley loaves and 1two 2fish; but what are these for so many?
Jn 6:10 Jesus said, Have the people recline. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men reclined, in number about five thousand.
Jn 6:11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to those who were reclining; likewise also of the fish, as much as they wanted.
Jn 6:12 And when they were filled, He said to His disciples, Gather the broken pieces left over that nothing may be lost.
Jn 6:13 So they gathered them and filled 1twelve handbaskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over among those who had eaten.
Jn 6:14 The people therefore, seeing the sign which He did, said, This is truly the aProphet who is to come into the world.
Jn 6:15 Then Jesus, knowing that they were about to come and take Him by force 1to make Him aKing, bwithdrew again to the mountain, Himself alone.
b. The Troubled World and the Peace-giving Christ
vv. 16-21
Jn 6:16 And when evening fell, His disciples went down to the sea,
Jn 6:17 And they got into a boat and began crossing the sea to Capernaum. And it had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
Jn 6:18 And because a strong wind was blowing, the 1sea was churning.
Jn 6:19 Then, when they had rowed about 1twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw 2Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they became frightened.
Jn 6:20 But He said to them, It is I. Do not be afraid.
Jn 6:21 Then they were willing to 1take Him into the boat; and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
c. The Bread of Life
vv. 22-71
(1) Seekers after the Perishing Food
vv. 22-31
Jn 6:22 The next day the crowd which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there had been no other small boat there except one, and that Jesus had not gotten into the boat with His disciples, but that His disciples had gone away alone.
Jn 6:23 But other small boats from Tiberias came near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
Jn 6:24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
Jn 6:25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, Rabbi, when did You get here?
Jn 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, You seek Me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate of the bread and were filled.
Jn 6:27 aWork not for the food which perishes, but for the bfood which abides unto 1eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for Him has the Father, even God, sealed.
Jn 6:28 Then they said to Him, What shall we 1do that we may 1work the works of God?
Jn 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you 1believe into Him whom He has 2sent.
Jn 6:30 They said then to Him, What asign then will You do that we may see and believe You? What work will You do?
Jn 6:31 Our fathers aate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, b“He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.”
(2) Food Abiding to Eternal Life
vv. 32-71
(a) Incarnated
vv. 32-51a
Jn 6:32 Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.
Jn 6:33 For the bread of God is He who 1comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
Jn 6:34 They said therefore to Him, Lord, give us this bread always.
Jn 6:35 Jesus said to them, I am the 1bread of life; he who comes to Me ashall 2by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.
Jn 6:36 But I have said to you that you have also seen Me, and yet you do not believe.
Jn 6:37 All that the Father agives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I shall by no means cast out.
Jn 6:38 For aI have come down from heaven bnot to do My own will but the cwill of Him who sent Me.
Jn 6:39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should alose nothing but should braise it up in the last day.
Jn 6:40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes into Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day.
Jn 6:41 The Jews therefore murmured concerning Him because He said, I am the bread that acame down out of heaven.
Jn 6:42 And they said, aIs not this Jesus, the 1son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, bI have come down out of heaven?
Jn 6:43 Jesus answered and said to them, Do not murmur among yourselves.
Jn 6:44 aNo one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me bdraws him; and I will craise him up in the last day.
Jn 6:45 It is written in the prophets, a“And they shall all be btaught of God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Jn 6:46 aNot that anyone has seen the Father, except Him who is 1bfrom God, He has seen the Father.
Jn 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes ahas eternal life.
Jn 6:48 I am the bread of life.
Jn 6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
Jn 6:50 This is the bread which acomes down out of heaven, that anyone may beat of it and not die.
Jn 6:51 I am the 1living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, ahe shall live forever;
(b) Slain
vv. 51b-55
and the bread which I will give is My 2flesh, given 3for the life of the bworld.
Jn 6:52 The Jews then contended with one another, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat?
Jn 6:53 Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His 1blood, you do not have life within yourselves.
Jn 6:54 He who 1eats My 2flesh and drinks My 2blood has eternal life, and I will araise him up in the last day.
Jn 6:55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
(c) Resurrected to Indwell
vv. 56-59
Jn 6:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood aabides in Me and 1I in him.
Jn 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who 1eats Me, he also shall alive because of Me.
Jn 6:58 This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread ashall live forever.
Jn 6:59 He said these things in a synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
(d) Ascended
vv. 60-62
Jn 6:60 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This word is hard; who can hear it?
Jn 6:61 But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were murmuring about this, said to them, Does this astumble you?
Jn 6:62 Then what if you saw the Son of Man 1aascending to where He was before?
(e) Becoming the Life-giving Spirit
vv. 63-65
Jn 6:63 aIt is the 1Spirit who gives life; the 2flesh profits nothing; the 3words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Jn 6:64 But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus aknew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and bwho was the one who would 1betray Him.
Jn 6:65 And He said, For this reason I have told you that ano one can come to Me unless it has been bgiven to him from the Father.
(f) Embodied and Realized in the Word of Life
vv. 66-71
Jn 6:66 From that time many of His disciples went back to what they left behind and no longer walked with Him.
Jn 6:67 Jesus therefore said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away?
Jn 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have awords of eternal life,
Jn 6:69 And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
Jn 6:70 Jesus answered them, Was it not I who achose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is ba devil.
Jn 6:71 Now He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, would betray Him.
JOHN 7

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6. The Need of the Thirsty — Life’s Quenching
7:1-52
a. Life under the Persecution of Religion
vv. 1-36
(1) Religion’s Plot and Religion’s Feast
vv. 1-2
Jn 7:1 And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews were aseeking to 1kill Him.
Jn 7:2 Now the Jews’ 1aFeast of Tabernacles was near.
(2) Life’s Suffering of Man’s Unbelief
vv. 3-5
Jn 7:3 His brothers therefore said to Him, Depart from here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may behold Your works which You are doing;
Jn 7:4 For no one does anything in secret and himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, manifest Yourself to the world.
Jn 7:5 For not even His brothers believed into Him.
(3) Life’s Limitation in Time
vv. 6-9
Jn 7:6 Jesus therefore said to them, My 1atime has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
Jn 7:7 The aworld cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify concerning it, that bits works are evil.
Jn 7:8 You go up to the feast; I am not going up to this feast, because My atime has not yet been fulfilled.
Jn 7:9 And having said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.
(4) Life’s Seeking of God’s Glory
vv. 10-24
Jn 7:10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, 1not openly, but as it were in secret.
Jn 7:11 The Jews therefore asought Him at the feast and said, Where is He?
Jn 7:12 And there was much murmuring about Him among the crowds: asome said, He is a good man; but others said, No; rather He leads the crowd astray.
Jn 7:13 Yet no one spoke openly about Him for afear of the Jews.
Jn 7:14 But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.
Jn 7:15 The Jews therefore marveled and said, How does this man know letters, 1without ever having studied?
Jn 7:16 Jesus therefore answered them and said, aMy teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
Jn 7:17 If anyone resolves to do His will, he will know concerning the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
Jn 7:18 He who speaks from himself aseeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true, and unrighteousness is not in Him.
Jn 7:19 aHas not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you bseek to kill Me?
Jn 7:20 The crowd answered, You ahave a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?
Jn 7:21 Jesus answered and said to them, I did aone work, and you all marvel.
Jn 7:22 For the same reason aMoses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man.
Jn 7:23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with Me because I amade an entire man well on the Sabbath?
Jn 7:24 Do not judge according to 1appearance, but judge the righteous judgment.
(5) Life’s Source and Origin — God the Father
vv. 25-36
Jn 7:25 Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, Is not this the One whom they are seeking to kill?
Jn 7:26 And look, He is speaking openly, and they say nothing to Him. Have the rulers, perhaps, really recognized that this is the Christ?
Jn 7:27 But we aknow where this man is from; yet when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.
Jn 7:28 Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, You both 1aknow Me and 1know where I am from; and bI have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not 1know.
Jn 7:29 I aknow Him, because I am 1bfrom Him, and He 2sent Me.
Jn 7:30 They sought then to aseize Him, yet no one laid a hand on Him, because bHis hour had not yet come.
Jn 7:31 But many out of the crowd believed into Him and said, Will the Christ, when He comes, do more signs than this man has done?
Jn 7:32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent attendants to arrest Him.
Jn 7:33 Jesus therefore said, aI am still with you a little while, and then bI am going to Him who sent Me.
Jn 7:34 aYou will seek Me and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.
Jn 7:35 The Jews then said to one another, Where is this man about to go that we will not find Him? Is He about to go to the Jews in dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
Jn 7:36 What is the word which He said, You will seek Me and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come?
b. Life’s Cry to the Thirsty Ones
vv. 37-39
Jn 7:37 Now on the 1last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone athirsts, let him bcome to Me and cdrink.
Jn 7:38 He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his ainnermost being shall 1flow 2brivers of living water.
Jn 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the 1aSpirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been bglorified.
c. Division Caused by Life’s Appearance
vv. 40-52
Jn 7:40 Some of the crowd therefore, when they heard these words, said, This is truly the aProphet.
Jn 7:41 Others said, This is the aChrist. But some said, Does then the Christ come out of 1bGalilee?
Jn 7:42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes out of the aseed of David and from bBethlehem, the village where David was?
Jn 7:43 So there arose a division among the crowd because of Him.
Jn 7:44 And some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
Jn 7:45 The attendants therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and these said to them, Why did you not bring Him?
Jn 7:46 The attendants answered, aNever has a man spoken as this man has.
Jn 7:47 The Pharisees then answered them, Have you also been deceived?
Jn 7:48 Has any one of the arulers or Pharisees believed into Him?
Jn 7:49 But this crowd which does not know the law is accursed.
Jn 7:50 aNicodemus said to them (he who came to Him before, being one of them),
Jn 7:51 Does our law 1condemn a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing?
Jn 7:52 They answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises out of aGalilee.
7. The Need of Those under the Bondage of Sin — Life’s Setting Free
7:53 — 8:59
a. Who Is without Sin?
7:53 — 8:9
Jn 7:53 1And everyone went to his own house.
JOHN 8

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Jn 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Jn 8:2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them.
Jn 8:3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought a 1woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst,
Jn 8:4 They said to Him, Teacher, this woman has been caught committing adultery, in the very act.
Jn 8:5 Now ain the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. 1What then do You say?
Jn 8:6 But they said this to atempt Him, so that they might have reason to accuse Him. But Jesus 1stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground.
Jn 8:7 But when they persisted in questioning Him, He stood up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, alet him be the first to throw a stone at her.
Jn 8:8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Jn 8:9 And when they heard that, they went out one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman stood where she was, in the midst.
b. Who Can Condemn and Forgive Sin?
8:10-11
Jn 8:10 And Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?
Jn 8:11 And she said, No one, 1Lord. And Jesus said, 2aNeither do I condemn you; go, and from now on bsin no more.
c. Who Can Set People Free from Sin?
8:12-36
(1) Christ, the Light of the World and the Giver of the Light of Life
vv. 12-20
Jn 8:12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the alight of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the 1blight of life.
Jn 8:13 The Pharisees then said to Him, You are atestifying concerning Yourself; Your testimony is not true.
Jn 8:14 Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I testify concerning Myself, My testimony is true, for I know awhere I came from and where I am going; but byou do not know where I come from or where I am going.
Jn 8:15 aYou 1judge according to the flesh; I 1judge no one.
Jn 8:16 But even if I do ajudge, My judgment is true, for I am not alone, but 1I band the Father who sent Me.
Jn 8:17 And ain your law also it has been written that the testimony of two men is true:
Jn 8:18 I am One who testifies concerning Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies concerning Me.
Jn 8:19 They said then to Him, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father; aif you knew Me, you would know My Father also.
Jn 8:20 These words He spoke in the treasury as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His ahour had not yet come.
(2) Christ, the I Am
vv. 21-27
Jn 8:21 He said therefore again to them, I am going away, and ayou will seek Me and will bdie in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.
Jn 8:22 The Jews then said, He is not going to kill Himself, is He, for He says, Where I am going, you cannot come?
Jn 8:23 And He said to them, aYou are 1from below, I am 1from above; you are 1bof this world, cI am not 1of this world.
Jn 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will adie in your sins; for unless you believe that 1bI am, you will adie in your sins.
Jn 8:25 They said then to Him, Who are You? Jesus said to them, Altogether that which I also 1tell you.
Jn 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but aHe who sent Me is true, and what I have heard from Him, these things I speak to the world.
Jn 8:27 They did not understand that He was speaking to them of the Father.
(3) Christ, the Son of Man Lifted Up
vv. 28-30
Jn 8:28 Jesus therefore said to them, When you 1alift up the Son of Man, bthen you will know that cI am, and that dI do nothing from Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things.
Jn 8:29 And He who sent Me is awith Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
Jn 8:30 As He spoke these things, many believed into Him.
(4) Christ, the Son as the Reality
vv. 31-36
Jn 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, If you aabide in My word, you are truly My disciples;
Jn 8:32 And you shall know the 1atruth, and the 1truth shall bset you free.
Jn 8:33 They answered Him, We are aAbraham’s seed and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that You say, You shall become free?
Jn 8:34 Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a aslave of sin.
Jn 8:35 And the slave does not abide in the house forever; the son does abide forever.
Jn 8:36 If therefore the Son asets you free, you shall be free indeed.
d. Who Is the Source of Sin and Who Is the Multiplication of Sin?
8:37-44
(1) The Source of Sin — The Devil, the Liar, the Father of Liars
v. 44
(2) The Multiplication of Sin — The Children of the Devil, Those out of the Devil
vv. 37-44
Jn 8:37 I know that you are Abraham’s seed; but you aseek to kill Me because My word has no place in you.
Jn 8:38 aI speak the things which I have seen with My Father; so then, you also do the things which you have heard from byour father.
Jn 8:39 They answered and said to Him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were aAbraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.
Jn 8:40 But now you are aseeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; Abraham did not do this.
Jn 8:41 You do the works of ayour father. They then said to Him, We were not born of fornication; we have bone Father, God.
Jn 8:42 Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love Me; for aI came forth out from God and have come from Him; for bI have not come of Myself, but He 1sent Me.
Jn 8:43 Why do you not understand My speaking? It is because you cannot hear My word.
Jn 8:44 aYou are of your 1father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a bmurderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no ctruth in him. When he speaks the lie, dhe speaks it out of his own 2possessions; for he is a liar and the 3father of it.
e. Who Is Jesus?
8:45-59
(1) The One Who Is without Sin
vv. 45-51
Jn 8:45 But because I speak the atruth, you do not believe Me.
Jn 8:46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? Since I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
Jn 8:47 He who is of God hears the 1words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.
Jn 8:48 The Jews answered and said to Him, Have we not spoken well in saying that You are a aSamaritan and bhave a demon?
Jn 8:49 Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor My Father, and you adishonor Me.
Jn 8:50 But aI do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks glory for Me and judges.
Jn 8:51 Truly, truly, I say to you, If anyone akeeps My word, he shall by no means see 1bdeath forever.
(2) The One Who Is the I Am before Abraham
vv. 52-59
Jn 8:52 The Jews therefore said to Him, Now we know that You ahave a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets too; yet You say, If anyone keeps My word, he shall by no means btaste death forever.
Jn 8:53 Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too. Who are You making Yourself?
Jn 8:54 Jesus answered, aIf I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is bMy Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say that He is your God.
Jn 8:55 Yet ayou have not 1known Him, but bI 1know Him. And if I say that I do not know Him, I will be like you, ca liar; but I do know Him and I keep His word.
Jn 8:56 Your father Abraham exulted that he would see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.
Jn 8:57 The Jews then said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?
Jn 8:58 Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, aBefore Abraham came into being, 1bI am.
Jn 8:59 So they apicked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.
JOHN 9

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8. The Need of the Blind in Religion — Life’s Sight and Life’s Shepherding
9:1 — 10:42
a. Life’s Sight — For the Blind in Religion
9:1-41
(1) Born Blind
vv. 1-3
Jn 9:1 And as He passed by, He saw 1a man 2blind from birth.
Jn 9:2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, 1who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?
Jn 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but he was born so, that the works of God might be manifested in him.
(2) Receiving Sight by the Light and the Anointing of Life
vv. 4-13
Jn 9:4 We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is aday; night is coming when no one can work.
Jn 9:5 While I am in the world, I am the alight of the world.
Jn 9:6 When He had said this, He aspat on the ground and made clay of the 1spittle and anointed his eyes with the clay,
Jn 9:7 And He said to him, Go, 1wash in the pool of aSiloam (which is interpreted, 2Sent). 3He went therefore and washed and came away seeing.
Jn 9:8 The neighbors then and those who previously saw him as a beggar said, Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?
Jn 9:9 Some said, This is he. Others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am the one.
Jn 9:10 They said then to him, How then were your eyes opened?
Jn 9:11 He answered, The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. I went therefore and washed, and I received my sight.
Jn 9:12 And they said to him, Where is He? He said, I do not know.
Jn 9:13 They brought him who was once blind to the Pharisees.
(3) Persecuted by Religion
vv. 14-34
Jn 9:14 Now it was the 1aSabbath, on which day Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
Jn 9:15 aAgain therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. And he said to them, He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.
Jn 9:16 Then some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because He does anot keep the Sabbath. But others said, How can a man who is a sinner do such bsigns? And there was ca division among them.
Jn 9:17 Then they said to the blind man again, What do you say about Him, in that He opened your eyes? And he said, He is a prophet.
Jn 9:18 The Jews then did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight
Jn 9:19 And asked them, saying, Is this your son, of whom you say that he was born blind? How then does he now see?
Jn 9:20 Then his parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
Jn 9:21 But how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age; he will speak for himself.
Jn 9:22 His parents said these things because they afeared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be the Christ, he should be bput out of the synagogue.
Jn 9:23 Because of this his parents said, He is of age; question him.
Jn 9:24 Therefore a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, aGive glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.
Jn 9:25 Then he answered, Whether or not He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.
Jn 9:26 They said then to him, What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?
Jn 9:27 He answered them, aI told you already and you did not hear. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?
Jn 9:28 And they reviled him and said, You are His disciple; but awe are disciples of Moses.
Jn 9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, awe do not know where He is from.
Jn 9:30 The man answered and said to them, Why here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes!
Jn 9:31 aWe know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.
Jn 9:32 1Since time began it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born blind.
Jn 9:33 aIf this man were not 1from God, He could do nothing.
Jn 9:34 They answered and said to him, You were wholly born in asins, and you are teaching us? And they 1bcast him out.
(4) Believing into the Son of God
vv. 35-38
Jn 9:35 Jesus heard that they had acast him out, and He found him and said, Do you believe into the 1Son of God?
Jn 9:36 He answered and said, And who is He, aLord, that I may believe into Him?
Jn 9:37 Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him, and aHe is the One speaking with you.
Jn 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe; and he aworshipped Him.
(5) Life’s Judgment on the Blind Religionists
vv. 39-41
Jn 9:39 And Jesus said, For ajudgment I have come into this world, that bthose who do not see may see, and that cthose who see may become blind.
Jn 9:40 Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, We are not ablind also, are we?
Jn 9:41 Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would anot have sin; but now that you say, We see; your sin remains.
JOHN 10

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b. Life’s Shepherding — For the Believers outside of Religion
10:1-42
(1) The Sheepfold, the Door, and the Pasture — For the Sheep
vv. 1-9
Jn 10:1 Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter through the 1adoor into the 2sheepfold, but climbs up from somewhere else, he is a 3bthief and a robber;
Jn 10:2 But he who enters through the adoor is the bshepherd of the sheep.
Jn 10:3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the 1sheep ahear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them bout.
Jn 10:4 When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep afollow him because they know his bvoice.
Jn 10:5 But they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.
Jn 10:6 This aparable Jesus spoke to them, but they did not know what those things meant that He spoke to them.
Jn 10:7 Jesus therefore said to them again, Truly, truly, I say to you that I am the adoor of the sheep.
Jn 10:8 All who came before Me are athieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
Jn 10:9 I am the 1adoor; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved and shall go in and go out and shall find 2pasture.
(2) The Shepherd, the Divine Life, and the Soulish Life — For the Flock
vv. 10-21
Jn 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may ahave 1life and may have it abundantly.
Jn 10:11 I am the good aShepherd; the good Shepherd blays down His 1life for the sheep.
Jn 10:12 He who is a hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
Jn 10:13 He flees because he is a hireling and it does not matter to him concerning the sheep.
Jn 10:14 I am the good aShepherd, and bI know My own, and cMy own know Me,
Jn 10:15 Even as the aFather knows Me and I know the Father; and I blay down My life for the sheep.
Jn 10:16 And I have 1aother sheep, which are not of this fold; I must lead them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be 2bone flock, one cShepherd.
Jn 10:17 For this reason the aFather loves Me, because bI lay down My life that I may take it again.
Jn 10:18 No one takes it away from Me, but I alay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to btake it again. This commandment I received from My Father.
Jn 10:19 aA division again took place among the Jews because of these words.
Jn 10:20 And many of them said, He ahas a demon and is binsane. Why do you listen to Him?
Jn 10:21 Others said, These are not the words of one who is demon-possessed. Can a demon aopen the eyes of the blind?
(3) The Eternal Life, the Son’s Hand, and the Father’s Hand — For the Security of the Sheep
vv. 22-30
Jn 10:22 At that time the 1Feast of the Dedication occurred in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
Jn 10:23 And Jesus was walking in the temple in the aportico of Solomon.
Jn 10:24 The Jews therefore surrounded Him and said to Him, How long will You hold our soul in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us aplainly.
Jn 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The aworks which I do 1in My Father’s name, these testify concerning Me;
Jn 10:26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.
Jn 10:27 My sheep ahear My voice, and bI know them, and they cfollow Me;
Jn 10:28 And I give to them 1aeternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and bno one shall csnatch them out of 1My hand.
Jn 10:29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can asnatch them out of My 1Father’s hand.
Jn 10:30 1I and the Father are aone.
(4) The Persecution of Religion
vv. 31-39
Jn 10:31 The Jews again atook up stones that they might stone Him.
Jn 10:32 Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these works are you stoning Me?
Jn 10:33 The Jews answered Him, We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a man, are making Yourself aGod.
Jn 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, “I said, aYou are gods”?
Jn 10:35 If He said they were gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken,
Jn 10:36 Do you say of Him whom the Father ahas sanctified and 1bsent into the world, You are blaspheming, because I said, cI am the Son of God?
Jn 10:37 If I do not do the aworks of My Father, do not believe Me;
Jn 10:38 But if I do them, even if you do not believe Me, abelieve the works so that you may come to know and continue to know that the bFather is in Me and I am in the Father.
Jn 10:39 Then they sought again to aseize Him, yet He went forth out of their hand.
(5) Life’s Desertion of Religion and Life’s New Standing
vv. 40-42
Jn 10:40 And 1He went away again aacross the Jordan, to the place where John was baptizing at first, and He remained there.
Jn 10:41 And many came to Him and said, John did no sign, but aall the things John said concerning this man were true.
Jn 10:42 And amany believed into Him there.
JOHN 11

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9. The Need of the Dead — Life’s Resurrecting
11:1-57
a. The Dead Man and His Need
vv. 1-4
Jn 11:1 Now there was a certain man who was sick, Lazarus from 1Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Jn 11:2 It was that Mary who aanointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Jn 11:3 The sisters therefore sent to Him saying, Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.
Jn 11:4 But when Jesus heard it, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the aglory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
b. The Frustration of Human Opinions
vv. 5-40
Jn 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Jn 11:6 When therefore He heard that he was sick, He remained at that time in the place where He was for two days.
Jn 11:7 Then after this He said to the disciples, Let us go into Judea again.
Jn 11:8 The disciples 1said to Him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to astone You, and You are going there again?
Jn 11:9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the aday, he does not stumble, because he sees the blight of this world.
Jn 11:10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.
Jn 11:11 He said these things, and after this He said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen aasleep; but I am going that I may wake him out of sleep.
Jn 11:12 The disciples then said to Him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will 1recover.
Jn 11:13 But Jesus had spoken about his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.
Jn 11:14 So Jesus then told them plainly, Lazarus has 1died.
Jn 11:15 And I rejoice for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.
Jn 11:16 Then Thomas, who is called 1Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him.
Jn 11:17 Then when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb afour days.
Jn 11:18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 1fifteen stadia away.
Jn 11:19 And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
Jn 11:20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him; but Mary sat in the house.
Jn 11:21 Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, aif You had been here, my brother would not have died.
Jn 11:22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.
Jn 11:23 Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.
Jn 11:24 Martha said to Him, I know that he will rise again in the aresurrection 1in the last day.
Jn 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the alife; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall blive;
Jn 11:26 And everyone who lives and believes into Me shall by ano means die forever. Do you believe this?
Jn 11:27 She said to Him, Yes, Lord; I have 1believed that aYou are the Christ, the Son of God, He who bcomes into the world.
Jn 11:28 And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Teacher is here and 1is calling you.
Jn 11:29 And she, when she heard this, rose quickly and came to Him.
Jn 11:30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him.
Jn 11:31 The Jews then who were with her in the house and were consoling her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to 1weep there.
Jn 11:32 Then Mary, when she came to where Jesus was, saw Him and fell at His feet, saying to Him, Lord, aif You had been here, my brother would not have died.
Jn 11:33 Then Jesus, when He saw her 1weeping and the aJews who came with her 1weeping, was bmoved with indignation in His spirit and was ctroubled,
Jn 11:34 And He said, Where have you put him? They said to Him, Lord, come and see.
Jn 11:35 Jesus 1wept.
Jn 11:36 The Jews then said, Behold how He aloved him!
Jn 11:37 But some of them said, Could not He who aopened the eyes of the blind man also have caused that this man would not die?
Jn 11:38 Jesus therefore, moved with indignation again in Himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
Jn 11:39 Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was deceased, said to Him, Lord, by now he smells, for it is the afourth day that he is there.
Jn 11:40 Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the aglory of God?
c. Life’s Resurrecting
vv. 41-44
Jn 11:41 Then they 1took the stone away. And Jesus alifted up His eyes and said, bFather, I thank You that You have heard Me.
Jn 11:42 And I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the crowd standing around, I said it, that they may abelieve that You have 1sent Me.
Jn 11:43 And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!
Jn 11:44 And he who had died came out, abound hand and foot with cloths, and bhis face was bound about with a handkerchief. Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go.
d. The Conspiracy of Religion and Life’s Vicarious Death for the Gathering of God’s Children
vv. 45-57
Jn 11:45 Many of the aJews therefore who had come to Mary and beheld the things that He did believed into Him.
Jn 11:46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus did.
Jn 11:47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled a council and said, What do we do? For this man is doing many asigns.
Jn 11:48 If we let Him do so, all will believe into Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
Jn 11:49 But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was ahigh priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all,
Jn 11:50 Nor do you take account of the fact that ait is expedient for you that one man die for the people and that not the whole nation perish.
Jn 11:51 But this he did not say from himself, but being ahigh priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation,
Jn 11:52 And not for the nation only, but that He might also 1gather into aone the children of God who are scattered abroad.
Jn 11:53 From that day therefore they atook counsel to kill Him.
Jn 11:54 Jesus therefore no longer awalked openly among the Jews, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there He remained with the disciples.
Jn 11:55 Now the aPassover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover in order to bpurify themselves.
Jn 11:56 They then sought Jesus, and said to one another as they stood in the temple, What do you think? That He will not, by any means, come to the feast?
Jn 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should disclose it, so that they might arrest Him.
JOHN 12

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D. Life’s Issue and Multiplication
12:1-50
1. Life’s Issue — A House of Feasting (a Miniature of the Church Life)
vv. 1-11
Jn 12:1 Then Jesus, six days before the aPassover, came to 1bBethany, where Lazarus was, cwhom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Jn 12:2 Therefore they made Him a supper there; and aMartha served, but Lazarus was one of the ones reclining at table with Him.
Jn 12:3 Then aMary took a 1pound of ointment, of very valuable pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the 2house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
Jn 12:4 But aJudas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was about to betray Him, said,
Jn 12:5 Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred 1denarii and given to the poor?
Jn 12:6 But he said this not because it mattered to him concerning the poor, but because he was a thief, and aholding the purse, carried off what was put into it.
Jn 12:7 Then 1Jesus said, Leave her alone; she has reserved it for the day of My burial.
Jn 12:8 aFor the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me.
Jn 12:9 Then a great crowd of the Jews found out that He was there, and they came, not because of Jesus only, but that they might also see Lazarus, awhom He had raised from the dead.
Jn 12:10 And the chief priests took counsel to kill Lazarus also,
Jn 12:11 Because on account of him amany of the Jews went away and believed into Jesus.
2. Life’s Multiplication for the Church through Death and Resurrection
(the Glorification of God and the Judgment upon the World and Satan Implied)
vv. 12-36a
Jn 12:12 On the next day, athe great crowd who had come to the bfeast, when they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem,
Jn 12:13 Took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out, 1Hosanna! aBlessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the bKing of Israel!
Jn 12:14 And Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written,
Jn 12:15 a“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”
Jn 12:16 These things His disciples did not understand at first, but when Jesus was aglorified, then they bremembered that these things were written of Him and that they had done these things to Him.
Jn 12:17 The crowd therefore that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead testified.
Jn 12:18 For this reason the crowd also went and met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.
Jn 12:19 The Pharisees then said to one another, You see that you are not doing anything worthwhile; behold, the world has gone after Him.
Jn 12:20 And there were some Greeks among those who went up to aworship at the feast.
Jn 12:21 These then came to aPhilip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.
Jn 12:22 Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew came, and Philip too, and they told Jesus.
Jn 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The ahour has come for the Son of Man to be 1bglorified.
Jn 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, aUnless the grain of wheat 1falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears 2bmuch fruit.
Jn 12:25 aHe who loves his 1bsoul-life loses it; and he who chates his 1bsoul-life in this world shall keep it unto 2eternal life.
Jn 12:26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also My servant will be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
Jn 12:27 Now is aMy 1soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, bsave Me out of this chour. But for 2this reason I have come to this hour.
Jn 12:28 Father, 1aglorify Your name. Then a bvoice came out of heaven: I have both 1aglorified it and will 1aglorify it again.
Jn 12:29 The crowd therefore which stood by and heard it said that there had been thunder; others said, aAn angel has spoken to Him.
Jn 12:30 Jesus answered and said, This voice has not 1come for My sake, but for your sake.
Jn 12:31 Now is the 1ajudgment of this 2world; now shall the bruler of this world be cast out.
Jn 12:32 And I, if I be 1alifted up from the earth, will bdraw call men to Myself.
Jn 12:33 But He said this asignifying by what kind of death He was about to die.
Jn 12:34 The crowd therefore answered Him, We have heard out of the law that the aChrist abides forever; and how is it that You say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?
Jn 12:35 Jesus then said to them, The light is astill among you a little while. Walk while you have the light so that darkness may not bovercome you; and he who cwalks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
Jn 12:36 While you have the alight, believe into the light, so that you may become bsons of light.
3. Religion’s Unbelief and Blindness
vv. 36b-43
Jesus said these things, and He went away and cwas hidden from them.
Jn 12:37 But though He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe into Him,
Jn 12:38 That the word of the prophet Isaiah which he said might be fulfilled, a“Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the 1arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Jn 12:39 For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said,
Jn 12:40 a“He has 1blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, that they might not see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I will heal them.”
Jn 12:41 These things said Isaiah because he asaw 1His glory and spoke concerning Him.
Jn 12:42 Nevertheless even many of the rulers believed into Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, aso that they would not be bput out of the synagogue;
Jn 12:43 For they loved the aglory of men more than the aglory of God.
4. Life’s Declaration to the Unbelieving Religion
vv. 44-50
Jn 12:44 But Jesus 1cried out and said, He who believes into Me does not believe into Me, but ainto Him who sent Me;
Jn 12:45 And he who abeholds Me beholds Him who sent Me.
Jn 12:46 I have come as a alight into the world, that everyone who believes into Me would not remain in darkness.
Jn 12:47 And if anyone hears My 1words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I have not come to ajudge the world, but to save the world.
Jn 12:48 He who rejects Me and does not receive My words has one who judges him; the aword which I have spoken, that will judge him in the last day.
Jn 12:49 For I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He Himself has agiven Me commandment, what to say and what to speak.
Jn 12:50 And I know that His commandment is 1eternal life. The things therefore that I speak, even aas the Father has said to Me, so I speak.
JOHN 13

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E. Life’s Washing in Love to Maintain Fellowship
13:1-38
1. Washing by the Lord Himself
vv. 1-11
Jn 13:1 1Now before the aFeast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His bhour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the cFather, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.
Jn 13:2 And while supper was taking place, the adevil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, that he should bbetray Him,
Jn 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had agiven all into His hands and that He had bcome forth from God and was going to God,
Jn 13:4 Rose from supper and 1laid aside His outer garments; and taking a 2towel, He 3girded Himself;
Jn 13:5 Then He poured 1water into the basin and began to 2wash the disciples’ 3feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
Jn 13:6 He came then to Simon Peter. Peter said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet?
Jn 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not 1know now, but you will 1know after these things.
Jn 13:8 Peter said to Him, You shall by no means wash my feet forever. Jesus answered him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.
Jn 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jn 13:10 Jesus said to him, He who is 1abathed has no need except to wash his feet, but is wholly bclean; and you are clean, but not all of you.
Jn 13:11 For He aknew the one betraying Him; for this reason He said, Not all of you are clean.
2. Washing by One Another among the Believers
vv. 12-17
Jn 13:12 Then when He had washed their feet and taken His outer garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?
Jn 13:13 You call Me the Teacher and the Lord, and you say rightly, for I am.
Jn 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
Jn 13:15 For I have given you an aexample so that you also may do even as I have done to you.
Jn 13:16 Truly, truly, I say to you, A aslave is not greater than his master, nor 1one who is sent greater than the one who sends him.
Jn 13:17 If you know these things, ablessed are you if you do them.
3. Washed, but Not in the Fellowship
vv. 18-30
Jn 13:18 I do not speak concerning aall of you. I know whom I have bchosen, but that the cScripture may be fulfilled, d“He who 1eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.”
Jn 13:19 From now on I am atelling you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe that 1bI am.
Jn 13:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, aHe who receives whomever I shall send receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
Jn 13:21 When Jesus had said these things, He became troubled in His aspirit, and He testified and said, Truly, truly, I say to you that bone of you will betray Me.
Jn 13:22 The disciples looked at one another, perplexed over whom He was speaking about.
Jn 13:23 One of His disciples, awhom Jesus loved, was reclining on Jesus’ bosom.
Jn 13:24 Simon Peter therefore nodded to him to inquire who it might be about whom He was speaking.
Jn 13:25 Then he, while reclining thus on Jesus’ breast, said to Him, Lord, who is it?
Jn 13:26 Jesus answered, It is he for whom I will dip the morsel and to whom I will give it. And dipping the morsel, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
Jn 13:27 And at that moment, after the morsel, aSatan entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, What you do, do quickly.
Jn 13:28 But none of those reclining at table knew why He said this to him.
Jn 13:29 For some supposed, since Judas held the purse, that Jesus was saying to him, Buy the things that we have need of for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
Jn 13:30 Therefore having taken the morsel, he went out immediately; and it was night.
4. Washed and Willing to Remain in the Fellowship, but Failing
vv. 31-38
Jn 13:31 Then when he went out, Jesus said, Now has the Son of Man been 1aglorified, and God has been 2bglorified in Him.
Jn 13:32 1If God has been 2aglorified in Him, God will also 3bglorify Him in Himself, and He will 3glorify Him immediately.
Jn 13:33 Little children, aI am still with you a little while; byou will seek Me, and even as I said to the Jews, cWhere I am going, you cannot come, now I say to you also.
Jn 13:34 A new 1acommandment I give to you, that you blove one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Jn 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
Jn 13:36 aSimon Peter said to Him, Lord, where are You going? Jesus answered him, bWhere I go you cannot follow Me now, but you will cfollow later.
Jn 13:37 Peter said to Him, Lord, why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my 1life for You.
Jn 13:38 Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, A arooster shall by no means crow until you deny Me three times.
JOHN 14

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II. Jesus Crucified and Christ Resurrected Going to Prepare the Way to Bring Man into God,
and as the Spirit Coming to Abide and Live in the Believers for the Building of God’s Habitation
14:1 — 21:25
A. Life’s Indwelling — For the Building of God’s Habitation
14:1 — 16:33
1. The Dispensing of the Triune God — For the Producing of His Abode
14:1-31
a. Jesus Going through Death and Christ Coming in Resurrection
to Bring the Believers into the Father
vv. 1-6
Jn 14:1 aDo not let your heart be troubled; believe into 1God, believe also into 1Me.
Jn 14:2 In 1aMy Father’s house are 2many babodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I 3cgo to prepare a place for you.
Jn 14:3 And 1if I go and 2prepare a place for you, I aam coming again and will 3receive you to Myself, so that 4bwhere I am you also may be.
Jn 14:4 And where I am going you know the way.
Jn 14:5 Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?
Jn 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the 1way and the 2areality and the blife; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
b. The Triune God Dispensing Himself into the Believers
vv. 7-20
(1) The Father Embodied in the Son Seen among the Believers
vv. 7-14
Jn 14:7 1If you had aknown Me, you would have known My Father also; and henceforth you bknow Him and have seen Him.
Jn 14:8 Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us.
Jn 14:9 Jesus said to him, Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has aseen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?
Jn 14:10 Do you not believe that I am ain the Father and the bFather is in Me? The 1cwords that I say to you I do not speak dfrom Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.
Jn 14:11 Believe Me that I am ain the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the bworks themselves.
Jn 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes into Me, the works which I do he shall do also; and agreater than these he shall do because I am 1bgoing to the Father.
Jn 14:13 And whatever you aask 1in My name, that I will do, that the 2Father may be bglorified in the Son.
Jn 14:14 If you aask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
(2) The Son Realized as the Spirit to Abide in the Believers
vv. 15-20
Jn 14:15 If you alove Me, you will keep My bcommandments.
Jn 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another 1aComforter, that He may be with you forever,
Jn 14:17 Even the 1aSpirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because 2He abides with you and shall be 3bin you.
Jn 14:18 1I will not leave you as orphans; I am 2acoming to you.
Jn 14:19 Yet aa little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I 1blive, you also shall clive.
Jn 14:20 In that 1aday you will know that I am bin My Father, and you cin Me, and I din you.
c. The Triune God Making an Abode with the Believers
vv. 21-24
Jn 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who aloves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will bmanifest Myself to him.
Jn 14:22 Judas, not Iscariot, said to Him, Lord, and what has happened that You are to manifest Yourself to us and not to the world?
Jn 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone aloves Me, he will bkeep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an 1cabode with him.
Jn 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the aword which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
d. The Comforter’s Reminding and Life’s Peace
vv. 25-31
Jn 14:25 These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you;
Jn 14:26 But the 1aComforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the 2Father will send in 3My name, He will bteach you call things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.
Jn 14:27 aPeace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be btroubled, neither let it be afraid.
Jn 14:28 You have heard that I said to you, I am agoing away and I am 1coming to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice because bI am 2going to the Father, for the Father is cgreater than I.
Jn 14:29 And now I have told you abefore it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.
Jn 14:30 I will no longer speak much with you, for the aruler of the world is coming, and in Me he has nothing;
Jn 14:31 But this is so that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father acommanded Me, so I do. Rise, let us go from here.
JOHN 15

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2. The Organism of the Triune God in the Divine Dispensing
15:1 — 16:4
a. The Vine and the Branches Being an Organism to Glorify the Father
by Expressing the Riches of the Divine Life
15:1-11
Jn 15:1 I am the 1true avine, and My Father is the 2husbandman.
Jn 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away; and every branch that bears fruit, He 1prunes it that it may bear more fruit.
Jn 15:3 You are already aclean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Jn 15:4 aAbide in Me and I bin you. As the branch cannot bear fruit 1of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
Jn 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears amuch fruit; for apart from Me you can do bnothing.
Jn 15:6 If one does not abide in Me, he is 1acast out as a branch and is dried up; and they gather them and cast them into the bfire, and they are cburned.
Jn 15:7 If you abide in Me and My 1awords abide in you, 2ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
Jn 15:8 In this is My Father 1aglorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My bdisciples.
Jn 15:9 As the Father has aloved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
Jn 15:10 If you 1keep My acommandments, you will abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Jn 15:11 These things I have spoken to you that My 1joy may be in you and that your ajoy may be made full.
b. The Branches Loving One Another to Express the Divine Life in Fruit-bearing
15:12-17
Jn 15:12 This is My acommandment, that you blove one another even as I have loved you.
Jn 15:13 No one has greater love than this, that one alay down his 1life for his friends.
Jn 15:14 You are My afriends if you do what I command you.
Jn 15:15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all the things which I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Jn 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I achose you, and I 1set you that you should 2go forth and bbear fruit and 3that your fruit should 4remain, that whatever you 5cask the Father in My name, He may give you.
Jn 15:17 These things I command you that you may 1alove one another.
c. The Vine and the Branches,
Separated from the World, Being Hated and Persecuted by the Religious World
15:18 — 16:4
Jn 15:18 If the world ahates you, know that it has bhated Me before you.
Jn 15:19 If you were 1of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are anot 1of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Jn 15:20 Remember the word which I said to you, A slave is not agreater than his master. If they have bpersecuted Me, they will cpersecute you also; if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Jn 15:21 But all these things they will do to you because of My aname, because they do bnot know Him who sent Me.
Jn 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have asin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Jn 15:23 He who ahates Me hates My Father also.
Jn 15:24 If I did not do among them the aworks which no one else has done, they would not have bsin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father.
Jn 15:25 But it is so that the word written in their law may be fulfilled, a“They hated Me without cause.”
Jn 15:26 But when the aComforter comes, whom I will bsend to you 1cfrom the Father, the dSpirit of reality, who proceeds 1from the Father, He will etestify concerning Me;
Jn 15:27 And ayou testify also, because from the beginning you have been with Me.
JOHN 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

Jn 16:1 These things I have spoken to you so that you would not be astumbled.
Jn 16:2 They will aput you out of the synagogues; but an hour is coming for everyone who 1bkills you to think that he is offering service to God.
Jn 16:3 And these things they will do abecause they have not known the Father nor Me.
Jn 16:4 But these things I have spoken to you that awhen their hour comes you may remember them, that I told you of them. Now these things I have not said to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
3. The Work of the Spirit Consummating in the Mingling of Divinity with Humanity
16:5-33
a. The Son’s Going for the Spirit’s Coming
vv. 5-7
Jn 16:5 But now I am agoing to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, bWhere are You going?
Jn 16:6 But because I have spoken these things to you, asorrow has filled your bheart.
Jn 16:7 But I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will anot come to you; but if I 1bgo, I will csend Him to you.
b. The Work of the Spirit
vv. 8-15
(1) To Convict the World
vv. 8-11
Jn 16:8 And when He comes, He will 1convict the world concerning 2sin and concerning 2righteousness and concerning 2judgment:
Jn 16:9 Concerning asin, because they do not bbelieve into Me;
Jn 16:10 And concerning arighteousness, because bI am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me;
Jn 16:11 And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been ajudged.
(2) To Glorify the Son by Revealing Him with the Fullness of the Father to the Believers
vv. 12-15
(3) To Transmit to the Believers All That the Father and the Son Have
v. 13
Jn 16:12 I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
Jn 16:13 But when He, the aSpirit of reality, comes, He will 1guide you into all the breality; for He will not speak cfrom Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will 1declare to you dthe things that are coming.
Jn 16:14 He will aglorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you.
Jn 16:15 aAll that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.
c. The Son to Be Born in Resurrection as a Newborn Child
vv. 16-24
Jn 16:16 aA little while and you no longer behold Me, and again a little while and you will bsee Me.
Jn 16:17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, What is this that He says to us, A little while and you do not behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me; and, Because I am going to the Father?
Jn 16:18 Therefore they said, What is this that He says, A little while? We do not know what He is talking about.
Jn 16:19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask Him and He said to them, Are you inquiring among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while and you do not behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me?
Jn 16:20 Truly, truly, I say to you that you will aweep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into bjoy.
Jn 16:21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she 1brings forth the 2little achild, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.
Jn 16:22 Therefore you also now have sorrow; but I will 1see you aagain and your heart will brejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.
Jn 16:23 And in that aday you will ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, 1Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give to you.
Jn 16:24 Until now you have 1aasked for nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your bjoy may be made full.
d. The Believers Having Peace in the Son in Spite of Persecution
vv. 25-33
Jn 16:25 These things I have spoken to you in parables; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but I will report to you plainly concerning the Father.
Jn 16:26 In that aday you will bask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father concerning you,
Jn 16:27 For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I acame forth 1bfrom God.
Jn 16:28 I 1came forth aout from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am bgoing to the Father.
Jn 16:29 His disciples said, Behold, now You are speaking plainly and not saying any parable.
Jn 16:30 Now we know that You know all things and have no need that anyone ask You; by this we believe that You acame forth 1from God.
Jn 16:31 Jesus answered them, Do you now believe?
Jn 16:32 Behold, an hour is coming, and has come, that you will be ascattered each to his own place and will leave Me alone; yet I am not balone, because the Father is 1cwith Me.
Jn 16:33 These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have apeace. In the world you have baffliction, but take courage; I have covercome the world.
JOHN 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

B. Life’s Prayer
17:1-26
1. The Son to Be Glorified That the Father May Be Glorified
vv. 1-5
Jn 17:1 These things Jesus spoke, and alifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, bFather, the hour has come; 1cglorify Your Son that the Son may dglorify You;
Jn 17:2 Even as 1You have given Him aauthority over all flesh to give 2eternal blife to all whom You have cgiven Him.
Jn 17:3 And this is 1eternal life, that they may aknow You, the only btrue God, and Him whom You have 2csent, Jesus dChrist.
Jn 17:4 I have 1glorified You on earth, finishing the awork which You have given Me to do.
Jn 17:5 And now, 1aglorify Me along with Yourself, Father, with the bglory which I had cwith You dbefore the world was.
2. The Believers to Be Built Up into One
vv. 6-24
a. In the Father’s Name by the Eternal Life
vv. 6-13
Jn 17:6 I have manifested 1Your aname to the men whom You bgave Me out of the world. They were cYours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your 2word.
Jn 17:7 Now they have come to know that all that You have given Me is from You,
Jn 17:8 For the awords which You gave Me I have bgiven to them, and they received them and knew truly that I ccame forth 1from You, and they have believed that You dsent Me.
Jn 17:9 I aask concerning them; I do not ask concerning the world, but concerning those whom You have bgiven Me, for they are cYours;
Jn 17:10 And all that is Mine is Yours, and aYours Mine; and I have been 1glorified 2in them.
Jn 17:11 And I am no longer in the world; yet they are ain the world, and I am bcoming to You. 1Holy Father, ckeep them 2in Your dname, which You have given to Me, that they may be eone even as We are.
Jn 17:12 When I was with them, I akept them in Your bname, which You have given to Me, and I guarded them; and cnot one of them 1dperished, except the eson of 1perdition, that the fScripture might be fulfilled.
Jn 17:13 But now I am acoming to You, and these things I speak in the world that they may have My bjoy made full in themselves.
b. In the Triune God through Sanctification by the Holy Word
vv. 14-21
Jn 17:14 I have agiven them Your 1word, and the 2world has bhated them, because they are cnot 3of the 2world even as dI am not 3of the 2world.
Jn 17:15 I do not ask that You would take them out of the world, but that You would akeep them 1out of the hands of the 2bevil one.
Jn 17:16 They are anot of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Jn 17:17 1aSanctify them 2in the truth; Your 3word is truth.
Jn 17:18 As You have 1asent Me into the world, I also have 1bsent them into the world.
Jn 17:19 And for their sake I 1sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be asanctified in truth.
Jn 17:20 And I do not aask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word,
Jn 17:21 That they all may be 1aone; even as You, Father, are bin Me and I cin You, that they also may be din Us; that the eworld may believe that You have fsent Me.
c. In the Divine Glory for the Expression of the Triune God
vv. 22-24
Jn 17:22 And the 1aglory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be 2bone, even as We are cone;
Jn 17:23 I ain them, and You bin Me, that they may be perfected into cone, that the world may know that You have dsent Me and have 1loved them even as You have eloved Me.
Jn 17:24 Father, concerning that which You have agiven Me, I desire that they also may 1be with Me bwhere I am, that they may behold My cglory, which You have given Me, for You dloved Me ebefore the foundation of the world.
3. The Father to Be Shown Righteous in Loving the Son and His Believers
vv. 25-26
Jn 17:25 1Righteous Father, though the world has not known You, yet I have aknown You, and these have known that You have bsent Me.
Jn 17:26 And I have made Your aname known to them and will yet make it known, that the 1blove with which You have bloved Me may be in them, and I cin them.
JOHN 18

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C. Life’s Process through Death and Resurrection for Multiplication
18:1 — 20:13, 17
1. Delivering Himself in Voluntary Boldness to Be Processed
18:1-11
Jn 18:1 When Jesus had said these things, aHe 1went forth with His disciples across the brook bKedron, where there was a garden, into which He entered as well as His disciples.
Jn 18:2 And Judas also, who was abetraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus often gathered there with His disciples.
Jn 18:3 Then Judas, having gotten the cohort and some attendants from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with torches and lamps and weapons.
Jn 18:4 Jesus therefore, aknowing all the things that were coming upon Him, 1went forth and said to them, Whom do you seek?
Jn 18:5 They answered Him, Jesus the aNazarene. He said to them, 1bI am. And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them.
Jn 18:6 When therefore He said to them, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground.
Jn 18:7 Then again He asked them, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus the Nazarene.
Jn 18:8 Jesus answered, I told you that aI am; if therefore you seek Me, let 1these go away,
Jn 18:9 That the word might be fulfilled which He spoke, aOf those whom You have given Me, I have not lost one.
Jn 18:10 Then Simon Peter, having a asword, drew it and struck the slave of the high priest and bcut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus.
Jn 18:11 Jesus therefore said to Peter, Put the sword into its sheath. The 1cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?
2. Examined in His Dignity by Mankind
18:12-38a
a. By the Jews according to God’s Law in Their Religion
vv. 12-27
Jn 18:12 Then the cohort and the commander and the attendants of the Jews aseized Jesus and bound Him
Jn 18:13 And 1led Him away to Annas first; for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
Jn 18:14 Now it was aCaiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die for the people.
Jn 18:15 And Simon Peter followed Jesus, as well as another disciple. And that disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest;
Jn 18:16 But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door and brought Peter in.
Jn 18:17 Then the maid who kept the door said to Peter, Are you not also one of this man’s disciples? He said, aI am not.
Jn 18:18 Now the slaves and the attendants were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold, and they were warming themselves; and Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
Jn 18:19 The high priest then questioned Jesus concerning His disciples and concerning His teaching.
Jn 18:20 Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and I spoke nothing in secret.
Jn 18:21 1Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard Me, concerning what I spoke to them; behold, these know what I said.
Jn 18:22 And when He said these things, one of the attendants standing by aslapped Jesus, saying, Is that how You answer the high priest?
Jn 18:23 Jesus answered him, If I have spoken wrongly, testify concerning the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?
Jn 18:24 Annas then sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Jn 18:25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. Then they said to him, Are you not also one of His disciples? He denied and said, I am not.
Jn 18:26 One of the slaves of the high priest, who was a relative of him whose ear Peter had cut off, said, Did I not see you in the garden with Him?
Jn 18:27 Then Peter denied again, and immediately a rooster crowed.
b. By the Gentiles according to Man’s Law in Their Politics
vv. 28-38a
Jn 18:28 aThen they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the 1praetorium, and it was 2early morning. And they themselves did not enter into the praetorium, so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the passover.
Jn 18:29 Pilate therefore went outside to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man?
Jn 18:30 They answered and said to him, If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered Him to you.
Jn 18:31 Pilate said then to them, You take Him and judge Him according to your alaw. The Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to kill anyone,
Jn 18:32 That the aword of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what 1kind of death He was to die.
Jn 18:33 Pilate therefore entered again into the praetorium and called for Jesus. And he said to Him, You are the aKing of the Jews?
Jn 18:34 Jesus answered, 1Are you saying this of yourself, or did others tell you about Me?
Jn 18:35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your nation and its chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?
Jn 18:36 Jesus answered, My akingdom is not 1of this world. If My kingdom were 1of this world, My attendants would be struggling so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not from 2here.
Jn 18:37 Pilate said therefore to Him, So then You are a king? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this I have been aborn, and for this I have come into the world, that I would testify to the 1btruth. Everyone who is of the 1truth hears My voice.
Jn 18:38 Pilate said to Him, What is truth?
3. Sentenced in Man’s Injustice by Blind Religion with Dark Politics
18:38b — 19:16
And having said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, I find ano fault in Him.
Jn 18:39 But you have a custom that I release one man to you at the Passover. Is it your will therefore that I release to you the King of the Jews?
Jn 18:40 Then they cried out again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
JOHN 19

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Jn 19:1 aTherefore at that time Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him.
Jn 19:2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they threw a purple garment around Him.
Jn 19:3 And they came to Him and said, 1Rejoice, King of the Jews! and aslapped Him.
Jn 19:4 And Pilate went outside again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find ano fault in Him.
Jn 19:5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the thorny crown and the purple garment. And he said to them, Behold, the man!
Jn 19:6 When therefore the chief priests and the attendants saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify! Crucify! Pilate said to them, You take Him and crucify Him, for I do anot find fault in Him.
Jn 19:7 The Jews answered him, We have a alaw, and according to that law He ought to die because He bmade Himself the Son of God.
Jn 19:8 When Pilate therefore heard this word, he became frightened the more,
Jn 19:9 And he entered into the 1praetorium again and said to Jesus, Where are You from? But Jesus gave him no answer.
Jn 19:10 Therefore Pilate said to Him, You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and I have authority to crucify You?
Jn 19:11 Jesus answered him, You would have no authority against Me if it were not agiven to you from above; for this reason, he who has delivered Me to you has the greater sin.
Jn 19:12 From then on, Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.
Jn 19:13 Pilate therefore, when he heard these words, brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat in a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, 1Gabbatha.
Jn 19:14 Now it was the day of 1preparation for the Passover; it was about the 2sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold, your King!
Jn 19:15 They cried out then, Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king except Caesar.
Jn 19:16 Therefore at that time he delivered Him to them that 1He might be crucified. Therefore they atook Jesus.
4. Tested in God’s Sovereignty by Death
19:17-30
Jn 19:17 And abearing the cross for Himself, He went out to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha,
Jn 19:18 Where they crucified Him, and with Him atwo others, on this side and that, and Jesus in the middle.
Jn 19:19 And Pilate wrote a notice also and put it on the cross; and it was written, JESUS THE aNAZARENE, THE bKING OF THE JEWS.
Jn 19:20 This notice therefore many of the Jews read, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in 1Hebrew, in 1Latin, and in 1Greek.
Jn 19:21 The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, Do not write, The King of the Jews, but that He said, I am the King of the Jews.
Jn 19:22 Pilate answered, 1What I have written, I have written.
Jn 19:23 The soldiers then, when they had crucified Jesus, 1atook His garments and made four parts, a part for each soldier, and they took the 2tunic as well. But the 2tunic was seamless, woven from the top throughout.
Jn 19:24 They said therefore to one another, Let us not tear it, but let us cast lots for it to see whose it shall be, that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, a“They divided My garments among themselves, and for My clothing they cast lots.” So then the soldiers 1did these things.
Jn 19:25 And there were standing by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother’s 1sister and Mary the wife of Clopas and aMary the Magdalene.
Jn 19:26 Then Jesus, seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, said to His mother, aWoman, 1behold, your son.
Jn 19:27 Then He said to the disciple, 1Behold, your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
Jn 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had now been finished and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, aI 1bthirst.
Jn 19:29 There was lying there a vessel full of vinegar; therefore, they put a sponge full of vinegar on hyssop and brought it to His mouth.
Jn 19:30 Then when Jesus had taken the 1vinegar, He said, It is 2finished! And He bowed His head and delivered up His spirit.
5. Issuing in Blood and Water
19:31-37
Jn 19:31 Then the Jews, since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies might not aremain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath day was a great Sabbath), requested of Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
Jn 19:32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other man who had been crucified with Him.
Jn 19:33 But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He had already died, they did not break His legs;
Jn 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out 1ablood and 1bwater.
Jn 19:35 And he who has seen this has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he says what is true, that you also may believe.
Jn 19:36 For 1these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: a“No 2bone of His shall be broken.”
Jn 19:37 And again another Scripture says, a“They shall look on Him whom they bpierced.”
6. Resting in Human Honor
19:38-42
Jn 19:38 And 1aafter these things Joseph from Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a hidden one for fear of the Jews, requested of Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus away; and Pilate allowed it. He came therefore and took His body away.
Jn 19:39 And aNicodemus, he who had come to Him the first time by night, came also, bringing a mixture of bmyrrh and caloes of about a hundred 1pounds.
Jn 19:40 Therefore they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the custom of the Jews for burying.
Jn 19:41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new atomb, in which no one had ever yet been laid.
Jn 19:42 Therefore because of the day of preparation for the Jews and because the tomb was near, they laid Jesus there.
JOHN 20

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7. Resurrecting in Divine Glory
20:1-13, 17
a. Leaving in the Tomb as a Testimony the Signs of the Old Creation
Provided by His Appreciators and Discovered by His Seekers
vv. 1-10
Jn 20:1 aNow on the 1bfirst cday of the week, Mary the Magdalene 2came early to the tomb while it was yet dark and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.
Jn 20:2 She ran therefore and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.
Jn 20:3 Peter therefore went forth, as well as the other disciple, and came to the tomb.
Jn 20:4 And the two ran together, yet the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came first to the tomb.
Jn 20:5 And stooping to look in, he saw the 1linen cloths lying there; however, he did not enter.
Jn 20:6 Then Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered into the tomb; and he beheld the linen cloths lying there
Jn 20:7 And the 1handkerchief which had been over His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in one place apart.
Jn 20:8 At that time therefore the other disciple also, who came first to the tomb, entered, and he saw and believed;
Jn 20:9 For as yet they did not understand the aScripture, that He had to 1brise from the dead.
Jn 20:10 The disciples therefore went away again to their own home.
b. Testified by Angels Sent by God
vv. 11-13
Jn 20:11 But Mary stood outside at the tomb 1weeping. Then as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb
Jn 20:12 And beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
Jn 20:13 And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.
c. Bringing Forth Many Brothers and Making His Father and God Theirs
v. 17
D. Life in Resurrection
20:14 — 21:25
1. Appearing to the Seekers and Ascending to the Father
20:14-18
Jn 20:14 When she said these things, she turned backward and beheld Jesus standing there, yet she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jn 20:15 Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing that He was the gardener, said to Him, Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.
Jn 20:16 Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni! (which means Teacher).
Jn 20:17 Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet 1ascended to the Father; but go to My 2abrothers and say to them, I bascend to My 3Father and your Father, and My God and your God.
Jn 20:18 Mary the Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that He had said these things to her.
2. Coming as the Spirit to Be Breathed into the Believers
20:19-25
Jn 20:19 aWhen therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the 1disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus 2came and stood in the midst and said to them, bPeace be to you.
Jn 20:20 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore 1arejoiced at bseeing the Lord.
Jn 20:21 Then Jesus said to them again, aPeace be to you; as the Father has 1sent Me, I also 2bsend you.
Jn 20:22 And when He had said this, He abreathed into them and said to them, bReceive the Holy 1cSpirit.
Jn 20:23 aWhose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained.
Jn 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called 1Didymus, 2was not with them when Jesus came.
Jn 20:25 The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the aLord! But he said to them, Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and put my finger into the mark of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will by no means believe.
3. Meeting with the Believers
20:26-31
Jn 20:26 And 1after aeight days, His 2disciples were again within, and Thomas was with them. Jesus 3came, though the doors were shut, and stood in the midst and said, bPeace be to you.
Jn 20:27 Then He said to Thomas, Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.
Jn 20:28 Thomas answered and said to Him, My aLord and my 1bGod!
Jn 20:29 Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
Jn 20:30 Moreover indeed amany other signs also Jesus did before His disciples, which are not written in this book.
Jn 20:31 But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the 1aChrist, the bSon of God, and that cbelieving, you may have life in His name.
JOHN 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

4. Moving and Living with the Believers
21:1-14
Jn 21:1 1After these things Jesus 2amanifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And He manifested Himself in this way:
Jn 21:2 Simon Peter and aThomas, called 1Didymus, and bNathanael from Cana of Galilee and the csons of Zebedee and two others of His disciples were there together.
Jn 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, I am 1going afishing. They said to him, We also are coming with you. They went forth and bgot into the boat, and that night they caught 2nothing.
Jn 21:4 Now as soon as the morning broke, Jesus stood on the shore; however the disciples did anot know that it was Jesus.
Jn 21:5 Then Jesus said to them, aLittle children, you do not have any 1bfish to eat, do you? They answered Him, 2No.
Jn 21:6 And He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. They cast therefore, and they were no longer able to haul it in because of the 1abundance of fish.
Jn 21:7 Then that adisciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord! Therefore when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment around himself, for he 1was naked; and he threw himself into the sea.
Jn 21:8 But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 1two hundred cubits away, dragging the net of fish.
Jn 21:9 Then when they got out onto the land, they saw a fire of coals laid there, and 1afish lying on it and bbread.
Jn 21:10 Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just now caught.
Jn 21:11 Simon Peter therefore went up and hauled the net to the land full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jn 21:12 Jesus said to them, 1Come and have breakfast. But none of the disciples dared to inquire of Him, Who are you? knowing that it was the Lord.
Jn 21:13 Jesus came and atook the 1bread and gave it to them, and the 1fish likewise.
Jn 21:14 This was now the athird time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after He had been braised from the dead.
5. Working and Walking with the Believers
21:15-25
Jn 21:15 Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 1Simon, son of John, do you 2love Me amore than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I 3love You. He said to him, 4bFeed My 5lambs.
Jn 21:16 He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, 1aShepherd My 2sheep.
Jn 21:17 He said to him the 1third time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Peter was grieved that He said to him the third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You 2aknow ball things; You 2know that I love You. Jesus said to him, cFeed My sheep.
Jn 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you, When you were younger, you girded yourself and 1awalked where you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.
Jn 21:19 Now this He said, asignifying by what 1bkind of death he would glorify God. And when He had said this, He said to him, cFollow Me.
Jn 21:20 Peter, turning around, saw the adisciple whom Jesus loved following, who also breclined on His breast at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one betraying You?
Jn 21:21 Peter therefore, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man?
Jn 21:22 Jesus said to him, If I want him to aremain until I 1bcome, what is that to you? You 1cfollow Me.
Jn 21:23 This word therefore went out among the brothers, that that disciple would not die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, If I want him to remain until I 1come, what is that to you?
Jn 21:24 This is the disciple who atestifies concerning these things, and the one who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true.
Jn 21:25 And there are also 1amany other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books written.
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THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 
Outline

Author: Luke; see note 31 in Luke 1.
Time of Writing: A.D. 67 or 68, after the Gospel of Luke was written (1:1).
Place of Writing: Perhaps Rome (cf. Philem. 24; 2 Tim. 4:11).
Recipients: Theophilus (1:1); see note 32 in Luke 1.
Subject:
The Propagation of the Resurrected Christ in His Ascension, by the Spirit, through the Disciples, for the Producing of the Churches — The Kingdom of God
ACTS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

I. Introduction
1:1-2
Ac 1:1 The 1former account I have made, O 2Theophilus, concerning all the 3things that Jesus began both to do and to teach,
Ac 1:2 Until the day on which He was ataken up, after He had given bcommandment through the Holy 1Spirit to the capostles whom He chose;
II. The Preparation
1:3-26
A. Christ’s Preparation
vv. 3-8
1. Speaking to the Disciples the Things concerning the Kingdom of God
v. 3
Ac 1:3 To whom also He 1presented Himself alive after His suffering by many irrefutable proofs, 2aappearing to them through a period of 3forty days and speaking the things concerning the 4kingdom of God.
2. Charging Them to Wait for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit
vv. 4-8
Ac 1:4 And as He 1met together with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the 2apromise of the Father, which, He bsaid, You heard from Me;
Ac 1:5 For John abaptized with 1water, but you shall be 2baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Ac 1:6 So the ones who came together asked Him, saying, Lord, are You at this atime brestoring the 1kingdom to Israel?
Ac 1:7 But He said to them, It is not for you to know atimes or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority.
Ac 1:8 But you shall 1receive apower when the Holy bSpirit comes 2upon you, and you shall be My 3cwitnesses both in Jerusalem and in all dJudea and eSamaria and unto the futtermost part of the earth.
B. Christ’s Ascension
vv. 9-11
Ac 1:9 And when He had said these things, while they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud atook Him away from their sight.
Ac 1:10 And while they were looking intently into heaven as He went, behold, atwo men in bwhite clothing stood beside them,
Ac 1:11 Who also said, 1Men of aGalilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into 2heaven, will 3bcome in the 4same way as you 5beheld Him going into heaven.
C. The Disciples’ Preparation
vv. 12-26
1. Persevering in Prayer
vv. 12-14
Ac 1:12 Then they returned to 1aJerusalem from the mount called bOlivet, which is near Jerusalem, a 2Sabbath day’s journey away.
Ac 1:13 And when they entered, they went up to the aupper room where they were residing, bPeter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the 1Zealot and Judas the 2brother of James.
Ac 1:14 These all 1acontinued steadfastly 2with bone accord in 3prayer, together with the cwomen and 4Mary the dmother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
2. Choosing Matthias
vv. 15-26
Ac 1:15 And in those days aPeter stood up in the midst of the bbrothers and 1said (there was a group of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty),
Ac 1:16 1Men, brothers, the aScripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before through the mouth of David concerning bJudas, who became a guide to those who seized Jesus;
Ac 1:17 For he was anumbered among us and was allotted his portion of 1this bministry.
Ac 1:18 (Now this man acquired a piece of aland with the 1bwages of unrighteousness; and falling headlong, he burst in the middle, and all his inward parts gushed out.
Ac 1:19 And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, so that that piece of land was called in their own dialect, 1Akeldamach, that is, Field of 2Blood.)
Ac 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, a“Let his habitation become desolate, and let no one dwell in it”; and, b“His overseership let another take.”
Ac 1:21 It is necessary therefore that of the men who accompanied us all the time in which the Lord Jesus awent in and went out 1among us,
Ac 1:22 Beginning from the baptism of aJohn until the day on which He was btaken up from us, one of these should become a cwitness of His 1dresurrection with us.
Ac 1:23 And they proposed two, Joseph, called aBarsabbas, who was surnamed bJustus, and Matthias.
Ac 1:24 And they aprayed and said, You Lord, Knower of the bhearts of all, show us clearly the one whom You have chosen of these two
Ac 1:25 To take the place of this ministry and aapostleship, from which Judas turned aside to bgo to his own place.
Ac 1:26 And they cast 1lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
ACTS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • 

III. The Propagation
2:1 — 28:31
A. In the Jewish Land through the Ministry of Peter’s Company
2:1 — 12:24
1. The Jewish Believers’ Baptism in the Holy Spirit
2:1-13
a. The Economical Filling of the Holy Spirit
vv. 1-4
Ac 2:1 And as the day of 1aPentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together in the same place.
Ac 2:2 And suddenly there was a sound out of heaven, as of a rushing violent 1awind, and it 2bfilled the whole house where they were sitting.
Ac 2:3 And there appeared to them 1tongues as of 2fire, which were distributed; and it 3sat on each one of them;
Ac 2:4 And they were 1all 2filled with the Holy Spirit and began to aspeak in different 3btongues, even as the cSpirit gave to them to 4speak forth.
b. The Peoples’ Amazement
vv. 5-13
Ac 2:5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem 1Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
Ac 2:6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and was confounded because each one heard them aspeaking in his own dialect.
Ac 2:7 And they were aamazed and marveled, saying, Behold, are not all these who are speaking bGalileans?
Ac 2:8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own dialect in which we were born?
Ac 2:9 Parthians and aMedes and bElamites and those dwelling in cMesopotamia, both in Judea and dCappadocia, in ePontus and fAsia,
Ac 2:10 Both in aPhrygia and bPamphylia, in cEgypt and the parts of dLibya around eCyrene, and the sojourning of Rome, both Jews and 1proselytes,
Ac 2:11 aCretans and bArabians, we hear them speaking in our 1tongues the magnificent works of God?
Ac 2:12 And they were all aamazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?
Ac 2:13 But others ajeered and said, They are full of 1new wine!
2. Peter’s First Message to the Jews
2:14-41
a. Explaining the Economical Filling of the Holy Spirit
vv. 14-21
Ac 2:14 But Peter, standing with the 1eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke forth to them: 2Men of Judea, and all who are dwelling in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
Ac 2:15 For these men are not adrunk, as you suppose, for it is the 1third hour of the day;
Ac 2:16 But this is what is spoken through the prophet Joel:
Ac 2:17 a“And it shall be in the 1blast days, says God, that I will 2cpour out 3of My Spirit 4upon 5all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall 6dprophesy, and your young men shall see evisions, and your old men shall dream things in dreams;
Ac 2:18 And indeed upon My slaves, both men and women, I will pour out of My aSpirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.
Ac 2:19 And I will 1show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
Ac 2:20 The asun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the bgreat and notable 1cday of the Lord comes.
Ac 2:21 And it shall be that everyone who 1calls on the 2name of the Lord shall be 3asaved.”
b. Witnessing of Jesus in His Work, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension
vv. 22-36
Ac 2:22 1Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus the aNazarene, a 2man 3shown by God to you to be approved by works of power and wonders and bsigns, which God did through Him in your midst, even as you yourselves know —
Ac 2:23 This man, adelivered up by the 1bdetermined counsel and 2foreknowledge of God, you, through the hand of 3lawless men, cnailed to a 4cross and dkilled;
Ac 2:24 Whom 1God has araised up, having loosed the pangs of bdeath, since it was 2not possible for Him to be held by it.
Ac 2:25 For David says regarding Him, 1a“I saw the 2Lord continually before me, because 3He is on my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Ac 2:26 Therefore my heart was made glad and my 1tongue exulted; moreover, also my flesh will 2rest in hope,
Ac 2:27 Because You will not abandon my soul to 1aHades, nor will You permit Your 2bHoly One to see 3corruption.
Ac 2:28 You have made known to me the 1ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your 2presence.”
Ac 2:29 1Men, brothers, I can say to you plainly concerning the patriarch aDavid that he both deceased and was buried, and his btomb is among us until this day.
Ac 2:30 Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had asworn with an oath to him to seat One from the 1bfruit of his loins upon his 2throne,
Ac 2:31 He, seeing this beforehand, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was He abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see acorruption.
Ac 2:32 This Jesus 1God has araised up, of 2which we all are bwitnesses.
Ac 2:33 Therefore having been aexalted to the bright hand of God and having received the 1promise of the Holy cSpirit from the Father, He has dpoured out this which you both see and hear.
Ac 2:34 For David did 1not aascend into the heavens, but he himself says, b“The 2Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My 3right hand
Ac 2:35 Until I 1set Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.”
Ac 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both 1aLord and bChrist, this Jesus whom 2you have ccrucified.
c. Entreating the Spirit-moved Ones to Repent, Be Baptized, and Be Saved
vv. 37-41
Ac 2:37 And when they heard this, they were apricked in their heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, bWhat should we do, 1brothers?
Ac 2:38 And Peter said to them, 1aRepent and each one of you be 2bbaptized 3upon the 4name of Jesus Christ for the 5cforgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the 6dgift of the Holy 7Spirit.
Ac 2:39 For to 1you is the 2promise and to your children, and to all 3who are afar off, 4as many as the Lord our God bcalls to Himself.
Ac 2:40 And with many other words he solemnly 1atestified and exhorted them, saying, 2Be saved from this bcrooked 3generation.
Ac 2:41 Those then who received his word were 1baptized, and there were aadded on that day about three bthousand souls.
3. The Beginning of the Church Life
2:42-47
Ac 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the 1teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the abreaking of bread and the bprayers.
Ac 2:43 And afear was upon every soul; and many 1wonders and bsigns took place through the apostles.
Ac 2:44 And all those who believed were together and had all things 1acommon;
Ac 2:45 And they 1asold their properties and possessions and bdivided them to all, as anyone had need.
Ac 2:46 And day by day, continuing steadfastly with aone accord in the 1btemple and 2cbreaking bread from 3dhouse to house, they partook of their food with exultation and 4simplicity of heart,
Ac 2:47 aPraising God and 1having grace with all the people. And the Lord badded 2together cday by day those who were being dsaved.
ACTS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

4. Peter’s Second Message to the Jews
3:1-26
a. The Healing of a Lame Man
vv. 1-10
Ac 3:1 Now Peter and John were going up into the 1atemple at the 2bninth-hour prayer;
Ac 3:2 And a certain man who had been alame from his mother’s womb was being carried there, whom they had laid day by day at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms from those entering into the temple.
Ac 3:3 And he, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, began to ask to receive alms.
Ac 3:4 And Peter, gazing at him with John, said, Look at us!
Ac 3:5 And he turned his attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Ac 3:6 But Peter said, 1Silver and gold I do anot possess, but what I have, this I give to you: In the bname of Jesus Christ the 2cNazarene 3rise up and walk.
Ac 3:7 And he seized him by the right hand and raised him up; and instantly his feet and ankles were made strong.
Ac 3:8 And aleaping up and about, he stood and began to walk, and he entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and bpraising God.
Ac 3:9 And all the apeople saw him walking and praising God,
Ac 3:10 And they recognized him, that he was the one who had been sitting for alms at the temple’s Beautiful Gate; and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.
b. The Message
vv. 11-26
(1) Testifying of Jesus in His Death and Resurrection
vv. 11-18
Ac 3:11 And while he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people ran together toward them at the aportico called Solomon’s, greatly amazed.
Ac 3:12 And when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, 1Men of Israel, why are you marveling at this? Or why are you gazing at us, as though by our own power or godliness we have made him walk?
Ac 3:13 The 1aGod of Abraham and 2Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has 3bglorified His cServant Jesus, whom you ddelivered up and edenied in the presence of fPilate, when he had decided to grelease Him.
Ac 3:14 But you denied the aholy and brighteous One and casked that a man who was a murderer be granted to you;
Ac 3:15 And the 1Author of alife you bkilled, whom 2God has craised from the dead, of 3which we are dwitnesses.
Ac 3:16 And 1upon faith in His aname, His 2name has made this man strong, whom you behold and know; and the faith which is through Him has given him this wholeness of health before you all.
Ac 3:17 And now, brothers, I know that you acted in aignorance, as also your rulers did;
Ac 3:18 But the things which God 1announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that aHis Christ would bsuffer, He has thus fulfilled.
(2) Exhorting People to Repent and Turn
That They May Partake of the Ascended and Coming Christ
vv. 19-26
Ac 3:19 aRepent therefore and turn, that your sins may be bwiped away,
Ac 3:20 So that seasons of 1refreshing may come from the presence of the 2Lord and that He may send the Christ, who has been previously aappointed for you, Jesus,
Ac 3:21 Whom heaven must indeed receive until the 1times of the arestoration of all things, of which God spoke through the mouth of His holy bprophets 2from of old.
Ac 3:22 Moses said, a“A 1Prophet will the Lord your God braise up unto you from your brothers, like me; Him shall you chear in whatever things He speaks to you.
Ac 3:23 aAnd it shall be that every soul who does not hear that Prophet shall be utterly bdestroyed from among the people.”
Ac 3:24 And also all the prophets, from aSamuel and those in succession after him, as many as spoke, also announced these days.
Ac 3:25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God covenanted with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And ain your 1seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
Ac 3:26 To you afirst, God, having braised up His cServant, has sent 1Him to bless you in dturning each of you away from your wicked deeds.
ACTS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • 

5. The Beginning of the Persecution by the Jewish Religionists
4:1-31
a. The Arrest and Inquiry by the Sanhedrin
vv. 1-7
Ac 4:1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the 1acaptain of the temple and the 2bSadducees came upon them,
Ac 4:2 Being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and announcing 1in Jesus the aresurrection from the dead.
Ac 4:3 And they alaid their hands on them and placed them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
Ac 4:4 But many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of men came to about five athousand.
Ac 4:5 And on the next day their rulers and elders and scribes were 1gathered together in Jerusalem,
Ac 4:6 As well as Annas the high priest and 1aCaiaphas and 2John and Alexander and as many as were of high-priestly descent.
Ac 4:7 And they stood them in the midst and inquired, 1By what power or in what name did you do this?
b. Peter’s Testimony
vv. 8-12
Ac 4:8 Then Peter, 1filled with the Holy aSpirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders,
Ac 4:9 If we today are being examined regarding a good deed done to a asick man, by what means this man has been 1healed,
Ac 4:10 Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that in the aname of Jesus Christ the 1Nazarene, whom 2you bcrucified and whom 3God has craised from the dead, in this name this man stands before you in good health.
Ac 4:11 This is the 1stone which was 2considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the 3ahead of the corner.
Ac 4:12 And there is salvation in no other, for neither is there another aname under heaven given among men in which we must be bsaved.
c. The Sanhedrin’s Prohibition
vv. 13-18
Ac 4:13 And as they beheld the aboldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were 1buneducated men and 2laymen, they marveled and they recognized them, that they had been with Jesus.
Ac 4:14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against it.
Ac 4:15 But they ordered them to go away outside the 1aSanhedrin and conferred with one another,
Ac 4:16 Saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable asign has occurred through them is manifest to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
Ac 4:17 But in order that this would not be spread further among the people, let us threaten them that they no longer speak based upon this name to anyone.
Ac 4:18 And when they called them, they charged them anot to utter anything at all nor teach based upon the name of Jesus.
d. Peter and John’s Reply
vv. 19-20
Ac 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you arather than to God, you judge;
Ac 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have aseen and heard.
e. The Sanhedrin’s Release
vv. 21-22
Ac 4:21 And when they had further threatened them, they released them, finding no way that they could punish them on account of the apeople, because they all were glorifying God for what had happened;
Ac 4:22 For the man on whom this sign of healing had occurred was more than forty years old.
f. The Church’s Praise and Prayer
vv. 23-31
Ac 4:23 And when they had been released, they went to their 1own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
Ac 4:24 And when they heard this, they lifted up their voice with aone accord to God and said, 1Sovereign Master, You are the One who has bmade heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them,
Ac 4:25 Who, through the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, has said, a“Why did the Gentiles 1rage, and the peoples devise vain things?
Ac 4:26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against aHis Christ.”
Ac 4:27 For truly in this city there were agathered together against Your holy bServant Jesus, whom You canointed, both Herod and dPontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
Ac 4:28 To ado what Your hand and Your counsel 1predestined to take place.
Ac 4:29 And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings and grant Your slaves to speak Your word with all aboldness,
Ac 4:30 While astretching out Your hand to heal, and that bsigns and wonders may take place through the cname of Your dholy Servant Jesus.
Ac 4:31 And when they had so besought, the place in which they were gathered was ashaken, and they were all 1filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with bboldness.
6. The Continuation of the Church Life
4:32 — 5:11
a. The Positive Scene
4:32-37
Ac 4:32 And the aheart and bsoul of the multitude of those who had believed was one; and 1not even one said that any of his possessions was his own, but all things were 2common to them.
Ac 4:33 And with great apower the apostles gave 1btestimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great 2cgrace was upon them all.
Ac 4:34 For aneither was anyone among them in need; for as many as were owners of lands or of houses 1sold them and brought the proceeds of the things which were sold
Ac 4:35 And placed them at the afeet of the apostles; and it was bdistributed to each, as anyone had need.
Ac 4:36 And Joseph, who was surnamed 1aBarnabas by the apostles (which is translated, Son of encouragement), a bLevite, a cCyprian by birth,
Ac 4:37 Who possessed a field, sold it and brought the sum of money and placed it at the feet of the apostles.
ACTS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • 

b. The Negative Scene
5:1-11
Ac 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a piece of property
Ac 5:2 And put aside for himself some of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it. And he brought some part of it and laid it at the afeet of the apostles.
Ac 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why has aSatan filled your heart to deceive the 1Holy bSpirit and to put aside for yourself some of the proceeds of the land?
Ac 5:4 While it remained, 1was it not your own? And when it was sold, 1was it not under your authority? Why is it that you have 2contrived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to 3God.
Ac 5:5 And when Ananias heard these words, he afell down and 1expired; and great bfear came upon all those who heard this.
Ac 5:6 And the young men arose and wrapped him up; and carrying him out, they buried him.
Ac 5:7 And it happened that after an interval of about three hours, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.
Ac 5:8 And Peter answered her, Tell me whether you have sold the land for this much? And she said, Yes, for this much.
Ac 5:9 And Peter said to her, Why is it that it was 1agreed between you two to atest the bSpirit of the 2Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
Ac 5:10 And she afell down instantly at his feet and expired. And the young men came in and found her dead; and carrying her out, they buried her with her husband.
Ac 5:11 And great afear came upon the whole 1bchurch and upon all those who heard these things.
7. The Signs and Wonders Done through the Apostles
5:12-16
Ac 5:12 And through the hands of the apostles many 1signs and wonders took place among the people; and they were all with one aaccord in the bportico of Solomon.
Ac 5:13 And none of the rest dared to join themselves to them, but the apeople magnified them.
Ac 5:14 And believers were all the more being added ato the Lord, bmultitudes of both men and women,
Ac 5:15 So that they even carried the sick out into the astreets and placed them on cots and mats, in order that when Peter came, at least his shadow might bovershadow some of them.
Ac 5:16 And the multitude from the cities surrounding Jerusalem also came together, carrying the asick and those troubled by unclean spirits, for such ones were all being healed.
8. The Continuation of the Persecution by the Jewish Religionists
5:17-42
a. The Sanhedrin’s Arrest of the Apostles and the Lord’s Rescue
vv. 17-28
Ac 5:17 And the high priest and all those with him, the local asect of the bSadducees, rose up and were filled with cjealousy;
Ac 5:18 And they alaid their hands on the apostles and put them in public custody.
Ac 5:19 But during the night an aangel of the Lord bopened the doors of the prison, and leading them out, said,
Ac 5:20 Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the 1awords of 2this life.
Ac 5:21 And when they heard this, they entered about daybreak into the temple and began to teach. And the ahigh priest and those with him came up and called together the bSanhedrin, 1even all the council of elders of the sons of Israel, and sent men to the prison for them to be brought.
Ac 5:22 But when the officers arrived, they did not find them in the prison; and they returned and reported,
Ac 5:23 Saying, The prison we found locked with all security, and the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened the doors, we found no one inside.
Ac 5:24 Now when they heard these words, both the 1acaptain of the temple and the chief priests were utterly perplexed concerning them as to what this would come to.
Ac 5:25 And someone came up and reported to them, Behold, the men whom you put in the prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.
Ac 5:26 Then the captain with the officers went away and brought them without violence, for they feared the apeople, lest they would be bstoned.
Ac 5:27 And having brought them, they stood them in the aSanhedrin. And the high priest questioned them,
Ac 5:28 Saying, We 1strictly charged you anot to teach based upon this name; and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s bblood upon us.
b. The Apostles’ Testimony
vv. 29-32
Ac 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered and said, It is necessary to obey God arather than men.
Ac 5:30 The 1God of our afathers has braised Jesus, whom you slew by hanging Him on a ctree.
Ac 5:31 This One God has 1aexalted to His bright hand as 2Leader and cSavior, to 3give 4drepentance to Israel and eforgiveness of sins.
Ac 5:32 And we are awitnesses of these 1things, and so is the Holy 2bSpirit, whom God has given to those who 3obey Him.
c. The Sanhedrin’s Prohibition and Release
vv. 33-40
Ac 5:33 But when they aheard this, they were 1exasperated and intended to do away with them.
Ac 5:34 But a certain 1Pharisee in the aSanhedrin named bGamaliel, a cteacher of the law honored by all the people, stood up and commanded that they put the men outside for a little while.
Ac 5:35 And he said to them, Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves, with regard to these men, in what you are about to do.
Ac 5:36 For before these days Theudas rose up, saying that he was somebody, with whom a number of men, about four hundred, took sides. And he was done away with, and all who were persuaded by him were dispersed and came to nothing.
Ac 5:37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the aenrollment and drew away a group of people after him. And that man perished, and all who were persuaded by him were scattered.
Ac 5:38 And now I say to you, withdraw from these men and leave them alone; for should this acounsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown;
Ac 5:39 But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest you be found to be even afighters against God.
Ac 5:40 And they were persuaded by him. And having called the apostles to them, they abeat them and charged them bnot to speak based upon the name of Jesus; and they released them.
d. The Apostles’ Rejoicing and Faithfulness
vv. 41-42
Ac 5:41 So they went from the presence of the aSanhedrin, brejoicing that they were counted worthy 1to be dishonored on behalf of the cName.
Ac 5:42 And every day, in the 1temple and from 2house to house, they did not cease teaching and aannouncing the gospel of 3Jesus as the bChrist.
ACTS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

9. The Appointment of Seven Deacons
6:1-6
Ac 6:1 And in these days, as the disciples were amultiplying in number, a murmuring of the 1bHellenists against the 2Hebrews occurred, because their cwidows were being overlooked in the daily ddispensing.
Ac 6:2 And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples to them and said, It is not 1fitting for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.
Ac 6:3 But brothers, look for seven awell-attested men from among you, 1full of the bSpirit and of 2cwisdom, whom we will appoint over this need.
Ac 6:4 But we will continue steadfastly in 1aprayer and in the bministry of the word.
Ac 6:5 And the word pleased all the multitude; and they chose Stephen, a man full of afaith and of the Holy bSpirit, and cPhilip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas, a 1proselyte of Antioch,
Ac 6:6 Whom they set before the apostles; and when they had aprayed, they 1blaid their hands on 2them.
10. The Growth of the Word and the Multiplication of the Disciples
6:7
Ac 6:7 And the word of God 1agrew, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem bmultiplied greatly; and a large number of the priests cobeyed the 2dfaith.
11. The Increase of the Persecution by the Jewish Religionists
6:8 — 8:3
a. The Martyrdom of Stephen
6:8 — 7:60
(1) Opposed and Arrested
6:8 — 7:1
Ac 6:8 And Stephen, full of grace and apower, did great 1wonders and signs among the people.
Ac 6:9 But some of those of the 1synagogue which is called the synagogue of the 2Libertines and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen;
Ac 6:10 Yet they were not able to awithstand the wisdom and the bSpirit with which he spoke.
Ac 6:11 Then they instigated some men to asay, We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.
Ac 6:12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and led him to the 1Sanhedrin.
Ac 6:13 And they set up afalse bwitnesses, saying, This man does not cease speaking words cagainst this holy 1place and the law,
Ac 6:14 For we have heard him saying that this Jesus the Nazarene will 1destroy this place and will change the acustoms which Moses delivered to us.
Ac 6:15 And all those sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw his face as though it were the 1face of an angel.
ACTS 7

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Ac 7:1 And the high priest said, Are these things so?
(2) Testifying
7:2-53
Ac 7:2 And he said, 1Men, abrothers and fathers, listen. The God of 2bglory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in cMesopotamia, before he dwelt in dHaran,
Ac 7:3 And said to him, a“Come out from your land and from your relatives, and come into the land which I will show you.”
Ac 7:4 Then he acame forth from the land of the bChaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, after his father cdied, He 1removed him into this land, in which you now dwell.
Ac 7:5 Yet He did not give him an inheritance in it, not even a place to set his foot on; and He apromised to give it to him for a possession and to his bseed after him, while he had cno child.
Ac 7:6 And God spoke in this way, that his seed would be a asojourner in a 1foreign land, and 2they would benslave them and mistreat them 3cfour hundred years.
Ac 7:7 “And whatever nation they will aserve as slaves I will judge,” said God, “and after these things they will come forth and bserve Me as priests in this place.”
Ac 7:8 And He gave to him a acovenant of circumcision; and thus Abraham begot bIsaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac, cJacob; and Jacob, the dtwelve patriarchs.
Ac 7:9 And the patriarchs became ajealous of Joseph and bsold him into Egypt; yet God was cwith him
Ac 7:10 And rescued him out of all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he aappointed him governor over Egypt and over all his house.
Ac 7:11 And a afamine came over all Egypt and Canaan as well as great affliction; and our fathers could find no 1sustenance.
Ac 7:12 But when Jacob heard that there was agrain in Egypt, he sent our fathers out the first time.
Ac 7:13 And during the second time Joseph was amade known to his brothers, and Joseph’s race became manifest to bPharaoh.
Ac 7:14 And Joseph sent word and called for Jacob his afather and all his family, 1seventy-five souls in all.
Ac 7:15 And aJacob went down into Egypt; and he bended his days, he and our fathers.
Ac 7:16 And they were carried over to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had abought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
Ac 7:17 But as the time of the apromise which God had assured to Abraham drew near, the people grew and were bmultiplied in Egypt,
Ac 7:18 Until 1another aking rose up over Egypt who did not know of Joseph.
Ac 7:19 This one dealt acraftily with our race and mistreated our fathers, so that they threw out their bbabies in order that they would not be kept alive.
Ac 7:20 At this time 1Moses was born and was 2lovely to God. And he was nurtured athree months in his father’s house.
Ac 7:21 And when he was 1thrown out, Pharaoh’s adaughter took him up and nurtured him as a son for herself.
Ac 7:22 And Moses was educated in all the 1awisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and works.
Ac 7:23 But when he was approaching forty years of age, it came into his heart to visit his abrothers, the sons of Israel.
Ac 7:24 And when he saw one of them being wronged, he defended him, and he avenged him who was being oppressed by striking the Egyptian dead.
Ac 7:25 And he supposed that his brothers understood that God through his hand was giving salvation to them; but they did not understand.
Ac 7:26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were afighting and tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, 1Men, you are brothers. Why are you wronging one another?
Ac 7:27 But the one who was wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, a“Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?
Ac 7:28 Do you want to do away with me the same way you did away with the Egyptian yesterday?”
Ac 7:29 And Moses afled at this word and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begot two bsons.
Ac 7:30 And when forty years had been fulfilled, an 1Angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a athornbush fire.
Ac 7:31 And when Moses saw it, he marveled at the vision; and as he approached to examine it, there came the voice of the 1Lord:
Ac 7:32 a“I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.” And Moses trembled and dared not 1examine it.
Ac 7:33 And the Lord said to him, a“Untie the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.
Ac 7:34 1aI have surely seen the ill-treatment of My people who are in Egypt and have bheard their groaning, and I have come down to crescue them. And now, come, I will send you into Egypt.”
Ac 7:35 This Moses, whom they refused, saying, aWho appointed you a ruler and a judge? this one God has sent as both a ruler and a redeemer, along with the hand of the bAngel who 1appeared to him in the thornbush.
Ac 7:36 This man led them aout, doing bwonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the cRed Sea and in the dwilderness for eforty years.
Ac 7:37 This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, a“A Prophet will God raise up unto you from your brothers, like me.”
Ac 7:38 This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the aAngel who spoke to him in bMount Sinai and with our fathers, and who received living coracles to give to us.
Ac 7:39 To him our fathers were not willing to become obedient, but thrust him away and aturned in their hearts to Egypt,
Ac 7:40 Saying to Aaron, a“Make gods for us who will go before us; for this Moses, who has led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.”
Ac 7:41 And they made a 1acalf in those days and brought up a sacrifice to the idol and were glad with the works of their hands.
Ac 7:42 But God turned and adelivered them up to 1serve the 2bhost of heaven, even as it is written in the 3book of the prophets, c“Did you offer slain beasts and sacrifices to Me for dforty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Ac 7:43 And you took up the 1tabernacle of aMoloch and the star of your god 2Rompha, the images which you made to worship. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.”
Ac 7:44 The aTabernacle of the bTestimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, even as He who spoke to Moses instructed him to make it, according to the cpattern which he had seen.
Ac 7:45 This tabernacle our fathers, having in their turn received, also brought in with aJoshua when they took bpossession of the nations, whom God cdrove out before the face of our fathers until the days of dDavid,
Ac 7:46 Who found favor before God and asked to find a ahabitation for the bGod of Jacob.
Ac 7:47 But Solomon abuilt Him a house.
Ac 7:48 Yet the 1Most High does 2not adwell in that which is made by hands, even as the prophet says,
Ac 7:49 “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is a footstool for My feet. 1What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest?
Ac 7:50 Has not My hand made all these things?”
Ac 7:51 You astiff-necked and uncircumcised in bhearts and cears, you always 1oppose the Holy 2Spirit; as your fathers did, you also do.
Ac 7:52 Which of the aprophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand concerning the coming of the brighteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become,
Ac 7:53 You who received the alaw as 1ordinances of bangels and did not keep it.
(3) Killed
7:54-60
Ac 7:54 Now as they aheard these things, they were 1exasperated and bgnashed their teeth at him.
Ac 7:55 But being 1full of the Holy Spirit, he looked intently into heaven and saw the 2aglory of God and Jesus 3standing at the bright hand of God;
Ac 7:56 And he said, Behold, I see the 1heavens aopened up and the bSon of Man standing at the right hand of God.
Ac 7:57 But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed upon him with one accord.
Ac 7:58 And they threw him aoutside of the city and bstoned him. And the cwitnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man called 1dSaul.
Ac 7:59 And they stoned Stephen as he 1called upon the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my aspirit!
Ac 7:60 And akneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do 1not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell basleep.
ACTS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

b. The Devastation of the Church in Jerusalem
8:1-3
Ac 8:1 And Saul aapproved of his killing. And there occurred in that day a great bpersecution against the 1cchurch which was in Jerusalem; and all were dscattered throughout the regions of eJudea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Ac 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him.
Ac 8:3 But aSaul was bdevastating the cchurch, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he delivered them to dprison.
12. The Preaching by Philip
8:4-40
a. In Samaria
vv. 4-25
(1) Proclaiming Christ and the Kingdom of God
vv. 4-13
Ac 8:4 Those therefore who were scattered went throughout the land 1aannouncing the word as the gospel.
Ac 8:5 And 1Philip 2went down to the city of aSamaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.
Ac 8:6 And the crowds gave heed with one accord to the things said by Philip as they heard and saw the asigns which he did.
Ac 8:7 For with many of those who had unclean spirits, the spirits came out crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
Ac 8:8 And there was much ajoy in that city.
Ac 8:9 And a certain man named Simon had previously been practicing amagic in the city and had been bamazing the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great.
Ac 8:10 To him they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of aGod which is called Great.
Ac 8:11 And they gave heed to him because for a considerable time he had amazed them with his magic.
Ac 8:12 But when they believed Philip, who 1announced the gospel of the akingdom of God and of the name of bJesus Christ, they were cbaptized, both men and women.
Ac 8:13 And even Simon himself believed, and once he had been baptized, he continued steadfastly with Philip. And as he beheld the 1asigns and great works of power taking place, he was bamazed.
(2) Confirmed by the Apostles
vv. 14-25
Ac 8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,
Ac 8:15 Who went down and prayed for them so that they might 1receive the Holy Spirit;
Ac 8:16 For He had 1not yet fallen upon any of them, but they had only been abaptized 2into the 3name of the Lord Jesus.
Ac 8:17 Then they 1alaid their hands on them, and they 2received the Holy Spirit.
Ac 8:18 But when Simon saw that through the laying on of the hands of the apostles the 1Spirit was given, he offered them 2money, saying,
Ac 8:19 Give me also this authority that on whomever I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Spirit.
Ac 8:20 But Peter said to him, May your silver go with you into 1destruction, because you thought that you would aacquire the bgift of God through money.
Ac 8:21 You have no part nor lot in 1this matter, for your aheart is not straight before God.
Ac 8:22 aRepent therefore from this wickedness of yours and beseech the Lord if perhaps the intent of your heart may be forgiven you;
Ac 8:23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of unrighteousness.
Ac 8:24 And Simon answered and said, You beseech the Lord on my behalf, so that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me.
Ac 8:25 They therefore, having solemnly 1atestified and spoken the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem; and they bannounced the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
b. To an Ethiopian
vv. 26-39
Ac 8:26 But an aangel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Rise up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to bGaza. This is the desert route.
Ac 8:27 And he rose up and went. And behold, an 1Ethiopian man, a aeunuch, a man in power under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her btreasure, had come to Jerusalem to 2cworship.
Ac 8:28 And he was returning and was sitting in his chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.
Ac 8:29 And the 1aSpirit said to Philip, Approach and join this chariot.
Ac 8:30 And when Philip ran up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you really know the things that you are reading?
Ac 8:31 And he said, How could I aunless someone guides me? And he entreated Philip to come up and sit with him.
Ac 8:32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “As a sheep 1aHe was led to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so He does bnot open His mouth.
Ac 8:33 In His ahumiliation His judgment was taken away. Who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken away from the earth.”
Ac 8:34 And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I beseech you, Concerning whom does the prophet say this? Concerning himself or concerning someone else?
Ac 8:35 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this aScripture he bannounced Jesus as the gospel to him.
Ac 8:36 And as they were going along the road, they came upon some water, and the eunuch said, Look, 1water. What prevents me from being abaptized?
Ac 8:37 1And Philip said, If you believe from all your heart, you will be saved. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Ac 8:38 And he ordered the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he abaptized him.
Ac 8:39 And when they came up aout of the water, the bSpirit of the Lord ccaught Philip away; and the eunuch did not see him anymore, for he went on his way drejoicing.
c. Unto Caesarea
v. 40
Ac 8:40 But Philip was found in Azotus; and passing through, he aannounced the gospel to all the cities until he came to bCaesarea.
ACTS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • 

13. The Conversion of Saul
9:1-30
a. Appeared To by the Lord
vv. 1-9
Ac 9:1 But aSaul, still breathing threatening and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
Ac 9:2 And asked for aletters from him to Damascus for the bsynagogues, so that if he found any who were of the 1cWay, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Ac 9:3 And as he went, he adrew near to Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
Ac 9:4 And he fell on the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting 1aMe?
Ac 9:5 And he said, Who are You, 1Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
Ac 9:6 But arise up and enter into the city, and it 1will be told to you bwhat you must do.
Ac 9:7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, ahearing the voice but seeing no one.
Ac 9:8 And Saul rose from the ground; and though his eyes were open, he could see 1nothing. And they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
Ac 9:9 And he was three days without seeing, and he neither ate nor drank.
b. Confirmed through Ananias
vv. 10-19
Ac 9:10 And there was a certain disciple in Damascus named aAnanias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, bI am here, Lord.
Ac 9:11 And the Lord said to him, aRise up and 1go to the lane called Straight, and seek in the house of Judas a man from bTarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying;
Ac 9:12 And he has seen in a avision a man named Ananias coming in and blaying his hands on him so that he may 1creceive his sight.
Ac 9:13 But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many concerning this man, how many evil things he has done to Your asaints in Jerusalem;
Ac 9:14 And here he has aauthority from the chief priests to bind all who 1bcall upon Your name.
Ac 9:15 But the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is a 1chosen avessel to Me, to bear My bname before both the cGentiles and dkings and the sons of Israel;
Ac 9:16 For I will show him how amany things he must suffer on behalf of My name.
Ac 9:17 And aAnanias went away and entered into the house; and 1blaying his hands on him, he said, Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me — Jesus, who appeared to you on the road on which you were coming — so that you may creceive your sight and be 2filled with the Holy Spirit.
Ac 9:18 And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he 1received his sight and rose up and was 2abaptized.
Ac 9:19 And once he had taken food, he was strengthened. And he was with the disciples in aDamascus for some days.
c. Beginning to Preach
vv. 20-30
Ac 9:20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the 1synagogues, that this One is the aSon of God.
Ac 9:21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is this not the one who aravaged those who bcall upon this name in Jerusalem and came here for this, that he might bring them bound before the chief priests?
Ac 9:22 But Saul was all the more aempowered, and he bconfounded the Jews dwelling in Damascus by proving that this One is the cChrist.
Ac 9:23 And as a considerable number of days were being fulfilled, the Jews took counsel together to ado away with him;
Ac 9:24 But their aplot was made known to Saul. And they also bwatched the gates closely, both day and night, so that they might cdo away with him.
Ac 9:25 But his disciples took him by night and alet him down through the wall, blowering him in a basket.
Ac 9:26 And when he arrived in aJerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; yet all feared him, not believing that he was a disciple.
Ac 9:27 But aBarnabas took hold of him and bled him to the apostles, and he related to them how Saul had cseen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken dboldly in the name of Jesus.
Ac 9:28 And he was with them, agoing in and going out in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.
Ac 9:29 And he spoke and disputed with the aHellenists, but they attempted to bdo away with him.
Ac 9:30 But when the abrothers realized it, they brought him down to bCaesarea and sent him forth to cTarsus.
14. The Building Up and Multiplication of the Church
9:31
Ac 9:31 So then the 1achurch throughout the whole of bJudea and Galilee and Samaria had 2peace, 3being built up; and going on in the 4cfear of the Lord and in the 5comfort of the Holy Spirit, it was dmultiplied.
15. The Spreading of Peter’s Ministry
9:32-43
a. To Lydda
vv. 32-35
Ac 9:32 Now as Peter was passing through all those parts, he came down also to the asaints dwelling at 1Lydda.
Ac 9:33 And he found there a certain man named Aeneas, who for eight years had been lying on a mat, for he was aparalyzed.
Ac 9:34 And Peter said to him, Aeneas, aJesus Christ heals you. bRise up and 1make up your own bed. And immediately he rose up.
Ac 9:35 And all those dwelling in Lydda and aSharon saw him; and they bturned to the Lord.
b. To Joppa
vv. 36-43
Ac 9:36 Now in aJoppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is 1Dorcas); this woman was full of bgood works and alms which she did.
Ac 9:37 And in those days she became ill and died; and they bathed 1her body and laid it in an aupper room.
Ac 9:38 Now because Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was 1there, and they sent two men to him, entreating him, Do not delay to come through to us.
Ac 9:39 And Peter rose up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him up into the upper room. And all the awidows stood by him, weeping and showing him 1tunics and garments, all of which Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Ac 9:40 And Peter put them all aoutside; and bkneeling down, he cprayed; and he turned to the body and said, Tabitha, drise up. And she opened her eyes; and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
Ac 9:41 And giving her his hand, he raised her up. And when he had called the saints and the widows, he apresented her alive.
Ac 9:42 And it became known throughout all of Joppa and many abelieved on the Lord.
Ac 9:43 And he remained a considerable number of days in Joppa with a certain Simon, a atanner.
ACTS 10

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16. The Spreading to the Gentiles
10:1 — 11:18
a. Cornelius’s Vision
10:1-8
Ac 10:1 Now there was in aCaesarea a certain man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the 1Italian 2cohort,
Ac 10:2 1aDevout and one who bfeared God with all his household, giving many alms to the people and beseeching God continually.
Ac 10:3 He saw clearly in a 1avision around the 2bninth hour of the day an cangel of God coming in to him and saying to him, Cornelius.
Ac 10:4 And he looked intently at him and became terrified and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your aprayers and your alms have ascended as a 1bmemorial before God.
Ac 10:5 And now send men to Joppa and send for a certain Simon, who is surnamed Peter;
Ac 10:6 This man is lodging with a certain Simon, a atanner, whose house is by the sea.
Ac 10:7 And when the angel who was speaking to him went away, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on him;
Ac 10:8 And relating all things to them, he sent them to Joppa.
b. Peter’s Vision
10:9-16
Ac 10:9 And on the next day as they were journeying and drawing near to the city, Peter went up on the ahousetop to 1bpray around the 2sixth hour.
Ac 10:10 And he became very 1hungry and wanted to 2eat. And while they were preparing, a 3atrance came upon him;
Ac 10:11 And he beheld 1heaven aopened, and a certain 2vessel like a great sheet descending, being let down by four corners onto the earth,
Ac 10:12 In which were all the four-footed 1animals and reptiles of the earth and birds of heaven.
Ac 10:13 And a voice came to him: Rise up, Peter; slay and 1eat!
Ac 10:14 But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have 1anever eaten anything bcommon and cunclean.
Ac 10:15 And a voice came to him again a second time: The 1things that God has acleansed, do not make common.
Ac 10:16 And this occurred three times; and immediately the vessel was taken up into heaven.
c. Peter’s Visit
10:17-33
Ac 10:17 Now as Peter was utterly perplexed in himself as to what the 1avision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made diligent inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate.
Ac 10:18 And they called out and inquired whether Simon, who is surnamed Peter, was lodging there.
Ac 10:19 And while Peter was pondering over the vision, the aSpirit said to him, Behold, there are three men seeking you.
Ac 10:20 But rise up, go down and go with them, doubting nothing, because 1I have sent them.
Ac 10:21 And Peter went down to the men and said, Behold, I am he whom you seek; what is the cause for which you have come?
Ac 10:22 And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous man and one who afears God and is bwell attested to by the whole nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a choly angel to send for you to come to his house and hear dwords from you.
Ac 10:23 So he called them in and lodged them. And on the next day he rose up and went away with them; and 1asome of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.
Ac 10:24 And on the next day they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius was awaiting them, having called together his relatives and intimate friends.
Ac 10:25 And when Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and afalling at his feet, worshipped him.
Ac 10:26 But Peter raised him up, saying, Rise up; I myself am also a aman.
Ac 10:27 And as he talked with him, he entered and found many who had come together.
Ac 10:28 And he said to them, You understand that it is unlawful for a man who is a Jew to join himself to or come near one of aanother race; yet God has shown me that I should not call any 1man bcommon or unclean.
Ac 10:29 Hence, even without objection I came when I had been sent for. I ask therefore, For what reason have you sent for me?
Ac 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago to this hour I was praying at the ninth hour in my house, and behold, a man stood before me ain bright clothing,
Ac 10:31 And he said, Cornelius, your prayer has been aheard and your alms have been bremembered before God.
Ac 10:32 Send therefore to Joppa and call for Simon, who is surnamed Peter; this man is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.
Ac 10:33 Therefore I sent men at once to you, and you have done nobly in coming. Now therefore we all are present before God to hear all the things that have been commanded to you by the Lord.
d. Peter’s Message
10:34-43
Ac 10:34 And opening his mouth, Peter said, In truth I perceive that God is not a arespecter of persons,
Ac 10:35 But in aevery nation he who bfears Him and works crighteousness is 1acceptable to Him.
Ac 10:36 The word which He sent to the sons of Israel in announcing the gospel of apeace through Jesus Christ (this One is bLord of 1all)
Ac 10:37 You yourselves know, 1the word which has been spoken throughout the whole of Judea, beginning from aGalilee after the baptism which John proclaimed:
Ac 10:38 Jesus, the One from aNazareth, how God banointed Him with the Holy cSpirit and with dpower, who went about doing good and healing all those who were being eoppressed by the devil, for God was fwith Him.
Ac 10:39 And we are awitnesses of all the things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom also they bdid away with by hanging Him on a ctree.
Ac 10:40 This One, 1God araised on the bthird day; and He has made Him 2cmanifest,
Ac 10:41 Not to all the people, but to awitnesses appointed beforehand by God, to us, ones who bate and drank with Him after 1He rose from the dead.
Ac 10:42 And He has acharged us to proclaim to the people and solemnly btestify that this is the One who was designated by God to be the 1cJudge of the dliving and the dead.
Ac 10:43 To this One all the aprophets testify that through His bname everyone who cbelieves into Him will receive 1dforgiveness of sins.
e. The Gentile Believers’ Baptism in the Holy Spirit
10:44-46
Ac 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy aSpirit 1fell upon all those 2hearing the word.
Ac 10:45 And the believers who were of the acircumcision, bas many as had accompanied Peter, were amazed, because on the cGentiles also the 1dgift of the Holy Spirit had been 2poured out;
Ac 10:46 For they heard them 1aspeaking in tongues and 2magnifying God. Then Peter answered,
f. The Gentile Believers’ Water Baptism
10:47-48
Ac 10:47 Can anyone forbid the water so that these would not be abaptized, who have received the Holy Spirit even 1bas we?
Ac 10:48 And he charged them to be 1baptized 2in the 3name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
ACTS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

g. The Recognition by the Apostles and the Brothers in Judea
11:1-18
Ac 11:1 And the apostles and the abrothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
Ac 11:2 And when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those of the 1acircumcision disputed with him,
Ac 11:3 Saying, You went in to men who are uncircumcised and aate bwith them.
Ac 11:4 And Peter began, and he explained to them in sequence, saying,
Ac 11:5 I was in the city of Joppa apraying, and I saw in a trance a vision, a certain vessel like a great sheet descending, being let down by four corners out of heaven; and it came unto me.
Ac 11:6 Looking intently into it, I examined it and saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the reptiles and the birds of heaven.
Ac 11:7 And I also heard a voice saying to me, Rise up, Peter; slay and eat!
Ac 11:8 But I said, By no means, Lord, for no common or unclean thing has ever entered into my mouth.
Ac 11:9 And a voice answered a second time out of heaven, The things that God has cleansed, do not make common.
Ac 11:10 And this occurred three times, and everything was drawn up again into heaven.
Ac 11:11 And behold, at that moment three men stood at the house in which we were, having been sent from Caesarea to me.
Ac 11:12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, 1doubting nothing. And 2these asix brothers went with me also; and we entered into the man’s house.
Ac 11:13 And he reported to us how he saw the angel standing in his house and saying, Send men to Joppa and send for Simon, who is surnamed Peter,
Ac 11:14 Who will speak words to you by which you shall be saved, you and all your 1house.
Ac 11:15 And as I began to speak, the Holy aSpirit fell on them just as also on us bin the beginning.
Ac 11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, aJohn baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Ac 11:17 If therefore God has given to them the equal agift bas also to us who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, cwho was I that I could have forbidden God?
Ac 11:18 And when they heard these things, they became silent and aglorified God, saying, Then to the bGentiles also God has given crepentance unto 1life.
17. The Spreading to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch
11:19-26
Ac 11:19 Those then who were 1ascattered by the tribulation which took place on account of Stephen passed through as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to 2no one except Jews only.
Ac 11:20 But there were some of them, 1men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and 2spoke also to the aGreeks, bannouncing the Lord Jesus as the gospel.
Ac 11:21 And the ahand of the Lord was with them, and a bgreat number who believed cturned to the Lord.
Ac 11:22 And the account concerning them was heard in the ears of the achurch which was in Jerusalem, and they 1sent out 2Barnabas to pass through as far as Antioch,
Ac 11:23 Who, when he arrived and saw the 1agrace of God, brejoiced and encouraged them all to 2remain with the Lord with cpurpose of heart;
Ac 11:24 For he was a good man and 1full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a aconsiderable 2number was badded to the Lord.
Ac 11:25 And he went forth to aTarsus to search for Saul;
Ac 11:26 And when he found him, he brought him to aAntioch. And it happened with them that for a whole year they were gathered in the bchurch and taught a considerable number and that the disciples were first called 1cChristians in Antioch.
18. The Communication between the Church in Antioch and the Saints in Judea
11:27-30
Ac 11:27 And in these days 1aprophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Ac 11:28 And one of them named aAgabus rose up and signified through the bSpirit that there was about to be a great cfamine over the whole inhabited earth, which occurred during the time of 1dClaudius.
Ac 11:29 And the 1disciples, according to how one was 2prospered, determined, each one of them, to asend things 3for bdispensing to the cbrothers dwelling in Judea,
Ac 11:30 Which also they did, sending it to the 1aelders through the hand of bBarnabas and 2Saul.
ACTS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

19. The Persecution by the Roman Politician
12:1-23
a. The Mistreatment of Some Believers and the Martyrdom of James
vv. 1-2
Ac 12:1 Now about that time 1Herod the king laid hands on some from the achurch in order to bmistreat them.
Ac 12:2 And he adid away with bJames, the brother of John, with the csword.
b. The Arrest of Peter
vv. 3-19a
(1) Guarded in Prison
vv. 3-5a
Ac 12:3 And when he saw that it was apleasing to the Jews, he went on to arrest Peter also (now those were the days of bUnleavened Bread),
Ac 12:4 Whom also he aseized and put in bprison, delivering him to four 1quaternions of soldiers to guard him, intending after the cPassover to bring him out to the people.
Ac 12:5 So then Peter was kept in the prison;
(2) Rescued by the Lord
vv. 5b-19a
but aprayer was being made fervently by the bchurch to God concerning him.
Ac 12:6 And when Herod was about to bring him forward, that night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, abound with two chains; and guards before the door were keeping the prison.
Ac 12:7 And behold, an aangel of the Lord bstood by him, and a light shined in the cell; and he cstruck Peter’s side and roused him, saying, Rise up quickly. And his dchains fell off his hands.
Ac 12:8 And the angel said to him, Gird yourself and tie on your asandals. And he did so. And he said to him, Throw your cloak around you and follow me.
Ac 12:9 And he went out and followed him; yet he did not know that what was taking place through the angel was real, but thought that he was seeing a avision.
Ac 12:10 And passing the first guard and the second, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which aopened of itself to them. And going out, they went forward one lane; and immediately the angel departed from him.
Ac 12:11 And Peter 1came to himself and said, Now I know truly that the Lord has sent forth His aangel and brescued me out of Herod’s hand and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.
Ac 12:12 And when he became aware of this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of aJohn, who was surnamed Mark, where there was a considerable number assembled together and bpraying.
Ac 12:13 And when he knocked at the door of the entry, a maiden named Rhoda came to listen.
Ac 12:14 And when she recognized Peter’s voice, she did not open the gate for joy, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing before the entry.
Ac 12:15 But they said to her, You are crazy! But she insisted that it was so. And they said, It is 1his angel.
Ac 12:16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the gate, they saw him and were beside themselves.
Ac 12:17 And amotioning to them with his hand to be silent, he related to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison, and he said, Report these things to 1bJames and the cbrothers. And going out, he went to another place.
Ac 12:18 Now when it became day, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers, they not knowing what had become of Peter.
Ac 12:19 And when Herod searched for him and did not find him,
c. The Fate of the Persecutors
vv. 19b-23
he examined the guards and ordered that they be led off to execution. And he went down from Judea to aCaesarea and spent time there.
Ac 12:20 Now he was furious with the Tyrians and Sidonians. And they came to him with one accord; and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s 1chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country was afed from the king’s country.
Ac 12:21 And on an appointed day Herod arrayed himself in royal clothing and sat on the judgment seat; and he delivered a public address to them.
Ac 12:22 And the populace cried out, The voice of a god and not of a man!
Ac 12:23 And instantly an aangel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the bglory to God; and he was eaten by cworms and 1expired.
20. The Growth and Multiplication of the Word
12:24
Ac 12:24 But the word of 1God agrew and multiplied.
B. In the Gentile Lands through the Ministry of Paul’s Company
12:25 — 28:31
1. The Initiation
12:25
Ac 12:25 And 1Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, having completed the adispensing; and they took along with them bJohn, who was surnamed Mark.
ACTS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • 

2. Set Apart and Sent by the Holy Spirit
13:1-4a
Ac 13:1 Now there were in aAntioch, in the local 1bchurch, 2cprophets and 3teachers: 4dBarnabas and Simeon, who was called 5Niger, and 6Lucius the Cyrenian, and 7Manaen, the foster brother of 8eHerod the tetrarch, and 9fSaul.
Ac 13:2 And as they were 1ministering to the Lord and fasting, the 2Holy aSpirit said, 3bSet apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the cwork to which I have dcalled them.
Ac 13:3 Then, when they had 1afasted and prayed and 2blaid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Ac 13:4 They then, having been sent out by the Holy 1Spirit,
3. The First Journey
13:4b — 14:28
a. To Paphos of Cyprus
13:4b-12
2went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed away to aCyprus.
Ac 13:5 And when they were in Salamis, they announced the aword of God 1in the 2bsynagogues of the Jews. And they also had cJohn as their dattendant.
Ac 13:6 And when they had passed through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain man, a amagician and Jewish bfalse prophet, whose name was Bar-jesus,
Ac 13:7 Who was with the 1aproconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man; the latter called Barnabas and Saul to him and sought to hear the word of God.
Ac 13:8 But Elymas the amagician (for so his name is translated) bopposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the 1faith.
Ac 13:9 But Saul, who is also 1Paul, 2filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
Ac 13:10 And said, O you who are full of all deceit and all unscrupulousness, son of the adevil, enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the 1straight ways of the Lord?
Ac 13:11 And now, behold, the ahand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And instantly a mist and a darkness fell upon him; and he went about and sought some to lead him by the hand.
Ac 13:12 Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
b. To Pisidian Antioch
13:13-52
(1) Preaching the Crucified and Resurrected Christ as the Savior
vv. 13-43
Ac 13:13 And putting out to sea from Paphos, Paul and his companions came to aPerga of bPamphylia; and cJohn 1departed from them and returned to Jerusalem.
Ac 13:14 And they passed through from Perga and arrived at Pisidian aAntioch. And they went into the bsynagogue 1on the cSabbath day and sat down.
Ac 13:15 And after the areading of the bLaw and the Prophets, the synagogue crulers sent word to them, saying, 1Men, brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.
Ac 13:16 And Paul, rising up and motioning with his hand, said, 1Men of Israel and 2those who afear God, listen.
Ac 13:17 The God of this people aIsrael bchose our fathers and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of cEgypt, and with a 1high arm He dled them out of it.
Ac 13:18 And for a time of about aforty years 1He carried them as a bnurse in the wilderness.
Ac 13:19 And when He had overthrown aseven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an binheritance.
Ac 13:20 And after these things, for about 1four hundred and fifty years, He gave them ajudges until bSamuel the prophet.
Ac 13:21 And afterward they asked for a aking; and God gave them bSaul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
Ac 13:22 And when He had adeposed him, He raised up bDavid for them as king, to whom also He testified and said, I have cfound David, the son of Jesse, a man according to My 1heart, who will do all My dwill.
Ac 13:23 From this man’s aseed, God, according to bpromise, brought to Israel a cSavior, Jesus,
Ac 13:24 After aJohn had proclaimed, 1prior to His public entrance, a 2baptism of brepentance to all the people of Israel.
Ac 13:25 Now as John was completing his course, he said, What do you 1suppose that I am? I am anot the Christ. But behold, One is coming after me, the bsandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.
Ac 13:26 1Men, brothers, sons of the race of Abraham, and 2those among you who afear God, to us the bword of this salvation has been sent forth.
Ac 13:27 For those dwelling in Jerusalem and their rulers, being aignorant of this One and of the 1words of the prophets which are bread every Sabbath, fulfilled them by 2judging Him.
Ac 13:28 And though they did anot find one cause of death in Him, they asked of bPilate that He be done away with.
Ac 13:29 And when they had accomplished all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the atree and laid Him in a btomb.
Ac 13:30 But 1God araised Him from the dead.
Ac 13:31 And for many days He aappeared to those who had come up with Him from bGalilee to Jerusalem, who are now His cwitnesses to the people.
Ac 13:32 And we aannounce to you the gospel of the bpromise made to the fathers,
Ac 13:33 That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, a“You are My Son; this day have I 1begotten You.”
Ac 13:34 And as to His having araised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to corruption, He spoke in this way, “I will give you 1the 2holy things of David, the faithful things.”
Ac 13:35 Therefore He also says in another place, a“You will not 1allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
Ac 13:36 Now David, having 1served his own generation by the acounsel of God, did indeed fall basleep and was 2buried with his fathers and saw corruption;
Ac 13:37 But He whom 1God has araised did not see corruption.
Ac 13:38 Therefore let it be known to you, 1men, brothers, that through this One aforgiveness of sins is announced to you;
Ac 13:39 And from all the things from which you were anot able to be justified 1by the law of Moses, in this One everyone who bbelieves is 2cjustified.
Ac 13:40 Therefore beware that what is spoken in the prophets does not come upon you:
Ac 13:41 a“Look, you despisers, and bmarvel, and vanish away; for I am doing a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though someone tells it to you in detail.”
Ac 13:42 And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people begged that these words would be spoken to them on the next aSabbath.
Ac 13:43 And when the synagogue gathering had been dismissed, many of the Jews and the adevout 1bproselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to ccontinue in the 2dgrace of God.
(2) Rejected by the Jews
vv. 44-52
Ac 13:44 And on the following Sabbath almost all the city gathered together to hear the word of God.
Ac 13:45 But when the aJews saw the crowds, they were filled with bjealousy and contradicted the things being spoken by Paul and cblasphemed.
Ac 13:46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke aboldly and said, It was necessary for the bword of God to be spoken to you cfirst. Since you thrust it away and do 1not judge yourselves dworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the eGentiles.
Ac 13:47 For so the Lord has commanded us, “I have set 1you as a alight of the Gentiles, that you would be for salvation unto the buttermost part of the earth.”
Ac 13:48 And the Gentiles, hearing this, rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were 1appointed to eternal life abelieved.
Ac 13:49 And the word of the Lord was carried through the whole region.
Ac 13:50 But the Jews aincited the bwomen of high standing who cworshipped God, and the chief men of the city, and draised up a epersecution against Paul and Barnabas and fcast them out from their borders.
Ac 13:51 But they ashook off the dust of their feet against them and came to bIconium.
Ac 13:52 And the disciples were 1filled with ajoy and with the Holy Spirit.
ACTS 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

c. To Iconium
14:1-5
Ac 14:1 And in aIconium they entered together 1into the 2bsynagogue of the Jews and spoke in such a way that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed.
Ac 14:2 But the Jews who were adisobedient bstirred up and ill-affected the 1minds of the Gentiles against the cbrothers.
Ac 14:3 Therefore they spent a considerable amount of time speaking with aboldness in the Lord, who btestified to the word of His 1cgrace by granting 2dsigns and wonders to be done through their hands.
Ac 14:4 But the multitude of the city was adivided, and bsome were with the Jews and some with the apostles.
Ac 14:5 And when a hostile attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to treat the apostles aoutrageously and to bstone them,
d. To Lystra and Derbe of Lycaonia
14:6-21a
Ac 14:6 They became aware of it and afled to the cities of Lycaonia, bLystra and cDerbe, and the surrounding region.
Ac 14:7 And there they aannounced the gospel.
Ac 14:8 And in Lystra a certain man was sitting, without strength in his feet, alame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.
Ac 14:9 This man heard Paul speaking, who, looking intently at him and seeing that he had afaith to be 1healed,
Ac 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet. And he aleaped up and began to walk.
Ac 14:11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in Lycaonian, The agods have become like men and have come down to us.
Ac 14:12 And they called Barnabas, 1Zeus, and Paul, 2Hermes, since he was the one who took the lead in the discourse.
Ac 14:13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was before the city, brought bulls and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer a sacrifice with the crowds.
Ac 14:14 But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard this, they atore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out
Ac 14:15 And saying, 1Men, why are you doing these things? We also are amen of blike feeling as you, and cannounce the gospel to you that you should turn from these 2dvain things eto the fliving God, who gmade heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them;
Ac 14:16 Who in the generations agone by ballowed all the nations to go their ways.
Ac 14:17 And yet He did anot leave Himself without witness, in that He did good by giving you brain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your chearts with dfood and gladness.
Ac 14:18 And saying these things, they restrained the crowds only with difficulty from offering sacrifices to them.
Ac 14:19 But aJews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having bpersuaded the crowds, they cstoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, supposing that he was dead.
Ac 14:20 But as the disciples surrounded him, he rose up and entered into the city. And on the next day he went out with Barnabas to aDerbe.
Ac 14:21 And when they had aannounced the gospel to that city and had made a considerable number of bdisciples,
e. Establishing the Disciples and Appointing Elders on the Way Back
14:21b-25a
they returned to cLystra and to dIconium and to eAntioch,
Ac 14:22 aEstablishing the 1souls of the disciples, exhorting them to 2bcontinue in the 3cfaith and saying that through many dtribulations we must enter into the 4ekingdom of God.
Ac 14:23 And when they had appointed 1aelders for them 2in every bchurch and had prayed with cfastings, they dcommitted them to the Lord into whom they had believed.
Ac 14:24 And they passed through Pisidia and came to aPamphylia.
Ac 14:25 And when they had spoken the word1 in Perga,
f. Back to Antioch, Ending the First Journey
14:25b-28
they came down to Attalia.
Ac 14:26 And from there they sailed away to aAntioch, where they had been commended to the 1grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
Ac 14:27 And when they 1arrived and 2gathered the achurch together, they bdeclared the things that God had done with them and that He had copened a door of faith to the dGentiles.
Ac 14:28 And they spent no little time there with the disciples.
ACTS 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • 

4. The Trouble concerning Circumcision
15:1-34
a. A Conference of the Apostles and Elders Held in Jerusalem
vv. 1-21
Ac 15:1 And certain men 1came down from aJudea and began to teach the bbrothers, 2cUnless you are 3dcircumcised according to the 4ecustom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
Ac 15:2 And when no little 1dissension and discussion with them came about through Paul and Barnabas, the brothers directed Paul and Barnabas and certain others among them to go up to the apostles and aelders in 2bJerusalem concerning this question.
Ac 15:3 They therefore, having been asent forward by the 1bchurch, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, telling in detail about the turning of the cGentiles; and they brought great joy to all the dbrothers.
Ac 15:4 And when they arrived in Jerusalem, they were areceived by the bchurch and the apostles and the elders, and they cdeclared the things that God had done with them.
Ac 15:5 But certain men from the asect of the 1Pharisees who had believed rose up from among them, saying, It is bnecessary to 2circumcise them and to charge them to 3keep the claw of Moses.
Ac 15:6 And the apostles and the elders were 1gathered together to see about this matter.
Ac 15:7 And when much discussion had taken place, Peter rose up and said to them, 1Men, brothers, you know that from the 2early days God achose from among you that through my mouth the bGentiles should hear the word of the cgospel and believe.
Ac 15:8 And God, the Knower of ahearts, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy bSpirit even cas also to us;
Ac 15:9 And He made ano distinction between us and them, bcleansing their 1hearts by faith.
Ac 15:10 Therefore why are you now atesting God by placing a 1byoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Ac 15:11 But we believe that through the 1agrace of the Lord Jesus we are bsaved in the same way also as they are.
Ac 15:12 And all the multitude became silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul arelating all the bsigns and wonders God had done among the cGentiles through them.
Ac 15:13 And when they 1finished speaking, aJames answered, saying, 2Men, brothers, listen to me.
Ac 15:14 1Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take out from them a apeople for His name.
Ac 15:15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, even as it is written,
Ac 15:16 a“After these things I will return, and I will rebuild the 1tabernacle of David which has fallen; and I will rebuild its ruins and erect it again,
Ac 15:17 So that the remainder of men may aseek out the Lord, even all the Gentiles 1upon whom My bname has been called,
Ac 15:18 Says the Lord, who is making these things known 1afrom of old.”
Ac 15:19 Therefore I judge that we do not harass those from the Gentiles who are aturning to God,
Ac 15:20 But that we write to them to abstain from the acontaminations of bidols and cfornication and what is strangled and dblood.
Ac 15:21 For 1Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who proclaim him in the 2synagogues, he being aread every Sabbath.
b. The Solution
vv. 22-34
Ac 15:22 It then seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole achurch to choose men from among them to send to Antioch together with Paul and Barnabas: Judas, who is called bBarsabbas, and cSilas, leading men among the brothers,
Ac 15:23 Writing to them and sending by their hand the following: The apostles and the elder brothers, to the abrothers throughout Antioch and bSyria and Cilicia who are of the Gentiles, rejoice.
Ac 15:24 Since we have heard that certain ones who went out from among us have atroubled you with their words, unsettling your souls, to whom we gave no instruction,
Ac 15:25 It seemed good to us, having become of aone accord, to choose men to send to you together with our bbeloved Barnabas and Paul,
Ac 15:26 Men who have 1risked their 2alives for the bname of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ac 15:27 Therefore we have sent Judas and aSilas, who themselves will report the same things by word of mouth.
Ac 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy aSpirit and to us to lay upon you no greater bburden than these necessary things:
Ac 15:29 To abstain from things that have been sacrificed to aidols and blood and things strangled and fornication, from which if you carefully keep yourselves, you will do well. May you be strong.
Ac 15:30 So when they had been sent away, they went down to Antioch; and when they had gathered the multitude together, they handed them the letter.
Ac 15:31 And when they read it, they rejoiced at the encouragement.
Ac 15:32 And Judas and Silas, also being 1aprophets themselves, exhorted the brothers through much speaking and bconfirmed them.
Ac 15:33 And when they had spent some time there, they were sent away with apeace from the brothers to those who had sent them.
Ac 15:34 1But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.
5. The Problem of Barnabas
15:35-39
Ac 15:35 And Paul and Barnabas stayed in aAntioch, teaching and bannouncing the word of the Lord as the gospel with many others also.
Ac 15:36 Now after some days Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return now and visit the brothers in aevery city in which we announced the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.
Ac 15:37 And Barnabas intended to take aJohn, who is called Mark, along with them also;
Ac 15:38 But Paul did not consider it suitable to take with them this one who awithdrew from them in Pamphylia and did not go with them to the work.
Ac 15:39 And there was a 1sharp contention, so that they separated from each other; and Barnabas, taking Mark along, sailed away to aCyprus.
6. The Second Journey
15:40 — 18:22
a. To Syria and Cilicia
15:40-41
Ac 15:40 But Paul chose aSilas and 1went out, having been commended to the bgrace of the Lord by the brothers.
Ac 15:41 And he passed through aSyria and Cilicia, bconfirming the cchurches.
ACTS 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

b. To Derbe and Lystra
16:1-5
Ac 16:1 And he came also to aDerbe and to Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple named bTimothy was there, the son of a cJewish woman who was a believer, but of a Greek father;
Ac 16:2 He was well attested to by the abrothers in bLystra and cIconium.
Ac 16:3 Paul wanted this one to go forth with him; and he took him and 1acircumcised him 2because of the bJews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
Ac 16:4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the adecrees to keep which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.
Ac 16:5 And so the 1achurches were strengthened in the bfaith and cincreased in number ddaily.
c. To Philippi of Macedonia
16:6-40
(1) The Vision of a Macedonian
vv. 6-10
Ac 16:6 And they passed through the region of aPhrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden 1by the Holy bSpirit to speak the word in Asia.
Ac 16:7 And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the 1aSpirit of Jesus did 2not allow them.
Ac 16:8 And bypassing Mysia, they came down to aTroas.
Ac 16:9 And a 1avision appeared to Paul during the night: A certain man, a Macedonian, was standing and entreating him and saying, Come over into 2bMacedonia and help us.
Ac 16:10 And when he had seen the vision, 1we immediately 2endeavored to go forth into Macedonia, 3concluding that God had called us to announce the gospel to them.
(2) The Preaching and Its Fruits
vv. 11-18
Ac 16:11 And putting out to sea from 1Troas, we ran a straight course to 2Samothrace, and on the following day to 3Neapolis,
Ac 16:12 And from there to aPhilippi, which is the leading city of that part of Macedonia, a Roman 1colony; and we spent some days in this city.
Ac 16:13 And on the 1aSabbath day we went outside the gate by the briver, where we supposed there would be a place of 2prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
Ac 16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple-dyed goods from the city of aThyatira who bworshipped God, was listening, whose heart the 1Lord copened to give heed to the things being spoken by Paul.
Ac 16:15 And when she was 1baptized, as well as her ahousehold, she entreated us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, 2come into my 3house and abide. And she constrained us.
Ac 16:16 And as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl having a 1aspirit of 2Python met us, who brought her masters much profit by 3bdivining.
Ac 16:17 This woman followed after Paul and us and acried out, saying, These men are bslaves of the cMost High God, who announce to you a way of salvation.
Ac 16:18 And she did this for many days. But Paul was greatly disturbed; and turning, he said to the spirit, I charge you in the aname of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it bcame out that very hour.
(3) The Imprisonment and the Release
vv. 19-40
Ac 16:19 But when her masters saw that their hope of aprofit had gone out, they laid hold of Paul and bSilas and cdragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
Ac 16:20 And when they had brought them to the 1amagistrates, they said, These men, being Jews, are bthrowing our city into confusion,
Ac 16:21 And they are announcing acustoms which are not lawful for us, being bRomans, to accept or do.
Ac 16:22 And the crowd rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their garments and ordered some to abeat them with rods.
Ac 16:23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they threw them into aprison, charging the jailer to keep them securely,
Ac 16:24 Who, having received such a charge, threw them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the 1astocks.
Ac 16:25 And about amidnight Paul and Silas, while praying, sang hymns of praise to God; and the prisoners were listening to them.
Ac 16:26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were ashaken. And instantly all the doors were bopened and everyone’s cbonds were unfastened.
Ac 16:27 And the jailer, waking up out of his sleep and seeing the doors of the prison opened, drew his sword and was about to ado away with himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
Ac 16:28 But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, Do no harm to yourself, for we are all here.
Ac 16:29 And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in; and trembling, he afell down before Paul and Silas.
Ac 16:30 And leading them outside, he said, Sirs, awhat must I do to be saved?
Ac 16:31 And they said, aBelieve on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be bsaved, you and your 1household.
Ac 16:32 And they spoke the word of God to him together with all those in his house.
Ac 16:33 And he took them with him in that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. And he was 1abaptized immediately, he and all his household.
Ac 16:34 And he brought them 1up 2into his house and aset a table before them; and he bexulted because he had believed in God with all his household.
Ac 16:35 Now when day came, the magistrates sent the 1lictors, saying, Release those men.
Ac 16:36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul: The magistrates have sent that you may be released. Now therefore come out and go in peace.
Ac 16:37 But Paul said to them, They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are aRomans, and have thrown us into prison; and now secretly they are thrusting us out? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.
Ac 16:38 And the lictors reported these words to the magistrates. And they became afrightened when they heard that they were Romans.
Ac 16:39 And they came and entreated them. And when they had brought them out, they asked them to adepart from the city.
Ac 16:40 And they went out from the prison and entered the ahouse of Lydia; and when they saw the bbrothers, they exhorted them and went forth.
ACTS 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

d. To Thessalonica
17:1-9
Ac 17:1 And they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to 1aThessalonica, where there was a 2bsynagogue of the Jews.
Ac 17:2 And according to his acustom Paul 1went in to them, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the bScriptures,
Ac 17:3 Opening and setting before them that the Christ had to asuffer and brise from the dead, and saying, This is the cChrist, the Jesus whom I announce to you.
Ac 17:4 And asome of them were persuaded and 1were joined to Paul and bSilas, as well as a great multitude of the cdevout dGreeks, and of the chief ewomen not a few.
Ac 17:5 But the Jews, becoming ajealous and taking along some evil men from among the loafers in the marketplace, gathered a crowd and bset the city in an uproar; and coming upon the house of cJason, they sought to bring them to the populace.
Ac 17:6 But when they did not find them, they adragged Jason and some brothers before the city officials, shouting, These men who have bupset the 1world have come here also,
Ac 17:7 Whom Jason has welcomed; and these all act contrary to the decrees of aCaesar, saying that there is another bking, Jesus.
Ac 17:8 And they stirred up the crowd and the city officials, who listened to these things.
Ac 17:9 And when they had taken bail from Jason and the rest, they released them.
e. To Berea
17:10-13
Ac 17:10 And the abrothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away during the night to Berea, who, when they arrived, went off into the bsynagogue of the Jews.
Ac 17:11 Now these people were more 1noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, aexamining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Ac 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, and there were not a few Greek awomen of high standing and men.
Ac 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been announced by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, aagitating and stirring up the crowds.
f. To Athens
17:14-34
(1) Sent by the Brothers
vv. 14-15
Ac 17:14 And immediately the abrothers then sent Paul off, to bgo as far as the sea; and Silas and cTimothy remained there.
Ac 17:15 And those who conducted Paul brought him as far as 1aAthens; and receiving a command for Silas and bTimothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they went off.
(2) Reasoning with the Jews and Confronting the Gentile Philosophers
vv. 16-18
Ac 17:16 And while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ahis 1spirit was provoked within him as he beheld that the city was 2bfull of idols.
Ac 17:17 He reasoned therefore in the asynagogue with the Jews and the bdevout, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
Ac 17:18 And some of the 1Epicurean and 2Stoic philosophers also confronted him. And some said, What would this 3babbler wish to say? And others, He seems to be an announcer of foreign 4deities — because he was aannouncing Jesus and the bresurrection as the gospel.
(3) Preaching on the Areopagus
vv. 19-34
Ac 17:19 And they took hold of him and led him to the 1aAreopagus, saying, May we know what this bnew teaching is which is being spoken by you?
Ac 17:20 For you are bringing astrange things to our ears. We intend to know therefore 1what these things mean.
Ac 17:21 (Now all the Athenians and the foreigners sojourning there spent their time on nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
Ac 17:22 And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 1Men of Athens, I observe that in every way you 2very much revere your deities.
Ac 17:23 For while I was passing through and carefully observing the objects of your aworship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore you worship bwithout knowing, this I announce to you.
Ac 17:24 The 1God who amade the world and all things in it, this One, being bLord of heaven and earth, does cnot dwell in temples made with hands;
Ac 17:25 Neither is He served by human hands as though He needed anything in addition, since He Himself gives to all life and abreath and all things.
Ac 17:26 And He made from 1one aevery nation of men to dwell on all the bface of the earth, determining beforehand their 2appointed seasons and the cboundaries of their dwelling,
Ac 17:27 That they might aseek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, even though He is 1bnot far from each one of us;
Ac 17:28 For 1in Him we live and move and are, as even some 2poets among you have said, For we are also 3His 4race.
Ac 17:29 Being then the race of God, we ought not to suppose that 1what is divine is like agold or silver or stone, like an engraving of art and 2thought of man.
Ac 17:30 Therefore, having overlooked the atimes of bignorance, God now 1charges all men everywhere to crepent,
Ac 17:31 Because He has set a 1aday in which He is to bjudge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has designated, having furnished 2proof to all by craising Him from the dead.
Ac 17:32 And when they heard of a aresurrection of the dead, some bscoffed; and others said, We will hear you yet cagain concerning this.
Ac 17:33 Thus Paul went out from their midst.
Ac 17:34 But some men ajoined him and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the bAreopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
ACTS 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

g. To Corinth
18:1-17
(1) Meeting Aquila and Priscilla
vv. 1-4
Ac 18:1 After these things he departed from aAthens and came to bCorinth.
Ac 18:2 And having found a certain Jew named aAquila, a native of bPontus, recently come from cItaly, and Priscilla his wife (because 1dClaudius had ordered all the Jews to depart from eRome), he went to them.
Ac 18:3 And because he was of the same trade, he remained with them and aworked; for they were tentmakers by trade.
Ac 18:4 And he reasoned 1in the 2asynagogue every 3Sabbath, persuading Jews and 4bGreeks.
(2) Preaching to the Jews and Encountering Their Opposition
vv. 5-17
Ac 18:5 And 1when both Silas and aTimothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was 2constrained by the word, solemnly btestifying to the Jews that Jesus was the cChrist.
Ac 18:6 But when they resisted and ablasphemed, he bshook out his garments and said to them, Your cblood be upon your head; I am clean. From now on I will 1go to the dGentiles.
Ac 18:7 And he left there and went into the house of one named Titius Justus, one who aworshipped God, whose house was next to the synagogue.
Ac 18:8 And aCrispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with his whole 1bhousehold; and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
Ac 18:9 And the Lord said to Paul in the anight by a 1vision, Do bnot be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;
Ac 18:10 Because I Myself am awith you, and no one will assail you to harm you, because I have many bpeople in this city.
Ac 18:11 And he 1remained there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Ac 18:12 But while Gallio was aproconsul of Achaia, the bJews rose up against Paul with one accord and cbrought him to the judgment seat,
Ac 18:13 Saying, This man incites men to worship God contrary to the law.
Ac 18:14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or some wicked crime, O Jews, I would for that reason tolerate you;
Ac 18:15 But if there are aquestions concerning words and names and your own blaw, look after it yourselves. A judge of these things I do not intend to be.
Ac 18:16 And he drove them away from the judgment seat.
Ac 18:17 And they all laid hold of 1Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.
h. To Ephesus
18:18-21a
Ac 18:18 And Paul, having remained there yet a considerable number of days, took leave of the brothers and sailed away to Syria, and with him Priscilla and aAquila, having bshorn his head in cCenchrea, for he had a 1vow.
Ac 18:19 And they arrived at aEphesus, and he left them there; but he 1entered into the bsynagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
Ac 18:20 And when they asked him to remain for a longer time, he did not consent;
Ac 18:21 But taking leave of them and saying, I will come back to you again, God awilling,
i. Back to Antioch, Ending the Second Journey
18:21b-22
he put out to sea from Ephesus.
Ac 18:22 And coming down to Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the achurch and 1went down to bAntioch.
7. The Third Journey
18:23 — 21:17
a. To the Country of Galatia and Phrygia
18:23
Ac 18:23 And when he had spent some time there, he 1went off, passing through the country of aGalatia and Phrygia in order, bconfirming all the disciples.
b. To Ephesus Again
18:24 — 19:41
(1) The Ministry of Apollos
18:24-28
Ac 18:24 And a certain Jew named aApollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent man, arrived at Ephesus, and he was powerful in the Scriptures.
Ac 18:25 This man was instructed in the 1way of the Lord, and being afervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew 2only the bbaptism of John.
Ac 18:26 And this man began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And when Priscilla and aAquila heard him, they took him to themselves and expounded the bway of God to him more accurately.
Ac 18:27 And when he intended to pass through into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and awrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he arrived there, he helped much through 1bgrace those who had believed;
Ac 18:28 For he vigorously confuted the Jews publicly, showing by the aScriptures that Jesus was the bChrist.
ACTS 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • 

(2) Filling Up the Deficiency in the Ministry of Apollos
19:1-7
Ac 19:1 Now while aApollos was in Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper districts, came down to bEphesus and found some disciples,
Ac 19:2 And he said to them, Did you 1receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, On the contrary, we did 2anot even hear whether there is a Holy Spirit.
Ac 19:3 And he said, Into what then were you baptized? And they said, Into 1aJohn’s baptism.
Ac 19:4 And Paul said, John baptized with a abaptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe into the One coming bafter him, that is, into Jesus.
Ac 19:5 And when they heard this, they were baptized 1into the name of the Lord Jesus.
Ac 19:6 And when Paul 1alaid his hands on them, the Holy bSpirit came 2upon them, and they 3spoke in ctongues and dprophesied.
Ac 19:7 And there were in all about twelve men.
(3) The Ministry and Its Fruits — The Lord’s Word Growing and Prevailing
19:8-20
Ac 19:8 And he 1entered into the 2asynagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and bpersuading them in the things concerning the 3ckingdom of God.
Ac 19:9 But when some were hardened and would not be persuaded, aspeaking evil of the 1bWay before the multitude, he withdrew from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of 2Tyrannus.
Ac 19:10 And this took place for atwo years, so that all those dwelling in bAsia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and cGreeks.
Ac 19:11 And God did 1works of power of no ordinary kind through the ahands of Paul,
Ac 19:12 So that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his 1abody to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil 2spirits bwent out.
Ac 19:13 But some of the Jewish aexorcists who also went about took it upon themselves to name over those who had evil spirits the bname of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.
Ac 19:14 And there were seven sons of a certain Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this.
Ac 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, Jesus I know of, and with Paul I am acquainted; but who are you?
Ac 19:16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped upon them, subdued both of them, and overpowered them, so that they escaped out of that house naked and wounded.
Ac 19:17 And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, dwelling in Ephesus; and afear fell upon them all, and the bname of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Ac 19:18 And many of those who had believed came, 1aconfessing and making known their 2practices.
Ac 19:19 And a considerable number of those who practiced magic brought their books together and 1burned them before all; and they counted up the price of them and found it to be fifty thousand 2pieces of silver.
Ac 19:20 1Thus, the word of the Lord agrew mightily and prevailed.
(4) Purposing to Go to Jerusalem and to Rome
19:21-22
Ac 19:21 And when these things were fulfilled, Paul 1apurposed in his 2spirit to pass through bMacedonia and Achaia and 3go to cJerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also 4dsee Rome.
Ac 19:22 And having sent into Macedonia two of those who aserved him, bTimothy and 1Erastus, he himself 2stayed in Asia for a time.
(5) The Disturbance
19:23-41
(a) The Cause
vv. 23-34
Ac 19:23 And about that time no small adisturbance took place concerning the 1bWay.
Ac 19:24 For a certain man named 1Demetrius, a silversmith who 2made silver shrines of 3Artemis, afforded no little business to the craftsmen.
Ac 19:25 These he 1assembled together with the workmen of similar trades as well and said, 2Men, you know that from this business we have our aprosperity.
Ac 19:26 And you observe and hear that not only at Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and perverted a considerable number, saying that the gods being made by ahands are no gods at all.
Ac 19:27 And not only is there danger that our trade will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the agreat goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing and that the magnificence of her whom the whole of Asia and the inhabited earth worships will also be overthrown.
Ac 19:28 And when they heard this, they became full of rage and began to cry out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
Ac 19:29 And the city was filled with confusion; and they rushed with one accord into the theater, seizing 1Gaius and aAristarchus of Macedonia, Paul’s traveling bcompanions.
Ac 19:30 And when Paul intended to enter into the populace, the disciples would not allow him.
Ac 19:31 And some of the 1Asiarchs also, who were his friends, sent to him and entreated him not to venture into the theater himself.
Ac 19:32 So then some were acrying out one thing, and some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority did not know for what cause they had come together.
Ac 19:33 And they drew 1Alexander out of the crowd, the Jews having pushed him forward; and Alexander, amotioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the populace.
Ac 19:34 But when they realized that he was a Jew, one voice arose from all for about two hours, crying out, aGreat is Artemis of the Ephesians!
(b) The Quieting
vv. 35-41
Ac 19:35 And the town clerk, having quieted the crowd, said, 1Men of Ephesus, which of you men is there then who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the image 2fallen from aZeus?
Ac 19:36 Since these things therefore cannot be disputed, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash;
Ac 19:37 For you have brought forth these men who are neither temple arobbers nor blasphemers of our goddess.
Ac 19:38 If then Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a matter against anyone, courts are being conducted and there are aproconsuls; let them bring charges against one another.
Ac 19:39 But if you seek after anything further, it shall be settled in the 1legal assembly.
Ac 19:40 For indeed we are in danger of being charged with ainsurrection for today’s affair, since there is no reason for it; and with reference to it we will not be able to give an account concerning this disorderly gathering.
Ac 19:41 And when he had said these things, he 1dismissed the assembly.
ACTS 20

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c. Through Macedonia and Greece to Troas
20:1-12
Ac 20:1 And after the uproar had ceased, Paul, having sent for the disciples and having exhorted them, took leave of them and went off to go into 1aMacedonia.
Ac 20:2 And when he had passed through those parts and had exhorted them with many words, he came into Greece,
Ac 20:3 And spent 1three months there. And when a aplot was made against him by the bJews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he 2resolved to return through Macedonia.
Ac 20:4 And Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him, as well as aAristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians and 1Gaius of bDerbe and cTimothy and the Asians, dTychicus and eTrophimus.
Ac 20:5 These had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.
Ac 20:6 And we sailed away from aPhilippi after the days of bUnleavened Bread and in five days came to them in cTroas, where we spent seven days.
Ac 20:7 And on the 1afirst day of the week, when 2we gathered together to bbreak bread, Paul conversed with them since he was to go forth on the next day; and he extended his message until midnight.
Ac 20:8 And there were a considerable number of lamps in the aupper room where we were gathered together.
Ac 20:9 And a certain young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window and began to sink into deep sleep while Paul conversed longer; and when he had been overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.
Ac 20:10 But Paul went down and fell aupon him, and embracing him, he said, Do not make a commotion, for his soul is in him.
Ac 20:11 And when he had gone up and abroken the bread and 1eaten and had spoken for a considerable time, until daybreak, he therefore went forth.
Ac 20:12 And they brought the boy alive and were comforted, and that not moderately.
d. To Miletus, Meeting with the Elders of the Church in Ephesus
20:13-38
Ac 20:13 But we, going ahead onto the ship, set sail for Assos, from there intending to pick up Paul, for so he had arranged it, himself intending to go by foot.
Ac 20:14 And when he met us in Assos, we picked him up and came to Mitylene.
Ac 20:15 And sailing away from there, on the following day we arrived opposite Chios; and on the next day we put in at Samos. And on the day following we came to Miletus,
Ac 20:16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying so that if possible he might be in aJerusalem on the 1day of bPentecost.
Ac 20:17 And from Miletus he sent word to Ephesus and called for the aelders of the bchurch.
Ac 20:18 And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in aAsia, bhow I was with you all the time,
Ac 20:19 aServing the Lord as a slave with all bhumility and ctears and dtrials which came upon me by the eplots of the Jews;
Ac 20:20 How I did not awithhold any of those things that are profitable by not declaring them to you and by not teaching you publicly and from bhouse to house,
Ac 20:21 Solemnly atestifying both to Jews and to bGreeks crepentance unto God and dfaith 1in our Lord Jesus2.
Ac 20:22 And now, behold, I am going 1bound in the 2spirit to aJerusalem, not knowing what will meet me 3there,
Ac 20:23 1Except that the Holy aSpirit solemnly testifies to me in city after city, saying that bbonds and cafflictions await me.
Ac 20:24 But I 1consider my 2alife of no account as if precious to myself, in order that I may finish my bcourse and the cministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus to solemnly dtestify of the egospel of the fgrace of God.
Ac 20:25 And now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the 1akingdom, will see my bface 2no more.
Ac 20:26 Therefore I testify to you 1on athis day that 2I am clean from the bblood of all men,
Ac 20:27 For I did not ashrink from declaring to you all the bcounsel of God.
Ac 20:28 aTake heed to yourselves and to all the 1bflock, among whom the Holy 2cSpirit has dplaced you as 3eoverseers to 4fshepherd the gchurch of God, which He hobtained through 5His own iblood.
Ac 20:29 I know that after my departure fierce awolves will come in among you, not 1sparing the flock.
Ac 20:30 And from among you yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverted things to 1adraw away the disciples after them.
Ac 20:31 Therefore awatch, remembering that for bthree years, night and day, I did not cease admonishing each one with ctears.
Ac 20:32 And now I acommit you to 1God and to the word of His 2bgrace, which is able to cbuild you up and to give you the 3dinheritance among all those who have been 4esanctified.
Ac 20:33 I have acoveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing.
Ac 20:34 You yourselves know that these 1ahands have ministered to my needs and to those who are with me.
Ac 20:35 In all things I have shown you by example that atoiling in this way we ought to support 1the bweak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 2It is more blessed to cgive than to receive.
Ac 20:36 And when he had said these things, he aknelt down with them all and prayed.
Ac 20:37 And there was considerable weeping by all; and afalling on Paul’s neck, they kissed him affectionately,
Ac 20:38 Especially pained over the word which he had spoken, that they would no longer behold his aface. And they bescorted him to the ship.
ACTS 21

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e. To Tyre
21:1-6
Ac 21:1 And when we parted from them and set sail, we took a straight course and came to Cos, and on the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.
Ac 21:2 And having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went on board and set sail.
Ac 21:3 And when we sighted aCyprus and left it on the left, we sailed to bSyria and came down to Tyre; for there the ship was to unload its cargo.
Ac 21:4 And when we had sought out the disciples, we remained there seven days. These 1told Paul through the aSpirit bnot to set foot in cJerusalem.
Ac 21:5 And when we completed the days, we went forth and went on our way, with all of them, including the women and children, aescorting us until we were outside the city. And when we had bknelt down on the beach and prayed,
Ac 21:6 We took leave of one another and went on board the ship; and they returned home.
f. To Ptolemais
21:7
Ac 21:7 And when we finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the abrothers and remained with them one day.
g. To Caesarea
21:8-14
Ac 21:8 And on the next day we went forth and came to aCaesarea; and entering into the 1house of bPhilip the cevangelist, who was one of the dseven, we remained with him.
Ac 21:9 Now this man had four virgin daughters who aprophesied.
Ac 21:10 And while we remained there many days, a certain prophet named aAgabus came down from Judea.
Ac 21:11 And he came to us and took Paul’s abelt; and having bound his own feet and hands, he said, Thus 1says the Holy Spirit, In this way will the Jews in Jerusalem bbind the man whose belt this is and cdeliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
Ac 21:12 And when we heard these things, both 1we and those in that place entreated him anot to bgo up to Jerusalem.
Ac 21:13 Then Paul answered, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to adie in Jerusalem for the bname of the Lord Jesus.
Ac 21:14 And since he would not be persuaded, we became silent, saying, The awill of the Lord be done.
h. To Jerusalem, Ending the Third Journey
21:15-17
Ac 21:15 And after these days we gathered our baggage and went up to aJerusalem.
Ac 21:16 And some of the disciples from aCaesarea also went with us, bringing us to a certain Mnason of bCyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to 1lodge.
Ac 21:17 And when we had 1come to aJerusalem, the bbrothers cwelcomed us gladly.
8. The Negative Influence of Judaism
21:18-26
Ac 21:18 And on the following day Paul went in with us to 1aJames, and all the belders were present.
Ac 21:19 And having greeted them, he arelated one by one the things which God did among the Gentiles through his bministry.
Ac 21:20 And when they heard it, they aglorified God and said to him, You observe, brother, how many 1thousands there are among the Jews who have believed; and all are 2bzealous for the claw.
Ac 21:21 And they have been informed concerning you that you are ateaching all the Jews throughout the nations 1apostasy from Moses, telling them bnot to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the ccustoms.
Ac 21:22 What then is to be done? 1They will certainly hear that you have come.
Ac 21:23 Therefore do this that we tell you: We have four men who have a 1vow on themselves;
Ac 21:24 Take these and be 1apurified with them, and pay their 2expenses that they may 3shave their heads. And all will know that there is nothing to the things that they have been informed of concerning you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the blaw.
Ac 21:25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we have already written, having decided that they should keep themselves from aidol sacrifices and blood and anything strangled and fornication.
Ac 21:26 Then Paul took the men and on the following day, 1being purified with them, entered into the temple, giving notice of the 2completion of the days of the purification, until the aoffering was offered for each one of them.
9. The Ultimate Persecution of the Jews
21:27 — 26:32
a. An Uproar against Paul
21:27 — 23:15
(1) Seized by the Jews
21:27-30
Ac 21:27 And when the seven days were about to be concluded, the aJews from bAsia saw him in the temple and cthrew all the crowd into confusion; and they dlaid their hands on him,
Ac 21:28 Crying out, 1Men of Israel, help! This is the man who ateaches all men everywhere bagainst the 2people and the law and 3this place; and further, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has 4cprofaned this 5holy place.
Ac 21:29 For they had previously seen aTrophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, whom they supposed Paul had brought into the temple.
Ac 21:30 And the whole city was stirred, and the people ran together; and they alaid hold of Paul and bdragged him coutside the temple; and immediately the doors were shut.
(2) The Intervention of the Roman Commander
21:31-39
Ac 21:31 And as they were seeking to akill him, a report came up to the 1bcommander of the 2cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
Ac 21:32 And he at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
Ac 21:33 Then the commander drew near and laid hold of him and ordered him to be abound with two bchains. And he inquired who he might be and what he had done.
Ac 21:34 And some among the crowd were ashouting one thing, and some another. And since he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the bbarracks.
Ac 21:35 And when Paul came to the stairs, it so happened that he was being carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd;
Ac 21:36 For the multitude of the people were following and crying out, aAway with him!
Ac 21:37 And when he was about to be brought into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, Am I allowed to say anything to you? And he said, You know Greek?
Ac 21:38 You are not then the Egyptian who some days ago revolted and led out the four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness?
Ac 21:39 But Paul said, I am a aJewish man of bTarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city, and I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.
(3) Defending Himself before the Rioting Jews
21:40 — 22:21
Ac 21:40 And when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and amotioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he addressed them in the bHebrew 1dialect, saying,
ACTS 22

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Ac 22:1 1Men, abrothers and fathers, hear my 2bdefense which I now make to you.
Ac 22:2 And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew 1dialect, they became more quiet. And he said,
Ac 22:3 I am 1a aJew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city and trained at the feet of bGamaliel, according to the cstrictness of the law of our fathers, being dzealous efor God, even as you all are today.
Ac 22:4 And I apersecuted this 1Way unto death, binding and delivering to bprisons both men and women,
Ac 22:5 As also the ahigh priest and all the 1assembly of the elders testify for me; from whom I also received bletters to the brothers and went to cDamascus to bring those also who were there bound to Jerusalem that they might be punished.
Ac 22:6 And as I journeyed and adrew near to Damascus about midday, suddenly a great light flashed out of heaven around me;
Ac 22:7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting 1Me?
Ac 22:8 And I answered, Who are You, 1Lord? And He said to me, I am Jesus the aNazarene, whom you persecute.
Ac 22:9 And those who were with me beheld the light, but did not 1hear the voice of the One who was speaking to me.
Ac 22:10 And I said, aWhat shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise up and go into Damascus, and there it 1will be told to you concerning all the things which have been appointed to you to do.
Ac 22:11 And as I could 1not see because of the glory of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.
Ac 22:12 And a certain 1aAnanias, a devout man according to the law, bwell attested to by all the Jews dwelling there,
Ac 22:13 Came to me, and standing by, said to me, Saul, brother, 1areceive your sight! And in that very hour I looked up at him.
Ac 22:14 And he said, The aGod of our fathers has previously bappointed you to know His cwill and to see the drighteous One and to hear the voice from His mouth;
Ac 22:15 For you will be a awitness to Him unto all men of the things which you have bseen and heard.
Ac 22:16 And now, why do you delay? Rise up and 1be abaptized and wash away your sins, 2bcalling on 3His cname.
Ac 22:17 And when I returned to aJerusalem and was praying in the btemple, I went into a 1trance;
Ac 22:18 And I saw Him saying to me, Hurry, and go quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your atestimony concerning Me.
Ac 22:19 And I said, Lord, they know that I was aimprisoning and beating from bsynagogue to synagogue those who believe on You;
Ac 22:20 And when the ablood of Your bwitness Stephen was being cshed, I myself also was standing by and dapproving and keeping the garments of those who did away with him.
Ac 22:21 And He said to me, Go, for I will send you forth afar away to the bGentiles.
(4) Bound by the Romans
22:22-29
Ac 22:22 And they listened to him up to this word, and then they lifted up their voice, saying, aAway from the earth with such a man, for it is bnot fitting for him to live!
Ac 22:23 And as they were crying out and casting off their garments and throwing dust in the air,
Ac 22:24 The 1commander ordered him to be brought into the abarracks, saying that he should be bexamined by scourging in order that he might cascertain for what cause they were shouting against him so.
Ac 22:25 But as they stretched him out 1with the thongs, Paul 2said to the centurion standing by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a aRoman and uncondemned?
Ac 22:26 And when the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported, saying, What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.
Ac 22:27 And the commander came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes.
Ac 22:28 And the commander answered, With a large sum of money I acquired this citizenship. And Paul said, But I was even born a Roman.
Ac 22:29 Immediately therefore those who were about to aexamine him withdrew from him; and the bcommander also was cafraid, realizing that he was a dRoman and that he had ebound him.
(5) Defending Himself before the Sanhedrin
22:30 — 23:10
Ac 22:30 And on the next day he, intending to find out for certain why he was accused by the Jews, released him and ordered the chief priests and all the 1aSanhedrin to come together; and having brought Paul down, he had him stand before them.
ACTS 23

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Ac 23:1 And Paul, looking intently at the 1aSanhedrin, said, 2Men, brothers, I have conducted myself in all good 3bconscience before God until this day.
Ac 23:2 And the high priest aAnanias commanded those who stood by him to bstrike him on the mouth.
Ac 23:3 Then Paul 1said to him, God is going to strike you, you awhitewashed bwall. And do you sit to 2cjudge me according to the law, and contrary to the law you order me to be struck?
Ac 23:4 And those standing by said, Do you revile the ahigh priest of God?
Ac 23:5 And Paul said, I did not know, brothers, that he is the high priest; for it is written, a“You shall not bspeak evilly of the ruler of your people.”
Ac 23:6 And Paul, knowing that one part was 1aSadducees and the other 2Pharisees, 3cried out in the bSanhedrin, 4Men, brothers, I am a cPharisee, a son of Pharisees; concerning the dhope and eresurrection of the dead I am being 5judged!
Ac 23:7 And when he spoke this, a dissension took place between the Pharisees and Sadducees; and the multitude was divided.
Ac 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is ano resurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
Ac 23:9 And there was a great outcry; and some of the ascribes of the Pharisees’ party rose up and contended, saying, We find bnothing evil in this man. And what if a spirit has spoken to him, or an cangel?
Ac 23:10 And when much adissension had taken place, the 1commander, fearing that Paul might be torn to pieces by them, 2ordered the detachment of soldiers to go down and seize him from their midst and bring him into the bbarracks.
(6) Encouraged by the Lord
23:11
Ac 23:11 But in the anight 1following, the Lord 2bstood by him and said, Take ccourage, for as you have 3solemnly dtestified to the things concerning Me in Jerusalem, so also you must 4testify in 5Rome.
(7) The Plot of the Jews
23:12-15
Ac 23:12 And when it became day, the aJews formed a 1bplot and 2put themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had ckilled Paul.
Ac 23:13 And there were more than forty who swore to this conspiracy.
Ac 23:14 They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, 1We have bound ourselves with a curse to taste nothing until we kill Paul.
Ac 23:15 Now therefore you, with the Sanhedrin, notify the commander to bring him down to you, as though you were going to 1determine more accurately the things concerning him; and we, before he draws near, are ready to ado away with him.
b. Transferred by the Commander to the Roman Governor Felix
23:16 — 24:27
(1) The Secrecy of the Transfer
23:16-35
Ac 23:16 But the son of Paul’s sister 1heard of the aambush, and he came and entered into the bbarracks and reported it to Paul.
Ac 23:17 And Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, Bring this young man to the acommander, for he has something to report to him.
Ac 23:18 So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, The aprisoner Paul called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you.
Ac 23:19 And the commander took him by the hand and, withdrawing privately, inquired, What is it that you have to report to me?
Ac 23:20 And he said, The Jews have aagreed to ask you to bring Paul down tomorrow to the bSanhedrin, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more accurately concerning him.
Ac 23:21 So you should not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him; they have put themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink until they have adone away with him. And now they are ready, awaiting the promise from you.
Ac 23:22 So the commander dismissed the young man, charging him, Do not tell anyone that you have informed me of these things.
Ac 23:23 And he called to him a certain two of the centurions and said, Prepare two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, as well as seventy horsemen and two hundred 1spearmen, by the 2third hour of the night;
Ac 23:24 And they were also to provide mounts to put Paul on and bring him safely to 1aFelix the bgovernor.
Ac 23:25 And he wrote a letter having this form:
Ac 23:26 Claudius Lysias, to his aExcellency, Governor Felix, brejoice.
Ac 23:27 This man, having been aseized by the Jews and about to be bdone away with by them, I came upon with my detachment of soldiers and rescued, when I learned that he was a cRoman.
Ac 23:28 And intending to aascertain the cause for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their Sanhedrin,
Ac 23:29 And found him to be accused concerning aquestions of their blaw, but having nothing cworthy of death or of bonds laid to his charge.
Ac 23:30 And when it was adisclosed to me that there was a bplot against the man, I sent him at once to you, charging the caccusers also to speak the things against him before you.
Ac 23:31 So the soldiers, according to what they had been directed, took up Paul and brought him by night to 1Antipatris.
Ac 23:32 And on the next day, leaving the horsemen to depart with him, they returned to the abarracks.
Ac 23:33 And when they entered into aCaesarea and handed over the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also to him.
Ac 23:34 And when he had read it, he asked from what province he was; and learning that he was from aCilicia,
Ac 23:35 He said, I will hear your case fully when your aaccusers also arrive. And he ordered him to be guarded in Herod’s 1bpraetorium.
ACTS 24

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

(2) Accused by the Jews’ Advocate
24:1-9
Ac 24:1 And after five days the high priest aAnanias came down with some elders and a certain 1orator, Tertullus; and they gave their information against Paul to the bgovernor.
Ac 24:2 And when Paul was called, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, 1Since we have obtained much peace through you, and since reforms are being carried out for this nation through your forethought
Ac 24:3 Both in every way and everywhere, we welcome it, most aexcellent bFelix, with all thankfulness.
Ac 24:4 But that I may not detain you further, I entreat you to hear us briefly in your forbearance.
Ac 24:5 For we have found this man a pest and an aagitator of binsurrections among all the Jews throughout the inhabited earth and a ringleader of the csect of the dNazarenes,
Ac 24:6 Who has also tried to aprofane the temple. Him also we laid hold of 1and wanted to judge according to our law,
Ac 24:7 But Lysias the commander came by and with much force took him away from our hands
Ac 24:8 And ordered his accusers to come to you. When you have examined this man yourself concerning all these things, you will be able to aascertain from him the things which we accuse him of.
Ac 24:9 And the Jews also joined in the attack, affirming that these things were so.
(3) Defending Himself before Felix
24:10-21
Ac 24:10 And when the governor nodded for him to speak, Paul answered: Knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation, I gladly make my 1adefense for the things concerning myself,
Ac 24:11 Since you can realize that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to aworship in bJerusalem.
Ac 24:12 And aneither in the btemple did they find me disputing with anyone nor stirring up a crowd, nor in the synagogues, nor throughout the city.
Ac 24:13 aNeither are they able to prove to you the things which they now accuse me of.
Ac 24:14 But I confess this to you, that according to the 1aWay, which they call a bsect, so I 2cserve the dGod of our fathers, believing all the things that are written in the eLaw and in the Prophets;
Ac 24:15 Having ahope toward God, which these themselves also look for, that there is to be a 1resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.
Ac 24:16 Because of this I also aexercise myself to always have a 1bconscience without offense toward God and men.
Ac 24:17 Now after amany years I came bringing balms to my cnation and offerings;
Ac 24:18 In which they found me 1purified in the temple, with no crowd or uproar. But certain Jews from aAsia,
Ac 24:19 Who should have been present before you and made aaccusation if they had anything against me —
Ac 24:20 Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the aSanhedrin,
Ac 24:21 Other than concerning this one sound which I cried out while standing among them, Concerning the aresurrection of the dead I am being judged today before you.
(4) Kept in the Custody of the Unjust and Corrupt Roman Politician
24:22-27
Ac 24:22 But Felix, knowing more accurately the things concerning the aWay, deferred them, saying, When Lysias the bcommander comes down, I will determine your affairs.
Ac 24:23 And he directed the centurion to akeep him in custody, and that he should have some bliberty and that no one should prevent his own people from attending to him.
Ac 24:24 But after some days, Felix arrived with 1Drusilla his wife, who was a Jewess, and he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the afaith in Christ Jesus.
Ac 24:25 And as he was 1reasoning concerning 2arighteousness and bself-control and the cjudgment to come, Felix became afraid and answered, Go for the present, and when I have an opportunity, I dwill call for you;
Ac 24:26 Hoping at the same time also that 1amoney would be given to him by Paul. Therefore he also sent for him more frequently and conversed with him.
Ac 24:27 And when 1two years were completed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius 2aFestus; and wanting to 3gain bfavor with the Jews, Felix cleft Paul dbound.
ACTS 25

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

c. Left to Festus, the Successor of Felix
25:1 — 26:32
(1) The Request of the Leaders of the Jews Rejected
25:1-5
Ac 25:1 aFestus therefore, having come into the province, after three days went up to Jerusalem from bCaesarea.
Ac 25:2 And the achief priests and leading men of the Jews gave their information to him against Paul; and they entreated him,
Ac 25:3 Asking for a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem, they themselves setting an aambush to bdo away with him on the way.
Ac 25:4 Festus therefore answered that Paul was being kept in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself was about to proceed there shortly.
Ac 25:5 Therefore, he said, let 1influential men from among you go down with me, and if there is anything 2wrong in the man, let them aaccuse him.
(2) Defending Himself before Festus
25:6-8
Ac 25:6 And having stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and on the next day he sat on the ajudgment seat and ordered Paul to be brought.
Ac 25:7 And when he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious acharges against him, which they were bnot able to prove,
Ac 25:8 While Paul said in his 1adefense, bNeither against the claw of the Jews nor against the dtemple nor against eCaesar have I sinned in anything.
(3) Appealing to Caesar
25:9-12
Ac 25:9 But Festus, wanting to 1gain afavor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, Are you willing to go up to bJerusalem and be judged there before me concerning these things?
Ac 25:10 And Paul said, I am standing before Caesar’s ajudgment seat, where I ought to be judged. I have done bnothing wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.
Ac 25:11 If therefore I am doing wrong and have committed anything aworthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if there is nothing to the things which these baccuse me of, no one can hand me over to them. I 1cappeal to 2Caesar.
Ac 25:12 Then when Festus had conferred with the 1council, he answered, To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go.
(4) Referred by Festus to King Agrippa
25:13-27
Ac 25:13 Now when some days had passed, 1aAgrippa the king and 2Bernice arrived at bCaesarea and greeted Festus.
Ac 25:14 And while they were staying some additional days there, Festus laid before the king the matters regarding Paul, saying, There is a certain man who has been aleft a bprisoner by cFelix,
Ac 25:15 Concerning whom, when I was in Jerusalem, the achief priests and the elders of the Jews gave information and asked for a sentence against him.
Ac 25:16 To them I answered that it is not the acustom with Romans to hand over any man before he who is baccused meets the caccusers face to face and has an opportunity for a ddefense concerning the charge.
Ac 25:17 So when they had come together here, I made no delay; on the next day, sitting on the ajudgment seat, I ordered the man to be brought.
Ac 25:18 Concerning him the accusers stood and brought no acharge of the evil things I was suspecting.
Ac 25:19 But they had certain aquestions against him concerning their own 1religion and concerning a certain Jesus who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be balive.
Ac 25:20 And 1being at a loss as to how there should be an inquiry concerning these things, I asked him if he was willing to go to aJerusalem and be judged there concerning these things.
Ac 25:21 But when Paul appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of 1the aEmperor, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I should send him up to Caesar.
Ac 25:22 And Agrippa said to Festus, I myself also would like to hear the man. Tomorrow, said Festus, you shall hear him.
Ac 25:23 Therefore on the next day, when aAgrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered into the hall of audience together with the 1commanders and prominent men of the city, and when Festus had given the order, Paul was brought.
Ac 25:24 And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all you men who are present with us, you behold this man, concerning whom all the multitude of aJews have petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought bnot to live any longer.
Ac 25:25 But I found that he had done nothing aworthy of death; and since he himself bappealed to the Emperor, I 1decided to send him.
Ac 25:26 Concerning him I have nothing definite to write to my lord; therefore I have brought him before 1you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that when the examination has taken place, I may have something to write.
Ac 25:27 For it seems unreasonable to me, in sending a aprisoner, not to also signify the charges against him.
ACTS 26

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

(5) Defending Himself before King Agrippa
26:1-29
Ac 26:1 And Agrippa said to Paul, You are permitted to speak for yourself. Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his adefense:
Ac 26:2 Concerning all the things which I am aaccused of by the Jews, bKing Agrippa, I consider myself blessed that I am to make my 1defense before you today,
Ac 26:3 1Especially since you are 2familiar with all the acustoms and bquestions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.
Ac 26:4 The manner of my life from youth, which from the beginning was among my own anation and in Jerusalem, all the Jews know,
Ac 26:5 Since they have previously known about me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the astrictest bsect of our 1religion I lived as a cPharisee.
Ac 26:6 And now I stand here being judged for the ahope of the promise made by God to our fathers,
Ac 26:7 To which our atwelve tribes, earnestly serving bnight and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am caccused by the Jews, O king.
Ac 26:8 Why is it judged incredible among you if God araises the dead?
Ac 26:9 Well then, I thought to myself that I ought to do many things acontrary to the name of Jesus the bNazarene,
Ac 26:10 Which also I did in Jerusalem; and I both shut up many of the saints in aprison when I had received bauthority from the chief priests and ccast a vote against them when they were being done away with.
Ac 26:11 And in all the asynagogues I punished them often and tried to compel them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged at them, I bpersecuted them even as far as 1foreign cities.
Ac 26:12 Engaged in these things, I ajourneyed to Damascus with authority and a commission from the chief priests.
Ac 26:13 At midday, on the way, I saw, O king, a light from heaven beyond the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
Ac 26:14 And when we all fell to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the aHebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting 1Me? It is hard for you to kick against the 2goads.
Ac 26:15 And I said, Who are You, 1Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
Ac 26:16 But rise up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to aappoint you as a minister and a 1bwitness both of the things in which you have cseen Me and of the things in which I will appear to you;
Ac 26:17 Delivering you afrom the people and from the bGentiles, to whom I send you,
Ac 26:18 To 1open their aeyes, to turn them from 2bdarkness to clight and from the 3authority of Satan 4to God, that they may receive 5dforgiveness of sins and 6an einheritance among those who have been 7sanctified by faith in Me.
Ac 26:19 Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly 1vision,
Ac 26:20 But declared both to those in aDamascus first and in bJerusalem and throughout call the country of Judea and to the dGentiles that they should erepent and fturn to God, doing works gworthy of repentance.
Ac 26:21 Because of these things certain Jews aseized me while I was in the temple and tried to slay me.
Ac 26:22 Having therefore obtained the 1ahelp which is from God, I have bstood unto this day, ctestifying both to small and great, saying nothing apart from the things which both the dprophets and eMoses have said would take place,
Ac 26:23 That the Christ would asuffer and that He, being the first 1to brise from the dead, would announce 2clight both to the people and to the Gentiles.
Ac 26:24 And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, You are 1ainsane, Paul. Much learning is driving you 1insane.
Ac 26:25 But Paul said, I am not insane, most aexcellent bFestus, but I am uttering words of ctruth and dsoberness.
Ac 26:26 For the king 1knows about these things, to whom also I speak 2freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things have escaped his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.
Ac 26:27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.
Ac 26:28 And Agrippa replied to Paul, By so little are you trying to persuade me to become a aChristian?
Ac 26:29 And Paul said, I would to God that both by little and by much, not only you, but also all those who hear me today might become even such aas I am, except for these bbonds.
(6) King Agrippa’s Judgment
26:30-32
Ac 26:30 And the king rose up, and the agovernor and bBernice and cthose sitting with them;
Ac 26:31 And when they had withdrawn, they spoke to one another, saying, This man is doing nothing aworthy of death or of bonds.
Ac 26:32 And aAgrippa said to Festus, 1This man could have been breleased, had he 2not cappealed to Caesar.
ACTS 27

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • •

10. The Fourth Journey
27:1 — 28:31
a. To Fair Havens
27:1-12
Ac 27:1 And when it was decided that 1we should sail to aItaly, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion named Julius of the 2Augustan 3cohort.
Ac 27:2 And going on board an Adramyttian ship which was about to sail to places along the coast of Asia, we 1put out to sea, aAristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.
Ac 27:3 And on the next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, treating Paul akindly, allowed him to go to his friends to receive care.
Ac 27:4 And from there we put out to sea and sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary.
Ac 27:5 And having sailed across the open sea which lies off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came down to Myra of Lycia.
Ac 27:6 And there the centurion found an aAlexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us onto it.
Ac 27:7 And when we had sailed slowly for a considerable number of days and came with difficulty off Cnidus, the wind not permitting us to go on, we sailed under the shelter of Crete, off Salmone.
Ac 27:8 And coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a certain place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.
Ac 27:9 And when considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, and also because the 1Fast had already gone by, Paul advised them,
Ac 27:10 Saying to them, 1Men, I perceive that the voyage is to be with damage and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.
Ac 27:11 But the centurion was persuaded by the navigator and the ship’s aowner rather than by the things that were being said by Paul.
Ac 27:12 And as the harbor was not suitable for wintering, the majority gave counsel to put out to sea from there, if somehow they might be able to reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete 1facing northeast and southeast, and spend the winter there.
b. The Storm and Paul’s Prediction of Safety
27:13-26
Ac 27:13 And when a south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete close inshore.
Ac 27:14 But not long afterward there beat down from 1the island a hurricane awind called 2Euraquilo.
Ac 27:15 And when the ship was caught by it and was not able to face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.
Ac 27:16 And running under the shelter of a certain little island called Clauda, we were hardly able to 1get control of the asmall boat.
Ac 27:17 And when they had hoisted it up, they 1used supports to undergird the ship. And because they afeared that they might run aground on 2Syrtis, they 3lowered the gear and so were driven along.
Ac 27:18 The next day, as we were being violently storm-tossed, they began to ajettison the cargo;
Ac 27:19 And on the third day they threw the ship’s 1gear overboard, even with their own hands.
Ac 27:20 And when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and while no small storm was assailing us, from then on all hope that we might be saved was being abandoned.
Ac 27:21 And when they had been a long time without food, Paul then stood in their midst and said, O 1men, you 2should have listened to me and not set sail from Crete and gained this damage and loss.
Ac 27:22 And now I advise you to acheer up, for there will be bno loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
Ac 27:23 For this very anight an bangel of the God whose I cam and whom I 1dserve estood by me,
Ac 27:24 Saying, Do anot fear, Paul; you must 1stand before Caesar. And behold, God has bgranted you all those who are sailing with you.
Ac 27:25 Therefore, acheer up, 1men, for I bbelieve God that it shall be so, even in the way in which it has been cspoken to me.
Ac 27:26 But we must run aaground on a certain bisland.
c. The Ascendancy and Wisdom of Paul
in Contrast to the Baseness and Folly of the Sailors and Soldiers
27:27-44
Ac 27:27 But when the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, about the middle of the night the sailors suspected that some land was approaching them.
Ac 27:28 And they 1took soundings and found it to be twenty 2fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they sounded again and found it to be fifteen 2fathoms.
Ac 27:29 And afearing that we might run baground somewhere on 1rocky places, they threw four anchors from the stern and wished for day to come.
Ac 27:30 And when the sailors sought to flee from the ship, having lowered the asmall boat into the sea under pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow,
Ac 27:31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.
Ac 27:32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the small boat and let it fall away.
Ac 27:33 And until day was about to come, Paul encouraged them all to take some food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued watching without food, taking nothing.
Ac 27:34 Therefore I encourage you to take some food, for this is for your salvation; for not a ahair from the head of any one of you shall perish.
Ac 27:35 And when he had said these things and had taken bread, he gave athanks to God before all; and he broke it and began to beat.
Ac 27:36 And all became acheerful, and they also took food.
Ac 27:37 Now we were in all two hundred and seventy-six souls in the ship.
Ac 27:38 And when they were satisfied with food, they began to lighten the ship, athrowing out the wheat into the sea.
Ac 27:39 And when day came, they could not recognize the land, but they noticed a certain bay, which had a beach, into which they took counsel to drive the ship, if they were able.
Ac 27:40 And casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the bands of the rudders; and hoisting the foresail to the blowing of the wind, they held course for the beach.
Ac 27:41 But striking a sandbar with the sea on both sides, they ran the vessel aground; and the bow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was abroken up by the violence of the waves.
Ac 27:42 And the counsel of the soldiers was that they should akill the prisoners, lest anyone swim away and escape;
Ac 27:43 But the centurion, 1intending to bring Paul safely through, prevented them from their intention and ordered those who were able to swim to throw themselves overboard first and get to the land,
Ac 27:44 And the rest to follow, some on planks, and others on some of the things from the ship. And so it happened that all were brought asafely through onto the land.
ACTS 28

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

d. To the Island of Malta
28:1-10
Ac 28:1 And having been brought safely through, we recognized then that the aisland was called 1Malta.
Ac 28:2 And the 1natives showed us uncommon akindness, for they kindled a fire and took us all in because of the rain coming on and because of the cold.
Ac 28:3 But when Paul had collected a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a aviper came out because of the heat and fastened onto his hand.
Ac 28:4 And when the natives saw the 1snake hanging from his hand, they said to one another, Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, whom, though he has been brought safely out of the sea, 2Justice has not allowed to live.
Ac 28:5 However he shook off the asnake into the fire and suffered no harm;
Ac 28:6 And they expected that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited for a long time and beheld nothing unusual happening to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a 1agod.
Ac 28:7 Now in the vicinity of that place were the lands of the leading man of the island, named Publius, who welcomed us and gave us hospitality three days in a afriendly way.
Ac 28:8 And the father of Publius was lying down sick with afever and dysentery. Paul went in to him, and having bprayed and claid his hands on him, healed him.
Ac 28:9 And when this happened, the rest also in the island who had sicknesses came to him and were 1healed.
Ac 28:10 They also honored us with many honors; and as we put out to sea, they put on board the things for our needs.
e. To Rome, Ending the Fourth Journey
28:11-31
(1) Through Syracuse to Rome
vv. 11-16
Ac 28:11 And after it had been three months, we put out to sea in an aAlexandrian ship which had wintered in the island, with the 1twin sons of bZeus for its figurehead.
Ac 28:12 And having landed at Syracuse, we remained three days.
Ac 28:13 From there we sailed around and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind came on, and the second day we came to Puteoli,
Ac 28:14 Where, having found abrothers, we were urged to remain with them seven days. And thus we came to Rome.
Ac 28:15 And from 1there the 2brothers, having heard about the things concerning us, came as far as the 3Market of Appius and 4Three Inns to meet us; and when Paul saw them, he thanked God and 5took courage.
Ac 28:16 And when we entered into Rome, Paul was permitted to remain by himself with the soldier who was aguarding him.
(2) Contacting the Jewish Leaders
vv. 17-22
Ac 28:17 And after three days he called together those who were the leading men of the Jews; and when they came together, he said to them, 1Men, brothers, though I have done anothing against the people or the bcustoms of our fathers, I have been delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans,
Ac 28:18 Who, having examined me, intended to arelease me, because there was not one bcause of death in me.
Ac 28:19 But when the Jews spoke against this, I was compelled to aappeal to Caesar, not that I have anything to accuse my bnation of.
Ac 28:20 For this cause therefore, I have entreated you to see me and speak with me; for on account of the ahope of Israel I have this bchain around me.
Ac 28:21 And they said to him, We have neither received aletters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brothers come and reported or spoken anything evil concerning you.
Ac 28:22 But we think it is fitting to hear from you what you think, for concerning this asect it is indeed known to us that it is bspoken against everywhere.
(3) Ministering in Rome
vv. 23-31
Ac 28:23 And once they had appointed a day for him, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he aexpounded these matters, solemnly btestifying of the 1ckingdom of God and dpersuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of eMoses and the fProphets, from morning until evening.
Ac 28:24 And asome were persuaded by the things which were said, but others did not believe.
Ac 28:25 And when they disagreed with one another, they departed, Paul saying one word to them, Well has the Holy Spirit spoken through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers,
Ac 28:26 Saying, 1“Go to this people and say, In hearing you shall hear and by no means understand, and seeing you will see and by no means perceive;
Ac 28:27 For the aheart of this people has become 1fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their beyes they have closed, lest they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and they turn around, and I will heal them.”
Ac 28:28 Let it be known to you therefore that this asalvation of God has been sent to the bGentiles; they will also chear it.
Ac 28:29 1And when he had spoken these things, the Jews departed, having much dispute among themselves.
Ac 28:30 And he remained 1two whole years in his own rented dwelling and 2welcomed all those who came to him,
Ac 28:31 1Proclaiming the 2akingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all bboldness, unhindered.
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 60, on Paul’s third ministry journey.
Place of Writing: Corinth (Rom. 15:25-32; Acts 19:21; 20:1-3).
Recipients: The saints in Rome (1:7).
Subject:
The Gospel of God — To Make Sinners Sons of God to Constitute the Body of Christ, Which Is Expressed as the Local Churches
ROMANS 1

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I. Introduction — The Gospel of God
1:1-17
A. Promised in the Holy Scriptures
vv. 1-2
Rm 1:1 1Paul, a 2slave of 3Christ 4Jesus, a 5called 6apostle, 7separated 8unto the 9gospel of God,
Rm 1:2 1Which He promised 2beforehand through His prophets in the 3holy Scriptures,
B. Concerning Christ
vv. 3-4
Rm 1:3 Concerning 1His Son, who 2came 3out of the 4aseed of David according to the 5flesh,
Rm 1:4 Who was 1designated the 2aSon of God in 3power according to the 4Spirit of 5holiness 6out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;
C. Received by the Called Ones
vv. 5-7
Rm 1:5 Through whom we have received 1grace and 2apostleship unto the 3aobedience of 4bfaith among all the Gentiles 5on behalf of His name,
Rm 1:6 Among whom you also are the 1called ones of Jesus Christ;
Rm 1:7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, the acalled 1saints: 2Grace to you and bpeace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
D. Proclaimed with Eagerness and Partaken of by Faith
vv. 8-15
Rm 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your afaith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.
Rm 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I 1serve in my 2spirit in the gospel of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
Rm 1:10 Beseeching if by any means now at last I may be prospered in the will of God to come to you.
Rm 1:11 For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be aestablished;
Rm 1:12 That is, that I with you may be 1encouraged among you through the faith which is in one another, both yours and mine.
Rm 1:13 And I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that often I apurposed to come to you (yet was hindered until the present), that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
Rm 1:14 I am debtor both to Greeks and to 1barbarians, both to wise and to foolish;
Rm 1:15 So, for my part, I am ready to announce the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
E. The Power of God’s Salvation
vv. 16-17
Rm 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the 1power of God unto 2salvation to everyone who believes, both to Jew first and to Greek.
Rm 1:17 For the 1arighteousness of God is revealed in it 2out of faith to faith, as it is written, b“But the righteous shall 3have life and live by 4faith.”
II. Condemnation
1:18 — 3:20
A. On Mankind Generally
1:18-32
Rm 1:18 1For the 2awrath of God is revealed from heaven 3upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who 4hold down 5the truth in unrighteousness,
Rm 1:19 Because that which is known of God is manifest 1within them, for God manifested it to them.
Rm 1:20 For the invisible things of Him, both His eternal power and 1divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, 2abeing perceived by the things made, so that they would be without excuse;
Rm 1:21 Because though 1they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or thank Him, but rather became 2vain in their reasonings, and their heart, lacking understanding, was darkened.
Rm 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools
Rm 1:23 And 1achanged the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.
Rm 1:24 Therefore God 1gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, so that they dishonor their bodies among themselves,
Rm 1:25 Who exchanged the 1truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is ablessed forever. Amen.
Rm 1:26 Therefore God gave them up to passions of dishonor; for their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature;
Rm 1:27 And likewise also the males, leaving the natural use of the female, burned in their craving toward one another, males with males committing unseemliness and fully receiving in themselves the retribution of their error which was due.
Rm 1:28 And even as they did not approve of holding God in their full knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mind, to do the things which are not fitting,
Rm 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity;
Rm 1:30 Whisperers, slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rm 1:31 Senseless, faithless, affectionless, merciless;
Rm 1:32 Who, though fully knowing the 1righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but also have fellow delight in those who practice them.
ROMANS 2

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B. On the Self-righteous Particularly
2:1-16
Rm 2:1 Therefore you are without excuse, O every man who 1judges, for in what you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
Rm 2:2 But we know that the 1judgment of God is according to 2truth upon those who practice such things.
Rm 2:3 And do you consider this, O man, who judge those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the 1judgment of God?
Rm 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that God’s kindness is leading you to repentance?
Rm 2:5 But, according to your hardness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the arighteous judgment of God,
Rm 2:6 Who will render to each according to his works:
Rm 2:7 1To those who by endurance in good work seek glory and honor and incorruptibility, life eternal;
Rm 2:8 But to those who are selfishly contentious and disobedient to the 1truth and obey unrighteousness, wrath and fury.
Rm 2:9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who commits evil, both of Jew first and of Greek;
Rm 2:10 But glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good, both to Jew first and to Greek.
Rm 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
Rm 2:12 For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law; and as many as have sinned 1under the law shall be judged by the law
Rm 2:13 (For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Rm 2:14 For when Gentiles, who have no law, do 1by nature the things of the law, these, though they have no law, are a law to themselves,
Rm 2:15 Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their 1conscience bearing witness with it and their reasonings, one with the other, accusing or even excusing them.)
Rm 2:16 In the day when God judges the secrets of men according to my gospel athrough Jesus Christ.
C. On the Religious Specifically
2:17 — 3:8
Rm 2:17 1But if you bear the name of Jew, and rest upon the law, and 2boast in God,
Rm 2:18 And know the will, and 1approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law,
Rm 2:19 And have confidence that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness,
Rm 2:20 One who disciplines the foolish, a teacher of 1babes, having the proper form of the knowledge and truth in the law;
Rm 2:21 1You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach not to steal, do you steal?
Rm 2:22 You who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob their temples?
Rm 2:23 You who boast in the law, do you by transgression of the law dishonor God?
Rm 2:24 For a“the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” even as it is written.
Rm 2:25 For circumcision profits if you practice the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
Rm 2:26 If therefore the uncircumcision keeps the 1ordinances of the law, will not his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?
Rm 2:27 And the uncircumcision by nature, if he fulfills the law, will judge you who through the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law.
Rm 2:28 1For he is anot a Jew who is one 2outwardly; neither is bcircumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
Rm 2:29 1But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, 2ain spirit, not 2in letter, whose praise is not 3from men, but 3from God.
ROMANS 3

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Rm 3:1 What then is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the profit of the circumcision?
Rm 3:2 Much in every way. First, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
Rm 3:3 For what if some disbelieved? Shall their unbelief annul the faithfulness of God?
Rm 3:4 1Absolutely not! But let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, a“That You may be 2declared righteous in Your words and may overcome when You are judged.”
Rm 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is the God who inflicts wrath unrighteous? I speak according to man.
Rm 3:6 Absolutely not! Otherwise how shall God judge the world?
Rm 3:7 But if the 1atruthfulness of God has abounded in my lie unto His glory, why still am I also being judged as a sinner?
Rm 3:8 And why not say (as we are slanderously charged and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil that good may come? whose 1judgment is just.
D. On All the World Totally
3:9-20
Rm 3:9 What then? Are we better? Not at all! For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin,
Rm 3:10 Even as it is written, a“There is none righteous, not even one;
Rm 3:11 There is none who understands, there is none who seeks out God.
Rm 3:12 All have turned aside; together they have become useless; there is none who does 1good; there is not so much as one.
Rm 3:13 aTheir throat is an opened grave; with their tongues they practiced deceit; bthe poison of asps is under their lips;
Rm 3:14 aWhose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Rm 3:15 aSwift are their feet to shed blood,
Rm 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways,
Rm 3:17 And the 1way of peace they have not known.
Rm 3:18 aThere is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Rm 3:19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, 1that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may fall under the judgment of God;
Rm 3:20 Because aout of the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before Him; for bthrough the law is the clear knowledge of sin.
III. Justification
3:21 — 5:11
A. The Definition
3:21-31
Rm 3:21 But now, 1apart from the law, the 2righteousness of God has been 3manifested, witness being borne to it by the Law and the Prophets;
Rm 3:22 Even the righteousness of God through the 1faith of Jesus Christ to all those who believe, for there is no distinction;
Rm 3:23 For aall have sinned and fall short of the 1glory of God,
Rm 3:24 Being 1justified 2freely by His grace through the 3redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
Rm 3:25 Whom God 1set forth as a 2apropitiation place through faith in His blood, for the demonstrating of His righteousness, in that in His forbearance God 3passed over the sins that had previously occurred,
Rm 3:26 With a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness in the present time, so that He might be righteous and the One who 1justifies him who is of the 2faith of Jesus.
Rm 3:27 Where then is boasting? 1It is excluded. Through what kind of law? That of works? No, but through the law of faith.
Rm 3:28 For we account that aa man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Rm 3:29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
Rm 3:30 If indeed God is one, who will justify the circumcision 1out of faith and the auncircumcision 1through faith.
Rm 3:31 Do we then make the law of no effect through faith? Absolutely not! Rather, we establish the law.
ROMANS 4

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B. The Example
4:1-25
Rm 4:1 1What then shall we say that Abraham our 2forefather according to the flesh has found?
Rm 4:2 For if Abraham was justified out of 1works, he has something to boast in, but not before God.
Rm 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? a“And Abraham 1believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.”
Rm 4:4 Now to the 1one who aworks, his 2wages are not accounted according to grace, but according to what is due.
Rm 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted as righteousness.
Rm 4:6 Even as David also speaks blessing on the man to whom God accounts righteousness apart from works:
Rm 4:7 a“Blessed are they whose lawlessnesses have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered over.
Rm 4:8 aBlessed is the man to whom the Lord shall by no means account sin.”
Rm 4:9 Is this blessing then upon the circumcision only, or also upon the uncircumcision? For we say, Faith was accounted to Abraham as righteousness.
Rm 4:10 How then was it accounted? While he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
Rm 4:11 And he areceived the 1sign of circumcision, a seal of the 2righteousness of the faith which he had while in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those in uncircumcision who believe, that righteousness might be accounted to them also,
Rm 4:12 And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also 1awalk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
Rm 4:13 For it was not through the law that athe promise was made to Abraham or to his seed bthat he would be the 1heir of the world, but through the 2righteousness of faith.
Rm 4:14 For aif those of the law are heirs, faith has been made void and the promise has been annulled;
Rm 4:15 For athe law works out wrath; but bwhere there is no law, neither is there transgression.
Rm 4:16 Therefore the inheritance is out of faith that it might be according to agrace, so that the promise may be certain to all the seed, not to that which is of the law only, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the 1father of us all
Rm 4:17 (As it is written, a“I have appointed you a father of many nations”) in the sight of God whom he 1believed, bwho 2gives life to the dead and 3calls the things not being as being.
Rm 4:18 He beyond hope believed 1in hope in order that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, a“So shall your seed be.”
Rm 4:19 And not weakening in his faith, he considered his own body as 1aalready dead, bbeing about a hundred years old, as well as the cdeadening of Sarah’s womb;
Rm 4:20 But with regard to the promise of God, he did not doubt in unbelief, but was empowered by faith, giving glory to God
Rm 4:21 And being fully persuaded that awhat He had promised He was able also to do.
Rm 4:22 Therefore also it was accounted to him as righteousness.
Rm 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake only that it was accounted to him,
Rm 4:24 But for ours also to whom it is to be accounted, who believe on 1Him who has raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
Rm 4:25 Who was delivered for our offenses and was 1raised afor our justification.
ROMANS 5

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C. The Result
5:1-11
Rm 5:1 Therefore having been ajustified out of faith, we have bpeace 1toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rm 5:2 Through whom also we have obtained access by 1faith into this 2agrace in which we 3stand and 4boast because of the 5bhope of the cglory of God.
Rm 5:3 And not only so, but we also boast in our 1tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces 2endurance;
Rm 5:4 And endurance, 1approvedness; and approvedness, ahope;
Rm 5:5 And hope does not put us to shame, because the 1alove of God has been bpoured out in our chearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Rm 5:6 For while we were yet 1weak, in due time Christ adied for the ungodly.
Rm 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will anyone die, though perhaps for the good man someone would even dare to die.
Rm 5:8 But God commends His own alove to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ bdied for us.
Rm 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified in His ablood, we will be saved through Him from the bwrath.
Rm 5:10 For if we, being enemies, were 1areconciled to God through the death of His Son, 2much more we will be 3saved 4in His 5blife, having been reconciled,
Rm 5:11 And not only so, but also 1boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the areconciliation.
IV. Sanctification
5:12 — 8:13
A. The Gift in Christ Surpassing the Heritage in Adam —
Two Men, Two Acts, and Two Results with Four Reigning Things
5:12-21
Rm 5:12 Therefore just as through 1aone man 2bsin entered into the 3world, and cthrough sin, 4death; and thus 4ddeath passed on to all men because all have sinned —
Rm 5:13 For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not 1charged to one’s account when there is no alaw.
Rm 5:14 But 1adeath reigned from 2Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s 3transgression, bwho is a 4type of Him who was to come.
Rm 5:15 But it is not that as the offense was, so also the gracious gift is; for if by the offense of the aone the many died, much more the grace of God and the free gift in grace of the one 1bman Jesus Christ have 2abounded to the many.
Rm 5:16 And it is not that as through one who sinned, so also the free 1gift is; for the judgment was out of one offense unto condemnation, but the gracious gift is out of many offenses unto ajustification.
Rm 5:17 For if, by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the 1abundance of grace and of the gift of 2righteousness will 3reign in 4life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Rm 5:18 So then as it was through one offense unto condemnation to all men, so also it was through one 1righteous act unto justification of 2life to all men.
Rm 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were 1constituted sinners, so also through the 2obedience of the One the many will be 1constituted righteous.
Rm 5:20 And the alaw entered in alongside that the offense might 1abound; but where sin 1abounded, grace has superabounded,
Rm 5:21 In order that just as 1asin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through 2righteousness unto beternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
ROMANS 6

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B. Identification with Christ
6:1-23
1. Identified
vv. 1-5
Rm 6:1 What then shall we say? aShould we continue in sin that bgrace may abound?
Rm 6:2 Absolutely not! We who have adied to sin, how shall we still live in it?
Rm 6:3 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been 1abaptized into 2Christ Jesus have been 1baptized into 3His death?
Rm 6:4 We have been 1aburied therefore with Him through 2baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was braised from the dead through the 3cglory of the Father, so also we might 4walk in dnewness of elife.
Rm 6:5 For if we have 1grown together with Him in the 2likeness of His death, indeed we will also be 3in the 2likeness of His resurrection,
2. Knowing
vv. 6-10
Rm 6:6 1Knowing this, that our 2old man has been 3acrucified with Him in order that the 4bbody of sin might be 5annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves;
Rm 6:7 For he who has died is justified from 1sin.
Rm 6:8 Now if we have adied 1with Christ, we believe that we will also blive 1with Him,
Rm 6:9 Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, adies 1no more; death lords it over Him no more.
Rm 6:10 For the death which He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life which He lives, He lives to God.
3. Reckoning
v. 11
Rm 6:11 So also you, 1reckon yourselves to be adead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus.
4. Presenting
vv. 12-23
Rm 6:12 1Do not let asin therefore reign in your mortal body so that you obey 2the body’s blusts;
Rm 6:13 Neither apresent your bmembers as cweapons of unrighteousness to sin, but 1present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as 2weapons of righteousness to God.
Rm 6:14 For asin will not 1lord it over you, 2for you are 3not under the law but under bgrace.
Rm 6:15 What then? aShould we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!
Rm 6:16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, his slaves you are whom you obey, whether of sin 1unto death or of obedience 1unto righteousness?
Rm 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were aslaves of sin, you have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which you were delivered.
Rm 6:18 And having been 1afreed from sin, you were enslaved to righteousness.
Rm 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now apresent your members as slaves to righteousness 1unto 2bsanctification.
Rm 6:20 For when you were aslaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.
Rm 6:21 What fruit then did you have at that time? Things of which you are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death.
Rm 6:22 But now, having been afreed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto 1bsanctification, and the end, ceternal 2life.
Rm 6:23 For the 1wages of sin is 2adeath, but the gift of God is 3beternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 7

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C. Bondage in the Flesh by the Indwelling Sin
7:1-25
1. Two Husbands
vv. 1-6
Rm 7:1 Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the 1law lords it over the man as long as he lives?
Rm 7:2 For the married woman is bound by the 1law to her 2husband while he is living; but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the 1law regarding the husband.
Rm 7:3 So then if, while the husband is living, she is joined to 1another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to 1another man.
Rm 7:4 So then, my brothers, 1you also ahave been made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that 1you might be 2joined to banother, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might 3bear fruit to God.
Rm 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the passions for sins, which acted through the law, operated in our members to bear fruit to death.
Rm 7:6 But now we have been 1discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we 2serve in 3newness of 4spirit and not in oldness of letter.
2. Three Laws
vv. 7-25
Rm 7:7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But 1I did not aknow sin except through the 2law; for neither did I know coveting, except the law had said, 3b“You shall not covet.”
Rm 7:8 But 1sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind; for without the law sin is dead.
Rm 7:9 And I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
Rm 7:10 And the commandment, which was unto life, this very commandment was found to me to be unto 1death.
Rm 7:11 For sin, seizing the opportunity 1through the commandment, adeceived me and bthrough it killed me.
Rm 7:12 So then the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good.
Rm 7:13 Did then that which is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin did, that it might 1be shown to be sin by working out death in me through that which is good, that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
Rm 7:14 For we 1know that the law is 2spiritual; but I am 3fleshy, sold under sin.
Rm 7:15 For what I work out, I 1do not acknowledge; for what I will, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do.
Rm 7:16 But if what I do not will, this I do, I agree with the law that it is good.
Rm 7:17 Now then it is ano longer I that work it out but sin that 1dwells in me.
Rm 7:18 For I 1know that in me, that is, in my 2flesh, 3nothing good dwells; for 4to will is present with me, but to work out the good is not.
Rm 7:19 For I do not do the good which I will; but the evil which I do not will, this I practice.
Rm 7:20 But if what I do not will, this I do, it is ano longer I that work it out but sin that dwells in me.
Rm 7:21 I find then 1the law with me who wills to do the good, that is, the 2evil is present with me.
Rm 7:22 For I delight in the 1law of God according to the inner man,
Rm 7:23 But I see a different 1law in my members, 2warring against the law of my mind and making me a 3captive to the alaw of sin which is in my members.
Rm 7:24 1Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from 2the body of 3this death?
Rm 7:25 aThanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then 1with the mind I myself 2serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the 3law of sin.
ROMANS 8

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D. Freedom in the Spirit by the Indwelling Christ
8:1-13
1. The Law of the Spirit of Life
vv. 1-6
Rm 8:1 There is 1now then no 2condemnation to those who are 3in Christ Jesus.
Rm 8:2 For the 1law of the 2Spirit of 3life has 4freed 5me in Christ Jesus from the 6alaw of sin and of death.
Rm 8:3 For that which the 1law could 2not do, in that it was aweak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the 3likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
Rm 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be 1fulfilled in us, who do not 2awalk according to the flesh but according to the 3spirit.
Rm 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh mind the 1things of the flesh; but those who are 2according to the spirit, the 3things of the Spirit.
Rm 8:6 For 1the mind set on the flesh is 2death, but 3the mind set on the spirit is 2alife and bpeace.
2. The Indwelling Christ
vv. 7-13
Rm 8:7 Because the mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be.
Rm 8:8 And 1those who are 2in the flesh cannot please God.
Rm 8:9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the 1Spirit of God 2dwells in you. Yet 3if anyone does not have the 4aSpirit of Christ, he is not 5of Him.
Rm 8:10 But if 1aChrist is 2in you, though the 3body is 4dead because of sin, the 5spirit is 6life because of 7righteousness.
Rm 8:11 And if the 1Spirit of 2the One who raised Jesus from the dead 3adwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also 4bgive life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who 3indwells you.
Rm 8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to 1live according to the flesh;
Rm 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh, you must 1die, but if by the Spirit you 2aput to death the 3practices of the body, you will live.
V. Glorification
8:14-39
A. Heirs of Glory
vv. 14-27
Rm 8:14 For as many as are 1led by the 2Spirit of God, these are 3asons of God.
Rm 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery bringing you into fear again, but you have received a 1aspirit of sonship in which we bcry, 2Abba, Father!
Rm 8:16 The Spirit Himself awitnesses 1with 2our bspirit that 3we are cchildren of God.
Rm 8:17 And if children, aheirs also; on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other, joint heirs with Christ, 1if indeed we bsuffer with Him that we may also be cglorified with Him.
Rm 8:18 For I 1consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming aglory to be revealed 2upon us.
Rm 8:19 For the 1anxious watching of the creation eagerly awaits the 2revelation of the sons of God.
Rm 8:20 For the creation was made subject to avanity, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it,
Rm 8:21 In hope that the creation itself will also be 1freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the aglory of the children of God.
Rm 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now.
Rm 8:23 And not only so, but we ourselves also, who have 1the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves 2groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting 3asonship, the bredemption of our body.
Rm 8:24 For we were saved in hope. But a ahope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?
Rm 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly await it through endurance.
Rm 8:26 Moreover, 1in like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our 2weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself aintercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rm 8:27 But He who searches the hearts knows what the 1mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints 2according to God.
B. Heirs Conformed
vv. 28-30
Rm 8:28 And we know that 1all things 2work together for 3good to those who 4love God, to those who are acalled according to His 5purpose.
Rm 8:29 Because those whom He 1foreknew, He also 2apredestinated to be 3conformed to the bimage of His Son, that He might be the 4cFirstborn among 5many dbrothers;
Rm 8:30 And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also 1ajustified; and those whom He justified, these He also 2bglorified.
C. Heirs Inseparable from God’s Love
vv. 31-39
Rm 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Rm 8:32 Indeed, He who did not spare His own Son, but adelivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us ball things?
Rm 8:33 Who shall bring a acharge against God’s chosen ones? 1It is God who bjustifies.
Rm 8:34 Who is he who condemns? 1It is Christ Jesus who adied and, rather, who bwas raised, who is also 2cat the right hand of God, who also 3dintercedes for us.
Rm 8:35 Who shall separate us from the alove of Christ? Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
Rm 8:36 As it is written, a“For Your sake we are being bput to death all day long; we have been accounted as sheep for slaughter.”
Rm 8:37 But in all these things we 1more than conquer through Him who loved us.
Rm 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers
Rm 8:39 Nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the 1alove of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 9

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VI. Selection
9:1 — 11:36
A. God’s Selection, Our Destiny
9:1 — 10:21
1. Of God Who Calls
9:1-13
Rm 9:1 1I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my 2conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
Rm 9:2 That I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart.
Rm 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were a 1curse, separated from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
Rm 9:4 Who are Israelites, whose are the 1asonship and the bglory and the ccovenants and the dgiving of the law and the 2eservice and the fpromises;
Rm 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and out of whom, as regards what is according to flesh, is the Christ, who is 1aGod bover all, cblessed forever. Amen.
Rm 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has fallen away, for 1anot all who are out of Israel are Israel;
Rm 9:7 Neither is it that because they are the seed of aAbraham, they are all children; but, b“In Isaac shall your seed be called,”
Rm 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the achildren of God, but the bchildren of the promise are accounted as the seed.
Rm 9:9 For this is the word of promise, a“At this time next year I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Rm 9:10 And not only so, but aRebecca also, having conceived by one, Isaac our father,
Rm 9:11 Though the children had not yet been born nor had done anything good or bad (that the 1purpose of God according to aselection might remain, not of works but of Him who bcalls),
Rm 9:12 It was said to her, a“The greater shall 1serve the less”;
Rm 9:13 As it is written, a“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
2. Of God’s Mercy
9:14-18
Rm 9:14 What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? Absolutely not!
Rm 9:15 For to Moses He says, 1a“I will have 2bmercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have 2ccompassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
Rm 9:16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Rm 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, a“For this very thing I have raised you up, that I might show in you My power, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Rm 9:18 So then He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
3. Of God’s Sovereignty
9:19-29
Rm 9:19 You will say to me then, Why does He still find fault? For who withstands His will?
Rm 9:20 But rather, aO man, who are you who answer back to God? Shall the thing molded say to him who molded it, Why did you make me thus?
Rm 9:21 Or does not the apotter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one 1bvessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?
Rm 9:22 And what if God, wishing to demonstrate His awrath and make His power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
Rm 9:23 In order that He might make known the ariches of His glory upon bvessels of cmercy, which He had before prepared unto 1dglory,
Rm 9:24 Even us, whom He has also acalled, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?
Rm 9:25 As He also says in Hosea, a“I will call those who were not My people My people, and her who was not beloved beloved;
Rm 9:26 And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, aYou are not My people, there shall they be called sons of the living God.”
Rm 9:27 And Isaiah cries concerning Israel, a“Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved;
Rm 9:28 For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, accomplishing it and cutting it short.”
Rm 9:29 And as Isaiah has previously said, a“Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like bSodom and been made like Gomorrah.”
4. Through the Righteousness Which Is out of Faith
9:30 — 10:3
Rm 9:30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have laid hold of righteousness, but a righteousness which is out of faith;
Rm 9:31 But aIsrael, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law.
Rm 9:32 Why? Because they pursued it not aout of faith, but as it were out of works. They stumbled at the bstone of stumbling,
Rm 9:33 As it is written, a“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, and he who believes on Him shall not be put to shame.”
ROMANS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Rm 10:1 Brothers, the good pleasure of my heart and my petition to God for them is for their asalvation.
Rm 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to full knowledge;
Rm 10:3 For because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to 1establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the arighteousness of God.
5. Through Christ
10:4-21
a. Christ, the End of the Law
v. 4
Rm 10:4 For Christ is the 1aend of the law unto righteousness to everyone who believes.
b. Christ, Incarnated and Resurrected
vv. 5-7
Rm 10:5 For Moses writes concerning the righteousness which is out of the law: a“The man who does them shall live by them.”
Rm 10:6 But the righteousness which is out of faith speaks in this way, aDo not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into bheaven?” that is, to 1bring Christ down;
Rm 10:7 Or, “Who will descend into the 1abyss?” that is, to 2bring Christ up from the dead.
c. Christ, Who Is Near
v. 8
Rm 10:8 But what does it say? 1a“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim,
d. Christ, Believed In and Called Upon
vv. 9-13
Rm 10:9 That if you aconfess with your 1mouth bJesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has 2craised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Rm 10:10 For 1with the heart there is believing 2unto righteousness, and 1with the mouth there is confession 2unto salvation.
Rm 10:11 For the Scripture says, a“Everyone who believes on Him shall not be put to shame.”
Rm 10:12 For there is no distinction between aJew and Greek, for the same Lord is bLord of all and 1crich to all who dcall upon Him;
Rm 10:13 For a“whoever 1calls upon the name of the Lord shall be 2bsaved.”
e. Christ, Proclaimed and Heard
vv. 14-15
Rm 10:14 How then shall they call upon Him into whom they have not 1believed? And how shall they believe into Him of whom they have not 2heard? And how shall they hear without one who proclaims Him?
Rm 10:15 And how shall they proclaim Him unless they are sent? As it is written, a“How beautiful are the bfeet of those who announce the news of good things!”
f. Christ, Received or Rejected
vv. 16-21
Rm 10:16 But not all have 1aobeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, b“Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”
Rm 10:17 So faith comes out of ahearing, and hearing through the bword of Christ.
Rm 10:18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes surely: a“Their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the inhabited earth.”
Rm 10:19 But I say, Did Israel not know this? First, Moses says, a“I will bprovoke you to jealousy by them who are not a nation; by a nation without understanding I will anger you.”
Rm 10:20 And Isaiah is very bold and says, a“I was found by those who did not seek Me; I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
Rm 10:21 But with regard to Israel he says, a“All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a people who disobey and contradict.”
ROMANS 11

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B. The Economy in God’s Selection
11:1-32
1. A Remnant Reserved by Grace
vv. 1-10
Rm 11:1 I say then, Has God 1cast away His people? Absolutely not! For aI also am an Israelite, out of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Rm 11:2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage concerning Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
Rm 11:3 a“Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars; and I am left alone, and they are seeking my 1life.”
Rm 11:4 But what does the divine answer say to him? a“I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to 1bBaal.”
Rm 11:5 In the same way then at the present time also there has come into being a remnant according to the aselection of grace.
Rm 11:6 But if by agrace, it is no longer out of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Rm 11:7 What then? That which aIsrael is seeking after, this it has not obtained, but the chosen have obtained it, and the rest have been bhardened;
Rm 11:8 As it is written, a“God gave them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, until this very day.”
Rm 11:9 And David says, a“Let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution to them;
Rm 11:10 aLet their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see; and bend their back continually.”
2. The Gentiles Saved through Israel’s Stumbling
vv. 11-22
Rm 11:11 I say then, Have they 1stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! But by their misstep salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
Rm 11:12 But if their misstep has become riches for the world, and their loss, riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
Rm 11:13 But I am speaking to you, the Gentiles. Inasmuch therefore as I am an apostle of the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry,
Rm 11:14 If perhaps I may provoke those of my flesh to jealousy and save some of them.
Rm 11:15 For if their being cast aside is the reconciliation of the world, what will their being received back be, if not life from the dead?
Rm 11:16 Now if the adough offered as the 1firstfruits is holy, the lump is also; and if the 1root is holy, the branches are also.
Rm 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were 1grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the 2aolive tree,
Rm 11:18 Do not boast against the branches; but if you boast, remember that it is not you who bear the root, but the root you.
Rm 11:19 You will say then, Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.
Rm 11:20 Rightly said: they were broken off because of aunbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be high-minded, but fear;
Rm 11:21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.
Rm 11:22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but on you, the akindness of God, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be bcut off.
3. Israel Restored through the Gentiles’ Receiving Mercy
vv. 23-32
Rm 11:23 And they also, if they do not continue in aunbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able 1to graft them in again.
Rm 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature into the cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own aolive tree!
Rm 11:25 For I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant of this mystery (lest you be wise in yourselves), that ahardness has come upon Israel in part, until the fullness of the 1Gentiles comes in;
Rm 11:26 And thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written, a“The Deliverer will come out of Zion; He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Rm 11:27 And this is the covenant from Me with them, when I take away their sins.”
Rm 11:28 According to the gospel they are enemies 1for your sake, but according to the aselection they are beloved 1for the fathers’ sake.
Rm 11:29 For the agracious gifts and the bcalling of God are irrevocable.
Rm 11:30 For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have been shown amercy because of their disobedience,
Rm 11:31 So these also now have disobeyed, so that because of the mercy shown to you they also now may be shown mercy.
Rm 11:32 For God has ashut up all in disobedience that He might 1show bmercy to all.
C. The Praise for God’s Selection
11:33-36
Rm 11:33 1Oh, the adepth of the briches and 2cwisdom and dknowledge of God! How eunsearchable are His judgments and untraceable His ways!
Rm 11:34 aFor who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor?
Rm 11:35 Or who has first given to Him, and it will be repaid to him?
Rm 11:36 Because aout from Him and bthrough Him and cto Him are all things. dTo Him be the glory forever. Amen.
ROMANS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

VII. Transformation
12:1 — 15:13
A. In Practicing the Body Life
12:1-21
1. By the Presenting of Our Bodies
v. 1
Rm 12:1 1I 2aexhort you therefore, brothers, through the 3bcompassions of God to 4cpresent your bodies a 5living dsacrifice, holy, ewell pleasing to God, which is your 6reasonable 7fservice.
2. By the Renewing of the Mind
vv. 2-3
Rm 12:2 And do 1not be afashioned according to 2this bage, but be 3ctransformed by the 4drenewing of the emind that you may 5fprove what the 6gwill of God is, that which is good and hwell pleasing and perfect.
Rm 12:3 For I say, through the agrace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to 1think more bhighly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be csober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a dmeasure of faith.
3. By the Exercising of the Gifts
vv. 4-8
Rm 12:4 For just as in aone body we have bmany members, and all the members do not have the csame 1function,
Rm 12:5 So we who are many are one Body 1in Christ, and individually 2amembers one of another.
Rm 12:6 And having 1agifts that differ according to the bgrace given to us, whether 2cprophecy, let us prophesy according to the dproportion of faith;
Rm 12:7 Or 1service, let us be faithful in that service; or he who ateaches, in that teaching;
Rm 12:8 Or he who aexhorts, in that exhortation; he who 1bgives, in simplicity; he who 2cleads, in diligence; he who 3shows dmercy, in cheerfulness.
4. By the Living of a Life of the Highest Virtues
vv. 9-21
Rm 12:9 1Let alove be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; bcling to what is good.
Rm 12:10 aLove one another warmly in brotherly love; take the lead in showing honor one to another.
Rm 12:11 Do not be slothful in zeal, but be 1aburning in spirit, 2bserving the Lord.
Rm 12:12 Rejoice in hope; aendure in tribulation; bpersevere in prayer.
Rm 12:13 1aContribute to the needs of the saints; pursue bhospitality.
Rm 12:14 1aBless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rm 12:15 1Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
Rm 12:16 Be of the asame mind toward one another, not bsetting your mind on the high things but going along with the 1lowly; do not be cwise in yourselves.
Rm 12:17 aRepay no one evil for evil; 1btake forethought for things honorable in the sight of all men.
Rm 12:18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live in apeace with all men.
Rm 12:19 Do not 1avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God, for it is written, a“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Rm 12:20 aBut “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head.”
Rm 12:21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
ROMANS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

B. In Being Subject to Authorities
13:1-7
Rm 13:1 Let every 1person be 2asubject to the authorities over him, for bthere is no authority except 3from God, and those which exist are 4ordained by God.
Rm 13:2 So then he who resists the authority opposes God’s ordination, and those who oppose will receive 1judgment to themselves.
Rm 13:3 For the arulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you want to have no fear of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from him;
Rm 13:4 For he is a 1servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, fear; he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is a 1servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who practices evil.
Rm 13:5 Therefore it is necessary to be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.
Rm 13:6 For because of this you also pay taxes; for they are God’s 1officers, attending constantly to this very thing.
Rm 13:7 aRender to all the things due: tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear is due, honor to whom honor is due.
C. In Practicing Love
13:8-10
Rm 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to alove one another; for he who 1loves the other has bfulfilled the law.
Rm 13:9 For, a“You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, b“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Rm 13:10 aLove does not work evil to his neighbor; therefore love is the bfulfillment of the law.
D. In Waging the Warfare
13:11-14
Rm 13:11 And this, knowing the atime, that it is already the hour for you to be braised from sleep; for now is our 1salvation cnearer than when we believed.
Rm 13:12 The 1night is far advanced, and the aday has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the bworks of darkness, and let us put on the cweapons of light.
Rm 13:13 Let us walk becomingly as in the aday; not in breveling and cdrunkenness, not in fornication and licentiousness, not in dstrife and ejealousy.
Rm 13:14 But 1aput on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no 2provision for the bflesh to fulfill its lusts.
ROMANS 14

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E. In Receiving the Believers
14:1 — 15:13
1. According to God’s Receiving
14:1-9
Rm 14:1 1Now him who is aweak in faith 2breceive, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his 3considerations.
Rm 14:2 One believes that he may eat all things, but he who is weak aeats vegetables.
Rm 14:3 He who eats, let him 1not despise him who does not eat; and he who does not eat, let him 1not judge him who eats, for 2God has received him.
Rm 14:4 Who are you who judge another’s household servant? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will be made to stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Rm 14:5 One judges one aday above another; another judges every day alike. Let each be fully bpersuaded in his own mind.
Rm 14:6 He who regards that day, regards it to the Lord; and he who eats, aeats to the Lord, for he gives bthanks to God; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and he gives thanks to God.
Rm 14:7 For none of us alives to himself, and none dies to himself;
Rm 14:8 For whether we live, we alive to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the bLord’s.
Rm 14:9 For Christ adied and lived again for this, that He might be bLord both of the dead and of the living.
2. In the Light of the Judgment Seat
14:10-12
Rm 14:10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the 1ajudgment seat of God,
Rm 14:11 For it is written, a“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall openly confess to God.”
Rm 14:12 So then each one of us will agive an account concerning himself to God.
3. In the Principle of Love
14:13-15
Rm 14:13 Therefore let us ajudge one another no longer, but rather judge this: bnot to put a stumbling block or cause of falling before your brother.
Rm 14:14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that there is anothing 1unclean of itself, except to him who considers something to be 1unclean; to that man it is 1unclean.
Rm 14:15 For if because of food your brother is 1wounded, you no longer awalk according to love. Do not bdestroy by your food that man for whom Christ died.
4. For the Kingdom Life
14:16-23
Rm 14:16 Therefore do not let your agood be slandered;
Rm 14:17 For the 1akingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but 2brighteousness and cpeace and djoy in the Holy Spirit.
Rm 14:18 For he who 1aserves Christ in this is well pleasing to God and approved by men.
Rm 14:19 So then let us 1apursue the things of peace and the things for bbuilding up one another.
Rm 14:20 Do not abreak down the 1work of God for the sake of food. bAll things indeed are clean, but it is evil for a man to eat while cstumbling others.
Rm 14:21 It is good anot to eat meat nor drink wine nor to do anything by which your brother stumbles.
Rm 14:22 The faith which you have, have to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in what he approves;
Rm 14:23 But he who adoubts is condemned if he eats, because it is not out of faith; for all that is not out of faith is sin.
ROMANS 15

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5. According to Christ
15:1-13
Rm 15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those who are aweak and not to please ourselves.
Rm 15:2 Let each of us please his neighbor with a view to what is good for abuilding up.
Rm 15:3 For Christ also did not please Himself, but as it is written, a“The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon Me.”
Rm 15:4 For the things that were awritten previously were written for our instruction, in order that through endurance and through the 1encouragement of the Scriptures we might have bhope.
Rm 15:5 Now the aGod of endurance and encouragement grant you to be of the bsame mind toward one another according to 1cChrist Jesus,
Rm 15:6 That 1with aone accord you may with bone mouth cglorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rm 15:7 Therefore areceive one another, as 1Christ also received you to the glory of God.
Rm 15:8 For I say that Christ has become a 1servant of the circumcision for the sake of God’s 2atruthfulness, to confirm the bpromises given to the fathers,
Rm 15:9 And that the Gentiles should glorify God for His amercy, as it is written, b“Therefore I will 1extol You among the Gentiles, and I will sing praise to Your name.”
Rm 15:10 And again he says, a“Rejoice, Gentiles, with His people.”
Rm 15:11 And again, a“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples speak praise to Him.”
Rm 15:12 And again, Isaiah says, a“There shall be the 1broot of Jesse, even He who rises to rule the Gentiles; con Him will the Gentiles hope.”
Rm 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and apeace in believing, that you may abound in bhope in the cpower of the Holy Spirit.
VIII. Conclusion — The Consummation of the Gospel
15:14 — 16:27
A. The Gentiles Offered
15:14-24
Rm 15:14 But I myself also am persuaded concerning you, my brothers, that you yourselves also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
Rm 15:15 But I have written the more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you of them again because of the agrace given to me by God
Rm 15:16 That I might be a 1minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a 2laboring 3apriest of the gospel of God, in order that the boffering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been csanctified in the Holy Spirit.
Rm 15:17 I have therefore my 1aboasting in Christ Jesus bin the things pertaining to God.
Rm 15:18 For I will not dare to speak anything of the things which aChrist has not accomplished through me for the bobedience of the Gentiles, by word and by work,
Rm 15:19 In the power of asigns and wonders, in the bpower of the Spirit of God; so that cfrom Jerusalem and round about to 1Illyricum, I have 2dfully preached the gospel of Christ,
Rm 15:20 But have done so aspiring to announce the gospel not where Christ has been named, so that I would not build upon aanother’s foundation;
Rm 15:21 But as it is written, a“They will see, they to whom nothing concerning Him was announced; and those who have not heard will understand.”
Rm 15:22 For this reason also I have been ahindered these many times from coming to you.
Rm 15:23 But now I no longer have place in these regions and have had a desire since many years ago to acome to you
Rm 15:24 Whenever I may go to 1aSpain, for I hope to see you in passing and be bsent forward there by you, if first I am cfilled, at least in part, by your company.
B. The Communication between the Gentile and Jewish Saints
15:25-33
Rm 15:25 But now I am agoing to Jerusalem, 1bministering to the saints.
Rm 15:26 For aMacedonia and bAchaia have been pleased to make some 1contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.
Rm 15:27 For they were pleased to do it, and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have shared in their aspiritual things, they ought also to 1do service to them in material things.
Rm 15:28 When therefore I have finished this and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by way of you to aSpain.
Rm 15:29 And I know that when I come to you, I will acome in the 1fullness of the blessing of Christ.
Rm 15:30 Now I aexhort you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the blove of the Spirit, to cstrive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,
Rm 15:31 That I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my 1aservice for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
Rm 15:32 So that coming to you in joy through the awill of God, I may brefresh myself and rest with you.
Rm 15:33 Now the aGod of peace be with you all. Amen.
ROMANS 16

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C. The Concern among the Churches
16:1-24
Rm 16:1 I 1commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a adeaconess of the 2church which is in bCenchrea,
Rm 16:2 That you areceive her in the Lord in a manner 1worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been the 2patroness of many, of myself as well.
Rm 16:3 Greet aPrisca and aAquila, my bfellow workers in Christ Jesus,
Rm 16:4 Who 1risked their own necks for my 2life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the 3achurches of the Gentiles;
Rm 16:5 And greet the 1achurch, which is in their 2house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the firstfruits of Asia unto Christ.
Rm 16:6 Greet Mary, one who has labored much for you.
Rm 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my akinsmen and my bfellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
Rm 16:8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.
Rm 16:9 Greet Urbanus, our afellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
Rm 16:10 Greet Apelles, 1approved in Christ. Greet 2those of the household of Aristobulus.
Rm 16:11 Greet Herodion, my akinsman. Greet 1those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
Rm 16:12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved sister, one who has labored much in the Lord.
Rm 16:13 Greet aRufus, bchosen in the Lord, and his mother as well as 1mine.
Rm 16:14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers with them.
Rm 16:15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints with them.
Rm 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the 1achurches of Christ greet you.
Rm 16:17 Now I aexhort you, brothers, to bmark those who make cdivisions and causes of 1stumbling contrary to the dteaching which you have learned, and 2eturn away from them.
Rm 16:18 For such men do not 1aserve our Lord Christ, but their own 2bstomach, and through csmooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the 3simple.
Rm 16:19 For the report of your aobedience has reached to all; therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil.
Rm 16:20 Now the aGod of peace will 1bcrush Satan cunder your feet shortly. The 2dgrace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Rm 16:21 aTimothy, my bfellow worker, greets you, as well as Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my ckinsmen.
Rm 16:22 I, Tertius, who write this epistle, greet you in the Lord.
Rm 16:23 aGaius, my host and host of the whole church, greets you. bErastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus the brother.
Rm 16:24 See note 241.
D. The Concluding Praise
16:25-27
Rm 16:25 aNow to Him who is able to 1bestablish you according to 2cmy gospel, that is, the dproclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the 3emystery, which has been kept in silence in the 4times of the ages
Rm 16:26 But has now been manifested, and through the aprophetic writings, according to the command of the 1beternal God, has been made known to all the Gentiles for the cobedience of faith;
Rm 16:27 To the aonly 1wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the bglory forever and ever. Amen.
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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1; 9:1-2), twenty-five years after he was called (Acts 9:3-6, 15-16) and fourteen years after he was sent to the Gentile world as an apostle (Acts 13:1-4, 14:14).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 59, near the end of Paul’s three-year stay in Ephesus (Acts 20:31; 1 Cor. 16:8).
Place of Writing: Ephesus (Acts 19:21-22; 1 Cor. 16:3-8, 19).
Recipients: The saints — the church — in Corinth and all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place (1:2).
Subject:
Christ and His Cross as the Solution to All Problems in the Church
1 CORINTHIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

I. Introduction — The Initial Gifts and the Participation in Christ
1:1-9
1Co 1:1 Paul, a 1acalled apostle of Christ Jesus through the 2bwill of God, and 3Sosthenes the brother,
1Co 1:2 To the 1achurch of God which is 2in bCorinth, 3to those who have been 4csanctified 5in Christ Jesus, the 6dcalled saints, 7with all those who 8ecall upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is 9ftheirs and ours:
1Co 1:3 aGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 1:4 I athank my God always concerning you 1based upon the bgrace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus,
1Co 1:5 That in everything you were aenriched in Him, in all 1utterance and all bknowledge,
1Co 1:6 Even as the 1atestimony of Christ was confirmed 2in you,
1Co 1:7 So that you do not lack in any 1agift, eagerly awaiting the 2brevelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 1:8 1Who will also 2aconfirm you until the end bunreprovable in the 3cday of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 1:9 1God is afaithful, through whom you were bcalled 2into the cfellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
II. Dealing with Divisions
1:10 — 4:21
A. Christ and His Cross, the Unique Solution to All Problems in the Church
1:10-31
1. Christ Not Divided
vv. 10-17
1Co 1:10 Now I beseech you, brothers, through the 1aname of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all 2bspeak the same thing and that there be no 3cdivisions among you, but that you be 4attuned in the dsame mind and in the same 5eopinion.
1Co 1:11 For it has been made clear to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of the household of 1Chloe, that there are astrifes among you.
1Co 1:12 Now I mean this, that each of you says, 1aI am of bPaul, and I of cApollos, and I of dCephas, and I of 2Christ.
1Co 1:13 Is 1Christ adivided? Was Paul 2crucified for you? Or were you bbaptized into the name of Paul?
1Co 1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except aCrispus and bGaius,
1Co 1:15 That no one may say that you were baptized into my name.
1Co 1:16 And I did baptize the household of aStephanas also; beyond that I do not know if I baptized any other.
1Co 1:17 For Christ did not 1send me to baptize but to announce the gospel, not in 2awisdom of speech that the 3bcross of Christ may not be made void.
2. Christ Crucified, God’s Power and God’s Wisdom
vv. 18-25
1Co 1:18 For the 1aword of the cross is to those who are bperishing cfoolishness, but to us who are being dsaved it is the epower of God.
1Co 1:19 For it is written, a“I will destroy the wisdom of the 1bwise, and the understanding of those who understand I will set aside.”
1Co 1:20 Where is the awise? Where is the 1bscribe? Where is the disputer of cthis age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world dfoolish?
1Co 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, God 1was well pleased through the afoolishness of the 2preaching to bsave those who believe.
1Co 1:22 For indeed Jews require 1asigns and Greeks seek wisdom,
1Co 1:23 But we apreach 1Christ bcrucified, to Jews a cstumbling block, and to Gentiles dfoolishness,
1Co 1:24 But to 1those who are acalled, both bJews and Greeks, Christ the 2cpower of God and the dwisdom of God.
1Co 1:25 Because the afoolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
3. Christ, Our Wisdom: Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption
vv. 26-31
1Co 1:26 For consider your calling, brothers, that there are not many awise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many 1wellborn.
1Co 1:27 But God has 1achosen the foolish things of the bworld that He might shame those who are wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the bworld that He might shame the things that are strong,
1Co 1:28 And the 1lowborn things of the world and the 2despised things God has chosen, things which 3aare not, that He might bbring to nought the 4things which are,
1Co 1:29 1So that no flesh may aboast before God.
1Co 1:30 But 1aof Him you are bin Christ Jesus, who became cwisdom to us from God: both 2drighteousness and esanctification and fredemption,
1Co 1:31 That as it is written, a“He who boasts, let him bboast in the Lord.”
1 CORINTHIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

B. Christ Crucified, the Center of the Apostle’s Ministry
2:1-16
1. The Way of the Apostle’s Ministry
vv. 1-5
1Co 2:1 And I, when I acame to you, brothers, came not according to 1excellence of bspeech or of wisdom, announcing to you the 2cmystery of God.
1Co 2:2 For I did 1not determine to know anything among you except 2Jesus aChrist, and 2this One bcrucified.
1Co 2:3 And I was with you in 1aweakness and in 2bfear and in much trembling;
1Co 2:4 And my aspeech and my proclamation were not in 1persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the bSpirit and of cpower,
1Co 2:5 In order that your faith would not 1stand in the 2wisdom of men but in the apower of God.
2. God’s Wisdom in a Mystery — Christ as the Deep Things of God
vv. 6-10
1Co 2:6 But we do speak wisdom among those who are afull-grown, yet a bwisdom not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are being 1cbrought to nought;
1Co 2:7 But we speak 1God’s wisdom in a amystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God bpredestined 2before the cages for our 3dglory,
1Co 2:8 Which none of the arulers of this age have known; for if they had known, they would not have bcrucified the cLord of glory;
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, a“Things which 1eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not bcome up 2in man’s heart; things which God has cprepared for those who 3dlove Him.”
1Co 2:10 But to us God has 1arevealed them through the bSpirit, for the Spirit 2searches all things, even the 3cdepths of God.
3. Interpreting Spiritual Things with Spiritual Words to Spiritual Men
vv. 11-16
1Co 2:11 For who among men knows the things of man, except the 1aspirit of man which is in him? In the same way, the things of God also no one has known except the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 But we have 1areceived not the spirit of the bworld but the cSpirit which is from God, that we may dknow the ethings which have been graciously given to us by God;
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in awords taught by human wisdom but in words btaught by the Spirit, 1interpreting spiritual things 2with spiritual words.
1Co 2:14 1But a 2asoulish man does bnot receive the 3cthings of the Spirit of God, for they are dfoolishness to him and he is 4not able to know them because they are 5ediscerned 6spiritually.
1Co 2:15 But the 1aspiritual man discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one.
1Co 2:16 For who has known the amind of the Lord and will binstruct Him? But we 1have the cmind of Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 3

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C. The Church, God’s Cultivated Land and God’s Building
3:1-23
1. Growth in Life Needed
vv. 1-9
1Co 3:1 And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to 1aspiritual men, but as to 2bfleshy, as to 3cinfants in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I 1gave you 2amilk to drink, not 2solid bfood, for you were cnot yet able to receive it. But 3neither yet now are you able,
1Co 3:3 For you are still afleshly. For if there is 1bjealousy and cstrife among you, are you not fleshly and do you not walk 2according to the manner of man?
1Co 3:4 For when someone says, aI am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men of flesh?
1Co 3:5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? aMinisters through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to beach one of them.
1Co 3:6 aI 1planted, bApollos watered, but cGod caused the growth.
1Co 3:7 So then 1neither is he who plants aanything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.
1Co 3:8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but aeach will receive his own 1breward according to his own clabor.
1Co 3:9 For we are 1God’s afellow workers; you are God’s 2bcultivated land, God’s cbuilding.
2. Built with Transformed Materials, Not with Natural Things
vv. 10-17
1Co 3:10 According to the agrace of God given to me, as a wise 1master builder I have blaid a cfoundation, and danother ebuilds upon it. But let each man 2take heed how he fbuilds upon it.
1Co 3:11 For 1aanother foundation no one is able to lay besides bthat which is laid, which is Jesus cChrist.
1Co 3:12 1But if anyone builds upon the foundation 2gold, silver, precious stones, 3wood, grass, stubble,
1Co 3:13 The work of each will become amanifest; for 1bthe day will declare it, because it is revealed by 2cfire, and the fire itself will dprove each one’s work, of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If anyone’s 1work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a 2areward;
1Co 3:15 If anyone’s 1work is consumed, he will suffer 2loss, but he himself will be 3asaved, yet so as 4through bfire.
1Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are the 1atemple of God, and that the bSpirit of God dwells in you?
1Co 3:17 If anyone 1adestroys the temple of God, God will 2destroy him; for the temple of God is 3holy, and 4such are you.
3. All Things for the Church and the Church for Christ
vv. 18-23
1Co 3:18 Let no one 1adeceive himself; if anyone 2bthinks that he is cwise among you in this age, let him 3become foolish that he may 4become wise.
1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is afoolishness with God; for it is written, b“He grasps the wise in their craftiness”;
1Co 3:20 And again, a“The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are 1vain.”
1Co 3:21 So then let no one aboast in men, for ball things are yours,
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or alife or death or things present or things to come; 1all are yours,
1Co 3:23 But you are aChrist’s, and Christ is bGod’s.
1 CORINTHIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

D. Stewards of the Mysteries of God
4:1-21
1. Faithful Servants of Christ
vv. 1-5
1Co 4:1 A man should 1account us 2in this way, as 3aservants of Christ and 4bstewards of the cmysteries of God.
1Co 4:2 1Here, furthermore, it is sought in stewards that one be found afaithful.
1Co 4:3 But to me it is a very small thing that I should be 1aexamined by you or by 2man’s day; rather I do not even examine myself.
1Co 4:4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself; but I am not justified in this, but He who examines me is the Lord.
1Co 4:5 So then do not 1ajudge anything 2before the time, until the Lord bcomes, who will both bring to light the chidden things of darkness and make dmanifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be epraise to each from God.
2. A Spectacle Both to Angels and to Men
vv. 6-9
1Co 4:6 Now 1these things, brothers, I have 2transferred in figure to myself and aApollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us the matter of not going beyond 3what has been written, that none of you may be bpuffed up on behalf of cone, against the other.
1Co 4:7 For 1who distinguishes you? And what do you have that you did not areceive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though not having received it?
1Co 4:8 1Already you are filled; already you have become arich; you have reigned without us. And I would have it indeed that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.
1Co 4:9 For, I think, God has set forth us the apostles 1last of all as 2doomed to adeath, because we have become a 3bspectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
3. The Offscouring of the World and the Scum of All Things
vv. 10-13
1Co 4:10 We are 1afools because of Christ, but you are bprudent in Christ; we are 2cweak, but you are strong; you are 3glorious, but we are ddishonored.
1Co 4:11 Until the present hour we both ahunger and thirst, and are naked and bbuffeted and wander without a home;
1Co 4:12 And we labor, aworking with our own bhands. Reviled we cbless; dpersecuted we endure;
1Co 4:13 1Defamed we 2exhort. We have become as the 3aoffscouring of the world, the 3scum of all things, until now.
4. The Begetting Father
vv. 14-21
1Co 4:14 It is not to ashame you that I write these things but to admonish you as my beloved bchildren.
1Co 4:15 For though you have ten thousand 1guides in Christ, yet you do not have many 2afathers; for bin Christ Jesus I have cbegotten you through the dgospel.
1Co 4:16 I 1exhort you therefore, Become aimitators of me.
1Co 4:17 Because of this I have sent aTimothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful bchild in the Lord, who will remind you of my 1ways which are in Christ, even as I teach 2everywhere in every cchurch.
1Co 4:18 Now some have become apuffed up as though I were not coming to you.
1Co 4:19 But I will acome to you shortly, if the Lord bwills, and I will ascertain not the speech of those who are puffed up but the power.
1Co 4:20 For the 1akingdom of God is not in speech but in bpower.
1Co 4:21 What do you want? Should I acome to you with a 1rod or in love and a 2bspirit of cmeekness?
1 CORINTHIANS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

III. Dealing with an Evil Brother
5:1-13
A. The Evil One Judged
vv. 1-5
1Co 5:1 It is actually reported that there is 1afornication among you, and such fornication that does not even occur among the Gentiles, that someone has his 2bstepmother.
1Co 5:2 And you are apuffed up? And have you not rather bmourned, that the one who has done this deed might be 1cremoved from your midst?
1Co 5:3 For I, on my part, though being absent in the body but present 1in the aspirit, have already judged, as if being present, him who has thus done this,
1Co 5:4 1In the aname of our Lord Jesus, when you and 2my bspirit have been assembled, 1with the cpower of our Lord Jesus,
1Co 5:5 1To adeliver such a one to bSatan for the 2destruction of his 3flesh, 4that his spirit may be saved in the 5cday of the Lord.
B. Keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread
vv. 6-8
1Co 5:6 Your 1aboasting is not good. Do you not know that a 2little 3bleaven leavens the whole lump?
1Co 5:7 Purge out the old leaven that you may be a 1new lump, even as you are unleavened; for our 2aPassover, Christ, also has been sacrificed.
1Co 5:8 So then let us akeep the 1feast, not with old bleaven, neither with the leaven of cmalice and evil, but with the dunleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
C. Removing the Evil One from the Church
vv. 9-13
1Co 5:9 I wrote to you in my letter anot to 1mingle with fornicators,
1Co 5:10 But not altogether with the afornicators of this world, or with the covetous and rapacious, or idolaters, since then you would have to go bout of the world.
1Co 5:11 But now I have written to you not to mingle with anyone who is called a abrother, if he is a 1fornicator or a covetous man or an bidolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a rapacious man, with such a one cnot even to eat.
1Co 5:12 For what have I to do with judging those who are aoutside the church? Do you not bjudge those who are within the church?
1Co 5:13 But those who are outside, God will judge. 1aRemove the evil man from among yourselves.
1 CORINTHIANS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

IV. Dealing with Lawsuits among Believers
6:1-11
A. The Judgment of the Church
vv. 1-8
1Co 6:1 Does any one of you who has a 1case against another dare to be judged before the 2unrighteous and not before the saints?
1Co 6:2 Or do you not know that the saints will 1ajudge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy of the 2smallest 3judgments?
1Co 6:3 Do you not know that we will 1judge angels, not to mention things of this life?
1Co 6:4 If then you hold ajudgments over things of this life, do you seat as judges 1those who are of no account in the church?
1Co 6:5 I say this to your ashame. So there is no one wise among you, who will be able to discern between his bbrothers?
1Co 6:6 But brother 1goes to court with brother, and this before aunbelievers.
1Co 6:7 Already then it is altogether a 1defeat to you that you have 2lawsuits with one another. Why not 3arather be wronged? Why not 3rather be defrauded?
1Co 6:8 But you wrong and adefraud, and this your brothers.
B. Those Not Qualified to Inherit the Kingdom of God
vv. 9-11
1Co 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not 1ainherit the kingdom of God? Do not be bled astray; neither cfornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor dhomosexuals
1Co 6:10 Nor thieves nor the covetous, not drunkards, not revilers, not the rapacious will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11 And these things were some of you; but you were 1awashed, but you were 1bsanctified, but you were 1cjustified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
V. Dealing with the Abuse of Freedom
6:12-20
A. A Basic Principle
v. 12
1Co 6:12 1aAll things are 2lawful to me, but not all things are 3profitable; all things are 2lawful to me, but I will not be 4brought under the power of anything.
B. The Use of the Body
vv. 13-20
1Co 6:13 1Foods are for the astomach, and the stomach for foods; but God will bring to bnought both it and them. But the 2body is not for fornication but cfor the Lord, and the Lord dfor the body.
1Co 6:14 And God has both araised up the Lord and will 1braise us up through His cpower.
1Co 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are 1amembers of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? 2bAbsolutely not!
1Co 6:16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For He says, a“The two shall be one flesh.”
1Co 6:17 But he who is 1ajoined to the Lord is 2bone spirit.
1Co 6:18 aFlee bfornication. Every 1sin which a man may do is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body.
1Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your abody is a btemple of the 1Holy Spirit cwithin you, whom you have dfrom God, and you are enot your own?
1Co 6:20 For you have been abought with a 1bprice. So then 2cglorify God in your dbody.
1 CORINTHIANS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

VI. Dealing with Marriage Life
7:1-40
A. Concerning the Gift Not to Marry
vv. 1-7
1Co 7:1 Now concerning the 1things of which you wrote: It is agood for a man not to touch a woman.
1Co 7:2 But because of 1afornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
1Co 7:3 Let the ahusband render to his wife that which is due, and likewise also the wife to the husband.
1Co 7:4 The awife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise the husband also does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
1Co 7:5 Do not deprive each other, aexcept by agreement for a time that you may 1devote yourselves to prayer, and then be together again, that 2bSatan may not ctempt you because of your 3lack of dself-control.
1Co 7:6 But this I say by way of 1concession, not by way of 1acommand.
1Co 7:7 Yet I 1wish all men to be even as I am myself; but each has his own 2gift from God, one in this way, the other in that.
B. Concerning the Unmarried and the Widows
vv. 8-9
1Co 7:8 But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is 1agood for them if they remain even as I am.
1Co 7:9 But if they do not have 1aself-control, let them bmarry; for it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
C. Concerning the Married
vv. 10-16
1Co 7:10 But to the married 1I charge, 2anot I but the Lord, A bwife must not be cseparated from her husband
1Co 7:11 (But if indeed she is separated, let her 1remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband), and a ahusband must not leave his wife.
1Co 7:12 But to the rest 1I say, I, anot the Lord, If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she consents to dwell with him, he must not bleave her;
1Co 7:13 And a wife who has an unbelieving husband, and if he consents to dwell with her, must not leave her husband.
1Co 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is 1asanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the brother; otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.
1Co 7:15 But if the unbelieving one separates, let him separate; the brother or the sister is 1not enslaved in such cases, 2but God has called us in apeace.
1Co 7:16 1For 2how do you know, O awife, whether you will bsave your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
D. Remaining in the Status of One’s Calling
vv. 17-24
1Co 7:17 1However as the Lord has apportioned to each one, as God has acalled each one, so let him walk. And so I direct in all the bchurches.
1Co 7:18 Was anyone called having been circumcised? He need not 1efface it. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He need not be acircumcised.
1Co 7:19 1aCircumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the bkeeping of God’s commandments is what counts.
1Co 7:20 Each one, in the acalling in which he was called, in this let him remain.
1Co 7:21 Were you called as a aslave? 1Let it not concern you; 2but even if you are able to become bfree, cuse your status as a slave rather.
1Co 7:22 For the slave who has been called in the Lord is the 1Lord’s freedman; likewise the free man who has been called is 1Christ’s aslave.
1Co 7:23 You were abought with a 1price; do not be 2bslaves of men.
1Co 7:24 Each one, brothers, in what status he was acalled, in this let him remain 1with God.
E. Concerning Keeping Virginity
vv. 25-38
1Co 7:25 Now concerning avirgins I have bno 1commandment of the Lord, but I give 1my copinion as one who has been shown dmercy by the Lord to be efaithful.
1Co 7:26 I consider then that this is good because of the 1present 2necessity, that it is agood for a man to be as he is.
1Co 7:27 Have you been bound to a wife? Do not seek a release. Have you been released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
1Co 7:28 But even if you do amarry, you have bnot sinned; and if the virgin marries, she has not sinned; but such ones will have affliction in the flesh, and I am trying to spare you.
1Co 7:29 But this I say, brothers, the time is 1ashortened. Henceforth both those who have wives should be as though they had none,
1Co 7:30 And those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess,
1Co 7:31 And those who use the world as though they did not abuse it; for the fashion of this world is apassing away.
1Co 7:32 But I desire you to be without acare. The unmarried bcares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;
1Co 7:33 But he who has married acares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife,
1Co 7:34 And is 1distracted. Both the unmarried woman and the virgin care for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she who has married acares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
1Co 7:35 But this I say for your own profit, not that I may 1put a noose upon you but that you may be comely and may wait on the Lord without adistraction.
1Co 7:36 But if anyone thinks that he is behaving unbecomingly to his virgin daughter, if she is past the bloom of youth and thus it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does anot sin; let them marry.
1Co 7:37 But he who stands firm in his heart, 1being under no constraint, and has authority with respect to his own will and has 2decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.
1Co 7:38 So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in amarriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.
F. Concerning Remarriage
vv. 39-40
1Co 7:39 A wife is abound for so long a time as her husband lives; but should the husband fall asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, bonly to one in the Lord.
1Co 7:40 But she is 1more blessed if she so remains, according to my aopinion; but I think that I 2also have the bSpirit of God.
1 CORINTHIANS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

VII. Dealing with the Eating of Things Sacrificed to Idols
8:1 — 11:1
A. An Inadvisable Eating
8:1-13
1. Not according to Love, Which Builds Up
vv. 1-3
1Co 8:1 Now concerning 1things sacrificed to aidols, we 2know that we all have 3bknowledge. 4Knowledge cpuffs up, but 4dlove 5ebuilds up.
1Co 8:2 If anyone athinks that he 1knows anything, he has bnot yet come to 1know as he ought to 1know;
1Co 8:3 But if anyone 1aloves God, this one is bknown by Him.
2. Idols Being Nothing
vv. 4-7
1Co 8:4 Therefore concerning the eating of things asacrificed to idols, we 1know that an bidol is cnothing in the world and that there is no God but done.
1Co 8:5 For even if there are so-called agods, either in heaven or on earth, even as there are many gods and many lords,
1Co 8:6 Yet to 1us there is 2aone God, the 3bFather, 4out from whom are call things, and we are 4unto Him; and 5done Lord, 6Jesus Christ, 4ethrough whom are all things, and we are 4through Him.
1Co 8:7 But athis knowledge is not in all men; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, beat the food as an cidol sacrifice, and their 1dconscience, being weak, is 2defiled.
3. Food Not Commending Us to God
v. 8
1Co 8:8 But afood will not commend us to God; neither if we do not eat are we lacking, nor if we eat do we 1abound.
4. Stumbling Weak Brothers
vv. 9-13
1Co 8:9 But beware lest somehow this 1right of yours become a astumbling block to the 2bweak ones.
1Co 8:10 For if anyone sees you who have aknowledge reclining at table in an bidol temple, will not his cconscience, if he is weak, be 1emboldened to eat the things dsacrificed to the idols?
1Co 8:11 For the one who is aweak is being 1bdestroyed by your cknowledge, the brother because of whom Christ ddied.
1Co 8:12 And sinning in this way against the brothers and 1wounding their weak aconscience, you sin against Christ.
1Co 8:13 Therefore if food 1astumbles my brother, I shall by no means eat 2meat forever, that I may not 1stumble my brother.
1 CORINTHIANS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

B. The Apostle’s Vindication
9:1-27
1. His Qualifications
vv. 1-3
1Co 9:1 1Am I not 2afree? Am I not an 3bapostle? Have I not 4cseen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my 5dwork in the Lord?
1Co 9:2 If to others I am not an apostle, yet surely I am to 1you; for you in the Lord are the 2aseal of my bapostleship.
1Co 9:3 My defense to those who examine me is 1this.
2. His Rights
vv. 4-15
1Co 9:4 1Do we not have a 2right to 3aeat and to drink?
1Co 9:5 Do we not have a right to take along a sister as a wife, aeven as the rest of the apostles and the bbrothers of the Lord and cCephas?
1Co 9:6 Or do only I and aBarnabas not have the bright not to work?
1Co 9:7 What soldier ever aserves by his own wages? Who bplants a cvineyard and does not dpartake of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?
1Co 9:8 Am I speaking these things aaccording to man? Or does the law not also say these things?
1Co 9:9 For in the law of Moses it is written: a“You shall not muzzle the ox 1while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God cares?
1Co 9:10 Or does He say it altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written because the aplowman should plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of partaking.
1Co 9:11 If we have sown to you the aspiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap from you the fleshly things?
1Co 9:12 If others partake of this right over you, should not rather we? Yet we did anot use this right, but we 1bear all things that we may bnot cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
1Co 9:13 Do you not know that those who labor on the 1sacred things aeat the things of the sacred temple, that those who attend to the altar have their portion with the altar?
1Co 9:14 So also the Lord directed those who announce the gospel to alive from the gospel.
1Co 9:15 But I myself have not used aany of these things; and I have not written these things that it may be so with me; for it is good for me 1rather to die than2 — No one shall make my bboast void.
3. His Faithfulness
vv. 16-23
1Co 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have no boast, for anecessity is laid upon me; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
1Co 9:17 If I do this of my own will, I have a 1areward; but if not of my own will, I am bentrusted with a 2cstewardship.
1Co 9:18 What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may present the gospel awithout charge, so as bnot to use to the full my right in the gospel.
1Co 9:19 For though I am afree from 1all, I have benslaved myself to 1all that I might gain the more.
1Co 9:20 And to the Jews I became aas a Jew in order that I might bgain Jews; to those cunder law, as under law (though I myself am dnot under law), that I might gain those under law.
1Co 9:21 To those awithout law, bas without law (though I am not 1without law to God but 2within claw to Christ), that I might gain those without law.
1Co 9:22 To the weak I abecame weak that I might gain the weak. To all men I have 1become ball things that I might by all means csave some.
1Co 9:23 And I do all things for the sake of the gospel that I may become a 1fellow apartaker of it.
4. His Endeavor
vv. 24-27
1Co 9:24 Do you not know that those who 1run on a aracecourse all run, but one receives the 2bprize? cRun in this way, that you may 3lay hold.
1Co 9:25 And everyone who acontends exercises self-control in all things; they then, that they may receive a corruptible 1crown, but we, ban cincorruptible.
1Co 9:26 I therefore arun in this way, not as though without a clear aim; I box in this way, not as though beating the bair;
1Co 9:27 But I 1buffet my body and 2make it my slave, 3lest perhaps having 4preached to others, I myself may become 5adisapproved.
1 CORINTHIANS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

C. The Type of Israel
10:1-13
1. Baptized unto Moses
vv. 1-2
1Co 10:1 1For I do not want you to be 2aignorant, brothers, that 3all our fathers were under the 4bcloud, and all passed through the csea;
1Co 10:2 And all were 1abaptized 2unto Moses 3in the cloud and in the sea;
2. Eating the Same Spiritual Food and Drinking the Same Spiritual Drink
vv. 3-4
1Co 10:3 And all ate the same 1spiritual afood,
1Co 10:4 And all drank the same 1spiritual adrink; for they drank of a 2spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.
3. Most of Them Strewn Along in the Wilderness
vv. 5-13
1Co 10:5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were 1astrewn along in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6 Now these things occurred as 1aexamples to 2us, that we should not be ones who lust after evil things, even as they also blusted.
1Co 10:7 Neither become 1aidolaters, as bsome of them did; as it is written, c“The people sat down to 1eat and drink, and stood up to dplay.”
1Co 10:8 Neither let us commit 1afornication, as some of them bcommitted fornication, and there 2fell in one day ctwenty-three thousand.
1Co 10:9 Neither let us 1atest Christ, as some of them btested Him and were destroyed by the cserpents.
1Co 10:10 Neither 1amurmur, just as some of them bmurmured and cperished by the 2destroyer.
1Co 10:11 Now these things 1happened to them as an aexample, and they were bwritten for our admonition, unto whom the 2ends of the ages 3have come.
1Co 10:12 1So then let him who athinks he bstands take heed lest he 2fall.
1Co 10:13 1No 2temptation has taken you except 3that which is common to man; and God is afaithful, who will not allow that you be 4btempted beyond what you are able, but will, with the 2temptation, also make the way out, that you may be able to cendure it.
D. Keeping the Lord’s Table from Idolatry
10:14-22
1. The Fellowship of the Lord’s Blood and Body
vv. 14-18
1Co 10:14 1Therefore, my beloved, flee from 2aidolatry.
1Co 10:15 I speak as to prudent men; you ajudge what I say.
1Co 10:16 The acup of blessing which we bbless, is it not the 1fellowship of the cblood of Christ? The dbread which we break, is it not the 1fellowship of the ebody of Christ?
1Co 10:17 Seeing that there is 1one bread, we who are many are aone Body; for we all 2partake of the one bread.
1Co 10:18 Look at Israel aaccording to the flesh. Are not those who beat the sacrifices those who 1have fellowship with the 2caltar?
2. The Separation of the Lord’s Table from the Demons’ Table
vv. 19-22
1Co 10:19 What then am I saying? That what is asacrificed to an idol is anything? Or that an idol is anything?
1Co 10:20 No, but that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to 1ademons and not to God; and I do not want you to become 2bthose who have fellowship with demons.
1Co 10:21 You cannot 1drink the Lord’s acup and the demons’ cup; you cannot partake of the Lord’s btable and of the cdemons’ table.
1Co 10:22 Or do we 1aprovoke the Lord to bjealousy? Are we cstronger than He?
E. The Proper Eating
10:23 — 11:1
1. Building Up Others, Seeking Their Advantage
10:23-30, 32-33
1Co 10:23 1aAll things are 2lawful, but not all things are 3profitable; all things are 2lawful, but not all things 4bbuild up.
1Co 10:24 Let no one aseek his own profit, but that of the other.
1Co 10:25 Everything sold in a 1meat market aeat, asking no question for bconscience’ sake;
1Co 10:26 For the aearth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.
1Co 10:27 If any of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, aeat everything that is set before you, asking no question for bconscience’ sake.
1Co 10:28 But if anyone says to you, This has been offered in sacrifice, do anot eat, for his sake who pointed it out and for bconscience’ sake.
1Co 10:29 Conscience, I say, not your own, but the other’s. For why is my afreedom judged by some other conscience?
1Co 10:30 If I 1partake with athankfulness, why am I spoken bevil of concerning that for which I give thanks?
2. To the Glory of God
10:31
1Co 10:31 1Therefore 2whether you aeat or drink, or bwhatever you do, do all to the cglory of God.
1Co 10:32 1Do not become a astumbling block, both to 2Jews and to Greeks and to the bchurch of God;
1Co 10:33 Even as 1I also aplease ball men in all things, not cseeking my own advantage but that of the many, that they may be dsaved.
1 CORINTHIANS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • •

3. Imitating the Apostle
11:1
1Co 11:1 1Be aimitators of 2me, as I also am bof Christ.
VIII. Dealing with Head Covering
11:2-16
A. The Headship in the Universe
vv. 2-3
1Co 11:2 But I apraise you because in all things you have bremembered me and hold fast the 1cthings that I have handed down even as I handed 1them down to you.
1Co 11:3 But I want you to know that 1Christ is the ahead of every man, and the 2man is the bhead of the woman, and 3God is the chead of Christ.
B. The Head Covering
vv. 4-6
1Co 11:4 Every man praying or 1aprophesying with his head covered 2disgraces his head.
1Co 11:5 But every woman apraying or bprophesying with her head 1uncovered disgraces her head; for it is one and the same as she who is 2cshaved.
1Co 11:6 For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off; but if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, 1let her be covered.
C. The Reasons
vv. 7-15
1Co 11:7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is 1God’s aimage and glory; but the woman is the 2bglory of the man.
1Co 11:8 For man is not out of woman, but 1woman aout of man;
1Co 11:9 For also man was not 1created for the sake of the woman, but 2awoman for the sake of the man.
1Co 11:10 Therefore the woman ought to have a 1sign of submission to aauthority on her head for the 2sake of the bangels.
1Co 11:11 However neither is woman without man, nor man without woman, 1in the Lord.
1Co 11:12 For just as the woman is 1out from the man, so also is the man 1through the woman; but aall things are out from God.
1Co 11:13 aJudge this in your own selves: Is it fitting for a woman to pray uncovered to God?
1Co 11:14 Does not even 1nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him,
1Co 11:15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, because her long hair has been given to her for a covering.
D. No Contention
v. 16
1Co 11:16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we do not have 1such a custom of being so, neither the 2achurches of God.
IX. Dealing with the Lord’s Supper
11:17-34
A. The Rebuking of the Disorder
vv. 17-22
1Co 11:17 1But I give you 2this charge and do not apraise you, because you bcome together not for the better but for the worse.
1Co 11:18 For first of all, when you come together 1ain the church, I hear that bdivisions exist among you; and some part of it I believe.
1Co 11:19 For there must even be 1parties among you, that those who are 2approved may become 3manifest among you.
1Co 11:20 When therefore you come together in the same place, it is not to eat the 1Lord’s supper;
1Co 11:21 For in your eating, each one takes his own 1supper first, and one is hungry and the other is drunk.
1Co 11:22 Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the achurch of God and bput those to shame who have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not cpraise you.
B. The Review of the Definition
vv. 23-26
1Co 11:23 For I areceived from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus bin the night in which He was 1cbetrayed dtook bread,
1Co 11:24 And having given thanks, He 1broke it and said, This is My body, which is given for you; this do 2unto the 3remembrance of Me.
1Co 11:25 Similarly also the cup after they had dined, saying, This 1cup is the anew covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you 2drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.
1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you 1declare the Lord’s death 2until He acomes.
C. The Need of Proving and Discerning
vv. 27-29
1Co 11:27 So then whoever aeats the bbread or adrinks the bcup of the Lord in an 1unworthy manner will 2be guilty of the body and of the cblood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28 But let a man 1aprove himself, and in this way let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
1Co 11:29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks 1judgment to himself if he does not 2discern 3the body.
D. The Discipline of the Lord
vv. 30-34
1Co 11:30 Because of 1this many among you are 2weak and sick, and a number 3asleep.
1Co 11:31 But if we 1discerned ourselves, we would not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But being 1judged by the Lord, we are adisciplined that we may not be 2bcondemned with the world.
1Co 11:33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, 1wait for one another.
1Co 11:34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at ahome, that you may not come together for judgment. And the 1rest I will set in order when I bcome.
1 CORINTHIANS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

X. Dealing with the Gifts
12:1 — 14:40
A. The Governing Principle
12:1-3
1Co 12:1 Now concerning 1aspiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be bignorant.
1Co 12:2 You know that when you were aGentiles, you were always being led away to bdumb idols, whenever and however you were 1led.
1Co 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one 1speaking in the aSpirit of God says, Jesus is 2accursed; and 3no one can say, bJesus is Lord! except in the cHoly Spirit.
B. The Manifestation of the Spirit
12:4-11
1Co 12:4 1But there are 2distinctions of 3agifts, but the bsame Spirit;
1Co 12:5 And there are distinctions of 1aministries, yet the bsame Lord;
1Co 12:6 And there are distinctions of 1operations, but the asame 2God, who boperates all things in all.
1Co 12:7 But to aeach one is given the 1manifestation of the Spirit 2for bwhat is profitable.
1Co 12:8 For to one through the Spirit a 1word of awisdom is given, and to another a 1word of bknowledge, according to the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 To a different one 1afaith in the same Spirit, and to another 2gifts of bhealing in the one Spirit,
1Co 12:10 And to another operations of 1aworks of power, and to another 2bprophecy, and to another 3cdiscerning of spirits; to a different one various kinds of 4dtongues, and to another 5einterpretation of tongues.
1Co 12:11 But the one and the same Spirit operates all these things, adistributing to each one respectively even as He bpurposes.
C. One Body with Many Members
12:12-27
1. The Constitution of the Body
vv. 12-13
1Co 12:12 1For even as the body is aone and has many bmembers, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is 2the Christ.
1Co 12:13 For also in 1aone Spirit we were all bbaptized into 2cone Body, whether 3dJews or Greeks, whether 4slaves or free, and were all given to 5edrink one fSpirit.
2. The Indispensability of the Members
vv. 14-22
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member but amany.
1Co 12:15 If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body.
1Co 12:16 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body.
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were the hearing, where would the smelling be?
1Co 12:18 But now God has aplaced the members, each one of them, in the body, even as He bwilled.
1Co 12:19 And if all were one member, where would the body be?
1Co 12:20 But now the members are many, but the body aone.
1Co 12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:22 But much rather the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
3. The Blending Together of the Members
vv. 23-27
1Co 12:23 And those members of the body which we consider to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor; and our uncomely members come to have more abundant comeliness,
1Co 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has 1blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,
1Co 12:25 That there would be no adivision in the body, but that the members would have the 1same care for one another.
1Co 12:26 And whether one member asuffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members brejoice with it.
1Co 12:27 Now you are the Body of Christ, and amembers individually.
D. The Placing of the Gifts
12:28-31
1Co 12:28 And God has aplaced some in the 1bchurch: first 2capostles, second 3dprophets, third 4eteachers; then 5fworks of power, then 6gifts of ghealing, 7helps, 8hadministrations, various kinds of 9itongues.
1Co 12:29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all have works of power?
1Co 12:30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all 1speak in tongues? 2Do all 1ainterpret tongues?
1Co 12:31 But 1earnestly adesire the 2bgreater gifts. And moreover I show to you a 3most excellent way.
1 CORINTHIANS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

E. The Excellent Way for Exercising the Gifts
13:1-13
1. The Need of Love
vv. 1-3
1Co 13:1 If I speak in the atongues of men and of angels but do not have blove, I have become 1sounding brass or a 1clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have the gift of aprophecy and know all bmysteries and all cknowledge, and if I have all dfaith so as to eremove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 And if I adole out all my possessions to feed others, and if I 1deliver up my bbody 2that I may boast, but do not have love, I profit nothing.
2. The Definition of Love
vv. 4-7
1Co 13:4 1aLove bsuffers long. Love is kind; it is not cjealous. Love does not dbrag and is not epuffed up;
1Co 13:5 It does not behave unbecomingly and does not aseek its own things; it is not provoked and does not take account of evil;
1Co 13:6 It does anot rejoice because of 1unrighteousness, but brejoices with the 1ctruth;
1Co 13:7 It 1acovers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
3. The Excelling of Love
vv. 8-13
1Co 13:8 aLove 1never falls away. But whether bprophecies, they will be rendered useless; or ctongues, they will cease; or dknowledge, it will be rendered useless.
1Co 13:9 For we aknow in part, and we prophesy in part;
1Co 13:10 But 1when that which is 2complete comes, 3that which is in part will be rendered useless.
1Co 13:11 1When I was a 2achild, I spoke as a child, I thought as a bchild, I 3reasoned as a child; 4since I have become a man, I have done away with childish things.
1Co 13:12 For 1now we see 2in a amirror 3obscurely, but at 4that time bface to face; 1now I cknow in part, but at 4that time I will fully dknow even as also I was fully known.
1Co 13:13 Now there abide 1afaith, bhope, clove, these three; and the greatest of these is dlove.
1 CORINTHIANS 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

F. The Excelling of Prophesying
14:1-25
1. Building Up the Church More
vv. 1-19
1Co 14:1 1aPursue blove, and 2cdesire earnestly dspiritual gifts, but especially that you may 3eprophesy.
1Co 14:2 1For he who speaks in a atongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one hears, but in his bspirit he speaks cmysteries.
1Co 14:3 But he who prophesies speaks 1abuilding up and encouragement and consolation to men.
1Co 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies 1abuilds up the bchurch.
1Co 14:5 I desire that you all speak in tongues, but especially that you would aprophesy; and bgreater is he who prophesies than he who speaks in tongues, unless he cinterprets, that the church may receive building up.
1Co 14:6 But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in atongues, what will I bprofit you, unless I speak to you either in crevelation or in dknowledge or in eprophecy or in fteaching?
1Co 14:7 Yet even 1lifeless things, whether flute or harp, in giving a sound, if they give 2no distinction in the tones, how will what is played on the flute or on the harp be known?
1Co 14:8 For also if the atrumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for bbattle?
1Co 14:9 So also you, unless you give with the tongue a word easy to understand, how will what is being said be known? For you will be speaking into the aair.
1Co 14:10 There are perhaps many kinds of 1voices in the world, and not one is 2without significance.
1Co 14:11 If then I do not know the 1meaning of the voice, I will be to him who is speaking a 2barbarian, and he who is speaking a 2abarbarian to me.
1Co 14:12 So also you, since you are zealous of 1aspirits, seek that you may 2excel for the 3bbuilding up of the church.
1Co 14:13 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may ainterpret.
1Co 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my 1aspirit prays, but my 1bmind is unfruitful.
1Co 14:15 What then? I will pray with the aspirit, and I will pray 1also 2with the mind; I will bsing with the spirit, and I will csing 1also 2with the mind.
1Co 14:16 Otherwise if you abless with the spirit, how shall he who fills the place of the 1unlearned in tongues say the 2bAmen at your giving of cthanks, since he does not know what you are saying?
1Co 14:17 For you give thanks well, but the other is not 1abuilt up.
1Co 14:18 I thank God, I speak in tongues more than all of you,
1Co 14:19 But in the church I would rather aspeak 1five words 2with my mind, that I might instruct others also, than 1ten thousand words in a tongue.
2. Convicting People More
vv. 20-25
1Co 14:20 Brothers, do not be 1achildren in your 2understanding, but in bmalice be cbabes and in your 2understanding be 3dfull-grown.
1Co 14:21 In the 1alaw it is written, 2b“By those of other tongues and with the lips of others I will speak to this people; even so they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”
1Co 14:22 So then tongues are for a 1sign, not to those who believe but to the unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign not to the unbelievers but to those who believe.
1Co 14:23 If therefore the whole church acomes together in one place, and 1all speak in tongues, and some unlearned in tongues or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are 2binsane?
1Co 14:24 But if 1aall prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is 2convicted by all, he is 2examined by all;
1Co 14:25 The secrets of his aheart become manifest; and so bfalling on his face, he will worship 1God, declaring that indeed 1God is camong you.
G. Functioning in the Church
14:26-40
1. Concerning Each One
v. 26
1Co 14:26 What then, brothers? Whenever you acome together, each one 1has a bpsalm, has a cteaching, has a drevelation, has a etongue, has an finterpretation. Let all things be done for 2gbuilding up.
2. Concerning Speaking in Tongues
vv. 27-28
1Co 14:27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by atwo, or at the most three, and in turn, and one should interpret;
1Co 14:28 But if there is no interpreter, he should be silent ain the 1church, and speak to himself and to God.
3. Concerning Prophesying
vv. 29-33a
1Co 14:29 And as to prophets, atwo or three should speak, and the others 1bdiscern.
1Co 14:30 But if something is revealed to another sitting by, the first should be silent.
1Co 14:31 For 1you can aall prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be 2encouraged.
1Co 14:32 And the 1aspirits of prophets are bsubject to prophets;
1Co 14:33 For God is not a God of aconfusion but of 1peace.
4. Concerning Women
vv. 33b-38
2As in ball the 3churches of the csaints,
1Co 14:34 The awomen should be silent 1bin the churches, for they are not permitted to 2speak; but they should be csubject, even as the 3dlaw also says.
1Co 14:35 But if they desire to learn anything, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church.
1Co 14:36 Or was it from you that the word of God went forth? Or 1did it reach only to you?
1Co 14:37 If anyone thinks he is a 1aprophet or bspiritual, let him fully know the things which I write to you, that they are the 2ccommandment of the Lord.
1Co 14:38 But if anyone aignores this, let him ignore it.
5. Conclusion
vv. 39-40
1Co 14:39 So then, my brothers, 1adesire earnestly the bprophesying, and 1do not forbid the speaking in tongues.
1Co 14:40 But all things must be done 1becomingly and in 1aorder.
1 CORINTHIANS 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 • • • • 45 • • • • 50 • • • • 55 • • • 

XI. Dealing with the Matter of Resurrection
15:1-58
A. Christ’s Resurrection
vv. 1-11
1. Preached
vv. 1-4
1Co 15:1 Now I make known to you, brothers, the 1agospel which I announced to you, which also you received, in which also you 2bstand,
1Co 15:2 Through which also you are 1being asaved, if you bhold fast the word which I announced to you as the gospel, unless you have believed cin vain.
1Co 15:3 For I delivered to you, first of all, that which also I areceived, that 1Christ bdied for our csins according to the 2dScriptures;
1Co 15:4 And that He was aburied, and that He has been braised on the cthird day according to the dScriptures;
2. Witnessed
vv. 5-11
1Co 15:5 And that He 1appeared to aCephas, then to the btwelve;
1Co 15:6 Then He appeared to over five hundred brothers at one time, of whom the majority remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
1Co 15:7 Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
1Co 15:8 And last of all He appeared to ame also, as it were to one born prematurely.
1Co 15:9 For I am the aleast of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I bpersecuted the cchurch of God.
1Co 15:10 But by the 1agrace of God I am what I am; and His bgrace unto me did not turn out to be cin vain, but, on the contrary, I dlabored more abundantly than all of them, yet 2not I but the grace of God which is with me.
1Co 15:11 Therefore whether it is I or they, so we preach and so you have believed.
B. The Rebuttal to “No Resurrection”
vv. 12-19
1Co 15:12 But if Christ is proclaimed that He has been araised from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is 1no resurrection of the dead?
1Co 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.
1Co 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is 1avain; your faith is 1bvain also.
1Co 15:15 And also we are found to be false witnesses of God because we have testified concerning God that He araised Christ, whom He did not raise, if indeed the dead are not raised.
1Co 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised.
1Co 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is 1futile; you are 2still in your asins.
1Co 15:18 Then also those who have 1afallen asleep in Christ have 2perished.
1Co 15:19 If it is 1only that we have ahoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most miserable.
C. The History of Resurrection
vv. 20-28
1Co 15:20 1But now Christ has been araised from the dead, the 2bfirstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:21 For since through 1aman came death, through 2bman also came the cresurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For just as in aAdam all 1die, so also in bChrist all will be 2cmade alive.
1Co 15:23 But each one in his own order: the 1afirstfruits, Christ; then 2bthose who are Christ’s at His ccoming;
1Co 15:24 Then the 1end, 2when He 3delivers up the akingdom to His God and Father, 2once He has abolished all brule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For He must 1areign until God bputs all His enemies under His feet.
1Co 15:26 aDeath, the last enemy, is 1being abolished.
1Co 15:27 For 1He has asubjected all things under 2His feet. But when 1He says that all things are subjected, it is evident that all things are except 1Him who has subjected all things to 2Him.
1Co 15:28 And when all things have been asubjected to 1Him, then the 2Son Himself also will be subjected to 3Him who has subjected all things to 1Him, that bGod may be 4call in all.
D. The Moral Influence of Resurrection
vv. 29-34
1Co 15:29 1Otherwise what shall they who are 2baptized for the dead do? If the dead are actually anot raised, why then are they baptized for them?
1Co 15:30 Why also do we brave adanger every hour?
1Co 15:31 I protest by the 1aboasting in you, brothers, which I have 2in Christ Jesus our Lord, I 1bdie daily.
1Co 15:32 If 1after the manner of men I fought with 2wild beasts at aEphesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are bnot raised, 3let us ceat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
1Co 15:33 Do not be adeceived: 1Evil 2bcompanionships ccorrupt good morals.
1Co 15:34 1aAwake from the drunken stupor righteously and do not sin, for some of you 2are bignorant of God. I speak to your cshame.
E. The Definition of Resurrection
vv. 35-49
1. The Body of Resurrection
vv. 35-44
1Co 15:35 But someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?
1Co 15:36 Foolish man, 1what you sow is not made alive unless it adies;
1Co 15:37 And what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other of the rest.
1Co 15:38 But God gives it a 1body even as He willed, and to each of the seeds its own 1body.
1Co 15:39 1All aflesh is not the same flesh, but one is of bmen, and another flesh is of ccattle, and another is of dbirds, and another is of fish.
1Co 15:40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.
1Co 15:41 There is another glory of the asun, and another glory of the bmoon, and another glory of the cstars; for star differs from star in glory.
1Co 15:42 So aalso is the bresurrection of the dead. It is sown in ccorruption, it is draised in incorruption;
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in aglory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
1Co 15:44 It is sown a 1asoulish body, it is raised a 1bspiritual cbody. If there is a soulish body, there is also a spiritual one.
2. A Spiritual Body
vv. 45-49
1Co 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, aAdam, became a bliving 1soul”; the last Adam became a clife-giving 1Spirit.
1Co 15:46 But 1the spiritual is not first but 2the soulish, then the spiritual:
1Co 15:47 The first man is 1out of the aearth, earthy; the 2second man is 3out of bheaven.
1Co 15:48 As 1the earthy is, such are 2they also that are earthy; and as 3the heavenly is, such are 4they also that are aheavenly.
1Co 15:49 And even as we have borne the 1aimage of the earthy, we will also bear the 1bimage of the heavenly.
F. The Victory of Resurrection
vv. 50-58
1. Incorruption over Corruption
vv. 50-53
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brothers, that 1aflesh and blood cannot inherit the bkingdom of God, neither does ccorruption inherit dincorruption.
1Co 15:51 Behold, I tell you aa 1mystery: We will not all 2bsleep, but we will all be 3cchanged,
1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the 1last atrumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the 2dead will be braised incorruptible, and 3we will be changed.
1Co 15:53 For 1this acorruptible must put on incorruption, and 1this bmortal must put on immortality.
2. Life over Death
vv. 54-57
1Co 15:54 And 1when this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality, then the word which is written will come to pass, a“Death has been bswallowed up 2unto 3cvictory.”
1Co 15:55 1Where, aO death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your bsting?
1Co 15:56 The 1sting of adeath is sin, and the 2power of bsin is the claw.
1Co 15:57 But athanks be to God who gives us the 1bvictory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. A Motive for the Work of the Lord
v. 58
1Co 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be 1asteadfast, immovable, always abounding in the 2bwork of the Lord, knowing that your 3clabor is not din vain in the Lord.
1 CORINTHIANS 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

XII. Dealing with the Collection of the Gift
16:1-9
A. The Apostle’s Direction
vv. 1-3
1Co 16:1 Now concerning the 1acollection for the saints, 2just as I bdirected the cchurches of Galatia, so you also do.
1Co 16:2 On the 1afirst day of the week each one of you should lay aside in store to himself whatever he may have been prospered, that no collections be made when I come.
1Co 16:3 And when I arrive, whomever you approve, I will asend them with letters to carry your 1gift to bJerusalem;
B. The Apostle’s Desire
vv. 4-9
1Co 16:4 And if it is fitting for me also to go, they will go with me.
1Co 16:5 Now I will acome to you when I pass through bMacedonia, for I will pass through Macedonia.
1Co 16:6 And perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the awinter, that you may bsend me forward wherever I may go.
1Co 16:7 For I do not wish to see you now just in apassing, for I am hoping to remain with you for some time, if the Lord bpermits.
1Co 16:8 But I will remain in 1aEphesus until bPentecost,
1Co 16:9 For a adoor is opened to me, great and efficacious, and there are many bopposers.
XIII. Conclusion
16:10-24
A. Intimate Charges
vv. 10-18
1Co 16:10 Now if aTimothy comes, see that he is with you without fear; for he is working the bwork of the Lord, even as I am.
1Co 16:11 Let no one therefore adespise him, but bsend him forward in cpeace that he may come to me; for I am awaiting him with the brothers.
1Co 16:12 And 1concerning our brother aApollos, 2I urged him many times to come to you with the brothers; yet it was 2not at all his desire to come now, but he bwill come when he has opportunity.
1Co 16:13 aWatch, 1bstand firm in the 2cfaith, be 3dfull-grown men, be estrong.
1Co 16:14 Let all your matters be done in 1alove.
1Co 16:15 Now I exhort you, brothers: You know the household of aStephanas, that it is the bfirstfruits of cAchaia, and they have set themselves to minister to the dsaints;
1Co 16:16 You also be asubject to such ones, and to everyone co-working and blaboring.
1Co 16:17 Now I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because these have afilled up the lack caused by your absence;
1Co 16:18 For they 1arefreshed my 2bspirit and yours. cAcknowledge therefore such ones.
B. Greetings and Warning
vv. 19-24
1Co 16:19 The achurches of bAsia greet you. cAquila and Prisca greet you much in the Lord, with the 1church, which is in their dhouse.
1Co 16:20 All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy akiss.
1Co 16:21 1The greeting in my own ahand — Paul.
1Co 16:22 If anyone does not alove the Lord, let him be 1baccursed! 2The cLord comes!
1Co 16:23 The 1agrace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
1Co 16:24 My 1alove in Christ Jesus be with you all.
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THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 60, before the Epistle to the Romans was written; see notes 11 and 31 in Acts 20.
Place of Writing: Macedonia (2:13 and note 2; 7:5-6; 8:1; 9:2, 4).
Recipients: The church of God in Corinth, with all the saints in the whole of Achaia (1:1).
Subject:
The New Covenant Ministry and Its Ministers
2 CORINTHIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

I. Introduction
1:1 — 2:11
A. Greeting
1:1-2
2Co 1:1 Paul, an aapostle of Christ Jesus through the 1will of God, and bTimothy the brother, to the 2cchurch of God which is 3in Corinth, 4with all the saints who are in the whole of 5dAchaia:
2Co 1:2 aGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. The Comfort of God
1:3-11
1. Comforted to Comfort
vv. 3-4
2Co 1:3 aBlessed be the bGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of 1compassions and God of all 2ccomfort,
2Co 1:4 Who acomforts us in all our baffliction that we may be 1able to comfort those who are in every affliction through the ccomforting with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2. Pressed Down unto Despair
vv. 5-11
2Co 1:5 For even as the 1asufferings of 2the Christ abound unto us, so through 2the Christ our comfort also abounds.
2Co 1:6 But whether we are aafflicted, it is for your comforting and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comforting, which operates in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
2Co 1:7 And our hope for you is firm, knowing that as you are partakers of the asufferings, so also you are of the comfort.
2Co 1:8 For we do not want you to be aignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in bAsia, that we were excessively 1cburdened, beyond our power, so that we 2ddespaired even of 3living.
2Co 1:9 1Indeed we ourselves had the 2response of adeath in ourselves, that we should bnot base our cconfidence on ourselves but don 3God, who eraises the dead;
2Co 1:10 Who has adelivered us out of so great a death, and 1will deliver us; in whom we have bhoped that He will also yet deliver us,
2Co 1:11 If you also 1help in this by apetition on our behalf, that for the 2gift to us through many, bthanks may be given by many 3persons on our behalf.
C. The Apostles’ Boasting
1:12-14
2Co 1:12 For our boasting is this, the testimony of our 1aconscience, that in 2singleness and 3bsincerity of God, not in 4fleshly cwisdom but in the 5dgrace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
2Co 1:13 For no other things do we write to you than what you read or even know; and I hope that you will know unto the end,
2Co 1:14 Even as also you know us ain part, that we are your bboast, just as you also are cours in the 1dday of our Lord Jesus.
D. Concerning the Apostle’s Coming
1:15 — 2:11
1. Being One with Christ
1:15-22
2Co 1:15 And in this confidence I intended to acome to you previously that you might have 1double bgrace,
2Co 1:16 And through you to pass through into 1aMacedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you and be sent forward by you into bJudea.
2Co 1:17 This therefore intending, did I then use fickleness? Or the things which I purpose, do I purpose aaccording to the flesh, so that with me there should be Yes, yes and No, no?
2Co 1:18 1But as God is afaithful, our 2bword toward you is not yes and no.
2Co 1:19 1For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you through us, through me and 2Silvanus and Timothy, did not become yes and no, but our word has become ayes in Him.
2Co 1:20 1For as many apromises of God as there are, in 2Him is the 3Yes; therefore also through 2Him is 4the bAmen to God, 5for cglory through 6us to God.
2Co 1:21 1But the One who 2firmly attaches 3us 4with you unto 5Christ and has 6aanointed us is God,
2Co 1:22 He who has also 1asealed us and given the Spirit in our 2hearts as a 3bpledge.
2. The Reasons for the Delay
1:23 — 2:11
a. To Spare the Corinthians
1:23-24
2Co 1:23 But I call on God as a awitness 1against my bsoul that to 2cspare you I have not yet dcome to Corinth.
2Co 1:24 Not that we alord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers with you for your joy; for by 1faith you bstand.
2 CORINTHIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

b. Not to Come in Sorrow
2:1-11
2Co 2:1 But I 1determined this for myself, that I would not acome again to you in bsorrow.
2Co 2:2 For if I cause you sorrow, who then is the one who makes me glad, except the one who is made sorrowful by me?
2Co 2:3 And I 1awrote this very thing to you that when I come I would bnot have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice, having cconfidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all.
2Co 2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I awrote to you through many btears, not that you would be made sorrowful but that you would know the clove which I have more abundantly toward you.
2Co 2:5 But if anyone has caused asorrow, he has not caused me to sorrow, but bin part (lest I 1lay too heavy a burden) all of you.
2Co 2:6 Sufficient for such a one is this apunishment by the majority,
2Co 2:7 So that on the contrary you should rather 1aforgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with excessive sorrow.
2Co 2:8 Therefore I exhort you to 1confirm your alove toward him.
2Co 2:9 For to this end also I awrote, that I might 1know your 2approvedness, whether you are bobedient in all things.
2Co 2:10 But whom you 1aforgive anything, I also 1forgive; for also what I have 2forgiven, if I have 2forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the 3person of Christ;
2Co 2:11 That we may not be taken advantage of by 1aSatan, for we are not bignorant of his 2cschemes.
II. The Ministry of the New Covenant
2:12 — 3:11
A. Its Triumph and Effect
2:12-17
2Co 2:12 1Furthermore, when I came to aTroas for the gospel of Christ and a bdoor was open to me 2in the Lord,
2Co 2:13 I had no rest in my 1aspirit, for I did not find bTitus my brother; but taking leave of them, I went forth into 2cMacedonia.
2Co 2:14 But athanks be to God, who always 1leads 2us in btriumph in 3the Christ and manifests the 4csavor of the dknowledge of Him through 5us in every place.
2Co 2:15 For we 1are a afragrance of Christ to God in those who are being bsaved and in those who are cperishing:
2Co 2:16 To some a asavor out of death 1unto bdeath, and to the others a savor out of life 1unto clife. And who is 2dsufficient for these things?
2Co 2:17 For we are not like the many, 1aadulterating the word of God for profit; but as out of bsincerity, but as out of God, before God we 2speak in Christ.
2 CORINTHIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

B. Its Function and Competency
3:1-6
2Co 3:1 Are we beginning again to acommend ourselves? Or do we need, as some do, bletters of commendation to you or from you?
2Co 3:2 You are 1our aletter, inscribed in 2our hearts, known and read by all men,
2Co 3:3 Since you are being manifested that you are a 1letter of Christ 2ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but 3with the aSpirit of the bliving God; not in ctablets of stone but in tablets of 4dhearts of flesh.
2Co 3:4 And such aconfidence we have through Christ toward God,
2Co 3:5 Not that we are 1asufficient of ourselves to 2account anything as from ourselves; but our 3sufficiency is bfrom God,
2Co 3:6 Who has also made us asufficient as bministers of a cnew covenant, ministers not of the 1letter but of the 2dSpirit; for the 3letter kills, but the 4eSpirit gives life.
C. Its Glory and Superiority
3:7-11
2Co 3:7 Moreover if the 1ministry of adeath, engraved in bstone in letters, came about in 2cglory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, a glory which was being done away with,
2Co 3:8 How shall the 1aministry of the bSpirit not be more in 2glory?
2Co 3:9 For if there is glory with the ministry of 1acondemnation, much more the ministry of 2brighteousness 3abounds with glory.
2Co 3:10 For also that which has been 1glorified 2in this respect 3has not been glorified on account of the surpassing glory.
2Co 3:11 For if that which was 1being done away with was 2through aglory, much more that which remains is in bglory.
III. The Ministers of the New Covenant
3:12 — 7:16
A. Constituted by and with the Lord as the Life-giving and Transforming Spirit
3:12-18
2Co 3:12 Therefore since we have such 1hope, we use much 2aboldness,
2Co 3:13 And are not like Moses, who put a aveil on his face so that the sons of Israel would not gaze 1at the end of that which was being done away with.
2Co 3:14 But their 1athoughts were bhardened; for until the present day the same veil remains at the creading of the old covenant, 2it not being unveiled to them that the veil is being done away with in Christ.
2Co 3:15 Indeed unto this day, whenever 1Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart;
2Co 3:16 But whenever 1their heart turns to the Lord, the aveil is taken away.
2Co 3:17 1And the 2Lord is the 3aSpirit; and where the 4bSpirit of the Lord is, there is 5cfreedom.
2Co 3:18 1But 2we all with 3unveiled face, 4abeholding and reflecting like a 5bmirror the 6cglory of the Lord, are 7being dtransformed into the 8same eimage 9from glory to fglory, even as 10from the 11Lord Spirit.
2 CORINTHIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

B. Conducting Themselves for the Shining of the Gospel of Christ
4:1-6
2Co 4:1 1Therefore having 2this aministry as we have been shown 3bmercy, we do cnot lose heart;
2Co 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of ashame, not walking in bcraftiness nor 1cadulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of the 2dtruth ecommending ourselves to every fconscience of men before God.
2Co 4:3 And even if our gospel is 1veiled, it is aveiled in those who are bperishing,
2Co 4:4 In whom the 1agod of bthis age has 2cblinded the 3dthoughts of the unbelievers that the 4eillumination of the gospel of the fglory of Christ, who is the gimage of God, might not 5shine on them.
2Co 4:5 1For we do not apreach ourselves but Christ Jesus as 2bLord, and ourselves as your 3cslaves for Jesus’ sake.
2Co 4:6 1Because the God who said, Out of adarkness blight shall shine, is the One who shined 2in 3our chearts to 4dilluminate the knowledge of the eglory of God in the 5face of Jesus Christ.
C. Living a Crucified Life for the Manifestation of the Resurrection Life
by the Power of the Treasure in the Earthen Vessels
4:7-18
2Co 4:7 1But we have this 2atreasure in earthen bvessels that the 3cexcellency of the dpower may be of God and not out of us.
2Co 4:8 We are 1pressed on aevery side but not 2constricted; unable to find a way out but not butterly without a way out;
2Co 4:9 1aPersecuted but not 2babandoned; 3cast down but cnot 4destroyed;
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about ain the body the 1bputting to cdeath of Jesus 2that the 3life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
2Co 4:11 For we who are alive are always being delivered unto adeath for Jesus’ sake that the blife of 1Jesus also may be manifested in our cmortal 2flesh.
2Co 4:12 So then adeath operates in us, but 1life in you.
2Co 4:13 And having the 1same 2aspirit of bfaith according to that which is written, c“I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak,
2Co 4:14 Knowing that He who araised the Lord Jesus will 1braise us also with Jesus and will cmake us stand before Him with you.
2Co 4:15 For aall things are bfor your sakes that the 1cgrace which has abounded through the greater number may cause the dthanksgiving to abound to the eglory of God.
2Co 4:16 Therefore we do anot lose heart; but though our 1bouter man is 2decaying, yet our 1cinner man is being 3drenewed day by day.
2Co 4:17 For our amomentary lightness of 1affliction works out for us, 2more and more surpassingly, an 3eternal weight of 4bglory,
2Co 4:18 Because we do not regard the 1things which are aseen but the 2things which are bnot seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are ceternal.
2 CORINTHIANS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

D. Longing to Be Clothed Upon with the Transfigured Body
5:1-8
2Co 5:1 1For we know that if our 2earthly 3atabernacle dwelling is taken down, we have a 4building 5from God, a 6dwelling bnot made with hands, ceternal, 7din the heavens.
2Co 5:2 For also in 1this we agroan, longing to be 2clothed upon with our 3dwelling place 4from heaven,
2Co 5:3 If indeed, being clothed, we will not be found 1anaked.
2Co 5:4 For also, we who are in this tabernacle groan, being 1aburdened, 2in that we do not desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that 3what is bmortal may be 4cswallowed up by life.
2Co 5:5 Now He who has 1wrought us for this very thing is God, who has given to us the Spirit as a 2apledge.
2Co 5:6 Therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are 1at home in the body, we are 1abroad from the Lord
2Co 5:7 (For we 1walk by afaith, not by 2bappearance) —
2Co 5:8 We are of good courage then and are well pleased rather 1to be aabroad from the body and at home with the Lord.
E. Making It Their Aim to Please the Lord by Living to Him
5:9-15
2Co 5:9 Therefore also we are 1determined, whether 2at home or abroad, to gain the honor of being awell pleasing to Him.
2Co 5:10 1For we must all be amanifested before the 2bjudgment seat of Christ, that each one may 3creceive the things done 4through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or 5bad.
2Co 5:11 1Knowing therefore the 2afear of the Lord, we 3persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; yet I hope that we are made manifest also in your bconsciences.
2Co 5:12 We are not again acommending ourselves to you, but so speak in order to give you an opportunity to bboast on our behalf, that you may 1have an answer for those who are cboasting in doutward 2appearance and not in 3eheart.
2Co 5:13 For whether we were 1abeside ourselves, it was to God; or whether we are 2bsober-minded, it is cfor you.
2Co 5:14 For the 1alove of Christ 2constrains us because we 3have judged this, that 4bOne died for all, 5therefore call died;
2Co 5:15 And He adied for all that those who blive may 1no longer live to themselves but 2cto Him who died for them and has been raised.
F. Commissioned with the Ministry of Reconciliation for the Lord’s New Creation
5:16-21
2Co 5:16 1So then we, from now on, 2know no one according to the aflesh; even though we have 2known Christ baccording to the flesh, yet now we 2know Him so no longer.
2Co 5:17 1So then if anyone is 2ain Christ, he is a 3bnew creation. The 4cold things have dpassed away; 5behold, 6they have become enew.
2Co 5:18 But 1all things are out from God, who has areconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given to us the bministry of reconciliation;
2Co 5:19 Namely, that God ain Christ was reconciling the bworld to Himself, cnot accounting their offenses to them, and has put in us the 1word of reconciliation.
2Co 5:20 On behalf of Christ then we are 1aambassadors, as God bentreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be 2reconciled to God.
2Co 5:21 Him who did 1not know sin He made 2asin on our behalf that we might become the 3brighteousness of God 4in Him.
2 CORINTHIANS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

G. Working Together with God by an All-fitting Life
6:1 — 7:16
1. The Work of the Reconciling Ministry
6:1-2
2Co 6:1 1And working 2together with Him, we also 3aentreat you not to receive the 4bgrace of God in vain;
2Co 6:2 For He says, a“In an bacceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the 1well-cacceptable time; behold, now is the dday of 2salvation.
2. The Adequate Life of the Reconciling Ministry
6:3-13
2Co 6:3 1We give no occasion of stumbling in anything that the 2ministry may not be faulted,
2Co 6:4 But in everything we acommend ourselves as bministers of God, in much 1cendurance, in dafflictions, in 2enecessities, in fdistresses,
2Co 6:5 In astripes, in bimprisonments, in ctumults, in dlabors, in 1ewatchings, in 2fastings;
2Co 6:6 In pureness, in 1aknowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in a bholy 2spirit, in cunfeigned 1love,
2Co 6:7 In the aword of truth, in the bpower of God; through the 1cweapons of righteousness 2on the right and on the left,
2Co 6:8 Through 1glory and adishonor, through 2bevil report and good report; as 3cdeceivers and yet dtrue;
2Co 6:9 As 1unknown and yet well known; as 2adying and yet behold we blive; as 3being disciplined and yet cnot being put to death;
2Co 6:10 As 1made asorrowful yet always brejoicing; as 2poor yet cenriching many; as 3dhaving nothing and yet possessing eall things.
2Co 6:11 Our mouth is 1aopened to you, Corinthians; our heart is 1benlarged.
2Co 6:12 You are not constricted in us, but you are 1constricted in your 2ainward parts.
2Co 6:13 But for a 1recompense in kind, I speak as to 2achildren, you also 3be enlarged.
3. A Frank Exhortation of the Reconciling Ministry
6:14 — 7:1
2Co 6:14 1Do not become 2adissimilarly yoked with unbelievers. For what 3bpartnership do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what cfellowship does dlight have 4with edarkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord does aChrist have 1with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an bunbeliever?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the atemple of the 1bliving God, even as God said, c“I will dwell among them and walk among them; and dI will be their God, and they will be My people.”
2Co 6:17 Therefore a“come out from their midst and be 1separated, says the Lord, and do not touch 2what is bunclean; and I will 3welcome you”;
2Co 6:18 “And I will be 1a aFather to you, and you will be 2bsons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.”
2 CORINTHIANS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

2Co 7:1 1Therefore since we have 2these promises, beloved, let us acleanse ourselves from all 3defilement of flesh and of bspirit, 4perfecting choliness in the 5dfear of God.
4. The Intimate Concern of the Apostles’ Ministering Life
7:2-16
2Co 7:2 1aMake room for us; we have 2bwronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken cadvantage of no one.
2Co 7:3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I have said before that you are 1in our hearts for our dying together and our living together.
2Co 7:4 Great is my aboldness toward you, great is my bboasting on your behalf; I am filled with 1ccomfort, I overflow with 1djoy in all our eaffliction.
2Co 7:5 For even when we came into aMacedonia, our 1flesh had no rest, but we were bafflicted in everything; without were cfightings, within were fears.
2Co 7:6 But He who acomforts those who are 1downcast, that is, God, 2bcomforted us by the 3coming of cTitus;
2Co 7:7 And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted because of you, declaring to us your alonging, your lamentation, your bzeal for me, so that I crejoiced the more.
2Co 7:8 For though I caused you asorrow by the 1letter, I do not regret it. Even if I 2did regret it (for I see that that letter, even if for an hour, 3caused you sorrow),
2Co 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to 1repentance; for you were made 2asorrowful according to God, that in nothing you might suffer loss from us.
2Co 7:10 For sorrow according to God works arepentance unto 1salvation, which is without regret; but the bsorrow of the world works out death.
2Co 7:11 For behold this very thing, your being made sorrowful according to God, what 1aearnestness it has 2worked out in you, 3indeed what 4defense, indeed what 5indignation, indeed what 6fear, indeed what 7blonging, indeed what 8czeal, indeed what 9dpunishment! In everything you have commended yourselves to be pure in 10the matter.
2Co 7:12 So then, though I awrote to you, it was not for the sake of 1him who did the wrong, nor for the sake of 2him who was wronged, but for the sake of 3manifesting to you before God your earnestness for us.
2Co 7:13 Because of this we have been acomforted. And in addition to our comfort, we brejoiced 1more abundantly over the joy of 2Titus, because his 3spirit has been crefreshed by all of you.
2Co 7:14 For if in anything I aboasted to him on your behalf, I have not been put to shame; on the contrary, as we spoke all things in truth to you, so also our boasting before Titus turned out to be the truth.
2Co 7:15 And his 1affections are abundantly toward you, he remembering the aobedience of you all, how you received him with bfear and trembling.
2Co 7:16 I arejoice that in everything I 1have boldness because of you.
2 CORINTHIANS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

IV. The Apostle’s Fellowship concerning the Ministry to the Needy Saints
8:1 — 9:15
A. The Grace from Four Parties
8:1-15
2Co 8:1 Furthermore we make known to you, brothers, the 1agrace of God which has been given in the churches of bMacedonia,
2Co 8:2 That in much 1proving of affliction the abundance of their joy and the depth of their apoverty abounded unto the riches of their 2bliberality;
2Co 8:3 That according to their power, I testify, and beyond their power, aof their own accord,
2Co 8:4 With much entreaty they besought of us the 1grace and the fellowship of the aministry to the saints;
2Co 8:5 And this, not as we had hoped, but they agave themselves 1first to the Lord, 2and to us 3through the will of God.
2Co 8:6 So we entreated aTitus that, even as he began before, so also he would complete for you this 1bgrace 2as well.
2Co 8:7 But just as you aabound in everything, in faith and in 1word and in bknowledge and in all 2cearnestness and in 3the love in you 4from us, abound in this 5grace also.
2Co 8:8 I am anot speaking by way of command, but through the earnestness of others, proving also the genuineness of your love.
2Co 8:9 For you know the 1agrace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor in order that you, because of His poverty, might become brich.
2Co 8:10 And I give my 1aopinion in this matter, for this is profitable for you who were the first to begin ba year ago not only to do this but even to intend to do this.
2Co 8:11 But now complete also the doing, so that as there was the aeagerness in intending, so also there would be the completing out of what you bhave.
2Co 8:12 For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to whatever one has, not according to what he does not have.
2Co 8:13 For it is not that to others there would be relief, yet to you affliction,
2Co 8:14 But it is out of equality; at the present time your abundance for their alack that their abundance also may be for your lack, so that there may be equality;
2Co 8:15 As it is written, 1a“He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
B. Exercising Foresight for What Is Honorable
8:16-24
2Co 8:16 But athanks be to God who puts the same 1bearnestness on your behalf in the heart of cTitus,
2Co 8:17 Because he not only received the 1aentreaty, but being more earnest, he also went forth bof his own accord to you.
2Co 8:18 And we sent together with him the abrother whose praise in the gospel is throughout ball the churches,
2Co 8:19 And not only this, but who has also been selected by the churches as our fellow traveler in this 1agrace which is being ministered by us, to the bglory of the Lord Himself and to demonstrate our ceagerness;
2Co 8:20 1Avoiding this, that anyone should find fault with us in this 2abundance which is being ministered by us.
2Co 8:21 For we 1exercise foresight for what is honorable not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.
2Co 8:22 And we sent with them 1our brother, whom we have proved to be 2diligent in many things many times, yet now much more 2diligent because of the great aconfidence he has toward you.
2Co 8:23 Whether concerning aTitus, he is my bpartner and cfellow worker for you; or our brothers, they are 1apostles of the churches, they are Christ’s glory.
2Co 8:24 Show therefore to them, in the face of the churches, the proof of your love and of our aboasting on your behalf.
2 CORINTHIANS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

C. Giving as a Blessing, Not as Covetousness
9:1-5
2Co 9:1 For concerning the aministry to the saints, it is superfluous for me to bwrite to you;
2Co 9:2 For I know your aeagerness, of which I bboast on your behalf to the Macedonians, that 1Achaia has been prepared since clast year; and your zeal has stirred up the greater number of them.
2Co 9:3 But I sent the abrothers that our boasting on your behalf might not be made void in this respect, that, as I said, you might be prepared;
2Co 9:4 Lest, if the aMacedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, be put to shame in this 1bconfidence.
2Co 9:5 Therefore I thought it necessary to entreat the brothers to go before to you and make ready beforehand your previously promised 1ablessing, that thus this might be ready 2as a blessing and not 2as a matter of covetousness.
D. Sowing for Reaping the Fruits of Righteousness
9:6-15
2Co 9:6 But take note of this: He who asows sparingly shall also sparingly reap; and he who sows with 1blessings shall also with 2blessings reap;
2Co 9:7 Each one as he has purposed in his heart, anot out of sorrow or out of 1necessity, for 2God loves a 3cheerful giver.
2Co 9:8 And God is able to make 1all grace abound unto you, that, in everything always having all sufficiency, you may aabound unto every good work;
2Co 9:9 Even as it is written, a“He has 1bscattered abroad; he has given to the 2cpoor; his 3righteousness abides forever.”
2Co 9:10 Now 1He who bountifully supplies aseed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and cause the fruits of your righteousness to increase.
2Co 9:11 You in everything are being aenriched unto all 1liberality, which works out through us bthanksgiving to God,
2Co 9:12 Because the aministry of this 1service is not only filling up the black of the saints, but is also abounding through many thanksgivings to God.
2Co 9:13 They, through the 1approving of this ministry, are aglorifying God based upon the subjection unto the gospel of Christ that issues from your bconfession, and upon the cliberality of the 2dfellowship to them and to all;
2Co 9:14 While in petition on your behalf they also long after you on account of the 1surpassing 2grace of God upon you.
2Co 9:15 aThanks be to God for His 1indescribable 2bgift!
2 CORINTHIANS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

V. Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority
10:1 — 13:10
A. By the Way of His Warring
10:1-6
2Co 10:1 1But I myself, Paul, aentreat you through the 2bmeekness and 3gentleness of Christ, who (as you say) in cperson am 4dbase among you, but while absent am 5ebold toward you,
2Co 10:2 I beseech you that when apresent I would not have to be bbold in the confidence with which I count myself, to dare do to some who count us as ones who are walking caccording to flesh.
2Co 10:3 For though we walk 1in flesh, we do not awar according to flesh;
2Co 10:4 For the aweapons of our bwarfare are 1not fleshly but 2cpowerful before God for the doverthrowing of strongholds,
2Co 10:5 As we overthrow 1areasonings and every 2bhigh thing rising up against the knowledge of God, and take ccaptive every 1dthought unto the eobedience of Christ.
2Co 10:6 And we are ready to 1apunish all disobedience when your 2bobedience is fulfilled.
B. By the Measure of God’s Rule
10:7-18
2Co 10:7 You look at things aaccording to their appearance. If someone 1has confidence in himself to be bof Christ, let him take account of this again concerning himself, that even as he is cof Christ, dso also are we.
2Co 10:8 For even if I should aboast somewhat more abundantly concerning our bauthority, which the Lord has given for 1cbuilding you up and not for overthrowing you, I will not be put to shame.
2Co 10:9 I say this so as not to seem as if I am terrifying you through my letters,
2Co 10:10 Because while his letters, someone says, are weighty and strong, his abodily presence is 1bweak and his cspeech 2contemptible.
2Co 10:11 Let such a one take account of this, that such as we are in word by letters when absent, such also we are in deed when present.
2Co 10:12 For we do not adare to class or compare ourselves with any of those who bcommend themselves; but they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.
2Co 10:13 But we will 1not aboast beyond our measure but 2according to the measure of the 3rule which the God of measure has bapportioned to us, to reach even as far as you.
2Co 10:14 For we are not 1extending ourselves beyond our bounds, as if we did not reach you, for we were the first to acome even as far as unto you in the bgospel of Christ.
2Co 10:15 We are anot boasting beyond our measure in bothers’ labors, but have the hope, as your faith is increasing, to be 1magnified in you according to our rule unto abundance,
2Co 10:16 So that we may announce the gospel unto those parts beyond you, not so that we may boast in another man’s rule in things already prepared.
2Co 10:17 But he who aboasts, let him boast in the Lord;
2Co 10:18 For it is not the one who acommends himself who is bapproved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
2 CORINTHIANS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

C. By His Jealousy for Christ
11:1-15
2Co 11:1 I wish that you would abear with me in a little 1bfoolishness; but indeed you do bear with me.
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with a 1ajealousy of God; for I bbetrothed you to one husband to cpresent you as a pure 2dvirgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3 But I fear lest somehow, as the aserpent bdeceived cEve by his dcraftiness, your 1ethoughts would be corrupted from the 2fsimplicity and the gpurity toward Christ.
2Co 11:4 For if indeed he who comes preaches 1aanother Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive a 1bdifferent spirit, which you have not received, or a 1cdifferent gospel, which you have not accepted, you dbear 2well with him.
2Co 11:5 But I count myself to be inferior to the 1asuper-apostles in nothing.
2Co 11:6 But even if I am a 1layman in aspeech, yet I am not in bknowledge; indeed in every way we have made this cmanifest in all things to you.
2Co 11:7 Or did I commit a sin, abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I announced the gospel of God to you afree of charge?
2Co 11:8 I robbed other churches, taking wages for the ministry to you.
2Co 11:9 And when I was present with you and alacked, I was not a bburden to anyone; for the brothers who came from cMacedonia dfilled up my lack, and in everything I kept myself from being eburdensome to you, and will keep myself.
2Co 11:10 The 1truthfulness of Christ is in me, that this aboasting shall not be stopped as it regards me in the regions of bAchaia.
2Co 11:11 Why? Because I do not alove you? God bknows.
2Co 11:12 But what I do, I also will do, that I may cut off the opportunity of those desiring an opportunity, that in the thing in which they boast, they may be found even as we.
2Co 11:13 For such ones are 1afalse apostles, deceitful bworkers, 2transfiguring themselves into apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no wonder, for 1aSatan himself transfigures himself into an 2bangel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if also his ministers transfigure themselves into 1ministers of righteousness, whose aend will be according to their works.
D. By His Compelled Boasting
11:16 — 12:18
1. Of His Status, Labor, and Afflictions
11:16-33
2Co 11:16 Again I say, Let no one think me to be afoolish; but if otherwise, accept me even as if I were foolish, that I also may bboast a little.
2Co 11:17 What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord but as if in afoolishness, in this 1bconfidence of boasting.
2Co 11:18 Since many aboast according to the bflesh, I also will cboast.
2Co 11:19 For you abear gladly with bfools because you yourselves are 1wise.
2Co 11:20 For you bear it if anyone aenslaves you, if anyone bdevours you, if anyone 1takes you, if anyone clifts himself up, if anyone beats you in the face.
2Co 11:21 1By way of self-disparagement I say this, 2Supposedly we ourselves were aweak. But in whatever anyone else is daring, I speak in bfoolishness, I also am cdaring.
2Co 11:22 1aHebrews are they? I also. 1bIsraelites are they? I also. The 1cseed of Abraham are they? I also.
2Co 11:23 aMinisters of Christ are they? I speak as being 1bbeside myself, I more so! In clabors more abundantly, in dimprisonments more abundantly, in estripes 2excessively, in fdeaths often.
2Co 11:24 Under the hands of the Jews five times I received aforty stripes less one;
2Co 11:25 Three times I was beaten with 1rods, once I was astoned, 2three times I was bshipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep;
2Co 11:26 In journeys often, in dangers of 1rivers, in dangers of 2robbers, in dangers from my arace, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the bcity, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among 3cfalse brothers;
2Co 11:27 In alabor and hardship; in 1watchings often; in 2bhunger and thirst; in 2cfastings often; in 3cold and 4dnakedness —
2Co 11:28 Apart from the things which have 1not been mentioned, there is this: the crowd of cares pressing upon me daily, the 2anxious concern for aall the churches.
2Co 11:29 Who is aweak, and I am not weak? Who is bstumbled, and 1I myself do not 2burn?
2Co 11:30 If I must aboast, I will boast of the 1things of my bweakness.
2Co 11:31 The aGod and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is bblessed forever, cknows that I am dnot lying.
2Co 11:32 In aDamascus, the 1governor under Aretas the king bguarded the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me;
2Co 11:33 And in a basket I was alowered through a window, through the wall, and escaped his hands.
2 CORINTHIANS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

2. Of the Lord’s Vision and Revelation to Him
12:1-10
2Co 12:1 To aboast is 1necessary, though indeed not bexpedient; yet I will 2come to 3cvisions and drevelations of the Lord.
2Co 12:2 I know a 1man ain Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I do not know, or outside the body I do not know; God bknows) such a one was 2caught away 3to the 4third heaven.
2Co 12:3 1And I know such a man (whether in the body or 2outside the body, I do not know; God knows),
2Co 12:4 That he was caught away into 1Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is anot allowed for a man to speak.
2Co 12:5 On behalf of such a one I will aboast, but on behalf of myself I will not bboast, except in my cweaknesses.
2Co 12:6 For if I desire to aboast, I will not be foolish, for I will bspeak the truth; but I refrain lest anyone account of me something above what he csees me to be or dhears from me.
2Co 12:7 And because of the 1transcendence of the revelations, in order that I might not be exceedingly alifted up, there was given to me a 2bthorn in the flesh, a messenger of cSatan, that he might 3buffet me, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up.
2Co 12:8 Concerning this I entreated the Lord athree times that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9 And He has said to me, My 1agrace is sufficient for you, for My 2bpower is perfected in cweakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the dpower of Christ might 3etabernacle over me.
2Co 12:10 Therefore I am 1well pleased in aweaknesses, in 2insults, in 3bnecessities, in cpersecutions and 4ddistresses, on behalf of Christ; for when I am 5eweak, then I am 5powerful.
3. Of the Signs of His Apostleship
12:11-18
2Co 12:11 I have become afoolish; you yourselves have compelled me. For it is I who should have been bcommended by you; for in nothing am I inferior to the 1csuper-apostles, even though I am dnothing.
2Co 12:12 Indeed the 1signs of an aapostle were wrought among you in all bendurance by 2csigns and 3wonders and 4works of power.
2Co 12:13 For what is there in which you were 1treated in a manner inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself was not a aburden to you? 2Graciously forgive me this 2injustice!
2Co 12:14 Behold, this athird time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden; for I do bnot seek what is yours but you. For the cchildren ought not to store up for the parents, but the dparents for the children.
2Co 12:15 But I, I will most gladly 1spend and 2abe utterly spent on behalf of your souls. If I blove you more abundantly, am I loved less?
2Co 12:16 But 1let it be so! I did anot burden you; but, as some of you say, being 2crafty, I took you by guile.
2Co 12:17 Did I take aadvantage of you through anyone whom I have sent bto you?
2Co 12:18 I entreated aTitus and sent with him the bbrother. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? Did we not walk in the same 1cspirit? In the same dsteps?
E. By the Authority Given to Him
12:19 — 13:10
2Co 12:19 All this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. 1aBefore God bin Christ we speak; but all things, beloved, are for your cbuilding up.
2Co 12:20 For I afear that perhaps when I come, I may find you not such as I wish, and I may be found by you not such as you wish; that perhaps there may be 1bstrife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, cselfish ambitions, 2slanders, 3whisperings, 4demonstrations of being puffed up, 5dtumults;
2Co 12:21 That when I come again my God may humble me before you and I may mourn over many who have asinned before and who have not brepented of the cuncleanness and dfornication and licentiousness which they have practiced.
2 CORINTHIANS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

2Co 13:1 This athird time I am coming to you; at the mouth of two or three bwitnesses shall every word be established.
2Co 13:2 I have previously said and I say beforehand, when I was present the second time and being aabsent now, to those who have bsinned before and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will cnot spare,
2Co 13:3 Since you seek a proof of the Christ who is speaking in me, who is not weak unto you but is 1apowerful in you.
2Co 13:4 For indeed He was acrucified out of 1weakness, but He blives 2by the power of God. For indeed 3we are cweak in Him, but we will dlive together with Him 2by the epower of God directed toward you.
2Co 13:5 Test yourselves whether you are in the 1faith; 2prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that 3Jesus Christ is ain you, unless you are 4bdisapproved?
2Co 13:6 But I hope that you will know that 1we are not disapproved.
2Co 13:7 Now we pray to God that you do nothing wrong, 1not that we may appear approved, but that you yourselves may do what is good and we may be as if disapproved.
2Co 13:8 1For we are not able to do anything against the 2truth but rather for the truth.
2Co 13:9 For we rejoice whenever we are 1aweak and you are powerful; this also we pray for, your 2bperfecting.
2Co 13:10 Therefore I write these things while being aabsent in order that when bpresent I would not have to use cseverity, according to the dauthority which the Lord has given me for ebuilding up and not for overthrowing.
VI. Conclusion
13:11-14
A. Final Exhortations
vv. 11-12
2Co 13:11 Finally, brothers, 1arejoice, be 2perfected, be 3comforted, 4bthink the same thing, be 5at cpeace; and the dGod of 6love and peace will be with you.
2Co 13:12 Greet one another with a 1aholy kiss.
B. Greeting
v. 13
2Co 13:13 aAll the saints greet you.
C. Blessing
v. 14
2Co 13:14 The 1agrace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blove of God and the cfellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE GALATIANS

Chapters
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Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 54, during Paul’s second ministry journey, after traveling through Galatia and arriving in Corinth (Acts 18:1, 11).
Place of Writing: Corinth, while Paul was there for a year and a half (Acts 18:1-11).
Recipients: The churches in Galatia (1:2)
Subject:
Christ Replacing the Law and Being versus Religion and Tradition
GALATIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

I. Introduction —
The Will of God to Rescue Us out of the Evil Religious Age
1:1-5
Ga 1:1 1aPaul, an bapostle (2cnot from men nor through man but dthrough Jesus Christ and God the Father, who 3eraised Him from the dead),
Ga 1:2 And all the 1abrothers who are with me, to the 2bchurches of cGalatia:
Ga 1:3 1aGrace to you and 2bpeace from God cour Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Ga 1:4 Who agave Himself for our bsins that He might 1rescue us out of the present evil 2cage according to the dwill of our God and Father,
Ga 1:5 To whom be the aglory forever and ever. Amen.
II. The Revelation of the Apostle’s Gospel
1:6 — 4:31
A. God’s Son versus Man’s Religion
1:6 — 2:10
Ga 1:6 I marvel that you are so quickly 1removing from Him who has acalled you 2in the 3bgrace of Christ to a 4cdifferent gospel,
Ga 1:7 Which is 1not another gospel, only there are 2some who atrouble you and desire to 3pervert the gospel of Christ.
Ga 1:8 But if even we or an aangel out of heaven should announce to you a gospel beyond that which we have announced to you, let him be baccursed.
Ga 1:9 As we have said before, now also I say again, If anyone announces to you a gospel beyond that which you have received, let him be accursed.
Ga 1:10 For am I now 1trying to win the assent of men or of God? Or am I seeking to aplease men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bslave of Christ.
Ga 1:11 For I make known to you, abrothers, concerning the bgospel announced by me, that it is cnot according to man.
Ga 1:12 For 1neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I areceived it through a 2brevelation by Jesus Christ.
Ga 1:13 For you have heard of my manner of life aformerly in 1Judaism, that I bpersecuted the cchurch of God excessively and dravaged it.
Ga 1:14 And I aadvanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a bzealot for the 1ctraditions of my dfathers.
Ga 1:15 But when it apleased God, who 1set me apart 2from my mother’s bwomb and 3ccalled me through His 4dgrace,
Ga 1:16 To 1areveal His 2bSon 3in me that I might announce 4Him as the gospel among the 5cGentiles, immediately I did 6not confer with 7dflesh and blood,
Ga 1:17 aNeither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to 1bArabia and again returned to cDamascus.
Ga 1:18 Then after three years I went up to aJerusalem to 1visit bCephas, and I remained with him fifteen days.
Ga 1:19 But I saw none of the other apostles 1except aJames, the brother of the Lord.
Ga 1:20 Now concerning the things which I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am anot lying.
Ga 1:21 Then I went into the regions of 1aSyria and bCilicia.
Ga 1:22 Yet I was still 1unknown by face to the achurches of Judea, which are bin Christ.
Ga 1:23 But they 1only heard this: He who was formerly apersecuting us is now announcing as the gospel the 2bfaith which formerly he cravaged.
Ga 1:24 And they aglorified God because of me.
GALATIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Ga 2:1 Then 1after a period of fourteen years I awent up again to Jerusalem with bBarnabas, taking cTitus with me also.
Ga 2:2 And I went up according to 1arevelation, and I laid before them the gospel which I proclaim among the bGentiles, but privately to those who were of crepute, dlest perhaps I should be erunning, or had run, in vain.
Ga 2:3 But 1not even Titus, who was with me, though he is a Greek, was compelled to be 2acircumcised;
Ga 2:4 And this, because of the 1afalse brothers, brought in bsecretly, who stole in to spy out our 2cfreedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into 3dslavery.
Ga 2:5 To them we yielded with the subjection demanded not even for an hour, that the 1atruth of the gospel might remain with you.
Ga 2:6 But from those who were areputed to be something — whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does bnot accept man’s person; for to me those who were of repute added nothing.
Ga 2:7 But on the contrary, seeing that I had been aentrusted with the gospel to the buncircumcision, even as cPeter with the gospel to the circumcision,
Ga 2:8 (For He who operated in Peter for the aapostleship to the circumcision operated also in me for the bGentiles),
Ga 2:9 And perceiving the agrace given to me, 1bJames and cCephas and dJohn, who were ereputed to be fpillars, gave to me and to gBarnabas the right hhand of ifellowship that we should go to the Gentiles, and they, to the circumcision.
Ga 2:10 Only they requested that we remember the apoor, which very thing I bwas also eager to do.
B. Christ Replacing the Law
2:11-21
Ga 2:11 But when aCephas came to bAntioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
Ga 2:12 For before some came 1from aJames, he 2continually bate with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, 3fearing those of the ccircumcision.
Ga 2:13 And the 1rest of the Jews also joined him in this 2hypocrisy, so that even 3aBarnabas was carried away in their hypocrisy.
Ga 2:14 But when I saw that they were not 1walking in a astraightforward way in relation to the btruth of the gospel, I said to cCephas dbefore them all, If you, being a Jew, 2elive like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to 3flive like the Jews?
Ga 2:15 We are aJews by nature and not bsinners from among the Gentiles;
Ga 2:16 And knowing that a man is not justified out of works of alaw, but through 1bfaith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed into Christ Jesus that we might be justified out of faith in Christ and not out of the works of law, because out of the works of law cno 2flesh will be justified.
Ga 2:17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also have been found asinners, is then Christ a 1minister of sin? 2bAbsolutely not!
Ga 2:18 For if I 1build again the things which I have 2destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
Ga 2:19 For I 1through law have 2adied to law that I might 3blive to God.
Ga 2:20 I am 1acrucified with Christ; and it is 2no longer I who live, but it is 3bChrist who lives in me; and the 4life which I now live in the flesh I clive in 5faith, the dfaith 6of the 7Son of God, who 8eloved me and fgave Himself up for me.
Ga 2:21 I do not nullify the 1agrace of God; for if 2brighteousness is through law, then cChrist has died 3for nothing.
GALATIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

C. The Spirit by Faith in Christ versus the Flesh by Works of Law
3:1 — 4:31
1. The Spirit Being the Blessing of the Promise by Faith in Christ
3:1-14
Ga 3:1 O foolish aGalatians, bwho has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed 1ccrucified?
Ga 3:2 This only I wish to learn from you, Did you 1receive the 2aSpirit out of the 3bworks of law or out of the 3chearing of dfaith?
Ga 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having 1begun by the 2Spirit, are you now being 1perfected by the 2aflesh?
Ga 3:4 Have you 1asuffered so many things bin vain, if indeed it was in vain?
Ga 3:5 He therefore who 1bountifully asupplies to you the 2bSpirit and 3cdoes works of power among you, does He do it out of the 4dworks of law or out of the hearing of faith?
Ga 3:6 Even as 1a“Abraham bbelieved God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.”
Ga 3:7 Know then that they who are of 1afaith, these are 2bsons of Abraham.
Ga 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would ajustify the Gentiles out of faith, announced the 1gospel beforehand to Abraham: b“In you shall all the nations be cblessed.”
Ga 3:9 So then they who are of 1afaith are 2blessed with 3believing Abraham.
Ga 3:10 For as many as are of the aworks of law are under a 1bcurse; for it is written, c“Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law to do them.”
Ga 3:11 And that 1by law ano one is justified before God is evident because, b“The righteous one shall have life and clive 2by faith”;
Ga 3:12 But the law is not of faith, yet, a“He who does them shall live 1because of them.”
Ga 3:13 Christ has aredeemed us out of the bcurse of the law, having 1become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, c“Cursed is everyone hanging on a 2dtree”;
Ga 3:14 In order that the 1ablessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles bin Christ Jesus, that we might 2creceive the dpromise of the 3eSpirit through ffaith.
2. The Law Being the Custodian of the Heirs of the Promise
3:15-29
Ga 3:15 Brothers, I speak aaccording to man, though it is a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one nullifies it or makes additions to it.
Ga 3:16 But ato Abraham were the bpromises spoken and cto his seed. He does not say, And to the seeds, as concerning many, but as concerning one: “And to your dseed,” who is 1eChrist.
Ga 3:17 And I say this: A 1covenant previously ratified by God, the 2law, having come 3afour hundred and thirty years after, does not annul so as to make the bpromise of none effect.
Ga 3:18 For if the 1ainheritance is of law, it is no longer of promise; but to Abraham God has graciously given it through bpromise.
Ga 3:19 Why then the alaw? It was 1added because of the btransgressions until the cseed should come to whom the promise was made, it being 2ordained through dangels in the hand of a 3emediator.
Ga 3:20 But a 1amediator is not a mediator for one, but God is bone.
Ga 3:21 Is then the law against the promises of God? aAbsolutely not! For if a law had been given which was able to 1give life, 2brighteousness would have indeed been of law.
Ga 3:22 But the Scripture has 1ashut up 2all under bsin in order that the cpromise out of 3dfaith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who ebelieve.
Ga 3:23 But before 1afaith came we were 2bguarded cunder law, being 3dshut up 4unto the 1afaith which was to be revealed.
Ga 3:24 So then the alaw has become our 1child-conductor unto bChrist that we might be justified out of cfaith.
Ga 3:25 But since afaith has come, we are 1no longer bunder a child-conductor.
Ga 3:26 For you are all 1asons of God through 2bfaith cin Christ Jesus.
Ga 3:27 For as many of you as were abaptized 1into Christ have bput on Christ.
Ga 3:28 There 1cannot be 2aJew nor Greek, there cannot be 3slave nor free man, there cannot be 4bmale and female; for you are all 5cone din Christ Jesus.
Ga 3:29 And if you are of aChrist, then you are 1Abraham’s bseed, cheirs according to 2dpromise.
GALATIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • 

3. The Spirit of Sonship Replacing the Custody of the Law
4:1-7
Ga 4:1 But I say, As long as the aheir is a 1child, he does not differ at all from a bslave, though he is lord of all;
Ga 4:2 But he is aunder 1bguardians and cstewards until the 2dtime appointed by the father.
Ga 4:3 So also we, when we were children, were kept in aslavery under the 1belements of the world;
Ga 4:4 But when the 1fullness of the atime came, God bsent forth His cSon, born of a 2dwoman, born under 3elaw,
Ga 4:5 That He might 1aredeem those under law that we might receive the 2bsonship.
Ga 4:6 And because you are asons, God has bsent forth the 1cSpirit of His Son into our 2hearts, 3crying, 4dAbba, Father!
Ga 4:7 So then you are 1no longer a aslave but a son; and if a 2son, an 3bheir also 4through God.
4. Christ Needing to Be Formed in the Heirs of Promise
4:8-20
Ga 4:8 However at that time, anot knowing God, you were bslaves to the cgods which by 1nature are not gods;
Ga 4:9 But now, having come to aknow God, or rather having been bknown by God, how is it that you turn again to the cweak and poor delements, to which you desire to 1be eenslaved yet again?
Ga 4:10 You observe 1adays and 2months and 3seasons and 4years;
Ga 4:11 I fear for you, alest I have labored upon you in 1vain.
Ga 4:12 Become 1as I am, because I also am 2as you are, brothers, I beseech you; you have 3not wronged me at all.
Ga 4:13 And you know that 1because of weakness of my flesh I aannounced the gospel to you the first time.
Ga 4:14 And that which was a trial to you in my flesh you did not despise nor 1loathe, but you areceived me as an bangel of God, indeed as Christ Jesus.
Ga 4:15 Where then is 1your felicitation? For I testify concerning you that if possible you would have plucked out your 2eyes and given them to me.
Ga 4:16 So then have I become your enemy by presenting the atruth to you?
Ga 4:17 They are 1azealous of you, but 2not rightly; but they desire to 3shut you out that you may be 4zealous of them.
Ga 4:18 But it is always good to be zealous in a good thing, and 1not only awhen I am present with you.
Ga 4:19 My 1achildren, with whom I 2btravail again in birth until 3cChrist is 4formed din you,
Ga 4:20 Indeed, I wish I could be present with you now and 1change my 2tone because I am 3perplexed about you.
5. The Children Born according to the Spirit versus
the Children Born according to the Flesh
4:21-31
Ga 4:21 1Tell me, you who desire to be 2aunder the law, do you not hear the 3law?
Ga 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, aone of the bmaidservant and cone of the dfree woman.
Ga 4:23 However the one of the maidservant was born 1according to the aflesh, but the one of the free woman was born 1through bpromise.
Ga 4:24 These things are spoken allegorically, for 1these women are 2two acovenants, one from 3bMount Sinai, bringing forth children unto 4cslavery, which is 5dHagar.
Ga 4:25 Now this Hagar is Sinai the mountain in aArabia and corresponds to the 1bJerusalem which now is, for she 2is in 3cslavery with her children.
Ga 4:26 But the 1aJerusalem above is free, which is our mother;
Ga 4:27 For it is written, a“Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not travailing, because 1many are the children of her who is 2desolate rather than of her who has her husband.”
Ga 4:28 But you, brothers, in the way aIsaac was, are 1children of bpromise.
Ga 4:29 But just as at that time he who was born 1according to the aflesh 2bpersecuted him who was born 1according to the 3cSpirit, dso 4also it is now.
Ga 4:30 But what does the Scripture say? a“Cast out the bmaidservant and her son, for the 1son of the maidservant shall by cno means inherit with the 2son of the dfree woman.”
Ga 4:31 So then, brothers, we are 1not children of the maidservant but aof the free woman.
GALATIANS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

III. The Walk of God’s Children
5:1 — 6:17
A. Not Entangled by the Yoke of Slavery under Law
5:1
Ga 5:1 It is for 1afreedom that Christ has set us free; 2bstand fast therefore, and do not be 3entangled with a 4cyoke of dslavery again.
B. Not Separated from Christ
5:2-12
Ga 5:2 Behold, I Paul say to you that if you become 1acircumcised, Christ will profit you 2nothing.
Ga 5:3 And I testify again to every man who becomes acircumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Ga 5:4 You have been 1brought to nought, separated from Christ, you who are being justified by alaw; you have 2bfallen from cgrace.
Ga 5:5 For we 1aby the Spirit 2bout of faith ceagerly await the 3dhope of erighteousness.
Ga 5:6 For ain Christ Jesus neither bcircumcision 1avails anything nor uncircumcision, but cfaith avails, 2operating through 3love.
Ga 5:7 You were arunning well. bWho hindered you that you would not believe and obey the 1ctruth?
Ga 5:8 This 1apersuasion is not of Him who bcalls you.
Ga 5:9 A little 1aleaven leavens the 1whole lump.
Ga 5:10 I am aconfident in the Lord concerning you that you will be bof no other mind; but he who is ctroubling you shall bear the judgment, whoever he may be.
Ga 5:11 But I, brothers, if I still preach 1acircumcision, why am I still being bpersecuted? Then the cstumbling block of the 1cross has been annulled.
Ga 5:12 I wish that those aupsetting you would even 1cut themselves off.
C. Not Indulging the Flesh but Serving through Love
5:13-15
Ga 5:13 For you were acalled for 1bfreedom, brothers; only do not cturn this dfreedom into an opportunity for the 2flesh, but through elove 3fserve one another.
Ga 5:14 For the whole alaw is fulfilled in one word, in this, b“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Ga 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another.
D. Walking by the Spirit, Not by the Flesh
5:16-26
Ga 5:16 But I say, 1aWalk bby the 2Spirit and you shall by no means cfulfill the dlust of the 2flesh.
Ga 5:17 For the 1flesh lusts aagainst the 2Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these 3oppose each other that you would not do the things that you bdesire.
Ga 5:18 But if you are aled by the 1Spirit, you are bnot under the 1law.
Ga 5:19 And the 1works of the flesh are manifest, which are such things as 2fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Ga 5:20 1Idolatry, asorcery, 2enmities, bstrife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, 3factions, cdivisions, 4dsects,
Ga 5:21 aEnvyings, 1bouts of drunkenness, carousings, and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, even as I have said before, that those who practice such things will bnot 2inherit the kingdom of God.
Ga 5:22 But the 1afruit of the Spirit is blove, cjoy, dpeace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Ga 5:23 Meekness, aself-control; against such things there is bno law.
Ga 5:24 1But they who are aof Christ Jesus 2have 3bcrucified the cflesh with its passions and its lusts.
Ga 5:25 If we 1live by the Spirit, let us also 2awalk by the Spirit.
Ga 5:26 Let us 1not become avainglorious, provoking one another, benvying one another.
GALATIANS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

E. Restoring the Fallen One in a Spirit of Meekness
6:1
Ga 6:1 Brothers, even if a man is overtaken in some offense, you who are 1aspiritual brestore such a one in a 2cspirit of dmeekness, looking to yourself lest you also be etempted.
F. Completely Fulfilling the Law of Christ
6:2-6
Ga 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the 1alaw of Christ completely.
Ga 6:3 For if anyone 1athinks he is something when he is nothing, he bdeceives himself.
Ga 6:4 But let each man aprove his own work, and then he will have his boast in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another.
Ga 6:5 For each one shall bear his own load.
Ga 6:6 But let him who is instructed in the word ashare in all 1good things with him who instructs.
G. Sowing Not unto the Flesh but unto the Spirit
6:7-10
Ga 6:7 Do not be 1adeceived: God is not bmocked; for whatever a man csows, this he will also reap.
Ga 6:8 For he who sows 1unto his own 2aflesh will breap 3ccorruption of the flesh, but he who dsows 1unto the 2eSpirit will fof the Spirit reap 3geternal life.
Ga 6:9 And let us anot lose heart in doing what is good, for in the proper season we will reap if we 1do not bfaint.
Ga 6:10 So then, as we have the opportunity, let us do what is 1agood toward all, but especially toward those of the 2bhousehold of the 3cfaith.
H. Having Been Crucified to the Religious World
to Live a New Creation
6:11-16
Ga 6:11 See with what 1large letters I have written to you with my aown hand.
Ga 6:12 As many as desire to make a 1good show 2in the flesh, these compel you to be acircumcised, but only that they may not be bpersecuted for the ccross of Christ.
Ga 6:13 For neither do they that become circumcised akeep the law themselves, but they desire you to be circumcised that they may boast bin your flesh.
Ga 6:14 But far be it from me to aboast except in the 1bcross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through 2whom the 3world has been ccrucified to me and I to the world.
Ga 6:15 For neither is 1acircumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a 1bnew creation is what matters.
Ga 6:16 And as many as 1walk by this 2arule, 3bpeace be upon them and mercy, even upon the 4cIsrael of God.
I. Bearing the Brands of Jesus
6:17
Ga 6:17 Henceforth let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the 1abrands of Jesus.
IV. Conclusion —
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ Being with Our Spirit
6:18
Ga 6:18 The 1agrace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your 2spirit, 3bbrothers. Amen.
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 64.
Place of Writing: Rome, where Paul was imprisoned (3:1; 4:1; 6:20; Acts 28:30).
Recipients: The saints in Ephesus (1:1).
Subject:
The Church — The Mystery of Christ, the Body of Christ as the Fullness of Christ, Becoming the Fullness of God
EPHESIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

I. Introduction
1:1-2
Ep 1:1 1Paul, an aapostle of Christ Jesus through the 2will of God, to the 3bsaints who are 4in cEphesus and are 5dfaithful in Christ Jesus:
Ep 1:2 1aGrace to you and 2peace from 3God our bFather and the 4cLord Jesus Christ.
II. The Blessings and Position Received by the Church in Christ
1:3 — 3:21
A. God’s Blessings to the Church
1:3-14
1. The Father’s Selection and Predestination, Speaking Forth God’s Eternal Purpose
vv. 3-6
Ep 1:3 1aBlessed be the 2bGod and Father of 3our Lord Jesus Christ, who has 4blessed us 5with every 6spiritual 7blessing in the 8cheavenlies 9in Christ,
Ep 1:4 Even as He 1achose us in Him 2bbefore the foundation of the world to be 3choly and 4without blemish 5before Him 6in 7dlove,
Ep 1:5 1aPredestinating us unto 2bsonship 3through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the 4cgood pleasure of His dwill,
Ep 1:6 To the 1apraise of the 2bglory of His cgrace, with which He 3graced us in the 4dBeloved;
2. The Son’s Redemption,
Speaking Forth the Accomplishment of God’s Eternal Purpose
vv. 7-12
Ep 1:7 In whom we have 1aredemption through His bblood, the 2cforgiveness of doffenses, according to the eriches of His grace,
Ep 1:8 Which He caused to 1abound to us in all 2awisdom and prudence,
Ep 1:9 1Making known to us the 2amystery of His bwill 3according to His cgood pleasure, which He 4dpurposed in Himself,
Ep 1:10 Unto the 1aeconomy of the 2fullness of the times, to 3bhead up all things in 4Christ, the cthings in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him;
Ep 1:11 In whom also we 1were designated as an ainheritance, having been 2bpredestinated according to the 3cpurpose of the One who works all things according to the 4counsel of His 4dwill,
Ep 1:12 That we would be to the 1apraise of His glory who have 2first hoped in Christ,
3. The Spirit’s Sealing and Pledging,
Speaking Forth the Application of God’s Accomplished Purpose
vv. 13-14
Ep 1:13 In whom you also, having heard the aword of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were 1bsealed with the cHoly Spirit of the 2promise,
Ep 1:14 Who is the 1apledge of our 2binheritance 3unto the 4credemption of the 5acquired dpossession, to the 6epraise of His glory.
B. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Church regarding Revelation
1:15-23
1. His Thanks for the Church
vv. 15-16
Ep 1:15 Therefore I also, having aheard of 1the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and your love to all the saints,
Ep 1:16 Do not cease agiving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
2. His Supplication for the Church That the Saints May See:
vv. 17-23
a. The Hope of God’s Calling
vv. 17-18a
Ep 1:17 That the 1aGod of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 2Father of glory, may give to you a 3bspirit of 4cwisdom and drevelation in the efull knowledge of Him,
Ep 1:18 The 1aeyes of your heart having been 2benlightened, that you may know what is the 3chope of His 4dcalling,
b. The Glory of God’s Inheritance in the Saints
v. 18b
and what are the 5eriches of the glory of His 6finheritance in the saints,
c. God’s Power toward Us
vv. 19-21
Ep 1:19 And what is the surpassing greatness of His 1apower toward us who believe, 2according to the boperation of the cmight of His strength,
Ep 1:20 Which He caused to operate in Christ in 1araising Him from the dead and 2bseating Him at His 3right hand in the 4cheavenlies,
Ep 1:21 Far above all 1arule and authority and power and lordship and 2every bname that is named not only in this cage but also in that which is to come;
d. The Church — The Body, the Fullness of Christ
vv. 22-23
Ep 1:22 And He 1asubjected all things under His feet and 2gave Him to be bHead over all things 3to the 4cchurch,
Ep 1:23 Which is His 1aBody, the 2bfullness of the One who 3cfills all in all.
EPHESIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

C. The Producing and Building of the Church
2:1-22
1. The Producing of the Church
vv. 1-10
Ep 2:1 1And you, though 2adead in your 3offenses and sins,
Ep 2:2 In which you once awalked according to the 1bage of this world, according to the 2cruler of the authority of the air, of the 3spirit which is now operating in the 4dsons of disobedience;
Ep 2:3 Among 1whom 2we also all conducted ourselves once in the 3alusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature 4children of bwrath, even as the rest;
Ep 2:4 1But God, being arich in 2mercy, because of His 3great blove with which He loved us,
Ep 2:5 Even when we were adead in offenses, made us 1balive 2together with 3Christ (by 4cgrace you have been 5saved)
Ep 2:6 And 1araised us up 2together with Him and 3bseated us together with Him in the 4cheavenlies 5in Christ Jesus,
Ep 2:7 That He might 1display in the 2ages to come the surpassing 3ariches of His grace in 4bkindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ep 2:8 1For by 2agrace you have been saved through 3bfaith, and 4this not of yourselves; it is the cgift of God;
Ep 2:9 Not of aworks that no one should bboast.
Ep 2:10 For we are His 1masterpiece, 2acreated in Christ Jesus for bgood works, which God prepared 3beforehand in order that we would cwalk in them.
2. The Building of the Church
vv. 11-22
Ep 2:11 Therefore remember that once you, the aGentiles in the flesh, those who are called 1buncircumcision by that which is called ccircumcision in the flesh made by hands,
Ep 2:12 That you were at that time 1apart from Christ, aalienated from the 2commonwealth of bIsrael, and strangers to the 3ccovenants of the promise, having 4dno hope and 5without God in the 6world.
Ep 2:13 1But now in Christ Jesus you who were once 2afar off have become 3near in the 4bblood of Christ.
Ep 2:14 For He Himself is 1our 2apeace, He who has made 3both bone and has broken down the middle 4wall of partition, the 5enmity,
Ep 2:15 1aAbolishing in His 2flesh the 3law of the commandments in 4ordinances, that He might 5create the two 6in Himself 7into 8one bnew man, so 9cmaking peace,
Ep 2:16 And might areconcile 1both in 2bone Body to 3God through the 4cross, having 5slain the enmity 6by it.
Ep 2:17 And 1coming, He aannounced peace as the bgospel to you who were 2cfar off, and peace to those who were 3dnear,
Ep 2:18 For 1through Him we both have 2aaccess 3in bone Spirit unto the 4cFather.
Ep 2:19 So then 1you are no longer 2astrangers and sojourners, but you are 3bfellow citizens with the saints and 4members of the chousehold of God,
Ep 2:20 Being 1abuilt upon the 2bfoundation of the capostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the 3dcornerstone;
Ep 2:21 In 1whom 2all the building, being 3afitted together, is 4bgrowing into a holy 5ctemple 6in the Lord;
Ep 2:22 In whom 1you 2also are being built together into a 3adwelling place of God bin 4spirit.
EPHESIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

D. The Stewardship of the Grace and the Revelation of the Mystery concerning the Church
3:1-13
1. The Stewardship
vv. 1-2, 7-8, 13
Ep 3:1 1For this cause I Paul, the 2aprisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you, the Gentiles —
Ep 3:2 1If indeed you have heard of the 2astewardship of the 3bgrace of God which was given to me for you,
2. The Revelation of the Mystery
vv. 3-6, 9-12
Ep 3:3 That by 1arevelation the bmystery was cmade known to me, as I have dwritten previously in brief,
Ep 3:4 By which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the 1amystery of Christ,
Ep 3:5 Which in other generations was 1anot made known to the sons of men, as it has now been brevealed to His holy 2capostles and 2prophets in 3spirit,
Ep 3:6 That in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are 1afellow heirs and 2bfellow members of the Body and 3cfellow partakers of the dpromise through the gospel,
Ep 3:7 Of which I became a 1aminister according to the 2bgift of the cgrace of God which was given to me according to the doperation of His 3power.
Ep 3:8 To me, 1less than the aleast of all saints, was this bgrace given to announce to the cGentiles the 2unsearchable 3driches of Christ as the gospel
Ep 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the 1aeconomy of the 2bmystery is, which 3throughout the ages has been chidden in God, who created all things,
Ep 3:10 In order that now to the 1arulers and the authorities in the bheavenlies the multifarious 2cwisdom of God might be made known through the 3dchurch,
Ep 3:11 According to the 1eternal apurpose which He 2made in 3Christ Jesus our Lord,
Ep 3:12 In whom we have aboldness and 1baccess in confidence through 2cfaith in Him.
Ep 3:13 Therefore I ask you not to faint at my aafflictions for your sake, since they are your glory.
E. The Apostle’s Prayer for the Church regarding Experience
3:14-19
1. That the Saints May Be Strengthened into the Inner Man
vv. 14-16
Ep 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the 1aFather,
Ep 3:15 Of whom every 1family ain the heavens and on earth is 2named,
Ep 3:16 1That He would grant you, according to the 2ariches of His glory, to be 3bstrengthened with 4cpower through His 5Spirit 6into the dinner man,
2. That Christ May Make His Home in the Saints’ Hearts
v. 17a
Ep 3:17 That Christ may make His ahome in your 1hearts through 2faith,
3. That the Saints May Apprehend the Dimensions of Christ
vv. 17b-18
that you, being 3brooted and grounded in 4clove,
Ep 3:18 May be full of strength to 1apprehend with 2aall the saints what the 3breadth and length and height and depth are
4. That the Saints May Know the Love of Christ
v. 19a
Ep 3:19 And to know the 1knowledge-surpassing alove of Christ,
5. That the Saints May Be Filled unto the Fullness of God
v. 19b
that you may be bfilled 2unto all the 3cfullness of 4God.
F. The Apostle’s Praise to God for His Glory in the Church and in Christ
3:20-21
Ep 3:20 1But ato Him who is bable to do superabundantly above all that we 2ask or think, according to the 3cpower which operates in us,
Ep 3:21 aTo Him be the 1glory in the 2bchurch 3and in 4Christ Jesus unto 5all the generations forever and ever. Amen.
EPHESIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • 

III. The Living and Responsibility Needed for the Church in the Holy Spirit
4:1 — 6:20
A. The Living and Responsibility Needed in the Body of Christ
4:1-16
1. The Keeping of the Oneness of the Spirit
vv. 1-6
Ep 4:1 I beseech you therefore, 1I, the 2aprisoner bin the Lord, to 3cwalk worthily of the dcalling with which you were ecalled,
Ep 4:2 With all 1alowliness and bmeekness, with clong-suffering, bearing one another in dlove,
Ep 4:3 Being diligent to 1keep the 2aoneness of the Spirit in the uniting 3bbond of cpeace:
Ep 4:4 1One aBody and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one 2bhope of your ccalling;
Ep 4:5 One 1aLord, one 2bfaith, one cbaptism;
Ep 4:6 One 1aGod and bFather of 2all, who is 3over all and through all and in all.
2. The Functioning of the Gifts and the Growth and Building Up of the Body of Christ
vv. 7-16
Ep 4:7 1But to each one of us 2agrace was given according to the 3bmeasure of the cgift of Christ.
Ep 4:8 Therefore the Scripture says, “Having aascended to the 1height, He led captive 2those taken captive and gave 3bgifts to men.”
Ep 4:9 (Now this, “He aascended,” what is it except that He also descended into the 1blower parts of the earth?
Ep 4:10 He who descended, He is also the One who ascended afar above all the heavens that He might 1bfill all things.)
Ep 4:11 And He Himself gave 1some as aapostles and some as bprophets and some as cevangelists and some as 2shepherds and dteachers,
Ep 4:12 For the 1aperfecting of the saints 2unto the work of the 3bministry, 2unto the 4cbuilding up of the dBody of Christ,
Ep 4:13 Until we all 1arrive at the 2aoneness of the bfaith and of the full cknowledge of the 3dSon of God, at a 4efull-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the 5ffullness of 3Christ,
Ep 4:14 That we may be no longer 1alittle children tossed by 2waves and carried about by every 3wind of bteaching in the 4sleight of men, in ccraftiness with a view to a 5system of error,
Ep 4:15 But 1holding to truth in 2alove, we may 3bgrow up into Him in all things, who is the 4cHead, Christ,
Ep 4:16 1Out from whom aall the Body, being 2bjoined together and being 2knit together through every 3cjoint of 4the rich supply 5and through the 6operation in the dmeasure of 7each one part, 8causes the 9egrowth of the Body unto the fbuilding up of itself in 10glove.
B. The Living Needed in the Daily Walk
4:17 — 5:21
1. Basic Principles
4:17-24
Ep 4:17 This therefore I say and 1testify ain the Lord, that you no longer 2bwalk as the cGentiles also dwalk in the 3evanity of their mind,
Ep 4:18 Being 1adarkened in their understanding, alienated from the 2blife of God because of the 3cignorance which is in them, because of the 4dhardness of their heart;
Ep 4:19 Who, 1abeing past feeling, have bgiven themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness in greediness.
Ep 4:20 But you did not so 1alearn Christ,
Ep 4:21 If indeed you have heard Him and have been ataught in Him as the 1breality is in Jesus,
Ep 4:22 1That you 2aput off, as regards your 3former manner of life, the 4bold man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of 5the deceit,
Ep 4:23 And that you be 1arenewed in the 2bspirit of your mind
Ep 4:24 And 1aput on the 2bnew man, which was ccreated according to 3God in 4drighteousness and 4eholiness of 5the freality.
2. The Details of This Living
4:25 — 5:21
Ep 4:25 1Therefore having aput off the 2blie, speak 2ctruth each one with his neighbor, for we are dmembers one of another.
Ep 4:26 Be 1aangry, yet do bnot sin; do not let the csun go down on your 2dindignation,
Ep 4:27 Neither 1give place to the adevil.
Ep 4:28 He who steals should 1asteal no more, but rather should 2blabor, working with his own chands in 3that which is respectable, that he may have something to 2dshare with him who has need.
Ep 4:29 Let no 1acorrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for 2bbuilding up, according to the need, that it may give 3cgrace to those who hear.
Ep 4:30 And do not 1agrieve the Holy 2Spirit of God, 3in whom you were 4bsealed 5unto the day of 6credemption.
Ep 4:31 Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and clamor and evil speaking be aremoved from you, with all malice.
Ep 4:32 And be akind to one another, 1btenderhearted, 2cforgiving one another, even as 3God in Christ also 4forgave you.
EPHESIANS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • 

Ep 5:1 Be therefore 1aimitators of God, as beloved children;
Ep 5:2 And awalk in 1blove, even as 2Christ also cloved 3us and gave Himself up for us, an 4offering and a 4dsacrifice to God for a 5esweet-smelling savor.
Ep 5:3 But 1afornication and all uncleanness or greediness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for 2saints,
Ep 5:4 And aobscenity and foolish talking or sly, filthy jesting, which are not becoming, but rather the 1bgiving of thanks.
Ep 5:5 For this you 1realize, 2knowing that every fornicator or unclean person or greedy person (who is an idolater) has no inheritance in the 3akingdom of Christ and of God.
Ep 5:6 Let no one deceive you with avain words, for because of these things the bwrath of God is coming upon the csons of disobedience.
Ep 5:7 Therefore do not be apartakers with them;
Ep 5:8 For you were aonce 1bdarkness but are now 1clight din the Lord; 2ewalk as 3fchildren of light
Ep 5:9 (For the afruit of the light consists in all 1goodness and brighteousness and ctruth),
Ep 5:10 aProving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
Ep 5:11 And do not aparticipate in the 1unfruitful bworks of darkness, but rather even 2creprove them.
Ep 5:12 For the things which are done by them in secret it is shameful even to speak of.
Ep 5:13 But all things which are 1areproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes bmanifest is light.
Ep 5:14 Therefore He says, aAwake, 1sleeper, and barise from the cdead, and 2Christ will dshine on you.
Ep 5:15 1Look therefore carefully how you awalk, not as unwise, but as bwise,
Ep 5:16 1aRedeeming the time, because the 2bdays are evil.
Ep 5:17 Therefore do not be foolish, but 1aunderstand what the bwill of the Lord is.
Ep 5:18 And do not be 1drunk with awine, in which is dissoluteness, but be 1bfilled in cspirit,
Ep 5:19 1Speaking to one another in 2apsalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord,
Ep 5:20 aGiving thanks 1at all times for all things 2in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father,
Ep 5:21 Being 1asubject to 2one another in the 3fear of Christ:
C. The Living Needed in Ethical Relationships
5:22 — 6:9
1. Between Wife and Husband
5:22-33
Ep 5:22 1aWives, be bsubject 2to your 3own husbands as to the Lord;
(A Type of the Church and Christ)
vv. 23-32
Ep 5:23 For a husband is 1ahead of the wife as also Christ is bHead of the church, He Himself being the 2Savior of the Body.
Ep 5:24 1But as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be subject to their husbands in 2everything.
Ep 5:25 Husbands, 1alove your wives even 2as Christ also bloved the church and gave Himself up for her
Ep 5:26 That He might 1asanctify her, cleansing her by the 2bwashing of the 3water in the 4cword,
Ep 5:27 That He might 1apresent the 2bchurch to Himself 3glorious, not having 4spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be 5choly and dwithout blemish.
Ep 5:28 In the same way the husbands also ought to alove their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his own wife loves himself.
Ep 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but 1anourishes and bcherishes it, even as Christ also the church,
Ep 5:30 Because we are amembers of His bBody.
Ep 5:31 aFor this cause a man shall 1leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be 2bone flesh.
Ep 5:32 This amystery is great, but I speak with regard to 1Christ band the church.
Ep 5:33 Nevertheless you also, each one of you, in the same way alove 1your own wife as yourself; and the wife should 2bfear her husband.
EPHESIANS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

2. Between Children and Parents
6:1-4
Ep 6:1 1aChildren, obey your parents 2bin the Lord, for this is 3right.
Ep 6:2 1a“Honor your father and mother,” which is the 2first commandment with a promise,
Ep 6:3 a“That it may be 1well with you and that you may 1live long on the earth.”
Ep 6:4 And fathers, do not 1provoke your children to anger, but anurture them in the discipline and 2admonition of the Lord.
3. Between Slaves and Masters
6:5-9
Ep 6:5 1aSlaves, 2be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with 3bfear and trembling, in 4csingleness of your heart, 5das to Christ;
Ep 6:6 Not with eye-service as amen-pleasers but 1as bslaves of Christ, doing the cwill of God 2from the dsoul;
Ep 6:7 With good will aserving as slaves, 1bas serving the Lord and not men;
Ep 6:8 Knowing that whatever good thing each one does, 1this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a aslave or a free man.
Ep 6:9 And masters, do the same things toward them, 1agiving up your threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in the heavens, and there is bno respect of persons with Him.
D. The Warfare Required for Dealing with the Spiritual Enemy
6:10-20
Ep 6:10 1Finally, 2be 3aempowered 4bin the Lord and in the cmight of His strength.
Ep 6:11 1aPut on the 2whole barmor of God that you may be able to 3cstand against the 4dstratagems of the edevil,
Ep 6:12 For our wrestling is not against 1ablood and flesh but against 2the brulers, against the authorities, against the cworld-rulers of 3this ddarkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the 4eheavenlies.
Ep 6:13 Therefore 1take up the whole aarmor of God that you may be able to 2bwithstand in the 3cevil day, and having done all, to 4dstand.
Ep 6:14 Stand therefore, 1having 2agirded your loins with 3btruth and having 4put on the cbreastplate of drighteousness
Ep 6:15 And having 1shod your afeet with the 2firm foundation of the bgospel of cpeace;
Ep 6:16 Besides all these, having 1taken up the ashield of 2faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming 3darts of the bevil one.
Ep 6:17 And receive the 1ahelmet of salvation and the 2bsword of the Spirit, 3which Spirit is the 4cword of God,
Ep 6:18 1By means of all 2aprayer and petition, praying at bevery time in 3cspirit and 4dwatching unto this in 5all perseverance and 6petition concerning all the saints,
Ep 6:19 And afor me, that 1utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known in bboldness the 2cmystery of the gospel,
Ep 6:20 For which I am an 1aambassador in a 2bchain, that in it I would speak cboldly, as I dought to speak.
IV. Conclusion
6:21-24
A. Recommendation
vv. 21-22
Ep 6:21 But athat you also may know the things concerning me, how I am doing, bTychicus, the beloved brother and faithful 1minister cin the Lord, will 2make all things known to you.
Ep 6:22 Him I have sent to you for this very thing, that you may know the things concerning us and that he may acomfort your hearts.
B. Blessing
vv. 23-24
Ep 6:23 1aPeace to the brothers and 2blove with faith 3from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ep 6:24 1aGrace be with all those who 2blove our Lord Jesus Christ in 3cincorruptibility.
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4  
Outline

Author: Paul with Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 64, perhaps after Ephesians was written (cf. 1:25; 2:24).
Place of Writing: Rome, where Paul was imprisoned (1:13; Acts 28:30).
Recipients: The saints in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons (1:1).
Subject:
Experiencing Christ — Taking Christ as Our Living, Pattern, Goal, Power, and Secret
PHILIPPIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

I. Introduction
1:1-2
Pp 1:1 Paul and Timothy, aslaves of Christ Jesus, to all the bsaints in Christ Jesus who are in 1cPhilippi, 2with the 3doverseers and 4edeacons:
Pp 1:2 1aGrace to you and 2peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. Living Christ to Magnify Him
1:3-30
A. Fellowship for the Furtherance of the Gospel
vv. 3-18
Pp 1:3 I athank my God upon all my remembrance of you,
Pp 1:4 Always in my every apetition on behalf of you all, making my apetition with bjoy,
Pp 1:5 For your 1afellowship unto the furtherance of the 2bgospel from the first day until now,
Pp 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the aday of Christ Jesus;
Pp 1:7 Even as it is right for me to think this concerning you all because you have me in your heart, since both in my abonds and in the 1bdefense and confirmation of the gospel you are all 2fellow partakers 3with me of grace.
Pp 1:8 For God is my awitness how I blong after you all in the 1cinward parts of Christ Jesus.
Pp 1:9 And this I pray, that your alove may abound yet more and more in 1bfull knowledge and all 2discernment,
Pp 1:10 So that you may aapprove by testing the things which differ and are more excellent, that you may be 1pure and 2without offense unto the bday of Christ,
Pp 1:11 Being filled with the 1afruit of righteousness, which is bthrough Jesus Christ, to the cglory and praise of God.
Pp 1:12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that the things concerning me have turned out rather to the 1advancement of the agospel,
Pp 1:13 So that my abonds have become manifest as being 1in Christ among the whole 2Praetorian guard and to all the rest.
Pp 1:14 And most of the brothers, being confident in the Lord because of my bonds, are more exceedingly bold to speak the word of God without fear.
Pp 1:15 1Some preach Christ even because of aenvy and 2strife, and 3some also because of good will,
Pp 1:16 These out of love, knowing that I am set for the adefense of the gospel.
Pp 1:17 But the others announce Christ out of 1selfish ambition, not purely, thinking to raise up 2affliction in my abonds.
Pp 1:18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truthfulness, Christ is announced; and in this I 1arejoice; yes, and I will rejoice;
B. Magnifying Christ by Living Him
vv. 19-26
Pp 1:19 For I know that for me this will turn out to 1asalvation through 2your bpetition and the 3bountiful csupply of the 4dSpirit of Jesus Christ,
Pp 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to ashame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be 1magnified bin my body, whether through life or through cdeath.
Pp 1:21 For to me, to 1alive is Christ and to die is 2gain.
Pp 1:22 But if I am to live in the flesh, if this to me is afruit for my work, then I do not know what I will choose.
Pp 1:23 But I am constrained between the two, having the desire to adepart and be 1with Christ, for this is far better;
Pp 1:24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for 1your sake.
Pp 1:25 And being confident of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your 1progress and ajoy of 2the bfaith,
Pp 1:26 That your 1boast may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my coming again to you.
C. Striving along with the Gospel with One Soul
vv. 27-30
Pp 1:27 Only, conduct yourselves in a manner aworthy of the bgospel of Christ, that whether coming and seeing you or being absent, I may hear of the things concerning you, that you cstand firm in one spirit, with 1done soul 2estriving together along with 3the faith of the gospel,
Pp 1:28 And in nothing being frightened by the opposers, which is to them a aproof of their 1bdestruction, but of your 2salvation, and that from God;
Pp 1:29 Because to you it has been graciously granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe 1into Him but also to 2asuffer on His behalf,
Pp 1:30 Having the same astruggle which you saw in 1me and now hear to be in me.
PHILIPPIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 

III. Taking Christ as the Pattern and Holding Him Forth
2:1-30
A. Joined in Soul, Thinking the One Thing
vv. 1-4
Pp 2:1 1If there is therefore any encouragement in Christ, if any 2aconsolation of love, if any bfellowship of spirit, if any 3ctenderheartedness and dcompassions,
Pp 2:2 1Make my 2ajoy full, that you 3bthink the same thing, having the 4same love, 5cjoined in soul, 3thinking 6the one thing,
Pp 2:3 1Doing nothing by way of 2aselfish ambition nor by way of bvainglory, but in 3clowliness of 4mind considering one another more excellent than yourselves;
Pp 2:4 Not regarding each his own 1virtues, but each the 1virtues of others also.
B. Taking Christ as the Pattern
vv. 5-11
Pp 2:5 1Let athis mind be in you, which was also in 2Christ Jesus,
Pp 2:6 Who, 1aexisting in the 2bform of God, did 3not consider being cequal with God a treasure to be grasped,
Pp 2:7 But 1aemptied Himself, taking the 2form of a bslave, 3cbecoming in the 4likeness of men;
Pp 2:8 And 1being found in 2fashion as a man, He 3humbled Himself, becoming aobedient even unto death, and that the 4death of a bcross.
Pp 2:9 Therefore also God highly 1aexalted Him and 2bestowed on Him the 3name which is babove every name,
Pp 2:10 That 1in the name of Jesus aevery knee should 2bow, of those who are 3in bheaven and 4on earth and 5under the earth,
Pp 2:11 And every tongue should 1openly confess that Jesus Christ is 2aLord 3to the bglory of God the Father.
C. Working Out Our Salvation to Hold Forth Christ
vv. 12-16
Pp 2:12 1So then, my beloved, even as you have always 2obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, 3work out your own 4asalvation with 5bfear and trembling;
Pp 2:13 1For it is 2God who 3aoperates in you both the 4willing and the 5working for His 6bgood pleasure.
Pp 2:14 Do all things without 1amurmurings and breasonings
Pp 2:15 That you may be ablameless and 1guileless, 2children of God 3bwithout blemish in the midst of a ccrooked and 4perverted generation, among whom you shine as 5dluminaries in the 6world,
Pp 2:16 1Holding forth the 2aword of life, so that I may have a 3bboast in the 4cday of Christ that I did not drun in vain nor elabor in vain.
D. A Drink Offering upon the Sacrifice of Faith
vv. 17-18
Pp 2:17 But even if I am being apoured out as a 1bdrink offering upon the 2csacrifice and 3service of your 4faith, I 5drejoice, and I 6rejoice together with you all.
Pp 2:18 And in like manner you also rejoice, and you 1rejoice together with me.
E. The Apostle’s Concern for the Believers
vv. 19-30
Pp 2:19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send aTimothy to you shortly, that I also may be 1encouraged by knowing the things concerning you.
Pp 2:20 For I have no one 1alike-souled who will genuinely care for what concerns you;
Pp 2:21 For all aseek their own things, not the things of 1Christ Jesus.
Pp 2:22 But you know his 1approvedness, that as a achild with a father he has 2bserved with me unto the cgospel.
Pp 2:23 Him therefore I hope to send immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me.
Pp 2:24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will acome shortly.
Pp 2:25 But I considered it necessary to send to you aEpaphroditus, my 1brother and bfellow worker and cfellow soldier, and your 2dapostle and 3minister to my eneed,
Pp 2:26 Since he alonged after you all and was greatly distressed because you heard that he had become sick;
Pp 2:27 For indeed he had become asick, near to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.
Pp 2:28 I have sent him therefore the more eagerly, so that when you see him again, you may arejoice and I may be less sorrowful.
Pp 2:29 aReceive him therefore in the Lord with all bjoy, and chold such in honor,
Pp 2:30 Because for the work of Christ he drew near unto death, 1arisking his 2life, that he might bfill up your lack of 3service toward me.
PHILIPPIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

IV. Pursuing Christ to Gain Him
3:1-21
A. Serving by the Spirit and Not Trusting in the Flesh
vv. 1-6
Pp 3:1 Finally, my brothers, arejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, for me it is not 1irksome, but for you it is 2safe.
Pp 3:2 1Beware of the 2adogs, beware of the 2evil bworkers, beware of the 2cconcision.
Pp 3:3 For we are the 1acircumcision, the ones who 2serve by the Spirit of God and bboast in Christ Jesus and 3have no confidence in the 4cflesh,
Pp 3:4 Though I myself have something to be confident of in the aflesh as well. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I more:
Pp 3:5 Circumcised the 1aeighth day; of the 2brace of Israel, of the 3tribe of Benjamin, a 4cHebrew born of Hebrews; as to the 5dlaw, a 6ePharisee;
Pp 3:6 As to 1azeal, bpersecuting the church; as to the crighteousness which is in the law, become 2dblameless.
B. Counting All Things Loss on Account of Christ
vv. 7-11
Pp 3:7 1But what 2things were gains to me, these I have counted as 3loss 4on account of Christ.
Pp 3:8 1But moreover I 2also count aall things to be loss on account of the 3excellency of the bknowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, 4on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as 5refuse that I may 6cgain Christ
Pp 3:9 And be 1found in Him, 2not having my own arighteousness which is 3out of the law, but that which is through 4bfaith in Christ, the 5crighteousness which is out of God and 6based on faith,
Pp 3:10 To 1aknow Him and the 2bpower of His resurrection and the 3cfellowship of His sufferings, being 4dconformed to His death,
Pp 3:11 If perhaps I may 1attain to the 2aout-bresurrection from the dead.
C. Gaining Christ by Pursuing Him
vv. 12-16
Pp 3:12 1Not that I 2have already aobtained or 3am already 4bperfected, but I 5cpursue, if even I may 6lay hold of 7that for which dI also have been 8laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Pp 3:13 Brothers, I do 1not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: 2Forgetting the things which are abehind and 3stretching forward to the things which are before,
Pp 3:14 I 1apursue toward the 2goal for the 3bprize to which God in Christ Jesus has 4ccalled me upward.
Pp 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are 1afull-grown, have 2bthis mind; and if in anything you are cotherwise minded, this also God will 3dreveal to you.
Pp 3:16 1Nevertheless 2whereunto we have attained, by the 3same rule let us 4awalk.
D. Awaiting Christ for the Transfiguration of the Body
vv. 17-21
Pp 3:17 Be aimitators together of me, brothers, and observe those who thus walk even as you have us as a bpattern.
Pp 3:18 For 1many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even aweeping, that they are the enemies of the 2bcross of Christ,
Pp 3:19 1Whose end is adestruction, whose god is their bstomach, and whose glory is in their cshame, who dset their minds on 2earthly things.
Pp 3:20 For our 1acommonwealth exists in the 2bheavens, from which also we eagerly cawait a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Pp 3:21 Who will 1atransfigure the 2bbody of our humiliation to be cconformed to the 3body of His dglory, 4according to His operation by which He is able even to esubject all things to Himself.
PHILIPPIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

V. Having Christ as the Secret of Sufficiency
4:1-20
A. Thinking the Same Thing and Rejoicing in the Lord
vv. 1-4
Pp 4:1 So then, my brothers, beloved and alonged for, my 1bjoy and ccrown, 2in the same way dstand firm in the Lord, beloved.
Pp 4:2 I exhort Euodias, and I exhort Syntyche, to 1athink the same thing in the Lord.
Pp 4:3 Yes, I ask you also, genuine 1yokefellow, 2assist them, since they 3contended with me in the gospel, as well as with Clement and the rest of my afellow workers, whose bnames are in the 4cbook of life.
Pp 4:4 1aRejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
B. Excellent Characteristics in Living
vv. 5-9
Pp 4:5 1Let your 2forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is 3anear.
Pp 4:6 In nothing 1be aanxious, but in everything, by 2bprayer and petition 3with cthanksgiving, let your requests be made known 4to God;
Pp 4:7 And the 1apeace of God, which bsurpasses every man’s understanding, will 2cguard your 3hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
Pp 4:8 Finally, brothers, what things are 1true, what things are 2dignified, what things are 3righteous, what things are 4apure, what things are 5lovely, what things are 6bwell spoken of, if there is any 7cvirtue and if any 8praise, 9take account of these things.
Pp 4:9 The things which you have also learned and 1areceived and heard and 2seen in me, 3practice these things; and the 4bGod of peace will be with you.
C. The Believers’ Fellowship with the Apostle and the Apostle’s Secret of Sufficiency
vv. 10-20
Pp 4:10 But I arejoiced in the Lord greatly because now at length you have caused your thinking for me to 1blossom anew; for which matter you had indeed taken thought, but lacked opportunity.
Pp 4:11 Not that I speak according to alack, for I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be 1bcontent.
Pp 4:12 I know also how to be 1abased, and I know how to 2abound; 3in everything and in all things 4I have learned the secret both to be 5filled and to ahunger, both to 6abound and to 7black.
Pp 4:13 I am able to do all things 1in Him who 2aempowers me.
Pp 4:14 Nevertheless you did well to have 1afellowship with me in my 2affliction.
Pp 4:15 And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that in the beginning of the agospel, when I bwent out from cMacedonia, no church had 1fellowship with me in the 2daccount of 3giving and receiving except 4you only;
Pp 4:16 For even in aThessalonica you sent both once and again to my bneed.
Pp 4:17 Not that I seek the 1gift, but I seek the 2afruit which increases to your 3baccount.
Pp 4:18 But I have received in full all things and abound; I have been 1filled, receiving from aEpaphroditus the 2things from you, a 3sweet-smelling savor, an acceptable 4bsacrifice, well pleasing to God.
Pp 4:19 And 1my God will 2afill 3your every need 4according to His riches, 5in glory, 6in Christ Jesus.
Pp 4:20 Now to 1our God and Father be the 2aglory forever and ever. 3Amen.
VI. Conclusion
4:21-23
Pp 4:21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.
Pp 4:22 All the asaints greet you, and especially 1those of Caesar’s household.
Pp 4:23 The 1agrace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your 2bspirit.
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4  
Outline

Author: Paul the apostle with Timothy the brother (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 64, when the Epistle to Philemon was written (4:9; Philem. 10-12).
Place of Writing: Rome, where Paul was imprisoned (4:3, 10, 18).
Recipients: The saints in Colossae (1:2).
Subject:
Christ — The All-inclusive One, Having the First Place in All Things as the Mystery and Embodiment of God, as the Head and Constituent of the Church, as the Allotted Portion, Life, Constituent, and Hope of the Saints, and as the Body of All Positive Things
COLOSSIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

I. Introduction
1:1-8
A. The Apostle’s Greeting
vv. 1-2
Co 1:1 1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the 2awill of God, and bTimothy the brother,
Co 1:2 To the 1asaints in Colossae and faithful brothers in Christ: bGrace to you and peace from God our cFather.
B. The Apostle’s Thanksgiving
vv. 3-8
Co 1:3 We give thanks to God, the 1Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always concerning you,
Co 1:4 Because we have heard of your 1afaith in Christ Jesus and the 1blove which you have unto all the saints
Co 1:5 Because of the 1ahope 2laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the bword of the 3truth of the gospel,
Co 1:6 Which has come to you, even as it is also in all the world, bearing fruit and growing, as also in you, since the day you heard and knew the 1agrace of God in 2btruth;
Co 1:7 Even as you learned from aEpaphras, our beloved fellow slave, who is a faithful 1bminister of Christ on your behalf,
Co 1:8 Who also has made known to us your alove in the Spirit.
II. The Preeminent and All-inclusive One, the Centrality and Universality of God
1:9 — 3:11
A. The Portion of the Saints
1:9-14
Co 1:9 Therefore we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease apraying and asking on your behalf that you may be filled with the full knowledge of 1His bwill in all 2spiritual cwisdom and understanding,
Co 1:10 To 1walk worthily of the Lord to please Him 2in all things, 3bearing fruit in every good work and growing by the full 4knowledge of God,
Co 1:11 Being aempowered with all 1power, according to the 2bmight of His glory, unto all endurance and long-suffering with joy,
Co 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has 1qualified you for a share of the 2allotted aportion of the saints in the 3blight;
Co 1:13 Who 1delivered us out of the authority of 2adarkness and transferred us into the bkingdom of the 3cSon of His love,
Co 1:14 In whom we have 1aredemption, the 2bforgiveness of sins;
B. The Image of God and the Firstborn Both in Creation and in Resurrection
1:15-23
Co 1:15 Who is the 1aimage of the binvisible God, the 2cFirstborn of all creation,
Co 1:16 Because 1in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether 2thrones or 3alordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created 4bthrough Him and 5unto Him.
Co 1:17 And He is 1before all things, and all things 2acohere in Him;
Co 1:18 And He is the aHead of the bBody, the church; He is the cbeginning, the 1dFirstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things;
Co 1:19 For in Him 1all the 2afullness was pleased to dwell
Co 1:20 And 1through Him to areconcile 2ball things to 3Himself, 4chaving made peace through the dblood of His cross — 1through Him, whether the ethings on the earth or the things in the 5heavens.
Co 1:21 And you, though once aalienated and 1benemies in your 2cmind because of your evil works,
Co 1:22 1He now has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you aholy and without blemish and without reproach before 1Him;
Co 1:23 If indeed you continue in the 1faith, agrounded and steadfast and not being moved away from the 2bhope of the gospel, which you heard, which was proclaimed in call creation under heaven, of which I Paul became a dminister.
C. The Mystery of God’s Economy
1:24-29
Co 1:24 I now arejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and 1fill up on my part that which is lacking of the bafflictions of Christ in my flesh for His cBody, which is the church;
Co 1:25 Of 1which I became a 2aminister according to the 3bstewardship of God, which was given to me for you, to 4complete the cword of God,
Co 1:26 The 1amystery which has been hidden 2from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints;
Co 1:27 To whom God willed to make known what are the 1ariches of the glory of this bmystery among the Gentiles, 2which is 3cChrist 4in you, the dhope of 5eglory,
Co 1:28 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man 1afull-grown 2in Christ;
Co 1:29 For which also I labor, 1astruggling according to His boperation which operates in me in 2power.
COLOSSIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • 

D. The Mystery of God
2:1-7
Co 2:1 For I want you to know how great a astruggle I have for you and for those in bLaodicea, even all who have not seen my face in the flesh,
Co 2:2 That their hearts may be 1acomforted, they being knit together in 2love and unto all the 3riches of the 4bfull assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of the 5cmystery of God, Christ,
Co 2:3 In whom all the treasures of 1awisdom and knowledge are hidden.
Co 2:4 This I say that no one may 1delude you with 2apersuasive speech.
Co 2:5 For even though I am absent in the flesh, yet in the 1aspirit I am with you, rejoicing and seeing your order and the solid basis of your faith 2in Christ.
Co 2:6 As therefore you have 1areceived the Christ, Jesus the Lord, 2bwalk in Him,
Co 2:7 Having been 1arooted and being bbuilt up in Him, and being established 2in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
E. The Body of All the Shadows
2:8-23
Co 2:8 Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his 1philosophy and aempty deceit, according to the 2btradition of men, according to the 3celements of the world, and not according to 4dChrist;
Co 2:9 For in Him dwells all the 1afullness of the 2Godhead 3bodily,
Co 2:10 And you have been made 1full in Him, who is the aHead of all 2rule and authority.
Co 2:11 In Him also you were acircumcised with a 1circumcision 2not bmade with hands, in the 3putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
Co 2:12 1aBuried together with Him in baptism, in which also you were 2braised together with Him through the 3faith of the operation of God, who craised Him from the dead.
Co 2:13 And you, though 1adead in your offenses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He 2bmade alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our offenses;
Co 2:14 1aWiping out the 2handwriting in 3ordinances, which was against us, which was contrary to us; and He has taken it out of the way, 4nailing it to the cross.
Co 2:15 1Stripping off the 2arulers and the authorities, 3He made a 4display of them openly, triumphing over them in 5it.
Co 2:16 Let no one therefore judge you 1in aeating and in drinking or in respect of a 2bfeast or of a 3cnew moon or of the 4dSabbath,
Co 2:17 Which are a 1ashadow of the things to come, but the 2body is of 3bChrist.
Co 2:18 Let no one 1defraud you by judging you unworthy of your aprize, in bself-chosen 2lowliness and the worship of the angels, 3dwelling on the things which he has 4seen, vainly cpuffed up by 5his mind set on the flesh,
Co 2:19 And 1not aholding the Head, 2bout from whom all the 3Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the 4joints and 5sinews, 6grows with the 7growth of God.
Co 2:20 1If you 2adied with Christ from the 3belements of the world, why, as living in the world, do you subject yourselves to cordinances:
Co 2:21 1Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch,
Co 2:22 (Regarding things which are all to 1aperish when 2used) according to the bcommandments and teachings of men?
Co 2:23 1Such things indeed have a 2reputation of wisdom in self-imposed aworship and lowliness and 3bsevere treatment of the body, but are 4not of any value against the cindulgence of the flesh.
COLOSSIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

F. The Life of the Saints
3:1-4
Co 3:1 1If therefore you were 2araised together with Christ, seek the things which are 3above, where Christ is, sitting at the bright hand of God.
Co 3:2 Set your amind on the things which are above, not on the 1things which are on the earth.
Co 3:3 For you 1adied, and your 2life is 3hidden with Christ in God.
Co 3:4 When 1Christ our 2alife is bmanifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in cglory.
G. The Constituents of the New Man
3:5-11
Co 3:5 1aPut to death therefore your 2bmembers which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and cgreediness, which is idolatry;
Co 3:6 Because of which things the awrath of God is coming upon the bsons of disobedience;
Co 3:7 In which you also once walked, when you lived in these things.
Co 3:8 But now, you also, put away all these things: wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, afoul abusive language out of your mouth.
Co 3:9 Do not alie to one another, since you have 1bput off the 2cold man with his practices
Co 3:10 And have 1aput on the 2bnew man, which is being 3crenewed unto full knowledge according to the 4dimage of Him 5who ecreated him,
Co 3:11 1Where there 2cannot be 3Greek and aJew, 4bcircumcision and uncircumcision, 5cbarbarian, 6Scythian, 7slave, 8free man, but 9dChrist is 10all and in 10all.
III. A Living in Union with Christ
3:12 — 4:6
A. The Arbitrating Peace of Christ
3:12-15
Co 3:12 1Put on therefore, as God’s achosen ones, 2holy and beloved, binward parts of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering;
Co 3:13 Bearing one another and aforgiving 1one another, if anyone should have a complaint against anyone; even as the 2Lord forgave you, so also should you forgive.
Co 3:14 And over all these things put on 1alove, which is the uniting bond of 2perfectness.
Co 3:15 And let the 1apeace of Christ 2arbitrate in your hearts, to 3which 4also you were called in bone Body; and be 5cthankful.
B. The Indwelling Word of Christ
3:16-17
Co 3:16 Let the 1aword of Christ 2bdwell in you 3richly 4in all wisdom, 5teaching and admonishing 6one another with 7cpsalms and hymns and dspiritual songs, 5singing with 8grace in your hearts to God.
Co 3:17 And whatever you do in word or in deed, do all things in the 1name of the Lord Jesus, giving athanks to God the Father through Him.
C. The Expression of Christ in Ethical Relationships
3:18 — 4:1
Co 3:18 1aWives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Co 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter against them.
Co 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing in the Lord.
Co 3:21 Fathers, do not vex your children, that they may not be disheartened.
Co 3:22 Slaves, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart fearing the Lord.
Co 3:23 Whatever you do, work from the soul as to the Lord and not to men,
Co 3:24 Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the 1inheritance as arecompense. You 2serve the Lord Christ.
Co 3:25 For he who does unrighteously will areceive what he unrighteously did, and there is no brespect of persons.
COLOSSIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

Co 4:1 Masters, grant to your slaves that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
D. Praying with Perseverance and Walking in Wisdom
4:2-6
Co 4:2 1aPersevere in 2prayer, 3watching in it with thanksgiving,
Co 4:3 Praying at the same time for aus also, that God would open to us a 1door for the word, to speak the bmystery of Christ (because of which also I am cbound),
Co 4:4 That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.
Co 4:5 Walk in awisdom toward those who are bwithout, 1credeeming the time.
Co 4:6 Let your speech be always with 1agrace, seasoned with 2bsalt, that you may know how you ought to canswer each one.
IV. Conclusion
4:7-18
A. The Apostle’s Fellowship
vv. 7-17
Co 4:7 1All the things concerning me, aTychicus, the beloved brother and faithful bminister and fellow slave in the Lord, will make known to you,
Co 4:8 Whom I have sent to you for this very thing, that you might know the things concerning us and that he might acomfort your hearts;
Co 4:9 With aOnesimus, the faithful and beloved bbrother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all the things here.
Co 4:10 aAristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, as well as bMark, the cousin of cBarnabas, (concerning whom you received commandments, If he comes to you, receive him),
Co 4:11 And Jesus, who is called aJustus; these alone of the bcircumcision are my fellow workers for the ckingdom of God, ones who have become a dconsolation to me.
Co 4:12 aEpaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you, always bstruggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may 1stand 2cmature and dfully assured in all the 3ewill of God.
Co 4:13 For I testify of him that he labors much for you and for those in aLaodicea and for those in Hierapolis.
Co 4:14 aLuke, the beloved physician, greets you, as well as bDemas.
Co 4:15 Greet the brothers in aLaodicea, as well as Nymphas and the 1church, which is in 2his bhouse.
Co 4:16 And when this letter is aread among you, cause that it be read in the church of the bLaodiceans also, and that you also read the one from Laodicea.
Co 4:17 And say to aArchippus, Take heed to the bministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfill it.
B. The Apostle’s Greeting
v. 18
Co 4:18 The greeting in amy own hand — Paul. bRemember my cbonds. dGrace be with you.
< Colossians Outline • 1 Thessalonians Outline >
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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   
Outline

Author: Paul with Silvanus and Timothy (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 54, during Paul’s second ministry journey, while he remained in Corinth (1:1; 3:6; Acts 18:1, 5).
Place of Writing: Corinth; see verses in the previous item.
Recipients: The church of the Thessalonians (1:1).
Subject:
A Holy Life for the Church Life — Serving the Living God, Conducting Ourselves in a Holy Manner, and Waiting for the Lord’s Coming
1 THESSALONIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

I. Introduction
1:1
1Th 1:1 Paul and aSilvanus and bTimothy to the 1cchurch of the 2Thessalonians in 3God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: dGrace to you and peace.
II. The Content — A Holy Life for the Church
1:2 — 5:24
A. Its Structure
1:2-3
1Th 1:2 We athank God always concerning all of you, making bmention of you in our prayers,
1Th 1:3 Remembering unceasingly your 1work of 2afaith and 3labor of blove and 4endurance of chope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father;
B. Its Origination
1:4-10
1Th 1:4 Knowing, brothers, abeloved of God, your 1bselection;
1Th 1:5 For our agospel did not come to you in word only, but also in bpower and in the cHoly Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know 1dwhat kind of men we were among you for your sake.
1Th 1:6 And you became 1aimitators of us and of the Lord, having received the 2word in much affliction with bjoy of the cHoly Spirit,
1Th 1:7 So that you became a 1apattern to all those who believe in bMacedonia and in cAchaia.
1Th 1:8 For from you the word of the Lord has sounded out; not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place, your 1afaith toward God has gone out, so that we have no need of saying anything.
1Th 1:9 For they themselves report concerning us 1what kind of entrance we had toward you and how you 2aturned to God from the bidols to 3cserve a 4dliving and etrue God
1Th 1:10 And 1aawait His Son from the bheavens, whom He craised from the dead, Jesus, who ddelivers us from the 2ewrath which is coming.
1 THESSALONIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

C. Its Fostering
2:1-20
1. The Care of a Nursing Mother and an Exhorting Father
vv. 1-12
1Th 2:1 For you yourselves know, brothers, our 1entrance toward you, that it has not been ain vain.
1Th 2:2 But having suffered previously and having been outrageously treated, even as you know, in 1aPhilippi, we were bbold 2in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much cstruggle.
1Th 2:3 For our aexhortation is not out of 1bdeception nor out of cuncleanness nor in dguile;
1Th 2:4 But even as we have been 1aapproved by God to be bentrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as cpleasing men but God, who dproves our hearts.
1Th 2:5 For neither were we found at any time with aflattering speech, even as you know, nor with a 1pretext for bcovetousness; God is cwitness.
1Th 2:6 Nor did we 1seek aglory from men, neither from you nor from others, though we could have 2stood on our authority as bapostles of Christ.
1Th 2:7 But we were agentle in your midst, as a 1bnursing mother would 2ccherish her own dchildren.
1Th 2:8 1aYearning in this way over you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also 2bour own souls, because you became beloved to us.
1Th 2:9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail: While aworking night and day so as not to be bburdensome to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
1Th 2:10 You are witnesses, as well as aGod, how in a 1holy and righteous and blameless manner we conducted ourselves toward you who believe,
1Th 2:11 Just as you know 1how we were to each one of you, as a 2afather to his own bchildren, 3cexhorting you and consoling you and testifying,
1Th 2:12 So that you might awalk in a manner worthy of God, who 1bcalls you into His own 2ckingdom and 3dglory.
2. The Reward of Such Care
vv. 13-20
1Th 2:13 And because of this we also athank God unceasingly that when you received 1the word of God, which you heard 2from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but even as it truly is, the word of God, which also 3operates in you who believe.
1Th 2:14 For you, brothers, became 1aimitators of the bchurches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they also from the Jews,
1Th 2:15 Who both akilled the Lord Jesus and the bprophets and cdrove us out; and they are not pleasing to God and are contrary to all men,
1Th 2:16 In that they forbid us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so that they afill up their sins always. But wrath has come upon them to the 1uttermost.
1Th 2:17 But we, brothers, having been 1bereaved of you for 2a little while, in presence, anot in heart, were more abundantly 3eager with great bdesire to see your face.
1Th 2:18 Therefore we wanted to come to you, indeed I Paul, both once and again, yet 1Satan ahindered us.
1Th 2:19 For what is our ahope or bjoy or crown of cboasting before our Lord Jesus at His 1dcoming? Are not even you?
1Th 2:20 For you are our 1glory and joy.
1 THESSALONIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

D. Its Establishing
3:1-13
1. Encouragement for Faith and Love
vv. 1-12
1Th 3:1 Therefore when we could abear it no longer, we thought it good to be left in 1bAthens alone,
1Th 3:2 And we sent aTimothy, our brother and 1God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to bestablish and 2encourage you for the sake of your cfaith,
1Th 3:3 That no one would be 1shaken by these aafflictions; for you yourselves know that we are 2bappointed for this.
1Th 3:4 For even when we were with you, we 1told you beforehand that we are to be afflicted, even as it also came to pass and you know.
1Th 3:5 Because of this, when I also could abear it no longer, I sent to find out concerning your bfaith, lest perhaps the 1ctempter had tempted you and our labor would be 2din vain.
1Th 3:6 But aTimothy, having just come 1to us from you and announcing the good news to us of your bfaith and love and that you have kind cremembrance of us always and dlong to see us, just as we also you,
1Th 3:7 Because of this we were 1acomforted because of you, brothers, in all our 2necessity and affliction, through your bfaith;
1Th 3:8 Because now we 1live if you 2astand firm in the Lord.
1Th 3:9 For what athanks can we return to God concerning you for all the joy with which we rejoice because of you before our God,
1Th 3:10 Night and day petitioning exceedingly so that we may asee your face and 1complete the things that are lacking in your bfaith?
1Th 3:11 Now may our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus 1amake straight our path to you;
1Th 3:12 And the Lord cause you to increase and aabound in 1blove to cone another and to all, just as we also to you,
2. Encouragement with Hope
v. 13
1Th 3:13 1So that He may aestablish your 2hearts bblameless in 3choliness before our God and Father at the 4dcoming of our Lord Jesus ewith all His 5saints.6
1 THESSALONIANS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

E. Its Exhortation
4:1-12
1. Sanctification versus Fornication
vv. 1-8
1Th 4:1 Furthermore, brothers, we ask and aexhort you in the Lord Jesus that even as you received from us how you ought to walk and bplease God, even as indeed you do walk, that you cabound still more.
1Th 4:2 For you know what acharges we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
1Th 4:3 For this is the awill of God, your 1bsanctification: that you cabstain from 2dfornication;
1Th 4:4 That each one of you know how to 1possess his aown 2vessel in 3sanctification and bhonor,
1Th 4:5 Not in the apassion of lust, like the bGentiles who do 1cnot know God;
1Th 4:6 That no one 1overstep and 2take advantage of his brother in 3the matter, because the Lord is the 4aavenger concerning all 5these things, even as we also said before to you and solemnly charged.
1Th 4:7 For God has not acalled us 1for 2buncleanness but 3in 4csanctification.
1Th 4:8 1Consequently, he who 2rejects, rejects not man but God, who also gives His 3aHoly Spirit to you.
2. Brotherly Love
vv. 9-10
1Th 4:9 Now concerning 1brotherly alove, you have no need for me to bwrite to you, for you yourselves are ctaught of God to 2dlove one another;
1Th 4:10 For you also do this unto all the brothers in the whole of aMacedonia. But we bexhort you, brothers, to cabound still more
3. A Becoming Walk
vv. 11-12
1Th 4:11 And to aspire to be aquiet and attend to your own affairs and work with your bhands, even as we ccharged you,
1Th 4:12 That you may walk abecomingly toward those boutside and may have cneed of nothing.
F. Its Hope
4:13-18
1. For the Dead Believers
vv. 13-14
1Th 4:13 But we do not want you to be aignorant, brothers, concerning those who are 1sleeping, that you would not grieve even as also the rest who have bno hope.
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and arose, so also bthose who have fallen asleep through Jesus, God will bring cwith Him.
2. For the Living and Remaining Believers
vv. 15-18
1Th 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are living, who are left remaining unto the 1acoming of the Lord, shall by no means precede those who have fallen asleep;
1Th 4:16 Because the Lord Himself, with a 1ashout of command, with the voice of the barchangel and with the 2ctrumpet of God, will descend from dheaven, and the edead in Christ will frise first.
1Th 4:17 Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be 1acaught up together bwith them in the cclouds to meet the Lord 2in the air; and thus we will be always with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Therefore comfort aone another with these words.
1 THESSALONIANS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

G. Its Watchfulness and Soberness
5:1-11
1. The Day of the Lord Coming like a Thief
vv. 1-3
1Th 5:1 But concerning the 1atimes and the seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything to be bwritten to you;
1Th 5:2 For you yourselves know perfectly well that 1like a athief in the bnight, so the 2cday of the Lord comes.
1Th 5:3 When they say, aPeace and security, then 1sudden bdestruction comes upon them, just as birth cpangs to a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape.
2. The Safeguard of Faith, Love, and Hope
vv. 4-11
1Th 5:4 But you, brothers, are not in adarkness that the day should overtake you like a thief;
1Th 5:5 For you are all sons of alight and sons of the bday. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6 So then let us not 1asleep, as the rest do, but let us 2bwatch and be csober.
1Th 5:7 For those who sleep, sleep during the anight, and those who get 1bdrunk are drunk during the night;
1Th 5:8 But since we are of the aday, let us be bsober, putting on the 1breastplate of cfaith and love and a 1dhelmet, the 2hope of 3salvation.
1Th 5:9 For God did 1not aappoint us to bwrath but to the obtaining of 2csalvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10 Who 1adied for us in order that whether we 2watch or 3sleep, we may blive together 4with Him.
1Th 5:11 Therefore comfort aone another, and bbuild up each one the other, even as you also do.
H. Its Cooperation
5:12-24
1. The Believers’ Cooperation — Living a Spiritual and Holy Life
vv. 12-22
1Th 5:12 Furthermore we ask you, brothers, to 1aacknowledge 2those who labor among you and 3take the blead among you in the Lord and admonish you,
1Th 5:13 And to 1aregard them most highly in blove because of their work. Be 2at cpeace among yourselves.
1Th 5:14 And we aexhort you, brothers, Admonish the 1bdisorderly, console the 2cfainthearted, sustain the 3dweak, be 4elong-suffering toward all.
1Th 5:15 See that no one repays anyone aevil for evil, but 1always pursue what is bgood both for cone another and for all.
1Th 5:16 1Always arejoice,
1Th 5:17 1Unceasingly apray,
1Th 5:18 1In everything give athanks; 2for this is the bwill of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1Th 5:19 Do 1not quench the aSpirit;
1Th 5:20 Do not 1despise 2prophecies,
1Th 5:21 But 1prove all things. Hold fast to what is agood;
1Th 5:22 aAbstain from every 1kind of evil.
2. God’s Operation — Sanctifying and Preserving the Believers
vv. 23-24
1Th 5:23 1And the 2God of apeace Himself 3bsanctify you 4wholly, and may your 5cspirit and dsoul and ebody be fpreserved 6complete, gwithout blame, 7at the 8hcoming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 5:24 aFaithful is He who bcalls you, who 1also will cdo it.
III. Conclusion
5:25-28
1Th 5:25 Brothers, apray also for us.
1Th 5:26 Greet all the brothers with a holy akiss.
1Th 5:27 I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter aread to all the 1brothers.
1Th 5:28 The 1agrace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS

Chapters
 1   2   3   
Outline

Author: Paul with Silvanus and Timothy (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 54, as with the first Epistle (1:1).
Place of Writing: Corinth.
Recipients: The church of the Thessalonians (1:1).
Subject:
Encouragement and Correction concerning the Holy Life for the Church Life
2 THESSALONIANS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • 

I. Introduction
1:1-2
2Th 1:1 aPaul and Silvanus and Timothy to the 1church of the 2Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The Content — Encouragement and Correction concerning the Holy Life for the Church
1:3 — 3:15
A. Encouragement — A Life Worthy of the Kingdom of God
1:3-12
2Th 1:3 We ought to athank God always concerning you, brothers, even as it is fitting, because your 1bfaith grows exceedingly and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing,
2Th 1:4 So that we ourselves aboast in you among the churches of God concerning your 1endurance and faith in all your bpersecutions and the afflictions which you bear,
2Th 1:5 A plain aindication of the 1righteous judgment of God, that you may be accounted bworthy of the 2ckingdom of God, for which also you suffer;
2Th 1:6 Since it is just with God to repay with affliction those afflicting you,
2Th 1:7 And to you who are being afflicted, 1rest with us at the arevelation of the Lord Jesus from bheaven with the cangels of His power, in flaming dfire,
2Th 1:8 Rendering vengeance to those who do anot know God and to those who do not bobey the gospel of our Lord Jesus 1Christ.
2Th 1:9 They will pay the penalty of eternal adestruction from the 1presence of the Lord and from the bglory of His strength
2Th 1:10 When He acomes to be 1bglorified in His saints and to be marveled at in all those who have believed (because our ctestimony to you was believed) in dthat day.
2Th 1:11 For which also we apray always concerning you, that our God may count you bworthy of your calling and may fulfill in cpower your every 1good intention for goodness and your dwork of faith,
2Th 1:12 So that the aname of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the 1grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 THESSALONIANS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

B. Correction — The Misconception concerning the Day of the Lord’s Coming
2:1-12
2Th 2:1 Now we ask you, brothers, 1with regard to the 2acoming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our bgathering together 3to Him,
2Th 2:2 That you be not quickly shaken 1in mind nor alarmed, neither by a 2aspirit nor by word nor by a letter as if by us, to the effect that the 3day of the Lord has come.
2Th 2:3 Let no one 1deceive you in any way, because it will not come unless the 2aapostasy comes first and the 3man of blawlessness is revealed, the cson of dperdition,
2Th 2:4 Who opposes and 1aexalts himself above all that is called bGod or an object of worship, so that he csits in the 2dtemple of God, setting himself forth, saying that ehe is God.
2Th 2:5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I said these things to you?
2Th 2:6 And now you know that which 1restrains, so that he might be revealed in his own 2time.
2Th 2:7 For it is the 1mystery of alawlessness that is now operating, but only until the one now restraining 2goes out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then the alawless one will be revealed (whom the Lord Jesus will 1slay by the 2bbreath of His cmouth and dbring to nothing by the 3manifestation of His 4ecoming),
2Th 2:9 The coming of whom is 1according to Satan’s operation in all apower and bsigns and wonders of a 2lie
2Th 2:10 And in all deceit of unrighteousness among those who are aperishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And 1because of this God asends to them an operation of error that they might believe the blie,
2Th 2:12 So that all who have not believed the atruth but have taken 1pleasure in unrighteousness might be judged.
C. Further Encouragement
2:13 — 3:5
2Th 2:13 But we ought to athank God always concerning you, brothers bbeloved of the Lord, because God 1cchose you 2from the dbeginning unto esalvation in 3fsanctification of the Spirit and 4belief of the gtruth,
2Th 2:14 To 1which also He acalled you through our bgospel unto the obtaining of the 2cglory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th 2:15 So then, brothers, astand firm and hold to the 1bthings which were handed down to you and which you were taught, whether by word or by our letter.
2Th 2:16 Now our 1Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has aloved us and given us 2eternal comfort and 3good bhope in 4grace,
2Th 2:17 Comfort your hearts and aestablish you in every good work and word.
2 THESSALONIANS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

2Th 3:1 Finally, brothers, apray concerning us, that the word of the Lord may brun and be 1glorified, even as it is also 2with you;
2Th 3:2 And that we may be adelivered from unreasonable and evil men, for the bfaith does not belong to all.
2Th 3:3 But the Lord is afaithful, who will 1bestablish you and 2guard you from the cevil one.
2Th 3:4 And we have aconfidence in the Lord concerning you that what we 1bcharge, you both are doing and will do.
2Th 3:5 And the Lord 1adirect your bhearts 2into the 3clove of God and 4into the 5endurance of Christ.
D. Correction concerning Those Walking Disorderly
3:6-15
2Th 3:6 Now we charge you, brothers, in the aname of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you bkeep away from every brother 1walking cdisorderly and not according to the 2dthings which were handed down to you and which you received from us.
2Th 3:7 For you yourselves know how you ought to aimitate us, because we were 1not disorderly among you;
2Th 3:8 Nor did we eat bread as a gift from anyone, but in alabor and hardship we bworked night and day so that we would not be cburdensome to any of you;
2Th 3:9 Not because we do not have the aright, but in order that we might give ourselves to you as a bpattern that you might cimitate us.
2Th 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this acharge, that if anyone does not want to work, neither should he beat.
2Th 3:11 For we hear of some walking among you adisorderly, doing no work at all, but being 1bbusybodies.
2Th 3:12 Now such ones we acharge and bexhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to cwork with dquietness and eeat their own bread.
2Th 3:13 But you, brothers, do not alose heart in doing good.
2Th 3:14 And if anyone does anot obey our word through this letter, mark this one so as 1bnot to mingle with him, in order that he may be ashamed.
2Th 3:15 Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but aadmonish him as a brother.
III. Conclusion
3:16-18
2Th 3:16 Now the Lord of apeace Himself give you 1bpeace continually in every way. The Lord be cwith you all.
2Th 3:17 The greeting in amy own hand — Paul — which is the mark in every letter; so I write.
2Th 3:18 The 1agrace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TIMOTHY

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 65, after Paul’s first Roman imprisonment.
Place of Writing: Probably Macedonia (1:3).
Recipients: Timothy (1:2).
Subject:
God’s Economy concerning the Church
1 TIMOTHY 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

I. Introduction
1:1-2
1Ti 1:1 1Paul, an aapostle of Christ Jesus baccording to the 2ccommand of 3dGod our Savior and of Christ Jesus our 4ehope,
1Ti 1:2 To 1aTimothy, genuine bchild in 2faith: Grace, cmercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
II. God’s Economy versus Different Teachings
1:3-17
1Ti 1:3 Even as I exhorted you, when I was 1going into aMacedonia, to remain in bEphesus in order that you might charge 2certain ones not to teach 3cdifferent things
1Ti 1:4 Nor to give heed to 1amyths and unending 2bgenealogies, which produce cquestionings rather than God’s 3deconomy, which is in 4efaith.
1Ti 1:5 But the end of the 1charge is 2alove out of a 3bpure heart and out of a good cconscience and out of unfeigned dfaith;
1Ti 1:6 From which things some, having 1amisaimed, have turned aside to 2bvain talking,
1Ti 1:7 Desiring to be 1ateachers of the law, though they understand neither the things that they say, nor concerning what they 2bconfidently affirm.
1Ti 1:8 But we know that the alaw is good, if one uses it lawfully
1Ti 1:9 And knows this, that the alaw is not enacted for a righteous man but for the lawless and bunruly, for the cungodly and sinners, for the dunholy and eprofane, for those who 1strike their fathers and those who 1strike their mothers, for murderers,
1Ti 1:10 For fornicators, ahomosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever other thing that is opposed to the 1bhealthy teaching,
1Ti 1:11 aAccording to the 1bgospel of the glory of the cblessed God, with which I was dentrusted.
1Ti 1:12 I give thanks to Him who 1aempowers me, Christ Jesus our Lord, that He has counted me bfaithful, cappointing me to the dministry,
1Ti 1:13 Who formerly was a 1blasphemer and a apersecutor and an 2insulting person; but I was shown 3bmercy because, being 4cignorant, I acted in 4dunbelief.
1Ti 1:14 And the 1agrace of our Lord bsuperabounded with 2cfaith and love in Christ Jesus.
1Ti 1:15 aFaithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus 1came into the world to save bsinners, of whom I am foremost.
1Ti 1:16 But because of this I was shown amercy, that in me, the foremost, Jesus Christ might display all His long-suffering for a 1pattern to those who are to bbelieve on Him unto 2ceternal life.
1Ti 1:17 1Now to the aKing of the ages, bincorruptible, cinvisible, the donly God, be 2ehonor and fglory forever and ever. Amen.
III. Faith and a Good Conscience Needed for the Keeping of the Faith
1:18-20
1Ti 1:18 This 1acharge I commit to you, my bchild Timothy, according to the 2cprophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might 3dwar the good warfare,
1Ti 1:19 aHolding 1bfaith and a good cconscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become 2shipwrecked regarding the 3dfaith;
1Ti 1:20 Of whom are 1aHymenaeus and 2bAlexander, whom I have cdelivered to Satan that they may be 3disciplined not to dblaspheme.
1 TIMOTHY 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

IV. Prayer for Man’s Salvation
2:1-7
1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore, first of all, that 1apetitions, prayers, 2intercessions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of ball men;
1Ti 2:2 On behalf of akings and all who are in high position, that we may lead a 1quiet and tranquil life in all 2bgodliness and 3cgravity.
1Ti 2:3 This is good and aacceptable in the sight of our bSavior God,
1Ti 2:4 Who desires 1aall men to be bsaved and to come to the 2cfull knowledge of the dtruth.
1Ti 2:5 For there is 1aone God and one 2bMediator of God and men, the 3cman Christ Jesus,
1Ti 2:6 Who 1gave Himself as a 2aransom for ball, the 3ctestimony to be borne in dits own times.
1Ti 2:7 For which I was aappointed a 1herald and an apostle (I speak the truth; I do not blie), a 2teacher of the cGentiles in 3dfaith and etruth.
V. The Normal Life in the Church
2:8-15
1Ti 2:8 I desire therefore that men 1pray in every place, alifting up 2holy 3bhands, without 4wrath and 5creasoning;
1Ti 2:9 Similarly, that women aadorn themselves in 1proper clothing with 2modesty and 3bsobriety, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing,
1Ti 2:10 But, what abefits women professing 1bgodly reverence, by good works.
1Ti 2:11 Let a woman learn in 1aquietness in all 2bsubjection;
1Ti 2:12 But I do not permit a awoman to 1teach or to assert authority over a man, but to be in 2quietness.
1Ti 2:13 For 1Adam was 2formed first, then Eve;
1Ti 2:14 And 1Adam was not deceived; but the 2woman, having been quite adeceived, has fallen into transgression.
1Ti 2:15 But she will be saved through her 1childbearing, if they remain in 2afaith and love and bholiness with csobriety.
1 TIMOTHY 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

VI. Overseers and Deacons for the Church’s Administration
3:1-13
1Ti 3:1 aFaithful is the word: If anyone 1aspires to the 2overseership, he desires a good work.
1Ti 3:2 aThe 1boverseer then must be 2without reproach, the 3husband of cone wife, 4dtemperate, 5of a esober mind, 6orderly, 7fhospitable, 8apt to gteach;
1Ti 3:3 1Not an aexcessive drinker; 2not a striker, but 3bforbearing; 4cnot contentious; 5not dfond of money;
1Ti 3:4 One who 1amanages well his own house, having his children in subjection with all 2bgravity
1Ti 3:5 (But if one does not know how to manage his own house, how will he care for the achurch of God?);
1Ti 3:6 Not a 1new convert, lest being 2ablinded with pride he fall into the 3judgment suffered by the devil.
1Ti 3:7 And he also must have a 1agood testimony from 2those outside, that he may not fall into reproach and the 3bsnare of the 4devil.
1Ti 3:8 1aDeacons must similarly be grave, 2not double-tongued, 3not baddicted to much wine, 4not cgreedy for base gain;
1Ti 3:9 aHolding the 1bmystery of the cfaith in a 2dpure conscience.
1Ti 3:10 And these also must first 1be aproved; then let them 2minister if they are 3bunreprovable.
1Ti 3:11 1Women similarly must be grave, 2not aslanderers, 3btemperate, 4faithful in all things.
1Ti 3:12 Deacons must be 1husbands of aone wife, 2bmanaging their children and their own houses well.
1Ti 3:13 For those who have 1ministered well obtain for themselves a 2good standing and 3much boldness in afaith, which is in Christ Jesus.
VII. The Function of the Church —
The House of the Living God and the Pillar and Base of the Truth
3:14-16
1Ti 3:14 These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly.
1Ti 3:15 But if I delay, I write that you may know 1how one ought to conduct himself in the 2ahouse of God, which is the bchurch of the 3cliving God, the 4dpillar and base of the 5etruth.
1Ti 3:16 And 1confessedly, great is the 2amystery of bgodliness:
3He who was 4cmanifested in the dflesh, / 5Justified in the Spirit, / 6Seen by angels, / 7Preached among the nations, / 8Believed on in the world, / 9Taken up in glory.
1 TIMOTHY 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

VIII. The Prediction of the Decline of the Church
4:1-5
1Ti 4:1 1But the 2aSpirit says expressly that in 3later times some will bdepart from the 4cfaith, giving heed to 5deceiving dspirits and teachings of 6edemons
1Ti 4:2 1By means of the ahypocrisy of men who speak blies, of men who are 2cbranded in their own conscience as with a 3hot iron,
1Ti 4:3 Who forbid 1amarriage and command babstaining from 1cfoods, which 2God has created to be partaken of with dthanksgiving by those who 3ebelieve and have 4ffull knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 4:4 For 1every creature of God is agood, and nothing is to be rejected if received with thanksgiving;
1Ti 4:5 For it is 1asanctified through the 2word of God and 3bintercession.
IX. A Good Minister of Christ
4:6-16
1Ti 4:6 If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good 1aminister of Christ Jesus, 2being nourished with the words of the 3bfaith and of the 4good teaching which you 5have cclosely followed.
1Ti 4:7 But the 1aprofane and old-womanish 2bmyths 3refuse, and 4exercise yourself unto cgodliness.
1Ti 4:8 For bodily exercise is profitable for 1a little, but agodliness is profitable for 2ball things, having 3promise of the present life and of that which is to come.
1Ti 4:9 aFaithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance.
1Ti 4:10 For to this end we alabor and strive, because we have set our bhope on the 1cliving God, who is the dSavior of eall men, fespecially of those who believe.
1Ti 4:11 aCharge and bteach these things.
1Ti 4:12 Let no one adespise your 1byouth, but be a cpattern to the believers in 2word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in 3dpurity.
1Ti 4:13 Until I come, attend to the public 1areading, to the bexhortation, to the cteaching.
1Ti 4:14 Do not neglect the 1agift which is 2in you, which was given to you by means of 3bprophecy with the 4claying on of the hands of the 5dpresbytery.
1Ti 4:15 Practice these things; 1be in them, that your 2progress may be manifest to all.
1Ti 4:16 1aTake heed to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things; for in doing this you will save both byourself and cthose who hear you.
1 TIMOTHY 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

X. Concerning the Saints of Different Ages
5:1-16
1Ti 5:1 Do not 1upbraid an aelderly man, but exhort him as a father, byounger men as brothers,
1Ti 5:2 aElderly women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
1Ti 5:3 1Honor widows who are really awidows.
1Ti 5:4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to 1show arespect toward their own household and to render a 2return to their bparents; for this is cacceptable in the sight of God.
1Ti 5:5 Now she who is really a widow and is left alone has set her ahope on God and continues in petitions and bprayers night and day.
1Ti 5:6 But she who gives herself to apleasure is bdead while living.
1Ti 5:7 These things also acharge, that they may be without reproach.
1Ti 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for 1his own, and especially for those of his household, he has adenied the 2faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1Ti 5:9 Let a widow be enrolled, not under sixty years old, having been the awife of one man,
1Ti 5:10 1Well attested for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has shown ahospitality to strangers, if she has bwashed the saints’ feet, if she has cassisted the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every dgood work.
1Ti 5:11 But younger widows refuse; for when they follow their passions in disregard of Christ, they desire to marry,
1Ti 5:12 And thus have condemnation because they have set aside their first 1pledge.
1Ti 5:13 And at the same time they also learn to be idle, going around from house to house; and they are not only idle but also gossips and abusybodies, speaking bthings which they ought not.
1Ti 5:14 I will therefore that 1younger widows amarry, 2bear children, bkeep house, give no opportunity to the opposer for reproach;
1Ti 5:15 For already some have turned aside after aSatan.
1Ti 5:16 If any believing woman has widows in her family, let her assist them, and let not the church be burdened, that it may assist those who are really awidows.
XI. Concerning the Elders
5:17-25
1Ti 5:17 Let the aelders who btake the lead well be counted worthy of double 1honor, 2especially those who labor in 3word and teaching.
1Ti 5:18 For the Scripture says, a“You shall not muzzle an ox that is treading out the grain,” and, b“The workman is worthy of his pay.”
1Ti 5:19 Against an elder do not 1receive an accusation, except based upon two or three awitnesses.
1Ti 5:20 The ones who sin 1areprove bbefore 2all that the rest also may have fear.
1Ti 5:21 I solemnly acharge you before God and Christ Jesus and the chosen 1angels that you keep these things without 2prejudice, doing nothing by way of 3partiality.
1Ti 5:22 1aLay hands 2quickly on no man, nor bparticipate in others’ sins; ckeep yourself pure.
1Ti 5:23 1No longer drink water only, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent 2illnesses.
1Ti 5:24 The 1sins of some men are openly 2manifest, going before to judgment; and for others, 3they 4also follow after.
1Ti 5:25 Likewise also the 1good works are openly manifest, and those that are otherwise cannot be ahidden.
1 TIMOTHY 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

XII. Concerning Slaves and Money Lovers
6:1-10
1Ti 6:1 As many as are aslaves under the yoke should regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, lest the bname of God and 1our cteaching be 2blasphemed.
1Ti 6:2 And those who have believing masters should not despise them, because they are abrothers; but rather they should 1serve them, because those who recompense them for the kindly service received are believers and beloved. These things bteach and cexhort.
1Ti 6:3 If anyone teaches 1adifferent things and does not consent to 2bhealthy words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is according to 3cgodliness,
1Ti 6:4 He is 1ablinded with pride, understanding bnothing, but is 2diseased with cquestionings and dcontentions of words, out of which come eenvy, fstrife, 3slanders, evil suspicions,
1Ti 6:5 1Perpetual wranglings of men acorrupted in mind and 2deprived of the 3truth, 4supposing bgodliness to be a means of cgain.
1Ti 6:6 But agodliness with 1bcontentment is 2cgreat gain;
1Ti 6:7 For 1we have brought anothing into the world, because bneither can we carry anything out.
1Ti 6:8 But having afood and 1covering, with these we will be 2bcontent.
1Ti 6:9 But those who 1intend to be arich fall into temptation and a bsnare and many foolish and harmful 2desires, which 3plunge men into 4destruction and ruin.
1Ti 6:10 For the alove of money is 1a root of all evils, because of which some, 2aspiring after money, have 3been bled away from the 4cfaith and pierced themselves through with many pains.
XIII. A Man of God
6:11-21a
1Ti 6:11 But you, O 1aman of God, bflee these things, and cpursue 2drighteousness, 3egodliness, 4ffaith, 5love, 6endurance, 7meekness.
1Ti 6:12 1aFight the good fight of the bfaith; lay chold on the 2eternal life, 3to which you were dcalled and have 4econfessed the good confession before many fwitnesses.
1Ti 6:13 I acharge you before God, who preserves all things in life, and Christ Jesus, who btestified the good confession before cPontius Pilate,
1Ti 6:14 To keep 1the commandment spotless, awithout reproach, until the 2bappearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Ti 6:15 1Which in aits own times 2the bblessed and conly Sovereign will show, the dKing of those who reign as kings and eLord of those who rule as lords,
1Ti 6:16 Who alone has aimmortality, dwelling in unapproachable blight, whom cno man has seen nor can see, to whom be dhonor and eternal emight. Amen.
1Ti 6:17 aCharge those who are rich in the bpresent age not to be chigh-minded, nor to set their dhope on the euncertainty of riches but on God, who faffords us all things grichly for our enjoyment;
1Ti 6:18 To do 1agood, to be 2brich in good works, to be ready to cdistribute, to be ones willing to share;
1Ti 6:19 aLaying away for themselves a good bfoundation as a ctreasure for the 1future, that they may lay dhold on 2that which is really life.
1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, aguard the 1deposit, bturning away from cprofane, dvain babblings and oppositions from 2what is falsely called knowledge,
1Ti 6:21 Because of which some, professing this, have 1amisaimed regarding the bfaith.
XIV. Conclusion
6:21b
cGrace be with you.
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THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TIMOTHY

Chapters
 1   2   3   4  
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 67, during Paul’s second imprisonment, near the time of his martyrdom (4:6).
Place of Writing: A Roman prison (1:16-17).
Recipients: Timothy (1:2).
Subject:
Inoculation against the Decline of the Church
2 TIMOTHY 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

I. Introduction
1:1-2
2Ti 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the awill of God baccording to the 1cpromise of dlife, which is in Christ Jesus,
2Ti 1:2 To Timothy, beloved achild: Grace, 1bmercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
II. The Divine Provisions for the Inoculation —
A Pure Conscience, Unfeigned Faith, the Divine Gift, a Strong Spirit,
Eternal Grace, Incorruptible Life, the Healthy Word, and the Indwelling Spirit
1:3-14
2Ti 1:3 I thank God, whom I 1aserve 2from my bforefathers in a 3cpure conscience, while unceasingly I have remembrance concerning you in my petitions dnight and day,
2Ti 1:4 aLonging to see you, remembering your btears, that I may be cfilled with joy;
2Ti 1:5 Having been reminded of the aunfeigned faith in you, which 1dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your bmother Eunice, and I am persuaded dwells also in you.
2Ti 1:6 For which cause I remind you to 1fan into flame the agift of God, which is in you through the 2blaying on of my hands.
2Ti 1:7 For God has not given us a 1aspirit of bcowardice, but 2of cpower and of dlove and of esobermindedness.
2Ti 1:8 1Therefore do 2not be aashamed of the btestimony of our Lord nor of me cHis prisoner; but dsuffer evil with the 3egospel 4according to the fpower of God;
2Ti 1:9 Who has saved us and 1acalled us with a holy calling, not according to our bworks but according to His own 2cpurpose and dgrace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus 3before the etimes of the ages
2Ti 1:10 But now has been 1amanifested through the bappearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who 2nullified cdeath and brought 3dlife and 4eincorruption to light through the gospel,
2Ti 1:11 For 1which I was aappointed a 2herald and an apostle and a teacher.
2Ti 1:12 For which 1cause also I asuffer these things; but I am 2not bashamed, for I know 3whom I have cbelieved, and I am persuaded that He is able to dguard 4my edeposit unto 5fthat day.
2Ti 1:13 aHold a 1pattern of the 2bhealthy words that you have cheard from me, in the 3dfaith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 1:14 aGuard the good 1deposit through the Holy bSpirit who 2dwells in us.
III. The Basic Factor of the Decline — Forsaking the Apostle and His Ministry
1:15-18
2Ti 1:15 This you know, that all who are in 1aAsia 2bturned away from me, of whom are 3Phygelus and Hermogenes.
2Ti 1:16 May the Lord grant amercy to the house of 1bOnesiphorus, for he often crefreshed me and was not dashamed of my echain;
2Ti 1:17 But being in aRome, he sought me out diligently and found me.
2Ti 1:18 May the Lord grant him to find amercy from the Lord in 1bthat day. And in how many things he served me in cEphesus, you know best.
2 TIMOTHY 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

IV. The Inoculator — A Teacher, a Soldier, a Contender, a Farmer, and a Workman
2:1-15
2Ti 2:1 You therefore, my achild, be 1bempowered in the 2cgrace which is in Christ Jesus;
2Ti 2:2 And the 1things which you have aheard from me through many bwitnesses, these 2ccommit to 3dfaithful men, who will be competent to eteach others also.
2Ti 2:3 aSuffer evil with me as a good 1bsoldier of Christ Jesus.
2Ti 2:4 No one serving as a soldier 1aentangles himself with the baffairs of this 2life, that he may please the one who enlisted him.
2Ti 2:5 And also if anyone 1acontends in the games, he is not 2bcrowned unless he contends lawfully.
2Ti 2:6 The laboring 1afarmer must be the first to partake of the fruit.
2Ti 2:7 Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.
2Ti 2:8 Remember Jesus Christ, 1araised from the dead, of the 2bseed of David, according to 3cmy gospel,
2Ti 2:9 In which I asuffer evil unto bbonds as a ccriminal; but the dword of God is 1not bound.
2Ti 2:10 Therefore I aendure all things for the sake of the 1bchosen ones, that they themselves also may obtain the csalvation which is in Christ Jesus 2with deternal glory.
2Ti 2:11 aFaithful is the word: 1For if we 2bdied with Him, we will also 3clive with Him;
2Ti 2:12 If we 1aendure, we will also 2breign with Him; if we cdeny Him, He also will 3deny us;
2Ti 2:13 If we are afaithless, He remains 1faithful, for He 2bcannot deny Himself.
2Ti 2:14 Remind them of these things, solemnly acharging them before God not to have bcontentions of words, which is cuseful for nothing, to the 1ruin of those who hear.
2Ti 2:15 Be diligent to apresent yourself bapproved to God, an unashamed workman, 1cutting straight the cword of the 2dtruth.
V. The Spreading of the Decline — Like That of Gangrene
2:16-26
2Ti 2:16 But aavoid 1bprofane, cvain babblings, for they will advance to more 2dungodliness,
2Ti 2:17 And their word will 1spread like 2gangrene, of whom are aHymenaeus and Philetus,
2Ti 2:18 Who concerning the 1atruth have 2bmisaimed, saying that the cresurrection has 3already taken place, and overthrow the 4dfaith of some.
2Ti 2:19 However the firm 1afoundation of God stands, having this 2bseal, The Lord cknows those who are His, and, Let everyone who dnames the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.
2Ti 2:20 1But in a 2great house there are not only 3gold and silver vessels but also 4wooden and earthen; and some are unto ahonor, and some unto dishonor.
2Ti 2:21 If therefore anyone 1cleanses himself from 2athese, he will be a bvessel 3unto honor, csanctified, duseful to the master, eprepared unto every good work.
2Ti 2:22 But aflee youthful 1lusts, and bpursue 2righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who 3ccall on the Lord out of a 4dpure heart.
2Ti 2:23 But 1afoolish bquestionings and those arising from an 2untrained mind refuse, knowing that they beget contentions.
2Ti 2:24 But a aslave of the Lord ought bnot to contend but be gentle toward all, apt to cteach, bearing with wrong;
2Ti 2:25 In ameekness correcting those who boppose, if perhaps God may give them 1crepentance unto the 2dfull knowledge of the truth,
2Ti 2:26 And they may 1areturn to soberness out of the 2bsnare of the 3devil, having been caught alive by him, unto 4cHis will.
2 TIMOTHY 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

VI. The Worsening of the Decline — Becoming Grievous Times of Deceiving
3:1-13
2Ti 3:1 1But know this, that in the 2last days 3difficult atimes will come.
2Ti 3:2 For 1men will be 2lovers of self, alovers of money, bboasters, 3arrogant, 4crevilers, bdisobedient to parents, 5unthankful, dunholy,
2Ti 3:3 aWithout natural affection, 1implacable, bslanderers, cwithout self-control, savage, cnot lovers of good,
2Ti 3:4 1aTraitors, 2reckless, 3bblinded with pride, 4lovers of cpleasure rather than dlovers of God,
2Ti 3:5 Having an 1outward aform of bgodliness, though cdenying its 2power; from these also dturn away.
2Ti 3:6 For of these are those who acreep into bhouses and take captive silly women heaped with sins, who are led by cvarious desires
2Ti 3:7 And are always learning yet never able to come to the 1afull knowledge of the truth.
2Ti 3:8 And in the manner that 1Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also aoppose the 2btruth; men ccorrupted in mind, 3ddisapproved concerning the 4efaith.
2Ti 3:9 But they will not aadvance farther, for their 1folly will be completely manifest to all, as also the folly of 2those became.
2Ti 3:10 But you have aclosely followed my teaching, 1conduct, 2bpurpose, faith, long-suffering, love, endurance,
2Ti 3:11 aPersecutions, sufferings, such as befell me in bAntioch, in cIconium, in 1dLystra. Such persecutions I bore, and out of them all the Lord edelivered me.
2Ti 3:12 And indeed all who 1desire to 2live agodly in Christ Jesus will be bpersecuted.
2Ti 3:13 But evil men and 1impostors will grow worse and worse, adeceiving and being deceived.
VII. The Antidote of the Inoculation — The Divine Word
3:14-17
2Ti 3:14 But you, 1continue in the 2things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from which ones you have learned them
2Ti 3:15 1And that afrom a babe you have known the bsacred writings, which are able to make you cwise unto dsalvation through the 2faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 1All aScripture is 2God-breathed and profitable for bteaching, for 3conviction, for 4correction, for 5instruction in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 That the 1aman of God may be 2complete, fully 3bequipped for every good work.
2 TIMOTHY 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

VIII. The Incentive to the Inoculator — The Coming Reward
4:1-8
2Ti 4:1 I solemnly acharge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to 1bjudge the living and the dead, and by 2His cappearing and His dkingdom:
2Ti 4:2 Proclaim the 1aword; 2be ready 3in season and out of season; bconvict, 4rebuke, cexhort with 5all dlong-suffering and eteaching.
2Ti 4:3 For the 1atime will come when they will not tolerate the 2bhealthy teaching; but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves teachers, having 3itching ears,
2Ti 4:4 And they will 1aturn away their ear from the 2truth and will be turned aside to 3bmyths.
2Ti 4:5 But you, be asober in all things, bsuffer evil, do the work of an cevangelist, 1fully accomplish your 2dministry.
2Ti 4:6 For I am already being 1apoured out, and the time of my 2bdeparture is at hand.
2Ti 4:7 I have 1afought the good fight; I have 2bfinished the course; I have kept the cfaith.
2Ti 4:8 Henceforth there is 1laid up for me the 2acrown of brighteousness, with which the Lord, the 3crighteous Judge, will drecompense me in 4ethat day, and not only me but also all those who have floved His 5gappearing.
IX. The Issue of the Decline — Loving the Present Age and Doing Many Evils
4:9-18
2Ti 4:9 Be diligent to acome to me quickly;
2Ti 4:10 For aDemas has babandoned me, having 1cloved the dpresent age, and has gone to eThessalonica; Crescens to fGalatia; gTitus to 2Dalmatia.
2Ti 4:11 aLuke alone is with me. Take bMark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for the cministry.
2Ti 4:12 But aTychicus I have sent to bEphesus.
2Ti 4:13 The 1cloak which I left in 2aTroas with Carpus, bring when you come, and the 3scrolls, especially the parchments.
2Ti 4:14 aAlexander the coppersmith did many evil things to me; the Lord will brecompense him according to his works.
2Ti 4:15 You also guard against him, for he greatly opposed our words.
2Ti 4:16 At my first defense no one was with me to support me, but all aabandoned me. May it not be counted against them.
2Ti 4:17 But the Lord astood with me and bempowered me that through me the cproclamation of the gospel might be fully accomplished and all the dGentiles might hear; and I was edelivered out of the 1flion’s mouth.
2Ti 4:18 The Lord will adeliver me from every evil work and will save me into bHis 1heavenly kingdom, to whom be the cglory forever and ever. Amen.
X. Conclusion
4:19-22
2Ti 4:19 Greet Prisca and aAquila and the house of bOnesiphorus.
2Ti 4:20 aErastus remained in bCorinth, and cTrophimus I left at 1dMiletus 2sick.
2Ti 4:21 Be diligent to come before awinter. Eubulus greets you, as well as Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.
2Ti 4:22 The Lord be with your 1aspirit. 2bGrace be with you.
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TITUS

Chapters
 1   2   3   
Outline

Author: The apostle Paul (1:1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 65, after Paul’s first Roman imprisonment, when he had passed through Crete and arrived at Nicopolis (1:5; 3:12).
Place of Writing: Nicopolis; see verses in the previous item.
Recipients: Titus (1:4).
Subject:
The Maintenance of Order in the Church
TITUS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

I. Introduction
1:1-4
Tt 1:1 Paul, a aslave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ baccording to the 1cfaith of God’s 2dchosen ones and the 3efull knowledge of the truth, which is 4faccording to godliness,
Tt 1:2 In the 1ahope of 2beternal life, which God, who ccannot lie, 3dpromised 4before the etimes of the ages,
Tt 1:3 But in 1aits own times He bmanifested it as 2His cword in the dproclamation with which I was eentrusted faccording to the 3command of our fSavior God;
Tt 1:4 To aTitus, genuine bchild caccording to the 1common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
II. Establishing the Authority in the Church
1:5-9
Tt 1:5 For this cause I left you in aCrete, that you might set in order the things which I have begun that remain and appoint belders in 1cevery city, as I ddirected you:
Tt 1:6 aIf anyone is bunreprovable, the 1husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of cdissoluteness or dunruly.
Tt 1:7 For the 1aoverseer must be unreprovable as a bsteward of God, not cself-willed, 2not quick tempered, 3not an excessive drinker, 4not a striker, 5not greedy for base gain;
Tt 1:8 But 1hospitable, a alover of good, 2of a sober mind, righteous, 3holy, self-controlled;
Tt 1:9 1aHolding to the 2bfaithful word, which is according to the 3teaching of the apostles, that he may be able both to exhort by the 4chealthy teaching and to 5convict 6those who doppose.
III. Dealing with the Influence of Judaism and Gnosticism
1:10-16
Tt 1:10 For there are many aunruly men, bvain talkers and cdeceivers, especially 1dthose of the circumcision,
Tt 1:11 Whose mouths must be 1stopped, who overthrow whole ahouseholds, teaching bthings 2cfor the sake of base gain, which they ought not to do.
Tt 1:12 One from among 1themselves, a 2aprophet of their own, said, bCretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle 3gluttons.
Tt 1:13 This testimony is true; for which cause 1areprove them 2bseverely that they may be 3chealthy in the 4faith,
Tt 1:14 Not paying attention to Jewish 1amyths and the 2bcommandments of men who 3cturn away from the 4dtruth.
Tt 1:15 1All things are apure to the pure; yet to those who are 2defiled and unbelieving bnothing is pure, but both their 3cmind and their conscience are 2defiled.
Tt 1:16 They 1profess to know God, but by their works they adeny Him, being babominable and cdisobedient and, as to every good work, 2ddisapproved.
TITUS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

IV. Bringing the Saints of Different Ages into an Orderly Life
2:1-8
Tt 2:1 But you, speak the things which are fitting to the 1ahealthy teaching.
Tt 2:2 Exhort aolder men to be 1btemperate, 2cgrave, 3of a dsober mind, 4ehealthy in ffaith, in love, in gendurance;
Tt 2:3 aOlder women likewise to be in 1demeanor as bbefits those who engage in 2sacred things, 3not cslanderers, nor 4denslaved by much wine, 5teachers of what is egood,
Tt 2:4 That they may 1train the young women 2to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tt 2:5 To be of a asober mind, bpure, workers at chome, 1good, dsubject to their own husbands, that the 2eword of God would not be 3blasphemed.
Tt 2:6 The ayounger men likewise exhort to be of a bsober mind,
Tt 2:7 Concerning all things 1presenting yourself as a apattern of good works: in your teaching showing incorruption, 2bgravity,
Tt 2:8 aHealthy speech that cannot be 1condemned, that 2he who bopposes may be put to cshame, having 3nothing evil to say about us.
V. Charging the Slaves to Behave Well in the Social System of Slavery
2:9-15
Tt 2:9 Exhort 1aslaves to be subject to their own masters in all things, to be well pleasing, not contradicting,
Tt 2:10 Not pilfering, but showing all good 1faithfulness that they may 2adorn the teaching of our 3aSavior God in all things.
Tt 2:11 1For the 2agrace of God, 3bringing salvation to ball men, has 4cappeared,
Tt 2:12 Training us that, denying 1aungodliness and 2bworldly lusts, we should live 3csoberly and 4drighteously and egodly in the fpresent age,
Tt 2:13 1aAwaiting the 2blessed hope, even the bappearing of the 3cglory of our 4great dGod and Savior, Jesus Christ,
Tt 2:14 Who agave Himself 1for us that He might 2bredeem us cfrom all lawlessness and dpurify to Himself a 3particular epeople as His unique possession, fzealous of good works.
Tt 2:15 1These things speak, and aexhort and 2bconvict with all 3cauthority. 4Let no one ddespise you.
TITUS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

VI. Charging the Saints to Keep a Good Relationship with the Government
3:1-8
Tt 3:1 Remind them to be 1asubject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be bready unto every good work,
Tt 3:2 To aslander no one, to be 1buncontentious, 2cforbearing, showing all dmeekness toward all men.
Tt 3:3 For we also 1were aonce foolish, bdisobedient, cdeceived, serving as dslaves evarious 2lusts and fpleasures, spending our lives in gmalice and henvy, hateful, hating one another.
Tt 3:4 But when the 1akindness and the blove to man of our cSavior God dappeared,
Tt 3:5 Not out of 1aworks in brighteousness which we did but according to His 2cmercy He dsaved us, through the 3ewashing of 4fregeneration and the grenewing of the 5Holy hSpirit,
Tt 3:6 Whom He 1apoured out upon us brichly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Tt 3:7 1In order that having been ajustified by 2His bgrace, we might become 3cheirs according to the dhope of eeternal life.
Tt 3:8 aFaithful is 1the word, and concerning 2these things I desire you to 3bconfidently affirm, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to maintain crespectable works. These things are good and profitable to men.
VII. Dealing with a Factious One
3:9-11
Tt 3:9 But 1aavoid foolish 2bquestionings and 3cgenealogies and 4dstrifes and 5econtentions about the 6flaw, for they are gunprofitable and 7hvain.
Tt 3:10 A 1afactious man, after a first and second badmonition, 2crefuse,
Tt 3:11 Knowing that such a one is 1perverted and is asinning, though he is condemned by his own self.
VIII. Conclusion
3:12-15
Tt 3:12 When I send Artemas to you or aTychicus, be diligent to bcome to me at 1cNicopolis, for I have decided to spend the dwinter there.
Tt 3:13 1Zenas the 2alawyer and bApollos csend forward diligently that nothing may be lacking to them.
Tt 3:14 And let those also who are ours learn to maintain arespectable works for their necessary bneeds, that they may not be cunfruitful.
Tt 3:15 All who are awith me greet you. Greet those who blove us in 1cfaith. dGrace be with you all.
< Titus Outline • Philemon Outline >
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THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO PHILEMON

Verses
1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 
Outline

Author: Paul the apostle with Timothy the brother (v. 1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 64, shortly before Paul was released from his first Roman imprisonment (vv. 9, 22).
Place of Writing: A Roman prison; see verses in the previous item.
Recipients: Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and the church, which was in their house (vv. 1-2).
Subject:
An Illustration of the Believers’ Equal Status in the New Man
I. Introduction
vv. 1-3
Pm 1 Paul, a aprisoner of Christ Jesus, and bTimothy the brother, to Philemon our beloved and cfellow worker
Pm 2 And to 1Apphia the asister and to 1bArchippus our cfellow soldier and to the 2dchurch, which is in your house:
Pm 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. A Slave Reborn to Be a Brother
vv. 4-16
Pm 4 I athank my God always, making bmention of you in my prayers,
Pm 5 Hearing of your 1love and the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and to all the saints,
Pm 6 That the fellowship of your faith may become effective in the 1full aknowledge of 2every good thing which is in 3you 4for Christ.
Pm 7 1For I had much ajoy and bencouragement over your love, because the 2cinward parts of the saints have been 3drefreshed through you, ebrother.
Pm 8 Therefore though I have much aboldness in Christ to bcharge you what is cfitting,
Pm 9 Because of love I rather aentreat, being such a one as Paul 1the aged and now also a 2bprisoner of Christ Jesus.
Pm 10 I entreat you concerning my achild, whom I have 1bbegotten in my cbonds, 2dOnesimus,
Pm 11 Who formerly was 1useless to you but now is 2useful both to you and to me.
Pm 12 Him I have sent back to you — him, that is, my 1very heart —
Pm 13 Whom I intended to keep with myself that on your behalf he might minister to me in the abonds of the gospel.
Pm 14 But 1without your mind I did not want to do anything, that your goodness would anot be as of necessity, but bvoluntary.
Pm 15 1For 2perhaps for this reason he was separated from you for but an hour, that you might 3fully have him forever,
Pm 16 1No longer as a aslave, but 2above a slave, a 3beloved bbrother, especially to me, but how much more to you, 4both cin the flesh and in the Lord.
III. A Brother Recommended for the New Man’s Acceptance
vv. 17-22
Pm 17 If then 1you hold me as a 2apartner, receive him as myself.
Pm 18 And if he has 1wronged you in anything or owes anything, charge that to 2my account.
Pm 19 I, Paul, have written with my aown hand: I will 1repay; not to say to you that you owe me even 2your own self besides.
Pm 20 Yes, abrother, may I have 1profit from you in the Lord; 2brefresh my 3inward parts in Christ.
Pm 21 Having aconfidence in your obedience, I have written to you, knowing that you will do even beyond the things that I say.
Pm 22 And at the same time also prepare me a alodging, for I 1hope that through your bprayers I will be 2graciously cgiven to you.
IV. Conclusion
vv. 23-25
Pm 23 1aEpaphras, my bfellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you;
Pm 24 As do aMark, bAristarchus, cDemas, dLuke, my efellow workers.
Pm 25 The 1agrace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your 2bspirit.3
< Philemon Outline • Hebrews Outline >
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THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 
Outline

Author: Apparently the apostle Paul, who alone was qualified to write the deep, high, and rich content of this book. The mention of Timothy and the tone of the fellowship also point to Paul as the author (see also note 1 in 1:1).
Time of Writing: Perhaps A.D. 67, after Paul’s release from his first Roman imprisonment, while he was in Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20).
Place of Writing: Perhaps Miletus (see verse in the previous item). The mention of “those from Italy” in 13:24 indicates that the book was not written in Rome.
Recipients: The Hebrew believers, as indicated by the book’s content.
Subject:
Christ Being Superior to Judaism and Everything Related to It, and the New Covenant Which He Consummated Being Better than the Old Covenant
HEBREWS 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

I. Introduction — God Speaking in the Son
1:1-3
He 1:1 1God, having aspoken of old in 2many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets,
He 1:2 Has at the 1last of these days spoken to us in the 2aSon, 3whom He appointed 4bHeir of all things, cthrough whom also He made the 5duniverse;
He 1:3 Who, being the 1effulgence of His glory and the aimpress of His substance and bupholding and bearing all things by the 2word of His power, having made 3purification of sins, 4csat down on the right hand of the 5dMajesty on 6high;
II. The Superiority of Christ
1:4 — 10:39
A. Superior to the Angels
1:4 — 2:18
1. As the Son of God — As God
1:4-14
He 1:4 Having become as much better than the angels as to have inherited a 1more distinguished name than they.
He 1:5 For to which of the angels has He ever said, a“You are My Son; 1this day have I begotten You”? And again, b“I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me”?
He 1:6 And when He brings again the 1aFirstborn into the inhabited earth, He says, b“And let all the angels of God worship Him.”
He 1:7 And of the angels He says, a“Who makes His angels 1winds and His ministers a flame of fire”;
He 1:8 But of the Son, a“Your bthrone, 1O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your ckingdom.
He 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, 1Your God, has aanointed You with the oil of exultant joy above Your 2bpartners”;
He 1:10 And, a“You in the beginning, 1Lord, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands;
He 1:11 They will perish, but You remain perpetually; and they all will become aold like a bgarment,
He 1:12 And like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed; but You are the asame, and Your years will not fail.”
He 1:13 But to which of the angels has He ever said, a“Sit at My right hand 1until I set Your enemies as a bfootstool for Your feet”?
He 1:14 Are they not all aministering spirits, sent forth for service for the sake of 1those who are to inherit salvation?
HEBREWS 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

(The First Warning — Give Heed to What Is Spoken concerning the Son)
2:1-4
He 2:1 1Therefore we ought to give heed more abundantly to the things which have been heard lest perhaps we 2drift away.
He 2:2 For if the word spoken through aangels proved firm and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense,
He 2:3 How shall we 1aescape if we have neglected so great a 2bsalvation, which, having had its beginning in being spoken by the Lord, has been confirmed to us by those who heard,
He 2:4 God bearing awitness with them both by signs and wonders and by various works of power and by 1distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His will?
2. As the Son of Man — As Man
2:5-18
He 2:5 For it was not to angels that He subjected the coming 1inhabited earth, concerning which we speak.
He 2:6 But one has solemnly testified somewhere, saying, 1a“What is man, that You bring him to mind? Or the son of man, that You care for him?
He 2:7 You have made Him 1a little inferior to the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor and have set Him aover the works of Your hands;
He 2:8 You have asubjected all things under His feet.” For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing unsubject to Him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to Him,
He 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little 1inferior to the angels because of the suffering of adeath, bcrowned with 2cglory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of 3deverything.
He 2:10 For it was fitting for 1Him, afor whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading 2bmany sons into 3cglory, to make the 4dAuthor of their esalvation 5fperfect through sufferings.
He 2:11 For both 1He who asanctifies and those who are being bsanctified are all 2of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them cbrothers,
He 2:12 Saying, a“I will 1declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the 2church 3I will sing hymns of praise to You.”
He 2:13 And again, a“I will trust in Him.” And again, b“Behold, I and the children whom God has given to Me.”
He 2:14 Since therefore the children have shared in ablood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner bpartook of the same, that through cdeath He might 1ddestroy him who has the might of edeath, that is, the fdevil,
He 2:15 And might 1release those who because of the fear of death through all their life were held in slavery.
He 2:16 For assuredly it is not to angels that He 1gives help, but He 1gives help to the seed of Abraham.
He 2:17 Hence He should have been 1made alike His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful 2bHigh Priest in the 3things cpertaining to God, to make 4dpropitiation for the sins of the people.
He 2:18 For being atempted in that which He Himself has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
HEBREWS 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

B. Superior to Moses — As an Apostle Worthy of More Glory and Honor
3:1-6
He 3:1 Therefore, 1holy brothers, 2apartakers of a 3heavenly bcalling, consider the 4cApostle and dHigh Priest of our confession, Jesus,
He 3:2 Who was faithful to Him who constituted Him, as also aMoses was in all His bhouse.
He 3:3 For He has been counted worthy of more 1aglory than Moses, by as much as He who 2bbuilt the house has more 1honor than 3the house.
He 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.
He 3:5 And aMoses was faithful in all His house as a 1servant, for a 2testimony of the things to be spoken later;
He 3:6 But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house, whose 1ahouse we are if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boast of bhope cfirm to the end.
(The Second Warning — Do Not Come Short of the Promised Rest)
3:7 — 4:13
He 3:7 1Therefore, even as the Holy aSpirit says, b“Today if you hear His voice,
He 3:8 Do not harden your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of trial in the wilderness,
He 3:9 Where your fathers atried Me by testing Me and saw My works for forty years.
He 3:10 Therefore I was adispleased with this bgeneration, and I said, They always 1go astray in their heart, and they have not known My 2ways;
He 3:11 As I swore in My wrath, 1aThey shall not enter into My rest!”
He 3:12 Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in 1falling away from the aliving God.
He 3:13 But aexhort one another each day, as long as it is called “today,” lest any one of you be hardened by the bdeceitfulness of sin —
He 3:14 For we have become 1apartners of Christ, if indeed we hold fast the beginning of the assurance bfirm to the end —
He 3:15 While it is said, a“Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation.”
He 3:16 For who aprovoked Him when they heard? Indeed was it bnot all who came out of Egypt by 1Moses?
He 3:17 And with whom was He adispleased for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose carcasses bfell in the wilderness?
He 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they should anot enter into His rest, except to the 1bdisobedient?
He 3:19 And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
HEBREWS 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • 

He 4:1 Let us fear therefore, lest, a promise being left of entering into His 1rest, any one of you may 2seem to have 3come short of it.
He 4:2 For indeed we have had the good news announced to us, even as they also; but the word heard did not profit them, 1not being mixed together with faith in those who heard.
He 4:3 For we who have believed enter into the rest, even as He has said, a“As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest!” although the works of creation were completed from the bfoundation of the world.
He 4:4 For He has spoken somewhere concerning the seventh day thus, a“And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.”
He 4:5 And in this place again, a“They shall not enter into My rest!”
He 4:6 Since therefore it remains that some should enter into it and those who formerly had the good news announced to them did not enter because of 1adisobedience,
He 4:7 He again designates a certain day, today, saying in David after so long a time, even as He has said before, a“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
He 4:8 For if 1Joshua had brought them into rest, He would not have spoken concerning 2another day after these things.
He 4:9 So then there remains a 1Sabbath rest for the people of God.
He 4:10 For he who has entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as aGod did from His own.
He 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest lest anyone 1fall 2after the same example of 3adisobedience.
He 4:12 For the 1aword of God is bliving and operative and sharper than any two-edged csword, and piercing even to the dividing of 2dsoul and espirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the 3thoughts and intentions of the heart.
He 4:13 And there is no creature that is not manifest before Him, but all things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we are to give our account.
C. Superior to Aaron
4:14 — 7:28
1. A High Priest according to the Order of Melchizedek
4:14 — 5:10
He 4:14 Having therefore a 1great 2aHigh Priest who has 3passed through the bheavens, Jesus, the cSon of God, let us hold fast the 4dconfession.
He 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been atempted in all respects like us, yet bwithout sin.
He 4:16 Let us therefore acome forward with boldness to the 1throne of grace that we may receive 2bmercy and find cgrace for timely help.
HEBREWS 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

He 5:1 For every high priest, being taken from among men, is aestablished on behalf of men in the things bpertaining to God that he may coffer both 1gifts and 1sacrifices for sins.
He 5:2 He is aable to exercise 1compassion toward the bignorant and cerring since he also is encompassed with dweakness;
He 5:3 And because of it, he ought, even as afor the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
He 5:4 And ano one takes the honor upon himself, but only as he is called by God, just as bAaron also was.
He 5:5 So also Christ did not 1glorify Himself in becoming a aHigh Priest, but it was He who said to Him, b“You are My Son; this day have I 2begotten You”;
He 5:6 Even as also in another place He says, 1a“You are a Priest forever according to the 2border of Melchizedek.”
He 5:7 This One, in the days of His aflesh, having offered up both bpetitions and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him who was able to save Him 1out of death and having been heard because of His piety,
He 5:8 Even though He was a Son, learned 1aobedience from the things which He bsuffered.
He 5:9 And having been 1aperfected, He became to all those who obey Him the 2source of 3eternal bsalvation,
He 5:10 Being 1addressed by God as a aHigh Priest according to the border of Melchizedek;
(The Third Warning — Be Brought On to Maturity)
5:11 — 6:20
He 5:11 Concerning whom we have much to say that is also difficult to interpret since you have become dull of hearing.
He 5:12 For when because of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you what the 1rudiments of the abeginning of the 2oracles of God are and have become those who have need of 3bmilk and not of solid cfood.
He 5:13 For everyone who partakes of 1milk is inexperienced in the 1aword of righteousness, for he is an binfant;
He 5:14 But solid food is for the afull-grown, who because of practice have their 1faculties exercised for discriminating between both 2good and evil.
HEBREWS 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

He 6:1 Therefore leaving the 1word of the 2abeginning of Christ, let us 3be brought on to 4bmaturity, not laying again a foundation of crepentance from ddead works and of efaith in God,
He 6:2 Of the teaching of 1abaptisms and of the blaying on of hands, of the cresurrection of the dead and of eternal djudgment.
He 6:3 And 1this we will do if God permits.
He 6:4 For it is 1impossible for those who have once been aenlightened and have tasted of the 2heavenly bgift and have become 3cpartakers of the Holy dSpirit
He 6:5 And have atasted the bgood 1word of God and the 2powers of the age cto come,
He 6:6 And yet have 1fallen away, to renew themselves again unto repentance, 2acrucifying again for themselves the Son of God and 2putting Him to open shame.
He 6:7 For the earth, which drinks the 1rain which often comes upon it and 2produces vegetation suitable to those for whose sake also it is cultivated, partakes of blessing from God.
He 6:8 But if it brings forth 1athorns and thistles, it is 2disapproved and 3near a curse, whose end is to be 4bburned.
He 6:9 But we are persuaded of better things concerning you, beloved, and 1things which belong to 2salvation, though we speak thus.
He 6:10 For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your awork and the love which you have shown toward His bname in having 1cministered to the saints and in ministering still.
He 6:11 But we desire earnestly that each of you show the same diligence unto the full aassurance of your bhope cuntil the end,
He 6:12 That you may not be 1sluggish, but aimitators of those who through bfaith and long-suffering are cinheriting the promises.
He 6:13 For God, when He made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, aswore by Himself,
He 6:14 Saying, a“Surely blessing, I will bless you; and multiplying, I will multiply you.”
He 6:15 And thus when Abraham had patiently aendured, he obtained the bpromise.
He 6:16 For men swear by the greater, and for all disputes among them an oath is final for confirmation.
He 6:17 Therefore God, intending to show more abundantly to the aheirs of the promise the bunchangeableness of His counsel, interposed with an oath,
He 6:18 In order that by 1two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible for God to alie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have 2fled for 3refuge to lay hold of the bhope set before us,
He 6:19 Which we have as an 1anchor of the soul, both secure and firm and which 2enters within the veil,
He 6:20 Where the 1aForerunner, Jesus, has entered for us, having become forever a High Priest according to the border of Melchizedek.
HEBREWS 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

2. A High Priest, Perpetual, Great, Living, and Able to Save to the Uttermost
7:1-28
He 7:1 1For this 2aMelchizedek, 2king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the bslaughter of the kings and blessed him,
He 7:2 To whom also Abraham apportioned a atenth part of all; first being interpreted 1bking of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is 1cking of peace;
He 7:3 Being 1without father, without mother, without genealogy; having neither abeginning of days nor bend of life, but likened to the Son of God, abides a priest cperpetually.
He 7:4 And consider how 1agreat this one was, to whom the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the choice spoils.
He 7:5 And they of the sons of Levi, who received the priestly service, have a commandment to take atithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though they have come forth from the loins of Abraham.
He 7:6 But he whose genealogy is not counted from them has taken tithes from Abraham and has 1ablessed him who has the promises.
He 7:7 But without any dispute the 1lesser is blessed by the 2greater.
He 7:8 And here men, who die, receive tithes; but there, one aof whom it is testified that he blives.
He 7:9 And, so to speak, through Abraham, 1Levi also, he who receives tithes, has been made to pay tithes,
He 7:10 For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
He 7:11 If indeed then perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what need was there still that a different 1Priest should arise according to the order of aMelchizedek and that He should not be said to be according to the order of Aaron?
He 7:12 For since the apriesthood is 1transferred, of necessity there comes into being a 2btransfer of law also.
He 7:13 For He of whom these things are said 1belongs to a different tribe, from which ano one has attended to the altar.
He 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord has 1risen out of 2aJudah, concerning which tribe Moses spoke nothing about priests.
He 7:15 And it is still more abundantly evident since it is according to the alikeness of Melchizedek that a different Priest arises,
He 7:16 Who has been appointed not according to the law of a afleshy commandment but according to the bpower of an 1indestructible clife.
He 7:17 For it is testified, “You are a Priest forever according to the aorder of Melchizedek.”
He 7:18 For there is, on the one hand, the 1asetting aside of the preceding commandment because of its bweakness and unprofitableness
He 7:19 (For the alaw 1bperfected nothing), and, on the other hand, the bringing in 2thereupon of a 3better chope, through which we ddraw near to God.
He 7:20 And inasmuch as He was not made a Priest without the taking of an oath
He 7:21 (For they are appointed priests without the taking of an oath, but He, with the taking of an oath by Him who said to Him, a“The Lord has sworn and will not regret it, You are a Priest forever”),
He 7:22 By so much Jesus has also become the 1surety of a abetter bcovenant.
He 7:23 And they are appointed priests many in number because death prevents them from continuing;
He 7:24 But He, because He aabides forever, has His priesthood unalterable.
He 7:25 Hence also He is aable to save 1to the uttermost those who bcome forward to God through Him, since He clives always to 2dintercede for them.
He 7:26 For such a aHigh Priest was also fitting to us, holy, bguileless, undefiled, separated from sinners and having become 1higher than the cheavens,
He 7:27 Who does not have daily need, as the high priests do, to aoffer up sacrifices first for his bown sins and then for those of the people; for this He did conce for all when He doffered up Himself.
He 7:28 For the law establishes men as high priests who have aweakness, but the word of the oath, which was after the law, establishes the bSon, 1cperfected forever.
HEBREWS 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

D. Christ’s New Covenant Superior to the Old
8:1 — 10:18
1. A Better Covenant of Better Promises with a More Excellent Ministry
8:1-13
He 8:1 Now in the things which are being said the chief point is this: We have such a aHigh Priest, who sat down on the bright hand of the cthrone of the dMajesty in the 1heavens,
He 8:2 A 1aMinister of the 2bholy places, even of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
He 8:3 For every high priest is established for the aoffering of both 1gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this One also have something which He may boffer.
He 8:4 Now then if He were on earth, He would not be a Priest at all, there being those who offer the gifts according to the law,
He 8:5 Who serve the 1aexample and bshadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to complete the tabernacle; for, c“See,” He said, “that you make all things according to the pattern that was shown to you in the mountain.”
He 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent 1ministry inasmuch as He is also the 2aMediator of a 3bbetter ccovenant, which has been 4enacted upon 5better dpromises.
He 8:7 For if that 1afirst covenant had been faultless, no 2place would have been bsought for a 1second.
He 8:8 For finding fault with them He says, a“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will consummate a bnew covenant upon the house of Israel and upon the house of Judah,
He 8:9 Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.
He 8:10 For athis is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My 1laws into their 2mind, and on their hearts I will 3inscribe them; and 4I will be God to them, and 5they will be a people to Me.
He 8:11 And they shall by no means each ateach his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, 1Know the Lord; for all will 1know Me from the little one to the great one among them.
He 8:12 For aI will be 1propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I shall by no means remember anymore.”
He 8:13 In saying, A anew covenant, He has made the 1first old. But that which is becoming old and growing decrepit is near to bdisappearing.
HEBREWS 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • 

2. Better Sacrifices and Better Blood with the Greater and More Perfect Tabernacle
9:1 — 10:18
He 9:1 Now then the afirst covenant also had bordinances of service, and its 1csanctuary was of dthis world.
He 9:2 For a atabernacle was prepared, the first, in which were the blampstand and the ctable and the dloaves that were set forth, which is called the eHoly Place;
He 9:3 And after the second aveil, a btabernacle, which is called the cHoly of Holies,
He 9:4 1Having a agolden 2altar and the bArk of the Covenant covered about everywhere with gold, in which were the golden 3cpot that had the manna and Aaron’s drod that budded and the etablets of the covenant,
He 9:5 And above it acherubim of glory overshadowing the 1bexpiation cover, concerning which it is not now the time to speak in detail.
He 9:6 Now these things having been thus prepared, ainto the bfirst tabernacle the priests enter ccontinually, accomplishing their worship;
He 9:7 But into the asecond, only the bhigh priest enters, conce a year and not without dblood, which he offers for ehimself and for the 1sins of ignorance of the fpeople,
He 9:8 The aHoly Spirit thus making this clear, that the 1bway of the cHoly of Holies has not yet been manifested while the dfirst tabernacle still has its standing,
He 9:9 Which is a 1afigure for the present time. According to this tabernacle both 2bgifts and sacrifices are offered, which are cunable to perfect, according to dconscience, him who worships,
He 9:10 Consisting only of afoods and drinks and various 1bwashings, being ordinances of the flesh, imposed until the time of 2setting things right.
He 9:11 But Christ, having come as a aHigh Priest of 1the bgood things that have come into being, through the greater and more perfect ctabernacle not dmade by hands, that is, not of ethis creation,
He 9:12 And not through the ablood of goats and calves but through His bown blood, centered donce for all into the eHoly of Holies, 1obtaining an feternal 2redemption.
He 9:13 For if the ablood of goats and bulls and the bashes of a heifer csprinkling those who are 1defiled sanctify to the purity of the flesh,
He 9:14 How much more will the 1ablood of Christ, who through the 2eternal Spirit boffered Himself cwithout blemish to God, purify our 3dconscience from 4edead works to fserve the 5gliving God?
He 9:15 And because of this He is the aMediator of a bnew covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the 1transgressions under the cfirst covenant, those who have been dcalled might receive the 2promise of the 3eternal einheritance.
He 9:16 For where there is a 1testament, the death of him who made the testament must of necessity be established.
He 9:17 For a 1testament is confirmed 2in the case of the dead, since it never has force when he who made the testament is living.
He 9:18 Hence neither was the afirst covenant 1initiated without bblood;
He 9:19 For when every commandment according to the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he atook the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and bscarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll of the covenant itself and all the people,
He 9:20 Saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you.”
He 9:21 And both the atabernacle and all the vessels of the service he sprinkled in like manner with the blood.
He 9:22 And almost all things are purified by blood according to the law, and 1without shedding of ablood there is no forgiveness.
He 9:23 It was necessary therefore for the aexamples of the things in the heavens to be purified by these, but the 1heavenly things themselves, by 2bbetter sacrifices than these.
He 9:24 For Christ did not aenter into a 1holy place made by hands, a 2bfigure of the ctrue, but into dheaven itself, to appear now before the face of God for us;
He 9:25 Nor in order that He might offer Himself often, just as the ahigh priest enters into the bHoly of Holies year by year by the blood of other creatures;
He 9:26 Since then He would have had to suffer often asince the foundation of the world. But now bonce at the 1cconsummation of the ages He has been dmanifested for the eputting away of sin through the fsacrifice of Himself.
He 9:27 And inasmuch as it is 1reserved for men to adie 2once, and after this comes bjudgment,
He 9:28 So Christ also, having been offered aonce to bbear the sins of many, will cappear a second time to those who deagerly await Him, 1apart from sin, unto 2esalvation.
HEBREWS 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • •

He 10:1 For the law, having a ashadow of the bgood things to come, not the image itself of the things, can cnever by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, dperfect those who draw near.
He 10:2 Otherwise would they not have aceased to be offered, because those worshipping, having once been purified, would have no longer had the bconsciousness of sins?
He 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a bringing to mind of sins ayear by year;
He 10:4 For it is aimpossible for the bblood of bulls and goats to ctake away sins.
He 10:5 Therefore, coming into the world, He says, a“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a bbody You have prepared for Me.
He 10:6 In aburnt offerings and bsacrifices for sin You did not delight.
He 10:7 Then I said, Behold, I have come a(in the 1roll of the book it is written concerning Me) to do Your 2bwill, O God.”
He 10:8 Saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not desire nor delight in” (which are offered according to the law),
He 10:9 He then has said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the 1first that He may establish the 1second,
He 10:10 By which awill we have been bsanctified through the coffering of the dbody of Jesus Christ 1eonce for all.
He 10:11 And every priest 1stands daily, ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can anever bremove sins;
He 10:12 But this One, having aoffered one bsacrifice for sins, 1csat down 2forever on the right hand of God,
He 10:13 Henceforth waiting until His aenemies are made the footstool for His feet.
He 10:14 For by aone offering He has 1bperfected forever those who are being csanctified.
He 10:15 And the aHoly Spirit also testifies to us, for after having said,
He 10:16 a“This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will inscribe them,”
He 10:17 He then says, “And atheir sins and their lawlessnesses I shall by no means remember anymore.”
He 10:18 Now where forgiveness of these is, there is ano longer an offering for sin.
(The Fourth Warning — Come Forward to the Holy of Holies and Do Not Shrink Back to Judaism)
10:19-39
He 10:19 Having therefore, brothers, aboldness for 1bentering the cHoly of Holies in the dblood of Jesus,
He 10:20 Which entrance He initiated for us as a 1new and living away through the 2bveil, that is, His cflesh,
He 10:21 And having a agreat bPriest over the chouse of God,
He 10:22 Let us 1acome forward to the bHoly of Holies with a true heart in full cassurance of faith, having our hearts dsprinkled from an evil conscience and having our 2bodies ewashed with 2pure water.
He 10:23 Let us ahold fast the bconfession of our chope unwavering, for He who has promised is dfaithful;
He 10:24 And let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works,
He 10:25 Not 1abandoning our own 2assembling together, as the custom with some is, but aexhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the bday drawing cnear.
He 10:26 For when we 1sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the 2truth, there 3ano longer remains a bsacrifice of bulls and goats for sins,
He 10:27 But a certain afearful expectation of bjudgment and cfervor of fire, which is to dconsume the adversaries.
He 10:28 aAnyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without compassion on the testimony of btwo or three witnesses.
He 10:29 aBy bhow much do you think he will be thought worthy of 1worse punishment who has 2ctrampled underfoot the Son of God and has 3considered dthe blood of the covenant by which he was esanctified a common thing and has 4insulted the fSpirit of grace?
He 10:30 For we know Him who said, 1a“Vengeance is Mine; I will repay”; and again, b“The Lord will cjudge His people.”
He 10:31 It is a afearful thing to fall into the hands of the bliving God.
He 10:32 But call to mind the former days, in which, having been aenlightened, you endured a great bconflict of csufferings;
He 10:33 On one hand, being made a 1aspectacle both in breproaches and in afflictions, and on the other, having become cpartakers with those who are treated the same.
He 10:34 For you both sympathized with those in abonds and accepted with bjoy the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves have a 1better cpossession and one that abides.
He 10:35 Do not cast away therefore your aboldness, which has great 1breward.
He 10:36 For you have need of aendurance in order that, having done the 1will of God, you may obtain the 2bpromise.
He 10:37 “For in yet a very little while the Coming One will acome and will not delay.
He 10:38 But My arighteous one shall live bby 1faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul does not delight in him.”
He 10:39 But we are not of those who 1shrink back to 2ruin but of those who have faith to the 3againing of the soul.
HEBREWS 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • • 30 • • • • 35 • • • • 40 

III. The Unique Way of Faith
11:1-40
A. The Definition of Faith
v. 1
He 11:1 Now 1afaith is the 2substantiation of things 3bhoped for, the 4conviction of things 5cnot seen.
B. The Witnesses of Faith
vv. 2-40
He 11:2 For in this the elders have obtained a good atestimony.
He 11:3 1By faith we understand that the 2auniverse has been framed by the 3bword of God, so that what is seen has not come into cbeing out of things which appear.
He 11:4 By faith aAbel offered to God a 1more excellent sacrifice than bCain, through which he obtained the ctestimony that he was righteous, God dtestifying to his gifts; and through 2faith, though he has died, he still espeaks.
He 11:5 By faith aEnoch was translated so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he obtained the btestimony that he had been well pleasing to God.
He 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to 1be well pleasing to Him, for he who acomes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who 2bdiligently seek Him.
He 11:7 By faith aNoah, having been divinely instructed concerning things not yet seen and being moved by pious fear, bprepared an ark for the salvation of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became cheir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
He 11:8 By faith aAbraham, being called, obeyed to bgo out unto a place which he was to creceive as an inheritance; and he went out, 1not knowing where he was going.
He 11:9 By faith he dwelt as a foreigner in the aland of promise as in a foreign land, making his home in btents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow cheirs of the same promise;
He 11:10 For he eagerly waited for the 1acity which has the bfoundations, whose Architect and Builder is cGod.
He 11:11 By faith also aSarah herself received power to conceive seed, even beyond the season of age, since she considered Him bfaithful who promised.
He 11:12 Therefore also there were born of one, and that of him who had become adead, as many as even the 1bstars of heaven in multitude and as the 1csand by the 2seashore innumerable.
He 11:13 All athese died 1in faith, bnot receiving the promises but cseeing them from afar and joyfully greeting them and confessing that they were dstrangers and 2sojourners on the earth.
He 11:14 For those who say such things make it manifest that they seek after a acountry of their own.
He 11:15 And if indeed they continued to remember that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return;
He 11:16 But as it is, they long after a better acountry, that is, a bheavenly one. Therefore God is cnot ashamed of them, to be called dtheir God, for He has prepared a ecity for them.
He 11:17 By faith Abraham, being tested, aoffered up Isaac; indeed he who gladly received the bpromises was offering up his only begotten,
He 11:18 Of whom it was said, a“In Isaac shall your seed be called”;
He 11:19 Counting that God was aable to braise men even from the dead, from which he also received him back in 1figure.
He 11:20 By faith aIsaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come.
He 11:21 By faith aJacob, while he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and bworshipped God, while 1leaning on the top of his staff.
He 11:22 By faith aJoseph, nearing his end, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel and bgave orders concerning his bones.
He 11:23 By faith aMoses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was blovely, and they did not fear the cking’s decree.
He 11:24 By faith Moses, when he had agrown up, refused to be called the bson of Pharaoh’s daughter,
He 11:25 Choosing rather to be aill-treated with the people of God than to have the 1temporary 2enjoyment of sin,
He 11:26 1aConsidering the 2breproach of the Christ greater riches than the ctreasures of Egypt; for he dlooked away to the 3ereward.
He 11:27 By faith he aleft Egypt, not fearing the bwrath of the king, for he 1persevered as one cseeing the dunseen One.
He 11:28 By faith he instituted the aPassover and the pouring out of the blood so that the bone destroying the firstborn would not touch them.
He 11:29 By faith they apassed through the Red Sea as through dry land, in which the Egyptians, while making the attempt, were swallowed up.
He 11:30 1By faith the awalls of Jericho fell, having been bencircled for a period of seven days.
He 11:31 By faith aRahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, since she had breceived the spies with peace.
He 11:32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of aGideon, bBarak, cSamson, dJephthah, of eDavid and fSamuel and the prophets,
He 11:33 Who through faith aovercame kingdoms, bworked righteousness, cobtained promises, dstopped the mouths of lions,
He 11:34 aQuenched the power of fire, bescaped the edge of the sword, were made strong in weakness, became cmighty in war, routed the armies of foreigners.
He 11:35 Women areceived their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured to death, not accepting 1deliverance, in order that they might obtain a 2bbetter resurrection.
He 11:36 And still others underwent the trial of amockings and scourgings, even, moreover, of bonds and bimprisonment.
He 11:37 They were astoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they died by the bmurder of the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, cill-treated
He 11:38 (Of 1whom the world was not worthy), wandering over adeserts and bmountains and in ccaves and holes of the earth.
He 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good atestimony through their faith, did bnot obtain the promise,
He 11:40 Because God has 1provided something 2abetter for us, so that 3apart from us they would not be made perfect.
HEBREWS 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

(The Fifth Warning — Run the Race and Do Not Fall Away from Grace)
12:1-29
He 12:1 Therefore let us also, having so great a 1acloud of 2witnesses surrounding us, put away every 3encumbrance and the 4bsin which so easily entangles us and crun with dendurance the 5race which is set before us,
He 12:2 1Looking away aunto 2Jesus, the 3bAuthor and 4Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the ccross, despising the dshame, and has 5esat down on the right hand of the fthrone of God.
He 12:3 For acompare Him who has endured such bcontradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary, 1fainting in your souls.
He 12:4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, struggling against 1sin,
He 12:5 And you have completely forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with sons, a“My son, do not regard lightly the 1discipline of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by Him;
He 12:6 For whom the Lord loves He 1adisciplines, and He bscourges every son whom He receives.”
He 12:7 It is for 1discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with asons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline?
He 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all sons have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
He 12:9 Furthermore we have had the fathers of our flesh as 1discipliners and we arespected them; shall we not much more be in subjection to the 2bFather of spirits and clive?
He 12:10 For they disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His 1aholiness.
He 12:11 Now no discipline at the present time seems to be a matter of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the 1apeaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.
He 12:12 Therefore 1set straight the ahands which hang down and the paralyzed knees,
He 12:13 And make astraight 1paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be 2put out of joint but rather may be bhealed.
He 12:14 aPursue peace with all men and 1bsanctification, without which no one will see the Lord;
He 12:15 Looking carefully lest anyone 1afall away from the bgrace of God; lest any 2croot of bitterness springing up trouble you, and through this many be ddefiled;
He 12:16 Lest there be any afornicator or profane person like bEsau, who for one meal gave up his own 1birthright.
He 12:17 For you know that also afterward, when he adesired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found 1no place for repentance, even though he sought it with tears.
He 12:18 For you have not come forward to a 1amountain which could be btouched and which was set on cfire, and to ddarkness and egloom and whirlwind,
He 12:19 And to the asound of a trumpet and to the bvoice of words, because of which those who heard centreated that no further word be spoken to them;
He 12:20 For they could not bear that which was being commanded: a“If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned.”
He 12:21 And so fearful was the sight, Moses said, “I am afull of fear and trembling.”
He 12:22 But you have come forward to 1Mount aZion and to the 2bcity of the cliving God, the dheavenly Jerusalem; and to emyriads of angels, to the 3universal gathering;
He 12:23 And to the achurch of the 1bfirstborn, who have been 2cenrolled in the heavens; and to God, the dJudge of all; and to the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect;
He 12:24 And to Jesus, the aMediator of a 1bnew covenant; and to the 2cblood of dsprinkling, which 3speaks something better than that of eAbel.
He 12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who aspeaks, for if those did not bescape who refused Him who warned them upon the earth, much more we shall not cescape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven,
He 12:26 Whose voice at that time ashook the earth but now has promised, saying, b“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.”
He 12:27 And this word, “Yet once more,” shows clearly the aremoval of the things being shaken as being of things having been made, that the things which are not shaken may bremain.
He 12:28 Therefore receiving an unshakable 1akingdom, let us 2have bgrace, through which we may cserve God dwell-pleasingly with piety and efear;
He 12:29 For our God is also a 1consuming afire.
HEBREWS 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

IV. Virtues for the Church Life
13:1-19
A. Six Practical Items
vv. 1-7
He 13:1 Let 1abrotherly love 2continue.
He 13:2 Do not forget ahospitality, for through this some, without knowing it, have bentertained angels.
He 13:3 1Remember those who are imprisoned as bound with them, those who are aill-treated as being yourselves also likewise treated in body.
He 13:4 Let 1marriage be held in honor 2among all, and the bed undefiled; for afornicators and adulterers God will 3bjudge.
He 13:5 Let your way of life be without the 1alove of money, being bsatisfied with the things which are at hand; for He Himself has said, c“I shall by no means give you up, neither by any means shall I abandon you”;
He 13:6 So that being of good courage, we say, a“The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear. What shall man do to me?”
He 13:7 1Remember the ones aleading you, who have bspoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their cmanner of life, dimitate their faith.
B. Experiences of Christ
vv. 8-15
He 13:8 1Jesus Christ is the asame yesterday and today, yes, even forever.
He 13:9 Do not be acarried away by 1bvarious strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be 2confirmed by cgrace, not by the 3dfood of sacrifices, by which those who walk were not profited.
He 13:10 We have an 1altar from which they who are serving the tabernacle have no right to aeat.
He 13:11 For the 1abodies of those animals whose bblood is brought into the Holy of Holies for sin by the high priest are burned up outside the camp.
He 13:12 Therefore also Jesus, that He might 1asanctify the people through His own 2bblood, suffered coutside the 3gate.
He 13:13 Let us therefore go forth aunto Him 1boutside the 2camp, bearing His creproach.
He 13:14 For we do not have here a 1aremaining city, but 2we bseek after the cone to come.
He 13:15 1Through Him then let us aoffer up a sacrifice of bpraise continually to God, that is, the cfruit of lips dconfessing His name.
C. Another Four Items Needed
vv. 16-19
He 13:16 But do not forget doing good and 1asharing with others, for with such bsacrifices God is well pleased.
He 13:17 1Obey the ones aleading you and bsubmit to them, for they cwatch over your souls as those who will render an account, that they may do this with joy and not groaning; for this would be unprofitable to you.
He 13:18 1aPray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a bgood conscience, desiring in all things to conduct ourselves honorably.
He 13:19 And I exhort you much more to do this that I may be restored to you more quickly.
V. Conclusion
13:20-25
He 13:20 Now the aGod of peace, He who bbrought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great cShepherd of the 1dsheep, in the eblood of an 2eternal fcovenant,
He 13:21 aPerfect you in every bgood work for the doing of His cwill, 1doing din us that which is well epleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to Him be the fglory forever and ever. Amen.
He 13:22 Now I beseech you, brothers, 1bear with the word of this aexhortation, for indeed I have written to you in few words.
He 13:23 Know that our brother 1aTimothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you.
He 13:24 1Greet all the ones aleading you and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
He 13:25 1aGrace be with you all. Amen.
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THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   
Outline

Author: James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ; the Lord’s flesh brother (1:1; Matt. 13:55).
Time of Writing: Perhaps around A.D. 50, prior to the decline of the church, which is never alluded to in this book.
Place of Writing: Probably Jerusalem, from which James apparently never departed.
Recipients: The twelve tribes in dispersion (see 1:1 and notes 3 and 4).
Subject:
Practical Christian Perfection
JAMES 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

I. Introduction — To the Twelve Tribes in Dispersion
1:1
Ja 1:1 1James, a aslave of God and of the 2Lord Jesus Christ, to the 3twelve btribes in the 4cdispersion: 5Rejoice!
II. Practical Virtues of Christian Perfection
1:2 — 5:20
A. Enduring Trials by Faith
1:2-12
Ja 1:2 Count it all ajoy, my bbrothers, whenever you fall into various 1ctrials,
Ja 1:3 Knowing that the aproving of your 1faith works out bendurance.
Ja 1:4 And let aendurance have its perfect work that you may be 1bperfect and entire, lacking in nothing.
Ja 1:5 But if any one of you lacks 1awisdom, let him 2bask of God, who gives to all 3liberally and does 4not reproach, and it will be given to him.
Ja 1:6 But let him ask in afaith, 1bdoubting nothing, for he who 1doubts is like the surge of the csea, driven by the dwind and tossed about.
Ja 1:7 For that man must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
Ja 1:8 He is a 1adouble-souled man, unstable in all his ways.
Ja 1:9 And let the lowly brother 1boast in his 2aexaltation,
Ja 1:10 And the 1rich in his being brought low, because like a aflower of the grass he will bpass away.
Ja 1:11 For the 1sun rises with its 2scorching heat and withers the agrass, and its flower falls off, and the bbeauty of its appearance is destroyed; so also the 3crich man will fade away in his pursuits.
Ja 1:12 aBlessed is the man who endures 1trial, because when he has become 2approved by testing, he will receive the 3bcrown of 4life, which He cpromised to those who 5dlove Him.
B. Resisting Temptation as God-born Ones
1:13-18
Ja 1:13 Let no one say when he is 1atempted, I am tempted 2of God; for God 3cannot be tempted of evil, and He Himself 4tempts no one.
Ja 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own alusts;
Ja 1:15 Then the lust, having conceived, 1gives birth to sin; and the sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth adeath.
Ja 1:16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
Ja 1:17 All good 1giving and every perfect 1agift is from babove, coming down from the 2Father of lights, with whom is no 3cvariation or shadow cast by turning.
Ja 1:18 He 1abrought us forth by the 2word of btruth, 3purposing that we might be a kind of 4cfirstfruits of His creatures.
C. Living a God-fearing Life by the Implanted Word according to the Perfect Law of Freedom
1:19-27
Ja 1:19 1You know this, my beloved brothers; but let every man be quick to hear, 2slow to aspeak, slow to bwrath;
Ja 1:20 For the 1wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
Ja 1:21 Therefore aputting away all bfilthiness and the abundance of malice, receive in cmeekness the 1implanted dword, which is able to 2save your souls.
Ja 1:22 And become adoers of the word and not bhearers only, who cdelude themselves.
Ja 1:23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a adoer, this one is like a man considering in a bmirror the face he was born with;
Ja 1:24 For he considers himself and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he is.
Ja 1:25 But he who 1looks into the 2perfect law, the alaw of bfreedom, and continues in it, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be cblessed in his doing.
Ja 1:26 If anyone thinks himself to be 1religious and yet does 2not bridle his atongue but bdeceives his heart, this one’s 1religion is vain.
Ja 1:27 This is pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father: to visit 1aorphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself 2unspotted from the 3world.
JAMES 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • 

D. Having No Respect of Persons among the Brothers
2:1-13
Ja 2:1 My abrothers, do not hold the 1bfaith of our Lord Jesus Christ 2of cglory with drespect of persons.
Ja 2:2 For if there comes into your 1synagogue a man with agold rings in splendid clothing, and there also comes in a bpoor man in filthy clothing,
Ja 2:3 And you look upon the one wearing the splendid clothing and say, You sit here in a good place, and to the poor man you say, You stand there, or sit under my footstool;
Ja 2:4 Have you not made 1adistinctions 2among yourselves and become judges with evil reasonings?
Ja 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Did not God achoose the poor 1in the world to be brich in faith and heirs of the 2ckingdom, which He dpromised to those who 3elove Him?
Ja 2:6 But you have adishonored the poor. Is it not the brich who oppress you and is it not they who cdrag you to the 1courts?
Ja 2:7 Is it not they who blaspheme the 1honorable aname 2by which you are called?
Ja 2:8 If indeed you are fulfilling the 1royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall 2alove your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;
Ja 2:9 But if you arespect persons, you 1commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
Ja 2:10 For whoever 1keeps the whole alaw yet stumbles in bone point has become guilty of all.
Ja 2:11 For He who said, Do not commit aadultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
Ja 2:12 1So speak and so do as those who are to be ajudged by the 2blaw of freedom.
Ja 2:13 For the judgment is without amercy to him who has shown no mercy; mercy 1triumphs over judgment.
E. Being Justified by Works in Relations with the Believers
2:14-26
Ja 2:14 What is the profit, my brothers, if anyone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith 1save him?
Ja 2:15 If a brother or sister 1is awithout clothing and lacks daily food,
Ja 2:16 And any one of you says to them, 1Go in peace, be warmed and filled, yet you do anot give them the 2necessities of the body, what is the profit?
Ja 2:17 So also 1faith, if it does not have works, is adead 2in itself.
Ja 2:18 But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my aworks.
Ja 2:19 You believe that God is aone. You do well; the bdemons also believe and shudder.
Ja 2:20 But are you willing to know, O vain man, that faith without its works is 1useless?
Ja 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works in that he offered up aIsaac his son upon the altar?
Ja 2:22 You see that afaith worked together with his works, and by these works faith was perfected.
Ja 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham abelieved God, and it was baccounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the cfriend of God.
Ja 2:24 You see that a man is 1justified by aworks and not by bfaith only.
Ja 2:25 And in like manner was not also aRahab the harlot justified by works in that she received the messengers and 1sent them out by a different way?
Ja 2:26 For just as the body without the 1spirit is dead, so also faith without works is adead.
JAMES 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

F. Bridling the Tongue
3:1-12
Ja 3:1 Do not become many 1ateachers, my bbrothers, knowing that we will receive greater 2cjudgment.
Ja 3:2 For in many things we all stumble. If anyone does not stumble in aword, this one is a bperfect man, able to cbridle the whole body as well.
Ja 3:3 Now if we put abridles into the mouths of horses that they would obey us, we direct their whole body as well.
Ja 3:4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are directed by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the pilot wills.
Ja 3:5 So also the atongue is a little member yet boasts great things. Behold, how great a forest so little a 1fire ignites!
Ja 3:6 And the tongue is a 1afire; the very world of unrighteousness, the tongue is set among our members as that which bcontaminates the whole body and sets on fire the 2course of life and is set on fire by 3Gehenna.
Ja 3:7 For every nature, both of beasts and of birds, both of reptiles and of creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human 1nature;
Ja 3:8 But the tongue no one among men is able to tame; it is a 1restless evil, full of deadly apoison.
Ja 3:9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made according to the alikeness of God.
Ja 3:10 Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, ought not to be so.
Ja 3:11 Does the spring, out of the same 1opening, gush forth the sweet and the bitter?
Ja 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives? Or a vine, afigs? Neither can 1salt water produce sweet.
G. Behaving in Wisdom
3:13-18
Ja 3:13 Who is awise and understanding among you? Let him show 1by his bgood manner of life his 2cworks in 3dmeekness of ewisdom.
Ja 3:14 But if you have bitter ajealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast and lie against the btruth.
Ja 3:15 1This wisdom is not that which descends from aabove, but is 2earthly, bsoulish, cdemonic.
Ja 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there adisorder and every worthless practice are.
Ja 3:17 But the 1awisdom from above is first bpure, then cpeaceable, 2forbearing, 3compliant, full of dmercy and good efruit, fimpartial, gwithout hypocrisy.
Ja 3:18 And the 1afruit of righteousness is bsown in cpeace 2by those who dmake peace.
JAMES 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

H. Dealing with Pleasures, the World, and the Devil
4:1-10
Ja 4:1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Are they not from this, from your 1apleasures that bwar in your members?
Ja 4:2 You 1alust and do not have; you bmurder and are cjealous and are not able to obtain; you fight and make war. You do not have because you do not ask;
Ja 4:3 You aask and do not receive because you ask evilly that you may spend it on your bpleasures.
Ja 4:4 1aAdulteresses, do you not know that the 2friendship of the 3bworld is enmity with God? Therefore whoever determines to be a cfriend of the world is constituted an 4enemy of God.
Ja 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain: The 1Spirit, whom He has caused to 2adwell in us, longs unto envy?
Ja 4:6 But He gives agreater grace; therefore 1it says, 2“God resists the 3bproud but gives grace to the chumble.”
Ja 4:7 1Be subject therefore to God; but 2awithstand the 3bdevil, and he will flee from you.
Ja 4:8 aDraw near to God, and He will bdraw near to you. cCleanse your hands, sinners, and dpurify your hearts, you 1double-souled!
Ja 4:9 1Endure amisery and bmourn and cweep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into dejection.
Ja 4:10 1Be ahumbled before the Lord, and He will bexalt you.
I. Not Speaking against the Brothers
4:11-12
Ja 4:11 Do not speak against aone another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother or bjudges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a 1cdoer of the law but a judge.
Ja 4:12 One is aLawgiver and bJudge, who is able to save and cdestroy. But who are you who djudge your neighbor?
J. Confiding Not in Self-will but in the Lord
4:13-17
Ja 4:13 Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we 1will go into this or that city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit;
Ja 4:14 Whereas you do not know the matter of atomorrow, what your blife will be; for you are a 1cvapor, which appears for a little while and then disappears.
Ja 4:15 Instead you ought to say, If the Lord awills, we will both live and do this or that.
Ja 4:16 But now you aboast in your 1arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
Ja 4:17 1Therefore to him who aknows to do good and does not do it, to him it is bsin.
JAMES 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

(Warning to the Rich)
5:1-6
Ja 5:1 Come now, you 1arich, bweep, chowling over your miseries, which are coming upon you!
Ja 5:2 Your ariches have rotted and your garments have become bmoth-eaten;
Ja 5:3 Your gold and your silver have arusted, and their rust will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up btreasure in the last days.
Ja 5:4 Behold, the awages of the workmen who mowed your fields, which have been withheld by you, cry out; and the 1cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the 2Lord of hosts.
Ja 5:5 You have lived aluxuriously on the earth and have bgiven yourselves to pleasure; you have 1nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.
Ja 5:6 You condemned, you murdered the 1righteous; he does not aresist you.
K. Awaiting the Lord’s Coming with Long-suffering
5:7-11
Ja 5:7 Therefore be 1long-suffering, abrothers, until the 2bcoming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer eagerly cawaits the precious fruit of the earth, exercising long-suffering over it until it receives the early and late drain.
Ja 5:8 You also be 1long-suffering; aestablish your hearts because the 2bcoming of the Lord has drawn cnear.
Ja 5:9 Do not 1complain, brothers, against aone another lest you be bjudged. Behold, the 2cJudge stands before the ddoors.
Ja 5:10 As an example, brothers, of 1suffering evil and of 2long-suffering, take the aprophets, who spoke 3in the bname of the Lord.
Ja 5:11 Behold, we call those who 1endured ablessed. You have heard of the endurance of bJob, and you have seen his cend from the Lord, that the Lord is very tenderhearted and dcompassionate.
L. Speaking Honestly without Swearing
5:12
Ja 5:12 But 1above all things, my brothers, do 2not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth nor with any other oath; but let your 3yes be yes, and your no, no, 4lest you fall under ajudgment.
M. Healthy Practices in the Church Life
5:13-20
Ja 5:13 Does anyone among you suffer evil? Let him 1pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him 2asing praise.
Ja 5:14 Is anyone among you 1ill? Let him 2call for the aelders of the bchurch, and let them pray over him, 3canointing him with oil 4in the dname of the Lord.
Ja 5:15 And the 1prayer of afaith will save the one who is 2bsick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has 3committed sins, it will be cforgiven him.
Ja 5:16 Therefore aconfess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be bhealed. The cpetition of a righteous man 1avails much in its working.
Ja 5:17 aElijah was a man of blike feeling with us, and he 1earnestly prayed that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
Ja 5:18 And he prayed again, and heaven gave arain, and the earth sprouted forth with its fruit.
Ja 5:19 My abrothers, if any one among you is 1bled astray from the ctruth and someone dturns him back,
Ja 5:20 Let him know that he who turns a 1sinner back from the error of his way will 2asave that one’s soul from 3death and will 4bcover a multitude of 5sins.
< James Outline • 1 Peter Outline >
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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   
Outline

Author: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ (1:1).
Time of Writing: Probably around A.D. 64, prior to the martyrdom of Paul (see note 133 in ch. 5).
Place of Writing: Babylon on the Euphrates (see note 132 in ch. 5).
Recipients: The Jewish believers sojourning in the Gentile world (see 1:1 and note 3).
Subject:
The Christian Life under the Government of God
1 PETER 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

I. Introduction — To the Sojourning Believers under the Operation of the Triune God
1:1-2
1P 1:1 1aPeter, an 2bapostle of Jesus Christ, to the 3csojourners of the 4ddispersion of 5ePontus, fGalatia, Cappadocia, gAsia, and hBithynia,
1P 1:2 1aChosen 2according to the 3bforeknowledge of God the Father 4in the 5csanctification of the Spirit 6unto the 7dobedience and 8esprinkling of the 9blood of Jesus Christ: 10Grace to you and 11peace be 12fmultiplied.
II. The Full Salvation of the Triune God and Its Issues
1:3-25
A. The Father’s Regeneration — Unto a Living Hope,
an Inheritance Kept in the Heavens and Ready to Be Revealed at the Last Time
vv. 3-9
1P 1:3 1aBlessed be the 2God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great 3bmercy has 4cregenerated us 5unto a 6living dhope 7through the eresurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1P 1:4 1Unto an 2ainheritance, 3incorruptible and undefiled and bunfading, 4ckept in the heavens for you,
1P 1:5 Who are being 1aguarded 2by the power of God 3through faith 4unto a 5salvation ready to be brevealed at the 6clast time;
1P 1:6 In which 1time you aexult, though for a blittle while at present, if it must be, you have been made sorrowful by various 2ctrials,
1P 1:7 So that the 1aproving of your faith, 2much more 3precious than of gold which perishes though it is bproved by fire, may be found 4unto cpraise and dglory and honor at the 5erevelation of Jesus Christ;
1P 1:8 Whom having not aseen, you 1blove; 2into whom though not seeing Him at present, yet 3cbelieving, you dexult with 4joy that is unspeakable and 4full of glory,
1P 1:9 1Receiving the end of your faith, the asalvation of your 2bsouls.
B. The Spirit’s Application — Through the Prophets’ Prophesying and the Apostles’ Preaching
vv. 10-12
1P 1:10 Concerning this salvation the 1aprophets, who prophesied concerning the 2grace that was to come unto you, sought and searched diligently,
1P 1:11 1Searching into 2what time or what manner of time the Spirit 3of Christ in them was making clear, testifying beforehand of the 4sufferings 5of Christ and the 6glories after these.
1P 1:12 To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to you they ministered 1these things, which have now been announced to you through those who 2preached the gospel to you by the Holy aSpirit sent from heaven, which things angels long to 3look into.
C. Christ’s Redemption — Unto a Holy Life by the Holy Nature and
unto Brotherly Love through Purification by the Sanctifying Truth,
Based on Regeneration by the Incorruptible Seed through the Living Word of God
vv. 13-25
1P 1:13 1Therefore agirding up the loins of your mind and being 2bsober, set your 3hope perfectly on the 4cgrace being brought to you at the drevelation of Jesus Christ.
1P 1:14 As children of aobedience, do not be 1fashioned according to the former blusts in your cignorance;
1P 1:15 But according to the 1Holy One who acalled you, you yourselves also 2be bholy in all your cmanner of life;
1P 1:16 Because it is written, “You shall be aholy because I am holy.”
1P 1:17 And if you call as 1aFather the One who bwithout respect of persons 2cjudges according to each one’s 3work, pass the time of your dsojourning in 4efear,
1P 1:18 Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with 1asilver or gold, that you were bredeemed cfrom your 2dvain manner of life handed down from your fathers,
1P 1:19 But with 1precious ablood, as of a bLamb cwithout blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ;
1P 1:20 Who was 1aforeknown bbefore the foundation of the world but has been cmanifested in the 2dlast of times for your sake,
1P 1:21 Who 1through Him believe into God, who araised Him from the dead and 2gave Him bglory, so that your 3faith and chope are in God.
1P 1:22 Since you have 1purified your 2asouls by your obedience to the 3truth unto unfeigned 4bbrotherly love, love one another 5from a pure heart fervently,
1P 1:23 1Having been aregenerated not of corruptible 2bseed but of incorruptible, through the cliving and abiding word of God.
1P 1:24 For “all 1flesh is like agrass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen off,
1P 1:25 But the 1word of the 2Lord abides forever.” And this is the aword which has been announced to you as the 3bgospel.
1 PETER 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 

III. Growth in Life and Its Results
2:1-10
A. Growing by Feeding on the Milk of the Word unto Full Salvation
vv. 1-3
1P 2:1 1Therefore putting away all 2amalice and all guile and bhypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings,
1P 2:2 As 1newborn ababes, long for the 2guileless bmilk 3of the word in order that by it you may 4cgrow 5unto dsalvation,
1P 2:3 If you have 1atasted that the Lord is 2good.
B. Transformed unto the Building Up of a Spiritual House for God’s Dwelling,
a Holy Priesthood for God’s Service
vv. 4-8
1P 2:4 Coming to Him, a 1living astone, brejected by men but with God cchosen and 2precious,
1P 2:5 You yourselves also, as 1living astones, are being 2bbuilt up as a 3spiritual 4chouse 5into a 6holy 7priesthood to offer up 8spiritual sacrifices dacceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1P 2:6 For it is contained in Scripture: “aBehold, I lay in Zion a 1cornerstone, 2bchosen and 3precious; and he who cbelieves on Him shall by no means be put to shame.”
1P 2:7 To you therefore who believe is the 1preciousness; but to the unbelieving, a“The stone which the 2builders brejected, this has 3become the head of the corner,”
1P 2:8 And, a“A stone of 1bstumbling and a rock of coffense”; who dstumble at 2the word, being disobedient, to 3which also they were eappointed.
C. To Tell Out the Virtues of the Calling One
vv. 9-10
1P 2:9 But you are a achosen 1race, a 2royal bpriesthood, a 3holy nation, a people acquired for a possession, so that you may 4tell out the 5cvirtues of Him who has dcalled you out of 6edarkness into His marvelous 6flight;
1P 2:10 1Who once were anot a people but now are the people of God; who had not previously been shown mercy but have now been shown mercy.
IV. The Christian Life and Its Sufferings
2:11 — 4:19
A. A Life in an Excellent Manner toward All Men in All Concerns
2:11 — 3:13
1. As Sojourners among the Gentiles
2:11-12
1P 2:11 Beloved, I entreat you as astrangers and bsojourners to cabstain from 1dfleshly lusts, which ewar against the 1fsoul,
1P 2:12 Having your 1amanner of life 2bexcellent among the Gentiles, so that in the matter concerning which they cspeak against you as evildoers they may, by your dgood works, as they see them with their own eyes, eglorify God in the day of His 3fvisitation.
2. Toward Human Institutions
2:13-17
1P 2:13 1Be asubject to every human 2institution 3for the Lord’s sake, whether to a bking as being supreme,
1P 2:14 Or to governors as being sent by him for avengeance on evildoers and praise of those who do bgood.
1P 2:15 For so is the awill of God, that by doing good you would muzzle the bignorance of 1foolish men;
1P 2:16 As afree, and yet bnot having freedom as a covering for evil, but as cslaves of God.
1P 2:17 aHonor all men. bLove the 1brotherhood. cFear God. Honor the dking.
3. Servants toward Masters
2:18-20
1P 2:18 Household aservants, be subject in all 1bfear to your masters, not only to the good and forbearing but also to the crooked.
1P 2:19 For this is 1grace, if anyone, 2because of a aconsciousness of God, bears sorrows by suffering 3unjustly.
1P 2:20 For what 1glory is it if, while sinning and being buffeted, you endure? But if, while doing good and asuffering, you endure, this is grace with God.
4. The Model of Christ
2:21-25
1P 2:21 For to 1this you were acalled, because Christ also bsuffered on your behalf, leaving you a 2cmodel so that you may follow in His steps;
1P 2:22 Who committed no asin, nor was guile found in His bmouth
;
1P 2:23 Who being reviled did anot revile in return; suffering, He did not threaten but kept committing 1all to Him who 2bjudges righteously;
1P 2:24 Who Himself 1abore up our sins in His bbody on the 2ctree, in order that we, 3having ddied to sins, might 4elive 5to righteousness; by whose 6fbruise you were 7healed.
1P 2:25 For you were like asheep being led astray, but you have now 1returned to the 2bShepherd and cOverseer of your 3dsouls.
1 PETER 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

5. In Marriage Life
3:1-7
1P 3:1 In 1like manner, awives, be subject to your own husbands, that even if any disobey the 2word, they will be gained without the 2word through the manner of life of their bwives,
1P 3:2 Seeing with their own eyes your 1pure manner of life 2in 3afear.
1P 3:3 Let your aadorning not be the outward 1plaiting of hair and putting on of bgold or clothing with garments,
1P 3:4 But the 1hidden man of the aheart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet bspirit, which is very ccostly in the sight of God.
1P 3:5 For in this manner formerly the holy women also, who ahoped in God, adorned themselves, being bsubject to their own husbands,
1P 3:6 As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him alord; whose children you have become, if you do good and do not bfear any 1terror.
1P 3:7 aHusbands, in like manner dwell together with them 1according to knowledge, as with the 2weaker, female 3vessel, 4assigning bhonor to them as also to cfellow heirs of the 5grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
6. In Common Life
3:8-13
1P 3:8 And finally be all of the asame mind, sympathetic, bloving the brothers, ctenderhearted, dhumble-minded;
1P 3:9 Not rendering aevil for evil or breviling for reviling, but on the contrary 1cblessing one another, because you were dcalled 2to this, that you might inherit eblessing.
1P 3:10 For a“he who desires to love life and see 1good days, let him cause his btongue to cease from evil and his lips to speak no guile.
1P 3:11 And let him aturn away from evil and do good; let him bseek peace and pursue it;
1P 3:12 For the aeyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His bears incline to their petition; but the cface of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
1P 3:13 And who will harm you if you become zealous for what is agood?
B. Suffering for Righteousness by the Will of God as Christ Did
3:14-22
1P 3:14 But even if you asuffer because of brighteousness, you are cblessed. And do not be dafraid with fear from them, nor be etroubled,
1P 3:15 But 1asanctify Christ as bLord in your hearts, being always ready for a defense to everyone who asks of you an account concerning the 2chope which is in you,
1P 3:16 Yet with ameekness and 1bfear, having a good 2cconscience, so that in the matter in which you are dspoken against, those who erevile your good fmanner of life 3gin Christ may be put to hshame.
1P 3:17 For it is better, if the awill of God should will it, to bsuffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1P 3:18 For Christ also has suffered once for 1sins, the Righteous 2aon behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you bto God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the 3Spirit;
1P 3:19 In 1which also He went and 2proclaimed to the 3spirits in 4prison,
1P 3:20 1Who had formerly disobeyed when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of aNoah, while the ark was being prepared; entering into which, a few, that is, eight souls, were 2brought safely through 3by bwater.
1P 3:21 1Which water, as the antitype, also now saves you, that is, 2baptism, 3not a putting away of the filth of the flesh but the 4appeal of a good aconscience unto God, through the bresurrection of Jesus Christ,
1P 3:22 1Who is at the aright hand of God, having gone into bheaven, cangels and dauthorities and powers being esubjected to Him.
1 PETER 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

C. Arming Themselves with the Mind of Christ for Suffering
4:1-6
1P 4:1 Since Christ therefore has asuffered1 in the flesh, you also 2barm yourselves with the 3same mind (because he who has 4suffered in the flesh has ceased from csin),
1P 4:2 1aNo longer to blive the rest of the time in the flesh in the clusts of men, but in the dwill of God.
1P 4:3 For the time which has passed is asufficient for you to have carried out the 1desire of the bGentiles, having gone on 2in licentiousness, lusts, debaucheries, carousings, drinking bouts, and lawless idolatries.
1P 4:4 In this they think it 1strange that you are not 2running together with them into the same 3flood of adissoluteness, 4slandering you;
1P 4:5 1Who will 2arender an account to bHim who is ready to 3judge the living and the dead.
1P 4:6 For unto this end the gospel was announced also to 1those who are now dead, that they might be 2ajudged in the flesh according to men but live in the 3spirit according to God.
D. As Good Stewards of the Varied Grace of God
4:7-11
1P 4:7 But the 1end of all things has drawn anear. Therefore 2be sober-minded and 3be bsober unto cprayers.
1P 4:8 Above all, have afervent love among yourselves, because blove ccovers a multitude of sins.
1P 4:9 Be ahospitable to one another without bmurmuring,
1P 4:10 aEach one, as he has received a gift, 1ministering it among yourselves as good bstewards of the 2varied cgrace of God.
1P 4:11 If anyone speaks, as speaking 1aoracles of God; if anyone ministers, as ministering out of the strength which God 2bsupplies; that in all things God may be cglorified 3through Jesus Christ, dto whom is the 4glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
E. Rejoicing in Sharing the Sufferings of Christ
4:12-19
1P 4:12 Beloved, do not think that the 1afiery ordeal among you, coming to you for a 2btrial, is 3strange, as if it were a 3strange thing happening to you;
1P 4:13 But inasmuch as you share in the asufferings of Christ, brejoice, so that also at the crevelation of His glory you may rejoice dexultingly.
1P 4:14 If you are areproached in the 1name of bChrist, you are cblessed, because 2the Spirit of glory and of God 3rests upon you.
1P 4:15 For let none of you asuffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a 1bmeddler into others’ affairs;
1P 4:16 But if as a 1aChristian, let him not be bashamed, but let him 2cglorify God in this name.
1P 4:17 For it is time for the 1ajudgment to bbegin from the 2house of God; and if cfirst from us, 3what will be the end of those who 4ddisobey the gospel of God?
1P 4:18 And if the 1righteous man is 2saved only with difficulty, where will the aungodly and the sinner 3appear?
1P 4:19 So then let those 1also who asuffer according to the 2bwill of God 3ccommit their 4souls in 5dwell-doing to a faithful 6eCreator.
1 PETER 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

V. The Elders’ Shepherding and Its Reward
5:1-4
A. The Shepherding Patterns
vv. 1-3
1P 5:1 1Therefore the 2aelders among you I exhort, who am a 3fellow elder and 4bwitness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a 5partaker of the cglory to be revealed:
1P 5:2 1aShepherd the 2bflock of God among you, 3coverseeing not under compulsion but dwillingly, 4according to God; not by eseeking gain through base means but eagerly;
1P 5:3 Nor as 1alording it over your 2allotments but by 3becoming bpatterns of the 4flock.
B. The Chief Shepherd’s Reward
v. 4
1P 5:4 And when the Chief aShepherd is manifested, you will receive the 1bunfading ccrown of glory.
VI. The Mighty Hand of God and Its Goal
5:5-11
A. Humbled under God’s Mighty Hand
vv. 5-9
1P 5:5 In like manner, ayounger men, be bsubject to 1elders; and all of you 2gird yourselves with 3chumility toward one another, because God 4dresists the 5eproud but fgives 6ggrace to the 7hhumble.
1P 5:6 Therefore abe 1bhumbled under the mighty chand of God that He may 2dexalt you in due time,
1P 5:7 1aCasting 2all your 3banxiety on Him because 4it matters to Him concerning you.
1P 5:8 Be 1asober; 2bwatch. Your 3cadversary, the 4ddevil, as a 5roaring elion, 6fwalks about, 7seeking someone to devour.
1P 5:9 Him 1awithstand, being bfirm in your 2faith, knowing that the same 3csufferings are being accomplished among your 4brotherhood in the world.
B. Perfected and Grounded by the God of All Grace
vv. 10-11
1P 5:10 1aBut the God of 2all grace, He who has bcalled you 3into His ceternal glory 4din Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a elittle while, will 5Himself 6fperfect, 7gestablish, 8hstrengthen, and 9iground you.
1P 5:11 aTo Him be 1the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
VII. Conclusion
5:12-14
A. The Testimony of the True Grace of God
v. 12
1P 5:12 Through aSilvanus, the faithful brother, as I account him, I have written to you briefly, bexhorting and 1ctestifying fully that this is the 2true grace of God; enter into this grace and dstand in it.
B. Greetings
vv. 13-14
1P 5:13 The 1co-achosen in 2Babylon and 3Mark my son greet you.
1P 5:14 Greet one another with a akiss of love. 1bPeace to you all who are 2cin Christ.
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THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER

Chapters
 1   2   3   
Outline

Author: Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ (1:1).
Time of Writing: Probably around A.D. 69, after Paul’s martyrdom (cf. 3:15-16) and before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, as indicated by the allusions to the decline of the church in ch. 2; close to the time of Peter’s martyrdom (1:14).
Place of Writing: Perhaps Rome, where the tradition in church history places Peter’s martyrdom.
Recipients: The Jewish believers in dispersion in the Gentile world (see 1:1 and note 3).
Subject:
The Divine Provision and the Divine Government
2 PETER 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

I. Introduction — To the Believers, Who Have Been Allotted Equally Precious Faith
1:1-2
2P 1:1 1aSimon Peter, a 2bslave and capostle of Jesus Christ, to 3those who have been 4allotted 5dfaith 6equally precious as 7ours 8in the 9righteousness of our 10God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
2P 1:2 1Grace to you and peace be 2amultiplied 3in the full 4bknowledge of God and of 5Jesus our Lord;
II. The Divine Provision
1:3-21
A. The Impartation of the Divine Power
vv. 3-11
1. All Things Which Relate to Life and Godliness, with the Divine Nature
vv. 3-4
2P 1:3 Seeing that His 1adivine power has 2granted to us 3all things which relate to 4blife and 5cgodliness, 6through the 7full knowledge of 8Him who has dcalled us 9by His own 10eglory and 11fvirtue,
2P 1:4 1Through 2which He has granted to us precious and 3exceedingly great apromises that through 4these you might become bpartakers of the divine nature, 5having cescaped the 6corruption which is in the dworld 7by elust.
2. Growth and Development by Life unto the Rich Entrance into the Eternal Kingdom
vv. 5-11
2P 1:5 And for this very reason also, 1adding all adiligence, 2supply bountifully in your 3bfaith 4cvirtue; and in virtue, 5dknowledge;
2P 1:6 And in knowledge, 1aself-control; and in self-control, 2bendurance; and in endurance, 3cgodliness;
2P 1:7 And in godliness, 1abrotherly love; and in brotherly love, 2blove.
2P 1:8 For 1these things, 2existing in you and 3abounding, 4constitute you neither 5idle nor 6aunfruitful 7unto the full 8bknowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2P 1:9 For he in whom 1these things are not present is ablind, being 2shortsighted, 3having forgotten the bcleansing of his past sins.
2P 1:10 1Therefore, brothers, be the more adiligent to 2make your bcalling and cselection dfirm, for doing 3these things you shall by no means ever estumble.
2P 1:11 For in this way the aentrance into the 1eternal bkingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly and cbountifully 2supplied to you.
B. The Shining of the Divine Truth
vv. 12-21
1. By the Glory of the Apostles’ Witnessing
vv. 12-18
2P 1:12 Therefore I will be ready always to aremind you concerning these things, even though you know them and have been bestablished in the 1present ctruth.
2P 1:13 And I consider it aright, as long as I am in this 1btabernacle, to cstir you up by a reminder,
2P 1:14 Knowing that the 1aputting off of my tabernacle is imminent, even as 2also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
2P 1:15 Moreover I will also be diligent that you may be able, after my 1aexodus, to bbring these things to mind at all times.
2P 1:16 For we did not 1follow acleverly devised 2bmyths when we made known to you the cpower and 3dcoming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we became 4eeyewitnesses of that One’s 5majesty.
2P 1:17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory, a avoice such as this being 1borne to Him by the 2magnificent glory: This is My Son, My Beloved, in whom I delight.
2P 1:18 And this voice we heard being borne out of heaven while we were with Him in the aholy bmountain.
2. By the Light of the Prophetic Word
vv. 19-21
2P 1:19 1And we have the aprophetic word made more bfirm, to which you do well to give heed as to a 2clamp shining in a 3dark place, until the 4dday dawns and the emorning star rises in your hearts;
2P 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of aScripture is of 1one’s own 2interpretation;
2P 1:21 1For no prophecy was ever 2borne by the will of man, but men spoke from God while being 2borne by the Holy aSpirit.
2 PETER 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

III. The Divine Government
2:1 — 3:16
A. God’s Judgment on the False Teachers
2:1-3
2P 2:1 1But there arose also afalse prophets among the people, as also among you there will be bfalse teachers, who will 2csecretly bring in destructive 3heresies, even ddenying the 4eMaster who fbought them, bringing upon themselves swift 5destruction.
2P 2:2 And many will 1follow their alicentiousness, because of whom the 2way of the truth will be breviled.
2P 2:3 And in acovetousness, with bfabricated cwords, they will dmake merchandise of you, for whom the 1ejudgment 2of old is not idle, and their 3destruction does not slumber.
B. God’s Judgment on Both Angels and Men
2:4-9
2P 2:4 For if God did not spare the 1aangels who sinned but delivered them to gloomy bpits, having cast them down to 2Tartarus, they being ckept 3for 4judgment;
2P 2:5 And did not spare the ancient aworld but guarded bNoah, a herald of 1crighteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the dungodly;
2P 2:6 And having reduced to ashes the cities of aSodom and Gomorrah, condemned them to 1ruin, having set them as an bexample to those who intend to 2live an ungodly life,
2P 2:7 And rescued righteous aLot, who had been oppressed by the blicentious 1manner of life of the 2lawless
2P 2:8 (For that righteous man, who settled down among them, in seeing and hearing atormented his righteous soul day after day with their lawless works);
2P 2:9 The Lord knows how to deliver the 1godly out of atrial and how to bkeep the 2unrighteous under punishment 3for the 4cday of 5judgment,
C. The Evils of the False Teachers and Their Punishment under God’s Judgment
2:10-22
2P 2:10 And especially 1those who go after the flesh in the alust for bdefilement and despise 2lordship. Daring, 3cself-willed, they do not tremble while reviling 4dignities;
2P 2:11 Whereas 1angels, though they are greater in strength and power, 2do not bring a reviling judgment against 1them before the Lord.
2P 2:12 But athese, like 1animals 2without reason, born natural 3for capture and 4destruction, reviling in things of which they are ignorant, will also in their corrupting of others be 5destroyed;
2P 2:13 1Suffering unrighteousness as the 2awages of unrighteousness; considering luxury in the day to be bpleasure; 3cspots and blemishes, reveling in their deceits while dfeasting together with you;
2P 2:14 Having eyes full of 1aadultery and not bceasing from sin; centicing dunstable souls, having a heart exercised for ecovetousness, fchildren of gcurse.
2P 2:15 Forsaking the 1straight way, they have agone astray, 2following the way of 3bBalaam, the son of Beor, who loved the cwages of unrighteousness
2P 2:16 But had reproof for his own transgression: a dumb 1abeast of burden, uttering with a man’s voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.
2P 2:17 These are 1springs awithout water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the 2bgloom of darkness is kept.
2P 2:18 For uttering great aswelling words of bvanity, they centice by dlusts of the flesh, with licentiousness, those who are barely eescaping from them who 1live in error;
2P 2:19 Promising afreedom to them, while they themselves are bslaves of 1corruption; for by whom anyone has been defeated, 2by this one he has been enslaved.
2P 2:20 For if, having aescaped the bdefilements of the cworld by the dknowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but having again been eentangled in these, they are defeated, the last state has become fworse for them than the first.
2P 2:21 For it would be better for them not to have known the 1way of righteousness than, knowing it, to aturn back from the bholy commandment delivered to them.
2P 2:22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: The 1adog has turned 2to its own vomit, and the washed sow to wallowing in the mud.
2 PETER 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

D. God’s Judgment on the Heretical Mockers
3:1-9
2P 3:1 This second letter, beloved, I now write to you; in them both I astir up your sincere mind with a breminder,
2P 3:2 So that you would aremember the 1bwords spoken before by the holy cprophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior preached by your dapostles;
2P 3:3 Knowing this first, that in the 1alast of days 2bmockers will come with mocking, going on according to their own clusts
2P 3:4 And saying, aWhere is the 1bpromise of His 2ccoming? For since the dfathers fell easleep, all things continue in this way from the fbeginning of gcreation.
2P 3:5 For 1this escapes them by their own choosing, that by the 2aword of God the 3bheavens cwere of old and the 3earth was 4compacted out of water and through dwater,
2P 3:6 Through 1which the 2aworld 3then, being 4bflooded with water, 5cperished.
2P 3:7 But the aheavens and the earth 1now, by the 2same bword, have been cstored up for 3dfire, being ekept unto the fday of 4judgment and 5gdestruction of 6hungodly men.
2P 3:8 But do not let this one thing 1escape you, beloved, that with the Lord 2one day is like a thousand years and a athousand years like one day.
2P 3:9 The Lord 1does not adelay regarding the bpromise, as 2some count 3cdelay, but is 4dlong-suffering toward you, not intending that any 5eperish but that 6fall advance to 7grepentance.
E. God’s Judgment on the Heavens and the Earth
3:10-12
2P 3:10 But the 1aday of the Lord will 2come as a bthief, in 3which the 4cheavens will pass away with a 5roar, and the 6elements, burning with intense heat, will be 7ddissolved, and the eearth and the 8works in it will be 7burned up.
2P 3:11 Since 1all these things 2are to be thus dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be 3in aholy manner of life and bgodliness,
2P 3:12 1aExpecting and hastening the 2coming of the 3day of God, on account of 4which the heavens, being on bfire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning with intense heat, are to be melted away?
F. Expectation of the New Heavens and the New Earth Filled with God’s Righteousness
3:13
2P 3:13 But according to His 1apromise we are expecting 2bnew heavens and a new earth, in which 3righteousness 4dwells.
G. Preparation for the Coming Judgment
3:14-16
1. To Be Found by Him in Peace
v. 14
2P 3:14 Therefore, abeloved, since you expect these things, be diligent to be 1bfound by Him in cpeace 2without spot and dwithout blemish;
2. To Be Saved from Destruction
vv. 15-16
2P 3:15 And 1count the 2along-suffering of our Lord to be 3bsalvation, even as 4also our beloved brother cPaul, according to the dwisdom given to him, wrote to you,
2P 3:16 As also in 1all his letters, speaking in them concerning 2these things, in which some things are ahard to understand, which the unlearned and bunstable 3twist, as also the 2rest of the cScriptures, to their own 4destruction.
IV. Conclusion —
Be on Guard and Grow in the Grace and Knowledge of the Lord
3:17-18
2P 3:17 You therefore, beloved, since you know these things beforehand, 1be on your guard lest being 2carried away by the error of the 3lawless, you 4afall from your own bsteadfastness.
2P 3:18 But 1agrow in the 2grace and 3bknowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 4To Him be the cglory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.
< 2 Peter Outline • 1 John Outline >
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© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

Chapters
 1   2   3   4   5   
Outline

Author: John, the author of the Gospel of John, as indicated by this book’s comparable style and tone.
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 90-95, after John’s return from exile on Patmos, according to church history and the content of this book.
Place of Writing: Ephesus, where, according to church history, John ministered in his last days.
Recipients: The believers in general, who have the eternal life of God by believing into the Son of God (5:11-13).
Subject:
The Fellowship of the Divine Life
1 JOHN 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 

I. The Fellowship of the Divine Life
1:1 — 2:11
A. The Manifestation of the Divine Life
1:1-2
1J 1:1 1That which was 2from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have aseen with our beyes, which we 3beheld and our hands 4chandled, concerning the 5Word of 6life
1J 1:2 (And the 1alife was 2bmanifested, and we have seen and ctestify and report to you 3the deternal life, which was 4ewith the 5Father and was 6manifested to us);
B. The Divine Fellowship
1:3-4
1J 1:3 That which we have 1seen and heard we report 2also to you that you 2also may have 3afellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the 4Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
1J 1:4 And these things we write that 1our 2ajoy may be made full.
C. The Condition of the Divine Fellowship
1:5 — 2:11
1. Confessing Our Sins
1:5 — 2:2
1J 1:5 1And this is the amessage which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that 2God is 3blight and in Him is no 4darkness at all.
1J 1:6 If we say that we 1have fellowship 2with Him and yet 3walk in the adarkness, we 4blie and are not 5practicing the 6truth;
1J 1:7 But if we awalk in the light as He 1is in the light, we 2have fellowship with one another, and the 3bblood of 4Jesus His Son 5cleanses us from every 6sin.
1J 1:8 If we say that we 1do not have sin, 2we are deceiving ourselves, and the 3atruth is not in us.
1J 1:9 If we 1aconfess our sins, He is 2bfaithful and crighteous to dforgive us our esins and 3fcleanse us from all 4gunrighteousness.
1J 1:10 If we say that we 1have anot sinned, we make Him a bliar, and His 2cword is not in us.
1 JOHN 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

1J 2:1 My 1little children, 2these things I write to you that you 3may not sin. And if anyone 4sins, we have an 5aAdvocate 6with the 7Father, Jesus Christ the 8bRighteous;
1J 2:2 And He Himself is the 1apropitiation for our bsins, and not for ours only but also for those of the 2whole cworld.
2. Loving God and the Brothers
2:3-11
1J 2:3 1And in this we 2know that we 3aknow Him, if we bkeep His 4commandments.
1J 2:4 He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a 1aliar, and the 2btruth is not in this one;
1J 2:5 But whoever akeeps His 1bword, truly in this one the 2clove of God has been 3dperfected. In this we know that we are 4ein Him.
1J 2:6 He who says he 1aabides in Him ought himself also to bwalk even cas 2dHe walked.
1J 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a anew commandment to you but an 1old commandment, which you have had 2from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you bheard.
1J 2:8 Yet again a 1new commandment I am writing to you, 2which is true in Him and in you because the 3adarkness is passing away and the true blight is already shining.
1J 2:9 He who says he is ain the 1light and yet bhates his brother is in the darkness until now.
1J 2:10 He who aloves his brother 1babides in the 2light, and there is no cause of cstumbling in him;
1J 2:11 But he who 1ahates his brother is in the bdarkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is 2going, because the darkness has 3cblinded his eyes.
II. The Teaching of the Divine Anointing
2:12-27
A. Concerning the Divine Trinity according to the Growth in Life
vv. 12-19
1J 2:12 I write to you, 1little children, because your sins have been 2aforgiven you because of His bname.
1J 2:13 I write to you, 1fathers, because you 2aknow 3Him who is 4from the beginning. I write to you, 5young men, because you have 6bovercome the 7cevil one. I 8write to you, 9young children, because you dknow the 10Father.
1J 2:14 I have 1written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because 2you are astrong and the word of God babides in you and you have overcome the 3evil one.
1J 2:15 1Do not love the 2aworld nor the things in the world. If anyone bloves the cworld, 3dlove for the 4Father is not in him;
1J 2:16 Because all that is in the world, the 1alust of the flesh and the 1lust of the beyes and the 1vainglory of 2clife, is not of the Father but is of the world.
1J 2:17 And the world is apassing away, and its 1lust, but he who 2bdoes the 1cwill of God abides forever.
1J 2:18 1Young children, it is the alast hour; and even as you heard that 2bantichrist is coming, even now 3many antichrists have ccome; whereby we know that it is the last hour.
1J 2:19 They awent out from us, but they were 1not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have 2remained with us; but they went out that they might be bmanifested that they all are not of us.
B. For the Abiding in the Triune God
vv. 20-27
1J 2:20 And you have an 1aanointing from the bHoly One, and 2call of you dknow.
1J 2:21 I have not written to you because you do not know the 1truth, but because you 2know it and because no alie is of the 1truth.
1J 2:22 Who is the aliar if not he who 1bdenies that 2cJesus is the Christ? This is the dantichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
1J 2:23 Everyone who 1denies the Son does not have the aFather either; he who confesses the bSon has the Father also.
1J 2:24 As for you, 1that which you heard 2from the beginning, let it abide in you. If that which you aheard 2from the beginning babides in you, you also will 3cabide in the dSon and in the Father.
1J 2:25 And this is the promise which 1He Himself 2promised us, the 3aeternal life.
1J 2:26 These things I have written to you 1concerning those who 2alead you astray.
1J 2:27 And as for you, the 1anointing which you have received from 2Him 3abides in you, and you have 4no need that anyone teach you; but as 2His anointing 5ateaches you concerning 6all things and is 7true and is not a blie, and even as it has taught you, 8abide in 2Him.
III. The Virtues of the Divine Birth
2:28 — 5:21
A. To Practice the Divine Righteousness
2:28 — 3:10a
1J 2:28 And now, 1little children, 2abide in Him, so that if 3He is amanifested, we may have bboldness and not be 4put to cshame 5from Him 6at His dcoming.
1J 2:29 If you 1know that 2He is 3arighteous, 4you 5know that everyone who 6bpractices crighteousness also has been 7begotten of Him.
1 JOHN 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

1J 3:1 1Behold what manner of 2alove the 3Father has given to us, that we should be called 4bchildren of God; and we are. 5Because of this the world does not 6know us, 7because it did not cknow Him.
1J 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and 1it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We 2know that if 3He is amanifested, we will be blike Him because we will 4csee Him even as 3He is.
1J 3:3 And everyone who has 1this ahope set on Him 2bpurifies himself, even as 3cHe is pure.
1J 3:4 Everyone who 1apractices sin practices 2lawlessness also, and bsin is lawlessness.
1J 3:5 And you know that He was amanifested that He might 1take away bsins; and sin is not in 2Him.
1J 3:6 Everyone who 1aabides in Him 2bdoes not sin; everyone who 3sins 4has cnot seen Him or dknown Him.
1J 3:7 1Little children, let no one 2alead you astray; he who 3bpractices righteousness is 4crighteous, even as He is drighteous;
1J 3:8 He who 1apractices sin is of the 2bdevil, because the devil has 1sinned 3from the beginning. 4For this purpose the Son of God was cmanifested, that He might 5ddestroy the works of the devil.
1J 3:9 Everyone who has been 1begotten of God does 2not practice sin, because His 3aseed babides in him; and he 4cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.
1J 3:10 1In this the achildren of God and the bchildren of the devil are manifest.
B. To Practice the Divine Love
3:10b — 5:3
1. By the Divine Life (as the Divine Seed) and the Divine Spirit
3:10b-24
Everyone who does not cpractice righteousness is not of God, neither he who ddoes not 2love his brother.
1J 3:11 For this is the 1message which you aheard 2from the beginning, that we should 3blove one another,
1J 3:12 Not as aCain was 1of the 2bevil one and cslew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s, drighteous.
1J 3:13 Do not marvel, brothers, if the 1world ahates you.
1J 3:14 We know that we have apassed out of 1death into life because we blove the brothers. He who cdoes 2not love abides in death.
1J 3:15 Everyone who 1ahates his brother is a 2bmurderer, and you know that no murderer has ceternal life abiding in him.
1J 3:16 In this we know love, that aHe blaid down His 1life on our behalf, and we ought to clay down our 2lives on behalf of the brothers.
1J 3:17 But whoever has the livelihood of the world and sees that his brother has aneed and bshuts up his 1affections from him, how does the 2clove of God abide in him?
1J 3:18 1Little children, let us not alove in word nor in tongue but in 2deed and 3btruthfulness.
1J 3:19 And in this we will know that we are of the 1truth, and we will 2persuade our heart before Him,
1J 3:20 Because if our 1heart ablames us, it is because God is bgreater than our heart and cknows all things.
1J 3:21 Beloved, if our aheart does not blame us, we have 1bboldness ctoward God;
1J 3:22 And 1whatever we aask we receive from Him because we 2bkeep His commandments and 3do the things that are cpleasing in His sight.
1J 3:23 And this is His 1acommandment, that we bbelieve in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and clove one another, even as He gave a commandment to us.
1J 3:24 And he who akeeps His commandments 1babides cin Him, and 2He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, 3by the 4dSpirit whom He gave to us.
1 JOHN 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

2. By the Proving of the Spirits
4:1-6
1J 4:1 Beloved, do anot believe 1every bspirit, but 2cprove 1the spirits whether they are 3of God, because many 4dfalse prophets have egone out into the world.
1J 4:2 In this you know the aSpirit of God: Every 1spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come 2in the bflesh is of God,
1J 4:3 And every 1spirit which does anot confess Jesus is not of God; and this is the spirit of the 2antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now is already in the world.
1J 4:4 You are 1of God, 2little children; and you have aovercome 3them because bgreater is 4He who is cin you than 5he who is in the dworld.
1J 4:5 They are 1of the aworld; therefore they speak 1out of the world, and the world hears them.
1J 4:6 We are 1aof God; he who knows God bhears us; he who is 2not of God does not hear us. 3From this we know the 4Spirit of 5truth and the 4cspirit of deception.
3. By God (as the Supreme Love) and the Bountiful Spirit
4:7 — 5:3
1J 4:7 Beloved, let us 1alove one another, because 2love is of God, and everyone who 3loves has been 4bbegotten of God and 5knows God.
1J 4:8 He who adoes not love has 1not bknown God, because God is 2clove.
1J 4:9 In this the alove of God was manifested 1among us, that God bsent His conly begotten Son into the 2world that we might 3have life and dlive through Him.
1J 4:10 1Herein is alove, not that we have bloved God but that He cloved us and sent His Son as a 2propitiation for our sins.
1J 4:11 Beloved, if God has loved us in this way, we also ought to 1alove one another.
1J 4:12 No one has 1abeheld God at any time; if we 2love one another, God abides in us, and 3His love is 4bperfected in us.
1J 4:13 In 1this we know that we 2aabide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us 3of His Spirit.
1J 4:14 And we have abeheld and btestify that the Father has 1csent the Son as the dSavior of the 2world.
1J 4:15 Whoever 1aconfesses that Jesus is the bSon of God, God cabides in him and he in God.
1J 4:16 And we know and have abelieved the 1love which God has 2in us. God is 3love, and he who 4abides in love 5abides in God and 6God abides in him.
1J 4:17 In 1this has love been 2perfected with us, that we may have 3boldness in the day of the 4judgment because even as 5He is, so also are we in this world.
1J 4:18 There is no 1afear in love, but 2perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has 3not been perfected in love.
1J 4:19 We love because He 1first aloved us.
1J 4:20 If anyone says, I love God, and 1ahates his brother, he is a bliar; for he who cdoes not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has dnot seen.
1J 4:21 And this acommandment we have from Him, that he who bloves God clove his brother also.
1 JOHN 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

1J 5:1 Everyone who 1abelieves that bJesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who cloves Him who has dbegotten eloves him also who has been begotten of Him.
1J 5:2 In this we aknow that we love the bchildren of God, when we 1love God and 2do His ccommandments.
1J 5:3 For this is the 1love of God, that we 2akeep His commandments; and His commandments are not 3bburdensome.
C. To Overcome the World, Death, Sin, the Devil, and Idols
5:4-21
1. By the Eternal Life in the Son
vv. 4-13
1J 5:4 For 1everything that has been 2begotten of God 3aovercomes the 4world; and this is the bvictory which has overcome the world — our 5faith.
1J 5:5 And who is he who overcomes the world except him who 1believes that aJesus is the Son of God?
1J 5:6 This is 1He who came through awater and bblood2, Jesus Christ; not 3in the water only, but 3in the water and 3in the blood; and the cSpirit is He who 4testifies, because the Spirit is the 5reality.
1J 5:7 For there are three who testify,
1J 5:8 The Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are 1unto the one thing.
1J 5:9 If we receive the atestimony of men, the 1btestimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that He has testified concerning His cSon.
1J 5:10 He who 1abelieves into the Son of God has the btestimony in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a cliar because he has dnot believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning His Son.
1J 5:11 And this is the atestimony, that God 1gave to us beternal life and this clife is in His Son.
1J 5:12 He who 1has the Son has the alife; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
1J 5:13 I have written 1these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life, to you who abelieve into the name of the Son of God.
2. By the Life-giving Petition
vv. 14-17
1J 5:14 And 1this is the 2boldness which we have toward Him, that if we 3aask anything according to His will, He hears us.
1J 5:15 And if we 1know that He hears us in whatever we 2ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
1J 5:16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not 1unto death, he shall 2aask and he 3will give 4blife to him, to those sinning not unto death. There is a 5sin unto cdeath; I do not say that he should dmake request concerning that.
1J 5:17 All 1aunrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not unto death.
3. By the True God as the Eternal Life
vv. 18-21
1J 5:18 We know that everyone who is 1begotten of God adoes not sin, but 2he who has been begotten of God 3bkeeps himself, and the 4evil one does not 5touch him.
1J 5:19 We know that we are 1of God, and the 2whole aworld 3lies in the 4bevil one.
1J 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has 1acome and has given us an 2bunderstanding that we might 3know 4Him who is 5ctrue; and we are 6in Him who is true, 7in His Son Jesus Christ. 8This is the dtrue God and eeternal life.
1J 5:21 1Little children, 2guard yourselves from 3aidols.
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THE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN

Verses
1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 
Outline

Author: John the elder (v. 1).
Time of Writing: After the first Epistle was written; see introduction to 1 John.
Place of Writing: Ephesus, where, according to church history, John was an elder.
Recipients: A chosen lady and her children; see v. 1 and note 2.
Subject:
Prohibition against Participation in Heresy
I. Introduction
vv. 1-3
A. Loving in Truthfulness for the Truth
vv. 1-2
2J 1 The 1aelder to the bchosen 2lady and to her children, whom I clove in 3dtruthfulness, and not only I but also all 4those who know the 5truth,
2J 2 1For the sake of the 2truth which aabides in us and will be bwith us forever:
B. Grace, Mercy, and Peace in Truth and Love
v. 3
2J 3 aGrace, mercy, bpeace will be with 1us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in 2truth and love.
II. The Walk in Truth and Love
vv. 4-6
A. In Truth
v. 4
2J 4 I 1rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children awalking in 2truth, even as we received 3bcommandment from the Father.
B. In Love
vv. 5-6
2J 5 And now I ask you, lady, not as writing a anew commandment to you but 1that which we have had 2from the beginning, that we blove one another.
2J 6 And this is alove, that we bwalk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you walk in 1love.
III. Not Participating in Heresy
vv. 7-11
A. The Heretics
vv. 7-9
2J 7 For many 1deceivers awent out into the world, those who 2do bnot confess Jesus Christ coming 3in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the 4antichrist.
2J 8 1aLook to yourselves that you do not 2lose the 3things which we wrought, but that you may receive a full 4reward.
2J 9 Everyone who 1goes beyond and does not abide in the 2teaching of Christ does anot have God; he who abides in the teaching, he 3has both the Father and the Son.
B. Not Sharing in the Heretical Works
vv. 10-11
2J 10 If anyone comes to you and does anot 1bring this teaching, do bnot receive 2him into your house, and do not say to him, 3Rejoice!
2J 11 For he who says to him, Rejoice, ashares in his 1evil works.
IV. Conclusion
vv. 12-13
A. The Hope for Closer Fellowship for More Joy
v. 12
2J 12 Though I have amany things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I am 1bhoping to be with you and to speak 2face to face that 3our cjoy may be made full.
B. Greeting in the Endearing Care
v. 13
2J 13 The 1children of your achosen 2sister greet you.
< 2 John Outline • 3 John Outline >
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THE THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN

Verses
1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •
Outline

Author: John the elder (v. 1).
Time of Writing: After the second Epistle was written; see introductions to 1 and 2 John.
Place of Writing: The same as the second Epistle; see introduction to 2 John.
Recipients: Gaius (v. 1 and note 2).
Subject:
Encouragement to the Fellow Workers in the Truth
I. Introduction
vv. 1-4
A. Loving in Truthfulness
v. 1
3J 1 The 1elder to 2Gaius the abeloved, whom I blove in 3ctruthfulness.
B. Prospering in All Things and in Health
v. 2
3J 2 Beloved, concerning 1all things I 2wish that you may 3prosper and be in 4health, even as your 5soul 3prospers.
C. Walking in the Truth
vv. 3-4
3J 3 For I 1rejoiced greatly at the brothers’ coming and atestifying to 2your steadfastness in the truth, even as you 3walk in 4truth.
3J 4 I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my achildren are walking in the btruth.
II. Hospitality to the Traveling Workers
vv. 5-8
A. Given Faithfully, in Love, and in a Manner Worthy of God
vv. 5-6
3J 5 aBeloved, you do bfaithfully in 1whatever you have wrought for the brothers, and this for 2cstrangers,
3J 6 Who atestified to your 1love before the 2church; whom you 3will do well to bsend forward in a manner 4cworthy of God;
B. By the Fellow Workers in the Truth
vv. 7-8
3J 7 For on behalf of the 1aName they went out, taking nothing from the 2Gentiles.
3J 8 We therefore ought to 1support such ones that we may become afellow workers in the 2truth.
III. Imitation Not of the Evil but of the Good
vv. 9-12
A. The Self-exalting and Domineering Diotrephes — An Evil Pattern
vv. 9-11
3J 9 I wrote something to the 1church; but 2Diotrephes, who loves 3to be afirst among them, does not 4receive us.
3J 10 For this reason, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his works which he does, 1babbling against us with 2evil words; and not being satisfied with these, neither does he himself receive the brothers, and those intending to do so he forbids and acasts out of the church.
3J 11 Beloved, do not aimitate the 1bevil, but the good. He who 2does cgood is 3of God; he who 4does evil has 5dnot seen God.
B. The Well-reported Demetrius — A Good Example
v. 12
3J 12 To 1Demetrius atestimony has been borne by 2all and by the 3truth itself; and 4we also testify, and you know that our testimony is 5btrue.
IV. Conclusion
vv. 13-14
A. The Hope for Closer Fellowship
vv. 13-14a
3J 13 I had amany things to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with ink and pen;
3J 14 But I 1ahope to see you shortly, and we will speak 2face to face.
B. Mutual Greetings
v. 14b
Peace to you. The bfriends greet you. Greet the friends by cname.
< 3 John Outline • Jude Outline >
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THE EPISTLE OF JUDE

Verses
1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 
Outline

Author: Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a flesh brother of James (the author of the Epistle of James) and of the Lord (v. 1 and note 1).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 69, before the destruction of Jerusalem and around the same time as the writing of 2 Peter, as indicated by allusions to the decline of the church similar to those found in 2 Pet. 2.
Place of Writing: Jerusalem or Judea, though this is difficult to establish with certainty.
Recipients: The Jewish believers, as indicated by the book’s Jewish tone.
Subject:
Contending for the Faith
I. Introduction — To Those Called, Beloved, and Kept
vv. 1-2
Jd 1 1Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of 1James, to those who are acalled, bbeloved in God the Father, and ckept 2by Jesus Christ:
Jd 2 1aMercy to you and bpeace and clove be multiplied.
II. Contending for the Faith
v. 3
Jd 3 Beloved, while using all diligence to write to you concerning our 1common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you to earnestly 2acontend for the 3faith once for all delivered to the bsaints.
III. Heresies of the Apostates
v. 4
Jd 4 1For certain men have 2acrept in unnoticed, who of old have been 3written of beforehand for 4this judgment, bungodly men, 5perverting the cgrace of our God into 6dlicentiousness and 5edenying 7our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
IV. Historical Examples of the Lord’s Judgment upon Apostasy
vv. 5-7
Jd 5 But I intend to aremind you, though you know all things once for all, that 1the Lord, having saved a people bout of the land of Egypt, 2afterward 3cdestroyed those who did not believe;
Jd 6 And aangels who did not keep their own 1principality but abandoned their 2own dwelling place, He has kept in eternal bbonds under 3gloom for the 4cjudgment of the great day;
Jd 7 How aSodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who 1in like manner with these gave themselves over to fornication and went after bdifferent flesh, are set forth as an cexample, undergoing the dpenalty of eternal fire.
V. The Evils of the Apostates and Their Punishment under the Lord’s Judgment
vv. 8-19
Jd 8 Nevertheless in like manner 1these dreamers also adefile the flesh and despise 2lordship and revile 3dignities.
Jd 9 But 1aMichael the barchangel, when he contended with the cdevil and disputed concerning the 2body of Moses, 3did not dare to bring a dreviling judgment against him but said, The Lord erebuke you.
Jd 10 But 1these revile the things that they do not 2know; and the things that they 2understand 3naturally, like 4aanimals 5without reason, 6in these they are being 7corrupted.
Jd 11 aWoe to them! For they have gone in the 1way of bCain and have 2rushed out in the 3error of cBalaam for reward and have 4dperished in the 5rebellion of Korah.
Jd 12 These are the 1hidden reefs in your 2love feasts, afeasting together with you without fear, 3bshepherding themselves; 4cwaterless clouds being carried off by dwinds; 5autumn trees ewithout fruit, having died twice, frooted up;
Jd 13 1Wild awaves of the sea, foaming out their own bshames; 2wandering stars, for whom the cgloom of darkness is kept for eternity.
Jd 14 And aEnoch, the seventh from Adam, bprophesied also of these, saying, Behold, the Lord 1ccame 2with 3myriads of His saints
Jd 15 To execute 1judgment against all and to convict all the aungodly concerning all their ungodly works which they have done in ungodliness, and concerning all the hard things which ungodly sinners have bspoken against Him.
Jd 16 These are amurmurers, complainers, going on according to their own blusts; and their mouth speaks cgreat swelling things, dflattering 1persons for the sake of eadvantage.
Jd 17 But you, beloved, aremember the words spoken before by the bapostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Jd 18 That they said to you, In the 1alast time there will be bmockers, going on according to their own clusts for dungodliness.
Jd 19 These are those who make adivisions, 1bsoulish, having no 2spirit.
VI. Charges to the Believers
vv. 20-23
A. To Build Up Themselves upon the Most Holy Faith and to Live in the Triune God
vv. 20-21
Jd 20 But you, beloved, abuilding up yourselves 1upon your most holy 2faith, praying in the Holy bSpirit,
Jd 21 1Keep yourselves in the alove of God, bawaiting the 2mercy of our 3Lord Jesus Christ 4unto ceternal life.
B. To Care for Others with Mercy in Fear
vv. 22-23
Jd 22 And 1on some have mercy, on those who are 2wavering;
Jd 23 aSave them by 1bsnatching them out of the 2fire. On others have mercy 3in cfear, hating even the inner garment dspotted from the eflesh.
VII. Conclusion —
Praise to Him Who Is Able to Guard and Set the Believers before His Glory
vv. 24-25
Jd 24 1aBut to Him who is bable to cguard you from dstumbling and to set you before His 2glory ewithout blemish 3in 4fexultation,
Jd 25 To the aonly 1God our bSavior through 1Jesus Christ our Lord be 2cglory, majesty, might, and authority 3before all time and now and unto all eternity. Amen.
< Jude Outline • Revelation Outline >
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REVELATION

Chapters
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 
Outline

Author: The apostle John (1:1, 9).
Time of Writing: Approximately A.D. 90, while John was in exile on the island of Patmos.
Place of Writing: The island of Patmos (1:9).
Recipients: The seven churches in Asia (1:4).
Subject:
Christ as the Center of God’s Administration according to God’s Eternal Economy
REVELATION 1

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

I. Introduction — The Revelation of Christ and the Testimony of Jesus
1:1-8
Rv 1:1 The 1arevelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to bshow to His cslaves the things that must quickly take place; and He made it known by 2dsigns, sending it by His eangel to His slave John,
Rv 1:2 Who atestified the bword of God and the 1ctestimony of Jesus Christ, even all that he dsaw.
Rv 1:3 aBlessed is he who reads and those who bhear the cwords of the 1prophecy and dkeep the things written in it, for the time is enear.
Rv 1:4 John to the 1aseven bchurches which are in 2Asia: cGrace to you and dpeace from 3eHim who is and who was and 4who is coming, and from the 5fseven Spirits who are before His throne,
Rv 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, the faithful aWitness, the bFirstborn of the dead, and the cRuler of the kings of the earth. To Him who dloves us and has 1released us from our sins 2by His eblood
Rv 1:6 And made us a 1akingdom, 2bpriests to His God and Father, cto Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
Rv 1:7 Behold, He 1acomes with the 2bclouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who cpierced Him; and all the 3tribes of the 4land will 5dmourn over Him. Yes, amen.
Rv 1:8 I am the 1aAlpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, bHe who is and who was and who is coming, the cAlmighty.
II. “The Things Which You Have Seen”
1:9-20
A. Seven Golden Lampstands — The Shining Churches
B. The Son of Man — The Living Christ
C. Seven Stars — The Bright Messengers of the Churches
Rv 1:9 I John, your brother and fellow apartaker in the btribulation and ckingdom and 1dendurance in 2Jesus, was on the island called 3Patmos because of the eword of God and the ftestimony of Jesus.
Rv 1:10 I was in 1aspirit on the 2Lord’s Day and heard behind me a loud voice like a btrumpet,
Rv 1:11 Saying, What you asee bwrite in a scroll and 1send it to the cseven dchurches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
Rv 1:12 And I 1turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I 1turned, I saw aseven 2golden 3blampstands,
Rv 1:13 And 1in the amidst of the lampstands One like the 2bSon of Man, clothed with a 3cgarment reaching to the feet, and 4dgirded about at the breasts with a golden egirdle.
Rv 1:14 And His head and 1ahair were as white as 2bwhite wool, as 2snow; and His 3ceyes were like a flame of 4dfire;
Rv 1:15 And His 1afeet were like shining 1bronze, as having been 2fired in a furnace; and His voice was like the 3bsound of many waters.
Rv 1:16 And He had in His right hand aseven 1stars; and out of His 2bmouth proceeded a 2sharp two-edged csword; and His 3dface shone as the sun shines in its power.
Rv 1:17 And when I saw Him, I afell at His feet as dead; and He bplaced His right hand on me, saying, cDo not fear; I am the 1dFirst and the Last
Rv 1:18 And the 1aliving One; and I became bdead, and behold, I am aliving forever and ever; and I have the ckeys of 2death and of Hades.
Rv 1:19 aWrite therefore the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which are about to take place bafter these things.
Rv 1:20 The 1mystery of the aseven stars which you saw upon My right hand and the bseven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the 2messengers of the cseven churches, and the seven dlampstands are the seven churches.
REVELATION 2

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • • •

III. “The Things Which Are” — The Seven Local Churches
2:1 — 3:22
A. The Church in Ephesus — The Church at the Close of the Initial Stage
2:1-7
Rv 2:1 1To the messenger of the church in 2aEphesus write: These things says 3He who 4holds the bseven stars in His right hand, He who 4walks in the cmidst of the dseven golden lampstands:
Rv 2:2 I aknow your bworks and your labor and your cendurance and that you cannot bear evil men; and you have dtried those who call themselves eapostles and are not, and have found them to be false;
Rv 2:3 And you have endurance and have borne all things because of My aname and have not grown weary.
Rv 2:4 But I have one thing aagainst you, that you have left your 1first 2blove.
Rv 2:5 aRemember therefore where you have fallen from and brepent and do the first works; but if not, I am ccoming to you and will 1remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.
Rv 2:6 But this you have, that you hate the works of the 1aNicolaitans, which I also bhate.
Rv 2:7 He who has an 1aear, let him hear what the 2bSpirit says to the 3churches. To him who 4covercomes, to him I will give to 5deat of the 6etree of life, which is in the 7fParadise of God.
B. The Church in Smyrna — The Church under Persecution
2:8-11
Rv 2:8 And to the messenger of the church in 1Smyrna write: These things says the 2aFirst and the Last, who became bdead and 3lived again:
Rv 2:9 I know your 1atribulation and 2bpoverty (but you are 2rich) and the 3cslander from those who call themselves dJews and are 4not, but are a 5esynagogue of 6fSatan.
Rv 2:10 Do not afear the things that you are about to bsuffer. Behold, the 1cdevil is about to cast some of you into dprison that you may be etried, and you will have ftribulation for 2gten days. Be hfaithful iunto death, and I will give you the 3jcrown of life.
Rv 2:11 He who has an aear, let him hear what the bSpirit says to the churches. He who 1covercomes shall by no means be hurt of the 2dsecond death.
C. The Church in Pergamos — The Church Married to the World
2:12-17
Rv 2:12 And to the messenger of the church in 1Pergamos write: These things says He who has the asharp two-edged sword:
Rv 2:13 I know where you dwell, where 1aSatan’s throne is; and you hold fast My 2bname and have cnot denied dMy 2faith, even in the days of 3Antipas, My ewitness, My ffaithful one, who was gkilled among you, where hSatan dwells.
Rv 2:14 But I have a few things aagainst you, that you have some there who hold the 1bteaching of 2cBalaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat 3didol sacrifices and to commit 3efornication.
Rv 2:15 In the same way you also have some who hold in like manner the 1ateaching of the 2bNicolaitans.
Rv 2:16 aRepent therefore; but if not, I am 1bcoming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the csword of My mouth.
Rv 2:17 He who has an aear, let him hear what the bSpirit says to the churches. To him who 1covercomes, to him I will give of the 2dhidden emanna, and to him I will give a white 3fstone, and upon the stone a 4gnew name written, which hno one knows except him who receives it.
D. The Church in Thyatira — The Church in Apostasy
2:18-29
Rv 2:18 And to the messenger of the church in 1aThyatira write: These things says the 2bSon of God, He who has 3ceyes like a flame of fire, and His dfeet are like shining bronze:
Rv 2:19 I aknow your 1bworks and love and faith and service and your endurance and that your last works are more than the first.
Rv 2:20 But I have something aagainst you, that you tolerate the 1woman bJezebel, she who calls herself a 2prophetess and cteaches and 3leads My slaves astray to commit 4dfornication and to eat 4eidol sacrifices.
Rv 2:21 And I gave her time that she might arepent, and she is bnot willing to repent of her fornication.
Rv 2:22 Behold, I cast her into a 1bed, and those who commit aadultery with her, into 2great tribulation, unless they repent of her works;
Rv 2:23 And her children I will 1kill with death; and all the churches will know that I am He who asearches the 2inward parts and the hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your bworks.
Rv 2:24 But I say to you — the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this ateaching, who have not known the 1bdeep things of cSatan, as they say — I put no other burden upon you;
Rv 2:25 Nevertheless what you have ahold fast 1until I bcome.
Rv 2:26 And he who 1aovercomes and he who keeps 2bMy works cuntil the end, to him I will give 3dauthority over the nations;
Rv 2:27 And he will 1shepherd them with an airon rod, as bvessels of pottery are broken in pieces, as 2cI also have received from My Father;
Rv 2:28 And to him I will give the 1amorning star.
Rv 2:29 He who has an 1aear, let him hear what the bSpirit says to the churches.
REVELATION 3

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • 

E. The Church in Sardis — The Church in Reformation
3:1-6
Rv 3:1 And to the messenger of the church in 1Sardis write: These things says He who has the 2aseven Spirits of God and the 2bseven stars: I cknow your works, that you have a 3name that you are dliving, and yet you are edead.
Rv 3:2 Become awatchful and establish the 1things which remain, which were about to die; for I have found none of your works 2bcompleted before My God.
Rv 3:3 aRemember therefore how you have received and heard, and keep it and brepent. If therefore you will not watch, I will ccome as a 1dthief, and you shall by no means know at what ehour I will come upon you.
Rv 3:4 But you have a few names in Sardis who have not 1adefiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in 2bwhite because they are worthy.
Rv 3:5 He who 1aovercomes will be 2clothed thus, in bwhite garments, and I shall by no means 3cerase his name out of the 4dbook of life, and I will 5econfess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Rv 3:6 He who has an aear, let him hear what the bSpirit says to the churches.
F. The Church in Philadelphia — The Church in Recovery
3:7-13
Rv 3:7 And to the messenger of the church in 1Philadelphia write: These things says the 2aHoly One, the btrue One, the One who has the 3ckey of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens:
Rv 3:8 I aknow your works; behold, I have put before you an 1bopened door which cno one can shut, because you have a 2little power and have dkept My 3word and have not edenied My 3name.
Rv 3:9 Behold, I will make those of the 1asynagogue of bSatan, those who call themselves cJews and are 2not, but lie — behold, I will cause them to come and dfall 3prostrate before your feet and to know that I have eloved you.
Rv 3:10 Because you have akept the 1word of My bendurance, I also will 2ckeep you out of the hour of dtrial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who edwell on the earth.
Rv 3:11 I 1acome quickly; bhold fast what you have that no one take your 2ccrown.
Rv 3:12 He who 1aovercomes, him I will make a 2bpillar in the ctemple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the 3dname of My God and the name of the city of My God, the eNew Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My fnew name.
Rv 3:13 He who has an aear, let him hear what the bSpirit says to the churches.
G. The Church in Laodicea — The Church in Degradation
3:14-22
Rv 3:14 And to the messenger of the church in 1aLaodicea write: These things says the 2bAmen, the faithful and true cWitness, the 3dbeginning of the creation of God:
Rv 3:15 I aknow your works, that you are neither cold nor 1hot; I wish that you were cold or 1bhot.
Rv 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to 1spew you out of My mouth.
Rv 3:17 Because you 1say, I am awealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are 2bwretched and miserable and poor and cblind and dnaked,
Rv 3:18 I counsel you to 1abuy from Me 2bgold crefined by dfire that you may be erich, and 3fwhite garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your gnakedness may not be manifested, and 4eyesalve to hanoint your eyes that you may see.
Rv 3:19 As many as I alove I reprove and bdiscipline; be 1zealous therefore and crepent.
Rv 3:20 Behold, I stand at the 1adoor and bknock; if anyone chears My dvoice and 2opens the door, then I will ecome in to him and 3dine with him and he with Me.
Rv 3:21 He who 1aovercomes, to him I will give to 2sit with Me on My bthrone, as I also covercame and dsat ewith My Father on His throne.
Rv 3:22 He who has an aear, let him hear what the bSpirit says to the 1churches.
REVELATION 4

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

IV. “The Things Which Are About to Take Place”
4:1 — 22:5
A. The First Section, Giving a General View of the Things to Come,
from Christ’s Ascension to Eternity Future
4:1 — 11:19
1. The Scene around the Throne in the Heavens — Only the Lion-Lamb
(the Victorious and Redeeming Christ) Being Worthy to Open the Mystery of God’s Economy
4:1 — 5:14
Rv 4:1 After these things I saw, and behold, a adoor 1bopened in heaven, and the first 2cvoice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, dCome up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these ethings.
Rv 4:2 Immediately I was in 1aspirit; and behold, there was a 2bthrone set in heaven, and upon the throne there was cOne sitting;
Rv 4:3 And He who was sitting was like a 1ajasper stone and a 2bsardius in appearance, and there was a 3crainbow around the throne like an 4demerald in appearance.
Rv 4:4 And aaround the throne there were 1btwenty-four thrones, and upon the thrones 1ctwenty-four 2elders sitting, clothed in 3dwhite garments, and upon their heads golden ecrowns.
Rv 4:5 And out of the throne come forth alightnings and voices and thunders. And there were 1bseven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the 2cseven Spirits of God;
Rv 4:6 And before the throne there was as it were a 1aglassy sea like bcrystal; and in the midst of the throne and around the throne, there were 2cfour living creatures 3dfull of eyes in front and behind.
Rv 4:7 And the first living creature was 1like a alion, and the second living creature like a acalf, and the third living creature had a face like that of a aman, and the fourth living creature was like a flying aeagle.
Rv 4:8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having asix wings apiece, are full of eyes around and within; and they have no rest day and night, saying, 1bHoly, holy, holy, cLord God the Almighty, 2dwho was and who is and who is coming.
Rv 4:9 And when the four living creatures give 1aglory and honor and thanks to Him who sits upon the throne, to Him who blives forever and ever,
Rv 4:10 The twenty-four elders will afall before Him who sits upon the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever; and they will 1cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rv 4:11 You are aworthy, our Lord and God, to receive the 1bglory and the honor and the power, for You have ccreated all things, and because of Your 2dwill they were, and were created.
REVELATION 5

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • •

Rv 5:1 And I saw on the right hand of Him who sits upon the throne a 1ascroll written within and on the back, sealed up with 2seven seals.
Rv 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is aworthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?
Rv 5:3 And no one ain heaven nor on the earth nor under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it.
Rv 5:4 And I wept much because 1no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it.
Rv 5:5 And one of the elders said to me, Do not weep; behold, the 1aLion of the tribe of bJudah, the 2cRoot of David, has 3dovercome so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.
Rv 5:6 And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a 1aLamb 2standing as 3having just been bslain, having 4seven chorns and 5dseven eeyes, 6which are the fseven Spirits of God sent forth into gall the earth.
Rv 5:7 And He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sits upon the throne.
Rv 5:8 And when He took the scroll, the afour living creatures and the btwenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a charp and dgolden 1bowls full of 2eincense, which bowls are the fprayers of the saints.
Rv 5:9 And they sing a 1anew song, saying: You are 2bworthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were cslain and have dpurchased for God 3by Your eblood men out of fevery tribe and tongue and people and nation,
Rv 5:10 And have made 1them a 2akingdom and priests to our God; and they will breign 3on the earth.
Rv 5:11 And I saw, and I heard the voice of 1many angels around the throne and of the living creatures and of the elders, and their number was aten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands,
Rv 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, aWorthy is the bLamb who has been cslain to receive the dpower and eriches and wisdom and strength and honor and fglory and gblessing.
Rv 5:13 And 1every creature which is ain heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying, To Him who sits upon the throne and to the bLamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.
Rv 5:14 And the four living creatures said, aAmen. And the elders fell down and worshipped.
REVELATION 6

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

2. The Seven Seals — The Mystery of God’s Economy
6:1 — 8:5
a. The First Seal: A White Horse and Its Rider — The Preaching of the Gospel
6:1-2
Rv 6:1 And I saw when the aLamb 1opened one of the bseven seals, and I heard one of the cfour 2living creatures saying like the dsound of thunder, eCome.
Rv 6:2 And I saw, and behold, a 1awhite horse, and 2he who sits on it had a 3bow; and a 4bcrown was given to him, and he cwent forth 5dconquering and to conquer.
b. The Second Seal: A Red Horse and Its Rider — The Spread of War
6:3-4
Rv 6:3 And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come.
Rv 6:4 And 1I saw, and behold, another horse, a 2ared one, went forth; and to him who sits on it, to him authority was given to 3btake peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and to him a great csword was given.
c. The Third Seal: A Black Horse and Its Rider — The Increase of Famine
6:5-6
Rv 6:5 And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, a 1ablack horse; and he who sits on it had a 2bbalance in his hand.
Rv 6:6 And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying: A 1choenix of wheat for a 2denarius and three choenixes of barley for a 2denarius; and do not harm the 3aoil and the wine.
d. The Fourth Seal: A Pale Horse and Its Rider — Rampant Death
6:7-8
Rv 6:7 And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come.
Rv 6:8 And I saw, and behold, a 1pale horse, and he who sits upon it, his name is aDeath; and 2bHades followed with him. And authority was given to them over the fourth part of the earth to ckill with the sword and with famine and with 3death and by the 4beasts of the earth.
e. The Fifth Seal: The Cry of the Souls underneath the Altar —
The Prayer of the Martyred Saints from Paradise for Vengeance
6:9-11
Rv 6:9 And when He opened the 1fifth seal, I saw 2underneath the aaltar the bsouls of those who had been cslain because of the dword of God and because of the etestimony which they had.
Rv 6:10 And they 1cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master, aholy and true, will You not bjudge and cavenge our blood on those who ddwell on the earth?
Rv 6:11 And to each of them was given a 1awhite robe; and it was said to them that they should brest yet a little while, until also the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were cabout to be 2killed, even as they were, is completed.
f. The Sixth Seal: The Shaking of the Earth and Heaven, the Beginning of the Great Tribulation —
A Warning to Earth’s Dwellers
6:12-17
Rv 6:12 And I saw when He opened the 1sixth seal, and there was a great 2aearthquake, and the bsun became black like csackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
Rv 6:13 And the astars of heaven fell to the earth as a bfig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
Rv 6:14 And aheaven was removed like a scroll being rolled up, and every bmountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rv 6:15 And the akings of the earth and the great men and the 1generals and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man bhid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rv 6:16 And they 1asay to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the bface of Him who sits upon the throne and from the cwrath of the dLamb;
Rv 6:17 For the agreat day of Their wrath has come, and bwho is able to stand?
REVELATION 7

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • 

g. The Visions Inserted between the Sixth and Seventh Seals
7:1-17
(1) 144,000 of the Twelve Tribes Sealed — The Chosen Israelites Preserved on Earth
vv. 1-8
Rv 7:1 1After this I saw four angels standing at the afour corners of the earth, holding the bfour 2winds of the earth, so that 3no wind would blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree.
Rv 7:2 And I saw 1another Angel ascending from the arising of the sun, having the seal of the bliving God; and He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom authority was given to harm the earth and the sea,
Rv 7:3 Saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we aseal the slaves of our God upon btheir foreheads.
Rv 7:4 And I heard the number of 1those who were sealed, a ahundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel:
Rv 7:5 Out of the tribe of 1Judah, twelve thousand sealed; out of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand;
Rv 7:6 Out of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of 1aManasseh, twelve thousand;
Rv 7:7 Out of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand;
Rv 7:8 Out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; out of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand sealed.
(2) A Great Multitude Serving God in the Heavenly Temple —
The Redeemed Saints Raptured to Heaven to Enjoy God’s Care and the Lamb’s Shepherding
vv. 9-17
Rv 7:9 After these things I saw, and behold, there was a 1great multitude which no one could number, out of aevery nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, 2standing before the throne and before the bLamb, clothed in 3cwhite robes and 4dpalm branches in their hands.
Rv 7:10 And they cry with a loud voice, saying, 1aSalvation to our God who sits upon the throne and to the bLamb.
Rv 7:11 And all the angels stood around the throne and the aelders and the bfour living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God,
Rv 7:12 Saying, 1aAmen. The bblessing and the cglory and the wisdom and the dthanks and the honor and the power and the strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
Rv 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying to me, These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?
Rv 7:14 And I said to him, My lord, you know. And he said to me, These are those who come out of the 1great atribulation, and they have bwashed their robes and made them cwhite in the dblood of the eLamb.
Rv 7:15 Because of this 1they are before the throne of God and 2aserve Him day and night in His btemple; and He who sits upon the throne 3will ctabernacle over them.
Rv 7:16 They will not ahunger anymore, neither will they bthirst anymore, neither will the csun 1beat upon them, nor any heat;
Rv 7:17 For the aLamb who is in the midst of the throne will 1bshepherd them and cguide them to dsprings of 2ewaters of life; and God will fwipe away every 2tear from their eyes.
REVELATION 8

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • 

h. The Seventh Seal: Seven Trumpets Brought In —
The Answer to the Martyred Saints’ Prayer in the Fifth Seal
8:1-2
Rv 8:1 And when He opened the seventh seal, there was asilence in 1heaven for about half an hour.
Rv 8:2 And I saw the aseven angels who stand before God, and 1bseven trumpets were given to them.
i. The Scene in Heaven after the Opening of the Seventh Seal —
Christ as the High Priest Offering the Prayers of the Saints to God
8:3-5
Rv 8:3 And 1aanother Angel came and stood at the 2baltar, having a 3golden ccenser, and much 4dincense was given to Him to 5offer with the eprayers of all the 6saints upon the 7fgolden altar which was before the throne.
Rv 8:4 And the 1asmoke of the 2incense went up with the bprayers of the saints out of the hand of the Angel before God.
Rv 8:5 And the Angel took the censer and 1filled it with the afire of the altar and 2bcast it to the earth; and there were cthunders and voices and lightnings and an dearthquake.
3. The Seven Trumpets — The Execution of God’s Economy
8:6 — 11:19
Rv 8:6 And the aseven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves 1to trumpet.
a. The First Trumpet: Judgment on the Earth
8:7
Rv 8:7 And the first trumpeted, and there was ahail and bfire mingled with blood, and it was cast to the earth; and the 1cthird part of the dearth was burned up, and the third part of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
b. The Second Trumpet: Judgment on the Sea
8:8-9
Rv 8:8 And the second angel trumpeted, and as it were a great amountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the 1sea became bblood,
Rv 8:9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had 1life died, and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
c. The Third Trumpet: Judgment on the Rivers
8:10-11
Rv 8:10 And the third angel trumpeted, and a great astar fell out of heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the bsprings of waters.
Rv 8:11 And the name of the star is called 1Wormwood; and the 2third part of the waters became awormwood, and many of the men died from the waters because they were made bitter.
d. The Fourth Trumpet: Judgment on the Sun, Moon, and Stars
8:12
Rv 8:12 And the 1fourth angel trumpeted, and the 2third part of the asun and the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars were smitten, so that the third part of them would be bdarkened and the day would not appear for the third part of it, and the night likewise.
e. The Fifth Trumpet — The First Woe: Judgment on Men —
Satan and Antichrist Collaborating to Torment Men
8:13 — 9:11
Rv 8:13 And I saw, and I heard an aeagle flying in bmid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, 1cWoe, woe, woe, to those who ddwell on the earth because of the remaining trumpet sounds of the ethree angels who are about to trumpet!
REVELATION 9

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

Rv 9:1 And the fifth angel trumpeted, and I saw a 1astar out of heaven bfallen to the earth, and to him was given the ckey of the pit of the 2dabyss.
Rv 9:2 And he opened the pit of the abyss, and asmoke went up out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace; and the bsun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.
Rv 9:3 And out of the smoke came forth 1alocusts to the earth, and to them 2power was given, as the bscorpions of the earth have 2power.
Rv 9:4 And it was said to them that they should not harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, but 1men who do not have the aseal of God on their foreheads.
Rv 9:5 And it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented afive months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
Rv 9:6 And in those days men will aseek death and shall by no means find it; and they will long to die, and death flees from them.
Rv 9:7 And 1the 2alocusts were like horses prepared for bwar, and on their heads there were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were like faces of men.
Rv 9:8 And they had hair like the hair of women, and their ateeth were like the teeth of lions.
Rv 9:9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the asound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses rushing into war.
Rv 9:10 And they have atails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to harm men for bfive months.
Rv 9:11 They have a aking over them, the 1angel of the babyss; his name in Hebrew is 2Abaddon; and in Greek he has the name 3Apollyon.
f. The Sixth Trumpet — The Second Woe: Further Judgment on Men —
Two Hundred Million Horsemen Killing the Third Part of Men
9:12-21
Rv 9:12 The 1afirst woe has passed; behold, 2btwo woes are yet coming after these things.
Rv 9:13 And the sixth angel trumpeted, and I heard a voice out of the four horns of the 1agolden altar which is before God
Rv 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river aEuphrates.
Rv 9:15 And the four angels were released, who had been prepared 1for the hour and day and month and year that they might kill the athird part of men.
Rv 9:16 And the number of the armies of 1horsemen was two hundred million; I heard their number.
Rv 9:17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision and those sitting on them, having breastplates of afire and of hyacinth and of bbrimstone; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceed fire and csmoke and brimstone.
Rv 9:18 By these three aplagues the third part of the men were killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone proceeding out of their mouths.
Rv 9:19 For the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their atails; for their tails are like 1bserpents and have heads, and with them they harm men.
Rv 9:20 And the rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues, still did anot 1repent of the bworks of their hands, so as not to cworship the demons and the didols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which can 2neither see nor hear nor walk;
Rv 9:21 And they did anot repent of their murders or of their bsorceries or of their cfornication or of their thefts.
REVELATION 10

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • 

g. The Visions Inserted between the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets
10:1 — 11:13
(1) Christ Coming to Possess the Earth
10:1-7
Rv 10:1 1And I saw 2aanother strong Angel bcoming down out of heaven, clothed with a ccloud; and the 3drainbow was upon His head, and His eface was like the 4sun, and His ffeet like 5pillars of 6fire;
Rv 10:2 And He had in His hand a 1little opened ascroll. And He placed His 2right foot on the sea and the left on the land;
Rv 10:3 And He cried out with a loud voice just as a 1alion broars. And when He cried out, the 2seven cthunders uttered their own voices.
Rv 10:4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, and I heard a avoice out of heaven saying, bSeal the things which the seven thunders spoke, and do not write them.
Rv 10:5 And the Angel whom I saw astanding on the sea and on the land blifted up His right hand to heaven
Rv 10:6 And 1swore by Him who alives forever and ever, who bcreated heaven and the 2things in it, and the earth and the 3things in it, and the sea and the 4things in it, that there shall be 5cdelay no longer,
Rv 10:7 But in the 1days of the voice of the aseventh angel when he is about to trumpet, then the 2mystery of God 3is 4finished, as He has bannounced the 5good news to His own slaves the prophets.
(2) John Charged to Prophesy Again
10:8-11
Rv 10:8 And the avoice which I heard out of heaven, I heard again speaking with me and saying, Go, take the opened bscroll in the hand of the Angel who is cstanding on the sea and on the land.
Rv 10:9 And I went to the Angel and told Him to give me the little scroll. And He said to me, Take it and adevour it, and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as bsweet as honey.
Rv 10:10 And I took the little scroll out of the hand of the Angel and 1devoured it, and it was as 2sweet as honey in my mouth; and when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.
Rv 10:11 And 1they said to me, You must prophesy 2again over many apeoples and nations and tongues and kings.
REVELATION 11

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • •

(3) The Temple Measured and the Court Cast Out —
The Heavenly Temple Sanctified and Preserved and the Earthly One Given to the Gentiles
11:1-2
Rv 11:1 And there was given to me a 1areed like a 1rod, and someone said, Rise and 2bmeasure the 3ctemple of God and the 4daltar and those who eworship in it.
Rv 11:2 And the 1acourt which is outside the 2temple cast out and do not measure it, because it has been given to the bGentiles, and they will trample the 3choly city for 4dforty-two months.
(4) The Two Witnesses — Moses and Elijah
11:3-12
Rv 11:3 And I will 1cause My 2two awitnesses to prophesy a 3bthousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in 4csackcloth.
Rv 11:4 These are the atwo 1olive trees and the two 2blampstands which stand before the cLord of the earth.
Rv 11:5 And if anyone desires to harm them, afire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone desires to harm them, thus must he be killed.
Rv 11:6 These have the authority to ashut heaven that no brain may fall during the days of their prophecy; and they have authority over the waters to turn them into cblood and to smite the earth with every dplague as often as they desire.
Rv 11:7 And when they have completed their 1atestimony, the 2bbeast who comes up out of the cabyss will make dwar with them and will overcome them and kill them.
Rv 11:8 And their corpses will be on the street of the 1great acity, which spiritually is called 2bSodom and cEgypt, dwhere also their Lord was crucified.
Rv 11:9 And those of the apeoples and tribes and tongues and nations see their corpses for three and a half days, and they do not allow their bcorpses to be placed in a tomb.
Rv 11:10 And those who adwell on the earth rejoice over them and make merry; and they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
Rv 11:11 And after the 1three and a half days, the 2abreath of life out of God entered into them, and they 3stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those beholding them.
Rv 11:12 And they heard a loud voice out of heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they 1awent up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.
(5) A Great Earthquake — The Third Earthquake Predicted in This Book
11:13
Rv 11:13 And in that hour there was a great aearthquake, and the tenth part of the 1bcity fell; and seven thousand 2men were killed in the earthquake, and the rest became terrified and gave cglory to the dGod of heaven.
h. The Seventh Trumpet — The Eternal Kingdom of Christ,
the Third Woe Comprising the Seven Bowls, the Judgment of the Dead,
the Giving of the Reward to the Prophets, to the Saints, and to the God-fearing People,
and the Destruction of the Destroyers of the Earth
11:14-18
Rv 11:14 The second awoe has passed; behold, the 1bthird woe is coming quickly.
Rv 11:15 And the 1aseventh angel 2btrumpeted; and there were loud cvoices in heaven, saying, The 3dkingdom of the world has become the ekingdom of our Lord and of fHis Christ, and He will 4greign forever and ever.
Rv 11:16 And the atwenty-four elders who sit before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God,
Rv 11:17 Saying, We thank You, aLord God the Almighty, He who is and who was, because You have taken Your great bpower and have reigned.
Rv 11:18 And the anations became angry, and Your 1bwrath came, and the time came for the 2cdead to be judged, and the time to give the 3dreward to Your slaves the prophets and to the saints and to those who 4efear Your name, to the small and to the great, and to destroy 5those who destroy the earth.
i. The Scene in Heaven after the Trumpeting of the Seventh Trumpet —
The Temple Opened and the Ark Seen
11:19
Rv 11:19 And the 1atemple of God which is in heaven was opened, and the bArk of His Covenant was seen in His 1temple; and there were clightnings and voices and thunders and an 2earthquake and great dhail.
REVELATION 12

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

B. The Second Section, Giving Details of the Important Things
and the Crucial Matters Covered in the First Section
12:1 — 22:5
1. A Woman Who Brings Forth a Man-child, and a Great Red Dragon — Satan
12:1-18
a. The Woman in Travail
vv. 1-2
Rv 12:1 And a great asign was seen in heaven: a 1bwoman clothed with the csun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;
Rv 12:2 And she was with 1child, and she 2cried out, 3atravailing in birth and being in bpain to bring forth.
b. The Great Red Dragon against the Woman
vv. 3-4
Rv 12:3 And another sign was seen in heaven; and behold, there was a great red 1adragon, having 2bseven heads and ten horns, and on his heads 3seven cdiadems.
Rv 12:4 And his tail drags away the third part of the 1astars of heaven, and he cast them to the earth. And the 2dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, so that when she brings forth he might bdevour her child.
c. The Man-child Born and Caught Up to God and to His Throne
v. 5
Rv 12:5 And she 1brought forth a son, a 2man-child, who is to ashepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was 3caught up to God and to His throne.
d. The Woman Fleeing
v. 6
Rv 12:6 And the woman fled into the 1wilderness, where she has a place there prepared by God so that they might nourish her there a athousand two hundred and sixty days.
e. War in Heaven
vv. 7-9
Rv 12:7 And there was 1war in heaven: 2aMichael and his angels went to war with the dragon. And the dragon warred and 3bhis angels.
Rv 12:8 And they did not prevail, neither was their place found any longer in heaven.
Rv 12:9 And the great dragon was 1cast down, the 2ancient aserpent, he who is called the 3bDevil and 4cSatan, he who ddeceives the whole inhabited earth; he was ecast to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.
f. The Triumphant Shout in Heaven
vv. 10-12
Rv 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now has come the salvation and the power and the 1akingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, for the 2accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who baccuses them before our God day and night.
Rv 12:11 And 1they aovercame him because of the 2bblood of the cLamb and because of the 3word of their testimony, and they 4dloved not their soul-life even 5eunto death.
Rv 12:12 Therefore be glad, O heavens and athose who 1dwell in them. bWoe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you and has 2great rage, knowing that he has only a 3short time.
g. The Dragon Persecuting the Woman
vv. 13-16
Rv 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he 1persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-child.
Rv 12:14 And to the woman there were given the two wings of the 1great aeagle that she might bfly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for 2a ctime and times and half a time from the face of the serpent.
Rv 12:15 And the serpent cast 1awater as a river out of his mouth after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by its current.
Rv 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth 1opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
h. The Dragon Making War with the Rest of the Woman’s Seed
vv. 17-18
Rv 12:17 And the dragon became angry with the woman and went away to make awar with the 1rest of her seed, who bkeep the commandments of God and have the ctestimony of Jesus.
Rv 12:18 And 1he stood on the sand of the 2asea.
REVELATION 13

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

2. The Two Beasts
13:1-18
a. The Beast out of the Sea — Antichrist
vv. 1-10
Rv 13:1 And I saw a 1abeast coming up out of the 2bsea, having 3cten horns and dseven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads enames of 4blasphemy.
Rv 13:2 And the beast which I saw was 1like a aleopard, and his feet like those of a bbear, and his mouth like the mouth of a clion. And the ddragon egave him his 2power and his fthrone and great gauthority.
Rv 13:3 And 1one of his heads was as it were slain to death, and his death stroke was healed. And the whole earth amarveled after the beast.
Rv 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they aworshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? And who can make war with him?
Rv 13:5 And there was given to him a mouth aspeaking great things and blasphemies, and authority was given to him to act for 1bforty-two months.
Rv 13:6 And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His atabernacle, which tabernacle in heaven.
Rv 13:7 And permission was given to him to make awar with the 1saints and to overcome them; and authority was given to him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.
Rv 13:8 And all those adwelling on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name is not 1bwritten in the 2cbook of life of the dLamb who was slain efrom the foundation of the world.
Rv 13:9 If anyone has an aear, let him hear.
Rv 13:10 If anyone is for captivity, into captivity he goes; if anyone akills with the sword, with the sword he is to be killed. Here is the bendurance and the cfaith of the 1saints.
b. The Beast out of the Earth — The False Prophet
vv. 11-18
Rv 13:11 And I saw 1aanother beast coming up out of the 2earth, and he had two horns 3like a lamb, and he spoke like a bdragon.
Rv 13:12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast ain his sight, and he causes the earth and those who dwell in it to bworship the first beast, whose cdeath stroke was healed.
Rv 13:13 And he does great 1asigns, so that he even makes bfire come down out of heaven to the earth before men.
Rv 13:14 And he adeceives those who dwell on the earth on account of the signs which he was given power to do before the beast, 1commanding those who dwell on the earth to make an bimage to the beast, who had the cstroke of the sword and revived.
Rv 13:15 And power was given to him to give 1breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast might even 2aspeak and cause whoever would bnot worship the image of the beast to be killed.
Rv 13:16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the freemen and the slaves, to be given a amark on their right hand or on their bforehead,
Rv 13:17 And that no one may be able to buy or sell except him who has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the anumber of his name.
Rv 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has 1understanding calculate the 2number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred sixty-six.
REVELATION 14

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 

3. Three Reapings
14:1-20
a. The Firstfruits of the Believers before the Great Tribulation
vv. 1-5
Rv 14:1 And I saw, and behold, the aLamb standing on Mount 1bZion, and with Him a 2chundred and forty-four thousand, having 3His dname and the ename of His Father written on their foreheads.
Rv 14:2 And I heard a voice out of heaven like the sound of 1many awaters and like the sound of 2loud bthunder; and the voice which I heard was like the sound of 3harp-singers playing on their charps.
Rv 14:3 And they asing a bnew song before the throne and before the cfour living creatures and the delders; and 1no one could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been epurchased 2from the earth.
Rv 14:4 These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are 1avirgins. These are they who bfollow the Lamb wherever He may go. These were purchased from among men as 2cfirstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
Rv 14:5 And in their mouth 1ano lie was found; they are 2bwithout blemish.
b. The Eternal Gospel in the Great Tribulation
vv. 6-7
Rv 14:6 And I saw another angel flying in amid-heaven, having an 1eternal gospel to announce to those 2bdwelling on the earth, even to every nation and tribe and tongue and people,
Rv 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, 1aFear God and bgive Him glory because the hour of His 2cjudgment has come; and 3dworship Him who has emade heaven and earth and the sea and the fsprings of waters.
c. The Fall of Religious Babylon in the Great Tribulation
v. 8
Rv 14:8 And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, aFallen, fallen is 1bBabylon the Great, who has made all the nations cdrink of the 2wine of the fury of her fornication!
d. The Warning against the Worship of Antichrist in the Great Tribulation
vv. 9-12
Rv 14:9 And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone aworships the beast and his bimage and receives a cmark on his forehead or on his hand,
Rv 14:10 He also shall drink of the awine of the fury of God, which is mixed undiluted in the bcup of His wrath; and he shall be tormented in 1cfire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb.
Rv 14:11 And the asmoke of their tormenting goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his bimage, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Rv 14:12 Here is the 1aendurance of the 2saints, those who bkeep the commandments of God and the cfaith of Jesus.
e. The Blessing of the Martyrs in the Great Tribulation
v. 13
Rv 14:13 And I heard a voice out of heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the 1dead who adie in the Lord from now on. Yes, says 2the bSpirit, that they may crest from their labors; for their works follow with them.
f. The Harvest of Believers near the End of the Great Tribulation
vv. 14-16
Rv 14:14 And I saw, and behold, there was a white cloud, and 1on the acloud One like the 2bSon of Man sitting, having a 3golden ccrown on His head and a 4sharp sickle in His hand.
Rv 14:15 And another angel acame out of the btemple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Send forth Your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come because the 1charvest of the earth is 2ripe.
Rv 14:16 And He who sat on the cloud thrust His 1sickle upon the earth, and the earth was 2reaped.
g. The Gathering of the Grapes (the Evildoers) at the End of the Great Tribulation
vv. 17-20
Rv 14:17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rv 14:18 And another angel came out of the aaltar, he who has authority over fire, and he cried with a loud voice to 1him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the 2vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripened.
Rv 14:19 And the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great 1awinepress of the fury of God.
Rv 14:20 And the winepress was trodden outside the 1acity, and bblood came out of the winepress up to the bridles of the 2chorses for a 3thousand six hundred 4stadia.
REVELATION 15

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • 

4. The Outpouring of the Seven Bowls
15:1 — 16:21
a. The Last Seven Plagues
15:1
Rv 15:1 And I saw another asign in heaven, great and wonderful, bseven angels having 1seven cplagues, the last plagues; for in them the dfury of God was finished.
b. The Praise of the Late Overcomers
15:2-4
Rv 15:2 And I saw as it were a 1aglassy sea mingled with fire and 2bthose who come away victorious from the cbeast and from his dimage and from the enumber of his name 3standing on the glassy sea, having fharps of God.
Rv 15:3 And they sing the 1asong of Moses, the bslave of God, and the 2csong of the Lamb, saying, dGreat and ewonderful are Your 3works, fLord God the Almighty! gRighteous and true are Your 3hways, O iKing of the 4nations!
Rv 15:4 Who will not afear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are 1bholy; for call the nations will come and worship before You, for Your 2drighteous judgments have been manifested.
c. The Scene in Heaven before the Outpouring of the Seven Bowls
15:5-8
Rv 15:5 And after these things I saw, and the 1atemple of the bTabernacle of the 2Testimony in heaven was opened,
Rv 15:6 And the seven angels who had the seven plagues acame out of the temple, 1clothed in clean bright blinen and cgirded around the breasts with golden girdles.
Rv 15:7 And one of the afour living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bbowls full of the fury of God, who clives forever and ever.
Rv 15:8 And the atemple was filled with bsmoke from the cglory of God and from His power, and 1dno one could enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
REVELATION 16

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

d. The First Bowl: A Malignant Sore upon the Worshippers of Antichrist
16:1-2
Rv 16:1 And I heard a loud voice out of the atemple, saying to the bseven angels, Go and pour out the seven 1bowls of the cfury of God into the earth.
Rv 16:2 And the first went and poured out his bowl into the aearth; and there came to be an evil and malignant 1bsore upon the men who have the cmark of the beast and worship his image.
e. The Second Bowl: The Sea Becoming Blood
16:3
Rv 16:3 And the second poured out his bowl into the asea, and it became bblood like that of a dead man; and 1every living soul that was in the sea died.
f. The Third Bowl: The Rivers and Springs Becoming Blood
16:4-7
Rv 16:4 And the third poured out his bowl into the arivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood.
Rv 16:5 And I heard the angel who had power over the waters saying, You are 1arighteous, 2bwho is and who was, the 1cHoly One, because You have djudged these things;
Rv 16:6 For they poured out the ablood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink; they are worthy of it.
Rv 16:7 And I heard the aaltar saying, 1Yes, bLord God the Almighty, 2ctrue and righteous are Your judgments.
g. The Fourth Bowl: The Sun Burning Men with Fire
16:8-9
Rv 16:8 And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the asun; and it was given to it to burn men with fire.
Rv 16:9 And men were burned with great heat, and they ablasphemed the name of God, who has the authority over these plagues, and they did bnot repent so as to cgive Him glory.
h. The Fifth Bowl: The Kingdom of Antichrist Becoming Darkened
16:10-11
Rv 16:10 And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the 1athrone of the beast; and his bkingdom became cdarkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain
Rv 16:11 And ablasphemed the bGod of heaven for their pains and for their csores; and they did dnot repent of their works.
i. The Sixth Bowl: The Euphrates Dried Up
16:12
Rv 16:12 And the 1sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river aEuphrates; and its water was bdried up that the way of the kings from the crising of the sun might be prepared.
j. The Vision Inserted between the Sixth and Seventh Bowls: The Gathering at Armageddon
16:13-16
Rv 16:13 And I saw, out of the mouth of the adragon and out of the mouth of the bbeast and out of the mouth of the cfalse prophet, three 1dunclean spirits as efrogs;
Rv 16:14 For they are aspirits of demons doing bsigns, which go forth to the kings of the cwhole inhabited earth to gather them to the dwar of the egreat day of God the Almighty.
Rv 16:15 (Behold, I 1come as a athief. Blessed is he who bwatches and keeps his cgarments that he may not walk dnaked and they see his shame.)
Rv 16:16 And they 1agathered them to the place which in Hebrew is called, 2Armageddon.
k. The Seventh Bowl: The Greatest Earthquake and the Great Hail
16:17-21
Rv 16:17 And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and a loud voice came out of the 1atemple from the bthrone, saying, It is 2cdone.
Rv 16:18 And there were alightnings and voices and thunders; and there was a great 1bearthquake, such as had cnot been since man appeared on the earth, such an earthquake, so great.
Rv 16:19 And the 1agreat city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And 2bBabylon the Great was cremembered before God to give her the dcup of the 3wine of the fury of His wrath.
Rv 16:20 And every aisland fled, and the mountains were not found.
Rv 16:21 And great ahail, every stone about the weight of a 1talent, came down out of heaven upon men; and men 2bblasphemed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague of it is exceedingly great.
REVELATION 17

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • 

5. Babylon the Great and Her Destruction
17:1 — 19:4
a. The Religious Aspect
17:1-18
(1) The Great Harlot
vv. 1-6
Rv 17:1 And one of the aseven angels who had the bseven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, cCome here; I will show you the 1djudgment of the 2great 3harlot who sits upon the emany waters,
Rv 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed 1afornication, and those who bdwell on the earth have been made cdrunk with the 2wine of her fornication.
Rv 17:3 And he acarried me away in 1bspirit into a 2wilderness; and I saw a cwoman sitting upon a 3scarlet 4dbeast, full of enames of 5blasphemy, having 6fseven heads and gten horns.
Rv 17:4 And the woman was aclothed in 1purple and 2scarlet, and gilded with 3gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a 4bgolden cup full of cabominations 5and the dunclean things of her fornication.
Rv 17:5 And on her aforehead there was a name written, 1bMYSTERY, cBABYLON THE GREAT, THE 2MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND THE 3ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rv 17:6 And I saw the woman 1drunk with the ablood of the saints and with the blood of the 2bwitnesses of Jesus. And I marveled with great marvel when I saw her.
(2) The Interpretation of the Woman and the Beast
vv. 7-15, 18
Rv 17:7 And the angel said to me, Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast who bears her, who has the seven heads and the ten horns.
Rv 17:8 The 1beast that you saw was and is not and is about to acome up out of the babyss and 2go into cperdition. And those who ddwell on the earth, those whose names are not ewritten from the foundation of the world in the 3fbook of life, will gmarvel when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will be present.
Rv 17:9 Here is the mind which has awisdom. The bseven heads are the 1seven mountains where the woman sits
Rv 17:10 And are 1seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain only a short time.
Rv 17:11 And the beast who was and is not, he himself is 1also the eighth and is out of the seven and goes into perdition.
Rv 17:12 And the aten horns which you saw are 1ten kings, who have not yet received a bkingdom but receive authority as kings for cone hour with the beast.
Rv 17:13 These have one 1amind, and they give their power and authority to the beast.
Rv 17:14 These will make 1awar with the bLamb, and the Lamb will covercome them, for He is dLord of lords and King of kings; and they who are ewith Him, the called and 2fchosen and gfaithful, will also overcome them.
Rv 17:15 And he said to me, The 1awaters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are bpeoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
(3) The Destruction of the Harlot by the Beast
vv. 16-17
Rv 17:16 And the aten horns which you saw and the beast, these will 1hate the harlot and will make her bdesolate and naked and will eat her flesh and cburn her utterly with fire.
Rv 17:17 For 1God has put it into their hearts to perform His 2mind and to perform one amind and to give their bkingdom to the beast until the cwords of God are accomplished.
Rv 17:18 And the 1woman whom you saw is the agreat city, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.
REVELATION 18

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • •

b. The Material Aspect
18:1-24
(1) The Shout of Christ: “Babylon the Great Is Fallen”
vv. 1-3
Rv 18:1 After these things I saw 1aanother Angel 2coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was billumined with His glory.
Rv 18:2 And He cried with a strong voice, saying, 1aFallen, fallen is Babylon the Great! And she has become a bdwelling place of demons and a 2hold of every cunclean spirit and a 2hold of every unclean and hateful bird;
Rv 18:3 For all the nations 1have 2adrunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have bcommitted fornication with her, and the cmerchants of the earth have become drich by the power of her eluxury.
(2) The Call for Separation: “Come Out of Her”
vv. 4-5
Rv 18:4 And I heard another voice out of heaven, saying, 1aCome out of her, My people, that you do not participate in her sins and that you do not receive her plagues;
Rv 18:5 For her sins have 1accumulated up ato heaven, and God has bremembered her 2unrighteousnesses.
(3) Babylon’s Pride and Destruction
vv. 6-8
Rv 18:6 aPay her back even as she has paid, and 1double to her double according to her works; in the bcup which she has mixed, mix to her double.
Rv 18:7 As much as she has aglorified herself and lived bluxuriously, as much torment and sorrow give to her; for she says in her heart, I sit a cqueen, and I am not a dwidow, and I shall by no means see sorrow.
Rv 18:8 Therefore in aone day her plagues will come, death and sorrow and famine, and she will be utterly 1bburned with fire; for the Lord God who cjudges her is strong.
(4) The Weeping over Babylon
vv. 9-19
Rv 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have acommitted fornication and lived luxuriously with her, will bweep and lament over her when they see the csmoke of her burning,
Rv 18:10 aStanding afar off because of fear of her torment, saying, bWoe, woe, the cgreat city, dBabylon, the strong city, for in eone hour your fjudgment has come!
Rv 18:11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargo anymore:
Rv 18:12 1Cargo of gold and silver and precious stone and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of 2thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel of most precious wood and brass and iron and marble,
Rv 18:13 And cinnamon and 1amomum and incense and ointment and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargo of horses and chariots and 2aslaves and 3bsouls of men.
Rv 18:14 And the ripe fruits of your soul’s lust have gone away from you, and all the sumptuous and splendid things have perished from you; and men will find them no more at all.
Rv 18:15 The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand afar off because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,
Rv 18:16 Saying, Woe, woe, the great city, which was aclothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stone and pearl;
Rv 18:17 For in one hour such great wealth has become adesolate! And every ship captain and everyone sailing to a place and sailors and all who work on the sea stood afar off
Rv 18:18 And cried out, seeing the asmoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city?
Rv 18:19 And they cast dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, by which all those who have ships on the sea became rich from her 1wealth, for in 2one hour she has become desolate!
(5) The Rejoicing in Heaven
v. 20
Rv 18:20 aBe glad over her, O heaven and saints and bapostles and prophets, because God has 1judged cjudgment for you upon her.
(6) The Declaration of Babylon’s Absolute Destruction
vv. 21-24
Rv 18:21 And a strong angel took up a astone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, Thus will Babylon, the great city, be 1thrown down with violence and shall be found no more at all.
Rv 18:22 And the sound of aharp-singers and musicians and flutists and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in you, and no craftsman of any craft shall be found anymore at all in you, and the bsound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in you,
Rv 18:23 And the alight of a lamp shall shine no more at all in you, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the bgreat ones of the earth, for by your 1csorcery all the nations were deceived.
Rv 18:24 And in her was found the ablood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.
REVELATION 19

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

c. The Praise in Heaven
19:1-4
Rv 19:1 After these things I heard as it were a aloud voice of a bgreat multitude in heaven, saying, 1cHallelujah! The dsalvation and the eglory and the power are of our God.
Rv 19:2 For atrue and righteous are His judgments; for He has judged the 1bgreat harlot who corrupted the earth with her cfornication, and He avenged the dblood of His slaves 2at her hand.
Rv 19:3 And a second time they said, Hallelujah! And her asmoke goes up forever and ever.
Rv 19:4 And the atwenty-four elders and the bfour living creatures cfell down and worshipped God, dwho sits upon the throne, saying, 1eAmen, Hallelujah!
6. The Marriage of the Lamb
19:5-10
a. The Praise of a Great Multitude
vv. 5-6
Rv 19:5 And a 1avoice came out from the throne, saying, bPraise our God, all His slaves and those who cfear Him, the small and the great.
Rv 19:6 And I heard as it were the avoice of a great multitude and like the sound of 1bmany waters and like the sound of 1mighty cthunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the dLord our God the Almighty ereigns.
b. The Lamb’s Marriage and His Marriage Dinner
vv. 7-9
Rv 19:7 Let us arejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the 1bmarriage of the Lamb has come, and His 2cwife has made herself dready.
Rv 19:8 And it was given to her that she should be aclothed in fine linen, bright and 1clean; for the fine linen is the 2brighteousnesses of the saints.
Rv 19:9 And he said to me, Write, aBlessed are they who are called to the 1bmarriage 2dinner of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the ctrue words of God.
c. The Spirit of the Prophecy
v. 10
Rv 19:10 And I afell before his feet to worship him. And he said to me, Do not do this. I am your fellow slave and a fellow slave of your brothers who have the btestimony of Jesus. cWorship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the 1spirit of the dprophecy.
7. The War at Armageddon
19:11-21
a. Christ Coming to Tread the Great Winepress
vv. 11-16
Rv 19:11 And I saw aheaven opened, and behold, a bwhite horse, and 1He who sits on it called 2cFaithful and True, and in 3drighteousness He judges and makes ewar.
Rv 19:12 And His 1aeyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are 2many bdiadems, and He has a cname written 3which no one knows but Himself.
Rv 19:13 And He is clothed with a agarment 1dipped in blood; and His name is called the 2bWord of God.
Rv 19:14 And the 1aarmies which are in heaven bfollowed Him on white horses, 2cdressed in fine linen, white and clean.
Rv 19:15 And out of His amouth proceeds a sharp 1bsword, that with it He might csmite the nations; and He will 2dshepherd them with an iron rod; and He treads the 3ewinepress of the fury of the wrath of God the fAlmighty.
Rv 19:16 And He has on His 1garment and on His thigh a aname written, bKING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
b. A Great Dinner
vv. 17-18
Rv 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the abirds that fly in bmid-heaven, Come here; gather yourselves to the 1great dinner of God,
Rv 19:18 That you may aeat the flesh of kings and the flesh of 1generals and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both bfree and slave and small and great.
c. The Defeat and Perdition of Antichrist and the False Prophet
vv. 19-21
Rv 19:19 And I saw the abeast and the 1bkings of the earth and their 2carmies dgathered together to make 3ewar with Him who sits on the horse and with His farmy.
Rv 19:20 And the beast was seized, and with him the afalse prophet, who in his presence had done the bsigns by which he deceived those who received the cmark of the beast and those who dworshipped his image. These two were 1ecast alive into the flake of fire, which burns with gbrimstone.
Rv 19:21 And the rest were killed with the asword which proceeds out of the mouth of Him who sits on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
REVELATION 20

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 

8. The Imprisonment of Satan
20:1-3
a. For One Thousand Years
vv. 1-2
Rv 20:1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the akey of the babyss and a great cchain in his hand.
Rv 20:2 And he laid hold of the adragon, the ancient bserpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and 1cbound him for a thousand years
b. In the Abyss
v. 3
Rv 20:3 And acast him into the abyss and bshut it and sealed it over him, that he might not cdeceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be dloosed for a little while.
9. The Millennial Kingdom
20:4-6
a. In the Best Resurrection
vv. 4-5
Rv 20:4 And I saw athrones, and 1they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the bsouls of 2those who had been beheaded because of the ctestimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and of 3those who had not dworshipped the beast nor his image, and had not received the emark on their forehead and on their hand; and they 4lived and freigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Rv 20:5 The 1arest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were completed. This is the 2bfirst resurrection.
b. With the Priesthood and the Kingship for One Thousand Years
v. 6
Rv 20:6 1aBlessed and bholy is he who has part in the 2first resurrection; over these the 3csecond death has no authority, but they will be 4dpriests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for 5a thousand years.
10. The Last Rebellion
20:7-10
a. The Release of Satan
v. 7
Rv 20:7 And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his 1prison
b. The Rebellion of the Nations and Their Destruction
vv. 8-9
Rv 20:8 And will go out to adeceive the nations which are in the bfour corners of the earth, 1Gog and cMagog, to dgather them together for the 2war. Their number is like that of the sand of the sea.
Rv 20:9 And they awent up upon the breadth of the earth and surrounded the 1camp of the saints and the 1bbeloved city; and cfire came down 2out of heaven and devoured them.
c. Satan’s Perdition in the Lake of Fire
v. 10
Rv 20:10 And the adevil, who deceived them, was cast into the 1blake of fire and brimstone, where also the beast and the false prophet were; and they will be ctormented day and night forever and ever.
11. The Judgment of the Great White Throne
20:11-15
a. Earth and Heaven Fleeing Away
v. 11
Rv 20:11 And I saw a great 1white throne and 2Him who sat upon it, from whose face 3aearth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.
b. The Unbelieving Dead Being Judged
v. 12
Rv 20:12 And I saw the adead, the great and the small, 1standing before the throne, and 2bscrolls were opened; and another 3scroll was opened, which is cthe book of life. And the dead were judged by the things which were written in the 2scrolls, daccording to their works.
c. The Demons Being Judged
v. 13
Rv 20:13 And the 1asea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and bHades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, each of them, according to their works.
d. Death and Hades Being Cast into the Lake of Fire
v. 14
Rv 20:14 And 1adeath and Hades were cast into the blake of fire. This is the 2csecond death, the lake of fire.
e. The Perdition of the Unbelievers and Demons in the Lake of Fire
v. 15
Rv 20:15 And if 1anyone was not found awritten in the 2book of life, he was cast into the 3lake of fire.
REVELATION 21

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • • • • 25 • • 

12. The New Heaven and the New Earth
21:1-8
a. The First Heaven and the First Earth Having Passed Away and the Sea Being No More
v. 1
Rv 21:1 And I saw a 1anew heaven and a new earth; for the 2bfirst heaven and the first earth passed away, and the 3sea is no more.
b. New Jerusalem Coming Down to the New Earth
v. 2
Rv 21:2 And I saw the aholy city, 1bNew Jerusalem, 2coming down out of heaven from God, cprepared as a 3dbride adorned for her ehusband.
c. The Peoples on the New Earth
vv. 3-4
Rv 21:3 And I heard a aloud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the 1btabernacle of God is with men, and He will ctabernacle with them, and dthey will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
Rv 21:4 And He will 1awipe away every tear from their eyes; and 2bdeath will be no more, nor will there be csorrow or crying or pain anymore; for the 3dformer things have passed away.
d. The Sons of God in Eternity
vv. 5-7
Rv 21:5 And He awho sits on the throne said, Behold, I make all things bnew. And He said, Write, for these words are cfaithful and true.
Rv 21:6 And He said to me, 1They have come to pass. I am the aAlpha and the Omega, the bBeginning and the End. I will give to him who cthirsts from the dspring of the ewater of life freely.
Rv 21:7 He who 1aovercomes will inherit these things, and bI will be God to him, and he will be a 2cson to Me.
e. The Perished in the Lake of Fire
v. 8
Rv 21:8 But the cowardly and unbelieving and aabominable and murderers and bfornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all the 1false, their part will be in the 2clake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the dsecond death.
13. New Jerusalem
21:9-27
a. The Bride, the Wife of the Lamb
v. 9
Rv 21:9 And 1one of the aseven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, bCome here; I will show you the 2cbride, the dwife of the Lamb.
b. The Holy City
v. 10
Rv 21:10 And he acarried me away bin spirit onto a 1great and high mountain and showed me the choly city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
c. Her Glory and Appearance
v. 11
Rv 21:11 Having the 1aglory of God. Her 2blight was like a most 3cprecious stone, like a 4djasper stone, as clear as ecrystal.
d. Her Structure and Measurement
vv. 12-21
Rv 21:12 It had a 1great and high awall and had 2btwelve cgates, and at the gates twelve 3angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of 4Israel:
Rv 21:13 On the 1east three gates, and on the 1north three gates, and on the 1south three gates, and on the 1west three gates.
Rv 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve 1afoundations, and on them the twelve names of the btwelve 2apostles of the Lamb.
Rv 21:15 And he who spoke with me had a 1golden reed as a measure that he might ameasure the city and its gates and its wall.
Rv 21:16 And the city lies 1asquare, and its length is as great as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed to a length of 2twelve thousand 3stadia; the 4length and the breadth and the height of it are bequal.
Rv 21:17 And he measured its wall, a 1hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a 2man, that is, of an 2aangel.
Rv 21:18 And the building work of its wall was 1ajasper; and the city was 2pure 3bgold, like 4clear glass.
Rv 21:19 The 1afoundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every bprecious stone: the first foundation was 2jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
Rv 21:20 The fifth, asardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
Rv 21:21 And the atwelve gates were twelve 1bpearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of 2one pearl. And the 3street of the city was pure cgold, like 4transparent glass.
e. The Enlarged Temple
v. 22
Rv 21:22 And I saw 1no 2atemple in it, for the bLord God the Almighty and the cLamb are its 2dtemple.
f. Her Light and Lamp
v. 23
Rv 21:23 And the city has 1ano need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the bglory of God illumined it, and its 2clamp is the Lamb.
g. The Nations around Her
vv. 24-27
Rv 21:24 And the 1anations will walk by its 2light; and the 3bkings of the earth bring their 4glory into it.
Rv 21:25 And its gates shall by 1ano means be shut by day, for there will be no 2bnight there.
Rv 21:26 And they will bring the 1aglory and the 2honor of the nations into it.
Rv 21:27 And anything acommon and he who makes an babomination and a clie shall by no means denter into it, but only 1those who are ewritten in the Lamb’s 2book of life.
REVELATION 22

vv. 1 • • • 5 • • • • 10 • • • • 15 • • • • 20 • 

14. The River of Water of Life and the Tree of Life
22:1-2
a. The River of Water of Life
v. 1
Rv 22:1 And 1he ashowed me a 2briver of 3cwater of life, bright as 4dcrystal, eproceeding out of the 5fthrone of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its 6gstreet.
b. The Tree of Life
v. 2
Rv 22:2 And on this aside and on that side of the river was the 1btree of life, producing twelve 2cfruits, yielding its fruit 3each 4month; and the 5dleaves of the tree are for the ehealing of the fnations.
15. The Blessings of God’s Redeemed in Eternity
22:3-5
a. No More Curse
b. Having the Throne of God and of the Lamb
c. Serving God and the Lamb
v. 3
Rv 22:3 And there will no longer be 1a 2acurse. And the 3throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bslaves will 4cserve 5Him;
d. Seeing the Face of God and of the Lamb
e. The Name of God and of the Lamb Being on Their Foreheads
v. 4
Rv 22:4 And they will 1asee His bface, and His cname will be on their foreheads.
f. Being under the Illumination of the Lord God
g. Reigning Forever
v. 5
Rv 22:5 And 1anight will be no more; and they have bno need of the 2light of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the 3Lord God will shine upon them; and they will 4creign forever and ever.
V. Conclusion — The Lord’s Last Warning and the Apostle’s Last Prayer
22:6-21
Rv 22:6 And 1he said to me, These words are afaithful and true; and the 2Lord, the bGod of the 3cspirits of the dprophets, has sent His angel to eshow to His slaves the things which must quickly take place.
Rv 22:7 And behold, 1I acome quickly. bBlessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this scroll.
Rv 22:8 And I aJohn am he who hears and sees these things. And when I heard and saw, I bfell to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
Rv 22:9 And he said to me, aDo not do that! I am your fellow slave and a fellow slave of your brothers the bprophets and of those who ckeep the words of this scroll. dWorship God.
Rv 22:10 And he said to me, Do 1not aseal the words of the bprophecy of this scroll, for the ctime is near.
Rv 22:11 1Let ahim who does unrighteousness do unrighteousness still; and let him who is filthy be filthy still; and let him who is righteous do righteousness still; and let him who is holy be holy still.
Rv 22:12 Behold, 1I acome quickly, and My 2breward is with Me to render to each one as his work is.
Rv 22:13 1I am the aAlpha and the Omega, the 2bFirst and the Last, the cBeginning and the End.
Rv 22:14 1aBlessed are those who 2bwash their crobes that 3they may have 4dright to the etree of life and may fenter 5by the ggates into the city.
Rv 22:15 1aOutside are the bdogs and the sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and cmakes a lie.
Rv 22:16 I Jesus have asent My angel to testify to you these things 1for the 2bchurches. I am the 3cRoot and the dOffspring of David, the bright 4emorning star.
Rv 22:17 And the 1aSpirit and the bbride say, 2cCome! And let him who hears say, cCome! And let him who is dthirsty 3ecome; let 4him who wills take the fwater of life freely.
Rv 22:18 1I testify to everyone who hears the words of the aprophecy of this scroll: If anyone badds to them, God will add to him the 2cplagues which are written in this scroll;
Rv 22:19 And if anyone atakes away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the 1btree of life and out of the choly city, which are written in this scroll.
Rv 22:20 He who testifies these things says, Yes, 1I acome quickly. bAmen. 2cCome, Lord Jesus!
Rv 22:21 The 1agrace of the Lord Jesus2 be with all 3the bsaints. cAmen.
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HOLY BIBLE
Recovery Version
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HOLY BIBLE
Recovery Version
INTRODUCTION
The publication of the Recovery Version of the Holy Bible with accompanying outlines, footnotes, and marginal cross-references culminates nearly three decades of labor on God’s holy Word. This work followed the ongoing life-study of the Bible, which Witness Lee commenced in April 1974 with simultaneous studies of Genesis and Matthew and concluded in 1995 with a study of the Song of Songs. This complete study is published in the seventeen volumes of the Life-study of the New Testament and the fifteen volumes of the Life-study of the Old Testament. In anticipation of the life-study of each book of the Bible, a new translation from Greek or Hebrew was produced. In addition, for the books of the New Testament, Witness Lee wrote extensive footnotes and provided outlines and cross-references. In 1991, after extensive revision, augmentation, and improvement, the Recovery Version of the New Testament was published. In 1994, before the life-study of the Old Testament was completed, Witness Lee asked the editorial section of the Living Stream Ministry to undertake a revision of the translation of the Old Testament and to compile footnotes from his published life-study and provide a body of marginal cross-references for the Old Testament. This work was in progress when Witness Lee went to be with the Lord on June 9, 1997. The revised text of the Old Testament along with the text of the New Testament was published in one volume in 1999. This text-only edition included the extensive outlines of every book of the Bible that were either written directly by Witness Lee or taken from his published life-study. The present volume contains the revised Old Testament text with outlines, the full set of Old Testament footnotes, compiled from Witness Lee’s Life-study of the Old Testament and other of his publications, an extensive body of Old Testament marginal cross-references, and the complete contents of the previously published Recovery Version of the New Testament.
The work on the Recovery Version of the Old Testament followed the same principles which guided the work on the New Testament. These principles were expressed clearly in the “Brief Explanation” that prefaced the Recovery Version of the New Testament, and thus it is fitting to simply reproduce that explanation here:
A BRIEF EXPLANATION
Throughout the centuries, translations of the Bible have steadily improved. In general, each new translation inherits from previous ones and opens the way for later ones. While a new translation derives help from its predecessors, it should go further. The Recovery Version of the New Testament, following the precedent set by the major authoritative English versions and taking these versions as reference, not only incorporates lessons learned from an examination of others’ practices but also attempts to avoid biases and inaccurate judgments. This version, frequently guided by other versions, attempts to provide the best utterance for the revelation in the divine Word, that it may be expressed in the English language with the greatest accuracy.
Translating the Bible depends not only on an adequate comprehension of the original language but also on a proper understanding of the divine revelation in the holy Word. Throughout the centuries the understanding of the divine revelation possessed by the saints has always been based upon the light they received, and this understanding has progressed steadily. The consummation of this understanding forms the basis of this translation and its footnotes. Hence, this translation and the accompanying footnotes could be called the “crystallization” of the understanding of the divine revelation which the saints everywhere have attained to in the past two thousand years. It is our hope that the Recovery Version will carry on the heritage that it has received and will pave the way for future generations.
As with any New Testament translation, the determination of the original Greek text, based upon the available manuscripts, forms the basis for the text of the Recovery Version of the New Testament. The Recovery Version follows, for the most part, the Nestle-Aland Greek text as found in Novum Testamentum Graece (26th edition). However, in determining the original form of any verse, the translators of the Recovery Version gave careful consideration to the larger context of chapter and book and to similar portions of the New Testament. The most recently discovered manuscripts or the manuscripts of oldest date are not necessarily the most accurate or reliable; hence, the determination of the text for this version was based largely upon the principle stated above. Departures from the Nestle-Aland text are sometimes indicated in the footnotes. Italicized words in the verses indicate supplied words, not found in the Greek text. Quotation marks are used to indicate close quotation from the Old Testament.
The Recovery Version embodies extensive research into the meaning of the original text and attempts to express this meaning with English that is to the point, easy to understand, and readable. In those places where it is difficult to express the exact meaning of the original Greek, explanatory footnotes have been supplied.
The subject provided at the beginning of each book and the outline of each book take the historical facts as their base and express the spiritual meaning in each book. The footnotes stress the revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life more than history, geography, and persons. The cross-references lead not only to other verses with the same expressions and facts but also to other matters related to the spiritual revelation in the divine Word.
Witness Lee and
   the editorial section
August 1, 1991
Anaheim, California
Apart from these general comments regarding the translation of the text and the characteristics of the outlines, footnotes, and cross-references, a few particular comments about the Old Testament work are in order. Following the principle used in translating the New Testament, the translation of the Old Testament is based on the current scholarly text of the Hebrew Scriptures, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS; revised 1990 edition). Departures from this edition are generally indicated in the footnotes. Frequently the ancient translations of the Old Testament into Aramaic, Greek, Syriac, and Latin were consulted for clarification of the Hebrew text, and in some instances these translations were adopted in the Recovery Version; the reading of the Hebrew text is generally given in the footnotes. As much as possible the poetic structure of the Hebrew text, as indicated by BHS, has been preserved.
The reader will quickly note the use of the name Jehovah in this translation. In spite of the historical linguistic arguments against its use, no other rendering of the Tetragrammaton has the same heritage that Jehovah has in classic English literature. While our forebears in translation, based on a faulty understanding of the Hebrew vowel pointing, might have mistakenly transliterated the divine name, their great influence has firmly embedded the name Jehovah into the English language, as evidenced by its inclusion in our modern dictionaries. Our employing of the name Jehovah is motivated not by linguistic considerations but by a recognition of the heritage of the English language and, more importantly, by a desire to be true to our convictions as translators that the name of God, revealed and delivered to His saints (Exo. 3:16; 20:7), should be deliberately rendered in the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Deference to ancient religion and confusion from modern sectarians are no reasons to shrink back from the use and enjoyment of God’s personal and revealed name.
With these words of introduction we put forward this Recovery Version of the Holy Bible and pray earnestly that through it the Holy Spirit will shine in the hearts of all its readers “to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).
The editorial section
August 1, 2003
Anaheim, California
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Charts
&
Maps
The Ancient Near East in Old Testament Times
Israel in Old Testament Times
The Holy Land in New Testament Times
The Journeys of Paul
God’s New Testament Economy
The Seventy Weeks and the Coming of Christ, with the Rapture of the Saints
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Genesis Outline
I.   God’s creation — 1:1 — 2:25
A.   God’s desire and purpose — 1:1 — 2:3
1.   God’s original creation — 1:1
2.   Judgment and corruption — 1:2a
3.   God’s restoration and further creation — 1:2b — 2:3
a.   The Spirit, the word, and the light coming, the first day — 1:2b-5
b.   The waters under the expanse separated from the waters above the expanse, the second day — 1:6-8
c.   The earth separated from the seas and the plant life generated, the third day — 1:9-13
d.   The light-bearers appearing, the fourth day — 1:14-19
e.   The living creatures in the water and in the air generated, the fifth day — 1:20-23
f.   The living creatures on the earth generated, the sixth day — 1:24-31
(1)   The animals of the earth — vv. 24-25
(2)   Man — vv. 26-28
(a)   The conference of the Godhead — v. 26
(b)   Created by God male and female — v. 27
(c)   Blessed by God to be fruitful — v. 28
(3)   Man and all other living creatures satisfied by God’s provision — vv. 29-30
(4)   Everything being very good to God — v. 31
g.   God resting in satisfaction, the seventh day — 2:1-3
B.   God’s procedures to fulfill His purpose — 2:4-25
1.   The background — no rain from heaven, no man on the ground, no life in the field, only a mist from the earth — vv. 4-6
2.   The first step — creating man as a vessel to contain God as life — v. 7
3.   The second step — having man receive God as life — vv. 8-17
a.   Placing man in front of the tree of life — vv. 8-9
b.   Putting man in the garden with its river — vv. 10-15
c.   Allowing man to have free choice — vv. 16-17
4.   The third step — working God into man as life to be His complement — vv. 18-25
a.   Man, typifying God, needing to have a complement — vv. 18-20
b.   Man gaining a complement in and by life — vv. 21-25
II.   Man’s fall through Satan’s corruption — 3:1 — 11:32
A.   The first fall — from God’s presence to man’s conscience — 3:1-24
1.   The serpent’s (Satan’s) temptation and man’s first fall — vv. 1-7
2.   God dealing with man’s first fall — vv. 8-24
a.   Seeking man — vv. 8-13
b.   Judging the serpent — v. 14
c.   The promise regarding the seed of the woman — v. 15
d.   Disciplining man through suffering — vv. 16-19
e.   Redemption anticipated — vv. 20-21
f.   Closing the way to the tree of life — vv. 22-24
B.   The second fall — from man’s conscience to others’ control — 4:1-26
1.   The background — vv. 1-2
2.   Man’s presumption, anger, murder, lying, and arrogance — vv. 3-9
3.   God dealing with man’s second fall — cursing man and making him a fugitive and a wanderer — vv. 10-15
4.   Man producing a culture without God — vv. 16-24
5.   The way to escape man’s second fall — man realizing his fragility and calling on the name of Jehovah — vv. 25-26
C.   The generations of the saved revealing the ultimate issue of man’s fall and the way to escape it — 5:1-32
1.   The ultimate issue of man’s fall — death — vv. 1-21, 25-27
2.   The way to escape death — walking with God — vv. 22-24
3.   The family of salvation finding comfort and rest — vv. 28-32
D.   The third fall — from others’ control to human government — 6:1 — 8:3
1.   The evil spirits mingling with man and man becoming flesh — 6:1-4
2.   God dealing with man’s third fall — blotting out man from the earth — 6:5-7
3.   The way of salvation from the third fall — 6:8 — 8:3
a.   Walking with God — 6:8-10
b.   Building the ark — 6:11 — 7:16
(1)   Receiving the revelation — 6:11-21
(2)   Preparing the ark — 6:22
(3)   Entering the ark and being shut in the ark by Jehovah — 7:1-16
c.   Saved through water — 7:17 — 8:3
E.   Life in resurrection — 8:4 — 10:32
1.   The ark resting upon the mountains, signifying resurrection with Christ — 8:4-5
2.   The raven being sent forth, signifying the fleshly ones going back to the world judged by God — 8:6-7
3.   The dove being sent forth, signifying the spiritual ones staying with the church and caring for life in the Spirit — 8:8-12
4.   Going forth from the ark in resurrection — 8:13-19
5.   Making burnt offerings to Jehovah on an altar, signifying the offering of Christ to God through the cross — 8:20-22
6.   Fulfilling God’s purpose to express and represent Him — 9:1-7
7.   Living under God’s covenant — 9:8-17
a.   No more judgment through death’s waters — vv. 8-11
b.   The rainbow as the sign of God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant — vv. 12-17
8.   The failure of the leader and deputy authority — 9:18-29
a.   Caused by the success of his work — vv. 18-21
b.   Ham exposing the failure, and Shem and Japheth covering the failure — vv. 22-24
c.   Ham’s son receiving the curse, and Shem and Japheth receiving the blessing — vv. 25-29
9.   The nations issuing forth with Babel as the consummation — 10:1-32
F.   The fourth fall — from human government to rebellion under Satan’s instigation — 11:1-9
1.   Building a city and a tower to rebel against God, to renounce God, and to make a name for themselves — vv. 1-4
2.   God dealing with man’s fourth fall — scattering them in living and confounding them in language — vv. 5-9
G.   The generations from man’s salvation through water to Jehovah’s calling — 11:10-32
III.   Jehovah’s calling — 12:1 — 50:26
A.   The first aspect — the experience of Abraham — 12:1 — 25:18
1.   God’s calling — 12:1-7a
2.   Living by faith — 12:7b — 14:24
a.   A life of the altar and the tent — 12:7b-8
b.   The trial of the called — 12:9 — 13:18
(1)   Famine — 12:9 — 13:4
(2)   The brother’s striving — 13:5-18
c.   The victory of the called — 14:1-24
(1)   The brother being captured — vv. 1-12
(2)   Fighting for the brother — vv. 13-17
(3)   Ministered to by Melchizedek — vv. 18-20
(4)   Overcoming the temptation of earthly substance — vv. 21-24
3.   Knowing grace for the fulfillment of God’s purpose — 15:1 — 17:27
a.   God’s covenant with Abraham — 15:1-21
(1)   Concerning the seed — vv. 1-6
(2)   Concerning the land — vv. 7-21
b.   The two women — an allegory — 16:1-16
c.   God’s covenant confirmed with circumcision — 17:1-14
d.   The birth of Isaac promised — 17:15-27
4.   Living in fellowship with God — 18:1 — 24:67
a.   Communion with God on the human level — 18:1-22
b.   A glorious intercession — 18:23-33
c.   The negative record of Lot — 19:1-38
(1)   A defeated righteous man and a pillar of salt — vv. 1-29
(2)   The seed by incest — vv. 30-38
d.   A hidden weakness and a shameful intercession — 20:1-18
e.   The birth and growth of Isaac — 21:1-8
f.   Hagar and Ishmael cast out — 21:9-14
g.   Two wells — two sources of living — 21:15-34
h.   The offering up of Isaac — 22:1-24
i.   The death and burial of Sarah — 23:1-20
j.   The marriage of Isaac — 24:1-67
5.   Having no maturity in life — 25:1-18
B.   The second aspect — the experience of Isaac — 25:19-21, 27-28; 26:1 — 27:4, 27b-41; 28:6-9
1.   Gaining twin sons — 25:19-21
2.   Living in the natural life like Jacob — 25:27-28; 28:6-9
3.   Inheriting the promise given to his father — 26:1-5
4.   Having natural weakness like Abraham — 26:6-11
5.   Reaping a hundredfold and becoming great — 26:12-14
6.   Finding wells in many places — 26:15-22
7.   God confirming His promise to him at Beer-sheba, the unique place of God’s appearing for the fulfillment of His purpose — 26:23-35
8.   Not having much maturity in life — 27:1-4, 27b-41
C.   The third aspect — the experience of Jacob (with Joseph) — 25:22-26, 29-34; 27:5-27a; 27:42 — 28:5; 28:10 — 50:26
1.   Being dealt with — 25:22-26, 29-34; 27:5-27a; 27:42 — 28:5; 28:10 — 32:21
a.   Being chosen to be born second — 25:22-26
b.   Being forced to leave the loving mother and the father’s home — 25:29-34; 27:5-27a; 27:42 — 28:5
(1)   Supplanting the birthright — 25:29-34
(2)   Supplanting the father’s blessing — 27:5-27a
(3)   Being instructed by his mother to go away — 27:42-46
(4)   Being blessed and sent away by his father — 28:1-5
c.   The dream at Bethel — 28:10-22
d.   Being led in God’s sovereignty to meet Rachel and Laban — 29:1-14
e.   Being cheated by Laban to marry Laban’s two daughters — 29:15-30
f.   The competition, envy, and wrestling between Jacob’s wives in bearing children — 29:31 — 30:24
g.   Being squeezed by Laban and tricking him, but being blessed by God — 30:25 — 31:16
h.   Fleeing from Laban and being pursued by him — 31:17-55
i.   Fearing Esau — 32:1-21
2.   Being broken — 32:22 — 34:31
a.   Wrestling with God — 32:22-32
b.   Being welcomed by Esau — 33:1-16
c.   Returning to Canaan but only to Shechem — 33:17-20
d.   Still needing the dealing in his circumstances — 34:1-31
3.   Being transformed — 35:1-29
a.   Being reminded by God at Bethel — vv. 1-15
b.   Deeper and more personal dealings — vv. 16-26
(1)   The death of Rachel — vv. 16-20
(2)   The birthright being changed through the defilement of Jacob’s concubine — vv. 21-26
c.   Entering into full fellowship — v. 27
d.   Released from the tie with his father — vv. 28-29
  (The descendants of Esau — 36:1-43)
4.   Being matured — 37:1-2a, 32-36; 42:1-5; 42:29 — 43:14; 45:25 — 47:10; 47:28 — 50:13
a.   The process of maturity — dealings in the last stage — 37:1-2a, 32-36; 42:1-5; 42:29 — 43:14
(1)   Being robbed of the treasure of his heart (Joseph) under God’s sovereign hand — 37:1-2a, 32-36
(2)   Being stricken with famine and forced to send his sons to Egypt to buy grain — 42:1-5
(3)   Having his second son, Simeon, detained in Egypt — 42:29-38
(4)   Being stricken with severe famine and sending his youngest son, Benjamin — 43:1-14
b.   The manifestation of maturity — 45:25 — 47:10; 47:28 — 50:13
(1)   Assigning no blame at hearing that Joseph was still alive — 45:25-28
(2)   Offering sacrifices to God at Beer-sheba — 46:1-4
(3)   Meeting Joseph again — 46:5-34
(4)   Blessing people all the time — 47:1-10; 47:28 — 49:28
(a)   Blessing Pharaoh — 47:1-10
(b)   Blessing Joseph’s sons — 47:28 — 48:22
(c)   Blessing his own sons — 49:1-28
(5)   Departing in an excellent way — 49:29 — 50:13
5.   The reigning aspect of the matured Israel as seen in Joseph — 37:2b-31; 38:1 — 41:57; 42:6-28; 43:15 — 45:24; 47:11-27; 50:14-26
a.   Being a shepherd and the father’s beloved — 37:2b-4
b.   Viewing his people as sheaves of life and as the sun, the moon, and the stars of light — 37:5-11
c.   Ministering to his brothers according to the father’s will — 37:12-17
d.   Living as a sheaf of life — 37:18-31
e.   Living as a star of light — 38:1 — 39:12
(1)   His brother Judah indulging in lust — 38:1-30
(2)   Overcoming lust and shining in darkness — 39:1-12
f.   Being delivered into the prison of death — 39:13 — 41:13
g.   Being resurrected from the prison of death — 41:14-39
h.   Being enthroned with authority and receiving glory and gifts — 41:40-44
i.   Becoming the savior of the world, the sustainer of life (the revealer of secrets) — 41:45-46
j.   Supplying people with food — 41:47-57
k.   Being recognized by the children of Israel — 42:6-28; 43:15 — 45:24
(1)   Being wise in dealing with his brothers and showing them love — 42:6-28
(2)   Testing his brothers further — 43:15 — 44:34
(3)   Revealing his exaltation and glory to his repentant brothers — 45:1-15
(4)   His brothers participating in the enjoyment of his reign — 45:16-24
l.   Reigning — 47:11-27; 50:14-26
Genesis >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Genesis Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 1:11a In  -   cf. John 1:1-2
The Bible, composed of two testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament, is the complete written divine revelation of God to man. The major revelation in the entire Bible is the unique divine economy of the unique Triune God (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4b). The centrality and universality of this divine economy is the all-inclusive and unsearchably rich Christ as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God (Col. 2:9; 1:15-19; John 1:18). The goal of the divine economy is the church as the Body, the fullness, the expression, of Christ (Eph. 1:22b-23; 3:8-11), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the union, mingling, and incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God and His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite people. The accomplishing of the divine economy is revealed in the Bible progressively in many steps, beginning with God’s creation in Gen. 1 — 2 and consummating with the New Jerusalem in Rev. 21 — 22. In the Old Testament the contents of God’s economy are revealed mainly in types, figures, and shadows, whereas in the New Testament all the types, figures, and shadows are fulfilled and realized. Thus, the Old Testament is a figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy, and the New Testament is the practical fulfillment.
Genesis, adopted by the Septuagint as the title of this book, is a word meaning giving of birth, origin. As the first book in the Bible, Genesis gives birth to and is the origin of the divine truths in the holy Word. Thus, the seeds of the divine truths are sown in this book. These seeds grow and develop in the succeeding books, especially in the New Testament, and are finally harvested in the last book, the book of Revelation.
The book of Genesis is a miniature of the complete revelation of the entire Bible. It begins with a man created in God’s image (1:26) and ends with a man called Israel (32:28; 48:2), a transformed person, a man not only outwardly in the image of God but a man in whom God has wrought Himself, making him His expression. The transformed Israel is a seed, a miniature, of the New Jerusalem.
Apparently, chs. 1 — 2 of Genesis are merely a record of creation; actually, nearly every item in the record of these two chapters is a revelation of Christ, who is life to God’s people (John 1:1, 4; 11:25; 14:6) for the producing and building up of the church. Chapters 3 — 50 present biographies of eight great persons in two groups of four, representing two races of men: Adam, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, representing the created race, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, representing the called race. What is recorded is not primarily the works of these men but mainly their life, their living, and their way with God. In Genesis God uses both the record of creation and the biographies of eight persons to reveal the life that fulfills His purpose.
Gn 1:12 beginning
Referring to the beginning of time (cf. John 1:1). Time began at the creation of the universe and continues until the final judgment at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Time is for the accomplishing of God’s eternal purpose, which God made in eternity past (Eph. 3:11) for eternity future.
Gn 1:13 God
Heb. Elohim, meaning the Mighty One. The Hebrew name here is plural, but the verb created is singular. Furthermore, in v. 26 the plural pronouns Us and Our are used in reference to God, whereas in v. 27 the pronouns He and His are used. These are seeds of the Trinity. God is one (Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 Tim. 2:5), but He is also three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). He is the Triune God. It was the Triune God who created. See note 141, par. 3, in 2 Cor. 13.
Genesis is divided into three sections, each beginning with a name. The first section (1:1 — 2:25), beginning with the name God, concerns God’s creation; the second (3:1 — 11:32), beginning with the serpent, covers the serpent’s corrupting of mankind; and the third (12:1 — 50:26), beginning with the name Jehovah, concerns Jehovah’s calling of fallen man.
Gn 1:14b created  -   Zech. 12:1; Psa. 33:6; Isa. 42:5; 45:18; Jer. 10:12; 51:15; John 1:3
Created here, denoting to bring something into existence out of nothing, differs from made in 2:4 and formed in 2:7, the latter two denoting to take something that already exists and use it to produce something else.
The motive of God’s creation was to fulfill God’s desire and to satisfy His good pleasure (Eph. 1:5, 9). The purpose of God’s creation is to glorify the Son of God (Col. 1:15-19) and to manifest God Himself (Psa. 19:1-2; Rom. 1:20 and notes 1 and 2), especially in man (1 Tim. 3:16) through His Son, Christ, who is the embodiment of God and the image, the expression, of God (Col. 2:9; 1:15). The basis of God’s creation is God’s will and plan (Eph. 1:10 and note 1; Rev. 4:11 and note 2). The means of God’s creation were the Son of God (Col. 1:15-16; Heb. 1:2b) and the Word of God (Heb. 11:3; John 1:1-3), both of whom are Christ (John 1:1, 18; Rev. 19:13).
Gn 1:15 heavens
In the process of God’s creation, the heavens and the angels therein were created first, and the earth, probably with some living creatures, was created second (Job 38:4-7 and note 71).
Gn 1:21 But
God created the earth in a good order (Job 38:4-7; Isa. 45:18). But here and became later in this verse indicate that something happened to cause God’s creation to become “waste and emptiness.” This cataclysmic event was God’s judgment on the preadamic universe following Satan’s rebellion. This judgment was executed on Satan, on the angels and the preadamic creatures living on the earth who joined Satan in his rebellion, and on the heavens and the earth themselves. See Isa. 14:12-15 and notes; Ezek. 28:12-19 and notes.
Gn 1:22a waste  -   Jer. 4:23; Isa. 24:1
Whenever the words waste and emptiness are used together in the Old Testament, they denote a result of God’s judgment (cf. Jer. 4:23; Isa. 24:1; 34:11). The darkness on the surface of the deep also is a sign of God’s judgment (cf. Exo. 10:21-22; Rev. 16:10).
Gn 1:23 deep
I.e., the deep water. In the Bible water symbolizes either life (John 4:10, 14; 7:38; Rev. 22:1) or death (7:17-24; Exo. 14:21-30; John 3:5; Rom. 6:3). The water here signifies death. As a result of God’s judgment on the preadamic universe, the entire earth was covered with deep water, signifying that the earth was filled with death and was under death. See notes 231 in Mark 1, 16 in 1 Tim. 4, and 13 in Rev. 21.
Gn 1:24 and
Verse 1 is a record of God’s original creation. Verse 2a refers to God’s judgment on the preadamic universe. The entire section from 1:2b — 2:3 refers not to God’s original creation but to God’s restoration of the damaged universe, plus His further creation, in six days.
Gn 1:25b Spirit  -   Psa. 104:30
Heb. ruach, variously translated spirit, wind, breath. This is the first mentioning of the Spirit in the Bible. The Spirit of God, as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), came to brood over the waters of death in order to generate life, especially man (v. 26), for God’s purpose. In spiritual experience, the Spirit’s coming is the first requirement for generating life (John 6:63a).
Gn 1:31a said  -   Gen. 1:6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26; Psa. 33:6, 9; Heb. 11:3
After the Spirit’s brooding (v. 2b), the word of God came to bring in the light (cf. Psa. 119:105, 130). In spiritual experience, the coming of the word is the second requirement for generating life (John 5:24; 6:63b), and the coming of the light is the third requirement (Matt. 4:13-16; John 1:1-13).
The Spirit, the word, and the light were the instruments used by God to generate life for the fulfillment of His purpose. The Spirit, the word, and the light are all of life (Rom. 8:2; Phil. 2:16; John 8:12b). Christ as the Spirit is the reality of God (Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 16:13-15); Christ as the Word is the speaking of God (John 1:1; Heb. 1:2); and Christ as the light is the shining of God (John 8:12a; 9:5).
Gn 1:3b light  -   Isa. 45:7; 2 Cor. 4:6; cf. John 1:4-5
See note 31.
Gn 1:4a good  -   Gen. 1:10,12, 18, 21, 25, 31
Gn 1:41b separated  -   cf. 2 Cor. 6:14
The separation of the light from the darkness for the purpose of discerning day from night (v. 5; cf. 2 Cor. 6:14b) is the fourth requirement for generating life.
Gn 1:5a Day  -   Psa. 74:16; Jer. 33:20
Gn 1:5b there  -   Gen. 1:8, 13, 19, 23, 31
Gn 1:6a said  -   Gen. 1:3
Gn 1:61 expanse
The atmosphere, the air surrounding the earth.
Gn 1:62b separate  -   Psa. 104:6-7
The separating of the waters by producing an expanse between them, signifying, spiritually, the dividing of the heavenly things from the earthly things through the work of the cross (Col. 3:1-3; Heb. 4:12), was the fifth requirement for generating life.
Gn 1:7a waters  -   Psa. 148:4
Gn 1:8a there  -   Gen. 1:5
Gn 1:81 day
At the end of the second day there is no record that God said that the expanse (the air) and the waters were good (cf. vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). This is because in the air there are fallen angels (Eph. 2:2; 6:12), and the water is the dwelling place of the demons (Matt. 12:43 and note).
Gn 1:9a said  -   Gen. 1:3
Gn 1:9b gathered  -   Psa. 33:7; 104:7-9; Job 38:8-11
Gn 1:91c dry  -   2 Pet. 3:5; Job 38:4-6
The appearing of the dry land is the sixth requirement for generating life. This took place on the third day, corresponding to the day of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:4). In the Bible the sea represents death and the land represents Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8) as the generating source of life. After the land appeared, every kind of life — the plant life, the animal life, and even the human life — was produced out of the land (vv. 11-12, 24-27; 2:7). This typifies that the divine life with all its riches comes out of Christ. On the third day Christ came out of death in resurrection to generate life (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3) for the constituting of the church.
Gn 1:101 Earth
Dividing the land from the waters signifies separating life from death. From the second day (vv. 6-7) God began to work to confine and limit the waters of death that covered the earth (cf. Jer. 5:22). Eventually, when God’s work is completed, in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more sea (Rev. 21:1 and note 3). Furthermore, in the New Jerusalem there will be no more night (Rev. 21:25 and note 2). This means that both death and darkness will be eliminated.
Gn 1:10a good  -   Gen. 1:4
Gn 1:11a said  -   Gen. 1:3
Gn 1:11b sprout  -   Gen. 2:9; Psa. 104:14
Gn 1:111 grass
The plant life is the lowest form of life, a life without consciousness, corresponding to the earliest stage of the divine life in a newly-regenerated believer (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6). The countless varieties of the plant life typify the rich expression of the unsearchable riches of the life of Christ in their beauty for man’s sight (2:9), in their fragrance (S.S. 1:12-13), and in their nourishing man and animals (1:29-30). The trees (2:9; Exo. 15:23-25; S.S. 2:3; 5:15; Isa. 11:1; John 15:1; Rev. 22:2), the flowers (S.S. 1:14), and the grains as food for man (John 6:9, 13) and as offerings to God (Lev. 2:1-3, 14) are all types of Christ.
Gn 1:11c according  -   Gen. 1:12, 21, 24, 25; cf. Gen. 1:26, 27
Gn 1:12a according  -   Gen. 1:11
Gn 1:12b good  -   Gen. 1:4
Gn 1:13a there  -   Gen. 1:5
Gn 1:14a said  -   Gen. 1:3
Gn 1:141b light-bearers  -   Psa. 136:7; 104:19
According to the revelation of the whole Bible, light is for life; light and life always go together (Psa. 36:9; Matt. 4:16; John 1:4; 8:12; 1 John 1:1-7). The higher the light, the higher the life. The indefinite light of the first day (v. 3) was sufficient for generating the lowest forms of life; the more solid and more definite light from the light-bearers — the sun, the moon, and the stars (v. 16; Psa. 136:7-9) — on the fourth day was necessary for producing the higher forms of life, including the human life. This signifies that for our spiritual rebirth, the light of the “first day” is sufficient; but for the growth in the divine life unto maturity, more and stronger light, the light of the “fourth day,” is needed.
Gn 1:142c signs  -   cf. Matt. 2:2, 9
All the signs, seasons, days, and years are shadows of Christ (Col. 2:16-17).
Gn 1:161a made  -   Psa. 136:7-9
Although the sun, the moon, and the stars had been created earlier (cf. Job 38:7), God stopped their functions when He judged the heavens and the earth following Satan’s rebellion (see note 51 in Job 9). On the fourth day their functions were recovered for the producing of the higher forms of life.
Gn 1:162 greater
The sun (Psa. 136:8), signifying Christ (Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78-79; Matt. 4:16; Eph. 5:14). The overcoming saints were also likened to the sun by the Lord Jesus (Matt. 13:43a).
Gn 1:163 lesser
The moon (Psa. 136:9). In Joseph’s dream his father was likened to the sun, his mother, to the moon, and his brothers, to the stars (37:9). The moon can be considered a figure of the church, the wife of Christ (cf. S.S. 6:10). The moon has no light of its own but shines in the night by reflecting the light of the sun. Likewise, the church shines in the dark night of the church age by reflecting the divine light of Christ (cf. Phil. 2:15).
Gn 1:164b stars  -   Job 38:31-33
The stars first signify Christ (Num. 24:17; 2 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 22:16b). Although Christ is the real sun, He does not appear as the sun during the present age of night. Rather, He shines as the bright morning star (Rev. 22:16 and note 4). The stars also signify the overcoming saints (Dan. 12:3; cf. Rev. 1:20). The light from the stars is needed particularly when the moon wanes; likewise, the shining of the overcoming saints as the heavenly stars is needed particularly in the time of the church’s degradation (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21).
Gn 1:17a set  -   Jer. 31:35; Job 38:12-13
Gn 1:181 rule
The ruling of the fourth-day light-bearers also strengthened the separating of the light from the darkness in v. 4. Both are requirements for the growth in life.
Gn 1:18a good  -   Gen. 1:4
Gn 1:19a there  -   Gen. 1:5
Gn 1:20a said  -   Gen. 1:3
Gn 1:201b living  -   Psa. 104:25
This is the animal life with the lowest consciousness, corresponding to the first step in the believers’ growth in life (cf. 1 John 2:13). The animal life in the sea typifies the riches of the life of Christ in the power that overcomes death (signified by the salt water) in His living. Just as fish can live in salt water without becoming salty, Christ and His believers, who have the divine life, can live in the satanic world without being “salted” by the world’s corruption (cf. John 14:30; 17:15-16). The animal life in the sea also shows the riches of Christ’s life in feeding man with His riches (John 6:9a; 21:9).
Gn 1:202 birds
The bird life is higher than the fish life. Fish can live in the death waters, but birds can transcend the death waters. By growing further in the divine life, the believers are able to transcend all the frustrations of the earth (cf. Isa. 40:31). The bird life typifies the riches of the life of Christ as seen in His being the eagle for carrying God’s redeemed to His destination (Exo. 19:4; Deut. 32:11-12; Rev. 12:14) and in His being the turtledoves or pigeons for offering to God for the sins of God’s people (Lev. 1:14; 5:7).
Gn 1:21a great  -   Psa. 104:26; 74:14; Isa. 27:1
Gn 1:21b according  -   Gen. 1:11
Gn 1:21c good  -   Gen. 1:4
Gn 1:22a blessed  -   Gen. 1:28; 5:2; 9:1
Gn 1:22b fruitful  -   Gen. 1:28; 8:17; 9:1, 7; 28:3; 35:11; 48:4; Lev. 26:9
Gn 1:24a living  -   Gen. 2:19; Psa. 148:10
Gn 1:24b according  -   Gen. 1:11
Gn 1:241 cattle
The cattle and the animals on the land are a higher life with a higher consciousness than that of the fish and the birds, a life that can accomplish something on the earth. The animals and the cattle on the land typify the riches of the life of Christ as seen in Christ as the conquering lion (Rev. 5:5) to fight for God’s economy, as seen in Christ as the sheep and oxen for offering to God for the fulfillment of God’s full redemption (Lev. 1:2-3, 10; 3:1, 6, 12; 4:3; 5:6; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:6-9), and as seen in Christ as the ox to bear the responsibility and to labor faithfully for the accomplishing of God’s will (Matt. 20:28; John 6:38). Through further growth in the divine life the believers in Christ are able to live on the earth a life that is useful for the fulfilling of God’s will (cf. 1 Cor. 3:2; Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 15:58).
Gn 1:242 creeping
See note 266.
Gn 1:25a according  -   Gen. 1:11
Gn 1:25b good  -   Gen. 1:4
Gn 1:261 Let
Let Us… reveals that a council was held among the three of the Godhead regarding the creation of man. The decision to create man had been made by the Triune God in eternity past, indicating that the creation of man was for the eternal purpose of the Triune God (Eph. 3:9-11). God’s intention in creating man was to carry out His divine economy for the dispensing of Himself into man (1 Tim. 1:4 and note 3, par. 1). This is fully unveiled in the following books of the Bible.
Gn 1:26a Us  -   Gen. 3:22; 11:7; Isa. 6:8
Gn 1:262b man  -   Gen. 2:7; Psa. 8:4-5; Heb. 2:6-7; Eccl. 7:29; cf. Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10
Or, mankind; Heb. adam. So also in the next verse. The human life is the highest created life, the life that can express God in His image and likeness and can exercise dominion for God. Adam, the first man, typifies Christ (Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45, 47; Psa. 8:4-8; Heb. 2:6-9) as the center of God’s creation (Col. 1:16-17), as the Head of all creation (Col. 1:15) and of all men (1 Cor. 11:3), as God’s expression in God’s image and likeness (Heb. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), and as God’s representative to rule over all things created by God (Psa. 8:6-8; Matt. 28:18).
Gn 1:26c in  -   cf. Gen. 1:11
Gn 1:263d image  -   Gen. 1:27; 9:6; 1 Cor. 11:7; Col. 1:15; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18
God’s image, referring to God’s inner being, is the expression of the inward essence of God’s attributes, the most prominent of which are love (1 John 4:8), light (1 John 1:5), holiness (Rev. 4:8), and righteousness (Jer. 23:6). God’s likeness, referring to God’s form (Phil. 2:6), is the expression of the essence and nature of God’s person. Thus, God’s image and God’s likeness should not be considered as two separate things. Man’s inward virtues, created in man’s spirit, are copies of God’s attributes and are the means for man to express God’s attributes. Man’s outward form, created as man’s body, is a copy of God’s form. Thus, God created man to be a duplication of Himself that man may have the capacity to contain God and express Him. All the other living things were created “according to their kind” (vv. 11-12, 21, 24-25), but man was created according to God’s kind (cf. Acts 17:28-29a). Since God and man are of the same kind, it is possible for man to be joined to God and to live together with Him in an organic union (John 15:5; Rom. 6:5; 11:17-24; 1 Cor. 6:17).
Christ the Son, as God’s embodiment (Col. 2:9), is the image of the invisible God, the expression of the essence of God’s attributes (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4; Heb. 1:3). Man was created according to Christ with the intention that Christ would enter into man and be expressed through man (Col. 1:27; Phil. 1:20-21a). Created man is a living vessel, a container, to contain Christ (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7). Eventually, in His incarnation Christ put on human nature and became in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:6-8) so that through His death and resurrection man may obtain God’s eternal, divine life (1 Pet. 1:3; 1 John 5:11-12) and by that life be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ inwardly (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29) and transfigured into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body outwardly (Phil. 3:21) that he may be the same as Christ (1 John 3:2b) and may express God with Him to the universe (Eph. 3:21).
Created man was a duplication of God in God’s image and likeness, but he did not have the reality of God or the life of God. Thus, he still needed to receive God as his life by eating of the tree of life so that he might have the reality of God to express Him (2:9 and note 2).
Gn 1:26e likeness  -   Gen. 5:1; James 3:9
See note 263.
Gn 1:264 them
The pronouns them here and in vv. 27-28 and their in 5:2 indicate that Adam was a corporate man, a collective man, including all mankind. God did not create many men; He created mankind collectively in one person, Adam. God created such a corporate man in His image and according to His likeness so that mankind might express God corporately.
Gn 1:265f dominion  -   Psa. 8:6-8; Heb. 2:7-8; Gen. 9:2; James 3:7
God created a corporate man not only to express Himself with His image but also to represent Him by exercising His dominion over all things. God’s intention in giving man dominion is (1) to subdue God’s enemy, Satan, who rebelled against God; (2) to recover the earth, which was usurped by Satan; and (3) to exercise God’s authority over the earth in order that the kingdom of God may come to the earth, the will of God may be done on the earth, and the glory of God may be manifested on the earth (Matt. 6:10, 13b).
God’s intention that man would express God in His image and represent God with His dominion is fulfilled not in Adam as the first man (1 Cor. 15:45a), the old man (Rom. 6:6), but in Christ as the second man (1 Cor. 15:47b and note 2), the new man (Eph. 2:15 and note 8), comprising Christ Himself as the Head and the church as His Body (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12 and note 2; Col. 3:10-11 and note 119). It is fully fulfilled in the overcoming believers, who live Christ for His corporate expression (Phil. 1:19-26) and will have authority over the nations and reign as co-kings with Christ in the millennium (Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4, 6). It will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, which will express God’s image, having His glory and bearing His appearance (Rev. 4:3a; 21:11, 18a), and also exercise God’s divine authority to maintain God’s dominion over the entire universe for eternity (Rev. 21:24; 22:5).
Gn 1:266 creeping
Typifying Satan, the serpent (3:1, 14; Rev. 12:9), and his angels (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:4a, 7b), as well as the demons who follow Satan (cf. Luke 10:19). See note 62, par. 1, in Rev. 4.
Gn 1:27a in  -   cf. Gen. 1:11
Gn 1:27b male  -   Gen. 5:2; Matt. 19:4; Mark 10:6; cf. Gen. 2:18, 21-23
Gn 1:27c created  -   Isa. 43:7
Gn 1:28a blessed  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 1:28b fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 1:281 subdue
Subdue here implies that a war is raging on earth between God and His enemy, Satan. Whoever gains the earth will have the victory. Man was created by God to subdue, to conquer, the earth and recover it for God.
Gn 1:291 which
Lit., on which is the fruit of a tree seeding seed.
Gn 1:292a food  -   Gen. 9:3; Psa. 104:14; 145:15-16
See note 31 in ch. 9.
Gn 1:311 very
Previously God had said “good” (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), but here He said “very good” because Adam had God’s image and had been given God’s dominion.
Gn 1:31a good  -   1 Tim. 4:4
Genesis Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 2:2a seventh  -   Exo. 20:8-11; 31:17; Deut. 5:12-14
Gn 2:21b rested  -   Heb. 4:4, 10
God rested because He had finished His work and was satisfied. God’s glory was manifested because man had His image, and His authority was about to be exercised for the subduing of His enemy, Satan. As long as man expresses God and deals with God’s enemy, God is satisfied and can rest.
Later, the seventh day was commemorated as the Sabbath (Exo. 20:8-11). God’s seventh day was man’s first day. God had prepared everything for man’s enjoyment. After man was created, he did not join in God’s work; he entered into God’s rest. Man was created not to work but to be satisfied with God and rest with God (cf. Matt. 11:28-30). The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).
The rest here is a seed that develops through the Bible and is harvested in Revelation. The development of this seed includes the rest of the Sabbath day (Exo. 20:8-11) and the rest of the good land (Deut. 12:9; Heb. 4:8) in the Old Testament, the rest of the Lord’s Day in the New Testament (Rev. 1:10; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), and the rest of the millennial kingdom (Heb. 4:1, 3, 9, 11). The consummation of rest is the rest of the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem, in which all the redeemed saints will express God’s glory (Rev. 21:11, 23) and reign with God’s authority (Rev. 22:5b) for eternity. See note 91 in Heb. 4.
Gn 2:31 created
Lit., created to make.
Gn 2:41 These
God’s desire and purpose to have a corporate man to express Him in His image and to represent Him with His authority is unveiled in 1:1 — 2:3. The remainder of ch. 2 is an added record to reveal the way, the procedure, God takes to accomplish His purpose. This way is life. In order for man to express God and represent God, he must have God as his life, signified by the tree of life in v. 9.
Gn 2:42 created
See note 14, par. 1, in ch. 1. First, God created the heavens and the earth (1:1); then He made the earth and the heavens. In God’s creation, it was first the heavens and then the earth (1:1), whereas in God’s restoration and further creation, it was first the earth and then the heavens.
Gn 2:43 When
Lit., In the day.
Gn 2:44 Jehovah
Elohim (1:1) is the name of God in His relationship to creation, whereas Jehovah is God’s name in His relationship with man. Jehovah means I am who I am (Exo. 3:14; cf. John 8:24, 28, 58), indicating that Jehovah is the self-existing and ever-existing eternal One, the One who was in the past, who is in the present, and who will be in the future forever (Rev. 1:4).
Gn 2:5a plant  -   cf. Gen. 1:11-12
Gn 2:51b work  -   Gen. 2:15; 3:23
This signifies that there was no man to work with God by human labor in coordination with His divine labor (cf. John 5:17; 1 Cor. 3:9). When man labors in coordination with God’s labor, God has the basis to send the rain, signifying His Spirit of life (Joel 2:23, 28-29), to mingle with man, the dust of the earth (v. 7), to produce life.
Gn 2:71 formed
Or, shaped (as a potter would). See note 14, par. 1, in ch. 1.
Gn 2:72 man
Heb. adam. The first step of God’s procedure in fulfilling His purpose was to create man as a vessel to contain Himself as life (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:21).
Gn 2:73a dust  -   Gen. 3:19, 23; Psa. 103:14; 1 Cor. 15:47; Isa. 64:8
Man’s body, formed from the dust of the ground, is man’s outward form and an organ for him to contact the material realm.
Gn 2:74 ground
Heb. adamah.
Gn 2:75b breath  -   Gen. 7:22; Job 27:3; 33:4; Acts 17:25; cf. John 20:22
Heb. neshamah, translated spirit in Prov. 20:27, indicating that the breath of life breathed into man’s body became the spirit of man, the human spirit (cf. Job 32:8). Man’s spirit is his inward organ for him to contact God, receive God, contain God, and assimilate God into his entire being as his life and his everything. It was specifically formed by God and is ranked in importance with the heavens and the earth in God’s holy Word (Zech. 12:1). The spirit of man is for man to worship God (John 4:24), to be regenerated by God (John 3:6b), and to be joined to God (1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22) that man may walk and live in an organic union with God (Rom. 8:4b) to fulfill God’s purpose.
The breath of life breathed into man’s nostrils was not the eternal life of God nor the Spirit of God. See note 382 in Luke 3. Man did not receive the Spirit of God until the Lord breathed the Holy Spirit into His disciples on the day of His resurrection (John 20:22). Nevertheless, because the human spirit came out of God’s breath of life, it is very close to the Spirit of God. Thus, there can be a transmission between God the Spirit and man’s spirit, and the human spirit is able to contact God and be one with God (Rom. 8:16 and note 2; 1 Cor. 6:17 and note 2).
Within man’s spirit there are three functions: conscience, enabling man to know what God justifies and what He condemns (Rom. 9:1 and note 2); fellowship, that man may contact God, worship God, and commune with God (John 4:24; Eph. 6:18a; Rom. 1:9); and intuition, giving man a direct sense of God and a direct knowledge from God (Mark 2:8; 1 Cor. 2:11).
Gn 2:76c soul  -   1 Cor. 15:45
Man’s soul, which is his person, his very self (Exo. 1:5; Acts 2:41), was not formed from a certain element but was produced by the combining of the human spirit and the human body. The soul, composed of man’s mind, emotion, and will, has the psychological consciousness to contact the psychological realm.
God is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19) — and man is tripartite — spirit and soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23). The Triune God created such a tripartite man to be a living vessel that man may have the capacity to contain God and be joined to God organically (John 15:4-5; Rom. 11:17-24) to be His organism for His expression in humanity. See note 235 in 1 Thes. 5 and notes 122 and 123 in Heb. 4.
Gn 2:8a garden  -   Gen. 2:15; 13:10; Isa. 51:3; Joel 2:3; cf. Ezek. 28:13; 31:8-9; Rev. 2:7
Gn 2:81 Eden
A Hebrew word meaning pleasure.
Gn 2:91 pleasant
Indicating that God wanted to please man and make him happy. God wants man to be pleased with Him and satisfied with Him (Psa. 100; Phil. 4:4).
Gn 2:92a tree  -   Gen. 3:22, 24; Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19; cf. John 6:48; 15:1
The second step of God’s procedure in fulfilling His purpose was to place the created man in front of the tree of life, which signifies the Triune God embodied in Christ as life to man in the form of food. God’s placing man in front of the tree of life indicates that God wanted man to receive Him as man’s life by eating Him organically and assimilating Him metabolically, that God might become the very constituent of man’s being. According to John 1:1, 4, life is in the Word, who is God Himself. This life — the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God — is Christ (John 11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4a), who is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). The tree of life grows along the two sides of the river of water of life (Rev. 22:1-2), indicating that it is a vine. Since Christ is a vine tree (John 15:1) and is also life, He is the tree of life. He was processed through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection that man might have life and live by eating Him (John 10:10b; 6:51, 57, 63).
Gn 2:93b tree  -   Gen. 2:17
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of death to man (Heb. 2:14). It also signifies all things apart from God, for anything that is not God Himself, including good things and even scriptural things and religious things, can be utilized by Satan, the subtle one, to bring death to man. Even the Scriptures inspired by God and the law given by God can be utilized by Satan as the tree of knowledge to bring in death (John 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 3:6b).
The tree of life causes man to be dependent on God (John 15:5), whereas the tree of knowledge causes man to rebel against God and to be independent from Him (cf. 3:5). The two trees issue in two lines — the line of life and the line of death — that run through the entire Bible and end in the book of Revelation. Death begins with the tree of knowledge (v. 17) and ends with the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 14). Life begins with the tree of life and ends in the New Jerusalem, the city of the water of life (Rev. 22:1-2).
Gn 2:101a river  -   cf. Psa. 46:4; Rev. 22:1
The river here signifies the river of water of life, along which the tree of life grows (Rev. 22:1-2 and notes 12, 13, and 21). This river quenched man’s thirst and watered the garden that life might grow. At the beginning and the end of the Bible there are the tree of life and the river flowing with living water.
Gn 2:102 forth
The river going forth from Eden signifies the river of water of life flowing forth from God (Rev. 22:1), indicating that God is the source of the living water for man to drink (cf. John 4:10; 7:37).
Gn 2:103 four
The number four signifies man, the creature (Ezek. 1:5). The one river becoming four branches signifies that the river flows out of the unique God (signified by the number one) as the source and center to reach man in every direction.
Gn 2:104 branches
Lit., heads.
Gn 2:11a Havilah  -   Gen. 10:7, 29; 25:18; 1 Sam. 15:7
Gn 2:121 gold
The flow of the river issued in three precious materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx. These materials typify the Triune God as the basic elements of the structure of God’s eternal building. Gold typifies God the Father with His divine nature, which man may partake of through God’s calling (2 Pet. 1:3-4), as the base of God’s eternal building; bdellium, a pearl-like material produced from the resin of a tree, typifies the produce of God the Son in His redeeming and life-releasing death (John 19:34) and His life-dispensing resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3), as the entry into God’s eternal building (cf. Rev. 21:21 and note 1, par. 1); and onyx, a precious stone, typifies the produce of God the Spirit with His transforming work (2 Cor. 3:18) for the building up of God’s eternal building. The New Jerusalem is constructed of these three categories of materials — gold, pearl, and precious stones (Rev. 21:11, 18-21). See note 211, par. 2, in Rev. 21.
The breastplate of the high priest, a symbol of Israel as God’s Old Testament people, was constructed of gold and precious stones (Exo. 28:6-21), and the church in the New Testament is built with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12 — there silver, signifying Christ’s redemption, is listed instead of bdellium or pearl because of man’s need of redemption after the fall). This indicates that the New Jerusalem includes the totality of God’s chosen and redeemed people — Israel plus the church (see notes 124 and 142 in Rev. 21).
The flowing of the divine life in man brings the divine nature into man (2 Pet. 1:4), regenerates man (1 Pet. 1:3), and transforms man into the glorious image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). Thus, man, who was created of dust (v. 7), becomes transformed precious materials for God’s building, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
Gn 2:12a bdellium  -   Num. 11:7
See note 121.
Gn 2:12b onyx  -   Exo. 28:20; 39:13; Job 28:16; Ezek. 28:13
See note 121.
Gn 2:14a Hiddekel  -   Dan. 10:4
Gn 2:151 put
Lit., caused him to rest.
Gn 2:152 work
Man’s working the ground was that life, especially the tree of life (v. 9), might grow for the fulfillment of the first aspect of God’s purpose, i.e., to express God in His image. The ground typifies the human heart, into which Christ as the seed of the tree of life is sown (Matt. 13:3-23). To work the ground signifies to loosen and break our hard heart, to open our heart to the heavens that the Spirit as the rain (see note 51) may descend for the growth of Christ as the tree of life within us.
Gn 2:153 keep
Or, guard. This is to protect the garden from God’s enemy that the second aspect of God’s purpose might be fulfilled, i.e., to deal with Satan by God’s authority. We need to work the ground that God as the tree of life might enter into us. We also need to keep the ground, leaving no opening for Satan as the tree of knowledge.
Gn 2:16a Of  -   Deut. 30:15, 19; Jer. 21:8
Gn 2:171a not  -   Gen. 3:11, 17; cf. Gen. 3:3
God’s first commandment to man concerned man’s eating, not man’s conduct. Eating is critical to man, a matter of life or death. Man’s outcome and destiny before God depends altogether on what he eats. If man eats the tree of life, he will receive God as life and fulfill God’s purpose; if he eats the tree of knowledge, he will receive Satan as death and be usurped by him for his purpose.
God’s forbidding commandment given as a warning to man indicates (1) God’s greatness in creating man with a free will that man may choose God willingly and not under coercion; (2) God’s love for man; and (3) God’s desire that man would eat the tree of life to receive God into him as life.
Gn 2:172b die  -   Rom. 5:12; 6:23; James 1:15
Referring not to the death of man’s body but to the deadening of man’s spirit (Eph. 2:1), which leads ultimately to the death of man’s entire being — spirit, soul, and body (Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:14). See note 12 in Eph. 2.
Gn 2:18a good  -   cf. Prov. 18:22
Gn 2:181 man
The third step of God’s procedure in fulfilling His purpose was to work Himself into man to make man His complement. Adam here typifies God in Christ as the real, universal Husband, who is seeking a wife for Himself (Rom. 5:14; cf. Isa. 54:5; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32; Rev. 19:7; 21:9). Adam’s need for a wife typifies and portrays God’s need, in His economy, to have a wife as His complement.
Gn 2:18b helper  -   Gen. 2:20; 1 Cor. 11:9
Gn 2:182 counterpart
Or, his complement; lit., his parallel. So also in v. 20.
Gn 2:19a from  -   Gen. 1:24
Gn 2:201 not
The wife must be the same as the husband in life, nature, and expression. Among the cattle, the birds, and the animals Adam did not find a complement for himself, one that could match him.
Gn 2:211a deep  -   Gen. 15:12; 1 Sam. 26:12
In order to produce a complement for Himself, God first became a man (John 1:14), as typified by God’s creation of Adam (Rom. 5:14). Here Adam’s deep sleep for the producing of Eve as his wife typifies Christ’s death on the cross for the producing of the church as His counterpart (Eph. 5:25-27). Through Christ’s death the divine life within Him was released, and through His resurrection His released divine life was imparted into His believers for the constituting of the church (see note 341 in John 19). Through such a process God in Christ has been wrought into man with His life and nature so that man can be the same as God in life and nature in order to match Him as His counterpart.
Gn 2:212 ribs
The rib taken from Adam’s opened side typifies the unbreakable, indestructible eternal life of Christ (Heb. 7:16), which flowed out of His pierced side (John 19:34) to impart life to His believers for the producing and building up of the church as His complement. See notes 362 in John 19 and 161 in Heb. 7.
Gn 2:221a built  -   1 Tim. 2:13
It does not say that Eve was created but that she was built. The building of Eve with the rib taken from Adam’s side typifies the building of the church with the resurrection life released from Christ through His death on the cross and imparted into His believers in His resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). The church as the real Eve is the totality of Christ in all His believers. Only that which comes out of Christ with His resurrection life can be His complement and counterpart, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 5:28-30).
Gn 2:222 woman
At the end of the Bible is a city, New Jerusalem, the ultimate and eternal woman, the corporate bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9; 22:17), built with three precious materials (Rev. 21:18-21), fulfilling for eternity the type shown in this chapter. Thus, in type all the precious materials mentioned in vv. 11-12 are for the building of the woman (see note 121).
Gn 2:223 brought
As Eve was taken out of Adam and brought back to Adam to be one flesh with him (v. 24), so the church produced out of Christ will go back to Christ (Eph. 5:27; Rev. 19:7) to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). See note 321 in Eph. 5.
Gn 2:23a bone  -   Gen. 29:14; Judg. 9:2; 2 Sam. 5:1; 19:13; cf. Eph. 5:28-30
Gn 2:231 Woman
Heb. Ishshah, as also in v. 22. Just as Eve was the increase of Adam, the church as the bride is the increase of Christ as the Bridegroom (John 3:29-30).
Gn 2:23b out  -   1 Cor. 11:8
Gn 2:232 Man
Heb. Ish. So also in v. 24. Different from the word adam, translated man elsewhere in the chapter.
Gn 2:24a man  -   Matt. 19:5; Mark 10:7; Eph. 5:31; cf. 1 Cor. 7:10-11
Gn 2:24b they  -   1 Cor. 6:16
Gn 2:241 flesh
See note 223. Adam and Eve becoming one flesh, one complete unit, is a figure of God and man being joined as one. The coming New Jerusalem will be the eternal union of God and man, a universal couple as a complete unit composed of divinity and humanity.
Gn 2:251 And
Adam and Eve, being one, lived a married life together as husband and wife. This portrays that in the New Jerusalem the processed and consummated redeeming Triune God as the universal Husband will live a married life with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified humanity as the wife, forever. See note 171, par. 2, in Rev. 22.
The revelation concerning the garden of Eden, as the beginning of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and the revelation concerning the New Jerusalem, as the ending of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, reflect each other. Both contain four things: (1) the tree of life as the center of God’s eternal economy (v. 9; Rev. 22:2), (2) the river flowing to reach the four directions of the earth (v. 10; Rev. 22:1), (3) three kinds of precious materials (vv. 11-12; Rev. 21:11-14, 18-21), and (4) a couple (vv. 18-25; Rev. 21:9-10; 22:17). What is revealed in these two parts of the Scriptures is the central line of the divine revelation of the entire Holy Scriptures and should be a controlling principle of the interpreting and understanding of the Holy Scriptures.
Gn 2:25a naked  -   cf. Gen. 3:7, 10-11; 9:22; Exo. 20:26; Lev. 18:6-19
Genesis Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 3:11a serpent  -   2 Cor. 11:3; Rev. 12:9; 20:2
Man’s first fall was initiated by Satan through the deceiving by the serpent (2 Cor. 11:3). The crafty serpent was the embodiment of Satan, the Devil, the enemy and adversary of God (Matt. 13:39a; Rev. 12:9 and notes 3 and 4) and the tempter of man (Matt. 4:3; 1 Thes. 3:5).
Immediately after the first two chapters of Genesis, Satan came in, and immediately before the last two chapters of Revelation, he will be cast out (Rev. 20:10). Between the first two chapters and the last two chapters of the Bible, Satan, the serpent, is constantly working to corrupt and damage humanity and to thereby frustrate God from carrying out His eternal purpose. In every generation the goal of God’s divine work is to build up the Body of Christ to express His Son, Christ, and also to eliminate the serpent.
Gn 3:12 woman
The serpent contacted the woman, not the man, because the woman is the weaker vessel (1 Pet. 3:7).
Gn 3:13 Did
In tempting the woman, Satan first touched her mind by questioning God’s word, causing her to doubt God’s word. The serpent’s question stirred up Eve’s doubting mind and prevented her from using her spirit to contact God. Satan’s evil thought entered into Eve and contaminated her mind even before she ate of the tree of knowledge.
Gn 3:1b You  -   cf. Gen. 2:16-17; 3:11
Gn 3:21 said
The outward cause of man’s first fall was the serpent’s temptation. The inward cause was the woman’s assuming the headship (vv. 2-3, 6). The woman represents man’s position in relation to God. God is man’s Husband (Isa. 54:5); man’s position is that of the wife. As the man should be under the headship of God, so the woman should be under the headship of man (1 Cor. 11:3). This is a safeguard against the subtlety of the enemy. Here Eve assumed the headship by speaking to the serpent directly, without the covering of her husband. Thus, she was ensnared by the serpent and was deceived (1 Tim. 2:14). Eve’s failure here typifies man’s failure in putting God aside and assuming the headship over God to act independently of Him, thus opening the way for Satan, the subtle one, to deceive man. See note 41 in Rom. 7.
Gn 3:3a You  -   Gen. 2:17; 3:11
Gn 3:4a You  -   Gen. 3:13; 2 Cor. 11:3; cf. John 8:44
Gn 3:51 For
This slanderous word from the evil one caused Eve to misunderstand God’s love and to doubt God’s heart in His forbidding man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:16-17). It poisoned Eve’s emotion, causing her to dislike God.
Gn 3:5a like  -   Isa. 14:14; Ezek. 28:2, 9; cf. 1 John 3:2
Gn 3:52 God
Or, gods.
Gn 3:6a woman  -   1 Tim. 2:14
Gn 3:6b delight  -   1 John 2:16
Gn 3:61 took
In the process of man’s fall, man failed to use his spirit to contact God, thus bypassing God and putting God aside. Instead, he exercised his soul, reasoning with the serpent in the mind, desiring the tree of knowledge in the emotion, and deciding in the will to take the fruit and eat it.
Gn 3:6c ate  -   Gen. 3:12, 17
Gn 3:71 And
The dreadful result of man’s first fall was manifold. First, man transgressed God’s commandment (2:17; Rom. 5:14) and thus fell under God’s condemnation (Rom. 5:16) and came under a curse (vv. 17-19). He also became estranged from God (v. 8) and alienated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18) in the tree of life (vv. 23-24). Not only so, in the fall Satan’s evil thought, feeling, and will were injected into man’s mind, emotion, and will, thus contaminating man’s soul (vv. 1, 4-6). Through man’s eating of the tree of knowledge, Satan entered man’s body and became the very sin within man (cf. Rom. 7:8, 11, 17, 20 and note 81). Thus the human body, which was created pure and sinless, was transmuted into the flesh of sin (Rom. 7:18a and note 2). As a consequence of the fall man’s spirit was deadened (cf. Eph. 2:1, 5 and note 12), becoming insulated from God and losing its function toward God. Hence, each of man’s three parts — his body, his soul, and his spirit — was damaged by the fall. Furthermore, fallen man was constituted a sinner (Rom. 5:19) and became a victim of death (Rom. 5:12b, 14a; 1 Cor. 15:22a). Consequently, man was spoiled from fulfilling God’s purpose, which is to express God in His image and represent God with His dominion (1:26). Finally, because of man’s fall all the creation is subjected to vanity and the slavery of corruption (Rom. 8:20-21).
Gn 3:7a opened  -   Gen. 3:5
Gn 3:72 knew
This is the beginning of the function of the human conscience. The conscience, being a function of man’s spirit (see note 75, par. 3, in ch. 2), came into being at the time man was created by God. However, it was not until after man partook of the tree of knowledge that the function of the conscience was manifested. After the fall Adam was ashamed of his nakedness (cf. 2:25) because the function of his conscience was activated. From that time the conscience in man began to bear the responsibility of refusing evil and accepting good. See note 12 in Rom. 9.
Gn 3:73 fig
Fig leaves are of the vegetable life, which has no blood for redemption (cf. Heb. 9:22). The coverings of fig leaves represent man’s own works in attempting to cover his sinfulness. Such works are inadequate to cover man’s nakedness that he might be justified, accepted, before God (cf. Rom. 3:20a). See notes 211 and 212.
Gn 3:81 sound
Or, voice.
Gn 3:82 cool
Lit., breeze; Heb. ruach.
Gn 3:8a hid  -   Job 31:33; cf. Jer. 23:23-24; Heb. 4:13; Psa. 139:1-12
Gn 3:91 Jehovah
Although the man created by God had been spoiled by His adversary, the unchanging and everlasting God would never change by annulling His eternal economy, which He made in eternity past for eternity future (Eph. 3:9-11). Thus, He had to rescue the man whom He had created for His unchanging purpose, even at the cost of sacrificing His only begotten Son (John 3:16). It is for this reason that even in eternity past Christ as the second of the Divine Trinity was preparing to come into time (Micah 5:2) to die for fallen man according to the divine determination made in the council of the Divine Trinity in eternity past (Acts 2:23 and note 1; 1 Pet. 1:18-20 and note 201).
Gn 3:92 Where
Immediately after the fall, Adam and Eve knew that the result of their transgression was to be death (cf. Rom. 1:32a; 6:23a). Therefore, they hid themselves from the Lord’s presence, awaiting the sentence of death (v. 8). However, God came to seek them, not to declare the sentence of death but to preach the gospel to them and to save them from their fall (cf. John 3:17; Luke 19:10). The first word of the gospel preached by God was “Where are you?” This question was not the pronouncement of a judgment; it was the opening word of the glad tidings.
Gn 3:10a naked  -   Gen. 2:25; 3:7
Gn 3:111 Who
God questioned Adam and Eve not because He intended to condemn them but because He wanted to lead them to confess their transgressions (cf. 1 John 1:9).
Gn 3:13a serpent  -   2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14
Gn 3:141 cursed
God did not judge Adam and Eve, but He judged the serpent by cursing him.
Gn 3:142 stomach
This implies that God limited Satan’s activity and move to the earth. As long as we set our mind on the things that are above the earth, the serpent, the Devil, Satan, cannot touch us (Col. 3:1-3; 1 John 5:18; Rom. 16:20).
Gn 3:14a dust  -   Isa. 65:25; Micah 7:17; cf. Gen. 3:19
Gn 3:151 woman
The woman here signifies first Eve and then the virgin Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 4:4). She also signifies all the people of God who take the position of a woman before God, trusting in Him (see note 21 in Gen. 3), as represented by the universal woman in Rev. 12:1 (see note there). Thus, the enmity between the serpent and the woman is the enmity between Satan and all God’s people (see note 42 in Rev. 12). The serpent’s hating and fighting against God’s people began when Satan instigated Cain to murder Abel (4:8; 1 John 3:12) and continues through all the generations until Satan is cast into the lake of fire for eternity (Rev. 20:7-10).
Gn 3:152 seed
The serpent’s seed are the people who follow Satan. Because Satan, the old serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), has injected himself as sin into man’s flesh (see note 182 in Rom. 7), all men have become serpents in the eyes of God (Matt. 23:33). As Satan’s followers, they are his sons, his seed, not by adoption but by birth (Matt. 3:7; 13:38; John 8:44; 1 John 3:10). Thus, they have the serpentine nature and life. They are used by Satan to persecute and fight against the woman’s seed.
Gn 3:153 seed
The seed of the woman is the incarnated Jesus Christ, who as the very God was born of the virgin Mary to be a man, as prophesied in Isa. 7:14, fulfilled in Matt. 1:23, and confirmed in Gal. 4:4. Thus, the promise here indicates that God Himself would come to be a human seed to bruise the head of the damaging serpent. Ultimately, the seed of the woman is enlarged to include the overcoming believers, the stronger part of God’s people, signified by the man-child in Rev. 12:5 (see note 2 there). The man-child, the corporate seed of the woman, includes the Lord Jesus, the individual seed of the woman. Psalm 2:8-9, Rev. 2:26-27, and Rev. 12:5 indicate that the Lord Jesus as God’s Anointed, the overcomers in the churches, and the man-child will rule the nations with an iron rod, thus proving that the Lord Jesus, the overcomers, and the man-child are one. The Lord as the leading Overcomer (Rev. 3:21) is the Head, center, reality, life, and nature of the man-child, and the man-child as the following overcomers is the Lord’s Body.
Gn 3:154a bruise  -   Heb. 2:14; cf. Rom. 16:20
The bruising of the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman is the destroying of Satan, the one who has the might of death, by the Lord Jesus through His death on the cross (Heb. 2:14 and note; 1 John 3:8). While the Lord was destroying the serpent on the cross, the serpent bruised His heel, i.e., wounded Him by nailing His feet to the cross (Psa. 22:16).
Through the Lord’s death on the cross, Satan, the old serpent, was judged, cast out (John 12:31; 16:11). That judgment will ultimately be carried out by the overcomers as the man-child, the corporate seed of the woman (Rev. 12:9 and note 1).
Gn 3:161a childbearing  -   1 Tim. 2:15; cf. John 16:21
Childbearing with suffering and pain (1 Tim. 2:14-15; 5:13-14) and the ruling of the husband (1 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:11-12) were ordained by God as a restriction and protection for the woman, who took the lead in man’s fall.
Gn 3:16b rule  -   Eph. 5:22-24; Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1, 5-6; Titus 2:5; cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-12
See note 161.
Gn 3:17a Cursed  -   Gen. 5:29; cf. Gal. 3:13; Rev. 22:3
Gn 3:171b toil  -   Eccl. 2:22
Or, pain. The ground’s growing thorns and thistles (v. 18), man’s enduring pain, toil, and sweat all the days of his life (vv. 17, 19a), and his returning to the ground, i.e., dying (v. 19b), were all ordained by God to restrict and protect fallen and sinful man.
Gn 3:18a thorns  -   Heb. 6:8; cf. Matt. 27:29
Gn 3:19a dust  -   Gen. 2:7; Psa. 103:14; 1 Cor. 15:47
Gn 3:19b to  -   Job 34:15; Psa. 90:3; 104:29; Eccl. 3:20; 12:7
Gn 3:201 Eve
Meaning living. God’s announcing of the glad tidings in v. 15 concerning the seed of the woman destroying the serpent was the first instance of the proclaiming of the gospel in the entire Bible. After hearing the glad tidings, Adam believed that he and Eve would live and not die (cf. John 3:14-16); thus, he called his wife’s name Eve, living. Hence, God was the first preacher of the glad tidings of the gospel, and Adam was the first believer.
Gn 3:20a all  -   Acts 17:26
Gn 3:211 skin
Probably the skins of lambs sacrificed as substitutes for the sinful Adam and Eve, with the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). The killing of the lambs by God foreshadowed the substitutionary death of Christ as the Lamb of God, with the shedding of His precious blood for the accomplishing of redemption, based on which God justifies the believing sinners (John 1:29; Rev. 13:8b; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; 3:18a; Eph. 1:7; Rom. 3:24).
God’s clothing Adam and his wife with the coats of skins means that God justified them through their faith (Rom. 3:28). The coats are a type of Christ as God’s righteousness to cover us that we might be justified by God (Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30). They were made by God and replaced the coverings of fig leaves sewn by Adam (v. 7). See note 225 in Luke 15.
Gn 3:212a clothed  -   cf. 2 Chron. 6:41; Psa. 132:16; Isa. 61:10
Genuine substitution is based on union. After being clothed by God with a coat of lamb skins, Adam became one with the lamb. Thus, the sinner became one with the substitute. This is union. Union brings in the effectiveness of substitution. When we believe in the gospel, Christ is put upon us as our covering righteousness (cf. Luke 15:22), and we are put into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), making us one with Christ. Since we are one with Christ, whatever He has accomplished on the cross becomes ours. To believe in Jesus Christ is to be one with Him, to enter into a union with Him (see note 162 in John 3). In such a union, whatever Christ is, whatever He has, whatever He has done and will do, and whatever He has attained and obtained are ours. See notes 143, par. 2, in ch. 6; 181, par. 2, in ch. 8; 222 in Exo. 12; and 22 in 1 John 2.
The main items of the gospel are seen in vv. 15 and 21, which indicate that God, the Creator of man, became man’s Savior after man’s fall by becoming a human seed to die in order to destroy Satan, to redeem fallen man, and to become man’s righteousness before God that he might be justified and be in God to be one with Him.
Gn 3:22a Us  -   Gen. 1:26
Gn 3:221 lest
Although Adam and Eve had the anticipated redemption, they did not yet have the actual redemption, which was accomplished by Christ on the cross. They were still sinful in nature. If they had eaten of the tree of life while in that condition, they would have lived forever with their sinful nature. God did not allow that. The tree of life, signifying God as life to man, must not be touched by sinful man. Thus, before the actual redemption was accomplished, God had to close the way to the tree of life. Once the actual redemption was completed to take away man’s sin (John 1:29) and terminate man’s sinful nature (John 3:14 and note; Rom. 8:3 and note 3), access to the tree of life would again be possible (Rev. 22:14).
Gn 3:22b tree  -   Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2; 2:7
Gn 3:23a ground  -   Gen. 2:7
Gn 3:241a cherubim  -   Exo. 25:18-22; Psa. 18:10; cf. Ezek. 28:14
God closed the way to the tree of life by means of three items: the cherubim, the flame, and the sword. Cherubim signify God’s glory (cf. Ezek. 9:3; 10:4; Heb. 9:5), the flame signifies God’s holiness (Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29), and the sword for killing indicates God’s righteousness (cf. Lam. 3:42-43; Rom. 2:5). These attributes of God placed requirements on sinful man. Since sinful man was unable to meet these requirements (Rom. 3:10-18, 23), he was not permitted to contact God as the tree of life, until Christ fulfilled the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness by His all-inclusive death on the cross to open a new and living way for us to enter the Holy of Holies and partake of the tree of life (Heb. 10:19-20 and note 202; Rev. 22:14 and note 4).
Gn 3:24b tree  -   Gen. 2:9; cf. Rev. 22:14
Genesis Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 4:11 Cain
Meaning acquired.
Gn 4:1a acquired  -   cf. Gen. 3:15
Gn 4:12 Jehovah
Or, with the help of Jehovah.
Gn 4:21 Abel
Meaning breath or vanity. As a result of man’s first fall, everything in human life became vanity (Eccl. 1:2-3).
Gn 4:22a tender  -   cf. Gen. 46:32; 47:3
Or, a shepherd, a feeder. Before the flood man was permitted to eat only fruits and vegetables (1:29; 3:18), not meat (cf. 9:3). Thus, Abel’s tending of sheep was not to produce food for his living but to provide offerings for God’s satisfaction. Abel not only believed the gospel (see note 41) but also practiced the gospel and lived for it.
Gn 4:23b tiller  -   Gen. 3:23
Or, laborer. In his occupation Abel took care only of God’s satisfaction, whereas Cain cared only for his own living.
Gn 4:31 offering
Cain did not follow the way of God’s salvation through the anticipated redemption by the bleeding sacrifice (3:21; Heb. 9:22) but continued man’s fall by presumptuously offering the fruit of his own labor to God. Cain’s way of worshipping God was to invent a religion according to his human concept and opinion (Jude 11 and note 1), which were motivated by Satan, the subtle one (v. 7 and note; 1 John 3:12). Throughout the centuries and generations there have been countless followers of Cain, people in every place and time who have invented their own religion.
Gn 4:41 offering
According to Heb. 11:4, Abel’s offering, a sacrifice, was offered to God by faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of the gospel (Rom. 10:17, 14). This indicates that Abel’s parents, Adam and Eve, must have proclaimed to their children the glad tidings that God had announced to them (3:15, 21). Like his father and mother, Abel believed the gospel and presented his offering to God according to God’s revelation in the word proclaimed by his parents. Thus, the first family on earth was a family of the gospel, a family of believers.
Abel was the first priest of God, representing all the believers in Christ (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). In type, Abel offered Christ to God. According to Num. 18:17, the firstling of a cow or sheep or goat, a type of Christ, had to be offered to God. This offering included the sprinkling of the blood upon the altar for redemption and the burning of the fat as a satisfying fragrance to God. Hence, Abel’s offering, corresponding exactly with what was later revealed in the Mosaic law, proves that his way of worshipping God was according to God’s divine revelation, not according to his own concept.
Gn 4:4a firstlings  -   Exo. 13:12; Num. 18:17; Prov. 3:9
Gn 4:5a Cain  -   Heb. 11:4; Jude 11
Gn 4:51 no
Cain rejected God’s way of taking Christ as God’s righteousness to cover him (3:21; Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 1:30). Like the religious Jews, he sought to establish his own righteousness, ignoring God’s righteousness and not submitting to it (Rom. 10:3). Thus, his offering was an insult to God, and God rejected it.
Gn 4:71 sin
Sin and Satan are one (Rom. 7:8 and note). If we reject God’s way of salvation, Satan as sin is crouching at the door, waiting for the opportunity to seize and devour us (cf. Luke 22:31; 1 Pet. 5:8).
Gn 4:81 Let
This clause is present in many ancient versions but lacking in the Hebrew text.
Gn 4:82a slew  -   1 John 3:12; Matt. 23:35; cf. John 8:44
Cain murdered his brother because of his anger provoked by his religious jealousy (vv. 4-5). Throughout the generations those who worship God according to the flesh have opposed, persecuted, and even murdered those who worship according to the Spirit (Matt. 23:35; John 16:2; Rev. 17:6; cf. Gal. 4:29). In his offering to God and his murdering his brother, Cain was on the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In contrast, Abel was on the line of the tree of life. See note 93, par. 2, in ch. 2.
Gn 4:91 I
This lie showed Cain’s arrogance toward God. Cain’s murdering of Abel and his lying to God were alluded to by the Lord Jesus in John 8:44, indicating that in the acts of murdering and lying, Cain was one with the Devil, Satan, who was his source (1 John 3:12). Because Cain had rejected God’s way and God’s warning (v. 7), he was gained by Satan, the murderer and the liar, and became a murderer and a liar with Satan.
Gn 4:101a blood  -   Heb. 11:4; cf. Rev. 6:10
Both the blood of Abel and the blood of Jesus speak (Heb. 12:24 and note 3). Abel’s blood spoke from the earth; Jesus’ blood speaks from heaven.
Gn 4:11a cursed  -   cf. Gen. 3:17-18
Gn 4:11b blood  -   cf. Num. 35:33
Gn 4:12a wanderer  -   Job 15:23
Gn 4:14a face  -   Psa. 143:7; 51:11; 2 Kings 24:20; Jer. 52:3
Gn 4:14b kill  -   Num. 35:19
Gn 4:161 Nod
Meaning wandering.
Gn 4:171 Enoch
Meaning initiated, dedicated, trained.
Gn 4:172a city  -   cf. Gen. 11:4; Dan. 4:30
After leaving God’s presence (v. 16), Cain constructed a city for his protection and self-existence. Within this city he produced a culture without God. In the garden God was everything to man — his protection, maintenance, supply, and amusement. When man lost God, he lost everything. Man’s loss of God forced man to invent human culture, the main elements of which were cities for existence, cattle-raising for making a living, music for amusement, and weapons for defense (vv. 20-22). The godless culture invented in Gen. 4 will continue to develop until it climaxes in the great Babylon (Rev. 17 — 18).
Gn 4:24a sevenfold  -   Gen. 4:15
Gn 4:251a Seth  -   1 Chron. 1:1; Luke 3:38
Meaning appointed. After the martyrdom of Abel, God appointed Seth to replace Abel in taking God’s way of salvation.
Gn 4:261a Enosh  -   Gen. 5:6
Meaning frail, mortal man.
Gn 4:262b call  -   Gen. 12:8; 13:4; 21:33; Psa. 116:13, 17; Joel 2:32; Zeph. 3:9; Zech. 13:9; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:12
The Hebrew word means to call out to, to cry unto, i.e., to cry out audibly. Because men realized that their life was vanity (see note 21) and that they were frail and mortal (see note 261), they spontaneously began to call upon the name of Jehovah, the eternal One (see note 44 in ch. 2). Although they were vain and weak, by calling on the name of the Lord, they were made rich and strong, for they entered into the riches and strength of the One on whom they called (Rom. 10:12-13 and notes). See note 211 in Acts 2.
Genesis Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 5:11a generations  -   cf. Gen. 2:4; Matt. 1:1
The genealogy recorded in this chapter includes the first ten generations of mankind, from Adam to Noah. According to Luke 3:23-38, human genealogy began with God and issued in Jesus Christ.
The history in the entire Old Testament is the Triune God’s preparation for the carrying out of His eternal economy. This preparation was initiated in a man, Adam (1:1 — 11:26), and eventually issued in three persons, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph (11:27 — 50:26), who resulted in one people, Israel (Exo. — Mal.). The thirty-nine books of the Old Testament reveal the preparation for bringing forth Christ, the God-man, the complete God mingled with the perfect man (Matt. 1), for the producing of the Body of Christ (Eph. 1 — 4), the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God (Eph. 4:4-6). The Body of Christ will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-23) as the eternal enlargement of Christ (cf. John 3:30; 1 Cor. 12:12), the eternal mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man and the mutual dwelling of God and man (Rev. 21:3, 22) for the expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in His nature and glory (Rev. 21:18b, 21b, 10-11, 23) in the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man for eternity.
Gn 5:12 When
Lit., In the day.
Gn 5:1b created  -   Gen. 1:26-27
Gn 5:13 likeness
See note 263, par. 1, in ch. 1.
Gn 5:2a blessed  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 5:21 their
See note 264 in ch. 1.
Gn 5:31 lived
This genealogy does not record the deeds and activities of the people; it records only that they lived and begot. Man’s living and begetting were for man’s multiplication (1:28a) to fulfill God’s eternal purpose through mankind. Likewise, in the spiritual sense the believers today should live and beget (1 Cor. 4:15) for God’s multiplication (John 1:12-13) to fulfill God’s purpose through the church.
Gn 5:3a And  -   vv. 3-32: 1 Chron. 1:1-4; Luke 3:36-38
Gn 5:3b Seth  -   Gen. 4:25
Gn 5:51 died
See note 124 in Rom. 5.
Gn 5:6a Enosh  -   Gen. 4:26
Gn 5:18a Enoch  -   Gen. 5:22-24; Jude 14
Gn 5:211a Methuselah  -   Gen. 5:25-27
Meaning when he is dead, it will be sent. This name has a prophetic significance. By naming his son Methuselah, Enoch prophesied of the coming of the flood in the year that Methuselah died, which was Noah’s six hundredth year (7:6; 5:25-29a). Enoch had received the revelation from God that He would judge the entire ungodly generation of mankind (cf. Jude 14-15). This motivated Enoch not to follow the current of the age but to walk with God (vv. 22, 24) and thus live a godly and holy life (cf. 2 Pet. 3:10-12).
Gn 5:221a walked  -   Gen. 5:24; 6:9; Micah 6:8; Mal. 2:6
To walk with God is to take Him as our center and everything, to do things not according to our own concept and desire but according to His revelation and leading, and to do everything with Him. This implies the denying of our self and everything that is of our self (Matt. 16:24-25) that we may be one with Him.
Gn 5:241a took  -   cf. 2 Kings 2:11
Enoch was the first person to be raptured. By this he escaped death, the ultimate issue of man’s fall (Heb. 11:5). This first mentioning of the rapture establishes the principle of the rapture: our being raptured depends on our being mature in the divine life by our walking with God. Enoch walked with God day and night for three hundred years. According to Heb. 11:5-6, he did this by faith, believing that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. After three hundred years of seeking God and walking with Him, Enoch was taken by God, thus obtaining the reward of not seeing death.
Gn 5:291 Noah
Meaning rest or comfort.
Gn 5:292 give
Or, comfort us in our work.
Gn 5:29a cursed  -   Gen. 3:17; 4:11
Gn 5:32a begot  -   Gen. 6:10
Genesis Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 6:21 sons
The sons of God here are the fallen angels (cf. Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7) who joined Satan in his rebellion against God (Rev. 12:4) and became the rulers and authorities in Satan’s dark kingdom (Matt. 12:26; Eph. 6:12).
Gn 6:22 took
At the time of man’s third fall, a number of the fallen angels in Satan’s principality came down to the earth, took human bodies, and used these bodies to form illegal marriages with the daughters of men, thus polluting the human race by mixing it with the fallen spirits. According to Jude 6-7 (see notes 61 and 71 there) the example set up by the fallen angels in committing fornication with different flesh was followed by Sodom and Gomorrah (19:4-9; Rom. 1:27).
Gn 6:31a Spirit  -   Neh. 9:30; Isa. 63:10
This is the second mentioning of the Spirit in this book (cf. 1:2). Before this time God’s Spirit was graciously working and striving with man to counter man’s rebellion and fall. Nevertheless, here a point was reached when the Spirit of God would strive with man no longer, signifying God’s forsaking of man.
Gn 6:32b flesh  -   Psa. 78:39
In man’s first fall man did not exercise his spirit (see note 61 in ch. 3); in the second fall he over-exercised his soul, inventing a new religion (see note 31 in ch. 4). In the third fall man abused the fallen body and became flesh, full of lusts, fornication, and violence (vv. 2, 5, 11). The fallen flesh is the strongest and most evil enemy of God (Rom. 7:5 — 8:13) and is thoroughly and absolutely hated by God. At the time of the third fall the entire human race became flesh. Thus, God stepped in and told His servant Noah that He would destroy that whole generation (vv. 7, 13). This is a prefigure of the age immediately preceding the Lord’s coming back (Matt. 24:37-39).
Gn 6:3c one  -   cf. Psa. 90:10
Gn 6:41a Nephilim  -   Num. 13:32-33; Deut. 2:20-21; 3:11
Or, giants. The word means the fallen ones. The illegal marriage between fallen angels and the human race produced Nephilim, giants, “the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown” (cf. Num. 13:32-33). God sent the flood to exterminate Noah’s generation because that generation had become impure. For the sake of the fulfillment of His purpose, God could not allow such a human race to exist.
Gn 6:5a wickedness  -   Matt. 24:38-39; Luke 17:26-27
Gn 6:51 imagination
Or, purpose, desire.
Gn 6:5b heart  -   Gen. 8:21; Psa. 58:2; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 9:4; 15:19; Mark 7:21
Gn 6:6a repented  -   1 Sam. 15:11; 2 Sam. 24:16; Joel 2:13
Gn 6:6b grieved  -   Isa. 63:10; Eph. 4:30
Gn 6:7a blot  -   Gen. 6:17; 7:10-12, 21
Gn 6:81 But
Satan had corrupted man to the uttermost, and God had determined to destroy the man whom He had created for His purpose. Thus, it appeared that God was defeated. But Noah points to the sovereign factor that provided God a way to continue to carry out His original purpose with man. Through Noah’s life and work God gained the victory over His enemy and changed the age. Cf. notes 81 in Dan. 1 and 41 in Eph. 2.
Gn 6:8a found  -   Gen. 19:19; Exo. 33:12-17
Gn 6:82 favor
Or, grace. Noah was able to walk with God (v. 9) in that crooked, perverted, and adulterous generation because he found grace (cf. Heb. 4:16). Grace is God coming to us to be our life supply, our strength, and our everything (see note 101 in 1 Cor. 15). Such grace enabled Noah to overcome the flesh and to live a righteous life (Ezek. 14:14; cf. Rom. 5:17-21 and notes).
Gn 6:9a righteous  -   Gen. 7:1; 2 Pet. 2:5; Ezek. 14:14, 20
Gn 6:91b walked  -   Gen. 5:22, 24
Like his great-grandfather Enoch (5:22-24), Noah walked with God by faith (Heb. 11:7), which was God’s divine element transfused and infused into him to be his believing ability (Rom. 3:22 and note). As a result, he became heir of God’s righteousness (cf. Rom. 4:3, 9) and a herald of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5) as a protest against the evil generation. Noah’s righteousness strengthened God’s standing to execute His judgment upon that ungodly generation.
Gn 6:141 ark
The ark is a type of Christ (1 Pet. 3:20-21), not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the church, which is the Body of Christ and the new man (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 3:10-11). The building of the ark typifies the building of the corporate Christ, with the element of Christ’s riches as the building material, by those who work together with God (1 Cor. 3:9-12a; 2 Cor. 6:1; Eph. 3:8-10; 4:12). By building the ark and entering into it, Noah was not only saved from God’s judgment on the evil generation through the flood, but was also separated from that generation and ushered into a new age (1 Pet. 3:20 and note 3). Likewise, by building the church and entering into the church life, we will be saved from God’s judgment on today’s evil generation through the great tribulation (Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 1 Thes. 5:3) and will be separated from that generation (Luke 21:36; Rev. 3:10) and ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium.
Gn 6:142 gopher
A kind of cypress, a resinous wood that can withstand the attack of water. It is a figure of the crucified Christ, who can withstand the waters of death (Acts 2:24).
Gn 6:143 pitch
The root of the words pitch in this verse and expiation elsewhere in the Old Testament means primarily to cover. The pitch here is a type of the redeeming blood of Christ, which covers God’s building within and without (Lev. 4:5-7; 6:30; 16:14-19; Heb. 9:21). The pitch within the ark was for the peace of Noah and his family (cf. Heb. 9:14), whereas the pitch without was for God’s satisfaction (cf. Exo. 12:13). Noah and his family were saved from the judgment of the flood by the pitch on the ark, signifying that the believers in Christ are saved from God’s judgment by the redeeming blood of Christ (Rom. 5:9).
In order for the pitch on the ark to be effective, Noah and his family had to be in the ark, i.e., in union with the ark. Likewise, in order to apply the redemption through Christ’s blood, we must be in Christ, i.e., in union with Him by believing into Him (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:7). See notes 212 in ch. 3, 222 in Exo. 12, and 22 in 1 John 2.
Gn 6:151 this
Noah built the ark not according to his own imagination but absolutely according to God’s revelation. Cf. Exo. 25:9; 1 Chron. 28:11-19; 1 Cor. 3:10-12; Eph. 2:20a and note 2.
Gn 6:152 three
The numbers three and five, seen here as components of the ark’s dimensions, are basic numbers of God’s building (cf. Exo. 27). The number three signifies the Triune God in His dispensing of Himself into man (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-19). The number five is composed of four, signifying man as one of God’s creatures (Rev. 4:6-7 and note 62), plus one, signifying the one unique God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4). The significance of the numbers three and five is the mingling of the Triune God with man. This is God’s building.
The dimensions of the ark are composed of three and five multiplied by either ten or one hundred. The number ten signifies completeness (Dan. 1:12, 20) and the number one hundred signifies fullness (Matt. 13:23). This signifies that God’s building is the mingling of the Triune God with man in completeness and fullness.
Gn 6:153 cubits
A cubit is approximately eighteen inches.
Gn 6:161 opening
From the same root as the Hebrew word for noon. In the ark there was only one window, toward the heavens, signifying that in the church, God’s building, there is only one revelation and one vision (Acts 2:42a; 1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Tim. 1:3-4) through the one New Testament ministry (2 Cor. 3:6-9; 4:1). The light comes from above (Acts 26:13-19).
Gn 6:162 entrance
There is only one door, one entrance into the ark. This one door typifies Christ (John 10:9).
Gn 6:163 lower
The three stories of the ark signify the Triune God according to our experience of Him: the Spirit, signified by the lower story, reaches us first and brings us to the Son (1 Pet. 1:2; John 16:8, 13-15), and the Son brings us higher in our experience, to the Father (John 14:6; Eph. 2:18; see note 82 in 1 John 4).
Gn 6:17a flood  -   Gen. 7:6; 2 Pet. 2:5
Gn 6:181a covenant  -   Gen. 9:9-17; Isa. 54:9-10
See note 91 in ch. 9.
Gn 6:22a Noah  -   Heb. 11:7; 1 Pet. 3:20
Gn 6:22b commanded  -   cf. Exo. 40:16
Genesis Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 7:1a righteous  -   Gen. 6:9
Gn 7:2a clean  -   Gen. 8:20; Lev. 11:2-47
Gn 7:31 preserve
The ark was not only for the salvation of man but also for the salvation of all living creatures. See Col. 1:20 and note 2; Heb. 2:9 and note 3; and Mark 16:15 and note 2.
Gn 7:41a forty  -   Gen. 7:12, 17
Forty is the number for trials, temptations, and sufferings (Heb. 3:9; Matt. 4:2; 1 Kings 19:8).
Gn 7:61 six
See note 211 in ch. 5.
Gn 7:6a flood  -   Gen. 6:17
Gn 7:7a went  -   Matt. 24:38; Luke 17:27; Heb. 11:7; 1 Pet. 3:20
Gn 7:11a springs  -   Gen. 8:2; Prov. 8:28
Gn 7:11b windows  -   Gen. 8:2; 2 Kings 7:19; Mal. 3:10; Isa. 24:18; cf. Psa. 78:23
Gn 7:15a two  -   Gen. 7:2-3
Gn 7:161 shut
Noah’s entering into the ark (v. 13) is a type of our entering into Christ. God’s shutting Noah in indicates that, although we are free to enter into Christ, once we are in, we have no way to get out. Once we believe into the Lord Jesus, we are “shut in” by God with no way to get out of Him (John 10:28-29 and note 281).
Gn 7:17a forty  -   Gen. 7:4, 12; cf. Exo. 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8; Matt. 4:2
Gn 7:171 waters
The water through which Noah passed was a figure of the water of baptism (1 Pet. 3:20-21 and note 211). The pitch on the ark saved Noah from the judgment of the flood (see note 143 in ch. 6), whereas the water of the flood not only judged the world but also separated Noah from the evil age (cf. Gal. 1:4; Acts 2:40-41). In the same manner, the water of the Red Sea judged the Egyptians and saved the children of Israel from the Egyptian age (Exo. 14:26-30). The water of baptism symbolizes the death of Christ, which judged Satan and the world (Rom. 6:3; John 12:31) and which also saves the believers from the condemned world and the satanic power of darkness (Gal. 6:14; Heb. 2:14).
Gn 7:19a covered  -   2 Pet. 3:6
Gn 7:21a flesh  -   Gen. 6:17
Gn 7:22a breath  -   Gen. 2:7; 6:17
Gn 7:23a Noah  -   2 Pet. 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:20
Genesis Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 8:1a remembered  -   cf. Gen. 19:29; Exo. 2:24
Gn 8:1b wind  -   Exo. 14:21
Gn 8:2a springs  -   Gen. 7:11
Gn 8:3a one  -   Gen. 7:24
Gn 8:41 rest
The ark’s passing through the water of death and coming to rest on the mountains of Ararat is a type of Christ’s passing through death and resurrecting out of death.
Gn 8:71 raven
The raven is an unclean bird (Lev. 11:15) because it feeds on carcasses, i.e., on death. The raven signifies the fleshly believers who love the world judged by God and return to it to feed on the things of death. The dove (v. 8) is a clean bird because it feeds on seeds, i.e., on life. The dove signifies the spiritual believers who remain in the church life and care for life in the Spirit.
Gn 8:8a dove  -   S.S. 1:15; 6:9; Matt. 10:16; cf. Matt. 3:16
Gn 8:111a olive  -   Exo. 27:20; 30:24; Zech. 4:11
The olive is a type of the Spirit, and the fresh olive leaf signifies the new life in the Spirit. Thus, the olive leaf was a sign of life.
Gn 8:17a fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 8:181 went
Eight people emerged from the ark. Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week, i.e., the eighth day of the old week (see note 11 in John 20); thus, the number eight signifies resurrection. Since all the believers, the components of the church, were included in Christ’s resurrection (Eph. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:3), they are the resurrected people. Hence, the living of Noah and his family after the flood signifies the living of the church in Christ’s resurrection. This is a seed of the church life.
Eight persons were in the ark when it passed through the flood and when it came to rest on the mountain. Thus, whatever the ark experienced, they also experienced by being in the ark. This illustrates how the believers, by being in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:4), were crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:14; Gal. 2:20a) and also resurrected with Christ (Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:12; 3:1). Because we are in Christ, His experience has become ours.
Gn 8:201a altar  -   Gen. 12:7-8; 13:18; 22:9; 26:25; 33:20; 35:7; Exo. 40:29; 2 Chron. 1:5-6; Rev. 6:9
The altar is a type of the cross of Christ, and the offerings are types of the different aspects of Christ (Lev. 1 — 7 and notes). The building of an altar and the offering of offerings on it signify the offering of Christ to God through the cross. In the church life, the first thing we must do is not to work for God but to go to the cross to be terminated; then we need to experience Christ and offer to God the Christ whom we have experienced in different aspects for God’s satisfaction. See note 381 in Exo. 29.
Gn 8:20b clean  -   Gen. 7:2; Lev. 11:1-47
Gn 8:202 burnt
See note 31 in Lev. 1.
Gn 8:211a satisfying  -   Exo. 29:18, 25, 41; Lev. 1:9, 13, 17; Ezek. 16:19; 20:41; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18; 2 Cor. 2:15
Or, soothing.
Gn 8:212b curse  -   Gen. 3:17; 5:29
Man’s fall brought in the curse (3:17); the offering of Christ to God through the cross in the church life keeps the curse away and brings in the blessing (v. 22; Gal. 3:13-14). The ultimate curse is death, and the greatest blessing is life (Psa. 133:3).
Gn 8:21c heart  -   Gen. 6:5
Gn 8:21d nor  -   Gen. 9:11, 15; Isa. 54:9
Gn 8:221 Seed
Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings (typifying Christ) to God to please Him (vv. 20-21) so that the earth with its systems of nature could be preserved. The perpetual regularity of the different cycles in nature without end is God’s guarantee that the order of the universe will be maintained for the preservation of the earth and the growth of all kinds of living things, that man may multiply endlessly and replenish the earth to fulfill God’s eternal purpose (1:26-28).
Gn 8:22a day  -   Jer. 33:20, 25-26
Genesis Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 9:1a blessed  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 9:11 Be
This brought “resurrected” mankind back to God’s original purpose, which was that man express God and represent Him (see notes 263 through 265 in ch. 1). In the church life in Christ’s resurrection we have been brought back to the beginning for the expression and representation of God.
Gn 9:1b fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 9:2a fear  -   Psa. 8:6-8
Gn 9:31a food  -   Lev. 11:2; Deut. 12:15; 1 Tim. 4:3-4
Before the fall God ordained that man should eat only the plant life, the nourishing, generating life (1:29). After the fall man needs to eat not only the plant life but also the animal life, which involves the shedding of blood and implies the need for redemption (Heb. 9:22). See notes 512 in John 6 and 81 in Exo. 12.
Gn 9:3b herb  -   Gen. 1:29
Gn 9:4a blood  -   Lev. 17:10-11, 14; Deut. 12:16, 23; 1 Sam. 14:33; Acts 15:20, 29
Gn 9:5a animal  -   cf. Exo. 21:28
Gn 9:5b require  -   Gen. 42:22; Exo. 21:12, 14; Lev. 24:17; Num. 35:33; Deut. 19:10; 1 Kings 2:32; Psa. 9:12; Luke 11:50-51; cf. Matt. 26:52; Rev. 13:10
Gn 9:61 Whoever
This was the beginning of human government. In the garden, before the fall, man was directly under the rule of God. After the fall, man was under the rule of his own conscience (3:7-10). However, the rule of human conscience did not work well, and man fell further into wickedness (6:5, 11). Thus, after the flood, God authorized man to rule over other men, and human government began (Rom. 13:1 and notes 3 and 4).
At that time Noah was the deputy authority under God. This was a shadow of the kingdom of God, the reality of which is the church life in God’s New Testament economy, and the manifestation of which will be the kingdom in the millennium (see notes 34 in Matt. 5 and 281 in Heb. 12).
Gn 9:62a image  -   Gen. 1:26-27
See note 263 in ch. 1.
Gn 9:7a fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 9:91a covenant  -   Gen. 6:18; 9:11-17; Isa. 54:9-10; cf. Hosea 2:18
In order to assure mankind that there would never again be a flood to destroy them and the earth, God made a covenant with Noah, with his seed, and with every living animal (vv. 9-17). See notes 221 in ch. 8 and 61 in Rev. 4.
Gn 9:11a waters  -   Isa. 54:9
Gn 9:12a sign  -   Gen. 9:13, 17; cf. Gen. 17:11; Exo. 24:8; 31:16-17; Matt. 26:27-28
Gn 9:131a bow  -   Ezek. 1:28; Rev. 4:3; 10:1
The rainbow signifies God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant. God Himself is faithfulness (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:9). He is faithful to His word, and His word is His covenant. The rainbow is seen again at the end of the Bible (Rev. 4:3), indicating that God’s faithfulness will remain forever. See note 33 in Rev. 4, note 191, par. 2, in Rev. 21, and note 281 in Ezek. 1.
Gn 9:15a remember  -   Lev. 26:42, 45; Ezek. 16:60; Luke 1:72
Gn 9:15b waters  -   Gen. 9:11; Isa. 54:9
Gn 9:16a everlasting  -   Gen. 17:7, 13, 19
Gn 9:17a sign  -   Gen. 9:12-13
Gn 9:19a from  -   Gen. 10:1-32
Gn 9:211 uncovered
This was Noah’s failure, coming after the success in his work, which He experienced under God’s blessing (v. 1). Noah became drunk with the wine from his vineyards, and he was careless, becoming naked without realizing it. In spiritual experience, because of our fallen nature we must be covered whenever we come into God’s presence (3:7, 21; Exo. 20:25-26; 28:40-43). Spiritually, our covering is Christ (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27; Psa. 45:13). To be naked spiritually is to lose Christ as our covering in the presence of God (cf. Rom. 13:14).
Gn 9:22a nakedness  -   Gen. 2:25
Gn 9:251 Cursed
As the father of his family and the leader of mankind, Noah was God’s deputy authority on earth. Although Noah had failed, Ham’s descendants were cursed because Ham exposed the failure of God’s deputy authority (v. 22) and thus touched God’s government in a wrong way. Shem and Japheth were blessed because they respected God’s government, covering the failure of the deputy authority and not looking at it (v. 23). The failure of a leader in God’s government is always a test to us. To expose a leader’s failure causes us to be negatively involved with God’s government and thus to lose God’s blessing — see Deut. 27:16 (cf. Eph. 6:2-3); Num. 12:1-10 and notes; 2 Sam. 15:10; 18:14-15. If we remain in a right position under God’s government, a leader’s failure will become our blessing.
Gn 9:261 Shem
Shem, Noah’s first son, was the forefather of the Hebrews, the Jews (Abraham was a descendant of Shem — 11:10-26). In Noah’s prophetic word concerning his three sons in vv. 25-27, Shem was blessed to have God as his God.
Gn 9:271 tents
A tent is a place where people may dwell, rest, and have peace and enjoyment. Japheth’s dwelling in the tents of Shem indicates that if Japheth and his descendants would be blessed and enjoy God as their rest, peace, enjoyment, and salvation, they must believe in the God of the Jews (cf. John 4:22). When the Lord Jesus came as a seed of Abraham and a descendant of Shem, He became the tent, the tabernacle (John 1:14), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate tent of Shem, the tabernacle of God with men for eternity, in which numerous Old Testament and New Testament saints from all the nations will dwell to participate in the eternal blessing of the eternal life (Rev. 21:3 and note).
Genesis Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 10:2a Japheth  -   vv. 2-5: 1 Chron. 1:5-7
Gn 10:41 Rodanim
Some MSS read, Dodanim; cf. 1 Chron. 1:7.
Gn 10:6a Ham  -   vv. 6-8: 1 Chron. 1:8-16
Gn 10:61 Mizraim
I.e., Egypt.
Gn 10:81 Nimrod
Nimrod, the first type of Antichrist, was the first to oppose God. According to history, Nimrod brought in many idolatrous things (Jer. 7:18 and note). Human government formed in opposition to God began with Nimrod and will end with Antichrist (Jer. 50:1 and note; Dan. 2:32-35 and notes). The cities of Babel and Nineveh, built by Nimrod (vv. 10-11), became the capitals of the nations of Babylon and Assyria, two strong figures of mankind in their opposing of God.
Gn 10:10a Babel  -   Gen. 11:9
Gn 10:10b Shinar  -   Gen. 11:2; Dan. 1:1-2
Gn 10:22a Shem  -   vv. 22-29: 1 Chron. 1:17-27
Gn 10:25a Eber  -   1 Chron. 1:19
Gn 10:251 Peleg
Meaning division. The seed of division among mankind is sown here. After the flood God gave man authority to rule others that there might be peace among men (see note 61, par. 1, in ch. 9), but Satan caused man to abuse his God-given authority to form nations that man may have his own dominion, thus denying God’s right and authority over man.
The forming of the nations in this chapter, which issued in Babel (ch. 11), prefigures the forming of the divisions and denominations in Christianity, which will eventually consummate in Babylon the Great with her daughters (Rev. 17).
Genesis Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 11:21a Shinar  -   Gen. 10:10
I.e., Babylon.
Gn 11:3a make  -   Exo. 1:14; 5:7-16
Gn 11:31 bricks
God’s building is of stones (1 Kings 6:7; Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Cor. 3:12a; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:18-20), which are produced by God’s divine work through creation and transformation, whereas the building of the city and tower of Babel was of bricks (cf. Exo. 1:11, 14a), which are the result of human labor through the burning of the God-created earth.
The earth is for growing life (1:11). To make bricks is to kill, to burn, the element of the earth that grows life. In figure, the earth signifies humanity (2:7; 3:19; Matt. 13:3-8 and notes; 1 Cor. 15:47a). Thus, the rebellion instigated by Satan kills the element within man that grows the divine life, by burning it out, and it misuses man to build up a man-made and godless life.
Gn 11:41a city  -   cf. Gen. 4:17
The city built by man’s labor signifies that man had forsaken God and replaced Him with a man-made and godless culture (see note 172 in ch. 4).
Gn 11:42 tower
The tower was built for the purpose of making a name for the people and for declaring their rebellion and opposition against God. Abraham’s building an altar and calling on the name of Jehovah in 12:7-8 are in contrast to what was done here.
According to historical records and archeological evidence, the city and tower of Babel were full of the names of idols. Thus, at Babel man followed Satan, exalted himself to oppose God, rejected God’s name, denied God’s right and authority over man, and fell into idolatry. This was man’s fourth fall, a fall from human government under God’s authority to a collective rebellion of the whole human race against God under Satan’s instigation (see note 32 in ch. 6).
Gn 11:4b heavens  -   Deut. 1:28; 9:1; cf. Dan. 4:11, 22
Gn 11:4c scattered  -   Gen. 11:8-9
Gn 11:71a Us  -   Gen. 1:26; 3:22; Isa. 6:8
The pronoun Us here indicates that at Babel the Triune God came down personally and judged that rebellion directly. See note 13 in ch. 1.
Gn 11:72 confound
So that mankind might not be able to form an alliance against Him, God judged rebellious mankind with division and confusion: mankind was scattered, divided, in living, no longer able to live together in one place (vv. 8-9), and confounded, confused, in language, no longer able to have the same speaking, i.e., the same understanding, opinion, and concept (vv. 7, 9). In contrast, in the proper church life there is oneness and harmony: all the believers have one mind with one opinion, and one mouth with one speaking (1 Cor. 1:10; Rom. 15:5-6; Phil. 2:2; 4:2). Cf. Acts 2:5-11.
In the rebellion of mankind at Babel, man fell to the uttermost, causing God to eventually forsake the created race of Adam and to call one man, Abraham, out of that race that He might still have a way to fulfill His original purpose in creating man (1:26-28).
Gn 11:8a scattered  -   Gen. 11:4, 9; Deut. 32:8; cf. Gen. 10:25, 32
Gn 11:91a Babel  -   Gen. 10:10
Meaning confusion.
Gn 11:10a generations  -   vv. 10-27: Gen. 10:21-22; 1 Chron. 1:17-27; Luke 3:34-36
Gn 11:26a Terah  -   Josh. 24:2
Gn 11:27a Lot  -   Gen. 11:31; 12:5; 13:1, 5; 14:12; 19:1-36; Luke 17:28-29; 2 Pet. 2:7
Gn 11:281a Ur  -   Acts 7:2-3
Meaning light. According to Acts 7:2, the God of glory appeared to Abraham first in Ur of the Chaldeans, while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran (cf. v. 31). Before God’s initial appearing to Abraham, he and his family served other gods (Josh. 24:2). It was out of such a dark background of idol worship, the background of Babel (vv. 3-4), that God called Abraham, the father of faith (Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3:7). God’s coming to Abraham and appearing to him brought light to Abraham (cf. Matt. 4:16; Acts 9:1-3; 2 Cor. 4:6) and motivated him to come out of the country of satanic idolatry. See note 22 in Acts 7 and note 22 in Heb. 12.
God came in to call Abraham that He might have a new beginning with fallen man. God’s calling of Abraham was a transfer of race, a transfer from the created Adamic race to the called Abrahamic race (see note 161 in Rom. 4). The transfer of race in God’s calling is actually the transfer of life, from the life of Adam to the life of Christ (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a), from the fallen life of the old creation to the stronger and better life of the new creation — the uncreated life of God. The process of this transfer of life is portrayed in the succeeding chapters of Genesis and is seen in the collective experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Gn 11:282 Chaldeans
Chaldea was a demonic place, a land of idolatry, in Mesopotamia, a region bounded by two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Thus, in order to leave Chaldea, the land of idolatry, and travel to the good land, the land of Canaan, Abraham, the first Hebrew (14:13 and note), had to cross the Euphrates. See note 12, par. 2, in Heb. 1 and note 132 in Heb. 11.
Gn 11:291a Sarai  -   cf. Gen. 17:15
Meaning my princess.
Gn 11:30a barren  -   Gen. 16:1; 15:2-3; cf. Isa. 54:1; Gal. 4:27
Gn 11:311 Terah
According to Acts 7:2-3, God appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans and called him to “come out from your land and from your relatives, and come into the land which I will show you.” This was God’s first appearing and calling to him. However, Abraham did not accept God’s calling immediately but remained in Ur for some time. After the death of Haran, Abraham’s brother (v. 28), God sovereignly caused his father, Terah, to bring the family from Ur to Haran. Thus, it was not Abraham but his father who took the initiative to leave Ur. See Acts 7:4 and note.
Gn 11:31a Lot  -   Gen. 11:27
Gn 11:31b Ur  -   Gen. 15:7; Neh. 9:7; Acts 7:4; Josh. 24:3
Gn 11:312 Haran
Abraham came out of Chaldea, but instead of going into Canaan as God had called him (Acts 7:3), he settled in Haran. This shows Abraham’s unwillingness to respond to God’s calling absolutely.
Genesis Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 12:11 Now
After the death of Abraham’s father (11:32), God appeared to Abraham and called him the second time (see note 311 in ch. 11). God’s repeated appearing to Abraham was a strong attraction to him, motivating and strengthening him to accept God’s calling. It is the same with the New Testament believers (see notes 201 and 221 in Matt. 4, 93 in Matt. 9, 22 in Heb. 12, and 38 in 2 Pet. 1).
The records of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (with Joseph — see note 21 in ch. 37) overlap. Genesis does not portray them as three separate individuals but as constituents of one corporate person. The experiences of these three men portray different aspects of one complete person’s experience of the Triune God. “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” is Jehovah, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Exo. 3:15; Matt. 28:19). The experience of Abraham signifies the experience of God the Father in His calling man, justifying man, and equipping man to live by faith and to live in fellowship with Him (12:1; 15:6; chs. 17 — 18; 19:29; 21:1-13; 22:1-18). The experience of Isaac signifies the experience of God the Son in His redeeming man (22:1-14) and His blessing man with the inheritance of all His riches, with a life of the enjoyment of His abundance, and with a life in peace (25:5; 26:3-4, 12-33). The experience of Jacob (with Joseph) signifies the experience of God the Father in His loving man and choosing man (Mal. 1:2; Rom. 9:10-13) and of God the Spirit in His working all things for the good of His lovers, in His transforming man, and in His making man mature in the divine life that man may be able to bless all the people, to rule over all the earth, and to satisfy all the people with God the Son as the life supply (27:41; 28:1 — 35:10; chs. 37, 39 — 49; Rom. 8:28-29).
Gn 12:12 said
When God appeared to Abraham, He also called him. God’s speaking to Abraham was also a factor that motivated and strengthened him to accept God’s calling (cf. Rom. 1:6; 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:9). Cf. note 11, par. 1.
Gn 12:1a Go  -   Acts 7:3
Gn 12:13 father’s
In His second appearing to Abraham, God called Abraham to come out not only from his country and his relatives but also from his father’s house (cf. Acts 7:3; see note 311 in ch. 11). This means that God called only Abraham and his wife, Sarai. However, when Abraham left Haran, he took his nephew Lot with him (vv. 4-5). This again shows Abraham’s lack of absoluteness in accepting God’s calling.
Gn 12:21 And
God’s promise to Abraham in vv. 2-3 was the preaching of the gospel (Gal. 3:8 and note). God not only appeared to Abraham and called him, but He also gave him the promise of the gospel as an incentive to encourage Abraham to answer His calling.
Gn 12:22a great  -   Gen. 17:6; 18:18; Deut. 26:5
In His preaching of the gospel to Abraham, God promised to make of him a great nation. This great nation is the kingdom of God, composed of the nation of Israel as God’s kingdom in the Old Testament (Matt. 21:43), the church as God’s kingdom in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18-19a; Rom. 14:17), the millennial kingdom in the coming age (Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6), and the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 22:3, 5).
Gn 12:2b blessing  -   Gal. 3:14
Gn 12:3a bless  -   Gen. 27:29; Num. 24:9
Gn 12:31 curses
From the time that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem until now, every nation, people, race, or individual who has cursed the Jewish people has received a curse, and whoever has blessed the Jews has received a blessing.
Gn 12:32b all  -   Gen. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Acts 3:25; Gal. 3:8
In His calling God turned from Adam to Abraham, but in His promise He made another turn, from Abraham back to all the families of the Adamic race through Christ, the seed of Abraham.
Gn 12:33 blessed
The blessing here consists of the blessings of God’s creation and redemption, including all that God wants to give man — God Himself and all that He has in this age and in the age to come. According to Gal. 3:14 (see notes there), the promised blessing is actually God Himself as the Spirit. Thus, in His preaching of the gospel to Abraham (Gal. 3:8), God promised that He would give Himself to the called ones as a blessing. According to 22:18, this blessing would come to all the nations through Abraham’s seed, who is Christ (Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:16). God’s blessing to Abraham, which made him a blessing to others, implies the tents of Shem (see note 271 in ch. 9).
Gn 12:4a went  -   Heb. 11:8; Acts 7:4
Gn 12:5a Lot  -   Gen. 11:27
Gn 12:51 went
According to Heb. 11:8, Abraham went out by faith, not knowing where he was going. See note there.
Gn 12:5b land  -   cf. Heb. 11:9
Gn 12:52 came
See note 41 in Acts 7.
Gn 12:53 Canaan
God’s goal with Abraham was not merely to save him out of his environment and his background but to bring him into the land of Canaan for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Likewise, God’s goal with the New Testament believers is not merely to save them from their fallen condition but to bring them into the reality of the good land, which is the all-inclusive Christ as the portion allotted by God to all the called ones (Deut. 8:7-10 and note 71; Col. 1:12 and note 2). See note 31 in ch. 15.
Gn 12:6a Shechem  -   Gen. 33:18; 37:12
Gn 12:71 appeared
This was the third time God appeared to Abraham. Here God’s reappearing confirmed to Abraham that he had answered God’s calling and had arrived at the place where God intended him to be. God’s reappearing also strengthened Abraham to live by faith (Heb. 11:8-10) as an anti-testimony to the godless living developed by mankind at Babel.
Gn 12:72a seed  -   Gen. 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 24:7; 26:3-4; 28:4, 13; 35:12; 48:4; Exo. 33:1; Deut. 34:4; 2 Chron. 20:7; Neh. 9:8; Acts 7:5
Both the seed and the land typify Christ, who is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy. See note 31 in ch. 15.
Christ, the incarnated God, is the threefold seed: the seed of woman (3:15; Isa. 7:14; Gal. 4:4), the seed of Abraham (12:7; Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:16), and the seed of David (2 Sam. 7:12-14; Matt. 1:1; 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16). As the seed of woman, the seed of Mary (Matt. 1:16), Christ accomplished redemption to destroy Satan, the serpent, and to save the believers in Christ from sin and death (Heb. 2:14; Matt. 1:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:53-57). As the seed of Abraham, Christ became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) that the believers in Christ, who are Abraham’s seed (Gal. 3:29), may inherit the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God, as their divine inheritance, their spiritual blessing for eternity (Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14a; Gal. 3:14). As the seed of David, Christ brings His believers into the kingdom and causes them to share in His kingship in His resurrection in the eternal kingdom of God (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6; 22:5b). The revelation of Christ as the threefold seed is the contents of the full gospel.
Gn 12:73b altar  -   Gen. 8:20
This was the first altar that Abraham built. An altar is for worshipping God by offering all that we are and have to God for His purpose. Abraham’s building of an altar was motivated by God’s reappearing and can be considered an anti-testimony to the building of the tower of Babel.
Gn 12:81a Bethel  -   Gen. 13:3; 28:19
Bethel means house of God and Ai means a heap of ruins. Bethel and Ai stand in contrast to each other, signifying that in the eyes of God’s called ones only God’s house is worthwhile; everything else is a heap of ruins.
Gn 12:82b tent  -   Gen. 13:3, 18; 18:1; 24:67; 25:27; 26:17, 25; 31:25; 33:19; 35:21; Heb. 11:9
Abraham first built an altar for the worship of God; then he pitched a tent for his living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob each lived in a tent (12:8; 26:25; 35:21). Their dwelling in tents was a declaration that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth who were seeking a better country and eagerly waiting for “the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God” (Heb. 11:9-10, 13-16). Both the better country and the city which has the foundations are the New Jerusalem (see notes 101 and 132 in Heb. 11).
Gn 12:8c altar  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 12:83d called  -   Gen. 4:26
See note 262 in ch. 4.
Gn 12:91 Negev
I.e., the dry southern desert of Canaan.
Gn 12:101a famine  -   Gen. 26:1; 41:54; 43:1
The famine, prepared by God in His sovereignty, was a test to see whether or not Abraham would live by faith, trusting in God for his daily necessities (cf. 1 Pet. 1:6-7). Instead of trusting in God, Abraham went down to Egypt, which signifies the world under Satan’s rule.
Gn 12:13a sister  -   Gen. 20:2; 26:7
Gn 12:131 I
Lit., my soul.
Gn 12:17a Pharaoh  -   cf. 1 Chron. 16:21; Psa. 105:14
Gn 12:201 with
While Abraham was in Egypt, he experienced God’s keeping grace. Although Abraham had failed to trust in Him, God blessed Abraham, making him rich (v. 16; 13:2), and preserved Sarai, his wife. By this experience in Egypt Abraham learned that the God who called Him also took care of him and that everything was in His sovereign hand.
Genesis Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 13:1a Lot  -   Gen. 11:27
Gn 13:31a Bethel  -   Gen. 12:8; 28:19
In His sovereign care for His called one, God not only blessed Abraham and spared his wife in Egypt, but He also brought Abraham back to the beginning, to the place of the tent and the altar, and recovered his calling on the name of the Lord (v. 4).
Gn 13:4a altar  -   Gen. 8:20
Gn 13:4b called  -   Gen. 4:26
Gn 13:5a Lot  -   Gen. 11:27
Gn 13:6a possessions  -   cf. Gen. 36:6-7
Gn 13:71 strife
This was another test arranged for Abraham under God’s sovereignty. Through his experience in Egypt Abraham had learned the lesson of not striving for himself and of having no choice for himself but of trusting in God’s care (see note 201 in ch. 12). Thus, he allowed Lot to take his choice of the land (v. 11).
Gn 13:10a garden  -   Gen. 2:8
Gn 13:12a as  -   cf. Gen. 14:12
Gn 13:13a Sodom  -   Gen. 18:20; Ezek. 16:46-50; 2 Pet. 2:6-8; Jude 7
Gn 13:141 Jehovah
Because Abraham had prevailed in his trial with Lot, God appeared to him again and confirmed the promise in 12:7 concerning the good land (vv. 14-15, 17) and the promise in 12:2 concerning the increase of his seed (v. 16). This ushered Abraham to the peak of his experience of God, for he moved his tent to dwell in Hebron, where he lived most of the remainder of his life in fellowship with God (see notes 181 and 183).
Gn 13:15a seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 13:161a dust  -   Gen. 28:14; cf. Gen. 22:17; 32:12; Heb. 11:12
See note 171 in ch. 22.
Gn 13:181a tent  -   Gen. 12:8; Heb. 11:9
Abraham first pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai and built an altar there (12:8). His tent there was a testimony of God to the world (see note 82 in ch. 12). At Hebron Abraham’s tent became a place where he had fellowship with God. By Abraham’s pitching a tent at Hebron, God had a place on earth where He could communicate and fellowship with man (cf. ch. 18). Abraham’s tent with the altar built by him was a prefigure of the tabernacle with the altar built by the children of Israel after the exodus from Egypt (Exo. 40). That tabernacle was God’s testimony (Exo. 38:21) and the place where God and His people could dwell and fellowship together. The ultimate consummation of the tabernacle will be the New Jerusalem, the testimony, the expression, of God in eternity and the eternal dwelling place of God and all His called ones (Rev. 21:2-3 and note 31; 21:22 and note 2).
Gn 13:182 Mamre
Meaning strength.
Gn 13:183b Hebron  -   Gen. 23:2, 19; 35:27; 37:14; Num. 13:22; Josh. 14:13; 21:13; 2 Sam. 2:11
Meaning fellowship, communion, or friendship.
Gn 13:18c altar  -   Gen. 8:20
Genesis Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 14:31 Salt
I.e., the Dead Sea.
Gn 14:5a Rephaim  -   Deut. 2:10-11, 20-21
Gn 14:10a hill  -   Gen. 19:17, 30
Gn 14:12a Lot  -   Gen. 11:27
Gn 14:12b Sodom  -   cf. Gen. 13:12
Gn 14:131a Hebrew  -   Gen. 39:14; 40:15; Exo. 2:6; 3:18; Jonah 1:9
The first mention of the term in the Bible. The word comes from the verb in Hebrew meaning pass over, cross over. See note 12, par. 2, in Heb. 1.
Gn 14:14a brother  -   Gen. 11:27; 13:8
Gn 14:14b born  -   Gen. 15:3; 17:12-13, 23, 27; Eccl. 2:7
Gn 14:181a Melchizedek  -   Heb. 7:1
Meaning king of righteousness. Melchizedek is a type of Christ as the kingly High Priest (Heb. 7:1-3 and notes 12 and 31). After Abraham gained the victory, Melchizedek appeared. Before his appearing, Melchizedek, a priest of God, must have been interceding for Abraham. It must have been through his intercession that Abraham was able to slaughter the four kings and gain the victory (cf. Exo. 17:8-13). Today Christ, our High Priest, is interceding for us in a hidden way (Rom. 8:34b; Heb. 7:25b) that we may be His overcomers to defeat God’s enemies, so that through our victory Christ can be manifested openly in His second coming.
Gn 14:182b Salem  -   Psa. 76:2
Meaning peace; an early designation for Jerusalem (cf. Psa. 76:2).
Gn 14:183c priest  -   Psa. 110:4; Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1, 3, 10-22
Here the priesthood of Melchizedek is mentioned in the Scriptures before the priesthood of Aaron (Exo. 28:1). The priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek is higher than the Aaronic priesthood (Heb. 7). In His earthly ministry Christ was a High Priest according to the order of Aaron for the putting away of sin (Heb. 9:14, 26). Then, in His heavenly ministry Christ was designated a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6, 10), not to offer sacrifices for sin but to minister to us the very God who was processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, signified by the bread and the wine (Matt. 26:26-28), as our life supply that we may be saved to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25a). See notes 111 in Zech. 6, 62 in Heb. 5, and 11 and 111 in Heb. 7.
Gn 14:18d God  -   Psa. 57:2; Acts 16:17
Gn 14:191a blessed  -   Gen. 47:7; 49:28; Num. 6:23-27; Deut. 33:1; Heb. 7:1, 6-7; cf. 2 Cor. 13:14
See note 231 in Num. 6.
Gn 14:192b Possessor  -   Gen. 14:22; Matt. 11:25
Because Abraham, an overcomer, had gained the victory over God’s enemies and was standing with God on the earth, God could be referred to not only as the God of heaven (2 Chron. 36:23; Neh. 1:5; 2:4, 20) but also as the Possessor of heaven and earth (vv. 19, 22). See note 253 in Matt. 11.
Gn 14:201 Abram
Lit., he. See note 41 in Heb. 7.
Gn 14:20a tenth  -   Gen. 28:22; Heb. 7:2, 4-6
Gn 14:22a lifted  -   Exo. 6:8; Num. 14:30; Deut. 32:40; Dan. 12:7; Rev. 10:5-6
Gn 14:22b Possessor  -   Gen. 14:19
Gn 14:231 not
Here Abraham overcame the temptation of earthly substance, displaying his purity in this matter. Cf. 2 Kings 5:15-27; 3 John 7 and note 2.
Genesis Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 15:11 After
Prior to this chapter Abraham had experienced God as the One who protected him and blessed him in material things (12:16) to maintain his existence outwardly. Beginning with this chapter God came in to show Abraham that he needed God’s grace inwardly for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, which is to have a people to express God with His image, represent Him with His dominion, and possess the earth for His kingdom (1:26-28).
Gn 15:12a shield  -   Deut. 33:29; Psa. 3:3; 18:2; 84:11; 119:114; Prov. 30:5
After defeating the four kings (14:13-17), Abraham might have feared their revenge. Thus, God came in to tell Abraham that He would be a shield to protect him. He would also be Abraham’s reward for his rescue of Lot.
Gn 15:2a childless  -   Gen. 11:30; Acts 7:5
Gn 15:31a seed  -   cf. Gen. 13:16
For the fulfillment of God’s purpose two things are required: the seed (vv. 1-6) and the land (vv. 7-21). The seed is first the individual Christ (Gal. 3:16 and note) and then the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), composed of Christ as the Head and all His believers (Gal. 3:29 and note 1, par. 1) as the Body. The land is Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, in whom the believers live (Deut. 8:7-10 and note 71); it is also the church as the enlargement, the expansion, of Christ. In order to fulfill God’s purpose, we need to receive God’s grace so that Christ can be wrought into us as the seed and lived out of us as the land to be our church life, that we may enjoy God’s rest, defeat God’s enemies, and establish God’s kingdom with His habitation for His expression and representation.
Gn 15:32 servant
Lit., a son of my house.
Gn 15:41 body
Lit., inward parts. The seed needed for the fulfillment of God’s purpose could not be anything Abraham already possessed (Eliezer — v. 2) or could produce out of himself (Ishmael — 16:15). Only that which God worked into Abraham could bring forth from Abraham the required seed. Likewise, only what God works into us through His grace can bring forth Christ as the seed to fulfill God’s purpose.
Gn 15:51a stars  -   Gen. 22:17; 26:4; Exo. 32:13; Deut. 1:10; 10:22; 1 Chron. 27:23; Jer. 33:22; Heb. 11:12
See note 171 in ch. 22.
Gn 15:5b So  -   Rom. 4:18
Gn 15:61a believed  -   Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23
See note 31 in Rom. 4. Here Abraham did not believe God to obtain outward blessings for his own existence; he believed that God was able to work something into him to bring forth a seed out of his own being for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. This kind of faith is precious to God and is accounted by Him as righteousness. Abraham was justified by such a faith (Rom. 4:1-5 and note 11).
Gn 15:7a Ur  -   Gen. 11:31
Gn 15:81 how
Abraham believed God for His promise concerning the seed (v. 6), but he lacked faith to believe God for the promise concerning the land. In order to strengthen Abraham’s faith, God was compelled to confirm His promise to Abraham concerning the land by making a covenant with him (vv. 9-21). The extraordinary way in which God enacted this covenant implies the way in which Abraham could fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
The covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of promise that would be fulfilled through God’s power in His grace, not through Abraham’s effort in his flesh. The new testament is a continuation of this covenant (Gal. 3:17 and note 1; Gal. 4:22-26 and note 242).
Gn 15:91 heifer
God made His covenant with Abraham through the crucified and resurrected Christ. The three kinds of slain cattle here signify Christ in His humanity being crucified for us, and the two living birds signify Christ in His divinity being the living, resurrected One (John 11:25; Rev. 1:18). Christ was killed in His humanity, but He lives in His divinity (John 14:19; 1 Pet. 3:18 and note 3).
The heifer was for a peace offering (Lev. 3:1), the female goat was for a sin offering (Lev. 4:28; 5:6), and the ram was for a burnt offering (Lev. 1:10). That they were all three years old signifies that Christ was offered to God and was crucified in resurrection (John 2:19; 11:25; Heb. 9:14).
In typology, the turtledove signifies a suffering life, and the young pigeon signifies a believing life, a life of faith. These are two characteristics of the Lord’s life on the earth. Since two is the number of testimony (Matt. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1), the two living birds bear testimony of Christ as the resurrected One living in us and for us (John 14:19-20; Gal. 2:20).
Five is the number of responsibility (see note 21 in Matt. 25). Hence, the fact that there were three cattle and two birds, making a total of five items, signifies that Christ as the crucified and living One is now bearing all the responsibility for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Gn 15:101 brought
God’s asking Abraham to offer the cattle and the birds to Him implies that Abraham had to identify himself with and be one with all the things that he offered (see notes 212 in ch. 3 and 41 in Lev. 1). This indicates that in order to fulfill God’s eternal purpose, we must be crucified in Christ’s crucifixion and resurrected in Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:5, 8; Gal. 2:20). Only in this way can we practice the church life in Christ as the promised land.
Gn 15:10a cut  -   Jer. 34:18-19
Gn 15:10b birds  -   cf. Lev. 1:17
Gn 15:111a birds  -   cf. Matt. 13:4, 19
The birds of prey coming to devour the sacrifices signify Satan and his angels coming to make Christ of none effect for the church life (Gal. 5:2, 4).
Gn 15:13a sojourners  -   Exo. 22:21; 23:9; Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:19
Gn 15:131b afflict  -   Exo. 1:11-12; 3:7; Neh. 9:9
God’s foretelling the sojourning, slavery, and affliction of Abraham’s seed in Egypt was a confirmation that Abraham would surely have a son, an heir (v. 4), and that God in His faithfulness would keep His promise, given in 12:7 and 13:14-17, to give to his seed the land from the Nile to the Euphrates (v. 18 and note).
Gn 15:132c four  -   Acts 7:6; cf. Exo. 12:40-41; Gal. 3:17
See note 173 in Gal. 3.
Gn 15:14a judge  -   Exo. 6:6; Acts 7:7
Gn 15:14b possessions  -   Exo. 3:21-22; 12:35-36
Gn 15:15a old  -   Gen. 25:8
Gn 15:16a Amorites  -   1 Kings 21:26; Amos 2:9
Gn 15:171 furnace
A furnace is for refining, and a torch is for enlightening. To enact His covenant with Abraham, God passed through the sacrifices as a smoking furnace and a flaming torch in the dark night. This signifies that when God’s called ones are suffering affliction, He will come in to refine and enlighten them that they may fulfill His purpose by the seed and by the land.
Gn 15:18a covenant  -   Gen. 17:2, 4-14; 22:16-18; Lev. 26:42; 2 Kings 13:23; 1 Chron. 16:15-18; Psa. 105:8-11; Acts 7:8; Luke 1:72
Gn 15:18b seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 15:181 river
In His covenant with Abraham God set the boundaries of the good land, the land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8), the territory of Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates (cf. Exo. 23:31; Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:3-4). This is the land that Christ, the unique seed of Abraham (12:7a; Gal. 3:16), will inherit for the establishing of His millennial kingdom. See notes 241 in Deut. 11 and 341 in Matt. 25.
Gn 15:18c river  -   Exo. 23:31; Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4; Isa. 27:12
Gn 15:201 Rephaim
A race of giants (Deut. 3:11).
Genesis Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 16:11 Sarai
Sarah and Hagar are an allegory symbolizing two covenants (Gal. 4:22-28 and notes 242 and 245).
Gn 16:1a bore  -   cf. Gen. 15:2-3
Gn 16:1b Hagar  -   Gal. 4:24
See note 11.
Gn 16:2a Jehovah  -   Gen. 20:18; 30:2-3; cf. Gen. 17:16; 18:10; 25:21; 30:22; Psa. 127:3
Gn 16:21 have
Lit., be built up.
Gn 16:3a ten  -   Gen. 12:4-5
Gn 16:71a Angel  -   Gen. 21:17; Exo. 3:2
The Angel of Jehovah is Jehovah Himself (v. 13; 22:11-12, 15-16; 31:11, 13). See notes 21 in Exo. 3, 212 and 221 in Exo. 23, and 82 in Zech. 2.
Gn 16:10a multiply  -   Gen. 17:20; 21:13; cf. Gen. 25:12-18
Gn 16:111 Ishmael
Meaning God hears.
Gn 16:131 You
Or, You are El-roi.
Gn 16:132 God
Lit., God of seeing.
Gn 16:133 Do
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Gn 16:141 Beer-lahai-roi
Meaning well of the living One who sees me, or well of the One who reveals Himself.
Gn 16:15a Hagar  -   Gal. 4:22-24
Gn 16:151 Ishmael
Abraham’s producing of Ishmael through Hagar symbolizes man’s attempt to fulfill God’s purpose by the effort of the flesh in coordination with the law (see notes 162 in Gal. 2 and 231 in Gal. 4).
Genesis Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 17:11 ninety-nine
Abraham’s producing of Ishmael by the exercise of his natural strength was a serious offense against God and His economy. Because of this, after the birth of Ishmael, Abraham’s fellowship with God was broken; God waited for thirteen years (cf. 16:16), until Abraham’s natural strength was terminated, before He came to contact Abraham again (Rom. 4:19 and note). See note 41 in ch. 15.
Gn 17:12a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3; 49:25; Exo. 6:3; Job 33:4; Ezek. 10:5
Heb. El Shaddai. El means the Mighty One, and Shaddai comes from the Hebrew word meaning breast or udder. This divine title reveals God as the Mighty One with an udder, that is, the all-sufficient Mighty One. He is the source of grace to supply His called ones with the riches of His divine being that they may bring forth Christ as the seed for the fulfillment of His purpose.
Gn 17:13 Walk
Here, to walk before God is to walk in His presence, constantly enjoying Him and His all-sufficient supply. To be perfect is to have God added to us as the element and factor of perfection. Practically, it means that we do not rely on the strength of the flesh but trust in God as the all-sufficient Mighty One for our life and our work.
Gn 17:2a covenant  -   Gen. 15:18
Gn 17:2b multiply  -   Gen. 17:6; 22:17
Gn 17:4a covenant  -   Gen. 15:18
Gn 17:4b father  -   Rom. 4:11-12, 17, 18
Gn 17:41 nations
The mentioning of nations and kings in vv. 4-6 and in 35:11 implies that the result of our being multiplied must be the proper church life as the kingdom of God on earth (Rom. 14:17 and note 1). See note 22 in ch. 12.
Gn 17:51 Abram
Meaning exalted father.
Gn 17:52a Abraham  -   Neh. 9:7
Meaning father of a multitude. In order to fulfill His eternal purpose, God needs not one exalted person but the father of a great multitude (cf. 1:28; 9:1). Hence, the changing of Abraham’s name, signifying the changing of his person, was for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. In spiritual experience, the real changing of a name is the change from “I” to Christ (Gal. 2:20) and from “I” to the grace of God (1 Cor. 15:10). Only Christ as God’s grace, not “I,” can bring forth the multitude needed to fulfill God’s purpose (see note 41 in ch. 15). Cf. 32:27-28; John 1:42.
Gn 17:6a nations  -   Gen. 17:16
Gn 17:6b kings  -   Matt. 1:1
Gn 17:7a covenant  -   Gal. 3:17
Gn 17:7b God  -   Exo. 6:7; Lev. 26:12; Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10
Gn 17:8a seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 17:8b sojournings  -   Gen. 23:4; 28:4; 35:27; 37:1; 47:9; 1 Chron. 29:15; Psa. 39:12; 105:11-12; Heb. 11:9
Gn 17:8c their  -   Heb. 11:16
Gn 17:101a circumcised  -   Gen. 21:4; Acts 7:8; Rom. 4:11
The spiritual meaning of circumcision is to put off the flesh, to put off the self and the old man, through the crucifixion of Christ (Col. 2:11, 13a; Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4a; Acts 7:51; Gal. 5:24; Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9). In ch. 16 Abraham exercised his flesh to produce Ishmael. Here God asked him to cut off his flesh, to terminate his natural strength, so that God could come in and bring forth Isaac by His grace for the fulfillment of His purpose. The circumcision in the Old Testament is the equivalent of baptism in the New Testament (Col. 2:11-12 and notes). The real circumcision is not outward in the flesh but inward “of the heart, in spirit, not in letter” (Rom. 2:28-29). See note 21 in Josh. 5.
Gn 17:111a sign  -   cf. Gen. 9:12
Although God’s promise concerning the inheriting of the good land by His elect (12:1-2, 7; 13:15-17) had been made a covenant (15:4-5, 18-21), there was still the need to confirm the covenant of God’s promise with the covenant of circumcision. Circumcision was the procedure that God’s elect had to pass through in order to inherit God’s promise. It signifies that God’s chosen ones in the New Testament must be terminated through the cross so that they may inherit all the riches in Christ promised by God (cf. Gal. 2:20). See Rom. 4:11 and note 1.
Gn 17:121 eight
In figure the eighth day, the first day of a new week, refers to Christ’s resurrection (Matt. 28:1; John 20:1). Circumcision must be in resurrection, and it always ushers us into resurrection (Col. 2:12; cf. Rom. 6:3-5), making us a new person, a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Circumcision corresponds to the changing of human names (v. 5). Both signify the terminating of our old being and our being brought into resurrection so that we may be no longer a natural person but a resurrected person.
Gn 17:12a foreigner  -   Exo. 12:48-49
Gn 17:13a covenant  -   Gen. 17:11
Gn 17:13b everlasting  -   cf. Gen. 9:16
Gn 17:141 cut
If God’s called ones do not live a crucified life by terminating their self and their natural being, in their subjective experience they will be cut off from Christ, from the church life, and from the supply of God’s grace and will have nothing to do with God’s covenant for the fulfillment of God’s purpose (John 15:6; Gal. 5:4).
Gn 17:151 Sarai
Meaning my princess.
Gn 17:152 Sarah
Meaning princess. The word my before princess (see note 151) indicates narrowness and particularity. Here, the changing of Sarah’s name signifies generality and suggests the enlarging and broadening of her person to make her a mother of nations (v. 16). As seen with both Abraham (v. 5) and Sarah, such a change requires the termination of our old and natural man so that we may be transformed into a new person who can produce seed and care for others for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Gn 17:16a son  -   Gen. 17:19; 18:10-14; 21:2; Rom. 9:9; Gal. 4:23
Gn 17:161 by
I.e., by God’s grace in God’s covenant of promise, symbolized here by Sarah, the free woman, Abraham’s wife (Gal. 4:22-26). The birth of Isaac by Sarah signifies the begetting of the believers in Christ by God’s grace in the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3) to be the legal seed of Abraham (Gal. 4:28, 31; 3:29). God’s covenant of circumcision in this chapter corresponds to the new covenant, in which Christ’s death cuts off our old man in the flesh and Christ’s resurrection germinates our new man, signified by Isaac, to make us the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
Gn 17:16b nations  -   Gen. 17:6; 35:11
Gn 17:17a laughed  -   Gen. 18:12; 21:6
Gn 17:17b hundred  -   Rom. 4:19
Gn 17:19a son  -   Gen. 17:16
Gn 17:191b Isaac  -   Gen. 21:3; Gal. 4:28
Meaning he laughs.
Gn 17:192 establish
Ishmael, the seed produced by the flesh, was rejected by God (21:10). Only Isaac, the seed brought forth by God’s grace, was established for the fulfillment of God’s purpose (v. 21; 21:12; Rom. 9:7-9).
Gn 17:20a multiply  -   Gen. 16:10
Gn 17:20b Twelve  -   cf. Gen. 25:12-16
Gn 17:20c great  -   Gen. 21:18
Gn 17:21a establish  -   Gen. 26:3-5
Gn 17:211b appointed  -   Gen. 18:10, 14; 21:2; Rom. 9:9
See note 141 in ch. 18.
Gn 17:23a circumcised  -   Rom. 4:11
Genesis Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 18:1a tent  -   Heb. 11:9; Gen. 12:8
Gn 18:21 men
Or, mortal men. One of these three men was Jehovah God (vv. 13-14, 22) as Christ; the other two were angels (v. 22; 19:1). After he was circumcised and his natural strength was terminated, Abraham lived in intimate fellowship with God and became God’s friend (James 2:23; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8). Even before the incarnation (John 1:14) Jehovah as Christ appeared to Abraham in human form, with a human body, and communed with him on a human level.
Gn 18:2a meet  -   Gen. 19:1; cf. Heb. 13:2
Gn 18:4a wash  -   Gen. 19:2; 24:32; 43:24; cf. Luke 7:44; John 13:14; 1 Tim. 5:10
Gn 18:5a fetch  -   Judg. 6:18; 13:15; 19:5; Psa. 104:15
Gn 18:6a three  -   Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:21
Gn 18:61 measures
Heb. seahs. Three seahs are equivalent to one ephah, the normal portion for a meal (cf. 1 Sam. 1:24; Judg. 6:19). The three measures of fine flour signify the resurrected Christ in His humanity. Cf. Matt. 13:33.
Gn 18:62 cakes
The cakes, the calf (v. 7; cf. Luke 15:23), and the curds and milk (v. 8; cf. 1 Pet. 2:2) all signify the riches of the all-inclusive Christ as food for the satisfaction of both God and man. While Abraham was enjoying fellowship with God, in type he offered Christ to God as God’s food.
Gn 18:7a calf  -   Judg. 13:15; Luke 15:23
Gn 18:10a time  -   Gen. 18:14; 2 Kings 4:16
Gn 18:10b son  -   Gen. 17:16
Gn 18:11a old  -   Rom. 4:19; Heb. 11:11-12
Gn 18:12a laughed  -   Gen. 17:17
Gn 18:12b lord  -   1 Pet. 3:6
Gn 18:14a Is  -   Job 42:2; Jer. 32:17; Zech. 8:6; Matt. 19:26; cf. Rom. 4:21
Gn 18:141b appointed  -   Gen. 17:21; 21:2
The time of life (v. 10), the appointed time for the birth of Isaac (17:21), was the time of God’s visitation (21:1). The birth of Isaac was the coming of Jehovah, which was the coming of grace (cf. John 1:17). Isaac was born by the strength of God’s grace, not by the strength of man’s natural life. This took place after Abraham had been circumcised and he and his wife, Sarah, had become completely deadened (v. 11; Rom. 4:18-19), signifying that the time of life, the time when Christ will be life to us, will come after our natural strength has been terminated.
Gn 18:14c time  -   Gen. 18:10
Gn 18:171 Shall
God revealed to Abraham His intention to destroy Sodom, because He was seeking an intercessor. While God intended to destroy Sodom, His heart was concerned for Lot, who was dwelling in Sodom (13:12; 14:12; 19:1). He wanted to save Lot in order to protect Christ’s genealogy through Ruth, a Moabitess and a descendant of Lot (19:37; Ruth 1:4; Matt. 1:5), but He could not do so without an intercessor. Thus, in His intimate fellowship with Abraham, in a mysterious way, without mentioning Lot’s name, God revealed His heart’s desire. The proper intercession is not initiated by man but by God’s revelation. Thus, it expresses God’s desire and paves the way for the accomplishing of His will.
Gn 18:17a hide  -   cf. Amos 3:7; Psa. 25:14; 103:7
Gn 18:18a all  -   Gen. 12:3
Gn 18:20a Sodom  -   Matt. 10:15; Jude 7; Rev. 11:8
Gn 18:221 remained
Abraham’s purpose in standing before Jehovah was to intercede for Lot. The glorious intercession that Abraham made before God was not a prayer from man on earth to God in heaven; it was a human conversation between two friends, an intimate talk according to the unveiling of God’s heart’s desire.
Gn 18:22a standing  -   Jer. 18:20
Gn 18:231 righteous
Here Abraham referred to Lot by implication (2 Pet. 2:7-9). Apparently, Abraham was interceding for Sodom; actually, he was interceding for Lot (19:27-29).
Gn 18:251 Far
In Abraham’s intercession for Lot, he did not beg God according to His love and grace; he challenged God according to His righteous way. God’s righteousness binds Him much more than His love and grace do (see note 171 in Rom. 1).
Gn 18:25a Judge  -   Psa. 58:11; 94:2; 98:9; Rom. 3:6; Heb. 12:23
Gn 18:331 speaking
Abraham’s intercession did not terminate with Abraham’s speaking but with God’s, showing that genuine intercession is God’s speaking in our speaking.
Genesis Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 19:1a And  -   vv. 1-14: 2 Pet. 2:7-8
Gn 19:1b Lot  -   Gen. 11:27
Gn 19:11 Lot
Lot was a righteous and godly man (2 Pet. 2:6-9). Nevertheless, although he had come out of Ur of Chaldea and was dwelling as one of God’s people with Abraham in the land of Canaan (12:5), he became defeated because he separated himself from Abraham, with whom was God’s witness and testimony, and drifted into the wicked city of Sodom (13:11-13; 14:12), which was condemned by God and was to be destroyed under His judgment.
Ur of Chaldea was a place of idols, Egypt was a place of worldly riches and pleasures, and Sodom was a city of sin. These three places form a triangular boundary around the land of Canaan. God’s called ones live within this triangle and must be careful lest they fall back to the city of idols, go down to the place of worldly pleasures, or drift into the city of sin.
Gn 19:2a wash  -   Gen. 18:4
Gn 19:4a Sodom  -   Gen. 13:13; 18:20; Isa. 3:9
Gn 19:51 know
The wicked Sodomites were homosexuals (Rom. 1:24-27).
Gn 19:81 daughters
Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his two virgin daughters to satisfy the Sodomites’ lust shows that Lot, having dwelt a considerable time in the sinful city of Sodom, had lost his sense of morality and shame (vv. 33, 35).
Gn 19:9a sojourn  -   cf. Gen. 13:10-12
Gn 19:111 blindness
This shows that sinfulness blinds people. See notes 271 in Matt. 9, 401 in John 12, and 12 in John 9.
Gn 19:14a go  -   Num. 16:21, 26, 45; cf. Jer. 51:6
Gn 19:15a Lot  -   vv. 15-23: Luke 17:29; 2 Pet. 2:7-9
Gn 19:161 lingered
Lot had no willingness to escape from the evil and condemned city, but the Lord was merciful, pulling him out of Sodom like wood plucked out of a fire (cf. Zech. 3:2; Jude 23).
Gn 19:17a behind  -   Gen. 19:26; cf. Luke 17:31
Gn 19:201 I
Lit., my soul.
Gn 19:221 Zoar
Meaning little.
Gn 19:24a Sodom  -   Jer. 50:40; Lam. 4:6; Amos 4:11; Zeph. 2:9; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7; Matt. 10:15; Rom. 9:29
Gn 19:24b brimstone  -   Deut. 29:23; Luke 17:29
Gn 19:26a wife  -   Luke 17:32
Gn 19:261b pillar  -   cf. Matt. 5:13
See note 321 in Luke 17.
Gn 19:27a stood  -   Gen. 18:22
Gn 19:28a smoke  -   Rev. 9:2
Gn 19:29a remembered  -   Gen. 8:1
Gn 19:321 seed
Having been drugged with the wicked current of the evil world, Lot’s daughters had lost their sense of morality. Desiring to have seed regardless of the means, they bore sons out of their father by incest, thus breaking the governing principle ordained by God. In principle, to use any kind of sinful or worldly methods to secure increase for our success in the Christian work is to break God’s governing principle and thus to commit spiritual incest (cf. Matt. 7:21-23). The seed produced by incest became a great damage to the people of God through fornication (Num. 25:1-5; Rev. 2:14 and notes 2 and 3).
Gn 19:371a Moab  -   Deut. 2:9
Meaning from father.
Gn 19:372b Moabites  -   Ruth 1:6
God rejected the Moabites and the Ammonites (v. 38) with a holy and divine hatred, commanding His people not to “seek peace with them nor prosperity with them all your days forever” and forbidding an Ammonite or a Moabite to enter the congregation of Jehovah, “even to the tenth generation…forever” (Deut. 23:3-6; cf. Matt. 1:5 and note 3).
Ishmael, brought forth by fleshly effort, was rejected by God (21:10-12). Moab and Ben-ammi, brought forth by incest, were a shame in history. Only Isaac, brought forth by God’s grace, was used to fulfill God’s purpose.
Gn 19:381 Ben-ammi
Meaning son of my people.
Gn 19:38a Ammon  -   Deut. 2:19
Genesis Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 20:11 there
I.e., Hebron (18:1; cf. 13:18).
Gn 20:21 She
When Abraham journeyed from Hebron (v. 1), he left God’s presence and the proper standing on which he could have fellowship with God (13:18 and notes). Although he had been circumcised both physically and spiritually (17:10, 23-24 and note 101), when he left the proper standing of fellowship with God, Abraham was again in the flesh and repeated his previous failure (12:13). This shows that no matter how high our spiritual attainment may be, as long as we are still in the old creation, if we do not remain in fellowship with God, we are capable of being in the flesh and of behaving like the worldly people. We should never have any confidence in our flesh; the flesh is absolutely untrustworthy (Rom. 7:18; Phil. 3:3). We must put our trust in the Lord’s presence.
Gn 20:2a sister  -   Gen. 12:13; 26:7
Gn 20:3a dream  -   Gen. 28:12; 31:24; Job 33:15-16; Matt. 1:20; 2:12
Gn 20:7a pray  -   Gen. 20:17; 1 Sam. 7:5; Job 42:8
Gn 20:101 What
Lit., What did you see…
Gn 20:111 thought
Lit., said.
Gn 20:11a slay  -   Gen. 12:12; 26:7
Gn 20:131 when
Abraham’s lying to Abimelech was planned by him from the time he began to follow the way of God. Thus, his failure in this chapter exposed his hidden weakness in the matter of following the Lord and trusting in Him absolutely.
Gn 20:13a God  -   Gen. 12:1
Gn 20:141 returned
In figure, Abraham signifies faith and Sarah signifies grace (Gal. 3:7; 4:23). When Abraham failed, Sarah suffered and Abraham lost the testimony of grace. This shows that whenever faith fails on our side, grace suffers on God’s side, and whenever the enjoyment of grace is lost, the testimony of grace also is lost.
Although Abraham’s faith failed, God still preserved him by His sovereign care. God wisely and sovereignly restored Sarah, taking care of His grace and His testimony.
Gn 20:161 vindication
Lit., covering.
Gn 20:171a prayed  -   Gen. 20:7; cf. James 5:16
Abraham had to intercede for Abimelech’s need in spite of his own failure and the fact that Sarah was still barren. This shows that our interceding for others does not depend on our condition; it depends on who we are. God did not count Abraham’s failure but considered him His prophet (v. 7). Regardless of our condition, in God’s eyes we, God’s called ones, are His prophets (1 Cor. 14:31), His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), the members of the Body of Christ (Eph. 5:30).
Gn 20:18a wife  -   Gen. 12:17
Genesis Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 21:11 And
For vv. 1-13 in this chapter, see notes in Gal. 4:22-31.
Gn 21:12a visited  -   1 Sam. 2:21
See note 141 in ch. 18.
Gn 21:1b promised  -   Gal. 4:23, 28
Gn 21:2a Sarah  -   Heb. 11:11
Gn 21:21 bore
God’s goal in His economy is to bring forth Christ as the seed for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (3:15; 12:7; 22:18; Gal. 3:16; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a). The birth of Isaac signifies the bringing forth of Christ as the promised seed through God’s work of grace at God’s appointed time. The prerequisite to this is the termination of our natural life and strength through spiritual circumcision (17:10-16).
Gn 21:2b son  -   Gen. 17:6
Gn 21:2c appointed  -   Gen. 17:21
Gn 21:31a Isaac  -   Gen. 17:19; Matt. 1:2
Meaning he laughs.
Gn 21:41a circumcised  -   Gen. 17:10, 12; Acts 7:8
See note 101 in ch. 17.
Gn 21:42 eight
See note 121 in ch. 17.
Gn 21:5a hundred  -   Gen. 17:17; Rom. 4:19
Gn 21:6a laugh  -   Gen. 17:17; 18:12-13
Gn 21:81 grew
The growth of Isaac signifies the growth of Christ in the New Testament believers after He is born in them. The growth of Christ in us is needed that Christ may be formed in us (Gal. 4:19 and note 4).
Gn 21:9a son  -   Gal. 4:24
Gn 21:91b mocking  -   Gal. 4:29
See notes 292 in Gal. 4 and 173 in Gal. 3.
Gn 21:101a Cast  -   Gal. 4:30
The casting out of Hagar and Ishmael signifies the casting out of the law and the result of the effort of the flesh, which have no place in God’s economy (see notes 245 and 301 in Gal. 4).
Gn 21:10b not  -   cf. John 8:35
Gn 21:12a Isaac  -   Rom. 9:7; Heb. 11:18; cf. Matt. 1:2; Gal. 3:29; 4:28
Gn 21:12b seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 21:13a nation  -   Gen. 17:20; 21:18
Gn 21:17a Angel  -   Gen. 16:7-11; 22:11; Exo. 14:19
Gn 21:191 well
A well signifies the source of one’s living. Ishmael’s well was in the wilderness close to Egypt (vv. 14, 20-21). Ishmael’s source of living made him an archer (v. 20; cf. 10:8-9), a hunter, a killer of life, and eventually joined him to Egypt, signifying the world (v. 21).
Gn 21:23a swear  -   Gen. 26:28
Gn 21:251a well  -   Gen. 26:15, 18
The well for Isaac is a type of Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17), who is the source of the living water as the divine supply for God’s people (John 4:14; 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13; Rev. 22:17). Isaac’s source of living made him a burnt offering for God’s satisfaction and led him up to Mount Moriah (22:2), which eventually became Mount Zion, where God’s temple was built in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 3:1). Ultimately, the proper source of living makes us Isaacs and leads us to the New Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26-28).
Gn 21:281 seven
Abraham redeemed the well at the cost of seven ewe lambs. In typology the seven ewe lambs signify the full redemption of Christ, indicating that the divine living water has been redeemed, bought back, by Christ’s full redemption (John 19:34).
Gn 21:311a Beer-sheba  -   Gen. 26:33
Meaning well of an oath.
Gn 21:321 covenant
The covenant here, involving the redeeming of the well at Beer-sheba, is a seed of the new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12), enacted through Christ’s redeeming blood (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20). Isaac drank of redeemed water, the water of the covenant. Likewise, the living water drunk by the New Testament believers is redeemed and covenanted water.
Gn 21:322 Philistines
In typology, the Philistines signify a people who accept God but handle the things of God according to human cleverness, not according to God’s economy (1 Sam. 6:1-9 and note 41).
Gn 21:331 Abraham
Lit., he.
Gn 21:332 tamarisk
A tamarisk, having slender branches and very fine leaves, portrays the flow of the riches of life, the issue of the experience of the tree of life (2:9-10; cf. John 7:37-38). Thus, the tamarisk tree signifies the tree of life experienced and expressed.
Gn 21:33a called  -   Gen. 4:26
Gn 21:333b Eternal  -   Deut. 33:27; Isa. 40:28; Rom. 16:26; 1 Tim. 1:17
Heb. El Olam. El, meaning the Mighty One, is one of the names of God. Olam, meaning eternal or eternity, comes from a Hebrew root meaning to conceal, to hide. The divine title El Olam implies eternal life (cf. John 1:1, 4). Hence, by calling on the name of Jehovah, the Eternal Mighty One, Abraham experienced God as the ever-living, secret, mysterious One, who is the eternal life.
Genesis Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 22:1a tested  -   Heb. 11:17
Gn 22:21 only
Abraham’s offering of his beloved and only son, Isaac, on the altar is a vivid picture of God the Father’s offering of His beloved and only Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. In this picture Isaac typifies Christ in a detailed way. Isaac, as Abraham’s only son (vv. 2, 12, 16), typifies Christ as God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16). Isaac was Abraham’s beloved son (v. 2), and Christ was the Father’s beloved Son, in whom He delighted (Matt. 3:17). Isaac took his father’s will (v. 6), and Christ also chose the will of His Father (Matt. 26:39). Isaac was obedient unto death (vv. 9-10); likewise, Christ was obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8). Isaac carried the wood for the burnt offering and walked to the top of Mount Moriah (v. 6); in the same way, Christ bore His cross and walked to Golgotha (John 19:17). Isaac was offered to God as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah; Christ also was offered to God on the same mountain (see note 11 in Mark 10) to fulfill the type of the burnt offering. Isaac was “killed” on the altar and was returned to Abraham on the third day, that is, in resurrection (vv. 4, 10-13; Heb. 11:19); similarly, Christ was crucified on the cross and was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4). Isaac was multiplied in resurrection (v. 17), and Christ also was multiplied in His resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). Isaac was the seed of Abraham for the blessing of all the nations (v. 18); likewise, Christ is the unique seed of Abraham in whom the blessing of Abraham has come to the nations (Gal. 3:8, 14, 16).
Gn 22:22a Moriah  -   2 Chron. 3:1
Meaning the vision of Jah. Mount Moriah, the place of God’s choice, eventually became Mount Zion, the site for the temple (cf. 2 Chron. 3:1) and the center of the good land. Abraham was the first to worship God with the burnt offering on Mount Zion. Later, Abraham’s descendants, the children of Israel, were commanded by God to go three times a year to this place to worship God and there to offer to Him their burnt offerings (Deut. 16:16; Psa. 132:13). Today, the New Testament believers, Abraham’s spiritual descendants, are on Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22-23). Eventually, we all will join Abraham to worship God on the eternal Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22).
Gn 22:23 offer
Isaac, a type of Christ as the promised seed (Gal. 3:16), was given to Abraham by God. Here God asked Abraham to give back to God what God had given him. This surely was a test to Abraham (v. 1; Heb. 11:17). This shows a basic principle in God’s economy: all that God has given us, even what He has wrought in us and through us, must eventually be offered back to Him, that we may live a life of faith, not holding on to anything, even to the things given by God, but relying only on Him. After Isaac was offered, he was returned to Abraham in resurrection and became a blessing (vv. 12-13, 16, 18; Heb. 11:19). Likewise, after we have offered to God what we have received of Him, He will return it to us in resurrection and it will become a blessing for the fulfillment of His purpose. See Rom. 4:17 and notes.
Gn 22:24 burnt
See note 31 in Lev. 1.
Gn 22:31 rose
Abraham obeyed God immediately because he believed in the resurrecting God (v. 5; Heb. 11:17-19; James 2:21-22; Rom. 4:17 and note 1).
Gn 22:8a provide  -   Gen. 22:13; Heb. 11:19
Gn 22:8b lamb  -   cf. John 1:29, 36; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:12
Gn 22:9a Isaac  -   Heb. 11:17; James 2:21
Gn 22:111a Angel  -   Gen. 16:7; 22:15-16; Exo. 3:2
See note 71 in ch. 16.
Gn 22:131 ram
The ram here, killed in place of Abraham’s son, is a type of Christ as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) provided by God to replace God’s chosen people, those who would inherit God’s promised inheritance, as the burnt offering (v. 2) for God’s satisfaction.
Gn 22:132 thicket
Horns signify fighting power, and the thicket signifies humanity. Christ as the Lamb of God was willing to have His “horns” caught by His human nature that He might be offered to God as our Substitute (1 Pet. 3:18). Cf. Matt. 26:50-54.
Gn 22:141 Jehovah-jireh
Meaning Jehovah will provide, or Jehovah will see [to it].
Gn 22:14a mount  -   2 Chron. 3:1; Isa. 2:3; 30:29; Joel 3:17; Micah 4:2; Zech. 8:3; cf. Num. 10:33
Gn 22:142 it
Or, He will be seen.
Gn 22:14b provided  -   Gen. 22:8
Gn 22:15a Angel  -   Gen. 22:11; 31:11
Gn 22:16a sworn  -   Heb. 6:13; Psa. 105:9; Luke 1:73
Gn 22:17a I  -   Heb. 6:14
Gn 22:171b stars  -   Gen. 15:5
The stars of the heavens signify Abraham’s heavenly descendants, the descendants who are of faith (Gal. 3:7, 29), whereas the sand on the seashore and the dust of the earth (13:16) signify Abraham’s earthly descendants, the descendants in the flesh. The sand on the seashore is the dust beside the sea. This sand is separated from the sea and also washed by the waves of the sea. The sea signifies the Gentile nations (Isa. 57:20; Rev. 17:15). The Gentile nations used by God to chastise Israel throughout the centuries (Joel 1:4 and note) were like the waves from the Mediterranean, coming up again and again with their invading armies to wash Israel as the dust to produce a remnant who are like the sand on the seashore (Zech. 12 — 14; Rom. 9:27-29). The New Jerusalem is composed of these two categories of Abraham’s descendants (Rev. 21:12, 14). Hence, the New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of Abraham’s seed. By being offered to God by Abraham, Isaac was multiplied to become the New Jerusalem. This was God’s blessing to Abraham.
Gn 22:17c sand  -   Gen. 32:12; Jer. 33:22; 2 Sam. 17:11; 1 Kings 4:20; Isa. 10:22; Hosea 1:10; Rom. 9:27; Heb. 11:12; cf. Gen. 13:16
See note 171.
Gn 22:17d gate  -   Gen. 24:60; Psa. 127:5
Gn 22:181 seed
According to Gal. 3:14, the promise given to Abraham was that God Himself would come to be the seed of Abraham, and this seed would be a blessing to all the nations by becoming the all-inclusive Spirit for mankind to receive (1 Cor. 15:45). God’s blessing of Abraham eventually issued in Christ as the unique seed in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed (Acts 3:25-26; Gal. 3:16). All the believers in Christ, as members of the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), are included in this seed as the heirs of God’s promised blessing (Gal. 3:7, 29 and note 291).
In this chapter Christ is revealed in three ways: as the Angel of Jehovah (vv. 11-12, 15-18), as the ram (v. 13), and as the seed of Abraham (v. 18). The Angel of Jehovah, who is Christ, provided the ram, a type of Christ, which eventually issued in the seed, who is also Christ.
Gn 22:18a all  -   Gen. 12:3
Gn 22:18b obeyed  -   Gen. 26:5
Gn 22:231 Rebekah
Meaning ensnarer.
Genesis Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 23:21a Hebron  -   Gen. 13:18
See note 183 in ch. 13.
Gn 23:31 children
I.e., the Hittites.
Gn 23:4a sojourner  -   Gen. 17:8
Gn 23:61 choicest
Abraham buried Sarah in the choicest burial place. He cared much more for the place in which he and his descendants would be buried than for his tent as his earthly dwelling (cf. Matt. 8:20; 27:57-60). He was more concerned for the future than for the present. This is because he considered himself a stranger and a sojourner on the earth, looking for a permanent city and a better country (Heb. 11:9-10, 16).
Gn 23:91a Machpelah  -   Gen. 23:17; 25:9; 49:29-32; 50:13
Meaning double, doubling. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah, three couples, were all buried in the cave of Machpelah (v. 19; 25:9; 49:29-32; 50:13). The names Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the components of the divine title of God, who is the God of resurrection (Exo. 3:15; Matt. 22:32 and note).
Gn 23:92 field
Although Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac were living at Beer-sheba (21:33), Sarah died and was buried in Hebron, the place of fellowship with God. Hebron is between Beer-sheba on the south and Jerusalem on the north. Thus, Hebron was not only a place of fellowship but also a way that led to Jerusalem. In spiritual significance, the cave of Machpelah in Hebron (v. 19), in which Sarah was buried, is the gateway to the New Jerusalem.
The cave of Machpelah was at the end of a field, in which were many trees (v. 17). A field is a place where life grows; thus, it implies resurrection. Abraham did not bury Sarah in a place of death but in a place of life, a place full of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:36 and note). This indicates that Abraham believed in the God of resurrection (Rom. 4:17) and was filled with the expectation that his wife would be resurrected and would be in the city which has the foundations, the New Jerusalem. According to Abraham’s realization, Sarah’s death was not a termination but an entering into the gate of resurrection, the gateway into the expected city and the better country (Heb. 11:10, 16).
Gn 23:17a Machpelah  -   Gen. 23:9
Genesis Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 24:1a blessed  -   Gen. 24:35
Gn 24:21 And
This chapter primarily reveals the practical living of God’s people in oneness with God for the accomplishing of His eternal purpose. The marriage of Isaac was not merely for his human living; it was altogether for the producing of a people, the seed of Abraham, for the fulfillment of God’s purpose (22:17). Thus, in the gaining of a wife for Isaac, everything was done according to God’s economy to bring forth Christ for the producing of the kingdom of God.
This chapter also presents a rich type of the marriage of Christ, typified by Isaac, and the church, typified by Rebekah.
Gn 24:22a servant  -   Gen. 15:2
In this account of the marriage of Isaac, Abraham typifies God the Father, the servant typifies God the Spirit, Isaac typifies God the Son, and Rebekah typifies the chosen people of God, who will marry the Son and become His counterpart. The entire New Testament is a record of the Triune God working together to gain a part of the human race to be the bride, the counterpart, of the Son (John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9-10). In eternity past God the Father had an eternal purpose and made an eternal plan to gain the church as a bride for His Son out of the human race (Eph. 3:8-11). Then, in time, God the Father commissioned God the Spirit to carry out His plan by going to contact the chosen bride and bring her to God the Son to be His counterpart, His wife.
Gn 24:3a God  -   Ezra 5:11; Acts 17:24; Gen. 14:19, 22; cf. Gen. 24:7
Gn 24:31 not
There is no record that God told Abraham not to take a wife for his son from among the Canaanite women (cf. Deut. 7:1-4). Because Abraham lived in oneness with God (v. 40a), he knew God’s will and mind and acted in accordance with God’s inner feeling (cf. 1 Cor. 7:25 and note; 2 Cor. 2:10 and note 3; Phil. 1:8 and note).
Gn 24:3b daughters  -   Gen. 26:34-35; 27:46; Deut. 7:3; cf. 2 Cor. 6:14
Gn 24:41 relatives
In typology, the fact that Isaac’s bride was taken from Abraham’s relatives indicates that the counterpart of Christ must come from Christ’s race, not from the angels or from any other creatures (2:18-23 and notes). Since Christ was incarnated to be a man (Heb. 2:14a), humanity has become His race.
Gn 24:4a wife  -   cf. Gen. 28:1-2
Gn 24:61 Be
Abraham’s word to his servant in vv. 6-8 and 40 indicates that he lived by faith in the sovereign Lord for the carrying out of His economy in the land of God’s promise.
Gn 24:7a God  -   2 Chron. 36:23; cf. Gen. 24:3
Gn 24:7b took  -   Gen. 12:1-7
Gn 24:7c seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 24:101a Aram-naharaim  -   cf. Acts 7:2
Meaning Aram of the two rivers; i.e., Mesopotamia.
Gn 24:12a Abraham  -   Gen. 24:27, 42, 48
Gn 24:121 please
The servant’s prayer here indicates that he followed in Abraham’s footsteps, trusting in the Lord for the carrying out of his responsibility (vv. 21, 42).
Gn 24:13a I  -   vv. 13-14: Gen. 24:43-44
Gn 24:161 virgin
Rebekah was chaste, kind, and diligent. She was also absolute in her decision to take Isaac as her husband (vv. 57-58, 61) and was submissive to Isaac (vv. 64-65). As such, she is an excellent type of the church as the bride, the wife, of Christ.
Gn 24:221a nose-ring  -   cf. Ezek. 16:11-13
These gifts, sent from Isaac and given by the servant of Abraham, the father, signify the riches of Christ given by the Spirit of God to the bride for the accomplishing of God’s purpose. These gifts relate to the function of the believers. Gold signifies the divine nature, and a ring signifies the initial gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38), which is the Spirit Himself as a seal and a pledge, a foretaste of God as our eternal portion (Eph. 1:13-14; cf. Luke 15:22). The function of the nose is to smell. The putting of the nose-ring upon Rebekah’s nose (v. 47) signifies, spiritually, that her “smelling” function had been caught by the divine nature (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14-16; Heb. 6:4-6; 1 Pet. 2:2-3; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hands are for working (see note 83 in 1 Tim. 2). The putting of the bracelets on Rebekah’s hands signifies the receiving of the divine function for the service in the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:4).
Gn 24:222 half
The half shekel signifies the first taste, the foretaste, of the Spirit, which guarantees that the full taste is coming (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13-14). The ten shekels, ten signifying fullness, or completeness (e.g., the Ten Commandments, which express God’s demand in full), indicate that the divine function we have received of the Spirit is complete, not partial (1 Cor. 12:4-11).
Gn 24:26a worshipped  -   Gen. 24:48, 52
Gn 24:27a Abraham  -   Gen. 24:12, 42, 48
Gn 24:29a Laban  -   Gen. 25:20; 28:2; 29:5
Gn 24:31a blessed  -   Gen. 26:29
Gn 24:321 Laban
Lit., he.
Gn 24:32a wash  -   Gen. 18:4
Gn 24:35a blessed  -   Gen. 24:1
Gn 24:36a son  -   Gen. 21:2
Gn 24:36b all  -   Gen. 25:5
Gn 24:37a swear  -   Gen. 24:3-8
Gn 24:40a angel  -   Gen. 24:7
Gn 24:42a Abraham  -   Gen. 24:12, 27
Gn 24:43a I  -   vv. 43-44: Gen. 24:13-14
Gn 24:44a Drink  -   Gen. 24:14, 18-19
Gn 24:47a nose-ring  -   cf. Ezek. 16:11-12
Gn 24:48a worshipped  -   Gen. 24:26
Gn 24:48b brother  -   Gen. 22:23
Gn 24:531 silver
The gold nose-ring and bracelets (v. 22), the silver and gold jewelry, and the clothing given to Rebekah, along with the precious things given to her brother and her mother, symbolize the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). The servant testified to Rebekah concerning Isaac’s riches, which he inherited from his father (vv. 35-36), and gave some of these riches to Rebekah as a foretaste. This caused Rebekah to be attracted to Isaac and made her willing to leave her father’s house to be his wife (v. 58) even though she had never seen him. In the same manner the Spirit comes to Christ’s believers and testifies to them of the riches of Christ, which He has received from the Father (John 16:13-15), causing them to be attracted to Christ and to love Him, to forsake the world, and to leave their natural relations in the flesh to be joined to Christ (Matt. 19:29), even though they have never seen Him (1 Pet. 1:8). Before Rebekah met Isaac in the good land, she had participated in and enjoyed Isaac’s inheritance through the servant’s gifts. Likewise, before we meet Christ, we enjoy the gifts of the Spirit as a foretaste of the full taste of His riches (Heb. 6:4; Rom. 8:23).
Gn 24:571 her
Lit., from her mouth.
Gn 24:59a nurse  -   Gen. 35:8
Gn 24:60a Thousands  -   cf. Gen. 17:16
Gn 24:60b gate  -   Gen. 22:17
Gn 24:601 them
Or, him.
Gn 24:621a Beer-lahai-roi  -   Gen. 16:14; 25:11
Meaning well of the living One who sees me, or well of the One who reveals Himself.
Gn 24:65a veil  -   1 Cor. 11:10
Gn 24:671 brought
Isaac, Abraham’s son, did nothing but receive his bride. This signifies that everything is planned by the Father and accomplished by the Spirit. The Son only receives the bride.
Isaac received Rebekah in the evening (v. 63), signifying that the marriage of Christ will be at the evening, the close, of this age. Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent of Sarah, his mother, and loved Rebekah, signifying that Christ will receive His bride in grace (typified by Sarah) as well as in love. After marrying Rebekah, Isaac was comforted, satisfied; likewise, Christ will be satisfied on the day of His marriage.
Genesis Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 25:11 another
Although Abraham was called by God, was justified and lived by faith in God, and lived in fellowship with God, he did not attain to maturity in his spiritual life. This is shown by the fact that, after Sarah died, Abraham remarried and brought forth six sons by the energy of his flesh. Furthermore, at the end of his days Abraham did not bless anyone, in contrast to Isaac and Jacob (27:27-29; 48:13-20; 49:1-28; cf. Heb. 7:7).
As far as the experience of life is concerned, Abraham cannot stand as a complete person. He needed Isaac and Jacob (with Joseph) to complete him. See note 11, par. 2, in ch. 12.
Gn 25:1a Keturah  -   vv. 1-4: 1 Chron. 1:32-33
Gn 25:2a Midian  -   Gen. 37:28; Exo. 2:15; 3:1; Num. 22:4; Hab. 3:7
Gn 25:51a all  -   Gen. 24:36
God considered Isaac as Abraham’s only son, the unique seed to inherit the promises given by God to Abraham for the fulfillment of His purpose (22:2, 12, 16, 18; 17:19; 26:3-4). As such, he typifies Christ as the only begotten Son of the Father (John 1:14; 3:16), who was given by the Father all that the Father has (John 3:35; 16:15a). It was by grace, not by Isaac’s effort, that Isaac became the heir of his father’s riches.
Gn 25:52 Isaac
In Genesis the records of Abraham (12:1 — 25:18) and Isaac (21:1-8; 22:1-24; 24:1-67) overlap. Abraham’s life reveals that if we would enjoy God’s grace and have the full enjoyment of God’s riches, we must suffer loss and have our natural life circumcised, cut off. Isaac’s life reveals that our suffering to terminate our natural life is for the enjoyment of God’s grace. Throughout his entire life Isaac did nothing but enjoy God’s rich blessing (v. 11; 26:24b), which points to the grace of the New Testament (see note 111). Isaac was born in grace (21:1-3; Gal. 4:23), grew up in grace (21:8), and was made an heir of grace (v. 5). In the New Testament, all the called believers are heirs of grace, destined to enjoy God’s absolute and unconditional grace (Eph. 1:3, 6-8; 2:7).
Gn 25:91a Machpelah  -   Gen. 23:9; 35:29
See notes on 23:9.
Gn 25:10a Abraham  -   Gen. 49:30-31
Gn 25:111 blessed
The blessing in the Old Testament corresponds to the grace in the New Testament (see note 36 in Eph. 1). God’s free gift to us is His blessing. When God’s free gift in Christ is wrought into us to be the life element within us, it becomes grace. See note 22 in Rom. 5.
Gn 25:11a Beer-lahai-roi  -   Gen. 16:14; 24:62
Gn 25:12a Ishmael  -   Gen. 16:15
Gn 25:13a sons  -   vv. 13-16: 1 Chron. 1:29-31
Gn 25:19a Isaac  -   Matt. 1:2
Gn 25:211 entreated
Isaac’s need to have a son corresponded with God’s need to have a seed out of Isaac for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Because of this, God answered Isaac’s entreaty. Eventually, Isaac’s son Jacob not only met Isaac’s need but also fulfilled God’s purpose, for out of Jacob came Christ (Matt. 1:1-2), who brings in the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem.
Gn 25:21a conceived  -   Rom. 9:10
Gn 25:231a Two  -   cf. Gen. 17:16
I.e., Israel (32:28) and Edom (v. 30; 36:1, 43; Jer. 49:7-8; Obad. 8).
Gn 25:23b stronger  -   cf. 2 Sam. 8:14; Obad. 18-21
Gn 25:23c serve  -   Gen. 27:29, 40; Rom. 9:12
Gn 25:232 younger
This was God’s choosing, His selecting, of Jacob before he was born, corresponding with God’s choosing before the foundation of the world (Rom. 9:11a; Eph. 1:4). God’s choosing of Jacob was according to His foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:29), not of Jacob’s works but of God who calls and who shows mercy (Rom. 9:11b, 16). God’s choosing is with His predestinating and is followed by His calling (Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 8:30).
Gn 25:251 Esau
Meaning hairy, rough.
Gn 25:261a holding  -   Hosea 12:3
Even while he was still in his mother’s womb, Jacob was striving to be the firstborn. His desire to be the first corresponded with God’s intention that he be the one who would receive the birthright. However, like his grandfather Abraham, Jacob exercised his natural ability and his natural strength to fulfill God’s intention and satisfy his desire. Although God had chosen him to be the first, God sovereignly caused Jacob to be born the second so that he might learn that his natural man was altogether unworthy and had to be cut off. Since Jacob’s natural man was not qualified, he needed to be transformed.
The record of Jacob’s life occupies more than half of the book of Genesis. This long record shows us that the purpose of God in His selecting, predestinating, and calling is to transform sinners into royal sons of God who bear God’s image to express Him and exercise God’s dominion to represent Him (cf. 1:26). God destined Jacob to live a struggling life all his days. Furthermore, God sovereignly arranged every circumstance, situation, and person in Jacob’s life and caused them all to work together for Jacob’s good, so that He could transform Jacob, a supplanter and a heel holder, into Israel, a prince of God. In particular, God used Jacob’s family, including his father, his mother, his brother, his uncle, and his wives and children, to deal with Jacob for his transformation. God’s dealing with Jacob is a full picture of the Holy Spirit’s discipline and His transforming work in the New Testament believers (Rom. 8:28-29; 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Gn 25:262b Jacob  -   Gen. 27:36; Matt. 1:2; Acts 7:8
Meaning supplanter, heel holder.
Gn 25:27a tents  -   Heb. 11:9
Gn 25:281 he
Lit., game was in his mouth. Isaac’s preferential love for his firstborn son was altogether in the natural life and according to the natural taste and preference, as was Rebekah’s love for Jacob and Jacob’s love for Joseph (37:3-4). Although Isaac lived in a natural way, he nevertheless enjoyed God’s grace. However, his living in the natural life caused him to suffer, as was the case with Rebekah and Jacob.
Gn 25:301a Edom  -   Gen. 36:1
Meaning red.
Gn 25:311 First
Lit., today. So also in v. 33.
Gn 25:33a birthright  -   Heb. 12:16
Gn 25:341 despised
Concerning Esau’s despising of the birthright, see Heb. 12:16-17 and notes.
Genesis Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 26:1a famine  -   Gen. 12:10
Gn 26:3a Sojourn  -   Gen. 20:1
Gn 26:3b with  -   Gen. 28:15
Gn 26:31 bless
Isaac inherited not only all that his father had but also the promise God had given to his father concerning the good land and the unique seed, who is Christ, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gal. 3:14, 16). This promise was actually for the fulfillment of God’s purpose that God might have a kingdom on the earth in which to express Himself through a corporate people. See notes 22 in ch. 12 and 31 in ch. 15.
Gn 26:3c seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 26:3d establish  -   Gen. 15:18; 17:2
Gn 26:3e oath  -   Gen. 22:16-18; Micah 7:20
Gn 26:4a stars  -   Gen. 15:5
Gn 26:4b all  -   Gen. 12:3
Gn 26:5a obeyed  -   Gen. 22:18
Gn 26:71 She
This exposed Isaac’s natural weakness, which was the same as his father Abraham’s (cf. 20:1-2, 11-13).
Gn 26:7a sister  -   Gen. 12:13; 20:2
Gn 26:12a hundredfold  -   cf. Matt. 13:8; Mark 4:8; Luke 8:8
Gn 26:12b blessed  -   Gen. 24:1, 35; 25:11
Gn 26:131 rich
Or, great…greater…great.
Gn 26:141 household
Or, body of servants.
Gn 26:15a dug  -   Gen. 21:30
Gn 26:18a names  -   Gen. 21:31
Gn 26:191 springing
Lit., living. See note 161 in Num. 21.
Gn 26:201 Esek
Meaning contention.
Gn 26:211 Sitnah
Meaning enmity.
Gn 26:221 Rehoboth
Meaning broad places, broad ways.
Gn 26:241 appeared
Although Isaac enjoyed God’s unconditional grace, finding enjoyment and satisfaction (signified by a well) in every place that he went (25:11; 26:15-22), Beer-sheba was the unique place in which he experienced God’s appearing, received His promise, built an altar, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched a tent as a testimony. God’s called ones are destined to enjoy God’s grace regardless of their standing, but this enjoyment does not justify their standing. If we desire to have God’s appearing, inherit His promises, and live a life for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, we must come to the unique place that God has chosen and remain there. This unique place is signified by Beer-sheba, with the well for life supply and the tamarisk tree as the expression of the rich flow of life (21:25, 33). Cf. notes 51 and 171 in Deut. 12.
Gn 26:24a God  -   Gen. 24:12; 28:13; Exo. 3:6
Gn 26:24b with  -   Gen. 28:15; 31:3
Gn 26:25a altar  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 26:25b called  -   Gen. 4:26
Gn 26:25c tent  -   Gen. 12:8; Heb. 11:9
Gn 26:261 adviser
Or, friend.
Gn 26:29a blessed  -   Gen. 24:31
Gn 26:31a swore  -   Gen. 21:31
Gn 26:331 Shibah
Meaning oath.
Gn 26:332a Beer-sheba  -   Gen. 21:31; 22:19
Meaning well of oath.
Gn 26:34a daughter  -   cf. Gen. 24:3; 28:9; 36:2-3
Gn 26:35a bitterness  -   Gen. 27:46
Genesis Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 27:1a dim  -   Gen. 48:10; 1 Sam. 3:2
Gn 27:3a hunt  -   Gen. 25:27-28
Gn 27:41 I
Lit., my soul.
Gn 27:42a bless  -   Gen. 14:19
See note 231 in Num. 6.
Gn 27:8a obey  -   Gen. 27:13
Gn 27:10a bless  -   Gen. 27:4
Gn 27:11a hairy  -   Gen. 25:25
Gn 27:121 deceiver
Or, mocker.
Gn 27:12a curse  -   cf. Deut. 27:18
Gn 27:13a on  -   cf. 1 Sam. 25:24; 2 Sam. 14:9
Gn 27:15a clothes  -   Gen. 27:27
Gn 27:191 you
Lit., your soul.
Gn 27:251 I
Lit., my soul.
Gn 27:25a bless  -   Gen. 27:4
Gn 27:271 Isaac
Lit., he.
Gn 27:272a blessed  -   Heb. 11:20
In v. 4 Isaac wanted to bless Esau, but he mixed God’s blessing with his natural taste. Here, Isaac blessed Jacob, but he blessed blindly, both physically (v. 1) and spiritually, because he had been blinded by his natural taste. This indicates that Isaac did not have much maturity in life. However, Isaac did bless his sons by faith, and God honored his blessing and it became a prophecy (Heb. 11:20).
Esau’s despising of the birthright (25:34), Rebekah’s ingeniousness in her preferential love, and Isaac’s blindness in blessing worked together for Jacob’s good, that God might sovereignly fulfill the purpose of His selection (cf. Rom. 8:28-30).
Gn 27:28a dew  -   Gen. 27:39; Deut. 33:13; Zech. 8:12
Gn 27:28b grain  -   Gen. 27:37; Deut. 7:13; 33:28; Joel 2:19
Gn 27:29a sons  -   cf. Gen. 49:8
Gn 27:29b blessed  -   Gen. 12:3; Num. 24:9
Gn 27:311 you
Lit., your soul.
Gn 27:34a bitter  -   Heb. 12:17
Gn 27:361 Esau
Lit., he.
Gn 27:36a Jacob  -   Gen. 25:26
Gn 27:36b birthright  -   Gen. 25:33
Gn 27:37a lord  -   Gen. 27:29; cf. 2 Sam. 8:14
Gn 27:37b grain  -   Gen. 27:28
Gn 27:39a said  -   Heb. 11:20
Gn 27:391 of
Or, away from the fatness…away from the dew.
Gn 27:39b fatness  -   Gen. 36:6-7
Gn 27:39c dew  -   Gen. 27:28
Gn 27:40a serve  -   Gen. 25:23; cf. 2 Sam. 8:14; Obad. 18-21
Gn 27:401 become
Or, have roved about. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Gn 27:40b break  -   2 Kings 8:20-22
Gn 27:41a brother  -   cf. Amos 1:11; Obad. 10
Gn 27:46a weary  -   Gen. 26:34-35
Gn 27:461 daughters
I.e., the Hittite women.
Gn 27:46b daughters  -   Gen. 24:3; 28:1
Genesis Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 28:1a blessed  -   Gen. 28:6
Gn 28:1b daughters  -   Gen. 24:3; 27:46
Gn 28:31a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Heb. El Shaddai. See note 12 in ch. 17.
Gn 28:3b fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 28:4a blessing  -   Gen. 12:2-3; Gal. 3:14
Gn 28:4b sojournings  -   Gen. 17:8
Gn 28:8a daughters  -   Gen. 24:3; 26:34-35
Gn 28:10a Haran  -   Gen. 11:32; Acts 7:2; cf. Hosea 12:12
Gn 28:111 put
Or, placed it as his pillow. So also in v. 18.
Gn 28:121a dreamed  -   cf. Num. 12:6; Job 33:15-16
Jacob’s dream is a most crucial point in this book, and vv. 10-22 unveil the most crucial matter in the revelation of God. God desires to have a house on earth, and His intention is to transform His called ones into stones, material for His building. In the account of Jacob’s dream, the stone (vv. 11, 18, 22), the pillar (v. 18), the house of God (vv. 17, 19, 22), and the oil (v. 18) are outstanding items. The stone symbolizes Christ as the foundation stone, the top stone, and the cornerstone for God’s building (Isa. 28:16; Zech. 4:7; Acts 4:10-12). It also symbolizes the transformed man, who has been constituted with Christ as the transforming element to be the material for the building of God’s house (2:12; Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Cor. 3:12; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:11, 18-20), which is the church today (1 Tim. 3:15) and which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal dwelling place of God and His redeemed elect (Rev. 21:3, 22). In v. 11 a stone was used by Jacob for a pillow, signifying that the very divine element of Christ constituted into our being through our subjective experience of Him becomes a pillow for our rest (cf. Matt. 11:28). After awaking from his dream, Jacob set up the pillow-stone as a pillar, signifying that the Christ who has been wrought into us and on whom we rest becomes the material and the support for God’s building, God’s house (cf. 1 Kings 7:21; Gal. 2:9; Rev. 3:12). Eventually, Jacob poured oil, a symbol of the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God reaching man (Exo. 30:23-30; Luke 4:18), on the pillar, symbolizing that the transformed man is one with the Triune God and expresses Him. That stone became Bethel, the house of God (vv. 19, 22). God’s house is the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed (John 14:2, 23) — man as God’s dwelling place (Isa. 66:1-2; 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:22; Heb. 3:6; Rev. 21:3) and God as man’s dwelling place (Psa. 90:1; John 15:5; Rev. 21:22). Hence, the house of God is constituted of God and man mingled together as one. In God’s house God expresses Himself in humanity, and both God and man find mutual and eternal satisfaction and rest.
Gn 28:122 ladder
This ladder is the center, the focus, of Jacob’s dream. This dream is a revelation of Christ, for Christ is the reality of the ladder that Jacob saw (John 1:51 and notes). Christ as the Son of Man, in His humanity, is the ladder that brings heaven (God) to earth (man) and joins earth and heaven as one (cf. John 14:6). Our regenerated spirit, which is God’s dwelling place today (Eph. 2:22), is the base on earth where Christ as the heavenly ladder has been set up (2 Tim. 4:22). Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit, we experience Christ as the ladder bringing God to us and us to God (see note 191 in Heb. 10). Where this ladder is, there are an open heaven, the transformed man, the anointing upon this man, and the building up of the house of God with this man. The issue of Christ as the heavenly ladder is Bethel, the church, the Body of Christ, and the consummation of this ladder is the New Jerusalem.
Gn 28:123b angels  -   John 1:51
The angels are ministering spirits sent forth to serve the heirs of God’s salvation (Heb. 1:14 and note 1, par. 3).
Gn 28:131a God  -   Gen. 26:24
God’s referring to Himself as the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac implies that He would also become the God of Jacob. The God of Abraham is the God of justification, the God of Isaac is the God of grace, and the God of Jacob is the God of transformation through divine discipline. Eventually, the God of Jacob became the God of Israel (33:20; Exo. 5:1), the God of the transformed Jacob.
Gn 28:132 land
God promised Jacob that He would give him the seed, the land, and the blessing (vv. 13-14), as He had promised Abraham (12:3, 7; 13:14-16; 15:18; 22:17-18) and Isaac (26:3-4). The land is for the kingdom of God, and the seed is for the expression of God and for the spreading of God’s image. Both the land and the seed are Christ (see note 31 in ch. 15), who also becomes the blessing (v. 14) with which we bless others (Rom. 15:29).
Gn 28:13b seed  -   Gen. 12:7
See note 132.
Gn 28:14a dust  -   Gen. 13:16
Gn 28:14b all  -   Gen. 12:3
Gn 28:15a with  -   Gen. 26:24; 31:3
Gn 28:15b leave  -   1 Kings 8:57
Gn 28:17a house  -   Gen. 28:22; Judg. 18:31; 1 Chron. 28:11-12; 2 Chron. 5:1; 24:13; Ezra 2:68; 6:14-15; Psa. 42:4; 52:8; 55:14; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 10:21; 1 Pet. 4:17
Gn 28:171 gate
This was a place on earth, but it was joined to heaven; hence, Jacob called it the gate of heaven. While we are in the church, the house of God, on earth, we can enter the gate of heaven, and through Christ as the heavenly ladder we can see and experience the things of heaven. See Heb. 4:16 and note 1.
Gn 28:18a stone  -   Gen. 31:45; 35:14; 1 Sam. 7:12; 2 Sam. 18:18; cf. John 1:42
Gn 28:18b oil  -   Gen. 31:13; cf. Exo. 30:26; Lev. 8:10-11; Num. 7:1
Gn 28:191a Bethel  -   Gen. 12:8; 31:13; 35:1, 6, 15; Judg. 1:23; Hosea 12:4
Meaning house of God. See note 11, par. 2, in ch. 35.
Gn 28:19b Luz  -   Judg. 1:26
Gn 28:20a vowed  -   Gen. 31:13
Gn 28:21a my  -   cf. Exo. 15:2; Deut. 26:17
Gn 28:22a stone  -   Gen. 28:18; 35:14
Gn 28:22b tenth  -   Gen. 14:20; Lev. 27:30-32
Genesis Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 29:11 went
Lit., lifted up his feet.
Gn 29:121a relative  -   Gen. 22:23; 24:15
Lit., brother. So also in v. 15.
Gn 29:12b told  -   cf. Gen. 24:28-29
Gn 29:131 Jacob
Lit., he.
Gn 29:171 dull
Or, tender, weak.
Gn 29:18a serve  -   Gen. 29:30; 30:26; 31:41; Hosea 12:12
Gn 29:24a Zilpah  -   Gen. 35:26
Gn 29:251 Leah
Jacob was a crafty supplanter, but Laban was more subtle than Jacob. This was sovereignly arranged by God. Everything Laban did to cheat and to “squeeze” Jacob (31:7, 40-42), plus the competition, envy, and wrestling between Jacob’s wives in their bearing children (29:31 — 30:24), were sovereignly used by God to deal with Jacob’s natural disposition so that God could transform him. Jacob’s history shows that God sovereignly arranges each aspect of the environment of His chosen ones so that He may carry out His work of transformation in them (Rom. 8:28-30).
Gn 29:29a Bilhah  -   Gen. 35:25
Gn 29:30a served  -   Gen. 29:18, 20; 31:41
Gn 29:301 Laban
Lit., him.
Gn 29:31a hated  -   cf. Deut. 21:15
Gn 29:31b barren  -   cf. Gen. 30:22
Gn 29:321a Reuben  -   Gen. 49:3-4
Meaning see, a son.
Gn 29:331a Simeon  -   Gen. 49:5-7
Meaning hearing.
Gn 29:341a Levi  -   Gen. 49:5-7
Meaning joined.
Gn 29:351a Judah  -   Gen. 37:26; 38:1-26; 43:8; 44:14-18; 46:28; 49:8-12; Matt. 1:2
Meaning praise.
Genesis Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 30:1a children  -   Gen. 29:31
Gn 30:2a withheld  -   cf. Gen. 16:2; 1 Sam. 1:5
Gn 30:3a Bilhah  -   Gen. 29:29
Gn 30:31b have  -   cf. Gen. 16:2
Lit., be built up.
Gn 30:61a Dan  -   Gen. 49:16-18
Meaning judging.
Gn 30:81 In
Or, with mighty wrestlings.
Gn 30:82a Naphtali  -   Gen. 49:21
Meaning my wrestling.
Gn 30:9a Zilpah  -   Gen. 29:24
Gn 30:111a Gad  -   Gen. 49:19
Meaning, perhaps, (good) fortune.
Gn 30:131 Happy
In Hebrew the words happy and blessed are from the same root.
Gn 30:13a blessed  -   cf. Luke 1:48
See note 131.
Gn 30:132b Asher  -   Gen. 49:20
Meaning happy, or blessed.
Gn 30:14a mandrakes  -   S.S. 7:13
Gn 30:181a Issachar  -   Gen. 49:14-15
Meaning hire.
Gn 30:201 dwell
Or, honor me.
Gn 30:202a Zebulun  -   Gen. 49:13
Meaning honoring, exaltation, or exalted dwelling.
Gn 30:22a remembered  -   cf. 1 Sam. 1:19
Gn 30:22b opened  -   cf. Gen. 29:31; Psa. 127:3
Gn 30:23a reproach  -   Luke 1:25; cf. Isa. 4:1
Gn 30:241a Joseph  -   Gen. 37:2; 49:22-26
Meaning adding.
Gn 30:24b another  -   Gen. 35:17
Gn 30:26a served  -   Gen. 29:20, 30
Gn 30:291 Jacob
Lit., he.
Gn 30:351 Laban
Lit., he.
Gn 30:43a flocks  -   cf. Gen. 24:35; 26:13-14
Genesis Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 31:11 Jacob
Lit., he.
Gn 31:12 wealth
Or, glory.
Gn 31:3a Return  -   Gen. 31:13; 32:9
Gn 31:3b with  -   Gen. 28:15
Gn 31:6a served  -   Gen. 30:29; cf. Gen. 31:38-41
Gn 31:7a ten  -   Gen. 31:41; cf. Num. 14:22; Neh. 4:12; Job 19:3; Rev. 2:10
Gn 31:8a wages  -   Gen. 30:32
Gn 31:91a taken  -   Gen. 31:1
Lit., rescued, or, salvaged. So also in v. 16.
Gn 31:111a Angel  -   Gen. 22:15; 48:16
See note 71 in ch. 16.
Gn 31:121 I
Jehovah’s word to Jacob here indicates that he became wealthy not through his own cleverness but through God’s sovereign hand (v. 16).
Gn 31:12a seen  -   cf. Exo. 3:7
Gn 31:131 God
Heb. El-Bethel.
Gn 31:13a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19; 35:7
Gn 31:13b anointed  -   Gen. 28:18
Gn 31:13c return  -   Gen. 31:3; 32:9
Gn 31:191a teraphim  -   Gen. 31:30, 34; cf. Judg. 17:5; 1 Sam. 19:13; Ezek. 21:21; Hosea 3:4
These were idols worshipped in Laban’s home. So also in vv. 34, 35.
Gn 31:211 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Gn 31:241 God
The crucial person in this chapter is neither Jacob nor Laban, but the invisible, transforming God, who was sovereignly preparing the environment for Jacob’s transformation (cf. Rom. 8:28-29). Jacob was under the secret care of Christ as the Angel of God (v. 11) because Christ would eventually be born of Jacob’s descendant Mary (Matt. 1:2, 16).
Gn 31:24a dream  -   Gen. 20:3
Gn 31:25a pitched  -   Heb. 11:9
Gn 31:26a deceiving  -   Gen. 31:20
Gn 31:29a God  -   cf. Gen. 28:13; 31:42, 53
Gn 31:311 thought
Lit., said.
Gn 31:32a one  -   cf. Gen. 44:9
Gn 31:39a bore  -   cf. Exo. 22:12
Gn 31:41a served  -   Gen. 29:27
Gn 31:41b ten  -   Gen. 31:7
Gn 31:42a God  -   Gen. 31:53
Gn 31:44a make  -   Gen. 26:28
Gn 31:45a stone  -   cf. Gen. 28:18
Gn 31:47a Laban  -   Gen. 28:5; 31:20
Gn 31:471 Jegar-sahadutha
In Aramaic, meaning the heap of witness.
Gn 31:472 Galeed
In Hebrew, meaning the heap of witness.
Gn 31:48a witness  -   Gen. 31:44-45; Josh. 24:27
Gn 31:491 Mizpah
Meaning watchpost.
Gn 31:50a witness  -   Judg. 11:10; 1 Sam. 12:5; Jer. 42:5; cf. Job 16:19; Micah 1:2
Gn 31:51a heap  -   Gen. 31:45-46
Gn 31:521 witness
The pillar set up here by Jacob was a witness, a testimony. The thought of a pillar as a testimony is seen also in the two pillars (two is the number for a witness, a testimony — Matt. 18:16; Luke 10:1) set up by Solomon in front of the temple (1 Kings 7:21), and in the church, the house of God, as the pillar that upholds the truth by testifying, manifesting, the truth (1 Tim. 3:15-16). The three pillars set up by Jacob in chs. 31 and 35 were three landmarks of Jacob’s life. (The pillar set up in 28:18 was in response to a dream and was not part of Jacob’s spiritual experience; hence, it is not considered a landmark in his life. See note 141 in ch. 35.) The first pillar, set up at Gilead (vv. 25, 45), was a testimony of God’s sovereign care for him in the first stage of his experience. The second pillar, set up at Bethel (35:14), was a testimony of God’s building, God’s house, in the second stage. The third pillar, set up on Rachel’s grave on the way to Bethlehem (35:20), was a testimony of the death of Jacob’s natural choice for the bringing forth of Christ, typified by Benjamin, in the third stage of his experience (see notes 181 and 183 in ch. 35).
Gn 31:53a God  -   Gen. 31:42
Genesis Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 32:2a camp  -   cf. Josh. 5:14; Luke 2:13
Gn 32:21b Mahanaim  -   Josh. 21:38; 2 Sam. 2:8; 17:24, 27; 1 Kings 2:8; S.S. 6:13
Meaning two camps. See note 132 in S.S. 6.
Gn 32:3a Seir  -   Gen. 36:8-9; Deut. 2:5; Josh. 24:4
Gn 32:5a find  -   Gen. 33:8, 15
Gn 32:6a four  -   Gen. 33:1
Gn 32:7a two  -   cf. Gen. 32:2
Gn 32:9a God  -   Gen. 28:13; 31:42, 53
Gn 32:9b Return  -   Gen. 31:3, 13
Gn 32:10a two  -   Gen. 32:7
Gn 32:12a sand  -   Gen. 22:17; 28:14; Heb. 11:12
Gn 32:131a present  -   Gen. 43:11; cf. Prov. 18:16; 19:6; 21:14
Although Jacob had prayed in vv. 9-12, he did not trust in his prayer but continued to exercise his human wisdom by sending gifts to Esau to appease him.
Gn 32:241 man
According to Hosea 12:4, this man was the Angel of Jehovah, Christ (see note 21 in Exo. 3). The Lord as a man wrestled with Jacob so that He might touch Jacob’s natural strength, signified by the socket of Jacob’s hip at the thigh muscle (vv. 25, 32). The Lord’s wrestling with Jacob lasted a considerable time, fully exposing how natural Jacob was.
Gn 32:24a wrestled  -   Hosea 12:3-4
Gn 32:251 the
Lit., He.
Gn 32:252 touched
The touching of the socket of Jacob’s hip at the thigh muscle (v. 32), the strongest muscle in the body, signifies the touching of Jacob’s natural life, his natural strength. This was the beginning of Jacob’s transformation. As ch. 33 shows (see notes 41 and 171 there), after this experience Jacob was still natural. Nevertheless, although there was no change in Jacob’s outward living, his natural life, his inward natural strength, had been dealt with by the Lord. This is signified by the fact that Jacob walked with a limp (v. 31). The way of religion is to change man’s outward behavior; the way of God in His economy is to touch man’s inward life in order to change his inward being.
Gn 32:261 man
Lit., He.
Gn 32:262 Jacob
Lit., he.
Gn 32:26a not  -   cf. Luke 18:1
Gn 32:271 What
Here the Lord asked Jacob his name to cause Jacob to realize who he was — Jacob, the supplanter (see note 262 in ch. 25).
Gn 32:281a Israel  -   Gen. 35:10; 2 Kings 17:34
Meaning one who struggles with God. The changing of Jacob’s name to Israel indicates that God would eventually transform Jacob. See note 52 in ch. 17.
Gn 32:28b struggled  -   Hosea 12:3-4
Gn 32:29a tell  -   Judg. 13:18
Gn 32:291 there
It does not say that the man came to Jacob before wrestling with him (v. 24), nor does it say that the man left Jacob after wrestling with him. This means that the Lord who wrestled with Jacob was with him all the time and never left him. Cf. John 20:26 and note 3.
Gn 32:301 Peniel
Meaning the face of God.
Gn 32:30a seen  -   Deut. 5:24; Judg. 6:22; 13:22; cf. Exo. 33:20; Isa. 6:5
Gn 32:311 sun
In the dark night Jacob was strong, and every part of him was whole. After being touched by the Lord, Jacob was lame, but he was in the shining of the heavenly light.
Genesis Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 33:1a four  -   Gen. 32:6
Gn 33:41 kissed
All Jacob’s fears were products of his own worrying, and all he had done in exercising his natural skill and ability to save himself was in vain. God had protected Jacob from Laban by appearing to Laban in a dream (31:24), and He had aroused Esau’s brotherly love toward Jacob. These were God’s marvelous acts to care for His chosen one. Thus, Jacob, who had God’s promises and was on the way to reach God’s goal, did not need to fear what was behind him or what was ahead of him. Instead of trusting in his own striving, he should have rested in God and in His all-sufficient care (cf. Phil. 4:6-7; 1 Pet. 5:7).
Gn 33:5a graciously  -   Gen. 48:9; Psa. 127:3; Isa. 8:18
Gn 33:81 Esau
Lit., he.
Gn 33:8a camp  -   Gen. 32:16
Gn 33:8b favor  -   Gen. 32:5; 33:15
Gn 33:11a blessing  -   1 Sam. 25:27; 2 Kings 5:15
Gn 33:121 Esau
Lit., he.
Gn 33:15a find  -   Gen. 33:8; 34:11; 47:25
Gn 33:171 built
Jacob’s building a house for himself and booths for his cattle indicate that he was still natural and for himself. He neglected the dream that he had had at Bethel and the vow that he had made to God, promising that he would build a house for Him (28:20-22).
Gn 33:172 Succoth
Meaning booths.
Gn 33:181 safely
Or, in peace.
Gn 33:182 Shechem
See note 11, par. 1, in ch. 35.
Gn 33:19a bought  -   Josh. 24:32; Acts 7:16; John 4:5
Gn 33:19b tent  -   Heb. 11:9
Gn 33:201a altar  -   Gen. 12:7
In Shechem in the land of Canaan, Jacob pitched his tent (v. 19) and erected an altar, as his grandfather Abraham had done (12:6-7). Here Jacob began to live a life as God’s called one for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Gn 33:202 El-Elohe-Israel
Meaning El, the God of Israel.
Genesis Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 34:1a Dinah  -   Gen. 30:21
Gn 34:31 affectionately
Lit., to the heart of.
Gn 34:4a wife  -   Judg. 14:2
Gn 34:101 trade
Or, move about. So also in v. 21.
Gn 34:25a Simeon  -   Gen. 29:33, 34; 49:5-7
Gn 34:251 unawares
Lit., secure.
Gn 34:301 brought
See note 11, par. 1, in ch. 35.
Gn 34:30a few  -   1 Chron. 16:19; Psa. 105:12
Genesis Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 35:11a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19; 35:6, 15
At Bethel Jacob had made a vow to God, promising that if God would preserve him and care for him, the stone which he set up for a pillar would be the house of God (28:20-22). Here, God reminded Jacob to fulfill his part of that vow (cf. 31:13). On his return from Paddan-aram, Jacob came to Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he settled there (33:18-20). However, this was short of God’s goal. God’s purpose according to His heart’s desire is to have Bethel, His house on earth. Thus, it was necessary for Jacob to go on from Shechem to Bethel. All the unfortunate events in ch. 34 were sovereignly used by God to make it impossible for Jacob to remain in Shechem and to prepare Jacob to receive God’s charge to go up to Bethel. Jacob’s passing through Shechem and going up to Bethel signifies our passing through the individual Christian life and going up to the corporate church life for the building up of God’s eternal dwelling place, which is the church today and the New Jerusalem in eternity.
Bethel is a great seed in the Bible, a seed of the house of God. When Israel, the transformed Jacob, was multiplied into the house of Israel, in God’s eyes the house of Israel was the house of God (see note 61 in Heb. 3). Eventually, the tabernacle and later the temple were built as symbols of the house of Israel as God’s dwelling place on the earth in the Old Testament time. In the beginning of the New Testament the Lord Jesus came through incarnation to be the reality of the tabernacle and the temple (John 1:14; 2:18-21). Then, in Matt. 16:18 the Lord prophesied that He would build the church as the habitation, the temple, of God (Eph. 2:22; 1 Cor. 3:16-17) on Himself as the rock and with His believers as stones (1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:5). This is Bethel, the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15). Ultimately, this Bethel will be enlarged to consummate in the New Jerusalem, the eternal tabernacle of God, in which God Himself and the Lamb will be the temple (Rev. 21:3, 22). See note 121 in ch. 28.
Gn 35:1b altar  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 35:1c fled  -   Gen. 27:43
Gn 35:21 Put
An idol is anything that replaces the genuine and true God (cf. 1 John 5:20-21). For Bethel, God’s house, the idols must be removed (2 Cor. 6:16). Furthermore, everything impure, filthy, or defiled must be cleansed away (2 Cor. 7:1). For the realizing of Bethel, the old man with his old manner of life, signified by the old garments (Isa. 64:6), must also be put off, and the new man with his new manner of life, the church life, must be put on (Eph. 4:22-24).
Gn 35:3a answered  -   cf. Gen. 32:11; Psa. 107:6
Gn 35:3b with  -   Gen. 28:20
Gn 35:41 rings
Earrings are for self-beautification. Jacob buried these with the foreign gods, the idols, indicating that in the consciousness of Jacob and his household, the earrings were as abominable as the idols (cf. Exo. 32:2-4 and note 21).
Gn 35:5a terror  -   cf. Exo. 15:16; Deut. 11:25; Josh. 2:9; 2 Chron. 14:14
Gn 35:6a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19
Gn 35:71a altar  -   Gen. 12:7
An altar is for consecration. Jacob’s consecration in erecting an altar at Shechem (33:20) was for himself as an individual; his consecration in building an altar at Bethel was for the house of God, to fulfill God’s eternal purpose and satisfy His heart’s desire.
Gn 35:72 El-bethel
Meaning God of Bethel. At Bethel God is no longer merely the God of individuals but the God of a corporate body, the house of God.
Gn 35:7b brother  -   Gen. 35:1
Gn 35:8a Deborah  -   Gen. 24:59
Gn 35:81 Allon-bacuth
Meaning oak of weeping.
Gn 35:10a no  -   cf. Gen. 17:5, 15
Gn 35:101b Israel  -   Gen. 32:28
At Peniel God changed Jacob’s name to Israel (32:28), but there Jacob did not have much experience of this new name. It was at Bethel that Jacob was actually renewed and became a new person, a transformed person (cf. Rom. 12:2). This kind of change can be experienced only at Bethel, i.e., in the proper church life. The church is altogether a new man (Eph. 2:15), and the church life is the new life of the transformed Israel (Gal. 6:16), which life is God in Christ.
Gn 35:111a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Heb. El Shaddai. This chapter and ch. 17 correspond to each other in the revelation of the divine title the All-sufficient God (v. 11; 17:1), in the changing of human names, signifying the transforming of human beings (v. 10; 17:5), and in the promise of multiplication for the bringing forth of nations and kings (v. 11; 17:4, 6). These three matters indicate that God’s all-sufficiency and His transforming of His people are for them to be fruitful and multiply to produce transformed persons as materials for the building of God’s house, Bethel. See notes 52 and 152 in ch. 17.
Gn 35:11b fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 35:112c nation  -   Gen. 17:5-6, 16
See note 41 in ch. 17.
Gn 35:12a seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 35:141 pillar
This was a repetition of what Jacob had done in 28:18. There Bethel, the house of God, was only a dream; it was not yet Jacob’s experience. Here Jacob set up a second pillar at Bethel to consecrate himself to God for the fulfillment of the dream and of his vow to God in 28:10-22. This pillar was the second landmark in Jacob’s experience (see note 521 in ch. 31).
Gn 35:14a pillar  -   Gen. 28:18; 31:45
Gn 35:142 drink
See note 171 in Phil. 2. This is the first mentioning of the drink offering in the Bible (Num. 15:1-5; 28:7-10; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6). Its being mentioned here in connection with the pillar at Bethel indicates that the drink offering is for God’s building. The fact that Jacob poured a drink offering upon the pillar before pouring oil upon it signifies that the pouring out of the drink offering brings in the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:33) for the sanctifying of God’s house (Exo. 40:9).
Gn 35:15a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19; 35:1, 6
Gn 35:17a son  -   Gen. 30:24
Gn 35:181 died
Rachel was Jacob’s natural choice according to his heart’s desire (29:18-20). The death of Rachel was the loss of Jacob’s natural choice. This was a deep and personal dealing for Jacob. Jacob lost Rachel, but in the process he gained Benjamin, who was a type of Christ. “Rachel” had to die so that “Benjamin” could be born. In the same manner, God will eventually take away our natural choice so that we may bring forth Christ for His expression. God’s goal is not to make His chosen ones suffer loss; it is to bring forth Christ through them.
Gn 35:182 Ben-oni
Meaning son of my affliction.
Gn 35:183a Benjamin  -   Gen. 49:27
Meaning son of the right hand. Benjamin is a type of Christ, who was first Ben-oni, the Son of affliction, from His birth through His human life on earth (Isa. 53:3), but eventually became Benjamin, the Son at the right hand of God, from His resurrection and in His ascension (Matt. 26:64). See note 271 in Psa. 68.
Benjamin and Joseph, the two sons born to Jacob by Rachel, are both types of Christ. Although Joseph was born first, in typology he is the continuation of Benjamin, for the record of Joseph’s life (chs. 37 — 50) follows the record of Benjamin’s birth. Joseph, like Benjamin, typifies the suffering and exalted Christ. During the first part of his life Joseph suffered as the son of affliction, and during the second part he was exalted to the throne at the right hand of Pharaoh (41:40-44).
Gn 35:19a died  -   Gen. 48:7
Gn 35:19b Bethlehem  -   Ruth 1:2; 4:11; Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:6, 16-18
Gn 35:201 pillar
See note 521 in ch. 31.
Gn 35:20a pillar  -   1 Sam. 10:2
Gn 35:211 Israel
Prior to this time Jacob’s name had been changed to Israel (32:27-28; 35:10), but this is the first time he is actually referred to as Israel. This indicates that after his experience at Bethel and the death of Rachel, Jacob had become a transformed person.
Gn 35:21a tent  -   Heb. 11:9
Gn 35:221a lay  -   Gen. 49:4; 1 Chron. 5:1; cf. 2 Sam. 16:22; 1 Cor. 5:1
Reuben, born of Leah, was the firstborn and should have inherited the birthright. However, because of his defilement in his lust, he lost the birthright, and it was given to Joseph, Rachel’s son (1 Chron. 5:1; Gen. 49:3-4; 48:22). Joseph gained the birthright because of his purity (39:7-12). Cf. Heb. 12:16 and note.
Gn 35:22b twelve  -   vv. 22-26: cf. Gen. 46:8-27; Exo. 1:1-4; Acts 7:8; Matt. 1:2
Gn 35:271a Hebron  -   Gen. 13:18
After experiencing the deeper and more personal dealings, Jacob entered into full fellowship with God at Hebron (Hebron means fellowship, communion). Abraham had come to Shechem (12:6), had passed through Bethel (12:8), and had dwelt in Hebron (13:18; 18:1), and Isaac spent nearly his whole life in Hebron. Jacob followed Abraham’s footsteps to come to Shechem (33:18), to pass through Bethel (35:6), and to dwell in Hebron. In Hebron Jacob enjoyed full rest, joy, satisfaction, intimacy, and fellowship with the Lord. It was in Hebron that he began to mature in life.
Gn 35:27b sojourned  -   Gen. 17:8
Gn 35:291a buried  -   Gen. 49:31
Isaac died in faith, as indicated by the fact that he was buried in the cave of Machpelah (49:30-32; cf. 23:9 and notes).
Genesis Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 36:1a Edom  -   Gen. 25:30; 36:8, 19, 43
Gn 36:2a daughters  -   Gen. 26:34
Gn 36:7a property  -   cf. Gen. 13:6
Gn 36:12a Amalek  -   Exo. 17:8-16; Num. 24:20; Deut. 25:17-19; 1 Sam. 15:2-3, 32-33
Gn 36:151 clans
Or, chiefs. So also throughout this chapter.
Gn 36:241 hot
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Gn 36:31a reigned  -   vv. 31-43: 1 Chron. 1:43-54
Gn 36:371 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Gn 36:43a Edomites  -   Gen. 36:9
Genesis Chapter 37
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 37:11 Jacob
At this point Jacob was a transformed person, but he was not yet mature. To be transformed is to be metabolically changed in our natural life (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18); to be mature is to be filled with the divine life that changes us. We may be changed in our natural life (transformed) yet not be filled with the divine life (mature). The last stage of transformation is maturity. Jacob’s transformation began at the time God touched him (32:25), and it continued until the end of ch. 36, when the process of transformation was relatively complete (see note 31 in ch. 37). Genesis 37:1 — 43:14 is a record of the process of Jacob’s maturity.
Genesis shows a complete picture of how human beings can be remade and transformed to express God in His image and represent God with His dominion. This book ends as it begins — with God’s image and dominion. The last fourteen chapters indicate that after Jacob had become Israel, he bore the image of God and, through Joseph, exercised the dominion of God. For God’s expression and dominion there is the need of maturity. Only a mature life can bear God’s image and exercise His dominion.
Gn 37:1a sojourned  -   Gen. 17:8
Gn 37:21 Joseph
In the last fourteen chapters of Genesis the biographies of Jacob and Joseph are blended, indicating that according to spiritual experience, Jacob and Joseph are one person (cf. note 11, par. 2, in ch. 12 and note 11, par. 2, in ch. 25). Joseph is a type of Christ as the One who is altogether perfect, having no defects (Luke 23:4; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22). As such, Joseph represents the reigning aspect of the mature Israel, the constitution of Christ in Jacob’s mature nature. As a mature saint constituted of Christ, the perfect One, Jacob reigned through Joseph (41:39-44).
Gn 37:22 shepherding
Joseph, like Abel, was a shepherd. This signifies the aspect of the constitution of Christ in the mature life that is the shepherding life to care for others (John 10:11; 21:15-17).
Gn 37:31 more
Jacob’s preferential love for Joseph indicates that he was not fully transformed but was still living somewhat in the natural life. Jacob’s partiality toward Joseph caused him further sufferings, which deeply touched his personal feelings. These final dealings brought him to full maturity for the expression and dominion of God.
Gn 37:3a old  -   Gen. 44:20
Gn 37:3b coat  -   Gen. 37:23, 31
Gn 37:51a dream  -   Gen. 42:9
Joseph’s two dreams (vv. 7-9), both from God, unveiled to him God’s divine view concerning the nature, position, function, and goal of God’s people on earth. According to their fallen nature, God’s people are evil and unclean, but in God’s eternal view, His people are sheaves of wheat full of life and heavenly bodies full of light (cf. Num. 23:21; 1 Kings 19:18; Rev. 12:1 and note). The reigning aspect of the mature life never condemns God’s people. Rather, it shepherds and appreciates them. Joseph’s dreams controlled and directed his behavior (cf. Acts 26:19). See notes 121 in ch. 39 and 91 in ch. 42.
Gn 37:7a bowed  -   Gen. 42:6; 43:26
Gn 37:9a sun  -   cf. Rev. 12:1
Gn 37:9b bowing  -   Gen. 37:7
Gn 37:11a jealous  -   Acts 7:9
Gn 37:11b kept  -   cf. Luke 2:19, 51
Gn 37:131 send
Joseph’s life was a copy of the life of Christ: in his being a shepherd (v. 2; John 10:11-16); in his being his father’s beloved (vv. 3-4; Matt. 3:17; 17:5); in his being sent by his father to minister to his brothers according to his father’s will (vv. 12-17; John 6:38); in his being hated, persecuted, and betrayed (sold) by his brothers (vv. 5, 18-36; John 15:25; Matt. 26:4, 14-16); in his being cast into the prison of death with two criminals, one of whom was restored and the other executed (39:20; 40:1-23; Acts 2:23; Luke 23:32, 39-43); in his being released (resurrected) from the prison of death (41:14; Acts 2:24); in his being enthroned with authority (41:40-44; Matt. 28:18; Acts 2:36; Rev. 3:21); in his receiving glory and gifts (41:42; Heb. 2:9; Psa. 68:18; Acts 2:33); in his becoming the savior of the world, the sustainer of life (the revealer of secrets) (41:45 and note 1; Acts 5:31; John 6:50-51); in his taking a wife from the Gentiles (41:45; John 3:29; Eph. 5:23-27; Rev. 19:7; cf. note 14 in Matt. 1); in his supplying people with food (41:56-57; John 6:35); in his acknowledging his ignorant brothers and being recognized by them (45:1-4, 14-15; Rom. 11:26; Zech. 12:10; Rev. 1:7); and in his reigning in the kingdom over the whole earth (41:40 — 50:26; Rev. 11:15; Dan. 7:13-14).
Gn 37:181 conspired
While Joseph’s brothers were drowning in the water of human anger, Joseph, representing the reigning aspect of a mature life, lived as a sheaf of life (see note 51) and emerged from the death water of human anger.
Gn 37:20a slay  -   Gen. 37:26
Gn 37:21a Let  -   Gen. 42:22
Gn 37:22a pit  -   Gen. 37:29-30
Gn 37:23a coat  -   Gen. 37:3, 31
Gn 37:25a caravan  -   Gen. 39:1
Gn 37:26a slay  -   Gen. 37:20
Gn 37:281 Midianite
Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar (16:15), and Midian was the son of Abraham by his last wife, Keturah (25:1-2). Both the Ishmaelites and the Midianites represent the flesh, the natural strength. In addition, hatred (v. 8) is related to the flesh, and the flesh is connected to the world, represented by Egypt (Heb. 11:25-26). In His sovereignty God used everything, including the flesh, the hatred of Joseph’s brothers, and Egypt, to fulfill His purpose concerning Joseph (45:5-8a; 50:20).
Gn 37:28a sold  -   Gen. 45:4; Psa. 105:17; Acts 7:9
Gn 37:31a coat  -   Gen. 37:3, 23
Gn 37:33a wild  -   Gen. 37:20
Gn 37:33b torn  -   Gen. 44:28
Gn 37:351a Sheol  -   Gen. 42:38; 44:29, 31
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Gn 37:361 sold
The time from the selling of Joseph to the sending of Jacob’s sons to Egypt (42:1-5) was at least twenty years. In the record of Jacob those twenty years were a time of silence. Through the loss of Joseph, Jacob became a person who was absolutely open to God. It must have been that during those years God dispensed Himself into Jacob more and more, until Jacob was filled with the divine life unto maturity. See note 21 in ch. 42.
Gn 37:36a captain  -   Gen. 40:3-4; 41:10, 12
Genesis Chapter 38
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 38:2a Shua  -   1 Chron. 2:3
Gn 38:3a Er  -   Gen. 46:12; Num. 26:19
Gn 38:51 she
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, he was.
Gn 38:61 Tamar
For vv. 6-30, see Matt. 1:3a and notes.
Gn 38:7a wicked  -   1 Chron. 2:3
Gn 38:8a wife  -   Deut. 25:5-6; Matt. 22:24; Mark 12:19; Luke 20:28
Gn 38:111 thought
Lit., said.
Gn 38:14a Shelah  -   Gen. 38:26
Gn 38:151 Judah
Judah behaved in a blind way, indulging in his lust in darkness. In contrast, Joseph, living as a star of light (see note 51 in ch. 37), overcame his lust (39:7-12).
Gn 38:18a seal  -   Gen. 38:25
Gn 38:25a seal  -   Gen. 38:18
Gn 38:26a Shelah  -   Gen. 38:14
Gn 38:291a Perez  -   Gen. 46:12; Num. 26:20; 1 Chron. 2:4; Matt. 1:3
Meaning a breach.
Gn 38:301 Zerah
Meaning a dawning, or a shining.
Genesis Chapter 39
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 39:1a captain  -   Gen. 37:36
Gn 39:1b Ishmaelites  -   Gen. 37:25, 28
Gn 39:21a with  -   Gen. 39:21; Acts 7:9; cf. Gen. 26:24, 28; 28:15; 1 Sam. 16:18; 18:14, 28; Luke 1:66
As a representative of the reigning aspect of a mature life, Joseph enjoyed the presence of the Lord, and with it the Lord’s authority, prosperity, and blessing (vv. 2-5).
Gn 39:3a prosper  -   Gen. 39:23
Gn 39:4a found  -   Gen. 39:21
Gn 39:41b charge  -   Gen. 39:8
Lit., hand. So also throughout the chapter.
Gn 39:5a blessing  -   cf. Gen. 30:27
Gn 39:8a charge  -   Gen. 39:4
Gn 39:9a sin  -   2 Sam. 12:13; Psa. 51:4
Gn 39:121a fled  -   1 Cor. 6:18; 2 Tim. 2:22
Joseph lived a life that corresponded to the vision he saw in his two dreams (see note 51 in ch. 37; cf. Acts 26:19). Joseph’s brothers vented their anger (37:18-31) and indulged in their lust (38:15-18), but Joseph subdued his anger and conquered his lust, behaving as a sheaf full of life and conducting himself like a heavenly star shining in the darkness (see notes 181 in ch. 37 and 151 in ch. 38). Joseph’s life under the heavenly vision was the life of the kingdom of the heavens described in Matt. 5 — 7. By living such a life, he was fully prepared to reign as a king.
Gn 39:201a prison  -   Gen. 40:3, 5, 15; 41:14; cf. Psa. 105:18; Heb. 11:36
Joseph was rejected by his brothers, sold by them, and cast into prison. Likewise, Christ was first rejected by His brothers, then sold by one of His people, and eventually cast into the prison of death.
Gn 39:21a with  -   Gen. 39:2
Gn 39:22a charge  -   Gen. 40:4
Gn 39:23a with  -   Gen. 39:2
Gn 39:23b prosper  -   Gen. 39:2-3
Genesis Chapter 40
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 40:3a captain  -   Gen. 37:36
Gn 40:3b confined  -   Gen. 39:20
Gn 40:8a dream  -   Gen. 41:15
Gn 40:81 Do
Although his own dreams (37:5-11) were not yet fulfilled, Joseph had the faith and the boldness to interpret the dreams of his two companions. The fact that he acknowledged God as the source of interpretations indicates that he still believed in the interpretation God had given him of his own dreams. Eventually, Joseph was released from prison indirectly through his speaking by faith in interpreting the cupbearer’s dream (41:9-13), and he was ushered to the throne directly through his speaking boldly in interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams (41:14-46). Both release and authority came to him through his speaking.
Gn 40:8b God  -   Gen. 41:16; Dan. 2:28
Gn 40:12a interpretation  -   Gen. 40:18; 41:12; Dan. 2:36
Gn 40:13a lift  -   Gen. 40:20
Gn 40:15a kidnapped  -   cf. Gen. 37:28
Gn 40:15b dungeon  -   Gen. 39:20
Gn 40:18a interpretation  -   Gen. 40:12
Gn 40:18b three  -   Gen. 40:13
Gn 40:19a hang  -   Gen. 40:22
Gn 40:20a lifted  -   Gen. 40:13
Gn 40:21a restored  -   Gen. 40:13
Gn 40:22a hanged  -   Gen. 40:19
Gn 40:23a remember  -   cf. Gen. 40:14
Genesis Chapter 41
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 41:11 two
Like the Old Testament priests and the Lord Jesus, Joseph had to wait until he was thirty years old before he was fully put into his ministry (v. 46; Num. 4:3; Luke 3:23). While Joseph was in confinement, he was being tried, tested, and trained for his enthronement.
Gn 41:1a there  -   vv. 1-7: Gen. 41:17-24
Gn 41:12 River
I.e., the Nile. So throughout the chapter.
Gn 41:8a spirit  -   Dan. 2:1, 3
Gn 41:8b magicians  -   Gen. 41:24; Exo. 7:11, 22; cf. Dan. 1:20; 2:2; 4:7
Gn 41:10a angry  -   Gen. 40:2-3
Gn 41:10b captain  -   Gen. 37:36
Gn 41:11a dream  -   Gen. 40:5
Gn 41:12a interpreted  -   Gen. 40:12-19
Gn 41:131 Pharaoh
Lit., he.
Gn 41:13a restored  -   Gen. 40:21-22
Gn 41:132 baker
Lit., him.
Gn 41:14a out  -   cf. Psa. 105:20
Gn 41:141 dungeon
Or, pit. In his being released from the dungeon, Joseph typifies Christ as the One resurrected from the prison of death (Acts 2:24).
Gn 41:15a interpret  -   Gen. 41:12; cf. Dan. 5:16
Gn 41:16a me  -   Dan. 2:30
Gn 41:16b God  -   Gen. 40:8; Dan. 2:28
Gn 41:161 will
Lit., will answer Pharaoh with peace.
Gn 41:17a there  -   vv. 17-24: Gen. 41:1-7
Gn 41:24a magicians  -   Gen. 41:8; Dan. 4:7
Gn 41:25a what  -   Gen. 41:28; cf. Dan. 2:28-29, 45; Rev. 4:1
Gn 41:28a what  -   Gen. 41:25
Gn 41:29a abundance  -   Gen. 41:47
Gn 41:30a famine  -   Gen. 47:13
Gn 41:35a gather  -   Gen. 41:48
Gn 41:38a Spirit  -   Num. 27:18; Dan. 4:8, 18; 5:11, 14
Gn 41:401a over  -   Psa. 105:21; Acts 7:10
On the day Joseph was released from the dungeon, he was enthroned to be the actual ruler over the whole land of Egypt. In like manner, after Christ was resurrected from death, He was enthroned with all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18; Acts 2:36).
Gn 41:41a over  -   Gen. 42:6; 45:8-9, 26; Psa. 105:21; Acts 7:10
Gn 41:421 signet
In his receiving glory and gifts in his enthronement, Joseph typifies Christ, who received glory (Heb. 2:9) and gifts (Psa. 68:18; Acts 2:33) in His ascension. The ring, the garments, and the gold chain portray the gifts that Christ received in His ascension to the heavens, which gifts He has passed on to the church. The signet ring signifies the Holy Spirit as a seal within and upon Christ’s believers (Acts 2:33; Eph. 1:13; 4:30; cf. Luke 15:22). The garments signify Christ as our objective righteousness for our justification before God (1 Cor. 1:30; cf. Psa. 45:9, 13; Luke 15:22) and as our subjective righteousness lived out of us that we may be qualified to participate in the marriage of the Lamb (Psa. 45:14 and note 1; Rev. 19:7-9 and note 82). The golden chain signifies the beauty of the Holy Spirit given for obedience expressed in submission (cf. Acts 5:32). A chained neck signifies a will that has been conquered and subdued to obey God’s commandment (cf. S.S. 1:10; Prov. 1:8-9). According to the sequence of spiritual experience, we first receive the sealing Spirit for salvation; then we receive the garment of righteousness and begin to live Christ (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:20-21a). In order for us to live Christ, our neck must be chained, our will must be subdued, by the Holy Spirit.
Gn 41:451 Zaphenath-paneah
Meaning savior of the world, sustainer of life, or revealer of secrets. First, Joseph was the revealer of secrets (40:9-19; 41:17-32); then, because he sustained the life of the people (vv. 47-57; 47:12-24), he became the savior of the world (47:25). In this also he typifies Christ (Matt. 13:1-52; John 6:50-51; Acts 5:31).
Gn 41:452 Asenath
In taking an Egyptian, a Gentile, as his wife, Joseph typifies Christ, who is taking the church from among the Gentiles as His wife during the time that He is being rejected by Israel (cf. note 14 in Matt. 1).
Gn 41:511a Manasseh  -   vv. 51-52: Gen. 46:20; 48:5
Meaning making to forget.
Gn 41:521 Ephraim
Meaning fruitful, or twice fruitful.
Gn 41:52a fruitful  -   cf. Gen. 49:22; Hosea 13:15
Gn 41:54a famine  -   Psa. 105:16; Acts 7:11
Gn 41:55a all  -   Gen. 41:30
Gn 41:561 all
Food maintains man’s existence and also brings man satisfaction. The whole earth being under famine signifies that all the nations are struggling to maintain their existence and are dissatisfied. Food could be found only where Joseph was (42:5-6), indicating in type that the real life supply and satisfaction can be found only in the church, where Christ is.
Gn 41:562 all
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, all which was in them.
Gn 41:56a sold  -   Gen. 42:6
Gn 41:57a buy  -   Gen. 42:2, 5; 47:14
Gn 41:57b famine  -   Gen. 41:31, 56
Genesis Chapter 42
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 42:21a go  -   Acts 7:12
God used the famine and Jacob’s sending of his sons to Egypt to deal with Jacob for his maturity in life. During his long wait for the return of his sons, Jacob was emptied of all his preoccupations (v. 36; 43:13-14) that God might fill Jacob with the element of the divine life. See note 261 in ch. 45.
Gn 42:2b die  -   Gen. 43:8
Gn 42:31 brothers
The account of the relationship between Joseph and his brothers in chs. 42 — 45 is a detailed portrait of the relationship between Christ and the nation of Israel: (1) Just as Joseph’s brothers were forced to turn to him for food (vv. 1-5; 43:1-15), the children of Israel will be forced to turn to Christ to preserve their existence (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26). (2) Just as Joseph’s brothers were ignorant of him (vv. 8, 28; 43:32-34; 44:14-34), so the people of Israel are ignorant of who Christ is today. (3) Just as Joseph tested and disciplined his brothers after they were forced to turn to him (vv. 15-24; 44:1-13), so Christ will test and discipline Israel when they are in the process of turning to Him (Zech. 13:8-9). (4) While Joseph was disciplining his brothers, he loved them and cared for them in a secret way (v. 25; 43:16, 25-34); similarly, at the end time Christ will secretly show His love toward Israel and provide for their needs (cf. Rev. 7:2-8). (5) Just as Joseph eventually acknowledged his ignorant brothers (45:1-4, 14-16), Christ will acknowledge the ignorant nation of Israel (Rom. 11:26). (6) Just as Joseph’s brothers eventually recognized him (45:15), the Israelites will eventually recognize Christ (Zech. 12:10). (7) Just as Joseph revealed himself in his exaltation and glory to his brothers (45:1, 8, 13), Christ will reveal Himself in His exaltation and glory to the remnant of Israel (Micah 5:3-4; Matt. 24:30). (8) Joseph’s brothers participated in the enjoyment of his reign, and Joseph took special care of them as God’s testimony on earth (45:16-24; 47:11-12; 50:21); likewise, in the millennium Israel will participate in the enjoyment of Christ’s reign, and Christ will care in a special way for Israel as God’s testimony among the nations (Isa. 2:2-3; 61:6; Zech. 8:23; 14:16-19).
Gn 42:4a Benjamin  -   Gen. 35:18
Gn 42:4b harm  -   Gen. 42:38
Gn 42:5a famine  -   Acts 7:11
Gn 42:6a over  -   Gen. 41:41
Gn 42:6b bowed  -   Gen. 37:7, 9-10
Gn 42:7a harshly  -   Gen. 42:30
Gn 42:9a dreams  -   Gen. 37:5, 9
Gn 42:91 said
The record of Joseph’s life is a revelation of the rulership of the Spirit, for the rulership of the Spirit is the reigning aspect of a mature saint. Although he was full of human feelings and sentiments toward his brothers (v. 24; 43:30-31; 45:1-2), he kept himself with all his feelings under the rulership of the Spirit. He dealt with his brothers soberly, wisely, and with discernment, disciplining them according to their need in order to perfect them and build them up that they might be a collective people living together as God’s testimony on earth (cf. 45:24). Joseph denied himself and placed himself absolutely under God’s sovereign leading, conducting himself wholly for the interest of God and His people. Joseph’s living under God’s restriction, a portrait of the human living of Christ (John 5:19, 30b; 7:16, 18; 14:10), manifested the maturity and perfection of the divine life and brought in God’s kingdom.
Gn 42:9b spies  -   Gen. 42:30
Gn 42:13a no  -   Gen. 37:30; 42:32
Gn 42:15a youngest  -   Gen. 42:34; 43:3; 44:23
Gn 42:171 custody
This was done to touch their conscience and cause them to realize their guilt in hating Joseph and selling him (vv. 21-22).
Gn 42:19a honest  -   Gen. 42:33-34
Gn 42:21a guilty  -   cf. Gen. 37:23-28
Gn 42:22a sin  -   Gen. 37:21
Gn 42:22b blood  -   cf. Gen. 9:5-6; Luke 11:50-51
Gn 42:24a wept  -   Gen. 43:30
Gn 42:241 Simeon
It might have been Simeon who took the lead in plotting to murder Joseph (cf. 49:5-7).
Gn 42:25a fill  -   Gen. 44:1
Gn 42:27a sack  -   Gen. 42:35; 43:21
Gn 42:30a harshly  -   Gen. 42:7
Gn 42:31a spies  -   Gen. 42:9
Gn 42:32a no  -   Gen. 42:13
Gn 42:33a honest  -   Gen. 42:19
Gn 42:34a youngest  -   Gen. 42:15, 20
Gn 42:34b trade  -   Gen. 34:10, 21
Gn 42:35a sack  -   Gen. 42:27; 43:21
Gn 42:36a bereaved  -   Gen. 43:14
Gn 42:38a harm  -   Gen. 42:4; 44:29
Gn 42:38b sorrow  -   Gen. 37:35; 44:29, 31
Genesis Chapter 43
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 43:1a famine  -   Gen. 41:31, 56-57
Gn 43:2a Go  -   Gen. 42:2
Gn 43:3a brother  -   Gen. 42:20; 44:23
Gn 43:8a die  -   Gen. 42:2
Gn 43:9a bring  -   Gen. 44:32; cf. Gen. 42:37
Gn 43:12a sacks  -   Gen. 42:25, 27, 35
Gn 43:141a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Heb. El Shaddai. See note 12 in ch. 17.
Gn 43:142 mercy
Or, compassion. While he was being dealt with in the last stage for his maturity, Jacob did not struggle but absolutely submitted to God’s sovereignty in his circumstances. He no longer trusted in his own skill and ability; rather, he trusted in the mercy of his all-sufficient God. This shows that he had been fully transformed for maturity.
Gn 43:14b bereaved  -   Gen. 42:36
Gn 43:161 animal
Lit., a slaughter.
Gn 43:20a buy  -   Gen. 42:3, 10
Gn 43:21a sack  -   Gen. 42:27
Gn 43:24a feet  -   Gen. 18:4
Gn 43:25a present  -   cf. Gen. 43:11
Gn 43:26a bowed  -   Gen. 37:7, 9-10; 42:6; 43:28
Gn 43:27a father  -   Gen. 42:13
Gn 43:29a Benjamin  -   Gen. 35:18
Gn 43:30a inward  -   Gen. 45:1
Gn 43:30b weep  -   Gen. 42:24
Gn 43:32a abomination  -   cf. Gen. 46:34; Exo. 8:26
Gn 43:34a five  -   Gen. 45:22
Genesis Chapter 44
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 44:1a Fill  -   Gen. 42:25
Gn 44:4a him  -   Gen. 44:1
Gn 44:8a sacks  -   Gen. 43:21
Gn 44:9a whomever  -   cf. Gen. 31:32
Gn 44:14a Judah  -   Matt. 1:2
Gn 44:14b fell  -   Gen. 37:10; 42:6; 43:26
Gn 44:16a iniquity  -   Num. 32:23; cf. Gen. 37:18-28
Gn 44:17a found  -   Gen. 44:10
Gn 44:20a old  -   Gen. 37:3
Gn 44:21a Bring  -   Gen. 42:15, 20; 43:3, 5
Gn 44:22a die  -   Gen. 44:31
Gn 44:23a youngest  -   Gen. 43:3
Gn 44:25a buy  -   Gen. 43:2
Gn 44:27a sons  -   cf. Gen. 46:19
Gn 44:28a torn  -   Gen. 37:33
Gn 44:29a Sheol  -   Gen. 37:35
Gn 44:32a surety  -   Gen. 43:9
Genesis Chapter 45
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 45:11 Joseph
When Joseph’s brothers sold him, they hated him and did not care for their father or their younger brother. The attitude and spirit with which Judah spoke to Joseph about his father and brother (44:18-34) convinced Joseph that Judah had been subdued and broken. This was the right time for Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers.
Gn 45:1a control  -   Gen. 43:30
Gn 45:1b known  -   Acts 7:13
Gn 45:4a sold  -   Gen. 37:28; Acts 7:9
Gn 45:51 grieved
Joseph did not need to forgive his brothers, because he did not blame them (cf. note 281). He received as from God all that his brothers had done to him, and he comforted those who had offended him (vv. 5-8; 50:15-21). What grace, and what an excellent spirit, he had!
Gn 45:5a sent  -   Psa. 105:17
Gn 45:5b preserve  -   Gen. 50:20
Gn 45:71 remnant
God’s intention was that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would build Him a tabernacle (Exo. 25 — 30; 35 — 40) so that He might establish His kingdom on earth. God sent Joseph to Egypt to preserve life so that a remnant of the chosen and called race might remain for the fulfillment of His purpose.
Gn 45:8a over  -   Gen. 41:41; 45:26
Gn 45:9a come  -   Acts 7:14
Gn 45:11a sustain  -   Gen. 47:12; 50:21
Gn 45:14a fell  -   Gen. 46:29; cf. Luke 15:20; Acts 20:37
Gn 45:14b wept  -   cf. Zech. 12:10
Gn 45:16a Pharaoh’s  -   Acts 7:13
Gn 45:18a fat  -   Gen. 47:6
Gn 45:19a wagons  -   Gen. 46:5
Gn 45:22a five  -   Gen. 43:34
Gn 45:26a over  -   Gen. 41:41
Gn 45:261 numb
When Jacob received the good news regarding Joseph, his heart grew numb, but his spirit revived (v. 27), indicating that his soul and spirit had been divided (Heb. 4:12). This was a manifestation of Jacob’s maturity in life.
Gn 45:27a wagons  -   Gen. 45:19, 21; 46:5
Gn 45:27b spirit  -   1 Sam. 30:12; Isa. 57:15
Gn 45:281 It
Upon hearing that Joseph was alive, Jacob did not blame anyone regarding the loss of Joseph. This is a sign that he not only had been transformed but also was mature, completely filled with the fullness of the divine life.
Genesis Chapter 46
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 46:11 offered
As one who was mature in life, Jacob had fellowship with God by offering sacrifices to Him. Jacob’s way of offering signifies the worship of God with the worship that He seeks by offering Christ to God for His satisfaction (cf. John 4:24).
Gn 46:2a visions  -   Gen. 15:1; Job 33:15
Gn 46:31 God
Heb. El.
Gn 46:3a father  -   Gen. 26:24; 28:13
Gn 46:3b great  -   Gen. 12:2
Gn 46:4a go  -   Gen. 28:15; 48:21
Gn 46:5a wagons  -   Gen. 45:19, 21, 27
Gn 46:6a Jacob  -   Josh. 24:4; Psa. 105:23; Isa. 52:4; Acts 7:15
Gn 46:8a names  -   vv. 8-26: cf. Gen. 35:23-26; Exo. 1:1-4
Gn 46:9a Reuben  -   Exo. 6:14; Num. 26:5-6; 1 Chron. 5:3
Gn 46:10a Simeon  -   Exo. 6:15; Num. 26:12-13; 1 Chron. 4:24
Gn 46:11a Levi  -   Exo. 6:16; Num. 26:57; 1 Chron. 6:1
Gn 46:12a Judah  -   Gen. 38:3-5, 29-30; Num. 26:19-21; 1 Chron. 2:3-5
Gn 46:13a Issachar  -   Num. 26:23-24; 1 Chron. 7:1
Gn 46:14a Zebulun  -   Num. 26:26
Gn 46:15a Dinah  -   Gen. 30:21
Gn 46:151 persons
Lit., souls. So also throughout the chapter.
Gn 46:16a Gad  -   Num. 26:15-17
Gn 46:17a Asher  -   Num. 26:44-46; 1 Chron. 7:30-31
Gn 46:20a Joseph  -   Gen. 41:50-52; Num. 26:28
Gn 46:21a Benjamin  -   Num. 26:38-40; 1 Chron. 7:6-12; 8:1-2
Gn 46:23a Dan  -   Num. 26:42
Gn 46:24a Naphtali  -   Num. 26:48-49; 1 Chron. 7:13
Gn 46:27a seventy  -   Exo. 1:5; Deut. 10:22; cf. Acts 7:14
Gn 46:29a neck  -   Gen. 45:14
Gn 46:30a seen  -   cf. Luke 2:29-30
Gn 46:31a tell  -   Gen. 47:1
Gn 46:32a shepherds  -   Gen. 47:3
Gn 46:34a abomination  -   Gen. 43:32; Exo. 8:26
Genesis Chapter 47
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 47:1a told  -   Gen. 46:31
Gn 47:3a What  -   Gen. 46:33
Gn 47:3b shepherds  -   Gen. 46:32, 34
Gn 47:4a sojourn  -   Deut. 26:5
Gn 47:6a best  -   Gen. 45:18
Gn 47:71a blessed  -   Gen. 14:19
The strongest manifestation of Jacob’s maturity in life is the fact that Jacob blessed everyone, including Pharaoh (vv. 7, 10), Jacob’s two grandsons (ch. 48), and his own twelve sons (49:1-28). Jacob’s supplanting hands became blessing hands (48:14-16). Maturity in life is a matter of being filled with God as life, and blessing is the overflow of life, the overflow of God through the maturity in life. To bless others is to bring them into the presence of God and to bring God into them as grace, love, and fellowship that they may enjoy the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (14:18-19; Num. 6:23-27; 2 Cor. 13:14). That Jacob blessed Pharaoh indicates that he was greater than Pharaoh (Heb. 7:7).
Gn 47:81 years
Lit., the days of the years. So also in v. 9.
Gn 47:9a sojourning  -   Gen. 17:8
Gn 47:9b few  -   Job 14:1; Psa. 39:5; James 4:14
Gn 47:9c years  -   Gen. 25:7; 47:28
Gn 47:12a sustained  -   Gen. 45:11; 50:21
Gn 47:141 collected
Lit., gleaned. Because Joseph suffered and denied himself, he gained the riches of the life supply. In Egypt all the food was in the hand of Joseph. In order to receive food from Joseph, the people had to pay four kinds of prices: their money, their livestock, their land, and themselves (vv. 14-23). Money represents convenience, livestock signifies the means of living, and land represents resources. If we would receive the life supply from the Lord, we must give Him our convenience, our means of livelihood, and our resources. The more we give Him, the more life supply we will receive from Him. Ultimately, in order to receive the best portion from the Lord, including food for satisfaction and seed for reproduction (v. 23), we must hand ourselves, every part of our being, over to Him.
Eventually, there was only one landlord in Egypt, and all the people became enjoyers on the same level. This is a prefigure of the millennium, in which the earth and all its fullness will belong to Christ (Psa. 2:8; 24:1; Dan. 7:13-14) and all the nations on the earth will enjoy Christ’s riches.
Gn 47:14a bought  -   Gen. 41:56-57
Gn 47:171 fed
Lit., guided (as a shepherd).
Gn 47:24a fifth  -   Gen. 41:34
Gn 47:26a only  -   Gen. 47:22
Gn 47:27a Goshen  -   Gen. 45:10
Gn 47:28a years  -   Gen. 47:9
Gn 47:291a thigh  -   Gen. 24:2
To put the hand under the thigh means to swear. In 32:25 God touched Jacob’s thigh (see note 2 there). After that experience, Jacob could still walk, albeit with a limp (32:31). However, as he was departing this life, Jacob could no longer do anything for himself; he could only lie on his bed. His natural strength having been fully terminated, he could trust only in God’s grace, represented here by Joseph, a type of Christ. It was not by Jacob’s strength but by the hand of Joseph that Jacob was finally brought to the good land for his actual inheritance (50:5-13). Likewise, it is not by our strength but by the grace of Christ that we inherit God’s promise (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9).
Gn 47:301 lie
Jacob viewed his death as lying down to sleep, indicating that he believed in resurrection (1 Thes. 4:13-16). He charged Joseph not to bury him in Egypt (v. 29) but in the good land, in the cave of Machpelah, where his fathers had been buried (49:29-32), indicating that he died in faith, believing that on the day of resurrection he would rise up to inherit the good land according to God’s promise (28:13; 35:12).
Gn 47:30a fathers  -   Gen. 49:29
Gn 47:31a bowed  -   Heb. 11:21
Gn 47:311 at
The Septuagint translates this phrase on the top of his staff (cf. Heb. 11:21). See note 211 in Heb. 11.
Gn 47:31b bed  -   Gen. 48:2; 1 Kings 1:47
Genesis Chapter 48
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 48:31a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Heb. El Shaddai. See note 12 in ch. 17.
Gn 48:3b Luz  -   Gen. 28:19; 35:6
Gn 48:4a fruitful  -   Gen. 1:22
Gn 48:4b give  -   Gen. 12:7
Gn 48:51 mine
Jacob made the two sons of Joseph, who was born of Rachel, his first two sons to replace Reuben and Simeon, who were born of Leah. In blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, Jacob gave Joseph a double portion of the land (Josh. 16 — 17). Thus, the birthright among Jacob’s sons was shifted from Reuben to Joseph through Jacob’s desire to remember Rachel (v. 7). God honored what Jacob did and made it a fact by the allotting of the land at the time the children of Israel entered the good land. See note 23 in Matt. 1.
In Genesis there are four cases of the shifting of the birthright. The shifting of the birthright from Esau to Jacob (25:22-26, 29-34) reveals that receiving the birthright does not depend on our natural birth but on God’s predestination (Rom. 9:10-13). The shifting of the birthright from Zarah to Pharez (38:27-30) illustrates the fact that the granting of the birthright does not depend on man’s doing but on God’s choosing. The shifting of the birthright from Reuben to Joseph (49:3-4; 1 Chron. 5:1-2) reveals that, although we may be predestinated to have the birthright, we can lose it by indulging in fornication. The shifting of the birthright from Manasseh to Ephraim (vv. 12-20) shows that the Lord’s blessing does not depend on man’s natural maneuvering but on God’s desire and selection. The last case of the shifting of the birthright in the Scriptures is the shifting of the birthright from Israel to the church (see note 311 in Matt. 21).
Gn 48:5a Ephraim  -   Gen. 41:50-52; 46:20; Josh. 14:4
Gn 48:7a died  -   Gen. 35:16-19
Gn 48:71 to
Or, by me.
Gn 48:9a given  -   Gen. 33:5
Gn 48:9b bless  -   Heb. 11:21; cf. Gen. 27:4
Gn 48:10a dim  -   cf. Gen. 27:1
Gn 48:101 Joseph
Lit., he.
Gn 48:14a Israel  -   vv. 14-16: Heb. 11:21
Gn 48:141 guiding
Or, crossing his hands. Jacob’s father, Isaac, blessed blindly (27:1, 23, 27), but Jacob’s blessing of his two grandsons was full of insight. Although his physical eyes were dim (v. 10), because Jacob was mature and was one with God in life, he was clear in his spirit that God’s will was to establish Ephraim above Manasseh (vv. 17-20).
Gn 48:151 God
Jacob’s threefold mentioning of God in vv. 15-16 is a reference to the Triune God. The God before whom Abraham and Isaac walked is the Father; the God who shepherded Jacob his whole life is the Spirit; and the Angel who redeemed him from all evil is the Son. This is the Triune God in Jacob’s experience. See note 141 in 2 Cor. 13.
Gn 48:15a shepherded  -   Psa. 23:1
Gn 48:152 all
Lit., from since I was, to this day.
Gn 48:16a Angel  -   Gen. 31:11; Exo. 14:19; 23:20; Acts 12:11
Gn 48:16b redeemed  -   Psa. 34:22; Isa. 44:22-23; 49:7; 63:9
Gn 48:16c multitude  -   cf. Num. 26:34, 37
Gn 48:17a right  -   Gen. 48:14
Gn 48:191a multitude  -   cf. Num. 1:33, 35; 2:19, 21; Deut. 33:17
Or, fullness; plethora.
Gn 48:21a with  -   cf. Gen. 46:4
Gn 48:22a given  -   John 4:5
Gn 48:221 portion
Or, mountain slope.
Genesis Chapter 49
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 49:11 tell
Jacob’s prophesying with blessing (v. 28) concerning his twelve sons is a further manifestation of his maturity in the divine life. As a God-constituted person, Jacob was saturated with God; thus, his speaking was God’s speaking and his word was God’s word (cf. 1 Cor. 7:25, 40 and notes).
Jacob’s twelve sons eventually became the twelve tribes of the house of Israel, a type of the church as God’s house, composed of all the believers (1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:5-6). Thus, whatever was spoken prophetically by Jacob concerning his sons was a type, a picture, of the church and should be applied to the church and to the spiritual experience of the believers, as well as to the sons of Israel (cf. 1 Cor. 10:6).
Gn 49:1a last  -   Deut. 4:30; 31:29; Dan. 2:28; 10:14
Gn 49:2a Assemble  -   vv. 2-27: cf. Deut. 33:6-25
Gn 49:3a Reuben  -   Gen. 29:32
Gn 49:3b firstfruits  -   Deut. 21:17; Psa. 78:51; 105:36
Gn 49:41 not
Although Reuben had the preeminence of the birthright, because of his defilement he lost the birthright (cf. Eph. 5:5; see note 23 in Matt. 1) and became in danger of dying or of being greatly decreased (Deut. 33:6). This should be a solemn warning to us.
Gn 49:4a bed  -   Gen. 35:22; 1 Chron. 5:1
Gn 49:51a Simeon  -   Gen. 29:33-34; 34:25-26
Because of their cruelty (34:25-30) Simeon and Levi received no blessing from Jacob. Rather, Jacob exercised judgment over them to scatter them among the children of Israel (v. 7) so that they would not be able to behave cruelly according to their disposition (Josh. 19:1, 9; 21:1-3, 41). Later, Levi used his disposition in a renewed, transformed way to slay the worshippers of the golden calf (Exo. 32:26-28). Because of his absoluteness, desperation, and faithfulness toward God, Levi received the blessing of the priesthood with God’s Urim and Thummim (Deut. 33:8-9).
Gn 49:6a glory  -   Psa. 16:9; 57:8
Gn 49:71 Cursed
Cf. note 81 in Num. 35.
Gn 49:7a divide  -   cf. Josh. 19:1-9; 21:1-42; 1 Chron. 4:24-39
Gn 49:81a Judah  -   Gen. 29:35
Verses 8-12 contain three wonderful seeds of the three main truths in the New Testament regarding Christ, which are the contents of the gospel: the seed of Christ’s victory (vv. 8-9), the seed of Christ’s kingdom (v. 10), and the seed of the rest in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ’s life (vv. 11-12). These three truths are a summary of the New Testament.
Gn 49:8b sons  -   cf. Gen. 27:29
Gn 49:9a young  -   Hosea 5:14
Gn 49:91b lion  -   Rev. 5:5; cf. Num. 23:24; 24:9
Judah, likened poetically to a young lion here, is a type of Christ as the ultimate Overcomer, the fighting, victorious Lion (Rev. 5:5 and note 1).
Gn 49:92 up
The young lion in his freshness and strength is for fighting, for seizing the prey. When a lion goes after some prey, he descends from his dwelling place on the mountain, and after he takes the prey, he brings it up the mountain with him to devour it. After enjoying the prey, the lion couches, i.e., lies down, to rest in satisfaction. This is a picture of the victory of Christ over His enemies in His crucifixion (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14) and of His satisfaction and rest in His ascension as the issue of His victory (Eph. 4:8 and notes).
Gn 49:93 lioness
A lioness, a female lion, is for producing baby lions. Christ is not only the fighting lion and the resting lion but also the producing lioness, who brought forth many overcomers as His “lion cubs.”
Gn 49:94 who
That no one dares to rouse Judah up signifies that Christ’s terrifying power in His resurrection and ascension has subdued everything (Matt. 28:18; Phil. 2:9; Eph. 1:21-22).
Gn 49:101a scepter  -   Psa. 60:7; 108:8; Num. 21:18; 24:17
Christ’s victory brings in the kingdom. The scepter, a symbol of the kingdom (Psa. 45:6), denotes the kingly authority of Christ. That the scepter will never depart from Judah means that the kingship will never depart from Christ (2 Sam. 7:12-13; Dan. 2:44-45; 7:13-14; Rev. 11:15; 22:1, 3).
Gn 49:102 between
Between his feet is a poetic term denoting seed or posterity. This means that kings will always be produced from Judah’s descendants (1 Chron. 5:2). Christ, the King in God’s kingdom, is a descendant of Judah (Heb. 7:14).
Gn 49:103 Shiloh
Meaning peace bringer; referring to Christ in His second coming as the Prince of Peace, who will bring peace to the whole earth (Isa. 9:6-7; 2:4).
Gn 49:10b comes  -   Ezek. 21:27; Matt. 2:6; 11:3; Luke 7:19
Gn 49:104 peoples
Equivalent to the nations, who will submit to Christ and obey Him at His second coming (Isa. 2:1-3; 11:10).
Gn 49:111 foal
A foal or a donkey is an animal used for transportation (cf. Matt. 21:5). To tie a donkey indicates that the journey is over and the destination has been reached. The vine in this verse typifies the living Christ, who is full of life (John 15:1, 5). To tie our donkey to the vine signifies to cease from our labor and our striving in our natural life and to rest in Christ, the living One who is the source of life (cf. Matt. 11:28-30). Because Christ has won the victory and has gained the kingdom, He has become the rich vine to us for our enjoyment, rest, and satisfaction.
Gn 49:112 garment
Garments signify our behavior in our daily living, and wine signifies life (John 2:3). Hence, to wash our garments in wine and our robe in the blood of grapes signifies to soak our behavior, our daily walk, in the enjoyment of the riches of Christ’s life (Matt. 9:17 and note 1).
Gn 49:121 Dark
Or, Red. The eyes being red with wine and the teeth being white with milk signifies transformation from death to life by the enjoyment of the rich life of Christ. The teeth function to receive food into the mouth and to help the utterance in speaking. Spiritually, the whiteness of the teeth here indicates the sound, healthy function to take in God’s Word as food and to utter His word so that others may be nourished.
Gn 49:13a Zebulun  -   Gen. 30:20; Deut. 33:18-19; Josh. 19:10-16
Gn 49:131 ships
The prophecy concerning Judah portrays the contents of the gospel (see note 81). Jacob’s prophecy concerning Zebulun is a picture of the preaching of the gospel. Zebulun was part of Galilee, the place where the Lord Jesus began His ministry of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 4:12-23; 28:7, 10, 16-20). It was a shore for ships, a seaport. In ancient times the ships sailed from the seaport with their cargoes by the power of the wind. This portrays the sending out of the glad tidings of the gospel by the Galilean preachers under the power of the Holy Spirit as the heavenly wind (Acts 1:8; 2:2-41). See note 273 in Psa. 68.
Gn 49:132b Sidon  -   Acts 13:46-47
The mentioning of Sidon, a Gentile seaport, indicates that the gospel would reach the Gentile world and spread to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8; 13:46-47).
Gn 49:14a Issachar  -   Gen. 30:18; Deut. 33:18-19; 1 Chron. 12:32
Gn 49:141 Couching
The strong donkey signifies the natural man; to couch is to rest in satisfaction; and the sheepfolds signify the denominations and various religions based on the law (cf. John 10:1-9, 16 and notes). The poetry in this verse portrays the genuine church life as the issue of the preaching of the gospel, in which our natural man rests in satisfaction between (outside) the religious sheepfolds.
In Moses’ blessing in Deut. 33:18b, Issachar was to rejoice for his tents. There the tents signify the local churches as the expressions of the unique Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4a), in which the believers rejoice in the enjoyment of Christ’s riches (Phil. 4:4; 1 Thes. 5:16).
Gn 49:14b sheepfolds  -   Judg. 5:16; Psa. 68:13
Gn 49:151 land
The land typifies Christ as the green pasture (John 10:9 and note 2) enjoyed by the believers in the church life.
Gn 49:152 task-worker
A task-worker does work assigned by his master. This signifies the members of the Body of Christ, whose service in the Body is assigned by the Head (1 Cor. 12:4-6, 18, 28; Eph. 2:10; 4:11-12). Such service eventually becomes a tribute offered to the Master for His satisfaction (cf. Rom. 15:16).
Gn 49:153 tribute
The second group of Jacob’s sons portray the gospel, signified by Judah and fulfilled in the four Gospels; the preaching of the gospel, signified by Zebulun and fulfilled in Acts; and the church life, signified by Issachar and fulfilled in the remaining books of the New Testament. The consummation of Jacob’s prophecy concerning Judah, Zebulun, and Issachar is seen in Deut. 33:19, which says that the peoples, the nations, will be called to the mountain, signifying the kingdom of God (Dan. 2:35), where they will offer sacrifices of righteousness and enjoy the abundance of the seas (the church composed mainly of Gentile believers — see note 11 in Matt. 13) and the hidden treasures of the sand (the kingdom hidden in the earth — Matt. 13:44). This shows that the gospel, the preaching of the gospel, and the church life as the issue of the gospel result in the enjoyment of the church life and the kingdom life (cf. Rom. 14:17 and note 1).
Gn 49:16a Dan  -   Gen. 30:6; Deut. 33:22
Gn 49:161 tribes
The Hebrew word also means scepters. This prophecy with blessing indicates that Jacob was concerned that Dan would be cut off because of his apostasy (v. 17; Deut. 13:5-18). Jacob’s word here means that Dan not only would remain as a tribe but also would be a scepter, an authority. In 1 Chron. 2 — 9 and in Rev. 7 Dan is omitted in the record of God’s holy people (cf. Rev. 3:5), but he will still be a tribe in the millennium because of his father’s blessing (Ezek. 48:1). See note 61, par. 2, in Rev. 7.
Gn 49:171 serpent
In Deut. 33:22 Dan is likened to a young lion leaping from Bashan. As a young lion, Dan fought in order to gain more land (Josh. 19:47; Judg. 18:27-29), the land signifying Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8). After his success in his victory Dan became a serpent, a viper, acting individualistically and independently in his pride to set up an idol and a divisive center of worship and to ordain a hired priest in the city of Dan during the time that the house of God was in Shiloh (Judg. 18:30-31; cf. Deut. 12:5 and note). As a serpent Dan bit the horse’s heels so that its rider fell backward, signifying that the apostasy brought in by Dan became a great stumbling block to the nation of Israel. Throughout the history of the church many spiritual people have followed Dan’s example, thereby frustrating God’s people from going on in His ordained way. A further fulfillment of Jacob’s prophecy concerning Dan is seen in 1 Kings 12:26-31 (see notes there).
Gn 49:18a waited  -   Psa. 25:5; Isa. 25:9; Micah 7:7
Gn 49:181b salvation  -   Psa. 119:166, 174; Luke 2:30
Jacob anticipated a salvation from the stumbling block that eventually resulted from the apostasy of the tribe of Dan.
Gn 49:19a Gad  -   Gen. 30:11; Deut. 33:20-21
Gn 49:191 their
Gad’s victory in this verse, corresponding to his victory in Deut. 33:20, signifies the recovery of the victory of Christ lost by Dan because of his apostasy. According to Deut. 33:20-21, Gad was enlarged because of his victory; he provided the first part of the good land (the land east of the Jordan) for himself, but before enjoying his portion, he went with his brothers and fought with them to gain their portion of the land west of the Jordan (Num. 32:1-32), thus executing Jehovah’s righteousness and His judgments in Israel. Dan’s failure was because he was individualistic and cared only for himself, whereas Gad’s success was because he was corporate and took care of the need of his brothers. In New Testament terms, to follow Gad’s example we need to have the corporate sense of the Body and care for the members of the Body for the accomplishing of God’s will, which is to have the Body life (Rom. 12:1-21).
Gn 49:201a Asher’s  -   Gen. 30:13; Deut. 33:24-25
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, From Asher.
Gn 49:202 rich
Lit., fat. Both Jacob’s prophecy in this verse and Moses’ blessing in Deut. 33:24-25 show the sufficiency of Asher, coming after the recovery with Gad (v. 19). Asher was blessed with rich food, with the rich provision of life. His dipping his foot in oil (Deut. 33:24) signifies the enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit for the daily walk (Phil. 1:19; Gal. 3:5). The issue of such a rich provision is the enjoyment of absolute rest with peace, strength, security, and sufficiency.
Gn 49:21a Naphtali  -   Gen. 30:8; Deut. 33:23
Gn 49:211 hind
The hind typifies the resurrected Christ (see title of Psa. 22 and note). The beautiful words are uttered by Christ and by those who experience Christ in His resurrection (Luke 4:22; John 7:46; Matt. 28:16, 18-20; Acts 2:32-36). According to Deut. 33:23, Naphtali is satisfied with favor (the Old Testament equivalent of New Testament grace) and is full of the blessing of Jehovah (referring to the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies — Eph. 1:3). Furthermore, Naphtali will possess the sea (the Gentile world — see note 11 in Matt. 13) and the south (the land of Israel), signifying that those who experience the resurrected Christ will possess the whole earth through their proclaiming of Christ (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8; Rom. 15:19). See note 274 in Psa. 68.
Gn 49:22a Joseph  -   Gen. 30:22-24; Deut. 33:13-17; cf. Gen. 41:51-52; Josh. 17:14-18
Gn 49:221 bough
Joseph as a fruitful bough typifies Christ as the branch (Isa. 11:1) for the branching out of God through His believers as His branches (John 15:1, 5). In this verse the fountain signifies God, the source of fruitfulness (Psa. 36:9; Jer. 2:13), and the branches’ running over the wall signifies that Christ’s believers as His branches spread Christ over every restriction, magnifying Him in all circumstances (Phil. 1:20; 4:22; Philem. 10).
Gn 49:241 agile
Or, strong. Verses 23-24 refer to Joseph’s suffering at the hands of his brothers (37:18-31). Joseph overcame in his sufferings (cf. Rom. 8:36-37) because he was strengthened by God, the Mighty One of Jacob and the All-sufficient One, in whom he trusted (cf. 2 Tim. 2:1; Phil. 4:13).
Gn 49:24a Mighty  -   Psa. 132:2, 5; Isa. 49:26; 60:16; 1:24; cf. Acts 7:46
Gn 49:24b Shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; 80:1; Zech. 13:7; Matt. 2:6; John 10:11, 14, 16; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4; Rev. 7:17
Gn 49:24c stone  -   Deut. 32:4; cf. Isa. 28:16; Zech. 3:9; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4
Gn 49:25a God  -   Gen. 50:17
Gn 49:251b All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1; 35:11
Heb. Shaddai. See note 12 in ch. 17.
Gn 49:252 bless
The blessings bestowed on Joseph, as seen in vv. 25-26 and Deut. 33:13-16, encompass all time, from ancient times to eternity (v. 26; Deut. 33:15), and all space, from heaven to earth, including the deep under the earth (v. 25b; Deut. 33:13-14, 16a). Time plus space equals the universe. As the one universally blessed by his father, Joseph typifies Christ, the appointed Heir of all things (Heb. 1:2; Col. 1:16), and His believers, Christ’s partners who participate in His inheritance (1 Cor. 3:21-22; Rom. 8:17; Heb. 1:9; 3:14; 1:14 and note). The universal blessing on Joseph will consummate in the new heaven and new earth, in which everything will be a blessing to Christ and His believers (Rev. 21:1, 4-5; 22:3, 5).
Gn 49:25c blessings  -   Deut. 33:13
Gn 49:26a everlasting  -   Deut. 33:15; Hab. 3:6
Gn 49:26b head  -   Deut. 33:16
Gn 49:261 separate
Heb. nazir; translated Nazarite in Judg. 13:5, 7; 16:17. Here Joseph typifies Christ as the Nazarite, the One who was separated from the common people to live wholly for God (see note 22 in Num. 6). The universal blessing is bestowed on the crown of the head of such a Nazarite (cf. Deut. 33:16b).
Gn 49:27a Benjamin  -   Gen. 35:18; Deut. 33:12; Judg. 20:21, 25
Gn 49:271 ravenous
Lit., tearing. As a tearing wolf, Benjamin is a type of Christ, who destroys the enemy by tearing him to pieces (Eph. 4:8; 2 Cor. 10:5).
Gn 49:272 spoil
Moses’ blessing in Deut. 33:12 says that Benjamin will dwell securely beside Jehovah and that Jehovah will dwell between Benjamin’s shoulders. Jerusalem with God’s temple, God’s dwelling place, was located in the territory of Benjamin (Judg. 1:21). Thus, the blessing of Jacob’s twelve sons ends with God’s dwelling place, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed for eternity (Rev. 21 — 22). This is the greatest blessing to God’s people.
Genesis 49:1-28 is an abstract of the entire Bible and a summary of the history of God’s people, as seen in the twelve sons of Jacob, the nation of Israel, and the church. It is also a portrait of the personal history of every believer. Jacob’s first four sons — Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah — were sinners, indicating that the history of God’s people begins with sinners. However, two of these sinners, Levi and Judah, were transformed to become priests and kings. Out of the kingship with Judah a kingly salvation was produced, which was preached as the gospel in the Gentile world by Zebulun and which issued in the church life with Issachar. But the apostasy came in through Dan, followed by the recovery with Gad, which issued in the sufficiency of the riches of Christ with Asher and in the resurrection with Naphtali. Finally, the history of God’s people concludes with Joseph and Benjamin, who typify Christ as the One who is altogether victorious and perfect, without defect. According to Jacob’s prophecy and Moses’ word, Joseph brought in God’s boundless, universal blessing (vv. 22-26; Deut. 33:13-16), and Benjamin, God’s eternal dwelling place (Deut. 33:12). Thus, the conclusion of Gen. 49 corresponds with the conclusion of the entire Bible — the universal blessing in the new heaven and the new earth, in which is God’s eternal dwelling, the New Jerusalem, as the issue and goal of God’s universal blessing (cf. Eph. 1:3; 2:22).
Gn 49:291 Bury
See note 301 in ch. 47.
Gn 49:29a my  -   Gen. 47:30
Gn 49:30a Machpelah  -   Gen. 23:9, 16-18; 50:13
Gn 49:31a buried  -   Gen. 25:9; 23:19
Gn 49:31b buried  -   Gen. 35:29
Gn 49:33a expired  -   Acts 7:15
Genesis Chapter 50
Notes and Cross-references
Gn 50:1a Joseph  -   Gen. 46:4
Gn 50:3a wept  -   cf. Gen. 50:10; Num. 20:29; Deut. 34:8
Gn 50:5a grave  -   cf. 2 Chron. 16:14; Isa. 22:16; Matt. 27:60
Gn 50:10a mourning  -   Gen. 50:3
Gn 50:111 Abel-mizraim
Meaning mourning of the Egyptians.
Gn 50:13a Machpelah  -   Gen. 23:9; 49:30
Gn 50:13b bought  -   Acts 7:16
Gn 50:17a God  -   Gen. 49:25
Gn 50:18a fell  -   Gen. 37:10
Gn 50:191 Do
See note 51 in ch. 45.
Gn 50:19a am  -   cf. Gen. 30:2; 2 Kings 5:7
Gn 50:20a preserve  -   Gen. 45:5, 7
Gn 50:21a sustain  -   Gen. 45:11; 47:12
Gn 50:211 kindly
Lit., to their heart.
Gn 50:23a children  -   cf. Job 42:16; Psa. 128:6
Gn 50:23b Machir  -   Num. 32:39; 1 Chron. 7:14-15
Gn 50:24a Joseph  -   Heb. 11:22
Gn 50:24b land  -   Gen. 15:18; 26:3; 28:13; 35:12
Gn 50:251 bring
Cf. Exo. 13:19. Like Jacob, Joseph died in faith, expecting that he would be resurrected to inherit the good land and participate in all the enjoyment therein. See note 301 in ch. 47.
Gn 50:25a bones  -   Exo. 13:19; Josh. 24:32
Gn 50:261a died  -   Exo. 1:6
In the beginning of this book God created man in His image that man might express Him and gave man His dominion that man might represent Him (1:26). After the experiences of so many called ones, this book concludes with a life that, in Jacob on the one hand, expressed God in His image and, in Joseph on the other hand, represented God with His dominion (see note 11, par. 2, in ch. 37). How excellent and wonderful this is! However, what is portrayed in Genesis is still a shadow in the age of typology. At Joseph’s time the reality had not come. Hence, in the conclusion of this book Joseph died expecting the age of fulfillment, in which he would share in the reality.
Gn 50:26b embalmed  -   cf. Gen. 50:2
< Genesis • Exodus Outline >
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Exodus Outline
I.   Enslaved — 1:1-22
II.   Redeemed and saved — 2:1 — 15:21
A.   Preparation of the savior — 2:1-25
B.   God’s calling of the prepared one — 3:1-22
C.   Three subjective signs of being called and sent by God — 4:1-9
D.   The male help and the female help to the called one — 4:10-31
E.   God’s demand and Pharaoh’s resistance — 5:1 — 13:22
1.   The first conflict between Jehovah and Pharaoh for the release of Israel — 5:1-23
2.   God’s further training of Moses — 6:1 — 7:7
3.   The second conflict, exposing the true nature of Egyptian living — 7:8-14
4.   The third conflict: The first plague — blood — 7:15-25
5.   The fourth conflict: The second plague — frogs — 8:1-15
6.   The fifth conflict: The third plague — lice — 8:16-19
7.   The sixth conflict: The fourth plague — flies — 8:20-32
8.   The seventh conflict: The fifth plague — pestilence — 9:1-7
9.   The eighth conflict: The sixth plague — boils — 9:8-12
10.   The ninth conflict: The seventh plague — hail — 9:13-35
11.   The tenth conflict: The eighth plague — locusts — 10:1-20
12.   The eleventh conflict: The ninth plague — darkness — 10:21-29
13.   The twelfth and final conflict: The tenth plague — the slaughter of the firstborn — 11:1 — 13:22
a.   Jehovah’s sovereignty — 11:1-10
b.   The Passover — 12:1-36, 43-51
c.   Israel’s exodus from Egypt — 12:37-42; 13:1-22
F.   Pharaoh’s last struggle and Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea — 14:1-31
G.   The praising of the saved ones — 15:1-21
1.   The song of Moses — vv. 1-19
2.   The song of Miriam — vv. 20-21
III.   Led — 15:22 — 18:27
A.   Israel’s experience at Marah and Elim — 15:22-27
B.   The experience of manna — the heavenly diet — 16:1-36
C.   The living water out of the smitten rock — 17:1-7
D.   The defeat of Amalek — 17:8-16
E.   A portrait of the kingdom — 18:1-27
IV.   Receiving revelation — 19:1 — 34:35
A.   Brought into the presence of God and into the knowledge of Him — 19:1-25
B.   The testimony of God (the law) revealing God to His people — 20:1-17
C.   The negative aspect of the law — 20:18-21
D.   The statutes of the law concerning the worship of God — 20:22-26
E.   The first ordinance of the law concerning man’s relationship with others — 21:1-6
F.   Sundry ordinances of the law — 21:7 — 23:19
G.   The Angel of Jehovah for His people to take possession of the promised land — 23:20-33
H.   The enactment of the covenant — 24:1-8
I.   The vision of God — 24:9-11
J.   Moses’ stay with God under His glory — 24:12-18
K.   The vision of the tabernacle and its furniture — 25:1 — 30:38
1.   Concerning the materials and the pattern — 25:1-9
2.   The Ark of the Testimony with the expiatory cover — 25:10-22
3.   The table of the bread of the Presence — 25:23-30
4.   The lampstand — 25:31-40
5.   The covering of the tabernacle — 26:1-14
6.   The boards of the tabernacle — 26:15-30
7.   The veil within the tabernacle — 26:31-35
8.   The screen for the entrance of the tent — 26:36-37
9.   The altar of burnt offering — 27:1-8
10.   The court of the tabernacle — 27:9-19
11.   The lighting of the lamps — 27:20-21
12.   The garments for the priesthood — 28:1-43
13.   The sanctification of Aaron and his sons to be the priests — 29:1-46
14.   The golden incense altar — 30:1-10
15.   The expiation silver — 30:11-16
16.   The laver of bronze — 30:17-21
17.   The holy anointing oil — 30:22-33
18.   The incense — 30:34-38
L.   The workers of the tabernacle, the furniture, and the priestly garments — 31:1-11
M.   The Sabbath in relation to the building work of the tabernacle — 31:12-17
N.   The breaking of the law — 31:18 — 32:6
O.   The dealing with the idol and the idolaters — 32:7-29
P.   A companion of God — 32:30 — 33:23
Q.   Moses’ stay with God — 34:1-35
V.   Building the tabernacle — 35:1 — 40:38
A.   The making of the tabernacle with its furniture and the garments for the priests — 35:1 — 39:31
1.   A word concerning the Sabbath — 35:1-3
2.   The offering of the materials and the preparing of the workers — 35:4 — 36:7
3.   The curtains and coverings of the tabernacle — 36:8-19
4.   The boards of the tabernacle — 36:20-34
5.   The veil within the tabernacle — 36:35-36
6.   The screen for the entrance of the tent — 36:37-38
7.   The Ark of the Testimony — 37:1-9
8.   The table of the bread of the Presence — 37:10-16
9.   The golden lampstand — 37:17-24
10.   The altar of incense — 37:25-28
11.   The holy anointing oil and the pure incense — 37:29
12.   The altar of burnt offering — 38:1-7
13.   The laver of bronze — 38:8
14.   The court of the tabernacle — 38:9-20
15.   Counting the offered materials — 38:21-31
16.   Making the garments for the priests — 39:1-31
B.   The work of the tabernacle presented to, examined by, and blessed by Moses — 39:32-43
C.   The erecting of the tabernacle — 40:1-38
1.   The commandments of the Lord to Moses concerning the raising up of the tabernacle — vv. 1-16
2.   The erection of the tabernacle — vv. 17-33
3.   The glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle — vv. 34-35
4.   Moving with God’s dwelling place — vv. 36-38
Exodus >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Exodus Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 1:11 Now
Historically, Exodus continues Genesis; however, Exodus portrays the corporate aspect of the spiritual experience of God’s people, whereas Genesis portrays primarily the individual aspect. These two aspects represent the complete spiritual experience of God’s people.
Ex 1:1a names  -   vv. 1-4: cf. Gen. 35:23-26; 46:8-26
Ex 1:12 Egypt
Egypt typifies the world full of fleshly enjoyment, which brings God’s people into slavery and bondage under Satan, the ruler of the world (John 12:31; Eph. 2:2), typified by Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
Ex 1:51 persons
Lit., souls.
Ex 1:5a seventy  -   Gen. 46:27; Deut. 10:22
Ex 1:61a died  -   Gen. 50:26; Acts 7:15
The book of Genesis concludes with a dead man in a coffin in Egypt (Gen. 50:26). This indicates that God’s chosen people were in a situation of death in Egypt. Although they were in death, they were very living and active (cf. v. 7). While they were making a living in Egypt and were enjoying the pleasures of Egypt, they were usurped and enslaved by Pharaoh to serve him with harshness (vv. 10-14; 2:23; 5:6-18). Thus they were detained from fulfilling the purpose for which God had created and chosen them. The situation of the children of Israel in Egypt under Pharaoh’s tyranny is a full picture of the life of fallen mankind in the world under the usurping and enslaving hand of Satan and his evil power of darkness. See Eph. 2:1-3 and notes.
Ex 1:7a fruitful  -   Deut. 10:22; 26:5; Psa. 105:24; Acts 7:17
Ex 1:8a new  -   Acts 7:18
Ex 1:9a stronger  -   Psa. 105:24
Ex 1:10a wisely  -   Psa. 105:25; Acts 7:19
Ex 1:11a afflict  -   Gen. 15:13; Exo. 3:7; Deut. 26:6; Acts 7:6, 19
Ex 1:11b burdens  -   Exo. 2:11; 5:4-5; 6:6-7
Ex 1:111 Pithom
In Hebrew the two names mean, respectively, mouth of integrity and thunder of the standard. These names indicate that the cities were built for pride and boastful display.
Ex 1:11c Raamses  -   Gen. 47:11; Exo. 12:37
See note 111.
Ex 1:12a multiplied  -   Acts 7:17
Ex 1:14a hard  -   Exo. 2:23; 6:9
Ex 1:141 mortar
Cf. Gen. 11:3 and note.
Ex 1:16a When  -   Acts 7:19; Heb. 11:23
Ex 1:161 birthstool
Lit., stones.
Ex 1:162 son
According to the Bible the male life represents the life that is for God’s purpose (cf. Gen. 1:26; 1 Cor. 11:7a; Eph. 2:15; Rev. 12:5) and the female life, especially among the fallen people, represents the life that is for man’s pleasure (cf. Gen. 2:18; 1 Cor. 11:9). Pharaoh’s intention to kill the sons and spare the daughters typifies Satan’s strategy to destroy the life that is for God’s purpose and preserve the life that is for man’s pleasure.
Ex 1:171 feared
At the beginning of the Old Testament, Satan visited a female, Eve, and used her to deaden the male life (Gen. 3:1-6), but at the beginning of the New Testament, God visited the virgin Mary and used her to bring in His salvation (Luke 1:26-38; 2:30). In the same principle, Pharaoh attempted to use the midwives to kill the male life, but God used them to keep alive the life that is for His purpose.
Ex 1:17a did  -   cf. Dan. 3:18; Acts 5:29
Ex 1:22a son  -   Acts 7:19; Heb. 11:23
Ex 1:221 born
Some ancient versions add, to the Hebrews.
Ex 1:222 River
I.e., the Nile. So also throughout the book.
Exodus Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 2:1a wife  -   cf. Exo. 6:20; Num. 26:59
Ex 2:21 hid
In ch. 1 God used the female life to preserve His people (see note 171 there), and in this chapter He used the female life to prepare a savior for His people, whom He had preserved for His purpose. In preparing Moses as a savior for Israel, God used three women — Moses’ mother, Moses’ sister, and Pharaoh’s daughter — to give him birth, to nurse him, to rescue him, to raise him, and to train him for His purpose (vv. 2-10; Acts 7:20-22). God’s use of these women reveals that during critical times the only life that can be used by God is the female life, signifying the life that stands with God and is dependent on Him. See note 211, par. 2.
Ex 2:2a three  -   Heb. 11:23
Ex 2:4a sister  -   Exo. 15:20; Num. 26:59; 1 Chron. 6:3
Ex 2:9a nursed  -   Acts 7:20
Ex 2:10a son  -   Acts 7:21; cf. Heb. 11:24
Ex 2:101 Moses
Meaning drawn out.
Ex 2:11a And  -   vv. 11-14: Acts 7:23-28
Ex 2:11b burdens  -   Exo. 1:11
Ex 2:141 frightened
This word apparently contradicts Heb. 11:27. Outwardly, Moses was afraid and sought to escape; inwardly, he considered the cost and voluntarily chose to identify himself with the people of God (Heb. 11:24-26).
Ex 2:15a fled  -   Acts 7:29; Heb. 11:27
Ex 2:211 stay
Moses remained in Midian for forty years (Acts 7:30). God used the first forty years of Moses’ life to build up a man who was strong in the natural life (Acts 7:22; vv. 11-13). Then, in order to strip Moses of his natural ability, God arranged to have him work as a shepherd in the land of Midian for another forty years (3:1). God’s work to perfect Moses made him a useful vessel for God’s purpose.
According to Exodus, being useful to God is related to building up His dwelling place and to fighting for His interests on earth. Chapters 1 and 2 show that the life useful to God in these matters is the life signified by the female life. In the Bible a male signifies an independent life, whereas a female signifies a life that depends on God (cf. Luke 1:26-38). The unique male is God in Christ; only He has an independent life. In their relationship to God all God’s people, both men and women, are “females,” components of His wife (Isa. 54:5; John 3:29). As such, they must live a life that depends on Him for everything and is under His headship (John 15:5; 1 Cor. 11:3). At the age of forty Moses lived an independent life, taking the position of a “male” before God by exercising his natural strength to strike an Egyptian (vv. 11-12). In the second forty years of his life Moses was trained by God not to rely on his natural life, and in his third forty years he lived the life of a “female,” a life dependent on God. This is the life God can use for the fulfillment of His purpose.
Ex 2:21a Zipporah  -   Exo. 4:25; 18:2
Ex 2:221a Gershom  -   Exo. 18:3
Meaning a sojourner there.
Ex 2:22b sojourner  -   Acts 7:29, 6; Heb. 11:13-14
Ex 2:23a bondage  -   Exo. 1:14; Deut. 26:6
Ex 2:23b cry  -   Exo. 3:9; cf. Gen. 18:20-21; James 5:4
Ex 2:24a heard  -   Exo. 6:5; Deut. 26:7; Acts 7:34
Ex 2:24b remembered  -   Psa. 105:8; 106:45; Gen. 9:15
Ex 2:24c covenant  -   Gen. 15:18; Exo. 6:4-5
Ex 2:25a looked  -   Gen. 50:24-25; Exo. 4:31
Exodus Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 3:11 Moses
Moses was the first fully qualified servant of God in the Bible, and God’s calling of Moses is the standard of His calling of all His servants. As one who was called and sent by God to His people, Moses typifies Christ as the Apostle sent to us from God and with God (John 6:46; 8:16, 29; Heb. 3:1-6).
Ex 3:1a mountain  -   Exo. 4:27; 18:5; 24:13; 1 Kings 19:8; cf. Num. 10:33
Ex 3:2a And  -   vv. 2-8: cf. Acts 7:30-35; Exo. 3:16; 4:5; Heb. 11:27
Ex 3:21b Angel  -   Gen. 22:11-12; Judg. 6:11-24; Acts 7:35; cf. Exo. 14:19
The title the Angel of Jehovah refers mainly to Christ, the Son of God, as the One sent by God (cf. John 8:42) to save His people from their situation of suffering (cf. Judg. 6:12-22; 13:3-22). According to vv. 2 and 6, the Angel of Jehovah, the sent One, was Jehovah Himself, the sending One (cf. Zech. 2:6-11), and Jehovah is the Triune God (vv. 6, 15). For the purpose of calling and sending Moses, God, the sending One, appeared to him as the sent One (cf. John 20:21). See Acts 7:30-31 and notes.
Ex 3:22 flame
The flame of fire denotes the glory of God’s holiness, which excluded fallen man from direct contact with God as the tree of life (Gen. 3:24 and note). According to Gen. 3:17-19 thorns were part of the curse that came because of man’s sin. Hence, thorns are a symbol of fallen man under the curse. The thornbush here represents Moses himself as a redeemed sinner. The flame of fire burning within the thornbush signifies that the glory of God’s holiness would burn within and upon Moses, God’s called one, even though he was a sinner under God’s curse. This was possible because of Christ’s redemption (Gen. 3:21; 4:4), which satisfied the requirements of God’s holiness and removed the curse, allowing the divine fire (the Spirit) to visit and to indwell the thornbush (the redeemed sinner), making the fire one with the thornbush (Gal. 3:13-14). The fact that the fire burned in the thornbush without consuming it indicates that God Himself, not Moses, would be the “fuel” for the burning (cf. Rom. 12:11; 2 Tim. 1:7; Phil. 4:13; Col. 1:29). Moses would be only a vessel, a channel, through which the glory of God’s holiness would be manifested (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7). See note 111.
According to Deut. 33:16, the thornbush was God’s dwelling place. Since God’s corporate people are His actual dwelling place (Heb. 3:6 and note), this implies that the thornbush refers also to God’s redeemed people as a corporate entity. After the tabernacle, a symbol of the children of Israel as God’s dwelling place, was built up, at night the cloud of God’s glory upon it had the appearance of fire (Num. 9:15-16). The fire burning upon the tabernacle signified that the people of Israel were a corporate burning thornbush. The church as God’s dwelling place is also a burning thornbush — the Triune God burning within and upon a redeemed humanity (Luke 12:49; Acts 2:3-4). Through the burning of the holy divine fire, the once cursed and redeemed thornbush is transformed to be God’s dwelling place. This is God’s economy.
Ex 3:2c thornbush  -   Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37
See note 22.
Ex 3:4a called  -   cf. Exo. 19:3
Ex 3:4b thornbush  -   Deut. 33:16
Ex 3:5a sandals  -   Josh. 5:15
Ex 3:5b holy  -   cf. 2 Pet. 1:18
Ex 3:61a God  -   Gen. 28:13; Exo. 4:5; 1 Kings 18:36; Matt. 22:32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37
The revelation of God’s name in this chapter (vv. 6, 14-16, 18) was actually the revelation of God Himself. By such a revelation Moses came to know the One who was calling and sending him to carry out His commission. The divine title in this verse indicates that God is the covenanting God (2:24) and also implies that He is the God of resurrection (Matt. 22:31-32 and note; Acts 3:13). Furthermore, that God is the God of three persons (cf. v. 15) implies that He is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). See note 11, par. 2, in Gen. 12.
Ex 3:7a affliction  -   Exo. 2:23-25; Neh. 9:9
Ex 3:7b taskmasters  -   Exo. 5:13-14
Ex 3:8a come  -   Gen. 11:5, 7; 18:21
Ex 3:81b deliver  -   Exo. 6:6
The purpose of God’s calling of Moses was, negatively, to deliver the children of Israel out of the usurpation and tyranny of Pharaoh and Egypt, and, positively, to bring them into Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey (Deut. 8:7-9), where they could establish God’s kingdom (19:6; 2 Sam. 5:12; 7:12, 16) and build up His dwelling place on earth (2 Sam. 7:13). In typology, this signifies delivering people out of the usurpation and tyranny of Satan and the world, and bringing people into Christ, the all-inclusive One typified by the land of Canaan (see note 71 in Deut. 8), for the building up of the church as God’s kingdom and God’s dwelling place on earth (Rom. 14:17; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:12).
As revealed in this chapter, in fulfilling God’s purpose the children of Israel passed through three stations: the wilderness (v. 18), the mountain (v. 12), and the good land (vv. 8, 17). By the passover (12:11, 31-41) and the crossing of the Red Sea (14:21-30) the children of Israel came out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Then, they were brought to the mountain by means of the tree which made the bitter waters sweet (15:23-25), by means of the twelve springs at Elim (15:27), by means of the manna from heaven (16:14-15, 31-32, 35), by means of the living water from the cleft rock (17:6), and by means of the victory over Amalek (17:8-16). At the mountain they received a revelation of what God is, of the life they should live according to God’s attributes, and of the desire of God’s heart to have a dwelling place on earth among His people (chs. 19 — 34). They also built the tabernacle as God’s temporary dwelling place on earth (chs. 35 — 40). Finally, by the Ark with the tabernacle the children of Israel entered into the good land (Josh. 3:3, 6, 8, 13-17; 4:10-19). There, through the enjoyment of the rich produce of the land, they defeated the Canaanites, who occupied the land, and built the temple as God’s permanent dwelling on earth (1 Kings 6). Such a history of the children of Israel is a portrait of a believer’s full salvation.
Ex 3:8c bring  -   Gen. 50:24; Exo. 12:51
See note 81.
Ex 3:8d good  -   Deut. 1:25; 8:7-9
Ex 3:82e milk  -   Exo. 3:17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev. 20:24; Num. 13:27; 14:8; Deut. 26:9, 15; Jer. 11:5; 32:22; Ezek. 20:6
Both milk and honey are products of the combination of two kinds of lives — the animal life and the vegetable life. Milk is produced by cattle that feed on grass, and honey is made by bees from the nectar of flowers. Milk and honey signify the riches of Christ, which come from the two aspects of His life — His redeeming life, typified by the animal life (John 1:29), and His generating life, typified by the vegetable life (John 12:24).
Ex 3:8f Canaanites  -   Gen. 15:18-21; Exo. 13:5; 23:23; 33:2; Deut. 7:1
Ex 3:9a cry  -   Exo. 2:23
Ex 3:9b oppression  -   Exo. 1:11-14
Ex 3:10a send  -   Psa. 105:26; cf. Micah 6:4
Ex 3:111a Who  -   1 Sam. 18:18; Isa. 6:5; Jer. 1:6
When he was forty years old, Moses received the burden to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage (2:11-12). However, God disciplined Moses for forty years (Acts 7:30) and did not call him until he had lost all confidence in himself (cf. 4:10 and note). Moses had to learn to cooperate with God without using his natural ability and strength.
Ex 3:12a with  -   Josh. 1:5; Deut. 31:8, 23
Ex 3:121 mountain
God’s intention was not merely to rescue His people from persecution in Egypt; it was to bring them to Himself at the mountain of God that He might infuse them with Himself to make them His personal treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (19:4-6).
Ex 3:141a I  -   Isa. 44:6; Rev. 1:4, 8, 17; 4:8; cf. Exo. 6:3
Or, I will be who I will be; or, I will become who I will become. The divine title I AM denotes that God is the One who is self-existing and ever-existing and who depends on nothing apart from Himself (cf. John 8:24, 28, 58 and note 241). As the I Am, He is the all-inclusive One, the reality of every positive thing and of whatever His called and sent ones need.
Ex 3:14b I  -   John 8:24, 28, 58; 18:5-6
Ex 3:151 Jehovah
See note 44 in Gen. 2. This was the first time God made Himself known to His people by the name Jehovah (6:3). See note 61.
Ex 3:15a Abraham  -   Exo. 3:6
Ex 3:15b name  -   Exo. 6:3; Psa. 68:4
Ex 3:15c memorial  -   Psa. 135:13; Hosea 12:5
Ex 3:16a elders  -   Exo. 4:29
Ex 3:16b God  -   Exo. 3:6
Ex 3:16c visited  -   Exo. 4:31; Luke 1:68
Ex 3:17a Canaanites  -   Exo. 3:8
Ex 3:17b milk  -   Exo. 3:8
Ex 3:18a Jehovah  -   Exo. 5:3; 7:16; 9:1, 13; 10:3; Jonah 1:9
Ex 3:181 Hebrews
See note 12, par. 2, in Heb. 1. God is the God of the river crossers, the people who are separated from the world unto the fulfillment of His purpose.
Ex 3:182 three
See note 221 in ch. 15.
Ex 3:18b sacrifice  -   Exo. 5:3, 8, 17; 8:8, 25-29; 10:25; cf. Exo. 5:1
Ex 3:19a not  -   Exo. 4:21; 5:2; 7:14; 8:32; 9:7, 17, 35; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 13:15
Ex 3:19b mighty  -   Exo. 6:1; 13:3
Ex 3:20a wonders  -   Exo. 4:21; 7:3; Deut. 6:22; 7:19; Neh. 9:10; Psa. 105:27; 135:9; Jer. 32:20; Acts 7:36
Ex 3:20b let  -   Exo. 11:1; 12:31
Ex 3:21a favor  -   Exo. 11:3; 12:36
Ex 3:22a articles  -   Exo. 11:2; 12:35; Psa. 105:37
Ex 3:221b plunder  -   Gen. 15:14; Exo. 12:36
See note 361 in ch. 12.
Exodus Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 4:2a staff  -   Exo. 4:17, 20; 7:9, 15; 8:5, 16; 9:23; 10:13; 14:16; 17:5
Ex 4:31 serpent
In chapter 3 God gave Moses the sign of the thornbush (3:2-3). In this chapter God gave Moses three additional signs as evidence that he had truly been called and sent by God. The meaning of the first sign, the sign of the staff becoming a serpent (vv. 2-4), is that anything we rely on apart from God — our education, our occupation, etc. — is actually the hiding place of Satan, the usurping serpent. However, when at God’s word we throw it down and then take it up again “by the tail,” i.e., in the way opposite to the practice of the worldly people, using it for God’s purpose and not for ourselves, it becomes a staff of authority (vv. 4, 17; Luke 10:19). In the second sign, the sign of the hand becoming leprous (vv. 6-7), the bosom signifies what is within us, and leprosy signifies sin. This sign shows that our flesh is the embodiment of leprosy; in it there is nothing good, nothing but sin, corruption, and uncleanness (Rom. 7:17-18; cf. Isa. 6:5). Nevertheless, when we obey the Lord by keeping His word, His cleansing power is able to make us clean (cf. 2 Kings 5:1-14). The meaning of the third sign, the sign of the water becoming blood (v. 9), is that in the eyes of God all the earthly supply and worldly enjoyment (the water of the Nile) are nothing but death (blood). When they are poured out on that which produces life (the ground), immediately the death is exposed.
Satan is against Christ (1 John 3:8); the flesh is against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17); and the world is against the Father (1 John 2:15). Hence, these three negative things are opposed to the Triune God and His economy. In one whom God has called, Satan, the flesh, and the world have lost their ground (cf. John 14:30; Gal. 5:24; 6:14).
Ex 4:5a believe  -   Exo. 4:31; 19:9
Ex 4:5b God  -   Exo. 3:6
Ex 4:5c appeared  -   Exo. 3:2
Ex 4:6a leprous  -   Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27
Ex 4:7a flesh  -   cf. 2 Kings 5:14
Ex 4:81 heed
Lit., listen to the voice of.
Ex 4:82 believe
Lit., believe the voice of.
Ex 4:9a blood  -   Exo. 7:19
Ex 4:101a slow  -   cf. Exo. 6:12, 30
Lit., heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue. In Acts 7:22 Moses is said to have been “powerful in his words.” This applied to him at the age of forty, when he relied on his natural strength and boldness (2:11-13). Moses spoke the word in this verse at the age of eighty, when he considered himself ready for death (Psa. 90:10a), indicating that he had no confidence in his natural strength (cf. Phil. 3:3).
Ex 4:11a mouth  -   cf. Luke 1:20
Ex 4:12a mouth  -   Exo. 4:15; cf. Ezek. 33:22
Ex 4:12b teach  -   Matt. 10:19-20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11-12; 21:15
Ex 4:141 Aaron
In keeping with the New Testament principle of the Body of Christ, God would not allow Moses to be individualistic in his service to God. Hence, God gave Aaron to Moses as a match for him (cf. Matt. 10:2-5; Luke 10:1; 1 Cor. 1:1 and note 3). According to v. 16, the position each occupied in the matching relationship was determined entirely by God’s arrangement, not by man’s maneuvering.
Ex 4:14a meet  -   Exo. 4:27
Ex 4:15a speak  -   Exo. 7:1-2
Ex 4:15b put  -   Num. 22:38; 23:5, 12, 16; Deut. 18:18; Isa. 51:16; Jer. 1:9
Ex 4:16a God  -   Exo. 7:1; 18:19
Ex 4:17a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 4:19a seeking  -   Exo. 2:23; cf. Matt. 2:20
Ex 4:20a sons  -   Exo. 18:2-4; Acts 7:29
Ex 4:20b staff  -   Exo. 4:2; 17:9
Ex 4:21a wonders  -   Exo. 3:20
Ex 4:21b harden  -   Exo. 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8; Rom. 9:17-18; cf. Exo. 7:13; 8:15; Deut. 2:30; Josh. 11:20; Isa. 63:17; John 12:40
Ex 4:21c not  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 4:22a son  -   Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15; Rom. 9:4
Ex 4:221b firstborn  -   Jer. 31:9
See note 311 in Matt. 21.
Ex 4:23a serve  -   Exo. 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3
Ex 4:23b slay  -   Exo. 12:29
Ex 4:23c firstborn  -   Exo. 12:29
Ex 4:25a Zipporah  -   Exo. 2:21
Ex 4:251 cut
God’s seeking to kill Moses (v. 24) compelled Zipporah, Moses’ Gentile wife, to circumcise her son. This circumcising signified the cutting off of the natural life (see note 101 in Gen. 17). This was required by God to usher Moses into his ministry, for an uncircumcised person, one who still lives in the flesh or the natural life, could have no part in God’s ministry or in the covenant God made with Abraham regarding the inheriting of the good land (Gen. 17:9-15). Those who would be used by God must bear the sign of having been “cut” subjectively in their natural life. After the matching by Aaron (vv. 14-16) and the cutting by Zipporah, God’s calling of Moses was complete.
Ex 4:252 bridegroom
The expression bridegroom of blood implies that in the eyes of Zipporah, circumcision meant that her husband, Moses, was under the sentence of death (cf. 2 Cor. 1:9; 4:10-12).
Ex 4:27a meet  -   Exo. 4:14
Ex 4:27b mountain  -   Exo. 3:1; 18:5
Ex 4:28a words  -   Exo. 4:15-16
Ex 4:29a elders  -   Exo. 3:16
Ex 4:31a believed  -   Exo. 4:5; 19:9
Ex 4:31b visited  -   Exo. 3:16; Luke 1:68; 7:16
Ex 4:31c bowed  -   Gen. 24:26; Exo. 12:27; 1 Chron. 29:20
Exodus Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 5:11 Pharaoh
The book of Exodus describes twelve conflicts between Jehovah and Pharaoh (5:1 — 11:10; 12:29-36). God’s people had fallen into a worldly life under Pharaoh’s usurpation. God’s desire is that His people would be His dwelling place on earth; however, this desire cannot be fulfilled unless His people are delivered from the world and separated to Him. God’s purpose in the twelve conflicts with Pharaoh was to execute His judgment on the world and its ruler, and to expose to His people the nature, meaning, and result of life in the world under Pharaoh’s usurpation, so that they would hate that life (cf. 1 John 2:15-17), flee from it, and be gathered to the Lord at the mountain of God to receive the revelation concerning God and His dwelling place (19:1 — 34:35).
Ex 5:12 Jehovah
In dealing with Pharaoh, a type of Satan as the persecutor and usurper of His people, God told him that He was Jehovah, the unique self-existing One; the God of Israel, the God of a transformed, victorious, and kingly people; and the God of the Hebrews (v. 3), the God of the river crossers. See notes 44 in Gen. 2, 131 in Gen. 28, and 181 in Exo. 3.
Ex 5:1a Let  -   Exo. 7:16; 8:1, 20; 9:1, 13; 10:3; cf. Exo. 3:18
Ex 5:13b feast  -   Exo. 10:9
To hold a feast to the Lord is to worship Him with the worship that He desires, by enjoying Him in His presence. This worship involves sacrificing to Him (v. 3; Heb. 13:15). The worship God desires is that in which we enjoy God as our provision through His dispensing of Himself into us, and then rest with Him in what we enjoy of Him (John 4:24 and notes).
Ex 5:21 Who
Pharaoh, who signifies Satan and also the self and the natural man, was subtle (cf. Gen. 3:1). Although Pharaoh should have known of Jehovah’s existence, here he subtly denied knowing God and ignored His demand. As God sent plague after plague on Egypt, Pharaoh subtly bargained with God five times (5:2; 8:25, 28; 10:8-11, 24). However, God was insistent, never changing His demand. In response to each of Pharaoh’s subtle bargainings, God dealt with him by means of another plague.
Ex 5:2a not  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 5:3a God  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 5:31 three
See note 221 in ch. 15.
Ex 5:3b sacrifice  -   Exo. 3:18; 5:8, 17
Ex 5:4a burdens  -   Exo. 1:11
Ex 5:5a many  -   Exo. 1:7, 9
Ex 5:6a taskmasters  -   Exo. 3:7
Ex 5:61b officers  -   Exo. 5:14-15, 19
Or, scribes. So also throughout the chapter.
Ex 5:8a sacrifice  -   Exo. 3:18; 5:3
Ex 5:13a taskmasters  -   Exo. 3:7
Ex 5:17a sacrifice  -   Exo. 3:18; 5:3
Exodus Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 6:11 Jehovah
After Moses expressed his discouragement and bewilderment to the Lord (5:22-23), Jehovah God came in to reconfirm His name and His covenant (vv. 1-8). He also gave Moses further training concerning six matters: (1) God’s word of assurance (vv. 1, 6-8, 26; 7:4-5); (2) the unbelief of the children of Israel (vv. 9, 12); (3) Pharaoh’s stubbornness (7:3-4); (4) Moses’ natural concept in cleaving to his uncircumcised lips (vv. 12, 30); (5) God’s ordaining of Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt (vv. 26-29); and (6) God’s strong hand and His great acts of judgment (7:4), which back up His name, His covenant, and His word of assurance.
Ex 6:1a mighty  -   Exo. 3:19; 13:3, 9
Ex 6:1b drive  -   Exo. 12:33
Ex 6:2a Jehovah  -   Isa. 42:8
Ex 6:31a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Heb. El Shaddai. See note 12 in Gen. 17.
Ex 6:3b name  -   Exo. 3:13-15; 15:3; Psa. 68:4; 83:18
Ex 6:32 Jehovah
As El Shaddai, God is the supplying God (Gen. 17:1; 28:3) and the promising God (Gen. 35:11). As Jehovah He is the existing God (3:14) and the fulfilling God (6:6-8). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob experienced God as El Shaddai, but they did not experience Him as Jehovah, for they died in faith without receiving the fulfillment of God’s promise (Heb. 11:13; cf. Gen. 15:13-16a). Here, God came not to promise something to Moses but to fulfill the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thus, He came not as El Shaddai but as Jehovah, the One who is and who will fulfill all that He has promised.
Ex 6:4a covenant  -   Gen. 15:18; Exo. 2:24
Ex 6:4b sojournings  -   Gen. 17:8; 28:4; 37:1
Ex 6:5a heard  -   Exo. 2:23-24
Ex 6:5b remembered  -   Exo. 2:24
Ex 6:6a redeem  -   Exo. 15:13; Deut. 7:8; 1 Chron. 17:21; Neh. 1:10
Ex 6:6b outstretched  -   Deut. 4:34; 26:8; 2 Kings 17:36; Psa. 136:12
Ex 6:7a people  -   Deut. 4:20; 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; 2 Sam. 7:24; 1 Pet. 2:9
Ex 6:7b God  -   Gen. 17:8; Exo. 29:45-46; Lev. 22:33; Deut. 29:13
Ex 6:7c know  -   Exo. 10:2; 16:12; 29:46; 31:13; Deut. 29:6; cf. Exo. 7:5
Ex 6:7d burdens  -   Exo. 5:4-5; Psa. 81:6
Ex 6:81a swore  -   Gen. 26:3; Exo. 32:13; Ezek. 20:6; 47:14
Lit., lifted up My hand; i.e., made an oath, swore (Heb. 6:13-17).
Ex 6:9a harsh  -   Exo. 1:14; 2:23
Ex 6:12a uncircumcised  -   Exo. 6:30; 4:10
Ex 6:141 These
The record in vv. 14-25 is not a full genealogy of Israel’s twelve sons but a record of God’s selection, showing that God had chosen and ordained Moses and Aaron long before they were born (cf. Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:2). This should have given Moses the assurance that the commission God gave to Moses would be accomplished.
Ex 6:14a Reuben  -   Gen. 46:9; 1 Chron. 5:3
Ex 6:15a Simeon  -   Gen. 46:10; 1 Chron. 4:24
Ex 6:16a Levi  -   vv. 16-19: Gen. 46:11; Num. 3:17-20; 1 Chron. 6:1-2, 16-19; 23:6-7, 12, 21
Ex 6:20a wife  -   Exo. 2:1
Ex 6:21a Korah  -   Num. 16:1; 1 Chron. 6:37-38
Ex 6:22a Uzziel  -   Lev. 10:4; Num. 3:30
Ex 6:23a Amminadab  -   Ruth 4:19-20; 1 Chron. 2:10; Matt. 1:4; Luke 3:33
Ex 6:23b Nahshon  -   Num. 1:7; 2:3; 7:12, 17; 10:14; Matt. 1:4; Luke 3:32
Ex 6:23c Nadab  -   Lev. 10:1; Num. 3:2; 1 Chron. 6:3; 24:1
Ex 6:24a Assir  -   1 Chron. 6:22-23
Ex 6:25a Phinehas  -   Num. 25:7, 11; Josh. 24:33; Psa. 106:30
Ex 6:26a Bring  -   Exo. 7:4; 12:17, 51; Acts 13:17
Ex 6:26b armies  -   Exo. 7:4; 12:17, 41, 51
Ex 6:29a Jehovah  -   Exo. 6:2, 8
Ex 6:30a uncircumcised  -   Exo. 6:12
Exodus Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 7:11a prophet  -   Exo. 4:16
A prophet is not mainly one who predicts the future but one who speaks for another, as Aaron spoke for Moses (v. 2). On prophesying, see 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 24-25, 31 and notes 13, 241, 251, and 311.
Ex 7:3a harden  -   Exo. 4:21
Ex 7:3b wonders  -   Exo. 3:20
Ex 7:4a bring  -   Exo. 6:26
Ex 7:4b armies  -   Exo. 6:26
Ex 7:5a know  -   Exo. 7:17; 8:10, 22; 14:4, 18; cf. Exo. 6:7
Ex 7:7a eighty  -   Acts 7:23, 30
Ex 7:9a wonder  -   John 4:48
Ex 7:9b staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 7:91 serpent
The significance of this miracle was to expose the true nature of the Egyptian living, i.e., that the fallen life in Egypt was under Satan the serpent’s usurping hand (cf. Eph. 2:2; 1 John 5:19).
Ex 7:11a wise  -   cf. 2 Tim. 3:8
Ex 7:111 magicians
The magicians of Egypt can be compared to the philosophers of the world. The worldly philosophers may teach things similar to what is preached in the gospel and may also expose that life in the world issues in death (v. 22; see note 171), but they are not able to remove the death; only the gospel can do this (cf. 8:8-13). Just as Aaron’s staff swallowed up the magicians’ staffs (v. 12), the gospel swallows up all the philosophies of the world.
Ex 7:11b did  -   Exo. 7:22; 8:7, 18
Ex 7:13a hardened  -   Exo. 7:22; 8:19; 9:35; cf. Exo. 4:21; 7:14; 8:15
Ex 7:14a stubborn  -   Exo. 9:7; cf. Exo. 7:13
Ex 7:14b refuses  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 7:151 Pharaoh
After the first two conflicts with Pharaoh, God used ten plagues to punish the Egyptians so that they might release His people, and to educate both the Egyptians and His people concerning the nature of the life in the world that they might be willing to forsake the worldly life. The ten plagues can be grouped into four categories. The first group includes the plagues of blood, frogs, and lice (7:15 — 8:19); the second group, the plagues of flies, pestilence, and boils (8:20 — 9:12); the third group, the plagues of hail, locusts, and darkness (9:13 — 10:29); and the fourth group, the plague of the killing of the firstborn (11:1-10; 12:29-30). The plagues in the first group were troublesome but not injurious; the plagues in the second group caused harm both to beasts and to men; the plagues in the third group destroyed the environment; and the last plague terminated the worldly life. By means of the ten plagues God was able to accomplish the exodus of His chosen people from Egypt and fully expose the nature and result of the life in the world (cf. Rev. 16:1-21).
Ex 7:15a morning  -   Exo. 8:20; 9:13
Ex 7:15b staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 7:16a Jehovah  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 7:16b Let  -   Exo. 5:1
Ex 7:16c serve  -   Exo. 4:23; cf. Exo. 3:18; 5:1
Ex 7:17a know  -   Exo. 7:5
Ex 7:171b blood  -   vv. 17-21: Exo. 4:9; cf. Rev. 8:8; 11:6; 16:3-4
The waters of Egypt signify the worldly supply and enjoyment, and blood represents death, the issue of a life of sin (Rom. 6:23a). The significance of this first plague is that under the wrath of God’s judgment the life of Egypt, i.e., the life of the world, issues in nothing but death. The death signified by the blood exposes the nature and significance of the life in the world.
Ex 7:19a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 7:20a blood  -   Psa. 78:44; 105:29
Ex 7:22a magicians  -   2 Tim. 3:8
Ex 7:22b did  -   Exo. 7:11
Ex 7:22c hardened  -   Exo. 7:13
Exodus Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 8:1a Let  -   Exo. 5:1
Ex 8:1b serve  -   Exo. 4:23
Ex 8:2a refuse  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 8:21 frogs
The plague of frogs revealed to the Egyptians that everything they gained from the Nile, the source of Egypt’s supply, was not an enjoyment to them but a “frog,” a nuisance, a cause of trouble. This is the meaning of the living in the world.
Ex 8:5a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 8:6a frogs  -   Psa. 78:45; 105:30; cf. Rev. 16:13
Ex 8:7a magicians  -   2 Tim. 3:8
Ex 8:7b did  -   Exo. 7:11
Ex 8:8a Entreat  -   Exo. 8:28; 9:28; 10:17
Ex 8:8b let  -   Exo. 8:28; 9:28
Ex 8:8c sacrifice  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 8:10a know  -   Exo. 7:5
Ex 8:10b like  -   Exo. 9:14; cf. Deut. 33:26; 2 Sam. 7:22; 1 Chron. 17:20; Psa. 86:8; Isa. 46:9; Jer. 10:6-7
Ex 8:151a hardened  -   Exo. 8:32; 9:34; cf. Exo. 4:21; 7:13; 13:15; 2 Chron. 36:13
See note 121 in ch. 9.
Ex 8:16a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 8:161b lice  -   Psa. 105:31
Formerly, the dust (soil) of Egypt produced grain that could be used for food, but in this plague the dust became lice that caused great discomfort to the Egyptians. This indicates that the source of the supply of the living in the world eventually becomes a cause of irritation.
In the first group of three plagues God exposed the nature of the fallen life of mankind. As He did so, He showed that the resources of man’s livelihood — the water and the earth — issue in death, trouble, and irritation.
Ex 8:18a magicians  -   2 Tim. 3:8
Ex 8:18b did  -   Exo. 7:11, 22; 8:7
Ex 8:18c they  -   cf. 2 Tim. 3:9
Ex 8:191a finger  -   Psa. 8:3; Exo. 31:18; Deut. 9:10; Luke 11:20
See note 201 in Luke 11.
Ex 8:19b hardened  -   Exo. 7:13
Ex 8:20a morning  -   Exo. 7:15; 9:13
Ex 8:20b Let  -   Exo. 5:1
Ex 8:211 flies
The second group of three plagues dealt mainly with the air, another necessity for man’s life. The swarms of flies signify the pollution in the moral atmosphere of the world. The “air” in the world is filled with all manner of unclean and evil things.
Ex 8:22a set  -   Exo. 9:4; 11:7; cf. Mal. 3:18
Ex 8:22b know  -   Exo. 7:5
Ex 8:231a redemption  -   Psa. 111:9
The redemption in this verse looks forward to the redemption accomplished by Christ. According to His righteousness God should have judged the heavens and the earth immediately after the fall of Adam. However, in order to fulfill His purpose to have a dwelling place among men, God put the universe under the redemption of Christ, which in His eternal view was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:19-20 and note 201; Heb. 2:9 and note 3). Hence, God has the freedom to either preserve the universe or to judge it and destroy it. Today, God extends His mercy by viewing all the people of the world under the redemption of Christ so that they might have the opportunity to repent and receive His redemption (cf. John 3:18). Pharaoh and the Egyptians rejected the redemption ordained by God and thus exposed themselves to God’s judgment (cf. 1 John 2:2 and note 2). Because God covered the children of Israel with Christ’s redemption, God’s judgment did not touch them (12:23).
Ex 8:24a flies  -   Psa. 78:45; 105:31; cf. Isa. 7:18
Ex 8:25a sacrifice  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 8:251 land
I.e., in Egypt. See note 21 in ch. 5.
Ex 8:26a abomination  -   Gen. 46:34
Ex 8:27a three  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 8:28a entreaty  -   Exo. 8:8
Ex 8:32a hardened  -   Exo. 8:15
Ex 8:32b not  -   Exo. 3:19
Exodus Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 9:1a Jehovah  -   Exo. 5:1
Ex 9:1b Let  -   Exo. 7:16
Ex 9:3a hand  -   Exo. 3:20; 7:4-5; 9:15; 13:14; Acts 13:11; cf. Exo. 16:3
Ex 9:31b pestilence  -   Psa. 78:50
The animals killed by this plague were used for both transportation and food. Thus, through this plague God judged both the transportation and the food in Egypt, indicating that the means of transportation and the way of eating in the world will be judged by God. Because the livestock belonged to the Egyptians, they were implicated in the sin of the Egyptians; hence, the livestock of the Egyptians were also subject to the righteous judgment of God.
Ex 9:41a distinction  -   Exo. 8:22-23; 11:7
When He comes in to judge the world according to His righteousness, God still takes care of His people in order to fulfill His desire to have a dwelling place on earth (v. 26; 11:7; 12:13, 23; cf. Rev. 7).
Ex 9:7a stubborn  -   Exo. 7:14
Ex 9:7b not  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 9:81 ashes
At the end of the fifth plague all the resources of Egypt had been judged by God. Nevertheless, the ashes, the remainder of things burned, still had to be dealt with. This indicates that anything that remains of our fallen life must be judged by God. When the ashes were sprinkled into the air by Moses and Aaron, they became dust that caused boils. In the eyes of God, everything related to the Egyptian living, the living of the world, must be exposed and judged thoroughly. Even the “ashes,” the remains of sinful things, must be judged. Nothing of the life of the world should remain.
Ex 9:10a boils  -   Deut. 28:27; Job 2:7; Isa. 38:21; Rev. 16:2
Ex 9:11a stand  -   cf. 2 Tim. 3:9
Ex 9:121a hardened  -   Exo. 4:21
On the one hand, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8); on the other hand, Pharaoh himself hardened his heart (8:15, 32; 9:34). This indicates both that God is sovereign (Rom. 9:14-24) and that man has a free will created by God and is therefore responsible for his actions. God’s sovereignty and man’s free will correspond and are not contradictory. God first hardened Pharaoh’s heart in His sovereignty (4:21), and Pharaoh carried out this hardening through his own free will. Because Pharaoh hardened his heart, eventually his heart hardened, i.e., became hard, and remained hard (7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:35).
Ex 9:13a morning  -   Exo. 7:15; 8:20
Ex 9:13b Jehovah  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 9:13c Let  -   Exo. 5:1; Exo. 8:20
Ex 9:14a plagues  -   Rev. 11:6
Ex 9:141 you
Lit., your heart.
Ex 9:14b know  -   cf. Exo. 7:5
Ex 9:14c like  -   Exo. 8:10
Ex 9:16a for  -   Rom. 9:17
Ex 9:161 made
On the one hand, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart; on the other hand, He made Pharaoh stand. Because God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh would not submit to God’s dealings. Furthermore, realizing that Pharaoh, in himself, was not strong enough to stand against Him, God made him stand that He might have the opportunity to show His power and have His name proclaimed throughout all the earth (cf. Rom. 9:17). Pharaoh was never fully subdued by God; however, he was sovereignly used by God to fulfill God’s purpose. See note 41 in ch. 14.
Ex 9:16b show  -   cf. Exo. 10:1-2; 14:17
Ex 9:16c name  -   cf. Neh. 9:10; Psa. 83:18; Isa. 63:12
Ex 9:17a not  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 9:181a hail  -   Josh. 10:11; Psa. 18:12; 78:47-48; 105:32; 148:8; Isa. 30:30; Ezek. 38:22; Rev. 8:7; 16:21
In the third group of three plagues, God altered some of the principles of nature. In this, the seventh, plague He changed the function of the rain so that it no longer watered the earth to produce life but became hail to damage the produce of the earth, and it no longer quenched people’s thirst but killed them. Moreover, the hail was mingled with fire (v. 24), indicating again that God had changed one of the natural principles that govern the earth.
Ex 9:23a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 9:25a hail  -   Psa. 78:47; 105:32-33
Ex 9:26a children  -   Exo. 8:22; 9:4, 6; 10:23; 11:7
Ex 9:27a sinned  -   Exo. 10:16
Ex 9:27b righteous  -   2 Chron. 12:6; Psa. 129:4; 145:17; Lam. 1:18; Dan. 9:14
Ex 9:28a Entreat  -   Exo. 8:8
Ex 9:281 I
See note 21 in ch. 5.
Ex 9:29a hands  -   1 Kings 8:22, 38; Psa. 143:6; Isa. 1:15
Ex 9:29b know  -   cf. Exo. 7:5
Ex 9:29c earth  -   cf. Deut. 10:14; Psa. 24:1; 1 Cor. 10:26
Ex 9:34a hardened  -   Exo. 8:15
Ex 9:35a hardened  -   Exo. 7:13
Ex 9:35b not  -   Exo. 3:19
Exodus Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 10:1a hardened  -   Exo. 4:21
Ex 10:2a recount  -   Exo. 13:8; Deut. 4:9; Psa. 78:5; Joel 1:3
Ex 10:2b know  -   Exo. 6:7
Ex 10:3a Jehovah  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 10:3b humble  -   1 Kings 21:29; 2 Chron. 7:14; 34:27
Ex 10:3c Let  -   Exo. 5:1
Ex 10:4a locusts  -   Lev. 11:22; Prov. 30:27; Joel 1:4; Rev. 9:3
Ex 10:81 Go
See note 21 in ch. 5.
Ex 10:9a flocks  -   cf. Exo. 10:24
Ex 10:9b feast  -   Exo. 5:1
Ex 10:101 you
Lit., for evil is before your face.
Ex 10:12a Stretch  -   cf. Exo. 7:19
Ex 10:13a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 10:131 wind
In the eighth plague God changed the function of the wind so that it no longer supplied fresh air to support life but caused locusts to appear, which devoured what remained after the plague of the hail (vv. 5, 15).
Ex 10:13b locusts  -   Psa. 78:46; 105:34
Ex 10:14a never  -   Joel 2:2
Ex 10:15a vegetation  -   Psa. 105:35
Ex 10:16a sinned  -   Exo. 9:27
Ex 10:17a entreat  -   Exo. 8:8
Ex 10:20a hardened  -   Exo. 4:21
Ex 10:20b not  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 10:21a Stretch  -   Exo. 9:22
Ex 10:211b darkness  -   Psa. 105:28; Rev. 8:12; 16:10
In the ninth plague God changed the function of the sun by bringing a thick darkness over the land of Egypt for three days (v. 22). The plagues of the hail (9:13-35), the locusts (10:1-20), and the thick darkness indicate that the very atmosphere over Egypt was no longer suitable for human life.
Both the blood of the first plague (7:15-25) and the darkness of the ninth plague signify death. Hence, the first nine plagues went on from death to death, showing that the life of the world is altogether a matter of death (cf. Eph. 2:1-3).
Ex 10:23a Israel  -   Exo. 9:4, 6, 26
Ex 10:241 Go
See note 21 in ch. 5.
Ex 10:24a flocks  -   Exo. 10:9
Ex 10:25a sacrifice  -   Exo. 3:18
Ex 10:27a hardened  -   Exo. 4:21
Ex 10:27b not  -   Exo. 3:19
Exodus Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 11:1a plague  -   cf. Exo. 4:23
Ex 11:1b drive  -   Exo. 12:33, 39
Ex 11:2a articles  -   Exo. 3:22
Ex 11:3a favor  -   Exo. 3:21; 12:36
Ex 11:4a midnight  -   Exo. 12:29; Job 34:20
Ex 11:5a firstborn  -   Exo. 12:29
Ex 11:5b millstones  -   cf. Matt. 24:41; Luke 17:35
Ex 11:6a cry  -   Exo. 12:30; Amos 5:16-17
Ex 11:7a know  -   cf. Exo. 7:5
Ex 11:7b distinction  -   Exo. 8:22; 9:4
Ex 11:8a Get  -   Exo. 12:33
Ex 11:9a wonders  -   Exo. 7:3
Ex 11:10a hardened  -   Exo. 4:21
Ex 11:10b not  -   Exo. 3:19
Exodus Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 12:21a beginning  -   Exo. 40:2
The Hebrew people had two calendars, a civil calendar and a sacred calendar related to God’s salvation. This corresponds with the fact that God’s people have two births, two beginnings: a physical birth with a physical beginning and a spiritual birth with a spiritual beginning (cf. John 3:3-6). The Passover, a new beginning for the children of Israel, was held in the first month of the sacred year, the month of Abib (13:4 and note).
Ex 12:31a lamb  -   Exo. 12:21; cf. John 1:29, 36; 1 Cor. 5:7
Exodus is a book of pictures that portray God’s salvation as revealed in the New Testament. The passover portrayed in this chapter is an all-inclusive type of Christ as our redemption to begin our experience of God’s salvation. It is a full development of Christ’s redemption first indicated in Gen. 3:21 (see notes there). The entire passover is a type of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7); Christ is not only the lamb of the passover (John 1:29) but also every aspect of the passover. See notes in this chapter and notes 41 in John 6 and 72 in 1 Cor. 5.
Ex 12:32 household
See note 311 in Acts 16.
Ex 12:41 neighbor
This shows that we should not only bring our own family to receive God’s salvation but also lead the families of our neighbors to share in God’s rich and boundless salvation, which our family cannot exhaust.
Ex 12:42 persons
That a household could be too small for the lamb, that the lamb was taken according to the number of persons, and that the count for the lamb was made according to the eating of each man indicate that as the Passover lamb, Christ is all-sufficient. The extent to which He can be enjoyed is both according to the number of people and according to our capacity to partake of Him.
Ex 12:5a blemish  -   Lev. 22:19-21; Deut. 17:1; Mal. 1:14; cf. Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19
Ex 12:51 year-old
Signifying that the Lord Jesus as God’s redeeming Lamb was fresh and not used for any other purpose (Heb. 10:5-10).
Ex 12:52 sheep
According to Matt. 25:32-46, sheep signify those who are good, and goats, those who are evil. At the time of His crucifixion Christ was both a sheep and a goat: in Himself He was altogether good, but as our Substitute He was a sinner, in that He was made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).
Ex 12:61a fourteenth  -   Exo. 12:18; Lev. 23:5; Num. 9:3; 28:16; Josh. 5:10; Ezra 6:19; Ezek. 45:21
The passover lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month (v. 3) and was examined for four days to confirm that it was unblemished (v. 5); then it was killed on the fourteenth day. In the same way, the Lord Jesus as the real Passover lamb was examined for four days and was found to be perfect, without fault (John 8:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6), before He was killed on the day of the Passover (Luke 22:7-8, 14-15; John 18:28). See notes 11 in Mark 10, 371 in Mark 12, and 122 in Mark 14.
In the Bible seven days signifies a period of completion, and the end of a week denotes the end of life. The fact that the passover lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the month, the end of two complete weeks, signifies that Christ’s death terminated the entire history of our old life.
Ex 12:62 whole
As the Passover lamb, Christ was killed by all God’s people. Cf. note 201 in John 19.
Ex 12:63 at
Lit., between the two evenings; probably referring to the time interval between sunset and darkness. So also in 16:12; 29:39, 41; and 30:8.
Ex 12:6b twilight  -   Exo. 16:12
Ex 12:71a blood  -   Exo. 12:22; cf. John 19:34
The blood put on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses typifies the redeeming blood of Christ (Matt. 26:28; John 19:34; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). This blood opened the way for the redeemed ones to enter into the houses, implying that the blood of Christ opens the way for us to enter into Christ, who is typified by the house (Heb. 10:19). The same blood closed the way to the destroyer, thereby guarding the redeemed from judgment (v. 23).
Ex 12:72 houses
The houses in which the children of Israel ate the passover lamb typify Christ. The lamb was the means of redemption, and the house was the means of preserving the redeemed ones. As the redeeming One, Christ is the lamb, and as the keeping One, He is the house. The blood of the lamb was on the door, and the flesh of the lamb was in the house. The lamb, the house, and those who enjoyed the passover thus became one. This is a picture of the identification of the redeemed ones with Christ. See note 222.
Ex 12:81 flesh
The blood of the passover lamb was for redemption, to redeem the children of Israel out of God’s death-judgment, and the flesh of the lamb was for life supply, to strengthen the people to move out of Egypt. The flesh of the lamb signifies the crucified and resurrected life of Christ as the supply for God’s redeemed people. Through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection His flesh has become the food of God’s redeemed. In the reality of the passover, Christ’s blood is drinkable, Christ’s flesh is eatable, and Christ in totality is eatable (John 6:51-57, 63 and notes).
Ex 12:82a unleavened  -   Exo. 13:3, 6; Num. 9:11; Deut. 16:3; 1 Cor. 5:8
In the Scriptures leaven signifies what is sinful, evil, corrupt, and unclean in the eyes of God (1 Cor. 5:6, 8). To eat with unleavened bread means to eliminate all sinful things (see note 152). To eat with bitter herbs means to regret and repent, to experience a bitter taste regarding sinful things.
Ex 12:91 raw
To eat Christ “raw” is to regard Christ not as the Redeemer but only as a model or example of human living to be imitated. To eat Christ as if He were boiled with water is to regard His death on the cross merely as martyrdom under man’s persecution, not as death for our redemption. To eat Christ “roasted with fire” is to believe that on the cross Christ suffered for us under God’s holy wrath exercised in His judgment, as signified by the fire here (Heb. 12:29).
Ex 12:9a roasted  -   Deut. 16:7; 2 Chron. 35:13
See note 91.
Ex 12:92 head
The head signifies wisdom, the legs signify activity and move, and the inward parts signify the inward parts of Christ’s being, including His mind, emotion, will, and heart with all their functions. Eating the passover lamb with the head, legs, and inward parts signifies taking Christ in His entirety, in His wisdom, activities, move, and inward parts (John 6:57; 1 Cor. 1:24; Rev. 14:4b; Phil. 1:8).
Ex 12:101 remain
Not to let anything of the lamb remain until morning signifies that we must receive Christ in a full way, not partially.
Ex 12:10a morning  -   Exo. 23:18; 29:34; 34:25; Lev. 7:15; Deut. 16:4
Ex 12:111 with
The children of Israel applied the passover in such a way that they could become God’s army (vv. 17, 41, 51). Both their girding their loins and their putting sandals on their feet were their preparation for fighting (cf. Eph. 6:14a, 15). The girdle, the sandals, and the staff were all for their journey out of Egypt, a journey of warfare (13:18). Because the battle was imminent, they ate the passover lamb in haste. Their eating of the lamb equipped them for the battle.
Ex 12:11a girded  -   cf. Luke 12:35; Eph. 6:14
Ex 12:112b passover  -   Exo. 12:27; Lev. 23:5; Deut. 16:5; cf. 1 Cor. 5:7
The noun passover, from the verb pass over (v. 13), indicates that the judgment of God passes over us because of the blood of Christ, the real Passover lamb (John 1:29).
Ex 12:12a pass  -   Exo. 11:4-5; 12:23
Ex 12:121b firstborn  -   Exo. 12:29
The firstborn here signifies the natural man, the old man in Adam. Since Adam was the first man (1 Cor. 15:45a), the firstborn includes everyone who is in Adam (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22a). The redeeming blood of Christ is not effective for those who remain in Adam (see note 22 in 1 John 2; cf. note 222 in this chapter). Furthermore, to apply Christ as the Passover in a complete and adequate way, we must condemn everything within us that is related to the firstborn, that is, to Adam (1 Cor. 5:6-8; Eph. 4:22).
Ex 12:122 gods
The firstborn were the constituents of Egypt, whereas the gods were components of Satan’s kingdom. During the passover both were judged. Behind all the gods of Egypt were Satan and the demons (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20). Therefore, on the night of the passover, Satan and all the demons also were judged. In the fulfillment of the passover, both the world and Satan with his evil power of darkness were judged by God through Christ’s death on the cross (John 12:31; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14).
Ex 12:12c Jehovah  -   Exo. 6:2; Isa. 43:11
Ex 12:13a blood  -   Heb. 11:28
Ex 12:13b sign  -   Exo. 13:9
Ex 12:141 memorial
This indicates that we should remember Christ’s redemption perpetually in a specific and detailed way.
Ex 12:14a keep  -   Exo. 12:17; Deut. 16:1; 2 Kings 23:21
Ex 12:142 feast
The Passover was to be kept as a feast to Jehovah; i.e., it was to be eaten with enjoyment both for Jehovah and with Jehovah. The emphasis in the Passover is on the eating of the passover (vv. 8-11; Luke 22:11, 15). The significance of eating is that we live by what we eat (John 6:57).
Ex 12:151 Seven
The Passover itself, held on the fourteenth day of the first month (vv. 2, 6), lasted only one day. Continuing from the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days (vv. 15-20; 13:6-7). See notes 171 in Matt. 26 and 81 in 1 Cor. 5.
Ex 12:152a unleavened  -   Exo. 13:6-7; 23:15; 34:18; Lev. 23:6; Num. 28:17; Deut. 16:3, 8; cf. 1 Cor. 5:7-8
In the Feast of the Passover the lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread (v. 8 and note 2). In the continuation of the Passover the eating of unleavened bread for seven days (a full course of time) signifies that for our entire Christian life, from the time we receive Christ and are saved, we should continue our enjoyment by eliminating everything sinful. During the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, no leaven was to be found in the houses (v. 19), and no leaven was to be seen among the people of Israel (13:7). This signifies that, although it is impossible for us to be completely without sin, we must eliminate any sin that is seen; i.e., we must forsake the sin of which we are conscious (cf. Heb. 12:1). To deal with manifested sin is to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Cor. 5:7-8). If we tolerate sin once it is exposed, we will lose the enjoyment of the fellowship of God’s people (v. 19; 1 Cor. 5:13). The only way to eliminate sin is to daily eat Christ as the crucified, resurrected, and sinless life, signified by the unleavened bread.
Ex 12:153 person
Lit., soul. So also elsewhere in this chapter.
Ex 12:15b cut  -   cf. Num. 9:13; Gen. 17:14
Ex 12:16a holy  -   Lev. 23:7-8; Num. 28:18, 25
Ex 12:161 No
This signifies that in partaking of God’s salvation there is place only for eating, for enjoyment, not for any human work (cf. Rom. 3:20).
Ex 12:17a brought  -   Exo. 7:4; 12:51
Ex 12:17b armies  -   Exo. 6:26
Ex 12:18a fourteenth  -   Exo. 12:6
Ex 12:18b unleavened  -   Exo. 12:15
Ex 12:21a lambs  -   Exo. 12:3
Ex 12:221a hyssop  -   Lev. 14:6; Num. 19:18; Psa. 51:7; Heb. 9:19
Hyssop was among the smallest of the plants (1 Kings 4:33). Here it signifies our faith, which God does not require to be great (Matt. 17:20). The blood of Christ, the Passover lamb, is applied not by great faith but by a small amount of faith. Even a little faith is sufficient for us to apply the blood of Christ that we may enter into Him as the house and have a full enjoyment of the Passover.
Ex 12:22b blood  -   Exo. 12:7; Heb. 11:28
Ex 12:222 outside
To participate in the passover, the children of Israel had to enter into and remain in the houses that had been sprinkled with the blood (vv. 13, 22-23). In the same principle, to participate in Christ and His redemption, we must be identified with Christ by entering into Him and remaining in Him (Eph. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:30; John 15:4; cf. Gal. 5:2, 4). The house and the blood were inseparable; likewise, Christ and His redemption are one. See notes 212 in Gen. 3, 143 in Gen. 6, and 181, par. 2, in Gen. 8.
Ex 12:22c entrance  -   cf. Isa. 26:20
Ex 12:23a pass  -   Exo. 12:12-13
Ex 12:25a promised  -   cf. Exo. 3:8, 17
Ex 12:26a children  -   Exo. 13:8, 14; Deut. 6:20
Ex 12:27a passover  -   Exo. 12:11, 23
Ex 12:27b bowed  -   Exo. 4:31
Ex 12:29a midnight  -   Exo. 11:4
Ex 12:291b struck  -   Exo. 4:23; 11:5; 12:12; 13:15; Num. 3:13; 8:17; 33:4; Psa. 78:51; 105:36; 135:8; 136:10
In the tenth and final plague, the firstborn of the Egyptians and even the firstborn of their beasts were killed (see note 121). This was done by God to display His sovereignty, i.e., His absolute right, authority, and power, in relation to Pharaoh and His mercy in relation to Israel (Rom. 9:14-24). By this last plague Pharaoh was subdued (11:1; 12:21-30, 33), albeit only temporarily.
Ex 12:30a cry  -   Exo. 11:6
Ex 12:32a flocks  -   cf. Exo. 10:9-11, 24-26
Ex 12:331a urged  -   Exo. 6:1; 11:1; 12:39; cf. Psa. 105:38
In order to accomplish the salvation of His people, God subdued Pharaoh and all the Egyptians by the strength of His hand (13:3, 14) so that they drove the people out of Egypt (v. 39; 11:1). The blood of the passover lamb saved God’s people from His judgment, but the subduing of the environment by God’s hand was required to save them from Pharaoh’s usurpation. This portrays the way in which the almighty saving God saves His redeemed people from Satan and the world.
Ex 12:341 leavened
Because the children of Israel were driven out of Egypt, they had no time to bring leavened food (vv. 34, 39). Thus, they left Egypt in a pure way, with no leaven. See note 82.
Ex 12:35a articles  -   Exo. 3:22
Ex 12:36a favor  -   Exo. 3:21; 11:3
Ex 12:361b plundered  -   Gen. 15:14
This was not a robbery but a belated and righteous payment for a long period of slave labor. The silver, gold, and clothing (v. 35) given to the children of Israel by the Egyptians were used not for the enrichment of God’s people but for the building of the tabernacle (25:2-8; 35:4-9). To plunder the world is not to take anything from the world unrighteously; it is to labor in the world and use the gain from our labor for the building of God’s dwelling place, God’s testimony on earth.
Ex 12:37a Rameses  -   Gen. 47:11; Exo. 1:11; Num. 33:3, 5
Ex 12:37b six  -   Num. 11:21; cf. Exo. 38:26; Num. 1:46
Ex 12:381a mixed  -   Num. 11:4; Neh. 13:3
In making an absolute exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel brought all their possessions with them. They were so prevailing that a mixed multitude, some who were not Israelites, were willing to follow them. This is the kind of departure from the world that is ordained by God.
Ex 12:39a driven  -   Exo. 12:33
Ex 12:401 Egypt
The Septuagint adds, and in the land of Canaan.
Ex 12:402a four  -   Gal. 3:17; cf. Gen. 15:13; Acts 7:6
See note 173 in Gal. 3.
Ex 12:41a armies  -   Exo. 6:26
Ex 12:41b went  -   Acts 7:36
Ex 12:421 watching
During the night of the passover God was watching over His people in order to bring them out of the world, and they cooperated with Him by watching with Him and to Him. In order to make an exodus from the world, we should not “sleep” but should be watchful, vigilant, and alert (Rom. 13:11-13a; 1 Thes. 5:5-7).
Ex 12:431 foreigner
A foreigner signifies both an unbeliever and the natural man, who is no different from an unbeliever. A hired servant (v. 45) signifies the natural man who works for God in the natural life in order to receive compensation (Rom. 4:4-5 and notes 41 and 42). A purchased servant (v. 44) signifies one who has been redeemed by the Lord and serves Him as a slave (Rom. 1:1 and note 2). Such a redeemed one must also be circumcised (vv. 44, 48); i.e., his natural life must be cut off through the cross (Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11). Only the redeemed and circumcised ones are qualified to partake of Christ as God’s Passover.
Ex 12:44a circumcised  -   cf. Gen. 17:12-13
Ex 12:45a sojourner  -   Lev. 22:10
Ex 12:461a bones  -   Num. 9:12; John 19:36
When Christ was crucified, His legs were not broken (John 19:33, 36). Christ’s unbroken bone signifies His unbreakable and indestructible eternal life that imparts life into us. See notes 212 in Gen. 2 and 362 in John 19.
Ex 12:48a stranger  -   Num. 9:14
Ex 12:49a law  -   Num. 9:14; 15:15
Ex 12:51a brought  -   Exo. 12:17; 13:3, 14; Acts 13:17
Ex 12:511b armies  -   Exo. 6:26
God’s people left Egypt as an army arrayed for battle (13:18). God’s complete redemption produces an army to fight for His interests on earth (cf. Eph. 6:10-20).
Exodus Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 13:21 Sanctify
The purpose of the exodus of God’s people from the world is to be sanctified to the Lord. Sanctification is based on redemption. The Lord required only the firstborn (vv. 2, 12-13) to be sanctified because they were the redeemed ones (12:12-13). According to the divine requirement, all who are redeemed must also be sanctified. Redemption is for the security of God’s people; sanctification is for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. See Rom. 6:19, 22 and note 192.
Ex 13:2a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:12-13, 15; 22:29-30; 34:19; Num. 3:13; 8:16-17; 18:15, 17; Deut. 15:19; Luke 2:23
Ex 13:3a Remember  -   Deut. 16:3
Ex 13:3b slave  -   Exo. 13:14; Deut. 7:8; 13:5; Josh. 24:17; Judg. 6:8; Micah 6:4
Ex 13:31c strength  -   Exo. 3:19; 6:1
See note 331 in ch. 12.
Ex 13:3d brought  -   Exo. 12:51; 20:2
Ex 13:3e leavened  -   cf. Exo. 34:25
Ex 13:41a Abib  -   Exo. 23:15; 34:18; Deut. 16:1
Meaning sprouting, budding and denoting a new beginning of life. This is required for God’s people to be sanctified to Him for His satisfaction. In this new beginning there must be no leaven (vv. 6-7; see note 152 in ch. 12).
Ex 13:5a Canaanites  -   Exo. 3:8; 23:23; 33:2-3; 34:11; Josh. 12:8; 24:11; Judg. 3:5
Ex 13:5b swore  -   Exo. 6:8
Ex 13:5c milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 26:9, 15
Ex 13:5d service  -   Exo. 12:25
Ex 13:6a unleavened  -   Exo. 12:15-16
Ex 13:8a son  -   Exo. 12:26-27
Ex 13:9a sign  -   Exo. 13:16; Deut. 6:8; 11:18
Ex 13:91 memorial
Those who are sanctified by taking Christ as their Substitute (v. 2), who have a new beginning of life (v. 4), and who eliminate all exposed sin (vv. 6-7) will have a daily living that is worthy of being a memorial, an eternal remembrance.
Ex 13:92 law
Or, teaching.
Ex 13:10a keep  -   Exo. 12:14, 17, 24, 42
Ex 13:12a opens  -   Exo. 13:2
Ex 13:131 first
In order to be saved from God’s judgment, the firstborn of both man and beast had to be redeemed by the passover lamb (12:12-13). Here, in order to be sanctified to God, the firstborn of both a donkey and a man had to be redeemed with a lamb. This is because both a donkey and a man are unclean in the eyes of God and cannot be offered to God for His satisfaction (Lev. 11:1-8; 12:1-8). Hence, both a donkey and a man had to be redeemed again in sanctification. This shows that our natural life must be replaced by Christ. For both our salvation and our sanctification, we need Christ to be our Substitute (1 Pet. 3:18a; Gal. 2:20).
Ex 13:13a lamb  -   Exo. 34:20
Ex 13:13b redeem  -   Num. 3:46-47; 18:15-16
Ex 13:14a son  -   Exo. 12:26
Ex 13:14b brought  -   Exo. 13:3; 20:2; Deut. 5:6; 6:12; 8:14; 13:5, 10; Josh. 24:17; Judg. 6:8; Acts 13:17
Ex 13:14c slave  -   Exo. 13:3
Ex 13:15a hardened  -   cf. Exo. 4:21; 7:13; 8:15
Ex 13:15b against  -   Exo. 3:19
Ex 13:15c slew  -   Exo. 12:29
Ex 13:15d firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2
Ex 13:16a sign  -   Exo. 13:9
Ex 13:16b brought  -   Exo. 13:14; Acts 13:17
Ex 13:171 lead
God’s people had God’s command concerning the exodus from Egypt (12:21-27), but they needed the Lord’s leading as well as His command. The Lord’s leading is conditional. According to this chapter, in order to have God’s leading, God’s people need to be sanctified (v. 2), to have a new beginning of a sinless life (vv. 4-7), and to be in resurrection (v. 19).
Ex 13:17a return  -   Num. 14:1-4; Neh. 9:17
Ex 13:181a around  -   cf. Num. 33:6-10
Because of the possibility of war with the Philistines, God did not lead the children of Israel in a straight way to the good land (v. 17). Instead, He turned them around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea, leading them seemingly to a dead end (14:2-3). This tempted Pharaoh to pursue them and produced an ideal environment for God to baptize His people and bury Pharaoh and his army (ch. 14).
Ex 13:191 bones
A bone signifies an unbreakable life, a life in resurrection (Gen. 2:21 and note 2; John 19:33, 36). Thus, the bringing of Joseph’s bones out of Egypt into the good land signifies resurrection and indicates that those who share in the kingdom of God will no longer be in the natural life, signified by flesh and blood, but in the resurrection life, signified by Joseph’s bones (1 Cor. 15:50). In the eyes of God all the children of Israel had been dead and buried in Egypt (see note 61 in ch. 1). The exodus from Egypt, therefore, was actually a resurrection. The exodus from the world, the genuine sanctification to the Lord (v. 2), and a new beginning of a sinless life (vv. 4-7) can be accomplished only by the resurrection life.
Ex 13:19a God  -   Gen. 50:25
Ex 13:19b bones  -   Josh. 24:32; Heb. 11:22
Ex 13:20a Succoth  -   Exo. 12:37; Num. 33:6
Ex 13:211a cloud  -   Exo. 14:19-24; 40:38; Num. 9:15-23; 14:14; Deut. 1:33; Neh. 9:12, 19; Psa. 78:14; 99:7; 105:39; Isa. 4:5; 1 Cor. 10:1; cf. Heb. 12:1
In typology the cloud signifies the Spirit (1 Cor. 10:1-2 and notes 14 and 23), and the fire, for enlightening, signifies the Word of God (Psa. 119:105). Hence, the instant, living leading from God comes through either the Spirit or the Word. The two pillars symbolize God Himself, for He is both the Spirit and the Word (John 4:24; 1:1). Furthermore, the Word is also the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17). Thus, God, the Word, and the Spirit are one to lead and guide us continually, whether by day or by night. In the Christian life there is no difference between day and night, for the light from the pillar of fire causes the night to become day.
Exodus Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 14:2a Pi-hahiroth  -   Num. 33:7-8
Ex 14:3a wandering  -   Exo. 13:18
Ex 14:41a harden  -   Exo. 4:21
See note 121 in ch. 9. God used Pharaoh to glorify Himself and to carry out His salvation for His chosen people. Pharaoh’s opposition created an environment that made the passover, the exodus, and the crossing of the Red Sea possible. In the same principle, God uses Satan’s opposition for the accomplishing of His people’s salvation (cf. note 63 in Job 1).
Ex 14:4b glorify  -   Exo. 14:17
Ex 14:4c know  -   Exo. 7:5
Ex 14:5a heart  -   cf. Psa. 105:25
Ex 14:8a hardened  -   Exo. 4:21
Ex 14:8b going  -   Num. 33:3; cf. Exo. 6:1; 13:3, 9, 16; Deut. 26:8
Ex 14:81 boldly
Lit., with a high hand.
Ex 14:9a overtook  -   Exo. 15:9
Ex 14:10a cried  -   Josh. 24:7; Neh. 9:9
Ex 14:11a die  -   Exo. 16:3; 17:3
Ex 14:12a better  -   Exo. 16:3; Num. 11:5; 14:3-4; Acts 7:39
Ex 14:13a salvation  -   2 Chron. 20:17; Gen. 49:18; Psa. 3:8; Isa. 12:2; Jer. 3:23; Lam. 3:26; Jonah 2:9
Ex 14:14a fight  -   Deut. 1:30; 3:22; 20:4; Josh. 10:14; 23:3; Neh. 4:20
Ex 14:141 still
Or, silent.
Ex 14:16a staff  -   Exo. 4:2
Ex 14:17a harden  -   cf. Exo. 4:21
Ex 14:17b glorify  -   Exo. 14:4
Ex 14:18a know  -   Exo. 7:5
Ex 14:191a Angel  -   Exo. 23:20; 32:34; Num. 20:16; Isa. 63:9
The Angel of God here is the Angel of Jehovah who called Moses (3:2, 4 and note 21). The Angel of Jehovah is Christ as God’s sent One. The fact that God’s sent One went before the camp of Israel indicates that Christ was the One who was leading the people. When the Angel of God moved, the pillar moved also, showing that the Angel and the pillar were one. Christ and the leading Spirit cannot be separated (John 14:17-20; 16:13; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 5:6).
Ex 14:201 darkness
Whenever those who follow the Lord face opposition, the guiding light spontaneously becomes the protecting light; however, to the opposers the protecting light becomes darkness.
Ex 14:21a dry  -   Josh. 4:23; Psa. 66:6; 106:9
Ex 14:21b divided  -   Neh. 9:11; Psa. 74:13; 78:13; Isa. 51:15; 63:12
Ex 14:221 went
The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea by faith (Heb. 11:29). In v. 11 they had no faith at all, but after God spoke to Moses in vv. 15-16, spontaneously they had the faith to walk into the sea (cf. Rom. 10:17). Likewise, at their baptism new believers should be encouraged to exercise faith in God as the One who operates in baptism (Col. 2:12 and note 3). See note 301.
Ex 14:22a dry  -   Exo. 14:29; 15:19; Heb. 11:29
Ex 14:24a fire  -   Exo. 13:21-22; cf. Isa. 4:5-6
Ex 14:251 He
Or, He took off their chariot wheels. Some ancient versions translate, He bound their chariot wheels.
Ex 14:27a returned  -   cf. Josh. 4:18
Ex 14:281a covered  -   Exo. 15:5, 10; Deut. 11:4; Neh. 9:11; Psa. 78:53; 106:11
Pharaoh and his army were terminated and buried in the Red Sea. This signifies that Satan and the world were judged and buried in baptism (Rom. 6:3-4a; John 12:31; Heb. 2:14).
Ex 14:29a walked  -   Exo. 14:22; 1 Cor. 10:1
Ex 14:301a saved  -   Psa. 106:8, 10
Like the passing of Noah’s ark through the waters of the flood, the crossing of the Red Sea was a type of baptism (1 Cor. 10:1-2 and notes 14 through 23; Gen. 7:17-23 and note 171). The waters of the Red Sea were used by God to save His people and separate them from Pharaoh and Egypt. The children of Israel were saved through the Red Sea into the wilderness, a realm of resurrection and separation (15:22 and note 1), where they were free from all bondage and slavery to fulfill God’s purpose by building the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth. Likewise, through baptism the New Testament believers are saved from Satan and the world into a realm of resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5) and separation (Acts 2:40-41), in which they are free to accomplish God’s purpose by building up the church as the dwelling place of God.
This marked the completion of the first stage of God’s complete salvation of His chosen people, a stage that included the passover, the exodus from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea. The passover, typifying Christ with His redemption, was sufficient to save God’s people from God’s righteous judgment (12:12-13). However, in order to be saved absolutely from the tyranny of Pharaoh and the enslavement in Egypt, the children of Israel needed the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea. Likewise, after enjoying Christ’s redemption to be saved from God’s judgment, the New Testament believers need to leave the world and be baptized (cf. Mark 16:16a and note 1).
Ex 14:31a believed  -   Psa. 106:12; Exo. 4:31; cf. John 2:11; 11:45
Ex 14:311 Moses
According to 1 Cor. 10:2, the children of Israel were “baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Moses was a type of Christ and a representative of Christ (Heb. 3:1-6). Hence, by being baptized unto Moses, the children of Israel were actually baptized unto Christ, who was their real Leader (v. 19 and note; 23:20 and note). In the cloud and in the sea signify in the Spirit and into the death of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 6:3-4 and notes 33 through 42). Just as the cloud and the sea were one, so the Spirit and the death of Christ are one (Rom. 8:13).
Exodus Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 15:1a sang  -   Psa. 106:12; cf. Rev. 15:3; Judg. 5:1
Ex 15:11 song
See note 31 in Rev. 15.
Ex 15:1b I  -   Exo. 15:21
Ex 15:12 He
Or, He is highly exalted. So also in v. 21.
Ex 15:21 Jah
A shortened form of Jehovah.
Ex 15:2a strength  -   Isa. 12:2; Psa. 118:14; 18:1-2; 59:17; 140:7
Ex 15:22b salvation  -   Exo. 14:13
In vv. 1-12 the children of Israel praised God for His salvation and His victory (v. 1b). Salvation is related to God’s people, and victory, to God’s enemy. At the time God defeated the enemy, He also saved His people (cf. Heb. 2:14-15).
Ex 15:2c praise  -   Deut. 10:21; Psa. 109:1
Ex 15:2d exalt  -   2 Sam. 22:47; Psa. 18:46; 99:5, 9; 145:1; Isa. 25:1
Ex 15:3a war  -   cf. Psa. 24:8; Rev. 19:11
Ex 15:3b name  -   Exo. 3:15; 6:3; Psa. 83:18; Isa. 42:8
Ex 15:4a chariots  -   Exo. 14:6, 9, 23, 26-28
Ex 15:4b sea  -   Neh. 9:11
Ex 15:5a cover  -   Exo. 14:28; 15:10
Ex 15:6a right  -   Psa. 118:15-16
Ex 15:7a stubble  -   Isa. 5:24; 47:14; Mal. 4:1
Ex 15:8a blast  -   2 Sam. 22:16; Psa. 18:15
Ex 15:8b heap  -   Psa. 78:13; cf. Josh. 3:16
Ex 15:10a covered  -   Exo. 14:28; 15:5
Ex 15:11a like  -   Deut. 3:24; 1 Sam. 2:2; Psa. 71:19; 89:6
Ex 15:11b holiness  -   Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8
Ex 15:11c praises  -   Psa. 22:3; 78:4; Isa. 60:6; 63:7
Ex 15:11d wonders  -   Psa. 77:14
Ex 15:13a redeemed  -   2 Sam. 7:23; 1 Chron. 17:21; Neh. 1:10; Psa. 77:15
Ex 15:13b guided  -   Psa. 77:20; 78:52-54
Ex 15:131 holy
This verse speaks of God’s habitation, even though the temple as God’s dwelling place was not built until centuries later. God’s habitation was first the tabernacle and then the temple, both of which typify the church (cf. note 92 in ch. 25). The tabernacle was constructed within a year after the exodus from Egypt (13:4; 40:17), and it remained with the people until the temple was built (1 Kings 5 — 7). The mention of God’s habitation here indicates that baptism leads to the church life (Acts 2:38-47).
Ex 15:141 peoples
In poetic form vv. 14-15 are a prophecy that the children of Israel would defeat God’s enemies and take possession of the good land. The peoples signify the unbelievers, the heathen: the Philistines, who lived between Egypt and the good land, signify the people of the religious world (1 Sam. 6:1-18 and note 41); the Edomites, the descendants of Esau (Gen. 36:1), signify those who are natural, those who are not chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed (Rom. 9:10-13); the descendants of Lot, the Moabites, signify the fleshly ones, for their source was an act of incest (Gen. 19:30-38); and the Canaanites are related to the evil powers in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12). The intention of all the enemies was to keep God’s people from reaching His goal — the building of His dwelling place for the fulfillment of His purpose. Nevertheless, in the eyes of God His goal has already been achieved. Thus, Moses used the perfect tense when speaking of God’s habitation (vv. 13, 17) and the apostle John used the past tense in describing the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5).
Ex 15:15a Edom  -   cf. Deut. 2:4
Ex 15:15b Moab  -   cf. Num. 22:3
Ex 15:15c melted  -   Josh. 2:9, 11, 24; 5:1
Ex 15:16a Terror  -   Deut. 2:25; 11:25
Ex 15:16b stone  -   1 Sam. 25:37
Ex 15:16c purchased  -   Psa. 74:2
Ex 15:17a plant  -   Psa. 80:8; Jer. 32:41
Ex 15:17b mountain  -   Psa. 78:54
Ex 15:181a reign  -   Psa. 10:16; 29:10; 146:10; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:15
God’s habitation, God’s house, brings in God’s kingdom, God’s reign. Today the church is first God’s house and then His kingdom (1 Tim. 3:15; Rom. 14:17). The church brings in God’s kingdom to the earth (Eph. 2:19; Matt. 16:18-19). Thus, vv. 1-18 indicate that the goal of God’s salvation is the building of His dwelling place for the establishing of His kingdom.
Ex 15:19a sea  -   Exo. 14:23
Ex 15:19b upon  -   Exo. 14:28-29
Ex 15:20a Miriam  -   Num. 26:59; Micah 6:4
Ex 15:20b prophetess  -   Judg. 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14; Luke 2:36; Acts 21:9
Ex 15:211 responded
Or, sang to them.
Ex 15:21a Sing  -   Exo. 15:1
Ex 15:221 three
Three days signifies resurrection (Matt. 16:21; Acts 10:40; 1 Cor. 15:4). This indicates that it was in resurrection that the people of God were separated from Egypt. Negatively, the wilderness signifies a place of wandering (Num. 14:33), but here it signifies, positively, a place of separation from the world. A journey of three days corresponds to baptism, which brings people out of the world through Christ’s death and into a wilderness, a realm of separation, in Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5). See notes 301 in ch. 14 and 171 in Gen. 7.
Ex 15:222 no
This signifies that in the realm of resurrection there is no natural water, no natural supply.
Ex 15:231a Marah  -   cf. Ruth 1:20
Meaning bitterness. The bitter waters of Marah signify the bitter circumstances encountered by God’s people as they walk in the realm of resurrection under God’s leading and find that there is no natural supply for their need.
Ex 15:24a murmured  -   Exo. 16:2; 17:3
Ex 15:251 tree
The tree that healed the bitter waters signifies the cross of Christ, which is a healing cross (1 Pet. 2:24). As Moses saw a vision of a tree and cast the tree into the bitter waters, we need to see a vision of the crucified Christ and apply the cross of Christ to our bitter situations. The experience of Christ’s death in the realm of resurrection (Phil. 3:10) will cause our bitter situations to become sweet.
Ex 15:25a waters  -   cf. 2 Kings 2:21
Ex 15:252b tested  -   Exo. 16:4; Deut. 8:2, 16; Judg. 2:22; 3:1, 4; Psa. 66:10
God uses our experience of the cross in bitter circumstances to test us and expose us.
Ex 15:26a diseases  -   Exo. 23:25; Deut. 7:15; cf. Deut. 28:60
Ex 15:261 Jehovah
Or, Jehovah your Healer. The fact that Jehovah was their Healer indicates that the children of Israel were sick (Matt. 9:12 and notes). This signifies that not only the waters of our circumstances are sometimes bitter (see note 231), but we ourselves also are bitter (i.e., sick) and in need of healing (cf. v. 24). As we experience the cross of Christ and live a crucified life, Christ’s resurrection life becomes our healing power and the Lord becomes our Healer. Cf. notes 43 in Isa. 53, 171 in Matt. 8, and 247 in 1 Pet. 2.
Ex 15:26b heals  -   Psa. 103:3; 147:3; Hosea 6:1
Ex 15:271a Elim  -   Num. 33:9
Meaning mighty ones, strong ones, or great trees.
Ex 15:272 twelve
Israel’s experience at Elim is a picture of the experience of resurrection life, which issues from the experience of the cross at Marah. At Elim there were twelve springs flowing and seventy palm trees growing. In the Bible a spring signifies life that flows out of God in resurrection into His chosen people (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1), and palm trees signify life that is flourishing (Psa. 92:12), rejoicing in satisfaction (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15), and victorious over tribulation (John 12:13; Rev. 7:9). The number twelve signifies the mingling of divinity with humanity for the complete and perfect carrying out of God’s administration eternally (see notes 122 and 131 in Rev. 21 and note 24 in Rev. 22). Seventy equals seven times ten. The number seven signifies completion and perfection in God’s dispensational move (see note 291 in Rev. 2), and the number ten signifies fullness (see note 102 in Rev. 2). Hence, the number seventy signifies completion and perfection temporally for God’s dispensational move in full. Thus, the twelve springs at Elim signify God as living water flowing into His chosen people to be mingled with them for the accomplishing of His eternal administration, and the seventy palm trees signify God as life growing in His people to carry out His administration dispensationally to express the riches of the divine life and its victory.
When used together, the numbers twelve and seventy signify that God’s people are to carry out His ministry (24:1, 4; Luke 9:1; 10:1) by the flowing life signified by the twelve springs and the growing life signified by the seventy palm trees.
Exodus Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 16:1a And  -   Num. 33:10-11
Ex 16:21a murmured  -   Exo. 15:24; 17:3; 1 Cor. 10:10
Murmuring is an expression of the flesh, the totality of man’s fallen being (cf. Phil. 2:14). Although the thirst of the people had been quenched by the twelve springs at Elim (15:27), the people were still hungry because of the lack of food. In such a situation the flesh of God’s people was exposed. This shows that the shortage of Christ as our spiritual nourishment will always cause our flesh with its lusts to be exposed. After the flesh was exposed, God sent manna to nourish His people (vv. 13-15). God’s way of dealing with the flesh of His people is to change their diet. The only way to conquer the flesh is to be filled with Christ by enjoying Him daily as the heavenly life supply, signified by manna (see notes 41 and 151).
Ex 16:3a died  -   cf. Num. 20:2-5
Ex 16:31b fleshpots  -   Num. 11:4-5; cf. Acts 7:39
The Egyptian diet denotes the worldly things and amusements that people feed on in order to find satisfaction. In Egypt the children of Israel had eaten only Egyptian food; hence, they had become Egyptian in both their constitution and their appetite. Their desire here for Egyptian food indicates that their experience of redemption through the passover lamb and the exodus from Egypt with the crossing of the Red Sea had not changed their inward constitution and worldly taste (Num. 11:4-5). Contrary to God’s desire, the people wanted to live the same way as they had lived in Egypt (cf. 1 Pet. 1:18 and note 2).
Ex 16:3c kill  -   Exo. 14:11; 17:3
Ex 16:41 bread
This was manna (vv. 15, 31), a type of Christ as the unique heavenly food for God’s people (John 6:31-35). By giving them manna to eat, God indicated that His intention was to change the nature of His people, to change their very constitution, for the accomplishing of His purpose. Because the children of Israel were still constituted with the Egyptian element and were thus the same as the Egyptians, they were not qualified to build up the tabernacle as God’s habitation on earth. For forty years God gave the children of Israel nothing to eat but manna (v. 35; Num. 11:6). This shows that God’s intention in His salvation is to work Himself into the believers in Christ and to change their constitution by feeding them with Christ as their unique heavenly food, thereby reconstituting them with Christ in order to qualify them to build up the church as God’s dwelling place. In fact, after being reconstituted with Christ, the believers themselves become the dwelling place of God (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; Rev. 21:2-3).
Ex 16:4a heaven  -   Neh. 9:15; Psa. 78:24-25; 105:40; John 6:31-32; 1 Cor. 10:3
Ex 16:4b test  -   Exo. 15:25
Ex 16:42 in
Or, according to My instruction. The regulations concerning the gathering of manna (vv. 4-5, 16-30) were a test to prove whether or not God’s people corresponded to Him. Eating manna regulated God’s people and caused them to live, behave, and walk according to God. By contrast, the eating of quails was wild and without restriction (v. 13a; Num. 11:31-33a), corresponding to the Egyptian style, fashion, and manner.
Ex 16:6a know  -   Exo. 6:7; 16:12; cf. Num. 16:28-31
Ex 16:7a glory  -   Exo. 16:10
Ex 16:7b hears  -   Num. 14:27
Ex 16:7c murmur  -   Num. 16:11
Ex 16:8a against  -   Num. 14:27; 17:5; 1 Sam. 8:7; cf. Luke 10:16
Ex 16:9a Aaron  -   cf. Exo. 4:14-16
Ex 16:9b before  -   Num. 16:16
Ex 16:101a glory  -   Exo. 16:7; 24:16; 29:43; 40:34; Lev. 9:23; Num. 14:10; 16:19; 1 Kings 8:10-11; 2 Chron. 5:14; 7:1-3; Isa. 6:3-4; Ezek. 43:5; Hag. 2:7, 9; Rom. 9:4; Rev. 15:8; 21:23
God dealt with His people’s flesh by showing them His glory. God’s glory appeared for the purpose of rescuing His people from their murmuring by condemning them.
Ex 16:12a twilight  -   cf. Exo. 12:6
Ex 16:12b know  -   Exo. 6:7
Ex 16:131a quails  -   Num. 11:31; Psa. 78:27; 105:40
God sent quails (cf. Num. 11:31) to satisfy the lust of the people in their eating (v. 12; cf. Num. 11:18, 32), to show them His sufficiency, and to discipline them with His anger (cf. Num. 11:19-20, 33-34). The Egyptian diet corresponded to the lust of the people’s flesh and nourished it, causing the people to become more fleshly. Manna, on the contrary, came from heaven (v. 4) and caused those who ate it to become heavenly.
Ex 16:132b dew  -   Num. 11:9
The quails that satisfied the lust of the people came in the evening, but manna was always sent in the morning, causing the people to have a new beginning each day. Furthermore, it was sent with the dew (v. 14; Num. 11:9), which signifies the Lord’s refreshing and watering grace brought in by His fresh compassions (cf. Psa. 133:3; Prov. 19:12; Lam. 3:22-23). Grace is God reaching us to refresh us and water us. Christ as our daily manna always comes by means of this grace.
Ex 16:151 What
Heb. man hu, from which the word manna derives. Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food that enables God’s people to go His way (John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58). According to God’s economy, Christ should be the unique diet, the only food, strength, satisfaction, and sustenance, of God’s chosen people, and they should live by Him alone (Num. 11:6; John 6:57). In order to be food to us, Christ was incarnated, crucified, and resurrected to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit to indwell our spirit (John 6:63 and notes).
Although it is known that manna came from heaven (v. 4), the element and essence of manna are a mystery. Manna did not belong to the old creation; nevertheless, it could nourish man’s physical body. Thus, it must have contained certain elements and minerals that were a part of the old creation. As the real manna, Christ also is mysterious. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), yet He has a body that can be seen and touched (Luke 24:36-43). Thus, it is difficult to say whether Christ is spiritual or material.
Ex 16:15a bread  -   Exo. 16:4; Deut. 8:3; Neh. 9:15; John 6:31; cf. Rev. 2:17
Ex 16:16a omer  -   Exo. 16:36
Ex 16:18a he  -   2 Cor. 8:15
Ex 16:191 leave
Manna was sent every morning and had to be gathered every morning (v. 21). This indicates that we cannot store up the supply of Christ. The experience of Christ as our life supply must be daily, morning by morning (cf. Matt. 6:34).
Ex 16:201a worms  -   cf. Exo. 16:24
The manna that was stored up by the people bred worms and stank, and the manna left in the hot sun melted (v. 21). However, the manna gathered on the sixth day and the manna preserved in the golden pot did not spoil or melt (vv. 22-24, 32-34). This shows that everything related to manna was miraculous and that manna was collected, enjoyed, and kept according to God’s regulations, not man’s. The same is true with respect to our experience of Christ as our life supply.
Ex 16:22a twice  -   Exo. 16:5
Ex 16:231a Sabbath  -   Gen. 2:3; Exo. 20:8-11; 31:14-17; 35:2-3; Lev. 23:3
Meaning a rest; from the verb meaning to cease.
Ex 16:24a worm  -   cf. Exo. 16:20
Ex 16:281 laws
Or, instructions.
Ex 16:31a manna  -   Num. 11:7-8; John 6:31
Ex 16:311 coriander
The characteristics of manna portray the characteristics of Christ as the heavenly food of God’s people. Manna was fine (v. 14), indicating that Christ is even and balanced and that He became small enough for us to eat; round (v. 14), indicating that as our food Christ is eternal, perfect, and full, without shortage or defect; white (v. 31), showing that Christ is clean and pure, without any mixture; like frost (v. 14), signifying that Christ as our heavenly food not only cools and refreshes us but also kills the negative things within us; like coriander seed (v. 31), indicating that Christ is full of life that grows in us and multiplies; solid (implied in the fact that the people “ground it between two millstones or beat it in a mortar, then they boiled it in pots” — Num. 11:8), signifying that after gathering Christ as manna, we must prepare Him for our eating by “grinding, beating, and boiling” Him in the situations and circumstances of our daily living; like bdellium in appearance (Num. 11:7), indicating the brightness and transparency of Christ; in its taste like the taste of cakes baked in oil (Num. 11:8), signifying the fragrance of the Holy Spirit in the taste of Christ; in its taste like wafers made with honey (v. 31), signifying the sweetness of the taste of Christ; and good for making cakes (Num. 11:8), indicating that Christ is like fine cakes rich in nourishment.
Ex 16:321 omerful
The open manna, the manna that lay on the ground every morning, was for the enjoyment of God’s people in a public way. However, the omer of manna placed in a pot (v. 33) was hidden and was not for the congregation in a public way. The amount of manna kept in a pot before Jehovah was one omer, the same as the amount gathered and eaten by the people (vv. 16-18). In spiritual experience, this indicates that the amount of Christ we eat is the amount we can preserve. The Christ whom we eat as open manna spontaneously becomes hidden manna by being digested and assimilated into our inner being. Furthermore, whatever we eat of Christ will become a memorial in generations to come. The Christ whom we eat and enjoy will be an eternal memorial, because such a Christ becomes our very constitution, enabling us to build up and even to become God’s dwelling place in the universe.
Ex 16:331a pot  -   Heb. 9:4; cf. Rev. 2:17
According to Heb. 9:3-4, the manna was kept in a golden pot in the Ark of the Testimony, which was in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. In the Bible gold signifies the divine nature. The manna in the golden pot signifies that the Christ whom we enjoy as our life supply is preserved within us in the divine nature, which we received through regeneration (2 Pet. 1:4). The Ark, in which the golden pot with the manna was kept, typifies Christ. Christ as the hidden manna is preserved in the divine nature, and the divine nature is in Christ, typified by the Ark. This Christ is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), which in our experience is the Holy of Holies (see note 191 in Heb. 10). The manna preserved in the golden pot was the center of the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament; likewise, the Christ whom we have eaten, digested, and assimilated is the center of our being as a part of the church, God’s dwelling place today (2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 2:22).
Revelation 2:17 indicates that the overcomers, who overcome the degradation of the worldly church, will be given to eat the hidden manna and will be given a white stone (see notes 172 and 173 in Rev. 2). This indicates that as we eat Christ and preserve Him as the hidden manna within us, He makes us overcomers and also transforms us into white stones for the building of God’s dwelling place, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
Ex 16:341a Testimony  -   cf. Exo. 25:16, 21; 26:33-34; 30:26, 36; 40:20
Since the golden pot with the manna was in the Ark (Heb. 9:4), the Testimony here must refer not to the Ark but to the tablets of the law that were in the Ark (34:1, 29; 25:21; 40:20). The law is a testimony of what God is (see note 11 in ch. 20). Hence, the fact that the manna in the golden pot was placed before the Testimony indicates that manna corresponds to God’s testimony, God’s law, and meets its requirements. When we take Christ as our heavenly life supply, Christ as the hidden manna preserved in the divine nature within us causes us to correspond to God’s testimony and to fulfill its requirements (Rom. 8:4), thereby making us God’s expression.
Ex 16:35a forty  -   Deut. 8:2-3; Neh. 9:20-21; Acts 7:36; 13:18
Ex 16:351 ate
See note 121 in Josh. 5.
Ex 16:35b Canaan  -   Josh. 5:12
Exodus Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 17:11 stages
Lit., journeys.
Ex 17:1a Rephidim  -   Num. 33:12-14; Exo. 17:8
Ex 17:12 no
After the children of Israel had eaten the manna to satisfy their hunger (ch. 16), they needed to drink the living water to quench their thirst. In both physical life and spiritual life eating and drinking should always go together. At the beginning of the Bible, the tree of life and the manna are mentioned before the water of life (Gen. 2:9-10; Exo. 16:4, 14-15; 17:6; cf. John 6:31-35; 7:37-39), indicating that in the beginning of our spiritual life our eating of Christ in His word (Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4; John 6:63) issues in the flowing of the Spirit as the living water within us. However, at the end of the Bible the river of water of life is mentioned before the tree of life (Rev. 22:1-2), and the tree of life grows in (i.e., is conveyed in) the river, indicating that as we progress in spiritual experience, the Spirit as the flowing river brings us the supply of the word, the manna. This implies that ultimately in the divine concept eating is included in drinking and drinking is more important than eating.
In the Bible the basic principle concerning man’s relationship with God is that man needs to eat and drink of God. It is by eating and drinking that we, God’s chosen people, take God into us, and it is through our eating and drinking Him that God works Himself into us to be one with us organically.
Ex 17:21a contended  -   Num. 20:3-4
The children of Israel had seen God’s miraculous acts on their behalf, but they did not know God’s ways (Psa. 103:7). Hence, they contended with Moses and even questioned whether or not the Lord was among them (vv. 2-3, 7).
Ex 17:2b test  -   Deut. 6:16; Psa. 78:18, 41; 95:9; Matt. 4:7; 1 Cor. 10:9; Heb. 3:8-9; cf. Isa. 7:12
Ex 17:3a murmured  -   Exo. 15:24; 16:2
Ex 17:41 A
It is difficult to tell whether Moses was praying here or making an accusation. Moses’ reaction to the people’s complaining shows that under God’s testing Moses was a failure. See note 71.
Ex 17:5a staff  -   Exo. 4:2; 7:19-20
Ex 17:61 rock
According to Paul’s word in 1 Cor. 10:4, the rock here was Christ. Furthermore, it was a spiritual rock that followed the children of Israel in their journeys (cf. Num. 20:8-11). See note 42 in 1 Cor. 10.
Ex 17:62 strike
The striking of the rock is a clear, complete, and full picture of Christ’s crucifixion. The rock was struck by the staff of Moses (v. 5). In this type, Moses signifies the law, and the staff represents the power and authority of the law. Hence, the striking of the rock by Moses’ staff signifies that Christ was put to death on the cross by the authority of God’s law (cf. Gal. 2:19-20a; 3:13).
Ex 17:6a rock  -   Num. 20:8-11; Deut. 8:15; Neh. 9:15; Psa. 78:15-16, 20; 105:41; 114:8; Isa. 48:21; 1 Cor. 10:4
Ex 17:63 water
The water flowing out of the smitten rock typifies the Spirit (John 7:37-39). Through incarnation Christ came to the earth as a rock. On the cross He was smitten by the authority of God’s righteous law to accomplish God’s redemption. His side was pierced, and living water flowed out for God’s people to drink (John 19:34 and note). This living water is the water of life in resurrection, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the ultimate issue of the Triune God (1 Cor. 15:45; see note 391 in John 7). The source of the water of life is the throne of God and of the Lamb — the redeeming God (Rev. 22:1). Hence, the water of life is the Triune God flowing out to be our life. The flow of the living water began from the throne in eternity, continued through the incarnation, human living, and crucifixion of Christ (John 4:10, 14; 19:34), and now flows on in resurrection to supply God’s people with all the riches of the divine life (Rev. 22:1-2). When we identify ourselves with the smitten Christ, the divine life as the living water flows out of us (John 7:38). The flowing of the water of life in resurrection is for the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) and the preparation of the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7), both of which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-10; cf. Eph. 5:23, 28-30).
To drink of the water of life, we first need to be positioned to drink (1 Cor. 12:13), and we also need to be thirsty (John 7:37; Rev. 21:6). Then we need to come to the Lord (John 7:37; Rev. 22:17), to ask of the Lord (John 4:10), to believe in the Lord (John 7:38), and to call on the name of the Lord (Isa. 12:3-4; Acts 2:21).
Ex 17:71a Massah  -   Deut. 6:16; Psa. 95:8
Meaning test. At Massah God tested both Israel (Psa. 81:7) and Moses, the leader among His people, and Israel also tested God (vv. 2, 7). The shortage of water was a test to both God and His people. Whenever we are short of Christ as the living water, we are spontaneously subject to God’s test. As was the case at Massah, only God is able to pass such a test. Cf. Num. 20:2-13 and notes.
Ex 17:72b Meribah  -   Num. 20:13; Psa. 81:7; Heb. 3:9
Meaning strife, or contention.
Ex 17:81a Amalek  -   Num. 14:45; Deut. 25:17; Judg. 3:13; 6:3, 33; 10:12; 1 Sam. 15:2
Meaning warlike. Amalek typifies the flesh, which is the totality of the fallen old man (Gal. 2:16; see notes 32 in Gal. 3 and 191 in Gal. 5). The fighting between Amalek and Israel depicts the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit within the believers (Gal. 5:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:11). Amalek was a descendant of Esau (Gen. 36:12), Jacob’s twin brother. This indicates that the flesh is very close to our regenerated being, signified by Jacob. Esau was born first and Jacob second, indicating that the flesh is of the first man, the old man.
Ex 17:82 fought
Amalek was the first enemy encountered by the children of Israel on the way to the good land (Deut. 25:17-18; 1 Sam. 15:2). This indicates that our flesh is the first among all our enemies. The flesh, sin, the world, and Satan are all related, but the most prominent among them in fighting against the believers is the flesh (Gal. 5:17). When in our experience the flesh is put to death (Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:13), the world cannot hold us, sin cannot operate in us, and Satan is powerless to work on us. Amalek’s purpose in attacking Israel was to frustrate them from entering the good land. Likewise, Satan’s aim in stirring up the flesh to fight against us is to keep us from entering into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as our good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8).
Ex 17:91a Joshua  -   Exo. 24:13; 33:11; Num. 13:16; 27:18; Deut. 34:9; Josh. 1:1
Meaning Jehovah Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. Jesus is from the Greek form of the name. See note 211 in Matt. 1.
Ex 17:9b staff  -   Exo. 4:2, 20
Ex 17:10a Hur  -   Exo. 17:12; 24:14; 31:2; 1 Chron. 2:20
Ex 17:111 lifted
While Moses lifted up his hand, Joshua fought for the people and prevailed. Moses lifting up his hand on the mountaintop typifies the ascended Christ interceding in the heavens (Rom. 8:34b; Heb. 7:25; cf. 1 Tim. 2:8), and Joshua typifies Christ as the indwelling Spirit fighting against the flesh (Rom. 8:9-11; Gal. 5:16-17). Amalek was defeated by Israel through the supply of the manna (ch. 16) and the living water (vv. 1-6) and by the lifting up of Moses’ hands and the fighting of Joshua. Likewise, we are victorious over the flesh by eating and drinking Christ as our life supply and by praying with the interceding Christ and putting the flesh to death with Christ as the fighting Spirit (Rom. 8:13 and note 2; Gal. 5:24 and note 2).
Ex 17:121 heavy
As the one praying on the mountaintop, Moses typifies Christ, but as the one whose hands became heavy, Moses represents us. This signifies that while Christ is praying in the heavens, we too need to pray on earth (1 Tim. 2:8). Because the flesh never changes or improves, in order to prevail against the flesh, we need to pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17; Col. 4:2), joining ourselves to Christ in His intercession. However, often our praying hands become heavy. Thus, we need a stone to support us, and we need the help of Aaron and Hur. The stone, a solid base for our prayer life, refers to our realization that in ourselves we are weak and that in order to sustain our prayer, we need Christ to be our support (cf. John 15:5b). Aaron, the high priest (28:1; Heb. 5:1, 4), signifies the priesthood, and Hur, who was of the tribe of Judah (31:2), signifies the kingship (Gen. 49:10). The priesthood is related to the Holy of Holies, which in our experience is always related to our spirit (Heb. 10:19 and note). Hence, to sustain our prayer and to thus defeat the flesh, we need the priesthood to strengthen our spirit. We also need to be obedient to the Lord under His authority, the kingship. Furthermore, Hur is related to the building of the tabernacle (31:2-5), and the direction of Exodus is toward this goal. This indicates that we need to take the building of the church as the goal of our prayer.
Ex 17:141 recite
Lit., place it in the ears of.
Ex 17:142 blot
The flesh is God’s enemy. It has neither the intention nor the ability to obey God (Rom. 8:7-8). Hence, the destiny of the flesh is to be blotted out. This will take place during the kingdom age in the millennium (Rev. 20:7-9 and note 82).
Ex 17:14a Amalek  -   Deut. 25:19; cf. Num. 24:20; 1 Sam. 15:3
Ex 17:15a altar  -   cf. Judg. 6:24
Ex 17:151 Jehovah-nissi
Meaning Jehovah is my banner. The altar built and named by Moses signifies the cross as a memorial of our victory over the flesh (Gal. 5:24; 6:14). Through the cross we enjoy the Lord as our banner, our victory.
Ex 17:161 hand
Amalek was a hand against God’s throne, signifying that the flesh is in rebellion against God and is against His throne, His governmental administration. Every aspect of the flesh, whether good or evil, is an enemy of God’s authority (Rom. 8:7). Hence, God has decided to war against the flesh continually (cf. Judg. 3:13-15; 5:14; 6:3; 7:12-14; 1 Sam. 15:2-9, 32-33; 27:8; 30:1-17; 2 Sam. 8:12; 1 Chron. 4:42-43; Esth. 3:1-6; 9:7-10) until it is blotted out (v. 14).
Ex 17:162 Jah
A shortened form of Jehovah.
Exodus Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 18:11 Now
Exodus 18 presents a type, a portrait, of the kingdom of God, in which the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place, was built. The fact that this portrait is presented after the war against Amalek signifies that when the flesh as God’s enemy is dealt with, the kingdom with the kingship immediately comes in (cf. Gal. 5:17-25), and the church as the Body of Christ is built up (cf. 1 Kings 1 — 8). In order to realize the kingdom with the building of the church, we must utterly repudiate the flesh in both its good and evil aspects (cf. Phil. 3:3-10). Saul lost the kingship because he did not utterly destroy Amalek but spared the best of what was to be destroyed (1 Sam. 15 and notes).
According to historical sequence, the events described in ch. 18 took place after the building of the tabernacle and not long before the children of Israel began their journey with the tabernacle toward the good land (Deut. 1:6-18). Under divine inspiration Moses inserted these events after ch. 17 to show that in the experience of God’s full salvation the kingdom comes after God’s people have been delivered from Satan (Pharaoh) and the world (Egypt), and after the flesh (Amalek) has been defeated and subdued. After the defeat of Amalek, the kingdom is needed as the sphere, the environment, for the building up of God’s dwelling place on earth.
Ex 18:12a Jethro  -   Exo. 2:16; 3:1; 4:18
Jethro, a priest of Midian (vv. 1, 5, 10-12), represents the Gentiles who turn to God and become seekers of God in the kingdom (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23).
Ex 18:21 Zipporah
Zipporah, the Gentile wife of Moses secured by him during his period of rejection by Israel (2:13-22), typifies the Gentile church gained by Christ as His wife during the time of His rejection by the children of Israel (Rom. 11:11-25; cf. note 452 in Gen. 41). When the kingdom comes, the overcomers in the church participate in the kingdom as the ruling authority in the kingdom (Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4, 6).
Ex 18:3a sons  -   Exo. 4:20; Acts 7:29
Ex 18:31 Gershom
Meaning a sojourner there.
Ex 18:32 Moses
Lit., he.
Ex 18:3b sojourner  -   Exo. 2:22; Psa. 39:12; Heb. 11:13
Ex 18:41 Eliezer
Meaning my God is [my] help.
Ex 18:4a delivered  -   Heb. 11:34
Ex 18:5a mount  -   Exo. 3:1; 24:13
Ex 18:10a Blessed  -   Gen. 14:20; 2 Sam. 18:28; Luke 1:68
Ex 18:11a greater  -   1 Chron. 16:25; 2 Chron. 2:5; Psa. 95:3; 135:5
Ex 18:11b proudly  -   Neh. 9:10; Luke 1:51
Ex 18:111 people
Lit., them.
Ex 18:12a burnt  -   Gen. 8:20; Exo. 24:5; Job 1:5; 42:8
Ex 18:12b eat  -   Deut. 12:7; 14:26; 1 Chron. 29:22
Ex 18:131 Moses
Verses 13-26 portray the authority and order of the kingdom. Christ, signified by Moses, is the Head of authority, and under the headship of Christ everything is in a proper order.
Ex 18:16a judge  -   cf. Exo. 24:14; Deut. 17:8; 2 Sam. 15:2-3; 1 Cor. 6:1
Ex 18:16b statutes  -   Deut. 4:5; 5:1
Ex 18:18a by  -   Num. 11:14-17; Deut. 1:9, 12
Ex 18:19a matters  -   Num. 27:5
Ex 18:20a walk  -   Deut. 1:18; Psa. 143:8
Ex 18:21a able  -   Deut. 1:13, 15
Ex 18:211 leaders
The leaders here and in Deut. 1:15 were appointed to maintain a good order among God’s people in their daily relationships with one another in His kingdom. They are different from the seventy elders in Num. 11, who were appointed to take care of the relationship between God’s people and God.
Ex 18:22a judge  -   Deut. 16:18; 2 Chron. 19:5-7
Ex 18:22b bring  -   Exo. 18:26; Deut. 1:17
Ex 18:22c bear  -   Num. 11:17
Ex 18:27a own  -   cf. Num. 10:29-30
Exodus Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 19:1a Sinai  -   Num. 33:15
Ex 19:31 went
The book of Exodus was written to show God’s full salvation for the building up of His dwelling place. Chapters 1 — 18 portray God’s redemption and salvation (1:1 — 14:31), God’s provision (15:1 — 17:7), the victory over the flesh (17:8-16), and a picture of the kingdom (18:1-27), inserted by Moses to show the issue, the result, of the foregoing items. After the experiences recorded in these chapters, the children of Israel were brought into God’s direct presence at the mountain of God (3:1; 18:5) to have fellowship with God. There God appeared to His people and spoke to them (vv. 3-6, 11) to give them the knowledge of Himself (chs. 20 — 24) and the vision of the pattern of His dwelling place (chs. 25 — 30) so that they might build it according to that vision (chs. 35 — 40). See note 81, par. 2, in ch. 3.
Ex 19:3a called  -   cf. Exo. 3:4; Lev. 1:1
Ex 19:4a seen  -   Deut. 29:2-3
Ex 19:41b eagles’  -   Deut. 32:11-12; Rev. 12:14; cf. Luke 13:34
The eagles’ wings signify the grace and power of God in Christ applied to us (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; Eph. 1:19). In the fellowship of God we first come to know the grace of God, which accomplishes everything for us and carries us onward with God. Cf. Isa. 40:31; Ezek. 1:6, 8-11.
Ex 19:5a covenant  -   Exo. 24:7-8; 34:27-28; Deut. 5:2
Ex 19:51b personal  -   Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Psa. 135:4; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:9
The Hebrew word has a double meaning; it means both personal possession and peculiar treasure. Cf. Titus 2:14. This shows that an intimate affection exists in the fellowship of God with His redeemed people (see note 62 in ch. 20).
Ex 19:5c all  -   Exo. 9:29; Job 41:11; Psa. 24:1; 50:12
Ex 19:61 kingdom
As God’s people remain in His presence, they become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 1 Pet. 2:9). As priests, God’s people live in God’s presence, enjoying Him as their portion, even as He enjoys them as His treasure (v. 5). The mutual enjoyment between God and His people separates His people unto Himself from everything other than Him, making them a holy nation.
Ex 19:6a priests  -   1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6
Ex 19:6b holy  -   Deut. 7:6; 14:21; 26:19; 28:9; Isa. 62:12; 1 Pet. 2:9
See note 61.
Ex 19:81 All
This seemingly positive answer, given here and in 24:3, 7, was offensive to God, for it indicated that the children of Israel knew neither God nor themselves and did not have a heart for God (cf. Matt. 15:8). They presumed that they could do whatever God required, not knowing that they were unable to fulfill His commandments and that they stood in need of His mercy. Even before the decree of the law had been completed, the people fell into the sin of idolatry, breaking at least the first three of the Ten Commandments (20:2-7; 32:1-6 and notes). After the people spoke this word, God changed His attitude toward them and also caused a change of atmosphere (vv. 9, 12-13, 16-25; 20:18-19; cf. 19:3-6).
God’s eternal purpose is to have a people to be His counterpart, His expression, and His dwelling place. In order to fulfill this purpose, God must impart Himself as life into His chosen people and work Himself into them. From the very beginning it was not God’s intention to give man commandments to keep or to have man do things for Him (see note 171 in Gen. 2). Likewise, in bringing the children of Israel to the mountain of God, it was not God’s intention to give them a list of divine commandments as requirements for them to fulfill. Rather, His intention was to bring His people into His presence so that He could reveal Himself to them and impart Himself into them through His speaking to them (cf. 34:28-29 and note 291). God’s people, however, did not understand His intention. Their natural, fallen, and religious concept was that God wanted them to do certain things for Him, and they thought they were able to do these things. Since this was their concept, it was necessary for God to give them commandments to show them how high His requirements are and how unable to fulfill these requirements they were (Rom. 8:3a, 7-8).
The law decreed by God on Mount Sinai has both a positive and a negative function. On the positive side the law functions as God’s testimony, revealing God to His people (see note 11 in ch. 20). The law is also God’s living word as His breath (2 Tim. 3:16) to infuse His element into His loving seekers (see note 31 in Deut. 8). On the negative side, the function of the law is to expose sin (Rom. 3:20; 5:20; 7:7-8, 13), to subdue sinners (Rom. 3:19), and to guard God’s chosen people and bring them to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24). Whether in our experience the law is positive or negative depends on the condition of our heart in receiving the law. If we love God, humble ourselves, and regard the law as His living word through which we contact Him and abide in Him, the law will become a channel through which the divine life and substance are conveyed to us for our supply and nourishment. Being infused with God’s substance through the law as God’s word, we will become one with God in life, nature, and expression and will spontaneously live a life that expresses God and corresponds to His law (Rom. 8:4; Phil. 1:21a). However, if in coming to the law we do not seek God in love but rather separate the law from the living God as the source of life (cf. John 5:39-40), the law, which was intended to result in life (Rom. 7:10) but cannot give life of itself (Gal. 3:21 and note 1), will become a condemning and killing element to us (Rom. 7:11; 2 Cor. 3:6-7, 9). See note 22, par. 1, in Psa. 119.
Ex 19:8a we  -   Exo. 24:3; Deut. 5:27
Ex 19:9a cloud  -   Deut. 4:11; Psa. 97:2
Ex 19:9b hear  -   Deut. 4:12, 36; cf. John 12:28-29
Ex 19:9c believe  -   Exo. 14:31
Ex 19:101a sanctify  -   Exo. 19:14; Lev. 20:7; Num. 11:18; Josh. 3:5; 7:13; 1 Sam. 16:5; cf. Gen. 35:2
To be sanctified is to be separated from the world unto God (see note 171 in John 17). Through such a sanctification God’s people can have fellowship with Him. See note 121.
Ex 19:111 third
The third day signifies resurrection (1 Cor. 15:4). God’s people were brought into His presence in resurrection. To be in resurrection means that everything of the old creation, which is altogether natural, has been terminated, and the new creation, which is altogether in resurrection, is germinated (2 Cor. 5:17).
Ex 19:11a come  -   Exo. 34:5; Num. 11:25
Ex 19:112 Mount
The mountain where the law was given has a twofold significance. First, as Mount Horeb, it is the mountain of God (3:1, 12; 4:27; 18:5; 24:13; Num. 10:33; 1 Kings 19:8), the place for God’s seekers to meet with one another (4:27; 18:5), to meet with God (24:13, 15-18; 1 Kings 19:8), to serve God (3:12), to receive God’s revelation and vision (3:1-3; 24:12-13; 1 Kings 19:8-9), and to be infused with God’s substance (34:28-29). Second, as Mount Sinai (vv. 11, 18, 20-24; 34:2-4; Gal. 4:24-25), it is the place where the sinfulness of God’s people is exposed and the boundary of God’s holiness is revealed (vv. 12-13, 21-24; Heb. 12:18-21).
Ex 19:121 limits
In fellowship with God we know not only His grace (v. 4) but also His holiness. Mount Sinai was a holy mountain because God descended upon it (v. 20; cf. 3:5). Thus, a boundary was set which the children of Israel were not permitted to cross (vv. 12-13, 21-24). If we as God’s people would remain in His presence in fellowship with Him, we must sanctify ourselves and everything related to us (vv. 10, 14, 22; cf. Heb. 12:14). To be sanctified is to honor the boundary of God’s holiness. Sanctification is the experiential aspect of holiness. When God’s holiness becomes our experience, that is sanctification. See notes 141 in Heb. 12 and 192 in Rom. 6.
Ex 19:12a mountain  -   Heb. 12:20
Ex 19:13a stoned  -   Heb. 12:20
Ex 19:13b trumpet  -   Heb. 12:19
Ex 19:15a near  -   cf. 1 Sam. 21:4-5; 1 Cor. 7:1
Ex 19:16a thunder  -   Rev. 4:5; 8:5; 11:19
Ex 19:16b cloud  -   Exo. 19:9; Heb. 12:18
Ex 19:16c trumpet  -   Exo. 20:18; Heb. 12:19; cf. Rev. 1:10
Ex 19:18a fire  -   Exo. 24:17; Deut. 4:11; Heb. 12:18
Ex 19:18b smoke  -   Psa. 144:5; Rev. 15:8
Ex 19:18c shook  -   Psa. 68:8; Heb. 12:26; Judg. 5:5
Ex 19:19a answered  -   Psa. 81:7; Heb. 12:19
Ex 19:191 in
Or, in a voice.
Ex 19:20a Mount  -   cf. Acts 7:38; Gal. 4:24
Ex 19:21a look  -   cf. Exo. 3:6; 1 Sam. 6:19; cf. Exo. 33:20
Ex 19:22a near  -   Lev. 10:3
Ex 19:22b break  -   2 Sam. 6:8; 1 Chron. 13:11
Exodus Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 20:1a And  -   vv. 1-17: Deut. 5:4-21
Ex 20:11 words
The law of God is God’s word (in 34:28 the Ten Commandments, the main contents of the law, are called “the ten words” — see note there). As such, the law is God’s testimony (16:34; 31:18; 32:15; 40:20; Psa. 19:7), God’s expression, a revelation of God to His people (see notes 12 in John 1 and 11, par. 1, in Heb. 1). The law of God reveals God’s attributes, showing that He is jealous (vv. 4-6; cf. 2 Cor. 11:2), holy (vv. 7-11), loving (vv. 6, 12-15; cf. Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14), righteous (v. 5), truthful (v. 16; cf. 1 John 1:5-6), and pure (vv. 2-3, 17). As the word of God and the testimony, the expression, of God, the law is a type of Christ as God’s Word and God’s testimony, God’s expression (John 1:1, 18; Rev. 19:13; 1:5; Col. 1:15).
The reality of keeping the law is to live God and express God. Such a living, a living in the eternal economy of God, is the living of a God-man, a life of continually denying the self and being crucified to live Christ, who is God’s testimony, by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for the enlarged and expanded expression of God (Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a; Rom. 8:4).
Ex 20:21a Jehovah  -   Lev. 26:13; Psa. 81:10
The title Jehovah your God appears in the first five commandments (vv. 2-3, 4-6, 7, 8-11, 12) but not in the last five (vv. 13-17), indicating that the Ten Commandments are divided into two groups of five, the first group being related to God and the second group, to man (see note 121).
Ex 20:2b brought  -   Exo. 12:51
Ex 20:3a other  -   2 Kings 17:35; Isa. 45:21; Jer. 25:6; 35:15; Hosea 13:4
Ex 20:31 before
Or, besides, in addition to. The first three commandments require man not to have any idols, any other beloved (see note 62), besides God (34:14-17; cf. note 213, par. 1, in 1 John 5 and notes 41 and 51 in James 4).
Ex 20:4a make  -   Lev. 26:1; Deut. 5:8; 27:15; Psa. 97:7; Acts 17:29
Ex 20:41 idol
Or, graven image.
Ex 20:42 form
Or, likeness.
Ex 20:5a serve  -   Deut. 5:9; Exo. 23:24; Josh. 23:7
Ex 20:5b jealous  -   Exo. 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 6:15; Josh. 24:19; Nahum 1:2; 1 Cor. 10:22; 2 Cor. 11:2
Ex 20:5c visiting  -   Exo. 34:7; Num. 14:18
Ex 20:6a lovingkindness  -   Deut. 7:9; Jer. 32:18
Ex 20:61 thousands
The number one thousand denotes fullness (cf. Psa. 84:10). To enjoy God’s lovingkindness to the fullest is to enjoy it for eternity. Although God’s anger can be counted (v. 5), His lovingkindness is beyond counting.
Ex 20:62 love
The mentioning of love here indicates that God’s intention in giving His law to His chosen people was that they become His lovers (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:35-38; Mark 12:28-30). In bringing His people out of Egypt and giving His law to them, God was courting them, wooing them, and seeking to win their affection. Jeremiah 2:2; 31:32; and Ezek. 16:8 indicate that the covenant enacted at the mountain of God through the giving of the law (24:7-8; 34:27-28) was an engagement covenant, in which God betrothed the children of Israel to Himself (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2). The Ten Commandments, especially the first five, gave the terms of the engagement between God and His people. The highest function of the law is to bring God’s chosen people into oneness with Him, as a wife is brought into oneness with her husband (cf. Gen. 2:24; Rev. 22:17). In order for God and His people to be one, there must be a mutual love between them (John 14:21, 23). The love between God and His people unfolded in the Bible is primarily like the affectionate love between a man and a woman (Jer. 2:2; 31:3). As God’s people love God and spend time to fellowship with Him in His word, God infuses them with His divine element, making them one with Him as His spouse, the same as He is in life, nature, and expression (Gen. 2:18-25 and notes). See note 81, pars. 2 and 3, in ch. 19.
The entire Bible is a divine romance, a record of how God courts His chosen people and eventually marries them (Gen. 2:21-24; S.S. 1:2-4; Isa. 54:5; 62:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:1, 14; 31:32; Ezek. 16:8; 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19; Matt. 9:15; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9-10; 22:17). When we as God’s people enter into a love relationship with God, we receive His life, just as Eve received the life of Adam (Gen. 2:21-22). It is this life that enables us to become one with God and makes Him one with us. We keep the law not by exercising our mind and will (cf. Rom. 7:18-25) but by loving the Lord as our Husband and thereby partaking of His life and nature to become one with Him as His enlargement and expression.
Ex 20:7a name  -   Lev. 19:12
Ex 20:81a Sabbath  -   Exo. 31:13-17
See note 231 in ch. 16. The Sabbath signifies that God has done everything, completed everything, and prepared everything and that man must stop all his work. To keep the Sabbath is to stop our work and to take God and all that He has accomplished for us as our enjoyment, rest, and satisfaction. This is God’s economy. See note 21 in Gen. 2.
Ex 20:9a Six  -   Exo. 23:12; 34:21; 35:2; Lev. 23:3; Luke 13:14
Ex 20:10a seventh  -   Exo. 16:26; 31:15; Ezek. 20:12; cf. Num. 15:32-36
Ex 20:101 to
Like an engagement ring, the Sabbath was a sign that God’s people were sanctified, separated unto Him, to belong only to Him.
Ex 20:11a six  -   Exo. 31:17; Gen. 1:31–2:3
Ex 20:12a Honor  -   Matt. 15:4; 19:19; Mark 7:10; 10:19; Luke 18:20; Eph. 6:2-3; Heb. 12:9; cf. Lev. 19:3
Ex 20:121 Jehovah
The title Jehovah your God in this verse indicates that the fifth commandment, related to the honoring of parents, is ranked with the first four commandments, related to God. The reason is that by honoring our parents we honor our source, which ultimately is God Himself (Luke 3:23-38).
Ex 20:131a You  -   vv. 13-16: Matt. 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; Rom. 13:9
The sixth through tenth commandments (vv. 13-17) require man to live out the virtues that express God’s attributes, the main ones of which are holiness, righteousness, love, and light (cf. note 11).
Ex 20:13b kill  -   Matt. 5:21; Mark 7:21; cf. Gen. 9:5-6
Ex 20:14a You  -   Deut. 22:22; Matt. 5:27; Mark 7:22; James 2:11
Ex 20:15a You  -   Lev. 19:11; Eph. 4:28
Ex 20:16a You  -   Exo. 23:1; Deut. 19:15-21; Prov. 19:5, 9; 21:28; 24:28; 25:18
Ex 20:171a covet  -   Micah 2:2; Luke 12:15; Rom. 7:7; 13:9; Eph. 5:3, 5; Col. 3:5; Heb. 13:5
See note 73 in Rom. 7.
Ex 20:18a trumpet  -   Exo. 19:16
Ex 20:181 trembled
See note 131 in ch. 24.
Ex 20:19a You  -   cf. Gal. 3:19
Ex 20:19b die  -   Deut. 5:25; 18:16
Ex 20:20a test  -   Gen. 22:1; Deut. 13:3
Ex 20:20b fear  -   Deut. 4:10; 10:12
Ex 20:21a darkness  -   Deut. 4:11; 1 Kings 8:12; Psa. 97:2; Heb. 12:18
Ex 20:221 Thus
The moral section of the law of God (see note 11 in ch. 25) is composed mainly of the Ten Commandments (vv. 2-17) and also of the statutes (vv. 22-26) and the ordinances (21:1 — 23:19), which supplement the Ten Commandments or add details to them (see note 64 in Luke 1). The statutes in vv. 22-26, concerning the way to worship God, supplement the second and third commandments and add details to these commandments.
Ex 20:222a spoken  -   Deut. 4:36; Neh. 9:13; Heb. 12:25
This word indicates that God is the speaking God (Heb. 1:1-2), in contrast to idols, which are dumb (Hab. 2:18-19; 1 Cor. 12:2).
Ex 20:231 silver
In the worship of God no place should be given to riches, signified here by silver and gold (cf. Acts 3:6; 1 Tim. 6:17). We cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24).
Ex 20:23a gods  -   cf. Exo. 32:31
Ex 20:241 altar
The altar and the sacrifices for the worship of God provide a gateway for fallen man to enter into the economy of God. They indicate that in order to worship God, fallen man must be redeemed and terminated by the cross and replaced by Christ in resurrection. The worship God desires is through the altar and by the sacrifices, i.e., through the cross (Heb. 13:10) and by Christ as the reality of the sacrifices (Heb. 10:5-10). A true worshipper is one who worships God in the virtue of Christ as the burnt offering (Lev. 1) for God’s satisfaction and the peace offering (Lev. 3) for the mutual satisfaction with God and with his fellow worshippers (John 4:23-24 and note 244).
Ex 20:242 earth
According to vv. 24-26, the altar God requires for His worship is primitive and uncultured in the eyes of man and offers no place for man’s wisdom and power (1 Cor. 1:17-25). It was to be erected with materials created by God, either earth or unhewn stone (v. 25). This indicates that the cross has been prepared entirely by the work of God, with no place given to man’s work. Thus, to erect an altar in this way means to receive what God has prepared, with no human work added. An altar made of earth or stone also points to the availability of the cross.
Ex 20:243a name  -   Deut. 12:5, 11; 14:23; 16:6, 11; 26:2; 1 Kings 8:29; 2 Chron. 6:6; 7:16; 12:13; Ezra 6:12; Neh. 1:9; Jer. 7:10, 12
In the proper worship of God there should be no name other than the name of the Lord (23:13; see note 101 in 1 Cor. 1).
Ex 20:244 come
The proper worship of God invites God’s visitation and blessing.
Ex 20:24b bless  -   2 Chron. 7:1-3
See note 244.
Ex 20:25a stone  -   Deut. 27:5-6; Josh. 8:31
Ex 20:251 polluted
To add man’s work to the worship of God is to bring in pollution. Because fallen man himself is sin, pollution, in the eyes of God (Psa. 51:5; 2 Cor. 5:21), no work of man is acceptable to Him (cf. Gen. 4:3-5; Gal. 2:16). Thus, every fallen man who worships God must be terminated, with all his works and ways.
Ex 20:261 steps
Steps refer to man’s way, which promotes achievement by natural ability and creates different levels of attainment among God’s people. The altar (cross) prepared by God is not elevated but is close to the ground, eliminating the need for steps and making it possible for anyone to approach it.
Ex 20:262 nakedness
Man’s nakedness denotes the shame of fallen man (Gen. 3:7). God’s salvation clothes man with Christ as his righteousness (Gen. 3:21; Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9), but man’s way uncovers the nakedness of his fallen nature. In principle, the exercise of man’s wisdom in building an altar with steps puts Christ aside and causes man’s fallen nature to be exposed. Instead of exercising our wisdom in things pertaining to God, we should fully trust in Christ and thereby remain under Christ as our covering.
Exodus Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 21:11 ordinances
On the negative side, the law with its ordinances indicates that man is fallen, is living in the fall, and is involved with Satan, related to demons, and enslaved to indwelling sin. On the positive side, the ordinances of the law reveal that God is kind, gracious, and loving, and that He cares for mankind, including servants, widows, orphans, and sojourners. Furthermore, Christ, the cross, redemption, and the economy of God are indicated, implied, and signified in the ordinances.
The ordinances of the law require man to preserve human life; to honor parents; to keep marriage pure; to be just, fair, honest, faithful, trustworthy and kind; to care for the needy; not to be greedy for base gain but to be willing to give; and to be a holy man unto God, submitting to Him and His authority and serving Him through the offerings that he may feast with God in God’s presence regularly.
Ex 21:2a Hebrew  -   Deut. 15:12; Jer. 34:14
Ex 21:21 servant
The first ordinance concerning man’s relationship with others is an ordinance concerning a master and his slave. This indicates that in order to fulfill the ordinances of the law, we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves to serve others. Keeping the law requires the spirit, the love, and the obedience of a slave (Matt. 20:26-27; 22:36-40; John 14:31; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:13-14). The servant in these verses is a type of Christ, who emptied Himself, took the form of a slave, humbled Himself, and sacrificed Himself to serve God and God’s people (Phil. 2:5-8; Matt. 20:28; Eph. 5:2, 25).
Ex 21:22b free  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:21
The freeing of a slave in a sabbatical year signifies that fallen man under bondage to sin (Rom. 7:14) may be freed by Christ as God’s rest (John 8:36; see note 91 in Heb. 4).
Ex 21:51a love  -   vv. 5-6: Deut. 15:16-17
Love is the motive and prerequisite for a slave’s continued service. The Lord Jesus loved the Father (His Master — John 14:31), the church (His wife — Eph. 5:25), and all the believers (His children — Gal. 2:20b; Eph. 5:2). Motivated by such a love, He was willing to be a slave. All who believe in Christ, belong to Him, and have His serving life should take Him as their pattern (Matt. 20:26-28; Rom. 1:1; Phil. 2:5-8; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 5:2).
Ex 21:5b I  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:21
Ex 21:61a God  -   Exo. 22:8-9
Others translate, the judges.
Ex 21:62b ear  -   Rev. 2:7
A slave should stand in the position of doing nothing on his own but acting only according to the word of his master and should have his ear open to hear the voice of his master (John 5:30; Psa. 40:6; Isa. 50:4-5).
Ex 21:71 And
The ordinances in vv. 7-11, 16, 33-36; 22:21-25; and 23:4-5, 9-11 are supplements to the law concerning man’s relationship with others, and the ordinances in 22:28-30 and 23:14-19 are supplements concerning man’s relationship with God.
Ex 21:7a sells  -   Neh. 5:5
Ex 21:121 strikes
The ordinances in vv. 12-14, 18-32 contain details related to the sixth commandment, forbidding murder (20:13).
Ex 21:12a dies  -   Lev. 24:17; Num. 35:30-31; cf. Gen. 9:6; Matt. 26:52
Ex 21:13a lie  -   Num. 35:22-25
Ex 21:131b place  -   Num. 35:10-15; Deut. 4:41-43; 19:2-3; Josh. 20:2-9
According to Num. 35:6, 9-15, these were the cities of refuge, to which one who killed another by mistake could flee. See note 61 in Num. 35.
Ex 21:141 slay
The murder and lies within man signify that the devil, the source of murder and the father of lies, is working in fallen man (v. 14; 23:1-2; John 8:44; 1 John 3:12).
Ex 21:14a altar  -   cf. 1 Kings 2:28-34
Ex 21:15a strikes  -   cf. 1 Tim. 1:9
Ex 21:151 father
The ordinances in vv. 15 and 17 give details related to the fifth commandment, concerning the honoring of one’s father and mother (20:12).
Ex 21:16a kidnaps  -   cf. Deut. 24:7; cf. 1 Tim. 1:10
Ex 21:17a curses  -   Lev. 20:9; Prov. 20:20; Matt. 15:4; Mark 7:10
Ex 21:181 remains
Lit., falls.
Ex 21:201 servant
Lit., he.
Ex 21:211 property
Lit., money.
Ex 21:23a life  -   Deut. 19:21
Ex 21:24a eye  -   Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21; Matt. 5:38
Ex 21:28a gores  -   cf. Gen. 9:5
Ex 21:301 owner
Lit., him.
Exodus Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 22:11 steals
In vv. 1-6 there are many details related to the eighth commandment, forbidding stealing (20:15). Stealing signifies that fallen man, like Satan, is not satisfied with God’s sovereign arrangement but tries to make base gain by transgressing God’s regulation (Isa. 14:12-14; cf. 1 Cor. 7:17, 20-24; 1 Tim. 6:6-10).
Ex 22:1a four  -   2 Sam. 12:6; Luke 19:8; cf. Prov. 6:31
Ex 22:81a God  -   Exo. 21:6
Or, the judges; Heb. elohim. So also in v. 9.
Ex 22:82 neighbor’s
In vv. 7-15 the details related to the tenth commandment, forbidding coveting (20:17), indicate that coveting is a matter of greed and signify that Satan’s lusting nature has become the indwelling sin within fallen man to deaden his body (Rom. 7:8, 17, 20, 24).
Ex 22:11a oath  -   cf. Heb. 6:16
Ex 22:151 only
Lit., it came for its hire.
Ex 22:161 seduces
The ordinances in vv. 16-17, 19 are related to the seventh commandment, which forbids adultery (20:14). These ordinances signify that Satan’s sinful nature works in man to corrupt him by confusing him in his breaking of God’s regulations concerning the relationships man should have with God, with people, and with other things (cf. James 4:4; Rev. 17:1-5).
Ex 22:16a virgin  -   Deut. 22:28-29
Ex 22:181 You
The ordinances in vv. 18, 20, and 23:13 give details to the first and second commandments (20:2-6).
Ex 22:182a sorceress  -   Lev. 20:27; Deut. 18:10-11; cf. 1 Sam. 28:3, 9
Sorcery involves contact with demons.
Ex 22:19a animal  -   Lev. 18:23; 20:15; Deut. 27:21
Ex 22:20a god  -   cf. Num. 25:2; Deut. 13:6-15; 17:2-5; Josh. 23:16
Ex 22:211a sojourner  -   Exo. 23:9; Deut. 10:19; Jer. 7:6; Zech. 7:10; Mal. 3:5
The ordinance concerning sojourners, widows, orphans, and the poor (vv. 21-27; 23:9) signify that God is a God who cares for fallen man, who has become a stranger to God’s blessing, a widow without Christ as the husband, an orphan without God as the Father, and the poor deprived of the riches of God (cf. Eph. 2:12, 19; Matt. 11:5 and note 6).
Ex 22:22a widow  -   Deut. 24:17; 27:19; Psa. 94:6; Isa. 1:17, 23; 10:2; Ezek. 22:7; Zech. 7:10; James 1:27
Ex 22:23a hear  -   Psa. 18:6; 145:19; Job 34:28
Ex 22:25a interest  -   Lev. 25:35-37; Deut. 23:19-20; Neh. 5:7
Ex 22:26a pledge  -   Deut. 24:13, 17
Ex 22:27a gracious  -   Psa. 106:4; 111:4
Ex 22:281 God
Submission to God and His authority signifies the subduing of the rebellious nature of Satan within man.
Ex 22:28a curse  -   Acts 23:5; Jude 8
Ex 22:291 outflow
Lit., your tears. The fullness of the harvest signifies the produce, the reaping of the rich experiences of Christ, gained from growing Christ by laboring on Him as the good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8), and the tears, the outflow of the wine and oil from the presses (see note 361 in Matt. 26), signify the overflow from our experience of Christ through the suffering of the cross, which produces wine to cheer God and man and oil to please God (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7-12; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6). These should be offered to God for His enjoyment without delay.
Ex 22:292a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2
The firstborn of the sons and the cattle (v. 30) were to be given to God (to be separated to God and to become holy to Him) because the firstborn had been redeemed, purchased, by the passover lamb and belonged to God (12:12-13; 13:2 and note; cf. 1 Cor. 6:19).
Ex 22:301a eighth  -   Lev. 22:27; Luke 2:21
The eighth day is the first day of a new week. Hence, on the eighth day signifies in resurrection (Matt. 28:1).
Ex 22:311a holy  -   Exo. 19:6; Lev. 11:44-45
To be holy men to God, according to the Bible as a whole, especially the New Testament, indicates that God’s chosen people should be saturated by Christ and with Christ as their holiness before God (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 6:19 and note 2).
Ex 22:312 eat
Flesh torn by beasts signifies things that bear the nature of death, and dogs signify unclean persons (Matt. 7:6 and note 2; Phil. 3:2 and note 2). This ordinance signifies that we should eat only Christ as our life supply, not anything of death. Cf. notes 71 in Gen. 8 and 311 in Lev. 11.
Ex 22:31b torn  -   Lev. 7:24; 22:8; Ezek. 4:14; 44:31
Exodus Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 23:11 false
In vv. 1-3, 6-8 there are details related to the ninth commandment, dealing with false testimony (20:16).
Ex 23:1a malicious  -   Deut. 19:16-18; Matt. 26:59-61
Ex 23:2a multitude  -   cf. Exo. 32:1-2; Matt. 27:24
Ex 23:3a partial  -   Lev. 19:15
Ex 23:41a enemy’s  -   cf. Prov. 25:21; Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27; Rom. 12:20
Bringing the lost ox to the enemy and releasing the burdened donkey of one who hates us (v. 5) signify Christ bringing the lost things of life (livestock) to fallen man and helping him in releasing his burden (John 10:10b; Matt. 11:28-29). These ordinances also signify that, as far as it depends on us, we should reconcile ourselves, by the life of Christ, to our enemies and those who hate us (Matt. 5:23-26, 43-48; 18:15-35; Rom. 12:17-21).
Ex 23:4b bring  -   Deut. 22:1, 4
Ex 23:6a pervert  -   Deut. 27:19; Isa. 10:1-2; Mal. 3:5
Ex 23:7a innocent  -   Deut. 27:25
Ex 23:8a bribe  -   Deut. 16:19; cf. 1 Sam. 8:3; Psa. 26:10; Prov. 17:23; Isa. 1:23; 5:23; Acts 24:26
Ex 23:9a sojourner  -   Exo. 22:21
Ex 23:10a sow  -   Lev. 25:3-4
Ex 23:111 seventh
Keeping the Sabbath day (v. 12) that the cattle may rest and that the son of the female servant and the sojourner may be refreshed typifies taking Christ as our rest that others may be benefited. Keeping the Sabbath year that the needy and the animals of the field may eat typifies taking Christ as our rest to a fuller extent that others may have food.
Ex 23:12a Six  -   Exo. 20:9
Ex 23:13a name  -   Josh. 23:7; Psa. 16:4; Hosea 2:17; cf. Zech. 13:2
Ex 23:141a Three  -   vv. 14-17: Exo. 34:23; Deut. 16:16; Lev. 23:5-6, 16, 34
Keeping feasts unto God three times a year typifies the full enjoyment of the Triune God in Christ. This is the ultimate significance of all the ordinances of the law. See notes on vv. 15-16.
Ex 23:151a Feast  -   Exo. 12:17; 34:18
Keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Deut. 16:1-8) typifies the purging away of all sinful things through the enjoyment of Christ as the sinless life supply. See notes 82, 151, and 152 in ch. 12. This feast was a continuation of the Passover.
Ex 23:15b unleavened  -   Exo. 12:15; cf. 1 Cor. 5:8
Ex 23:15c Abib  -   Exo. 13:4
Ex 23:15d empty  -   Exo. 34:20; Deut. 16:16
Ex 23:161a Feast  -   Exo. 34:22; cf. Lev. 23:9-22
I.e., the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:9-12), or the Feast of Pentecost. This feast typifies the enjoyment of the firstfruits of the Spirit of the resurrected Christ (Rom. 8:23 and note 1). In the Old Testament type the firstfruits signify the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15:20, 23 and note 202) offered to God on the day of His resurrection (John 20:17), typified in Lev. 23:10-11 by the firstfruits offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, the day of resurrection (Matt. 28:1). The day of Pentecost was exactly fifty days from the day of Christ’s resurrection. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit as the full issue of the resurrected Christ was poured out on the church (Acts 2:1-4). This indicates that the resurrected Christ became the Spirit poured out on His believers for their full enjoyment (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). See note 11 in Acts 2 and note 161 in Lev. 23.
Ex 23:162b Feast  -   Exo. 34:22; Deut. 16:13; cf. Lev. 23:34-44
I.e., the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34; Deut. 16:13-15). As the consummation of the harvest, the Feast of Tabernacles typifies, first, the coming millennium as a dispensational, joyful blessing for God’s redeemed people, including the overcomers and the saved Israelites, to enjoy with God for one thousand years on the restored earth. Ultimately, the eternal Feast of Tabernacles will be the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, the eternal tabernacle (Rev. 21:2-3), in the new heaven and new earth by all God’s people as the consummation of the harvest of their experience of God. See Lev. 23:33-44 and notes.
Ex 23:181 blood
The blood of the sacrifice signifies the redemption of Christ, and leaven signifies our sinful life. These two things must never be mixed. In order to enjoy Christ’s redemption, we must be separated from our sinful life (1 Cor. 5:6-8).
Ex 23:18a leavened  -   Exo. 34:25; Lev. 2:11
Ex 23:182 fat
This signifies that in keeping God’s feasts we should enjoy the fat, the sweetest part of Christ, with God today and not wait until tomorrow.
Ex 23:191 first
The first of the firstfruits typifies the topmost of the top experiences of Christ as the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). These should be brought to God’s dwelling place, the church meetings, to be offered directly to God for His satisfaction (cf. John 20:17 and note 1).
Ex 23:19a firstfruits  -   Exo. 34:26; Lev. 2:12; 23:10, 17; Num. 18:12-13; Deut. 26:2, 10; Neh. 10:35; Ezek. 44:30; Rev. 14:4
Ex 23:192b boil  -   Exo. 34:26; Deut. 14:21
This typifies that the milk of the word of God, the life supply of Christ, should be used to nourish new believers in Christ (1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-13; 1 Cor. 3:2) and not to “kill” them (2 Cor. 3:6 — “the letter kills”). See 1 Thes. 2:7-8 and notes.
Ex 23:201a Angel  -   Exo. 14:19; 33:2; Isa. 63:9
That the decree of the law concludes with a portion regarding the Angel and the good land indicates that the purpose of the decree of the law is that those who received the law would enter into the good land. The Angel of Jehovah typifies Christ as the One sent by God to keep His people in the way and to bring them into the good land (14:19 and note), and the good land typifies Christ in His all-inclusiveness as the allotted portion of God’s people (see note 71 in Deut. 8). Thus, Christ as the sent One brings God’s people into Himself as the good land. The goal in God’s purpose is to bring His people into the full enjoyment of Christ as the all-inclusive land.
Ex 23:211 listen
Or, obey. So also in v. 22. Christ, the sent One of God, speaks for God within us (cf. John 10:3, 16, 27). If we would take possession of Him, we must learn to obey His voice.
Ex 23:212 name
The name of Jehovah is identical to His person, indicating that the Angel of Jehovah is Jehovah Himself.
Ex 23:221 His
That the Angel’s voice was Jehovah’s speaking proves strongly that the Angel and Jehovah are one.
Ex 23:22a enemy  -   Deut. 30:7; cf. Gen. 12:3; Jer. 30:20
Ex 23:231a Amorites  -   Exo. 13:5
The various pagan tribes that occupied the land signify the different aspects of our natural life. The gods (idols) of the pagan tribes (v. 24), with the demons behind them (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20), represent the spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12). Behind our natural life are the forces of evil (cf. Matt. 16:23 and note 1), who utilize, manipulate, and direct the aspects of our natural life to frustrate us from taking possession of the all-inclusive Christ and enjoying His riches.
History shows that the pagan tribes in the land were the source of Israel’s sin against God (cf. v. 33). This indicates that our natural life is the source of our sins. In the sight of God, those who live according to the natural life are sinning continually, whether they do good or evil. Because the natural life frustrates us from possessing Christ and enjoying Him, we must hate it (Luke 14:26) and, as we grow in Christ, be willing to drive it out. See notes 291 and 313.
Ex 23:24a serve  -   Exo. 20:5
Ex 23:24b do  -   Lev. 18:3; cf. Deut. 12:4, 30, 31
Ex 23:24c overthrow  -   Exo. 34:13; Num. 33:52; Deut. 7:5; 12:3
Ex 23:25a serve  -   Deut. 6:13; 10:20; 11:13; 13:4; Josh. 22:5; Matt. 4:10
Ex 23:251b bless  -   Deut. 7:13; 28:8
The blessings here and in v. 26 signify spiritually that God will give us bread (the Word — Matt. 4:4) to nourish us and water (the Spirit — John 7:37-39) to satisfy us, will cause us to grow and be fruitful, and will take away our sicknesses that we would not suffer a premature death (cf. 1 Cor. 11:30; 1 John 5:16) but would grow in the divine life to maturity, to full age (Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:28), in order to gain the all-inclusive Christ as our possession for our enjoyment (Phil. 3:8).
Ex 23:25c sickness  -   Exo. 15:26; Deut. 7:15
Ex 23:26a barren  -   Deut. 7:14
Ex 23:27a terror  -   Gen. 35:5; Deut. 2:25; Josh. 2:9
Ex 23:28a hornets  -   Deut. 7:20; Josh. 24:12
Ex 23:29a drive  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:1
Ex 23:291 one
God will not cut off our natural life, signified by the pagan tribes (see note 231), all at once, because this would leave us inwardly vacant and in danger of being taken over by demons, signified by the animals of the field (cf. Matt. 12:43-45). God cuts off our natural life gradually, little by little, according to the degree of our growth in the divine life (v. 30). The more Christ increases in us, the more He will replace our natural life.
Ex 23:29b animals  -   Deut. 7:22
Ex 23:311 sea
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea. The seas and the river here signify the waters of death, and the wilderness signifies barrenness. That the promised land, an elevated land full of life and the abundance of fruit (Deut. 8:7-8), was surrounded by water and wilderness indicates that outside of Christ, the reality of the good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8), there is nothing but death and barrenness.
Ex 23:312a River  -   Gen. 15:18; Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:4; Psa. 72:8
I.e., the Euphrates.
Ex 23:31b hand  -   Josh. 21:44; Judg. 1:4; 11:21
Ex 23:313 you
God promised to drive out the pagan tribes (vv. 29-30), but God’s people had to cooperate with Him by taking the initiative in destroying them (vv. 31-33; cf. Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5; Phil. 2:12-13). The more Christ increases in us, the more we will be able to cooperate with God in driving out the natural life. See note 291.
Ex 23:321a covenant  -   Exo. 34:12; Deut. 7:2
Making a covenant with the pagan tribes signifies compromising with, tolerating, our natural life.
Ex 23:33a snare  -   Exo. 34:12; Deut. 7:16; Josh. 23:13; Judg. 2:3; Psa. 106:36
Exodus Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 24:11 Come
After giving His people a revelation of Himself and His economy through the law, God charged Moses to bring the leaders of Israel up to the mountain to stay with Him that He might reveal to them His heart’s desire and might show them the design of the tabernacle, which they were to build as God’s dwelling place on earth (chs. 25 — 40).
Ex 24:1a seventy  -   Num. 11:16, 24
Ex 24:31 All
See note 81 in ch. 19.
Ex 24:3a do  -   Exo. 19:8; Deut. 5:27
Ex 24:4a wrote  -   Deut. 31:9; cf. Josh. 24:26
Ex 24:41 altar
Although the law had been decreed on the mountain of God, there was still the need for the law with its ordinances to be enacted as a covenant. Instead of commanding the people to keep the law, Moses enacted the covenant by means of an altar, twelve pillars, sacrifices of burnt offerings and peace offerings, and blood (vv. 4-8; cf. Heb. 9:18-20). The altar, symbolizing the cross of Christ (Heb. 13:10), indicates that as fallen and sinful people, we cannot possibly keep the law of God; hence, we need to be redeemed, terminated, and replaced by Christ through the cross.
Ex 24:42b pillars  -   Gen. 28:18; 31:45
A pillar signifies a testimony (cf. 1 Kings 7:21; 1 Tim. 3:15). The twelve pillars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, indicate that in the sight of God the twelve tribes should be pillars as a testimony of God, a reflection of what God is in His virtues and attributes as portrayed in the law. The law was not given for God’s people to keep or observe; it was given that the people might become God’s testimony by being redeemed, terminated, replaced, and reconstituted by Christ through the cross (cf. Rom. 8:3-4).
Ex 24:51 burnt
The cross of Christ, signified by the altar, redeems us through Christ’s blood and terminates us. As the reality of the offerings (see notes on Lev. 1 — 7), Christ was offered to God on the cross to be our Redeemer and our Substitute. As we experience Christ and the cross, Christ becomes our replacement to reconstitute us with Himself and transform us, the fallen sinners, into pillars, a living testimony of God in Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 1:19-21a). This is God’s economy.
Ex 24:6a blood  -   vv. 6-8: Heb. 9:18-20
Ex 24:7a covenant  -   Exo. 19:5; Deut. 5:2
Ex 24:71 All
See note 81 in ch. 19.
Ex 24:8a sprinkled  -   1 Pet. 1:2; Heb. 12:24
Ex 24:81 people
The sprinkling of the blood on the people indicates that one party of the covenant, the children of Israel, was sinful and the other party, God, was willing to forgive (cf. Heb. 8:12; 9:22).
Ex 24:82b blood  -   cf. Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20
In vv. 6 and 8 the blood from the sacrifices offered on the altar (v. 5), typifying the blood of Christ, was for redemption and for the forgiveness and cleansing of sins (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:22; 1 John 1:7, 9). This blood also enacted the covenant between God and His people. Hence, the blood is referred to here as “the blood of the covenant.” The blood made it possible for God’s people, as fallen and sinful persons who had been redeemed, forgiven, and cleansed, to enter into God’s presence, i.e., into God Himself, and remain there to be infused with Him and thereby be constituted pillars as a living testimony, a living portrait, of what God is (vv. 9-18; 34:28-29; Lev. 16:11-16; cf. Heb. 10:19-20). Eventually, the blood of Christ as the blood of the new covenant (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20) ushers God’s people into the better things of the new covenant, in which God gives His people a new heart, a new spirit, His Spirit, and the inner law of life, denoting God Himself with His nature, life, attributes, and virtues (Jer. 31:33-34; Ezek. 36:26-27; Heb. 8:10-12). Ultimately, the blood of the new covenant, the eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20), leads God’s people into the full enjoyment of God as the tree of life and the water of life both now and for eternity (Rev. 7:14, 17; 22:1-2, 14, 17).
Ex 24:8c covenant  -   Heb. 8:7, 13
Ex 24:101a saw  -   Gen. 32:30; Judg. 13:22; Isa. 6:1, 5; cf. Exo. 33:20, 23; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 4:12, 20
In a tranquil atmosphere and under a transparent and clear sky brought in by the blood of the covenant, Moses and the leaders of Israel entered into fellowship with God, in which they saw God (cf. Matt. 5:8; 2 Cor. 3:18). It was in such a setting, in contrast to the setting in which the law was decreed (19:8-25; 20:18, 21), that God revealed to Moses the pattern of the tabernacle.
Ex 24:102 paved
Or, a work of transparent sapphire.
Ex 24:10b sapphire  -   Ezek. 1:26; 10:1
Ex 24:111 beheld
To behold God and to eat and drink is to worship God (cf. v. 1) with the worship that He desires (see note 241 in ch. 20).
Ex 24:12a tablets  -   Exo. 31:18; Deut. 4:13; 5:22; 9:10-11; cf. 2 Cor. 3:3
Ex 24:131 Moses
There were at least three classes of people who stood at different distances in relation to Mount Horeb: Moses, perhaps accompanied by Joshua, was on the mountaintop being infused with God under His glory and receiving the vision of the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth (vv. 13, 16a; 34:29; 25:1 — 30:38); Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders were on the mountain worshipping at a distance and watching (vv. 1, 9); and the majority of the children of Israel were at the bottom of the mountain standing at a distance and trembling (20:18). These three locations, corresponding to the three parts of the tabernacle — the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies — illustrate the fact that among God’s people there are different degrees of fellowship with Him. See note 43 in Heb. 9.
Ex 24:13a Joshua  -   Exo. 17:9-10; 33:11
Ex 24:13b mountain  -   Exo. 3:1; 4:27; 18:5
Ex 24:14a Hur  -   Exo. 17:10
Ex 24:15a cloud  -   Num. 16:42; Matt. 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:34
Ex 24:16a glory  -   Exo. 16:10
Ex 24:17a fire  -   Deut. 4:36; Heb. 12:29
Ex 24:181a forty  -   Exo. 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 18, 25; 10:10
In the Bible the number forty signifies tests or trials (cf. Deut. 8:2; Luke 4:1). It took Moses forty days and forty nights to see the revelation of God’s dwelling place. This indicates that receiving revelation from God requires a long period of time, which is a trial or a test to us.
Exodus Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 25:11 Then
The law of God comprises the moral law (chs. 20 — 23) and the ceremonial law (ch. 25 — Lev. 27). The moral law, as God’s testimony based on His divine attributes, is composed of the Ten Commandments (20:2-17), the statutes (20:22-26), and the ordinances (21:1 — 23:19) and typifies Christ as God’s testimony, God’s expression (see note 11 in ch. 20). The ceremonial law was composed of the laws of the tabernacle, the offerings, the priesthood, and the feasts. The tabernacle typifies Christ as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9; John 1:14) for God’s people to contact Him and to enter into Him for their enjoyment; the offerings typify Christ as all kinds of sacrifices (Lev. 1 — 7; Heb. 10:5-12) to meet the need of God toward His people and the need of His people before Him; the priesthood typifies Christ as the High Priest (Heb. 8:1), who takes care of God’s chosen people before God; and the feasts typify Christ as the bountiful enjoyment in every aspect assigned by God to His chosen people (Col. 2:16-17; Phil. 1:19).
God knew that no man could keep the Ten Commandments, the moral section of His law, to be justified by Him (Rom. 3:20). Hence, by His grace and according to His economy He also gave His people the ceremonial section of His law that through the priesthood and the offerings the condemned sinners, the breakers of the moral law of God, could be saved from the condemnation under the moral law and could contact God and enter into Him to enjoy Him as their everything. In this way sinners could be justified by God to be righteous men (cf. Matt. 1:19a; Luke 1:6, 75; 2:25; 23:50) and could have fellowship with God.
The entire law of God was decreed by God to His people with the intention of exposing and convicting His people by the moral section of His law, that they would be conducted to the ceremonial section of His law, signifying that God’s people should be conducted to the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God for their redemption, salvation, and bountiful enjoyment in every aspect (Gal. 3:23-24) through all the ages unto eternity.
Ex 25:2a Tell  -   vv. 2-8: Exo. 35:5-9
Ex 25:21 heave
To heave is to lift up. The heave offering typifies the uplifted Christ, the Christ who was lifted up in His ascension (Acts 1:9); it was often accompanied by the wave offering, a type of the resurrected Christ (29:26-28; Lev. 7:30-32; Num. 18:11). The fact that the materials for the building of the tabernacle were offered to God by His people as a heave offering signifies that the church is built up not with any natural materials but with the very Christ who has been gained, possessed, enjoyed, and experienced by God’s people in resurrection and in the heavenlies (Phil. 3:7-14; Eph. 3:8; 2:5-6). Cf. 1 Cor. 3:12 and notes.
All the materials for the building of the tabernacle signify the virtues of Christ’s person and work. Twelve kinds of materials were used, in three categories: minerals, signifying Christ’s building life (1 Cor. 3:9-12); plants, signifying Christ’s generating life (John 12:24); and animals, signifying Christ’s redeeming life (John 1:29). The redeeming life is for the generating life, and the generating life is for the building life. The fact that minerals were mentioned as the first category indicates that whatever Christ is and whatever He has done and is doing are all for God’s building (Matt. 16:18). In the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of God’s building, there will be only minerals: gold, pearl, and precious stones (Rev. 21:18-21). However, in order to arrive at God’s goal, the redeeming life and the generating life are needed.
Ex 25:2b heart  -   Exo. 35:5, 22, 29; 1 Chron. 29:9, 17; Ezra 7:16; 2 Cor. 9:7
Ex 25:31 gold
The minerals in vv. 3-7 signify Christ as the building material ordained and prepared by God. Gold signifies Christ’s divine nature, which is pure and everlasting. Silver (26:19; 27:10) signifies Christ’s redemption, which also involves termination and replacement (see note 241 in ch. 20). Bronze (27:2-4, 6; 30:18) signifies Christ’s being tested by God’s judgment (Num. 16:39; 21:8-9). Onyx stone (v. 7; 28:9-10), having red in it, signifies Christ’s blood shed for redemption. The other precious stones (v. 7; 28:17-20) signify the different aspects of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18) based on Christ’s redemption.
Ex 25:41a blue  -   Exo. 26:1
The color blue signifies that which is heavenly in both nature and appearance (cf. 1 Cor. 15:47-48). Purple denotes royalty, that which is kingly in both position and behavior (Esth. 8:15; John 19:2, 19-22), and scarlet, a dark red color, signifies the blood of Christ shed for redemption (Heb. 9:22; cf. Josh. 2:18 and note).
Ex 25:42 fine
Fine linen (26:1) signifies the righteous conduct of Christ as a pure and perfect human being (cf. Rev. 19:8).
Ex 25:43 goats’
Goats signify sinners (Matt. 25:33, 41), and goats’ hair signifies the sins of sinners. Goats’ hair as a covering on the tabernacle (26:7) signifies Christ being made sin for us in His redemptive work (2 Cor. 5:21).
Ex 25:51a rams’  -   Exo. 26:14
Rams’ skins dyed red (v. 5; 26:14) signify Christ suffering death and shedding His blood to accomplish redemption (1 Pet. 1:18-19; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22), and porpoise skins (v. 5; 26:14) signify Christ as the One who is strong toward Satan and is able to withstand trials, attacks, troubles, and sufferings (Matt. 4:1-11; John 14:30; 1 Pet. 2:21-23).
Ex 25:52 porpoise
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. It probably refers to the skin of a sea animal, such as a porpoise or sea cow.
Ex 25:53 acacia
See note 102.
Ex 25:61a Oil  -   Exo. 27:20
Oil signifies the Spirit of Christ, including all the virtues of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ (see note 94 in Rom. 8).
Ex 25:62b spices  -   Exo. 30:23-25, 31; 31:11
The spices, used in making the anointing oil and the incense that was burned before God (30:23-24a, 34-35), typify the effectiveness and sweetness of Christ’s death and resurrection. See notes 251 and 341 in ch. 30.
Ex 25:6c fragrant  -   Exo. 30:7, 34-37; 31:11
Ex 25:7a Onyx  -   Gen. 2:12; Exo. 28:9; cf. Rev. 21:19
Ex 25:7b stones  -   Exo. 28:17-21
Ex 25:7c ephod  -   Exo. 28:4, 6, 15
Ex 25:8a sanctuary  -   Exo. 36:1-4; Heb. 9:1
Ex 25:8b midst  -   Exo. 29:45; 1 Kings 6:12-13; Ezek. 37:27; 2 Cor. 6:16; cf. John 1:14
Ex 25:91a pattern  -   Acts 7:44; 1 Chron. 28:11-12; Heb. 8:5
The pattern of the tabernacle and all its furnishings is a full and complete type of both the individual Christ as the Head and the corporate Christ as the Body, the church, including many details of the experience of Christ for the church life. See note 43 in Heb. 9.
Ex 25:92b tabernacle  -   Exo. 26:1; 38:21
The physical tabernacle (and later the temple) as God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament was actually a symbol of a corporate people, the children of Israel as the house of God (see note 61 in Heb. 3). At the beginning of the New Testament age the incarnated Christ as God’s embodiment was both the tabernacle and the temple of God (John 1:14; 2:19-21). Through His death and resurrection the individual Christ was enlarged to be the corporate Christ, the church composed of the New Testament believers as the temple, the house of God, and the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12). Ultimately, the tabernacle and the temple will consummate in the New Jerusalem — the Triune God mingled with His redeemed people of both the Old Testament and the New Testament — as God’s eternal dwelling place (Rev. 21:3, 22). See note 153 in Rev. 7 and notes 31, 124, 142, and 221 in Rev. 21.
Ex 25:10a And  -   vv. 10-16: Exo. 37:1-5
Ex 25:101b ark  -   Deut. 10:3; Heb. 9:4
Because the law, God’s testimony (see note 11 in ch. 20), was placed in the Ark (vv. 16, 21; Deut. 10:1-5), the Ark was called the Ark of the Testimony (v. 22; 26:33-34); and because the Ark was in the tabernacle, the tabernacle was called the Tabernacle of the Testimony (38:21; Num. 1:50, 53). As the embodiment of God’s testimony, the Ark typifies Christ as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). The Ark as a type of Christ indicates that God’s redeemed people can contact God and enjoy God in Christ and through Christ (see note 221; John 14:6; Heb. 10:19-20).
As the center and content of the tabernacle, the Ark also signifies Christ as the center and content of the church as God’s tabernacle, God’s house (Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15). The fact that the Ark is the item first mentioned in the vision of the tabernacle and its furniture indicates that it occupies the place of preeminence (cf. Col. 1:18). It also indicates that the church, the Body of Christ, typified by the tabernacle, comes out of Christ, typified by the Ark. See note 152 in ch. 26 and note 221 in Gen. 2. Cf. notes 81 in ch. 36 and 31 in ch. 40.
Ex 25:102 acacia
Acacia wood (vv. 5, 10, 23; 26:15; 27:1) signifies Christ’s human nature, strong in character and high in standard. Christ’s humanity is the basic element, the basic substance, for Him to be God’s testimony on earth. See notes 11, par. 2, in Mark 1; 31, par. 2, in Luke 1; and 93 in Col. 2.
Ex 25:103 two
The measurements of the Ark are halves of the numbers three and five, the numbers of God’s building (see note 152 in Gen. 6). This signifies that the Ark is a testimony, another half being needed to make a complete unit, a full testimony (Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16; 19:5-6a). This implies that Christ, typified by the Ark, needs the church as His counterpart, His bride, to be a testimony in full in humanity (Eph. 5:22-32; 3:21 and notes).
Ex 25:111 gold
The Ark was made of acacia wood (v. 10) overlaid with gold, signifying that Christ is one person with two natures, the human nature and the divine nature. He is both God and man — a God-man. That the acacia wood was overlaid with gold both inside and outside signifies the divine nature mingled with the human nature — God and man becoming one — without a third nature being produced by the mingling. It also signifies that the divine nature penetrates the human nature and rests on the human nature so that it may be expressed through the human nature.
Ex 25:112 rim
Or, crown; i.e., a border in the form of a wreath as a crown. So also in vv. 24-25; 30:3-4; and 37:2, 11-12, 26-27. The rim of gold signifies the glory of the divine nature. Christ as God’s embodiment expresses God by showing forth His glory (Heb. 1:3a; 2 Cor. 4:6). Through Christ’s human life the divine nature was expressed as a wreath, or crown, of glory.
The glory of the divine nature as a rim also signifies the divine keeping power and holding strength. The Christ whom we live and magnify (Phil. 1:20-21a) becomes the glory expressed through us, and this glory is a rim that holds us and keeps us.
Ex 25:121 rings
The four rings and two poles (v. 13) were for the move of the Ark (Num. 10:33). The number four signifies the four corners of the earth, to which Christ as the embodiment of God’s testimony should be borne to reach all men (Rev. 7:1; Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8). A ring, which has no beginning or ending, signifies the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14; Luke 15:22). The four rings of gold signify that the Spirit of Christ is the linking factor and power for bearing Christ as God’s testimony. The casting of the gold into rings signifies the experience of the cross through which the eternal life-giving Spirit becomes the linking power in us.
Ex 25:122 rings
The two rings with the two poles (v. 14) on the two sides of the Ark signify that the move of Christ as God’s embodied testimony is through a good coordination as a testimony in every respect (Luke 10:1 and note 2).
Ex 25:131 poles
The poles made of acacia wood signify that Christ’s human nature is the strength for His move as God’s testimony. Their being overlaid with gold signifies that Christ’s divine nature is the expression of His move. The move of Christ is always by His two natures, human and divine, mingled as one. See note 111.
Ex 25:141 put
The poles being put into the rings for carrying the Ark signifies that the move of Christ is by men bearing God’s testimony in their bodies (cf. 2 Cor. 4:10-12) in the uniting power of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3). Those who bore the Ark carried it on their shoulders, indicating that they were one with the Ark. In reality, to bear the Ark is to live Christ as His testimony, His witnesses, wherever we go (Acts 1:8 and note 3; 23:11 and note 4). That the two poles were to be in the rings and were not to be taken from the Ark (v. 15) signifies our readiness for the move of Christ as God’s testimony.
Ex 25:161 put
See note 101, par. 1. That the Testimony (the law) was put into the Ark signifies that the living law of God as God’s testimony dwells in Christ bodily (Col. 2:9), making Him the testimony of God (John 1:18).
Ex 25:16a Ark  -   Exo. 25:21; 16:34; 40:20; 1 Kings 8:9
Ex 25:17a And  -   vv. 17-22: Exo. 37:6-9
Ex 25:171b expiation  -   Heb. 9:5; cf. Rom. 3:25
The expiation cover, mentioned in Heb. 9:5 and corresponding to the propitiation place in Rom. 3:25, was the lid of the Ark. It signifies Christ as the cover of God’s righteous law and also as the place where God meets with His redeemed people and speaks to them in grace (v. 22). Hence, the expiation cover on the Ark in the Holy of Holies equals the throne of grace, the very Christ who dwells in our spirit (Heb. 4:16 and note 1). According to Rev. 8:3, it is also the throne of God’s authority, the throne of the divine administration. The pure gold of which the cover was made signifies Christ’s pure divine nature. See note 11 in Lev. 16.
Ex 25:172 two
See note 103.
Ex 25:181 cherubim
The cherubim signify God’s glory (Ezek. 10:18; Heb. 9:5). Thus, the cherubim on the expiation cover indicate that Christ expresses God’s glory (John 1:14). They were made of beaten work, indicating that Christ’s expressing of the divine glory was through sufferings (cf. Heb. 2:9-10; Rom. 8:17-18).
Ex 25:191 one
That the two cherubim were one piece with the expiation cover indicates that God’s glory shines out from Christ and upon Christ as the expiation cover to be a testimony (cf. John 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6). The form, size, and weight of the cherubim are not given, indicating that the glory of Christ’s shining is immeasurable and mysterious.
Ex 25:201a wings  -   1 Kings 8:7; 1 Chron. 28:18
That the wings of the cherubim covered the expiation cover indicates that God’s glory is expressed in Christ to be a full testimony (Heb. 1:3a; Eph. 3:21 and note 4). The faces of the cherubim were toward each other and toward the cover, signifying that God’s glory watches over and observes what Christ has done.
Ex 25:211 put
That the cherubim and the expiation cover were made of pure gold (vv. 17-18) signifies that the shining of Christ as the effulgence of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3a) is divine. That the expiation cover of gold was put on top of the Ark of acacia wood (v. 10) signifies that Christ’s humanity, not His divinity, is the base for Him to express the glory of His divine nature. See note 102.
Ex 25:21a expiation  -   Exo. 26:34; 40:20; Lev. 16:2
Ex 25:212 put
See note 161.
Ex 25:221a meet  -   Exo. 29:42; 30:6, 36; Num. 17:4
Meaning to meet at an appointed place or to meet by appointment. So also in 29:42, 43 and 30:6, 36. The same word is the root of the word meeting in the expression Tent of Meeting. That God met with His people and spoke to them from above the expiation cover and between the cherubim signifies that God meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating Christ and in the glory expressed in the propitiating Christ as His testimony (cf. 2 Cor. 3:8-11, 18). Thus, the expiation cover with the blood of the sacrifices sprinkled on it on the Day of Expiation (Lev. 16:14-15, 29-30) portrays the redeeming Christ in His humanity and the shining Christ in His divinity as the place where fallen sinners can meet with the righteous, holy, and glorious God and hear His word, thereby being infused with God as grace and receiving vision, revelation, and instruction from Him. See note 171.
Ex 25:22b between  -   Num. 7:89; 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; Psa. 80:1; Isa. 37:16
Ex 25:23a And  -   vv. 23-30: Exo. 37:10-16
Ex 25:231b table  -   Heb. 9:2; cf. 2 Chron. 4:8
The table of the bread of the Presence signifies Christ as the nourishing feast for the believers as God’s priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10). This table was set up in the Holy Place within the tabernacle (40:22; Heb. 9:2), signifying within, or among, God’s people as His builded habitation (see note 151 in ch. 26). In the Bible a table signifies not an individual feasting but a corporate feasting (1 Cor. 10:16, 21; cf. Psa. 23:5). Christ as the food of God’s priests is for a corporate feasting within God’s dwelling place.
In the sequence of God’s revelation, the table comes after the Ark (vv. 10-22), implying that the table is connected to the Ark. In spiritual experience, when we meet with God upon Christ as the propitiation cover, enjoying fellowship with God and hearing words from His mouth, the Ark becomes the table of the bread of the Presence, where we enjoy a nourishing feast. This means that Christ, the embodiment of God’s testimony, issues in our enjoyment of Him. Furthermore, in our experience, our enjoyment of Christ always brings us back to Him as God’s testimony.
Ex 25:232 acacia
Acacia wood here signifies that Christ’s humanity is the basic element for Him to be our feast (John 6:51, 53-55). The gold that overlaid the wood signifies Christ’s divinity as the expression of God. As we enjoy Christ as the supply by which we serve God, the outcome will be gold — Christ’s divinity as the expression of God.
Ex 25:233 two
In length and width the table was two square cubits, which is composed of two units, each of one square cubit, signifying the perfect (signified by a square) and complete (signified by the number one) life supply of Christ issuing in a testimony (signified by the number two).
Ex 25:234 one
The height of the table was the same as that of the Ark of the Testimony, signifying that the nourishment of Christ as the supply of the serving priests matches the standard of God’s testimony (cf. note 341 in ch. 16).
Ex 25:241 rim
For the rim of gold around the top of the table, see note 112.
Ex 25:251 frame
The frame was near the bottom of the table, close to the rings put on the four corners at the feet of the table (vv. 26-27). Its purpose was to connect the legs and strengthen them, the handbreadth signifying its being full of strength to connect and strengthen. The rim of gold on the frame is for keeping and holding (see note 112). In spiritual experience, the enjoyment of Christ as a feast strengthens us, connects us, upholds us, and keeps us.
Ex 25:261 rings
As with the Ark, the four rings on the table signify the Spirit of Christ as the linking factor and power (see note 121). The oneness of the Spirit as a ring is a uniting bond with binding power (Eph. 4:3). That the four rings were put on the four feet of the table signifies that Christ as our feast moves and follows us (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4). That the rings, as holders for the poles, were close to the frame (v. 27) signifies that both the linking and the moving are dependent on the connecting and strengthening (see note 251).
Ex 25:281 poles
See note 131.
Ex 25:291a plates  -   Num. 4:7
The plates were for displaying the bread. The cups contained frankincense (signifying Christ’s resurrection), which was poured on the bread of the Presence displayed on the table (Lev. 24:7). The pitchers and bowls were used for pouring out drink offerings. That all the utensils were made of pure gold signifies that the divine nature of Christ is the means through which we partake of Him as our life supply and our offering to God.
Ex 25:301a bread  -   Lev. 24:5-6; 1 Kings 7:48; cf. Matt. 12:4; Mark 2:26; Luke 6:4
The bread on the table is called the bread of the Presence because the table was set before God, i.e., in God’s presence, not far from the Ark. Whereas manna was gathered by all the people in the wilderness outside the court of the tabernacle, the bread of God’s presence was enjoyed only by the priests in the presence of God in the Holy Place within the tabernacle (40:22-23; Heb. 9:2; Lev. 24:9). Manna typifies Christ as the life supply of God’s people for their living (see note 191 in ch. 16); the bread on the table typifies Christ as the life supply of God’s priests, enabling them not only to live but also to serve God. This bread indicates that God’s people should no longer live by themselves but by Christ as their life and life supply (John 6:57).
The bread of the Presence was the most holy of Jehovah’s offerings by fire (Lev. 24:7, 9). It signifies the surplus of the believers’ enjoyment of Christ that is offered to God to be His food for His satisfaction. God caused certain loaves of this offering to be spared, brought into the Holy Place, and arranged and displayed on the table to be food for the serving priests.
Ex 25:302 Presence
Or, Face. The bread of the Presence, the face-bread, means that God’s presence, God’s face, is the life supply to the serving priests (cf. 2 Cor. 2:10; 4:6-7; 3:18). In our experience the reality of God’s presence is the Spirit in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; cf. 2 Cor. 3:17), who is also the reality of Christ as the bread of life (John 6:33, 51a, 63).
Ex 25:31a And  -   vv. 31-39: Exo. 37:17-24
Ex 25:311b lampstand  -   Heb. 9:2; cf. 1 Kings 7:49; 2 Chron. 4:20; Zech. 4:2; Rev. 1:12
As described in vv. 31-36, the lampstand consisted of a base, a central stalk, and three branches on each of its two sides. Underneath each pair of branches there was a calyx, which held two branches at the stalk. On each branch there were three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each cup being composed of a calyx (the leafy green bottom of the blossom) and a blossoming bud. The whole flower, including the calyx and the blossom, was a cup shaped like an almond blossom. On the lampstand there were twenty-five calyxes — one at the base of each pair of branches, three on each of the six branches, and four on the shaft — and twenty-two blossoms (the three calyxes at the base of each pair of branches did not have blossoms). The divine thought here is that the lampstand is actually a living and growing tree with calyxes and blossoms.
The lampstand signifies the Triune God embodied and expressed. Pure gold as the substance of the lampstand (v. 31) signifies God the Father in His divine nature; the form of the lampstand signifies God the Son as the embodiment of God the Father (John 14:9-11a; 2 Cor. 4:4b; Col. 1:15; 2:9); and the seven lamps (v. 37) signify God the Spirit being the seven Spirits of God for the sevenfold intensified expression of the Father in the Son (Rev. 4:5; 5:6). The lampstand in this chapter signifies Christ as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God shining with the seven lamps, the seven Spirits of God (Col. 2:9; Matt. 4:16; John 1:4-9); the lampstand in 1 Kings 7:49 signifies the enlarged Christ; the lampstand in Zech. 4 signifies the nation of Israel as God’s shining testimony with the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit as the reality of Christ (Zech. 4:2, 6, 10; Rev. 5:6); and the lampstands in Rev. 1 signify the local churches as the reproduction of Christ and the reprint of the Spirit (Rev. 1:11-12, 20). The consummation and aggregate of all the lampstands in the Scriptures is the New Jerusalem, the ultimate, unique, and eternal golden lampstand, with Christ as the lamp and God as the light shining within Him and through the city for the expression of the Triune God in eternity (Rev. 21:11, 18, 23; 22:5). See note 123 in Rev. 1.
That the lampstand is revealed after the table of the bread of the Presence (vv. 23-30) indicates that Christ as the supply of life, signified by the table, becomes the light of life to us (John 1:4; 8:12), signified by the lampstand. The placing of the lampstand in the Holy Place opposite the table and near the Ark (26:34-35) indicates that in the church the light of the truth (1 John 1:5-6) and the supply of life must match and balance each other for the carrying on of Christ as God’s testimony. In the making and displaying of the furniture of the tabernacle, the lampstand was followed by the incense altar (37:23-25; 40:24-27), indicating that the shining of Christ in resurrection as the divine light leads us to enjoy Christ as the fragrant incense of resurrection in the prayer of fellowship with God. The light from the lampstand directs us to enjoy Christ as our life supply and also guides us into the Holy of Holies to enjoy Christ in the deepest way as the testimony of God with the throne of grace (see notes 101 and 171).
Ex 25:312 pure
Pure gold, signifying the pure divine nature, indicates that as the embodiment of God the Father for His expression, Christ is purely divine. Although as a man Christ has humanity, His shining as the light of life (John 8:12) is related not to His humanity but to His divinity (John 1:1, 4-5). The same is true of the church as the lampstand (Rev. 1:20) — the actuality and the shining of the church depend not on humanity but on how much of the divine element has been infused and wrought into the church (2 Pet. 1:4).
Ex 25:313 base
The base for stability and the shaft for strength signify that the Lord Jesus was always stable and strong (Matt. 8:24-26; Luke 4:29-30).
Ex 25:314 beaten
The beating of the gold to shine forth the light signifies that Christ’s shining of the divine light as the expression of the divine glory (Rev. 21:23) is through sufferings (cf. note 181), through which Christ was constituted as the divine light-holder to shine in God’s dwelling place so that God’s serving ones could serve there. The beating of the gold to form a stand also signifies the believers’ participation in Christ’s sufferings and their being blended together through the cross and by the Spirit for the producing and building up of the church, the Body of Christ (Rom. 8:17; 1 Pet. 2:21; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24; 1 Cor. 12:24).
Ex 25:315 cups
A cup, equal to a complete flower, consists of a calyx (the outer leafy green layer of a flower) and a blossom bud, which is actually the flower itself (vv. 33-34). The cups shaped like almond blossoms signify the resurrection life blossoming (Num. 17:8). To shine the divine light is to blossom. This indicates that Christ’s being the light of life and our shining forth the light of life as the church are in resurrection (cf. note 321). The calyxes containing the blossom buds signify the resurrection life as a container to sustain and support our shining forth of the divine light. The blossom buds signify the expression of the resurrection life.
Ex 25:321 six
The number three denotes both resurrection (1 Cor. 15:4) and the Triune God, who is resurrection (John 11:25). That there were three branches on each side of the lampstand signifies resurrection, and the branches themselves signify the branching out of Christ’s resurrection life. The six branches in two groups of three signify the testimony of the light of life, two being the number of testimony (Deut. 19:15).
Ex 25:331 Three
The three cups made like almond blossoms on each branch, a calyx and a blossom bud, signify the resurrection life blossoming in and with the resurrection life. The shining of the lampstand signifies the blossoming, the expression, of the divine life in resurrection. To have the blossoming of the resurrection life for the shining of the divine light, the believers in Christ, who have received the divine life with the divine nature through regeneration (Col. 3:4; 2 Pet. 1:4), need to live Christ, to live divinity, by practicing to be one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a).
Ex 25:341 four
The fact that the lampstand is pure gold signifies that, as the embodiment of God, Christ is altogether divine. However, the four cups made like almond blossoms on the shaft of the lampstand, its calyxes and blossom buds, signify Christ’s humanity in His shining with the resurrection life. Thus, in the lampstand there is not only the Triune God but also the creature, signified by the number four (Ezek. 1:5; cf. Col. 1:15). See also note 202 in ch. 27.
Ex 25:351 calyx
According to the description given in this chapter, in the divine thought the golden lampstand is actually a living and growing tree with calyxes and blossoms (see note 311, par. 1). Thus, the lampstand portrays the Triune God embodied in Christ as a living tree, growing, branching, budding, and blossoming to shine the light for His full expression. The calyx under each pair of branches signifies life branching out by growing to produce the shining. The repetition in this verse related to the calyxes and the branches also indicates growth. As the central shaft, or stalk, of the lampstand grows upward, it produces three pairs of branches, and as the branches grow out, calyxes, buds, and blossoms appear on the branches (v. 33). The light of the lampstand is the blossoming of the resurrection life (John 1:4; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 5:9), and the shining of the light is the issue of the growing, branching, budding, and blossoming. That there are twenty-five calyxes and twenty-two blossoms indicates that with the lampstand the responsibility for growth is greater than the matter of budding, blossoming, and shining.
Ex 25:352 six
Six is the number of man, since man was created on the sixth day (Gen. 1:26). Here the number six is composed of three plus three, three signifying the Triune God in resurrection. Hence, the six branches signify the believers in Christ as created men who are in the Triune God in resurrection. The picture of the lampstand indicates that Christ as the resurrection life is growing, branching, budding, and blossoming both in Himself as the central stalk and in His believers as His branches (John 15:5a; Col. 2:19) to shine the divine light for the expression of the Triune God.
Ex 25:371a seven  -   Num. 8:2; cf. Zech. 4:2; Rev. 4:5
The seven lamps of the lampstand signify the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5) as the seven eyes of Jehovah (Zech. 4:10), the seven eyes of the redeeming Lamb (Rev. 5:6), and the seven eyes of the building stone (Zech. 3:9) for the full expression of the Triune God. See notes 101 in Zech. 4, 51 in Rev. 4, 65 in Rev. 5, and 143 in Rev. 1.
Ex 25:372 light
In the three parts of the tabernacle there were three kinds of light. The light in the outer court was the natural light, the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The light in the Holy Place was the inner light, the light of the lampstand, signifying God in Christ shining in resurrection and in the Spirit. The light in the Holy of Holies was the innermost light, God appearing in His shekinah glory on the expiation cover, which typifies Christ as the place of propitiation (v. 22; 40:34; cf. Rev. 21:23; 22:5). Eventually, through our enjoyment of Christ in the Holy of Holies the shining light of the lampstand is replaced by and becomes the shekinah glory of God for our closest fellowship with God (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6).
Ex 25:391 talent
That the lampstand with all its utensils was one talent (approximately one hundred pounds) of pure gold signifies that Christ as the lampstand shining the divine light in resurrection is perfectly and completely weighty (John 7:45-46; 18:37-38; cf. 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Tim. 2:2). The measurements of the lampstand are not given, signifying that the divinity of Christ and the light He shines are immeasurable (cf. John 3:34).
Ex 25:40a pattern  -   Exo. 25:9; 26:30; 27:8; Num. 8:4; Acts 7:44; Heb. 8:5
Exodus Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 26:1a Now  -   vv. 1-14: Exo. 36:8-19
Ex 26:11 tabernacle
The covering of the tabernacle consisted of four layers. The first and innermost layer (vv. 1-6), referred to here as the tabernacle, consisted of ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet strands. The number ten signifies human perfection and completeness (see note 102 in Rev. 2), and the fine linen curtains typify Christ’s fine humanity. Hence, the first layer of covering typifies Christ as a fine, perfect, and complete man without defect, shortage, or excess (John 19:4; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet. 2:22). This layer was not only a covering but also a protection for the standing boards and all the contents of the tabernacle, signifying that the humanity of the Lord Jesus covers, protects, and embraces all His believers as the church. The first layer of covering, forming the ceiling of the tabernacle, is the inward expression of the beauty and glory of the Lord Jesus in His humanity.
Ex 26:12 fine
Fine linen signifies righteous conduct (Rev. 19:8). Fineness signifies evenness, and being twined here signifies being dealt with through sufferings and, hence, not loose. Fine twined linen signifies the fine living of Christ manifested through suffering and trials.
Ex 26:13b blue  -   Exo. 26:31, 36; 28:6; 39:3, 8
See note 41 in ch. 25.
Ex 26:14 cherubim
Cherubim denote God’s glory manifested in the creature (Ezek. 1:5, 22; 10:1, 18; Heb. 9:5). Here the cherubim embroidered on the linen curtains signify God’s glory manifested in Jesus as a man, a creature (John 1:14; Col. 1:15). That the number of the cherubim is not given indicates that God’s glory manifested in His creature is immeasurable (cf. notes 191 and 391 in ch. 25).
Ex 26:15 skillful
The skillful workman, the embroiderer, here signifies the Holy Spirit, and the embroidering of the cherubim on the curtains signifies the constituting work of the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus to make the glory of God manifested in the creature. Cf. note 141 in Psa. 45.
Ex 26:31 Five
Five is the number of responsibility (cf. note 21 in Matt. 25), and two is the number of testimony (Deut. 19:15). The two sets of the five curtains joined to one another (vv. 4-6) signify the continuous life of the Lord Jesus as a life of responsibility for a testimony.
The joining of the two sets of five curtains resulted in a large sheet measuring forty cubits by twenty-eight cubits. Twenty-eight is composed of four times seven, the number four signifying man as God’s creature (Ezek. 1:5) and the number seven signifying completion (see note 41 in Rev. 1). Thus, the length of each curtain also signifies the completeness and perfection of the Lord Jesus as a man (cf. note 11). The number forty signifies testing and trials (Heb. 3:9; Matt. 4:2). Hence, the forty cubits signify that the Lord’s completeness and perfection as a man have been tested, and He is approved by both God and man.
The tabernacle itself was thirty cubits in length and ten cubits in both width and height (see notes 181 and 331). When the tabernacle was erected, the sheet of linen curtains was spread upon the standing boards (vv. 15-30). The sheet hung over the rear of the tabernacle by ten cubits and over the sides by nine cubits each, with no overhang at the front, the entrance, of the tabernacle. The number nine, composed of three times three, signifies the Triune God in resurrection. The overhang of nine cubits on each side signifies that the Lord Jesus was a perfect and complete man overflowing with the Triune God in resurrection in an even and balanced way.
Ex 26:41 loops
Loops signify availability for joining. That the loops were on the edge of the outermost curtain in each of the two sets of five curtains indicates that they were the issue of a life of responsibility for a testimony (see note 31).
Ex 26:61 clasps
Clasps of gold signify the joining power of the divine nature. The joining of the curtains to each other made the tabernacle one, signifying that all the virtues of the Lord Jesus form one perfect, complete, and whole testimony.
Ex 26:71 goats’
See note 43 in ch. 25. The second layer of covering typifies Christ as the One who was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and who died on the cross for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18). The first two layers of covering together signify that the Lord Jesus, the perfect man, was made sin in the eyes of God for our redemption.
Ex 26:72 tent
In v. 1 the first layer of the covering of the tabernacle is itself called the tabernacle, and here the curtain of goats’ hair is a tent to cover and protect the tabernacle.
Ex 26:101 loops
As a perfect man, Christ is heavenly, but when He was made sin for us, He was not heavenly. Thus, the loops on the second layer are not said to be blue (cf. v. 4).
Ex 26:111 clasps
The clasps signify joining power, and bronze signifies God’s judgment (Num. 16:39; 21:8-9). The joining of the tent by the bronze clasps signifies that God’s righteous judgment holds together the judged and tried Christ as a complete person.
Ex 26:121 overlapping
The joining of the curtains in the second layer resulted in a rectangle measuring forty-four cubits by thirty cubits. This layer of goats’ hair was laid over the tabernacle in such a way that it hung over the back and the two sides (vv. 12-13), completely covering the standing boards and the linen curtains. According to v. 9 the sixth curtain was doubled over at the front of the tent for protection and strengthening. The hanging over of the tent at the back and on the two sides of the tabernacle indicates that after Christ was made sin and was judged by God for sinners, He became the covering and protection of the believers, who are the components of God’s dwelling place (see note 151).
Ex 26:131 cubit
The overhang of the tent on each of the two sides of the tabernacle was one cubit longer than that of the linen curtains (v. 8a, cf. v. 2a). Hence, the linen curtains were fully protected by the tent of goats’ hair. The overhang on the two sides signifies the redeeming Christ becoming the protection of God’s dwelling place in any situation, whether hardship (the north side — v. 20) or ease (the south side — v. 18) (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Phil. 4:12-13).
Ex 26:141a rams’  -   Exo. 25:5
See note 51 in ch. 25. The third layer of covering typifies Christ as the One who accomplished redemption by dying and shedding His blood to meet God’s need and ours (Heb. 9:12-14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Col. 1:14). Rams are males and signify Christ as a strong man who died for our redemption.
The first three layers of covering signify that because the perfect man (the first layer, the fine linen), Jesus Christ, was made sin for us (the second layer, the goats’ hair) as our Substitute, redemption has been accomplished (the third layer, the rams’ skins dyed red). Christ’s full and complete redemption, which is Christ Himself, covers God’s chosen and redeemed people, who are His dwelling place.
Ex 26:142 porpoise
See note 52 in ch. 25. The fourth layer of covering, the porpoise skins, signifies that Christ is without comeliness or beauty (Isa. 53:2). The covering of porpoise skins protected the tabernacle from storms and rain, signifying that Christ as our covering enables us to stand against Satan and all his attacks.
Ex 26:15a And  -   vv. 15-30: Exo. 36:20-34
Ex 26:151 boards
The walls of the tabernacle, composed of standing boards, typify the believers built together to be the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22; 1 Pet. 2:5). Thus, the church, the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), is included with the individual Christ in the type of the tabernacle (see note 92 in ch. 25). In the picture of the tabernacle the corporate Christ is covered by the individual Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9). The fact that the covering of the tabernacle is revealed in Exodus before the boards indicates that Christ’s redemption had to take place before the church could come into existence.
Ex 26:152 acacia
The boards were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold (v. 29), the same materials used to make the Ark (25:10-11). This indicates that the boards are the enlargement and extension of the Ark. In the same way the believers in Christ, typified by the boards, are the enlargement and extension of Christ as God’s testimony (John 12:23-24; 2 Cor. 10:1; Phil. 1:8, 20-21a). Through regeneration the believers have received the uplifted humanity of Jesus and His overlaying divine nature to become boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold. The overlaying of the acacia wood with gold signifies that the divine nature of Christ has become one with the believers’ human nature to be the expression of God.
Ex 26:161 one
The width of each board, one and a half cubits, signifies that every believer is a half unit needing to be matched by another to form a complete unit of three cubits for the building of God’s dwelling place. Cf. note 103 in ch. 25.
Ex 26:171 tenons
The tenons and sockets (vv. 17, 19) are for standing, whereas the rings and bars (vv. 26-29) are for uniting, to make the individual boards of the tabernacle a corporate entity.
Ex 26:181 twenty
On each side of the tabernacle there were ten pairs of boards (vv. 18, 20) forming a wall of thirty cubits. The number thirty, composed of ten times three, ten being the number of human completion (see note 102 in Rev. 2) and three signifying the Triune God in resurrection, indicates the complete and perfect humanity in resurrection with the Triune God. This is the testimony of the built-up church.
Ex 26:191 sockets
Sockets signify stability for standing. Each socket was made of a talent (approximately one hundred pounds) of silver (38:27), signifying the redemption of Christ as the solid base for the believers’ standing in God’s dwelling place (John 14:2-3 and note 32). The two tenons, which fit into the two sockets under each board, may signify our complete faith in Christ’s redemption, which gives us a firm and unshakable standing (2 Cor. 1:24; Rom. 5:2; Gal. 5:1).
Ex 26:192 next
Lit., one. So also in vv. 21, 25; 36:24, 26.
Ex 26:241 double
A corner is where a turn is made. The doubling of the corner boards (v. 23) signifies that at each turn in the Lord’s move there is a need for doubling, strengthening, reinforcing. For example, at Antioch there was a turn toward the Gentile world; for this Barnabas and Saul were doubled and strengthened to become corner boards for the building of the church (Acts 13:2, 46).
Ex 26:251 eight
There were a total of forty-eight boards in the tabernacle (vv. 18, 20, 25). The number forty-eight is composed of six times eight. Six refers to man created on the sixth day, who became fallen and was later redeemed, and eight refers to resurrection, which occurred on the eighth day, the first day of a new week (John 20:1). Thus, six times eight indicates that as standing boards in the tabernacle, the believers are created and redeemed people in resurrection.
Ex 26:261 bars
The bars were made of acacia wood for connecting strength and overlaid with gold for uniting. They signify the initial Spirit (see note 292) becoming the uniting Spirit to join all the members of Christ into one Body (Eph. 4:3-4). The boards stand in silver, signifying Christ’s redemptive work, and they are united by gold, signifying Christ’s divine person. That the bars were made of acacia wood indicates that the oneness of the Spirit involves not only Christ’s divinity but also His humanity (Eph. 4:2 and note). In actuality, the uniting bars signify not the Holy Spirit alone, but the Holy Spirit mingled with our human spirit (Rom. 8:16) — the mingled spirit, which includes both divinity and humanity.
Ex 26:281 pass
There were five bars for the boards on each side of the tabernacle (vv. 26-27), the middle bar stretching from end to end and being twice as long as the other bars. Hence, the five bars formed three lines, indicating that there were three rings on each board to serve as holders for the bars.
The uniting of the boards of the tabernacle involved the passing of the bars through the rings on each board to join the boards together. This signifies that the believers in Christ are united when their spirit cooperates with the Spirit, thus allowing the uniting Spirit to pass through them to join them to other believers.
Ex 26:291 gold
In order to become one entity as God’s dwelling place, the forty-eight boards in the tabernacle had to be united in oneness. The oneness of the boards of the tabernacle was not in the acacia wood but in the gold that overlaid the wood. Gold signifies the Triune God with His divine nature, and the shining of the gold signifies the glory of God. The oneness of the boards in the overlaying gold symbolizes the oneness of the believers in the Triune God and in His glory, His expression. This is the practical oneness for which the Lord prayed in John 17:21-23. This oneness is the building up of the believers to be God’s dwelling place (cf. John 14:23).
Ex 26:292 rings
The gold rings signify the sealing Spirit (Eph. 1:13), the initial Spirit, i.e., the regenerating Spirit (John 3:6), given to us by God at the time of our believing in Christ (Gen. 24:22; Luke 15:22; Acts 2:38). Since the number three signifies the Triune God in resurrection, the three rings (see note 281, par. 1) indicate the all-inclusive Spirit of the Triune God in resurrection (John 7:39) for the uniting of the believers (Eph. 4:3).
Ex 26:30a plan  -   cf. Exo. 25:40
Ex 26:31a And  -   vv. 31-35: Exo. 36:35-36
Ex 26:311b veil  -   2 Chron. 3:14; Heb. 9:3; cf. Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45
In material, color, and workmanship the veil was exactly the same as the first layer of the covering of the tabernacle (v. 1). The veil, signifying the flesh of Christ (Heb. 10:20), separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (v. 33) and also covered the Ark of the Testimony (Num. 4:5). This signifies the separation between God and fallen man because of man’s flesh (Gen. 6:3; cf. Gen. 3:22-24 and notes). This veil was torn through Christ’s crucifixion, signifying that the flesh of sin was crucified through Christ’s death on the cross to open a new and living way for sinful man to contact God on Christ as the propitiation cover in the Holy of Holies (Matt. 27:51 and note 1; Heb. 10:19-20; Rom. 3:25; cf. Exo. 25:22).
Ex 26:321 hang
Lit., give. So also in v. 33.
Ex 26:322 pillars
The pillars, like the boards, were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold and stood on silver sockets, which signify Christ’s redemption. Hence, the pillars signify believers (Gal. 2:9; Rev. 3:12; 1 Tim. 3:15) who are strong to bear the testimony of Christ’s incarnation and crucifixion. The veil being attached to the pillars implies the identification, the oneness, of Christ as the veil with those believers who are pillars. The pillars in God’s dwelling place no longer live in the flesh but bear the testimony that the veil of their flesh has been torn, i.e., that they themselves have been terminated and their flesh has been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20; 5:24). The riven veil on the pillars becomes an entrance for God’s people to enter the Holy of Holies to have the full enjoyment of God. See note 371.
Ex 26:323 hooks
The hooks of gold by which the veil was connected to the pillars signify the holding and connecting strength of the divine nature, by which the stronger believers are connected to Christ to bear the testimony of His incarnation and crucifixion.
Ex 26:324 sockets
With the tabernacle there were a total of one hundred silver sockets, ninety-six for the boards and four for the pillars. Ten is the number of human completion (see note 102 in Rev. 2), and one hundred, composed of ten times ten, signifies the full and complete fulfillment of the requirements of the Ten Commandments. The one hundred sockets were made from the expiation silver collected from the people (30:11-16; 38:25, 27), signifying that as the boards and pillars for the building up of God’s dwelling place, God’s redeemed people stand on the solid redemption of Christ.
Ex 26:331 clasps
The veil was hung under the fifty clasps on the first layer of the covering (v. 6), which formed a line on the ceiling of the tabernacle twenty cubits from the entrance and ten cubits from the back wall. This indicates that the Holy of Holies was a cube measuring ten cubits in each direction, and the Holy Place, measuring twenty cubits by ten cubits by ten cubits, was twice as large as the Holy of Holies. Furthermore, the veil was a square, ten cubits by ten cubits. Cf. note 31, par. 3, and note 181.
Ex 26:33a veil  -   Matt. 27:51; Heb. 9:2-3; cf. Lev. 16:2; Heb. 10:20
Ex 26:33b Holy  -   1 Kings 6:16; Ezek. 41:4; Heb. 9:3
Ex 26:34a expiation  -   Exo. 25:21; 40:20; Heb. 9:5
Ex 26:35a outside  -   Exo. 40:22; Heb. 9:2
Ex 26:35b lampstand  -   Exo. 40:24
Ex 26:36a And  -   vv. 36-37: Exo. 36:37-38
Ex 26:361b screen  -   Exo. 27:16
The screen as the entrance to the tent was made of the same material as the first layer of the covering and the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (cf. vv. 1, 31). The screen signifies Christ in His perfect humanity as the One who keeps all negative persons and things outside God’s dwelling place, and as the One who died for our sins under God’s judgment (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18) so that we may be forgiven by God and may enter into the Holy Place of His dwelling to begin to enjoy all the riches of God in Christ.
The screen and the veil in the tabernacle signify two aspects of the all-inclusive death of Christ. The screen indicates that Christ died for our sins so that our sins may be forgiven and that we may be justified by God. The veil indicates that Christ died for us, the sinners (2 Cor. 5:14-15, 21), so that our flesh, our fallen nature, may be torn, crucified, that we may enter into the Holy of Holies to enjoy God to the uttermost. These two curtains are related to the two aspects of reconciliation spoken of by Paul in 2 Cor. 5:18-21 (see note 202 there).
Ex 26:362 entrance
The tabernacle in Exodus was enterable. By being incarnated, God not only became a man; He also became an enterable tabernacle (John 1:14). God’s original intention was that all the children of Israel would be priests (19:6) and have the right to enter into the tabernacle, i.e., to enter into God and dwell in God. In the Old Testament the priests could enter into the tabernacle, and today all the believers in Christ, as priests (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6), can enter into God and dwell in Him (1 John 4:13, 15). The incarnated God has become our dwelling place, our home, as a place of enjoyment (cf. Psa. 90:1; Rev. 21:22).
Ex 26:371 pillars
Like the four pillars attached to the veil (v. 32), the five pillars attached to the screen signify stronger believers who are identified with the incarnated and crucified Christ (see notes 322 and 323). These pillars at the entrance of the tabernacle are evangelists, who declare to all that Christ died for their sins. The pillars within the tabernacle are those who experience Christ in a deeper way, who daily attach themselves to the torn veil, to the very Christ who was terminated in His flesh, and bear the testimony that they have been crucified with Christ (cf. Gal. 2:20). These two kinds of pillars provide entrances for sinners to be saved into God’s dwelling place and then to be terminated so that they may come into God’s Holy of Holies to enjoy God Himself in His fullness.
Between the five pillars supporting the screen there were four entrances into the tabernacle, and between the four pillars supporting the veil there were three entrances into the Holy of Holies. The fact that the screen has four entrances indicates that God’s dwelling place is open to all people from the four corners of the earth (Rev. 5:9). The three entrances in the veil indicate that the Triune God Himself is the entrance for His redeemed people to enter not only His dwelling place but also Himself. Cf. Rev. 21:12-13 and note 131.
Ex 26:372 bronze
Bronze signifies God’s righteous judgment exercised on rebels (Num. 16:38-39; 21:9). The five sockets of bronze indicate that Christ was judged by God for our sins. See note 22 in ch. 27.
Exodus Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 27:1a And  -   vv. 1-8: Exo. 38:1-7
Ex 27:11b altar  -   Exo. 29:12; 38:1; 40:10, 29; cf. Ezek. 43:13-17; 1 Cor. 10:18
The altar of burnt offering, located in the outer court of the tabernacle, typifies the cross of Christ (Heb. 13:10).
Ex 27:12 acacia
The acacia wood of which the altar was made signifies the man Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), who was judged by God on the cross as our Substitute. Acacia wood was the essence and substance of both the Ark (25:10) and the altar, signifying that only that humanity which is up to the standard of the Ark — the humanity of Jesus — can be our substitute to save us.
Ex 27:13 five
Five is the number of responsibility, and five by five signifies that Christ bore the full responsibility on the cross to fulfill all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. See note 241 in Gen. 3.
Ex 27:14 square
That the altar was square signifies that the man Jesus was upright, perfect, and without any deficiency, and thus was qualified to be our Substitute and Redeemer (see note 371 in Mark 12).
Ex 27:15 three
The number three here signifies the Triune God. The redemption accomplished on the cross was not only by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; it was accomplished by the Triune God. All Three of the Divine Trinity were involved in the accomplishing of redemption (Heb. 9:14; Matt. 27:46; Col. 2:14-15).
Ex 27:21a horns  -   Exo. 29:12; 30:2; cf. Lev. 4:7, 30; 1 Kings 1:50; Psa. 118:27
The horns on the four corners of the altar signify the power and strength of Christ’s redemption (cf. Psa. 92:10a) to reach the four corners of the earth. That the horns were of one piece with the altar indicates that the power and strength of Christ’s redemption cannot be separated from Christ’s cross.
Ex 27:22 bronze
The bronze used to overlay the altar came from the censers of the two hundred fifty rebellious ones who were judged by God (Num. 16:37-39). Thus, the bronze on the altar became a reminder of God’s judgment on rebellion. Bronze here signifies God’s righteous judgment on Christ as our Substitute (Isa. 53:5; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18).
Ex 27:31 utensils
The fact that all the utensils were made of bronze signifies that all things related to the cross are for God’s judgment.
Ex 27:41 grating
The grating, the network of bronze, inside the altar signifies Christ Himself in His redemptive work. It stretched horizontally from side to side at the middle of the height of the altar (v. 5). The wood was placed on this grating, and the sacrifices were put on the wood. As the wood and the sacrifices burned, the ashes fell through the grating to the bottom of the altar, and the smoke ascended as a sweet savor to God for His satisfaction. The ashes were proof that the sacrifice had been accepted by God and that the offerer had been forgiven. God enjoyed the aroma of the burning sacrifice, and the offerer enjoyed peace.
The bronze grating, with its rings and poles, is the content of the altar, signifying the inner content of Christ’s redemption. That the grating was within the altar signifies that God’s judgment upon Christ as our Substitute was not merely outward but reached the inward parts of Christ (Psa. 22:14).
Ex 27:42 rings
The bronze rings at the four ends of the grating refer to the eternal Spirit (cf. note 121 in ch. 25), through whom Christ offered Himself on the cross to God to accomplish redemption (Heb. 9:14 and note 2). The eternal Spirit is the power, the strength, the efficacy, of Christ’s redemption. The function of the rings was twofold: (1) to bear the weight of the grating, on which the wood and the sacrifices were burned, and (2) to provide a way for the altar to move (38:5, 7). The fire on the altar came from God (Lev. 9:24; cf. 2 Chron. 7:1) and never ceased (Lev. 6:13); while the altar was moving, the fire was burning continually. Both the burning and the moving depended on the four rings. This signifies that it is the eternal Spirit who makes Christ’s redemption effective and who is the power for the move of the cross of Christ to the four corners of the earth (1 Cor. 1:18; Rom. 1:16; 15:18-19; Acts 1:8; 1 Thes. 1:5). The rings being of the same material as the grating and forming one piece with the grating indicates that the life-giving Spirit is the issue of the redeeming Christ (1 Cor. 15:45) and of His redemption (Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:13-14) and identifies Christ with the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Christ and His redemption should not be separated from the Spirit (Rev. 5:6).
Ex 27:51 ledge
The ledge, located inside the altar, might have strengthened the grating and protected the acacia wood in the walls of the altar from the heat of the fire that burned continually on the grating. Thus, the ledge may signify the strengthening power that upheld Christ while He suffered the burning of God’s righteous judgment on the cross, and also the protection that enabled Christ in His humanity (signified by the acacia wood) to bear the judgment of God.
Ex 27:52 halfway
The one and a half cubits above and below the grating was equal to the height of the Ark of the Testimony (25:10). The fact that the grating of the altar was level with the expiation cover of the Ark signifies that Christ’s redemption was accomplished according to the standard of the requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory (cf. Rom. 3:24-25). Moreover, the fact that there were one and a half cubits above the grating indicates that the effectiveness of Christ’s redemption, indicated by God’s being satisfied by the fragrant aroma ascending from the sacrifices, also comes up to the standard of God’s requirements.
Ex 27:61 poles
The poles made of acacia wood overlaid with bronze, signifying Christ as a man under God’s judgment, were for the move of the altar (v. 7). The poles being put into the rings and being carried by men signifies the move of the redeeming Christ by the power of the Spirit with the church as a corporate Body in the coordination of the believers as a testimony (1 Thes. 1:5; Luke 10:1; Acts 1:8; 13:1-4; 16:6-10).
Ex 27:8a shown  -   Exo. 25:40
Ex 27:9a And  -   vv. 9-19: Exo. 38:9-20
Ex 27:91b court  -   Exo. 38:9; 40:8; cf. Rev. 11:2
The outer court of the tabernacle signifies the sphere and boundary of God’s dwelling place. The area of the outer court formed a rectangle one hundred cubits in length and fifty cubits in width (vv. 9-13). This is half of a square with sides of one hundred cubits, signifying that the outer court was a testimony, with one half present and the other half yet to come. The New Jerusalem, as the consummation of God’s building, will be a complete whole, a square, not a rectangle (Rev. 21:16). Cf. note 103 in ch. 25.
Ex 27:92 hangings
When the tabernacle was observed from a distance, its most prominent feature was the fine linen hangings of the outer court. These hangings were both the outward expression and the boundary of God’s building. The hangings of the court signify Christ as God’s righteousness, who is made righteousness to the church (1 Cor. 1:30) and is lived out of the church to be its boundary and expression (see notes 201 in Matt. 5, 95 in Phil. 3, and 82 in Rev. 19).
With the tabernacle, the expression of God’s building was righteousness outwardly, signified by linen, and holiness inwardly, signified by gold. Righteousness is the expression of God in His deeds, and holiness is the expression of God in His nature. The outward expression of the church should be righteousness toward man, and the inward expression should be holiness toward God (cf. Eph. 4:24). We must have the outward expression of righteousness before we can have the inward expression of holiness (see notes 162 in Isa. 5 and 191 in Rom. 6).
Ex 27:93 linen
See notes 42 in ch. 25 and 12 in ch. 26. The church’s expression of righteousness should be the expression of Christ’s human living.
Ex 27:101 pillars
For the boundary of God’s building, the pillars of bronze signify the Christ who was judged by God, as the standing and supporting strength, and the bronze sockets signify the Christ who was judged by God, as the base (see note 372 in ch. 26). In the outer court the most prominent materials are bronze and linen. That the linen hangings were on bronze pillars that stood in bronze sockets signifies that the righteousness of God is the issue of God’s judgment. In Christ there is the element of God’s judgment. When we live the judged Christ, everything related to us is under God’s judgment. As a result, we become sockets and pillars to bear the righteousness of God, which is God’s expression as the boundary and sphere of His dwelling place.
Ex 27:102 hooks
The hooks and the connecting rods of the pillars were of silver, and the capitals of the pillars were overlaid with silver (38:17), which was collected from the people for their expiation (30:11-16; 38:25, 28). This signifies Christ’s redemption issuing out of God’s righteous judgment. The capitals signify glory as a crown, whereas the hooks signify holding power, and the rods, joining strength. Christ’s redemption is our glory as well as the holding power and the joining strength to link us, the pillars, to God’s righteousness and to join us to one another. The elements of the court of the tabernacle show that if we submit to God’s divine judgment (bronze), we will simultaneously experience the redemption of Christ (silver), which links us to God’s righteousness (linen) as the expression and testimony of God.
Ex 27:161 gate
On the east side of the court was a gate of twenty cubits and linen hangings of fifteen cubits on the two sides of the gate (vv. 13-16). The screen of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet strands (see notes 41 and 42 in ch. 25) for the gate signifies the redeeming Christ as the entrance into God’s building. That the gate had four pillars with four openings signifies that God’s building is open toward men from the four corners of the earth (see vv. 2, 4). The fact that there were three pillars and three sockets on the two sides of the gate, and four pillars and four sockets for the gate, signifies that the appearance of the gate of the court of the tabernacle is that of man (signified by the number four) bearing the Triune God (signified by three) as a testimony (signified by two). The goal of the gospel is to cause repentant sinners to pass through the gate of God’s judgment, where everything related to them is judged, and enter into God’s building, the church, in which they bear as a testimony the Triune God involved with man.
Ex 27:16a screen  -   Exo. 26:36
Ex 27:162 embroiderer
See note 15 in ch. 26.
Ex 27:181 fifty
Lit., fifty with fifty.
Ex 27:182 five
The linen hangings between two bronze pillars were five cubits wide by five cubits high (vv. 9-15, 18), the same as the length and width of the altar (v. 1). This signifies that Christ’s redemption (the altar) matches the requirements of God’s righteousness (linen) (cf. Rom. 3:24; 5:18).
Ex 27:191 pegs
The two sets of bronze pegs, for the tabernacle and for the outer court, signify standing and holding power. This power is of bronze, of judgment (see note 372 in ch. 26). The scene in the outer court is filled with bronze, with God’s judgment. God’s judgment is the strong base and the standing strength in God’s building. In the church life the more we place ourselves under God’s judgment, the more stable we will be.
Ex 27:192 bronze
According to the spiritual significances portrayed in the tabernacle and its furnishings, bronze issues in silver, and silver brings forth gold. Through our experience of God’s judgment (bronze) we enter into the court of the tabernacle, and through Christ’s redemption (silver) as the issue of God’s judgment, we enter into the Holy Place and into the Holy of Holies, where everything is gold, i.e., where we enjoy the divine nature and have holiness as the inward expression of God’s divine being.
Ex 27:20a And  -   vv. 20-21: Lev. 24:2-4
Ex 27:201 oil
The olive tree signifies Christ (cf. Rom. 11:17), and the oil of beaten olives signifies the Spirit of Christ produced through Christ’s process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 8:9 and note 4).
Ex 27:202 make
Lit., cause the light of a lamp to ascend. The lampstand, signifying Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, was made of pure gold (25:31), but the wicks that burned to give off the light were of the plant life. In order to burn so that light would shine, the wicks had to be saturated with oil. The wicks signify the uplifted humanity of Christ, which burns with the divine oil to shine out the divine light.
Ex 27:211 Tent
The tabernacle as the Tent of Meeting, the place where God met with His redeemed people and spoke to them (Lev. 1:1), typifies the meeting of the church. Thus, in typology the lighting of the lamps points to the proper way to meet. Everything done in the church meetings, whether praying, singing, praising, or prophesying, should cause the lamps to shine.
Ex 27:212 before
Before the Testimony means before the law in the Ark, which was behind the veil. For the most part, the meeting of God’s people is in the Holy Place, not in the Holy of Holies. However, we meet in the Holy Place with the expectation of entering the Holy of Holies. The light from the lamps enables us to see the different aspects of Christ, signified by the items of furniture in the Holy Place, and also the way leading into the Holy of Holies, into the depths of Christ within God.
Ex 27:213 Aaron
The holy task of lighting the lamps was a service of holy persons, the priests, not of the common people. According to the entire Bible a priest is one who is possessed by God, filled with God, saturated with God, and living absolutely for God. Furthermore, a priest had to be clothed with priestly garments (28:2), which signify Christ lived out of the priesthood. The lighting of the lamps in the Holy Place requires the service of this kind of person.
The light in the Holy Place was not a natural light or a man-made light. It was a light that came from the golden lampstand, i.e., from the divine nature of Christ. To experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings, we must have Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, as the lampstand, the divine nature as the gold, the uplifted humanity of Christ as the wick, and the Spirit of Christ as the oil with all the steps of Christ’s process, and we must be holy people as the priests, clothed with the expression of Christ as the priestly garments.
Ex 27:21a maintain  -   cf. Exo. 30:7-8; 2 Chron. 13:11
Ex 27:214 evening
Nothing is said here about the day. The present age is the night, not the day. Hence, we need the light to shine during this age of night until the day dawns (cf. Rom. 13:12; 2 Pet. 1:19).
Exodus Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 28:11a Aaron  -   Heb. 5:4
In typology Aaron as the high priest signifies Christ as our High Priest before God (Heb. 4:14 — 7:28), and the sons of Aaron, the priests, signify the believers in Christ as priests (Rev. 1:6; 5:10). See note 61, par. 2, in Rev. 2.
Ex 28:12 priest
In the sequence of the divine record in Exodus, the priesthood follows the tabernacle. In typology, the priesthood and the tabernacle are one entity, signifying the church composed of God’s redeemed people as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5 and note 7). That the tabernacle is mentioned before the priesthood emphasizes the need of the believers to be built up to be God’s dwelling place that they may serve God as a corporate, coordinated priesthood (see note 17 in Rom. 12).
Ex 28:1b Nadab  -   Exo. 6:23
Ex 28:21a garments  -   Exo. 29:29; 31:10; 35:19; 39:1; cf. Num. 20:26, 28
In typology garments signify expression (cf. Isa. 64:6; Rev. 19:8). The priestly garments signify the serving priests’ expression of Christ. The priests were also sanctified, separated to God, by their holy garments (v. 3).
Ex 28:22 for
The priestly garments, being mainly for glory and for beauty, signify the expression of Christ’s divine glory and human beauty. Glory is related to Christ’s divinity, His divine attributes (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3), and beauty, to Christ’s humanity, His human virtues. Christ’s divinity, typified by the gold of the priestly garments, is for glory, and His humanity, typified by the blue, purple, and scarlet strands and the fine linen, is for beauty. A life that expresses Christ with the divine glory and the human beauty sanctifies us and qualifies us to be the priesthood.
Ex 28:3a wise  -   Exo. 31:6; 35:10, 25, 35; 36:1, 2, 8; 1 Kings 3:12
Ex 28:3b spirit  -   Deut. 34:9; Isa. 11:2; Eph. 1:17; cf. Exo. 31:3; 35:31
Ex 28:41 garments
All the priests wore linen trousers, a tunic, a girding sash, and a turban (vv. 40-42; 29:8-9a). In addition, over the tunic the high priest wore the robe, the ephod, the shoulder pieces, and the breastplate, and on the turban he wore an engraved plate (vv. 36-37; 29:5-6).
Ex 28:4a breastplate  -   Exo. 28:15; cf. Rev. 1:13
Ex 28:42 ephod
The ephod is a type of Christ expressed in His two natures, divinity and humanity, with His attributes and virtues (v. 6). It was a part of the priestly garments used for fastening, or binding. The two shoulder pieces with the two onyx stones (see note 91), and the breastplate with the twelve precious stones (see note 151), were bound, fastened, to the ephod (vv. 12-28). This signifies that Christ holds, binds, and fastens the church to Himself by His divine glory and human beauty, the components of the ephod (2 Cor. 1:21; 2 Pet. 1:3b; cf. notes 22, 91 and 151).
Ex 28:4b robe  -   Exo. 28:31; Exo. 29:5
Ex 28:4c tunic  -   Exo. 28:40; 29:8
Ex 28:43 checkered
Or, embroidered.
Ex 28:4d sash  -   Exo. 28:39; Lev. 8:7
Ex 28:6a And  -   vv. 6-12: Exo. 39:2-7
Ex 28:61 gold
The gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen were threads of different colors. Gold signifies Christ’s divinity. Blue signifies Christ’s heavenliness; purple, His royalty, His kingliness; scarlet, His redemption accomplished by the shedding of His blood; and fine twined linen, the fine human living of Christ, manifested through His sufferings. The gold, the blue, the purple, and the scarlet were all woven into the fine twined linen to make the ephod. Therefore, the ephod typifies the composition of Christ’s divinity, His kingliness and heavenliness, His redemption, and His fine humanity for the expression of His divine glory and human beauty. The weaving together of the gold and the linen threads in the ephod signifies the mingling of divinity and humanity in Christ, the God-man (the two natures remaining distinct in the mingling). Through Christ’s incarnation the gold and the linen, divinity and humanity, were woven together, mingled (John 1:1, 14). This mingling becomes the fastening strength and binding power to hold us to Christ.
The gold becoming thread indicates a process. First the gold was beaten into thin sheets, then it was cut into threads, and then it was worked into the linen (39:3). The linen also had to be processed to become twined thread. This portrays that Christ became a man by passing through a process. In His human birth and through the sufferings of His human life on earth, both Christ’s divinity and His humanity went through a process and were woven together, mingled. God’s redeemed people (the precious stones) are fastened to Christ (Aaron) by His processed divine-human being (the ephod).
Ex 28:71 shoulder
The ephod was like a vest, rather than like a robe. The two shoulder pieces were joined to the ephod at the skillfully woven band (vv. 8, 27). Being part of the ephod as a whole, they were made of the same materials and were strong enough to bear the onyx stones. The gold settings that held the two onyx stones were fastened to the shoulder pieces (vv. 9-12).
Ex 28:8a band  -   Exo. 28:27-28; 29:5; Lev. 8:7
Ex 28:81 for
Lit., of its ephod. With the skillfully woven band the ephod was bound around the high priest’s body (29:5; Lev. 8:7).
Ex 28:91a onyx  -   Exo. 25:7
The two onyx stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel symbolize God’s redeemed and transformed people (Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:5; see note 121 in Gen. 2) as Christ’s testimony, signified by the number two. This indicates that Christ as the High Priest holds the church, composed of the transformed believers, bearing them on His shoulders, in His strength, before God. Cf. note 221.
Ex 28:9b names  -   Exo. 28:29
Ex 28:111 settings
Lit., plaited work, plaited settings, or filigree. So also in vv. 13, 14, 25. The settings of gold for the onyx stones were filigree settings, fine work made with gold plaited together to make a beautiful design. They portray the Lord’s divinity after it was processed and had passed through many sufferings (cf. note 61, par. 2). The skillful way in which they were made signifies the fine work of the Holy Spirit with the divine nature. That the filigree settings were gold signifies that only the divinity of Christ, His divine nature, can hold us (2 Pet. 1:4). The divine nature becomes the power to hold us in a beautiful and glorious way.
The onyx stones fastened to the shoulders of the ephod added more beauty to it, signifying that the transformed believers added to Christ are His additional beauty. The gold filigree in which the onyx stones were set added beauty to the onyx stones, signifying that the fine work of the Holy Spirit adds the beauty of Christ to the believers as the precious stones. This is a mutual beautification, in which Christ and the transformed believers beautify each other.
Ex 28:121 remembrance
The two onyx stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod became a memorial, a pleasant remembrance, before God. The church is fastened to Christ, and Christ holds the church in the presence of God as an eternal memorial.
Ex 28:141 chains
The chains of gold cords, formed of gold threads twined together, fastened the onyx stones in their gold settings to the shoulder pieces. They portray Christ’s divinity becoming a golden fastening cord by passing through a process (cf. notes 61 and 111).
Ex 28:151a breastplate  -   vv. 15-28: Exo. 39:8-21
The breastplate on the ephod signifies the church as the building together of God’s redeemed people upon Christ. The twelve precious stones set in gold (vv. 17-20) symbolize the saints as transformed precious stones built together in the divine nature of Christ to become one entity, the church as Christ’s Body (1 Cor. 3:10-12a; Eph. 1:22-23). Therefore, the breastplate is a miniature of the building up of God’s people (see note 121 in Gen. 2), indicating that the believers in Christ are distinct individuals but are not divided (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27). The entire ephod with its shoulder pieces and the breastplate are a marvelous portrait of Christ with the church.
Ex 28:152 judgment
See note 301.
Ex 28:153 like
That the workmanship and materials of the breastplate were the same as those of the ephod signifies that the formation and the constituent of the church are the same as those of Christ (cf. Gen. 2:18-24 and notes).
Ex 28:161 square
Square denotes without defect, and doubled implies something that is twofold, hence, a testimony. Therefore, square and doubled signifies a perfect testimony.
Ex 28:162 span
A span, the width of an open hand, signifies being within the capacity of one’s hand. That the breastplate was a span in length and width signifies that the church is fully within the capacity of Christ’s care, which is immeasurable and unlimited (cf. John 10:28).
Ex 28:171a stones  -   vv. 17-20: Ezek. 28:13; Rev. 21:19-20
The twelve precious stones on the breastplate, on which the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraved, signify all the redeemed and transformed people of God built together to become one entity. Precious stones are not created but are formed by the transforming of created things. This signifies that the church is produced by transformation, from something natural into something divine. As components of the church, the believers, who were created of dust (Gen. 2:7), must be transformed in their human nature by and with the divine nature through the working of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18) to become precious stones for God’s eternal building (Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:18-20).
Ex 28:172 four
The number twelve, composed of four (the creatures) times three (the Triune God in resurrection), signifies the mingling of the Triune God with His creature, man, for the complete and perfect carrying out of God’s administration eternally (see notes 122 and 131 in Rev. 21 and note 24 in Rev. 22). That the stones were arranged in four rows with three stones in each row indicates that the believers are not only transformed but also mingled with the Triune God. The setting of the stones in gold (v. 20) signifies that the transformed and mingled believers are built in the divine nature of Christ into one entity. These people, being of the number twelve, complete the eternal purpose of God and become the administration of the divine government in the universe. In God’s eternal plan and according to His eternal view, the church, borne on Christ’s heart (v. 29) and held in the span of His loving care (v. 16b), is such a mingling of the Triune God with redeemed humanity.
Ex 28:173 sardius
See note 32 in Rev. 4.
Ex 28:181 carbuncle
Or, turquoise.
Ex 28:201 chrysolite
Or, beryl.
Ex 28:211 engravings
The engraving of the names of the twelve tribes on the precious stones corresponds to the inscribing of Christ into the believers’ hearts, making them living letters of Christ, with Christ as the content (see 2 Cor. 3:3 and notes). Christ is inscribed into the believers through their experience of Him. The letters engraved on the twelve stones typify Christ as the letters in the heavenly alphabet (cf. Rev. 22:13a).
Ex 28:221 chains
The twisted chains of gold signify Christ’s divine nature, after passing through sufferings, as the connecting element. The two chains of gold were connected on one end to two gold rings on the two ends at the top of the breastplate, and on the other end to gold settings on the two shoulder pieces of the ephod (vv. 22-25; 39:15-18). Shoulders signify strength, and the breast, or heart (v. 29), signifies love. The two chains put on the two settings of the shoulder pieces signify Christ’s divine nature upholding God’s redeemed people, who are held in Christ’s love, by His bearing strength.
Ex 28:231 rings
The rings of gold on the breastplate and the ephod (vv. 23, 26-28) signify the Spirit of Christ as the holding element (cf. note 261 in ch. 25).
Ex 28:27a band  -   Exo. 28:8
Ex 28:281 cord
The breastplate was connected to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at both the top (vv. 22-25 and note 221) and the bottom. A cord of blue strands, signifying Christ’s heavenly humanity, bound the breastplate by its two gold rings at its two bottom ends to two gold rings at the bottom of the shoulder pieces of the ephod, above the skillfully woven band (vv. 26-28; 39:19-21). Thus, the church (the breastplate) is connected to the expression of Christ (the ephod) by His Spirit (the rings) with both His divinity (the gold chains) and His humanity (the linen cords).
Ex 28:29a sons  -   Exo. 28:9-12
Ex 28:291 memorial
The breastplate being borne upon Aaron’s heart for a memorial before Jehovah signifies the entire church as one built-up entity being borne upon Christ’s loving heart for a memorial, a pleasing remembrance, before God.
Ex 28:301 judgment
After the Urim and the Thummim were put into it, the breastplate became not only a memorial but also a breastplate of judgment. Here and in Deut. 33:8 and 10, God’s judgments, referring to God’s law with its verdicts and judgments (see note 64 in Luke 1), are related to the Urim and the Thummim. According to the Old Testament, the Urim and the Thummim added to the breastplate were a means for God to speak to His people to indicate to them His leading (see references in 30a). God’s leading through the breastplate always involved a judgment. God’s law includes His judgments, and these judgments become God’s leading. In spiritual experience, in order to know God’s leading we must judge whatever is of the flesh, the self, the old man, and the world. In Rom. 8:14 the leading of the Spirit, as the reality of God’s leading through the breastplate, issues from, and is the totality of, all the judgments in vv. 1-13 of that chapter (see note 141 there).
The fact that God’s speaking as His leading was through the breastplate signifies that God makes His leading known to His people through the church. The Lord’s speaking through the breastplate with the Urim and the Thummim required the making of the breastplate with the twelve precious stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel and the bearing of the breastplate on the heart of the high priest. In the same principle, God’s speaking today through the church with Christ as the Illuminator (Urim) and Perfecter (Thummim) requires the building up of the church with the believers as transformed, transparent precious stones who have been inscribed with Christ as the letters of the spiritual alphabet (2 Cor. 3:3) and the bearing of the church on the hearts of the leading ones.
Ex 28:302a Urim  -   Lev. 8:8; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8; Josh. 7:16-21; 1 Sam. 23:6, 9-12; 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65
Meaning lights, illuminators. The Urim was an illuminator inserted into the breastplate under the twelve stones. It had the capacity to contain oil for burning, and the fire used to burn the oil came from the altar. The Urim had twelve illuminators, one to illuminate each of the twelve transparent precious stones on the breastplate so that they could shine with light (David Baron). The Urim typifies Christ as lights, illuminators (John 8:12; Eph. 5:14), shining through the Spirit (the oil) and the cross (the fire from the altar).
Ex 28:303 Thummim
Meaning perfecters, completers. The names on the twelve stones on the breastplate contained only eighteen of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The remaining four letters were put on the Thummim, making it the perfecter and completer (David Baron). By the shining of the Urim on the individual precious stones, the full alphabet of twenty-two letters could be used to spell out words and sentences. The Thummim typifies Christ as the perfecter and completer (Heb. 12:2). Christ is the spiritual alphabet for both inscribing (see note 211) and completing. Together, the Urim and the Thummim typify Christ as God’s witness, God’s testimony (Rev. 3:14), as the means for God to speak to His people (Heb. 1:2). In the New Testament, the reality of the Urim and the Thummim is the mingled spirit — the unveiling Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, indwelling our receiving spirit, our regenerated human spirit (Rom. 8:4, 14).
Ex 28:31a And  -   vv. 31-34: Exo. 39:22-26; cf. Rev. 1:13
Ex 28:311 robe
The long robe, with all its adornments, worn by the high priest signifies the church as the fullness, the expression, of Christ’s divine attributes and human virtues (Eph. 1:22-23). The beauty and fullness of the high priest’s garments consist of the breastplate, the shoulder pieces, and the long robe, all of which typify the church. This signifies that Christ’s beauty and fullness are in the church.
Ex 28:312 blue
The robe being all of blue signifies that the church is altogether heavenly, having a heavenly life, nature, and position (Eph. 1:3; 2:6).
Ex 28:321 coat
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. The reference here to a coat of mail indicates that the priestly service is a warfare (see note 32 in Num. 1).
Ex 28:331 pomegranates
The pomegranates and the bells, as part of the robe, are related to the church (see note 311). In the Bible pomegranates, being full of seeds, signify the fullness of life. The pomegranates made of linen signify the fullness of life expressed in the church’s humanity. The sound of the bells was to warn the high priest not to be careless lest he die (v. 35). That the bells were of gold signifies that the voice of warning in the church has its source in the church’s divinity. The pomegranates and the bells signify that the church speaks out of its divinity based on the fullness of life expressed in its humanity. The expression of life and the divine sounding are signs of the proper church life.
Ex 28:36a And  -   vv. 36-37: Exo. 39:30-31; Lev. 8:9
Ex 28:361 plate
Or, blossom. The gold plate was a holy crown (29:6), a diadem, or blossom.
Ex 28:362 HOLINESS
Holiness is God Himself in His pure divine nature, signified here by the pure gold. To be holy is a matter of having the divine nature wrought into our being to make us holy, as God is (see note 192 in Rom. 6). The engraving Holiness to Jehovah indicates that the entire priesthood is sanctified unto the Lord, separated to the Lord and saturated with the Lord.
In the concluding word on the priestly garments (vv. 36-43), gold and linen, the two main materials, signify holiness in divinity and righteousness in humanity. Thus, the garments of the priests are the expression of holiness for glory and righteousness for beauty. A priest who serves God must express the virtues of holiness toward God and righteousness toward man.
Ex 28:371 cord
That the plate of gold was put on a cord of blue signifies that it was held by heavenly strength. This indicates that genuine holiness is heavenly, not earthly.
Ex 28:38a bear  -   Lev. 10:17; Num. 18:1; cf. Isa. 53:11; Ezek. 4:4-6; Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet. 2:24
Ex 28:381 holy
The holy things were the top portion of the produce of the good land that the children of Israel offered to God as holy gifts at the times of their feasts. A portion of these holy gifts was separated for God Himself to enjoy, and the remainder was for the people’s enjoyment. The high priest was responsible to ensure that this most holy portion, the portion separated to God, was entirely for Him and was not touched by anyone who was not a priest. If anyone transgressed the ordinance of God’s holiness concerning this portion, the high priest was to bear the iniquity of it. For this reason he wore the gold plate that declared HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH. This signifies that as our High Priest, Christ bears the responsibility to make God’s people holy in the highest degree and to guard for God the holiness that is in them (cf. Eph. 1:4; 1 Thes. 3:13; 5:23).
Ex 28:39a And  -   vv. 39-43: Exo. 39:27-29; cf. Ezek. 44:17-18; Rev. 1:13
Ex 28:391 tunic
The tunic of fine woven linen signifies the covering of perfect righteousness in a humanity that has been dealt with. The turban of fine linen signifies the glory of perfect righteousness. The girding sash as the work of an embroiderer signifies the strengthening by the Spirit’s constituting work. These three pieces of the priestly garments, with the linen trousers (v. 42), all signify Christ as righteousness to cover the entire fallen being of the priests (Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30) that they might be preserved in life and kept away from death (v. 43).
Ex 28:39b sash  -   Exo. 28:4; 29:9; Lev. 8:13
Ex 28:41a anoint  -   Exo. 29:7; 30:30; 40:13, 15; Lev. 8:12, 30; Num. 3:3
Ex 28:411b consecrate  -   Exo. 29:9, 22, 29, 33, 35; 32:29; Lev. 8:33; 16:32; 21:10
Lit., fill their hands. So also throughout the book.
Ex 28:42a trousers  -   Lev. 6:10; 16:4; Ezek. 44:18
Ex 28:421 naked
Denoting human beings who have become sinful in the sight of God, as indicated particularly by the part of the body from the loins to the thighs (cf. Gen. 3:7).
Exodus Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 29:11 sanctify
To be qualified to serve God as priests, Aaron and his sons had to be sanctified, to be set apart by being marked out. The mark that set apart, sanctified, Aaron and his sons to be the priests was the filling of their hands with the offerings (v. 24; see note 411 in ch. 28), signifying the filling of the believers with the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) through their subjective experience of Him as the reality of the offerings (Heb. 10:5-10). The steps in sanctifying Aaron and his sons included the washing away of their uncleanness (v. 4), the covering of their nakedness by the priestly garments (vv. 5-9), the dealing with their sinful nature through the sin offering (vv. 10-14), and the feeding of God and the priests with the burnt offering (vv. 15-18) and the peace offering (vv. 19-28). This was not merely a consecration or ordination of Aaron and his sons. See also note 281.
Ex 29:12 bull
The bull was offered to God as a sin offering (vv. 10-14), the first ram, as a burnt offering (vv. 15-18), and the second ram, as a peace offering (vv. 19-28). The sin offering is for redemption, the burnt offering is for fellowship with God, and the peace offering is for enjoyment and satisfaction with God. The bull in this chapter typifies the crucified Christ, and the two rams signify the resurrected Christ. As the crucified and resurrected One, Christ not only represents us but also includes us. Hence, when He was crucified, we were crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20a), and when He was resurrected and presented to God, we were in Him (John 20:17 and note 1; Eph. 2:6a).
Ex 29:1a rams  -   Exo. 29:15, 19; Lev. 8:2, 18
See note 12.
Ex 29:21 bread
The bull and the two rams were of the animal life, signifying Christ as the redeeming life (John 1:29), and the bread, the cakes, and the wafers were of the vegetable life, signifying Christ as the generating life (John 12:24). The sanctification of those who would serve God as priests involves the experience of Christ as both the animal life for redemption and the vegetable life for generation.
Ex 29:22a mingled  -   Exo. 29:23; Lev. 2:4-5; 7:10; Num. 6:15
See note 43 in Lev. 2. So also for v. 40.
Ex 29:41a wash  -   Exo. 40:12; Lev. 8:6; Heb. 10:22
The washing of Aaron and his sons with water signifies the washing away of the believers’ uncleanness with the water in the Word (Heb. 10:22; John 15:3; cf. Eph. 5:26). This washing sanctifies and cleanses the believers to serve God as priests.
Ex 29:5a And  -   vv. 5-6: Lev. 8:7-9
Ex 29:5b garments  -   Exo. 28:4
Ex 29:51 clothe
The priestly garments signify Christ as the outward expression of the priests, full of beauty and glory (28:2 and notes). The clothing of Aaron and his sons was to cover their nakedness, i.e., to cover the appearance of their flesh, their natural being, which is uncomely and abominable in the sight of God (Rom. 8:7-8).
The sanctifying of the priests included both the clothing of the priests with the priestly garments outwardly (vv. 5, 9) and the feeding of the priests with the offerings inwardly (vv. 32-33). To be sanctified to be God’s priests, we need to be clothed with Christ outwardly and nourished with Christ inwardly (cf. Luke 15:22-23).
Ex 29:5c band  -   Exo. 28:8
Ex 29:6a turban  -   Exo. 28:37
Ex 29:61 crown
Referring to the engraved gold plate worn on the turban of the high priest (28:36-38). That holiness is exalted here as a crown indicates that holiness in divinity is exalted for glory.
Ex 29:71a anointing  -   Exo. 29:21; 30:22-25, 31-32; Lev. 8:10-12, 30; 10:7; 21:10; Psa. 133:2
See note 211, par. 2.
Ex 29:7b anoint  -   Exo. 28:41
Ex 29:9a sashes  -   Exo. 28:39-40
Ex 29:9b consecrate  -   Exo. 28:41
Ex 29:10a And  -   vv. 10-14: Lev. 8:14-17
Ex 29:101b lay  -   Exo. 29:15, 19; Lev. 1:4; 8:14
The laying on of hands here and in vv. 15 and 19 signifies the identification of Aaron and his sons with the offering (cf. Lev. 1:4; Acts 13:3). In order to be priests we need to be one with Christ as the burnt offering: whatever we are and do must be slaughtered, cut in pieces, washed, and burned on the altar (the cross) entirely for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction. See notes on Lev. 1:5-9.
Ex 29:111 slaughter
Signifying that Christ was slain by God, represented by Moses, before God Himself in front of His people (Isa. 53:10).
Ex 29:121 blood
Putting some of the blood of the sin offering on the horns of the altar and pouring the rest out at the base of the altar signifies making the redemption of Christ powerful with a strong foundation. See note 21 in ch. 27.
Ex 29:12a horns  -   Exo. 27:2
Ex 29:131a fat  -   Exo. 29:22; Lev. 3:3-4
The inward parts and the fat signify the riches and sweetness of what Christ is in His inner being for God’s satisfaction.
Ex 29:132 burn
Lit., cause to rise in smoke. So also in vv. 18 and 25. This word is used for the burning (offering) of burnt offerings and incense. Two kinds of burning are mentioned in vv. 13-14. In this verse the burning of the fat and the inward parts of the bull on the altar was not for judgment but to produce a sweet savor for God’s enjoyment. This burning signifies the riches and sweetness of the inner being of Christ offered to God to satisfy the requirements of His righteousness, holiness, and glory (see note 241 in Gen. 3). In v. 14 the burning outside the camp (signifying abandonment and judgment) of the flesh, the skin, and the dung was a burning of judgment, signifying the outward being of Christ sacrificed for the believers on the earth for their redemption (cf. Heb. 13:11-13). By these two kinds of burning, Christ as the sin offering fulfilled God’s requirements and bore God’s judgment on our behalf.
Ex 29:14a burn  -   Lev. 4:11-12, 21; Num. 19:5; Heb. 13:11
Ex 29:141b sin  -   Exo. 29:36; 30:10
Christ as the trespass offering (Lev. 5:1 — 6:7; Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18) deals with our sins, our outward sinful deeds, and Christ as the sin offering (Lev. 4:1-35; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26) deals with our sin, our inward sinful nature. Whenever we come to serve God as priests, we must realize and confess that we still have a sinful nature (Rom. 7:17-18a; 1 John 1:8 and note 1) and that we need Christ experientially to be our sin offering to deal with that nature. Through the fall we were constituted of sin (Rom. 5:19) and even became sin (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). Enjoying Christ as our sin offering subdues and preserves us, causing us to have no confidence in ourselves (Phil. 3:3), and also prepares the way for us to enjoy Christ further as the priestly food, typified by the rams and the unleavened bread, cakes, and wafers (vv. 1-2, 32-33). Furthermore, it solves the problem of sin between us and God, reconciling us to God and making peace with God for us (Rom. 5:10, 1), that we may serve Christ to God as food in an atmosphere of peace (vv. 38-42).
Ex 29:15a And  -   vv. 15-18: Lev. 8:18-21
Ex 29:15b ram  -   Exo. 29:1; Lev. 8:2
Ex 29:15c lay  -   Exo. 29:10
Ex 29:161 blood
The blood here typifies the blood of Christ shed for redemption (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:12; 1 Pet. 1:18-19).
Ex 29:181a burnt  -   Lev. 1:13
The burnt offering, signifying Christ as the One who was absolutely for God’s satisfaction (John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:29; 14:24), was God’s food (Num. 28:2-3). The blood was sprinkled on and around the altar on earth (v. 16) for the priests’ redemption and peace (cf. Heb. 9:14), and the sweet savor ascended to heaven for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction. Because we are sinful, we need Christ’s redemption, and because we are not for God, we need Christ as our burnt offering to satisfy God in full. See notes in Lev. 1.
Ex 29:182b satisfying  -   Gen. 8:21; Exo. 29:25, 41; cf. Eph. 5:2
Or, soothing. So also in vv. 25 and 41.
Ex 29:19a And  -   vv. 19-26: Lev. 8:22-29
Ex 29:19b ram  -   Exo. 29:1
Ex 29:19c lay  -   Exo. 29:10
Ex 29:201a ear  -   cf. Rev. 2:7
To serve God as priests, our hearing (ears), our working (hands), and our walking (feet) must be cleansed and sanctified by Christ’s redeeming blood. We must learn how to listen to the word of God (cf. 21:2-6; Isa. 50:4-5; Luke 10:38-42), to do what is required by Him, and to walk according to His way in serving Him. In Lev. 14:14 the same procedure was used in the cleansing of a leper, indicating that in the eyes of God we sinners who have been ordained to be His priests are unclean, like lepers.
Ex 29:211 blood
The sprinkling of the blood and the anointing oil on Aaron and his sons and on their garments to sanctify them signifies that God sprinkles us, the New Testament priests, and our conduct (garments) with the redeeming blood of Christ and the compound Spirit (the anointing oil — 30:22-33) to separate us, to make us holy, unto Him. The blood implies termination and redemption, and the anointing oil implies germination, a new beginning. As terminated, redeemed, and germinated ones, the priests had a new beginning, through which they could serve God (cf. Rom. 7:6).
In v. 7 Aaron was anointed apart from the blood. This is a type of the anointing of Christ by God apart from redemption (Psa. 133:2). A second anointing was needed here, with the anointing oil and the sprinkling of the redeeming blood, because unlike Christ, Aaron and his sons were sinful. The blood being mentioned first here indicates that we must first have the redeeming blood, and then we can participate in the anointing Spirit. Where the blood washes, the Spirit anoints. See notes 251 and 261 in ch. 30.
Ex 29:21a anointing  -   Exo. 29:7
See note 211.
Ex 29:22a fat  -   Exo. 29:13
Ex 29:221 inward
The richest and sweetest of the inward parts of the ram, and the right thigh, with one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, were burned on the altar to be God’s food for God’s satisfaction (vv. 22-25). The right breast of the ram was first waved before God and then given to Moses as his portion (v. 26), and both the left breast and the left thigh were heaved up before God and then given to Aaron and his sons, along with the bread, to be their portion (vv. 27-28, 31-32).
The fat (v. 22) signifies the tender and excellent parts of Christ as the portion that is for God, and the right thigh signifies Christ as our strength to stand. The unleavened loaf, the cake of oiled bread, and the wafer (vv. 2, 23) signify, respectively, Christ as the food that is without sin, Christ as the food that is mingled with the Spirit, and Christ as the food that is available and easy to take in and that is good for feeding the young ones (see note 44 in Lev. 2). The putting of all these portions on the palms of Aaron and of his sons, the waving of them as a wave offering, and the burning of them on the altar upon the burnt offering for an offering of consecration (vv. 24-25) signifies that the tender, excellent, and strong parts of Christ, with His sinless but Spirit-mingled humanity in different aspects as food, are offered to God in Christ’s resurrection (waved — see note 241) as a satisfying and fragrant offering in the fellowship of His sufferings unto death on the cross for our assuming of the New Testament priesthood.
Ex 29:22b consecration  -   Exo. 29:26, 27, 31, 34; Lev. 7:37; 8:22, 28, 29, 31, 33
Ex 29:231a bread  -   Exo. 29:2-3
The bread, the cake, and the wafer signify Christ in His outward behavior (see note 12 in Lev. 2). The riches and sweetness of Christ’s inner being (v. 22) and the preciousness of Christ’s outward conduct are holy portions for God’s satisfaction.
Ex 29:24a wave  -   Lev. 7:30; Num. 6:20
Ex 29:241 wave
Waving, indicating movement, typifies Christ moving in His resurrection. Hence, the wave offering typifies Christ in resurrection. The offerings were first “killed,” and then they were waved, i.e., resurrected, thereby becoming offerings before God in Christ’s resurrection.
Ex 29:251 take
That which filled the priests’ hands (v. 24) was offered to God, showing that the priestly service is to offer, to minister, Christ to God in a detailed way for His satisfaction (Rom. 15:16; Heb. 13:15-16).
Ex 29:25a satisfying  -   Exo. 29:18
Ex 29:261 breast
The breast signifies love. Hence, the breast waved as a wave offering typifies the resurrected Christ in love.
Ex 29:262 your
The wave breast being Moses’ portion signifies that the loving capacity of Christ in His resurrection is for the one who ministers Christ to us in our consecration for the priesthood. Whenever we, the serving ones, minister Christ to others, we deserve to enjoy the very Christ whom we minister (cf. 1 Cor. 9:23).
Ex 29:27a breast  -   Lev. 7:34; 10:14-15; Num. 18:18
Ex 29:271 heave
The thigh signifies strength and power, and heaving up signifies ascension. Hence, the heave thigh signifies the exalted and ascended Christ in power. The portion of the priests included the wave breast and the heave thigh, signifying that they enjoyed Christ in resurrection with love and Christ in ascension with power.
Ex 29:28a statute  -   Lev. 10:15; Num. 18:8
Ex 29:281 peace
In the offering of the peace offering, God, Moses, and the priests each had a portion (see note 221). In type, all three parties enjoyed Christ, the all-inclusive One, as a feast. In such a situation there is full peace and satisfaction. This is the filling of hands for consecration (see note 411 in ch. 28), and this is true sanctification. At this point Aaron and his sons were fully sanctified, separated, having been washed from their uncleanness, clothed for their nakedness, redeemed from their sinful nature, and filled with the offerings as types of Christ. They had something in their hands to offer to God, and they also had a portion with which to satisfy themselves. Thus they were fully equipped and qualified to serve God as priests.
The offerings as the priestly food typify Christ. By eating the peace offering the priests, in type, were constituted with Christ, saturated with Christ and transformed with Him. Hence, they were sanctified both positionally and dispositionally; they were separated in position and transformed in disposition. This is the full meaning of sanctification in the Scriptures (Rom. 6:19 and note 2).
Ex 29:301a seven  -   Lev. 8:33, 35
Seven days signifies a full course of time, i.e., our entire Christian life, from the time we are saved until the Lord’s coming back. The wearing of the holy garments seven days signifies that if we would be proper priests serving God, we need to live Christ day by day, wearing Him in His different aspects for the full course of our Christian life on earth.
Ex 29:31a And  -   vv. 31-34: Lev. 8:31-32
Ex 29:311 boil
Burning implies God’s judgment. Anything offered to God for His enjoyment must be judged by Him, i.e., burned by His holy fire (vv. 18, 25). However, the priests’ food was not burned but boiled, which does not imply judgment. Cf. note 91 in ch. 12.
Ex 29:32a bread  -   cf. Matt. 12:4
Ex 29:321 Tent
The tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, is a type of the church. The eating of the flesh and the bread at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting signifies that Christ as the redeeming One (the flesh) with His humanity (the bread) is food to us (John 6:51), the New Testament priests, only in the church life.
The food for the priests was the topmost portion of the top tenth offered to God by the children of Israel from the harvest of the good land (Num. 18:26). That this portion was enjoyed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting signifies that the topmost enjoyment of Christ is in the church meeting.
Ex 29:33a eat  -   Lev. 10:14, 17
Ex 29:331 expiation
See note 11 in Lev. 16.
Ex 29:332b stranger  -   Lev. 22:10
Christ as the holy food is to be eaten only by holy people in a holy place (vv. 31-32), i.e., in the church meeting.
Ex 29:341 remains
That something remained after God’s portion had been offered to Him and the priests had enjoyed their portion signifies that the Christ whom we offer to God for His enjoyment and whom we also enjoy is inexhaustible. The burning of the remainder with fire signifies that the inexhaustible riches of Christ should be kept in and by God’s holiness (fire).
Ex 29:342 morning
In typology the morning denotes the time of the Lord’s coming back (2 Pet. 1:19; Mal. 4:2). That the flesh and the bread that remained until the morning were not to be eaten by the priests but were to be burned for God’s enjoyment signifies that we should experience and enjoy Christ today and should not save Christ for our enjoyment in the future at His coming back.
Ex 29:35a seven  -   Lev. 8:33, 35
Ex 29:361 each
The offering of a bull as a sin offering on each of the seven days (v. 35) of the priests’ sanctification indicates that if we would serve God as priests, we should offer Christ to God as our sin offering every day of our Christian life (cf. note 301). See note 141.
Ex 29:362 offer
Lit., make a bull as sin (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21).
Ex 29:36a sin  -   Exo. 29:14; 30:10
Ex 29:363 cleanse
The altar was cleansed by the blood of the burnt offering for expiation that was offered upon it. It was also sanctified by being anointed with oil. After the altar was sanctified, it became most holy, and everything offered on it spontaneously became holy (v. 37).
Ex 29:36b sanctify  -   Exo. 40:10
See note 363.
Ex 29:37a altar  -   Exo. 30:29; Matt. 23:19
Ex 29:38a Now  -   vv. 38-41: Num. 28:3-8
Ex 29:381 offer
God’s daily food consisted of two lambs as a burnt offering (vv. 38-42a), fine flour mingled with oil as a meal offering (vv. 40-41; see note 43 in Lev. 2), and wine as a drink offering (vv. 40-41), all of which signify different aspects of Christ. The lamb signifies Christ (John 1:29) as the One who was obedient to God (Phil. 2:8; Rom. 5:18-19) and meek before man (Isa. 53:7). Flour, made from wheat (v. 2), typifies Christ as the life supply and the One who produces life (John 6:41; 12:24). Oil typifies Christ as the anointing Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), and wine typifies Christ enjoyed by us and poured out in and with us unto God for His satisfaction (cf. Phil. 2:17 and note 1). Wheat flour is produced by the grinding of wheat grains, and oil and wine, by the pressing of olives and grapes, respectively. Both grinding and pressing signify the operation of the cross.
All the items offered to God as His food were things grown, raised, reaped, and processed by the children of Israel. Hence, they were subjective to the children of Israel. This indicates that the Christ whom we offer to God as His food must be subjective to us, the produce of our living Him and experiencing Him in all the aforementioned aspects, based on our daily offering of Him as our sin offering (v. 36).
Ex 29:39a morning  -   Ezek. 46:13-15
Ex 29:391 twilight
Lit., between the two evenings; referring to the time interval between sunset and darkness. So also in v. 41 and 30:8.
Ex 29:401 drink
See note 132 in Lev. 23.
Ex 29:41a meal  -   Exo. 30:9; 40:29; Lev. 2:1
Ex 29:41b satisfying  -   Exo. 29:18
Ex 29:42a continual  -   Num. 28:6
Ex 29:42b meet  -   Exo. 25:22; Num. 17:4
Ex 29:43a glory  -   Exo. 16:10
Ex 29:45a midst  -   Exo. 25:8; Lev. 26:12; Zech. 2:10; 2 Cor. 6:16; cf. Rev. 21:3
Ex 29:46a know  -   Exo. 6:7
Ex 29:461 dwell
The result of the life depicted in this chapter, in which we have the priestly garments (vv. 29-30), the priestly food (vv. 31-34), and the food offered to God by the priests (vv. 35-42a), is that God comes to meet with us, eat with us, speak with us, and dwell among us (vv. 42b, 45-46).
Exodus Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 30:1a And  -   vv. 1-5: cf. Exo. 37:25-28
Ex 30:11b altar  -   Exo. 37:25; 40:5; Heb. 9:4
The incense altar signifies Christ as the Intercessor to maintain the relationship between God and His people (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; Rev. 8:3). The arrangement of the tabernacle with its furnishings is an accurate and detailed picture of God’s administration, God’s economy, in the universe. According to this picture the Ark is the focus, but in practice the incense altar is the center. The interceding Christ is the center of the execution of God’s government on earth. According to Rev. 8:3-6, the intercessor is not merely the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, the Head with the Body. Christ as the Head is interceding in the heavens, and the church as the Body is interceding on earth (1 Tim. 2:1).
In Exodus the incense altar is revealed after the tabernacle and its furniture and the equipping of the priesthood are revealed. This indicates that the priestly service begins at the incense altar, at the place where prayers of intercession are offered to God (Luke 1:10). The incense altar is the place from which the activities at all the other places in the tabernacle are motivated. It is not merely one item on the passageway through the tabernacle. Rather, it can be compared to a motor that causes everything to operate. Hence, in our experience of the tabernacle (see note 43 in Heb. 9), the incense altar stands by itself as a turning point. It makes all the aspects of the tabernacle and the outer court effective in our experience. The prayer of intercession also motivates others to come to Christ at the altar of burnt offering, at the laver, at the table, at the lampstand, and at the Ark in the Holy of Holies. According to Rev. 8:3, the incense altar is directly in front of the throne of God’s authority, which is also the throne of grace (see note 22 in Rev. 4). The prayer offered at the incense altar, a prayer that is offered in Christ and with Christ as the incense (see note 71), governs God’s dispensing of grace and motivates the execution of the divine administration. Hence, this prayer governs the universe.
Ex 30:12 acacia
Acacia wood signifies Christ’s humanity, and gold (v. 3), His divinity. The incense altar made of acacia wood overlaid with gold signifies that Christ’s humanity is strong in character and high in standard to express His divinity. Nothing can express God as much as an interceding life based on the renewed and uplifted humanity of Christ.
Ex 30:21 length
The incense altar was a square, one cubit in length and width, and was two cubits high. Thus, it was two cubes of one cubit each. A square signifies perfection, and a cube signifies perfection in perfection. Moreover, two indicates something that gives confirmation and bears a testimony. This implies that the interceding Christ, or the interceding life, is a confirmation, perfection, and testimony. Furthermore, the height of the incense altar was greater than that of the table and the Ark (cf. 25:10, 23). This indicates that Christ is interceding in the highest.
Ex 30:22a horns  -   cf. Exo. 27:2; Lev. 4:7
Horns signify strength. The four horns on the incense altar signify the strength of Christ’s intercession and indicate that Christ’s intercession is powerful toward the four corners of the earth.
Ex 30:31a gold  -   cf. Exo. 30:4-5; Rev. 8:3
See note 12.
Ex 30:32 rim
See note 112 in ch. 25. The rim, or crown, of gold around the incense altar signifies the glory of Christ’s divinity being the power of Christ’s intercession to preserve God’s people and His interests.
Ex 30:41 rings
The two rings of gold as receptacles for the carrying poles signify the moving of Christ’s intercession. The poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold (v. 5) signify that Christ’s human nature with His divine nature is the strength for the moving of His intercession. The rings and the poles both refer to the Spirit of Christ, i.e., to the life-giving Spirit, who includes both Christ’s divinity and His humanity. The life-giving Spirit brings the intercession of Christ everywhere on the earth. When the churches and the saints pray with Christ, the life-giving Spirit carries out whatever they pray, bringing the effectiveness of Christ’s intercession to every place on earth related to God’s interests.
Ex 30:4a poles  -   Num. 4:11
See note 41.
Ex 30:61 before
Regarding the location of the incense altar, see note 41 in Heb. 9. The incense altar was in the center of the tabernacle, which typifies the incarnated God (John 1:14). To pray at the incense altar, we must enter into the tabernacle, i.e., into Christ as the incarnated God, by offering Christ as the trespass offering and the sin offering on the altar of burnt offering in the outer court (cf. Heb. 10:19-20) and by eating our portion of the Christ whom we have offered (John 6:57). Thus, to pray at the incense altar is to pray in Christ and with Christ in us as the energizing life supply. Such prayer is actually Christ praying in us.
Ex 30:6a meet  -   Exo. 25:21-22
Ex 30:7a burn  -   1 Sam. 2:28; 1 Chron. 23:13; 2 Chron. 2:4; 29:11; Luke 1:9
Ex 30:71b incense  -   Exo. 30:34; 31:11; 37:29; 40:27
Burning the incense typifies praying (Psa. 141:2; Luke 1:10-11; Rev. 8:3-4). The incense typifies the resurrected and ascended Christ (see note 351 in this chapter and note 34 in Rev. 8). Hence, to burn the incense is to pray Christ, to pray in Christ and with Christ as the incense. This kind of prayer is intercessory prayer, not prayer for ourselves but prayer for the carrying out of the divine administration, for the dispensing of God’s supplying grace, and for the churches and the saints. Such prayer is a fragrant incense to God — it fulfills His purpose, satisfies His desire, and delights His heart.
Ex 30:72 dresses
Or, trims.
Ex 30:8a incense  -   cf. Rev. 8:4
Ex 30:91 strange
In type, to offer strange incense is to pray something that is not Christ or is not related to Christ (cf. note 71), and to use strange fire (Lev. 10:1) is to pray with motives that have not been dealt with by the cross (cf. note 353).
Ex 30:92 burnt
These offerings, signifying the crucified and judged Christ, should be offered at the burnt offering altar in the outer court. At the incense altar only the resurrected and ascended Christ as incense is acceptable to God; everything else is prohibited.
Ex 30:101a expiation  -   Lev. 16:18
See Lev. 16 and notes.
Ex 30:102 blood
The incense altar was connected to the altar of burnt offering by the redeeming blood of the sin offering (Lev. 4:7) and by the fire that burned on the altar in the outer court (Lev. 16:12-13). This indicates that in order to pray at the incense altar, we must first have the experience at the burnt offering altar — the experience of the blood that solves the problem of our sin and our trespasses, and the experience of the fire that burns us, terminates us, and reduces us to ashes. Then we must go to the table of the bread of the Presence to enjoy Christ as our life and life supply (versus our natural conduct), to the lampstand to be enlightened by Christ as our light (versus our natural sight), and to the Ark to touch Christ as God’s testimony (versus our entire natural being as the veil). After passing through all the stations in the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies, we will no longer be natural persons but will be members of the corporate Christ who are qualified to intercede at the incense altar with Christ as the incense (versus our natural virtues).
Ex 30:10b sin  -   Exo. 29:36; Lev. 23:27
Ex 30:10c once  -   Lev. 16:34; Heb. 9:7; 10:3
Ex 30:121a sum  -   Num. 1:2-4; 26:2; cf. 2 Sam. 24:1-2
This was the sum of the males who were twenty years old and over (v. 14; Num. 1:2-3) — the 603,550 men who could be formed into an army to fight for God’s interests on earth (38:26; Num. 1:45-46; 2:32). Only these, not the women or the younger men, were qualified to be ransomed by the expiation silver.
The tabernacle signifies God embodied in His chosen people for His move on earth to build up the church as His corporate expression. The prayer offered at the incense altar is for God’s move. This intercessory prayer issues in the numbering of God’s people to form an army to fight against God’s enemies, who oppose His move, i.e., against the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies, typified by the inhabitants of the good land (see note 231 in ch. 23). When God has such an army, He is able to move on earth for His interests. Thus, there is a direct relationship between the expiation silver and the incense altar.
Ex 30:12b ransom  -   Exo. 21:30; Num. 31:50; Isa. 43:3; Psa. 49:7; cf. Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Tim. 2:6
Ex 30:122 himself
Our natural man is not qualified to fight in God’s army. Thus, we must experience Christ as our ransom, signified by the expiation silver.
Ex 30:13a half  -   Exo. 38:26
Ex 30:131 heave
The half-shekel as a heave offering typifies the ascended Christ experienced by God’s people and paid by them as the expiation silver. In order to fight the spiritual warfare, our experience of Christ must reach the highest point, the point where we are sitting with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6; 6:12). If we fight in ourselves and not in the ascended Christ, spiritually we will suffer a plague (v. 12). See note 104 in Eph. 6.
That the amount of the expiation silver was half a shekel indicates that God’s requirement in this matter is not too high. Later, among the children of Israel the half-shekel was known as the temple tax, or poll tax (Matt. 17:24-27).
Ex 30:141 twenty
Spiritually, males who are twenty years old and over (Num. 1:2-3) signify those among God’s people who, regardless of their natural status, are strong in spirit and mature in the divine life. Only these are qualified to be formed into an army to fight for God’s interests and move on earth.
Ex 30:161 service
The giving of the half-shekel was used by God for two purposes: (1) to accomplish the formation of an army (see note 121), and (2) to gather silver for the building up of the tabernacle. According to 38:25-28, the expiation silver was used to make the one hundred sockets for the boards and pillars of the tabernacle and also to make the capitals, the hooks, and the connecting rods for the pillars. This signifies that the ascended Christ experienced and offered by the strong and mature saints in a local church becomes the base (sockets) in which that church stands and the glory (capitals of the pillars) and the strength and the linking power (hooks and connecting rods) of that church.
Ex 30:181a laver  -   Exo. 38:8; cf. 1 Kings 7:38
The laver typifies the washing power of the life-giving Spirit issuing from the death of Christ. The locating of the laver after the altar signifies that the washing power of the laver comes out of God’s judgment at the altar. After passing through God’s full judgment at the altar (the cross), the crucified Christ entered into resurrection and became the life-giving Spirit who washes us (1 Cor. 15:45; 6:11; Titus 3:5). The dimensions of the laver are not given, signifying that the life-giving Spirit is immeasurable, unlimited (John 3:34).
Ex 30:182 bronze
Bronze signifies God’s righteous judgment (see note 372 in ch. 26). The bronze used to make the laver came from the mirrors of the serving women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting (38:8), implying that the laver of bronze was a mirror that could reflect and expose. This indicates that the judgment suffered by Christ on the cross has the power to expose our uncleanness and our need to be washed.
Ex 30:183b between  -   Exo. 40:7, 30
The laver was put between the altar and the Tent of Meeting to continue the work of the altar for the entrance into the tabernacle. The location of the laver was after the altar, but the function of the laver was before that of the altar (vv. 20-21).
Ex 30:184 water
The water put into the laver signifies the washing of the life-giving Spirit. See Eph. 5:26 and notes.
Ex 30:191a wash  -   Exo. 40:31-32
The washing at the laver signifies not the washing away of sin by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7) but the washing away of the defilement that comes from contacting earthly things, by the life-giving Spirit. See John 13:5 and notes.
Ex 30:201 die
The priests were required to wash in the laver before serving, lest they die. This indicates that if we try to serve God without washing away our earthly defilement by the life-giving Spirit, we will suffer spiritual death.
Ex 30:23a spices  -   S.S. 4:14; 1:3, 13; Psa. 45:8; Matt. 2:11; John 19:39
Ex 30:251 holy
This holy anointing oil, a compound ointment of olive oil and four spices (vv. 23-24), is a full type of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the processed Triune God, whom Christ became through His death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45; cf. notes 391 in John 7 and 194 in Phil. 1). The significances of the ingredients of this compound anointing oil are as follows: (1) flowing myrrh, a spice used in burial (John 19:39), signifies the precious death of Christ (Rom. 6:3); (2) fragrant cinnamon signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death (Rom. 8:13); (3) fragrant calamus, from a reed that grew upward in a marsh or muddy place, signifies the precious resurrection of Christ (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1; 1 Pet. 1:3); (4) cassia, used in ancient times to repel insects and snakes, signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection (Phil. 3:10); and (5) the olive oil as the base of the compound ointment signifies the Spirit of God as the base of the compound Spirit (Gen. 1:2). Since the number four signifies the creatures (Ezek. 1:5), of which man is the head (Gen. 1:26), and the number one signifies the unique God (Deut. 4:35; 1 Tim. 2:5), the four spices signify the humanity of Christ in God’s creation, and the one hin of olive oil signifies the unique God with His divinity. Thus, the blending of olive oil with the four spices signifies the compounding, the mingling, of God and man, of divinity and humanity, in the compound Spirit (cf. Lev. 2:4 and note 3). The olive oil and the four spices were all prepared through a process of either pressing or cutting, signifying that the Spirit of God became the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9 and note 4) through Christ’s sufferings (Matt. 26:36 and note). Furthermore, the measure of the four spices, being three complete units of five hundred shekels each, the middle five hundred shekels being split into two parts, signifies the Triune God in resurrection, the second, the Son, being “split” by His death on the cross. Since in the Bible five is the number for responsibility (Matt. 25:2 and note 1), the five elements in the compound ointment and the three units of five hundred shekels of the four spices signify the Triune God in resurrection as the power, the capability, for bearing responsibility. Since the numbers three and five are related to God’s building (see note 152 in Gen. 6), these numbers in the compound ointment signify that in the compound Spirit there is the element for God’s building. Based on the above significances, the compounding of the four spices with the olive oil to make an anointing oil signifies the mingling of the above-mentioned elements with the Spirit of God through the process of Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to produce the compound Spirit for the building of God’s eternal dwelling place.
Ex 30:25a anointing  -   Exo. 37:29; Psa. 45:7-8; 89:20
Ex 30:252 fragrant
Lit., spice compound.
Ex 30:261a anoint  -   Exo. 40:9; Lev. 8:10; Num. 7:1
The compound ointment was used to anoint the tabernacle with all its furniture, the altar with all its utensils, the laver and its base, and the priests, to make all these things holy, separated, sanctified, to God for His divine purpose (vv. 26-30; cf. 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 15:16). Thus, this ointment signifies the Triune God processed and consummated through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the all-inclusive compound Spirit to reach His chosen and redeemed people and to anoint them with Himself, making Himself one with them and making them one with Him (John 20:22; 1 John 2:20, 27; 2 Cor. 1:21; 1 Cor. 6:17). Such an anointing, being the moving of the compound Spirit within us, applies to us and also adds all the elements of the processed and consummated Triune God into our inner being so that our inner man may grow in the divine life with the divine elements and we may be mingled with God as one.
The holy anointing oil is solely for the purpose of anointing God’s dwelling place and the priesthood (cf. 1 Pet. 2:5 and note 7). Hence, only those who are for God’s dwelling place and for the priesthood can have the enjoyment of the compound, all-inclusive Spirit.
Ex 30:30a anoint  -   Exo. 29:7; cf. 2 Cor. 1:21
Ex 30:301 Aaron
Cf. Psa. 133:1-2 and notes.
Ex 30:321 flesh
The flesh of man denotes fallen man in the old creation (Gen. 6:3; Gal. 2:16). Those who live and act according to the flesh, the old man, have no share in the all-inclusive Spirit.
Ex 30:322 like
This means that we should not imitate any spiritual virtue, the fruit of the compound Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), by the effort of our natural life.
Ex 30:331 stranger
The stranger here refers to one who is not a priest. In the sight of God those who live according to the flesh, the old man, are regarded as strangers. See note 321.
Ex 30:341a spices  -   Exo. 30:7; 25:6; 37:29
The three fragrant spices signify the Triune God in resurrection (the number three signifies both the Triune God and resurrection), and the addition of pure frankincense, making the number of ingredients four, signifies the humanity of Christ (the number four signifies man as God’s creature — Ezek. 1:5). The compounding of the four ingredients into one incense signifies the mingling of God with man, of divinity with humanity, in Christ as the incense. Each of the three spices signifies the death of Christ, as follows: (1) stacte, a kind of myrrh, a resinous gum produced by a tree, signifies the sweet death of Christ’s generating life (signified by the plant life — John 12:24); (2) onycha, the shell of a small animal that grows in the marshes of the Red Sea, signifies the death of Christ with His redemptive life (signified by the animal life — John 1:29); and (3) galbanum, also a resinous gum from a tree, signifies the powerful death of Christ’s generating life. The disagreeable and offensive odor of galbanum strengthened the fragrance of the other spices and caused the fragrance of the incense to remain and endure. Galbanum was used to repel noxious insects and poisonous reptiles, including serpents. The second of the spices, being of the animal life, signifies that the second of the Godhead was slain to accomplish redemption. Hence, the three spices indicate that Christ’s death in His generating life and His redeeming life has three functions: to generate us as sons of God, to redeem us from the fall, and to expel the serpent, the Devil (cf. John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Heb. 2:14). The fourth ingredient, frankincense, is a white resinous gum, signifying the sweet resurrection of Christ. The three spices and the frankincense are seasoned with salt (v. 35), making the number of ingredients five, the number five signifying responsibility (Matt. 25:2). Cf. note 251.
Ex 30:342 equal
That all the four ingredients were in equal parts signifies that our experience of Christ should be even, balanced, including equal portions of His death and His resurrection. That no quantities are mentioned signifies that Christ is immeasurable, unlimited (cf. Eph. 3:8, 18).
Ex 30:351a incense  -   cf. Rev. 5:8; 8:3
The holy anointing oil (vv. 23-25) signifies Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit coming to us from God, whereas the incense signifies Christ as our prayer going to God from us. This is a divine traffic in two directions. The anointing brings God to us in Christ and through Christ for our participation in the divine element; the incense is our going to God with Christ and as Christ in prayer for God’s enjoyment. This kind of prayer simultaneously satisfies God with a sweet fragrance and carries out God’s economy, God’s administration (see note 11).
Ex 30:352 fragrant
Or, spice compound.
Ex 30:353b salt  -   Lev. 2:13
Salt kills corruption and functions as a preservative (Matt. 5:13). In typology salt signifies the killing power and the preserving power of Christ’s death. The seasoning of the four ingredients of the incense with salt signifies that our prayer needs to be “salted” by the cross so that all the impure motives in our heart and the bias in our spirit may be killed. For God’s coming to us in the compound ointment, the Spirit, the oil, is needed (v. 24); for our going to God in prayer, the cross, the salt, is needed.
Ex 30:361 beat
According to vv. 35-36 the incense must be salted, beaten, and burned. Beating the incense and putting it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting signify the blending of Christ’s sweet death and His fragrant resurrection and the offering of His death and resurrection to God on the incense altar as a base for the intercession of Christ and His members. In order to have Christ as the incense to offer to God as a sweet-smelling fragrance, we need the genuine experiences of Christ with all the ingredients of the incense, and these experiences must be salted, beaten, and burned.
Ex 30:362 before
I.e., on the incense altar. The Testimony is the law inside the Ark (see note 341 in ch. 16). Thus, this verse indicates that the incense altar was directly in front of the Ark. The significance of the closeness of the incense altar and the Ark is that the kind of prayer that is Christ Himself ascending to God as incense is the outcome of our contact with God and our being in His presence.
Ex 30:36a meet  -   Exo. 25:22
Ex 30:371 yourselves
The incense is absolutely for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction, not for man’s. This signifies that we should not pray so that men will see us (Matt. 6:5-6).
Exodus Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 31:2a See  -   vv. 2-6: Exo. 35:30-35
Ex 31:21b Bezalel  -   Exo. 35:30; 36:1, 8; 37:1; 38:22; 39:2; 1 Chron. 2:20; 2 Chron. 1:5
Bezalel was a master builder, a leader in God’s building. His name means in the shadow of God, indicating that as a master builder, Bezalel was a man under the shadow of God’s grace (cf. 1 Cor. 3:10a; 2 Cor. 12:9). Uri, the name of Bezalel’s father, means light of Jehovah, and Hur, the name of Bezalel’s grandfather, means free, noble, white (signifying clean and pure). These three names indicate what kind of persons the builders of God’s dwelling place should be.
Ex 31:2c Hur  -   Exo. 17:10
Ex 31:31a Spirit  -   Exo. 35:31
The building up of God’s dwelling place, the church, is a noble work to be done by all God’s people (1 Cor. 3:10; Eph. 4:12, 16). However, the wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and skill for this work must be God Himself as the Spirit to us (cf. Col. 1:28-29). Only the Spirit of God can build His own dwelling place through us.
Ex 31:3b wisdom  -   cf. 1 Kings 7:14
Ex 31:41 gold
To build up the church all the believers must know how to use the divine nature as the gold, the redemption of Christ as the silver, and God’s righteous judgment as the bronze (cf. 1 Cor. 3:12) as the “materials” for their work.
Ex 31:51 cutting
To cut stones for setting is to help the saints to be transformed into stones and to be adjusted to fit into God’s building; to carve wood is to work on the humanity of the saints for the sake of God’s building; and to work in all kinds of workmanship is to produce finer virtues in human character with the uplifted humanity of Christ, which are needed for the building up of the church as God’s dwelling place (cf. Eph. 4:2 and note).
Ex 31:61a Oholiab  -   Exo. 35:34; 36:1, 2; 38:23
Oholiab was Bezalel’s co-master builder. His name means the tent or tabernacle of my father. Ahisamach, the name of Oholiab’s father, means a brother of strength or support. These two names signify that Oholiab was a man for God’s tabernacle with strength and support.
Ex 31:62 tribe
Bezalel was of the tribe of Judah (v. 2), the kingly tribe (Gen. 49:10), the tribe of the Lord Jesus (Heb. 7:14), and Oholiab was of the tribe of Dan (v. 6), a lowly tribe (Gen. 49:17). The same principle is seen in the building of the temple under Solomon, who was of the tribe of Judah, and Huram-abi, whose mother was a Danite woman (2 Chron. 2:11-14). This indicates that the work of building God’s dwelling place must be done by all God’s people, including those of high estate and those of low estate (Eph. 4:11-16).
Ex 31:6b and  -   vv. 6-11: cf. Exo. 35:10-19; 39:33-42
Ex 31:6c wise  -   Exo. 28:3
Ex 31:7a Tent  -   Exo. 36:8-38
Ex 31:7b Ark  -   Exo. 25:10-16; 37:1-5
Ex 31:7c expiation  -   Exo. 25:17-22; 37:6-9
Ex 31:8a table  -   Exo. 25:23-30; 37:10-16
Ex 31:8b lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31-40; 37:17-24
Ex 31:8c altar  -   Exo. 30:1-10; 37:25-28
Ex 31:9a altar  -   Exo. 27:1-8; 30:28; 38:1-7
Ex 31:9b laver  -   Exo. 30:17-21; 38:8
Ex 31:10a garments  -   Exo. 28:1-43; 39:1-31; Lev. 8:7-8, 13
Ex 31:11a anointing  -   Exo. 30:23-33; 37:29
Ex 31:11b incense  -   Exo. 30:7, 34-38
Ex 31:13a Speak  -   vv. 13-17: cf. Exo. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15; Lev. 23:3; Jer. 17:22
Ex 31:131 Sabbaths
The Sabbath is mentioned again here (cf. 20:8-11), in relation to the work of building God’s dwelling place, signifying that as God’s people work with Him and for Him, they must learn to rest with Him by enjoying Him and being filled with Him. Keeping the Sabbath is a sign (v. 17) that God’s people work for God not by their own strength but by enjoying Him and being one with Him. It is also an eternal covenant (v. 16) assuring God that we will be one with Him by first enjoying Him and then working with Him, for Him, and in oneness with Him. God first worked and then rested; man first rests and then works (Gen. 2:2 and note). The mentioning of the Sabbath here indicates also that everything related to the tabernacle and its furniture leads us to God’s Sabbath, with its rest and refreshment in the enjoyment of what God has purposed and done.
Ex 31:132b sign  -   Exo. 31:17; Ezek. 20:12, 20
See note 101 in ch. 20.
Ex 31:13c know  -   Exo. 6:7
Ex 31:14a Everyone  -   cf. Num. 15:32-36
Ex 31:141 death
When we work for God without enjoying Him and being one with Him, the result is spiritual death and the loss of the fellowship in the Body.
Ex 31:17a sign  -   cf. Gen. 9:13, 17; 17:11
Ex 31:17b seventh  -   Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:4
Ex 31:181 tablets
The law and its ordinances were decreed by God in 20:1 — 23:19. Then, in 24:12 God called Moses up to the top of the mountain to give him the tablets of the law, the Testimony (see note 11 in ch. 20). However, before giving Moses the tablets, God first gave him the design of the tabernacle and instructions concerning the priesthood (25:1 — 31:17). This indicates that although God was giving the law, He knew that man could not keep it; therefore, He prepared the tabernacle, the offerings, and all the aspects of the priesthood — the reality and fulfillment of which is Christ — as the way of grace for His fallen and sinful people to contact Him and enjoy Him (cf. Heb. 9:1 — 10:22). Although God was giving the law, He did not have any trust in the law. His trust was, and still is, absolutely in Christ as the way of grace for His people. See note 11 in ch. 25.
Ex 31:18a tablets  -   Exo. 24:12
Exodus Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 32:11a god  -   Acts 7:40; Exo. 32:23
Even before the decree of the law was completed, the people broke at least the first three commandments of the law (20:2-7) by falling into the sin of idolatry. Man’s replacing of God with idols causes man to be unable to keep God’s commandments (cf. Rom. 1:18-32 and notes; 1 John 5:21 and note 3, par. 1).
Ex 32:21 rings
The gold earrings were worn by the people for self-beautification. This indicates that self-beautification leads to idolatry (cf. Gen. 35:4 and note). Furthermore, the gold in the earrings was given to the children of Israel by God before their exodus from Egypt (12:35-36) and was to be used for the building of the tabernacle (25:3; 35:5). However, before the gold could be used for God’s purpose, it was usurped by Satan and used by God’s people to make an idol. Hence, idolatry is Satan’s usurping and man’s abusing of what God has given for His purpose, in order to make it a waste.
Ex 32:41 he
The golden calf was not a pagan idol, for it was made by Aaron, a genuine high priest appointed by God. Furthermore, Aaron made the calf in the name of Jehovah and took the lead to worship the idol in the way of presenting offerings to God and worshipping God (vv. 4-6, 8). Thus, God’s redeemed people worshipped an idol in the name of Jehovah their God and in the way ordained by God (cf. Psa. 106:19-20; Rom. 1:23). This was a pretense and a subtle mixture in the worship of God.
According to the principles in the New Testament, idolatry is the main source of division and fornication. The golden calf idol caused a division among the children of Israel (cf. 1 Cor. 1:10-13; 11:18-19). Actually, division is spiritual fornication (cf. Rev. 17:1-5). Idolatry and fornication always go together (Num. 25:1-2; Rev. 2:20).
Ex 32:42a calf  -   Deut. 9:16; Neh. 9:18; Psa. 106:19-21; Acts 7:41
A calf is not for labor but for eating and therefore signifies enjoyment (Gen. 18:7-8; Luke 15:23). After the golden calf was made, the people ate, drank, and rose up to play in front of it (vv. 6, 18-19a). This picture indicates that the children of Israel worshipped what they enjoyed. Their worshipping of the gold calf was an amusement and an entertainment, indicating that amusement and entertainment were their idol.
Ex 32:6a the  -   1 Cor. 10:7
Ex 32:7a And  -   vv. 7-10: Deut. 9:12-14
Ex 32:71 corrupted
Whatever we love more than God is an idol that corrupts us, bringing in many sinful things (cf. Rom. 1:18-32).
Ex 32:8a worshipped  -   1 Cor. 10:7
Ex 32:9a stiff-necked  -   Exo. 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut. 9:6; 31:27; 2 Chron. 30:8; Acts 7:51; cf. Isa. 48:4
Ex 32:10a nation  -   Num. 14:12
Ex 32:111a entreated  -   Psa. 106:23
Lit., made Jehovah’s face sweet, or pleasant. Moses’ entreaty on behalf of the children of Israel, which took care of God’s name and stood on God’s faithfulness to keep His covenant (vv. 11-13), changed the expression on God’s face from one of anger to one of pleasantness. Thus, God repented and did not consume His people (v. 14).
Ex 32:12a Why  -   Num. 14:13-16; Deut. 9:28-29
Ex 32:13a seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Ex 32:15a Then  -   Deut. 9:15-17
Ex 32:16a tablets  -   Exo. 31:18
Ex 32:181 Moses
Lit., he.
Ex 32:19a calf  -   1 Cor. 10:7
Ex 32:191 shattered
The shattering of the tablets of the Testimony (v. 15) indicates that before the children of Israel had received the law, they had already broken the law and the covenant of the law.
Ex 32:20a And  -   Deut. 9:21
Ex 32:201 drink
Those who worship an idol must eventually “drink” the very idol they worship (cf. Rom. 1:23-25; Gal. 6:7-8a). This is a punishment from God.
Ex 32:23a Make  -   Exo. 32:1; Acts 7:40
Ex 32:24a So  -   Exo. 32:2-4
Ex 32:261 Whoever
Here Moses sounded a call for the overcomers. This call was not the cause of the division among God’s people but produced a purification (cf. note 41, par. 2).
Ex 32:26a Levi  -   Deut. 33:8-11
Ex 32:271 brother
The Levites denied even their closest relationships with those who had worshipped the golden calf. The killing of the idol worshippers separated the sons of Levi from their brothers and qualified them to have the priesthood with the Urim and the Thummim (Deut. 33:8-10). God intended that the entire nation of Israel would be a kingdom of priests (19:6), but because of the worship of the golden calf, the majority of the children of Israel lost the priesthood. The priesthood was given to a single tribe, the tribe of Levi.
God’s intention is that every believer in Christ, every child of God, would be a priest (Rev. 1:6; 5:10). However, through the centuries impure worship has caused the majority of the believers to lose their priesthood. The relatives of the Levites signify ourselves, that part of our being which participates in the worship of idols. If we “kill” these impure worshippers, we will be the overcomers who keep the priesthood; otherwise, we will be counted among those who have lost the priesthood.
Ex 32:29a against  -   Deut. 33:9
Ex 32:301 expiation
In order to solve the serious problem caused by the worshipping of the golden calf by the children of Israel, God needed a mediator between Him and the people. Moses, a man who was intimately involved with both parties, was uniquely qualified to be such a mediator. As a companion of God (33:11 and note 1), Moses had an intimate relationship with God and knew what was in God’s heart. In particular, he knew that God would not give up His purpose with the children of Israel. Thus, he could speak to God intimately concerning His people and appease God on their behalf.
Ex 32:31a And  -   vv. 31-32: Deut. 9:18-20
Ex 32:32a book  -   Psa. 56:8; 69:28; 139:16; Dan. 12:1; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; cf. Luke 10:20
Ex 32:34a Angel  -   Exo. 14:19; 33:2; Acts 7:35
Ex 32:341 visit
Or, punish.
Exodus Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 33:1a land  -   Deut. 34:4
Ex 33:1b seed  -   Exo. 32:13; Gen. 12:7
Ex 33:21a Angel  -   Exo. 14:19; 32:34; Acts 7:35
The Angel here is Christ (see note 191 in ch. 14).
Ex 33:3a milk  -   Exo. 3:8
Ex 33:3b stiff-necked  -   Exo. 32:9; 33:3; Acts 7:51
Ex 33:51 decide
Lit., know.
Ex 33:61 ornaments
As a result of Moses’ work as a mediator between God and the children of Israel, God’s anger was appeased, and the people repented and gave up their self-beautification (see note 21 in ch. 32; cf. Gen. 35:1-4).
Ex 33:71a outside  -   Heb. 13:13
Knowing the heart of God, Moses realized that neither he nor God could remain among the people, for the camp had become idolatrous. Hence, he moved his tent outside the camp. This tent became the tent of meeting, where God could meet with His seeking people and speak to them. This was a type fulfilled in Heb. 13:12-13 (see notes there).
Ex 33:7b tent  -   cf. Exo. 31:7; 36:8-38
Ex 33:9a pillar  -   Exo. 13:21-22; Psa. 99:7
Ex 33:11a face  -   Gen. 32:30; Num. 12:8; Deut. 34:10; cf. 1 Cor. 13:12
Ex 33:111 companion
A companion, being more than a friend, is an associate, a partner, one who shares a common interest and a common enterprise. Although Abraham was God’s friend (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23), Moses was God’s companion, a partner in God’s great enterprise. Only a person like Moses, a person who knows God’s heart and does everything according to God’s heart, can be a companion of God, sharing a common interest with God and being used by God to carry out His enterprise on earth.
Ex 33:112 Moses
Lit., he.
Ex 33:11b Joshua  -   Exo. 17:9-10
Ex 33:12a Bring  -   Exo. 32:34
Ex 33:13a ways  -   Psa. 103:7
Ex 33:13b people  -   cf. Deut. 9:29; Joel 2:17
Ex 33:141a presence  -   cf. Deut. 20:4; 31:6
Lit., face. In vv. 12-17 Moses bargained with God for His presence to go with him and the people. God’s presence is His way, the “map” that shows His people the way they should take (cf. John 14:6 and note 1; Heb. 11:8 and note). The children of Israel had God’s presence in a very limited way, for they were far from God’s heart (cf. Isa. 29:13). Moses, however, was a person very near to God’s heart and according to God’s heart. Hence, he had God’s presence to a full extent.
Ex 33:16a distinct  -   1 Kings 8:53
Ex 33:181a glory  -   Exo. 16:10
God’s glory is His expression — God Himself expressed.
Ex 33:19a name  -   Exo. 34:5-7
Ex 33:19b I  -   Rom. 9:15
Ex 33:20a no  -   Gen. 32:30; Exo. 24:1-11; Deut. 5:24; Judg. 6:22; Isa. 6:5; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 4:12
Ex 33:221 cleft
Christ is the cleft rock, the everlasting rock cleft for us (see 17:6 and notes). Only in the crucified Christ can we see God (cf. Matt. 5:8; Rev. 22:4).
Exodus Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 34:11a tablets  -   Deut. 10:1; 2 Cor. 3:7; Heb. 9:4
This chapter concerns the recovery of the broken covenant between God and His people (32:19; v. 10a).
Ex 34:1b write  -   Exo. 34:28; Deut. 10:2, 4
Ex 34:1c shattered  -   Exo. 32:19
Ex 34:3a mountain  -   Exo. 19:12-13
Ex 34:41 Moses
Lit., he.
Ex 34:42 rose
To meet with God in the morning is not only to meet with Him early in the day; it is also to meet with God in a situation that is full of light (cf. Prov. 4:18). Like Moses, we should go to God alone, without any persons, matters, or things to distract or occupy us (v. 3; cf. Mark 1:35).
Ex 34:5a descended  -   Exo. 19:18; Num. 11:25
Ex 34:51 proclaimed
For God to proclaim His name means that He assumed His position by declaring who He is.
Ex 34:5b name  -   Exo. 33:19
Ex 34:6a compassionate  -   2 Chron. 30:9; Neh. 9:17; Psa. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; James 5:11
Ex 34:6b long-suffering  -   Num. 14:18; Nahum 1:3
Ex 34:7a Keeping  -   Exo. 20:6; Deut. 5:10; Jer. 32:18; Dan. 9:4
Ex 34:7b but  -   Exo. 20:5; Deut. 5:9
Ex 34:9a go  -   Exo. 33:15-16
Ex 34:9b stiff-necked  -   Exo. 32:9
Ex 34:9c inheritance  -   Deut. 32:9; Psa. 28:9; 33:12; 78:62; 94:14; Jer. 10:16
Ex 34:10a covenant  -   Exo. 34:27; Deut. 5:2; 29:1
Ex 34:101 wonders
God’s wonderful doings were for the goal of bringing His people into the good land for the building up of the temple as God’s testimony and His dwelling place on earth. Likewise, God performs wonders for us with the intention of bringing us into Christ, the reality of the good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8), for the building up of the church as God’s testimony and God’s temple (Rev. 1:2; 1 Cor. 3:16).
Ex 34:11a drive  -   Exo. 33:2; Deut. 7:1; 9:4-5
Ex 34:12a covenant  -   Exo. 23:32; Deut. 7:2; Judg. 2:2
Ex 34:13a altars  -   Deut. 7:5; 12:3; Judg. 2:2; 6:25; 2 Chron. 34:4
Ex 34:131 Asherahs
Images of a female deity.
Ex 34:141 god
Verses 12-17 are a warning concerning the snare of idolatry, a repetition of the first three of the Ten Commandments (20:2-7). An idol is any person, matter, or thing that replaces God and keeps us from the full enjoyment of Christ as our good land. God declared that He would do everything to bring the people into the good land (vv. 10-11), but He also pointed out the danger of idolatry, which would nullify His wondrous doings on behalf of the children of Israel. Likewise, God has promised to do everything necessary to bring us into the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment (cf. Col. 1:12-13), but we must take heed to God’s warning concerning idolatry (cf. 1 John 5:21).
Ex 34:14a jealous  -   Exo. 20:5
Ex 34:18a You  -   Exo. 23:15; Num. 28:17; Lev. 23:6
Ex 34:181 keep
It was not God’s intention that His people would endeavor in their own strength to keep the Ten Commandments. Rather, His intention was to command His people to enjoy Him — to feast with Him and rest with Him. This is contrary to our natural desire to always want to do something for God (cf. Luke 15:18-32 and note 192). The keeping of God’s commandments must be secondary; it must be the issue of feasting with the Lord and resting with Him (see note 171, par. 1, in Gen. 2).
For the significance of the three annual feasts mentioned in vv. 18 and 22-23, see notes on 23:14-16 and on Lev. 23.
Ex 34:19a opens  -   Exo. 13:2
Ex 34:201 donkey
See note 131 in ch. 13.
Ex 34:20a lamb  -   Exo. 13:13; Num. 18:15
Ex 34:20b empty  -   Exo. 23:15; Deut. 16:16
Ex 34:21a Six  -   Exo. 20:9
Ex 34:211 seventh
In addition to the annual feasts (vv. 18, 22-23), every week the children of Israel were to keep the Sabbath, ceasing from their labor and resting with God in remembrance of Him as their Creator and Redeemer. The inserting of the word concerning the Sabbath between the word concerning the feasts indicates that while we are enjoying Christ, simultaneously we rest with Him.
Ex 34:22a Feast  -   Exo. 23:16; Lev. 23:9-22; Num. 28:26; Deut. 16:9-10
Ex 34:22b Feast  -   Exo. 23:16; Num. 29:12; Deut. 16:13-15
Ex 34:231a Three  -   Exo. 23:14, 17; Deut. 16:16
For the children of Israel the feasts were held yearly and the Sabbath (v. 21) was kept weekly. However, this should be a portrait of our daily experience of Christ. Every day we should enjoy Christ as the three feasts mentioned in this chapter, and many times during the day we should cease from our work and rest with Christ in remembrance of Him.
Ex 34:241 For
This verse gives the reason that God’s people need to feast with Him and rest with Him. The best way to fight against the enemy and to keep the enemy away from us is to enjoy the Lord.
Ex 34:242a drive  -   Exo. 23:28-30; Psa. 78:55; 80:8
The driving out of the nations signifies the demolishing of the things that preoccupy and usurp us (see note 231 in ch. 23); the enlarging of the borders of the good land signifies the enlarging of our capacity to enjoy Christ (1 Chron. 4:10 and note); and the keeping away of the coveting enemies signifies the guarding of the enjoyment of Christ.
Ex 34:24b enlarge  -   Exo. 23:31; Deut. 12:20; 19:8
See note 242.
Ex 34:25a You  -   Exo. 23:18-19
Ex 34:251 blood
See note 181 in ch. 23.
Ex 34:25b Feast  -   Exo. 12:48; Lev. 23:5
Ex 34:252 morning
This signifies that we should enjoy the riches of Christ to the fullest extent in this age and not postpone this enjoyment until the next age (morning — cf. 2 Pet. 1:19). Cf. note 342 in ch. 29.
Ex 34:261 first
See note 191 in ch. 23.
Ex 34:26a firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:19; cf. Rev. 14:4
Ex 34:26b You  -   Exo. 23:19; Deut. 14:21
Ex 34:262 boil
See note 192 in ch. 23.
Ex 34:271 speaking
Lit., mouth. God’s speaking in this chapter is a repetition of what He spoke in chs. 20 — 23. The focus of this repeated speaking is not on the keeping of the Ten Commandments and the ordinances of the law but on the enjoyment of God through the enjoyment of the riches of the good land and the repeated feasting and resting with Him. This matches the focus of the New Testament teaching, which is concerned primarily with the enjoyment of Christ (1 Cor. 1:9; 5:8). It was not God’s intention merely to have a people to keep His commandments and ordinances. God’s intention was to dispense Himself into His chosen people so that they would be fully infused with Him in order to express Him (see note 291).
Ex 34:27a covenant  -   Exo. 34:10; Deut. 4:13; 31:9
Ex 34:28a forty  -   Exo. 24:18; Deut. 9:9, 18; cf. Matt. 4:2
Ex 34:28b tablets  -   Exo. 34:1; 32:16; Deut. 4:13; 10:2, 4
Ex 34:281 Commandments
Lit., words.
Ex 34:29a tablets  -   Heb. 9:4
Ex 34:29b face  -   2 Cor. 3:7
Ex 34:291 His
Or, his (Moses’) speaking with Him (Jehovah); cf. Num. 7:89. Through God’s speaking to Moses during his lengthy stay with God, Moses was thoroughly infused with God and saturated with Him. As a result, Moses’ face shone. According to this chapter, God did not first give Moses the tablets of the law; rather, He first spent time to infuse Moses with Himself by speaking to Moses concerning the enjoyment of Himself (cf. 2 Cor. 3:3). Before God gave the law to Moses, God gave Himself to him. This clearly portrays God’s intention.
Ex 34:331a veil  -   2 Cor. 3:13
See 2 Cor. 3:13 and note.
Ex 34:341 veil
Cf. 2 Cor. 3:18 and notes 3-6.
Exodus Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 35:2a Six  -   Exo. 20:9; 31:15; 34:21; Lev. 23:3
Ex 35:21 Sabbath
This word concerning the keeping of the Sabbath, coming before the commandments concerning the making of the tabernacle with its furniture and the garments for the priests, indicates that before God’s people work for Him, they must rest with Him. The way of first working for God and then enjoying grace and rest is according to the law. According to grace, we first enjoy grace and rest with the Lord; then we work for Him (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10). See note 131 in ch. 31.
Ex 35:4a And  -   vv. 4-9: Exo. 25:1-8
Ex 35:51 Take
51 For vv. 5-9, see notes in 25:2-7.
Ex 35:52 heave
Although they were gained by the children of Israel while they were in Egypt (12:35-36), the materials offered to God for the building of the tabernacle were called heave offerings, wave offerings, and freewill offerings (vv. 5, 21-22, 24, 29; 36:3). All these offerings are types of Christ in different aspects experienced, enjoyed, and gained by God’s people in their practical daily lives, and then offered by them to God. See note 21, par. 1, in ch. 25.
Ex 35:5a heart  -   cf. Exo. 25:2
Ex 35:101a wise  -   Exo. 28:3; 31:6
The preparing of the gifted workers for the building of God’s dwelling place is mentioned in vv. 10, 30-35; 36:1-2; 38:22-23. See notes in 31:1-11.
Ex 35:11a The  -   vv. 11-19: Exo. 31:7-11; 39:33-42
Ex 35:11b tent  -   Exo. 26:1-37
Ex 35:12a Ark  -   Exo. 25:10-22
Ex 35:12b veil  -   Exo. 26:31-35; 40:3, 21; Num. 4:5
Ex 35:13a table  -   Exo. 25:23-29
Ex 35:13b bread  -   Exo. 25:30
Ex 35:14a lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31-39
Ex 35:14b oil  -   Exo. 27:20
Ex 35:15a altar  -   Exo. 30:1-10
Ex 35:15b anointing  -   Exo. 30:23-33
Ex 35:15c incense  -   Exo. 30:34-38
Ex 35:15d screen  -   Exo. 26:36
Ex 35:16a altar  -   Exo. 27:1-8; 30:28; 31:9; 38:1-7
Ex 35:16b laver  -   Exo. 30:18-21; 38:8
Ex 35:17a court  -   Exo. 27:9-19
Ex 35:19a garments  -   Exo. 28:1-43; 31:10
Ex 35:211 lifted
For the building of God’s dwelling place, we need an uplifted and uplifting heart and a willing spirit (Ezra 1:5-6; 1 Cor. 15:58).
Ex 35:21a willing  -   Exo. 25:2
Ex 35:21b heave  -   Exo. 36:3
Ex 35:22a heart  -   Exo. 25:2
Ex 35:22b rings  -   Num. 31:50
Ex 35:23a blue  -   Exo. 35:6-7; 25:4-5
Ex 35:25a wise  -   Exo. 28:3
Ex 35:291 freewill
Whether or not we experience Christ and offer Him to God is a matter of our free will.
Ex 35:29a heart  -   Exo. 25:2
Ex 35:30a And  -   vv. 30-34: Exo. 31:1-6
Ex 35:30b Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2
Ex 35:31a Spirit  -   Exo. 31:3
Ex 35:341 teach
Both Bezalel and Oholiab did the work of teaching. This indicates that in the building up of the church as God’s dwelling place there is the need of adequate teaching (Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17).
Ex 35:34a Oholiab  -   Exo. 31:6
Ex 35:35a wisdom  -   Exo. 28:3; 1 Kings 7:14; 2 Chron. 2:13-14
Ex 35:351 engraver
Or, craftsman.
Exodus Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 36:1a Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2
Ex 36:1b Oholiab  -   Exo. 31:6
Ex 36:1c wise  -   Exo. 28:3
Ex 36:2a Bezalel  -   Exo. 36:1
Ex 36:2b wise  -   Exo. 28:3
Ex 36:21 lifted
See note 211 in ch. 35.
Ex 36:3a heave  -   Exo. 35:21, 24
Ex 36:8a And  -   vv. 8-19: Exo. 26:1-14
Ex 36:8b wise  -   Exo. 28:3
Ex 36:81 made
The sequence in the making of the tabernacle and its furniture (36:8 — 38:20) is different from the sequence in the revelation of the vision of the tabernacle (25:10 — 28:43; 30:1-10, 17-38). The sequence in the revelation, with the Ark of the Testimony being revealed first, is according to the desire of God’s heart, whereas the sequence in the making, with the tabernacle being made first and then the furniture as the content, was according to the practical need.
In His coming to us in Christ, God began at the Ark and reached us at the altar in the outer court, but in our experience of Christ, we begin at the altar and proceed onward until we reach the Ark (see note 43 in Heb. 9).
Ex 36:82 curtains
For the curtains and coverings of the tabernacle, see notes in 26:1-14.
Ex 36:83c Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2
Lit., He.
Ex 36:20a And  -   vv. 20-34: Exo. 26:15-29
Ex 36:201 boards
For the boards of the tabernacle, see notes in 26:15-30.
Ex 36:35a And  -   vv. 35-36: Exo. 26:31-32
Ex 36:351 veil
For the veil within the tabernacle, see notes in 26:31-35.
Ex 36:37a And  -   vv. 37-38: Exo. 26:36-37
Ex 36:371 screen
For the screen for the entrance of the tent, see notes in 26:36-37.
Exodus Chapter 37
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 37:1a And  -   vv. 1-9: Exo. 25:10-20
Ex 37:1b Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2
Ex 37:11 Ark
For the Ark of the Testimony, see notes in 25:10-22.
Ex 37:10a And  -   vv. 10-16: Exo. 25:23-29
Ex 37:101 table
For the table of the bread of the Presence, see notes in 25:23-30.
Ex 37:17a And  -   vv. 17-24: Exo. 25:31-39
Ex 37:171 lampstand
For the lampstand, see notes in 25:31-40.
Ex 37:25a And  -   vv. 25-28: Exo. 30:1-5
Ex 37:251 altar
For the altar of incense, see notes in 30:1-10.
Ex 37:291a anointing  -   Exo. 30:23-25
For the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, see notes in 30:22-38.
Ex 37:29b fragrant  -   Exo. 30:7, 34-35
See note 291.
Exodus Chapter 38
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 38:1a And  -   vv. 1-7: Exo. 27:1-8
Ex 38:11 altar
For the altar of burnt offering, see notes in 27:1-8.
Ex 38:8a And  -   Exo. 30:18
Ex 38:81 laver
For the laver, see notes in 30:17-21.
Ex 38:9a And  -   vv. 9-20: Exo. 27:9-19
Ex 38:91 court
For the court of the tabernacle, see notes in 27:9-19.
Ex 38:21a Tabernacle  -   Num. 1:50, 53; 10:11; Acts 7:44; Rev. 15:5; cf. Num. 9:15; 17:7-8; 18:2; 2 Chron. 24:6
Ex 38:211 counted
The counting of the offered materials indicates that everything in the building of the tabernacle was done in an orderly way.
Ex 38:22a And  -   vv. 22-23: Exo. 31:2-6
Ex 38:22b Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2
Ex 38:23a Oholiab  -   Exo. 31:6
Ex 38:26a six  -   Num. 1:46
Ex 38:27a sockets  -   Exo. 26:19, 21, 25, 32, 37
Ex 38:31a sockets  -   Exo. 27:16-17
Ex 38:31b pegs  -   Exo. 27:19
Exodus Chapter 39
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 39:1a And  -   vv. 1-7: Exo. 28:5-12
Ex 39:11 garments
For the garments of the priests, see notes in 28:1-43.
Ex 39:1b garments  -   Exo. 28:2-4
Ex 39:21a Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2
Lit., he.
Ex 39:51 for
Lit., its ephod.
Ex 39:61 settings
Lit., plaited work, plaited settings, or filigree. So also for vv. 13, 16, 18.
Ex 39:8a And  -   vv. 8-21: Exo. 28:15-28
Ex 39:111 carbuncle
Or, turquoise.
Ex 39:131 chrysolite
Or, beryl.
Ex 39:22a And  -   vv. 22-26: Exo. 28:31-34
Ex 39:27a tunics  -   Exo. 28:39
Ex 39:30a And  -   vv. 30-31: Exo. 28:36-37
Ex 39:33a And  -   vv. 33-41: cf. Exo. 35:11-19; 31:6-11
Exodus Chapter 40
Notes and Cross-references
Ex 40:21a first  -   Exo. 12:2
The tabernacle was erected on the first day of the first month of the second year (v. 17). The first month of the first year was the time of the passover (13:4). Hence, the time from the passover to the erecting of the tabernacle was one year.
God’s people had two beginnings, the first at the passover, which was for their salvation, and the second at the erecting of the tabernacle, which was related to the building of God’s dwelling place. Every genuine Christian should have these two beginnings: the experience of salvation and the practical experience of the building of the church as God’s dwelling place (1 Tim. 3:15).
Ex 40:2b tabernacle  -   Exo. 26:30; 40:17
Ex 40:31a Ark  -   Exo. 40:20-21; 25:10-22; 35:12; 37:1-9; cf. Rev. 11:19
The first item of the furniture to be put into the tabernacle was the Ark (vv. 20-21), indicating that the Ark was the central item of the tabernacle and its furniture. Most Christians focus on the experience of salvation at the altar, but the book of Exodus reveals that God’s intention is to have the Ark of the Testimony in the Tabernacle of the Testimony. Eventually, the Ark in the tabernacle will consummate in an eternal tabernacle, the New Jerusalem, with the Ark, the redeeming Christ, as the center (Rev. 21:2-3; 22:1). God’s eternal goal is to have the New Jerusalem as the ultimate fulfillment of the tabernacle with the Ark.
Ex 40:3b veil  -   Exo. 26:31-33; 36:35-36
Ex 40:4a table  -   Exo. 26:35; 40:22
Ex 40:4b lampstand  -   Exo. 40:24-25
Ex 40:5a golden  -   Exo. 39:38; 40:26; 30:3; Heb. 9:4
Ex 40:6a altar  -   Exo. 31:9; 35:16; 40:29
Ex 40:7a laver  -   Exo. 30:18; 40:30
Ex 40:8a court  -   Exo. 40:33
Ex 40:9a And  -   vv. 9-15: cf. Exo. 30:26-30
Ex 40:13a holy  -   Exo. 28:41; 29:5-7
Ex 40:15a priesthood  -   Num. 25:13
Ex 40:17a tabernacle  -   Exo. 40:2; Num. 7:1
Ex 40:20a Ark  -   Exo. 25:16
Ex 40:21a veil  -   Exo. 40:3; Heb. 9:3-4; cf. Mark 15:38
Ex 40:22a table  -   Exo. 26:35; 40:4
Ex 40:25a lamps  -   Exo. 40:4; 25:37
Ex 40:27a incense  -   Exo. 30:7
Ex 40:28a screen  -   Exo. 26:36; 40:5
Ex 40:29a burnt  -   Exo. 30:28; 40:6
Ex 40:30a washing  -   Exo. 30:19-21
Ex 40:33a court  -   Exo. 27:9, 16; 40:8
Ex 40:34a cloud  -   Num. 9:15
Ex 40:341 Tent
With respect to man, the tabernacle was the Tent of Meeting, but with respect to God, it was the tabernacle. The tabernacle is related to God’s testimony (38:21), whereas the Tent of Meeting is more outward, external, related to God’s interest on earth and to His move.
Ex 40:342b glory  -   Exo. 16:10
Glory is God’s expression, God Himself expressed. The cloud covering the Tent of Meeting was the outer part, the outer covering, of God’s glory. Those who were gathered around the Tent of Meeting could see the cloud, whereas the high priest who eventually entered into the Holy of Holies (Lev. 16:15; Heb. 9:7) in the tabernacle could see the inward glory of the tabernacle. This indicates that in our experience of the church life we need to advance by entering into the tabernacle — Christ as the embodiment of God — to enjoy the bread at the table and to intercede at the incense altar, that we may experience the glory in God’s dwelling place (cf. note 142, par. 3, in John 1).
Ex 40:35a not  -   cf. 1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chron. 5:14; 7:2; Rev. 15:8
Ex 40:361a cloud  -   Num. 9:17; 10:11
The cloud of Jehovah’s glory became the leading, the guidance, of the children of Israel. According to the type here, apart from God’s dwelling place there is no leading or guidance for God’s people. The children of Israel followed the tabernacle with the cloud. Likewise, in our Christian journey we must follow God’s move with His dwelling place, the church.
Ex 40:381 it
I.e., the cloud.
Ex 40:382 house
In the Old Testament times the house of God was the house of Israel, represented here by the tabernacle and later by the temple (see note 61 in Heb. 3). At the end of Genesis an individual Israel was produced as a miniature of God’s house to express God and exercise His authority. At the end of Exodus a corporate Israel was produced as God’s house to express God and represent Him by exercising His authority on earth. The goal of God’s eternal purpose is to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity. The books of Genesis and Exodus together consummate with God’s tabernacle, His dwelling place, filled with His glory (v. 34). Likewise, the entire Bible consummates in the New Jerusalem as the eternal tabernacle of God filled with the glory of God (Rev. 21:2-3, 10-11) and exercising God’s authority for His divine administration in eternity (Rev. 22:1, 5).
< Exodus • Leviticus Outline >
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Leviticus Outline
I.   Ordinances concerning offerings — 1:1 — 7:38
A.   The burnt offering — 1:1-17
B.   The meal offering — 2:1-16
C.   The peace offering — 3:1-17
D.   The sin offering — 4:1-35
E.   The trespass offering — 5:1 — 6:7
F.   The law of the burnt offering — 6:8-13
G.   The law of the meal offering — 6:14-23
H.   The law of the sin offering — 6:24-30
I.   The law of the trespass offering — 7:1-10
J.   The law of the peace offering — 7:11-38
II.   Ordinances concerning service — 8:1 — 10:20
A.   The consecration of Aaron and his sons — 8:1-36
B.   The initiation of the priestly service of Aaron and his sons — 9:1-21
C.   The issue of the priestly service — 9:22-24
D.   The lesson and regulations for the priests — 10:1-20
1.   The lesson of Nadab and Abihu — 10:1-11
2.   Regulations for the priests — 10:12-20
III.   Ordinances concerning living — 11:1 — 22:33
A.   Discernment in diet and abstaining from death — 11:1-47
B.   Uncleanness in human birth — 12:1-8
C.   Uncleanness issuing from within man (leprosy) — 13:1-59
D.   The cleansing of the leper — 14:1-32
E.   The leprosy in a house — 14:33-57
F.   The cleansing of the discharges from the body — 15:1-33
G.   The expiation — 16:1-34
H.   Taking care of the sacrifices and of the blood — 17:1-16
I.   The holy living of the holy people — 18:1 — 20:27
J.   The holy living for the priesthood — 21:1-15
K.   Disqualifications from the priesthood — 21:16-24
L.   Holiness in enjoying the holy things — 22:1-16
M.   The acceptable way to offer a vow and a freewill offering — 22:17-33
IV.   Ordinances concerning feasts — 23:1-44
A.   The weekly feast — the Sabbath — vv. 1-3
B.   The annual feasts — vv. 4-44
1.   The Feast of the Passover — vv. 4-5
2.   The Feast of Unleavened Bread — vv. 6-8
3.   The Feast of Firstfruits — vv. 9-14
4.   The Feast of Pentecost — vv. 15-22
5.   The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets — vv. 23-25
6.   The Feast of Expiation — vv. 26-32
7.   The Feast of Tabernacles — vv. 33-44
V.   Other ordinances and warnings — 24:1 — 27:34
A.   The arrangement of the lampstand and the bread of the Presence — 24:1-9
B.   The death judgment for blaspheming the holy name — 24:10-23
C.   The sabbatical years — 25:1-55
1.   The Sabbath year — vv. 1-7
2.   The jubilee (the pentecostal year) — vv. 8-17
3.   Regulations regarding the sabbatical years — vv. 18-55
D.   The word of warning — 26:1-46
1.   Not to make idols, to keep God’s Sabbath, and to reverence God’s sanctuary — vv. 1-2
2.   The blessings upon those who obey — vv. 3-13
3.   The chastisements upon those who disobey — vv. 14-39
4.   The people’s repentance in captivity and God’s remembrance — vv. 40-46
E.   Devotions for a vow — 27:1-34
1.   The devotion of a person to God — vv. 1-8
2.   The devotion of an animal to God — vv. 9-13
3.   The devotion of a house — vv. 14-15
4.   The devotion of a field — vv. 16-25
5.   The regulations for devotion — vv. 26-34
Leviticus >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Leviticus Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 1:11 Then
The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive, advancing continually from Genesis to Revelation. Genesis reveals God’s creation and man’s fall, and Exodus reveals God’s salvation and the building of God’s habitation. As a further advancement of the divine revelation, Leviticus unveils the worship and living of God’s redeemed people. While Israel remained with God at Sinai for approximately eleven months (Exo. 19:1; cf. Num. 10:11), God trained them to worship and partake of Him for their enjoyment and to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life. This book shows that through the tabernacle, with the offerings, and by the priests, God’s redeemed are able to fellowship with God, serve God, and be God’s holy people living a holy life, which expresses God. Christ is everything in the fellowship, service, and life of God’s people. The worship portrayed in Leviticus is a matter of contacting God by enjoying Christ as the common portion with God and with one another (cf. John 4:24 and notes). The issue of enjoying Christ with God is the holy living of God’s people.
Lv 1:1a called  -   Exo. 3:4; 19:3
Lv 1:12 spoke
The first and last verses of Leviticus indicate that the entire book is a record of God’s speaking. The speaking that began here took place not in the heavens nor on Mount Sinai but in the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting. In type this signifies that God speaks in the church as His tabernacle (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; 14:23-31). The church as the Tent of Meeting is the unique oracle, the unique place of God’s speaking.
Lv 1:13b Tent  -   Exo. 40:34-35; Num. 12:4-5
The tabernacle was God’s dwelling place (Exo. 40:34-35), and the Tent of Meeting was the place where God and His redeemed people met (cf. Exo. 25:22; 33:7). Both refer to the church, which is God’s dwelling place on earth (1 Tim. 3:15) and also a meeting place for the saved ones to meet with the saving God (cf. 1 Cor. 14:23-25).
Lv 1:21 offering
Heb. qorban, meaning a present, or a gift. Strictly, the offerings are not sacrifices but presents given to God by the appreciators of Christ. Sacrifices are for redemption, for propitiation, whereas presents are gifts for intimate fellowship between us and God. The children of Israel were to labor on the good land and then offer to God as presents the produce they enjoyed and appreciated. Likewise, we should endeavor to experience and enjoy Christ and then offer Christ to God as a present with much appreciation. The tabernacle is for God to dwell in, and the offerings are for God to enjoy with us through our appreciation and presentation.
Exodus ends with the erecting of the tabernacle (Exo. 40), and Leviticus begins with the offerings (chs. 1 — 7), implying a direct continuation between the two books. Both the tabernacle and the offerings are types of Christ. Through incarnation Christ came to be the tabernacle (John 1:14). This same Christ is also the Lamb of God (John 1:29), the totality, the aggregate, of all the offerings (Heb. 10:5-10). Christ came in incarnation to bring God to us (John 1:1 — 13:38), and He passed through crucifixion and resurrection to bring us to God (John 14:1 — 21:25), making God one with us and us one with God. The tabernacle signifies that God is in Christ that we may contact, experience, enter into, and join to God. The offerings signify God in Christ for us to enjoy and even to eat, digest, and assimilate (John 6:53-58) that we may be mingled with God. The way to enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings is to contact Him and take Him in as the Spirit of reality (John 6:63; 14:16-18, 20; 1 Cor. 15:45).
According to Leviticus, there are five main kinds of offerings: the burnt offering (1:1-17), the meal offering (2:1-16), the peace offering (3:1-17), the sin offering (4:1-35), and the trespass offering (5:1 — 6:7). The functions of these offerings were (1) as sacrifices for sin, to make expiation for God’s people by appeasing the situation between God and His people, (2) as gifts to please God, and (3) as food for God and for His serving ones, the priests.
Lv 1:22 cattle
All the kinds of cattle used in burnt offerings in this chapter were living animals that move and act according to their will. Christ was such a living one, with a strong will but with His will subdued to be subject to God. He never became blemished (v. 3) because His will was always subdued to be subject to God’s will (John 5:30; 6:38). As the burnt offering Christ went to the cross in order to do the will of God (Heb. 10:5-10 and note 72).
Lv 1:31a burnt  -   Lev. 6:9-13
The Hebrew word literally means that which goes up and denotes something that ascends to God. The burnt offering typifies Christ not mainly in His redeeming man from sin but in His living a life that is perfect and absolutely for God and for God’s satisfaction (v. 9; John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:29; 14:24) and in His being the life that enables God’s people to have such a living (2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:19-20). It is God’s food that God may enjoy it and be satisfied (Num. 28:2). This offering was to be offered daily, in the morning and in the evening (Exo. 29:38-42; Lev. 6:8-13; Num. 28:3-4).
Lv 1:32 male
As the burnt offering Christ is full of strength (a male) and freshness (young — v. 5), and He is without defects and faults (1 Pet. 1:19; Heb. 9:14).
Lv 1:3b without  -   Exo. 12:5
Lv 1:33 entrance
The burnt offering was offered at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, i.e., in the outer court of the tabernacle. The outer court signifies the earth (cf. note 92 in Rev. 6), and the altar signifies the cross. The cross on which Christ offered Himself was on earth, but His offering of Himself was before God, and He was accepted by God and before God.
Lv 1:4a lay  -   Exo. 29:10, 15, 19; Lev. 3:2, 8, 13; 4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33; 8:14, 18, 22; 16:21
Lv 1:41 hand
The laying on of hands signifies not substitution but identification, union (Acts 13:3 and note 2). By laying our hands on Christ as our offering, we are joined to Him, and He and we become one. In such a union all our weaknesses, defects, and faults are taken on by Him, and all His virtues become ours. This requires us to exercise our spirit through the proper prayer so that we may be one with Him in an experiential way (cf. 1 Cor. 6:17 and notes). When we lay our hands on Christ through prayer, the life-giving Spirit, who is the very Christ on whom we lay our hands (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17), will immediately move and work within us to live in us a life that is a repetition of the life that Christ lived on earth, the life of the burnt offering.
Lv 1:42b expiation  -   Lev. 4:20, 31; 9:7; 16:24; Num. 15:25; 2 Chron. 29:23-24
Although the burnt offering is not for redemption, it nevertheless makes expiation for the offerer (see note 11 in ch. 16). For this reason, the burnt offering must be a life that has blood to shed for expiation (Heb. 9:22). Because we are not absolutely for God, we need Christ as our burnt offering to appease our situation with God that we may have peace with Him. Because the burnt offering is for expiation, it can be eaten only by God (v. 9; 6:30). We are not qualified to eat it.
Lv 1:51 slaughter
As the burnt offering Christ was slaughtered by men (Isa. 53:7; Matt. 27:31; Acts 2:23; Phil. 2:8).
Lv 1:52 priests
God trained His elect to worship and partake of Him through the priests (1:5-8; 2:2; 3:2; 4:5, 10; 5:8). The priests typify Christ as God’s Priest (Heb. 5:5-6), who offered Himself to God for us (Heb. 9:14, 26; 10:10). Christ is both the offerings and the Priest. He is the unique way for God’s people to worship and enjoy God.
Lv 1:53 blood
The sprinkling of the blood was for expiation (v. 4).
Lv 1:5a sprinkle  -   Exo. 24:6; Lev. 3:2; 2 Chron. 35:11; cf. Heb. 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:2
Lv 1:61 skin
The skin of the burnt offering is the outward expression of its beauty. Hence, to skin the offering is to strip it of its outward expression. As the burnt offering, Christ was “skinned,” stripped of the outward appearance of His human virtues (Matt. 11:19; Mark 3:22; John 8:48; Matt. 26:65; 27:28; cf. Psa. 22:18).
Lv 1:62 cut
The cutting of the offering into pieces signifies that Christ was willing to let His entire being be broken without any reservation. In His living as the burnt offering, Christ’s whole being and His entire life were cut into pieces (Mark 15:29-32; Luke 23:35-39; cf. Psa. 22:16-17). The cutting of the offering into pieces by the offerer indicates that his experience, apprehension, realization, and appreciation of Christ are deep and detailed.
Lv 1:81 head
The head of the burnt offering typifies Christ’s wisdom; the fat signifies His being a delight to God (Matt. 3:17; 12:18; 17:5); the inward parts (v. 9) denote Christ’s inward parts, including His mind, emotion, will, and heart with all their functions; and the legs (v. 9) signify Christ’s walk.
Lv 1:91 wash
The washing of the inward parts and the legs of the burnt offering does not imply that Christ was dirty; rather, it indicates that Christ’s inward parts and His daily walk were continually being washed by the Holy Spirit, signified by the water (John 7:38-39), to keep Him from becoming defiled by His contact with earthly things.
In order to offer Christ to God as our burnt offering, we need to experience Him in His experiences and offer Him to God according to our experiences of Him (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 13:15). In particular, we need to experience Him in His being slaughtered (Rom. 8:36; 2 Cor. 4:11), skinned (Matt. 5:11; Acts 24:5-6; 2 Cor. 6:8; 12:16-18), and cut into pieces (1 Cor. 4:13). We also need to experience Him in His wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 2:7; Col. 1:26-27), in His being a delight to God (2 Cor. 5:9; Gal. 1:10; Rom. 14:18), in His inward parts (Phil. 2:5; 1 Cor. 2:16b; 16:24; Phil. 1:8; 2 Cor. 11:10), in His walk (Matt. 11:29; Eph. 4:20; 1 Cor. 11:1; 1 Pet. 2:21), and in His being kept by the Holy Spirit from defilement (1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:5). Experiencing Christ in His experiences is not a matter of imitating Christ outwardly but a matter of living Him in our daily life (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21). The way in which we offer Christ as the burnt offering is actually a display and review of our daily experience of Christ. See note 141.
Lv 1:92 burn
Lit., cause to rise in smoke. This word is used for the burning (offering) of burnt offerings and incense.
Lv 1:93 fire
The fire signifies the holy God (Heb. 12:29). With the burnt offering, the fire was not for judgment but for acceptance by God. This fire was to burn continually day and night (6:9, 12-13).
Lv 1:94a fragrance  -   Exo. 29:18, 25, 41; Lev. 2:2, 9; 3:5, 16; cf. Gen. 8:21; Eph. 5:2
As the burnt offering Christ lived a life that was absolutely for God’s satisfaction (John 5:30; 6:38; 8:29), a life that was pure and holy, with no element of the fall, no defect, and no sin (John 14:30; Luke 23:14; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 1:19; 2:22). Such a living was a satisfying fragrance, a sweet savor ascending to God for His pleasure and satisfaction.
Lv 1:121 cut
With this category of burnt offering there is no skinning, indicating that the offerer has not experienced Christ’s being stripped of the outward expression of His human virtues (see note 61 and note 91, par. 2).
Lv 1:141 birds
Offering the burnt offering at the Tent of Meeting typifies the offering of Christ to God in the church meetings. The various kinds of burnt offerings (vv. 3-9, 10-13, 14-17) differed both in size and in the way they were offered. The different sizes of burnt offerings signify not that Christ in Himself varies but that the offerers’ experience, apprehension, realization, and appreciation of Christ differ in degree. The first two categories of burnt offerings — the bull and the sheep or goat — were offered in the same way: the preparing of the offering was done by the offerer; the priest’s function was only to sprinkle the blood on and around the altar and arrange the pieces of the offering on the fire. However, with the offerings in the third category, the offerer simply brought the offering to the Tent of Meeting; the priest did everything else. Those who offered a bull or a sheep or a goat signify the mature believers who experience and appreciate Christ in a deep and detailed way and have the spiritual ability to offer Christ in a processed way. Those who offered a turtledove or a pigeon signify believers who are young in spiritual age and who have limited experience and appreciation of Christ.
Lv 1:14a turtledoves  -   Lev. 5:7; 12:8; 14:22, 30; 15:14, 29; Luke 2:24; cf. Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15
Lv 1:16a place  -   Lev. 4:12; 6:10-11; 16:27; cf. Heb. 13:11-14
Lv 1:161 ashes
See note 101 in ch. 6.
Lv 1:17a without  -   cf. Gen. 15:10
Leviticus Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 2:11a meal  -   Lev. 6:14-23; 9:17; Num. 15:4
The meal offering typifies Christ in His human living. The emphasis of the burnt offering (ch. 1) is on Christ’s living for God, being obedient to God even unto death (Phil. 2:8), implying His living but emphasizing His death. The emphasis of the meal offering is on Christ’s human living and daily walk, implying His death but emphasizing His living (see note 131). The burnt offering emphasizes that Christ is the righteousness of God (1 Cor. 1:30; cf. 2 Cor. 5:21), whereas the meal offering emphasizes that Christ is righteous before God (1 John 2:1).
Lv 2:12b fine  -   Exo. 29:2
Fine flour, the main element of the meal offering, signifies Christ’s humanity, which is fine, perfect, tender, balanced, and right in every way, with no excess and no deficiency. This signifies the beauty and excellence of Christ’s human living and daily walk. The fine flour of the meal offering was produced out of wheat that had passed through many processes, which signify the various sufferings of Christ that made Him “a man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3).
In contrast to the burnt offering, nothing of the animal life, but only the vegetable life, is seen in the meal offering. As a type of Christ, the vegetable life indicates the produce, the propagation, and the increase for the supplying of life to people.
Lv 2:13 oil
The oil of the meal offering signifies the Spirit of God as the divine element of Christ (see note 183 in 1 Pet. 3). In the meal offering the oil was mingled with the fine flour (vv. 4-5) and poured upon it (vv. 1, 6, 15) to anoint it (v. 4), signifying that the Spirit of God as Christ’s divinity was mingled with His humanity (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35) and that the Spirit was poured upon Him (Matt. 3:16; John 1:32) to anoint Him (Luke 4:18; Heb. 1:9). This is a picture of the two aspects of Christ’s experience of the Spirit of God.
Lv 2:14 frankincense
The frankincense in the meal offering signifies the fragrance of Christ in His resurrection. That the frankincense was put on the fine flour signifies that Christ’s humanity bears the aroma of His resurrection (cf. Matt. 11:20-30; Luke 10:21). As portrayed in the four Gospels, Christ lived a life in His humanity mingled with His divinity and expressing resurrection out from His sufferings (cf. John 18:4-8; 19:26-27a). Christ was always filled with the Spirit and saturated with resurrection (Luke 4:1; John 11:25).
Lv 2:2a he  -   vv. 2-3: Lev. 6:15-16
Lv 2:21 memorial
Part of the flour and oil and all of the frankincense of the meal offering were God’s food (vv. 9, 16). This signifies that a considerable portion of Christ’s excellent, perfect, Spirit-filled, and resurrection-saturated living is offered to God as food for His enjoyment. This portion is so satisfying to God that it becomes a memorial. The remainder of the offering, consisting of fine flour and oil but no frankincense, was food for the serving priests (vv. 3, 10).
Whereas the burnt offering is God’s food for His satisfaction (Num. 28:2), the meal offering is our food for our satisfaction, a portion also being shared with God. Proper worship is a matter of satisfying God with Christ as the burnt offering and of being satisfied with Christ as the meal offering and sharing this satisfaction with God (cf. John 4:24 and note 4).
Lv 2:22 fire
All meal offerings were offered by fire on the altar (vv. 4-9), signifying that Christ in His humanity offered to God as food has gone through the testing fire (Rev. 1:15). The fire in Lev. 2 signifies the consuming God (Heb. 12:29), not for judgment but for acceptance. The consuming of the meal offering by fire signifies that God has accepted Christ as His satisfying food.
Lv 2:2b fragrance  -   Lev. 1:9
Lv 2:41 oven
The preparing of the meal offering in an oven, in a pan, or in a pot (vv. 4-5, 7) signifies different kinds of sufferings experienced by Christ in His humanity.
Lv 2:4a unleavened  -   Exo. 29:2
Lv 2:42 cakes
A perforated cake, related to the verb to pierce. The perforating, or piercing, of the cakes signifies one kind of Christ’s sufferings in His humanity (John 19:34, 37; Rev. 1:7).
Lv 2:43 mingled
The mingling of fine flour with oil in the meal offering (vv. 4-5) signifies that Christ’s humanity is mingled with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18b) and His human nature is mingled with God’s divine nature, making Him a God-man. Christ is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly, without a third nature being produced. Through the divine mingling Christ’s humanity has been uplifted to the highest standard. In His divinity Christ has the divine attributes, and these divine attributes are expressed through, with, and in His human virtues. This is the excellence of Jesus Christ.
In the meal offering the oil and the fine flour are mingled and cannot be separated. Hence, to eat the fine flour is to eat the oil. The picture in Lev. 2 indicates strongly that the way for us to be nourished with Christ’s humanity, and thus to experience His human living, is by the Spirit (John 6:51, 57, 63).
Lv 2:44 wafers
The cakes of fine flour are the largest kind of meal offering and signify the stronger experience of Christ in His humanity by the mature believers. Wafers are hollow and easy to eat. They signify Christ in His humanity experienced and enjoyed by the younger believers. Christ as the meal offering is available as food to God’s people of all ages.
Lv 2:51 fine
The meal offering could be in the form of flour mingled with oil (vv. 1-2) or in the form of a cake (v. 4). The former signifies the individual Christ and also the individual Christian. The latter signifies the corporate Christ, Christ with His Body, the church. The individual Christ has become the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), signified by the cake (1 Cor. 10:17). This indicates that eventually Christ’s life and our individual Christian life issue in a totality — the church life as a corporate meal offering. Such a life is a life of humanity mingled with the Holy Spirit and which has the Holy Spirit poured upon it, a life with salt and frankincense but with no leaven or honey (see notes 14, 111, 112, and 131). Both forms of the meal offering — the individual Christ and the corporate Christ, the church life — are food for God’s satisfaction and our nourishment.
Lv 2:61 break
That the meal offering was broken into pieces signifies that Christ’s humanity is perfect but is never kept whole; it is always broken. This breaking signifies another kind of suffering that Christ passed through in His humanity. Cf. note 62 in ch. 1.
Lv 2:111a leaven  -   Lev. 6:17; Exo. 12:19-20; cf. Matt. 13:33; 16:12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor. 5:8; Gal. 5:9
That the meal offering was without leaven (vv. 4-5) signifies that in Christ there is no sin or any negative thing (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22; Luke 23:14; cf. 1 Cor. 5:6-8).
Lv 2:112 honey
That the meal offering was without honey signifies that in Christ there is no natural affection or natural goodness (Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 10:18).
Lv 2:131a salt  -   Ezek. 43:24; cf. Matt. 5:13; Mark 9:49; Col. 4:6
Salt functions to season, kill germs, and preserve. In typology salt signifies the death, or the cross, of Christ. The Lord Jesus always lived a life of being salted, a life under the cross (Mark 10:38; John 12:24). Even before He was actually crucified, Christ daily lived a crucified life, denying Himself and His natural life and living the Father’s life in resurrection (John 6:38; 7:6, 16-18; cf. Gal. 2:20).
Lv 2:132b covenant  -   Num. 18:19; 2 Chron. 13:5
The basic factor of God’s covenant is the cross, the crucifixion of Christ, signified by salt. It is by the cross that God’s covenant is preserved to be an everlasting covenant (cf. Heb. 13:20 and note 2, par. 2).
Lv 2:141 firstfruits
The meal offering of the firstfruits of new grain signifies the fresh enjoyment of Christ in His resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:20). The crushing of the grains signifies being dealt with by the cross of Christ.
Leviticus Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 3:11a peace  -   Lev. 7:11-21, 29-34
The peace offering signifies Christ as our peace with God that we may enjoy Him with God and with man in fellowship and joy (Num. 10:10; Deut. 27:7). It is fulfilled primarily in our enjoying Christ at the Lord’s table in the breaking of bread for the remembrance of Him and in the offering of Christ to the Father for the worship of the Father (Matt. 26:26-30). The peace offering, which implies fellowship with the Triune God and includes the enjoyment of the Triune God, is illustrated in Luke 15:23-24 by the fattened calf as the peaceful enjoyment between the receiving father (God) and the returned prodigal (a sinner).
The peace offering is the Old Testament type of the Lord’s table. At the Lord’s table the believers enjoy Christ as their peace offering for their fellowship with God and with one another. This enjoyment of the peace offering issues from the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering (v. 5 and note). Our enjoyment of Christ as these four offerings has an issue, a result — the enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering for us to have fellowship with God and with our fellow believers. See note 31.
Lv 3:12 herd
The peace offering could be of different animals from the herd or from the flock, and it could be either male or female. The different kinds of peace offerings signify the different conditions of the offerers’ enjoyment of Christ. Here the male signifies that the offerer’s enjoyment of Christ is stronger, whereas the female signifies that the offerer’s enjoyment of Christ is weaker (cf. 1 Pet. 3:7). Cf. note 71.
Lv 3:13b without  -   Exo. 12:5
As our peace offering, Christ is without blemish, without sins and transgressions (Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15).
Lv 3:21a lay  -   Lev. 1:4
See note 41 in ch. 1. So also for vv. 8 and 13.
Lv 3:22 entrance
See note 33 in ch. 1.
Lv 3:2b sprinkle  -   Lev. 1:5
Lv 3:23 blood
The sprinkling of the blood of the peace offering on and around the altar (vv. 2, 8, 13), where the offerer was standing, indicates that the blood is for peace in the offerer’s conscience, giving him the assurance that his sins have been washed away (Heb. 9:14b).
Lv 3:31 Jehovah
Christ as the peace offering is for the fellowship and enjoyment of five parties: God, the serving priest, all the priests (the priesthood), the offerer, and the congregation of cleansed people. The fat and the inward parts of the offering were God’s portion (vv. 3-5); the four kinds of cakes and the right thigh as a heave offering were the portion of the serving priest (7:14, 32-34); the breast as a wave offering was for all the priests (7:30-31, 34); the flesh, the meat, of the offering was the portion of the offerer (7:15-18); and the remaining flesh of the cattle, under the condition of cleanness, was for all the congregation (7:19-21). In the New Testament there are no clergy and no laity (see note 61 in Rev. 2). Thus, all the believers in Christ should be the serving priests, the priestly body, the offerers, and the congregation.
Lv 3:32a fat  -   Exo. 29:13, 22; Lev. 4:8-9
The fat signifies the inward riches of Christ as the abundance of life for God’s satisfaction according to His glory, and the inward parts signify the tenderness, smallness, and preciousness of what Christ is in His inward being toward God (cf. Phil. 1:8; John 7:3-18 and notes) for God’s satisfaction, which can be apprehended and appreciated only by God (Matt. 11:27a). The burning of the fat and the inward parts of the peace offering as an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 3-5, 9-11, 14-16) signifies that God should be the first Enjoyer, enjoying the first, the best, part of the peace offering.
Lv 3:5a altar  -   Lev. 6:12
Lv 3:51 burnt
The peace offering is based on God’s satisfaction in the burnt offering (6:12). According to the sequence of the offerings presented in 1:1 — 6:7, it is also the issue of the enjoyment of God and man in the meal offering. If we would enjoy Christ as peace in a practical, daily way, we must first take Him as our burnt offering to satisfy God, and then we must feed on Him as the meal offering, enjoying Him as our food.
According to the sequence of the offerings in 6:8 — 7:38, the peace offering is also based on the sin offering and the trespass offering. When the problem of our sin and trespasses is solved by Christ as the sin offering and trespass offering, and when God and we are satisfied with Christ as the burnt offering and the meal offering, we can offer Christ to God as the peace offering for our mutual enjoyment in peace. See 7:37 and note 2.
Lv 3:71 lamb
A lamb signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ in His perfection and beauty, whereas a goat (v. 12) signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ not much in His perfection and beauty but in His being made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).
Lv 3:9a fat  -   Exo. 29:22; Lev. 9:19
Lv 3:111 burn
This signifies that the peace offering is a kind of burnt offering (1:9, 13, 17) as food to God for His satisfaction and enjoyment.
Lv 3:11a food  -   Lev. 21:6, 8, 17, 21-22; 22:25; Num. 28:2; cf. Ezek. 44:7; Mal. 1:7
Lv 3:171a fat  -   Lev. 7:23-25; Ezek. 44:7, 15
Not eating the fat signifies that the best part of Christ is for God’s satisfaction. Not eating the blood signifies that Christ’s blood shed for our redemption fully satisfies the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory (see note 241 in Gen. 3). Thus, in the universe only Jesus’ blood is edible to His believers (John 6:53-56 and note 542). To eat any other blood would make Christ’s blood common (cf. Heb. 10:29 and note 3).
Lv 3:17b blood  -   Gen. 9:4; Lev. 7:26; 17:10, 14; 19:26; Deut. 12:16, 23; 15:23; 1 Sam. 14:33; Acts 15:20, 29
Leviticus Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 4:21a sins  -   Lev. 4:13, 22, 27; 5:15, 17; Num. 15:27-29; cf. Psa. 19:12
Or, errs, makes a mistake. The sinning without intent here signifies the sin in our fallen nature, the indwelling sin that came through Adam into mankind from Satan (Rom. 5:12), which causes us to sin unintentionally (Rom. 7:19-20). This sin, personified in Rom. 7 (see note 81 there), is the evil nature of Satan, even Satan himself, who dwells in our fallen flesh (Rom. 7:17-18a, 20, 23 and note 182). Since our flesh is one with sin (Rom. 8:3), whatever we do out of our flesh, whether good or evil, is sin. Moreover, since the flesh denotes a fallen person (Gen. 6:3; Rom. 3:20), every fallen person is sin (2 Cor. 5:21 and note 2).
Lv 4:3a anointed  -   Exo. 29:7, 21; Lev. 8:12; 21:10-12; cf. Heb. 7:27-28
Lv 4:31 bull
The sin offering could be a young bull, a male goat, a female goat, or a female lamb (vv. 3, 14, 23, 28, 32). This signifies that the realization, presentation, and application of Christ as the sin offering may differ in degree. Cf. note 141 in ch. 1.
Lv 4:3b without  -   Lev. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:19
Lv 4:32 blemish
See note 13 in ch. 3. So for vv. 23, 28, and 32.
Lv 4:33 for
Or, concerning sin. So throughout the book (cf. Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21).
Lv 4:34c sin  -   Lev. 6:25-30; cf. Heb. 10:6
The sin offering signifies Christ as the offering for the sin of God’s people. In the Bible sin refers to the indwelling sin in our nature, whereas sins refers to the sinful deeds, the fruit of the indwelling sin. Our sin was dealt with by Christ as our sin offering (ch. 4; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26), and our sins, our trespasses, were borne by Christ as our trespass offering (ch. 5; Isa. 53:5-6, 11; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28). As the Lamb of God, Christ took away sin in its totality — the inward sin and the outward sins (Isa. 53:10; John 1:29). See notes 181 in 1 Pet. 3 and 76 in 1 John 1.
Through incarnation the Word, who is God, became flesh, in the likeness of the flesh of sin, i.e., the likeness of a fallen man (John 1:1, 14 and note 142, par. 1; Rom. 8:3 and note 3). Christ was crucified in the flesh and died in the flesh (1 Pet. 3:18b). Although Christ was a fallen man only in likeness, when He was on the cross, God counted that likeness as real. Since sin, the old man, Satan, the world, and the ruler of the world are all one with the flesh, when Christ died in the flesh, sin was condemned (Rom. 8:3), the old man was crucified (Rom. 6:6), Satan was destroyed (Heb. 2:14), the world was judged, and the ruler of the world was cast out (John 12:31). Hence, through Christ’s death in the flesh all negative things were dealt with. This is the efficacy of the sin offering.
The sequence of the five offerings in 1:1 — 6:7 is a picture of the sequence in 1 John 1. The burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering bring us into fellowship with God (1 John 1:3). Through our fellowship with God, who is light (1 John 1:5), we discover that we are sinful, that we have sin inwardly and sins outwardly. Hence, after our regeneration we still need to take Christ as our sin offering, as indicated in 1 John 1:8, and as our trespass offering, as indicated in 1 John 1:9. See note 73 in 1 John 1.
Lv 4:41 lay
The laying of hands on the sin offering (vv. 4, 15, 24, 29, 33) signifies the union of the offerer with the offering (2 Cor. 5:14). See note 41 in ch. 1.
Lv 4:42 before
That the sin offering was slaughtered before Jehovah signifies that Christ as the sin offering was slaughtered before God, that He as the sin offering was recognized by God.
Lv 4:51 blood
The blood of the sin offering had four kinds of effects: (1) Some of the blood was brought into the Tent of Meeting and sprinkled seven times before Jehovah in front of the veil of the Holy of Holies (vv. 5-6, 16-17), signifying that the blood of Christ has been brought into the Holy of Holies in the heavens for our redemption (Heb. 9:12). (2) Some of the blood was put on the horns of the incense altar (vv. 7a, 18a), signifying that the redemption by Christ’s blood is effective for us to contact God in prayer (Heb. 10:19). (3) Some of the blood was put on the horns of the altar of burnt offering (vv. 25a, 30a, 34a), signifying that the blood of Christ is effective for our redemption (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). (4) The rest of the blood was poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering (vv. 7b, 18b, 25b, 30b, 34b), signifying that the blood of Christ was poured out at the cross for the peace in our conscience, assuring us that we are redeemed and accepted by God (Heb. 9:14).
Lv 4:5a into  -   Heb. 9:6
Lv 4:6a sprinkle  -   Lev. 1:5; 4:16-17; 5:9; 16:14; Num. 19:4; Heb. 12:24
Lv 4:7a put  -   Lev. 4:18; 16:18; cf. Lev. 8:15; 9:9
Lv 4:7b base  -   Exo. 29:12; Lev. 5:9; 8:15; 9:9
Lv 4:81a fat  -   Lev. 3:3
The burning of the fat and some of the inward parts of the sin offering on the altar of burnt offering (vv. 8-10, 19, 26, 31, 35) signifies that the inward parts of Christ as the tender and sweet part are offered to God for His satisfaction that He may be willing to forgive us. It signifies further that God’s acceptance of the sin offering is based on the burnt offering. Christ’s absoluteness for God as the burnt offering qualified Him to be the sin offering. See 6:25 and note 1.
Lv 4:101 burn
For the two kinds of burning mentioned in vv. 10 and 12, see note 132 in Exo. 29.
Lv 4:111 skin
The burning of the rest of the sin offering outside the camp (vv. 11-12, 21) signifies that Christ as the sin offering suffered reproach outside the Jewish religion as a human organization (Heb. 13:11-13). The clean place where the sin offering was burned (v. 12) signifies the place where Christ as the sin offering was rejected by man and where man’s sin is cleared.
Lv 4:12a outside  -   Exo. 29:14; Lev. 4:21; 6:11; 8:17; 9:11; 16:27
Lv 4:121 ashes
I.e., of the burnt offering (v. 10). The ashes of the burnt offering signify God’s recognition and acceptance of the offerings. The ashes are also for the offerers’ assurance and peace in their hearts concerning God’s redemption accomplished for their sin.
Lv 4:14a sin  -   Lev. 4:3; cf. Heb. 10:6
Lv 4:151 elders
This signifies that the elders of the church may represent the church to offer Christ as its sin offering.
Lv 4:20a expiation  -   Lev. 1:4; 4:26; Num. 15:25, 28
Lv 4:20b forgiven  -   Lev. 4:26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13, 16, 18; 6:7
Lv 4:22a sins  -   Lev. 4:2, 13, 27
Lv 4:23a male  -   Lev. 9:3; 23:19; Num. 7:16; 15:24; 28:15
Lv 4:26a forgiven  -   Lev. 4:20
Lv 4:27a sins  -   Lev. 4:2, 13; Num. 15:27
Lv 4:28a female  -   Lev. 5:6; Num. 15:27
Lv 4:32a lamb  -   cf. Exo. 12:3, 5; Isa. 53:7; John 1:29
Lv 4:35a forgiven  -   Lev. 4:20, 26, 31
Leviticus Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 5:11 sins
See note 34, par. 1, in ch. 4.
Lv 5:1a adjuration  -   1 Kings 8:31; Prov. 29:24; cf. Matt. 26:63
Lv 5:12 does
Not to testify the truth concerning what we know exposes the fact that we are not absolute for God. To fail in this matter is to be dishonest and unfaithful, unlike our God, who is faithful and honest. This verse actually deals with lying, which involves Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44).
Lv 5:2a unclean  -   Lev. 11:24, 28, 31, 39; Num. 19:11, 13, 16
Lv 5:21 carcass
The word carcass here signifies death. The different kinds of animals in this verse typify different kinds of people (11:1-30 and notes), and the carcasses of these animals signify that different kinds of spiritual death may spread among God’s people in the church life. Regardless of its kind, death is unclean, filthy and defiling. Death is the most hateful thing in the eyes of God (cf. 1 Cor. 15:26). According to the typology in the Old Testament, death is more defiling than sin. See note 312 in ch. 11.
Lv 5:22 swarming
Or, creeping, crawling.
Lv 5:31 man
The uncleanness of man here signifies the uncleanness of the natural man, the natural life. Everything that is discharged from the natural man and the natural life, whether good or evil, is unclean (cf. Matt. 15:17-20; 16:21-25). See notes 21 in ch. 12 and 21 in ch. 15.
Lv 5:4a swears  -   cf. Judg. 11:31; 1 Sam. 14:24; Mark 6:23; Acts 23:12
Lv 5:41 rashly
To speak rashly before God, expressing our opinion in a hasty, careless, and reckless way, indicates that we do not live for God and do not fear God (cf. Matt. 17:24-27).
Lv 5:5a confess  -   Lev. 16:21; 26:40; Num. 5:7; cf. 1 John 1:8-10
Lv 5:61a trespass  -   Lev. 7:1-10
The trespass offering signifies Christ as the offering that resolves the problem of sins in our conduct. The experience of the trespass offering is the result of our enjoyment of Christ as the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, and the sin offering in our fellowship with the Triune God and in the divine light (1 John 1:3-9). See note 34, pars. 1 and 2, in ch. 4. Christ’s being the meal offering in His perfect humanity qualifies Him to be the trespass offering (see note 371 in Mark 12).
Lv 5:62 female
The trespass offering could be a female from the flock, a sheep or a goat, two turtledoves or two young pigeons, or the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour (vv. 5-7, 11). This signifies that the trespass offering for our outward sins, for which even a little fine flour is sufficient, is lighter than the sin offering, which needs a bull, or at least a lamb (4:4, 32).
Lv 5:63 sin
The trespass offering here eventually becomes the sin offering (vv. 6-8, 11-12). This reminds us that our sins issue from the sin that dwells in us. Christ’s redemption accomplished for our sin resolves the problem of sin in its two aspects — sin in our inward nature and sins in our outward conduct. See note 34, par. 1, in ch. 4.
Lv 5:7a two  -   Lev. 1:14
Lv 5:71 sin
Two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, form a trespass offering. This signifies that the source of every trespass is the inward sin in our flesh, and the reason for a trespass is our not living absolutely for God. Thus, in dealing with our trespasses, we need to deal also with the source of our sins and the reason for our sins.
Lv 5:8a And  -   vv. 8-10: cf. Lev. 1:15-17
Lv 5:81 priest
Lit., he.
Lv 5:91 blood
The sprinkling of some of the blood of the trespass offering on the side of the altar (v. 9a; 7:2) signifies the sprinkling of Christ’s blood upon sinners (1 Pet. 1:2). The rest of the blood being drained out at the base of the altar signifies that the blood of Christ is the base of God’s forgiveness of sinners (Matt. 26:28; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22).
Lv 5:9a base  -   Lev. 4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34
Lv 5:10a forgiven  -   Lev. 4:20, 26, 31, 35
Lv 5:11a tenth  -   cf. Num. 5:15; Lev. 2:1
Lv 5:111 fine
The fine flour here typifies the humanity of Jesus. This indicates that we commit sins not only because we have sin in our nature and not only because we are not absolute for God (see note 71) but also because we do not have the humanity of Jesus. In His humanity Jesus has no sin in Him and is absolutely for God. The tenth part of an ephah of fine flour offered for a sin offering signifies that only a small portion of the humanity of Jesus is needed to kill the negative things within us and to supply our need.
Lv 5:112 oil
Putting no oil or frankincense on the sin offering signifies that the Holy Spirit and the fragrance of Christ’s resurrection are not involved with sin. Cf. notes 13 and 14 in ch. 2.
Lv 5:121 a
Lit., his handful.
Lv 5:122 burn
A handful of fine flour being burned on the altar upon Jehovah’s offerings by fire indicates that the fine flour of the trespass offering for the forgiveness of our sins is based on the shedding of blood on the altar (Heb. 9:22), and it signifies that the perfect Christ is our trespass offering based on the shedding of His blood on the cross (Col. 1:20).
Lv 5:131 rest
That the remainder of the fine flour for the trespass offering was the priest’s signifies that the redeeming Christ is the serving one’s food.
Lv 5:151a ram  -   Ezra 10:19
A ram without blemish out of the flock, according to the valuation by the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering (vv. 15, 18; 6:6) signifies that the Christ who is without sin and who measures up to the divine scale is qualified to be the trespass offering for our sins committed against the holy things of God, or against God, or against man in the trespasses listed in vv. 15, 17, and 6:2-5.
Lv 5:15b shekels  -   Exo. 30:13
Lv 5:161 restitution
Making restitution and adding to it one-fifth more, here and in 6:4-5, signifies that the one who offers the trespass offering should be righteous in material things according to the divine scale, standard, and measurement (cf. Luke 19:8).
Lv 5:16a fifth  -   Lev. 6:5; 22:14; 27:13, 15, 27, 31; Num. 5:7; cf. 2 Sam. 12:6; Luke 19:8
Lv 5:17a know  -   cf. Luke 12:48
Lv 5:18a ram  -   Lev. 5:15
Leviticus Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 6:2a acts  -   Num. 5:6
Lv 6:2b deposit  -   Exo. 22:7-10
Lv 6:3a found  -   cf. Exo. 23:4; Deut. 22:1-3
Lv 6:41 restore
See note 161 in ch. 5.
Lv 6:5a fifth  -   Lev. 5:16
Lv 6:51 he
Or, he presents his trespass offering.
Lv 6:6a ram  -   Lev. 5:15, 18; cf. 1 Pet. 1:19
Lv 6:7a forgiven  -   Lev. 4:20
Lv 6:91 law
The laws of the offerings are the ordinances and regulations regarding the offerings, i.e., regarding the enjoyment of Christ as the offerings. Since the reality of the offerings is Christ, the laws of the offerings correspond to the law of the life of Christ, which is the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). These laws indicate that even in the enjoyment of Christ we should not be lawless but should be regulated by the law of life (cf. 1 Cor. 9:26-27; 11:17, 27-29; Gal. 6:15-16; Phil. 3:13-16).
Lv 6:9a burnt  -   Lev. 1:1-17; Exo. 29:38-42; Num. 28:3
Lv 6:92 hearth
The burnt offering being on the hearth signifies that anything offered as a burnt offering must be put on the place of offering to be burned. Those who offer themselves to God as a burnt offering must be on the place of burning and must be willing to become a heap of ashes.
Lv 6:93 all
All night until the morning signifies that a burnt offering should remain in the place of burning through the dark night of this age until the morning, until the Lord Jesus comes again (2 Pet. 1:19; Mal. 4:2).
Lv 6:94 kept
The continual burning of the fire on the altar (vv. 9b, 12a, 13) signifies that God as the holy fire in the universe (Heb. 12:29) is always ready to receive (burn) what is offered to Him as food, and that God’s desire to accept what is offered to Him never ceases.
Lv 6:10a linen  -   Exo. 28:39-43; Lev. 16:4; Ezek. 44:17-18
Lv 6:101 ashes
The ashes, the result of the burnt offering, are a sign of God’s acceptance of the offering. The priest’s putting on linen garments (v. 10) signifies that fineness, purity, and cleanness are needed in handling the ashes. His putting on other garments to carry the ashes outside the camp (v. 11) signifies that the handling of the ashes of the burnt offering was done in a stately manner.
Ashes indicate the result of Christ’s death, which brings us to an end, i.e., to ashes (Gal. 2:20a). The putting of the ashes beside the altar toward the east (1:16), the side of the sunrise, is an allusion to resurrection. In relation to the burnt offering, the ashes are not the end, for Christ’s death brings in resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5; 2 Cor. 4:10-12; Phil. 3:10-11). God has a high regard for these ashes, for eventually the ashes will become the New Jerusalem. Our being reduced to ashes brings us into the transformation of the Triune God (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). In resurrection we as ashes are transformed to become precious materials — gold, pearl, and precious stones — for the building of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:18-21).
Lv 6:11a outside  -   Lev. 4:12
Lv 6:121 morning
The priest’s burning wood on the altar every morning signifies the need of the serving one’s cooperation with God’s desire (see note 94) by adding more fuel to the holy fire to strengthen the burning for the receiving of the burnt offering as God’s food (cf. Rom. 12:11; 2 Tim. 1:6). The morning signifies a new start for the burning.
Lv 6:122 burnt
See note 51 in ch. 3. The burning of the burnt offering laid a foundation for the sweetness of the peace offering. This indicates that our offering ourselves to God as a continual burnt offering (cf. Rom. 12:1) should be laid as a foundation for our sweet fellowship with God, signified by the burning of the fat of the peace offering. The burning of both the burnt offering and the peace offering signifies that both our absoluteness for God and our enjoyment of the Triune God should be a matter of burning.
Lv 6:12a fat  -   Lev. 3:3, 9, 14
Lv 6:14a meal  -   Lev. 2:1-16; Num. 15:4
Lv 6:141 before
Before Jehovah signifies that the meal offering is offered to God in His presence, and before the altar signifies that the meal offering is offered in relation to the redemption of Christ on the cross, the altar being a type of the cross (Heb. 13:10 and note).
Lv 6:151 And
For v. 15, see notes on 2:2.
Lv 6:16a left  -   Lev. 2:3, 10; 10:12
Lv 6:161 Aaron
The meal offering is not common food. It is food only for the priests, i.e., only for those believers in the church life who are actual and practical priests, serving God in the priesthood of the gospel (Rom. 1:9; 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:9).
Lv 6:16b eat  -   Ezek. 44:29; cf. 1 Cor. 9:13
Lv 6:162 without
Eating the priests’ portion of the meal offering without leaven in a holy place signifies that we enjoy Christ as the life supply for our service without sin (leaven) in a separated, sanctified realm. Since the Tent of Meeting typifies the church (see note 13 in ch. 1), eating the meal offering in the court of the Tent of Meeting signifies that Christ should be enjoyed as our life supply in the sphere of the church life.
Lv 6:171a leaven  -   Lev. 2:11
Not baking the meal offering with leaven signifies that our laboring on Christ to partake of Him as our life supply must be without sin.
Lv 6:172 sin
The law of the meal offering refers us here to the sin offering and the trespass offering, signifying that if we would enjoy Christ as our life supply, we need to deal with the sin in our fallen nature and with the sins (trespasses) in our conduct. See note 34, par. 1, in ch. 4.
Lv 6:181 male
Those who partake of Christ as the life supply should be strong in the divine life (males) and also should be God’s serving ones, God’s priests (sons of Aaron).
Lv 6:201 day
The offering of a meal offering by Aaron and his sons on the day when Aaron was anointed signifies that the enjoyment of Christ as the life supply is related to the priestly service. Cf. note 351 in ch. 7.
Lv 6:202a tenth  -   Exo. 16:36; Lev. 5:11
The tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a continual meal offering, half in the morning and half in the evening, signifies that the top portion, the tenth part, of the enjoyment of Christ should be for God, and that this kind of enjoyment of Christ should continue in our priestly service.
Lv 6:21a fragrance  -   Exo. 29:25; Lev. 1:9
Lv 6:25a sin  -   Lev. 4:1-35
Lv 6:25b place  -   cf. Lev. 7:2
Lv 6:251 burnt
The slaughtering of the sin offering before Jehovah in the place where the burnt offering was slaughtered signifies (1) that Christ as our sin offering was slain before God and (2) that Christ is the sin offering for us based on His being the burnt offering. Christ must be the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction that He might be qualified to be our sin offering, and we must enjoy Christ as our burnt offering, as the One who is absolutely for God, before we can realize how sinful we are, i.e., how much we are for ourselves and not for God.
Lv 6:252 most
The sin offering being most holy signifies that Christ as our sin offering was most holy in that He dealt with sin in our nature intrinsically and entirely.
Lv 6:261 priest
That the priest who offered the sin offering ate it in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting, signifies that the one who serves sinners with Christ as their sin offering enjoys Christ as the sin offering in a separated, sanctified realm, in the sphere of the church (cf. note 162).
Lv 6:26a eat  -   Lev. 6:16; cf. 1 Cor. 9:13
Lv 6:271 holy
This signifies that whoever touches Christ as the sin offering is separated and sanctified (holy) and will forsake sin and have his flesh dealt with, for Christ as the sin offering has dealt with sin and our sinful flesh on the cross (Rom. 8:3).
Lv 6:272a wash  -   cf. Exo. 30:18-21; Lev. 16:4; Heb. 6:2
This signifies that the daily walk (signified by the garment — Isa. 64:6a) of the one who has received redemption through the blood of Christ as the sin offering should be dealt with in a separated, sanctified realm (cf. Eph. 4:22-24). We should have regard for the blood of Christ and should never consider it common (cf. Heb. 10:29).
Lv 6:28a earthen  -   Lev. 11:33; 15:12
Lv 6:281 broken
This signifies that the natural life of the one who, as an earthen vessel (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7), has a relationship with Christ as the sin offering should be broken.
Lv 6:282 scoured
This signifies that the one who has been enlightened and judged by the Spirit (likened to a bronze mirror — cf. note 182 in Exo. 30) to be regenerated needs not to be broken but to be dealt with by being scoured and rinsed (1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:5).
Lv 6:291 male
This signifies that all the stronger ones (males) can enjoy Christ as the most holy sin offering in ministering Christ as the sin offering to sinners.
Lv 6:301 expiation
The expiation mentioned here was made in the Holy of Holies (16:27), where God was. This verse signifies that Christ as the sin offering that dealt with our sin and with our sinful nature on the cross to accomplish God’s redemption for us is wholly for God’s enjoyment, and we have no share in it. However, in our ministering Christ as the sin offering to sinners, we can share in Him (v. 26). Concerning Christ as the sin offering, both God and the serving priests have a portion, the best portion being for God’s enjoyment.
Leviticus Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 7:1a trespass  -   Lev. 5:1– 6:7; 14:12-13
Lv 7:11 most
That the trespass offering (like the meal offering and the sin offering — 6:17, 25) was most holy signifies that Christ as our trespass offering is most holy in dealing with the sins in our conduct. Since the trespass offering refers us to the sin offering, reminding us that sin is in our flesh (1 John 1:7-8), and to the burnt offering, reminding us that we commit sins because we are not absolute for God (see note 71 in ch. 5), we must not take it in a light way; rather, we must apply Christ as our trespass offering in a holy way.
Lv 7:21 place
The trespass offering being slaughtered where the burnt offering was slaughtered indicates that the trespass offering is based on the burnt offering, and it signifies that Christ is the trespass offering for us based on His being the burnt offering. Christ’s being absolute for God is the base for His being both our sin offering (6:25) and our trespass offering. This reminds us and strengthens us, when we take Christ as our trespass offering, to take Him also as our burnt offering so that in Him, with Him, and through Him we may be absolute for God.
Lv 7:2a burnt  -   Lev. 6:25
Lv 7:22 blood
Cf. note 91 in ch. 5.
Lv 7:31a fat  -   Exo. 29:13; Lev. 3:3, 9, 14; 4:8
See note 81 in ch. 4. Cf. v. 7a.
Lv 7:4a kidneys  -   Lev. 3:4, 10, 15; 4:9
Lv 7:61 male
Cf. v. 7 and notes 261 and 291 in ch. 6.
Lv 7:6a eat  -   Lev. 6:18, 29; cf. 1 Cor. 10:18
Lv 7:71 one
This signifies that sin and trespasses (sins) are of the same category. All are sin in its totality. See note 34, par. 1, in ch. 4.
Lv 7:72a priest  -   Ezek. 44:29
Cf. 6:26 and note.
Lv 7:81a skin  -   Gen. 3:21; cf. Lev. 4:11-12; Exo. 29:14; Num. 19:5
This signifies that Christ’s outward expression of beauty (the skin) is ascribed to the serving one who offers Christ as the burnt offering. It signifies further that the one who ministers Christ as the burnt offering shares and enjoys Christ’s covering, protection, and preserving power.
Lv 7:91 priest
This signifies that the one who ministers Christ as the suffering One partakes of and enjoys such a Christ. See note 41 in ch. 2.
Lv 7:11a peace  -   Lev. 3:1-17
Lv 7:111 Jehovah
See note 31 in ch. 3.
Lv 7:121 sacrifice
The presenting of the different kinds of meal offerings with the peace offering for thanksgiving signifies that the Christ who is the meal offering in our enjoyment of Him in His conduct is our peace offering, crucified with the shedding of His blood on the cross (Col. 1:20), in our thanksgiving to God. For the significance of the items of the meal offering, see notes on ch. 2.
Lv 7:12a unleavened  -   Lev. 2:4; Num. 6:15
Lv 7:131a leavened  -   Lev. 23:17; Amos 4:5
The offering of the peace offering for thanksgiving with leavened bread signifies that the offerer, although he enjoys Christ as the One who is without sin, still has sin and is therefore in a weak condition. For this reason, the peace offering for thanksgiving is the weakest kind of peace offering.
Lv 7:141 it
I.e., from the meal offering. This signifies (1) that Christ as the meal offering in all His aspects is offered to God as the One in ascension (a heave offering) and (2) that such a Christ is partaken of and enjoyed as food by the one who ministers Christ as the peace offering.
Lv 7:14a heave  -   Exo. 29:27-28; Num. 18:8, 11, 19
Lv 7:15a sacrifice  -   Lev. 22:29-30
Lv 7:151 not
This signifies that the maintaining power of the peace offering for thanksgiving is rather small, that it has to be fully enjoyed on the day it is offered, and that our experience and enjoyment of Christ in this aspect should be fresh daily. The peace offering for a vow or a freewill offering (v. 16) signifies a stronger enjoyment of Christ that can last longer.
Lv 7:16a But  -   vv. 16-18: Lev. 19:6-8
Lv 7:181 abomination
This signifies that our enjoyment of Christ in its oldness is abhorrent to God and is not right with Him.
Lv 7:191 unclean
This signifies that the enjoyment of Christ as our peace should be kept from all uncleanness and also that Christ as the peace offering should be eaten by a clean person (1 Cor. 11:28).
Lv 7:201 cut
The word in vv. 20-21 signifies that the unclean person who partakes of Christ as his peace, as at the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 10:16-17), shall be put aside from the fellowship of the enjoyment of Christ. Such a sinful person should be removed from the fellowship at the Lord’s table (cf. 1 Cor. 5:13b).
Lv 7:231a fat  -   Lev. 3:16-17
This signifies that when we practice our priestly service, we should be concerned about God’s food and should not eat the fat, which is God’s portion (3:3-5). See note 251.
Lv 7:241a you  -   Lev. 22:8; Ezek. 44:31
This signifies that the dirtiness of death spoils the significance of God’s enjoyment of Christ. God hates death and does not want to look upon anything related to it.
Lv 7:251 fat
This signifies that we who enjoy Christ as our peace offering should keep the excellent part of the person of Christ (the fat) for God that we might not be put aside from the fellowship of the enjoyment of Christ (at the Lord’s table).
Lv 7:261 blood
See note 171 in ch. 3. Anyone who regards the blood of Jesus as a common thing will be put aside from the fellowship of the enjoyment of Christ (v. 27).
Lv 7:27a blood  -   Lev. 3:17
Lv 7:291 Speak
The word in vv. 29-34 signifies that we who take Christ as our peace offering should offer the excellent part of Christ (the fat) to God for His satisfaction, the loving part of Christ in His resurrection (the breast as a wave offering) and the strong part of Christ in His ascension (the right thigh as a heave offering) being for the serving ones’ enjoyment. In our enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering, God has allotted the loving capacity and the strengthening power of Christ to us, the New Testament priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:10), as our eternal portion for our enjoyment in serving God. See notes 261 through 281 in Exo. 29.
Lv 7:301a wave  -   Exo. 29:24, 26; Lev. 9:21
See note 241 in Exo. 29.
Lv 7:31a breast  -   Lev. 7:34; Num. 6:20; 18:18
Lv 7:351a anointing  -   cf. Exo. 40:13-15; Lev. 8:12
This signifies that God’s allotting of Christ’s loving capacity and strengthening power to us is related to God’s anointing us for our priesthood. By such an allotment we can love God and stand to serve Him as priests.
Lv 7:37a law  -   Lev. 6:9, 14, 25; 7:1, 11
Lv 7:371 consecration
Lit., filling (of hands). So also throughout the book, unless otherwise noted. The consecration here is not a sixth offering; rather, the five offerings are for the consecration of Aaron and his sons to serve God as priests (cf. Exo. 29 and notes). At the time of consecration God assigned these offerings, in different aspects, for the priests’ enjoyment. The word in vv. 37-38 signifies that our consecration for the priesthood must be with the all-inclusive Christ as all the five offerings and according to their regulations.
Lv 7:372 peace
The sequence of the five offerings in 1:1 — 6:7 is according to our practical experience (see notes 11 and 51 in ch. 3 and note 34, par. 3, in ch. 4), whereas the sequence in 6:8 — 7:38 is according to the total picture of God’s economy. In God’s heart and in His desire God would have Christ to be four kinds of offerings to us — the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering — that we may enjoy Christ as peace with God in every way. Christ’s being these four offerings consummates in peace between God and God’s people, and this peace is simply Christ Himself (Eph. 2:14). Eventually, the enjoyment of Christ as all the offerings, issuing in the peace offering, will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate peace offering (Jerusalem means the foundation of peace), in which we will enjoy the Triune God as peace (Phil. 4:7, 9) for eternity. Thus, the ordinances concerning the offerings are a record of the totality of God’s economy.
Leviticus Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 8:21a Aaron  -   Exo. 29:1
The record in this chapter of the consecration of Aaron and his sons indicates that the offerings in chs. 1 — 7 are for the consecration, or ordination, of the priests. Whatever Christ is to us and does for us, as typified by the offerings, is to constitute us priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10). This constitution of Christ in us through our enjoyment of Him as the offerings is the divine ordination. Cf. Exo. 29 and notes.
Lv 8:2b garments  -   Exo. 28:2-4
Lv 8:2c anointing  -   Exo. 30:23-25
Lv 8:31 entrance
The consecration of Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting signifies that our consecration for the priesthood is not only before God but also for the church.
Lv 8:6a And  -   Exo. 29:4
Lv 8:61 washed
This signifies that for our consecration for the priesthood, we need to be washed by the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11).
Lv 8:7a And  -   vv. 7-9: Exo. 29:5-6
Lv 8:71 put
The clothing of Aaron with the high priest’s garments (vv. 7-9) signifies that Christ as our High Priest is adorned with all the excellencies of His divine attributes and human virtues. See notes on Exo. 28.
Lv 8:7b tunic  -   Exo. 28:4
Lv 8:8a Urim  -   Exo. 28:30
Lv 8:9a golden  -   Exo. 28:36-37
Lv 8:101a anointed  -   vv. 10-11: Exo. 30:26-29
Moses’ anointing of the tabernacle, the altar, and the laver, with all their utensils, to sanctify them (vv. 10-11) signifies that Christ and the church (the tabernacle), the cross (the altar), and the washing of the Spirit (the laver) are related to the New Testament priesthood for the priests’ sanctification. See notes 92 in Exo. 25, 11 in Exo. 27, and 181 in Exo. 30.
The anointing brings the Triune God compounded with Christ’s humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension to the priests and to the church life. This indicates strongly that the anointing of the priesthood is to make God one with us, for the anointing signifies that whatever God is, is doing, and will do are ours (see notes 251 and 261 in Exo. 30). In the consecration of the priests the sin offering and the burnt offering immediately followed the anointing (vv. 14-21). These offerings remind us of who and what we are, and of what we should be and yet are not. See notes 141 and 181.
Lv 8:102 sanctified
God’s ordaining us to be priests is a matter of sanctification, a matter of being separated, of being made holy (Exo. 29:1 and note 1).
Lv 8:12a anointing  -   Exo. 30:30; Lev. 21:10, 12; cf. Psa. 133:2; Luke 4:18
Lv 8:121 Aaron’s
This signifies that Christ as our High Priest, typified here by Aaron, was anointed by God for His sanctification (Luke 4:18; Heb. 1:9; cf. Psa. 133:2).
Lv 8:13a brought  -   Exo. 29:8-9
Lv 8:131 clothed
Moses’ clothing the sons of Aaron with priestly garments signifies that the believers as New Testament priests are adorned with Christ’s divine attributes mingled with His human virtues (Exo. 28:2 and notes). Our outward expression should be Christ’s divine attributes expressed in human virtues. See note 41 in John 13.
Lv 8:14a And  -   vv. 14-17: Exo. 29:10-14; cf. Lev. 4:3-4, 7-8
Lv 8:141 bull
The bull of the sin offering signifies the stronger and richer Christ as our sin offering to deal with the flesh, the old man, indwelling sin, Satan, the world, and the ruler of the world, for the assuming of our New Testament priesthood (see note 34, par. 2, in ch. 4). This reminds us that in ourselves we are a constitution of all the aforementioned negative things and need to offer Christ daily as our sin offering for our priesthood (see note 361 in Exo. 29).
Lv 8:142 sin
For the details of the offering of the sin offering in vv. 14-17, see notes on 4:4-12.
Lv 8:17a outside  -   Lev. 4:12
Lv 8:18a And  -   vv. 18-21: Exo. 29:15-18
Lv 8:181 ram
The ram of the burnt offering signifies the strong Christ as our burnt offering for the assuming of our New Testament priesthood. This offering reminds us that as serving ones we must be absolute for God, yet we are not. Thus, we need to take Christ daily as our burnt offering for our priestly service (6:12).
Lv 8:182 burnt
For the details concerning the offering of the burnt offering in vv. 18-21, see notes on 1:4-9.
Lv 8:22a And  -   vv. 22-29: Exo. 29:19-26
Lv 8:221 ram
This ram signifies the strong Christ for our consecration in the assuming of our priesthood. For details concerning the offering of the ram of consecration in vv. 22-32, see Exo. 29:19-34 and notes.
Lv 8:23a lobe  -   Lev. 14:14-17
Lv 8:231 ear
See note 201 in Exo. 29.
Lv 8:30a And  -   Exo. 29:21; 30:30; Num. 3:3
Lv 8:301 anointing
See note 211, par. 1, in Exo. 29.
Lv 8:31a Boil  -   vv. 31-32: Exo. 29:31-32
Lv 8:331a seven  -   Ezek. 43:25-26; Exo. 29:35
The consecrating priests remaining at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting for seven days for their expiation (vv. 33-36) signifies that our assuming of the New Testament priesthood should be thorough and complete (signified by the seven days) for our propitiation (see note 11 in ch. 16) at our entering the church life.
Lv 8:33b consecration  -   Exo. 28:41
Lv 8:332 seven
The process of consecrating Aaron and his sons was repeated for seven days, signifying that we need to remember all the things involved in our consecration and ordination as New Testament priests.
Lv 8:351 die
The solemnity of the consecration and ordination of the priests is indicated here. This warns us that we should not enter into the New Testament priesthood and into the enjoyment of Christ in a careless way (cf. 1 Cor. 11:27-29).
Leviticus Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 9:11a eighth  -   Ezek. 43:26-27
The eighth day, the first day of a new week, signifies resurrection (Mark 16:9a). That Moses initiated the priestly service on the eighth day indicates that all the priestly service must be in resurrection, i.e., in Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), who is the reality of resurrection (John 11:25).
Lv 9:21 yourself
Aaron’s offering the sin offering and the burnt offering to make expiation for himself first (v. 7) signifies that he, as a sinful person, needed to take Christ as his sin offering and burnt offering so that his situation with God might be appeased and he might serve God as a priest. See notes 141 and 181 in ch. 8.
Aaron’s preparing the sin offering and the burnt offering also typifies Christ’s offering Himself as a sin offering for the redemption of God’s people and as a burnt offering for God’s people to be God’s satisfaction (Heb. 9:14; 10:5-10). Moreover, it signifies that whatever Christ as our High Priest did, He did for us, that we might be redeemed from sin and made God’s satisfaction. By our being one with Christ in His death, we are redeemed in Him (Eph. 1:7), and by Christ’s being one with us in His resurrection, He lives in us that we may live Him for God’s satisfaction (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:20-21a).
Lv 9:2a sin  -   cf. Exo. 29:1, 14; Lev. 4:3
Lv 9:3a male  -   Lev. 4:23
Lv 9:4a meal  -   Lev. 2:1, 4; 9:17
Lv 9:4b appear  -   Lev. 9:23
Lv 9:7a sin  -   Lev. 4:3, 20; Heb. 5:1-3
Lv 9:7b yourself  -   Lev. 4:3; 9:2; 16:6, 11, 17, 24; Heb. 7:27; 9:7
Lv 9:9a horns  -   Lev. 4:7, 18; 8:15
Lv 9:10a fat  -   Lev. 4:8; 8:16
Lv 9:11a flesh  -   Lev. 4:11-12; 8:17
Lv 9:11b outside  -   Lev. 4:12
Lv 9:12a Then  -   vv. 12-14: Lev. 1:5-9
Lv 9:151 people’s
Aaron’s offering of the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering for the people (vv. 15-17) signifies that Christ offered Himself as our sin offering to deal with our sin, as our burnt offering to satisfy God, and as our meal offering to be God’s food and also our food.
Lv 9:15a offered  -   Heb. 2:17; 5:3; 7:27; 9:7
Lv 9:17a meal  -   Lev. 2:1-2; 9:4
Lv 9:181a peace  -   Lev. 3:1, 6, 9
Aaron’s offering of the peace offering for the people (vv. 18-21) signifies that Christ offered Himself as our peace offering that we and God may enjoy Him as peace. When we apply Christ as our sin offering (including the trespass offering), burnt offering, and meal offering (vv. 15-17), we enter into peace, which is Christ Himself (Eph. 2:14). We enjoy this peace primarily at the Lord’s table (see note 11 in ch. 3).
Lv 9:21a wave  -   Exo. 29:24, 26; Lev. 7:30-34
Lv 9:221a blessed  -   cf. Num. 6:23-27; Deut. 21:5
Aaron’s blessing of the people and then coming down from offering the offerings signifies that Christ as our High Priest, after His crucifixion, blessed us in His resurrection (Luke 24:50). The Lord’s presence with us in His resurrection is His blessing (Matt. 28:20). This blessing comes to us through our applying Him as all the offerings.
Lv 9:231 blessed
Moses and Aaron’s entering into the Tent of Meeting and coming out to bless the people signifies that Christ as our Prince (Moses) and High Priest (Aaron) entered into the heavens to be our kingly Priest (Acts 5:31; Heb. 4:14; 7:1) and will come out of heaven to bless us. For the Jews, the blessing of Moses and Aaron is still in effect and will continue until the entire house of Israel repents and turns to the Savior at His second coming (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26; Rev. 1:7).
Lv 9:232a appeared  -   Lev. 9:6; cf. Num. 14:10; 16:19, 42; 20:6
The appearing of God (God’s presence) and of God’s glory (God’s expression) (vv. 4b, 6b) is the issue of our priestly service in the enjoyment of Christ as all the offerings with God according to God’s regulations.
Lv 9:241a fire  -   Judg. 6:21; 13:19-20; 1 Kings 18:38; 1 Chron. 21:26; 2 Chron. 7:1
The fire signifies that God’s holiness as a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29) accepts our offerings by burning. The consuming fire of suffering always follows God’s blessing (v. 23), as a sign that God has accepted what we have offered to Him in Christ and with Christ (cf. Acts 7:55-59; 2 Tim. 4:6). Cf. 10:1-2 and note 21.
Leviticus Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 10:11 Nadab
The negative situation involving Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, took place not long after, and probably at the end of, the day of glory and blessing described in 9:22-24.
Lv 10:12 strange
The strange fire offered by Nadab and Abihu was common fire, not holy fire. It was not fire from the altar (16:12), which came forth from God, from heaven (9:24), but fire from man, from the earth, with no base of expiation. Strange fire signifies man’s natural enthusiasm, natural affection, natural strength, and natural ability offered to God. Nadab and Abihu did something for God, but they did it in a natural way. Hence, God judged this offering by consuming the two priests (v. 2). This is a strong warning showing us that in touching the divine things we need to apply the cross to our natural life. Otherwise, our careless touching of the holy things of God will bring in spiritual deadness, and may even result in physical death (Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 11:27-32; 1 John 5:16), as a judgment from the holy God. See notes 72 in 2 Sam. 6 and 291 in Heb. 12.
Lv 10:1a fire  -   cf. Rev. 8:5
Lv 10:21a fire  -   Num. 16:35; cf. Lev. 9:24
This fire was the opposite of common fire. It was from God, not from man, and it was from the heavens, not from the earth. Furthermore, it was for judgment, not for acceptance (cf. 9:24).
Lv 10:3a In  -   Exo. 19:22; 29:43-44
Lv 10:31 sanctified
On God’s side the fire of His judgment (v. 2) also sanctifies Him in His serving ones who come near to Him and glorifies Him before His people.
Lv 10:41 outside
This signifies that the deadness of unholiness should be kept away from the sphere of God’s holiness and also from the community, the fellowship, of God’s people.
Lv 10:61 dishevel
This signifies that even God’s judgment of death upon the relatives should not be an excuse for His serving ones to be disorderly in their subjection to the headship of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 11:10, 15) and to break the perfection of their conduct (cf. notes 21 and 22 in Exo. 28), that they might not suffer deadness in their spiritual life and cause God to be unhappy with His people.
Lv 10:62 weep
This signifies that the whole body of God’s people should grieve over the judgment of God upon the unholiness of His serving ones.
Lv 10:7a anointing  -   Lev. 8:30; 21:12
Lv 10:91 Drink
This charge indicates that the reason Nadab and Abihu acted carelessly and without fear in offering strange fire to God might have been that they were drunk with wine or strong drink. The charge in vv. 9-11 signifies that God’s serving ones, in coming into the church life, should not drink anything of the worldly enjoyment, of the fleshly interest, and of the natural excitement that they might not suffer spiritual deadness but be able to make a distinction between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean, and be able to teach God’s people His regulations.
Lv 10:9a wine  -   Num. 6:3; Ezek. 44:21; Luke 1:15; cf. 1 Tim. 3:3, 8
Lv 10:121 meal
The eating of the remainder of the meal offering, as the priests’ portion, unleavened in a holy place beside the altar (vv. 12-13) signifies that after God has enjoyed His portion (2:2, 9), the remaining part of Christ in His humanity as our meal offering is for us, the New Testament priests, to enjoy as our portion without sin (unleavened), in God’s presence (in a holy place), and beside the cross (the altar).
The judgment of God on Aaron’s two sons did not terminate God’s mercy on His people. The giving of the meal offering to Aaron and his two sons immediately after God’s disciplinary judgment and correction in vv. 1-11 was a further expression of God’s mercy and grace.
Lv 10:12a remains  -   Lev. 2:3, 10
Lv 10:13a your  -   Lev. 2:3; 6:16; Num. 18:9-10
Lv 10:141 breast
See note 291 in ch. 7.
Lv 10:16a goat  -   Lev. 9:15
Lv 10:17a eaten  -   Lev. 6:26
Lv 10:171 bear
The priests’ partaking of the sin offering to bear the iniquity of the people signifies that we, the New Testament priests, partake of Christ as the believers’ sin offering in the sense of participating in Christ’s life, the life that bears others’ sins, as our life supply that we may be able to bear the problems of God’s people. The rich enjoyment of Christ as our sin offering in the church life enables us to minister Christ to the believers as the life that deals with sin, that they may deal with their sins to restore their broken fellowship with God (cf. Gal. 6:1-2; Eph. 4:2).
Lv 10:172 expiation
See note 11 in ch. 16.
Lv 10:18a blood  -   Lev. 6:30
Lv 10:191 eaten
Due to their weakness concerning God’s judgment on Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and his sons were not fit to eat the sin offering (vv. 16-17, 19-20). This signifies that if we are weak in accepting God’s judgment on the serving ones who are intimate and close to us, we will not be able to partake of Christ as our sin offering in the way of taking His sinless life as our life supply so that we can minister Him to the believers as the life that deals with their sin.
On the one hand, Aaron and his sons were weak concerning God’s judgment; on the other hand, Aaron had a proper consideration, for he and his sons were sorrowful and unhappy, and eating the sin offering under such circumstances would not have been pleasing to the Lord. Aaron’s response pleased Moses, who represented God (v. 20). Aaron and his sons had not followed the divine regulation in a legal way, not because of disobedience but because of a positive consideration of their circumstances. This incident indicates that with respect to keeping the regulations made by God, in God’s mercy there is a margin for consideration. What Aaron and his sons did was seemingly against God’s regulation, but actually it was something done in wisdom.
Leviticus Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 11:11 Then
The section of this book from chs. 11 — 27 concerns the living of God’s people, a living that is holy, clean, and full of rejoicing. See note 11 in ch. 1.
Lv 11:21a eat  -   vv. 2-20: Deut. 14:3-19; cf. Matt. 15:11; Mark 7:15, 18; Acts 10:12-15; 11:6-9; Rom. 14:14; 1 Cor. 8:8; Col. 2:16; Heb. 9:10
To eat is to contact things outside of us and to receive them into us, with the result that they eventually become our inner constitution. In this chapter all the animals signify different kinds of people, and eating signifies our contacting of people (cf. Acts 10:9b-15, 27-29). For God’s people to live a holy life as required by the holy God, they must be careful about the kind of people they contact (cf. vv. 46-47; 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Cor. 6:14-18).
Lv 11:31 has
Lit., divides the hoof, that is, splits the split of its hoofs (cf. vv. 7, 26). Animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud (v. 3; cf. vv. 4-8, 26-28) signify persons who have discernment in their activities (Phil. 1:9-10) and who receive the word of God with much reconsideration (see note 151 in Psa. 119).
Lv 11:4a camel  -   cf. Matt. 3:4
Lv 11:7a pig  -   Matt. 7:6; Luke 8:33
Lv 11:91 fins
In the Bible the sea signifies the fallen, corrupted world (Dan. 7:3, 17; Rev. 17:15). Fins help fish to move, to act, in water according to their wishes, and scales protect the fish and keep those fish that live in the sea from being salted. Hence, aquatic animals that have fins and scales (vv. 9-12) signify persons who can move and act freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence.
Lv 11:131 birds
Birds that have wings for flying and that eat seeds of life as their food supply signify persons who can live and move in a life that is away from and above the world and who take things of life as their life supply. The unclean birds mentioned in vv. 13-19, which do not feed on seeds but feed on carcasses, signify persons who feed on the things of death. See note 71 in Gen. 8.
Lv 11:13a vulture  -   cf. Matt. 24:28; Luke 17:37
Lv 11:15a raven  -   Gen. 8:7; Luke 12:24
Lv 11:201 flying
Lit., winged swarming things. So also in vv. 21 and 23.
Lv 11:211 legs
Insects that have wings and have legs above their feet for leaping on the ground (vv. 21-22, cf. vv. 23-25) signify persons who can live and move in a life that is above the world and who can keep themselves from the world.
Lv 11:22a locust  -   Exo. 10:4; Joel 1:4; cf. Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6
Lv 11:251 wash
A person defiled by the carcass of an animal had to wash his clothes (vv. 25, 28a, 40), signifying that our conduct in our daily life (signified by clothing — Isa. 64:6a) should be washed from the defilement of death.
Lv 11:291 swarming
Or, crawling things that crawl. So also in vv. 41-43 (cf. vv. 31, 44, 46). All the creatures that crawl on the earth were unclean (vv. 41-44). Creatures that go on their stomach or on all fours or have many feet (v. 42) signify Satan with all the evil spirits and demons, persons who are filled with Satan, who contact evil spirits and demons, and persons who live in the world and cleave to the world, being unable to sever themselves from the world (cf. Gen. 3:14; Rev. 12:9; Luke 10:19 and note 2).
Lv 11:311 dead
In this chapter the word carcass (or carcasses) is used thirteen times, and dead (or dies) is used three times. All dead things are unclean (vv. 8, 11, 24, 27, 31-40). Uncleanness, therefore, is synonymous with death. The mentioning of death in relation to diet indicates that our diet, our eating, is a matter of life and death. Life is of the tree of life, and death is of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9, 17 and notes). Death is abominable to God. Therefore, in order to live a holy life, we need to abstain from death, i.e., spiritual death.
Lv 11:312 until
According to the Bible, death is more defiling and abominable than sin. Through the trespass offering any sin could be forgiven immediately (ch. 5), but a person who touched the carcass of any animal was unclean until the evening (vv. 24-25, 27b-28a, 31b-32, 39-40). Our sins are forgiven by the Lord immediately after we confess them to Him (1 John 1:9), but a certain period of time must pass before we can be cleansed from the defilement of spiritual death. A person who touched the carcass of a man was unclean for seven days (Num. 19:11, 13), indicating that in the eyes of God, fallen human beings are the most defiling element (cf. Matt. 15:17-20).
Lv 11:321 water
Anything upon which the carcass of any animal fell was unclean and had to be put into water, signifying that the defilement of death should be washed away by the cleansing of the Spirit of life (signified here by water — John 7:38-39).
Lv 11:331 vessel
Lit., it. An earthen vessel signifies the natural, created man (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7). The carcass of any animal falling into an earthen vessel or upon an oven or stove made it unclean, and that vessel or that oven or stove had to be broken (vv. 33, 35). This signifies that our natural man, our being, our self, that has been defiled in our daily life needs to be broken by the cross of Christ (cf. Luke 9:23).
Lv 11:341 food
Any food upon which water came from a vessel that had been defiled by a carcass, and any drink in such a vessel, were unclean, signifying that a person (signified by the food or the drink) who is touched by the earthly (worldly) flow or mixed with it in his daily life is easily affected by the defilement of death.
Lv 11:361 spring
A spring or a cistern collecting water remained clean, signifying that anything that has the flow of living water, which washes away the defilement of death at any time, remains clean. The spring of living water signifies the Spirit (John 4:14; 7:38-39), and the cistern of living water signifies Christ, who holds the living water (John 4:10; 7:37). As long as we have the spring and the cistern, the Spirit and Christ, in our daily life, we shall remain clean.
Lv 11:371 seed
The seed for sowing remained clean, signifying that anything that is living and possesses life that has the strength to resist defilement remains clean. The seed here typifies Christ as the seed of life (see note 31 in Mark 4).
Lv 11:44a be  -   Exo. 19:6; Lev. 19:2; 20:7, 26; 1 Thes. 4:7; 1 Pet. 1:16; Rev. 15:4
Lv 11:44b I  -   Lev. 21:8; Rev. 15:4
Lv 11:45a you  -   cf. Heb. 12:10
Lv 11:471 clean
The matter of eating involves cleanness, the reality of which is Christ, who is our content, life supply, and spiritual food (John 6:35, 57). All the clean living creatures are types of Christ. Only Christ is able to keep us holy, as God is holy (v. 45b). Only Christ and that which is out of Christ are clean for our food supply. This only is what we should contact, eat, and receive.
Leviticus Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 12:21 woman
In figure the woman represents all mankind (see note 21 in Gen. 3). Thus, the uncleanness within the woman signifies the uncleanness within all mankind. Since the source is unclean, whatever is born of the source must also be unclean. All mankind was born in uncleanness (Psa. 51:5) and consequently lives in uncleanness (Eph. 2:1-3; 4:17-19). In ch. 11 the uncleanness is outside of man, but in this chapter the uncleanness is within man (cf. Matt. 15:17-20; Rom. 5:19a).
Lv 12:22 seven
The uncleanness of the male’s birth is for seven days, but that of the female’s is for two weeks (vv. 2, 5a), signifying that the male (representing the strong ones) is fully (signified by the seven days) unclean in spite of his strength, and that the female (representing the weak ones — 1 Pet. 3:7) is doubly (signified by the two weeks) unclean in her weakness.
Lv 12:31 eighth
Verses 3 and 6 reveal the way to deal with the uncleanness in human birth. In this verse the eighth day, the beginning of a new week, refers to Christ’s resurrection (Matt. 28:1; John 20:1), and circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh, refers to the terminating of the old man in Christ’s crucifixion (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20a). The circumcising of the male on the eighth day after his birth signifies that the flesh of the unclean person (i.e., the entire person — Rom. 3:20) should be cut off, terminated, through the death of Christ that he might be brought into the resurrection of Christ not only to be cleansed but also to have a new beginning of life (Col. 2:11-12). See notes 101 and 121 in Gen. 17.
Lv 12:3a circumcised  -   Gen. 17:12; Luke 1:59; 2:21; John 7:22; Acts 15:1
See note 31.
Lv 12:41 thirty-three
After the birth of a male, the woman was to remain in the blood of her purifying thirty-three days, and after the birth of a female, sixty-six days (v. 5b). In the case of the male the total number of days for purifying was forty (seven plus thirty-three), and in the case of the female the total number of days was eighty (fourteen plus sixty-six). In the Bible the number forty denotes a period of testing (Deut. 9:9; 1 Kings 19:8). Because the birth of a human being is altogether unclean, it must be tested for cleanness. The uncleanness of a female’s birth should be doubly tested for cleanness.
Lv 12:42 sanctified
During the test of the uncleanness, the woman’s not being allowed to touch any sanctified thing or to enter into the sanctuary signifies that man is not allowed to touch the things concerning God or go into the presence of God until his uncleanness is dealt with (see notes 31 and 61).
Lv 12:6a purifying  -   Luke 2:22
Lv 12:6b lamb  -   Lev. 1:10-13; cf. Gen. 22:7; Num. 6:14
Lv 12:61 burnt
After the completion of the test of the uncleanness, a burnt offering and a sin offering were to be offered (vv. 6-8), signifying that after our uncleanness by birth is fully dealt with through Christ’s death and resurrection (v. 3 and note), we need Christ further to be our burnt offering for our not being for God and to be our sin offering for our sin (Heb. 10:5-7), that Christ may be our life and our living that is absolute for God and that He may deal with the sin that is still in our flesh as we live on earth (1 John 1:7 — 2:2).
Lv 12:8a two  -   Lev. 1:14
Leviticus Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 13:21a swelling  -   Lev. 14:56
Leprosy signifies the serious sin issuing from within man, such as willful sin, presumptuous sin, and opposing God with determination. As seen in the cases of Miriam (Num. 12:1-10), Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20-27), and Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:16-21), leprosy issues from rebellion against God’s authority, against God’s deputy authority, against God’s regulation, and against God’s economy. In the biblical sense, sin is rebellion (1 John 3:4 and note 2). Thus, leprosy signifies sin. The first case of sin in the Bible was Satan’s rebellion against God (Ezek. 28:13-18; Isa. 14:12-15). Hence, sin as rebellion was invented, inaugurated, by the rebellious archangel Lucifer. Eventually, this sin, this leprosy, entered into mankind through Adam (Rom. 5:12, 19a; 7:20), and having entered into man, it issues from within man as many kinds of sins, i.e., many manifestations of rebellion. Hence, a leper represents the fallen descendants of Adam, all of whom are lepers. See note 21 in Matt. 8.
As signs of leprosy, a swelling, eruption, or a bright spot on the skin of one’s flesh signifies man’s outward expressions in unruliness, in friction with others, and in pride and self-exaltation.
Lv 13:22 body
Lit., flesh. So throughout this chapter.
Lv 13:2b leprosy  -   Num. 12:10, 14-15; 2 Chron. 26:21; Matt. 8:2
See note 21.
Lv 13:23 Aaron
Being brought to the priest, being examined by him, and being shut up (isolated) for seven days (vv. 2c-28) signify being brought, on the one hand, to the Lord and, on the other hand, to one who serves God, being examined by them, and being kept from contact with others for a complete course of time.
Lv 13:31a white  -   Exo. 4:6; Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27
The hair turning white signifies that the strength for behavior, the strength to live a normal life, is deteriorating. In contrast, black hair signifies that one is strong in the spirit to live a proper Christian life through one’s submission to God (S.S. 5:11 and note; cf. Rev. 1:14 and note 1).
Lv 13:32 deeper
The infection being deeper than the skin signifies that one’s wrong behavior is covered and is not confessed. The infection not being deeper than the skin and the hair in it not having turned white (v. 4) signifies that one’s wrong behavior is confessed, not covered, and that his strength for behavior has not deteriorated.
Lv 13:61 faded
The infection having faded and having not spread in the skin signifies that one’s weakness has been swallowed up by life through Christ’s recovery work in him with grace. Such a person has been healed, recovered.
Lv 13:101 raw
The appearing of white hair and living raw flesh signifies that the old sin has come back again through the weakening of the strength for behavior.
Lv 13:121 covers
The condition in vv. 12-13 signifies that one who is full of sin and who is willing to confess all his sin before God is forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9).
Lv 13:141 raw
This signifies that the old sin has come back again. However, the raw flesh turning white again and the leper being pronounced clean (vv. 16-17) signifies that if the repeated sin is confessed, it will be forgiven and cleansed (1 John 1:9).
Lv 13:181 boil
Leprosy breaking out in a boil that has healed (vv. 18-20) signifies that one becomes weak (the hair turning white) in his outward living after being saved and has new weak points manifested in his conduct.
Lv 13:241 flesh
The condition in vv. 24-25 signifies that a saved person’s acting by the flesh, e.g., his losing his temper, his justifying himself, and his not being willing to forgive others, is a sign of spiritual leprosy.
Lv 13:291 head
In the Bible the head, especially the hair on the head, signifies man’s glory (1 Cor. 11:7, 15), and a beard is related to dignity, to one’s self-assumed honor. The fact that there can be an infection on the head and on the beard indicates that it is easy for leprosy, the sin of rebellion, to be hidden within human glory and dignity.
An infection on the head signifies something wrong in the subjection to authority and in the thinking of the mind (cf. 2 Cor. 10:5; 2 Tim. 3:8). An infection on the beard signifies being self-dignified, hunting for exaltation from others (cf. Matt. 6:1-6; Luke 11:43; 14:7-11).
Lv 13:301 thin
Thin yellowish hair signifies the deteriorating of the strength to live a normal Christian life because of one’s disobedience to God’s word. See note 31.
Lv 13:311 not
The infection not being deeper than the skin signifies that the person does not cover his sin, and there being no black hair in it signifies that he does not have the strength to resist it.
Lv 13:331 shave
Shaving the beard but not the hair signifies dealing with being self-dignified and seeking exaltation from others, but keeping the subjection to authority (cf. 1 Cor. 11:10, 15).
Lv 13:341 wash
Clothes signify our conduct (Isa. 64:6). Washing one’s clothes signifies washing away the stains of weak points in conduct, offenses, defects, words of rebellion, and improper activities, first by the blood of Christ and then by the Spirit (Rev. 7:14; 1 Cor. 6:11).
Lv 13:371 the
Lit., his.
Lv 13:372 black
The growing of black hair in the scale signifies that the spiritual strength for one to live a normal Christian life is increasing at the point of one’s weakness.
Lv 13:381 white
White bright spots signify the disease of self-display (cf. Matt. 6:1-6). The dull whiteness of the bright spots (v. 39) signifies that one has humbled himself and has been recovered from the disease of self-display.
Lv 13:401 loses
The losing of the hair on the head or of the hair on the forehead and the temples (v. 41) (baldness) signifies the losing of subjection to authority, yet without being in rebellion before men, i.e., without the sign of leprosy (vv. 42-44).
Lv 13:44a leprous  -   Num. 12:10, 14-15; 2 Chron. 26:21; Matt. 8:2
Lv 13:451 clothes
The leper’s open confession of his leprosy to others (vv. 45-46) signifies that a sinner makes an open confession of his sin to others. Tearing one’s clothes is a sign of admitting one’s moral bankruptcy. Letting loose the hair signifies that one is utterly lacking in subjection to authority, being unruly and reckless. Covering the upper lip indicates that whatever issues out of a leper (a sinner) is filthy and contagious and that he should not be contacted. Crying “Unclean, unclean!” indicates self-condemnation without ceasing. Dwelling alone outside the camp (v. 46) signifies that, until he clears up his sinfulness, the one who has sinned should stay outside the church and be isolated from the fellowship among God’s people (1 Cor. 5:13).
Lv 13:46a outside  -   Num. 5:2-3; 12:14-15; cf. 2 Kings 7:3; 15:5; 2 Chron. 26:21; Luke 17:12; 2 John 11
Lv 13:471a garment  -   cf. Jude 23; Rev. 3:4
Leprosy in a garment (vv. 47-59) signifies the filthiness in one’s outward living, conduct, contact with people, etc.
Lv 13:472 woolen
Since wool is soft, woolen garments signify one’s conduct, contact with people, etc., in meekness. Linen is pure, plain, and simple; thus, linen garments signify one’s conduct, contact with people, etc., in plainness. Clothing made from skins (v. 48) is warm; hence, garments made of skins signify one’s conduct, contact with people, etc., in warmness. As signified by these three kinds of garments, our conduct should be in meekness, in plainness, and in warmness, with no sign of leprosy — the expression of sin and rebellion.
Lv 13:481 warp
The warp in the weave of a garment goes from top to bottom, and the woof, from left to right. Thus, the warp signifies our outward conduct toward God, our relationship with God, and the woof signifies our outward conduct toward others. Our conduct in our daily walk is an interweaving that involves both God and man. We need to be proper with both God and man; i.e., in our garments, our conduct, there should be no leprosy, rebellion, either in the warp or in the woof, either toward God or toward man.
Lv 13:491 greenish
The greenish or reddish infection in the garment signifies the abnormal and strange change in one’s living and conduct. The infection spreading in the garment, becoming a malignant leprosy (v. 51) of the kind that spreads by eating the flesh, signifies sin that is spreading within a person by devouring the person, becoming worse and worse in its malignancy.
Lv 13:49a shown  -   Matt. 8:4; Mark 1:44; Luke 5:14; 17:14
Lv 13:521 burn
Burning the garment in fire signifies eliminating the sinful and filthy living and conduct by dealing with it strongly by the cross of Christ (Gal. 5:19-24).
Lv 13:541 wash
Washing the garment in which the infection has not spread signifies dealing with the suspected weakness in one’s living and conduct by the washing Spirit of God, who is likened to water for washing (1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:5).
Lv 13:551 leprous
A leprous decay is very serious; it signifies the corroding sin that is becoming worse and deeper, having no change in appearance through repentance and confession. This is the kind of sin that can take over a person, devouring and swallowing him up.
Lv 13:561 tear
The tearing out of the faded infected part of a garment signifies the eliminating, through a thorough dealing, of the suspected weakness in one’s living and conduct. The reappearing of the infection in the garment (v. 57) signifies that one’s weakness, after being dealt with and eliminated, has come out again.
Lv 13:581 second
The washing of the garment a second time after the infection has departed through washing signifies that one’s weakness, having been dealt with, should be dealt with further, a second time.
Leviticus Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 14:21 cleansing
The cleansing of the leper in this chapter portrays the rich, complete, and extensive salvation God has prepared and accomplished for us in Christ. In this salvation Christ is the all-inclusive One who has passed through a number of processes and is everything we need for our cleansing.
Lv 14:22a brought  -   Lev. 13:49
The leper being brought to the priest signifies an unclean person, a sinner, being brought to the Lord.
Lv 14:31a outside  -   Lev. 13:46
The priest going forth outside the camp to examine the leper signifies the Lord Jesus leaving His original place in the heavens and humbling Himself to come to the earth in order to be near to the sinner (cf. Matt. 8:1-4 and notes).
Lv 14:32 healed
The healing of sin (leprosy) is the issue of our repentance and the working of the divine life within us (see note 321 in John 8).
Lv 14:41 birds
The two living clean birds are types of Christ, who is clean, without any defilement, and full of the life that is able to fly above the earth. The birds here signify that Christ came from the heavens and that He belongs to the heavens and transcends the earth. The bird that was killed (v. 5) signifies the crucified Christ, who died for us that our filthiness might be taken away (1 Pet. 2:24). The second bird, which was let go into the open field (vv. 6-7), signifies the resurrected Christ, who rose from the dead for us that we might be delivered from our weakness by the power, strength, and energy of His resurrection life — the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God (Rom. 8:2).
Lv 14:42a cedar  -   Num. 19:6; Lev. 14:49-52
Cedar wood (cf. 1 Kings 4:33) signifies the honorable and uplifted humanity of Jesus, which enables Him to be our Savior. Hyssop, being one of the smallest of the plants, signifies here that the Lord Jesus was willing to become lowly in His “becoming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7) that He might be near to man and become man’s Savior (cf. Matt. 8:2-3). Scarlet, a dark red color, signifies the shedding of blood (Josh. 2:18 and note) and also implies kingship (Matt. 27:28-29). All of this signifies that in order to cleanse us from our leprosy, the Lord lowered Himself to become a man of high standard but of low status that He might do the will of God and shed His blood on the cross for our redemption, thereby being glorified in His resurrection and becoming the honorable and high King (Phil. 2:5-11).
Lv 14:4b scarlet  -   Heb. 9:19; cf. Josh. 2:18
See note 42.
Lv 14:4c hyssop  -   Exo. 12:22; Psa. 51:7
See note 42.
Lv 14:43 cleansed
The one who had been healed from leprosy (v. 3) still needed to seek to be cleansed before God, signifying that the one who is sick of the sin of leprosy, although he has been healed by the divine life within, still needs to have his shortcomings and defilement dealt with before God that he might be cleansed. Our seeking to be cleansed is our cooperation with God’s grace and love.
Lv 14:51 running
Lit., living. So throughout the book. The earthen vessel signifies the humanity of Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7), and the living water signifies the living and eternal Spirit of God (John 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1). The bird being killed in an earthen vessel over living water signifies that through His death in His humanity the Lord Jesus offered Himself to God through the eternal and living Spirit who was within Him (Heb. 9:14).
Lv 14:61 living
The things recorded in vv. 6-7 signify that the Lord’s perfect redemption not only causes man to be cleansed objectively in his position but also causes man to experience subjectively, in the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s suffering in the shedding of His blood in His honorable, uplifted, and yet lowly humanity and to experience His death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification (Eph. 2:5-6; Phil. 3:10, 21; Col. 3:1-4). These things are all implied in the significances of the two birds, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet strands (see notes 41, 42, 71, and 72).
Lv 14:71 sprinkle
The sprinkling of the blood of the slain bird on the leper who was to be cleansed signifies that the blood shed by Christ was sprinkled on us, the sinners (1 Pet. 1:2), and this sprinkling connects us to Christ, the Redeemer (cf. note 222 in Exo. 12). The sprinkling of the blood seven times signifies the completeness of the cleansing of the Lord’s blood (1 John 1:7, 9).
Lv 14:7a seven  -   cf. 2 Kings 5:10, 14
Lv 14:72b let  -   Lev. 14:53; cf. Lev. 16:22
Christ’s ascension is signified by the living bird’s soaring in the air. Letting the living bird go into the open field signifies that the living Christ causes the cleansed sinner to experience not only Christ’s death and resurrection but also His ascension (2 Cor. 5:14-15; Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1-3). See note 41.
Lv 14:81 wash
The leper’s washing his clothes, shaving off all his hair, and bathing himself in water signifies that in addition to experiencing Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension in his union with Christ through His redemption (vv. 5-7), a sinner who is to be cleansed needs to bear the responsibility himself to deal with and cut off all that is of his old living and natural life.
For the significance of washing one’s clothes, shaving off one’s hair, and bathing oneself in water, see note 341 in ch. 13, note 91 in this chapter, and note 51 in ch. 15, respectively.
Lv 14:82 dwell
The clean leper coming into the camp but dwelling outside his tent for seven days signifies that a sinner who is to be cleansed is still unable to recover the fellowship with the brothers; he needs to be watchful, to wait, and to be dealt with further. This indicates that dealing with our sin, our leprosy, our rebellion, which comes from Satan, is a serious matter with God.
Lv 14:8a seven  -   Num. 12:15
Lv 14:91 hair
The hair of the head signifies man’s glory in self-display; the beard, man’s self-assumed honor; the eyebrows, man’s excellencies, merits, and virtues issuing from his natural birth; and all the hair of the body, man’s natural strength and ability. The shaving off of all the hair and the bathing in water equal getting rid of the self with all its glory, honor, excellencies, merits, virtues, strength, and ability through the “razor” of the cross. When we have nothing and are nothing, we shall be clean (cf. Phil. 3:7-11).
Lv 14:92 wash
The leper’s shaving of his entire body, washing his clothes, and bathing his flesh a second time after waiting and watching seven days signifies that a sinner who is to be cleansed needs to bear the responsibility for dealing with every part of his natural life and daily walk. This shows that if we deal with our sin and our sinful self seriously, in a definite, thorough, and absolute way, we shall be clean.
Lv 14:9a clean  -   Lev. 14:19-20; cf. Mark 1:40
Lv 14:101 And
As revealed in vv. 10-32, in addition to his cleansing (v. 9), the leper who was to be cleansed still needed to solve the problem of his sin and sins before God by offering the trespass offering, the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering to make expiation for himself before God (vv. 18-20). This signifies that a sinner who is to be cleansed, even though he has been cleansed, still needs to solve the problem of his sin and sins before God through Christ as the reality of the offerings to make propitiation for himself before God. Expiation (see note 11 in ch. 16) was needed in addition to healing (v. 3) and cleansing (vv. 4-9) in order to appease God and bring the leper (the sinner) back into fellowship with God.
Lv 14:102 eighth
Presenting the offerings before God on the eighth day (vv. 10-11) signifies that man is freed in Christ in resurrection from the flesh of the old creation.
Lv 14:10a meal  -   cf. Num. 15:4; Lev. 2:1-16
Lv 14:103 log
A liquid measure of approximately half a liter. Oil here typifies the Holy Spirit.
Lv 14:12a trespass  -   Lev. 5:18-19; 6:6
Lv 14:121b wave  -   Exo. 29:24
See note 241 in Exo. 29. The offering of the male lamb for a trespass offering, with the log of oil, both of which were waved before Jehovah, signifies that the death of the Lord Jesus as the trespass offering deals with our sins, and His resurrection in the Holy Spirit frees us from our trespasses, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24).
Lv 14:131 place
The slaughtering of the male lamb for the trespass offering in the place where the sin offering and the burnt offering were slaughtered signifies that the Lord Jesus’ being able to deal with our sins as our trespass offering is based on His bearing our sin as our sin offering and on His living absolutely for God as our burnt offering.
Lv 14:13a slaughter  -   Lev. 1:11; 4:4, 24
Lv 14:132 priest’s
Cf. note 261 in ch. 6.
Lv 14:14a right  -   Lev. 14:17, 25, 28; Exo. 29:20; Lev. 8:23; cf. Rev. 2:7
Lv 14:141 ear
This signifies that man has trespasses because, first, his ears are wrong in not listening to God; second, his hands are wrong in not doing the things of God; and third, his feet are wrong in not taking the ways of God. Therefore, he needs to be cleansed with the blood of the Lord Jesus as his trespass offering in all these aspects. Cf. note 201 in Exo. 29.
Lv 14:171 ear
This signifies that man can solve the problem of his trespasses only by listening to the word of God, doing the things of God, and taking the ways of God in the Spirit of resurrection, based on the redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus as the trespass offering (v. 14).
Lv 14:181 head
Putting the oil on the head signifies that the authority of the headship, the thoughts of the mind, and the control of the entire being of the sinner who is to be cleansed are dealt with in the cleansing Spirit of resurrection.
Lv 14:182 expiation
See note 11 in ch. 16.
Lv 14:191 sin
This signifies that the Lord Jesus was offered as our sin offering to deal with our uncleanness at the root (the sinful nature) of our sins, which are dealt with by the Lord Jesus as the trespass offering.
Lv 14:201 burnt
The offering of the burnt offering and the meal offering here signifies that the sinner who is to be cleansed, after having been cleansed from the uncleanness of sin and sins through Christ as his sin offering and trespass offering, offers himself in Christ as a burnt offering to God and lives and walks absolutely for God by the life of Christ as the meal offering. Thus the sinner who is to be cleansed, having been healed, cleansed, and expiated, is fully cleansed from his uncleanness.
Lv 14:211 poor
The regulations for the poor in vv. 21-32 signify that a sinner who is to be cleansed should partake of Christ at least at some minimum level, i.e., as much as he can. In principle he must take Christ as his sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, and meal offering, and he must take His mingling and cleansing Spirit.
Lv 14:22a turtledoves  -   Lev. 1:14
Lv 14:30a turtledoves  -   Lev. 1:14
Lv 14:341 leprosy
The house typifies the church as our real home, and the leprosy in the house signifies sins and evils in the church. God’s putting a leprous infection in a house in the land of Israel’s possession signifies that when the condition of a church becomes abnormal, God causes the leprous sin to become manifest in the church, reminding and warning the believers that they no longer have a house to live in and are no longer able to enjoy all the blessings God promised in His salvation.
Lv 14:351 priest
The owner’s coming and telling the priest signifies that the leading brothers or those who are concerned for the church approach the Lord or the apostle (1 Cor. 1:11), the Lord’s deputy, and tell the Lord or His deputy.
Lv 14:361 empty
This signifies to do one’s best to prevent and eliminate the contagion.
Lv 14:362 priest
This signifies that the Lord or the apostle comes to examine. This kind of examination is not for condemnation but is a grace for healing.
Lv 14:371 deeper
This signifies that the problem of the church is not only on the surface but is deeper, beneath the surface. The communication and fellowship of such a church (the entrance of the house) should be kept under observation for a complete course of time (seven days — v. 38).
Lv 14:38a seven  -   Lev. 13:50
Lv 14:401 take
The removing of the infected stones after seven days signifies that after the observation of a complete period of time, if the problem of the church is still spreading, the believer or believers involved in the problem should be removed from the fellowship of the church and be considered unclean, like the outsiders (cf. 1 Cor. 5:13; Rom. 16:17; Titus 3:10; 2 Thes. 3:6, 14). This is done to stop the spread of the disease and to eliminate the disease.
Lv 14:411 scraped
This signifies that because of a few believers, the whole church should be dealt with, and whatever is dealt with should be put out of the church as unclean.
Lv 14:421 stones
Putting other stones in the place of the removed stones signifies using other believers (1 Pet. 2:5) to fill in the gap.
Lv 14:422 replaster
The replastering of the house with other plaster signifies the renewing of the church with new experiences of the Lord’s gracious works. This is needed for a new start in the church life.
Lv 14:451 break
The breaking down of the house after the infection of leprosy returns signifies that if the situation of a church reaches the point where it cannot be cured, healed, that church should be terminated (cf. Rev. 2:5).
Lv 14:461 evening
This signifies that with him who touches the defiled things, the old day should be ended and there should be a new beginning.
Lv 14:471 lies
This signifies that those who are not involved positively in the service in the church (those who lie down in the house) in which there is a problem, as well as those who only enjoy the supply in that church (those who eat in the house), should also be cleansed in their living and behavior.
Lv 14:481 not
This signifies that if no sin is spreading after the renewing of the church with the new experiences of the Lord’s gracious works, the church is clean and has no problem.
Lv 14:491 And
Verses 49-51 reveal that the leprosy in a house is cleansed in the same way as the cleansing of the leprosy in a man (vv. 4-9 and notes). This signifies that the whole church experiences once again the suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and entering into glory with Christ.
Lv 14:521 purify
This signifies that the whole church needs to be cleansed with the eternally efficacious blood of Christ and His eternal and living Spirit. See note 51.
Lv 14:531 let
Letting the living bird go, outside the city into the open field signifies that the healed and cleansed church enters with Christ into the realm and experience of His resurrection and ascension. See note 72.
Lv 14:532 clean
The house being clean signifies that the church is fully clean to be the mutual dwelling of God and man (John 14:2).
Lv 14:54a scale  -   Lev. 13:30
Lv 14:55a garment  -   Lev. 13:47-59
Lv 14:55b house  -   Lev. 14:33-53
Lv 14:56a swelling  -   Lev. 13:2
Leviticus Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 15:21 body
Lit., flesh. So throughout this chapter. Our body is our being, our constitution. Hence, the discharges from our body are the discharges from our being or from our constitution. The uncleanness of the discharges from man’s body (vv. 2-3) signifies that whatever issues from man’s natural life, whether good or evil, is unclean (cf. Matt. 16:21-24; Rom. 7:18).
Lv 15:31 there
Lit., his body runs with his discharge, or, his body is stopped from his discharge.
Lv 15:41 bed
Everything and anyone who touches man’s discharge is unclean (vv. 4-11), signifying that anything touched by or that touches the issue of man’s natural life is unclean. Because we were born in uncleanness (12:1-8; Psa. 51:5) and are a totality of uncleanness, whatever issues out of our natural being as a discharge is both unclean and contagious, causing everyone, everything, and every place to be defiled.
Lv 15:51a wash  -   cf. Lev. 14:8; 16:26; 17:15
Washing the clothes and bathing in water (vv. 5-8, 10-11) signify not only dealing with our outward living and behavior and all the media through which man’s natural life is contacted but also dealing with ourselves by washing in the water of life, the cleansing Spirit of life (John 7:37-39; Rom. 8:2), in the word of God (Eph. 5:26 and notes), purging away anything that is affected by our natural life.
Lv 15:52 until
Until the evening signifies coming to an end through death. Hence, the uncleanness being until the evening (vv. 5-8, 10-11) signifies that the uncleanness of the issue of man’s natural life should come to an end through the death of the cross that there might be a new beginning in resurrection. The way to be clean is to die by taking the cross of Christ and thereby entering a new day in resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:14-15).
Lv 15:111 rinsed
Rinsing the hands in water signifies purging away our filthiness with the word of God and with the life and Spirit in the word of God (Eph. 5:26; John 6:63).
Lv 15:121a broken  -   Lev. 6:28; 11:32-33
This signifies that the created and fallen man (earthen vessel) should be broken, whereas the God-created humanity (wooden vessel) should be kept but needs to be rinsed. See note 111.
Lv 15:131 seven
This signifies that the dealing with our natural life should be to the extent that our natural life is fully terminated (seven days) and that we should be cleansed with the word of God in His Spirit.
Lv 15:141 eighth
See note 102 in ch. 14.
Lv 15:14a turtledoves  -   Lev. 1:14
Lv 15:151 sin
The offering of two birds, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, signifies that man living by his natural life needs not only the redemption of Christ to deal with his sinful nature but also the life of Christ that he may live a life that is absolute for God. Through Christ as our sin offering and our burnt offering the problem of the issues of our natural life is solved.
Lv 15:25a discharge  -   Matt. 9:20; Mark 5:25; Luke 8:43
Lv 15:29a turtledoves  -   Lev. 1:14
Lv 15:311 die
Not being separated from one’s uncleanness but dying in one’s uncleanness by defiling God’s dwelling place signifies that once a man who has been defiled by any issue of his natural life and who has not yet been separated from his uncleanness touches the church, thereby defiling God’s dwelling place, he will suffer death (mainly spiritual death). In order to keep from defiling the church by the uncleanness of our natural life, we need to remain in the death, resurrection, Spirit, life, and word of Christ.
Leviticus Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 16:11 Then
Because of the negative situation of God’s people, as portrayed in chs. 11 — 15, according to God’s concept and in His divine economy there is the need of redemption. Because the Old Testament time was not the time for redemption to take place, a type, a shadow, of the coming redemption was needed. This shadow is the expiation in this chapter. The expiation accomplished through the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament is a type pointing to the redemption accomplished by Christ in the New Testament.
The root of the Hebrew word translated expiation means to cover. The noun form of this word is rendered expiation cover in v. 2 and in Exo. 25:17. The root of the Greek word used in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, translated propitiation in Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; and 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, means to appease (the situation between two parties). On the Day of Expiation the blood of the sin offering was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the expiation cover, the lid of the Ark (vv. 14-15), which covered the Ten Commandments within the Ark (Exo. 25:16), signifying that the sin of the ones coming to contact God had been covered but not yet removed (see note 33 in Heb. 1). In this way the situation of fallen man in relation to God was appeased but was not fully settled, until Christ came to accomplish redemption by offering Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice to take away man’s sin (Heb. 9:12; 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; John 1:29). See notes 252 and 253 in Rom. 3, 174 in Heb. 2, 122 in Heb. 9, and 21 in 1 John 2.
Lv 16:1a death  -   Lev. 10:1-2
Lv 16:21 not
This signifies that man, being sinful because of the fall, is unable to enter into God’s presence in himself. Man’s coming near to God must be through Christ as his sin offering and his burnt offering (v. 3).
Lv 16:3a come  -   Heb. 9:7, 25; cf. Heb. 9:12, 24
Lv 16:3b bull  -   Lev. 8:14
Lv 16:3c ram  -   Lev. 8:18
Lv 16:41 holy
All the linen garments worn by Aaron are types of God’s righteousness and holiness, both of which are Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Acts 3:14). Aaron’s putting on the holy garments signifies that the one who comes near to God (cf. Heb. 10:19-22) should take Christ as his righteousness and holiness in order that he may cover his entire being and express Christ (see note 21 in Exo. 28).
Lv 16:4a linen  -   Exo. 28:39-43; Lev. 6:10; Ezek. 44:17-18
Lv 16:42b bathe  -   Exo. 30:20; Lev. 8:6-7
Aaron’s bathing his flesh in water before putting on the holy garments signifies that one should deal with himself first, and then put on Christ as his covering, righteousness, and holiness (cf. Gal. 3:27).
Lv 16:51 assembly
The bull and the ram in v. 3 were for Aaron himself (vv. 6, 11), whereas the two male goats and the ram in this verse were for the people. This signifies that anyone who desires to enter into God’s presence and serve Him must himself experience Christ as the sin offering and the burnt offering that he might minister to others the Christ whom he has experienced.
Lv 16:6a himself  -   Lev. 9:7
Lv 16:61 expiation
See note 11. Aaron’s offering the bull of the sin offering for himself indicates that as a type of the believers as God’s priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10), he needed expiation for the fulfillment of the priesthood. As a type of Christ, Aaron did not need expiation.
Lv 16:81 Azazel
Azazel signifies Satan, the devil, the sinful one, the one who is the source, the origin, of sin (John 8:44). The goat that was for Jehovah was to be killed (v. 9), but the goat that was for Azazel was to be sent away into the wilderness to bear away all the iniquities of the children of Israel on itself (vv. 10, 20-22). This signifies that Christ as the sin offering for God’s people, on the one hand, deals with our sin before God and, on the other hand, sends sin, through the efficacy of the cross, back to Satan, from whom sin came into man. Through the cross the Lord Jesus has the position and qualification with the power, strength, and authority to take sin away from the redeemed ones (John 1:29; Heb. 9:26) and send it back to its source, Satan, who will bear it in the lake of fire forever (Rev. 20:10).
Lv 16:101 for
Or, to. So also in v. 26.
Lv 16:10a wilderness  -   Lev. 16:21-22
Lv 16:11a himself  -   Lev. 9:7
Lv 16:12a censer  -   Lev. 10:1; Num. 16:46; Rev. 8:3-5
Lv 16:121 incense
The burning of the incense (see Exo. 30:34-38 and notes) after the slaughtering of the sin offering, so that Aaron would not die (vv. 11-13), signifies that in His resurrection the Lord Jesus became a sweet fragrance to be the means and the protection for us to draw near to God with all boldness and be accepted by God without suffering death (cf. Heb. 10:19-22). This is one of the results produced through the redemptive, blood-shedding death (signified by the coals of fire from the altar and the finely ground incense of spices) of the Lord Jesus on the cross.
The incense was burned with the fire from the altar in the outer court, signifying that Christ’s being burned as the incense for our acceptance before God depends on His death on the cross for our sins. Christ first became the offerings to take away our sin; then, in His resurrection, with His death on the cross as the basis, He became the incense for our acceptance.
Lv 16:13a incense  -   Exo. 30:7-8; cf. Rev. 8:4
Lv 16:13b expiation  -   Exo. 25:21; Rom. 3:25
Lv 16:141a blood  -   Lev. 4:5; cf. Heb. 9:7, 12-13, 25; 10:4; 13:11
The sprinkling of the blood of the sin offering on the expiation cover (vv. 14-15) signifies that the redeeming blood of Christ was brought into the heavens, into the presence of God, and sprinkled before God to meet God’s righteous requirements for our redemption (Heb. 9:12).
Lv 16:14b sprinkle  -   Lev. 4:6; Heb. 12:24; 9:21
Lv 16:142 expiation
See note 171 in Exo. 25.
Lv 16:15a blood  -   Heb. 9:7; cf. Heb. 9:12; 12:24
Lv 16:15b inside  -   Lev. 16:2
Lv 16:161 Holy
Making expiation for the Holy of Holies and for the Tent of Meeting because of the uncleanness and transgressions of the children of Israel signifies that although we have been redeemed and washed by the blood of Christ, because we are still in the old creation and still live in uncleanness, in our worship of God there is still the consciousness of sin and thus the need of the propitiation by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7 — 2:2). This consciousness of sin will continue until we are raptured and transfigured in our body (Phil. 3:21).
Lv 16:171 no
This signifies that the Lord Jesus alone can make propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17).
Lv 16:18a put  -   Lev. 4:25, 30, 34; cf. Lev. 4:7, 18; Exo. 30:10
Lv 16:181 horns
Putting the blood of the sin offering on and around the four horns of the burnt offering altar signifies that the efficacy of the redemption accomplished on the cross is toward the four corners of the earth. According to Exo. 30:10 (cf. 4:7, 18), blood was put also on the horns of the incense altar, signifying the efficacy of Christ’s blood for us to be accepted by God in our prayer. See note 51 in ch. 4.
Lv 16:191 sprinkle
The sprinkling of the blood on the altar seven times signifies that the full (signified by the number seven) efficacy of the blood shed on the cross by Christ is so that the sinner may be at peace in his heart (cf. Heb. 9:14). The blood sprinkled on the expiation cover (vv. 14-15) was for God’s satisfaction, whereas the blood sprinkled on the altar of burnt offering was for the sinner’s peace.
Lv 16:192 cleanse
The cleansing and sanctifying of the altar from the uncleanness of the children of Israel signifies that all the world’s sins were gathered upon the cross of Christ and were cleansed away (1 Pet. 2:24a) so that God and His people may enjoy one another in a situation of cleanness.
Lv 16:20a expiation  -   Lev. 16:16, 18; Ezek. 45:20
Lv 16:201 Holy
Even the Holy of Holies, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, which are holy things, were contaminated by the uncleanness of God’s redeemed people. That expiation was made for all these signifies that the sin offering is offered not only for the removal of our uncleanness but also for the perfecting of God’s holiness, into which we have been brought (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1; Heb. 13:12).
Lv 16:202 live
For vv. 20-22, see note 81.
Lv 16:241 bathe
Aaron’s bathing his body and offering the burnt offering signifies that after we have received the redemption of the Lord Jesus and the problem of our sins has been solved, we need the cleansing of the Spirit that we may take Christ as our burnt offering to live for God by the life of Christ. The sin offering was offered (v. 9) in view of the burnt offering, indicating that the purpose of Christ’s complete redemption is that we, the redeemed ones, taking Christ as our life and life supply, might become those who in Christ live absolutely for God.
Lv 16:251 burn
I.e., burn as incense. The burning of the fat of the sin offering as incense signifies that the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross is for our redemption and that His heart toward God and for God (signified by the fat as the tender part of the sin offering) is for God’s acceptance. In this chapter both Christ as the incense burned on the incense altar (vv. 12-13) and the heart of Christ, which is toward God and for God, are a sweet savor to God that is acceptable to God and that becomes God’s acceptance of us.
Lv 16:261 wash
This signifies that the one who is defiled by contacting anything related to sin must deal with his outward living (signified by the clothes) and with himself as well. So also for v. 28.
Lv 16:271a outside  -   Lev. 4:12
The carrying of the sin offering outside the camp and the burning of its skin, its flesh, and its dung signify, first, that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross, once for all, the eternal and perfect redemption (Heb. 9:12), and His serving ones have no participation in this matter (6:30 and note; Heb. 13:10-11 and note 101). They signify, second, that the Lord who accomplished redemption was rejected by man; hence, whoever receives His redemption should go with Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach (Heb. 13:12-13 and notes).
Lv 16:29a tenth  -   Lev. 23:27; Num. 29:7
Lv 16:291 afflict
Here afflicting one’s soul signifies mourning, repenting, and feeling sorrowful for sin.
Lv 16:292 not
The people not doing any work, for it was a Sabbath of complete rest for them (v. 31), signifies that redemption has been completely finished by Christ. There is nothing left for man to do, and man should rest in the redemption of Christ.
Lv 16:33a expiation  -   Lev. 16:16, 18, 20; cf. Heb. 9:21
Lv 16:331 holy
I.e., the Holy of Holies.
Lv 16:341a once  -   Exo. 30:10; Heb. 9:7; 10:3
The making of expiation once a year signifies that the offering was unable to make man perfect and that it was only a shadow of the “good things to come” (Heb. 10:1), until the Son of God would come to complete the full redemption (Heb. 9:1 — 10:18).
Leviticus Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 17:4a brought  -   Lev. 17:9; Deut. 12:5-6; cf. Lev. 1:3
Lv 17:41 entrance
According to vv. 3-9, the sacrifices were to be offered to God only at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before Jehovah, and their blood was to be shed on the altar. This signifies that our applying the Lord Jesus as our sacrifices offered to God and our participating in His redeeming blood must be at the entrance of God’s dwelling place (the church) on earth and must be through the cross. In our worship of God, Christ as the unique sacrifice should be applied according to God’s desire and economy, within the regulations, restrictions, and limitations set by Him. To apply Christ outside the church, i.e., in a place according to our preference and choice (cf. Deut. 12:5-6), is to abuse Christ.
Lv 17:42 cut
To be cut off from one’s people (vv. 4, 9-10, 14) signifies to be removed from the fellowship of God’s people (cf. 1 Cor. 5:13).
Lv 17:51a peace  -   Lev. 3:1
The expiation in ch. 16 involved four of the five basic offerings: the sin offering, the trespass offering (implied in the sin offering — 5:6), the burnt offering, and the meal offering. The issue of these offerings is the peace offering, with the result that God’s people enjoy peace with God and with one another. See note 372 in ch. 7.
Lv 17:61a sprinkle  -   Lev. 3:2-5
The sprinkling of the blood on the altar signifies that Christ’s blood was shed on the cross. Burning the fat for a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah signifies that Christ’s excellencies are offered up to God through God’s holy fire for a fragrance to satisfy God.
Lv 17:71 no
No longer sacrificing to goat demons signifies no longer having fellowship with demons so as to commit spiritual fornication (1 Cor. 10:20-21).
Lv 17:7a sacrifices  -   Deut. 32:17; 2 Chron. 11:15; Psa. 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20; Rev. 9:20
Lv 17:72 prostitute
The word prostitute here indicates that for an Israelite (a believer) to abuse the sacrifices (Christ) by offering them in the place of his choice (outside the church) was to make himself a prostitute. This is a matter of spiritual prostitution, of spiritual fornication. See note 41.
Lv 17:9a bring  -   Lev. 17:4
Lv 17:101a blood  -   Lev. 3:17
On not eating blood (vv. 10, 12), see note 171 in ch. 3.
Lv 17:11a life  -   Lev. 17:14; Deut. 12:23
Lv 17:11b blood  -   Heb. 9:22
Lv 17:12a blood  -   Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3:17; 17:14; Deut. 12:16, 23-25; 15:23
Lv 17:131 cover
This signifies that all the blood that man can obtain other than the blood of the Lord Jesus cannot redeem us from our sins and should be buried, i.e., given up, abandoned, rejected.
Lv 17:141 its
Lit., with its life.
Lv 17:14a eat  -   Lev. 17:11
Lv 17:151 dies
The blood of that which dies of itself signifies the blood of one who sacrifices himself for the good of others, which blood cannot redeem us from our sins. Only the blood of Jesus Christ, whom God bruised on the cross (Isa. 53:10), can cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Lv 17:152 torn
The blood of that which is torn by beasts signifies the blood of one who is martyred by wild people, who are like beasts, which blood also is unable to redeem us from our sins. Only the blood of Jesus Christ, whom God judged on the cross (Isa. 53:8), is able to wash us from our sins (Rev. 1:5).
Lv 17:153a wash  -   Lev. 11:25
This signifies that the one who takes any blood other than the blood of the Lord Jesus should deal with his former behavior and with what he was in the past concerning religion and should purge himself. Otherwise, he will be condemned.
To eat different bloods is equivalent to forming different religions based on beliefs in different persons. The one blood ordained by God is the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross (John 6:53-55; 1 Cor. 10:16a, 21a), and the one belief is the belief in the Christ who died on the cross for us (see note 53 in Rom. 1).
Lv 17:154 evening
Being unclean until the evening signifies that the one who takes any blood, i.e., any belief, other than the blood of the Lord Jesus is unclean until the matter is cleared up and brought to a complete ending.
Lv 17:161 body
Lit., flesh.
Leviticus Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 18:11 spoke
Chapters 18 — 20 of this book, on the holy living of God’s holy people, correspond to Eph. 4:17 — 5:14, which charges the holy people of God to put off the old man and put on the new man, living a life that is holy, as God is holy.
Lv 18:31a Egypt  -   Psa. 106:35; Ezek. 20:7-8
The Israelites’ not living in the manner of the Egyptians, among whom they once lived, signifies that the believers should put off, as regards their former old way of living, the old man (Eph. 4:22). The Israelites’ not living in the manner of the Canaanites, to whose land they were to be brought, signifies that, after being saved, the believers should not be conformed to the living and conduct of the worldly people (Rom. 12:2). The Israelites’ living a holy life according to God’s holiness (v. 4 — 20:27) signifies that the believers should put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality (Eph. 4:24).
Lv 18:3b Canaan  -   Exo. 23:24; Lev. 20:23
See note 31.
Lv 18:41 ordinances
See note 64 in Luke 1.
Lv 18:5a if  -   Ezek. 20:11, 13, 21; Neh. 9:29; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12; cf. Matt. 19:17; Luke 10:28
Lv 18:51 live
Cf. Gal. 3:21 and note 1.
Lv 18:61 his
Lit., flesh of his flesh.
Lv 18:6a close  -   vv. 6-20: Lev. 20:11-21
Lv 18:8a father’s  -   Deut. 22:30; 27:20; 1 Cor. 5:1
Lv 18:16a brother’s  -   Lev. 20:21; Matt. 14:4; Mark 6:18
Lv 18:21a Molech  -   Lev. 20:2-5; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35
Lv 18:22a male  -   Lev. 20:13; Rom. 1:27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10; Jude 7
Lv 18:251 visited
Or, punished it for its iniquity.
Lv 18:25a land  -   Lev. 20:22
Lv 18:252 vomited
The land, signifying Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8), is the supply for the existence and living of God’s people and is also for their enjoyment. The good land vomiting out the defiled and unholy people (vv. 25, 28; 20:22) signifies that the all-inclusive Christ as our dwelling place and everything we need for our enjoyment will vomit us out of Himself and not allow us to enjoy Him any longer (cf. Rev. 3:16) if we are not proper in relation to Him.
Leviticus Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 19:21a holy  -   Lev. 11:44-45; 20:7, 26; 1 Pet. 1:16
Being holy because God is holy (v. 2; 20:7, 26) signifies walking according to God’s holiness, living a holy life (1 Pet. 1:15; 2 Pet. 3:11).
Lv 19:4a idols  -   Lev. 26:1; Exo. 34:17; Deut. 27:15; 1 Chron. 16:26; Psa. 96:5
Lv 19:5a And  -   vv. 5-8: Lev. 7:16-18; cf. Lev. 22:29-30
Lv 19:51 peace
See note 11 in ch. 3. The offering of the peace offering in an acceptable way signifies that the breaking of bread for the remembrance of the Lord should be done in a way that is acceptable to the Lord (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-21).
The mentioning of the peace offering here indicates that in the holy living of God’s holy people, as portrayed in chs. 18 — 20, it is important that God’s holy people have fellowship, communion, mutual enjoyment, in peace.
Lv 19:61 day
The word in vv. 6-8 signifies that the believers’ enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering for their fellowship with God and with one another should be kept fresh. Stale fellowship with one another and with God is not acceptable but is abhorrent to God (v. 7). The one who participates in stale fellowship is guilty of having despised the holy things of God and will lose the fellowship among God’s people (v. 8).
Lv 19:91a reap  -   Lev. 23:22; cf. Deut. 24:19; Ruth 2:15-16
For vv. 9-10, see notes on Ruth 2:2.
Lv 19:12a swear  -   Lev. 6:3; Zech. 5:4; Matt. 5:33
Lv 19:13a wages  -   Deut. 24:14-15; Mal. 3:5; cf. James 5:4; 1 Tim. 5:18
Lv 19:161 profit
Lit., stand against the blood.
Lv 19:17a reprove  -   Matt. 18:15; cf. Prov. 27:5-6; Ezek. 33:8-9; Luke 17:3; Gal. 6:1; 2 Thes. 3:15
Lv 19:18a love  -   Matt. 5:43; 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8
Lv 19:191 cattle
The fact that no mixture was allowed indicates that God wants everything to be according to its kind (cf. Gen. 1:11, 21, 24-25), without any kind of mixture. Breeding cattle without mixture signifies that life is not allowed to be mixed: those living by the life of God must not live by the flesh (cf. Gal. 5:16). Sowing seed without mixture signifies that the ministry of the word is not allowed to be mixed: the word of God that is ministered should not be mixed with the word of the world (cf. 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Tim. 1:3-4). Making a garment without mixing materials signifies that our conduct is not allowed to be mixed: those living in the life of the New Testament should not live by the ordinances of the Old Testament (Gal. 2:19-20; 5:1-6), and those who belong to the Lord should not live according to the customs of the Gentiles (20:23; cf. Eph. 4:17; Rom. 12:2a). See note 31 in ch. 18.
Lv 19:231 unharvestable
Lit., their uncircumcision…uncircumcisions.
Lv 19:30a You  -   Lev. 26:2
Lv 19:31a mediums  -   Deut. 18:10-12; cf. 1 Sam. 28:8; Acts 16:16; 1 Cor. 10:20
Lv 19:32a rise  -   Prov. 20:29; 1 Tim. 5:1
Lv 19:34a sojourner  -   Exo. 22:21; 23:9; Deut. 10:19
Lv 19:36a You  -   Deut. 25:15; Ezek. 45:10
Lv 19:36b balances  -   Prov. 16:11; 11:1; cf. Amos 8:5; Micah 6:11
Leviticus Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 20:2a Molech  -   Lev. 18:21
Lv 20:7a Sanctify  -   Lev. 11:44; 19:2; 1 Pet. 1:16
Lv 20:71 holy
See note 21 in ch. 19.
Lv 20:9a curses  -   Exo. 21:17; Matt. 15:4; Mark 7:10; Prov. 20:20
Lv 20:9b blood  -   cf. 2 Sam. 1:16; Ezek. 33:4; Acts 18:6
Lv 20:10a adultery  -   Lev. 18:20; Deut. 22:22; John 8:4-5
Lv 20:11a lies  -   vv. 11-21: cf. Lev. 18:6-19
Lv 20:16a blood  -   Lev. 20:9
Lv 20:21a brother’s  -   Matt. 14:4; Mark 6:18
Lv 20:22a land  -   Lev. 18:25, 28
Lv 20:221 vomit
See note 252 in ch. 18.
Lv 20:23a customs  -   Lev. 18:3, 30
Lv 20:241 land
See note 71 in Deut. 8.
Lv 20:24a milk  -   Exo. 3:8, 17; Deut. 6:3
Lv 20:251 clean
See notes 21 and 471 in ch. 11.
Lv 20:26a holy  -   Exo. 19:6; Lev. 11:44
Lv 20:27a medium  -   Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:10-12; cf. Exo. 22:18; Rev. 9:21
Lv 20:27b blood  -   Lev. 20:9
Leviticus Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 21:1a No  -   Ezek. 44:25
Lv 21:11 defile
The priests not being allowed to defile and profane themselves for a dead person among their people, except for their relatives (vv. 1-4), signifies that we, the New Testament believers, being priests of God (Rev. 1:5-6; 5:10), should not behave ourselves like the common people and thereby defile and profane ourselves.
Lv 21:41 leader
Or, husband.
Lv 21:51 baldness
To make our head bald indicates that we do not subject ourselves to God’s headship, that we do not accept God’s authority over us (cf. 1 Cor. 11:5), and to shave off the corners of the beard or to make cuttings in the flesh indicates that we are engaging in human labor to have some change in our body, which was designed and created by God. Instead of making such changes, we should accept what God has ordained for us and subject ourselves to God’s authority, not making any change or any display or performance by our human labor, but remaining natural.
Lv 21:61 holy
This signifies that we, the ones who minister Christ to God as food for God’s enjoyment, should separate ourselves to be holy unto God. So also for v. 8.
Lv 21:71 woman
Verses 7, 9, and 13-15 speak of purity in marriage, even concerning the high priest’s offspring. This signifies that we who serve God as priests and who bear the highest responsibility in God’s service should be pure in our closest human relationship, for ourselves and even for our offspring.
Lv 21:72 priest
Lit., he.
Lv 21:8a holy  -   Lev. 11:44-45; 20:26
Lv 21:101a anointing  -   Exo. 29:7; Lev. 8:12; 16:32; Num. 35:25; Psa. 133:2
The anointing oil being poured on the head of the high priest (who typifies Christ — see note 11 in Exo. 28) signifies that we, the New Testament priests as Christ’s Body, have the anointing Spirit upon us for our priestly service (2 Cor. 1:21; Psa. 133:2). To put on the priestly garments signifies that we should live a life that befits our priestly service. Not letting the hair go loose signifies that we submit to God’s authority and are not disobedient, unrestrained, or disorderly in our actions. Not tearing one’s clothes (signifying one’s behavior — Rev. 19:8) signifies that we should not make ourselves bankrupt in morality.
Lv 21:111 defile
The high priest not being defiled even by the death of his father or his mother signifies that when we bear the highest priesthood, having the closest fellowship with God, we should restrain our natural affection, not defiling ourselves even by our affection for our parents (cf. Matt. 10:37; 12:46-50).
Lv 21:121 consecration
Heb. nezer; from the same root from which the word Nazarite comes. The word can also be translated separation.
Lv 21:14a A  -   Ezek. 44:22
Lv 21:171 defect
Being disqualified from the priesthood because of a defect signifies that anyone who is deficient in Christ is not able to minister Christ as food to God.
Lv 21:181 defect
The various defects listed in vv. 18-20 have the following significances: Blindness signifies a lack of sight for seeing because of the shortage of Christ as the enlightening light (cf. John 8:12). Lameness signifies the lack of strength for acting because of the shortage of the strengthening Christ (cf. Phil. 4:13). A disfigured nose signifies the lack of Christ as the sensing ability in our service to God (cf. S.S. 7:4b). Having one limb longer than the other signifies overstepping and overtouching outside of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 10:13). A broken foot or hand signifies some part of our being that is not complete in Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Being a hunchback signifies having the sight that is able to see only the things on earth, not the things in heaven, because of the lack of the experience of the heavenly Christ (cf. Col. 3:1-3). Being a dwarf signifies the lack of the stature of Christ in the growth in life (cf. Eph. 4:13). A defect in the eye signifies the sight in spiritual things that is not perfect because of the lack of a full view of Christ (cf. Acts 18:24-28). Eczema signifies some expression that is abnormal in life, making oneself feel uneasy and making others feel bad, because of the lack of the Spirit of Christ (cf. Phil. 1:19-20). Scales signify something that causes oneself to be uncomfortable and in its appearance bothers others, because of a lack in living Christ (cf. Phil. 1:21a). Crushed testicles signify that the spiritual reproductive function is damaged because of the serious lack of the experience of Christ as life (cf. John 15:5).
Lv 21:221 eat
The word in vv. 22-23 signifies that although the defective believers can enjoy Christ, the food of God, as their food, they are not qualified to serve God in the church, God’s sanctuary, or around the cross of Christ, typified by the altar, lest they profane the holy things of God.
Lv 21:22a most  -   Lev. 2:3, 10; 6:17, 25; 7:1; 10:12, 17; 14:13; 24:9; Num. 18:9
Lv 21:22b holy  -   Lev. 22:10, 12
Lv 21:23a veil  -   Exo. 30:6; Ezek. 44:9, 13
Leviticus Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 22:21 be
Lit., separate themselves from; Heb. nazar, the root from which the word Nazarite comes.
Lv 22:22 holy
The holy things, the things offered to God by His people, signify Christ, whom God gives to His serving ones for their enjoyment.
Lv 22:31 uncleanness
The regulations in vv. 3-9 concerning the priests’ not eating the holy things in their uncleanness, unless they bathe their flesh in water, that they might not sin and die, signify that we should not enjoy Christ while we are defiled with unclean things until we deal thoroughly with the defilement, mainly by washing ourselves in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11), that we may not be condemned and suffer spiritual death.
Lv 22:4a leper  -   Lev. 13:2-46
Lv 22:4b discharge  -   Lev. 15:2-33
Lv 22:4c dead  -   Lev. 21:1; Num. 19:11-16
Lv 22:5a creeping  -   Lev. 11:23, 43-44
Lv 22:6a bathed  -   Lev. 15:5-11; cf. Heb. 10:22
Lv 22:61 body
Lit., flesh.
Lv 22:7a food  -   Lev. 21:22; Num. 18:11-19; Deut. 18:3-4
Lv 22:101 stranger
A stranger, a sojourner, or a hired servant being forbidden to eat any holy thing signifies that an unsaved person or one who has no share in God’s service may not enjoy Christ. A purchased slave or one born in a priest’s house being permitted to eat (v. 11) signifies that the ones purchased by Christ with His precious blood and born of God in His house may enjoy Christ.
Lv 22:10a eat  -   cf. Lev. 24:9; 1 Sam. 21:6; Matt. 12:4; Mark 2:26; Luke 6:4
Lv 22:11a eat  -   Num. 18:11, 13
Lv 22:121 daughter
The word in vv. 12-13 signifies that a believer (a priest’s daughter) who is attracted away by an outsider may not enjoy the ascended Christ (the heave offering). But if he cuts off his relationship with the outsider without leaving any connection and returns to the church, he may recover his enjoyment of Christ.
Lv 22:13a father’s  -   cf. Gen. 38:11; Ruth 1:8
Lv 22:14a one-fifth  -   Lev. 5:16
Lv 22:18a offering  -   cf. Lev. 1:2-3
Lv 22:181b vows  -   Lev. 22:21; 7:16; Num. 15:3; Deut. 23:23; Psa. 61:8; 65:1; cf. Deut. 23:21; Eccl. 5:4-5
A vow is an oath made with God that cannot be retracted, whereas a freewill offering is a consecration that is not stable or sure. Hence, the offerings for a vow are stronger than those for a freewill offering (cf. v. 23).
Lv 22:19a blemish  -   Deut. 15:21; 17:1; Mal. 1:14; cf. Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19
Lv 22:211 make
Lit., be wonderful to make a vow. So also in 27:2.
Lv 22:21a vow  -   Lev. 27:2; Num. 6:2; 15:3, 8; cf. Lev. 22:18
Lv 22:231 superfluous
Superfluous means exceeding the limit, and lacking means being under the proper measure. The word in this verse signifies that we may, in a general way (as a freewill offering), offer to God as food the Christ whom we experience too much or too little, but if we offer in a stronger way (as a vow), our offering will not be accepted.
Lv 22:251 foreigner
The offering from the hand of a foreigner not being accepted by God signifies that the offering of Christ to God in a way that is according to the unbelievers will be rejected by God.
Lv 22:271a eighth  -   Exo. 22:30
This signifies that our experience of Christ must grow to the level of resurrection (the eighth day, the beginning of a new week — John 20:1) before it will be accepted as an offering to God for His food. This requires us to learn how to reject our natural life and live by the divine life in resurrection (Gal. 2:20).
Lv 22:301a same  -   Lev. 19:6; 7:16
Eating the sacrifice of thanksgiving (v. 29) on the same day and leaving none of it until the morning signify that our offering of Christ as a thanksgiving to God must be fresh and new, with nothing left to become stale (Heb. 13:15).
Lv 22:30b morning  -   Lev. 7:15
Lv 22:33a God  -   Exo. 6:7
Leviticus Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 23:21a feasts  -   Exo. 23:14-17; Lev. 23:4, 37; Num. 29:39
The feasts are for rest and enjoyment, both of which are types of Christ as our rest and enjoyment. The mentioning of the feasts in this book, a book of God’s priesthood for God’s service in the fellowship of God, indicates that our priestly service to God issues in Christ as the rest and enjoyment that we have with God and with one another. God ordained the feasts that His people might rest with Him and be joyful with Him, that they might enjoy with Him and with one another all that He has provided for His redeemed people. The rest and enjoyment were not individual but corporate.
Lv 23:22 convocations
The feasts appointed by Jehovah were holy convocations, special assemblies of God’s people called for a special and particular purpose. These signify the gathering of the believers as the church (see note 224 in Eph. 1) to have a corporate rest and enjoyment of Christ before God, with God, and with one another.
Lv 23:3a Six  -   Exo. 20:8-11; 23:12; 31:15; 34:21; 35:2; Lev. 19:3; Deut. 5:12-15; Luke 13:14
Lv 23:31 Sabbath
The weekly feast, the Sabbath, signifies the rest that God’s redeemed people enjoy with God and with one another. This Sabbath, this rest, was “to Jehovah,” signifying a rest for God’s joy and enjoyment, participated in by His redeemed people. This is also the principal denotation of each of the seven annual feasts (vv. 7-8, 21, 25, 28, 31-32, 35-36, 39).
Lv 23:41a feasts  -   Exo. 23:14-17
There were seven annual feasts. Seven is the number of fullness, signifying that the seven annual feasts were in the fullness of God’s riches. Christ is the reality of the Sabbath (v. 3) and of all the annual feasts (Col. 2:16-17).
Lv 23:5a In  -   vv. 5-6: Exo. 12:18; Num. 28:16-17; Ezek. 45:21
Lv 23:51 at
Lit., between the two evenings; probably referring to the time interval between sunset and darkness.
Lv 23:52b Passover  -   Exo. 12:11, 21-27, 48; Num. 9:2-3
For the Feast of the Passover (v. 5) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (vv. 6-8), see notes in Exo. 12.
Lv 23:6a Feast  -   Exo. 12:17; 13:3, 6; 23:15; 34:18; Num. 28:17
Lv 23:7a On  -   vv. 7-8: Num. 28:18-19, 24-25
Lv 23:71 first
Having a holy convocation on the first day and on the last day (v. 8) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with no work of labor, signifies that we enjoy Christ corporately, without our human labor, from the first day until the last day of the course of our Christian life.
Lv 23:81 seven
The presenting of an offering by fire to Jehovah for seven days (a full course of time) signifies that we offer Christ as food to God continually through the full course of our Christian life. At the Lord’s table we make a display to the entire universe that each day of the week we take Christ as our unleavened food, as our life supply apart from sin (1 Cor. 5:7-8), and that we come to the table with Him. Then we offer to God for His satisfaction the One whom we have been enjoying as our food.
Lv 23:101 sheaf
The third annual feast, the Feast of Firstfruits, signifies the resurrected Christ as the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:20) for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection (see notes 202 in 1 Cor. 15 and 531 in Matt. 27). Christ was crucified at the time of the Feast of the Passover (Mark 14:12 and note 2), and then on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), the day after the Sabbath (v. 11; John 20:1), He was resurrected. Christ’s resurrection was the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits and is the reality of that feast.
Lv 23:10a firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:19; 34:26; Num. 15:20-21; 28:26; Deut. 26:1-2; cf. Rev. 14:4
Lv 23:11a wave  -   Exo. 29:24; Lev. 23:20
Lv 23:111 acceptance
The waving of the sheaf of firstfruits before Jehovah for acceptance signifies that Christ was resurrected that we might be justified before God and accepted by God (Rom. 4:25b).
Lv 23:11b day  -   Lev. 23:15; cf. Matt. 28:1; John 20:1
Lv 23:121a burnt  -   Lev. 1:10
The offering of a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering on the day of the wave offering signifies that the resurrected Christ, being fresh, tender, meek, strong, and without blemish, is offered to God as a burnt offering that is absolutely for God. This offering implies not only Christ Himself but also all His believers, who were resurrected in Him and with Him (Eph. 2:6). Having been offered to God as a burnt offering in Christ and with Christ, the believers may live a life that is absolutely for God.
Lv 23:131 meal
The meal offering here signifies the resurrected Christ as our meal offering mingled with the anointing Spirit, offered to God as food in Christ’s resurrection as a fragrance for God’s satisfaction.
Lv 23:132a drink  -   Exo. 29:40
The five basic offerings in 1:1 — 6:7 are types of various aspects of what Christ is to God on our behalf. The drink offering was in addition to the basic offerings and was poured out on one of the basic offerings (Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10). The drink offering offered with the burnt offering (v. 12) and the meal offering at the Feast of Firstfruits signifies the resurrected Christ in His human life (in His living absolutely for God and His being poured out on the cross — Isa. 53:12b; Phil. 2:5-8), offered to God in His resurrection for God’s enjoyment. Cf. Phil. 2:17 and note 1; 2 Tim. 4:6 and note 1.
Lv 23:141 no
This signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God’s food for God’s satisfaction first (John 20:17 and note 1); then, He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.
Lv 23:15a sheaf  -   Lev. 23:10-12
Lv 23:15b seven  -   cf. Exo. 34:22; Deut. 16:9
Lv 23:151 Sabbaths
Or, weeks. The Feast of Firstfruits was followed by the Feast of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:10) and the Feast of Harvest (Exo. 23:16).
Lv 23:161a fifty  -   cf. Acts 2:1
See Acts 2:1 and note. The Feast of Pentecost was the feast of the fiftieth day, counting from the day after the Sabbath, the day on which the sheaf of the wave offering was brought to God (v. 11), to the day after the seventh Sabbath (v. 15). This signifies the resurrection of Christ in its sevenfold fullness reaching the realm of the complete fullness, bearing the full responsibility, signified by the number fifty (composed of ten times five, ten signifying fullness and five, responsibility), for the testimony of resurrection.
On the day of Pentecost in the New Testament, the consummation of the Triune God — the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit of the processed Triune God, who is the totality of the Triune God — was poured out upon the one hundred twenty disciples as representatives of the Body of Christ. As a result of such an outpouring of the economical Spirit of God, the Body of Christ came into existence as the increase, the enlargement, of the unlimited, individual Christ, making Him the universal, corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13), the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people, which will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem.
Lv 23:16b new  -   Num. 28:26
Lv 23:171 two
The offering of a new meal offering to Jehovah (v. 16) of two loaves of bread baked with leaven as firstfruits to Jehovah signifies that Christ at the stage of the firstfruits (the unleavened fine flour) has become the church as the Body of Christ in two sections at the stage of Pentecost (the two loaves — 1 Cor. 10:17), offered to God as the new meal offering for God’s satisfaction. One of the sections is composed of the Jewish believers (Acts 2:1-4) and the other, of the Gentile believers (Acts 10:34-48). Both sections had sins (signified by the leaven) within them (cf. Acts 5:1-11; 6:1).
That the two loaves also were firstfruits to Jehovah indicates that not only Christ but also the church are the firstfruits. Christ the firstfruits, as the fine flour, was the firstfruits on the day of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20; John 20:17). Eventually, this fine flour became the two loaves on the day of Pentecost. In type, this indicates that Christ has become the church, that the church is the enlargement of Christ (John 3:29-30; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11).
Lv 23:17a leaven  -   cf. Lev. 7:13
Lv 23:181 burnt
The presenting of the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the drink offering with the bread signifies that the church on the day of Pentecost was a corporate man offered to God as a burnt offering to live absolutely for God, with a living as a meal offering mixed with leaven — sins — and as a drink offering (pouring out its life for God by being martyred — Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6) to be an offering by fire accepted by God by being consumed for the satisfaction of both God and man.
Lv 23:191 sin
The offering of the sin offering and the peace offering as a wave offering (v. 20) with the bread signifies that because of its sins (cf. Acts 5:1-11), the church on the day of Pentecost needed Christ as its sin offering, and for the sake of the fellowship of man with God and man with man, it needed Christ as its peace offering. At the same time, it enjoyed Christ as its wave offering, as the One resurrected (waved) to God for the church’s enjoyment.
Lv 23:211 no
This signifies God’s redeemed people as the church enjoying Christ with God without any need of human labor to add anything.
Lv 23:22a gather  -   Lev. 19:9-10; cf. Deut. 24:19; Ruth 2:2-3, 7, 17
Lv 23:221 poor
The harvest remaining at the corners of the fields and the gleanings being left for the poor and the sojourners signify that the grace of Christ in His resurrection at the Feast of Pentecost has a remainder in which the Gentiles may participate. See Ruth 2:2-3 and notes; cf. Matt. 15:21-28 and notes.
Lv 23:24a In  -   vv. 24-25: Num. 29:1-2
Lv 23:241b blowing  -   cf. Lev. 25:9
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets signifies God’s calling together of His scattered people (the dispersed Israelites) and His reminding them that He will issue such a call to them (Matt. 24:31; cf. Isa. 27:13; Psa. 81:3). This feast was on the first day of the seventh month, the beginning of the second half of the year, signifying the second half of God’s redemption, which is to be accomplished on Israel, the first half having been accomplished on the church. The interval between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets signifies the church age, the age of mystery, which lasts from the day of Pentecost, when the church came into being, until the Lord’s coming back, when God will call the scattered Jews to come back to the land of their fathers. God’s calling His people back together from their dispersion will cause them to have a holy convocation, signifying their returning to God (repentance) and becoming a corporate people. This will be a memorial and a rest to God’s gathered people, in which they will be able to offer Christ to God as food for the satisfaction of both God and man (v. 25).
Lv 23:27a And  -   vv. 27-28: Num. 29:7-8; Lev. 16:29-30
Lv 23:271 Expiation
Spiritually, the blowing of the trumpets signifies the proclaiming of the gospel to call sinners to repentance and salvation (cf. note 91 in ch. 25), and the expiation signifies Christ’s redemption (see note 11 in ch. 16). The Feast of Expiation closely followed the Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets, which involves Israel’s repentance and return to God. This signifies that the day of man’s redemption follows the trumpeting of the gospel and man’s repentance as a reaction to it. The Feast of Expiation has a double application. Spiritually, this feast has been applied to the New Testament believers, and literally it will be applied in the future to the Jews.
Lv 23:272 afflict
The people’s afflicting their souls and bringing an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 27c, 29) signify their mourning, repenting, and feeling sorrowful for sin, and offering Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. This is what the Jews will do when the Lord Jesus comes back (Zech. 12:10-14; Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7).
Lv 23:281 no
That the people were not to do any work but were to have a Sabbath of complete rest (vv. 28, 30-32a) signifies that God’s redeemed people do not need to do any work for their redemption but should rest in the redemption God has accomplished for them, that God too may rest in His redeemed.
Lv 23:34a On  -   vv. 34-36: Num. 29:12-13
Lv 23:341b Feast  -   Exo. 34:22; Deut. 16:13; Ezra 3:4; Neh. 8:14
The Feast of Ingathering (Exo. 23:16b). See note 162 in Exo. 23.
Lv 23:342 Tabernacles
Lit., Booths.
Lv 23:343 seven
The seven days here signify a complete course of days, the one thousand years of the millennium.
Lv 23:361 Seven
The presenting of an offering by fire to Jehovah for seven days signifies the offering of Christ day after day as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. According to this type, in the millennium every day an offering will be presented to God to signify that Christ is God’s food in our experiences, which is offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest.
Lv 23:362a eighth  -   Num. 29:35
This signifies that God’s people as a sacred congregation offer Christ in resurrection (signified by the eighth day — John 20:1) as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man, not needing to do any work but resting. This indicates that the entire one thousand years of the millennium will be a rest for God and for God’s redeemed people. See note 91 in Heb. 4.
Lv 23:391a gathered  -   Exo. 23:16; Deut. 16:13
This signifies that the millennium will come after the harvest of what God desires to obtain on earth through the three dispensations before the millennium — the dispensation before the law (from Adam to Moses — Rom. 5:14), the dispensation of the law (from Moses to Christ’s first coming — John 1:17), and the dispensation of the church (from Pentecost to Christ’s second coming — Acts 1:11). The millennium, the age of the kingdom (Rev. 20:4, 6), will be the fourth and final dispensation of the old heaven and the old earth. It will usher in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3).
Lv 23:401 product
Or, fruit. Trees signify Christ’s humanity (see note 151 in 1 Kings 6). The trees in this verse portray the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the different aspects of Christ’s humanity being lived out from the overcomers among God’s redeemed people in the millennium.
Lv 23:402a palm  -   cf. Neh. 8:15-17; Matt. 21:8; John 12:13; Rev. 7:9
See note 94 in Rev. 7.
Lv 23:421 booths
The coming millennium will be a conclusion of all that God has done with His redeemed people in the full course of the ages, the dispensations, in His old creation. The people dwelling in booths indicates that in the four dispensations of the old creation man cannot have a solid dwelling place. Eventually, for God’s redeemed people the present, portable tabernacles will become a solid one — the New Jerusalem with twelve foundations (Heb. 11:8-10; Rev. 21:2-3, 14). See note 21, par. 3, in John 7.
Lv 23:42a booths  -   Deut. 31:10-11; Neh. 8:14
Lv 23:431 descendants
Lit., generations.
Lv 23:441 feasts
The seven feasts in this chapter are in two groups, with four in the first group and three in the second. The four feasts in the first group all took place in the first half of the year, signifying the time when Christ died, resurrected, and ascended to pour out the Holy Spirit. The three feasts in the second group took place in the seventh month of the year, signifying the time of Christ’s second coming. According to their dispensational fulfillment, the first four have taken place already, and the last three will take place in the future. The Feast of the Passover was fulfilled on the day of Christ’s death (Matt. 26:2, 17-19, 26-28; 1 Cor. 5:7). The Feast of Unleavened Bread is being fulfilled in the church age (1 Cor. 5:7-8). The Feast of Firstfruits was fulfilled on the day of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20), when the members of Christ were produced for the formation of the church (1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6). The Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled fifty days after Christ’s resurrection, on the day of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4; cf. Acts 1:3), when the resurrected and ascended Christ as the consummated, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit poured Himself out on His members to form the church. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets will be fulfilled at Christ’s second coming (Matt. 24:31). The Feast of Expiation will be fulfilled on the day of Israel’s return to God, after they have been gathered back to their fathers’ land (Rom. 11:26-27; Zech. 12:10-14). The Feast of Tabernacles will be fulfilled in the coming millennium for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6) as a conclusion of all the ages of God’s old creation, for the coming of the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as their center (Rev. 21:1-2).
Leviticus Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 24:11 saying
Verses 1-9 unveil that for us, the holy people of God, to live a holy life, we need the arranging afresh of Christ as the divine light to shine over us and as the divine food to nourish us.
Lv 24:2a Command  -   vv. 2-3: Exo. 27:20-21
Lv 24:21 pure
The pure oil of beaten olives for the light signifies the pure Holy Spirit coming out of the crucified Christ (cf. John 19:34), typified by the beaten olives, for the shining of Christ as the lampstand in God’s dwelling place. See note 361 in Matt. 26 and note 311, par. 2, in Exo. 25.
Lv 24:22 make
Lit., cause the light of a lamp to ascend.
Lv 24:31 maintain
Or, tend it. So also in v. 4. The burning of the lamps continually (v. 2) signifies that Christ as the divine light (John 1:4; 8:12) shines continually in the house of God. The tending of the lamps continually (vv. 3-4) by Aaron, the high priest, signifies that Christ as our High Priest continually takes care of His divine light, causing it to shine for God continually.
Lv 24:4a lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31-39
Lv 24:51a cakes  -   Exo. 25:30
This signifies that the resurrected Christ, the Christ who produced the church (typified by the two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour — 23:13, 17), is the element that constitutes the food in full (the number twelve signifies fullness — Matt. 14:20 and note) for all God’s people (represented by the twelve tribes, who are referred to in the twelve cakes) and for God to enjoy.
Lv 24:6a table  -   Exo. 25:23-30; 1 Kings 7:48; 2 Chron. 4:19; 13:11; Heb. 9:2
Lv 24:71a frankincense  -   Lev. 2:2
It is with the fragrance of His resurrection (frankincense) as a memorial portion that Christ becomes food to both God and us.
Lv 24:72 offering
That the bread of the Presence was food for both God and the priests (v. 9) indicates that God’s priests are one with Him in His service; what they eat is what God eats, and what they enjoy is what God enjoys.
Lv 24:81 Sabbath
The word Sabbath brings in the thought of rest. This signifies that our enjoyment of Christ as our food should be set in order afresh that we may have rest with God continually.
Lv 24:9a eat  -   cf. 1 Sam. 21:6; Matt. 12:4; Mark 2:26; Luke 6:4
Lv 24:91 holy
This signifies that we, God’s serving ones, should enjoy Christ as a most holy portion of the food offered to God, in the church as the holy place.
Lv 24:101 Now
This story signifies that the joining of a man of God with a man of the world brings forth a result that will profane God, causing the profaning one to be cut off (v. 16) from the enjoyment of Christ in His fullness as the shining light and nourishing food.
Lv 24:111a blasphemed  -   Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24; James 2:7; Rev. 16:9; cf. Exo. 20:7; 22:28
That the story of the blaspheming of the holy Name is recorded after the record concerning the arranging of the bread of the Presence signifies that in order to enjoy Christ in His fullness as our light and as our food (vv. 1-9), we need to sanctify the holy Name and not profane it (cf. Matt. 6:9). To sanctify the Lord’s name is to honor and respect the holy Name by separating it as something unique, not putting it with other, common names.
Lv 24:16a death  -   cf. Matt. 26:65-66; Mark 14:63-64; John 18:31; 19:7; Acts 6:11
Lv 24:171a takes  -   Exo. 21:12, 23
This chapter also reveals that we need to care for both the human life and the animal life (vv. 17-22). The human life is for the expression of God (Gen. 1:26), and the animal life is mainly for offering to God in the worship of God.
Lv 24:181 takes
Lit., strikes the soul of a beast.
Lv 24:182 life
Lit., soul for soul.
Lv 24:20a eye  -   Exo. 21:24-25; Deut. 19:21; Matt. 5:38
Leviticus Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 25:21a Sabbath  -   cf. Lev. 26:34-35; 2 Chron. 36:21
The Sabbath year was a rest for God, for man, and for the land. Both the Sabbath day and the Sabbath year refer to Christ. The Sabbath year denotes Christ in His fullness as our rest. The Sabbath day being for man, one day out of every week, and the Sabbath year being for the land, one whole year out of every seven years, signify that Christ is the realm of the full rest that we may enjoy Him as our rest to the fullest. See note 91 in Heb. 4.
Lv 25:3a Six  -   vv. 3-7: Exo. 23:10-11
Lv 25:41 not
Not sowing, pruning, reaping, or gathering (vv. 4b-5) signifies that rest is purely and wholly of grace and that all human labor should cease absolutely (Matt. 11:28-30).
Lv 25:61 food
In the seventh year the produce of the land became common to all. The Sabbath produce of the land being food for every kind of person and even for the cattle and the animals (vv. 6-7) signifies that it is all a matter of grace toward anyone, regardless of his status.
Lv 25:81 seven
The fifty years that consummated in the jubilee comprised eight Sabbath years (the year of jubilee was also a Sabbath year — vv. 11-12), being Sabbath upon Sabbath to be an eightfold Sabbath, signifying the superabundance of the fullness of God’s rest with satisfaction to us. Moreover, the first and last years of this fifty-year period were eighth years, and in between there were six eighth years, making a total of eight eighth years. Since the number eight signifies resurrection (John 20:1), this indicates that the jubilee is something that is altogether from resurrection, to resurrection, in resurrection, and with resurrection.
Lv 25:91a Day  -   Lev. 23:27
The sounding of the ram’s horn in the forty-ninth year on the Day of Expiation signifies that the jubilee is based on the expiation for sin (see ch. 16), that the full liberty might be proclaimed to all the people (v. 10). This type was fulfilled by the full redemption of Christ as the basis for the proclamation of the full freedom to all the human race (cf. Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47).
Lv 25:9b trumpet  -   Lev. 23:24; cf. Isa. 27:13
Lv 25:101 fiftieth
That the jubilee was in the fiftieth year (vv. 10-11) signifies that the full responsibility (typified by the number fifty) to meet all the requirements of God has been fulfilled so that man does not need to bear any responsibility. Fifty years also signifies the entire course of fallen human life. Thus, the year of jubilee, the fiftieth year, signifies the conclusion of our fallen human life.
The year of jubilee is the acceptable year of the Lord prophesied in Isa. 61:1-2 and fulfilled by the Lord’s coming in Luke 4:16-22. In the Old Testament type the jubilee lasted for one year, but in the fulfillment it refers to the entire New Testament age, the age of grace, as the time when God accepts the returned captives of sin (Isa. 49:8; Luke 15:17-24; 2 Cor. 6:2) and when those oppressed under the bondage of sin enjoy the release of God’s salvation (Rom. 7:14 — 8:2). The believers’ enjoyment of the jubilee in the age of grace, i.e., their enjoyment of Christ as God’s grace to them, will issue in the full enjoyment of the jubilee in the millennium and in the fullest enjoyment in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
Lv 25:102 liberty
In the year of jubilee everyone who had sold his possession, his allotted portion of the good land, was returned to it without paying anything to redeem it (vv. 10, 13, 28), and everyone who had sold himself into slavery regained his freedom and returned to his family (vv. 39-41). Returning to one’s possession and being freed and returning to one’s family signify that in the New Testament jubilee the believers have returned to God as their lost divine possession, have been released from all bondage, and have returned to the church as their divine family.
Each family of the Israelites was allotted a portion of the good land. After the children of Israel received their portions of the land, some became poor and sold their allotment (v. 25a), thus losing their possession, their inheritance. Others became so poor that they even sold themselves into slavery (v. 39a), thus losing their freedom and becoming separated from their families. The good land of Canaan typifies the Triune God embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9) and realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:14) as the allotted portion of the saints (see note 71 in Deut. 8). When God created man, He intended to give Himself in Christ to man as man’s possession, man’s inheritance (Gen. 2:9; 13:12-15; Psa. 16:5; 90:1). However, man became fallen, and in the fall man lost God as his possession (Gen. 3:24; 4:16; Eph. 2:12) and sold himself into slavery under sin, Satan, and the world (John 8:34; Rom. 7:14b; Gal. 4:8; Titus 3:3; 1 John 5:19b). God’s New Testament salvation, accomplished by God’s grace based on His redemption in Christ (Rom. 3:24; 5:1-2; Eph. 2:8), brings fallen man back to God as his divine possession (Acts 26:18; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:14; Col. 1:12; Luke 15:12-24), releases man from slavery under sin, Satan, and the world (John 8:32; Rom. 6:6, 14; 8:2; Heb. 2:14-15; John 12:31), and restores man to his divine family, the household of God (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19), that he may enjoy fellowship in God’s grace (2 Cor. 13:14).
In the present age the whole race of Israel has become poor and has lost the land of Canaan. At the Lord’s second coming, the millennium will be a jubilee to them, in which they will regain ownership of their God-allotted portion (Isa. 61:1-2 and notes).
Lv 25:103a jubilee  -   Lev. 27:24; Num. 36:4; Ezek. 46:17
Perhaps related to the word ram; meaning a time of shouting, or a time of the trumpeting of the ram’s horn. The trumpeting of the ram’s horn signifies the preaching of the gospel as the proclaiming of liberty in the New Testament jubilee to all the sinners sold under sin (Luke 4:18-19; Acts 26:17b-18) that they may return to God and God’s family and may rejoice with shouting in the enjoyment of God’s salvation.
Lv 25:111 not
Not sowing, reaping, or gathering in the year of jubilee (vv. 11-12) signifies that in God’s jubilee no human work is needed. It is altogether a rest to man, and God bears all the responsibility.
Lv 25:15a According  -   Lev. 27:18
Lv 25:211 three
This signifies that the sufficient grace of God surpasses our need threefold. In the Sabbath year the produce of the land, but not the possession of the land, was common for the purpose of enjoyment (vv. 6-7). For this purpose God blessed the land to produce food threefold. This practice of keeping the Sabbath year ushers God’s people into the jubilee (vv. 8-17).
Lv 25:23a land  -   Deut. 32:43; Psa. 85:1; Hosea 9:3; Joel 2:18; 3:2
Lv 25:231 Mine
If we become weak or backslidden after we are saved, we will temporarily lose the enjoyment of Christ as our divine possession and may again become enslaved to sin, Satan, and the world. That the land belonged to God and could not be sold in perpetuity signifies that our divine possession belongs to God, and we cannot lose it forever. It is safeguarded by God’s grace (cf. Rom. 11). We may become defeated and may even be disciplined during the millennium, but our spiritual ownership of the divine possession cannot be lost permanently (cf. 1 Cor. 3:15). After the millennium, the disciplined believers will be restored to the ownership of their divine possession, especially in the new heaven and the new earth, to enjoy the blessing of the New Jerusalem. It is of the grace of God that we will be restored to our divine possession for eternity.
Lv 25:23b strangers  -   1 Chron. 29:15; Psa. 39:12; Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11
Lv 25:241 redemption
Verses 24-28 speak of the redemption of the land that has been sold. The redeeming of the land by the nearest relative (v. 25) signifies that in Adam we became poor and sold our possession, and the Lord Jesus, our nearest relative, has come as our Redeemer to redeem for us what we sold (cf. Ruth 3 — 4). The redeeming of the land by the person who sold it, he not having anyone to redeem it for him (vv. 26-27), signifies that the children of Israel, not recognizing the Lord Jesus as their nearest relative (John 1:11), have put themselves in the position of having to bear the responsibility for their redemption until they become able to redeem themselves. However, to this day they are still unable to do it, and actually they will never be able to do it. When the Lord Jesus comes back, they will recognize Him as their relative (Zech. 12:10), and then they will be redeemed by Him. Not having sufficient means to redeem the possession and waiting for the year of jubilee, when the one who sold the land would return to his possession (v. 28), signifies that we were unable to redeem what we had lost until the coming of the New Testament jubilee, in which all that we had lost is released to us to be our possession. See note 102.
Lv 25:25a relative  -   Ruth 2:20; 3:9, 12; 4:3
Lv 25:25b redeem  -   Ruth 4:4; Jer. 32:7-8
Lv 25:27a years  -   Lev. 25:50-52
Lv 25:28a jubilee  -   Lev. 25:13
Lv 25:291 house
The houses built on the land and within the walled cities typify the church built on Christ and expressed as local churches in many cities (Matt. 16:18; Rev. 1:11). The limiting of the time of the redemption of such houses to one year after the sale (vv. 29-30) signifies that if a believer has lost the enjoyment of the church life, it can be restored only within a short limit of God’s grace, as indicated by the one year. If the lost enjoyment of the church life is not restored in the church age, the age of grace, it will still be lost in the millennium, the age of the kingdom. This is according to the principle of taking away from him who has not (Matt. 25:29). Ultimately, in the New Jerusalem the enjoyment of the Body life of Christ will be restored to the defeated believers after they have been disciplined during the millennium. See note 231.
Losing the enjoyment of the church life is more serious than losing the enjoyment of Christ. Because the Lord is gracious, it is easy for us to recover our enjoyment of Him. However, it is more difficult and requires a longer time to recover the lost church life. We should be warned by this not to “sell” the church life.
Lv 25:311 houses
This signifies that in a place in which there are some believers who cannot be considered a church, the lost enjoyment of Christ can be restored.
Lv 25:32a cities  -   Num. 35:2-8; Josh. 21:1-45
Lv 25:321 houses
The Levites (serving ones) having the permanent right of redemption over their houses (vv. 32-33) signifies that if any loss of the enjoyment of the church life occurs to the believers who are adequately engaged in the service of God in a church, it can be restored to them without any limitation of time.
Lv 25:341 field
The fields of the suburbs of the Levites being their permanent possession and not being sold signifies that the believers who are adequately engaged in the service of God in a church will not lose the enjoyment of Christ permanently. Cf. note 231.
Lv 25:351 brother
The regulations related to the jubilee in vv. 35-55 can be applied to the relationships among the saints, the brothers, in the church life. To live together in the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to have the proper care for all the saints.
Lv 25:35a poor  -   Deut. 15:7-8; Psa. 41:1; 112:9; Prov. 14:31; cf. Acts 11:29; 1 John 3:17
Lv 25:352 he
Lit., his hand fails. A brother of the Israelites becoming poor and unable to support himself signifies a believing brother becoming spiritually poor and unable to take care of himself. According to the type in vv. 35-37, we should help the brother who becomes weak in spirit, without taking any advantage of him. We should care for him in love so that he may live before the Lord as we do (cf. Gal. 6:1; James 5:19-20).
Lv 25:38a I  -   Exo. 20:2; Lev. 25:42, 55; 22:33; 26:13; Num. 15:41
Lv 25:391 sells
The regulation in vv. 39-43 signifies that if a brother becomes poor spiritually and is in debt to us, we should not treat him harshly and should consider him not as our slave but as our helper until he is revived by the grace of God (the jubilee comes), at which time he will be released from us. In rendering spiritual care to others, our motive, our spirit, and our attitude must be proper (cf. Matt. 20:28; 2 Cor. 4:5; Gal. 6:1).
Lv 25:42a servants  -   Lev. 25:55; cf. Rom. 6:22; 14:4; 1 Cor. 7:22-23
Lv 25:43a severity  -   Exo. 1:13-14; cf. Eph. 6:9
Lv 25:441 nations
According to vv. 44-46, God’s people could purchase male and female slaves from the nations and from the sojourners and consider them as their possessions, but they were not to take slaves from among the Israelites. This signifies that we should not treat the believers, who are our spiritual relatives, our brothers, like the outsiders.
Lv 25:471 brother
In vv. 47-49, an Israelite brother who sold himself to a stranger or a sojourner being redeemed by his brother, by his uncle, or by any of his blood relatives, or by himself if he could afford it, signifies that we should help a brother who (through some offense) is spiritually in debt to outsiders so that he may be released from his indebtedness or so that he may become able to release himself by his own means. The selling price and the amount of the refund for redemption being calculated according to the number of years relative to the jubilee (vv. 50-53) signifies that our release from slavery is related to and based on God’s grace. The sold one who was not redeemed by these means being released in the year of jubilee (v. 54) signifies that we can be released from our slavery wholly by the grace of God. We do not need any other means.
Lv 25:48a brothers  -   Neh. 5:5, 8
Lv 25:55a servants  -   Lev. 25:42
Leviticus Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 26:11a idols  -   Lev. 19:4; Exo. 20:4
Not making idols or bowing down to them signifies that besides the processed Triune God, we have no other goals that we are seeking after, that we may not lose the position to enjoy our divine possession. See note 213, par. 1, in 1 John 5.
Lv 26:21a Sabbaths  -   Lev. 19:30; Exo. 20:8
Keeping God’s Sabbath signifies that we know that the work of God was done entirely by Him that we might enjoy it and that there is no need for us to do any work (see note 81 in Exo. 20).
Lv 26:22 sanctuary
Revering God’s sanctuary signifies that we regard with reverence all that God is and has accomplished in Christ as His dwelling, embodiment, and expression (John 1:14; Col. 2:9) and in the church as the enlargement of Christ for God’s dwelling and eternal manifestation (1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rev. 21:10).
Lv 26:31 walk
In vv. 1-2 the basis for our obedience to God is (1) the processed and consummated Triune God Himself as our unique goal (no idols), (2) God’s work accomplished for our enjoyment and our rest (His Sabbaths), and (3) the issue of God’s work — the church as the Body of Christ, the mingling of the processed Triune God and His chosen and redeemed people as one entity, to be the enlargement of the consummated Christ as God’s dwelling, God’s embodiment, God’s expression, and God’s eternal manifestation (His sanctuary). To obey God is to honor Him as the processed Triune God, to agree with all that He is and with all that He has accomplished. By obeying Him we receive His rich blessing (vv. 4-13).
Lv 26:41a rains  -   Deut. 28:12; Ezek. 34:26-27; Joel 2:23-24; Acts 14:17
That those who obeyed God’s commandments would be blessed signifies that we, the New Testament believers, are blessed by walking according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4), with six issues: (1) Rains in their season (v. 4a) signify that the Spirit, typified by rain (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24; Joel 2:23), is given to the church or to the individual believers in due time. (2) The land yielding its rich produce that the people may eat the new food always and dwell securely in the land (vv. 4b-5, 10) signifies that we dwell in Christ as our good land and enjoy the riches of Christ for our satisfaction and security (Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12). (3) Peace being given in the land without threats, wild beasts, and the sword (v. 6) signifies that the church is normally in a peaceful situation, having no “wild beasts” (cf. Acts 20:29) or fightings among the saints (James 4:1). (4) Chasing the enemies, five chasing a hundred and a hundred chasing ten thousand (vv. 7-8), signifies that the church will chase the enemies (Eph. 6:12) in the coordination of the Body. (5) Fruitfulness in multiplication (v. 9) signifies that the church will be fruitful and multiply (John 15:8, 16). (6) God setting His tabernacle among the people (v. 11) signifies that God’s dwelling will be built up in the church for God’s delight that He may dwell among His people (cf. 2 Cor. 6:16-18).
Lv 26:8a chase  -   cf. Deut. 32:30; Josh. 23:10; Judg. 7:7; 1 Sam. 14:6, 14; 1 Chron. 11:11, 20; Isa. 30:17
Lv 26:9a multiply  -   Gen. 17:6; Neh. 9:23
Lv 26:9b covenant  -   Lev. 26:15; Exo. 19:5; 24:7; Deut. 5:2
Lv 26:11a tabernacle  -   Exo. 25:8-9; cf. Ezek. 37:26-28; Rev. 21:3
Lv 26:12a among  -   Exo. 29:45; 2 Cor. 6:16
Lv 26:12b God  -   Exo. 6:7; Jer. 7:23; 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; Ezek. 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:27
Lv 26:13a out  -   Lev. 25:38
Lv 26:14a But  -   vv. 14-39: cf. Deut. 28:15-68
Lv 26:141 listen
Those who disobeyed God’s commandments (vv. 14-15) would be chastised, disciplined, on five levels that they might repent (see vv. 16-39 and notes). This signifies that the believers who do not walk according to the Spirit but according to the flesh (cf. Rom. 8:7-8) will suffer chastisement, not just once but on many levels with a number of punishments, that they may be forced to repent.
Lv 26:15a covenant  -   Lev. 26:9
Lv 26:161 sudden
The chastisement on the first level (vv. 16-17) signifies that we will be sick in the spirit and even in the body (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29-32; James 5:14-16; 1 John 5:16) so that we lose our eyesight and our life (cf. Rev. 3:1, 17), and the enemy will enjoy what we in vain have done. Furthermore, we will become so weak that we will not be able to stand before the enemies but will flee from them.
Lv 26:181 chastise
The chastisement on the second level is sevenfold, i.e., intensified. The sky being made like iron and the earth like bronze, yielding no produce (vv. 19-20), signifies that the Spirit will not come to us from the heavens, and we will have no spiritual produce for our spiritual food.
Lv 26:18a seven  -   Lev. 26:21, 24, 28
Lv 26:20a not  -   Lev. 26:20, 24, 28; Deut. 11:17; Hag. 1:10
Lv 26:21a seven  -   Lev. 26:18
Lv 26:211 plagues
The chastisement on the third level brings in plagues sevenfold (vv. 21-22). These plagues signify troubles among the believers in the church (1 Cor. 1:11; 2 Cor. 12:20).
Lv 26:221 wild
Wild animals bereaving people of their children and destroying their cattle, reducing their number and making their roads desolate, signifies that in the church fierce people (Acts 20:29) will rise up to bereave the believers of their life produce, to destroy their spiritual possessions, to reduce their number, and to desolate their communications.
Lv 26:241 strike
The chastisement on the fourth level is a matter of striking sevenfold (vv. 24-26).
Lv 26:24a seven  -   Lev. 26:18
Lv 26:251 sword
Bringing a sword signifies that in the church there will be fightings among the brothers (Gal. 5:15; James 4:1). Sending pestilence signifies that in the church there will be some kind of contagious spiritual disease (cf. 1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Tim. 2:17). Delivering the people into the hand of the enemy signifies that the believers in the church will be taken over by the enemy (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8).
Lv 26:261 cut
Lit., break your staff. Cutting off the supply of bread so that it will be returned by weight and people will not be satisfied signifies that in the church the spiritual supply will be cut off to a greatly reduced amount, so that there will be no satisfaction for the believers.
Lv 26:262 by
I.e., in rationed amounts.
Lv 26:26a weight  -   Rev. 6:5
Lv 26:281 chastise
In the chastisement on the fifth level the people are disciplined sevenfold again (vv. 27-39).
Lv 26:28a seven  -   Lev. 26:18
Lv 26:291 eat
The people eating the flesh of their children signifies that the church becomes so poor that it is unable to satisfy its members but bereaves them of their food supply, there being nothing to eat except the “children,” i.e., what the church members produced in the past.
Lv 26:30a high  -   2 Chron. 14:5; 34:3-4, 7; Ezek. 6:3-6
Lv 26:301 dead
The heaping of the dead bodies upon the bodies of the destroyed idols signifies that the fleshly churches place themselves as carcasses upon goals that are other than God, which they sought as idols and which God destroyed.
Lv 26:31a cities  -   2 Kings 25:8-10; Neh. 2:3; Jer. 4:7
Lv 26:311 waste
The chastisement in this verse signifies that the churches are laid waste and their worship is desolated, and there is no satisfaction as a fragrance to God.
Lv 26:31b holy  -   Psa. 74:7; Matt. 23:38
Lv 26:321a desolate  -   Deut. 29:23; Isa. 1:7; Jer. 9:11
The land being made desolate and being inhabited by the enemies signifies that the church’s enjoyment of Christ as the rich land is made desolate and is stolen by the enemies.
Lv 26:331a scatter  -   Deut. 4:27; 28:64; Neh. 1:8; Psa. 44:11; Jer. 9:16; Ezek. 12:15; 20:23; 22:15; Zech. 7:14
The people being scattered among the nations and chased by the unsheathed sword signifies that the church is scattered among the Gentiles and driven by the death judgment of God.
Lv 26:341a Sabbaths  -   2 Chron. 36:21; cf. Lev. 25:2
The land enjoying its Sabbaths during the people’s captivity (vv. 34-35) signifies that the church’s enjoyment of Christ as the rich land lies waste after the believers are scattered among the Gentiles.
Lv 26:361 put
The chastisements in vv. 36-39 signify that the church in its captivity is under suffering and is eventually consumed by the enemies.
Lv 26:36a no  -   Lev. 26:17; cf. Prov. 28:1
Lv 26:401a confess  -   Neh. 9:2; Prov. 28:13; 1 John 1:9; cf. 1 Kings 8:33-36; Dan. 9:4-19
God’s people confessing their iniquity, humbling their uncircumcised heart, and accepting the punishment of their iniquity (vv. 40-41) signifies that the church in its captivity under the enemies repents, confesses its sins, and accepts God’s punishment for its sins.
Lv 26:41a uncircumcised  -   Jer. 9:26; Acts 7:51
Lv 26:421a remember  -   Exo. 2:24; 6:5; Psa. 106:45; Ezek. 16:60; Luke 1:72
God remembering His covenants and the land signifies that for the church in captivity God remembers His new covenant (Heb. 8:10-12) and Christ as the rich land (Col. 1:12).
Lv 26:43a Sabbaths  -   Lev. 26:34
Lv 26:44a not  -   Deut. 4:31; 2 Kings 13:23
Lv 26:441 reject
That God would not reject the people nor destroy them utterly and break His covenant with them signifies that God, having chastised the church severely, will not reject it, nor will He destroy it utterly and break His covenant with it.
The spiritual principle in this chapter is that if we are wrong, we should repent; then we will receive back the blessing for our enjoyment. In the case of Israel, this word will be fulfilled at the time of the Lord’s coming back (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:25-27).
Lv 26:45a remember  -   Lev. 26:42
Leviticus Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Lv 27:21 makes
Lit., shall be wonderful to make a vow. The book of Leviticus concludes with a vow of four kinds of devotions, showing that the totality of all the things in this book is a vow, which becomes our life, our living, as God’s priesthood.
Lv 27:2a vow  -   Lev. 22:21; Num. 6:2; 1 Sam. 1:11
Lv 27:22 valuation
In the devotion of a person to God, the value of the person is set by God, i.e., in the eyes of God, “according to the shekel of the sanctuary” (vv. 3, 25), i.e., according to the holy scale of God’s dwelling, the spiritual scale of the church, which is God’s dwelling today (1 Tim. 3:15). The valuation was done in order to redeem the devoted thing (vv. 13, 15, 19).
Lv 27:31 male
Males in this category, the most valuable, signify those who are spiritually strong, mature, experienced, and able to serve at war in the church (Num. 1:2-3). Their being valued at fifty shekels — fifty is composed of ten (fullness) times five (responsibility) — signifies that they are required to bear the greatest responsibility.
Lv 27:3a shekel  -   cf. Exo. 30:13; Lev. 27:25
Lv 27:41 female
The female signifies those who are spiritually weaker than those categorized as males (1 Pet. 3:7).
Lv 27:51 five
Those in this category, the third most valuable, signify those who are spiritually young in the church (cf. 1 John 2:13-14).
Lv 27:61 month
Those in this category are the least valuable and signify those who are spiritually the young children (cf. 1 John 2:13).
Lv 27:6a five  -   Num. 18:16
Lv 27:71 sixty
Those in this category signify those who are spiritually deteriorated.
Lv 27:81 means
The valuation of the one who was poorer being according to his means signifies that actually we are not valued according to our spiritual age but according to our spiritual ability, not according to what we should do spiritually but according to what we can do spiritually.
Lv 27:91 holy
To be holy is to be sanctified to God and thus to belong to God, becoming His possession. The devoted animal not being able to be exchanged or substituted (v. 10a) indicates that once we have devoted ourselves to God, our status cannot be changed. Once something has been devoted to God, being placed on the altar, it cannot be returned. If an exchange were made, both animals would be holy (v. 10b); i.e., both would belong to God. This indicates that God earnestly desires our devotion.
Lv 27:10a substitute  -   Lev. 27:33
Lv 27:111a unclean  -   Lev. 27:27
That the unclean animal devoted to Jehovah was valued by the priest (vv. 11-12) signifies that even though what we devote to God is unclean, through the valuation of our Mediator, the Lord Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), the motive of our devotion is still valuable to some degree before God.
Lv 27:131a one-fifth  -   Lev. 5:16
The adding of one-fifth to the valuation signifies that we should be careful, not owing anything to God in our devotion.
Lv 27:141 consecrates
Or, dedicates. So throughout this chapter.
Lv 27:142 priest
The valuing of the devoted house by the priest signifies that our devotion related to the church (1 Tim. 3:15) should be valued by our Mediator, the Lord Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).
Lv 27:151a one-fifth  -   Lev. 5:16
The adding of one-fifth of the valuation to redeem the house signifies that we should not take advantage of our devotion related to the church life, that we may keep the enjoyment of the church life. Otherwise, we will be churchless persons.
Lv 27:161 field
Spiritually, the devoting of a field, a part of the land, is related to the enjoyment of Christ as the rich land (see note 71 in Deut. 8). The more we devote ourselves and our possessions to God, the more we will enjoy Christ. All our devotions consummate in the enjoyment of Christ.
Lv 27:162 seed
This signifies that our devotion related to the enjoyment of Christ as the rich land should be valued according to the seed of the divine life required for our spiritual increase. In the type, the more seed required, the higher was the value of the land. Seed is for multiplication, for life increase (John 12:24). If our devotion related to the enjoyment of Christ will afford a greater prospect for the increase of the church, this devotion will be more valuable.
Lv 27:171 year
The longer the time until the jubilee, the greater was the value of the devoted land (vv. 17-18). This signifies that our devotion related to the enjoyment of Christ should be valued also according to the measure of God’s grace from the jubilee. The amount of seed needed for the devoted land, and hence the value of the land (v. 16), depended on the number of years before the jubilee. If we devote ourselves to the Lord early in life, we will have more years to bring sinners to the Lord and thus to contribute to the increase of the church. The greater the increase we bring in, the greater the grace we will enjoy (cf. John 15:2, 6).
Lv 27:181 for
Or, for it. So also in v. 23.
Lv 27:18a years  -   Lev. 25:15-16
Lv 27:19a add  -   Lev. 27:13
Lv 27:211 field
The regulations in vv. 21-24 signify that in our devotion related to the enjoyment of Christ as the rich land, we cannot take advantage of others and we must be fair with God.
Lv 27:21a jubilee  -   Lev. 25:28, 31, 33, 41
Lv 27:21b devoted  -   Num. 18:14; Ezek. 44:29
Lv 27:25a shekel  -   Exo. 30:13; Lev. 27:3
Lv 27:261 firstborn
Not consecrating the firstborn, which already belonged to Jehovah, signifies that we may not devote anything that is owned by God.
Lv 27:26a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2
Lv 27:271a unclean  -   Lev. 27:11-13
See note 111.
Lv 27:27b one-fifth  -   Lev. 5:16
Lv 27:281 most
This signifies that our devotion must be so strong that it cannot be altered.
Lv 27:30a tithe  -   Gen. 14:20; 28:22; Num. 18:21, 24; Deut. 14:22-23; 2 Chron. 31:5-6, 12; Neh. 13:12; Mal. 3:8, 10
Lv 27:301 Jehovah’s
The regulations in vv. 30-33 signify that we have no right over anything that belongs to God, and we may not dispose of it or change its ownership in any way.
Leviticus, a book on what God has done for our enjoyment, ends with God’s aspiration that we vow to devote ourselves to Him. God has done everything for us, and now He needs us to enjoy Him. At the end of Leviticus God expresses His aspiration and expectation that we vow to devote to Him whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we can do. The purpose of this devotion is that we would enjoy the Lord in all that He has prepared for us.
Lv 27:31a one-fifth  -   Lev. 5:16
Lv 27:33a substitute  -   Lev. 27:10
< Leviticus • Numbers Outline >
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Numbers Outline
I.   Being formed into an army — 1:1 — 9:14
A.   Being numbered — 1:1-54
1.   By the families and their leaders according to age — vv. 1-46
2.   The Levites not numbered among the army — vv. 47-54
B.   Encamping in array — 2:1-34
C.   The holy service — 3:1 — 4:49
D.   Dealing with defilement — 5:1-31
1.   The corporate dealing — vv. 1-4
2.   The individual dealing — vv. 5-10
3.   Dealing with a wife over whom her husband was jealous — vv. 11-31
E.   To be sanctified — to be a Nazarite — 6:1-21
F.   Being blessed by God — 6:22-27
G.   Offerings by the twelve tribes for the worship of God — 7:1-89
H.   Lighting the lamps — 8:1-4
I.   The presenting of the Levites (serving ones of the priesthood) — 8:5-26
1.   Cleansing them first — vv. 5-8
2.   Presenting them to God — vv. 9-22
3.   The age for the service of the Levites — vv. 23-26
J.   Keeping the passover — 9:1-14
II.   Journeying — 9:15 — 20:29; 21:4-20; 33:1-49
A.   The guidance — 9:15 — 10:10
1.   By the cloud — 9:15-23
2.   By the two trumpets — 10:1-10
B.   Setting out — 10:11-36
1.   The guidance of the cloud — vv. 11-13
2.   The sequence of the setting out — vv. 14-28
3.   Trusting in man — vv. 29-32
4.   The leading of the Ark — vv. 33-36
C.   Failures — 11:1 — 14:45
1.   Murmuring evil — 11:1-3
2.   Lusting — 11:4-35
3.   Slandering — 12:1-16
4.   Not believing in God — 13:1 — 14:38
a.   God commanding Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan — 13:1-20
b.   The twelve men going up and spying out the land — 13:21-24
c.   The twelve men returning — 13:25 — 14:10
d.   God’s abhorring of the people of Israel — 14:11-38
5.   Transgressing the word of God — 14:39-45
D.   Ordinances — 15:1-41
1.   Concerning the offerings — vv. 1-31
2.   Concerning the breaking of the Sabbath — vv. 32-36
3.   Concerning the people’s dress — vv. 37-41
E.   Rebellion — a more serious failure — 16:1 — 17:13
1.   The cause of the rebellion and the reaction of Moses — 16:1-18
2.   God’s judgment — 16:19-50
3.   God’s vindication — 17:1-13
F.   The Levitical service and the Aaronic priesthood, with their reward — 18:1-32
1.   The Levitical service and the Aaronic priesthood — vv. 1-7
2.   The reward — vv. 8-32
a.   To Aaron and his sons as the priests — vv. 8-20
b.   To the Levites as the serving ones in the Tent of Meeting — vv. 21-32
G.   The water for impurity — 19:1-22
H.   Further failure — 20:1-13, 23-29; 21:4-9
1.   The result of Miriam’s failure — 20:1
2.   Contending for water — 20:2-13
3.   The result of Aaron’s failure — 20:23-29
4.   Speaking against God and Moses — 21:4-9
I.   Further journeying — 20:14-22; 21:10-20
1.   From Kadesh to Mount Hor — 20:14-22
2.   Arriving at the top of Pisgah — 21:10-20
J.   The stations of the journey — 33:1-49
III.   Fighting — 21:1-3; 21:21 — 32:42; 33:50 — 36:13
A.   Defeating the king of Arad — 21:1-3
B.   Defeating Sihon the king of the Amorites — 21:21-32
C.   Defeating Og the king of Bashan — 21:33-35
D.   The harassment by Balak and Balaam — 22:1 — 25:18
1.   Balak’s evil intention — 22:1-40
2.   Balaam’s prophesying in parables — 22:41 — 24:25
a.   The first parable — 22:41 — 23:12
b.   The second parable — 23:13-26
c.   The third parable — 23:27 — 24:13
d.   The fourth parable — 24:14-25
3.   Israel’s fall in fornication and idolatry — 25:1-18
E.   The renumbering of the people — 26:1-65
F.   The statute of judgment for the women’s inheriting of the land — 27:1-11
1.   The request of the daughters of Zelophehad — vv. 1-4
2.   God’s statute of judgment — vv. 5-11
G.   The death of Moses, and his successor — 27:12-23
1.   The death of Moses (the result of Moses’ failure) — vv. 12-14
2.   The successor of Moses — vv. 15-23
H.   The statutes — 28:1 — 30:16
1.   Concerning the offerings — 28:1 — 29:40
a.   The offerings by fire, God’s satisfying fragrance — 28:1-2
b.   A continual burnt offering for every day — 28:3-8
c.   A burnt offering for every Sabbath — 28:9-10
d.   A burnt offering for the beginning of every month — 28:11-15
e.   A burnt offering following the Passover — 28:16-25
f.   A burnt offering for the Feast of Weeks — 28:26-31
g.   A burnt offering for the Day of the Blowing of Trumpets — 29:1-6
h.   A burnt offering for the Day of Expiation — 29:7-11
i.   A burnt offering for the Feast of Tabernacles — 29:12-38
j.   All the offerings for every day, for every Sabbath, for the beginning of every month, and for all the yearly feasts — 29:39-40
2.   Concerning vows — 30:1-16
I.   Overcoming the Midianites — 31:1-54
1.   The commandment of Jehovah to avenge the sons of Israel on the Midianites — vv. 1-2
2.   The strategy of Moses — vv. 3-6
3.   The victory of the Israelites over the Midianites — vv. 7-12
4.   The purging and purification of the captives and the spoil — vv. 13-24
5.   The distribution of the plunder, both of man and of cattle — vv. 25-47
6.   The offering to Jehovah by the officers of the army — vv. 48-54
J.   The prearrangement of the distribution of the good land — 32:1-42; 33:50 — 36:13
1.   Concerning the land east of the Jordan — 32:1-42
a.   The request of the two tribes, Reuben and Gad — vv. 1-5
b.   The rebuking and warning of Moses — vv. 6-15
c.   The promise of the two tribes — vv. 16-19
d.   The permission of Moses — vv. 20-42
2.   The statutes for inheriting the good land — 33:50-56
3.   The boundaries of the good land and its distributors — 34:1-29
a.   The boundaries of the good land — vv. 1-15
b.   The distributors of the good land — vv. 16-29
4.   The cities given to the Levites and the cities of refuge — 35:1-34
a.   The cities given to the Levites — vv. 1-8
b.   The cities of refuge — vv. 9-34
5.   A further statute concerning the females among Israel inheriting the good land — 36:1-13
Numbers >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Numbers Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 1:11 Then
In the picture portrayed in Numbers, God’s move was in the Ark with the tabernacle, i.e., in Christ, the God-man, the mingling of God and man (see note 111 in Exo. 25), as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), with the church, the enlargement, the increase, of Christ (see notes on Exo. 26:15) as God’s dwelling place on the earth (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15). The picture in Numbers shows the Triune God and His chosen people mingled together as one entity that God may move on the earth and conquer His enemy in order to regain the earth for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (cf. Acts 1:8).
Nm 1:12 spoke
See notes 12 and 13 in Lev. 1.
Nm 1:1a second  -   cf. Num. 9:1; Exo. 40:17
Nm 1:2a Take  -   vv. 2-46: cf. Num. 26:2-51
Nm 1:21 families
The children of Israel were formed into a fighting army by being numbered by their families (by their fathers’ households) and leaders (vv. 1-16), i.e., by the source of life (cf. 1 Cor. 4:15) and fellowship of life (1 John 1:3) and under the leadership (authority) in life (cf. Heb. 13:17), and according to their age (vv. 20-46), i.e., according to the maturity in life (cf. 1 John 2:13). In order to be numbered the children of Israel were required to be in the fellowship of the life of their fathers’ households and had to grow in life unto maturity.
Nm 1:2b number  -   Exo. 30:12; 2 Sam. 24:2; 1 Chron. 21:2
Nm 1:31a twenty  -   Exo. 30:14; Num. 14:29; 1 Chron. 23:24
See note 141 in Exo. 30. For a vow to God, an Israelite male of the highest valuation was required to be between twenty and sixty years old (Lev. 27:3), but for fighting, an Israelite male was required to be twenty years old or above, without limit. Even at the age of eighty-five, Caleb was still a warrior, able to fight for the nation of Israel (Josh. 14:10-11).
Nm 1:32 for
Lit., to war, or, to the army. The Hebrew word tsaba is also translated service (for the priestly work) in 4:3.
Nm 1:33 number
Or, visit; muster.
Nm 1:5a names  -   vv. 5-15: cf. Num. 7:12-83
Nm 1:16a called  -   Exo. 18:21, 25; Num. 16:2; 26:9
Nm 1:16b leaders  -   Num. 7:2; 34:18; Josh. 22:14; cf. 1 Chron. 27:16-22
Nm 1:171 Moses
The numbering of Israel was recognized by the authorities in three aspects: first, by Moses, signifying Christ as the Head (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18a) in His exercising His authority; second, by Aaron, signifying Christ as the High Priest (Heb. 2:17) in His carrying out His priesthood; and third, by the leaders of the twelve tribes (vv. 4-16), signifying the elders of the churches (Acts 14:23) in their taking the lead among God’s people under the headship of Christ. The deputy authorities, those delegated by God, were to recognize the things that were done according to God’s regulations.
Nm 1:181 registered
Lit., declared themselves as born.
Nm 1:20a And  -   vv. 20-46: cf. Num. 2:2-32
Nm 1:46a six  -   Exo. 38:26; Num. 2:32; cf. Exo. 12:37; Num. 11:21; 26:51
Nm 1:471 Levites
The Levites were not numbered among the army (vv. 47-49; 2:33). They were appointed to minister to the Tabernacle of the Testimony and encamp around it to keep it from being touched by the children of Israel (vv. 50-53).
The fighting Israelites were the outward protection for the serving Levites, who were for the testimony of God. The formed Israelites were a type of the church as a corporate warrior fighting the battle for God’s testimony (Eph. 6:10-20). The Levites also typify the church in the aspect of its service to God. For fighting, the believers are a corporate warrior, and for serving, they are the Levites, even the priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
Nm 1:47a not  -   Num. 2:33; 1 Chron. 21:6; cf. Num. 26:62
Nm 1:50a Levites  -   Exo. 38:21; Num. 3:6-8, 25-38
Nm 1:501b Tabernacle  -   Exo. 38:21; Num. 1:53; 10:11; Acts 7:44; Rev. 15:5
For the meeting of God’s people with God, the tabernacle was called the Tent of Meeting (1:1); for the testimony of God, it was called the Tabernacle of the Testimony (vv. 50, 53). In the New Testament both Christ and the church, the enlargement of Christ, are the reality of the tabernacle in these two aspects.
Nm 1:511 stranger
I.e., a layman, someone who was not a Levite.
Nm 1:52a encamp  -   Num. 2:2, 34
Numbers Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 2:21a encamp  -   Num. 1:52; 2:34
The children of Israel encamping in array typifies God’s redeemed people being consummated in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem has twelve gates, three gates on each of the four sides, with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on them (Rev. 21:12-13). In Numbers the twelve tribes were arranged into an array, in which three tribes, each tribe being an army, were encamped on each of the four sides of the tabernacle (vv. 2-31). Four camps of three armies each yields the number twelve. This number, composed of three multiplied by four, signifies the Triune God (three) mingled with His creatures (four), forming a unit of eternal and perfect government (cf. note 122 in Rev. 21).
Nm 2:22 standard
Every man encamping by his own standard with the ensign of his father’s house signifies that God’s people were arranged not by their choice according to their preference but according to God’s ordination and arrangement (cf. 1 Cor. 12:18, 28).
Nm 2:23 facing
Or, a distance from. That the children of Israel were encamped facing the Tent of Meeting indicates that the testimony of God — the Ark within the tabernacle, which contained the law as God’s testimony (Exo. 25:16) — was their unique center and goal (see notes 11 in Exo. 20 and 101 in Exo. 25). This signifies that Christ, the embodiment of God, is the center and goal of God’s people, who are journeying and fighting for God’s testimony.
The children of Israel encamping around the Tent of Meeting indicates that they were formed into an army to fight for the protection of God’s testimony (the Ark in the tabernacle, typifying Christ and His Body, the church, as the incarnated and embodied God). In the same way, the church today is fighting for the protection of the incarnated God. God in Himself needs no protection, but God in His embodiment needs to be protected by the fighting of the church as a formed, coordinated Body (Matt. 16:18 and note 6; John 1:14 and note 2; Eph. 6:10-20 and note 112, par. 2).
Nm 2:3a And  -   vv. 3-9: cf. Num. 10:14-16
Nm 2:91 first
The sequence of the four camps was not according to birth but according to spiritual condition. Reuben was the firstborn (Gen. 29:31-32), but because he committed fornication he lost the birthright (Gen. 49:3-4; 1 Chron. 5:1-2) and here set out second (v. 16). Judah was born fourth (Gen. 29:31-35), but he set out first because he was an overcoming lion among the twelve brothers (Gen. 49:8-9), typifying Christ as the overcoming fighter, the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5), the One who defeated God’s enemy (Heb. 2:14). Ephraim, the son of Joseph, set out third (v. 24) because of Joseph (Gen. 48:8-20). Among the camps, Dan set out last (v. 31), for he was a “serpent” (Gen. 49:17) and was the first to rebel against God’s kingdom and set up a second worship center (1 Kings 12:26-30).
Nm 2:10a On  -   vv. 10-16: cf. Num. 10:18-20
Nm 2:17a Then  -   cf. Num. 10:17, 21
Nm 2:18a On  -   vv. 18-24: cf. Num. 10:22-24
Nm 2:25a On  -   vv. 25-31: Num. 10:25-27
Nm 2:32a six  -   Num. 1:46
Nm 2:33a not  -   Num. 1:47
Numbers Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 3:1a generations  -   cf. Gen. 5:1; 10:1
Nm 3:2a Nadab  -   Exo. 6:23; Num. 26:60
Nm 3:3a anointed  -   Exo. 28:41
Nm 3:31 who
Lit, whose hands were filled.
Nm 3:41a Nadab  -   Lev. 10:1-2; Num. 26:61; 1 Chron. 24:2
See Lev. 10:1-2 and notes.
Nm 3:6a Bring  -   Num. 18:2
Nm 3:81a furnishings  -   Num. 4:15, 28, 33
The Tabernacle of the Testimony with all its furnishings and the altar (vv. 25-26, 31, 36-37), to which the priests ministered, are types of Christ in all His rich aspects, whom the New Testament believers minister to others (Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 3:3; 1 Tim. 4:6). The altar, signifying the cross (Heb. 13:10), refers to Christ’s redemption, and the tabernacle refers to Christ as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), through whom God dwells among men (John 1:14) and through whom men can enter into God to enjoy all that He is (John 14:2, 6, 20). To minister is to serve, and to serve is to supply people by ministering to them. The New Testament believers serve others the cross of Christ for redemption (1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2) and the riches of Christ for the life supply (Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:27-28).
Nm 3:9a give  -   Num. 8:19; 18:6
Nm 3:101 appoint
Or, number. See note 33 in ch. 1.
Nm 3:102 stranger
I.e., a layman, someone who was not a priest.
Nm 3:12a taken  -   Num. 3:41, 45; 8:16; cf. Num. 3:9; 8:19
Nm 3:121 Levites
The Levites replaced the firstborn of Israel (vv. 5-9, 11-37, 39-51). Through the passover all the firstborn of Israel were redeemed, saved, and replaced (Exo. 12:12-13, 23; 13:11-15). Because of this, in succeeding generations all the firstborn males among the children of Israel were to be replaced by the Levites, the serving ones. Hence, the number of Levites had to equal the number of firstborn, and any shortage had to be redeemed. This replacing of the firstborn by the Levites, the serving ones, indicates that everyone who has been redeemed, saved, and replaced — all the believers in Christ — must serve (cf. Matt. 25:14-30).
Nm 3:13a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:12, 15; Num. 8:17; Luke 2:23
Nm 3:15a month  -   Num. 3:39; 26:62; cf. Num. 1:3
Nm 3:171 sons
God gave Jacob twelve sons so that there could be twelve tribes encamped around the tabernacle, three tribes on each of the four sides (ch. 2). God gave Levi three sons to camp around three sides of the tabernacle in the midst of the four camps (2:17) — the Gershonites on the west (v. 23), the Kohathites on the south (v. 29), and the sons of Merari on the north (v. 35). Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons camped on the east, in front of the tabernacle (v. 38). Only God could provide the persons needed to have such an array. None of those involved in this array was hired; all were born. Likewise, the building up of the Body of Christ has nothing to do with hired persons; it is altogether a matter of the divine life through the divine birth and is therefore organic (Eph. 4:11-16).
Nm 3:17a Gershon  -   Gen. 46:11; Exo. 6:16; Num. 26:57; 1 Chron. 6:1, 16; 23:6
Nm 3:18a sons  -   Exo. 6:17; 1 Chron. 6:17
Nm 3:19a Kohath  -   Exo. 6:18; 1 Chron. 6:2, 18
Nm 3:20a Merari  -   Exo. 6:19; 1 Chron. 6:19; 23:21
Nm 3:25a And  -   vv. 25-26: Num. 4:24-26
Nm 3:25b tent  -   Exo. 26:7; 36:14
Nm 3:25c covering  -   Exo. 26:14
Nm 3:25d screen  -   Exo. 26:36
Nm 3:26a hangings  -   Exo. 27:9
Nm 3:26b screen  -   Exo. 27:16
Nm 3:26c cords  -   Exo. 35:18; 39:40; Num. 3:37
Nm 3:311 charge
See note 81. The Kohathites were to take care of the contents of the tabernacle (vv. 30-31; 4:15). Spiritually, this signifies taking care of Christ, i.e., ministering Christ to others by presenting to them all the aspects of the rich Christ signified by the Ark, the table of the bread of the Presence, the lampstand, the altar of burnt offering, the incense altar, the vessels of the sanctuary, and the screen (i.e., the veil). The principle is the same in caring for all the items related to the tabernacle. See notes in Exo. 25 — 30 concerning the different parts of the tabernacle.
Nm 3:31a Ark  -   Exo. 25:10
Nm 3:31b table  -   Exo. 25:23
Nm 3:31c lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31
Nm 3:31d altars  -   Exo. 27:1; 30:1
Nm 3:31e screen  -   Exo. 35:12; 39:34; 40:3, 21; Num. 4:5
Nm 3:36a boards  -   Exo. 26:15; Num. 4:31-32
Nm 3:36b bars  -   Exo. 26:26
Nm 3:36c pillars  -   Exo. 26:32, 37
Nm 3:36d sockets  -   Exo. 26:19
Nm 3:37a pillars  -   Exo. 27:10
Nm 3:37b pegs  -   Exo. 27:19
Nm 3:381 charge
Aaron and his sons, the priests, were to keep the charge of the sanctuary (vv. 32, 38b), i.e., to be held responsible for the entire sanctuary — the tabernacle with its two sections, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies — and everything related to it. They were to do this “for the charge of the children of Israel,” meaning that if the children of Israel could not keep the charges given to them by God concerning the tabernacle, the priests were held responsible to correct the people or keep them away from the sanctuary or fulfill the charges for them. In principle those who serve as New Testament priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) bear the same responsibility for others’ service.
Nm 3:41a take  -   Num. 3:12, 45
Nm 3:46a redemption  -   Num. 18:15-16; Exo. 13:13
Nm 3:47a five  -   Num. 18:16; Lev. 27:6
Numbers Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 4:31a thirty  -   Num. 4:23, 30, 35, 39, 43, 47; cf. Num. 8:24; 1 Chron. 23:3, 24, 27
To serve as a Levite, one had to be between thirty and fifty years old (vv. 3, 23, 30, 35, 43, 47). Likewise, the Lord Jesus did not reach the full age for God’s service until He was thirty (Luke 3:23). To be counted in the service to God, one had to be one month old and above — those at that age needed to grow and mature (3:39, 43). To be counted in the warfare for God’s testimony, one had to be twenty years old or above — those at that age were mature and strong, without limit (1:3). To be counted in the service that was close to God, one had to be between thirty and fifty years old — those at that age were more mature and were stronger, without deterioration.
Nm 4:32 service
See note 32 in ch. 1. So also in vv. 23, 30, 35, 39, and 43. The holy service of the priests and the Levites was considered a warfare. Likewise, the service of the New Testament priests of the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1; 15:16) for the building up of the Body of Christ is a warfare (2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:12; 1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 4:7a).
Nm 4:51 sets
The holy service of the priests and the Levites was for God’s move. The tabernacle moved on the shoulders of the descendants of the three sons of Levi. This moving was in a very good sequence, with no confusion. In the same manner Christ, the embodiment of God for God’s expansion, moves through those who love Him (cf. Acts 1:8; 13:1-4).
Nm 4:52 Aaron
See note 191.
Nm 4:5a veil  -   Exo. 26:31
Nm 4:5b Ark  -   Exo. 25:10, 16
Nm 4:61a porpoise  -   Num. 4:8, 10-12, 14; cf. Exo. 26:14; Num. 4:25
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. It probably refers to the skin of a sea animal such as the porpoise or sea cow. So throughout the chapter.
Nm 4:6b blue  -   Num. 4:7, 9, 11, 12; Exo. 25:4
Nm 4:6c poles  -   Exo. 25:13
Nm 4:7a table  -   Exo. 25:23
Nm 4:7b plates  -   Exo. 25:29; 37:16
Nm 4:71 drink
See note 132 in Lev. 23.
Nm 4:7c bread  -   Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:6; 2 Chron. 2:4
Nm 4:8a scarlet  -   Exo. 25:4; Lev. 14:4; cf. Josh. 2:18
Nm 4:8b poles  -   Exo. 25:14-15, 27-28
Nm 4:9a lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31-39
Nm 4:11a altar  -   Exo. 30:1-3
Nm 4:12a utensils  -   cf. 1 Chron. 9:28-29
Nm 4:13a purple  -   Exo. 25:4; Dan. 5:29; Mark 15:17
Nm 4:15a carry  -   Num. 7:9; 10:21; Deut. 31:9
Nm 4:161a oil  -   Exo. 25:6; 27:20-21; Lev. 24:2
All the items over which Eleazar was responsible signify different aspects of the rich Christ. See notes 81 and 311 in ch. 3, and notes in Exo. 25 — 30 concerning the items of the tabernacle.
Nm 4:16b incense  -   Exo. 25:6; 31:11
Nm 4:16c anointing  -   Exo. 30:25, 31; 31:11; 37:29
Nm 4:191 assign
In addition to carrying out their own duties in the setting out of the tabernacle (vv. 5-14), the priests appointed the Levites to do their service (vv. 19, 27-28, 33). In the Old Testament there was a distinction between the priests and the Levites. However, in the New Testament there is only one class, that of the priests (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10), which includes the Levites. Hence, what the Levites did in the Old Testament in type, the believers as the New Testament priests should also do in reality. The fact that the service of the Levites was under the supervision of the priests indicates that when the New Testament priests do the outward Levitical work, they must do it under the supervision of the inward, spiritual view of the New Testament priesthood. The Levitical service should never be separated from the priestly view. The outward service must become a spiritual activity that ministers life to others.
Nm 4:201 the
Lit., they.
Nm 4:20a see  -   cf. Exo. 19:21; 1 Sam. 6:19
Nm 4:24a service  -   vv. 24-26: Num. 3:25-26
Nm 4:25a curtains  -   Exo. 26:1-6; 36:8-13
Nm 4:25b covering  -   Exo. 36:19
Nm 4:25c screen  -   Exo. 26:36-37
Nm 4:26a hangings  -   Exo. 27:9
Nm 4:26b screen  -   Exo. 27:16
Nm 4:26c cords  -   Exo. 35:18
Nm 4:31a charge  -   vv. 31-32: Num. 3:36-37
Nm 4:31b boards  -   Exo. 26:15
Nm 4:31c bars  -   Exo. 26:26
Nm 4:31d sockets  -   Exo. 26:19
Nm 4:32a pillars  -   Exo. 27:10
Numbers Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 5:21a leper  -   Lev. 13:2-3, 45-46
The three kinds of defilement dealt with in the camp of Israel typify all the uncleanness that needs to be dealt with in the church. Leprosy signifies the evil issues of the natural man, especially in rebellion (see note 21 in Lev. 13). Spiritually, discharges are the excessive, abnormal, and unrestrained issues of the natural man, signifying one’s being without control, unbridled, in relation to one’s self, temper, preferences, likes, and dislikes (see notes 21 and 41 in Lev. 15). Uncleanness through contact with the dead signifies the defilement of spiritual deadness that issues from contacting those who are spiritually dead (see notes on Lev. 11:31). God is righteous, holy, and living. Thus, these three kinds of defilement cannot be allowed to remain in God’s dwelling place, army, and priesthood.
Nm 5:2b discharge  -   Lev. 15:2
See note 21.
Nm 5:2c dead  -   Lev. 21:1; Num. 9:6, 10; 19:11, 13; Hag. 2:13
See note 21.
Nm 5:3a I  -   cf. Lev. 26:11-12
Nm 5:71a confess  -   Lev. 5:5; 26:40; Josh. 7:19
To deal with the guilt of our sinning against God is to deal with the defilement of unrighteousness, of being guilty before man and condemned before God. After making a thorough confession of our sins to God (1 John 1:9), we should go to the one we have wronged to make restitution in full for our trespass, even adding something to what we owe (Luke 19:8b).
Nm 5:7b one-fifth  -   Lev. 6:5
Nm 5:81 kinsman
If the wronged one is deceased, then the restitution should go to his relative. If the deceased one has no relatives, the restitution becomes holy, like a holy portion given to God for the priest. In this case we may give the restitution to the church or to one who serves God as a priest and lives by faith.
Nm 5:82a ram  -   Lev. 6:6
The ram of the expiation here typifies Christ as the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2; 4:10; see note 11 in Lev. 16). In dealing with the defilement of unrighteousness, first we confess our sin to God and then go to make restitution (see note 71). Afterward, we come back to God to offer Christ as our propitiatory sacrifice. This process shows how fine and detailed God is.
Nm 5:9a heave  -   Exo. 29:28; Lev. 10:14-15; Num. 18:19
Nm 5:141a jealousy  -   Num. 5:30
The dealing with a wife over whom her husband was jealous typifies Christ’s jealousy over His believers and His church (2 Cor. 11:2-3). Christ’s fighting army is composed of His overcomers, who are a fighting wife to match Christ (Rev. 19:7-9, 11-14). In order to be a part of the Lord’s fighting army, we must be chaste toward Him. Our seeking and pursuing anything other than Christ is spiritual adultery in the eyes of God (cf. James 4:4). Those who commit spiritual adultery will be judged and cursed by God (1 Cor. 16:22) and will not be able to fight for God and serve God.
Nm 5:151 priest
The priest here may signify Christ or someone who is very close to God.
Nm 5:15a no  -   Lev. 5:11; cf. Lev. 2:1, 15
Nm 5:152 meal
The meal offering signifies Christ in His humanity offered to God that God’s people may be acceptable (see notes in Lev. 2). In this case, the meal offering was of barley meal (the resurrected Christ — see note 92, par. 2, in John 6) with no oil (the Holy Spirit) or frankincense (resurrection) upon it. Such a meal offering of jealousy brought iniquity to remembrance.
Nm 5:181 hair
The letting of the woman’s hair go loose shows that she had not subjected herself to the headship (cf. 1 Cor. 11:10, 15).
Nm 5:221a Amen  -   Deut. 27:15-26; Psa. 41:13; 72:19; 89:52; John 1:51; 3:3, 11; 5:24, 25; 6:53
A Hebrew adjective meaning firm, steadfast.
Nm 5:251 wave
The waving of the meal offering signifies resurrection (see note 241 in Exo. 29). The handful of the meal offering that was burned on the altar was offered to God as a memorial portion (v. 26).
Nm 5:271 womb
For the womb (abdomen) to swell meant that it became abnormal. For the thigh to waste away meant that the woman’s strength was decreasing. Such a dealing was surely miraculous.
Numbers Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 6:21 makes
Lit., shall be wonderful to vow a vow. A Nazarite was sanctified by making a special vow to separate himself to God. The priests, who were such by birth, were ordained by God out of His initiation, whereas the Nazarite, who became such by a vow, was separated to God by himself out of his initiation. God’s ordaining of one family (Aaron’s) to be the priests excluded all others from this opportunity. But the vow of the Nazarite opens the gate, affording all the people of God an equal opportunity to be absolutely for God as a warrior (Judg. 13:5) or as a priest (1 Sam. 1:11; 2:11). Whoever is willing may take this opportunity on his own initiative. The accomplishing of God’s purpose requires man’s cooperation to complement God’s ordination, as illustrated by the case of Samuel, who as a Nazarite fulfilled the duty of a priest, complementing the deficient Eli, a priest ordained by God (1 Sam. 1 — 3).
Nm 6:2a special  -   Lev. 22:21
Nm 6:22b Nazarite  -   Judg. 13:5
God desires that all His people be Nazarites. To be a Nazarite is to be sanctified, separated, absolutely and ultimately to God, i.e., to be for nothing other than God. Cf. note 192 in Rom. 6.
According to typology, among the human race the unique Nazarite is the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, a Nazarite is a type of Christ in His living absolutely for God in His humanity (John 5:30; Phil. 2:8).
Nm 6:23 separate
Heb. nazar; the root of the noun Nazarite. Separation unto God is on the negative side, and sanctification to God is on the positive side. Such a separating and sanctifying of oneself to God should follow the dealing with all the defilements and the test of chastity (ch. 5).
Nm 6:31a wine  -   Judg. 13:4; Luke 1:15; cf. Amos 2:12
Abstaining from wine and anything related to its source (vv. 3-4) signifies abstaining from all kinds of earthly enjoyment and pleasure (cf. Psa. 104:15; Eccl. 10:19) and from anything that issues in earthly enjoyment or pleasure. A Nazarite, one who is absolutely for God, is altogether separated from anything of earthly pleasures (cf. Matt. 8:20; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15).
Nm 6:5a no  -   Judg. 13:5; 16:17; 1 Sam. 1:11; Ezek. 44:20; cf. 1 Cor. 11:14
Nm 6:51 razor
Not shaving the head signifies not rejecting but being absolutely subject to the headship of the Lord (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3, 6, 10, 15) as well as to all deputy authorities appointed by God (Rom. 13:1-2a; Eph. 5:21, 23; 6:1; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:5). Cf. note 181 in ch. 5.
Nm 6:6a All  -   vv. 6-9: cf. Lev. 21:1-11; Num. 19:11-16
Nm 6:61 dead
The most hateful thing in the eyes of God is death. A Nazarite must not touch anything dead so that he might not be defiled. See note 312 in Lev. 11.
Nm 6:71 his
Or, separation to his God. A Nazarite should not be defiled by the death of his blood relatives, the relatives closest to him, but should remain in his separation to be holy to God. This signifies that we should not be defiled by the deadness that comes through natural affection, but should keep ourselves clean in our sanctification (cf. Matt. 12:46-50). The defilement of death will make void our Nazarite vow.
Nm 6:91 suddenly
If the head of a Nazarite’s separation was defiled by the sudden death of one beside him, he was to be cleansed on the seventh day (the last day of his separation — Acts 21:27) by shaving his head. This indicates that if we are defiled by some unexpected deadness, we should be cleansed by reseparating ourselves to the Lord.
Nm 6:9a shave  -   Lev. 14:9; Num. 6:18; Acts 18:18; 21:24
Nm 6:101 eighth
The first day of a new week, signifying the day of resurrection (John 20:1). On the eighth day the Nazarite was to have a new beginning by bringing two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, one for a sin offering (Lev. 4) and the other for a burnt offering (Lev. 1), to make expiation for him (vv. 10-11). This signifies that we should offer Christ as both the sin offering and the burnt offering, in resurrection, for our forgiveness through His redemption (Eph. 1:7).
Nm 6:10a two  -   Lev. 5:7; 14:22; 15:14
Nm 6:111 sanctify
The Nazarite’s sanctifying his head means that he was to have a new consecration for his subjection under the headship.
Nm 6:121 separate
This was a new vow of consecration for the Nazarite to separate himself to God again. For this he needed a lamb for a trespass offering. His failure in his vow was a sin, for which he needed a sin offering (vv. 10-11). His mistake in touching something dead was a trespass, for which he needed a trespass offering. Once our former separation has been made void, we should reseparate ourselves to God by taking Christ as our trespass offering.
Nm 6:131 days
The Nazarite’s separation lasted for seven days (Acts 21:27), signifying a full course, even a lifetime (cf. note 81 in 1 Cor. 5). Each of the offerings brought to God by the Nazarite was a type of Christ. The enjoyment of Christ as these offerings indicates the overcoming of natural affection, earthly pleasure, rebellion, and death (see notes 31 through 71).
Nm 6:13a fulfilled  -   Acts 21:26
Nm 6:141a male  -   Lev. 9:3; 23:12
Here male signifies strong, lamb signifies meek, a year old signifies fresh, and without blemish signifies without defects. The lamb for a burnt offering typifies Christ as our burnt offering that we may be acceptable to God in Him and live to God by Him (see notes on the burnt offering in Lev. 1). In offering the burnt offering, the offerer laid his hands on the offering (Lev. 1:4), thus identifying himself with the offering and making himself one with the offering. This signifies our offering not only Christ Himself but also ourselves identified with Christ. The completion of the Nazarite’s days of separation signifies not an ending but a beginning of a life of the burnt offering, a life absolutely, utterly, and ultimately for God.
Nm 6:142 female
Here a female lamb signifies submission. It typifies Christ as our sin offering for our redemption. Because we are still in the old creation, at the beginning of our Nazarite life we need God’s redemption, which has been completed in Christ (Heb. 9:12).
Nm 6:143b ram  -   Lev. 9:4, 18
The ram here signifies being strong for enjoyment. It typifies Christ as our peace offering for our mutual enjoyment with God in fellowship with peace. The result of the burnt offering and the sin offering is the peace offering. Cf. note 372 in Lev. 7.
Nm 6:151 basket
In this verse a basket signifies fullness, unleavened signifies without sin, bread signifies formed, cakes signifies more formed, fine signifies even and balanced, flour signifies Christ ground in His humanity, with oil signifies with the Holy Spirit (divinity), wafers signifies easy to eat, anointed signifies poured upon, meal offering signifies holy food, and drink offerings signifies holy drinks for God. All this typifies Christ in His humanity with His divinity offered to God for us as food both to God and to us and also as holy drinks to God.
Nm 6:15a unleavened  -   Exo. 29:2; Lev. 2:4
Nm 6:152b drink  -   Exo. 29:41; Num. 15:4-10
See note 132 in Lev. 23.
Nm 6:181a shave  -   Acts 21:24; cf. Acts 18:18
The shaving of the head did not mean that the Nazarite put away the headship and gave up his submission. The Nazarite had offered the burnt offering (v. 14), which was a promise to God that he would continue for his whole life to live as in the days of his separation.
Nm 6:191 shoulder
In vv. 19-20 the shoulder signifies strength to bear, to wave signifies to offer in resurrection, the breast signifies love to embrace, the wave offering signifies resurrection, and the heave offering signifies ascension. All of the above refer to Christ in different aspects. The types here signify that the believer who separates himself by a vow to be a Nazarite and becomes a serving one of God will be supplied by Christ with Himself as the life supply in different aspects in His resurrection and ascension.
Nm 6:20a wave  -   Exo. 29:24, 26-27; Num. 5:25
Nm 6:231a bless  -   Lev. 9:22; Deut. 21:5; 1 Chron. 23:13
The blessing in vv. 23-27 comes after the dealing with defilement (5:1-10), the test for chastity (5:11-31), and the Nazarite vow (vv. 1-21). This blessing, like that in 2 Cor. 13:14, is not outward and material. Rather, it is the eternal blessing of the Triune God, which is the Triune God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into us for our enjoyment. In the entire universe the unique blessing is the Triune God, and this blessing comes to us through the dispensing of the divine Being into us in His Divine Trinity — in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1 gives us a record of how the Triune God blesses His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people in His Divine Trinity, issuing in the church as the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (see notes in Eph. 1). As the consummation of the entire record of the Bible, the New Jerusalem is the very God in His Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — mingled with His chosen, redeemed, transformed, and glorified people as their eternal blessing. Such a blessing is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s blessing to Israel in Num. 6.
“Jehovah bless you and keep you” (v. 24) can be ascribed to the Father; “Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you” (v. 25) can be ascribed to the Son; and “Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” (v. 26) can be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Father blesses us, the Son shines upon us, and the Holy Spirit lifts up His countenance upon us. As a result, we are kept, we receive grace, and we have peace.
Nm 6:241a bless  -   Psa. 134:3
The Father blesses us in every way and in every aspect in His love (cf. Eph. 1:3), and He keeps us in every way and in every aspect in His power (cf. John 17:11, 15; 1 Pet. 1:5).
Nm 6:24b keep  -   Psa. 121:3-8; 1 Pet. 1:5; Jude 24
Nm 6:251a face  -   Psa. 17:15; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 119:135; Dan. 9:17; Rev. 22:4; cf. 1 Pet. 3:12
The word face here signifies presence. As the One whose face shines upon us, Christ the Son is the visible presence of the invisible God (cf. John 14:7-9). God and His presence are invisible, but through His incarnation He became the shining sun (Luke 1:78; cf. Matt. 4:16; John 8:12). This shining sun is God’s invisible presence becoming visible.
Nm 6:252 shine
Jehovah’s face shining on us and His being gracious to us are equivalent to God’s incarnation as the shining of His presence, which was accompanied by grace (John 1:14, 16-17). For the Lord to be gracious to us means that He is continually grace to us. This grace is the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14a), which is actually Christ Himself.
Nm 6:25b gracious  -   Exo. 33:19
Nm 6:261a countenance  -   Psa. 4:6; 42:5; 44:3; 89:15
The face (v. 25) denotes the presence of the person, and the countenance denotes the expression of the person. To lift up one’s countenance upon a person means to confirm, assure, promise, and give everything to that person. Jesus, the Son, came as the face of God (see note 251), and the Holy Spirit comes as the countenance of God (cf. Eph. 4:30). When the Triune God is dispensed into us, we have the face of the Triune God and also His countenance. Eventually, we are kept in the Triune God, the Triune God becomes grace to us, and we have peace.
Nm 6:26b peace  -   Psa. 29:11; Isa. 26:12; 57:19; 2 Thes. 3:16
Nm 6:27a name  -   Deut. 28:10; 2 Chron. 7:14; Dan. 9:18-19
Numbers Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 7:1a tabernacle  -   Exo. 40:17-18
Nm 7:11b anointed  -   Lev. 8:10-11
The anointing oil, a compound of olive oil and four spices, typifies the compound, all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God, who includes Christ’s divinity, humanity, incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension (Exo. 30:23-25 and note 251). Hence, to anoint signifies to apply the processed and consummated Triune God with all His elements and processes as a whole to the object of the anointing, thus making this object absolutely one with the compounded, consummated God. For us to be anointed (2 Cor. 1:21) means that the processed Triune God is put into us and upon us and even mingled with us to make us God-men, those who are one with God. See note 261 in Exo. 30.
Nm 7:2a leaders  -   Num. 1:4-16
Nm 7:31 six
The offering of six wagons and twelve oxen was for the transporting of the tabernacle (not including its furnishings — v. 9) and the altar (vv. 7-8), and it was to match God’s move in His dwelling place on the earth. According to His New Testament economy, God will not move, act, or do anything by Himself. He needs man’s cooperation and coordination. In Numbers the omnipotent God moved in a portable home in wagons drawn by oxen. Similarly, today God needs His people to offer themselves to Him as the means for His move.
Nm 7:7a Gershon  -   Num. 4:24-28
Nm 7:8a Merari  -   Num. 4:29-33
Nm 7:9a Kohath  -   Num. 4:4-15
Nm 7:101 offerings
In their cooperating with God for His service, the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel offered twelve silver plates, twelve silver basins, and twelve gold cups full of incense (vv. 84-86), signifying Christ in His redemption (silver) and His divine nature (gold) as a fragrant satisfaction (incense) to God. Because the offerers were sinful, in their coordinating with God they also offered twelve oxen, twelve rams, twelve lambs a year old, and their meal offering for the burnt offering; twelve male goats for a sin offering; and twenty-four oxen, sixty rams, sixty male goats, and sixty male lambs a year old for the peace offering (vv. 87-88). These offerings signify Christ as our sin offering to redeem us from sin, Christ as our burnt offering for our living to God, and Christ as our peace offering, through which we and God enjoy Christ mutually in peace. All these offerings were for the worship of God, signifying that in order to worship God, we must offer ourselves to Him; then we must offer Christ as our sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offering so that we and God may enjoy Christ in mutuality and be satisfied with Him.
Twelve is the number of absolute perfection and eternal completion in God’s administration (see notes 122, 162, and 171 in Rev. 21). The offerings were offered by the twelve tribes in twelve days, and the number of the sacrifices was twelve multiplied either by one (twelve), two (twenty-four), or five (sixty), signifying that the offering time, the offering people, and the offerings were absolutely perfect and eternally complete in God’s administration.
Nm 7:10a dedication  -   Num. 7:84, 88; 2 Chron. 7:9
Nm 7:13a flour  -   Exo. 29:40-41; Lev. 2:1
Nm 7:14a incense  -   Exo. 30:34-35
Nm 7:15a bull  -   Lev. 1:2-3
Nm 7:16a goats  -   Lev. 4:23-24
Nm 7:17a peace  -   Lev. 3:1
Nm 7:84a dedication  -   Num. 7:10
Nm 7:89a speak  -   Exo. 33:9-11; Num. 12:8
Nm 7:89b cherubim  -   Exo. 25:22
Nm 7:891 he
Or, He (Jehovah) spoke to him (Moses).
Numbers Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 8:21a seven  -   Exo. 25:37; 37:18; Rev. 4:5
The seven lamps, signifying the seven Spirits (Rev. 4:5), gave light in front of the lampstand, shining toward the middle of the tabernacle. Thus, the shining of the lamps was in the right direction for serving and moving. At this point God’s people could begin to render their spiritual service to Him.
Nm 8:4a beaten  -   Exo. 25:18, 31; 37:7, 17, 22; Num. 10:2
Nm 8:41 pattern
Or, vision; thing seen (different from the word used in Exo. 25:9, 40). For the workmanship of the lampstand, see notes in Exo. 25:31-40.
Nm 8:71 cleanse
Concerning the cleansing of the Levites, sprinkling the water of purification upon the Levites signifies the application of the effectiveness of the redemption of Christ upon the serving believers; shaving off all the hair of the body signifies the cutting off of all the natural strength; washing their clothes and cleansing themselves signify dealing with their conduct and their person; and offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering (vv. 8, 12) indicates that the Levites needed Christ to be their offerings and their replacement because they were sinful, because they should live for God, and because they should live as Christ lived in His humanity (see notes in Lev. 1 — 5 for the significance of the offerings).
Nm 8:7a water  -   Num. 19:17-19
Nm 8:7b razor  -   Lev. 14:8-9
Nm 8:9a Tent  -   cf. Exo. 29:4; 40:12
Nm 8:9b assembly  -   Lev. 8:3
Nm 8:101a lay  -   Acts 6:6; 13:3; 1 Tim. 4:14; cf. Num. 8:12
The services of the tabernacle should have been taken care of by the sons of Israel, yet God chose the Levites to replace the sons of Israel (vv. 16-18; 3:12 and note; see note 271 in Exo. 32). The laying on of hands here signifies that the sons of Israel identified themselves with the Levites, meaning that in the presenting of the Levites, all the sons of Israel were presented to God.
Nm 8:111 wave
A wave offering typifies the resurrected Christ (see note 241 in Exo. 29). The Levites as living persons were offered as a wave offering that they might do the service of God (cf. Rom. 12:1, 4-6a).
Nm 8:121a lay  -   cf. Exo. 29:10; Lev. 1:4
For the Levites to lay their hands on the bulls meant that they identified themselves with the bulls. Through the laying on of hands three parties — the sons of Israel (v. 10), the Levites, and the bulls — were identified with one another.
Nm 8:14a separate  -   Num. 16:9; Deut. 10:8
Nm 8:16a taken  -   Num. 3:12, 45; 18:6
Nm 8:17a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2; Num. 3:13; Luke 2:23
Nm 8:19a gift  -   Num. 3:9; 18:6
Nm 8:24a From  -   vv. 24-25: cf. Num. 4:3, 23; 1 Chron. 23:3, 24-27
Nm 8:241 twenty-five
According to 4:3, a Levite had to be thirty years old to be qualified to carry out the service in the tabernacle. Based on this verse, at the age of twenty-five a Levite must have begun a five-year period of apprenticeship, in which he was trained to minister in the tabernacle. Every aspect of the service in the tabernacle had to be exact; no mistakes were tolerated. Therefore, those who served in and around the tabernacle had to be trained to do things accurately. After a Levite had completed his five-year apprenticeship, he was qualified, at the age of thirty, to serve in the tabernacle.
Nm 8:251 retire
The word in vv. 25-26 concerning the retiring of the Levites indicates that what they had gained in experience through the twenty-five years of their service was still needed after the age of fifty. Because God is serious about the laws governing the tabernacle, the offerings, and the Levitical work, there was the need of some experienced ones to instruct God’s people, especially the young ones, so that they would not become careless and unconsciously offend God in their service. The same need exists regarding the service in the church.
Numbers Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 9:11 first
Chapters 1 — 8 of this book were spoken by God to Moses on the first day of the second month in the second year after the exodus from Egypt (1:1), whereas the words in 9:1-14 were spoken in the first month of the same year (v. 1). In the second month as Moses was recording all the divine speakings, God must have charged him to write something concerning the passover, of which God had spoken to Moses in the first month. Moses’ recording of God’s charge concerning the passover at this juncture indicates that after fulfilling the divine requirements and partaking of the divine provisions in the first eight chapters of this book, God’s people should have a corporate feast to enjoy Christ before God and with God for their mutual satisfaction. This shows the importance of keeping the passover in relation to the move of God’s redeemed people with God in His activity. Similarly, because the Lord’s table has much to do with God’s move on earth, the New Testament believers must keep the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 11:23-26).
Nm 9:21a passover  -   Exo. 12:11
For the details of the passover, see notes in Exo. 12:1-28, 43-51. The passover in the Old Testament was a yearly reminder to the children of Israel, whereas the Lord’s table, instituted by the Lord Jesus to replace the passover (see note 261 in Matt. 26), is a weekly reminder to the believers in Christ. Both the passover and the Lord’s table remind us that we were destined to die under God’s righteous judgment, but God prepared Christ to be our replacement to die for us, thus saving us from the death-judgment of God’s righteousness. Furthermore, they remind us that we do not belong to ourselves but to the One who replaced us and who is now our life and life supply. Since Christ is our life and life supply, we should live by Him (John 6:57).
Nm 9:3a fourteenth  -   Exo. 12:6; Lev. 23:5
Nm 9:31 at
Lit., between the two evenings. So also in vv. 5 and 11.
Nm 9:32 statutes
See note 64 in Luke 1.
Nm 9:6a dead  -   Num. 5:2; 19:11, 13
Nm 9:11a second  -   2 Chron. 30:2-3, 13, 15
Nm 9:11b unleavened  -   Exo. 12:8; Deut. 16:3
Nm 9:12a morning  -   Exo. 12:10
Nm 9:12b bone  -   Exo. 12:46; John 19:36
Nm 9:131 man
That an Israelite who was clean was required to keep the passover signifies that the redeemed believers are required to partake of the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 11:23-26). A stranger being permitted to keep the passover with the sons of Israel (v. 14) signifies that the believing Gentiles have been destined to partake of the Lord’s table (cf. Eph. 2:11-19).
Nm 9:14a stranger  -   Exo. 12:48-49
Nm 9:151a cloud  -   Exo. 40:34; cf. Heb. 12:1
In typology the cloud signifies the Spirit (1 Cor. 10:1-2 and notes 14 and 23) and the fire, for enlightening, signifies the Word of God (Psa. 119:105). The Spirit and the Word are one (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17). Cf. note 211 in Exo. 13.
Nm 9:16a cloud  -   Exo. 13:21
Nm 9:171 cloud
After the children of Israel had been formed into an army, they were ready to journey to fight for God so that He could gain the ground on earth to build up His kingdom with His house. Their moving was not up to them; it was altogether according to God’s guidance. The guidance for the children of Israel in their move was both from the heavens (the cloud — vv. 15-23) and from the earth (the two trumpets — 10:1-10). The guidance in the form of a cloud signifies God in the sense of God’s presence, i.e., God Himself consummated to be the Spirit. This indicates that the New Testament believers should always follow the indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:4, 14; Gal. 5:16, 18, 25).
Nm 9:17a taken  -   Exo. 40:36; Num. 9:22; 10:11
Numbers Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 10:21 silver
In typology silver signifies Christ’s redemption.
Nm 10:2a beaten  -   Exo. 25:18, 31; Num. 8:4
Nm 10:3a blow  -   Num. 10:7-8; cf. Jer. 4:5; Joel 2:15-16
Nm 10:4a leaders  -   Num. 1:16; 7:2
Nm 10:51 alarm
Here the sound of the trumpet was called an alarm because, in God’s thought, the children of Israel were continually at war. When they moved, they moved in a fighting way (cf. Exo. 12:51; 13:18). This signifies that the Christian walk, the Christian move, is a fighting move (Eph. 6:10-20; 1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12a; 2 Tim. 4:7a).
Nm 10:5a east  -   Num. 2:3-9
Nm 10:6a south  -   Num. 2:10-16
Nm 10:6b alarm  -   2 Chron. 13:12; Joel 2:1
Nm 10:8a blow  -   1 Chron. 15:24; 2 Chron. 7:6
Nm 10:9a alarm  -   Num. 31:6; 2 Chron. 13:14; cf. 1 Cor. 14:8
Nm 10:10a appointed  -   Exo. 23:14; Lev. 23:2, 4
Nm 10:101b blow  -   Psa. 81:3
To blow the trumpet over our burnt offerings and the sacrifice of our peace offerings here signifies to proclaim what Christ is to God and His people. The burnt offering signifies Christ as our acceptance by God and as our living for God; the peace offering signifies Christ as our peace and enjoyment with God (see notes 31 in Lev. 1 and 11 in Lev. 3). Of the five basic offerings (Lev. 1 — 7) these two were great enjoyments to God and His people. When in the church today God’s children are absolute for God and dwell together with God in peace, there is a great day, a day worthy of the blowing of trumpets.
Nm 10:11a taken  -   Exo. 40:36; Num. 9:17, 22
Nm 10:12a Sinai  -   Exo. 19:1-2; Num. 1:1; 9:5
Nm 10:121 settled
Lit., tabernacled.
Nm 10:12b Paran  -   Num. 12:16; 13:3, 26; Deut. 1:1
Nm 10:14a And  -   vv. 14-28: Num. 2:3-31
Nm 10:14b first  -   Num. 2:9; Judg. 20:18; cf. Zech. 12:7
Nm 10:17a taken  -   Num. 1:51
Nm 10:17b carried  -   Num. 4:24-33
Nm 10:21a carried  -   Num. 4:15; 7:9; 10:17
Nm 10:29a Hobab  -   Judg. 4:11
Nm 10:29b Reuel  -   Exo. 2:18
Nm 10:29c give  -   Gen. 12:7
Nm 10:29d promised  -   cf. Gen. 32:12; Exo. 3:8
Nm 10:311 Moses
Lit., he.
Nm 10:312 eyes
Moses thought that his father-in-law would be a great help, but God’s sovereignty would not allow any man to come in. Thus, Moses and the children of Israel had to put their trust in the Lord. This account of Moses’ trusting in man is inserted here to compare man’s leading with the leading of the Ark in the subsequent verses.
Nm 10:33a mountain  -   Exo. 3:1
Nm 10:331b Ark  -   Josh. 3:3-4, 6; cf. Num. 14:44; Exo. 25:16; Deut. 10:2
God’s guidance to His people in a general way was by the cloud and the trumpets (9:15 — 10:10), whereas His leading of His people in a particular way was through the Ark (vv. 33-36), a type of the crucified and resurrected Christ in His resurrection. Hence, the unique Leader of God’s people is not any man (cf. vv. 29-32) but is the crucified and resurrected Christ (Matt. 23:10). He is the Leader, and He leads us to the proper place of rest on the long and rugged journey of the Christian life (Heb. 4:8-9 and notes).
The leading of the Ark of the Covenant indicates that the leading of Christ is faithful, according to a covenant. God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants to bring them into the good land (Gen. 17:1-8; cf. note 201 in Exo. 23). Eventually, God’s covenant was placed in the Ark; thus, the Ark was called the Ark of the Covenant. Hence, the Christ who leads us into a resting place is the Christ of the covenant, the Christ of God’s faithfulness (cf. 2 Cor. 1:19-20).
Nm 10:33c resting  -   Deut. 1:33; Psa. 132:8; Jer. 31:2
Nm 10:34a cloud  -   Exo. 13:21-22
Nm 10:351a Rise  -   Psa. 68:1-2
Numbers 10:35 is quoted in Psa. 68:1. In Eph. 4:8-10 Paul applied the word in Psa. 68 to the ascension of Christ. Hence, the rising up in this verse refers to Christ’s rising up to the heavens in His ascension. See note 11 in Psa. 68.
Nm 10:361 Return
Since the rising up in v. 35 refers to Christ’s rising up to the heavens in His ascension (see note 351), the word return spoken by Moses in this verse must refer to the second coming of Christ. Moses’ word in vv. 35-36 portrays a full view of God’s economy from Christ’s incarnation to be the Ark, the embodiment of the Triune God, through His ascension to His second coming.
Nm 10:362 Jehovah
Or, Jehovah of the ten thousands, to the thousands of Israel.
Numbers Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 11:1a murmur  -   Exo. 15:24; 16:2; 17:3; Num. 14:2, 27-29, 36; 16:41; 17:5, 10; 21:5; Deut. 1:27; Psa. 106:25; 1 Cor. 10:10
Nm 11:1b anger  -   Deut. 9:22; Psa. 78:21
Nm 11:1c fire  -   Lev. 10:2; Num. 16:35; 2 Kings 1:12; Psa. 106:18; Rev. 13:13
Nm 11:31 Taberah
Meaning burning.
Nm 11:41a mixed  -   Exo. 12:38
The mixed multitude (cf. Exo. 12:38) consisted of those who did not know of whom they were born or to what family they belonged. The lusting of the mixed multitude stirred up the lust of the children of Israel (cf. 1 Cor. 5:6).
Nm 11:4b lusted  -   Num. 11:34; Psa. 106:14; 1 Cor. 10:6
Nm 11:51 fish
The foods in Egypt signify the fleshly enjoyment of the world. See notes 31 and 131 in Exo. 16.
Nm 11:5a Egypt  -   Acts 7:39
Nm 11:61 this
Manna signifies the heavenly Christ as the daily food for God’s people (John 6:29-35). See notes 41 and 151 in Exo. 16. The people of Israel abhorred the heavenly taste of manna and lusted for the worldly taste of the Egyptian food.
Nm 11:6a manna  -   Exo. 16:4, 14-36; Psa. 78:24-25; John 6:31; 1 Cor. 10:3; Rev. 2:17
Nm 11:71a coriander  -   Exo. 16:31
For the characteristics of manna, see notes 132 and 311 in Exo. 16.
Nm 11:8a gathered  -   Exo. 16:16-18
Nm 11:8b taste  -   cf. Exo. 16:31
Nm 11:9a dew  -   Exo. 16:13-14
Nm 11:12a bring  -   cf. 1 Cor. 4:15
Nm 11:12b bosom  -   Isa. 40:11
Nm 11:12c nurse  -   Isa. 49:23; 1 Thes. 2:7
Nm 11:12d land  -   Gen. 13:15; 50:24; Exo. 13:5
Nm 11:14a alone  -   Exo. 18:18; Deut. 1:9, 12
Nm 11:15a please  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:4; Jonah 4:3, 8
Nm 11:161a seventy  -   Exo. 24:1, 9; Num. 11:24
Seventy, composed of seven times ten, is the number of completion (seven — see note 291 in Rev. 2) and fullness (ten — see note 102 in Rev. 2). God’s raising up of seventy elders indicates that when He does something, He does it completely and in full.
Nm 11:17a Spirit  -   2 Kings 2:9, 15; Neh. 9:20
Nm 11:17b burden  -   Exo. 18:22
Nm 11:19a eat  -   Psa. 78:29
Nm 11:21a six  -   Exo. 12:37; cf. Exo. 38:26; Num. 1:46
Nm 11:23a short  -   Isa. 50:2; 59:1
Nm 11:24a seventy  -   Num. 11:16
Nm 11:25a came  -   Num. 11:17
Nm 11:25b Spirit  -   1 Sam. 10:10; 19:20; Joel 2:28
Nm 11:251 prophesied
See note 291.
Nm 11:28a restrain  -   cf. Luke 9:49
Nm 11:29a Oh  -   1 Cor. 14:5
Nm 11:291 all
Moses desired that all the people of Israel would be prophets, those who spoke for God (see note 11 in Exo. 7). This word was a great prophecy uttered by Moses. It was promoted by Paul in 1 Cor. 14 and is fulfilled in God’s New Testament economy by the prophesying of the believers in the church meetings (1 Cor. 14:24, 31).
Nm 11:31a quails  -   Exo. 16:13; Psa. 105:40; cf. Psa. 78:26-28
Nm 11:33a teeth  -   Psa. 78:30
Nm 11:33b anger  -   Psa. 78:31
Nm 11:341a Kibroth-hattaavah  -   Deut. 9:22
Meaning graves of lust. God’s dealing with those who lusted was for the purpose of clearing up the mixed multitude, thus purifying His people.
Nm 11:34b lusted  -   Psa. 106:14; 1 Cor. 10:6
Nm 11:35a From  -   Num. 33:17
Numbers Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 12:1a Miriam  -   Exo. 15:20; Micah 6:4
Nm 12:1b married  -   Exo. 2:21
Nm 12:21a Has  -   cf. Num. 16:3
Miriam and Aaron were Moses’ blood relatives and were both prophets (Exo. 4:10-16; 6:30 — 7:1; 15:20). Their word here indicates that, being older than Moses, they regarded themselves higher than Moses and were jealous of the greater respect that Moses received. Miriam and Aaron took Moses’ apparent mistake in marrying a Cushite woman as an excuse to slander him (v. 1); however, the real issue here concerned the question of who had God’s oracle. Although Miriam and Aaron were used by God to speak for Him, neither was God’s spokesman; only one, Moses, had the oracle of God. Being jealous of Moses, Miriam and Aaron were in rivalry with Moses in the matter of speaking for God.
In speaking against Moses, Miriam and Aaron were speaking against the deputy authority of God. God had appointed Moses to be His deputy authority, His representative authority on earth (Exo. 3:10-18a; 7:1). According to God’s governmental administration, Miriam and Aaron should have submitted themselves to Moses. But they rebelled.
Nm 12:2b spoken  -   Exo. 4:30; 15:20-21
Nm 12:31a meek  -   Psa. 147:6; Matt. 5:5; 11:29
Or, humble.
Nm 12:5a Then  -   cf. Deut. 31:15
Nm 12:51 came
God took the slander of Miriam and Aaron seriously because this matter challenged God’s authority, thus assailing God’s throne.
Nm 12:61 prophet
Or, prophet of Jehovah among you, I will make Myself known…
Nm 12:6a vision  -   Gen. 46:2; Job 33:15; Ezek. 1:1; Dan. 8:1-2; 10:8, 16; Luke 1:22
Nm 12:6b dream  -   Gen. 20:3, 6; 31:10-11; 1 Kings 3:5; Matt. 1:20; cf. Matt. 27:19
Nm 12:71a He  -   Heb. 3:2, 5
Or, He is entrusted with all My house.
Nm 12:8a face  -   Exo. 33:11; Deut. 34:10; 1 Cor. 13:12
Nm 12:8b form  -   cf. Exo. 33:19, 23
Nm 12:10a Miriam  -   Deut. 24:9
Nm 12:101b leprous  -   Lev. 13:9-11
Miriam’s becoming leprous was God’s governmental dealing. God punished Miriam but not Aaron because it is likely that Miriam took the lead and was the instigator in this rebellion. Moreover, because rebellion is particularly unseemly for a female, God punished Miriam to warn and alarm all the females among the children of Israel, so that they would not follow Miriam (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-24).
Nm 12:131 Please
Moses’ praying for Miriam is a further indication of Moses’ meekness (v. 3). See note 51 in Matt. 5.
Nm 12:14a outside  -   Lev. 13:46; cf. Luke 17:12
Nm 12:16a Hazeroth  -   Num. 33:18
Numbers Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 13:21 Send
God had brought the children of Israel to the border of the good land, and they could have easily crossed the border and entered into the land. But God knew their heart, and He purposely gave the word to send out the twelve spies to spy out the land (vv. 1-2) in order to test them (Deut. 8:2). This test exposed them to the uttermost. The entire history of the children of Israel, including the failures recorded in chs. 11 — 14, was written for the admonition of the New Testament believers (1 Cor. 10:1-13).
Nm 13:2a spy  -   Num. 32:8; Deut. 1:22-25
Nm 13:22 land
See note 71 in Deut. 8.
Nm 13:6a Caleb  -   Num. 13:30; 34:19; Deut. 1:36; Judg. 1:12, 20
Nm 13:8a Hoshea  -   Num. 13:16
Nm 13:161 Hoshea
Meaning he saved, or salvation.
Nm 13:162a Joshua  -   Exo. 17:9; 24:13; Num. 14:30; Deut. 1:38; 31:23; 32:44; Josh. 1:1-9; Neh. 8:17
Meaning Jehovah Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. The Greek form of the name is Jesus (see note 211 in Matt. 1).
Nm 13:211 entrance
Or, Lebo-hamath.
Nm 13:221a Anak  -   Num. 13:33; Deut. 1:28; 9:2; Josh. 11:21-22
See v. 33 and note.
Nm 13:22b Hebron  -   Gen. 13:18
Nm 13:22c Zoan  -   Psa. 78:12, 43; Isa. 19:11, 13; 30:4; Ezek. 30:14
Nm 13:23a Valley  -   Num. 32:9; Deut. 1:24-25
Nm 13:241 Eshcol
Meaning cluster.
Nm 13:27a milk  -   Exo. 3:8
Nm 13:27b fruit  -   Deut. 1:25
Nm 13:28a people  -   Deut. 1:28; 9:1-2
Nm 13:30a Caleb  -   Num. 14:24; Deut. 1:36
Nm 13:31a not  -   cf. Num. 32:9; Deut. 1:28; Josh. 14:8
Nm 13:32a evil  -   Num. 14:36-37
Nm 13:32b great  -   Amos 2:9
Nm 13:331a Nephilim  -   Gen. 6:4
See note 41 in Gen. 6. Because the Nephilim, a mixture of fallen angels and fallen man, dwelt in the land of Canaan, God commanded the children of Israel to take over this land and to destroy every living being there so that the human race could be cleared up (Deut. 7:1-2).
Numbers Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 14:2a murmured  -   Num. 11:1
Nm 14:3a return  -   Acts 7:39; cf. Deut. 17:16
Nm 14:4a captain  -   Neh. 9:17
Nm 14:51a fell  -   Num. 16:4; 20:6
This shows their meekness.
Nm 14:6a Joshua  -   Num. 13:16
Nm 14:6b Caleb  -   Num. 13:6, 30; 34:19; Deut. 1:36
Nm 14:6c tore  -   2 Kings 18:37; 19:1; Matt. 26:65; Acts 14:14
Nm 14:71a good  -   Deut. 1:25; 8:7
See note 71 in Deut. 8.
Nm 14:8a milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Num. 13:27
Nm 14:91 do
The words do not rebel against Jehovah indicate that not to believe in the Lord is to rebel against Him (cf. Deut. 1:26, 32).
Nm 14:9a bread  -   cf. Num. 24:8
Nm 14:9b with  -   Gen. 48:21; Deut. 20:1; Judg. 1:22
Nm 14:10a stone  -   Exo. 17:4
Nm 14:10b glory  -   Exo. 16:10; Lev. 9:23; Num. 16:19, 42; 20:6
Nm 14:111 How
As indicated by the evil report of the ten spies (13:31-33) and the murmuring of the people against Moses and Aaron (14:1-4), the children of Israel did not care for God but cared only for themselves. In everything and in every way they were for themselves, not for God’s interests. Because of this, they did not believe in God, and they offended God to such an extent that they became abhorrent to Him. Their situation brought in God’s judgment and punishment. God alone is the source of faith. If we would have faith, we must learn to care for God’s interests and not for our benefit.
Nm 14:11a not  -   Deut. 1:32; 9:23; Psa. 78:22, 32; 106:24; Heb. 3:18; cf. John 12:37
Nm 14:12a nation  -   Exo. 32:10
Nm 14:131 Then
Moses prayed for the people not according to his concept but according to God’s word (vv. 17-18). His prayer bound God according to what He had spoken and what He is.
Nm 14:13a might  -   Exo. 32:11
Nm 14:14a pillar  -   Exo. 13:21
Nm 14:16a Because  -   Deut. 9:28
Nm 14:18a slow  -   Exo. 34:6-7; Psa. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8
Nm 14:19a Pardon  -   Exo. 32:32; 34:9; Psa. 78:38
Nm 14:201 pardoned
God pardoned the people according to Moses’ prayer; nevertheless, their unbelief had certain negative consequences (vv. 21-38). Cf. Heb. 3:7-19. God forgave the sinning Israelites yet still punished them. This shows that God’s forgiveness is of different kinds. One kind is forgiveness through punishment. Cf. notes 322 in Matt. 12 and 341 in Matt. 18.
Nm 14:21a filled  -   Psa. 72:19; Hab. 2:14
Nm 14:23a swore  -   Num. 32:11; Deut. 1:35; Psa. 95:11; 106:26; Ezek. 20:15; Heb. 3:17-18
Nm 14:24a Caleb  -   Num. 13:6
Nm 14:24b fully  -   Num. 32:12; Josh. 14:8-9; cf. Num. 32:11
Nm 14:27a murmurs  -   Num. 11:1; 1 Cor. 10:10
Nm 14:29a fall  -   Num. 26:65; 1 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 3:17
Nm 14:29b twenty  -   Exo. 30:14; Num. 1:3
Nm 14:301a swore  -   Heb. 3:18
Lit., lifted up My hand.
Nm 14:30b Caleb  -   Num. 26:65
Nm 14:31a little  -   Num. 14:3; Deut. 1:39
Nm 14:32a fall  -   Num. 14:29
Nm 14:33a forty  -   Num. 32:13; Psa. 95:10; Acts 7:36
Nm 14:331 unfaithfulness
Lit., fornications.
Nm 14:34a forty  -   Num. 13:25; cf. Ezek. 4:5
Nm 14:341 displeasure
Or, opposition.
Nm 14:35a consumed  -   Num. 14:29; 1 Cor. 10:5
Nm 14:36a evil  -   Num. 13:32
Nm 14:38a Joshua  -   Num. 13:16; 14:6
Nm 14:38b Caleb  -   Num. 13:6; 14:6, 24
Nm 14:40a we  -   Deut. 1:41
Nm 14:411 again
The children of Israel were not only a rebellious people but also a stubborn people (Exo. 32:9; 33:3; Deut. 10:16; Isa. 48:4). Their disobeying God here was caused by their unbelief (Deut. 1:32; Heb. 3:18-19).
Nm 14:42a Do  -   Deut. 1:42
Nm 14:431 turned
Before this time the children of Israel had followed the Ark, a type of the Triune God in His incarnation embodied in Christ, but from this point they gave God up and would not follow Him any longer.
Nm 14:44a presumed  -   Deut. 1:43
Nm 14:441b Ark  -   Num. 10:33; cf. 1 Sam. 4:3
The people were to move only when the Ark moved (10:33); but when God asked them to move, they did not. Now they presumed to move by themselves.
Nm 14:451a Amalekites  -   Exo. 17:8; Deut. 1:44
In biblical typology, the Amalekites signify the flesh, the fallen, fleshly people (see Exo. 17:8 and notes). The Canaanites signify human beings who have joined themselves to the evil spirits, to the satanic power of darkness in the air.
Numbers Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 15:11 spoke
After the failures in chs. 11 — 14, this chapter was inserted in the divine record perhaps to remind the children of Israel concerning the way to be kept in a proper relationship with God. If the children of Israel had kept the ordinances in this chapter, they would have been rescued from further turmoil (cf. ch. 16).
Nm 15:3a burnt  -   Lev. 1:2-17
Nm 15:31 offering
All the offerings are types of Christ in various aspects. To present an offering to God indicates that we realize that we cannot do anything to please God; hence, we offer Christ to God as our replacement that we may be accepted by God. For the detailed significance of the offerings, see notes in Lev. 1 — 7 and Lev. 23:13.
Nm 15:32 make
Lit, be wonderful to make a vow. So also in v. 8.
Nm 15:3b special  -   Lev. 22:21; 27:2
Nm 15:3c satisfying  -   Gen. 8:21; Exo. 29:18; Lev. 4:31; Num. 28:27
Nm 15:4a The  -   vv. 4-11: Num. 28:12-14
Nm 15:4b meal  -   Lev. 2:1-16
Nm 15:5a drink  -   Gen. 35:14; Exo. 29:40; Lev. 23:13; Num. 28:7; cf. Phil. 2:17
Nm 15:8a peace  -   Lev. 3:1-17; 7:11
Nm 15:151 one
The same statute and ordinance were for all the people of Israel and the sojourning strangers and the heathen among the people of Israel (vv. 13-16). This signifies that all the heathens and strangers share Christ in the same way as the people of Israel (Eph. 2:12-19; 3:6).
Nm 15:15a stranger  -   Exo. 12:48-49; Num. 9:14; 15:29-30
Nm 15:19a bread  -   cf. Josh. 5:11-12
Nm 15:19b heave  -   Num. 18:8, 26-30
Nm 15:201a first  -   Deut. 26:2, 10; Neh. 10:37; Ezek. 44:30; cf. Rom. 11:16
A cake of the first of the dough signifies Christ as the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). Such a Christ is offered in His ascension (the heave offering) to God as God’s food. The cake in this verse not only refers to Christ Himself but also indicates Christ’s Body, the church (1 Cor. 10:17).
Nm 15:221 you
Plural in Hebrew. The unintentional sin of the whole assembly of Israel signifies the unintentional sin of the church against God and man. Although such a sin was unintentional, a burnt offering, with its meal offering and its drink offering, and a sin offering were to be offered so that the whole assembly could be forgiven (vv. 24-26).
Nm 15:22a sin  -   cf. Lev. 4:2
Nm 15:24a sin  -   Lev. 4:23-24; Num. 28:15
Nm 15:251a expiation  -   Lev. 1:4
See note 11 in Lev. 16. God’s forgiveness is based on the redemption of Christ accomplished for propitiation, without which God has no ground to forgive man (Heb. 9:22) even though He has a heart to do so. Christ’s propitiation affords God the way to fulfill the desire of His forgiving heart. If man takes Christ’s redemptive death as his standing and asks God to forgive him, God must do it based on His righteousness, not on His mercy (1 John 1:9). This is according to God’s governmental administration.
Nm 15:27a sins  -   Lev. 4:27-28
Nm 15:29a stranger  -   Num. 15:15
Nm 15:301 high
To do things with a high hand is to do as one wishes without caring for others. Those who behave in this way utterly disregard both man and God.
Nm 15:32a Sabbath  -   Exo. 20:8-10; 35:2-3
Nm 15:351a put  -   Exo. 31:14-15
Breaking the Sabbath signifies denying God and all that He has done for us (see notes 21 in Gen. 2 and 81 in Exo. 20). This results in spiritual death.
Nm 15:35b stone  -   Lev. 24:14, 16; Josh. 7:25; 1 Kings 21:13; Acts 7:58
Nm 15:381a fringes  -   Deut. 22:12; Matt. 23:5; cf. Matt. 9:20; Luke 8:44
See note 204 in Matt. 9.
Nm 15:382 cord
A cord signifies binding, and blue signifies heavenly. Hence, a cord of blue signifies that, as children of God, our conduct and behavior should be beautiful and should be under the binding of the heavenly government.
Nm 15:41a Jehovah  -   Lev. 22:32-33
Numbers Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 16:1a Korah  -   Exo. 6:21; Num. 27:3; Psa. 42 title; Jude 11
Nm 16:1b Dathan  -   Num. 26:9
Nm 16:21 two
The rebellion in this chapter was a widespread, universal rebellion among God’s people (v. 19a).
Nm 16:3a holy  -   Exo. 19:6
Nm 16:3b among  -   Exo. 29:45; Num. 35:34
Nm 16:31 exalt
This word and Moses’ word in vv. 9-10 show that the root of this rebellion was ambition, the struggle for power and for a higher position. Ambition undermines God’s plan and damages His people. Throughout the centuries many problems among Christians have been caused by ambition (cf. Matt. 20:20-28; 3 John 9-11).
Nm 16:4a fell  -   Num. 14:5; 16:22, 45; 20:6
Nm 16:51 In
Although Moses was humble in falling on his face (v. 4), he did not give up his God-given position as God’s deputy authority (vv. 5-11, 16-18). Moses did not fight back; rather, he brought the rebels and the ones against whom they rebelled to God. As God’s deputy, or delegated, authority, Moses referred this case to God as the highest authority, for His speaking, exposing, and judging. In a struggle for power the only One who can judge and expose the real situation is God Himself.
Nm 16:5a who  -   cf. 2 Tim. 2:19
Nm 16:5b choose  -   Num. 17:5; 1 Sam. 2:28; Psa. 105:26
Nm 16:6a censers  -   Lev. 10:1; 16:12-13
Nm 16:61 your
Lit., his.
Nm 16:9a separated  -   Num. 8:14; Deut. 10:8
Nm 16:9b service  -   Num. 4:4-20
Nm 16:11a what  -   Exo. 16:8; cf. 1 Cor. 3:5
Nm 16:11b murmur  -   Jude 16
Nm 16:13a milk  -   cf. Exo. 3:8
Nm 16:13b lord  -   cf. Exo. 2:14; Acts 7:27, 35
Nm 16:14a milk  -   cf. Num. 16:13
Nm 16:141 Will
These rebels were eloquent and very stubborn.
Nm 16:15a regard  -   cf. Gen. 4:4-5
Nm 16:15b donkey  -   1 Sam. 12:3; cf. Acts 20:33; 2 Cor. 7:2
Nm 16:19a glory  -   Num. 14:10
Nm 16:21a Separate  -   Num. 16:45; cf. Gen. 19:17, 22; Jer. 51:6; Rev. 18:4
Nm 16:22a fell  -   Num. 16:4; Luke 17:16
Nm 16:221b spirits  -   Num. 27:16; Eccl. 12:7; Isa. 57:16; Zech. 12:1; Heb. 12:9; Rev. 22:6
God is the God not of people’s flesh but of their spirit (cf. Heb. 12:9).
Nm 16:28a sent  -   Exo. 3:12, 14-15
Nm 16:30a new  -   cf. Isa. 43:19; Jer. 31:22
Nm 16:301 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Nm 16:32a swallowed  -   Num. 26:10; Deut. 11:6; Psa. 106:17
Nm 16:32b Korah  -   cf. Num. 26:11; 1 Chron. 6:33-37; Psa. 84 title; 88 title
Nm 16:331 descended
Korah and the others went down to Sheol alive. They went there directly; they did not need to die first (cf. Rev. 19:20). This was something new that Jehovah brought about (vv. 29-30).
According to 26:11, the sons of Korah did not die with Korah and his company. Apparently, they did not join the rebellion but departed from it. In God’s sparing Korah’s descendants, we can see God’s unlimited mercy and grace. One of Korah’s descendants was Samuel (1 Chron. 6:33-37), who became a great prophet and a Nazarite priest. Another was Heman, a grandson of Samuel, who was not only a psalmist (Psa. 88 title) but also a singer in the temple under David’s arrangement (1 Chron. 6:31-33).
Nm 16:33a closed  -   cf. Rev. 20:3
Nm 16:35a fire  -   Psa. 106:18; Lev. 10:2; Num. 11:1
Nm 16:351b consumed  -   Num. 26:10
God’s judgment of these 250 men signifies the judgment of the cross on all of man’s service to God that is according to man’s opinions, by his flesh, and in rivalry with others.
Nm 16:37a Eleazar  -   Num. 3:32; 4:16; 19:3
Nm 16:38a covering  -   Exo. 27:2
Nm 16:381 altar
See note 22 in Exo. 27.
Nm 16:40a Aaron  -   Num. 3:10
Nm 16:40b burn  -   2 Chron. 26:18; cf. Heb. 7:13
Nm 16:411a murmured  -   Num. 11:1; 14:2; 1 Cor. 10:10; Jude 16
The murmuring of the people against Moses and Aaron proves that their rebellious nature had not been subdued. See note 121 in ch. 17.
Nm 16:42a cloud  -   Exo. 40:34
Nm 16:42b glory  -   Num. 14:10
Nm 16:45a Get  -   Num. 16:21-22
Nm 16:45b fell  -   Num. 16:4, 22
Nm 16:46a fire  -   Lev. 16:12; Isa. 6:6; Rev. 8:5; cf. Lev. 10:1
Nm 16:461b expiation  -   Exo. 30:7-10
See note 11 in Lev. 16.
Nm 16:48a stopped  -   Num. 16:50; cf. Num. 25:8; Psa. 106:30; 2 Sam. 24:25
Nm 16:49a died  -   1 Cor. 10:10
Numbers Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 17:21a rods  -   cf. Ezek. 37:16
A rod signifies authority (cf. Rev. 2:26-27; 19:15).
Nm 17:3a rod  -   Heb. 9:4
Nm 17:41 Testimony
The Testimony is the Ten Commandments in the Ark, which typifies Christ and was the place where God met with His people (see notes 341 in Exo. 16 and 101 in Exo. 25). This signifies that everything had to be brought into the presence of God to allow God to make the real situation clear by speaking the truth to all the people through His vindication.
Nm 17:4a meet  -   Exo. 25:22
Nm 17:5a choose  -   Num. 16:5
Nm 17:5b murmur  -   Num. 16:11; 1 Cor. 10:10
Nm 17:81 budded
A rod is a piece of dead wood that has not only been cut but is also dried up. Yet such a dead and dried-up piece of wood budded! A bud is something organic, something of life. The budding rod of Aaron typifies not a dead Christ but the resurrected Christ, the budding Christ, who not only buds but also blossoms and bears fruit to maturity. Such a Christ imparts life to others (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). Today He is still budding, and we are the fruit, the almonds, of His budding.
Since the rebellion of Korah and his company in ch. 16 was related to the priesthood (16:3, 8-10), the budding of Aaron’s rod was a vindication indicating that Aaron was the one accepted by God as having authority in the God-given ministry of the priesthood.
Nm 17:8a almonds  -   cf. Exo. 25:33; Jer. 1:11
Nm 17:101 Put
The budding rod was placed in the Ark along with the hidden manna and the Testimony, the law (Exo. 16:32-34; Deut. 10:5; Heb. 9:4). All three items are types of Christ. The three items placed in the Ark in the Holy of Holies also refer to the three of the Divine Trinity: the hidden manna in the golden pot refers to God the Father as the divine source of all supply (John 6:32), the budding rod signifies Christ as the resurrection (John 11:25), and the tablets of the law refer to the Spirit of life as the inner law (Rom. 8:2). Thus, the Holy of Holies is the dwelling place of God in His Divine Trinity. When we enter into the Holy of Holies, i.e., into our regenerated spirit (see note 191 in Heb. 10), we enter into God and meet the Father as the source of supply, the Son as the resurrection, and the Spirit as the law of life.
Nm 17:10a sign  -   Num. 16:38
Nm 17:121 die
The children of Israel should have been subdued by God’s threefold judgment on the rebels in ch. 16 and by God’s vindication in this chapter. However, they still complained. This shows the perverseness of the rebellious nature of fallen mankind (cf. Rev. 20:7-9). It is no wonder that none of these children of Israel, except Joshua and Caleb, were permitted to enter into the promised land (14:28-30).
Numbers Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 18:11 said
After the rebellion in ch. 16, which was an attack on the priesthood of Aaron and his household, a definite word was given in this chapter regarding the service of the Levites and the priesthood of Aaron and his sons and also regarding the reward (v. 31) they received as the compensation for their service. The reward given to the priests was a strong vindication of the priesthood in addition to the vindication by the budding rod in ch. 17.
Nm 18:1a bear  -   Exo. 28:38; Num. 18:22-23
Nm 18:12 iniquity
The priesthood was a service to offer all kinds of offerings and sacrifices to God, all of which were types of different aspects of the rich Christ. Thus, it was a very important and serious matter. The priests were required to fulfill their charge without making mistakes so that their priestly service would not have any iniquity.
Nm 18:21 Levi
The service of the Levites was to take care of the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle of the Testimony (vv. 1a, 2a, 3-4, 6). In taking care of the tabernacle and its contents, the Levites did not serve God directly; rather, they served the priesthood and the priests, who served God directly.
Nm 18:2a minister  -   Num. 3:6-9
Nm 18:3a tent  -   Num. 3:25, 31, 36
Nm 18:3b not  -   Num. 4:15
Nm 18:51 sanctuary
The whole tabernacle was the sanctuary, which typifies Christ and also the church (see note 92 in Exo. 25). The altar, which was outside the sanctuary, signifies the cross of Christ (Heb. 13:10). Therefore, the sanctuary and the altar typify Christ with the church and His cross.
Nm 18:61a gift  -   Num. 3:9; 8:19
The Levites were a gift to Aaron and his sons, a gift that had first been given to God. The children of Israel gave their firstborn to God as a gift, and these were replaced by the Levites (3:12-13 and note 121). God then gave the Levites, who had been given to Him, as a gift to the priests.
Nm 18:7a within  -   Heb. 9:3-6
Nm 18:7b priesthood  -   Num. 3:10; Heb. 5:4
Nm 18:71 gift
The priesthood, as the highest service rendered by God’s people to God, was a great gift given by God to Aaron and his sons. Moreover, the reward given to the priests for their service was superior to that given to the Levites. This might have been a primary reason that Korah was ambitious to seek the priesthood (16:10).
Nm 18:8a anointing  -   Exo. 29:29; 40:13, 15
Nm 18:91 kept
All the portions of the sons of Israel were offered to God through fire for His enjoyment. God kept some parts of the offerings from the fire that they might become the portion of the priests. This means that the priests enjoyed what God enjoyed, all of which typify Christ. God’s delight, enjoyment, and satisfaction are the Son of God, Jesus Christ (Matt. 3:17). Hence, both God and His serving ones, the priests, enjoy the same portion — the all-inclusive Christ.
Nm 18:9a meal  -   Lev. 2:1-3
Nm 18:92 offering
For the significance of all the offerings, see notes in Lev. 1 — 7.
Nm 18:9b sin  -   Lev. 6:25-26
Nm 18:9c trespass  -   Lev. 7:7; 14:13
Nm 18:93 most
Because the offerings kept from the fire were God’s food (28:2), they were to be most holy to the priests.
Nm 18:10a eat  -   1 Cor. 9:13
Nm 18:101 male
Signifying those who are spiritually stronger (cf. 1 Pet. 3:7). The enjoyment of Christ makes us stronger, and this affords us the capacity to enjoy Christ in a stronger way (cf. Eph. 3:16-18).
Nm 18:11a heave  -   Exo. 29:27-28; Lev. 7:30-34; Neh. 10:35-36
Nm 18:11b wave  -   Exo. 29:24
Nm 18:11c you  -   Lev. 10:14; Deut. 18:3
Nm 18:111 sons
The heave offering (the ascended Christ) and wave offering (the resurrected Christ) were given not only to the priests but also to the sons (the stronger ones) and daughters (the weaker ones) of the priests. This indicates that as long as we belong to the priestly family, whether we are strong or weak, we can enjoy such a Christ. See note 101.
Nm 18:11d eat  -   Lev. 22:11-13
Nm 18:121 best
Lit., fat. So throughout this chapter. The fat of the oil signifies Christ’s best part, which was for God, and the best of the new wine and of the grain signify the Christ who was poured out to God (cf. Phil. 2:17). The firstfruits (vv. 12-13) signify the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15:20).
Nm 18:12a oil  -   Deut. 18:3-4; Neh. 10:37
Nm 18:12b firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:19; 34:26; Lev. 2:14; Deut. 26:2; Neh. 10:35-36
Nm 18:14a devoted  -   Lev. 27:28
Nm 18:15a opens  -   Exo. 13:2
Nm 18:151b redeem  -   Exo. 13:13; 34:20
Since each firstborn son did not belong to his parents, the parents were to redeem him at a cost (v. 16).
Nm 18:16a five  -   Lev. 27:6; Num. 3:47
Nm 18:17a firstborn  -   Deut. 15:19
Nm 18:18a wave  -   Exo. 29:26-27; Lev. 7:30, 34; Num. 18:11
Nm 18:19a heave  -   Num. 18:11
Nm 18:191b covenant  -   Lev. 2:13; 2 Chron. 13:5
See note 132 in Lev. 2.
Nm 18:20a You  -   Deut. 10:9; 18:1-2; Josh. 13:33; 18:7; Ezek. 44:28
Nm 18:201 no
Neither the priests nor the Levites (vv. 23b, 24b) had any inheritance or any portion in the land of Israel. God Himself was their portion and their inheritance among the sons of Israel (Deut. 10:9; 18:2; Josh. 13:33; Ezek. 44:28). Not only was God’s food their portion — God Himself was their portion and their inheritance. Because God was their portion and inheritance, they did not need any other portion or inheritance. Cf. notes 186 in Acts 26 and 122 in Col. 1.
Nm 18:20b portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 73:26; Lam. 3:24
Nm 18:211a tithe  -   Lev. 27:30, 32; Num. 18:24, 26; Deut. 14:22; Neh. 10:37; 12:44; Heb. 7:5
I.e., ten percent. The tithe was to be offered to God for the Levites and was considered the Levites’ inheritance (v. 24).
Nm 18:23a service  -   Num. 3:7
Nm 18:261a heave  -   Num. 18:11
The tithe from the Levites was considered a heave offering, which typifies the ascended Christ. This thought corresponds to the Lord’s word in Matt. 6:19-20, where we are told to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” rather than on earth. To store up treasures in heaven is to “send” our money to heaven, and to do this is to “heave up” our money (cf. Phil. 4:18).
Nm 18:26b tithe  -   Neh. 10:37-38
Nm 18:28a Jehovah’s  -   cf. Num. 31:29
Nm 18:281 Aaron
The tithe from the people was given to the Levites (vv. 21, 26a), and the tithe of the tithe (v. 26b) from the Levites was given to Aaron the priest to be offered to God as a heave offering. This became God’s food, a portion of which was also the food of the priests. Thus, the Levites lived on the tithe from the people, and God and the priests lived on the tithe from the Levites.
God and His people, including the serving ones, were one large family. In this family God the Father as the source gave the good land to His children, who then had to work the land. Eventually, they reaped a harvest, which was to be enjoyed by both God and all the people. They were to bring a portion of the produce to the serving ones, and the serving ones were to offer a portion of what they received to God. In this way, God and His serving ones shared the tithes and lived together. The good land is a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8). God’s food is the riches of Christ, typified by the produce of the good land, and this produce comes through our labor. We need to labor on Christ and experience Christ. Then Christ will be the produce not only for our satisfaction but also for God’s satisfaction.
Nm 18:31a eat  -   Luke 10:7; 1 Cor. 9:13; cf. Matt. 10:10; 1 Tim. 5:17-18
Nm 18:311 reward
The reward, or compensation, given to Aaron and his sons as the priests (vv. 8-20) and to the serving Levites (vv. 21-32) altogether typifies Christ. In type, the priests and the Levites had no portion other than Christ. Christ was everything to them. Our service to God in the New Testament is not in the realm of material things; therefore, our reward is not in that realm. The only reward, the only compensation, for our priestly and Levitical service is Christ as everything to us (cf. Phil. 3:7-14).
Numbers Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 19:21 red
The heifer, the principal component of the water for impurity (v. 9), signifies the redeeming Christ. The color red signifies the likeness of the flesh of sin, which is for the bearing of man’s sin outwardly. The heifer being without defect signifies that although Christ was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, He did not have the sinful nature (Rom. 8:3 and note 3). That the heifer was without blemish indicates that Christ was perfect (see note 61, par. 1, in Exo. 12). The heifer having never been under a yoke signifies that Christ was never used by anyone, especially by or for God’s enemy, Satan (cf. Exo. 12:5 and note 1).
Nm 19:2a heifer  -   Deut. 21:3; Heb. 9:13
Nm 19:2b yoke  -   Deut. 21:3; 1 Sam. 6:7
Nm 19:31a outside  -   Lev. 4:12; cf. Heb. 13:11
Christ was crucified outside the camp (Heb. 13:12-13), on Calvary, a small mount outside the city of Jerusalem (Matt. 27:33 and note).
Nm 19:4a sprinkle  -   Lev. 4:6, 17; 16:14, 19; Heb. 9:13
Nm 19:5a burned  -   Exo. 29:14; Lev. 4:11-12
Nm 19:61a cedar  -   Lev. 14:4
Cedar wood signifies Christ in His dignified humanity, hyssop signifies Christ in His humbled humanity, and scarlet signifies redemption in its highest significance (see note 42 in Lev. 14). The high and dignified Christ and the lowly and humbled Christ in His redemption were elements for the composition of the water for impurity (v. 9).
Nm 19:7a wash  -   Lev. 11:25
Nm 19:81 the
Lit., it.
Nm 19:91a ashes  -   Heb. 9:13; cf. Lev. 4:12; 6:11
Ashes signify Christ reduced to nothing (Mark 9:12). These ashes were kept for the water for impurity; it was a purification of sin, or a sin offering.
Nm 19:9b water  -   Num. 19:13, 20-21; 31:23
Nm 19:92 impurity
The impurity in this chapter does not refer to sin but to death (vv. 11, 13-16). Death issues from sin, and sin is the root of death (Rom. 5:12). From the sin of rebellion (chs. 11 — 14 and 16), death became prevailing among the children of Israel (16:49). Thus, there was the need for the water for impurity. Only the working of Christ’s redemption, through His dignified and humbled humanity, with His death and the Spirit of His resurrection (v. 17 and note), could heal and cleanse the situation from the uncleanness of death.
Nm 19:11a dead  -   Num. 19:13; 5:2; 9:6, 10; Lev. 21:1, 11
Nm 19:12a purify  -   Num. 31:19
Nm 19:121 third
In typology, the third day signifies resurrection, and the seventh day signifies completion.
Nm 19:13a defiles  -   Num. 19:20; Lev. 15:31
Nm 19:13b water  -   Num. 19:9
Nm 19:17a ashes  -   Num. 19:9
Nm 19:171 running
Lit., living. The living water here signifies the Holy Spirit in the resurrection of Christ (John 7:37-39 and notes 382 and 391). In the water for impurity, there is the efficacy of Christ’s redemption with the washing power of the Spirit of His resurrection.
Nm 19:18a hyssop  -   Exo. 12:22; Psa. 51:7
Nm 19:18b sprinkle  -   Heb. 9:13
Nm 19:19a sprinkle  -   Heb. 9:13
Nm 19:20a water  -   Num. 19:9
Numbers Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 20:1a Miriam  -   Exo. 15:20; Num. 12:1; 26:59
Nm 20:11 died
See note 281.
Nm 20:2a no  -   cf. Exo. 15:22; 17:1; Num. 33:14; Deut. 8:15
Nm 20:21 water
The trouble in vv. 2-13 was caused by the shortage of water, which typifies the Spirit of life (John 7:37-39; Rom. 8:2). In type, this shows that whenever God’s people are short of the Spirit of life, they will have problems (cf. note 21 in Exo. 16). When God’s people have an abundance of the Spirit, their problems among themselves and with God are solved.
Nm 20:5a place  -   cf. Num. 16:14; Deut. 8:8
Nm 20:6a fell  -   Num. 14:5; 16:4, 22, 45
Nm 20:6b glory  -   Num. 14:10
Nm 20:8a rod  -   Exo. 17:5
Nm 20:81b rock  -   Exo. 17:6
The rock in this chapter typifies the crucified and resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 10:4b), and the water that flowed from the rock typifies the Spirit (1 Cor. 10:4a) as the living water that flowed out of the crucified Christ (John 19:34 and note). In Exo. 17 Moses struck the rock with his rod, and water flowed out for the people to drink (see notes 62 and 63 in Exo. 17). According to Paul’s word in 1 Cor. 10:4 (see note 42 there), this rock was a spiritual rock that followed God’s people in their journey through the wilderness. This signifies that Christ has been crucified to become a rock that follows His people. This following rock is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), who is always with the church to supply His believers with the water of life.
Since Christ has been crucified and the Spirit has been given, there is no need for Christ to be crucified again, i.e., no need to strike the rock again, that the living water may flow. In God’s economy Christ should be crucified only once (Heb. 7:27; 9:26-28a). To receive the living water from the crucified Christ, we need only to “take the rod” and “speak to the rock.” To take the rod is to identify with Christ in His death and apply the death of Christ to ourselves and our situation. To speak to the rock is to speak a direct word to Christ as the smitten rock, asking Him to give us the Spirit of life (cf. John 4:10) based on the fact that the Spirit has already been given. If we apply the death of Christ to ourselves and ask Christ in faith to give us the Spirit, we will receive the living Spirit as the bountiful supply of life (Phil. 1:19).
Nm 20:8c drink  -   cf. John 4:14
Nm 20:9a rod  -   Num. 17:10
Nm 20:10a said  -   Psa. 106:32-33
Nm 20:101b rebels  -   cf. Matt. 5:22
Here Moses condemned the people as rebels, but Moses was the one who rebelled against God’s word (v. 24; 27:14).
Nm 20:11a struck  -   Exo. 17:6; Psa. 78:20; cf. Num. 20:8
Nm 20:121a sanctify  -   Num. 27:14; Deut. 32:51
To sanctify God is to make Him holy, i.e., separate from all the false gods; to fail to sanctify God is to make Him common. In being angry with the people (v. 10) and in wrongly striking the rock twice (v. 11), Moses failed to sanctify God. In being angry when God was not angry, Moses did not represent God rightly in His holy nature, and in striking the rock twice, he did not keep God’s word in His economy (see note 81, par. 2). Thus, Moses offended both God’s holy nature and His divine economy. Because of this, even though he was intimate with God and may be considered a companion of God (Exo. 33:11), Moses lost the right to enter the good land.
In all that we say and do concerning God’s people, our attitude must be according to God’s holy nature, and our actions must be according to His divine economy. This is to sanctify Him. Otherwise, in our words and deeds we will rebel against Him and offend Him.
Nm 20:12b into  -   Deut. 1:37
Nm 20:131a Meribah  -   Exo. 17:7; Num. 27:14; Deut. 32:51; 33:8; Psa. 81:7; 95:8; 106:32
Meaning contention.
Nm 20:14a Kadesh  -   Judg. 11:16-17
Nm 20:141 Edom
Edom consisted of the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob (Gen. 36:1). The children of Israel were descendants of Jacob. Thus, there was a close relationship between Israel and Edom. In typology Israel may signify our spirit, and Edom may signify our flesh. Israel’s attempt to get help from Edom (vv. 14-17, 19) signifies that we may sometimes try to help our spirit by depending on our flesh. Just as Edom refused to help Israel (vv. 18, 20-21), our flesh will never help our spirit (cf. Gal. 5:16-17). We should be those who are in the spirit and who do not try to get help from the flesh (Phil. 3:3).
Nm 20:15a Egypt  -   Gen. 46:6; Acts 7:15
Nm 20:15b dwelt  -   cf. Exo. 12:40
Nm 20:15c ill-treated  -   Exo. 1:10, 11; Deut. 26:6; Acts 7:19
Nm 20:16a cried  -   Exo. 2:23; 3:7
Nm 20:16b Angel  -   Exo. 3:2; 14:19; 23:20; 33:2; Judg. 2:1
Nm 20:17a let  -   cf. Num. 21:22; Deut. 2:27
Nm 20:181 my
Lit., me.
Nm 20:21a refused  -   Judg. 11:17
Nm 20:22a journeyed  -   Num. 33:37
Nm 20:24a gathered  -   Num. 27:13; Deut. 32:50; cf. Gen. 25:8
Nm 20:24b rebelled  -   Num. 27:14
Nm 20:26a garments  -   Exo. 28:1-43; 29:29-30
Nm 20:281a died  -   Num. 33:38; Deut. 10:6; 32:50
On their journey the children of Israel had a number of failures. The book of Numbers shows us that the result of those failures was death, not only of the common Israelites (11:1, 33-34; 14:36-37, 45; 16:32-33; 25:3-9) but also of Miriam (20:1), Aaron (20:23-29), and Moses (27:12-14). This should be a warning to us to be careful concerning failures because failures result in death, and some even in physical death (cf. Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 11:27-30; 1 John 5:16).
Nm 20:29a thirty  -   cf. Deut. 34:8
Numbers Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 21:11a Canaanite  -   Num. 33:40
In the typology of the Old Testament, Canaan has two aspects: on the positive side, Canaan, a land of riches (Deut. 8:7-10 and note 71), typifies the all-inclusive Christ with His unsearchable riches (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8), and on the negative side, it signifies the aerial part, the heavenly part, of the dark kingdom of Satan. As the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and as the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2), Satan has his authority (Acts 26:18) and his angels (Matt. 25:41), who are his subordinates as principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). Hence, he has his kingdom (Matt. 12:26), the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13). The Canaanites typify the fallen angels, the rebellious angels who follow Satan (Rev. 12:4, 7), who have become the powers, rulers, and authorities in Satan’s kingdom (cf. Dan. 10:13, 20). The fighting of the children of Israel against the Canaanites that they might possess and enjoy the good land typifies the spiritual warfare of the church as a whole, including all the members, against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies” (Eph. 6:12) that the saints may enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive land. The church must be such a corporate warrior, fighting against Satan’s aerial forces so that God’s people may gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, establishing and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth.
Nm 21:12 Arad
The kings of Arad, of the Amorites (v. 21), and of Bashan (v. 33) were the “gate guards” on the east of the Jordan, guarding the land of Canaan, the kingdom of darkness, for Satan. In order for the children of Israel to enter into the good land, they had to pass through the territory controlled by these kings and had to fight against them, destroy them, and take over their territory. This signifies that in order to enjoy the unsearchably rich Christ, the church must defeat and take over the territory of the enemies signified by these kings. See note 11.
Nm 21:2a vow  -   cf. Gen. 28:20; Judg. 11:30
Nm 21:2b utterly  -   Deut. 7:2
Nm 21:31 Hormah
Meaning destruction.
Nm 21:4a around  -   Judg. 11:18
Nm 21:41 the
Lit., the soul of the people became short. In ch. 20 the children of Israel’s contending for water was fair because it came from the people’s thirst. In this chapter their contending was not fair, because it came from the people’s impatience. God did not punish the people in ch. 20, but He did punish them in this chapter.
Nm 21:51a light  -   cf. Num. 11:6
Or, contemptible, worthless.
Nm 21:6a serpents  -   Deut. 8:15; Jer. 8:17; 1 Cor. 10:9; cf. Rev. 9:19; 12:9; 20:2; Gen. 3:1; Luke 10:19
Nm 21:81 pole
Or, standard. So also in v. 9. The pole, or standard, here signifies the cross of Christ.
Nm 21:91a bronze  -   Num. 21:8; John 3:14-15; cf. 2 Kings 18:4
Bronze signifies judgment. The bronze serpent is a type of the Lord Jesus, who was crucified in the likeness of the flesh of sin as our Substitute and Replacement that we might “look at” (believe into) Him and have eternal life (John 3:14-15 and notes; Rom. 8:3 and note 3).
Nm 21:9b looked  -   cf. Isa. 45:22; Zech. 12:10; John 1:29; Heb. 12:2
Nm 21:10a And  -   vv. 10-11: Num. 33:43-44
Nm 21:12a Zered  -   Deut. 2:13
Nm 21:13a journeyed  -   Judg. 11:18
Nm 21:161 Beer
Meaning a well. The rock in 20:8 and Exo. 17:5-6 typifies Christ crucified (smitten) on the cross by God so that the living water, the consummated Spirit of the processed Triune God, might flow out into us, whereas the well at Beer typifies Christ within us (John 4:11-12, 14). The digging of the well (v. 18) signifies the digging away of the “dirt,” the barriers in our heart — our mind, emotion, will, and conscience — so that the Spirit as the living water may spring up within us and flow freely.
Nm 21:16a water  -   cf. Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:8
Nm 21:181 leaders
Those who seek after the Spirit and take the lead to dig the well are noble and are leaders.
Nm 21:20a Pisgah  -   Num. 23:14
Nm 21:21a sent  -   Deut. 2:26; Judg. 11:19
Nm 21:211 Amorites
See note 12.
Nm 21:22a Let  -   cf. Num. 20:17
Nm 21:23a But  -   Deut. 2:30; Judg. 11:20
Nm 21:24a struck  -   Deut. 2:33; 29:7; Josh. 12:1-2; Neh. 9:22; Psa. 136:19
Nm 21:28a For  -   vv. 28-29: Jer. 48:45-46
Nm 21:281 And
According to the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.
Nm 21:301 Fire
According to the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, Which.
Nm 21:32a spy  -   Num. 13:2; Josh. 2:1
Nm 21:33a Og  -   Deut. 1:4; 3:1-6; Josh. 13:12
Nm 21:331 Bashan
Bashan, mentioned in Psa. 22:12; 68:15, 22; 135:11; and 136:20, is a mountain standing in opposition to God’s dwelling place. Thus, Bashan is a type of the satanic authority in the air. See note 12.
Numbers Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 22:1a journeyed  -   Num. 33:48
Nm 22:2a Balak  -   Josh. 24:9; Judg. 11:25; Micah 6:5; Rev. 2:14
Nm 22:41 Moab
Moab was a son born of Lot and one of his daughters through incest (Gen. 19:30-38). Hence, Moab represents the fruit of fleshly lust. Midian was very close to the children of Ishmael, who represents the flesh, in contrast to Isaac, who represents that which is born of the Spirit (cf. Gal. 4:22-23, 28-29). Thus, Midian also signifies the flesh.
Nm 22:51a Balaam  -   Deut. 23:4; Josh. 13:22; 24:9; Neh. 13:2; Micah 6:5; 2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14
Balaam was a Gentile prophet of God (see note 153 in 2 Pet. 2). After Israel defeated the three kings on the east of the Jordan (21:1-3, 21-35), Satan changed his mode of fighting against Israel and took a religious way.
Nm 22:52 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Nm 22:6a curse  -   Num. 23:7; cf. Psa. 109:28; Prov. 26:2
Nm 22:81 Jehovah
Balaam’s asking God whether he should go with the messengers or not was self-deception. If we seek the Lord’s will but are actually inclined to carry out our own desires, we may deceive ourselves, even as Balaam deceived himself. We should seek the Lord’s will without having any other desire but to know His will and to do it.
Nm 22:11a There  -   Num. 22:5
Nm 22:121 curse
See note 31 in Gen. 12.
Nm 22:12a blessed  -   Gen. 12:2; 22:17; Num. 23:20; Deut. 23:5
See note 121.
Nm 22:18a And  -   Num. 24:12-13
Nm 22:201 go
Because Balaam wanted to do so, God allowed him to go with the rulers of Moab. It was Balaam’s will to go, not God’s (cf. v. 22).
Nm 22:221a Angel  -   Num. 22:31, 32; Exo. 3:2; 1 Chron. 21:16
The Angel of Jehovah here was Jehovah Himself (see note 21 in Exo. 3), who came in to deal directly with this greedy prophet (2 Pet. 2:15).
Nm 22:28a donkey  -   2 Pet. 2:16
Nm 22:31a Angel  -   Num. 22:23
Nm 22:37a honor  -   Num. 22:17; 24:11
Nm 22:38a The  -   Num. 23:12, 26
Nm 22:411 Bamoth-baal
Or, the high places of Baal. These were the places where people worshipped the idol of Baal.
Nm 22:41a edge  -   Num. 23:13
Numbers Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 23:1a Then  -   vv. 1-2: Num. 23:29-30, 14
Nm 23:21 offered
It was not clear to whom Balak and Balaam offered — to Jehovah or to Baal (22:41 and note). Balaam worshipped in God’s way, but he mixed the worship of God with the worship of an idol. This kind of mixture in worship can be found in Roman Catholicism.
Nm 23:4a And  -   vv. 4-6: Num. 23:16-17
Nm 23:71 parable
Or, couplet. Balaam’s parable in vv. 7-10 was actually a God-inspired prophecy.
Nm 23:7a curse  -   Num. 22:6, 11, 17
Nm 23:8a not  -   Num. 22:12; 23:20
Nm 23:91a alone  -   Exo. 19:5-6; 33:16; Esth. 3:8
This word indicates that the children of Israel were a holy, sanctified people, a people set apart from the nations. The same is true of the church (1 Cor. 3:17; Eph. 1:4; 5:27; 1 Pet. 2:9).
Nm 23:10a count  -   Gen. 13:16
Nm 23:101 dust
Balaam’s word in v. 10a was a blessing of abundant increase, and his word in v. 10b was a word of great blessing and appreciation.
Nm 23:102 me
Lit., my soul.
Nm 23:12a Shall  -   Num. 22:38
Nm 23:13a And  -   Num. 23:27
Nm 23:14a Pisgah  -   Num. 21:20
Nm 23:16a And  -   vv. 16-17: Num. 23:4-6
Nm 23:19a God  -   1 Sam. 15:29; 2 Tim. 2:13; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18; cf. 1 John 1:10
Nm 23:191 lie
Or, fail.
Nm 23:20a blessed  -   Gen. 12:2; 22:17; Num. 22:12
Nm 23:211a iniquity  -   cf. Jer. 50:20
This word was spoken not according to the human view but according to the divine view. In the sight of God, Israel is without fault. In themselves God’s people have many defects, but in God’s redemption and in Christ they have no defects. When God looks at His people, He does not see them according to what they are in themselves but according to what they are in Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16-17).
Nm 23:21b Jehovah  -   Exo. 29:45-46
Nm 23:212 king
Ultimately, this king refers to Christ.
Nm 23:22a God  -   Num. 24:8
Nm 23:221 He
Referring to Israel. Alternatively, the text can be translated, He is for them like the horns of a wild ox. So also in 24:8.
Nm 23:222b horns  -   Deut. 33:17; Job 39:9-10; Psa. 22:21; 92:10
The reference to the horns of a wild ox and the reference to the lion and the lioness in v. 24 indicate that the church is victorious (Rom. 8:37; 16:20; Rev. 12:11).
Nm 23:23a wrought  -   Psa. 44:1
Nm 23:24a lion  -   Gen. 49:9; Num. 24:9
Nm 23:26a All  -   Num. 22:38; 23:12
Nm 23:27a And  -   Num. 23:13
Nm 23:29a And  -   vv. 29-30: Num. 23:1-2
Numbers Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 24:1a not  -   Num. 23:3, 15
Nm 24:2a Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10; 1 Sam. 10:10; 19:20-23; 2 Chron. 15:1; 20:14
Nm 24:3a And  -   vv. 3-4: Num. 24:15-16
Nm 24:31 opened
Or, true. So also in v. 15.
Nm 24:4a All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Nm 24:5a How  -   cf. Psa. 84:1
Nm 24:51 fair
Or, good. Balaam’s first parable reveals that Israel is holy (23:9), the second, that Israel is perfect (23:21), and the third, that Israel is beautiful, as indicated by the word fair here. This will be the actual situation of Israel in the millennium. God promised that the descendants of Abraham would be a blessing to all the nations (Gen. 12:2-3). Eventually, the Jews will be fully blessed by God, and they will be a blessing to the entire human race (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23). Balaam’s parables also indicate that in its standing the church is holy, in the sight of God the church is perfect, and in appearance the church is beautiful, fair (cf. Eph. 5:27).
Nm 24:61 valleys
Or, palm trees. The word concerning valleys and gardens here and concerning water flowing from buckets in v. 7 reveals figuratively that the church has valleys (Rev. 2:9-10), that the church is like a garden (1 Cor. 3:9b), and that in the church there is an abundance of water (1 Cor. 12:13; cf. John 7:38-39). These are some of the riches concerning the church.
Nm 24:6a gardens  -   Isa. 58:11; Jer. 31:12
Nm 24:62b aloes  -   Psa. 45:8
Aloe is a plant known for its healing effect. The Lord Jesus was buried with aloes (John 19:39). After the Lord’s coming back, Israel will be a healing to the nations, and that healing will be a great blessing (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23).
Nm 24:6c water  -   Psa. 1:3; Jer. 17:8
Nm 24:71 king
Balaam’s word here is a prophecy that eventually has its fulfillment in Christ.
Nm 24:7a Agag  -   1 Sam. 15:8; Esth. 3:1; 8:5, 7; 9:24
Nm 24:8a God  -   Num. 23:22; Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15
Nm 24:81 horns
For vv. 8-9a, see notes on 23:22.
Nm 24:9a He  -   Gen. 49:9-10; cf. Rev. 5:5
Nm 24:91b Blessed  -   Gen. 12:3; 27:29
Instead of cursing God’s people, Balaam, speaking on behalf of God, altogether blessed them. To bless a person is to speak well of him, to speak positively concerning him (Eph. 1:3 and notes 1 and 4). The more we praise the Lord for His people and speak well of them in faith, the more we put ourselves under God’s blessing. Those who speak positively concerning the church receive the blessing. Those who speak negatively put themselves under a curse.
Nm 24:10a curse  -   Num. 23:11
Nm 24:11a honor  -   Num. 22:17, 37
Nm 24:12a And  -   vv. 12-13: Num. 22:18
Nm 24:15a And  -   vv. 15-16: Num. 24:3-4
Nm 24:16a Most  -   Gen. 14:18-19; Deut. 32:8; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28
Nm 24:16b All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Nm 24:171 come
Lit., march forth, tread.
Nm 24:172a Star  -   Matt. 2:2; Rev. 22:16; cf. Rev. 2:28
Both the Star and the Scepter refer to Christ. The Star is the heavenly Christ, and the Scepter is Christ as the One with power and authority. The greatest blessing to the children of Israel is Christ. As the Star and the Scepter, Christ will be the almighty One with all-inclusive power and authority.
Balaam’s first three parables concern the church, which is sanctified, perfect, and beautiful (see note 51), whereas his fourth parable contains a prophecy concerning Christ. The church is sanctified, perfect, and beautiful when it is full of Christ. Christ is the content, the constituent, and every part of the church as the new man (Col. 3:10-11).
Nm 24:17b Scepter  -   Gen. 49:10; Num. 21:18
See note 172.
Nm 24:17c Moab  -   cf. 2 Sam. 8:2; Jer. 48:45
Nm 24:18a Edom  -   2 Sam. 8:14; Psa. 60:8-9; Amos 9:12
Nm 24:181 enemies
The enemies here are Christ’s enemies. These enemies will be destroyed, but because of Christ, Israel will remain. This prophecy, as the New Testament indicates (Rom. 11:25-32), will be fully fulfilled in the millennium.
Nm 24:191 the
Or, Ir.
Nm 24:201 Amalek
In vv. 20-24 Balaam prophesied concerning other peoples. These prophecies reveal that God is over all. All the nations are under His control and His reign for the fulfillment of His purpose (Dan. 2:31-45; 4:17, 26; 5:21c; Acts 17:26). He rules over the nations that His economy may be accomplished among the nations through Israel.
Nm 24:20a Amalek  -   Gen. 14:7; 36:12; Exo. 17:8, 14; 1 Sam. 15:3, 8
Nm 24:22a Asshur  -   cf. 2 Kings 18:11
Nm 24:24a Kittim  -   Gen. 10:4; Dan. 11:30
Numbers Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 25:11a fornication  -   Num. 31:16; 1 Cor. 10:8; Rev. 2:14
Unable to defeat Israel militarily, politically, or through the use of religion, Balak, under the evil counsel of Balaam (31:16; Rev. 2:14), induced Israel to fall into fornication and idolatry (vv. 1-3a). Fornication destroys the person of the God-created man, and idolatry insults the divine person of God. According to the record of the Bible, fornication and idolatry go together (Acts 15:29; 1 Cor. 10:7-8; Eph. 5:5).
God’s view of Israel, revealed in Balaam’s parables (chs. 23 — 24), is altogether positive; but according to their actual situation and condition in their adamic nature, the children of Israel were fallen and sinful, a people of fornication and idolatry. The situation is the same with the believers in Christ. On the one hand, in Christ we are a heavenly people (Eph. 2:6; Phil. 3:20a; Col. 3:1-3); on the other hand, in ourselves we are a fallen and sinful people, worthy to be judged by God (Rom. 7:18; Eph. 2:1-3).
Nm 25:2a ate  -   Exo. 34:15-16; Rev. 2:14
Nm 25:3a Baal-peor  -   Deut. 4:3; Psa. 106:28; Hosea 9:10
Nm 25:4a hang  -   cf. Deut. 21:22-23; 2 Sam. 21:6; Gal. 3:13
Nm 25:5a slay  -   cf. Exo. 32:27
Nm 25:6a Midianite  -   Num. 22:7; 31:2
Nm 25:7a Phinehas  -   Psa. 106:30
Nm 25:91 plague
The plague was a purification of God’s people, a sifting that dealt with the mixture among them (cf. 11:4). Since the history of Israel is a complete type of the church (1 Cor. 9:24 — 10:11), the mixture among the children of Israel is a type of the mixture in the church (cf. Acts 4:32 — 5:11; 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17-21; 4:10, 14-15). God uses the failure and turmoil among His people to purify them from mixture. God also uses the frustrations suffered by His chosen and redeemed people as a means to humble them and test them in their journey with Him (Deut. 8:2). The punishment in this chapter was the last purification of the children of Israel before they entered into the good land.
Nm 25:9a twenty-four  -   cf. 1 Cor. 10:8
Nm 25:11a jealousy  -   Exo. 20:5; cf. 2 Cor. 11:2
Nm 25:12a covenant  -   cf. Mal. 2:5
Nm 25:13a everlasting  -   Exo. 40:15; cf. Psa. 106:31
Nm 25:17a Midianites  -   Num. 31:2, 7-8
Numbers Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 26:21a sum  -   Exo. 30:12; 38:25-26; Num. 1:2-3
The renumbering of God’s people in this chapter took place immediately after the purification by the plague on the fornicators and idolaters (25:9). The first numbering had taken place in the wilderness of Sinai (1:1-2); the renumbering took place in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho (vv. 3, 63), i.e., at the entrance to the good land. The first numbering was for the formation of the army (1:3); the renumbering was for the inheriting of the land, signifying the enjoyment of Christ, through fighting (v. 53).
Nm 26:22 twenty
See note 21 in ch. 1.
Nm 26:31 Moses
See note 171 in ch. 1.
Nm 26:5a Reuben  -   vv. 5-7: Gen. 46:8-9; Exo. 6:14; 1 Chron. 5:1-3
Nm 26:9a Dathan  -   Num. 16:1-3
Nm 26:9b called  -   Num. 1:16
Nm 26:10a And  -   Num. 16:32, 35
Nm 26:10b sign  -   cf. 1 Cor. 10:6; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7
Nm 26:11a Korah  -   Exo. 6:24; 1 Chron. 6:22; Psa. 42 title; cf. Num. 16:32
Nm 26:111 not
See note 331, par. 2, in ch. 16.
Nm 26:12a Simeon  -   vv. 12-14: Gen. 46:10; Exo. 6:15; 1 Chron. 4:24
Nm 26:15a Gad  -   vv. 15-18: Gen. 46:16
Nm 26:19a Judah  -   vv. 19-22: Gen. 46:12; 1 Chron. 2:3-5
Nm 26:19b died  -   Gen. 38:3-10
Nm 26:23a Issachar  -   vv. 23-25: Gen. 46:13; 1 Chron. 7:1
Nm 26:26a Zebulun  -   vv. 26-27: Gen. 46:14
Nm 26:28a Joseph  -   Gen. 46:20
Nm 26:29a Manasseh  -   vv. 29-34: cf. 1 Chron. 7:14-20
Nm 26:33a Zelophehad  -   Num. 27:1; 36:11; Josh. 17:3
Nm 26:331 daughters
The numbering of some of the daughters (vv. 33, 46) was for the inheriting of the land (27:1-11).
Nm 26:35a Ephraim  -   vv. 35-36: 1 Chron. 7:20-21
Nm 26:38a Benjamin  -   vv. 38-40: Gen. 46:21; 1 Chron. 7:6; 8:1-4
Nm 26:42a Dan  -   vv. 42-43: Gen. 46:23
Nm 26:44a Asher  -   vv. 44-46: Gen. 46:17; 1 Chron. 7:30-31
Nm 26:48a Naphtali  -   vv. 48-49: Gen. 46:24; 1 Chron. 7:13
Nm 26:51a six  -   cf. Num. 1:46
Nm 26:53a divided  -   Josh. 11:23; 14:1-2; cf. Psa. 105:44
Nm 26:54a increase  -   Num. 33:54; cf. Num. 35:8
Nm 26:551a lot  -   Num. 33:54; 34:13; Josh. 14:2
The distributing of the land by lot (vv. 55-56) was according to the blessing under God’s sovereignty (see note 21 in Josh. 14), whereas the distributing of the land according to the number of people (vv. 53-54) was a matter of human responsibility. Therefore, the distribution of the land depended both on human responsibility and on divine sovereignty.
Nm 26:57a Levites  -   vv. 57-58: Gen. 46:11; Exo. 6:16-19; Num. 3:17-21; 1 Chron. 6:1, 16-30
Nm 26:58a Kohath  -   1 Chron. 6:2-3
Nm 26:59a Jochebed  -   Exo. 6:20
Nm 26:59b sister  -   Exo. 2:4, 7
Nm 26:60a Nadab  -   Num. 3:2; 1 Chron. 24:1
Nm 26:611a Nadab  -   Lev. 10:1-2; Num. 3:4; 1 Chron. 24:2
See Lev. 10:1-2 and notes.
Nm 26:62a twenty-three  -   cf. Num. 3:39
Nm 26:62b not  -   Num. 1:49
Nm 26:621c no  -   Num. 18:20
See note 201 in ch. 18.
Nm 26:641 not
With the exception of Caleb and Joshua (v. 65), all those in the first numbering, including Moses and Aaron, were not included in the renumbering.
Nm 26:64a numbered  -   cf. Num. 1:44
Nm 26:65a wilderness  -   Num. 14:28-29; 1 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 3:16-17
Nm 26:65b Caleb  -   Num. 14:30, 38
Numbers Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 27:11a daughters  -   Num. 26:33; 36:11; Josh. 17:3
The five daughters of Zelophehad typify all the believers in Christ, who are females, weaker ones (1 Pet. 3:7), in the sight of God. Hence, their request (v. 4) is for us all. In order to keep their father’s name and his inheritance within their tribe, the daughters of Zelophehad took the way of fellowship by contacting their stronger kinsmen (v. 4). The same principle applies to the keeping of the enjoyment of Christ by the weaker believers in the church life.
Nm 27:12 families
In the Bible inheritance is determined according to genealogy, according to the source of life and the fellowship of life. The fact that the daughters of Zelophehad were of one of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph indicates that they were in the life and the fellowship of life of the proper origin. This indicates that in order to inherit Christ as our good land, we must have the proper origin of life; i.e., we must be born of God to be His children (John 1:12-13).
The father’s family signifies the church (Eph. 2:19). If we would enjoy Christ as our inheritance, participating in His riches, we must also have the church life. If we give up the church life with the fellowship of life, we will spontaneously lose our right to inherit the enjoyment of Christ.
Nm 27:2a And  -   Josh. 17:4
Nm 27:3a wilderness  -   Num. 14:35; 26:64-65
Nm 27:3b Korah  -   Num. 16:1-2
Nm 27:41a possession  -   Josh. 17:4
In typology, the desire of the daughters of Zelophehad to possess their father’s inheritance signifies the desire to inherit God’s grace, i.e., to inherit Christ as the grace given to us by God (Col. 1:12; John 1:17). Such a regard for the divine inheritance is pleasing to God.
Nm 27:71a possession  -   Josh. 17:4
The five daughters were given an inheritance among their father’s brothers, provided that they did not marry outside their tribe (36:2-3, 6-7). Likewise, in Christ we have the right to inherit the divine things. However, we should not marry outside our “tribe,” i.e., outside Christ and the church (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14).
Nm 27:7b inheritance  -   Num. 36:2
Nm 27:81 If
In typology, the good land signifies Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8), and the inheritance of the good land signifies our enjoyment of Christ. The statute of judgment in vv. 8-11 typifies that the possession of the enjoyment of Christ is based on the relationship in life. In order to execute our right to enjoy Christ, we must be in the church, signified by the father’s household (26:2; Eph. 2:19), with the relationship in life, the fellowship of life, among the saints (1 John 1:1-3).
Nm 27:11a relative  -   Ruth 4:3-6; cf. Jer. 32:6-9
Nm 27:12a And  -   vv. 12-14: cf. Deut. 32:48-51
Nm 27:13a gathered  -   Num. 31:2; Deut. 32:50
Nm 27:13b gathered  -   Num. 20:24
Nm 27:141a rebelled  -   Num. 20:11, 24; Deut. 32:51
See notes 101 and 121 in ch. 20. Although Moses could not enter into the good land because of his failure (Deut. 3:23-27), he will nevertheless be in the millennial kingdom (Matt. 16:28 — 17:4).
Nm 27:142 Meribah-kadesh
Meaning the strife of Kadesh.
Nm 27:16a God  -   Num. 16:22; Rev. 22:6
Nm 27:161 spirits
See note 221 in ch. 16.
Nm 27:17a out  -   Deut. 31:2; Josh. 14:11; 1 Sam. 18:13; 1 Kings 3:7; 2 Chron. 1:10; Acts 1:21
Nm 27:17b sheep  -   1 Kings 22:17; Ezek. 34:5; Zech. 10:2; Matt. 9:36
Nm 27:171 shepherd
Moses was concerned not for himself but for God’s people, realizing that after his death they would need a shepherd.
Nm 27:18a Joshua  -   Num. 32:28
Nm 27:18b Spirit  -   Gen. 41:38
Nm 27:18c lay  -   Deut. 34:9
Nm 27:211a Urim  -   Exo. 28:30; Lev. 8:8
When God brought His people into the wilderness, He spoke to them through Moses (12:6-8a); but Joshua, Moses’ successor, was to receive guidance not from God by His direct speaking but by the Urim and the Thummim on the breastplate worn by Eleazar the priest (see notes 301 through 303 in Exo. 28). God’s government among His people was a matter not of autocracy or democracy but of theocracy, carried out through the coordination of the high priest, who received God’s instructions, and the leader, who executed these instructions. After Moses, throughout the generations in the Old Testament the divine government depended on the two persons of the high priest and the leader, the only exception being the time when David served as both the leader and the priest wearing the ephod (1 Sam. 23:9; 30:7). When the children of Israel came back from captivity, a later Joshua was the high priest, and Zerubbabel, a royal descendant, was the leader (Hag. 1:1). See note 181 in Deut. 16.
At the end of this chapter the children of Israel had become a new people formed into a new army with a new theocracy.
Nm 27:231 laid
See note 144 in 1 Tim. 4.
Numbers Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 28:21a food  -   Lev. 3:11
God’s food consists of the offerings offered to Him by His people, which typify different aspects of Christ (see notes in Lev. 1 — 7), who is the reality of and replacement for all the Old Testament offerings (Heb. 10:5-9). Christ is God’s daily food (vv. 3-8), weekly food (v. 9), monthly food (vv. 11-15), and yearly food (28:16 — 29:38). Thus, God’s food is related to the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly life of His people.
Nm 28:2b satisfying  -   Gen. 8:21
Nm 28:3a This  -   vv. 3-8: Exo. 29:38-42
Nm 28:41 at
Lit., between the two evenings.
Nm 28:51 meal
Although the burnt offering was to be wholly and absolutely burned for God’s satisfaction (Lev. 1:9, 13), it was accompanied by a meal offering, a large portion of which was for the priests (Lev. 2:3, 10). This indicates that when we serve God, offering Christ to Him as His food, God shares a portion of His food with us. First, we enjoy Christ as the One given to us by God. Having experienced Christ, we present Him to God as His food, and then God shares with us a portion of the Christ we have offered to Him. In this way we enjoy the all-inclusive Christ in mutuality with God.
Nm 28:7a And  -   vv. 7-10: Num. 15:1-10; cf. Phil. 2:17
Nm 28:71 drink
See note 132 in Lev. 23.
Nm 28:111a beginnings  -   Num. 10:10; 1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:4; Ezra 3:5; Isa. 1:13-14; Ezek. 45:17; Hosea 2:11; cf. Col. 2:16
The monthly new moon signifies a new beginning in Christ with light in the darkness (Col. 2:16-17).
Nm 28:11b you  -   Num. 28:19-23, 27-31; 29:2-6, 8-11
Nm 28:14a drink  -   Num. 28:7
Nm 28:151 sin
Although God has nothing to do with sin, the serving ones were sinful and needed redemption in order to be qualified to serve God. Hence, the monthly burnt offering had to include a male goat for a sin offering.
Nm 28:16a first  -   Exo. 12:18; Lev. 23:5; Ezek. 45:21
Nm 28:161b Passover  -   Exo. 12:11; Deut. 16:1-2
For the annual feasts, see notes in Lev. 23.
Nm 28:17a unleavened  -   cf. Exo. 12:18; Lev. 23:6
Nm 28:18a On  -   Lev. 23:7
Nm 28:25a seventh  -   Exo. 12:16; Lev. 23:8
Nm 28:26a firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:16; Lev. 23:10
Nm 28:26b Feast  -   Exo. 34:22; Deut. 16:10; cf. Acts 2:1
Numbers Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 29:1a Now  -   vv. 1-2: Lev. 23:24-25
Nm 29:7a And  -   vv. 7-8: Lev. 23:27-28
Nm 29:71b tenth  -   Lev. 16:29
This was the Day of Expiation (Lev. 23:27).
Nm 29:12a And  -   vv. 12-38: Lev. 23:34-37; Exo. 23:16; Deut. 16:13-15; Neh. 8:14, 18
Nm 29:35a On  -   Lev. 23:36
Nm 29:391a feasts  -   Lev. 23:2, 4; 1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 31:3; Ezra 3:5; Neh. 10:33; cf. Isa. 1:14
According to their dispensational fulfillment, the seven annual feasts are related to the enjoyment of Christ by God’s people for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy (see note 441 in Lev. 23). The more God’s people enjoy Christ and experience Christ, the more they fulfill God’s economy, and the more they are able to offer Christ to God as food. Thus, Christ is God’s food in the way of fulfilling God’s eternal economy. In Num. 28 — 29 there are three sections: the section pertaining to the daily life of God’s people (see note 21 in ch. 28), the section pertaining to the church (from the Feast of the Passover to the Feast of Pentecost, i.e., Weeks), and the section pertaining to the future of Israel (from the Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets to the Feast of Tabernacles). Each section is for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. Because Christ is everything for the fulfillment of God’s economy, in each section He is God’s food, God’s satisfaction, served to God by His people and enjoyed with God by them. For eternity Christ will be God’s satisfaction, and for eternity we will enjoy the Christ who satisfies God.
Numbers Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 30:21a vow  -   Lev. 27:2; Deut. 23:21; Eccl. 5:4
It is our duty, our responsibility, to present the offerings to God (chs. 28 — 29), whereas vows are voluntary. If we simply fulfill God’s requirements, we have not yet come up to the highest standard. In addition to carrying out our duty and responsibility to fulfill God’s requirements, God wants us to make a vow to Him, volunteering ourselves in a definite and particular way (Lev. 27; Num. 6). The higher our vow is, the more the Lord will use us to fulfill His economy.
Nm 30:2b swears  -   Lev. 5:4
Nm 30:2c not  -   cf. Job 22:27-28; Psa. 22:25; 50:14; 66:13-14; 116:14, 18; Nahum 1:15; Matt. 5:33
Nm 30:31 woman
Here the woman signifies a believer, and the father signifies God the Father. In the sight of God, all believers are females (2 Cor. 11:2). The final decision concerning any vow we make to God will be decided by the Father (vv. 3-5).
Nm 30:6a vows  -   Psa. 56:12
Nm 30:71 husband
The husband here signifies Christ the Lord (Rom. 7:2-4). As believers, we all have God as our Father and Christ as our Lord. As females who are in the house of our Father and who have Christ as our Husband, we do not have the right to make the final decision concerning our vows. The final decision should be made either by God the Father or by Christ the Lord. This indicates that in relation to God the Father and Christ the Lord, the believers have lost their rights. Neither before God the Father nor before Christ the Lord do we have any rights (cf. Rom. 1:1 and note 2, par. 1).
Numbers Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 31:21a Midianites  -   Num. 25:17
In typology, the Midianites signify the filthiness of the lust of the flesh, which is related to the devil Satan and the world (1 John 2:16a; 5:19). The Midianites were descendants of Abraham, born of his second wife, Keturah. Hence, by nature they were close to the Israelites in the flesh (Gen. 25:1-2). The Midianites were united with the Moabites, the descendants of Lot born through incest in the lust of the flesh (22:3-4, 7; Gen. 19:30-38). Furthermore, the Midianites were one with the Ishmaelites, the descendants of Abraham by the flesh, who sold Joseph into Egypt (Gen. 37:27-28, 36). The Midianites were also connected with the Amalekites, the descendants of Esau (Judg. 6:3, 33; Gen. 36:12). Finally, the Midianites produced Balaam, who ensnared the children of Israel in fornication and idolatry (22:7; 31:16).
By ensnaring the sons of Israel in fornication and idolatry, the Midianites offended Israel to the uttermost, with the result that more than twenty thousand lives were lost. God would not forget that, and He charged Moses to avenge Israel on the Midianites.
Nm 31:2b gathered  -   Num. 27:13; Deut. 32:50
Nm 31:6a vessels  -   Josh. 6:6, 13
Nm 31:7a killed  -   cf. Deut. 20:13; Judg. 21:11; 1 Sam. 27:9; 1 Kings 11:15-16
Nm 31:8a And  -   Josh. 13:21-22
Nm 31:8b Balaam  -   Num. 31:16; Josh. 13:22
Nm 31:12a booty  -   cf. Deut. 20:14; Josh. 8:2
Nm 31:14a service  -   Num. 1:3
Nm 31:15a kept  -   cf. 1 Sam. 15:3
Nm 31:16a these  -   Num. 25:1-3, 18
Nm 31:16b Balaam  -   Rev. 2:14
Nm 31:16c plague  -   Num. 25:9
Nm 31:191a purify  -   Num. 19:11-12
All the matters in vv. 13-24 concerning the purging and purifying of the captives and the spoil indicate that everything related to God must be clean, having been purged, purified, or washed.
Nm 31:192 third
See note 121 in ch. 19.
Nm 31:23a fire  -   cf. Zech. 13:9; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:7
Nm 31:23b water  -   Num. 19:9
Nm 31:24a wash  -   Lev. 11:25
Nm 31:241 clothes
Our clothing signifies our behavior (Isa. 64:6). The washing of our clothes signifies the washing of our behavior and of all that we are.
Nm 31:27a halve  -   Josh. 22:8; 1 Sam. 30:24
Nm 31:28a one  -   cf. Num. 18:26; 31:30-41
Nm 31:291 Eleazar
Because Eleazar the priest was one with Jehovah, whatever was given to Jehovah as a tribute by the fighters went to Eleazar the priest. What was given to Eleazar became a heave offering. This signifies that the tribute was put into ascension for a memorial before Jehovah and that this eventually became the high priest’s portion.
Nm 31:29a Jehovah’s  -   Num. 18:28
Nm 31:311 commanded
This chapter portrays a beautiful picture of one accord among God’s people. Everything was done according to Jehovah’s commandment given through Moses, and none of the people expressed any opinion or made any proposal. The one accord was the factor that led to Israel’s victory over the Midianites.
Nm 31:501 expiation
The officers were sensitive and knowledgeable, realizing that there was something concerning them that was not right or fitting and that they needed to make expiation for themselves before God so that their situation with God could be appeased.
Nm 31:54a memorial  -   Exo. 30:16
Numbers Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 32:11 Now
The prearrangement of the distribution of the good land shown in the last five chapters of this book typifies the sharing of the enjoyment of the rich Christ. At this point God’s chosen and redeemed people, after being formed into a priestly army to fight for God and to journey with God, were prepared by God to possess the good land, a type of the all-inclusive Christ as the portion allotted by God to the believers in Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8).
Nm 32:4a land  -   Num. 21:24, 34
Nm 32:51 land
The request of the two tribes, Reuben and Gad, to receive what God had promised (vv. 1-5) was not wrong; however, they were not right in wanting to receive this according to their choice as to what was the best. Eventually, their land was the first part of the land of Israel to be taken over by the Gentile invaders from the east (1 Chron. 5:25-26). In spiritual matters it is much better not to act according to our choice but to leave matters in the hand of the Lord and let Him do according to His choice (cf. Gen. 13:5-18).
Nm 32:52 cross
The land requested by Reuben and Gad could be reached without crossing the river Jordan, which signifies the old man not being dealt with and buried (see notes on Josh. 3:16 — 4:12). Only after our old man has been dealt with and buried (Rom. 6:3-6) are we in a position to possess the all-inclusive Christ as the good land for our enjoyment.
Nm 32:8a Your  -   vv. 8-9: Num. 13:2-33; Deut. 1:22
Nm 32:10a And  -   vv. 10-12: Deut. 1:34-36; Num. 14:23-24, 29
Nm 32:12a fully  -   Josh. 14:8-9
Nm 32:13a forty  -   Num. 14:33-35
Nm 32:17a armed  -   Josh. 4:12-13
Nm 32:19a eastward  -   Josh. 12:6; 13:8; 22:4
Nm 32:21a driven  -   Num. 33:52; Exo. 23:28-31; 33:2; 34:11
Nm 32:221 obligation
The obligation here was due to the fact that Reuben and Gad had their own choice regarding their portion of the land (vv. 1-5). In serving the Lord, we need to learn to give up our own choice in order to avoid obligating ourselves to God and to His people.
Nm 32:23a sin  -   cf. Gen. 44:16; Isa. 59:2, 12
Nm 32:33a Reuben  -   Deut. 3:12-17; 29:8; Josh. 12:6; 13:8; 22:1-4
Nm 32:40a Gilead  -   Deut. 3:13, 15; Josh. 13:31; 17:1
Nm 32:41a Jair  -   Deut. 3:14; Josh. 13:30; Judg. 10:3-4; 1 Kings 4:13; 1 Chron. 2:22-23
Nm 32:411 Havvoth-jair
Meaning the village of Jair.
Numbers Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 33:11 journeys
The forty-two stations in this chapter typify forty-two generations, from Abraham to Christ (Matt. 1:17 and note 1, par. 3). The goal of the forty-two stations was the good land, and the goal of the forty-two generations was Christ. The correspondence here indicates that God’s intention is to bring all His people into the good land, which typifies Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8), as the goal. In the Old Testament God’s people journeyed and then arrived at the goal, but in the New Testament we, the believers, having been baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27), are already in the goal (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:6 and notes).
Nm 33:3a Rameses  -   Exo. 12:37
Nm 33:31 boldly
Lit., with a high hand.
Nm 33:4a struck  -   Exo. 12:29
Nm 33:4b gods  -   Exo. 12:12; cf. Isa. 19:1
Nm 33:5a Succoth  -   Exo. 12:37
Nm 33:6a Etham  -   Exo. 13:20
Nm 33:7a Pi-hahiroth  -   Exo. 14:2, 9
Nm 33:81 Pi-hahiroth
According to many MSS and some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, before Hahiroth.
Nm 33:8a midst  -   Exo. 14:22
Nm 33:8b Marah  -   Exo. 15:22-23
Nm 33:9a Elim  -   Exo. 15:27
Nm 33:11a wilderness  -   Exo. 16:1
Nm 33:14a Rephidim  -   Exo. 17:1
Nm 33:15a wilderness  -   Exo. 19:1-2
Nm 33:16a Kibroth-hattaavah  -   Num. 11:34
Nm 33:17a Hazeroth  -   Num. 11:35; Deut. 1:1
Nm 33:18a Hazeroth  -   Num. 12:16
Nm 33:30a Moseroth  -   cf. Deut. 10:6
Nm 33:33a Jotbathah  -   Deut. 10:7
Nm 33:35a Ezion-geber  -   Deut. 2:8; 1 Kings 9:26; 22:48; 2 Chron. 8:17
Nm 33:36a wilderness  -   Num. 20:1; 27:14
Nm 33:37a Mount  -   Num. 20:22-23; 21:4; 34:7-8
Nm 33:38a died  -   Num. 20:28; Deut. 32:50; cf. Deut. 10:6
Nm 33:40a king  -   Num. 21:1
Nm 33:41a Mount  -   Num. 21:4
Nm 33:43a Oboth  -   Num. 21:10
Nm 33:44a Iye-abarim  -   Num. 21:11
Nm 33:45a Dibon-gad  -   cf. Num. 21:30; 32:34
Nm 33:47a Abarim  -   Deut. 32:49
Nm 33:48a plains  -   Num. 22:1
Nm 33:49a Abel-shittim  -   cf. Num. 25:1
Nm 33:51a When  -   Deut. 9:1; Josh. 3:17
Nm 33:521a drive  -   Num. 32:21
God has ordained Christ to be our portion for our enjoyment (Col. 1:12), but we must cooperate with God’s ordination by driving out everything within us that is other than God and Christ. We must destroy all the idols within us and not leave any ground within us for the worship of idols (1 John 5:21 and note 3, par. 1). Only then can we have the genuine enjoyment of Christ. See notes 231 and 313 in Exo. 23.
Nm 33:52b destroy  -   Exo. 23:24; 34:13; Deut. 7:5; 12:3
Nm 33:541a lot  -   Num. 26:54-56
The children of Israel were to inherit the land according to their tribes and by lot. See note 551 in ch. 26.
Nm 33:55a thorns  -   Josh. 23:13; Judg. 2:3; cf. Ezek. 28:24; 2 Cor. 12:7
Nm 33:56a so  -   cf. Deut. 28:63
Numbers Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 34:2a borders  -   cf. Ezek. 47:13-21
Nm 34:3a And  -   vv. 3-5: cf. Josh. 15:1-4
Nm 34:31 Salt
I.e., the Dead Sea.
Nm 34:5a brook  -   1 Kings 8:65; 1 Chron. 13:5; 2 Chron. 7:8
Nm 34:6a western  -   cf. Josh. 15:12; Ezek. 47:20
Nm 34:61 Great
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea.
Nm 34:81a entrance  -   Num. 13:21; 2 Kings 14:25; Ezek. 48:1
Or, Lebo-hamath.
Nm 34:8b border  -   cf. Ezek. 47:15-17
Nm 34:10a eastern  -   cf. Josh. 15:5
Nm 34:111 slope
Or, shoulder.
Nm 34:112 Sea
I.e., the Sea of Galilee.
Nm 34:121 Jordan
The best part of the good land is surrounded by two seas — the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea — and a river — the Jordan. These two seas and this river all signify the death of Christ. This indicates that the enjoyment of Christ is closely related to His death. The enjoyment of Christ must be in the sphere, the territory, of His death (cf. Phil. 3:7-11).
That the good land rose up from the waters that bordered it on either side indicates that it is an elevated, uplifted land. This signifies the resurrected and ascended Christ, the heavenly Christ, who has entered into us in His resurrection (John 20:22) and whose riches we enjoy in His ascension (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1-4).
Nm 34:13a lot  -   Josh. 14:2
Nm 34:14a received  -   Num. 32:33
Nm 34:151 beyond
The land given to the two and a half tribes, the land which was according to their choice, could be reached without crossing the Jordan (see notes 51 and 52 in ch. 32) and thus was not actually a part of the land of Canaan (cf. 35:14). This indicates that, in type, it was outside the death of Christ. Our self-choice is likewise outside the death of Christ and therefore has nothing to do with the real enjoyment of the rich Christ. If we do not pass through the death of Christ, we cannot enter into the realm of His resurrection and ascension to enjoy Him as the heavenly, elevated One (cf. Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10-11; Col. 3:1-4).
Nm 34:171a Eleazar  -   Josh. 14:1; 19:51
Eleazar and Joshua both typify Christ, as our Priest (Heb. 4:14) and as our Leader (Heb. 4:8 and note 1).
Numbers Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 35:2a Levites  -   Lev. 25:32-34; Josh. 14:3-4; 21:2
Nm 35:4a cubits  -   cf. Ezek. 45:1-5; 48:8-14
Nm 35:61a cities  -   Num. 35:13; Josh. 20:2; 21:13, 21, 27, 32, 38
The cities of refuge typify the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the redeeming God, into whom mistaken sinners can flee for refuge. Christ was delivered by God into the hands of sinners (Acts 2:23; Rom. 4:25), who mistakenly put Him to death (Luke 23:34; 1 Cor. 2:8). If any sinner repents, God will regard him as a mistaken sinner and will forgive him (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38). Such a one may flee into Christ. But if anyone refuses the gospel and does not repent, God will regard him as a willful sinner, one who is destined to perish (v. 16; John 3:16-18).
There were six cities of refuge, three on each side of the Jordan (v. 14). The number six signifies mistake-making man, who was created by God on the sixth day (Gen. 1:26-27, 31). The number three signifies the Triune God as the refuge for the man who makes mistakes. The number two (the two sets of three cities each) signifies a testimony standing in the universe, testifying and declaring to the universe that the Triune God is living on earth among human beings to be their city of refuge.
Nm 35:71a forty-eight  -   Josh. 21:41
The number forty-eight is composed of six (the natural man created by God on the sixth day) multiplied by eight (resurrection). The forty-eight cities given to the Levites signify the natural man, who became fallen, being brought into resurrection through the Levitical service. The Levitical service was a service to the priesthood, and the goal of the priesthood was to bring fallen man back to God in resurrection. The number of cities given to the Levites thus signifies the purpose of the Levitical service.
The number forty-eight is also composed of four (also signifying man as God’s creature — Ezek. 1:5) multiplied by twelve (the number of perfection and completion in God’s eternal administration). Hence, the number forty-eight indicates that man, who was created by God, will be perfected and completed in the eternal administration of God.
Nm 35:81 cities
The forty-eight cities given to the Levites were to be scattered among Israel, changing Jacob’s curse on Levi in Gen. 49:7 into a blessing.
Nm 35:8a larger  -   Num. 26:54; 33:54
Nm 35:11a cities  -   Deut. 19:2-6; Josh. 20:2-6; Exo. 21:13
Nm 35:14a three  -   Deut. 4:41-43; cf. Josh. 20:7-9
Nm 35:151 stranger
That the cities of refuge were to be not only for the children of Israel but also for the strangers and sojourners among them signifies that the Triune God as the refuge for mistake-making man is for all mankind. Furthermore, the distribution of the six refuge cities in different places indicates that Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, is near and available. The Triune God has spread among men, to the very place where we are, to be a city of refuge for all those who make mistakes.
Nm 35:161 murderer
The cities of refuge were not for the murderers, those who killed with an intent (vv. 16-21). Adam sinned without intent, and we, the descendants of Adam, have sinned in the same way (cf. Rom. 7:15-24). Therefore, in the sight of God we are those who sin without intent, and He considers our sinning as being without intent. See note 61, par. 1.
Nm 35:16a put  -   Exo. 21:12, 14; Lev. 24:17; Deut. 19:11-12
Nm 35:19a avenger  -   Deut. 19:6, 12; Josh. 20:3, 5
Nm 35:24a judge  -   Num. 35:12; Josh. 20:6
Nm 35:251 high
The high priest here signifies Christ (Heb. 4:14), who died for our sins. Spiritually, the Old Testament saints had to remain in the city of refuge until Christ died; no ransom could have released them before the time of Christ’s death (v. 32). This was a refuge prior to direct salvation. In the Old Testament time Christ had not yet died, and those who fled into Him as their refuge had to wait there until He came and died on the cross. For the Old Testament saints, therefore, the refuge was like the sheepfold in John 10:1 (see note 2 there).
Since Christ, our High Priest, has died, He is the refuge, not in the Old Testament sense but in the New Testament sense, to all His believers. This refuge is a matter of direct salvation. Before Christ’s death He was the refuge for the Old Testament saints, but now, after His death, He is our direct salvation. We who enter into Christ today may do so with the assurance that He has already died and that our sins have already been forgiven (Eph. 1:7; Col. 2:13).
Nm 35:25a anointed  -   Exo. 29:7; Lev. 4:3; 21:10
Nm 35:30a witnesses  -   Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Heb. 10:28
Nm 35:33a pollutes  -   Psa. 106:38; Isa. 24:5
Nm 35:33b blood  -   Gen. 9:5
Nm 35:34a tabernacle  -   cf. John 1:14
Nm 35:34b midst  -   Exo. 25:8; 29:45
Numbers Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Nm 36:1a Gilead  -   Num. 26:29
Nm 36:2a lot  -   Num. 26:55; 33:54
Nm 36:2b Zelophehad  -   Num. 27:1, 7; Josh. 17:3, 4
Nm 36:31 are
Lit., become wives for. So throughout this chapter.
Nm 36:4a jubilee  -   Lev. 25:10
Nm 36:61 married
God allowed the daughters to marry according to their taste but only within the family of the tribe of their father. This indicates that although the Lord gives us freedom, this freedom must be exercised within the limit, the boundary, of God’s regulation (cf. Gal. 5:13).
Nm 36:7a So  -   Num. 36:9
Nm 36:71 cling
This signifies that as our inheritance Christ is not transferable and that we should cling to Him as this inheritance. In principle, for a believer to marry an unbeliever is to make Christ as the inheritance transferable (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14). Cf. note 71 in ch. 27.
Nm 36:8a daughter  -   1 Chron. 23:22
Nm 36:81 marry
The marriage of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, to Joseph may be a marriage that fulfilled this statute (see note 161 in Matt. 1). Thus, the statute in this chapter was actually ordained by God for Christ’s incarnation. All Scripture reveals Christ and is a record concerning Christ, either directly or indirectly (Luke 24:27, 44). The cities of refuge in ch. 35 are a type of Christ, and the settlement of the problem regarding the inheritance in ch. 36 is related to Christ. If Christ had not been incarnated, He could not have become the cities of refuge for the human race. Thus, in a very real sense, the refuge cities in ch. 35 depend on the statute in ch. 36.
Nm 36:9a So  -   Num. 36:7
Nm 36:11a Zelophehad  -   Num. 27:1; Josh. 17:3
Nm 36:131 Jordan
The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers portray in typology God’s need for a people to be saved and to go on with Him to enjoy His Christ, to receive His revelation, and to be built up with Him as the processed Triune God, that they may be formed into a priestly army to journey with Him and to fight with Him. These books also show that God’s people need to be disciplined by passing through certain difficulties and undergoing different kinds of frustrations. In Exo. 12 — 14 Israel as God’s people was redeemed from God’s judgment by the passover and saved from Egypt by the saving power of the Triune God. Then, they enjoyed the heavenly provision and the divine care in their initial journey in the wilderness (Exo. 15 — 17). In Exo. 19 — 40 and Lev. 1 — 27 they received the divine revelation and training in knowing God, in being built up together with God as His dwelling on earth for His expression and testimony, and in the building up of the priesthood for the divine service. All this took place at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the people were given the law as a portrait of what God is in His attributes. The book of Numbers records how God’s chosen and redeemed people were formed into a priestly army to journey with God and to fight with God for His interest on earth (chs. 1 — 4; 9:15 — 10:36; 12:16; 20:1 — 21:35; 31:1-54; 33:1-49). In Numbers the children of Israel also passed through various frustrations, trials, and disciplinings for their purification. Eventually, in ch. 32 and in 33:50 — 36:13 God’s people received the prearrangement for the distribution of the promised good land. After all the foregoing, God’s chosen and redeemed people were ready to cross the Jordan, enter Canaan, consume its inhabitants, and possess the good land promised by the faithful God (Josh. 1:2-3). With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, those who were qualified to take possession of the land were the younger ones, the second generation of those who had come out of Egypt. This younger generation had received the benefit of all that the first generation had experienced. With a rich inheritance and strong background, they were qualified to be formed into an army to fight with God and for God for the accomplishing of His economy. This history of Israel is a full type of the history of the church in its accomplishing of God’s eternal economy in the mystical union with the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the processed and dispensing Triune God (1 Cor. 5:6-8; 10:1-13; Heb. 3:7 — 4:13). See note 11 in Deut. 1.
< Numbers • Deuteronomy Outline >
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Deuteronomy Outline
I.   The review of the past — 1:1 — 4:43
A.   The journey from the mount of God to the entry of the Holy Land — 1:1-4
B.   God’s charge to the children of Israel to enter the good land — 1:5-8
C.   The appointing of offices — 1:9-18
D.   The failure at Kadesh-barnea — 1:19-46
E.   The wandering from Kadesh-barnea to the crossing over of the brook Zered — 2:1-23
F.   The defeating of King Sihon and King Og, and the taking possession of their lands east of Jordan — 2:24 — 3:22
G.   Moses prohibited from entering the good land and Joshua assigned to lead the people into the good land — 3:23-29
H.   Moses’ hearty advice to the children of Israel — 4:1-40
I.   Moses setting apart three cities of refuge east of Jordan — 4:41-43
II.   The rehearsal of the law — 4:44 — 26:19
A.   The rehearsing of the Ten Commandments — 4:44 — 5:31
B.   The general advice and warnings — 5:32 — 13:18
1.   Keeping the commandments, statutes, and ordinances of God — 5:32 — 6:3
2.   Loving Jehovah their God, and keeping, teaching, and writing His words — 6:4-9
3.   Remembering Jehovah, fearing Him, serving Him, and not going after other gods — 6:10-15
4.   Not testing Jehovah their God, diligently keeping His commandments, testimonies, and statutes, and doing that which is right and good in His sight — 6:16-19
5.   Telling their sons about the significance of the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances — 6:20-25
6.   Dealing with all the nations around them — 7:1-8
7.   Knowing Jehovah their God — 7:9-15
8.   Not being afraid of the nations but remembering what Jehovah their God did and will do — 7:16-26
9.   Remembering why Jehovah humbled and tested them in the wilderness — 8:1-5
10.   Keeping the commandments of Jehovah their God in order to be brought into a good land — 8:6-10
11.   Not forgetting Jehovah their God — 8:11-20
12.   Knowing that Jehovah their God will drive out the nations from before them, not because of the uprightness of their heart but because of the wickedness of the nations — 9:1-7
13.   Moses’ rehearsing the story of the rebellion of the children of Israel at the mount of God — 9:8 — 10:11
14.   Moses’ charging the children of Israel concerning nine matters — 10:12-22
15.   Loving Jehovah their God as witnesses of what He had done — 11:1-7
16.   The children of Israel to receive blessings by keeping Moses’ words of advice and warning — 11:8-25
17.   Moses’ setting a blessing and a curse before the children of Israel — 11:26-32
18.   Moses’ charging the children of Israel concerning the way to worship God — 12:1-32
19.   Moses’ charging the children of Israel concerning apostasy — 13:1-18
C.   The rehearsing of the general statutes and ordinances — 14:1 — 26:19
1.   Concerning being Jehovah’s personal treasure — 14:1-2
2.   Concerning the holy diet — 14:3-21
3.   Concerning the worship of God — 14:22-27; 15:19 — 16:17; 16:21 — 17:7; 23:21-23; 26:1-11
a.   By giving the tithes of all the produce of both their cattle and their crop — 14:22-27
b.   By offering the firstborn males of the herd and of the flock — 15:19-23
c.   By keeping the three main annual festivals — the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles — 16:1-17
d.   By not having any mixture of idolatry — 16:21-22
e.   By not sacrificing anything to Jehovah in which there is a blemish — 17:1
f.   By stoning to death those who transgressed God’s covenant and served other gods — 17:2-7
g.   By keeping a vow to Jehovah — 23:21-23
h.   By offering some of the first of all the fruit of the good land after entering it and possessing it as an inheritance — 26:1-11
4.   Concerning aid to the needy — 14:28 — 15:18; 23:15-16, 19-20; 24:6, 10-15, 17-22; 26:12-15
a.   The aid by the tithes at the end of every three years — 14:28-29; 26:12-15
b.   The release at the end of every seven years — 15:1-6
c.   The lending to the poor brothers — 15:7-11
d.   The freeing of a Hebrew male servant or a female servant — 15:12-18
e.   Taking care of an escaped slave — 23:15-16
f.   Not making a brother pay interest — 23:19-20
g.   Taking a handmill or an upper millstone as a pledge — 24:6
h.   Concerning taking a pledge from the borrower — 24:10-13
i.   Concerning the wages given to the poor hired servant — 24:14-15
j.   In remembering the need of a sojourner, an orphan, or a widow — 24:17-22
5.   Concerning the government among the people — 16:18-20; 17:8-20; 19:15-21; 21:1-9, 18-23; 22:13-30; 24:1-4, 7, 16; 25:1-3, 5-16
a.   The appointing of judges and officers — 16:18-20
b.   The ordinance concerning a complicated civil suit — 17:8-13
c.   The setting of a king over the people — 17:14-20
d.   The ordinance concerning any iniquity or any sin — 19:15-21
e.   The ordinance concerning one who murders a man, the slain one being found lying in the field in the good land — 21:1-9
f.   The ordinance concerning a stubborn and rebellious son — 21:18-21
g.   The hanging of a criminal on a tree — 21:22-23
h.   The ordinances concerning matters related to marriage — 22:13-30
i.   The ordinance concerning divorce — 24:1-4
j.   The ordinance concerning kidnapping — 24:7
k.   The ordinances concerning fathers and their children — 24:16
l.   The ordinance concerning a dispute brought before the children of Israel — 25:1-3
m.   The ordinance concerning a brother who is not willing to do the duty of a husband’s brother — 25:5-10
n.   The ordinance concerning a wife who helps a fighting husband immorally — 25:11-12
o.   The ordinance concerning weights and measures — 25:13-16
6.   Concerning the supply of the Levitical priests and the whole tribe of Levi — 18:1-8
7.   Concerning the prohibitions against contacting evil spirits or the spirits of the dead — 18:9-14
8.   Concerning Jehovah God’s raising up of a prophet (the coming Christ) like Moses for the children of Israel — 18:15-19
9.   Concerning the false prophet — 18:20-22
10.   Concerning the setting apart of the cities of refuge — 19:1-13
11.   Concerning the moving of the neighbor’s boundary marker — 19:14
12.   Concerning the children of Israel going forth into battle against their enemies — 20:1-20
13.   Concerning marrying a beautiful woman among the captives — 21:10-14
14.   Concerning the right of the firstborn son — 21:15-17
15.   Concerning taking care of others’ interests — 22:1-4, 8
16.   Concerning mixtures of any kind — 22:5, 9-12
17.   Sparing the producing animals — 22:6-7; 25:4
18.   Concerning the losing of the right to enter the congregation of Jehovah — 23:1-8
19.   Concerning keeping the camp clean — 23:9-14
20.   Concerning a harlot and a dog — 23:17-18
21.   Concerning the neighbor’s produce — 23:24-25
22.   Concerning a man taking a new wife — 24:5
23.   Concerning a case of leprosy — 24:8-9
24.   Not forgetting to blot out the memory of Amalek — 25:17-19
25.   A concluding word — 26:16-19
III.   A warning — 27:1 — 28:68
A.   Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanding the people to keep the whole commandment and to declare the curses in the good land — 27:1-26
B.   The blessings that would overtake them for their diligence in listening to Jehovah and doing His commandments — 28:1-14
C.   The curses that would overtake them for their failing to listen to Jehovah and do His commandments — 28:15-68
IV.   The enactment of the covenant — 29:1 — 30:20
A.   The introductory word — 29:1-17
1.   Based upon the experiences of the past — vv. 1-8, 16-17
2.   The objects and the purpose of the enactment of the covenant — vv. 9-15
B.   The contents of the covenant — 29:18 — 30:10
C.   The concluding word — 30:11-20
V.   The final exhortations and charges — 31:1-29
A.   Moses’ exhortation to the people — vv. 1-6
B.   Moses’ exhortation to Joshua — vv. 7-8
C.   Moses’ exhortation to the priests, the sons of Levi, and the elders of Israel — vv. 9-13
D.   Jehovah’s command to Moses to write a song — vv. 14-23
E.   Moses’ completion of the writing and his charges to the Levites and to all the elders of Israel — vv. 24-29
VI.   The Song of Moses — 31:30 — 32:47
A.   The contents of the song — 31:30 — 32:43
B.   The word of Moses and Joshua to the people — 32:44-47
VII.   The death of Moses, and his successor — 32:48-52; 34:1-12
A.   The death of Moses — 32:48-52; 34:1-8
B.   The successor of Moses — 34:9-12
VIII.   The blessing of Moses — 33:1-29
A.   The introductory word — vv. 1-5
B.   The blessing — vv. 6-25
C.   The concluding word — vv. 26-29
Deuteronomy >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Deuteronomy Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 1:11 These
Deuteronomy is a concluding word of the law and gives an all-inclusive conclusion to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which were written by Moses. Deuteronomy means second law and thus signifies a respeaking, a repeated speaking, of the divine law. The law was given through Moses the first time when he was eighty (Exo. 7:7). Forty years later, after the first generation, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, had died out, the law was spoken again to the children of Israel, this time to the second generation, the generation that was ready to enter into the good land and possess it. Most of that generation had not been present to hear the giving of the Ten Commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances at Mount Sinai. Therefore, God burdened Moses to respeak, to rehearse, the law. This respeaking was a renewed training given to the new generation of the children of Israel after their long wandering, to prepare them to enter into the good land promised by God and inherit it as their possession.
In this book, as in the entire Bible, God is manifested, man is exposed, and Christ is unveiled. This book speaks of God as a God of love, righteousness, faithfulness, and blessing that man may know God’s heart and God’s government and may love God, trust in God, fear God, subject himself to God’s ruling, mind the tender feelings of God, and live in the presence of God that he may be qualified to inherit the promised land. Furthermore, it exposes man, showing that in himself man is a failure, absolutely unable to fulfill the requirements of the holy, righteous, and faithful God, so that man may know his real condition and have no confidence in himself but put his trust in God, the One who is faithful (7:9). Finally, this book unveils Christ in three aspects: (1) as the unique Prophet of God, as the divine oracle (18:15-19); (2) as the all-inclusive good land, the goal, the aim, prepared for us by God (8:7-10; Col. 1:12; Phil. 3:7-15); and (3) as the word of God (8:3; 30:11-14; John 1:1; 1 John 1:1) that we may receive Him as our life and our life supply and thus have the strength and ability to reach Him as the God-appointed goal. See notes 31 and 71 in ch. 8 and note 121 in ch. 30.
Dt 1:12 Moses
In Deuteronomy Moses as the spokesman of God was like an aged, loving father speaking to his children with much love and concern. Moses spoke for God for forty years, from the age of eighty (Exo. 7:7) to the age of one hundred twenty (34:7). He was a person not only soaked and saturated with the thought of God but also constituted with the speaking God Himself. Hence, the word that proceeded out of his mouth was the word of God. See notes 31 in ch. 8 and 121 in ch. 30.
Dt 1:13 Arabah
I.e., the plain that runs from north of the Dead Sea south to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Dt 1:21 Horeb
See note 112 in Exo. 19.
Dt 1:3a first  -   cf. Num. 33:38
Dt 1:41a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-24
See note 12 in Num. 21. The slaying of these two kings was near the end of the forty years (v. 3) of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness. It also opened the gate into the promised land.
Dt 1:4b Og  -   Num. 21:33-35
See note 41.
Dt 1:61 Jehovah
With a review of the past, on the one hand, this book points out God’s leading that man may know the heart and the hand of God, so that man may trust in God and fear God; on the other hand, it points out man’s failure that man may know himself, condemn the flesh, and learn how to reject the self and the flesh. With a view of the future, this book expects that, on the one hand, man may know the love and government of God and that, on the other hand, man may know his real condition, so that he will no longer trust in himself but will trust in God, the faithful One.
Dt 1:6a spoke  -   cf. Num. 10:11-13
Dt 1:6b Horeb  -   Deut. 5:2; Exo. 3:1; 17:6
Dt 1:71 Negev
I.e., the dry southern desert of Canaan.
Dt 1:7a Euphrates  -   Gen. 2:14; 15:18; Josh. 1:4; Rev. 9:14
Dt 1:8a seed  -   Gen. 12:7; 13:14-15; 15:18; 17:8; 26:3-4; 28:13-14
Dt 1:9a I  -   Num. 11:14, 17; cf. Exo. 18:18
Dt 1:10a stars  -   Gen. 15:5; 22:17; Deut. 10:22; 28:62
Dt 1:13a wise  -   cf. Acts 6:3
Dt 1:13b leaders  -   Num. 11:16; cf. Exo. 18:21
Dt 1:15a leaders  -   Exo. 18:25
Dt 1:161 judge
Or, administer righteousness as judges.
Dt 1:17a not  -   Lev. 19:15; Deut. 10:17; 16:19; Prov. 24:23; Matt. 22:16; Mark 12:14; Luke 20:21; James 2:1
Dt 1:17b bring  -   Exo. 18:22, 26
Dt 1:19a wilderness  -   Deut. 8:15; 32:10; Jer. 2:6; cf. Num. 10:12
Dt 1:191 Kadesh-barnea
For the failure of Israel at Kadesh-barnea, see notes in Num. 13 — 14.
Dt 1:23a twelve  -   Num. 13:2-3
Dt 1:24a Valley  -   Num. 13:23-27
Dt 1:241 the
Lit., it.
Dt 1:27a murmured  -   Num. 14:1-4; Psa. 106:25
Dt 1:28a The  -   Deut. 9:1-2; Num. 13:32-33
Dt 1:29a Do  -   Deut. 31:6
Dt 1:30a fight  -   Exo. 14:14; Deut. 3:22; 20:4; Josh. 10:14, 42; 23:3, 10; Neh. 4:20
Dt 1:31a carried  -   Isa. 40:11; 46:3-4; cf. Exo. 19:4; Acts 13:18
Dt 1:31b son  -   Exo. 4:22; cf. Matt. 2:15
Dt 1:32a not  -   Psa. 106:24; Jude 5
Dt 1:33a fire  -   Exo. 13:21-22
Dt 1:35a Not  -   Num. 14:23
Dt 1:36a Caleb  -   Num. 13:6; 14:24
Dt 1:37a not  -   Num. 20:12; Deut. 4:21; 32:52
Dt 1:38a Joshua  -   Exo. 24:13; Num. 27:18; Deut. 31:3, 7, 23
Dt 1:39a little  -   Num. 14:3, 31
Dt 1:40a turn  -   Num. 14:25; Deut. 2:1
Dt 1:41a Then  -   vv. 41-44: Num. 14:40-45
Deuteronomy Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 2:1a turned  -   Num. 14:25; Deut. 1:40
Dt 2:4a And  -   vv. 4-8: cf. Num. 20:17-21
Dt 2:71 blessed
In the years of wandering God had mercy on His people and blessed them, even though they were fleshly and full of unbelief. God’s mercy extends farther than His grace (see notes 133 in 1 Tim. 1, 21 in 2 Tim. 1, 52 in Titus 3, and 162 in Heb. 4). When God’s grace extends so far that it reaches us where we are, it becomes mercy. Since His mercy has reached us and since we are now under His mercy, God can bless us.
Dt 2:7a forty  -   Deut. 8:2-4
Dt 2:9a Do  -   Deut. 2:19; cf. Gen. 19:36-38
Dt 2:101 Anakim
See Num. 13:33 and note.
Dt 2:111 Rephaim
A race of giants (3:11).
Dt 2:141 consumed
The purpose of the thirty-eight years of wandering was to consume man’s flesh and unbelief, to consume all the unbelieving ones, and to manifest God’s mercy and blessing (v. 7). Those years were also used by God to produce a new generation for the fulfilling of God’s purpose.
Dt 2:14a sworn  -   Num. 14:28-35; Deut. 1:35; Psa. 95:11; 106:26; Ezek. 20:15; Heb. 3:18
Dt 2:19a do  -   Deut. 2:9
Dt 2:24a Arnon  -   Num. 21:13-14; Judg. 11:18
Dt 2:241 Amorite
See note 12 in Num. 21.
Dt 2:26a Then  -   vv. 26-37: Num. 21:21-26; Judg. 11:19-22
Dt 2:301 his
Lit., him.
Dt 2:302a hardened  -   cf. Exo. 4:21
Cf. note 121 in Exo. 9.
Dt 2:341 utterly
Lit., devoted (in this case, unto destruction). So also throughout this book.
Deuteronomy Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 3:1a Then  -   vv. 1-3: Num. 21:33-35
Dt 3:2a Sihon  -   Num. 21:23-26, 34
Dt 3:3a Og  -   Num. 21:33-35
Dt 3:81 took
To defeat King Sihon and King Og was to defeat the two “gate guards” of the land of Canaan (see note 12 in Num. 21). This was the initiation of the taking possession of the good land. The land of those two kings was given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh (vv. 12-13) as the firstfruits of the enjoyment of the God-promised land (see Num. 32).
Dt 3:8a Arnon  -   Deut. 4:48
Dt 3:8b Hermon  -   Psa. 133:3
Dt 3:9a Sirion  -   Deut. 4:48; Psa. 29:6
Dt 3:9b Senir  -   S.S. 4:8
Dt 3:10a All  -   vv. 10-11: Josh. 13:11-12
Dt 3:11a Rephaim  -   Gen. 14:5; Deut. 2:11, 20
Dt 3:12a From  -   vv. 12-16: Josh. 12:6; 13:8-13; Num. 32:33-38
Dt 3:14a Jair  -   Num. 32:41
Dt 3:141 it
Lit., them; referring to the cities of the region of Argob (cf. v. 4; Num. 32:41).
Dt 3:142 Havvoth-jair
Meaning the villages of Jair.
Dt 3:17a And  -   Josh. 12:3
Dt 3:171 Chinnereth
Called Gennesaret and the Sea of Galilee in the New Testament (Luke 5:1 and note).
Dt 3:18a And  -   vv. 18-20: Josh. 1:13-15
Dt 3:20a rest  -   Josh. 22:4
Dt 3:22a fighting  -   Deut. 1:30
Dt 3:261 Enough
Lit., Enough for you. Moses served God faithfully for forty years, but because his mistake in Num. 20 (see note 121 there) involved God’s governmental administration, he lost the right to enter into the good land. God’s dealing with Moses helped to perfect the children of Israel, causing them to have more fear of God’s righteous dealing. This is God’s perfecting love for His people (cf. Heb. 12:5-11).
Dt 3:27a Go  -   Num. 27:12-13
Dt 3:271 west
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea.
Dt 3:28a Joshua  -   Deut. 1:38; 31:7-8; cf. Deut. 31:23
Deuteronomy Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 4:11 statutes
The Ten Commandments are the basic law (5:6-21). The statutes give supplemental details of the law. When a judgment is added to a statute, the statute becomes an ordinance.
Dt 4:1a live  -   Deut. 5:33; 8:1
Dt 4:2a not  -   Deut. 12:32; Prov. 30:6; Rev. 22:18
Dt 4:2b take  -   Rev. 22:19
Dt 4:3a Baal-peor  -   Num. 25:3; Psa. 106:28
Dt 4:4a joined  -   cf. Deut. 13:4; Josh. 22:5; 23:8
Dt 4:7a nation  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:23
Dt 4:7b near  -   Psa. 148:14; Acts 17:27
Dt 4:71c call  -   Psa. 145:18; Isa. 55:6; Rom. 10:12
See note 211 in Acts 2.
Dt 4:11a stood  -   Exo. 19:17
Dt 4:11b fire  -   Exo. 19:18; Deut. 5:22; Heb. 12:18
Dt 4:12a sound  -   Exo. 19:19; Deut. 5:23; Heb. 12:19
Dt 4:12b form  -   Deut. 4:15
Dt 4:13a Ten  -   Exo. 34:28; Deut. 10:4
Dt 4:131 Commandments
Lit., words. See note 11, par. 1, in Exo. 20.
Dt 4:13b tablets  -   Exo. 24:12; 34:28; Deut. 9:9-11; 2 Cor. 3:3
Dt 4:16a idol  -   Exo. 20:4; Deut. 5:8; 4:23; Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:23
Dt 4:19a sun  -   Deut. 17:3; 2 Kings 23:5; Ezek. 8:16
Dt 4:19b host  -   2 Kings 17:16; 21:3; Jer. 19:13; Zeph. 1:5; Acts 7:42
Dt 4:20a iron  -   1 Kings 8:51; Jer. 11:4
Dt 4:21a angry  -   Deut. 1:37; Psa. 106:32
Dt 4:21b not  -   Num. 20:12
Dt 4:22a not  -   Deut. 3:27
Dt 4:24a consuming  -   Exo. 24:17; Deut. 9:3; Heb. 12:29
Dt 4:24b jealous  -   Exo. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 6:15; Josh. 24:19; Nahum 1:2
Dt 4:251 languished
“The word (which is a rare one) implies ‘the loss of spiritual freshness, and the blunting of original impressions, produced by force of custom, or long residence in the same spot’ (Dillman).” (S. R. Driver)
Dt 4:26a heaven  -   Deut. 30:19; 31:28; 32:1; Psa. 50:4; Isa. 1:2; Jer. 2:12
Dt 4:27a scatter  -   Lev. 26:33; Neh. 1:8
Dt 4:27b few  -   cf. Neh. 7:4; Jer. 42:2
Dt 4:28a hands  -   Psa. 115:4; 135:15; Isa. 44:10-17; Jer. 10:3-5; Acts 19:26; Rev. 9:20
Dt 4:29a seek  -   2 Chron. 15:2, 4; Isa. 55:6; Jer. 29:13-14
Dt 4:29b all  -   Deut. 30:2-3; 1 Kings 8:48
Dt 4:31a compassionate  -   Exo. 34:6; 2 Chron. 30:9; Neh. 9:17, 31; Jonah 4:2
Dt 4:31b not  -   Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5; 1 Chron. 28:20; Heb. 13:5
Dt 4:33a fire  -   Deut. 4:12, 36; 5:22, 24, 26
Dt 4:34a mighty  -   Deut. 7:8, 19; 11:2; 26:8; 34:12; Jer. 32:21
Dt 4:35a no  -   Deut. 4:39; Isa. 45:5-6, 14, 18, 21-22; 46:9; Mark 12:32; 1 Cor. 8:4
Dt 4:37a loved  -   Deut. 10:15; Hosea 11:1
Dt 4:38a Driving  -   Exo. 34:24; Deut. 7:1; 9:3-5; 11:23
Dt 4:39a heaven  -   Josh. 2:11; 1 Kings 8:23; 2 Chron. 20:6
Dt 4:401 forever
Lit., all the days.
Dt 4:411 cities
For the cities of refuge, see notes in Num. 35:9-34.
Dt 4:42a manslayer  -   Deut. 19:3-5
Dt 4:46a Sihon  -   Num. 21:23-24
Dt 4:47a Og  -   Num. 21:33
Dt 4:48a Arnon  -   Deut. 3:8-9
Dt 4:481 Sirion
Following an ancient version (cf. 3:9); the Hebrew text reads, Sion.
Dt 4:491 sea
I.e., the Dead Sea.
Deuteronomy Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 5:2a covenant  -   Exo. 19:5; Deut. 4:23
Dt 5:31 us
In the sight of God, the covenant made at Horeb (Exo. 24:1-8) was actually made with the present new generation of Israel. This is according to the biblical principle that the children are included in the father (Heb. 7:9-10).
Dt 5:4a Face  -   Exo. 33:11; Deut. 34:10
Dt 5:5a I  -   Gal. 3:19
Dt 5:5b afraid  -   Exo. 19:16
Dt 5:61a I  -   vv. 6-21: Exo. 20:1-17
For vv. 6-21, see notes in Exo. 20:1-17.
Dt 5:71 before
Or, besides; in addition to.
Dt 5:10a lovingkindness  -   Deut. 7:9; Jer. 32:18
Dt 5:13a Six  -   Exo. 23:12
Dt 5:14a seventh  -   Exo. 16:29-30; Heb. 4:4
Dt 5:15a remember  -   Deut. 15:15; 16:12; 24:18, 22
Dt 5:15b mighty  -   Deut. 4:34
Dt 5:161 extended
Having our days extended is a matter of longevity, and having things go well with us is a matter of being blessed. The commandment to honor our parents is the first commandment with a promise (Eph. 6:2).
Dt 5:17a You  -   vv. 17-20: Matt. 19:18; Rom. 13:9
Dt 5:17b not  -   Matt. 5:21; cf. Gen. 9:5-6
Dt 5:18a Neither  -   Matt. 5:27; James 2:11
Dt 5:19a Neither  -   Lev. 19:11; Eph. 4:28
Dt 5:21a Neither  -   Rom. 7:7; 13:9
Dt 5:22a fire  -   Exo. 19:18; Deut. 4:11; Heb. 12:18
Dt 5:22b tablets  -   Exo. 24:12; 31:18; Deut. 9:10-11
Dt 5:23a darkness  -   Deut. 4:12; Heb. 12:18
Dt 5:24a voice  -   Exo. 19:19; Deut. 4:33
Dt 5:26a living  -   Josh. 3:10; Matt. 16:16
Dt 5:33a live  -   Deut. 4:1; 8:1
Deuteronomy Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 6:11 commandment
See note 11 in ch. 4. In Deuteronomy the law, the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances are all God’s word (Psa. 119), and the totality, the aggregate, of God’s word is Christ (John 1:1, 14). Whereas the children of Israel were charged to keep the commandments, statutes, and ordinances, we today need to keep Christ. By taking Christ, keeping Christ, and holding fast to Him, we will gain Him, enjoy Him, and live Him (Phil. 3:8; 1:19-21a). See notes 31 in ch. 8 and 121 in ch. 30.
Dt 6:3a milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 11:9; 26:9, 15; 27:3; 31:20
Dt 6:4a Hear  -   vv. 4-5: Mark 12:29-30
Dt 6:41 Jehovah
Or, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.
Dt 6:4b one  -   Zech. 14:9; Mal. 2:10; Gal. 3:20; James 2:19; 1 Cor. 8:6
Dt 6:51a love  -   Deut. 10:12; 11:13; 30:6; Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27
See notes 122 and 123 in ch. 10. The admonitions in vv. 5-9 can all be applied to Christ (see note 11). We need to love Christ, keep Christ, teach Christ, wear Christ, and write Christ.
Dt 6:6a And  -   vv. 6-9: Deut. 11:18-20
Dt 6:6b heart  -   Deut. 32:46; Prov. 7:3; Jer. 31:33
Dt 6:71 repeat
Or, teach them diligently to your children.
Dt 6:8a sign  -   Exo. 13:9, 16; Matt. 23:5
Dt 6:9a doorposts  -   Deut. 11:20; cf. Exo. 12:7
Dt 6:10a give  -   Josh. 24:13
Dt 6:11a houses  -   Neh. 9:25
Dt 6:12a forget  -   Deut. 8:14
Dt 6:13a It  -   Deut. 10:20; 13:4
Dt 6:13b serve  -   Matt. 4:10; Luke 4:8
Dt 6:15a jealous  -   Exo. 20:5
Dt 6:16a test  -   Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12; cf. Exo. 17:2; 1 Cor. 10:9; Heb. 3:9
Dt 6:161 Massah
See Exo. 17:1-7 and note 71.
Dt 6:201 in
Lit., tomorrow.
Dt 6:21a say  -   Exo. 12:26-27; 13:14; Josh. 4:21-22; Deut. 4:10; Psa. 78:5-6; Prov. 1:8; 2:1; 22:6
Deuteronomy Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 7:11 nations
See note 231 in Exo. 23.
Dt 7:1a seven  -   Acts 13:19
Dt 7:21 utterly
According to the divine thought, the nations in the land of Canaan had to be exterminated because they were devilish and mingled with demons (9:4-5; 18:9-14; cf. 1 Cor. 10:20-21). See note 331 in Num. 13.
Dt 7:3a alliances  -   Josh. 23:12; Ezra 9:2; cf. 1 Cor. 7:39; 2 Cor. 6:14
Dt 7:3b Your  -   Ezra 9:12
Dt 7:5a altars  -   Exo. 34:13; Deut. 12:3
Dt 7:51 Asherahs
Images of a female deity.
Dt 7:6a holy  -   Exo. 19:6; 22:31; Deut. 14:2; 26:19; 28:9; 1 Pet. 2:9
Dt 7:6b chosen  -   Isa. 45:4; Matt. 24:22; Acts 13:17
Dt 7:61c personal  -   Exo. 19:5
See note 51 in Exo. 19.
Dt 7:7a affection  -   Deut. 10:15; Isa. 43:4; Jer. 31:3; Hosea 11:1; 14:4; Mal. 1:2
Dt 7:8a swore  -   Exo. 32:13; Psa. 105:9-11
Dt 7:9a faithful  -   Isa. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:18; 1 Thes. 5:24; 2 Thes. 3:3; Heb. 10:23; 1 John 1:9
Dt 7:9b keeps  -   Neh. 1:5; 9:32; Dan. 9:4; 2 Chron. 6:14
Dt 7:9c lovingkindness  -   Exo. 20:6; Deut. 5:10
Dt 7:131 bless
It is in Christ that we receive and enjoy God’s blessings (Eph. 1:3). The unique commandment God gives to the world is to believe in His Son and receive Him (see note 53 in Rom. 1). Actually, Christ Himself is the commandment of God. We need to receive Him, keep Him, and be right with Him. If we do this, we will be right with God, and He will love us and bless us (John 14:21, 23).
Dt 7:13a bless  -   Deut. 28:3-5, 11; 30:9
Dt 7:14a barren  -   Exo. 23:26
Dt 7:15a sickness  -   Exo. 15:26; 23:25
Dt 7:16a snare  -   Exo. 23:33; Deut. 7:25; 12:30; Judg. 8:27
Dt 7:20a hornet  -   Exo. 23:28; Josh. 24:12
Dt 7:21a midst  -   Num. 14:14; Josh. 3:10; Deut. 6:15
Dt 7:221a little  -   Exo. 23:29-30
See note 291 in Exo. 23.
Dt 7:24a stand  -   Deut. 11:25
Dt 7:25a abomination  -   cf. Josh. 7:11-26; Rev. 17:4
Deuteronomy Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 8:1a live  -   Deut. 4:1; 5:32-33
Dt 8:2a forty  -   Deut. 1:3; 2:7; 29:5; Amos 2:10; cf. Exo. 34:28; Matt. 4:2
Dt 8:2b test  -   Exo. 15:25; 16:4; Deut. 8:16; 13:3; 2 Chron. 32:31
Dt 8:3a manna  -   Exo. 16:31, 35; Num. 11:7-8; Deut. 8:16; John 6:49
Dt 8:3b man  -   Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4
Dt 8:31 everything
In Matt. 4:4 everything is replaced by every word, referring to the law, the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances as the words that proceed out of the mouth of God. All the words in this book are God’s breathing (2 Tim. 3:16), and all refer to Christ, who is the totality of God’s word (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13) to be the life and life supply of God’s people. Therefore, to live by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God is to live by Christ, the embodiment of the divine breath (John 6:57, 63). God was leading His people into the good land, a type of Christ, by Christ, and He was sustaining them on their way to the good land also by Christ, who is everything that proceeds out through the mouth of God. See notes 11 in ch. 6 and 121 in ch. 30.
God wants us to fulfill His righteous requirements for the accomplishing of His divine economy; however, He does not want us to do this in ourselves. Rather, He wants us to live, work, and have our being in Christ, by Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and in oneness with Christ (Gal. 2:20). God’s desire is that we put ourselves aside, forget ourselves, and fulfill His economy by the Spirit, i.e., by the realization of the Son, who is the embodiment of the Father (John 14:17-18, 10). The Scriptures as the breathing, the exhaling, of God are the embodiment of Christ as the life-giving Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17). By inhaling the word of the Scriptures, we receive the Spirit (Eph. 6:17-18a; Gal. 3:5) and enjoy the riches of Christ and thus are enabled to fulfill God’s requirements.
Dt 8:4a clothing  -   Deut. 29:5; Neh. 9:21; Matt. 6:30
Dt 8:5a disciplines  -   Prov. 3:11-12; Heb. 12:7
Dt 8:71 good
The good land, the land of Canaan, is a full, complete, and consummate type of the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), as the inheritance allotted to God’s people for their enjoyment (Col. 1:12 and note 2; 2:6-7 and note 62; Gal. 3:14 and note 3). The riches of the good land in vv. 7-9 typify the unsearchable riches of Christ in different aspects (Eph. 3:8) as the bountiful supply to His believers in His Spirit (Phil. 1:19). The waterbrooks, springs, and fountains signify Christ as the flowing Spirit (John 4:14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1), and the valleys and mountains signify the different kinds of environments in which we may experience Christ as the flowing Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 6:8-10). Wheat typifies the incarnated Christ, who was crucified and buried to multiply Himself (John 12:24), and barley, being the first-ripe grain (2 Sam. 21:9), points to the resurrected Christ as the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:20). Vines typify the Christ who sacrificed Himself to produce wine to cheer God and man (Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17). The fig tree speaks of the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as the life supply (Judg. 9:11); the pomegranates signify the fullness, the abundance and beauty, and the expression of the riches of Christ as life (Exo. 28:33-34; 1 Kings 7:18-20; S.S. 4:3b, 13); the bread signifies Christ as the bread of life (John 6:35, 48); the olive tree typifies Christ (Rom. 11:17) as the One who was filled with the Spirit and anointed with the Spirit (Luke 4:1, 18; Heb. 1:9); olive oil typifies the Holy Spirit, by whom we walk to honor God and whom we minister to honor man (Gal. 5:16, 25; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8; Judg. 9:9); and milk and honey (6:3) speak forth the goodness and sweetness of Christ (see note 82 in Exo. 3). Stones signify Christ as material for building God’s dwelling place (Isa. 28:16; Zech. 4:7; 1 Pet. 2:4). The iron and copper are for making weapons (Gen. 4:22; 1 Sam. 17:5-7) and typify our spiritual warfare by which we fight the enemy (2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:10-20). Iron also signifies Christ’s ruling authority (Matt. 28:18; Rev. 19:15), and copper, Christ’s judging power (Rev. 1:15 and note 1). The mountains from which copper is mined signify Christ’s resurrection and ascension (Eph. 4:8 and note 1).
God’s goal in His economy is not merely to redeem His people and save them from the world, typified by Egypt, but to bring them into Christ, typified by the good land, that they may possess Him and enjoy His unsearchable riches. By enjoying the riches of the land, the children of Israel were able to build up the temple to be God’s habitation on earth and the city of Jerusalem to establish God’s kingdom on earth. Likewise, by enjoying the unsearchable riches of Christ, the believers in Christ are built up to be Christ’s Body, the church, which is Christ’s fullness, His expression (Eph. 1:22-23), and which is also the habitation of God (Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15) and the kingdom of God (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17). Ultimately, God’s habitation and God’s kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem in eternity for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy (Rev. 21:1-3, 22; 22:1, 3).
Dt 8:7a land  -   Deut. 11:11-12
Dt 8:72 fountains
Or, deep waters. Concerning the water in the good land, the fountains are the source, and the springs and waterbrooks are the outflow. See note 32, par. 1, in Isa. 12.
Dt 8:8a land  -   Neh. 9:25; cf. 2 Kings 18:32
Dt 8:8b wheat  -   Deut. 32:14; Psa. 81:16; 147:14; Ezek. 27:17; 2 Chron. 2:15
Dt 8:8c vines  -   1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4; Zech. 3:10; Hag. 2:19; S.S. 6:11; cf. Judg. 9:8-13
Dt 8:8d fig  -   S.S. 2:13; cf. Jer. 24:2, 5, 8; Matt. 21:19; 24:32
Dt 8:8e pomegranates  -   S.S. 4:13
Dt 8:8f olive  -   cf. Jer. 11:16; Hosea 14:6; Rom. 11:17, 24
Dt 8:8g honey  -   Exo. 3:8
Dt 8:111 careful
Today we should be careful lest we forget God by not keeping His Christ (cf. Gal. 5:2, 4).
Dt 8:12a satisfied  -   Prov. 30:9
Dt 8:15a wilderness  -   Deut. 1:19; Jer. 2:6
Dt 8:15b fiery  -   Num. 21:6
Dt 8:15c rock  -   Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:11; Psa. 78:15-16; 114:8
Dt 8:16a manna  -   Deut. 8:3; Exo. 16:31, 35
Dt 8:18a covenant  -   Deut. 7:9, 12
Dt 8:19a I  -   Dan. 9:12
Dt 8:19b today  -   Acts 20:26
Deuteronomy Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 9:1a cities  -   Deut. 1:28
Dt 9:21a Anakim  -   Num. 13:22
See Num. 13:33 and note.
Dt 9:3a fire  -   Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29
Dt 9:5a righteousness  -   Titus 3:5; cf. Isa. 64:6
Dt 9:6a stiff-necked  -   Deut. 9:13; 10:16
Dt 9:71 you
Because the new generation of Israelites were sons of rebels, they too were rebels in the eyes of God. Cf. note 31 in ch. 5.
Dt 9:7a furious  -   Num. 14:11; 16:30; Heb. 3:16
Dt 9:8a Horeb  -   Psa. 106:19
Dt 9:8b furious  -   Exo. 32:9-10
Dt 9:9a mountain  -   Exo. 24:12, 15
Dt 9:9b forty  -   Exo. 24:18; 34:28; Deut. 9:18, 25; 10:10; cf. 1 Kings 19:8; Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:1-2
Dt 9:10a tablets  -   Exo. 31:18; Deut. 5:22
Dt 9:12a down  -   Exo. 32:7-8
Dt 9:12b turned  -   Deut. 9:16; 31:29; Judg. 2:17
Dt 9:13a Then  -   vv. 13-14: Exo. 32:9-10
Dt 9:13b stiff-necked  -   Deut. 9:6
Dt 9:15a So  -   Exo. 32:15
Dt 9:15b fire  -   Exo. 19:18; Deut. 4:11; 5:23
Dt 9:16a saw  -   Exo. 32:19
Dt 9:18a forty  -   Exo. 34:28; Deut. 9:25; 10:10
Dt 9:19a afraid  -   Heb. 12:21
Dt 9:19b listened  -   Deut. 10:10; Exo. 32:11-14
Dt 9:21a Then  -   Exo. 32:20
Dt 9:22a Taberah  -   Num. 11:1-3
Dt 9:22b Massah  -   Exo. 17:7; Deut. 6:16
Dt 9:22c Kibroth-hattaavah  -   Num. 11:34
Dt 9:23a sent  -   Num. 13:3
Dt 9:23b not  -   Deut. 1:32; Psa. 106:24
Dt 9:25a So  -   Deut. 9:18
Dt 9:25b forty  -   Exo. 34:28
Dt 9:26a And  -   vv. 26-27: Exo. 32:11-13
Dt 9:28a Because  -   Num. 14:16
Dt 9:29a people  -   Neh. 1:10
Deuteronomy Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 10:1a At  -   Exo. 34:1
Dt 10:1b stone  -   2 Cor. 3:7
Dt 10:1c ark  -   Exo. 25:10
Dt 10:2a place  -   Exo. 25:16, 21
Dt 10:3a cut  -   Exo. 34:4
Dt 10:4a And  -   Exo. 34:28
Dt 10:41 Commandments
Lit., words.
Dt 10:5a Then  -   Exo. 34:29
Dt 10:5b tablets  -   1 Kings 8:9; Exo. 40:20; Heb. 9:4
Dt 10:61a Beeroth  -   cf. Num. 33:30-32
Or, the wells of the children of Jaakan.
Dt 10:6b died  -   Num. 20:28; 33:38-39
Dt 10:8a separated  -   Num. 8:14; 16:9
Dt 10:8b stand  -   Deut. 18:5
Dt 10:91 no
See note 201 in Num. 18.
Dt 10:9a inheritance  -   Num. 18:20; Deut. 12:12; 14:27; 18:1-2
Dt 10:10a forty  -   Deut. 9:9, 18, 25
Dt 10:11a Arise  -   cf. Exo. 32:34
Dt 10:12a fear  -   Deut. 6:2, 13
Dt 10:12b walk  -   Deut. 5:32-33
Dt 10:121 ways
God’s ways are actually what God is. Whatever God is, is a way to us. Hence, to take what God is as our ways and to walk in these ways is to live God. The God who is our way is Christ (John 14:6). To take Christ as our way is to live Him, and to live Him is to express Him, to manifest Him, and even to magnify Him (Phil. 1:20-21a). In the New Jerusalem the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing in the middle of the street of gold (Rev. 22:1) indicates that God is both our life and our way. We take God as our life, and His life with His nature then becomes the way on which we walk. See note 16 in Rev. 22.
Dt 10:122c love  -   Deut. 6:5; 30:6, 16; Matt. 22:37
God Himself set an example of loving by setting His affection on His people (vv. 14-15; 7:7-8). In Deuteronomy God was actually “courting” His people, loving them and setting His affection upon them (cf. note 62 in Exo. 20). His people should love Him in return by setting their affection on Him. See note 93 in 1 Cor. 2.
Dt 10:123 heart
Our heart is linked to our spirit, for our conscience, which is a function of our spirit (Rom. 9:1), is also a function of our heart (Heb. 10:22). Thus, to love and serve God with all our heart and soul indicates that we love and serve Him also with our spirit (Rom. 1:9). Furthermore, according to 6:5 we are to love Him also with all our might, that is, with our physical strength. See Mark 12:28-30 and note 301.
Dt 10:14a heaven  -   Neh. 9:6; 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chron. 2:6; 6:18
Dt 10:14b earth  -   Exo. 19:5; Psa. 24:1; 1 Cor. 10:26
Dt 10:15a affection  -   Deut. 4:37; 7:7; Rom. 11:28
Dt 10:16a heart  -   Rom. 2:29
Dt 10:16b stiff-necked  -   Exo. 32:9; 33:3; Deut. 9:6; Acts 7:51
Dt 10:17a God  -   Psa. 136:2; Dan. 2:47; 11:36
Dt 10:17b Lord  -   Psa. 136:3; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16
Dt 10:17c mighty  -   Deut. 7:21; Neh. 1:5; 9:32; 1 Cor. 10:22
Dt 10:17d not  -   2 Chron. 19:7; Gal. 2:6
Dt 10:18a orphan  -   Deut. 24:17; Psa. 10:14, 18; 68:5; 146:9; Hosea 14:3
Dt 10:19a sojourner  -   Lev. 19:34; Exo. 22:21; 23:9
Dt 10:20a You  -   Deut. 6:13
Dt 10:20b hold  -   Deut. 11:22; 13:4; 30:20
Dt 10:21a praise  -   Jer. 17:14
Dt 10:22a seventy  -   Gen. 46:27; Exo. 1:5
Dt 10:22b stars  -   Gen. 15:5; Deut. 1:10; 28:62; Neh. 9:23
Deuteronomy Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 11:1a love  -   Deut. 6:5
Dt 11:4a over  -   Exo. 14:28; 15:10; Psa. 106:11
Dt 11:6a Dathan  -   Num. 16:1, 30-33; 26:9; Psa. 106:17
Dt 11:81 strong
If we keep Christ and hold fast to Christ as God’s whole commandment (see note 31 in ch. 8), we will be strengthened and encouraged to go on to possess Christ (vv. 8, 24), i.e., to gain Christ (Phil. 3:8); our days will be extended in Christ (vv. 9, 21); God’s eyes will be upon us to care for us and give us the blessing of His presence (v. 12); we will enjoy the heavenly rain, the watering of the Spirit, and reap a harvest of Christ (vv. 14-15); and we will love God, walk in His ways, and hold fast to Him (vv. 18-22).
Dt 11:9a milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 6:3
Dt 11:101 water
I.e., water with treadmills.
Dt 11:11a land  -   Deut. 8:7
Dt 11:121a eyes  -   cf. 1 Kings 9:3
Because we are practically joined to Christ as the reality of the good land and are enjoying His riches (see note 71 in ch. 8), God’s eyes are upon us continually, causing us to enjoy God’s presence and making us the object of His care.
Dt 11:13a love  -   Deut. 6:5
Dt 11:141a early  -   Job 29:23; Jer. 5:24; Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23; James 5:7
See note 231 in Joel 2.
Dt 11:15a be  -   Deut. 6:11; Joel 2:19
Dt 11:16a other  -   Deut. 6:14; 11:28
Dt 11:17a shut  -   1 Kings 8:35; 2 Chron. 6:26; 7:13; Rev. 11:6; Luke 4:25; cf. 1 Kings 17:1; Amos 4:7; Zech. 14:17
Dt 11:18a Therefore  -   vv. 18-20: Deut. 6:6-9
Dt 11:181 lay
Moses’ words in vv. 18-20 can be applied to Christ and indicate that all the time and everywhere we should be occupied with Christ. We need to love God by laying Christ as the word on our heart and on our soul and by binding this word to everything related to us (Col. 3:16).
Dt 11:18b sign  -   Exo. 13:9; Matt. 23:5
Dt 11:19a teach  -   Deut. 4:9-10; Psa. 78:5-6; Isa. 38:19
Dt 11:20a doorposts  -   Deut. 6:9
Dt 11:21a days  -   Psa. 89:29
Dt 11:22a love  -   Deut. 30:20; Josh. 22:5
Dt 11:23a dispossess  -   Deut. 4:38; 7:1; 9:1
Dt 11:24a Every  -   vv. 24-25: Josh. 1:3-5
Dt 11:24b foot  -   Josh. 14:9
Dt 11:24c river  -   Exo. 23:31
Dt 11:241 farmost
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea. In this verse the boundaries of the land of Israel are set by God, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates in today’s Iraq (cf. Gen. 15:18; Exo. 23:31). This will be fulfilled in the restoration of Israel, after the second coming of Christ (Matt. 17:11; 19:28; Acts 1:6; 3:21; 15:16).
Dt 11:25a stand  -   Deut. 7:24
Dt 11:26a setting  -   Deut. 30:1, 19
Dt 11:261 blessing
If we love Christ and hold fast to Him, we will receive the blessing (Eph. 6:24); if we do not, we will receive the curse (1 Cor. 16:22).
Dt 11:29a blessing  -   Deut. 27:12-13; Josh. 8:33
Dt 11:29b Mount  -   John 4:20
Deuteronomy Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 12:21 destroy
Before the children of Israel could have the full enjoyment of the riches of the good land, they had to utterly destroy the heathen places of worship, the idols, and the names of the idols (vv. 2-3). Thus, the good land was to be thoroughly cleared of all the heathen centers of worship. The children of Israel were not to worship God in the same way that the nations worshipped their gods (v. 4).
Dt 12:3a tear  -   Deut. 7:5; Exo. 34:13; Judg. 2:2; 6:25; 2 Chron. 34:4
Dt 12:5a place  -   Deut. 12:11; 16:2; 26:2; 2 Chron. 7:12; Psa. 132:13-14; Luke 2:41; John 4:20
Dt 12:51 choose
The children of Israel were not allowed to worship God and enjoy the offerings they presented to God in the place of their choice (vv. 8, 13, 17). They were to worship God in the place of His choice, the place where His name, His habitation, and His altar were (vv. 5-6), by bringing their tithes, offerings, and sacrifices to Him there (vv. 5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26-27; 14:22-23; 15:19-20). To fulfill these requirements was to have a unique center of worship, as Jerusalem would be later (2 Chron. 6:5-6; John 4:20), for the keeping of the oneness among God’s people, thus avoiding the division caused by man’s preferences (cf. 1 Kings 12:26-33 and notes).
The revelation in the New Testament concerning the worship of God corresponds to the revelation in this chapter in at least four ways: First, the people of God should always be one; there should be no divisions among them (Psa. 133; John 17:11, 21-23; 1 Cor. 1:10; Eph. 4:3). Second, the unique name into which God’s people should gather is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 18:20; 1 Cor. 1:12 and notes), the reality of which name is the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). To be designated by any other name is to be denominated, divided; this is spiritual fornication (see note 83 in Rev. 3). Third, in the New Testament God’s habitation, His dwelling place, is particularly located in our spirit, i.e., in our mingled spirit, our human spirit regenerated and indwelt by the divine Spirit (John 3:6b; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 2:22). In our meeting for the worship of God, we must exercise our spirit and do everything in our spirit (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 14:15). Fourth, in our worship of God we must have the genuine application of the cross of Christ, signified by the altar, by rejecting the flesh, the self, and the natural life and worshipping God with Christ and Christ alone (Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20). Hence, the meeting of God’s people for the worship of God should be in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the mingled spirit as the place of God’s habitation, in the place where the cross is, and with the enjoyment of Christ as the reality of the tithes, the offerings, and the sacrifices (see note 244 in John 4). This is the oneness of God’s people, and this is the proper ground for the worship of God.
Dt 12:8a doing  -   cf. Judg. 17:6; 21:25
Dt 12:9a rest  -   Deut. 25:19; 1 Kings 8:56; 1 Chron. 23:25; cf. Heb. 4:8-9
Dt 12:11a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 12:12a no  -   Num. 18:20
Dt 12:15a within  -   Deut. 15:22-23
Dt 12:161a blood  -   Deut. 12:23; Lev. 3:17; Acts 15:20
See note 101 in Lev. 17.
Dt 12:171 eat
The children of Israel could enjoy the rich produce of the good land in two ways. The common, private way was to enjoy it as a common portion at any time, in any place, and with anyone (v. 15). The special, corporate way was to enjoy the top portion, the firstfruits and the firstlings, with all the Israelites at the appointed feasts and in the unique place chosen by God (see note 51). Likewise, the enjoyment of Christ by the New Testament believers is of two aspects — the common, private aspect of enjoying Christ at any time and at any place, and the special, corporate aspect of enjoying the top portion of Christ in the meetings of the proper church life on the unique ground of oneness, the place chosen by God.
Dt 12:19a not  -   Deut. 14:27
Dt 12:20a enlarges  -   Exo. 34:24; Deut. 19:8
Dt 12:231 blood
For vv. 23-25, see notes in Lev. 17:10-14.
Dt 12:23a blood  -   Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:11; Acts 15:20
Dt 12:232 life
Heb. nephesh; lit., soul, living being.
Dt 12:29a cuts  -   Josh. 23:4
Dt 12:30a ensnared  -   Deut. 7:16, 25; Judg. 8:27
Dt 12:32a not  -   Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:6; Rev. 22:18-19
Deuteronomy Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 13:1a prophet  -   2 Pet. 2:1
Dt 13:1b dreamer  -   Jer. 23:25, 32; 29:8; Zech. 10:2
Dt 13:21 Let
Moses’ word in chs. 12 and 13 charges God’s people to avoid division and reject apostasy. Apostasy in the Old Testament denotes giving up God and turning away from God to idols. In the New Testament apostasy is heresy, denoting the denial of Christ’s deity; it refers to not believing that Jesus Christ is God incarnated to be a man (John 1:1, 14; 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:2-3). Apostasy, or heresy, insults God and damages the person of Christ, and division destroys the Body of Christ as Christ’s corporate expression. Thus, apostasy and division damage the entire economy of God. Because of this, the apostle Paul charges us to turn away from the divisive ones (Rom. 16:17), and the apostle John enjoins us to reject the heretical ones (2 John 9-11). Like Moses in this book and the apostles in the New Testament, we must be very strict concerning division and apostasy. We must keep the unique oneness of God’s people and the unique faith in the person and redemptive work of Christ (Eph. 4:3, 13 and notes 31 and 132).
Dt 13:3a love  -   Deut. 6:5
Dt 13:4a hold  -   Deut. 10:20; 11:22; 30:20
Dt 13:51 utterly
Lit., burn out, consume. So throughout the book.
Dt 13:5a remove  -   Deut. 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21; 24:7; cf. 1 Cor. 5:13
Dt 13:9a your  -   cf. Deut. 17:7
Dt 13:10a stone  -   Deut. 17:5; 21:21; 22:24; Lev. 20:2; Num. 15:35; Josh. 7:25; John 8:59; 10:31-33; Acts 7:58-59
Dt 13:11a will  -   Deut. 19:20; 17:13; 21:21
Dt 13:13a gone  -   1 John 2:19
Dt 13:14a investigate  -   Deut. 17:4
Dt 13:16a burn  -   Josh. 6:24
Dt 13:16b mound  -   Josh. 8:28; Jer. 49:2; Isa. 17:1
Dt 13:17a cursed  -   Josh. 6:18
Deuteronomy Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 14:11 You
The statutes and judgments presented in 14:1 — 26:19 show how considerate, detailed, loving, tender, kind, merciful, gracious, sympathetic, humane, righteous, just, and fair God is. As those who have God’s life, we, the believers in Christ, should learn of God to be the same as He is (Eph. 5:1). We should walk before God and with God according to what He is. As we take God’s way and what God is, we will be transformed into His image (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). See note 161 in ch. 26.
Dt 14:1a children  -   Isa. 1:2; Rom. 9:8; cf. John 1:12
Dt 14:1b not  -   Lev. 19:27-28; 21:5
Dt 14:2a holy  -   Exo. 19:6; 22:31; Deut. 7:6; 26:19
Dt 14:21b personal  -   Exo. 19:5; cf. Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:9
See note 51 in Exo. 19.
Dt 14:31 eat
In this chapter Moses turns from the matters of division and apostasy (chs. 12 and 13) to the matter of the holy diet. Eating signifies our contacting of people (see note 21 in Lev. 11). Division and apostasy are related to our contact with others. In order to avoid both division and apostasy, we need to be discerning in our contact with people, as signified by the holy diet. We also need to protect our spiritual children from being destroyed by the divisive ones (see note 211). For the details concerning the holy diet, see notes in Lev. 11.
Dt 14:4a These  -   vv. 4-19: Lev. 11:2-20
Dt 14:61 has
Lit., divides the hoof and cleaves the cleft of its two hooves.
Dt 14:71 have
Lit., divide the cleft hoof.
Dt 14:191 flying
Lit., winged swarming things.
Dt 14:21a carcass  -   Lev. 7:24
Dt 14:21b You  -   Exo. 23:19
Dt 14:211 boil
See note 192 in Exo. 23.
Dt 14:22a give  -   cf. Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42
Dt 14:23a And  -   Deut. 12:5-7
Dt 14:231 before
To eat before Jehovah is to eat with Him. The children of Israel enjoyed before God and with God the tithes that they had offered to God. This indicates that God wants us to enjoy His Christ with Him at His chosen place. See note 51 in ch. 12.
Dt 14:25a exchange  -   cf. Ezra 7:15-17; Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15
Dt 14:27a not  -   Deut. 12:19
Dt 14:27b no  -   Num. 18:20
Dt 14:28a three  -   Deut. 26:12
Dt 14:281 tithe
God charged the children of Israel to offer Him the tithes yearly. In addition, during every three years they were to lay aside another tenth portion within their gates as a surplus to show the fullness of the rich produce of the good land. This tithe was to care for the poor and the Levites, the full-time serving ones (v. 29; 26:12; cf. v. 27; Gal. 2:10; 1 Cor. 9:14; 1 Tim. 5:17-18). These verses concerning the aid to the needy show that God takes care of all His people, who are His expression. In like manner, Christ takes care of every member of His Body. See note 152 in ch. 26.
Deuteronomy Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 15:1a seven  -   Jer. 34:14; Deut. 15:12; 31:10; Neh. 10:31; cf. Exo. 23:11; Lev. 25:4, 10
Dt 15:3a foreigner  -   cf. Deut. 23:20
Dt 15:6a lend  -   Deut. 28:12
Dt 15:71a needy  -   cf. Lev. 25:35; 1 John 3:17; 2 Cor. 9:9; Gal. 2:10
Concerning the matter of lending (or, giving) to the needy ones and the blessing that follows, see 2 Cor. 9:6-15.
Dt 15:8a open  -   Matt. 5:42; 6:2; Luke 6:34-35
Dt 15:91 like
Lit., saying.
Dt 15:9a eye  -   Deut. 28:54, 56; Prov. 23:6; 28:22; Matt. 20:15; Luke 11:34
Dt 15:10a give  -   Luke 6:30, 38
Dt 15:10b not  -   2 Cor. 9:7
Dt 15:11a needy  -   Matt. 26:11; Mark 14:7; John 12:8
Dt 15:11b poor  -   2 Cor. 9:9; Gal. 2:10
Dt 15:121 If
For vv. 12-18, see notes in Exo. 21:2-6.
Dt 15:12a Hebrew  -   Exo. 21:2; Jer. 34:14
Dt 15:12b sold  -   cf. Lev. 25:39-41
Dt 15:122 free
Lit., free from with you. So throughout this chapter.
Dt 15:15a remember  -   Deut. 5:15; 16:12; 24:18, 22
Dt 15:16a And  -   vv. 16-17: Exo. 21:5-6
Dt 15:19a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2; 34:19
Dt 15:20a eat  -   Deut. 12:7; 14:23, 26
Dt 15:21a blemish  -   Lev. 22:20; Deut. 17:1
Dt 15:22a You  -   Deut. 12:15
Dt 15:23a blood  -   Deut. 12:16; Lev. 3:17; 7:26
Deuteronomy Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 16:1a Abib  -   Exo. 13:4; 34:18
Dt 16:11 Passover
For the three main annual feasts, see notes in Lev. 23.
Dt 16:1b night  -   Exo. 12:42
Dt 16:2a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 16:3a unleavened  -   Exo. 13:6; Lev. 23:6; Num. 28:17; 1 Cor. 5:8
Dt 16:3b remember  -   Exo. 13:3
Dt 16:4a leaven  -   Exo. 13:7
Dt 16:4b morning  -   Exo. 34:25
Dt 16:6a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 16:6b evening  -   Exo. 12:6-9; Matt. 26:20
Dt 16:7a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 16:8a unleavened  -   Exo. 13:6; Deut. 16:3
Dt 16:9a seven  -   cf. Lev. 23:15
Dt 16:10a Feast  -   Exo. 34:22; Num. 28:26; 2 Chron. 8:13
Dt 16:11a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 16:12a remember  -   Deut. 5:15; 15:15; 24:18, 22
Dt 16:13a Feast  -   Lev. 23:34; Ezra 3:4; Zech. 14:16
Dt 16:131 Tabernacles
Lit., Booths. So also in v. 16. See note 162 in Exo. 23.
Dt 16:13b ingathering  -   Exo. 23:16; Lev. 23:39
Dt 16:15a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 16:16a Three  -   Exo. 23:14, 17; 34:23
Dt 16:16b place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 16:16c Feast  -   John 7:2
Dt 16:16d empty-handed  -   Exo. 23:15
Dt 16:181 judges
The divine government among God’s people is neither autocracy nor democracy but theocracy — a direct ruling and governing by God Himself according to what He is. Among the children of Israel in the Old Testament God governed His people according to His constant speaking, as written in the law, and His instant speaking, as revealed either through the breastplate of the high priest by means of the Urim and Thummim or through the prophets by the Spirit of God coming upon certain ones to enable them to speak God’s word (Exo. 28:30 and notes; Lev. 8:8; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8; 1 Sam. 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65). Moreover, God’s government was executed through some human agents: the priests and the elders, the judges, or the kings as direct administrators, who worked together for God’s theocracy. In the church in the New Testament the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42) replaces the law in God’s administration, and the elders of the churches (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5) are the direct administrators, who administrate according to the teaching of the apostles (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17). In relation to the instant speaking of the Lord, all the believers in Christ, including the elders, are priests to God (1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6), having Christ as the High Priest living within them (Heb. 8:1; Rom. 8:10) and having the Holy Spirit mingled with their regenerated human spirit (Rom. 8:16) to replace the function of the Urim and Thummim. Among the believers, the prophets and teachers help the eldership and the priesthood (Acts 13:1-4). See note 11 in Ezra 5.
Dt 16:18a officers  -   Num. 11:16; Deut. 1:15; Josh. 1:10; 1 Chron. 23:4; 26:29
Dt 16:182 in
Lit., within all your gates.
Dt 16:18b judgment  -   2 Chron. 19:6; Matt. 5:21
Dt 16:19a not  -   Deut. 1:17; 10:17; Matt. 22:16; Luke 20:21; James 2:1
Dt 16:19b bribe  -   Exo. 23:8
Dt 16:211 Asherah
An Asherah was an image of a female deity, and the altar signifies the cross. To bring in certain pagan things and add them to the cross is to produce a mixture. See Matt. 13:33 and notes.
Deuteronomy Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 17:1a blemish  -   Lev. 22:20; Deut. 15:21
Dt 17:3a sun  -   Deut. 4:19
Dt 17:4a investigate  -   Deut. 13:14; 19:18
Dt 17:5a stone  -   Deut. 13:10
Dt 17:6a two  -   Num. 35:30; Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Heb. 10:28
Dt 17:7a hand  -   Deut. 13:9; John 8:7; cf. Lev. 24:14
Dt 17:7b remove  -   Deut. 13:5
Dt 17:8a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 17:91 the
Lit., the priests the Levites. So also elsewhere in this book. The investigation was conducted mainly by the priest. First, the priest went to God and stayed with God. Second, in the presence of God the priest would consider God’s holy word. Third, the Levitical priests had the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim (33:8), which provided instant enlightenment (Exo. 28:30 and notes). Eventually, through the presence of God, the word of God, and the Urim and Thummim, the priest would gain a clear understanding of the divine judgment and then pass on this judgment to the presiding judge. The judge would then make a judgment according to what the priest had received from God and passed on to him. The judgment of the case, therefore, came through man, but it was of God and according to God — a matter of theocracy. See note 181 in ch. 16.
Dt 17:9a judge  -   Deut. 19:17
Dt 17:10a do  -   Matt. 23:3
Dt 17:12a presumptuously  -   cf. Deut. 18:20, 22
Dt 17:12b remove  -   cf. 1 Cor. 5:13
Dt 17:141a king  -   cf. 1 Sam. 8:5, 19-20
The people’s desire to have a king, thus replacing God as their King, was offensive to God (1 Sam. 8:4-7 and note 71).
Dt 17:15a choose  -   1 Sam. 10:24; 16:12; 1 Chron. 28:5
Dt 17:161 horses
Egypt signifies the world, and horses signify the worldly means. If God’s people use the worldly means or the worldly way, they will surely turn back to the world.
Dt 17:16a Egypt  -   Deut. 28:68; Hosea 11:5; cf. Exo. 13:17; Num. 14:3-4; Jer. 42:15-19
See note 161.
Dt 17:17a wives  -   cf. 1 Kings 11:3-4
Dt 17:181a law  -   cf. Deut. 31:26; Josh. 1:8; 2 Kings 11:12; 22:8; 2 Chron. 34:14
The law here refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, which were written by Moses. In ruling over the people, the king first had to be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God. The principle should be the same with the elders in the churches. In order to administrate, to manage, the church, the elders must be reconstituted with the holy word of God (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17). As a result, they will be under God’s government, under God’s rule and control. Then spontaneously God will be in their decisions, and the elders will represent God to manage the affairs of the church. This kind of management is theocracy (see note 181 in ch. 16).
Dt 17:20a extend  -   cf. Deut. 4:40
Deuteronomy Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 18:1a The  -   vv. 1-2: Deut. 10:9; 12:12; 14:27; Num. 18:20-24
Dt 18:11 Levitical
Whereas the priests served God directly in His presence, the Levites were servants of the priests, coordinating with them and serving them by taking care of various practical matters. For the service of the priests and the Levites, see Num. 3 — 4 and notes.
Dt 18:1b eat  -   1 Cor. 9:13
Dt 18:1c offerings  -   Josh. 13:14; 1 Sam. 2:28
Dt 18:12 inheritance
God’s inheritance consisted of the tithes offered to Him by the children of Israel. Some of these tithes were to be for the priests. Thus, the priests lived on the tithes offered to God by His people. See note 91 in Num. 18.
Dt 18:21a Jehovah  -   cf. Psa. 16:5
See note 201 in Num. 18.
Dt 18:31 priests’
For the portion of the priests (vv. 3-5), see Num. 18:8-20 and notes.
Dt 18:3a shoulder  -   Lev. 7:32-34
Dt 18:5a stand  -   Deut. 10:8; 17:12
Dt 18:61 Levite
The portion of the Levites was all the tithes of Israel. See Num. 18:21-32 and notes.
Dt 18:6a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 18:81 proceeds
The exact meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Dt 18:10a divination  -   Lev. 20:27; Isa. 47:9; Gal. 5:20; Rev. 9:21; cf. 1 Cor. 10:20
Dt 18:13a blameless  -   Gen. 6:9; 17:1; Luke 1:6; Phil. 3:6
Dt 18:151a Prophet  -   Matt. 21:11; Mark 6:15; Luke 7:16; 24:19; John 1:21, 25; 5:46; 6:14; 7:40; Acts 3:22; 7:37; cf. John 4:25
Acts 3:22 applies vv. 15-19 to Christ, who is God incarnated to be a man, indicating that Christ is the Prophet promised by God to His people, the children of Israel. That the Prophet was to be from among their brothers (v. 15a) indicates that Christ as the coming Prophet would be human as well as divine.
Dt 18:15b listen  -   cf. Matt. 17:5
Dt 18:16a Let  -   Exo. 20:19; Deut. 5:25; Heb. 12:19
Dt 18:17a They  -   Deut. 5:28
Dt 18:18a Prophet  -   Deut. 18:15
Dt 18:181 raise
God would raise up this Prophet through the incarnation of Christ to speak the word of God (John 3:34; 7:16-17; 8:18; Heb. 1:2a). To speak God’s word, i.e., to prophesy, is to dispense God, to speak God forth into others (see 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 24-25, 31 and notes 13, 31, 241, 251, and 311). This is what the Lord Jesus did as the Prophet raised up by God.
Dt 18:19a not  -   John 12:48; Acts 3:23
Dt 18:20a die  -   Deut. 13:5
Dt 18:22a not  -   cf. Jer. 28:9
Deuteronomy Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 19:1a cuts  -   Deut. 12:29
Dt 19:2a three  -   Num. 35:14; Deut. 4:41
Dt 19:21 cities
For vv. 1-13, see notes in Num. 35:9-34.
Dt 19:3a flee  -   Num. 35:15; Deut. 4:42; Josh. 20:3-4
Dt 19:61 slay
Lit., slay him as regards the soul. So also in v. 11.
Dt 19:8a enlarges  -   Exo. 34:24; Deut. 12:20; cf. Exo. 23:31
Dt 19:11a lies  -   Num. 35:20-21; cf. Deut. 27:24
Dt 19:13a remove  -   Deut. 21:9; Num. 35:33; cf. 1 Kings 2:31
Dt 19:14a not  -   Prov. 22:28; 23:10; cf. Deut. 27:17; Job 24:2; Hosea 5:10
Dt 19:141 boundary
The land was eventually divided by lot (Josh. 14:2 and note), and boundary markers were set up. To move a boundary marker was to change God’s ordination. This is abominable in the eyes of God. Instead of being greedy and invading another’s portion, we should learn to be contented with the portion of Christ that God has ordained for us. Cf. Rom. 12:3; 2 Cor. 10:13-16.
Dt 19:15a One  -   Num. 35:30
Dt 19:15b at  -   Matt. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19
Dt 19:15c two  -   Deut. 17:6; Matt. 26:60; John 8:17; Heb. 10:28
Dt 19:16a malicious  -   cf. Exo. 23:1; Psa. 35:11
Dt 19:17a priests  -   Deut. 17:8-9
Dt 19:18a investigate  -   Deut. 13:14; 17:4
Dt 19:20a will  -   Deut. 13:11
Dt 19:21a life  -   Exo. 21:23-24; Lev. 24:20; Matt. 5:38
Deuteronomy Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 20:11 battle
The good land is a type of Christ (see note 71 in ch. 8). Although Christ has been allotted to us by God as our portion (Col. 1:12), if we would possess Christ and live in Christ as our land, we still need to fight against the spiritual enemies (see note 11 in Num. 21). We should not only pray but also fight. Actually, we are not the ones fighting, for God goes with us and fights for us. It is our duty to fight, but we cannot fulfill this duty by ourselves but only by faith in the Lord, i.e., by the Lord Himself as our life and life supply. We can fulfill the Lord’s requirements only by the divine life, the eternal life, which is the Triune God embodied in Christ (John 14:6; 1 John 5:11-12), who is realized as the life-giving Spirit (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45). See note 31, par. 2, in ch. 8.
Dt 20:1a chariot  -   Josh. 17:18; Psa. 20:7; Isa. 31:1
Dt 20:1b with  -   Deut. 31:8; 2 Chron. 32:8
Dt 20:4a fight  -   Exo. 14:14; Deut. 1:30; 3:22; Josh. 23:10
Dt 20:6a vineyard  -   S.S. 8:11-12; 1 Cor. 9:7
Dt 20:61 partaken
Lit., brought it into common use (cf. Lev. 19:23-25).
Dt 20:7a woman  -   Deut. 24:5; cf. Deut. 28:30; Luke 14:18-20
Dt 20:81 afraid
If a fearful one had remained, he would have affected others, causing them to be afraid. The formation of Gideon’s army is an illustration of this (Judg. 7:3).
Dt 20:10a peace  -   Deut. 2:26; Judg. 21:13; cf. Zech. 9:10; Luke 10:5-6; Eph. 2:17
Dt 20:13a slay  -   Num. 31:7
Dt 20:14a women  -   Num. 31:9
Dt 20:171a destroy  -   Deut. 7:2; Josh. 10:1, 37, 39; 11:11-12
See note 21 in ch. 7.
Dt 20:17b Hittites  -   Deut. 7:1; Josh. 9:1; 12:8
Dt 20:18a sin  -   Exo. 23:33
Deuteronomy Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 21:3a yoke  -   Num. 19:2
Dt 21:6a wash  -   cf. Psa. 26:6; 73:13; Matt. 27:24
Dt 21:8a innocent  -   cf. Jonah 1:14
Dt 21:9a remove  -   Deut. 19:19
Dt 21:12a shave  -   cf. 1 Cor. 11:5
Dt 21:13a father  -   cf. Psa. 45:10
Dt 21:14a wherever  -   cf. Jer. 34:16
Dt 21:15a beloved  -   cf. Gen. 29:30; 1 Sam. 1:4-5
Dt 21:17a firstfruits  -   Gen. 49:3; Psa. 78:51; 105:36
Dt 21:18a chastise  -   cf. Heb. 12:9
Dt 21:21a stone  -   Deut. 13:10; 17:5; 22:24; Josh. 7:25
Dt 21:21b remove  -   Deut. 13:5; cf. 1 Cor. 5:13
Dt 21:221 hang
The one hanged on a tree here is a type of the crucified Christ, who was cursed and hanged on the cross to redeem us out of the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24) and was buried on the day of His death (v. 23; John 19:31).
Dt 21:23a corpse  -   Josh. 8:29; 10:26-27; John 19:31
Dt 21:231b accursed  -   Gal. 3:13
Lit., the curse of God.
Deuteronomy Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 22:1a return  -   Exo. 23:4
Dt 22:4a lift  -   Exo. 23:5; Matt. 12:11
Dt 22:6a mother  -   cf. Lev. 22:28
Dt 22:91a two  -   Lev. 19:19
The prohibition against sowing two kinds of seed in one’s vineyard may typify the prohibition against teaching differently in the church (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 6:3; cf. Luke 8:11). The church is God’s vineyard (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9b), and in this vineyard only one kind of seed, one kind of teaching, should be sown (Acts 2:42 and note). If we teach differently, sowing more than one kind of seed, the “produce” in the church will be forfeited.
Dt 22:101 plow
The prohibition against plowing with an ox and a donkey together typifies the prohibition against becoming dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14a and note 2). In this verse an ox, a clean animal, typifies a believer, and a donkey, being unclean, typifies an unbeliever (Lev. 11:3-4a).
Dt 22:10a together  -   cf. 2 Cor. 6:14
Dt 22:11a mixed  -   Lev. 19:19
Dt 22:121 twisted
The requirement here may refer to what is mentioned in Num. 15:38 (see notes there).
Dt 22:12a corners  -   Num. 15:38-39; Matt. 23:5; cf. Matt. 9:20; Luke 8:44
Dt 22:131 despises
Or, hates.
Dt 22:19a not  -   cf. Matt. 19:8-9; Mark 10:11; Luke 16:18
Dt 22:21a folly  -   Gen. 34:7
Dt 22:21b remove  -   Deut. 13:5; cf. 1 Cor. 5:13
Dt 22:24a stone  -   Lev. 20:10; John 8:5; Deut. 13:10; 17:5; 21:21
Dt 22:261 slays
Lit., slays him as regards the soul.
Dt 22:30a father’s  -   Lev. 18:8; 1 Cor. 5:1
Deuteronomy Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 23:11 wounded
The congregation of Jehovah typifies the church. In the persons mentioned in this verse, the power to produce had been destroyed. This prohibition indicates that those who are barren, those who do not produce and bear fruit, will lose their right to enter the church life. Cf. John 15:2a.
Dt 23:31a Ammonite  -   Neh. 13:1-2; cf. Ruth 4:10
See note 372, par. 1, in Gen. 19.
Dt 23:3b tenth  -   cf. Ruth 4:10-13, 18-21; Matt. 1:5
Dt 23:4a Balaam  -   Num. 22:5-7; 2 Pet. 2:15; Rev. 2:14
Dt 23:5a curse  -   Num. 23:11; 24:10
Dt 23:6a You  -   Ezra 9:12
Dt 23:71 Edomite
The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob (Gen. 36:1). See note 141 in Num. 20.
Dt 23:14a walks  -   Lev. 26:12
Dt 23:151a deliver  -   cf. 1 Sam. 30:15
This reveals the kind of heart our God has. God’s heart is always willing to forgive and to release, not to condemn (John 3:16-17; 8:10-11; Luke 23:34; 1 John 1:9). This indicates that we should have the heart to forgive our brothers in the Lord (Matt. 18:21-22; Mark 11:25; Luke 17:3-4; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).
Dt 23:181a dog  -   Rev. 22:15
I.e., a male prostitute.
Dt 23:20a foreigner  -   Deut. 15:3
Dt 23:21a When  -   Eccl. 5:4; Num. 30:2; Psa. 76:11; Matt. 5:33
Dt 23:211 vow
See note 301, par. 2, in Lev. 27.
Dt 23:241 vessel
The statutes in vv. 24-25 indicate that we should care only for our need and should not be greedy. We must learn to be restricted in any kind of seeking, including our spiritual seeking.
Dt 23:25a ears  -   cf. Matt. 12:1; Mark 2:23; Luke 6:1
Deuteronomy Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 24:1a bill  -   Deut. 24:3; Matt. 5:31; 19:7; Mark 10:4; cf. Isa. 50:1; Jer. 3:8
Dt 24:4a not  -   Jer. 3:1
Dt 24:51a wife  -   Deut. 20:7; Luke 14:20
Marriage is for human existence and for human reproduction (cf. Gen. 1:28). God honors marriage and abhors anything that would damage marriage.
Dt 24:7a kidnapping  -   Exo. 21:16; cf. 1 Tim. 1:10
Dt 24:7b remove  -   Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 19:19; cf. 1 Cor. 5:13
Dt 24:8a leprosy  -   cf. Lev. 13–14
Dt 24:9a Miriam  -   Num. 12:10-15
Dt 24:13a return  -   Exo. 22:26
Dt 24:15a wages  -   Lev. 19:13; Jer. 22:13; Mal. 3:5; James 5:4
Dt 24:15b sun  -   cf. Eph. 4:26
Dt 24:161a Fathers  -   2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chron. 25:4; Ezek. 18:20; cf. Jer. 31:29-30
This judgment reveals God’s justice. All the points concerning the divine government among the children of Israel show us that God is a God of justice. As a God of justice, God will not allow anything unjust to be among His people.
Dt 24:18a remember  -   Deut. 5:15; 15:15; 16:12; 24:22
Dt 24:19a gather  -   cf. Lev. 19:9; 23:22; Ruth 2:16
Dt 24:22a remember  -   Deut. 24:18
Deuteronomy Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 25:1a If  -   vv. 1-2: Deut. 17:9; 19:17; cf. Acts 23:3
Dt 25:1b justify  -   Lev. 19:35
Dt 25:2a beaten  -   Luke 12:47
Dt 25:3a Forty  -   cf. 2 Cor. 11:24
Dt 25:31 degraded
If we must speak about a brother’s wrongdoing, we should be restrained and be careful not to exaggerate. Since every brother is precious to the Lord Jesus and is treasured by Him, having been purchased by Him with His blood, a great price (1 Pet. 1:18-19), it is sinful to degrade a brother by criticizing him or by speaking excessively of his wrongdoing.
Dt 25:4a You  -   1 Cor. 9:9; 1 Tim. 5:18
Dt 25:5a wife  -   Matt. 22:24; Mark 12:19; Luke 20:28
Dt 25:5b duty  -   Gen. 38:8-9; cf. Ruth 1:12-13
Dt 25:61 assume
This judgment reveals God’s love, for in His love for the one who died, God wanted the name of that one to be preserved among the people. Applied spiritually, this judgment also reveals that God wants us to be spiritually productive. On the one hand, we all need to have spiritual children as our successors; on the other hand, we need to help our brothers in the Lord to have spiritual children.
Dt 25:6a name  -   Ruth 4:10
Dt 25:7a gate  -   Ruth 4:1-2
Dt 25:8a not  -   Ruth 4:6
Dt 25:9a sandal  -   Ruth 4:7-8
Dt 25:131a differing  -   Lev. 19:35-36; Prov. 16:11; 20:10; Micah 6:11
The dishonest practice of having differing weights and measures is a lie and is surely from Satan (John 8:44). In spiritual application, to condemn a certain thing in others while justifying the same thing in ourselves indicates that we have different weights and measures, i.e., different scales — one scale for measuring others and a different scale for measuring ourselves. In the house of God, the church (1 Tim. 3:15), only one scale should be used to weigh everyone. If we have only one scale, we will be fair, righteous, and just, even as God is, and we will keep the oneness and one accord in the church. Cf. Matt. 7:1-5 and notes.
Dt 25:14a differing  -   Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10
Dt 25:15a extended  -   Deut. 4:40
Dt 25:17a Amalek  -   Exo. 17:8
Dt 25:19a memory  -   Exo. 17:14; 1 Sam. 15:3
Deuteronomy Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 26:21a first  -   Exo. 23:19; 34:26; Num. 15:20; 18:13; Prov. 3:9; Deut. 18:4
This offering was something in addition to the tithes (14:22-27). Like the tithes, a portion of the first of all the fruit was to be offered to God and enjoyed with God in the place which God would choose. See note 51 in ch. 12.
Dt 26:2b place  -   Deut. 12:5
Dt 26:51 perishing
Or, wandering.
Dt 26:5a Aramaean  -   cf. Hosea 12:12
Dt 26:5b Egypt  -   Gen. 46:27; Deut. 10:22; Acts 7:14-15
Dt 26:6a ill-treated  -   Num. 20:15; Exo. 1:11-14; Acts 7:19
Dt 26:7a cried  -   Exo. 2:23-25; 3:9; Num. 20:16
Dt 26:8a brought  -   Exo. 12:17, 51; Deut. 4:34
Dt 26:9a given  -   Jer. 32:22
Dt 26:9b milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 6:3
Dt 26:10a first  -   Deut. 26:2
Dt 26:11a rejoice  -   Deut. 12:7; 14:26; 16:11, 14-15; 27:7
Dt 26:121 tithes
See note 281 in ch. 14.
Dt 26:12a third  -   Deut. 14:28; cf. Amos 4:4
Dt 26:12b tithe  -   Lev. 27:30
Dt 26:151 Your
Or, the habitation of Your holiness.
Dt 26:15a holy  -   Isa. 63:15; Zech. 2:13
Dt 26:152 bless
This indicates that if we, for the sake of God, take care of the needy ones in the church, God will surely bless our labor and undertakings. This blessing will be a return to us from God (cf. 2 Cor. 9:6). Apparently we are giving; actually we are receiving. Nevertheless, to give is much more blessed than to receive (Acts 20:35).
Dt 26:15b milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 6:3
Dt 26:161 do
In this section of the rehearsal of the law (14:1 — 26:19) five governing principles of our behavior are implied: (1) toward God, to be sanctified and fearing; (2) toward oneself, to be righteous and pure; (3) toward others, to be kind and generous; (4) toward animals, to be sparing and sympathetic; and (5) toward the devil, to be rejecting and separated. All God’s people should practice these principles by the divine life.
Dt 26:181a personal  -   Exo. 19:5; Deut. 7:6; 14:2
See note 51 in Exo. 19.
Dt 26:19a above  -   Deut. 28:1
Dt 26:19b holy  -   Exo. 19:6; 22:31; Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 1 Pet. 2:9
Deuteronomy Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 27:2a cross  -   Josh. 3:17; 4:1
Dt 27:3a write  -   Josh. 8:32
Dt 27:31 all
Referring, probably, to the Ten Commandments.
Dt 27:3b milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 6:3
Dt 27:4a Mount  -   Deut. 11:29; Josh. 8:30
Dt 27:5a And  -   Josh. 8:31
Dt 27:51 altar
The children of Israel, being fallen in nature, surely would not measure up to keeping the commandments, statutes, and ordinances of their God; thus, they would come under all the curses listed in vv. 15-26. However, right beside the stones containing the inscriptions of the commandments of God was the altar, signifying the cross of Christ, where God’s people could take Christ, in type, as their burnt offering to God for His satisfaction and as their peace offering to God for their enjoyment with God in the divine fellowship (vv. 6-7). Through Christ God’s people, who were cursed under God’s commandments, statutes, and ordinances, have been redeemed “out of the curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13). Because we as God’s people have come to the cross, we are now under the cross (implying grace) and are no longer under the law (Rom. 6:14). As those who are under the cross, we can satisfy God and can also find satisfaction for ourselves through Christ, our Redeemer and our Substitute. Through Christ, who is our peace, we have peace with God (Eph. 2:14a; Rom. 5:1). The law is over, and the cross stands forever. This is the reason that the altar was prepared before the curses were declared.
The scene at the entry of the good land portrayed in vv. 1-8 includes the stone monuments, the altar, and the offerings. The law written on the monuments was a portrait of God Himself (see note 11 in Exo. 20); hence, the monuments signify that Christ as the embodiment of God was standing before the people to make requirements of them according to what He is. The offerings burned on the altar as sacrifices for God’s satisfaction also signify Christ as the One who meets and satisfies all God’s requirements. Thus, the requiring God Himself came in incarnation to be our Redeemer and our Substitute as the fulfilling One. This wonderful scene shows that it is through the requiring God, the cross of Christ, and Christ Himself as the offerings, not by our endeavoring in ourselves, that we enter into Christ, our good land, and receive all the blessings that God would give us in Christ. These blessings are the processed Triune God Himself embodied in Christ (see note 71 in ch. 8).
Dt 27:52 iron
See note 251 in Exo. 20.
Dt 27:8a write  -   Hab. 2:2
Dt 27:12a Mount  -   Deut. 11:29; Josh. 8:33; cf. Judg. 9:7; John 4:20
Dt 27:13a cursing  -   Deut. 28:15; Dan. 9:11
Dt 27:15a makes  -   Exo. 20:4; Deut. 5:8; 4:16-19; Exo. 34:17
Dt 27:151b Amen  -   Num. 5:22; Neh. 5:13; 8:6; Psa. 106:48; Jer. 11:5; 28:6; 1 Chron. 16:36; 1 Cor. 14:16; Rev. 22:21
An adjective in Hebrew meaning firm, steadfast.
Dt 27:16a dishonors  -   Exo. 21:17; Deut. 21:18-21; cf. Exo. 20:12
Dt 27:17a boundary  -   Deut. 19:14
Dt 27:18a blind  -   Lev. 19:14
Dt 27:19a sojourner  -   Exo. 22:21-22
Dt 27:20a father’s  -   Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:30; 1 Cor. 5:1; cf. Exo. 20:14
Dt 27:21a animal  -   Lev. 18:23
Dt 27:22a sister  -   Lev. 18:9; 20:17; Ezek. 22:11
Dt 27:23a mother-in-law  -   cf. Lev. 18:17; 20:14
Dt 27:24a slays  -   cf. Deut. 19:11; Exo. 20:13
Dt 27:25a takes  -   cf. Matt. 26:15
Dt 27:26a Cursed  -   Deut. 28:15; Jer. 11:3; Gal. 3:10; James 2:10
Deuteronomy Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 28:1a above  -   Deut. 26:19
Dt 28:3a Blessed  -   vv. 3-6: cf. Deut. 28:16-19
Dt 28:4a fruit  -   Deut. 7:13; 30:9; cf. Gen. 49:25; Luke 1:42
Dt 28:6a come  -   Psa. 121:8
Dt 28:7a flee  -   Exo. 23:27; 2 Sam. 22:41; Psa. 18:40
Dt 28:8a storehouses  -   Lev. 25:21
Dt 28:8b undertakings  -   Deut. 12:7; 15:10
Dt 28:9a holy  -   Exo. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:6; 26:18-19
Dt 28:11a fruit  -   Deut. 7:13; 28:4; 30:9
Dt 28:12a rain  -   Lev. 26:4; Psa. 68:9; Ezek. 34:26; Acts 14:17
Dt 28:12b lend  -   Deut. 15:6; cf. Deut. 28:44
Dt 28:15a not  -   Lev. 26:14; Deut. 11:28; Dan. 9:11; Mal. 2:2
Dt 28:151 curses
The curses in this chapter reveal that in His judgment God is severe (Rom. 11:22). All the curses that have befallen the children of Israel have carried out God’s governmental dealings in relation to them, so that through these dealings God would eventually be able to accomplish His economy with them to prove that He is the very God who would not change in His will forever. In His governmental dealing with His people, God is wise, loving, sympathetic, patient, purposeful, and successful. God’s severe chastisement of the children of Israel does not mean that He has given them up (Rom. 11:1-5, 11-12, 23-32). On the contrary, God is chastising them for their perfecting. The principle is the same with the New Testament believers (Heb. 12:5-11).
Dt 28:16a Cursed  -   vv. 16-19: cf. Deut. 28:3-6
Dt 28:22a consuming  -   Lev. 26:16
Dt 28:221 drought
Others read, sword.
Dt 28:23a sky  -   cf. Lev. 26:19
Dt 28:25a flee  -   Lev. 26:17; Deut. 32:30; Isa. 30:17
Dt 28:26a corpse  -   Jer. 7:33; 16:4; 34:20; Psa. 79:2; cf. 1 Sam. 17:44-46
Dt 28:27a boils  -   Exo. 9:9-11; Deut. 28:35; Rev. 16:2
Dt 28:28a blindness  -   2 Kings 6:18; Zech. 12:4; 2 Pet. 1:9
Dt 28:29a blind  -   Isa. 59:10; Zeph. 1:17; 2 Pet. 1:9
Dt 28:301 partake
Lit., bring it into common use (cf. Lev. 19:23-25).
Dt 28:35a boils  -   Deut. 28:27; Rev. 16:2
Dt 28:36a serve  -   Deut. 4:28; 28:64
Dt 28:38a locust  -   Deut. 28:42; Joel 1:4; 2:25; Amos 7:1-2; Nahum 3:15-17; cf. Rev. 9:7
Dt 28:41a captivity  -   Lam. 1:5
Dt 28:42a locust  -   Deut. 28:38
Dt 28:44a lend  -   cf. Deut. 28:12-13
Dt 28:47a not  -   Neh. 9:35
Dt 28:48a yoke  -   Jer. 28:14
Dt 28:49a far  -   Isa. 5:26-30; Jer. 5:15-17
Dt 28:49b eagle  -   Jer. 48:40; 49:22; Lam. 4:19; Ezek. 17:3; Hosea 8:1; Hab. 1:8
Dt 28:49c tongue  -   Jer. 5:15; cf. Isa. 33:19
Dt 28:50a old  -   2 Chron. 36:17; Isa. 47:6
Dt 28:52a besiege  -   cf. 2 Kings 17:5; 25:1-4
Dt 28:53a And  -   Jer. 19:9; Lev. 26:29
Dt 28:60a illnesses  -   cf. Deut. 7:15; Exo. 15:26
Dt 28:62a stars  -   Deut. 1:10; 10:22
Dt 28:64a scatter  -   Lev. 26:33
Dt 28:64b serve  -   Deut. 28:36
Dt 28:65a languishing  -   Lev. 26:16
Dt 28:68a Egypt  -   Deut. 17:16; Hosea 8:13; 9:3
Deuteronomy Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 29:11a covenant  -   Deut. 29:12
The covenant enacted in chs. 29 — 30 was the covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, after the rehearsal of the law and the word of warning with the blessings and the curses. It was a covenant besides the one He made with them at Horeb, that is, at Mount Sinai. The warning was to remind the people, whereas the enactment of the covenant was to establish the warning.
Dt 29:1b covenant  -   Exo. 19:5; 24:7; Deut. 5:2-3
See note 11.
Dt 29:2a seen  -   Exo. 19:4; Josh. 23:3
Dt 29:4a not  -   Isa. 6:9-10; 29:10; Jer. 5:21; Matt. 13:13-14; Acts 28:26-27; Rom. 11:8, 10
Dt 29:41 heart
Because the children of Israel were rebellious in the wilderness, they were in darkness and thus did not understand what God was doing with them.
Dt 29:5a forty  -   Deut. 1:3; 8:2, 4; Amos 2:10; Acts 13:18; cf. Matt. 4:2
Dt 29:5b clothing  -   Deut. 8:4; Neh. 9:21; Matt. 6:30
Dt 29:6a know  -   Exo. 6:7
Dt 29:7a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-24, 33-35
Dt 29:101 your
According to the reading of the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, your leaders, your tribes.
Dt 29:11a man  -   Josh. 9:21
Dt 29:12a oath  -   Neh. 10:29
Dt 29:13a swore  -   Gen. 50:24
Dt 29:14a covenant  -   Rom. 9:4
Dt 29:181 gods
God’s unique concern regarding Israel was that they would turn away from Him and serve idols (Jer. 2:13; cf. 1 John 5:21). This would be an insult to God, and it would cause Him to punish the people severely.
Dt 29:182a root  -   Heb. 12:15
The root here refers to a rebellious person who rises up from among the people, similar to those mentioned in Acts 20:30.
Dt 29:191 oath
Or, curse. So also in vv. 20 and 21.
Dt 29:192 to
A Hebrew idiom indicating destruction of everything in his path.
Dt 29:23a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24; Jer. 49:18; 50:40; 2 Pet. 2:6
Dt 29:24a Why  -   cf. 1 Kings 9:8-9; Jer. 22:8-9
Dt 29:27a curses  -   cf. Lev. 26:14-39; Deut. 28:15-18; Dan. 9:11-14
Dt 29:28a plucked  -   1 Kings 14:15; 2 Chron. 7:20; Jer. 12:14
Dt 29:291 hidden
This indicates that we should take care of the revealed things and not seek the hidden things. For the children of Israel here, the things revealed were the law, the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances. They were to take care of these things so that they might do all the words of the law.
Deuteronomy Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 30:11 when
The promise in vv. 1-10 is a prophecy that will be fulfilled at the time of the restoration, at the Lord’s second coming (Matt. 24:30-31).
Dt 30:1a set  -   Deut. 11:26; 28:2, 15
Dt 30:2a return  -   Neh. 1:9; Isa. 55:7; Lam. 3:40; Joel 2:12-13
Dt 30:3a turn  -   Psa. 126:1, 4; Jer. 29:14
Dt 30:3b gather  -   Jer. 23:3; 32:37; Ezek. 34:13; Zeph. 3:20; Matt. 24:31
Dt 30:4a If  -   Neh. 1:9
Dt 30:4b gather  -   Mark 13:27
Dt 30:6a heart  -   Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; Rom. 2:29
Dt 30:6b love  -   Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37
Dt 30:71 oaths
Or, curses.
Dt 30:111 difficult
Or, extraordinary; wonderful.
Dt 30:121a It  -   vv. 12-14: Rom. 10:6-8
In Rom. 10:6-8 Paul applies the word spoken by Moses in vv. 11-14 to Christ, indicating that the commandment, which is the word of God (vv. 11, 14), is Christ as the Word (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13), who, as the breath that proceeds out of God’s mouth (cf. 8:3; 2 Tim. 3:16a), is in our heart and in our mouth (see note 81 in Rom. 10). As the Word of God, the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Christ Himself, who has become the life-giving Spirit as the breath breathed out by the speaking God (1 Cor. 15:45; John 20:22), is the word of the law — including the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances (judgments) — rehearsed by Moses in this book. Thus, every word in this book is the very Christ, who is now the word of God for us to receive as our life and life supply by calling on Him (Rom. 10:12-13). See notes 31 in ch. 8 and 91 in Psa. 119.
Dt 30:131 sea
Whereas this verse speaks of the sea, in Rom. 10:7 Paul speaks of the abyss. The sea is the mouth of the abyss. See notes 71 in Rom. 10 and 12 in Rev. 13.
Dt 30:15a put  -   Deut. 11:26; 30:1, 19; Jer. 21:8
Dt 30:161 If
The supplied words are from the Septuagint and do not appear in the Hebrew text.
Dt 30:19a heaven  -   Deut. 4:26; 31:28
Dt 30:19b set  -   Deut. 11:26; 30:1, 15; Jer. 21:8
Dt 30:20a holding  -   Deut. 10:20; 11:22; 13:4
Dt 30:201 He
Or, that.
Dt 30:20b life  -   Deut. 32:47; John 11:25; 14:6
Dt 30:20c swore  -   Deut. 1:8
Deuteronomy Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 31:11 finished
According to some MSS and ancient versions; other MSS read, went and spoke.
Dt 31:2a hundred  -   Deut. 34:7; cf. Exo. 7:7
Dt 31:2b go  -   Num. 27:17; 1 Sam. 18:13; Acts 1:21
Dt 31:2c You  -   Deut. 3:27; 4:21; cf. Num. 27:13-14
Dt 31:3a crossing  -   Deut. 9:3
Dt 31:3b Joshua  -   Deut. 1:38; 3:28; Num. 27:18
Dt 31:4a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-25
Dt 31:4b Og  -   Num. 21:33-35
Dt 31:5a deliver  -   Deut. 7:2
Dt 31:6a Be  -   Deut. 31:23; Josh. 1:6-7; 10:25; 1 Chron. 28:20
Dt 31:6b not  -   Isa. 41:13; 43:2; Matt. 17:7; Mark 6:50
Dt 31:6c with  -   Exo. 33:14; Deut. 20:4
Dt 31:6d not  -   Deut. 4:31; Josh. 1:5; 1 Chron. 28:20; Heb. 13:5
Dt 31:7a Be  -   Deut. 3:28
Dt 31:8a before  -   Exo. 13:22
Dt 31:8b not  -   Deut. 31:6
Dt 31:8c not  -   Deut. 1:21; 7:18; Josh. 1:9; 8:1; 10:25
Dt 31:10a seven  -   Deut. 15:1; Neh. 10:31
Dt 31:101 Tabernacles
Lit., Booths. See note 162 in Exo. 23.
Dt 31:11a appear  -   Exo. 23:15-17; 34:23-24; Deut. 16:16
Dt 31:13a children  -   Deut. 6:7; Psa. 78:4-6
Dt 31:14a die  -   Deut. 34:5; cf. Num. 27:13
Dt 31:14b Joshua  -   Deut. 31:23; Num. 27:18-20
Dt 31:15a cloud  -   Exo. 33:9; Num. 12:5
Dt 31:16a covenant  -   Judg. 2:20
Dt 31:17a hide  -   Deut. 32:20; Isa. 8:17; 59:2; 64:7; Ezek. 39:23
Dt 31:19a song  -   Deut. 31:22, 30; 32:1-43; cf. 2 Sam. 1:18
Dt 31:20a milk  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 6:3
Dt 31:20b satisfied  -   Hosea 13:6
Dt 31:20c grow  -   Deut. 32:15; Neh. 9:25-26
Dt 31:23a Joshua  -   Deut. 31:8; Josh. 1:5, 9; 3:7; cf. Deut. 3:28
Dt 31:26a book  -   cf. 2 Kings 22:8; 2 Chron. 34:14
Dt 31:271 rebelliousness
What is portrayed in vv. 27-29 concerning the rebelliousness and stubbornness of the children of Israel should cause us not to have any trust in ourselves, for we are the same in nature as they. Therefore, we surely need the Lord’s mercy and grace. We need to continually come to the Lord and receive Him as the word into our being (see notes 31 in ch. 8 and 121 in ch. 30).
Israel’s stubbornness is in contrast to God’s sovereignty for the showing forth of God’s wisdom and for the accomplishing of God’s economy (Rom. 9 — 11).
Dt 31:28a heaven  -   Deut. 4:26; 30:19; cf. Deut. 32:1
Dt 31:29a after  -   cf. Judg. 2:19
Deuteronomy Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 32:1a heaven  -   Deut. 4:26; 31:28; Psa. 50:4; Isa. 1:2
Dt 32:2a rain  -   Isa. 55:10-11
Dt 32:2b showers  -   cf. Psa. 72:6; Micah 5:7
Dt 32:4a Rock  -   Deut. 32:15, 18, 30-31, 37; 2 Sam. 22:3, 47; Psa. 18:2, 31; 89:26; 95:1; Isa. 30:29
Dt 32:4b ways  -   Dan. 4:37
Dt 32:51 sons
The children of Israel were to be God’s sons (Exo. 4:22), but in their living they did not behave as God’s sons. Instead, they were twisted and crooked.
Dt 32:5a crooked  -   Acts 2:40; Phil. 2:15
Dt 32:6a Father  -   Isa. 63:16; 64:8; 1 Chron. 29:10; John 8:41; cf. Exo. 4:22; Mark 7:27
Dt 32:6b made  -   Deut. 32:15; Isa. 44:2; 51:13
Dt 32:8a Most  -   Num. 24:16; 2 Sam. 22:14
Dt 32:8b divided  -   Gen. 11:8; 10:25
Dt 32:81 man
Or, Adam.
Dt 32:8c borders  -   Psa. 74:17; Acts 17:26
Dt 32:9a inheritance  -   1 Sam. 10:1; Psa. 78:71; 135:4; Jer. 10:16; 51:19; Eph. 1:18
Dt 32:10a wilderness  -   Deut. 8:15; Jer. 2:6; Hosea 13:5
Dt 32:10b pupil  -   Psa. 17:8; Zech. 2:8
Dt 32:11a eagle  -   Exo. 19:4; cf. Rev. 12:14
Dt 32:11b wings  -   Ruth 2:12; Psa. 17:8; 91:4; Luke 13:34
Dt 32:12a led  -   Psa. 78:52-53
Dt 32:12b no  -   Isa. 43:12
Dt 32:13a high  -   Isa. 58:14; cf. Deut. 33:29
Dt 32:13b honey  -   Psa. 81:16
Dt 32:13c oil  -   Job 29:6
Dt 32:14a wheat  -   Psa. 81:16; 147:14
Dt 32:14b blood  -   Gen. 49:11
Dt 32:151a Jeshurun  -   Deut. 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2
From the Hebrew root meaning upright.
Dt 32:15b fat  -   Deut. 31:20
Dt 32:15c Rock  -   Deut. 32:4
Dt 32:16a jealous  -   Psa. 78:58
Dt 32:171a demons  -   Psa. 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20
See notes on 1 Cor. 10:20.
Dt 32:18a Rock  -   Deut. 32:4; cf. 1 Pet. 2:4-5
Dt 32:19a sons  -   Isa. 1:2
Dt 32:20a hide  -   Deut. 31:17
Dt 32:21a jealous  -   Deut. 32:16; Psa. 78:58; 1 Cor. 10:22
Dt 32:211b vanities  -   1 Sam. 12:21; Jer. 14:22; Jonah 2:8; Acts 14:15
The word frequently refers to idols (cf. Jer. 8:19).
Dt 32:21c jealous  -   Rom. 10:19
Dt 32:21d non-people  -   Hosea 1:9-10
Dt 32:22a fire  -   Jer. 15:14; 17:4; Lam. 4:11
Dt 32:221 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Dt 32:23a arrows  -   Psa. 7:12-13; Lam. 3:12-13; Ezek. 5:16
Dt 32:26a scatter  -   Deut. 28:64; Ezek. 20:23; James 1:1
Dt 32:28a no  -   Isa. 6:9-10; 27:11; Jer. 4:22; Matt. 13:14
Dt 32:29a this  -   cf. Luke 19:42
Dt 32:30a one  -   Josh. 23:10
Dt 32:31a Rock  -   1 Sam. 2:2; Deut. 32:4
Dt 32:35a Vengeance  -   Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30; Deut. 32:43; Psa. 94:1
Dt 32:36a For  -   Psa. 135:14; Heb. 10:30
Dt 32:361 execute
Or, judge His people.
Dt 32:37a Where  -   Jer. 2:28; Judg. 10:14; 1 Kings 18:27
Dt 32:381 them
According to the Septuagint and the other ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, Let there be a shelter over you.
Dt 32:39a make  -   1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7
Dt 32:39b heal  -   Hosea 6:1
Dt 32:39c And  -   Isa. 43:13
Dt 32:40a lift  -   Gen. 14:22; Exo. 6:8; Rev. 10:5
Dt 32:40b live  -   Rev. 4:9
Dt 32:421 leaders
Or, heads.
Dt 32:43a Shout  -   Rom. 15:10; Rev. 18:20
Dt 32:431 joyously
Many things in the song of Moses are severe, but the ending is very positive. No matter how evil the children of Israel might be and no matter how much God might be provoked in His anger toward them, the result, the issue, will be good. Instead of forsaking His people, God will eventually come in to vindicate them (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23). This is true concerning Israel and also concerning the believers in Christ.
Dt 32:43b avenge  -   2 Kings 9:7; Psa. 79:10; Rev. 6:10; 19:2
Dt 32:44a Hoshea  -   Num. 13:16
Dt 32:46a children  -   Deut. 4:9; 6:7; 11:19
Dt 32:47a life  -   Deut. 30:20; John 6:63
Dt 32:49a Go  -   vv. 49-51: Num. 27:12-14
Dt 32:511 you
Plural in Hebrew.
Dt 32:512 sanctify
See note 121 in Num. 20.
Dt 32:52a see  -   Deut. 34:4
Dt 32:521 not
See note 261 in ch. 3.
Deuteronomy Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 33:11 blessing
Ultimately, this book shows us that the love of God consummately works for His people that they may enjoy His full blessing according to His will and foreknowledge. In spite of the failure of God’s people in loving God and fearing Him and in spite of their unfaithfulness, God will be faithful to the end (2 Tim. 2:13), and eventually He will accomplish His intention that His people may enjoy His full blessing. God’s chosen people eventually entered into the Holy Land, possessed it, lived in it, and enjoyed it. This corresponds with the revelation of the entire Bible, which shows that in spite of the unfaithfulness, defeat, and failure of God’s people, God will still enable His chosen people to enter into the rich Christ to possess Him, enjoy Him, experience Him, and even live Him (cf. Phil. 3:7-14; 1:19-21). This is God’s success, and the boast and glory belong to no one other than Him.
Dt 33:1a man  -   Josh. 14:6; 1 Chron. 23:14; 2 Chron. 30:16; Ezra 3:2; Psa. 90 title
Dt 33:2a Sinai  -   Exo. 19:18, 20; Judg. 5:4-5; Psa. 68:8
Dt 33:2b myriads  -   Psa. 68:17; Dan. 7:10; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 5:11; cf. Jude 14
Dt 33:2c law  -   Acts 7:53; Gal. 4:24
Dt 33:3a loves  -   Deut. 7:7-8; 10:15; Hosea 11:1
Dt 33:3b saints  -   2 Chron. 6:41; Psa. 16:3; 34:9; 50:5; Dan. 7:18-27; Zech. 14:5; Rom. 1:7; Rev. 22:21
Dt 33:3c feet  -   Luke 10:39
Dt 33:4a Moses  -   John 1:17; 7:19
Dt 33:5a Jeshurun  -   Deut. 32:15
Dt 33:6a May  -   vv. 6-25: cf. Gen. 49:3-27
Dt 33:61 Reuben
Concerning Moses’ blessing of the twelve tribes of Israel in vv. 6-25, see notes on Jacob’s blessing in Gen. 49:3-28. Moses’ blessing here on Reuben was the blessing of increase.
Dt 33:71 bring
Since Judah was a tribe accustomed to fighting for the people, this prayer of Moses’ for Judah was a prayer for Judah to be brought back to his people from the battlefield.
Dt 33:72 adversaries
Enemies come from the outside, whereas adversaries arise from within. Cf. note 94 in Rev. 12.
Dt 33:8a Urim  -   Exo. 28:30
Dt 33:81 Your
Or, the man of Your lovingkindness.
Dt 33:8b Meribah  -   Num. 20:13; Exo. 17:7
Dt 33:9a father  -   cf. Matt. 10:37
Dt 33:91 regard
See note 271 in Exo. 32.
Dt 33:9b brothers  -   cf. Exo. 32:26-29; Luke 18:29
Dt 33:9c covenant  -   Mal. 2:4-5
Dt 33:10a incense  -   Exo. 30:7-8; 1 Sam. 2:28
Dt 33:111 might
Or, substance.
Dt 33:12a dwell  -   Josh. 18:11, 16-17
Dt 33:13a blessed  -   Gen. 49:25
Dt 33:13b dew  -   Gen. 27:28; Deut. 33:28
Dt 33:141 moons
I.e., months.
Dt 33:15a mountains  -   Gen. 49:26; Hab. 3:6
Dt 33:16a thornbush  -   Exo. 3:2, 4; Acts 7:30
Dt 33:17a horns  -   Num. 23:22; cf. Rev. 5:6
Dt 33:171 Ephraim
See note 51 in Gen. 48.
Dt 33:181 going
This going forth was fulfilled in the Lord’s sending forth the apostles (Matt. 28:16-20). Most of the apostles, who were sent forth to disciple the nations, came forth from the land of Zebulun, which was in the region of Galilee (Matt. 4:12-23).
Dt 33:19a mountain  -   Exo. 15:17; Isa. 2:2-3; Jer. 50:4-5
Dt 33:21a first  -   cf. Num. 32:1-5, 16-19, 31-32; Josh. 1:12-15
Dt 33:211 lawgiver
Or, commander.
Dt 33:22a Bashan  -   Josh. 19:47
Dt 33:23a sea  -   cf. Josh. 19:32-39
Dt 33:241 oil
For Asher to dip his foot in oil means that he would be rich in the produce of the earth.
Dt 33:26a Jeshurun  -   Deut. 33:5
Dt 33:26b rides  -   Psa. 68:33-34; Isa. 19:1
Dt 33:271a habitation  -   Psa. 90:1; 91:9
Moses’ word here and his word in Psa. 90:1 indicate that while he was traveling in the wilderness with the children of Israel for forty years, in his deep feeling he was dwelling in God. See note 11 in Psa. 90.
Dt 33:29a like  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:23
Dt 33:29b saved  -   Isa. 45:17
Dt 33:29c help  -   Psa. 33:20; 115:9-11
Deuteronomy Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Dt 34:1a Nebo  -   Deut. 32:49; cf. Num. 27:12
Dt 34:2a sea  -   Deut. 11:24
Dt 34:4a This  -   Exo. 33:1; Gen. 50:24
Dt 34:4b seed  -   Gen. 12:7
Dt 34:5a Moses  -   cf. Matt. 17:3; Jude 9
Dt 34:61 He
God buried Moses for a particular purpose, that Moses may be one of the two witnesses in Rev. 11 (see note 32 there). See note 31 in Matt. 17.
Dt 34:7a hundred  -   Deut. 31:2
Dt 34:7b dim  -   cf. Gen. 27:1; 48:10; 1 Sam. 3:2
Dt 34:8a thirty  -   Num. 20:29; cf. Gen. 50:3
Dt 34:91 Joshua
Meaning Jehovah Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah (Num. 13:16). The Greek form of the name is Jesus.
Dt 34:92a laid  -   Num. 27:18, 23
See note 144 in 1 Tim. 4.
Dt 34:10a prophet  -   cf. Deut. 18:15, 18
Dt 34:10b face  -   Exo. 33:11; Deut. 5:4
Dt 34:11a signs  -   Deut. 4:34; 7:19; Psa. 78:43-53
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Joshua Outline
I.   Entering into the good land — 1:1 — 5:15
A.   God’s commission — 1:1-18
1.   God’s charge, promise, and encouragement to Joshua — vv. 1-9
2.   Joshua’s charge to the people — vv. 10-15
3.   The people’s response to Joshua — vv. 16-18
B.   Spying out the land — 2:1-24
1.   Joshua’s sending of the two spies — v. 1a
2.   Jehovah’s providing of Rahab the harlot — vv. 1b-22
3.   The two spies’ return and report — vv. 23-24
C.   Crossing the river Jordan — 3:1 — 4:24
D.   Preparation before the attack — 5:1-15
1.   The reaction of the kings of the Amorites and the Canaanites — v. 1
2.   The circumcision of the new Israel — vv. 2-9
3.   The keeping of the Passover — v. 10
4.   The eating of the produce of the promised land — vv. 11-12
5.   The vision seen by Joshua — vv. 13-15
II.   Taking possession of the good land — 6:1 — 12:24
A.   The destruction of Jericho — 6:1-27
B.   The destruction of Ai — 7:1 — 8:35
1.   The defeat at Ai — 7:1-26
2.   The victory over Ai — 8:1-29
3.   Joshua’s recording and reading of the law to the people of Israel — 8:30-35
C.   The saving of Gibeon — 9:1-27
D.   The destruction of all the rest of the nations in the hill country and the lowland west of the Jordan and on all the shore of the Great Sea — 10:1 — 12:24
1.   The destruction of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon — 10:1-27
2.   The destruction of the thirty-one kings of the thirty-one nations in the hill country and the lowland west of the Jordan and of Heshbon under King Sihon and Bashan under King Og east of the Jordan — 10:28 — 12:24
III.   Allotting the good land — 13:1 — 22:34
A.   The land remaining to be possessed — 13:1-7
B.   The land east of the Jordan allotted to the two and a half tribes by Moses — 13:8 — 14:3a
C.   No land allotted to the tribe of Levi — 14:3b-5
D.   The land allotted to the tribe of Judah — 14:6 — 15:63
E.   The land allotted to the tribe of Joseph — 16:1 — 17:18
1.   From Jericho to Bethel and to the sea — 16:1-4
2.   The land allotted to the children of Ephraim, the second son of Joseph — 16:5-10
3.   The land allotted to Manasseh, the firstborn of Joseph — 17:1-18
F.   The land to be allotted to the rest of the seven tribes — 18:1 — 19:51
1.   Joshua’s preparations for allotting and dividing the land unto the seven tribes — 18:1-10
2.   The land allotted to the tribe of Benjamin — 18:11-28
3.   The land allotted to the tribe of Simeon — 19:1-9
4.   The land allotted to the tribe of Zebulun — 19:10-16
5.   The land allotted to the tribe of Issachar — 19:17-23
6.   The land allotted to the tribe of Asher — 19:24-31
7.   The land allotted to the tribe of Naphtali — 19:32-39
8.   The land allotted to the tribe of Dan — 19:40-48
9.   The inheritance given to Joshua — 19:49-51
G.   The cities of refuge — 20:1-9
1.   For the manslayer who kills a person by mistake and unwittingly — vv. 1-6
2.   Three in Canaan, west of the Jordan — v. 7
3.   Three in the land east of the Jordan — vv. 8-9
H.   The cities with their pasture lands allotted to the Levites — 21:1-42
1.   Claimed by them at Shiloh and given to them by lot — vv. 1-7
2.   To the children of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites — vv. 8-19
3.   To the rest of the children of Kohath — vv. 20-26
4.   To the children of Gershon — vv. 27-33
5.   To the children of Merari — vv. 34-42
I.   The fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise to the fathers of Israel — 21:43-45
J.   The return of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to their land east of the Jordan — 22:1-34
IV.   Joshua’s departure — 23:1 — 24:33
A.   Joshua’s parting word to the elders, heads, judges, and officers of Israel — 23:1-16
B.   Joshua’s parting word to all the tribes of Israel with their elders, heads, judges, and officers — 24:1-33
Joshua >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Joshua Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Js 1:11 After
The greatest type in the Old Testament is the history of the people of Israel, who typify the church, composed of the New Testament believers as God’s elect (1 Cor. 10:1-13). Coming after the five books of the law, the books of Moses, Joshua is the first book of the twelve books of Israel’s history, from Joshua to Esther. The twelve books of history are not concerned merely with history; they are a part of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal economy, which concerns Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the organic Body of Christ for the consummating of the New Jerusalem. The intrinsic revelation of the books of history in the Old Testament is to unveil to us how the eternal economy of God is carried out by His elect on the earth. The eternal economy of God is altogether concerning Christ and for Christ, mainly in the person of Christ and the kingdom of Christ. Regarding the person of Christ, the record of history in the Old Testament keeps a line of the genealogy of Christ for His coming through incarnation to be a man. Regarding the kingdom of Christ, the Old Testament history maintains a line on the kingdom of God for Christ to establish His divine kingdom on the earth. These two items form the governing line of the divine revelation in the books of the history of Israel.
To take possession of God’s promised land for Christ and to provide the proper persons to bring forth Christ into the human race are the spirit, the intrinsic significance, of the section of the Old Testament history in the three books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. In the book of Joshua the central thought is that God intended to fulfill the promise concerning the good land that Israel might have a place to carry out God’s economy, especially to keep the line of bringing in Christ to the earth through His incarnation.
Js 1:1a servant  -   Exo. 14:31; Num. 12:7; Deut. 34:5; Josh. 1:13, 15; Heb. 3:5
Js 1:12b Joshua  -   Exo. 24:13; Deut. 1:38
Meaning Jehovah the Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. The Greek form of the name is Jesus (see note 211 in Matt. 1). Joshua was the writer of this book. Through Moses God brought Israel as a people out of Egypt and through the wilderness to the border of the good land. After Moses, Joshua led the children of Israel to enter the God-promised land and to take it, possess it, allot it, and enjoy it.
Joshua typifies Christ and also grace (Christ) replacing the law (Moses) (John 1:17). It was when Moses the lawgiver died that Joshua came in (v. 2) to bring the people into the good land (v. 6), typifying the Lord Jesus bringing the people of God into rest, into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ (Heb. 4:8) as all the blessings ordained by God (Eph. 1:3-14). Christ has brought us into the good land, has taken possession of the land for us, and has allotted the land to us as our inheritance for our enjoyment. Christ has gained the good land for us, and eventually He is the good land for us to enjoy (see note 71 in Deut. 8).
Js 1:21 land
God’s charge to Joshua was that he should enter into God’s promised land. The land of Canaan with all its riches typifies the God-given Christ with all His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12-13). For the carrying out of His economy, God needs a people and a land (see note 31 in Gen. 15). For Christ’s person in God’s economy, there is the need of a people to be His genealogy to bring Him into humanity. For Christ’s kingdom, there is the need of a land. Although the earth was created by God, it has been usurped by Satan. Thus, God uses His people to gain a part of the Satan-usurped earth to serve as a base for Him to set up His kingdom.
Js 1:3a Every  -   vv. 3-5: Deut. 11:24-25
Js 1:31b treads  -   Josh. 14:9
On the one hand, God had given Israel the good land; on the other hand, Israel still needed to take the land by rising up to fulfill God’s commission (cf. Phil. 3:7-16). In order for God to regain the earth from the usurping hand of Satan, God’s people needed to be in full cooperation and coordination with God as in the principle of incarnation (see note 402 in 1 Cor. 7). They needed to sacrifice themselves, deny themselves, give up their own interest and preference in all things, put their full trust in the moving and operating God, and risk their lives for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy.
Js 1:4a river  -   Gen. 15:18; Exo. 23:31; Rev. 9:14
Js 1:41 Great
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea. So throughout the book. See note 241 in Deut. 11.
Js 1:5a with  -   Exo. 3:12; Deut. 31:8, 23; Josh. 1:9, 17; 3:7; 6:27; Acts 18:10
Js 1:5b I  -   Deut. 4:31; 31:6; 1 Chron. 28:20; Heb. 13:5
Js 1:6a Be  -   Deut. 31:6-7; Josh. 1:7, 9, 18; Eph. 6:10
Js 1:81a muse  -   Psa. 119:23, 48, 148
Joshua was to be occupied with God’s word and to let the word occupy him (cf. Col. 3:16). By being occupied and filled with the word, he would have prosperity and success in taking the God-promised good land. See note 151 in Psa. 119.
Js 1:9a Be  -   Josh. 1:6
Js 1:9b do  -   Josh. 8:1; 10:25; 1 Chron. 22:13; 28:20; 2 Chron. 32:7
Js 1:9c with  -   Josh. 1:5
Js 1:11a cross  -   Deut. 9:1; 11:31; 12:10; Josh. 1:2
Js 1:121 Reubenites
The charge in vv. 12-15 to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh was a reminder of Moses’ word in Num. 32. This charge indicates that the possessing and enjoying of God’s promised land was a corporate matter among all God’s chosen people, requiring all God’s elect to rise up, fight for the land and for one another, and gain and possess the land so that everyone would be able to enter into his particular portion and be at rest (cf. Eph. 3:17-19).
Js 1:13a Jehovah  -   Deut. 3:18-20; Num. 32:20-30
Js 1:14a battle  -   Josh. 4:12; 6:7, 9, 13
Js 1:171 you
The children of Israel agreed with Joshua in taking God’s commission. Their response implied their willingness, their readiness, and their being in one accord not only with Joshua but also with Jehovah their God, as expressed by their blessing Joshua in the name of their God. They were one with the Triune God in the move of His economy for the purpose of gaining the good land.
Joshua Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Js 2:1a spies  -   cf. Num. 13:17
Js 2:11b Rahab  -   Matt. 1:5; Heb. 11:31; vv. 1-21: James 2:25
Chapter 1 of Joshua concerns the taking of the land, which typifies the gaining of Christ, and ch. 2 concerns the gaining of the proper persons to bring forth Christ that Christ might be spread and increased (John 3:30). God provided Joshua for the gaining of the land, and He provided a Gentile female, Rahab the harlot, for the spreading of Christ. Rahab was a condemned Canaanite qualified to be destroyed, but she became one of the main ancestors of Christ. By turning to God and His people and by marrying Salmon (Matt. 1:5a), the son of a leader of Judah, a leading tribe of Israel (1 Chron. 2:10-11), and probably one of the two spies, she became associated with Christ in His incarnation for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. This is a strong sign that the history recorded in Joshua is in line with God’s eternal economy concerning Christ. See note 51 in Matt. 1.
Js 2:4a took  -   Heb. 11:31
Js 2:81 the
Lit., they.
Js 2:9a melt  -   Exo. 15:15; Josh. 2:11, 24
Js 2:10a dried  -   Exo. 14:21; Josh. 4:23
Js 2:10b Sihon  -   Num. 21:23-26; Psa. 135:11; 136:19
Js 2:10c Og  -   Num. 21:33-35; Psa. 136:20
Js 2:101 utterly
Lit., devoted, i.e., to destruction. So throughout the book.
Js 2:11a melted  -   Exo. 15:15; Josh. 2:9; 5:1; 7:5; 2 Sam. 17:10; Isa. 13:7; Ezek. 21:7
Js 2:111 He
Rahab believed in the God of Israel (vv. 8-11; Heb. 11:31a) because of the good news that she had heard concerning Him (cf. Rom. 10:17). She turned to Israel and their God, and she trusted in Him and His people (vv. 12-13). Her receiving, hiding, and delivering the spies were acts that issued out of her faith (vv. 1b-6, 15-16; James 2:25).
Js 2:11b God  -   Deut. 4:39
Js 2:12a father’s  -   Josh. 2:18
Js 2:141 for
Lit., instead of yours for death. The expression is spoken as an oath (cf. v. 17).
Js 2:15a let  -   cf. 1 Sam. 19:12; Acts 9:25; 2 Cor. 11:33
Js 2:181a scarlet  -   Exo. 26:1; Lev. 14:4
The line of scarlet thread typifies the blood of Christ, by which the believers are redeemed (1 Pet. 1:18-19), and its being displayed in the open typifies an open confession of the redeeming blood of Christ. Rahab made such an open confession and believed that by this sign she and her household would be delivered. This sign for the salvation of Rahab and her household (6:17, 22-23, 25) indicates God’s household salvation to the Gentile sinners. Whereas God’s salvation is for the individual believer, the complete unit of His salvation is the household (Acts 16:30-31 and note 311).
Js 2:18b father’s  -   Josh. 2:12; 6:25
Js 2:19a blood  -   Ezek. 33:4-5; Acts 18:6
Js 2:21a scarlet  -   Josh. 2:18
Js 2:241 Jehovah
The report of the spies was a right word in faith, yet Israel still needed to take the land by faith in God, sacrificing themselves for God’s interest that they might share in what God had gained for the accomplishing of His eternal economy. Cf. note 111 in Num. 14.
Js 2:24a hand  -   Exo. 23:31; Deut. 7:24; Josh. 6:2; 8:1; 21:44; Neh. 9:24
Joshua Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Js 3:31a Ark  -   Josh. 3:11; Num. 10:33
The Ark was a type of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (see note 101 in Exo. 25). When the Ark of God went with the children of Israel, the Triune God went with them, taking the lead and thus being the first to step into the water. That the Ark was on the shoulders of the priests indicates that, in type, the priests who bore the Ark became one entity with the Triune God. They and God were one corporate person — a corporate God-man. God walked in their walking, and they walked in God’s walking. This picture shows that the move of God for the carrying out of His economy is through Christ’s move together with His bearing priests (cf. Acts 13:1-3; 16:6-10).
Js 3:3b bearing  -   Deut. 31:9, 25; Josh. 3:8, 13-15, 17; 4:10, 18
Js 3:4a Do  -   cf. Exo. 19:12
Js 3:5a Sanctify  -   Exo. 19:10, 14; Lev. 20:7; Num. 11:18; Josh. 7:13; 1 Sam. 16:5; Joel 2:16
Js 3:7a magnify  -   Josh. 4:14; 1 Chron. 29:25; 2 Chron. 1:1
Js 3:7b with  -   Deut. 31:23; Josh. 1:5
Js 3:10a living  -   Deut. 5:26; 1 Sam. 17:26; 2 Kings 19:4
Js 3:10b dispossess  -   Exo. 34:24; Deut. 7:1; Josh. 23:9; 24:18; Psa. 44:2; Acts 7:45
Js 3:11a Lord  -   Josh. 3:13; Micah 4:13; Zech. 4:14; 6:5
Js 3:11b crossing  -   cf. Deut. 9:3
Js 3:12a twelve  -   Josh. 4:2, 4
Js 3:131 stand
This was the first miracle performed for Israel as they entered the good land. Such a miracle surely was a sign to the children of Israel that their God was real, true, living, and active.
Js 3:13a heap  -   Exo. 15:8; Psa. 78:13
Js 3:15a Jordan  -   Josh. 4:9; Matt. 3:6; Psa. 114:3, 5
Js 3:15b overflowed  -   1 Chron. 12:15; Josh. 4:18
Js 3:161 Arabah
I.e., the plain that runs from the north of the Dead Sea south to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Js 3:162 Salt
I.e., the Dead Sea. So also throughout the book.
Js 3:163 crossed
Israel’s crossing the river Jordan typifies not the believers’ physical death but the believers’ experience of the death of Christ, in which their old man is terminated and buried (Rom. 6:3-6; Gal. 2:20). Israel’s entering into the good land after crossing the Jordan typifies not the believers’ going to heaven after they die but the believers’ experience of taking over the heavenlies, where Satan and his power of darkness are (see notes 12 in Num. 21 and 124 in Eph. 6). Israel’s crossing the Jordan and entering the good land are related to Israel’s possessing and enjoying the good land, which typifies the believers’ practical experience of the riches of the blessings in Christ as revealed in the book of Ephesians. See note 62 in Matt. 3.
Js 3:17a dry  -   Josh. 4:22; cf. Exo. 14:29
Joshua Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Js 4:1a crossed  -   Deut. 27:2; Josh. 3:17
Js 4:2a twelve  -   Josh. 3:12
Js 4:31 twelve
The twelve stones taken from the Jordan signify the twelve tribes of the new Israel. The stones’ being raised up from the waters of the Jordan signifies resurrection from death. These twelve stones were a sign, showing that the “resurrected” new Israel would be a testimony of the crossing of the death water (vv. 6-7, 21-24). This typifies the believers’ experiencing with Christ the resurrection from death (Rom. 6:3-4).
Js 4:3a stones  -   Josh. 4:8, 20; 1 Kings 18:31
Js 4:6a children  -   Josh. 4:21; cf. Exo. 12:26; 13:14
Js 4:7a cut  -   Josh. 3:13, 16
Js 4:7b memorial  -   Exo. 12:14; Num. 16:40
Js 4:91 twelve
These were another twelve stones (cf. v. 3), signifying the twelve tribes of Israel in their old life and in their old nature. Joshua erected these twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the Ark was, signifying that the Lord wanted Israel in their old nature to remain under the death water of the Jordan. This typifies that the old man of the believers should remain in the death of Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10).
The two sets of twelve stones signify that our old man has been buried and our resurrected new man is living and working with the Triune God as one. This corresponds with the revelation in Eph. 2:1, 4-6, 15, 10.
Js 4:9a Jordan  -   Matt. 3:6
Js 4:12a battle  -   Num. 32:25-27; Josh. 6:7, 9, 13
Js 4:131 war
The crossing of the river Jordan was for war against the seven tribes in Canaan (vv. 12-13; 3:10b). The people of Israel were ready to enter into the good land and to take it as their possession. However, in their old man they could not gain the victory. Their old man had to be buried so that they could become a new man. This corresponds to the New Testament economy of God. In type, the children of Israel were buried in the death of Christ and then were resurrected in the resurrection of Christ to become a new man in Christ for the fighting of the spiritual warfare. This indicates that even in the Old Testament time the children of Israel were identified with Christ.
Js 4:14a magnified  -   Josh. 3:7
Js 4:18a over  -   Josh. 3:15
Js 4:19a Gilgal  -   Josh. 5:9
Js 4:201 erected
This was for a memorial, testifying of Israel’s crossing the Jordan by Jehovah’s miraculous deed (vv. 20-24).
Js 4:22a dry  -   Josh. 3:17
Js 4:23a dried  -   cf. Exo. 14:21; Josh. 2:10; Neh. 9:11
Joshua Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Js 5:11 Canaanites
See note 11 in Num. 21.
Js 5:12 they
Some MSS read, we.
Js 5:1a melted  -   Josh. 2:11; Exo. 15:15
Js 5:21 circumcise
The purpose of circumcision was to make God’s chosen people a new people for the inheriting of God’s promised land (cf. Gen. 17:7-12). The circumcising of the new Israel typifies the circumcision of Christ, by His death, applied to the believers in the putting off of the body of the flesh that they may inherit Christ in resurrection as the portion allotted to them by God (Col. 2:11-12; 1:12).
Spiritual circumcision is a continuation of the burial in the death of Christ. Through the crossing of the river Jordan, the old Israel was buried and a new Israel came forth. This was an objective work done by God. Israel still needed to apply this work to their flesh. Their being circumcised was their practical application of what God had done in the crossing of the river Jordan. In the New Testament spiritual circumcision is the constant application of Christ’s death to our flesh (Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11 and notes). Although in fact we have been baptized into the death of Christ and have been buried and raised with Him (Rom. 6:3-4), in practicality we still must apply the circumcision of the cross to our flesh by the Spirit day by day (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24). This is the reality and practicality of remaining in the death and burial of Christ. See notes 242 in Gal. 5 and 132 in Rom. 8.
Js 5:4a wilderness  -   Num. 14:29; 26:64-65; 1 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 3:17
Js 5:51 the
Lit., they.
Js 5:6a forty  -   Num. 14:33; Deut. 1:3; 2:7; 8:2, 4; Psa. 95:10
Js 5:6b swore  -   Num. 14:23; Psa. 95:11; Heb. 3:11
Js 5:6c milk  -   Exo. 3:8
Js 5:9a reproach  -   Gen. 34:14
Js 5:91 Gilgal
Meaning a rolling.
Js 5:101a Passover  -   Deut. 16:1; 2 Kings 23:21-23
The Feast of the Passover was held to remember Jehovah’s redeeming of Israel from the death-judgment on their firstborn sons (Exo. 12:3-7, 11-14) and also Jehovah’s saving of Israel from Egypt and from the tyranny of Pharaoh (Exo. 14:13-30). The keeping of the Passover indicated that just as Jehovah had saved Israel from Pharaoh and Egypt, so He would destroy the tribes of Canaan and deliver Israel from them. Israel’s keeping of the Passover typifies the believers’ keeping of the Lord’s table to remember the Lord as their Redeemer and their Savior (Matt. 26:26-28).
Js 5:10b fourteenth  -   Exo. 12:6; Num. 9:5
Js 5:121a manna  -   Exo. 16:35
The ceasing of the manna when the people began to eat the produce of the land indicates that the produce of the land was the continuation of the manna. The manna eaten by Israel in their wandering in the wilderness (Exo. 16) typifies Christ as the heavenly food given directly by God to His chosen people, which requires no labor on the part of the eaters. The rich produce of the promised land given by God to Israel in their fighting in Canaan (Deut. 8:7-10) typifies Christ as the consummated life supply (the life-giving Spirit — Gal. 3:14) given to the believers, which requires them to labor on Him. As portrayed in the typology here, after possessing Christ as the land, we need to labor on Him to produce something of Him that will become our food, our supply. As we eat Christ and enjoy Him as the produce of the good land, we are constituted with Him, being made the same as Christ in life, nature, and expression (Phil. 1:19-21a). Ultimately, our enjoying of Christ as our inheritance, our possession, will constitute us to be God’s inheritance, God’s treasure and possession (Eph. 1:11-14, 18b; cf. Exo. 19:5).
In Egypt, by their eating Egyptian food (signifying worldly things), the children of Israel were constituted to be a worldly people. In their experience of God’s salvation Israel passed through three stages in their eating. In the first stage they ate the passover lamb in Egypt (Exo. 12), which strengthened them to walk out of Egypt and to be separated from the Egyptian world. In the second stage they ate the manna in the wilderness (Exo. 16), which reconstituted them with a heavenly element to be a heavenly people. In the third stage they ate the rich produce in the good land, which constituted them further to be an overcoming people. By enjoying the riches of the good land, Israel conquered the tribes in the land, established the kingdom of God, and built up the temple as God’s dwelling place on earth. The three stages in Israel’s eating typify the three stages of the believers’ enjoyment of Christ by eating Him (John 6:51-57; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; 10:3-4; Phil. 1:19). By their eating in the first two stages the believers are energized to leave the world and are constituted with Christ as the heavenly element. To reach the goal of God’s economy, all Christ’s believers need to progress until they enter into the highest stage of eating Christ as the rich produce of the good land, the all-inclusive Spirit, that they may overcome the spiritual enemies, be built up to be God’s dwelling place, and establish God’s kingdom on earth.
Js 5:131 man
This vision was an unveiling to Joshua of Christ as the Captain of Jehovah’s army (v. 14). Whereas Joshua was the visible captain of Jehovah’s army, Christ was the invisible Captain. Christ was such a captain to fight against the seven tribes of Canaan for Israel. Because of this, Joshua needed to stand on the position of sanctification (holiness) all the time (v. 15). See note 23 in Rom. 1.
Js 5:13a sword  -   Num. 22:23, 31
Js 5:14a Captain  -   Exo. 23:20-22
Js 5:15a Remove  -   Exo. 3:5; Acts 7:33
Js 5:15b holy  -   2 Pet. 1:18
Joshua Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Js 6:11 shut
The shutting up of Jericho, with no traffic, no coming in or going out, signifies that the powers of darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies, were bound (Matt. 12:29; Eph. 6:12). See note 231, par. 1, in Exo. 23.
Js 6:2a hand  -   Josh. 2:24
Js 6:3a circle  -   Heb. 11:30
Js 6:4a trumpets  -   Josh. 6:6, 8, 13, 16, 20; Lev. 25:9; Judg. 7:16
Js 6:6a Take  -   Josh. 3:3, 6
Js 6:61 Ark
God’s people did not need to do anything to destroy Jericho. They only needed to believe and trust in God, to listen to the instruction from the Captain of the army of Israel, and to exalt Christ by bearing the Ark. The bearing of the Ark here by the priests shows that in the spiritual warfare the first thing we should do is exalt Christ.
Js 6:101 You
Here to remain silent until the command was given to shout means to carry out the matter in the Lord’s way without expressing any thought, opinion, or feeling.
Js 6:14a circled  -   Heb. 11:30
Js 6:17a hid  -   Josh. 2:4
Js 6:18a devoted  -   Josh. 7:11-12; 1 Chron. 2:7
Js 6:18b trouble  -   Josh. 7:25; 1 Chron. 2:7
Js 6:201 trumpet
The victory over Jericho in Israel’s first battle after crossing the Jordan was won not by Israel’s fighting but by their blowing the trumpets and shouting, signifying the testifying and proclaiming of God with Christ (the Ark) through faith in God’s word of instruction (vv. 2-5). These were the vital factors that enabled them to win the victory.
Js 6:20a wall  -   Josh. 6:5; Heb. 11:30
Js 6:21a destroyed  -   cf. Deut. 7:2
Js 6:22a two  -   Josh. 2:1
Js 6:22b swore  -   Josh. 2:12-14
Js 6:231a Rahab  -   Matt. 1:5; Heb. 11:31; James 2:25
See notes 11, 111 and 181 in ch. 2.
Js 6:24a burned  -   Deut. 7:24; 13:16; Josh. 8:1; Neh. 9:24
Js 6:25a house  -   Luke 19:9; Acts 16:15, 31; 18:8
Js 6:261 Cursed
This word was fulfilled with Hiel in 1 Kings 16:34.
Js 6:26a Jericho  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:34; Mark 10:46; Luke 10:30
Js 6:27a with  -   Josh. 1:5
Joshua Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Js 7:1a devoted  -   Josh. 22:20; 1 Chron. 2:7
Js 7:2a Ai  -   Gen. 12:8
Js 7:21b spy  -   cf. Josh. 2:1
In the destroying of Jericho, no fighting was needed. But at Ai, because Israel had lost the presence of the Lord (v. 12c), Joshua sent out spies for fighting. Because of their foolishness, pride, and blindness, they despised their enemy (v. 3).
Js 7:31 Not
The report of the spies to Joshua indicates that Israel had set God aside. Instead of asking God what they should do against Ai, they forgot God and knew only themselves. Israel acted on their own, without seeking the Lord’s direction and without having the Lord’s presence. Israel was separated from God because of their sin (vv. 11-12).
Js 7:32 the
Lit., they.
Js 7:41a fled  -   Lev. 26:17; Deut. 28:25
The secret of Israel’s defeat at Ai was that they had lost God’s presence and were no longer one with God. After this defeat Joshua learned the lesson of staying with the Lord before the Ark (v. 6a). Eventually, the Lord came in to speak to him and to tell him what to do (vv. 10-15). The spiritual lesson to be learned from this account is that we, the people of God, should always be one with our God, who is not only among us but also in us, making us men with God — God-men. As God-men, we should practice being one with the Lord, walking with Him, living with Him, and having our entire being with Him (Rom. 8:4; 2 Cor. 2:10; Gal. 5:16, 25). This is the way to walk as a Christian, to fight as a child of God, and to build up the Body of Christ. If we have the Lord’s presence, we have wisdom, insight, foresight, and the inner knowledge concerning things. The Lord’s presence is everything to us.
Js 7:5a melted  -   Deut. 1:28; Josh. 14:8; cf. Josh. 2:9
Js 7:6a before  -   Exo. 40:5; 1 Kings 3:15
Js 7:9a name  -   Psa. 83:4
Js 7:111 Israel
Although this sin was committed by an individual, Achan (v. 20), it affected the entire body of God’s people. Because of this sin God stayed away from Israel, withdrawing His presence from them (v. 12c). This was the reason that Joshua and all the children of Israel became foolish, proud, and blind in attacking Ai.
Js 7:11a devoted  -   Josh. 6:17-18; 7:15
Js 7:12a stand  -   Judg. 2:14
Js 7:13a sanctify  -   Josh. 3:5
Js 7:14a near  -   cf. 1 Sam. 10:20
Js 7:161 taken
Israel found out the man who committed the sin (vv. 16-18) by the Urim and the Thummim on the high priest’s breastplate of judgment (Exo. 28:30 and notes).
Js 7:19a give  -   1 Sam. 6:5; Jer. 13:16; John 9:24
Js 7:191 make
Or, give praise.
Js 7:211a Shinar  -   Gen. 10:10; Dan. 1:2
The area later called Babylon (Dan. 1:1-2).
Js 7:231 the
Lit., them.
Js 7:24a Achan  -   Josh. 22:20
Js 7:25a troubled  -   Josh. 6:18; 1 Chron. 2:7
Js 7:25b stones  -   cf. Lev. 20:2; 24:14; Deut. 13:10; 17:5
Js 7:26a turned  -   Deut. 13:17
Js 7:261 Achor
Meaning trouble (cf. v. 25).
Joshua Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Js 8:1a Do  -   Josh. 1:9
Js 8:1b hand  -   Josh. 2:24
Js 8:2a did  -   Josh. 6:21
Js 8:2b spoil  -   Deut. 20:14; Josh. 8:27
Js 8:6a first  -   Josh. 7:4
Js 8:9a Bethel  -   Gen. 12:8; 28:19
Js 8:14a ambush  -   cf. Judg. 20:29-43
Js 8:16a drawn  -   cf. Judg. 20:31
Js 8:18a Stretch  -   Josh. 8:26; cf. Exo. 17:11
Js 8:20a smoke  -   cf. Judg. 20:40
Js 8:28a heap  -   Deut. 13:16
Js 8:29a corpse  -   Deut. 21:23; Josh. 10:27
Js 8:30a Ebal  -   Deut. 11:29; 27:4
Js 8:31a an  -   Deut. 27:5-7
Js 8:32a wrote  -   Deut. 27:3
Js 8:33a carried  -   Deut. 31:9, 25
Js 8:33b Gerizim  -   Deut. 11:29; 27:12; John 4:20
Js 8:33c Ebal  -   Deut. 27:13
Js 8:34a words  -   cf. Deut. 28:2-68; 27:14-26; 30:19
Joshua Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Js 9:1a all  -   Josh. 10:3-5; 11:1-5; 12:7-24
Js 9:3a Gibeon  -   Josh. 10:2, 10, 12; 2 Sam. 21:1-2; 1 Kings 3:4-5; 9:2
Js 9:3b Jericho  -   Josh. 6:21, 24
Js 9:3c Ai  -   Josh. 8:26, 28
Js 9:6a Gilgal  -   Josh. 5:10
Js 9:6b covenant  -   cf. Exo. 23:32; Deut. 7:2; Judg. 2:2
Js 9:9a far  -   Deut. 20:15
Js 9:9b have  -   Josh. 2:10
Js 9:10a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-25
Js 9:10b Og  -   Num. 21:33
Js 9:141 but
The children of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites because they were like a wife who forgot her husband. What they did here was exactly the same as what Eve did in Gen. 3 (see note 21 there). As God’s wife (Isa. 54:5; 62:5; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23-32; Rev. 21:9-10), God’s people should co-live with Him, always relying on Him and being one with Him. This is the intrinsic significance of this chapter. See notes 31 and 41 in ch. 7.
Js 9:14a ask  -   Num. 27:21
Js 9:15a peace  -   Josh. 11:19
Js 9:17a Gibeon  -   cf. Josh. 18:25-28
Js 9:21a woodcutters  -   Josh. 9:23, 27; Deut. 29:11
Js 9:23a house  -   Gen. 28:22; Josh. 9:23; Judg. 18:31
Js 9:27a place  -   Deut. 12:5
Joshua Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Js 10:11 And
When Israel was ready to take possession of Canaan, the land was filled with demon-possessed people, idol worshippers, and Nephilim (see note 331 in Num. 13). Israel’s fighting against the inhabitants of the land portrays the invisible spiritual warfare that is taking place behind the visible scene on earth (Dan. 10:10-21; Eph. 6:10-20). In addition to war on earth, there is a war between God and Satan in the air. Christ is our good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8), and God wants us to gain Christ (Phil. 3:8), but there is a layer of Satan’s aerial forces between us and the good land. If we would take possession of Christ for our enjoyment, it is not adequate for us to be spiritual and holy. We must be today’s Joshua and Caleb, fighting against and defeating the satanic forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth.
Js 10:1a Ai  -   Josh. 8:22, 26-29
Js 10:1b Jericho  -   Josh. 6:21, 24
Js 10:1c peace  -   Josh. 9:15
Js 10:5a gathered  -   Josh. 9:2
Js 10:6a Gilgal  -   Josh. 5:10; 9:6
Js 10:8a hand  -   Josh. 2:24
Js 10:11a hailstones  -   cf. Psa. 18:12-13; Isa. 30:30; Rev. 16:21
Js 10:13a sun  -   Hab. 3:11; cf. Isa. 38:8; 2 Kings 20:11
Js 10:13b Jashar  -   2 Sam. 1:18
Js 10:14a fought  -   Exo. 14:14; Deut. 1:30; Josh. 10:42; 23:3, 10
Js 10:16a hid  -   cf. Rev. 6:15
Js 10:24a feet  -   Psa. 8:6; 91:13; Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 15:25, 27; Eph. 1:22; Heb. 2:8
Js 10:26a hung  -   Josh. 8:29
Js 10:28a utterly  -   Josh. 6:21
Js 10:33a Gezer  -   Josh. 16:10; Judg. 1:29; 1 Kings 9:15-16
Js 10:36a Hebron  -   Josh. 14:13-15; 15:13; Judg. 1:20
Js 10:40a utterly  -   Deut. 20:16-17; Josh. 11:11
Js 10:42a fought  -   Josh. 10:14
Js 10:43a Gilgal  -   Josh. 10:15
Joshua Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Js 11:1a Jabin  -   Judg. 4:2
Js 11:11 Madon
The Septuagint reads, Merom (cf. vv. 5, 7).
Js 11:4a sand  -   Gen. 22:17; 32:12; Judg. 7:12; 1 Sam. 13:5
Js 11:5a all  -   Josh. 9:1
Js 11:6a deliver  -   Exo. 23:31; Judg. 4:7; 7:7; 1 Kings 20:28
Js 11:6b chariots  -   Deut. 20:1; Josh. 17:16, 18; Judg. 1:19; 4:3; cf. Psa. 20:7
Js 11:11a burned  -   Deut. 13:16; Josh. 8:28
Js 11:14a struck  -   Deut. 7:2
Js 11:16a hill  -   Josh. 12:8
Js 11:19a Gibeon  -   Josh. 9:3
Js 11:201 of
This indicates that the destruction of the thirty-one kings of the thirty-one nations was according to God’s intention. Cf. Exo. 9:12 and note.
Js 11:20a harden  -   cf. Exo. 4:21
Js 11:20b destroyed  -   Deut. 20:16-17
Js 11:211a Anakim  -   Num. 13:22; Deut. 1:28; Josh. 15:13-14
See Num. 13:33 and note.
Js 11:22a Gath  -   1 Sam. 17:4
Js 11:23a land  -   cf. Num. 34:2-12
Js 11:23b rest  -   Josh. 14:15; 23:1; Judg. 3:11
Joshua Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Js 12:1a Arnon  -   Num. 21:13, 24; Deut. 3:8-9
Js 12:2a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-26; Deut. 2:32-33; 3:6
Js 12:3a Arabah  -   Deut. 3:17
Js 12:4a Og  -   Num. 21:33-35; Deut. 3:10
Js 12:41 Rephaim
A race of giants (Deut. 3:11).
Js 12:61 this
Lit., it. So also in v. 7.
Js 12:6a Reubenites  -   Num. 32:29; Deut. 3:12; Josh. 13:8
Js 12:7a tribes  -   Josh. 11:23; 18:10
Js 12:8a hill  -   Josh. 9:1
Js 12:9a Jericho  -   Josh. 6:2
Js 12:9b Ai  -   Josh. 8:29
Js 12:10a Jerusalem  -   Josh. 10:23
Js 12:12a Gezer  -   Josh. 10:33
Js 12:13a Debir  -   Josh. 10:38-39
Js 12:15a Libnah  -   Josh. 10:29-30
Js 12:181 Lasharon
Or, Sharon.
Js 12:19a Hazor  -   Josh. 11:1, 10
Js 12:21a Megiddo  -   Josh. 17:11
Joshua Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Js 13:1a old  -   Josh. 23:1; cf. Josh. 14:10
Js 13:3a five  -   Judg. 3:3
Js 13:4a Amorites  -   Judg. 1:34-36
Js 13:5a Hamath  -   Num. 34:8
Js 13:6a drive  -   Exo. 23:30-31; cf. Josh. 23:13; Judg. 2:21-23
Js 13:61b allot  -   Josh. 23:4
God commanded Joshua to allot even the land that had not yet been possessed, because in God’s eyes all the land was for Israel.
Js 13:71 divide
Chapters 13 — 22 provide the detailed way to possess and enjoy the land, which is a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8). The intrinsic significance of the allotment of the land is that the possessors of the land are different from each other. This indicates that the experience of Christ, who is the reality of the good land (Col. 1:12), among God’s people is not the same. Because the tribes were different, in His wisdom God allotted the different tribes particular portions of the land according to what they were (Gen. 49:3-28 and notes). The fulfillment of the type of the allotment of the land is seen in the fact that all the believers in Christ possess the same Christ, but they experience the one Christ in different ways according to what they are (Rom. 12:3-4; Eph. 4:7). Cf. notes 141 in Lev. 1 and 12 in Lev. 3.
Js 13:7a nine  -   Josh. 14:1-2
Js 13:81 the
Lit., him the Reubenites…
Js 13:8a Reubenites  -   Num. 32:33; Deut. 3:12; Josh. 12:6
Js 13:9a Aroer  -   Deut. 2:36; Josh. 13:16
Js 13:12a struck  -   Num. 21:24, 35
Js 13:14a inheritance  -   Num. 18:20-24; Josh. 13:33; 14:3-4
Js 13:141 offerings
See notes 91, 211, and 281 in Num. 18.
Js 13:16a Aroer  -   Josh. 13:9; Deut. 2:36
Js 13:21a struck  -   Num. 31:8
Js 13:26a Mahanaim  -   Gen. 32:2; 2 Sam. 2:8, 12; 17:24
Js 13:301a tent  -   cf. Num. 32:41; Deut. 3:14; 1 Chron. 2:23
Or, Havvoth-jair (cf. Num. 32:41).
Js 13:33a inheritance  -   Num. 18:20-24; Deut. 10:9; 18:1-2; Josh. 13:14; 14:3-4; 18:7
Js 13:331 Jehovah
See note 201 in Num. 18.
Joshua Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Js 14:1a inheritances  -   Psa. 78:55; Acts 13:19; 7:45
Js 14:1b Eleazar  -   Num. 34:17; Josh. 17:4; 19:51; 21:1
Js 14:21a lot  -   Num. 26:56; 34:13
The way the good land was divided among the different tribes was by casting lots. In this book the word lot is used in the sense of casting lots (18:6, 8, 10). The outcome of the casting of lots was according to what God had foreordained. For example, according to God’s ordination, Jerusalem and the surrounding district were for Judah (15:63), out of whom Christ would come (Micah 5:2; Heb. 7:14). Nevertheless, this still had to be realized by the casting of lots. God’s ordaining hand was present in the casting of lots to direct the result (Prov. 16:33). Thus, the dividing of the land did not depend on Joshua or on the high priest but only on God. As a result, there was no ground for the tribes to complain about the portion of the land allotted to them. The way of allotting the land was fair, and it caused everyone to be subdued.
Js 14:3a two  -   Josh. 13:8
Js 14:3b Levites  -   Josh. 13:14, 33
Js 14:4a cities  -   Num. 35:3; Josh. 21:2
Js 14:6a Caleb  -   Num. 32:12; 14:6
Js 14:6b word  -   Num. 14:24, 30; Deut. 1:36, 38
Js 14:7a returned  -   Num. 13:26
Js 14:8a melt  -   Deut. 1:28; cf. Num. 13:31-33
Js 14:8b followed  -   Num. 14:24; Deut. 1:36
Js 14:9a trodden  -   Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:3
Js 14:11a strong  -   cf. Deut. 34:7
Js 14:121a Anakim  -   Num. 13:28, 33
See Num. 13:33 and note.
Js 14:131a Hebron  -   Josh. 10:36-37; 15:13; 21:11-12; Judg. 1:20; 1 Chron. 6:55-56
Meaning fellowship, communion, or friendship.
Joshua Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Js 15:1a And  -   vv. 1-4: Num. 34:3-5
Js 15:5a border  -   vv. 5-9: cf. Josh. 18:15-19
Js 15:81 Valley
Or, the valley of the son of Hinnom; Heb. Ge-ben-hinnom. It is also called the Valley of Hinnom (in this verse; 18:16; Neh. 11:30), which in Hebrew is Ge-hinnom. Gehenna in the New Testament corresponds to it (Matt. 5:22 and note 8).
Js 15:8a Jebusite  -   Josh. 18:28; 15:63; Judg. 19:10; 1 Chron. 11:4
Js 15:10a Beth-shemesh  -   1 Sam. 6:9, 12
Js 15:10b Timnah  -   Josh. 15:57; cf. Gen. 38:12-14; Judg. 14:1
Js 15:11a Ekron  -   Josh. 13:3; 19:43; 1 Sam. 5:10
Js 15:13a Caleb  -   Josh. 14:13, 15
Js 15:131 Anak
See Num. 13:33 and note.
Js 15:14a Anak  -   Josh. 11:21
Js 15:15a And  -   vv. 15-19: Judg. 1:11-15
Js 15:17a Othniel  -   Judg. 3:9-11
Js 15:28a Beer-sheba  -   Gen. 21:31; 26:23, 33
Js 15:31a Ziklag  -   1 Sam. 27:6; 30:1
Js 15:33a Eshtaol  -   Judg. 13:25
Js 15:451 towns
Lit., daughters. So also twice in v. 47, and in 17:11, 16.
Js 15:54a Hebron  -   Gen. 13:18; 23:2; Josh. 14:15; 15:13; 2 Sam. 2:11; 5:5
Js 15:55a Maon  -   1 Sam. 23:24-25; 25:2
Js 15:62a En-gedi  -   1 Sam. 23:29; 24:1; S.S. 1:14
Js 15:63a Jebusites  -   Josh. 11:3; 15:8; Judg. 1:21; 2 Sam. 5:6
Js 15:63b dispossess  -   Josh. 17:12
Joshua Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Js 16:1a from  -   Josh. 18:12-13
Js 16:1b Jericho  -   Josh. 6:26; Luke 10:30
Js 16:2a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19; Josh. 18:13; Judg. 1:23, 26
Js 16:6a On  -   vv. 6-8: Josh. 17:7-9
Js 16:10a Yet  -   Judg. 1:29; 1 Kings 9:16; Josh. 10:33
Js 16:10b forced  -   Deut. 20:11; Josh. 17:12-13; 1 Kings 9:21
Joshua Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Js 17:1a firstborn  -   Gen. 41:51; 48:14
Js 17:1b Machir  -   Gen. 50:23; Num. 26:29; 32:39, 40; 1 Chron. 7:14
Js 17:2a families  -   cf. Num. 26:29-32
Js 17:3a Zelophehad  -   Num. 26:33; 27:1; 36:2, 10-11
Js 17:31 daughters
For vv. 3-4, see notes in Num. 27:1-11.
Js 17:4a Eleazar  -   Num. 34:17; Josh. 14:1; 21:1
Js 17:4b inheritance  -   Num. 27:6-8; 36:2
Js 17:5a land  -   Josh. 13:30-31
Js 17:7a And  -   vv. 7-9: Josh. 16:6-8
Js 17:12a Yet  -   vv. 12-13: Judg. 1:27-28; cf. Josh. 15:63
Js 17:13a forced  -   Josh. 16:10
Js 17:14a portion  -   cf. Gen. 48:22; Josh. 17:17
Js 17:16a chariots  -   Josh. 11:6
Joshua Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Js 18:1a Shiloh  -   Josh. 19:51; 21:2; 22:9, 12; Judg. 18:31; 21:19; 1 Sam. 1:3, 24; 3:21; 4:3; 14:3; Psa. 78:60; Jer. 7:12, 14; 26:6, 9
Js 18:1b Tent  -   Exo. 29:10; Acts 7:45
Js 18:61 cast
See note 21 in ch. 14.
Js 18:7a Levites  -   Josh. 13:33
Js 18:7b Gad  -   Josh. 13:8
Js 18:10a lots  -   Josh. 14:2; Num. 26:54-55; Psa. 105:11; Ezek. 47:22; Acts 13:19
Js 18:12a And  -   vv. 12-13: Josh. 16:1-3, 5
Js 18:13a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19
Js 18:15a The  -   vv. 15-19: Josh. 15:5-9
Js 18:161 Valley
See note 81 in ch. 15.
Js 18:16a Valley  -   Josh. 15:8
Js 18:21a Jericho  -   Josh. 16:1; 2:1; Luke 10:30
Js 18:22a Bethel  -   Josh. 18:13; 1 Kings 12:29, 32
Js 18:28a Jebusite  -   Josh. 15:8
Js 18:281 Jerusalem
Jerusalem was located in the land of Benjamin but was inherited by the children of Judah (15:63).
Joshua Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Js 19:1a midst  -   Josh. 19:9; Gen. 49:7
Js 19:2a And  -   vv. 2-8: 1 Chron. 4:28-33
Js 19:9a midst  -   Gen. 49:7
Js 19:10a Zebulun  -   Matt. 4:13
Js 19:22a Tabor  -   Judg. 4:6
Js 19:26a Carmel  -   1 Kings 18:19-20, 42; 2 Kings 2:25; 4:25; S.S. 7:5; Isa. 33:9; Jer. 50:19; Amos 1:2; Micah 7:14
Js 19:28a Sidon  -   Josh. 11:8; Judg. 1:31
Js 19:29a Tyre  -   2 Sam. 5:11
Js 19:32a Naphtali  -   Matt. 4:13
Js 19:36a Hazor  -   Josh. 11:1
Js 19:41a Zorah  -   Josh. 15:33
Js 19:461a Japho  -   2 Chron. 2:16; Ezra 3:7; Jonah 1:3; Acts 9:36
The same place as Joppa (Acts 10:5).
Js 19:47a children  -   cf. Judg. 1:34; 18:1-2
Js 19:471 Leshem
I.e., Laish of Judg. 18:29, at the extreme north of the good land.
Js 19:50a Timnath-serah  -   Josh. 24:30; cf. Judg. 2:9
Js 19:51a Eleazar  -   Num. 34:17; Josh. 14:1
Js 19:51b Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1
Joshua Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Js 20:21a cities  -   Exo. 21:13; Num. 35:6, 11-14; Deut. 4:41-43; 19:2-9
See note 61 in Num. 35.
Js 20:3a avenger  -   Num. 35:19
Js 20:6a he  -   Num. 35:12, 24-25
Js 20:7a hill  -   Josh. 21:11; Luke 1:39
Joshua Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Js 21:1a Eleazar  -   Num. 34:17; Josh. 14:1; 17:4; 19:51
Js 21:2a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1
Js 21:2b pasture  -   Num. 35:2; Josh. 14:4
Js 21:4a children  -   Josh. 21:9-19; 1 Chron. 6:54-60
Js 21:5a rest  -   Josh. 21:20-26; 1 Chron. 6:61, 66-70
Js 21:6a children  -   Josh. 21:27-33; 1 Chron. 6:62, 71-76
Js 21:7a children  -   Josh. 21:34-40; 1 Chron. 6:63, 77-81
Js 21:9a And  -   1 Chron. 6:65
Js 21:10a And  -   vv. 10-19: 1 Chron. 6:54-60; Josh. 21:4
Js 21:11a hill  -   Josh. 20:7; Luke 1:39
Js 21:20a And  -   vv. 20-26: 1 Chron. 6:61, 66-70; Josh. 21:5
Js 21:27a And  -   vv. 27-33: 1 Chron. 6:71-76; Josh. 21:6
Js 21:34a And  -   vv. 34-39: 1 Chron. 6:77-81; Josh. 21:7
Js 21:361 And
Verses 36-37 are not found in some MSS.
Js 21:41a forty-eight  -   Num. 35:7
Js 21:43a sworn  -   Gen. 13:15; 26:3; 28:13
Js 21:44a stand  -   Deut. 7:24; Josh. 1:5; 10:8; 23:9
Js 21:45a Not  -   Josh. 23:14
Joshua Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Js 22:2a commanded  -   Num. 32:20-22; Deut. 3:18-20; Josh. 1:13
Js 22:4a rest  -   Josh. 1:13; Deut. 3:20
Js 22:41 turn
After Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had fought along with their brothers, they were qualified to return to their land to enjoy their inheritance. This indicates that we cannot enjoy Christ without the Body. We must be one with the Body in order to share the inheritance of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 3:6).
Js 22:4b across  -   Josh. 1:15; 13:8
Js 22:5a love  -   Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 11:1, 22
Js 22:8a divide  -   Num. 31:27; 1 Sam. 30:24
Js 22:9a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1
Js 22:101 altar
In God’s economy, among God’s people there was to be only one altar, in Jerusalem. All God’s people had to go there to offer their sacrifices to God for their worship and fellowship with God (Deut. 12:5-8). The record at the end of this chapter concerning the building of another altar at the Jordan by the two and a half tribes indicates that in the enjoyment of Christ division must be avoided to the uttermost. To enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, we must be one people, one Body, one universal church to testify for Christ. See note 51 in Deut. 12.
Js 22:12a gathered  -   cf. Judg. 20:1
Js 22:13a Phinehas  -   Exo. 6:25; Num. 25:7, 11-13; Judg. 20:28
Js 22:14a leader  -   Num. 1:4, 16
Js 22:16a altar  -   cf. Lev. 17:8-9; Deut. 12:13-14
Js 22:17a Peor  -   cf. Num. 23:28; 25:3
Js 22:19a where  -   Josh. 18:1
Js 22:20a Achan  -   Josh. 7:18-26
Js 22:22a knows  -   1 Kings 8:39; Psa. 94:11
Js 22:24a children  -   cf. Josh. 4:6, 21
Js 22:27a witness  -   Gen. 31:48; Josh. 22:34; 24:27
Js 22:27b before  -   Deut. 12:5-7, 17-18
Js 22:31a midst  -   Lev. 26:11-12
Js 22:34a witness  -   Josh. 22:27
Joshua Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Js 23:1a rest  -   Josh. 21:44; 2 Sam. 7:1
Js 23:1b old  -   Josh. 13:1
Js 23:2a called  -   Josh. 24:1; cf. Deut. 31:28; 1 Chron. 28:1
Js 23:3a seen  -   cf. Exo. 19:4; Deut. 29:2
Js 23:3b fought  -   Exo. 14:14; Josh. 10:14, 42; 23:10
Js 23:4a allotted  -   Josh. 13:7
Js 23:5a thrust  -   Deut. 11:23; Josh. 13:6; Exo. 23:30; 33:2; 34:11
Js 23:5b possess  -   Num. 33:53
Js 23:7a mention  -   Exo. 23:13
Js 23:8a cling  -   Deut. 10:20; 11:22; 13:4; Josh. 22:5
Js 23:9a dispossessed  -   Josh. 3:10; 23:5; 24:18; Acts 7:45
Js 23:10a chases  -   Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30
Js 23:10b fights  -   Josh. 23:3
Js 23:111 love
See note 62 in Exo. 20.
Js 23:12a marry  -   Deut. 7:3; Ezra 9:2; Exo. 34:16; Neh. 10:30; cf. 2 Cor. 6:14
Js 23:13a dispossess  -   Judg. 2:3, 21
Js 23:14a going  -   1 Kings 2:2
Js 23:14b failed  -   Josh. 21:45
Js 23:15a evil  -   cf. Lev. 26:14-39; Deut. 28:15-68
Js 23:16a perish  -   Deut. 7:4; 11:17; 28:20
Joshua Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Js 24:21 River
I.e., the Euphrates. So throughout this chapter.
Js 24:2a Terah  -   Gen. 11:27-32
Js 24:3a Abraham  -   Gen. 12:1-14; Neh. 9:7; Acts 7:2-3
Js 24:3b Canaan  -   Gen. 12:5-6
Js 24:3c Isaac  -   Gen. 21:2-3
Js 24:4a Jacob  -   Gen. 25:24-26
Js 24:4b Mount  -   Gen. 36:8; Deut. 2:4-5
Js 24:4c Egypt  -   Gen. 46:2-7; Acts 7:15
Js 24:5a sent  -   Micah 6:4; Exo. 3:10
Js 24:5b plagued  -   Exo. 7:1–13:1; Psa. 105:27-36
Js 24:5c brought  -   Exo. 12:51; Acts 13:17
Js 24:6a sea  -   Exo. 14:2
Js 24:6b pursued  -   Exo. 14:9
Js 24:7a cried  -   Exo. 14:10
Js 24:7b darkness  -   Exo. 14:20
Js 24:7c covered  -   Exo. 14:27-28
Js 24:7d wilderness  -   Josh. 5:6
Js 24:8a land  -   Num. 21:21-35
Js 24:9a Balak  -   Num. 22:4; Judg. 11:25
Js 24:9b Balaam  -   Num. 22:5; Deut. 23:4
Js 24:10a blessed  -   Num. 23:9-11, 20-24; 24:5-10
Js 24:11a crossed  -   Josh. 3:14, 17; 4:10-13
Js 24:11b Jericho  -   Josh. 6:1; 10:1
Js 24:12a hornet  -   Exo. 23:28; Deut. 7:20
Js 24:12b sword  -   Psa. 44:3, 6
Js 24:13a build  -   Deut. 6:10-11
Js 24:14a serve  -   Deut. 10:12; 1 Sam. 12:24
Js 24:15a if  -   cf. 1 Kings 18:21
Js 24:15b as  -   cf. Gen. 18:19
Js 24:17a slave  -   Exo. 13:3, 14; Deut. 7:8; 13:5; Judg. 6:8; Micah 6:4
Js 24:18a drove  -   Josh. 3:10; 23:9; Acts 7:45
Js 24:19a holy  -   Lev. 19:2; 1 Sam. 6:20
Js 24:19b jealous  -   Exo. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; Nahum 1:2
Js 24:23a put  -   Josh. 24:14; Judg. 10:16; 1 Sam. 7:3
Js 24:25a covenant  -   2 Kings 11:17; 2 Chron. 23:16; Neh. 9:38
Js 24:26a wrote  -   Deut. 31:24
Js 24:26b stone  -   cf. Gen. 28:18; Josh. 4:3; Judg. 9:6
Js 24:27a witness  -   Gen. 31:48; Deut. 31:19, 26; Josh. 22:27-28, 34
Js 24:29a And  -   vv. 29-30: Judg. 2:8-9
Js 24:31a And  -   Judg. 2:7
Js 24:32a bones  -   Gen. 50:25; Exo. 13:19
Js 24:32b bought  -   Gen. 33:19; Acts 7:16
Js 24:321 it
Lit., they.
Js 24:32c inheritance  -   John 4:5
Js 24:33a Eleazar  -   Num. 20:26; Josh. 14:1
Js 24:331 the
Or, Gibeah.
< Joshua • Judges Outline >
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Judges Outline
I.   Israel’s trusting in God — 1:1 — 2:5
A.   Judah’s boldness and victory — 1:1-21
B.   The house of Joseph going up to fight against Bethel, Jehovah being with them, and they striking the people of the city with their sword — 1:22-26
C.   Some defects — 1:27-36
D.   The admonition of the Angel of Jehovah (Christ as the acting Jehovah in the Old Testament to take care of Israel) — 2:1-5
II.   Israel’s forsaking of God (comprising their suffering of defeats, their repentance, and God’s deliverance) — 2:6 — 16:31
A.   The reason for Israel’s forsaking of God — 2:6-10
B.   The cycle of the miserable history of Israel’s forsaking of God — 2:11-20
C.   Jehovah’s testing of Israel — 2:21 — 3:6
D.   The first cycle, through Othniel — 3:7-11a
E.   The second cycle, through Ehud and Shamgar — 3:11b-31
F.   The third cycle, through Deborah — 4:1 — 5:31
  (The song of Deborah and Barak — 5:1-31)
G.   The fourth cycle, through Gideon — 6:1 — 8:32
H.   The fifth cycle, through Abimelech, Tola, and Jair — 8:33 — 10:5
I.   The sixth cycle, through Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon — 10:6 — 12:15
J.   The seventh cycle, through Samson — 13:1 — 16:31
III.   Israel’s becoming corrupted — 17:1 — 21:25
A.   The abominable chaos in their worship — 17:1 — 18:31
B.   The sodomitical corruption in their morality — 19:1-30
1.   The story of corruption — vv. 1-26
2.   The spreading of this story of corruption throughout all the territory of Israel — vv. 27-30
C.   The terrible slaughter among their tribes — 20:1 — 21:25
Judges >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Judges Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 1:11 And
According to the full scope of the Old Testament, at Mount Sinai God married Israel (see note 62 in Exo. 20). In His concept and desire, God wanted to be a Husband to Israel, and He wanted Israel to be a wife to Him, living in the most intimate contact with Him in this marvelous marriage union. In writing the books of history, Samuel put Judges after Joshua to show us the kind of life Israel lived toward her Husband. As unveiled in this book, Israel did not have a heart to be the wife of Jehovah. She forsook God as her Husband and went about as a harlot after other gods and worshipped them (2:11-13, 17; 3:7; 8:33; 10:6; cf. Jer. 11:13; Ezek. 16:25-26; Hosea 1:2; 2:2). After the account of Judah and Caleb in 1:1-20, Israel’s history as recorded in this book is full of the rottenness and corruption of a harlot. Whereas Joshua is the book of Israel’s history full of the marvelous victories over the inhabitants of Canaan in the presence of Jehovah, Judges is the book of Israel’s history full of miserable defeats under their enemies in the forsaking of Jehovah. This is the intrinsic significance of the book of Judges.
The content of Judges consists of the children of Israel trusting in God, forsaking God, being defeated by their enemies, repenting to God in their misery, being delivered through the judges, and again becoming corrupted (1:1-2; 2:11 — 3:11). This became a cycle repeated seven times in Judges.
Jg 1:12a inquired  -   Num. 27:21; 1 Sam. 22:10; 23:9-10; 2 Sam. 2:1
Israel’s inquiring of Jehovah at the beginning of this book, vv. 1-20, describes the beautiful scene of Israel’s trusting in God. This marvelous picture of oneness with the Lord, prefiguring the organic union of God with His people, is a continuation of the oneness in the book of Joshua when the people of Israel first entered into the good land (Josh. 6).
Jg 1:1b first  -   Judg. 20:18
Jg 1:2a Judah  -   Gen. 44:14; 49:8-10; Num. 7:12
Jg 1:3a Simeon  -   Josh. 19:1
Jg 1:8a Jerusalem  -   cf. Judg. 1:21; Josh. 15:63; 1 Sam. 17:54; 2 Sam. 5:6
Jg 1:10a Then  -   vv. 10-15: Josh. 15:13-19
Jg 1:13a Othniel  -   Judg. 3:9
Jg 1:171 utterly
Lit., devoted it (i.e., to destruction).
Jg 1:172 Hormah
Meaning devoted.
Jg 1:19a with  -   Judg. 1:22; 2:18; 6:12; Josh. 6:27; 2 Sam. 5:10; 2 Kings 18:7
Jg 1:20a Caleb  -   Num. 14:24; Deut. 1:36; Josh. 14:13; 15:13-14
Jg 1:201 Anak
See Num. 13:33 and note.
Jg 1:211 But
Although Judah was bold and victorious (vv. 1-19a, 20), his victory was not absolute, for there was a shortage in that he did not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley (v. 19b) and the Jebusites (v. 21). Likewise, Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan did not dispossess all the inhabitants of their lands (vv. 27, 29-36). As a result of Israel’s disobedience in not utterly driving out the tribes that inhabited Canaan (Exo. 23:23-33; Num. 33:50-56), Israel dwelt among them, took their daughters as their wives, gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods, thus doing evil in the sight of the Lord (3:5-6). See notes 231 in Exo. 23 and 521 in Num. 33.
Jg 1:21a Jebusites  -   cf. Josh. 15:63
Jg 1:22a with  -   Judg. 1:19
Jg 1:23a Luz  -   Gen. 28:19; 35:6; 48:3; Josh. 18:13
Jg 1:27a And  -   vv. 27-28: Josh. 17:12-13
Jg 1:28a forced  -   Deut. 20:11; Josh. 16:10; 17:12-13; Judg. 1:28, 30, 33, 35; 1 Kings 9:21; cf. Josh. 9:21
Jg 1:29a And  -   Josh. 16:10
Jg 1:34a Dan  -   cf. Judg. 18:1
Judges Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 2:11a Angel  -   Num. 22:22; Judg. 5:23
The Angel of Jehovah is God Himself in His Divine Trinity serving His elect as a Servant (cf. Heb. 1:14). The embodiment of the Triune God is Christ, and Christ is the Angel of Jehovah, who took care of Israel as Jehovah in action in the Old Testament (see note 21 in Exo. 3). For Christ to be the Angel of Jehovah means that God has appointed and commissioned Himself in His Divine Trinity to act in caring for His people.
Because Israel did not act as a proper wife, the very Jehovah who was the Husband, the Head, and the King of Israel became a Servant to His wife. He came to her not as a Husband, Head, or King but as the Angel of Jehovah, who was sent by Jehovah (Zech. 2:9-11). Since Israel did not regard Jehovah as the Head, He became a Servant to serve her. His word to Israel in vv. 1-3 was not a rebuke or a command but the admonition of a servant.
Jg 2:1b Gilgal  -   Josh. 4:19; 10:15
Jg 2:1c go  -   Exo. 14:19; 23:20
Jg 2:1d covenant  -   Gen. 17:7; Exo. 6:4; Deut. 31:16
Jg 2:2a covenant  -   Exo. 23:32; 34:12-13; Deut. 7:2, 5
Jg 2:3a thorns  -   Num. 33:55
Jg 2:3b snare  -   Exo. 23:33; Deut. 7:16; Josh. 23:13; Psa. 106:36
Jg 2:51 Bochim
Meaning weepers.
Jg 2:6a Now  -   vv. 6-9: cf. Josh. 24:28-31
Jg 2:7a served  -   Josh. 24:31
Jg 2:8a died  -   Josh. 24:29
Jg 2:91a Timnath-heres  -   cf. Josh. 19:50; 24:30
Some MSS read, Timnath-serah (cf. Josh. 19:50; 24:30).
Jg 2:10a not  -   1 Sam. 2:12; cf. Deut. 11:1; Jer. 5:4; Micah 4:12
Jg 2:11a served  -   Judg. 3:7; 10:6, 10; 1 Sam. 12:10
Jg 2:121a forsook  -   Deut. 31:16
Man’s forsaking of God began in Gen. 3, when man, under the seducing of Satan, forsook God as the tree of life and joined himself to Satan as the tree of knowledge (Gen. 2:9, 16-17; 3:1-6). To take the tree of knowledge is actually to marry Satan and divorce God. Since the beginning of man’s existence man has been forsaking God and joining to Satan, taking many things as replacements of God (idols). This forsaking of God and joining to Satan, portrayed here by Israel’s forsaking Jehovah and joining themselves to idols, is the strongest factor behind the chaos in human society, including that in Israel. See Jer. 2:13 and note.
Jg 2:12b followed  -   Deut. 6:14; Judg. 2:17, 19
Jg 2:13a Baal  -   Judg. 3:7; 10:6
Jg 2:14a delivered  -   2 Kings 17:20; Neh. 9:27
Jg 2:14b sold  -   Judg. 3:8; 4:2; 6:1; 13:1; 1 Sam. 12:9
Jg 2:15a had  -   cf. Lev. 26:14-46; Deut. 28:15-68
Jg 2:16a judges  -   Acts 13:20
Jg 2:16b saved  -   Judg. 3:15, 31; 10:1, 12; 13:5; 1 Sam. 12:11; Neh. 9:27
Jg 2:17a harlots  -   Deut. 31:16; Judg. 8:27, 33; 1 Chron. 5:25
Jg 2:18a with  -   Judg. 1:19
Jg 2:18b groaning  -   Judg. 3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10
Jg 2:19a died  -   Judg. 3:11-12; 4:1; 8:33
Jg 2:21a dispossess  -   Judg. 2:3; Josh. 23:13
Jg 2:22a test  -   Exo. 15:25; Deut. 8:2, 16; 13:3; Judg. 3:1, 4
Jg 2:221 it
According to some Hebrew MSS and many ancient versions; other MSS read, them.
Judges Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 3:1a test  -   Judg. 2:22
Jg 3:21 the
Lit., them.
Jg 3:3a five  -   Josh. 13:3
Jg 3:51 dwelt
Verses 5-6 show the three factors of Israel’s failure.
Jg 3:5a Canaanites  -   Exo. 3:8
Jg 3:6a took  -   Exo. 34:16; Deut. 7:3; Ezra 9:12
Jg 3:7a served  -   Judg. 2:11, 13
Jg 3:8a sold  -   Judg. 2:14
Jg 3:9a cried  -   Judg. 2:18
Jg 3:9b saved  -   Judg. 2:16
Jg 3:9c Othniel  -   Judg. 1:13; 3:11
Jg 3:10a Spirit  -   Judg. 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14
Jg 3:11a rest  -   Judg. 3:30; 5:31; 8:28; Josh. 11:23
Jg 3:13a Amalek  -   Exo. 17:8; Judg. 6:3, 33; 10:12
Jg 3:15a cried  -   Judg. 2:18
Jg 3:15b savior  -   Judg. 2:16; 3:31
Jg 3:15c left-handed  -   Judg. 20:16; cf. 1 Chron. 12:2
Jg 3:231 Eglon
Lit., him.
Jg 3:241 Eglon’s
Lit., his.
Jg 3:28a delivered  -   Judg. 4:7, 14; 7:9, 15; 1 Sam. 14:12; 17:47; 2 Chron. 16:8; cf. 1 Kings 22:12, 15
Jg 3:30a rest  -   Judg. 3:11
Jg 3:31a Shamgar  -   Judg. 5:6
Jg 3:31b saved  -   Judg. 2:16
Judges Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 4:2a sold  -   Judg. 2:14
Jg 4:2b Hazor  -   cf. Josh. 11:1, 10
Jg 4:2c Sisera  -   1 Sam. 12:9; Psa. 83:9
Jg 4:3a cried  -   Judg. 2:18
Jg 4:41 Deborah
God’s raising up of a female, Deborah, as a judge of Israel was extraordinary, indicating that all the men of Israel had failed God, forcing Him to raise up a woman. In the Bible a proper female indicates one who is in submission to God, one who keeps God’s ordination (see note 211, par. 2, in Exo. 2). This is the position that Israel should have taken before God, but Israel violated God’s ordination, leaving her position as God’s wife and forsaking Him for hundreds of idols. This brought Israel into a miserable situation and condition. Although Deborah was a very capable person, she was very submissive. God made her the leader, yet she kept the proper order and took Barak as her covering (vv. 6-9; cf. 1 Cor. 11:3, 5-6, 10). When this excellent, extraordinary woman took the lead to practice the female submission to the man, the entire country came into an excellent order, assuming the proper position before Jehovah (v. 10). Among the people there were great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart (5:15-16), and they rose up to follow the others to fight for God’s kingdom. Because Israel fought under Deborah in a proper order, God fought for them (vv. 14-24).
Jg 4:4a prophetess  -   cf. Exo. 15:20; 2 Kings 22:14; Luke 2:36
Jg 4:5a Ramah  -   1 Sam. 1:19; 25:1
Jg 4:6a Barak  -   Heb. 11:32
Jg 4:6b Tabor  -   Judg. 4:12, 14
Jg 4:10a Zebulun  -   Judg. 5:18
Jg 4:11a Hobab  -   Num. 10:29
Jg 4:14a before  -   Deut. 9:3; 2 Sam. 5:24; Psa. 68:7; Isa. 52:12
Jg 4:14b down  -   Judg. 5:13
Jg 4:15a Sisera  -   Psa. 83:9
Jg 4:17a Jael  -   Judg. 5:24
Jg 4:19a milk  -   Judg. 5:25
Jg 4:21a tent  -   Judg. 5:26
Judges Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 5:4a O  -   vv. 4-5: cf. Psa. 68:7-9; Deut. 33:2
Jg 5:6a Shamgar  -   Judg. 3:31
Jg 5:71 I
Others translate, you.
Jg 5:12a Awake  -   Psa. 57:8-9
Jg 5:12b captive  -   Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:8
Jg 5:13a down  -   Judg. 4:14
Jg 5:18a Zebulun  -   Judg. 4:10
Jg 5:23a Angel  -   Judg. 2:4; 6:11
Jg 5:23b did  -   cf. Judg. 21:5, 9
Jg 5:24a Blessed  -   cf. Luke 1:42
Jg 5:24b Jael  -   Judg. 4:17
Jg 5:25a milk  -   Judg. 4:19
Jg 5:26a tent  -   Judg. 4:21
Jg 5:301 each
Lit., the head.
Jg 5:31a perish  -   cf. Psa. 83:9-10
Jg 5:31b sun  -   2 Sam. 23:4
Jg 5:31c might  -   Psa. 37:6; Dan. 12:3; Prov. 4:18; Matt. 13:43
Jg 5:31d rest  -   Judg. 3:11
Judges Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 6:1a delivered  -   Judg. 2:14
Jg 6:1b Midian  -   Num. 25:17-18; cf. Gen. 25:2
Jg 6:3a Amalek  -   Judg. 3:13; Exo. 17:8
Jg 6:5a locust  -   Judg. 7:12; cf. Joel 1:4
Jg 6:6a cried  -   Judg. 2:18
Jg 6:8a brought  -   Exo. 12:17; Judg. 2:1; 6:13; 1 Sam. 10:18; 12:8
Jg 6:8b slave  -   Exo. 13:3
Jg 6:9a drove  -   Psa. 44:2-3
Jg 6:111a Angel  -   Judg. 5:23; 13:3
See note 11, par. 1, in ch. 2.
Jg 6:11b Gideon  -   Heb. 11:32
Jg 6:12a with  -   Josh. 1:5; Judg. 2:18; Luke 1:28
Jg 6:13a fathers  -   Psa. 44:1; 78:3-4
Jg 6:13b delivered  -   Judg. 6:1
Jg 6:141 Jehovah
The Angel of Jehovah is Jehovah Himself (vv. 11-14, 21-23). See note 21 in Exo. 3.
Jg 6:14a save  -   Judg. 2:16
Jg 6:14b sent  -   1 Sam. 12:11
Jg 6:15a I  -   cf. Exo. 3:11; 2 Sam. 7:18
Jg 6:15b least  -   1 Sam. 9:21; 18:23; 1 Cor. 15:9; Eph. 3:8
Jg 6:18a Do  -   vv. 18-21: cf. Gen. 18:3-8; Judg. 13:15-16, 19-20
Jg 6:201 Angel
The Angel of God is the Angel of Jehovah (v. 11), who is Jehovah Himself (v. 14).
Jg 6:21a fire  -   Lev. 9:24; 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Chron. 7:1
Jg 6:22a seen  -   cf. Gen. 32:30; Exo. 33:20; Judg. 13:22
Jg 6:23a Do  -   Dan. 10:19; Luke 1:13
Jg 6:241a Jehovah-shalom  -   cf. Gen. 22:14; 28:19; 33:20; 35:7, 15; Exo. 17:15; Ezek. 48:35
Meaning Jehovah is peace, or Jehovah of peace.
Jg 6:25a tear  -   Deut. 7:5; 12:3; Judg. 2:2; 2 Chron. 34:4
Jg 6:251 Asherah
An image of a female deity.
Jg 6:271 did
Gideon, a marvelous judge who was called by God in a very particular way (vv. 11-24), was successful because of four things. First, he listened carefully to the word of God, something that was rare among the children of Israel at that time. Second, he obeyed God’s word and acted on it. Third, he tore down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah (vv. 25-28). Fourth, by tearing down the altar of Baal and cutting down the Asherah that belonged to his father, Gideon sacrificed his relationship with his father and his enjoyment of society to follow Jehovah (vv. 29-32). As a result of these four factors, Gideon received a reward: the economical Spirit came upon him (v. 34). Hence, he became powerful and with only three hundred men defeated two princes and two kings (7:25; 8:10-12). With Gideon we have a picture of a man who lived in union with God, a God-man, to fulfill God’s word and to carry out God’s economy.
Jg 6:321 Gideon
Lit., him.
Jg 6:322a Jerubbaal  -   Judg. 7:1; 1 Sam. 12:11
Meaning let Baal contend.
Jg 6:34a Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10; 2 Chron. 20:14
Jg 6:39a May  -   Gen. 18:32
Judges Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 7:1a Jerubbaal  -   Judg. 6:32
Jg 7:21 too
By telling Gideon that he had too many people, God was indicating that He would fight for Israel.
Jg 7:2a vaunt  -   cf. Deut. 8:17; Isa. 10:12-13
Jg 7:3a afraid  -   Deut. 20:8
Jg 7:31 here
Lit., Mount Gilead; the Hebrew text is obscure here.
Jg 7:4a many  -   cf. 1 Sam. 14:6
Jg 7:51 laps
Drinking is a basic item of man’s daily necessities. God tested the men by observing how they took care of their necessities. The selection of the three hundred men stresses the sacrifice of one’s personal interests and enjoyment for God’s purpose. Like Gideon, the three hundred who lapped water from their hand, restricting themselves in quenching their thirst, were willing to sacrifice in order to be used by God. Those who knelt down on their knees and drank without restraint took care of their necessity much more than God’s need, and God sent them home (cf. 2 Tim. 2:4).
Jg 7:12a locust  -   Judg. 6:5
Jg 7:15a delivered  -   Judg. 3:28
Jg 7:22a trumpets  -   cf. Josh. 6:4, 16, 20
Jg 7:22b sword  -   1 Sam. 14:20; 2 Chron. 20:23
Jg 7:25a Oreb  -   Judg. 8:3; Psa. 83:11
Judges Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 8:1a not  -   Judg. 6:35; cf. Judg. 12:1
Jg 8:3a subsided  -   cf. Prov. 15:1
Jg 8:8a Penuel  -   Gen. 32:30-31; 1 Kings 12:25
Jg 8:15a Are  -   Judg. 8:6
Jg 8:161 trampled
Following v. 7. The Hebrew may read, taught. After his great success, Gideon had a terrible failure. Intrinsically, Gideon’s failure was due to his forsaking God and his joining himself to Satan (see note 121 in ch. 2). The secret of his failure comprises three factors. First, Gideon was not kind; he killed those countrymen who did not support him (vv. 16-17), breaking the sixth commandment of God (Exo. 20:13). Second, he indulged in the lust of the flesh, not exercising any restriction over his fleshly lust (vv. 30-31), thus breaking the seventh commandment (Exo. 20:14). Third, although he acted properly in refusing to rule over the people (vv. 22-23), he coveted the spoil of his people (v. 24), thereby breaking the tenth commandment (Exo. 20:17). Gideon’s indulgence in sex and his greediness for gold led to idolatry (cf. Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). Gideon made an ephod with the gold he had taken from the people, and this ephod became an idol to the children of Israel (v. 27). As a result, Gideon’s family and the entire society of Israel were corrupted.
In this book, which is related to the enjoyment of the good land as a type of Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8), Gideon’s success indicates the gaining of an excellent opportunity to enjoy Christ, whereas his failure indicates the losing of the opportunity to enjoy Christ. Gideon’s failure shows that we must exercise strict control in dealing with the matters of sex and wealth. Any indulgence in these things will cause our enjoyment of Christ to be annulled. See notes 41 in 2 Sam. 11, 431, par. 3, in 1 Kings 11, and 231 in Gen. 14.
Jg 8:21a Zebah  -   Psa. 83:11
Jg 8:22a saved  -   Judg. 2:16
Jg 8:23a rule  -   cf. 1 Sam. 8:7; 12:12
Jg 8:241 The
Lit., For they.
Jg 8:27a ephod  -   Exo. 28:6-12; Judg. 17:5; 18:14, 17
Jg 8:27b harlots  -   Judg. 2:17
Jg 8:28a rest  -   Judg. 3:11; 5:31
Jg 8:30a seventy  -   Judg. 9:2, 5, 24
Jg 8:31a Abimelech  -   Judg. 9:1, 18
Jg 8:331a harlots  -   Judg. 2:17
The intrinsic significance of the fifth and sixth cycles of Israel’s miserable history (8:33 — 10:5; 10:6 — 12:15) consists of Israel’s forsaking God and joining herself to idols. See note 121 in ch. 2.
Jg 8:34a not  -   Psa. 78:42
Judges Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 9:1a Abimelech  -   Judg. 8:31
Jg 9:2a seventy  -   Judg. 8:30
Jg 9:51 slew
The record of this chapter portrays the degradation and corruption of God’s elect Israel in their forsaking Jehovah their God and their worshipping the idols of the Canaanites (8:33), which issued in their indulgence in fleshly lust by having many wives to produce many sons (8:30-31; 9:5; 10:4; 12:8-9, 13-14; 16:1-4) and in the wantonness of their hatred in slaying one another (12:1-6; chs. 19 — 20), bringing themselves to an end in full destruction.
Jg 9:5a hid  -   cf. 2 Kings 11:1-2
Jg 9:7a Gerizim  -   Deut. 11:29; 27:12; Josh. 8:33; cf. John 4:20
Jg 9:81 olive
The olive tree signifies Christ (cf. Rom. 11:17; Zech. 4:11-14; Rev. 11:4a) as the One who is full of the Holy Spirit and anointed with the Spirit (Luke 4:1a, 18a; Heb. 1:9), signified by the olive oil. The oil of the olive tree was used to honor God and man (v. 9), signifying that those who walk by the Spirit honor God (Gal. 5:16, 25), and those who minister the Spirit honor man (2 Cor. 3:6, 8).
Jg 9:9a fatness  -   Exo. 29:7; 35:14; Lev. 2:1; Rom. 11:17
Jg 9:101 fig
The fig tree here signifies the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as the life supply.
Jg 9:11a fig  -   Luke 13:6-7; cf. Matt. 24:32
Jg 9:121 vine
The vine signifies Christ as the One who sacrificed Himself by being “pressed” on the cross to produce new wine to cheer God and man (Matt. 9:17).
Jg 9:13a wine  -   Num. 15:7; Psa. 104:15
Jg 9:15a bramble  -   cf. 2 Kings 14:9
Jg 9:23a evil  -   cf. 1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10; 19:9
Jg 9:24a seventy  -   Judg. 8:30
Jg 9:241 might
Lit., might come.
Jg 9:28a Hamor  -   Gen. 34:2, 6
Jg 9:281 this
Lit., him.
Jg 9:311 Tormah
Called Arumah in v. 41; others understand, craftily.
Jg 9:401 Gaal
Lit., he.
Jg 9:53a millstone  -   2 Sam. 11:21
Jg 9:56a seventy  -   Judg. 8:30
Jg 9:57a Jotham  -   Judg. 9:20
Judges Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 10:1a save  -   Judg. 2:16
Jg 10:4a Havvoth-jair  -   Deut. 3:14
Jg 10:6a served  -   Judg. 2:11-12
Jg 10:7a sold  -   Judg. 2:14
Jg 10:10a cried  -   Judg. 2:18
Jg 10:10b We  -   1 Sam. 12:10
Jg 10:11a Egyptians  -   Exo. 14:30
Jg 10:11b Amorites  -   Num. 21:21-32
Jg 10:11c Philistines  -   Judg. 3:31
Jg 10:14a cry  -   cf. 1 Kings 18:27
Jg 10:16a bear  -   Judg. 2:18; cf. Isa. 63:9
Judges Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 11:1a Jephthah  -   Heb. 11:32
Jg 11:6a chief  -   cf. Judg. 9:14
Jg 11:8a head  -   Judg. 10:18
Jg 11:10a Witness  -   Gen. 31:50; 1 Sam. 12:5; Jer. 42:5
Jg 11:13a land  -   cf. Num. 21:24-26
Jg 11:15a Moab  -   Deut. 2:9
Jg 11:15b Ammon  -   Deut. 2:19
Jg 11:17a Israel  -   Num. 20:14-21
Jg 11:18a around  -   Num. 21:4
Jg 11:18b east  -   Num. 21:11, 13; 22:36
Jg 11:19a Then  -   vv. 19-22: Num. 21:21-26; Deut. 2:26-37
Jg 11:24a dispossesses  -   Deut. 9:5; 18:12; Josh. 3:10
Jg 11:25a Balak  -   Num. 22:2; Josh. 24:9; Micah 6:5
Jg 11:27a Judge  -   Gen. 16:5; 31:53; 1 Sam. 24:12, 15
Jg 11:29a Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 13:25; 1 Sam. 16:13
Jg 11:30a vow  -   Gen. 28:20; 1 Sam. 1:11; Num. 30:2
Jg 11:35a opened  -   Num. 30:2; Eccl. 5:4-5
Jg 11:401 lament
Or, commemorate.
Judges Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 12:1a men  -   cf. Judg. 8:1
Jg 12:5a fords  -   Judg. 3:28; 7:24
Jg 12:6a say  -   cf. Matt. 26:73
Judges Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 13:1a delivered  -   Judg. 2:14
Jg 13:1b Philistines  -   Judg. 10:7; 1 Sam. 12:9
Jg 13:1c forty  -   Num. 14:33; Deut. 8:2; cf. Deut. 9:9; Matt. 4:2
Jg 13:2a no  -   Luke 1:7; cf. 1 Sam. 1:2
Jg 13:31a Angel  -   Judg. 6:11; 2 Kings 1:3; Luke 1:11
The Angel of Jehovah in vv. 3-21 is Jehovah, the Triune God (vv. 22-23). This Angel is Christ as the sent One of God (see note 21 in Exo. 3).
Jg 13:32 appeared
Samson’s birth was a miracle initiated by the appearing of the Angel of Jehovah. When Samson was in the womb of his mother, he was sanctified to be a Nazarite. As he grew up, he was clean and pure according to God’s ordination (vv. 4-5, 14), and he was empowered by the Spirit of God as the holy, economical Spirit (v. 25; 14:5-6, 19; 15:14).
Jg 13:4a wine  -   Num. 6:2-3; Judg. 13:7, 14; Luke 1:15
Jg 13:5a no  -   Num. 6:5; Judg. 16:17; 1 Sam. 1:11
Jg 13:51 Nazarite
Concerning the Nazarite, see notes in Num. 6:1-21.
Jg 13:5b save  -   Judg. 2:16
Jg 13:5c Philistines  -   cf. 1 Sam. 7:13; 2 Sam. 8:1; 1 Chron. 18:1
Jg 13:61a man  -   cf. Deut. 33:1; 1 Sam. 2:27
The man of God was Christ as a man. Thus, the Triune God embodied in Christ appeared to Manoah and his wife before Christ’s incarnation. See note 21 in Gen. 18.
Jg 13:15a And  -   vv. 15-20: cf. Judg. 6:18-21
Jg 13:18a Why  -   Gen. 32:29
Jg 13:181b wonderful  -   Isa. 9:6
Every item of what Christ is, is wonderful (Isa. 9:6). He is the wonder in the entire universe; thus, He is wonderful.
Jg 13:22a We  -   cf. Judg. 6:22-23
Jg 13:24a Samson  -   Heb. 11:32
Jg 13:24b grew  -   1 Sam. 2:21; 3:19; Luke 1:80; 2:40
Jg 13:25a Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10
Jg 13:251 Mahaneh-dan
Or, the camp of Dan.
Judges Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 14:11 woman
Samson failed in not contacting God and in indulging in sex. He was not genuine in seeking for a spouse; rather, his contacting of women was to indulge his lusts. He indulged his lust with a Philistine woman, whom he married and who released his secret to the Philistines (vv. 1-3, 10-17); with a harlot in Gaza, in whose place Samson was surrounded by the Philistines (16:1-3); and with a woman by the name of Delilah, who released the secret of his great strength (16:4-20a). Although he had been empowered by God, he was damaged to the uttermost because of his indulgence in lust. Ultimately, Jehovah left him, and he came to a miserable ending (16:20b-30).
Jg 14:3a daughters  -   cf. Gen. 24:3-4; 28:1-2; Deut. 7:3
Jg 14:4a ruled  -   Judg. 15:11, 20
Jg 14:6a Spirit  -   Judg. 14:19; 3:10; 15:14
Jg 14:61b tore  -   Heb. 11:33
Samson had faith in God (cf. Heb. 11:32). His faith is seen in his tearing a young lion by the Spirit of Jehovah rushing upon him (vv. 5-6), in his slaying thirty men by the Spirit of Jehovah rushing upon him (v. 19), in his slaying one thousand Philistines by the Spirit of Jehovah rushing upon him (15:12-18a), and in his destroying the house where he was compelled to perform (16:28-30).
Jg 14:8a honey  -   cf. Exo. 3:8; Deut. 8:8; 1 Sam. 14:25; Matt. 3:4
Jg 14:12a riddle  -   Psa. 78:2; Prov. 1:6; Ezek. 17:2; cf. 1 Kings 10:1
Jg 14:151 fourth
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, seventh.
Jg 14:17a pressed  -   cf. Judg. 16:16
Jg 14:18a sweeter  -   cf. Psa. 19:10; 119:103
Jg 14:19a Spirit  -   Judg. 14:6
Judges Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 15:4a foxes  -   S.S. 2:15; Lam. 5:18; Matt. 8:20
Jg 15:8a cleft  -   Judg. 15:11; Isa. 2:21
Jg 15:11a Philistines  -   Judg. 13:1; 14:4; 15:20
Jg 15:13a ropes  -   Judg. 16:11-12
Jg 15:14a Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10; 14:6, 19
Jg 15:15a thousand  -   cf. Josh. 23:10
Jg 15:171 Ramath-lehi
Meaning the hill of the jawbone.
Jg 15:18a uncircumcised  -   1 Sam. 17:26, 36; 2 Sam. 1:20
Jg 15:19a water  -   Isa. 41:17-18; 44:3; cf. Exo. 17:6; Psa. 78:16, 20; 105:41; Neh. 9:15
Jg 15:19b spirit  -   cf. 1 Sam. 30:12; Luke 8:55
Jg 15:191 En-hakkore
Meaning the fountain of him who called.
Judges Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 16:3a posts  -   Judg. 16:29
Jg 16:5a strength  -   Judg. 16:19
Jg 16:11a ropes  -   Judg. 15:13-14
Jg 16:131 and
The portion beginning here and continuing through the words into the web in the next verse has been restored from the Septuagint; the Hebrew text lacks this portion.
Jg 16:15a three  -   Judg. 16:7, 11, 13
Jg 16:16a pressed  -   cf. Judg. 14:17
Jg 16:17a No  -   Judg. 13:5; Num. 6:5
Jg 16:17b Nazarite  -   Num. 6:2; Judg. 13:5; Amos 2:11
Jg 16:19a strength  -   Judg. 16:5-6, 17
Jg 16:191 him
Lit., from off him. So also in the next verse.
Jg 16:20a Jehovah  -   cf. 1 Sam. 28:15-16
Jg 16:21a ground  -   cf. Exo. 11:5; Matt. 24:41
Jg 16:23a Dagon  -   1 Sam. 5:2-7
Jg 16:28a remember  -   1 Sam. 1:11; Neh. 5:19; 13:14; Psa. 25:7; 106:4; Jer. 15:15; Luke 23:42
Jg 16:29a pillars  -   Judg. 16:3
Judges Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 17:31a idol  -   cf. Exo. 20:4
Micah’s mother offered something to God, but her offering to God was mixed with the leaven of idolatry (cf. Matt. 13:33 and notes).
Jg 17:4a founder  -   cf. Isa. 46:6
Jg 17:51 house
The house of Micah as a house of gods, with its idols (as replacements of Christ), its ephod (representing the authority of God), and its hired priest (representing the clergy-laity system — vv. 7-13; see note 61 in Rev. 2), portrays the chaotic situation related to the worship of God among Christians today.
Jg 17:5a ephod  -   Judg. 8:27; 18:14, 17; cf. Exo. 28:6-35
Jg 17:52 consecrated
Lit., filled the hands of. So also in v. 12.
Jg 17:61a no  -   Judg. 18:1; 19:1; 21:25
In their degradation Israel became chaotic in three ways: in government, in worship, and in morality. Although God’s tabernacle was at Shiloh (18:31) and the high priest had the Urim and Thummim (see note 301 in Exo. 28), there was no government, no administration, in Israel because Israel had annulled God and His status as their King (cf. 1 Sam. 8). Therefore, the children of Israel did what was right in their own eyes, and as a result they became rotten and corrupted. See note 11 in ch. 1.
Jg 17:12a priest  -   Num. 16:8-10; cf. 1 Kings 12:31; 13:33
Judges Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 18:1a no  -   Judg. 17:6; 19:1; 21:25
Jg 18:1b Danites  -   Josh. 19:47-48; Judg. 1:34
Jg 18:4a hired  -   Judg. 17:10; cf. John 10:12-13
Jg 18:11a Zorah  -   Josh. 15:33; Judg. 13:25
Jg 18:121 Mahaneh-dan
Meaning the camp of Dan.
Jg 18:14a ephod  -   Judg. 17:4-5
Jg 18:29a Dan  -   Gen. 14:14; Judg. 20:1; 1 Kings 12:29-30
Jg 18:301 Moses
Many MSS read, Manasseh; but most authorities agree that the text was modified at a very early date out of respect for Moses.
Jg 18:30a Dan  -   1 Kings 12:29-30; 2 Kings 10:29
Jg 18:30b captivity  -   Psa. 78:60-61; 1 Sam. 4:11, 21
Jg 18:311 set
The Danites set up another worship place in the city of Dan, while God’s tabernacle remained in Shiloh. The result was two worship centers — the proper one with God’s tabernacle at Shiloh and the improper one in Dan. This shows the chaos of the children of Israel in their worship. See notes 281 in 1 Kings 12 and 171 in Gen. 49.
Jg 18:31a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3
Judges Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 19:1a no  -   Judg. 17:6; 18:1; 21:25
Jg 19:1b Bethlehem  -   Judg. 17:7
Jg 19:6a stay  -   cf. Gen. 24:55
Jg 19:10a Jebus  -   Josh. 15:8, 63
Jg 19:12a Gibeah  -   Josh. 18:28
Jg 19:181 my
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, the house of Jehovah.
Jg 19:20a square  -   Gen. 19:2
Jg 19:23a evil  -   Gen. 19:7
Judges Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 20:1a one  -   1 Sam. 11:7
Jg 20:1b from  -   1 Sam. 3:20; 2 Sam. 3:10; 24:2
Jg 20:51 men
Or, leaders, lords.
Jg 20:121 tribe
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, tribes.
Jg 20:13a put  -   Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 1 Cor. 5:13
Jg 20:131 Benjaminites
Some MSS read, children of Benjamin.
Jg 20:18a first  -   Judg. 1:1-2
Jg 20:27a inquired  -   Num. 27:21
Jg 20:28a Phinehas  -   Num. 25:7; 31:6; Josh. 24:33
Jg 20:29a And  -   vv. 29-43: cf. Josh. 8:14-24
Jg 20:31a drawn  -   cf. Josh. 8:6
Jg 20:341 the
Lit., they.
Jg 20:40a smoke  -   cf. Josh. 8:20
Judges Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Jg 21:1a Mizpah  -   Judg. 20:1
Jg 21:1b wife  -   Judg. 21:18
Jg 21:8a Jabesh-gilead  -   1 Sam. 11:1; 31:11; 2 Sam. 2:4-5
Jg 21:111 utterly
Lit., devote (i.e., to destruction).
Jg 21:12a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1
Jg 21:13a rock  -   Judg. 20:47
Jg 21:19a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1
Jg 21:251a no  -   Judg. 17:6; 18:1; 19:1
See note 61 in ch. 17.
< Judges • Ruth Outline >
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Ruth Outline
I.   Elimelech’s swerving from the rest in God’s economy — 1:1-2
II.   Naomi’s returning to the rest in God’s economy — 1:3-7, 19-22
III.   Ruth’s choosing for her goal — 1:8-18
IV.   Ruth’s exercising of her right — 2:1-23
V.   Ruth’s seeking for her rest — 3:1-18
VI.   Ruth’s reward for God’s economy — 4:1-22
Ruth >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Ruth Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ru 1:1a judges  -   Judg. 2:16
Ru 1:11 ruled
Lit., judged. Ruth is an appendix to the book of Judges, contemporary with the first half of Judges. Judges is a book of Israel’s miserable history, dark and foul; Ruth is the record of a couple’s excellent story, bright and aromatic. The main character in this story is like a lily growing out of brambles and a bright star in the dark night.
The book of Ruth is an important part of the genealogy of Christ (Matt. 1:5), which is the record concerning the incarnation of Christ. As a Moabitess (v. 4), Ruth was excluded from the congregation of God’s holy people (Deut. 23:3). Nevertheless, she was brought into the holy elect of God and became an important ancestor of Christ through her marriage to Boaz, the great-grandfather of King David (4:21-22; Matt. 1:5-6), which became a factor that ushered in the incarnation of Christ (Matt. 1:5-16). Hence, Ruth became an important ancestor to bring Christ into humanity through the marvelous incarnation, which made God one with man (Matt. 1:18, 20b-23). This is the intrinsic significance of the content of the book of Ruth. See note 53 in Matt. 1.
Ru 1:12b famine  -   Gen. 12:10; 26:1; 43:1; 2 Kings 8:1
The famine in the good land was a lack of life supply for living and satisfaction. It was sent by God to His people as a punishment (Lev. 26:26; Ezek. 14:13) because of their forsaking God as their source and Husband and their turning to idols. See note 11, par. 1, in Judg. 1.
Ru 1:13c Bethlehem  -   Gen. 35:19; Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:1, 6
Bethlehem, the city of David, would be designated as the birthplace of the coming Christ (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:4-7), and Judah was the land of the royal tribe among Israel (Gen. 49:8-10), the top part of the God-promised land (Exo. 3:8b), which was the good land (Deut. 8:7-10), the land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8).
Ru 1:14 went
The matter of rest is the key to the book of Ruth. Israel, as God’s elect, was living in the God-promised land for the carrying out of God’s economy. Remaining in the good land that God had promised and given was the genuine rest (Deut. 12:9; Heb. 4:8). Israel’s rest, their prosperity for their enjoyment and their contentment, was related to their situation with God in His economy. For an Israelite to leave the good land meant that he was cutting himself off from God’s eternal economy. Elimelech was in the good land and had a portion of it, and he should have remained there. However, he foolishly swerved from the ground, the standing, which gave him the opportunity to enjoy the rest in the good land, a rest that ultimately resulted in the bringing of Christ into humanity through incarnation to be the real rest to God’s people (see notes 21, par. 3, in Gen. 2 and 91 in Heb. 4).
Ru 1:15 Moab
Elimelech swerved from Bethlehem in Judah to Moab, a country of the descendants of Lot who were born through his incestuous union with his daughter (Gen. 19:30-38), a place that was rejected and condemned by God (Deut. 23:3-6), and a country of idolatry (v. 15; Judg. 10:6).
Ru 1:31 died
The death of Elimelech and his two sons (vv. 3, 5) was a chastisement from God on the house of Elimelech (v. 20). It left Elimelech’s wife, Naomi, and her two daughters-in-law as widows without children in a foreign country. That was the pitiful result of Elimelech’s swerving from the rest in God’s eternal economy.
Ru 1:41 Moabite
The Moabites, a people born of incest (Gen. 19:30-38), typify all sinners, who were born of “incest” through the “marriage” union of Adam and a fellow creature, Satan (John 8:41, 44a).
Ru 1:42a Ruth  -   Matt. 1:5
In this bright and aromatic story, Ruth typifies the church in four ways. First, Ruth was a woman in Adam in God’s creation and a Moabitess (a sinner — see note 41) in man’s fall. Through the fall the God-created man became a sinner and thus became the old man (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9) consisting of two parts — a natural (good) part created by God (Gen. 1:27, 31) and a fallen (evil) part corrupted by sin (Rom. 5:18a, 19a). As a created and fallen person with these two aspects, Ruth typifies the church, before its salvation, as men in God’s creation and sinners in man’s fall being “our old man” (Rom. 6:6).
Second, Ruth, the widow of the dead husband, was redeemed by Boaz, who cleared the indebtedness of her dead husband to recover the lost right to her dead husband’s property (4:9-10). In this aspect Ruth typifies the church, whose old man is her crucified husband (Rom. 7:4a; 6:6), being redeemed by Christ, who cleared away her old man’s sin for the recovery of the lost right of her fallen God-created natural man (Eph. 5:25). Ruth’s old husband, Mahlon, typifies the fallen part of our old man, and his indebtedness typifies our sin caused by our fallen part, because of which we lost our right as a God-created being. Ruth herself, as the wife, typifies our natural man, who was created by God to be God’s counterpart, His wife, and who was redeemed and regenerated to be the new man as the wife of Christ (Rom. 7:1-4 and notes). Christ’s death on the cross destroyed the fallen part of our old man, redeemed the part created by God, and cleared our sin caused by the fallen part, thereby recovering the right of the God-created part.
Third, Ruth, after being redeemed by Boaz, became a new wife to him (4:13). As such, she typifies the church, which, after being saved, became the counterpart of Christ in the organic union with Him through the regeneration of the church’s natural man (John 3:6b, 29a; Rom. 7:4b). When Ruth married Boaz, she was redeemed from her indebtedness, and she became his new wife for the producing of the needed heirs. In the fulfillment of this type, Christ, our new Husband, died to redeem us and to clear the indebtedness caused by the sins of our old man. Then in resurrection He, as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), regenerated us to make us a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) married to Him. After being redeemed and regenerated, our natural man, excluding our fallen part, becomes our new man (Eph. 4:24) and takes Christ as our new Husband in the divine organic union with Him. Now, in the organic union between Christ and us, we can bring forth Christ and spread Christ by ministering Him to all men universally for His increase (John 3:30).
Fourth, Ruth (a Gentile sinner) being united to Boaz that she might participate in the inheritance of God’s elect typifies the redeemed and regenerated Gentile sinners (the main constituents of the church) being attached to Christ that they may partake of the inheritance of God’s promise (Eph. 3:6).
Ru 1:61 return
Naomi’s returning to the Holy Land was her returning to the rest in God’s economy to participate again in the enjoyment of the God-promised land, where there would be the possibility of being related to Christ’s genealogy. Naomi returned with Ruth, her daughter-in-law given to her by God for the accomplishing of His economy concerning Christ (v. 22a).
Ru 1:6a visited  -   Exo. 3:16; 4:31; Luke 1:68
Ru 1:9a rest  -   cf. Ruth 3:1
Ru 1:11a husbands  -   Deut. 25:5
Ru 1:13a grown  -   cf. Gen. 38:11
Ru 1:14a clung  -   Deut. 4:4; Isa. 14:1; Zech. 8:23
Ru 1:16a wherever  -   cf. 2 Sam. 15:21
Ru 1:161 will
Ruth chose the goal of participating with God’s elect in the enjoyment of Christ, and she even became an important ancestor of Christ, one who helped bring forth Christ into mankind. This was more than just a resolution on the part of the Moabite widow; it was a goal, a choosing. Ruth chose God and His kingdom for the carrying out of God’s economy concerning Christ.
Ru 1:16b your  -   cf. Psa. 45:10
Ru 1:162 God
Ruth chose to go to the land of Israel because she probably had heard a great deal concerning God, God’s promise, and the good land. She had heard the good news sufficiently for her to make a wonderful choice (cf. Rom. 10:17).
Ru 1:181 Naomi
Lit., she.
Ru 1:201 Naomi
Meaning my pleasantness.
Ru 1:202a Mara  -   Exo. 15:23
Meaning bitterness.
Ru 1:20b All-sufficient  -   Gen. 17:1
Ru 1:203 dealt
Naomi did not rebel against God’s dealing but admitted that God had dealt not only with her husband but also with her (vv. 20-21; cf. v. 3). This indicates that she was a godly woman who believed in God, regarded Him, and feared Him.
Ru 1:21a empty  -   cf. Job 1:21
Ru 1:211 afflicted
Others translate, testified against me.
Ru 1:221 barley
Barley, which ripens earlier than other grains (2 Sam. 21:9), typifies the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15:20). Barley and wheat (2:23) typify Christ as the material for making food for both God and His people (Lev. 2; John 6:9, 33, 35).
Ruth Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ru 2:1a relative  -   Ruth 3:2
Ru 2:11b Boaz  -   Ruth 4:21; Matt. 1:5
In this book Boaz typifies Christ in two aspects: (1) As a man, rich in wealth and generous in giving (2:1, 14-16; 3:15), Boaz typifies Christ, whose divine riches are unsearchable and who takes care of God’s needy people with His bountiful supply (Eph. 3:8; Luke 10:33-35; Phil. 1:19b). (2) As the kinsman (v. 3; 3:9, 12) who redeemed the lost right to Mahlon’s property and took Mahlon’s widow as his wife for the producing of the needed heirs (4:9-10, 13), Boaz typifies Christ, who redeemed the church and made the church His counterpart for His increase (Eph. 5:23-32; John 3:29-30). See note 121 in ch. 3.
Ru 2:21 field
The field of the God-promised good land (vv. 2-3) typifies the all-inclusive Christ, who is the source of all the spiritual and divine products as the life supply to God’s elect (Phil. 1:19b; see note 71 in Deut. 8).
Ru 2:22a glean  -   Lev. 19:9; 23:22; Deut. 24:19
God’s ordinance concerning the reaping of the harvest was that Jehovah would bless the children of Israel if they left the corners of their fields and the gleanings for the poor, the sojourners, the orphans, and the widows (Lev. 19:9-10; 23:22; Deut. 24:19). This not only shows the lovingkindness of God and how great, fine, and detailed He is, but also shows the rich produce of the good land.
In the ordinance of the law given by God through Moses regarding reaping, the size of the corners of the field was not specified. The size depended on the landlord’s faith in Jehovah. The larger one’s faith in Jehovah was, the larger the corners of the field would be (cf. 2 Cor. 9:6-10). Boaz obeyed this ordinance, thereby testifying to his great faith in Jehovah. Under God’s sovereignty this ordinance seems to have been written for one person — Ruth.
Ru 2:31 gleaned
Ruth, as one who had returned to God from her heathen background, exercised her right to partake of the rich produce of the inheritance of God’s elect. According to her threefold status as a sojourner, a poor one, and a widow, Ruth exercised her right to glean the harvest. Her gleaning was not her begging but her right. Ruth, a Moabitess, a heathen sinner alienated from God’s promises (Deut. 23:3; cf. Eph. 2:12), being given the right to partake of the gleanings of the harvest of God’s elect typifies the Gentile “dogs” who are privileged to partake of the crumbs under the table of the portion of God’s elect children (Matt. 15:21-28 and note 271). Just as Ruth had the right to enjoy the produce of the good land after coming into the land, so we have the right to enjoy Christ as our good land after believing in Him. Ruth’s exercising of her right to gain and possess the produce of the good land signifies that, after believing into Christ and being organically joined to Him, we must begin to pursue Christ in order to gain, possess, experience, and enjoy Him (Phil. 3:7-16).
This book portrays the way, the position, the qualification, and the right of sinners to participate in Christ and to enjoy Christ. According to God’s ordination we who have believed into Christ have been qualified and positioned to claim our right to enjoy Christ (Col. 1:12). This means that we do not need to beg God to save us; rather, we can go to God to claim His salvation for ourselves. We have the position, the qualification, and the right to claim salvation from God. This is the highest standard of receiving the gospel.
Ru 2:4a bless  -   cf. Psa. 129:7-8; 2 Thes. 3:16
Ru 2:6a Moabite  -   Ruth 1:22
Ru 2:81 Listen
Lit., Have you not heard, my daughter?
Ru 2:91 I
Lit., Have I not charged…?
Ru 2:12a wings  -   Psa. 17:8; 36:7; 63:7; Matt. 23:37; Luke 13:34
Ru 2:16a bundles  -   Deut. 24:19
Ru 2:181 Ruth
Lit., She.
Ru 2:201a kinsmen  -   Lev. 25:25; Ruth 3:9, 12; 4:1, 14
The word here could also be translated redeemers. So throughout the book.
Ruth Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ru 3:11 I
Lit., shall I not seek…? Naomi realized that the proper person to be Ruth’s husband was Boaz. Hence, Naomi acted as a “middleman” in order to prod Ruth to get married. The genuine ministers of the New Testament are like Naomi in that they stir up the believers in Christ to love Him as their Bridegroom that they may take Him as their Husband (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7; 21:9-10).
Ru 3:12a resting  -   cf. Ruth 1:9
Or, security. After coming to the good land and exercising her right to enjoy its rich produce, Ruth still needed a home so that she could have rest. This kind of rest could come only through marriage. Although we may be saved and love the Lord, in order to have a home for our rest we must marry the Lord Jesus, taking Him as our Husband, and live together with Him in the church as our home (Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23-32). Christ as our Husband and the church as our home are a complete unit for us to have a proper and adequate rest.
Considered in the light of Matt. 1:5-6 and 16, Ruth’s seeking for her rest was actually for the continuation of the genealogy to bring in Christ.
Ru 3:2a relative  -   Ruth 2:1
Ru 3:51 say
Some MSS read, say to me.
Ru 3:71 came
Ruth’s approaching Boaz in vv. 7-9 was based on God’s ordination (4:5; Lev. 25:25; Deut. 25:5-10). Boaz’s response to Ruth indicates that he was high in morality (vv. 8-11), that he was pure in conduct (v. 14), that he was wise in decision (vv. 12-13), and that he was faithful in keeping God’s ordination (v. 13; 4:9-10).
Ru 3:9a cloak  -   cf. Ezek. 16:8
Ru 3:91 kinsman
See note 121.
Ru 3:111 assembly
Lit., gate.
Ru 3:11a worthy  -   Prov. 12:4; 31:10
Ru 3:121a kinsman  -   Ruth 2:20; 4:1
In this verse the first kinsman of Ruth’s husband, Ruth’s closest kinsman, typifies our natural man, who cannot and will not redeem us from the indebtedness (sin) of our old man (4:1-6). Boaz, the second kinsman of Ruth’s husband, typifies Christ, who partook of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14) to be our Kinsman and who can redeem us from our sin, recover the lost right of our natural man in God’s creation, be our new Husband in His divine organic union with us, and take us as His counterpart for His increase (4:7-13). Cf. note 42 in ch. 1.
Ru 3:13a duty  -   Deut. 25:5
Ru 3:151 he
Some MSS and ancient versions read, she.
Ru 3:171 said
Some MSS read, said to me.
Ruth Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ru 4:1a kinsman  -   Ruth 2:20; 3:9, 12
Ru 4:11 Boaz
Lit., he.
Ru 4:12 friend
Lit., such a one, so and so.
Ru 4:2a elders  -   Prov. 31:23
Ru 4:4a redeem  -   Lev. 25:25; Jer. 32:7-8
Ru 4:51 you
Following some ancient versions (cf. v. 10); the Hebrew text reads, you acquire it also of Ruth the Moabitess.
Ru 4:5a name  -   Deut. 25:5-6
Ru 4:7a sandal  -   Deut. 25:7-10
Ru 4:11a Rachel  -   Gen. 29:30– 30:24; 35:16-18
Ru 4:121a Perez  -   Gen. 38:29; 1 Chron. 2:4; Matt. 1:3
See Matt. 1:3a and notes.
Ru 4:131 Ruth
By gaining a husband and a home for a resting place, Ruth received a reward, a gain, for God’s economy. First, she gained a redeeming husband, who typifies Christ as the redeeming Husband of the believers (Rom. 7:4). Second, Ruth was redeemed by the capable Boaz from the indebtedness of her dead husband (vv. 1-9), typifying the believers being redeemed by Christ, the almighty, omnipotent Redeemer, from the sin of their old man, their old husband. Third, Ruth became a crucial ancestor in the genealogy that brought in the royal house of David for the producing of Christ (vv. 13b-22; Matt. 1:5-16). This indicates that Ruth had an all-inclusive and all-extensive gain with the position and capacity to bring Christ into the human race. She is thus a great link in the chain that is bringing Christ to every corner of the earth. Finally, Ruth also continued the line of the God-created humanity for the incarnation of Christ (Matt. 1:17). Through Boaz and Ruth the line of humanity that was for Christ’s incarnation was prolonged.
Ruth, a Gentile and even a Moabitess, was joined to God’s holy elect and became an heir to partake of the holy inheritance through her union with the one of the holy elect who redeemed her. This is not merely a type but a complete prefigure of the Gentile sinners’ being brought, with Israel, God’s elect, into the divine inheritance through the redemption of Christ in their union with Him (Acts 26:16-18; Eph. 3:6).
Ru 4:18a Now  -   vv. 18-22: 1 Chron. 2:5, 9-15; Matt. 1:3-6
Ru 4:181 generations
The books of Joshua and Judges show us God’s move in His economical Spirit, the Spirit of power (Acts 1:8), whereas the book of Ruth portrays God’s move in His essential Spirit, the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). As illustrated by Samson, the judges moved in God’s Spirit of power but not in His Spirit of life. God’s Spirit came upon Samson (Judg. 13:25; 14:6, 19), but Samson and many of the judges had no control over their indulgence in lust (see notes 161 in ch. 8, 51 in ch. 9, and 11 in ch. 14 of Judges). In contrast, the book of Ruth is a book not of power but of life. Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz were persons in life to the uttermost. Not one judge was a forefather of Christ. It was Ruth and Boaz who participated in keeping the line in humanity to bring Christ forth out of eternity into time, to bring Christ forth with His divinity into humanity. This shows that only life can bring Christ forth. Only life can keep the lineage, maintaining the thin line to bring God into humanity, to produce Christ, to minister Christ, and to supply the entire human race with Christ. This was done not by the judges but by Ruth and Boaz, who took the way of life.
Ru 4:221 David
The succeeding books of the Old Testament are a long record of the generations for the prolonged line of humanity for the incarnation of Christ (Matt. 1:17).
< Ruth • 1 Samuel Outline >
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1 & 2 Samuel Outline
I.   The history concerning Samuel — 1 Sam. 1:1 — 8:22
A.   His origin and birth — 1:1-20
B.   His youth — 1:21 — 2:11
C.   His relationship with the stale and waning Aaronic priesthood — 2:12 — 7:17
1.   Observing the deterioration of the degraded Aaronic priesthood — 2:12-26
2.   Realizing God’s severe judgment on the house of Eli — 2:27 — 3:21
3.   Knowing the misfortune of the Ark of God under the superstition of the degraded and rotten Aaronic priesthood — 4:1 — 7:2
4.   Serving as a priest and as a judge over Israel — 7:3-17
D.   The ending of Samuel’s ministry — 8:1-22
II.   The history concerning Saul — 1 Sam. 9:1 — 15:35
A.   Saul’s origin — 9:1-2
B.   God’s anointing Saul as king — 9:3 — 10:27
C.   Saul’s conquest of the Ammonites — 11:1-13
D.   Samuel’s reminder to Israel — 11:14 — 12:25
E.   Saul’s conquest of the Philistines — 13:1 — 14:52
F.   Saul’s disobedience in his conquest of the Amalekites — 15:1-35
III.   The history concerning David — 1 Sam. 16:1 — 2 Sam. 24:25
A.   Prepared by God to be a man according to the heart of God — 1 Sam. 16:1 — 2 Sam. 1:27
1.   Chosen by God — 1 Sam. 16:1-10
2.   Trained by God in humility — 1 Sam. 16:11
3.   Anointed — 1 Sam. 16:12-23
4.   Tested and approved in trusting God and defeating Goliath — 1 Sam. 17:1-58
5.   Persecuted and tried by Saul — 1 Sam. 18:1 — 2 Sam. 1:27
a.   Jonathan’s love of David — 1 Sam. 18:1-5
b.   Saul’s envy of David — 1 Sam. 18:6-9
c.   Saul’s device to kill David — 1 Sam. 18:10 — 20:42
d.   David’s being supplied with the holy bread of the Presence and with the sword of Goliath by the priest Ahimelech — 1 Sam. 21:1-9
e.   David’s fleeing from Saul and going to Achish the king of Gath — 1 Sam. 21:10-15
f.   David’s staying in the cave of Adullam, in Mizpeh of Moab, and in the forest of Hereth of Judah — 1 Sam. 22:1-5
g.   Saul’s killing Ahimelech the priest and his family because of David — 1 Sam. 22:6-23
h.   David’s defeating the Philistines and staying in Keilah — 1 Sam. 23:1-12
i.   David’s remaining in the wilderness of Ziph — 1 Sam. 23:13-28
j.   David’s remaining in the strongholds of En-gedi — 1 Sam. 23:29 — 24:2
k.   Saul’s falling into the hand of David but David not killing him — 1 Sam. 24:3-22
l.   Samuel’s death — 1 Sam. 25:1a
m.   David’s dealing with Nabal and Abigail — 1 Sam. 25:1b-44
n.   Jehovah’s delivering Saul into the hand of David but David not killing him — 1 Sam. 26:1-25
o.   David’s escaping to and staying in the land of the Philistines — 1 Sam. 27:1 — 28:2
p.   Saul’s tragic ending pretold by Samuel — 1 Sam. 28:3-25
q.   David’s being sovereignly kept away by God from joining the Philistines’ camp to fight against Israel — 1 Sam. 29:1-11
r.   David’s conquering the Amalekites and capturing their captives — 1 Sam. 30:1-31
s.   Saul’s end — 1 Sam. 31:1-13
t.   David’s reaction — 2 Sam. 1:1-27
B.   Crowned by the people to be the king for the kingdom of God on the earth — 2 Sam. 2:1 — 24:25
1.   Crowned by the people — 2:1 — 5:25
a.   Crowned by the tribe of Judah — 2:1 — 4:12
b.   Crowned by all the other tribes — 5:1-5
c.   Established by God as king with his kingdom exalted for the sake of God’s people Israel — 5:6-25
2.   David’s care for God’s habitation on the earth — 6:1 — 7:29
a.   Taking care of the habitation of the Ark of God — 6:1-23
b.   Wanting to build a house for God — 7:1-29
3.   David’s conquest over his enemies for the strengthening of his kingdom — 8:1 — 10:19
a.   David’s conquests over the Philistines, Moab, Zobah, Syria, and Edom — 8:1-14
b.   David’s reign in justice and righteousness — 8:15-18
c.   David’s showing kindness to Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan — 9:1-13
d.   David’s conquests over Ammon and Syria — 10:1-19
4.   David’s indulging sin — 11:1-27
5.   God’s punishing condemnation — 12:1-15a
6.   God’s punishing judgment on David — 12:15b — 20:26
a.   The death of the child born of Uriah’s wife — 12:15b-23
b.   The birth of Solomon — 12:24-25
c.   David’s conquest over the children of Ammon — 12:26-31
d.   The incest of Amnon the son of David with his sister Tamar — 13:1-22
e.   The murder of Amnon by Absalom the son of David — 13:23-39
f.   Joab’s device to bring Absalom back — 14:1-24
g.   Absalom’s beauty and his children — 14:25-27
h.   Absalom’s seeking to see his father David — 14:28-33
i.   Absalom’s revolt — 15:1 — 19:8a
j.   The peaceful settlements in David’s kingdom after Absalom’s revolt — 19:8b-43
k.   The rebellion of Sheba — 20:1-22
l.   The re-establishment of the kingdom of David — 20:23-26
7.   The last stage of David’s kingship — 21:1 — 24:25
a.   David’s taking care of the famine for the people — 21:1-14
b.   David’s conquest over the Philistines — 21:15-22
c.   David’s thanking and praising to God in a song — 22:1-51
d.   David’s last words — 23:1-7
e.   David’s mighty men — 23:8-39
f.   David’s last sin — 24:1-25
1 Samuel >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
1 Samuel Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1S 1:11 Now
The content of 1 and 2 Samuel is the history of Samuel, Saul, and David, which continues the history of the judges and which is a crucial part of the central line of Israel’s history. Samuel was a Levite by birth and a Nazarite by consecration, who became a priest, a prophet, and a judge. He initiated the prophethood to replace the waning priesthood in the speaking for God, terminated the judgeship, and brought in the kingship. Saul was a king among Israel in a negative way, and David was a king in a positive way.
The central thought of 1 and 2 Samuel is that the fulfillment of God’s economy needs man’s cooperation in the principle of incarnation, as illustrated by the history of Samuel’s mother, Hannah, of Samuel, and of David, in the positive sense, and by the history of Eli and of Saul, in the negative sense. Such a cooperation is related to the personal enjoyment of the good land, which typifies the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8). First and 2 Samuel, as a continuation of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, give the details concerning the enjoyment of the God-given good land. The types in these two books show us how the New Testament believers can and should enjoy Christ as their God-allotted portion (Col. 1:12) for the establishing of God’s kingdom, which is the church (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17). These types indicate that our being right with God is a condition for our enjoyment of Christ. In 1 and 2 Samuel the good land enjoyed by those who cooperated with God became the kingdom of God, in which the cooperators reigned as kings. Likewise, in our cooperation with God we need to enjoy Christ to such an extent that our enjoyment of Christ becomes the kingdom of God, in which we reign in life with Christ (Rom. 5:17).
1S 1:1a Elkanah  -   1 Chron. 6:34
1S 1:2a no  -   cf. Gen. 16:1; 25:21; 29:31; Judg. 13:2; Luke 1:7
1S 1:3a year  -   cf. Exo. 23:14; Deut. 16:16; Luke 2:41
1S 1:3b Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:24
1S 1:51 Jehovah
Under Eli the old Aaronic priesthood had become stale and waning (2:12-29), and God desired to have a new beginning for the accomplishing of His economy. For Samuel’s birth God initiated things behind the scenes. On the one hand, He shut up Hannah’s womb; on the other hand, He prepared Peninnah to provoke Hannah (vv. 5-7). This forced Hannah to pray that the Lord would give her a male child. Hannah’s prayer, in which she made a vow to God (vv. 10-11), was initiated not by Hannah but by God. God was pleased with Hannah’s prayer and her promise and He opened her womb. Hannah conceived, bore a child, and named him Samuel (v. 20). Hence, actually no human being was the origin of Samuel. God was the real origin, who motivated His people sovereignly and secretly.
1S 1:71 the
Lit., she.
1S 1:91a temple  -   1 Sam. 3:3
Some MSS read, house.
1S 1:101 prayed
On the human side, Samuel’s origin was his God-worshipping parents, especially his God-seeking mother with her prayer (cf. note 51). In the midst of the chaos of degraded Israel, Elkanah and Hannah remained in the line of life ordained by God for His eternal purpose (see note 93, par. 2, in Gen. 2). The line of life is a line that brings forth Christ for the enjoyment of God’s people (see note 181 in Ruth 4), that on earth God may have His kingdom, which is the church as the Body of Christ (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17; Eph. 1:22b-23), the very organism of the Triune God. Because of God’s moving in her, Hannah could not have peace until she prayed for a son. Hannah’s prayer was an echo, a speaking out, of the heart’s desire of God. It was a human cooperation with the divine move for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy. God could motivate Hannah as a person who was one with Him in the line of life. As long as God can gain such a person, He has a way on earth.
1S 1:11a vow  -   Num. 6:2
1S 1:11b look  -   Luke 1:48
1S 1:11c no  -   Num. 6:5; Judg. 13:5
1S 1:111 razor
Hannah’s prayer indicates that God’s move with His answer to Hannah’s prayer (vv. 19-20) was to produce a Nazarite who was absolute for the fulfilling of God’s desire. A Nazarite is one who is consecrated to God absolutely, one who takes God as the Head, considering God his Husband, and one who has no interest in the enjoyment of worldly pleasures (Num. 6:1-5 and notes). Even before he was born, Samuel was consecrated by his mother to be such a person.
1S 1:19a remembered  -   Gen. 30:22
1S 1:201 Samuel
Meaning heard of God, or asked for of God.
1S 1:22a bring  -   Luke 2:22
1S 1:24a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3
1S 1:27a requested  -   1 Sam. 2:20
1S 1:281 lent
Lit., made him a request to Jehovah. At the time of Eli, God was poor as far as the priesthood was concerned, so Hannah lent Samuel to the Lord. When the situation is abnormal, the Lord becomes poor with respect to His administration, and there is the need for someone to voluntarily lend himself to the Lord.
1 Samuel Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1S 2:1a And  -   vv. 1-10: cf. Luke 1:46-53
1S 2:1b horn  -   Psa. 75:10; 92:10; 148:14; 18:2
1S 2:11c salvation  -   Psa. 9:14; 35:9; Isa. 12:2-3
In her prayer Hannah praised God for His salvation accomplished through His marvelous deeds. Her prayer was related to God’s move in His economy and indicated that she realized something concerning God’s economy.
1S 2:2a holy  -   Lev. 11:44; Rev. 15:4
1S 2:2b rock  -   Deut. 32:31; 2 Sam. 22:32
1S 2:3a knowledge  -   Psa. 139:1-6; Rom. 11:33
1S 2:31 And
Some MSS read, Though actions are not weighed.
1S 2:3b weighed  -   Dan. 5:27; Prov. 16:2
1S 2:5a hungry  -   Psa. 107:9; Luke 1:53
1S 2:5b barren  -   Psa. 113:9; Isa. 54:1
1S 2:6a alive  -   Deut. 32:39; 2 Kings 5:7
1S 2:6b brings  -   Isa. 26:19
1S 2:7a lifts  -   Job 5:11; Psa. 75:7; Luke 1:52
1S 2:8a He  -   Psa. 113:7-8
1S 2:8b throne  -   James 2:5; cf. Rev. 3:21
1S 2:8c earth  -   Job 38:4-6; Psa. 24:2; 102:25
1S 2:9a strength  -   Psa. 33:16; cf. Zech. 4:6
1S 2:10a judge  -   Psa. 96:10, 13; 98:9
1S 2:10b horn  -   Psa. 89:24; 1 Sam. 2:1; Luke 1:69
1S 2:111a ministered  -   1 Sam. 2:18; 3:1
Samuel was of the tribe of Levi (1 Chron. 6:33-38) but was not of the house of Aaron, the family of the priests ordained by God. Samuel ministered to the Lord as one who was a priest not by birth but by the Nazarite vow. At the time of Samuel the priesthood of the house of Aaron was utterly fallen. God, however, foresaw the situation. Besides His ordaining the house of Aaron to be the priests, He made a supplement — the Nazarite vow in Num. 6 — in case there should be an inadequacy in the ordained priests. When the house of Aaron fell, this supplement was put into practical use. Samuel became a priest by being consecrated, separated, and lent to God (1:11, 28). See note 21 in Num. 6.
1S 2:112 Eli
Samuel grew up under the custody of the elderly Eli (1:25). In his youth Samuel ministered to Jehovah before Eli (vv. 11b, 18-19), being taught by Eli the way to minister to God. While Samuel was learning, he observed the deterioration of the degraded Aaronic priesthood (vv. 12-17, 22-25). This did not weaken Samuel in his future Nazarite priesthood; rather, it became a constant warning to him throughout his priestly service.
1S 2:12a know  -   Judg. 2:10; Jer. 2:8; Rom. 1:28
1S 2:13a due  -   Deut. 18:3
1S 2:15a fat  -   Lev. 3:16; 7:23, 25, 31
1S 2:18a ephod  -   Exo. 28:4; 2 Sam. 6:14; 1 Chron. 15:27
1S 2:211 And
Many MSS read, for.
1S 2:21a grew  -   Judg. 13:24; 1 Sam. 2:26; 3:19; Luke 1:80; 2:40
1S 2:231 Why
Eli attempted to say something to his sons (vv. 23-25), but it seems that he was somewhat loose and that his exhortation was not very strong, faithful, desperate, and absolute (v. 29). Eli’s sons brought the curse upon themselves, and Eli did not restrain them (3:13).
1S 2:241 that
Or, that I hear; you are making Jehovah’s people transgress.
1S 2:26a grow  -   cf. Luke 2:52
1S 2:27a revealed  -   Exo. 3:2; 4:27
1S 2:271 as
Some MSS omit the words as slaves.
1S 2:28a priest  -   Exo. 28:1; Num. 18:1-7
1S 2:30a forever  -   Exo. 27:21; 29:9
1S 2:31a cut  -   1 Sam. 4:18
1S 2:32a distress  -   1 Sam. 4:11; Psa. 78:59-64
1S 2:321 I
Lit., He.
1S 2:331 by
Some MSS read, as men.
1S 2:351a priest  -   Heb. 2:17
Samuel was a priest not by birth but by God raising him up particularly. As a priest Samuel replaced and, in a sense, terminated the stale Aaronic priesthood. He did not rebel against the house of Aaron, and he did not usurp anything of the house of Aaron. As Samuel was growing, God arranged the environment to perfect him and to build up his capacity to do everything that was needed for God to change the age. God used Samuel to change the age not through rebellion but through the way of divine revelation. Samuel was a man of revelation (3:21), and he did everything according to what he saw. Furthermore, he was a man according to God’s heart — a copy, a duplicate, of God’s heart. As such a person, he would never do anything rebellious.
1S 2:352 heart
Samuel’s whole being and person, not just his doing, living, and work, were according to God. Samuel’s being and God’s heart were one. For this reason it is not too much to say that Samuel, a man according to God, was the acting God on earth. God’s mind was Samuel’s consideration. He had no other thought, consideration, or thinking. His living and working were for the carrying out of whatever was in God’s heart. As a consequence, Samuel was one who turned the age.
1S 2:35b house  -   cf. 1 Sam. 25:28; 1 Kings 11:38
1S 2:35c he  -   cf. Num. 27:21-22
1S 2:353 go
Samuel anointed Saul and David to be kings (10:1; 16:1, 13). This was according to God’s ordination that Samuel should go before His anointed continually to supervise the king, observing what the king was doing. This indicates that Samuel, the acting God on earth, was greater than the king. Samuel could be qualified to such an extent because for many years God had been perfecting him uniquely for His economy.
1 Samuel Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1S 3:1a ministered  -   1 Sam. 2:11, 18
1S 3:11b rare  -   1 Sam. 3:7, 21; cf. Amos 8:11-12; Psa. 74:9
See note 201.
1S 3:2a dim  -   1 Sam. 4:15; Gen. 27:1; cf. Deut. 34:7
1S 3:3a lamp  -   Exo. 27:20-21; Lev. 24:2-3; 2 Chron. 13:11
1S 3:10a stood  -   Acts 23:11
1S 3:111 I
First, God’s severe judgment on the house of Eli was prophesied by a man of God (2:27-36). Then, this severe judgment was confirmed by the word of Jehovah spoken through Samuel (vv. 4-18). God’s purpose in telling Eli through Samuel of the coming judgment might have been to make an unforgettable impression on this young priestly boy. This was God’s wisdom.
1S 3:11a tingle  -   2 Kings 21:12; Jer. 19:3
1S 3:12a spoken  -   1 Sam. 2:30-36
1S 3:19a fall  -   cf. 2 Kings 10:10
1S 3:20a Samuel  -   Acts 13:20; 3:24
1S 3:201 prophet
Samuel was established by God to speak the word of God to replace the teaching of the word of God by the old priesthood. In the priesthood the first thing that a priest should do is speak for God. The breastplate and the Urim and the Thummim worn by the high priest were the means used by God to speak to His people (see Exo. 28:30 and notes). In the degradation of the priesthood God’s speaking was almost lost (v. 1). Thus, God needed to raise up a living person, a prophet, to speak for Him. In God’s ordination Samuel is counted as the first prophet because he brought in the prophethood for God’s speaking (Acts 3:24; 13:20; Heb. 11:32).
1S 3:21a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3
1 Samuel Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1S 4:31a Ark  -   Num. 10:33-35; Josh. 4:7; cf. Jer. 3:16
In their degradation Israel was foolish because they did not trust in God directly. Rather, they trusted in the systems ordained by God. In their situation they should have repented, made a thorough confession, and returned to God from their idols, and they should have inquired of God as to what He wanted them to do. Instead, having no heart for God’s desire or for His eternal economy, they exercised their superstition to trust in the Ark based on the past victories they had experienced through the move of the Ark (Num. 10:35; Josh. 6). But this time their situation was not right. In their degradation they offended God to the uttermost, and God left them. Eventually, instead of the Ark saving Israel, the Ark itself was captured (v. 11a).
The Ark typifies Christ as the embodiment of God (see note 101 in Exo. 25). It also signifies Christ as the presence of the Triune God with His people for the carrying out of His economy to establish His kingdom on earth. To bring out the Ark was to bring out the presence of God (v. 4). The move of the Ark was a picture of God’s move on the earth in Christ as His embodiment (Num. 10:33-36; see note 11 in Psa. 68). During Israel’s fighting with the Philistines, God did not intend to move. The children of Israel had no thought of or concern for God’s economy, and their bringing out the Ark indicated that they were usurping God, even forcing Him to go out with them for their safety, peace, rest, and profit. In principle, we do the same thing whenever we pray for our prosperity without any consideration of God’s economy. Instead of usurping God, we should pray, live, and be persons according to God’s heart and for His economy.
1S 4:3b Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; 1 Sam. 1:3
1S 4:8a struck  -   Exo. 7:5; 9:14; Psa. 78:43-51
1S 4:11a Ark  -   Psa. 78:60-61
1S 4:111 taken
At this point the Ark was separated from the tabernacle. This abnormal situation persisted for many years, until a full recovery was realized by the people of Israel. In the first stage of its history, the Ark was in the tabernacle (Exo. 40:21); this is the normal situation. Then, due to Israel’s degradation, the Ark was captured by the Philistines and was separated from the tabernacle (4:11 — 6:1), leaving the tabernacle an empty vessel without the proper content. Later, the Ark was recovered and brought first to the house of Abinadab at Kiriath-jearim, where it remained for twenty years (6:2 — 7:2), and then to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, where it stayed for three months (2 Sam. 6:1-11). Still, the Ark was apart from the tabernacle, which was at Shiloh (1:24; Josh. 18:1). David moved the Ark from Obed-edom’s house to a tent that he had prepared for it in his own city, at Mount Zion, the choicest place in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:12-19; 1 Chron. 15:1 — 16:1). This was an improved situation, but the Ark was still in an improper place; it had not been returned to the tabernacle. Finally, after Solomon finished the building of the temple in Jerusalem, the Ark was moved into the Holy of Holies in the temple (1 Kings 8:1-11). This was a full recovery of the normal situation.
The history of the Ark and the tabernacle prefigures the history of the church. In the first stage of its history, the church was the expression of Christ, and Christ was the content of the church. This is the normal condition. However, in the second stage the church became degraded and lost the reality and presence of Christ (cf. Rev. 3:20). It became an empty vessel, an outward expression without the inward reality. After this, beginning from the second century a number of “Obed-edoms” were raised up, who had the Lord’s presence (the Ark) but did not have the proper church life as the expression of Christ (the tabernacle). Later, other believers who, like David, cared for God’s interests attempted to practice the church life according to their own choice, not according to God’s revelation. These believers had Christ, but they had Him with an improper practice of the church life (David’s tent in Jerusalem). Today in His recovery the Lord is working to restore the normal condition of Christ within the proper church as His expression.
1S 4:11b died  -   1 Sam. 2:34; Psa. 78:64
1S 4:15a set  -   1 Kings 14:4; cf. 1 Sam. 3:2
1S 4:181 Eli
Lit., he.
1S 4:182 died
As a priest Eli had the right to enjoy the top portion of all the good land allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel (Num. 18). However, in his loose disciplining of his two evil sons (2:28-29), Eli disregarded the priesthood. This caused the tragedy of the ending of his history, the terminating of his enjoyment of the good land, and the fading of the priesthood in the divine revelation, that is, in the speaking for God (3:1).
1S 4:211 Ichabod
Meaning no glory. Glory is God Himself (Acts 7:2). Because the Ark of Jehovah, which bore God’s presence among His people, had been captured, the glory had departed from Israel (Psa. 78:61).
1S 4:212 meaning
Or, saying.
1 Samuel Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1S 5:41 only
Following the ancient versions; the Hebrew reads, only Dagon was left to him.
1S 5:6a hand  -   Exo. 7:4; 9:3; 1 Sam. 5:7, 9, 11; Psa. 32:4
1S 5:61 Jehovah
Jehovah dealt heavily with the Philistines for the protection of His Ark (vv. 1-12). For God to protect His Ark meant that He was protecting His holiness (cf. 6:19-20).
1S 5:9a hand  -   Deut. 2:15; 1 Sam. 7:13; 12:15
1 Samuel Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
1S 6:3a trespass  -   cf. Lev. 5:15-16
1S 6:41 tumors
The Philistines, who were very close neighbors of Israel, typify the people of the religious world. Their worldly way in handling the things of God is shown in the trespass offering that they offered to God and in their use of a cart and two milch cows to send the Ark back to Israel (vv. 7-12). Cf. note 72 in 2 Sam. 6.
1S 6:5a hand  -   cf. 1 Sam. 5:6-7, 9, 11
1S 6:6a harden  -   cf. Exo. 7:13; 8:15; 9:34-35; 10:1
1S 6:61 the
Lit., them.
1S 6:7a cart  -   2 Sam. 6:3; cf. 1 Chron. 15:2; 2 Chron. 35:3; Num. 7:9
1S 6:181 great
Some MSS read, great Abel.
1S 6:19a looked  -   Num. 4:20; Exo. 19:21
1S 6:191 among
Some MSS add, and fifty thousand men.
1S 6:21a Kiriath-jearim  -   Josh. 18:14; 1 Chron. 13:5-6
1 Samuel Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
1S 7:11a house  -   2 Sam. 6:3
See note 111, par. 1, in ch. 4.
1S 7:31 spoke
The picture in vv. 2-6 shows a people returning to God, and a man, Samuel, who was one with God on earth. As the acting God on earth, the representative of the very God in heaven to rule over His people on earth, Samuel began to minister.
Samuel, who was by nature a Levite born of one of the descendants of the great rebel Korah (1 Chron. 6:33-38; cf. Num. 16:1-33), ministered in five statuses: (1) as a Nazarite consecrated to God absolutely for God’s fulfillment of His economy, a volunteer to replace any official and formal serving ones of God (1:11, 28a); (2) as a priest faithful to act on behalf of God, even to appoint and establish kings for the divine government on earth (2:35); (3) as a prophet established by God (3:20) to assist the kings appointed by him as a priest, to speak the word of God to replace the teaching of the word of God by the old priesthood; (4) as a judge (vv. 15-17) established by God to carry out God’s governmental administration, to replace the judging of the people by the old priesthood; and (5) as a man of prayer who prayed for God’s elect, the children of Israel (vv. 3-14; 8:6; 15:11b; cf. 12:23), that they would be kept in the way of God, would be one with God, would not be ensnared by the idols of the nations, and would enjoy God as Ebenezer (v. 12) that God’s desire in His will regarding His elect might be fulfilled. God admitted to Jeremiah that Samuel, like Moses, was a man standing before Him for His people (Jer. 15:1). Moses was a priest (Exo. 29), a prophet (Deut. 18:15, 18), and a judge (Exo. 18:13, 16), and he always prayed for God’s people (e.g., Exo. 32:11-13, 31-32). In these matters Samuel was the same. In the Old Testament only Moses and Samuel were qualified to participate fully in the priesthood, the prophethood, and the judgeship.
1S 7:3a returning  -   Deut. 30:2-10; 1 Kings 8:48; Isa. 55:7; Hosea 6:1; Joel 2:12
1S 7:3b remove  -   Gen. 35:2; Josh. 24:23; Judg. 10:16
1S 7:3c serve  -   Deut. 6:13; 10:20; 13:4; Matt. 4:10; Luke 4:8
1S 7:9a Samuel  -   Psa. 99:6; Jer. 15:1
1S 7:121 Ebenezer
Meaning the stone of help.
1S 7:13a hand  -   1 Sam. 5:9; 12:15
1 Samuel Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
1S 8:1a judges  -   cf. Judg. 8:22-23
1S 8:31 not
The unjust ways of Samuel’s sons were contrary to their father’s pure and just way in his whole life (12:3-5) and gave the people of Israel cause to ask Samuel to appoint a king to judge them like all the nations (vv. 4-5). Hence, the sons of Samuel should not be reckoned judges among the people of Israel (Acts 13:20), and their father Samuel should be considered the last judge.
The only defect in Samuel’s history was that he appointed his two sons as judges among the children of Israel. Humanly, Samuel made a mistake in this matter, but this mistake helped God to manage the situation among His people by bringing in the kingship for the fulfillment of His economy.
1S 8:3a gain  -   cf. Exo. 18:21
1S 8:3b bribes  -   cf. Exo. 23:8; Deut. 16:19; Psa. 15:5
1S 8:5a king  -   cf. Deut. 17:14; 1 Sam. 8:19-20; Hosea 13:10; Acts 13:21
1S 8:51 nations
Israel had been chosen by God to be a particular people on earth; therefore, they should have been absolutely different in every respect from the nations. Yet they took the way of following the nations by rejecting God as their King.
1S 8:7a not  -   cf. Exo. 16:8
1S 8:71b rejected  -   1 Sam. 10:19
By insisting on having a king, the elect of God turned from God to a man. In doing this they not only displeased Samuel (v. 6) but also offended God by rejecting Him as their King and thus replacing Him (v. 7; 12:12). This was a great wickedness, a great evil, in the sight of God (12:17, 19). Whatever we may do, no matter how good, “spiritual,” and even scriptural it may be, it is evil in the sight of God if we reject Him as our Head, our Husband, and our King. It is not a matter of right or wrong; it is a matter of whether we take God as our King or reject Him. It is for this reason that Samuel as a Nazarite kept his hair long, covering his head with God Himself as his authority (1:11; Num. 6:5).
1S 8:9a practice  -   cf. 1 Sam. 8:11-18; 10:25
1S 8:11a sons  -   cf. 1 Sam. 14:52
1S 8:13a daughters  -   cf. Deut. 17:17
1S 8:14a fields  -   cf. Ezek. 46:18
1S 8:14b vineyards  -   1 Kings 21:6-7
1S 8:221 appoint
Samuel turned the age in God’s administration from the age of the priesthood to the age of the prophethood with the kingship. This was a great thing not only in the history of Israel but even in the history of mankind. Moses was a priest, and after him God’s administration was centered on the priesthood (see note 211 in Num. 27). The priesthood was to minister the word of God to His people and to exercise the authority of God over His people. The Aaronic priesthood failed God in these two things. At the waning of the God-ordained priesthood, God began a new age in raising up Samuel, a young Nazarite, as a faithful priest to replace the waning priesthood (2:35). God ministered His word to His elect by establishing Samuel as a prophet in the uplifted prophethood (3:20-21), and He exercised His authority over His elect by raising up Samuel as a judge (7:15-17). Samuel, as the last judge, terminated the judgeship, and, as the new priest, brought in the kingship, which was strengthened by the uplifted prophethood, in which Samuel was established as the first prophet (Acts 3:24; 13:20; Heb. 11:32). Through Samuel God set up a governmental administration in His economy so that He could fulfill His promises to all the forefathers and accomplish His desire according to His economy, that is, to have a line of genealogy to bring Christ to the earth.
At the end of his ministry, by the time that Saul was raised up to be the king in Israel (9:3 — 10:27), Samuel had reached the highest position, only God being above him. Thus, as God’s representative, Samuel was the acting God. However, God did not have any intention to make a kingdom of Samuel. Rather, God determined to raise up David, through whom He intended to build up a kingdom (2 Sam. 7:12-13). God had the intention that Christ would be born in the lineage of David. Hence, God raised up Samuel and prepared him for His use to do whatever was necessary to gain, through David, the proper genealogy of Christ. As a Nazarite according to his mother’s vow, Samuel had no heart for anything other than God and His elect. He could be used by God to carry out His economy because he was a man according to God and God’s heart, having no self-seeking nor any thought of self-gain.
1S 8:22a king  -   Hosea 13:11
1 Samuel Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
1S 9:1a Kish  -   1 Sam. 14:51; 1 Chron. 8:33; 9:39; Acts 13:21
1S 9:11 wealth
Or, valor.
1S 9:21 Saul
Meaning asked for.
1S 9:6a man  -   Judg. 13:6; 1 Sam. 2:27; 1 Kings 13:1
1S 9:9a seer  -   1 Chron. 29:29; 2 Kings 17:13; 2 Sam. 15:27
1S 9:12a high  -   1 Sam. 10:5; 1 Kings 3:2-4
1S 9:13a blesses  -   1 Tim. 4:5; Mark 6:41; Matt. 26:26
1S 9:16a anoint  -   1 Sam. 15:1; cf. Acts 13:2
1S 9:16b cry  -   Exo. 2:23-24; 3:7, 9
1S 9:17a Here  -   cf. 1 Sam. 16:12
1S 9:21a Benjaminite  -   Psa. 68:27
1S 9:21b smallest  -   Judg. 6:15; 1 Sam. 15:17
1S 9:24a thigh  -   Exo. 29:22, 17; Lev. 7:32-33; Ezek. 24:4
1 Samuel Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
1S 10:1a oil  -   1 Sam. 9:16; 16:13; 2 Sam. 2:4; 1 Kings 1:34, 39; 2 Kings 9:1, 3, 6; Psa. 89:20
1S 10:11b Jehovah  -   Acts 13:21
Lit., Has not Jehovah anointed…? God’s purpose in anointing Saul to be king was to discipline, to train, the children of Israel by means of a negative king, so that they would learn that replacing God with a king was not a matter of blessing (v. 19; 12:17, 19).
1S 10:1c inheritance  -   Deut. 32:9; Psa. 78:71
1S 10:2a Rachel’s  -   Gen. 35:19-20
1S 10:51 the
Or, Gibeah-haelohim.
1S 10:5a high  -   1 Sam. 9:12
1S 10:6a Spirit  -   1 Sam. 16:13; cf. Num. 11:25; Judg. 3:10; 14:6, 19
1S 10:6b prophesy  -   1 Sam. 19:23-24
1S 10:8a Gilgal  -   1 Sam. 11:14-15; 13:4
1S 10:8b seven  -   1 Sam. 13:8
1S 10:101 the
Or, Gibeah.
1S 10:10a Spirit  -   1 Sam. 11:6; 1 Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 24:20
1S 10:11a among  -   1 Sam. 19:24
1S 10:18a brought  -   Judg. 6:8-9; 1 Sam. 12:8
1S 10:191 No
Some MSS read, to Him.
1S 10:19a king  -   1 Sam. 8:5-6, 19-20; 12:12
1S 10:19b before  -   Josh. 24:1; 1 Sam. 10:25
1S 10:20a tribes  -   Josh. 7:14-18; Num. 17:2
1S 10:201b taken  -   1 Sam. 14:41-42
Saul was made king by the casting of lots (vv. 20-23a) to prove that he was chosen by God. Cf. note 21 in Josh. 14.
1S 10:22a asked  -   1 Sam. 23:2; Num. 27:21
1S 10:251a practice  -   Deut. 17:14-20; 1 Sam. 8:9, 11-18
Moses gave the law to the children of Israel, but before Samuel came they did not have a set of bylaws, a constitution. Samuel taught the people the bylaws, the constitution, the practice, the customs, the manners, the ordinances, and the rules of how to practice the kingdom of God on earth.
1 Samuel Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
1S 11:1a Nahash  -   1 Sam. 12:12
1S 11:1b Jabesh-gilead  -   Judg. 21:8; 1 Sam. 31:11; 2 Sam. 2:4-5
1S 11:6a Spirit  -   1 Sam. 10:10
1S 11:7a pieces  -   cf. Judg. 19:29; 20:6
1S 11:12a Shall  -   cf. 1 Sam. 10:27
1S 11:14a Gilgal  -   1 Sam. 10:8; 13:4
1S 11:141 kingdom
Although Saul had been victorious over the Ammonites and appeared to be an attractive, humble person, Samuel’s reminder to Israel (11:14 — 12:25) indicates that according to Samuel’s realization the nation of Israel was still not the kingdom of God on earth. Rather, it was Saul’s personal monarchy. The kingdom of God came first under David, when God’s throne was established in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 7:12-16; cf. Matt. 21:43).
1 Samuel Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
1S 12:1a said  -   1 Sam. 8:5
1S 12:2a old  -   1 Sam. 8:1, 5
1S 12:31 Here
Samuel’s reminder implies a comparison between Samuel and Saul. His reminding Israel of his integrity (vv. 1-5) implied that Saul would pervert justice and take away many things from the people. Samuel had this kind of foresight concerning Saul.
1S 12:3a defrauded  -   cf. Num. 16:15; Acts 20:33; 2 Cor. 7:2
1S 12:6a brought  -   Micah 6:4
1S 12:8a Egypt  -   Gen. 46:5-7
1S 12:8b cried  -   cf. Exo. 2:22-23; 3:9
1S 12:8c sent  -   Exo. 3:10; 4:14-16
1S 12:8d brought  -   Judg. 6:8; 1 Sam. 10:18
1S 12:9a Sisera  -   Judg. 4:2
1S 12:9b Philistines  -   Judg. 10:7; 13:1
1S 12:9c Moab  -   Judg. 3:12
1S 12:10a cried  -   Judg. 3:9; 10:10
1S 12:11a Jerubbaal  -   Judg. 6:14, 32
1S 12:111 Bedan
The Septuagint and other ancient versions read, Barak.
1S 12:11b Jephthah  -   Judg. 11:1
1S 12:11c Samuel  -   1 Sam. 7:9-13
1S 12:12a Nahash  -   1 Sam. 11:1
1S 12:121 No
Here Samuel was rebuking Israel for leaving God as her Husband and King. Because they wanted a king as a replacement for God, they would not have the proper enjoyment of the good land.
1S 12:12b King  -   cf. 1 Sam. 8:7; Judg. 8:23
1S 12:13a you  -   cf. 1 Sam. 10:24
1S 12:13b king  -   Hosea 13:11; Acts 13:21
1S 12:18a thunder  -   Exo. 9:23
1S 12:21a vain  -   Deut. 32:21; Jer. 14:22; Acts 14:15; Hab. 2:18
1S 12:22a people  -   Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 1 Pet. 2:9
1S 12:231 sin
Samuel considered that not praying for God’s people was a sin against Jehovah. God’s elect are His peculiar, personal possession as a treasure (Exo. 19:5). This book shows that Samuel’s heart was only for God’s elect. Samuel’s caring for God’s elect was a crucial aspect of the history concerning Samuel, which was in sharp contrast to the history concerning Saul.
1 Samuel Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
1S 13:11 was…years
The Hebrew text lacks the exact age of Saul; the Septuagint lacks the entire verse.
1S 13:8a seven  -   1 Sam. 10:8
1S 13:9a burnt  -   cf. 1 Sam. 10:8
1S 13:91 offered
Saul’s disobedience was exposed in the matter of his sinful offering (vv. 8-12). Saul was disobedient, yet he still offered something to God. In the war with the Philistines Saul’s intention to act on his own for the building up of his own monarchy within the building up of God’s kingdom was exposed. Saul’s disobedience, which was observed by Samuel, meant that he had given up God; it resulted in his losing his kingship (vv. 13-15a; 15:28).
1S 13:14a sought  -   Acts 13:22; cf. 1 Sam. 15:28
1S 13:141 man
Referring to David, to whom God would shift the kingship (16:1-13; 28:17). See note 221 in Acts 13.
1S 13:19a no  -   cf. 2 Kings 24:14
1S 13:211 And
The form and meaning of the Hebrew text of this verse is uncertain.
1S 13:221 not
On the day of battle, only Saul and Jonathan his son had a sword and a spear. In such a poor situation, God was their unique weapon. Saul, Jonathan, and the people of Israel fought the battle by God.
1 Samuel Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
1S 14:3a Ahitub  -   1 Sam. 22:9, 11, 20
1S 14:3b Ichabod’s  -   1 Sam. 4:21
1S 14:3c Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1
1S 14:3d ephod  -   1 Sam. 2:28
1S 14:11a holes  -   1 Sam. 13:6; 14:22; Judg. 6:2
1S 14:131 the
Lit., they.
1S 14:151 very
Lit., panic of God.
1S 14:18a Ark  -   1 Sam. 7:1
1S 14:21a Hebrews  -   cf. 1 Sam. 29:3-4
1S 14:22a hidden  -   1 Sam. 13:6; 14:11
1S 14:25a honey  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 8:8; cf. Judg. 14:8
1S 14:26a honey  -   Exo. 3:8; Num. 13:27; Mark 1:6
1S 14:331a blood  -   cf. Lev. 3:17; 7:26-27
See note 171 in Lev. 3.
1S 14:35a altar  -   cf. 1 Sam. 7:17
1S 14:36a priest  -   Num. 27:21
1S 14:41a lot  -   1 Sam. 10:20-21; Acts 1:24-26; cf. Josh. 7:16-18
1S 14:441 to
Some MSS omit, to me.
1S 14:49a Jonathan  -   1 Chron. 8:33; 9:39; cf. 1 Sam. 31:2
1S 14:49b Merab  -   1 Sam. 18:17, 19
1S 14:49c Michal  -   1 Sam. 18:20, 27; 19:12, 17; 2 Sam. 6:20-21, 23; 21:8
1S 14:50a Abner  -   2 Sam. 2:8
1S 14:52a took  -   1 Sam. 8:11
1 Samuel Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
1S 15:1a anoint  -   1 Sam. 9:16
1S 15:21a Amalekites  -   Exo. 17:8-16; Deut. 25:17-19
In typology the Amalekites signify the flesh — the fallen man (Exo. 17:8-16; Gen. 6:3a; Rom. 3:20a). God created man, not the flesh, but man became fallen and eventually became flesh. In the entire universe God’s unique enemy, in a practical sense, is not Satan but the flesh (Rom. 8:7). The flesh, the fallen man, is altogether one with Satan (Matt. 16:23) and is used by Satan to fight against God (Gal. 5:17).
1S 15:31a utterly  -   Num. 21:2; Josh. 6:21
Lit., devote (i.e., to destruction). So throughout this chapter. In charging Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, God wisely put Saul in a situation in order to test him.
1S 15:6a Kenites  -   Judg. 1:16; 4:11; 1 Sam. 27:10; 30:29
1S 15:8a Agag  -   Num. 24:7; Esth. 3:1
1S 15:91 spared
Saul and the people’s sparing the best of the things that should have been utterly destroyed portrays the fact that, experientially, we treasure the good aspects of our flesh, our natural life, and do not wish to destroy them. Whatever we do apart from God’s grace and apart from depending on Him and trusting in Him is of the flesh. Every aspect of the flesh, whether good or evil, is in opposition to grace and God’s kingship and keeps us from enjoying Christ (cf. Gal. 3:3; 5:2-4, and notes). Therefore, we must hate every aspect of the flesh and be absolute in destroying the flesh.
1S 15:11a repent  -   Gen. 6:6; 1 Sam. 15:35
1S 15:11b cried  -   cf. 1 Sam. 15:35; 16:1
1S 15:121 monument
Saul built this monument not for the kingdom of God but for the remembrance of himself because of the victory that made both him and his monarchy rich. This was a strong indication that Saul’s intention was to build up his monarchy within God’s kingdom.
1S 15:12a for  -   cf. 1 Sam. 14:52
1S 15:151 sacrifice
God did not want the best of the cattle to be used as a sacrifice to Him. In His eyes, such a thing was evil (v. 19). Anything presented and sacrificed to God that has its source in the flesh is evil in His sight. To offer something to God according to our own will is presumptuous and is sinful. See Gen. 4:5 and note; Matt. 7:22-23 and note 231.
1S 15:17a small  -   cf. 1 Sam. 9:21
1S 15:22a burnt  -   Psa. 50:8-9; Isa. 1:11-13; Jer. 7:22-23; Micah 6:6-8; Hosea 6:6; Matt. 9:13; Mark 12:33; Heb. 10:6-9
1S 15:231 rebellion
Doing good according to our own will is actually an act of rebellion against God’s throne and His economy (see note 161 in Exo. 17). Saul’s disobedience exposed him as being a rebel against God and an enemy of God (see note 171 in ch. 22). What Saul did was as evil as contacting an evil spirit for the purpose of carrying out the intention of that spirit, not God’s intention. Samuel’s word in this verse indicates that sparing the good aspects of our flesh involves us with evil spirits and idolatry.
1S 15:232a rejected  -   1 Sam. 13:14; 15:26
If we are not absolute in dealing with our flesh, we, like Saul, will lose our kingship. This account of Saul’s disobedience is a warning, indicating that we should not do anything in the kingdom of God by our flesh. In everything we must crucify our flesh with its passions and its lusts (Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:13) and faithfully exercise our spirit to follow the Lord, who is the life-giving, consummated Spirit indwelling our spirit and who is one with us (1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 5:16, 25). Then the kingdom of God, the church as the intrinsic Body of Christ (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17; Eph. 1:22-23), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2), will be built up.
1S 15:271 Saul
Lit., he.
1S 15:28a torn  -   1 Sam. 28:17-18; cf. 1 Kings 11:30-31
1S 15:281 associate
This associate was David (16:1-13; 28:17).
1S 15:29a repent  -   Num. 23:19; Ezek. 24:14
1S 15:301 Saul
Lit., he.
1S 15:35a mourned  -   1 Sam. 16:1
1S 15:35b repented  -   1 Sam. 15:11
1 Samuel Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
1S 16:1a mourn  -   1 Sam. 15:35
1S 16:1b rejected  -   1 Sam. 15:23, 26
1S 16:1c oil  -   1 Sam. 10:1
1S 16:11 go
God had abandoned Saul, rejecting him from being king over Israel (15:23). Immediately thereafter God sent Samuel to contact a youth, David, who was perhaps only fifteen years old. This shows that while Saul was usurping and even abusing the God-given kingship in order to build up his own monarchy, God was aware of the situation and was doing something marvelous to prepare the right person. God went secretly to David, the great grandson of Boaz and Ruth (Ruth 4:21-22).
David was created and prepared by God to be a man according to the heart of God (13:14a). Otherwise, he could not have been such a man. However, as shown in chs. 16 — 17, he still needed to pass through the process of being chosen, trained, anointed, tested, and approved. David was thirty years old when he began to reign (2 Sam. 5:4). After David was anointed by Samuel, he was tested for about fifteen years. In particular, he was bothered and troubled by Saul. Eventually, David passed the test and was approved by God.
1S 16:1d Jesse  -   1 Sam. 16:11-13; 17:12; Ruth 4:22; 1 Chron. 28:4; Matt. 1:6
1S 16:1e Bethlehemite  -   1 Sam. 20:6; Micah 5:2; Luke 2:4
1S 16:12 selected
Lit., seen.
1S 16:5a Sanctify  -   Num. 11:18; Josh. 3:5; 7:13
1S 16:6a Eliab  -   1 Sam. 17:13
1S 16:7a appearance  -   Matt. 22:16; James 2:1
1S 16:7b heart  -   1 Kings 8:39; 1 Chron. 28:9; Psa. 7:9; Prov. 21:2; Jer. 11:20; 17:10; 20:12; Luke 16:15; Acts 1:24
1S 16:8a Abinadab  -   1 Sam. 17:13
1S 16:81 Samuel
Lit., he.
1S 16:101 seven
David was the eighth son of Jesse (17:12, 14), the number eight signifying resurrection. In the scriptural sense, David was one who was in resurrection; hence, he was the one whom God could use.
1S 16:111a youngest  -   1 Sam. 17:14
After being chosen by God (vv. 1-10), David was trained by God in humility through his circumstances. God purposely caused him to be born as the youngest one, the last one, to make him humble. Furthermore, David was assigned the lowly task of going to the field to take care of the sheep.
1S 16:11b sheep  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:8; Psa. 78:70-71
1S 16:12a ruddy  -   1 Sam. 17:42
1S 16:13a anointed  -   cf. 1 Sam. 10:1; Psa. 89:20
1S 16:13b Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10; 1 Sam. 10:6, 10; cf. Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18
1S 16:131 rushed
The rushing of the Spirit upon David was a confirmation of Samuel’s anointing David with oil. It was related not to life for salvation but to power for outward activities (see notes 493 in Luke 24 and 21 in Acts 2). The Spirit of Jehovah departing from Saul and an evil spirit from Jehovah terrorizing him (v. 14) were a further confirmation that God had chosen someone other than him.
1S 16:13c upon  -   cf. Isa. 11:1-2; 42:1; Matt. 3:16
1S 16:132 David
Meaning beloved.
1S 16:14a departed  -   1 Sam. 18:12; 28:15-16
1S 16:16a play  -   1 Sam. 16:23; 18:10; 19:9; cf. 2 Kings 3:15
1S 16:191 David
Under God’s sovereignty David was selected to become an attendant of Saul. God put these two together to live and work together very closely. Eventually, however, the closer they became, the more Saul hated David. Simply by being put together, Saul and David became a test to each other. Saul was exposed as a person who was opposite to God’s will, and David was manifested to be a man according to God’s heart (13:14a). This was God’s sovereignty.
1S 16:19a sheep  -   1 Sam. 16:11; 17:15, 34
1S 16:211 entered
Lit., stood before him. So also in the next verse.
1S 16:212 Saul
Lit., he.
1S 16:23a played  -   1 Sam. 16:16
1 Samuel Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
1S 17:4a Goliath  -   1 Sam. 17:23; 21:9; cf. 2 Sam. 21:19; 1 Chron. 20:5
1S 17:12a Jesse  -   1 Sam. 16:1
1S 17:12b eight  -   1 Sam. 16:10-11; cf. 1 Chron. 2:13-15
1S 17:13a Eliab  -   1 Sam. 16:6, 8-9; cf. 1 Chron. 2:13
1S 17:14a youngest  -   1 Sam. 16:11
1S 17:15a sheep  -   1 Sam. 16:19
1S 17:16a forty  -   cf. Matt. 4:2
1S 17:23a Goliath  -   1 Sam. 17:4
1S 17:251 free
I.e., free from tax and duty.
1S 17:26a uncircumcised  -   Judg. 14:3; 1 Sam. 14:6; 17:36
1S 17:26b living  -   Deut. 5:26; Josh. 3:10
1S 17:37a delivered  -   cf. 2 Tim. 4:17; Heb. 11:33
1S 17:42a youth  -   1 Sam. 17:33; 16:12
1S 17:45a name  -   Psa. 20:5-7; 124:8
1S 17:46a know  -   Josh. 4:24; 1 Kings 18:36
1S 17:47a saves  -   1 Sam. 14:6; 2 Chron. 14:11; 20:15
1S 17:50a prevailed  -   Heb. 11:34
1S 17:511 the
Lit., his.
1S 17:51a sword  -   1 Sam. 21:9
1S 17:58a Jesse  -   1 Sam. 16:1
1 Samuel Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
1S 18:1a loved  -   1 Sam. 19:1; 20:17; 2 Sam. 1:26
1S 18:3a covenant  -   1 Sam. 20:8; 23:18; 2 Sam. 21:7
1S 18:7a Saul  -   1 Sam. 21:11; 29:5
1S 18:81 angry
Saul became angry and envious of David, showing that he was a person fully in the flesh and absolutely for himself. In contrast to Saul, David knew only to behave and to have his being according to God’s heart. He had no feeling for himself; rather, he knew only to labor and conduct himself for God’s people and God’s kingdom.
1S 18:10a evil  -   1 Sam. 16:14; 19:9
1S 18:10b prophesied  -   cf. 1 Sam. 19:23-24
1S 18:11a strike  -   1 Sam. 19:10; 20:33
1S 18:111 fled
When Saul attempted to kill him, David did not fight or do anything to avenge himself (cf. Rom. 12:19; Eph. 4:26); he only fled. Avenging and fighting back are matters of the flesh. Those who practice the things of the flesh have no share in the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21). In the kingdom of God the flesh must be crucified (Gal. 5:24).
1S 18:12a with  -   1 Sam. 16:13, 18; 18:28
1S 18:13a went  -   Num. 27:17; Deut. 31:2; 1 Sam. 18:16; 2 Sam. 5:2
1S 18:17a wife  -   1 Sam. 17:25
1S 18:17b battles  -   1 Sam. 25:28
1S 18:18a I  -   2 Sam. 7:18; cf. Exo. 3:11; Judg. 6:15
1S 18:19a Merab  -   2 Sam. 21:8
1S 18:25a hand  -   1 Sam. 18:17
1S 18:27a Michal  -   2 Sam. 3:14
1 Samuel Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
1S 19:1a delight  -   1 Sam. 18:1
1S 19:21 Jonathan
As Saul was seeking to kill David, Jonathan and Michal helped him flee (20:1-42; 19:11-18). In everything related to David, God was sovereign. As the sovereign One, God is above everything, behind everything, and in everything. In His sovereignty God prepared David to be a man according to His heart for His kingdom. He also prepared Saul to perfect David by testing him and putting him on trial, and He prepared Jonathan, the son of Saul, and Michal, the daughter of Saul who became David’s wife, to help David to flee from Saul. Apart from the help rendered by Jonathan and Michal, David could not have endured being persecuted and tried by Saul. Both Jonathan and Michal typify Christ as God’s provision for us to suffer God’s trial and God’s testing.
When David was persecuted by Saul, he did not react in a negative way, nor did he complain, condemn, criticize, or oppose. Using the New Testament term, he was always under the cross. He bore the cross every day under any kind of situation (Luke 9:23). The strength for us to bear the cross is the power of Christ’s resurrection (Phil. 3:10), which is Christ Himself as the resurrection (John 11:25). Christ as the resurrection lives in us to bear the cross within us (Gal. 2:20).
1S 19:5a struck  -   cf. 1 Sam. 17:49-51
1S 19:9a evil  -   1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10
1S 19:10a strike  -   1 Sam. 18:11; 20:33
1S 19:101 Saul
Lit., he.
1S 19:10b escaped  -   Heb. 11:34
1S 19:12a down  -   Josh. 2:15; Acts 9:25; 2 Cor. 11:33
1S 19:13a teraphim  -   Gen. 31:19
1S 19:18a Samuel  -   1 Sam. 7:17
1S 19:20a Spirit  -   cf. 1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6
1S 19:23a prophesied  -   1 Sam. 10:6
1S 19:24a among  -   1 Sam. 10:11-12
1 Samuel Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
1S 20:3a lives  -   Ruth 3:13; 1 Sam. 20:21; 25:26; 2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6
1S 20:5a new  -   1 Sam. 20:18; cf. Num. 10:10; 28:11
1S 20:6a Bethlehem  -   1 Sam. 16:1, 4; Micah 5:2; Luke 2:4
1S 20:8a covenant  -   1 Sam. 18:3; 20:16; 2 Sam. 21:7
1S 20:13a with  -   Josh. 1:5, 17; 1 Sam. 17:37
1S 20:14a lovingkindness  -   2 Sam. 9:1, 3, 7
1S 20:17a loved  -   1 Sam. 18:1-3
1S 20:22a arrows  -   1 Sam. 20:37
1S 20:23a between  -   1 Sam. 20:42
1S 20:26a not  -   Lev. 7:21; 11:24-28; 15:5
1S 20:28a Bethlehem  -   1 Sam. 20:6
1S 20:33a strike  -   1 Sam. 18:11; 19:10
1S 20:36a arrow  -   1 Sam. 20:22
1S 20:42a between  -   1 Sam. 20:23
1S 20:421 David
Lit., he.
1 Samuel Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
1S 21:1a And  -   vv. 1-6: Matt. 12:3-4; Mark 2:25-26; Luke 6:3-4
1S 21:1b Nob  -   1 Sam. 22:19
1S 21:4a bread  -   Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:5-9
1S 21:61 bread
See Matt. 12:1-4 and note 32.
1S 21:7a Doeg  -   1 Sam. 22:9, 22; Psa. 52 title
1S 21:9a sword  -   1 Sam. 17:51
1S 21:10a Achish  -   1 Sam. 27:2
1S 21:11a Saul  -   1 Sam. 18:7; 29:5
1S 21:13a madman  -   Psa. 34 title
1 Samuel Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
1S 22:1a cave  -   2 Sam. 23:13; 1 Chron. 11:15; Psa. 57 title; 142 title; Heb. 11:38
1S 22:3a Moab  -   cf. Ruth 1:1-4; 4:17
1S 22:5a Gad  -   2 Sam. 24:11, 18-19; 1 Chron. 21:9-19; 29:29; 2 Chron. 29:25
1S 22:7a fields  -   cf. 1 Sam. 8:11-14
1S 22:8a covenant  -   1 Sam. 18:3
1S 22:9a Doeg  -   1 Sam. 21:7; Psa. 52 title
1S 22:10a inquired  -   1 Sam. 21:1-9; cf. 1 Sam. 23:2, 4; 30:8; 2 Sam. 5:19, 23; Num. 27:21
1S 22:16a father’s  -   cf. 1 Sam. 2:31-33; 3:13-14
1S 22:171 kill
Saul’s killing of Ahimelech and his family (vv. 6-23; cf. Psa. 52 title) shows that Saul was utterly rebellious toward God. He had no subordination to God, nor did he take God as his King and Head. He was constituted with rebellion, which is as evil as the worship of idols (15:23). All rebellion is a matter of presumption, a matter of daring to do things without God.
1S 22:20a Abiathar  -   1 Sam. 23:6, 9; 2 Sam. 15:24
1 Samuel Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
1S 23:2a inquired  -   1 Sam. 22:10; 30:8; 2 Sam. 2:1; 5:19, 23
1S 23:6a ephod  -   1 Sam. 14:3; 30:7
1S 23:71 delivered
Lit., alienated; the meaning of the Hebrew text is uncertain.
1S 23:14a wilderness  -   Psa. 63 title; Heb. 11:38
1S 23:17a king  -   1 Sam. 15:28; 20:31; 24:20
1S 23:18a covenant  -   1 Sam. 18:3
1S 23:19a Ziphites  -   1 Sam. 26:1; Psa. 54 title
1S 23:19b hill  -   Heb. 11:38
1 Samuel Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
1S 24:1a wilderness  -   Heb. 11:38
1S 24:3a cave  -   Psa. 57 title; 142 title
1S 24:4a give  -   1 Sam. 24:10; 26:8
1S 24:5a smote  -   2 Sam. 24:10
1S 24:61 Jehovah
David feared God and did not dare to overthrow the divine order arranged by God. In God’s kingdom there is a divine order of authority. Saul was not a self-appointed king; he was the king appointed and anointed by God (10:1). Saul was therefore the divine authority, and David feared God in this. David kept the God-ordained order of authority among God’s elect. By so doing, David laid a good foundation for himself to be the king of God’s elect in the coming days. If he had rebelled against Saul, he would have been to the people an example of rebellion against the God-ordained, appointed king. Cf. notes 251 in Gen. 9 and 93 in Jude.
1S 24:6a anointed  -   1 Sam. 12:3; 26:9-11; 2 Sam. 1:14
1S 24:101 I
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, it (my eye) spared you. What David did here was exactly what the New Testament teaches concerning not repaying evil for evil but overcoming evil with good (Rom. 12:17, 21).
1S 24:11a hunt  -   1 Sam. 23:14, 23; 26:20
1S 24:12a judge  -   Gen. 16:5; Judg. 11:27
1S 24:14a flea  -   1 Sam. 26:20
1S 24:161 wept
David’s God-fearing and God-honoring life subdued the reckless Saul and stopped Saul from pursuing him (vv. 16-22). In his relationship with Saul, David is a very good pattern for the New Testament believers in the church life as God’s kingdom (Rom. 14:17).
1S 24:20a king  -   1 Sam. 23:17
1S 24:21a swear  -   2 Sam. 21:7
1 Samuel Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
1S 25:1a Samuel  -   1 Sam. 28:3
1S 25:11 died
Samuel died a peaceful death after he had properly and fully enjoyed his portion in the God-promised good land. Because he was faithful in all his statuses and offices (see note 31, par. 2, in ch. 7), Samuel enjoyed the good land, a type of Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8), in every way and in every sense throughout his entire life. His enjoyment of the land exceeded that of everyone else in the Old Testament.
Samuel became a priest, a prophet, and a judge to usher in the Davidic kingdom for the accomplishing of God’s economy on the earth. He therefore established the kingdom of God and wrote all the regulations concerning the kingdom of God (10:25). Although Samuel was disappointed with Saul’s kingship (15:35), he died with the encouraging expectation of the Davidic kingdom, a type of the kingdom of God. This was a comfort to him.
1S 25:1b mourned  -   Gen. 50:10; Num. 20:29; Deut. 34:8
1S 25:6a peace  -   1 Chron. 12:18; Matt. 10:13; Luke 10:5
1S 25:10a servants  -   1 Sam. 22:8
1S 25:13a with  -   1 Sam. 30:10, 24
1S 25:16a wall  -   cf. Job 1:10
1S 25:18a two  -   cf. 2 Sam. 16:1
1S 25:211 It
David’s word here indicates that he was offended by Nabal. In this matter David did not pass the test. He bore the bigger cross under the persecution by Saul (see note 21, par. 2, in ch. 19), but in this small cross involving Nabal he failed. It is often through the small crosses that the flesh is exposed.
1S 25:22a leave  -   1 Sam. 25:34
1S 25:251 Nabal
Meaning fool.
1S 25:26a withheld  -   1 Sam. 25:33-34, 39; cf. 2 Sam. 12:9; Gen. 20:6
1S 25:26b avenging  -   cf. Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30
1S 25:28a sure  -   1 Kings 11:38; 1 Sam. 2:35
1S 25:28b fights  -   1 Sam. 18:17
1S 25:29a bound  -   Psa. 66:9
1S 25:30a ruler  -   1 Sam. 13:14
1S 25:34a withheld  -   1 Sam. 25:26
1S 25:34b left  -   1 Sam. 25:22
1S 25:39a withheld  -   1 Sam. 25:26
1S 25:391b wife  -   cf. 1 Sam. 25:43-44
In David’s taking Abigail and Ahinoam (v. 43) as his wives, David’s weakness in the matter of sex was manifested. The root of his later failure in murdering Uriah and taking Bath-sheba (2 Sam. 11) was manifested here. See note 41 in 2 Sam. 11.
1S 25:43a Ahinoam  -   2 Sam. 3:2-3; 1 Chron. 3:1
1S 25:43b wives  -   1 Sam. 27:3; 30:5; 2 Sam. 2:2
1S 25:44a Michal  -   2 Sam. 3:13-14
1 Samuel Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
1S 26:1a Ziphites  -   1 Sam. 23:19; Psa. 54 title
1S 26:2a three  -   1 Sam. 24:2
1S 26:5a Abner  -   1 Sam. 14:50; 17:55; 2 Sam. 2:8
1S 26:6a Abishai  -   2 Sam. 2:18; 3:30; 16:9; 19:21; 1 Chron. 2:16
1S 26:7a spear  -   1 Sam. 26:11, 16; cf. 1 Sam. 18:10-11; 19:9-10
1S 26:8a delivered  -   1 Sam. 24:4, 18
1S 26:91a anointed  -   1 Sam. 24:6, 10; 26:11, 16, 23; 2 Sam. 1:16
See note 61 in ch. 24.
1S 26:12a deep  -   cf. Isa. 29:10; Gen. 2:21; 15:12
1S 26:191 driven
David considered that to remain in the good land was the greatest blessing and that to be driven out of the good land and to go to another land to serve other gods was a curse. David expected to remain in the good land and share in Jehovah’s inheritance and serve Him. His sincere trust in God and his faithful walk with God qualified him fully to enjoy the good land to a high level, even up to the kingship according to God’s heart with a kingdom that became the kingdom of God on the earth. David was one with God. He and God had only one kingdom (cf. note 161 in 2 Sam. 7). Such a one enjoyed the good land, a type of Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8), to the uttermost.
1S 26:19a inheritance  -   2 Sam. 14:16; 20:19
1S 26:20a flea  -   1 Sam. 24:14
1S 26:23a delivered  -   1 Sam. 26:8, 11
1 Samuel Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
1S 27:21 crossed
David was the most skillful and experienced fighter and could have been useful to Saul in utterly destroying the Philistines, but because of Saul’s selfishness and envy, Saul would not use David to accomplish this but instead persecuted David. Because Saul wanted to do away with him, David was forced to flee to the country that was Israel’s greatest enemy.
1S 27:2a Achish  -   1 Sam. 21:10; cf. 1 Kings 2:39-40
1S 27:3a wives  -   1 Sam. 25:42-43
1S 27:6a Ziklag  -   Josh. 15:31; 1 Sam. 30:1; 1 Chron. 12:1
1S 27:8a Geshurites  -   Josh. 13:2
1S 27:8b Amalekites  -   1 Sam. 15:7-8
1S 27:101 Against
Some MSS read, Have you not; others, Where have you.
1 Samuel Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
1S 28:3a Samuel  -   1 Sam. 25:1
1S 28:3b mediums  -   Lev. 19:31; 20:27; Deut. 18:10-11; 1 Sam. 28:9; cf. 2 Kings 21:6
1S 28:6a inquired  -   1 Sam. 14:37
1S 28:6b Urim  -   cf. Exo. 28:30; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8
1S 28:71 medium
Samuel had warned Saul that his rebellion was like the sin of divination (15:23). Here Saul practiced divination, which involves contact with evil spirits and is worse than idol worship.
1S 28:8a Consult  -   Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:11; Acts 16:16
1S 28:131 some
Or, a god; Heb. elohim.
1S 28:15a turned  -   1 Sam. 16:14; 18:12
1S 28:17a Jehovah  -   1 Sam. 15:28
1S 28:18a not  -   1 Sam. 15:11
1S 28:191a you  -   cf. 1 Sam. 31:8
On Saul’s tragic end (31:1-5), see note 61 in ch. 31.
1S 28:24a fattened  -   Gen. 18:7-8; Luke 15:23
1 Samuel Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
1S 29:1a gathered  -   1 Sam. 28:1
1S 29:3a years  -   1 Sam. 27:7; 28:1-2
1S 29:41 Make
In this chapter David was sovereignly kept by God from joining the Philistines’ camp to fight against Israel. Thus, he was not involved in the destruction of Saul, his sons (including Jonathan), and the men of Israel (31:1-5). His returning to the land of the Philistines also enabled him to rescue his two wives and the families of his men, who had been captured by the Amalekites (ch. 30).
All the small things in this record show that God was working in a detailed way to carry out His economy. God exercised His sovereignty to rescue David from his dilemma. God did this not only for David’s sake but also for the sake of His economy. Jesus Christ is called the son of David (Matt. 1:1), indicating that David was very much related to God’s becoming a man to fulfill what had been determined in eternity past (Micah 5:2). Without David there would not have been the genealogy through which Christ as God became a man to be one with mankind and to thereby accomplish God’s economy.
1S 29:5a Saul  -   1 Sam. 18:7; 21:11
1S 29:9a angel  -   2 Sam. 14:17, 20; 19:27; Zech. 12:8; Gal. 4:14
1 Samuel Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
1S 30:1a Ziklag  -   1 Sam. 27:6
1S 30:1b Amalekites  -   1 Sam. 15:2-3
1S 30:5a wives  -   1 Sam. 25:42-43
1S 30:6a stoning  -   Exo. 17:4; Num. 14:10
1S 30:7a Abiathar  -   1 Sam. 23:6, 9
1S 30:81a inquired  -   1 Sam. 23:2; 2 Sam. 5:19
David was a person who trusted in God and walked according to God’s sovereignty in all his trials (17:36-37; 23:14-16). While he was under trial, he sought God’s leading (vv. 6b-10). He was one with God and behaved according to God.
1S 30:12a spirit  -   cf. Judg. 15:19; Luke 8:55
1S 30:201 spoil
By fighting the Amalekites David gained many rich spoils. While he was becoming rich, Saul was being defeated. David was flourishing, but Saul was diminishing, even to death (31:1-5).
1S 30:21a two  -   1 Sam. 30:10
1S 30:24a stays  -   1 Sam. 25:13
1S 30:24b share  -   Num. 31:27; Josh. 22:8
1 Samuel Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
1S 31:1a Now  -   vv. 1-13: 1 Chron. 10:1-12
1S 31:21a Jonathan  -   cf. 1 Sam. 14:49; 1 Chron. 8:33
Jonathan realized that David would be the king (23:17), but instead of going to follow David according to God’s will, Jonathan remained with his father because of his natural affection toward his father. In type, Jonathan’s following David would have signified our following Christ and our giving Him the preeminence (Col. 1:18). Because of his failure Jonathan suffered the same fate as his father and died with him in the battle. Thus, Jonathan lost the proper and adequate enjoyment of his portion in the good land promised by God.
1S 31:4a afraid  -   cf. 2 Sam. 1:14
1S 31:6a Saul  -   1 Sam. 28:19
1S 31:61 died
Saul’s tragic end was altogether due to his not being properly related to God’s economy. God, wanting to build up His kingdom among His chosen people, had brought Saul into His economy, but instead of participating in God’s economy and cooperating with it, Saul was selfish and usurped God’s kingdom to build up his own monarchy. With David the situation was entirely different. When David was anointed by Samuel, he had a clear understanding that he had been assigned by God to be the king, but he did not have any thought about kingship. After Saul was appointed to be the king, he was immediately filled with thoughts of the kingship, including how his son would succeed him (20:31). In this, Saul was selfish and wrong to the uttermost. Eventually, God gave Saul up and cut him off, tearing the kingdom away from him (15:28). Because Saul was given up by God, he was left alone, like an orphan, having no provision of help when trouble came. Because of Saul’s selfishness, the people of Israel suffered defeat and were slaughtered in the fight against the Philistines, and Saul and his sons were killed. Saul’s ambition to have the kingdom for himself and for his son, with his jealousy of David, annulled and ended his enjoyment of the good land promised by God. The collective death of Saul, his three sons, and his armor bearer was God’s fair judgment on the one who had rebelled against Him, had usurped Him, and had become His enemy (1 Chron. 10:13-14).
From Saul’s tragic end we should learn the lesson of crucifying our flesh and denying our selfishness — our self-interest and self-seeking (Gal. 5:24; Matt. 16:24; Phil. 2:3). The record of Saul’s terrible end is a strong warning to all who serve in the kingdom of God not to do a separate work within the kingdom of God or to abuse anything in the kingdom. We should not be like Saul, trying to build up a “monarchy” for ourselves; rather, we should all do one unique work to build up the kingdom of God, the Body of Christ.
1S 31:10a Bethshan  -   2 Sam. 21:12
1S 31:11a Jabesh-gilead  -   Judg. 21:8; 1 Sam. 11:1; 2 Sam. 2:4-5
< 1 Samuel • 2 Samuel Outline >
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© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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1 & 2 Samuel Outline
I.   The history concerning Samuel — 1 Sam. 1:1 — 8:22
A.   His origin and birth — 1:1-20
B.   His youth — 1:21 — 2:11
C.   His relationship with the stale and waning Aaronic priesthood — 2:12 — 7:17
1.   Observing the deterioration of the degraded Aaronic priesthood — 2:12-26
2.   Realizing God’s severe judgment on the house of Eli — 2:27 — 3:21
3.   Knowing the misfortune of the Ark of God under the superstition of the degraded and rotten Aaronic priesthood — 4:1 — 7:2
4.   Serving as a priest and as a judge over Israel — 7:3-17
D.   The ending of Samuel’s ministry — 8:1-22
II.   The history concerning Saul — 1 Sam. 9:1 — 15:35
A.   Saul’s origin — 9:1-2
B.   God’s anointing Saul as king — 9:3 — 10:27
C.   Saul’s conquest of the Ammonites — 11:1-13
D.   Samuel’s reminder to Israel — 11:14 — 12:25
E.   Saul’s conquest of the Philistines — 13:1 — 14:52
F.   Saul’s disobedience in his conquest of the Amalekites — 15:1-35
III.   The history concerning David — 1 Sam. 16:1 — 2 Sam. 24:25
A.   Prepared by God to be a man according to the heart of God — 1 Sam. 16:1 — 2 Sam. 1:27
1.   Chosen by God — 1 Sam. 16:1-10
2.   Trained by God in humility — 1 Sam. 16:11
3.   Anointed — 1 Sam. 16:12-23
4.   Tested and approved in trusting God and defeating Goliath — 1 Sam. 17:1-58
5.   Persecuted and tried by Saul — 1 Sam. 18:1 — 2 Sam. 1:27
a.   Jonathan’s love of David — 1 Sam. 18:1-5
b.   Saul’s envy of David — 1 Sam. 18:6-9
c.   Saul’s device to kill David — 1 Sam. 18:10 — 20:42
d.   David’s being supplied with the holy bread of the Presence and with the sword of Goliath by the priest Ahimelech — 1 Sam. 21:1-9
e.   David’s fleeing from Saul and going to Achish the king of Gath — 1 Sam. 21:10-15
f.   David’s staying in the cave of Adullam, in Mizpeh of Moab, and in the forest of Hereth of Judah — 1 Sam. 22:1-5
g.   Saul’s killing Ahimelech the priest and his family because of David — 1 Sam. 22:6-23
h.   David’s defeating the Philistines and staying in Keilah — 1 Sam. 23:1-12
i.   David’s remaining in the wilderness of Ziph — 1 Sam. 23:13-28
j.   David’s remaining in the strongholds of En-gedi — 1 Sam. 23:29 — 24:2
k.   Saul’s falling into the hand of David but David not killing him — 1 Sam. 24:3-22
l.   Samuel’s death — 1 Sam. 25:1a
m.   David’s dealing with Nabal and Abigail — 1 Sam. 25:1b-44
n.   Jehovah’s delivering Saul into the hand of David but David not killing him — 1 Sam. 26:1-25
o.   David’s escaping to and staying in the land of the Philistines — 1 Sam. 27:1 — 28:2
p.   Saul’s tragic ending pretold by Samuel — 1 Sam. 28:3-25
q.   David’s being sovereignly kept away by God from joining the Philistines’ camp to fight against Israel — 1 Sam. 29:1-11
r.   David’s conquering the Amalekites and capturing their captives — 1 Sam. 30:1-31
s.   Saul’s end — 1 Sam. 31:1-13
t.   David’s reaction — 2 Sam. 1:1-27
B.   Crowned by the people to be the king for the kingdom of God on the earth — 2 Sam. 2:1 — 24:25
1.   Crowned by the people — 2:1 — 5:25
a.   Crowned by the tribe of Judah — 2:1 — 4:12
b.   Crowned by all the other tribes — 5:1-5
c.   Established by God as king with his kingdom exalted for the sake of God’s people Israel — 5:6-25
2.   David’s care for God’s habitation on the earth — 6:1 — 7:29
a.   Taking care of the habitation of the Ark of God — 6:1-23
b.   Wanting to build a house for God — 7:1-29
3.   David’s conquest over his enemies for the strengthening of his kingdom — 8:1 — 10:19
a.   David’s conquests over the Philistines, Moab, Zobah, Syria, and Edom — 8:1-14
b.   David’s reign in justice and righteousness — 8:15-18
c.   David’s showing kindness to Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan — 9:1-13
d.   David’s conquests over Ammon and Syria — 10:1-19
4.   David’s indulging sin — 11:1-27
5.   God’s punishing condemnation — 12:1-15a
6.   God’s punishing judgment on David — 12:15b — 20:26
a.   The death of the child born of Uriah’s wife — 12:15b-23
b.   The birth of Solomon — 12:24-25
c.   David’s conquest over the children of Ammon — 12:26-31
d.   The incest of Amnon the son of David with his sister Tamar — 13:1-22
e.   The murder of Amnon by Absalom the son of David — 13:23-39
f.   Joab’s device to bring Absalom back — 14:1-24
g.   Absalom’s beauty and his children — 14:25-27
h.   Absalom’s seeking to see his father David — 14:28-33
i.   Absalom’s revolt — 15:1 — 19:8a
j.   The peaceful settlements in David’s kingdom after Absalom’s revolt — 19:8b-43
k.   The rebellion of Sheba — 20:1-22
l.   The re-establishment of the kingdom of David — 20:23-26
7.   The last stage of David’s kingship — 21:1 — 24:25
a.   David’s taking care of the famine for the people — 21:1-14
b.   David’s conquest over the Philistines — 21:15-22
c.   David’s thanking and praising to God in a song — 22:1-51
d.   David’s last words — 23:1-7
e.   David’s mighty men — 23:8-39
f.   David’s last sin — 24:1-25
2 Samuel >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
2 Samuel Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2S 1:11 Now
See note 11 in 1 Sam. 1.
2S 1:1a slaughter  -   1 Sam. 30:17-20
2S 1:4a dead  -   2 Sam. 4:10
2S 1:6a Mount  -   cf. 1 Sam. 31:1-6; 1 Chron. 10:1-6
2S 1:141 How
David’s reaction to the report of the young Amalekite (vv. 14-16) indicates that he did not consider Saul his enemy but always regarded him as God’s anointed (see note 61 in 1 Sam. 24).
2S 1:14a anointed  -   1 Sam. 24:6, 10; 26:9
2S 1:15a fall  -   2 Sam. 4:10
2S 1:16a blood  -   Josh. 2:19; 2 Sam. 3:29; 1 Kings 2:32, 37; Matt. 27:25; Acts 18:6
2S 1:18a Jashar  -   Josh. 10:13
2S 1:19a mighty  -   2 Sam. 1:25, 27
2S 1:20a Gath  -   1 Sam. 17:4; Micah 1:10
2S 1:22a bow  -   1 Sam. 18:4
2S 1:26a love  -   1 Sam. 18:1-3
2 Samuel Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2S 2:1a inquired  -   1 Sam. 22:10; 23:2, 4; 2 Sam. 5:19
2S 2:1b Hebron  -   2 Sam. 2:11; Josh. 14:13; 1 Sam. 30:31
2S 2:2a wives  -   1 Sam. 25:42-43
2S 2:41 anointed
See note 31 in ch. 5.
2S 2:4a king  -   2 Sam. 5:3; Acts 13:22
2S 2:4b Jabesh-gilead  -   Judg. 21:8; 1 Sam. 11:1; 31:11
2S 2:61 repay
Lit., do you this good.
2S 2:8a Abner  -   1 Sam. 14:50
2S 2:81 Ish-bosheth
Meaning man of shame. It is a deliberate alteration of his given name, Eshbaal, in 1 Chron. 8:33.
2S 2:11a seven  -   2 Sam. 5:5; 1 Chron. 3:4
2S 2:13a Joab  -   2 Sam. 8:16
2S 2:18a Joab  -   1 Chron. 2:16
2S 2:23a struck  -   cf. 2 Sam. 3:27
2S 2:291 Bithron
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; others translate, the morning.
2 Samuel Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2S 3:11 stronger
In all the details concerning the house of David and the house of Saul, God was behind the scenes in His sovereignty to direct the situation so that it would turn out in David’s favor for the sake of Himself, His people, His kingdom, and His economy (cf. Rom. 8:28).
2S 3:2a And  -   vv. 2-5: 1 Chron. 3:1-4
2S 3:21 sons
David’s begetting six sons of six wives in Hebron (vv. 2-5) and his later taking more concubines and wives and begetting more sons in Jerusalem (5:13) further manifested his weakness in the indulgence of the lust of the flesh. See note 391 in 1 Sam. 25.
2S 3:3a Geshur  -   2 Sam. 14:32; 15:8
2S 3:7a Rizpah  -   2 Sam. 21:8-10
2S 3:71 Ish-bosheth
Following many ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, he.
2S 3:9a sworn  -   1 Sam. 15:28; 16:12-13
2S 3:10a kingdom  -   1 Chron. 12:23
2S 3:10b Dan  -   Judg. 20:1; 1 Sam. 3:20; 2 Sam. 17:11; 24:2, 15; 1 Kings 4:25
2S 3:131 David
Lit., he.
2S 3:13a Michal  -   1 Sam. 14:49
2S 3:14a espoused  -   1 Sam. 18:25, 27
2S 3:15a Paltiel  -   1 Sam. 25:44
2S 3:27a Asahel  -   2 Sam. 2:23
2S 3:28a Abner  -   1 Kings 2:5, 32
2S 3:31a sackcloth  -   2 Kings 19:1; Joel 1:13; Rev. 11:3
2S 3:39a Zeruiah  -   cf. 2 Sam. 16:10; 19:22
2 Samuel Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
2S 4:41a Mephibosheth  -   2 Sam. 9:6
Called Merib-baal in 1 Chron. 8:34 and 9:40.
2S 4:10a When  -   2 Sam. 1:2-16
2 Samuel Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
2S 5:1a Then  -   vv. 1-3: 1 Chron. 11:1-3
2S 5:2a shepherd  -   2 Sam. 7:7; 1 Chron. 17:6; Psa. 78:71-72; Matt. 2:6
2S 5:3a anointed  -   2 Sam. 2:4; 1 Sam. 16:13; Acts 13:22
2S 5:31 king
In 2:4 David was anointed king over the tribe of Judah. Here David was anointed by the other tribes (vv. 1-5) and established by God as king with his kingdom exalted for the sake of God’s people Israel (vv. 6-25). Saul had tried to exalt himself with his monarchy, but he did not succeed. In contrast, in relation to David God did everything to establish and exalt him and his kingdom for the sake of God’s people (cf. Matt. 23:12). David’s history, particularly the record in 1 Sam. 18:1 through 2 Sam. 5:25, shows that the sovereign God was moving and acting behind the scenes, directing everyone and every situation in order to build up His kingdom in His elect through the proper person for the carrying out of His economy.
2S 5:4a thirty  -   cf. Luke 3:23
2S 5:4b forty  -   1 Kings 2:11; 1 Chron. 29:27
2S 5:5a seven  -   2 Sam. 2:11; 1 Chron. 3:4
2S 5:6a And  -   vv. 6-10: 1 Chron. 11:4-9
2S 5:6b Jebusites  -   Josh. 15:63; Judg. 1:21; 19:11
2S 5:7a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
2S 5:91 Millo
I.e., the citadel.
2S 5:101 with
This indicates that David had God’s presence. Moreover, Hiram’s helping David to build himself a house and David’s victory over the Philistines (vv. 11-25) were outward confirmations from God in David’s environment. If we are one with God for the accomplishing of His economy, we will always have the inward presence of God and the outward confirmation in our environment.
2S 5:11a And  -   vv. 11-25: 1 Chron. 14:1-16
2S 5:11b Hiram  -   1 Kings 5:1, 10
2S 5:11c cedar  -   cf. 1 Kings 5:8-10
2S 5:131 concubines
See note 21 in ch. 3.
2S 5:14a And  -   vv. 14-16: 1 Chron. 3:5-8
2S 5:14b Nathan  -   Zech. 12:12; Luke 3:31
2S 5:19a inquired  -   1 Sam. 22:10; 23:2, 4; 2 Sam. 2:1
2S 5:201 Baal-perazim
Meaning the Lord of breakings forth.
2S 5:211 the
Lit., they.
2S 5:251 Gibeon
According to 1 Chron. 14:16 and the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, Geba.
2 Samuel Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
2S 6:2a And  -   vv. 2-11: 1 Chron. 13:6-14
2S 6:21b Ark  -   2 Chron. 1:4
God had done everything for David to establish him as king and to exalt his kingdom for the fulfillment of His purpose. At this juncture David began to take thought concerning God’s dwelling place on earth. Whereas he was living in a house of cedar, the Ark, which represented God, still did not have a home (7:2). Unable to bear such a situation, David decided to remove the Ark of God to a permanent dwelling place. This indicates that David’s heart was set on God’s house, God’s habitation. Whatever God does for us and whatever He gives to us should be altogether for our concern for the building up of God’s dwelling place on earth. For God to have a house on earth is a great shame to His enemy, Satan. For generations Satan has been struggling to abuse, usurp, and occupy the earth. As a result, in a sense God has been driven away from the earth. That was the situation at David’s time. However, David was for God; he was one with God and according to God. As a man according to God’s heart (1 Sam. 13:14), David desired to prepare a place where God could settle on the earth.
2S 6:2c cherubim  -   Exo. 25:22; 1 Sam. 4:4; Psa. 80:1
2S 6:3a cart  -   cf. 1 Sam. 6:7
2S 6:3b Abinadab  -   1 Sam. 7:1
2S 6:71 error
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
2S 6:72 died
The people of Israel, perhaps influenced by the Philistines, moved the Ark by means of a cart (vv. 3-6; cf. 1 Sam. 6:7-14). The Ark should have been borne by the Levites (Num. 4:15; 7:9; 1 Chron. 15:2). God did not condemn the worldly Philistines for using a cart to move the Ark, but He would not tolerate the same action by His people. Under God’s sovereignty the oxen stumbled, and when Uzzah, with a good intention, reached out for the Ark of God and took hold of it, he was killed instantly. The natural hand, the hand of man, touching something divine brought in God’s anger.
2S 6:81 Perez-uzzah
Meaning the breaking forth on Uzzah.
2S 6:101 city
This was Zion, David’s private city, which was the center of the public city of Jerusalem (5:7).
2S 6:11a blessed  -   1 Chron. 26:4-5
2S 6:12a So  -   vv. 12b-19: 1 Chron. 15:25– 16:3
2S 6:12b city  -   2 Sam. 5:7; 1 Kings 8:1
2S 6:141a ephod  -   1 Sam. 2:18; 22:18
David wore a garment, the ephod, which only the priests should wear. On that occasion he was a priest as well as a king. In a sense, he broke the divine ordination, but in another sense, this was an honor and a glory to God.
2S 6:17a tent  -   1 Chron. 15:1; 2 Chron. 1:4
2S 6:17b peace  -   cf. 1 Kings 8:62-63
2S 6:191 portion
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; others understand, a portion of wine; others, a date cake.
2S 6:21a chose  -   1 Sam. 13:14
2 Samuel Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
2S 7:1a And  -   vv. 1-29: 1 Chron. 17:1-27
2S 7:2a Nathan  -   2 Sam. 7:17; 12:1
2S 7:2b curtains  -   Exo. 26:1
2S 7:5a build  -   1 Kings 5:3; 8:19; 1 Chron. 22:6-8; 28:2-3
2S 7:6a have  -   1 Kings 8:16
2S 7:6b tabernacle  -   cf. Exo. 40:17, 34
2S 7:7a going  -   Lev. 26:11-12; Deut. 23:14
2S 7:8a pasture  -   1 Sam. 16:11; Psa. 78:70
2S 7:10a plant  -   Exo. 15:17; Psa. 44:2; Jer. 24:6; Amos 9:15
2S 7:11a judges  -   Judg. 2:16; cf. 1 Sam. 12:11
2S 7:111 house
In His response to David’s desire to build Him a house, God in a sense came in to stop David by indicating that before David could do something for God, he needed God to do something for him. God prophesied to David that He would build him a house and that from this house He would give him a seed (vv. 11-12). David’s house is, literally, David’s household, David’s family, which eventually issued in Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:1, 6-16).
The prophecy in this chapter is related to the prophecy in Isa. 11:1 concerning Christ as the sprout from the stump of Jesse and the branch from his roots. At the time of Solomon the house of David was a flourishing tree, but a short time later it began to be cut down. Eventually, it became a stump consisting mainly of two persons, Joseph and Mary. At that juncture God came in to constitute His Son, Christ, into David’s family (Matt. 1:18-20). As a result, the child Jesus was born as a God-man, as both a divine Son and a human seed (Luke 1:31-32, 35). That was God’s building a house for David, through which He gave David a seed. Ultimately, David’s house and David’s seed in this chapter are types revealing that in His eternal economy the Triune God desires to build Himself in Christ into His chosen people to make them a house (Christ with the church) and to produce a seed (the all-inclusive Christ).
2S 7:12a sleep  -   1 Kings 2:10; 1:21; Acts 13:36; Deut. 31:16
2S 7:121b seed  -   Rom. 1:3; Acts 13:23; Matt. 1:1; 2 Tim. 2:8
Your seed here refers, literally, to Solomon, David’s son, who built the temple as God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament (1 Kings 5:5; 8:15-20; 1 Chron. 22:9-10; 28:6). However, according to Heb. 1:5b, which quotes v. 14a of this chapter, David’s seed is actually Christ as God’s firstborn Son (Heb. 1:5a, 6), who has both divinity and humanity and is typified here by Solomon (see note 13 in Matt. 1). The Son of God became David’s seed by being constituted (built) into David’s family, i.e., into David’s being. Here God was actually telling David that instead of building something for God, David needed God to build His Son into him. God did not want David to build Him a house of cedar (vv. 5-7), nor was God satisfied that David would be merely a man according to His heart (1 Sam. 13:14). God’s desire was to work Himself in Christ into David’s humanity to be his life, nature, and constitution. In this way Christ, the Son of God, would become everything to David, including his house (dwelling place) and his seed.
Second Samuel 7 is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us that there is no need for us to build something for God. We cannot build God’s house, the church (1 Tim. 3:15), by using ourselves or anything of ourselves as the material. The church as the house of God, the mutual abode of God and His redeemed (John 14:2-3, 20, 23; 15:4), is built with Christ as the unique element (see note 221 in Gen. 2). Thus, we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ. The building of the church is by Christ’s making His home in our hearts, i.e., by His building Himself into us, making our heart, our intrinsic constitution, His home (Eph. 3:17). The very Christ who is constituted (built) into us is God’s house and our house, and He also becomes our seed as our heritage and our treasure.
2S 7:122c kingdom  -   Dan. 7:14; Luke 1:33; Heb. 1:8; John 18:36
His kingdom in this verse refers to Christ’s kingdom (Luke 1:32-33). In the beginning of the New Testament Christ is introduced first as the son of David and then as the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). Christ is the son of David to fulfill God’s covenant with David introduced in this chapter, that God’s elect may be brought into the kingdom of the heavens and participate in the divine authority. Christ is the son of Abraham to fulfill God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:3; 15:1-21; 22:18) so that the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit could become the blessing of God’s elect as their divine inheritance (Gal. 3:14; Acts 26:18). In order to be the blessing to His people, God must have a kingdom on earth in which to exercise His administration under His full, divine authority. Hence, the preaching of the gospel in the New Testament charges us to first repent of our rebellion (Matt. 3:2; 4:17) and receive Christ as the son of David, as our King, that He may rule in us and over us in God’s kingdom. Under the Lord’s ruling in the kingdom, Christ as the son of Abraham brings us into the enjoyment of the Triune God as our blessing.
2S 7:131 he
Christ is the One who actually builds the church as God’s house, God’s temple (Matt. 16:18; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:21), in reality. Christ is also the element in which and with which the church is built. Hence, Christ is the house, His Body (John 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 12:12), and Christ is also the seed, the Builder. Christ builds the church by building Himself into us, i.e., by entering into our spirit and spreading Himself from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to occupy our entire soul (Eph. 3:17). This building, a mingling of God’s divinity with our redeemed, resurrected, and uplifted humanity, becomes God’s habitation and our habitation — a mutual abode (John 14:23; 15:4). Eventually, this building will consummate in the New Jerusalem for eternity, in which God’s redeemed are the tabernacle for God to dwell in and God Himself is the temple for His redeemed to dwell in (Rev. 21:3, 22).
2S 7:13a forever  -   2 Sam. 7:16; 1 Kings 9:5; 1 Chron. 17:12, 14; Psa. 89:4, 29, 36-37; Luke 1:32-33; Heb. 1:8
2S 7:14a Father  -   Psa. 89:26-27; Heb. 1:5
2S 7:141 son
The word concerning “your seed” in v. 12 and “My son” in v. 14 implies that the seed of David would become the Son of God, i.e., that a human seed would become a divine Son. This word corresponds with Paul’s word in Rom. 1:3-4 concerning Christ as the seed of David being designated the Son of God in His humanity in resurrection (see note 41 there). It also relates to the Lord’s question in Matt. 22:41-45 concerning how the Christ could be both the son of David and the Son of God as David’s Lord — a wonderful person, a God-man with two natures, divinity and humanity. These verses clearly unveil that a seed of man, i.e., a son of man, can become the Son of God. God Himself, the divine One, became a human seed, the seed of a man, David. This seed was Jesus, the God-man, Jehovah the Savior (Matt. 1:18-21; 2 Tim. 2:8), who was the Son of God by virtue of His divinity alone (Luke 1:35). Through His resurrection He as the human seed became the Son of God in His humanity as well. Thus, in Christ God was constituted into man, man was constituted into God, and God and man were mingled together to be one entity, the God-man. This implies that God’s intention in His economy is to make Himself man in order to make man God in life and in nature.
In and through resurrection Christ, the firstborn Son of God, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As such a Spirit He enters into God’s chosen people to dispense, to build, Himself as life into their being to be their inner constitution. In this way He makes them God-men, the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10), the mass reproduction of Himself as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2). Thus, they, the human seeds, become the sons of God with divinity through the metabolic process of transformation (see notes 23 and 24 in Rom. 12). This metabolic process is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:20-22) by the building of God into man and man into God, i.e., by the constituting of the divine element into the human element and the human element into the divine element. This building will consummate in the New Jerusalem as a great, corporate God-man, the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God (Rev. 21:7).
2S 7:142 If
The word from this point to the end of v. 15 refers only to Solomon, David’s son, and not to Christ.
2S 7:14b strike  -   Psa. 89:32-33; Heb. 12:6
2S 7:15a lovingkindness  -   Acts 13:34
2S 7:161 house
David’s house refers to Christ, David’s kingdom refers to Christ’s kingdom, and David’s throne refers to Christ’s throne. The kingdom of David is Christ’s kingdom, and David and Christ have one throne (Isa. 9:7; 16:5; Luke 1:32; Acts 2:29-31). The prophets spoke of David and Christ as one (Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Hosea 3:5; Amos 9:11). Christ is the real David (Matt. 12:3-4 and note 32). Hence, God’s response to David made Christ one with David and with David’s seed (v. 12). This implies that God’s intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Him and His people one. God’s intention from eternity to eternity is to make Himself us that we may become Him in life, in nature, and in constitution but not in the Godhead. Eventually, through God’s building work the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, becomes every member in the Body of Christ and every person in the new man (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11). In the church, in the Body, and in the new man, Christ is all, and He is in all.
2S 7:16a kingdom  -   Mark 11:10
See note 161.
2S 7:18a Who  -   1 Sam. 18:18; cf. Exo. 3:11; Judg. 6:15
2S 7:20a know  -   Psa. 139:1-4
2S 7:22a none  -   Deut. 33:26; 1 Kings 8:23; Psa. 86:8; 89:6
2S 7:22b besides  -   Isa. 45:5
2S 7:23a redeem  -   Deut. 9:26; Neh. 1:10
2S 7:24a people  -   Deut. 26:18
2 Samuel Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
2S 8:1a And  -   vv. 1-18: 1 Chron. 18:1-17
2S 8:11 control
Lit., the bridle of the mother (city). The meaning of the phrase is disputed. First Chronicles 18:1 reads, Gath and her villages.
2S 8:2a Moab  -   cf. Num. 24:17
2S 8:31 River
I.e., the Euphrates; many MSS insert, Euphrates.
2S 8:51 Syrians
Heb. Aram; i.e., the Arameans. So throughout the book.
2S 8:7a shields  -   2 Kings 11:10
2S 8:101 Joram’s
Lit., his.
2S 8:11a consecrated  -   1 Kings 7:51; 1 Chron. 26:26
2S 8:121 Syrians
Several MSS and some versions read, Edom. So also in the next verse.
2S 8:14a Edom  -   Num. 24:18
2S 8:16a And  -   vv. 16-18: 2 Sam. 20:23-26
2S 8:17a Abiathar  -   1 Chron. 24:6; Mark 2:26
2S 8:181 was
Following some ancient versions and 20:23 and 1 Chron. 18:17; the Hebrew text reads, and.
2S 8:182 Cherethites
I.e., the bodyguard and the runners.
2S 8:183 chief
Lit., priests; but not used in the technical sense of the word. So also in 20:26.
2 Samuel Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
2S 9:1a kindness  -   1 Sam. 20:14-15; 2 Sam. 9:7
2S 9:2a Ziba  -   2 Sam. 16:1-4; 19:17-30
2S 9:3a crippled  -   2 Sam. 4:4; 19:26; 9:13
2S 9:6a Mephibosheth  -   2 Sam. 4:4; 16:4; 19:24-25, 30; 21:7
2S 9:71 kindness
The kindness shown by David to Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, was a fulfillment of David’s covenant with Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:14-17).
2S 9:7a table  -   1 Kings 2:7
2S 9:8a dog  -   1 Sam. 24:14; 17:43; 2 Sam. 16:9; cf. Matt. 15:26-27
2 Samuel Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
2S 10:1a And  -   vv. 1-19: 1 Chron. 19:1-19
2S 10:2a Nahash  -   1 Sam. 11:1
2S 10:131 the
Lit., they.
2S 10:161 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
2 Samuel Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
2S 11:1a And  -   1 Chron. 20:1
2S 11:3a Uriah  -   2 Sam. 23:39; Matt. 1:6
2S 11:41 lay
After all the enemies of Israel were subdued and David was exalted as the king of Israel, David committed a great sin while he was in a peaceful situation. This indicates that whenever we are at ease in a peaceful situation, it is easy for us to be seduced to indulge our flesh (cf. 1 Pet. 4:1 and note 4). David’s sin was the issue of his indulging of the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh (vv. 2b-3). David, abusing the power of his kingship (vv. 4-5), committed willful adultery by robbery. After committing such an act, David tried to cover his evil deed by means of a pretense (vv. 6-13). Then he murdered Uriah, his faithful servant, by conspiring with Joab, so that he could take Uriah’s wife (vv. 14-25; 12:9). David’s behavior here was utterly different from that of Joseph, who ran and escaped from adultery (Gen. 39:1-12), and Boaz, who kept himself clean from the indulgence of the flesh of sin (Ruth 3). By his one sin David broke the last five of the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:13-17). David’s sin was a great insult and offense to God, and it nearly annulled all his attainments from the past.
David, a man according to God’s heart (1 Sam. 13:14), was perfect in every way, but he failed in the matter of the indulgence of the lust of the flesh (1 Kings 15:5). In this matter David was loose, and he sacrificed his high attainment in the pursuit of God. Even though he was a person of high attainment in his spiritual pursuit, he was still able to commit such a great sin. This should be a warning to all of us.
2S 11:11a huts  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:2, 6
2S 11:21a Abimelech  -   Judg. 9:53
2S 11:27a wife  -   2 Sam. 12:9
2 Samuel Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
2S 12:1a Nathan  -   2 Sam. 7:2, 4, 17; 12:7, 13, 25; 1 Kings 1:10, 22, 34; 4:5; 1 Chron. 29:29; 2 Chron. 9:29
2S 12:41 the
Lit., he.
2S 12:6a fourfold  -   Exo. 22:1; Luke 19:8
2S 12:7a anointed  -   1 Sam. 16:13
2S 12:7b delivered  -   1 Sam. 23:14; Psa. 18 title
2S 12:9a struck  -   2 Sam. 11:15, 17
2S 12:9b wife  -   2 Sam. 11:27
2S 12:101a sword  -   2 Sam. 13:28-29; 18:33
The account of God’s punishing judgment on David is written as a warning to us today (1 Cor. 10:11). God is not only loving and merciful, but He is also just and fearsome. On the one hand, God forgave David (v. 13), but on the other hand, He disciplined and chastised David according to His governmental righteousness (vv. 10-14). God exercised a severe punishment upon David because his sin was very evil. After David’s failure many evils, including incest, murder, and rebellion, took place in his family (ch. 13; 15:1 — 19:8a). The source of the unprecedented evil in David’s family was David’s indulgence in the lust of the flesh. This shows that God’s chastisement and His governmental dealing with those who love Him may even affect their children.
David, being a man according to God’s heart, afforded God the way to begin the age of the kingship for the establishing of God’s kingdom on the earth for His coming Christ. How regrettable it was that David, at a crucial time of the evil one’s temptation, did not exercise strong control over his lust but indulged in it and committed a gross sin that offended God to the uttermost. God loved David, but because of his sin David lost his standing and position as well as eleven of the twelve tribes (20:1-2). David’s sin sowed the seed of Solomon’s corruption (see note 241), which issued in the dividing of the God-given kingdom (1 Kings 11:9-13; 12:1-17), and the seed of the corruption of Solomon’s descendants in the kingship, which issued ultimately in the loss of the nation and of the holy land of their fathers, in the captivity of the holy people, and in their being scattered around the globe and having no peace up to the present time.
2S 12:11a wives  -   2 Sam. 16:22
2S 12:13a sinned  -   2 Sam. 24:10; Psa. 32:5; 51:4
2S 12:13b sin  -   Psa. 32:1; Micah 7:18-19; Zech. 3:4
2S 12:14a blaspheme  -   cf. Isa. 52:5; Ezek. 36:20, 23; Rom. 2:24
2S 12:23a go  -   Gen. 37:35; Job 10:21; 16:22
2S 12:23b not  -   Job 7:10
2S 12:241a Solomon  -   1 Chron. 22:9; Matt. 1:6
Meaning peaceful. This indicates that David might have expected to have a peaceful time. But from that time there was no peace in David’s family or in the entire kingdom of Israel.
2S 12:251 Jedidiah
Meaning beloved of Jehovah. After David repented to God (Psa. 51), God forgave him of his sin and gave him a son who was God’s beloved. Nevertheless, God still disciplined him for the sake of His righteousness (see note 101). On the one hand, God is righteous in His governmental dealing; on the other hand, He is loving and merciful, full of kindness, grace, and forgiveness. See note 63, par. 1, in Matt. 1.
2S 12:26a Now  -   vv. 26-31: 1 Chron. 20:1-3
2 Samuel Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
2S 13:1a Absalom  -   2 Sam. 3:3; 1 Chron. 3:2
2S 13:1b Tamar  -   1 Chron. 3:9
2S 13:1c Amnon  -   2 Sam. 3:2; 1 Chron. 3:1
2S 13:121 force
Lit., humble. So throughout this chapter.
2S 13:12a not  -   Lev. 18:11
2S 13:16a sending  -   Deut. 22:29
2S 13:321 Amnon
Lit., he.
2 Samuel Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
2S 14:7a heir  -   cf. Matt. 21:38; Mark 12:7; Luke 20:14
2S 14:7b name  -   Deut. 25:6
2S 14:11a avenger  -   Num. 35:19, 21; Deut. 19:12
2S 14:17a angel  -   1 Sam. 29:9; 2 Sam. 19:27; Zech. 12:8; Gal. 4:14
2 Samuel Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
2S 15:1a prepared  -   1 Kings 1:5
2S 15:8a Geshur  -   2 Sam. 13:38
2S 15:81 worship
Or, serve.
2S 15:23a Kidron  -   1 Kings 2:37; John 18:1
2S 15:24a Zadok  -   2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25
2S 15:24b bearing  -   cf. Josh. 3:3, 15-17
2S 15:26a sight  -   1 Sam. 3:18
2S 15:30a Mount  -   Luke 19:37, 41; Acts 1:12; Zech. 14:4
2S 15:37a Hushai  -   1 Chron. 27:33
2 Samuel Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
2S 16:1a Ziba  -   2 Sam. 9:2, 9-13; 19:17-29
2S 16:31 Today
Here Ziba slandered Mephibosheth to deceive David and gain all the belongings of Mephibosheth (cf. 19:24-30).
2S 16:5a Shimei  -   2 Sam. 19:16; 1 Kings 2:8, 36-46
2S 16:9a Abishai  -   1 Sam. 26:6; 2 Sam. 3:30
2S 16:10a What  -   2 Sam. 3:39; 19:22; cf. Luke 9:54-55
2S 16:21a concubines  -   2 Sam. 12:11
2 Samuel Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
2S 17:8a bear  -   Prov. 17:12; Hosea 13:8
2S 17:161 fords
Some MSS read, plains.
2S 17:19a strew  -   cf. Josh. 2:4-6
2S 17:23a hanged  -   cf. Matt. 27:5
2S 17:25a Amasa  -   2 Sam. 19:13; 20:9, 12; 1 Kings 2:32
2S 17:27a Barzillai  -   2 Sam. 19:31-32; 1 Kings 2:7
2 Samuel Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
2S 18:31 But
Following some MSS and the Septuagint; many MSS read, Now there are ten thousand like us.
2S 18:9a head  -   cf. 2 Sam. 14:26
2S 18:16a blew  -   2 Sam. 2:28; 20:22
2S 18:19a Ahimaaz  -   2 Sam. 15:36
2S 18:20a not  -   cf. 2 Sam. 18:29
2 Samuel Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
2S 19:9a Philistines  -   2 Sam. 5:20-25; 8:1, 12
2S 19:11a Zadok  -   2 Sam. 15:29, 35; 17:15; 20:25
2S 19:111 king
Following many ancient versions; the Hebrew text adds, to his house.
2S 19:13a Amasa  -   2 Sam. 17:25
2S 19:13b Joab  -   2 Sam. 8:16
2S 19:16a Shimei  -   2 Sam. 16:5; 1 Kings 2:8
2S 19:17a Ziba  -   2 Sam. 9:2-13; 16:1-4
2S 19:22a What  -   2 Sam. 16:10
2S 19:24a Mephibosheth  -   2 Sam. 9:6
2S 19:26a lame  -   2 Sam. 4:4; 9:3, 13
2S 19:271 Ziba
Lit., he.
2S 19:27a angel  -   1 Sam. 29:9; 2 Sam. 14:17, 20; Zech. 12:8
2S 19:28a eat  -   2 Sam. 9:7, 10, 13; 1 Kings 2:7
2S 19:31a Barzillai  -   2 Sam. 17:27; 1 Kings 2:7
2S 19:35a eighty  -   Psa. 90:10
2S 19:37a Chimham  -   Jer. 41:17
2S 19:43a ten  -   cf. 1 Kings 11:30-31
2 Samuel Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
2S 20:1a trumpet  -   2 Sam. 15:10
2S 20:1b portion  -   1 Kings 12:16; 2 Chron. 10:16
2S 20:3a concubines  -   2 Sam. 15:16; 16:21-22
2S 20:4a Amasa  -   2 Sam. 17:25
2S 20:51 David
Lit., he.
2S 20:8a Gibeon  -   2 Sam. 2:13
2S 20:9a Joab  -   2 Sam. 19:13
2S 20:9b kiss  -   cf. Matt. 26:49; Mark 14:45; Luke 22:47
2S 20:10a Amasa  -   1 Kings 2:5
2S 20:101 Joab
Lit., he.
2S 20:10b struck  -   2 Sam. 3:27; Judg. 3:21; cf. 2 Sam. 2:23
2S 20:141 Sheba
Lit., he.
2S 20:19a inheritance  -   Deut. 32:9; 1 Sam. 26:19; 2 Sam. 21:3
2S 20:22a wisdom  -   Eccl. 9:15
2S 20:23a Now  -   vv. 23-26: 2 Sam. 8:16-18; 1 Chron. 18:15-17
2S 20:261 chief
Lit., priest. See note 183 in ch. 8.
2 Samuel Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
2S 21:1a inquired  -   2 Sam. 5:19; 1 Sam. 23:2; cf. Num. 27:21
2S 21:1b Gibeonites  -   cf. Josh. 9:3-17
2S 21:3a inheritance  -   1 Sam. 26:19
2S 21:7a Mephibosheth  -   2 Sam. 9:6
2S 21:7b oath  -   1 Sam. 20:8, 16
2S 21:8a Rizpah  -   2 Sam. 3:7
2S 21:81b Merab  -   1 Sam. 18:19
Following two Hebrew MSS, which agree with 1 Sam. 18:19; other Hebrew MSS read, Michal.
2S 21:9a barley  -   Ruth 1:22
2S 21:101 their
Lit., them.
2S 21:12a Jabesh-gilead  -   1 Sam. 31:11-13; 2 Sam. 2:4-5
2S 21:14a responded  -   2 Sam. 24:25
2S 21:17a lamp  -   cf. Psa. 132:17; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Chron. 21:7; 2 Sam. 22:29
2S 21:18a Then  -   vv. 18-22: 1 Chron. 20:4-8
2S 21:21a defied  -   1 Sam. 17:10, 25-26, 36
2 Samuel Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
2S 22:1a And  -   vv. 1-51: Psa. 18
2S 22:11 song
This song of David’s, being his intimate talk to God, became Psalm 18 in the Psalms (see notes there).
2S 22:1b delivered  -   1 Sam. 23:14; 24:15; 27:1
2S 22:2a fortress  -   Psa. 31:3; 71:3; 91:2; 144:2
2S 22:31 My
Lit., God of my rock.
2S 22:3a shield  -   Gen. 15:1; 2 Sam. 22:31; Psa. 3:3; 84:9, 11
2S 22:3b horn  -   Luke 1:69
2S 22:6a cords  -   cf. Psa. 116:3
2S 22:7a called  -   Psa. 116:4; 120:1; Jonah 2:2, 7
2S 22:10a descended  -   Psa. 144:5; Isa. 64:1
2S 22:151 my
Lit., them.
2S 22:16a channels  -   Psa. 114:3-5
2S 22:17a drew  -   Psa. 144:7; Isa. 43:2
2S 22:29a lamp  -   cf. Psa. 119:105; 2 Sam. 21:17; Job 29:3
2S 22:31a tried  -   Psa. 12:6; 119:140; Prov. 30:5
2S 22:31b shield  -   2 Sam. 22:3
2S 22:331 makes
Following Psa. 18:32; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
2S 22:34a He  -   Hab. 3:19
2S 22:341 my
Some MSS read, his feet.
2S 22:34b high  -   Deut. 32:13; 33:29; Isa. 58:14
2S 22:35a He  -   Psa. 144:1
2S 22:36a shield  -   cf. Eph. 6:16-17
2S 22:44a not  -   Isa. 55:5
2S 22:461 come
Following Psa. 18:45; the Hebrew text reads, gird themselves.
2S 22:47a lives  -   Deut. 32:40; Rev. 4:9
2S 22:50a Therefore  -   Rom. 15:9
2S 22:51a king  -   Psa. 144:10
2S 22:51b anointed  -   1 Sam. 16:12-13; Psa. 89:20
2S 22:51c seed  -   2 Sam. 7:12-13, 16; Psa. 89:29
2 Samuel Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
2S 23:1a anointed  -   1 Sam. 16:3, 12-13
2S 23:2a Spirit  -   Mark 12:36; 2 Pet. 1:21; cf. Matt. 10:20
2S 23:3a Rock  -   2 Sam. 22:3, 32, 47; Deut. 32:4
2S 23:31 Who
Who in vv. 3-4 refers to David, who typifies Christ.
2S 23:4a sun  -   Judg. 5:31; Prov. 4:18
2S 23:5a covenant  -   Psa. 89:28; Isa. 55:3
2S 23:8a These  -   vv. 8-39: 1 Chron. 11:1-41
2S 23:81 chief
Lit., head of the three.
2S 23:91 there
I.e., Pas-dammim (cf. 1 Chron. 11:13).
2S 23:13a Adullam  -   1 Sam. 22:1
2S 23:13b Rephaim  -   2 Sam. 5:18
2S 23:18a Abishai  -   2 Sam. 2:18; 1 Sam. 26:6
2S 23:191 thirty
Many MSS read, three.
2S 23:20a Benaiah  -   2 Sam. 8:18; 20:23; 1 Kings 2:25, 35; 4:4
2S 23:24a Asahel  -   2 Sam. 2:18; 1 Chron. 27:7
2S 23:371 bearer
Some MSS read, bearers.
2S 23:39a Uriah  -   2 Sam. 11:3, 6
2 Samuel Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
2S 24:1a And  -   vv. 1-25: 1 Chron. 21:1-28
2S 24:11 he
This was Satan who moved David against Israel to number Israel and Judah (1 Chron. 21:1), but this was permitted by God.
2S 24:1b number  -   cf. 1 Chron. 27:23-24
2S 24:2a Dan  -   Judg. 20:1; 2 Sam. 3:10; 24:15
2S 24:10a heart  -   1 Sam. 24:5
2S 24:10b sinned  -   2 Sam. 12:13
2S 24:11a Gad  -   1 Sam. 22:5
2S 24:13a famine  -   cf. 2 Sam. 21:1
2S 24:14a compassions  -   Exo. 34:6; Neh. 9:17; Psa. 86:15
2S 24:15a pestilence  -   Deut. 28:21; Psa. 78:50
2S 24:16a repented  -   Gen. 6:6; 1 Sam. 15:11; Joel 2:13-14; Jonah 3:9-10
2S 24:16b threshing  -   2 Chron. 3:1
2S 24:17a angel  -   2 Kings 19:35; 2 Chron. 32:21; Isa. 37:36; Acts 12:23; Rev. 14:19
2S 24:181a threshing  -   2 Chron. 3:1
The threshing floor of Araunah (who is called Ornan in 1 Chron. 21:15-28) became the site where the temple of God was built (2 Chron. 3:1).
2S 24:21a stayed  -   Num. 16:48, 50
2S 24:22a instruments  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:21
2S 24:23a accept  -   Deut. 33:11; Psa. 20:3
2S 24:25a built  -   Gen. 8:20; 22:9; 1 Sam. 7:17
< 2 Samuel • 1 Kings Outline >
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1 & 2 Kings Outline
I.   The old age and decease of David — 1 Kings 1:1 — 2:11
A.   Being old and fading away — 1:1-4
B.   Making Solomon the successor to his throne — 1:5-53
C.   Giving the final charge to Solomon his son as the successor to the Davidic throne — 2:1-9
D.   Ceasing in his life on earth — 2:10-11
II.   The reign of the kings — 1 Kings 2:12 — 2 Kings 25:30
A.   The reign of Solomon — 1 Kings 2:12 — 11:43a
1.   Ending the factors of rebellion for the establishment of his kingdom — 2:12-46
2.   Marrying the daughter of the king of Egypt — 3:1
3.   Seeking for God — 3:2-4
4.   Seeking for wisdom — 3:5-15
5.   Judging the case of the two harlots’ quarreling — 3:16-28
6.   The organization of his governmental administration — 4:1-19
7.   His prosperity under the rich blessing of God — 4:20 — 5:18
8.   Building the temple of God as well as his own palaces — 6:1 — 8:66
a.   The temple — 6:1-38
b.   His palaces built in association with God’s dwelling — 7:1-12
c.   Hiram, Solomon’s workman — 7:13-14
d.   The two bronze pillars — 7:15-22
e.   The bronze sea with ten bronze lavers — 7:23-40a
f.   Hiram’s work for Solomon — 7:40b-47
g.   The vessels of the temple — 7:48-51
h.   The dedication of the temple — 8:1-66
(1)   The tabernacle being merged with the temple — vv. 1-11
(2)   Solomon’s blessing and declaration to the people — vv. 12-21
(3)   Solomon’s prayer — vv. 22-53
(4)   Solomon’s further blessing to the people — vv. 54-61
(5)   Solomon and the people offering a vast quantity of sacrifices to God — vv. 62-64
(6)   Solomon and his people holding a feast for fourteen days — vv. 65-66
9.   The highest peak of Solomon’s glory among the nations — 9:1 — 10:29
a.   Jehovah’s acceptance of his prayer and Jehovah’s promise to establish his throne forever — 9:1-9
b.   His alliance with Hiram — 9:10-14
c.   Building further cities — 9:15-24
d.   His offerings three times a year — 9:25
e.   Building a navy with Hiram’s cooperation — 9:26-28
f.   The queen of Sheba coming to pay her honor to him and listen to his words of wisdom — 10:1-10, 13
g.   Hiram’s fleet bringing precious goods for the temple of God and Solomon’s palace — 10:11-12
h.   Enriched with tribute and tariff from the nations, and building a defense — 10:14-29
10.   The tragedy of Israel’s history — 11:1-43a
a.   Solomon’s fall — vv. 1-8
b.   God’s chastisement — vv. 9-40
(1)   God becoming angry with Solomon and determining to tear the kingdom away from him and give it to his servant (the division of the kingdom of Israel) — vv. 9-13
(2)   The actions of God’s chastisements — vv. 14-40
c.   Solomon’s decease after reigning over all Israel for forty years — vv. 41-43a
B.   The reigns of Rehoboam over Judah and of Jeroboam over Israel — 1 Kings 11:43b — 14:31a
1.   Rehoboam continuing the reign after Solomon — 11:43b
2.   Rehoboam suffering the division of the kingdom and losing ten tribes — 12:1-24
3.   The apostasy of Jeroboam — 12:25-33
4.   God’s judgment on the altar at Bethel made by Jeroboam — 13:1-32
5.   The further apostasy of Jeroboam — 13:33-34
6.   Ahijah’s prophecy concerning the tragic ending of Jeroboam — 14:1-18
7.   Jeroboam reigning over the ten tribes of Israel, and his life being ended by the severe punishment of God — 14:19-20
8.   Rehoboam enthroned and reigning over Judah — 14:21-24
9.   Rehoboam defeated and robbed by the king of Egypt — 14:25-28
10.   Rehoboam fighting with Jeroboam continually and being buried in the city of David — 14:29-31a
C.   The reign of Abijam over Judah — 1 Kings 14:31b — 15:8a
D.   The reign of Asa over Judah — 1 Kings 15:8b-24
E.   The reign of Nadab over Israel — 1 Kings 15:25-31
F.   The reign of Baasha over Israel — 1 Kings 15:32 — 16:7
G.   The reign of Elah over Israel — 1 Kings 16:8-14
H.   The reign of Zimri over Israel — 1 Kings 16:15-20
I.   The reign of Omri over Israel — 1 Kings 16:21-28a
J.   The reign of Ahab over Israel — 1 Kings 16:28b — 22:40
1.   Beginning to reign over Israel — 16:28b-29
2.   Doing what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah more than all who were before him — 16:30-33
3.   In his days Jericho being rebuilt, bringing in the curse prophesied — 16:34
4.   God’s dealing with Ahab through Elijah the prophet — 17:1 — 19:9a
a.   Shutting up the heavens from rain — 17:1-24
(1)   Elijah warning Ahab — v. 1
(2)   God sending Elijah to live on water from the brook and on food brought by ravens — vv. 2-7
(3)   God sending Elijah to a widow to feed him — vv. 8-24
(a)   Elijah miraculously providing meal and oil for the widow, instead of being fed by her — vv. 8-16
(b)   Elijah raising up the widow’s dead son — vv. 17-24
b.   Opening up the heavens to rain — 18:1-46
(1)   God sending Elijah to Ahab — vv. 1-2
(2)   Ahab meeting Elijah through Obadiah — vv. 3-16
(3)   The test on Mount Carmel to prove who the real God is — vv. 17-40
(4)   The great downpour of rain — vv. 41-46
c.   Elijah being threatened by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab — 19:1-9a
5.   Jehovah’s commission to Elijah in his discouragement — 19:9b-18
6.   Elijah finding Elisha and gaining him to follow him and replace him — 19:19-21
7.   Dealing with Ben-hadad the king of Syria — 20:1-43
8.   Taking Naboth’s vineyard by force in injustice — 21:1-29
9.   His miserable ending — 22:1-40
K.   The reign of Jehoshaphat over Judah — 1 Kings 22:41-50
L.   The reign of Ahaziah over Israel — 1 Kings 22:51 — 2 Kings 1:18
M.   The rapture of Elijah — 2 Kings 2:1-18
N.   Elisha’s ministry of grace — 2 Kings 2:19-25; 4:1 — 6:7
1.   Healing the bad water of Jericho — 2:19-22
2.   Cursing the mocking boys — 2:23-25
3.   Calling the things not being as being — 4:1-17, 42-44
4.   Resurrecting the dead — 4:18-37
5.   Nullifying the poison of the wild gourds with flour — 4:38-41
6.   Healing leprosy — 5:1-27
7.   Causing the ax head to float by means of a wooden stick — 6:1-7
O.   The reign of Jehoram over Israel — 2 Kings 3:1-27; 6:8 — 8:15
1.   Fighting against the king of Moab — 3:1-27
2.   Ben-hadad the king of Syria waging war against Israel — 6:8-23
3.   Ben-hadad the king of Syria besieging Samaria — 6:24 — 7:20
4.   Elisha telling of a seven-year famine ordered by God — 8:1-6
5.   Elisha’s friendly contact with Ben-hadad the king of Syria — 8:7-15
P.   The reign of Jehoram over Judah — 2 Kings 8:16-24a
Q.   The reign of Ahaziah over Judah — 2 Kings 8:24b-29
R.   The reign of Jehu over Israel — 2 Kings 9:1 — 10:36
S.   The illegitimate reign of Athaliah over Judah — 2 Kings 11:1-16
T.   The reign of Joash (Jehoash) over Judah — 2 Kings 11:17 — 12:21
U.   The reign of Jehoahaz over Israel — 2 Kings 13:1-9a
V.   The reign of Jehoash (Joash) over Israel — 2 Kings 13:9b-25
W.   The reign of Amaziah over Judah — 2 Kings 14:1-22
X.   The reign of Jeroboam over Israel — 2 Kings 14:23-29
Y.   The reign of Azariah (Uzziah) over Judah — 2 Kings 15:1-7
Z.   The reign of Zechariah over Israel — 2 Kings 15:8-12
AA.   The reign of Shallum over Israel — 2 Kings 15:13-15
BB.   The reign of Menahem over Israel — 2 Kings 15:16-22a
CC.   The reign of Pekahiah over Israel — 2 Kings 15:22b-26
DD.   The reign of Pekah over Israel — 2 Kings 15:27-31
EE.   The reign of Jotham over Judah — 2 Kings 15:32-38a
FF.   The reign of Ahaz over Judah — 2 Kings 15:38b — 16:20
GG.   The reign of Hoshea over Israel — 2 Kings 17:1-41
HH.   The reign of Hezekiah over Judah — 2 Kings 18:1 — 20:21a
1.   Hezekiah’s prosperity — 18:1-8
2.   The invasion of the Assyrians — 18:9 — 19:37
a.   The invasion under Shalmaneser the king of Assyria — 18:9-12
b.   The attacking and challenging of Sennacherib the king of Assyria with insult and blasphemy — 18:13 — 19:37
3.   The healing of Jehovah — 20:1-11
4.   The failure of Hezekiah — 20:12-19
5.   Hezekiah bringing water into the city and his end — 20:20-21a
II.   The reign of Manasseh — 2 Kings 20:21b — 21:18a
JJ.   The reign of Amon — 2 Kings 21:18b-26a
KK.   The reign of Josiah — 2 Kings 21:26b — 23:30a
LL.   The reign of Jehoahaz — 2 Kings 23:30b-33
MM.   The beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim — 2 Kings 23:34 — 24:6a
NN.   The reign of Jehoiachin — 2 Kings 24:6b-9; 25:27-30
OO.   Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon besieging Jerusalem — 2 Kings 24:10-16
PP.   The reign of Zedekiah — 2 Kings 24:17-20
QQ.   The fall of Jerusalem and the carrying away of Judah into exile — 2 Kings 25:1-21
RR.   The governing of Gedaliah — 2 Kings 25:22-26
1 Kings >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
1 Kings Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1K 1:11 Now
The striking point of the historical books concerning Israel is that they portray in detail, in the way of typology, how to experience Christ as the good land given to us by God as our portion (see note 71 in Deut. 8). First, the book of Joshua shows the way to gain, to take possession of, and to keep the good land. Then the books of Judges, Ruth, and 1 and 2 Samuel show how certain persons remained in the good land and enjoyed the good land after they took possession of it. First and 2 Kings are needed to show how more persons remained in and enjoyed the good land.
The kings, as representatives of Israel, enjoyed the good land on the highest level. They are types of the New Testament believers, who were saved by God to enjoy Christ as their good land up to the level of the kingship (Rom. 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6; 22:5b). The picture portrayed in the two books of Kings depicts in detail the character, intention, preferences, habits, morality, and actions of all the kings who reigned over Israel after David the king. Such a picture indicates that what we are, what we desire, what we intend to do, and how we behave have very much to do with our remaining in Christ and participating in all His unsearchable riches for our enjoyment. This picture concerning Israel ends with a tragedy of all the kings who were put into the blessed situation of the kingship and who were not faithful to God and did not take good care of their inheritance: they lost the good land and were carried away as captives to the idol-worshipping world. This should be a solemn alarm and warning to us in our relationship with Christ. If we are wrong in any of the matters mentioned above, we will suffer the loss of Christ as our enjoyment. See note 252 in Lev. 18.
The central thought of the books of Kings is God’s governmental dealing, in God’s economy, with the devastating and ruining of the divine kingship on the earth by the kings, and the tragic issue of the just dealing of God, i.e., the loss of the Holy Land, which was the base of God’s kingdom on the earth, and the capture of the holy people, who maintained the line of Christ’s genealogy. The devastating of the land and the carrying away of the holy people almost ended the two lines needed for the bringing of Christ into humanity (see note 162 in Matt. 1). Nevertheless, according to the genealogy in Matt. 1:1-17, these two lines were continued even through the captivity. In His sovereignty God carried out the return from captivity in order to recover the good land and preserve fourteen generations of Christ’s genealogy (Matt. 1:17c). Thus God still carried out His intention to bring Himself in His Trinity into humanity and to set up His spiritual kingdom.
1K 1:12 David
The record of the first two chapters of 1 Kings could be considered a conclusion of the history of David recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel.
1K 1:13 years
David not only became old but also was fading away. David’s life had a good beginning, like the bright sun rising, and his life with his career became like the sun shining at noon. However, his indulgence in lust (2 Sam. 11) spoiled his career and caused his bright life to fade like the sunset in the evening. In David’s old age there was nothing bright, excellent, or splendid.
1K 1:5a Adonijah  -   2 Sam. 3:4; 1 Chron. 3:2
1K 1:71a Joab  -   2 Sam. 8:16; 2:18
Joab, the captain of David’s army, who participated in the murder of Uriah (2 Sam. 11:6-17), might never have lost his negative feeling concerning David’s sin. It might have been because of this that Joab joined Adonijah in his rebellion.
1K 1:7b Abiathar  -   1 Sam. 22:20; 2 Sam. 8:17
1K 1:8a Zadok  -   2 Sam. 20:25; 1 Kings 1:26, 32
1K 1:8b Benaiah  -   2 Sam. 8:18
1K 1:8c Nathan  -   2 Sam. 7:2; 12:1
1K 1:10a Solomon  -   2 Sam. 12:24
1K 1:13a reign  -   1 Kings 1:30; cf. 1 Chron. 22:9
1K 1:17a Solomon  -   2 Sam. 12:24; Matt. 1:6
1K 1:181 you
Some MSS read, now.
1K 1:29a redeemed  -   2 Sam. 4:9
1K 1:30a reign  -   1 Kings 1:13, 17
1K 1:34a anoint  -   1 Sam. 10:1; 16:13; 2 Sam. 5:3; 1 Kings 1:39
1K 1:35a ruler  -   1 Sam. 9:16; 13:14; 2 Sam. 7:8
1K 1:36a Amen  -   Deut. 27:15-26; Psa. 72:19; Jer. 28:6; 1 Cor. 14:16
1K 1:37a has  -   1 Sam. 20:13
1K 1:39a oil  -   cf. Exo. 30:23-32
1K 1:39b anointed  -   1 Chron. 29:22
1K 1:42a Jonathan  -   2 Sam. 15:27, 36
1K 1:46a throne  -   1 Kings 2:12; 1 Chron. 29:23
1K 1:47a bowed  -   cf. Gen. 47:31
1K 1:48a Blessed  -   1 Chron. 29:10; Psa. 41:13; 106:48; Luke 1:68
1K 1:50a horns  -   Exo. 27:2; 21:14; 1 Kings 2:28
1K 1:52a hair  -   1 Sam. 14:45; Acts 27:34
1 Kings Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1K 2:11 David’s
The first two kings, David and Solomon, are important types of Christ in two aspects. First, David typifies Christ in the aspect of His suffering on earth before His resurrection. From the time of His birth, Christ suffered. His life began in a manger in the lowest estate and ended in His being crucified on the cross. The manger and the cross were the two ends of His suffering life. David also suffered from his youth; yet through his suffering he prepared the materials (1 Chron. 18:7-11; 22:2-5, 14-16a; 28:2; 29:2-9), gained the proper ground for the building of the temple (1 Chron. 21:18-30; 2 Chron. 3:1), and prepared Solomon, the builder, and all the helpers (1 Chron. 28:9-11, 20-21). Second, Solomon typifies Christ (Matt. 12:42) in His speaking God’s word of wisdom (Matt. 13:35), in His building the church as the temple of God (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22), and in His being glorified in the kingdom of God and its splendor (Isa. 9:7; Rev. 11:15). These two types are strong evidences that the history of the kings of Israel is related to God’s eternal economy, which concerns Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the organic Body of Christ.
1K 2:1a die  -   Gen. 47:29
1K 2:2a going  -   Josh. 23:14
1K 2:2b strong  -   Josh. 1:6-7
1K 2:2c be  -   1 Cor. 16:13
1K 2:4a spoke  -   2 Sam. 7:25, 28; cf. 1 Kings 6:12
1K 2:4b throne  -   2 Sam. 7:12-13; 1 Kings 8:25; 9:5
1K 2:51 Joab
David’s charges to Solomon in vv. 5-9 regarding Joab, Shimei, and Barzillai indicate that while David was on his deathbed he had no peace or comfort in his heart. His dealing with these persons was the issue of his indulgence in sin. God forgave him (2 Sam. 12:13), but God’s righteous judgment would not let him go. See note 101 in 2 Sam. 12.
1K 2:5a Abner  -   2 Sam. 3:27; 1 Kings 2:32
1K 2:5b Amasa  -   2 Sam. 20:10
1K 2:7a Barzillai  -   2 Sam. 17:27-29; 19:31-38
1K 2:8a Shimei  -   2 Sam. 16:5-8; 19:23
1K 2:10a slept  -   Acts 13:36; 2:29
1K 2:11a And  -   vv. 11-12: 1 Chron. 29:26-28
1K 2:13a Adonijah  -   1 Kings 1:5-10
1K 2:17a Abishag  -   1 Kings 1:3
1K 2:25a Benaiah  -   2 Sam. 8:18
1K 2:26a bore  -   2 Sam. 15:24, 29
1K 2:26b suffered  -   1 Sam. 22:20-23
1K 2:27a spoken  -   1 Sam. 2:27-36
1K 2:28a horns  -   1 Kings 1:50
1K 2:29a altar  -   cf. Exo. 21:14
1K 2:31a blood  -   Num. 35:33; Deut. 19:13; 21:8-9
1K 2:32a Abner  -   2 Sam. 3:27; 1 Kings 2:5
1K 2:32b Amasa  -   2 Sam. 17:25; 20:9-10
1K 2:35a Benaiah  -   2 Sam. 8:18; 23:20; 1 Kings 4:4
1K 2:35b Zadok  -   1 Chron. 29:22
1K 2:36a Shimei  -   1 Kings 2:8
1K 2:45a throne  -   cf. Isa. 9:6-7
1 Kings Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1K 3:11 Pharaoh’s
In marrying the daughter of the king of Egypt, Solomon followed his father in indulging his lust to gain a Gentile wife (2 Sam. 11). This was the annulling of the separation of God’s holy people from the people of Satan’s cosmos, the evil world. Solomon was not regulated and restricted by the law of God, in which God charged Israel not to marry the Gentiles, because the Gentiles would cause Israel to worship idols (Exo. 34:16; Deut. 7:3-4; Josh. 23:12-13). In this matter Solomon was disobedient to God in carrying out God’s economy, which included the destroying of all the idol-worshipping Gentiles in the land (Deut. 7:2). Solomon’s marriage to an Egyptian also laid a foundation for his future fall in corruption and ruin (ch. 11; cf. Gal. 6:7-8).
1K 3:1a daughter  -   2 Chron. 8:11; cf. Exo. 34:16; Deut. 7:3-4
1K 3:1b house  -   1 Kings 7:1
1K 3:1c house  -   1 Kings 6:1-38
1K 3:1d wall  -   1 Kings 9:15
1K 3:31 high
On the one hand, Solomon was seeking God. On the other hand, he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places (vv. 3b-4; cf. Deut. 12:5-14). In the Old Testament high places is a negative term, for it refers to the places where the Gentile people, the Canaanites, worshipped their idols (Num. 33:52). In this matter Solomon was foolish and lacking in vision. See 11:7 and note, and 12:31-32 and notes.
1K 3:4a And  -   2 Chron. 1:3
1K 3:5a In  -   vv. 5-15: 2 Chron. 1:7-13
1K 3:9a understanding  -   Prov. 2:6, 7; James 1:5; Luke 11:31
1K 3:101 Lord
Many MSS read, Jehovah.
1K 3:11a asked  -   cf. Luke 12:31
1K 3:12a wisdom  -   1 Kings 4:29-34; 5:12; 10:23-24; Eccl. 1:16; Luke 11:31
1K 3:151 Jehovah
Some MSS read, the Lord.
1K 3:28a wisdom  -   1 Kings 3:9, 11, 12; cf. Ezra 7:25
1 Kings Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1K 4:2a Azariah  -   1 Chron. 6:10
1K 4:4a Benaiah  -   2 Sam. 8:18; 23:20; 1 Kings 2:35
1K 4:5a Nathan  -   2 Sam. 7:2
1K 4:161 Bealoth
Or, in Aloth.
1K 4:20a sand  -   Gen. 22:17; 2 Chron. 1:9
1K 4:211a River  -   Gen. 15:18; Exo. 23:31; Josh. 1:4; Psa. 72:8
I.e., the Euphrates. So also in v. 24. Solomon’s dominion extended from the great river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines (at the seashore of the Mediterranean) and to the border of Egypt (2 Chron. 9:26) as the fulfillment of the promise of God to His elect Israel (Gen. 15:18; Exo. 23:31; Deut. 11:24). The ultimate fulfillment of this promise will be in the millennium, at the restoration of Israel, after the second coming of Christ (see note 181 in Gen. 15).
1K 4:21b brought  -   Psa. 68:29; 72:10
1K 4:221 cors
Equal to a homer or to ten ephahs, approximately five bushels.
1K 4:24a peace  -   1 Chron. 22:9
1K 4:25a vine  -   2 Kings 18:31; Isa. 36:16; Micah 4:4; Zech. 3:10
1K 4:25b Dan  -   2 Sam. 3:10; 17:11; 24:2
1K 4:29a wisdom  -   1 Kings 3:12; Luke 11:31
1K 4:301 wisdom
Solomon’s wisdom was absolutely in the physical realm, without any spiritual element. His wisdom was altogether different from the wisdom of Paul, which was a spiritual wisdom concerning Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17), our walking and having our being according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4), and the two spirits — the divine Spirit and the human spirit (Rom. 8:16). Solomon’s wisdom was a shadow of the real wisdom that was to come. The real wisdom is God, and God is embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9), who has become our wisdom to be in us (1 Cor. 1:24, 30), making us one with God and making us the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. What wisdom this is!
1K 4:30a Egypt  -   cf. Acts 7:22
1K 4:31a Ethan  -   1 Chron. 15:19; Psa. 89 title
1K 4:32a proverbs  -   Prov. 1:1; Eccl. 12:9
1K 4:32b songs  -   S.S. 1:1
1K 4:341 came
Solomon’s splendid kingdom, with his prosperity under the rich blessing of God (4:20 — 5:18; chs. 9 — 10), is a type of Christ’s kingdom in the millennium. During the millennium all the nations will come to Christ (Zech. 14:16).
1K 4:34a wisdom  -   2 Chron. 9:23; 1 Kings 10:1; cf. 1 Kings 10:8
1 Kings Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1K 5:1a Hiram  -   2 Sam. 5:11
1K 5:2a And  -   vv. 2-16: 2 Chron. 2:3-18
1K 5:3a build  -   2 Sam. 7:5; 1 Chron. 22:7-8; 28:3
1K 5:4a rest  -   1 Kings 4:24; 1 Chron. 22:9
1K 5:5a build  -   2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Chron. 17:12; 22:10; 28:6
1K 5:81 cedar
See note 151 in ch. 6.
1K 5:111 cors
See note 221 in ch. 4.
1K 5:17a stones  -   1 Kings 6:7; 1 Chron. 22:2
1 Kings Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
1K 6:1a fourth  -   2 Chron. 3:2
1K 6:11 Solomon
Solomon’s building of the temple was according to the promise of Jehovah given to David (5:5; 2 Sam. 7:12-13). Solomon built the temple according to his father King David’s charge, with the materials prepared by David (1 Chron. 22:6-11, 14-16), according to God’s own design given to David (1 Chron. 28:11-19; cf. Gen. 6:14-16; Exo. 25:8-9).
1K 6:12b house  -   1 Kings 8:13; 2 Chron. 3:1; Acts 7:47; cf. Ezra 5:2; John 2:14, 19
The temple replaced the tabernacle as God’s dwelling on earth. The temple first signifies the incarnated Christ, the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), as God’s dwelling on the earth (John 2:19-21; 1:14). It also signifies the church, including all the believers, the members of Christ, as the enlargement of Christ to be God’s dwelling on the earth (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; Eph. 2:21-22). Christ and the church are one, Christ being the Head and the church being the Body (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18a). The Body is the enlargement of the Head for God’s dwelling. Hence, God’s dwelling in Christ is God’s dwelling in the church.
Solomon and the temple built by him typify Christ and His Body, the church, respectively, as the center, the reality, and the goal of God’s eternal economy. Since Solomon and the temple play the strongest roles in the history of Israel and occupy a wide realm in such a history, they are strong evidence that the history of Israel is very much related to the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy in the Old Testament in the way of typology. This is a clear indication that the books of history were written from the point of view of God’s eternal economy concerning Christ and the church.
The temple was built on the ground of Mount Zion, called Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac (Gen. 22:2) and David offered his sacrifice to Jehovah (1 Chron. 21:18 — 22:1; 2 Chron. 3:1). This is a further indication that the Bible is a record concerning God’s economy. Isaac was a type of Christ, who was crucified in the same place where Isaac was offered to God (see notes 21 in Gen. 22 and 11 in Mark 10).
1K 6:21a sixty  -   2 Chron. 3:3; cf. Exo. 26:16, 18, 22-24; Ezra 6:3
The dimensions of the temple and the Holy of Holies in the temple were twice those of the tabernacle (vv. 2, 20; cf. notes 31, 181, and 331 in Exo. 26). Furthermore, with the exception of the Ark (v. 19), the size and number of the furnishings and the utensils were greatly enlarged (2 Chron. 4:1-8). This indicates that although Christ Himself (signified by the Ark) cannot be enlarged, our experience of Christ in all His riches, as signified by the temple and its furnishings and utensils, should be greatly increased and enlarged (Eph. 3:8, 14-19; Phil. 3:7-14) to match His enlarged expression. See note 11, par. 2, in Ezek. 40.
1K 6:3a portico  -   2 Chron. 3:4
1K 6:41a windows  -   Ezek. 40:16; 41:16, 26
The windows of the temple were for air and light. They signify the life-giving Spirit’s fellowship, which brings in the spiritual air and the divine light.
1K 6:42 fixed
The fixed lattices were for keeping the windows open and for keeping the negative, undesirable things away. They signify the fellowship of the life-giving Spirit keeping the opening for the divine communication and protecting from the invasion of all negative matters.
1K 6:51 temple
I.e., the Holy Place. The outer temple, the Holy Place (v. 17), signifies the soul of the believers as God’s temple, which is sanctified unto God, whereas the innermost sanctuary, the Holy of Holies (vv. 5b, 16), signifies the spirit of the believers as God’s temple (Eph. 2:22 and note 4; Heb. 10:19 and note). The Holy of Holies was the same in its three dimensions, as is the New Jerusalem, the largest form of the Holy of Holies (v. 20; Rev. 21:16 and note 4).
1K 6:52 innermost
Lit., oracle. So throughout this chapter. This is the Holy of Holies (v. 16).
1K 6:53 side
The side chambers, as the fullness of the temple, signify the unsearchable riches of Christ becoming His extension, which is the church, the Body of Christ, as the fullness, the expression, of Christ (Eph. 3:8; 1:22b-23). The temple refers to both Christ (John 2:19-22) and the church (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21), whereas the side chambers signify the church in the aspect of its being the extension of Christ as His fullness.
1K 6:61 story
That the side chambers were in three stories (the number three signifying the Triune God in resurrection) signifies that the church expresses Christ, as His fullness, in the Triune God and in resurrection.
1K 6:71a stone  -   1 Kings 5:17; 2 Chron. 3:6
The stones signify Christ’s humanity in transformation, the transformed Christ (vv. 7, 36; 5:17; 2 Chron. 3:6). As God, Christ in His incarnation put on man’s flesh (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14). Having become a man in the flesh, i.e., a man in the old creation, He needed to be transformed in His human part. Such a transformed Christ is now the foundation stone, the cornerstone, the living stone, the precious stone, and the topstone in God’s divine building (Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4; Rev. 4:3; Zech. 4:7). The stones in the temple also signify the believers in Christ who have been transformed by Christ as the stone (Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:11, 14, 19-20).
1K 6:81 door
The door of the side chambers signifies the communication, the fellowship, of the church as the fullness of Christ. The lacking of a door would have indicated the autonomy of the churches. All the local churches as chambers of Christ should widen their doors, i.e., be open to fellowship with the other churches, thus avoiding autonomy.
1K 6:13a midst  -   Exo. 25:8
1K 6:151 cedar
The different kinds of wood used in constructing the temple signify different aspects of Christ’s humanity. In ancient times the Jews planted cypress trees above their graves; hence, cypress (vv. 15b, 34) signifies Christ’s humanity in His death, the crucified Jesus (cf. Gen. 6:14 and note 2). Cedar trees grew on the mountains of Lebanon (Psa. 104:16); thus, cedar (vv. 9, 10b, 15a, 16, 36) signifies Christ’s humanity in resurrection, the resurrected Christ (cf. S.S. 4:8 and note 2). Olive oil typifies the Spirit of God; hence, olive wood (vv. 23, 31-33) signifies Christ’s humanity in the Spirit of God, the anointed Christ (Heb. 1:9). In order to become materials for God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9, 12), we need to experience Christ in His death, His resurrection, and His Spirit (Phil. 3:10; 1:19).
1K 6:16a Holy  -   Exo. 26:33-34; 1 Kings 7:50; 8:6, 8; 2 Chron. 3:8; Ezek. 41:4; Heb. 9:3; cf. Rev. 21:16
1K 6:171 temple
See note 51.
1K 6:19a And  -   vv. 19-28: 2 Chron. 3:8-13
1K 6:191b Ark  -   1 Kings 8:6-10; Exo. 40:20-21; 2 Chron. 5:7; Heb. 9:3-4
There is no mentioning in 1 Kings 6 — 7 of the building of the Ark of the Covenant because Solomon kept the Ark made by Moses (6:19; 8:3-9). See notes on Exo. 25:10-22.
1K 6:201 gold
Gold signifies God’s divine nature, divinity (vv. 20-22).
1K 6:202 altar
The altar in vv. 20-22 is the incense altar (Exo. 30:1-10 and notes). See note 41 in Heb. 9.
1K 6:211 it
Referring probably to the altar of the preceding verse.
1K 6:22a altar  -   Exo. 30:1, 3, 6; Heb. 9:4
1K 6:231 olive
See note 151.
1K 6:27a wings  -   Exo. 25:20; 37:9; 1 Kings 8:7; 2 Chron. 5:8
1K 6:291 cherubim
See note 181 in Ezek. 41.
1K 6:361 inner
The inner court of the temple signifies the separation from the common world through God’s sanctification. It was built with three courses of hewn stone, signifying the crucified (hewn) Christ in His resurrection (the number three), and with one course of cedar beams, signifying the resurrected Christ in His humanity.
1 Kings Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
1K 7:11a house  -   1 Kings 3:1; cf. 1 Kings 9:10; 2 Chron. 8:1
Solomon built his palaces in association with God’s dwelling (vv. 1-12). Solomon’s palaces were built with the same materials as those used for the temple. This indicates that his palaces were of the same rank as God’s dwelling. God’s dwelling was for God to be worshipped by His people. Solomon’s palaces were for him to administrate his government over the people. Solomon’s government was the governmental administration of God over His people (2 Chron. 9:8). The fact that Solomon’s palaces were built in association with God’s dwelling indicates that God’s government over His people should go along with His worship by His people.
In the type the king’s palaces and God’s temple were separate, whereas in the New Testament reality these two are one building. The New Testament believers are on the one hand God’s priests to serve, to worship, God and on the other hand God’s kings to reign for God (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). The New Jerusalem will be the temple as God’s dwelling place and the place in which the believers will live and serve God as priests, and also a palace in which God the Father as the King of kings and all His children as His co-kings will live and reign as kings (Rev. 21:22; 22:3, 5).
1K 7:13a And  -   vv. 13-14: 2 Chron. 2:13-14
1K 7:131 Hiram
Solomon, the builder of the temple, is a type of Christ (Matt. 12:42), and Hiram, the builder of the pillars, is a type of the gifted persons in the New Testament, who perfect the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:8, 11-12, 16). That the work of building was not done by Solomon directly but by Solomon through Hiram indicates that Christ builds up the church not directly but through the gifted persons.
1K 7:141 Naphtali
Cf. 2 Chron. 2:14, which says that Hiram’s mother was “a woman of the daughters of Dan.” The tribe of Dan is the tribe of idolatry that caused God’s people to stumble and fall from God’s way (Gen. 49:17 and note). The fact that Hiram’s mother was of Dan indicates that Hiram’s origin, like that of all men, was of sin (Psa. 51:5; cf. John 8:44a). That Hiram became one who was “of the tribe of Naphtali,” the tribe of resurrection, i.e., of transformation (Gen. 49:21 and note), signifies that in order to be a part of God’s building and participate in its building work, we need to be transferred from the “tribe of Dan” into the “tribe of Naphtali” by being regenerated and transformed in Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3; 2 Cor. 3:18).
1K 7:142 Tyre
Tyre was a Gentile city noted for its commerce; hence, it was one with Satan (Ezek. 28:12, 16). Hiram’s father was the source of Hiram’s skill in working with bronze. However, his father died, leaving his mother, the source of his existence, a widow. This signifies that in order to be useful to God for the building of the church, God’s dwelling place, we need to acquire the secular learning and skills but must allow our “Tyrian” father, the source of these things, to die. Furthermore, our “Danite” mother must be “widowed” (separated from the worldly source), and we must be of the “tribe of Naphtali,” the tribe of transformation. Thus, we continue to possess the learning and the skills without the source, our existence (mother) is no longer linked to our worldly origin, and we are in resurrection. Moses and the apostle Paul are excellent examples of this principle.
1K 7:14a wisdom  -   cf. Exo. 31:3-5; 35:31-33
1K 7:143 came
Hiram was brought from Tyre to King Solomon in Jerusalem (vv. 13-14), the place where the temple was to be built. Jerusalem typifies the church. Both today’s Solomon (Christ) and God’s present building are in the church. Thus, in order to be useful to God for His building, we must gain secular skills, live in resurrection, and come to the proper ground, the ground of the church.
1K 7:15a And  -   vv. 15-22: 2 Chron. 3:15-17
1K 7:151 pillars
The two large pillars set up by Solomon in front of the temple were a striking feature of the exterior of the temple. In the Scriptures the pillar is a sign, a testimony, of God’s building (Gen. 28:18-19a, 22a; 1 Kings 7:15-22; Gal. 2:9; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 3:12). That there were two pillars here (two being the number of testimony) indicates that these pillars stood as a testimony, like a signboard, of what God’s building is. The names of the two pillars (v. 21 and notes) testify that the Lord will establish His building (cf. Matt. 16:18) and that genuine strength is in the building (cf. Eph. 3:17-18). In typology, bronze signifies God’s judgment (Exo. 27:1-8; Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). The temple’s two bronze pillars signify the Christ who was judged by God and who became the supporting strength of God’s dwelling on the earth (cf. Rev. 1:15 and notes 1 and 2). This Christ should be experienced by the believers in the church life and should be wrought into them to constitute them pillars to support God’s building.
1K 7:152 eighteen
Eighteen cubits (the height of each pillar — v. 15; 2 Kings 25:17) is half of three units of twelve cubits (the circumference of the pillar). The number three signifies the Triune God, and the number twelve signifies the mingling (multiplying) of the Triune God (three) with His creature man (four). It signifies further that this mingling is complete and perfect in God’s eternal administration (cf. note 122 in Rev. 21 and note 24 in Rev. 22). Thus, if we would be pillars as a testimony of God’s building, we must first judge ourselves under God’s judgment (bronze — Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20) and then be filled, saturated, and permeated with the Triune God. That each pillar is a half indicates that no matter how completely we are mingled with the Triune God, we are not complete in ourselves; we need others to match us (cf. note 161 in Exo. 26).
1K 7:153 each
Lit., the one pillar…the second pillar.
1K 7:161 capitals
The two bronze capitals covered the tops of the pillars. The total height of each capital was five cubits (v. 16; 2 Chron. 3:15), divided between the base (three cubits — 2 Kings 25:17) and the two bowls on top of each capital (2 Chron. 4:12). The number three here signifies the process of resurrection; the number two, a testimony (Deut. 17:6); the number five, the bearing of responsibility (see note 21 in Matt. 25); and the number ten (the combined height of the two capitals), fullness in bearing responsibility. The bowls were the glory, beauty, decoration, and crown of the capitals. They were covered with nets of checker work (like a trellis) and wreaths of chain work (v. 17). These signify the complicated and intermixed situation in which those who are pillars in God’s building (Gal. 2:9; Rev. 3:12) live and bear responsibility. Lilies were on the nets (v. 19), and two rows of one hundred pomegranates were on the wreaths (v. 18; 2 Kings 25:17; 2 Chron. 3:16; 4:13). Lilies signify a life of faith in God (S.S. 2:1-2; Matt. 6:28, 30; Gal. 2:20), and pomegranates, having many seeds, signify the expression of the riches of the divine life. A life of faith that expresses the riches of the divine life is the issue of the experience of Christ’s crucifixion in and through the complicated and intermixed situation (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7-18). In spiritual significance the bowls of the capitals are a testimony (two) indicating that those who place themselves under God’s judgment (bronze), counting themselves as nothing, are able to bear responsibility (five) in full (ten) and express the riches of the divine life (pomegranates) in the midst of a complicated and intermixed situation (the checker work and chain work) out of the process of resurrection (the base of the capitals, three cubits in height) because they do not live by themselves but by God (lilies). A believer who is a pillar as a sign of God’s building must bear the testimony of living by faith to bear responsibility and express the riches of life through the process of resurrection under the crossing out of the checker work and the restriction of the chain work.
For additional details concerning the two bronze pillars and their capitals in relation to spiritual experience, see Life-study of Genesis, Messages Eighty-three and Eighty-four.
1K 7:181 pillars
Following many MSS and the Septuagint; other MSS read, pomegranates.
1K 7:201 both
Lit., the second.
1K 7:21a pillars  -   cf. Gal. 2:9; Rev. 3:12; 1 Tim. 3:15
1K 7:211 Jachin
Meaning He will establish.
1K 7:212 Boaz
Meaning in Him is strength.
1K 7:23a And  -   vv. 23-26: 2 Chron. 4:2-5
1K 7:231 molten
The bronze sea with ten bronze lavers (vv. 23-40) signifies the convicting, judging, and renewing Spirit of God, who, based on the death of Christ, washes away all the negative things from those participating in the dwelling of God on earth (John 16:8; Titus 3:5). Solomon also built an altar of bronze (9:25), which is not listed here (see notes in Exo. 27:1-8).
1K 7:311 the
Lit., it.
1K 7:38a And  -   2 Chron. 4:6; cf. Exo. 30:18
1K 7:39a and  -   2 Chron. 4:10
1K 7:40a And  -   vv. 40-51: 2 Chron. 4:11–5:1
1K 7:401 pots
Following many MSS and the Septuagint; other MSS read, basins.
1K 7:481a altar  -   Exo. 37:25-29
The golden altar with its incense signifies the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Intercessor (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25) and as the sweet savor for God’s acceptance of His redeemed (Rev. 8:3). See notes in Exo. 30:1-10, 34-38.
1K 7:482b table  -   Exo. 37:10-16; 2 Chron. 4:8
The golden table for the bread of the Presence signifies the Christ who has gone through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and has become the life-giving Spirit to be the spiritual food of God’s elect (John 6:32-63). See notes in Exo. 25:23-30.
1K 7:491a lampstands  -   Exo. 25:31-38; 2 Chron. 4:7
The lampstands of pure gold signify the Christ who has become the life-giving Spirit through His resurrection to be the divine light to His people (John 8:12). See notes in Exo. 25:31-40.
1K 7:51a sanctified  -   2 Sam. 8:11; 1 Chron. 26:26
1 Kings Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
1K 8:1a Then  -   vv. 1-11: 2 Chron. 5:2-14
1K 8:1b Ark  -   cf. 2 Sam. 6:17
1K 8:2a feast  -   Lev. 23:34; 1 Kings 8:65; 2 Chron. 7:8-10
1K 8:41 Tent
Verses 1-11 show that the tabernacle was merged with the temple. The contents of the tabernacle were placed in the temple, indicating that as God’s dwelling place the tabernacle and the temple were one. The tabernacle was a portable precursor moving through the wilderness, whereas the temple was a consummation of God’s building in typology.
1K 8:6a Holy  -   Exo. 26:33-34; 1 Kings 6:16
1K 8:9a tablets  -   Exo. 25:21; 40:20; Deut. 10:1-5; Heb. 9:4
1K 8:10a And  -   vv. 10-11: cf. Exo. 40:34-35; Ezek. 10:3-4; Rev. 15:8; Acts 2:2
1K 8:111a glory  -   2 Chron. 5:14; 7:1-2; Ezek. 43:5; 44:4
The glory of Jehovah filled the temple (cf. Exo. 40:34), bringing the God who is in the heavens to the earth and joining the earth to the heavens. See note 122 in Gen. 28.
1K 8:12a Then  -   vv. 12-50: 2 Chron. 6:1-39
1K 8:12b deep  -   Exo. 20:21; Deut. 4:11; Psa. 97:2
1K 8:13a built  -   2 Sam. 7:13; Acts 7:47
1K 8:13b dwell  -   Exo. 15:17; cf. Psa. 132:14; Matt. 23:21
1K 8:16a name  -   Deut. 12:11; 1 Kings 8:29
1K 8:16b chose  -   1 Chron. 28:4
1K 8:17a heart  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:3; 1 Chron. 17:2
1K 8:19a build  -   2 Sam. 7:5; 1 Kings 5:3
1K 8:191 son
See note 13 in Matt. 1.
1K 8:20a throne  -   2 Sam. 7:12-13
1K 8:21a Ark  -   Deut. 31:26; 1 Kings 8:9
1K 8:25a There  -   1 Kings 2:4; 9:5
1K 8:27a heavens  -   2 Chron. 2:6; Deut. 10:14; Neh. 9:6; cf. Isa. 66:1; Acts 7:48-49
1K 8:27b house  -   Matt. 12:6; Acts 17:24
1K 8:29a name  -   Deut. 12:11; 1 Kings 8:16; 9:3
1K 8:29b listen  -   1 Kings 8:52; cf. 2 Chron. 6:40; 7:15; Neh. 1:6
1K 8:301 heavens
Solomon prayed that God would hear from His dwelling place in the heavens the supplication offered to Him by His people when they prayed toward the temple as His dwelling place on the earth. This indicates that God has two dwelling places, one in the heavens and one on the earth. Actually, these two are one; they are the two ends of God’s one dwelling place. Today the believers in Christ as God’s dwelling place (Eph. 2:21-22) are a particular people, a people who are in the heavens and on the earth (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1-3). See note 171 in Gen. 28.
1K 8:40a fear  -   Psa. 130:4; Deut. 6:2
1K 8:46a sin  -   Prov. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:8, 10
1K 8:47a to  -   cf. Jer. 31:18-19; Hosea 14:1-3; Luke 15:18
1K 8:481 land
Verses 31-48 mention seven conditions concerning God’s listening to the prayers of His elect. In this, the last, condition three things are stressed (v. 48): the Holy Land, typifying Christ as the portion allotted by God to the believers (see note 71 in Deut. 8); the holy city, signifying the kingdom of God in Christ (Psa. 48:1-2); and the holy temple, signifying God’s house, the church, on the earth (Eph. 2:21; 1 Tim. 3:15). These are the three crucial things regarding God’s economy. During the Babylonian captivity Daniel prayed toward the Holy Land, the holy city, and the holy temple three times a day by opening his window toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10). This indicates that God will listen to our prayer when our prayer to God is toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy. This means that no matter for whom we are praying, our prayers should be aimed at the interests of God, i.e., at Christ and the church as God’s interests on earth, for the fulfilling of God’s economy.
1K 8:51a furnace  -   Deut. 4:20; Jer. 11:4
1K 8:53a separated  -   Exo. 19:5-6; Deut. 14:2
1K 8:53b inheritance  -   Deut. 9:26, 29
1K 8:54a And  -   2 Chron. 7:1
1K 8:591 cause
For God to maintain the cause of His people means that He executes justice regarding their situation. Throughout the centuries God has maintained the cause of His people Israel. When they were wrong with Him, He chastised them and disciplined them through the hands of the Gentile powers, including the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. But when these nations went too far in dealing with Israel, God maintained Israel’s cause, punishing those who mistreated them (see note 51 in Isa. 10 and note 131, par. 1, in Isa. 26). This indicates that behind the physical realm there is the spiritual realm, in which God governs the entire universe, executing justice for His people every day as each day requires. God does this for His elect, for both Israel and the believers in Christ (1 Pet. 4:17 and note 1).
1K 8:60a Jehovah  -   Deut. 4:35, 39; 1 Kings 18:39
1K 8:62a And  -   vv. 62-63: 2 Chron. 7:4-5
1K 8:64a On  -   vv. 64-66: 2 Chron. 7:7-10
1K 8:641 burnt
See notes on the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering in Lev. 1 — 3.
1 Kings Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
1K 9:1a And  -   vv. 1-9: 2 Chron. 7:11-22
1K 9:11 Solomon
See note 341 in ch. 4. Chapters 9 and 10 portray the highest peak of Solomon’s glory among the nations. Solomon was glorified in the kingdom of Israel with the splendor of that kingdom. This is a prefigure of Christ in the millennium.
1K 9:2a appeared  -   1 Kings 3:5; 11:9; 2 Chron. 1:7
1K 9:3a name  -   1 Kings 8:16, 29; 2 Kings 21:4
1K 9:5a forever  -   2 Sam. 7:13, 16
1K 9:5b You  -   1 Kings 2:4; 8:25
1K 9:81 heaps
According to some versions; the Hebrew text reads, exalted.
1K 9:10a And  -   vv. 10-28: 2 Chron. 8:1-18
1K 9:151 Millo
I.e., the citadel. So also in v. 24.
1K 9:20a left  -   cf. Judg. 3:1
1K 9:24a daughter  -   1 Kings 3:1; 7:8
1K 9:241 Solomon
Lit., he.
1K 9:25a three  -   Exo. 23:14-17; Deut. 16:16
1 Kings Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
1K 10:1a And  -   vv. 1-13: 2 Chron. 9:1-12
1K 10:1b queen  -   Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31
1K 10:4a all  -   Matt. 6:29; Luke 12:27
1K 10:8a Happy  -   Prov. 3:13; 8:34
1K 10:9a Because  -   cf. 2 Chron. 2:11
1K 10:9b righteousness  -   2 Sam. 8:15
1K 10:14a Now  -   vv. 14-28: 2 Chron. 9:13-28
1K 10:17a shields  -   1 Kings 14:26
1K 10:23a Solomon  -   Luke 12:27
1K 10:23b kings  -   1 Kings 3:13
1K 10:23c wisdom  -   Luke 11:31
1K 10:26a And  -   vv. 26-29: 2 Chron. 1:14-17
1 Kings Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
1K 11:11 loved
Solomon’s fall was in his indulging his lust by loving many foreign women (vv. 1-3), in his forsaking God, who appeared to him twice (v. 9b), and in his worshipping the Gentile idols through the seducing by the foreign women whom he loved (vv. 4-8).
1K 11:1a foreign  -   Neh. 13:26; cf. Deut. 17:17
1K 11:2a not  -   cf. Deut. 7:3-4
1K 11:4a not  -   cf. 1 Kings 8:61; 15:3, 14
1K 11:6a follow  -   cf. Num. 14:24; Josh. 14:8, 14
1K 11:71 high
Places where the Gentile peoples worshipped their idols. When the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan to possess it, God commanded them to destroy all the high places of the nations (Num. 33:52). Here Solomon, the very one who had built the temple according to God’s desire on the ground of the oneness of God’s people, took the lead to build up the high places once again. These high places were related to fornication and idolatry. Solomon’s setting up of the high places was especially connected with the indulgence of lust in his loving many foreign women. See note 312 in ch. 12.
1K 11:91 So
After Solomon fell, God came in to punish and discipline him. God became angry with Solomon and determined to tear the kingdom away from him and give it to his servant (vv. 9-13). For David’s sake, however, God would not do this in Solomon’s days but would do it in the days of his son (vv. 12, 34). Moreover, for David’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, which God had chosen, God would still keep one tribe for the son of Solomon (vv. 13, 32-33, 35-36).
1K 11:9a appeared  -   1 Kings 3:5; 9:2; 2 Chron. 1:7
1K 11:11a tear  -   1 Kings 11:31, 35; 14:8
1K 11:131 one
The kingdom of God’s elect was split into two: the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, of two tribes and the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, of ten tribes (vv. 30-32). Judah was genuine, but Israel was a division in apostasy. The division among God’s elect issued in confusion, which always accompanies division (Gen. 11:7-9). See note 71 in Matt. 1.
1K 11:13a tribe  -   1 Kings 11:32, 36; 12:20
1K 11:15a Edom  -   2 Sam. 8:14; 1 Chron. 18:12-13
1K 11:21a slept  -   1 Kings 2:10
1K 11:23a Zobah  -   2 Sam. 8:3, 5
1K 11:26a Jeroboam  -   1 Kings 12:2; 2 Chron. 13:6
1K 11:271 Millo
I.e., the citadel.
1K 11:29a Ahijah  -   1 Kings 12:15; 14:2; 15:29; 2 Chron. 9:29
1K 11:291 Ahijah
Lit., he.
1K 11:30a tore  -   cf. 1 Sam. 15:27; 2 Kings 2:12
1K 11:32a chosen  -   1 Kings 14:21; Deut. 12:5
1K 11:36a lamp  -   2 Sam. 21:17; 1 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Chron. 21:7
1K 11:40a Shishak  -   1 Kings 14:25; 2 Chron. 12:2-9
1K 11:41a And  -   vv. 41-43: 2 Chron. 9:29-31
1K 11:431 slept
Solomon’s decease (vv. 41-43) was in gloomy disappointment. His glory fell off like the flower of grass (Matt. 6:29; 1 Pet. 1:24), and his splendid career became “vanity of vanities,” as he had preached (Eccl. 1:2). However, what God did through him as a type of Christ remains forever (see note 11 in ch. 2).
Under the light of the spiritual life, it is clear that Solomon was a wise man but not a spiritual man; a man of capability, not a man of life; a man whose wisdom was a gift, not a measure of life. The careers he accomplished were evidences of his capacity from his God-given gift of wisdom, not manifestations of the ability of the maturity of the divine life. Capability apart from life is like a snake, poisoning God’s people; life is like a dove, supplying God’s people with life. Cf. note 181 in Ruth 4.
Solomon’s enjoyment of the God-given good land reached the highest level through his God-given gift. However, because of his small measure in the maturity of the spiritual life, he was cut off from the enjoyment of the good land in God’s economy because of his unbridled indulgence of his lust. His father David, a man according to God’s heart, failed in this same gross and ugly sin (2 Sam. 11). Solomon’s failure in this satanic temptation was much greater than his father’s. This caused his descendants to lose more than ninety percent of their kingdom and caused the people of God’s elect to suffer division and confusion among themselves throughout many generations. Eventually, they lost the God-given land and became captives in the foreign lands of idol worship. The nation of Israel is still suffering because of Solomon’s failure. What a warning and an alarm this should be to us! We must be careful. Even a little failure in the indulgence of lust can damage the church and kill the splendid aspects of the church life.
1 Kings Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
1K 12:1a Then  -   vv. 1-19: 2 Chron. 10:1-19
1K 12:2a Jeroboam  -   1 Kings 11:26, 40
1K 12:41a yoke  -   1 Kings 4:7, 22-23; cf. 1 Sam. 8:11-18
The twelve tribes of Israel provided the daily necessities of Solomon and his vast family (4:22-23, 27-28), which included Solomon’s one thousand wives and concubines (11:3) with all their dependents. Eventually, the requirement to provide these daily necessities became a factor in the people’s rejecting of Solomon. Jeroboam took Solomon’s extraordinary, luxurious life and his heavy levying on the people as the cause of his rebellion. Solomon lost the kingdom partly due to his indulgence in lust and idol worship and partly because the people were burdened by the need to provide for Solomon’s vast family.
1K 12:6a counsel  -   Job 12:12; 32:7
1K 12:15a Ahijah  -   1 Kings 11:31-38
1K 12:16a portion  -   2 Sam. 20:1
1K 12:21a And  -   vv. 21-24: 2 Chron. 11:1-4
1K 12:22a Shemaiah  -   2 Chron. 12:5, 7, 15
1K 12:25a Shechem  -   cf. Judg. 9:46-49
1K 12:25b Penuel  -   Judg. 8:8-9, 17
1K 12:271 return
God had ordained that His people come together three times a year in Jerusalem (Deut. 16:16). Jeroboam was afraid that the ten tribes would return to their rightful king if they went to worship God in Jerusalem. Thus, he set up two divisive worship centers, saying that it was not convenient to travel to Jerusalem (vv. 28-29). The source of Jeroboam’s apostasy was selfish ambition, the desire to have his own kingdom. The divisions in Christianity are also caused mainly by selfish ambition.
1K 12:281a calves  -   2 Kings 10:29; 17:16; 2 Chron. 11:15; 13:8; Hosea 8:5-6; 10:5; 13:2
Jeroboam’s apostasy (vv. 25-33; 13:33-34) consisted of his (1) making two calves (idols) of gold, putting one in Bethel and the other in Dan, in order to distract his people from worshipping God in Jerusalem (vv. 25-30), thus breaking God’s ordination of having one unique worship center in the Holy Land for keeping the unity, the oneness, of the children of Israel (Deut. 12:2-18); (2) building a temple at the high places and appointing priests from among the common people who were not of the tribe of Levi (v. 31; 13:33b; 2 Chron. 13:9); (3) ordaining a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (the month he had devised in his own heart), like the feast that was in Judah (vv. 32a, 33b); (4) offering sacrifices on the altar at Bethel to the calves that he had made, and placing in Bethel the priests of the high places (vv. 32b-33a); and (5) going up to the altar to burn incense (v. 33b) although he was not a priest. The apostasy of Jeroboam can be considered a type of the apostasy in today’s Christendom, with its divisive worship centers, its clergy-laity system, its self-ordained religious “feasts,” and its idolatry. Cf. note 51 in Judg. 17.
1K 12:28b gods  -   Exo. 32:4, 8
1K 12:29a Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19; 2 Kings 10:29
1K 12:301a sin  -   1 Kings 13:34; 2 Kings 17:21
Jeroboam’s apostasy became a serious sin that caused his entire family to be destroyed under God’s judgment (13:34; 14:7-11; 15:29-30) and eventually led to Israel’s being carried away into captivity (14:15-16; 2 Kings 17:20-23). The sins of Jeroboam are referred to repeatedly throughout the books of the Kings.
1K 12:311a house  -   1 Kings 13:32
The word house here indicates that Jeroboam built a temple on the high places.
1K 12:312 high
To set up a high place is to have a division. Hence, the significance of the high places is division. These places were a substitute and an alternative for the unique place chosen by God to preserve the oneness of His people (see note 51 in Deut. 12). In this book two kings — Solomon and Jeroboam — took the lead to set up the high places, the former because of the indulgence of lust (see note 71 in ch. 11) and the latter because of ambition (see note 271). Thus, the high places were related to lust, ambition, and idolatry. All the divisions among God’s people are connected to these three evil things.
A high place is an elevation, something lifted above the common level. This indicates that a high place involves the exalting of something. In principle, every division in Christianity involves the uplifting, the exalting, of something other than Christ. Anything that is exalted above Christ, even biblical teachings and scriptural practices, can be used to set up a “high place” to cause division among God’s people. See notes 29 and 92 in 1 Cor. 1.
The high places in the Old Testament are a matter of great significance, for they seriously damaged the ground of oneness among God’s elect. Once these places were set up, they were not easily removed, even by the good kings (15:14; 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3; 14:4; 15:4, 35; cf. 2 Kings 18:4; 23:8, 12, 15, 19).
1K 12:31b priests  -   1 Kings 13:33; 2 Kings 17:32; 2 Chron. 11:14-15; 13:9
1K 12:32a feast  -   cf. Lev. 23:34; Num. 29:12
1 Kings Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
1K 13:1a man  -   2 Kings 23:17
1K 13:2a bones  -   2 Kings 23:15-16
1K 13:6a intercede  -   Gen. 20:17; 2 Kings 20:2-5; Job 42:8; Prov. 15:29; cf. James 5:16
1K 13:8a gave  -   cf. Num. 22:18; 24:13
1K 13:111 sons
Some MSS read, son.
1K 13:24a lion  -   cf. 1 Kings 20:36
1K 13:31a bones  -   2 Kings 23:17-18
1K 13:32a altar  -   1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:15-19
1K 13:33a priests  -   Judg. 17:5; 1 Kings 12:31
1K 13:331 consecrated
Lit., filled his hands.
1K 13:34a sin  -   1 Kings 12:30; 2 Kings 17:21
1 Kings Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
1K 14:2a disguise  -   1 Sam. 28:8; 2 Sam. 14:2; 1 Kings 22:30
1K 14:2b Ahijah  -   1 Kings 11:29-31
1K 14:4a eyes  -   Gen. 48:10; 27:1; 1 Sam. 4:15
1K 14:7a ruler  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:2
1K 14:8a tore  -   1 Kings 11:11, 31
1K 14:9a made  -   1 Kings 12:28; cf. Exo. 34:17
1K 14:11a Him  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:4
1K 14:13a good  -   2 Chron. 19:3
1K 14:14a house  -   1 Kings 15:29
1K 14:15a good  -   Josh. 23:15-16
1K 14:15b scatter  -   2 Kings 15:29; 17:6, 23; 18:11
1K 14:151 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
1K 14:16a sins  -   1 Kings 12:30; 13:34; 15:26, 30, 34; 16:19, 26
1K 14:17a Tirzah  -   1 Kings 15:21, 33; 16:6, 8, 15, 23; S.S. 6:4
1K 14:19a waged  -   cf. 2 Chron. 13:2-20
1K 14:21a And  -   vv. 21-22: 2 Chron. 12:13-14
1K 14:25a Then  -   vv. 25-28: 2 Chron. 12:9-11
1K 14:29a And  -   vv. 29-31: 2 Chron. 12:15-16
1 Kings Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
1K 15:1a And  -   vv. 1-2: 2 Chron. 13:1-2
1K 15:41 David’s
I.e., for Christ, who was to be incarnated as one of David’s descendants (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3). See note 71 in Matt. 1.
1K 15:4a lamp  -   1 Kings 11:36
1K 15:51 matter
See note 41 in 2 Sam. 11.
1K 15:5a Uriah  -   2 Sam. 11:3-4, 15; 12:9; Matt. 1:6
1K 15:7a And  -   cf. 2 Chron. 13:22
1K 15:7b war  -   cf. 2 Chron. 13:2-20
1K 15:8a And  -   2 Chron. 14:1
1K 15:101 mother’s
I.e., his grandmother. So also in v. 13.
1K 15:11a And  -   2 Chron. 14:2
1K 15:13a And  -   vv. 13-15: 2 Chron. 15:16-18
1K 15:131 Asherah
The name of a female deity.
1K 15:14a not  -   1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3
1K 15:17a And  -   vv. 17-22: 2 Chron. 16:1-6
1K 15:18a house  -   1 Kings 14:26; 2 Kings 12:18; 18:15-16
1K 15:23a And  -   vv. 23-24: 2 Chron. 16:11-14
1K 15:231 diseased
See note 121 in 2 Chron. 16.
1K 15:24a Jehoshaphat  -   2 Chron. 17:1; 1 Kings 22:41
1K 15:25a Nadab  -   1 Kings 14:20
1K 15:26a sin  -   1 Kings 12:30; 14:16; 15:30, 34
1K 15:29a house  -   1 Kings 14:10, 14
1K 15:32a And  -   1 Kings 15:16
1K 15:34a sin  -   1 Kings 15:26, 30
1 Kings Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
1K 16:1a Jehu  -   1 Kings 16:7; 2 Chron. 19:2; 20:34
1K 16:2a Because  -   vv. 2-4: cf. 1 Kings 14:7, 10-11
1K 16:71 it
Or, him.
1K 16:9a Zimri  -   2 Kings 9:31
1K 16:12a house  -   1 Kings 16:3
1K 16:15a Gibbethon  -   1 Kings 15:27
1K 16:24a Samaria  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:29; 20:1; 22:37
1K 16:25a Omri  -   Micah 6:16; cf. 1 Kings 16:30
1K 16:311a Jezebel  -   1 Kings 19:1-2; 21:23, 25-26; 2 Kings 9:7; Rev. 2:20
See notes on Rev. 2:20.
1K 16:31b Baal  -   1 Kings 22:53; 2 Kings 3:2; 17:16
1K 16:32a house  -   2 Kings 10:21, 25-27
1K 16:33a Asherah  -   1 Kings 18:19; 2 Kings 13:6; 21:3
1K 16:34a built  -   cf. Josh. 6:26
1K 16:34b Jericho  -   2 Kings 2:4, 18, 19
1 Kings Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
1K 17:11a rain  -   James 5:17; Rev. 11:6; cf. 1 Kings 18:1; Luke 4:25
See James 5:17 and note.
1K 17:9a Zarephath  -   Obad. 20; Luke 4:26
1K 17:91 widow
See note 262 in Luke 4.
1K 17:14a oil  -   cf. 2 Kings 4:2-7
1K 17:161 barrel
Elijah’s miracles, like Solomon’s riches, glory, and splendor, were altogether in the physical realm, in God’s Old Testament economy. They did not involve anything spiritual in God’s New Testament economy. See note 301 in ch. 4.
1K 17:17a son  -   cf. 2 Kings 4:18-20
1K 17:18a man  -   Deut. 33:1; 1 Kings 20:28
1K 17:21a stretched  -   2 Kings 4:34-35; Acts 20:10
1K 17:23a gave  -   Luke 7:15; Acts 9:41; Heb. 11:35
1 Kings Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
1K 18:1a Elijah  -   cf. 1 Kings 17:1; Luke 4:25; James 5:17
1K 18:4a cave  -   1 Kings 19:9; Heb. 11:38
1K 18:12a Spirit  -   2 Kings 2:16; Ezek. 3:12, 14; 8:3; Acts 8:39
1K 18:13a what  -   1 Kings 18:4
1K 18:18a Baals  -   1 Kings 16:31
1K 18:19a four  -   cf. 1 Kings 18:22, 40; 22:6; 2 Kings 3:13; Jer. 14:14; 27:9-10, 16; 2 Pet. 2:1; Rev. 2:20
1K 18:21a two  -   Matt. 6:24; cf. 2 Kings 17:41
1K 18:21b If  -   cf. Josh. 24:15
1K 18:22a prophets  -   1 Kings 18:19
1K 18:24a fire  -   1 Kings 18:38
1K 18:26a called  -   Matt. 6:7
1K 18:29a meal  -   cf. Exo. 29:39-41
1K 18:30a broken  -   1 Kings 19:10, 14
1K 18:31a twelve  -   Josh. 4:3
1K 18:31b Israel  -   Gen. 32:28; 35:10; 2 Kings 17:34
1K 18:36a Abraham  -   Exo. 3:6
1K 18:36b known  -   1 Sam. 17:46; Josh. 4:24
1K 18:38a fire  -   Lev. 9:24; Judg. 6:21; 1 Kings 18:24
1K 18:39a Jehovah  -   Deut. 4:35, 39; 1 Kings 8:60
1K 18:40a Seize  -   1 Kings 19:1; cf. 2 Kings 10:25
1K 18:44a cloud  -   cf. Luke 12:54
1K 18:45a rain  -   James 5:18
1K 18:461a hand  -   2 Kings 3:15; Ezek. 1:3; 3:14
Referring to the Spirit of Jehovah. Cf. note 62 in Ezra 7.
1K 18:46b girded  -   Exo. 12:11; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1; Jer. 1:17; Luke 12:35
1 Kings Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
1K 19:1a Jezebel  -   1 Kings 16:31; Rev. 2:20
1K 19:1b slain  -   1 Kings 18:40
1K 19:4a It  -   cf. Num. 11:15; Jonah 4:3, 8
1K 19:7a angel  -   1 Kings 19:5; Acts 12:7
1K 19:8a forty  -   cf. Exo. 24:18; 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 18; Matt. 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2
1K 19:8b Horeb  -   Exo. 3:1; Deut. 4:10
1K 19:9a cave  -   Heb. 11:38
1K 19:10a jealous  -   1 Kings 19:14; 2 Kings 10:16
1K 19:10b slain  -   1 Kings 18:4; Rom. 11:3
1K 19:10c left  -   1 Kings 18:22
1K 19:11a mountain  -   Exo. 24:12; 34:2
1K 19:11b wind  -   Ezek. 1:4
1K 19:11c earthquake  -   Ezek. 37:7
1K 19:121 a
The fact that God spoke to Elijah in a gentle, quiet voice indicates that God was ushering Elijah into the New Testament age, in which God speaks to His people not by thundering but gently and quietly (cf. 1 John 2:27).
1K 19:12a voice  -   cf. Job 4:12, 16
1K 19:13a face  -   Exo. 3:6
1K 19:14a jealous  -   1 Kings 19:10
1K 19:16a Jehu  -   2 Kings 9:1-6
1K 19:16b Elisha  -   2 Kings 2:9, 15; cf. 1 Kings 19:19-21
1K 19:17a Hazael  -   2 Kings 8:12; 13:3, 22
1K 19:17b Jehu  -   cf. 2 Kings 9–10
1K 19:18a I  -   Rom. 11:4
1K 19:181 seven
These faithful ones, the overcomers, were still standing with God. Eventually, God punished Israel by sending Israel away from their fathers’ land as captives (2 Kings 24 — 25). Later, it was the overcomers among the captives who brought Israel back. One of these overcomers, Daniel, prayed with his window open toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10). Through his gracious prayer God brought Israel back to their fathers’ land.
1K 19:19a mantle  -   2 Kings 2:8, 13
1K 19:20a Let  -   cf. Matt. 8:21; Luke 9:61
1K 19:21a implements  -   cf. 2 Sam. 24:22
1K 19:21b ministered  -   2 Kings 3:11
1 Kings Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
1K 20:1a Ben-hadad  -   1 Kings 15:18; 2 Kings 6:24; 8:7
1K 20:13a delivering  -   1 Kings 20:28
1K 20:201 opponent
Lit., man.
1K 20:22a return  -   1 Kings 20:26
1K 20:23a mountains  -   1 Kings 20:28
1K 20:27a two  -   cf. Gen. 32:2, 7; S.S. 6:13
1K 20:28a Jehovah  -   1 Kings 20:23
1K 20:32a sackcloth  -   2 Sam. 3:31; cf. Josh. 9:3-5
1K 20:34a cities  -   cf. 1 Kings 15:20
1K 20:36a lion  -   1 Kings 13:24
1K 20:42a devoted  -   cf. 1 Sam. 15:9-11
1 Kings Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
1K 21:2a vineyard  -   cf. 1 Sam. 8:14
1K 21:3a inheritance  -   Num. 36:7; cf. Ezek. 46:18
1K 21:10a cursed  -   Exo. 22:28; Acts 6:11; 23:5
1K 21:13a carried  -   Lev. 24:14; Num. 15:35-36; Acts 7:58; Heb. 11:37
1K 21:19a blood  -   2 Kings 9:25-26; 1 Kings 21:29; cf. 1 Kings 22:38
1K 21:20a sold  -   1 Kings 21:25; 2 Kings 17:17; Rom. 7:14
1K 21:22a Jeroboam  -   1 Kings 15:29
1K 21:22b Baasha  -   1 Kings 16:4, 11
1K 21:23a Jezebel  -   2 Kings 9:36; Rev. 2:20
1K 21:24a dies  -   cf. 1 Kings 14:11; 16:4
1K 21:25a Jezebel  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:31-33; Rev. 2:20
1K 21:27a carefully  -   Isa. 38:15
1K 21:29a son’s  -   cf. 2 Kings 10:7
1 Kings Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
1K 22:2a Jehoshaphat  -   1 Kings 15:24
1K 22:2b came  -   vv. 2-35: 2 Chron. 18:2-34
1K 22:3a Ramoth-gilead  -   Deut. 4:43; Josh. 20:8; 2 Kings 8:28
1K 22:4a I  -   2 Kings 3:7
1K 22:5a Ask  -   2 Kings 3:11
1K 22:6a prophets  -   cf. 2 Pet. 2:1
1K 22:61 Lord
Many MSS read, Jehovah.
1K 22:7a prophet  -   2 Kings 3:11
1K 22:14a that  -   Num. 22:18-19; 24:13
1K 22:17a sheep  -   Num. 27:17; Matt. 9:36
1K 22:19a throne  -   Psa. 11:4; 103:19; Isa. 6:1; Dan. 7:9; Rev. 4:2
1K 22:19b standing  -   Job 1:6; 2:1; Dan. 7:10; Rev. 5:11
1K 22:24a struck  -   Lam. 3:30; Mark 14:65; Acts 23:2; Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:29
1K 22:27a prison  -   2 Chron. 16:10; Jer. 20:2; 37:15; 38:6
1K 22:28a Jehovah  -   cf. Num. 16:29; Deut. 18:22
1K 22:28b Listen  -   Micah 1:2
1K 22:281 you
Lit., them.
1K 22:30a disguised  -   2 Chron. 35:22
1K 22:31a king  -   cf. 2 Sam. 17:2
1K 22:34a wounded  -   2 Chron. 35:23
1K 22:38a blood  -   1 Kings 21:19
1K 22:39a ivory  -   Psa. 45:8; Amos 3:15
1K 22:41a And  -   vv. 41-50: 2 Chron. 20:31– 21:1
1K 22:43a way  -   cf. 2 Chron. 17:3
1K 22:43b not  -   1 Kings 15:14; 2 Kings 12:3
1K 22:48a ships  -   1 Kings 9:26
1K 22:51a Ahaziah  -   1 Kings 22:40
1K 22:53a Baal  -   1 Kings 16:31
< 1 Kings • 2 Kings Outline >
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1 & 2 Kings Outline
I.   The old age and decease of David — 1 Kings 1:1 — 2:11
A.   Being old and fading away — 1:1-4
B.   Making Solomon the successor to his throne — 1:5-53
C.   Giving the final charge to Solomon his son as the successor to the Davidic throne — 2:1-9
D.   Ceasing in his life on earth — 2:10-11
II.   The reign of the kings — 1 Kings 2:12 — 2 Kings 25:30
A.   The reign of Solomon — 1 Kings 2:12 — 11:43a
1.   Ending the factors of rebellion for the establishment of his kingdom — 2:12-46
2.   Marrying the daughter of the king of Egypt — 3:1
3.   Seeking for God — 3:2-4
4.   Seeking for wisdom — 3:5-15
5.   Judging the case of the two harlots’ quarreling — 3:16-28
6.   The organization of his governmental administration — 4:1-19
7.   His prosperity under the rich blessing of God — 4:20 — 5:18
8.   Building the temple of God as well as his own palaces — 6:1 — 8:66
a.   The temple — 6:1-38
b.   His palaces built in association with God’s dwelling — 7:1-12
c.   Hiram, Solomon’s workman — 7:13-14
d.   The two bronze pillars — 7:15-22
e.   The bronze sea with ten bronze lavers — 7:23-40a
f.   Hiram’s work for Solomon — 7:40b-47
g.   The vessels of the temple — 7:48-51
h.   The dedication of the temple — 8:1-66
(1)   The tabernacle being merged with the temple — vv. 1-11
(2)   Solomon’s blessing and declaration to the people — vv. 12-21
(3)   Solomon’s prayer — vv. 22-53
(4)   Solomon’s further blessing to the people — vv. 54-61
(5)   Solomon and the people offering a vast quantity of sacrifices to God — vv. 62-64
(6)   Solomon and his people holding a feast for fourteen days — vv. 65-66
9.   The highest peak of Solomon’s glory among the nations — 9:1 — 10:29
a.   Jehovah’s acceptance of his prayer and Jehovah’s promise to establish his throne forever — 9:1-9
b.   His alliance with Hiram — 9:10-14
c.   Building further cities — 9:15-24
d.   His offerings three times a year — 9:25
e.   Building a navy with Hiram’s cooperation — 9:26-28
f.   The queen of Sheba coming to pay her honor to him and listen to his words of wisdom — 10:1-10, 13
g.   Hiram’s fleet bringing precious goods for the temple of God and Solomon’s palace — 10:11-12
h.   Enriched with tribute and tariff from the nations, and building a defense — 10:14-29
10.   The tragedy of Israel’s history — 11:1-43a
a.   Solomon’s fall — vv. 1-8
b.   God’s chastisement — vv. 9-40
(1)   God becoming angry with Solomon and determining to tear the kingdom away from him and give it to his servant (the division of the kingdom of Israel) — vv. 9-13
(2)   The actions of God’s chastisements — vv. 14-40
c.   Solomon’s decease after reigning over all Israel for forty years — vv. 41-43a
B.   The reigns of Rehoboam over Judah and of Jeroboam over Israel — 1 Kings 11:43b — 14:31a
1.   Rehoboam continuing the reign after Solomon — 11:43b
2.   Rehoboam suffering the division of the kingdom and losing ten tribes — 12:1-24
3.   The apostasy of Jeroboam — 12:25-33
4.   God’s judgment on the altar at Bethel made by Jeroboam — 13:1-32
5.   The further apostasy of Jeroboam — 13:33-34
6.   Ahijah’s prophecy concerning the tragic ending of Jeroboam — 14:1-18
7.   Jeroboam reigning over the ten tribes of Israel, and his life being ended by the severe punishment of God — 14:19-20
8.   Rehoboam enthroned and reigning over Judah — 14:21-24
9.   Rehoboam defeated and robbed by the king of Egypt — 14:25-28
10.   Rehoboam fighting with Jeroboam continually and being buried in the city of David — 14:29-31a
C.   The reign of Abijam over Judah — 1 Kings 14:31b — 15:8a
D.   The reign of Asa over Judah — 1 Kings 15:8b-24
E.   The reign of Nadab over Israel — 1 Kings 15:25-31
F.   The reign of Baasha over Israel — 1 Kings 15:32 — 16:7
G.   The reign of Elah over Israel — 1 Kings 16:8-14
H.   The reign of Zimri over Israel — 1 Kings 16:15-20
I.   The reign of Omri over Israel — 1 Kings 16:21-28a
J.   The reign of Ahab over Israel — 1 Kings 16:28b — 22:40
1.   Beginning to reign over Israel — 16:28b-29
2.   Doing what was evil in the eyes of Jehovah more than all who were before him — 16:30-33
3.   In his days Jericho being rebuilt, bringing in the curse prophesied — 16:34
4.   God’s dealing with Ahab through Elijah the prophet — 17:1 — 19:9a
a.   Shutting up the heavens from rain — 17:1-24
(1)   Elijah warning Ahab — v. 1
(2)   God sending Elijah to live on water from the brook and on food brought by ravens — vv. 2-7
(3)   God sending Elijah to a widow to feed him — vv. 8-24
(a)   Elijah miraculously providing meal and oil for the widow, instead of being fed by her — vv. 8-16
(b)   Elijah raising up the widow’s dead son — vv. 17-24
b.   Opening up the heavens to rain — 18:1-46
(1)   God sending Elijah to Ahab — vv. 1-2
(2)   Ahab meeting Elijah through Obadiah — vv. 3-16
(3)   The test on Mount Carmel to prove who the real God is — vv. 17-40
(4)   The great downpour of rain — vv. 41-46
c.   Elijah being threatened by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab — 19:1-9a
5.   Jehovah’s commission to Elijah in his discouragement — 19:9b-18
6.   Elijah finding Elisha and gaining him to follow him and replace him — 19:19-21
7.   Dealing with Ben-hadad the king of Syria — 20:1-43
8.   Taking Naboth’s vineyard by force in injustice — 21:1-29
9.   His miserable ending — 22:1-40
K.   The reign of Jehoshaphat over Judah — 1 Kings 22:41-50
L.   The reign of Ahaziah over Israel — 1 Kings 22:51 — 2 Kings 1:18
M.   The rapture of Elijah — 2 Kings 2:1-18
N.   Elisha’s ministry of grace — 2 Kings 2:19-25; 4:1 — 6:7
1.   Healing the bad water of Jericho — 2:19-22
2.   Cursing the mocking boys — 2:23-25
3.   Calling the things not being as being — 4:1-17, 42-44
4.   Resurrecting the dead — 4:18-37
5.   Nullifying the poison of the wild gourds with flour — 4:38-41
6.   Healing leprosy — 5:1-27
7.   Causing the ax head to float by means of a wooden stick — 6:1-7
O.   The reign of Jehoram over Israel — 2 Kings 3:1-27; 6:8 — 8:15
1.   Fighting against the king of Moab — 3:1-27
2.   Ben-hadad the king of Syria waging war against Israel — 6:8-23
3.   Ben-hadad the king of Syria besieging Samaria — 6:24 — 7:20
4.   Elisha telling of a seven-year famine ordered by God — 8:1-6
5.   Elisha’s friendly contact with Ben-hadad the king of Syria — 8:7-15
P.   The reign of Jehoram over Judah — 2 Kings 8:16-24a
Q.   The reign of Ahaziah over Judah — 2 Kings 8:24b-29
R.   The reign of Jehu over Israel — 2 Kings 9:1 — 10:36
S.   The illegitimate reign of Athaliah over Judah — 2 Kings 11:1-16
T.   The reign of Joash (Jehoash) over Judah — 2 Kings 11:17 — 12:21
U.   The reign of Jehoahaz over Israel — 2 Kings 13:1-9a
V.   The reign of Jehoash (Joash) over Israel — 2 Kings 13:9b-25
W.   The reign of Amaziah over Judah — 2 Kings 14:1-22
X.   The reign of Jeroboam over Israel — 2 Kings 14:23-29
Y.   The reign of Azariah (Uzziah) over Judah — 2 Kings 15:1-7
Z.   The reign of Zechariah over Israel — 2 Kings 15:8-12
AA.   The reign of Shallum over Israel — 2 Kings 15:13-15
BB.   The reign of Menahem over Israel — 2 Kings 15:16-22a
CC.   The reign of Pekahiah over Israel — 2 Kings 15:22b-26
DD.   The reign of Pekah over Israel — 2 Kings 15:27-31
EE.   The reign of Jotham over Judah — 2 Kings 15:32-38a
FF.   The reign of Ahaz over Judah — 2 Kings 15:38b — 16:20
GG.   The reign of Hoshea over Israel — 2 Kings 17:1-41
HH.   The reign of Hezekiah over Judah — 2 Kings 18:1 — 20:21a
1.   Hezekiah’s prosperity — 18:1-8
2.   The invasion of the Assyrians — 18:9 — 19:37
a.   The invasion under Shalmaneser the king of Assyria — 18:9-12
b.   The attacking and challenging of Sennacherib the king of Assyria with insult and blasphemy — 18:13 — 19:37
3.   The healing of Jehovah — 20:1-11
4.   The failure of Hezekiah — 20:12-19
5.   Hezekiah bringing water into the city and his end — 20:20-21a
II.   The reign of Manasseh — 2 Kings 20:21b — 21:18a
JJ.   The reign of Amon — 2 Kings 21:18b-26a
KK.   The reign of Josiah — 2 Kings 21:26b — 23:30a
LL.   The reign of Jehoahaz — 2 Kings 23:30b-33
MM.   The beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim — 2 Kings 23:34 — 24:6a
NN.   The reign of Jehoiachin — 2 Kings 24:6b-9; 25:27-30
OO.   Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon besieging Jerusalem — 2 Kings 24:10-16
PP.   The reign of Zedekiah — 2 Kings 24:17-20
QQ.   The fall of Jerusalem and the carrying away of Judah into exile — 2 Kings 25:1-21
RR.   The governing of Gedaliah — 2 Kings 25:22-26
2 Kings >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Kings Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2K 1:1a Moab  -   cf. 2 Sam. 8:2
2K 1:21a Baal-zebub  -   cf. Matt. 10:25; 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18-19
See note 251 in Matt. 10.
2K 1:8a hairy  -   Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6; Zech. 13:4
2K 1:10a fire  -   Luke 9:54; Rev. 11:5
2K 1:151 Angel
See note 71 in Gen. 16.
2K 1:17a Jehoram  -   cf. 2 Kings 3:1; 8:16
2 Kings Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2K 2:1a take  -   cf. Gen. 5:24
2K 2:11 Elijah
Elijah is a type of the Old Testament age with the Old Testament economy, and Elisha is a type of the New Testament age with the New Testament economy. The age was changed by passing through four places — Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the river Jordan (vv. 1-8). Gilgal was a place where God’s people were circumcised to deal with their flesh (Josh. 5:2-9); Bethel is the place to give up the world and turn to God absolutely, taking God as everything (Gen. 12:8); Jericho, the first city that Joshua and the people of Israel had to defeat when they entered into the good land, signifies the head of God’s enemy, Satan (Josh. 6:1-27); and the river Jordan, where the New Testament baptism began, signifies death (Matt. 3:5-6 and note 62). To cross the river Jordan, Elijah struck the water with his mantle, which typifies the outpoured Spirit, the Spirit of power (v. 8). The Spirit of power dealt with the river of death so that the way was opened for Elijah and Elisha to cross over. All this signifies that in order for the age to be changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our experience, we must deal with our flesh (Gal. 5:24), give up the world and turn to God (1 John 2:15-17), defeat Satan (Rev. 12:11), and pass through death (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 2:20).
2K 2:81a mantle  -   1 Kings 19:19
Elijah’s mantle typifies the outpoured Spirit, the Spirit of power (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). In order to receive the mantle of Elijah, the Spirit of power, we must follow the Lord from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to the Jordan (see note 11). Furthermore, we must “tear our clothes into two pieces” (v. 12), indicating that we no longer treasure what we are or what we can do (cf. Matt. 16:24). Through all these steps we enter into a new age, the age of the New Testament, where Christ is doing gracious things.
2K 2:8b parted  -   cf. Exo. 14:21; Isa. 63:12; Josh. 3:17
2K 2:11a chariot  -   2 Kings 6:17
2K 2:11b Elijah  -   Matt. 17:3
2K 2:111c went  -   Rev. 11:12; Acts 1:9
Elijah’s rapture typified the termination of the Old Testament age in God’s economy. However, Elijah himself was not terminated. He was taken up into heaven to await the next age, in which he will see Elisha (Christ) doing many gracious and sweet things. The Scriptures say that Elijah will come back again (Mal. 4:5; Luke 1:17; Matt. 11:14; 17:10-13; cf. 17:3-4; Rev. 11:3-12). At the end of the New Testament age Elijah will return to be one of the two witnesses during the three and a half years of the great tribulation (see notes on Rev. 11:3-12).
2K 2:12a My  -   2 Kings 13:14
2K 2:121 tore
See note 81.
2K 2:13a mantle  -   1 Kings 19:19
2K 2:151 spirit
Although Elisha received the spirit of Elijah, the Spirit, who at Elijah’s time performed great miracles such as shutting up the heavens, opening up the heavens, and calling down fire from heaven (1 Kings 17:1; 18:37-38, 41-45; 2 Kings 1:9-12), acted in a different way through Elisha. Elisha behaved in a way which was very similar to that of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels, doing many gracious and sweet things (vv. 19-22; 4:1 — 6:7).
Elijah was a type of John the Baptist in convicting people unto death (Luke 1:17; Matt. 11:11, 14; 3:1-2, 6-11a). John the Baptist, who came before Christ, ushered in Christ, as typified by Elijah’s ushering in Elisha, who was a type of Christ (Luke 4:27) in doing miracles of grace in life. Elisha was a type in the Old Testament who represented God’s New Testament economy in grace. Grace is God doing everything for us by giving Himself to us as our enjoyment (John 1:1, 14-17). This grace issues in the divine life, which is rich and high, even unto making us co-kings with Christ (Rom. 5:17).
2K 2:16a Spirit  -   1 Kings 18:12; Acts 8:39
2K 2:211 healed
Jericho (v. 4) signifies Satan, with whom is the might of death (Heb. 2:14). The significance of the miracle performed by Elisha in healing the water at Jericho and of the miracle performed by the Lord Jesus in changing water into wine (John 2:3-11) is the same — the changing of death into life.
2K 2:23a Go  -   cf. 2 Kings 2:11
2K 2:241 cursed
Elisha’s cursing of the mocking boys was the same in principle as what the Lord Jesus did in pronouncing eight woes on the scribes and Pharisees in Matt. 23:13-36.
2 Kings Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2K 3:1a Jehoram  -   2 Kings 8:16; cf. 2 Kings 1:17
2K 3:2a Baal  -   1 Kings 16:31-32
2K 3:31 sins
Jehoram followed the one who was the founder of division and idol worship in Israel. See 1 Kings 12:27-32 and notes.
2K 3:3a sin  -   1 Kings 12:30; 14:16
2K 3:32 them
Lit., it.
2K 3:4a tribute  -   2 Sam. 8:2
2K 3:5a died  -   2 Kings 1:1
2K 3:7a I  -   1 Kings 22:4
2K 3:11a prophet  -   1 Kings 22:7
2K 3:11b pour  -   1 Kings 19:21
2K 3:13a prophets  -   cf. 1 Kings 18:19; 22:6
2K 3:14a Jehoshaphat  -   2 Chron. 17:3-9
2K 3:15a musician  -   1 Sam. 10:5; 1 Chron. 25:1; cf. 1 Sam. 16:23
2K 3:15b hand  -   1 Kings 18:46; Ezek. 1:3; 3:14, 22; 8:1; 37:1; 40:1; Acts 11:21
2K 3:17a water  -   Psa. 107:35; Isa. 41:18; 43:19-20
2K 3:20a morning  -   cf. Exo. 29:39-40
2 Kings Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
2K 4:1a children  -   Neh. 5:5; Matt. 18:25
2K 4:2a oil  -   1 Kings 17:12
2K 4:61 filled
Elisha’s calling things not being as being in vv. 1-7, 8-17, and 42-44 (cf. Rom. 4:17b) was the same thing in principle that the Lord Jesus did when He fed the multitudes in Matt. 14:14-21 and 15:32-39.
2K 4:91 man
As the man of God, Elisha behaved himself as God’s representative, as the acting God, on the earth (cf. note 352 in 1 Sam. 2). The New Testament believers should be the same (cf. notes 91 in Acts 28 and 111 in 1 Tim. 6).
2K 4:12a Gehazi  -   2 Kings 5:20-21, 25; 8:4-5
2K 4:16a next  -   Gen. 17:21; 18:14
2K 4:25a Carmel  -   1 Kings 18:19-20; 2 Kings 2:25
2K 4:28a Do  -   2 Kings 4:16
2K 4:29a Gird  -   Exo. 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 9:1; Jer. 1:17; Luke 12:35
2K 4:29b not  -   Luke 10:4
2K 4:29c lay  -   cf. Acts 19:12
2K 4:33a shut  -   2 Kings 4:4; Matt. 6:6
2K 4:34a lay  -   1 Kings 17:21; Acts 20:10
2K 4:351 opened
Elisha’s resurrecting the dead from death, giving life to the dead (vv. 18-37), is the same as what the Lord Jesus did, both physically and spiritually (Luke 7:11-17; John 11:41-44; 5:25).
2K 4:37a son  -   cf. 1 Kings 17:23; 2 Kings 8:1, 5; Heb. 11:35
2K 4:38a famine  -   2 Kings 8:1
2K 4:411 flour
Elisha’s nullifying the poison of the wild gourds with flour is the same in principle as the Lord Jesus’ healing His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees with Himself as the fine flour (Matt. 16:6-12).
2K 4:42a Give  -   cf. Matt. 14:16-21; 15:32-38; Mark 6:37-44; 8:4-9; Luke 9:13-17; John 6:5-13
2K 4:441 some
See note 61.
2 Kings Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
2K 5:1a Naaman  -   Luke 4:27
2K 5:5a ten  -   cf. 2 Kings 5:22-23
2K 5:7a give  -   Deut. 32:39; 1 Sam. 2:6
2K 5:8a man  -   Deut. 33:1; Judg. 13:6; 1 Sam. 2:27; 1 Kings 13:1
2K 5:10a wash  -   cf. John 9:7
2K 5:10b clean  -   Mark 1:42
2K 5:121 Abana
Some MSS read, Amana.
2K 5:141 restored
The Lord Jesus also healed lepers in His ministry (Matt. 8:1-3; Luke 17:11-19). See note 262 in Luke 4.
2K 5:14a flesh  -   Job 33:25
2K 5:14b clean  -   Luke 4:27; Mark 1:42
2K 5:15a God  -   cf. Dan. 2:47; 6:26-27
2K 5:16a receive  -   cf. Gen. 14:23
2K 5:27a leper  -   Exo. 4:6; Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 15:5
2 Kings Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
2K 6:61 float
Elisha’s causing an ax head that had fallen into the water to float by means of a wooden stick signifies Christ’s recovering through His cross in resurrection the lost power of sinners that had fallen into the death water (Eph. 2:1-6).
2K 6:101 So
Others translate, So Elisha alerted him.
2K 6:102 the
Lit., it.
2K 6:12a tells  -   cf. Jer. 23:23-24; Dan. 2:22
2K 6:16a more  -   2 Chron. 32:7
2K 6:17a horses  -   2 Kings 2:11; cf. Psa. 68:17; Zech. 1:8-10; 6:1-7
2K 6:181 Syrians
Lit., they.
2K 6:22a eat  -   Prov. 25:21; Rom. 12:20; Matt. 5:44
2K 6:231 feast
The matter of preparing a feast for the enemies portrays the virtues of the Christian life according to the New Testament ministry (Rom. 12:20-21).
2K 6:24a besieged  -   1 Kings 20:1
2K 6:251 kab
A measure of capacity equal to approximately one pint.
2K 6:29a son  -   Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53, 55, 57; Ezek. 5:10
2K 6:31a do  -   1 Kings 19:2
2K 6:32a elders  -   Ezek. 8:1; 14:1; 20:1
2K 6:331 king
Others read, messenger.
2 Kings Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
2K 7:11 seah
Equal to a third of an ephah, or about six or seven dry quarts.
2K 7:2a windows  -   Gen. 7:11; Mal. 3:10
2K 7:3a leprous  -   cf. Lev. 13:45-46; Luke 4:27
2K 7:6a sound  -   cf. 2 Sam. 5:24; 2 Kings 19:7; Job 15:21
2K 7:131 the
Lit., her.
2K 7:16a seah  -   2 Kings 7:1, 18
2K 7:19a Even  -   2 Kings 7:2
2 Kings Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
2K 8:1a woman  -   2 Kings 4:32-37
2K 8:1b famine  -   2 Sam. 24:13; 1 Chron. 21:12; Psa. 105:16
2K 8:1c seven  -   cf. Gen. 41:27
2K 8:4a Gehazi  -   2 Kings 4:12
2K 8:7a Ben-hadad  -   1 Kings 20:1; 2 Kings 6:24
2K 8:8a Hazael  -   1 Kings 19:15, 17
2K 8:8b sickness  -   cf. 2 Kings 1:2
2K 8:101 Go
Some MSS read, Go and say, You shall certainly not recover.
2K 8:12a children  -   cf. 2 Kings 10:32; 13:3, 7, 22
2K 8:13a Syria  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:15
2K 8:16a Joram  -   2 Kings 3:1; cf. 2 Kings 1:17
2K 8:17a He  -   vv. 17-22: 2 Chron. 21:5-10
2K 8:191 David
I.e., because of Christ, who was to be incarnated as one of David’s descendants (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3). See note 71 in Matt. 1.
2K 8:19a lamp  -   2 Sam. 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4
2K 8:20a Edom  -   2 Kings 3:9; cf. 1 Kings 22:47; Gen. 27:40
2K 8:211 Joram
A spelling variant of Jehoram in v. 16 (cf. 2 Chron. 21:9). He is the king of Judah.
2K 8:24a city  -   cf. 2 Chron. 21:20
2K 8:25a Ahaziah  -   vv. 25-29: 2 Chron. 22:1-6
2K 8:261 daughter
I.e., granddaughter.
2K 8:28a struck  -   2 Kings 9:15
2K 8:29a Jezreel  -   2 Kings 9:16
2 Kings Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
2K 9:1a Gird  -   1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; Jer. 1:17; Luke 12:35
2K 9:1b oil  -   1 Sam. 10:1
2K 9:2a Jehu  -   1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 9:14, 20
2K 9:3a anointed  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:16; 2 Chron. 22:7
2K 9:7a blood  -   1 Kings 18:4
2K 9:71b Jezebel  -   1 Kings 21:5-15; Rev. 2:20; 6:10
See notes on Rev. 2:20.
2K 9:8a Ahab  -   2 Kings 10:17
2K 9:9a house  -   1 Kings 14:10; 15:29; 16:3; 21:22
2K 9:9b Baasha  -   1 Kings 16:11; 21:22
2K 9:10a eat  -   1 Kings 21:23; 2 Kings 9:35-36
2K 9:11a mad  -   Jer. 29:26; Hosea 9:7; cf. Acts 26:24
2K 9:13a garment  -   Matt. 21:7-8; Mark 11:7-8
2K 9:13b trumpet  -   2 Sam. 15:10; 1 Kings 1:34
2K 9:141 Joram
A spelling variant of Jehoram in v. 15. He is the king of Israel.
2K 9:14a Ramoth-gilead  -   1 Kings 22:3; 2 Kings 8:28
2K 9:14b Hazael  -   1 Kings 19:17
2K 9:15a wounds  -   2 Kings 8:29; 2 Chron. 22:6
2K 9:16a Ahaziah  -   2 Kings 8:28-29; 2 Chron. 22:6-7
2K 9:21a Jehoram  -   2 Chron. 22:7
2K 9:21b Naboth  -   1 Kings 21:1
2K 9:231 reins
Lit., his hands.
2K 9:26a blood  -   1 Kings 21:19; 22:38
2K 9:27a Ahaziah  -   2 Chron. 22:9
2K 9:29a Ahaziah  -   2 Kings 8:24-26
2K 9:31a Zimri  -   1 Kings 16:9-20
2K 9:311 your
Lit., his.
2K 9:361 In
The pitiful ending of Jezebel foreshadows the ending of the great harlot, the apostate Roman Catholic Church (Rev. 17:16-17 and notes).
2K 9:36a eat  -   1 Kings 21:23
2 Kings Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
2K 10:11 guardians
Or, nursing fathers; as in Num. 11:12. So also in v. 5.
2K 10:7a sons  -   cf. 1 Kings 21:29
2K 10:9a conspired  -   2 Kings 9:14
2K 10:10a spoke  -   cf. 1 Kings 21:17-21
2K 10:10b fall  -   cf. 1 Sam. 3:19
2K 10:121 shepherds’
Or, Beth-eked of the shepherds.
2K 10:141 meeting
Or, Beth-eked.
2K 10:15a Jehonadab  -   Jer. 35:6-10, 14, 16, 18
2K 10:16a zeal  -   1 Kings 19:10, 14
2K 10:17a Ahab  -   2 Kings 9:8; 2 Chron. 22:8
2K 10:19a prophets  -   1 Kings 18:19; 22:6
2K 10:21a house  -   1 Kings 16:32; 2 Kings 11:18
2K 10:251 inner
Lit., city.
2K 10:291 by
Or, who caused Israel to sin. So also in v. 31.
2K 10:29a sin  -   1 Kings 12:30; 14:16
2K 10:292 golden
See note 281 in 1 Kings 12.
2K 10:301 Because
This indicates that to enjoy the good land we must be right. How much we enjoy Christ as our good land depends on what we are and how right we are according to God’s heart.
2K 10:30a fourth  -   2 Kings 15:12
2K 10:32a cut  -   cf. 1 Kings 11:30-31
2K 10:32b Hazael  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:17; 2 Kings 8:12
2K 10:33a Gilead  -   Amos 1:3, 13
2 Kings Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
2K 11:1a Now  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Chron. 22:10-12
2K 11:1b Athaliah  -   2 Kings 8:26; 2 Chron. 24:7
2K 11:2a Joash  -   2 Kings 11:21; 12:1
2K 11:21 she
Following 2 Chron. 22:11; the Hebrew text lacks she put.
2K 11:4a Then  -   vv. 4-20: 2 Chron. 23:1-21
2K 11:10a shields  -   2 Sam. 8:7; 1 Chron. 18:7
2K 11:14a pillar  -   2 Kings 23:3
2K 11:17a covenant  -   cf. Josh. 24:25; 2 Sam. 5:3
2K 11:18a house  -   2 Kings 10:21, 23, 26
2K 11:191 Jehoiada
Lit., he.
2K 11:211a Jehoash  -   11:21– 12:16: 2 Chron. 24:1-14
A spelling variant of Joash.
2 Kings Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
2K 12:31 high
See note 312 in 1 Kings 12.
2K 12:3a not  -   1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 14:4; cf. 2 Kings 18:4
2K 12:4a money  -   2 Kings 22:4; cf. Lev. 27:2-8
2K 12:9a put  -   Mark 12:41; Luke 21:1
2K 12:10a count  -   cf. 2 Kings 22:4
2K 12:11a did  -   2 Kings 22:5-6
2K 12:16a trespass  -   Lev. 5:15-19
2K 12:16b priests’  -   Lev. 7:7-9
2K 12:17a At  -   vv. 17-18: 2 Chron. 24:23-24
2K 12:17b Hazael  -   1 Kings 19:17; 2 Kings 8:12
2K 12:18a house  -   1 Kings 15:18; 2 Kings 16:8; 18:15-16; cf. 1 Kings 14:26; 2 Kings 14:14
2K 12:20a And  -   vv. 20-21: 2 Chron. 24:25-27
2K 12:21a struck  -   2 Kings 14:5
2 Kings Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
2K 13:21 by
Or, who caused Israel to sin. So also in vv. 6 and 11.
2K 13:2a sin  -   1 Kings 14:16
2K 13:3a Hazael  -   1 Kings 19:17; 2 Kings 8:12
2K 13:3b Ben-hadad  -   2 Kings 13:24-25
2K 13:4a saw  -   2 Kings 14:26; Exo. 3:7
2K 13:61 Asherah
The image of a female deity.
2K 13:101 Joash
A spelling variant of Jehoash, found in ch. 12. He was the king of Judah.
2K 13:102 Jehoash
A spelling variant of Joash (cf. vv. 12-13).
2K 13:12a And  -   vv. 12-13: 2 Kings 14:15-16
2K 13:12b Amaziah  -   2 Kings 14:8-14
2K 13:141 ill
Elisha performed miracles of divine healing for others, but, in the will of God, he himself was not healed by a miracle (cf. note 202 in 2 Tim. 4).
2K 13:14a chariots  -   2 Kings 2:12
2K 13:171 victory
Or, salvation; deliverance.
2K 13:19a three  -   2 Kings 13:25
2K 13:211 touched
Elisha was deceased in his body yet still ministered in the spirit to enliven one of the dead. Even the dead Elisha could enliven people. This is a picture of Christ in resurrection. Whoever touches Him is enlivened. Regeneration involves a spiritually dead person touching the dead and resurrected Christ and being enlivened (cf. John 5:25; Eph. 2:1-6a).
2K 13:21a came  -   Isa. 26:19; cf. 2 Kings 4:35
2K 13:23a covenant  -   Exo. 2:24-25; cf. Exo. 32:13
2K 13:25a Ben-hadad  -   cf. Amos 1:4
2K 13:25b three  -   2 Kings 13:18-19
2K 13:25c recovered  -   2 Kings 14:25, 28
2 Kings Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
2K 14:1a In  -   vv. 1-6: 2 Chron. 25:1-4
2K 14:11 Joahaz
A spelling variant of Jehoahaz.
2K 14:1b Amaziah  -   2 Kings 12:21
2K 14:4a not  -   2 Kings 12:3; 15:4
2K 14:5a struck  -   2 Kings 12:20-21
2K 14:6a Fathers  -   Deut. 24:16; cf. Jer. 31:29, 30; Ezek. 18:4, 20
2K 14:7a He  -   2 Chron. 25:11
2K 14:8a Then  -   vv. 8-14: 2 Chron. 25:17-24
2K 14:9a saying  -   cf. Judg. 9:7-15
2K 14:10a lifted  -   Deut. 8:14; 2 Chron. 26:16; 32:25; cf. Ezek. 28:2, 5, 17
2K 14:13a gate  -   Neh. 8:16; 12:39
2K 14:13b Corner  -   2 Chron. 26:9; Jer. 31:38; Zech. 14:10
2K 14:14a house  -   1 Kings 14:26; cf. 2 Kings 12:18
2K 14:15a And  -   vv. 15-16: 2 Kings 13:12-13
2K 14:17a And  -   vv. 17-22: 2 Chron. 25:25– 26:2
2K 14:211 Azariah
Called Uzziah in 2 Chron. 26 (cf. 2 Kings 15:13).
2K 14:241 by
Or, who caused Israel to sin.
2K 14:24a sin  -   1 Kings 14:16
2K 14:25a restored  -   2 Kings 13:25; 14:28
2K 14:251 sea
I.e., the Dead Sea.
2K 14:25b Jonah  -   Jonah 1:1; cf. Matt. 12:39-40
2K 14:26a saw  -   Exo. 3:7; 2 Kings 13:4
2K 14:28a Damascus  -   cf. 2 Sam. 8:6; 1 Kings 11:24; 1 Chron. 18:5-6; 2 Chron. 8:3-4
2 Kings Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
2K 15:11a Azariah  -   2 Chron. 26:1
Called Uzziah in 2 Chron. 26. Cf. note 131 in this chapter.
2K 15:2a He  -   vv. 2-3: 2 Chron. 26:3-4
2K 15:4a not  -   2 Kings 14:4; 15:35
2K 15:5a And  -   vv. 5-7: 2 Chron. 26:21-23
2K 15:51 leper
This was because of Azariah’s overstepping in not keeping God’s ordinance, which said that only the priests ordained by God could participate in the priestly service (2 Chron. 26:16-21).
2K 15:5b separate  -   cf. Lev. 13:46
2K 15:91 by
Or, who caused Israel to sin. So also in vv. 18, 24, and 28.
2K 15:9a sin  -   1 Kings 14:16
2K 15:10a struck  -   cf. 2 Kings 12:20; 15:25, 30
2K 15:12a fourth  -   2 Kings 10:30
2K 15:131 Uzziah
I.e., Azariah of vv. 1-7. So also in vv. 30, 32, and 34.
2K 15:14a Tirzah  -   1 Kings 16:23, 24
2K 15:19a Pul  -   1 Chron. 5:26
2K 15:29a Tiglath-pileser  -   2 Kings 16:7; 1 Chron. 5:6, 26; 2 Chron. 28:20
2K 15:29b Naphtali  -   Isa. 9:1; 2 Chron. 16:4
2K 15:30a Hoshea  -   cf. 2 Kings 17:1; 18:1
2K 15:32a In  -   vv. 32-35: 2 Chron. 27:1-3
2K 15:35a not  -   2 Kings 15:4; cf. 2 Kings 18:4
2K 15:37a Rezin  -   2 Kings 16:5; Isa. 7:1
2 Kings Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
2K 16:1a In  -   vv. 1-4: 2 Chron. 28:1-4
2K 16:3a fire  -   Lev. 18:21; cf. Psa. 106:37-38
2K 16:3b abominations  -   Deut. 12:31; 18:9; 2 Kings 21:2
2K 16:4a tree  -   Deut. 12:2; 1 Kings 14:23
2K 16:5a Rezin  -   2 Kings 15:37; Isa. 7:1
2K 16:7a Tiglath-pileser  -   1 Kings 15:29
2K 16:8a house  -   2 Kings 12:18; 18:15-16; 2 Chron. 28:21
2K 16:10a Urijah  -   Isa. 8:2
2K 16:12a offered  -   cf. 2 Chron. 26:16-19
2K 16:14a altar  -   2 Chron. 4:1
2K 16:15a morning  -   Exo. 29:39-41
2K 16:17a bases  -   1 Kings 7:27-28, 38
2K 16:17b sea  -   1 Kings 7:23
2K 16:17c oxen  -   1 Kings 7:25
2K 16:19a And  -   vv. 19-20: 2 Chron. 28:26-27
2 Kings Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
2K 17:1a Hoshea  -   cf. 2 Kings 15:30; 18:1
2K 17:3a Shalmaneser  -   vv. 3-7: cf. 2 Kings 18:9-12
2K 17:61 took
God’s judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel through the Assyrians should have been a warning to the southern kingdom of Judah, but the people continued in their evil ways more than ever (v. 19), forcing God to take action and to judge them through the Babylonians (chs. 24 — 25).
2K 17:6a Samaria  -   cf. Hosea 13:16
2K 17:6b Halah  -   cf. 1 Chron. 5:26
2K 17:6c Medes  -   cf. Acts 2:9
2K 17:7a out  -   Exo. 20:2; Lev. 25:38; 2 Kings 17:36
2K 17:12a idols  -   Exo. 20:4
2K 17:131a prophets  -   Neh. 9:30; 1 Sam. 9:9
In His love God sent the prophets to the people of Israel to testify to them against their evils, sins, and wickednesses and to help them return to God, but instead of hearing the prophets, the people stiffened their necks (vv. 13-14).
2K 17:14a necks  -   Deut. 9:6; 31:27; 2 Chron. 30:8; Acts 7:51
2K 17:15a covenant  -   Deut. 29:25
2K 17:15b vanity  -   Deut. 32:21; 1 Kings 16:13
2K 17:15c vain  -   Jer. 2:5; Rom. 1:21
2K 17:16a calves  -   1 Kings 12:28; cf. Exo. 32:4
2K 17:16b Asherah  -   1 Kings 15:13; 16:33; 2 Kings 13:6
2K 17:16c host  -   Deut. 4:19; 2 Kings 21:3; 23:5; Jer. 8:2
2K 17:16d Baal  -   1 Kings 16:31; 22:53
2K 17:17a fire  -   Lev. 18:21; 2 Kings 16:3; 17:31; Ezek. 23:37
2K 17:17b sold  -   1 Kings 21:20, 25
2K 17:18a tribe  -   cf. 1 Kings 11:13, 32; 12:20
2K 17:19a walked  -   2 Kings 8:18; 17:8
2K 17:20a delivered  -   Judg. 2:14; 2 Kings 13:3
2K 17:21a tore  -   1 Kings 11:11, 31
2K 17:21b king  -   1 Kings 12:20
2K 17:211c sin  -   1 Kings 12:30; 13:34; 14:16
See 1 Kings 12:27-32 and notes.
2K 17:23a Assyria  -   2 Kings 17:6
2K 17:24a Assyria  -   Ezra 4:2
2K 17:241b Samaria  -   Matt. 10:5
Eventually, the heathens brought in by the king of Assyria intermarried with the Jews who remained in Israel. As a result, a confused and mixed worship was produced, such as that referred to by the Samaritan woman in John 4:20. This confusion and mixture may be regarded as a type of the kind of worship, found especially in Catholicism, that is a mixture of the worship of God with heathen practices and the pagan worship of idols.
2K 17:271 him
Lit., them.
2K 17:28a Bethel  -   1 Kings 12:29
2K 17:33a feared  -   cf. Zeph. 1:5; John 4:22
2K 17:34a Israel  -   Gen. 32:28; 35:10; 1 Kings 18:31
2K 17:36a brought  -   Exo. 6:6; Deut. 4:34; 26:8; Jer. 32:21
2K 17:41a feared  -   John 4:22
2 Kings Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
2K 18:1a And  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Chron. 29:1-2
2K 18:1b Hoshea  -   cf. 2 Kings 15:30; 17:1
2K 18:4a removed  -   2 Kings 23:8; 2 Chron. 14:3; 17:6; 31:1
2K 18:4b serpent  -   Num. 21:8-9
2K 18:41 Nehushtan
Meaning a piece of bronze. Moses, according to God’s instructions, had made that bronze serpent in order to rescue the people from death (Num. 21:8-9). However, in their superstition the people eventually regarded the bronze serpent as an idol, and for this reason Hezekiah broke it in pieces.
2K 18:5a no  -   cf. 2 Kings 23:25
2K 18:9a And  -   vv. 9-12: cf. 2 Kings 17:3-7
2K 18:131a And  -   vv. 13-37: Isa. 36:1-22; 2 Chron. 32:1-16
For 18:13 — 20:19, see notes in Isa. 36:1 — 39:8.
2K 18:15a house  -   cf. 2 Kings 12:18; 16:8
2K 18:18a Eliakim  -   2 Kings 18:37; 19:2; Isa. 22:20
2K 18:18b Shebnah  -   Isa. 22:15
2K 18:21a Egypt  -   cf. Ezek. 29:6-7; Isa. 30:2-3
2K 18:261a Aramaic  -   Ezra 4:7; Dan. 2:4
The language of Syria.
2K 18:262 Jews’
I.e., Hebrew.
2K 18:291 my
Many MSS read, his.
2K 18:311 your
Lit., a blessing.
2K 18:31a vine  -   1 Kings 4:25
2K 18:32a land  -   Exo. 3:8; Deut. 8:7-8
2K 18:33a Have  -   vv. 33-34: cf. 2 Kings 19:12-13
2K 18:37a Eliakim  -   2 Kings 18:18, 26; 19:2; Isa. 22:20
2 Kings Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
2K 19:1a And  -   vv. 1-37: Isa. 37:1-38; 2 Chron. 32:17-23
2K 19:1b sackcloth  -   2 Sam. 3:31; 1 Kings 20:31; Joel 1:13; Rev. 11:3
2K 19:21a Isaiah  -   Isa. 1:1
The link between the Old Testament books of history and the New Testament is God’s economy, which is for Christ and His Body, the church. This link is shown in the kings’ history, which includes the prophets, who, as God’s overcomers, prophesied concerning God’s New Testament economy. Again and again the prophets came in either to help the kings or to deal with them, as illustrated here by Isaiah’s helping Hezekiah (cf. 2 Sam. 7:1-17; 12:1-15a; 1 Kings 18; 2 Kings 3). The prophecies in Isa. 7:14 and 9:6 indicate that God would put humanity upon Himself, mingling His divinity with humanity, and the prophecy in Isa. 53 unveils that in His humanity the God who had become man would be man’s Redeemer who would be slain for man’s sin. Thus, in typology the history of the kings is linked through the prophecies of the prophets to God’s becoming a man to redeem man back to Himself that He might make His redeemed people the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead so that God can consummate His economy in the Body of Christ as the enlargement of Christ. This Body of Christ will consummate in the New Jerusalem as God’s universal, corporate expression and enlargement for eternity.
2K 19:4a remnant  -   cf. Isa. 1:9
2K 19:7a sword  -   2 Kings 19:37
2K 19:8a Lachish  -   2 Kings 18:14
2K 19:12a Have  -   cf. 2 Kings 18:33-34
2K 19:15a cherubim  -   Exo. 25:22
2K 19:15b God  -   cf. Rev. 1:5
2K 19:18a work  -   Psa. 115:4; Isa. 44:10-17; Jer. 10:3-5; Acts 19:26
2K 19:21a Zion  -   Lam. 2:13
2K 19:241 Egypt
Some versions translate, besieged places.
2K 19:25a did  -   Isa. 8:6-8; 10:5-6
2K 19:26a grass  -   Psa. 129:6
2K 19:27a know  -   Psa. 139:2
2K 19:28a hook  -   Job 41:2; Ezek. 29:4; 38:4; Amos 4:2
2K 19:29a year  -   cf. Lev. 25:22
2K 19:30a remnant  -   Isa. 1:9; 10:20-22
2K 19:30b root  -   Isa. 27:6; Hosea 14:5
2K 19:31a zeal  -   Isa. 9:7
2K 19:311 of
Some MSS omit, of hosts.
2K 19:34a enclosure  -   2 Kings 20:6; Isa. 31:5
2K 19:34b servant  -   1 Kings 11:13
2K 19:35a angel  -   2 Chron. 32:21-22; 2 Sam. 24:17; Acts 12:23
2K 19:371 his
Some MSS omit, his sons.
2 Kings Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
2K 20:1a In  -   vv. 1-11: Isa. 38:1-8; 2 Chron. 32:24
2K 20:1b Put  -   cf. 2 Sam. 17:23
2K 20:41 court
Lit., city.
2K 20:5a heard  -   2 Kings 19:20; Psa. 65:2; cf. James 5:16
2K 20:5b tears  -   Psa. 39:12; 56:8
2K 20:6a enclosure  -   2 Kings 19:34
2K 20:8a sign  -   2 Chron. 32:24; cf. Matt. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:22
2K 20:11a steps  -   cf. Josh. 10:12-13
2K 20:12a At  -   vv. 12-19: Isa. 39:1-8
2K 20:121 Berodach-baladan
Some MSS and the parallel in Isa. 39:1 read, Merodach-baladan.
2K 20:13a them  -   2 Chron. 32:31
2K 20:13b treasury  -   2 Chron. 32:27
2K 20:17a Babylon  -   2 Kings 25:13; 2 Chron. 36:18; Jer. 20:5; 27:22
2K 20:18a take  -   2 Kings 24:15; 2 Chron. 33:11; 36:20
2K 20:20a And  -   2 Chron. 32:25-32
2K 20:21a And  -   2 Chron. 32:33
2 Kings Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
2K 21:1a Manasseh  -   vv. 1-9: 2 Chron. 33:1-9
2K 21:3a high  -   2 Kings 18:4
2K 21:3b Ahab  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:32-33
2K 21:4a My  -   Deut. 12:11; 1 Kings 8:16, 29; 9:3; 2 Kings 23:27; Jer. 7:30; 32:34
2K 21:5a courts  -   1 Kings 7:12; 2 Kings 23:12
2K 21:7a My  -   2 Kings 21:4
2K 21:8a wander  -   2 Sam. 7:10
2K 21:111a Manasseh  -   2 Kings 21:2, 16; 23:26; 24:3; Jer. 15:4
It was Manasseh’s sin in particular that caused God to determine not to tolerate the people any longer but to destroy the temple, devastate the Holy Land, and send the people away into captivity. With the reign of Manasseh God’s toleration reached its limit, and He gave up the holy people, the holy temple, the holy city, and the Holy Land.
2K 21:11b Amorites  -   1 Kings 21:26
2K 21:12a ears  -   1 Sam. 3:11; Jer. 19:3
2K 21:13a line  -   Isa. 28:17; Lam. 2:8; Amos 7:7-8
2K 21:17a And  -   2 Chron. 33:10-19
2K 21:18a And  -   2 Chron. 33:20
2K 21:19a Amon  -   vv. 19-24: 2 Chron. 33:21-25
2 Kings Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
2K 22:1a Josiah  -   vv. 1-2: 2 Chron. 34:1-2
2K 22:3a In  -   vv. 3-20: 2 Chron. 34:8-28
2K 22:4a money  -   2 Kings 12:4, 9-10
2K 22:5a do  -   2 Kings 12:11-12
2K 22:7a accounting  -   2 Kings 12:15
2K 22:8a book  -   Deut. 31:24-26; 2 Kings 23:24
2K 22:13a anger  -   Deut. 29:27; 2 Chron. 28:25
2K 22:19a desolation  -   Lev. 26:31-32; Jer. 9:11
2 Kings Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
2K 23:1a Then  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Chron. 34:29-32
2K 23:2a read  -   Deut. 31:11
2K 23:2b book  -   cf. 2 Kings 22:8; Deut. 31:26
2K 23:3a covenant  -   2 Kings 11:17; 2 Chron. 15:12
2K 23:4a Baal  -   2 Kings 17:16; 21:3
2K 23:5a Baal  -   1 Kings 16:31-32
2K 23:5b host  -   Acts 7:42
2K 23:6a And  -   2 Chron. 34:4
2K 23:71 hangings
Or, tents; lit., houses.
2K 23:8a broke  -   2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chron. 14:3; 17:6
2K 23:10a Topheth  -   Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31-32; 19:6, 11-14
2K 23:101 valley
Gehenna of the New Testament (see note 228 in Matt. 5).
2K 23:12a courts  -   2 Kings 21:5
2K 23:151a altar  -   1 Kings 12:33
What Josiah did in vv. 15-16 concerning the altar, the high place, that Jeroboam the son of Nebat built was a fulfillment of the prophecy by the man of God in 1 Kings 13:1-3.
2K 23:15b caused  -   1 Kings 14:16
2K 23:16a bones  -   1 Kings 13:2; cf. Matt. 23:27
2K 23:17a man  -   1 Kings 13:1
2K 23:18a bones  -   1 Kings 13:31
2K 23:21a Passover  -   cf. Exo. 12:3-11; Lev. 23:5-8; Num. 9:2-4; Deut. 16:2-8; 2 Chron. 35:1-17; cf. 2 Chron. 30:1-2
2K 23:22a no  -   vv. 22-23: 2 Chron. 35:18-19
2K 23:24a mediums  -   Lev. 19:31; 20:27; Deut. 18:11; 2 Kings 21:6
2K 23:24b book  -   2 Kings 22:8
2K 23:25a no  -   2 Kings 18:5
2K 23:261 Jehovah
Because of all that Manasseh did to provoke God (21:1-18), even Josiah’s goodness could not rescue Judah out of God’s destroying hand.
2K 23:26a Manasseh  -   2 Kings 21:11; 24:3; Jer. 15:4
2K 23:27a remove  -   2 Kings 24:3, 20; cf. 2 Kings 17:18, 20
2K 23:27b My  -   2 Kings 21:4
2K 23:29a In  -   vv. 29-30a: 2 Chron. 35:20-24
2K 23:29b Pharaoh  -   Jer. 46:2
2K 23:291 Pharaoh
Lit., he.
2K 23:30a And  -   vv. 30b-34: 2 Chron. 36:1-4
2K 23:33a Riblah  -   2 Kings 25:6, 20-21; Jer. 39:5-6; 52:9-10, 26-27
2K 23:34a changed  -   cf. 2 Kings 24:17; Dan. 1:7
2K 23:34b died  -   cf. Jer. 22:11-12
2K 23:36a Jehoiakim  -   vv. 36-37: 2 Chron. 36:5
2 Kings Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
2K 24:1a Nebuchadnezzar  -   2 Chron. 36:6; Jer. 25:1, 9; 35:11; Dan. 1:1
2K 24:2a Chaldeans  -   2 Kings 25:4; Jer. 32:28-29; 35:11
2K 24:3a remove  -   2 Kings 23:27; 24:20; cf. 2 Kings 17:18, 20
2K 24:4a innocent  -   2 Kings 21:16
2K 24:5a And  -   vv. 5-6: 2 Chron. 36:8
2K 24:6a Jehoiakim  -   Jer. 22:18-19; 36:30
2K 24:6b Jehoiachin  -   cf. Esth. 2:6
2K 24:7a Babylon  -   Jer. 46:2, 13, 26
2K 24:8a Jehoiachin  -   vv. 8-9: cf. 2 Chron. 36:9
2K 24:8b Nehushta  -   Jer. 13:18; 29:2
2K 24:10a Nebuchadnezzar  -   Dan. 1:1
2K 24:121 his
I.e., Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.
2K 24:13a vessels  -   2 Chron. 36:7, 10; Ezra 1:7; Dan. 1:2; 5:2-3
2K 24:15a Jehoiachin  -   2 Chron. 36:10; Matt. 1:11
2K 24:15b carried  -   Esth. 2:6
2K 24:171 Jehoiachin’s
Lit., his.
2K 24:17a Zedekiah  -   Jer. 37:1; cf. 2 Chron. 36:10
2K 24:181a Zedekiah  -   vv. 18-20: 2 Chron. 36:11-13; Jer. 52:1-3
There were altogether forty-one kings in the history of Israel. The first three, Saul, David, and Solomon, reigned over the entire people of Israel. Nineteen kings, from Rehoboam to Zedekiah (not counting the illegitimate reign of Athaliah — 11:1-16), reigned over Judah in the south, and nineteen, from Jeroboam to Hoshea, reigned over Israel in the north. Among these forty-one kings, nine, including David, were comparatively good in the eyes of God. Thirty, including Saul, were evil in the sight of God. Two, Solomon and Jehu, were partly good and partly evil.
The root of the evil of the evil kings, like that of the evil of the people of Israel, was their forsaking the very God as the fountain of living waters and their turning away to the pagan idols as broken cisterns that hold no water (Jer. 2:13). These two evils drowned them in the death waters of idolatry, of the indulgence of lusts, and of injustice in shedding the blood of the innocent. Their evils offended their God to such an extent that He would not turn His anger from them but cast them off, first into the hands of the Assyrians (17:6) and then into the hands of the Babylonians (24:10 — 25:21), who destroyed and burned the holy temple and the holy city, carried away into captivity the holy people to a pagan land of idol worship, and desolated the Holy Land for seventy years (Jer. 25:11). Thus, they, as God’s elect, lost the enjoyment of the God-given good land and, instead of remaining the citizens of God’s kingdom in the Holy Land, became captives in a heathen land.
All the kings should have had a thorough realization that they were to be kings who ruled not for their own interest and prosperity but for God’s eternal economy, that God could have a nation on the earth to keep the land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8) for Christ’s reign and a people for a genealogy to bring Christ to the earth. For this purpose the kings had to be Nazarites, who take God as their Head, their authority, who submit themselves to Him as His servants, and who abandon all the pleasures (wines) of the world (see note 31 in Num. 6). But all the kings failed God in this, including David, the best one among them (2 Sam. 11). Thus, they did not fulfill God’s purpose for His economy. Rather, they lost their reign in God’s kingdom, which is the top portion of the enjoyment of the good land (the all-inclusive Christ — see note 71 in Deut. 8).
The tragic result of such a pitiful history of the kings among God’s chosen and blessed elect should be a serious warning to us, God’s elect in the New Testament age, and should indicate to us how sober we should be to take heed to the particular points of each case. Just to be one who is according to God’s heart, like David, and just to be partly right and good in the eyes of God, like many honest Christians today, do not qualify us to partake of Christ in full and to enjoy all the rights in Him that we may adequately become the church as the Body of Christ and as the kingdom of God and of Christ. Conformity to Christ’s death by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10) is required of us, the New Testament overcomers, that we may die to ourselves, our natural man, and live to God in resurrection. A life of living Christ, magnifying Christ, and moving and acting with Christ by the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, doing everything in and according to the Spirit (Phil. 1:19-21a; Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4), is indispensable for us, God’s New Testament seekers, to be winners in the racecourse of the divine life that we may fully enjoy Christ as the God-given good land in the church age and be gloriously rewarded to partake of Christ, in the fullest sense, in the kingdom age (1 Cor. 9:24-27; Phil. 3:12-14).
2K 24:20a rebelled  -   Ezek. 17:15, 18
2 Kings Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
2K 25:1a In  -   vv. 1-12: Jer. 39:1-10; 52:4-16
2K 25:1b Jerusalem  -   Jer. 34:1-2; Ezek. 24:2
2K 25:1c siege  -   Ezek. 21:22; 26:8
2K 25:3a famine  -   cf. Lam. 4:9-10
2K 25:6a they  -   Jer. 32:4
2K 25:7a eyes  -   cf. Ezek. 12:13
2K 25:9a house  -   2 Chron. 36:19; cf. Jer. 17:27; Hosea 8:14; Amos 2:5; Psa. 79:1
2K 25:10a broke  -   Neh. 1:3
2K 25:11a deserted  -   2 Kings 24:12
2K 25:11b carried  -   2 Chron. 36:20
2K 25:12a poorest  -   2 Kings 24:14; Jer. 40:7
2K 25:13a And  -   vv. 13-17: Jer. 52:17-23
2K 25:13b pillars  -   1 Kings 7:15; Jer. 27:19
2K 25:13c bases  -   1 Kings 7:27
2K 25:13d sea  -   1 Kings 7:23; 2 Kings 16:17
2K 25:14a vessels  -   cf. Exo. 27:3; 1 Kings 7:45-51
2K 25:17a height  -   cf. 1 Kings 7:15-18; 2 Chron. 3:15
2K 25:171 pillar
For the details concerning the pillars, see notes in 1 Kings 7:15-22.
2K 25:18a And  -   vv. 18-21: Jer. 52:24-27
2K 25:211 exile
The children of Israel forsook God and went after idols, so God dispersed them into all the nations; yet, in His eternal love (Jer. 31:3) He would bring them back to their fathers’ land. Although Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and God’s people were carried away into captivity, God still carried out the return from captivity (see Ezra) in order to preserve the fourteen generations of Christ’s genealogy “from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ” (Matt. 1:17). God was gracious to David, Solomon, and the nation of Israel in order to keep the line of Christ’s genealogy that Christ might come into humanity and in order to maintain a people to possess the land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8), so that Christ could come to establish His kingdom on the earth. Through the return from captivity the good land was recovered, and God carried out His intention to bring Himself in His Trinity into humanity and to set up His spiritual kingdom.
Because of Israel’s failure and God’s judgment, the line of the genealogy of Christ became very thin, but in God’s sovereignty that line was never broken. The royal Davidic family was destroyed, but God kept David’s lineage so that He could come to be a man through incarnation (see notes 162 in Matt. 1 and 233 in Matt. 2). This brought God to humanity and into humanity, and it changed the age in the whole universe, including the heavens.
2K 25:22a Gedaliah  -   Jer. 39:14; 40:5
2K 25:23a And  -   vv. 23-24: Jer. 40:7-9
2K 25:25a Ishmael  -   Jer. 40:14-15
2K 25:27a In  -   vv. 27-30: Jer. 52:31-34
< 2 Kings • 1 Chronicles Outline >
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1 & 2 Chronicles Outline
I.   The genealogy from Adam to the twelve tribes of Israel — 1 Chron. 1:1 — 9:44
A.   The genealogy from Adam to Abraham — 1:1-27
B.   The genealogy of Abraham — 1:28-34
C.   The genealogy of Esau — 1:35-54
D.   The genealogy of Israel — 2:1 — 9:44
1.   The sons of Israel — 2:1-2
2.   The genealogy of Judah — 2:3 — 4:23
3.   The genealogy of Simeon — 4:24-43
4.   The genealogy of Reuben — 5:1-10
5.   The genealogy of Gad — 5:11-17
6.   An insertion concerning the children of Reuben, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh — 5:18-26
7.   The genealogy of Levi — 6:1-81
8.   The genealogy of Issachar — 7:1-5
9.   The genealogy of Benjamin — 7:6-12; 8:1-40
10.   The genealogy of Naphtali — 7:13
11.   The genealogy of Manasseh — 7:14-19
12.   The genealogy of Ephraim — 7:20-29
13.   The genealogy of Asher — 7:30-40
14.   The genealogy of the returned children of Israel — 9:1-34
15.   The genealogy of the house of Saul — 9:35-44
II.   The history concerning the kings over all Israel — 1 Chron. 10:1 — 2 Chron. 9:31a
A.   Saul’s end — 1 Chron. 10:1-14
B.   The reign of David — 1 Chron. 11:1 — 29:30
1.   Crowned and established as king — 11:1-9
2.   His mighty men — 11:10 — 12:40
3.   Taking care of the habitation of the Ark of God — 13:1 — 16:43
4.   Wanting to build a house for God — 17:1-27
5.   His conquests — 18:1 — 20:8
a.   Over the Philistines, Moab, Zobah, Syria, and Edom — 18:1-17
b.   Over Ammon and Syria — 19:1 — 20:3
c.   Over the Philistines — 20:4-8
6.   His last sin — 21:1 — 22:1
7.   His preparations for the building of the temple of God — 22:2-19
8.   His arrangement of the order of the services of the priests and the Levites — 23:1 — 26:32
a.   Making Solomon his son king over Israel — 23:1
b.   The divisions of the services of the Levites — 23:2-32
c.   The ordering of the priests in twenty-four divisions — 24:1-19
d.   The rest of the Levites casting lots for their duty — 24:20-31
e.   Setting apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun into twenty-four divisions for singing — 25:1-31
f.   The divisions of the doorkeepers — 26:1-19
g.   Assigning some of the Levites to keep the treasures of the house of God and of the dedicated gifts — 26:20-28
h.   Appointing some of the Levites to the outward duties over Israel, as officers and judges — 26:29-32
9.   The officers in the administration of David’s government — 27:1-34
a.   The officers who served the king — vv. 1-15
b.   The captains who ruled over the twelve tribes and the house of Aaron — vv. 16-24
c.   The officers over the king’s treasures and the overseers of the king’s property — vv. 25-31
d.   David’s counselors, teachers, friends, and the captain of his army — vv. 32-34
10.   Assembling all the leaders of Israel at Jerusalem — 28:1 — 29:25
a.   His address to the assembly — 28:1-8
b.   Charging Solomon his son to serve God and to build the temple of God — 28:9-21
c.   His preparation for the building of the temple of God stirring up the leaders of Israel to willingly offer their gifts — 29:1-9
d.   His blessing to Jehovah in the sight of all the assembly — 29:10-20a
e.   The reaction of all the assembly — 29:20b-25
11.   Ceasing his life on earth — 29:26-30
C.   The reign of Solomon — 2 Chron. 1:1 — 9:31a
1.   Seeking for wisdom — 1:1-12
2.   His prosperity under the rich blessing of God — 1:13 — 2:18
3.   Building the temple of God as well as his own palaces — 3:1 — 7:10
a.   The temple — 3:1-14, 16
b.   The two bronze pillars — 3:15, 17
c.   The bronze altar — 4:1
d.   The bronze sea with the ten bronze lavers — 4:2-6
e.   The vessels of the temple — 4:7-8
f.   The courts — 4:9-10
g.   Huram’s work for Solomon — 4:11 — 5:1
h.   The dedication of the temple — 5:2 — 7:10
(1)   The tabernacle being merged with the temple — 5:2-14
(2)   Solomon’s blessing and declaration to the people — 6:1-11
(3)   Solomon’s prayer — 6:12-42
(4)   The glory of Jehovah filling the house — 7:1-3
(5)   Solomon and the people offering a vast quantity of sacrifices to God — 7:4-7
(6)   Solomon and his people holding a feast for fourteen days — 7:8-10
4.   The highest peak of his glory among the nations — 7:11 — 9:28
a.   Jehovah’s acceptance of his prayer and Jehovah’s promise to establish his throne forever — 7:11-22
b.   His alliance with Huram — 8:1-2
c.   Building further cities — 8:3-11
d.   His offerings, daily and at the appointed feasts — 8:12-16
e.   His navy and the cooperation with Huram — 8:17-18
f.   The queen of Sheba coming to pay him honor and to listen to his words of wisdom — 9:1-9, 12
g.   Huram’s servants bringing precious goods for the temple of God and Solomon’s palace — 9:10-11
h.   Enriched with the tribute by the kings of the nations and the tariff on the traders and merchants — 9:13-24, 26-27
i.   Building a defense of chariots and cavalry — 9:25, 28
5.   His decease after reigning over all Israel for forty years — 9:29-31a
III.   The history concerning the kings of Judah — 2 Chron. 9:31b — 36:23
A.   The reign of Rehoboam — 9:31b — 12:16a
1.   Continuing the reign after Solomon — 9:31b
2.   Suffering the division of the kingdom and losing ten tribes — 10:1 — 11:4
3.   Reigning over Judah and Benjamin — 11:5-23
4.   Defeated and robbed by the king of Egypt — 12:1-12
5.   Fighting with Jeroboam of Israel and being buried in the city of David — 12:13-16a
B.   The reign of Abijah — 12:16b — 14:1a
C.   The reign of Asa — 14:1b — 16:14
D.   The reign of Jehoshaphat — 17:1 — 21:1a
  (The miserable ending of Ahab the king of Israel — 18:1-34)
E.   The reign of Jehoram — 21:1b-20
F.   The reign of Ahaziah — 22:1-9
G.   The illegitimate reign of Athaliah — 22:10 — 23:15
H.   The reign of Joash — 23:16 — 24:27a
I.   The reign of Amaziah — 24:27b — 25:28
J.   The reign of Uzziah — 26:1-23a
K.   The reign of Jotham — 26:23b — 27:9a
L.   The reign of Ahaz — 27:9b — 28:27a
M.   The reign of Hezekiah — 28:27b — 32:33a
1.   Restoring the house of Jehovah and bringing out the impurity from the holy place — 28:27b — 29:36
2.   Recovering the Passover — 30:1 — 31:1
3.   Setting the services of the priests and the Levites in order — 31:2-21
4.   Building a defense against the invasion of the Assyrians — 32:1-23
5.   His illness and recovery — 32:24-26
6.   His prosperity and end — 32:27-33a
N.   The reign of Manasseh — 32:33b — 33:20a
O.   The reign of Amon — 33:20b-25a
P.   The reign of Josiah — 33:25b — 35:27
Q.   The reign of Jehoahaz — 36:1-3
R.   The reign of Jehoiakim — 36:4-5, 8a
S.   Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon carrying the vessels of the temple into Babylon — 36:6-7, 10a
T.   The reign of Jehoiachin — 36:8b-9
U.   The reign of Zedekiah — 36:10b-13
V.   The deportation to Babylon — 36:14-23
1.   The cause — vv. 14-16
2.   The deportation — vv. 17-20a
3.   The duration of the captivity of Israel — vv. 20b-21
4.   The proclamation of their release by Cyrus the king of Persia — vv. 22-23
1 Chronicles >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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1 Chronicles Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 1:11a Adam  -   vv. 1-4a: Gen. 5:1-32; cf. Luke 3:36b-38
The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles cover the genealogy of mankind from Adam to Abraham and of God’s elect from Abraham to the family of Saul, and the history of Israel from Saul the king to Israel’s return from their captivity. The central thought of these two books is as follows: First, they give us a full chronology of God’s move in man’s history by including the genealogy from Adam to Samuel (cf. the chronology in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, which begins with Samuel). This chronology indicates that God’s move in man’s history to prepare the way for God to carry out His eternal economy in humanity is a matter that concerns not only the history of God’s elect but also the history of the entire race of mankind (Matt. 1:1-17; cf. Luke 3:23-38). This is strong evidence that the Christ who was to come as the embodiment of God is not only for the one race chosen by God but for the entire human race created by God. Second, these books present to us some of the important details of God’s dealing with the kings of Judah that are not recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel and in 1 and 2 Kings (see note 51 in 2 Chron. 11). Finally, they portray a complete history of God’s move in man’s history from Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to Samuel, and from Samuel, who brought in the kingship, to Israel’s return from their captivity.
1Ch 1:1b Seth  -   Gen. 4:25-26
1Ch 1:4a Shem  -   Gen. 6:10; 9:18
1Ch 1:5a The  -   vv. 5-7: Gen. 10:2-4
1Ch 1:8a The  -   vv. 8-10: Gen. 10:6-8
1Ch 1:11a And  -   vv. 11-16: Gen. 10:13-18
1Ch 1:17a The  -   vv. 17-23: Gen. 10:22-29
1Ch 1:24a Shem  -   vv. 24-27: Gen. 11:11-26; cf. Luke 3:34-36
1Ch 1:27a Abraham  -   Gen. 17:5
1Ch 1:28a Isaac  -   Gen. 21:2-3
1Ch 1:29a These  -   vv. 29-31: Gen. 25:13-16
1Ch 1:32a And  -   vv. 32-33: Gen. 25:1-4
1Ch 1:341 Isaac
See notes 14 and 21 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 1:34a Esau  -   Gen. 25:25-26
1Ch 1:342b Israel  -   Gen. 32:28
See note 22 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 1:35a The  -   vv. 35-37: Gen. 36:4-5, 10-13
1Ch 1:38a And  -   vv. 38-42: Gen. 36:20-28
1Ch 1:411 son
Lit., sons.
1Ch 1:43a And  -   vv. 43-54: Gen. 36:31-43
1Ch 1:511 clans
Or, chiefs.
1 Chronicles Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 2:11 sons
For the sons of Israel, see notes in Gen. 49.
1Ch 2:1a Reuben  -   Gen. 29:32
1Ch 2:1b Simeon  -   Gen. 29:33
1Ch 2:1c Levi  -   Gen. 29:34
1Ch 2:1d Judah  -   Gen. 29:35
1Ch 2:1e Issachar  -   Gen. 30:18-20
1Ch 2:2a Dan  -   Gen. 30:6
1Ch 2:2b Joseph  -   Gen. 30:22-24
1Ch 2:2c Benjamin  -   Gen. 35:18
1Ch 2:2d Naphtali  -   Gen. 30:8
1Ch 2:2e Gad  -   Gen. 30:10-13
1Ch 2:31 Judah
The tribe of Judah is the royal tribe (5:2a), producing kings from David to Christ (Heb. 7:14). Hence, the genealogy of Judah, among the twelve genealogies of the twelve tribes, is the only one that is counted in the genealogy of Christ as recorded in Matt. 1 and Luke 3. See notes 23 and 24 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 2:3a Er  -   Gen. 38:3-5; 46:12
1Ch 2:32 Bath-shua
Or, the daughter of Shua.
1Ch 2:41a Tamar  -   Gen. 38:6, 11, 18, 25
See notes 31 and 32 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 2:4b Perez  -   Gen. 38:29-30; Ruth 4:12; Matt. 1:3
See note 41.
1Ch 2:5a Perez  -   Gen. 38:29; 46:12; Ruth 4:18; Matt. 1:3
1Ch 2:71 son
Lit., sons. So also in the next verse.
1Ch 2:7a troubler  -   Josh. 6:18; 7:25
1Ch 2:9a Hezron  -   vv. 9-12: Ruth 4:19-22; Matt. 1:3-5
1Ch 2:111 Boaz
For vv. 11-15, see notes 52, 54, 61, and 62 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 2:13a Eliab  -   1 Sam. 16:6-9; 17:13
1Ch 2:15a David  -   1 Sam. 17:12, 14
1Ch 2:16a Zeruiah  -   2 Sam. 2:18
1Ch 2:17a Amasa  -   2 Sam. 17:25
1Ch 2:19a Hur  -   Exo. 17:10, 12; 24:14
1Ch 2:20a Bezalel  -   Exo. 31:2; 36:1; 38:22; 2 Chron. 1:5
1Ch 2:311 son
Lit., sons.
1Ch 2:501 sons
Lit., son.
1Ch 2:50a Ephrathah  -   1 Chron. 2:19; 4:4
1Ch 2:55a Rechab  -   2 Kings 10:15; Jer. 35:2
1 Chronicles Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 3:1a And  -   vv. 1-4: 2 Sam. 3:2-5
1Ch 3:4a seven  -   2 Sam. 2:11; 5:5
1Ch 3:4b thirty-three  -   2 Sam. 5:5; 1 Kings 2:11; 1 Chron. 29:27
1Ch 3:5a And  -   vv. 5-8: 2 Sam. 5:14-16; 1 Chron. 14:4-7
1Ch 3:51 Nathan
See note 63 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:5b Solomon  -   2 Sam. 12:24
See note 51.
1Ch 3:52 Bath-shua
This is Bathsheba. See note 64 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:9a Tamar  -   2 Sam. 13:1
1Ch 3:10a And  -   vv. 10-14: Matt. 1:7-10
1Ch 3:101 Rehoboam
See note 71 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:121 Azariah
See note 81 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:15a And  -   vv. 15-16: Matt. 1:11
1Ch 3:151 Jehoiakim
See note 111 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:161 son
Lit., sons.
1Ch 3:162 Jeconiah
See notes 112 and 113 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:17a Jeconiah  -   Matt. 1:12
1Ch 3:191a Zerubbabel  -   Ezra 2:2; Hag. 1:1, 12, 14; Zech. 4:6
See note 122 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 3:211 sons
Lit., son.
1 Chronicles Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 4:1a Perez  -   1 Chron. 2:5
1Ch 4:71 Izhar
Others read, and Zohar.
1Ch 4:101a enlarge  -   cf. Josh. 17:14-18
The enlarging of the border of the good land in the prayer of Jabez signifies the enlarging of the border of the gaining of Christ and the enjoyment of Christ (cf. Phil. 3:8-14), who is the reality of the good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8). We all should have such a prayer, a prayer that God would enlarge the border of our enjoyment of Christ (cf. Eph. 3:14-19). See note 401.
1Ch 4:13a Othniel  -   Josh. 15:17; Judg. 1:13; 3:9, 11
1Ch 4:131 son
Lit., sons.
1Ch 4:141 Geharashim
Or, the valley of craftsmen.
1Ch 4:151 son
Lit., sons.
1Ch 4:152 Kenaz
Lit., and Kenaz.
1Ch 4:171 sons
Lit., son.
1Ch 4:21a Shelah  -   Gen. 38:5; 46:12; Num. 26:20; 1 Chron. 2:3
1Ch 4:24a Simeon  -   Num. 26:12-13
1Ch 4:28a And  -   vv. 28-33: Josh. 19:1-8
1Ch 4:401 rich
As a type, the tribe of Simeon’s finding rich and good pasture and a spacious and quiet and peaceful land signifies that our enjoyment of Christ as our good land should be spacious, quiet, and peaceful.
1Ch 4:41a Hezekiah  -   2 Kings 18:8
1Ch 4:43a Amalekites  -   Exo. 17:14-16
1 Chronicles Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 5:11a Reuben  -   Gen. 29:32; 49:3-4
See notes 221 in Gen. 35 and 51 in Gen. 48.
1Ch 5:1b Joseph  -   Gen. 48:22
1Ch 5:2a Judah  -   Gen. 49:8-10; Matt. 1:2
1Ch 5:2b from  -   Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:6
1Ch 5:3a Hanoch  -   Gen. 46:9; Exo. 6:14; Num. 26:5-6
1Ch 5:6a Tilgath-pilneser  -   2 Kings 15:29; 16:7; 1 Chron. 5:26; 2 Chron. 28:20
1Ch 5:10a Hagarites  -   1 Chron. 5:19-20; Psa. 83:6
1Ch 5:17a Jotham  -   2 Kings 15:5, 32
1Ch 5:17b Jeroboam  -   2 Kings 14:16, 29
1Ch 5:19a Hagarites  -   1 Chron. 5:10
1Ch 5:201 cried
The children of Reuben, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crying out to God that they might defeat their enemies and possess their land is a pattern for us today. We too should cry out to God, telling Him that we want to gain more of Christ, possess more of Christ, and enjoy more of Christ as our God-allotted portion (Col. 1:12). See note 101 in ch. 4.
1Ch 5:22a captivity  -   1 Chron. 5:6; 2 Kings 15:29; 17:6
1Ch 5:26a stirred  -   2 Chron. 21:16; cf. 2 Chron. 36:22; Ezra 1:1, 5; Hag. 1:14
1Ch 5:26b Pul  -   2 Kings 15:19
1Ch 5:26c Halah  -   2 Kings 17:6; 18:11
1 Chronicles Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 6:1a The  -   Gen. 46:11; Exo. 6:16; Num. 26:57; 1 Chron. 23:6
1Ch 6:2a Amram  -   Exo. 6:18
1Ch 6:3a Aaron  -   Exo. 6:20
1Ch 6:3b And  -   vv. 3b-8: 1 Chron. 6:50-53; cf. Ezra 7:3-5
1Ch 6:4a Phinehas  -   Num. 25:11-13
1Ch 6:8a Zadok  -   2 Sam. 8:17
1Ch 6:11a And  -   vv. 11-14: cf. Ezra 7:1-3
1Ch 6:13a Hilkiah  -   2 Kings 22:4
1Ch 6:15a Jehozadak  -   Ezra 5:2
1Ch 6:15b carried  -   2 Kings 25:8-21
1Ch 6:16a The  -   vv. 16-19: Exo. 6:16-19
1Ch 6:22a Korah  -   Exo. 6:24; Num. 16:1; 26:11; Psa. 42 title
1Ch 6:27a Elkanah  -   1 Sam. 1:1
1Ch 6:281a Joel  -   1 Sam. 8:2
Cf. v. 33 and 1 Sam. 8:2; the Hebrew text reads, Vashni, or, and the second.
1Ch 6:311 service
See note 21 in ch. 23.
1Ch 6:31a Ark  -   2 Sam. 6:17; 1 Chron. 16:1, 4-5
1Ch 6:331a Heman  -   1 Chron. 15:17, 19; 16:41, 42; 2 Chron. 5:12; Psa. 88 title
Heman and Samuel were descendants of the great rebel Korah (v. 37). See note 331, par. 2, in Num. 16 and note 11 in Psa. 42.
1Ch 6:34a Elkanah  -   1 Sam. 1:1
1Ch 6:39a Asaph  -   1 Chron. 15:17, 19; 2 Chron. 5:12; Ezra 2:41; Neh. 7:44; Psa. 50 title
1Ch 6:44a Ethan  -   1 Chron. 15:17; cf. Psa. 89 title
1Ch 6:49a altar  -   Lev. 1:7, 9
1Ch 6:49b altar  -   Exo. 30:7
1Ch 6:49c expiation  -   Exo. 30:10; Lev. 4:20
1Ch 6:50a And  -   vv. 50-53: 1 Chron. 6:3b-8
1Ch 6:54a Kohathites  -   Josh. 21:4, 10
1Ch 6:55a And  -   vv. 55-60: Josh. 21:11-19
1Ch 6:571 city
Lit., cities. So also in v. 67. See note 151 in Num. 35.
1Ch 6:61a Kohath  -   1 Chron. 6:66-70; cf. Josh. 21:5
1Ch 6:62a Gershom  -   Josh. 21:6
1Ch 6:63a Merari  -   Josh. 21:7
1Ch 6:66a And  -   vv. 66-70: Josh. 21:20-26
1Ch 6:71a To  -   vv. 71-76: Josh. 21:27-33
1Ch 6:77a To  -   vv. 77-81: Josh. 21:34-39
1 Chronicles Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 7:1a And  -   Gen. 46:13; Num. 26:23-24
1Ch 7:2a number  -   cf. 1 Chron. 21:5
1Ch 7:6a The  -   Gen. 46:21; Num. 26:38; 1 Chron. 8:1
1Ch 7:101 son
Lit., sons. So also in vv. 12 and 17.
1Ch 7:13a The  -   Gen. 46:24; Num. 26:48-49
1Ch 7:14a The  -   vv. 14-19: Num. 26:29-33
1Ch 7:15a Zelophehad  -   Num. 27:1; 36:10-11; Josh. 17:3
1Ch 7:20a And  -   Num. 26:35
1Ch 7:231 Beriah
Meaning upon misfortune.
1Ch 7:27a Joshua  -   Num. 13:8, 16
1Ch 7:281 Ayyah
Many MSS read, Azzah.
1Ch 7:291 in
Or, along the borders of.
1Ch 7:30a The  -   Gen. 46:17; Num. 26:44-46
1Ch 7:341 Shemer
Shomer in v. 32.
1Ch 7:351 sons
Lit., son.
1 Chronicles Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 8:1a And  -   Gen. 46:21; Num. 26:38; 1 Chron. 7:6
1Ch 8:6a Ehud  -   Judg. 3:15
1Ch 8:29a And  -   vv. 29-38: 1 Chron. 9:35-44
1Ch 8:311 and
Following the ancient versions (cf. 9:37); the Hebrew text lacks the words and Mikloth.
1Ch 8:33a Kish  -   1 Sam. 9:1; 14:51
1Ch 8:33b Saul  -   1 Sam. 14:49; 31:2; 1 Chron. 10:2
1Ch 8:34a Jonathan  -   2 Sam. 4:4
1Ch 8:34b Merib-baal  -   2 Sam. 9:12
1 Chronicles Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 9:1a Judah  -   1 Chron. 5:26; 2 Kings 25:8-21
1Ch 9:2a Now  -   vv. 2-17: Neh. 11:3-19
1Ch 9:2b cities  -   Ezra 2:70; Neh. 7:73
1Ch 9:11a And  -   cf. 1 Chron. 6:12-14; Ezra 7:1-2
1Ch 9:191 Korah
Among the serving Levites were the descendants of Korah, the great rebel who rebelled against God and Moses (vv. 19, 31; see note 331, par. 2, in Num. 16).
1Ch 9:19a Korahites  -   1 Chron. 26:1
1Ch 9:20a Phinehas  -   cf. Num. 25:11-13
1Ch 9:30a compounding  -   Exo. 30:23-25
1Ch 9:32a bread  -   Lev. 24:5-8
1Ch 9:33a night  -   Psa. 134:1
1Ch 9:35a And  -   vv. 35-44: 1 Chron. 8:29-38
1Ch 9:411 and
Following the ancient versions (cf. 8:35); the Hebrew text lacks the words and Ahaz.
1 Chronicles Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 10:11a And  -   vv. 1-12: 1 Sam. 31:1-13
For ch. 10, see notes in 1 Sam. 31.
1Ch 10:2a Jonathan  -   1 Sam. 14:49; 1 Chron. 8:33
1Ch 10:4a afraid  -   cf. 2 Sam. 1:14
1Ch 10:10a Dagon  -   Judg. 16:23; 1 Sam. 5:2-7
1Ch 10:13a word  -   1 Sam. 13:13-14
1Ch 10:13b medium  -   1 Sam. 28:7
1Ch 10:14a kingdom  -   cf. 1 Chron. 12:23
1 Chronicles Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 11:11a Then  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Sam. 5:1-3
For the history of David’s reign in chs. 11 — 21, see notes in 2 Sam. 5 — 24.
1Ch 11:2a shepherd  -   Ezek. 34:23
1Ch 11:4a And  -   vv. 4-9: 2 Sam. 5:6-10
1Ch 11:11a And  -   vv. 11-41: 2 Sam. 23:8-39
1Ch 11:211 thirty
The Hebrew text reads, three.
1Ch 11:271 Harodite
Following 2 Sam. 23:25; the Hebrew reads, Harorite.
1Ch 11:41a Uriah  -   2 Sam. 11:6
1 Chronicles Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 12:1a Ziklag  -   1 Sam. 27:6
1Ch 12:181 came
Lit., clothed Amasai.
1 Chronicles Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 13:3a Ark  -   cf. 1 Sam. 7:1-2
1Ch 13:51 Shihor
I.e., the brook of Egypt.
1Ch 13:6a And  -   vv. 6-14: 2 Sam. 6:2-11
1Ch 13:10a to  -   cf. Num. 4:15; 1 Chron. 15:13
1 Chronicles Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 14:1a And  -   vv. 1-16: 2 Sam. 5:11-25
1Ch 14:4a And  -   vv. 4-7: 1 Chron. 3:5-8
1Ch 14:12a burned  -   Exo. 32:20; Deut. 7:5, 25; 12:3
1Ch 14:151 army
Or, camp. So also in v. 16.
1 Chronicles Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 15:1a tent  -   2 Sam. 6:17; 1 Chron. 16:1; 2 Chron. 1:4
1Ch 15:2a bear  -   Num. 4:15; Deut. 10:8; 1 Chron. 15:15, 26
1Ch 15:31 Ark
See note 21 in 2 Sam. 6.
1Ch 15:11a Zadok  -   1 Chron. 6:8; 16:39
1Ch 15:11b Abiathar  -   1 Sam. 22:20; 1 Kings 2:26, 35
1Ch 15:13a broke  -   2 Sam. 6:8; 1 Chron. 13:11
1Ch 15:15a poles  -   Exo. 25:13-14
1Ch 15:17a Heman  -   1 Chron. 6:33
1Ch 15:17b Asaph  -   1 Chron. 6:39
1Ch 15:17c Ethan  -   1 Chron. 6:44
1Ch 15:181 and
Some MSS add, Ben.
1Ch 15:201 alamoth
Perhaps referring to soprano tones.
1Ch 15:211 sheminith
Or, the octave.
1Ch 15:24a trumpets  -   Num. 10:8; 1 Chron. 15:28; 16:6
1Ch 15:25a So  -   15:25– 16:3: 2 Sam. 6:12-19
1Ch 15:27a ephod  -   Exo. 28:4; 1 Sam. 2:18
1 Chronicles Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 16:1a tent  -   1 Chron. 15:1; 2 Chron. 1:4
1Ch 16:31 portion
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; others understand a portion of wine; others, a date cake.
1Ch 16:4a appointed  -   1 Chron. 6:31-32
1Ch 16:7a Asaph  -   1 Chron. 6:39
1Ch 16:8a Give  -   vv. 8-22: Psa. 105:1-15
1Ch 16:8b call  -   Gen. 4:26; Isa. 12:4
1Ch 16:11a Seek  -   Psa. 24:6; 27:8
1Ch 16:16a covenant  -   cf. Gen. 17:1-8; 15:18
1Ch 16:16b oath  -   cf. Gen. 22:16; Gen. 26:3; Luke 1:73
1Ch 16:17a Jacob  -   Gen. 35:9-13
1Ch 16:18a give  -   Gen. 13:15; 15:18-21
1Ch 16:19a few  -   Deut. 7:7; 26:5
1Ch 16:19b strangers  -   Gen. 17:8; 23:4; 47:9; Lev. 25:23; 1 Chron. 29:15; Heb. 11:13
1Ch 16:191 the
Lit., it.
1Ch 16:20a went  -   Gen. 12:10; 20:1; 46:3, 6
1Ch 16:21a rebuked  -   Gen. 12:17; 20:3
1Ch 16:22a prophets  -   cf. Gen. 20:7
1Ch 16:23a Sing  -   vv. 23-33: Psa. 96:1-13
1Ch 16:26a idols  -   Psa. 115:4-8
1Ch 16:31a reigns  -   Psa. 93:1; 97:1; 99:1; Isa. 52:7; Rev. 11:15, 17; 19:6
1Ch 16:33a coming  -   Psa. 98:9; cf. 2 Thes. 1:7-8
1Ch 16:35a Save  -   vv. 35-36: Psa. 106:47-48
1Ch 16:36a Amen  -   Deut. 27:15; 1 Cor. 14:16; Rev. 22:21
1Ch 16:37a left  -   1 Chron. 16:4-5
1Ch 16:381 relatives
Lit., brothers.
1Ch 16:391 tabernacle
The tabernacle with the bronze altar was at Gibeon while the Ark was in a tent at Jerusalem (15:28 — 16:1). This was an abnormal situation. See note 111 in 1 Sam. 4.
1Ch 16:40a every  -   cf. Exo. 29:38-41; Num. 28:3-8
1Ch 16:41a Heman  -   1 Chron. 6:33
1Ch 16:41b Jeduthun  -   1 Chron. 25:1, 3, 6
1Ch 16:43a And  -   2 Sam. 6:19
1 Chronicles Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 17:11a And  -   vv. 1-27: 2 Sam. 7:1-29
For this chapter, see notes in 2 Sam. 7.
1Ch 17:4a builds  -   1 Chron. 28:3
1Ch 17:6a shepherd  -   cf. 1 Chron. 11:2; Psa. 78:71-72
1Ch 17:9a place  -   Jer. 31:8-12; Ezek. 34:13
1Ch 17:10a house  -   2 Sam. 7:27; 1 Chron. 17:25
1Ch 17:11a seed  -   1 Chron. 28:5; 1 Kings 8:20; Psa. 132:11; Jer. 23:5-6; John 7:42; Rom. 1:3
1Ch 17:12a build  -   1 Kings 5:5; 1 Chron. 28:6-7; Zech. 6:12-13
1Ch 17:13a Father  -   Psa. 89:26; Heb. 1:5
1Ch 17:13b son  -   Luke 1:32-33
1Ch 17:25a house  -   2 Sam. 7:11; 1 Chron. 17:10
1 Chronicles Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 18:1a And  -   vv. 1-17: 2 Sam. 8:1-18
1Ch 18:71 shields
David consecrated to God the spoils of his victories for the building up of the temple, God’s dwelling place on earth (vv. 7-11). See note 31 in ch. 22.
1Ch 18:11a consecrated  -   1 Chron. 22:14; 26:26-27; 2 Chron. 5:1
1 Chronicles Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 19:1a And  -   vv. 1-19: 2 Sam. 10:1-19
1Ch 19:141 the
Lit., they.
1Ch 19:161 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
1 Chronicles Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 20:1a Then  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Sam. 11:1; 12:26-31
1Ch 20:4a Then  -   vv. 4-8: 2 Sam. 21:18-22
1Ch 20:5a Goliath  -   1 Sam. 17:4
1 Chronicles Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 21:1a And  -   vv. 1-28: 2 Sam. 24:1-25
1Ch 21:1b Satan  -   Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; Zech. 3:1-2; Matt. 4:10
1Ch 21:6a not  -   cf. 1 Chron. 27:24
1Ch 21:13a compassions  -   Exo. 34:6; Psa. 103:8; 130:7
1Ch 21:15a repented  -   Gen. 6:6; Exo. 32:14; Jonah 4:2
1Ch 21:17a sheep  -   1 Kings 22:17; Psa. 100:3; Isa. 53:6
1Ch 21:181a threshing  -   cf. 2 Chron. 3:1
The threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite became the site where the temple of God was built (2 Chron. 3:1).
1Ch 21:26a fire  -   Lev. 9:24; 2 Chron. 7:1
1Ch 21:29a Gibeon  -   1 Kings 3:4; 1 Chron. 16:39; 2 Chron. 1:3
1 Chronicles Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 22:1a house  -   Gen. 28:17; Deut. 12:5-7, 11; 2 Chron. 3:1; 6:5-6
1Ch 22:21 And
First Chronicles 22:2 — 29:30 is a supplement to the history of David.
1Ch 22:31a prepared  -   1 Chron. 29:2, 7
David’s preparing of the materials in abundance for the building of the temple of God typifies Christ’s providing for the building of the church of God with His unsearchable riches (18:7-11; 22:2-5, 14-16a; 28:2; 29:2-9; cf. Eph. 3:8-10). David’s preparation in his affliction (v. 14), in his trials, and in the victory of his fightings typifies Christ’s rich provision for the building of the church of God in His trials and in His victory in His life of fighting against Satan with his power of darkness.
1Ch 22:71 Solomon
Some read, Solomon his son, As for me,…
1Ch 22:7a heart  -   1 Kings 8:17; 1 Chron. 28:2
1Ch 22:8a not  -   2 Sam. 7:5; 1 Kings 5:3; 8:19; 1 Chron. 17:4; 28:3
1Ch 22:91 rest
David was a fighter to gain the provisions, and his son Solomon was a peaceful king, enjoying in peace what was gained and attained through his father’s victories. See note 11 in 1 Kings 2.
1Ch 22:9a Solomon  -   2 Sam. 12:24
1Ch 22:9b peace  -   1 Kings 4:24; 5:4
1Ch 22:101 he
See note 13 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 22:10a build  -   2 Sam. 7:13
1Ch 22:10b Father  -   2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Chron. 28:6; Heb. 1:5
1Ch 22:11a build  -   2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Kings 6:12
1Ch 22:12a insight  -   cf. 1 Kings 3:9, 12; Psa. 72:1
1Ch 22:18a rest  -   Deut. 12:10; 1 Kings 4:24; 1 Chron. 22:9; 23:25
1Ch 22:19a Ark  -   1 Kings 8:6, 21; 2 Chron. 5:7; 6:11
1 Chronicles Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 23:1a Solomon  -   1 Kings 1:33-39; 1 Chron. 28:5; 29:22, 28
1Ch 23:21 priests
David’s arranging in order Israel’s services to God related to the temple of God (6:31-48; chs. 23 — 26) typifies the Spirit’s arranging in order the church services in the New Testament (1 Cor. 12:4-11). It typifies further that as the Head of the Body, Christ has set up an order in His Body for all the members to keep (1 Cor. 14:40).
1Ch 23:31a thirty  -   Num. 4:3, 47
See note 31 in Num. 4.
1Ch 23:6a divisions  -   2 Chron. 8:14; 35:4; cf. Ezra 6:18
1Ch 23:7a Of  -   Exo. 6:17; Num. 3:18; 1 Chron. 6:17
1Ch 23:12a The  -   Exo. 6:18; Num. 3:19; 1 Chron. 6:2, 18
1Ch 23:13a Amram  -   Exo. 6:20
1Ch 23:13b Aaron  -   Exo. 28:1; Heb. 5:4
1Ch 23:13c incense  -   Exo. 30:7; Num. 16:40; 1 Sam. 2:28
1Ch 23:14a man  -   Deut. 33:1
1Ch 23:15a Gershom  -   Exo. 2:22; 18:3-4
1Ch 23:21a The  -   Exo. 6:19; 1 Chron. 6:19; 24:26
1Ch 23:24a twenty  -   2 Chron. 31:17; Ezra 3:8; 1 Chron. 23:27; cf. Num. 4:30; 8:24
1Ch 23:25a rest  -   1 Chron. 22:18
1Ch 23:26a carry  -   2 Chron. 35:3; cf. Num. 4:5-15
1Ch 23:29a bread  -   Lev. 24:5-8
1Ch 23:31a Sabbaths  -   2 Chron. 8:13; 31:3
1Ch 23:311 new
See note 111 in Num. 28.
1Ch 23:32a Tent  -   Num. 1:53
1Ch 23:32b service  -   Num. 3:7-8
1 Chronicles Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 24:1a Nadab  -   Lev. 10:1, 6; Num. 26:60
1Ch 24:21 Nadab
See Lev. 10:1-11 and notes.
1Ch 24:2a died  -   Lev. 10:2; Num. 26:61
1Ch 24:3a Zadok  -   2 Sam. 8:17; 1 Chron. 24:31
1Ch 24:6a Abiathar  -   2 Sam. 8:17; Mark 2:26
1Ch 24:10a Abijah  -   Luke 1:5
1Ch 24:19a arrangement  -   Luke 1:8
1Ch 24:31a cast  -   1 Chron. 25:8; 26:13-14; Neh. 11:1; cf. Acts 1:26
1 Chronicles Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 25:1a Asaph  -   1 Chron. 6:39
1Ch 25:11b Heman  -   1 Chron. 6:33
See note 331, par. 2, in Num. 16.
1Ch 25:1c Jeduthun  -   1 Chron. 16:41-42
1Ch 25:1d prophesy  -   1 Chron. 9:33; 15:16; 2 Chron. 23:18; Neh. 12:27-29
1Ch 25:31 and
Following the Septuagint and one Hebrew MS; most MSS do not have the words and Shimei.
1Ch 25:51 exalting
Lit., lifting up the horn (cf. 1 Sam. 2:10).
1Ch 25:8a cast  -   1 Chron. 24:31; 26:13-14
1 Chronicles Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 26:5a blessed  -   cf. 2 Sam. 6:11-12
1Ch 26:13a cast  -   1 Chron. 24:31; 25:8
1Ch 26:131 lots
Cf. note 21 in Josh. 14.
1Ch 26:26a dedicated  -   2 Sam. 8:11; 1 Kings 7:51
1 Chronicles Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 27:11 served
The officers who served the king were of twelve divisions, twenty-four thousand in each division, taking care of the king’s affairs month by month throughout all the months of the year (vv. 1-15). David’s standard of living was excessive and too luxurious, and it became a hidden factor in the rebellion that occurred after the time of Solomon. See note 41 in 1 Kings 12.
1Ch 27:6a Benaiah  -   2 Sam. 8:18; 23:20-23; 1 Chron. 11:24-25
1Ch 27:7a Asahel  -   2 Sam. 23:24; 1 Chron. 11:26; 2 Sam. 2:18
1Ch 27:161 over
The governmental order in David’s administration typifies the submission to the authority and headship of Christ in the church in the New Testament (Eph. 1:22-23; 5:24; Col. 1:18a).
1Ch 27:23a stars  -   Gen. 15:5
1Ch 27:24a number  -   cf. 2 Sam. 24:1-2
1Ch 27:24b not  -   cf. 1 Chron. 21:5-6
1Ch 27:28a sycamore  -   1 Kings 10:27; 2 Chron. 1:15; 9:27; Luke 19:4
1Ch 27:29a Sharon  -   1 Chron. 5:16; Isa. 65:10; Acts 9:35
1Ch 27:33a Ahithophel  -   2 Sam. 15:12
1Ch 27:33b Hushai  -   2 Sam. 15:37
1Ch 27:34a Abiathar  -   1 Kings 1:7; 1 Chron. 24:6
1Ch 27:34b Joab  -   2 Sam. 8:16; 1 Chron. 11:6
1 Chronicles Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 28:2a heart  -   1 Kings 8:17; 1 Chron. 22:7
1Ch 28:2b footstool  -   Psa. 99:5; 132:7; Isa. 66:1; Lam. 2:1; cf. Psa. 110:1
1Ch 28:3a You  -   2 Sam. 7:5; 1 Kings 5:3; 8:19; 1 Chron. 17:4; 22:8
1Ch 28:4a chose  -   1 Sam. 16:12-13; 2 Sam. 7:8; Psa. 78:70
1Ch 28:4b Judah  -   Gen. 49:8; 1 Chron. 5:2; Psa. 78:68
1Ch 28:5a Solomon  -   1 Chron. 22:9-10; 23:1
1Ch 28:61 Solomon
See note 13 in Matt. 1.
1Ch 28:6a build  -   2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Kings 5:5; 8:20; cf. Zech. 6:12-13
1Ch 28:7a establish  -   Psa. 89:28-37; 132:12; Dan. 2:44
1Ch 28:8a possess  -   Deut. 4:1; 5:33
1Ch 28:9a hearts  -   1 Sam. 16:7; Psa. 7:9; Prov. 21:2; Jer. 17:10; Acts 1:24
1Ch 28:9b seek  -   2 Chron. 15:2; Prov. 8:17; Jer. 29:13
1Ch 28:111 pattern
The temple built by Solomon was not according to any human design, for God had clearly shown David the pattern of the building (vv. 11-19), just as He had shown Moses the pattern of the tabernacle on Mount Sinai (Exo. 25 — 30; cf. Gen. 6:14-16; 1 Cor. 3:10-12; Heb. 11:10). Thus did Solomon build the temple on the proper ground (2 Chron. 3:1) according to the pattern revealed to his father, David.
1Ch 28:12a pattern  -   cf. Exo. 25:40
1Ch 28:141 weight
In the vision given to him by God, David saw not only the sizes of the vessels but also their weight. The size and the weight signify that in the church the different aspects of the experience of Christ and the different gifts and functions of the members must be properly proportioned and balanced (cf. 1 Cor. 12:14-31; 14:5-6, 19).
1Ch 28:15a lampstands  -   Exo. 25:31-39
1Ch 28:18a altar  -   Exo. 30:1-10
1Ch 28:18b cherubim  -   Exo. 25:18-22; 1 Kings 6:23-28
1 Chronicles Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
1Ch 29:11 palace
I.e., the temple. So also for v. 19.
1Ch 29:2a prepared  -   1 Chron. 22:3-5
1Ch 29:51 consecrating
Lit., filling his hand.
1Ch 29:10a blessed  -   Luke 1:68
1Ch 29:11a greatness  -   1 Tim. 1:17; Rev. 5:13; 7:12
1Ch 29:11b kingdom  -   Matt. 6:13
1Ch 29:15a strangers  -   1 Chron. 16:19
1Ch 29:15b shadow  -   Job 14:2; Psa. 102:11; 144:4
1Ch 29:17a heart  -   1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; Prov. 17:3; Acts 1:24
1Ch 29:18a heart  -   2 Thes. 3:5
1Ch 29:22a anointed  -   cf. 1 Kings 1:34-39
1Ch 29:22b Zadok  -   1 Kings 2:35
1Ch 29:27a forty  -   2 Sam. 5:4-5; 1 Kings 2:11
< 1 Chronicles • 2 Chronicles Outline >
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1 & 2 Chronicles Outline
I.   The genealogy from Adam to the twelve tribes of Israel — 1 Chron. 1:1 — 9:44
A.   The genealogy from Adam to Abraham — 1:1-27
B.   The genealogy of Abraham — 1:28-34
C.   The genealogy of Esau — 1:35-54
D.   The genealogy of Israel — 2:1 — 9:44
1.   The sons of Israel — 2:1-2
2.   The genealogy of Judah — 2:3 — 4:23
3.   The genealogy of Simeon — 4:24-43
4.   The genealogy of Reuben — 5:1-10
5.   The genealogy of Gad — 5:11-17
6.   An insertion concerning the children of Reuben, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh — 5:18-26
7.   The genealogy of Levi — 6:1-81
8.   The genealogy of Issachar — 7:1-5
9.   The genealogy of Benjamin — 7:6-12; 8:1-40
10.   The genealogy of Naphtali — 7:13
11.   The genealogy of Manasseh — 7:14-19
12.   The genealogy of Ephraim — 7:20-29
13.   The genealogy of Asher — 7:30-40
14.   The genealogy of the returned children of Israel — 9:1-34
15.   The genealogy of the house of Saul — 9:35-44
II.   The history concerning the kings over all Israel — 1 Chron. 10:1 — 2 Chron. 9:31a
A.   Saul’s end — 1 Chron. 10:1-14
B.   The reign of David — 1 Chron. 11:1 — 29:30
1.   Crowned and established as king — 11:1-9
2.   His mighty men — 11:10 — 12:40
3.   Taking care of the habitation of the Ark of God — 13:1 — 16:43
4.   Wanting to build a house for God — 17:1-27
5.   His conquests — 18:1 — 20:8
a.   Over the Philistines, Moab, Zobah, Syria, and Edom — 18:1-17
b.   Over Ammon and Syria — 19:1 — 20:3
c.   Over the Philistines — 20:4-8
6.   His last sin — 21:1 — 22:1
7.   His preparations for the building of the temple of God — 22:2-19
8.   His arrangement of the order of the services of the priests and the Levites — 23:1 — 26:32
a.   Making Solomon his son king over Israel — 23:1
b.   The divisions of the services of the Levites — 23:2-32
c.   The ordering of the priests in twenty-four divisions — 24:1-19
d.   The rest of the Levites casting lots for their duty — 24:20-31
e.   Setting apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun into twenty-four divisions for singing — 25:1-31
f.   The divisions of the doorkeepers — 26:1-19
g.   Assigning some of the Levites to keep the treasures of the house of God and of the dedicated gifts — 26:20-28
h.   Appointing some of the Levites to the outward duties over Israel, as officers and judges — 26:29-32
9.   The officers in the administration of David’s government — 27:1-34
a.   The officers who served the king — vv. 1-15
b.   The captains who ruled over the twelve tribes and the house of Aaron — vv. 16-24
c.   The officers over the king’s treasures and the overseers of the king’s property — vv. 25-31
d.   David’s counselors, teachers, friends, and the captain of his army — vv. 32-34
10.   Assembling all the leaders of Israel at Jerusalem — 28:1 — 29:25
a.   His address to the assembly — 28:1-8
b.   Charging Solomon his son to serve God and to build the temple of God — 28:9-21
c.   His preparation for the building of the temple of God stirring up the leaders of Israel to willingly offer their gifts — 29:1-9
d.   His blessing to Jehovah in the sight of all the assembly — 29:10-20a
e.   The reaction of all the assembly — 29:20b-25
11.   Ceasing his life on earth — 29:26-30
C.   The reign of Solomon — 2 Chron. 1:1 — 9:31a
1.   Seeking for wisdom — 1:1-12
2.   His prosperity under the rich blessing of God — 1:13 — 2:18
3.   Building the temple of God as well as his own palaces — 3:1 — 7:10
a.   The temple — 3:1-14, 16
b.   The two bronze pillars — 3:15, 17
c.   The bronze altar — 4:1
d.   The bronze sea with the ten bronze lavers — 4:2-6
e.   The vessels of the temple — 4:7-8
f.   The courts — 4:9-10
g.   Huram’s work for Solomon — 4:11 — 5:1
h.   The dedication of the temple — 5:2 — 7:10
(1)   The tabernacle being merged with the temple — 5:2-14
(2)   Solomon’s blessing and declaration to the people — 6:1-11
(3)   Solomon’s prayer — 6:12-42
(4)   The glory of Jehovah filling the house — 7:1-3
(5)   Solomon and the people offering a vast quantity of sacrifices to God — 7:4-7
(6)   Solomon and his people holding a feast for fourteen days — 7:8-10
4.   The highest peak of his glory among the nations — 7:11 — 9:28
a.   Jehovah’s acceptance of his prayer and Jehovah’s promise to establish his throne forever — 7:11-22
b.   His alliance with Huram — 8:1-2
c.   Building further cities — 8:3-11
d.   His offerings, daily and at the appointed feasts — 8:12-16
e.   His navy and the cooperation with Huram — 8:17-18
f.   The queen of Sheba coming to pay him honor and to listen to his words of wisdom — 9:1-9, 12
g.   Huram’s servants bringing precious goods for the temple of God and Solomon’s palace — 9:10-11
h.   Enriched with the tribute by the kings of the nations and the tariff on the traders and merchants — 9:13-24, 26-27
i.   Building a defense of chariots and cavalry — 9:25, 28
5.   His decease after reigning over all Israel for forty years — 9:29-31a
III.   The history concerning the kings of Judah — 2 Chron. 9:31b — 36:23
A.   The reign of Rehoboam — 9:31b — 12:16a
1.   Continuing the reign after Solomon — 9:31b
2.   Suffering the division of the kingdom and losing ten tribes — 10:1 — 11:4
3.   Reigning over Judah and Benjamin — 11:5-23
4.   Defeated and robbed by the king of Egypt — 12:1-12
5.   Fighting with Jeroboam of Israel and being buried in the city of David — 12:13-16a
B.   The reign of Abijah — 12:16b — 14:1a
C.   The reign of Asa — 14:1b — 16:14
D.   The reign of Jehoshaphat — 17:1 — 21:1a
  (The miserable ending of Ahab the king of Israel — 18:1-34)
E.   The reign of Jehoram — 21:1b-20
F.   The reign of Ahaziah — 22:1-9
G.   The illegitimate reign of Athaliah — 22:10 — 23:15
H.   The reign of Joash — 23:16 — 24:27a
I.   The reign of Amaziah — 24:27b — 25:28
J.   The reign of Uzziah — 26:1-23a
K.   The reign of Jotham — 26:23b — 27:9a
L.   The reign of Ahaz — 27:9b — 28:27a
M.   The reign of Hezekiah — 28:27b — 32:33a
1.   Restoring the house of Jehovah and bringing out the impurity from the holy place — 28:27b — 29:36
2.   Recovering the Passover — 30:1 — 31:1
3.   Setting the services of the priests and the Levites in order — 31:2-21
4.   Building a defense against the invasion of the Assyrians — 32:1-23
5.   His illness and recovery — 32:24-26
6.   His prosperity and end — 32:27-33a
N.   The reign of Manasseh — 32:33b — 33:20a
O.   The reign of Amon — 33:20b-25a
P.   The reign of Josiah — 33:25b — 35:27
Q.   The reign of Jehoahaz — 36:1-3
R.   The reign of Jehoiakim — 36:4-5, 8a
S.   Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon carrying the vessels of the temple into Babylon — 36:6-7, 10a
T.   The reign of Jehoiachin — 36:8b-9
U.   The reign of Zedekiah — 36:10b-13
V.   The deportation to Babylon — 36:14-23
1.   The cause — vv. 14-16
2.   The deportation — vv. 17-20a
3.   The duration of the captivity of Israel — vv. 20b-21
4.   The proclamation of their release by Cyrus the king of Persia — vv. 22-23
2 Chronicles >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Chronicles Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 1:11 Solomon
For the reign of Solomon in 1:1 — 9:31a, see notes in 1 Kings 3:4 — 11:43a.
2Ch 1:3a high  -   1 Kings 3:4; 1 Chron. 16:39
2Ch 1:3b Tent  -   Exo. 29:10; Lev. 1:1; Num. 14:10; Josh. 18:1
2Ch 1:4a Ark  -   cf. 2 Sam. 6:2-17; 1 Chron. 15:25– 16:1
2Ch 1:5a bronze  -   Exo. 27:1-2; 38:1-2
2Ch 1:6a offered  -   1 Kings 3:4
2Ch 1:7a During  -   vv. 7-12: 1 Kings 3:5-14
2Ch 1:9a dust  -   Gen. 13:16; 1 Kings 4:20
2Ch 1:131 from
Following the Septuagint and the Vulgate; the Hebrew text reads, to.
2Ch 1:14a And  -   vv. 14-17: 1 Kings 10:26-29; cf. 2 Chron. 9:25-28
2 Chronicles Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 2:3a And  -   vv. 3-18: cf. 1 Kings 5:2-16
2Ch 2:4a fragrant  -   Exo. 30:7; 2 Chron. 13:11
2Ch 2:4b rows  -   Lev. 24:5-8
2Ch 2:4c morning  -   2 Chron. 13:11; cf. Num. 28:3-8
2Ch 2:6a heavens  -   1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chron. 6:18; Deut. 10:14; Neh. 9:6
2Ch 2:101 cors
Equal to a homer, or ten ephahs, approximately five bushels.
2Ch 2:121 endowed
Lit., who knows. So also in v. 13.
2Ch 2:13a And  -   vv. 13-14: 1 Kings 7:13-14
2Ch 2:131 Huram-abi
I.e., Hiram. See notes in 1 Kings 7:13-14.
2Ch 2:17a sojourners  -   1 Chron. 22:2
2 Chronicles Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 3:1a build  -   1 Kings 6:1; Acts 7:47
2Ch 3:11b Mount  -   Gen. 22:2
God’s choosing of Jerusalem as His worship center began with His word to Abraham in Gen. 22:2 (see note 2 there) and is clearly seen in Deut. 12:5-18 (see notes there). Hence, Solomon did not need to select a place in which to build the temple, for the place had already been selected by God and made known to David (2 Sam. 24:18-25).
2Ch 3:1c threshing  -   cf. 1 Chron. 21:15, 18, 28
2Ch 3:2a And  -   vv. 2-4: 1 Kings 6:1-3
2Ch 3:31 length
For the details of the temple built by Solomon, see notes in 1 Kings 6 — 7.
2Ch 3:51 greater
Referring to the Holy Place.
2Ch 3:5a cypress  -   1 Kings 5:8; S.S. 1:17
2Ch 3:6a precious  -   1 Chron. 29:2, 8; cf. Rev. 21:18-21
2Ch 3:8a And  -   vv. 8-13: cf. 1 Kings 6:19-28
2Ch 3:14a veil  -   Exo. 26:31; Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38
2Ch 3:15a And  -   vv. 15-17: 1 Kings 7:15-22
2Ch 3:151b pillars  -   2 Kings 25:17; Jer. 52:21
See note 151 in 1 Kings 7.
2Ch 3:171 Jachin
Meaning He will establish.
2Ch 3:172 Boaz
Meaning in Him is strength.
2 Chronicles Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 4:1a altar  -   1 Kings 8:64; 2 Kings 16:14; 2 Chron. 7:7; Ezek. 43:13-17; cf. Exo. 27:1-8
2Ch 4:2a And  -   vv. 2-5: 1 Kings 7:23-26
2Ch 4:31 figures
First Kings 7:24 reads, gourds.
2Ch 4:32 for
Or, ten to a cubit.
2Ch 4:6a basins  -   1 Kings 7:38-39
2Ch 4:7a lampstands  -   Exo. 25:31-39; 1 Kings 7:49; 2 Chron. 4:20
2Ch 4:8a tables  -   1 Kings 7:48; 2 Chron. 4:19
2Ch 4:10a And  -   1 Kings 7:39
2Ch 4:11a And  -   4:11–5:1: 1 Kings 7:40-51
2 Chronicles Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 5:2a Then  -   vv. 2-14: 1 Kings 8:1-11
2Ch 5:4a Levites  -   1 Chron. 15:2
2Ch 5:10a tablets  -   Deut. 10:1-5; cf. 2 Chron. 6:11
2Ch 5:12a Heman  -   1 Chron. 6:33
2Ch 5:14a glory  -   Exo. 40:35; 2 Chron. 7:1-2; Ezek. 43:5; 44:4; cf. Rev. 15:8
2 Chronicles Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 6:1a Then  -   vv. 1-39: 1 Kings 8:12-50
2Ch 6:1b darkness  -   Exo. 20:21; Deut. 4:11; Psa. 97:2
2Ch 6:2a place  -   cf. Psa. 135:21
2Ch 6:5a Since  -   2 Sam. 7:6-7
2Ch 6:6a chosen  -   2 Chron. 12:13; Psa. 78:68
2Ch 6:6b David  -   cf. 1 Sam. 16:11-13; 1 Chron. 28:4; Psa. 78:70
2Ch 6:7a build  -   1 Chron. 28:2; cf. 2 Sam. 7:2-3; 1 Chron. 17:1-2
2Ch 6:91 son
See note 13 in Matt. 1.
2Ch 6:11a covenant  -   2 Chron. 5:10
2Ch 6:16a There  -   1 Kings 2:4; 2 Chron. 7:18
2Ch 6:18a heavens  -   2 Chron. 2:6; Deut. 10:14; Neh. 9:6; cf. Acts 7:48
2Ch 6:20a eyes  -   Neh. 1:6; 2 Chron. 16:9
2Ch 6:20b pray  -   cf. Dan. 6:10
2Ch 6:21a pray  -   Dan. 6:10
2Ch 6:21b forgive  -   Dan. 9:19
2Ch 6:22a oath  -   Exo. 22:11; Lev. 5:1
2Ch 6:22b altar  -   Matt. 23:18
2Ch 6:24a defeated  -   cf. Josh. 7:11-12
2Ch 6:24b confess  -   Lev. 26:40-42
2Ch 6:26a no  -   Deut. 11:17; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Chron. 7:13
2Ch 6:28a pestilence  -   2 Chron. 20:9
2Ch 6:281 cities
Lit., gates.
2Ch 6:31a fear  -   Psa. 130:4
2Ch 6:37a repent  -   Deut. 30:1-6; Neh. 1:8-9
2Ch 6:40a open  -   2 Kings 19:16; 2 Chron. 7:15; Neh. 1:6
2Ch 6:41a arise  -   Psa. 132:8-9; cf. 1 Chron. 28:2
2Ch 6:42a David  -   cf. Psa. 132:1, 10
2 Chronicles Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 7:1a And  -   1 Kings 8:54
2Ch 7:1b fire  -   Lev. 9:24; 1 Kings 18:38; 1 Chron. 21:26
2Ch 7:1c glory  -   2 Chron. 5:14
2Ch 7:4a And  -   vv. 4-10: 1 Kings 8:62-66
2Ch 7:9a solemn  -   Lev. 23:36
2Ch 7:11a Thus  -   vv. 11-22: 1 Kings 9:1-9
2Ch 7:12a chosen  -   Deut. 12:5; 16:2; 26:2
2Ch 7:13a no  -   2 Chron. 6:26
2Ch 7:15a eyes  -   Psa. 33:18; 1 Pet. 3:12
2Ch 7:18a not  -   1 Kings 8:25; 2 Chron. 6:16
2Ch 7:21a Why  -   Deut. 29:24; Jer. 22:8-9
2 Chronicles Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 8:1a And  -   vv. 1-18: 1 Kings 9:10-28
2Ch 8:21 He
Lit., Solomon.
2Ch 8:8a forced  -   2 Chron. 2:17-18; 1 Kings 4:6; Josh. 16:10
2Ch 8:11a Pharaoh’s  -   1 Kings 3:1; 7:8
2Ch 8:13a three  -   Exo. 23:14, 17; 34:23-24
2Ch 8:13b Feast  -   Deut. 16:16; cf. Exo. 12:15-20
2Ch 8:13c Feast  -   Exo. 23:16; Num. 28:26; Deut. 16:9-10
2Ch 8:13d Feast  -   Deut. 16:13-15
2Ch 8:14a divisions  -   cf. 1 Chron. 24; Luke 1:8
2Ch 8:14b charges  -   cf. 1 Chron. 25
2Ch 8:14c man  -   Neh. 12:24, 36; cf. Deut. 33:1; 1 Chron. 23:14
2Ch 8:171 sea
I.e., the Red Sea (cf. 1 Kings 9:26).
2 Chronicles Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 9:1a And  -   vv. 1-12: 1 Kings 10:1-13
2Ch 9:1b queen  -   Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31
2Ch 9:13a Now  -   vv. 13-28: 1 Kings 10:14-28
2Ch 9:261a River  -   Gen. 15:18; Exo. 23:31; Psa. 72:8
I.e., the Euphrates. See note 211 in 1 Kings 4.
2Ch 9:29a And  -   vv. 29-31: 1 Kings 11:41-43
2Ch 9:29b Nathan  -   2 Sam. 7:2; 12:1; 1 Chron. 29:29
2Ch 9:29c Ahijah  -   1 Kings 11:29; 12:15; 14:2; 15:29
2Ch 9:29d Iddo  -   2 Chron. 12:15; 13:22
2 Chronicles Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 10:1a Then  -   vv. 1-19: 1 Kings 12:1-19
2Ch 10:2a fled  -   1 Kings 11:40
2Ch 10:15a Ahijah  -   cf. 1 Kings 11:29-39
2 Chronicles Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 11:1a And  -   vv. 1-4: 1 Kings 12:21-24
2Ch 11:51 And
Second Chronicles 11:5-23; 13:1-21; 14:6 — 15:15; 17:1-19; 19:1 — 20:30; 21:12-18; 24:14b-24; 25:5-16; 26:6-21a; 28:8-15; 29:3 — 32:8; 33:11-17; and 34:3-7 are a supplement to the history of twelve of the kings of Judah, giving details not found elsewhere concerning God’s dealing with them and also telling us the reasons God dealt with them in the way that He did. In this supplement none of the kings of Israel is included because all those kings forsook both the proper ground, the ground of Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:25-33), and the fundamental faith given by God through Moses. Thus, God forsook them because of their apostasy. Unlike the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah remained on the ground of the unity of God’s chosen people and kept the oneness according to the fundamental teaching of Moses (13:4-11). See note 71, par. 2, in Matt. 1.
2Ch 11:131 priests
Rehoboam’s taking the proper ground and keeping the fundamental faith attracted the priests and the Levites and the seekers of God from all the tribes of Israel, and they went to Jerusalem to join Rehoboam, thus strengthening the kingdom of Judah and supporting Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years (vv. 13-17; cf. 12:1).
2Ch 11:14a function  -   2 Chron. 13:9
2Ch 11:151 goats
Or, goat demons.
2Ch 11:15a calves  -   1 Kings 12:28
2Ch 11:21a loved  -   cf. Deut. 21:15-17
2Ch 11:211 eighteen
In living a life of the indulgence of lust, Rehoboam was surely influenced by his father (1 Kings 11:1-3).
2Ch 11:21b wives  -   cf. Deut. 17:17; 1 Kings 11:3
2Ch 11:221 appointed
Although Rehoboam was capable and wise, and although his kingdom was on the proper ground of oneness and he was fundamental in keeping the teachings of Moses according to God’s revelation, Rehoboam did not labor for God’s interest on the earth to build up the kingdom of God. Instead, he worked for his own interest, transmuting the kingdom of God into a monarchy not only for himself but also for his descendants (vv. 22-23). For this he lost the greater part of his kingdom. The kingdom of his father Solomon was glorious and splendid, but not long after Rehoboam began to reign, he lost nearly the entire kingdom (10:1 — 11:4). This loss was due to his failure to labor for God’s interest. Cf. note 61 in 1 Sam. 31.
2 Chronicles Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 12:2a Shishak  -   1 Kings 11:40; 14:25
2Ch 12:5a Shemaiah  -   1 Kings 12:22; 2 Chron. 11:2; 12:15
2Ch 12:7a wrath  -   cf. 2 Chron. 34:25
2Ch 12:9a And  -   vv. 9-11: 1 Kings 14:25-28
2Ch 12:13a So  -   vv. 13-14: 1 Kings 14:21-22
2Ch 12:15a And  -   vv. 15-16: 1 Kings 14:29-31
2 Chronicles Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 13:1a In  -   vv. 1-2: 1 Kings 15:1-2
2Ch 13:5a kingdom  -   2 Sam. 7:12, 16
2Ch 13:51 covenant
See note 132 in Lev. 2.
2Ch 13:6a Jeroboam  -   1 Kings 11:26; 12:20
2Ch 13:8a golden  -   1 Kings 12:28
2Ch 13:9a priests  -   2 Chron. 11:14-15
2Ch 13:9b priests  -   1 Kings 12:31
2Ch 13:91 consecrate
Lit., fill his hands with.
2Ch 13:11a offer  -   2 Chron. 2:4
2Ch 13:12a fight  -   Acts 5:39
2Ch 13:211 fourteen
Cf. note 211 in ch. 11.
2Ch 13:21a wives  -   cf. 2 Chron. 11:21
2Ch 13:22a And  -   cf. 1 Kings 15:7
2 Chronicles Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 14:1a And  -   1 Kings 15:8
2Ch 14:2a And  -   1 Kings 15:11
2Ch 14:51 high
See note 312 in 1 Kings 12.
2Ch 14:91 Cushite
Or, Ethiopian. So throughout this chapter.
2Ch 14:11a in  -   cf. 1 Sam. 17:45
2Ch 14:131 they
Or, there was none left alive to them.
2 Chronicles Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 15:1a Spirit  -   Num. 24:2; 1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6; 1 Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 24:20
2Ch 15:2a with  -   2 Kings 18:7; 2 Chron. 20:17; James 4:8
2Ch 15:81 detestable
I.e., the idols.
2Ch 15:12a covenant  -   2 Kings 23:3; 2 Chron. 23:16; 29:10; 34:31
2Ch 15:16a And  -   vv. 16-18: 1 Kings 15:13-15
2Ch 15:161 Asherah
The name of a female deity.
2 Chronicles Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 16:1a In  -   vv. 1-6: 1 Kings 15:17-22
2Ch 16:7a Hanani  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:1; 2 Chron. 19:2
2Ch 16:7b trusted  -   cf. Isa. 31:1; Jer. 17:5
2Ch 16:8a Cushites  -   2 Chron. 14:9-12
2Ch 16:9a eyes  -   Prov. 15:3; Zech. 4:10; 1 Pet. 3:12
2Ch 16:9b wars  -   1 Kings 15:16, 32
2Ch 16:10a prison  -   cf. 2 Chron. 18:26; Jer. 20:2
2Ch 16:11a And  -   vv. 11-14: 1 Kings 15:23-24
2Ch 16:121 diseased
Although Asa was a good king and did many good things, he offended God by forming an alliance with Ben-hadad king of Syria (vv. 1-6). Furthermore, he became angry with the seer who rebuked him for trusting in the king of Syria instead of trusting in Jehovah (v. 10). It might have been because of this offense that Asa became severely diseased in his feet. This disease caused his death (v. 13).
God’s dealing with the kings of Judah in the details of their living shows that it is not adequate for us who love God and seek Christ only to stand on the proper ground of the oneness of the church and to keep the fundamental truth. We also need to take care of who we are, how we behave, and how we conduct ourselves, including our interests, our intention, our purpose, our goal, our attitude, and our way of speaking. God dealt with all the good kings of Judah according to the law of Moses in detail. Anyone who was wrong with the law even a little would lose a great part of the enjoyment of the good land. In the Old Testament time, God’s people were required to behave themselves according to the law. Today we are required by the New Testament to conduct ourselves according to the spiritual law, which is the compound, life-giving, all-inclusive, consummated Spirit, who dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:4, 16; Gal. 5:16, 25). We need to learn from the example of the kings of Judah to have a God-man living in all the details of our daily life, a living in which we are crucified in our natural life to live by the divine life within us (Gal. 2:20). We need to be warned and be on the alert that whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we express, our attitude, our spirit, and our intention must be purified by the life-giving, compound, all-inclusive Spirit. Otherwise, we will lose much in the enjoyment of Christ, today’s good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8). See note 11, par. 2, in 1 Kings 1.
2Ch 16:14a spices  -   Gen. 50:2; Luke 23:56; 24:1; John 19:39-40
2 Chronicles Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 17:3a ways  -   2 Kings 22:2; cf. 1 Kings 22:43
2Ch 17:71 sent
Jehoshaphat established the kingdom of God by sending his officials, the Levites, and the priests to teach the children of Judah by the book of the law of Jehovah (vv. 7-9).
2Ch 17:7a teach  -   2 Chron. 35:3
2Ch 17:10a fear  -   2 Chron. 14:14; 20:29
2 Chronicles Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 18:1a allied  -   2 Chron. 19:2; 20:35
2Ch 18:2a And  -   vv. 2-34: 1 Kings 22:2-35
2Ch 18:31 Jehoshaphat
Lit., he.
2Ch 18:16a sheep  -   Num. 27:17; Matt. 9:36
2Ch 18:18a I  -   cf. Isa. 6:1; Dan. 7:9
2Ch 18:23a struck  -   cf. Lam. 3:30; Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:29; John 18:22-23; Acts 23:2-3
2Ch 18:29a disguised  -   cf. 2 Chron. 35:22
2 Chronicles Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 19:21 Should
God is great, but He also cares about all the details of His people’s living. In principle, to be wrong in anything, great or small, is a serious matter. Jehoshaphat’s being rebuked by Jehu the seer for helping Ahab, the evil king of Israel (vv. 1-3; cf. ch. 18), indicates that in the record of the kings of Judah, God took every detail of their behavior, even if it was quite small, as a reason to discipline them. Cf. note 121, par. 2, in ch. 16.
2Ch 19:5a judges  -   Deut. 16:18
2Ch 19:7a nor  -   Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; 1 Pet. 1:17
2Ch 19:8a Levites  -   2 Chron. 17:8
2Ch 19:101 law
See note 64 in Luke 1.
2 Chronicles Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 20:11 Meunim
Following the Septuagint (cf. 26:7; 1 Chron. 4:41); the Hebrew reads, Ammonites.
2Ch 20:3a pursue  -   2 Chron. 15:12; 17:4; 19:3
2Ch 20:3b fast  -   Ezra 8:21; Jer. 36:9; Joel 1:14; 2:15; Jonah 3:5
2Ch 20:6a heaven  -   2 Chron. 36:23; Ezra 6:9-10
2Ch 20:6b kingdoms  -   cf. Dan. 4:17, 25, 32
2Ch 20:7a dispossess  -   cf. Exo. 33:2; Psa. 44:2
2Ch 20:7b friend  -   Isa. 41:8; James 2:23
2Ch 20:9a before  -   cf. 1 Kings 8:33; 2 Chron. 6:20; Ezra 10:1
2Ch 20:10a children  -   Deut. 2:19
2Ch 20:10b turned  -   Num. 20:21
2Ch 20:12a upon  -   Psa. 25:15; 123:1-2; 141:8
2Ch 20:14a Spirit  -   Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6
2Ch 20:15a battle  -   1 Sam. 14:6; 17:47; 2 Chron. 32:8
2Ch 20:17a salvation  -   Exo. 14:13
2Ch 20:20a Believe  -   cf. Exo. 14:31
2Ch 20:23a helped  -   Judg. 7:22; 1 Sam. 14:20
2Ch 20:261 Beracah
Meaning blessing.
2Ch 20:29a fear  -   2 Chron. 14:14; 17:10
2Ch 20:31a And  -   vv. 31-33: 1 Kings 22:41-43
2Ch 20:33a not  -   1 Kings 22:43; 2 Chron. 15:17
2Ch 20:34a And  -   1 Kings 22:45
2Ch 20:35a joined  -   1 Kings 22:44; 2 Chron. 18:1; 19:2
2Ch 20:371 Because
See note 21 in ch. 19.
2 Chronicles Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 21:1a And  -   1 Kings 22:50
2Ch 21:21 Judah
Following most ancient versions. The Hebrew text reads, Israel.
2Ch 21:3a firstborn  -   Deut. 21:15-17
2Ch 21:5a Jehoram  -   vv. 5-10: 2 Kings 8:17-22
2Ch 21:6a wife  -   2 Kings 8:18; cf. 2 Chron. 18:1
2Ch 21:71a covenant  -   2 Sam. 7:12-17
See 2 Sam. 7:5-17 and notes.
2Ch 21:7b lamp  -   2 Sam. 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36
2Ch 21:12a Jehoshaphat  -   2 Chron. 17:3
2Ch 21:12b Asa  -   2 Chron. 14:2-5
2Ch 21:13a Ahab  -   cf. 1 Kings 16:29-33
2Ch 21:16a stirred  -   1 Chron. 5:26; Jer. 51:11; cf. 2 Chron. 36:22
2Ch 21:17a Jehoahaz  -   2 Chron. 25:23; cf. 2 Chron. 22:6
2 Chronicles Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 22:11 Ahaziah
Called Jehoahaz in 21:17.
2Ch 22:1a Ahaziah  -   vv. 1b-6: 2 Kings 8:24-29
2Ch 22:21 twenty-two
Following 2 Kings 8:26 and some ancient versions. The Hebrew text reads, forty-two years.
2Ch 22:2a Athaliah  -   2 Chron. 21:6
2Ch 22:22 daughter
I.e., granddaughter.
2Ch 22:5a Ramoth-gilead  -   2 Chron. 18:3, 28; 19:2; 1 Kings 22:3
2Ch 22:51 Joram
An alternate spelling of Jehoram in this verse.
2Ch 22:61a Ahaziah  -   2 Kings 9:16
Following 2 Kings 8:29. The Hebrew text here reads, Azariah.
2Ch 22:7a Joram  -   2 Kings 9:21
2Ch 22:7b anointed  -   2 Kings 9:6-7
2Ch 22:8a Ahab  -   2 Kings 10:11-14, 17
2Ch 22:9a Ahaziah  -   cf. 2 Kings 9:27
2Ch 22:10a And  -   vv. 10-12: 2 Kings 11:1-3
2Ch 22:10b Athaliah  -   2 Kings 8:26; 11:1; 2 Chron. 24:7
2Ch 22:101 destroyed
According to some Hebrew MSS and 2 Kings 11:1; other MSS read, and she spoke to.
2 Chronicles Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 23:1a Then  -   vv. 1-21: 2 Kings 11:4-20
2Ch 23:31 Jehoiada
Lit., he.
2Ch 23:3a spoke  -   2 Chron. 6:16
2Ch 23:6a Levites  -   1 Chron. 23:28-30
2Ch 23:11a testimony  -   Deut. 17:18-19
2Ch 23:16a covenant  -   cf. 2 Chron. 15:12
2Ch 23:17a Baal  -   cf. 2 Kings 10:25-28
2Ch 23:18a apportioned  -   1 Chron. 23:6
2Ch 23:19a doorkeepers  -   cf. 1 Chron. 26:1-19
2Ch 23:201 Jehoiada
Lit., he.
2 Chronicles Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 24:1a Joash  -   vv. 1-14: 2 Kings 11:21– 12:16
2Ch 24:2a days  -   cf. 2 Chron. 26:5
2Ch 24:6a tax  -   Exo. 30:12-16
2Ch 24:7a Athaliah  -   2 Kings 8:26; 11:1; 2 Chron. 22:10
2Ch 24:14a vessels  -   2 Kings 12:13
2Ch 24:19a sent  -   2 Chron. 36:15; Jer. 25:4; cf. Matt. 23:34; Luke 11:49
2Ch 24:19b testified  -   Neh. 9:26
2Ch 24:20a Spirit  -   1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6; 1 Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 15:1; 20:14
2Ch 24:20b Zechariah  -   Matt. 23:35; Luke 11:51
2Ch 24:21a stoned  -   Matt. 21:35; 23:37; Heb. 11:37
2Ch 24:22a Jehoiada  -   2 Kings 11:4-8; 2 Chron. 23:1-7
2Ch 24:23a And  -   vv. 23-24: 2 Kings 12:17-18
2Ch 24:25a And  -   vv. 25-27: 2 Kings 12:20-21
2 Chronicles Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 25:1a Amaziah  -   vv. 1-4: 2 Kings 14:1-6
2Ch 25:4a Fathers  -   Deut. 24:16; cf. Jer. 31:29-30; Ezek. 18:20
2Ch 25:5a twenty  -   Num. 1:3
2Ch 25:7a not  -   cf. 2 Chron. 19:2
2Ch 25:11a struck  -   2 Kings 14:7
2Ch 25:14a gods  -   2 Chron. 25:20; cf. 2 Chron. 28:23
2Ch 25:161 the
Lit., he.
2Ch 25:17a Then  -   vv. 17-24: 2 Kings 14:8-14
2Ch 25:18a The  -   cf. Judg. 9:7-15
2Ch 25:20a gods  -   2 Chron. 25:14-15
2Ch 25:211 Jehoash
A spelling variant of Joash (vv. 17-18).
2Ch 25:24a gold  -   2 Kings 14:14; cf. 2 Chron. 12:9; 25:13; 36:18
2Ch 25:25a And  -   25:25– 26:2: 2 Kings 14:17-22
2Ch 25:251 Joash
A spelling variant of Jehoash (v. 23).
2 Chronicles Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 26:11a Uzziah  -   2 Kings 15:1-2
Called Azariah in 2 Kings 14:21.
2Ch 26:3a Uzziah  -   vv. 3-4: 2 Kings 15:2-3
2Ch 26:16a strong  -   2 Chron. 11:17; 12:1
2Ch 26:16b uplifted  -   Deut. 8:14; 2 Kings 14:10; 2 Chron. 25:19; 32:25; Ezek. 28:2, 5, 17
2Ch 26:16c went  -   cf. 2 Chron. 27:2
2Ch 26:16d altar  -   cf. 1 Kings 12:33; 2 Kings 16:12-13
2Ch 26:171 Azariah
Lit., him.
2Ch 26:18a incense  -   Exo. 30:7-8; Num. 16:40
2Ch 26:19a leprosy  -   Exo. 4:6; Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27
2Ch 26:20a Jehovah  -   2 Kings 15:5
2Ch 26:21a separate  -   cf. Lev. 13:46; Num. 5:2
2Ch 26:21b leper  -   Lev. 13:2, 44-46; Num. 12:10, 14-15; Matt. 8:2
2Ch 26:22a Uzziah  -   Isa. 1:1; 6:1
2 Chronicles Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 27:1a Jotham  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Kings 15:32-35
2Ch 27:2a enter  -   2 Chron. 26:16
2Ch 27:51 cors
Equal to a homer, or ten ephahs, approximately five bushels.
2Ch 27:7a And  -   2 Kings 15:36
2 Chronicles Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 28:1a Ahaz  -   vv. 1-4: 2 Kings 16:1-4
2Ch 28:31 valley
Gehenna of the New Testament (see note 228 in Matt. 5).
2Ch 28:6a Pekah  -   2 Kings 15:27; 16:5; Isa. 7:1
2Ch 28:8a brothers  -   cf. 2 Chron. 11:4
2Ch 28:15a fed  -   2 Kings 6:22; Prov. 25:21-22; Rom. 12:20
2Ch 28:16a sent  -   2 Kings 16:7
2Ch 28:20a Tilgath-pilneser  -   2 Kings 16:7
2Ch 28:21a house  -   2 Kings 16:8
2Ch 28:23a gods  -   cf. 2 Chron. 25:14
2Ch 28:24a vessels  -   2 Chron. 29:19; cf. 2 Kings 16:17
2Ch 28:24b doors  -   cf. 2 Chron. 29:3, 7
2Ch 28:24c altars  -   cf. 2 Chron. 30:14
2Ch 28:26a Now  -   vv. 26-27: 2 Kings 16:19-20
2 Chronicles Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 29:11a Hezekiah  -   vv. 1-2: 2 Kings 18:1-3
For the reign of Hezekiah in 29:1 — 32:33, see notes in Isa. 36:1 — 39:8.
2Ch 29:3a doors  -   cf. 2 Chron. 28:24; 29:7
2Ch 29:3b repaired  -   cf. 2 Kings 12:14; 2 Chron. 24:13; 2 Kings 22:5-6; 2 Chron. 34:10
2Ch 29:61 dwelling
Or, tabernacle.
2Ch 29:7a doors  -   cf. 2 Chron. 28:24; 29:3
2Ch 29:10a covenant  -   2 Chron. 15:12
2Ch 29:11a minister  -   Num. 3:6; 18:2
2Ch 29:15a cleanse  -   cf. Neh. 13:9; Matt. 21:12
2Ch 29:17a first  -   cf. Exo. 12:2
2Ch 29:19a vessels  -   2 Chron. 28:24
2Ch 29:21a seven  -   1 Chron. 15:26; Ezek. 45:23; Job 42:8
2Ch 29:21b sin  -   Lev. 4:14
2Ch 29:24a expiation  -   Lev. 4:26
2Ch 29:25a cymbals  -   1 Chron. 15:16; 25:6
2Ch 29:30a David  -   1 Chron. 16:7-36
2Ch 29:311 have
Lit., have filled your hands.
2Ch 29:32a number  -   cf. 1 Kings 8:63; 1 Chron. 29:21; Ezra 6:17
2Ch 29:34a flay  -   cf. 2 Chron. 35:11
2 Chronicles Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 30:11 all
Hezekiah sent letters not only to the people of Judah but also to all the people of Israel in order to keep the oneness of all God’s elect (vv. 1a, 6a). He asked all the people of Israel and Judah to come to Jerusalem, where the house of God was, to hold the Passover in order to remind them to keep the one unique ground of the worship of God among all Israel (v. 1b; cf. Deut. 12:5, 11, 13-14). Hezekiah realized that keeping the unique ground pleases the heart of God.
2Ch 30:1a Passover  -   cf. 2 Chron. 35:6
2Ch 30:2a second  -   Num. 9:10-11; cf. Exo. 12:2
2Ch 30:51 for
Or, in great number.
2Ch 30:6a return  -   Isa. 55:7; Jer. 4:1; Hosea 6:1; 14:2; Joel 2:12-13
2Ch 30:6b Assyria  -   2 Kings 15:19, 29
2Ch 30:12a one  -   Acts 4:32
2Ch 30:13a Feast  -   cf. Exo. 12:15-20; 2 Chron. 30:21
2Ch 30:15a second  -   2 Chron. 30:2; cf. Exo. 12:2; 2 Chron. 29:17
2Ch 30:17a clean  -   John 11:55
2Ch 30:18a prescribed  -   cf. Exo. 12:43-49
2Ch 30:201 healed
A great number of the people who ate the passover had not cleansed themselves, and they became sick as a result (vv. 18-20). This is a type of the New Testament believers’ participating in the Lord’s table in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27-31).
2Ch 30:21a Feast  -   Exo. 12:15-20; 13:6-7; Ezra 6:22
2Ch 30:24a contributed  -   cf. 2 Chron. 35:7-9
2Ch 30:26a Solomon  -   cf. 2 Chron. 7:8-10
2Ch 30:27a blessed  -   cf. Num. 6:23-26
2Ch 30:27b holy  -   Deut. 26:15; Psa. 68:5
2 Chronicles Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 31:1a broke  -   Deut. 7:5
2Ch 31:21 appointed
Hezekiah’s setting the services of the priests and the Levites in order (vv. 2-21) signifies Christ, as the Head, setting in order the services of God in the church (1 Cor. 12:28-30). Cf. note 21 in 1 Chron. 23.
2Ch 31:2a divisions  -   1 Chron. 23:6; 24:1
2Ch 31:22 temple
Lit., camps.
2Ch 31:3a morning  -   Exo. 29:38-42
2Ch 31:3b Sabbaths  -   Num. 28:9-10
2Ch 31:3c new  -   Num. 28:11-15
2Ch 31:4a portion  -   cf. Num. 18:8-24; Neh. 13:10
2Ch 31:5a tithe  -   Lev. 27:30; Deut. 14:28; Neh. 13:12
2Ch 31:10a blessed  -   cf. Mal. 3:10
2Ch 31:17a twenty  -   1 Chron. 23:24, 27; cf. 1 Chron. 23:3; Num. 4:3; 8:24
2 Chronicles Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 32:1a Sennacherib  -   2 Chron. 32:9; 2 Kings 18:13; Isa. 36:1
2Ch 32:5a wall  -   cf. 2 Chron. 25:23; Isa. 22:9-10
2Ch 32:51 erected
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, erected on the towers.
2Ch 32:7a greater  -   2 Kings 6:16
2Ch 32:8a flesh  -   Jer. 17:5
2Ch 32:8b with  -   2 Chron. 15:2; 20:17
2Ch 32:9a Sennacherib  -   2 Kings 18:17; Isa. 36:2
2Ch 32:10a Thus  -   2 Kings 18:19; Isa. 36:4
2Ch 32:12a Was  -   2 Kings 18:22; Isa. 36:7
2Ch 32:13a Were  -   2 Kings 18:33-35; Isa. 36:18-20
2Ch 32:18a And  -   2 Kings 18:28; Isa. 36:13
2Ch 32:20a prayed  -   2 Kings 19:14-19; Isa. 37:1, 14-20
2Ch 32:21a And  -   2 Kings 19:35; Isa. 37:36
2Ch 32:221 protected
Lit., guided (with the implied notion of protection).
2Ch 32:24a In  -   2 Kings 20:1-11; Isa. 38:1-8
2Ch 32:25a proud  -   2 Chron. 26:16
2Ch 32:26a humbled  -   cf. 2 Chron. 33:12
2Ch 32:311a envoys  -   cf. 2 Kings 20:12-13; Isa. 39:1-2
Hezekiah was one of the best kings of Judah, but even with him there was a hidden defect, something within him for his own interests and desire. This is exposed in 2 Kings 20:12-19 and in Isa. 39:1-8 (see notes there).
2Ch 32:31b test  -   Exo. 15:25; Deut. 8:2, 16
2Ch 32:32a Isaiah  -   Isa. 36–39
2Ch 32:32b kings  -   2 Kings 18–20
2Ch 32:33a And  -   2 Kings 20:21
2 Chronicles Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 33:1a Manasseh  -   vv. 1-9: 2 Kings 21:1-9
2Ch 33:1b twelve  -   cf. Isa. 3:4; 2 Chron. 34:1
2Ch 33:3a high  -   cf. 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chron. 31:1
2Ch 33:4a name  -   2 Chron. 6:6
2Ch 33:61 valley
Gehenna of the New Testament (see note 228 in Matt. 5).
2Ch 33:7a chosen  -   2 Chron. 6:6
2Ch 33:8a remove  -   2 Sam. 7:10
2Ch 33:91 evil
See note 111 in 2 Kings 21. Although the kings of Judah stood on the ground of unity chosen by God and kept their belief in the Word of God, their condition did not match their standing. Most of them, like the kings of the kingdom of Israel, forsook God as the fountain of living waters and followed the idols, hewing out for themselves broken cisterns that hold no water (Jer. 2:13). The kings of Judah repeatedly broke the law of God, which was given to them through Moses to govern them and keep them in the enjoyment of the God-promised good land. Eventually, God came in to take them away from the good land (36:11-20). He would not allow them to enjoy the good land that He had given them because they did not keep His law to express Him but instead expressed His enemy, the devil.
In the eternal economy of God, the Father has allotted the Son, the all-inclusive Christ typified by the good land, to us as our eternal portion and has transferred us into Him that we may partake of Him (Col. 1:12-13; 1 Cor. 1:30, 9). We need to stand on the proper ground of the oneness of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:3-6) and keep the proper faith as Paul did (2 Tim. 4:7). We also need to live and walk in Christ (Col. 2:6), conducting ourselves according to God to be His expression (see note 121, par. 2, in ch. 16). Then we will enjoy Christ, and the border of our enjoyment of Christ as the good land will be enlarged (1 Chron. 4:10). If we do not conduct ourselves as God’s expression, we will lose the enjoyment of Christ and will be carried away from Him by the enemy into “captivity,” as the children of Israel were (36:6, 20; cf. Gal. 5:1-4; Col. 2:8).
2Ch 33:11a Babylon  -   cf. 2 Kings 20:17
2Ch 33:12a humbled  -   cf. 2 Chron. 32:26; 34:27
2Ch 33:13a kingdom  -   cf. Dan. 4:17, 25, 32
2Ch 33:191 Hozai
Or, the seers.
2Ch 33:20a And  -   2 Kings 21:18
2Ch 33:21a Amon  -   vv. 21-25: 2 Kings 21:19-24
2 Chronicles Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 34:1a Josiah  -   vv. 1-2: 2 Kings 22:1-2
2Ch 34:31 young
This indicates that man has the capacity to contact God at a young age.
2Ch 34:3a purge  -   2 Chron. 14:3
2Ch 34:8a And  -   vv. 8-28: 2 Kings 22:3-20
2Ch 34:8b repair  -   2 Kings 12:12; 2 Chron. 24:12; 29:3; Ezra 9:9
2Ch 34:14a law  -   Deut. 31:26
2Ch 34:21a wrath  -   Deut. 29:27; 2 Chron. 28:25
2Ch 34:25a forsaken  -   Deut. 29:25; 2 Kings 21:22
2Ch 34:27a humbled  -   cf. 1 Kings 21:29; Isa. 57:15
2Ch 34:29a And  -   vv. 29-32: 2 Kings 23:1-3
2Ch 34:31a covenant  -   2 Chron. 15:12
2 Chronicles Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 35:1a Passover  -   2 Kings 23:21-23
2Ch 35:1b fourteenth  -   Exo. 12:6; Ezra 6:19
2Ch 35:3a Ark  -   2 Chron. 5:7
2Ch 35:4a divisions  -   1 Chron. 23:6; 2 Chron. 8:14; Ezra 6:18
2Ch 35:7a contributed  -   cf. 2 Chron. 31:3; 1 Kings 8:63
2Ch 35:11a blood  -   2 Chron. 29:22
2Ch 35:11b flayed  -   cf. 2 Chron. 29:34
2Ch 35:13a roasted  -   Exo. 12:8-9; Deut. 16:7
2Ch 35:13b boiled  -   cf. 1 Sam. 2:13-15
2Ch 35:15a Asaph  -   1 Chron. 25:1-6
2Ch 35:17a Unleavened  -   Exo. 12:15-20; 13:6-7; 2 Chron. 30:21
2Ch 35:18a never  -   2 Kings 23:22-23
2Ch 35:20a king  -   Jer. 46:2
2Ch 35:20b Josiah  -   2 Kings 23:29-30
2Ch 35:211 Neco
Lit., he.
2Ch 35:22a disguised  -   cf. 2 Chron. 18:29; 1 Kings 22:30, 34
2Ch 35:24a chariot  -   Gen. 41:43
2Ch 35:25a lamented  -   Lam. 4:20; cf. Jer. 22:10
2Ch 35:26a Now  -   2 Kings 23:28
2 Chronicles Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
2Ch 36:1a Then  -   vv. 1-4: 2 Kings 23:30-34
2Ch 36:21 Joahaz
A spelling variant of Jehoahaz in v. 1. So also in v. 4.
2Ch 36:6a Nebuchadnezzar  -   2 Kings 24:1
2Ch 36:7a vessels  -   2 Kings 24:13; 2 Chron. 36:10, 18; Ezra 1:7; Dan. 1:1-2; 5:2
2Ch 36:8a Now  -   2 Kings 24:5-6
2Ch 36:9a eight  -   cf. 2 Kings 24:8
2Ch 36:10a brought  -   Jer. 27:20; Matt. 1:11
2Ch 36:10b vessels  -   2 Chron. 36:7, 18
2Ch 36:10c Zedekiah  -   Jer. 37:1; cf. 2 Kings 24:17
2Ch 36:111a Zedekiah  -   vv. 11-13: 2 Kings 24:18-20; Jer. 52:1-3
See note 181 in 2 Kings 24.
2Ch 36:15a sent  -   Jer. 7:25; 25:4; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4
2Ch 36:151 day
Lit., rising up early and sending.
2Ch 36:16a despised  -   Num. 15:31; 2 Sam. 12:9; Prov. 1:30; 13:13
2Ch 36:16b prophets  -   Matt. 5:12; Luke 6:23
2Ch 36:17a against  -   2 Kings 25:1; cf. Deut. 28:49
2Ch 36:18a vessels  -   2 Kings 25:13-15; 2 Chron. 36:7, 10
2Ch 36:19a burned  -   2 Kings 25:9; Jer. 52:13; Psa. 74:7; 79:1; cf. Jer. 17:27; Hosea 8:14; Amos 2:5
2Ch 36:20a carried  -   2 Kings 25:11; Matt. 1:11
2Ch 36:21a sabbaths  -   Lev. 26:34-35, 43
2Ch 36:21b seventy  -   Jer. 25:12; 29:10; cf. Dan. 9:2
2Ch 36:22a And  -   vv. 22-23: Ezra 1:1-3
2Ch 36:22b word  -   Jer. 25:13; 29:10
2Ch 36:22c stirred  -   Ezra 1:5; Hag. 1:14
2Ch 36:23a Cyrus  -   Isa. 44:28; 45:1, 13
2Ch 36:23b heaven  -   2 Chron. 20:6; Jonah 1:9; Rev. 11:13
< 2 Chronicles • Ezra Outline >
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Ezra Outline
I.   The return of the captivity under the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel — 1:1 — 6:22
A.   The decree of Cyrus the king of Persia — 1:1-4
B.   The response of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites — 1:5-6
C.   The cooperation of King Cyrus — 1:7-11
D.   The number of the returned captives — 2:1-67
E.   The willing offering for the house of Jehovah — 2:68-70
F.   The rebuilding of the altar of God — 3:1-6a
G.   The rebuilding of the house of God — 3:6b-13
H.   The frustration — 4:1-24
I.   The rebuilding work continuing through the encouragement and help of the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah — 5:1-2
J.   The confirmation of the decree of Darius the king of Persia — 5:3 — 6:12
K.   The completion of the rebuilding of the house of God — 6:13-15
L.   The dedication of the rebuilt house of God — 6:16-18
M.   The keeping of the Passover by the children of the captivity — 6:19-22
II.   The return of the captivity under the priestly leadership of Ezra — 7:1 — 10:44
A.   The return of the captivity under Ezra — 7:1 — 8:36
1.   The beginning of the return through the request of Ezra to the king — 7:1-10
2.   The decree of Artaxerxes the king of Persia to Ezra — 7:11-28
3.   The genealogical enrollment of those who returned from captivity — 8:1-20
4.   Ezra’s proclamation of a fast before they left Babylon — 8:21-23
5.   Ezra’s provision for the offerings for the house of God — 8:24-30
6.   The journey and arrival of the returned captivity — 8:31-34
7.   The offerings to God by the returned captivity — 8:35
8.   The returned captivity’s delivery of the king’s decrees to the king’s satraps and to the governors beyond the River — 8:36
B.   The purification of the returned captives from the defilement of foreign wives — 9:1 — 10:44
1.   Initiated by the officials of the returned captives — 9:1-2
2.   Ezra’s reaction — 9:3-15
3.   The congregation’s reaction — 10:1-5
4.   The final decision — 10:6-44
Ezra >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Ezra Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 1:11a Now  -   vv. 1-3: 2 Chron. 36:22-23
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, the last three books of the history of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, are related to God’s chosen people in their captivity (2 Chron. 36:17-21). Ezra concerns the return of God’s people from their captivity (cf. Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, and Nehemiah concerns the repair, the rebuilding, of the city. Esther presents to us a pattern of how the omnipresent and omnipotent God becomes the hiding God who secretly preserves and cares for His chosen people in their captivity.
The book of Ezra provides a record of the two returns of the children of Israel from their captivity, which fulfilled God’s promise, spoken through Jeremiah, that the captivity would last only seventy years (Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10; 2 Chron. 36:21-22; Dan. 9:2). The first return was under the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel (chs. 1 — 6), a descendant of the royal family of David who was appointed to be the governor of Judah by Cyrus (5:14; cf. note 81). The second return was under the priestly leadership of Ezra (chs. 7 — 10).
The return of Israel to Jerusalem from their captivity was crucial in four points: (1) it recovered the purpose of God’s calling Israel to make them His testimony according to His law (see note 11 in Exo. 20); (2) it recovered the oneness of Israel on the unique ground of Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5, 11-14); (3) it recovered Israel’s enjoyment of the good land promised by God; and (4) it allowed God to fulfill His intention of having His house built and His kingdom established on the Satan-usurped earth in order to carry out His eternal economy through Israel’s participation in and enjoyment of the good land. All the foregoing crucial points typify today’s recovery of the church life, which is a recovery of the church out of captivity in the great Babylon (Rev. 17:1-6) back to the unique ground of God’s choice, the ground of oneness.
Ezr 1:1b word  -   Jer. 25:12-13; 29:10
Ezr 1:12c stirred  -   Ezra 1:5; Hag. 1:14; cf. 1 Chron. 5:26
At the expiration of the seventy years of the captivity in Babylon, the omnipotent, sovereign God moved in a hidden way to stir up King Cyrus openly to release the Israelite captives to go back to their own land to build up God’s temple (vv. 1-4). The stirring up of the spirit of Cyrus and the spirits of the leaders of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (v. 5) was a work of the hiding God (see note 11, par. 1, in Esth. 1) for His move to rebuild His house in Jerusalem.
Ezr 1:13 Cyrus
Because Cyrus not only issued the decree ordering the captives of Israel to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the house of God there (vv. 2-4) but also cooperated in this matter (vv. 7-11), he is called God’s shepherd, one who would fulfill God’s desire (Isa. 44:28), and God’s anointed, one who would serve God’s purpose (Isa. 45:1-4, 13).
Ezr 1:2a Cyrus  -   Isa. 44:28; 45:1, 13
Ezr 1:2b God  -   2 Chron. 20:6; Ezra 6:9-10; Jonah 1:9; Rev. 11:13
Ezr 1:21 house
The particular intention of the recovery of Israel from their captivity was to rebuild the temple as God’s house on the earth among His elect and to re-establish the kingdom of God on the earth for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy. Likewise, the particular intention of the Lord’s recovery of the church in this age is to have all the saints come together in their localities to be built up together as the house of God in many cities (Eph. 2:22 and notes; Rev. 1:11 and note). Through such a house God will have His kingdom for the carrying out of His economy.
Ezr 1:5a stirred  -   Ezra 1:1
Ezr 1:71a vessels  -   Ezra 5:14; 6:5; 2 Kings 24:13; 2 Chron. 36:7; Dan. 5:2-3
The gold and silver vessels of the house of God typify the experiences of the various aspects of Christ in His redemption (silver) and in His divine nature (gold). These experiences are the means to serve Christ as food to God’s people. The return of the vessels from Babylon to Jerusalem typifies the return of Christ’s riches to the unique ground of the genuine oneness of the church to enrich the recovery of the church. See note 242 in Isa. 22.
Ezr 1:81a Sheshbazzar  -   Ezra 5:14
Perhaps the Babylonian name of Zerubbabel; also mentioned in 5:14, 16.
Ezr 1:9a their  -   cf. Ezra 8:25-30
Ezra Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 2:1a Now  -   vv. 1-70: Neh. 7:6-73
Ezr 2:1b carried  -   2 Kings 24:14-16; 25:11; 2 Chron. 36:20
Ezr 2:41a Asaph  -   1 Chron. 6:39
Ezr 2:42a gatekeepers  -   1 Chron. 9:17-18
Ezr 2:43a temple  -   1 Chron. 9:2; Neh. 11:3
Ezr 2:61a Barzillai  -   2 Sam. 17:27; 19:31
Ezr 2:63a Urim  -   Exo. 28:30
Ezr 2:64a The  -   vv. 64-67: Neh. 7:66-69
Ezr 2:68a And  -   vv. 68-69: Neh. 7:70-72
Ezra Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 3:1a one  -   Neh. 8:1; Judg. 20:1; Acts 2:46; 4:32
Ezr 3:21a Jeshua  -   Neh. 12:1, 7; cf. Hag. 1:1, 12, 14; 2:2, 4; Zech. 3:1, 3, 6, 8-9
I.e., Joshua the high priest (cf. Hag. 1:1 and Zech. 3:1).
Ezr 3:2b Zerubbabel  -   Ezra 5:2; 1 Chron. 3:19; Matt. 1:12; Luke 3:27
Ezr 3:2c burnt  -   Deut. 12:5-6
Ezr 3:2d man  -   Deut. 33:1
Ezr 3:3a morning  -   Exo. 29:39; Num. 28:4
Ezr 3:41a Feast  -   Lev. 23:34; Neh. 8:14-17; Zech. 14:16
The keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles and the offering of the daily burnt offerings and the offerings of the new moons and of all the appointed feasts of Jehovah (vv. 4-6a) indicate that Israel recovered the worship of God, which had been lost for at least seventy years.
Ezr 3:4b daily  -   Num. 29:12-38
Ezr 3:5a new  -   Num. 28:11-15
Ezr 3:5b appointed  -   Num. 29:39
Ezr 3:6a foundation  -   Ezra 3:11
Ezr 3:7a food  -   Acts 12:20
Ezr 3:7b cedar  -   2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:6
Ezr 3:7c Cyrus  -   Ezra 1:2-3; 6:3
Ezr 3:8a Zerubbabel  -   Ezra 2:2; 4:3
Ezr 3:8b twenty  -   1 Chron. 23:24
Ezr 3:9a one  -   Ezra 3:1
Ezr 3:10a sons  -   1 Chron. 16:4-6; 25:1-2
Ezr 3:11a foundation  -   2 Chron. 3:3; cf. 2 Chron. 7:3
Ezr 3:12a house  -   Hag. 2:3
Ezra Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 4:11a adversaries  -   cf. Neh. 4:1-11
These were people brought from Babylon and Assyria by the king of Assyria to inhabit Samaria (2 Kings 17:24 and note; John 4:9 and note). Imitating Israel in seeking God and sacrificing to God, they pretended to help the rebuilding of the house of Jehovah, but they were rejected by Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses (vv. 1-3).
Ezr 4:2a Assyria  -   2 Kings 17:23-24
Ezr 4:3a nothing  -   cf. Neh. 2:20
Ezr 4:4a weakened  -   Neh. 6:9; Jer. 38:4
Ezr 4:6a Ahasuerus  -   Esth. 1:1
Ezr 4:7a Artaxerxes  -   Ezra 7:1
Ezr 4:7b Aramaic  -   2 Kings 18:26; Dan. 2:4
Ezr 4:81 Rehum
From here through 6:18 the text is in Aramaic, not in Hebrew.
Ezr 4:10a Samaria  -   Matt. 10:5
Ezr 4:12a rebuilding  -   cf. Neh. 2:17; 6:15
Ezr 4:141 we
A figurative expression meaning to be supported by the king.
Ezr 4:20a ruled  -   1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chron. 9:26
Ezra Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 5:11 prophets
The rebuilding work continued through the encouragement and help of the prophesying of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (vv. 1-2). In God’s theocratic administration among the people of Israel, there were three offices: the priests, the kings, and the prophets. The responsibility of the high priest was to bring the matters concerning God’s people into God’s presence and wait on God for His instant speaking through the Urim and the Thummim (Exo. 28:30 and notes). The high priest then passed on God’s decision and instructions to the king, who was responsible in God’s administration to carry them out. Whenever the priests and the kings became weak and inadequate, God raised up the prophets to speak for Him in order to strengthen and assist the priesthood and the kingship (1 Sam. 3:11-21; 2 Sam. 12:1-25). See note 211 in Num. 27 and note 181 in Deut. 16.
For the building of God’s dwelling place on earth, the ministries of both the priesthood and the kingship are needed. The tabernacle was raised up through Aaron, the high priest, and Moses, representing the divine authority; the temple was built under the high priest and Solomon the king; the rebuilding of the temple was accomplished through the priesthood of Joshua and the authority of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah (Hag. 1:1). In the building of the recovered temple both Joshua and Zerubbabel became somewhat weak and discouraged. Therefore, God used the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to speak for Him and to strengthen and encourage Joshua and Zerubbabel (see the books of Haggai and Zechariah).
In God’s economy the priesthood and the kingship will remain forever (Rev. 22:3, 5), whereas in the age of the millennium and in eternity the prophethood will not be needed (Dan. 9:24 and note 4).
Ezr 5:1a Haggai  -   Hag. 1:1
Ezr 5:1b Zechariah  -   Zech. 1:1
Ezr 5:2a Zerubbabel  -   1 Chron. 3:19; Ezra 3:2; Matt. 1:12; Luke 3:27
Ezr 5:2b build  -   Hag. 1:12-14; cf. Ezra 6:14
Ezr 5:5a eye  -   Psa. 33:18; 34:15; 1 Pet. 3:12
Ezr 5:11a God  -   cf. Ezra 6:9, 10; Psa. 136:26; Dan. 2:19, 44; Rev. 11:13
Ezr 5:11b house  -   1 Kings 6:1
Ezr 5:12a Nebuchadnezzar  -   2 Kings 24:1-2; 25:8-11
Ezr 5:13a Cyrus  -   Ezra 1:1
Ezr 5:14a vessels  -   Ezra 1:7-8; 6:5
Ezr 5:14b Sheshbazzar  -   Ezra 1:8
Ezr 5:15a house  -   Ezra 3:8-10
Ezra Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 6:3a Cyrus  -   Ezra 1:1-4
Ezr 6:5a vessels  -   Ezra 1:7-8; 5:14
Ezr 6:10a pray  -   cf. Jer. 29:7; 1 Tim. 2:1-2
Ezr 6:12a name  -   Exo. 20:24; Deut. 12:5; 1 Kings 9:3
Ezr 6:14a prophesying  -   Ezra 5:1-2
Ezr 6:14b finished  -   Zech. 4:9
Ezr 6:14c Cyrus  -   Ezra 1:1-2; 5:13; 6:3
Ezr 6:14d Darius  -   Ezra 4:24; 6:12
Ezr 6:14e Artaxerxes  -   Ezra 7:1; Neh. 2:1
Ezr 6:16a dedication  -   Num. 7:10; Deut. 20:5; 1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chron. 7:5
Ezr 6:18a divisions  -   1 Chron. 23:6; 24:1; 2 Chron. 8:14; 35:4
Ezr 6:18b book  -   Num. 3:6; 8:9
Ezr 6:19a fourteenth  -   Exo. 12:6
Ezr 6:20a passover  -   2 Chron. 30:15; 35:11
Ezr 6:22a Feast  -   Exo. 12:15-20; 13:6-7; 2 Chron. 30:21; 35:17
Ezr 6:22b heart  -   Ezra 7:27; Prov. 21:1
Ezr 6:221 king
The king of Assyria here was Darius king of Persia because Assyria was at that time a part of Persia.
Ezra Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 7:11 Ezra
The first return of Israel from their captivity (see note 11 in ch. 1) needed the kingly leadership of Zerubbabel, a royal descendant who knew how to govern and who took the lead in building up the altar and the temple. After this, the need shifted from the royal family to the priesthood, to Ezra, a descendant of the high priest Aaron (vv. 1-5). Ezra was not only a priest but also a scribe, a person who was skilled in the law of God (v. 6). As such a one, Ezra had the capacity to meet the need.
After the rebuilding of the temple under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the people were still unruly, for they had become Babylonian in their constitution. Therefore, there was the need for an Ezra, one who was both a priest who served God and also a scribe, a scholar, who was skilled in the Word of God, skilled in the law of Moses. Ezra bore the totality of the heavenly and divine constitution and culture. He brought the people back to the Word of God that they might be re-educated and reconstituted with the heavenly truths in the divine Word. See note 11 in Neh. 8.
Ezr 7:1a Seraiah  -   vv. 1b-5: 1 Chron. 6:4-14
Ezr 7:6a scribe  -   Ezra 7:11-12; Neh. 8:1, 4, 13; 12:26, 36; Matt. 2:4; 23:2; Mark 12:35; cf. Matt. 13:52
Ezr 7:61 request
The first return from Babylon to Jerusalem was initiated by God (1:1, 5). The second return was initiated by Ezra, who went to the king and appealed to him to grant his request. Ezra realized that the first return was not perfect, not complete. He realized that there was the need for someone who was skilled in the law of God and who knew God’s heart, God’s desire, and God’s economy, to help the people to know God not merely in a general way but according to what God had spoken. Ezra had such a capacity, so he volunteered to go to the king and to request a decree from the king permitting the Jews to return to the land of their fathers.
Ezr 7:62b hand  -   Ezra 7:9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31; Neh. 2:8, 18
This book does not speak of the Spirit of God, but the hand of God is mentioned a number of times (see reference 6b). When God’s Spirit works inwardly, that is the Spirit. When God’s Spirit works outwardly, that is God’s hand.
Ezr 7:7a children  -   cf. Ezra 8:1-14
Ezr 7:7b priests  -   Ezra 8:15-19
Ezr 7:7c temple  -   Ezra 2:43; 8:17, 20
Ezr 7:7d Artaxerxes  -   Ezra 4:7
Ezr 7:9a hand  -   Ezra 7:6
Ezr 7:101 statutes
See note 64 in Luke 1. Ezra set his heart not only to seek and do the main part of the law of Jehovah but also to teach His statutes, the details, and His ordinances, the verdicts and judgments.
Ezr 7:121 Artaxerxes
From here through 7:26 the text is in Aramaic, not in Hebrew.
Ezr 7:14a seven  -   Esth. 1:13
Ezr 7:25a wisdom  -   cf. 1 Kings 3:28
Ezr 7:27a heart  -   Ezra 6:22
Ezr 7:28a hand  -   Ezra 7:6
Ezra Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 8:18a hand  -   Ezra 7:6
Ezr 8:20a temple  -   Ezra 2:43; 7:7
Ezr 8:21a fast  -   2 Chron. 20:3
Ezr 8:22a hand  -   Ezra 7:6
Ezr 8:251 heave
See notes 21 and 31 in Exo. 25.
Ezr 8:28a holy  -   Lev. 21:6
Ezr 8:31a hand  -   Ezra 7:6
Ezr 8:32a Jerusalem  -   Neh. 2:11
Ezr 8:35a came  -   cf. Ezra 2:1-2
Ezra Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 9:1a not  -   cf. Ezra 6:21; Neh. 9:2; 10:28; Exo. 33:16; Num. 23:9
Ezr 9:21 daughters
God had charged the children of Israel not to intermarry with the peoples of the land when they entered into the good land (v. 12; Deut. 7:1-6). At Ezra’s time not only the common people but even the priests and the Levites had foreign wives (v. 1). Ezra confessed that because of their taking foreign wives Israel despised and neglected their right to enjoy the good land and, as a result, were given by God into captivity (vv. 7, 10-15). Cf. notes 11 in 1 Kings 3 and 142 and 143 in 2 Cor. 6.
Ezr 9:2a holy  -   Mal. 2:11; cf. Deut. 7:6; 1 Cor. 7:14
Ezr 9:2b mingled  -   Psa. 106:35; cf. Deut. 7:3; Josh. 23:12; 2 Cor. 6:14
Ezr 9:5a spread  -   1 Kings 8:22
Ezr 9:6a embarrassed  -   Job 10:15; Luke 18:13
Ezr 9:6b iniquities  -   Psa. 38:4; 40:12; cf. Psa. 106:6; Dan. 9:5
Ezr 9:8a remnant  -   Ezra 9:14-15; cf. 2 Kings 19:30-31
Ezr 9:8b peg  -   Isa. 22:23
Ezr 9:9a house  -   Ezra 6:14-15
Ezr 9:12a take  -   Deut. 7:3; cf. Ezra 9:2
Ezr 9:15a remnant  -   Ezra 9:8
Ezra Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ezr 10:1a prayed  -   Neh. 1:4, 6; Dan. 9:20
Ezr 10:1b house  -   2 Chron. 20:9
Ezr 10:3a covenant  -   2 Chron. 34:31
Ezr 10:6a ate  -   Deut. 9:18
Ezr 10:19a pledged  -   cf. 2 Kings 10:15; Gal. 2:9
Ezr 10:19b ram  -   Lev. 6:6-7
< Ezra • Nehemiah Outline >
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Nehemiah Outline
I.   The rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem under Nehemiah — 1:1 — 7:73
A.   The report of the condition of Jerusalem — 1:1-3
B.   Nehemiah’s prayer by fasting — 1:4-11
C.   The king’s favor in giving permission to Nehemiah — 2:1-8
D.   Nehemiah’s journey to Jerusalem and his personal observation — 2:9-16
E.   The rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem — 2:17-20
F.   A record of the building of the wall — 3:1-32
G.   The frustration of the enemy — 4:1-23
H.   The settlement of the interior problem — 5:1-19
1.   The people’s complaint concerning the nobles’ and rulers’ imposing interest on the people — vv. 1-5
2.   Nehemiah’s rebuke and resolution — vv. 6-13
3.   Nehemiah’s good example — vv. 14-19
I.   The further frustration of the enemy — 6:1-14
J.   The completion of the building — 6:15 — 7:4
K.   Enrolling the returned captives for the increase of the population of Jerusalem — 7:5-73
II.   The reconstitution of the nation of God’s elect — 8:1 — 13:31
A.   The renewing of the covenant under Ezra — 8:1 — 10:39
1.   Coming back to God by coming back to His law, His word — 8:1-18
2.   Making a clear confession to God of their past and making a firm covenant with God — 9:1 — 10:39
B.   The reforming of the nation — 11:1 — 13:31
1.   The arrangement of the dwellings and the appointment of the officers — 11:1-36
2.   A record of the priests and Levites — 12:1-26
3.   The dedication of the rebuilt wall — 12:27-43
4.   The appointment of the services of the priests and Levites and the supply of their needs — 12:44-47
5.   The clearance exercised on Israel as God’s elect — 13:1-30a
6.   Nehemiah appointing duties for the priests and Levites for the wood offering and the firstfruits — 13:30b-31
Nehemiah >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
Nehemiah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 1:11 Nehemiah
Meaning comfort of Jehovah. Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer (v. 11) and was eventually appointed to be the governor of Judah (5:14).
Ne 1:12 Now
The book of Ezra is a history of the return of Israel’s captivity and the rebuilding of the house of God as the initiation of God’s recovery among His elect for His testimony on the earth according to His economy. The book of Nehemiah is a history of the rebuilding of the wall of the city of Jerusalem and the further recovery of Israel’s services and worship to God, as a continual recovery among God’s elect for His testimony for the accomplishing of His economy.
Ne 1:21 Jerusalem
The city of Jerusalem was a safeguard and protection for the house of God, which was in the city. This signifies that the house of God as His dwelling and home on the earth needs His kingdom to be established as a realm to safeguard His interests on the earth for His administration, that He may carry out His economy. The rebuilding of the house of God typifies God’s recovery of the degraded church, and the rebuilding of the wall of the city of Jerusalem typifies God’s recovery of His kingdom. God’s building of His house and His building of His kingdom go together (Matt. 16:18-19). See note 13, par. 2, in Psa. 42.
Ne 1:3a wall  -   Neh. 2:17; cf. 2 Kings 25:10
Ne 1:4a prayed  -   Ezra 10:1
Ne 1:4b God  -   Neh. 2:4; Dan. 2:18
Ne 1:6a eyes  -   2 Chron. 6:40
Ne 1:6b confess  -   Ezra 10:1; Dan. 9:20
Ne 1:71 commandments
See note 64 in Luke 1.
Ne 1:81 word
In his prayer to God, Nehemiah stood on God’s word and prayed according to it (vv. 8-9). Thus, God was bound by His own word.
Ne 1:8a scatter  -   Lev. 26:33; Deut. 4:27; 28:64
Ne 1:9a return  -   Deut. 4:30-31; 30:2-3
Ne 1:9b ends  -   Deut. 30:4; Mark 13:27
Nehemiah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 2:1a twentieth  -   Neh. 1:1
Ne 2:1b Artaxerxes  -   Ezra 7:1; Neh. 5:14
Ne 2:31 May
Being an aggressive person, Nehemiah took advantage of this opportunity to speak to the king. Although he was a common man, a servant of the king, he was aggressive to volunteer himself to God for his burden concerning the building up of Jerusalem. He was also aggressive in making his requests known to the king (vv. 4-8). His aggressiveness was very much used by God. In type, Nehemiah’s aggressiveness, as a virtue in his human conduct, shows that our natural capacity, natural ability, and natural virtues must pass through the cross of Christ and be brought into resurrection, i.e., into the Spirit as the consummated Triune God (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:45), to be useful to God in the accomplishing of His economy.
Nehemiah was one who lived not in his natural man but in resurrection. He was aggressive, but his aggressiveness was accompanied by other characteristics. In his relationship with God, he was one who loved God and also loved God’s interests on the earth, including the Holy Land (signifying Christ), the holy temple (signifying the church), and the holy city (signifying the kingdom of God). As a person who loved God, Nehemiah prayed to God to contact Him in fellowship (1:4; 2:4b; 4:4-5, 9). Furthermore, Nehemiah trusted in God and even became one with God. As a result, he became the representative of God. In his relationship with the people, Nehemiah was altogether unselfish; with him, there was no self-seeking or self-interest. He was always willing to sacrifice what he had for the people and for the nation (5:10, 14-19). See also notes 181 in ch. 4, 141 in ch. 5, 21, par. 2, in ch. 8, and 301, par. 2, in ch. 13.
Ne 2:3a city  -   cf. Neh. 1:3; Psa. 102:14; 137:6
Ne 2:4a God  -   Ezra 5:12; Neh. 1:4-5; 2:20; Dan. 2:18
Ne 2:5a rebuild  -   cf. Psa. 51:18
Ne 2:71 River
I.e., the Euphrates. So throughout the book.
Ne 2:81a hand  -   Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31; Neh. 2:18
See note 62 in Ezra 7.
Ne 2:10a Sanballat  -   cf. Ezra 4:4-8
Ne 2:101 servant
Probably referring to an official position under the Persian king. So also in v. 19.
Ne 2:11a Jerusalem  -   cf. Ezra 8:32
Ne 2:12a God  -   cf. Ezra 7:27
Ne 2:17a build  -   cf. Psa. 51:18
Ne 2:17b reproach  -   Neh. 1:3; Psa. 44:13; 79:4; Jer. 24:9; Ezek. 5:14-15; 22:4
Ne 2:19a mocked  -   Neh. 4:1; Psa. 44:13
Ne 2:201 The
Nehemiah’s response indicates that as a servant of God he was not cowardly but was very aggressive. See note 31.
Ne 2:20a God  -   Neh. 1:4-5; 2:4
Nehemiah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 3:1a Eliashib  -   Neh. 3:20-21; 13:4, 7, 28
Ne 3:1b Sheep  -   Neh. 3:32; 12:39; John 5:2
Ne 3:1c Tower  -   Jer. 31:38; Zech. 14:10
Ne 3:3a Fish  -   2 Chron. 33:14; Neh. 12:39; Zeph. 1:10
Ne 3:51 Lord
Or, masters.
Ne 3:15a Shelah  -   Luke 13:4; John 9:7, 11
Ne 3:16a Sepulchres  -   Acts 2:29
Ne 3:28a Horse  -   2 Chron. 23:15; Jer. 31:40
Ne 3:32a Sheep  -   Neh. 3:1
Nehemiah Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 4:1a Sanballat  -   Neh. 2:19; 4:7
Ne 4:6a wall  -   Psa. 51:18; Neh. 6:1, 6; 12:27; Isa. 60:18; Psa. 122:7; cf. Rev. 21:12
Ne 4:8a conspired  -   Psa. 83:3-5
Ne 4:141 fight
On the one hand, the children of Israel were prepared to fight; on the other hand, they trusted in God, believing that He would fight for them (v. 20b). In this matter they too were aggressive (cf. note 201 in ch. 2).
Ne 4:181 me
As the commander-in-chief, Nehemiah was among those who were ready to fight against the enemy, and he took part in the night watch (vv. 17-23). He did not leave these matters to others but participated in them himself.
Ne 4:20a fight  -   Exo. 14:14; Deut. 1:30; 3:22; 20:4; Josh. 10:14, 42; 23:3, 10
Ne 4:231 each
The Hebrew text is obscure.
Nehemiah Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 5:1a cry  -   cf. Exo. 2:23; 3:7, 9; Isa. 5:7
Ne 5:3a pledged  -   cf. Lev. 25:35-39; Deut. 15:7-8
Ne 5:5a bondage  -   2 Kings 4:1; Matt. 18:25; Exo. 21:7; cf. Lev. 25:39
Ne 5:7a interest  -   Exo. 22:25; Lev. 25:37; Psa. 15:5; Ezek. 22:12
Ne 5:8a bought  -   Lev. 25:47-49
Ne 5:9a fear  -   Lev. 25:36; 1 Sam. 12:14; Neh. 5:15; Acts 9:31
Ne 5:11a Restore  -   cf. Lev. 25:10
Ne 5:13a shook  -   Acts 18:6; cf. Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5; Acts 13:51
Ne 5:13b Amen  -   Deut. 27:15; 1 Chron. 16:36; Neh. 8:6; Psa. 106:48; 1 Cor. 14:16; Rev. 22:21
Ne 5:14a Artaxerxes  -   Neh. 2:1
Ne 5:141 not
Nehemiah, as the governor, in the position of a king, was a man with a pure heart for the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall in the carrying out of God’s economy. Unlike many of the kings of Israel and Judah, he was not selfish, he did not seek his own interests, and he was not indulgent in sexual lust. Therefore, he was qualified to enjoy the top portion, the kingship of the good land promised by God to His elect. Instead of being self-seeking, he lent money and grain without interest (v. 10), and he fed others for the purpose of building up the wall. As a result, he was used by God and received help from Him to carry out the work of rebuilding the wall of the city of Jerusalem (6:15 — 7:4). Nehemiah was a pattern of what a leader among God’s people should be (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2-7).
Ne 5:15a fear  -   Neh. 5:9
Nehemiah Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 6:1a wall  -   Neh. 6:15; cf. Neh. 7:1
Ne 6:111 to
Lit., and live.
Ne 6:15a wall  -   Neh. 6:1; 7:1
Nehemiah Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 7:1a wall  -   Neh. 6:15
Ne 7:6a These  -   vv. 6-73: Ezra 2:1-70
Ne 7:65a Urim  -   Exo. 28:30; Ezra 2:63
Ne 7:66a The  -   vv. 66-72: Ezra 2:64-69
Ne 7:681 Their
Some MSS omit this verse, but cf. Ezra 2:66.
Nehemiah Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 8:1a one  -   Ezra 3:1
Ne 8:11 law
God’s intention with Israel was to have on earth a divinely constituted people to be His testimony. However, most of those who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity in Babylon had been born and raised not in Israel but in Babylon. The Babylonian element had been wrought into them and constituted into their being. Therefore, after they returned to the land of their fathers to be citizens of the nation of Israel, they needed to be reconstituted. In order to be reconstituted, they needed to come back to God by coming back to His law, that is, His word. Under Ezra and Nehemiah the returned people of Israel were collectively constituted by and with God through His word to be a nation as God’s testimony. See note 301, par. 1, in ch. 13.
In order to reconstitute the people of God, there is the need to educate them with the word that comes out of the mouth of God and which expresses God. To reconstitute the people of God is to educate them by putting them into the Word of God that they may be saturated with the word. The word of God is one with the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17). Through our daily reading of the divine Word, the word of God works within us, and the Spirit, through the word, spontaneously dispenses God’s nature with God’s element into our being, causing us to be constituted with God.
Ne 8:21 Ezra
For the reconstituting of God’s people, Ezra was very useful, for he was one through whom the people could be reconstituted with the word of God. See note 11 in Ezra 7.
In recognizing his need of Ezra, Nehemiah, the governor, the ruler, of the nation of Israel, indicated that he was altogether not ambitious. In reconstituting the nation, Nehemiah realized that he did not know God’s Word. But Ezra, who was renowned for his knowledge of the Word of God, was still alive, and Nehemiah was willing to turn to Ezra for help. Nehemiah knew that without Ezra he could not reconstitute the people of God.
Ne 8:3a read  -   Josh. 8:34; Deut. 31:11; Neh. 13:1
Ne 8:4a scribe  -   Ezra 7:6; Matt. 23:2; Mark 12:35
Ne 8:61a Amen  -   Num. 5:22; Neh. 5:13; 1 Cor. 14:16; Rev. 22:21
This indicates that rebellious Israel had been fully convinced and fully subdued by the word of God spoken through Moses.
Ne 8:9a governor  -   Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65, 70; 10:1
Ne 8:9b holy  -   Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1
Ne 8:131 insight
Insight here refers to apprehending the intrinsic significance of the words of the law.
Ne 8:141a booths  -   Lev. 23:34, 42
Or, tabernacles. So throughout this chapter.
Ne 8:15a booths  -   Deut. 16:16; cf. Luke 9:33
Ne 8:16a roofs  -   Judg. 16:27; 1 Sam. 9:25; Acts 10:9
Ne 8:17a booths  -   2 Chron. 8:13; Ezra 3:4
Ne 8:18a read  -   Deut. 31:10-11
Ne 8:181 ordinance
Israel did everything according to the complete law, with the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances (see note 64 in Luke 1). They had a revival and became a new nation, constituted through and with the word of God.
Nehemiah Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 9:1a twenty-fourth  -   cf. Lev. 23:39; 2 Chron. 7:10
Ne 9:11 on
Lit., on them.
Ne 9:2a separated  -   Neh. 10:28; 13:30; cf. Ezra 6:21; 9:1
Ne 9:6a made  -   Gen. 1:1; 2:4; 2 Kings 19:15; Rev. 10:6; 14:7
Ne 9:7a Abram  -   Gen. 11:31; Acts 7:2-4
Ne 9:7b Abraham  -   Gen. 17:5
Ne 9:8a covenant  -   Gen. 15:18; 17:7-9; 12:7
Ne 9:9a affliction  -   Exo. 3:7
Ne 9:9b cry  -   Exo. 14:10
Ne 9:10a signs  -   cf. Exo. 7–14
Ne 9:11a divided  -   Exo. 14:21-22; Psa. 78:13
Ne 9:11b depths  -   Exo. 15:4-5
Ne 9:12a pillar  -   Exo. 13:21-22; Num. 14:14; Neh. 9:19; 1 Cor. 10:1
Ne 9:13a Sinai  -   Exo. 19:20
Ne 9:14a Sabbath  -   Gen. 2:2-3; Exo. 16:23; 20:8-11; Ezek. 20:12, 20
Ne 9:15a bread  -   Exo. 16:4; Psa. 78:24-25; 105:40; John 6:31
Ne 9:15b rock  -   Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:10; Psa. 78:15-16; 1 Cor. 10:4
Ne 9:17a leader  -   Num. 14:4
Ne 9:18a calf  -   Exo. 32:4; Psa. 106:19-20; Acts 7:41
Ne 9:20a Spirit  -   Num. 11:17; Isa. 63:11
Ne 9:20b manna  -   Exo. 16:35
Ne 9:21a forty  -   Deut. 2:7; 29:5
Ne 9:21b Their  -   Deut. 8:4
Ne 9:22a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-31
Ne 9:22b Og  -   Num. 21:33-35
Ne 9:23a stars  -   Gen. 15:5; 22:17; Deut. 10:22
Ne 9:23b possess  -   Acts 7:45; 13:19
Ne 9:25a took  -   Deut. 6:10-11
Ne 9:26a slew  -   1 Kings 18:4; 19:10; Matt. 23:37; Acts 7:52; Matt. 21:35; Mark 12:5
Ne 9:27a delivered  -   Judg. 2:14; Neh. 9:30; Psa. 106:41-42
Ne 9:27b cried  -   Psa. 106:44-45
Ne 9:27c deliverers  -   Judg. 2:16; 3:9, 15; 2 Kings 13:5
Ne 9:28a many  -   Psa. 106:43
Ne 9:29a does  -   Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12
Ne 9:30a Spirit  -   1 Pet. 1:10-11; 2 Pet. 1:21
Ne 9:32a Assyria  -   2 Kings 17:3
Ne 9:35a fat  -   Neh. 9:25; Deut. 8:7-10
Ne 9:37a produce  -   Deut. 28:33, 51
Nehemiah Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 10:1a Nehemiah  -   Neh. 1:1; 8:9
Ne 10:28a separated  -   Neh. 9:2; 13:30; cf. Ezra 6:21; 9:1
Ne 10:291 curse
For them to enter into a curse meant that they would curse themselves if they did not keep the covenant. For them to enter into an oath meant that they could not cancel the covenant which they had made.
Ne 10:30a give  -   Deut. 7:3; Ezra 9:12
Ne 10:31a Sabbath  -   Exo. 20:10; Lev. 23:3; Deut. 5:12; cf. Neh. 13:15-22
Ne 10:31b seventh  -   Exo. 23:10-11; Lev. 25:4; Deut. 15:1-2
Ne 10:32a charge  -   cf. Matt. 17:24
Ne 10:35a firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:19; 34:26; Lev. 2:12; Num. 18:12; Deut. 26:2
Ne 10:36a firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2, 12-13; Lev. 27:26; Num. 18:15, 17
Ne 10:37a first  -   Lev. 23:17; Num. 15:20-21
Ne 10:371b tithe  -   Deut. 12:6, 11; Num. 18:26; 2 Chron. 31:12; Neh. 13:12
See note 281 in Num. 18.
Nehemiah Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 11:1a holy  -   Neh. 11:18; Isa. 48:2; 52:1; Matt. 4:5; 27:53
Ne 11:21 blessed
At that time it was a burden for anyone to dwell in Jerusalem. Because of the constant threat of foreign invasion, not many were willing to live in Jerusalem. Therefore, to have a sufficient number of people living in Jerusalem, there was the need of some arrangement by casting lots. The ones whose lot was to live in Jerusalem were required to move there. However, some were willing to volunteer to dwell in Jerusalem, and all the people blessed them.
Ne 11:18a holy  -   Neh. 11:1
Nehemiah Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 12:11 priests
The main serving ones in the worship of God, which is the main thing in God’s kingdom, were not the kings but the priests with the Levites, who were the servants of the priests (Num. 18:2, 6).
Ne 12:1a Zerubbabel  -   1 Chron. 3:19; Ezra 2:2; 3:2; Neh. 12:47; Matt. 1:12
Ne 12:1b Seraiah  -   vv. 1b-21: Neh. 10:2-27
Ne 12:24a man  -   2 Chron. 8:14; Neh. 12:36
Ne 12:26a Nehemiah  -   Neh. 8:9
Ne 12:27a dedication  -   cf. Num. 7:10; 1 Kings 8:63; Psa. 30 title; Ezra 6:16
Ne 12:36a man  -   Neh. 12:24
Ne 12:39a Fish  -   2 Chron. 33:14; Neh. 3:3; Zeph. 1:10
Ne 12:39b Sheep  -   Neh. 3:1, 32
Ne 12:441 portions
Nehemiah not only brought the serving Levites and priests into function; he also supplied their daily necessities (vv. 44-47). Before that time, no one had taken care of this matter properly. See notes on Num. 18:8-32.
Ne 12:47a Levites  -   Num. 18:21, 24
Ne 12:47b Aaron  -   Num. 18:26-28
Nehemiah Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Ne 13:1a read  -   Deut. 31:11-12; 2 Kings 23:2; Neh. 8:3, 8, 18; 9:3
Ne 13:1b no  -   Deut. 23:3-5
Ne 13:11 Ammonite
See note 372, par. 1, in Gen. 19.
Ne 13:2a Balaam  -   Num. 22:5; Josh. 24:9-10; 2 Pet. 2:15
Ne 13:2b curse  -   Num. 23:11
Ne 13:3a separated  -   cf. Neh. 9:2
Ne 13:3b mixed  -   Exo. 12:38; Num. 11:4
Ne 13:4a Tobiah  -   Neh. 2:10
Ne 13:6a thirty-second  -   Neh. 5:14
Ne 13:9a purified  -   cf. 2 Chron. 29:15-16, 18
Ne 13:10a portions  -   Neh. 10:37
Ne 13:15a Sabbath  -   Exo. 20:10; Neh. 10:31
Ne 13:19a Sabbath  -   Jer. 17:21; John 5:10
Ne 13:23a married  -   Ezra 9:2; 10:2, 10
Ne 13:25a not  -   Neh. 10:30; Deut. 7:3
Ne 13:26a beloved  -   2 Sam. 12:24-25
Ne 13:26b foreign  -   cf. 1 Kings 11:1-8
Ne 13:29a defiled  -   Lev. 11:44; Heb. 12:15
Ne 13:301 cleansed
Nehemiah, with the help of Ezra, fully reconstituted the returned captives of the nation of Israel (8:1 — 13:31). Consequently, Israel became a particular nation, a nation that was sanctified and separated unto God and that expressed God. They were transfused with the thought of God, with the considerations of God, and with all that God is, making them God’s reproduction. As a result, they became a divine nation on earth expressing the divine character. They were reconstituted personally and corporately to be God’s testimony.
The central and crucial point of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah is the matter of proper, adequate leadership. Whereas the record of the leadership in Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles is, for the most part, dark, the record in Ezra and Nehemiah is altogether bright. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah three leaders are mentioned: Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. They were all excellent leaders, but the best and the highest was Nehemiah. Only under the leadership of persons like Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah could Israel be reconstituted to be the testimony, the expression, of God on earth, a people absolutely different from the Gentile nations. Such a testimony of God is a type of what God wants the church to be today.
< Nehemiah • Esther Outline >
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Esther Outline
I.   The secret care of the hiding God for His oppressed elect in their dispersion as seen in Esther — 1:1 — 2:23
A.   Establishing a top king in the Gentile world — 1:1-2
B.   Causing the king to depose his queen — 1:3-22
C.   Raising up a Jewish orphan virgin to be crowned as queen — 2:1-23
II.   The open salvation accomplished by the hiding God in secrecy for His persecuted elect in their captivity as seen in Mordecai — 3:1 — 10:3
A.   Haman’s plot to destroy all the Jews in Medo-Persia — 3:1-15
B.   Mordecai’s confrontation of Haman’s plot through Esther’s close and intimate contact with the king — 4:1 — 8:2
C.   The open, triumphant victory of the Jews over their enemies — the open salvation of their hiding God — 8:3 — 10:3
Esther >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Esther Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Es 1:11 Now
The book of Esther supplies a vivid record of how the hiding God of Israel secretly took care of His oppressed elect in their dispersion and openly saved His persecuted elect in their captivity. The crucial point of this book is that the very God who chose Israel, the descendants of Abraham, as His elect, after He gave them into captivity to the Gentile nations, became a hidden God to them to take care of them secretly and save them openly while acting in secrecy (Isa. 45:15). This is the reason this book does not mention the name of God even in places when the name of God should be mentioned (4:3, 16).
The account in the book of Esther is crucial in relation to the following matters: (1) for the fulfillment of God’s calling of Abraham for a land, a seed (a people), and a blessing to all the nations (Gen. 12:1-3; 22:17-18); (2) for the fulfillment of the promise of God given through Moses that after God gave Israel into captivity, He would still take care of them (Deut. 4:27-31); (3) for the fulfillment of the prayer of Solomon on the day of the dedication of the temple that God would take care of His elect in their captivity (1 Kings 8:46-53); (4) for the keeping of the line of the genealogy of Christ through the survival of Israel in their captivity that Christ might be brought into the human race; and (5) to keep a people for the possessing of the Holy Land as a base for Christ to come back to establish His kingdom on earth.
Es 1:12 Ahasuerus
The establishing of Ahasuerus as king over a vast Gentile empire (vv. 1-2), the deposing of Queen Vashti by Ahasuerus (vv. 3-22), the raising up of Esther, a Jewish orphan virgin, to be crowned as queen by Ahasuerus (2:1-18), and Esther’s saving the king from being assassinated by telling him in Mordecai’s name of those who planned to assassinate him (2:19-23) all portray the secret care of the hiding God for His oppressed elect in their dispersion.
Es 1:1a Ahasuerus  -   Ezra 4:6; cf. Dan. 9:1
Es 1:3a banquet  -   Gen. 40:20; 1 Kings 3:15; Esth. 2:18; Mark 6:21
Esther Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Es 2:6a carried  -   2 Kings 24:14-15; 2 Chron. 36:20; Jer. 24:1; 29:1-2
Es 2:71 Hadassah
Her Jewish name, meaning myrtle.
Es 2:72 Esther
Her Persian name, meaning star.
Es 2:10a people  -   Esth. 2:20; cf. Esth. 7:3-4
Es 2:12a myrrh  -   S.S. 3:6
Es 2:17a crown  -   Esth. 1:11; cf. Esth. 6:8
Es 2:18a banquet  -   Esth. 1:3
Es 2:20a kindred  -   Esth. 2:10
Es 2:21a Bigthan  -   Esth. 6:2
Es 2:22a told  -   Esth. 6:2; cf. Esth. 7:9
Esther Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Es 3:11a Agagite  -   Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 15:8, 33
The Agagites were enemies of God. God had charged Saul to slay all the Agagites, but he failed to do this and thereby offended God (1 Sam. 15).
Es 3:12 advanced
Haman’s being advanced by the king was no doubt at the instigation of Satan, the adversary of God.
Es 3:2a did  -   cf. Esth. 5:9; Dan. 3:6; Matt. 4:9; Rev. 13:15-17
Es 3:6a destroy  -   Psa. 83:4
Es 3:7a Pur  -   Esth. 9:24, 26
Es 3:7b twelfth  -   Esth. 9:1
Es 3:8a differ  -   cf. Acts 16:20-21
Es 3:10a Agagite  -   Esth. 3:1
Es 3:10b enemy  -   Esth. 7:6; 8:1; 9:24
Es 3:13a annihilate  -   Esth. 7:4; 8:11; Psa. 83:4
Es 3:13b thirteenth  -   Esth. 8:12; 9:1
Esther Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Es 4:31a fasting  -   Esth. 4:16; 9:31; cf. Dan. 9:3
Although they fasted in their supplication to God (vv. 3, 16), in this verse there is no mention of the name of God, contrary to what would be expected. See note 11 in ch. 1.
Es 4:11a scepter  -   Esth. 5:2; 8:4
Es 4:14a silent  -   cf. Esth. 2:10
Es 4:16a fast  -   Esth. 4:3
Esther Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Es 5:2a scepter  -   Esth. 4:11; 8:4
Es 5:3a half  -   Esth. 7:2; Mark 6:23
Es 5:6a half  -   Esth. 7:2; Mark 6:23
Es 5:9a anger  -   Esth. 3:5
Es 5:14a gallows  -   Esth. 6:4; 7:9-10; 8:7; 9:13, 25
Esther Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Es 6:1a not  -   Dan. 2:1; 6:18
Es 6:1b chronicles  -   Esth. 2:23; 10:2
Es 6:4a gallows  -   Esth. 5:14; 7:9
Es 6:8a robe  -   cf. 1 Sam. 18:4
Es 6:9a ride  -   cf. 1 Kings 1:33
Es 6:9b proclaim  -   cf. Gen. 41:43; 1 Kings 1:34
Es 6:13a Jews  -   Esth. 5:13
Es 6:14a banquet  -   Esth. 5:8
Esther Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Es 7:2a half  -   Esth. 5:3; Mark 6:23
Es 7:3a people  -   Esth. 4:8
Es 7:4a perish  -   Esth. 3:13; 8:11-12
Es 7:6a enemy  -   Esth. 3:10
Es 7:9a gallows  -   Esth. 5:14
Es 7:10a Haman  -   cf. Psa. 7:16; Prov. 11:5-6; Dan. 6:24
Esther Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Es 8:2a signet  -   Esth. 3:10
Es 8:3a evil  -   Esth. 3:8-15; 7:4
Es 8:4a scepter  -   Esth. 4:11; 5:2
Es 8:5a reverse  -   cf. Esth. 3:13
Es 8:10a sealed  -   Esth. 3:12; 8:8
Es 8:12a thirteenth  -   Esth. 3:13
Es 8:15a purple  -   Dan. 5:29; Luke 16:19
Es 8:17a feast  -   Esth. 9:18
Esther Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Es 9:1a turned  -   Esth. 8:3, 5
Es 9:10a spoil  -   Esth. 9:15-16; cf. Esth. 8:11
Es 9:15a spoil  -   Esth. 9:10, 16; cf. Esth. 8:11
Es 9:18a feasting  -   Esth. 8:17
Es 9:22a turned  -   Psa. 30:11
Es 9:22b poor  -   Gal. 2:10
Es 9:24a Pur  -   Esth. 3:7
Es 9:251 Esther
Lit., she, or, it.
Esther Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Es 10:3a second  -   Gen. 45:26; 41:44; 2 Chron. 28:7; cf. Dan. 5:16, 29
Es 10:3b sought  -   Neh. 2:10; Psa. 122:6, 9
< Esther • Job Outline >
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Job Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1 — 2:10
A.   Job the man — 1:1-5
B.   A council held in heaven concerning Job — 1:6-12a
C.   Satan attacking Job, and Job suffering trials in the matter of his possessions and children — 1:12b-22
D.   A council held again in heaven concerning Job — 2:1-6
E.   Satan attacking Job, and Job suffering the trial in his body — 2:7-10
II.   The debates between Job and his three friends — 2:11 — 32:1
A.   The coming and consoling of Job’s three friends — 2:11-13
B.   Job’s cursing of the day of his birth — 3:1-26
C.   The first round of debates — 4:1 — 11:20
1.   Eliphaz’s answer to Job by rebuking — 4:1 — 5:27
2.   Job’s vindication — 6:1 — 7:21
3.   Bildad’s rebuttal — 8:1-22
4.   Job’s unyieldingness — 9:1 — 10:22
5.   Zophar’s blind argument — 11:1-20
D.   The second round of debates — 12:1 — 20:29
1.   Job’s superiority complex in the matter of knowing God — 12:1 — 13:2
2.   Job’s accusing his friends of being false — 13:3-19
3.   Job’s arguments with God — 13:20 — 14:22
4.   Eliphaz’s rebuke and warning — 15:1-35
5.   Job’s rejection of his friends’ words — 16:1-6
6.   Job’s desire that God would plead for him — 16:7 — 17:16
7.   Bildad’s rebuke and warning — 18:1-21
8.   Job’s complaint against his friends in their wrong reproach — 19:1-5
9.   Job’s complaint toward God in His severe stripping — 19:6-29
10.   Zophar’s anger and teaching toward Job — 20:1-29
E.   The third round of debates — 21:1 — 32:1
1.   Job’s conclusion concerning prosperity and calamity in human life — 21:1-34
a.   His calming word to his friends — vv. 1-6
b.   The prosperity of the wicked — vv. 7-16
c.   Job’s questions concerning God’s recompense to the wicked — vv. 17-34
2.   Eliphaz’s logic concerning the recompense of good and evil — 22:1-30
3.   Job’s desire to clear up his case with God — 23:1-17
4.   Job’s knowledge concerning God in His dealings with all kinds of men — 24:1-25
5.   Bildad’s concluding word — 25:1-6
6.   Job’s final speaking to his three friends — 26:1 — 32:1
a.   Rebuking Bildad sarcastically — 26:1-4
b.   Showing off his superior knowledge concerning the unlimited power of God — 26:5-14
c.   Holding fast insistently to his righteousness and integrity — 27:1-7
d.   Teaching his friends high-mindedly concerning the hope of the profane man — 27:8-23
e.   Showing off his high-pitched knowledge concerning the way to find wisdom and understanding — 28:1-28
f.   Dwelling on his excellent past — 29:1-25
g.   Sighing over his miserable present — 30:1-31
h.   Boasting of his uprightness, righteousness, integrity, and perfection — 31:1-40
i.   Job’s three friends ceasing to answer him — 32:1
III.   Elihu’s answer to Job — 32:2 — 37:24
A.   His first correction and refutation of Job — 32:2 — 33:33
B.   His second correction and refutation of Job — 34:1-37
C.   His third correction and refutation of Job — 35:1-16
D.   His final word to Job — 36:1 — 37:24
IV.   The dialogue between God and Job — 38:1 — 42:6
A.   Jehovah answering Job out of the whirlwind — 38:1-3; 40:1-14
B.   God appearing to Job with the divine unveilings — 38:4 — 39:30; 40:15 — 41:34
1.   Concerning the universe — 38:4-38
2.   Concerning the animals — 38:39 — 39:30
3.   Again concerning the animals — 40:15 — 41:34
C.   Job gaining God in his personal experience and abhorring himself — 42:1-6
V.   Jehovah’s dealing with the three friends of Job — 42:7-9
VI.   Job’s end — 42:10-17
Job >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Job Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 1:11 There
Job is a book of the debates of godly men concerning the purpose of the sufferings of the saints, that is, the purpose of God’s dealing with His people. The book is poetic in form, with the exception of chs. 1 and 2 and the last eleven verses of ch. 42. Job is the first of the five books of poetry in the Scriptures, the other four being Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.
The book of Job, written early in the progression of the divine revelation (see note 131, par. 2, in ch. 2), does not contain a clear revelation of God’s purpose in dealing with His people. This revelation was given not to Job but to Paul. As unveiled in Paul’s Epistles, God’s purpose in dealing with us is to strip us of all things and to consume us so that we may gain God more and more (Phil. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:16). Cf. note 21 in Gen. 42 and note 261 in Psa. 73.
Jb 1:12 Uz
A city in Edom (Lam. 4:21).
Jb 1:13a Job  -   Ezek. 14:14, 20; James 5:11
The name means hated, or persecuted. It corresponds to the hatred and persecution that Job suffered from Satan, the enemy of God.
Jb 1:14b perfect  -   Gen. 6:9; 17:1; Deut. 18:13; 2 Sam. 22:24; Job 1:8; 2:3; 9:20; Luke 1:6
Being perfect is related to the inner man, and being upright is related to the outer man. In addition to being perfect inwardly and upright outwardly, Job feared God positively and turned away from evil negatively. However, God did not create man merely to fear Him and not do anything wrong. Rather, God created man in His own image and according to His likeness that man may express God (Gen. 1:26 and notes). To express God is higher than fearing God and turning away from evil.
Job was also a man of integrity (2:3, 9; 27:5; 31:6). Integrity is the totality of being perfect and being upright. With respect to Job, integrity is the total expression of what he was. In character he was perfect and upright, and in his ethics he had a high standard of integrity.
Jb 1:2a seven  -   Job 42:13
Jb 1:51 sanctify
Because feasting, an excess in eating, can be worldly, Job, a godly father, sanctified his children after their days of feasting. He offered burnt offerings for them continually.
Jb 1:5a burnt  -   Gen. 8:20; Job 42:8
See note 51.
Jb 1:52 cursed
Lit., blessed; perhaps used euphemistically for cursing. So also in v. 11; 2:5 and 9.
Jb 1:61a sons  -   Job 2:1; 38:7; Psa. 89:6; cf. Gen. 6:2, 4
The sons of God are the angels (cf. 1 Kings 22:19-23; Psa. 89:5-7). The scene in vv. 6-8 depicts one of the two councils held in heaven concerning Job. What Job had attained in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity was altogether vanity. It neither fulfilled God’s purpose nor satisfied God’s desire. Thus, God was lovingly concerned for Job and held two councils in heaven concerning how to deal with Job (vv. 6-8; 2:1-3).
Jb 1:6b before  -   1 Kings 22:19
Jb 1:62c Satan  -   1 Chron. 21:1; Zech. 3:1; Rev. 12:9; Matt. 4:10; 2 Cor. 11:14; Luke 22:31
Lit., the satan, the adversary. So also through 2:7. See note 101 in Matt. 4.
Jb 1:63 among
After he rebelled against God, Satan was condemned and even sentenced by God (see notes in Isa. 14:12-15 and Ezek. 28:12-19). Yet in His wisdom and sovereignty God did not execute His judgment on Satan. God still has given Satan a certain limited time to do something to meet some negative need in the fulfillment of His economy. God could not and would not ask any of His many excellent angels to do what was needed to damage Job in order to strip him of everything so that he might be full of God. Satan was the unique one in the universe who could and who would fulfill God’s intention of stripping Job of his possessions and his ethical attainment. Thus, the scene here and in ch. 2 shows that Satan remains free to be purposely used by God as an ugly tool to execute God’s severe dealing with His loving ones.
Two thousand years after the time of Job, Jesus Christ destroyed Satan through His death on the cross (Heb. 2:14). However, Satan’s right to enter into the presence of God still has not been taken away from him (cf. Rev. 12:10). This right will be taken away at the beginning of the great tribulation. When the overcomers are raptured to God’s throne, Satan will be cast down from the heavens to the earth (Rev. 12:5, 7-9). From that time onward, Satan will no longer have the right to enter into the presence of God.
Jb 1:7a roving  -   Job 2:2; 1 Pet. 5:8
Jb 1:81 considered
Only God knew that Job had a need — he did not have God within him. God’s boasting to Satan regarding Job’s perfection and uprightness (v. 8; 2:3) was with the intention that Satan would do something for God to meet Job’s need. Satan, an evil angel, was willing to do what none of the good angels were willing to do, and he immediately accepted the dishonorable commission (v. 12; 2:6). See note 63, par. 1.
Jb 1:8a perfect  -   Job 1:1
Jb 1:9a answered  -   Job 2:4; Rev. 12:10
Jb 1:91 Does
Satan’s evil concept concerning God’s dealing with His seeking people is based on his commercial principle of gain or loss. Satan is a businessman, a merchant (Ezek. 28:16, 18; cf. Rev. 18:11-19), and his thought is according to his commercial principle. He does not recognize that God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him (Phil. 3:7-8), that He might be expressed through them for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man (Gen. 1:26).
Jb 1:10a hedge  -   cf. Psa. 3:3; 34:7
Jb 1:121 only
As seen in the experiences of both Job and Paul, God assigns certain afflictions to His chosen ones for their perfecting. Although these afflictions are God’s assignment, they do not come from God but from Satan (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7-9). Satan, in his cruel nature, would attack God’s lovers to any extent to damage them if God did not draw a line to preserve His lovers’ existence that they might gain Him to the fullest extent for His fullest satisfaction. After God judged Satan, God still allowed him to be free to accuse, attack, damage, persecute, and martyr His saints that God may use him to a certain extent for the fulfillment of His particular purpose (2 Cor. 4:16-17). However, God always restricts him in the limit of His permission (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13).
Satan’s attacks on Job in two steps (vv. 13-19; 2:7) laid a foundation for God to accomplish His glorious transformation on Job, and for Job to experience the mysterious transactions in his relationship with the mysterious God.
Jb 1:161 fire
Contrary to this report, this fire, as well as the great wind in v. 19, was a natural calamity instigated by Satan.
Jb 1:21a Naked  -   Eccl. 5:15; cf. Psa. 49:17; 1 Tim. 6:7
Jb 1:21b return  -   cf. Gen. 3:19; Psa. 90:3; Eccl. 12:7
Jb 1:21c gives  -   Eccl. 5:19; James 1:17
Jb 1:22a not  -   Job 2:10
Job Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 2:1a Then  -   vv. 1-3: Job 1:6-8
Jb 2:11 sons
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jb 2:12b Satan  -   Job 1:6; 2 Cor. 11:14; Luke 22:31
See note 63 in ch. 1.
Jb 2:2a roving  -   1 Pet. 5:8
Jb 2:31 considered
See note 81 in ch. 1.
Jb 2:3a integrity  -   Job 2:9; 4:6; cf. Job 27:5-6
Jb 2:4a answered  -   Job 1:9; Rev. 12:10
Jb 2:6a Satan  -   2 Cor. 12:7; cf. 1 Cor. 5:5
Jb 2:61 only
See note 121 in ch. 1.
Jb 2:7a boils  -   Exo. 9:9; Lev. 13:18; Deut. 28:27, 35
Jb 2:9a integrity  -   Job 2:3
Jb 2:10a not  -   Job 1:22; Psa. 39:1
Jb 2:13a seven  -   Gen. 50:10; Ezek. 3:15
Jb 2:131 none
Job’s three friends could not speak anything because they had no knowledge, no understanding, concerning the purpose of what had happened to Job. The scene here indicates that Job and his friends were ignorant concerning that most painful and most terrifying occurrence, and were puzzled in their godliness, unable to discern what the reason was, what the purpose was, and what the result would be. Actually, Job’s experience was a step taken by God in His divine economy to carry out the consuming and stripping of the contented Job in order to usher Job into a deeper seeking after God, that he might gain God instead of His blessings and his attainments in his perfection and integrity. God’s stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear Job down that God might have a base and a way to rebuild him with God Himself that he might become a God-man, the same as God in His life and nature but not in His Godhead, in order to express God.
The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive. Up to Job’s time the progression of the divine revelation had reached only the level of Abraham’s time, that is, that sinners need God’s redemption with the shedding of the blood of the burnt offering (1:5; 42:8). The divine truths regarding such matters as regeneration (John 3:6; 1 Pet. 1:23), renewing (2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 4:23), transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), conformation (Rom. 8:29), and glorification (Rom. 8:23, 30; Phil. 3:21) were not explicitly revealed to man in God’s Old Testament economy. God could not speak such things to Job and his friends because they were in a primitive stage of the divine revelation (cf. John 3:7-12; 16:12-13). These things were not revealed in completion until the apostle Paul’s time. Paul received a full and explicit revelation of things concerning which Job and his friends had no understanding (Eph. 3:3-6, 9-11; Col. 1:25-27). Without the Epistles of Paul it would be difficult to understand the book of Job, because the conclusion of Job does not give us an explicit view concerning the purpose of God’s dealing with His people. However, in the view of the New Testament it is very clear that God’s purpose in dealing with His holy people is that they would be emptied of everything and receive only God as their gain (Phil. 3:8; cf. Psa. 73:25-26). The desire of God’s heart is that we would gain Him in full as life, as the life supply, and as everything to our being.
Job Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 3:11a cursed  -   Jer. 20:14-18
Job was disturbed, perplexed, and entangled to the uttermost by his suffering of the disasters that befell his possessions and his children and the plague on his body, in spite of his perfection, uprightness, and integrity. When Job cursed the day of his birth, equivalent to cursing his mother, he surely was not perfect and upright, nor did he hold his integrity. Rather, he became bankrupt in integrity.
God’s intention with Job was to consume him and to strip him of his attainments, his achievements, in the highest standard of ethics in perfection and uprightness (1:1). God’s intention was also to tear down the natural Job in his perfection and uprightness that He might build up a renewed Job in God’s nature and attributes. God’s intention was not to have a Job in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but a Job in the line of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). Eventually, God’s intention was to make Job a man of God (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:17), filled with Christ, the embodiment of God, to be the fullness of God for the expression of God in Christ (Eph. 3:14-21). Such a man of God, constituted with God according to His economy, would never be entangled by any troubles and problems so that he would curse his birth and prefer to die rather than to live. See note 111.
Jb 3:10a womb  -   Job 10:18-19
Jb 3:111 die
Job’s experience of God’s consuming and stripping in the Old Testament was far behind that of Paul in the New Testament. First, God stripped Job of his possessions (1:13-19), and then God consumed him by his suffering of the plague on his body (2:7). In the New Testament God’s consuming and stripping become pleasant things. From the day he was converted, Paul was a person under God’s consuming and God’s stripping (2 Cor. 4:8-18; Phil. 3:7-8). However, when Paul was suffering distresses for the sake of Christ, he was well pleased (2 Cor. 12:10), and he even rejoiced in the Lord for his experiences (Col. 1:24; Phil. 4:4). In contrast, Job did not rejoice but was constantly vexed.
In his experience of God’s consuming and stripping, Paul was not constricted by the pressures on every side and did not perish despite his being cast down (2 Cor. 4:8-9). He did not lose heart, but he expected to be put to death that he might manifest Christ’s life, and to be consumed day by day that he might be renewed and, through the momentary lightness of his affliction, add to the eternal weight of glory that he would share in the ages to come (2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16-17; cf. Rom. 8:18). Unlike Job, Paul did not curse the day of his birth, and he did not say that he preferred to die rather than to live. On the contrary, after much consideration Paul said that he still preferred to live, not to die, because to him to live was Christ (Phil. 1:21-25). Paul’s living Christ was for him to magnify Christ, whether through life or through death, by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-20). He did not care for life or death; he cared only to live Christ for His magnification. When God created man, this is the kind of life He wanted man to live.
Jb 3:21a death  -   Rev. 9:6; 1 Kings 19:4; Jonah 4:3, 8
Jb 3:23a hedged  -   Lam. 3:7; cf. Job 1:10
Job Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 4:3a hands  -   Isa. 35:3; Heb. 12:12
Jb 4:4a knees  -   Isa. 35:3; Heb. 12:12
Jb 4:6a integrity  -   Job 2:3, 9
Jb 4:81 iniquity
The contents of the book of Job are the expressions of the sentiments of godly men, including Job, his three friends, and the young man Elihu, plus the speaking of God. The expressions of the sentiments of the five godly men were according to the experiences of their godly life and were based on human concepts concerning the relationship between God and man. They were uttered before the law was given, yet they were filled with the principle of good and evil. The logic of the speakers was according to the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9), and, based on this, they considered God’s justice and righteous judgment very much. Much of their debate in this book resulted from their different views concerning God’s judgment. Job’s friends thought that what he was suffering was a matter of God’s judgment. However, Job’s sufferings were not God’s judgment but God’s stripping and consuming that God might gain Job so that he might gain God more. See note 151 in ch. 9 and note 131, par. 2, in ch. 10.
Although they contradict God’s purpose for man, the words of Job, his three friends, and Elihu were recorded under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to serve God’s purpose of exposing the mistake of these five godly men in their knowing of God. Thus, man may be enlightened to realize that, according to the good pleasure of God’s heart’s desire, man should be filled with God to be the expression of God only, rather than the expression of man’s perfection in his uprightness and integrity.
Jb 4:8a sow  -   Prov. 22:8; Hosea 8:7; Gal. 6:7-8
Jb 4:9a breath  -   Job 15:30; 2 Thes. 2:8; Isa. 11:4; 30:33; Exo. 15:8; Psa. 18:15
Jb 4:17a righteous  -   Job 9:2; 25:4
Jb 4:18a error  -   cf. Isa. 14:12; Ezek. 28:13-18; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6
Jb 4:19a dust  -   Gen. 2:7; 3:19; Job 10:9
Jb 4:201 continually
Or, perish forever.
Job Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 5:2a vexation  -   Prov. 19:19
Jb 5:51 even
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Jb 5:52 thirsty
Following many ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, the snare.
Jb 5:53 his
Lit., their.
Jb 5:7a trouble  -   Job 14:1
Jb 5:9a searched  -   Job 9:10; 37:5; Psa. 40:5; Rom. 11:33
Jb 5:10a rain  -   Psa. 65:9-10; 147:8; Jer. 5:24; 14:22; Matt. 5:45; Acts 14:17
Jb 5:11a high  -   1 Sam. 2:7; Psa. 75:6-7; Luke 1:52; James 4:10
Jb 5:11b mourn  -   James 4:9; cf. Matt. 5:4
Jb 5:13a He  -   1 Cor. 3:19; cf. Psa. 9:15-16
Jb 5:13b wise  -   1 Cor. 1:19; Jer. 8:9
Jb 5:17a blessed  -   Psa. 94:12; James 1:12
Jb 5:171b chastening  -   Prov. 3:11-12; Heb. 12:5-6; Psa. 94:12; 1 Cor. 11:32; Rev. 3:19
See note 81 in ch. 4.
Jb 5:172 Almighty
Heb. Shaddai. So throughout the book. See note 12 in Gen. 17.
Jb 5:18a heal  -   Deut. 32:39; Isa. 30:26; Hosea 6:1
Jb 5:261 coming
I.e., to the threshing floor, usually elevated.
Job Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 6:11 answered
Job’s vindication of himself in chs. 6 and 7 is an extract of the entire book. As he vindicated himself, Job stated his grievances (vv. 1-7), challenged God (vv. 8-13), blamed his friends (vv. 14-23), justified himself (vv. 24-30), expressed that he had the common knowledge of the vanity and end of human life (7:1-10), and concluded by saying that he loathed life and wanted to die (7:11-21). Job was challenging God and his friends to give him an answer. However, the answer to the book of Job is found not in this book but in the New Testament (see note 131, par. 2, in ch. 2 and note 171 in ch. 42).
Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God’s economy, not realizing in an adequate way the purpose for which God created man. He and his friends were devoid of the divine revelation and of the experience of the divine life. He had no idea that God had no intention to increase his perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity. Rather, God’s intention was to strip all these human virtues which he had as his contentment, so that he could seek and gain only God Himself. Neither his friends nor he were in the line of the tree of life as God ordained man to be (Gen. 2:9, 16-17).
Jb 6:21 vexation
See note 111 in ch. 3.
Jb 6:101 deny
Or, conceal.
Jb 6:10a Holy  -   Lev. 19:2; Isa. 57:15; Hosea 11:9
Jb 6:15a brook  -   Jer. 15:18; cf. Jude 12
Job Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 7:1a days  -   Psa. 39:5
Jb 7:6a days  -   Job 9:25; 17:11; Psa. 39:5
Jb 7:61 without
Or, as the thread runs out.
Jb 7:7a breath  -   cf. Psa. 78:39; James 4:14
Jb 7:9a goes  -   James 4:14
Jb 7:9b Sheol  -   Job 21:13
Jb 7:10a returns  -   2 Sam. 12:23
Jb 7:161 loathe
See note 111 in ch. 3.
Jb 7:17a What  -   vv. 17-18: cf. Psa. 8:4; 144:3; Heb. 2:6
Jb 7:17b mortal  -   Job 15:14
Jb 7:21a dust  -   Dan. 12:2
Job Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 8:11 answered
In his rebuttal to Job’s self-vindication, Bildad’s logic concerning man’s relationship with God was built on good and evil, right and wrong, absolutely in the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, altogether according to the human, ethical concept of fallen man. In his rebuttal there was no flavor of being enlightened in the divine revelation and no taste of being spiritual in the divine life. He was altogether in darkness and in the vanity of man’s ethics. His rebuttal was utterly powerless to convince Job, who was higher in things concerning God than his contemporaries.
Jb 8:3a justice  -   Job 34:12; Rom. 3:4-6
Jb 8:4a children  -   Job 1:5, 18-19
Jb 8:9a shadow  -   1 Chron. 29:15; Job 14:2; 17:7; Psa. 102:11; 109:23; 144:4; Eccl. 6:12
Jb 8:12a withers  -   Psa. 37:2; 129:6
Jb 8:181 one
Or, He.
Job Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 9:2a righteous  -   Job 25:4; Psa. 143:2; Rom. 3:20, 10
Jb 9:51a removes  -   Psa. 46:2; Hab. 3:6; cf. Matt. 21:21
The events in vv. 5-7 must have happened in the preadamic world, at the time God judged the heavens and the earth because of the rebellion of Satan and his followers (see note 21 in Gen. 1 and notes 131 and 151 in Isa. 14).
Jb 9:6a shakes  -   Isa. 13:13; 2:19, 21; Hag. 2:6; Job 26:11
Jb 9:7a sun  -   Amos 8:9; Matt. 24:29
Jb 9:8a stretched  -   Job 26:7; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 40:22; Jer. 10:12; 51:15; Zech. 12:1
Jb 9:8b trod  -   Matt. 14:25
Jb 9:9a Bear  -   Job 38:32
Jb 9:9b Orion  -   Job 38:31; Amos 5:8
Jb 9:12a What  -   Isa. 45:9; Rom. 9:20
Jb 9:131 Rahab’s
A sea monster spoken of in ancient narratives (cf. 26:12; Isa. 51:9).
Jb 9:151 Judge
Job thought that he could not win his case, even though he was righteous and perfect (vv. 15, 20-21), because God is mighty and does not turn back His anger in His judgment (vv. 13-24). Here Job had a wrong concept, thinking that God was dealing with him in anger. However, God’s dealing with Job was not God’s anger but God’s good pleasure (Eph. 1:5, 9). It was not God’s judging but God’s stripping, consuming, and tearing down that He might rebuild Job with Himself.
Jb 9:19a judgment  -   Rom. 3:4
Jb 9:201 it
Or, He.
Jb 9:21a perfect  -   Job 1:1
Jb 9:231 despair
Others translate, trial.
Jb 9:25a days  -   Job 7:6
Jb 9:30a wash  -   Psa. 73:13
Jb 9:301 soap
Others understand, snow.
Job Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 10:1a life  -   1 Kings 19:4; Job 7:16; 9:21
Jb 10:2a contend  -   Job 9:3
Jb 10:7a And  -   Deut. 32:39; Isa. 43:13
Jb 10:8a shaped  -   Psa. 100:3; 119:73; 139:13
Jb 10:9a clay  -   Isa. 45:9
Jb 10:9b dust  -   Gen. 2:7; 3:19; Job 4:19; 34:15; Psa. 90:3; 104:29; 146:4; Eccl. 12:7
Jb 10:11a woven  -   Psa. 139:13, 15
Jb 10:131a hidden  -   Eph. 3:9
This indicates that Job could not find the reason for God’s treatment of him, but he believed that there had to be some reason hidden in God’s heart. Job was right; something was hidden in God’s heart — the mystery of the ages (Eph. 3:9). After creating man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26), God kept His intention hidden throughout the ages. Before the New Testament time He did not unveil to anyone what His purpose was (Eph. 3:4-5).
The mystery hidden in God’s heart is God’s eternal economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which is God’s eternal intention with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature that they may be the same as He is as His duplication (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2), to become an organism, the Body of Christ as the new man (Eph. 2:15-16), for God’s fullness, God’s expression (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5). Not knowing God’s intention, Job misunderstood God and thought that God was angry with him and was judging him and punishing him. God’s intention was not to judge Job or to punish him but to tear him down and then rebuild him with Himself, to make Job a new man in God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This is the answer to Job, to the book of Job, and to Job’s vindication.
Jb 10:15a cannot  -   Ezra 9:6; Luke 18:13
Jb 10:161 my
Lit., it.
Jb 10:18a womb  -   Job 3:3, 10-11
Jb 10:201 revived
Lit., cheerful.
Jb 10:21a return  -   2 Sam. 12:23; Job 16:22
Jb 10:22a shadow  -   Job 3:5; Psa. 23:4
Job Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 11:71a depths  -   Job 5:9; Psa. 145:3; Rom. 11:33
Lit., that which is to be searched out of God.
Jb 11:7b limit  -   Eccl. 3:11
Jb 11:121 empty-headed
This surely was not a word of fellowship or of lovingkindness. Zophar was saying that Job was an empty-headed man, a person altogether lacking in intelligence, even likening Job to a foal of a wild ass. No wonder Job blamed his friends for not showing any lovingkindness to him.
Zophar was absolutely blind in his comprehension of man’s standing before God, and his argument was altogether based on man’s natural concept in the realm of ethics, without any enlightenment of the divine revelation regarding what man should be to God.
Jb 11:15a steadfast  -   1 John 3:21
Job Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 12:41 my
Lit., his.
Jb 12:42 me
Lit., him.
Jb 12:4a laughingstock  -   Job 17:2, 6; 21:3; 30:1; cf. Mark 5:40; Luke 16:14; Acts 17:32
Jb 12:61 might
Or, hand.
Jb 12:7a teach  -   vv. 7-9: cf. Rom. 1:20
Jb 12:101a life  -   Acts 17:25; Dan. 5:23
Heb. nephesh (soul)...ruach (spirit). Every living thing has a soul, but man has not only a soul but also a spirit (cf. notes 75, par. 1, and 76 in Gen. 2).
Jb 12:11a try  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:29
Jb 12:13a wisdom  -   Dan. 2:20; Col. 2:3
Jb 12:15a waters  -   Gen. 8:2; Deut. 11:17; 1 Kings 8:35; cf. 1 Kings 17:1
Jb 12:15b sends  -   cf. Gen. 7:11-24; Psa. 147:18; Amos 5:8; 9:6
Jb 12:17a counselors  -   2 Sam. 15:34; cf. Isa. 29:14; 1 Cor. 1:20
Jb 12:22a brings  -   Dan. 2:22; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2:10; Matt. 10:26
Job Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 13:3a argue  -   cf. Job 9:3, 14
Jb 13:4a Physicians  -   cf. Job 16:2
Jb 13:9a deceive  -   Gal. 6:7
Jb 13:141 I
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, Why should I take...?
Jb 13:18a arranged  -   Job 23:4
Jb 13:23a known  -   Isa. 58:1; Micah 3:8
Jb 13:24a hide  -   Deut. 32:20; Psa. 13:1; 44:24; 88:14
Jb 13:24b enemy  -   Job 19:11; 33:10; Lam. 2:5
Jb 13:27a stocks  -   Job 33:11; Acts 16:24
Jb 13:28a moths  -   Isa. 50:9; James 5:2
Job Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 14:1a few  -   Gen. 47:9; Job 10:20; Psa. 39:5; 89:47
Jb 14:2a blossom  -   Psa. 103:15; Isa. 40:6; James 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:24
Jb 14:21 is
Or, withers.
Jb 14:3a litigation  -   Job 22:4; Psa. 143:2
Jb 14:5a determined  -   Acts 17:26
Jb 14:7a sprout  -   cf. Isa. 11:1; 27:6
Jb 14:10a where  -   Job 20:7; cf. Job 7:8-10
Jb 14:12a heavens  -   cf. Matt. 5:18; 24:35; 2 Pet. 3:10, 13; Isa. 51:6; Psa. 102:25-26
Jb 14:121 he
Lit., they.
Jb 14:122 his
Lit., their.
Job Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 15:8a secret  -   Jer. 23:18, 22
Jb 15:14a clean  -   Job 14:4; Prov. 20:9
Jb 15:14b born  -   Job 25:4
Jb 15:14c righteous  -   Job 9:2
Jb 15:15a heavens  -   cf. Job 1:6
Jb 15:171 I
Eliphaz’s warning in vv. 17-35 was based on the principle of good and evil. In his view the good man would prosper and the wicked would suffer. Cf. Psa. 73 and notes.
Jb 15:291 his
Lit., their.
Job Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 16:2a comforters  -   Job 2:11; cf. Job 13:4
Jb 16:9a gnashed  -   Lam. 2:16; Acts 7:54; cf. Psa. 35:16; 37:12; 112:10
Jb 16:9b Adversary  -   Job 13:24; 19:11
Jb 16:12a target  -   Job 7:20; Lam. 3:12
Jb 16:18a blood  -   Gen. 4:10
Jb 16:19a Witness  -   Psa. 89:37; Rom. 1:9; 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:23; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thes. 2:5, 10
Job Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 17:1a broken  -   Psa. 51:17; Prov. 15:13; 17:22; 18:14
Jb 17:31 strike
I.e., the action that accompanies the giving of a pledge.
Jb 17:6a byword  -   Deut. 28:37; Job 30:9; Psa. 44:14; 69:11
Jb 17:9a hands  -   Psa. 24:4; 1 Tim. 2:8
Jb 17:13a Sheol  -   Job 21:13
Jb 17:16a dust  -   Job 21:26; 40:13
Job Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 18:19a no  -   Isa. 14:22
Jb 18:21a know  -   Jer. 9:3; 10:25; 2 Thes. 1:8
Job Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 19:3a ten  -   Gen. 31:7; Num. 14:22
Jb 19:61 subverted
Job’s complaint against his friends (vv. 1-5) and toward God shows that he was very sensitive. In his sensitivity he thought that others were intending to damage him, and he misunderstood God, thinking that God had sent a troop against him (v. 12). In contrast to Job, Paul could rejoice in all that happened to him (Phil. 1:18; 4:4; Col. 1:24). See note 111 in ch. 3.
Jb 19:8a walled  -   Lam. 3:7
Jb 19:91 glory
Job’s glory was his perfection and uprightness, and his crown was his integrity. Job was right in saying that God had stripped his glory from him and had taken away his crown from his head.
Jb 19:101 hope
Job’s hope had been to build up the “tree” of his integrity, but God would not allow such a tree to grow within Job. Rather, God had plucked up this tree, this hope.
Jb 19:111 anger
Although God was stripping Job, He surely was not angry with him; neither did God consider Job His adversary but His intimate friend. See note 131 in ch. 10.
Jb 19:11a adversary  -   Job 13:24
See note 111.
Jb 19:171 my
Or, I am loathsome.
Jb 19:20a bones  -   Psa. 102:5; Lam. 4:8
Jb 19:21a hand  -   Ruth 1:13; Isa. 53:4
Jb 19:23a book  -   Isa. 30:8
Jb 19:24a iron  -   Jer. 17:1
Jb 19:251a Redeemer  -   Psa. 19:14; Isa. 43:14; 44:6; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5; 59:20
Job’s declaring that his Redeemer lives was according to his objective view, which was incomplete concerning God’s economy. In contrast, the New Testament speaks according to the subjective view, declaring that Christ, our Redeemer, lives in us and is making His home in our hearts (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17).
Jb 19:26a look  -   Psa. 17:15; 1 John 3:2
Job Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 20:3a spirit  -   cf. Eph. 4:23
Jb 20:6a heaven  -   Isa. 14:13-14; cf. Obad. 3-4
Jb 20:111 it
I.e., youthful vigor.
Jb 20:11a dust  -   Job 21:26
Jb 20:14a venom  -   Deut. 32:33; Psa. 140:3; Prov. 23:32
Jb 20:231 God
Lit., He.
Jb 20:28a day  -   Prov. 11:4; Zeph. 1:18
Job Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 21:7a wicked  -   Psa. 37:1, 35; 73:3; 92:7; Eccl. 7:15; 8:12-14; Jer. 12:1; Mal. 3:15
Jb 21:9a rod  -   Job 9:34
Jb 21:101 Their
Lit., His.
Jb 21:13a Sheol  -   Gen. 37:35; Job 7:9; 14:13; 17:13; 24:19; Psa. 16:10; Luke 16:23
Jb 21:14a Depart  -   Job 22:17
Jb 21:15a What  -   Exo. 5:2
Jb 21:161 Him
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, me.
Jb 21:171 God
Lit., He.
Jb 21:26a dust  -   Job 17:16; 20:11; 40:13
Job Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 22:6a pledges  -   Exo. 22:26; Deut. 24:6, 10-18; Job 24:3, 9; Ezek. 18:12, 16
Jb 22:7a hungry  -   Isa. 58:7, 10; Ezek. 18:7, 16; Matt. 25:42
Jb 22:12a heaven  -   Psa. 115:3; Eccl. 5:2
Jb 22:13a know  -   cf. Psa. 73:11
Jb 22:171 us
Lit., them.
Jb 22:181 Him
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, me.
Jb 22:211 Be
According to Eliphaz’s logic, the God-seeking righteous man will be blessed and delivered by God. The source of Eliphaz’s teaching is not divine revelation but human logic. Furthermore, his teaching is based on the principle of good and evil, which is the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9, 17).
Jb 22:22a heart  -   Psa. 119:11
Jb 22:23a Almighty  -   Job 8:5-6
Jb 22:26a to  -   Psa. 25:1; 1 John 3:21
Jb 22:29a lowly  -   Prov. 3:34; 29:23; Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; James 4:6
Jb 22:301 you
Lit., he.
Job Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 23:21 bitter
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew reads, rebellion.
Jb 23:3a find  -   Acts 17:27; 15:17
Jb 23:4a present  -   Job 13:18; 33:5
Jb 23:81 forward
Or, east…west.
Jb 23:91 left
Or, north…south.
Jb 23:9a hides  -   Psa. 10:1
Jb 23:10a knows  -   Psa. 139:2-3, 23
Jb 23:10b try  -   Zech. 13:9; Psa. 66:10; 139:23; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:7
Jb 23:12a words  -   Psa. 119:103
Jb 23:121 more
Or (as in the Septuagint), in my bosom.
Job Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 24:2a landmarks  -   Deut. 19:14
Jb 24:3a pledge  -   Job 22:6; 24:9
Jb 24:9a pledge  -   Exo. 22:26-27; Deut. 24:12-13; Job 22:6; 24:3; Ezek. 18:12, 16
Jb 24:19a Sheol  -   Job 21:13
Jb 24:20a remembered  -   Job 18:17; Prov. 10:7
Jb 24:231 a
Lit., him.
Jb 24:24a little  -   Psa. 37:10
Job Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 25:3a arise  -   Matt. 5:45
Jb 25:4a righteous  -   Job 4:17; 9:2; Psa. 143:2
Jb 25:4b And  -   vv. 4b-6: cf. Job 15:14-16
Jb 25:6a worm  -   Psa. 22:6; Isa. 41:14
Job Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 26:41 spirit
Or, breath.
Jb 26:61a Sheol  -   Prov. 15:11; Psa. 139:8; cf. Heb. 4:13
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Jb 26:62 Abaddon
Meaning destruction.
Jb 26:7a north  -   Job 9:8
Jb 26:71b nothing  -   Gen. 1:2
See note 42 in ch. 38.
Jb 26:8a waters  -   Prov. 30:4; Job 37:11
Jb 26:9a cloud  -   Psa. 97:2
Jb 26:10a circle  -   Prov. 8:27
Jb 26:10b boundary  -   Prov. 8:29; Jer. 5:22; Job 38:10
Jb 26:121 Rahab
See note 131 in ch. 9.
Jb 26:131 Spirit
Or, breath.
Jb 26:13a serpent  -   Isa. 27:1
Job Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 27:3a breath  -   Gen. 2:7; 7:22; Job 33:4; Acts 17:25
Jb 27:5a integrity  -   Job 31:6; 2:3
Jb 27:6a righteousness  -   Job 32:1; 1 Cor. 4:4; cf. Phil. 3:9
Jb 27:8a soul  -   Luke 12:20
Jb 27:16a heaps  -   Prov. 13:22; Eccl. 2:26
Jb 27:17a prepare  -   Luke 12:20
Jb 27:191 will
Others read, is not gathered (i.e., to his fathers).
Job Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 28:1a refined  -   cf. Mal. 3:3
Jb 28:31 gloom
Or, the shadow of death.
Jb 28:5a food  -   Psa. 104:14
Jb 28:91 The
Lit., He.
Jb 28:11a brings  -   Job 12:22
Jb 28:12a But  -   Job 28:20
Jb 28:18a wisdom  -   Prov. 3:15
Jb 28:191 Cush
I.e., Ethiopia.
Jb 28:20a From  -   Job 28:12
Jb 28:221 Abaddon
Meaning destruction.
Jb 28:28a fear  -   Psa. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10
Job Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 29:41 prime
Lit., autumn.
Jb 29:4a intimate  -   Job 15:8; Psa. 25:14
Jb 29:14a righteousness  -   Psa. 132:9; Isa. 59:17; 61:10; 11:5; Eph. 6:14; Rev. 19:8; cf. Isa. 64:6
Jb 29:22a dew  -   cf. Deut. 32:2
Job Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 30:9a byword  -   Job 17:6; Psa. 69:11
Jb 30:111 my
Others read, His.
Jb 30:15a cloud  -   Job 7:9; Psa. 102:3; Hosea 6:4
Jb 30:16a soul  -   1 Sam. 1:15; Psa. 42:4
Jb 30:19a dust  -   Gen. 18:27; Job 42:6
Jb 30:23a house  -   cf. Eccl. 12:5
Job Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 31:1a gaze  -   Matt. 5:28
Jb 31:6a balance  -   Psa. 62:9; Dan. 5:27
Jb 31:6b integrity  -   Job 27:5
Jb 31:121 Abaddon
Meaning destruction.
Jb 31:15a womb  -   Psa. 139:13
Jb 31:181 the
Lit., her.
Jb 31:19a lack  -   James 2:15
Jb 31:24a hope  -   1 Tim. 6:17
Jb 31:311 our
Lit., his.
Jb 31:33a covered  -   Prov. 28:13
Jb 31:331 as
Or, as men do.
Jb 31:33b Adam  -   Gen. 3:8, 12
Jb 31:35a answer  -   Job 13:22
Jb 31:361 it
I.e., the scroll containing the charge.
Jb 31:401 ended
Through his eight times of speaking to his three friends, Job exposed himself, unveiling many negative things concerning himself, including his being self-righteous; his being full of reasons; his blaming his friends for not understanding him and for not sympathizing with him in love; his complaining that God was not fair in treating him in an unexplainable, severe way; his having a legal case between him and God; his knowing God only in the vain, objective knowledge inherited from tradition; his having not received the divine revelation, as unveiled in the New Testament, concerning God’s eternal economy; his being darkened by the success and attainments of his natural being; his being blinded by the concept of his natural understanding; his groping in darkness and in blindness concerning his relationship with God according to what God wants; his being content with what he had become; and his being unaware of his miserable situation before God in not being saturated with God, mingled with God, filled with God, and one with God.
Job Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 32:1a righteous  -   Job 13:18; 27:6
Jb 32:21 anger
Elihu thought of himself as wise, but in being angry against Job and his three friends (vv. 2-5), he was very foolish. It is not wise to be burning with anger (Prov. 29:11; cf. Eph. 4:26).
Jb 32:22 Elihu
Meaning He is God, or He is my God.
Jb 32:2a justified  -   Job 4:17; 34:5; 35:2; 40:8
Jb 32:81 there
Or, it is the spirit in man, indeed the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding. In this verse a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty are in apposition, indicating that the spirit of man is the breath of God (see note 75 in Gen. 2).
Jb 32:82a spirit  -   1 Cor. 2:11; Rom. 8:16; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12
Heb. ruach…neshamah.
Jb 32:8b breath  -   Gen. 2:7; Job 33:4; 34:14
See note 82.
Jb 32:101 know
Elihu’s speaking indicates that he was quite proud. Although he was full of assurance that he could answer Job adequately concerning God’s purpose in dealing with Job, in all his speaking Elihu did not answer Job with a clear view like the apostle Paul’s clear vision in the New Testament concerning the goal of gaining Christ in his suffering the loss of all things (Phil. 3:8-14) and concerning the believers’ affliction working out for them an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). Elihu’s word had nothing of the divine wisdom. With Paul, however, there was a clear word of revelation. Hence, Paul’s word was truly the word of wisdom (1 Cor. 12:8).
Furthermore, the speaking of Job, of his three friends, and of Elihu was altogether lacking in the exercise of the spirit to contact God. They spoke concerning God, and they also referred to their spirit, but in all their debates there is no hint that they were exercising their spirit. Rather, they exercised their mind to make a display of their knowledge. In this matter Elihu followed the example of the older ones and spoke in the same way. Elihu was a person who was full of the knowledge of good and evil. He was not a person in the spirit (cf. Rev. 1:10).
Jb 32:19a new  -   Matt. 9:17
Jb 32:21a respect  -   Psa. 82:2; Prov. 24:23
Job Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 33:4a breath  -   Gen. 2:7; Job 12:10; 27:3; Isa. 42:5; Dan. 5:23; Acts 17:25
Jb 33:6a clay  -   Job 10:9; Isa. 64:8
Jb 33:9a clean  -   Job 11:4; 16:17
Jb 33:10a enemy  -   Job 13:24
Jb 33:11a stocks  -   Job 13:27; Acts 16:24
Jb 33:15a dream  -   Gen. 20:6; Num. 12:6; Matt. 1:20; 2:12, 13, 19, 22
Jb 33:16a ears  -   Job 36:10, 15; Psa. 40:6; Isa. 50:4-5; Rev. 2:7
Jb 33:261 God
Lit., He.
Jb 33:28a redeemed  -   Job 33:24; Isa. 38:17-18
Jb 33:30a light  -   Psa. 56:13
Job Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 34:3a ear  -   Job 12:11
Jb 34:4a good  -   1 Thes. 5:21
Jb 34:51 taken
Or, turned aside my justice.
Jb 34:5a right  -   Job 27:2
Jb 34:9a profit  -   Job 21:15; 35:3; Mal. 3:14
Jb 34:11a render  -   Psa. 62:12; Prov. 24:12; Jer. 32:19; Matt. 16:27; Rom. 2:6; Rev. 22:12
Jb 34:13a earth  -   Job 38:4-7
Jb 34:14a spirit  -   Job 33:4
Jb 34:15a dust  -   Job 10:9; Eccl. 12:7; Psa. 104:29; 146:4
Jb 34:19a respect  -   Deut. 1:17; James 2:1; Matt. 22:16; Mark 12:14
Jb 34:21a eyes  -   Prov. 5:21; Jer. 32:19
Jb 34:22a hide  -   Amos 9:2-3; Jer. 23:24
Jb 34:371 rebellion
Or (as translated elsewhere), transgression.
Jb 34:372 claps
I.e., as a gesture of mockery or scorn.
Job Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 35:2a righteousness  -   Job 32:2
Jb 35:3a advantage  -   Job 34:9
Jb 35:31 me
Lit., you.
Jb 35:6a sin  -   Prov. 8:36
Jb 35:7a righteous  -   Job 22:2-3
Jb 35:7b give  -   1 Chron. 29:14; Rom. 11:35; Psa. 116:12
Jb 35:10a Maker  -   Psa. 149:2; Isa. 54:5
Jb 35:10b songs  -   Psa. 42:8; 77:6; 119:62; Acts 16:25
Job Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 36:41 knowledge
See note 101 in ch. 32.
Jb 36:13a lay  -   Rom. 2:5
Jb 36:27a rain  -   Job 5:10; Jer. 14:22; cf. Gen. 2:5-6
Jb 36:31a food  -   Psa. 136:25
Job Chapter 37
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 37:41 the
Lit., them.
Jb 37:6a snow  -   Psa. 147:16
Jb 37:10a ice  -   Job 38:29-30; Psa. 147:17
Jb 37:17a south  -   Luke 12:55
Job Chapter 38
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 38:1a Then  -   Job 40:6
Jb 38:11 answered
In God’s appearing to Job (vv. 1-3; 40:1-14), His intention was to show Job that he was nothing and that God is unlimited, unsearchable, and untraceable. God’s appearing also implied that He wanted to help Job to know that he was in the wrong realm, the realm of building up himself as a man in the old creation in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity. Job glorified himself in these things, but God considered them frustrations to be stripped away so that Job might receive God in His nature, life, element, and essence and thus be metabolically transformed to be a God-man, a man in the new creation who expresses God and dispenses Him to others.
God’s dealing with Job in all the disasters and His stripping him of all that he was, were to take away his contentment in his godly attainments and obtainments and to remove all the barriers and coverings so that he could be emptied for some further seeking after God and could realize that what he was short of in his human life was God Himself. At the end of the book of Job, God came in to reveal Himself to Job, indicating that He Himself was what Job should pursue, gain, and express. In all God’s dealings with Job, God’s intention was to reduce Job to nothing, yet to maintain his existence (2:6) so that He might have time to impart Himself into Job.
Jb 38:2a knowledge  -   Job 35:16; 42:3
Jb 38:3a Gird  -   Job 40:7; 1 Kings 18:46; Luke 12:35
Jb 38:41 Where
In His divine unveilings concerning the universe (vv. 4-38) and concerning the animals (38:39 — 39:30; 40:15 — 41:34), God’s intention was to enable Job to see that he, a person who remained in himself, was considering things regarding the universe and God that were far beyond his capacity. Thus, God charged Job and questioned him again and again in order to humble him and silence him (40:3-5).
In the divine unveilings to Job, nothing was revealed concerning the purpose of God in dealing with Job. Thus, the adequate knowledge of this matter is not found in this book. The revelation regarding the purpose of God’s dealing with Job had to wait until Christ came and until the apostle Paul was raised up to complete the divine revelation in the Scriptures regarding the mystery in God’s eternal economy, which concerns Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church, the Body of Christ, as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4-6), the main point being that Christ is within His Body as the hope of glory (Col. 1:25-27).
Jb 38:42a foundations  -   Psa. 24:2; 104:5; Prov. 8:29; Zech. 12:1; Heb. 1:10
When God created the earth, He created it in an orderly way (Isa. 45:18), laying its foundations, measuring it out, placing it on solid bases, and laying its cornerstone (vv. 4-6). The earth has foundations (Zech. 12:1b), but it seemingly does not have anything supporting it (cf. 26:7b). Actually, all things are upheld by Christ (Heb. 1:3 and note 2).
Jb 38:71 morning
When God created the universe, He first stretched forth the heavens (Isa. 42:5; Zech. 12:1). Then He created the stars and certain living things in the heavens, including the angels. The earth was created somewhat later. Thus, at the time when God was creating the earth, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God (the angels — 1:6; 2:1) shouted for joy because of God’s beautiful building of the earth.
Jb 38:7a stars  -   Isa. 14:12; cf. Rev. 9:1; 12:4
Jb 38:7b sons  -   Job 1:6
See note 71.
Jb 38:8a sea  -   Gen. 1:9-10; Psa. 33:7
Jb 38:9a darkness  -   Gen. 1:2
Jb 38:10a boundaries  -   Prov. 8:29; Jer. 5:22; Psa. 104:9; Job 26:10
Jb 38:11a waves  -   Psa. 65:7; 89:9; Luke 8:24
Jb 38:141 The
Lit., It.
Jb 38:142 all
Lit., they stand forth.
Jb 38:16a sea  -   Psa. 77:19
Jb 38:16b deep  -   Gen. 7:11; Prov. 8:28
Jb 38:17a gates  -   Psa. 9:13; 107:18; Isa. 38:10; Matt. 16:18
Jb 38:23a Which  -   Exo. 9:18, 24; Josh. 10:11; Isa. 28:2; 30:30; Ezek. 13:11, 13; 38:22; Rev. 8:7; 16:21
Jb 38:26a rain  -   Job 5:10; Jer. 14:22
Jb 38:27a grass  -   Gen. 1:11; 2 Sam. 23:4; Psa. 147:8
Jb 38:29a ice  -   Job 37:10; Psa. 147:17
Jb 38:31a Pleiades  -   Job 9:9; Amos 5:8
Jb 38:321 Mazzaroth
Referring probably to a constellation.
Jb 38:33a rule  -   Gen. 1:16, 14
Jb 38:36a wisdom  -   Psa. 51:6
Jb 38:361 mind
The meaning of the Hebrew word is unclear.
Jb 38:39a lions  -   Psa. 104:21
Jb 38:41a raven  -   Psa. 147:9; Luke 12:24; cf. Matt. 6:26
Job Chapter 39
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 39:1a goats  -   Psa. 104:18
Jb 39:1b hinds  -   Psa. 29:9
Jb 39:5a wild  -   Job 24:5; Jer. 2:24
Jb 39:9a wild  -   Num. 23:22
Jb 39:13a ostrich  -   Lam. 4:3
Jb 39:19a horse  -   Jer. 8:6; Prov. 21:31
Jb 39:211 He
Lit., They.
Jb 39:27a eagle  -   Isa. 40:31; Prov. 23:5
Jb 39:30a there  -   Ezek. 39:17-19; Matt. 24:28; Luke 17:37
Job Chapter 40
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 40:2a contend  -   Job 19:6; 33:13
Jb 40:2b argues  -   Job 9:32; 10:7; 16:21; 30:21
Jb 40:4a mouth  -   Prov. 30:32; Rom. 3:19
Jb 40:6a whirlwind  -   Job 38:1
Jb 40:7a Gird  -   Job 38:3
Jb 40:8a Will  -   Psa. 51:4; Rom. 3:4
Jb 40:10a Deck  -   cf. Psa. 93:1; 104:1
Jb 40:12a proud  -   Isa. 2:12, 17; Dan. 4:37
Jb 40:151 behemoth
Probably referring to the hippopotamus.
Jb 40:15a made  -   Gen. 1:24-26
Job Chapter 41
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 41:11 leviathan
Probably referring to the crocodile.
Jb 41:11a Who  -   Rom. 11:35
Jb 41:11b is  -   Psa. 24:1; 50:12; 1 Cor. 10:26
Jb 41:251 the
Or, gods.
Jb 41:301 threshing
A long, flat frame with sharp teeth of iron or rock on its underside, which is pulled across harvested grain in order to thresh it.
Job Chapter 42
Notes and Cross-references
Jb 42:2a can  -   Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; 14:36; Luke 18:27
Jb 42:3a knowledge  -   Job 35:16; 38:2
Jb 42:3b wonderful  -   Psa. 139:6
Jb 42:4a I  -   Job 38:3; 40:7
Jb 42:51a seen  -   Matt. 5:8
In the New Testament sense, seeing God equals gaining God. To gain God is to receive God in His element, in His life, and in His nature that we may be constituted with God. All God’s redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified people will see God’s face (Rev. 22:4). Seeing God transforms us (2 Cor. 3:18; cf. 1 John 3:2), because in seeing God we receive His element into us and our old element is discharged. This metabolic process is transformation (Rom. 12:2). To see God is to be transformed into the glorious image of Christ, the God-man, that we may express God in His life and represent Him in His authority.
Jb 42:61 abhor
The more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor ourselves and the more we deny ourselves (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:26).
Jb 42:6a repent  -   Matt. 11:21
Jb 42:71 has
Job was right in saying that his sufferings were not a matter of God’s judgment. Job felt that, according to his conscience, he had not done anything that required God to judge him or to punish him. Nevertheless, he was suffering and he wanted to investigate his situation with God. Job’s three friends, however, insisted that Job’s sufferings were a proof that he had done something wrong and was being judged by God. Thus, God came in to condemn the three friends and to vindicate Job to a certain extent.
Nevertheless, Job was devoid of the divine revelation, not knowing that God’s purpose in dealing with His people is that He wants His people to gain Him, to partake of Him, to possess Him, and to enjoy Him, rather than all things, until their enjoyment reaches the fullest extent (Phil. 3:7-14; 2 Cor. 4:16-17), as the divine revelation ultimately unveils in the New Testament, that His people may ultimately become the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5).
Jb 42:8a burnt  -   Job 1:5; Gen. 8:20
Jb 42:8b pray  -   Gen. 20:7; 1 Sam. 12:23; James 5:16; 1 John 5:16
Jb 42:91 Eliphaz
In His reply to Job, God paid no attention to Elihu because his concept had not come up to the level of God’s ultimate standard, though it was not wrong.
Jb 42:10a turned  -   cf. Psa. 14:7; 126:1; Ezek. 16:53
Jb 42:101b twice  -   Isa. 40:2; 61:7; Zech. 9:12; James 5:11; cf. Mark 10:30
All the physical blessings with which God blessed Job were to show Job God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness in his latter days. This indicates that God is perfect and kind in dealing with those who love Him. Even today, after God deals with us by stripping us and consuming us, and after His purpose is accomplished, God gives us His physical blessings. However, God’s purpose in dealing with His people is not to give physical blessings to them but to give Himself to them as their eternal portion, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem. The all-embracing aggregate, the totality, of the divine blessing given by God to His people is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (Gal. 3:14).
Jb 42:12a end  -   James 5:11
Jb 42:12b sheep  -   Job 1:3
Jb 42:13a seven  -   Job 1:2
Jb 42:171 days
The forty-two chapters in Job leave us with a crucial question of two parts: what was the purpose of God in His creation of man, and what is the purpose of God in His dealing with His chosen people? The entire Bible is needed to answer this question. In particular, the New Testament is a long answer to the question in Job. This answer is the eternal economy of God according to His good pleasure, which is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity — in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit — through His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, with the outpouring of the Spirit, into His chosen and redeemed people, to make all of them the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead, to make them His duplication that they may express Him (Rom. 8:28-29 and notes). The issue of such a divine dispensing is the church as the Body of Christ, as the new man, and as the organism of the Triune God. This organism will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the enlarged, the increased, incarnation of God consummated in full, that is, the fullness of the Triune God (Eph. 3:19) for Him to express Himself corporately in His divinity mingled with humanity for eternity. This is the divine revelation in the New Testament as the answer to the sufferings of Job and to the great question concerning God’s purpose in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people.
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Psalms Outline
IN FIVE BOOKS



Book One — Psalms 1 — 41
Indicating that God’s intention is to turn the seeking saints from the law to Christ that they may enjoy the house of God — the church
Book Two — Psalms 42 — 72
Indicating that the saints experience God and His house and city through the suffering, exalted, and reigning Christ
Book Three — Psalms 73 — 89
Indicating that the saints, in their experiences, realize that the house and the city of God with all the enjoyments thereof can be preserved and maintained only with Christ properly appreciated and exalted by God’s people
Book Four — Psalms 90 — 106
Indicating that the saints, being joined to Christ, are one with God so that He can recover His title over the earth through Christ in His house and city
Book Five — Psalms 107 — 150
Indicating that the house and the city of God become the praise, safety, and desire of the saints, and that Christ comes to reign over the whole earth through the house and the city of God — the church
Psalms >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Psalm 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 1:11a Blessed  -   cf. Psa. 2:12; 84:12; 32:1-2; Jer. 17:7; Matt. 5:3-11; Rev. 22:14
Or, Happy. Psalms is not a book of doctrines or of any kind of teaching. It is a book of divine revelation composed of the expressions, sentiments, feelings, impressions, and experiences of godly men concerning (1) God and the way He is in His dealing with them; (2) the law of God as the holy Word with the divine revelation; (3) the house of God, the temple, and Mount Zion, on which the temple was seated, as the center of God’s dwelling place on earth; (4) the holy city of God, Jerusalem, as the encompassing protection of the house of God; (5) the holy people of God, Israel, as God’s beloved elect among the nations; (6) Israel’s love toward God, their fellowship with God, their blessings received of God, their sufferings under God’s dealings, and their environment; (7) their captivity; and (8) their thanksgivings and praises to Jehovah their God, whom they tasted and enjoyed. Through the godly expressions of the psalmists Christ is revealed and the church as God’s house and God’s city is typified.
The Psalms were written according to two kinds of concepts: the human concept of the holy writers and the divine concept of God. The human concept of the holy writers was produced out of their good nature created by God, formed with the traditions of their holy race, constituted with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, promoted by their practice of a holy life, and uttered out of their holy sentiments and impressions. The divine concept of God as the divine revelation in the Psalms concerns three major items: (1) God’s eternal economy, of which Christ is the centrality and universality; (2) Christ in His divinity, humanity, human living, all-inclusive death, life-imparting and church-producing resurrection, glorification, ascension, appearing in glory, and reigning forever; and (3) God’s heart’s desire, His good pleasure, in Christ as His centrality and universality, in the church as His fullness for His expression, in the kingdom for His eternal administration, and in the recovery of the earth for His eternal kingdom in eternity. In the Psalms only what is written out of the divine concept of God, and not what is written out of the human concept of the psalmists, should be considered as part of the divine revelation from God concerning His divine economy.
According to the divine concept, the central thought of the book of Psalms is Christ, as revealed in plain words (Luke 24:44), and the church as the house of God and the city of God for His kingdom, as typified by the temple and by the city of Jerusalem. The spirit, the reality, the characteristic, of the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is Christ as the centrality and universality of the eternal economy of God. For this, Christ is first the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), then the house, the habitation, of God (signified by the temple — John 2:19-21), the kingdom of God (signified by the city of Jerusalem — Luke 17:21; Rev. 22:3b), and the Ruler of the entire earth from the house of God and in the kingdom of God (Dan. 2:34-35). Thus, He is all in all in the entire universe (cf. Eph. 1:23; Col. 3:11). Such a divine revelation is the same as what is revealed in the entire Holy Scriptures. The only particular point related to the divine revelation in the book of Psalms is that such a high revelation, even the highest peak of the divine revelation, is prophesied in the expressions of the sentiments of the ancient godly saints. Thus, it is mixed with their comfort in sufferings and with the cultivation of godliness. The consummation of this highest divine revelation is the city of New Jerusalem as a sign of the habitation, the tabernacle, of God (Rev. 21:1-3), through which the processed and consummated Triune God will be manifested and expressed in the all-inclusive Christ and will reign on the new earth in the new universe for eternity.
Ps 1:1b sit  -   Psa. 26:4; Jer. 15:17
Ps 1:2a delight  -   Psa. 112:1; 119:70, 77, 92; Rom. 7:22
Ps 1:21 law
Psalms 1 and 2 portray a contrast between the human concept and the divine revelation. The human concept exalts the law and the law-keeper as one blessed by God, whereas the divine revelation proclaims Christ as the One anointed of God in God’s economy. In Psa. 1 the psalmist, according to his human, ethical concept, appreciated and uplifted the law to the uttermost. This is contrary to the divine concept in God’s New Testament economy. In its nature the law is holy, righteous, good, and spiritual (Rom. 7:12, 14a), but in its position, the law is not in the main line of God’s economy; rather, it entered in alongside the main line of God’s economy (Rom. 5:20a). God created man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26) with the intention that man would receive God as life in the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9, 16-17) so that man could live God and express God. This is the main line of God’s economy. But while this main line was proceeding, Satan came in to deceive man and constitute man with sin (Gen. 3:1-6; Rom. 5:19). In order to continue His purpose with man after man’s fall, God added the law to the main line of His economy (Gal. 3:19 and notes 1 and 2). According to Gal. 4:24-25 (see note 245 there), the position of the law is that of a concubine. A concubine does not have an orthodox position. Thus, to appreciate and uplift the law is to bring a “concubine” into God’s economy. This is absolutely against God’s ordination.
The entire book of Psalms presents a contrast between the law and Christ. Only Christ Himself, not the law, can make us members of Christ and conform us to Christ that we may be His complement (Eph. 5:30-32; Rom. 8:29). The spirit of the Scriptures does not exalt anything or anyone other than Christ (Matt. 17:1-5; Phil. 3:7-8; Col. 1:15-19). Eventually, by the end of the Psalms the only thing that remains is Christ with His complement, which is His Body, His church, the house and kingdom of God in God’s economy to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
In the book of Psalms, as in the entire Bible, there are two lines: the line of the tree of life, the line of life, and the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the line of death (Gen. 2:8-9, 16-17 and note 93, par. 2). In addition to these two lines, the line of the law runs alongside the line of life. God’s purpose in giving the law was to lead His people to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24), i.e., to the line of life (see note 11 in Exo. 25). However, if the law as the side line is exalted improperly, it becomes part of the line of the tree of knowledge, the line of death (Rom. 7:7-11; 2 Cor. 3:6b). God has ordained Christ to be the centrality and universality of His economy to fulfill His good pleasure (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:8-11). The law has been ended by Christ (Rom. 10:4a), and the believers are no longer under the law (Rom. 6:14).
Ps 1:2b meditates  -   Josh. 1:8; Psa. 119:97
Ps 1:3a tree  -   Jer. 17:8
Ps 1:31 prospers
The human concept here is that the man who delights in the law of God prospers in everything, whereas the wicked man suffers loss (vv. 4-5). But the experience of the psalmist in Psa. 73 was the opposite (73:1-7, 12-14). This seeming contradiction troubled the psalmist until he was instructed, in the sanctuary of God, to take only God Himself as his portion, not anything other than God (73:16-17, 25-26). According to the Lord’s teaching in the New Testament, those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness (not those who are prosperous) are blessed (Matt. 5:10). In his pursuing of Christ, the apostle Paul did not prosper outwardly but suffered the loss of all things and counted them as refuse that he might gain Christ (Phil. 3:8).
Ps 1:4a chaff  -   Job 21:18; Isa. 17:13
Ps 1:5a stand  -   Psa. 5:5; Luke 21:36
Ps 1:6a knows  -   Nahum 1:7; 1 Cor. 8:3
Psalm 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 2:11a Why  -   vv. 1-2: Acts 4:25-26
Psalm 1, concerning the law in man’s appreciation, is for the personal benefit of the saints, such as their being blessed in prosperity (1:1-3). Psalm 2, concerning Christ and His attainments, is for the accomplishing of God’s economy. The human concept of the holy writers uplifts the law to the extent that they treasured the law and desired to remain in it for their whole life. The divine concept of the unveiling God exalts Christ in order to turn the holy writers’ concept from the law to Christ in accordance with the divine concept of the divine revelation.
Ps 2:12b nations  -   Psa. 46:6; Joel 3:9-13; Rev. 11:18
This is the opposition to Christ by the nations and the rulers of the world (vv. 1-3). This opposition began with Herod and Pontius Pilate (Acts 4:25-28) and will conclude with Antichrist (Rev. 19:19).
Ps 2:2a counsel  -   Mark 15:1
Ps 2:21b Anointed  -   Psa. 45:7; Dan. 9:26; John 1:41
Both Messiah (from Hebrew) and Christ (from Greek) mean the anointed One. In His divinity Christ was anointed by God in eternity to be the Messiah — Christ — the anointed One (Dan. 9:26; John 1:41). He came in His incarnation as the anointed One to accomplish God’s eternal plan (Luke 2:11; Matt. 1:16; 16:16). In His humanity He was anointed again in time at His baptism for His ministry, mainly on the earth (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18-19; Acts 10:38; Heb. 1:9). In His resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) for the purpose of being God’s Anointed, and in His ascension He was made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), becoming God’s Anointed in an official way to carry out God’s commission, mainly in His heavenly ministry. See note 411 in John 1 and note 361 in Acts 2.
Ps 2:3a bonds  -   Jer. 5:5
Ps 2:4a laughs  -   Psa. 59:8; 37:13
Ps 2:41 Lord
Some MSS read, Jehovah.
Ps 2:61 King
Verses 4-6 of this psalm are God’s declaration concerning Christ. In His ascension Christ was installed, enthroned, as God’s King in the heavens for God’s kingdom to fulfill His economy (Mark 16:19; Acts 2:36; 5:31; Rev. 1:5a). This kingdom includes all the nations as Christ’s inheritance and the limits of the earth as Christ’s possession (v. 8; Matt. 28:18-20). Eventually, in His universal kingdom Christ will rule the nations with an iron rod (v. 9; Rev. 19:15).
This psalm reveals the steps of Christ in God’s economy, beginning from His being anointed in eternity in His divinity (v. 2) and continuing with His resurrection (implying His death also — v. 7; cf. Acts 13:33), His ascension (v. 6), His setting up His universal kingdom (Rev. 11:15) with the nations as His inheritance and the ends of the earth as His possession (v. 8), and His ruling the nations with an iron rod (v. 9).
Ps 2:62a Zion  -   2 Sam. 5:7; Psa. 9:11; 48:12; 50:2; 51:18; 84:7; 87:2; 99:2; 128:5; 132:13; 133:3; 135:21; Isa. 12:6; 59:20; Micah 4:2; Rom. 9:33; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1
God proclaimed that He had installed His King on Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai was the place where the law was given, and Mount Zion in the heavens is the place where Christ is today in His ascension (Rev. 14:1). The New Testament believers have come not to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion (Heb. 12:18-22). Mount Sinai produces children of slavery under the law, but our mother, the Jerusalem above, which is in the heavens at Mount Zion, produces children of promise who inherit the promised blessing — the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 4:24-26, 28; 3:14).
Ps 2:71a You  -   Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5
Verses 7-9 are the declaration of Christ. This word was quoted by the apostle Paul in Acts 13:33, indicating that Psa. 2:7 refers to Christ’s resurrection. After being cut off, crucified (Dan. 9:26), Christ, God’s anointed One, was resurrected to be begotten in His humanity as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29; Heb. 1:5-6). Through the same resurrection all His believers were born with Him to be His many brothers, the many sons of God (John 20:17; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10). See notes 331 in Acts 13, 41 in Rom. 1, and 172 and 173 in John 20.
Ps 2:7b Today  -   John 20:1, 9
Ps 2:8a limits  -   Psa. 72:8; Zech. 9:10
Ps 2:9a iron  -   Rev. 2:27
Ps 2:9b vessel  -   Isa. 30:14; Jer. 19:11; Rev. 2:27
Ps 2:101 Now
Verses 10-12 are a warning concerning the coming wrath of God and Christ upon the world. In the New Testament the period in which Christ will come to execute His judgment in His wrath upon the world is called “the day of the Lord” (Acts 2:20; 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Thes. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:10), which is also the day of God (2 Pet. 3:12). See note 151 in Joel 1.
Ps 2:11a fear  -   2 Cor. 5:11; Heb. 12:28; Jude 23
Ps 2:121a Kiss  -   S.S. 1:2; 8:1; cf. 1 Sam. 10:1; 1 Kings 19:18
To take refuge in the Son is to believe into the Son, Christ (John 3:16, 36), taking Him as our refuge, protection, and hiding place. To kiss the Son is to love the Son and thereby to enjoy Him (John 14:21, 23). To believe in the Lord is to receive Him (John 1:12); to love the Lord is to enjoy the Lord whom we have received. These are the two requirements for us to participate in the Lord. See note 93 in 1 Cor. 2.
Ps 2:122b Blessed  -   Psa. 34:8; 84:12; Prov. 16:20; Jer. 17:7; cf. Psa. 1:1
Or, Happy. The human concept that man is blessed by keeping the law of Jehovah (1:1-2) is in contrast here to the divine concept that man is blessed by taking refuge in the Son.
Ps 2:12c take  -   2 Sam. 22:3, 31; Psa. 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 16:1; 18:2, 30; 25:20; 31:1, 19; 34:8, 22; 37:40; 57:1; 64:10; 71:1; 91:4; 118:8, 9; 141:8; 144:2; Prov. 30:5; Nahum 1:7
See note 121.
Psalm 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 3:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 4–9; 11–32; 34–41; 51–65; 68–70; 86; 101; 103; 108–110; 122; 124; 131; 133; 138–145
Ps 3:Titleb fled  -   2 Sam. 15:14-17
Ps 3:11 Jehovah
Psalms 3 — 7 show David’s concept concerning a godly life. Psalms 3 and 7, and probably 4 — 6, were written by David in his flight from his son Absalom’s rebellion (2 Sam. 15:1 — 19:8a), which was the outcome, under God’s chastisement, of David’s sin of murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife (2 Sam. 11). David’s prayers in these psalms, concerning his sufferings, his desire to be avenged of his adversaries, his condemning of others, and his self-righteousness and integrity, are according to his human concept and for his personal interest. They cannot compare with the spiritual prayers of the apostle Paul in Eph. 1:15-23 and 3:14-21, which are for the fulfillment of God’s economy.
Ps 3:21 Selah
Meaning lift up! and probably denoting a pause in the recitation to allow the accompanying music to swell.
Ps 3:3a shield  -   Gen. 15:1; Psa. 28:7; 84:9, 11; 119:114
Ps 3:3b glory  -   Psa. 62:7
Ps 3:4a holy  -   Psa. 2:6; 18:6; 43:3
Ps 3:71 strike
David’s prayer for vengeance against his enemies is contrary to the New Testament, which teaches us to love our enemies and to bless those who persecute us and pray for them (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35; Rom. 12:14, 20). In the Psalms the words concerning the psalmists’ hating their enemies, their asking God to avenge them, and their cursing others are not the words of God but are words that issued from the psalmists’ natural sentiment while they were praising God. They are recorded by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture to serve God’s purpose of exposing the psalmists’ spiritual condition, i.e., that although the psalmists loved God and sought Him, they were natural, not spiritual, in their sentiment.
Ps 3:8a Salvation  -   Jonah 2:9; Rev. 7:10; 19:1
Psalm 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 4:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 4:11 righteousness
In vv. 1-4 David asked God to vindicate him of his righteousness, proclaimed that he was a godly man whom God set apart for Himself and who was heard by God when he called out to Him, and admonished others not to sin. In light of his great failure in murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife (2 Sam. 11), he should have asked God to enlighten him so that he could see how evil and sinful he was.
Ps 4:31 sets
Some MSS read and the Septuagint translates, deals wonderfully with.
Ps 4:4a Be  -   Eph. 4:26
Ps 4:6a light  -   Num. 6:25-26; Psa. 31:16; 67:1; 119:135
Ps 4:71 grain
Lit., their grain and their new wine.
Psalm 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 5:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 5:2a King  -   Psa. 10:16; 24:7-8; 44:4; 47:6-7; 68:24; 74:12; 84:3; 95:3; 98:6; 145:1; 149:2; Isa. 33:22
Ps 5:41 For
David highly uplifted and exalted the law and knew that God does not delight in wickedness but hates iniquity. But he conspired against Uriah, murdered him, and stole his wife (2 Sam. 11), thus breaking all the last five commandments in the law. This shows that the law and the knowledge of it avail nothing.
Ps 5:7a house  -   Gen. 28:17; 1 Kings 8:29-30
Ps 5:7b holy  -   Psa. 11:4; 65:4; 138:2; Jonah 2:4, 7; Hab. 2:20
Ps 5:9a Their  -   Rom. 3:13
Ps 5:9b grave  -   Luke 11:44
Ps 5:9c flatter  -   Prov. 7:5; Jude 16
Ps 5:101 Hold
See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 5:11a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Psalm 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 6:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 6:1a O  -   Psa. 38:1
Ps 6:11 chasten
David realized that he was being chastened by God, but in his prayer here there was little repentance and confession of his failure (cf. 51:1-17). See note 11 in Psa. 4.
Ps 6:5a death  -   Psa. 30:9; 88:10-12; 115:17; Isa. 38:18
Ps 6:51 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Psalm 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 7:Title* Shiggaion
The meaning of the term is obscure but apparently denotes a musical form or tempo (cf. Hab. 3:1).
Ps 7:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 7:Titleb Benjaminite  -   2 Sam. 16:5-13
Ps 7:1a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 7:31 unrighteousness
In this psalm David felt that he had done no wrong, and he asked God to judge him according to his righteousness and his integrity (v. 8). This shows that David had not been enlightened and convicted by God concerning his own sinfulness (cf. Psa. 51; Isa. 64:6; Rom. 7:18; Luke 18:9-14; 1 Tim. 1:15).
Like the book of Job, many of the psalms give us the impression that we need to be godly, to fear God and trust in Him, to keep the law, to maintain our integrity, and to be righteous, upright, just, and perfect (cf. note 14, par. 1, in Job 1). Such a concept, however, is not according to the divine revelation of the New Testament; it is altogether the concept of the Old Testament under the law according to the knowledge of good and evil. The New Testament reveals that we have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20) and buried with Him (Rom. 6:4). Death has liberated us from the law (Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19). Now we should simply receive Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, and let Him live in us, no longer caring for our righteousness, justice, or integrity but caring only for Christ, the living One (Phil. 3:6b-9).
Ps 7:41 Rather
Or, And have plundered him who vexed me without cause.
Ps 7:8a judgment  -   Gen. 18:25; Psa. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; Acts 17:31
Ps 7:9a Tries  -   Psa. 26:2; Jer. 11:20; 17:10; 20:12; Luke 16:15; Rev. 2:23
Ps 7:11a Judge  -   Psa. 50:6; Acts 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:8
Psalm 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 8:Title* gittith
The meaning of the Hebrew is obscure. Perhaps a stringed instrument is meant.
Ps 8:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 8:11 O
Psalms 3 — 7 reveal David’s concepts concerning a godly life, whereas Psa. 8 is his inspired praise of the excellency of Christ.
Ps 8:12 excellent
Or, majestic. So also in v. 9. Psalms 3 — 7 portray the poor and troubled situation on the earth according to David’s human concept. Here, in Psa. 8, the name of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and exalted Jesus (Phil. 2:5-11) is excellent in the earth according to the divine revelation, and the Lord’s glory is above the heavens in the sight of David. In this psalm the earth is linked to the heavens and the heavens are brought down to the earth, making the earth and the heavens one (Gen. 28:12 and note 2).
Ps 8:1a name  -   Psa. 148:13; Isa. 12:4
Ps 8:2a Out  -   Matt. 21:16
Ps 8:21b babes  -   Matt. 11:25; Luke 10:21
Signifying the people of the kingdom of the heavens, who are like little children (Matt. 18:3; 19:14). The Lord’s salvation, including His redemption, regeneration, sanctification, renewing, and transformation, stops all our natural, human activity and makes us babes and sucklings to praise Him.
Ps 8:22 established
The Septuagint translates, perfected praise (cf. Matt. 21:16).
Ps 8:23 adversaries
Signifying Satan, who is God’s adversary within God’s kingdom, God’s enemy outside God’s kingdom, and the avenger who roves to and fro over the earth (cf. Job 1:7; 1 Pet. 5:8). Above the heavens is God’s splendor, and on the earth is the excellent name of Jesus; but between the earth and heavens are the adversary, the enemy, and the avenger (Eph. 2:2; 6:12). The Lord stops these three categories of negative ones by establishing strength and perfecting praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, the youngest, smallest, and weakest ones. In this psalm the perfected praise includes the praise for the Lord’s glory above the heavens, His excellency on the earth (v. 1), and His incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming kingdom (vv. 4-8). To praise the Lord in such a perfected way requires strength. The highest consummation of the Lord’s work in His redemption is to strengthen the weakest and smallest ones and perfect the praise they offer to Him out of their mouths.
Ps 8:31 heavens
Here David’s view was turned in the night (indicated by the moon and the stars) from looking at the earth to contemplating the heavens. In looking away from the dark earth to the moon and the stars in the heavens, David saw God’s creation and the divine order in the universe. The Lord’s aim in His redemption is to turn our view from the dark and troubled earth to the bright and ordered heavens.
Ps 8:3a The  -   Gen. 1:16
Ps 8:4a What  -   Job 7:17; Psa. 144:3; Heb. 2:6-8
Ps 8:41 mortal
Man is the central object of God in His creation for the accomplishing of His economy to fulfill His heart’s desire. What is written in vv. 4-6 concerning man was first alluded to in Gen. 1:26-28 and then quoted in Heb. 2:6-8. These three portions of the word reveal man in three stages: first, the God-created man in God’s creation in Gen. 1:26; second, the Satan-captured man in man’s fall in this verse; and third, Christ as a man in His incarnation for the accomplishing of God’s redemption in Heb. 2:6. Such a man God remembers in His economy and visits in His incarnation.
Ps 8:42 remember
God in the heavens first remembered man; then, He came to visit man by becoming a man through His incarnation (v. 5a; John 1:14; Phil. 2:7). In this way He brought the heavens down to the earth and joined the earth and the heavens, making these two one (John 1:51).
Ps 8:51 Him
Referring to the man Jesus in His incarnation with His human living for His all-inclusive death (Heb. 2:7, 9a). See note 91 in Heb. 2.
Ps 8:52 angels
Heb. elohim, normally translated God. The translation here follows the Septuagint (cf. Heb. 2:7).
Ps 8:53 crowned
Referring to Christ’s resurrection, in which He was glorified (John 7:39b; Luke 24:26), and His ascension, in which He was honored (Acts 2:33-36; 5:31a). Christ’s all-inclusive death (Heb. 2:9), which preceded His resurrection and ascension, is implied.
This verse portrays all the steps of the Triune God’s process in Christ: incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. At the end of this process He was consummated to be the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to be breathed into and poured out upon His believers (John 20:22; Acts 2:17). Thus, God visited man through the long journey of His process, through which He became the life-giving Spirit to reach man and enter into man to indwell man (John 14:17, 20).
Ps 8:61a rule  -   Gen. 1:26, 28; Gen. 9:2
Verses 6-8 specifically refer to the one-thousand-year kingdom, the millennium, in which the man Christ will rule over all the created things, and to the restoration in the kingdom. This word was fulfilled first in Adam (Gen. 1:26-28), but it was broken by man’s fall. It will be fulfilled in full in Christ with His Body, the overcomers, in the millennium, the age of restoration (Rev. 20:4-6; Matt. 19:28; Isa. 11:6-9; 65:25).
Ps 8:6b all  -   1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22; Heb. 2:8
Ps 8:6c under  -   Matt. 22:44; 1 Cor. 15:25
Ps 8:91 O
In this verse the psalmist considers that the earth is as excellent as the heavens, as indicated in the first part of the Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6:9-10. In the millennium the earth will be excellent because the excellency of the name of Christ will fill the earth. At that time the earth and the heavens will be one in a complete way.
Psalm 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 9:Title* according
The meaning of the Hebrew is obscure. It may refer to a kind of singing voice. Some versions translate, over the death of a son.
Ps 9:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 9:11 I
This psalm combined with Psa. 10 is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. In the acrostic psalms the first letters of each verse, or sometimes of each line of poetry, follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet.
Ps 9:31 enemies
This psalm expresses David’s concept concerning God’s judgment on his enemies among the nations, and in Psa. 10 — 14 David speaks of man’s condition before God. David’s concept in these six psalms is according to the law given by God (see note 21 in Psa. 1) and is based on the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). Nothing in these psalms is related to God’s economy, to God’s interest, to God’s kingdom, or to God’s plan. Everything is concerning David’s personal benefit, personal interest, personal safety, and personal peace. The New Testament believers, who live by Christ as the tree of life for the carrying out of God’s economy, should not take David here as a model.
Ps 9:41 judging
David’s thought here and in vv. 7-8 is that God sits as the King on the throne only to judge the world in righteousness and with equity, i.e., with justice. His concept is according to the law and according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In contrast, the principal concept of the New Testament is that Christ rules the world to save the world in mercy and grace (Acts 5:31 and note 2). In the New Testament God’s throne is mainly the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16), the throne of a loving Savior, not the throne of judgment. From eternity to eternity God’s intention is to love the world, which is composed of fallen men, and to favor man with His mercy and grace (Hosea 6:6, cf. Matt. 9:13; John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:3-4; Titus 3:4-7). Of course, the New Testament also reveals that God’s throne is the throne of God’s authority and that God will judge His own people and the world in His righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 4:17; Rom. 3:19; Rev. 4:2; 6:12 — 20:15).
Ps 9:8a judges  -   Psa. 1:5; 96:10, 13; 98:9; Acts 17:31
Ps 9:9a high  -   2 Sam. 22:3; Psa. 18:2; 48:3; 59:9, 16; 62:2; 144:2
Ps 9:11a Inhabitant  -   Psa. 74:2; 76:2; 132:13; cf. Isa. 12:6
Ps 9:11b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 9:14a daughter  -   2 Kings 19:21; Isa. 37:22; 62:11
Ps 9:14b exult  -   Acts 16:34
Ps 9:14c salvation  -   1 Sam. 2:1; Psa. 13:5; 20:5; 21:1; 35:9
Ps 9:161 justice
Or, judgment.
Ps 9:162 Higgaion
Referring, perhaps, to a resounding musical swell or to a meditative choral pause.
Psalm 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 10:11 Why
In the Septuagint, Psa. 9 and 10 are one psalm. See note 11 in Psa. 9.
Ps 10:1a far  -   Psa. 22:1, 11, 19; 35:22; 38:21
Ps 10:4a There  -   Psa. 14:1; 53:1
Ps 10:61 forever
Lit., from generation to generation.
Ps 10:7a mouth  -   Rom. 3:14
Ps 10:11a see  -   Job 22:13; Psa. 94:7; Ezek. 8:12; 9:9
Ps 10:14a commits  -   2 Tim. 1:12
Ps 10:16a King  -   Exo. 15:18; Psa. 29:10; Jer. 10:10; 1 Tim. 1:17; Rev. 11:15; 15:3
Psalm 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 11:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 11:1a taken  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 11:11 the
Following the reading of the Septuagint and some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, your (plural) mountain.
Ps 11:4a temple  -   Jonah 2:7; Micah 1:2; Hab. 2:20
Ps 11:4b throne  -   Psa. 103:19; Isa. 66:1; Matt. 23:22; Rev. 4:2
Ps 11:41 eyelids
Signifying gazing.
Ps 11:6a Fire  -   Gen. 19:24; Ezek. 38:22; Luke 17:29
Psalm 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 12:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 12:3a tongue  -   James 3:5; Dan. 7:8, 20; Rev. 13:5
Ps 12:6a pure  -   Psa. 119:140; 18:30; Prov. 30:5
Psalm 13
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 13:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 13:3a sleep  -   Dan. 12:2; John 11:11-13; 1 Cor. 15:51
Ps 13:5a salvation  -   Psa. 9:14
Psalm 14
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 14:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 14:1a The  -   vv. 1-7: Psa. 53:1-6
Ps 14:1b There  -   Psa. 10:4
Ps 14:1c There  -   Rom. 3:12
Ps 14:2a Jehovah  -   Psa. 33:13
Ps 14:2b To  -   vv. 2b-3: Rom. 3:11-12
Ps 14:6a refuge  -   Psa. 2:12; 46:1; 59:16; 61:3; 62:7, 8; 71:7; 73:28; 91:2, 9; 142:5; 143:9
Ps 14:7a salvation  -   cf. Isa. 46:13
Ps 14:7b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 14:7c turns  -   Job 42:10; Psa. 53:6; 85:1; 126:1-4; Jer. 30:3, 18; Ezek. 16:53; 39:25; Hosea 6:11; Joel 3:1; Amos 9:14
Psalm 15
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 15:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 15:11 O
Psalms 15 and 16 are a pair showing a comparison between the keeping of the law and the participation in Christ. Psalm 15 is full of the concept of good and evil, whereas in Psa. 16 Christ, the person, replaces good and evil.
Ps 15:12 tent
Referring to God’s house, the temple.
Ps 15:1a Who  -   cf. Psa. 24:3
Ps 15:1b holy  -   Psa. 2:6; 3:4; 43:3
Ps 15:21 He
According to vv. 2-5, David’s concept was that the man who is perfect according to the law may dwell with God for His heart’s desire and good pleasure. Thus, v. 5 says that he who does the good things of the law will not be shaken forever (cf. 16:8). However, Psa. 16 reveals that only Christ, the God-man, can satisfy God’s desire and fulfill His good pleasure (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). Only He — the very God who became a man, lived a human life full of the divine attributes expressed in human virtues, died, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of God — is perfect according to the law and can sojourn in God’s tabernacle and dwell with God on His holy mountain. In God’s economy only the God-man Christ as the firstborn Son of God with His many brothers as the many sons of God (Rom. 8:29) can satisfy God’s desire and fulfill His good pleasure.
Psalm 16
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 16:Title* Michtam
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; some understand, a golden jewel (of a poem); others, an epigram.
Ps 16:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 16:11 Preserve
This short psalm refers to Christ (vv. 8-11; cf. Acts 2:25a), the wonderful God-man, in His four stages: His human living (implying also His incarnation — vv. 1-8), His death (vv. 9-10), His resurrection (vv. 10-11a), and His ascension (v. 11b). See Acts 2:25-28 and notes.
Ps 16:12a take  -   Psa. 2:12
When Christ was a man on earth, He took refuge in God and trusted in God’s preservation.
Ps 16:21 I
Some MSS read, You say (perhaps addressing the soul).
Ps 16:22 You
As a man, Christ took God as His Lord (Matt. 4:7, 10) and had no good (no blessing, no pleasure, and no enjoyment) beyond God as His portion (cf. Luke 18:19).
Ps 16:2a No  -   cf. Psa. 14:3
Ps 16:31 saints
In His human living Christ loved God the Father (John 14:31) and delighted not in the law but in the saints, the excellent people on the earth, because they are the members of His Body, the church (Eph. 1:22b-23; 5:30).
Ps 16:3a delight  -   cf. S.S. 7:10; Isa. 62:4
Ps 16:41 god
Christ in His human living had nothing to do with other gods and their offerings, nor did He take up their names upon His lips (Matt. 4:10).
Ps 16:51a portion  -   Num. 18:20; Psa. 73:26; 119:57; 142:5; Lam. 3:24; cf. Luke 10:42
As a man on earth Christ took God the Father as the portion of His inheritance (His possession) and of His cup (His enjoyment). Furthermore, Christ trusted in God to maintain His lot (the portion of His inheritance). God maintains the earth for Christ that He may inherit it as His possession (2:8; Heb. 1:2b).
Ps 16:5b cup  -   Psa. 23:5; 116:13; cf. 1 Cor. 10:16
Ps 16:61a measuring  -   2 Cor. 10:13
Christ appreciated the measured possession and the beautiful inheritance given to Him by God. All the nations with the earth (2:8) will be not only pleasant but also beautiful to Christ as the man who inherited God’s inheritance (Heb. 1:2b).
Ps 16:71 counsels
Christ, the humble Servant of Jehovah, was counseled by God, and His inward parts instructed Him in the nights (Isa. 50:4; Luke 6:12). When God counseled Christ as a man, Christ’s inward parts instructed Him through His contact with God. The inward parts of Christ were one with God. This is the proper experience of a God-man (cf. Phil. 1:8).
Ps 16:7a inward  -   Psa. 7:9; 26:2
Ps 16:8a I  -   vv. 8-11: Acts 2:25-28
Ps 16:81 set
In His human living Christ set God (not the law) before Him continually to be His security. Jesus was never alone, for God the Father was always with Him (John 8:29).
Ps 16:91a glory  -   Psa. 30:12
The Septuagint translates, tongue. See note 261 in Acts 2.
Ps 16:92 dwells
In His death, while Christ was in Hades, His flesh (His physical body) dwelt securely, being buried in a secured tomb (Matt. 27:59-60).
Ps 16:101 soul
After His death, Christ’s soul went to Sheol (Hades — Eph. 4:9) and remained there for three days. That God would not abandon Christ’s soul to Sheol or let Him as God’s Holy One see corruption indicates that Christ’s soul would be raised up from Sheol and also that Christ’s physical body would be resurrected from the tomb (Matt. 28:6; John 20:5-9).
Ps 16:10a Sheol  -   Psa. 30:3; 49:15
Ps 16:10b Holy  -   Acts 13:35; 3:14; Luke 4:34
Ps 16:102c pit  -   Psa. 49:9
The Septuagint translates, corruption (cf. Acts 2:27). Christ’s body was resurrected from the tomb within three days (1 Cor. 15:4); hence, it did not see corruption in the tomb.
Ps 16:111a path  -   Matt. 7:14
See note 281 in Acts 2.
Ps 16:11b life  -   Psa. 36:9; 21:4
Ps 16:112c presence  -   Psa. 21:6
Christ is in God’s presence participating in fullness of joy, indicating that He has ascended to the heavens to God’s presence in order to enjoy His attainments and His obtainments (Acts 1:9-11; 2:36; 5:31; Phil. 2:9-11). Christ is also enjoying pleasures forever at God’s right hand, indicating that He is at the right hand of God in His ascension to surpass all for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy concerning the church, the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:20b-23).
Ps 16:11d pleasures  -   Psa. 36:8
Psalm 17
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 17:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 17:11 Hear
Psalms 17 — 21 reveal David’s concept concerning a man before God and concerning David’s kingship before God. His concept was based on the keeping of the law and the principle of good and evil. In God’s New Testament economy we should not keep the law by ourselves but should live Christ by His living in us (Gal. 2:19-20; Phil. 1:21a).
Ps 17:3a examined  -   Psa. 26:2; 1 Chron. 29:17; 1 Thes. 2:4; 1 Pet. 1:7
Ps 17:3b tried  -   Zech. 13:9; Mal. 3:2-3
Ps 17:5a tracks  -   Psa. 44:18
Ps 17:71 lovingkindness
Verses 7-9 indicate an improvement in David’s concept from his own righteousness in vv. 1-6 to God’s lovingkindness and God’s hiding him in the shadow of His wings.
Ps 17:7a refuge  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 17:8a pupil  -   Deut. 32:10; Zech. 2:8
Ps 17:8b shadow  -   Ruth 2:12; Psa. 36:7; 57:1; 63:7; 91:4; Luke 13:34
Ps 17:111 us
Some MSS read, me.
Ps 17:131 confront
See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 17:151 righteousness
The end of this psalm shows David’s improvement in his being satisfied with God’s likeness (i.e., presence), yet David still remained in his righteousness before God. David boasted of his righteousness in spite of his great sin of taking Bathsheba and murdering her husband, Uriah (2 Sam. 11).
Ps 17:15a awake  -   Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2
Ps 17:15b likeness  -   Job 19:26; 1 John 3:2
See note 151.
Psalm 18
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 18:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 18:Titleb who  -   2 Sam. 22:1
Ps 18:Title* spoke
Psalm 18 is a human talk with the divine God, implying David’s intimacy with God.
Ps 18:11a strength  -   Psa. 46:1; 59:9; 62:7; 118:14; Isa. 12:2; Jer. 16:19; Hab. 3:19
Verses 1-5 reveal the improvement of David’s concept in his enjoyment of the saving God as his strength, his crag, his fortress, his Deliverer, his God, his rock, his shield, his horn of salvation, and his high retreat, in whom he took refuge.
Ps 18:2a Jehovah  -   2 Sam. 22:2-51
Ps 18:2b fortress  -   Psa. 31:3; 71:3; 91:2; 144:2
Ps 18:2c rock  -   Deut. 32:4, 31; 1 Sam. 2:2; Psa. 18:31, 46; 19:14; 28:1; 31:2; 42:9; 62:2, 6; 71:3; 73:26; 78:35; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; 95:1; 144:1
Ps 18:2d take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 18:2e shield  -   Gen. 15:1; Psa. 18:30; 119:114; 144:2
Ps 18:2f horn  -   Psa. 112:9; Luke 1:69
Ps 18:2g high  -   Psa. 9:9; 144:2
Ps 18:61 called
See note 262 in Gen. 4.
Ps 18:6a temple  -   cf. Psa. 3:4; 27:4
Ps 18:9a bowed  -   Psa. 144:5
Ps 18:10a cherub  -   Ezek. 10:19; 11:22
Ps 18:10b wings  -   Psa. 104:3
Ps 18:12a Hail  -   Exo. 9:18-19, 23-26; Isa. 28:2; Ezek. 38:22; Rev. 8:7
Ps 18:131 voice
Some MSS add, hail and fiery coals.
Ps 18:141 my
Lit., them.
Ps 18:151a sea  -   Exo. 15:8; Psa. 106:9
Following certain MSS and 2 Sam. 22:16; other MSS read, water.
Ps 18:201 recompensed
In vv. 20-28 David considered his righteousness, perfection, faithfulness, cleanness, and purity as the cause of God’s saving him, and he considered God’s salvation a recompense to him. This is a wrong concept. God saves us not because of our righteousness but because of His mercy and His compassion (Lam. 3:22; Eph. 2:1-9; Titus 3:5) and because of His own purpose (2 Tim. 1:9).
Ps 18:25a With  -   vv. 25-26: cf. James 2:13; Matt. 5:7; 18:33
Ps 18:28a lamp  -   Psa. 119:105; 132:17; Prov. 6:23; 20:27
Ps 18:29a leap  -   Gen. 49:22
Ps 18:30a tried  -   Psa. 12:6
Ps 18:30b shield  -   Gen. 15:1; Psa. 18:2
Ps 18:30c take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 18:31a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 18:33a hinds’  -   2 Sam. 22:34; Hab. 3:19
Ps 18:33b high  -   Deut. 32:13; 33:29; Isa. 58:14
Ps 18:34a teaches  -   2 Sam. 22:35; Psa. 144:1
Ps 18:421 pounded
Some MSS read, emptied.
Ps 18:43a head  -   Rom. 15:12; Eph. 1:22
Ps 18:43b not  -   Isa. 55:5
Ps 18:44a cringing  -   Deut. 33:29; 2 Sam. 22:45; Psa. 66:3; 81:15
Ps 18:45a quaking  -   Micah 7:17
Ps 18:46a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 18:46b God  -   Psa. 51:14; Hab. 3:18
Ps 18:49a Therefore  -   Rom. 15:9
Ps 18:49b sing  -   Psa. 7:17; 9:2; 61:8
Ps 18:501 seed
Christ is the seed of David (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3) to inherit the covenant God made with David (2 Sam. 7:8-16).
Ps 18:50a forever  -   2 Sam. 7:13, 29; Psa. 89:29
Psalm 19
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 19:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 19:1a heavens  -   Psa. 8:1; 50:6
Ps 19:1b declare  -   Rom. 1:20
Ps 19:1c expanse  -   Gen. 1:6-7; Psa. 150:1
Ps 19:4a In  -   Rom. 10:18
Ps 19:41 the
Lit., them.
Ps 19:5a bridegroom  -   Isa. 62:5; Joel 2:16; John 3:29
Ps 19:71 law
The law of God is His testimony (see note 11 in Exo. 20). In vv. 7-11 David esteemed the law very highly. See note 21 in Psa. 1.
Ps 19:7a perfect  -   Rom. 7:12; James 1:25
Ps 19:7b Making  -   Psa. 119:98; 2 Tim. 3:15
Ps 19:8a joyous  -   Psa. 119:14
Ps 19:8b Enlightening  -   Psa. 119:105
Ps 19:9a judgments  -   Rev. 19:2
Ps 19:10a gold  -   Psa. 119:72, 127; Prov. 8:10
Ps 19:10b Sweeter  -   Psa. 119:103; Prov. 16:24; cf. Judg. 14:18
Ps 19:121 Clear
David’s prayer in vv. 12-14 indicates that David was endeavoring to keep the law to the extent of being dealt with in his secret faults, in his presumptuous sins, in the words of his mouth, and in the meditation of his heart. However, even if David could have been perfect, this would not have pleased God. According to the entire principle of the Bible, God does not want anything merely from man. Regardless of how good a thing is, as long as it is merely human, God will put it aside. What God wants is not a good man, or even a perfect man, but a God-man. God’s desire was to be incarnated as a man by the name of Jesus, to die on the cross, to be resurrected, and in resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17a) to indwell us (Rom. 8:11), to live in us (Gal. 2:20), and to live Himself out of us (Phil. 1:21a). This psalm should be evaluated in view of the entire principle of the Bible, which is that God’s main purpose is to make Himself one with man and to make man one with Him, that He and man may have one life, one nature, and one living. Those who are one with God are God’s organism, the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the holy city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5).
Ps 19:14a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 19:14b Redeemer  -   Job 19:25
Psalm 20
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 20:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 20:11 May
Psalms 20 and 21 reveal David’s concept concerning his kingship before God. In this psalm David blessed his people with what God is and has. According to the principle of the Bible, the greater blesses the lesser (Heb. 7:7). That David could bless his people indicates that he had attained to a higher stature in life (cf. Gen. 47:7 and note).
Ps 20:2a sanctuary  -   Exo. 15:17; 2 Chron. 20:8-9; Psa. 28:2; 73:17; 77:13; 96:6; 134:2; 150:1
Ps 20:2b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 20:5a banner  -   Exo. 17:15; Psa. 60:4; S.S. 2:4; 6:4, 10
Ps 20:6a anointed  -   Psa. 2:2; 28:8
Ps 20:7a chariots  -   Isa. 31:1
Ps 20:7b name  -   1 Sam. 17:45
Ps 20:91a Save  -   Psa. 118:25
Or, Save the king, O Jehovah. May He hear us when we call.
Psalm 21
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 21:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 21:4a life  -   Psa. 16:10-11; 61:6; 91:16; Rev. 1:18
Ps 21:131 exalted
Here David blessed Jehovah. As the king, he blessed his people (20:1-9), and as God’s anointed one, he blessed the anointing God.
Psalm 22
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 22:Title* hind
Perhaps a reference to a melody common at that time. The hind of the dawn here signifies Christ in His resurrection, which took place at early dawn (Luke 24:1). A hind is a deer known for its leaping and jumping. Christ in resurrection is the leaping One (S.S. 2:8-9).
Ps 22:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 22:11a My  -   Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34
Psalms 22 — 24 are a group of psalms revealing Christ from His crucifixion to His kingship in the coming age. Psalm 22 concerns Christ’s death, His resurrection, and His many brothers produced in His resurrection to form His church. Psalm 23 concerns Christ as the Shepherd in His resurrection. Psalm 24 concerns Christ as the coming King in God’s kingdom.
The subject of Psa. 22 is the Christ who passed through the redeeming death and entered into the church-producing resurrection. Verses 1-21 give a detailed picture of Christ in His suffering of death (cf. Isa. 53), as typified by David in his suffering, and vv. 22-31 refer to Christ in His resurrection, as typified by Solomon in his kingly reign.
Ps 22:12 forsaken
The question at the beginning of this psalm was spoken by David in his suffering, but it became a prophecy concerning Christ in His suffering of His redeeming death. While Christ was on the earth, God the Father was with Him all the time (John 8:29), but at a certain point in His crucifixion, God left Him (Matt. 27:45-46). God’s leaving Him was economical, not essential. God could never leave Christ essentially, but economically God forsook Him for a time. Nevertheless, Christ died as the Son of God, a God-man; hence, in His death there is a divine and eternal element (Acts 20:28; 1 John 1:7; Heb. 9:12). See notes 221 in Luke 3, 451 and 462 in Matt. 27, and 74, par. 1, in 1 John 1.
Ps 22:13 Why
Or, So far from my salvation are the words of my groaning.
Ps 22:4a trusted  -   Gen. 15:6; Exo. 14:31
Ps 22:61 But
Verses 6-8 display Christ’s suffering unto death through men’s reproach, despising, deriding, sneering, head-shaking, and mocking (Heb. 13:13b; Isa. 53:3; Luke 23:11; Mark 15:29-32; Matt. 27:39-44). To deride is to make fun of or laugh at in contempt. To sneer is to smile or laugh with facial expressions that show scorn or contempt. When Christ was on the cross, the ridiculers also shook, or wagged, their heads in scorn. To mock is to hold up to scorn or contempt and to imitate or mimic in derision. All these things were suffered by the Lord Jesus Christ while He was nailed on the cross.
Ps 22:6a worm  -   Job 25:6; Isa. 41:14
Ps 22:6b despised  -   Isa. 49:7; 53:3
Ps 22:7a deride  -   Isa. 37:22; Luke 23:35
Ps 22:7b shake  -   2 Kings 19:21; Psa. 44:14; Matt. 27:39; Mark 15:29
Ps 22:81a He  -   Matt. 27:43
Others read, Commit yourself.
Ps 22:8b committed  -   Psa. 37:5; Prov. 16:3
Ps 22:91 But
Verses 9-11 show that while people were mocking Him and deriding Him, Christ trusted in God for deliverance, that is, for resurrection. He intended definitely to die and expected to be delivered from death, that is, to be resurrected from the dead (Luke 18:31-33; Heb. 5:7).
Ps 22:9a womb  -   Psa. 71:6; Isa. 49:1
Ps 22:10a birth  -   Isa. 46:3
Ps 22:121 Many
Verses 12-18 depict in vivid detail how Christ passed through His suffering of crucifixion (cf. Mark 15:16-37). While Christ was being crucified on the cross, many fierce men, signified by mighty bulls, encompassed Him (v. 12). They opened their mouth at Him like a ravening and roaring lion (v. 13). Evil men, signified by dogs (cf. Phil. 3:2a), surrounded Him, and a congregation of evildoers enclosed Him (v. 16a-b). They pierced His hands and feet (v. 16c). They divided His garments to themselves, and for His clothing they cast lots (v. 18). They also looked, stared at Him with contempt and hatred (v. 17b). On the cross He was poured out like water (v. 14a; Isa. 53:12). All His bones were out of joint (v. 14b) because He could not hold up the weight of His body as it hung on the cross. This caused Him great agony and pain. Also, He counted all His bones (v. 17a). His heart was like wax melted within Him (v. 14c-d). His strength was dried up like a shard (v. 15a), a piece of broken pottery. His tongue was stuck to His jaws (v. 15b). God had put Him in the dust of death (v. 15c).
Ps 22:12a bulls  -   Psa. 68:30
Ps 22:13a lion  -   1 Pet. 5:8
Ps 22:14a bones  -   Psa. 22:17; Dan. 5:6
Ps 22:141 me
Lit., my inward parts. See note 41, par. 2, in Exo. 27.
Ps 22:15a dried  -   Prov. 17:22
Ps 22:151 You
Referring to God. On one hand, man crucified the Lord Jesus; on the other hand, God killed Him. If Jesus had been killed only by man, He would have been merely a martyr and not our Redeemer. But God judged Him and put Him into death for our redemption (Isa. 53:10a). All the sin of the world was laid on Christ as the Lamb of God (Isa. 53:6b; 1 Pet. 2:24a; John 1:29). On the cross He died a vicarious death for us (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18) to redeem us from our sins, from God’s judgment, and from eternal perdition (1 Cor. 15:3; John 3:16-17; 5:24).
Ps 22:16a dogs  -   Phil. 3:2
Ps 22:161 They
Following the Septuagint and other ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, Like a lion, my hands and feet.
Ps 22:16b pierce  -   Zech. 12:10; John 19:37
Ps 22:16c hands  -   Luke 24:40; John 20:20, 25, 27
Ps 22:17a bones  -   Psa. 34:20; John 19:36
Ps 22:17b stare  -   Luke 23:35
Ps 22:18a cast  -   Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24
Ps 22:191 But
In vv. 19-21 Christ asked God to deliver Him from death, i.e., to raise Him up from death (Heb. 5:7 and note).
Ps 22:201a My  -   Psa. 35:17
Lit., My only one; a reference to a person’s most prized possession, his life.
Ps 22:20b dog  -   Phil. 3:2
Ps 22:21a lion  -   2 Tim. 4:17; 1 Pet. 5:8
Ps 22:211 while
Lit., from the horns.
Ps 22:22a I  -   Heb. 2:12; John 17:6
Ps 22:221b brothers  -   Matt. 28:10; John 20:17
After passing through His redeeming death, Christ entered into the church-producing resurrection. It was in His resurrection that Christ called His disciples His brothers (John 20:17; Matt. 28:10; Heb. 2:11), for in God’s eternal view His disciples were regenerated and became God’s sons in Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). In His resurrection Christ Himself was begotten to be God’s firstborn Son (2:7; Acts 13:33) and became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), and all God’s chosen and redeemed people were regenerated to be the many sons of God, the many brothers of Christ (Heb. 2:10-12; Rom. 8:29).
Ps 22:222 assembly
The assembly here signifies the church, indicating that the Lord’s brothers constitute the church (Heb. 2:11-12). Thus, His resurrection is the church-producing resurrection.
Ps 22:223 You
You and Your in this verse refer to the Father. In resurrection Christ declared the Father’s name to His brothers and praised the Father in the church (Heb. 2:12 and note 3).
Ps 22:231 praise
Following his praise to God in the assembly, David advised God’s people to praise Jehovah and all the earth to worship Him (vv. 23-26, 29-31). Christ took the lead in praising God in the church, and the church follows Him to praise God. Now Israel should follow Christ and the church. Thus far, Israel has not followed, but when Christ comes back, all Israel will repent and be saved (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26-27). Then they will join the church to praise God.
Ps 22:26a satisfied  -   Matt. 5:6
Ps 22:27a ends  -   Psa. 2:8; Psa. 67:7; 72:8; 98:3
Ps 22:271 nations
The church ushers in Christ’s kingdom for Christ to rule over the nations (vv. 27-28). The church, produced by Christ’s resurrection, is the reality of the kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17) and a precursor to the manifestation of the kingdom in the millennium.
Ps 22:28a kingdom  -   Dan. 7:14; Matt. 6:13
Ps 22:281 He
Jehovah as Christ will rule over the nations in the millennial kingdom (2:8-9; Rev. 19:15; 20:4, 6).
Ps 22:29a bow  -   cf. Isa. 45:23; Phil. 2:10
Ps 22:301a seed  -   Isa. 53:10; Heb. 2:13
The believers are the seed of Christ, and their declaring the Lord’s righteousness (justification, salvation) to a coming generation (vv. 30-31) refers to the preaching of the gospel.
Ps 22:30b generation  -   Psa. 48:13; 78:6
Psalm 23
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 23:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 23:11 Jehovah
Psalm 23 concerns Christ as the Shepherd in His resurrection. According to this psalm, Christ shepherds us in five stages: (1) the enjoyment of Christ as the green pastures and of the Spirit as the waters of rest (v. 2); (2) the revival and transformation on the paths of righteousness (v. 3); (3) the experience of the resurrected pneumatic Christ while walking through the valley of the shadow of death (v. 4); (4) the deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ in fighting against the adversaries (v. 5); and (5) the lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and kindness in the house of Jehovah (v. 6).
Ps 23:12a Shepherd  -   Psa. 80:1; Isa. 40:11; Jer. 31:10; Ezek. 34:12; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; Rev. 7:17
Christ in His resurrection is the Shepherd (Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4), and the church produced by Christ’s resurrection is His flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). By being incarnated, crucified, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), Christ as Jehovah (John 8:24), the Triune God (Exo. 3:14), is qualified to be our Shepherd. By His redeeming, washing, resurrecting, and regenerating us, we are qualified to be His flock. To enjoy Christ’s shepherding, we need to be in the flock, i.e., in the church.
Ps 23:1b lack  -   Psa. 34:9-10
Ps 23:21 green
The pastures signify Christ as the feeding place for His sheep (John 10:9 and note 2), and the color green signifies the riches of life. Christ can be our green pasture through His incarnation, death, and resurrection.
Ps 23:2a pastures  -   Ezek. 34:14; John 10:9
Ps 23:22b waters  -   Isa. 49:10; John 7:38; Rev. 7:17
The waters of rest signify the Spirit, who was consummated in Christ’s resurrection (John 7:37-39 and note 391). In the initial stage of Christ’s shepherding, the lambs, the infants in Christ (John 21:15; 1 Pet. 2:2), feed on Christ as the green pasture and drink the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), the resurrected pneumatic Christ, as the waters of rest.
Ps 23:31a restores  -   Psa. 19:7; cf. Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23
In the second stage of His shepherding, Christ restores (revives and transforms) our soul (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) and guides us (to walk according to the spirit) on the paths of righteousness (to fulfill the requirement of righteousness — Rom. 8:4). To be righteous, i.e., to be right with persons, matters, and things before God according to His righteous and strict requirements, we need to be revived and transformed in our soul in order to be proper and balanced in our mind, emotion, and will.
Ps 23:3b guides  -   Psa. 5:8; 27:11; 139:10; Prov. 4:11
Ps 23:32 paths
Both the paths and the righteousness are the resurrected Christ (John 14:6a; 1 Cor. 1:30).
Ps 23:33c name’s  -   Psa. 25:11; 31:3; 79:9; 106:8; 109:21; 143:11
The name indicates the person. Hence, for His name’s sake denotes being in His person. As the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit, in His resurrection, Christ leads us inwardly to walk in the paths of righteousness in Himself as the person (cf. Col. 3:17).
Ps 23:41 valley
In the third stage of His shepherding, we experience the presence of the resurrected pneumatic Christ as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i.e., through the troubles and sufferings of life. When we walk through the valley, we do not fear any evil, for the pneumatic Christ is with us (Matt. 28:20b; 2 Tim. 4:22). His presence is a comfort, a rescue, and a sustaining power to us. When we are in the valley, we should simply remain there and rest in the Lord. Our resting in the Lord will shorten the valley, reduce the shadow, and remove the death.
Ps 23:4a shadow  -   Job 3:5; 10:22; Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16; Luke 1:79
Ps 23:42b rod  -   Micah 7:14
The rod is for protection, and the staff is for training, for guidance, and also for sustenance. In the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord’s protection, guidance, and sustenance comfort us.
Ps 23:51a table  -   Psa. 78:19; Prov. 9:2; Acts 16:34
In the fourth stage of His shepherding, in the deeper and higher enjoyment of the resurrected Christ, the Lord spreads a table, a feast (Christ with His riches for our enjoyment), before us in the presence of our adversaries. If we fight the spiritual battle and defeat the adversaries, we will have a rich enjoyment of the Lord as our feast at His table (cf. Gen. 14:17-18).
Ps 23:52b anoint  -   Psa. 45:7; 92:10
The Hebrew word refers to the anointing done at a festal banquet. In the fourth stage of His shepherding, the Lord anoints our head with oil (the oil of exultant joy — Heb. 1:9), signifying the compound Spirit as the compound ointment (Exo. 30:23-26 and notes 251 and 261). To anoint the head is to anoint the whole body (133:2; 2 Cor. 1:21). This is the anointing of the compound, life-giving Spirit in Christ’s resurrection (1 John 2:20 and note 1).
Ps 23:53c cup  -   Psa. 16:5; 116:13; cf. 1 Cor. 10:16, 21
In the fourth stage of Christ’s shepherding, our cup (the cup of blessing — 1 Cor. 10:16a; Matt. 26:27 and note) runs over. In this verse the Triune God is implied — the Son as the table, the feast (1 Cor. 11:23-26), the Spirit as the anointing oil (Luke 4:18), and the Father as the source of the blessing (Eph. 1:3).
Ps 23:61 goodness
The fifth stage of Christ’s shepherding is the lifelong enjoyment of the divine goodness and lovingkindness in the house of Jehovah. Under the organic shepherding of the pneumatic Christ, goodness and lovingkindness follow us “all the days of [our] life,” referring to the present age. Goodness refers to the grace of Christ, lovingkindness refers to the love of the Father, and follow implies the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Eventually, this enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God ushers us into the enjoyment of God in the house of God (Christ, the church, and the New Jerusalem — John 1:14; 2:21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rev. 21:2-3, 22), where we will dwell “for the length of [our] days,” referring to the present age, the coming age, and eternity.
Ps 23:6a house  -   Gen. 28:17; Psa. 26:8; 27:4; 84:4
See note 61.
Psalm 24
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 24:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 24:11 The
In Psa. 22 Christ is the Redeemer and the Regenerator, in Psa. 23 He is the Shepherd, and in this psalm He is the King who will regain the entire earth through the church, His Body, the people whom He has redeemed and regenerated and is shepherding today. At His second coming Christ will take possession of the earth (Rev. 10:1-2), which has been given to Him as His possession (2:8), and will establish God’s kingdom on the whole earth (Dan. 2:34-35; Rev. 11:15), thus recovering God’s right over the earth, which has been usurped by His enemy, Satan.
Ps 24:1a earth  -   Exo. 9:29; 19:5; Deut. 10:14; 33:16; 1 Cor. 10:26
Ps 24:1b fullness  -   Psa. 50:12; 89:11
Ps 24:2a founded  -   Gen. 1:9; Job 38:4, 6; Psa. 102:25; 136:6; 2 Pet. 3:5
Ps 24:31a Who  -   vv. 3-5: Psa. 15:1-5; Isa. 33:14-16
Verses 1-2, concerning God’s kingdom, are according to the divine concept. In vv. 3-6 David returned to his natural concept of keeping the law, which has nothing to do with God’s kingdom. This shows again the two kinds of concepts — the human concept and the divine concept — mixed together in the Psalms. See note 11, pars. 2 and 3, in Psa. 1, and note 21 in Psa. 15.
Ps 24:32 mountain
The mountain here implies the city (see note 12 in Psa. 48), which signifies the kingdom of God (cf. 30:7 and note). Although the Lord has the right, the title, to the earth (v. 1), today the earth is usurped by His enemy. Yet on this usurped earth there is the mountain of Jehovah, Mount Zion (2:6), which is absolutely open to the Lord and absolutely possessed by Him (vv. 1, 3, 7-10). The overcomers, who are typified by Zion (see note 21 in Psa. 48), are the beachhead through which the Lord will return to possess the whole earth (Dan. 2:34-35).
Ps 24:4a clean  -   Job 22:30
Ps 24:4b pure  -   Psa. 73:1; Matt. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:22
Ps 24:6a seek  -   1 Chron. 16:11; Psa. 27:8; 105:4; Heb. 11:6
Ps 24:71 Lift
Verses 7-10, unveiling the victorious Christ as the coming King in God’s eternal kingdom, continue the divine concept of vv. 1-2.
Ps 24:72a gates  -   Psa. 118:19- 20; Isa. 26:2
The gates are of the cities of the nations; the doors are of the houses of the people.
Ps 24:73 long
Indicating waiting and expecting with long endurance (Rom. 8:25; 1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20). Christ is the desire of all the nations (Hag. 2:7). All the nations, in a general way, are expecting Christ to come, but Christ will not come quickly according to our human concept (2 Pet. 3:8-9). Thus, we need to lift up our heads and await and expect His coming with long endurance.
Ps 24:74 King
The King of glory is Jehovah of hosts (that is, of armies), the consummated Triune God embodied in the victorious and coming Christ (vv. 7-10; Luke 21:27; Matt. 25:31). Jehovah is Jesus (Matt. 1:21 and note), and Jesus is the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Triune God, who is strong in fighting and is victorious (Rev. 5:5). He is the One who will come back in His resurrection with His overcomers to possess the entire earth as His kingdom (Dan. 2:34-35; 7:13-14; Joel 3:11; Rev. 11:15; 19:13-14).
Ps 24:7b glory  -   1 Cor. 2:8
Ps 24:8a strong  -   Deut. 10:17; Psa. 50:1; 1 Cor. 10:22
Ps 24:8b battle  -   cf. Exo. 15:3
Psalm 25
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 25:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 25:11 To
This psalm is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. See note 11 in Psa. 9. Psalms 25 — 41 show the mixed expressions of the psalmist’s sentiments in his enjoyment of God in God’s house. The enjoyment of Christ, as portrayed in Psa. 2, 8, 16, and 22 — 24, led the psalmist to another state of enjoyment — the enjoyment of God in the house of God. Although God is universal and omnipresent, He has located Himself in His house so that men may contact Him and enjoy Him (23:6; 27:4). In the Old Testament time God’s house, His dwelling place, was both in the heavens (1 Kings 8:30b, 39a, 43a) and in the temple on Mount Zion (76:2b; 135:21; Isa. 8:18). God’s physical house in the Old Testament is a type of His spiritual house in the New Testament (1 Pet. 2:5). God’s house in the New Testament is, first, Christ as God’s tabernacle and God’s temple (John 1:14; 2:21; Col. 2:9); second, it is the church, the enlargement of Christ, as God’s enlarged temple (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6). Consummately, God’s house will be the New Jerusalem, a composition of God’s redeemed as the tabernacle (Rev. 21:2-3) for God to dwell in and enjoy His redeemed, and the redeeming God Himself as the temple (Rev. 21:22) for His redeemed to dwell in and enjoy Him — a mutual dwelling of both God and man for their mutual enjoyment. We enjoy God in His house by being in Christ and in the church in this age, and ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the next age and in eternity.
Ps 25:1a lift  -   Psa. 86:4; 143:8
Ps 25:2a trust  -   2 Cor. 1:9
Ps 25:2b ashamed  -   Isa. 49:23; Rom. 9:33; 10:11; Phil. 1:20
Ps 25:4a Make  -   Exo. 33:13; Psa. 27:11; 103:7
Ps 25:71 sins
In this verse and in vv. 11 and 18 David asked God not to remember but to forgive his sins, his transgressions, and his great iniquity. Our confession of sins and God’s forgiveness of our sins are the threshold of the New Testament age (Matt. 3:1-2; Mark 1:4-5; Acts 10:43; Heb. 8:12; 1 John 1:9).
Ps 25:101 testimonies
Referring to the law with the Ten Commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances. See notes 11 in Exo. 20 and 64 in Luke 1.
Ps 25:11a name  -   Psa. 23:3; 1 John 2:12
Ps 25:131 prosperity
See note 31 in Psa. 1.
Ps 25:13a land  -   Psa. 37:9
Ps 25:14a intimate  -   Job 29:4; Prov. 3:32
Ps 25:141 counsel
Here David put the intimate counsel of God together with the covenant, the law, indicating the mixture in the expression of his sentiment. Such mixed expressions can be seen also in vv. 15-18a and 21.
Ps 25:171 Relieve
Others read, The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out.
Ps 25:20a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 25:211 integrity
See note 201 in Psa. 18.
Psalm 26
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 26:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 26:11 integrity
See note 31 in Psa. 7. So also for v. 11.
Ps 26:1a trusted  -   2 Cor. 1:9
Ps 26:2a try  -   Psa. 17:3; 66:10; 139:23; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:7
Ps 26:2b inward  -   Psa. 7:9; Jer. 11:20; 17:10; Rev. 2:23
Ps 26:3a walked  -   2 John 4; 3 John 3-4
Ps 26:4a sit  -   Psa. 1:1; Jer. 15:17
Ps 26:6a wash  -   Psa. 73:13; cf. Matt. 27:24
Ps 26:8a love  -   1 Chron. 29:3; Psa. 23:6; 27:4; 84:1-2; 122:1; cf. Psa. 132:13-14
Ps 26:81b abides  -   Exo. 40:34-35; 2 Chron. 5:14
Here, to abide is to remain for manifestation. When the people of Israel erected the tabernacle and when they built the temple, the glory of God descended upon the tabernacle and the temple to abide there, to remain there, to be manifested to the people (Exo. 40:33-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11). Today the church is the place where God’s glory abides to be manifested (Eph. 3:21).
Psalm 27
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 27:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 27:1a light  -   Isa. 60:20; Micah 7:8
Ps 27:1b salvation  -   Exo. 15:2; Psa. 118:14; Isa. 12:2; 62:11; Rev. 7:10
Ps 27:41a house  -   Psa. 23:6; 26:8
In vv. 4-6 the psalmist appreciated not the law, as in Psa. 1, but the enjoyment of God in His house. In God’s house, that is, in Christ (John 1:14; 2:21) and in the church (1 Tim. 3:15), we behold God’s beauty and inquire of God (v. 4), are concealed from calamities and hidden from our pursuers (v. 5a-b), are raised up and have our heads lifted up by God (vv. 5c, 6a), and offer up sacrifices of shouts of joy and sing and psalm to God (v. 6b-c).
Ps 27:4b behold  -   2 Cor. 3:18
Ps 27:42c beauty  -   Psa. 90:17
Or, loveliness, pleasantness, delightfulness.
Ps 27:5a hiding  -   Psa. 31:20; 91:1
Ps 27:6a Sacrifices  -   Heb. 13:15
Ps 27:6b psalm  -   Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16
Ps 27:8a Seek  -   1 Chron. 16:11; Psa. 24:6; 105:4; Heb. 11:6
Ps 27:12a false  -   1 Kings 21:13; Psa. 35:11; Matt. 26:59; Mark 14:56
Ps 27:131 I
Some MSS insert, Unless.
Psalm 28
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 28:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 28:1a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 28:2a lift  -   Psa. 63:4; 134:2; Lam. 2:19; 1 Tim. 2:8
Ps 28:41 Repay
For vv. 4-5, see note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 28:4a According  -   Lam. 3:64
Ps 28:7a shield  -   Psa. 3:3
Ps 28:81 their
Some MSS read, the strength of His people.
Ps 28:9a shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; 78:71-72; Isa. 40:11
Psalm 29
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 29:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 29:11a Ascribe  -   Psa. 96:7
David’s prayer and praise in this psalm is too much in the material and physical realm and cannot compare with the prayer and praise in the New Testament (cf. Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Rom. 11:33-36; 16:25-27).
Ps 29:21 splendor
Or, adornment.
Ps 29:3a glory  -   Acts 7:2
Ps 29:3b thunders  -   Rev. 10:3
Ps 29:6a skip  -   Psa. 114:4, 6
Ps 29:61 Sirion
I.e., Hermon (cf. Deut. 3:9).
Ps 29:91 causes
Others read, makes the terebinths writhe.
Ps 29:10a King  -   Psa. 5:2; 10:16
Psalm 30
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 30:Titlea Dedication  -   2 Sam. 24:25
Ps 30:Titleb Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 30:31 that
Some MSS read, from among those who go down.
Ps 30:41a praise  -   Psa. 97:12
Or, give thanks. So throughout this psalm.
Ps 30:42 memorial
I.e., name.
Ps 30:71 mountain
Referring to David’s kingdom.
Ps 30:81 Jehovah
Some MSS read, the Lord.
Ps 30:9a praise  -   Psa. 6:5; 88:10
Ps 30:91 faithfulness
Or, truth.
Ps 30:11a dancing  -   Exo. 15:20; 2 Sam. 6:14; Psa. 149:3; 150:4; Jer. 31:4, 13; cf. Lam. 5:15
Ps 30:121a glory  -   Psa. 16:9; 57:8
See note 261 in Acts 2.
Psalm 31
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 31:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 31:1a In  -   vv. 1-3: cf. Psa. 71:1-3
Ps 31:1b take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 31:11 Rescue
In this psalm David speaks of God’s saving him from his distress. However, God’s salvation for the New Testament believers is not mainly from their distress. In His salvation God sustains and strengthens His believers in their distresses that they may live and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:19-21a).
Ps 31:21a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
In David’s consideration God was a rock for his personal protection, but the Lord Jesus said that He is a rock for the building of the church (Matt. 16:18).
Ps 31:51a Into  -   Luke 23:46; John 19:30; Acts 7:59; 1 Pet. 4:19
This word was spoken by the Lord Jesus at the end of His crucifixion (Luke 23:46; cf. John 19:30).
Ps 31:61 vanities
I.e., vain idols.
Ps 31:91 distress
David’s distress included his grief (v. 9), sorrow (v. 10), and the reproach (v. 11) of his opposers. The believers today who follow the Lord also suffer much distress, including persecution (2 Cor. 6:4-5; 2 Tim. 3:12). In the New Testament, however, the apostle Paul did not complain about his distress (cf. Col. 1:24). Rather, he said that all things worked together for his good that he, as one of God’s many sons, could be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:28-29).
Ps 31:10a sorrow  -   Isa. 53:3
Ps 31:13a slander  -   Jer. 20:10
Ps 31:13b counsel  -   Matt. 26:3-4; 27:1
Ps 31:14a trust  -   Psa. 22:9; Heb. 2:13
Ps 31:15a times  -   John 7:6-8
Ps 31:16a shine  -   Num. 6:25; Psa. 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 119:135; Dan. 9:17
Ps 31:19a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 31:20a hiding  -   Psa. 27:5; 91:1
Ps 31:23a Love  -   Deut. 30:16
Ps 31:241 hope
Or, wait on.
Psalm 32
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 32:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 32:Title* Maschil
The meaning of this term is uncertain. Some understand a meditative poem; others, a poem of instruction.
Ps 32:11a Blessed  -   vv. 1-2: Rom. 4:7-8
Or, Happy. So also in v. 2.
Ps 32:12b forgiven  -   Exo. 34:7
God’s forgiving our sins and not imputing iniquity to us are based on Christ’s redemption (Eph. 1:7). Apart from Christ’s redemption the righteous God cannot forgive our sins (Heb. 9:22).
Ps 32:1c covered  -   Psa. 85:2; James 5:20
Ps 32:4a hand  -   1 Sam. 5:6, 11; Psa. 38:2; Acts 13:11
Ps 32:4b sap  -   Psa. 92:14; 104:16; Luke 23:31
Ps 32:5a acknowledged  -   Psa. 38:18; 51:3; 1 John 1:9
Ps 32:5b forgave  -   Psa. 103:3; 130:4; Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21
Ps 32:7a hiding  -   Psa. 31:20; 119:114
Ps 32:9a bit  -   Prov. 26:3; James 3:3
Ps 32:111 righteous
In the beginning of this psalm David confessed his sins (vv. 1-5), but at the end he justified himself as righteous and upright in heart. In reality, apart from Christ no one is righteous and upright in heart (Rom. 3:10; Jer. 17:9). David’s writing here is that of a person who tried to keep the law apart from Christ. In His economy God does not want us to endeavor to keep the law. He wants us to live Christ, the God-man, that He may be magnified (Phil. 1:19-21a). To live Christ in order to magnify Him is to enjoy Him.
Psalm 33
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 33:3a new  -   Psa. 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isa. 42:10; Rev. 5:9; 14:3
Ps 33:5a full  -   Psa. 119:64
Ps 33:6a word  -   Psa. 33:9; 148:5; Heb. 11:3; 2 Pet. 3:5
Ps 33:7a sea  -   Gen. 1:9-10
Ps 33:7b heap  -   Exo. 15:8; Psa. 78:13
Ps 33:9a spoke  -   Gen. 1:3; Heb. 11:3
Ps 33:9b commanded  -   Psa. 148:5-6
Ps 33:10a counsel  -   Micah 4:12; cf. Psa. 2:2
Ps 33:11a counsel  -   Prov. 19:21; Isa. 46:10; Heb. 6:17
Ps 33:12a Blessed  -   Psa. 144:15
Ps 33:12b chosen  -   Deut. 7:6; Psa. 65:4; 135:4
Ps 33:18a eye  -   Job 36:7; Psa. 34:15; 1 Pet. 3:12
Ps 33:181 hope
Or, wait for. So also in v. 22.
Ps 33:19a deliver  -   Acts 12:11
Psalm 34
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 34:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 34:Titleb disguised  -   1 Sam. 21:13
Ps 34:Title* Abimelech
Probably a title referring to the kings of Philistia, as Pharaoh referred to the kings of Egypt.
Ps 34:11 I
This psalm is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. See note 11 in Psa. 9.
Ps 34:12 bless
To bless God is to speak well of Him, praising Him with adoration. See note 31 in Eph. 1.
Ps 34:3a Magnify  -   Psa. 35:27; 40:16; 69:30; 70:4; Luke 1:46
Ps 34:61 saved
Here David gave God the credit for delivering him from Abimelech (Achish the king of Gath — 1 Sam. 21:10). Actually, David delivered himself in a dishonorable way by disguising himself as being insane (1 Sam. 21:10 — 22:1a).
Ps 34:7a angel  -   Dan. 3:28; 6:22; Matt. 18:10; Acts 12:11; Heb. 1:14
Ps 34:7b encamps  -   Gen. 32:1-2
Ps 34:81a Taste  -   Heb. 6:4-5; 1 Pet. 2:3
God with His goodness can be tasted by us (1 Pet. 2:3 and note 1). We taste and see that God is good in His house, that is, in Christ, in the church, and eventually in the New Jerusalem. See note 11 in Psa. 25.
Ps 34:82b Blessed  -   Psa. 2:12
Or, Happy.
Ps 34:12a Who  -   vv. 12-15: 1 Pet. 3:10-12
Ps 34:13a tongue  -   Psa. 15:3; 39:1; Prov. 21:23; James 1:26
Ps 34:14a Turn  -   Psa. 37:27; 1 Pet. 3:11; 3 John 11
Ps 34:18a contrite  -   Psa. 51:17; Isa. 57:15; 66:2
Ps 34:20a bones  -   John 19:36
Ps 34:201 Not
Here, in describing his own suffering, David typified the suffering Christ (John 19:33, 36; cf. Exo. 12:46). See note 362 in John 19.
Ps 34:22a take  -   Psa. 2:12; cf. Mark 16:16
Psalm 35
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 35:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 35:11 Strive
See note 71 in Psa. 3. In the New Testament economy, a spiritual person would never ask God to fight against his enemies as David asked in this psalm.
Ps 35:4a Let  -   Psa. 40:14; 70:2
Ps 35:5a angel  -   Exo. 14:19; Isa. 37:36
Ps 35:8a destruction  -   Isa. 47:11; 1 Thes. 5:3
Ps 35:11a witnesses  -   Psa. 27:12; Matt. 26:59
Ps 35:13a returned  -   Matt. 10:13; Luke 10:6
Ps 35:16a gnash  -   Psa. 37:12; 112:10; Acts 7:54
Ps 35:171 precious
See note 201 in Psa. 22.
Ps 35:19a hate  -   Psa. 38:19; 69:4; John 15:25
Ps 35:20a peace  -   Psa. 120:7
Ps 35:25a Aha  -   Psa. 40:15; Mark 15:29
Ps 35:251 That
Lit., Our desire!
Ps 35:27a magnified  -   Psa. 34:3
Psalm 36
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 36:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 36:11 his
Some MSS read, my.
Ps 36:1a There  -   Rom. 3:18
Ps 36:1b dread  -   Luke 18:2
Ps 36:51 O
Verses 5-10 are David’s praising of God for His lovingkindness, faithfulness, and righteousness mixed with the enjoyment of God in His house. However, such praising followed David’s accusing of the wicked (vv. 1-4), showing again the mixture of the human concept and the divine concept in the Psalms (see note 11, pars. 2 and 3, in Psa. 1).
Ps 36:5a Your  -   Psa. 57:10
Ps 36:7a refuge  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 36:7b wings  -   Ruth 2:12; Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 61:4; 91:4
Ps 36:81a fatness  -   Psa. 63:5; Isa. 25:6
Figuratively, fatness means abundance; specifically, the word refers to the (fatty) ashes of sacrifices (Strong). Thus, the fatness of God’s house comes from the sacrifices, the offerings, all of which typify the all-inclusive Christ (Heb. 10:5-10). The fatness of God’s house, therefore, refers to the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). The fatty ashes of the offerings are the signs of Christ’s accomplishment through His death (cf. notes 121 in Lev. 4 and 101 in Lev. 6).
Verses 8-9 reveal the Divine Trinity in His divine dispensing as the enjoyment of God’s people in His house. The fatness refers to Christ, the Son; the river of the divine pleasures, to the Spirit as the river of water of life (John 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1); and the fountain of life and light (v. 9), to the Father as the source of life and light (John 1:4; 1 John 1:5; Rev. 21:23; 22:1-2, 5). These verses indicate that even in the dispensation of law, before the dispensation of grace in the New Testament age, the seeking saints enjoyed the Triune God in His dwelling place on earth. They indicate further that the entire Bible was written according to the controlling vision that the Triune God is working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and life supply in order to saturate their entire being with the Divine Trinity, that is, with the Father as the fountain, the Son as the fatness, and the Spirit as the river.
Ps 36:82 house
The house of God here refers to the temple in the Old Testament, which typifies the church as the Body of Christ in the New Testament (see note 21 in John 14). Ultimately, the house of God will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:3, 22). In the proper church life we enjoy Christ as the fatness, the Spirit as the river, and the Father as the fountain of life and light (v. 9). This enjoyment leads us ultimately to the enjoyment of the tree of life, the river of water of life, and the light of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1-2, 5).
Ps 36:8b river  -   Psa. 46:4; John 7:37-38; Rev. 22:1
Ps 36:9a fountain  -   Psa. 87:7; Isa. 12:3; Jer. 2:13; John 4:14; 19:34; Rev. 7:17
Ps 36:9b life  -   Psa. 16:11; 2 Pet. 1:3
Ps 36:9c light  -   1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 22:5
Psalm 37
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 37:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 37:11 Do
This psalm is one of the alphabetic, or acrostic, psalms. See note 11 in Psa. 9. It reveals David’s sentiment in his logic concerning God’s dealing with the righteous and with the wicked based on the principle of law-keeping, which belongs to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (see note 93 in Gen. 2).
Ps 37:2a wither  -   Psa. 90:5-6; James 1:11; 1 Pet. 1:24
Ps 37:5a Commit  -   Psa. 22:8; Prov. 16:3
Ps 37:6a light  -   Isa. 58:8; Micah 7:9
Ps 37:8a anger  -   Matt. 5:22; Eph. 4:26
Ps 37:9a inherit  -   Psa. 25:13; 37:22, 34; Isa. 57:13; Matt. 5:5
Ps 37:11a lowly  -   Matt. 5:5
Ps 37:12a gnashes  -   Psa. 35:16; 112:10; Acts 7:54; cf. Job 16:9
Ps 37:16a little  -   Prov. 15:16; 16:8
Ps 37:22a blessed  -   Matt. 25:34
Ps 37:22b inherit  -   Psa. 37:9
Ps 37:23a steps  -   Prov. 20:24
Ps 37:26a lends  -   Deut. 15:8; Psa. 112:5; Matt. 5:42; Luke 6:35
Ps 37:27a Turn  -   Psa. 34:14; 1 Pet. 3:11; 3 John 11
Ps 37:37a peace  -   Luke 10:6
Ps 37:40a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Psalm 38
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 38:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 38:11a O  -   Psa. 6:1
David’s prayer in Psa. 37, in which he said that the righteous would inherit the land (37:29) and the wicked would be cut off (37:34), was according to his natural logic, but his prayer in this psalm, in which he was compelled by God’s chastising (vv. 1, 3) to groan before God (vv. 8-9), to confess his sin (v. 3), and to declare his iniquity (vv. 4, 18), was according to God’s revelation. Cf. note 31 in Psa. 7.
Ps 38:81 groaning
Groaning here indicates that the psalmist had an inward burden to pray, but he did not know what to say. Hence, all he could do was groan. See note 262 in Rom. 8.
Ps 38:11a far  -   Luke 23:49
Ps 38:13a mouth  -   Psa. 39:2; Isa. 53:7; 1 Pet. 2:23
Ps 38:22a salvation  -   Psa. 27:9; 51:14; 88:1
Psalm 39
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 39:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 39:1a tongue  -   Psa. 34:13; James 1:26
Ps 39:4a days  -   cf. Psa. 90:12
Ps 39:5a days  -   Job 7:6; 14:1
Ps 39:51 at
Lit., standing firm.
Ps 39:52b vanity  -   Psa. 39:11; 62:9; Eccl. 1:2; Isa. 40:17
Or, a (mere) breath. So also in v. 11. In this psalm David was brought by the Lord to realize that he was nothing and vanity. Our realizing that our condition is sinful (Psa. 38) and our situation is one of vanity opens the way for Christ to crucify us and enter into us to replace us by living Himself through us and causing us to live together with Him in an organic union, as expressed by Paul in Gal. 2:20. This is the divine concept of God according to the divine revelation of the New Testament.
Ps 39:6a heaps  -   Job 27:16-17; Eccl. 2:26
Ps 39:6b Who  -   Luke 12:20
Ps 39:9a dumb  -   Psa. 39:2
Ps 39:11a vanity  -   Psa. 39:5
Psalm 40
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 40:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 40:3a new  -   Psa. 33:3; Rev. 5:9; 14:3
Ps 40:41a Blessed  -   Psa. 2:12
Or, Happy.
Ps 40:5a thoughts  -   Psa. 139:17- 18; Isa. 55:8
Ps 40:61a You  -   vv. 6-8: Heb. 10:5-7
The word in vv. 6-8 is actually the word of Christ, as quoted by Paul in Heb. 10:5-7. The prophecy in vv. 6-8 is one of the greatest revelations concerning the all-inclusive Christ in the commission that God committed to Christ in His first coming through incarnation, which was to put away the animal sacrifices of the old covenant and to establish Himself, in His body, as the sacrifice of the new covenant (see notes 72 and 91 in Heb. 10). This is to terminate God’s Old Testament economy and to initiate God’s New Testament economy, in which Christ replaces all the offerings as well as all things, all matters, and all persons (cf. Matt. 17:4-8; Col. 2:16-17; 3:10-11).
The prophecy in vv. 6-8 concerning Christ is the goal and destination of the revelation of Christ in Psa. 2, 8, 16, and 22 — 24. In this prophecy Christ comes through His incarnation to terminate God’s old economy and initiate God’s new economy, His New Testament economy, by replacing the animal sacrifices and establishing Himself as the unique sacrifice of the new covenant. As such a sacrifice, Christ is the factor that enacts God’s New Testament economy (Matt. 26:28) that He may be its centrality and universality for the producing and building up of the church as His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Hence, Christ has changed the age for the consummating of God’s new creation out of God’s old creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). His changing of the age is greater than the creation of the universe mentioned in Gen. 1.
Ps 40:62b sacrifice  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Psa. 51:16; Matt. 9:13; Mark 12:33
A sacrifice is for sin and sins before God, and an offering is for fellowship with God. These two things were the elements upon which the old covenant was established, and the old covenant was the centrality and universality of God’s economy in the Old Testament. God’s not delighting in and not requiring sacrifice and offering points to the termination of His economy in the Old Testament. This is the importance and the greatness of this prophecy.
Ps 40:63 prepared
Lit., bored My ears. This was quoted by the apostle Paul in Heb. 10:5 as “a body You have prepared for Me.” The boring of the slave’s ears indicates that the master required the slave’s obedience (Exo. 21:6). It signifies that God required obedience of Christ, who in His humanity was God’s slave (Phil. 2:7). This obedience, spoken of by Paul in Phil. 2:8, was for Him to do the will of God by being the sacrifice and the offering in His crucifixion in the flesh, the body (Col. 1:22; Heb. 10:7-10). Based on this, Paul interpreted the boring of the ears as the preparing of a body, in which Christ offered Himself to God as the sacrifice and the offering to replace the sacrifice and the offering of animals in the Old Testament.
Ps 40:6c ears  -   Exo. 21:6; Job 33:16; 36:10, 15; Isa. 50:4-5
Ps 40:71 come
Indicating Christ’s first coming through His incarnation for the establishing of the new testament (covenant) by Himself as the enacting sacrifice and offering (Matt. 26:28).
Ps 40:72 scroll
The mentioning of the scroll indicates that Christ would do God’s will for the accomplishing of God’s New Testament economy according to the Old Testament prophecies concerning Him (Luke 24:27, 44, 46; John 5:39, 46).
Ps 40:8a inward  -   Psa. 37:31; Jer. 31:33
Ps 40:9a congregation  -   Psa. 22:25; 35:18
Ps 40:13a Be  -   vv. 13-17: Psa. 70:1-5
Ps 40:14a May  -   Psa. 35:4
Ps 40:15a Aha  -   Psa. 35:21, 25; Mark 15:29
Ps 40:16a magnified  -   Psa. 34:3
Psalm 41
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 41:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 41:1a poor  -   Prov. 14:21; Gal. 2:10
Ps 41:21 blessed
Or, happy.
Ps 41:81 Some
Lit., A thing of Belial.
Ps 41:91 Even
This verse, quoted by the Lord Jesus in John 13:18, is a prophecy concerning Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord (John 6:70-71; 13:18, 23-27; Luke 22:21-22).
Ps 41:9a friend  -   Psa. 55:13; Jer. 20:10; Matt. 26:50
Ps 41:9b Who  -   John 13:18
Ps 41:9c ate  -   Mark 14:18; Obad. 7
Ps 41:101 recompense
See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 41:121 integrity
God upholds us not in our integrity but in His own mercy and compassions. See note 201 in Psa. 18.
Ps 41:13a Blessed  -   1 Kings 8:15; 1 Chron. 16:36; Psa. 72:18-19; 89:52; 106:48; Luke 1:68
Ps 41:13b Amen  -   Matt. 6:13; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 3:14
Psalm 42
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 42:Title* Maschil
See note on the superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 42:Titlea of  -   Psa. 43–49; 84; 85; 87; 88
Ps 42:Titleb Korah  -   Num. 26:9-11
Ps 42:11 As
The psalms in Book One were written mainly by David. Eight psalms in Book Two (Psa. 42 — 49), as well as Psa. 84, 85, 87, and 88 in Book Three, were composed by the sons of Korah, who was the leader of a rebellion against Moses and God (Num. 16:1-3). About 470 years after Korah’s rebellion, Samuel the prophet, Heman the singer, and some other psalmists came forth as Korah the rebel’s descendants at the time of David (1 Chron. 6:31-37). The descendants of Korah continued to serve during the time of the captivity. Even the descendants of a leading rebel could become the godly writers of psalms, praising God in their holy writings as a record that has existed for generations. What a grace this was!
Ps 42:1a hart  -   S.S. 2:9, 17; 8:14; Isa. 35:6
Ps 42:1b streams  -   cf. Joel 1:20
Ps 42:12 pants
In this psalm the psalmist was panting and thirsting (v. 2) for God at a time when he and his people had been stripped and defeated by the neighboring nations and were in captivity (see note 61). Panting and thirsting for God are different from worshipping God in a formal, religious way. God is our living water for us to drink (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39a; 1 Cor. 12:13). We need to pant and thirst for Him and to drink Him.
Ps 42:13 God
Psalm 1, the opening word of Book One, begins with the law, but Book Two begins with God. Surely there is no comparison between God and the law. This shows us that Book Two of the Psalms is higher than Book One. Among the five books of the Psalms, the revelation is progressive. The Psalms are like a stairway of five steps that takes us higher in its revelation in a progressive way.
In Book One the psalmists were turned from the law to Christ, and Christ brought them to the enjoyment of God in His house and in His city. Book Two begins with the direct enjoyment of God and unveils the psalmists’ intensified enjoyment of God in His house, and even more in His city, through the suffering, exalted, and reigning Christ. Such a Christ is the way for sinners to enter into God (John 14:6, 20). God’s house is both Christ as God’s tabernacle and God’s temple (John 1:14; 2:19-21) and the church as the enlargement of Christ, the enlarged temple (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21). Jerusalem, the city of God that surrounded the temple, signifies God’s kingdom. Both Christ and the church are the temple of God and the kingdom of God (Luke 17:21 and note 1; Matt. 16:18-19 and note 192; Rom. 14:17 and note 1). The New Jerusalem will be the consummation of God’s temple and God’s kingdom (Rev. 21:22 and note 1; 22:1, 3).
Ps 42:2a thirsts  -   Psa. 63:1; 84:2; Isa. 41:17; 55:1; Matt. 5:6; John 7:37; Rev. 22:17
Ps 42:2b appear  -   Exo. 23:17; Psa. 84:7; Rev. 22:4
Ps 42:41 remember
On the one hand, the psalmist was panting after God (v. 1). On the other hand, he was recalling the glorious and pleasant past in his leading of the festal multitude to enjoy God in His house with His people. Actually, this recalling was a departure from his panting after God. He should have remained in the state of panting after God. We should not allow our considerations and our remembering of our past to distract us from our present enjoyment of God (cf. Phil. 3:13-14 and note 132).
Ps 42:4a house  -   Psa. 55:14
Ps 42:42 praise
Or, thanksgiving.
Ps 42:4b festal  -   Isa. 30:29; cf. Heb. 12:22
Ps 42:5a Why  -   Psa. 42:11; 43:5
Ps 42:51 praise
Or, thank. So also in v. 11; 43:4, 5; 44:8.
Ps 42:52b countenance  -   Num. 6:25-26; Psa. 17:15; 44:3; Rev. 22:4
Although the psalmist was in captivity (v. 6 and note) and was under his adversaries’ reproaching and oppression (vv. 3, 9b-10), he enjoyed God’s countenance, God’s presence.
Ps 42:61 remember
Here the psalmist remembered God from a place quite far from Zion and Jerusalem, indicating that he was in captivity in a far away country.
Ps 42:6a Hermons  -   Deut. 3:8-9; Psa. 133:3
Ps 42:7a waves  -   Psa. 88:7; Jonah 2:3
Ps 42:8a night  -   Job 35:10; Psa. 77:6; 119:62; Acts 16:25
Ps 42:9a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 42:11a Why  -   Psa. 42:5
Ps 42:11b salvation  -   Psa. 34:5; 43:5
Psalm 43
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 43:11 Render
Or, Judge me. Psalms 42 and 43 were probably composed as one psalm originally.
Ps 43:31a light  -   cf. John 1:4
Light and truth (reality) are not separate things but are two aspects of one thing. Truth is the shining of light, and light is the source of truth (1 John 1:5-6 and note 66, final par.). When the light shines on us, we receive the truth, the reality, and when we go to God in fellowship, we are in the light. According to this verse the divine light and the divine truth lead God’s captive saints to God’s holy mountain and His tabernacles, which typify the local churches. Both light and truth are in the church (1 Tim. 3:15).
Ps 43:3b truth  -   cf. John 1:17
Ps 43:3c holy  -   Psa. 2:6; 3:4; 15:1
Ps 43:3d tabernacles  -   Psa. 46:4; 65:4; 84:1
Ps 43:41a altar  -   Deut. 12:27; 26:4; Neh. 10:34; Psa. 66:13-15; 116:17- 19
The psalmists who wrote Psa. 42 — 44 were lovers of God in their captivity (42:6). They were panting for God, thirsting for God (42:1-2), and desiring to return to Jerusalem, to go to Mount Zion to reach the altar. Then they could enter into the temple to meet God their exceeding joy. This is why they prayed that God would give them the light and the truth (v. 3) that they might know how to be released from their captivity and return to God’s dwelling place.
Ps 43:5a Why  -   Psa. 42:11
Psalm 44
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 44:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 44:Title* Maschil
See note on the superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 44:11 O
In vv. 1-8 the psalmists were treasuring their forefathers’ past history, and in vv. 9-26 they were sighing for their present situation. Both were distractions from their panting and thirsting for God (42:1-2), i.e., from their enjoying God. See note 41 in Psa. 42.
Ps 44:1a work  -   Exo. 10:2; Isa. 63:11-13
Ps 44:2a dispossessed  -   Exo. 34:24; Josh. 3:10; Psa. 78:55; 80:8; cf. 2 Chron. 20:7
Ps 44:2b planted  -   Exo. 15:17; 2 Sam. 7:10; Psa. 80:8; Jer. 17:8
Ps 44:21 our
Lit., them.
Ps 44:3a right  -   Exo. 15:6; Psa. 17:7
Ps 44:3b countenance  -   Num. 6:25-26; Psa. 17:15; 42:5; 44:3
Ps 44:4a King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 44:8a boast  -   Psa. 34:2
Ps 44:91 Nevertheless
See note 11.
Ps 44:11a sheep  -   Psa. 44:22
Ps 44:11b scattered  -   Lev. 26:33; Deut. 4:27; 28:64; Psa. 106:27; Ezek. 20:23; John 7:35; 1 Pet. 1:1
Ps 44:12a sold  -   Deut. 32:30
Ps 44:14a proverb  -   Deut. 28:37; 1 Kings 9:7; Jer. 24:9
Ps 44:171 not
According to Jer. 2:13; 11:10; and Hosea 6:7, the psalmist’s word in vv. 17-18 was contrary to God’s word spoken through the prophets (cf. Dan. 9:13-19).
Ps 44:21a knows  -   Jer. 17:10; John 2:25; Rom. 2:16; 1 Cor. 4:5; Heb. 4:12-13; Rev. 2:23
Ps 44:22a for  -   Rom. 8:36
Ps 44:22b sheep  -   Psa. 44:11; Isa. 53:7; Acts 8:32
Ps 44:231 Lord
Many MSS read, Jehovah.
Psalm 45
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 45:Title* Shoshannim
Meaning lilies; it may refer to a melody common at that time.
Ps 45:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 45:Title** Maschil
See note on the superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 45:Title*** love
The Hebrew word is feminine, indicating that the love here is that between a male and a female. According to S.S. 1:14-15, Christ is our Beloved, and we are His love. The subject of this psalm is love, and the melody is called “lilies.” Here both love and lilies refer to the saints, the lovers of the Lord Jesus. A lily denotes a pure, simple, single life of trusting in God (Matt. 6:28). This psalm portrays a life of purity and simplicity with an affectionate love for the Lord.
Ps 45:1a overflows  -   cf. Job 32:18-20; Jer. 20:9
Ps 45:11b King  -   Psa. 2:6; 24:7-10
Psalm 45 is a praise to Christ the King, who is typified by Solomon. The first section, vv. 1-8, is a praise concerning the King Himself, the second section, vv. 9-15, is a praise concerning the queen, the King’s wife, and the third section, vv. 16-17, is a praise concerning the King’s sons, the princes.
Verses 1-8 are the praise of Christ the King from four directions: His fairness (v. 2), His victory (vv. 3-5), His kingdom (vv. 6-7), and His virtues (v. 8). In this praise there are two balanced pairs: Christ’s fairness and His victory, and Christ’s kingdom and His virtues. Christ’s fairness is balanced by His victory with its requirements (cf. Matt. 5:20; 25:14-30; John 15:2, 6), and His kingdom, the issue of His victory, is balanced by the sweetness of His virtues.
Ps 45:12c tongue  -   2 Sam. 23:2
If we have an affectionate love for the Lord Jesus, our tongue will be the pen of a ready writer, ready to write our love and our praise.
Ps 45:21a fairer  -   S.S. 5:10-16
The Lord Jesus comes to us first in the aspect of His fairness, to attract us to Himself. Our love for Him is the issue of His showing us His fairness and of our enjoying Him in His fairness.
Ps 45:2b Grace  -   Luke 4:22
Ps 45:2c blessed  -   Rom. 9:5
Ps 45:31 majesty
Both Christ’s majesty and His splendor are signs of His victory. Christ, the mighty One, has overcome all His enemies and has gained the victory (Eph. 4:8; Rev. 5:5). Splendor is the expression of glory. While Christ was on earth, He showed His splendor only once, when He was transfigured on the mountain (Matt. 17:1-2). After His resurrection and ascension, He showed Himself in His splendor and majesty to Paul (Acts 26:13-15) and to John (Rev. 1:9-20). In His second coming Christ will shine over the earth to illumine it with the splendor of His glory (Rev. 18:1).
Ps 45:41 victoriously
Regardless of the situation on earth, Christ is riding on triumphantly, prosperously (Acts 5:31). From the day of His ascension He began to ride on, and He will continue to ride until He comes back in victory (Rev. 19:11-16).
Ps 45:42a meekness  -   cf. Zech. 9:9
Or, the meekness of righteousness.
Ps 45:43 teach
Here teach You should be understood to mean perform for You.
Ps 45:44 awesome
Christ’s awesome deeds include His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Everything Christ does, whether great or small, is awesome.
Ps 45:6a Your  -   vv. 6-7: Heb. 1:8-9
Ps 45:6b throne  -   Psa. 89:36-37; 93:2; Luke 1:32-33
Ps 45:61 God
See note 81, par. 1, in Heb. 1.
Ps 45:62 scepter
The scepter signifies authority. Uprightness in this verse and righteousness in v. 7 are related to authority (89:14a).
Ps 45:63 kingdom
Christ’s kingdom is the issue of His victory (Dan. 2:34-35; 7:13-14; Matt. 28:18; Rev. 19:11 — 20:6).
Ps 45:71 Your
See note 81, par. 1, in Heb. 1.
Ps 45:7a anointed  -   Isa. 61:1; Acts 4:27
Ps 45:72 oil
The oil of gladness signifies the compound, consummated Spirit of God (Exo. 30:23-25 and note 251), and the companions signify the believers of Christ (see note 92 in Heb. 1). Christ’s authority, throne, scepter, and all else related to the kingdom are under the anointing of the Spirit, indicating that Christ’s authority and kingdom are altogether a spiritual matter (Rom. 14:17; see notes 202 and 211 in Luke 17). He has been anointed for the purpose of the kingdom.
Ps 45:81 garments
Garments here signify Christ’s virtues, which are the expression of the divine attributes (Isa. 6:1 and note 2); myrrh and aloes signify the sweetness of Christ’s death (John 19:39-40); and cassia signifies the fragrance and repelling power of Christ’s resurrection (see note 251 in Exo. 30). All Christ’s virtues are filled with the savor, the sweet fragrance, of His death and resurrection.
Ps 45:8a myrrh  -   S.S. 1:13; 4:6, 14; 5:13; Matt. 2:11; John 19:39; cf. 2 Cor. 2:14
Ps 45:82 palaces
Palaces here signify the local churches; ivory, a bone-like substance, signifies the unbroken resurrection life of Christ (John 19:36 and note 2); and harpstrings signify sweet, melodious praises. The local churches, which are beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and which are His expression, are built with the resurrection life of Christ, and from the local churches come the praises that make Him glad. Christ’s garments, His virtues, have produced the church as His expression (cf. 1 Pet. 2:9), and both His garments and the church are full of sweetness.
Ps 45:91 The
Verses 9-15 praise Christ the King in praising the queen with the daughters of kings and with the virgins (v. 14).
Ps 45:92 daughters
The daughters of kings signify the believers of Christ in their royalty, and the king’s most prized (or, honorable, glorious) women signify the believers of Christ in their honor and majesty. As those born of the King, we, the believers, have a royal and honorable status. Our conducting ourselves according to that status is a glory to Christ (Eph. 4:1; 2 Thes. 1:11-12).
Ps 45:93 queen
Signifying the church, especially the overcomers, as the unique wife of Christ. In Rev. 19:7 and 9a, the wife of the Lamb is a corporate bride composed of the overcoming believers invited to the marriage dinner of the Lamb (see notes 72 and 91 there). Likewise, in this psalm the queen does not signify an individual; rather, she signifies a corporate entity composed of all her companions: the daughters of kings as the honorable women and the virgins as her friends (v. 14). Thus, in this psalm Solomon the king with his many wives and concubines, who were princesses, daughters of Gentile kings (1 Kings 11:1, 3), are used in a positive sense to typify Christ as the King with His corporate wife, the church (John 3:29; Eph. 5:24-25, 31-32), composed of His believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9).
In v. 8 the church is typified by the ivory palaces, the building, and in this verse the church is pictured as the queen, the wife. In the entire Scriptures these two figures — the building and the bride — are used to signify the church (cf. Gen. 2:22 and notes). On the one hand, the church is the building, the house, of God (1 Tim. 3:15), and on the other hand it is the bride, the wife, of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2).
Ps 45:94 gold
The queen’s being covered with gold signifies the church’s appearing in the divine nature. The “gold” that covers the church is Christ, the divine One, as the believers’ righteousness for their justification (Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30). This is the first layer of the church’s covering.
Ps 45:101 daughter
The daughter is the queen, who signifies the church; her people and her father’s house signify the natural relationships of the church. This word corresponds to the Lord’s word regarding denying the natural relationships in Matt. 10:37 and Luke 14:26.
Ps 45:10a forget  -   cf. Ruth 1:16-17
Ps 45:111 beauty
The queen’s beauty signifies the virtues of Christ expressed through the church. This psalm praises Christ not only concerning the things that are of Him directly but also concerning the things that are of Him indirectly as manifested through His church and His overcomers. Our speaking well of the church and the believers is also a praise to Christ.
Ps 45:112 Lord
In v. 1 Christ is the King, in v. 2 He is a man, in v. 6 He is God, and in this verse He is the Lord. As the Lord of the church, Christ is worthy not only of the church’s love but also of her worship.
Ps 45:121 daughter
The daughter of Tyre signifies the people of the flourishing world. The rich among the people signify the high class, who have great wealth but do not have God’s favor (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-28). The favor they entreat of the queen signifies the grace of God enjoyed by the church. As indicated by this verse, the rich will come to the church to obtain the grace of God.
Ps 45:131 daughter
The king’s daughter is the queen, signifying the church, and her being all glorious within the royal abode signifies the glorious church (Eph. 5:27), which takes Christ as her royal abode. First we, the believers of Christ, take Christ as our abode, and then we become His abode (John 15:4; 14:3, 20, 23).
Ps 45:13a garment  -   Isa. 61:10; Rev. 19:8
Ps 45:132 woven
Signifying the Christ who has been dealt with through many sufferings and through death and resurrection to become the righteousness of the church to meet the righteous requirement of God that the church may be justified before God (1 Cor. 1:30). Thus, the woven work inwrought with gold refers again to the first layer of covering — Christ as our righteousness, through whom we are justified — signified by the gold of Ophir in v. 9 (see note 94). Cf. note 391 in Exo. 28.
Ps 45:141 embroidered
Another garment, the second layer of her covering, signifying that the church will be led to Christ the King clothed with the righteousnesses of the saints to meet the requirement of Christ for their marriage (Rev. 19:8 and note 2; Matt. 22:11-12 and note 111). The queen in this psalm has two garments. The first garment, “the gold of Ophir” (v. 9), the woven work inwrought with gold (v. 13), corresponds to Christ as our objective righteousness, which is for our justification. The second garment, the embroidered clothing, corresponds to Christ “embroidered” into us by the transforming work of the Spirit and lived out of us as our subjective righteousnesses, which are for our victory. The first garment is put upon us that we may stand in the presence of God (Luke 15:22), whereas the second garment is woven into our character, embroidered into our being, that we may stand before the King.
Ps 45:142a virgins  -   S.S. 1:3; 6:8; Matt. 25:1
Signifying the overcoming saints, who will be invited to the marriage dinner of Christ (Rev. 19:9).
Ps 45:15a enter  -   S.S. 1:4
Ps 45:151 palace
Signifying that the overcoming saints will enter the New Jerusalem, Christ’s palace (Rev. 3:12), with rejoicing and exultation. This psalm mentions first the abode (v. 13) and then the palace. When Christ becomes our abode, we become His abode — a mutual abode (John 15:4). Because Christ is the King and we are the queen, eventually this mutual abode becomes the palace, which signifies the New Jerusalem, which is actually the Triune God wrought into the believers and mingled with them to be one entity, the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed for eternity (Rev. 21:3, 22 and note 222).
Ps 45:161 fathers
Verses 16 and 17 praise Christ the King in praising His sons. Here fathers signifies Christ’s forefathers in the flesh, sons signifies the overcomers of Christ as His descendants, and princes signifies the overcomers of Christ as His co-kings, who will reign with Christ over the nations (Rev. 2:26; 20:4, 6).
This psalm presents a complete view, a full picture, of Christ’s beauty, which is in Christ Himself (vv. 1-8), as unveiled in the four Gospels; in the church, His wife (vv. 9-15), as revealed in the Epistles; and in all His sons, the overcomers as the princes (vv. 16-17), as seen in Revelation.
Ps 45:16a princes  -   2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 5:10; 20:4, 6
See note 161.
Ps 45:171a name  -   Psa. 72:17-19; Mal. 1:11
Christ’s name will be remembered in all generations through the overcoming saints, and Christ will be praised by the nations through His overcoming and co-reigning saints.
Psalm 46
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 46:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 46:Title* alamoth
Perhaps referring to soprano voices.
Ps 46:11 God
Psalms 46 — 48 praise God in His greatness, particularly in His city, Jerusalem. These psalms reveal how God dwells in the church as His city, His habitation, to be enjoyed by the saints, that in Christ He may be King over all the earth.
Ps 46:1a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 46:2a mountains  -   cf. Rev. 8:8
Ps 46:41a river  -   Psa. 36:8; 65:9
Signifying the flowing of the Triune God in Christ through the Spirit as life to His people (Rev. 22:1 and notes 2 and 3).
Ps 46:42b city  -   Psa. 48:1, 8; 87:3
The king in Psa. 45 typifies Christ as the King; the city in this psalm, and often in the Bible as a whole, signifies a kingdom. As the King, Christ needs a city in which to rule and reign. The city of God is the enlarged, strengthened, and built-up church as the ruling center for God’s reign in His kingdom. The church as the house of God (23:6; 26:8; 27:4; 36:8; 1 Tim. 3:15) must be enlarged to become the church as the city, the kingdom, of God (Rev. 5:9-10). Eventually, in God’s economy the house of God becomes the holy city, New Jerusalem, as God’s eternal habitation and the ruling center of His eternal kingdom (Rev. 21:2-3, 22; 22:3).
Ps 46:4c tabernacles  -   Psa. 43:3; 84:1
Ps 46:5a midst  -   Lev. 26:12; Deut. 23:14; Isa. 12:6; Hosea 11:9; Joel 2:27; Zeph. 3:15; Zech. 2:5, 10-11
Ps 46:51 not
The city, which cannot be moved, is the unshakable kingdom (Heb. 12:28), which is Christ Himself with His enlargement, His increase (Dan. 2:34-35, 44, and note 353, par. 2).
Ps 46:7a high  -   2 Sam. 22:3; Psa. 9:9; 46:11; 48:3
Ps 46:9a wars  -   Isa. 2:4; Micah 4:3
Ps 46:101 Be
This word spoken by God to the raging nations (v. 6a; 2:1-2) is a prophecy indicating that when the church is enlarged, strengthened, and built up to be a city as God’s kingdom (cf. Matt. 16:18), God will have the ground to deal with the nations and possess the entire earth (cf. Dan. 2:34-35; Rev. 19:11-21).
Ps 46:10a still  -   cf. Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 2:13; Rev. 8:1
Psalm 47
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 47:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 47:21a King  -   Zech. 14:16; Mal. 1:14; Rev. 15:3
When the church is enlarged as a city (cf. Rev. 21:22 and note 1), in which we enjoy God as our everything (Psa. 46), God will subdue the peoples and the nations through the city and rule over all the earth in Christ as the great King (see note 101 in Psa. 46).
Ps 47:3a feet  -   cf. Josh. 10:24-25
Ps 47:6a King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 47:7a understanding  -   1 Cor. 14:15
Ps 47:8a sits  -   Isa. 6:1; Rev. 4:2
Psalm 48
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 48:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 48:11a Great  -   Psa. 77:13; 95:3; 96:4; 135:5; 145:3; 147:5; 1 John 4:4
This psalm is the climax of the revelation concerning the city of God. Only in the city, signifying the strong and enlarged church, can God be great and much to be praised (cf. Eph. 3:20-21).
Ps 48:12b city  -   Psa. 46:4; 87:3
Here His holy mountain is in apposition to city of our God, indicating that the mountain is the city. Both the mountain and the city signify the kingdom of God.
Ps 48:1c holy  -   Psa. 2:6; 87:1; Zech. 8:3
Ps 48:2a Beautiful  -   Psa. 50:2; Lam. 2:15
Ps 48:21b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Zion was the city of King David (2 Sam. 5:7), the center of the city of Jerusalem, where the temple as God’s dwelling place on earth was built (9:11; 74:2; 76:2b; 135:21; Isa. 8:18). Zion within Jerusalem typifies the body of overcomers, the perfected and matured God-men, within the church as the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1-5). As the highlight and beauty of the holy city Jerusalem (v. 2; 50:2), Zion typifies the overcomers as the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church (vv. 2, 11-12; 20:2; 53:6a; 87:2). The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God’s dwelling place, in eternity (Rev. 21:1-3, 16, 22). In the new heaven and new earth the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion, with all the believers as overcomers (Rev. 21:7 and note 1).
Ps 48:2c sides  -   Isa. 14:13
Ps 48:2d city  -   Zech. 14:16; Matt. 5:35
Ps 48:31 palaces
The city signifies the universal church as God’s kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19), and the palaces within the city signify the local churches. God is known in all the local churches of the universal church.
Ps 48:3a high  -   Psa. 9:9
Ps 48:8a establish  -   Psa. 87:5; Isa. 2:2; Micah 4:1
Ps 48:10a name  -   Exo. 34:5; Deut. 28:58; Psa. 113:3; Mal. 1:11, 14
Ps 48:11a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 48:11b rejoice  -   Psa. 97:8
Ps 48:12a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 48:121 towers
Towers and bulwarks (v. 13) are for fighting the enemies to protect the city, and palaces (v. 13) are for the king’s dwelling. All these indicate the functions of the church (Eph. 6:10-20; 2:20-22).
Ps 48:13a bulwarks  -   Psa. 122:7
Ps 48:13b generation  -   Psa. 22:30; 78:4, 6
Ps 48:141a guide  -   Psa. 23:3
In the enjoyment of God in the city, God is our refuge (46:1), our retreat (46:7), and our guide. This enjoyment of God is through Christ, in Christ, and with Christ, and it is experienced in the universal church as the Body of Christ and in the local churches as the expressions of the Body.
The Psalms indicate that we first need to experience Christ. Then Christ will lead us to the local church to enjoy God (23:6). When the church as the house of God is enlarged and strengthened, it becomes the city — the kingdom for God’s ruling and reigning (Matt. 16:18-19). In the church as the house we enjoy God in the aspect of His dwelling. In the church as the city we enjoy God in the aspect of His ruling and reigning.
Psalm 49
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 49:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 49:11 Hear
Psalms 49 — 51 cover three categories of persons in relation to the enjoyment of God in Christ. The first category (Psa. 49) consists of those who trust in their wealth (i.e., in anything other than Christ). In the second category (Psa. 50) are those who call upon the Lord according to His covenant. The third category (Psa. 51) is a single person, King David, who repented, confessed his sins to God, and asked God for His purging. Those in the first category have no share in the enjoyment of God in Christ; those in the second category participate in the enjoyment of God; and the one in the third category has a full portion of the enjoyment of God in Christ.
Ps 49:31 meditation
Or, utterance.
Ps 49:6a trust  -   Job 31:24; Psa. 52:7; Prov. 10:15; 11:28; Mark 10:24
Ps 49:61 wealth
In this age wealth and riches, which are mammon, represent all things other than Christ (Matt. 6:24). If we trust in such things, we will have no share in the enjoyment of God in Christ in His house, the church, or in His city, the kingdom.
Ps 49:71 a
Or, an expiation.
Ps 49:8a soul  -   cf. Mark 8:37
Ps 49:9a live  -   Psa. 89:48
Ps 49:9b corruption  -   Psa. 16:10
Ps 49:10a leave  -   Eccl. 2:18; cf. Psa. 39:6
Ps 49:131 self-confident
Or, foolish; as in v. 10.
Ps 49:141 And
According to the conjecture of many. The Hebrew text reads, The upright will rule over them in the morning.
Ps 49:17a take  -   Eccl. 5:15; 1 Tim. 6:7
Ps 49:18a blessed  -   Deut. 29:19; Psa. 10:3; cf. Luke 12:19
Ps 49:191 It
Referring to his soul in v. 18.
Psalm 50
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 50:Titlea Psalm  -   1 Chron. 6:39; 15:17; 16:5, 7; 2 Chron. 29:30; Psa. 73–83
Ps 50:1a Mighty  -   Deut. 10:17; Psa. 24:8; 1 Cor. 10:22
Ps 50:1b rising  -   Psa. 65:8; 113:3
Ps 50:21a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
See note 21 in Psa. 48. Zion, which typifies the church and will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the universal divine-human incorporation of the consummated Triune God and His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect, is the perfection of beauty in God’s eternal economy (cf. Eph. 2:10; Rev. 21:10-21).
Ps 50:2b beauty  -   Psa. 48:2; Lam. 2:15
Ps 50:22c shines  -   Deut. 33:2; Psa. 80:1; 94:1; Hab. 3:3-4; 2 Cor. 4:6; Rev. 1:16; 21:23
The shining forth of God out of His house is the dispensing of His goodness. Under such a shining, such a dispensing, we enjoy God in Christ. Cf. Num. 6:25 and notes.
Ps 50:3a Fire  -   Psa. 97:3; Dan. 7:9-10
Ps 50:4a judge  -   Psa. 96:13; 98:9
Ps 50:5a Gather  -   cf. Matt. 24:31; 1 Thes. 4:16-17; 2 Thes. 2:1
Ps 50:51b covenant  -   Gen. 15:18; Exo. 24:7-8
To make a covenant with God by sacrifice is to make a covenant by Christ as our sacrifice (Heb. 10:5, 10) and as the Mediator between us and God (1 Tim. 2:5).
Ps 50:6a heavens  -   Psa. 97:6; 19:1; 89:5
Ps 50:7a Hear  -   Psa. 81:8
Ps 50:7b testify  -   Deut. 31:19-21
Ps 50:71 against
Or, to.
Ps 50:8a burnt  -   Isa. 1:11; Jer. 7:22; Micah 6:6
Ps 50:12a fullness  -   Psa. 24:1; 89:11; 1 Cor. 10:26
Ps 50:14a Offer  -   Psa. 50:23; 107:22; 116:17; Heb. 13:15
Ps 50:141 thanksgiving
This psalm tells us that some of the saints of God were offering burnt offerings and other kinds of offerings (vv. 8-13), but because they were lacking in affection, they would not offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. Thus, the psalmist, speaking for God, indicated that what God wants is not the burnt offering but the thanksgiving offering. We can offer certain offerings without being touched in our hearts, but when we are thankful to God and offer to Him a prayer of thanksgiving, our hearts are deeply touched and we are filled with affection and tender feeling toward God. This is the kind of offering God desires.
Ps 50:14b vows  -   Job 22:27; Psa. 22:25; 61:8; 65:1; 66:13; 76:11; 116:14, 18; Eccl. 5:4-5
Ps 50:151 call
In the Bible, a book of covenant, God has covenanted Himself to us through the redeeming Christ, typified by the sacrifices (v. 5; Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20). Now we need to call on the Lord according to this covenant that we may enjoy Him as our portion (116:13 and note). See note 11 in Psa. 49.
Psalm 51
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 51:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 51:Title*b Nathan  -   2 Sam. 12:1-13
This psalm was composed after David’s great sin in murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife and after he was rebuked by the prophet Nathan (2 Sam. 11:1 — 12:14).
Ps 51:Titlec Bath-sheba  -   2 Sam. 11:1-27; cf. Matt. 1:6
Ps 51:11 Be
Or, Have mercy on me. See note 11 in Psa. 49.
Ps 51:12a blot  -   Psa. 51:9; Isa. 43:25; 44:22; Acts 3:19
In vv. 3-5 and 17 David repented and confessed his sins to God. The verbs used by David — blot out (vv. 1, 9), wash (vv. 2, 7), cleanse (v. 2), and purge (v. 7) — indicate that his repentance and confession were thorough and that his asking for forgiveness was genuine.
Ps 51:2a Wash  -   Isa. 1:16; Jer. 4:14; 1 John 1:7, 9
Ps 51:4a sinned  -   Gen. 20:6; 39:9; 2 Sam. 12:13; Luke 15:18
Ps 51:4b righteous  -   Luke 7:29; Rom. 3:4
Ps 51:51 brought
To confess, as David did here, that we were born in sin indicates that we have no trust in ourselves (cf. Rom. 7:18; Phil. 3:3). Realizing that we are sinful and God is holy, we trust only in Him. Also, we realize that we need Christ to be our Mediator and our sacrifice (see note 71).
Ps 51:5a in  -   Rom. 5:12
Ps 51:5b conceive  -   Psa. 58:3
Ps 51:61a inward  -   Job 32:18; 38:36; Psa. 16:7; 26:2
The inward parts are the parts of the human soul — the mind, the emotion, and the will. The hidden part is the human spirit, which is hidden within the soul. See note 41 in 1 Pet. 3.
Ps 51:6b hidden  -   1 Pet. 3:4
See note 61.
Ps 51:71a hyssop  -   Exo. 12:22; Lev. 14:4; Num. 19:18; Heb. 9:19
Hyssop typifies Christ in His humble and humiliated human nature (1 Kings 4:33a; Exo. 12:22a; Phil. 2:5-8). Here it implies Christ as the Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5; 1 John 2:1) and the sacrifice (Heb. 10:5, 10).
Ps 51:7b whiter  -   Isa. 1:18; Rev. 7:14
Ps 51:9a blot  -   Psa. 51:1
Ps 51:101a clean  -   Matt. 5:8; Acts 15:9
Or, pure.
Ps 51:102b renew  -   Ezek. 11:19; 18:31; 36:26
By sinning we become old; but after we are forgiven by God, we can be renewed (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5).
Ps 51:111a presence  -   2 Kings 13:23; 17:20
God’s presence is actually the Spirit of His holiness. If we lose God’s presence, we lose everything.
Ps 51:112b Spirit  -   Gen. 6:3; Judg. 16:20; 1 Sam. 16:14; Isa. 63:10-11
The title the Spirit of holiness used here and in Isa. 63:10-11 is not the same as the Holy Spirit used in the New Testament. The Spirit of holiness in the Old Testament is for God to make His people holy by separating them unto Himself. The Holy Spirit at the initiation of the New Testament age was for God’s incarnation, in which God in His divine nature was imparted into humanity and mingled with the human nature (without forming a third nature) to produce a God-man who was intrinsically holy (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35). See notes 152, 352, and 353 in Luke 1.
Ps 51:12a gladness  -   1 Sam. 2:1; Psa. 13:5; 21:1; 35:9; Isa. 61:10
Ps 51:14a bloodshed  -   cf. 2 Sam. 11:15, 17; 12:9
Ps 51:16a burnt  -   Psa. 40:6; Amos 5:22; Mark 12:33; Heb. 10:5-6
Ps 51:17a spirit  -   Job 17:1; Prov. 15:13; 17:22; 18:14; Isa. 65:14
Ps 51:17b contrite  -   Psa. 34:18; Isa. 57:15; 66:2
Ps 51:181 good
Verses 18-19 signify the participation in the enjoyment of God in the local church as God’s house, God’s dwelling, and in the universal church as God’s city, God’s kingdom, through the all-inclusive Christ as the offerings. If we are those who repent, confess our sins, and ask God for His purging (1 John 1:9), we will have the enjoyment of God in Christ in His house, the local church, and in His city, the universal church. This enjoyment, as the “good” mentioned here, includes God’s building up the church, His filling the church with His glory, and His granting the church His rich presence with Himself as joy, peace, life, light, security, and every spiritual blessing (cf. Eph. 1:3).
Ps 51:18a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 51:18b Build  -   Psa. 102:16; 147:2
Psalm 52
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 52:Title* Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 52:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 52:Titleb Doeg  -   1 Sam. 21:7; 22:9
Ps 52:11 Why
Psalms 52 — 67 may be considered the pious expressions of the psalmists uttered out of their complex sentiments while enjoying God in His house. On the one hand, the psalmists enjoyed God and His salvation, and on the other hand, they condemned their enemies and asked God to judge and destroy them. In these psalms the sentiments of the psalmists were strong, mixed, and complex.
The psalms in this section concern humanity in the ethical realm. They speak of being just and upright and holding on to one’s integrity. However, these things are not the spirituality revealed in the New Testament. The divine revelation in the Bible is progressive. To properly appreciate the Psalms requires the revelation of God’s economy in the New Testament. God’s eternal economy is to impart Himself into man and dispense His riches into man’s inner being (Eph. 3:8-9, 14-19) that He may be man’s life and life supply. By His life and the bountiful supply of His life-giving Spirit (Phil. 1:19b), man can live Him and magnify Him (Phil. 1:20-21a) for His manifestation (1 Tim. 3:16a). In this way, all His chosen people can corporately be His expression as His fullness, His organism, the church (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19-21). In comparison with the spiritual standard revealed in the New Testament, the spiritual level in these psalms is much inferior. Cf. note 11, par. 2, in Job 6.
Ps 52:51 break
In vv. 1-7 David condemned the evil man, and in vv. 8-9 David spoke concerning his enjoyment of God in His house. Here David’s hatred toward his enemy and his praise to God are mixed together. See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 52:71 strength
Or, refuge.
Ps 52:7a trusted  -   Psa. 49:6; Luke 12:21; 1 Tim. 6:17
Ps 52:8a olive  -   Jer. 11:16; Hosea 14:6; Rom. 11:24
Psalm 53
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 53:Title* mahalath
The meaning of the Hebrew is obscure; it may refer to a kind of sad melody.
Ps 53:Title** Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 53:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 53:1a The  -   vv. 1-6: Psa. 14:1-7
Ps 53:11 fool
This psalm of instruction refers to a time when David was being attacked by the Gentiles. Thus, the persons spoken of in vv. 1-5 are Gentiles. Verses 1-3 were quoted by Paul in Rom. 3:10-12, referring to all men.
Ps 53:1b There  -   Rom. 3:12
Ps 53:2a seeks  -   cf. Psa. 10:4; Rom. 3:11
Ps 53:3a All  -   Rom. 3:12
Ps 53:5a bones  -   cf. Psa. 141:7; Jer. 8:1-2; Ezek. 6:5
Ps 53:61 salvation
In David’s sentiment this salvation is only for the Jews, not for the Gentiles (cf. Eph. 3:6).
Ps 53:6a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 53:6b turns  -   Psa. 14:7
Psalm 54
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 54:Title** Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 54:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 54:Titleb Ziphites  -   1 Sam. 23:19; 26:1
Ps 54:11 save
In this psalm, instead of asking God to have mercy on his enemies in His faithfulness, David asked God to annihilate his enemies (v. 5), while he himself was seeking to participate in the enjoyment of God in His help, sustenance, and salvation (vv. 1-4). A spiritual person would not pray in such a way. In typifying Christ as the fighting Victor (cf. note 31 in 1 Chron. 22), David was justified in asking God to annihilate his enemies; but in his spiritual living, it was not right for David to hate his enemies and to ask God to destroy them. This is against the nature of the spiritual life of God’s chosen people, and even against God’s holy word in the Old Testament in Prov. 25:21-22, quoted by the apostle Paul in Rom. 12:20. See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 54:3a set  -   Psa. 16:8; 86:14
Ps 54:4a Helper  -   Psa. 118:7
Ps 54:51 faithfulness
Or, truth.
Ps 54:61 praise
Or, give thanks to.
Psalm 55
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 55:Title* Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 55:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 55:11a Give  -   Psa. 86:6
In vv. 1-2, 4-8, 16-18a, 22, and 23b David sought to experience God’s salvation. At the same time, while under the oppression of his enemy, he asked God to deal with his enemy (vv. 3, 9-15, 18b-21, 23a). His request was based not on the principle of mercy and grace but on the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 55:3a drop  -   cf. Psa. 27:12; 35:11; 2 Sam. 16:7-8; Matt. 26:59-68; John 18:30; 19:7
Ps 55:6a wings  -   Psa. 139:9; Rev. 12:14
Ps 55:131 my
Lit., a man according to my own estimate. In these verses David prophesied concerning Judas’ betraying of Christ (41:9; John 13:18). David was a type of the suffering Christ (see note 11 in 1 Kings 2). In his pious expression of his complex sentiment concerning his suffering of his enemies’ oppression, he uttered this prophecy, indicating that Judas’ betrayal of Christ was a part of the sufferings of Christ.
Ps 55:13a friend  -   2 Sam. 15:12; Psa. 41:9; Matt. 26:50
Ps 55:14a house  -   Psa. 42:4; 122:1
Ps 55:151 Let
Others read, Desolations be upon them.
Ps 55:201 He
I.e., the betraying friend in v. 13.
Ps 55:22a Cast  -   1 Pet. 5:7
Psalm 56
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 56:Title* dove
Perhaps a reference to a melody common at the time.
Ps 56:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 56:Title** Michtam
See note on the superscription of Psa. 16.
Ps 56:Titleb Philistines  -   1 Sam. 21:11-15
Ps 56:11 Be
In this psalm David trusted in God and enjoyed God in His delivering him from death and stumbling (vv. 1-4, 8-13). At the same time, he asked God to cast down his enemies (vv. 5-7). See note 11 in Psa. 54.
Ps 56:4a In  -   Psa. 56:11
Ps 56:4b afraid  -   Psa. 27:1; 118:6; Matt. 10:28; Heb. 13:6
Ps 56:6a watch  -   Psa. 59:3; 71:10; Luke 11:54; 20:20; John 11:57
Ps 56:8a book  -   Exo. 32:32; Psa. 139:16; Mal. 3:16
Ps 56:11a In  -   Psa. 56:4
Ps 56:13a For  -   Psa. 116:8-9
Ps 56:13b light  -   Job 33:30
Psalm 57
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 57:Title* Do
According to the Masoretic text. Others understand a reference to a melody common at the time beginning with the word Destroy, referring to the enemies of the nation.
Ps 57:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 57:Title** Michtam
See note on superscription of Psa. 16.
Ps 57:Titleb cave  -   1 Sam. 22:1; 24:3; Psa. 142 title
Ps 57:11 Be
In this psalm David trusted in God and enjoyed God in His salvation, lovingkindness, and faithfulness (vv. 1-5, 7-11). At the same time, he rejoiced at the misfortune of his enemies (v. 6b). See note 11 in Psa. 54.
While we are trusting in God and enjoying His care according to His lovingkindness and faithfulness, we need to learn the lessons of God’s discipline. We need to find out the reason for the oppositions against us in our environment, for they are God’s discipline to correct us, to break us, and to bring us down for our eventual transformation in life (Heb. 12:5-11 and notes 71 and 101; 1 Pet. 4:12-19 and note 171). We should not pray that God would put others down; we are the ones who need to be brought down and broken by God. We should not have the shortage, displayed in many of the psalms, of being devoid of learning the lessons of God’s discipline. Cf. note 131 in Job 2.
Ps 57:1a takes  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 57:1b wings  -   Psa. 36:7
Ps 57:2a Most  -   Gen. 14:18-19; Num. 24:16; Dan. 3:26; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28
Ps 57:31 faithfulness
Or, truth. So also in v. 10.
Ps 57:5a Be  -   Psa. 57:11; 108:5; 113:4
Ps 57:7a My  -   Psa. 108:1
Ps 57:8a glory  -   Gen. 49:6; Psa. 16:9; 30:12; 108:1-2
Ps 57:9a I  -   vv. 9-11: Psa. 108:3-5
Ps 57:10a lovingkindness  -   Psa. 36:5; 108:4; 103:11
Ps 57:11a Be  -   Psa. 57:5
Psalm 58
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 58:Title* Do
See note on superscription of Psa. 57.
Ps 58:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 58:Title** Michtam
See note on superscription of Psa. 16.
Ps 58:11 Do
In this psalm David first condemned the sons of men (vv. 1-5) and then prayed for their destruction (vv. 6-11). See note 11 in Psa. 54.
Ps 58:12 judges
Or, mighty ones; others translate, gods.
Ps 58:11a judges  -   James 4:12
Psalm 59
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 59:Title* Do
See note on superscription of Psa. 57.
Ps 59:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 59:Title** Michtam
See note on superscription of Psa. 16.
Ps 59:Titleb watched  -   1 Sam. 19:11
Ps 59:8a laugh  -   Psa. 2:4
Ps 59:91 my
Some MSS read, His strength.
Ps 59:9a high  -   Psa. 9:9
Ps 59:151 linger
Others read, murmur.
Ps 59:161 But
David’s praise to God in vv. 16-17 is preceded by his accusing and condemning his enemies. See note 11 in Psa. 54.
Ps 59:16a lovingkindness  -   Psa. 90:14; 92:2; 143:8
Ps 59:16b high  -   Psa. 9:9
Ps 59:16c refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Psalm 60
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 60:Title* lily
Perhaps a reference to a melody common at the time.
Ps 60:Title** Michtam
See note on the superscription of Psa. 16.
Ps 60:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 60:Titleb Aram-naharaim  -   2 Sam. 8:13; 1 Chron. 18:12
Ps 60:4a banner  -   Exo. 17:15; Psa. 20:5; S.S. 6:4, 10
Ps 60:5a That  -   vv. 5-12: Psa. 108:6-13
Ps 60:51 us
Others read, me.
Ps 60:61a holiness  -   Psa. 89:35; Amos 4:2
Or, holy place.
Ps 60:7a scepter  -   Gen. 49:10
Ps 60:8a Moab  -   2 Sam. 8:2
Ps 60:8b Edom  -   Num. 24:18; 2 Sam. 8:14; cf. Isa. 63:1-3
Ps 60:10a rejected  -   Psa. 44:9; 60:1
Ps 60:12a tread  -   Psa. 44:5; Isa. 63:3
Psalm 61
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 61:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 61:2a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 61:3a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 61:4a tent  -   Psa. 15:1; 27:4-5
Ps 61:4b refuge  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 61:4c wings  -   Psa. 36:7
Ps 61:6a days  -   Psa. 21:4
Ps 61:71 faithfulness
Or, truth.
Ps 61:81 repay
The thought here of repaying God for His lovingkindness and faithfulness (v. 7) suggests a commercial transaction between the psalmist and God (cf. Matt. 19:27 and note 151 in Matt. 20).
Psalm 62
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 62:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 62:2a rock  -   Deut. 32:15; Psa. 18:2, 46; 62:6; 89:26; 95:1
Ps 62:2b high  -   Psa. 9:9
Ps 62:6a rock  -   Psa. 18:2; 62:2
Ps 62:6b high  -   Psa. 9:9
Ps 62:7a rock  -   Psa. 31:2-3
Ps 62:7b refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 62:8a Pour  -   1 Sam. 1:15; Psa. 42:4; Lam. 2:19
Ps 62:8b refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 62:9a vapor  -   Psa. 39:5; Isa. 40:17
Ps 62:12a repay  -   Job 34:11; Psa. 28:4; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12
Psalm 63
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 63:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 63:Titleb wilderness  -   1 Sam. 23:14
Ps 63:1a thirsts  -   Psa. 42:1-2; 84:2; 143:6
Ps 63:2a sanctuary  -   Psa. 28:2; 134:2
Ps 63:4a lift  -   Psa. 28:2; 134:2; 1 Tim. 2:8
Ps 63:5a satisfied  -   Psa. 36:8; Isa. 25:6; Jer. 31:14
Ps 63:7a wings  -   Ruth 2:12; Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 91:4
Ps 63:91 life
In vv. 5-8 the psalmist treasures the enjoyment of God, but in vv. 9-11 he rejoices in God’s punishing of his enemies. See note 11 in Psa. 54.
Ps 63:9a lower  -   Isa. 44:23; Matt. 12:40; Eph. 4:9; Phil. 2:10
Psalm 64
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 64:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 64:41 perfect
The psalmist’s use of perfect man here and righteous man and upright in heart in v. 10 indicates that he considered himself perfect, righteous, and upright. See note 31 in Psa. 7.
Ps 64:10a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Psalm 65
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 65:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 65:1a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 65:2a hear  -   2 Kings 19:20; 20:5
Ps 65:2b flesh  -   Psa. 145:21; Isa. 66:23
Ps 65:3a propitiation  -   Lev. 4:26; cf. Ezek. 16:63; Dan. 9:24; 1 John 2:2
Ps 65:4a chosen  -   Psa. 33:12
Ps 65:4b near  -   Lev. 10:3; Num. 16:5; Ezek. 44:15
Ps 65:4c dwell  -   Psa. 23:6; 84:4, 10; 92:13
Ps 65:4d satisfied  -   Psa. 36:8; Jer. 31:14
Ps 65:5a God  -   1 Chron. 16:35; Psa. 79:9; 85:4
Ps 65:5b ends  -   Psa. 22:27
Ps 65:7a stilled  -   Psa. 89:9; 107:29; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24
Ps 65:9a water  -   Lev. 26:4; Job 5:10; Psa. 68:9
Ps 65:9b river  -   Psa. 46:4; Rev. 22:1
Ps 65:91 men
Lit., them.
Ps 65:92 the
Lit., it.
Ps 65:10a showers  -   Deut. 32:2; Psa. 72:6
Ps 65:13a sing  -   Isa. 44:23; 55:12
Psalm 66
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 66:21 Sing
Or, Sing in psalms the glory…
Ps 66:4a worship  -   Psa. 22:27; 86:9; Zech. 14:16; Rev. 15:4
Ps 66:6a dry  -   Exo. 14:21; Josh. 3:17; 4:22; Psa. 74:15; 106:9
Ps 66:7a might  -   Rev. 11:17
Ps 66:10a tried  -   Psa. 26:2; 1 Cor. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:7; cf. 1 Cor. 3:15
Ps 66:10b refined  -   Isa. 48:10; Zech. 13:9
Ps 66:12a fire  -   Isa. 43:2; Dan. 3:26; Zech. 13:9; cf. 1 Cor. 3:13, 15
Ps 66:171 He
Or, there was extolling under my tongue.
Ps 66:18a not  -   Isa. 1:15; 59:2; Jer. 11:11; 14:12; John 9:31
Psalm 67
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 67:1a shine  -   Num. 6:25; Psa. 31:16
Psalm 68
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 68:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 68:11 Let
A quotation of Moses’ prayer in Num. 10:35, uttered when the Ark of the Covenant set out from Mount Sinai. Psalm 68 is the highest peak of the divine revelation concerning Christ in all the Psalms. It is written in poetry, with types and signs, portraying the steps in God’s move on the earth in Christ. The Ark (typifying Christ — Exo. 25:10-22 and notes) was the center of the tabernacle (also typifying Christ — John 1:14). God’s move in the tabernacle with the Ark among Israel, His elect, from Sinai to Zion typifies the Triune God’s move in Christ as His all-inclusive embodiment from Christ’s incarnation to His ascension. In the type, God’s move was from Sinai (vv. 8b, 17b), beginning with the decreeing of the law and the erecting of the tabernacle, which signifies the incarnated Christ, through the wilderness (vv. 4b, 7b), which signifies the earth, to Mount Zion (v. 16), God’s dwelling place, which signifies God’s dwelling place in the heavens (Rev. 14:1). In the reality, God’s move in Christ and through Christ for the accomplishing of His New Testament economy began with Christ’s incarnation, which was the setting up of the real and living tabernacle in whom God dwelt and through whom He could move on earth; continued through Christ’s human living on the earth with His crucifixion and resurrection; and concluded with Christ’s ascension to Zion in the heavens. This unique move of God is portrayed in vv. 1-18 of this psalm. See note 81 in Eph. 4.
Ps 68:1a arise  -   Num. 10:35; Isa. 33:3
Ps 68:12 enemies
The enemies here typify Satan and his forces of evil in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12). This prayer is actually the aspiration of all God’s elect. Cf. note 121.
Ps 68:2a before  -   Rev. 6:16
Ps 68:41 Triumph
Indicating that Israel, God’s elect, triumphed in God and exulted before Him in His move on the earth. Today we too should exult in the move of God on earth from Christ’s incarnation to His ascension.
Ps 68:4a deserts  -   Jer. 2:6
Ps 68:42b Jah  -   Isa. 12:2; 26:4; 38:11
A shortened form of Jehovah.
Ps 68:51 orphans
God causes the believers in Christ as the needy ones (the orphans and widows), the bound ones (the prisoners — v. 6), and the solitary ones (v. 6) to dwell in His habitation, the church (1 Tim. 3:15). The church is a building that includes such people.
Ps 68:5a habitation  -   Deut. 12:5; Psa. 26:8; 132:13
Ps 68:7a O  -   vv. 7-8: cf. Judg. 5:4-5
Ps 68:7b before  -   Judg. 4:14; 2 Sam. 5:24; Isa. 52:12
Ps 68:8a trembled  -   Exo. 19:18; Isa. 64:1
Ps 68:9a rain  -   Psa. 65:9-10; 72:6; Acts 14:17
Ps 68:101 the
Lit., it.
Ps 68:111a women  -   Exo. 15:20; 1 Sam. 18:6
Signifying the weak ones (1 Pet. 3:7), i.e., all the believers in Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9-10), who can do nothing except proclaim the glad tidings of God’s victory in Christ (v. 12a).
Ps 68:112 bear
This signifies the announcing of the glad tidings (vv. 12-13) of Christ’s victory and the spoil gained by Him as the portion of God’s elect. While we announce the glad tidings, we enjoy the Triune God as the spoil gained for us by Christ (see notes 124 and 132).
Ps 68:11b glad  -   Isa. 40:9; Rom. 10:15
Ps 68:121 kings
Here the defeated and scattered kings typify Satan and the evil world-rulers (Eph. 6:12), who were defeated by God through His move in Christ (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15).
Ps 68:122 she
Referring collectively to the women in v. 11.
Ps 68:123 abides
Abiding at home signifies not going out to the battle. Although we did not fight in the battle, we enjoy Christ’s victory and divide the spoil.
Ps 68:12a Divides  -   Num. 31:27; 1 Sam. 30:24
Ps 68:124 spoil
Signifying all the gains of the accomplishment, consummation, attainment, and obtainment of Christ as the reapings of the victory of His death, resurrection, and ascension. This “spoil” is actually the riches of the processed and consummated Triune God as the portion of God’s elect, typified by the dove, the silver, and the gold in v. 13. See note 132.
Ps 68:131 lie
Signifying resting in God’s provision and care for His elect.
Ps 68:132 dove
The dove signifies the Spirit (Matt. 3:16), and the wings signify the moving power of the Spirit; silver signifies Christ in His all-inclusive redemption for His believers’ justification as the entrance into His full salvation; pinions (the feathers at the end of a bird’s wings that supply the strength to fly and soar) signify the soaring power of the Spirit; and gold signifies God in His divine nature. Here the gold is greenish-yellow, green signifying the divine life and yellow, the divine glory. Hence, greenish-yellow gold signifies God in His nature glittering in His life and glory. The contents of the above items, as the spoil (v. 12) gained by Christ in His victory for the enjoyment of God’s elect, are actually the Triune God — the Spirit, Christ, and God the Father — with all the items of His complete, full, and all-inclusive salvation.
Ps 68:13a silver  -   cf. Psa. 105:37
Ps 68:141 Almighty
Heb. Shaddai. See note 12 in Gen. 17.
Ps 68:142a kings  -   Josh. 10:10; 12:1
See note 121.
Ps 68:143 the
Lit., it.
Ps 68:151 mighty
Others translate, mountain of God.
Ps 68:161a mountain  -   Psa. 2:6; 78:54; 87:1-2; 132:13-14; Isa. 2:2
The dwelling place of God is built on Mount Zion (76:2b), signifying the highest peak in the universe, the heavens (Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1). The built-up church as the reality of Zion is not earthly but heavenly. See note 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 68:17a chariots  -   2 Kings 2:11; 6:17
Ps 68:17b Sinai  -   Deut. 33:2
Ps 68:181a ascended  -   Psa. 47:5; Eph. 4:8
Referring to Christ’s ascension to the third heaven, the highest peak in the universe (cf. Isa. 14:13). See note 81 in Eph. 4. Paul’s quoting of this verse in Eph. 4 in reference to the building up of the church is a strong proof that the building up of the temple in the ancient times is a type of the building of the church. It also provides a strong basis to say that the temple, the house, and the city referred to in the Psalms typify the church.
Ps 68:182 those
See note 82 in Eph. 4.
Ps 68:183 gifts
When Christ ascended to the Father, He presented to the Father all the ones whom He had captured and brought with Him. The Father then returned all these captured ones to Christ, making each of them a gift to Christ. See note 83 in Eph. 4.
Ps 68:184 Jehovah
Heb. Jah Elohim.
Ps 68:185 dwell
This indicates that Christ uses all the gifts, i.e., all the believers in Christ as gifted persons, who do the one work of the ministry, to build up the Body of Christ as God’s dwelling place on earth today (Eph. 4:7-12, 16).
Ps 68:191 loads
The enjoyment of God in His house (vv. 19-23) follows the building up of His dwelling place (v. 18b).
Ps 68:192 good
Signifying not the “good” of material things but the Triune God Himself enjoyed by us as the spoil of Christ’s victory (see notes 124 and 132). See note 283 in Rom. 8.
Ps 68:201 goings
The way to go forth from death is to enjoy God in Christ as the resurrection life (John 11:25).
Ps 68:20a death  -   Psa. 116:8; Hosea 13:14
Ps 68:211 smash
In God’s house we also enjoy His victory over the enemies. See note 201 in Rom. 16.
Ps 68:21a head  -   Psa. 110:6; Hab. 3:13
Ps 68:231 bathe
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, shatter.
Ps 68:241 They
Here they refers to the enemies, to the unbelievers; goings refers to God’s activities; and the sanctuary signifies the church.
Ps 68:24a King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 68:251 virgins
Signifying the believers (Matt. 25:1 and note 3).
Ps 68:261 Jehovah
Some MSS read, the Lord.
Ps 68:26a fountain  -   Deut. 33:28; Jer. 2:13; 17:13
Ps 68:271a Benjamin  -   1 Sam. 9:21
In the praise rendered to God by His elect in vv. 24-28, a scenery in typology is portrayed concerning God’s New Testament economy in the accomplishing of God’s redemption by Christ for God’s salvation and in the spreading of the glad tidings of Christ’s accomplishment with the goodly words of the gospel. Benjamin, mentioned here, had two names, the first of which was Ben-oni. This name, given to him by his mother Rachel as she was dying in childbirth, means son of my affliction (Gen. 35:18a). As the son of affliction, Benjamin typifies Christ, who, as the man of sorrows (Isa. 53:3) in His incarnation and human life on earth, accomplished God’s eternal redemption for His full salvation (Heb. 9:12). Whereas Rachel named her son Ben-oni, Jacob immediately changed the child’s name to Benjamin, which means son of the right hand (Gen. 35:18b). To be at the right hand is to be in a position of glory and honor. As the son of the right hand, Benjamin typifies Christ, who, as the Son of the right hand in His resurrection, victory, and ascension, ministers in the heavens to carry out the application of God’s redemption for His salvation (Heb. 8:1-2; 7:25). Christ was incarnated to be Ben-oni, the man of sorrows, but in resurrection He became Benjamin, the Son of the right hand in glory and honor (80:17; Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 5:31).
Ps 68:272b Judah  -   Gen. 49:8-10
Judah is the lion with the power and the scepter, and he is the peace (Shiloh) to God’s people (Rev. 5:5a; Gen. 49:8-10). Whereas Benjamin typifies Christ mainly in His humanity, Judah typifies Christ mainly in His divinity. In His divinity Christ is not a man of sorrows but a lion with power and authority (signified by the scepter). In particular, Judah typifies Christ as the victory for God’s people and the peace to God’s people. In the application of redemption, Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14-15).
Judah, the kingly tribe, was accompanied always by Benjamin, a warrior tribe (Gen. 49:27), for God’s kingdom on the earth. In typology Judah and Benjamin, who were joined geographically, form a group for the accomplishment and application of Christ’s redemption for God’s salvation. With Benjamin the emphasis is on the accomplishment of redemption; with Judah the emphasis is on the application (in Christ’s ascension) of redemption.
Ps 68:273c Zebulun  -   Gen. 49:13; Matt. 4:15
Dwelling at the shore of the sea (Galilee) and being a shore for ships (Gen. 49:13), Zebulun typifies Christ as the “shore” of the evangelists for the transportation and spreading in the preaching of God’s gospel. After Christ accomplished all the things that are to be proclaimed as the gospel, on the day of Pentecost at least 120 gospel “ships,” all of whom were Galileans (Acts 2:7; 13:31), set out from the “shore” to spread the gospel. See note 131 in Gen. 49.
Ps 68:274d Naphtali  -   Gen. 49:21
According to Gen. 49:21 (see note there), Naphtali is a hind let loose, and he gives beautiful words. Naphtali typifies Christ as the One who is released from death in resurrection, signified by the hind let loose (Psa. 22 title; S.S. 2:8-9), and gives beautiful words for the preaching of His gospel (Matt. 28:18-20).
In typology Zebulun and Naphtali form a group for the spreading and the propagating of the glad tidings of Christ’s redemption, accomplished for God’s salvation. The people of both Zebulun and Naphtali were men of Galilee (Matt. 4:12-17; Acts 1:11), from whom the gospel of Christ has been spread, preached, and propagated.
Ps 68:281 Strengthen
The word in vv. 28b-29a indicates that after God’s strengthening of what He has done for His elect, the influence of the enjoyment of God in His house spreads to the entire city of Jerusalem because of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem. The house of God signifies the local churches, and the city of Jerusalem signifies the kingdom, the strengthening and the safeguard of the church.
Ps 68:291 Kings
The word in vv. 29b-35 indicates that the influence of the enjoyment of God in His house and His city will gain the whole earth for God. The scenery portrayed in these verses will consummate in the coming age of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:20-21), in which all the earth will come to Jerusalem to worship God and to receive instruction and enlightenment (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23; 14:16).
Ps 68:29a gift  -   2 Sam. 8:2, 6; 1 Kings 4:21; Psa. 72:10; 76:11; Rev. 21:24
Ps 68:301 animals
Signifying the Egyptians.
Ps 68:302 peoples
Signifying the nations.
Ps 68:31a Egypt  -   Isa. 19:19, 21
Ps 68:311b Cush  -   Psa. 87:4; Isa. 45:14; Zeph. 3:10
I.e., Ethiopia.
Ps 68:32a kingdoms  -   Psa. 102:22
Ps 68:32b earth  -   Psa. 67:4; 100:1
Ps 68:33a heaven  -   Deut. 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27
Psalm 69
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 69:Title* Shoshannim
See note on the superscription of Psa. 45.
Ps 69:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 69:11 Save
Psalm 69 is on the suffering Christ, typified by the suffering David, and Psa. 72 is on the reigning Christ, typified by the reigning Solomon. In this psalm the sufferings of Christ are portrayed in a detailed way: Christ was hated by many without cause (v. 4a; John 15:25); He was reproached for the sake of God (vv. 7a, 9b; Rom. 15:3); He was devoured by the zeal of God’s house (v. 9a; John 2:17); He suffered much, and no one took pity on Him (vv. 29a, 19-20; John 16:32); He wept and entreated God to deliver Him out of death (vv. 10, 13-17, 1-2; Heb. 5:7); He was given gall as His food while He was suffering on the cross (v. 21a; Matt. 27:34); He was given vinegar to drink in His thirst on the cross (v. 21b; John 19:28-30); He was stricken and wounded by God (v. 26; Isa. 53:10a); and He was betrayed by one of His disciples (v. 25; Acts 1:16-20a). After His life of suffering on earth, typified by the sufferings of David, Christ ascended to the heavens, where He is now reigning as the King, typified by Solomon.
Ps 69:4a hate  -   Psa. 35:19; John 15:25
Ps 69:7a reproach  -   Psa. 69:9; Jer. 15:15; Rom. 15:3
Ps 69:8a brothers  -   cf. Job 19:13; John 7:5; 1:11
Ps 69:9a zeal  -   Psa. 119:139; John 2:17
Ps 69:9b reproaches  -   Rom. 15:3
Ps 69:10a wept  -   cf. Heb. 5:7
Ps 69:11a proverb  -   Psa. 44:14; Jer. 24:9
Ps 69:12a talk  -   Luke 2:34
Ps 69:13a acceptable  -   Isa. 49:8; 56:7; 2 Cor. 6:2
Ps 69:19a reproach  -   Psa. 22:6; Heb. 12:2
Ps 69:20a none  -   cf. John 16:32; 2 Tim. 4:16
Ps 69:21a gall  -   Matt. 27:34
Ps 69:21b thirst  -   John 19:28
Ps 69:21c vinegar  -   Matt. 27:48; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36
Ps 69:221a May  -   vv. 22-23: Rom. 11:9-10
Verses 22-24 and 27-28 are the psalmist’s expression from his complex sentiments concerning his enemies. See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 69:23a see  -   Isa. 6:9-10; Matt. 13:14
Ps 69:25a May  -   cf. Acts 1:20
Ps 69:26a stricken  -   Isa. 53:4, 10
Ps 69:28a book  -   Exo. 32:32-33; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 20:12, 15
Ps 69:30a magnify  -   Psa. 34:3; Luke 1:46; cf. Heb. 2:12
Ps 69:34a Let  -   Psa. 96:11; Isa. 49:13
Ps 69:35a Zion  -   Psa. 51:18
Psalm 70
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 70:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 70:1a O  -   vv. 1-5: Psa. 40:13-17
Ps 70:2a May  -   Psa. 35:4
Psalm 71
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 71:1a In  -   vv. 1-3: cf. Psa. 31:1-3
Ps 71:1b take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 71:3a rock  -   2 Sam. 22:3; Psa. 18:2
Ps 71:3b fortress  -   2 Sam. 22:2; Psa. 18:2; 91:2; 144:2
Ps 71:6a birth  -   Psa. 22:10; Isa. 46:3
Ps 71:6b womb  -   Psa. 22:9; Isa. 49:1
Ps 71:7a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 71:81 glory
Or, honor, majesty.
Ps 71:9a old  -   Psa. 71:18; cf. Isa. 46:4
Ps 71:10a counsel  -   Matt. 26:4; 27:1
Ps 71:18a old  -   Psa. 71:9; Isa. 46:4
Ps 71:19a great  -   1 Sam. 12:24; Psa. 126:2-3; Luke 1:49
Ps 71:19b who  -   Exo. 15:11; Psa. 35:10; 89:6, 8; 113:5
Ps 71:201 me
Others read, us (three times).
Ps 71:20a revive  -   Psa. 80:18; Isa. 26:19; Hosea 6:2
Ps 71:221 faithfulness
Or, truth.
Psalm 72
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 72:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 127 title
Ps 72:11 king
In this psalm the reigning Christ is typified by the reigning Solomon (see superscription), the son of David (Matt. 1:1; 22:42), in his prosperous and flourishing time (1 Kings 9 — 10). The reign of Christ typified by the reign of Solomon will be in the millennium in the age of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 20:4, 6).
Ps 72:21a righteousness  -   Isa. 11:4
The reigning of Christ will be in righteousness and justice (see note 141 in Psa. 89) and will issue in peace (vv. 3, 7; cf. Isa. 32:17; Heb. 12:11).
Ps 72:3a peace  -   Psa. 85:10; Isa. 32:17; 52:7
Ps 72:61 drop
In His second coming Christ will gain the earth not mainly by exercising His righteous judgment but by coming like showers to water the people of the earth. He will have mercy on the earth and will come back graciously like showers of rain to satisfy the thirsty ones (cf. Rev. 22:17). In that day all the nations will be rained on by Christ and will be happy under His dominion.
Ps 72:6a showers  -   Deut. 32:2; Psa. 65:10
Ps 72:7a moon  -   cf. Matt. 5:18; 24:35; 2 Pet. 3:10
Ps 72:8a dominion  -   Psa. 2:8; Zech. 9:10
Ps 72:81b River  -   Exo. 23:31; 1 Kings 4:21, 24
I.e., the Euphrates.
Ps 72:101 coastlands
I.e., the islands and shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Ps 72:10a gifts  -   Psa. 68:29; Isa. 60:6, 9; Matt. 2:11; Rev. 21:24
Ps 72:11a kings  -   Isa. 49:7; Rev. 21:24
Ps 72:14a precious  -   2 Kings 1:13-14; Psa. 116:15
Ps 72:15a gold  -   1 Kings 10:10; Isa. 60:6; Matt. 2:11
Ps 72:17a blessed  -   Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; Jer. 4:2; Eph. 1:3
Ps 72:17b blessed  -   1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 5:13; cf. Mal. 3:12; Luke 1:48
Ps 72:181a Blessed  -   vv. 18-19: Psa. 41:13; 106:48
Psalm 41:13 concludes Book One of the Psalms, and vv. 18-19 of this psalm conclude Book Two. The two are similar, but the conclusion in this psalm is improved by the mentioning of God’s glorious name and the filling of the whole earth with His glory because of the gaining of the earth through the enjoyment of God in His house and His city (see note 291 in Psa. 68).
Ps 72:19a glory  -   Num. 14:21; Hab. 2:14
Ps 72:19b Amen  -   Psa. 41:13; 89:52
Psalm 73
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 73:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 73:11 Surely
The first four psalms in Book Three, Psa. 73 — 76, cover four matters: the personal sufferings of the seeking saints (Psa. 73), the desolation of God’s house (Psa. 74), the judgment of Christ on the desolators (Psa. 75), and the victory of God in His dwelling place (Psa. 76).
Ps 73:12a pure  -   Psa. 24:4; 51:10; Matt. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:5
To be pure in heart is to have God as our one goal and aim. See note 81 in Matt. 5.
Ps 73:21 turned
Verses 2-16 are a record of the suffering of the seeking psalmist and his perplexity because of the prosperity of the wicked. Whereas Psa. 1:3-4 says that the law-keeper prospers and the wicked do not prosper, here the psalmist was puzzled (v. 16) and nearly stumbled by his own suffering (vv. 13-14) and the prosperity of the wicked, who are at ease and heap up riches (v. 12). See note 31 in Psa. 1.
Ps 73:3a prosperity  -   Jer. 12:1
Ps 73:9a tongue  -   Psa. 12:3-4; 120:2-4; James 3:5
Ps 73:12a heap  -   cf. Psa. 39:6; Luke 12:20
Ps 73:131 vain
The psalmist considered that he had purified his heart in vain because, instead of enjoying material prosperity, he was plagued all day long and chastened every morning (v. 14). However, the real vanity is anything besides God. Idols are vanity; material prosperity is vanity; anything other than God is vanity (Eccl. 1:2). A pure heart is one that is set on nothing but God. The psalmist realized this when he entered into the sanctuary of God (vv. 17, 25-26; see notes 251 and 261).
Ps 73:13a washed  -   Psa. 24:4; 26:6; cf. Deut. 21:6
Ps 73:171a sanctuary  -   Psa. 20:2; 77:13
Lit., sanctuaries. The solution to the psalmist’s perplexity concerning the prosperity of the wicked was obtained in God’s sanctuary. First, God’s sanctuary, His habitation, is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22) and, second, it is the church (1 Tim. 3:15). Thus, to go into the sanctuary of God, we need to turn to our spirit and go to the meetings of the church. Once we are in the sanctuary — in the spirit and in the church — we will have another view, a particular perception, of the situation concerning the wicked (vv. 18-20). In our spirit and in the church we receive divine revelation and obtain the explanation to all our problems.
Ps 73:22a beast  -   cf. Psa. 32:9; 49:20
Ps 73:23a with  -   Psa. 23:4; 139:18; Isa. 41:10
Ps 73:23b right  -   Isa. 41:13
Ps 73:24a glory  -   Col. 3:4; cf. 1 Tim. 3:16
Ps 73:251 Whom
This verse reveals that God’s pure seeker would have God as his only possession in heaven and his unique desire on earth. God was the psalmist’s unique goal. The psalmist did not care for anything except God and gaining Him. In this matter Paul was the same (Phil. 3:8).
Ps 73:25a desire  -   Psa. 42:1-2; 84:2
Ps 73:26a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 73:261b portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 119:57; 142:5
In God’s sanctuary the psalmist was instructed to take only God Himself as his portion, not anything other than God. The one who does not care for God may gain many things and seem to prosper. However, the one who cares for God will be restricted by God and even stripped by God of many things, as was the case with Job (Job 1:6 — 2:10) and the apostle Paul (Phil. 3:7-8). God’s intention with His seekers is that they may find everything in Him and not be distracted from the absolute enjoyment of Himself. It is not a matter of keeping the law, as in Psa. 1, or of being right or wrong, but of gaining God and keeping God as everything. See note 131 in Job 2.
Ps 73:28a drawing  -   James 4:8
Ps 73:28b refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Psalm 74
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 74:Title* Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 74:Titlea of  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 74:11 Why
This psalm concerns the desolation of the house of God. After reaching the highest enjoyment of God in His house and His city at the end of Book Two, the psalmist lost this enjoyment, and God’s house was desolated, as described in this psalm. Verses 1-11 are the psalmist’s painful presentation of the perpetual ruins and damage in the sanctuary of God (v. 3). The temple, God’s house, was desolated to such an extent that it was burned (vv. 7-8), and the city surrounding it was ruined (2 Chron. 36:19). The intrinsic reason for the desolation was that Christ was not exalted by God’s people; they did not give Him the preeminence, the first place, in everything (Jer. 2:13; cf. Col. 1:18; Rev. 2:4 and note 2). The problem of desolation is solved by Christ being properly appreciated and exalted by God’s people (see note 171 in Psa. 80). The enjoyment of God in the house and the city of God can be maintained and preserved only when Christ is properly appreciated and exalted by God’s people.
Ps 74:1a cast  -   Psa. 44:9; 60:1; 77:7; Jer. 31:37
Ps 74:1b sheep  -   Psa. 79:13; 95:7; 100:3; Jer. 23:1
Ps 74:21 assembly
Verses 1-2 indicate that the psalmist was concerned about two things — God’s people and God’s dwelling place, both of which had been damaged. Regarding this, the psalmist was deeply disappointed.
Ps 74:2a purchased  -   Exo. 15:16; Psa. 77:15
Ps 74:2b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
See note 21.
Ps 74:3a sanctuary  -   Psa. 79:1; Jer. 52:13; Lam. 1:10; 2:6-7; Dan. 9:17; cf. Dan. 8:11; 11:31; Matt. 24:15
Ps 74:6a carved  -   1 Kings 6:18, 29, 32, 35
Ps 74:7a set  -   2 Kings 25:9; Isa. 64:11
Ps 74:9a prophet  -   Lam. 2:9; Ezek. 7:26
Ps 74:11a right  -   Lam. 2:3
Ps 74:121 But
Verses 12-23 are a desperate cry for God’s interest (v. 22a) that appeals to His power (vv. 13-17) and is based on His faithfulness to His covenant (v. 20). This is an example of the best kind of prayer. Eventually, God heard this prayer and came in to restore the ruined sanctuary (Ezra 1 — 6).
Ps 74:12a King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 74:13a divided  -   Exo. 14:21; Psa. 78:13; 136:13; Neh. 9:11
Ps 74:141 leviathan
Probably the crocodile.
Ps 74:15a fountain  -   Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:8, 11; Psa. 105:41; Isa. 48:21
Ps 74:15b dried  -   Josh. 2:10; 4:23; Psa. 66:6; Isa. 51:10
Ps 74:17a borders  -   Deut. 32:8; Acts 17:26
Ps 74:20a covenant  -   Lev. 26:45; Psa. 106:45
Psalm 75
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 75:Title* Do
See note on superscription of Psa. 57.
Ps 75:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 75:11 We
This psalm concerns the judgment of Christ on the desolators in answer to the prayer in Psa. 74. Although this psalm does not mention Christ or the Messiah, the very God who judges (v. 7) must be Christ, for God has given all judgment to Christ the Son (John 5:22). Christ, the second of the Divine Trinity, is the One who will execute judgment upon all sinners (Acts 10:42). Here the judgment is upon the desolators, who had gone too far in executing God’s judgment on His people (see note 131, par. 1, in Isa. 26).
Ps 75:21 time
Christ’s judgment upon the desolators will be at the time appointed by Him (cf. Acts 17:31).
Ps 75:2a judge  -   Psa. 67:4; Acts 17:31
Ps 75:61 south
The fact that exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south indicates that it comes from the north, i.e., from God, who dwells in the north (cf. Isa. 14:13-14; Ezek. 1:4; Psa. 48:2). Furthermore, this indicates that Christ as the Judge (see note 11) is unique. Exaltation should not come from any direction other than where He dwells. Therefore, preeminence should be given to Him (Col. 1:18).
Ps 75:7a exalts  -   1 Sam. 2:7; Luke 1:52
Ps 75:8a cup  -   Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 25:15; Rev. 14:10; 16:19
Psalm 76
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 76:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 76:11 God
This psalm concerns the victory of God in His dwelling place. Verses 1-5 are a declaration concerning the victory of God, as the glorious and excellent One, in His tabernacle. Verses 6-12 are the praise of the psalmist concerning the wrath and fearfulness of God.
Ps 76:21a Salem  -   Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1
See note 182 in Gen. 14.
Ps 76:22b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
See note 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 76:31 There
Referring to God’s dwelling place (v. 2). It is in God’s dwelling place, that is, in the church, that God defeats the enemy and destroys his instruments of war. See note 201 in Rom. 16.
Ps 76:3a bow  -   1 Sam. 2:4; Psa. 46:9
Ps 76:6a deep  -   Isa. 37:36; Jer. 51:39, 57; Nahum 3:18
Ps 76:7a stand  -   Ezra 9:15; Psa. 130:3; Rev. 6:17; cf. Luke 21:36
Psalm 77
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 77:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 77:11 My
Psalms 77 — 83 form a cluster of psalms that cover the devastation of three holy things — the holy temple, the holy city, and the holy people. In particular, these psalms reveal the way of restoration — to exalt Christ. These seven psalms were written by Asaph, a Levite who had served in the temple. The fact that these psalms speak of the desolation of the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and the people indicates that they were written after the children of Israel had been taken captive to Babylon.
Ps 77:6a song  -   Psa. 42:8; Acts 16:25
Ps 77:6b spirit  -   2 Cor. 2:13
Ps 77:71a cast  -   Psa. 44:9; 74:1
The psalmist was puzzled and complained to God because God had cast off His people for a while (vv. 1-9). God has chosen us, and He will never forsake us (Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5; Heb. 13:5). He may allow us to depart from Him for a time; then He touches us, and we come back to Him (cf. Rom. 11:24-25).
Ps 77:101 But
In vv. 10b-20 the psalmist recalled the past and mused on God’s wondrous doings for His people. In this way he introduced the subject of restoration. The temple had been destroyed, the city had been devastated, and many of the people had been either killed or taken captive. This does not mean, however, that Israel is finished, for there will be restoration through the exalting of Christ (see note 171 in Psa. 80).
Ps 77:111 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah.
Ps 77:12a And  -   Psa. 143:5
Ps 77:131a sanctuary  -   Psa. 20:2; 63:2; 68:24; 73:17
God’s way is hidden in the sea, and His paths in the great waters, with His footsteps, are not known to men (v. 19), but His way is revealed in His sanctuary, i.e., in our spirit and in the church (Eph. 2:22; 1 Tim. 3:15). When we exercise our spirit and live in the church, God’s way becomes clear to us. See note 171 in Psa. 73.
Ps 77:13b great  -   Psa. 48:1; 1 John 4:4
Ps 77:15a redeemed  -   Exo. 15:16; Psa. 74:2
Ps 77:16a waters  -   Exo. 14:21; Josh. 3:16; Psa. 114:3; Hab. 3:10-11
Ps 77:18a trembled  -   Judg. 5:4-5; Psa. 18:7; 68:8; Acts 4:31; 16:26
Ps 77:19a sea  -   Exo. 14:21
Ps 77:20a flock  -   Psa. 78:52; 80:1
Psalm 78
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 78:Title* Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 78:Titlea of  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 78:1a Give  -   Deut. 32:1; Isa. 51:4; Matt. 13:9
Ps 78:11 instruction
The subject of this psalm is man’s failure and God’s restoration. Verses 1-58 are the psalmist’s recalling of Israel’s failure in the past; vv. 59-64 describe the issue of Israel’s failure; and vv. 65-72 is a word concerning God’s restoration of Israel.
Ps 78:2a I  -   Matt. 13:35
Ps 78:2b parable  -   Matt. 13:3; Psa. 49:4
Ps 78:5a children  -   Deut. 4:10
Ps 78:8a generation  -   Psa. 95:10-11
Ps 78:8b heart  -   Psa. 78:37; Acts 8:21
Ps 78:12a wonderful  -   Deut. 6:22; Psa. 78:43; 105:27
Ps 78:13a divided  -   Exo. 14:21; Psa. 74:13
Ps 78:13b heap  -   Exo. 15:8; Psa. 33:7
Ps 78:14a cloud  -   Exo. 13:21-22; Psa. 105:39
Ps 78:15a rocks  -   Exo. 17:6; Psa. 78:20; 105:41; 114:8; Isa. 48:21; 1 Cor. 10:4
Ps 78:18a test  -   Exo. 17:2, 7; Deut. 6:16; Psa. 78:41, 56; 95:9; 1 Cor. 10:9; Heb. 3:9
Ps 78:19a table  -   Psa. 23:5; Prov. 9:2; 2 Sam. 9:7, 11, 13; cf. 1 Cor. 10:21
Ps 78:19b wilderness  -   Exo. 16:3; Num. 21:5
Ps 78:20a rock  -   Psa. 78:15-16
Ps 78:21a angry  -   Num. 11:1; Isa. 66:15
Ps 78:22a not  -   Num. 14:11; Heb. 3:19; Jude 5
Ps 78:24a manna  -   Exo. 16:31; Num. 11:6-7; Deut. 8:3, 16
Ps 78:24b food  -   Exo. 16:4; John 6:31; cf. 1 Cor. 10:3
Ps 78:26a wind  -   Num. 11:31
Ps 78:27a birds  -   Exo. 16:13; Num. 11:32
Ps 78:31a anger  -   Num. 11:33
Ps 78:32a not  -   Num. 14:11; Psa. 78:22
Ps 78:34a inquired  -   Num. 21:7
Ps 78:35a rock  -   Deut. 32:4, 15, 31; Psa. 18:2
Ps 78:37a heart  -   Psa. 78:8; Acts 8:21
Ps 78:38a merciful  -   Exo. 34:6; Psa. 86:15
Ps 78:39a flesh  -   Gen. 6:3
Ps 78:391b wind  -   James 4:14
Or, breath.
Ps 78:40a grieved  -   Isa. 63:10; Eph. 4:30
Ps 78:41a test  -   Psa. 78:18; 106:14; Heb. 3:9
Ps 78:41b Holy  -   Psa. 71:22; Isa. 30:15; 54:5; 60:9
Ps 78:43a When  -   vv. 43-51: cf. Psa. 105:27- 36
Ps 78:44a blood  -   Exo. 7:17-24
Ps 78:45a flies  -   Exo. 8:21-24
Ps 78:45b frogs  -   Exo. 8:2-14
Ps 78:46a locust  -   Exo. 10:12-15
Ps 78:47a hail  -   Exo. 9:22-25
Ps 78:471 ice
The meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain.
Ps 78:48a cattle  -   Exo. 9:19-21
Ps 78:50a pestilence  -   Exo. 9:3-6
Ps 78:51a struck  -   Exo. 12:29; Psa. 105:36
Ps 78:52a flock  -   Psa. 77:20; 80:1
Ps 78:53a covered  -   Exo. 14:27-28; 15:10
Ps 78:54a mountain  -   Exo. 15:17; Psa. 68:16
Ps 78:55a drove  -   Exo. 34:24; Psa. 44:2
Ps 78:55b inheritance  -   Josh. 23:4; Acts 13:19
Ps 78:58a high  -   Lev. 26:30; 1 Kings 11:7
Ps 78:58b jealous  -   Deut. 32:16, 21; Psa. 79:5
Ps 78:60a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; Jer. 7:12, 14
Ps 78:611a Ark  -   1 Sam. 4:11, 21
Lit., strength. This refers to the capture of the Ark by the Philistines before the temple was built (1 Sam. 4).
Ps 78:612 glory
Or, beauty.
Ps 78:64a fell  -   cf. 1 Sam. 4:11; 22:18
Ps 78:68a chose  -   1 Sam. 16:1; 2 Chron. 6:6
Ps 78:68b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6; 87:2
Ps 78:70a sheepfolds  -   2 Sam. 7:8; cf. 1 Sam. 16:11
Ps 78:711a shepherd  -   2 Sam. 5:2; 1 Chron. 11:2; Psa. 28:9; Ezek. 34:23
Or, pasture, feed. So also in the next verse. Here David (v. 70) is a type of Christ as the Shepherd of God’s people (Matt. 2:6; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4). See note 12 in Psa. 23. In the restoration of God’s people there is always the shepherding, the feeding, of Christ.
Psalm 79
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 79:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 79:1a nations  -   Lam. 1:10; Rev. 11:2
Ps 79:1b Jerusalem  -   2 Kings 25:9-10; 2 Chron. 36:19; Jer. 26:18
Ps 79:2a dead  -   cf. Rev. 11:9
Ps 79:5a jealousy  -   Zeph. 1:18; 3:8; Heb. 10:27
Ps 79:6a Pour  -   vv. 6-7: Jer. 10:25
Ps 79:6b not  -   1 Thes. 4:5
Ps 79:10a avenging  -   Deut. 32:43; 2 Kings 9:7; Matt. 23:35; Luke 18:7; Rev. 6:10
Ps 79:13a sheep  -   Psa. 74:1; 95:7
Psalm 80
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 80:Title* shoshannim-eduth
Meaning lilies, a testimony; it may refer to a melody common at the time.
Ps 80:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 80:1a Shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; Isa. 40:11
Ps 80:1b flock  -   Psa. 77:20; 78:52
Ps 80:1c are  -   Exo. 25:22; 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; Psa. 99:1
Ps 80:3a shine  -   Num. 6:25; Psa. 31:16
Ps 80:7a shine  -   Psa. 31:16
Ps 80:81a vine  -   Isa. 5:2; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 15:6; 17:6; Mark 12:1; Luke 20:9; John 15:1
In vv. 8-13 the psalmist speaks regarding God’s dealing with Israel as His vine, which He brought out of Egypt and planted. Whereas the vine once was flourishing, it eventually became desolate (cf. Isa. 5).
Ps 80:8b drove  -   Exo. 34:24; Psa. 44:2; 78:55
Ps 80:111a River  -   Psa. 72:8
I.e., the Euphrates.
Ps 80:12a hedges  -   Psa. 89:40; Isa. 5:5; Matt. 21:33
Ps 80:141 visit
In vv. 14-19 the psalmist asks God to visit His vine for the sake of Christ as the man of His right hand (v. 17).
Ps 80:15a stock  -   Ezek. 17:5-6; cf. Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5; Zech. 3:8; 6:12
Ps 80:151 son
The son here and in v. 17 is the Lord Jesus. Hosea 11:1 and Matt. 2:15 indicate that when Christ became a man, He, the Son of God, joined Himself to Israel. During the time Israel was forsaken by God, this unique One was strengthened by God for Himself.
Ps 80:17a hand  -   Psa. 89:21
Ps 80:171 man
This man is Christ, who is at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 5:31), the highest place in the universe. God has given the first place, the highest position, the preeminence, in the entire universe to Christ. This is the exaltation of Christ (Phil. 2:9-11). The way to be restored from desolation is to exalt Christ. Whenever God’s people do not give Christ the preeminence, the house of God, signifying the church, becomes desolate. Whenever God’s people exalt Christ, giving Him the preeminence in every aspect of their living, there is restoration (v. 19) and revival (v. 18). See note 11 in Psa. 74.
Ps 80:17b son  -   Dan. 7:13-14
Ps 80:181a call  -   Acts 2:21
Christ is now at the right hand of God (Rom. 8:34; Col. 3:1; 1 Pet. 3:22), and whoever calls upon Him as such a One will be restored and revived (Acts 2:33, 21; Rom. 10:12-13).
Ps 80:19a shine  -   Psa. 31:16
Psalm 81
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 81:Title* gittith
See note on the superscription of Psa. 8.
Ps 81:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 81:11 Sing
Psalms 81 — 83 reveal God’s intention to gain the earth for Christ’s inheritance (82:8) through His habitations, the local churches, and Satan’s plot to possess God’s habitation for himself and thus withhold the earth from God (83:3, 12).
Ps 81:1a joyful  -   Psa. 95:1-2; 98:4, 6; 100:1
Ps 81:3a trumpet  -   Lev. 23:24; Num. 10:10; 29:1
Ps 81:41 statute
According to God’s ordination Israel, God’s elect, should live a joyful life (cf. Phil. 4:4). The annual feasts, as well as the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee, are times of rejoicing, singing, and shouting (Lev. 23 and 25, and notes).
Ps 81:61 your
Lit., his (twice).
Ps 81:6a burden  -   Exo. 1:11; Isa. 10:27; 14:25
Ps 81:7a Meribah  -   Exo. 17:7; Num. 20:13
Ps 81:8a Hear  -   Psa. 50:7
Ps 81:81 against
Or, to.
Ps 81:9a strange  -   Exo. 20:3; Deut. 32:12; Psa. 44:20; Isa. 43:12
Ps 81:9b foreign  -   Josh. 24:20, 23; 1 Sam. 7:3
Ps 81:10a Jehovah  -   Exo. 20:2
Ps 81:10b mouth  -   Psa. 119:131, 103
Ps 81:12a gave  -   Acts 7:42; 14:16
Ps 81:16a wheat  -   Deut. 32:14; Psa. 147:14
Ps 81:16b honey  -   Deut. 32:13; 1 Sam. 14:25; Ezek. 16:13, 19
Psalm 82
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 82:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 82:1a judges  -   Isa. 3:13
Ps 82:11 gods
Or, judges; Heb. elohim. So also in v. 6.
Ps 82:51 You
Lit., they (three times).
Ps 82:6a I  -   John 10:34-36
Ps 82:6b sons  -   Luke 6:35; cf. Luke 20:36
Ps 82:81a judge  -   Psa. 96:13; 98:9
This is the aspiration of the psalmist for Christ to judge the earth and to inherit the nations. Christ is the One appointed to judge the earth (John 5:22; Acts 17:31) and the One worthy to inherit all the nations. See notes 11 in Psa. 75 and 61 in Psa. 2.
Ps 82:8b inherit  -   Psa. 2:8
See note 81.
Psalm 83
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 83:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 50 title
Ps 83:31 devise
Satan’s plot is to possess God’s habitations, the local churches, for himself through the nations who conspire against God’s hidden ones, the believers in Christ (vv. 2-12).
Ps 83:32a hidden  -   Psa. 27:5; 31:20
Today we, the believers in Christ, are God’s hidden ones, and the worldly people do not know us (1 John 3:1). However, when the Lord Jesus comes back, the hidden ones will become the manifested ones (Col. 3:3-4). Today is the time for us not to be manifested but to be hidden.
Ps 83:4a destroy  -   Esth. 3:6; Psa. 74:8
Ps 83:5a conspired  -   Psa. 2:2
Ps 83:9a Midian  -   Num. 31:7; Judg. 7:14-15; Isa. 9:4
Ps 83:9b Sisera  -   Judg. 4:2, 7, 15, 22; 1 Sam. 12:9
Ps 83:10a Endor  -   Josh. 17:11; 1 Sam. 28:7
Ps 83:11a Oreb  -   Judg. 7:25; 8:3
Ps 83:11b Zebah  -   Judg. 8:5-21
Ps 83:131 O
In vv. 1 and 13-18 the psalmist prayed that God would deal with the nations that they may know that God alone is the Most High over all the earth and that they may seek His name. These things will take place in the millennium, the time of restoration (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-22).
Ps 83:18a Most  -   Psa. 97:9
Psalm 84
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 84:Title* gittith
See note on the superscription of Psa. 8.
Ps 84:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 84:1a How  -   Psa. 27:4; 36:8; 48:2; 122:1
Ps 84:11 lovely
This psalm, concerning the psalmist’s love for the house of God with Christ, follows the psalms on the stripping of God’s seekers and the desolation of God’s house, beginning with Psa. 73. In the recovery and restoration (Psa. 80) the loveliness and sweetness of God’s house is intensified.
The intrinsic content of Psa. 84 is the secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God, the God-man. The center of this secret revelation is the house of God (vv. 4, 10), typified by the tabernacle (Exo. 40:2-8) and the temple (1 Kings 6:1-3; 8:3-11). Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) is the fulfillment of the types of the tabernacle and the temple. This fulfillment commenced in His incarnation as the individual Christ (John 1:14; 2:21) and will continue until it consummates in the New Jerusalem as the corporate Christ, the great God-man (Rev. 21:2-3, 22). The New Testament, from Matthew through Revelation, covers the entire span of the incarnation of the Triune God and is a record of the divine incarnation. The enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God in God’s house is portrayed by the arrangement of the tabernacle and its furnishings (see note 31 in this chapter and notes 41 and 43 in Heb. 9).
Ps 84:12b tabernacles  -   Psa. 43:3; 46:4
See note 41.
Ps 84:21 longs
The psalmist’s longing and even fainting to be in God’s tabernacles indicates to what extent the psalmist loved God’s tabernacles. This love was matured through many trials.
Ps 84:2a courts  -   Psa. 92:13; 100:4
Ps 84:31 two
The bronze altar for the sacrifices and the golden altar of incense. The two altars signify the leading consummations of the work of the incarnated Triune God, who is Christ as the embodiment of God for His increase. The mentioning of these two altars together in Exo. 40:5-6 indicates that they are closely related in our spiritual experience. At the bronze altar, a type of the cross of Christ, our problems before God are solved through the crucified Christ as the sacrifices. This qualifies us to enter into the tabernacle, a type of Christ as the incarnated and enterable Triune God, and to contact God at the incense altar. At the golden altar of incense in front of the Holy of Holies (see note 41 in Heb. 9), the resurrected Christ in His ascension is the incense for us to be accepted by God in peace. Through our prayer at the incense altar we enter into the Holy of Holies — our spirit (Heb. 10:19) — where we experience Christ as the Ark of the Testimony with its contents. Through such an experience of Christ we are incorporated into the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to become a part of the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12) as God’s testimony for His manifestation. See notes 331 in Exo. 16 and 331, par. 2, in Jer. 31.
Ps 84:32a sparrow  -   Luke 12:7
Signifying the believers, who are small and frail.
Ps 84:33b home  -   Psa. 90:1
A home is a place of rest, and a nest is a place of refuge. Through the two altars God’s redeemed can find a nest as their refuge and a home with God in rest. The cross of Christ, typified by the bronze altar, is our “nest,” our refuge, where we are saved from our troubles and where we “lay” our young, i.e., produce new believers through the preaching of the gospel. When we experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension, typified by the golden altar of incense, we are accepted by God in such a Christ and find a home, a place of rest, in the house of God. This house is the processed and consummated Triune God united, mingled, and incorporated with all His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect (John 14:1-23) to be the Body of Christ in the present age and the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity (Rev. 21:3, 22).
Ps 84:3c King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 84:4a dwell  -   Psa. 65:4; 23:6; 27:4
Ps 84:41 house
In type, the house is the church as a totality (1 Tim. 3:15), and the tabernacles (v. 1) are the local churches (Rev. 1:11).
Ps 84:51 highways
The highways to Zion signify our intention to enter into the church as the house of God and to seek the incarnated Triune God in His consummations, typified by the furniture in the tabernacle (see note 31 in this chapter and note 43 in Heb. 9). On the one hand, we have entered into God; on the other hand, we are still on the highways to enter into God. That the highways are in our heart means that we need to take the way of the church internally, not merely externally.
Ps 84:61a Baca  -   cf. Psa. 30:11; 126:6; Jer. 31:9
Meaning weeping. On the one hand, those on the highways to Zion are strengthened in God (v. 5); on the other hand, they are opposed by Satan, who causes them to suffer persecution. The trouble and persecution caused by Satan can make the highway a valley of weeping. This special term indicates that the psalmist had been disciplined by God and had been stripped by Him (see notes 261 in Psa. 73 and 11 in Job 3).
Ps 84:62 spring
When we pass through the valley of Baca, God makes this valley a spring (cf. Col. 1:24; Heb. 10:34). This spring is the Spirit (John 4:14; 7:38-39). The more we weep on the highways to Zion, the more we receive the Spirit. While we are weeping, we are being filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes our spring.
Ps 84:63 early
Those who come into the church life by passing through the valley of weeping find that this weeping eventually becomes a great blessing to them. This blessing is the Spirit (Gal. 3:14). The tears they shed are their own, but these tears issue in a spring, which becomes the early rain, the Spirit as the blessing.
Ps 84:7a appears  -   Deut. 16:16; Jer. 31:6
Ps 84:71b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
In the church as God’s house, although we are on earth, we are nonetheless in the heavenly Zion (Heb. 12:22). See notes 22 in Gen. 22 and 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 84:91 shield
Referring to David the king, who typifies Christ as the shield to God’s people and as God’s Anointed.
Ps 84:111a sun  -   Isa. 60:19-20; Mal. 4:2
The blessings of our dwelling in the house of God are our enjoyment of the incarnated and consummated Triune God as our sun to supply us with life (John 1:4; 8:12), as our shield to protect us from God’s enemy (Eph. 6:11-17), as grace for our enjoyment (John 1:14, 17), and as glory for the manifestation of God in splendor (Rev. 21:11, 23).
Ps 84:11b shield  -   Psa. 3:3; 18:2
Ps 84:112 those
Probably referring, in the complex sentiments of the psalmist, to those who keep God’s law. See notes 201 in Psa. 18 and 21 in Psa. 73.
Ps 84:12a blessed  -   Psa. 2:12; Jer. 17:7
Ps 84:121 man
Probably referring, also in the complex sentiments of the psalmist, to the man who dwells in God’s house.
Psalm 85
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 85:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 85:11 You
Psalms 85 — 89 form a cluster. Psalms 85, 86, and 88 concern three matters: the restoration of God’s people, personal salvation, and release from sufferings, respectively. These three matters have been the continual concern of God’s people for centuries. According to the human concept, these matters are positive, but God does not regard these things as we do. Psalms 87 and 89 reveal that God’s concern, according to His heart, is Christ with Zion, in which are many saints and which is for the house of God and the city of God that Christ may possess the entire earth.
Ps 85:1a turned  -   Psa. 14:7
Ps 85:2a forgiven  -   Psa. 32:1; 130:4
Ps 85:41 Restore
The subject of this psalm is the seeking of the sons of Korah for the restoration of Israel.
Ps 85:6a revive  -   Isa. 57:15; Hosea 14:7
Ps 85:8a peace  -   Zech. 9:10
Ps 85:10a Righteousness  -   Psa. 72:3; Isa. 32:17; Heb. 7:2
Ps 85:12a good  -   Psa. 34:10; 84:11; James 1:17
Psalm 86
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 86:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 86:11 Incline
This psalm concerns David’s seeking for his personal salvation. Salvation is not for ourselves. God saves people for His economy, for His Christ, for Zion, and for His house and His city in order that one day He might gain the entire earth through Christ with His overcomers. See note 11 in Psa. 85.
Ps 86:4a lift  -   Psa. 25:1; 143:8
Ps 86:6a Give  -   Psa. 55:1
Ps 86:8a like  -   Exo. 15:11
Ps 86:9a worship  -   Psa. 22:27; 66:4; Rev. 15:4
Ps 86:14a set  -   Psa. 54:3
Ps 86:15a compassionate  -   Exo. 34:6; Num. 14:18; Psa. 103:8; 145:8
Psalm 87
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 87:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 87:11a foundation  -   Isa. 28:16
This divine foundation, typifying Christ as God’s unique foundation for the building up of His house, the church (1 Cor. 3:11), is built in the “holy mountains,” which typify the local churches. Jerusalem was built on these holy mountains, and among these mountains the highest peak is the one on which Zion was built, which typifies the overcomers in the church. See note 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 87:1b holy  -   Psa. 48:1; 68:16; Isa. 57:13; Zech. 8:3
Ps 87:2a loves  -   Rev. 20:9
Ps 87:21b gates  -   Psa. 118:19-20; cf. Rev. 21:12
Gates are for coming in and going out, signifying fellowship. The fact that the New Jerusalem will have twelve gates (Rev. 21:12, 21) indicates that God’s holy city will be full of fellowship.
Ps 87:22c Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
This psalm concerns the desire of God for Zion with Christ. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, Zion implies God’s house and God’s city. Zion is a poetic title of the church in both the universal sense and the local sense (Heb. 12:22). The heavenly Zion is the final place of rest for the overcomers (Rev. 14:1). See note 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 87:3a city  -   Psa. 46:4; 48:1, 8
Ps 87:41 Rahab
I.e., Egypt.
Ps 87:42 Cush
I.e., Ethiopia.
Ps 87:43 This
The people from the five places mentioned in this verse represent all the people on earth. The people in these places boast of the famous persons born there.
Ps 87:5a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 87:51 This
This One in v. 6 (see note 61) and this one and that one in this verse indicate that Christ Himself and all the saints were born in the heavenly Zion (Matt. 1:20; Gal. 4:26-31; Heb. 12:22-23a). This is God’s counting, God’s record, concerning Zion (v. 6).
Ps 87:5b establish  -   Psa. 48:8
Ps 87:61 One
The unique One, Christ, who is the totality of all the saints (v. 5) as the One who is all the saints and in all the saints (Col. 3:11). This psalm unveils Christ with all the saints to be God’s house for God’s city and for God to gain the whole earth.
Ps 87:7a springs  -   Psa. 36:9; Isa. 12:3; Jer. 2:13; John 4:14; Rev. 7:17
Ps 87:71 you
I.e., the city of God.
Psalm 88
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 88:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 42 title
Ps 88:Title* mahalath
The meaning of the Hebrew is obscure. It may refer to the singing of a sad melody with a subdued voice.
Ps 88:Title** Maschil
See note on the superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 88:11 salvation
This psalm concerns the seeking of Heman, a son of Korah, for his release from sufferings. See note 11 in Psa. 85.
Ps 88:1a by  -   Psa. 22:2; Luke 18:7
Ps 88:41 help
Or, strength.
Ps 88:8a far  -   Job 19:13; Psa. 88:18; Luke 23:49
Ps 88:10a deceased  -   Psa. 6:5; 30:9; 115:17; Isa. 38:18
Ps 88:111 Abaddon
Meaning destruction.
Ps 88:151 overwhelmed
Following the Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Psalm 89
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 89:Title* Maschil
See note on the superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 89:11 I
Psalm 89, especially vv. 3-4, 19-29, and 34-37, unveils the intention of God that Christ, His Anointed, would possess the entire earth. In vv. 19-20 Christ, the unique One in God’s record (87:6), has become God’s Holy One, God’s mighty One, God’s anointed One (Acts 2:27; Isa. 9:6; Matt. 1:16). He calls God His Father and His God (v. 26; John 20:17). He has become the Firstborn and “the highest of the kings of the earth” (v. 27; Rom. 8:29; Rev. 1:5a). His throne will be like the sun before God; it will be established forever like the moon (vv. 36-37; 72:5). God will establish His seed forever and “His throne as the days of heaven” (v. 29). God will extend the territory of this unique One so that He will possess the entire earth, setting “His hand on the sea and His right hand on the rivers” (v. 25; cf. Rev. 10:1-2). The sea probably refers to the Mediterranean Sea, the center of the populated earth. That Christ’s territory will be extended to all the rivers indicates that Christ will possess all the parts of the earth, signified by their rivers; that is, He will possess the whole earth (2:8). Both Book Two and Book Three end with the extension of God’s kingdom to the whole earth (72:8, 11, 19; 89:25, 27).
Ps 89:3a covenant  -   2 Sam. 7:10-16; Psa. 89:34-35; Jer. 33:19-21
Ps 89:3b sworn  -   Acts 2:30
Ps 89:4a forever  -   2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Chron. 17:14; Psa. 89:29, 36; Isa. 9:7
Ps 89:8a like  -   1 Sam. 2:2; Psa. 71:19
Ps 89:81 Jah
A shortened form of Jehovah.
Ps 89:9a still  -   Psa. 65:7; 107:29; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24
Ps 89:101 Rahab
I.e., Egypt.
Ps 89:10a scattered  -   Num. 10:35; Psa. 68:1, 30; 92:9; Luke 1:51
Ps 89:11a heavens  -   Psa. 115:16
Ps 89:11b earth  -   Exo. 9:29; Psa. 24:1; 1 Cor. 10:26
Ps 89:11c world  -   Psa. 50:12
Ps 89:13a hand  -   Deut. 5:15; Psa. 136:12; 1 Pet. 5:6
Ps 89:14a Righteousness  -   Psa. 97:2
Ps 89:141 foundation
Righteousness and justice, two of the main attributes of God’s divine nature, are the foundation of God’s throne. This corresponds with the fact that the foundation of God’s throne in the New Jerusalem is pure gold, signifying God’s nature in the attributes of righteousness and justice (Rev. 21:18b; 22:1). See note 12 in Isa. 32.
Ps 89:15a light  -   Psa. 4:6; Isa. 2:5
Ps 89:171 glory
Or, beauty.
Ps 89:19a Your  -   Psa. 16:10
Ps 89:191 Holy
Some MSS read, holy ones.
Ps 89:20a found  -   Acts 13:22; 7:45; Matt. 1:6
Ps 89:201 David
Referring to Christ, typified here by David (cf. Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23; Hosea 3:5; Amos 9:11).
Ps 89:20b anointed  -   1 Sam. 16:13
Ps 89:25a sea  -   Psa. 72:8
Ps 89:26a Father  -   2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Chron. 22:10; 28:6; Heb. 1:5
Ps 89:26b rock  -   2 Sam. 22:47; Psa. 18:2; 62:2
Ps 89:27a Firstborn  -   Exo. 4:22; Psa. 2:7; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:6
Ps 89:27b highest  -   Num. 24:7; Matt. 1:6; Rev. 1:5; 15:3; 17:14
Ps 89:29a seed  -   Psa. 89:4, 36; 18:50; 2 Sam. 22:51
Ps 89:29b throne  -   2 Sam. 7:16; 1 Chron. 22:10; Psa. 45:6; Isa. 9:7
Ps 89:30a children  -   2 Sam. 7:14
Ps 89:36a seed  -   2 Sam. 7:13, 16; Psa. 89:4, 29
Ps 89:38a cast  -   Psa. 44:9; 60:1; 77:7
Ps 89:491 Lord
Many MSS read, Jehovah.
Ps 89:49a swore  -   Psa. 89:3
Ps 89:52a Blessed  -   Psa. 41:13
Ps 89:52b Amen  -   Psa. 41:13; 72:19
Psalm 90
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 90:Titlea man  -   Deut. 33:1; Josh. 14:6; 1 Chron. 23:14; Ezra 3:2
Ps 90:11a dwelling  -   Deut. 33:27; Psa. 91:9; Isa. 8:14; Ezek. 11:16; Rev. 21:22
Psalms 90 — 92 concern the saints’ deeper experience of God in their being identified with Christ. Psalm 36:8 speaks of drinking the river of God’s pleasures and eating the fatness of God’s house, indicating that we can experience the Lord by eating and drinking Him (cf. John 6:48-58, 63; 7:37; 1 Cor. 10:3-4; 12:13). According to Moses, the giver of the law and the writer of this psalm, we can also dwell in the eternal Triune God as our Lord (v. 1; 91:9; Deut. 33:27; cf. John 15:4; 1 John 4:15-16; Rev. 21:22). To dwell in God is to have our living in God (Col. 2:6; 3:3; 1 John 4:16), taking Him as our everything. This is deeper than eating and drinking Him. To take God as our habitation, our eternal dwelling place, is the highest and fullest experience of God.
Book Four of the Psalms unveils the saints’ deeper experience of God in the identification with Christ, and God’s recovery of His title and right over the earth. This indicates that our experience of dwelling in God paves the way for Christ to come to possess the earth that God may recover His title (ownership) and right over the earth (see note 11 in Psa. 93). Without the saints’ deeper experience of God, God has no way to recover this title and right.
Ps 90:2a mountains  -   Job 15:7; Prov. 8:25-26
Ps 90:2b eternity  -   Psa. 93:2; Rom. 16:26
Ps 90:3a dust  -   Gen. 3:19; Job 34:15; Psa. 104:29; Eccl. 12:7
Ps 90:4a thousand  -   2 Pet. 3:8
Ps 90:5a grass  -   2 Kings 19:26; Psa. 103:15; Isa. 40:6-8; James 1:11
Ps 90:101 days
If we take God as our dwelling place, we will realize that the span of our life on earth is brief and is full of sins and afflictions (vv. 3-11). We need to dwell in God, living in Him every minute, for outside of Him there are sins and afflictions (v. 8; John 16:33).
Ps 90:10a seventy  -   cf. Gen. 6:3; 47:9; Deut. 34:7
Ps 90:10b eighty  -   2 Sam. 19:35
Ps 90:10c gone  -   James 4:14
Ps 90:12a number  -   cf. Psa. 39:4
Ps 90:14a morning  -   Psa. 59:16; 92:2; 143:8
Ps 90:171 favor
Or, beauty.
Psalm 91
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 91:11 dwells
Psalm 91 concerns the saints’ identification with Christ in His taking God as His dwelling place (see note 91). In their identification with Christ, the saints make Jehovah the Most High their habitation, dwelling in His secret place and abiding in His shadow under His wings (vv. 1-9). This is the genuine oneness with God. Here, we are constituted with Him, and we and God live together as one.
Ps 91:1a secret  -   Psa. 27:5; 31:20; Isa. 32:2
Ps 91:1b shadow  -   Psa. 36:7; 121:5
Ps 91:12 Almighty
Heb. Shaddai. See note 12 in Gen. 17.
Ps 91:2a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 91:4a wings  -   Psa. 36:7; Matt. 23:37; Luke 13:34
Ps 91:4b take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 91:91 You
You and Your in vv. 9-13 refer to Christ, as proven by the fact that vv. 11-12 of this psalm are quoted by Satan in Matt. 4:6 in reference to Christ. This indicates that in this psalm it is Christ who takes God as His habitation, His dwelling place. Thus, not only Moses took God as his dwelling place (90:1), but even the Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, took God the Father as His habitation. Moses, the lawgiver, and Christ, the grace-giver, were the same in taking God as their dwelling place, as their habitation. Thus, the saints (represented by Moses) and Christ are identified as one.
To be identified with Christ is to be identified with Him not only in His death, in His resurrection, and in His ascension but also in His taking God as His habitation. If we would be identified with Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension, we need to abide in Christ (John 15:4), and to abide in Christ is not only to remain in Him but also to dwell in Him, taking Him as our everything.
Ps 91:9a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 91:9b habitation  -   Psa. 71:3; 90:1
Ps 91:11a For  -   vv. 11-12: Matt. 4:6; Luke 4:10-11
Ps 91:111b angels  -   Exo. 23:20; Psa. 34:7; Matt. 18:10; Acts 12:11
In the identification with Christ, we are under the preserving care of the angels (Matt. 4:11; Acts 12:7-10; Heb. 1:13-14) and are protected from Satan and the evil spirits (v. 13 and note).
Ps 91:131 lion
Here Satan is likened to a lion that devours God’s people (1 Pet. 5:8) and a serpent that poisons God’s people (Rev. 12:9).
Ps 91:13a serpent  -   Luke 10:19
Ps 91:141 He
He, Him, and His in vv. 14-16 also refer to Christ (cf. note 91). These verses are a prophecy concerning Christ. Christ loved God the Father (John 14:31); He has been set on high, exalted to the highest place in the heavens (Phil. 2:9-11); and He is now seeing God’s salvation in the extension of His days in resurrection (v. 16; Rev. 1:18a). In all these matters we should be identified with Christ. Then we will live with Him and love God. Thus, we will be exalted, and we will see God’s salvation in the extension of our days.
Ps 91:16a extension  -   Psa. 21:4
Psalm 92
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 92:11 give
Psalm 92 shows the issue of the deeper experience of God in the saints’ identification with Christ in taking God as their dwelling place (Psa. 90 — 91). The first issue is that the saints rejoice in the great works of Jehovah (vv. 1-9). When we dwell in God, taking Him as our habitation, we see His great works in the accomplishing of His economy and rejoice in them (see note 44 in Psa. 45).
Ps 92:2a declare  -   Psa. 89:1
Ps 92:2b morning  -   Psa. 59:16; 90:14; 143:8
Ps 92:31 higgaion
Referring perhaps to a resounding musical swell or to a meditative choral pause.
Ps 92:61 them
Lit., this.
Ps 92:101 horn
Before we dwell in God as our habitation, we may be low and frequently defeated. A further issue of our dwelling in God is that our horn (fighting strength) is exalted over our spiritual enemies (Eph. 6:10-13).
Ps 92:102a anointed  -   Psa. 23:5; 45:7
Or, mingled; the same word is used in Lev. 2:4 (see note 3 there). Another issue of our dwelling in God as our habitation is our being mingled with fresh oil, which signifies the consummated Spirit (Exo. 30:23-25 and note 251), who is fresh and present.
Ps 92:121 flourish
Still another issue of our dwelling in God, taking Him as everything in our living in His house, is that we are securely planted in His house and flourish in the riches of His divine life to such an extent that we bear fruit even in old age (vv. 12-14).
Ps 92:12a palm  -   Lev. 23:40; Rev. 7:9
Ps 92:13a Planted  -   Num. 24:6; Isa. 61:3
Ps 92:13b courts  -   Psa. 96:8; 100:4; 116:19; 135:2
Ps 92:14a full  -   cf. Deut. 34:7
Ps 92:15a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 92:15b no  -   1 John 1:9
Psalm 93
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 93:11a reigns  -   1 Chron. 16:31; Psa. 95:3; 96:10; 99:1; Isa. 52:7
Psalms 93 — 101 are a cluster showing that God will recover His full title and right over the earth through the reign of Christ. God has the right over the earth because the earth with all its fullness — all the different peoples of all races and colors — was created by Him. Thus, He is the Possessor of the earth and holds the title deed. He has the full right to claim the earth, and He will do it through the reign of Christ (cf. Psa. 2:8; Rev. 10:2; 11:15). See note 11 in Psa. 90.
Ps 93:1b clothed  -   Psa. 104:1
Ps 93:12 established
Apart from the reign of Christ the earth is easily shaken. When God recovers His title and right over the earth through the reign of Christ, the earth will no longer be shaken but will be established.
Ps 93:2a throne  -   Psa. 45:6
Psalm 94
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 94:11 shine
Psalm 94 reveals that Christ will execute His judgment over the world. When Christ reigns, He will shine, and this shining will be His vengeance executed over the unjust world.
Ps 94:2a Judge  -   Gen. 18:25; Psa. 50:6; Heb. 12:23
Ps 94:71 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah. So also in v. 12.
Ps 94:7a not  -   Psa. 10:11; Ezek. 8:12; 9:9
Ps 94:9a ear  -   Prov. 20:12
Ps 94:101 disciplines
When Christ reigns, He will discipline the nations much like a father disciplines his children. Cf. Heb. 12:5-11.
Ps 94:11a Jehovah  -   1 Cor. 3:20
Ps 94:12a Blessed  -   Job 5:17; James 1:12
Ps 94:12b discipline  -   Heb. 12:5
Ps 94:14a not  -   1 Sam. 12:22; Rom. 11:1-2
Ps 94:151 return
This indicates that on earth today judgment has gone astray from righteousness; but when Christ comes back to reign, He will bring in justice and will cause judgment to return to righteousness. See note 12 in Isa. 32.
Ps 94:22a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 94:22b refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Psalm 95
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 95:1a joyful  -   Psa. 81:1
Ps 95:1b rock  -   Psa. 18:2; 62:2
Ps 95:2a come  -   Psa. 100:2
Ps 95:3a great  -   Psa. 48:1; 1 John 4:4
Ps 95:31 great
Psalm 95 unveils that Jehovah as Christ is a great King who possesses the earth (vv. 4-7).
Ps 95:3b King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 95:5a dry  -   Gen. 1:9; Jonah 1:9
Ps 95:6a Maker  -   Deut. 32:6, 15; Psa. 100:3
Ps 95:7a pasture  -   Psa. 74:1; 79:13
Ps 95:7b Today  -   vv. 7b-8: Heb. 3:7-8, 15; 4:7
Ps 95:8a harden  -   Exo. 9:34; 1 Sam. 6:6
Ps 95:81b Meribah  -   Exo. 17:7; Num. 20:13
Translated provocation in the Septuagint (cf. Heb. 3:8).
Ps 95:82 Massah
Translated testing in the Septuagint (cf. Heb. 3:8).
Ps 95:9a When  -   vv. 9-11: Heb. 3:9-11
Ps 95:9b tested  -   Num. 14:22; Psa. 78:18
Ps 95:10a forty  -   Num. 14:33-34; 32:13; Acts 7:36
Ps 95:10b generation  -   Psa. 78:8
Ps 95:101c ways  -   Psa. 103:7; Isa. 55:8
See note 102 in Heb. 3.
Ps 95:11a swore  -   Num. 14:23, 28; Deut. 1:34-35
Ps 95:11b They  -   Heb. 4:3, 5
Ps 95:111 rest
Typifying Christ as the rest to God’s people. See note 91 in Heb. 4.
Psalm 96
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 96:1a new  -   Psa. 33:3
Ps 96:1b Sing  -   vv. 1b-13: 1 Chron. 16:23-33
Ps 96:31 nations
Verses 3-13 indicate that Jehovah as Christ will come to judge the earth, the world, and the peoples with righteousness and truth, and that He will reign over the nations.
Ps 96:32 peoples
The word peoples in vv. 3, 5, 7, 10, and 13 indicates that people of every race and color will be judged by Christ in His reign over the nations (cf. Matt. 25:31-46).
Ps 96:4a great  -   Psa. 48:1; 95:3; 135:5; 145:3; 1 John 4:4
Ps 96:5a gods  -   Dan. 5:4; 1 Cor. 8:5
Ps 96:7a Ascribe  -   Psa. 29:1
Ps 96:91 splendor
Or, adornment.
Ps 96:10a reigns  -   Psa. 93:1
Ps 96:101 established
See note 12 in Psa. 93.
Ps 96:10b judge  -   1 Sam. 2:10; Psa. 9:8; 67:4; 98:9
Ps 96:11a earth  -   Psa. 97:1
Ps 96:11b Let  -   Psa. 98:7
Ps 96:13a Before  -   Psa. 98:9
Ps 96:13b judge  -   Psa. 9:8; Isa. 11:4; Acts 17:31; Rev. 19:11
Psalm 97
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 97:11a reigns  -   1 Chron. 16:31; Psa. 93:1; 95:3; 96:10; 99:1
According to vv. 1-2, 4-6, 8-9, and 11, Jehovah as Christ will reign, and because of this the earth will be glad and rejoice.
Ps 97:2a deep  -   Exo. 20:21; 1 Kings 8:12
Ps 97:21b Righteousness  -   Psa. 89:14
See note 141 in Psa. 89.
Ps 97:3a fire  -   Psa. 50:3; Dan. 7:9-10
Ps 97:4a lightning  -   Psa. 77:18
Ps 97:5a melt  -   Judg. 5:5; Micah 1:4; Nahum 1:5
Ps 97:5b presence  -   Psa. 114:7
Ps 97:6a heavens  -   Psa. 50:6
Ps 97:6b glory  -   Isa. 40:5; 66:18-19
Ps 97:7a Worship  -   Heb. 1:6
Ps 97:71 gods
Heb. elohim; translated angels in the Septuagint (cf. Heb. 1:6; Psa. 8:5).
Ps 97:8a rejoices  -   Psa. 48:11
Ps 97:9a most  -   Psa. 83:18
Ps 97:10a delivers  -   Psa. 33:18-19; Dan. 6:27; Acts 12:11
Ps 97:121a praise  -   Psa. 30:4
Or, give thanks to.
Ps 97:122 His
I.e., His holy name.
Psalm 98
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 98:1a new  -   Psa. 33:3
Ps 98:1b right  -   Exo. 15:6; Acts 2:33
Ps 98:1c arm  -   Isa. 52:10; Luke 1:51
Ps 98:2a salvation  -   Isa. 49:6; Luke 3:6
Ps 98:2b righteousness  -   Isa. 62:2
Ps 98:3a remembered  -   Luke 1:54
Ps 98:3b salvation  -   Psa. 96:2; Isa. 52:7, 10
Ps 98:4a joyful  -   Psa. 81:1
Ps 98:6a joyful  -   Psa. 81:1
Ps 98:6b King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 98:7a Let  -   Psa. 96:11-12
Ps 98:9a Before  -   Psa. 96:13
Ps 98:9b judge  -   Psa. 9:8; Acts 17:31
Psalm 99
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 99:11a reigns  -   1 Chron. 16:31; Psa. 93:1
See note 11 in Psa. 93.
Ps 99:1b is  -   1 Sam. 4:4; Psa. 80:1
Ps 99:2a great  -   1 John 4:4
Ps 99:2b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 99:5a footstool  -   1 Chron. 28:2; Psa. 132:7
Ps 99:6a Moses  -   Exo. 15:25; 17:4; 32:30-32; Num. 12:13
Ps 99:6b Aaron  -   Lev. 8:1-30
Ps 99:6c Samuel  -   1 Sam. 12:18; Jer. 15:1
Ps 99:6d called  -   Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:12
Ps 99:7a pillar  -   Exo. 33:9; Num. 12:5
Ps 99:9a holy  -   Psa. 2:6; 3:4; 43:3; 48:1
Psalm 100
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 100:Title* of
Or, for the thank offering.
Ps 100:11 Make
This psalm opens with a charge given to all the earth to make a joyful noise to Jehovah as Christ, the reigning One.
Ps 100:1a joyful  -   Psa. 81:1
Ps 100:2a Come  -   Psa. 95:2
Ps 100:3a made  -   Job 10:8; Psa. 95:6; 149:2; Isa. 54:5
Ps 100:31 not
Others read, we are His.
Ps 100:3b sheep  -   Psa. 74:1; 95:7; cf. Matt. 25:32
Ps 100:4a courts  -   Psa. 92:13; 96:8
Ps 100:5a good  -   1 Chron. 16:34; Psa. 34:8; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1, 29; 119:68; 135:3; 136:1; Jer. 33:11; Matt. 19:17
Psalm 101
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 101:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 101:11 I
The I here is David, a type of Christ, indicating that this word is the word spoken by Christ to God. In this psalm David, God’s anointed, typifies Christ as the man anointed by God to reign over the earth for God.
Ps 101:12a lovingkindness  -   Psa. 89:1
Lovingkindness and justice will be the base of the reign and judgment of Christ, typified here by David. Therefore, this psalm unveils how Christ will reign over the earth with lovingkindness and justice and deal with all the wicked (vv. 1, 6, 8).
Ps 101:8a city  -   Psa. 48:8; Isa. 60:14
Psalm 102
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 102:1a hear  -   Psa. 39:12
Ps 102:11 prayer
Psalms 102 — 106 form a group. The title of Psa. 102 indicates that it is a prayer of an afflicted one, one who was suffering. The psalmist, a godly one, was suffering because of the destruction and devastation of Zion with the temple and the holy city. This psalm has three sections: vv. 1-11, concerning suffering and affliction; vv. 12-22, concerning the rebuilding of Zion, the restoration of the destroyed temple and the holy city; and vv. 23-28, unveiling the Lord as the One who is everlasting in His resurrection. That this psalm concerns Christ is indicated by the fact that vv. 25-27 are quoted in Heb. 1:10-12.
Ps 102:3a smoke  -   James 4:14
Ps 102:6a pelican  -   Isa. 34:11; Zeph. 2:14
Ps 102:7a watch  -   cf. Mark 14:33-37
Ps 102:71b sparrow  -   Psa. 84:3
The affliction of the psalmist refers to the affliction of Christ (vv. 6-8). This verse is a particular verse concerning Christ’s suffering, which was related to His zeal for God’s house (John 2:17; Psa. 69:9). Here Christ is likened to a lone sparrow on a housetop, referring to the flat roof of a Jewish house, where people would often go to pray (Acts 10:9). This indicates that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, probably there were times when in the night He, like a lone bird on a housetop, would watch and pray (Matt. 14:23; Luke 6:12), caring not for His own interest but for the interest of God and of God’s house.
In typology, Psa. 102 first refers to Christ’s suffering, especially to His death. Christ’s suffering consummated in His death, and through His death the church, God’s house, came into existence. Eventually, the church as God’s house becomes God’s city, God’s kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17; Eph. 2:19).
Ps 102:11a shadow  -   1 Chron. 29:15; Job 8:9; Psa. 109:23; 144:4
Ps 102:11b grass  -   James 1:11; 1 Pet. 1:24
Ps 102:12a But  -   Lam. 5:19
Ps 102:12b memorial  -   Exo. 3:15; Psa. 135:13
Ps 102:131a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
This psalm unveils Christ’s death and His existence in His resurrection (vv. 23-28 and note 251). The product of Christ’s death and resurrection is the church, typified by Zion with God’s house and God’s city (Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22-23). Zion is the center of the city of Jerusalem (vv. 16, 21), and in this psalm it typifies the church as the center of God’s kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19 and note 192). See note 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 102:13b appointed  -   Psa. 75:2; Isa. 40:2
Ps 102:141a stones  -   Psa. 48:13; Neh. 4:2; Lam. 4:1; cf. Mark 13:1
In this verse the stones typify the believers as the building materials of the church (1 Pet. 2:5), and the dust, the soil, typifies the ground of the church. We should take pleasure in all the members of the church and should favor the ground of the church, which is the ground of oneness (Deut. 12:5-28; 14:23-25; John 17:11, 21-23; 1 Cor. 1:10-13a; Eph. 4:3-6; Rev. 1:11).
Ps 102:161a built  -   Psa. 51:18; 147:2
Here the rebuilding of Zion typifies the rebuilding of the church. The history of Israel is a portrait of the history of the church (1 Cor. 9:24 — 10:11). After existing on the earth for a time, Israel passed through a period of destruction and devastation, and the people of Israel were carried away to captivity in Babylon (2 Kings 24 — 25). Likewise, the church was produced through Christ’s death and in Christ’s resurrection, and then it existed on earth for a time before it became degraded (see notes 11 in 2 Tim. 1, 31 in 2 Pet. 1, and 42 in Rev. 2) and was eventually devastated. The book of Revelation shows that Babylon the Great is versus the church (Rev. 17:1-6). Eventually, Babylon the Great will fall (Rev. 17:16; 18:2) and the church will be fully established (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5).
Ps 102:16b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 102:16c glory  -   Psa. 138:5; Isa. 60:1-2
Ps 102:181 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah.
Ps 102:19a looked  -   Psa. 11:4; 14:2; 33:13-14
Ps 102:211a name  -   Psa. 22:22; Heb. 2:12
Verses 21-22 indicate that it is through the established, restored Zion (signifying the church) that all the nations and kingdoms will be brought into the praise and worship of Jehovah. The rebuilding of the devastated church, typified by the rebuilding of Zion (v. 16), will turn all the nations to the Lord, and the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of God and of Christ (Rev. 11:15).
Ps 102:21b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 102:22a kingdoms  -   Psa. 22:27; Zech. 8:20-21
Ps 102:251a Of  -   vv. 25-27: Heb. 1:10-12
Verses 25-27, quoted in Heb. 1:10-12, speak of Christ’s continuing existence in His resurrection. Christ is the key that turns the earth to the Lord because of His eternal and unchanging existence (Rev. 1:18; Heb. 13:8). Christ’s suffering (vv. 6-8) was for redemption, and His redemption was to produce the church as the house of God and the city of God (John 19:34 and note). It is in Christ’s resurrection, by Christ’s resurrection, and through Christ’s resurrection that the church continues its existence and will consummate in the restoration (vv. 12-22; Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21), in which the entire earth with the peoples of all the nations will turn to the Lord (vv. 21-22; Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-22).
Ps 102:25b foundation  -   Job 38:4, 6; Psa. 24:2; Zech. 12:1
Ps 102:25c work  -   Gen. 1:1; Psa. 96:5
Ps 102:26a They  -   2 Pet. 3:10, 12; Rev. 21:1
Ps 102:26b endure  -   Heb. 12:27
Ps 102:26c garment  -   Isa. 51:6; Heb. 1:11
Ps 102:27a same  -   Mal. 3:6; James 1:17
Psalm 103
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 103:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 103:11a Bless  -   Psa. 103:22; 104:1, 35
Psalms 103 — 106 are the praising of Jehovah, who has recovered the title and the right over the whole earth through the reign of Christ. In these four psalms there is a narration of God’s history. This psalm speaks of God’s history in His lovingkindness and compassions in His forgiving of sins, healing, redeeming, and caring for His people. This is the first part of God’s history.
Ps 103:3a pardons  -   Exo. 34:9; Isa. 55:7; Micah 7:18
Ps 103:3b heals  -   Exo. 15:26; Psa. 107:20
Ps 103:51 prime
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; some translate, your years; others, your desires.
Ps 103:5a eagle  -   Isa. 40:31
Ps 103:71a ways  -   Deut. 34:10
See note 102 in Heb. 3. To the experienced ones, such as Moses, God makes His ways known, and to the younger ones, to the children, He makes His acts known. Both God’s ways and God’s acts are benefits to us.
Ps 103:7b acts  -   Exo. 34:10; cf. Psa. 106:7
See note 71.
Ps 103:8a Jehovah  -   Psa. 86:15
Ps 103:9a He  -   Isa. 57:16
Ps 103:9b anger  -   Psa. 30:5; Jer. 3:5, 12; Micah 7:18
Ps 103:10a sins  -   Ezra 9:13
Ps 103:12a transgressions  -   Isa. 43:25; Jer. 50:20; cf. Lev. 16:22
Ps 103:13a father  -   Prov. 3:12; Isa. 63:16; Jer. 31:9
Ps 103:14a dust  -   Gen. 3:19; Eccl. 12:7
Ps 103:15a grass  -   Psa. 90:5-6; James 1:10-11
Ps 103:15b flower  -   Job 14:2; Isa. 40:7
Ps 103:19a throne  -   Psa. 11:4; Rev. 4:2
Psalm 104
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 104:11a Bless  -   Psa. 103:1
Psalm 104 concerns God’s greatness in the creation of the universe and all the things in it. This, too, is a part of God’s history (see note 11 in Psa. 103).
Ps 104:2a light  -   Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:3; 1 Tim. 6:16
Ps 104:2b stretch  -   Job 9:8; Isa. 40:22; Jer. 10:12; Zech. 12:1
Ps 104:31 waters
I.e., the upper waters above the expanse (cf. Gen. 1:7).
Ps 104:4a winds  -   Heb. 1:7
Ps 104:5a earth  -   Job 38:4, 6; Psa. 24:2
Ps 104:6a mountains  -   Gen. 7:19; cf. Gen. 1:2, 9
Ps 104:7a rebuke  -   Psa. 18:15; Isa. 50:2; Matt. 8:26; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24
Ps 104:8a mountains  -   Gen. 8:5
Ps 104:9a border  -   Job 26:10; 38:11; Jer. 5:22
Ps 104:10a springs  -   Deut. 8:7; Isa. 41:18
Ps 104:13a waters  -   Psa. 65:9; Deut. 11:11
Ps 104:14a grass  -   Gen. 1:11; Deut. 11:15; Psa. 147:8
Ps 104:14b herbage  -   Gen. 1:29; 3:18; 9:3
Ps 104:15a wine  -   Judg. 9:13; Eccl. 10:19
Ps 104:15b Oil  -   Psa. 23:5; Judg. 9:9
Ps 104:15c heart  -   Acts 14:17
Ps 104:16a full  -   Job 8:16; Psa. 92:14; Luke 23:31
Ps 104:19a seasons  -   Gen. 1:14; Psa. 136:9
Ps 104:19b sun  -   Psa. 136:8; Eccl. 1:5; cf. Amos 8:9
Ps 104:23a labor  -   Gen. 3:17
Ps 104:27a food  -   Psa. 104:14; 145:15; Acts 14:17
Ps 104:29a dust  -   Gen. 3:19; Job 10:9; 34:15; Psa. 90:3; 146:4
Ps 104:30a Spirit  -   Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4
Ps 104:32a smoke  -   Exo. 19:18; Psa. 144:5
Ps 104:33a I  -   Psa. 63:4; 146:2
Ps 104:351a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 105:45; 106:1; 111:1; 112:1; 113:1; 115:18; 116:19; 117:2; 135:1; 146:1; 147:1; 148:1; 149:1; 150:1; Rev. 19:1, 3-4, 6
Meaning praise Jah; Jah being a shortened form of Jehovah. See note 11 in Rev. 19. The praise of Jehovah in Psa. 103 — 106 issues in hallelujahs, beginning in this verse and continuing in 105:45 and 106:1, 48, because the earth has been fully recovered by God and brought under Christ’s dominion (cf. Rev. 19:1-6; 11:15).
Psalm 105
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 105:1a Give  -   vv. 1-15: 1 Chron. 16:8-22
Ps 105:1b call  -   Psa. 116:17; Isa. 12:4
Ps 105:4a Seek  -   Heb. 11:6
Ps 105:4b Seek  -   Psa. 24:6; 27:8
Ps 105:81 covenant
Psalm 105 speaks of God in His dealing with Abraham and his descendants according to His covenant (Gen. 15). This is another part of God’s history (see note 11 in Psa. 103).
Ps 105:9a Abraham  -   Gen. 17:2; 22:15-18
Ps 105:9b Isaac  -   Gen. 26:2-3
Ps 105:10a Jacob  -   Gen. 28:10-15; 35:10-11
Ps 105:11a give  -   Gen. 13:15; 15:18
Ps 105:12a few  -   Gen. 34:30; Deut. 26:5
Ps 105:12b strangers  -   cf. Heb. 11:9
Ps 105:121 the
Lit., it.
Ps 105:14a allowed  -   cf. Gen. 20:6
Ps 105:14b rebuked  -   cf. Gen. 12:17; 20:3
Ps 105:16a famine  -   Gen. 41:50; cf. 2 Kings 8:1
Ps 105:17a before  -   Gen. 45:5, 7
Ps 105:17b sold  -   Gen. 37:28, 36; Acts 7:9
Ps 105:18a placed  -   Gen. 39:20
Ps 105:19a came  -   Gen. 40:20-21; 41:54
Ps 105:20a freed  -   Gen. 41:14
Ps 105:21a ruler  -   Gen. 41:40; Acts 7:10
Ps 105:23a Egypt  -   Gen. 46:6-7; Acts 7:15
Ps 105:24a fruitful  -   Exo. 1:7; Deut. 26:5
Ps 105:25a craftily  -   Exo. 1:10; Acts 7:19
Ps 105:26a sent  -   Exo. 3:10
Ps 105:27a They  -   vv. 27-36: Psa. 78:43-51
Ps 105:28a darkness  -   Exo. 10:21-23
Ps 105:29a blood  -   Exo. 7:20-21
Ps 105:30a frogs  -   Exo. 8:2-3
Ps 105:31a flies  -   Exo. 8:21-24
Ps 105:31b lice  -   Exo. 8:16-18
Ps 105:32a hail  -   Exo. 9:23
Ps 105:33a broke  -   Exo. 9:25
Ps 105:34a locusts  -   Exo. 10:12-15
Ps 105:36a struck  -   Exo. 12:29; Psa. 78:51
Ps 105:37a gold  -   Exo. 3:22; 12:35-36
Ps 105:38a going  -   Exo. 12:33
Ps 105:39a cloud  -   Exo. 13:21
Ps 105:40a quails  -   Exo. 16:13; Num. 11:31
Ps 105:40b bread  -   Exo. 16:14-15; Psa. 78:24-25; John 6:31
Ps 105:41a rock  -   Exo. 17:6; Psa. 78:15-16
Ps 105:44a possession  -   Deut. 6:10-11
Ps 105:451a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35; 106:1
See note 351 in Psa. 104.
Psalm 106
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 106:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104. So also for v. 48. Psalm 106 concerns God in His dealing with Israel in the wilderness and in the promised land with His favor according to His covenant. This is yet another part of God’s history. See note 11 in Psa. 103.
Ps 106:1b Give  -   1 Chron. 16:34; Psa. 100:5; 107:1
Ps 106:6a have  -   Lev. 26:40; 1 Kings 8:47; Ezra 9:6-7; Jer. 14:20; Dan. 9:5
Ps 106:7a acts  -   Psa. 103:7
Ps 106:7b rebelled  -   Exo. 14:11-12
Ps 106:9a rebuked  -   Psa. 18:15; Isa. 50:2
Ps 106:9b dried  -   Exo. 14:21; Isa. 51:10
Ps 106:10a saved  -   Luke 1:71
Ps 106:11a covered  -   Exo. 14:28; Deut. 11:4
Ps 106:12a believed  -   Exo. 14:31
Ps 106:12b sang  -   Exo. 15:1
Ps 106:14a lusted  -   Num. 11:4, 34; 1 Cor. 10:6
Ps 106:14b tempted  -   Exo. 17:2; Psa. 78:18
Ps 106:16a jealous  -   Num. 16:3
Ps 106:17a swallowed  -   Num. 16:32; Deut. 11:6
Ps 106:18a fire  -   Num. 16:35; cf. Num. 11:1
Ps 106:19a calf  -   Exo. 32:4; Deut. 9:16; Acts 7:41
Ps 106:20a glory  -   Jer. 2:11; Rom. 1:23
Ps 106:23a destroy  -   Exo. 32:10; Deut. 9:14
Ps 106:24a pleasant  -   Jer. 3:19
Ps 106:24b not  -   Deut. 1:32; 9:23
Ps 106:25a murmured  -   Num. 14:2; Deut. 1:27
Ps 106:26a fall  -   Num. 14:28-35; 1 Cor. 10:5
Ps 106:27a disperse  -   Psa. 44:11
Ps 106:28a Baal-peor  -   Num. 25:3; Hosea 9:10
Ps 106:30a Phinehas  -   Num. 25:7-8
Ps 106:31a righteousness  -   cf. Gen. 15:6; James 2:23
Ps 106:32a Meribah  -   Num. 20:2-13
Ps 106:33a spoke  -   Num. 20:10
Ps 106:34a destroy  -   Deut. 7:2, 16
Ps 106:35a mingled  -   Ezra 9:2
Ps 106:36a served  -   Judg. 2:13, 19; 3:5-7
Ps 106:37a demons  -   Deut. 32:17; 1 Cor. 10:20
Ps 106:38a polluted  -   Num. 35:33
Ps 106:39a harlots  -   Judg. 8:22, 33; Psa. 73:27
Ps 106:41a gave  -   Neh. 9:27
Ps 106:42a oppressed  -   Judg. 4:3; 10:12
Ps 106:45a covenant  -   Lev. 26:42; Deut. 7:12; Psa. 105:8; 111:5; cf. Exo. 2:24
Ps 106:46a compassion  -   1 Kings 8:50; 2 Chron. 30:9
Ps 106:47a Save  -   vv. 47-48: 1 Chron. 16:35-36
Ps 106:48a Blessed  -   Psa. 41:13; 72:18-19; Luke 1:68
Ps 106:48b Amen  -   1 Cor. 14:16; Rev. 19:4
Psalm 107
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 107:1a Give  -   Psa. 106:1
Ps 107:21a redeemed  -   Isa. 35:9-10; 62:12
Psalm 107 concerns God’s care for and deliverance of His redeemed in Christ. The word redeemed here implies Christ, for He is our Redeemer (Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:18-19) and even our redemption (Luke 2:38; 1 Cor. 1:30). In Christ we enjoy God’s care and deliverance, which imply His rescue and saving every day.
Ps 107:31a gathered  -   Deut. 30:3; Psa. 106:47; Isa. 43:5-6; 56:8; Jer. 29:14; 31:10
This gathering corresponds to Rev. 5:9, which speaks of those purchased for God by Christ’s blood “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”
Ps 107:41 wandered
God’s care and deliverance of the famished wanderers in vv. 4-9, of those imprisoned in darkness and the shadow of death in vv. 10-16 (cf. Acts 26:18), of the ones who are sick because of their way of transgression in vv. 17-22 (cf. Matt. 9:2), of the seafarers in vv. 23-32, and of the needy in vv. 34-43, typify His care for and deliverance of His believers in the church life. According to the New Testament revelation, God’s care for the believers and His deliverance of the believers require that Christ be sitting in His ascension at the right hand of God, as revealed in Psa. 110. Because Christ is our High Priest in the heavens interceding for us (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25), God’s care is Christ’s care for us and God’s deliverance is Christ’s deliverance of us.
Ps 107:4a wilderness  -   Deut. 32:10
Ps 107:9a satisfies  -   Psa. 103:5
Ps 107:9b famished  -   Psa. 146:7; Luke 1:53
Ps 107:10a darkness  -   Job 10:21; Psa. 107:14; Micah 7:8; Luke 1:79
Ps 107:14a darkness  -   Psa. 107:10; Isa. 9:2
Ps 107:20a healed  -   2 Kings 20:5; Psa. 30:2-3; 103:3
Ps 107:251 the
Lit., its waves.
Ps 107:261 They
I.e., the seafarers mentioned in vv. 23-24.
Ps 107:291 the
Lit., their waves.
Ps 107:29a calm  -   Psa. 65:7; 89:9; Matt. 8:26
Ps 107:33a rivers  -   Isa. 42:15; 50:2
Ps 107:34a salt  -   Deut. 29:23; Jer. 17:6
Ps 107:35a springs  -   Psa. 114:8; Isa. 35:6-7; 41:18
Ps 107:43a wise  -   Jer. 9:12; Hosea 14:9; James 3:13
Psalm 108
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 108:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 108:1a My  -   vv. 1-5: Psa. 57:7-11
Ps 108:41 faithfulness
Or, truth.
Ps 108:6a That  -   vv. 6-13: Psa. 60:5-12
Ps 108:61 Save
Verses 6-13, a quotation from Psa. 60:5-12, portray God’s victory in Christ over the enemies.
Ps 108:62 us
Others read, me.
Ps 108:71 holiness
Or, holy place.
Ps 108:8a scepter  -   Gen. 49:10
Ps 108:11a rejected  -   Psa. 44:9
Psalm 109
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 109:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 109:11 O
Psalm 109 is a prayer of David concerning his sufferings and is also a description of his sufferings. David here is a type of Christ, and David’s sufferings typify Christ’s sufferings in His flesh (Heb. 5:7-8; 1 Pet. 4:1). This is indicated by the fact that v. 8 is quoted in Acts 1:20 and applied to Judas, who betrayed Christ.
David’s prayer in this psalm typifies Christ’s prayer (Heb. 5:7 and note). The prayer in this psalm is answered in the next, which unveils Christ in His ascension, indicating that God’s answer to Christ’s prayer was not only through resurrection but also in ascension.
Ps 109:8a May  -   Acts 1:20
Ps 109:131 his
Some MSS read, their.
Ps 109:25a reproach  -   Psa. 22:6; 69:19; 89:50-51; Heb. 13:13
Ps 109:25b shake  -   Psa. 22:7; Matt. 27:39; Mark 15:29
Psalm 110
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 110:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 110:11a Jehovah  -   Matt. 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42-43; Acts 2:34-35
Psalm 110 unveils Christ in His ascension. In this psalm Christ is revealed as the King (v. 2), the Priest (v. 4), the Warrior (v. 3), and the Victor (vv. 5-7).
This verse concerning Christ’s ascension is quoted numerous times in the New Testament (Matt. 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42-43; Acts 2:34-35; Heb. 1:13), and Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God is referred to a number of other times (Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; Rom. 8:34; etc.).
Ps 110:12b right  -   Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; 16:19; Acts 7:55; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:13; 10:12-13
See note 203 in Eph. 1. Christ’s ascension to the right hand of God is not merely a matter of His being in a place but of His being in a person, the Father. In His ascension Christ entered into the Father’s being and sat down there (John 16:28). Cf. note 231 in Isa. 22.
This word concerning Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God implies Christ’s kingship. In His ascension Christ was made by God the Lord, the Christ, the Leader of the entire universe, and the Savior (Acts 2:36; 5:31; 10:36).
Ps 110:13 footstool
See note 131 in Heb. 1.
Ps 110:2a scepter  -   Gen. 49:10; Psa. 45:6; Ezek. 19:14
Ps 110:21b Zion  -   Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1; cf. Psa. 2:6
Zion here is not the Zion on earth but the Zion in the heavens, as mentioned in Heb. 12:22 and Rev. 14:1. From this heavenly Zion God will send forth the scepter of Christ’s strength to rule over all the nations, who are Christ’s enemies, at His return (2:6, 8-9; Rev. 19:15).
Ps 110:2c Rule  -   Psa. 72:8; Zech. 6:13
Ps 110:31 offer
Lit., be freewill offerings.
Ps 110:3a willingly  -   Judg. 5:2, 9
Ps 110:32 splendor
In the eyes of the Lord our willing consecration, our offering ourselves to Him, is a matter of splendor. Although the church has become degraded, throughout the centuries there has been a line of those who have offered themselves willingly to the Lord in the splendor, the beauty, of their consecration.
The word may also be translated adornment. The splendor of consecration is an adornment. If we offer ourselves willingly to the Lord, we will be beautified with a divine, heavenly splendor.
Ps 110:33b dew  -   cf. Psa. 133:3; Micah 5:7
Here Christ likens Himself to a plant that needs the watering of the mild, soft, gentle dew. As Christ is on His way to carry out God’s economy, He needs to be watered. Christ is watered by those who offer themselves willingly to Him. Whoever volunteers himself to Christ as an offering is a young man likened to the dew conceived in the womb of the dawn for watering Christ.
Ps 110:4a Jehovah  -   Heb. 7:21
Ps 110:4b not  -   Heb. 6:17
Ps 110:4c You  -   Heb. 5:6; 7:17
Ps 110:41d Priest  -   Zech. 6:13
Christ is not only the King with power and authority (vv. 1-2); He is also the High Priest (Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 6:20; 8:1; 9:11). Christ’s heavenly ministry in His ascension includes both His kingship and His priesthood. As the King He has the scepter to rule over the earth and to manage our affairs, and as the High Priest He is interceding for us and taking care of our case before God (Heb. 7:25-26; 9:24; Rom. 8:34; Rev. 1:12-13).
Ps 110:4e forever  -   John 12:34
Ps 110:42 order
See note 183 in Gen. 14.
Ps 110:43f Melchizedek  -   Gen. 14:18
See note 181 in Gen. 14.
Ps 110:51 Lord
Christ, who is the Lord, the Master, and who is at God’s right hand (v. 1), will shatter kings in the day of His anger at His coming back with His overcomers and will execute judgment among the nations (v. 6; 2:9, 12; Dan. 2:34-35, 44; Joel 3:11-12; Rev. 17:14; 19:11-21). Thus, Christ will be the greatest Victor.
Ps 110:5a right  -   Psa. 16:8
Ps 110:5b anger  -   Psa. 2:5; Rom. 2:5; Rev. 6:17; 11:18
Ps 110:6a judgment  -   1 Sam. 2:10; Psa. 67:4; 82:8; Isa. 2:4
Ps 110:61 great
Signifying the entire earth.
Ps 110:71 brook
The brook signifies the overcomers. As Christ is taking the lead to fight through to the end, He will need water to drink, and this water will be the overcomers. Cf. note 33. See note 341, par. 2, in Dan. 2.
Ps 110:72 lift
Christ’s lifting up His head is a sign of His victory, His triumph, in overcoming all the enemies.
Psalm 111
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 111:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104. Psalms 111 — 118 are a group consisting of the praise of God’s elect, which consummates in the revelation of Christ in His particular position as the cornerstone (118:22).
Ps 111:12 I
Psalm 111 is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. The first letter of each line, beginning with this line, follows the order of the Hebrew alphabet.
Ps 111:1b in  -   Psa. 22:25; 35:18; 116:19
Ps 111:2a Great  -   Rev. 15:3
Ps 111:21 works
This psalm is the praise of God’s elect for God’s great works according to His covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Ps 111:6a heritage  -   Psa. 78:55; 105:44; cf. Psa. 2:8
Ps 111:9a redemption  -   Psa. 130:8; Luke 1:68
Ps 111:9b Holy  -   Psa. 99:3; Luke 1:49
Ps 111:10a fear  -   Job 28:28; Prov. 9:10; 24:21; Luke 1:50; 1 Pet. 2:17
Ps 111:101 His
Lit., them.
Psalm 112
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 112:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104. Psalm 112 is the praise of God’s elect for God’s blessing given because of their fearing Him (vv. 1-2) and because of their virtues, mainly in their giving to the poor (vv. 4-5, 9; cf. 2 Cor. 9:6-11).
Ps 112:12 Blessed
Psalm 112 is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. The first letter of each line, beginning with this line, follows the order of the Hebrew alphabet.
Ps 112:1b fears  -   Psa. 128:1, 4; Luke 1:50
Ps 112:5a lends  -   Psa. 37:26; Matt. 5:42; Luke 6:35
Ps 112:9a He  -   2 Cor. 9:9
Ps 112:9b given  -   Deut. 15:7-8; Matt. 6:2; Rom. 12:8
Psalm 113
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 113:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104. This psalm is the praise of God’s elect for God’s exaltation (vv. 4-5) and His humility (v. 6) in taking care of the lowly and needy ones (vv. 7-9). God’s humility was manifested in His incarnation. Christ humbled Himself and, because of His humility, was exalted (Phil. 2:5-11).
Ps 113:2a blessed  -   Psa. 72:19
Ps 113:3a rising  -   Isa. 59:19; Mal. 1:11
Ps 113:4a glory  -   Psa. 8:1; cf. Psa. 57:5, 11; 108:5
Ps 113:5a Who  -   Psa. 35:10; 71:19; 89:6, 8
Ps 113:7a He  -   1 Sam. 2:8; Psa. 107:41
Ps 113:9a barren  -   1 Sam. 2:5; Isa. 54:1
Psalm 114
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 114:1a went  -   Exo. 12:41-42, 51
Ps 114:2a sanctuary  -   Exo. 25:8; Psa. 78:68-69
Ps 114:3a sea  -   Exo. 14:21; 15:8; Psa. 77:16; 106:9
Ps 114:3b Jordan  -   Josh. 3:13-16
Ps 114:7a presence  -   Psa. 97:5; 96:9
Ps 114:8a rock  -   Exo. 17:6; Deut. 8:15
Psalm 115
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 115:1a glory  -   cf. Acts 12:23
Ps 115:11 truth
Or, faithfulness.
Ps 115:2a Why  -   Joel 2:17
Ps 115:4a Their  -   vv. 4-8: Psa. 135:15-18; cf. 1 Cor. 8:4
Ps 115:4b hands  -   Deut. 4:28; Isa. 44:10-17; Jer. 10:3-5; Acts 19:26
Ps 115:5a not  -   Isa. 46:7; Jer. 10:5; cf. Rev. 13:15
Ps 115:5b not  -   Isa. 44:9; Rev. 9:20
Ps 115:8a trust  -   Hab. 2:18-19
Ps 115:81 like
See note 31 in 1 Cor. 12.
Ps 115:9a trust  -   Psa. 62:8; 125:1; Prov. 3:5
Ps 115:15a Maker  -   Gen. 2:4; Exo. 20:11; 2 Chron. 2:12; Psa. 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 146:6; Jer. 10:12; 32:17; Acts 14:15; Rev. 14:7
Ps 115:16a earth  -   Gen. 1:26, 28
Ps 115:17a dead  -   Psa. 88:10
Ps 115:171 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah. So also in the next verse.
Ps 115:181a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104.
Psalm 116
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 116:4a called  -   Acts 2:21
Ps 116:8a For  -   vv. 8-9: Psa. 56:13
Ps 116:91 land
Following the ancient versions; the Hebrew reads, lands.
Ps 116:10a I  -   2 Cor. 4:13
Ps 116:101 therefore
Following the Septuagint (cf. 2 Cor. 4:13); the Hebrew reads, for, or, when.
Ps 116:11a All  -   Rom. 3:4
Ps 116:12a return  -   Rom. 11:35; cf. 2 Chron. 32:25
Ps 116:131a cup  -   Psa. 16:5
God’s rich and full salvation is a cup, a portion, given to us, and the way for us to drink this cup and partake of this salvation is to call on the name of the Lord (vv. 2, 4, 13, 17; Gen. 4:26; Isa. 12:2-4; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:12-13).
Ps 116:13b call  -   Psa. 99:6; 105:1; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:12
See note 131.
Ps 116:15a Precious  -   Psa. 72:14
Ps 116:15b death  -   Num. 23:10; Rev. 14:13
Ps 116:16a servant  -   Psa. 113:1; 119:125; 143:12; cf. 1 Cor. 7:22
Ps 116:17a call  -   Psa. 116:13
Ps 116:19a courts  -   Psa. 92:13; 96:8
Ps 116:19b Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
Psalm 117
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 117:1a Praise  -   Rom. 15:11
Ps 117:21a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104.
Psalm 118
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 118:11 thanks
In Psa. 118 there is the thanksgiving of God’s elect for God’s bountiful goodness and everlasting lovingkindness (vv. 1-21, 27-29), leading to Christ as the cornerstone for God’s building (vv. 22-26).
Ps 118:5a called  -   Acts 2:21
Ps 118:51 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah. So frequently throughout this psalm.
Ps 118:5b broad  -   2 Sam. 22:20; Job 36:16; Psa. 18:19; 31:8
Ps 118:6a I  -   Psa. 56:4, 11; Heb. 13:6
Ps 118:8a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 118:131 I
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, You (i.e., the enemy) have pushed me hard.
Ps 118:14a Jehovah  -   Exo. 15:2; Isa. 12:2
Ps 118:141 salvation
See note 21 in Isa. 12.
Ps 118:15a right  -   Exo. 15:6; Psa. 44:3; 98:1; 110:1
Ps 118:18a death  -   cf. 2 Cor. 6:9
Ps 118:19a gates  -   Matt. 7:14
Ps 118:20a enter  -   Rev. 21:27; 22:14
Ps 118:22a The  -   vv. 22-23: Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10-11; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7
Ps 118:221 stone
See notes 421 in Matt. 21, 111 and 112 in Acts 4, and 72 in 1 Pet. 2.
Ps 118:222 head
Or, chief cornerstone. See notes 422 in Matt. 21, 203 in Eph. 2, and 41 and 71 in 1 Pet. 2. Christ as the cornerstone is for the building up of the church in the New Testament age. In God’s New Testament economy Christ as the cornerstone, in His saving us (Acts 4:11-12), first makes us living stones for the building up of God’s spiritual house (Matt. 16:16-18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:2-6), and then, in the process of His transforming us (Rom. 12:2a; 2 Cor. 3:18), builds us up into a dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:19-22), that He may carry out God’s eternal economy for God’s good pleasure (Eph. 1:9; 3:9-11).
Ps 118:22b corner  -   Isa. 28:16; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6
Ps 118:241a day  -   John 20:19; Rev. 1:10
This day is the day of Christ’s resurrection. On the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus was made the cornerstone by God. Christ was chosen by God in eternity past to be the cornerstone for God’s spiritual building (1 Pet. 1:20; 2:4). Then, the Jewish leaders as the builders rejected Him to the uttermost, to such an extent that they put Him on the cross (Matt. 21:38-42a). God chose Christ as the cornerstone a second time in Christ’s resurrection (Acts 4:10-11), thereby confirming His initial choosing of Christ in eternity past. After God resurrected Christ, He uplifted Him to the heavens (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). Christ’s ascension to Zion in the heavens (Rev. 14:1) was a further confirmation that God had chosen Him to be the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:6). Both Christ’s resurrection and His ascension prove and confirm that He is the One whom God has chosen to be the head of the corner for God’s building.
As the all-inclusive stone Christ is the centrality of God’s move for the building up of His eternal habitation (Matt. 21:42, 44; Zech. 3:9, cf. Rev. 5:5-6; Acts 4:10-12; Isa. 28:16; Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:4-8; Dan. 2:34-35; Zech. 4:7; Rev. 21:11, cf. 4:3). Everything Christ is, everything He has done, and everything He is doing is due to the fact that He is the cornerstone. It is by His being the cornerstone that He could die for us, that we could be crucified with Him, made alive with Him, resurrected with Him, and seated with Him in the heavenlies, and that He could save us, transform us into precious stones, and build us together to be God’s habitation, God’s unique temple in the universe.
Ps 118:251 do
Heb. hoshiah-na, the source for hosanna in the New Testament (Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; John 12:13).
Ps 118:25a save  -   Psa. 20:9; Matt. 21:9-10; Mark 11:9-10; John 12:13
Ps 118:252 prosperity
Typifying not material prosperity but the heavenly, spiritual, and divine blessings given to us by the Triune God, as described in Eph. 1:3-14 (see notes there), which come to us by Christ’s being the cornerstone (v. 22).
Ps 118:26a Blessed  -   Matt. 21:9; 23:39; Mark 11:9; Luke 13:35; 19:38; John 12:13
Ps 118:261 comes
Christ’s coming in the name of Jehovah occurs twice. The first time is mentioned in Matt. 21:5-11. After that, He was rejected by the Jews. When He comes the second time, the Jews will again welcome Him warmly with these words (Matt. 23:39).
Ps 118:27a horns  -   Exo. 27:2
Psalm 119
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 119:Title* a
Psalm 119 is one of the alphabetical, or acrostic, psalms. The first letters of each group of eight verses follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet. The twenty-two sections of this psalm thus correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Furthermore, all the verses in a particular section begin with the same Hebrew letter.
Ps 119:1a walk  -   1 Kings 9:4; Luke 1:6
Ps 119:11 law
The word law is used twenty-five times in this psalm (vv. 1, 18, etc.). A number of different synonyms for law are also used, including testimony (once, in v. 88), testimonies (twenty-two times, in vv. 2, 14, etc.), word (thirty-six times, in vv. 9, 11, etc.), words (six times, in vv. 57, 103, etc.; cf. Exo. 34:28, lit.), commandment (once, in v. 96), commandments (twenty-one times, in vv. 6, 10, etc.), statutes (twenty-two times, in vv. 5, 8, etc.), ordinances (seventeen times, in vv. 7, 13, etc.), judgments (three times, in vv. 75, 120, 137), and precepts (twenty-one times, in vv. 4, 15, etc.). All these terms from law to precepts consummate in the way (four times, in vv. 14, 27, 32, 33) or ways (three times, in vv. 3, 15, 37), signifying Christ as the way of God for His people (John 14:6). Psalm 119 is a psalm of 176 verses describing Christ, who is the reality of the law, the commandments, the ordinances, the statutes, the precepts, and the judgments.
Ps 119:21 testimonies
Christ is the reality of the law as the testimony of God. The testimony of God signifies Christ, the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), as the living portrait of what God is. See note 11 in Exo. 20.
Ps 119:22a seek  -   Psa. 24:6; 27:8; 105:4; 119:10; Heb. 11:6
There are two kinds of people in relation to the law: (1) the letter-keepers, illustrated by the Judaizers and Saul of Tarsus (Phil. 3:6b), and (2) the God-seekers, illustrated by the psalmists, especially by the writer of this psalm, and by the apostle Paul (2 Cor. 3:6). As a lover of God, the psalmist sought God with all his heart, loved God’s name and remembered it (vv. 132, 55), sought God’s favor by entreating His countenance (v. 58), asked God to cause His face to shine upon him (v. 135), walked in God’s presence (v. 168), considered God’s law to be His living and loving word breathed out of His mouth (vv. 13, 72, 88; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16), tasted God’s word and found it sweeter than honey to his mouth (v. 103), esteemed God’s word as more precious than fine gold (v. 127), and considered God’s word a lamp to his feet and a light to his path (v. 105).
In this psalm many different verbs are used to express the attitude of the God-seekers toward God’s law as God’s testimony and God’s word: choosing it (vv. 30, 173); believing it (v. 66); lifting up their hands unto it (v. 48a and note); loving it (vv. 47, 48, 97, etc.); delighting in it (vv. 16, 24, 35, etc.); tasting it (v. 103); rejoicing in it (vv. 14, 111, 162); singing of it (v. 54; cf. Eph. 5:18-20); regarding it (vv. 6, 117); having a sound heart in it (v. 80); inclining their heart unto it (vv. 36, 112); seeking it (vv. 45, 94), longing for it (vv. 20, 40, 131), and hoping in it with prayer (vv. 43, 74, 114, 147); trusting in it (v. 42); musing on it (vv. 15, 23, 48, 78, 99, 148; see note 151); considering it (v. 95); esteeming it right concerning all things (v. 128a); learning it (vv. 71, 73); treasuring it as much as all riches (v. 14), as great spoil (v. 162), better than gold and silver (vv. 72, 127), and as a heritage forever (v. 111); treasuring it up in their heart (v. 11; cf. Col. 3:16); remembering it and not forgetting it (vv. 52, 16, 93); standing in awe of it (vv. 161b, 120); clinging to it (v. 31); not forsaking it, not swerving from it, not turning aside from it, and not going astray from it (vv. 87, 51, 157, 102, 110); turning their feet toward it (v. 59); keeping, observing, and doing it (vv. 33, 69); and walking in it and running the way of it (vv. 1, 32a).
Ps 119:51 statutes
For the commandments (v. 6), statutes (v. 5), and ordinances (v. 7), see note 64 in Luke 1.
Ps 119:91 word
Christ is the reality of the law in the sense of its being not only the testimony of God but also the word of God. In total, He is the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13b). The words of this psalm are the written words of God, but Christ is the living Word of God breathed out by God (2 Tim. 3:16a). The written words are the letters, but the living Word is the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17), who is the reality of the letters. The law is the person of Christ, and the person of Christ is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is the reality of whatever God is (John 16:13; 1 John 5:6). Hence, as the Spirit, Christ is the reality of the law.
Ps 119:11a heart  -   Psa. 37:31; Luke 2:19, 51
Ps 119:151 muse
Rich in meaning, the Hebrew word for muse (often translated meditate in the KJV) implies to worship, to converse with oneself, and to speak aloud. To muse on the word is to taste and enjoy it through careful considering. Prayer, speaking to oneself, and praising the Lord may also be included in musing on the word. To muse on the word of God is to enjoy His word as His breath (2 Tim. 3:16) and thus to be infused with God, to breathe God in, and to receive spiritual nourishment.
Ps 119:18a Open  -   Luke 24:45; Acts 16:14
Ps 119:19a sojourner  -   Psa. 39:12; Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11
Ps 119:23a mused  -   Josh. 1:8; Psa. 119:48, 148
Ps 119:25a Enliven  -   Psa. 119:50, 107, 154
Ps 119:32a enlarge  -   1 Kings 4:29; Isa. 60:5; 2 Cor. 6:11
Ps 119:46a kings  -   Matt. 10:18; Mark 13:9; Acts 9:15; 25:26; 26:1-2
Ps 119:481 lift
To lift up our hand unto the word of God is to indicate that we receive it warmly and gladly and that we say Amen to it (Neh. 8:5-6).
Ps 119:48a muse  -   Psa. 119:23
Ps 119:501a enlivened  -   Psa. 119:25
There are two aspects of the law — the aspect of the letter and the aspect of the Spirit. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). If our attitude in coming to the law is to care only for the commandments in letters, we will have the law in the aspect of the killing letter. However, if we take every part of the law — all the commandments, ordinances, statutes, precepts, and judgments — as the word breathed out by the God whom we love, we will have the law in the aspect of the life-giving Spirit.
The function of the law also has two aspects. On the negative side, the law exposes man’s sin (Rom. 3:20b; 7:7b) and subdues sinners before God (Rom. 3:19). It also guards God’s chosen people in its custody that they might be conducted to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24). On the positive side, as God’s living testimony, the law functions to minister the living God to His seekers (vv. 2, 88), and as God’s living word, the law functions to dispense God Himself as life and light into those who love the law (vv. 25, 116, 130). See note 81, par. 3, in Exo. 19.
Ps 119:57a portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 73:26; 142:5
Ps 119:581 favor
Lit., face.
Ps 119:62a midnight  -   Psa. 42:8; Acts 16:25
Ps 119:64a fills  -   Psa. 33:5
Ps 119:68a good  -   Psa. 100:5; 106:1; Mark 10:18
Ps 119:72a gold  -   Psa. 19:10; 119:127; Prov. 8:10
Ps 119:73a made  -   Job 10:8; Psa. 139:13-15
Ps 119:88a Enliven  -   Psa. 119:159
Ps 119:89a word  -   Isa. 40:8; Matt. 24:35
Ps 119:94a am  -   Acts 27:23
Ps 119:98a wiser  -   2 Tim. 3:15
Ps 119:103a Sweeter  -   Psa. 19:10; Prov. 16:24; Ezek. 3:3; Rev. 10:9
Ps 119:105a lamp  -   Psa. 18:28; Prov. 6:23; 2 Pet. 1:19
Ps 119:105b light  -   Psa. 119:130
Ps 119:107a enliven  -   Psa. 119:25
Ps 119:127a gold  -   Psa. 119:72
Ps 119:1301 opening
Or, unfolding. When God’s word is opened, or unfolded, to us, it gives us light, shining inwardly over our heart and our spirit to impart wisdom and revelation to us (Eph. 1:17-18a).
Ps 119:130a light  -   Psa. 119:105
Ps 119:135a face  -   Num. 6:25; Psa. 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; Dan. 9:17
Ps 119:136a shed  -   Jer. 9:1, 18; 14:17; Lam. 3:48; Ezek. 9:4; Phil. 3:18; cf. 2 Pet. 2:8
Ps 119:1361 men
Lit., they.
Ps 119:139a zeal  -   Psa. 69:9
Ps 119:140a pure  -   2 Sam. 22:31; Psa. 12:6; 18:30; Prov. 30:5
Ps 119:147a dawn  -   Psa. 5:3; 130:6; Isa. 26:9; Mark 1:35
Ps 119:148a muse  -   Psa. 119:23
Ps 119:154a Enliven  -   Psa. 119:25
Ps 119:159a enliven  -   Psa. 119:88
Ps 119:160a word  -   John 17:17
Ps 119:164a Seven  -   cf. Psa. 55:17
Ps 119:176a lost  -   Isa. 53:6; Matt. 10:6; 18:11-12; Luke 15:4; 1 Pet. 2:25
Psalm 120
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 120:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120–134
Ps 120:11 In
Psalms 120 — 134 are a particular group known as the Songs of Ascents. Instead of speaking concerning the law, these psalms are related to the matter of captivity. The people of Israel loved the law, but because they transgressed the law, even going so far as to turn from God and worship idols (Jer. 2:13), God sent them into captivity in a land of idols. As the people were suffering in captivity, they could not forget Zion and Jerusalem, which were signs, symbols, of the very God whom they worshipped. When the people of Israel were captured, they were in a downward situation. To return to Jerusalem and to Zion was to be in an upward situation, to “go up” (122:4). Jerusalem was built on Mount Zion. Therefore, when the people journeyed to Jerusalem, they had to ascend, and as they were ascending they sang a song of ascents.
Ps 120:12 distress
Psalm 120 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s delivering him from his distress, referring, perhaps, to the afflictions he suffered in his captivity.
Ps 120:2a tongue  -   Psa. 12:3-4; 73:8-9; James 3:5
Ps 120:51 Meshech
Meshech was a place far to the north in Assyria, and Kedar was a place to the south in Arabia (Isa. 21:13, 16; Ezek. 27:21). Both may refer to the places in which the psalmist was captured in the Assyrian invasion (2 Kings 18:11; 2 Chron. 32:1).
Psalm 121
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 121:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 121:11 I
Psalm 121 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s keeping him from all evil, all disasters (v. 7).
Ps 121:12a hills  -   Jer. 3:23; cf. Psa. 123:1
An allusion to Jehovah, who created the heavens and the earth, including the hills (2 Kings 19:15).
Ps 121:2a help  -   Psa. 115:9-11; 118:6-7; 124:8; 146:5-6
Ps 121:5a shade  -   Psa. 91:1; Isa. 4:6; 25:4
Ps 121:6a sun  -   Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:16; cf. Jonah 4:8
Psalm 122
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 122:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 122:Titleb Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 122:11a house  -   Psa. 42:4; Isa. 2:3; Micah 4:2
Psalm 122 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning his love for the house of God in Jerusalem. This psalmist cared not for the law but for Zion and Jerusalem.
Ps 122:21 are
Or, were standing.
Ps 122:2a gates  -   Psa. 9:14; 87:2; 100:4; cf. Rev. 21:12
Ps 122:3a built  -   Psa. 51:18; 147:2
Ps 122:3b compacted  -   cf. Eph. 2:21; 4:16
Ps 122:41a go  -   Isa. 2:3; Zech. 14:16-19; John 7:8
See note 11 in Psa. 120.
Ps 122:42 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah.
Ps 122:6a peace  -   Psa. 125:5; 128:6; Jer. 29:7
Ps 122:6b Jerusalem  -   Psa. 137:6; Jer. 51:50; Dan. 6:10; cf. Matt. 23:37
Ps 122:7a bulwarks  -   Psa. 48:13; cf. Psa. 51:18; Neh. 4:6; 6:1, 6, 15; Isa. 60:18; Rev. 21:12
Ps 122:9a house  -   1 Chron. 29:3; Neh. 13:14
Psalm 123
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 123:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 123:1a eyes  -   Psa. 121:1
Ps 123:21 gracious
Psalm 123 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning God’s being gracious to the returned captives. It is not a matter of our loving God’s law but of His being gracious to us.
Psalm 124
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 124:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 124:Titleb Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 124:11 If
Psalm 124 is the praise of Israel, in their going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s help to Israel in the invasions of their enemies.
Ps 124:51 proud
Or, insolent, raging.
Ps 124:8a help  -   Psa. 121:2
Psalm 125
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 125:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 125:1a trust  -   Isa. 26:4
Ps 125:1b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 125:21a surrounds  -   cf. Zech. 2:5
Psalm 125 is the praise of the saints, in their going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s surrounding of His people.
Ps 125:41 good
No one is good except God (Mark 10:18; Rom. 3:12). The expression here indicates that the psalmist’s concept was still according to the principle of good and evil. See note 31 in Psa. 7.
Ps 125:5a Peace  -   Psa. 122:8; 128:6; Gal. 6:16
Psalm 126
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 126:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 126:1a turned  -   Psa. 14:7
Ps 126:11 captivity
Lit., turning; not the same word as in v. 4.
Ps 126:21a great  -   1 Sam. 12:24; Psa. 71:19; Luke 1:49
Psalm 126 is the praise of the returned captives, in their going up to Zion, concerning the great things that Jehovah had done for them.
Ps 126:41 again
Although some of the people had returned, many remained in captivity; hence, the psalmist prayed for them.
Ps 126:5a tears  -   Psa. 80:5; cf. Jer. 31:9
Ps 126:5b reap  -   Gal. 6:9
Ps 126:61 seed
Referring, perhaps, to the captives. In a human sense, their captivity in foreign countries was a suffering. In a divine sense, however, it was a sowing through their preaching to the Gentiles concerning God. As a result, a number of Gentiles (sheaves) were brought to God through these captives. This indicates that the captives sowed the seed of the knowledge of God among the heathen. Cf. Ruth 1:16 and note 2.
Psalm 127
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 127:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 127:Titleb Of  -   Psa. 72 title
Ps 127:11 Unless
Psalm 127 is the praise of the saints, in their going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s care for and blessing to His people.
Ps 127:1a builds  -   cf. Psa. 51:18; 147:2; 1 Cor. 3:9
Ps 127:12 house
Unless the Lord builds the church as God’s house (Matt. 16:18), those who build it (1 Cor. 3:10-12; Eph. 4:11-12, 16) labor in vain. Unless the Lord keeps the city, i.e., keeps the church as the kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17), those who guard the church (Acts 20:28-31) watch in vain.
Ps 127:1b labor  -   cf. 1 Cor. 15:58
Ps 127:1c keeps  -   Psa. 121:3-5
Ps 127:21 vain
If the Lord does not do anything for us, whatever we do will be in vain. We need to labor in the Lord and by His grace (1 Cor. 15:10, 58; Col. 1:28-29), but what the result will be depends not on our labor but on God’s care and blessing. Instead of toiling and striving in ourselves, we need to trust in Him and rest in Him, for He gives to His beloved even while they sleep.
Ps 127:31a children  -   Psa. 128:3-4
Instead of striving without trusting in the Lord, we should simply be a good father producing children. We cannot gain much by our toil, but we can produce spiritual children (cf. 1 Cor. 4:15). In addition to His caring for us, God blesses us with increase, with children. Increase does not depend on what we do; it depends on how much God gives. Both the care and the blessing come from Him.
Ps 127:51 He
Lit., They.
Psalm 128
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 128:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 128:11 Blessed
The sequence of Psa. 128 — 134, the remaining seven Songs of Ascents, is significant. Psalm 128 speaks of Jehovah’s blessing to Israel from Zion and the prosperity of Jerusalem in Israel’s enjoyment. Psalm 129 concerns God’s righteous dealing with the persecutors of Israel and the haters of Zion. Because Israel, like their persecutors and haters, has many sins and iniquities, Psa. 130 is a psalm of forgiveness and redemption. Then Psa. 131 indicates that after we experience God’s forgiveness, we become humble and quiet before God. In such a situation God can rise up, enter into us, and take us as His resting place. This is Zion becoming God’s habitation, His resting place, as revealed in Psa. 132. Next, Psa. 133 shows that Zion, God’s resting place, is the unique place where the brothers can come together in oneness and receive the commanded blessing of God, even life forever. Finally, in Psa. 134 the children of Israel first charge the priests to praise God in the night, and then they bless the priests, indicating that the children of Israel, having become Zion, are the highest people, even higher than the priests (cf. Heb. 7:7).
Ps 128:3a fruitful  -   Gen. 49:22; Ezek. 19:10
Ps 128:3b olive  -   Psa. 52:8
Ps 128:51 bless
Psalm 128 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s blessing to Israel from Zion (signifying the overcomers in the churches — see note 21 in Psa. 48) and the prosperity of Jerusalem (signifying the church as God’s kingdom) in their enjoyment.
Ps 128:52 from
God always blesses His people from Zion, that is, from the overcomers (cf. Num. 6:23-27; see note 21 in Psa. 48).
Ps 128:5a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 128:6a Peace  -   Psa. 122:8; 125:5
Psalm 129
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 129:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 129:51 hate
Psalm 129 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning God’s righteous dealing with the persecutors of Israel and the haters of Zion. Here Israel signifies the New Testament believers (Gal. 6:16), and Zion signifies the overcomers in the church (see note 21 in Psa. 48). The more we love the Lord Jesus, the more we will be hated and persecuted (John 15:18-20a).
Psalm 130
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 130:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 130:1a called  -   Psa. 69:2, 14; Lam. 3:55; Jonah 2:2-3
Ps 130:31 Jehovah
Heb. Jah.
Ps 130:41a forgiveness  -   Isa. 55:7; Jer. 33:8
Psalm 130 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning God’s forgiveness to Israel and His redeeming (v. 7) Israel from all their iniquity. We are not better than the persecutors and the haters mentioned in Psa. 129. Our imperfections need God’s forgiveness and our filthiness needs His cleansing (1 John 1:7, 9).
Ps 130:42 feared
The more the Lord forgives us, the more we fear Him, and the more we love Him (Luke 7:40-47 and notes 423 and 471).
Ps 130:8a From  -   Titus 2:14; cf. 1 Pet. 1:18
Psalm 131
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 131:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 131:Titleb Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 131:11 heart
Psalm 131 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning his humbled heart and quieted soul (v. 2) before Jehovah. This was a result of God’s forgiveness and redemption mentioned in Psa. 130.
Ps 131:21 weaned
The psalmist had been weaned, or stripped, of everything except the Lord (cf. Psa. 73). When we have become like the psalmist, humble, calm, quiet, and weaned, we can advise others to hope in God (v. 3).
Ps 131:2a child  -   Matt. 18:3; 1 Cor. 14:20
Psalm 132
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 132:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 132:11 David’s
Psalm 132 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s habitation and rest in Zion through David (typifying Christ) His anointed.
Ps 132:12 afflictions
Typifying all the afflictions of Christ.
Ps 132:2a he  -   2 Sam. 7:1-2
Ps 132:5a tabernacle  -   1 Kings 8:13; Acts 7:46
Ps 132:6a Ephrathah  -   1 Sam. 17:12; Micah 5:2
Ps 132:6b fields  -   1 Sam. 7:1-2; 1 Chron. 13:5
Ps 132:61 Jaar
I.e., Kiriath-jearim, where the Ark remained in the house of Abinadab for twenty years (1 Sam. 6:21 — 7:1) before it was brought up by David to the city of David and placed in a tent that David had pitched for it (2 Sam. 6:1-17; 1 Chron. 13:1-14; 15:1 — 16:1). See note 21 in 2 Sam. 6.
Ps 132:7a tabernacle  -   Psa. 5:7; 122:1
Ps 132:7b footstool  -   1 Chron. 28:2; Psa. 99:5
Ps 132:8a Arise  -   vv. 8-10: 2 Chron. 6:41-42; cf. Psa. 68:1; Num. 10:35-36
Ps 132:9a righteousness  -   Job 29:14; Isa. 61:10; Rev. 19:8
Ps 132:111a fruit  -   2 Sam. 7:12; Luke 1:32; Acts 2:30; 13:23
See notes 121, 122, and 161 in 2 Sam. 7.
Ps 132:12a If  -   cf. 1 Kings 2:4
Ps 132:131a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
As Jehovah’s resting place (v. 14), Zion typifies the overcomers in the churches. See note 21 in Psa. 48.
Ps 132:141 This
While the psalmist was speaking of God’s choosing and desiring Zion in v. 13, God suddenly intervened to continue the psalmist’s speaking in vv. 14-18. This is the wonderful way in which the Psalms were written.
Ps 132:142a resting  -   Psa. 132:8; cf. Isa. 66:1
Psalm 132 mentions seven items related to the overcomers: resting with God, dwelling with God (v. 14), food for satisfaction (v. 15), glorious clothing (v. 16), the horn of victory (v. 17), the enlightening lamp (v. 17), and the shining crown (v. 18). These items are at the top of the church life. They portray the situation of the overcomers in Zion, the highest peak of God’s mountain.
Ps 132:16a clothe  -   2 Chron. 6:41; Isa. 61:10
Ps 132:171a horn  -   Ezek. 29:21; Luke 1:69
A figure of strength, power, and victory.
Ps 132:17b lamp  -   2 Sam. 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Chron. 21:7
Psalm 133
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 133:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 133:Titleb Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 133:11 Behold
Psalm 133 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning Jehovah’s commanded blessing on brothers who dwell in oneness. When Zion is built up and when God is resting there and dwelling in Jerusalem, as depicted in Psa. 132, we have a place where we can gather and where we can dwell together in oneness. How good and how pleasant this is!
Ps 133:12 how
In this psalm the believers’ dwelling together in oneness is likened to the inestimable goodness of the precious ointment on the head of Aaron and to the incalculable pleasantness of the dew of Hermon on the mountains of Zion.
Ps 133:13 unity
The unity spoken of here is a picture of the genuine oneness in the New Testament. This oneness is the processed and consummated Triune God mingled with the believers in Christ (John 17:21-23). Since the Body of Christ is such a mingling (Eph. 4:4-6), the Body itself is the oneness. According to the picture in this psalm, the genuine oneness is constituted of the spreading ointment and the descending dew for the gradual building up of the Body of Christ in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
Ps 133:21a oil  -   Exo. 29:7; 30:25; cf. 2 Cor. 1:21
Referring to the holy anointing oil in Exo. 30:23-33 (see notes there), which signifies the all-inclusive, compound, anointing Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (1 John 2:20, 27).
Ps 133:22 ran
Aaron typifies Christ as the High Priest (Heb. 5:4-5), and Aaron’s garments typify the church, the Body of Christ, as the fullness, the expression, of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; see notes 21 and 22 in Exo. 28). The oil running down from Aaron’s head to the hem of his garments signifies that both the Head and the Body, both Christ and the church, are under the anointing of God’s fine oil (Heb. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:21). The anointing of the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit is the element of the genuine oneness (Eph. 4:3-4a and note 32).
Ps 133:2b Aaron’s  -   Exo. 30:30; Lev. 8:12
Ps 133:2c hem  -   Exo. 28:33; 39:24-25
Ps 133:31a dew  -   Prov. 19:12; Micah 5:7
Signifying the fresh and refreshing grace of God, which comes to us through God’s fresh compassions (Lam. 3:22-23; cf. Prov. 19:12). This grace — the Triune God processed and consummated to be our life supply for our enjoyment (John 1:14, 16-17; 2 Cor. 13:14) — waters us. Hermon, a high mountain, signifies the heavens, the highest place, from which the dew descends. The anointing of the Spirit (v. 2) and the supply of grace make it possible for us to live in oneness. Cf. note 132 in Exo. 16.
Ps 133:3b Hermon  -   Deut. 3:8-9; 4:48
Ps 133:32 mountains
The many mountains of the one Zion typify the many local churches as the components of the unique universal church. In the local churches we daily enjoy the Lord’s grace as the descending dew.
Ps 133:3c Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 133:3d blessing  -   Lev. 25:21; Deut. 28:8
Ps 133:33e Life  -   Psa. 16:11; 21:4
Referring to the eternal life of God (John 3:16; Eph. 4:18), which is commanded by God as a blessing to those who dwell together in oneness in the church life. Psalm 132 typifies the church life, in which God enters into His rest and we obtain satisfaction and rest in the habitation of God. Psalm 133 typifies the church living — the highest living, a living in which the brothers dwell together in oneness. Such a living causes God to come in to bless us with the anointing Spirit, the watering grace, and the eternal life.
Psalm 134
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 134:Titlea Song  -   Psa. 120 title
Ps 134:11 Bless
As the last of the Songs of Ascents (see note 11 in Psa. 120), Psa. 134 is the praise of a saint, in his going up to Zion, concerning the charge and the blessing given by the children of Israel to the serving priests in the house of God. Verses 1-2 are the charge of the children of Israel to the serving priests to bless Jehovah, and v. 3 is the blessing of the children of Israel to the serving priests. This psalm indicates that the spiritually highest people, those who are in Zion, can bless everyone and instruct everyone (cf. note 71 in Gen. 47).
Ps 134:1a servants  -   Psa. 113:1; 135:1-2
Ps 134:2a Lift  -   Psa. 28:2; 63:4
Ps 134:3a Bless  -   Psa. 128:5
Ps 134:31 from
See note 52 in Psa. 128.
Ps 134:3b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Psalm 135
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 135:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104. Psalms 135 and 146 — 150 are “hallelujah” psalms, for each begins and ends with “Hallelujah.”
Ps 135:12b servants  -   Psa. 134:1
The subject of Psa. 135 is the charging of the priests who serve Jehovah in His house to praise Jehovah for His virtues.
Psalms 135 — 139 were written from different directions to express the sentiments of the psalmists before God. These psalms reveal that the writers were very close to God and were concerned for God’s interests. The psalmists must have been persons who were soaked with God and who were in the divine presence. Only in this way could they have been qualified to write such intimate psalms to the One whom they loved. Like the writers of these psalms, we should aspire to be those who are intimate with God and who live and walk not only in God’s presence but even in God Himself (1 John 4:15-16).
Ps 135:2a stand  -   Luke 18:11
Ps 135:31 Jehovah
Heb. Jah. So also in v. 4.
Ps 135:3a good  -   Psa. 100:5; Matt. 19:17
Ps 135:4a chosen  -   Deut. 10:15; Psa. 105:6; Ezek. 20:5
Ps 135:4b personal  -   Exo. 19:5; Deut. 7:6; Titus 2:14
Ps 135:5a great  -   Psa. 48:1; 1 John 4:4
Ps 135:7a He  -   Jer. 10:13; 51:16
Ps 135:8a struck  -   Exo. 12:29; Psa. 78:51; 136:10
Ps 135:9a signs  -   Exo. 7:3; Deut. 6:22
Ps 135:10a slew  -   Psa. 136:17-22
Ps 135:11a Sihon  -   Num. 21:21-35; Deut. 29:7
Ps 135:12a inheritance  -   Psa. 78:55; Acts 13:19
Ps 135:14a For  -   Deut. 32:36; cf. Heb. 10:30
Ps 135:141 execute
Or, judge His people.
Ps 135:15a The  -   vv. 15-18: Psa. 115:4-8
Ps 135:15b idols  -   Rev. 9:20
Ps 135:15c hands  -   Deut. 4:28; Isa. 37:19
Ps 135:19a Israel  -   Psa. 115:9-11
Ps 135:191 bless
To bless God is to speak well of Him (cf. Eph. 1:3 and note 1).
Ps 135:21a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 135:21b dwells  -   Psa. 132:13-14; Isa. 12:6; Joel 3:21
Psalm 136
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 136:11 Give
The subject of Psa. 136 is the charging of the people to give thanks to Jehovah for His everlasting lovingkindness.
Ps 136:3a Lord  -   1 Tim. 6:15
Ps 136:5a understanding  -   Prov. 3:19; Jer. 51:15
Ps 136:5b made  -   Gen. 2:4; Psa. 96:5
Ps 136:6a earth  -   Psa. 24:2; 2 Pet. 3:5
Ps 136:7a great  -   Gen. 1:16
Ps 136:10a struck  -   Exo. 12:29; Psa. 78:51; 135:8
Ps 136:11a brought  -   Exo. 12:51; 13:3
Ps 136:12a hand  -   Deut. 4:34; Dan. 9:15
Ps 136:13a divided  -   Exo. 14:21; Psa. 74:13
Ps 136:15a Red  -   Exo. 14:27-28; Psa. 78:53
Ps 136:16a wilderness  -   Exo. 15:22; Deut. 8:15
Ps 136:17a struck  -   Psa. 135:10-12
Ps 136:25a food  -   Job 36:31; Psa. 104:14, 27; 145:15
Ps 136:26a God  -   Ezra 5:12; Neh. 1:4; Dan. 2:18; Rev. 11:13
Psalm 137
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 137:1a rivers  -   Ezra 8:15, 21
Ps 137:1b wept  -   Neh. 1:4
Ps 137:11 remembered
Psalm 137 speaks of Israel’s remembering Zion and not forgetting Jerusalem (v. 5) in their captivity. After returning from their captivity, the captives had a sweet remembrance of the sorrowful experience of captivity. In spiritual experience, when we fall and are brought back by the Lord, in our reminiscence we taste the sweetness of the Lord’s mercy in restoring us.
Ps 137:1c Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 137:3a songs  -   cf. Isa. 35:10
Ps 137:5a forget  -   Isa. 65:11
Ps 137:6a Jerusalem  -   Dan. 6:10
Ps 137:71 Against
The psalmist’s prayer here against Edom and his cursing of Babylon in vv. 8-9 are according to the principle of good and evil (see note 71 in Psa. 3). According to the teaching of the New Testament, we should bless and not curse those who oppose us (Rom. 12:14), and we should pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44).
Ps 137:7a Edom  -   Isa. 34:5-6; Jer. 49:7-22; Lam. 4:21; Ezek. 25:12-14; Amos 1:11-12; Obad. 8
Ps 137:8a repays  -   Jer. 50:15, 29; Rev. 18:6
Psalm 138
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 138:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 138:11 give
The subject of Psa. 138 is the thanking of Jehovah in the worship toward His holy temple.
Ps 138:2a temple  -   Psa. 5:7; Jonah 2:4
Ps 138:6a regards  -   Luke 1:48
Ps 138:6b haughty  -   James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5
Ps 138:7a walk  -   cf. Psa. 23:4
Ps 138:7b stretch  -   Prov. 31:20; Acts 4:30
Psalm 139
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 139:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 139:11a searched  -   Psa. 44:21; 139:23; Jer. 17:10; Rev. 2:23
The subject of Psa. 139 is the psalmist’s asking Jehovah for His searching and trying. Verses 1-6 speak of God’s omniscience, and vv. 7-12, of God’s omnipresence.
Ps 139:1b known  -   John 2:24-25; 1 John 3:20
Ps 139:2a sit  -   2 Kings 19:27; Lam. 3:63
Ps 139:3a search  -   Job 14:16; 31:4; Prov. 5:21
Ps 139:7a from  -   Jonah 1:3; cf. Jer. 23:24
Ps 139:8a heaven  -   Amos 9:2-4
Ps 139:10a lead  -   Psa. 23:3; 139:24
Ps 139:12a darkness  -   Job 34:22; Dan. 2:22
Ps 139:13a formed  -   Job 10:8; 31:15; Psa. 119:73; Isa. 44:2; Jer. 1:5; Eccl. 11:5
Ps 139:14a works  -   Rev. 15:3
Ps 139:15a Skillfully  -   Job 10:11
Ps 139:17a thoughts  -   Psa. 40:5
Ps 139:191 slay
Verses 19-22 describe the psalmist’s hating and loathing the wickedness of the wicked according to the principle of good and evil. See note 31 in Psa. 7.
Ps 139:23a Search  -   Psa. 26:2; 139:1
Ps 139:241 harmful
Others understand, idolatrous.
Psalm 140
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 140:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 140:11 Deliver
Psalms 140 — 145 are David’s final prayers. These psalms do not contain great or important matters, but as David’s prayers (especially in vv. 6-7; 141:3, 5b; 142:3a, 5; 143:2b, 6, 8, 9b-10; and 144:1-2, 5a, 12-15) they are full of the expressions of his intimacy with God. However, as in earlier psalms written by David, four of these six psalms are also full of the principle of good and evil (vv. 9b-13; 141:10; 143:12; 145:20). See note 31 in Psa. 7.
Ps 140:3a poison  -   Psa. 58:4; Rom. 3:13; James 3:8
Psalm 141
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 141:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 141:2a prayer  -   Luke 1:10; Acts 10:4; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4
Ps 141:5a oil  -   Psa. 23:5; Luke 7:46
Ps 141:8a take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 141:101 fall
See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Psalm 142
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 142:Title* Maschil
See note on superscription of Psa. 32.
Ps 142:Titlea of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 142:Titleb cave  -   Psa. 57 title
Ps 142:5a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 142:5b portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 73:26; 119:57; Lam. 3:24
Psalm 143
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 143:Titlea Psalm  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 143:2a no  -   Job 9:2; 25:4; Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:10, 20; Gal. 2:16
Ps 143:5a I  -   Psa. 77:5
Ps 143:6a thirsts  -   Psa. 42:2; 63:1; 84:2
Ps 143:8a lovingkindness  -   Psa. 42:8; 59:16; 90:14; 92:2
Ps 143:91 I
Some MSS read, I hide myself in You.
Ps 143:9a refuge  -   Psa. 14:6
Ps 143:10a good  -   Neh. 9:20
Ps 143:121 cut
See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Ps 143:12a servant  -   Psa. 116:16; 119:125
Psalm 144
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 144:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 144:1a rock  -   Psa. 18:2
Ps 144:2a high  -   Psa. 9:9
Ps 144:2b take  -   Psa. 2:12
Ps 144:3a what  -   Job 7:17; Psa. 8:4; Heb. 2:6
Ps 144:4a breath  -   Psa. 62:9; 78:39
Ps 144:9a new  -   Psa. 33:3
Ps 144:10a rescues  -   Heb. 11:34
Ps 144:121 May
As an Old Testament saint, David prayed in vv. 12-15 concerning prosperity in material things. See notes 31 in Psa. 1, 131 and 261 in Psa. 73, and 252 in Psa. 118.
Ps 144:12a plants  -   Psa. 92:13; 128:3
Ps 144:15a Blessed  -   Deut. 33:29; Psa. 33:12
Psalm 145
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 145:Titlea Of  -   Psa. 3 title
Ps 145:11 I
Psalm 145 is one of the alphabetic, or acrostic, psalms. See note 11 in Psa. 9.
Ps 145:12 extol
Psalms 140 — 144 issue in the extolling and praising of God in Psa. 145 for God’s reigning in Christ and His kingdom (vv. 11-13).
Ps 145:1a King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 145:3a Great  -   Psa. 48:1; 1 John 4:4
Ps 145:8a Jehovah  -   Exo. 34:6; Num. 14:18; Psa. 86:15
Ps 145:121 Your
Lit., His (twice).
Ps 145:13a eternal  -   Dan. 4:3; 7:27
Ps 145:15a food  -   Psa. 104:27; 146:7
Ps 145:17a righteous  -   Psa. 116:5; Dan. 9:14
Ps 145:18a near  -   Deut. 4:7; Psa. 75:1; 119:151; 148:14
Ps 145:18b call  -   Rom. 10:12
Ps 145:201 destroy
See note 71 in Psa. 3.
Psalm 146
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 146:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 351 in Psa. 104. Psalms 146 — 150 each begin and end with the word Hallelujah. These five psalms may be considered the consummate praises, corresponding with the praises at the end of Revelation (Rev. 19:1-6). Psalm 146 concerns the praising of Jehovah for His reigning from Zion (v. 10).
In the Septuagint there are superscriptions which indicate that Psa. 146 — 148 were written by Haggai and Zechariah. This would have been after their return from captivity. The return of God’s people from captivity was a great release and restoration (see Ezra and Nehemiah).
Ps 146:2a I  -   Psa. 63:4; 104:33
Ps 146:31a princes  -   Psa. 118:9
Verses 3-4 give the background of this psalm. Haggai and Zechariah, who were born in captivity, saw the kings of Babylon and Persia. This was why they said that we should not trust in princes.
Ps 146:5a help  -   Psa. 121:2; 124:8
Ps 146:6a made  -   Exo. 20:11; Acts 4:24; Rev. 14:7
Ps 146:7a frees  -   Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18; Psa. 68:6
Ps 146:8a opens  -   Isa. 35:5; Acts 26:18
Ps 146:10a reign  -   Psa. 10:16; Rev. 11:15
Ps 146:101 forever
Lit., from generation to generation.
Psalm 147
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 147:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See notes 351 in Psa. 104 and 11 in Psa. 146.
Ps 147:2a builds  -   Psa. 51:18; 122:3
Ps 147:2b gathers  -   Deut. 30:3; Isa. 11:12; 56:8; Luke 13:34
Ps 147:21 outcasts
Psalm 147 is a praise to Jehovah for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The gathering of the outcasts is the release of the captives to bring them back to Jerusalem for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
Ps 147:3a brokenhearted  -   Psa. 34:18; 51:17; Isa. 61:1
Ps 147:4a stars  -   Gen. 15:5; Psa. 8:3; Isa. 40:26
Ps 147:5a Great  -   Psa. 48:1; 1 John 4:4
Ps 147:6a uplifts  -   Psa. 145:14; 146:8
Ps 147:61 wicked
The Babylonians and Persians as the captors of the outcasts (v. 2).
Ps 147:7a Sing  -   Exo. 15:21; Psa. 96:1-2
Ps 147:9a ravens  -   Job 38:41; Luke 12:24; cf. Matt. 6:29
Ps 147:12a Laud  -   Psa. 102:21
Ps 147:15a runs  -   2 Thes. 3:1
Ps 147:19a declares  -   Deut. 4:13; 33:4; Psa. 78:5; Rom. 9:4
Psalm 148
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 148:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 11 in Psa. 146. Psalm 148 is a praise to Jehovah for His exalted name and for His transcending majesty (v. 13).
Ps 148:1b heights  -   Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:10; Luke 2:14; 19:38
Ps 148:2a angels  -   Psa. 103:20- 21
Ps 148:3a sun  -   Gen. 1:14-16; Psa. 136:8-9; Jer. 31:35
Ps 148:4a heaven  -   Deut. 10:14; 2 Chron. 2:6; cf. 2 Cor. 12:2
Ps 148:4b waters  -   Gen. 1:7
Ps 148:5a commanded  -   Gen. 1:6; Psa. 33:6, 9; Heb. 11:3
Ps 148:7a sea  -   Gen. 1:21; Psa. 74:13
Ps 148:14a horn  -   1 Sam. 2:1; Psa. 89:17, 24; Luke 1:69
Ps 148:14b near  -   Deut. 4:7; Psa. 145:18; Eph. 2:17
Psalm 149
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 149:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 11 in Psa. 146. Psalm 149 is a praise to Jehovah for His taking pleasure in His people, Israel, and His adorning of the lowly with salvation (v. 4).
Ps 149:1b new  -   Psa. 33:3; 144:9
Ps 149:2a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6
Ps 149:2b King  -   Psa. 5:2
Ps 149:4a adorns  -   Psa. 132:16
Psalm 150
Notes and Cross-references
Ps 150:11a Hallelujah  -   Psa. 104:35
See note 11 in Psa. 146. Psalm 150 is a concluding charge to everything that has breath (v. 6) to praise God.
Ps 150:1b sanctuary  -   Psa. 134:2
Ps 150:6a everything  -   Psa. 148:7-13; Rev. 5:13
Ps 150:61 Jehovah
Heb. Jah, a shortened form of Jehovah.
< Psalms • Proverbs Outline >
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Proverbs Outline
I.   The collection of Solomon — 1:1 — 24:34
A.   The principles for man to live a proper human life — 1:1 — 9:18
B.   A contrast between doing righteousness in wisdom and doing wickedness in folly — 10:1 — 19:29
C.   Admonitions and teachings — 20:1 — 24:34
II.   The collection of Hezekiah — admonitions and teachings — 25:1 — 29:27
III.   The word of Agur — general words of wisdom — 30:1-33
IV.   The word of King Lemuel — 31:1-31
Proverbs >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Proverbs Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 1:11a proverbs  -   1 Kings 4:32; Prov. 10:1; 25:1; Eccl. 12:9
Heb. mishle, meaning similitudes, proverbs, parables, to represent general truths. Proverbs is a collection of the words of the wise. It stresses the wisdom that man receives of God through his contacting of God and that teaches man how to behave and build up his character in his human life. Since the proverbs were collected mainly by two kings of Judah (Solomon and Hezekiah) in the age of the law, the book of Proverbs may be considered a subsidiary to the law. The law is the portrait of God; as such, it demands that God’s people keep it so that they may be made copies of God for His expression and glorification (see note 11 in Exo. 20). Proverbs, as a subsidiary to the law, instructs people how to behave and how to build themselves up according to God’s attributes, i.e., according to what God is.
As a part of the holy word in God’s Holy Scriptures, Proverbs should be considered the breath of God for us to breathe in that we may receive the life supply from God (2 Tim. 3:16). Hence, we should read Proverbs by being filled with the fullness of God in our spirit (Eph. 5:18; 3:19). Furthermore, we should read Proverbs in the New Testament Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), with our regenerated spirit, mingling prayer with our reading (Eph. 6:17-18) in order to mingle the words with spirit and life (cf. John 6:63). While we are still living in this body, we need Proverbs to give us instructions on how to live rightly in many aspects. However, according to God’s economy Proverbs should not be used to build up the old man by cultivating our self and our natural man. Rather, we should reject self-cultivation and condemn the building up of the natural man (cf. Matt. 16:24; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20) and come to Proverbs as a new man (Eph. 4:22-24) by exercising our spirit with the Spirit to contact the word in the spirit of prayer. Then the word in Proverbs will become spirit and life to us, not to cultivate our natural man but to cultivate our regenerated new man. We must be persons who love the Lord and pursue Christ, not self-perfection (cf. Phil. 3:3-14), and who love the Lord’s word in the entire Bible and read it with a praying spirit, not to seek the doctrine of letters but to seek the Spirit and word of life (cf. John 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 3:6), and not to gain any help for self-cultivation but to nourish our spirit that we may live a Christian life that is perfect in the divine virtues, which are the expressions of the divine attributes. If we are such persons, this book will render us nuggets and gems to strengthen our life of pursuing Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy in producing and building up the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem as God’s heart’s desire and ultimate goal.
Pr 1:71a fear  -   Job 28:28; Psa. 111:10; Prov. 9:10; 1 Pet. 2:17
Proverbs presents the principles for man to live a proper human life. The major principles are revering God (1:7; 3:5-10), needing wisdom (vv. 20-33; 3:13-24; 4:5-9), honoring one’s parents (1:8-9; 3:1-2; 6:20; 30:17), and holding marriage in honor (5:1-20; 31:10-31).
To revere God is to consider and regard Him in everything, never forgetting that He is the wonderful God who created us. To revere God is to fear God (1:7; 2:4-5; 8:13; 9:10; 10:27; 14:2, 26-27; 15:16, 33a), to trust in Him (3:5-8, 26; 16:20; 30:5-6), and to honor Him (3:9-10). Revering God stops us from doing evil. It also causes us to be touched by the sufferings of others and to show mercy and compassion to them.
Pr 1:81a father  -   Prov. 4:1; 6:20
Revering God and honoring one’s parents are mentioned together in Proverbs (vv. 7-9). In the Ten Commandments the fifth, concerning honoring one’s parents, is ranked with the first four, concerning God (see note 121 in Exo. 20). To honor one’s parents is nearly equal to revering God. If we revere God, we will honor our parents. See Eph. 6:2 and notes.
Pr 1:121 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Pr 1:16a feet  -   Isa. 59:7; Rom. 3:15
Pr 1:201 Wisdom
Man’s need of wisdom to live a proper human life is one of the main principles in Proverbs. See note 71, par. 1.
Pr 1:20a cries  -   vv. 20-21: Prov. 8:1-4; cf. John 7:37
Pr 1:202 She
See note 121 in ch. 8.
Pr 1:23a pour  -   Isa. 44:3; Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10
Pr 1:24a called  -   Isa. 65:12; Jer. 7:13; cf. Matt. 11:17
Proverbs Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 2:1a My  -   Prov. 7:1
Pr 2:6a gives  -   1 Kings 3:9, 12; James 1:5
Pr 2:19a paths  -   Psa. 16:11; Prov. 5:6; 10:17
Pr 2:21a land  -   Psa. 37:9, 11, 22, 29, 34
Proverbs Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 3:3a tablet  -   Prov. 7:3; 6:21; Jer. 17:1; 2 Cor. 3:3; cf. Deut. 6:8; 11:18
Pr 3:41 favor
Or, grace.
Pr 3:42 a
The Septuagint translates, exercise foresight for what is honorable (cf. Rom. 12:17; 2 Cor. 8:21).
Pr 3:5a Trust  -   Psa. 37:3-5
Pr 3:7a wise  -   Rom. 12:16
Pr 3:9a firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:19; Deut. 26:2
Pr 3:10a barns  -   Deut. 28:8
Pr 3:111a chastening  -   Job 5:17; Psa. 94:12; Heb. 12:5
Or, instruction, as in v. 1.
Pr 3:12a For  -   Heb. 12:6
Pr 3:131 Blessed
Or, Happy.
Pr 3:15a She  -   Prov. 8:11
Pr 3:18a tree  -   Gen. 2:9; 3:22; Prov. 11:30; 13:12; 15:4
Pr 3:191 wisdom
This One by whom Jehovah founded the earth and established the heavens is Christ, who is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). See note 121 in ch. 8.
Pr 3:19a earth  -   Psa. 104:24; 136:5-6; Prov. 8:27-29; Jer. 10:12; cf. John 1:3
Pr 3:20a depths  -   Gen. 7:11
Pr 3:20b dew  -   Deut. 33:28
Pr 3:25a be  -   1 Pet. 3:6
Pr 3:27a to  -   Rom. 13:7; Gal. 6:10
Pr 3:34a humble  -   James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5; cf. Luke 1:52
Pr 3:351 honor
Or, glory.
Pr 3:352 But
The Hebrew text is obscure. Another rendering may be, But shame will be the promotion of fools.
Proverbs Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 4:1a Hear  -   Prov. 1:8
Pr 4:3a Tender  -   1 Chron. 29:1
Pr 4:5a wisdom  -   Prov. 2:2
Pr 4:18a light  -   Judg. 5:31; 2 Sam. 23:4; Dan. 12:3; Matt. 13:43
Pr 4:181 dawn
The light of dawn, the sunrise, signifies Christ in His coming (Luke 1:78; 2 Pet. 1:19). This figure may also signify our being revived every morning. The Christian life is like the dawning of the sun (Judg. 5:31; Matt. 13:43). As Christians we should follow the sun to be revived and to have a new beginning every morning. Then we should continue to rise and shine brighter and brighter until the full day.
Pr 4:19a stumble  -   1 John 2:10
Pr 4:20a My  -   Prov. 5:1
Pr 4:22a healing  -   Prov. 12:18; 13:17; 16:24
Pr 4:23a Keep  -   cf. Deut. 4:9; Phil. 4:7; 1 Thes. 3:13
Pr 4:23b from  -   Matt. 12:35; cf. Matt. 15:19
Proverbs Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 5:1a My  -   Prov. 4:20
Pr 5:31 strange
The charge in vv. 1-20 is to hold marriage in honor (Heb. 13:4 and note 1). In holding marriage in honor, the man’s faithfulness is the base, and the woman’s virtues are the building up (12:4a; 14:1a; 31:10-31). This is one of the principles in Proverbs for man to live a proper human life (see note 71, par. 1, in ch. 1).
Pr 5:4a two-edged  -   cf. Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16
Pr 5:7a And  -   Prov. 7:24
Pr 5:18a wife  -   Mal. 2:14
Pr 5:19a hind  -   Gen. 49:21; 2 Sam. 22:34; S.S. 2:7; 3:5; Hab. 3:19
Pr 5:21a eyes  -   Jer. 16:17; Heb. 4:13
Proverbs Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 6:4a sleep  -   Psa. 132:4
Pr 6:6a ant  -   Prov. 30:25
Pr 6:10a A  -   vv. 10-11: Prov. 24:33-34
Pr 6:14a heart  -   Matt. 15:19
Pr 6:18a Feet  -   Isa. 59:7; Rom. 3:15
Pr 6:19a discord  -   Prov. 6:14
Pr 6:20a My  -   Prov. 1:8
Pr 6:21a Bind  -   Prov. 3:3; 7:3
Pr 6:22a walk  -   Prov. 3:23-24; cf. Deut. 6:6-8; 11:18-20
Pr 6:23a lamp  -   Psa. 19:8; 119:105
Pr 6:32a adultery  -   1 Cor. 6:18; Heb. 13:4
Proverbs Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 7:1a My  -   Prov. 2:1
Pr 7:3a tablet  -   Prov. 3:3
Pr 7:24a And  -   Prov. 5:7
Proverbs Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 8:1a call  -   Prov. 1:20; 9:3
Pr 8:8a words  -   Psa. 12:6; Isa. 45:23
Pr 8:11a For  -   Prov. 3:15
Pr 8:121 I
Or, I, wisdom, make prudence my dwelling. In certain portions of this book the wisdom of God is personified (1:20; 3:19; 4:5-9; 7:4; 8:1-36; 9:1-11). This personification of God’s wisdom is a reference to the second of the Divine Trinity, Christ, the Son of God (1 Cor. 1:24; Col. 2:3; Matt. 11:19 and note 3), who became wisdom from God to all the New Testament believers (1 Cor. 1:30).
Pr 8:15a reign  -   cf. Dan. 2:21; Rom. 13:1
Pr 8:17a seek  -   1 Chron. 28:9; 2 Chron. 15:2; Jer. 29:13; Matt. 7:7
Pr 8:20a way  -   Psa. 23:3; Matt. 21:32
Pr 8:22a beginning  -   John 1:1
Pr 8:24a brought  -   John 1:14, 18; 3:16
Pr 8:27a established  -   Psa. 33:6; 136:5; Jer. 10:12; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2
Pr 8:27b circle  -   Isa. 40:22
Pr 8:28a firm  -   Gen. 1:6-7
Pr 8:29a boundary  -   Gen. 1:9-10; Job 38:8-11; Psa. 104:9
Pr 8:30a delight  -   Matt. 3:17; Col. 1:13
Pr 8:35a life  -   Prov. 21:21; John 3:36
Proverbs Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 9:5a wine  -   Prov. 9:2; S.S. 5:1; Isa. 55:1
Pr 9:10a The  -   Psa. 111:10; cf. Job 28:28; Prov. 1:7
Proverbs Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 10:1a A  -   Prov. 15:20
Pr 10:2a Treasures  -   Psa. 49:6; Prov. 11:4; Luke 12:19-20
Pr 10:61 But
Or, But violence conceals the mouth of the wicked. So also in v. 11.
Pr 10:12a covers  -   Prov. 17:9; 1 Cor. 13:4, 7; 1 Pet. 4:8
Pr 10:15a The  -   Prov. 18:11
Pr 10:19a restrains  -   Prov. 17:27-28; James 1:19; 3:2
Proverbs Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 11:1a balance  -   Lev. 19:35-36; Deut. 25:13-16; Prov. 20:10, 23
Pr 11:4a Riches  -   Prov. 10:2
Pr 11:13a He  -   Lev. 19:16; Prov. 20:19
Pr 11:14a multitude  -   Prov. 15:22; 24:6
Pr 11:17a merciful  -   Matt. 5:7
Pr 11:18a sows  -   Hosea 10:12; Gal. 6:8-9; James 3:18
Pr 11:211 Be
Lit., Hand to hand; a Hebrew idiom indicating great certainty.
Pr 11:24a scatters  -   Psa. 112:9; 2 Cor. 9:6-10
Pr 11:25a blessing  -   2 Cor. 9:6-10
Pr 11:28a trusts  -   Job 31:24; Psa. 52:7; Mark 10:24; 1 Tim. 6:17
Pr 11:30a souls  -   Dan. 12:3; James 5:20
Pr 11:31a recompensed  -   Jer. 25:29; 1 Pet. 4:17-18
Proverbs Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 12:4a worthy  -   Prov. 31:10
Pr 12:4b crown  -   cf. 1 Cor. 11:7
Pr 12:11a He  -   Gen. 3:19; Prov. 28:19
Pr 12:15a own  -   Prov. 3:7; 21:2
Pr 12:161 at
Lit., today.
Pr 12:25a Anxiety  -   cf. 1 Pet. 5:7
Pr 12:25b word  -   Isa. 50:4
Proverbs Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 13:11 hears
Or, accepts his father’s correction.
Pr 13:3a mouth  -   Psa. 39:1; Prov. 21:23; James 3:2
Pr 13:7a wealth  -   cf. 2 Cor. 6:10; 8:9
Pr 13:14a fountain  -   Psa. 36:9; Prov. 10:11; 14:27
Pr 13:20a companion  -   1 Cor. 15:33
Pr 13:24a chastens  -   Prov. 3:12; 19:18; Heb. 12:7
Proverbs Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 14:91 A
Or, Guilt.
Pr 14:12a There  -   Prov. 16:25; cf. Prov. 21:2
Pr 14:13a laughter  -   Luke 6:25
Pr 14:17a anger  -   James 1:19
Pr 14:20a rich  -   Prov. 19:4
Pr 14:27a fountain  -   Prov. 13:14
Pr 14:29a slow  -   Prov. 15:18; 16:32; James 1:19
Proverbs Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 15:1a soft  -   Prov. 15:4; 25:15
Pr 15:8a sacrifice  -   Prov. 21:27; Isa. 1:11; Jer. 6:20
Pr 15:9a pursues  -   Prov. 21:21; 1 Tim. 6:11
Pr 15:111 Abaddon
Meaning destruction.
Pr 15:13a joyful  -   Prov. 17:22
Pr 15:16a Better  -   Psa. 37:16; Prov. 16:8; 1 Tim. 6:6
Pr 15:18a slow  -   Prov. 14:29
Pr 15:20a A  -   Prov. 10:1
Pr 15:23a word  -   Prov. 25:11
Pr 15:27a gain  -   Prov. 28:20; 1 Tim. 6:9
Pr 15:29a prayer  -   Psa. 145:18-19; James 5:16
Pr 15:33a The  -   Prov. 1:7
Proverbs Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 16:2a All  -   cf. Prov. 21:2
Pr 16:3a Commit  -   Psa. 37:5; cf. Matt. 6:25; Luke 12:22; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7
Pr 16:4a made  -   Isa. 43:7
Pr 16:5a Every  -   Prov. 11:20-21; Luke 16:15
Pr 16:51 Be
Lit., Hand to hand; a Hebrew idiom indicating great certainty.
Pr 16:6a lovingkindness  -   Zech. 7:9; Matt. 23:23
Pr 16:8a Better  -   Prov. 15:16
Pr 16:11a just  -   Lev. 19:36; Prov. 11:1
Pr 16:18a haughty  -   Prov. 18:12
Pr 16:19a lowly  -   Matt. 5:3
Pr 16:201 blessed
Or, happy.
Pr 16:25a There  -   Prov. 14:12
Pr 16:27a fire  -   James 3:6
Pr 16:32a slow  -   Prov. 14:29; 15:18; James 1:19
Pr 16:32b spirit  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:32
Pr 16:33a lot  -   Num. 26:55; Neh. 11:1; Jonah 1:7; Acts 1:26
Proverbs Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 17:1a Better  -   Prov. 15:17
Pr 17:3a tries  -   1 Chron. 29:17; Psa. 7:9; 26:2
Pr 17:5a Whoever  -   Prov. 14:31
Pr 17:6a crown  -   cf. Phil. 4:1
Pr 17:9a covers  -   Prov. 10:12; 1 Cor. 13:4
Pr 17:22a joyful  -   Prov. 12:25; 15:13, 15
Proverbs Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 18:8a The  -   Prov. 26:22
Pr 18:10a strong  -   Psa. 61:3
Pr 18:11a The  -   Prov. 10:15
Pr 18:12a But  -   Prov. 15:33
Pr 18:15a The  -   Prov. 15:14
Pr 18:18a lot  -   Prov. 16:33
Pr 18:19a brother  -   cf. Acts 15:39
Pr 18:21a power  -   Matt. 12:37; James 3:6
Pr 18:22a wife  -   Prov. 19:14; 31:10
Pr 18:23a answers  -   James 2:3
Pr 18:24a friend  -   Prov. 17:17
Proverbs Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 19:1a Better  -   Prov. 28:6
Pr 19:5a A  -   Prov. 19:9
Pr 19:13a contentions  -   Prov. 21:9, 19; 25:24
Pr 19:14a wealth  -   2 Cor. 12:14
Pr 19:14b wife  -   Prov. 18:22
Pr 19:17a poor  -   Deut. 15:7, 9, 11; Prov. 18:23; 22:9; 28:27; 2 Cor. 9:9; James 2:2
Pr 19:17b lends  -   Psa. 37:26; 112:5; Luke 6:35, 38
Pr 19:18a Discipline  -   Prov. 13:24; 23:13; Heb. 12:7
Pr 19:19a wrath  -   Psa. 37:8; Matt. 5:22
Pr 19:21a counsel  -   Psa. 33:11; Isa. 46:10
Pr 19:23a fear  -   Prov. 10:27; 14:27
Pr 19:24a sluggard  -   Prov. 26:15
Proverbs Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 20:1a Wine  -   Gen. 9:21; Prov. 23:29-30; Eph. 5:18
Pr 20:4a sluggard  -   Matt. 25:26
Pr 20:10a Differing  -   Prov. 11:1; 20:23
Pr 20:12a ear  -   Exo. 4:11; Psa. 94:9
Pr 20:13a sleep  -   Prov. 6:9; Rom. 12:11
Pr 20:16a Take  -   Prov. 27:13
Pr 20:19a He  -   Prov. 11:13
Pr 20:20a curses  -   Exo. 21:17; Lev. 20:9; Matt. 15:4; Mark 7:10
Pr 20:22a not  -   Matt. 5:39
Pr 20:23a Differing  -   Prov. 20:10
Pr 20:24a steps  -   Psa. 37:23; Jer. 10:23
Pr 20:271a spirit  -   Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 2:11; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12
Heb. neshamah; translated breath in Gen. 2:7 (see note 5 there) and Job 32:8 (see notes there).
Pr 20:272 lamp
Man’s spirit is God’s lamp within man. The light shining within man’s regenerated spirit is God Himself (1 John 1:5). Just as a lamp contains light and expresses it, man’s spirit was created to contain God and express Him. In order for the divine light to shine into man’s inward parts, God’s Spirit as the oil must soak (mingle with) man’s spirit as the wick (cf. Rom. 8:16) and “burn” together with man’s spirit (Rom. 12:11).
Proverbs Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 21:1a king’s  -   Ezra 7:27
Pr 21:2a way  -   Prov. 16:2, 25; cf. Judg. 17:6; 21:25
Pr 21:2b hearts  -   1 Sam. 16:7; Psa. 7:9; Prov. 24:12; Jer. 17:10; Luke 16:15
Pr 21:3a sacrifice  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8; Matt. 9:13; Mark 12:33
Pr 21:61 snare
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, seekers.
Pr 21:9a It  -   Prov. 25:24
Pr 21:13a closes  -   James 2:13
Pr 21:17a loves  -   Prov. 23:21; cf. 2 Tim. 3:4
Pr 21:19a It  -   cf. Prov. 21:9
Pr 21:23a guards  -   Prov. 13:3; Psa. 141:3; James 3:2
Pr 21:27a The  -   Prov. 15:8
Pr 21:30a counsel  -   Isa. 8:10; Acts 5:38
Pr 21:31a victory  -   1 Chron. 29:11; cf. 1 Sam. 17:47
Proverbs Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 22:2a maker  -   Job 31:15; 34:19; Prov. 14:31
Pr 22:3a A  -   Prov. 27:12
Pr 22:6a Train  -   Eph. 6:4; 2 Tim. 3:15
Pr 22:8a sows  -   Job 4:8; Hosea 10:13; Gal. 6:8
Pr 22:81 fail
The Septuagint has the additional proverb: “God blesses a cheerful and liberal man, but a man will fully prove the vanity of his works.” The first part of this is the source of the quotation in 2 Cor. 9:7.
Pr 22:9a generous  -   Prov. 11:25; 2 Cor. 9:6, 9
Pr 22:11a pureness  -   Matt. 5:8
Pr 22:13a The  -   Prov. 26:13
Pr 22:15a rod  -   Prov. 13:24; 19:18
Pr 22:201 excellent
Or, thirty sayings, perhaps referring to thirty proverbs, from 22:22 through 24:22.
Pr 22:23a plead  -   1 Sam. 24:12, 15; Psa. 12:5; Jer. 50:34; 51:36
Pr 22:28a boundary  -   Deut. 19:14; 27:17
Proverbs Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 23:11 who
Or, what.
Pr 23:4a rich  -   Prov. 28:20; 1 Tim. 6:9-10
Pr 23:5a wealth  -   Prov. 27:24; 1 Tim. 6:17
Pr 23:9a Do  -   Prov. 9:8; cf. Matt. 7:6
Pr 23:10a Do  -   Deut. 19:14; 27:17; Prov. 22:28
Pr 23:11a Redeemer  -   Jer. 50:34
Pr 23:13a correction  -   Prov. 13:24; 19:18
Pr 23:14a Sheol  -   Prov. 27:20; Rev. 20:13
Pr 23:22a father  -   Prov. 1:8
Pr 23:23a truth  -   cf. 3 John 4
Pr 23:261 observe
Others read, delight in.
Pr 23:30a wine  -   Prov. 20:1; Eph. 5:18
Proverbs Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 24:3a wisdom  -   Matt. 7:24
Pr 24:6a counselors  -   Prov. 11:14; 15:22
Pr 24:61 victory
Or, salvation.
Pr 24:13a honey  -   S.S. 5:1; Isa. 7:15
Pr 24:16a rises  -   Micah 7:8; cf. 2 Cor. 4:9
Pr 24:17a not  -   Prov. 17:5; Obad. 12; 1 Cor. 13:6
Pr 24:21a fear  -   Rom. 13:7; 1 Pet. 2:17
Pr 24:23a judgment  -   Lev. 19:15; Deut. 1:17; John 7:24
Pr 24:28a witness  -   Exo. 20:16
Pr 24:33a A  -   vv. 33-34: Prov. 6:10-11
Proverbs Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 25:1a proverbs  -   1 Kings 4:32
Pr 25:2a conceal  -   Deut. 29:29; Rom. 11:33; cf. Isa. 45:15
Pr 25:6a not  -   Luke 14:10
Pr 25:9a Argue  -   Matt. 5:25; 18:15
Pr 25:9b not  -   Prov. 11:13
Pr 25:11a word  -   Prov. 15:23; Isa. 50:4
Pr 25:14a without  -   Jude 12
Pr 25:21a If  -   vv. 21-22: Exo. 23:4; 2 Kings 6:22; Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27; Rom. 12:20
Pr 25:24a It  -   Prov. 21:9
Pr 25:28a spirit  -   Prov. 16:32
Proverbs Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 26:3a bridle  -   Psa. 32:9; James 3:3
Pr 26:11a dog  -   2 Pet. 2:22
Pr 26:13a The  -   Prov. 22:13
Pr 26:15a The  -   Prov. 22:13
Pr 26:22a The  -   Prov. 18:8
Proverbs Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 27:1a tomorrow  -   James 4:14; cf. Luke 12:19
Pr 27:5a rebuke  -   Prov. 28:23
Pr 27:6a kisses  -   cf. Matt. 26:49
Pr 27:12a A  -   Prov. 22:3
Pr 27:13a Take  -   Prov. 20:16
Pr 27:15a dripping  -   Prov. 19:13
Pr 27:18a eat  -   1 Cor. 9:7
Pr 27:20a Sheol  -   Prov. 30:16; Hab. 2:5; Rev. 20:13
Pr 27:201 Abaddon
Meaning destruction.
Pr 27:20b eyes  -   Eccl. 1:8; 1 John 2:16
Pr 27:21a The  -   cf. Prov. 17:3
Proverbs Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 28:1a flee  -   Lev. 26:17, 36
Pr 28:5a seek  -   Isa. 55:6; James 1:5
Pr 28:6a Better  -   Prov. 19:1
Pr 28:13a confesses  -   Psa. 32:5; 1 John 1:9
Pr 28:141 Blessed
Or, Happy.
Pr 28:171 Will
Lit., Will flee to the pit.
Pr 28:19a He  -   Prov. 12:11
Pr 28:20a rich  -   Prov. 28:22; 1 Tim. 6:9
Pr 28:27a gives  -   Deut. 15:7; Prov. 19:17; 2 Cor. 9:9
Proverbs Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 29:3a harlots  -   Luke 15:30
Pr 29:18a vision  -   1 Sam. 3:1; Amos 8:11-12; cf. Acts 26:19
Pr 29:23a lowly  -   Matt. 5:3; 23:12; Luke 14:11; James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:6
Pr 29:25a trust  -   Psa. 32:10; Prov. 28:25
Pr 29:251 exalted
Or, protected.
Pr 29:26a justice  -   Isa. 49:4
Proverbs Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 30:2a stupid  -   Psa. 73:22
Pr 30:4a ascended  -   John 3:13; Rom. 10:6-7
Pr 30:4b established  -   Job 38:4; Psa. 104:3; Isa. 40:12
Pr 30:5a Every  -   2 Sam. 22:31; Psa. 12:6; 18:30
Pr 30:5b take  -   Psa. 2:12
Pr 30:6a not  -   Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18
Pr 30:8a food  -   Luke 11:3; 1 Tim. 6:8
Pr 30:12a pure  -   Luke 18:11; cf. Prov. 21:2
Pr 30:12b washed  -   Psa. 51:2; Isa. 1:16; cf. Zech. 13:1; Titus 3:5
Pr 30:19a eagle  -   Isa. 40:31
Pr 30:25a ants  -   Prov. 6:6-8
Proverbs Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Pr 31:10a worthy  -   Prov. 12:4; 19:14; Ruth 3:11
Pr 31:20a stretches  -   cf. Psa. 138:7; Acts 4:30
Pr 31:21a scarlet  -   Exo. 25:4
Pr 31:22a purple  -   Exo. 25:4
Pr 31:23a elders  -   Ruth 4:1-2
Pr 31:261 law
Or, teaching.
< Proverbs • Ecclesiastes Outline >
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Ecclesiastes Outline
I.   The opening word — 1:1-11
II.   The writer’s experiments — 1:12 — 6:12
A.   In wisdom and knowledge — 1:12-18
B.   In pleasure — 2:1-11
C.   In being a wise man or a fool — 2:12-26
D.   In fate under God’s sovereignty — 3:1-15
E.   In ranks and classes in human society — 3:16 — 4:16
F.   In contacting God — 5:1-7
G.   In sundry illustrations — 5:8 — 6:12
III.   The writer’s searching and testing — 7:1 — 12:12
A.   Words of wisdom — 7:1 — 11:8; 12:9-12
B.   Advice to young men — 11:9 — 12:1
C.   The sad portrait of man’s old age — 12:2-8
IV.   The concluding word — 12:13-14
Ecclesiastes >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Ecclesiastes Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 1:11a Preacher  -   Eccl. 1:12; 7:27
Lit., the Assembly speaker, or, Collector (of sayings); Heb. Qohelet. The word was translated Ecclesiastes (meaning Assembly member) in the Septuagint; hence, the English name of the book.
Ec 1:1b son  -   Matt. 1:1
Ec 1:21a Vanity  -   Psa. 39:5-6; Eccl. 12:8
The word can also be translated vapor, breath. So throughout the book. The contents of Ecclesiastes are a description by Solomon, after his falling away from God (1 Kings 11:1-8) and returning back to God, of the human life of fallen mankind under the sun, a life in the corrupted world (Eph. 2:12). According to this book human history, from its beginning to the present, is vanity. Through all the positive and negative experiences of the human life under the sun, Solomon was deeply impressed and occupied with the vanity of vanities of the human life under the sun in its falling away from God. Man was created by God with the highest and most noble purpose, that is, to express God in His image with His divine life and nature (Gen. 1:26 and note 3). But God’s enemy, Satan the devil, came in to inject himself as sin into the man God created for His purpose (Gen. 3:1-6). Through this fall, man and all the created things that had been committed by God to man’s dominion were brought into the slavery of corruption and made subject to vanity (Rom. 8:20-21). Thus, the human life in the corrupted world also became vanity, a chasing after wind (v. 14). The writer fully realized this and stressed this to the uttermost in his description. Yet he was not fully disappointed in this; rather, he instructed men that there is a way to escape this vanity, i.e., to come back to God and take God as man’s everything, man’s redemption, life, wealth, enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction (12:13), that man may still be used by God to fulfill His original purpose in creating man, for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy.
Ec 1:22 all
The book of Proverbs stresses the wisdom that man receives of God through his contacting of God, wisdom that teaches man how to behave in his human life. Ecclesiastes stresses the vanity of vanities of all things under the sun, as realized by man through the wisdom received from God. No matter how good, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful a thing may be, as long as it is of the old creation, it is part of the vanity of vanities under the sun. Only the new creation, which is in the heavens and not “under the sun,” is not vanity but is reality. The next book, Song of Songs, stresses that Christ is the song of songs, the satisfaction of satisfactions to human life, which is versus the vanity of vanities of all things under the sun.
Ec 1:2b vanity  -   Rom. 8:20
Ec 1:3a What  -   Eccl. 2:22; 3:9
Ec 1:3b under  -   Eccl. 1:9, 14; 2:11, 17-20, 22; 5:18
Ec 1:4a stands  -   Psa. 104:5; 119:90; cf. 1 Cor. 7:31
Ec 1:5a rises  -   Psa. 19:6
Ec 1:8a eye  -   Prov. 27:20
Ec 1:9a What  -   Eccl. 3:15
Ec 1:9b under  -   Eccl. 1:3
Ec 1:11a no  -   Eccl. 2:16
Ec 1:12a Preacher  -   Eccl. 1:1
Ec 1:131 all
Solomon set his heart to seek and to search out all that is done under the heavens, and he observed that all the works of man under the sun are done in cycle, going on and on, remaining the same generation after generation, like the phenomena in nature (vv. 3-7). All things are wearisome, nothing is satisfying, there is nothing new, and nothing is remembered (vv. 8-11). In his conclusion after all his experiments in the human life, all is vanity and a chasing after wind (vv. 2, 14). Such a conclusion of the wise king by his wisdom may be considered a history of the vain life of a fallen man. His conclusion in this book is like a dirge to a man whose end is in misery.
All the unveilings that issued out of the writer’s experiments and searching and testing should not be considered the divine revelation from God concerning His divine purpose for human life, though they are included in the Scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They are the conclusion of the writer’s research in his experiments in the realm of the human life of fallen man under the sun. In the divine intention all the concluding words may be considered proverbs, words of wisdom, that direct fallen and aim-missing men to return to God (12:1a, 13-14) and receive Him, according to His New Testament economy, in His Son as their Redeemer and life, that they may be regenerated to be the God-men for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy. Cf. note 11, par. 2, in Psa. 1 and note 11, par. 2, in Prov. 1.
Ec 1:13a under  -   Eccl. 2:3
Ec 1:13b travail  -   Gen. 3:18-19; Eccl. 3:10
Ec 1:141a chasing  -   Eccl. 1:17; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 6, 16; 6:9
Lit., shepherding. Alternatively, the phrase could be translated, a feeding on wind (cf. Hosea 12:1). So throughout the book.
Ec 1:15a crooked  -   Eccl. 7:13
Ec 1:16a before  -   1 Kings 3:12-13; Eccl. 2:9
Ecclesiastes Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 2:11 taste
Lit., look on goodness. So throughout the book.
Ec 2:3a under  -   Eccl. 1:13
Ec 2:4a built  -   1 Kings 9:1
Ec 2:8a silver  -   1 Kings 9:28; 10:10, 27; 2 Chron. 1:15; 9:27
Ec 2:81 concubine
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Ec 2:9a before  -   Eccl. 1:16
Ec 2:11a chasing  -   Eccl. 1:14
Ec 2:14a one  -   Eccl. 2:16; 9:3
Ec 2:17a chasing  -   Eccl. 1:14
Ec 2:18a leave  -   Psa. 49:10
Ec 2:20a under  -   Eccl. 1:3
Ec 2:241a eat  -   Eccl. 3:13; 5:18; Luke 12:19
See note 121 in ch. 3.
Ec 2:251 without
Following the Septuagint and some Hebrew MSS; other MSS read, more than I.
Ec 2:26a chasing  -   Eccl. 1:14
Ecclesiastes Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 3:1a time  -   Eccl. 8:6
Ec 3:2a born  -   Gal. 1:15; 4:4
Ec 3:2b die  -   Heb. 9:27
Ec 3:5a refrain  -   1 Cor. 7:5
Ec 3:7a be  -   Amos 5:13; 1 Cor. 14:30
Ec 3:7b speak  -   Luke 19:40; Acts 4:20; 18:9
Ec 3:8a love  -   Matt. 26:7
Ec 3:8b hate  -   Luke 14:26; John 12:25
Ec 3:10a travail  -   Eccl. 1:13
Ec 3:111 eternity
“A divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy” (The Amplified Bible). God created man in His image and formed in him a spirit that man may receive and contain Him (Gen. 1:26 and note 3; 2:7 and note 5). In addition, God put eternity, an aspiration for something eternal, in man’s heart so that man will seek God, the eternal One. Hence, temporal things can never satisfy man; only the eternal God, who is Christ, can satisfy the deep sense of purpose in man’s heart (cf. 2 Cor. 4:18). See note 41 in S.S. 1.
Ec 3:11a find  -   Eccl. 8:17; Rom. 11:33
Ec 3:121a rejoice  -   Eccl. 3:22
In all his experiments in human life Solomon encouraged the fallen men under the sun, in accordance with God’s economy, to rejoice and do good in their lifetime and to enjoy what God has given to them, eating, drinking, and tasting enjoyment in all their labor (2:24; 3:12-13; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10). God created man for Himself, but man was seduced by Satan to give God up, and thus man became fallen. Nevertheless, God still blesses man so that he may have a good living and enjoy various material things (cf. Matt. 5:45b; 1 Tim. 6:17). By so doing God maintains the existence of the human race from generation to generation, thus affording Himself the opportunity to accomplish His redemption for fallen man, to carry out His eternal purpose in His choosing and predestinating men for the Body of Christ, and to maintain the fallen man of His old creation to be the provision for Him to bring in His new creation in Christ out of the old creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This is proved by the apostle Paul’s preaching in Acts 14:15-17 and 17:24-31.
To live a life that we may testify Christ and minister Christ to others to glorify God, we need the material things and physical matters. But we should not be attracted, captured, and usurped by them. If we are usurped by them, we will suffer their vanity. We are living in the world and passing through the “vanity fair,” but we should not linger in it for its vainglory (1 John 2:15-17). Today all things of the old creation are under the slavery of corruption (Rom. 8:20-21). If we do not escape “the corruption which is in the world by lust” (2 Pet. 1:4), we will share in its vanity.
Ec 3:13a eat  -   Eccl. 2:24
Ec 3:15a That  -   Eccl. 1:9
Ec 3:151 passed
Lit., been driven (i.e., into the past). God, in His sovereignty over all, has appointed all things that are in the present and that will be in the future and seeks to reemploy the things that took place in the past. Whatever God does will be forever; nothing can be added to it, nor can anything be taken from it, that all would fear Him that they may have His wisdom to realize the real meaning of human life (vv. 14-15).
Ec 3:17a judge  -   Matt. 25:32, 46; John 5:29; Rom. 2:5-6, 16; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10
Ec 3:191 breath
Heb. ruach, different from neshamah, the word translated breath in Gen. 2:7 (see note 5 there).
Ec 3:20a dust  -   Gen. 3:19
Ec 3:211 breath
Heb. ruach. See note 51 in Ezek. 37.
Ec 3:22a rejoice  -   Eccl. 3:12
Ecclesiastes Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 4:4a chasing  -   Eccl. 1:14
Ec 4:6a Better  -   Prov. 17:1
Ec 4:8a eye  -   Prov. 27:20; 1 John 2:16
Ec 4:9a Two  -   Mark 6:7; cf. Gen. 2:18
Ec 4:151 him
Referring to the old king.
Ec 4:16a chasing  -   Eccl. 1:14
Ecclesiastes Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 5:11 Guard
Solomon’s word here regarding contacting God is not with the view of encouragement but with the view of caution. This is different from the view of the apostle Paul in his encouraging the believers to approach God to receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16).
Ec 5:1a steps  -   Isa. 1:12
Ec 5:1b sacrifice  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Psa. 50:8; Prov. 15:8
Ec 5:2a rash  -   James 1:19
Ec 5:4a vow  -   Num. 30:2; Deut. 23:21-22
Ec 5:4b Pay  -   Psa. 50:14; Matt. 5:33
Ec 5:11a eyes  -   Prov. 27:20; Eccl. 4:8; 1 John 2:16
Ec 5:15a womb  -   Job 1:21; Psa. 49:17; 1 Tim. 6:7
Ec 5:181a eat  -   Eccl. 2:24
See note 121 in ch. 3.
Ec 5:18b given  -   Eccl. 3:13; 6:2; 1 Tim. 6:17
Ec 5:201 brood
Or, remember.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 6:2a does  -   Deut. 28:33; Luke 12:20
Ec 6:3a stillborn  -   Job 3:16; Psa. 58:8; Eccl. 4:3
Ec 6:10a That  -   Eccl. 1:9
Ec 6:101 determined
Lit., called by its name.
Ec 6:12a For  -   Eccl. 3:22; 8:7
Ecclesiastes Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 7:1a good  -   Prov. 22:1
Ec 7:61 vanity
In his searching and testing all things of the human life under the sun, Solomon observed that all things are vanity of vanities, regardless of the kind of persons involved — wise or foolish, diligent or lazy, rich or poor, old or young, high or low, righteous or wicked, good or sinful, clean or unclean — and regardless of how they were born, how they worked, how they died, and what their end was (7:6, 15; 8:10, 14; 9:9; 11:8, 10; 12:8).
Ec 7:9a angry  -   Prov. 14:17; 16:32; James 1:19
Ec 7:13a crooked  -   Job 12:14; Eccl. 1:15; Isa. 14:27
Ec 7:17a not  -   Job 15:32; Psa. 55:23; Prov. 10:27
Ec 7:20a sin  -   1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chron. 6:36; Prov. 20:9; Rom. 3:23
Ec 7:29a man  -   Gen. 1:27
Ecclesiastes Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 8:31 join
Lit., stand.
Ec 8:6a time  -   Eccl. 3:1
Ec 8:7a For  -   Eccl. 10:14; 6:12
Ec 8:81 breath
Or, spirit (twice).
Ec 8:11a executed  -   2 Pet. 3:9; cf. Psa. 10:6; 50:21
Ec 8:14a happen  -   Eccl. 7:15
Ec 8:151a eat  -   Eccl. 2:24
See note 121 in ch. 3.
Ec 8:161 man’s
Lit., his.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 9:3a after  -   Eccl. 12:7; 1 Cor. 15:22
Ec 9:5a die  -   cf. Heb. 9:27
Ec 9:5b memory  -   Eccl. 2:16
Ec 9:71 eat
See note 121 in ch. 3. Man should enjoy God’s provision for his living and the marriage life for man’s existence and multiplication (vv. 7-10) to replenish the earth (Gen. 1:28) that it may be possible for God to save some men in order to produce the church — the Body of Christ — which will issue in the New Jerusalem as God’s eternal enlargement and expression according to God’s eternal economy.
Ec 9:8a white  -   Rev. 3:4
Ec 9:8b oil  -   Matt. 6:17
Ec 9:9a Enjoy  -   Prov. 5:18
Ec 9:12a ensnared  -   Isa. 24:17; Luke 21:34; 1 Tim. 3:7; 6:9
Ec 9:14a city  -   cf. 2 Sam. 20:15-22
Ecclesiastes Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 10:14a No  -   Eccl. 8:7; 6:12
Ec 10:16a young  -   Isa. 3:4
Ec 10:191 They
I.e., the princes of v. 16.
Ec 10:20a heaven  -   cf. Luke 12:2-3
Ecclesiastes Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 11:2a Give  -   Psa. 112:9; Luke 6:30
Ec 11:4a not  -   Prov. 20:4
Ec 11:5a wind  -   John 3:8
Ec 11:5b formed  -   Psa. 139:14-15
Ec 11:8a darkness  -   Eccl. 12:2
Ec 11:91 young
In his advice to young men, the writer says that they should endeavor to enjoy the human life in their youth in the light of God’s judgment (12:14 and note) in order to remove vexation from their heart and put away evil from their flesh (vv. 9-10). He also advises them to remember their Creator while they are young and not hesitate in doing this until old age comes (12:1).
Ec 11:9a judgment  -   Eccl. 12:14; Rom. 2:5-11; Heb. 9:27
Ecclesiastes Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ec 12:1a Creator  -   Gen. 1:1; Isa. 40:28; 43:15; Rom. 1:25; 1 Pet. 4:19
Ec 12:1b youth  -   Prov. 22:6; Lam. 3:27
Ec 12:11 evil
The days when a person is old and near death, when he has no more pleasure in living.
Ec 12:21 darkened
In man’s old age, the bright environment, with the three lights created by God and the artificial lights made by man, becomes gloomy, and the pleasant atmosphere of the clear sky is cloudy. The hands (the keepers of the house — man’s body — cf. 2 Cor. 5:1-8) tremble (v. 3a); the loins (the men of strength) are bent (v. 3b); the teeth (the women who grind) become few (v. 3c); the eyes (those who look out of the windows) become dim (v. 3d); and the ears become dull to sound (v. 4a). One awakens early in the morning (v. 4b); the vocal cords (the daughters of song) become low (v. 4c); and one is afraid of what is high (v. 5a) and is terrified while walking (v. 5b). The hair becomes white (the almond tree blossoms — v. 5c), and one is unable to bear any burden, even a burden as small as a grasshopper (v. 5d). No medicine can keep the old man away from death, and mourners attend his funeral (v. 5e). The corpse — the spinal cord (the silver cord), the head (the golden bowl), the lungs (the pitcher), and the heart (the wheel) — decays (v. 6). The body made of dust returns to the earth, and the breath returns to God who gave it (v. 7; Gen. 2:7). This indicates that the entire human being with his human life apart from God is nothing but vanity of vanity (v. 8).
Ec 12:4a song  -   2 Sam. 19:35
Ec 12:7a dust  -   Gen. 3:19; Job 34:15; Psa. 90:3
Ec 12:7b breath  -   Eccl. 3:21
Ec 12:7c gave  -   Gen. 2:7; Acts 17:25
Ec 12:8a Vanity  -   Psa. 62:9; Eccl. 1:2
Ec 12:9a proverbs  -   1 Kings 4:32
Ec 12:11a Shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; John 10:14; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4
Ec 12:131a Fear  -   Deut. 6:2; 10:12
The writer’s concluding word leads men to fear God that God may eventually show them His New Testament economy concerning the producing of His church, the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as God’s eternal enlargement and expression.
Ec 12:141a judgment  -   Eccl. 11:9; Matt. 12:36; Acts 17:30-31; Rom. 2:16; 14:10, 12; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10
God will judge men living in the present age in relation to their deeds, even every secret thing, according to whether it is good or evil, and He will judge the unbelieving dead at His great white throne in relation to their eternal destiny (Rev. 20:11-15).
< Ecclesiastes • Song of Songs Outline >
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Song of Songs Outline
I.   Drawn to pursue Christ for satisfaction — 1:2 — 2:7
A.   Attracted to run after Christ — 1:2-4a
B.   Fellowshipping with Christ resulting in entering into the church life — 1:4b-8
C.   Transformed by the remaking of the Spirit — 1:9-16a; 2:1-3a
D.   Satisfied with the rest and enjoyment in Christ — 1:16b-17; 2:3b-7
II.   Called to be delivered from the self through the oneness with the cross — 2:8 — 3:5
A.   By Christ’s resurrection power through His fellowship — 2:8-9
B.   Entreated and encouraged — 2:10-13
C.   Called to be in oneness with the cross — 2:14-15
D.   The lover’s rejection and failure — 2:16 — 3:1
E.   The lover’s waking up and recovery — 3:2-4
F.   Christ’s charge to the meddling believers — 3:5
III.   Called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection — 3:6 — 5:1
A.   The new creation — 3:6 — 4:6
1.   By the lover’s complete union with Christ — 3:6-11
2.   The beauty of the lover, the bride, as the new creation — 4:1-5
3.   Her deeper pursuit — 4:6
B.   Called to live in ascension — 4:7-15
1.   His calling — vv. 7-8
2.   Her silent answer — v. 9
3.   His private enjoyment of her — vv. 10-15
C.   Living a life of love — 4:16 — 5:1
1.   The answer of the bride — 4:16
2.   The answer of the Beloved — 5:1
IV.   Called more strongly to live within the veil through the cross after resurrection — 5:2 — 6:13
A.   The stronger call of the cross after resurrection and her failure — 5:2 — 6:3
1.   The Beloved’s calling — 5:2
2.   Her refusal — 5:3
3.   Her opening of the door — 5:4-5
4.   The Beloved’s hiding — 5:6
5.   Her being wounded — 5:7
6.   Her seeking help from the common believers — 5:8
7.   The first question asked of her — 5:9
8.   Her impression of her Beloved — 5:10-16
9.   The second question asked of her — 6:1
10.   Her reply — 6:2-3
B.   A life within the veil — 6:4-13
1.   The Beloved’s praise — vv. 4-10
2.   The lover’s work — v. 11
3.   The lover’s progress and victory — vv. 12-13
V.   Sharing in the work of the Lord — 7:1-13
A.   Equipped as a worker in the work of the Lord — vv. 1-9a
1.   The Spirit’s review of the virtues of the lover — vv. 1-5
2.   The Beloved’s inserted words of praise — vv. 6-9a
B.   Working together with her Beloved — vv. 9b-13
VI.   Hoping to be raptured — 8:1-14
A.   Groaning for her flesh — v. 1
B.   Hoping to be saved from her groaning for the flesh, indicating her hope to be raptured — vv. 2-4
C.   Before the rapture — vv. 5-14
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Song of Songs Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
SS 1:11a Song  -   1 Kings 4:32
Song of Songs is a history of love in an excellent marriage, a story of the love between the wise King Solomon, the writer of this book, and the Shulammite (6:13), a girl of the countryside. As such, this book is a marvelous and vivid portrait, in poetic form, of the bridal love between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as His bride (John 3:29-30; Rev. 19:7) in their mutual enjoyment in the mingling of His divine attributes with the human virtues of His lovers. Song of Songs stresses not the Body of Christ corporately but the believer in Christ individually, unveiling the progressive experience of an individual believer’s loving fellowship with Christ in four stages, as shown in points I through IV of the outline of this book. The correspondence between the progression in the poem and the progression in the experience of Christ’s lovers is the intrinsic revelation of the holy Word of the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. The stages of such a progression should be landmarks to us in the course of our pursuing of Christ for His and our mutual satisfaction.
In the romance between the great King Solomon and the girl from the countryside (cf. vv. 5-8), because the two did not match each other, the king became a “country man” in order to go to her village to court her, to gain her love. On the one hand, he made himself the same as the country girl; on the other hand, he made the country girl a queen. This is a type of the story of God’s romance with man. God as the Husband is divine, and the wife He desires to marry is human; the two do not match each other. To fulfill His heart’s desire God became a lowly man with humanity in incarnation, and He contacted man by the way of a romance. Then in His resurrection He uplifted His humanity into His divinity in the divine power according to the Spirit of holiness, and He was designated the Son of God in His humanity (Rom. 1:3-4 and notes). Today He as the universal Bridegroom is the God-man, having both divinity and humanity. In order to make His bride, His wife, the same as He is, He regenerates His human elect, putting His divinity into their humanity and uplifting their humanity to the standard of divinity (1 Pet. 1:3, 23; John 3:6). After regenerating them, He then transforms His loving seekers gradually in their soul, and ultimately He transfigures them in their body, until in their entire being they are the same as He is in life, in nature, in image, and in function, but not in His Godhead (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2). The romance in Song of Songs portrays the process through which the seeker of Christ passes in order to become the Shulammite, a duplication of Solomon and a figure of the New Jerusalem. See note 131 in ch. 6.
SS 1:2a kiss  -   Psa. 2:12
SS 1:21 kisses
The kisses of the mouth are the most intimate kisses. This yearning to be kissed by Christ is a response to Christ’s cheering love, which is better than wine (v. 2b), and to His charming name (equivalent to His person), which is like ointment (the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the realization of Christ’s person — 1 Cor. 15:45; Exo. 30:23-25 and note 251) poured forth with the pleasant fragrance of the anointing oils (v. 3a). No one can resist Christ’s cheering love and His charming person (cf. Matt. 4:18-20).
According to vv. 2-3, the lover of Christ has obtained a part of Christ’s love, but now she yearns for something more intimate. This indicates that the very Christ in whom we believe is personal and affectionate toward us, and that every believer’s relationship with Christ must be personal and affectionate (Mark 16:7 and note; John 13:23; 20:1-17; Gal. 2:20b). After believing in Christ to receive Him as the divine life (John 1:4, 12), we need to love Christ in a personal and affectionate way that we may pursue Him and enjoy Him as our satisfaction (1 Cor. 2:9 and note 3; 1 Tim. 1:14 and note 2).
SS 1:2b mouth  -   S.S. 5:16
SS 1:2c love  -   S.S. 4:10
SS 1:3a fragrance  -   2 Cor. 2:14
SS 1:31b virgins  -   S.S. 6:8; Psa. 45:14; Matt. 25:1; 2 Cor. 11:2
The virgins signify the chaste believers (2 Cor. 11:2), who love Christ because of His cheering love (1 Pet. 1:8a).
SS 1:41a Draw  -   Hosea 11:4
In her pursuing of Christ for satisfaction, the lover of Christ asks Him to draw her that she and her companions (“we”) may run after Him. For the accomplishing of His eternal economy, God created man in His own image so that man may express Him (Gen. 1:26). He also created man with a spirit so that man may receive Him and contain Him (Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1), and with a heart that seeks God Himself so that God can be man’s satisfaction (Eccl. 3:11). Although man fell away from God, and sin through Satan came in to frustrate man from receiving God for his satisfaction, the desire for God, the seeking for God, still remains in man’s heart. This book tells us the unique way to be properly satisfied with God — to pursue and gain Christ (Phil. 3:7-14), who as the very embodiment and reality of God (Col. 2:9; John 1:18) came to earth that man might receive Him for satisfaction. Cf. Eccl. 1:2 and note 2.
SS 1:4b run  -   Phil. 3:12-14
SS 1:42c chambers  -   Psa. 45:14-15
In her pursuing of Christ the seeker is brought by Him into her regenerated spirit as the Holiest of all (his chambers) to have fellowship with Him (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1). Our regenerated spirit (John 3:6) as Christ’s dwelling place, which is mingled with and indwelt by Christ as the life-dispensing Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22), becomes His inner chambers, His practical Holy of Holies (Heb. 4:16; 10:19), for our participation in and enjoyment of Him as the consummated Triune God.
Through His death and resurrection Christ, as the last Adam, a man in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). As the all-inclusive consummated Spirit He visits us in our spirit privately, coming to us in a spiritual way, not in a physical way.
SS 1:43 rejoice
The fellowship of Christ and His lover in her mingled spirit is in the joy of Christ’s lover with her companions (“we”), in their extolling of His unrivaled love.
SS 1:51 black
In her fellowship with the Lord the lover of Christ is enlightened to see that she is a sinner in Adam (black like the tents of Kedar), but she has been justified in Christ (lovely like the curtains of Solomon).
SS 1:5a daughters  -   S.S. 2:7; 3:5, 10; 5:8, 16; 8:4; Luke 23:28
SS 1:61 scorched
Others translate, looked upon me.
SS 1:71 Where
The seeker realizes that she has been kept away from Christ’s presence and separated from Christ’s flock — the church in the proper sense according to the apostles’ teaching (John 10:16; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2) — and that she needs Christ’s feeding and rest with satisfaction.
SS 1:72 noon
The time when the sun is at its highest, signifying the time of hardships.
SS 1:8a fairest  -   S.S. 5:9; 6:1
SS 1:81 Go
In her fellowship with her Beloved, the Beloved tells her to go forth from the place where she is kept away from the proper church life and to follow Him on the footsteps of the church (flock) and pasture her spiritual children (young goats) at the local churches (the shepherds’ tents), where He pastures His church. To follow on the footsteps of the flock is to follow the church, to follow the footsteps of all the faithful seekers of Christ throughout the centuries. As we follow the church, we are led into Christ’s presence, and we bring all the younger ones (young goats) to the church as well. The church is the place where Christ’s presence is and where He pastures, shepherds and feeds, His saints (John 10:11, 16; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2-4).
The Lord’s lover has been seeking Him for her own satisfaction, but the Lord’s concern is for God’s satisfaction realized by the accomplishing of His eternal economy. God’s economy is to save sinners in order to gain the proper local churches, so that the essence of these churches can become the organic Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s economy. Hence, in His answer to His lover, Christ instructs her to enter into the church life and also charges her to take care of her spiritual children, the members of the Body of Christ.
SS 1:8b flock  -   Psa. 95:7; Ezek. 34:31; Luke 12:32; John 10:16; Acts 20:28
SS 1:91 my
Or, my intimate friend. In this book Solomon refers to the Shulammite in this way, whereas she refers to him as “my beloved” (e.g., v. 13).
SS 1:9a love  -   S.S. 2:2, 10, 13
SS 1:92b mare  -   2 Chron. 1:16-17
Initially, the lover of Christ is a strong natural person (a mare — v. 9) living in the world, the satanic chaos (Egypt), and enslaved by Satan for his worldly purpose (Pharaoh’s chariots — see note 12 in Exo. 1). But in the church life she is transformed (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18) into a person who lives not by her natural life in relying on her natural strength but by the divine life in trusting in God (a lily — 2:1-2; Matt. 6:28) and looking to Him with a single eye (eyes like doves — v. 15b; Matt. 10:16).
SS 1:101 cheeks
Here the Beloved appreciates the seeker’s loveliness in her submission to Him (cheeks lovely with plaits of ornaments) and her beauty in her obedience to the transforming Spirit (neck with strings of jewels).
SS 1:10a neck  -   S.S. 4:9
See note 101.
SS 1:102 strings
See note 111, par. 2.
SS 1:111 We
We here indicates that in the church life the transforming of Christ’s lover is carried out by the transforming Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (2 Cor. 3:18) with the coordination of the lover’s companions, the gifted members in the Body of Christ who do the work of perfecting the saints (Eph. 4:11-12). The transforming Spirit and the lover’s companions adorn her with the constitution of the life of God (plaits of gold) by the redeeming work of Christ (studs of silver). See note 112.
Gold refers to God the Father in His divine nature; silver, to Christ the Son in His all-inclusive judicial redemption; and strings of jewels (precious stones put together as one in strings — v. 10), to God the Spirit in His transforming work (cf. note 122, par. 1, in 1 Cor. 3). In the proper church life the lover’s companions, the perfected believers, coordinate with the transforming Spirit to perfect the lover by ministering the Triune God to her for her transformation by the Triune God’s attributes being wrought into her to become her virtues. This is for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem (cf. 1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18-21) for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy.
SS 1:112 plaits
The seeker’s hair is bound into plaits of gold, indicating her submission (bound hair) to God through the transformation of the Spirit with the divine nature of God (gold). The plaits of gold are fastened with studs of silver, signifying the redeeming Christ.
SS 1:121 table
At the table where Christ is feasting with His lover and her companions (the king at his table), her love (spikenard) toward Him spreads forth its fragrance (cf. John 12:1-3). Here the lover of Christ is brought by Him into a feast as the expression of the initial result of the mutual gain and enjoyment of Christ and His lover in the churches. This shows the mutual enjoyment and satisfaction of Christ and His lover in the churches.
SS 1:131 bundle
The lover gains Christ (Phil. 3:8) and enjoys Him privately (at night) in His death (a bundle of myrrh) in her embracing Him with love and faith (breasts — 1 Tim. 1:14; 1 Thes. 5:8). She also gains and enjoys Him publicly in His resurrection (a cluster of henna flowers — v. 14) in the churches of Christ (vineyards) built on the fountain of His redemption (En-gedi — see note 141), which fountain is the Spirit.
All our experiences of Christ are related to His death, His resurrection, and His Spirit. The death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ always go together (John 19:34; 1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 8:9, 11, 13). His death goes along with His resurrection, and His Spirit is the realization of His resurrection. The way to gain Christ and enjoy Him is to experience Him in His death and in His resurrection and to remain in His Spirit, who is in our spirit (Rom. 8:16).
SS 1:13a myrrh  -   Exo. 30:23; Psa. 45:8; S.S. 3:6; 4:6, 14; 5:1, 5, 13; John 19:39
SS 1:14a henna  -   S.S. 4:13
SS 1:141b En-gedi  -   1 Sam. 23:29
Meaning the fountain of the kid.
SS 1:15a Oh  -   S.S. 4:1
SS 1:151 eyes
Christ appreciates her beauty in looking to Him with a single eye by the Spirit (eyes like doves — Matt. 3:16 and note 4). She appreciates His beauty in His pleasantness (v. 16).
SS 1:15b doves  -   S.S. 5:12; cf. Matt. 3:16
SS 1:161 couch
The lover is satisfied with her rest in Christ’s feeding life (green, signifying the Spirit of life — Rom. 8:2) as the resting place in the night (couch) in His embracing (2:6). Further, she is satisfied with her rest in Christ’s death (cypresses) and His resurrection (cedars) as the shelter (beams and rafters — v. 17). The lover gains Christ and enjoys Him as her Husband (implied in the couch) in the divine life as the couch of green, in Christ in His resurrection as the beams, and in Christ in His death as the rafters for her shelter. Cf. note 131.
Song of Songs Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
SS 2:11 rose
A wild rose, despised in the land of Judea. Here the lover humbly realizes that she is but a small person, living on the one hand a pretty but despised life (rose) in the common world (Sharon — see note 12), and on the other hand a pure and trusting life (lily — Matt. 6:28) in the low place (valleys).
SS 2:12a Sharon  -   1 Chron. 5:16; 27:29; Isa. 33:9; Acts 9:35
Meaning plain.
SS 2:1b lily  -   Matt. 6:28
SS 2:21 lily
Here Christ appreciates her as His love among the world-loving adulteresses (daughters — James 4:4), as one who lives a pure and trusting life (lily — Matt. 6:28) among the filthy and unbelieving people (thorns).
SS 2:2a thorns  -   Gen. 3:18; Exo. 3:2; 2 Sam. 23:6
SS 2:31 apple
The lover appreciates Christ as the source of rich provision (apple tree) who supplies her in a timely way. She is satisfied with her delight in resting (sitting down) under Christ as an overshadowing canopy in the day (shade — Isa. 4:5-6; 2 Cor. 12:9) and with her tasting Him as the sweet, timely supply (sweet fruit).
SS 2:41 banqueting
Lit., house of wine. Here the lover is satisfied with triumphant love (banner of love — cf. Rom. 8:31-39) spread over her in the enjoyable church life (banqueting house), in which she is sustained with Christ as the bread of life (raisin cakes — John 6:35) and refreshed with Him as the fruit of life (apples — Rev. 2:7; 22:2) to heal her lovesickness in her longing for her Beloved. Christ in His death is signified here by the raisin, a dried grape (the juice of which signifies the shedding of blood — Matt. 26:27-29), and Christ in His resurrection is signified by the fresh apples.
The initial result of the mutual gain and enjoyment of Christ and His lover is a feast (1:12), and the consummate result is the banqueting in the banqueting house, the church life.
SS 2:5a sick  -   S.S. 5:8
SS 2:6a His  -   vv. 6-7: S.S. 8:3-4
SS 2:7a I  -   S.S. 3:5
SS 2:71 adjure
Considering His lover as one who is easily stirred up (gazelles or hinds of the fields), Christ solemnly charges (adjures) the meddling believers (daughters of Jerusalem) not to awaken His lover from her present experience of Christ in resting in Him. In her Christian life she has reached the goal of resting in and experiencing Christ and being satisfied in the church life. He allows her to remain at rest until she is pleased to enter into the second stage of her pursuing after Him (until she pleases).
SS 2:7b daughters  -   S.S. 1:5
SS 2:81 Leaping
This leaping and skipping signifies Christ’s power to overcome difficulties and barriers, which are signified by the mountains and hills. Christ’s being like a gazelle and a young hart (v. 9) signifies that His power is the power of resurrection (see note on superscription in Psa. 22).
SS 2:9a hart  -   S.S. 2:17; 8:14
SS 2:91 wall
In the first stage of her progressive experience of Christ, the lover of Christ pursues Him (1:2-4a), receives help in the fellowship in the inner chambers (1:4b-6a), and enters into the church life (1:6b-8), where she experiences transformation (1:9-16a; 2:1-3a) and enters into the rest and enjoyment of Christ for her full satisfaction (1:16b-17; 2:3b-7). These attainments result in a situation in which she overcares for her spiritual condition before Christ, being too concerned about whether or not she remains in the perfection she has attained. This causes her to fall into introspection, which becomes a seclusion as a wall that keeps her away from the presence of Christ. Every spiritual person who reaches a situation of satisfaction in Christ eventually falls into introspection, not only examining the self but also analyzing it (cf. Heb. 12:2). If such a condition persists, the self becomes stronger and eventually becomes the center of everything in the lover’s life.
SS 2:92 windows
The windows and the lattice signify the openings set up by God for Him to fellowship, to commune, with His lover. The conscience of man is the window with a lattice, which is open for God to come in to contact fallen man (cf. John 16:8).
SS 2:101 responds
Indicating that the lover of Christ failed to respond to Him in His fellowship, making it necessary for Christ to speak to her again (cf. v. 8a).
SS 2:102a Rise  -   S.S. 2:13; cf. S.S. 3:2
Because of the lover’s self and introspection, she is down in her situation. Hence, Christ encourages her, in His appreciation of her, to rise up and come out of her low situation to be with Him.
SS 2:111 winter
This indicates that the time of dormancy (winter) and trials (rain) is over and that the time of resurrection (spring) is coming.
SS 2:121 Flowers
The flowers, singing, voice of the turtledove, ripened figs, blossoming vines, and fragrance (vv. 12-13a) indicate the flourishing riches of Christ’s resurrection. The life of the cross (see note 141) is lived by the power of resurrection (Phil. 3:10) and is encouraged by the riches of resurrection.
SS 2:13a vines  -   S.S. 6:11; 7:12
SS 2:131b Rise  -   S.S. 2:10
This repeated word (cf. v. 10) indicates Christ’s eagerness in asking His lover to come away from her introspection of the self to be with Him. See note 102.
SS 2:141 My
Here Christ, considering her His simple lover (My dove), wants to see His lover’s lovely countenance and hear her sweet voice in her oneness, union, with the cross, signified here by the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice. This is Christ’s call for His lover to be in oneness with the cross (cf. Luke 9:23). Only the cross of Christ can deliver her from the situation caused by introspection.
Christ wants His seeker to remain in the cross, in a crucified condition, continually (Gal. 2:20a; 1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 4:10-11). However, to remain in the cross is a difficult matter, like entering into the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice high in the mountains by a rugged road. In order to empower and encourage His lover to rise up and come away from her low situation in her introspection of the self, Christ empowers her by showing her the power of His resurrection (vv. 8-9a), and He encourages her by the flourishing riches of His resurrection (vv. 11-13). It is by the power of Christ’s resurrection, not by our natural life, that we, the lovers of Christ, determine to take the cross by denying our self (Matt. 16:24). It is also by the power of Christ’s resurrection that we are enabled to be conformed to His death by being one with His cross (Phil. 3:10). The reality of resurrection is the pneumatic Christ (John 11:25), who as the consummated Spirit indwells and is mingled with our regenerated spirit (1 Cor. 6:17 and notes). It is in such a mingled spirit that we participate in and experience the resurrection of Christ, which enables us to be one with the cross to be delivered from the self and to be transformed into a new man in God’s new creation for the fulfillment of God’s economy in the building up of the organic Body of Christ.
SS 2:14a dove  -   S.S. 5:2; 6:9; Matt. 10:16; cf. S.S. 1:15; Matt. 3:16
SS 2:151a foxes  -   Ezek. 13:4; Luke 13:32
Christ charges His lover to be aware of her peculiarities, habits, and introspections (little foxes) that ruin the flourishing resurrection of Christ in the churches (our vineyards in blossom).
SS 2:16a My  -   S.S. 6:3
SS 2:161 mine
Here Christ’s lover realizes that Christ belongs to her and she to Christ according to her inner feelings, yet He is not with her but is away feeding His pure and trusting followers (pasturing His flock among the lilies). At this point the lover and Christ are not one but are separated. There is a controversy between her and Christ. The lover cares only for her satisfaction, not for His will, intention, or goal.
SS 2:171a Until  -   S.S. 4:6
Here Christ’s lover rejects Him. Instead of responding to His call to rise up and come away from her introspection through the cross and be with Him (vv. 13b-14), she asks Him to wait until her low situation is over (until the day dawns and the shadows flee away) and then to turn to her in His resurrection, like a gazelle or a young hart (see note 81), during the time of their separation (the mountains of Bether — see note 172). In her view this mountain, this separation between her and Christ, can be removed only by Him.
SS 2:17b hart  -   S.S. 2:9; 8:14
SS 2:172 Bether
Meaning separation.
Song of Songs Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
SS 3:11 sought
While she is still in her introspection, in her low situation, she seeks her Beloved, but she fails to find Him.
SS 3:1a him  -   S.S. 5:6
SS 3:21a rise  -   cf. S.S. 2:10, 13
Eventually, Christ’s lover has no choice but to answer His call, and she determines to rise up from her introspection to seek her Beloved in the ways (streets and squares) of the heavenly Jerusalem (typified here by the city Jerusalem on earth — Heb. 12:22).
SS 3:31a watchmen  -   S.S. 5:7
Signifying the ones who watch over God’s people spiritually (Heb. 13:17) in the ways of the heavenly Jerusalem.
SS 3:41 mother’s
After finding her Beloved, she holds Him and will not let go until she brings Him into the Spirit of grace, through which she was regenerated (her mother’s house and chamber), for secret fellowship. She was born in the mother’s house and was conceived in the mother’s chamber. The mother is grace (Gal. 4:26, 31 and note 311), and the mother’s chamber signifies love, which is of the Father and which issues in grace (Eph. 2:4-5). The Spirit brings God’s love and carries God’s grace to us (2 Cor. 13:14 and note 1, pars. 1 and 2); hence, He is called the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). Although the lover of Christ fell into introspection, one day she woke up and realized that, though she was a sinner, she was saved by grace (Eph. 2:8). This revived her.
SS 3:5a I  -   S.S. 2:7; 8:4
SS 3:51 adjure
Here Christ charges the meddling believers (daughters of Jerusalem) not to awaken His lover from her experience of Christ in her being delivered from the self, from her seclusion in her introspection, into her secret fellowship with Him, until she is pleased to enter into the next stage in her experience of Him (until she pleases).
SS 3:5b daughters  -   S.S. 1:5
SS 3:61 Who
In the third stage of her experience the lover of Christ is called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. To live in ascension is to live continually in our spirit. Although we, the believers in Christ, are on earth, when we are in our spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens (see note 191 in Heb. 10). To live in ascension requires that we live, act, move, and do everything in our spirit (Rom. 8:4). This requires that we discern our spirit from our soul (Heb. 4:12).
SS 3:62 she
In vv. 6-11 the lover of Christ becomes a new creation by her complete union with Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Here the lover of Christ, as an overcoming representative of God’s elect, comes from Egypt, the world (wilderness), like persons in the unshakable power of the Spirit (pillars of smoke — Exo. 14:19; Rev. 3:12), perfumed with the sweet death and fragrant resurrection of Christ (myrrh and frankincense) and with all the fragrant riches of Christ as a merchant.
At this point, after a long period of remaining in Christ’s death (2:14), the seeker of Christ has experienced the breaking of her self, her natural man, and has entered into resurrection, in which she has been transformed to be a spiritual person, one who lives in the spirit, not in the physical realm (1 Cor. 2:15; 3:1; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; Col. 3:1-3). She is like smoke, but she is a pillar that can stand on the earth and touch the heavens. In experience she has become the same as God, who is Spirit (symbolized by a cloud of smoke — Exo. 14:19; John 4:24), and the same as Christ, who is a ladder (related to the pillar — Gen. 28:12; John 1:51) standing on the earth, bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven. As such a person, she is worthy of God’s economy and is qualified to move with God, in union with Christ for the accomplishing of His economy (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14).
SS 3:6a wilderness  -   S.S. 8:5
SS 3:6b pillars  -   cf. Exo. 13:21-22
SS 3:6c myrrh  -   S.S. 1:13; 4:6; Matt. 2:11
SS 3:71 bed
In the church age the lover of Christ, signified by the bed, and Christ, signified by the one who sleeps in the bed, are in a union of love. The bed is for rest and victory in the night, signifying the church age, during the time of spiritual warfare, signified by the sixty mighty men who surround the bed. Christ’s lover is among the sixty mighty men, indicating that she is a leading overcomer, fighting for Christ in order to keep Him at rest during the fighting. She is the victory of the overcoming Christ, full of the power of the overcomers among God’s elect that carries Christ even in times of difficulties. These overcomers are experts in war, fighting with their weapons at the time of alarms (v. 8; cf. 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-20; 1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 4:7).
SS 3:91 palanquin
After the church age there will be the age of the kingdom, an age of triumphant glory to celebrate Christ’s victory. In the kingdom age the lover of Christ, signified by the palanquin, and Christ, signified by its rider, are in a union of triumphant celebration. Christ’s lover is a palanquin (for travel in the day, the kingdom age — 2 Pet. 1:19), a carriage for Christ, made by Christ Himself out of the resurrected, uplifted, and noble humanity (the wood of Lebanon), having God’s nature (gold) as its base, Christ’s redemption (silver) as its supports, and Christ’s kingship (purple) as its seat (vv. 9-10). The inside of the palanquin is inlaid with the love of Christ’s seekers (daughters), signifying that the lover of Christ is one with all the seekers of Christ in love in the principle of the Body of Christ.
SS 3:10a daughters  -   S.S. 1:5
SS 3:11a daughters  -   Zech. 2:10; 9:9; Matt. 21:5
SS 3:111 look
The Spirit, signified here by a third party speaking, bids the overcoming believers (daughters of Zion — see note 21 in Psa. 48) to look away from themselves unto Christ in His humanity, which is a crown with which His mother (incarnation) crowned Him on the day of the believers’ betrothal to Him, a day of the gladness of His heart. Here the lover of Christ and Christ are united to be one in the bridal love and marriage life. This portrays the church and Christ being united to be completely and fully one organically in the mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
SS 3:112 crown
The entire Bible is a romance between God and His elect (see note 62, par. 2, in Exo. 20). Through incarnation God became a man so that He could court man (John 3:29-30). Incarnation was a “mother” who gave Christ His humanity as a crown, a treasure. The humanity that Christ put on in His incarnation and uplifted in His resurrection (Rom. 1:3-4) is His crown. In our response to Christ’s courting, we court Him by being transformed to become divine for His expression (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). As Christ’s human wife transformed with His divinity, we become a crown to Him (cf. Prov. 12:4a).
SS 3:113 espousals
Christ’s espousal and marriage life cover the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. Christ’s espousals began from the time of incarnation, when incarnation as His mother crowned Him with His humanity, and continue through the church age, an age of warfare (vv. 7-8), in which all His believers are espoused to Him as virgins (2 Cor. 11:2). After the church age, in the kingdom age Christ’s regenerated and transformed wife, composed of the overcoming believers, becomes a palanquin to Him for His triumphant celebration (vv. 9-10). The celebration of Christ’s victory is His thousand-year wedding day (Rev. 19:7-8). His marriage life after His wedding will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:9-10).
The union of the bed with its sleeper (vv. 7-8), the union of the palanquin with its rider (vv. 9-10), and the union of the bride with her bridegroom (v. 11) all signify the complete union of the lover with Christ, which has made her God’s new creation in Christ’s resurrection (2 Cor. 5:17). The bed in the night, the palanquin in the day, and the marriage life in the ages to come all refer to the one lover of Christ — the Shulammite (6:13 and note 1). Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, which will include all God’s chosen and redeemed people (Rev. 21:9-10, 12, 14).
Song of Songs Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
SS 4:1a Oh  -   S.S. 1:15
SS 4:11 eyes
This verse portrays the beauty of Christ’s lover in her singleness and insight by the Spirit (eyes like doves), which is invisible to the outsiders (behind your veil), and in her submission and obedience through God’s feeding (hair like a flock of goats) that subdues her disobedience among the disobedient people.
SS 4:2a Your  -   vv. 2-3: S.S. 6:6-7
SS 4:21 teeth
This portrays the beauty of the lover in her receiving the divine food by her power that has been dealt with by the cross (teeth like a flock of shorn ewes), made clean by the Spirit’s washing (come up from the washing), and strengthened twofold and balanced (twins), without losing strength (none bereaved of her young).
SS 4:31 lips
This is the beauty of Christ’s lover in her speaking with Christ’s redemption and His authority (lips like a scarlet thread — Josh. 2:21; Matt. 27:28-29) by her lovely mouth, and in her expression (cheeks), which is full of life (pomegranate) and hidden (behind your veil).
SS 4:3a scarlet  -   Josh. 2:18
SS 4:41a neck  -   S.S. 7:4
The lover of Christ is beautiful in her having a will that is submissive to Christ (neck like the tower of David — cf. Isa. 3:16) and that is rich in the defending power (bucklers and shields of the mighty men).
SS 4:5a Your  -   S.S. 7:3
SS 4:51 breasts
This speaks of the beauty of Christ’s lover in her tender faith and love that are strengthened twofold (two breasts — Gal. 5:6; 1 Tim. 1:14) and nourished (feed) in the environment of a pure and trusting life (among the lilies — Matt. 6:28).
SS 4:6a Until  -   S.S. 2:17
SS 4:61 dawns
After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection (2:14 — 3:5), in her deeper pursuit she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back (the day dawns and the shadows flee away — cf. 2 Pet. 1:19). Here it seems that the lover does not care whether her Beloved is with her or not, as long as she remains on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. However, it is not possible to experience Christ’s death and resurrection as something separate and apart from Christ. The death, resurrection, ascension, and Spirit of Christ are actually Christ Himself (Rom. 6:3; John 11:25; Eph. 2:6; Rom. 8:9-10). If we remain in Christ, who is the Spirit in our spirit (Rom. 8:16), and have Christ with us, we will be in His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. This is to experience Christ, to enjoy Christ.
God in His economy does not want us to experience something of Christ. Instead, He determined that we enjoy Christ Himself in many aspects. Death, resurrection, ascension, and the Spirit are the four conditions in which Christ is enjoyed by us. To die with Christ is to enjoy Christ in His death. He is always in His sweet death for our enjoyment (Gal. 2:20a). To be resurrected with Christ is to enjoy the resurrected, life-giving Christ (John 12:24). To live in ascension is to enjoy Christ in the condition of ascension (Col. 3:1-3). If we enjoy Christ in ascension, we also enjoy Him in resurrection as God’s new creation. Ascension, God’s new creation, and resurrection are one. Christ is not only in the conditions of His death, resurrection, and ascension but also in the condition of the life-giving Spirit. He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ to us (1 Cor. 15:45; Phil. 1:19). Where the Spirit is, Christ is, and it is in this Spirit that we enjoy Christ.
SS 4:6b myrrh  -   S.S. 1:13; Matt. 2:11
SS 4:71 beautiful
Here Christ expresses His appreciation of His lover to prepare her to receive His call to live with Him in His ascension as His new creation in resurrection, instead of remaining on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense (v. 6). The new creation is only that which is in ascension in resurrection. Anyone who is in Christ and in His resurrection is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The matters of resurrection and the new creation are closely related to Christ’s ascension. Actually, Christ’s resurrection and ascension are one (cf. Eph. 2:5-6). If we are in His resurrection, we are also in His ascension.
SS 4:7a blemish  -   Eph. 5:27
SS 4:81 Lebanon
Here Christ asks His lover as His bride to look with Him from His ascension (Lebanon), the highest place of the truth (Amana) and of Christ’s victory in His fighting (Senir and Hermon), and from the heavenly places of the enemies (the lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains). Christ calls His lover to live with Him in His ascension, as He had called her to remain in His cross (2:14). When the lover is living in ascension, she and Christ are living in one condition, the condition of ascension, to be a couple. Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine. They are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching one another.
SS 4:8a bride  -   S.S. 5:1
SS 4:82 Lebanon
Lebanon, a high mountain, signifies ascension as the peak of resurrection (2 Kings 19:23; see note 31 in John 6). See note 71.
SS 4:83 Amana
Meaning truth. The truth refers to the reality of the consummated Triune God, the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption, and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. These realities are the three of the Triune God. Cf. note 66 in 1 John 1.
SS 4:84 Senir
Meaning soft armor. That the armor is soft, not hard, signifies that the enemy, Satan, has been defeated, the war is over, and the victory has been gained (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15). In Christ’s ascension we do not need to fight, for the enemy has already been defeated. We wear soft armor to enjoy our victory in Christ.
SS 4:85b Hermon  -   Deut. 3:9
Meaning destruction. In Christ’s ascension there are the positive peaks of truth (Amana), victory (Senir), and the destruction of the enemy.
SS 4:86 lions’
The lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains signify the heavenlies, where Satan and his subordinates (the lions and the leopards) are. The victory has been gained, but Satan and his evil forces are still there, in the heavenlies (Eph. 3:10 and note 1). Christ calls His lover to look from this, indicating that we must have our living in ascension, far above the evil powers (see note 124 in Eph. 6). Here we fight with Satan and his power of darkness by being empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength, by putting on the whole armor of God, by standing against the stratagems of the devil, by receiving the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and by praying always in the spirit for the building up of the Body of Christ and the spreading of the gospel (Eph. 6:12-20). This is the reality of living in the ascension of Christ.
SS 4:91 ravished
The silent answer of Christ’s lover, by a quick look (glance of your eyes) and by her submission to God’s instruction (strand of your necklace — Prov. 1:8-9), has ravished His heart.
SS 4:92 sister
Christ considers His lover as one with Him in nature (sister — cf. Heb. 2:11) and as His bride (vv. 9-10, 12; 5:1). Cf. note 11, par. 2, in ch. 1.
SS 4:9a necklace  -   S.S. 1:10
SS 4:101 love
Considering His lover as one with Him in nature and as His bride, Christ enjoys her beautiful love, which is much better than wine, and her ointments, which were the King’s (1:3) and are more fragrant than all spices.
SS 4:10a love  -   S.S. 1:2
SS 4:10b fragrance  -   cf. John 12:3; 2 Cor. 2:15
SS 4:111 lips
Christ enjoys her word as fresh honey (for restoring the weak — 1 Sam. 14:24-29), which comes from her lips, and as honey and milk (for restoring the weak and feeding the immature ones — 1 Cor. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:2), which are under her tongue. He also enjoys the fragrance of her conduct (garments — Rev. 19:8) like the fragrance of ascension (Lebanon — see note 82).
SS 4:11a fragrance  -   Hosea 14:6-7; cf. 2 Cor. 2:15
SS 4:121 garden
Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection for her growth in life and transformation by life, Christ’s transformed bride becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes four things: a garden to satisfy Christ (4:12 — 5:1; 6:2-3), God’s dwelling place with its protection (6:4a), the heavenly bodies as the universal light (6:10a), and a terrible army, which is the corporate overcomer — the Shulammite (6:4b, 10b, 13, and notes). Here the garden is enclosed, and there is a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, for Christ’s private enjoyment, indicating that in experiencing Christ we, the seeking believers, must have something private, hidden, shut up, and sealed that is for Christ alone. The spring is the Spirit of life and is seen in Rev. 22:1 as the river of water of life. The fountain is the source of the spring, which is God’s throne.
SS 4:122 sister
See note 92.
SS 4:131 orchard
Heb. pardes, meaning an enclosed garden; the word paradise is akin to it. In Christ’s enjoyment of His lover, she is an enclosed garden that grows all kinds of plants in different colors as different expressions of the inner life and in a variety of fragrances as the rich expression of the mature life (vv. 13-14). This becomes the lover’s beauty to the Lord. The lover of Christ is now rich in life, producing fruits to nourish and refresh, giving forth sweet fragrances, and displaying beautiful colors for Christ’s enjoyment.
SS 4:14a Calamus  -   Exo. 30:23
SS 4:14b Myrrh  -   Psa. 45:8; S.S. 1:13; John 19:39
SS 4:151 fountain
The fountain in gardens and the well of living water of the life-giving Spirit (John 7:38-39) are streams from the resurrection and ascension life (Lebanon). The fountain and the spring stream out from the overcomers, flowing out from what they are and from where they are.
SS 4:15a living  -   John 4:10; 7:38
SS 4:161 north
Christ’s lover wants the difficult environment (north wind) and the pleasant environment (south wind) to work on her as a garden, that its fragrance may be spread. She asks her Beloved to come into her as a garden and enjoy its choicest fruit.
SS 4:16a spices  -   cf. 2 Cor. 2:15
SS 4:16b garden  -   S.S. 5:1
Song of Songs Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
SS 5:1a garden  -   S.S. 4:16
SS 5:11 sister
See note 92 in ch. 4.
SS 5:1b myrrh  -   S.S. 1:13
SS 5:1c honey  -   S.S. 4:11
SS 5:12 friends
Here, the Bridegroom, Christ, the Son in the Divine Trinity, answers and invites His beloved “friends,” God the Father and God the Spirit, to enjoy His garden, His lover, with Him. Furthermore, He has gone down to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens (the lover and other lovers of Christ) and gather lilies (6:2).
SS 5:21 sleep
Here the lover realizes that her old man, the outward man, was crucified (I sleep — Rom. 6:6) and her new man, the inward man, is living (my heart is awake — 2 Cor. 4:16). She hears her Beloved knocking and asking her to open to Him as He reminds her of His suffering at Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion (His head drenched with dew and His locks with the drops of night).
SS 5:2a knocking  -   Rev. 3:20
SS 5:22 Open
In 5:2 — 6:3 the lover of Christ is called more strongly to live within the veil through the experience of the cross after resurrection. Even after the experience of living in ascension as the new creation in resurrection (3:6 — 5:1), we still need the experience of the cross, because no matter how much we are in ascension, i.e., in our spirit, we are still in the old creation and we still have our flesh. Thus, for us to enter into the Holy of Holies in the heavenly tabernacle (Heb. 8:2; 9:11-12, 24), the veil, signifying our flesh (Heb. 10:19-20), must be split through the stronger experience of the cross (Matt. 27:51a). See note 41 in ch. 6.
SS 5:2b dove  -   S.S. 2:14
SS 5:2c drops  -   Luke 22:44
SS 5:31 put
Since she has put off the former manner of life of her old man (garment) through the dealing of the cross (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9), how could she put it on again? This would require her Beloved to repeat His suffering in His crucifixion. Since she has been cleansed (washed) by His redeeming blood (1 John 1:7), how could she defile herself? This would require her Beloved to repeat His suffering of death. These are her reasons for refusing the Beloved’s call.
SS 5:41 hand
Her Beloved shows His pierced hand through her narrow opening so that her inner parts are moved to yearn for Him. Here Christ’s pierced hand reminds her that He was crucified for her.
SS 5:51 open
The lover’s action in opening to Christ shows Him her appreciation of His sweet death (myrrh).
SS 5:5a myrrh  -   S.S. 1:13
SS 5:6a him  -   S.S. 3:1
SS 5:7a watchmen  -   S.S. 3:3
SS 5:81a daughters  -   S.S. 1:5
This indicates that because her sense of failure is so deep, the seeker feels that even the younger believers (daughters of Jerusalem) can help her. She charges them to tell her Beloved that she is sick with love, considering that her Beloved might have some concern about her love for Him.
SS 5:8b sick  -   S.S. 2:5
SS 5:101 dazzling
In giving her impression of her Beloved, appraising Him with many excellent and detailed expressions, the lover says that He is pure yet full of life and power (dazzling white yet ruddy), and He is distinguished as an uplifted banner (see note 102) against the enemy (Isa. 59:19) and for the drawing of sinners (John 12:32).
SS 5:102 Distinguished
Lit., Set as a banner.
SS 5:111 head
His headship is of God (gold — 1 Cor. 11:3), and His submission to God (locks — cf. Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Cor. 15:28) is flourishing (wavy) and strong (black — cf. note 141 in Rev. 1).
SS 5:11a locks  -   cf. Dan. 7:9; Rev. 1:14
SS 5:12a His  -   S.S. 1:15; 4:1
SS 5:121 eyes
His expression of sentiment (eyes — cf. note 103 in 2 Cor. 2) is single and pure (like doves), flowing like the river of life (streams of water), distinct and clear (bathed in milk) and in proper order (fitly set).
SS 5:131 cheeks
His countenance (cheeks) is beautiful and sweet (a bed of spices, sweetly fragrant herbs) through His suffering of people’s smiting and despising (Isa. 50:6; Matt. 27:30), and His mouth is pure, releasing sweet words of grace (Psa. 45:2; Luke 4:22) based on His redemption (myrrh).
SS 5:13a myrrh  -   S.S. 1:13
SS 5:141 hands
His works (hands) are full of the divine binding power (tubes of gold) and are stable (set with beryl — Ezek. 1:16; Dan. 10:6) for the carrying out of God’s will. His inward parts (Phil. 1:8 — belly, the same word as for “inner parts” in v. 4) are full of deep, tender feelings wrought through His sufferings (ivory work, which requires suffering and even death) under a clear heavenly vision (sapphire — Exo. 24:10).
SS 5:151 legs
His standing (legs) and supporting strength (pillars) is of the righteous standing (white marble) based upon God’s divine nature (bases of gold), and His expression (appearance) shows that He is a person who has ascended into heaven (Lebanon) and whose excellency transcends all others (excellent as the cedars).
SS 5:16a mouth  -   Luke 4:22; cf. Rev. 1:16
SS 5:16b daughters  -   S.S. 1:5
Song of Songs Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
SS 6:11 Where
Still considering her the most beautiful among women (cf. 5:9a), the younger believers (daughters of Jerusalem) ask the lover where her Beloved has turned that they may seek Him with her, indicating that they have been attracted by her testimony concerning her Beloved. She is a pursuer of Christ, and her pursuit influences others, affects them, and attracts them to Him (cf. 1:4a).
SS 6:21a garden  -   S.S. 4:16; 5:1
After seeking help from others, she realizes that her Beloved is within her as His garden and in all the other believers as His beds of spices, feeding in her and other believers as His gardens and gathering the pure and trusting ones (lilies). Christ’s garden is in our spirit. If we live in our spirit, our spirit becomes a garden in which we grow all the beautiful, spiritual, divine, and heavenly things, which are sweet to His taste.
SS 6:3a I  -   S.S. 2:16; 7:10; 1 Cor. 1:2
SS 6:31 my
The lover tells them, according to her faith, that she belongs to her Beloved and He to her and that He is now feeding His pure and trusting ones (lilies). She is now more mature in life than when she spoke the same word in 2:16 (see note there).
SS 6:3b lilies  -   Matt. 6:28
SS 6:41 Tirzah
Tirzah, a capital city of the kings of Israel and the place of the kings’ palace (1 Kings 14:17; 15:21; 16:23), is mentioned here in a positive sense to signify the sanctuary of God, the dwelling place of God as the King. The holy city Jerusalem was the capital of Judah and the safeguard of God’s dwelling place, the temple, on earth. Hence, these two cities signify God’s sanctuary, God’s dwelling place, with God’s holy city surrounding it to be its safeguard. Here the Beloved’s praising His lover, saying that she is as beautiful as the heavenly sanctuary (Tirzah) and as lovely as the heavenly Jerusalem, indicates that through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes not only a garden to Christ (4:12 — 5:1; 6:2) but also the building of God (cf. Gen. 2:8-12, 18-24; 1 Cor. 3:9-12), the sanctuary of God and its safeguard. It indicates further that she lives in the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber of the heavenly sanctuary, within the veil, experiencing the ascension of Christ through the cross after her experience of His resurrection. To become a garden to Christ is to be flourishing in the element of Christ’s life with its unsearchable riches; to become the sanctuary of God is to be built up (related to the building up of the Body of Christ) in the growth in the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches unto maturity (Eph. 4:12-16). In the Old Testament the building of God is typified by Tirzah and Jerusalem; in the New Testament this building is the organic Body of Christ. Ultimately, the building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is also Christ’s wife (Eph. 5:25-32), will consummate the New Jerusalem, the holy city as the consummation of the Holy of Holies, the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 16, 22).
Although the sanctuary of God is in the heavens, it is divided into two sections — the outer Holy Place and the inner Holy of Holies, where God Himself dwells — by the veil, which signifies our flesh (Heb. 9:1-5, 12, 24; 10:19-20). In relation to Christ, the veil in the sanctuary of God was split at the time of Christ’s crucifixion (Matt. 27:51), but in relation to the believers, it still remains so that God may use it to perfect His seeking ones and so that they may be one with God by dwelling in Him as the Holy of Holies (see Rev. 21:22 and notes). The apostle Paul became mature in the life of Christ, living in the ascension of Christ, yet God still allowed him to have a thorn in his flesh through a messenger of Satan to keep him from being exceedingly lifted up (2 Cor. 12:7). According to God’s economy, no matter how mature and spiritual we may become, as long as we are living on earth, i.e., as long as our body has not yet been transfigured (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21), we still have the flesh, which is the veil. Hence, there is still the need of the Lord’s ultimate calling of us to live within the veil through a stronger experience of the cross in dealing with our flesh after we experience Christ’s resurrection as the new creation of God. We need to learn to pass through the veil by experiencing the dealing of the cross every day that we may live within the veil, in the Holy of Holies. It is here that all the seekers of Christ who live in the Holy of Holies, in the consummated Triune God, enjoy to the fullest extent the hidden Christ in His hidden life supply (signified by the manna in the golden pot — Exo. 16:32-34; Rev. 2:17a), in the resurrection life (signified by the budding rod — Num. 17:1-11), and in the inner law of life (signified by the tablets of the covenant — Exo. 25:16; 31:18; Deut. 10:1-5; Jer. 31:33) hidden in the Ark within the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:4). This is the highest stage in the experience of the lover of Christ as presented in this book.
SS 6:4a terrible  -   S.S. 6:10
SS 6:42 army
This praise of the Beloved’s indicates that her becoming the heavenly sanctuary and the heavenly Jerusalem is due to her victory over the enemies. Only by being an overcomer can we live within the veil.
When the overcoming lover of Christ becomes one with God to be God’s dwelling place, in the eyes of God she is as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem. However, to the enemy she is as terrible as an army with banners. Banners indicate a readiness to fight and also are a sign that the victory is won. A terrible army signifies that the overcomers of the Lord terrify God’s enemy, Satan, and become terrible in the eyes of God’s people. This army fights the battle for God’s kingdom in the degradation of God’s people to become the overcomers who answer the Lord’s call (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). Eventually, the overcomers will be a bride collectively to marry Christ (Rev. 19:7-9). After their wedding, this bride will become an army to fight alongside Christ, her Husband, to defeat Antichrist with all his followers (Rev. 19:11-21).
SS 6:51 eyes
This is the Lord’s word of seeming rejection (cf. Mark 7:25-27; John 11:5-7; Exo. 32:10; Gen. 32:26), but actually it is a word that invites His lover to express her overcoming love to Him by putting her eyes on Him (cf. Heb. 12:2).
SS 6:5a Your  -   vv. 5b-7: S.S. 4:1-3
SS 6:52 hair
See note 11 in ch. 4.
SS 6:61 teeth
See note 21 in ch. 4.
SS 6:71 cheeks
See note 31 in ch. 4.
SS 6:81 queens
In vv. 8-9 her Beloved (Solomon, typifying Christ in a positive sense) is loved by many different believers, some as queens, some as concubines, and some as virgins (all in the positive sense in poetry), but He, considering her as His love and His perfect one, praises her as the only lover of Him, the only and choice one regenerated by grace (her mother, who bore her — Gal. 4:26).
SS 6:8a virgins  -   Psa. 45:14; S.S. 1:3; Matt. 25:1
See note 81.
SS 6:9a dove  -   S.S. 2:14
SS 6:101 moon
Through her living in the ascension of Christ and further living within the veil, experiencing the cross of Christ more strongly, the lover of Christ is transformed into the heavenly bodies, indicated here by the moon and the sun. This indicates that she has become not only wholly spiritual (3:6) but also absolutely heavenly and signifies that she has become an overcomer (Phil. 2:15 and note 5; Matt. 13:43 and note 1; Rev. 12:1, 5 and notes 11 and 52). In Song of Songs the lover of Christ overcomes in stages, in the first stage overcoming the attraction of the world by being captivated by Christ (1:2 — 2:7); in the second stage overcoming the self, which secluded her from the presence of Christ, by becoming one with the cross of Christ (2:8 — 3:5); in the third stage overcoming the old creation (the physical things) by living in the ascension of Christ in resurrection after her self was dealt with by the cross (3:6 — 5:1); and in the fourth stage overcoming the flesh, the natural man, the old man, by living within the veil (5:2 — 6:13).
SS 6:10a terrible  -   S.S. 6:4
SS 6:102 army
See note 42.
SS 6:111 orchard
Here we see the lover’s work. She works on herself as a garden that is growing as the valley growing fresh green things, as the vine budding, and as the pomegranates blossoming. She considers herself not only a garden of soft things but also an orchard growing particular nuts as strong, hard food for Christ.
SS 6:11a budded  -   S.S. 7:12
SS 6:121 chariots
Verses 12 and 13 describe the lover’s progress and victory. She is not aware that she is progressing swiftly like the noble people’s chariots going forth.
SS 6:131 Shulammite
The feminine form of Solomon, derived from the root meaning peace. The use of this name here indicates that at this point she has become Solomon’s duplication, counterpart, the same as Solomon in life, nature, expression, and function, as Eve was to Adam (Gen. 2:20-23 and notes). This signifies that in the maturity of Christ’s life the lover of Christ becomes the reproduction of Christ, the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function (but not in the Godhead) to match Him for their marriage (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29).
This couple’s becoming one indicates the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem the redeeming God (signified by Solomon) and all His redeemed (signified by the Shulammite) become one — a universal couple (Rev. 21:9-10; 22:17). The New Jerusalem is a mingling of divinity and humanity to express the processed and consummated Triune God in human virtues.
SS 6:132a two  -   Gen. 32:2
Heb. mahanaim (cf. Gen. 32:2). Here the Shulammite is likened to two armies, or camps, dancing in celebration of their victory. After he met the angels of God, Jacob divided his wives, children, and the rest of his possessions into two camps, or “two armies” (Gen. 32:1-10). The spiritual significance of the two camps as two armies is that we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37). It also signifies a strong testimony. There being two armies indicates that the country girl, the Shulammite, was not alone. An army indicates the principle of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5).
God does not want those who are strong in themselves. He wants only the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2 Cor. 12:9-10). They can become His armies because the fighting is not in their hands but in His. God needs a people who are one with Him, a people who are submissive to Him, signified by the plaited hair (1:11), and obedient to Him with a flexible will, signified by the neck with strings of jewels (1:10). Those who are counted worthy to be overcomers will be the weaker ones who depend on the Lord (cf. Rev. 3:8; Rom. 9:16; Gal. 2:20).
Song of Songs Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
SS 7:11 How
The speaker in vv. 1-5 is not Solomon nor the Shulammite but a third one, who signifies the Spirit. The Spirit is one with Christ (2 Cor. 3:17) and one with the believers (Rev. 22:17). Thus, when He speaks, it is as if the two are speaking.
Solomon is the lord of many vineyards (v. 12), which require much labor. At this point the Shulammite must become Solomon’s co-worker. This indicates that eventually Christ’s lovers need to share in the work of the Lord. Their qualification for this depends on their being equipped with all the attributes of the divine life. Verses 1-5 in this chapter are the Spirit’s review of the virtues of the lover, which presents a beautiful portrait of the lovely lover of Christ from her feet to her head as an expression of Christ, whom she loves (cf. 6:4-10). Such virtues are signs of her maturity in the divine life and qualify her to share in the Lord’s work (cf. 2 Cor. 1:12; 2:14-17; 11:10a; 1 Thes. 2:1-12).
SS 7:12a sandals  -   Luke 15:22
Here the Spirit reviews her beauty in the gospel preaching (footsteps in sandals — Rom. 10:15) and in her standing power (thighs) produced through the skillful transforming work of God the Spirit (jewels — 2 Cor. 3:18).
SS 7:13 prince’s
This indicates that a lover of Christ should reach the maturity in His royal life to reign as a king with Christ (Rom. 5:17). This is a qualification for her to share in the Lord’s work.
SS 7:21 navel
Here the Spirit reviews her beauty in her inward parts (navel and belly), which are filled with the divine life received through the drinking of Christ’s blood (wine) and the eating of His flesh (wheat) by faith (lilies). See John 6:53-54 and note 542.
SS 7:3a Your  -   S.S. 4:5
SS 7:31 breasts
This refers to her beauty in her active ability to feed others in a living way (John 21:15, 17; cf. S.S. 4:5).
SS 7:41a neck  -   S.S. 4:4
Here the Spirit reviews her beauty in her submissive will (neck) wrought by the Spirit’s transforming work through sufferings for the carrying out of God’s will, in the expression of her heart, which is open to the light, clean, full of rest, and accessible (eyes like pools — cf. 1:15; 4:1; 5:12), and in her spiritual sense of high and sharp discernment (nose — cf. Phil. 1:9-10; Heb. 5:14).
SS 7:51 head
Here the Spirit reviews her beauty in her thoughts and intentions (head), which are strong for God (Carmel — cf. 1 Kings 18:19-39), and in her submission and obedience for her consecration (locks of her head — cf. Num. 6:5a and note), which are for the glory of God (purple) and capture (fetter) her Beloved, who is the King.
SS 7:61 beautiful
While the Spirit is speaking (vv. 1-5), Christ, the Beloved, inserts some words of praise for His lover (vv. 6-9a). In vv. 6-7 the Beloved praises His lover first in her beauty and pleasantness, which delight others, and then in her mature stature, in which she is like Christ (a palm tree — Eph. 4:13), and in her rich feeding of others (breasts like the clusters).
SS 7:81 palm
This indicates that the Beloved will enjoy her mature stature of Christ (palm tree — Eph. 4:13) and share it with the members of His Body (branches — John 15:5a). He wishes that her feeding of others would be rich (breasts like clusters of the vine), that her intuition (nose) would be fragrant for nourishing others in life (apples), and that her foretaste would be of the power of the age to come (best wine — v. 9a; John 2:10; Matt. 26:29).
SS 7:91 Going
The Shulammite interrupts and continues the words of her Beloved, wishing that He would enjoy smoothly what she could be, and that those who love God in losing consciousness of themselves (those who sleep — cf. 2 Cor. 5:14-15) would enjoy what the Lord would enjoy. This indicates that our working together with others must become their enjoyment.
SS 7:10a I  -   S.S. 2:16; 6:3
SS 7:111 fields
Christ’s lover wants to carry out with her Beloved the work that is for the entire world (fields) by sojourning from one place to another (lodging in the villages). This indicates that she is not sectarian in carrying out the Lord’s work. She keeps the work open, so that others can come to sojourn there and she can go to sojourn elsewhere. This is to keep one work in one Body.
To share in the work of the Lord is not to work for the Lord but to work together with the Lord (1 Cor. 3:9a; 2 Cor. 6:1a). To work with the Lord, we need the maturity in life, we need to be one with the Lord, and our work must be for His Body. The Shulammite works as Solomon’s counterpart, taking care of all the vineyards (8:11), the churches and the believers on the whole earth. This indicates that our work should be for the Body, not just one city. We must have a work that is for the entire world. This is what Paul did by establishing local churches and then working to bring them into the full realization of the Body of Christ.
SS 7:121 vineyards
She and her Beloved work diligently not for herself but in the churches (vineyards) for other believers to bud, blossom, and bloom. In the churches she renders her love to her Beloved.
SS 7:12a budded  -   S.S. 6:11
SS 7:131a mandrakes  -   Gen. 30:14
In her working together with her Beloved there is a mutual love (signified by mandrakes — Gen. 30:14-16) giving forth its fragrance between them as a couple who love each other, signifying the bridal love between the lover of Christ and Christ, and in their working places there are plenty of fragrant and choice fruits (cf. Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:9), new and old, which she stores up for her Beloved in love.
SS 7:13b New  -   Matt. 13:52
Song of Songs Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
SS 8:11 brother
At this point the lover of Christ is mature in life to the extent that she has become the same as Christ in every respect, except that she still has the flesh. Realizing all the troubles that come from her flesh, the lover wishes that Christ could be her brother in the flesh who was born of grace (her mother — Gal. 4:26), i.e., that He would be the same as she is in the flesh. This indicates poetically her groaning for her flesh. In vv. 2-4 she is hoping to be saved from her groaning for the flesh, indicating that she hopes to be raptured through the redemption of her body (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Eph. 4:30b).
SS 8:12 outside
I.e., outside the limitation of the flesh. When her body is transfigured (Phil. 3:21), she and the Lord will be the same (1 John 3:2), and no one will despise her because of her shortage in the flesh.
SS 8:21 mother’s
In vv. 2-3 the lover of Christ hopes that she and her Beloved could meet in the heavenly Jerusalem, where she is perfected by grace (her mother’s house — Gal. 4:26), and that she could afford her Beloved a way to enjoy the riches of her experience of the divine life (spiced wine from the juices of her pomegranate) for His satisfaction in His embracing, as in His embracing before rapture (2:6).
SS 8:3a His  -   S.S. 2:6
SS 8:4a I  -   S.S. 2:7; 3:5
SS 8:41 adjure
Her Beloved charges the meddling believers (daughters of Jerusalem) not to awaken her from her proper hope of rapture until she wakes up in the countenance of His face, i.e., until she meets Him face to face in rapture.
SS 8:4b daughters  -   S.S. 1:5
SS 8:5a wilderness  -   S.S. 3:6
SS 8:51 Leaning
The Spirit, signified by a third person speaking, asks who this lover of Christ is who came up once from the spiritual wilderness (the worldly environment) by herself (3:6) and now comes up from the fleshly wilderness (the earthly realm) by leaning on her Beloved. As she is waiting for His coming, she is going out with Him to meet Him (cf. Matt. 25:1).
SS 8:52 I
Here Christ answers that she is a sinner who has repented and has been saved by grace (her mother — Gal. 4:26; Eph. 2:8a) through regeneration (birth) in Him as the Provider of life (apple tree — 2:3). Here, at the consummation of her Christian life, the Lord reminds His lover that even now she is nothing — a sinner saved by the grace of Christ.
SS 8:61a seal  -   Isa. 49:16; Hag. 2:23
When the lover hears what her Beloved spoke in v. 5, she admits that by herself she is not able to stand and live in her Beloved until her rapture. Having no trust in herself while she is still in the flesh, the old creation, she asks her Beloved to keep her by His love (heart) and His strength (arm), for His love is as strong as unshakable death and His jealousy is as cruel as unconquerable Sheol, which is like the jealous Jehovah, who is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24) that burns up all the negative things. His love cannot be quenched by trials nor drowned by persecutions nor replaced by any wealth (v. 7; Rom. 8:35-39; 1 Cor. 13:1-3).
SS 8:62 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
SS 8:63 Jehovah
Heb. Jah; a shortened form of Jehovah.
SS 8:81 sister
Since the lover has matured in life in pursuing Christ and in the ultimate consummation of her experience of Christ, before her rapture she with Christ is concerned for the younger lovers of Christ, whose faith and love (breasts — 1 Tim. 1:14) have not yet matured. She is concerned about how to perfect the younger ones to mature in life for the building up of the Body of Christ and to love Christ until they are betrothed to Him in love for the constituting of the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Gal. 4:19).
SS 8:91 wall
If the younger one (see note 81) is a wall for separation from the world (sanctification), Christ’s mature lover with her Beloved will perfect that one by building upon her a battlement based on the redemption of Christ (silver). If the younger one is a door as an entry for people to enter into Christ, the lover of Christ with her Beloved will perfect that one by building an enclosure around her with Christ’s heavenly and glorified humanity (Matt. 26:64; Acts 3:13) and His heavenly human life (cedar — Phil. 2:7-8). This indicates that the lover of Christ is an experienced one who knows not only how to nourish others but also how to build them up with the proper materials according to their particular need.
SS 8:101 wall
Here the lover of Christ testifies that she is a sanctified one (a separating wall) whose faith and love have been developed (breasts like towers — 1 Tim. 1:14), in contrast to the immature believer in v. 8. In the eyes of her Beloved she is like a person who has obtained peace based on sanctification (1 Thes. 5:23 and note 2).
SS 8:111 Baal-hamon
Meaning Lord of all. Solomon as a great lord who possessed many vineyards rented the vineyards to keepers in order to gain produce. The vineyard keepers would pay Solomon one thousand shekels. Each vineyard keeper had helpers to keep the fruit, and he had to pay them two hundred shekels (v. 12). In the work of Christ, Christ is the Lord of all the works (vineyards). We, as Christ’s lovers, are vineyard keepers, who participate in one part of Christ’s work. According to the Lord’s requirement, we should pay Him the one thousand shekels, i.e., pay Him what He requires. In our work with the Lord we do not have “helpers”; hence, we as the vineyard keepers are able to keep the fruit ourselves. Thus, instead of giving the two hundred shekels to others, we give it to ourselves. This is the same as the Lord giving us two hundred shekels as a reward. Verses 11-12 show that our work with the Lord must exceed what He requires. The Lord requires not only what He has delivered to us but what He has given to us with interest (Matt. 25:26-27). With this interest as the basis, the Lord will reward us when He comes back. This reward will be given not according to the Lord’s grace but according to His righteousness.
Christ as our Beloved is the Lord of all, possessing all things (Acts 10:36), and we as His lovers share in all His possessions (1 Cor. 3:21-22) freely in the grace of Christ (Rom. 3:24), which is the issue of the love of God (2 Cor. 13:14). Yet we as His lovers still should give Him as our Beloved what we should give, not as a duty but as a matter of love (cf. Gal. 5:13). Christ as our Beloved, joining Himself to us as one, still likes to give us a reward of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). This implies that Christ as our Beloved gives us a reward for the residue of our labor as an incentive to our faithfulness in our labor for Him in love (cf. Matt. 25:20-23); hence, it is a reward of righteousness.
SS 8:11a vineyard  -   1 Cor. 9:7; cf. Mark 12:1; Luke 20:9
SS 8:131a voice  -   S.S. 2:14
The lover of Christ asks Him who dwells in the believers as His gardens to let her hear His voice while her companions listen for His voice. This indicates that in the work that we as the lovers of Christ do for Him as our Beloved, we should fellowship with Him. As we are working with Him, we need to maintain our fellowship with Him, always listening to Him (cf. Luke 10:38-42 and note 421).
SS 8:141a Make  -   S.S. 2:17; cf. Rev. 22:17, 20
As the concluding word of this poetic book, the lover of Christ prays that her Beloved would make haste to come back in the power of His resurrection (gazelle and young hart) to set up His sweet and beautiful kingdom (mountains of spices), which will fill the whole earth (Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:35). Such a prayer portrays the union and communion between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as the bride in their bridal love, in the way that the prayer of John, a lover of Christ, as the concluding word of the Holy Scriptures, reveals God’s eternal economy concerning Christ and the church in His divine love (Rev. 22:20).
< Song of Songs • Isaiah Outline >
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Isaiah Outline
I.   The salvation of Jehovah to His beloved people and the nations — 1:1 — 12:6
A.   Jehovah the Father’s complaint against His children Israel, His chastisement of them, and His loving exhortation and promise to them — 1:1 — 5:30
B.   The vision of Christ in glory — 6:1-7
C.   Christ’s warning commission to Isaiah — 6:8-13
D.   God’s dealing with the unbelief of Ahaz the king of Judah — 7:1 — 8:8
E.   Christ as Immanuel — 8:9-22
F.   The unveiling of Christ as the great light and the wonderful One issuing from Jehovah’s chastisement on the kingdom of Israel and His judgment on Assyria — 9:1 — 10:34
1.   The unveiling of Christ as the great light — 9:1-5
2.   The unveiling of Christ as the wonderful One — 9:6-7
3.   Jehovah’s chastisement on the kingdom of Israel — 9:8 — 10:4
4.   Jehovah’s judgment on Assyria — 10:5-34
G.   The restoration brought in through Christ — 11:1-16
H.   The salvation enjoyed by Jehovah’s beloved people — 12:1-6
II.   The judgment of Jehovah upon the nations unveiling Satan’s oneness with the nations, showing Jehovah’s sovereign rule over the nations, benefiting Jehovah’s beloved Israel, and providing the wonderful Christ as the Savior to meet the need of the beloved Israel and the judged nations — 13:1 — 23:18
A.   The judgment of Jehovah — to destroy Babylon because of its cruel destruction of many nations — 13:1 — 14:23
B.   The judgment of Jehovah — to break Assyria because of its yoke and burden upon Israel — 14:24-27
C.   The judgment of Jehovah — to destroy Philistia because of its damage to Zion — 14:28-32
D.   The judgment of Jehovah — to devastate Moab because of its pride — 15:1 — 16:14
E.   The judgment of Jehovah — to ruin and forsake Damascus because of its invasion into Israel — 17:1 — 18:7
F.   The judgment of Jehovah — to strike and desolate Egypt because of its idols and wise men — 19:1-25
G.   The judgment of Jehovah — to take Egypt into captivity and to send Cush into exile because Cush has become Israel’s expectation and Egypt, their boast — 20:1-6
H.   The judgment of Jehovah — to destroy Babylon because of its idols — 21:1-10
I.   Jehovah to have no judgment on Dumah — 21:11-12
J.   The judgment of Jehovah — to desolate Arabia by the harshness of battle because of its warlikeness — 21:13-17
K.   The judgment of Jehovah — to trample down the city of Jerusalem — the valley of vision — because of its unforgivable iniquity — 22:1-25
L.   The judgment of Jehovah — to destroy Tyre by the Assyrians because of its pride of all beauty and all its honored men — 23:1-18
III.   Jehovah’s dealing with His beloved Israel issuing in Israel’s revival and return to God and ushering in Christ with the restoration of all things — 24:1 — 35:10
A.   Jehovah’s reaction to Israel’s degradation and His reaction to the nations’ excessive action on Israel issuing in Israel’s turn to Jehovah and their return to the Holy Land for restoration — 24:1 — 27:13
B.   Jehovah’s punishment on Ephraim’s drunkards issuing in Jehovah’s restoration and ushering in the trustworthy Christ — 28:1-29
C.   Jehovah’s judgment on the hypocrisy of Jerusalem’s worshippers issuing in the restoration — 29:1-24
D.   Jehovah’s dealing with Israel’s reliance on Egypt and His dealing with the nations issuing in Israel’s turn to Him and in His return to Israel with the restoration — 30:1 — 31:9
E.   Jehovah’s destruction of the nations for Christ to be the King to bring in the restoration for Israel — 32:1 — 35:10
IV.   An example of seeking after Jehovah and trusting in Him — 36:1 — 39:8
A.   Hezekiah’s seeking after Jehovah for his situation — 36:1 — 37:38
B.   Hezekiah’s seeking after Jehovah for his health — 38:1-22
C.   Hezekiah’s failure in the enjoyment of the peaceful situation and sound health — 39:1-8
V.   The Servant of Jehovah and the salvation brought in by Him to Israel and the nations, with the restoration of all things, consummating in the new heaven and new earth — 40:1 — 66:24
A.   Jehovah’s word of comfort to Israel — 40:1-31
B.   Christ as the Servant of Jehovah — 41:1 — 66:24
1.   As typified by Cyrus the king of Persia and by Israel — 41:1-29
2.   As a covenant for the people and a light for the nations — 42:1-25
3.   As typified by Cyrus to be Jehovah’s shepherd and to fulfill all the desires of Jehovah — 43:1 — 45:25
a.   Jehovah’s word of comfort and encouragement to Israel — 43:1-28
b.   Jehovah’s word of shepherding to His servant Israel — 44:1-28
c.   A servant and a witness of Jehovah — 45:1-25
4.   As typified by Cyrus to release Jehovah’s captives of the beloved Israel from Babylon — 46:1 — 48:22
5.   As typified by Isaiah the prophet of Jehovah for a covenant of the people to restore the land — 49:1 — 50:11
a.   The three persons of the servant of Jehovah — 49:1-9a
b.   The blessed return of the captives — 49:9b-13
c.   How Jehovah treasures Zion — 49:14-21
d.   Jehovah lifting up His hand to the nations and His banner unto the peoples for the gathering of the dispersed captives of Zion — 49:22-26
e.   The reason for Zion’s being forsaken — 50:1-3
f.   The instruction the servant of Jehovah (Isaiah, typifying Christ) received and the life he lived — 50:4-9
g.   How he who fears Jehovah and hears the voice of His servant has light while walking in darkness — 50:10-11
6.   In relation to Jehovah’s loving dealing with His beloved Israel — 51:1 — 52:12
a.   Jehovah’s calling of Israel — 51:1-3
b.   Jehovah’s righteousness and salvation for Israel — 51:4-8
c.   Jehovah’s arm for Israel — 51:9-16
d.   Jehovah’s encouragement to Jerusalem — 51:17-23
e.   Jehovah’s encouragement to Zion — 52:1-6
f.   Jehovah’s good news for Zion and Jerusalem — 52:7-10
g.   Jehovah’s charge to Israel to depart from Babylon — 52:11-12
7.   The prosperity of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah in relation to Israel’s return from captivity and her restoration — 52:13-15
8.   Christ’s dynamic redemption through His vicarious death and reproductive resurrection in relation to His being the covenant for Israel’s security — 53:1 — 54:17
a.   His dynamic redemption through His vicarious death and reproductive resurrection — 53:1-12
b.   His being the covenant for Israel’s security — 54:1-17
9.   Christ’s being an eternal covenant to Israel, even the sure mercies shown to David, in relation to Israel’s prosperity — 55:1 — 56:12
a.   Christ being the center of the divine provisions to Israel — 55:1-5
b.   Seeking Jehovah and returning to Him and His word — 55:6-13
c.   Preserving justice and doing righteousness for prosperity and Jehovah’s acceptance — 56:1-8
d.   The rebuking of the blind watchmen and the self-seeking shepherds — 56:9-12
10.   The evil condition and the need of the wicked of the house of Jacob who have nothing to do with Christ as the Servant of Jehovah — 57:1 — 58:14
a.   It being better for the righteous and the godly to die that they may be separated from the wicked — 57:1-2
b.   The evils of the wicked of the house of Jacob — 57:3-10
c.   The wicked of the house of Jacob not remembering Jehovah and not fearing Him — 57:11-13a
d.   Jehovah’s blessing to him who takes refuge in Him — 57:13b-21
e.   The hypocrisy of the house of Jacob — 58:1-9a
f.   The instruction of Jehovah to the house of Jacob — 58:9b-14
11.   As the Redeemer to save Jacob from their sins and iniquities and become Israel’s light and glory forever — 59:1 — 60:22
a.   Jehovah’s hand not being so short that it cannot save — 59:1-2
b.   The sins and iniquities of Jacob — 59:3-8
c.   The issue of Jacob’s sins and iniquities — 59:9-15a
d.   The saving of Jehovah’s arm (Christ as the Servant of Jehovah having the dynamic might of Jehovah) toward Jacob — 59:15b-21
e.   Christ as the Servant of Jehovah becoming Israel’s light and glory forever — 60:1-22
12.   The ministry of the Anointed of Jehovah, Christ as the Servant of Jehovah, issuing in the restoration of Israel — 61:1 — 63:19
a.   The ministry of the Anointed of Jehovah — 61:1-3
b.   The restoration of Israel — 61:4 — 63:19
13.   The second coming of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah, bringing in the restoration of Israel and of all things, which consummates in the new heaven and new earth — 64:1 — 66:24
Isaiah >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Isaiah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Is 1:1a vision  -   Num. 12:6
Is 1:11 Isaiah
Meaning the salvation of Jah. The book of Isaiah, in its content concerning God’s eternal economy in Christ, is the leading book among all the books of the prophets. This book is the vision that Isaiah saw (v. 1), the word that Isaiah saw (2:1), and the burden that Isaiah saw (13:1; 15:1). The vision, word, and burden in Isaiah are concerned with God’s eternal economy in Christ, which is thoroughly covered in this book.
The book of Isaiah unveils that God’s dealing in love with His beloved Israel and His righteous judgment upon the nations bring in Christ, the Savior (43:3; 49:26), who is God (9:6) incarnated to be a man (7:14), possessing both the divine nature and the human nature (4:2), living on this earth (53:2-3; 42:1-4), crucified (53:7-10a, 12), resurrected (53:10b-11), ascended (52:13), and coming (40:10; 64:1) to meet the need of God’s chosen people and the nations (9:1-7; 49:6) in God’s all-inclusive salvation (12:2-3), that the restoration of all things, of the created yet fallen universe (2:2-5; 11:6-9; 35:1-10; 30:26), may be brought in, which will consummate in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (65:17). Hence, the content of Isaiah covers God’s entire economy of the New Testament, from the incarnation (Matt. 1:18-25) to the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21 — 22), with the Old Testament background of God’s dealing with Israel and His judgment upon the nations. According to Isaiah’s prophecy, the Christ who was processed for the divine purposes is the centrality and universality of the great wheel of the move of the Divine Trinity (Ezek. 1:15 and note 1) for the accomplishing of His economy in the divine dispensing of Himself into His elect.
Is 1:1b Uzziah  -   2 Chron. 26:1
Is 1:1c Jotham  -   2 Chron. 27:1
Is 1:1d Ahaz  -   2 Chron. 28:1
Is 1:1e Hezekiah  -   2 Chron. 29:1; 32:32
Is 1:2a Hear  -   Deut. 32:1
Is 1:21b children  -   Deut. 1:31; Isa. 46:3-4; Jer. 31:9
In the book of Isaiah, God’s love toward Israel is exercised in a threefold way: as a Father (1:2-3; 63:16; 64:8), as a nursing Mother (66:13), and as a Husband (54:5). Since God deals with His beloved Israel in a loving way, His dealing with them, in general, is a matter not of judgment but of chastisement. God’s dealing with the Gentiles, the nations, however, is a matter of judgment based on God’s righteousness, on His justice.
God deals with people according to what He is. God is holy and righteous; He is the Holy One and the righteous One (v. 4; 24:16a). As the Holy One, He chastises His people that they may be holy (Heb. 12:10), and as the righteous One, He judges the nations because they are not just and righteous. See note 131 in ch. 26.
Is 1:3a not  -   Jer. 9:3, 6
Is 1:4a Seed  -   Isa. 57:3-4; Matt. 3:7
Is 1:51 Where
Or, Why.
Is 1:52 apostasy
Jehovah chastised the children of Israel because of their apostasy, i.e., their forsaking God and turning to and serving another god (Jer. 2:13).
Is 1:6a bound  -   Luke 10:34
Is 1:8a daughter  -   2 Kings 19:21
Is 1:9a Unless  -   Lam. 3:22; Rom. 9:29
Is 1:91 of
Or, Sabaoth. So throughout the book.
Is 1:9b Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24; Rev. 11:8
Is 1:11a sacrifices  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Psa. 50:8-9; Prov. 15:8
Is 1:12a appear  -   Exo. 23:17; 34:23
Is 1:14a hates  -   Amos 5:21
Is 1:15a hands  -   Psa. 134:2; 1 Tim. 2:8
Is 1:15b blood  -   Isa. 59:3
Is 1:161a Wash  -   Jer. 4:14; 1 John 3:3
After Jehovah’s chastisement on His beloved children, Isaiah presents Jehovah’s loving exhortation (vv. 16-17) and promise to His chastised people. Jehovah’s loving promise is a promise of forgiveness (v. 18) and of restoration (vv. 26-27).
Is 1:16b evil  -   Psa. 34:14; 37:27; 1 Pet. 3:11; 3 John 11
Is 1:17a orphan  -   James 1:27
Is 1:18a white  -   Psa. 51:7; Rev. 1:14; 7:14
Is 1:181 snow
In God’s full salvation He not only forgives our sins, exempting us from the penalty of our sins and removing the record of our sins from before Him; He also washes away the traces of sins in us, making us as white as snow and white like wool. Both snow and wool are naturally white. Hence, as a result of God’s washing, we become not only white but also naturally white, as if we had never been defiled. The washing that makes us as white as snow is a positional washing from without through the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7; Heb. 1:3b; Rev. 1:5), whereas the washing that makes us white like wool is a washing of our nature metabolically from within by God’s Spirit and by His life (1 Cor. 6:11 and note; Titus 3:5 and note 4). Cf. note 142 in Rev. 1.
Is 1:21a harlot  -   Jer. 2:20; 3:1
Is 1:241 adversaries
Cf. note 101 in Matt. 4. God chastised Israel because Israel had rebelled against God to such an extent that they became not only His adversaries, who were within God’s nation, but also His enemies, who were outside God’s nation.
Is 1:25a purge  -   Jer. 9:7; Mal. 3:3
Is 1:291 you
Many MSS read, they.
Is 1:292 terebinths
Trees used in the worship of idols.
Is 1:311 tow
I.e., fibers shaken off from flax when beaten.
Isaiah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Is 2:2a But  -   vv. 2-4: Micah 4:1-3
Is 2:2b last  -   Acts 2:17
Is 2:21c mountain  -   Psa. 68:15-16; Isa. 27:13; Zech. 8:3
The mountain here signifies the kingdom of Israel, whereas the mountains and the hills later in the verse signify the kingdoms of the nations. In the restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21) the nation of Israel will be the foremost among the nations.
Is 2:2d nations  -   Psa. 22:27; 86:9; Isa. 11:10; Jer. 3:17
Is 2:3a Come  -   Jer. 31:6; 50:5; Zech. 8:21, 23
Is 2:3b mountain  -   Psa. 24:3; Isa. 30:29
Is 2:31 in
Lit., out of; indicating the source of His instruction.
Is 2:32 instruction
Heb. torah, frequently translated law. During the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom, the restored nation of Israel will be the priests in the earthly part of the kingdom (61:6; Zech. 8:20-23), the kingdom of the Son of Man (Matt. 13:41; Rev. 11:15), and the overcoming believers in Christ will be the priests in the heavenly part (Rev. 20:6), the kingdom of the Father (Matt. 13:43). By this priesthood all the peoples of the nations will be taught and instructed. See note 201 in Zech. 8.
Is 2:3c Jerusalem  -   cf. Luke 24:47
Is 2:41 judge
In the restoration Christ will be the unique ruler on earth. See note 11 in ch. 32.
Is 2:4a And  -   cf. Joel 3:10; Rev. 6:4
Is 2:4b war  -   Psa. 46:9; Isa. 11:9; Hosea 2:18; Zech. 9:10
Is 2:5a walk  -   Psa. 89:15; Eph. 5:8; 1 John 1:7
Is 2:71 silver
The nations were rich not only in money but also in idols (vv. 8, 20). Idols and money go together. This is the reason that money is called mammon (Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:9, 11, 13). Because the nations trusted in idols, God judged them in order to humiliate them (vv. 9-22).
Is 2:8a full  -   Jer. 2:28; Acts 17:16
Is 2:10a rock  -   Isa. 2:19, 21; Rev. 6:15
Is 2:111a haughty  -   Isa. 2:17; 5:15-16; 2 Cor. 10:5
Because the nations were haughty, it was necessary for Jehovah to humiliate them, to bring them down, through judgment. God’s judgment on the haughty nations ushers in the God-man, Christ (4:2, 5-6), issuing in the restoration of the nation of Israel (4:3-6; 2:2-5), which brings in the kingdom and consummates in the new heaven and new earth (65:17).
Is 2:121 day
See note 151 in Joel 1.
Is 2:131 cedars
Typifying lofty persons, those who lift themselves up.
Is 2:141 lofty
In figure signifying countries, nations, and kingdoms.
Is 2:161 artifacts
Or, images. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Is 2:17a haughtiness  -   Isa. 2:11
Is 2:19a rocks  -   Isa. 2:10; Rev. 6:15
Isaiah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Is 3:1a taking  -   Jer. 37:21; 38:9
Is 3:4a youths  -   Eccl. 10:16
Is 3:71 food
As part of His chastisement of His people, God took away from them all their rulers, leaving them with no rulers (vv. 2-4). Here Isaiah links the ruler with the food supply. To be a ruler, one must feed the people. Ruling and feeding are not only a pair; they also work together in a cycle and give rise to each other. Thus, if there is feeding, there is ruling, and if there is ruling, there is feeding. In the church, when there is the proper feeding, everything will be in order.
Is 3:9a Sodom  -   Gen. 13:13; 18:20-21; Rev. 11:8
Isaiah Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Is 4:11 women
This verse is a link between God’s judgment (ch. 3) and Christ. According to v. 2, to these women who escaped God’s judgment, Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah will be beauty and glory, and Christ as the fruit of the earth will be excellence and splendor. This is the ushering in of the God-man, Christ, through God’s judgment.
Is 4:1a reproach  -   Luke 1:25
Is 4:21 that
The day of the coming restoration of the nation of Israel (Matt. 17:11; 19:28; Acts 1:6; 3:21; 15:16).
Is 4:22a Shoot  -   Jer. 23:5; Zech. 3:8; 6:12
In this book Christ is unveiled as the God-man. The Shoot of Jehovah refers to Christ’s deity, showing His divine nature, and the fruit of the earth (Luke 1:42) refers to Christ’s humanity with His human nature. As the Shoot of Jehovah, Christ comes out of God, out of eternity (John 8:42; Micah 5:2). As the fruit of the earth, Christ, having a human body made of dust (Gen. 2:7), grows out of the earth (cf. 53:2). In the restoration, to those of Israel who have escaped, Christ in His deity will be beauty and glory, and in His humanity, which expresses His divine beauty and glory, He will be excellence and splendor. The Shoot of Jehovah denotes that through His incarnation Christ is a new development of Jehovah God for the Triune God to branch Himself out in His divinity into humanity (7:14; Matt. 1:22-23). This is for Jehovah God’s increase and spread in the universe. The fruit of the earth denotes that Christ, as the divine Shoot of Jehovah, also becomes a man of flesh from the earth (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14). This is for the Triune God to be multiplied and reproduced in humanity. As a man with the divine life, He is a seed, a grain of wheat, to produce many grains, His believers as His many brothers, through His death and resurrection (John 12:24; 20:17; Rom. 8:29).
The Shoot of Jehovah denotes the riches, the refreshing, the vigor, the growth, and the productive power of the divine life. The fruit of the earth denotes the produce brought forth, carried out, and expressed in Christ’s humanity. As seen in the four Gospels, all the fruit borne by Christ came out of the divine life, but it was produced in Christ’s humanity. In Christ, the God-man, God and man live together as one, with God as the life inwardly and man as the fruit outwardly.
Is 4:3a written  -   Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 21:27; cf. Exo. 32:33
Is 4:4a washed  -   Ezek. 36:25; Mal. 3:2-3
Is 4:41 judging
Lit., the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning.
Is 4:5a cloud  -   Exo. 13:21
Is 4:5b fiery  -   Zech. 2:5
Is 4:51 canopy
In the restoration Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah in His divinity and the fruit of the earth in His humanity will be a covering canopy of glory and an overshadowing tabernacle of grace (v. 6). The canopy is the covering glory of Christ in His divinity that will cover the entire region of Mount Zion and all its convocations, i.e., all the interests of Jehovah God on the earth. The glory of Christ will cover this entire region as a canopy of two sections: a cloud of smoke for a shade from the heat in the daytime, and a cloud of brightness of a fiery flame to keep the darkness away at night (cf. Exo. 40:38; Num. 9:15). The tabernacle (v. 6) is the God-man, Christ, in His humanity with His grace to be the overshadowing protection and defense for God’s chosen people (John 1:14; 2 Cor. 12:9).
Is 4:6a cover  -   Isa. 25:4
Isaiah Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Is 5:1a vineyard  -   Psa. 80:8; S.S. 8:12; Isa. 27:2; Matt. 21:33; Mark 12:1; Luke 13:6; 20:9
Is 5:11 fertile
Lit., horn of a son of oil.
Is 5:5a hedge  -   Psa. 80:12
Is 5:101 bath
A liquid measure equal to approximately six gallons, or twenty-two liters.
Is 5:102 homer
A dry measure equal to somewhere between four and eight bushels, or 140 and 280 liters.
Is 5:103 ephah
One-tenth of a homer.
Is 5:13a exile  -   2 Kings 17:6; 24:14
Is 5:131 nobility
Lit., glory.
Is 5:15a haughty  -   cf. Isa. 2:11, 17
Is 5:161 shows
Or, is sanctified.
Is 5:162 holy
Righteousness is the base for holiness, and on this base holiness is exhibited. Hence, holiness is higher than righteousness. With His righteousness as the base, God shows Himself as the holy God. In righteousness He exhibits His holiness.
God could expect only righteousness from the nations because they are not the sons of God. It is with His sons that God expects to see holiness (Eph. 1:4-5). God’s chastening and disciplining is to uplift us from righteousness to holiness (Heb. 12:5-11). In His salvation He first justifies us to make us righteous in Christ (Rom. 3:24), and then He sanctifies us to make us holy (Rom. 6:19, 22). To be righteous is to match God’s way of doing things outwardly, but to be holy is to match God’s nature inwardly.
Is 5:171 fat
I.e., rich men.
Is 5:20a call  -   Prov. 17:15
Is 5:21a wise  -   Prov. 3:7; Rom. 12:16; 1 Cor. 3:18
Is 5:25a hand  -   Psa. 89:13; 136:12; Isa. 40:10; 1 Pet. 5:6
Is 5:26a standard  -   Isa. 11:12
Is 5:261 nation
I.e., Babylon.
Is 5:26b whistles  -   Isa. 7:18
Is 5:26c ends  -   Deut. 28:49; Jer. 5:15
Is 5:26d swift  -   Joel 2:7
Isaiah Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Is 6:1a Uzziah  -   2 Chron. 26:22-23; Isa. 1:1
Is 6:11b Lord  -   1 Kings 22:19; Dan. 7:9; John 12:41; Rev. 4:2
The One who appeared to Isaiah in his disappointment over the condition of the children of Israel was Christ as the Lord, the King, Jehovah of hosts (v. 5b; John 12:41 and note). No matter what the situation might be on earth and regardless of the corruption and degradation among God’s people, Christ is still on the throne in His glory. The people had become fallen, but Christ and His throne remained the same in His glory. On this earth everything changes and fluctuates, but Christ remains the same today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Hence, we should not look down at the situation on earth but should look up to Christ on the throne (Heb. 12:2).
Is 6:12 robe
Christ’s long robe signifies Christ’s splendor in His virtues, which is expressed mainly in and through His humanity. That Christ was wearing a long robe indicates that He appeared to Isaiah in the image of a man. Christ is the God-man with the divine glory expressed in His human virtues.
Is 6:21 hovered
Lit., stood. The seraphim signify or represent the holiness of Christ (v. 3). They were standing there for Christ’s holiness.
Is 6:22 Him
Or, it; referring to the train of His robe.
Is 6:2a two  -   Ezek. 1:11
Is 6:31a Holy  -   Rev. 4:8; 3:7
This was a praise rendered to Christ in His holiness. In this chapter Christ is seen in His divine glory (signified by the smoke — v. 4) with His human virtues (signified by the train of His robe — v. 1) held in His holiness (signified by the seraphim standing firmly — v. 2). Christ’s holiness is based on His righteousness (see note 162 in ch. 5). Because Christ was always righteous, He was sanctified, separated from the common people (Heb. 7:26). Cf. note 81 in Rev. 4.
Is 6:3b earth  -   Psa. 72:19; Hab. 2:14
Is 6:41 foundations
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; the Septuagint translates this phrase as lintel.
Is 6:42 shook
The shaking of the foundations signifies solemnity, whereas the temple being filled with smoke signifies glory burning in awe. The smoke signifies Christ’s glory (cf. 4:5).
Is 6:4a filled  -   Exo. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10; Rev. 15:8
Is 6:51a unclean  -   cf. Exo. 4:10; 6:30; Luke 5:8
Everyone who truly sees a vision of the Lord in His glory is enlightened in his conscience regarding his uncleanness (cf. Luke 5:8).
Is 6:5b seen  -   Judg. 6:22; 13:22
Is 6:61 ember
The ember from the altar signifies the effectiveness of Christ’s redemption accomplished on the cross.
Is 6:6a altar  -   Rev. 8:5
Is 6:7a mouth  -   Jer. 1:9; Dan. 10:16
Is 6:71 purged
Or, expiated. The more we see the Lord and are exposed, the more we are cleansed (1 John 1:7 and note 3). According to our enlightened conscience, we are clean, but according to the actual facts of our situation in the old creation, we are not clean, for the old creation is unclean (see note 21 in Lev. 12 and notes on 1 John 1:8). After our body is redeemed (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21), we will no longer be in the old creation. At that time we will be completely clean.
Is 6:81 I
The words I and Us here indicate that the One speaking is triune, that this One is not merely Christ but Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God. See note 13, par. 1, in Gen. 1.
Is 6:8a Us  -   Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7
See note 81.
Is 6:8b Here  -   Gen. 22:1; 31:11; 46:2; Exo. 3:4; 1 Sam. 3:4; Isa. 65:1; Acts 9:10
Is 6:91 Go
Isaiah was sent by the Christ who is full of the divine glory and the human virtues held in His holiness, to a people who were short of the divine glory, were violating the divine holiness, and were corrupt in the human virtues (v. 5). After sending the prophets to Israel, God sent His Son and then sent the New Testament apostles, to bring His chosen people into a state of living Christ (Phil. 1:21a) that they might express His divine glory with His human virtues in His holiness.
Is 6:9a Hear  -   Isa. 43:8; Jer. 5:21; Matt. 13:14; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:26; cf. Rom. 11:8
Is 6:9b not  -   Deut. 32:28; Isa. 27:11; Jer. 4:22
Is 6:10a Make  -   Matt. 13:15; John 12:40; Acts 28:27
Is 6:10b heart  -   2 Cor. 3:14
Is 6:10c eyes  -   Isa. 44:18; 2 Cor. 4:4
Is 6:10d ears  -   cf. Rev. 2:7
Is 6:101e healed  -   Heb. 12:13
The word in vv. 9-10 indicates that there would be no way for the people of Israel to be healed and recovered. Except for the word concerning the holy seed in v. 13, the prophetic warning in vv. 9-13, given in approximately 758 B.C., has been fulfilled. It was fulfilled beginning in about 606 B.C. by the Babylonian invasion and captivity (2 Kings 24 — 25). This warning was quoted by the Lord Jesus in Matt. 13:14-15, and again by the apostle Paul in Acts 28:25-27, as a reminder to the rebellious and stubborn Jews under their ministry. Both the Lord’s reminding and the apostle’s reminding were fulfilled in A.D. 70 by the Roman army under Titus (Matt. 23:37-38; 24:2). Furthermore, after A.D. 70 this warning has been fulfilled throughout the centuries.
Is 6:11a devastated  -   Isa. 1:7
Is 6:13a holy  -   Ezra 9:2; Isa. 65:9; Mal. 2:15; cf. Isa. 1:9; Rom. 11:5
Isaiah Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Is 7:1a Ahaz  -   2 Kings 16:1-5; 2 Chron. 28:1-6
Is 7:21 Ephraim
Representing the northern kingdom of Israel.
Is 7:31 Shear-jashub
Meaning a remnant will return.
Is 7:3a upper  -   2 Kings 18:17; Isa. 36:2
Is 7:8a And  -   2 Kings 17:5-6; Isa. 8:4
Is 7:111 make
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, make the request deep.
Is 7:112 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Is 7:12a try  -   Luke 4:12
Is 7:14a Behold  -   Matt. 1:23; Luke 1:31
Is 7:14b virgin  -   Gen. 3:15; Luke 1:27, 34; 2:7; Gal. 4:4
Is 7:14c bear  -   Isa. 9:6
Is 7:141d Immanuel  -   Isa. 8:8
Meaning God with us. The actual fulfillment of this sign was the birth of a son by Isaiah’s wife (8:3). The ultimate fulfillment was the incarnation, in which Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary as a child of a dual nature, the divine nature and the human nature, issuing in Immanuel, i.e., God with us, for the salvation of God’s people, including those of Israel and those of the church (Matt. 1:20-23 and notes). Christ, the God-man, the mingling of God and man, who is the Shoot of Jehovah and the fruit of the earth (4:2), is Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 18:20; 28:20). Immanuel is all-inclusive; He is first our Savior (Luke 2:11), then our Redeemer (John 1:29), then our Life-giver (1 Cor. 15:45b), and then the all-inclusive indwelling Spirit (John 14:16-20; Rom. 8:9-11). Actually, the content of the entire New Testament is an Immanuel (Matt. 1:23; 18:20; 28:20; Rev. 21:3), and all the believers in Christ, as the members of Christ, are a part of this great Immanuel, the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11). The sign of Immanuel consummates in the New Jerusalem, which will be the aggregate of Immanuel, the totality of God being with us.
Is 7:15a curds  -   Isa. 7:22
Is 7:151 until
This indicates that the lands of the two kings whom Ahaz dreaded would be abandoned, made desolate, by the king of Assyria (v. 16; 8:4). God sent the army from Assyria in the northeast to deal with the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who were threatening Ahaz (vv. 17-25; 8:5-8).
Is 7:17a since  -   1 Kings 12:16
Is 7:17b bring  -   2 Chron. 28:19-21
Is 7:18a whistle  -   Isa. 5:26
Is 7:181 flies
Signifying the soldiers.
Is 7:20a razor  -   Ezek. 5:1; cf. 2 Kings 16:7-8; 2 Chron. 28:20-21
Is 7:201 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Is 7:202 head
The hair on the head signifies glory (1 Cor. 11:7, 15), the hair on other parts of the body signifies strength, and the beard signifies dignity. Thus, the glory, strength, and dignity of Judah would be removed through the “razor” of the king of Assyria.
Isaiah Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Is 8:1a write  -   Isa. 30:8; Hab. 2:2
Is 8:11 Maher-shalal-hash-baz
Meaning swift is the booty, hastening is the prey. This name, given to Isaiah’s son (v. 3), indicates the carrying away of the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria (v. 4).
Is 8:2a Urijah  -   2 Kings 16:10
Is 8:31 conceived
This was the actual fulfillment of the sign spoken of in 7:14. See note there.
Is 8:4a before  -   Isa. 7:16
Is 8:61 waters
Signifying the tender blessings of the divine provision.
Is 8:6a Shiloah  -   Neh. 3:15; Luke 13:4; John 9:7
Is 8:71a waters  -   Isa. 17:12-13; Jer. 46:7-9; 47:2-3; Rev. 12:15
Signifying the strong and great Assyrian army.
Is 8:81 land
Indicating that the land of Judah, the Holy Land, is the territory of Christ, who is Immanuel, God with us. This land, which was invaded by the army of Assyria, is the land that Christ will inherit to build up His millennial kingdom with His two elect peoples, the chosen Jews as His earthly people and the chosen believers as His heavenly people. God’s eternal economy is to gain for Himself these two peoples as a treasure.
Satan, God’s enemy, uses the nations to frustrate the accomplishing of God’s economy. The invaders and occupiers of the Holy Land, the land of Immanuel, are signified by the human image in Dan. 2, the head of which is Babylon. The enemies of God’s people in the Old Testament began from Babylon (2 Kings 24 — 25), which issued from Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). In the New Testament the enemy of God’s chosen people, the church, still is called Babylon — Babylon the Great (Rev. 17 — 18). Eventually, both the religious Babylon (the apostate Roman Church) and the material Babylon (the city of Rome) will be destroyed, after which the kingdom will come. Even the termination of Babylon is included in the sign of a virgin bearing a son called Immanuel. The sign of Immanuel is still being fulfilled today. It is an all-inclusive sign that covers the Bible from Gen. 11 through Rev. 22. See note 141 in ch. 7.
Is 8:8a Immanuel  -   Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23
Is 8:10a counsel  -   Acts 5:38
Is 8:10b God  -   Matt. 1:23
Is 8:12a fear  -   Matt. 10:28; 1 Pet. 3:14
Is 8:13a sanctify  -   Num. 20:12; 1 Pet. 3:15
Is 8:141a sanctuary  -   Ezek. 11:16; Rev. 21:22
Christ the Immanuel becomes a sanctuary, i.e., the inner temple, the Holy of Holies, to God’s chosen people, the place where they as God’s priests live with God and worship and serve God (John 1:14; 2:19, 21; 14:23; 15:5; Rev. 21:22). He is also a smiting stone to the nations (Matt. 21:44b; Dan. 2:34-35), and He is a stone to strike against, a rock of stumbling, a trap, and a snare to the unbelieving ones and the opposers (Matt. 21:44a; 1 Pet. 2:7-8; Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Cor. 1:22-23). See notes on Matt. 21:42 and 44.
Is 8:14b stone  -   Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:44; Luke 20:18; Rom. 9:32; 1 Pet. 2:8
See note 141.
Is 8:14c stumbling  -   Matt. 11:6; Luke 7:23; 1 Cor. 1:23
Is 8:151 at
Or, among them.
Is 8:161 testimony
I.e., the law. See note 11 in Exo. 20.
Is 8:17a wait  -   Psa. 27:14; Isa. 25:9; 26:8; 30:18; 40:31; 42:4; 64:4
Is 8:17b hides  -   Isa. 54:8; 59:2; 64:7
Is 8:18a See  -   Heb. 2:13
Is 8:181 I
The prophet Isaiah and the children whom Jehovah had given to him typify Christ and His believers (Heb. 2:13b).
Isaiah Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Is 9:1a land  -   vv. 1b-2: Matt. 4:15-16
Is 9:1b Naphtali  -   2 Kings 15:29; 2 Chron. 16:4
Is 9:11 sea
The Sea of Galilee.
Is 9:12 Galilee
See note 151 in Matt. 4.
Is 9:2a darkness  -   Luke 1:79; Acts 26:18
Is 9:21b light  -   Isa. 60:1-3; Micah 7:8-9
This prophecy was fulfilled in Matt. 4:12-16, when Christ came to Galilee as the great light — the true light, the light of life (John 1:9, 4; 8:12) — to shine on the people who walked in darkness (John 1:5; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9b) and who dwelt in the shadow of death (Luke 1:78-79). Christ’s shining as the great light on God’s people saves them from the darkness of death, releases them from bondage in darkness (v. 3; Col. 1:13), breaks the yoke that has been upon them (v. 4; 10:26-27), and destroys their enemies with their armor (v. 5).
Is 9:2c shadow  -   Psa. 23:4
Is 9:31a multiplied  -   Isa. 26:15
This prophecy refers to the increase, spread, and growth of Christ on earth through all the New Testament believers, who are the farmers in the harvest and the fighters gaining the spoil, mentioned later in the verse.
Is 9:41a Midian  -   Judg. 7:25; Psa. 83:9; Isa. 10:26
By the shining of Christ, the Lord broke the yoke of the burden of the people of God, broke the staff on their shoulder, and broke the rod of their oppressor as in the day of Midian, when Gideon gained a great victory over the Midianites (Judg. 7:22-25). The Assyrians came to invade Judah and to oppress them, but the Lord destroyed them as He had destroyed the Midianites through Gideon (2 Kings 19:35-37).
Is 9:5a blood  -   Rev. 19:13
Is 9:5b fire  -   Isa. 66:15-16
Is 9:61 child
The child born of a human virgin (7:14) is the Son given by the eternal Father. Christ is the child born of both the divine and human natures (Matt. 1:20-23), and He is also the Son in the divine nature given by the eternal Father. Through the birth of the divine-human child, the eternal Father gave us His divine Son as a gift. Through such a giving, everyone who believes in, i.e., receives, this dear Son receives eternal life (John 3:16; 1 John 5:11-12). See note 141 in ch. 7.
Is 9:6a born  -   Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:21; Luke 2:11
Is 9:62 to
The phrase to us, especially by its repetition, indicates emphatically that every aspect of Christ revealed in this verse is for our personal and subjective experience.
Is 9:6b given  -   John 3:16
Is 9:63 government
Or, rule, dominion. So also in the next verse. The divine administration is upon the shoulders of Christ, the wonderful One.
Is 9:64c Wonderful  -   Judg. 13:18
Lit., Wonder of a Counselor, or, Wonder, Counselor. Christ is wonderful (Judg. 13:18), and He is also the Counselor. He gives us counsel, and then, as the mighty God, He is the power and strength for carrying out the counsel (1 Cor. 1:24).
Is 9:65 Mighty
As the child born to us, Christ is the mighty God (Matt. 2:11; Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:8), and as the Son given to us, He is the eternal Father (63:16; 64:8; John 5:43; 10:30; 14:7-10). See note 161 in ch. 63.
Is 9:6d God  -   Psa. 45:6; Titus 2:13
Is 9:6e Father  -   cf. John 14:10
Is 9:66 Prince
Christ is the Prince of peace to us (Eph. 2:14) mainly by His ruling within us (Col. 3:15).
Is 9:6f Peace  -   Luke 2:14; Eph. 2:14; Heb. 7:2
Is 9:71 government
From the time, in Gen. 11, when mankind gave up God as their Governor and made themselves the governors, the matter of government has been a great problem to man. But when the restoration comes (Acts 3:21), Christ will be the unique Governor, and the government of the Triune God will be upon His shoulder (v. 6). This government will increase and fill every corner of the earth (Psa. 72:8; Zech. 9:10b; see note 353 in Dan. 2), causing the earth to be full of peace (cf. 2:4; 11:6-9).
Is 9:7a no  -   Dan. 2:44; Luke 1:32-33
Is 9:72b throne  -   Luke 1:32
Christ’s ruling on the throne of David over His kingdom will be first in the millennium and then in the new heaven and new earth unto eternity. See Luke 1:32-33 and note 331.
Is 9:7c eternity  -   John 12:34
Is 9:7d zeal  -   2 Kings 19:31; Isa. 37:32
Is 9:81 Jacob
Isaiah 9:8 — 10:34 shows that both the oppressed, the kingdom of Israel, and the oppressor, the kingdom of Assyria, were under the judgment of God. These two judgments were actually one (10:22-23). After the time of Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 11:26 — 12:20). Because the kingdom of Israel had fallen to the extent that it was on the level of the Gentile nations, even becoming an ally to the king of Aram (7:1), Israel was not only under God’s chastisement but also under His judgment. God’s chastisement on Israel (Ephraim — v. 9) became His judgment on Israel.
Is 9:13a not  -   Jer. 5:3; Hosea 7:10
Is 9:14a in  -   Isa. 10:17; Rev. 18:8
Is 9:16a mislead  -   Isa. 3:12; Matt. 15:14
Isaiah Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Is 10:31a day  -   Isa. 26:21; Hosea 9:7; Luke 19:44
Referring to the day of judgment.
Is 10:32 glory
Referring to their wealth.
Is 10:51a rod  -   Isa. 10:24
Because Israel had become corrupt, God used Assyria as a rod and a staff to judge Israel (2 Kings 18:9-12). But Assyria, overstretching the limitation set by God, did not think of the matter in this way, nor did their heart conceive it in this way (v. 7). Thus, Assyria acted excessively, and the king of Assyria became haughty (vv. 12-15). Jehovah, therefore, judged the king of Assyria (vv. 16-19). See note 131 in ch. 26.
Is 10:9a Carchemish  -   2 Chron. 35:20
Is 10:9b Damascus  -   2 Kings 16:9
Is 10:12a Assyria’s  -   Jer. 50:18
Is 10:13a removed  -   2 Kings 15:29
Is 10:15a him  -   Jer. 51:20
Is 10:17a Light  -   Isa. 60:19
Is 10:20a remnant  -   Isa. 11:11, 16; 28:5; 37:31-32; Jer. 23:3; Joel 2:32; Micah 2:12; Zech. 8:12
Is 10:201 escaped
After the judgment on Israel and the judgment on Assyria, there would be the return and release of a remnant of Israel (vv. 20-27).
Is 10:20b rely  -   2 Chron. 13:18
Is 10:21a remnant  -   Isa. 7:3
Is 10:22a For  -   vv. 22-23: Rom. 9:27
Is 10:221 sand
See note 171 in Gen. 22.
Is 10:24a Egypt  -   Exo. 1:11, 13-14
Is 10:25a little  -   Isa. 54:7
Is 10:25b completed  -   Dan. 11:36
Is 10:26a Midian  -   Judg. 7:25; Isa. 9:4
Is 10:26b staff  -   Exo. 14:26-27
Is 10:27a shoulders  -   Isa. 14:25
Is 10:281 He
Referring to the Assyrian.
Is 10:28a comes  -   2 Kings 18:13
Is 10:321 daughter
Or, house of Zion.
Is 10:32a Zion  -   Isa. 37:22
Isaiah Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Is 11:11a sprout  -   cf. Job 14:7
In the restoration the coming Christ will be a sprout that comes forth from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots. Israel, especially the house of David, was like a tall tree. However, because of Israel’s degradation, that tree was cut down, leaving only a stump with its roots. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David, part of the royal family (see note 162 in Matt. 1), but they had become poor and were people of a low class, living in Nazareth, a despised city, in Galilee, a despised region (Luke 1:26-27). Christ as a sprout came forth from the stump of Jesse, above the earth, signifying that restoration is by life and of life. Furthermore, Christ as a branch came forth from Jesse’s roots, underneath the earth, signifying the depths of the restoring life, to branch out God and bear much fruit. Christ as a sprout and a branch is full of restoring power, deepening power, growing power, and fruit-bearing power. Because of His branching out, the whole world is filled with His fruit. See notes 54 in Matt. 1 and 233 in Matt. 2.
Is 11:1b Jesse  -   Matt. 1:5
Is 11:1c roots  -   Isa. 11:10
Is 11:1d fruit  -   Isa. 4:2; Jer. 23:5
Is 11:21a Spirit  -   Isa. 42:1; 61:1; Matt. 3:16; John 1:32-33
The branching out of Jehovah is altogether a matter of the Spirit. Christ was born of the Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35); i.e., He was constituted of the Spirit as His divine essence. Moreover, He was baptized, anointed, with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18). The Spirit was with Him all the time and was one with Him (Luke 4:1, 14; 10:21; John 1:32; Matt. 12:28). He walked by the Spirit and lived a life in, with, by, and through the Spirit. In His human living the Spirit was manifested with all the attributes mentioned in this verse. Thus, the Spirit is the reality of Christ (John 14:16-20; 2 Cor. 3:17).
Is 11:3a what  -   1 Sam. 16:7; John 7:24
Is 11:4a righteousness  -   Psa. 72:2; Rev. 19:11
Is 11:4b breath  -   Job 4:9; 2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 19:15
Is 11:51a girds  -   cf. Eph. 6:14
Girding the loins (hips) gives one the strength to move, act, and especially to stand and to fight (Eph. 6:13-14). Righteousness and faithfulness are two of Christ’s virtues for standing and fighting. He stands with faithfulness and fights with righteousness (Rev. 19:11).
Is 11:6a And  -   vv. 6-9: Isa. 65:25; cf. Isa. 35:9; Ezek. 34:25; Hosea 2:18
Is 11:61 wolf
When Adam fell, sin entered into him (Rom. 5:12). Since he, the head of all the creatures, became fallen, something of Satan also entered into the creatures. In the restoration Christ’s restoring power will deliver all the creatures from the poisonous element of Satan, causing a change not only in outward action but also in inward nature (Rom. 8:19-21). As a result, the situation among them will be pleasant, peaceful, and loving. The reason for this change is that the knowledge of God, i.e., the knowing of God, will fill the earth (v. 9).
Is 11:9a My  -   Psa. 2:6; Ezek. 20:40
Is 11:9b earth  -   Hab. 2:14
Is 11:101a root  -   Isa. 11:1; 53:2; Rom. 15:12; Rev. 5:5; 22:16
Christ’s being the root, the sprout, and the branch of Jesse (v. 1) indicates that He is connected to humanity, whereas Christ’s resting place being the glory indicates that He is very much related to God (see note 104). He is both God and man, the God-man. Cf. note 163 in Rev. 22.
Is 11:102 banner
Through the restoration of Israel, Christ will become a banner to the peoples and a standard to the nations (v. 12). The banner is mainly for designation, explanation, and instruction, and the standard is mainly for calling and gathering people (5:26). In this chapter Isaiah couples Christ as the sprout and the branch (v. 1) with Christ as the banner and the standard. When Christ as a sprout grows among God’s people, this growing-up sprout becomes a banner, which describes, explains, designates, and even gives instructions to the peoples of the earth concerning what Christ is to God’s people. This same Christ as a branch grows up to be a standard to call and gather the nations of the earth.
Is 11:10b Him  -   Rom. 15:10
Is 11:103 nations
In the restoration all the nations on the earth will turn to seek Christ and will be willing to be His people (2:2; Zech. 8:20-22).
Is 11:104 glory
The divine glory, which is God Himself expressed, is Christ’s resting place. This indicates that the divine glory is one with Christ (John 17:5, 24). It also implies Christ’s divinity and indicates that Christ and God are one (John 10:30).
Is 11:111 second
The first time the Lord recovered Israel was in their exodus from Egypt.
Is 11:112 recover
Christ as the banner to the peoples and the standard to the nations will bring in the return of God’s people and the submission of the Gentiles (vv. 11, 12b-16).
Is 11:11a remnant  -   2 Kings 19:30; Ezra 9:15; Isa. 10:20
Is 11:121 standard
See note 102.
Is 11:12a gather  -   Psa. 68:22; Isa. 27:13; 43:6; Jer. 23:7-8; Ezek. 11:17; Zech. 10:10
Is 11:12b four  -   Rev. 7:1
Is 11:131 Ephraim’s
Ephraim was the northern kingdom of Israel, and Judah was the southern kingdom.
Is 11:151 utterly
Lit., devote (in this case, unto destruction).
Is 11:152 tongue
The sea of Egypt is the Red Sea, and its tongue is the Gulf of Suez. The river is the Euphrates. For the return of His people to the Holy Land, God will destroy (or, dry up) the tongue of the sea of Egypt, dry up the Euphrates, and build a highway from Assyria (v. 16).
Is 11:15a dryshod  -   Rev. 16:12
Is 11:16a highway  -   Isa. 19:23
Is 11:16b came  -   Exo. 14:29; Isa. 51:10; 63:12-13
Isaiah Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Is 12:1a in  -   Isa. 2:11
Is 12:11 praise
Or, give thanks to.
Is 12:21 God
This verse clearly reveals that salvation is God Himself. In the New Testament Jah Jehovah, who is salvation, is Jesus, the incarnated God (Matt. 1:21 and note; Luke 2:30 and note).
Is 12:2a salvation  -   Psa. 27:1; Isa. 45:22; Jer. 3:23; Jonah 2:9
Is 12:22 Jah
A shortened form of Jehovah.
Is 12:23b strength  -   Exo. 15:2; Psa. 118:14
Strength and song both indicate experience. When God’s salvation is experienced by us, it becomes our strength, and eventually it will be our song, our praising.
Is 12:31a water  -   John 4:10, 14; 7:37-38
The way to receive God as our salvation is to draw water from the springs of salvation, i.e., to drink Him (Psa. 36:8; John 4:14; 7:37; 1 Cor. 12:13; Rev. 22:17). To be our salvation, the Triune God was processed to become the life-giving Spirit as the living water, the water of life (1 Cor. 15:45; John 7:37-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17). When the living water enters into us, it permeates our entire being, causing us to be nourished, transformed, conformed, and glorified (Rom. 12:2; 8:29-30). Both the Old Testament and the New Testament show that God’s practical salvation is the processed Triune God Himself as the living water.
Is 12:32 springs
The fountain is the source, the spring is the gushing up, the issue, of the source, and the river is the flow. The term the springs of salvation implies that salvation is the source, i.e., the fountain. God as our salvation is the fountain (v. 2); Christ is the springs of salvation for our enjoyment and experience (John 4:14); and the Spirit is the flow of this salvation within us (John 7:38-39).
Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) is the many springs of salvation gushing up from the fountain of the Triune God’s salvation, from whom the believers may draw the water of life for their enjoyment (v. 3a; John 4:14; Rev. 21:6). As God incarnated, Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God (John 1:14a; Col. 2:9). Jesus, Jehovah our Savior and our salvation (Matt. 1:21), has become the source of our eternal salvation through the process of His vicarious death for the accomplishing of God’s eternal redemption (Heb. 5:9; 9:12). Based on His redemption, He as our Redeemer becomes our Savior and our salvation.
Is 12:4a Give  -   1 Chron. 16:8; Psa. 105:1
Is 12:41b call  -   Rom. 10:12
By calling on the name of the Lord with rejoicing and praising, we draw water out of the springs of salvation. See Acts 2:21 and notes.
Is 12:42c Make  -   Psa. 145:4-6
This is a matter of preaching the gospel, of telling others of the deeds of Christ and reminding them that His name has been exalted (Phil. 2:9), i.e., that He has ascended and is now in the heavens. Cf. 1 Pet. 2:9b.
Is 12:5a Sing  -   Exo. 15:1, 21; Psa. 68:32; 98:1; 105:2
Is 12:61a ringing  -   Isa. 54:1; Zeph. 3:14
A ringing shout is a shout that continues to sound. Joy is inward, but rejoicing (v. 3) involves some activity to express the joy that is within. This rejoicing is related to giving a ringing shout, that is, to rejoicing in a continuing way.
Is 12:6b Holy  -   Psa. 71:22; Isa. 41:14, 16
Isaiah Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Is 13:11 Babylon
The nations are used by God’s enemy to disturb God’s chosen people and to frustrate God from carrying out His economy. Thus, God is compelled to come in to judge them. All these judgments issue in one thing, that is, the ushering in of Christ.
The judgment of Jehovah upon the nations was to destroy Babylon by the Median army (vv. 3-4, 17-19; 14:22-23; 21:2, 9a; Dan. 5:30-31) because of its cruel destruction of many nations (14:5-6, 16-17) and because of its idols (21:9b). Although Assyria, not Babylon, was the first nation to trouble God in His economy (Jer. 50:17), in the sight of God all the nations, including Assyria, are a part of Babylon, which was considered by God to be the head of the great human image in Dan. 2:32, 37-38.
Is 13:6a Howl  -   Joel 1:15
Is 13:61 day
See note 151 in Joel 1.
Is 13:6b near  -   Zeph. 1:7; Rev. 6:17; cf. Rev. 18:10
Is 13:8a Pangs  -   Jer. 13:21; cf. 1 Thes. 5:3
Is 13:8b giving  -   Psa. 48:6; Isa. 21:3
Is 13:10a dark  -   Ezek. 32:7; Joel 2:31; Mark 13:24; Rev. 8:12; cf. Isa. 24:23; Rev. 21:23
Is 13:13a shake  -   Hag. 2:6
Is 13:171 I
Jehovah’s judgment upon the nations shows His sovereign and just rule over the nations (v. 17; 14:22, 24-25; 19:1; cf. Dan. 4:17; Rev. 1:5).
Is 13:19a glory  -   cf. Rev. 18:7
Is 13:19b Will  -   vv. 19-20: Jer. 50:39-40
Is 13:19c Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24-25; Deut. 29:23; Jer. 49:18
Is 13:20a inhabited  -   Jer. 50:3; 51:29, 62
Is 13:21a animals  -   Isa. 34:11-15; Jer. 50:39; Rev. 18:2
Is 13:211 wild
Others translate, owls.
Is 13:212 wild
Or, goat demons.
Is 13:221 citadels
According to the reading of some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, widows.
Isaiah Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Is 14:11a compassion  -   Psa. 102:13
An issue of Jehovah’s judgment upon the nations is the restoring and establishing of His beloved Israel (vv. 1-3, 32b; 17:7, 10) and His changing the heart of and blessing the judged nations (16:1-4; 18:1, 7; 19:19-25). See note 51 in ch. 16.
Is 14:1b sojourners  -   Isa. 60:4-5, 10; Eph. 2:12-13
Is 14:41 raging
Following the reading of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient versions; the Hebrew text is unclear.
Is 14:7a ringing  -   Jer. 51:48; Rev. 18:20; cf. Deut. 32:43
Is 14:9a Sheol  -   Ezek. 32:21
Is 14:91 great
Lit., male goats.
Is 14:12a fallen  -   Isa. 34:4; Luke 10:18; Rev. 9:1; 12:4
Is 14:121 Daystar
The Latin Vulgate translates, Lucifer. This refers to Satan, who, as the Daystar, son of the dawn, was one of the earliest angels (the sons of God — Job 38:7, cf. Job 1:6) created by God at the “dawn” of the universe. He was appointed by God to be the head of all the angels (Ezek. 28:14; Jude 9) and later became Satan, the adversary of God, after he rebelled against God (see note 131). Because of his rebellion, Lucifer as Satan was judged by God (vv. 12-15; Ezek. 28:16-19; Luke 10:18).
In vv. 12-15 Isaiah identifies Lucifer with Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon (v. 4), thus regarding Nebuchadnezzar as a figure of Satan, as one who was one with Satan (cf. Ezek. 28:12). This unveils Satan’s kingdom of darkness behind the nations (Eph. 6:12b; cf. Dan. 10:13, 20) and his oneness with the rulers of the nations.
Is 14:131 I
Satan’s rebellion against God is revealed in vv. 13-14 and in Ezek. 28:15-18. Satan’s heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he corrupted his wisdom by reason of his brightness (Ezek. 28:17). In his arrogance Satan declared five times, “I will…,” indicating that his intention in his rebellion was to overthrow God’s authority and to exalt himself to be equal with God. Satan’s ambition for position became the motivation of all the rebellions recorded in the Scriptures (Gen. 11:4; Num. 12:1-2; 16:1-3; 2 Sam. 15:10-12; etc.). Because of his rebellion Satan became God’s adversary, God’s enemy (Zech. 3:1-2; Rev. 12:9a; 20:2a).
Is 14:13a ascend  -   Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15
Is 14:13b exalt  -   cf. Ezek. 28:17; 2 Thes. 2:4
Is 14:132 uttermost
The highest place, where God sits on His throne, in the place where He assembles with all the angels (Job 1:6; 2:1). In his rebellion against God, Satan wanted to be on the same level as God.
Is 14:14a like  -   Isa. 47:8; 2 Thes. 2:4; cf. Ezek. 28:9
Is 14:15a brought  -   Ezek. 28:8; Rev. 20:3; cf. Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15
Is 14:151 Sheol
This is Hades in the New Testament (see note 231 in Matt. 11). Satan wanted to exalt himself to the uttermost parts of the north (v. 13), but God judged the rebellious Satan, sentencing him to be cast from the heavens to the earth and into Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit (vv. 12, 15; Ezek. 28:17). See Luke 10:18 and note; Rev. 12:9 and note 1. Because Satan’s rebellion polluted not only the earth but also the heavens (see notes 205 in Col. 1 and 231 in Heb. 9), both the earth and the heavens were judged by God. As a result, the sun and the stars did not shine, and the earth was covered with darkness and buried under deep water (Gen. 1:2; Job 9:5-7).
According to Rev. 12:4a and 9b, one-third of the angels of heaven joined Satan in his rebellion. They too must have been judged by God (cf. Matt. 25:41), and after being judged they became the fallen angels, Satan’s subordinates as the rulers, the authorities, the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12 and note 2; see note 111 in Dan. 10). The living creatures on the earth in the preadamic age also joined Satan in his rebellion. After being judged by God through water (Gen. 1:2), they became disembodied spirits, the demons (Matt. 8:28-32; 12:43-45), who lodge in the water with which they were judged (see notes 322 in Matt. 8 and 13 in Rev. 21) and work on earth for Satan’s kingdom of darkness (Matt. 12:26; Acts 26:18a; Col. 1:13a).
Is 14:22a cut  -   1 Kings 14:10; Jer. 51:62
Is 14:25a Assyria  -   Isa. 30:31; 31:8; 37:36
Is 14:25b My  -   2 Chron. 7:20; Jer. 2:7; 16:18; Ezek. 36:5; 38:16; Joel 1:6; 3:2; cf. Isa. 8:8
Is 14:28a Ahaz  -   2 Kings 16:20
Is 14:29a rod  -   2 Chron. 26:6
Is 14:29b fruit  -   2 Kings 18:8
Is 14:32a founded  -   Psa. 87:1, 5; 102:16
Is 14:32b poor  -   Zeph. 3:12; Zech. 11:11
Isaiah Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Is 15:2a Upon  -   vv. 2b-3: Jer. 48:37-38
Is 15:5a cries  -   Isa. 16:11; Jer. 48:31
Isaiah Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Is 16:41 Let
According to the reading of the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab.
Is 16:5a established  -   Dan. 7:14; Luke 1:33
Is 16:51 One
The ultimate issue of Jehovah’s judgment upon the nations is to provide the all-inclusive Christ as the Savior to meet the need of the beloved Israel and the judged nations (v. 5; 19:20b; 22:20-25). Christ will reign as a king in the tent of David, i.e., in the kingdom of David, the Messianic kingdom (Acts 15:16), in the coming age during the restoration of the nation of Israel (Amos 9:11 and note; Luke 1:32-33 and note 331). Christ’s reigning in the tent of David signifies consolation, encouragement, and restoration. According to 24:23, the Christ who will reign in the millennium is actually Jehovah of hosts.
Is 16:52 truth
Or, faithfulness.
Is 16:6a We  -   vv. 6-7: Jer. 48:29-31
Is 16:9a Therefore  -   vv. 9-10: Jer. 48:32-33
Is 16:11a Therefore  -   Jer. 48:36
Isaiah Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Is 17:1a Damascus  -   Jer. 49:23; Amos 1:3; Zech. 9:1
Is 17:6a gleanings  -   Isa. 24:13; cf. Isa. 1:9
Is 17:7a look  -   Micah 7:7; cf. Isa. 22:11
Is 17:7b Maker  -   Isa. 54:5
Is 17:101a God  -   Psa. 68:19
As the eternal Rock of our stronghold, Christ is the God of our salvation (see note 21 in ch. 12), in whom we should trust. He is also the Rock of Israel for His people to contact Him as their joy (30:29).
Is 17:12a roaring  -   Jer. 6:23
Is 17:12b waters  -   Isa. 8:7-8; Jer. 46:7-9; 47:2-3; Rev. 12:15
Isaiah Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Is 18:11a Cush  -   Isa. 20:4-5; Ezek. 30:4-5, 9; Zeph. 2:12; 3:10; Acts 8:27
Or, Ethiopia.
Is 18:7a gift  -   Psa. 68:31; 72:10; Zeph. 3:10; Mal. 1:11
Is 18:71 from
From is supplied from the Dead Sea Scrolls and some ancient versions.
Isaiah Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Is 19:1a Egypt  -   Jer. 46:13; Ezek. 29–30
Is 19:1b cloud  -   Psa. 18:10; 104:3
Is 19:1c idols  -   Exo. 12:12; Jer. 43:12
Is 19:4a hard  -   cf. Exo. 1:11
Is 19:5a dried  -   Jer. 51:36; Ezek. 30:12
Is 19:6a stink  -   Exo. 7:21
Is 19:11a Zoan  -   Num. 13:22
Is 19:12a Where  -   1 Cor. 1:20
Is 19:18a language  -   cf. Zeph. 3:9
Is 19:19a altar  -   Gen. 28:18; Exo. 24:4; Josh. 22:10, 26-27
Is 19:201 Savior
In the coming age, for the Gentiles, especially for Egypt, Christ is a Savior, a Defender, who is the Mighty One.
Is 19:211 worship
Or, serve. So also in v. 23.
Is 19:21a offering  -   Mal. 1:11
Is 19:23a highway  -   Isa. 11:16
Is 19:24a blessing  -   Gen. 12:2; Ezek. 34:26; Zech. 8:13
Is 19:25a work  -   Psa. 100:3; Isa. 29:23; Hosea 2:23
Isaiah Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Is 20:11 Tartan
A commander for the king of Assyria (cf. 2 Kings 18:17).
Is 20:3a servant  -   Isa. 49:3
Is 20:3b sign  -   Isa. 8:18; Ezek. 12:6; 24:24
Is 20:51 expectation
Instead of trusting in God, Israel expected to receive help from Cush and to gain something from Egypt for their boasting. God hated this and judged Cush and Egypt for it.
Isaiah Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Is 21:11 Negev
I.e., the dry southern desert of Canaan; the term is generally used to refer to the south.
Is 21:9a Fallen  -   Jer. 51:8; Rev. 14:8; 18:2
Is 21:9b idols  -   Isa. 46:1; Jer. 50:2; 51:47
Is 21:10a threshed  -   Jer. 51:33
Is 21:111 Dumah
I.e., Edom.
Isaiah Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Is 22:11 valley
Even Jerusalem was included in Jehovah’s judgment upon the nations. In His judgment Jehovah would trample down the city of Jerusalem — the valley of vision (vv. 5-7) — because of its unforgivable iniquity: it did not look to the Lord and regard Him (vv. 11b-14).
Is 22:3a fled  -   2 Kings 25:4-7
Is 22:4a weep  -   Jer. 4:19; 9:1
Is 22:5a turmoil  -   Isa. 37:3; Lam. 1:5; 2:2
Is 22:7a full  -   Isa. 8:7-8
Is 22:8a Forest  -   1 Kings 7:2; 10:17; 2 Chron. 9:16
Is 22:9a water  -   2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chron. 32:4, 30
Is 22:10a fortify  -   2 Chron. 32:5
Is 22:11a reservoir  -   Neh. 3:16
Is 22:11b Maker  -   Isa. 37:26
Is 22:12a mourning  -   Joel 1:13; cf. Matt. 11:17; James 4:9
Is 22:13a Eating  -   Isa. 56:12; 1 Cor. 15:32; Luke 12:19
Is 22:16a tomb  -   2 Sam. 18:18; cf. Matt. 27:60
Is 22:201a Eliakim  -   2 Kings 18:18
Eliakim, the servant of Jehovah who replaced Shebna (vv. 15-19), is a type of Christ as the Steward over God’s house (v. 22, cf. Rev. 3:7). God’s house is the divine household (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19; 1 Tim. 3:15), including all the believers throughout the ages, over which Christ is the unique Steward, who takes care of God’s household in every way. While Christ as God’s Steward serves in God’s house, He also governs, rules, and administrates God’s children, who are under Christ’s care.
Is 22:211 father
Christ is a Father to us, God’s children (cf. 9:6). As the Father, He is the source and Supplier to support us in everything and in every way.
Is 22:221a key  -   Rev. 3:7; cf. Matt. 16:19; Rev. 1:18
The all-inclusive Christ, as typified by Eliakim, is also the One upon whose shoulder the key of (the treasury of — 39:2 and note) the house of God (typified by the house of David for the building up of the kingdom of God — 2 Sam. 7:16) is set (Rev. 3:7). The church is both God’s house (1 Tim. 3:15) and God’s kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17). The key set on Christ’s shoulder is the key for the keeping of all the treasures of the house of God, which are all the riches of Christ for our enjoyment. Christ is the One who can open and shut the door to the treasury of God’s riches, which are embodied in Him (Col. 2:9).
Is 22:231a peg  -   Ezra 9:8; Zech. 10:4
Christ has been driven by God as a peg, or nail, into a sure place (v. 23a), which typifies the third heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2b), where Christ was exalted by God after His resurrection (Acts 2:33; 5:31). Because the Father is in the third heaven (Matt. 6:9), to be exalted to the third heaven is to be exalted to God the Father (cf. Luke 15:18). Christ today is in the heavens as a peg driven into God. See notes on v. 24.
Is 22:232 throne
Christ will become a throne of glory for His Father’s house. The glory here is the children of God, who are vessels hanging upon Christ as the peg (v. 24 and notes). With the glory there is a throne, and this throne is actually Christ Himself. The throne signifies the administrative authority and the kingdom. Christ in His administrative authority is the throne that governs everything within the house of God.
Is 22:241 glory
Or, weight. In this verse glory is in apposition with both the offspring and the issue and vessels. Thus, the glory of the Father’s house that hangs on Christ as the peg is the children of God as the offspring and the issue (descendants) of God, and these children of God are the vessels of Christ, who hang on Him in order to contain Him and to minister Him to others. The children of God as the offspring and the issue are glory in the house of God, and they are also the vessels.
Is 22:242 bowls
The bowls and jars typify the different ways and means for us to partake of Christ in His riches. Bowls, or cups, are small vessels to contain water, typifying the Spirit of Christ (John 7:37-39), and jars, or pitchers, are large vessels to contain wine, typifying the divine life (Matt. 9:17 and note 1). This signifies that in the house of God all His children are vessels to contain His Spirit as water to quench people’s thirst and His life as wine to cheer people unto rejoicing. All the riches of the bountiful supply for the enjoyment of God’s children are hanging on Christ as the peg, the holder.
Is 22:251 peg
Referring not to Eliakim (Christ) but to Shebna (v. 15), who was replaced by Eliakim. In His judgment God discharged, or “fired,” everyone and everything, including the kings of the nations, Shebna the steward, and all the bowls and jars in God’s house, and replaced them all with Christ. God discharged everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ. Because Christ joined Himself to us, uniting Himself with us, when He died on the cross, we died with Him and were terminated (Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:14). Now, in our organic union with Christ through our faith in Him, He replaces us by living in us, with us, by us, and through us (John 15:5; Rom. 11:17; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a). Furthermore, God has replaced everything in His Old Testament economy with Christ (Matt. 17:3-5; Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 10:5-14). Thus, the all-inclusive Christ as Immanuel (7:14) replaces everything and becomes everything in God’s economy.
Isaiah Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Is 23:1a Tyre  -   Jer. 25:22; 47:4; Ezek. 26–28; Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13
Is 23:11 it
I.e., Tyre, the subject of this burden.
Is 23:12 Kittim
Probably modern-day Cyprus. So also in v. 12.
Is 23:131 Chaldeans
I.e., Babylonians.
Is 23:15a seventy  -   Jer. 25:9-12; 29:10
Isaiah Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Is 24:1a earth  -   cf. Gen. 1:2; Isa. 45:18
Is 24:5a polluted  -   Num. 35:33
Is 24:8a ceases  -   Jer. 7:34; 16:9; Ezek. 26:13; Hosea 2:11; Rev. 18:22
Is 24:15a name  -   Mal. 1:11
Is 24:161 Glory
Or, Beauty, honor.
Is 24:17a Dread  -   vv. 17-18: Jer. 48:43-44; cf. 1 Kings 19:17; Amos 5:19
Is 24:17b snare  -   Eccl. 9:12; Luke 21:34
Is 24:211 host
Here the host on high refers to Satan and his angels in the air (cf. Eph. 2:2; 6:12). Jehovah’s reaction to the nations’ excessive action on Israel deals both with Satan’s army in the air and with the kings on the earth. See note 131 in ch. 26.
Is 24:21a kings  -   Psa. 76:12; Rev. 6:15
Is 24:23a moon  -   Isa. 13:10; Ezek. 32:7; Joel 2:31; 3:15; cf. Rev. 21:23
Isaiah Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Is 25:4a refuge  -   Isa. 4:6
Is 25:6a mountain  -   Isa. 2:2-3
Is 25:61 peoples
Here peoples refers to the nations. In the restoration God will make a satisfying feast for the nations. At that time Jerusalem with Mount Zion will be the most joyful place on earth. It will be a center to which all the peoples of the earth will come to find enjoyment and satisfaction (2:2-3).
Is 25:71 covering
Lit., the face of the covering that covers up. Today the people on earth are covered with a veil that keeps them from seeing God’s economy (cf. 2 Cor. 3:15; 4:4), but in the restoration God will take away this covering. Then all the people will see something concerning God’s eternal economy.
Is 25:7a veil  -   cf. 2 Cor. 3:15-16
Is 25:8a death  -   Hosea 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:54; 2 Cor. 5:4; Rev. 20:14
Is 25:81 forever
Lit., unto perpetuity. The Hebrew phrase, however, also contains the notion of eminence; thus, the Septuagint translated it having prevailed, and Paul freely rendered it unto victory (1 Cor. 15:54).
Is 25:8b tears  -   Rev. 7:17; 21:4
Is 25:9a waited  -   Isa. 8:17
Is 25:9b rejoice  -   1 Sam. 2:1; Psa. 20:5; 35:9
Isaiah Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Is 26:2a Open  -   Psa. 118:19-20
Is 26:3a peace  -   Phil. 4:7
Is 26:4a rock  -   Deut. 32:15; Psa. 18:2; 92:15; 94:22
Is 26:81 path
While the Lord is chastening us, we should wait for Him in the path of His judging in order to learn the lesson that He would give us. God’s judgments always teach us lessons in righteousness (v. 9).
Is 26:8a waited  -   Isa. 8:17
Is 26:9a night  -   Psa. 63:6; S.S. 3:1
Is 26:11a devour  -   Heb. 10:27
Is 26:12a peace  -   Psa. 29:11
Is 26:131 lords
Because Israel had become rebellious, God used the nations to discipline them. But the action of the nations was excessive; they went too far, overstepping the limit set by God. In assuming to be lords and acting as if they were the master, the nations went too far. Thus, God judges them and punishes them (vv. 5, 14, 21; 24:21-22; 25:2-3; 27:1).
God’s chastising of Israel and His judgment on the nations who exercise excessive action upon Israel issue in three things: (1) Israel is brought back to God; (2) the created things are restored; and (3) the all-inclusive Christ is ushered in. When Israel turns to God, there will be the restoration of all things. Then the all-inclusive Christ will be ushered in. This is the basic and governing principle of Isaiah’s prophecy, especially in the first thirty-nine chapters.
Is 26:13a mention  -   2 Tim. 2:19
Is 26:15a You  -   Isa. 9:3; Jer. 30:19
Is 26:151 increased
To increase the nation is to increase the people, and to extend the edges is to enlarge the territory. In the restoration the Holy Land will extend from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates (Deut. 11:24 and note).
Is 26:15b glorified  -   cf. John 15:8
Is 26:161a sought  -   Hosea 5:15
Jehovah’s reaction to Israel’s degradation issues in their turning to Jehovah (24:14-16a; 25:1, 4-5, 9; 26:8-9) and their return to the Holy Land for restoration (vv. 1-4, 15, 19; 24:23; 25:6-7; 27:2-9, 12-13).
Is 26:17a pregnant  -   Isa. 13:8; Jer. 4:31; 6:24; 13:21; 30:6; Micah 4:9-10; 5:3; Gal. 4:19; Rev. 12:1-2
Is 26:19a live  -   Ezek. 37:1, 10
Is 26:19b rise  -   Hosea 6:2
Is 26:19c Awake  -   Dan. 12:2; Eph. 5:14
Is 26:20a shut  -   Matt. 6:6
Is 26:21a coming  -   Micah 1:3
Isaiah Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Is 27:11a Leviathan  -   Psa. 74:13-14
Toward Israel the nations were like leviathan, the fleeing and crooked serpent, and like the dragon in the sea. In His reaction to the nations’ excessive action on Israel (see note 131 in ch. 26), Jehovah punished leviathan and slew the dragon in the sea.
Is 27:2a vineyard  -   Psa. 80:8; Jer. 2:21; Matt. 21:33
Is 27:21 wine
Some MSS read, delight.
Is 27:2b sing  -   Isa. 5:1
Is 27:3a keeper  -   John 15:1
Is 27:6a take  -   Isa. 37:31; Hosea 14:5-6
Is 27:9a removal  -   Isa. 59:20-21; Rom. 11:26-27
Is 27:11a not  -   Deut. 32:28; Isa. 6:9; Jer. 4:22; Matt. 13:14
Is 27:121 grain
The grain here denotes the scattered people of Israel. The fulfillment of the prophecy in vv. 12-13, concerning the gathering of all the outcast, lost, and scattered Israelites back to the Holy Land, began with the return of the captives from Babylon; it is continuing today, and it will be fully accomplished at the time of the Lord’s second coming.
Is 27:122 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Is 27:12a gleaned  -   Jer. 3:14; Neh. 1:9
Is 27:13a trumpet  -   Matt. 24:31; cf. 1 Cor. 15:52
Isaiah Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Is 28:11 Ephraim
Representing the northern kingdom of Israel.
Is 28:21 someone
Probably first the king of Assyria and then the king of Babylon (2 Kings 17:3-18; 24:10-16).
Is 28:2a hailstorm  -   Exo. 9:18-19, 23-26; Psa. 18:12-13; Isa. 30:30; Ezek. 13:11; 38:22; Rev. 8:7
Is 28:51a crown  -   cf. Isa. 62:3
Jehovah’s punishing of Israel issues in His restoration. Jehovah of hosts as Christ will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of Israel, God’s chosen people, in the age of restoration after all God’s dealing with Israel is completed.
Is 28:5b remnant  -   Isa. 10:20
Is 28:9a milk  -   1 Cor. 3:2; 1 Pet. 2:2
Is 28:101 Rule
These rules were parts of the law. Ephraim was bothered by the fact that Jehovah’s rules and statutes were scattered repeatedly in pieces.
Is 28:11a For  -   vv. 11-12: 1 Cor. 14:21
Is 28:111 foreign
The tongue of the Gentile invaders, which became a bothering and a shame to Ephraim (cf. 1 Cor. 14:21 and note 2).
Is 28:131 Rule
See note 101.
Is 28:141 Jerusalem
Jehovah destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrian army (vv. 14-15, 17-20, 22; 2 Kings 17:3-18). This was done as a warning to Jerusalem, which represents the southern kingdom of Judah.
Is 28:15a death  -   Eccl. 8:8
Is 28:16a Indeed  -   Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:6
Is 28:161b stone  -   Gen. 49:24; Psa. 118:22; Matt. 16:18; 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:7-8
Jehovah’s punishment over Ephraim’s drunkards will also usher in the trustworthy Christ as a foundation stone and a precious cornerstone for God’s building (Psa. 118:22-24 and notes). The complete fulfillment of Christ as the stone will be in the next age, the age of restoration (Psa. 118:26 and note; cf. Matt. 23:38-39 and note 391).
In contrast to the priest and the prophet described in v. 7, the trustworthy Christ is the faithful High Priest and the trustworthy Prophet to God’s redeemed (Heb. 7:26; Acts 3:22-23).
Is 28:16c He  -   Rom. 10:11
Is 28:18a overflowing  -   Isa. 8:8
Is 28:211 rise
This is Jehovah’s reaction of fighting against the Assyrians, who had destroyed Israel excessively (see note 131 in ch. 26).
Is 28:21a Perazim  -   2 Sam. 5:20; 1 Chron. 14:11
Is 28:21b Gibeon  -   Josh. 10:10, 12; 1 Chron. 14:16
Is 28:22a destruction  -   Isa. 10:22-23; Dan. 9:27
Is 28:241 plowman
In vv. 24-29 Jehovah, as a farmer, deals with people as His crops by different utensils according to His extraordinary counsel and His great wisdom.
Is 28:29a extraordinary  -   Psa. 92:5; Jer. 32:19
Isaiah Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Is 29:11 Ariel
Meaning a lion of El. A symbolic name for Jerusalem, and representing the southern kingdom of Judah.
Is 29:3a encamp  -   cf. 2 Kings 25:1; Ezek. 21:22; Luke 19:43
Is 29:10a For  -   Rom. 11:8
Is 29:10b eyes  -   Psa. 69:23; Isa. 6:10
Is 29:13a Because  -   Ezek. 33:31; Matt. 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-7
Is 29:131 draws
The northern kingdom of Israel was full of drunkards (ch. 28), and the southern kingdom of Judah was full of hypocritical worshippers. These two conditions characterize the condition of fallen mankind on the earth. First, people are drunk by loving things other than the Lord, and second, they are not true but false. The kind of hypocritical worship described in this verse continued until the time of Christ (Matt. 15:1-14; John 4:20-24). As revealed in vv. 1-12, 14-16, Jehovah judged the hypocrisy of the worshippers in Jerusalem.
Is 29:14a wondrous  -   Acts 13:41
Is 29:14b perish  -   Job 5:13; Jer. 49:7; Obad. 8; 1 Cor. 1:19
Is 29:151 hide
With the hypocritical worship spoken of in this chapter, there was vanity but no reality (v. 13) and blindness but no wisdom (vv. 9-12, 15-16). Through His incarnation Christ brought to us the very reality of the universe — the Triune God, the Divine Trinity, embodied in a person, Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 17). When we realize the embodied reality, the Divine Trinity in Christ, our eyes, our ears, and our understanding are opened, and we have wisdom. Christ is the reality and wisdom to God’s redeemed people (John 14:6a; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30) that makes them true worshippers of God (John 4:23-24).
Is 29:16a what  -   Isa. 45:9; Rom. 9:20
Is 29:171 Is
Jehovah’s judgment on the hypocrisy of Jerusalem’s worshippers issues in the restoration (vv. 17-24).
Is 29:18a deaf  -   Isa. 35:5; Matt. 11:5
Is 29:19a afflicted  -   Isa. 61:1
Is 29:22a redeemed  -   Josh. 24:3; cf. Gen. 48:16
Is 29:23a sanctify  -   Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2; 1 Pet. 3:15
Is 29:23b God  -   Matt. 15:31; Luke 1:68
Isaiah Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Is 30:11 make
Lit., pour out a libation. These were drink offerings that the Gentiles poured out to their idols in making an alliance.
Is 30:21a Egypt  -   2 Kings 17:4; Isa. 31:1; Jer. 43:7
Egypt typifies the world. Whenever God’s people are in a fallen condition or low estate, they go to Egypt (Gen. 12:10; 42:1-3). To make an alliance with the world or to rely on the world is sin, and it always issues in humiliation, shame, and reproach (vv. 3-5).
Is 30:2b ask  -   Num. 27:21; Josh. 9:14; 1 Kings 22:7
Is 30:61 Negev
See note 11 in ch. 21.
Is 30:7a helps  -   Jer. 37:7
Is 30:81 As
According to some MSS and most ancient versions; otherwise read, Forever and ever.
Is 30:10a not  -   1 Kings 22:13; Jer. 5:31; Micah 2:11; Luke 6:26
Is 30:14a vessel  -   Psa. 2:9; Jer. 19:11; Rev. 2:27
Is 30:151a returning  -   Jer. 3:22
Jehovah’s dealing with Israel’s reliance on Egypt and His dealing with the nations issue in Israel’s turn to Jehovah (v. 15; 31:6-7) and in Jehovah’s return to Israel (v. 18; 31:4-5, 9b) with the restoration (vv. 19-26, 29; Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21).
Is 30:15b rest  -   Isa. 28:12
Is 30:15c not  -   Matt. 23:37
Is 30:17a flee  -   Lev. 26:8; Deut. 28:25; 32:30
Is 30:18a Blessed  -   Psa. 2:12; Prov. 16:20; Jer. 17:7
Is 30:18b wait  -   Isa. 8:17
Is 30:19a dwell  -   Isa. 65:9
Is 30:20a bread  -   1 Kings 22:27; Psa. 127:2
Is 30:201 Teacher
In the Old Testament age Christ hid Himself in a mystery, but in the age of restoration, the millennium, He will be manifested to Israel. In the New Testament age of grace Christ is already manifested to His believers as their Teacher (Matt. 23:8, 10).
Is 30:20b hide  -   Psa. 74:9; Amos 8:11
Is 30:21a way  -   Psa. 32:8
Is 30:25a mountain  -   Isa. 2:14-15
Is 30:25b streams  -   Isa. 44:3
Is 30:26a light  -   Isa. 60:19-20
Is 30:261 sevenfold
In the consideration of the godly people, mainly the prophets, there was the expectation that the Messiah would come to restore not only the kingdom of Israel (cf. Acts 1:6) but also the entire universe, especially the sun, the moon, and the stars, for the growing of the living things on the earth, that the earth might be very rich in produce. In the restoration the light of the sun will be sevenfold not for scorching but for shining, for giving sunshine to grow the living things on earth. This means that the heavens will answer the earth and cause it to grow things in a rich way (Hosea 2:21-22). The sun’s shining seven times brighter indicates that the produce of the earth will be seven times richer than it is in this age. At that time there will be no scarcity but rather plenitude. See notes 111 in Hosea 6 and 181 in Joel 3.
Is 30:28a sift  -   Amos 9:9
Is 30:281 nothingness
Referring to the result of destruction. After Jehovah deals with Israel, He deals with the nations, sifting them with the sieve of destruction (vv. 27-33; 31:8-9a).
Is 30:29a mountain  -   Isa. 2:3
Is 30:31a Assyria  -   Isa. 37:36
Is 30:331a Topheth  -   Jer. 7:31; 19:6
A place in the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. See note 228 in Matt. 5.
Is 30:33b brimstone  -   Psa. 11:6; Luke 17:29; Rev. 14:10
Isaiah Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Is 31:1a Egypt  -   Isa. 30:2; 36:6; Ezek. 17:15
Is 31:1b chariots  -   Psa. 20:7; Isa. 36:9
Is 31:1c seek  -   Isa. 9:13; 64:7; Dan. 9:13; Amos 5:6
Is 31:4a Roars  -   Hosea 11:10; Rev. 10:3
Is 31:4b wage  -   Isa. 37:35-36; 42:13; Zech. 9:8; 12:8; 14:3
Is 31:5a protect  -   Deut. 32:11; Psa. 91:4
Is 31:8a Assyrian  -   2 Kings 19:35-36; Isa. 37:36
Is 31:9a fire  -   Zech. 2:5
Isaiah Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Is 32:11a King  -   Psa. 45:1; Jer. 23:5; Hosea 3:5; Zech. 9:9; cf. Heb. 7:2
Christ as Jehovah and also as man is the King for supplying, caring for, and covering God’s people (vv. 1-2; 33:22). He rules not directly by Himself but indirectly through the rulers. In the millennium Christ will be the King, and many of those who love Him will be the rulers, His co-kings (Matt. 19:28; 1 Cor. 6:2; Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5; 20:4).
Is 32:12 righteousness
Righteousness is to be right, whereas justice is righteousness with a judgment. Christ will reign according to righteousness, and He will rule through His helpers, the rulers, to judge the people according to justice.
Is 32:21 man
On the one hand, Christ will be the King ruling (v. 1); on the other hand, He will be a man protecting, covering, supplying, and overshadowing. Under Him there will be righteousness, protection, and enjoyment. This is a picture of the millennial kingdom.
Is 32:2a refuge  -   Isa. 4:6; 25:4
Is 32:2b streams  -   Isa. 35:6-7; 41:18
Is 32:31 eyes
As the King (v. 1), Christ will bring in the restoration for Israel (vv. 3-4, 15-18; 33:2, 5-6, 20-22; 35:1-2, 5-10).
Is 32:3a not  -   Deut. 34:4; Isa. 29:18; 35:5-6; cf. Gen. 27:1; 48:10; 1 Sam. 3:2
Is 32:141 Hill
The fortified slope to the south of the temple area.
Is 32:15a Spirit  -   Psa. 104:30; Isa. 44:3; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17
Is 32:17a work  -   Heb. 7:2; 12:11; James 3:18
Isaiah Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Is 33:2a waited  -   Isa. 8:17
Is 33:21 our
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, their.
Is 33:2b Our  -   Psa. 68:19
Is 33:5a exalted  -   Psa. 97:9
Is 33:14a everlasting  -   Isa. 66:24; Matt. 18:8; 25:41; Rev. 20:10
Is 33:17a King  -   Psa. 45:1-2
Is 33:20a city  -   Psa. 48:12
Is 33:20b habitation  -   Psa. 46:5; 125:1-2
Is 33:21a rivers  -   Psa. 46:4
Is 33:221 Jehovah
In the restoration the all-inclusive Jehovah as Christ (cf. 32:1) will be the entire divine government, including the King, the Lawmaker, and the Judge, for the saving of His people.
Is 33:22a Judge  -   Gen. 18:25; Psa. 50:6; 75:7; 98:9
Is 33:22b Lawmaker  -   James 4:12
Is 33:22c King  -   Psa. 44:4; 95:3; Jer. 10:10
Is 33:24a forgiven  -   Jer. 50:20
Isaiah Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Is 34:2a armies  -   Ezek. 39:4; Rev. 19:18-21
Is 34:3a stench  -   Joel 2:20
Is 34:4a heavens  -   Psa. 102:26; Isa. 51:6; Matt. 24:35; Heb. 1:11; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 6:14; 20:11
Is 34:4b like  -   Rev. 6:13
Is 34:5a sword  -   Isa. 66:16; Jer. 46:10; Rev. 6:4
Is 34:5b Edom  -   Jer. 49:7; Mal. 1:4
Is 34:61 sacrifice
This sacrifice in Bozrah and slaughter in the land of Edom will be fulfilled in full in the great war at Armageddon, which will take place in a region that extends to Bozrah (63:1-6 and note 21).
Is 34:6a Bozrah  -   Isa. 63:1; Jer. 49:13
Is 34:8a day  -   Isa. 63:4; Jer. 46:10; Zeph. 1:7; Luke 21:22
Is 34:91 its
I.e., Edom’s.
Is 34:10a smoke  -   Rev. 14:11; 18:18; 19:3
Is 34:13a habitation  -   Isa. 13:21-22; cf. Rev. 18:2
Is 34:14a Desert  -   Isa. 13:21
Is 34:141 demon
Or, hairy goat.
Is 34:142 Lilith
The name of a female deity; lit., creature of the night.
Is 34:16a Seek  -   Acts 17:11
Is 34:16b book  -   Mal. 3:16
Isaiah Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Is 35:1a wilderness  -   Isa. 32:15; 51:3
Is 35:11 desert
Heb. Arabah; i.e., the plain that runs from north of the Dead Sea south to the Gulf of Aqaba. So also in v. 6.
Is 35:3a hands  -   Job 4:3-4; Heb. 12:12
Is 35:5a blind  -   Isa. 29:18; 32:3-4; Matt. 9:30; Luke 7:22; John 9:6-7
Is 35:51 opened
See note 12 in Matt. 10.
Is 35:5b deaf  -   Matt. 11:5; Mark 7:32
Is 35:6a lame  -   Matt. 11:5; John 5:8-9; Acts 3:2-8; 14:10
Is 35:6b dumb  -   Matt. 9:33; 15:31
Is 35:6c break  -   Isa. 41:18; 43:19
Is 35:8a will  -   Isa. 52:1; Joel 3:17; Rev. 21:27
Is 35:10a And  -   Isa. 51:11
Is 35:10b sighing  -   Isa. 25:8; 65:19; Rev. 7:17; 21:4
Isaiah Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Is 36:1a In  -   2 Kings 18:13; 2 Chron. 32:1
Is 36:11 Hezekiah
The first thirty-five chapters of this book concern God’s loving chastisement on His beloved Israel and His righteous judgment on the nations, in order that His elect might turn to Him so that the created things might be restored and the all-inclusive Christ might be brought in. At this point, everyone and everything have been discharged by God, and Christ, the only One who is qualified, has come. In chs. 36 — 39 Isaiah provides an example in the person of Hezekiah, the king of Judah. In this example Isaiah shows how a person such as Hezekiah, who was appointed a king in God’s kingdom, who was godly, and who prayed and received miraculous answers from God, eventually became not a success but a failure because of his self-glory and self-interest. Hence, he too was eventually discharged by God. See notes in chs. 37 — 39.
Is 36:1b king  -   Isa. 8:7-8
Is 36:2a And  -   2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chron. 32:9
Is 36:3a Then  -   vv. 3-22: 2 Kings 18:18-37
Is 36:3b Eliakim  -   Isa. 22:20
Is 36:4a Thus  -   2 Chron. 32:10
Is 36:6a reed  -   Ezek. 29:6-7
Is 36:7a Hezekiah  -   2 Chron. 32:12
Is 36:7b this  -   Deut. 12:2-6, 14
Is 36:9a Egypt  -   Isa. 20:5; 30:3, 7
Is 36:11a Aramaic  -   Ezra 4:7; Dan. 2:4
Is 36:11b Jews’  -   2 Chron. 32:18
Is 36:16a vine  -   1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4; Zech. 3:10
Is 36:18a Be  -   vv. 18-20: 2 Chron. 32:15-17
Isaiah Chapter 37
Notes and Cross-references
Is 37:1a And  -   vv. 1-38: 2 Kings 19:1-37
Is 37:11 tore
Hezekiah’s response here and his prayers in vv. 15-20 and 38:2-3, 9-20 show that he was a godly person.
Is 37:2a Isaiah  -   Isa. 1:1
Is 37:4a remnant  -   Isa. 10:20
Is 37:15a And  -   2 Chron. 32:20
Is 37:16a cherubim  -   Exo. 25:22; Ezek. 10:1
Is 37:16b made  -   Isa. 42:5; Jer. 10:12; Acts 4:24
Is 37:19a not  -   Jer. 2:11; 5:7; 16:20; Hosea 8:6; Gal. 4:8
Is 37:22a daughter  -   Isa. 1:8; Micah 4:13
Is 37:251 Egypt
Or, besieged places.
Is 37:271 is
Following the reading of the Dead Sea Scrolls and 2 Kings 19:26; other MSS read, a plowed field.
Is 37:29a turn  -   Isa. 37:37
Is 37:31a remnant  -   Isa. 10:20
Is 37:31b root  -   Isa. 27:6
Is 37:32a zeal  -   Isa. 9:7; cf. John 2:17
Is 37:35a enclosure  -   Isa. 31:5; 38:6
Is 37:351 own
That God would answer the prayer not for Hezekiah’s sake but for His own sake and for the sake of David indicates that in God’s consideration Hezekiah had very little credit before Him. All the credit was given either to God Himself or to Hezekiah’s forefather David (cf. 38:5a).
Is 37:36a angel  -   2 Kings 19:35; Isa. 17:14; 30:31
Isaiah Chapter 38
Notes and Cross-references
Is 38:1a In  -   vv. 1-6: 2 Kings 20:1-6; 2 Chron. 32:24
Is 38:1b Put  -   2 Sam. 17:23
Is 38:51 fifteen
For God to give Hezekiah another fifteen years meant that he would live until the age of only fifty-four (2 Kings 18:2). The reason God extended Hezekiah’s life by only fifteen years was that, in the sight of God, Hezekiah was not a person who could be trusted to carry out God’s purpose. During his last fifteen years Hezekiah made a mistake that was so serious that it caused God’s kingdom on earth to be lost (ch. 39).
Is 38:6a enclosure  -   Isa. 37:35
Is 38:7a And  -   vv. 7-8: 2 Kings 20:9-10
Is 38:7b sign  -   2 Kings 20:8; Isa. 7:11; 38:22
Is 38:10a gates  -   Job 17:16; Matt. 16:18
Is 38:12a dwelling  -   2 Cor. 5:1; 2 Pet. 1:13-14
Is 38:121 from
Or, with a languishing sickness.
Is 38:151 deliberately
Hezekiah’s use of this word indicates that he realized that he had been too hasty in the past and that his walk had not been proper in the sight of God. Thus, in his prayer he said that he would walk deliberately all his years. But when the visitors from Babylon came (39:1-2), instead of walking in a deliberate way, he walked in a hasty way. See note 21 in ch. 39.
Is 38:17a cast  -   Isa. 43:25; Micah 7:19
Is 38:181a Sheol  -   Psa. 6:5; 30:9; 88:10
See note 231 in Matt. 11. In vv. 18-19 Hezekiah asked Jehovah in a selfish way to put him among the living so that he could praise Him. This indicates that he was for God, but in a selfish way. See note 81 in ch. 39.
Is 38:19a children  -   Deut. 4:9; 6:7; Psa. 78:3-6
Is 38:21a Then  -   vv. 21-22: 2 Kings 20:7-8
Isaiah Chapter 39
Notes and Cross-references
Is 39:1a At  -   vv. 1-8: 2 Kings 20:12-19; 2 Chron. 32:31
Is 39:21 his
Hezekiah’s showing the visitors from Babylon his treasury, his whole armory, and everything in his dominion was a foolish act and a great mistake. The showing of these riches became a temptation to Babylon. A little over one hundred years later, the king of Babylon came and took away those riches (2 Kings 24 — 25). Hezekiah did not consider his action carefully, nor did he pray about it. He did not take thought concerning what the king of Babylon might do. This shows that Hezekiah was hasty and not very considerate or careful. Furthermore, his making a show offended God, who hates man’s pride (1 Pet. 5:5).
Is 39:6a Babylon  -   Jer. 20:5
Is 39:7a eunuchs  -   cf. Dan. 1:2-3, 7
Is 39:8a good  -   1 Sam. 3:18
Is 39:81 my
Hezekiah’s response to Isaiah’s word indicates that he was selfish, caring only for himself. The kingdom of Judah, over which Hezekiah became king, was actually God’s kingdom on earth, and Hezekiah should not have regarded it as his own kingdom (cf. note 61 in 1 Sam. 31). For Hezekiah to lose his kingdom was a small thing, but for God to lose His kingdom was a great thing. Hezekiah’s response in this verse indicates that he had no thought for God and God’s kingdom, nor did he care even for his own children. He was altogether for himself.
The factors of Hezekiah’s failure include (1) making a show of what he had, according to his flesh, (2) not being watchful, (3) not seeking the Lord, (4) not praying, (5) not considering the result of his actions, and (6) caring only for himself and not for God’s kingdom on the earth.
Isaiah Chapter 40
Notes and Cross-references
Is 40:11a Comfort  -   Isa. 49:13; 51:3, 12
Isaiah is a book of two main sections. The first section (chs. 1 — 39) concerns God’s governmental dealing with His beloved Israel and His punishing judgment on the nations so that Israel may be brought back to God and the all-inclusive Christ may be ushered in with the expected restoration of all things (11:6-9; 35:5-6; cf. Matt. 19:28; 10:1; Rom. 8:19-23). The last section of Isaiah (chs. 40 — 66) is the kind word of Jehovah spoken to the heart of Israel, His beloved people. This word unveils the prophet’s vision concerning the redeeming and saving Christ as the Servant of Jehovah and reveals the all-inclusive salvation brought in by Christ to Israel and the nations, with the full restoration of all things, consummating in the new heaven and new earth.
The first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah, corresponding to the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, focus mainly on the old creation, whereas the last twenty-seven chapters, corresponding to the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, center on the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). Both this chapter and the New Testament begin with the coming of John the Baptist, who ushered in the expected Christ for the initiation of the new creation (v. 3; Mark 1:1-11). The coming of the new creation does not immediately end the old creation; rather, the old creation remains for a time, until it is terminated at the end of the millennium (cf. 2 Pet. 3:7, 10-12). The end of the thousand-year kingdom will be the termination of the old creation as well as the completion, the consummation, of the new creation, which is signified by the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-2).
Is 40:2a double  -   cf. Rev. 18:6
Is 40:3a The  -   Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23
Is 40:3b Make  -   Mal. 3:1; Luke 1:76
Is 40:31 Jehovah
In this chapter the all-inclusive Christ is revealed as Jehovah the Savior. To make clear the way of Jehovah is to make clear the way of Jesus, who is the New Testament Jehovah (see note 211 in Matt. 1). Moreover, the way of Jesus is a highway for our God, indicating that Jesus is our God. See note 32 in Matt. 3.
Is 40:32 desert
See note 11 in ch. 35.
Is 40:3c highway  -   Psa. 68:4; Isa. 49:11
Is 40:4a Every  -   vv. 4-5: Luke 3:5-6
Is 40:4b rough  -   Isa. 45:2
Is 40:51a glory  -   Psa. 72:19; Isa. 35:2
In this chapter the speaking of the word of comfort to the heart of Jerusalem (vv. 1-2) is actually the announcing of the gospel (cf. 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19). The first thing announced is the coming of John the Baptist (vv. 3-4). This is followed immediately by the appearing of Christ, the One recommended by John, as the glory of Jehovah (v. 5). The glory of Jehovah is the center of the gospel for the new creation (2 Cor. 4:4-6). Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3), and this effulgence is like the shining of the sun (Luke 1:78-79). Thus, when Christ appeared, the glory of Jehovah was revealed to be seen by the God-seekers and Christ-believers (Matt. 17:1-2, 5; Luke 2:25-32; 9:32; John 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:16-18). To those on whom Christ has shined, Christ is the glory of God and the hope of glory within them (Col. 1:27).
In this chapter the coming Christ as the glad tidings is to be announced as Jehovah our God (v. 3); as Jehovah of glory (v. 5); as the Lord Jehovah coming with might to rule with His arm, having His reward with Him and His recompense before Him (vv. 9-10); and as a Shepherd feeding His flock, gathering the lambs in His arms, carrying them in His bosom, and leading those who are nourishing the young (v. 11).
Is 40:52 spoken
Jehovah is revealed through His speaking. Jesus was sent by God for the purpose of speaking the word of God for God’s expression (John 3:34a; 7:16; 14:24). In the word, the speaking, of Jesus, God is unveiled and presented to men that they may see God (John 14:7-10; Heb. 1:1-2).
Is 40:6a All  -   vv. 6b-7: Job 14:2; Psa. 90:5-6; 102:11; James 1:10-11; 1 Pet. 1:24
Is 40:61 flesh
See note 241 in 1 Pet. 1.
Is 40:6b grass  -   Isa. 37:27; Matt. 6:30
Is 40:8a The  -   1 Pet. 1:24b-25
Is 40:81b word  -   Matt. 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33; 1 Pet. 1:25; cf. John 12:34
The word of God is actually Christ, the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), as the gospel of God (Rom. 10:6-8). This word is abiding, and as the word of life (1 John 1:1), it is also living. All men of flesh, all withering and fading human beings, should receive Christ, the glory of God (v. 5), who comes to people as the living and abiding word of God. Those who receive Christ as this word of God are regenerated (John 1:1, 12-13; 1 Pet. 1:23) that they may become a part of the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and may have eternal life to live forever (John 3:15-16). The Lord’s word will stand forever (1 Pet. 1:25) to enliven men that they may partake of His eternal life for their enjoyment.
Is 40:9a glad  -   Isa. 41:27; 52:7
Is 40:91b Behold  -   Isa. 25:9
This is the revealing of the Lord Jehovah, the appearing of the very God as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, in His becoming a man through incarnation (Matt. 1:18-23; Luke 1:35; John 1:1, 14). Such a brief word — Behold your God! — is the glad tidings.
Is 40:10a arm  -   Psa. 89:10; 98:1; Isa. 51:9; Luke 1:51; 1 Pet. 5:6
Is 40:101 rule
The Lord Jehovah as Jesus Christ is the Ruler who comes as a mighty One to rule over us (Matt. 2:6). He is also the Judge who will either reward us or punish us (Matt. 25:14-30; 2 Cor. 5:10). This is His recompense, which is His judgment.
Is 40:10b reward  -   Isa. 62:11; Rev. 22:12
Is 40:11a flock  -   Isa. 63:11; Micah 5:4; Luke 12:32; Acts 20:28-29; 1 Pet. 5:2
Is 40:111b Shepherd  -   Ezek. 34:15, 23; 37:24; Matt. 2:6; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; Rev. 7:17
As the mighty One, the ruling and judging One (v. 10), Christ comes to be a Shepherd (Matt. 2:6; 9:36; John 10:2-4, 11, 14). He cares for His flock by ruling and correcting His sheep and by feeding His flock, gathering the lambs in His arm, carrying them in His bosom, and leading those who are nursing the young.
Is 40:12a waters  -   Prov. 30:4
Is 40:13a directed  -   Job 21:22; 36:22-23; 1 Cor. 2:16
Is 40:13b counselor  -   Rom. 11:34
Is 40:151 drop
The proper preaching of Jesus as the glad tidings, the gospel, causes people to realize that they are nothing and that Christ is everything (vv. 15, 17; cf. Phil. 3:7-8).
Is 40:17a nothing  -   Dan. 4:35
Is 40:17b vanity  -   Psa. 62:9
Is 40:18a liken  -   Deut. 4:15; Isa. 40:25; 46:5; Acts 17:29
Is 40:21a Do  -   Psa. 19:1; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:19-20
Is 40:22a stretches  -   Job 9:8; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 42:5; Jer. 10:12; Zech. 12:1
Is 40:251a liken  -   Isa. 40:18
Our Savior, Jesus, is the Holy One, the eternal God, Jehovah, and the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who sits above the circle of the earth (vv. 22, 25-26, 28a). As the Holy One, Jesus is unlimited, unsearchable, incomparable, and high (vv. 12-14, 17-18, 28b, 22a). There is no comparison between Him and anyone or anything else.
Is 40:261 things
I.e., the stars and the planets.
Is 40:26a number  -   Psa. 147:4
Is 40:28a Creator  -   Gen. 1:1; Eccl. 12:1; Rom. 1:25; 1 Pet. 4:19
Is 40:28b no  -   Psa. 147:5; Rom. 11:33
Is 40:29a power  -   2 Cor. 12:9
Is 40:311a wait  -   Isa. 8:17
To wait on the eternal God (v. 28) means that we terminate ourselves, i.e., that we stop ourselves with our living, our doing, and our activity, and receive God in Christ as our life, our person, and our replacement. Such a waiting one will be renewed and strengthened to such an extent that he will mount up with wings like eagles. He will not only walk and run but also soar in the heavens, far above every earthly frustration. This is a transformed person. This chapter leads us to a comparison between Hezekiah, a godly man who was still in the old creation (chs. 36 — 39), and a regenerated and transformed person in the new creation.
In Isa. 40 there are the announcing of the gospel (corresponding to the four Gospels — vv. 1-5), salvation through regeneration (corresponding to the Acts — vv. 6-8), and transformation (corresponding to the Epistles — vv. 28-31).
Is 40:312 wings
The eagles’ wings signify the resurrection power of Christ, God’s power in life, becoming our grace (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 4:7; 12:9a). Those who stop themselves and wait on Jehovah will experience the power of resurrection, will be transformed, and will soar in the heavens (cf. Phil. 4:13; Col. 1:11).
Is 40:31b eagles  -   Psa. 103:5; Rev. 12:14; cf. Exo. 19:4
Isaiah Chapter 41
Notes and Cross-references
Is 41:11 Listen
In chs. 41 — 66 three parties are used by Isaiah to typify Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (Matt. 12:15-21): Cyrus king of Persia, Israel, and Isaiah the prophet. These three servants and the all-inclusive Christ are one, serving Jehovah God for His good pleasure in releasing and raising up God’s elect to build God’s temple and God’s city and to set up God’s kingdom, which will be enlarged to consummate in the New Jerusalem.
In the first forty chapters of this book Isaiah unveiled in a hidden way God’s economy, which is to have a people so that Christ as the embodiment of God can be expressed as everything, that He may be the centrality and the universality of everything in God’s economy (see note 251 in ch. 22). God in Christ and Christ with God have reached this point, i.e., to have Christ expressed as God’s centrality and universality, to such an extent that these three parties — Cyrus the Gentile king, the pitiful Israel, and Isaiah — became one with Christ that God might have a corporate expression. Everyone who is one with Christ, including the New Testament believers, is a type of Christ, who is the Servant of God, and such persons also are servants of God because they are part of Christ. All other persons have been terminated, put aside by God. Those who are one with Christ have become a great corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11), the same as the individual Christ in being the testimony and servant of God.
Is 41:2a east  -   Isa. 46:11; cf. Matt. 2:1
Is 41:21 him
Referring to Cyrus king of Persia. In chs. 41 — 48 Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is typified by Cyrus in the following aspects: He was raised up by Jehovah (vv. 2a, 25a; 45:13a; Acts 3:26a), anointed by Jehovah (45:1a; Luke 4:18a), and loved by Jehovah (48:14b; Matt. 3:17). He did God’s pleasure in destroying Babylon (48:14b; Rev. 17:1 — 19:4). He was God’s counselor (46:11b) to subdue the nations and have dominion over the kings (vv. 2b, 25c; 45:1b; Ezra 1:2a; Acts 5:31a; Rev. 1:5a). He was also Jehovah’s shepherd for the fulfilling of His desire in building up the city (symbolizing the kingdom) and the temple of God and in releasing God’s captives (44:28; 45:13b; Ezra 1:2-3; John 10:11; 5:30b; 2:19; Luke 4:18b).
Is 41:2b him  -   Isa. 41:25; Ezra 1:2
Is 41:4a first  -   Isa. 43:10; 44:6; 48:12; Rev. 1:17
Is 41:41 He
The pronoun has the force of a proper name here: Jehovah is “He.”
Is 41:7a craftsman  -   Isa. 40:19; 44:12
Is 41:81 Israel
According to vv. 8-20, Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is typified by Israel for the carrying out of the kind word of comfort spoken by Jehovah to Israel (40:1-2). As a type of Christ, the Servant of Jehovah, Israel was chosen by Jehovah and upheld with the right hand of His righteousness (vv. 8-10; 42:1a, 6). Like Christ, Israel overcame the enemies by Jehovah and rejoiced and gloried in Him, the Holy One of Israel (vv. 11-16; Rev. 3:21; Matt. 11:25-26). Israel also typifies Christ as the Witness of Jehovah (43:10; Rev. 1:5a; 3:14). Just as the Spirit was poured out on Christ, the Spirit of Jehovah was poured out on Israel for the blessing of his offspring (44:1-5, 21; 42:1b; Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18-19). Also, in Israel Jehovah was glorified, just as God was glorified in Christ (43:7; 49:3; 46:13b; John 17:1; 12:28).
Is 41:8a servant  -   Isa. 43:10; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20; Jer. 30:10; 46:27-28; Luke 1:54; cf. Isa. 49:3
Is 41:8b chosen  -   Deut. 7:6; 10:15; Psa. 135:4
Is 41:8c friend  -   2 Chron. 20:7; James 2:23
Is 41:9a ends  -   Psa. 107:3; Isa. 43:5-6
Is 41:10a not  -   Gen. 26:24; Isa. 43:5; Jer. 46:28; Matt. 14:27; Mark 6:50; Luke 12:32; Acts 27:24
Is 41:10b with  -   Deut. 31:6, 8
Is 41:13a not  -   Isa. 41:10
Is 41:14a few  -   Deut. 7:7
Is 41:14b Redeemer  -   Isa. 43:14; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5; 60:16; 63:16; Jer. 50:34
Is 41:17a not  -   Gen. 28:15; 1 Sam. 12:22; 1 Kings 6:13; Psa. 94:14; Isa. 42:16; Heb. 13:5
Is 41:18a rivers  -   Isa. 35:6-7; 43:19; 44:3
Is 41:18b I  -   Psa. 107:35
Is 41:211 case
According to vv. 21-29, Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is for the exposing of the falsehood and vanity of the idols, the head of which is Satan. Everything except Christ is false, vain, and an idol (see note 213, par. 1, in 1 John 5).
Is 41:25a one  -   Ezra 1:2; Isa. 41:2
Is 41:25b rising  -   Rev. 16:12
Is 41:27a glad  -   Isa. 40:9
Isaiah Chapter 42
Notes and Cross-references
Is 42:1a Here  -   vv. 1-4: Matt. 12:18-21
Is 42:11b Servant  -   Isa. 42:19; 49:6; 52:13; 53:11; Ezek. 34:23; Acts 3:13
Isaiah 42 reveals Christ (Matt. 12:15-21), the Servant of Jehovah (Mark 10:45; Phil. 2:5-11), as a covenant for God’s chosen people, Israel, and a light for the Gentile nations (see notes 61 and 62). The source of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is His divinity, His deity (vv. 1, 6; 49:5, 7-8), whereas His qualification is in His humanity, in His human virtues (vv. 2-4). Christ’s commission is to raise up the tribes of Jacob; to bring Jacob back to Jehovah so that Israel would be gathered to Him (49:5b, 6a); to be a covenant of the people, i.e., of Israel (v. 6d; 49:8d); to restore the land (49:8e); to be a light to the nations (v. 6e; 49:6c); to bring forth justice for salvation in truth to the nations (vv. 1, 3b; 49:6d); to open the eyes of the blind that they may see the divine and spiritual things concerning God’s eternal economy (v. 7a; Luke 4:18b; Acts 26:18a); and to bring the prisoner out from the prison, those who dwell in darkness out from the prison house, that they may be released from the dark kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (v. 7; Col. 1:12-13).
Is 42:1c chosen  -   Luke 23:35
Is 42:1d in  -   Matt. 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11
Is 42:12e Spirit  -   Isa. 11:2; Luke 4:18; John 3:34
Jehovah’s Spirit is Jehovah Himself. Hence, Jehovah’s putting His Spirit upon Jesus (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18a; John 1:33) meant that He gave Himself to Jesus and that Jehovah and Jesus, His Servant, are one.
Is 42:13 justice
See note 43. So also for v. 3.
Is 42:21 cry
In His ministry the Lord did not strive with others (Matt. 12:19), and He did not promote Himself. He did not seek to make Himself known to people on the streets (cf. John 7:3-9).
Is 42:31 bruised
See note 201 in Matt. 12.
Is 42:41 faint
Or, burn dimly; from the same root as dimly burning in v. 3. Christ does not extinguish the dimly burning flax (v. 3), but He Himself never burns dimly.
Is 42:42 be
Or, be crushed; from the same root as, and an allusion to, bruised in v. 3.
Is 42:43 justice
Justice (vv. 1, 3-4) is righteousness passing through judgment. It is the verdict of the judgment on righteousness. In this book it refers to salvation as the result of God’s judgment on Christ, the righteous One, which was executed according to God’s righteous law and completely fulfills all the requirements of that law (cf. Gal. 2:19 and note 1). To establish justice in the earth means to establish God’s salvation as the issue of God’s judgment on Christ. God’s salvation is of two aspects — justification as the judicial aspect and the impartation of life as the organic aspect (Rom. 5:10, 18). God justifies and imparts life to the believers based on Christ’s redemption accomplished through God’s righteous judgment; this is justice. Christ will come again when He finishes the establishing of God’s justice, God’s salvation, in this earth.
Is 42:5a heavens  -   Isa. 40:22; Zech. 12:1
Is 42:5b earth  -   Psa. 136:6
Is 42:5c breath  -   Acts 17:25
Is 42:51 spirit
For His chosen people to receive Christ as a covenant and as light (v. 6), God, as the Creator of the heavens and the earth and as the One who gives breath to men, gives also spirit to them (Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1) that they may be able to enjoy Him, the Triune God, who is Spirit (John 4:24a), as their inheritance and life.
Is 42:6a called  -   Isa. 43:1
Is 42:61b covenant  -   Isa. 49:8
Christ has been called by Jehovah to be a covenant for the people, i.e., for Israel (v. 6b; 49:8b; Heb. 7:22). The covenant is the legal agreement between God and His people (cf. Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12). Through the death of Christ, the covenant became a testament, a will (Heb. 9:16-17 and note 161). Christ enacted the new covenant (which became the new testament — the will) with His blood according to God’s righteousness through His redeeming death (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; Heb. 9:15). In resurrection Christ became the reality of all the bequests of the new testament and the Mediator, the Executor, to execute the new testament according to God’s righteousness (Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). Therefore, Christ is the new covenant as the new testament.
Christ, as the embodiment of the riches of the Godhead (Col. 2:9; 1:19) and as the crucified and resurrected One, has become the covenant of God given to His people. He is the reality of all that God is and of all that God has given us. God’s salvation, God’s righteousness, God’s justification, God’s forgiveness, God’s redemption, God’s riches, and all God has and will do have been covenanted to us. As the reality of all the bequests in the new testament, Christ, who is the all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, consummated Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9-11), is in our spirit and has become one spirit with us (2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17). As a covenant Christ is the surety (Heb. 7:22), and the Spirit is the pledge (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:14), to guarantee that God embodied in Christ is the inheritance to His people (Rom. 8:17a; Acts 26:18 and note 6).
Is 42:62c light  -   Isa. 49:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47
Christ has also been called by Jehovah to be a light for the nations (v. 6b; Matt. 4:13-16). He is the light of life, the true light, that shines over the world and enlightens every man to enliven man for regeneration (John 1:4, 9, 12-13). He is the divine, marvelous light to open the eyes of the blind (v. 7a; Luke 4:18; John 9:14) and to deliver God’s chosen people out of the darkness of death, the death-realm, the authority of Satan, into God’s life-realm of light (v. 7b; 1 Pet. 2:9b; Acts 26:18a; Col. 1:12-13). Christ as the covenant is for God’s people to gain God with His riches as their inheritance (see note 61), whereas Christ as the light is for God’s people to receive God as life. See note 62 in ch. 49.
Is 42:7a blind  -   Isa. 29:18; 35:5
Is 42:7b prison  -   Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18
Is 42:8a give  -   Isa. 48:11
Is 42:9a new  -   Isa. 43:19; Rev. 21:5
Is 42:10a new  -   Psa. 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Rev. 5:9; 14:3
Is 42:111 Sela
Or, the high rock, or, the cliff; the name of a city in Edom.
Is 42:13a man  -   Exo. 15:3
Is 42:141 gasp
Some MSS read, destroy and devour.
Is 42:16a darkness  -   1 Pet. 2:9
Is 42:16b crooked  -   Isa. 40:4; 45:2; Luke 3:5
Is 42:18a deaf  -   Isa. 43:8; Ezek. 12:2; Mark 8:18; John 9:39, 41
Is 42:191 servant
Referring to Israel, typifying Christ as the Servant of Jehovah in the restoration (see vv. 22-24). Israel was blind and deaf, having no understanding or power of perception. Therefore, Israel could not hear God’s word nor see His vision. However, in the restoration Israel will become one with Christ and thus, being able to see and hear, will have the power to perceive and the ability to understand.
Is 42:20a not  -   Mark 8:18
Is 42:25a heart  -   1 Kings 8:47; Isa. 57:11
Isaiah Chapter 43
Notes and Cross-references
Is 43:1a formed  -   Gen. 2:7; Isa. 43:7, 21; 44:2, 21, 24; 45:11
Is 43:1b not  -   Isa. 41:13; Matt. 14:27
Is 43:1c redeemed  -   Isa. 44:6
Is 43:1d called  -   Isa. 42:6; 45:4
Is 43:2a pass  -   Psa. 66:12
Is 43:2b with  -   Deut. 31:6, 8
Is 43:2c walk  -   Dan. 3:25, 27; Heb. 11:34
Is 43:31 Cush
Or, Ethiopia.
Is 43:5a not  -   Isa. 41:13
Is 43:5b gather  -   Isa. 11:12; 27:12; 49:12; Matt. 24:31
Is 43:6a sons  -   2 Cor. 6:18
Is 43:7a name  -   Acts 15:17
Is 43:7b formed  -   Isa. 43:1
Is 43:7c for  -   Rom. 9:23
Is 43:71 glory
Israel is God’s servant in the sense of fulfilling God’s desire in His economy to have a corporate expression of Himself for His glory (41:8; 45:4; 49:3). The people of Israel were to be used by God to express Him in a corporate way for His glorification. In this sense Israel was one with Christ as God’s servant (Hosea 11:1; cf. Matt. 2:15). The servant of Jehovah is corporate, and Israel was part of this corporate servant. See notes 11 and 81 in ch. 41.
In the present age the church is the testimony of God in the sense of being one with Christ as God’s testimony (Rev. 1:2 and note). In being such a testimony, the church serves God. Thus, all God’s elect can be considered servants of God with Christ for the expression of God’s glory (cf. John 17:22; Eph. 3:21). The glorification of God is the purpose of our service. The highest service we can render to God is to express His glory.
Is 43:8a deaf  -   Isa. 35:5; Mark 7:32
Is 43:101a witnesses  -   Isa. 44:8
See note 81 in ch. 41.
Is 43:10b servant  -   Isa. 41:8; 44:1; 45:4
See note 101.
Is 43:102 God
That Jehovah is the unique God can be proved only by a group of people who are His witnesses (44:8; Acts 1:8).
Is 43:11a no  -   Isa. 45:21; Hosea 13:4
Is 43:12a no  -   Deut. 32:16; Psa. 81:9
Is 43:131 before
Or, from eternity.
Is 43:13a I  -   Deut. 32:39
Is 43:132 from
Or, apart from My hand.
Is 43:14a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
Is 43:15a Creator  -   Isa. 43:1
Is 43:19a new  -   Rev. 21:5
Is 43:19b Rivers  -   Isa. 41:18
Is 43:21a formed  -   Psa. 102:18; Isa. 43:1
Is 43:22a not  -   Isa. 64:7
Is 43:24a calamus  -   Exo. 30:23
Is 43:25a wipes  -   Isa. 44:22; Psa. 51:9; Acts 3:19
Is 43:25b sins  -   Isa. 1:18; Jer. 31:34; 50:20; Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21
Isaiah Chapter 44
Notes and Cross-references
Is 44:1a servant  -   Isa. 41:8
Is 44:2a Maker  -   Isa. 54:5
Is 44:2b formed  -   Isa. 43:1, 7
Is 44:21c Jeshurun  -   Deut. 32:15
From the Hebrew root meaning upright.
Is 44:3a water  -   Isa. 35:7; 43:20; Joel 3:18; cf. John 7:38; Rev. 22:17
Is 44:3b pour  -   Isa. 32:15; Ezek. 39:29; Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10; Mark 1:8; Acts 2:17
Is 44:6a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14; 44:24
Is 44:6b First  -   Isa. 41:4; 48:12; Rev. 1:17
Is 44:81a witnesses  -   Isa. 43:10, 12
See note 102 in ch. 43.
Is 44:8b Rock  -   Deut. 32:4, 31; 1 Sam. 2:2; Psa. 18:31
Is 44:10a god  -   Acts 19:26
Is 44:10b idol  -   Jer. 10:5; Hab. 2:18
Is 44:121 sharpens
Supplied from the Septuagint text.
Is 44:122 the
Lit., it.
Is 44:211a servant  -   Isa. 41:8; Luke 1:54
See note 81 in ch. 41.
Is 44:21b formed  -   Isa. 43:1
Is 44:22a wiped  -   Isa. 43:25; Acts 3:19
Is 44:23a Sing  -   Isa. 49:13; Psa. 96:11-12
Is 44:23b lower  -   Eph. 4:9
Is 44:231 glorified
See note 71 in ch. 43.
Is 44:24a formed  -   Isa. 43:1
Is 44:24b stretches  -   Job 9:8; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 40:22; Zech. 12:1
Is 44:25a foolish  -   1 Cor. 1:20
Is 44:28a Cyrus  -   2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-2; 6:3; Isa. 45:1, 13
Is 44:281 shepherd
In chs. 43 — 45 Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is typified by Cyrus king of Persia, who was Jehovah’s shepherd and who fulfilled all the desires of Jehovah. Cyrus served God by defeating Babylon, God’s enemy (48:14), which had captured His people and destroyed the temple (2 Kings 24 — 25), by declaring the release of Israel from captivity, and by issuing a decree allowing the Jews to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem (45:13; Ezra 1:2-3). These three things are types, signifying Christ’s defeating Satan (Heb. 2:14), releasing His believers from Satan’s captivity (Luke 4:18b; Eph. 4:8), and building up the church as God’s temple (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21). See note 21 in ch. 41.
Isaiah Chapter 45
Notes and Cross-references
Is 45:11 Cyrus
See note 21 in ch. 41.
Is 45:2a rough  -   Isa. 40:4
Is 45:4a servant  -   Isa. 41:8
Is 45:4b chosen  -   Matt. 24:22
Is 45:5a God  -   Deut. 4:35, 39; 32:39; Isa. 44:8; 1 Tim. 2:5
Is 45:6a besides  -   Mark 12:32
Is 45:7a light  -   Gen. 1:3-5; Jer. 13:16; 2 Cor. 4:6; cf. Jer. 31:35
Is 45:81 flow
The clouds flowing down righteousness means that the Spirit will flow down to dispense Christ as righteousness into the people on earth, who are signified here by the earth. On the one hand, God causes the Spirit to flow down from heaven to impart Christ as righteousness into people; on the other hand, God causes people as the earth to open and bring forth salvation and righteousness, both of which are Christ Himself (Luke 2:30; 1 Cor. 1:30). God carries out His salvation by using His Spirit to bring down Christ as righteousness and by opening people to receive Christ as salvation and righteousness.
Is 45:8a righteousness  -   Psa. 72:3; 85:11
Is 45:8b bring  -   Isa. 61:11; cf. Isa. 32:15
Is 45:9a Shall  -   Rom. 9:20
Is 45:9b clay  -   Isa. 29:16; 64:8; Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:21
Is 45:11a sons  -   Jer. 31:9
Is 45:11b work  -   Isa. 19:25; 29:23
Is 45:12a made  -   Gen. 2:4; Exo. 20:11; Neh. 9:6; Isa. 45:18; Jer. 27:5; 32:17
Is 45:12b created  -   Gen. 1:26-27
Is 45:12c stretched  -   Isa. 40:22
Is 45:13a raised  -   Isa. 41:2
Is 45:131 him
Referring to Cyrus in v. 1. See note 21 in ch. 41.
Is 45:13b build  -   2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-2
Is 45:141 Cush
I.e., Ethiopia.
Is 45:14a is  -   1 Cor. 14:25
Is 45:14b no  -   Isa. 45:5; Mark 12:32
Is 45:15a hides  -   Psa. 44:24; Isa. 8:17; cf. Rom. 11:33
Is 45:17a eternal  -   Isa. 51:6; Heb. 5:9
Is 45:18a created  -   Isa. 42:5
Is 45:181b waste  -   cf. Gen. 1:2; Jer. 4:23
See note 42 in Job 38.
Is 45:21a from  -   Isa. 41:22; 43:9; 44:8; 46:9-10; 48:3; Acts 15:18
Is 45:21b no  -   Isa. 44:8; 1 Tim. 2:5
Is 45:22a ends  -   Psa. 22:27; 65:5
Is 45:23a sworn  -   Gen. 22:16; Heb. 6:13
Is 45:23b every  -   Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10
Is 45:241 righteousness
Here righteousness refers to salvation, and strength, to life.
Is 45:251 justified
Here to be justified is to be saved. In Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26-27) and will glory.
Isaiah Chapter 46
Notes and Cross-references
Is 46:11a Bel  -   Isa. 21:9; Jer. 50:2; 51:44
One of the gods of the Babylonians, supposed by some to be the Babylonian name of Baal.
Is 46:12 Nebo
A Babylonian idol.
Is 46:13 burden
When Israel was captured by the Babylonians, God’s people still would not give up their idols and had to carry them from the good land to Babylon. Anything that replaces God or occupies the position of God is an idol that becomes a burden to the worshipper.
Is 46:2a captivity  -   Jer. 43:12; 48:7
Is 46:3a remnant  -   Isa. 10:20
Is 46:3b borne  -   Exo. 19:4; Deut. 1:31; Psa. 71:6
Is 46:4a I  -   Isa. 41:4; 48:12; Psa. 102:27; Mal. 3:6
Is 46:5a To  -   Isa. 40:18, 25
Is 46:6a gold  -   Isa. 40:19; Hab. 2:19; Acts 17:29
Is 46:10a counsel  -   Psa. 33:11; Prov. 19:21; Acts 4:28
Is 46:111 bird
Referring to Cyrus in 44:28 and 45:1. In chs. 46 — 48 Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is typified by Cyrus to release Jehovah’s captives of the beloved Israel from Babylon. See note 21 in ch. 41. Cyrus was a “bird of prey” called by God to subdue the nations.
Is 46:11a east  -   Isa. 41:2, 25
Is 46:13a near  -   Isa. 51:5; cf. Rom. 10:6-8
Isaiah Chapter 47
Notes and Cross-references
Is 47:2a grind  -   Exo. 11:5; Judg. 16:21; Matt. 24:41; Luke 17:35
Is 47:4a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
Is 47:5a queen  -   Rev. 17:18; 18:7
Is 47:7a queen  -   Rev. 18:7
Is 47:71 them
Lit., it.
Is 47:8a And  -   Isa. 47:10; Zeph. 2:15
Is 47:81 your
Lit., her.
Is 47:82 dwell
Or, sit, as in Rev. 18:7.
Is 47:8b widow  -   Rev. 18:7
Is 47:9a one  -   Rev. 18:8
Is 47:9b sorceries  -   Nahum 3:4; Rev. 9:21
Is 47:12a sorceries  -   Nahum 3:4; Rev. 9:21
Is 47:15a traded  -   Rev. 18:11
Isaiah Chapter 48
Notes and Cross-references
Is 48:1a Israel  -   Gen. 32:28
Is 48:11 waters
Some versions read, loins.
Is 48:3a declared  -   Isa. 41:22; 42:9; 43:9
Is 48:4a neck  -   Exo. 32:9; Deut. 31:27; Acts 7:51
Is 48:6a new  -   Isa. 42:9
Is 48:10a refined  -   Psa. 66:10
Is 48:12a First  -   Isa. 41:4; 44:6; Rev. 1:17; 22:13
Is 48:13a laid  -   Psa. 102:25
Is 48:13b spread  -   Isa. 40:22
Is 48:141a him  -   Isa. 44:28; 45:1
Referring to Cyrus in 44:28 and 45:1, typifying Christ as the Servant of Jehovah. God loves Israel, loves His kingdom, signified by the city of Jerusalem, and loves His house, signified by the temple. In subduing Babylon and releasing the captives of Israel, and in charging Israel and supporting them to build up the temple and the city of their God (Ezra 1), Cyrus did God’s pleasure. Thus, God loved Cyrus. It was a matter of love for God to use a Gentile king to do what was in His heart.
Is 48:16a sent  -   Isa. 61:1; Zech. 2:8-9, 11
Is 48:161 me
Referring to the prophet Isaiah.
Is 48:162 Spirit
Isaiah was sent by God with God the Spirit. In the New Testament the Father sent the Lord Jesus with the Spirit of God (Luke 3:22).
Is 48:17a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
Is 48:17b leads  -   Psa. 32:8
Is 48:18a peace  -   Isa. 66:12
Is 48:19a sand  -   Gen. 22:17; Hosea 1:10
Is 48:20a Come  -   Isa. 52:11; Jer. 50:8; 51:6; Zech. 2:6-7; Rev. 18:4
Is 48:201 Babylon
In Rev. 17 and 18 Babylon has two aspects: the religious aspect, signifying the Roman Catholic Church, and the material, physical aspect, signifying the city of Rome, the capital of Antichrist’s kingdom (see note 21 in Rev. 18). God’s people need to come out of Babylon in its two aspects (Rev. 18:4).
Is 48:20b servant  -   Isa. 41:8
Is 48:21a rock  -   Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:11; Neh. 9:15; Psa. 78:15; 105:41
Is 48:22a There  -   Isa. 57:21
Isaiah Chapter 49
Notes and Cross-references
Is 49:11 me
Referring to Isaiah, the prophet of Jehovah, typifying Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (Mark 10:45) for God’s speaking (Deut. 18:15; John 3:34; 14:24). Isaiah served Jehovah as His mouthpiece to speak forth His word, which is the embodiment of Himself (vv. 1-4). Isaiah’s prophesying helped in the release of Israel and the rebuilding of the temple and the city. Cyrus, the Gentile king, Israel, God’s chosen people, and Isaiah, the prophet set up by God, all did the same thing to please God: they served to release God’s people, to build up God’s house, and to build up God’s kingdom, signified by the city of Jerusalem. Thus, they all typify Christ as God’s servant (Luke 4:18; Matt. 16:18-19). All who are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30) and who are thus one with Christ to release God’s people and to build up His house and His kingdom are servants of God.
Is 49:1a from  -   Isa. 49:5; Jer. 1:5; Matt. 1:20-21; Gal. 1:15; cf. Luke 1:15
Is 49:2a sharp  -   Isa. 11:4; Hosea 6:5; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16
Is 49:3a servant  -   Isa. 20:3
Is 49:31 Israel
Jehovah considered the prophet Isaiah as His servant, a part of Israel, for His glorification. Isaiah was a part of Israel; hence, he was one with Israel as the servant of Jehovah. Christ also is a part of Israel (Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15b). That Jehovah will be glorified in His servant typifies that God is glorified in Christ (John 13:31b) as the Israel of God. See note 71 in ch. 43.
Is 49:41 labored
Here Isaiah typifies Christ. People judged Christ wrongly, thinking that His word was nothing and vain. However, Christ was assured that the justice due to Him would come from God (1 Pet. 2:23). God values Christ’s word (cf. Matt. 24:35) and will reward Him for His speaking.
Is 49:51 Me
Verses 5-9a refer to Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (42:1-7). In this chapter whatever is spoken concerning Isaiah and Israel is also spoken concerning Christ. This means that Christ as the Servant of Jehovah fulfills all that Isaiah and Israel are as the servant of Jehovah.
Is 49:52 womb
God formed Jesus to be His Servant in the womb, with His divinity mingled with His humanity (Matt. 1:18-20; Luke 1:35). Thus, when He came out of the womb of His mother, He was a God-man.
Is 49:6a I  -   Isa. 42:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47
Is 49:61 light
See note 62 in ch. 42.
Is 49:62b salvation  -   Acts 28:28; Rom. 11:11
Christ as the Servant of Jehovah serves God by being a covenant and a light to God’s chosen people that He may be the full salvation of God extending to the ends of the earth (42:5-7; 49:6, 8b-9a). God’s full salvation is based on God’s righteousness and is consummated in God’s life (Rom. 5:17, 21). Righteousness in God’s justice and life through God’s light are the two basic factors of God’s salvation (Rom. 1:16-17; 5:18b; Titus 3:7). God’s salvation in its two aspects is composed of Christ as the covenant for justification and Christ as the light for life (Rom. 5:10). Through His death Christ as the covenant satisfies God’s righteousness for justification as the base of God’s full salvation, and in His resurrection Christ as the light imparts life as the consummation of God’s full salvation. Ultimately, the complete salvation of God is embodied in the New Jerusalem, which is a matter of life built on the foundation of righteousness (Rev. 22:1-2; 21:14, 19-20 and note 191, par. 2).
Through His death and in His resurrection Christ has become the new covenant as the new testament (Heb. 8:10-12; 9:15-17) according to God’s righteousness to be the base of God’s full salvation. God gave Christ as a light to the nations that He might be God’s salvation to all the world (Matt. 4:16; Luke 2:30-32). The life of this light (John 1:4; 8:12), as the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16b), the incorruptible life (2 Tim. 1:10b), and the real and eternal life that we should lay hold on (1 Tim. 6:19, 12), becomes God’s salvation to us in His righteousness (Rom. 5:10, 17). This life also ensures us, guarantees us, the heirs of God in His life, the right to inherit God with all His riches as our eternal inheritance (Acts 26:18). Such a life of light grows in us continually, issuing in our church life today (Eph. 5:8) and consummating in the New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 9b-11, 18-23; 22:1-5).
Is 49:7a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
Is 49:71b despised  -   Psa. 22:6; Isa. 53:3
Christ was the despised One, the One abhorred by the nation of Israel, the One subjected to tyrants, i.e., the Roman officials (Matt. 27:11-26). From His resurrection until today He has been not only glorified, honored, by God (v. 5c) but also respected by human kings and worshipped by human princes.
Is 49:7c faithful  -   Deut. 7:9; 1 Cor. 1:9
Is 49:8a Thus  -   Psa. 69:13; 2 Cor. 6:2
Is 49:81b covenant  -   Isa. 42:6
See note 62 in this chapter and note 61 in ch. 42.
Is 49:82 land
Or, the earth. The restoring of the land is mainly for the kingdom of God, which will eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. In the believers’ experience, to restore the land means to have Christ as the land (see note 71 in Deut. 8) enlarged or expanded, to occupy Christ as the land for the building up of God’s kingdom so that His temple, His testimony, may be established (cf. 1 Chron. 4:10; Eph. 3:14-21; Phil. 3:7-14).
Is 49:83 apportion
See note 61, par. 2, in ch. 42.
Is 49:91 They
Because Christ has become a covenant for the people of Israel (v. 8; 42:5-7), the captives will return.
Is 49:10a hunger  -   Rev. 7:16
Is 49:10b strike  -   Psa. 121:6
Is 49:10c guide  -   Psa. 23:2; Jer. 31:9; Rev. 7:17
Is 49:11a mountains  -   Luke 3:5
Is 49:12a from  -   Deut. 30:3-5; Isa. 43:5-7; 51:11; 56:8; 60:4; 62:10-12; Matt. 24:31
Is 49:121 Sinim
Probably the Chinese.
Is 49:13a ringing  -   Isa. 44:23
Is 49:15a compassion  -   Psa. 103:13
Is 49:16a engraved  -   S.S. 8:6
Is 49:171 Your
Some versions read, Your builders outstrip your destroyers.
Is 49:18a ornament  -   cf. Prov. 17:6
Is 49:22a bring  -   Isa. 60:4; 66:12
Is 49:23a nurse  -   Isa. 66:11; 1 Thes. 2:7
Is 49:23b wait  -   Isa. 8:17
Is 49:24a strong  -   Matt. 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21
Is 49:26a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14; 60:16
Isaiah Chapter 50
Notes and Cross-references
Is 50:1a bill  -   Deut. 24:1; Jer. 3:8; Hosea 2:2
Is 50:1b sold  -   Isa. 52:3
Is 50:2a called  -   Prov. 1:24; Isa. 65:12; Jer. 7:13
Is 50:2b so  -   Num. 11:23; Isa. 59:1
Is 50:2c dry  -   Exo. 14:21; Psa. 106:9; Nahum 1:4
Is 50:2d fish  -   Exo. 7:18, 21
Is 50:3a blackness  -   Exo. 10:21
Is 50:3b sackcloth  -   Rev. 6:12
Is 50:4a given  -   Exo. 4:11
Is 50:41 me
Referring to Isaiah, who typifies Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (see 49:1-5). Verses 4-5 speak of the instruction received by Christ as Jehovah’s Servant.
Is 50:4b weary  -   Matt. 11:28
Is 50:5a ear  -   Psa. 40:6-8
Is 50:5b not  -   Matt. 26:39; John 14:31
Is 50:61 I
Verses 6-9 show the life lived by Isaiah as the servant of Jehovah, typifying the life that Christ as the Servant of Jehovah lived on earth (Matt. 26:67; 1 Pet. 2:23).
Is 50:6a strike  -   Matt. 26:67; John 18:22
Is 50:6b cheeks  -   Lam. 3:30; Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:29
Is 50:6c spitting  -   Mark 14:65; Luke 18:32
Is 50:7a face  -   Ezek. 3:8-9; Luke 9:51
Is 50:9a garment  -   Isa. 51:6; Psa. 102:26
Is 50:9b moth  -   Job 13:28; Isa. 51:8; James 5:2
Isaiah Chapter 51
Notes and Cross-references
Is 51:11 rock
Referring not to God but to Abraham, who was the source of Israel. Jehovah’s calling of Israel is based on His calling of their father Abraham; hence, it is firm.
Is 51:2a called  -   Gen. 12:1-2; Ezek. 33:24
Is 51:2b blessed  -   Gen. 22:17; 24:1, 35
Is 51:3a garden  -   Gen. 13:10; Joel 2:3
Is 51:4a instruction  -   Isa. 2:3; 42:4
Is 51:4b light  -   Isa. 42:6
Is 51:6a heavens  -   Psa. 102:26; 2 Pet. 3:10, 12
Is 51:6b garment  -   Isa. 50:9; Heb. 1:11
Is 51:9a Awake  -   Psa. 44:23; Isa. 52:1
Is 51:91b arm  -   Isa. 40:10; 53:1; Luke 1:51
Signifying the strength of Jehovah, the dynamic might of Christ in His divinity, and referring to Christ as the all-inclusive Servant of Jehovah (53:1-2) in relation to Israel’s return from captivity (52:10-12). In Israel’s return and restoration, the all-inclusive Christ is, first, the arm of Jehovah, second, the reigning God (52:7), and, third, the exalted Christ (52:13).
Is 51:10a dried  -   Exo. 14:21; Isa. 43:16; 50:2
Is 51:11a Therefore  -   Isa. 35:10
Is 51:111 ransomed
Referring here to the redemption of God’s people for their release from captivity in Babylon, after which they could return (cf. Exo. 6:6). Before God could redeem His people from captivity, they had to be redeemed from sin under God’s condemnation, as illustrated by the redemption through the passover lamb prior to the exodus from Egypt (Exo. 12).
Is 51:11b Zion  -   Jer. 31:11-12
Is 51:11c sorrow  -   Isa. 25:8; 60:20; 65:19; Rev. 21:4
Is 51:12a grass  -   Isa. 40:6; 1 Pet. 1:24
Is 51:13a stretched  -   Job 9:8; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 40:22; Zech. 12:1
Is 51:161 plant
Some versions have, stretch, or, establish.
Is 51:16a heavens  -   Isa. 65:17; 66:22
Is 51:17a drunk  -   Psa. 60:3; Ezek. 23:32-34
Isaiah Chapter 52
Notes and Cross-references
Is 52:1a Awake  -   Isa. 51:9, 17
Is 52:1b holy  -   Neh. 11:1; Isa. 48:2; Matt. 4:5
Is 52:1c unclean  -   Rev. 21:27
Is 52:3a sold  -   Psa. 44:12; Isa. 45:13; Jer. 15:13
Is 52:3b redeemed  -   1 Pet. 1:18
Is 52:4a Egypt  -   Gen. 46:6-7; Acts 7:14-15
Is 52:4b Assyrian  -   Isa. 14:25
Is 52:5a blasphemed  -   Ezek. 36:20, 23; Rom. 2:24
Is 52:7a How  -   Nahum 1:15; Rom. 10:15
Is 52:7b feet  -   Eph. 6:15
Is 52:71 Your
This is the announcing of the restoration (Matt. 19:28). Isaiah 40:9 speaks of God coming to accomplish redemption unto salvation for His people, whereas this verse, after redemption has been accomplished, announces that in the restoration, the millennial kingdom, God reigns (cf. Rev. 11:15). The reigning God here is the Redeemer, the Savior, mentioned in ch. 40.
Is 52:101 arm
See note 91 in ch. 51.
Is 52:10a salvation  -   Gen. 49:18; Luke 2:30; 3:6
Is 52:11a Depart  -   Isa. 48:20; Jer. 50:8; Zech. 2:6-7; 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4
Is 52:111 there
Referring to Babylon. See note 201 in ch. 48.
Is 52:112 vessels
Indicating that the vessels of the temple, which had been carried away to Babylon (2 Chron. 36:18; Dan. 1:1-2), would be brought back to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:7-11).
Is 52:12a go  -   Exo. 14:19; Isa. 58:8
Is 52:131a Servant  -   Isa. 42:1; Acts 3:13
Isaiah 52:13 — 53:12 reveals Christ as the Servant of Jehovah not in the Old Testament economy but in the New Testament economy, i.e., as God who became a man, who died and resurrected, and who became the life-giving Spirit to enter into His elect and dwell in them as the indwelling Spirit.
Is 52:132 wisely
From the day that He came out to minister on this earth, the Lord Jesus acted wisely and prospered in God’s pleasure (v. 13a; 53:10b; Matt. 11:19 and note 3). God’s good pleasure was first that the Son would go to the cross and die for God’s chosen people (Matt. 26:39; Heb. 10:5-10) and then that He would rise from the dead to regenerate millions of God’s people to be God’s sons (1 Pet. 1:3; John 20:17). This is the wisdom by which Christ as the Servant of Jehovah acted wisely. Since His ascension Jesus has been acting prudently and wisely on the earth, and in whatever He has done, He has prospered.
Is 52:133b exalted  -   Phil. 2:9
Christ has been exalted to the third heaven, to the right hand of God (Phil. 2:9; Heb. 4:14; 7:26; 8:1). He has also been lifted up. Before being exalted and lifted up, Christ was humiliated (v. 14; 53:1-10a; Phil. 2:8).
Is 52:141 Him
According to some MSS and ancient versions; other MSS read, you.
Is 52:142 visage
Visage denotes the appearance and also refers to the face or facial expression. Christ’s face and His form were marred (disfigured) in order that He might save us. This is astonishing, different from what people expected Christ as a servant of God to be.
Is 52:14a marred  -   Psa. 22:6-7; Isa. 53:2-3
Is 52:151 surprise
Jesus will surprise many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him, for what He is, is altogether different from what they imagined. People are surprised to learn that a great person such as Christ was actually a small man who lived in the despised region of Galilee, in the despised city of Nazareth, in the poor home of a carpenter, and that He was rejected and put on the cross and crucified (53:2-10a).
Is 52:15a For  -   Rom. 15:21
Is 52:152 recounted
The things to be recounted, to be seen, to be heard of, and to be contemplated are the things reported and revealed in ch. 53 concerning Christ in His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension according to the New Testament gospel.
Is 52:15b heard  -   Isa. 55:5; 1 Cor. 2:9; Eph. 3:5, 9
Isaiah Chapter 53
Notes and Cross-references
Is 53:1a Who  -   John 12:38; Rom. 10:16
Is 53:11 report
The prophets preached the New Testament gospel in the New Testament economy, but no one believed their report. Their report was based on God’s revelation of Christ as the arm of Jehovah, the dynamic Redeemer (see note 91 in ch. 51). Both the report and the revelation concern Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (v. 11b).
This chapter speaks clearly concerning Christ in four stages: (1) the stage of Christ’s incarnation (vv. 1b-3), (2) the stage of Christ’s crucifixion (vv. 4-10a, 12b), (3) the stage of Christ’s resurrection (vv. 10b-11), and (4) the stage of Christ’s ascension (v. 12a). The entire chapter is a confession that will be made by the household of Israel who will be saved at Christ’s second coming (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26-27). At that time they will confess the contents of Isa. 53, and this chapter will be full of taste to them.
Is 53:1b arm  -   Isa. 51:9
Is 53:21 For
For here introduces the reason that no one believed the report and received the revelation concerning Christ (v. 1).
Is 53:22 plant
Verses 1b-3 contain the prophet’s report and Jehovah’s revelation concerning Christ as the incarnated Savior, who lived a lowly and sorrowful human life, which fully qualified Him to be the Redeemer and the Savior to save fallen men from Satan, sin, death, and self (Heb. 2:14-18; Matt. 1:21; Rom. 8:3; 2 Tim. 1:10; Matt. 16:24-25).
In His humanity Christ grew up not like a large tree but like a small delicate sprout (a tender plant) before Jehovah, in a difficult environment (dry ground), which included His being born of a poor family and His living in Nazareth, a despised city, in Galilee, a despised region.
Is 53:2a root  -   Isa. 11:1
Is 53:23 attracting
Instead of majesty, Jesus had poverty (Matt. 8:20), and instead of an attractive form and a beautiful appearance, He had a visage and form that were disfigured (52:14).
Is 53:2b majesty  -   Isa. 52:14
Is 53:3a despised  -   Psa. 22:6; Isa. 49:7; Mark 9:12; Luke 23:11
Is 53:31 sorrows
Lit., pains. So also in the next verse. Christ was a “man whose chief distinction was, that His life was one of constant painful endurance” (Keil and Delitzsch). As the complete God, signified by the arm of Jehovah (v. 1; 51:9; 52:10) as the power of God (1 Cor. 1:22-24), Christ became a perfect man, signified by a man of sorrows, in His incarnation (John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 2:5b).
Is 53:4a Surely  -   Matt. 8:17
Is 53:41 borne
In the report of the prophets and the revelation of Jehovah (v. 1), Christ is revealed as the crucified Redeemer, who sacrificed Himself for our trespasses (our sin) to accomplish Jehovah’s eternal redemption (vv. 4-10a; Heb. 9:12) that the believers in Christ may be redeemed (forgiven of sins — Acts 10:43, justified — Acts 13:39, and reconciled to God — Rom. 5:10), resulting in the life union with Christ in His resurrection (v. 10b), the reality of which is the life-giving Spirit (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:11).
Is 53:42 sicknesses
Sicknesses and sorrows, like transgressions and iniquities (v. 5), come from sin; hence, they too need Christ’s redemption (Matt. 8:17 and note). Christ bore our sicknesses at the time He was judged by God on the cross, in the hour when God put all our iniquities on Him (v. 6b; 1 Pet. 2:24).
Is 53:43 Yet
People thought that Christ must have been wrong in something and that, as a result, He was stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. They did not understand that Christ died vicariously, in the place of us, the sinners (vv. 4-5, 8-9, 11c, 12c; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18a).
Is 53:51 But
See note 43.
Is 53:5a wounded  -   Matt. 27:26; Mark 15:15; Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 John 3:5
Is 53:5b stripes  -   1 Pet. 2:24
Is 53:52 healed
See note 247 in 1 Pet. 2.
Is 53:6a sheep  -   Psa. 119:176; 1 Pet. 2:25; Matt. 10:6; Luke 15:6
Is 53:61 us
Referring here especially to the remnant of the Jews at the time of the Lord’s coming back. At that time all the remaining Jews will repent (Zech. 12:10-14; Rev. 1:7) and will speak the words of this verse.
Is 53:62 fall
It was when God was judging Jesus on the cross that He caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him, making Jesus, in the eyes of God, the unique sinner at that moment (Matt. 27:45-46 and notes 451 and 462). Christ’s death was not merely a murder (Acts 7:52), nor was it a martyrdom; rather, it was carried out by God Himself according to His law. Thus, Christ died a vicarious death as the Substitute for sinners (1 Pet. 3:18), a death that was legal according to God’s law and was recognized and approved by God according to the law.
Is 53:71 oppressed
In His vicarious death for sinners, Christ was oppressed, afflicted, and led to the slaughter like a lamb and sheared before the shearers like a sheep, with no reaction (Acts 8:32; Matt. 26:62-63; 27:12, 14).
Is 53:7a not  -   Matt. 26:62-63; 27:12, 14; Mark 14:61; 15:5
Is 53:7b Like  -   Acts 8:32; Mark 15:20; John 19:16
Is 53:81a By  -   Acts 8:33
Christ was oppressed by the hypocritical Jewish leaders (Matt. 26:57, 59, 65-68) and then judged by the unjust Roman officials (Luke 23:1-12; John 18:33-38; 19:1-16). By these two things He was taken away and was crucified.
Is 53:82 generation
No one among Christ’s generation understood that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of the prophet’s people, the Jews, to whom the stroke was due.
Is 53:8b cut  -   Dan. 9:26
Is 53:91 assigned
Those who crucified Christ planned to bury Him with the two transgressors, the wicked ones (Luke 23:32-33), but eventually God in His sovereignty caused Christ to be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Matt. 27:57-60).
Is 53:9a rich  -   Matt. 27:57-60; Mark 15:46; John 19:38, 41
Is 53:92 death
The word is plural in Hebrew, deaths, signifying “a violent death, the very pain of which makes it like dying again and again” (Keil and Delitzsch).
Is 53:93 no
Christ was sinless (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22); hence, He did not die for His own sins. He died vicariously for us, the sinners (1 Pet. 3:18).
Is 53:9b deceit  -   1 Pet. 2:22; 1 John 3:5
Is 53:101a offering  -   John 1:29; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24
Christ volunteered to be an offering for sin, referring to an offering for sin in its totality (John 1:29) — for wrongdoings, mistakes, trespasses, transgressions, evildoings, and iniquities — that includes both the sin offering (Lev. 4) and the trespass offering (Lev. 5).
Is 53:102 seed
Verses 10b-11 refer to Christ in His resurrection. The seed here, a corporate seed, is the church as the Body of Christ, comprising all the believers produced as the many grains by the death of Christ as the one grain and by His reproductive resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is the resurrected Life-giver, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17), to produce a seed for the building up of His Body as His continuation for Jehovah’s pleasure and for Christ’s satisfaction.
Is 53:103 extend
Today Christ is extending His days by living in His believers (Gal. 2:20; see note 91 in Acts 28). His believers as His Body are His extension.
Is 53:10b days  -   Rom. 6:9
Is 53:104 pleasure
The pleasure of God (Eph. 1:5, 9; Phil. 2:13) is to see many sons born of Him to become the members of Christ, who constitute the church as the Body of Christ, the corporate expression of Christ. This depends altogether on Christ’s death and resurrection.
Is 53:111 fruit
The fruit of the travail of Christ’s soul implies all the items produced in and through Christ’s resurrection, as follows: (1) As the processed One, the last Adam, Christ became the life-giving Spirit as the reality of the pneumatic Christ for His propagation through life-imparting (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17); (2) as the preeminent One, the One who has the first place in all things, Christ became the Firstborn from the dead for the germinating of God’s new creation and for Christ to be Head of the Body (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5a); (3) as the God-man, Christ was begotten of God in His humanity (Acts 13:33) to be the firstborn Son of God in both the divine and human natures, to be a model for conforming many sons to His image (Rom. 8:29b); (4) as the resurrection life (John 11:25), Christ regenerated all His believers (1 Pet. 1:3), making them His brothers and the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10a, 11b-12; Rom. 8:29b; John 20:17), who are the members of God’s household to be God’s kingdom (Eph. 2:19; Gal. 6:10) and God’s precious inheritance (Eph. 1:11); (5) as the one grain of wheat, Christ became the many grains (John 12:24), who are His increase (John 3:30) and the components of His Body, i.e., the one bread, the church (1 Cor. 10:17; Eph. 1:22-23); (6) through His life-releasing death and with His life-imparting resurrection, Christ produced a corporate seed as the issue of the travail of His soul, which seed He saw in His resurrection and was satisfied (vv. 10c-11b; cf. Gal. 3:29); and (7) as the life of the believers, the resurrected Christ is all the members and in all the members of the new man (Col. 3:10-11).
Is 53:112 satisfied
Christ will see the church and be satisfied with the church.
Is 53:113 knowledge
Not Christ’s knowledge but the knowing of Him, the righteous One, the resurrected Christ as the Servant of Jehovah.
Is 53:11a Servant  -   Acts 3:13
Is 53:114 make
Christ will make righteous those who know Him as the righteous One. Since this verse refers to Christ in His resurrection, to make us righteous is not merely to justify us objectively but to make us righteous subjectively by His living in us as the resurrection life and our living Him (Matt. 5:20 and note 1; Rom. 5:19 and note 1; 2 Cor. 5:21 and note 3; Phil. 3:9 and note 5).
Is 53:11b righteous  -   Isa. 45:25
Is 53:11c bear  -   Isa. 53:4-5; Heb. 9:28
Is 53:12a portion  -   Psa. 2:8
Is 53:121 Great
The first part of this verse concerns Christ in His ascension. The Great and the Strong here refer to God. In Christ’s ascension God divided to Christ a portion with God as the great One, and Christ divided the spoil with God as the strong One.
Is 53:122 spoil
Spoil indicates that a war was fought. On the cross and in His resurrection Christ fought the battle, gained the victory, and took the spoil from Satan (see note 82 in Eph. 4). In Christ’s ascension there was a demonstration of Christ’s victory by the sharing of the captives, the spoil, taken in Christ’s victory. As the ascended Victor, Christ shared the spoil of His victory with God, the Great and the Strong (Psa. 68:18 and note 3). Then Christ gave the spoil to the church as gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:8b, 11-12 and note 83). This is for the accomplishing of the pleasure of Jehovah, which will prosper in Christ’s hand according to God’s desire and plan (v. 10c).
Is 53:12b poured  -   Psa. 22:14; John 10:11; cf. Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6
Is 53:123 life
Lit., soul. Man, God, and Christ all had a part in Christ’s crucifixion. Man did the murdering, the killing (Acts 7:52), but God carried out the legal judgment to kill Christ as a legal Substitute that Christ might die a vicarious death for sinners (vv. 6b, 10a). Moreover, Christ Himself was willing to be such an offering. He made Himself that offering (v. 10b), and He poured out His life for that purpose (John 10:17-18; Heb. 9:14).
Is 53:124c numbered  -   Matt. 27:38; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37; 23:33
When Christ was crucified on the cross, He was numbered with the transgressors (Luke 23:32-33) and He interceded for the transgressors (Luke 23:34a).
Is 53:12d bore  -   Heb. 9:28; 1 John 3:5
Is 53:12e interceded  -   Luke 23:34; Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25
See note 124.
Isaiah Chapter 54
Notes and Cross-references
Is 54:1a Give  -   Gal. 4:27
Is 54:1b more  -   1 Sam. 2:5; Psa. 113:9
Is 54:3a seed  -   Gen. 22:17; 24:60; Isa. 55:5; 61:9
Is 54:4a reproach  -   Gen. 30:23; Isa. 4:1; Luke 1:25
Is 54:5a Maker  -   Gen. 1:26; Isa. 44:2
Is 54:51b Husband  -   Isa. 62:5; Jer. 3:14; 31:32; Hosea 2:16; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 21:2; 22:17
See note 62, par. 2, in Exo. 20 and note 21 in Hosea 1.
Is 54:5c Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
Is 54:5d God  -   Zech. 14:9; Rom. 3:29
Is 54:7a gather  -   Deut. 30:3; Ezek. 36:24; Micah 4:6
Is 54:8a Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
Is 54:9a Noah  -   Gen. 8:21; 9:11
Is 54:10a depart  -   Psa. 46:2; Isa. 51:6; Rev. 6:14
Is 54:10b lovingkindness  -   Psa. 89:33-34
Is 54:101 covenant
Christ’s dynamic redemption accomplished through His vicarious death and reproductive resurrection (ch. 53) is in relation to His being the covenant for Israel’s security. Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is the reality of this covenant to be a surety to Israel for their security (42:6 and note 1; 49:8). The dynamic redemption accomplished by Christ is the security not only to Israel but also to the seed (53:10), which is the church as the corporate Body of the resurrected Christ.
Is 54:11a sapphires  -   1 Chron. 29:2; Rev. 21:19
Is 54:13a taught  -   Jer. 31:34; John 6:45; 1 Thes. 4:9
Is 54:171 No
This is Jehovah’s declaration to the entire universe that the security of Israel is maintained by Christ, who is the covenant for them (v. 10).
Isaiah Chapter 55
Notes and Cross-references
Is 55:1a thirsts  -   Matt. 5:6; John 4:14; 7:37; Rev. 21:6; 22:17
Is 55:11 come
In this book God always considers that He is our salvation as living water (cf. 12:2-3). The record concerning the accomplished redemption in ch. 53 is followed in this chapter by the invitation to come to the waters and drink. The call here is like that at the end of the Bible, in Rev. 22:17. The waters in these two portions of the Word are the redeeming God, the very God who accomplished redemption for us through His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. These waters are both the eternal covenant and the sure mercies shown to David (v. 3).
Is 55:12 waters
Waters (plural) here reveals that God can be enjoyed not just in one aspect but in many aspects through our continual drinking of Him (cf. John 7:38 and note 2).
Is 55:1b buy  -   Matt. 13:44, 46; Rev. 3:18
Is 55:1c milk  -   1 Pet. 2:2
Is 55:2a labor  -   John 6:27
Is 55:31a covenant  -   Isa. 61:8; Jer. 32:40
In chs. 55 — 56 Christ, as the Servant of Jehovah and the embodiment of the Triune God as the living waters (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-38), is an eternal covenant to Israel (42:6; 49:8; 54:10; 61:8b), even the sure mercies shown to David, in relation to Israel’s prosperity. As such, He is the center of the divine provisions to Israel (vv. 1-5). See note 61 in ch. 42.
Is 55:32b sure  -   2 Sam. 7:8; Psa. 89:28; Acts 13:34
In Acts 13:34 Paul interprets the sure mercies as “the holy things of David, the faithful things,” and in v. 35 there, he indicates that these things are Christ Himself in resurrection (see note 341 in Acts 13). Paul’s interpretation is confirmed by v. 4 in this chapter. Christ was incarnated to bring God as grace to us (John 1:14, 16-17), and He was crucified and resurrected to become the sure mercies to us in resurrection. Because our situation was miserable and could not match God’s grace, Christ, the embodiment of God’s grace, became the sure mercies, and through these mercies we are now in the proper position to match God and receive Him as grace (cf. Eph. 2:4 and note 2). In Christ as the sure mercies, God reaches us in His grace to be our enjoyment. Christ is both the sure mercies and the eternal covenant that guarantees these mercies.
As the sure mercies of God, the resurrected Christ became the base of God’s justification to His believers (Acts 13:34-39; Rom. 4:25). Based on such a justification in Christ’s resurrection, the believers can be sanctified by enjoying Christ, the son of David (Matt. 1:1), as God’s sure mercies, i.e., as the Holy One who did not see corruption (Acts 13:35).
Is 55:33 David
David and all the kings in David’s family needed God’s mercy (Psa. 51:1; 52:8b). God promised that the very Christ, who would come out of David’s descendants to be the King of kings on the earth (Rev. 17:14; 19:16), would be the sure mercies of God toward the royal family of David. Because of Christ as the sure mercies of God, no one could blot out the entire royal family of David (see note 11 in ch. 11; cf. Jer. 33:24-26). The last king of the royal family of David will be Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God’s sure mercies.
Is 55:41 Him
This is Christ, who is not only the sure mercies shown to David (v. 3) but also the Witness, Leader, and Commander to the peoples, the nations (Rev. 1:5a; 3:14a; Acts 5:31a; Rev. 19:11-21).
Is 55:4a Witness  -   John 18:37; Rev. 1:5
Is 55:51a glorified  -   Isa. 60:9; Acts 3:13
To be glorified means that we are brought into God and that God becomes our expression.
Is 55:61a Seek  -   Psa. 27:8; 32:6; Jer. 29:13; cf. John 7:34
This is to come to the Lord in order to drink of Him (v. 1).
Is 55:62b Call  -   Deut. 4:7; Psa. 145:18; Rom. 10:12
Calling on the Lord is the way to drink of Him (see note 41 in ch. 12).
Is 55:71 evildoer
In the eyes of God, the wicked one, the evildoer, is the one who does not come to drink of Him (cf. note 53 in Rom. 1).
Is 55:7a return  -   Hosea 6:1
Is 55:81 thoughts
God’s way and God’s thought are that we would come to drink of Him freely (cf. John 4:10; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:17). See note 11.
Is 55:9a heavens  -   Psa. 103:11
Is 55:10a rain  -   Deut. 32:2
Is 55:10b seed  -   2 Cor. 9:10
Is 55:10c sower  -   Mark 4:3
Is 55:11a word  -   Isa. 45:23
Is 55:111 vainly
Or, empty.
Is 55:112 sent
God has sent forth His word to water His people (v. 10), to sanctify them (John 17:17; Eph. 5:26), to transform them (2 Cor. 3:18), and to conform them to His image (Rom. 8:29) that the Body of Christ may be built up.
Is 55:12a go  -   Isa. 35:10; Psa. 105:43
Is 55:12b break  -   Isa. 44:23; 49:13
Is 55:131 name
What God is doing in His people by sending forth His word (vv. 10-11) will be both a name (memorial) to God and an eternal sign (strong proof) that will never be cut off.
Isaiah Chapter 56
Notes and Cross-references
Is 56:11 justice
In its Old Testament usage, the word justice means the verdict of God’s judgment. Justice plus righteousness equals salvation. As the result of Christ’s death on the cross for us, God’s verdict concerning us, the believers in Christ, is the justice that causes us to be justified, to be made righteous (Rom. 3:24). This justice that makes us righteous is God’s salvation coming to us.
Is 56:1a about  -   Isa. 46:13; Matt. 3:2; Rom. 13:11-12
Is 56:21 Sabbath
According to this book the real meaning of keeping the Sabbath is that we cease from our doing, stop our work, and enjoy what the Lord has done for us, drinking of Him as the waters (12:3; 55:1). Keeping the Sabbath in this way is to be terminated and replaced by Christ so that we may enter into Him and rest in Him for eternity (Gal. 2:20). The entire Christian life should be such a Sabbath.
Is 56:7a burnt  -   1 Pet. 2:5
Is 56:7b My  -   Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46
Is 56:8a gathers  -   Isa. 43:5-6; 49:22; 60:4; Matt. 24:31
Is 56:81 others
First, God gathered the Jews to Christ (Acts 2 — 12), and then He began to gather the Gentiles from such places as Asia Minor and Macedonia (Acts 13 — 20). Today He continues to gather people to Christ from throughout the earth.
Is 56:10a blind  -   Matt. 15:14
Is 56:10b dogs  -   Matt. 7:6
Isaiah Chapter 57
Notes and Cross-references
Is 57:21 beds
I.e., graves.
Is 57:51 terebinths
Trees used in the worship of idols.
Is 57:131a refuge  -   Psa. 2:12
To take refuge in the Lord is to enter into Him and stay in Him to enjoy Him. When we stay in the Lord, taking Him as our refuge, we enjoy Him, and eventually we will inherit Him as the land and possess Him as our high mountain.
Is 57:14a prepare  -   Isa. 40:3; 62:10; Luke 3:4
Is 57:15a Holy  -   Job 6:10; Luke 1:49
Is 57:15b lowly  -   Matt. 5:3; James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5
Is 57:151 spirit
See note 11 in ch. 66.
Is 57:16a For  -   Psa. 103:9; Jer. 3:12
Is 57:19a far  -   Eph. 2:17
Is 57:19b heal  -   Jer. 3:22
Is 57:201 wicked
The evil condition of the wicked is that they do not come to the Lord to eat and enjoy the Lord (cf. 55:1-2). They do many things, but they do not come to contact the Lord, to take Him, to receive Him, to taste Him, and to enjoy Him. In the sight of God, nothing is more evil than this. Cf. note 71 in ch. 55.
Is 57:20a tossed  -   Jude 13; cf. James 1:6
Is 57:21a There  -   Isa. 48:22
Isaiah Chapter 58
Notes and Cross-references
Is 58:1a trumpet  -   Rev. 1:10; cf. 1 Cor. 14:8
Is 58:2a delight  -   cf. Luke 8:13
Is 58:31a fasted  -   Zech. 7:5; Luke 18:12
The real meaning of fasting is to stop eating all things other than the Lord Jesus and to not have a taste for anything other than Him. God wants us to stop our doing and be replaced by Christ (keep the Sabbath — 56:2) and to keep away from the taste of anything other than Christ (fast). By resting and fasting we can partake of all that the processed Christ has accomplished for us. In totality, what Christ is and has accomplished is just the divine water (55:1), which is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God for us to drink and enjoy (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13).
Is 58:32 find
In their hypocrisy the house of Jacob fasted, but they did many things in pursuit of their own interests. They did not rest in God nor take Him as their nourishment and life supply (cf. 55:1-2). This was their hypocrisy.
Is 58:4a fast  -   1 Kings 21:9, 12-13
Is 58:5a fast  -   Matt. 6:16
Is 58:6a free  -   Neh. 5:10-12; Jer. 34:9; Luke 4:18
Is 58:7a divide  -   cf. Acts 2:45
Is 58:7b hungry  -   Ezek. 18:7; Matt. 25:35; Luke 3:11
Is 58:8a light  -   Job 11:17; Isa. 60:1, 3; Matt. 5:16
Is 58:8b glory  -   Exo. 14:19; Isa. 52:12
Is 58:11a guide  -   Isa. 49:10
Is 58:11b garden  -   S.S. 4:15; Jer. 31:12
Is 58:11c spring  -   John 7:38
Is 58:12a rebuild  -   Isa. 61:4
Is 58:13a Sabbath  -   Gen. 2:2; Exo. 20:10; Deut. 5:15; Ezek. 20:12; Mark 2:23
Is 58:14a heights  -   Deut. 32:13
Isaiah Chapter 59
Notes and Cross-references
Is 59:1a so  -   Num. 11:23; Isa. 50:2
Is 59:2a not  -   Psa. 66:18; John 9:31
Is 59:3a blood  -   Isa. 1:15
Is 59:4a They  -   Job 15:35; Psa. 7:14
Is 59:7a Their  -   Prov. 1:16; Rom. 3:15
Is 59:7b Desolation  -   Rom. 3:16
Is 59:8a The  -   Rom. 3:17
Is 59:10a grope  -   Deut. 28:29; Job 5:14; Amos 8:9
Is 59:10b blind  -   Zeph. 1:17; 2 Pet. 1:9
Is 59:101 prospering
The meaning of the word is uncertain. Others understand, desolate places; i.e., cemeteries.
Is 59:16a no  -   Ezek. 22:30
Is 59:16b appalled  -   Mark 6:6
Is 59:161c arm  -   Psa. 98:1; Isa. 63:5
See note 91 in ch. 51.
Is 59:17a breastplate  -   Eph. 6:14
Is 59:17b helmet  -   Eph. 6:17; 1 Thes. 5:8
Is 59:19a rising  -   Psa. 113:3; Mal. 1:11
Is 59:20a And  -   vv. 20-21: Rom. 11:26-27
Is 59:201b Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ will also be a Redeemer to Zion. Christ can redeem the corrupted Israel because He is the sure mercies covenanted to them (55:3).
Is 59:211 covenant
This covenant is Christ, who is the reality and surety of the covenant (42:6; 49:8; 54:10). See note 61 in ch. 42.
Is 59:212a Spirit  -   Isa. 11:2; 61:1
Christ as the Redeemer (v. 20) saves us from our sins, iniquities, and transgressions, whereas Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) is for our breathing (John 20:22), and Christ as the word (Rev. 19:13) is for our feeding (Matt. 4:4; John 6:57, 63) and our speaking (1 Cor. 14:31; Eph. 4:29).
Is 59:21b words  -   Isa. 51:16
See note 212.
Isaiah Chapter 60
Notes and Cross-references
Is 60:1a Shine  -   Matt. 5:16; Eph. 5:14
Is 60:11 light
Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is the light of Israel and the glory of Jehovah rising upon Israel at His return (vv. 1-3). The entire earth today, including Israel, is under darkness. But when Christ comes as a Redeemer to Israel (59:20), He will be their light to enlighten them, which light is the glory of God, i.e., God Himself in His glory (cf. Rev. 21:23; 22:5).
Is 60:1b glory  -   Rev. 21:11
See note 11.
Is 60:2a darkness  -   Matt. 4:16
Is 60:3a light  -   Matt. 5:16; Rev. 21:24
Is 60:31 rising
Today the nation of Israel is suffering under the pressure of the nations, but when Christ returns, Israel will rise up. When Christ comes back as the saving Redeemer, Israel as God’s elect and as the center of the world’s population will be restored in every respect. At that time, all the Gentile nations will be for Israel (vv. 3-14).
Is 60:4a gather  -   Matt. 24:31
Is 60:5a wealth  -   Isa. 61:6; Rev. 21:26
Is 60:6a gold  -   Matt. 2:11
Is 60:11a not  -   Rev. 21:25
Is 60:11b wealth  -   Rev. 21:24
Is 60:12a perish  -   Zech. 14:17, 19
Is 60:131 glory
Glory here refers to the products of the nations (Gen. 31:1, 16; Esth. 1:4).
Is 60:13a feet  -   1 Chron. 28:2; Psa. 132:7; cf. Isa. 66:1
Is 60:14a bowing  -   Isa. 49:23; Rev. 3:9
Is 60:14b Zion  -   Psa. 2:6; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1
Is 60:16a kings  -   Rev. 21:24
Is 60:16b Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14; 49:26
Is 60:18a walls  -   Isa. 26:1; Rev. 21:12
Is 60:19a sun  -   Rev. 21:23; 22:5
Is 60:191b light  -   Rev. 21:11
In the New Jerusalem Israel will enjoy Jehovah in Christ, the Servant of Jehovah, as the eternal light (vv. 19-20; Rev. 21:23; 22:5).
Is 60:192 beauty
In the restoration God in Christ will be Israel’s glory and beauty, and Israel will be God’s glory and beauty (v. 21; 61:3b). Thus, God and His chosen people will be glorified and beautified in mutuality. This will be accomplished by the divine dispensing through Christ as the Redeemer and the Savior putting Himself into God’s people as the life-giving Spirit and the word (59:21).
Is 60:21a planting  -   Isa. 61:3; Matt. 15:13; John 15:1
Is 60:211 beautified
See note 192.
Isaiah Chapter 61
Notes and Cross-references
Is 61:11a The  -   vv. 1-2: Luke 4:18
Verses 1-3 refer to the ministry of Christ as the Anointed of Jehovah in His two comings. As indicated in Luke 4:16-22a (see notes there), vv. 1-2a in this chapter refer to Christ in His first coming, in which His ministry was to announce the gospel of grace. Verses 2b-3 refer to Christ in His second coming, in which His ministry will be to avenge Israel that they may be restored. The prophecy concerning Christ as the Anointed of Jehovah was fulfilled as a foretaste at Christ’s first coming, for the age of grace as the acceptable year of Jehovah, the New Testament jubilee (see note 101, par. 2, in Lev. 25), resulting in the producing and building up of the church. This prophecy will be fulfilled as a full taste at Christ’s second coming, for the restoration of Israel unto the new heavens and new earth (65:17; 66:22).
Christ’s coming is of two parts and at two times. In His first coming, Christ came to minister, to dispense, Himself into His followers. In this way He carried out the New Testament ministry to dispense the Triune God into the disciples under His ministry, most of whom were Jews. This ministry in Christ’s first coming laid a solid foundation for His second coming. When He comes the second time, He will come mainly in an outward way to rescue Israel from their circumstances and to bring in their restoration (Zech. 12 — 14). This restoration will be expanded to include all things created by God (2:2-5; 11:6-9; 30:26; 35:1-10; 65:25). It will last for a millennium, for the thousand-year kingdom (Rev. 20:2-7).
In the eyes of God, Christ’s two comings are two aspects of one unique coming of Christ from God to mankind. Hence, in Isaiah’s prophecy these two comings are like two mountain peaks which, when viewed from a distance, seem to be one peak. For this reason Isaiah viewed Christ’s first coming and second coming as being together.
Is 61:1b Spirit  -   Isa. 11:2; Matt. 3:16; 12:18; John 1:32
Is 61:12 Lord
The Spirit of Jehovah was upon Christ in His first coming (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18a) and will be upon Him in His second coming. When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, the striking significance will be that the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Him, the word Lord being especially added here by Isaiah.
Is 61:1c anointed  -   Psa. 45:7; Heb. 1:9
Is 61:1d good  -   Matt. 11:5; Mark 1:38
Is 61:1e bind  -   Psa. 147:3; Ezek. 34:16
Is 61:1f liberty  -   Isa. 42:7; Jer. 34:8
Is 61:21a acceptable  -   Lev. 25:8-12
The acceptable year is toward God’s people (cf. Luke 4:18-19); the day of vengeance is toward the enemies of God’s people. When Christ comes again to Israel, that will be the acceptable year to them and also the day of God’s vengeance over the enemies of God’s people, Antichrist and his followers (Rev. 19:11-21).
Is 61:2b comfort  -   Isa. 57:18; Matt. 5:4; Luke 6:21
Is 61:3a mourning  -   Psa. 30:11
Is 61:3b planting  -   Matt. 15:13
Is 61:4a rebuild  -   Isa. 58:12; Ezek. 36:35-36
Is 61:61a priests  -   Exo. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9
In the restoration Israel will be priests of Jehovah (see note 32 in ch. 2), the ministers of their God, and the Gentiles will be the laborers to serve Israel (vv. 4-9).
Is 61:6b wealth  -   Isa. 60:5, 11, 16
Is 61:8a justice  -   Psa. 33:5; 37:28
Is 61:81 with
According to the reading of some MSS and the ancient versions; other MSS read, in the burnt offering.
Is 61:8b covenant  -   Isa. 55:3
Is 61:10a bride  -   Isa. 49:18; Rev. 21:2
Isaiah Chapter 62
Notes and Cross-references
Is 62:11 righteousness
God’s righteousness brings in His salvation (cf. 56:1; 61:10). Because righteousness will be dispensed, transfused, into the Jews during the restoration, they will shine forth righteousness. Also they will show forth salvation as God’s crown of beauty and delight (vv. 1-5). Their shining forth will be such a crown to God. God will be beautified by and will be happy and satisfied with what Israel will shine forth.
Is 62:71 praise
In the restoration Jerusalem will be established and made a praise in the earth (vv. 6-9).
Is 62:101 standard
At His return Christ will be a standard raised up for the gathering of Jehovah’s scattered people. He will also be the salvation that comes to Zion to rescue her from the destruction of Antichrist and the nations that are with him (v. 11b; 63:1-6; Zech. 12:2-9; Rev. 19:11-21).
Isaiah Chapter 63
Notes and Cross-references
Is 63:11 Who
In vv. 1-6, 9; 64:1; 65:17-25; and 66:15-16, 22, Christ is the Angel of the presence of Jehovah (v. 9) for dealing with the nations. He will rend the heavens and come to save Israel from the nations (v. 9; 64:1). He will come with fire to judge the nations on the whole earth with His burning (66:15-16a). He will also come to tread the great winepress, to destroy Antichrist and the evil people of the nations at Armageddon (vv. 1-6; Rev. 16:12-16; 19:19-21). Finally, when Christ returns He will bring in the time of restoration — the millennial kingdom unto the new heavens and new earth (65:17-25; 66:22; Rev. 20:4-6; 22:1).
Is 63:1a red-stained  -   Isa. 9:5; Rev. 19:13
Is 63:1b Bozrah  -   Isa. 34:6
Is 63:21a winepress  -   Lam. 1:15; Rev. 14:19-20
Winepress here and in Rev. 14:19-20 and 19:15 refers to the war at Armageddon. Christ as the Anointed of Jehovah will come to tread the winepress to save Israel from the nations (vv. 1-6). During the last three and a half years of this age, the time of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), Antichrist will persecute the Jews to the uttermost, with the intention of completely destroying Israel. Prior to that time, nearly all Israel will be brought back to the Holy Land. Then, before the tribulation Antichrist will make a seven-year covenant of peace with Israel so that they may have their freedom (Dan. 9:27). But after three and a half years, Antichrist will change his mind and will oppose every kind of religion (Dan. 11:36). After destroying Catholicism (Rev. 17:16-18), Antichrist will attempt to destroy the Jewish religion. At the end of the last three and a half years, Antichrist will cause the armies of the nations to surround Jerusalem. With Jerusalem as the center, the entire region from Bozrah to the Mount of Megiddo (Armageddon — Rev. 16:16) will be occupied by armies. In His coming back, Christ, with His overcomers as His bride, will descend to Bozrah (v. 1), and beginning there He will tread the winepress, destroying all the armies. In this way He will rescue Israel from destruction. See Rev. 14:17-20; 16:16; and 19:11-21, and notes on those verses.
Is 63:4a day  -   Isa. 34:8; 61:2
Is 63:5a looked  -   Isa. 41:28; 59:16; cf. Rev. 5:4
Is 63:5b arm  -   Psa. 98:1; Isa. 59:16
Is 63:91a Angel  -   Exo. 14:19; 23:20-21; Mal. 3:1; Acts 12:11
This is Christ as the Angel of Jehovah. The expression the Angel of His presence indicates that this very angel is the presence of Jehovah. Christ as the Angel of Jehovah was always present with Israel in their sufferings, from Exo. 3 through Isa. 63 to Zech. 1. The Anointed of Jehovah (cf. 61:1-3) is a sweet term to God’s people, but the Angel of His presence is a term applied mainly toward the enemies of God’s people. It is the Angel of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus as the presence of the Triune God, who will come to defeat Antichrist and his armies at Armageddon (vv. 1-6).
Is 63:9b bore  -   Exo. 19:4; Deut. 1:31; 32:11-12
Is 63:10a grieved  -   Psa. 78:40; Eph. 4:30; 1 Thes. 5:19
Is 63:101b Spirit  -   Psa. 51:11; Rom. 1:4
See note 112 in Psa. 51. So also for v. 11.
Is 63:111 Then
Or, Then His people remembered the days of old of Moses.
Is 63:11a brought  -   Exo. 14:30; 32:11-12; Num. 14:13-14; Jer. 2:6
Is 63:112 shepherds
Others read, shepherd.
Is 63:11b in  -   Num. 11:17, 25; Neh. 9:20; Dan. 4:8
Is 63:12a divided  -   Exo. 14:21; Neh. 9:11
Is 63:13a depths  -   Psa. 106:9
Is 63:14a name  -   2 Sam. 7:23
Is 63:15a Look  -   Deut. 26:15; Psa. 80:14
Is 63:161a Father  -   Exo. 4:22; Deut. 32:6; 1 Chron. 29:10; Isa. 64:8; Jer. 3:19; Mark 7:27; John 8:41
This verse in Isaiah’s prophecy, along with 64:8, is a further development of what Isaiah prophesied concerning Christ as the eternal Father in 9:6. In this verse Christ as the eternal Father is the Redeemer (Titus 2:13-14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19), and in 64:8 He is the Creator (John 1:3; Heb. 1:10).
Is 63:16b Redeemer  -   Isa. 41:14
See note 161.
Isaiah Chapter 64
Notes and Cross-references
Is 64:1a heavens  -   Psa. 18:9; 144:5
Is 64:11 come
Isaiah 64:1-5a and 66:15-16 reveal the second coming of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (cf. 31:4-5). Christ’s rending the heavens and coming down refers to the consummation of Christ’s coming from heaven to earth, from God to man (see note 11, pars. 2 and 3, in ch. 61).
Is 64:1b shake  -   Judg. 5:4-5; Psa. 68:8
Is 64:4a heard  -   1 Cor. 2:9
Is 64:4b waits  -   Isa. 8:17
Is 64:5a righteousness  -   Acts 10:35
Is 64:6a our  -   Phil. 3:9
Is 64:6b soiled  -   Zech. 3:3; cf. Rev. 3:18; 7:13; 19:8
Is 64:71a calls  -   Psa. 14:4; Hosea 7:7; Rom. 10:12
See note 211 in Acts 2.
Is 64:7b lay  -   Phil. 3:12; 1 Tim. 6:12
Is 64:7c hidden  -   Isa. 59:2
Is 64:72 consumed
Some ancient versions, perhaps relying on a different MS, translate, delivered us because of. Some modern versions follow this rendering.
Is 64:81a Father  -   Isa. 63:16
See note 161 in ch. 63.
Is 64:8b clay  -   Isa. 29:16; Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:20-21
Is 64:10a Jerusalem  -   Psa. 79:1
Is 64:11a house  -   2 Kings 25:9; 2 Chron. 36:19; Psa. 74:7; Matt. 23:38
Isaiah Chapter 65
Notes and Cross-references
Is 65:1a I  -   Rom. 10:20
Is 65:2a I  -   Rom. 10:21
Is 65:7a iniquities  -   Exo. 20:5
Is 65:9a chosen  -   Isa. 65:15, 22; Matt. 24:22; Rom. 11:5, 7
Is 65:11a table  -   Ezek. 23:41; 1 Cor. 10:21
Is 65:13a hunger  -   Luke 6:25
Is 65:161 God
Lit., the God of Amen (twice in this verse); “i.e., the God who turns what He promises into Yea and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20)” (Keil and Delitzsch). See note 203 in 2 Cor. 1.
Is 65:16a faithfulness  -   Rev. 3:14
Is 65:171a new  -   Isa. 51:16; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1
According to v. 17 and 66:22-24, the restoration of Israel and of all things brought in by Christ as the Servant of Jehovah consummates in the new heaven and new earth. After so many things have passed away, what will remain will be the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem (2 Pet. 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1-2).
In the millennial kingdom the Jews will be priests on the earth (2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23), and the overcoming believers will be priests in the heavens (Rev. 20:6). At that time the holy city, New Jerusalem, will comprise only the overcoming Old Testament and New Testament saints but not the Israelites who will be saved at the Lord’s coming back. At the end of the millennium Satan will stir up opposers, mainly from Gog and Magog, to attack the city of the Jews and the camp of the saints, but fire will come down out of heaven to devour them (Rev. 20:9). In the new heaven and new earth after the millennium, the Jews who were saved at the coming of the Lord Jesus will be mingled with the New Jerusalem. Therefore, in the new heaven and new earth, there will be only two peoples. First, there will be the New Jerusalem, composed of both the New Testament believers and the Old Testament saints (Rev. 21:12, 14), who will be God’s sons as the royal family to rule over the nations and as the priests to serve God forever (Rev. 21:7; 22:3, 5), and second, there will be the nations, who will not be regenerated but only restored and who will live on the new earth outside the New Jerusalem to be God’s people (Rev. 21:3, 24-26; 22:2b).
Is 65:17b former  -   Rev. 21:4
Is 65:17c come  -   cf. 1 Cor. 2:9
Is 65:181 But
Verses 18-25 reveal that a restoration will be brought in both to Israel and to all things. In this restoration death will be limited, and there will be abundant life and much praise and rejoicing.
Is 65:19a weeping  -   Isa. 35:10; 51:11; Rev. 21:4
Is 65:22a tree  -   Psa. 92:12
Is 65:251 The
The expressions here are very similar to those in 11:6-9, which also speaks of the restoration brought in through Christ. See note 61 in ch. 11.
Is 65:25a wolf  -   Isa. 11:6-7, 9
Is 65:25b dust  -   Gen. 3:14
Isaiah Chapter 66
Notes and Cross-references
Is 66:1a Heaven  -   1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chron. 6:18; Matt. 5:34-35
Is 66:1b footstool  -   1 Chron. 28:2
Is 66:11 house
See note 491 in Acts 7. God did not consider either heaven or earth His dwelling place, nor did He consider the physical house, the temple, built for Him by the children of Israel the place of His rest. In the Old Testament both the tabernacle and the temple were only symbols of God’s union with the children of Israel, whom God considered His actual house (Heb. 3:6 and note). God was united with the children of Israel and became one entity with them, and this one entity was a spiritual house in which both God and the godly people in Israel dwelt (Psa. 27:4; 84:10; 90:1; cf. 1 Pet. 2:5a). According to v. 2 and 57:15, the dwelling place God desires to have is a group of people into whom He can enter. God intends to have a dwelling place in the universe that is the mingling of God and man, in which God is built into man and man is built into God, so that God and man, man and God, can be a mutual abode to each other (John 14:2, 20, 23; 15:4; 1 John 4:13). In the New Testament this dwelling place, this house, is the church, which is God’s habitation in the believers’ spirit (Eph. 2:22 and note 4; 1 Tim. 3:15 and note 2). The ultimate manifestation of this universal building, this universal house, is the New Jerusalem. In this city God is in man, taking man as His dwelling place, and man is in God, taking God as his habitation (Rev. 21:3, 22, and notes). See note 121 in Gen. 28 and notes in 2 Sam. 7:12-14.
Is 66:2a poor  -   Isa. 57:15; 61:1; Matt. 5:3
Is 66:2b contrite  -   Psa. 34:18; 51:17
Is 66:4a called  -   Prov. 1:24; Isa. 65:12; Jer. 7:13
Is 66:12a river  -   Isa. 48:18; 60:5
Is 66:121 glory
See note 131 in ch. 60.
Is 66:12b nurse  -   Isa. 60:16
Is 66:12c carried  -   Isa. 49:22; 60:4
Is 66:14a bones  -   Ezek. 37:1
Is 66:15a fire  -   Isa. 9:5; 2 Thes. 1:7
Is 66:16a sword  -   Isa. 34:5-6; Rev. 6:4
Is 66:181 I
The meaning of the Hebrew text is quite obscure.
Is 66:191 Javan
I.e., Greece.
Is 66:20a bring  -   Isa. 43:6
Is 66:201 meal
In the restoration the nations will bring the scattered Israelites as a meal offering to God. Just as in the ancient time, some of the Israelites will be appointed to serve as priests (cf. 61:6), and others will do the Levitical service (v. 21).
Is 66:21a priests  -   Exo. 19:6; Isa. 61:6; 1 Pet. 2:9
Is 66:221a new  -   Isa. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1
See note 171 in ch. 65.
Is 66:23a come  -   Psa. 65:2; Zech. 14:16
Is 66:24a worm  -   Mark 9:48
Is 66:24b fire  -   Matt. 3:12; Luke 16:24
< Isaiah • Jeremiah Outline >
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Jeremiah Outline
I.   Jeremiah’s call and commission — 1:1-19
A.   Introduction — vv. 1-3
B.   Jeremiah’s call — vv. 4-8
C.   Jeremiah’s commission — vv. 9-19
II.   Israel’s sin against Jehovah and Jehovah’s punishment upon Israel — 2:1 — 45:5
A.   Israel’s two evils — forsaking Jehovah, the fountain of living waters, and hewing out for themselves broken cisterns — 2:1 — 3:5
B.   Israel’s return or Jehovah’s correction for her apostasy — 3:6 — 4:31
1.   Israel the wife’s apostasy — 3:6-11
2.   Israel the wife’s return — a loving pleading of Jehovah the Husband — 3:12 — 4:2
3.   Jehovah the Husband’s correction — 4:3-31
C.   Jehovah the Husband’s further complaint against Israel (actually Judah) the wife’s wickednesses in detail — 5:1-31
D.   Jehovah the Husband’s determination in correcting the wife — 6:1-30
E.   Israel’s (actually Judah’s) hypocritical worship to Jehovah — 7:1 — 10:25
F.   Israel’s (actually Judah’s) breaking of Jehovah’s covenant — 11:1 — 13:27
G.   Jehovah’s punishment of Israel (actually Judah) with drought — 14:1 — 15:9
1.   Jehovah’s message concerning their drought — 14:1-6
2.   Jeremiah the prophet’s intercession — 14:7 — 15:9
a.   His intercession — 14:7-9
b.   Jehovah’s refusal — 14:10-12
c.   The prophet’s prayer concerning the false prophets, and Jehovah’s answer — 14:13-16
d.   The reaction of the prophet, who was one with the punishing Jehovah — 14:17-18
e.   The prophet’s further intercession — 14:19-22
f.   Jehovah’s answer — 15:1-4
g.   The punishing Jehovah’s sighing for His punished people — 15:5-9
H.   Jehovah’s further commission to Jeremiah — 15:10 — 16:9
I.   Jehovah’s further statement of Judah’s (as Israel’s) sins — 16:10 — 17:27
J.   Jehovah as the Potter and Israel as the pottery — 18:1 — 20:18
1.   Jehovah as the sovereign Potter — 18:1-10
2.   The evil condition of Israel — 18:11-23
3.   Israel as a potter’s earthenware jar to be broken — 19:1-13
4.   Jeremiah’s repeated prophecy concerning Israel — 19:14-15
5.   Israel’s persecution of Jeremiah — 20:1-2, 7-10
6.   Jehovah’s dealing with Israel — 20:3-6
7.   Jeremiah’s accusation against Israel — 20:11-13
8.   Jeremiah’s cursing of the day of his birth — 20:14-18
K.   Jehovah’s condemnation of and punishment upon the kings of Judah with their people — 21:1 — 23:8
  (Jehovah’s promise of restoration to Israel — 23:3-8)
L.   Jehovah’s condemnation of and punishment upon the prophets of Judah with the priests and with the people — 23:9-40
M.   Judah’s captivity — 24:1 — 25:38
1.   Jeremiah’s vision of two baskets of figs — 24:1-10
2.   Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning all the people of Judah — 25:1-38
N.   Judah’s reaction to Jeremiah — 26:1-24
O.   Jeremiah’s genuine prophecies versus the others’ false prophecies — 27:1 — 29:32
1.   Concerning Nebuchadnezzar as bonds and yokes on Israel and the nations around her — 27:1-15
2.   Concerning the bringing back of the vessels of the house of Jehovah — 27:16-22
3.   Concerning the breaking of the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and the bringing back of the vessels of the house of Jehovah and all the exiles from Judah to Babylon — 28:1-17
4.   Concerning the destiny of the captives in Babylon and of those who remain in Judah — 29:1-32
P.   Jehovah’s promise concerning the restoration of Israel — 30:1 — 33:26
1.   Jehovah to turn the captivity of Israel and Judah and to bring them back to the land after His chastisement of them — 30:1 — 31:40
2.   The imprisonment and condemnation of Jeremiah by Zedekiah — 32:1-5
3.   Jeremiah’s buying of the field in Anathoth — 32:6-15
4.   Jeremiah’s dealing with Jehovah concerning the field — 32:16-25
5.   Jehovah’s answer to Jeremiah — 32:26-44
6.   The word of Jehovah as a reaffirmation of His promise concerning the restoration of Israel — 33:1-26
Q.   Israel’s stubbornness in their sinning against Jehovah and Jeremiah’s firmness in his speaking for Jehovah — 34:1 — 45:5
1.   Before the fall of Jerusalem — 34:1 — 38:28
a.   Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion and Zedekiah’s destiny — 34:1-7
b.   Zedekiah’s dishonesty in keeping God’s commandment, and Jehovah’s punishment — 34:8-22
c.   The example of the Rechabites — 35:1-19
d.   Jehoiakim’s stubbornness in burning Jeremiah’s book of prophecy, and Jehovah’s punishment — 36:1-32
e.   The first step of Jeremiah’s imprisonment — 37:1-21
f.   The second step of Jeremiah’s imprisonment — 38:1-28
2.   In the fall of Jerusalem — 39:1-10
a.   The capture of Jerusalem — vv. 1-3
b.   The punishment of Zedekiah — vv. 4-10
3.   After the fall of Jerusalem — the release of Jeremiah from the court of the king’s guard — 39:11-14
4.   Before the fall of Jerusalem — the destiny of Ebed-melech — 39:15-18
5.   After the fall of Jerusalem — 40:1 — 44:30
a.   The release of Jeremiah from the chains among the exiles — 40:1-6
b.   The history of the remnant of Judah from Gedaliah to Johanan — 40:7 — 44:30
(1)   The gathering of the remnant of Judah to Gedaliah — 40:7-12
(2)   The murder of Gedaliah — 40:13 — 41:10
(3)   Johanan’s victory over Ishmael — 41:11-15
(4)   The direction of Johanan and the remnant of Judah — 41:16-18
(5)   The dishonesty of the remnant and the leaders in asking Jeremiah to pray for them — 42:1 — 43:7
(6)   The word of Jehovah through Jeremiah concerning the destiny of the remnant of Judah in Egypt — 43:8 — 44:14
(7)   The argument between a great assemblage and Jeremiah the prophet — 44:15-30
6.   Before the fall of Jerusalem — the word of Jehovah to Baruch — 45:1-5
III.   Jehovah’s punishment and judgment upon the nations involved with God’s elect, Israel — 46:1 — 51:64
A.   Upon Egypt — 46:2-26
  (A word of comfort to Israel — 46:27-28)
B.   Upon the Philistines — 47:1-7
C.   Upon Moab — 48:1-47
D.   Upon the children of Ammon — 49:1-6
E.   Upon Edom — 49:7-22
F.   Upon Damascus — 49:23-27
G.   Upon Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor — 49:28-33
H.   Upon Elam — 49:34-39
I.   Upon Babylon — 50:1 — 51:64
IV.   A supplement to the history of captivity — 52:1-34
A.   The fall of Jerusalem — vv. 1-16
B.   The plunder of the temple — vv. 17-23
C.   The exile of the people of Judah — vv. 24-27
D.   The number of those exiled by Nebuchadnezzar from Judah — vv. 28-30
E.   The lifting up of Jehoiachin king of Judah — vv. 31-34
Jeremiah >
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Jeremiah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Je 1:11 Jeremiah
Meaning perhaps Jah exalts, or Jah tears down; Jah being a shortened form of Jehovah.
Je 1:2a Josiah  -   2 Kings 22:1; 2 Chron. 34:1
Je 1:3a Jehoiakim  -   2 Kings 23:36; 2 Chron. 36:5; Jer. 25:1
Je 1:3b Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 24:17; 2 Chron. 36:10
Je 1:3c captivity  -   2 Kings 25:8-11; Jer. 52:15
Je 1:5a formed  -   Isa. 49:1, 5
Je 1:5b knew  -   Exo. 33:12, 17
Je 1:5c sanctified  -   Luke 1:15; Gal. 1:15-16
Je 1:51 appointed
Lit., given. Jeremiah was born a priest (v. 1), but he was called by God to be a prophet not only to the nation of Israel but also to all the nations (vv. 5-8). Hence, he was a priest-prophet.
The content of Jeremiah’s prophecy is God’s carrying out of His economy through His chastisement of Israel, His elect, in love with His tender care, compassion, and sympathy, and His judgment on the nations in righteousness to match His love, that Israel may manifest Christ, who is their divine righteousness (23:6; 33:16) as their centrality and universality, by their being made a new creation with the inner law of the divine life and the capacity of this life to know God (31:33-34).
Je 1:6a speak  -   Exo. 4:10; 6:12, 30; Isa. 6:5
Je 1:8a not  -   Jer. 1:17; Ezek. 2:6; 3:9; Acts 18:9
Je 1:8b with  -   Exo. 3:12; Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5; Acts 18:10
Je 1:9a mouth  -   Isa. 6:7; Luke 21:15
Je 1:9b put  -   Isa. 51:16; Jer. 5:14
Je 1:101a pluck  -   Jer. 18:7; 2 Cor. 10:4-5
The plucking up, the breaking down, and the destroying are Jehovah’s tearing down, whereas the building up and the planting are Jehovah’s exalting. This corresponds to the two meanings of Jeremiah’s name (see note 11). Jehovah’s building up and His planting both involve His word. God’s word is a building up of Christ and a planting of Christ for the exalting of Christ (Acts 20:32; Mark 4:14).
Je 1:111a almond  -   Num. 17:8
Related to the word watch, found in v. 12. Here the rod of an almond tree signifies that God was watching over His word in order to fulfill it, i.e., to execute His word to punish Israel (cf. Deut. 28:15-68).
Je 1:131 boiling
The boiling pot facing away from the north signifies that out of the north (referring especially to Babylon) calamities (evil — v. 14) would be let loose (4:6b) upon all the inhabitants of Israel.
Je 1:13a pot  -   Ezek. 11:3, 7; 24:3
Je 1:14a north  -   Jer. 4:6; 6:1
Je 1:16a works  -   Deut. 4:28; Micah 5:13; Rev. 9:20
Je 1:17a gird  -   1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; Job 38:3; Luke 12:35
Je 1:18a And  -   vv. 18-19: Jer. 15:20
Je 1:181 fortified
On earth there is always a battle raging between God and those who oppose Him and fight against Him. God fights not by Himself directly but through His servants who have been sent by Him. This was the situation in Jeremiah’s time. God sent His army — a young man named Jeremiah — to fight against those who opposed Him. Jeremiah was equipped by God to such an extent that he became a fortified city and an iron pillar and brass walls. Because God was with him to deliver him, the opposers would not prevail over him (v. 19).
Jeremiah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Je 2:2a youth  -   Ezek. 16:8, 22, 60; Hosea 2:15
Je 2:2b love  -   Rev. 2:4
Je 2:21 bridal
Or, betrothals. In this book Jehovah God considers Himself a Husband to His beloved elect, Israel, and Israel a wife to Him (2:2, 32; 3:1, 14; 31:32). Jeremiah 2:1 — 3:5 can thus be regarded as a conversation between a husband and his wife. See note 62 in Exo. 20.
Je 2:2c followed  -   Deut. 2:7
Je 2:3a holiness  -   Exo. 19:5-6; 28:36; Zech. 14:20
Je 2:3b firstfruits  -   cf. James 1:18; Rev. 14:4
Je 2:31 increase
Or, harvest; produce from the earth. God gained some increase from the earth as produce, and Israel was the firstfruits of this produce. God treasured Israel as holiness to Him, as the firstfruits of His increase from His field.
Je 2:51a vanity  -   2 Kings 17:15; Jonah 2:8
Referring to the idols. By worshipping idols, Israel made themselves vain, nothing.
Je 2:6a brought  -   Exo. 13:21; 14:30; Deut. 8:14-15; Isa. 63:9, 11-13; Hosea 13:4
Je 2:7a land  -   Num. 13:27; 14:7-8; Deut. 8:7-9
Je 2:11a no  -   Psa. 115:4; Isa. 37:19; Jer. 16:20; Gal. 4:8
Je 2:111b glory  -   Psa. 106:20; Luke 2:32; Rom. 1:23
Israel exchanged the reality of their God, their glory, for the vanity of idols (cf. Rom. 1:23-25).
Je 2:131a fountain  -   Psa. 36:9; Jer. 17:13; John 4:14; 19:34; Rev. 7:17
Jeremiah, a book full of speaking concerning Israel’s sin and God’s wrath, chastisement, and punishment, reveals that God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to dispense Himself into His chosen people for their satisfaction and enjoyment. The goal of this enjoyment is to produce the church, God’s counterpart, as God’s increase, God’s enlargement, to be God’s fullness for His expression (John 3:29-30; Eph. 3:16-19, 21). This is the heart’s desire, the good pleasure, of God in His economy (Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:9-11). The full development of this thought, sown as a seed in this verse, is in the New Testament (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 10:4; 12:13; Rev. 22:1, 17).
Israel should have drunk of God as the fountain of living waters that they might become His increase as His expression, but instead they committed two evils: they forsook God as their fountain, their source, and they turned to a source other than God. These two evils govern the entire book of Jeremiah. The hewing out of cisterns portrays Israel’s toil in their human labor to make something (idols) to replace God. That the cisterns were broken and could hold no water indicates that apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water, nothing can quench our thirst and make us God’s increase for His expression (John 4:13-14).
Je 2:181a Egypt  -   Isa. 30:1-2
Israel sought and trusted in the Egyptians’ and Assyrians’ help (man’s help) instead of seeking and trusting in God’s blessing (vv. 17-18, 36; Isa. 31:3).
Je 2:182 Shihor
A reference to the Nile.
Je 2:183 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Je 2:191 apostasies
Apostasy is a matter of leaving the way of God and taking another way to follow things other than God. It is to forsake God and turn to idols (v. 13).
Je 2:201 fornication
As the wife of Jehovah, Israel forsook her chastity to commit fornication by worshipping idols. In doing this, she had a harlot’s forehead and refused to be ashamed (vv. 20, 23-25; 3:1-3).
Je 2:21a planted  -   Exo. 15:17; Psa. 44:2; Isa. 5:1-2; Matt. 21:33
Je 2:21b vine  -   John 15:1
Je 2:28a gods  -   Deut. 32:37; Judg. 10:14
Je 2:28b according  -   Jer. 11:13
Je 2:30a prophets  -   Neh. 9:26; 1 Thes. 2:15
Je 2:321 ornaments
This word concerning ornaments and attire indicates that God is our ornament and attire, i.e., our beautification. Although God was Israel’s beautification, Israel forgot Him.
Je 2:32a attire  -   cf. Rev. 21:2
See note 321.
Je 2:32b forgotten  -   Psa. 106:21; Jer. 13:25; Hosea 8:14
Je 2:322 without
Israel’s forsaking of God for idols and their breaking of God’s commandments began with the worshipping of the golden calf at Mount Sinai (Exo. 32:1-6). Later, in his respeaking of the divine law Moses charged Israel especially that when they entered the good land, they were to tear down the idols, destroy the places of idol worship, and slaughter the idol worshippers (Deut. 7:2, 5). Israel, however, did not obey the commandment to utterly destroy the idol worshippers. As a result, Israel could not fully possess the good land, and there was war repeatedly between Israel and the people in the land. After David had fought all the inhabitants of the land and gained nearly the entire land, and Solomon, his son, had built the temple in about 1000 B.C., in his old age Solomon was led by his many heathen wives to worship idols (1 Kings 11:1-8). Nearly all his descendants continued his apostasy. Eventually, Israel’s worshipping of idols and their breaking of the law reached its peak at the time of Jeremiah. At that time Israel was in the sunset of the divine revelation. Cf. note 121 in Judg. 2.
Jeremiah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Je 3:1a If  -   Deut. 24:1-4
Je 3:11 Yet
In spite of Israel’s fornication, which was like that of a divorced wife, Jehovah would return to her again if she would return to Him. This is Jehovah’s compassions, which do not fail and are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23).
Je 3:1b return  -   Jer. 4:1; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7
Je 3:4a Father  -   Isa. 63:16; Jer. 3:19; 31:9
Je 3:61 Israel
Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, the north being called the kingdom of Israel and the south, the kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 11:9 — 12:24). The northern kingdom of Israel became apostate and committed spiritual fornication (adultery) with idols (vv. 6, 9). Because of this, Jehovah divorced her (v. 8a). Israel’s treacherous sister, Judah, saw what Israel did and how she was punished for the evil thing she did. However, Judah did not fear but committed fornication also (vv. 7b, 8b).
Je 3:7a sister  -   Ezek. 16:46; 23:4
Je 3:121a north  -   Jer. 3:18; 31:8
Referring to Assyria, to which Israel had been carried away (2 Kings 18:9-12).
Je 3:122 Return
Jeremiah 3:12 — 4:2 is a loving pleading of Jehovah the Husband for Israel to return to Him.
Je 3:12b I  -   Psa. 103:9; Isa. 57:16
Je 3:13a acknowledge  -   Lev. 26:40; Prov. 28:13
Je 3:14a Husband  -   Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:32; Hosea 2:16
Je 3:15a shepherds  -   Jer. 23:4; Ezek. 34:23; Eph. 4:11
Je 3:161a Ark  -   Josh. 3:3; Judg. 20:27; 1 Sam. 4:3-5
At the time of restoration promised by God in vv. 16-18, Israel will no longer care for the Ark of the Covenant as God’s meeting place with her because Christ, the embodiment of God, will be present with her and will reign in Jerusalem. See note 31 in 1 Sam. 4.
Je 3:17a throne  -   Ezek. 43:7; Matt. 25:31
Je 3:171b gathered  -   Isa. 60:3-5
In the restoration in the millennium (Matt. 19:28), Jehovah as Christ will be the King reigning over Israel, and all the nations will be gathered to Jerusalem (Isa. 2:2-3; 60:3-5; Zech. 8:20-23).
Je 3:181 Judah
In the restoration the twelve tribes of Israel will no longer be divided but will be one.
Je 3:18a north  -   Jer. 31:8
Je 3:19a Father  -   Isa. 63:16
Je 3:22a Return  -   Jer. 3:14
Je 3:23a anything  -   Psa. 121:1-2
Jeremiah Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Je 4:1a Return  -   Jer. 3:1, 22; Joel 2:12
Je 4:2a bless  -   Gen. 22:18; Psa. 72:17; Isa. 65:16; Gal. 3:8
Je 4:31 fallow
Israel should sow everything in the presence of God, with God, and for God. This is to use the land properly. Instead they worshipped idols and sowed among thorns. Thus, God advised them to stop that kind of sowing and return to the fallow ground in which they should have been sowing.
Je 4:3a sow  -   Matt. 13:7; Mark 4:7; Luke 8:7
Je 4:4a Circumcise  -   Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 9:26; Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11
Je 4:6a do  -   Luke 21:21
Je 4:61b north  -   Jer. 1:13-15; 6:1, 22
Referring to Babylon.
Je 4:71 lion
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
Je 4:121 from
Or, for Me; i.e., for My sake.
Je 4:13a eagles  -   Deut. 28:49; Lam. 4:19; Hosea 8:1; Hab. 1:8
Je 4:14a Wash  -   Isa. 1:16; James 4:8
Je 4:19a heart  -   Isa. 15:5; 16:11; Jer. 9:1, 10
Je 4:19b trumpet  -   Num. 10:9; Amos 3:6; Zeph. 1:16; cf. 1 Cor. 14:8
Je 4:23a earth  -   Isa. 24:19
Je 4:23b waste  -   Gen. 1:2
Je 4:25a no  -   Isa. 41:28
Je 4:27a full  -   Jer. 5:10, 18; 30:11; 46:28
Je 4:30a eyes  -   2 Kings 9:30; Ezek. 23:40
Je 4:31a woman  -   Isa. 26:17-18; Jer. 6:24; 13:21; 30:6; Micah 4:9-10; 5:3
Jeremiah Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Je 5:11 Go
Chapters 2 — 4 are Jehovah the Husband’s major complaint against Israel the wife’s apostasy, her spiritual fornication, her worshipping and making idols. By worshipping idols, Israel broke the first four commandments of the law (Exo. 20:1-11), which concern her relationship with God. Chapters 5 — 6 are Jehovah the Husband’s further complaint against Israel (actually Judah) the wife’s wickednesses in detail. The details concerning her evil conduct show that she also broke the last five commandments of the law (Exo. 20:13-17), those concerning man’s relationship with man.
Je 5:1a a  -   Ezek. 22:30
Je 5:41 ordinance
See note 11 in Deut. 4.
Je 5:61 deserts
Or, evenings.
Je 5:7a not  -   Deut. 32:21; Gal. 4:8
Je 5:9a Shall  -   Jer. 5:29; 9:9
Je 5:91 punish
Lit., visit (i.e., for punishment). So throughout the book.
Je 5:10a full  -   Jer. 4:27
Je 5:10b branches  -   cf. John 15:6; Rom. 11:19
Je 5:131 the
Following the Septuagint; the Masoretic text reads, He who speaks.
Je 5:141 they
Lit., you.
Je 5:14a words  -   Jer. 1:9; 23:29
Je 5:15a afar  -   Deut. 28:49; Isa. 5:26; Jer. 4:16
Je 5:17a harvest  -   Lev. 26:16; Deut. 28:31, 33
Je 5:18a full  -   Jer. 4:27
Je 5:191 they
Lit., you.
Je 5:21a eyes  -   Isa. 6:9; Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 13:14; Mark 8:18
Je 5:22a boundary  -   Job 26:10; 38:10-11; Psa. 104:9
Je 5:24a rain  -   Psa. 147:8; Jer. 14:22; Matt. 5:45
Je 5:241 the
I.e., the autumn rain and the spring rain.
Je 5:29a Shall  -   Jer. 5:9
Je 5:31a falsely  -   Isa. 30:10; Jer. 14:14; 23:25-26; Micah 2:11
Je 5:311 authority
The priests actually were judges (see note 91 in Deut. 17), and they should have judged the cases of the people according to God’s law. However, they judged, ruled, by their own authority, i.e., according to their opinion. The people loved it this way. This may indicate that the people were bribing the priests.
Jeremiah Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Je 6:11 Beth-haccherem
Or, the vineyard house.
Je 6:12 north
Cf. note 131 in ch. 1.
Je 6:41 Prepare
In vv. 4-5 God speaks to the Babylonians; He would use them in His correcting of Israel.
Je 6:6a mound  -   Luke 19:43
Je 6:8a desire  -   Ezek. 23:18; Hosea 9:12
Je 6:91 glean
According to God’s law, once the grapes were harvested, no one was allowed to pick the gleanings, for the remnant of the grape harvest was to be for the poor (Lev. 19:9-10). However, the Babylonians would harvest the “grapes” from the “vine” of Israel, and then come again to glean the vine thoroughly. This means that they would come more than once to take the people captive (52:28-30).
Je 6:10a ear  -   Jer. 7:26; Acts 7:51
Je 6:11a holding  -   Jer. 20:9; Job 32:18-19
Je 6:12a And  -   vv. 12-13: Jer. 8:10
Je 6:14a And  -   vv. 14-15: Jer. 8:11-12
Je 6:14b Peace  -   Ezek. 13:10; cf. 1 Thes. 5:3
Je 6:16a rest  -   Matt. 11:29
Je 6:20a burnt  -   Psa. 40:6; 50:7-9; Isa. 1:11; Jer. 7:21-22; Amos 5:22
Je 6:22a See  -   vv. 22-24: Jer. 50:41-43
Je 6:22b north  -   Jer. 1:15; 10:22
Je 6:24a woman  -   Jer. 4:31
Je 6:26a Mourn  -   Zech. 12:10
Jeremiah Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Je 7:3a Amend  -   Jer. 18:11; 26:13; 35:15
Je 7:41 temple
Israel’s (actually Judah’s — 7:21; 9:26) hypocritical worship of Jehovah their God was a false worship and was a worship of superstition. In their superstitious worship, even the temple had become an idol and something of superstition. Thus, Jeremiah told them not to say these words regarding the temple of Jehovah. Cf. note 31 in 1 Sam. 4.
Je 7:61 oppress
As the hypocritical worshippers of God, Israel (actually Judah) committed many evils (vv. 6, 9, 18, 23-26, 28, 30-31; 8:5-10, 19; 9:2-5, 8, 26). Israel was corrupt in every way, in relation to God and to one another.
Je 7:9a steal  -   cf. Exo. 20:3, 13-16
Je 7:11a house  -   Isa. 56:7
Je 7:11b robbers  -   Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46
Je 7:121a Shiloh  -   Josh. 18:1; Judg. 18:31
Shiloh, where the house of God was first set up in the land of Canaan (Josh. 18:1), was defeated and destroyed because of the wickedness of Israel (vv. 12-14; 26:6a, 9a; 1 Sam. 4:4, 10-11).
Je 7:12b what  -   1 Sam. 4:10-12; Psa. 78:60
Je 7:13a rising  -   Jer. 11:7; 25:3; 35:14; cf. Jer. 7:25
Je 7:14a Shiloh  -   Jer. 26:6
Je 7:16a And  -   Jer. 11:14; 14:11; cf. 1 John 5:16
Je 7:181 queen
Nimrod’s wife Semiramis, later known as Artemis in Ephesus (Acts 19:27). Israel’s making cakes for the wife of Nimrod was a matter of both spiritual fornication and idolatry.
Je 7:23a Hear  -   Exo. 15:26; Deut. 6:3; Jer. 11:4, 7
Je 7:23b I  -   Lev. 26:12; Jer. 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 31:1, 33; 32:38; Ezek. 37:27; Rev. 21:7
Je 7:25a sent  -   2 Chron. 36:15; Jer. 25:4; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4; cf. Jer. 7:13
Je 7:29a Cut  -   Num. 6:9, 18; Judg. 16:17; Micah 1:16
Je 7:291 hair
Cf. note 51 in Num. 6.
Je 7:30a they  -   vv. 30b-32: Jer. 32:34-35
Je 7:30b house  -   2 Kings 21:4, 7; 2 Chron. 33:4-5, 7; Ezek. 7:20
Je 7:31a Topheth  -   2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 19:5-6
Je 7:33a birds  -   Deut. 28:26; Psa. 79:2; Jer. 16:4; cf. Rev. 19:17
Je 7:34a voice  -   Isa. 24:7-8; Jer. 16:9; 25:10; Ezek. 26:13; Rev. 18:23
Jeremiah Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Je 8:2a buried  -   Jer. 22:19
Je 8:3a death  -   Job 3:21-22; 7:15-16; Rev. 9:6
Je 8:6a repents  -   Rev. 9:21; 16:9
Je 8:9a wise  -   Job 5:12-13; Jer. 49:7; 1 Cor. 1:19
Je 8:10a Therefore  -   vv. 10-12: Jer. 6:12-15
Je 8:10b give  -   Deut. 28:30; Amos 5:11; Zeph. 1:13
Je 8:121 punishment
Lit., visitation (i.e., for punishment). So throughout the book.
Je 8:13a no  -   Matt. 21:19; Luke 13:6
Je 8:15a We  -   Jer. 14:19
Je 8:17a serpents  -   Num. 21:6; Deut. 32:24
Je 8:19a far  -   Psa. 137:1; Isa. 39:3
Je 8:19b Zion  -   Psa. 135:21; Isa. 12:6
Je 8:19c King  -   Psa. 48:2; 149:2
Je 8:19d anger  -   Deut. 32:21; Isa. 1:4
Je 8:21a mourn  -   Jer. 4:19; 9:1; 14:17; Lam. 2:11
Je 8:22a balm  -   Gen. 37:25; 43:11; Jer. 46:11
Jeremiah Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Je 9:11a weep  -   Isa. 22:4; Jer. 4:19; 13:17; Lam. 2:11; 3:48
Jehovah came in to correct His hypocritical worshippers, and Jeremiah reacted to Jehovah’s correction of Israel (8:18-19, 21-22; 9:1-2; 10:19-25). The prophet’s reaction was very tender, sympathetic, and compassionate.
According to this book, God’s love is a composition of His tender care, compassion, and sympathy. Even while He chastises His elect people Israel, He is compassionate toward them (Lam. 3:22-23). In His chastising of Israel, God can be compared to a father who weeps as he disciplines his child because he loves the child. In this book Jeremiah wept on God’s behalf; his weeping expressed God’s feeling. We may say that God wept within Jeremiah’s weeping, for in his weeping Jeremiah was one with God. Because Jeremiah often wept (13:17; Lam. 2:11; 3:48), even wailed, he is called the weeping prophet.
Je 9:3a not  -   Jer. 4:22; Hosea 4:1; 1 Thes. 4:5
Je 9:7a refine  -   Isa. 1:25; Mal. 3:3
Je 9:9a Shall  -   Jer. 5:9, 29
Je 9:101 weeping
The words in vv. 10-11 and 17-19 express Jehovah’s feeling concerning Israel’s suffering of His correction. Although Jehovah was punishing Israel, He was still sympathetic toward them. See note 181.
Je 9:11a heap  -   Isa. 25:2; Jer. 26:18; Micah 3:12
Je 9:131 My
Lit., it.
Je 9:15a wormwood  -   Jer. 8:14; 23:15; Lam. 3:15, 19; Rev. 8:11
Je 9:16a scatter  -   Lev. 26:33; Deut. 28:64; Neh. 1:8
Je 9:181 us
The words us and our here indicate that Jehovah joined Himself to the suffering people and was one with them in their suffering. The sympathetic God who punished was also among His punished people. Eventually, those who wailed were wailing not only for Israel but also for Jehovah. Jehovah Himself was weeping in sympathy for His people. Cf. note 11.
Je 9:23a glory  -   1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10:17
Je 9:251 circumcised
Israel had been circumcised physically, on their body (Josh. 5:2-9), but not psychologically, in their inner being, in their heart (v. 26; 4:4a; Acts 7:51; cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3).
Je 9:26a uncircumcised  -   Lev. 26:41; Ezek. 44:7; Acts 7:51; cf. Rom. 2:28-29
Jeremiah Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Je 10:2a signs  -   cf. Luke 21:25-28
Je 10:3a hands  -   Deut. 4:28; 2 Kings 19:18; Psa. 115:4; 135:15; Isa. 44:10-17; Acts 19:26
Je 10:51 post
I.e., as a scarecrow.
Je 10:6a none  -   Exo. 15:11; Psa. 86:8, 10
Je 10:7a King  -   Rev. 11:15; 15:3; 17:14
Je 10:10a living  -   Josh. 3:10; 1 Sam. 17:26; Psa. 42:2; 84:2; Dan. 6:20; 1 Thes. 1:9; Rev. 7:2
Je 10:10b King  -   Psa. 10:16; 1 Tim. 1:17
Je 10:111 Thus
This verse is in Aramaic, not Hebrew.
Je 10:12a It  -   vv. 12-16: Jer. 51:15-19
Je 10:12b earth  -   Gen. 1:1, 9; Psa. 136:5-6; Jer. 32:17
Je 10:12c world  -   Psa. 93:1
Je 10:12d heavens  -   Job 9:8; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 40:22
Je 10:13a And  -   Psa. 135:7
Je 10:16a Portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 73:26; Lam. 3:24
Je 10:16b inheritance  -   Deut. 32:8; Psa. 74:2
Je 10:21a scattered  -   Ezek. 34:5-6, 12; Zech. 13:7
Je 10:221 from
I.e., from Babylon.
Je 10:24a Correct  -   Psa. 6:1; 38:1; Jer. 30:11
Je 10:25a Pour  -   Psa. 79:6-7
Je 10:25b know  -   Job 18:21; 1 Thes. 4:5
Jeremiah Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Je 11:31 covenant
The covenant of Jehovah with Israel, called the first covenant and also the old covenant (Heb. 8:7, 13), was the covenant of the law of the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:1 — 24:8). The law, which itself is holy, righteous, good, and spiritual (Rom. 7:12, 16, 14a), became weak through man’s flesh (Rom. 8:3a). The law of the Ten Commandments was given to test man and expose man as to his genuine nature and condition (Rom. 3:20b; 5:20a; 7:7b). Through their failure under the test of the law, Israel was to learn that they were unable to keep the law and that they had no righteousness by the law (Rom. 8:3a; 9:31; 10:3). They were also to come to know that they needed Christ to be Jehovah as their righteousness (23:6b; 33:16b; 1 Cor. 1:30), and they needed to have the divine life with its law in the new covenant of God (31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16-17).
Je 11:4a furnace  -   Deut. 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51
Je 11:4b I  -   Jer. 7:23
Je 11:5a oath  -   Deut. 7:12-13; Psa. 105:9-11
Je 11:5b flowing  -   Exo. 3:8
Je 11:5c Amen  -   1 Kings 1:36; 1 Chron. 16:36; Neh. 5:13; 8:6; Psa. 106:48; Jer. 28:6; 1 Cor. 14:16
Je 11:7a rising  -   Jer. 7:13
Je 11:101 broken
Israel broke the covenant of the law by their idolatrous worship (vv. 10b, 13, 15a, 17b; 13:10b, 27a) and also by their evil conduct (vv. 8, 10a, 19; 12:4a). By these two things they completely annulled the law, making it of no effect to them. See note 11 in ch. 5.
Je 11:10a covenant  -   Deut. 31:16; Jer. 31:32
Je 11:111 evil
Although God’s intention in giving Israel His law was to test and expose them, He still needed to punish them for the sake of His righteousness and holiness.
Je 11:13a according  -   Jer. 2:28
Je 11:14a pray  -   Exo. 32:10; Jer. 7:16; 14:11; 1 John 5:16
Je 11:15a beloved  -   Jer. 12:7
Je 11:16a olive  -   Psa. 52:8; Rom. 11:17, 24
Je 11:17a planted  -   Isa. 5:2; Jer. 2:21
Je 11:19a lamb  -   Isa. 53:7
Je 11:20a But  -   Jer. 20:12
Je 11:20b tests  -   1 Chron. 28:9; 29:17; Psa. 7:9; Rev. 2:23
Je 11:201 vengeance
Jeremiah’s prayer for vengeance was contrary to the New Testament teaching, which tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44). Cf. note 71 in Psa. 3.
Jeremiah Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Je 12:11 Why
See note 31 in Psa. 1 and note 261 in Psa. 73.
Je 12:1a wicked  -   Job 12:6; 21:7; Psa. 37:1, 35; Hab. 1:4; Mal. 3:15
Je 12:3a know  -   Psa. 139:1
Je 12:3b try  -   Jer. 11:20
Je 12:51a majesty  -   Jer. 49:19; 50:44
I.e., the dangerous thickets along the Jordan.
Je 12:10a vineyard  -   Isa. 5:1, 5
Je 12:15a return  -   Deut. 30:3
Jeremiah Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Je 13:171 weep
See note 11 in ch. 9.
Je 13:17a weep  -   Jer. 9:1; 14:17; Lam. 1:2, 16
See note 171.
Je 13:17b flock  -   Ezek. 34:31
Je 13:20a north  -   Jer. 6:22
Je 13:21a pains  -   Jer. 6:24; 1 Thes. 5:3
Je 13:21b woman  -   Jer. 4:31
Je 13:231 Cushite
I.e., Ethiopian. Having forsaken God as the source, the fountain of living waters (2:13), Israel became evil, having a heart that was deceitful above all things and incurable (17:9) and having an unchangeable sinful nature, like the Cushite’s skin and the leopard’s spots, which cannot be changed. This exposes the true condition of fallen man.
Je 13:23a accustomed  -   cf. Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:24
Jeremiah Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Je 14:11 drought
Jehovah’s punishing Israel with drought (3:3a) was a curse for Israel’s breaking of Jehovah’s covenant (Deut. 11:17; 28:23). It was the ceasing of God’s heavenly supply to the earth. Such a thing took place during the time of Elijah (1 Kings 17:1), and it will happen again in the future (Rev. 11:6a; Zech. 14:17-18).
Je 14:3a no  -   1 Kings 17:7; Amos 4:8; cf. Jer. 2:13
Je 14:7a name’s  -   Psa. 25:11
Je 14:8a Hope  -   Jer. 17:13
Je 14:9a midst  -   Exo. 29:45-46; Lev. 26:11-12
Je 14:9b name  -   Isa. 43:7; Dan. 9:19; Acts 15:17
Je 14:10a remember  -   Hosea 8:13; 9:9
Je 14:11a pray  -   Exo. 32:10; Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 1 John 5:16
Je 14:14a falsehood  -   Jer. 23:25; 27:10, 15; 29:9, 21; Matt. 7:15
Je 14:171 my
The prophet was one with the punishing God to sympathize with the people. See notes 11 and 181 in ch. 9.
Je 14:17a tears  -   Jer. 9:1; 13:17; Lam. 1:16; 2:18
Je 14:19a rejected  -   Lam. 5:22
Je 14:19b We  -   Jer. 8:15
Je 14:20a sinned  -   Neh. 1:6; Psa. 106:6; Dan. 9:8
Je 14:22a vanities  -   Deut. 32:21; 1 Sam. 12:21; Acts 14:15
Jeremiah Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Je 15:1a Even  -   Ezek. 14:14
Je 15:1b Moses  -   Exo. 32:11-12; Psa. 99:6
Je 15:1c Samuel  -   1 Sam. 7:9
Je 15:2a Those  -   Jer. 43:11; Ezek. 5:2, 12; Zech. 11:9; Rev. 6:8
Je 15:41a Manasseh  -   2 Kings 21:11; 23:26
See note 111 in 2 Kings 21.
Je 15:6a forsaken  -   Jer. 2:13
Je 15:61 weary
Verses 5-9 are a record of the punishing Jehovah’s sighing for His punished people. Again and again God had determined to punish Israel, but He had repented. Now He told Jeremiah that He was weary of repenting and would repent no more. This shows how evil Israel had become and how patient God had been with them.
Je 15:6b repenting  -   Hosea 13:14
Je 15:7a not  -   Isa. 9:13; Jer. 5:3; Amos 4:10-11
Je 15:101 Woe
God was intending to judge the people of Israel, and He sent Jeremiah to tell them that He would use the Babylonians to punish them (vv. 12-13). They responded by persecuting Jeremiah (v. 15; 11:19; 18:18-23; 20:1-2, 7-10), and this caused him to be disappointed. As Jeremiah complained, God came in to speak to him for his encouragement and strengthening (v. 11). This indicates that God was always with Jeremiah. In His speaking to Jeremiah, God spoke not as the Divine Being, as the Mighty One, but almost as if He were a man, talking in a very human and personal way. According to the record of this book, as God dealt with His people, He often spoke to them in such a way (e.g., 2:1 — 3:5; 3:12 — 4:2; 16:10-18).
Je 15:10a bore  -   Job 3:1-3; Jer. 20:14
Je 15:121 iron
The word iron here refers to the Babylonians. God was assuring Jeremiah that He would use the Babylonians to punish Israel.
Je 15:131a Your  -   vv. 13-14: Jer. 17:3-4; Psa. 44:12
The pronouns your and you in vv. 13-14, referring to both Israel and Jeremiah, indicate that God regarded Jeremiah the prophet as being one with Israel and that God considered the entire nation of Israel as one entity. Because Jeremiah was a part of this entity, when the wealth and treasures of Israel were given to their enemies, Jeremiah also became poor.
Je 15:151 avenge
Cf. note 71 in Psa. 3.
Je 15:15a reproach  -   Psa. 69:7
Je 15:161a ate  -   Ezek. 3:1, 3; Rev. 10:9-10
According to the entire revelation in the Holy Bible, God’s words are good for us to eat, and we need to eat them (Psa. 119:103; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2-3). God’s word is the divine supply as food to nourish us. Through the word as our food, God dispenses His riches into our inner being to nourish us that we may be constituted with His element. This is a crucial aspect of God’s economy. When we eat God’s words, His word becomes our heart’s gladness and joy.
Je 15:16b word  -   Job 23:12; Psa. 119:72; Matt. 4:4
Je 15:17a sit  -   Psa. 1:1; 26:4-5
Je 15:191 you
Verses 19-21 are Jehovah’s response to Jeremiah’s complaint (vv. 10-18). In His response He gave Jeremiah a further commission. The pronoun you here may be a further indication that God considered Jeremiah as being one with Israel (see vv. 13-14 and note 131). Both Israel and Jeremiah, who was quite disappointed, needed to return to God in order to be restored by Him.
Je 15:19a return  -   Jer. 3:14
Je 15:192 bring
I.e., utter. Jehovah’s word concerning uttering precious things may indicate that He regarded some of Jeremiah’s speaking in the previous verses as worthless.
Je 15:20a And  -   Jer. 1:18-19
Je 15:201 fortified
See note 181 in ch. 1.
Jeremiah Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Je 16:21 You
Verses 1-9 are Jehovah’s restrictions placed on Jeremiah for His further commission. God’s restricting Jeremiah in the matters of marrying, mourning, and feasting indicates that if we would be a mouthpiece of God and speak for Him, we must be restricted. God’s words to Jeremiah also indicate that those who are used by God to speak for Him will suffer.
Je 16:4a They  -   Jer. 25:33
Je 16:4b corpses  -   Deut. 28:26; Psa. 79:2; Jer. 7:33; 34:20
Je 16:9a I  -   Isa. 24:7-8; Jer. 7:34; 25:10; Ezek. 26:13
Je 16:11a forsaken  -   Deut. 29:25; Jer. 22:9
Je 16:14a Therefore  -   vv. 14-15: Jer. 23:7-8
Je 16:151 brought
In answering the inquiry of the people concerning the reason for the great evil, the calamities, that had come upon them (v. 10), Jehovah promised to bring them back to the land, telling them that He would even send “fishermen” to catch them and “hunters” to hunt for them in order to gather them and restore them (vv. 15-16; see reference 31a in Matt. 24).
Je 16:18a double  -   Isa. 40:2
Je 16:19a refuge  -   Psa. 2:12; Jer. 17:17
Je 16:20a no  -   Isa. 37:19; Jer. 2:11; Gal. 4:8
Jeremiah Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Je 17:1a iron  -   Job 19:24
Je 17:1b heart  -   Prov. 3:3; 2 Cor. 3:3
Je 17:21 Asherahs
Images of a female deity.
Je 17:3a O  -   vv. 3-4: Jer. 15:13-14
Je 17:41 yourself
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Je 17:7a trusts  -   Psa. 2:12; 25:2; 2 Cor. 1:9
Je 17:81a tree  -   Psa. 1:3
According to God’s economy, the one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by water, signifying God as the fountain of living waters (2:13a). A tree grows beside a river by absorbing all the riches of the water. This is a picture of God’s economy, which is carried out by His dispensing. In order to receive the divine dispensing, we as the trees must absorb God as the water (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6). The riches of the supplying God dispensed into us as the trees constitute us with God’s divinity and cause us to grow into God’s measure (Col. 2:19). In this way we and God become one, having the same element, essence, constitution, and appearance (Rev. 4:3; 21:11).
Je 17:91a heart  -   Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Prov. 6:14; Eccl. 9:3; Matt. 15:19
Even this word regarding the deceitful and incurable heart of man is related to God’s economy with His dispensing. Although man’s heart is corrupt and deceitful and its condition is incurable, even such a heart can be a tablet upon which God writes His law of life (31:33; cf. 2 Cor. 3:3). This reveals that God has a way to impart Himself into man. Once He has come into man, God will spread from man’s spirit into his heart. This is God’s way, according to His economy, to deal with the heart of fallen man. See Ezek. 36:26 and note.
Je 17:10a search  -   1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; Psa. 7:9; 139:23- 24; Prov. 21:2; Acts 1:24; Rev. 2:23
Je 17:13a hope  -   Jer. 14:8
Je 17:131 forsook
See note 131 in ch. 2. Jeremiah 2:13; 15:16; and 17:7-8 (see notes on these verses) present basic points of the divine thought concerning the carrying out of God’s economy by His dispensing. As God accomplishes His economy by dispensing Himself into us, He is our food, our water, and our fountain of living waters. How marvelous it is that in a portion of the Word concerned with God’s chastisement of His sinful and evil people, such a full picture of God’s economy accomplished by His dispensing is presented!
Je 17:13b fountain  -   Jer. 2:13
Je 17:15a Where  -   Isa. 5:19; Ezek. 12:22; Amos 5:18; 2 Pet. 3:4
Je 17:17a refuge  -   Jer. 16:19
Je 17:211a Sabbath  -   Num. 15:32; Neh. 13:19; John 5:10
See note 81 in Exo. 20.
Je 17:25a Then  -   Jer. 22:4
Je 17:261 Negev
I.e., the dry southern desert of Canaan; the term is generally used to refer to the south.
Jeremiah Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Je 18:21 potter’s
Jeremiah’s word to Jehovah in 15:10 — 17:27 indicates that there was something within Jeremiah that was different from God’s thought regarding Israel. It might have been that the feeling within Jeremiah was that God’s judgment upon Israel was too severe. After Jeremiah’s complaining (15:10), God came in to speak with Jeremiah, indicating to him that He was determined to use the Babylonians as iron to judge and punish Israel (15:12). Following Jeremiah’s experience in arguing with God, he wrote a section of his prophecy concerning Jehovah as the sovereign Potter, who has absolute right over Israel as His pottery (vv. 1-10; cf. Rom. 9:20-23). Jehovah as the sovereign Potter is able to work with the house of Israel, as the clay in His hand, in changeable ways according to Israel’s condition (vv. 6-10). This corrected Jeremiah’s concept.
Je 18:6a potter  -   Isa. 45:9; 64:8; Rom. 9:20-21
Je 18:8a turns  -   Ezek. 18:21; 33:11
Je 18:8b repent  -   Jer. 26:3; Jonah 3:10
Je 18:111 And
Jehovah’s further speaking in vv. 11-23 concerning the evil condition of Israel was His further vindication of Himself to Jeremiah. Although He had the full right to do with Israel whatever He wanted, He would not punish Israel in a way that was unfitting. Because of Israel’s evil condition, Israel deserved to be punished.
Je 18:11a Return  -   2 Kings 17:13; Jer. 7:3; 25:5; 26:13
Je 18:131a virgin  -   Jer. 31:4, 21; Amos 5:2
Although Israel had been a virgin betrothed to Jehovah, she forsook Him, the reality, as her Fiancé and turned to idols, which are vanity (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2-3).
Je 18:15a forgotten  -   Jer. 2:32; 3:21; 13:25
Je 18:151 ancient
The ancient paths were the right paths, which their forefathers had taken. To take the bypaths is to go downward; to take the ancient paths, a way that is cast up, is to go upward.
Je 18:16a To  -   Jer. 19:8; 49:13, 17; 50:13
Je 18:17a back  -   cf. Jer. 2:27
Je 18:18a devise  -   Jer. 11:19
Je 18:211 deliver
See note 201 in ch. 11.
Jeremiah Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Je 19:5a And  -   vv. 5-6: Jer. 7:31-32
Je 19:5b Baal  -   Jer. 32:29; Rom. 11:4
Je 19:61 Topheth
See note 228 in Matt. 5.
Je 19:7a corpses  -   Psa. 79:2; Jer. 7:33; 16:4
Je 19:8a astonishment  -   Jer. 18:16; 49:13; 50:13
Je 19:9a sons  -   Lev. 26:29; Deut. 28:53; Isa. 9:20
Je 19:11a vessel  -   Psa. 2:9; Isa. 30:14; Lam. 4:2; Rev. 2:27
Je 19:13a incense  -   2 Kings 23:12; Jer. 32:29; Zeph. 1:5; Acts 7:42
Je 19:15a neck  -   Jer. 7:26; 17:23
Jeremiah Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Je 20:2a stocks  -   Jer. 29:26; Acts 16:24
Je 20:31 Magor-missabib
Meaning terror on every side (cf. v. 10).
Je 20:4a Babylon  -   2 Kings 20:17; 24:12-16; 25:13
Je 20:7a laughingstock  -   Lam. 3:14; Heb. 11:36
Je 20:9a burning  -   Job 32:18-19; Psa. 39:3
Je 20:10a For  -   Psa. 31:13
Je 20:10b friend  -   Job 19:19; Psa. 41:9; 55:13-14
Je 20:12a But  -   Jer. 11:20; 17:10
Je 20:14a Cursed  -   Job 3:3; Jer. 15:10
Je 20:16a overthrew  -   Gen. 19:25
Jeremiah Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Je 21:1a Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 24:17-18
Je 21:21a Nebuchadrezzar  -   2 Kings 25:1-2; Jer. 39:1-2
An alternate spelling of Nebuchadnezzar in Hebrew, closer to the actual pronunciation of this king’s name in his own language, Babylonian.
Je 21:5a fight  -   Isa. 63:10
Je 21:7a deliver  -   Jer. 37:17; 39:5; 52:9
Je 21:8a before  -   Deut. 30:15, 19
Je 21:8b way  -   Matt. 7:14
Je 21:9a He  -   Jer. 38:2, 17-18
Je 21:14a fire  -   2 Chron. 36:19; Jer. 52:13
Jeremiah Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Je 22:4a For  -   Jer. 17:25
Je 22:41 the
Lit., he.
Je 22:5a ruin  -   Lev. 26:31-32; Isa. 64:10-11; cf. Matt. 23:38
Je 22:7a destroyers  -   Psa. 74:3-7
Je 22:8a And  -   vv. 8-9: Deut. 29:24-25; 1 Kings 9:8-9
Je 22:111a Shallum  -   1 Chron. 3:15
I.e., Jehoahaz.
Je 22:12a die  -   2 Kings 23:34
Je 22:13a wages  -   Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14-15; Micah 3:10; James 5:4
Je 22:18a Jehoiakim  -   2 Chron. 36:5-6
Je 22:241a Coniah  -   1 Chron. 3:16; Jer. 37:1; Matt. 1:11-12
Also called Jeconiah in 24:1; 28:4; 29:2 and Jehoiachin in 52:31.
Je 22:24b signet  -   Hag. 2:23
Je 22:25a give  -   Jer. 34:20
Je 22:26a cast  -   2 Kings 24:15; 2 Chron. 36:10
Je 22:28a Coniah  -   1 Chron. 3:17-18; Matt. 1:11-12
Je 22:301 seed
See note 112 in Matt. 1.
Jeremiah Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Je 23:1a shepherds  -   Jer. 10:21; 22:22; Ezek. 34:2
Je 23:3a gather  -   Isa. 11:11; Jer. 32:37; Ezek. 34:13
Je 23:3b remnant  -   Isa. 10:21
Je 23:5a Indeed  -   vv. 5-6: Jer. 33:14-16
Je 23:51b Shoot  -   Isa. 4:2; cf. Rev. 22:16
This is Christ incarnated as a man in the flesh to be the descendant of David (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3). Shoot here indicates Christ’s humanity; it also implies life. When Christ was born, a new, fresh sprout came forth from the stump of David (see note 11 in Isa. 11). This was the beginning of the fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise concerning the raising up of Christ as the Shoot of David.
Je 23:52 King
Christ’s reigning as King implies His resurrection and ascension. Having passed through resurrection and having entered into ascension, Christ is now the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:14; 19:16; 1:5). The word here concerning Christ will be fulfilled in the millennium (Zech. 14:9; Rev. 11:15; 20:6). See note 171 in ch. 3.
Je 23:61a Jehovah  -   cf. Jer. 33:16
Jehovah our righteousness refers to Christ in His divinity, and a righteous Shoot (v. 5), to Christ in His humanity. The name here indicates that Christ, as a descendant of David, is not merely a man but is also the very Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth, selected Abraham, established the race of Israel, and was the Lord of David, the One whom he called Lord (Matt. 22:42-45; cf. Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Christ came as a Shoot who is Jehovah Himself to be the righteousness of God’s chosen people.
Je 23:62 our
Our here indicates that Christ becomes one with us to be our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). Christ is made our righteousness based on His redemption. As the righteous Shoot (v. 5), Christ came in the flesh as the descendant of David to die on the cross and shed His blood in order to wash away our sins and accomplish redemption (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). With His redemption as the basis, we can believe into Him to receive God’s forgiveness (Acts 10:43), and God can justify us (Rom. 3:24, 26), make Christ our righteousness, and clothe us with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10). This opens the way for Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) to enter into us as our life (Col. 3:4a), our inner law of life (31:33), and our everything, to dispense Himself into our entire being for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy.
Je 23:63b righteousness  -   Isa. 45:24; 54:17; 1 Cor. 1:30
Israel’s evil and wickedness prepared the way for Christ to come in to be their righteousness. Although Israel forsook God for idols (2:13) and became incurably evil (13:23; 17:9), because of His compassions, lovingkindness, faithfulness, and eternal love (31:3; Lam. 3:22-23), God would never give up His elect yet distracted people. While He was condemning, punishing, and chastising Israel, He intended to be incarnated as a Shoot unto David so that He could be His people’s righteousness. Based on Christ’s coming as Jehovah to be their righteousness, the evil race of Israel can be restored. Eventually, Israel will manifest Christ, who is their righteousness, as their centrality (their being) and their universality (their expression). This manifestation will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12).
Je 23:7a Therefore  -   Jer. 16:14-15
Je 23:8a all  -   Jer. 23:3; Isa. 43:5-6
Je 23:14a Sodom  -   Deut. 32:32; Isa. 1:9-10; Rev. 11:8
Je 23:15a Therefore  -   Jer. 9:15
Je 23:15b wormwood  -   Rev. 8:11
Je 23:161 vanity
I.e., idols.
Je 23:181 council
Or, counsel. So also in v. 22.
Je 23:19a Look  -   vv. 19-20: Jer. 30:23-24
Je 23:24a himself  -   Psa. 139:7; Amos 9:2-3
Je 23:281 straw
The word of God that came forth from Jeremiah was grain, food for nourishment that contains the divine essence to be dispensed into God’s people; but the word of the false prophets was straw, chaff.
Je 23:291a fire  -   Jer. 5:14; 20:9
On the positive side, the word of God, as a grain of wheat (v. 28), dispenses God as life into us to nourish us. On the negative side, the word as fire burns us and many of the things in which we have confidence, and the word as a hammer breaks down our self, our natural life, our flesh, our lusts, and our concepts.
Je 23:301 steal
Jeremiah was a genuine prophet who received words from God. Although there were other genuine prophets (cf. 25:4), most of the prophets in Judah were false. These false prophets did not have a way to receive Jehovah’s word, so they listened to those who spoke for God and then stole the words of Jehovah spoken by them. They pretended that they themselves had received this revelation from God and that the words they were speaking were their own.
Jeremiah Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Je 24:11 figs
The fig tree is a symbol of the nation of Israel (Joel 1:7). See Matt. 21:18-22 and notes.
Je 24:1a Nebuchadrezzar  -   2 Kings 24:11-12; 2 Chron. 36:10
Je 24:2a figs  -   Matt. 24:32
Je 24:6a bring  -   Jer. 12:15; 29:10
Je 24:6b build  -   Jer. 32:41; 33:7; 42:10
Je 24:7a heart  -   Deut. 30:6; Jer. 32:39; Ezek. 11:19; 36:26-27
Je 24:7b My  -   Jer. 30:22; 32:38; Ezek. 37:23; Zech. 8:8; cf. Rev. 21:3
Je 24:7c I  -   Jer. 7:23; 31:1, 33; Ezek. 37:27; Heb. 8:10; Rev. 21:7
Je 24:8a figs  -   Jer. 29:17; Matt. 24:32
Je 24:81 those
Those dwelling in Egypt were those who had escaped from the Holy Land to Egypt for their security.
Je 24:91 proverb
Here proverb signifies a formal expression of derision, and byword indicates mocking.
Je 24:10a sword  -   Jer. 15:2-3; 29:17; Ezek. 5:12, 17; 14:21; Rev. 6:8
Jeremiah Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Je 25:1a fourth  -   Jer. 36:1
Je 25:11 Nebuchadrezzar
See note 21 in ch. 21. Shortly after Nebuchadnezzar came into power as king of Babylon, he attacked Judah, carried away some of the vessels in the temple, and captured a number of the people (2 Chron. 36:6-7; Dan. 1:1-6). In his prophecy, Jeremiah told the people of the evils, the calamities, that were coming upon them, and he advised them to repent and return to God.
Je 25:3a rising  -   Jer. 7:13
Je 25:4a sent  -   Jer. 7:25
Je 25:9a north  -   Jer. 1:15
Je 25:9b Nebuchadrezzar  -   Jer. 27:6; 43:10; cf. Isa. 44:28
Je 25:10a And  -   Jer. 7:34; 16:9; Rev. 18:22-23
Je 25:111a seventy  -   2 Chron. 36:21-22; Jer. 29:10; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:5
This word and that in 29:10-14 were a comfort to Jeremiah, assuring him that the captivity of Israel would last only seventy years. Some of the captured ones, such as Daniel, would still be alive at the expiration of the seventy years (Dan. 1:21; 6:28). Just as God gave the people up to captivity, He would bring them back, not as captives but as triumphant warriors.
Je 25:12a desolation  -   Isa. 13:19; 14:23; Jer. 50:3, 13, 23, 39, 40, 45
Je 25:13a nations  -   Jer. 1:5, 10
Je 25:15a cup  -   Job 21:20; Psa. 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Rev. 14:10
Je 25:18a Jerusalem  -   Jer. 19:3-9
Je 25:19a Egypt  -   Jer. 46:2-28
Je 25:20a Philistines  -   Jer. 47:1-7
Je 25:21a Edom  -   Jer. 49:7-22
Je 25:21b Moab  -   Jer. 48:1-47
Je 25:21c Ammon  -   Jer. 49:1-6
Je 25:22a Tyre  -   Jer. 47:4
Je 25:25a Elam  -   Jer. 49:34-39
Je 25:261a Sheshach  -   Jer. 51:41
I.e., Babylon (cf. 51:41).
Je 25:29a beginning  -   cf. 1 Pet. 4:17
Je 25:30a Jehovah  -   Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2; Isa. 42:13
Je 25:31a dispute  -   Hosea 4:1; Micah 6:2
Je 25:31b judgment  -   Isa. 66:16; Joel 3:2
Je 25:33a mourned  -   Jer. 16:4, 6
Je 25:38a lion  -   Hosea 5:14; 13:8
Je 25:381 oppressing
According to the Septuagint and some Hebrew MSS (cf. 46:16; 50:16); others read, fierceness of the oppressor.
Jeremiah Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Je 26:1a Jehoiakim  -   2 Kings 23:34-36; 2 Chron. 36:4-5
Je 26:2a court  -   Jer. 19:14
Je 26:5a send  -   Jer. 7:25
Je 26:61a Shiloh  -   1 Sam. 4:10-11; Psa. 78:60; Jer. 7:12-14
See note 121 in ch. 7.
Je 26:13a amend  -   Jer. 7:3
Je 26:13b repent  -   Jer. 18:8; 26:3, 19
Je 26:18a Micah  -   Micah 1:1
Je 26:18b Zion  -   Micah 3:12
Je 26:18c mountain  -   Isa. 2:2; Micah 4:1; Zech. 8:3
Je 26:181 house
I.e., the temple.
Je 26:19a fear  -   2 Chron. 32:26
Je 26:24a Ahikam  -   2 Kings 22:12, 14; Jer. 39:14
Je 26:241 not
God’s goal in sending Jeremiah was to bring Israel back to God directly as the source, the fountain, of living waters (2:13) that they might receive His dispensing. Although Jeremiah was preserved, because of the different opinions among the people concerning Jeremiah, nothing was attained toward the accomplishing of God’s goal. All the different opinions distracted the people from God and kept them away from His dispensing. Distractions are the devil’s devices to keep God’s people from receiving the divine dispensing.
Jeremiah Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Je 27:11a Zedekiah  -   Jer. 28:1
Many MSS read, Jehoiakim.
Je 27:2a yoke  -   Jer. 28:10-12
Je 27:5a earth  -   Jer. 51:15; Psa. 115:15; 146:6; Isa. 45:12
Je 27:5b whomever  -   Psa. 115:16; Dan. 4:17, 25, 32
Je 27:6a Nebuchadnezzar  -   Jer. 28:14; Dan. 2:37-38; Ezek. 29:18-19
Je 27:7a time  -   2 Chron. 36:20; Jer. 25:12; 50:27; Dan. 5:26-28
Je 27:91 diviners
The diviners, the soothsayers, and the sorcerers practiced witchcraft, having regular contact with demons. Instead of contacting God, they continually contacted an evil, demonic source. This was the way they lived.
Je 27:10a falsehood  -   Jer. 14:14; 23:21; 2 Pet. 2:1
Je 27:14a falsehood  -   Jer. 27:10
Je 27:16a vessels  -   2 Chron. 36:7-10; Jer. 28:3; Dan. 1:2
Je 27:16b falsehood  -   Jer. 27:10
Je 27:19a pillars  -   2 Kings 25:13; 2 Chron. 36:18; Jer. 52:17, 20-21
Je 27:20a Jeconiah  -   Jer. 24:1; Matt. 1:11
Je 27:22a them  -   Ezra 1:7; 7:19
Jeremiah Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Je 28:2a yoke  -   Jer. 27:12
Je 28:3a vessels  -   Jer. 27:16
Je 28:6a Amen  -   Jer. 11:5
Je 28:9a comes  -   Deut. 18:22
Je 28:10a yoke  -   Jer. 27:2
Je 28:11a yoke  -   Jer. 27:8
Je 28:14a iron  -   Deut. 28:48
Je 28:15a falsehood  -   Jer. 29:31; Ezek. 13:22
Je 28:16a rebellion  -   Deut. 13:5; Jer. 29:32
Jeremiah Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Je 29:2a Jeconiah  -   Jer. 22:24-26; 24:1; 28:4
Je 29:5a houses  -   Jer. 29:28
Je 29:7a pray  -   Ezra 6:10; 1 Tim. 2:1
Je 29:101a seventy  -   2 Chron. 36:21; Jer. 25:12; Dan. 9:2
See note 111 in ch. 25.
Je 29:121a call  -   Jer. 33:3; Zech. 13:9
See note 262 in Gen. 4.
Je 29:13a seek  -   Deut. 4:29; Isa. 55:6; Matt. 7:7
Je 29:14a bring  -   Jer. 16:15; 23:3; 32:37
Je 29:17a sword  -   Jer. 24:10
Je 29:17b figs  -   Jer. 24:8
Je 29:19a sent  -   Jer. 7:25
Je 29:32a rebellion  -   Jer. 28:16
Jeremiah Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Je 30:3a turn  -   Jer. 30:18; 32:44; 33:7; Ezek. 39:25; Hosea 6:11; Joel 3:1; Amos 9:14
Je 30:6a woman  -   Jer. 4:31; Matt. 24:21; 1 Thes. 5:3
Je 30:7a day  -   Joel 2:11, 31; Amos 5:18; Zeph. 1:14; Rev. 6:17
Je 30:71 distress
See note 11 in Dan. 12.
Je 30:91a David  -   Isa. 55:3-4; Ezek. 34:23; 37:24; Acts 2:30
Referring to Christ, who is the real David (see note 161 in 2 Sam. 7) and who will be the King in the restoration, i.e., the millennium (Isa. 32:1; Rev. 20:4, 6). David was a type of Christ as the King.
Je 30:10a Therefore  -   vv. 10-11: Jer. 46:27-28
Je 30:11a full  -   Jer. 4:27
Je 30:11b correct  -   Psa. 6:1; Isa. 27:8; Jer. 10:24
Je 30:12a incurable  -   2 Chron. 36:16; Jer. 15:18
Je 30:17a recovery  -   Jer. 33:6
Je 30:18a turn  -   Jer. 30:3
Je 30:18b compassion  -   Psa. 102:13
Je 30:201 their
Lit., his. So also in v. 21.
Je 30:202 them
Lit., him. So also in v. 21.
Je 30:21a ruler  -   Gen. 49:10
Je 30:21b near  -   Num. 16:5
Je 30:22a I  -   Jer. 7:23
Jeremiah Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Je 31:1a I  -   Jer. 24:7; 2 Cor. 6:16
Je 31:1b they  -   Ezek. 11:20; Rev. 21:3
Je 31:3a loved  -   Mal. 1:2; Rom. 11:28
Je 31:3b drawn  -   Hosea 11:4; John 6:44
Je 31:4a build  -   Jer. 33:7
Je 31:6a Arise  -   Isa. 2:3; Jer. 50:5; Micah 4:2
Je 31:8a bring  -   Jer. 3:12, 18; 23:8
Je 31:8b gather  -   Ezek. 20:34, 41; 34:13
Je 31:9a weeping  -   Psa. 126:5-6; Jer. 50:4
Je 31:9b waterbrooks  -   Isa. 35:7-8; 43:19; 49:10-11
Je 31:9c Father  -   Deut. 32:6; 1 Chron. 29:10; Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Jer. 3:4
Je 31:9d firstborn  -   Exo. 4:22
Je 31:11a ransomed  -   Isa. 35:10; 44:23; 48:20; 51:11; Jer. 15:21
Je 31:12a height  -   Ezek. 17:23; 20:40
Je 31:12b goodness  -   Hosea 3:5
Je 31:12c watered  -   Isa. 58:11
Je 31:12d languish  -   Isa. 35:10; 65:19; Rev. 21:4
Je 31:13a turn  -   Psa. 30:11
Je 31:15a A  -   Matt. 2:18
Je 31:15b no  -   Gen. 42:13
Je 31:19a turned  -   Hosea 14:1-3; cf. Luke 15:18
Je 31:231 O
Here habitation of righteousness refers to Jerusalem, and mountain of holiness, to Mount Zion.
Je 31:23a habitation  -   cf. Jer. 50:7
Je 31:23b righteousness  -   Isa. 1:26
Je 31:23c holiness  -   Zech. 8:3
Je 31:29a The  -   Ezek. 18:2
Je 31:30a die  -   Ezek. 18:20
Je 31:311a new  -   Jer. 32:40; Ezek. 37:26; Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16-17
Jeremiah’s prophecy in vv. 31-34 concerning the new covenant was quoted by the apostle Paul in Heb. 8:8-12 and was applied to the New Testament believers. Thus, the new covenant with its privileges and blessings is for the New Testament believers to enjoy in the present age. Israel’s participation in the new covenant will be in the millennium, in the coming age of restoration (Matt. 19:28), in which Christ will be Israel’s righteousness, redemption, and life and will be exalted to be their centrality and universality. Eventually, through the new covenant God will make the believers and Israel a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), which will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3).
Je 31:321a covenant  -   Exo. 24:7-8; 34:28
See note 31 in ch. 11.
Je 31:32b took  -   Deut. 1:31; cf. Exo. 19:4
Je 31:32c Husband  -   Jer. 2:2; 3:14; Isa. 54:5; Ezek. 16:8; 23:4; Hosea 2:2; 3:1; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 21:2
Je 31:33a But  -   vv. 33-34: Heb. 8:10-12; 10:16-17
Je 31:33b covenant  -   Jer. 32:40; Heb. 8:6
Je 31:331 law
See note 101 in Heb. 8. The center, the content, and the reality of the new covenant is the inner law of life (Rom. 8:2). In its essence, this law refers to the divine life, and the divine life is the Triune God, who is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9) and realized as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and who has been processed and consummated to become everything to His chosen people.
According to its life, the law of the new covenant is the Triune God, and according to its function, it is the almighty divine capacity. This divine capacity can do everything in us for the carrying out of God’s economy. According to this capacity we can know God, live God, and be constituted with God in His life and nature that we may become His increase, His enlargement, to be His fullness for His eternal expression (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19-21). Furthermore, the capacity of the inner law of life constitutes us the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30) with all kinds of functions (Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11, 16).
Je 31:33c inward  -   cf. Ezek. 11:19-20; 36:26-27
Je 31:332d write  -   cf. 2 Cor. 3:3
The writing of the law of life on our heart mentioned here corresponds to the New Testament teaching concerning the spreading of the divine life from the center of our being, our spirit, to the circumference, our heart (see notes 101, par. 1, in Heb. 8, 92 in Rom. 8, and 171 in Eph. 3). God writes His law on our heart by moving from our spirit into our heart to inscribe what He is into our being. Cf. note 34 in 2 Cor. 3.
Je 31:33e I  -   Jer. 24:7
Je 31:333 God
See note 105 in Heb. 8.
Je 31:341a know  -   Isa. 54:13; John 6:45; 1 Cor. 2:10
To know God is to live God. Through the spontaneous, automatic function of the divine life within us, we have the capacity to know God, to live God, and even to be one with God in His life and nature so that we may be His corporate expression. See note 31 in John 17.
Je 31:342b forgive  -   Jer. 33:8; Luke 24:47; Acts 10:43
Forgiveness implies redemption and even equals redemption (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). In the new covenant God forgives the iniquity of His people based on Christ’s redemption (Heb. 9:22).
As seen in 23:5-6 and in vv. 33-34, God’s way to make Christ everything to His elect is by the way of righteousness, redemption, and the divine life with its law and capacity. These three matters, revealed intrinsically in Jeremiah’s prophecy, are fully developed in the New Testament. See note 62 in ch. 23.
Je 31:343 more
Jeremiah reveals what God wants from us, what we are in our fallen condition, and what Christ is to us. God wants us to take Him as our source and to drink of Him so that He may become the river of water of life within us (2:13; cf. John 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1). However, we forsook Him, and in our fallen condition we became hopeless, utterly corrupt, incurable, and unchangeable (13:23; 17:9). But Christ has come to be our righteousness (23:5- 6) and our inner life (v. 33). Outwardly, He is our righteousness for us to be justified by God, and inwardly, He is the divine life to fill us, to make us one with God, and even to constitute us with God that we may live God (Phil. 1:21a). Christ’s being our righteousness and our inner life causes us to be a corporate Body, the organism of the Triune God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. These matters are the kernel of the book of Jeremiah, and they are also the complete teaching of the entire Bible.
Je 31:35a sun  -   Gen. 1:16; Psa. 72:5, 17; 89:36-37
Je 31:361 forever
From the time of restoration, i.e., the coming millennium, Israel will exist forever. They will not cease from being a nation, and their descendants (seed) will never be cast off (v. 37).
Je 31:38a built  -   Neh. 3:1; Zech. 14:10
Je 31:40a holy  -   Joel 3:17
Jeremiah Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Je 32:1a Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 25:1-2; Jer. 39:1
Je 32:3a Thus  -   vv. 3b-5: Jer. 34:2-3
Je 32:7a right  -   Lev. 25:24-25, 32; Ruth 4:4
Je 32:13a Baruch  -   Jer. 36:4
Je 32:151 Houses
This indicates that although Jerusalem and Zedekiah would be captured, God would still keep the Holy Land with His people. In God’s intention the Holy Land would remain a fit place for His people to live.
Je 32:17a made  -   2 Kings 19:15
Je 32:17b Nothing  -   Jer. 32:27; Gen. 18:14; Matt. 19:26; Luke 1:37
Je 32:18a lovingkindness  -   Exo. 20:6; 34:7; Deut. 5:9-10
Je 32:20a Who  -   Neh. 9:10
Je 32:20b signs  -   Exo. 7:3; Deut. 4:34
Je 32:22a land  -   Exo. 3:8, 17; Deut. 26:9; Jer. 11:5
Je 32:27a anything  -   Jer. 32:17
Je 32:291 the
Lit., they.
Je 32:29a Baal  -   Jer. 19:5
Je 32:30a evil  -   Jer. 2:7; 3:25; 7:22-26; Ezek. 20:28
Je 32:33a rising  -   Jer. 7:13
Je 32:34a And  -   Jer. 7:30-31
Je 32:371a gather  -   Deut. 30:3; Jer. 23:3; Ezek. 37:21
Here Jeremiah came to know God’s intention, and His intention, revealed in His word to Jeremiah, became His promise to the prophet.
Je 32:38a I  -   Jer. 24:7
Je 32:391a one  -   Jer. 24:7; Ezek. 11:19-20
We, the chosen people of God, should all have one heart — to love God, to seek God, to live God, and to be constituted with God that we may be His expression — and one way — the Triune God Himself as the inner law of life with its divine capacity (31:33-34; John 14:6a). This one heart and one way are the one accord (Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; Rom. 15:6). Divisions result from having a heart for something other than Christ and taking a way other than Christ.
Je 32:401 eternal
This eternal covenant is the new covenant (31:31-34; Heb. 13:20). It is by this covenant that God will not turn away from us and will plant us in Christ, our good land (see note 71 in Deut. 8), and Christ in all His aspects will be bought by us (vv. 40-44), i.e., gained by us through our paying the price to forget the things that are behind and pursue Christ (Phil. 3:8-14).
Je 32:40a covenant  -   Isa. 55:3; Jer. 31:33
Je 32:41a rejoice  -   Deut. 30:9; Zeph. 3:17
Je 32:41b plant  -   Jer. 24:6; 31:28; Amos 9:15
Je 32:441 Negev
See note 261 in ch. 17.
Jeremiah Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Je 33:3a Call  -   Psa. 91:15; Jer. 29:12
Je 33:51 the
Lit., them.
Je 33:6a recovery  -   Jer. 30:17
Je 33:7a turn  -   Jer. 30:3; 32:44
Je 33:7b build  -   Jer. 24:6
Je 33:8a cleanse  -   Ezek. 36:25; Zech. 13:1; Heb. 9:13-14
Je 33:8b forgive  -   Jer. 31:34; Micah 7:18
Je 33:91 it
I.e., the city.
Je 33:11a voice  -   Jer. 7:34; 16:9; Rev. 18:23
Je 33:11b Praise  -   1 Chron. 16:8, 34; 2 Chron. 5:13; Ezra 3:11
Je 33:14a Indeed  -   vv. 14-16: Jer. 23:5-6; 31:27, 31
Je 33:151a Shoot  -   Isa. 4:2; 11:1; Jer. 23:5; Zech. 3:8; 6:12
See note 51 in ch. 23. This word regarding Christ as the Shoot of righteousness unto David is related to the new covenant (31:31-34), the center of which is the inner law of life. This law is the Shoot of David, and the Shoot of David is Christ. As the law of life, Christ is the center, the reality, and even the essence of the new covenant. See note 331 in ch. 31.
Je 33:161 she
In 23:6 it is Christ who is called Jehovah our righteousness, but here it is the city of Jerusalem that is called by this name. The fact that both Christ and Jerusalem are called by the same name seems to indicate that just as Christ and the church are one (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11), in the restoration Christ and the city of Jerusalem will be one.
Je 33:16a Jehovah  -   cf. Jer. 23:6
Je 33:16b righteousness  -   1 Cor. 1:30
Je 33:17a sit  -   2 Sam. 7:16; 1 Kings 2:4; Psa. 89:29, 36
Je 33:201 If
In vv. 20-26 God assures His people that just as the universe remains forever, so the people of God and the royal family will remain forever (cf. 31:35-36 and note 361).
Je 33:20a day  -   Gen. 8:22
Je 33:221 host
Cf. note 171 in Gen. 22.
Je 33:22a numbered  -   Gen. 13:16; 15:5; 22:17
Je 33:22b seed  -   Psa. 89:3-4; Rom. 1:3
Je 33:22c Levites  -   Isa. 66:21; Ezek. 44:15
Jeremiah Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Je 34:1a Nebuchadrezzar  -   2 Kings 25:1; Jer. 39:1; 52:4
Je 34:2a Thus  -   vv. 2-3: Jer. 32:3-5
Je 34:3a eyes  -   2 Kings 25:5-7; Jer. 39:5-7; 52:8-10
Je 34:8a liberty  -   Jer. 34:14; Exo. 21:2; Lev. 25:10
Je 34:9a set  -   Neh. 5:11
Je 34:9b no  -   Lev. 25:39-46
Je 34:14a seven  -   Exo. 21:2; 23:10-11; Deut. 15:12
Je 34:17a sword  -   Jer. 32:24, 36
Je 34:18a cut  -   Gen. 15:10
Je 34:20a corpses  -   Jer. 7:33; 16:4; 19:7
Je 34:22a fight  -   Jer. 37:8
Jeremiah Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Je 35:2a Rechabites  -   2 Kings 10:15; 1 Chron. 2:55
Je 35:14a rising  -   Jer. 7:13
Je 35:15a sent  -   Jer. 7:25
Jeremiah Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Je 36:1a fourth  -   Jer. 25:1; 45:1
Je 36:2a scroll  -   Ezek. 2:9; Zech. 5:1
Je 36:2b nations  -   Jer. 25:15; 46:1
Je 36:2c Josiah  -   Jer. 1:2; 25:3
Je 36:4a Baruch  -   Jer. 32:12
Je 36:6a day  -   Lev. 16:29; 23:27-32; Acts 27:9
Je 36:9a fast  -   2 Chron. 20:3
Je 36:221 fire
According to the Septuagint; the Hebrew text does not have the word fire.
Je 36:231 the
Lit., he.
Je 36:30a sit  -   Jer. 22:4, 30
Je 36:30b cast  -   Jer. 22:18-19
Je 36:321 Jeremiah
Chapters 2 — 45 speak of Israel’s sin against Jehovah and Jehovah’s punishment upon Israel. Not only before the fall of Jerusalem, but even in the fall and after the fall of Jerusalem, Israel remained stubborn in their sinning against Jehovah. Yet Jeremiah remained firm in his speaking for Jehovah.
Jeremiah Chapter 37
Notes and Cross-references
Je 37:1a Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 24:17; 2 Chron. 36:10; Jer. 22:24
Je 37:5a Egypt  -   cf. 2 Kings 24:7; Ezek. 17:15
Je 37:8a fight  -   Jer. 34:22
Je 37:12a portion  -   Jer. 32:8
Je 37:15a struck  -   Matt. 21:35; Luke 20:10; Heb. 11:36
Je 37:19a prophets  -   Jer. 28:1-2, 10-13
Jeremiah Chapter 38
Notes and Cross-references
Je 38:2a Thus  -   Jer. 21:9
Je 38:4a put  -   Jer. 26:11
Je 38:61a pit  -   Gen. 37:24; Psa. 40:2; Lam. 3:55
Probably a private cistern that had ceased to provide water and was being used as a hold for prisoners. So throughout this chapter.
Je 38:7a Ebed-melech  -   Jer. 39:16
Je 38:17a surrender  -   cf. 2 Kings 24:12
Je 38:18a burn  -   Jer. 32:4; 34:3; 38:23; 39:8
Je 38:23a lead  -   Jer. 39:6
Jeremiah Chapter 39
Notes and Cross-references
Je 39:1a And  -   vv. 1-10: 2 Kings 25:1-12; Jer. 52:4-16
Je 39:41 Arabah
I.e., the plain that runs from the north of the Dead Sea south to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Je 39:6a sons  -   Jer. 38:23
Je 39:71 put
With Zedekiah, a pitiful king, the kingship of the royal family was terminated.
Je 39:7a eyes  -   cf. Ezek. 12:13
Je 39:14a Gedaliah  -   Jer. 40:5
Je 39:16a Ebed-melech  -   Jer. 38:7, 12
Jeremiah Chapter 40
Notes and Cross-references
Je 40:3a sinned  -   Deut. 29:24-25; 1 Kings 9:8-9; Dan. 9:11
Je 40:5a Gedaliah  -   2 Kings 25:22
Je 40:7a And  -   vv. 7-9: 2 Kings 25:23-24
Je 40:9a serve  -   Jer. 27:11
Je 40:141 Gedaliah
Although Gedaliah was faithful in caring for Jeremiah, God’s prophet (vv. 5-6), he did not seek the Lord’s word (vv. 13-14), because this was not his habit. He did not take God as his source to be one with Him and to receive whatever issued from Him. If he had been a person who was one with God, the first thing he would have done would have been to receive the word of God. To take, to receive, and to keep the word of God as the expression of His thought, His will, His heart’s desire, and His good pleasure, we must be absolutely one with God. We must trust in Him, rely on Him, and not have any opinion that comes from the self. Cf. Josh. 9:14 and note.
Jeremiah Chapter 41
Notes and Cross-references
Je 41:1a And  -   2 Kings 25:25
Je 41:5a house  -   1 Sam. 1:7; cf. 2 Kings 25:9
Je 41:9a Asa  -   1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chron. 16:6
Je 41:12a pool  -   2 Sam. 2:13
Je 41:16a Then  -   2 Kings 25:26
Je 41:17a Chimham  -   2 Sam. 19:37-38
Je 41:171 Egypt
When they were weak or in trouble, the people of Israel were often tempted to go back to Egypt, which typifies the world, and take Egypt as their refuge, against Jehovah’s will (42:14 — 43:7; Isa. 30:1-3; 31:1-3). The fact that Egypt did not help Judah when Judah was besieged by the Chaldeans (37:5-8) is a sign that God’s people should not trust in the world.
Je 41:18a appointed  -   Jer. 40:5
Jeremiah Chapter 42
Notes and Cross-references
Je 42:2a pray  -   1 Sam. 7:8; 12:19; Isa. 37:4
Je 42:10a build  -   Jer. 24:6; 31:28; 33:7
Je 42:141 Egypt
See note 171 in ch. 41.
Je 42:15a Egypt  -   Deut. 17:16; Jer. 44:12-14
Jeremiah Chapter 43
Notes and Cross-references
Je 43:21 You
God wanted Johanan and the people to remain in the Holy Land to be a remnant of His people (42:9-12); however, they altogether misunderstood God by their consideration and by their opinion. The stubbornness of the children of Israel in sinning against God was due to their not being one with God. If they had been one with God, they would have received God’s word and would have known His heart, His nature, His mind, and His purpose. Furthermore, they would have spontaneously lived Him and would have been constituted with Him to be His testimony on earth. Those who are not one with God do not take His will and good pleasure but express their opinions and pursue their preferences. To do this is to forsake God as the source, the fountain, of living waters and to hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water (2:13). Cf. note 141 in ch. 40.
Je 43:10a Nebuchadrezzar  -   Jer. 25:9; 27:6; Ezek. 29:19-20
Jeremiah Chapter 44
Notes and Cross-references
Je 44:4a sent  -   Jer. 7:25
Je 44:8a Provoking  -   cf. Deut. 32:16-17; 2 Kings 17:15-17
Je 44:9a fathers  -   Ezra 9:7
Je 44:11a set  -   Lev. 20:3, 5-6; Jer. 21:10; 1 Pet. 3:12
Je 44:171 queen
See note 181 in ch. 7.
Je 44:18a queen  -   Jer. 7:18
Je 44:27a watchful  -   Jer. 31:28
Je 44:30a Pharaoh  -   Jer. 46:25-26; Ezek. 29:3
Je 44:30b Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 25:6-7; Jer. 39:5-7
Jeremiah Chapter 45
Notes and Cross-references
Je 45:1a Baruch  -   Jer. 36:1-2, 4
Jeremiah Chapter 46
Notes and Cross-references
Je 46:11a nations  -   Jer. 25:15
The nations in chs. 46 — 51 typify nine different aspects of the world. Just as Israel as God’s Old Testament elect was involved with the nations, the church as God’s New Testament elect is involved with the world in its many aspects. Jeremiah presents a vivid picture of God’s punishment and judgment on the nations so that we may know how to have a clear separation from the world and not be mixed with any of its aspects (John 12:31; 17:14-21; Gal. 6:14; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 John 2:15-17). God will come in to judge the world in all its aspects and to make a clear distinction between the church, which is today’s Israel (Gal. 6:16 and note 4), and every aspect of the world.
Jeremiah prophesied concerning the nations because in His economy God needs them. On the one hand, God needs His chosen people to express Him; on the other hand, He needs another people, the nations, to behold and admire this expression, which is His masterpiece (Eph. 2:10), the New Jerusalem. The nations around the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:24, 26; 22:2b) will eventually come from the nations concerning which Jeremiah and other Old Testament prophets prophesied.
Je 46:21a Egypt  -   Isa. 19; Jer. 25:19; Ezek. 29–32
Egypt, symbolically or poetically called Rahab (Psa. 87:4; Isa. 51:9), typifies the world of making a living and of enjoyment (Gen. 12:10; 41:57 — 42:3; Num. 11:4-6; Heb. 11:25), with which Satan, the ruler of the world (John 12:31), typified by Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, occupies and usurps the people chosen by God for His economy (Exo. 1:8-14). The name Rahab refers to a monster, to a large sea animal. This indicates that God regards Egypt as a monster, as an ugly, terrifying sea animal.
Je 46:2b Pharaoh  -   2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chron. 35:20
Je 46:2c fourth  -   Jer. 25:1
Je 46:7a waters  -   Isa. 8:7-8; Jer. 47:2; Dan. 11:22; Rev. 12:15
Je 46:91 Ludim
Probably the Lydians of Asia Minor.
Je 46:10a this  -   Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15; 2:1
Je 46:10b sacrifice  -   Isa. 34:6; Ezek. 39:17; Zeph. 1:7; cf. Rev. 19:17
Je 46:11a Gilead  -   Jer. 8:22
Je 46:13a Egypt  -   Isa. 19:1; Jer. 43:10-11
Je 46:18a King  -   Jer. 48:15; 51:57
Je 46:201 gadfly
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
Je 46:20a north  -   Jer. 1:14; 47:2
Je 46:202 on
According to the Septuagint; the Hebrew text repeats, has come.
Je 46:25a punish  -   cf. Exo. 12:12
Je 46:251 Amon
The most honorable god in Egypt.
Je 46:261 afterward
According to this word and Isa. 19:19-25 Egypt will have a remnant to be among the restored nations in the new heaven and new earth.
Je 46:271a But  -   vv. 27-28: Jer. 30:10-11
Jeremiah declared God’s judgment on Egypt because Israel depended on Egypt, thus offending God. Israel also suffered that judgment; hence, Jeremiah gave Israel the word of comfort in vv. 27-28 (cf. 30:10-11). This word will be fulfilled at the time of the restoration (Matt. 19:28), in the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom (Rev. 20:4-6).
Je 46:27b fear  -   Isa. 41:13-14; 43:5
Je 46:28a full  -   Jer. 4:27
Jeremiah Chapter 47
Notes and Cross-references
Je 47:11a Philistines  -   Jer. 25:20; Isa. 14:28-32; Ezek. 25:15-16; Amos 1:6-8; Zeph. 2:4-7
The Philistines were located alongside the nation of Israel (Exo. 15:14). They typify the world that is close to the interest of God on earth and attacks and damages the testimony of God on earth to hinder God’s economy (Judg. 13:1; 14:4; 1 Sam. 4:3-11; 17:1, 4, 45-49). See note 41 in 1 Sam. 6.
Je 47:21a waters  -   Isa. 8:7; Jer. 46:7-8
The army of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
Je 47:2b north  -   Jer. 1:14; 46:20
Je 47:6a sword  -   Deut. 32:41; 1 Chron. 21:12; Jer. 12:12; Ezek. 14:17; 21:3-5
Je 47:71 it
Lit., you.
Jeremiah Chapter 48
Notes and Cross-references
Je 48:11a Moab  -   Isa. 15–16; Jer. 25:21; Ezek. 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; Zeph. 2:8-11
Moab, the first forefather of the Moabites, was born of Lot through his committing incest with his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38). Moab as a nation typifies the world of fleshly lust that corrupts and frustrates God’s chosen people, through the greedy religionists, from following and walking with God in His holy way (Num. 25:1-5; 2 Pet. 2:15; Rev. 2:14). It was Moab who hired Balaam, the Gentile prophet, to stumble the children of Israel (Num. 22:1-21; Deut. 23:4).
The Moabites were not allowed to enter into the assembly of Jehovah even to the tenth generation (Deut. 23:3). However, Ruth, a Moabitess, became the mother of one of the prominent forefathers of Christ (Matt. 1:5b) because of her allegiance to Israel in the interest of God (Ruth 1:14-18). This indicates that although the Moabites were condemned, at a certain time God had compassion on them.
Je 48:21 Madmen
Madmen is a city in Moab.
Je 48:71a Chemosh  -   Num. 21:29; Judg. 11:24; cf. Isa. 46:1-2
The god of the Moabites (1 Kings 11:33).
Je 48:9a fly  -   Jer. 48:28; Psa. 55:6
Je 48:10a work  -   Jer. 50:25
Je 48:101 negligently
Or, deceitfully.
Je 48:11a settled  -   Zeph. 1:12
Je 48:121 his
Lit., their.
Je 48:13a Bethel  -   1 Kings 12:28-29; Amos 5:5; cf. Hosea 10:5-6
Je 48:15a King  -   Jer. 46:18; 51:57
Je 48:26a magnified  -   Jer. 48:42; cf. Zeph. 2:8, 10
Je 48:29a pride  -   Isa. 16:6
Je 48:31a wail  -   Isa. 15:5; 16:7, 11
Je 48:38a vessel  -   Isa. 30:14; Jer. 22:28
Je 48:40a eagle  -   Deut. 28:49; Jer. 49:22; Dan. 7:4
Je 48:40b wings  -   Isa. 8:8
Je 48:411 Kerioth
Or, The cities are captured.
Je 48:43a Dread  -   vv. 43-44: Isa. 24:17-18
Je 48:45a For  -   vv. 45b-46: Num. 21:28-29
Je 48:471 But
As indicated here, Moab will receive God’s compassion and have a remnant among the restored nations in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:24, 26; 22:2b). The same is true of Ammon (49:6). See note 11, par. 2, in ch. 46.
Je 48:47a turn  -   Jer. 49:6, 39
Jeremiah Chapter 49
Notes and Cross-references
Je 49:11a Ammon  -   Jer. 25:21; Ezek. 21:28; 25:1-7; Amos 1:13-15; Zeph. 2:8-11
Like Moab, Ammon was born of Lot through his committing incest with his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38). The nation of Ammon typifies the world of fleshly lust that fights against God’s chosen people and misleads them into idolatry (Judg. 11:12; 1 Sam. 12:12a; 2 Chron. 20:10-11; Psa. 83:4-8; 1 Kings 11:5, 7).
Je 49:12 Malcam
Perhaps another form of Milcom, the name of the god of the Ammonites (1 Kings 11:33). So also in v. 3.
Je 49:3a exile  -   Jer. 48:7; Amos 1:15
Je 49:61 But
See note 471 in ch. 48.
Je 49:6a turn  -   Jer. 48:47; 49:39
Je 49:71a Edom  -   Jer. 25:21; Ezek. 25:12-14; Amos 1:11-12; Obad. 1-21; Mal. 1:3-4
Edom was a nation of the descendants of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob (Gen. 36:1). Esau was hated by God and destined by God to serve his younger brother, and he struggled in the flesh against his brother (v. 10a; Gen. 25:21-26a; Mal. 1:3a; Rom. 9:13b; 1 Kings 11:14-16; 2 Kings 8:20, 22; Psa. 83:4-6; 137:7; Num. 20:21). Thus, the nation of Edom typifies the world of the old and fleshly man who struggles against the God-chosen and spiritual people (cf. Gal. 4:29; 5:17).
Je 49:7b wisdom  -   Isa. 19:12; Jer. 8:9; 1 Cor. 1:19
Je 49:9a If  -   Obad. 5
Je 49:111 orphans
Even with a people such as the Edomites, God is very concerned for the widows and the orphans and desires that they, and all human beings, trust in Him (cf. 1 Tim. 2:3-4).
Je 49:12a cup  -   Lam. 4:21-22; Obad. 16
Je 49:13a Bozrah  -   Isa. 34:6; 63:1
Je 49:14a I  -   vv. 14-16: Obad. 1-4
Je 49:18a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:25; Deut. 29:23; Jer. 50:40
Je 49:19a Indeed  -   vv. 19-21: Jer. 50:44-46
Je 49:19b majesty  -   Jer. 12:5
Je 49:22a eagle  -   Jer. 4:13; 48:40-41
Je 49:221 Bozrah
At the war of Armageddon Christ will come to judge the nations from Bozrah, the capital of Edom. The Lord Jesus will come back first to Bozrah, and He will tread the great winepress from Bozrah to Armageddon, destroying Antichrist and all the evil armies of the world gathered there (Rev. 14:17-20; 16:12-16; 19:11-15, 19-21; Isa. 63:1-6; Joel 3:1-2, 9-13). See note 21 in Isa. 63.
Je 49:22b labor  -   Isa. 13:8; Jer. 4:31
Je 49:231a Damascus  -   Isa. 17:1-14; 37:13; Amos 1:3-5; Zech. 9:1-2
Damascus was a part of Syria (2 Sam. 8:5). It was close to Israel and had dealings and wars with Israel (1 Kings 15:18-21; 19:15-16; 2 Kings 16:7-16; 1 Kings 11:23-25; 1 Chron. 18:5-6; 2 Chron. 24:23). Damascus typifies the world that is close to and involved with the kingdom of God.
Je 49:24a giving  -   Isa. 13:8; Jer. 4:31; 49:22
Je 49:281a Kedar  -   Isa. 21:16-17
Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor are Arabia (Isa. 21:13-17; Ezek. 27:21). The people of Kedar were the descendants of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13), and they were nomadic (Psa. 120:5; S.S. 1:5; Isa. 60:7). Hazor was very much involved with Israel (Josh. 11:10-13; Judg. 4:2-3; 1 Sam. 12:9). Arabia typifies the world that mixes with the people of God.
Je 49:33a habitation  -   Isa. 13:22; Jer. 9:11; 10:22; Mal. 1:3
Je 49:341a Elam  -   Jer. 25:25
The forefather of the Elamites was a son of Shem (Gen. 10:22). The nation of Elam was once a province of Media, with the city of Shushan (Susa) as its capital (Dan. 8:2; Esth. 1:2). The Elamites were enemies of Israel (Ezra 4:8-9), and in ancient times the king of Elam was defeated by Abraham (Gen. 14:1, 17). Hence, Elam typifies the world that is the enemy of God’s chosen people (John 15:19).
Je 49:36a four  -   Dan. 7:2; Zech. 6:5; Rev. 7:1
Je 49:391 But
This word assures that Elam will be a part of the restored nations around the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:24, 26; 22:2b). See note 11, par. 2, in ch. 46.
Je 49:39a turn  -   Jer. 48:47; 49:6
Jeremiah Chapter 50
Notes and Cross-references
Je 50:11a Babylon  -   Isa. 13:1 – 14:23; 21:1-10; 47:1-9 Dan. 1:2
The origin and initiation of Babylon was Babel (Gen. 11:7-9). Babel was built by Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, and was the beginning of human government on earth formed in opposition to God (Gen. 10:6-11; Dan. 2:31-32, 38). It was a land full of idols, where man worshipped idols, exalted man’s self, and opposed God (v. 38b; Josh. 24:2; Gen. 11:3-4). Babel had its continuation in Babylon, which, in the sight of God, is the consummation of human government. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was even identified with Satan as Satan’s embodiment (Isa. 14:4, 11-15). It was this Babylon that destroyed God’s holy city and His holy temple and carried God’s holy people and the vessels of God’s temple into captivity (2 Chron. 36:17-20). The coming restored Roman Empire under Antichrist, and the Roman Church, will both, in the spiritual sense, be called Babylon the Great (Rev. 17:5; 18:2). Hence, Babylon typifies the world, both physically and spiritually, that worships idols, exalts man, and rebels against God to the uttermost, all of which was or will be utterly destroyed by God (51:11; Rev. 14:8; 16:19b; 17:16; 18:8-10).
God will judge Babylon to such an extent that nothing of Babylon will remain in the universe. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied that once Babylon has been destroyed, it will not be restored (Isa. 14:22-23; Jer. 50:39; 51:62). When God destroys both the religious and the political Babylon at the end of the age, that will be the end of the judgment on Babylon prophesied in chs. 50 — 51. After this, there will be no more human government on earth. See Dan. 2:32-34 and notes.
Je 50:2a Babylon  -   Isa. 21:9; Jer. 51:8
Je 50:21 Bel
Two Babylonian idols, Bel being the chief idol (Isa. 46:1).
Je 50:31 nation
The Medes (51:11, 28).
Je 50:3a north  -   Jer. 51:48
Je 50:3b no  -   Isa. 13:20; Jer. 50:39-40
Je 50:4a together  -   Hosea 1:11
Je 50:4b weeping  -   Ezra 3:12-13; Psa. 126:5-6; Jer. 31:9
Je 50:4c seek  -   Hosea 3:5
Je 50:5a covenant  -   Isa. 55:3; Jer. 31:31; 32:40
Je 50:6a sheep  -   Psa. 119:176; Isa. 53:6; Jer. 50:17; Matt. 10:6; 1 Pet. 2:25
Je 50:71a habitation  -   cf. Jer. 31:23
God is the habitation, the dwelling place, of His chosen people (Deut. 33:27; Psa. 90:1; 1 John 4:16; Rev. 21:22).
Je 50:7b hope  -   Psa. 22:4
Je 50:81a Flee  -   Isa. 48:20; 52:11; Jer. 51:6, 45; Zech. 2:6-7; Rev. 18:4
See note 201 in Isa. 48.
Je 50:11a inheritance  -   Psa. 79:1; Isa. 47:6
Je 50:13a desolation  -   Jer. 25:12; 51:26; Rev. 17:16
Je 50:151 vengeance
In addition to destroying the nation of Israel, the people of Israel, the holy temple of God, the holy city of God, and the holy land of God, Nebuchadnezzar with the Babylonian army captured the holy vessels, which were used to serve God in the temple, and brought a great part of these vessels to Babylon and put them in the temple of his god (2 Chron. 36:7, 18; Dan. 1:1-2). This insulted God to the uttermost and was the reason that God’s verdict on Babylon is described as His vengeance (v. 28; 51:11). See Dan. 5 and notes.
Je 50:15a As  -   Jer. 50:29; Psa. 137:8; Rev. 18:6
Je 50:17a king  -   2 Kings 17:6
Je 50:17b Nebuchadrezzar  -   2 Kings 24:10-16
Je 50:18a Assyria  -   Isa. 37:36-38; Ezek. 31:3, 11-12; Nahum 1–3; Zeph. 2:13-15
Je 50:19a habitation  -   Isa. 65:9-10; Jer. 33:12; Ezek. 34:13-14
Je 50:20a iniquity  -   Num. 23:21; Isa. 43:25; Jer. 31:34; Micah 7:19
Je 50:211 Merathaim
A region of Babylon, the name of which also means double rebellion. “Some take the word as a symbolic name of Babylon” (Darby).
Je 50:22a The  -   Jer. 51:54
Je 50:23a hammer  -   Isa. 14:6; Jer. 51:20
Je 50:28a declare  -   Jer. 51:10-11
Je 50:281 vengeance
See note 151.
Je 50:291 archers
Others read, many.
Je 50:29a Recompense  -   Jer. 50:15; 51:56; Rev. 18:6
Je 50:30a Therefore  -   Jer. 49:26
Je 50:31a Indeed  -   vv. 31-32: Jer. 21:14
Je 50:311 Pride
The noun, here and in v. 32, is a personified reference to Babylon.
Je 50:34a Redeemer  -   Isa. 47:4
Je 50:371 their
Lit., his.
Je 50:39a animals  -   Isa. 13:21-22; 34:14; Rev. 18:2
Je 50:39b not  -   Isa. 13:20; Jer. 25:12
Je 50:40a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:25; Jer. 49:18
Je 50:41a A  -   vv. 41-43: Jer. 6:22-24
Je 50:41b north  -   Jer. 10:22; 50:9
Je 50:43a childbirth  -   Jer. 49:24
Je 50:44a Indeed  -   vv. 44-46: Jer. 49:19-21
Je 50:44b majesty  -   Jer. 12:5
Je 50:45a Babylon  -   Isa. 14:22-23; Jer. 51:11
Jeremiah Chapter 51
Notes and Cross-references
Je 51:11 Leb-kamai
I.e., Chaldea. The words mean the heart of those who rise up against Me.
Je 51:21 strangers
Or, winnowers.
Je 51:51 their
I.e., the land of the Chaldeans.
Je 51:61a Flee  -   Jer. 50:8; Rev. 18:4
See note 201 in Isa. 48.
Je 51:7a cup  -   Rev. 17:4
Je 51:7b wine  -   Rev. 14:8
Je 51:8a fallen  -   Isa. 21:9; Jer. 50:2; Rev. 14:8; 18:2
Je 51:9a Forsake  -   Isa. 52:11; Jer. 50:8; Rev. 18:4
Je 51:9b heaven  -   cf. Rev. 18:5
Je 51:10a righteousnesses  -   Psa. 37:6
Je 51:10b relate  -   Jer. 50:28
Je 51:11a Medes  -   Jer. 51:28; Isa. 13:17; Dan. 5:28
Je 51:111 vengeance
See note 151 in ch. 50.
Je 51:13a waters  -   cf. Rev. 17:1, 15
Je 51:14a locusts  -   Nahum 3:17
Je 51:15a It  -   vv. 15-19: Jer. 10:12-16
Je 51:15b stretched  -   Job 9:8; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 40:22
Je 51:16a And  -   Psa. 135:7
Je 51:18a vanity  -   Acts 14:15
Je 51:19a Portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 73:26
Je 51:20a hammer  -   Jer. 50:23
Je 51:24a repay  -   Jer. 50:15, 29
Je 51:26a desolation  -   Jer. 50:40; Rev. 17:16
Je 51:28a Medes  -   Jer. 51:11
Je 51:281 Their
Lit., Her.
Je 51:282 their
Lit., his.
Je 51:29a Without  -   Jer. 50:13; 51:43
Je 51:37a habitation  -   Isa. 13:22; Jer. 50:39
Je 51:441 Bel
A Babylonian god (Isa. 46:1).
Je 51:451a Come  -   Jer. 50:8; 51:6; Rev. 18:4
See note 201 in Isa. 48.
Je 51:48a ringing  -   Rev. 18:20; 19:1
Je 51:50a Jerusalem  -   Ezra 1:3; Neh. 1:2; Psa. 122:6; Dan. 6:10; cf. Psa. 137:5-6
Je 51:53a heavens  -   Isa. 14:13-14; Jer. 49:16; Amos 9:2; Obad. 4; cf. Luke 10:15
Je 51:551 their
I.e., the invaders.
Je 51:56a God  -   Psa. 94:1-2; Jer. 50:29; 51:24
Je 51:59a Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 25:7
Je 51:63a stone  -   Rev. 18:21
Jeremiah Chapter 52
Notes and Cross-references
Je 52:11a Zedekiah  -   2 Kings 24:18
This chapter, a supplement to the history of Israel’s captivity, is the definite fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecies as a justification to this genuine prophet and a condemnation to the false prophets (ch. 29).
Je 52:4a And  -   vv. 4-27: 2 Kings 25:1-21; Jer. 39:1-10
Je 52:71 Arabah
See note 41 in ch. 39.
Je 52:9a king  -   Jer. 32:4
Je 52:111 put
See note 71 in ch. 39.
Je 52:11a death  -   Ezek. 12:13
Je 52:13a burned  -   2 Chron. 36:19; Psa. 74:7
Je 52:14a walls  -   Neh. 1:3
Je 52:15a exile  -   Jer. 52:30
Je 52:16a poorest  -   Jer. 40:7
Je 52:17a bronze  -   2 Chron. 4:12-13; Jer. 27:19
Je 52:171 pillars
For the items of the temple named in vv. 17-23, see notes in 1 Kings 6 and 7.
Je 52:18a pots  -   Exo. 27:3; 2 Chron. 4:16
Je 52:20a beyond  -   1 Kings 7:47
Je 52:21a pillars  -   1 Kings 7:15; 2 Chron. 3:15
Je 52:23a pomegranates  -   1 Kings 7:20
Je 52:28a seventh  -   2 Kings 24:12-14
Je 52:29a eighteenth  -   2 Kings 25:11; 2 Chron. 36:20; Jer. 39:9; 52:12
Je 52:30a twenty-third  -   cf. Jer. 6:9
Je 52:31a And  -   vv. 31-34: 2 Kings 25:27-30
< Jeremiah • Lamentations Outline >
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Lamentations Outline
I.   The first lamentation — a lamentation over the desolation of the holy city — 1:1-22
A.   Her distressing circumstances — vv. 1-11
B.   Her entreating the sympathy of the passers-by — vv. 12-19
C.   Her prayer to Jehovah — vv. 20-22
II.   The second lamentation — a lamentation over the destruction of the holy city — 2:1-22
A.   Jehovah the Lord’s destruction of the holy city — vv. 1-10
B.   The prophet’s lament — vv. 11-19
C.   Her prayer to Jehovah — vv. 20-22
III.   The third lamentation — a lamentation over the afflicted prophet identified with his punished people — 3:1-66
A.   The prophet’s (representing his people’s) affliction — vv. 1-20
B.   The prophet’s (representing his people’s) hope — vv. 21-39
C.   The prophet’s request to his people — vv. 40-54
D.   The prophet’s (representing his people’s) prayer to Jehovah — vv. 55-66
IV.   The fourth lamentation — a lamentation over the punished people — 4:1-22
A.   Afflicted with the lack of food in their siege — vv. 1-10
B.   Consumed by the burning anger of Jehovah’s wrath — vv. 11-20
C.   Their hope in the future — vv. 21-22
V.   The fifth lamentation — a lamentation as a prayer for the holy people as the conclusion of the fourth lamentation — 5:1-22
Lamentations >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Lamentations Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
La 1:11 How
This book, written by Jeremiah, the weeping and lamenting prophet (2:11; 3:48; Jer. 9:1), contains five lamentations expressing Jeremiah’s sorrow and love for the holy city and the holy people of God. Jeremiah had prophesied concerning Israel’s destruction carried out under God’s governmental dealing, and he had also witnessed the destruction, devastation, contamination, capture, and ruin of the entire country, including Jerusalem. By God’s sovereignty Jeremiah was free from captivity (Jer. 40:1-6). According to history Jeremiah sat on a hill overlooking Jerusalem, viewing all the ruins below. He began to weep, and he could not avoid writing down his feelings.
Jeremiah wrote his five lamentations in a very fine way. In Hebrew the first letter of each verse of chs. 1, 2, and 4 follows the order of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In ch. 3 every three verses form a group that begins with the same Hebrew letter, and the twenty-two groups formed follow the order of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
La 1:2a comfort  -   Lam. 1:9, 16-17, 21
La 1:3a Judah  -   Jer. 52:27
La 1:3b nations  -   Deut. 28:64-65; Lam. 2:9
La 1:5a head  -   Deut. 28:43-44
La 1:5b captivity  -   Jer. 52:28-30
La 1:71 wanderings
Or, miseries.
La 1:8a sinned  -   1 Kings 8:46
La 1:9a comfort  -   Lam. 1:2
La 1:10a sanctuary  -   Psa. 74:7; 79:1; Isa. 63:18; Jer. 51:51
La 1:10b assembly  -   Deut. 23:3; Neh. 13:1; cf. Acts 21:28
La 1:15a winepress  -   Isa. 63:3; Rev. 14:19-20
La 1:16a eye  -   Jer. 9:1, 10; 13:17; 14:17; Lam. 2:18; 3:48-49
La 1:17a comfort  -   Lam. 1:2
Lamentations Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
La 2:1a footstool  -   1 Chron. 28:2; Psa. 99:5; 132:7
La 2:5a enemy  -   Isa. 63:10; Jer. 30:14
La 2:61 pavilion
Denoting the tabernacle.
La 2:8a line  -   2 Kings 21:13
La 2:9a king  -   Deut. 28:36; 2 Kings 24:15; 25:7
La 2:9b prophets  -   Psa. 74:9; Ezek. 7:26; Micah 3:6-7
La 2:11a tears  -   Psa. 6:6-7; Lam. 1:16
La 2:14a prophets  -   Jer. 2:8; 5:31; 14:14; Ezek. 13:2
La 2:15a The  -   Psa. 48:2; 50:2
La 2:17a purposed  -   Lev. 26:16; Deut. 28:15
La 2:18a tears  -   Jer. 14:17; Lam. 1:16
La 2:19a Lift  -   Psa. 28:2; 134:2; 141:2
Lamentations Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
La 3:11 I
Although Jeremiah himself was not afflicted by God, he was one with God’s afflicted people. Thus, in his feeling, in his sympathy, he was suffering the same kind of affliction. This indicates that a servant of the Lord must learn how to identify himself with God’s people, regardless of the situation, and especially in a situation of affliction (cf. 2 Cor. 11:29).
La 3:14a derision  -   Jer. 20:7
La 3:191 wandering
Or, misery.
La 3:22a lovingkindness  -   Ezra 9:8; Neh. 9:31; Psa. 78:38; Mal. 3:6
La 3:221 consumed
No matter how much He had punished Israel, God had not utterly consumed them. Jeremiah and many others remained. This was God’s lovingkindness. The people of Israel had failed, but God’s compassions did not fail. His compassions had preserved the remnant of Israel for the carrying out of His economy. See Jer. 23:5-6 and note 63.
La 3:22b compassions  -   Psa. 86:15; Micah 7:19; Zech. 1:16; Luke 1:78; Rom. 12:1
La 3:231 every
This indicates that Jeremiah contacted the Lord as the compassionate One every morning. It was through his contact with the Lord that he received this word regarding God’s lovingkindness, compassions, and faithfulness.
La 3:23a morning  -   Isa. 33:2
La 3:232b faithfulness  -   Psa. 36:5; 57:10; 100:5; 108:4; 117:2; 119:90
God’s compassions do not fail, because He is the faithful One. The faithfulness of God refers to His word and is also related to His covenant. Because He had made a covenant with Abraham and confirmed it with Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 15:1-21; 17:1-22; 26:1-4; 35:11-12), God had to be faithful to keep His word.
La 3:241a portion  -   Psa. 16:5; 73:26
This word concerning Jehovah being our portion and our hoping in Him bears a New Testament flavor (Col. 1:12, 27). Jeremiah enjoyed Jehovah as his portion, and he put his hope not in himself nor in the people nor in anything else but only in Jehovah. On the one hand, Jeremiah realized that God is a God of lovingkindness, that He is compassionate, and that His word is faithful (vv. 22-23). On the other hand, Jeremiah realized that we still need to contact the Lord every morning, put our entire hope in Him, wait on Him, and call on His name (vv. 23-25, 55).
La 3:251a wait  -   Psa. 130:6; Isa. 30:18
Although God is true, living, compassionate, and faithful, in order to test His people, He often delays in fulfilling His word. In Jeremiah’s case, the waiting on the Lord has been quite long. The fulfillment of his prophecies concerning the age of restoration has still not come. This indicates that we need to learn the lesson of waiting on the Lord. Today is not the time of the ultimate consummation; therefore, we must wait on the Lord.
La 3:30a cheek  -   Isa. 50:6; Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:29
La 3:31a Cast  -   Psa. 94:14
La 3:38a mouth  -   Matt. 4:4; Rev. 19:21
La 3:38b evil  -   Job 2:10; Isa. 45:7; Amos 3:6
La 3:40a turn  -   Deut. 4:30
La 3:45a offscouring  -   1 Cor. 4:13
La 3:47a Fear  -   Isa. 24:17; Jer. 48:43
La 3:48a runs  -   Lam. 1:16
La 3:551a called  -   Psa. 130:1; Jonah 2:2; Rom. 10:12
See note 262 in Gen. 4.
La 3:57a near  -   James 4:8
La 3:64a You  -   Psa. 28:4; cf. Jer. 11:20
La 3:66a under  -   Deut. 25:19; Jer. 10:11
Lamentations Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
La 4:1a stones  -   Matt. 24:2, 15
La 4:2a earthen  -   Isa. 30:14; Jer. 19:11; cf. 2 Cor. 4:7
La 4:6a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:25
La 4:8a darker  -   Lam. 5:10; Joel 2:6; Nahum 2:10; cf. Rev. 6:5
La 4:13a blood  -   Matt. 23:31, 35-37
La 4:15a Unclean  -   Lev. 13:45
La 4:19a eagles  -   Deut. 28:49; Jer. 4:13
La 4:20a anointed  -   Jer. 39:5; 52:8; Ezek. 12:13
La 4:22a punishment  -   Isa. 40:2
La 4:221 punish
Or, visit. Jeremiah wrote this lamentation altogether in a human way. His sympathy, his love, his sorrow, and his weeping were altogether human. Here his human feeling for Israel led him into human jealousy concerning Edom. Jeremiah was unhappy that Edom was enjoying peace while Israel was under God’s punishment. Therefore, according to his human feeling, he declared that God would punish the iniquity of Edom and uncover their sins.
La 4:22b Edom  -   Psa. 137:7
Lamentations Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
La 5:1a Remember  -   Psa. 89:50-51
La 5:2a inheritance  -   Psa. 79:1
La 5:6a Egypt  -   Hosea 7:11; 9:3; 12:1
La 5:7a are  -   Zech. 1:5
La 5:10a black  -   Lam. 4:8
La 5:18a Zion  -   Psa. 74:2-3; Lam. 2:8; Micah 3:12
La 5:19a You  -   Psa. 9:7; 102:12
La 5:191 abide
In vv. 1-18 Jeremiah was writing according to his personal, human feeling, but in this verse his position and angle were changed from himself to God. He refers here to God’s eternal being and His eternal and unchanging government. Jerusalem was overthrown, the temple was burned down, and God’s people were carried away, but Jehovah, the Lord of the universe, remains to exercise His administration.
God’s eternal being and His throne are higher than His lovingkindness, compassions, and faithfulness (3:22-23). God’s lovingkindness and compassions can fluctuate, but God’s person and His government remain unchanging forever. In the New Jerusalem, God will be fully unveiled in His person as the eternal King and in His government as His eternal, unshakable kingdom (Heb. 12:28; Rev. 22:3), both of which are the unshakable foundation of His dealing with His people.
La 5:19b throne  -   Psa. 45:6
La 5:201 Why
Although in v. 19 Jeremiah’s expression is divine, in vv. 20-22 he reverts again to writing in a human way.
La 5:211a Turn  -   Psa. 80:3, 7, 19; Jer. 31:18
This word, expressed as an imperative, indicates that Jeremiah considered that the responsibility for the turning of the children of Israel depended upon Jehovah. Although Jeremiah wrote here in a human way, his thought was correct. At the time of the Lord’s second coming, the Lord will turn to Israel and appear to them, and they will turn to Him and receive His household salvation (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26; Rev. 1:7).
La 5:221 utterly
Jehovah had not utterly rejected Israel, nor was He exceedingly angry with them. But Israel needed to wait on Him until the time of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21), when He will restore the children of Israel to be in His person and in His eternal kingdom to enjoy what He had promised to their forefathers. See note 251 in ch. 3.
In vv. 20-22 Jeremiah speaks to Jehovah a challenging word, even a commanding and reproving word. However, Jehovah did not answer him but remained silent. All Jeremiah’s challenges and questions are answered in the following books of the Bible. The consummation of this answer will be the New Jerusalem. Hence, Jeremiah must wait until the New Testament age, until the age of the millennial kingdom, and until the New Jerusalem. Then he will be fully satisfied.
< Lamentations • Ezekiel Outline >
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Ezekiel Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-3
II.   A vision of the appearance of the glory of Jehovah for His manifestation, His move, and His administration — 1:4-28
A.   The wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum — v. 4
B.   The four living creatures — vv. 5-14
C.   The high and awesome wheels — vv. 15-21
D.   The expanse like the sight of awesome crystal — vv. 22-25
E.   The man on the throne — vv. 26-28
III.   God judging His people and the heathen nations as a consuming fire — 2:1 — 32:32
A.   God’s judgment of Israel in their degradation — 2:1 — 24:27
1.   Ezekiel’s call and commission — 2:1 — 3:27
2.   The judgment on Jerusalem — 4:1 — 5:17
3.   The judgment on the land of Israel — 6:1 — 7:27
4.   The glory of Jehovah departing — 8:1 — 11:25
5.   God confirming the prophecies of judgment — 12:1 — 24:27
a.   Through Ezekiel as a sign of disgrace — 12:1-28
(1)   Ezekiel’s baggage — vv. 1-16
(2)   Ezekiel’s trembling — vv. 17-28
b.   Against the false prophets — 13:1-23
c.   Against the idolatrous elders — 14:1-23
d.   Against the inhabitants of Jerusalem as a vine tree — 15:1-8
e.   Against Jerusalem as an adulterous wife — 16:1-63
f.   Through a parable of two eagles and a vine — 17:1-24
g.   Against the parable of the sour grapes — 18:1-32
h.   Through Ezekiel’s lamentation for the princes of Israel — 19:1-14
i.   Through Jehovah’s response to the elders’ inquiring of Jehovah — 20:1-44
j.   Through a parable of a consuming forest fire — 20:45-49
k.   By the sword of Jehovah against the holy places and the land of Israel — 21:1-32
l.   Through Ezekiel’s declaration of Jerusalem’s abominations — 22:1-16
m.   Against Jerusalem as a smelting furnace — 22:17-22
n.   Against the various kinds of people among the children of Israel — 22:23-31
o.   Against Jerusalem and Samaria as two adulterous sisters — 23:1-49
p.   Through a parable of a boiling pot — 24:1-14
q.   Through Ezekiel again as a sign of disgrace in the matter of losing his wife — 24:15-27
B.   God’s judgment of the heathen nations — 25:1 — 32:32
1.   Upon Ammon — 25:1-7
2.   Upon Moab — 25:8-11
3.   Upon Edom — 25:12-14
4.   Upon Philistia — 25:15-17
5.   Upon Tyre — 26:1 — 28:19
6.   Upon Sidon — 28:20-26
7.   Upon Egypt — 29:1 — 32:32
IV.   God recovering His people by life — 33:1 — 39:29
A.   Setting up a watchman — 33:1 — 34:10
B.   Coming to be a Shepherd — 34:11-31
C.   Further judgment of Edom — 35:1-15
D.   Recovery of the good land — 36:1-21
E.   Inward recovery — 36:22-33
F.   Making the land like the garden of Eden — 36:34-36
G.   Increasing the house of Israel with men like a flock — 36:37-38
H.   The visions of the dry bones and the two sticks, showing the regenerating and renewing of God’s people — 37:1-28
1.   The dead, dry, and scattered bones being formed into an army — vv. 1-14
2.   The two pieces of wood being joined together for the building of the house of God — vv. 15-28
I.   Further judgment of Israel’s enemies — Gog and Magog — 38:1 — 39:29
V.   The vision of the holy building of God — 40:1 — 48:35
A.   The time and the place — 40:1-2
B.   The vision of a man — 40:3
C.   The vision of the holy temple — 40:4 — 44:31
1.   The outer court — 40:4-27
2.   The inner court — 40:28-47
3.   The temple — 40:48 — 41:26
4.   The holy chambers for the priests to eat the most holy things — 42:1-14
5.   The land surrounding the temple — 42:15-20
6.   The return of God’s glory to the house — 43:1-12
7.   The altar — 43:13-27
8.   The service in the house of Jehovah — 44:1-31
D.   The offerings to Jehovah — 45:1 — 46:24
1.   The holy heave offering of land — 45:1-8
2.   The offerings of the princes and people of Israel — 45:9 — 46:24
E.   The Holy Land and the holy city — 47:1 — 48:35
1.   The vision of the water flowing out from the house — 47:1-12
2.   The borders of the land — 47:13-23
3.   The allotment of the land — 48:1-35
Ezekiel >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
Ezekiel Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 1:11 thirtieth
Referring to Ezekiel’s age. At the age of thirty a priest, a Levite, was qualified to begin his service to the Lord (Num. 4:2-3; 1 Chron. 23:3; cf. Luke 3:23). This age signifies maturity, indicating that in spiritual things, especially in seeing the visions recorded in this book, there is the need of maturity in the divine life (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14-15; 3:1-2).
Ezk 1:12 river
A river in Babylon that flows east of the Euphrates and eventually empties into it. Chebar means strong, powerful. The river Chebar symbolizes the power of Babylon to damage God’s people (cf. Isa. 8:7-8). It signifies the tide of the present age, which carries people away from God to Babylon. There are two rivers in the book of Ezekiel: the river Chebar in ch. 1 and the river flowing out of the temple in ch. 47. The former carries the people of God away from God and destroys the building of God; the latter brings people into God’s life and builds up God’s dwelling place (cf. note 121 in Gen. 2).
Ezk 1:13 heavens
The opening of the heavens is God’s special visitation (cf. Gen. 28:11-17; Matt. 3:16-17; Acts 7:56). The people of Israel had been damaged by Satan and carried away into captivity; as a result, the heavens could not be opened to them. However, among those in captivity there was a priest, Ezekiel (v. 3), who was seeking God and contacting Him and who was connected to the heavens. The heavens could therefore be opened to him and could even come down to the earth, enabling God’s heavenly things to be seen by people on earth and to be fulfilled among them on earth.
Ezk 1:1a opened  -   Matt. 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev. 4:1; 19:11
Ezk 1:14b visions  -   Ezek. 8:3
God’s visions are His revelations, which enable His people to see divine, spiritual, heavenly things. Ezekiel saw spiritual, heavenly visions in his spirit (cf. Eph. 3:3-5; Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10) under an opened heaven, and he presented these visions to God’s people that they might be recovered from their captivity for the building up of God’s dwelling place. It was mainly through Ezekiel’s prophesying to the people in captivity (3:10-11) that they eventually detested the idols, turned their hearts to God, and were returned to their homeland after seventy years.
The Bible as a whole, and the book of Ezekiel as a miniature of the Bible, reveal that God’s eternal intention is to dispense Himself into His chosen people, making them the same as He is in His life, His nature, and His image but not in His Godhead, that they might be mingled with Him as one entity and be built together in Him to be His eternal habitation, the New Jerusalem. This is the central point of the revelation of the Bible and also of the four visions presented in the book of Ezekiel.
Ezk 1:21 fifth
Whereas the thirtieth year (v. 1) was counted from the year of Ezekiel’s birth, the fifth year here was counted from the year of Jehoiachin’s captivity (2 Kings 24:8-16). Ezekiel also was taken captive at that time. From this verse to the end of the book the years are counted from the year of captivity. Five years after he was captured, Ezekiel began to see the visions in this chapter. In the following years he continued to see visions concerning a later capture of Jerusalem, which took place in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, who replaced Jehoiachin as king of Judah (2 Kings 24:17 — 25:21). While Ezekiel was in captivity he was brought back in the Spirit to Jerusalem to see the coming events. Before Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, burned the city, destroyed the temple, and captured Zedekiah, Ezekiel saw these events in his visions.
Ezk 1:2a Jehoiachin’s  -   2 Kings 24:12, 15
Ezk 1:31 word
God wanted Ezekiel not only to behold with his eyes but also to hear with his ears (40:4); hence, He gave him His words along with His visions. God’s word to Ezekiel was not an ordinary word but an express word, a special word. God’s express words enable us both to understand the visions and to proclaim and explain what we have seen (1 Cor. 2:9-13).
Ezk 1:32 Ezekiel
Ezekiel means God strengthens, or may God strengthen, and Buzi means contemptible, or despised. As the son of Buzi, Ezekiel was a prophet despised by the people and treated with contempt, but he was strengthened by God, the Mighty One (Heb. El). As a son of shame, a son of abasement, Ezekiel was appointed by God to be a sign to the people of Israel, a sign of their being put to shame (12:6, 11; 24:24, 27). As a man strengthened and empowered by God, Ezekiel could bear the shame and the disgrace in order to fulfill his ministry as a prophet of God, God’s oracle.
Ezk 1:33 priest
As a priest Ezekiel was one who lived in the presence of God, serving God and being mingled with God. He was in the land of captivity by the river Chebar, not in the holy temple, yet he looked to God, prayed to God, contacted God, fellowshipped with God, and waited for God. Because Ezekiel was such a person, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw visions of God (v. 1).
Ezk 1:34 Chaldeans
Chaldea was the place where Babel began (Gen. 11:1-9). The name Babel in Hebrew is the equivalent of Babylon in Greek. Thus, Chaldea was actually Babylon (12:13), the place where Satan instigated the greatest rebellion against God among the fallen people. It was also the place out of which God called Abraham that He might have a chosen people (Acts 7:2-4). At Ezekiel’s time many of God’s chosen people had been carried back to that place.
Ezk 1:35a hand  -   1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 3:15; Ezek. 3:14, 22; 8:1; 33:22; 37:1; 40:1
The hand of the Lord follows the word of the Lord. If what one ministers is truly God’s word, God’s almighty hand will follow to accomplish what he speaks. God’s hand upon man is also for leading man and for causing one to take action (cf. 1 Kings 18:46). After the Lord’s hand came upon Ezekiel, he did not act according to his own choice but according to the leading and directing of the Lord’s hand.
Ezk 1:4a storm  -   Psa. 107:25; Jer. 23:19; 25:32; 30:23; Nahum 1:3; cf. Acts 2:2
Ezk 1:41 wind
As with the entire Bible, the book of Ezekiel uses visible, physical things to signify spiritual things. The storm wind here is a figure of the powerful Spirit of God (Acts 2:2, 4a). In the Scriptures the wind has both a negative and positive significance. In its negative significance the wind is a symbol, or sign, of God’s judgment upon man (Jer. 49:36; Rev. 7:1). In its positive significance the wind symbolizes the blowing of the Holy Spirit upon man or the descending of the Holy Spirit upon man to cause man to have God’s life (37:9-10; John 3:6-8; Acts 2:2-21). The storm wind here has this positive significance.
Ezk 1:42b north  -   Job 37:22; Psa. 48:2; Isa. 14:13; cf. Jer. 1:14
From the north means from God (Psa. 75:6-7a; Isa. 14:13). Whenever God visits us and revives us, His Spirit blows on us like a mighty wind to bring a spiritual storm into our life, into our work, and into our church, causing us to be dissatisfied and concerned about our spiritual condition and to have a turn in our spiritual life.
Ezk 1:43c cloud  -   Exo. 19:16; 24:16; 2 Chron. 5:14; Psa. 97:2-3; Ezek. 10:4
The cloud here is a figure of God as the Spirit abiding with His people and covering them in order to care for them and show favor to them (Exo. 13:21; 40:34-35; Prov. 16:15; 1 Cor. 10:1-2). God comes to us as the wind, but He stays with us as the cloud. Together, the wind and the cloud are an indication that an important transaction is about to take place between God and man.
Ezk 1:44 fire
The fire seen by Ezekiel signifies God’s burning and sanctifying power (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). Whenever God visits us, His holy fire comes to consume in us everything that does not match His holy nature and disposition. This burning fire also causes us to be enlightened concerning our spiritual condition before God. The more the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in us, the more we are purified and enlightened (cf. Isa. 6:5-7; 1 John 1:7).
Ezk 1:45d electrum  -   Ezek. 1:27; 8:2
Following the rendering of the Septuagint and the Vulgate; others translate, glowing metal. “An unknown substance; some think a mixture of gold and silver” (Darby). Gold signifies the nature of God, and silver signifies redemption. The electrum, composed of the elements of gold and silver, signifies the Lamb-God, the redeeming God (see note 15 in Rev. 22). That the glowing electrum appeared from the midst of the fire indicates that the burning of the divine fire is for the manifestation of the electrum.
The spiritual history of a normal Christian should be a continual cycle involving the experience of God as the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. The more we experience the wind, the cloud, and the fire, the more the electrum is constituted into our being, making us a people who are filled with the Triune God and who manifest His glory. The issue of the spiritual transactions involving the blowing wind, the covering cloud, and the purifying fire is the glowing electrum — the radiant expression of the redeeming God. Cf. note 73 in 1 John 1.
Ezk 1:51 four
And at the beginning of the verse indicates that in addition to the electrum, the four living creatures came out from the midst of the fire. The more we experience God as the blowing wind, the overshadowing cloud, the burning fire, and the glowing electrum, the more we are enlivened with the divine life to become the four living creatures. The number four is related to God’s creation (Isa. 11:12; Jer. 49:36; Rev. 7:1) and signifies man as God’s creature.
Ezk 1:5a living  -   Rev. 4:6
Ezk 1:52b man  -   Ezek. 1:26
The four living creatures are reckoned not as individuals but as a group, as one entity. As such, they are the corporate expression of the man on the throne (v. 26). That the four living creatures bear the likeness of a man and that God on the throne also bears the appearance of a man indicates that God’s central thought and His arrangement are related to man (Gen. 1:26; Psa. 8:4-8). According to the vision unveiled in this chapter, man is the means for God to manifest His glory, man is the means for God to move on the earth, and man is the means for God to administrate on the throne. God uses the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum to enliven us in order to gain man as the means of His manifestation, move, and administration.
Ezk 1:61a faces  -   Ezek. 1:10; 10:14, 21
See note 101.
Ezk 1:62b wings  -   Exo. 25:20; 1 Kings 6:24-27; Isa. 6:2; Ezek. 10:21
These must be the wings of an eagle, since among the creatures represented by the four faces (v. 10), only the eagle has wings. In the Scriptures the wings of an eagle signify the grace, strength, and power of God applied to us (Exo. 19:4; Isa. 40:31; 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:7; 12:9).
Ezk 1:7a calf’s  -   cf. Lev. 11:3
Ezk 1:71 foot
Feet signify the walk. A calf’s foot is straight, signifying that the walk of the living creatures is not crooked in human cleverness but is straight, frank, faithful, and honest in the divine grace (2 Cor. 1:12; 4:2; Matt. 5:37; 21:23-27; 1 Cor. 4:21; Gal. 2:11-14). A calf’s foot is also cloven, divided, signifying that in their walk the living creatures can discern what is right and what is wrong and what is clean and what is unclean in the eyes of God (Phil. 1:9-10; cf. note 31 in Lev. 11). That the feet of the living creatures sparkled like the sight of burnished bronze signifies that their walk has been tested and examined by the Lord and that it shines, giving light to others and being a test to their walk (cf. note 151 in Rev. 1).
A calf signifies freshness, livingness, and vigor (cf. Psa. 29:6; Mal. 4:2). The walk of the living creatures is vigorous, full of life, freshness, and newness, like a young calf (cf. Rom. 6:4; 7:6).
Ezk 1:7b bronze  -   Dan. 10:6; Rev. 1:15
Ezk 1:81a hands  -   Ezek. 10:8, 21
The hands of a man indicate that a proper, normal Christian should always do things exactly like a man (Acts 20:34). Although we conduct ourselves and labor in the grace and power of God (2 Cor. 1:12; 1 Cor. 15:10), we should be very human in our living, cooperating with God in a human way and fulfilling our human duty. This is to be balanced. That the human hands are under eagle’s wings indicates that in doing everything we should be under God’s grace and under His covering, depending on the Lord and expressing Him.
Ezk 1:9a wings  -   Ezek. 1:11
Ezk 1:91 joined
See note 112.
Ezk 1:9b turn  -   Ezek. 1:12; 10:11
Ezk 1:92 straight
See note 121.
Ezk 1:101a man  -   Ezek. 10:14; Rev. 4:7
Each living creature had four faces (v. 6). The face of a man indicates that the living creatures live in a proper humanity, the humanity of Jesus. The face of a lion indicates that in relation to sin, the world, and Satan they are bold, strong, victorious, and reigning (Rev. 5:5; Rom. 5:17). The face of an ox indicates that they are willing to bear the burden, to labor, and even to sacrifice themselves (1 Cor. 15:10, 58; Acts 20:24; Phil. 2:30). The face of an eagle indicates that the living creatures are transcendent, buoyant, and powerful in the life of God (John 6:15; Phil. 4:12-13).
The four living creatures with their four faces signify a coordinated, corporate entity, the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12 and note 2) as the corporate expression of God among human beings. The four faces of the living creatures portray the life of Christ as depicted in the four Gospels: Matthew shows Christ as a lion, the King of God’s kingdom; Mark portrays Him as an ox, the Servant of God; Luke depicts Him as a man, the Man-Savior; and John shows Him as an eagle, the very God (see note 11, par. 3, in Matt. 1). Thus, the four living creatures are a corporate expression of Christ, living out the life of Christ in a corporate way.
Ezk 1:10b lion  -   1 Chron. 12:8; Rev. 5:5
See note 101.
Ezk 1:111 And
Or, And their faces and their wings were spread out upward.
Ezk 1:112 joined
Verses 11b-14 convey a clear picture of the coordination of the living creatures, a portrait of the proper church life. The joining of two wings of the living creatures is for their corporate moving in coordination. The eagle’s wings are the means by which they are coordinated and move as one. This signifies that their coordination is not in themselves but in God and by the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine grace. This is similar to the boards of the tabernacle being joined into one building by the overlaying gold and the gold rings (Exo. 26:26-29 and notes).
Ezk 1:11a two  -   Isa. 6:2; Ezek. 1:23
Ezk 1:113 covered
The wings of an eagle are not only for moving but also for protection. Whatever we do and whatever we are must be by the grace of the Lord and the power of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:7). At the same time, we are under the overshadowing, the covering, of the Lord’s grace and the Lord’s power (Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 63:7; 91:4; 2 Cor. 12:9b).
The living creatures look like a man (v. 5), but they move like an eagle. This indicates that we must always express ourselves like a normal man; but the moving and overshadowing wings should give others an impression of the Divine Being, an impression that we have God with us as our power and protection.
Ezk 1:12a went  -   Ezek. 1:9, 17; 10:22
Ezk 1:121 straight
Lit., in the direction of their faces. The move of the living creatures is not individual but corporate. They move as one entity in coordination. Each of the living creatures faces one direction. As they face these four directions, two of their wings spread out and touch the adjacent creatures’ wings, forming a square. When the living creatures move, they do not need to turn; one moves straight forward while the opposite creature moves backward and the other two move sideways (v. 9). This is a beautiful picture of the coordination in the church as the Body of Christ, in which each member has his particular position and function, or ministry (Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:14-30; Eph. 4:7-16). When one member functions, he moves “straight forward” to fulfill his function, and the other members accommodate him by moving in the same direction, some moving “backward” and others moving “sideways.”
According to the vision of the four living creatures, the coordination of the believers as members of the Body of Christ results in the corporate expression of God in Christ, in the move of God on the earth, and in the administration of God on the throne, thus affording God a way to manifest His glory and accomplish His eternal purpose and plan. In order to participate in such a coordination, we need to have the spiritual experiences and the practical living symbolized by the details in vv. 4-12.
Ezk 1:122 Spirit
The living creatures’ following the Spirit indicates that in order to have the genuine coordination, we need to deny ourselves and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4).
Ezk 1:12b go  -   Ezek. 1:20
Ezk 1:13a appearance  -   Ezek. 1:27; Dan. 10:6
Ezk 1:131 coals
The issue of the coordination of the living creatures is that they become burning coals, with the holy God as a consuming fire burning among them and within them (Heb. 12:29; cf. Exo. 3:2 and note 2). Furthermore, they become burning torches for shining and enlightening (cf. Rev. 4:5b). The burning of the coals and the enlightening of the torches signify that the sanctifying fire becomes the sanctifying light. That both the Lord on the throne (v. 26) and the living creatures have the appearance of fire indicates that the living creatures are the expression of the Lord.
Ezk 1:132 the
Lit., it. The fire going to and fro among the living creatures is not static but is always moving, indicating that in their fellowship the living creatures allow God, signified by the fire, to move freely among them.
Ezk 1:133 bright
That the fire was bright indicates that in their coordination the living creatures manifested a glorious and majestic condition.
Ezk 1:134 lightning
The lightning out of the fire signifies a special flashing of the divine light in the church during times of storm and darkness.
Ezk 1:141 ran
The running of the living creatures like lightning indicates that the living creatures, having a proper coordination, being the burning coals and the burning torches, and having the divine fire going to and fro among them, will not walk but run. They run because they have the power and the impact.
Ezk 1:14a to  -   Zech. 4:10
Ezk 1:14b lightning  -   cf. Matt. 24:27; Luke 17:24
Ezk 1:151a wheel  -   Ezek. 10:9
The entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation presents a full picture of the economy of God (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4) and of God’s move on earth to carry out His economy. In the book of Ezekiel God’s economy and God’s move in His economy are signified by a wheel. The hub of this great wheel signifies Christ as the center of God’s economy, and the rim signifies Christ’s counterpart, the church, which consummates in the New Jerusalem. The spokes of the wheel spreading from the hub to the rim signify the many believers as the members of Christ.
The appearing of the wheels on the earth beside the living creatures indicates that God’s move on earth follows the coordination of the four living creatures. The move by a wheel implies an extraordinary move with a purpose. Furthermore, it implies that this move is not by our own strength.
Ezk 1:152 faces
The wheels being for the four faces of the living creatures indicates that if we would have the Lord’s move, we must first live out the Lord, expressing Him.
Ezk 1:16a appearance  -   Ezek. 10:10
Ezk 1:161b beryl  -   Dan. 10:6
Beryl is the appearance of the Lord when He is moving (Dan. 10:6). This indicates that within the move of the wheels is the appearance of the Lord.
Ezk 1:162 one
That all four wheels had the same likeness, the same appearance, indicates that the move of the Lord has the same likeness and appearance in every church (1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16; 14:33; 16:1; 1 Thes. 2:14; see notes 73 in Rev. 2 and 201 in Rev. 1).
Ezk 1:163 a
A wheel within a wheel indicates that in the move of the living creatures there is the move of the Lord, i.e., that the Lord moves in their moving (cf. James 5:17 and note). The inner wheel, the Lord as the hub, is the source of power for the moving of the outer wheel, the church as the rim.
Ezk 1:171 four
The wheels going in four directions, not turning as they went, indicates a move in coordination, without any turns (cf. note 121).
Ezk 1:181 high
In ourselves we should be small, but the wheel beside us, i.e., the move of God’s economy with us, should be high and awesome (1 Cor. 15:9; 2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11; Eph. 3:8-11).
Ezk 1:182a eyes  -   Ezek. 10:12; Zech. 4:10; Rev. 4:6
Eyes indicate insight, foresight, and other kinds of sight. The more we have the move of the Lord, the more we are enlightened and the more we will be able to see.
Ezk 1:191a went  -   Ezek. 10:16-17
That the wheels follow the living creatures indicates that if we move in faith, the Lord will follow our move.
Ezk 1:201 Spirit
The wheels follow the creatures (vv. 19, 21), and the creatures follow the Spirit, but the Spirit is in the wheels. This indicates that we are one with the Lord, and He is one with us (1 Cor. 6:17). The Lord follows us, we follow the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the wheels.
Ezk 1:20a go  -   Ezek. 1:12
Ezk 1:202 they
Referring to the living creatures.
Ezk 1:20b wheels  -   Ezek. 10:17
Ezk 1:221a expanse  -   Ezek. 10:1
Based on the experiences signified in vv. 4-21, the spiritual sky over the heads of the living creatures is crystal clear, like a great expanse of awesome crystal. Furthermore, this sky is expanding and is as stable, unchanging, as crystal. In such a situation, there is nothing between the living creatures and God and nothing between them and one another. They have a thorough fellowship with the Lord and with one another. This requires the maintaining of a pure conscience without any offense toward God and men (Acts 24:16).
Ezk 1:22b crystal  -   Rev. 4:6; 21:11
Ezk 1:231 straight
The wings of the living creatures going straight out signifies that under a clear and expanding sky we can have the adequate and proper coordination, a coordination that is altogether straight, with nothing crooked. Cf. note 71.
Ezk 1:232 covering
The using of two wings to cover the living creatures indicates that in the coordination we should not display ourselves but should hide ourselves under the Lord’s grace (2 Cor. 3:5-6; 12:9; Phil. 3:3). See note 113.
Ezk 1:24a sound  -   Ezek. 10:5
Ezk 1:24b waters  -   Ezek. 43:2; Dan. 10:6; Rev. 1:15
Ezk 1:241 voice
The voice coming out of the wings that were joined to one another is the testimony of the living creatures. This indicates that the voice of the testimony of any local church must be the voice of a corporate, coordinated body, a voice that comes out of the proper coordination (cf. Acts 2:14). Such a testimony will be strong, like the sound of great waters; moreover, it will be the voice of God Himself and the voice of an army fighting the battle for God’s economy.
Ezk 1:251 voice
This is God’s voice. The living creatures standing still and dropping their wings indicates that they know not only how to speak and sound forth their voice but also how to listen to God’s voice (cf. Exo. 21:5-6; Isa. 50:4-5; Luke 10:38-42).
Ezk 1:261a throne  -   1 Kings 22:19; Isa. 6:1; Dan. 7:9; Rev. 4:2
The four living creatures are not only for the manifestation of the Lord and not only for the move of the Lord but also for the administration, the government, of the Lord. The Lord is among them and above them for His manifestation, move, and government. In such a situation God is not only the God of heaven but also the God of the earth (see note 253 in Matt. 11). Through the living creatures the heavens are open to the earth and are joined to the earth.
The Lord’s presence is always with His throne. The Lord’s throne is both in the third heaven and in our spirit (Rev. 4:2-3; Heb. 4:16 and note 1; cf. 2 Tim. 4:22). The throne above the crystal clear expanse indicates that whenever we have a “clear sky” in our Christian life and in our church life, we will be under the ruling of the throne. The highest point in our spiritual experience is having a clear sky with a throne above it. To reach this point means that in everything we allow God to have the preeminence and are completely submissive to God’s authority and administration. The throne is not only for God to reign over us but also for God to accomplish His eternal purpose. If we have the throne in our spiritual life, God will not only rule over us but will also fulfill His purpose in us, with us, and through us.
Ezk 1:262b sapphire  -   Exo. 24:10
A sapphire stone, blue in color, signifies a heavenly condition that exists when God is present in a particular situation (Exo. 24:10). The throne being in the likeness of a sapphire stone shows the presence of God in a heavenly situation.
Ezk 1:263 man
The One on the throne looks like a man, yet with Him there is the appearance of the glory of Jehovah (v. 28), indicating that the One sitting on the throne is both God and man. This is Jesus Christ, the God-man, the mingling of God and man. He was the complete God, and He was incarnated to be a man (John 1:1, 14). Having the nature of man, He lived, died, resurrected, and ascended as a man, and now as the One on the throne, He is still the Son of Man (John 6:62; Acts 7:56). Hence, since the ascension of the Lord Jesus there has been a man on the throne. In the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth for eternity, there will still be a man on the throne (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 22:1, 3).
As revealed in the Bible, God’s mysterious intention in His relationship with man is to mingle Himself with man and thereby to become the same as man and make man the same as God in life, in nature, and in expression but not in the Godhead. Man was created in the image of God to express God and to rule for God (Gen. 1:26-28 and notes). The One on the throne and the four living creatures both have the appearance of a man, indicating that the four living creatures on earth are the expression of the One on the throne (see note 52). This expression is the manifestation of God in humanity (1 Tim. 3:15-16). God in heaven desires to gain man on earth for His expression by working Himself into man. Furthermore, God’s intention is to work on man in order that man will be on the throne. As the Pioneer, the Forerunner, the Lord Jesus cut the way to enter into glory and sit on the throne (Heb. 2:6-9), and we, His many brothers, are now following Him (Heb. 2:10-12; Rev. 3:21; 22:5).
Ezk 1:27a Then  -   Ezek. 8:2
Ezk 1:271 electrum
The appearance of the man on the throne has two aspects: from His loins upward He has the appearance of electrum, and from His loins downward, the appearance of fire. The upper part of a man, from his loins to his head, is the part of feeling, of sensation, signifying his nature and disposition. According to His nature and disposition the Lord Jesus on the throne has the appearance of electrum, signifying the redeeming God. The lower part of a man’s body is for moving. The appearance of fire from the loins downward signifies the Lord’s appearance in His move with God’s burning and sanctifying power (see note 44).
When the Lord comes to us, He comes as fire to enlighten, search, and burn. Then through the fire He becomes electrum to us. After all the negative things have been burned out of us by the Lord as the consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), the electrum, the redeeming God, will remain in us. See note 45.
Ezk 1:281a rainbow  -   Rev. 4:3; 10:1
A rainbow as the brightness around the man who is sitting on the throne signifies the splendor and glory around the Lord on the throne. At Noah’s time the rainbow in the cloud was a sign of God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant with man and every living creature that He would never again destroy mankind with a flood (see note 131 in Gen. 9).
A rainbow can be considered as being produced from the combining of three basic colors — red, yellow, and blue. Red, the color of fire, refers to God’s holiness; yellow, the color of electrum, signifies God’s glory; and blue, the color of the sapphire throne, signifies God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory are three divine attributes that keep sinners away from God (see note 241 in Gen. 3). However, Christ came, died on the cross to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and was resurrected, and He is now our righteousness, holiness, and glory (1 Cor. 1:30). Because we, the believers, are now in Christ, in the sight of God we bear the appearance of Christ as righteousness, holiness, and glory. This is the appearance of a rainbow as a testimony of God’s faithfulness in sparing us and saving us, the fallen ones, from His judgment on sinners. In the New Jerusalem, a city whose foundations have the appearance of a rainbow (Rev. 21:19-20), we, the aggregate of the saved ones, will be a rainbow reflecting the brightness of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory and testifying forever that our God is righteous and faithful (see note 191, par. 2, in Rev. 21). As portrayed in this chapter, the Christian life and the church life will consummate in such a rainbow. At that point God’s eternal plan will have been accomplished.
Ezk 1:28b fell  -   Ezek. 3:23; Dan. 8:17; Matt. 17:6; Acts 9:4
Ezekiel Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 2:1a Son  -   Ezek. 3:1; 4:1; 5:1; 6:2; 7:2; 8:5; 11:2; 20:3; 37:3; 43:7; 44:5; 47:6; Dan. 8:17; Matt. 8:20; 16:13
Ezk 2:2a entered  -   Ezek. 3:24
Ezk 2:3a sending  -   Ezek. 3:5
Ezk 2:31 rebellious
Or, a rebellious nation. The children of Israel were God’s elect, separated from the nations unto God (Exo. 19:6), God’s vine for the accomplishing of His economy (15:1-8; 19:10), God’s bride for His satisfaction (16:8; 23:4), God’s flock under His care (ch. 34), and God’s precious and personal treasure (Exo. 19:5). However, in contrast with these five statuses, in their degradation they became rebels against God (v. 3), thistles and thorns (v. 6), a harlot (6:9; 16:15; 23:30), scorpions (v. 6), and dross (22:18). The causes of Israel’s degradation were (1) their having idols in their hearts (14:3-5), (2) their being associated with the world, i.e., the heathen nations (25:8; cf. 1 Kings 11:1-2; 16:30-31), and (3) their walking according to the manner and customs of the nations (11:12). These are also the main causes of the degradation of God’s New Testament elect, the church (Rev. 2:4, 12-15).
God’s judgment on His people, as seen in chs. 2 — 24, is based on His righteousness, holiness, and glory. God’s glory is versus idols (8:2-4, 10; 9:3), God’s holiness is versus dross (22:17-22), and God’s righteousness is versus Israel’s injustice and oppression (22:29). Anything that does not match God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness will provoke God’s judgment. As seen in this book and in the New Testament, God first judges His people, and then He judges the nations (chs. 25 — 32; 1 Pet. 4:17; Rev. 2 — 3; 6 — 11; 15 — 19).
Ezk 2:3b rebelled  -   Ezek. 20:8, 13, 21
Ezk 2:4a hard-hearted  -   Ezek. 3:7
Ezk 2:5a hear  -   Ezek. 3:11, 26-27
Ezk 2:5b rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:8; 3:9, 26, 27; 12:2-3, 9, 25; 17:12; 24:3
Ezk 2:5c know  -   Ezek. 33:33
Ezk 2:61 thistles
Or, rebels.
Ezk 2:6a thorns  -   2 Sam. 23:6; Isa. 9:18; Micah 7:4; Matt. 7:16
Ezk 2:71 rebellious
Lit., rebelliousness. So also in the next verse.
Ezk 2:8a eat  -   Rev. 10:9
Ezekiel Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 3:1a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 3:1b eat  -   Rev. 10:9
Ezk 3:3a ate  -   Rev. 10:9; cf. Jer. 15:16
Ezk 3:3b sweetness  -   Psa. 19:10; 119:103
Ezk 3:7a obstinate  -   Ezek. 2:4
Ezk 3:9a flint  -   Isa. 50:7
Ezk 3:9b rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:5
Ezk 3:11a captivity  -   Ezek. 3:15; 11:24-25
Ezk 3:12a Spirit  -   1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16; Ezek. 3:14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; Luke 4:1; Acts 8:39; 2 Cor. 12:2; Rev. 17:3; 21:10; cf. 2 Pet. 1:21
Ezk 3:13a sound  -   Ezek. 1:24
Ezk 3:14a Spirit  -   Ezek. 3:12
Ezk 3:14b hand  -   Ezek. 1:3
Ezk 3:17a Son  -   vv. 17-19: Ezek. 33:7-9
Ezk 3:171b watchman  -   Isa. 52:8; 56:10; 62:6; Jer. 6:17
In the midst of His judgment on Israel, God was merciful to His people and provided a number of things for them: (1) in His mercy God established watchmen, such as Ezekiel, to warn the people (33:7); (2) before exercising His judgment, God sent His angel to mark out His seeking ones, those who sighed and groaned over all the sinfulness and evils in the city of Jerusalem, so that they would not be killed (9:4); (3) God preserved and kept a remnant among those who were scattered in captivity (6:8-9); (4) God Himself was a temporary sanctuary to His scattered and captured people (11:16); (5) God promised those in the captivity that one day He would bring them back to the land (11:17), to serve Him on the mountain of the height of Israel (20:40), which typifies the resurrected and ascended Christ; and (6) for the hope and encouragement of His people, God prophesied that Christ would come as a twig that would become a cedar tree (17:22-23), as the scepter of Judah (21:10), as the One who has the right to inherit the kingdom of Israel (21:27), and as the horn of the house of Israel to deliver them from all oppression and bondage (29:21). The final result of God’s judgment on Israel will be to cause them to turn to Christ and to gain Christ so that Christ will be everything to them (Zech. 12:10; Rev. 1:7). Because Israel will be joined to Christ, Israel will ascend from being lowly to being very high, having Christ as the authority to surpass all the nations and authorities on earth. Because of Christ, the nation of Israel will be restored, and Christ will be the King (Isa. 2:2-4 and notes).
Ezk 3:18a blood  -   Luke 11:50; Acts 20:26
Ezk 3:191 delivered
Or, saved your life. So also in v. 21.
Ezk 3:22a hand  -   Ezek. 1:3
Ezk 3:23a glory  -   Ezek. 1:28
Ezk 3:24a Spirit  -   Ezek. 2:2
Ezk 3:26a dumb  -   Ezek. 24:27; Luke 1:20, 22
Ezk 3:27a rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:5
Ezekiel Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 4:1a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 4:2a siege  -   Jer. 39:1-2; Luke 19:43
Ezk 4:6a day  -   Num. 14:34
Ezk 4:13a unclean  -   Hosea 9:3
Ezk 4:14a eaten  -   Acts 10:14
Ezk 4:14b abominable  -   Deut. 14:3; Isa. 65:4; Dan. 1:8; Acts 15:20
Ezk 4:16a breaking  -   Lev. 26:26; Psa. 105:16; Isa. 3:1
Ezk 4:17a rot  -   Lev. 26:39; Ezek. 24:23
Ezekiel Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 5:1a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 5:11 the
Lit., them.
Ezk 5:3a few  -   Jer. 39:10; 40:6; 52:16
Ezk 5:61 ordinances
See note 11 in Deut. 4.
Ezk 5:10a scatter  -   Lev. 26:33; Deut. 28:64; Ezek. 5:12
Ezk 5:11a as  -   Num. 14:21; Isa. 49:18; Jer. 22:24; Ezek. 14:16; 16:48; 17:16; 18:3; 20:3; 33:11; 34:8; 35:6; Zeph. 2:9
Ezk 5:111 withdraw
Or, hew you down, and My eye will not pity you.
Ezk 5:11b eye  -   Ezek. 7:4; 8:18; 9:10; 21:31
Ezk 5:12a pestilence  -   Jer. 15:2; 21:9; Ezek. 6:12; Rev. 6:8
Ezk 5:12b scatter  -   Jer. 9:16; Ezek. 5:2, 10; 6:8
Ezk 5:151 you
Following many versions; the Hebrew text reads, she.
Ezk 5:17a famine  -   Rev. 6:8
Ezekiel Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 6:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 6:2b face  -   Ezek. 20:46; 21:2; 25:2; cf. Luke 9:53
Ezk 6:3a high  -   Lev. 26:30
Ezk 6:7a know  -   Ezek. 6:13; 7:4; 11:10; 12:15; 13:9; 14:8; 15:7; 20:38; 23:49; 24:24; 25:17; 26:6; 28:23; 30:26; 35:15; 38:23; Exo. 7:17
Ezk 6:81a remnant  -   2 Kings 19:30; Ezra 9:8; Isa. 10:20; Jer. 23:3; Ezek. 12:16; 14:22; Joel 2:32; Micah 2:12
See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 6:9a remember  -   Jer. 51:50
Ezk 6:13a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 6:14a hand  -   Isa. 5:25
Ezekiel Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 7:2a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 7:4a And  -   Ezek. 7:9
Ezk 7:4b eye  -   Ezek. 5:11
Ezk 7:4c know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 7:9a My  -   Ezek. 7:4
Ezk 7:131 the
Lit., its. So also in the next verse.
Ezk 7:14a trumpet  -   cf. Jer. 4:5; 51:27; 1 Cor. 14:8
Ezk 7:17a drop  -   Isa. 13:7; Jer. 6:24; Ezek. 21:7; Heb. 12:12
Ezk 7:19a silver  -   Prov. 11:4; Zeph. 1:18; cf. Isa. 52:3; 1 Pet. 1:18
Ezk 7:22a profane  -   Psa. 74:7; Lam. 1:10; Ezek. 23:39; Dan. 11:31; cf. Ezek. 24:21
Ezk 7:26a prophet  -   Psa. 74:9; Lam. 2:9; Ezek. 20:1, 3
Ezk 7:27a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezekiel Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 8:1a hand  -   Ezek. 1:3
Ezk 8:2a likeness  -   Ezek. 1:26-27
Ezk 8:21 fire
Many versions understand the Hebrew text to read, a man. See note 271 in ch. 1.
Ezk 8:22b electrum  -   Ezek. 1:4
See note 45 in ch. 1.
Ezk 8:3a Spirit  -   Ezek. 3:12
Ezk 8:3b brought  -   Ezek. 11:1, 24; 40:2
Ezk 8:31 jealousy
In chs. 8 — 9 the glory of God is contrasted with idols. On the walls of the temple were the images of idols, and over the temple was the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord could not tolerate the images of the idols. Those images provoked God’s jealousy. Because of the idols in the temple, the glory of God withdrew step by step, leaving first the temple, then the city, and finally the people (9:3; 10:19; 11:23). See note 231 in ch. 11.
Ezk 8:3c provokes  -   Deut. 32:16, 21
Ezk 8:4a glory  -   Ezek. 1:28; 3:23
Ezk 8:5a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 8:12a forsaken  -   Ezek. 9:9
Ezk 8:141 Tammuz
A Mesopotamian deity.
Ezk 8:16a worshipping  -   Deut. 4:19; 2 Kings 23:5, 11
Ezk 8:18a eye  -   Ezek. 5:11
Ezekiel Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 9:11 oversee
Or, punish.
Ezk 9:2a linen  -   Lev. 16:4; Ezek. 10:2, 6-7; Rev. 15:6
Ezk 9:3a glory  -   Ezek. 3:23; 8:4; 10:4, 18
Ezk 9:31 went
See note 31 in ch. 8.
Ezk 9:41a mark  -   Rev. 7:3; 9:4
See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 9:4b groan  -   Psa. 119:136; Jer. 13:17; cf. 2 Pet. 2:8
Ezk 9:8a fell  -   Num. 14:5; 16:4, 22; Josh. 7:6
Ezk 9:8b destroying  -   Ezek. 11:13
Ezk 9:9a forsaken  -   Ezek. 8:12
Ezk 9:10a eye  -   Ezek. 5:11
Ezekiel Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 10:11 Then
For the details concerning the living creatures (cherubim), the expanse, the throne, and the wheels in this chapter, see notes in ch. 1.
Ezk 10:1a expanse  -   Ezek. 1:22, 26
Ezk 10:2a linen  -   Ezek. 9:2-3
Ezk 10:2b coals  -   Ezek. 1:13; Psa. 18:12; Isa. 6:6
Ezk 10:2c scatter  -   Rev. 8:5
Ezk 10:4a glory  -   Ezek. 1:28; 9:3; 10:18
Ezk 10:5a sound  -   Ezek. 1:24
Ezk 10:8a hand  -   Ezek. 1:8; 10:21
Ezk 10:9a wheels  -   Ezek. 1:15-16
Ezk 10:9b beryl  -   Ezek. 1:16
Ezk 10:11a did  -   Ezek. 1:17
Ezk 10:12a eyes  -   Ezek. 1:18; Rev. 4:6
Ezk 10:14a faces  -   Ezek. 1:6, 10; 10:21; Rev. 4:7
Ezk 10:17a Spirit  -   Ezek. 1:12, 20-21
Ezk 10:18a glory  -   Ezek. 10:4
Ezk 10:19a And  -   Ezek. 11:22
Ezk 10:20a by  -   Ezek. 1:1
Ezk 10:21a faces  -   Ezek. 1:10
Ezk 10:221 straight
Lit., in the direction of their faces.
Ezekiel Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 11:1a Spirit  -   Ezek. 3:12
Ezk 11:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 11:3a pot  -   Jer. 1:13; Ezek. 24:3
Ezk 11:5a Spirit  -   Ezek. 2:2; 3:24; Matt. 3:16
Ezk 11:71 I
Some MSS read, He.
Ezk 11:10a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 11:16a scattered  -   2 Kings 24:14; 25:2; Psa. 44:11; Jer. 30:11
Ezk 11:161b sanctuary  -   Psa. 90:1; Isa. 8:14; Rev. 21:22
For vv. 16-17, see note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 11:17a gather  -   Ezek. 20:34; 28:25; 34:13
Ezk 11:191a And  -   vv. 19-20: Ezek. 36:26-28
For vv. 19-20, see notes in 36:26-27.
Ezk 11:19b heart  -   Jer. 32:39; Zeph. 3:9
Ezk 11:19c spirit  -   Psa. 51:10; Ezek. 18:31; 36:26
Ezk 11:192 them
Some MSS read, you.
Ezk 11:19d heart  -   Zech. 7:12
Ezk 11:20a My  -   Jer. 24:7; Ezek. 14:11; 37:23, 27; Rev. 21:3
Ezk 11:22a wings  -   Ezek. 1:19; 10:19
Ezk 11:231a glory  -   Ezek. 8:4; 9:3; 10:4, 18; cf. Ezek. 43:2, 4
The departing of the glory of Jehovah from Israel was a result of God’s judgment on Israel (see note 211 in ch. 14). This is the second time in Israel’s history that this happened. At Mount Sinai, when the tabernacle was erected, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (Exo. 40:34). Later, during the time of Eli the people of Israel fought against the Philistines with the Ark in a superstitious way and were defeated. The Ark was captured, and the glory of the Lord left the tabernacle (1 Sam. 4). This means that the Lord gave up the tabernacle. When the temple was built at the time of Solomon, the glory of the Lord returned to fill the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). The glory of the Lord remained there until the time when Ezekiel saw it departing, leaving the temple and the city, resting on the Mount of Olives, the place from which the Lord Jesus ascended (Acts 1:9, 12), and finally returning to the heavens. See note 31 in ch. 8.
Ezk 11:232 mountain
I.e., the Mount of Olives.
Ezk 11:23b east  -   cf. Zech. 14:4
Ezk 11:24a Spirit  -   Ezek. 3:12
Ezekiel Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 12:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 12:2b do  -   Isa. 6:9; 42:20; Jer. 5:21; Matt. 13:13; Mark 4:12; 8:18
Ezk 12:2c ears  -   Rev. 2:7
Ezk 12:2d rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:5
Ezk 12:6a sign  -   Isa. 8:18; 20:3; Ezek. 4:3; 12:11; 24:24, 27
Ezk 12:12a prince  -   2 Kings 25:4-7; Jer. 39:4
Ezk 12:121 land
Or, ground, as in v. 6.
Ezk 12:14a scatter  -   2 Kings 25:5; Ezek. 5:10
Ezk 12:15a scatter  -   Deut. 4:27; Neh. 1:8; Ezek. 22:15
Ezk 12:16a small  -   Ezek. 6:8-10
Ezk 12:191 their
Some MSS read, her; perhaps referring to Jerusalem.
Ezk 12:22a prolonged  -   Ezek. 11:3; 12:27; Amos 6:3; 2 Pet. 3:9
Ezk 12:25a rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:5
Ezekiel Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 13:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 13:2b prophesy  -   Jer. 14:14; 23:16, 26
Ezk 13:4a foxes  -   S.S. 2:15
Ezk 13:5a breaches  -   Psa. 106:23; Ezek. 22:30; cf. Isa. 58:12
Ezk 13:6a They  -   Ezek. 22:28
Ezk 13:10a Peace  -   Jer. 6:14; 8:11
Ezk 13:10b wall  -   Isa. 30:13; Acts 23:3
Ezk 13:11a rain  -   Matt. 7:27
Ezk 13:14a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezekiel Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 14:3a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 14:31 set
An idol in our heart is anything within us that we love more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life (1 John 5:21 and note 3, par. 1). Those who set up idols in their hearts are estranged from the Lord through their idols (v. 5). All who have idols within them yet seek God in an outward way cannot find Him (v. 3; cf. Jer. 29:13).
Ezk 14:8a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 14:11a stray  -   Ezek. 44:10; 2 Pet. 2:15
Ezk 14:11b My  -   Ezek. 11:20; 37:27
Ezk 14:14a Noah  -   Gen. 6:8; 7:1; 8:20-21; Heb. 11:7
Ezk 14:14b Daniel  -   Ezek. 28:3; Dan. 9:23; 10:11
Ezk 14:14c Job  -   Job 1:5; 42:8-9
Ezk 14:14d midst  -   Ezek. 14:16, 18, 20; cf. Jer. 15:1
Ezk 14:151 destroyed
Or, bereaved it of its children.
Ezk 14:211a four  -   Rev. 6:8
The four means, given here and in 5:17, by which God exercised His judgment on His Old Testament people typify the means used by God to judge His degraded New Testament elect, the church (1 Pet. 4:17): dissension (sword), a lack of spiritual food (famine), spiritual diseases (pestilence), and evil persons (wild beasts — cf. Acts 20:29). The results of God’s judgment on Israel, His degraded elect, were (1) the loss of the good land (v. 15; 7:21; 2 Chron. 36:9-10, 17, 20; Jer. 52:15), typifying the loss of the enjoyment of Christ (Gal. 5:2-4); (2) the departing of the glory of the Lord (9:3; 11:22-23), signifying the departing of God’s manifestation from the church (Rev. 2:5; cf. 1 Tim. 3:15-16; 1 Cor. 14:25); and (3) the destruction of the temple and the burning of the city (33:21; 2 Chron. 36:19; Jer. 52:12-14), signifying the loss of God’s dwelling place and God’s kingdom from the church (cf. Eph. 2:20-22; Rom. 14:17).
Ezk 14:22a remnant  -   Isa. 10:20; Ezek. 6:8
Ezekiel Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 15:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 15:21 vine
Israel was God’s vine for the accomplishing of His economy. In the Scriptures a vine signifies God’s people who are under His care and in union with Him (John 15:1-8). This union issues in the flowing forth of the divine life in fruit-bearing, which produces wine to cheer both God and man (Judg. 9:13). However, in its degradation Israel produced thorns and thistles (2:6; cf. Isa. 5:1-7).
Ezk 15:4a fuel  -   John 15:6
Ezk 15:6a vine  -   cf. Psa. 80:8-16; Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:21; Hosea 10:1
Ezk 15:7a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezekiel Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 16:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 16:3a origin  -   Ezek. 21:30
Ezk 16:3b father  -   Ezek. 16:45; cf. Neh. 9:7; Deut. 26:5
Ezk 16:4a born  -   Hosea 2:3
Ezk 16:7a increase  -   Exo. 1:7
Ezk 16:81 covenant
See note 62 in Exo. 20.
Ezk 16:8a Mine  -   Exo. 19:4-5; Jer. 2:2; cf. Hosea 2:19-20
Ezk 16:14a beauty  -   Lam. 2:15
Ezk 16:16a garments  -   cf. Ezek. 7:20
Ezk 16:22a youth  -   Ezek. 16:43, 60; Jer. 2:2; Hosea 11:1
Ezk 16:26a Egypt  -   Ezek. 20:7-8; 23:19-21
Ezk 16:27a Philistines  -   2 Chron. 28:18-19
Ezk 16:28a Assyria  -   2 Kings 16:7, 10; Jer. 2:18, 36; Ezek. 23:5-9
Ezk 16:29a Chaldea  -   Ezek. 23:14
Ezk 16:37a gather  -   Jer. 49:14
Ezk 16:39a they  -   Ezek. 23:26; Hosea 2:3
Ezk 16:431 raged
Others translate, enraged Me.
Ezk 16:45a father  -   Ezek. 16:3
Ezk 16:46a Samaria  -   Ezek. 23:4; Jer. 3:8
Ezk 16:46b Sodom  -   Deut. 32:32; Isa. 1:10; Jer. 23:14; Lam. 4:6
Ezk 16:48a Sodom  -   Matt. 10:15; 11:24
Ezk 16:53a turn  -   Deut. 30:3; Ezek. 29:14; 39:25; Zeph. 2:7; 3:20
Ezk 16:571 Aram
I.e., Syria; many MSS read, Edom.
Ezk 16:60a covenant  -   Psa. 106:45
Ezk 16:60b covenant  -   Jer. 31:31-34; 32:40; 50:5; Ezek. 37:26; Heb. 13:20
Ezk 16:62a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 16:63a propitiation  -   Dan. 9:24; Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12
Ezekiel Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 17:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 17:31a eagle  -   cf. Ezek. 17:12
I.e., Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon (v. 12).
Ezk 17:3b took  -   2 Kings 24:12
Ezk 17:41 twig
I.e., Jehoiachin king of Judah.
Ezk 17:71 eagle
I.e., Pharaoh king of Egypt (v. 15).
Ezk 17:7a bent  -   cf. Ezek. 17:15
Ezk 17:12a rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:5
Ezk 17:12b king  -   Ezek. 17:3; 2 Kings 24:11-16
Ezk 17:121 king
I.e., Jehoiachin king of Judah.
Ezk 17:131 someone
I.e., Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar made king in place of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:17).
Ezk 17:13a covenant  -   2 Kings 24:17
Ezk 17:15a rebelled  -   2 Kings 24:20; 2 Chron. 36:13
Ezk 17:16a Babylon  -   Jer. 32:5; 34:3; 52:11; Ezek. 12:13
Ezk 17:211 choice
Some MSS read, fugitives.
Ezk 17:21a scattered  -   Ezek. 12:14
Ezk 17:221 twig
See note 171 in ch. 3. In vv. 3-4 and 22-23 the house of David, the royal household, is likened to a cedar tree. First, a branch of this tree, Jehoiachin, was cut off (vv. 3-4, 12; 2 Chron. 36:8b-10a). Later, another branch, Zedekiah, was set up and was also cut off (vv. 13-21; 2 Chron. 36:10b-20). According to vv. 22-23 one twig, one tender branch, on the top of this cedar tree was cropped and was transplanted on a high and prominent mountain, and it became a magnificent cedar. This twig is Christ (cf. Isa. 11:1). Christ, who was born as a descendant of the house of David (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3), is a tender branch of the cedar of David. As such a tender branch, He was “cropped” by being crucified. Man cropped this tender One, but God caused Him to resurrect and to ascend (Acts 2:22-24, 32-36). In this way God planted Christ in a high place, and Christ became a majestic cedar under which many people will dwell. Although the house of David was cropped because of their corruption and thus became desolate and lowly, the day will come when they will be revived in Christ (Amos 9:11 and note). Because they will be joined to Christ, they will become majestic once again.
Ezekiel Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 18:2a The  -   Jer. 31:29
Ezk 18:4a die  -   Ezek. 18:20; Rom. 6:23
Ezk 18:6a wife  -   Lev. 18:19-20
Ezk 18:7a gives  -   Deut. 15:7-8; Isa. 58:7; Matt. 25:35-36; Luke 3:11
Ezk 18:19a iniquity  -   Exo. 20:5; Deut. 5:9; 2 Kings 23:26; 24:3-4
Ezk 18:20a die  -   Ezek. 18:4
Ezk 18:23a death  -   Ezek. 18:32; 33:11; cf. 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9
Ezk 18:24a None  -   vv. 24b-29: Ezek. 33:16-20
Ezk 18:24b remembered  -   cf. 2 Pet. 2:20-21
Ezk 18:301a Repent  -   Matt. 3:2; Rev. 2:5
Or, Return.
Ezk 18:31a new  -   Jer. 32:39; Ezek. 11:19
Ezk 18:32a death  -   Ezek. 18:32; 2 Pet. 3:9
Ezekiel Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 19:3a one  -   2 Kings 23:31-32
Ezk 19:4a brought  -   2 Kings 23:33-34; 2 Chron. 36:4
Ezk 19:5a another  -   2 Kings 23:34-37
Ezk 19:71 destroyed
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, knew their widows.
Ezk 19:9a brought  -   2 Chron. 36:6; Jer. 36:30
Ezk 19:10a vine  -   Ezek. 17:6; Isa. 5:7; John 15:1
Ezk 19:101 vineyard
Many MSS read, blood.
Ezk 19:12a fire  -   Psa. 80:15-16; Ezek. 15:6-8
Ezk 19:14a no  -   Ezek. 21:25-27; Hosea 3:4
Ezekiel Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 20:3a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 20:5a chose  -   Exo. 6:7; Deut. 7:6
Ezk 20:51 lifted
I.e., swore. So throughout this chapter.
Ezk 20:5b made  -   Exo. 3:8; 4:31; Deut. 4:34
Ezk 20:61 land
Christ is the glory on earth (Col. 1:27; 1 Cor. 2:8), and God has put us into the glorious Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), who in His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8) is a land flowing with milk and honey. See note 71 in Deut. 8.
Ezk 20:6a flowing  -   Exo. 3:8, 17; Jer. 32:22
Ezk 20:6b glory  -   Psa. 48:2; Dan. 8:9; 11:16, 41
See note 61.
Ezk 20:7a idols  -   Lev. 17:7; 18:3; Deut. 29:16-18; Josh. 24:14
Ezk 20:10a go  -   Exo. 13:18
Ezk 20:11a statutes  -   Exo. 20–23; Deut. 4:8; Neh. 9:13-14
Ezk 20:11b live  -   Ezek. 20:13, 21; Lev. 18:5; Luke 10:28; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12
Ezk 20:12a Sabbaths  -   Exo. 20:8; 31:13; Deut. 5:12; Neh. 9:14; Mark 2:27
Ezk 20:12b know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 20:13a wilderness  -   Num. 14:22; Psa. 78:40; 95:8-10
Ezk 20:15a lifted  -   Num. 14:28; Psa. 95:11; 106:26
Ezk 20:17a not  -   Psa. 78:38
Ezk 20:23a scatter  -   Lev. 26:33; Deut. 28:64; Psa. 106:27
Ezk 20:32a like  -   2 Kings 17:33
Ezk 20:34a gather  -   Ezek. 11:17; cf. 2 Cor. 6:17
Ezk 20:39a Go  -   Psa. 81:12; Amos 4:4; Acts 7:42; Rom. 1:24
Ezk 20:40a mountain  -   Isa. 2:2-3; Ezek. 17:23; Micah 4:1
Ezk 20:401 mountain
See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 20:41a bring  -   2 Cor. 6:17
Ezk 20:41b gather  -   Ezek. 28:25
Ezk 20:43a And  -   Ezek. 36:31
Ezk 20:461 Negev
The dry southern desert of Canaan.
Ezk 20:47a tree  -   Luke 23:31
Ezekiel Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 21:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 21:3a sword  -   Ezek. 14:17
Ezk 21:101 scepter
The scepter here refers to the power and authority of Christ, the Son of God (Gen. 49:10 and note 1). See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 21:121 strike
“A sign of alarm and horror (Jer. 31:19)” (Keil and Delitzsch).
Ezk 21:151 slaughtering
Others translate, glittering.
Ezk 21:211 teraphim
I.e., household idols.
Ezk 21:212 observes
A Babylonian practice of divination by which guidance was sought by reading the condition of the liver of a sacrificed animal.
Ezk 21:22a siege  -   Jer. 32:24; 52:4
Ezk 21:25a wicked  -   2 Chron. 36:13; Jer. 52:2; Ezek. 17:19
Ezk 21:251 iniquity
Or, punishment of the iniquity. So also in v. 29.
Ezk 21:26a Exalt  -   Ezek. 17:24; Matt. 23:12
Ezk 21:271 He
Referring to Christ as the One who has the right to inherit the kingdom of Israel (Luke 1:32-33). At that time God was overturning the kingdom and the nation of Israel, but eventually Christ, the One who has the right to inherit the kingdom of Israel, will come. See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 21:27a comes  -   Ezek. 21:13; Gen. 49:10; Luke 1:32-33
Ezk 21:30a origin  -   Ezek. 16:3
Ezekiel Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 22:2a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 22:3a sheds  -   2 Kings 21:16
Ezk 22:41 the
Lit., your blood.
Ezk 22:15a scatter  -   Deut. 4:27; 28:64; Ezek. 12:14-15
Ezk 22:16a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 22:18a dross  -   Psa. 119:119; Isa. 1:22; Jer. 6:30
Ezk 22:20a furnace  -   Isa. 31:9; 48:10
Ezk 22:26a no  -   Lev. 10:10; Jer. 15:19; Ezek. 44:23
Ezk 22:27a wolves  -   Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29
Ezk 22:28a vanity  -   Ezek. 13:6, 7; 21:29
Ezk 22:30a a  -   Jer. 5:1
Ezk 22:30b stand  -   Psa. 106:23; Ezek. 13:5
Ezk 22:30c no  -   cf. Rev. 5:4
Ezekiel Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 23:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 23:2b women  -   Jer. 3:7-8, 10; Ezek. 16:46
Ezk 23:3a Egypt  -   Josh. 24:14; Ezek. 20:8; cf. Rev. 11:8
Ezk 23:41 Oholah
Meaning her own tent.
Ezk 23:42 Oholibah
Meaning My tent is in her.
Ezk 23:4a became  -   Ezek. 16:8, 20
Ezk 23:43 Samaria
The capital cities of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, respectively. God considered Israel and Judah as His wife (cf. Isa. 54:5; Jer. 31:31-32; Hosea 2:19).
Ezk 23:5a Assyrians  -   2 Kings 15:19; 16:7; 17:3; Hosea 8:9
Ezk 23:9a Assyrians  -   2 Kings 17:3-6, 23; 18:9-11
Ezk 23:111 saw
See note 61 in Jer. 3.
Ezk 23:11a corrupt  -   Jer. 3:11; Ezek. 16:47, 51
Ezk 23:16a Chaldea  -   Ezek. 16:29
Ezk 23:18a desire  -   Jer. 6:8
Ezk 23:23a Babylonians  -   2 Kings 24:1-2
Ezk 23:26a They  -   Ezek. 16:39
Ezk 23:31a cup  -   Jer. 25:15; cf. 2 Kings 21:13
Ezk 23:34a drink  -   Psa. 75:8; Isa. 51:17
Ezk 23:35a forgotten  -   Jer. 2:32; 3:21; 13:25; Ezek. 22:12
Ezk 23:371 their
Lit., them.
Ezk 23:38a Sabbaths  -   Ezek. 22:8
Ezk 23:39a in  -   2 Kings 21:4
Ezekiel Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 24:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 24:2b siege  -   2 Kings 25:1; Jer. 39:1; 52:4
Ezk 24:3a rebellious  -   Ezek. 2:5
Ezk 24:3b pot  -   cf. Jer. 1:13; Ezek. 11:3
Ezk 24:51 wood
Following v. 10; the Hebrew text reads, bones.
Ezk 24:6a bloody  -   Ezek. 22:3; 23:37; 24:9
Ezk 24:141 I
Some MSS read, they.
Ezk 24:21a profane  -   Jer. 7:14; Ezek. 7:20-22
Ezk 24:24a sign  -   Isa. 8:18; 20:3; Ezek. 4:3; 12:6, 11
Ezk 24:27a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezekiel Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 25:11 Then
Chapters 25 — 32 speak of seven nations that surrounded the nation of Israel. These seven nations were selected as representative of all the nations. They signify seven kinds of people who are a damage to the church as God’s New Testament people. The seven nations are divided into three groups according to the three separate visions seen by Ezekiel at three different times. The first group consists of Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia; the second, of Tyre and Sidon; and the third, of Egypt.
Ezk 25:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 25:2b Ammon  -   Jer. 49:1-6; Ezek. 21:28-32; Amos 1:13-15; Zeph. 2:8-11
Ezk 25:31 Ammon
Ammon and Moab were brothers born of Lot, Abraham’s nephew (Gen. 11:31), through Lot’s two daughters (Gen. 19:30-38). Hence, Ammon and Moab were relatives of Israel. According to the record here, Ammon was happy when God’s sanctuary (typifying the incarnated Christ tabernacling on earth as God’s dwelling place — John 1:14) was desecrated, when the good land (signifying Christ with all His riches and grace given to God’s people — Col. 1:12) was desolated, and when the house of Judah (signifying the church — Heb. 3:6) went off into exile. The Ammonites signify those who hate Christ, the grace of God, and the church.
Ezk 25:3a desecrated  -   2 Chron. 36:17; 2 Kings 25:9; Psa. 74:7; Lam. 2:15-16
Ezk 25:5a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 25:6a malice  -   Zeph. 2:8-10
Ezk 25:81a Moab  -   Isa. 15:1– 16:14; Jer. 48:1-47; Amos 2:1-3; Zeph. 2:8-11
The Moabites were happy to see that the house of Judah was no longer separated from the nations. Thus, they signify those who desire to bring the church into an association with the world and to make the church the same as the nations. See note 121 in Rev. 2.
Ezk 25:82 has
According to the Septuagint; the Hebrew adds, and Seir.
Ezk 25:121a Edom  -   2 Chron. 28:17; Psa. 137:7; Jer. 49:7-22; Amos 1:11-12; Obad. 10-16
The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob (Gen. 36:1). Therefore, Edom and the sons of Israel were cousins. Edom signifies the unregenerated old man (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9), and Israel, the regenerated new man (Rom. 9:6b; 2:28-29; Gal. 6:16; Phil. 3:3). Edom was full of hatred toward Israel, continually seeking revenge and vengeance.
Ezk 25:14a vengeance  -   Lam. 4:21-22
Ezk 25:151a Philistines  -   Isa. 14:29-32; Jer. 25:20; 47:1-7; Joel 3:4; Amos 1:6-8; Zeph. 2:4-7; Zech. 9:5-6
The Philistines lived very close to the good land and even mingled with the Israelites. A number of times the Philistines came to the people of Israel and intervened in their worship of God (Judg. 13 — 16; 1 Sam. 4 — 5). The Philistines typify the natural man of the religious people (see note 41 in 1 Sam. 6).
Ezk 25:15b malice  -   2 Chron. 28:18
Ezekiel Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 26:11 eleventh
The vision in ch. 26 was seen in the eleventh year, whereas the vision in ch. 29 was seen in the tenth year. This indicates that Ezekiel’s record is not according to chronology but according to spiritual meaning. See note 11 in ch. 25.
Ezk 26:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 26:21b Tyre  -   Isa. 23:1-18; Jer. 25:22; 47:4; Joel 3:4; Amos 1:9-10; Zech. 9:3-4
Tyre typifies those who are seeking worldly wealth and do not care for God’s interests. Such persons are a damage to the church life (James 2:6). See note 211 in ch. 28.
Ezk 26:6a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 26:71a Nebuchadrezzar  -   Jer. 25:9; 27:6; Ezek. 30:10-11; 32:11
See note 21 in Jer. 21. The Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar became God’s center for executing His judgment not only on His people Israel but also on the nations.
Ezk 26:20a lower  -   Isa. 14:15; Matt. 11:23
Ezekiel Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 27:2a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 27:3a perfect  -   Ezek. 28:12
Ezk 27:61 Kittim
I.e., Cyprus.
Ezk 27:111 and
Or, with your army.
Ezk 27:13a human  -   Rev. 18:13
Ezk 27:32a Who  -   Rev. 18:18
Ezk 27:33a enriched  -   Rev. 18:19
Ezekiel Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 28:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 28:2b I  -   Isa. 14:13-14; Ezek. 28:9; 2 Thes. 2:4
Ezk 28:21 a
Or, God; Heb. el.
Ezk 28:22 God
Or, the gods; Heb. elohim.
Ezk 28:2c man  -   Isa. 31:3
Ezk 28:3a Daniel  -   Dan. 1:20
Ezk 28:8a pit  -   Isa. 14:15; Rev. 20:3
Ezk 28:121 king
Similar to vv. 12-15 in Isa. 14, which identify Lucifer (who became Satan) with Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, vv. 12-19 of this chapter consider the king of Tyre a figure of Lucifer, giving further details concerning the origin of Satan. See notes in Isa. 14:12-15.
Ezk 28:122 perfection
As God’s creature, Lucifer was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, perfect in his ways from the day that he was created (v. 15a).
Ezk 28:12a perfect  -   Ezek. 27:3
Ezk 28:131 Eden
This is not the Eden in Gen. 2, which was on earth, but the Eden as the garden of God on the holy mountain in the heavenlies (v. 14; Isa. 14:13b).
Ezk 28:13a precious  -   cf. Exo. 28:17-20; Rev. 21:19-20
Ezk 28:132 covering
Lucifer was covered with precious stones, indicating his dwelling place (Pember).
Ezk 28:133 chrysolite
Or, beryl.
Ezk 28:134 carbuncle
Or, turquoise.
Ezk 28:135 tambourines
In ancient times musical instruments such as tambourines and pipes were for kings (Dan. 3:5; 6:18). This indicates that before his rebellion Satan was a king, holding the highest position in the preadamic universe (cf. Luke 4:5-6 and note 61; Jude 9 and note 3). Satan was the anointed cherub who covered the Ark (v. 14; Exo. 25:18-21), indicating that he was very close to God and bore God’s glory (Heb. 9:5), and might have been the high priest who served God and led the universal worship of God (Rev. 4:6-11). Thus, Satan was both a king and a priest (cf. Rev. 4:4 and note 2). Because of Satan’s failure, these two positions have been given to the believers in Christ (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 2:26-27; 3:21; 12:5; 20:6; 22:3, 5).
Ezk 28:141 anointed
See note 135.
Ezk 28:14a cherub  -   Exo. 25:20; Ezek. 28:16
Ezk 28:142 Ark
Not the Ark on earth but the Ark in heaven (Rev. 11:19).
Ezk 28:143 mountain
See note 131.
Ezk 28:144 stones
These might be the precious stones with the glory of God like burning fire seen by Moses, Aaron, and many others in Exo. 24:10, 17. This implies that as the anointed cherub, Satan was privileged to move in the realm where God’s glory was.
Ezk 28:161 trading
Cf. note 91 in Job 1.
Ezk 28:171 lifted
The cause of Satan’s rebellion was pride (1 Tim. 3:6; cf. 1 Pet. 5:5-6). Concerning Satan’s rebellion, see notes on Isa. 14:13.
Ezk 28:172 cast
For God’s judgment on Satan’s rebellion, see note 151 in Isa. 14.
Ezk 28:181 sanctuaries
Referring to the heavens, which were profaned, defiled, by Satan in his rebellion against God (see notes 205 in Col. 1 and 231 in Heb. 9).
Ezk 28:211 Sidon
Sidon was a pricking briar and a painful thorn to the house of Israel (v. 24). Tyre (see note 21 in ch. 26) and Sidon are considered a pair, indicating that if the believers love the world and care for worldly riches, they will become briars and thorns that damage the church life, frustrating the growth of life in the church as God’s cultivated land (Matt. 13:22; 1 Cor. 3:9).
Ezk 28:22a Sidon  -   Isa. 23:4, 12; Jer. 25:22; 27:3; 47:4; Ezek. 32:30
Ezk 28:22b know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 28:24a thorn  -   Num. 33:55; Josh. 23:13; 2 Cor. 12:7
Ezk 28:25a gathered  -   Isa. 11:12; Ezek. 11:17; 20:41; 34:13
Ezk 28:25b dwell  -   Jer. 23:8; Ezek. 36:28
Ezekiel Chapter 29
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 29:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 29:21b Egypt  -   Isa. 19:1– 20:6; Jer. 25:19; 46:2-28
In the Bible Egypt is a nation that depends not on God but on its own resources. In addition, the Egyptians exercised their wisdom to develop their natural resources in order to become rich and have a sufficient supply. When the people of Israel were short of food, they went down to Egypt (Gen. 12:10; 42:1-3). Thus, Egypt represents persons who, independent of God, seek worldly riches by developing their own resources to be rich in supply and to be a source of supply for others. At the time of Ezekiel, Israel turned to Egypt and leaned upon Egypt, trusting in Egypt as a staff. But the Lord said that Egypt was a staff made of reeds, easy to break (vv. 6-7).
Ezk 29:6a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 29:6b staff  -   2 Kings 18:21; Isa. 36:6
Ezk 29:16a confidence  -   Isa. 30:2-3
Ezk 29:18a Nebuchadrezzar  -   Jer. 25:9; 27:6; Ezek. 26:7
Ezk 29:211a horn  -   Psa. 132:17; 1 Sam. 2:10; Luke 1:69
A horn signifies power for fighting unto victory. Christ is the horn that will sprout for the house of Israel. At Ezekiel’s time other nations had conquered and oppressed the people of Israel, and Israel had no way to go on. But God promised that one day a horn would sprout forth from the house of Israel to be against all the nations and to overcome the authorities on earth so that the nation of Israel may be saved. Christ will become the horn to deliver them from all oppression and bondage (Jer. 23:5-6; Luke 1:69-71; cf. Zech. 12:2-9; 14:1-7, 12-15). See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezekiel Chapter 30
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 30:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 30:3a day  -   Ezek. 7:7, 12; Joel 2:1; Zeph. 1:7
Ezk 30:51 Libya
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, Cub.
Ezk 30:8a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 30:10a Nebuchadrezzar  -   Ezek. 29:19
Ezk 30:25a king  -   Jer. 27:6
Ezekiel Chapter 31
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 31:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 31:3a height  -   Dan. 4:10-12
Ezk 31:6a birds  -   cf. Matt. 13:32
Ezk 31:8a garden  -   Gen. 2:8; 13:10; Ezek. 28:13
Ezk 31:10a lifted  -   Dan. 5:20
Ezk 31:12a cut  -   Dan. 4:14-15
Ezk 31:14a lowest  -   Ezek. 32:18
Ezk 31:16a cast  -   Isa. 14:15
Ezekiel Chapter 32
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 32:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 32:51 corpse
Lit., stature.
Ezk 32:7a darken  -   Isa. 13:10; Joel 2:31; 3:15; Amos 8:9; Matt. 24:29; Rev. 8:12
Ezk 32:15a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 32:24a Elam  -   Jer. 49:34-39
Ezk 32:26a Meshech  -   Ezek. 38:2
Ezk 32:29a Edom  -   Ezek. 25:12
Ezk 32:30a Sidonians  -   Ezek. 28:21
Ezekiel Chapter 33
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 33:11 Then
God always executes His judgment with a purpose. The purpose of God’s judgment is to bring in recovery. Through His judgment, which is based on His righteousness, holiness, and glory, God desires to recover His people according to His righteousness, holiness, and glory. Whereas God’s judgment is by various means (5:4; 14:21), God’s recovery is by life.
The visions regarding the Lord’s recovery by life in chs. 33 — 39, with the issue of God’s holy building in chs. 40 — 48, should be applied to Israel in the restoration, the millennium, beginning with the Lord’s second coming (Acts 3:20-21). These visions should also be applied to the believers in Christ in their experience of the divine life in the New Testament age (cf. note 311 in Jer. 31).
Ezk 33:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 33:2b sword  -   Ezek. 14:17
Ezk 33:2c watchman  -   Ezek. 33:7; cf. Isa. 62:6
Ezk 33:3a trumpet  -   1 Cor. 14:8
Ezk 33:4a blood  -   Ezek. 18:13; Acts 18:6
Ezk 33:5a blood  -   Acts 20:26
Ezk 33:71 watchman
In His recovery by life, the first thing God does is to set the watchman, one who has been commissioned by God to give His people a warning, to sound the trumpet in order that God’s people may turn to Him and repent that they may live (vv. 2-11; cf. Matt. 3:1-2). See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ezk 33:91a delivered  -   Acts 20:26; 1 Tim. 4:16
Or, saved your soul.
Ezk 33:11a I  -   2 Sam. 14:14; Ezek. 18:23, 32; 2 Pet. 3:9
Ezk 33:121 righteousness
Lit., it.
Ezk 33:16a None  -   Ezek. 18:22
Ezk 33:17a Yet  -   vv. 17-20: Ezek. 18:25-29
Ezk 33:21a struck  -   2 Kings 25:4; Jer. 39:2
Ezk 33:22a hand  -   Ezek. 1:3
Ezk 33:22b mouth  -   Ezek. 24:27
Ezk 33:24a one  -   Isa. 51:2; Acts 7:5
Ezk 33:25a blood  -   Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3:17; 7:26; 17:10; Deut. 12:16
Ezk 33:31a hear  -   Mark 4:16
Ezk 33:31b do  -   Mark 7:6
Ezk 33:31c mouth  -   cf. Isa. 29:13; Mark 7:6
Ezekiel Chapter 34
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 34:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 34:2b shepherds  -   Jer. 23:1; Zech. 11:17
Ezk 34:2c feed  -   Jude 12
Ezk 34:4a sought  -   Matt. 18:12; Luke 15:4
Ezk 34:4b ruled  -   cf. 1 Pet. 5:3
Ezk 34:5a without  -   1 Kings 22:17; Matt. 9:36
Ezk 34:111 I
In God’s recovery by life, God first sends the watchman to sound the trumpet to His people that they may repent, turn, and live (ch. 33); then He Himself appears as the Shepherd to search for and seek out His sheep. After John the Baptist sounded the trumpet of repentance (Matt. 3:1-2), the Lord Jesus came as the Shepherd (Matt. 9:36; Luke 15:1-7; John 10:11).
Ezk 34:11a search  -   Luke 15:4; 19:10
Ezk 34:131 bring
As the Shepherd, the Lord will gather His people, His sheep, out of the nations and bring them back to the land of Canaan, which typifies the all-inclusive Christ as the allotted portion of God’s people (see note 71 in Deut. 8), to dwell on the high mountains (v. 14), signifying the resurrected and ascended Christ.
Ezk 34:13a gather  -   Isa. 65:9-10; Jer. 23:3; Ezek. 28:25; 36:24; Matt. 24:31
Ezk 34:132b streams  -   Psa. 126:4; Isa. 35:6; 44:3
The streams here signify the life-giving Spirit as the living water (John 7:37-39), who is given to us by God as our spiritual drink (1 Cor. 12:13), and the rich pasture (v. 14) signifies Christ as the feeding place for God’s people (John 10:9). By means of the Spirit as the streams, we enjoy Christ as our rich pasture (Psa. 23:2; cf. Rev. 22:1-2).
Ezk 34:14a pasture  -   Psa. 23:2
Ezk 34:141b lie  -   Jer. 33:12
In His recovery by life, while the Lord feeds us and gives us something to drink, He also gives us rest and heals us (v. 16).
Ezk 34:15a shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; 80:1; Isa. 40:11; cf. Ezek. 37:24; Matt. 2:6
Ezk 34:16a seek  -   Matt. 15:24; Luke 15:4; 19:10
Ezk 34:171 judge
When we experience the Lord’s recovery by life, as portrayed in vv. 13-16, there will be righteous judgments among us, and all the unjust things will be cleared away (vv. 17-22).
Ezk 34:17a rams  -   Matt. 25:32-33
Ezk 34:23a Shepherd  -   Isa. 40:11; Jer. 23:4-5; Ezek. 37:24-25; Matt. 2:6; John 10:11; 1 Pet. 2:25
Ezk 34:231 David
Referring to Christ, who is the real David (Matt. 12:3), the real Shepherd of God’s flock (Psa. 23; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20) and the King (v. 24) of God’s people (Isa. 9:7; Hosea 3:5; Micah 5:2; Luke 1:32-33).
Ezk 34:241a Prince  -   Ezek. 37:22
When the Lord Jesus comes as the Shepherd to care for us, He comes also as the King to govern us. The issue of the Lord’s caring for us as our Shepherd is that we obey Him as our King and come under His kingship and His throne within us.
Ezk 34:251a covenant  -   Ezek. 37:26
In God’s recovery by life, under God’s secure and unchanging covenant of peace, God’s recovered people enjoy peace, freedom from the disturbance of evil beasts (evil persons — Acts 20:29), full liberty and release from every kind of yoke and slavery (v. 27), and security from their enemies (v. 28).
Ezk 34:261 blessing
In God’s recovery by life, God’s recovered people not only receive His blessing but also become a source of blessing to others that they may be supplied. Under the showers of blessing in season, there will be an abundance of spiritual food not only for us to enjoy but also for us to supply to others (vv. 27a, 29).
Ezk 34:26a showers  -   Psa. 68:9; Mal. 3:10
Ezk 34:27a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 34:27b yoke  -   Lev. 26:13; Jer. 2:20
Ezk 34:28a dwell  -   Ezek. 34:25; Jer. 30:10; 46:27
Ezk 34:30a God  -   Ezek. 37:27
Ezk 34:301 with
God’s recovered people have God’s presence, God is among them, and they are before God (vv. 30-31). This portrays the perfect fellowship with God, the fellowship in oneness, in the mingling of God and man, in which we are one with God and He is one with us.
Ezk 34:31a flock  -   Psa. 100:3; John 10:11
Ezekiel Chapter 35
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 35:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 35:21 Mount
I.e., Edom (v. 15). That the judgment on Edom is repeated here (cf. 25:12-14) indicates that in the process of God’s recovery by life, there is still the need of God’s judgment, particularly on Edom, who typifies the old man (see note 121 in ch. 25). Because the old man is very difficult to deal with, the judgment on the old man must be repeated again and again, until the day of the redemption of our body (Eph. 4:30). In order to recover us and make us the new man, God must judge our old man, our old creation (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-11).
Ezk 35:2b Seir  -   Jer. 49:7-22; Ezek. 25:8, 12-14; Amos 1:11-12
Ezk 35:4a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 35:5a enmity  -   Ezek. 25:12; Obad. 10
Ezk 35:9a desolation  -   Jer. 49:17-18; Ezek. 25:13; Mal. 1:3-4
Ezk 35:101 them
Lit., it.
Ezk 35:15a rejoiced  -   Obad. 12
Ezk 35:151 land
Lit., of it.
Ezekiel Chapter 36
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 36:1a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 36:5a possession  -   Ezek. 35:10
Ezk 36:81 mountains
Verses 8-15 and 33-36 speak of the recovery of the good land, which signifies the recovery of the full enjoyment of the riches of Christ (see note 71 in Deut. 8).
Ezk 36:8a yield  -   Amos 9:12, 14
Ezk 36:10a rebuilt  -   Isa. 58:12; 61:4; Ezek. 36:33; Amos 9:14
Ezk 36:11a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 36:13a devours  -   Num. 13:32
Ezk 36:17a defiled  -   Lev. 18:25, 27-28; Jer. 2:7
Ezk 36:19a scattered  -   Deut. 28:64; Ezek. 22:15
Ezk 36:221a My  -   Psa. 106:8
In the Lord’s recovery by life there are two aspects: the outward aspect, as seen in ch. 34, and the inward aspect, as seen in vv. 22-33 of this chapter. In the outward recovery we repent, turn to the Lord, and are brought back to the enjoyment of Christ’s riches and to God’s blessing. In the inward recovery God touches our heart and our spirit and changes us in life and nature.
In recovering His people, God acts on behalf of His holy name. The inward recovery by life is carried out not because of any merit in ourselves but because God does something in us for His own name (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5).
Ezk 36:23a sanctify  -   Ezek. 20:41; Matt. 6:9
Ezk 36:24a gather  -   Ezek. 34:13; 37:21
Ezk 36:251 clean
The clean water here refers to the Lord’s redeeming and cleansing blood, which is a cleansing fountain (Zech. 13:1). In recovering us, the Lord washes us from two categories of dirty things — from filthiness, including all kinds of sinful things, unjust things, unrighteous things, and dark things, and from idols.
Ezk 36:25a clean  -   Psa. 51:7; Isa. 52:15; Titus 3:5; Heb. 10:22
Ezk 36:26a I  -   vv. 26-28: Ezek. 11:19-20
Ezk 36:261 new
In His recovery by life the Lord gives us a new heart and a new spirit. Our heart is our loving organ, and our spirit is our receiving organ. While we are in a fallen or backslidden state, our heart toward the Lord is stony and hard, and our spirit is deadened (Eph. 2:1; 4:18). When the Lord saves us or revives us, He renews our heart, making our stony heart a heart of flesh, a heart that is soft and loving toward Him (cf. 2 Cor. 3:3). Furthermore, He enlivens and renews our spirit with His divine life (Col. 2:13). As a result, we love the Lord and desire Him with our renewed heart, and we can contact Him, receive Him, and contain Him by exercising our renewed spirit.
Ezk 36:26b heart  -   Jer. 32:39; cf. Deut. 30:6; Psa. 51:10
Ezk 36:271 My
In His recovery by life God not only gives us a new heart and a new spirit (v. 26) but also puts His Spirit within us, in our spirit, making the two spirits one mingled spirit (Rom. 8:9, 16) and causing us to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).
Ezk 36:27a Spirit  -   Ezek. 37:14
Ezk 36:272 walk
God’s Spirit within us contains God’s nature, and God’s nature corresponds to God’s law. Because we have God’s nature within us (2 Pet. 1:4), we are able to keep His law spontaneously by walking according to our regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 22-23).
Ezk 36:28a land  -   Ezek. 28:25; 37:25
Ezk 36:28b people  -   Jer. 24:7; 30:22; 31:33; 32:38; Ezek. 37:27; Zech. 8:8
Ezk 36:31a Then  -   Ezek. 20:43
Ezk 36:351a garden  -   Isa. 51:3; Joel 2:3
In the Lord’s recovery by life His people become like the garden of Eden, in which Christ as the tree of life is their rich supply (Gen. 2:8-9).
Ezk 36:371a inquired  -   Isa. 45:11
The Lord promised to increase our number with men like a flock, but we need to pray for this and ask Him to do it (cf. Luke 10:2).
Ezk 36:37b increase  -   Jer. 30:19; Ezek. 36:10
Ezekiel Chapter 37
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 37:1a hand  -   Ezek. 1:3
Ezk 37:1b Spirit  -   Ezek. 3:14; 8:3; 11:24; Luke 4:1
Ezk 37:11 bones
Chapter 34 portrays God’s recovery of His people outwardly through His coming as their Shepherd to seek His lost sheep and bring them back to their own land, and ch. 36 concerns God’s inward recovery by life by giving His people a new heart and a new spirit and putting His Spirit within them. Chapter 37 reveals how God’s Spirit enters into His people in order to enliven them that they may become a corporate Body formed into an army and built up to be God’s dwelling place.
The vision of the dry bones shows that before God came in to renew and regenerate us, we were not only sinful and filthy (36:25) but also dead and buried in “graves” of various sinful, worldly, and religious things (vv. 12-13). We were like dead and dry bones, disjointed and scattered, having no oneness. But the Lord is the Savior of the dead (John 5:25; Eph. 2:1-8).
Ezk 37:3a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 37:3b live  -   John 5:25
Ezk 37:41 Prophesy
Ezekiel’s prophesying in this chapter was not a matter of predicting but a matter of speaking forth, declaring, something for the Lord. When Ezekiel spoke forth, God gave people the Spirit (vv. 10, 14). The main meaning of prophesying in the Bible is not to predict but to speak forth the Lord, to minister the Lord to people. See notes on 1 Cor. 14:24-25.
Ezk 37:51a breath  -   Ezek. 37:9; Gen. 2:7; John 20:22; Rev. 11:11; cf. Psa. 104:29
Or, spirit; Heb. ruach; variously translated wind, breath, spirit in vv. 5-10 and 14. In spiritual experience, when God blows on us, His breath is the wind; when we breathe the wind, it is the breath; and when the breath is within us, it is the Spirit. When Ezekiel prophesied, God blew the wind, the people received the breath, and the breath became the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6). Cf. John 3:8 and note 1.
Ezk 37:6a know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 37:71 came
The dry bones first came together, and then the breath came into them (v. 10), showing that we must first gather together in oneness, and then we will receive the breath of God (cf. John 20:19-22; Acts 1:12-14; 2:1-4).
Ezk 37:9a wind  -   John 3:8
Ezk 37:10a breath  -   Gen. 2:7; Rev. 11:11; cf. John 20:22
Ezk 37:101 lived
The revelation in this chapter shows that the unique way to have the Body, the church, and the house of God in the genuine oneness is the way of life. When the breath entered into the dead ones, it became life to them, and they lived and stood up in oneness to become an exceedingly great army. The dry bones and the two dead branches in vv. 16-17 became one not by gifts or by teaching but by life. The dead bones and the dead branches were enlivened and became one as the issue of the dispensing of life and the growth in life (cf. John 17:2, 11, 17, 21-23; Eph. 4:11-16).
Ezk 37:11a bones  -   Psa. 141:7
Ezk 37:12a graves  -   Isa. 26:19; Hosea 13:14; cf. Isa. 66:14
Ezk 37:12b bring  -   Ezek. 36:24; 37:25
Ezk 37:14a Spirit  -   Ezek. 36:27
Ezk 37:161a wood  -   cf. Num. 17:2
The two lifeless pieces of wood symbolize the two parts of the divided nation of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. These two kingdoms could not be one, and in the eyes of the Lord they were thoroughly dead and dried up. After being enlivened, they are able to be joined together and become one (v. 17). See note 101. Whereas the dry bones in vv. 1-14 are for forming an army to fight the battle for God, the pieces of wood in vv. 16-22 are for the building of the house of God as His dwelling place.
Ezk 37:21a gather  -   Isa. 11:12; Ezek. 36:24; Matt. 24:31
Ezk 37:22a nation  -   Isa. 11:13; Jer. 3:18; 50:4; Hosea 1:11; Zech. 10:6
Ezk 37:23a cleanse  -   Ezek. 36:25; Titus 2:14
Ezk 37:241a David  -   Jer. 23:5; 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-24; cf. Mark 11:10
Referring to Christ, who is the real David (see note 231 in ch. 34). In relation to Israel the prophecy given here will be fulfilled in the millennium, the age of restoration, and in eternity, in the new heaven and new earth.
Ezk 37:24b Shepherd  -   Isa. 40:11; Matt. 2:6; John 10:16
Ezk 37:26a covenant  -   Psa. 89:3; Isa. 55:3; Jer. 32:40; Ezek. 34:25
Ezk 37:27a tabernacle  -   Lev. 26:11-12; Ezek. 43:7; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 6:16; Rev. 21:3, 7
Ezk 37:27b people  -   Ezek. 11:20; 14:11; 36:28
Ezekiel Chapter 38
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 38:2a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 38:21b Gog  -   Rev. 20:8
What is mentioned in chs. 38 — 39 regarding Gog and Magog probably corresponds to what is written in Rev. 14:19-20; 16:12-21; and 19:11-18 concerning the war at Armageddon. This may indicate that Gog and Magog will take the lead among the nations who seek to destroy Israel at the end of this age. See note 81 in Rev. 20.
Ezk 38:9a go  -   Rev. 20:9
Ezk 38:15a come  -   cf. Rev. 20:8
Ezk 38:16a come  -   Rev. 20:9
Ezk 38:19a fiery  -   Psa. 89:46; Heb. 10:27
Ezk 38:19b earthquake  -   cf. Hag. 2:6-7; Rev. 11:13; 16:18
Ezk 38:22a fire  -   Exo. 9:23; Rev. 8:7; 20:9
Ezekiel Chapter 39
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 39:1a son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 39:11b Gog  -   Rev. 20:8
See note 21 in ch. 38.
Ezk 39:2a bring  -   cf. Rev. 20:8
Ezk 39:6a fire  -   Ezek. 38:22; Rev. 20:9; Amos 1:4
Ezk 39:6b know  -   Ezek. 6:7
Ezk 39:7a holy  -   Ezek. 38:16, 23
Ezk 39:17a bird  -   Rev. 19:17
Ezk 39:17b come  -   Isa. 34:6; 56:9; Jer. 12:9; Zeph. 1:7
Ezk 39:18a flesh  -   Rev. 19:18
Ezk 39:21a glory  -   Exo. 14:4
Ezk 39:23a iniquity  -   Ezek. 36:18-20, 23
Ezk 39:23b gave  -   Lev. 26:25; Psa. 106:41; Isa. 42:24
Ezk 39:25a turn  -   Jer. 30:3, 18; Ezek. 34:13; 36:24
Ezk 39:29a poured  -   Joel 2:28-32; Zech. 12:10; Acts 2:17
Ezekiel Chapter 40
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 40:11 In
The three previous sections of this book, concerning the glory of the Lord (ch. 1), the judgment of God (chs. 2 — 32), and the recovery of the Lord (chs. 33 — 39), are all for the holy building of God (chs. 40 — 48). God’s eternal purpose is to have a building as a mingling of Himself with His chosen people. Whatever God does among His people and among the nations on earth is for His building. This is confirmed by the book of Revelation, which is parallel to the book of Ezekiel and concludes with God’s ultimate building, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5).
After the destruction of the temple built by Solomon (2 Kings 25:8-9), the temple was rebuilt by the captives who returned from Babylon (Ezra 3:6b-13; 6:13-15). Later, this temple was replaced by Herod’s temple, which was built in forty-six years (John 2:20). Herod’s temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 by the Roman army under Titus (Dan. 9:26; Matt. 23:38; 24:2). Neither the temple in Ezra’s day nor the temple of Herod’s time was the full recovery of the temple built by Solomon. However, the temple of Ezekiel’s vision was a more than full recovery of Solomon’s temple. Although the temple itself was the same size as the one built by Solomon (41:2, 4; cf. 1 Kings 6:2), a number of details related to the gates, the courts, and the buildings around the temple in Ezekiel’s vision indicate an enlargement over Solomon’s temple. Thus, beginning with Abraham’s tent (see note 181 in Gen. 13), progressing to the tabernacle and then to Solomon’s temple, and concluding with the temple in Ezekiel’s vision, there is a continual progression in the enlargement of God’s building in the Old Testament. This enlargement signifies a continual increase in the experience of Christ by God’s people (cf. note 21 in 1 Kings 6). God’s building in the Old Testament prefigures God’s spiritual building in the New Testament, which begins with Jesus Christ, the incarnated God, as God’s tabernacle (John 1:14) and God’s temple (John 2:19-21), advances to the church, the Body of Christ, as the enlargement of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:20-22), and consummates with the New Jerusalem as the ultimate manifestation and enlargement of God’s building in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 15-17).
Literally, the visions concerning God’s holy building in chs. 40 — 48 will be fulfilled in the restoration, when the restored Israel will rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem for their dwelling with God in the millennium. The spiritual significances of all the details should be applied to the New Testament believers as components of God’s spiritual building, the church.
Ezk 40:12a twenty-fifth  -   cf. Ezek. 1:2
Ezekiel saw the first vision, the vision of the appearance of the glory of the Lord, when he was thirty years of age, the age at which a priest began to function (1:1). He saw the last vision, the vision of the holy building of God, twenty years later (cf. 1:2), at the age of fifty, the age of retirement for a priest (Num. 4:3). This indicates that to see the building of God, Ezekiel needed more maturity in life (cf. note 11 in ch. 1).
Ezk 40:13 beginning
The beginning of the year indicates that the vision of God’s building brings us to a new beginning. The tenth day of the first month was the day on which the people of Israel prepared the lamb for the passover (Exo. 12:3). This indicates that every new beginning in our Christian life is based on Christ, the Passover lamb (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7), and His redemption.
Ezk 40:1b struck  -   Ezek. 33:21
Ezk 40:1c hand  -   Ezek. 1:3
Ezk 40:2a brought  -   Ezek. 8:3
Ezk 40:21 land
To see the vision of God’s holy building, Ezekiel was brought from the land of captivity to a high mountain, signifying the resurrection and ascension of Christ, in the land of Israel, a type of the all-inclusive Christ as the portion allotted by God to His people (see note 71 in Deut. 8), and in the city of Jerusalem. This was the right position, standing, and angle for Ezekiel to see such a vision. See note 101 in Rev. 21.
Ezk 40:2b upon  -   cf. Rev. 21:10
Ezk 40:31 man
This man is Christ. In the vision here He is not on the throne in the appearance of electrum (1:26-28) but at the gate of the building in the appearance of bronze. Bronze signifies Christ’s being tested by God’s judgment (Num. 16:37-39; 21:8-9). Having passed through God’s judgment, Christ is fully qualified to measure (take possession of by judging) what belongs to God’s building (Zech. 2:1 and notes).
Ezk 40:3a bronze  -   Ezek. 1:7; Dan. 10:6; Rev. 1:15
See note 31.
Ezk 40:32b reed  -   Rev. 11:1; 21:15
A reed is for measuring (cf. Rev. 11:1; 21:15), and to measure is to test through judgment in order to possess.
Ezk 40:4a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 40:51a wall  -   cf. Ezek. 42:20
The wall around the house is for separation, separating what belongs to God from what cannot belong to Him. The thickness and height of the wall are both six cubits; thus, a cross section of the wall is a square six cubits by six cubits. The number six signifies man, who was created on the sixth day. Hence, the wall with a square cross section of six cubits signifies Christ Himself as an upright, perfect, and complete man (cf. note 161 in Rev. 21). Such a Christ is the separating line of God’s building. Only what is included in Christ belongs to God’s interests and God’s building (Eph. 2:21).
Ezk 40:5b measuring  -   Rev. 11:1
Ezk 40:52 cubit
The cubit used to measure the holy building of God was not a common human cubit. This indicates that the measuring was done not by the human standard but by the divine standard.
Ezk 40:61 gate
The gate is divided into four sections: an outer threshold (v. 6), a passage (a court, v. 14), an inner threshold (v. 7), and a porch (vv. 8-9). As the entrance to God’s building, the gate signifies Christ as the gateway for us to enter into God and into God’s interests, God’s building, and God’s kingdom (John 14:6, 20; Rev. 21:21a). Whereas the wall separates sinners from God, the gate brings people into God and into God’s building. See note 211 in Rev. 21.
Ezk 40:71 guardroom
Or, little chamber. So also throughout this chapter. The six guardrooms are divided into two groups of three (v. 10), signifying that the guardrooms are a person, Christ Himself, who as the Triune God (three) became a man (six) and was “split” on the cross. Each of the six guardrooms is six cubits square and is thus the same in size as a cross section of the wall (see note 51). This indicates that the Lord Jesus in His person and work is the guard of God’s glory and holiness. By passing through Christ as the gate, we are qualified to enter into God’s building, which is full of God’s glory and holiness.
Ezk 40:81 porch
The width of the porch is six cubits, the number six signifying man, who was created on the sixth day. The length of the porch is eight cubits (v. 9), the number eight signifying Christ’s resurrection, which took place on the first day of a new week as a new beginning (John 20:1). These dimensions signify that the Lord Jesus as a man, who is the gate of God’s building, is fully in resurrection. They also signify that when we arrive at the porch, we are in resurrection, in a new beginning.
Ezk 40:111 ten
The number ten here implies the Ten Commandments. This indicates that whatever the Ten Commandments require, the entry of the gate fulfills. The Lord Jesus as the “square,” upright, and perfect man (see note 51) fulfilled all the requirements of the Ten Commandments, and He has become the gate for us to enter into God’s building. For additional details concerning the gate, see Life-study of Ezekiel, Message Nineteen.
Ezk 40:161a latticed  -   1 Kings 6:4
See note 41 in 1 Kings 6.
Ezk 40:162b palm  -   Ezek. 40:26, 31, 34; 41:18; Rev. 7:9
Palm trees grow in the wilderness and are evergreen. The palm tree signifies victory and everlasting power (Exo. 15:27; Rev. 7:9). The palm trees on the posts of the gates signify that Christ, the guard of God’s holiness and glory, is the everlasting, victorious One, standing, bearing, sustaining, and prevailing. Christ is the post that supports and bears God’s building with a victorious, everlasting life.
Ezk 40:17a outer  -   Rev. 11:2
Ezk 40:171 chambers
There were six different sections, or areas, of pavement around the inside of the wall on the east, the south, and the north sides of the outer court, and on each section there were five chambers, giving a total of thirty chambers. In addition to the thirty chambers on the pavement, there were four small courts, one at each corner of the outer court (46:21-24 and note 211). These were places for the people to boil the sacrifices. The pavement, probably made of stone, signifies the standing of regeneration, which makes us stones (John 1:42; Matt. 16:18), as a separation from the dirt of the world (cf. note 227 in Luke 15). The chambers were dining places where the people ate the sacrifices, indicating that they were places for people to enjoy Christ as the sacrifices and offerings. (Whereas the priests ate in the inner court [42:1-14], the people ate in the outer court.) After passing through the gate of God’s dwelling place, we come to the outer court and enter into the chambers, where, standing on the “stones” of our regeneration, we eat and enjoy Christ, who is the reality of all the offerings (Heb. 10:5-10).
Ezk 40:22a palm  -   Ezek. 40:16; Rev. 7:9
Ezk 40:23a inner  -   Ezek. 8:16; 40:28
Ezk 40:251 the
Lit., it.
Ezk 40:281 same
The details of the gates to the inner court (vv. 28-37) were the same as those of the gates to the outer court, indicating that as we enter into the inner court, we repeat our experience of Christ. We experience the same Christ, but we experience more of Him.
Ezk 40:31a palm  -   Ezek. 40:16
Ezk 40:311 eight
At the entrance to the inner court there is another set of stairs (cf. vv. 22, 26), consisting of eight steps. This indicates that the more inward we progress in our experience of God’s building, the higher we become. The number eight signifies resurrection. This indicates that if we would come into the inner court, we need to be in resurrection. All the natural life and the natural man must be repudiated and crossed out.
Ezk 40:34a palm  -   Ezek. 40:16
Ezk 40:371 porches
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, posts.
Ezk 40:381 chamber
This chamber, probably within the north gate of the inner court, was for the priests to wash the burnt offerings (Lev. 1:3-9). This indicates that at this point in our experience, we are ready to be a burnt offering for God. When we pass through the gate to the inner court, we are in resurrection and on a higher level (see note 311). Here, we are not merely the common people in the outer court; we have become the priests who are ready to minister to the Lord by offering the burnt offering, meaning that we are ready to be absolute for the Lord (see note 31 in Lev. 1).
Ezk 40:38a washed  -   Lev. 1:13; 2 Chron. 4:6
Ezk 40:391 tables
The eight tables within the north gate are for slaying the offerings (vv. 39-43). They are divided into two groups of four (v. 41). They are one and a half cubits square and one cubit high (v. 42). The number one signifies the unique God. The number three, the sum of the one and a half cubits of length and the one and a half cubits of breadth, signifies the Triune God in resurrection. The Triune God has been “split,” as indicated by the tables on the two sides of the gate as well as by the width of each table measuring half of three cubits. Thus, the numbers related to the eight tables signify that the Triune God (three), the unique God (one), who became a creature (four), was “split” on the cross, yet He was resurrected (eight). Now in resurrection He is a testimony (two). Today our service, our ministry, must be in the Triune God, the unique God, who was “split” as a creature and is now in resurrection as a living testimony.
Ezk 40:39a sin  -   Ezek. 42:13; 46:20
Ezk 40:42a hewn  -   Exo. 20:25
Ezk 40:441 two
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, chambers for the singers.
Ezk 40:442 south
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, east.
Ezk 40:45a keepers  -   Num. 3:27-28, 32, 38; 1 Chron. 9:23; Ezek. 44:14
Ezk 40:46a altar  -   Num. 18:5
Ezk 40:46b Zadok  -   1 Kings 2:35; 1 Chron. 24:3, 6; Ezek. 43:19; 44:15
Ezk 40:471a altar  -   Exo. 40:29; Ezek. 43:13; Matt. 23:35
The altar, which signifies the cross of Christ, is the center not only of the inner court but also of the entire premises of the temple. This altar is actually the center of the universe. As the center of the universe, the cross points to the all-inclusive death of Christ, which involved God, man, and all the creatures (see note 132 in ch. 43). The death on the cross was the release of God (Luke 12:49-50; John 12:24) and the termination of man and all negative things (Rom. 6:6; Heb. 2:14; 9:26-28; Gal. 6:14; Eph. 2:14-15). In Christ’s death God passed through death in man to be released, and man died in God to be terminated.
The cross is not only the center but also the circumference of God’s holy building. The cross is implied in the gate, in the eating of the sacrifices, in the boiling houses, and in the tables on which the sacrifices are slain. Thus, the cross spreads in every direction and to every corner of God’s building. If we wish to contact God and enjoy His riches in His house, we must pass through the cross.
Ezk 40:472 in
Whereas the altar signifies the cross, the temple signifies both Christ (John 2:19-21) and the church, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21). The cross, Christ, and the church are the central subject not only of the New Testament but also of the entire Bible. That the altar stands in front of the temple indicates that we cannot have the church apart from the cross. We can have the reality of the church only after we have passed through the cross.
Ezk 40:48a porch  -   1 Kings 6:3
Ezk 40:481 the
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, the width of the gate was three cubits.…
Ezk 40:491 twelve
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, eleven.
Ezk 40:492 ten
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, by steps that went up to it. The elevation of the temple was ten steps higher than that of the inner court and twenty-five steps higher than the elevation outside the temple (vv. 22, 31). This indicates that the further inward we proceed in our experience of God’s building, the higher we rise.
Ezk 40:493 pillars
The fact that Ezekiel does not give us the measurement of the pillars indicates that they signify a supporting strength that is unlimited and immeasurable. Thus, the two pillars by each post signify Christ as God’s witness (two) bearing the house of God with a strength that is unlimited and immeasurable.
Ezekiel Chapter 41
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 41:11 post
Following some versions; the Hebrew reads, tent.
Ezk 41:21 ten
The entrance of the porch measured fourteen cubits (40:48), the entrance to the outer temple (the Holy Place), ten cubits, and the entrance into the inner temple (the Holy of Holies), six cubits (v. 3). This indicates that the further inward we progress in our experience of God’s building, the narrower the way becomes. The closer we are to the Lord, the more we will be restricted by Him.
Ezk 41:22 outer
I.e., the Holy Place.
Ezk 41:4a length  -   1 Kings 6:20; 2 Chron. 3:8
Ezk 41:51 six
The number six here in relation to the thickness of the wall signifies the humanity of the Lord Jesus as the standing strength of God’s dwelling place. In the tabernacle the boards of acacia wood standing upright also signify the humanity of the Lord Jesus (Exo. 26:15). As a proper human being, the Lord Jesus is the standing and supporting wall of God’s building.
Ezk 41:61 side
The thirty side chambers for expression (see note 53 in 1 Kings 6) are based on the thirty chambers for enjoyment (40:17). We can express Christ only to the extent that we have enjoyed Him. Our enjoyment of Christ eventually becomes the fullness, the expression, of Christ (Eph. 3:16-19).
Ezk 41:62 three
See note 61 in 1 Kings 6.
Ezk 41:6a stories  -   1 Kings 6:5-6
Ezk 41:71 wider
The side chambers becoming wider as they go up indicates that as we go higher with the Lord, we become broader and richer in our experience (cf. Eph. 3:18). This indicates that the experience of God’s holy building is progressive.
Ezk 41:7a increased  -   1 Kings 6:8
Ezk 41:8a long  -   Ezek. 40:5
Ezk 41:91 space
Lit., house.
Ezk 41:101 chambers
The chambers mentioned in 42:10-14.
Ezk 41:121 building
This building, located at the back of the temple, was larger than the temple. Whereas the side chambers signify the fullness of Christ (see note 61), this building signifies the riches of Christ, which are unlimited (Eph. 3:8). Christ is so rich that He is able to fulfill all the requirements and meet all the needs of both God and man and still have an abundance left over (cf. John 6:11-13). Concerning the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ, see note 193 in Eph. 3.
Ezk 41:161a latticed  -   Ezek. 41:26; 40:16
See notes on 1 Kings 6:4.
Ezk 41:162 wood
All the parts of the building related to the temple were paneled with wood. This differs from the tabernacle raised up by Moses, in which every part was overlaid with gold (Exo. 26:29). Whereas gold signifies divinity, wood signifies humanity, especially the uplifted humanity of the Lord Jesus. In God’s building in Ezekiel, the primary material is the crucified, resurrected, and ascended humanity of Jesus.
Ezk 41:18a carved  -   1 Kings 6:29
Ezk 41:181 cherubim
On all the wooden paneling, cherubim and palm trees were carved (vv. 18-20). Cherubim signify the glory of the Lord manifested upon the creatures (10:18; Heb. 9:5), and palm trees, which grow in the wilderness and are evergreen, signify the victory of Christ and the everlasting and ever-existing power of Christ (see note 162 in ch. 40). The carving of the palm trees and the cherubim on the walls indicates that the victory of Christ and the glory of the Lord have been “carved” into our being through sufferings.
Ezk 41:18b palm  -   Ezek. 40:16
See note 181.
Ezk 41:191a man  -   cf. Ezek. 1:10
In ch. 1 the cherubim had four faces (1:6, 10), but in the carvings on the walls they had only two faces — the face of a man and the face of a lion, signifying and expressing victory in humanity (see note 101, par. 1, in ch. 1). The fact that between every two cherubim there was a palm tree (v. 18 and note) signifies that as parts of God’s building, we manifest the victory of Christ in the manifestation of the glorious image of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14-16; 3:18).
Ezk 41:221a altar  -   Exo. 30:1
The incense altar standing in this temple was made only of wood (cf. Exo. 30:1-5), signifying the humanity of Jesus. In the tabernacle and in the temple there were the incense altar and the table of the bread of the Presence. But here in Ezekiel the altar is also the table, the altar being for us to offer Christ as incense to God for His satisfaction, and the table being for God to prepare Christ as food for our satisfaction.
The altar of wood was put in a place of wood paneling carved with cherubim and palm trees, indicating that if we are those who manifest the glory and victory of Christ, we will have the altar-table for God and us to have fellowship together in Christ. Here God is satisfied by the incense we offer in Christ, and we are satisfied by the food supplied by God in Christ.
Ezk 41:222 three
The dimensions of the incense altar signify the Triune God in resurrection (three) as a testimony (two).
Ezk 41:22b table  -   Ezek. 44:16; Mal. 1:7, 12
See note 221.
Ezk 41:231a double  -   1 Kings 6:31-35
The functions of the “doors” in the church are to let the positive persons and things in and to keep the negative persons (cf. Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29) and things out. The fact that each door had two swinging leaves (v. 24) indicates that the doors in the church should be flexible.
Ezk 41:251 cherubim
See note 181.
Ezk 41:26a latticed  -   Ezek. 40:16; 41:16
Ezk 41:261 windows
The fact that palm trees were carved on the walls next to the windows indicates that victory and everlasting power and strength always go together with spiritual air and divine light. This means that our victory and power are related to the life-giving Spirit (see note 41 in 1 Kings 6). If we enjoy the life-giving Spirit, we will also enjoy Christ’s victory, power, and strength.
Ezekiel Chapter 42
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 42:1a outer  -   Ezek. 40:17
Ezk 42:11 chamber
The holy chambers, located on both the north side and the south side, are buildings that connect the inner court with the outer court. The chambers on the pavement in the outer court are for the people to eat the offerings (40:17 and note), whereas the holy chambers are for the priests to eat the offerings and also to place and store the offerings and to lay their priestly garments (vv. 13-14). Whereas the offerings signify Christ as our enjoyment, the priestly garments signify Christ as our expression (see notes on Exo. 28:2).
In the holy chambers we reach the highest peak of spiritual experience. To live in the holy chambers is to live in Christ, to eat the offerings in the holy chambers is to eat Christ, and to wear the holy garments is to wear Christ for His expression.
Ezk 42:3a gallery  -   Ezek. 41:16
Ezk 42:31 third
Like the side chambers, the holy chambers are of three stories. Their height is equal to that of the side chambers, indicating that they correspond to the fullness, the expression, of Christ (see note 61 in ch. 41). The priests enjoy Christ, wear Christ, store Christ, and possess Christ to such an extent that the height of their chambers equals the height of the fullness of Christ (cf. Eph. 3:16-19).
Ezk 42:101 south
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, east.
Ezk 42:13a eat  -   Lev. 6:16, 26; 24:9
Ezk 42:13b holy  -   Lev. 2:3, 10; 6:14, 17, 25, 29; 7:1; 10:13-14; Num. 18:9-10
Ezk 42:14a garments  -   Ezek. 44:19
Ezk 42:15a measured  -   Ezek. 40:3; Zech. 2:1; Rev. 11:1; 21:16
Ezk 42:161 side
Lit., wind. So also in vv. 17-20.
Ezk 42:20a five  -   Ezek. 45:2
Ezekiel Chapter 43
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 43:1a east  -   Ezek. 10:19; 40:6; 44:1; 46:1
Ezk 43:21a glory  -   Ezek. 11:23
The glory of the Lord returned to the temple because the building of the temple was completed. This indicates that in order for the God of glory to dwell in the church, the church must be built up to become the dwelling place of God (Eph. 3:14-21).
Ezk 43:2b voice  -   Ezek. 1:24; Rev. 1:15
Ezk 43:2c illuminated  -   Ezek. 10:4; Rev. 18:1
Ezk 43:3a vision  -   Ezek. 1:4, 28; 8:4
Ezk 43:4a glory  -   Ezek. 44:2; cf. Ezek. 10:18-19
Ezk 43:41 gate
The gates on the south and the north are for the convenience of the people, but the gate toward the east is not only for the convenience of the people but also for the glory of the Lord. The church must be open to the Lord’s glory so that His glory may come into the church.
Ezk 43:5a took  -   Ezek. 3:12, 14; 8:3
Ezk 43:5b filled  -   1 Kings 8:10-11; Ezek. 44:4
Ezk 43:51 house
Here the Lord had come back not merely to the earth but even more to His built-up house. In order for the Lord to come back to the earth, He needs a built-up church as His standing on the earth. See note 71, par. 2, in Hag. 2.
Ezk 43:61a man  -   Ezek. 40:3
This man is the Lord Himself (v. 7).
Ezk 43:7a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 43:7b place  -   Psa. 99:1
Ezk 43:71 throne
The throne is for God’s government, administration, and kingdom, and the soles of the Lord’s feet are for His move on earth. Only the built-up church gives the Lord the standing to administrate His government (Matt. 16:18-19) and to move on the earth (Acts 13:1-3). Furthermore, the church is the place where the Lord can dwell for His rest and satisfaction (1 Tim. 3:15).
Ezk 43:7c soles  -   1 Chron. 28:2; Psa. 99:5
See note 71.
Ezk 43:7d forever  -   Exo. 29:45; Psa. 68:16; 132:14; Joel 3:17
Ezk 43:72 fornication
Fornication here refers to idolatry (16:15-21; 23:30).
Ezk 43:101 house
The Lord did not charge Ezekiel to teach God’s people the law and the Ten Commandments as He had charged Moses. Rather, He told Ezekiel to show God’s house to the people (vv. 10-12). It was God’s intention to examine the living and conduct of the people of Israel according to His house, His habitation, as a rule and pattern. The work, behavior, and person of God’s people must match the temple of God according to its design, its pattern, its laws, and its statutes, as shown in detail in chs. 40 — 48. This means that all that we are and do must be measured, tested, by God’s house, the church (1 Tim. 3:15).
Ezk 43:11a design  -   Heb. 8:5
Ezk 43:121 mountain
To be on the mountain is to be in resurrection and in the position of ascension. This indicates that the church life must be high, on the top of the mountain (Eph. 2:5-6). The church must also be holy, separated and sanctified from anything worldly (1 Cor. 3:17).
The law of God’s house is related to God’s character. God is a God of height, i.e., in resurrection and ascension, and He is a God who is holy. Likewise, in position the church is high, and in nature the church is most holy. If in our church life we are in resurrection and in the position of ascension and if we are most holy, then we can be God’s habitation.
Ezk 43:13a altar  -   2 Chron. 4:1
Ezk 43:13b cubit  -   Ezek. 40:5; 41:8
Ezk 43:131 cubit
See note 52 in ch. 40.
Ezk 43:132 bottom
According to Ezekiel’s vision the altar had four sections, one on top of the other: the base (bottom), the lesser (lower) ledge, the greater ledge, and the hearth. The number one in the height of the base of the altar signifies the unique God and indicates that God is the base of the altar, i.e., that the cross, typified by the altar, was initiated by God (Acts 2:23 and note 1). The number two in the height of the lesser ledge (v. 14) signifies not only a testimony but also Christ, the second of the Triune God, who is God’s witness (Rev. 1:5a). The number four in the height of the greater ledge (v. 14) and the hearth (v. 15) signifies the creatures (1:5). The number twelve in the width and length of the hearth (v. 16) is composed either of six times two or three times four, the number six signifying man, who was created on the sixth day, and the number three, the Triune God. Thus, the measurements of the four sections of the altar signify that Christ’s death was all-inclusive, involving God, man, and all the creatures (Acts 20:28; Rom. 6:6; Col. 1:15).
Ezk 43:133 border
On each level of the altar there are edges, or rims, spreading out with borders rising up, to hold things. This indicates that Christ’s death on the cross is able to hold, to include, all things (cf. notes 202 in Col. 1 and 93 in Heb. 2).
Ezk 43:151 four
Horns signify strength and power. The horns on the altar, which are toward the four corners of the earth, signify the power of the cross of Christ to reach the four corners of the earth. See note 21 in Exo. 27.
Ezk 43:161 twelve
The number twelve (the number of the New Jerusalem — Rev. 21:12, 14, 16-17, 21; 22:2) is composed of three times four, the number three signifying the Triune God and the number four signifying man as a creature (1:5). The number twelve, therefore, signifies the Triune God mingled with man. The all-inclusive death of Christ, together with His all-conquering resurrection, completed the mingling of God and man in Christ, bringing Christ’s humanity into the divine sonship (Rom. 1:3-4 and note 41).
Ezk 43:171 border
See note 133.
Ezk 43:17a steps  -   Exo. 20:26
Ezk 43:172 east
The east, toward the sunrise, signifies the glory of the Lord (43:2). That the steps of the altar were toward the east indicates that the cross always points to God’s glory and always leads to God’s glory (cf. John 12:23-24 and notes; 17:1 and note).
Ezk 43:181 burnt
The altar, signifying the cross of Christ, is the place for God’s people to be redeemed (purified) and consecrated (see note 73 in Gen. 12). According to the record in vv. 18-27, seven days were required for the people to be purified. They were required to offer a sin offering with the redeeming blood every day for seven days (vv. 25-26). Then on the eighth day, the day of resurrection, they were to consecrate themselves by offering a burnt offering. Following the burnt offering, they enjoyed the peace offering as a feast with the Lord and His people (v. 27). This indicates that after the purification, the Lord’s people were accepted by Him, became a satisfaction to Him, and had a feast with Him. Concerning the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, see notes in Lev. 1, 3, and 4.
Ezk 43:18a blood  -   Lev. 1:5
See note 181.
Ezk 43:19a bull  -   Exo. 29:10-12; Lev. 8:14-15; Ezek. 45:18-19
Ezk 43:20a blood  -   Exo. 29:12, 36
Ezk 43:21a burnt  -   Exo. 29:14
Ezk 43:24a salt  -   Lev. 2:13
Ezk 43:25a Each  -   Exo. 29:35-36; Lev. 8:33
Ezk 43:261 consecrate
Lit., fill its hands.
Ezk 43:27a eighth  -   Lev. 9:1
Ezekiel Chapter 44
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 44:1a east  -   Ezek. 43:1
Ezk 44:2a entered  -   Ezek. 43:4
Ezk 44:31 Prince
The Prince here is Christ as the King in the coming millennial kingdom. The word in vv. 1-3 indicates that Christ and God have an equal position, for only Christ can enter in and go out by the gate through which God has passed. Thus, God and Christ have a special, holy portion among God’s people.
Ezk 44:4a filled  -   Ezek. 43:5
Ezk 44:41 house
See note 51 in ch. 43.
Ezk 44:5a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 44:6a Enough  -   Ezek. 45:9; 1 Pet. 4:3
Ezk 44:71 you
Lit., they.
Ezk 44:91a uncircumcised  -   Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16; Acts 7:51
Circumcision typifies dealing with the flesh, the natural man, and the old man by the inward operation of the cross (cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11). If our flesh, natural man, and old man have not been dealt with by the cross, we are not qualified to serve in the church. Rather, we are considered by the Lord a foreigner. See notes 251 in Exo. 4 and 431 in Exo. 12.
Ezk 44:10a Levites  -   2 Chron. 29:4-5; Ezek. 48:11
Ezk 44:101 who
Those who follow the majority and go astray from the Lord in pursuit of idols have lost their qualification and position to serve the Lord directly (vv. 10-14). They may still have a part of the church service, but their service will be an indirect service to the Lord. Only those who are circumcised and absolutely faithful to the Lord can serve Him directly (vv. 15-16).
Ezk 44:15a Zadok  -   Ezek. 40:46; 43:19
Ezk 44:151 fat
Whereas the fat of the offerings typifies the preciousness of the person of Christ, the blood signifies the redemptive work of Christ. In our service to God we must present both to Him.
Ezk 44:16a table  -   Ezek. 41:22
Ezk 44:171a linen  -   Exo. 28:39-40, 43; 39:27-28; Lev. 16:4
Linen garments signify a daily living and walk in the life-giving Spirit by the life of Christ. Such a living and walk is pure, clean, and fine. Woolen garments would cause the priests to sweat (v. 18), a sign of fallen man laboring under God’s curse, without God’s blessing, by his own energy and strength (Gen. 3:19).
Ezk 44:18a turbans  -   Exo. 28:40; 39:28
Ezk 44:191 take
This indicates that the priests were not allowed to mix what is holy with what is profane but were to maintain a separation between the holy and the profane.
Ezk 44:19a garments  -   Ezek. 42:14
Ezk 44:19b sanctify  -   Exo. 29:37; 30:29; Lev. 6:27; Ezek. 46:20; Matt. 23:17, 19
Ezk 44:201a shave  -   Lev. 21:5; Ezek. 5:1
The hair on our head signifies our submission to the Lord’s headship. To shave off all one’s hair signifies rebellion against the Lord’s headship (1 Cor. 11:5, cf. v. 10). On the other hand, for a male to have long hair signifies self-glory with ambition to be a leader. If we would be qualified to serve the Lord, we should not shave our head, meaning that we should have a proper submission (Eph. 5:21; 1 Pet. 5:5), and we should not let our hair grow long, meaning that we should not seek self-glory, self-dignity, position, and leadership (Matt. 23:1-12).
Ezk 44:211a wine  -   Lev. 10:9; 1 Tim. 3:8
See notes 91 in Lev. 10 and 31 in Num. 6.
Ezk 44:22a And  -   Lev. 21:14
Ezk 44:221 take
This signifies that in our contact and relationship with others, we need to be pure and uncomplicated (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2 and note 3).
Ezk 44:23a difference  -   Lev. 10:10-11; Ezek. 22:26
Ezk 44:24a judge  -   Deut. 17:8-9; 2 Chron. 19:8-10
Ezk 44:241 feasts
For the feasts, see notes in Lev. 23.
Ezk 44:242 Sabbaths
See note 81 in Exo. 20.
Ezk 44:25a And  -   Lev. 21:1-3
Ezk 44:251 dead
Those who would serve the Lord directly in His presence should not contact those who are spiritually dead. See notes 11 in Lev. 21 and 311 in Lev. 11.
Ezk 44:26a after  -   Num. 6:10; 19:11
Ezk 44:261 seven
See note 312 in Lev. 11.
Ezk 44:271 sin
Whenever we draw near to God, we need to offer the sin offering, applying the Lord’s redemption and receiving the cleansing of His precious blood. See note 361 in Exo. 29.
Ezk 44:281 I
See note 201 in Num. 18.
Ezk 44:28a inheritance  -   Num. 18:20; Deut. 10:9; 18:1-2; Josh. 13:33
Ezk 44:291a eat  -   Lev. 6:18, 29; 7:6
This indicates that all who serve God as priests not only have God as their possession (v. 28) but also have Christ in all His rich aspects, signified by the offerings, as their enjoyment (cf. Eph. 3:8). See notes 91 and 311 in Num. 18.
Ezk 44:30a first  -   Exo. 13:2; 22:29-30; 23:19; Num. 3:13; 18:12-13
Ezk 44:31a dies  -   Exo. 22:31; Lev. 22:8
Ezekiel Chapter 45
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 45:1a lot  -   Ezek. 47:22; Num. 34:13
Ezk 45:1b heave  -   Ezek. 48:8
Ezk 45:11 twenty
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, ten.
Ezk 45:2a five  -   Ezek. 42:20
Ezk 45:3a in  -   Ezek. 48:10
Ezk 45:4a holy  -   Ezek. 48:10
Ezk 45:5a twenty-five  -   Ezek. 48:13
Ezk 45:51 cities
Following the rendering of the Septuagint; the Hebrew reads, twenty chambers.
Ezk 45:6a city  -   Ezek. 48:15
Ezk 45:7a prince  -   Ezek. 48:21
Ezk 45:8a possession  -   Ezek. 46:18
Ezk 45:10a just  -   Lev. 19:35-36; Prov. 11:1
Ezk 45:131 wheat
The heave offering typifies the ascended Christ. Ezekiel mentions four items in the heave offering: wheat, barley, oil, and a lamb (vv. 13-15). Wheat signifies Christ incarnated to die for us (John 12:24); barley, the first-ripe grain (2 Sam. 21:9), signifies Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20; Lev. 23:10); oil signifies the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18); and the lamb signifies the redeeming Christ (John 1:29). In our service to God we need to offer such a Christ as a heave offering to God.
Ezk 45:15a expiation  -   Lev. 1:4
Ezk 45:171 burnt
For the significance of the offerings and all the appointed feasts, see notes in Lev. 1 — 7 and 23.
Ezk 45:172 expiation
See note 11 in Lev. 16.
Ezk 45:181 first
According to Ezekiel’s record there were the yearly offering (vv. 18-20), the monthly offering (46:6), the weekly offering (46:4), the daily offering (46:13), and the offerings at the appointed feasts — at the Feast of the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Tabernacles (vv. 21, 25). The yearly offering was offered on the first day of the year, signifying that, in principle, every year we should have a new beginning (vv. 18-19).
Ezk 45:18a sanctuary  -   Lev. 16:16
Ezk 45:19a blood  -   Ezek. 43:20; cf. Exo. 12:7
Ezk 45:20a sins  -   Lev. 4:27
Ezk 45:211a Passover  -   Exo. 12:1-28; Lev. 23:5-6; Num. 9:2-3; 28:16-17; Deut. 16:1
For the Feast of the Passover, which was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, see notes in Exo. 12 and Lev. 23.
Ezk 45:22a sin  -   Lev. 4:14
Ezk 45:23a seven  -   Lev. 23:8
Ezk 45:24a meal  -   Ezek. 46:5, 7, 11
Ezk 45:25a fifteenth  -   Lev. 23:34; Num. 29:12
Ezk 45:251 feast
The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-44 and notes).
Ezekiel Chapter 46
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 46:1a six  -   Exo. 20:9; Luke 13:14
Ezk 46:2a enter  -   Ezek. 44:3
Ezk 46:4a burnt  -   Ezek. 45:17
Ezk 46:5a meal  -   Ezek. 45:24; 46:7, 11
Ezk 46:61 new
See note 163 in Col. 2.
Ezk 46:9a come  -   Exo. 23:14-17; Deut. 16:16
Ezk 46:11a meal  -   Ezek. 45:24
Ezk 46:12a east  -   Ezek. 44:1; 46:1
Ezk 46:13a lamb  -   Exo. 29:38; Num. 28:3
Ezk 46:131 every
The law of Moses required that the continual daily burnt offering be offered both in the morning and in the evening (Num. 28:3-4), but here there is no offering in the evening. This may indicate that in the service of the priests in the millennium there is no evening; they are continually in the freshness of the morning.
Ezk 46:17a year  -   Lev. 25:10
Ezk 46:18a inheritance  -   Ezek. 45:8
Ezk 46:191 place
The places in the holy chambers were for the priests to boil their offerings and to bake the meal offerings (vv. 19-20). These were for the priests, whereas the courts in vv. 21-24 were for the people.
Ezk 46:20a boil  -   2 Chron. 35:13
Ezk 46:20b bake  -   Lev. 2:4-7
Ezk 46:211 court
The four enclosed courts at the four corners of the outer court are the boiling houses for the sacrifices of the people (vv. 21-24). This indicates that, by God’s grace, the preparation of Christ for others’ enjoyment is spreading to every corner, making Christ available everywhere. The measurement of the corner chambers is forty by thirty (v. 22). The number forty signifies trials and testing (Matt. 4:1-2; Heb. 3:9) and indicates here that apart from the Lord’s suffering, testing, and trials, He could not have been “cooked,” prepared for our enjoyment.
Ezekiel Chapter 47
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 47:11a water  -   Joel 3:18; Zech. 13:1; 14:8; John 7:38; Rev. 22:1
The water here signifies the Triune God as the water of life flowing out from eternity to quench the thirst of His people (Gen. 2:10; Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; Psa. 36:8b; 46:4; Zech. 14:8; John 4:14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1, 17). The factors that caused the river to flow forth out of the house were (1) the building up and completion of the house; (2) the living of the people according to the pattern, laws, and statutes of the house (43:10-11); (3) the service of the priests (ch. 44); and (4) the offering of all the offerings (chs. 45 — 46). The more these factors are present in the church, the more the flow of God will issue forth.
Ezk 47:12 east
The flowing of the river toward the east, the direction of God’s glory (43:2), indicates that the river of God always flows in the direction of God’s glory. If we do not care for the glory of God, the flow in us will be limited.
Ezk 47:13 south
Lit., right side. So also in v. 2. The right side signifies the highest position (cf. Eph. 1:20-22). The flowing of the water from the right side indicates that the flow of the Lord should have the preeminence.
Ezk 47:14 altar
The flow being by the side of the altar indicates that the flow is always through the operation of the cross (Exo. 17:6; John 19:34).
Ezk 47:31 man
See 40:3 and note 1.
Ezk 47:32a measured  -   Ezek. 40:3
See note 32 in ch. 40.
Ezk 47:33 thousand
The number one thousand signifies a complete unit (cf. Psa. 84:10). Hence, to measure a thousand means to do a complete measuring. The depth of the flow in us depends on how much we have been measured by the Lord (vv. 3-5). To enjoy a flow that is deeper, we need to be tested, examined, judged, and possessed by the Lord.
As indicated by the four measurings in vv. 3-5, the Lord’s judging and testing of us are not once for all. Four is the number of the creature (1:5). The four measurings here indicate that as creatures we need to be thoroughly judged and tested by the Lord and then fully taken over by Him.
Ezk 47:5a river  -   Psa. 78:16; John 7:38; Rev. 22:1
Ezk 47:51 swim
The deeper the water the more difficult it is to walk. This indicates that the deeper the flow of grace in us, the more we abandon our self-effort, forsake our own direction, and allow the flow to carry us on.
Ezk 47:6a Son  -   Ezek. 2:1
Ezk 47:7a trees  -   Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2
Ezk 47:81 sea
I.e., the Dead Sea.
Ezk 47:82a healed  -   2 Kings 2:19-22
By the flowing of the river out of the house, the salt water of the Dead Sea will be healed. This means that death will be swallowed up by life.
Ezk 47:91 live
The river here signifies the river of life (Rev. 22:1), which causes all things to live.
Ezk 47:92 fish
The flowing of the river of God brings forth trees, fish, and cattle (vv. 7, 12, 9-10). The trees bear fruit for food (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2), the fish with the fishermen are for the increase (Matt. 4:19), and the springs of the kids and calves (see notes 102 and 103) are for feeding (John 21:15-17). In the church all the matters signified here depend on the flow of life.
Ezk 47:101 the
Lit., it.
Ezk 47:102 En-gedi
Meaning the fountain of the kid.
Ezk 47:103 En-eglaim
Meaning the fountain of the two calves.
Ezk 47:104 Great
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea.
Ezk 47:111 swamps
These are places that are neither dry nor flowing with water, signifying a situation that is full of compromise and lukewarmness. Such a situation cannot be healed by the Lord (Rev. 3:15-16). The Lord desires and requires our absoluteness (Matt. 10:37; Luke 9:62; Rev. 22:11).
Ezk 47:12a trees  -   Ezek. 47:7
Ezk 47:12b leaves  -   Psa. 1:3; Jer. 17:8
Ezk 47:12c leaves  -   Rev. 22:2
Ezk 47:131 land
The temple, which typifies the church (1 Cor. 3:16-17), is the issue of the land, which typifies Christ (see notes 91 in Gen. 1 and 71 in Deut. 8). The church is the issue of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (see notes 232 in Eph. 1 and 103 in Eph. 3). The recovery of the land signifies the recovery of the enjoyment of Christ’s riches. Christ Himself cannot be lost, but in our experience Christ can be lost (Gal. 5:2-4). Once the land has been recovered, the temple can be built on the land.
Ezk 47:13a portions  -   Gen. 48:5; 1 Chron. 5:1; Ezek. 48:4-5
Ezk 47:14a give  -   Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:7; 17:8; Ezek. 20:28, 42
Ezk 47:15a border  -   cf. Num. 34:2-12
Ezk 47:151 Great
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea. So also in v. 20.
Ezk 47:152 entrance
Following the rendering of the Septuagint (cf. v. 20); the Hebrew reads, the entrance of Zedad, Hamath.
Ezk 47:181 eastern
I.e., the Dead Sea. The good land is situated between the waters of the Mediterranean Sea on the west (v. 15) and the waters of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River on the east. For the land of Canaan, an elevated land (20:40-42; 34:13-14; 37:22; Deut. 32:13), to be surrounded by water indicates that it is surrounded by death. Thus, the good land typifies the resurrected Christ, who was raised, elevated, from the dead (cf. Gen. 1:9). See note 121 in Num. 34.
On the north side of the good land there is no river as a border; instead, there is Mount Hermon, a high mountain, which signifies the heavens, from which the dew descends (Psa. 133:3). The elevated good land with Mount Hermon signifies the resurrected Christ, who has ascended to the heavens.
Ezk 47:19a border  -   Ezek. 48:28
Ezk 47:22a sojourners  -   cf. Eph. 2:19
Ezekiel Chapter 48
Notes and Cross-references
Ezk 48:1a Dan  -   Josh. 19:40-48
Ezk 48:2a Asher  -   Josh. 19:24-31
Ezk 48:3a Naphtali  -   Josh. 19:32-39
Ezk 48:4a Manasseh  -   Josh. 13:29-31; 17:1-11
Ezk 48:5a Ephraim  -   Josh. 16:1-10
Ezk 48:6a Reuben  -   Josh. 13:15-23
Ezk 48:7a Judah  -   Josh. 15:1-63; 19:9
Ezk 48:81a heave  -   Ezek. 45:1
In this vision the whole land of Canaan is divided into three portions. The northern portion is for seven tribes (vv. 1-7), the southern portion is for five tribes (vv. 23-28), and the middle portion, the holy portion, is a heave offering to God (vv. 8-20). The middle portion, the holy heave offering, is a square of twenty-five thousand reeds (v. 20) and is divided into three strips: one part for the priests and the temple (vv. 8-12), one part for the Levites (vv. 13-14), and one part for the city with all its workers (vv. 15-20). The remainder of the land on the west and on the east of the middle portion is assigned to the king, the royal family (v. 21).
The picture portrayed by the allotment of the land shows that, in the restoration, from Dan in the north (v. 1) to Gad in the south (v. 27), all the Israelites will enjoy Christ, but their nearness to Christ will not be the same. The nearness of the tribes to Christ is determined by their importance. The most important are the priests, who are the closest to Christ and who maintain the fellowship between the people and the Lord. The Levites, who maintain a service to the Lord, are next in nearness to the Lord. Then the workers for the city, who maintain God’s government, are the third closest to the Lord. In addition, there is the royal family with the king and the kingship.
The fellowship of the priests, the service of the Levites, the work to maintain God’s government, and the kingship all come out of the riches of the land. According to spiritual significance, this means that in the church all the fellowship, service, work, government, royalty, lordship, and kingship come out of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. The more we enjoy Christ, the closer we are to Him, and the closer we are to Him, the more important we are in His purpose. The most important are the priests and the kings. According to the New Testament revelation, all the New Testament believers should exercise to be priests and kings (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6; 22:3b-5).
Ezk 48:82 sanctuary
The sanctuary, the temple, is God’s house for His rest, and the city (v. 15) is God’s kingdom for His authority. Both typify the church as God’s house and God’s kingdom (1 Tim. 3:15; Rom. 14:17), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2-3, 22; 22:3, 5).
Ezk 48:10a priests  -   Ezek. 45:3-4
Ezk 48:11a Zadok  -   Ezek. 44:15
Ezk 48:13a Levites  -   Ezek. 45:5
Ezk 48:15a city  -   Ezek. 45:6
Ezk 48:21a prince  -   Ezek. 45:7
Ezk 48:23a Benjamin  -   Josh. 18:21-28
Ezk 48:24a Simeon  -   Josh. 19:1-9
Ezk 48:25a Issachar  -   Josh. 19:17-23
Ezk 48:26a Zebulun  -   Josh. 19:10-16
Ezk 48:27a Gad  -   Josh. 13:24-28
Ezk 48:28a border  -   Ezek. 47:19
Ezk 48:29a lot  -   Ezek. 47:14, 21-22
Ezk 48:31a gates  -   cf. Rev. 21:12
Ezk 48:311 city
The city here with twelve gates, on which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, must be Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 21:12-13). This city will be the dwelling place of the restored Israel with God in the earthly part of the millennium. As such, it typifies the overcomers in the church and the overcoming saints of the Old Testament, who will be the New Jerusalem as the mutual abode of God and the overcomers in the heavenly part of the millennium (see note 123 in Rev. 3), which is the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.
The history of Israel is a full type of the history of the church. The history of Israel began with Israel’s corporate experience of the passover during the exodus from Egypt (Exo. 12) and will continue until the Lord’s second coming, at which time Israel will be restored and will build the earthly Jerusalem with the twelve gates. The history of the church also began with the Passover, which is the Christ who has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7), and will go on until the millennium, in which the overcoming saints will be the heavenly Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates. After the one thousand years the heavenly Jerusalem will be enlarged to become the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth. She will include all the redeemed ones from both Israel and the church to be the expression of God and the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity future. See note 13 in Dan. 12.
Ezk 48:312 three
That the number of gates is twelve (vv. 31-34), composed of three times four, signifies that God’s holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the mingling of the Triune God (three) with His creature man (four). The number twelve also signifies absolute perfection and eternal completion in God’s administration. This indicates that the New Jerusalem is not only the eternal mingling of divinity with humanity but also a perfect government that comes out of this mingling. This city will exercise full authority for God’s complete administration in eternity (Rev. 22:1, 3, 5).
Ezk 48:35a name  -   Jer. 33:16
Ezk 48:351b Jehovah  -   Jer. 3:17; Joel 3:21; Zech. 2:10; Rev. 21:3; 22:3
At the end of this book God obtains a holy temple (chs. 40 — 44) and a holy city in the Holy Land (chs. 47 — 48). God dwells in the temple, and He dwells also in the city. In the temple God has fellowship with His people, and in the city God reigns among His people. This indicates that in the temple and the city God has come down from heaven to live with man. The temple and the city typify the church in the present age as the center for the fellowship with God and for the reigning of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Heb. 12:22-23). In the church as the temple and the city, which is in Christ as the good land, God has His expression, and God and His people enjoy one another mutually and have mutual satisfaction. The church as God’s temple and God’s city will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 22).
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Daniel Outline
I.   The issue of the degradation of God’s elect — the captivity to Babylon — 1:1-2
II.   The victory, in their captivity, of the young descendants (including Daniel) of God’s degraded elect over Satan’s further devices — 1:3 — 6:28
A.   Over the demonic diet — 1:3-21
B.   Over the devilish blinding that prevents people from seeing the great human image (the totality of human government throughout human history) in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream — 2:1-49
1.   Nebuchadnezzar’s marvelous dream — vv. 1-13
2.   Daniel’s vision from God concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s dream — vv. 14-45
a.   God’s vision given to Daniel — vv. 14-23
b.   Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream — vv. 24-45
(1)   Daniel’s exalting of God — vv. 24-30
(2)   The contents of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream — a great human image and its destiny — vv. 31-45
3.   Nebuchadnezzar’s honoring of Daniel — vv. 46-49
C.   Over the seduction of idol worship — 3:1-30
D.   Over the covering that hinders people from seeing the ruling of the heavens by the God of the heavens — 4:1-37
1.   Nebuchadnezzar’s praise concerning God — vv. 1-3
2.   Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony — vv. 4-18
3.   Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream — vv. 19-26
4.   Daniel’s counsel to Nebuchadnezzar — v. 27
5.   The fulfillment of the dream coming upon Nebuchadnezzar — vv. 28-33
6.   Nebuchadnezzar’s return to normality and his testimony — vv. 34-37
E.   Over the ignorance concerning the result of the debauchery before God and the insult to His holiness — 5:1-31
1.   Belshazzar’s debauchery before God and his insult to His holiness — vv. 1-4
2.   The writing by the hand sent from God — vv. 5-9
3.   Daniel’s interpretation of the writing on the wall — vv. 10-29
4.   The destiny of Belshazzar — vv. 30-31
F.   Over the subtlety that prohibited the faithfulness of the overcomers in the worship of God — 6:1-28
1.   The exaltation of Daniel as one of the overcomers in the captivity of God’s elect in Medo-Persia — vv. 1-3
2.   The subtle attack of Satan on Daniel concerning the worship of God — vv. 4-9
3.   Daniel’s faithfulness in the worship of God — v. 10
4.   The accusation of the opposers — vv. 11-15
5.   Daniel’s suffering of the persecution — vv. 16-18
6.   God’s deliverance of Daniel — vv. 19-24
7.   God’s victory over Satan in the worship of God on the earth — vv. 25-28
III.   The visions of the overcoming Daniel — 7:1 — 12:13
A.   Concerning the four beasts out of the Mediterranean Sea — 7:1-28
1.   The year of the vision (about 555 B.C.) — v. 1
2.   The four beasts out of the Mediterranean Sea — vv. 2-8, 11-12
3.   God and His universal dominion — vv. 9-10
4.   The coming of the Son of Man — Christ — vv. 13-14
5.   The interpretation of the vision — vv. 15-28
B.   Concerning a ram and a male goat with its successors — Persia and Greece — 8:1-27
1.   The year of the vision (about 553 B.C.) — v. 1
2.   The place of the vision — v. 2
3.   The vision concerning a ram and a male goat with its successors — vv. 3-14
4.   The interpretation of the vision — vv. 15-27
C.   Concerning Israel in the seventy weeks apportioned out to them — 9:1-27
1.   The year of the vision (about 538 B.C.) — vv. 1-2a
2.   The cause of the vision — v. 2b
3.   The way to obtain the vision — vv. 3-23
4.   The contents of the vision — the seventy weeks — vv. 24-27
D.   Concerning the destiny of Israel — 10:1 — 12:13
1.   The year of the vision (about 534 B.C.) — 10:1a
2.   The main subject of the vision — the great distress — 10:1b
3.   The scene in the universe — the spiritual world behind the physical — before the release of the vision — 10:2 — 11:1
a.   Daniel, a man on the earth, setting his heart to understand the future of Israel — 10:2-3
b.   The excellent Christ, the centrality and universality of God’s move on the earth, appearing to Daniel — 10:4-9
c.   The evil prince of the kingdom of Persia withstanding the sent angelic messenger, and Michael coming to help him — 10:10-17
d.   The angelic messenger to return to fight with the evil prince of Persia, and the evil prince of Greece being about to come — 10:18-21
e.   The angelic messenger standing up to support and strengthen Darius — 11:1
4.   The contents of the vision — concerning the destiny of Israel — 11:2 — 12:13
a.   Related to the king of the south (Egypt) and the king of the north (Syria) — 11:2-45
b.   Related to the archangel Michael’s standing for Israel — 12:1-13
Daniel >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Daniel Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 1:11 In
The book of Daniel concerns the destiny of Israel apportioned out by God, the contents of the seventy weeks (9:24-27). It also concerns human government from Nimrod to Antichrist. Because Israel and human government are for Christ, this book also reveals certain aspects of Christ, who is the center and the circumference, the centrality and the universality, of God’s move. In particular, it reveals Christ’s death (9:25-26), His appearing in His second coming (2:34-35, 45), His receiving dominion and a kingdom (7:13-14), His being the companion of the suffering witnesses of God (3:23-25), and His excellency (10:4-9).
The central thought of Daniel is that the ruling of the heavens (4:26), i.e., of the God of the heavens (2:37, 44), over all human government on earth matches God’s eternal economy so that Christ would terminate the old creation for the germination of the new creation and would smash and crush the aggregate of human government and establish the eternal kingdom of God.
Dn 1:1a Nebuchadnezzar  -   2 Kings 24:1; 2 Chron. 36:6
Dn 1:2a vessels  -   2 Chron. 36:7; Jer. 27:19-20; Dan. 5:2-3
Dn 1:21b Shinar  -   Gen. 10:10; 11:2; Isa. 11:11; Zech. 5:11
The origin of Babylon was Babel in the land of Shinar, which is Chaldea (Gen. 11:2, 9, 28; Dan. 1:1-2, 4). For the children of Israel to be taken captive to Babylon means that they were captured back to the place of the worship of idols (Jer. 50:1, 38), i.e., back to Babel, to the original place where their forefather Abraham had worshipped idols (Josh. 24:2-3). Abraham was called by God out of Chaldea to Canaan to worship God (Acts 7:2-4). By this, the worship of the unique God, which had been lost through Adam’s fall, was resumed (Gen. 12:5-8). Eventually, because of their degradation God’s people were taken back to the very place out of which Abraham had been called. See notes 11, par. 1, and 151 in Jer. 50.
Dn 1:22 vessels
In the deportation to Babylon the testimony of God’s elect in the worship of the unique God, Jehovah, was utterly destroyed by the carrying of some of the vessels of the temple of God into the land of Shinar and the putting of these vessels into the temple of idols (2 Chron. 36:6-7).
Dn 1:31 Then
Daniel is a book of the divine revelation concerning God’s economy (see note 43, par. 1, in 1 Tim. 1). In chs. 1 — 6 this book presents God’s economy not in theology or in teaching but in a series of six cases as illustrations to show what God’s economy is and how God’s economy can be carried out.
Dn 1:3a bring  -   cf. 2 Kings 20:17-18; Isa. 39:7
Dn 1:4a wisdom  -   Dan. 1:17; cf. 1 Kings 3:12; Acts 7:22
Dn 1:41 language
I.e., a dialect of Akkadian used by the wise men of Babylon (cf. 2:2).
Dn 1:51 choice
Nebuchadnezzar’s devilish temptation was first to seduce the four brilliant young descendants of God’s defeated elect, Daniel and his three companions, to be defiled by partaking of his unclean food, food offered to idols. The king’s choice provision was defiling, unclean, for it had been offered to Nebuchadnezzar’s gods. For Daniel and his companions to eat that food would have been to take in the defilement, to take in the idols, and thus to become one with Satan (cf. 1 Cor. 10:19-21). In principle, this was a temptation to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which joins man to Satan (cf. Gen. 3:1-6). When Daniel and his companions refused to eat Nebuchadnezzar’s unclean food and chose instead to eat vegetables (vv. 8-16), in principle they rejected the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and took the tree of life, which caused them to be one with God (cf. Gen. 2:9, 16-17).
Dn 1:52 of
Lit., of them; referring to the years.
Dn 1:5a stand  -   Dan. 1:19; 1 Sam. 16:21-22; 1 Kings 10:8
Dn 1:61a Daniel  -   Ezek. 14:14; 28:3
In his devilish tempting of Daniel and his companions, Nebuchadnezzar also changed their names, which indicated that they belonged to God, to names that made them one with idols (vv. 6-7). The name Daniel, meaning God is my Judge, was changed to Belteshazzar, meaning the prince of Bel, or the favorite of Bel (Isa. 46:1); the name Hananiah, meaning Jah has graciously given, or favored of Jah, was changed to Shadrach, meaning enlightened by the sun god; the name Mishael, meaning Who is what God is? was changed to Meshach, meaning Who can be like the goddess Shach? and the name Azariah, meaning Jah has helped, was changed to Abed-nego, meaning the faithful servant of the fire god Nego.
Dn 1:7a Belteshazzar  -   Dan. 4:8; 5:12
Dn 1:7b Shadrach  -   Dan. 2:49; 3:12
Dn 1:81 set
Daniel fought the battle by countering the devil’s temptation with bold rejection (vv. 8-13). God honored Daniel’s fighting (vv. 14-20), and Daniel and his companions became the overcomers among the remnant of God’s defeated elect. Because of the captivity of God’s elect in Babylon, apparently God was defeated in His interests on earth. Actually, He preserved His worship and testimony through the young overcomers. The elect were defeated, but the young overcomers were victorious. Their victory was God’s victory. Because of this victory God could boast to Satan that in the midst of Babylon, God still had some overcomers who were victorious over Satan’s devices. Eventually, it was through the overcomers among God’s captured elect, such as Daniel and his companions, that God was able to turn the age and bring a remnant of His captured people back to the land of Canaan (see note 181 in 1 Kings 19).
Dn 1:8a defile  -   Acts 15:20; cf. Ezek. 4:14; Acts 10:14
Dn 1:82 the
Lit., he.
Dn 1:9a favor  -   cf. Gen. 39:21; Ezra 7:28; Neh. 1:11; Psa. 106:46; Prov. 16:7
Dn 1:12a ten  -   Gen. 24:55; Jer. 42:7; Rev. 2:10
Dn 1:17a wisdom  -   1 Kings 3:12; Acts 7:22
Dn 1:17b visions  -   Gen. 41:15-16; Num. 12:6; 2 Chron. 26:5; Dan. 5:11-12, 14; 10:1
Dn 1:211 first
God blessed Daniel with longevity, so that he lived through the captivity of seventy years (Jer. 25:11) and saw the release and return of the captives beginning from the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, after the fall of Babylon (v. 21; 6:28; Ezra 1:1-5).
Dn 1:21a Cyrus  -   Dan. 6:28; 10:1; 2 Chron. 36:22; Ezra 5:13; Isa. 44:28
Daniel Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 2:1a troubled  -   Gen. 41:8; Dan. 4:5
Dn 2:1b sleep  -   Esth. 6:1; Dan. 6:18
Dn 2:2a magicians  -   Gen. 41:8; Exo. 7:11; Dan. 4:6-7; 5:7
Dn 2:4a Aramaic  -   Ezra 4:7; Isa. 36:11
Dn 2:41 O
From here through 7:28 the text is in Aramaic, not in Hebrew.
Dn 2:11a gods  -   Dan. 2:28; 5:11
Dn 2:171 Daniel
Nebuchadnezzar’s marvelous dream should have impressed him deeply, but because he was blinded by worldly glory and power and did not have a heart for God’s interests, he could not understand the dream and eventually forgot it (vv. 1-3). All the magicians, all the wise men of Babylon, and the Chaldeans were unable to tell him the dream (vv. 4-13). However, there was a person named Daniel, who did not care for worldly glory and power, who set his heart on the spiritual things regarding God’s interests on earth, and who had the right position, the right angle, and the intrinsic capacity within him to understand the dream. He did not have the dream, yet he received the vision from God concerning it (vv. 17-23), and he interpreted it (vv. 24-45).
Dn 2:17a Hananiah  -   Dan. 1:7; 3:12
Dn 2:18a God  -   Gen. 24:7; 2 Chron. 36:23; Ezra 5:12; Neh. 1:4; Jonah 1:9; Rev. 11:13
Dn 2:19a vision  -   Num. 12:6; Job 33:15-16; Dan. 7:7; 2 Cor. 12:1
Dn 2:20a name  -   Neh. 9:5; Psa. 72:19; 145:1
Dn 2:21a He  -   Job 12:18; Psa. 75:6-7; Jer. 27:5; Dan. 4:17; Luke 1:52
Dn 2:22a reveals  -   Dan. 2:28-29; Job 12:22; Psa. 25:14; Rom. 16:25-26; 1 Cor. 2:10-11; Eph. 3:5
Dn 2:22b darkness  -   Psa. 139:11-12
Dn 2:22c light  -   1 Tim. 6:16; James 1:17; cf. Psa. 36:9; Dan. 5:11, 14
Dn 2:281a God  -   Dan. 2:18, 47; Gen. 40:8; 41:16; Amos 4:13
In his interpreting of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel exalted God (vv. 25-30). He did not exalt himself.
Dn 2:311a image  -   cf. Dan. 3:1
The contents of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were a great human image and its destiny. The vision of the great image in this chapter is the controlling vision in the book of Daniel. This great image signifies the aggregate of human government throughout human history, from the beginning of human government at Babel (Babylon) in the land of Shinar (Gen. 10:8-10; 11:1-9), as signified by the head of the image, to the termination of human government in human history in the Roman Empire with the ten kings (see note 321, par. 2), as signified by the ten toes (vv. 40-44a; 7:24; Rev. 13:1; 17:12). From its beginning to its termination, human government has always done three things: rebel against God, exalt man, and worship idols (Gen. 11:4 and note 2).
Dn 2:321 head
The head of gold (vv. 36-38), corresponding to the first beast in 7:3-4, signifies Nebuchadnezzar, the founder and the king of Babylon. The breast and the arms of silver (v. 39a), corresponding to the second beast in 7:5, signify Medo-Persia, and the abdomen and thighs of bronze (v. 39b), corresponding to the third beast in 7:6, signify Greece, including Macedonia. The legs of iron and the feet partly of iron and partly of clay (v. 33), corresponding to the fourth beast in 7:7-8, signify the Roman Empire with its last ten kings (vv. 40-44a; 7:7-11, 19-26; Rev. 17:7-13).
According to the human image in this chapter, in the sight of God all human government throughout history is composed of four empires: the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Macedonian-Grecian Empire, and the Roman Empire. The beginning of human government was at Babel (Babylon), which was built by Nimrod (Gen. 10:8-10), and the ending of human government will be the revived Roman Empire under Antichrist. Although the form and appearance of the Roman Empire have vanished, the culture, spirit, and essence of the Roman Empire continue to exist today (see note 121 in ch. 7). At the beginning of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21) the form and appearance of the Roman Empire will be restored under Antichrist. According to the books of Daniel and Revelation, the last Caesar of the Roman Empire will be Antichrist, who will be supported by ten kings (Rev. 17:10-12 and notes). Thus, the aggregate of human empires that began with Nimrod at Babel will consummate with Antichrist and his ten kings.
If the head of the great human image is Babylon, the entire image must also be Babylon. In the eyes of God, the entire human government from Nimrod to Antichrist is Babylon. Under Antichrist, the last Caesar, the Roman Empire will be both political and religious Babylon (Rev. 17 — 18). The empire of Antichrist will be the political and physical Babylon, i.e., “Babylon the Great” (Rev. 18:2), whereas the Roman Catholic Church, called “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT” (Rev. 17:5), will be the religious Babylon. See note 11, par. 1, in Jer. 50.
Dn 2:32a gold  -   Isa. 14:4; Jer. 51:7; Dan. 2:38
Dn 2:32b bronze  -   Dan. 2:39
Dn 2:331 legs
The two legs of iron signify the eastern Roman Empire and the western Roman Empire, and the feet and the toes, partly of iron and partly of clay (vv. 41-43), signify the nations in the period after the fall of Rome and before Christ’s second coming. These nations are partly autocratic and partly democratic. The ten toes of the image signify the ten kings of the revived and restored Roman Empire under Antichrist (v. 44a; 7:7, 24; Rev. 17:12). The periods of history signified by the first three parts of the great human image and the two legs have been fulfilled, but the period signified by the ten toes has not yet been fulfilled. It will be fulfilled at the end of the present age. See note 321, par. 2.
Dn 2:33a iron  -   Dan. 2:40-43
Dn 2:341a stone  -   Psa. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:4
The destiny of the great human image is to be crushed by a stone cut out without hands (vv. 34-35a, 44b-45). This stone is Christ. Through His crucifixion Christ was cut by God by being put to death (Zech. 3:9; Acts 2:23), and in His resurrection (Acts 2:24) He was cut out to be a stone in three aspects: the foundation stone and the cornerstone for the building up of the church (Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:42), the stumbling stone to the unbelieving Jews (Isa. 8:14; Matt. 21:44a; Rom. 9:33), and the crushing stone to destroy the totality of human government (Matt. 21:44b).
When Christ comes as the crushing stone, He will not come alone; rather, He will come with His overcomers, His bride, His increase, as His army (John 3:29-30; Rev. 17:14; 19:7-8, 11, 14). During the church age, the age of mystery, Christ is building up the church to be His bride (Eph. 5:25-29). Before He descends to earth, Christ will have a wedding, in which He will marry the overcomers (Rev. 19:7-9), those who have been fighting the battle against God’s enemy for years and who have already overcome the evil one (cf. Rev. 12:11). After His wedding, He as the Husband will come with His newlywed bride to destroy Antichrist, who with his army will fight against God directly (Rev. 17:14; 19:19).
Dn 2:342 struck
At His appearing as the God-cut stone, Christ with His overcomers — the corporate Christ — will strike the ten kings with Antichrist (Rev. 19:11-21), thereby crushing the great image from the toes to the head (v. 35). This will be Christ’s universal judgment on the aggregate of human government from Antichrist back to Nimrod, thus ending the age of man’s government on earth in the old creation and initiating the age of God’s dominion over the entire earth in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
Dn 2:34b crushed  -   Matt. 21:44; Luke 20:18
See note 342.
Dn 2:351 all
This signifies the complete destruction of all human government from Nimrod to Antichrist.
Dn 2:35a chaff  -   Psa. 1:4; Isa. 41:15-16; Hosea 13:3
Dn 2:352 no
Or, no place was found for them.
Dn 2:353b mountain  -   cf. Isa. 2:2-3
The great mountain here signifies the eternal kingdom of God, which will fill the whole earth forever (v. 44; 7:13-14). After coming to crush the aggregate of human government, the corporate Christ — Christ with His overcoming bride — will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God’s kingdom. Thus the great human image will be replaced with the eternal kingdom of God on earth (Rev. 11:15-17).
The increase of the stone into a great mountain signifies the increase of Christ (cf. John 3:29-30). The church is Christ’s increase in life, but the eternal kingdom of God is Christ’s increase in administration (Mark 4:26-29). Hence, Christ is not only the church but also the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 12:12; Luke 17:21). As the stone, Christ is the centrality of God’s move, and as the mountain, He is the universality. Hence, He is the all-inclusive One, the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23).
Dn 2:35c whole  -   Psa. 72:19; Isa. 11:9; Zech. 14:9
Dn 2:37a king  -   Ezek. 26:7; Ezra 7:12
Dn 2:37b God  -   Ezra 1:2
Dn 2:38a beasts  -   Dan. 4:21-22; Jer. 27:6
Dn 2:38b head  -   Dan. 2:32
Dn 2:39a another  -   Dan. 5:28, 31
Dn 2:39b third  -   Dan. 7:6; 8:5; 11:3
Dn 2:40a fourth  -   Dan. 7:7, 23
Dn 2:41a feet  -   Dan. 2:33
Dn 2:411 confused
Lit., divided.
Dn 2:412 firmness
Denoting standing strength.
Dn 2:413 earthy
Emphasizing the notion of clay in contrast to the notion of iron.
Dn 2:44a God  -   Dan. 2:28; Rev. 11:13
Dn 2:44b kingdom  -   Matt. 3:2; 6:10; 13:41; Rev. 11:15
Dn 2:44c never  -   Dan. 4:3, 34; 6:26; 7:14; Micah 4:7; Luke 1:32-33
Dn 2:45a stone  -   Dan. 2:34; Isa. 28:16
Dn 2:46a fell  -   Acts 10:25; 16:29
Dn 2:47a Revealer  -   Dan. 2:28, 30
Dn 2:48a ruler  -   Dan. 5:29; 6:2
Dn 2:48b chief  -   Dan. 4:9; 5:11
Dn 2:49a Shadrach  -   Dan. 1:7
Daniel Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 3:11a image  -   Dan. 2:31
Nebuchadnezzar might have been influenced to make such an image by the interpretation of his dream in 2:37-38.
Dn 3:31 rulers
Since Daniel is not mentioned in this chapter, it is likely that he stayed away from the dedication of the image in order to pray for God’s victory in the situation.
Dn 3:4a nations  -   Dan. 4:1; 6:25
Dn 3:5a worship  -   cf. Rev. 13:15
Dn 3:6a fire  -   Jer. 29:22; cf. Matt. 13:42; Rev. 14:10; 20:15
Dn 3:71 bagpipe
Some MSS omit, bagpipe.
Dn 3:8a accused  -   cf. Dan. 6:12
Dn 3:12a Shadrach  -   Dan. 2:49
Dn 3:14a gods  -   Isa. 46:1; Jer. 50:2
Dn 3:14b worship  -   cf. Rev. 13:15
Dn 3:15a deliver  -   Exo. 5:2; 2 Kings 18:35
Dn 3:17a deliver  -   2 Pet. 2:9
Dn 3:25a walking  -   Isa. 43:2
Dn 3:251 fourth
This fourth one was the excellent Christ as the Son of Man, who had come to be with His three suffering, persecuted overcomers and to make the fire a pleasant place in which to walk about. The three overcomers did not need to ask God to deliver them from the furnace (cf. v. 17). Christ as the Son of Man — the One who is qualified and capable of sympathizing with God’s people in everything (Heb. 4:15) — came to be their Companion and take care of them in their suffering, by His presence making their place of suffering a pleasant situation.
Dn 3:25b son  -   Dan. 3:28; Job 1:6; 38:7; Psa. 34:7
Dn 3:26a servants  -   Dan. 6:20; Acts 16:17
Dn 3:26b Most  -   Gen. 14:18; Num. 24:16; Psa. 57:2; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28
Dn 3:27a no  -   Isa. 43:2; Heb. 11:34
Dn 3:28a angel  -   Psa. 34:7; Dan. 6:22-23; Acts 12:11
Dn 3:281 changed
The three young overcomers did not simply frustrate the king’s word — they changed it in nature and were not afraid to yield their bodies to be killed. Thus, they gained the victory over the seduction of idol worship. Because of their victory God could boast to Satan that even in his territory He had a people who worshipped Him.
Dn 3:28b bodies  -   1 Cor. 13:3
Daniel Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 4:1a peace  -   Dan. 6:25
Dn 4:3a eternal  -   Psa. 145:13; Dan. 2:44; 4:34; 6:26; 7:27; Luke 1:33; 2 Pet. 1:11
Dn 4:5a visions  -   Dan. 2:28-29
Dn 4:7a could  -   Dan. 2:10
Dn 4:8a Belteshazzar  -   Dan. 1:7
Dn 4:8b spirit  -   Isa. 63:11; Dan. 4:18; 5:11, 14
Dn 4:10a tree  -   Dan. 4:20; cf. Ezek. 31:3
Dn 4:13a watcher  -   Dan. 4:17, 23
Dn 4:13b holy  -   Deut. 33:2; Psa. 89:5, 7; Dan. 8:13; cf. Zech. 14:5; Jude 14
Dn 4:14a Cut  -   Ezek. 31:12; Matt. 3:10
Dn 4:16a periods  -   Dan. 4:32; 11:13; 12:7
Dn 4:171 Most
God taught Nebuchadnezzar to know that he was nothing and that the mighty God, who gives the kingdom of men to whomever He wills, is everything.
Dn 4:17a Ruler  -   Dan. 2:21; 4:25, 32; 5:21
Dn 4:17b gives  -   Rom. 13:1
Dn 4:18a not  -   Dan. 2:10; 5:8, 15
Dn 4:25a You  -   Dan. 4:32-33; 5:21
Dn 4:261a heavens  -   Matt. 3:2
The book of Daniel covers three crucial matters: God’s heavenly rule, the preeminence of Christ, and the destiny apportioned by God for His people. In His economy God administrates the universe, including all the kings and kingdoms on the earth, in order to fulfill His purpose, which is that Christ should be preeminent in all things (Col. 1:18). For Christ to be preeminent, God needs a chosen people to coordinate and cooperate with Him. Under the rule of the heavens, everything is working together for the good of God’s elect for the purpose of making Christ preeminent (Rom. 8:28-29).
Dn 4:291 twelve
God gave Nebuchadnezzar twelve months to repent. However, Nebuchadnezzar was void of the capacity to know God inwardly, and nothing within him was touched. Hence, there was no repentance and no change; rather, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with pride (vv. 30, 37; 5:20) and thus came under God’s judgment (Prov. 16:18; 1 Pet. 5:5).
Dn 4:30a Babylon  -   Rev. 14:8; 16:19
Dn 4:30b glory  -   cf. Matt. 4:8
Dn 4:32a And  -   Dan. 4:25; 5:21
Dn 4:321 beasts
According to his nature and his being, Nebuchadnezzar was not a man but a beast. For this reason, his heart was changed from that of a man, and a beast’s heart was given to him (v. 16). God also took away his human reasoning (cf. v. 34).
Dn 4:322 seven
The expression seven periods of time may refer to seven weeks, to forty-nine days.
Dn 4:341 reason
Because beasts walk on four legs, they look down, but humans walk on two feet and look up. Nebuchadnezzar’s reasoning came back as soon as he looked upward toward the heavens. Because he had changed, his reasoning returned.
Dn 4:34a ever-living  -   Dan. 12:7; Rev. 4:9-10
Dn 4:34b His  -   Dan. 4:3
Dn 4:35a nothing  -   Isa. 40:17
Dn 4:35b does  -   Psa. 115:3; 135:6
Dn 4:35c What  -   Job 9:12; Isa. 45:9; Rom. 9:20
Dn 4:37a pride  -   Exo. 18:11; Dan. 5:20; Luke 1:51
Daniel Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 5:11 Belshazzar
The son of Nabonidus and ruler of Babylon (555-538 B.C.) under him.
Dn 5:12 made
This was Belshazzar’s debauchery before God.
Dn 5:21 under
Or, when he tasted the wine.
Dn 5:2a vessels  -   Dan. 1:2; 2 Chron. 36:10; Jer. 52:19
Dn 5:41a gods  -   1 Cor. 8:5; Rev. 9:20
Belshazzar’s taking the vessels that were for God’s worship in His holy temple at Jerusalem and using them in worshipping idols was an insult to God’s holiness.
Dn 5:5a moment  -   Dan. 4:31
Dn 5:7a third  -   Dan. 5:29
Dn 5:8a nor  -   Dan. 2:27; 4:7
Dn 5:11a spirit  -   Dan. 4:8-9, 18
Dn 5:12a excellent  -   Dan. 6:3
Dn 5:12b Belteshazzar  -   Dan. 1:7
Dn 5:17a gifts  -   Gen. 14:23; 2 Kings 5:16
Dn 5:181 you
Before reading the writing and interpreting it, Daniel reminded Belshazzar of the experience of Nebuchadnezzar his forefather in ch. 4 (vv. 18-37). Daniel regarded what happened to Nebuchadnezzar as a lesson not only for Nebuchadnezzar but also for all his descendants. Belshazzar should have learned the lesson from Nebuchadnezzar’s experience; however, he did not learn the lesson and suffered as a result.
Dn 5:18a gave  -   Jer. 27:6; Dan. 2:37-38; 4:17, 22, 25
Dn 5:20a lifted  -   Dan. 4:30, 37
Dn 5:21a And  -   Dan. 4:25, 32
Dn 5:22a not  -   2 Chron. 33:23; 36:12
Dn 5:23a vessels  -   Dan. 5:3-4
Dn 5:23b gods  -   Psa. 115:4-6; 135:15-17; Rev. 9:20
Dn 5:23c breath  -   Gen. 2:7; Isa. 42:5; Acts 17:25
Dn 5:251 MENE
Meaning at the same time both mina, mina, shekel, and half-shekels (monetary units) and numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided; the last word of the inscription also closely resembles the Aramaic name for the Persians, paras.
Dn 5:27a scales  -   Job 31:6; Psa. 62:9
Dn 5:28a Medes  -   Isa. 13:17; Jer. 51:11; Dan. 5:31; 9:1
Dn 5:301 slain
This ended the Babylonian Empire. God used the Babylonian Empire for the purpose of carrying His corrupted and defeated elect into captivity. Near the end of the seventy years of their captivity, God caused the Medes and the Persians to become one for the purpose of ending the Babylonian Empire and releasing His people from their captivity in Babylon (Ezra 1:1-4). This is an illustration of how all kings and kingdoms are under God’s administration. See note 261 in ch. 4.
Daniel Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 6:1a kingdom  -   Esth. 1:1
Dn 6:3a excellent  -   Dan. 5:12
Dn 6:71 petition
The center of this chapter is man’s prayer for the carrying out of God’s economy. Through His faithful channels of prayer God carries out His economy with His elect for Christ’s coming. God desires to carry out His economy, but man is needed to pray for His economy on earth. Satan’s strategy is to frustrate the prayer that is for God’s move. The intention of the chief ministers and satraps was to destroy Daniel, but the intention of Satan, who was behind them, was to cut off the channel of prayer that God was using for the carrying out of His economy.
Dn 6:101 Daniel
Daniel had read Jeremiah’s prophecy that the children of Israel would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years (9:2b; Jer. 25:11). Standing on this word, he must have prayed many times for the fulfillment of this prophecy and for the return of the captives. He would not let anything stop or frustrate his prayer. He knew that his prayer was for the carrying out of God’s economy concerning His elect. Therefore, his prayer was a serious matter.
Dn 6:102 toward
See note 481 in 1 Kings 8.
Dn 6:10a Jerusalem  -   1 Kings 8:44, 48; Psa. 5:7; Jonah 2:4
Dn 6:10b three  -   Psa. 55:17; Acts 2:1-2, 15; 3:1; 10:9
Dn 6:16a serve  -   Acts 27:23
Dn 6:17a sealed  -   cf. Matt. 27:66
Dn 6:20a living  -   Josh. 3:10; 1 Sam. 17:26; 1 Thes. 1:9; 1 Tim. 4:10; Rev. 7:2
Dn 6:20b deliver  -   2 Tim. 4:17
Dn 6:22a angel  -   Dan. 3:28; Acts 12:11
Dn 6:22b lions’  -   Heb. 11:33
Dn 6:251 Then
Verses 25-28 reveal God’s victory over Satan in the worship of God on earth, even in a Gentile kingdom, through the overcomers in the captivity of His defeated elect. Daniel’s victory over the subtlety that prohibited the faithfulness of the overcomers in the worship of God was the last step of the victory over Satan’s devices. Without these overcomers God would have been fully defeated by Satan, having nothing on earth for Himself. God had four young overcomers living in the palace day by day who were absolutely one with Him. This was a shame to Satan and a boast to God.
Dn 6:25a peace  -   Dan. 4:1
Dn 6:26a kingdom  -   Dan. 2:44; 4:3, 34; 7:14, 27; Luke 1:33
Dn 6:28a Cyrus  -   Ezra 1:1-2; Dan. 1:21
Daniel Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 7:11 first
This was about 555 B.C., nineteen years before the return of the children of Israel from captivity in about 536 B.C.
Dn 7:12a visions  -   Dan. 2:19, 28; 2 Cor. 12:1
The section of this book from 1:3 — 6:28 speaks of the victory, in their captivity, of God’s degraded elect over Satan’s further devices. The section from 7:1 — 12:13 records the visions of the overcoming Daniel. Daniel’s faithfulness and victory gave him the position and the right angle to receive the visions from God.
Dn 7:21 four
The four winds of heaven signify moves of heaven from four directions, the stirring up of the Great Sea signifies the stirring up of the political situation around the Mediterranean Sea, and the four beasts that came up from the sea signify four great, fierce, cruel, and inhuman kings with their empires (v. 17). That the four winds are “of heaven” does not mean that heaven is the source of the four beasts but that heaven arranged the situation that produced them.
Dn 7:2a winds  -   Rev. 7:1
Dn 7:22 Great
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea. The sea signifies the Gentile nations (vv. 3, 17; Rev. 17:15). God’s economy in His creation was to make the Mediterranean area the center of culture up to the time of Columbus. Human culture has become a great sea full of winds and storms.
Dn 7:31 beasts
In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (2:31-45) human government on the earth was signified by a great human image full of glory and splendor. In the vision of God’s prophet Daniel in this chapter, the heads of human government on the earth, and the governments themselves, are signified by wild beasts.
Dn 7:3a came  -   Rev. 13:1
Dn 7:41 first
The first beast corresponds to the head of gold of the great human image in 2:32a, 36-38, signifying Babylon with its king, Nebuchadnezzar. Its being like a lion, the king of the beasts, signifies that it was the most fierce and cruel, and its having the wings of an eagle, the king of the fowls, signifies that it was in the air, which belongs to Satan, the ruler of the air (Eph. 2:2), and that its move was swift. The plucking of its wings signifies that its moving power was taken away and that it became like a beast in the field, as mentioned in 4:23-25a, 33. This beast became like a man standing on the earth with a man’s heart, as indicated in 4:25b, 32b, 34a.
Dn 7:4a lion  -   Rev. 13:2
Dn 7:4b eagle  -   Deut. 28:49; Jer. 4:13; 48:40
Dn 7:51a another  -   Dan. 2:39
The second beast corresponds to the breast and arms of silver of the great human image in 2:32b, 39a, signifying Medo-Persia. Its resembling a bear signifies that it was not as strong and swift as the lion but that it was still fierce and cruel. Its being raised up on one side signifies that Media and Persia became one dominion. That three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth signifies that three kingdoms, Babylon, Asia Minor, and Egypt, were devoured by it. Its being commanded to arise and devour much flesh signifies that it would devour more nations.
Dn 7:5b bear  -   Rev. 13:2
Dn 7:61a another  -   Dan. 2:39; 8:5; 11:3
The third beast corresponds to the abdomen and thighs of bronze of the great human image in 2:32c, 39b, signifying Greece with its king, Alexander the Great. Its being like a leopard signifies that it was fierce, cruel, and swift (Hab. 1:8a). That it had four wings of a bird on its back signifies that it was swift by means of its four generals. The beast had four heads, signifying that the four wings for swiftness became four heads, four generals who became the heads of four kingdoms. After the death of Alexander the Great, his four generals divided his empire into four kingdoms (see note 82 in ch. 8). That the beast was given dominion signifies that it was given authority to rule over the nations.
Dn 7:6b leopard  -   Rev. 13:2
Dn 7:6c four  -   Dan. 8:8, 22
Dn 7:71a fourth  -   Dan. 2:40; 7:19, 23
The fourth beast corresponds to the legs of iron and the feet and the toes, partly of iron and partly of clay, of the great human image in 2:33, 40-43, signifying the Roman Empire, and specifically Antichrist, the last Caesar of the Roman Empire (Rev. 17:7-11). This is the beast revealed in Rev. 13:1-2. The fourth beast was dreadful and frightful and exceedingly strong, as signified by iron. That it had large iron teeth and claws of bronze, and that it devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder (vv. 19, 23) signify that it had great power to devour and crush nations. The beast having ten horns signifies that it had ten kings (v. 24; Rev. 17:12-13), which are the ten toes of the great human image in ch. 2.
Dn 7:7b ten  -   Rev. 13:1; 12:3; 17:3, 7, 12
Dn 7:81a small  -   Dan. 7:20, 24; 8:9
A small horn coming up among the ten horns and three of the ten horns being uprooted before it (vv. 20b, 24) signifies that Antichrist will come up among the ten kings, and before him three of them will be destroyed. In this way Antichrist will become the strongest horn.
Dn 7:8b three  -   Dan. 7:20, 24
Dn 7:82 eyes
The small horn having eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things (vv. 20c, 25a) signifies that Antichrist will have sharp insight to perceive things and a mouth to speak blasphemous words against God (Rev. 13:5a, 6). Because of this, he will be slain, and his body will be destroyed and given to the burning fire (v. 11; Rev. 19:20).
Dn 7:8c great  -   Dan. 7:25; 11:36; Psa. 12:3; Rev. 13:5
Dn 7:9a thrones  -   Rev. 20:4
Dn 7:9b Ancient  -   Dan. 7:13, 22; Psa. 90:2
Dn 7:9c white  -   Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:3; Luke 9:29; Rev. 1:14
Dn 7:91 snow
See note 142 in Rev. 1.
Dn 7:9d hair  -   Rev. 1:14
Dn 7:92 fire
The fire here and in v. 10 means that God is absolutely righteous and altogether holy (Heb. 12:29). Without holiness no one can see the Lord or contact Him (Heb. 12:14 and note).
Dn 7:9e wheels  -   Ezek. 1:15-16
Dn 7:10a stream  -   cf. Rev. 22:1
Dn 7:10b fire  -   Psa. 50:3; 97:3; Isa. 66:15; Rev. 1:14
Dn 7:10c Thousands  -   1 Kings 22:19; Psa. 68:17; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 5:11; cf. Matt. 25:31; 26:53
Dn 7:101 court
A special court, with God’s throne as the center, has been set up in the universe to judge the four human empires signified by the four wild beasts (v. 26). Everything that is judged by this court will be cast into the burning fire.
Dn 7:10d books  -   Rev. 20:12
Dn 7:11a speaking  -   Rev. 13:5
Dn 7:11b beast  -   Rev. 19:20; 2 Thes. 2:8; cf. Dan. 8:25; 11:45
Dn 7:111 slain
See note 82.
Dn 7:121 extension
Although the dominion and authority of Babylon, Persia, and Greece were taken away, their life, i.e., their culture, has been extended and still remains. As each empire was defeated, its culture was adopted by each succeeding empire. Today the world’s culture is Roman, yet, being an accumulated culture, it contains the cultures of the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks.
Dn 7:131a Son  -   Matt. 16:27; 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27; Acts 1:11; Rev. 1:7; cf. Acts 7:56
Concerning His judgment, God has given all power and authority to Jesus Christ as the Son of Man (John 5:22, 27). Hence, vv. 13-14 describe the coming of Christ, the Son of Man. The coming here is Christ’s ascension after He accomplished the work of redemption (Acts 1:9; cf. Rev. 5:6 and note 1).
Dn 7:13b Ancient  -   Dan. 7:9
Dn 7:141a given  -   Psa. 2:6-8; 8:6; Matt. 11:27; 28:18; John 3:35; Rev. 2:27
In His ascension Christ as the Son of Man is before the throne of God to receive dominion and a kingdom. After He receives the kingdom from God, He will come back to rule over the entire world (Luke 19:12, 15). Christ’s coming will terminate the entire human government on earth from its end to its beginning, and it will bring in the eternal kingdom of God (2:34-35, 44).
As implied in Daniel’s vision, Christ accomplished redemption and then immediately came to God in ascension to receive the kingdom (cf. Rev. 5:6-7). This is according to God’s view, in which there is no time element. Like Abraham, David, and the other prophets, Daniel did not see the mystery of the church, which was hidden from the ages and from the generations but was revealed to the New Testament apostles and prophets (Eph. 3:3-11). He did not realize that between the first and second appearings of Christ there would be a period of time during which God would do a marvelous and mysterious work based on Christ’s redemption. This work is to regenerate His redeemed people and then sanctify them, renew them, transform them, and conform them to the glorious image of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3; 1 Thes. 5:23; 2 Cor. 4:16; 3:18; Rom. 8:29). Cf. note 11, par. 3, in Isa. 61.
Dn 7:14b kingdom  -   Dan. 2:44; 7:27; Psa. 145:13; Micah 4:7; Luke 1:33; John 18:36; Heb. 1:8
Dn 7:14c peoples  -   Dan. 3:4
Dn 7:15a spirit  -   2 Cor. 2:13
Dn 7:181a saints  -   Dan. 7:22, 27; Psa. 149:9; Isa. 60:12-14; 2 Tim. 2:11-12
I.e., holy ones. So throughout this chapter.
Dn 7:19a fourth  -   Dan. 7:7; Rev. 13:1
Dn 7:20a ten  -   Rev. 13:1; 17:3
Dn 7:20b horn  -   Dan. 8:9-11
Dn 7:211a waged  -   Dan. 8:12, 24; 11:31, 36; Rev. 11:7; 13:7; 17:14
Antichrist will wage war with the saints, wear out the saints of the Most High for three and a half years, and prevail against them (vv. 21, 25; Rev. 13:7a and note).
Dn 7:22a Ancient  -   Dan. 7:9
Dn 7:22b saints  -   Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 22:5; cf. Dan. 7:18
Dn 7:23a fourth  -   Dan. 2:40; Rev. 13:1
Dn 7:24a ten  -   Rev. 13:1; 17:3, 12
Dn 7:24b another  -   Dan. 7:7-8, 20; Rev. 17:12-13
Dn 7:25a speak  -   Isa. 37:23; Dan. 8:24-25; 11:28, 30-31, 36; Rev. 13:5-6
Dn 7:25b saints  -   Dan. 7:21; Rev. 13:7; cf. Rev. 17:6; 18:24
Dn 7:251c times  -   cf. Dan. 2:21
Times refers to the feasts appointed for the Jewish people (Lev. 23), and law, to the law of God given through Moses.
Dn 7:252 a
A time and times and half a time (12:7; Rev. 12:14) denotes a year (a time) plus two years (times) plus half a year (half a time), or three and a half years, i.e., forty-two months (Rev. 11:2; 13:5), one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Rev. 11:3; 12:6), referring to the last half of the last week prophesied in 9:27, the time of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21).
Dn 7:25d time  -   Dan. 12:7; Rev. 12:14; cf. Dan. 12:11; Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6; 13:5
Dn 7:26a court  -   Dan. 7:10
Dn 7:26b annihilate  -   2 Thes. 2:8
Dn 7:27a kingdom  -   Dan. 7:14
Dn 7:27b eternal  -   Dan. 2:44; Luke 1:33; Rev. 11:15
Dn 7:28a kept  -   Gen. 37:11; Luke 2:19, 51
Daniel Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 8:11 third
Cf. note 11 in ch. 7.
Dn 8:1a vision  -   Dan. 7:1
Dn 8:2a Shushan  -   Esth. 1:2
Dn 8:31a ram  -   Dan. 8:20; cf. Dan. 2:39; 7:5
The ram, corresponding to the second beast in 7:5 and to the breast and arms of silver of the great human image in ch. 2, signifies Medo-Persia (v. 20; 11:2). Its two horns signify Media and Persia. Persia with its king Cyrus (Ezra 1:1), which came up last, became higher than Media.
Dn 8:41 pushing
This signifies that Medo-Persia conquered Babylon to the west, Assyria to the north, and Egypt to the south.
Dn 8:42a did  -   Dan. 11:3
This indicates that Medo-Persia had no fear of God and became arrogant in itself. Eventually, God dealt with Medo-Persia by raising up Alexander the Great. Cf. note 181 in Zech. 1.
Dn 8:51 male
The male goat, corresponding to the third beast in 7:6 and to the abdomen and thighs of bronze of the great human image in ch. 2, signifies Greece with Alexander the Great (v. 21a; 11:3). Its coming from the west signifies that it came from Europe. Its coming over the face of the whole earth without touching the ground signifies its swift movement over the earth.
Dn 8:52 conspicuous
This signifies Alexander the Great as an extraordinary horn distinguished by his two sharp eyes. He was very intelligent.
Dn 8:5a horn  -   Dan. 8:21; cf. Dan. 11:3
Dn 8:71 broke
This indicates that Alexander the Great conquered Medo-Persia and destroyed it.
Dn 8:81 great
Alexander the Great became arrogant in himself. But as soon as he became strong in power, he died suddenly.
Dn 8:82a four  -   Dan. 7:6; 8:22; 11:4
In the place of Alexander the Great, his four generals (corresponding to the four wings and the four heads in 7:6), Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus, rose up toward the four ends of his empire to form nations in Macedonia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria, respectively (v. 22). This was the continuation of the Grecian Empire. Eventually, these four empires were merged and formed into two empires, one on the south (Egypt) and the other on the north (Syria). Chapter 11 describes the warfare between these two empires in the territory of Israel.
Dn 8:91 little
Or, a horn out of littleness. This horn signifies Antiochus IV Epiphanes from Syria, who ruled in 175-164 B.C. He expanded very much toward Egypt on the south, toward Syria on the east, and toward Israel, the beautiful land (11:16).
Dn 8:9a horn  -   Dan. 7:8; 11:21; Rev. 13:2
Dn 8:9b south  -   Dan. 11:25
Dn 8:9c beautiful  -   Psa. 48:2; Ezek. 20:6, 15; Dan. 11:16, 41, 45
Dn 8:101 as
The little horn growing great, as high as the host of heaven, and causing some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and trampling them (11:30b-35), signifies that he became great in power and persecuted the saints (signified by the host of heaven and the stars — 12:3). In all these evil things he typifies the coming Antichrist (Rev. 13:5-7; 2 Thes. 2:3b-4).
Dn 8:10a host  -   cf. Isa. 14:13; Dan. 11:28
Dn 8:10b stars  -   Rev. 12:4
Dn 8:111a Prince  -   Josh. 5:14
Signifying God.
Dn 8:112 from
Or, by him; i.e., the little horn. Antiochus Epiphanes stopped the daily sacrifices in the temple and defiled the temple with pigs and with fornication (11:31). Furthermore, he cast truth to the ground (v. 12), meaning that there was no righteousness or justice. In these evils also the little horn typifies Antichrist (9:27).
Dn 8:11b daily  -   Exo. 29:38; Num. 28:3; Ezek. 46:13; Dan. 11:31; 12:11
Dn 8:11c taken  -   Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11
Dn 8:11d sanctuary  -   Matt. 24:15
Dn 8:131 holy
Or, saint.
Dn 8:13a transgression  -   cf. Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11
Dn 8:141a two  -   cf. Dan. 12:11-12
The days for Antiochus Epiphanes to do evil things in the Holy Land would extend from about 171 B.C. until December 25, 165 B.C., the day when the Jewish hero Judas Maccabeus would cleanse the sanctuary after defeating Antiochus Epiphanes (vv. 25b-26). See note 221 in John 10.
Dn 8:142 cleansed
Lit., justified. The cleansing of the temple by the Maccabees was a justification, declaring that the temple was the holy place for God’s people to worship Him.
Dn 8:16a Gabriel  -   Dan. 9:21; Luke 1:19, 26
Dn 8:17a fell  -   Ezek. 1:28; Rev. 1:17
Dn 8:17b end  -   Dan. 8:19; 11:27, 35, 40; 12:4, 6-7, 9, 13
Dn 8:18a sleep  -   Dan. 10:9-10; cf. Luke 9:32
Dn 8:18b touched  -   Dan. 10:18; Matt. 17:7
Dn 8:19a end  -   Dan. 8:17
Dn 8:20a ram  -   Dan. 8:3
Dn 8:21a goat  -   Dan. 8:5
Dn 8:211 Javan
I.e., Greece.
Dn 8:21b king  -   Dan. 11:3
Dn 8:22a four  -   Dan. 8:8; 11:4
Dn 8:23a filled  -   Matt. 23:32; 1 Thes. 2:16
Dn 8:231 king
The little horn, Antiochus Epiphanes (v. 9).
Dn 8:23b arise  -   Dan. 8:9; 11:21; Rev. 13:5
Dn 8:232 Of
I.e., impudent (cf. Deut. 28:50).
Dn 8:233 ambiguities
Antiochus Epiphanes spoke in such a manner that his word could be interpreted in many different ways. In all the items mentioned in vv. 23-25, he typifies Antichrist (Rev. 13:2b, 6-7; 17:11, 14; 19:20).
Dn 8:24a power  -   Rev. 13:2; 2 Thes. 2:9; Rev. 13:7; 17:13, 17
Dn 8:24b holy  -   Dan. 7:25
Dn 8:25a deceit  -   Dan. 11:21, 23-24
Dn 8:25b magnify  -   Dan. 11:36; 2 Thes. 2:4
Dn 8:25c Prince  -   Dan. 8:11; 11:36
Dn 8:25d broken  -   Dan. 2:34, 45; 2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 19:20
Dn 8:26a shut  -   Ezek. 12:27; Dan. 10:14; 12:4, 9; Rev. 10:4; 22:10
Daniel Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 9:1a Darius  -   Dan. 5:31; 6:28
Dn 9:21 Scriptures
Or, the books. Daniel’s understanding of the prophecies in Jer. 25:11-12 and 29:10-14, concerning the seventy years of Israel’s captivity before the return of a remnant to Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:21-23), was the cause of the vision of the seventy weeks given to Daniel in this chapter.
Dn 9:2a seventy  -   2 Chron. 36:21; Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10; Zech. 7:5
Dn 9:31 seek
Daniel was in captivity in Babylon (vv. 1-2a); his heart was fully set on God and His people, His temple, and His holy city for God’s kingdom on earth (vv. 2b-19); and he was in his spirit, fully occupied with prayer and supplications to God (vv. 20-23). Thus, he had the proper standing and a proper angle to receive the revelation and see the vision from God (cf. notes 93, 101, and 121 in Rev. 1).
Dn 9:3a prayer  -   Neh. 1:4; Jer. 29:12-13; Dan. 6:10; James 4:8-10
Dn 9:4a great  -   Neh. 1:5; 9:32
Dn 9:4b lovingkindness  -   Exo. 20:6; Deut. 7:9
Dn 9:5a sinned  -   Dan. 9:15; 1 Kings 8:47-48; 2 Chron. 6:37; Neh. 1:6-7; Psa. 106:6
Dn 9:11a curse  -   Lev. 26:16; Deut. 27:15; 28:15; 29:20; 30:17-18
Dn 9:12a spoke  -   Zech. 1:6
Dn 9:12b has  -   Lam. 1:12; 2:13; Ezek. 5:9
Dn 9:15a brought  -   Exo. 6:1, 6; 32:11; 1 Kings 8:51
Dn 9:161 manifestations
Lit., Your righteousnesses.
Dn 9:16a mountain  -   Dan. 9:20; Zech. 8:3
Dn 9:17a shine  -   Num. 6:25; Psa. 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19
Dn 9:18a hear  -   2 Kings 19:16; Isa. 37:17
Dn 9:20a confessing  -   Psa. 32:5
Dn 9:211a Gabriel  -   Dan. 8:16; Luke 1:19
In his desperate prayer Daniel confessed his own sins and the sins of his people Israel (vv. 3-15) and requested that God recover the Holy Land, send His people back, and rebuild the holy city (vv. 16-19). God answered him by giving him the report through the angel Gabriel of the seventy weeks (vv. 20-27). This answer exceeded what Daniel requested.
Dn 9:21b evening  -   1 Kings 18:36
Dn 9:23a preciousness  -   Dan. 10:11, 19
Dn 9:241 Seventy
The contents of Daniel’s vision are the seventy weeks, which are the destiny apportioned by God for His people and for His holy city. The purpose of the seventy weeks is to close the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make propitiation for iniquity, to bring in the righteousness of the ages, to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. In the old creation under human government, transgression, sins, and iniquity are prevailing. When Christ comes to crush human government (2:34-35), at the time appointed, the transgression will be closed, sins will be ended, and iniquity will be propitiated. Then the righteousness of the ages will be brought in, the vision and prophet will be sealed, and the Holy of Holies will be anointed.
Dn 9:242 make
Or, seal up.
Dn 9:24a propitiation  -   Isa. 53:10; Heb. 9:12
Dn 9:243b righteousness  -   Isa. 53:11; Jer. 23:5-6; Rom. 3:21-22
When Christ returns and the age is consummated, there will be no more unrighteousness on the earth. After the Lord’s return all the evil persons and things on earth will be swept into the lake of fire (Matt. 13:30; 25:32-33, 41; Rev. 19:19-21), and Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss (Rev. 20:1-3). At the end of the millennium the deceived nations (with Satan) will be removed in the last rebellion of mankind against God (Rev. 20:7-10), and after the millennium the dead unbelievers and the demons will be cleared away through the judgment at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Beginning with the millennium there will be the eternal kingdom of Christ with His righteousness, which is the righteousness of the ages, the eternal righteousness. In the millennium Christ will be the righteous One (Jer. 23:5), and He will rule the thousand-year kingdom in righteousness (Isa. 11:4-5). Ultimately, in the age of the ages, righteousness will dwell in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (2 Pet. 3:13 and note 3).
Dn 9:244 seal
To seal up vision and prophet is to close the age of mystery at the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Rev. 10:7 and note 2). Since all the mysteries of God will be fulfilled, there will be no need of visions or prophets. In the kingdom age there will be kings and priests (Rev. 20:6) but no prophets.
Dn 9:245c anoint  -   cf. Exo. 30:26; 40:9
At the time of Daniel’s prayer, the Holy of Holies was contaminated, defiled, and devastated. But when the apportioned time comes, the Holy of Holies will be properly anointed. This means that the service to God will be recovered (see note 311, par. 2, in ch. 11, and notes 112 and 121 in ch. 12).
Dn 9:25a restore  -   Neh. 2:5-8
Dn 9:25b Messiah  -   John 1:20, 41; cf. Luke 4:18
Dn 9:25c Prince  -   Isa. 55:4
Dn 9:251 seven
The seventy weeks are divided into three parts, each week being seven years in length (see “The Chart of the Seventy Weeks and the Coming of Christ, with the Rapture of the Saints” at the end of the New Testament). First, seven weeks (forty-nine years) were apportioned from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1-8) to the completion of the rebuilding. Second, sixty-two weeks (434 years) were apportioned from the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the cutting off (crucifixion) of the Messiah (v. 26). Third, the last week of seven years will be for Antichrist to make a firm covenant with the people of Israel (v. 27).
There is a gap of unknown duration between the first sixty-nine weeks and the last week of the seventy weeks. This gap is the age of mystery, the age of grace, the age of the church (Eph. 3:3-11; 5:32; Col. 1:27). During this age Christ is secretly and mysteriously building up the church in the new creation to be His Body and His bride (Eph. 5:25-32). When the new creation has become mature in life, it will be attached to Christ and become one with Him to be His counterpart (Rev. 19:7-9). At the end of the last week of the seventy weeks, after Christ has married His bride, He with His bridal army will come as the stone cut out without hands and will crush the great human image from the toes to the head, destroying the human government that fights against God directly. Through this crushing the problem of human government in the old creation will be solved. Then Christ with His overcomers will increase to become a great mountain that fills the whole earth (2:34-35 and notes).
Dn 9:252 street
Referring to the wide open plaza of the city or the free open space before the temple; hence, the street.
Dn 9:261a cut  -   Isa. 53:8; Mark 9:12; Luke 24:26, 46; 1 Cor. 15:3
This refers to the crucifixion of Christ, which was the termination of the old creation, with the human government in the old creation, and the germination of God’s new creation through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), with God’s eternal kingdom as the divine administration in God’s new creation. Thus, the cross of Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s work.
The book of Daniel bears a particular characteristic: to draw the marking lines of the ages. First, the crucifixion of Christ in His first appearing is the landmark that terminated the age of the old creation for the germination of the age of the new creation in Christ’s resurrection. In His crucifixion Christ, the last Adam, terminated the old creation (2 Cor. 5:14), and in His resurrection He became the germinating Spirit, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), to germinate all God’s chosen people in His resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3) to be God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This new creation begins with the believers in Christ as God’s sons (Gal. 3:26) and as Christ’s members who constitute His Body (1 Cor. 12:27). This Body will grow (Eph. 4:13-16) and will eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21 — 22). Second, the upcoming appearing of Christ with His overcomers as His bride will be the landmark that will end the age of man’s government on earth in the old creation and will initiate the age of God’s dominion over the entire earth in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (2:34-35, 44; 7:13-14). Although in His first appearing Christ terminated the old creation spiritually through His death on the cross, the human government that began with Nimrod continues to exist. For this reason there is the need of Christ’s second appearing, in which Christ will clear up the human government in the old creation physically and will usher in the universal and eternal kingdom of God. By Christ’s appearing in these two aspects, and by the ruling of the heavens over all the environment on earth, Christ, who is the centrality and universality of God’s economy and of God’s move, will become the centrality and universality of God’s elect, including Israel and the church.
Dn 9:26b people  -   Matt. 22:7; Luke 19:43-44; 21:20
Dn 9:262 prince
Titus, the prince of the Roman Empire, who came with His army in A.D. 70 to destroy the city and the sanctuary, the temple, as prophesied by the Lord Jesus in Matt. 24:2.
Dn 9:26c sanctuary  -   Matt. 24:2
Dn 9:263 war
From the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 until the seventy weeks are completed, there has been and will be war after war.
Dn 9:271 he
Referring to Antichrist, typified here by Titus, the prince mentioned in v. 26. At the beginning of the last week of the seventy weeks, the last seven years of the present age, Antichrist will make a firm covenant of peace with Israel. In the middle of that week he will break the covenant and will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease (12:11a). This will be the beginning of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), which will last for three and a half years (7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5). During the great tribulation both the faithful Jews and the Christians still on earth will suffer Antichrist’s persecution (7:21, 25; Rev. 13:7). After he causes the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, Antichrist will replace them with the abominations of the desolator (the idols of Antichrist — 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Rev. 13:14-15; 2 Thes. 2:4). These idols will remain in the temple for three and a half years, even until the complete destruction that has been determined is poured out upon the desolator, Antichrist (2:34-35a; 2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 17:14; 19:20).
The fact that the temple will be devastated and contaminated by Antichrist strongly indicates that the temple, which has not been rebuilt since it was destroyed by Titus and the Roman army in A.D. 70, will be rebuilt by the Jews before the completion of the seventy weeks. This will be one of the final signs that will take place before Christ’s return.
Dn 9:27a middle  -   cf. Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 13:5
Dn 9:272 will
Lit., upon the wing of abominations will be a desolator. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain; the translation offered is based on the events recorded in 11:31.
Dn 9:273b abominations  -   Dan. 8:13; 11:31; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14; Rev. 13:14
See notes 152 and 153 in Matt. 24.
Daniel Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 10:11 third
About 534 B.C., two years after the issuing of the decree by Cyrus to release the captives of Israel that they might return to the land of their forefathers and rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1-4). See note 211 in ch. 1.
Dn 10:1a Cyrus  -   2 Chron. 36:22; Isa. 45:1; Dan. 1:21; 6:28
Dn 10:1b Belteshazzar  -   Dan. 1:7
Dn 10:12 distress
Or, conflict, warfare. The main subject of the vision in this chapter concerning the destiny of Israel is the great distress, which came upon Israel because of a war between the king of the south (Egypt) and the king of the north (Syria). The two kings waged war against each other on Israel’s land, using it as a thoroughfare to invade each other (11:2-35). These wars were a distress, a trial, to the children of Israel. This was especially true of the war that was waged by Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, a descendant of one of the four successors of Alexander the Great and a full type of Antichrist. This was a severe trial sent by God to His chosen people because they had become corrupt after their return from captivity.
Dn 10:21 three
For twenty-one days Daniel, a man on the earth, set his heart to understand the future, the destiny, of Israel (vv. 2-3, 12).
Dn 10:3a anoint  -   Matt. 6:17
Dn 10:41 Hiddekel
I.e., the Tigris.
Dn 10:51 man
Before the vision concerning the destiny of Israel was unveiled to Daniel, he was given a vision of the spiritual scene that is behind the physical situation (10:2 — 11:1). In this spiritual scene Christ is preeminent; hence, He is revealed first (vv. 4-9). Here the excellent Christ appeared to Daniel as a man for his appreciation, consolation, encouragement, expectation, and stabilization (cf. notes 21 in Gen. 18 and 61 in Judg. 13). He appeared to Daniel with many wonderful characteristics. First, He appeared as a Priest in His humanity, signified by the linen robe (Exo. 28:31-35), to care for His chosen people in their captivity. Second, He appeared to Daniel in His kingship in His divinity, signified by the girdle of gold, for ruling over all the peoples. Furthermore, for His people’s appreciation Christ appeared in His preciousness and dignity, as signified by His body being like beryl (v. 6a). The Hebrew word for beryl could refer to a bluish-green or yellow precious stone, signifying that Christ in His embodiment is divine (yellow), full of life (green), and heavenly (blue). Christ also appeared in His brightness for shining over the people, as signified by His face being like the appearance of lightning (v. 6b), and in His enlightening sight for searching and judging, as signified by His eyes being like torches of fire (v. 6c). Moreover, Christ appeared in the gleam of His work and move, as signified by His arms and His feet being like the gleam of polished bronze (v. 6d). Finally, Christ appeared to Daniel in His strong speaking for judging people, as signified by the sound of His words being like the sound of a multitude (v. 6e). As a man, the very centrality and universality of God’s move on earth for the carrying out of His economy, such a Christ is precious, valuable, complete, and perfect. Cf. Rev. 1:13-16 and notes.
Dn 10:5a clothed  -   Dan. 12:6-7
Dn 10:5b girded  -   Rev. 1:13
Dn 10:6a beryl  -   Ezek. 1:16
Dn 10:6b lightning  -   Ezek. 1:14; Matt. 28:3
Dn 10:6c fire  -   Rev. 1:14; 19:12
Dn 10:6d bronze  -   Ezek. 1:7; Rev. 1:15
Dn 10:6e sound  -   Ezek. 1:24; Rev. 1:15
Dn 10:71 alone
Because the vision of Christ was spiritual, not physical, it was seen only by Daniel and not by those who relied on their physical sight. In seeing the vision of Christ, the physical view avails nothing (cf. Matt. 16:16-17; Acts 9:1-9; Gal. 1:15-16).
Dn 10:7a not  -   2 Kings 6:17; Acts 9:7
Dn 10:81 deathly
Lit., to destruction.
Dn 10:10a touched  -   Dan. 9:21; Rev. 1:17
Dn 10:111 he
After the vision of Christ, an angelic messenger (he might have been Gabriel — 8:16; 9:21; cf. Luke 1:19, 26) came to Daniel in answer to his prayer (v. 12). He told Daniel that for twenty-one days he himself had been fighting against the prince of the kingdom of Persia (v. 13, cf. v. 20a), probably an evil spirit, a rebellious angel, who followed Satan in his rebellion against God (Rev. 12:4a, 9b) and who was commissioned by Satan to help Persia. Thus, while Daniel was praying during those days, a spiritual struggle was taking place in the air between two spirits, one belonging to Satan and the other belonging to God. Another evil spirit, the prince of Greece (Javan), was about to come (v. 20b). Only the archangel Michael, a prince fighting for Israel, fought together with the angelic messenger against the evil spirits (vv. 13, 21; cf. Jude 9). Moreover, the angelic messenger stood up to support and strengthen Darius the Mede in the first year of his reign in order that he might receive the kingdom (11:1; 5:30-31). All this indicates that behind the physical scene a spiritual struggle, an invisible spiritual war, was taking place (cf. Eph. 6:10-20). See note 121, par. 2, in Isa. 14.
Dn 10:11a preciousness  -   Dan. 9:23
Dn 10:12a set  -   Dan. 9:3-4
Dn 10:12b heard  -   Dan. 9:22-23; Acts 10:4, 31
Dn 10:13a Michael  -   Dan. 10:21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7
Dn 10:201 Javan
I.e., Greece.
Dn 10:21a Michael  -   Dan. 10:13; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7
Daniel Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 11:11 I
The angelic messenger in ch. 10; see note 111 there.
Dn 11:1a Darius  -   Dan. 5:31; 9:1
Dn 11:21 truth
The contents of the vision in this chapter concern the destiny of Israel from the last part of the kingdom of Persia to the last three and a half years of the present age, even extending to the kingdom age and eternity, as the truth that was inscribed in the writing of truth (10:21), told to Daniel by the angelic messenger (11:2 — 12:13). The vision in this chapter provides further details regarding the Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, and the Roman Empire, to the very end of the Roman Empire under Antichrist in the last three and a half years of this age (see note 321, par. 2, in ch. 2).
Dn 11:2a fourth  -   Dan. 8:4
Dn 11:22 Javan
I.e., Greece.
Dn 11:31 mighty
I.e., Alexander the Great (8:5-8a, 20-21; 7:5-6a), the king of Greece, who defeated Persia in about 330 B.C.
Dn 11:3a king  -   Dan. 7:6; 8:5-8, 21
Dn 11:41 broken
Shortly after defeating the kingdom of Persia, Alexander the Great died, and his kingdom was divided into four kingdoms under his four generals (8:8b, 22; 7:6b). Two of these kingdoms, Egypt and Syria, fought wars back and forth through the land of Israel. Eventually, this chapter stresses the kingdoms and evils of two kings: Antiochus Epiphanes, one of the kings of the north (vv. 21-35), and Antichrist, the king of the restored Roman Empire (vv. 36-45).
Dn 11:4a four  -   Dan. 8:8, 22
Dn 11:42 his
Lit., these.
Dn 11:51 king
Verses 5-20 speak of the wars fought back and forth between the king of the south (Egypt) and the king of the north (Syria). As these kings fought each other, they passed through Israel. Thus, Israel was in distress (10:1).
Dn 11:91 the
Lit., he.
Dn 11:101 the
Lit., him.
Dn 11:111 the
Lit., he.
Dn 11:112 the
Lit., him.
Dn 11:121 the
Lit., him.
Dn 11:151 king
The prophecy in vv. 15-19 concerns Antiochus the Great (the father of Antiochus Epiphanes), who defeated Egypt in 200 B.C. and was eventually killed in a revolt in 187 B.C.
Dn 11:161 the
Lit., him.
Dn 11:162a beautiful  -   Dan. 8:9
I.e., the land of Israel.
Dn 11:171 terms
Lit., upright things.
Dn 11:172 the
Lit., him.
Dn 11:181 coastlands
I.e., the islands and shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Dn 11:191 the
Lit., he.
Dn 11:201 splendor
I.e., Judea, or more specifically, Jerusalem.
Dn 11:211a despicable  -   Dan. 7:8; 8:9, 23, 25
I.e., Antiochus Epiphanes. Verses 21-35 and 8:23-25 describe the kingdom and the evils of Antiochus Epiphanes as one of the kings of the north. He is emphasized in this chapter because, as a full type of Antichrist, he did much to damage and defile the temple (v. 31).
Dn 11:221 prince
I.e., the prince allied to him.
Dn 11:23a deceit  -   Dan. 8:25
Dn 11:27a end  -   Dan. 8:17; Matt. 24:6
Dn 11:281 the
Lit., he.
Dn 11:301a Kittim  -   Num. 24:24; Jer. 2:10
I.e., Cyprus; but the term is probably used here generally, to refer to all the Mediterranean lands.
Dn 11:311 profane
The armies of Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the sanctuary, removed the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination that desolates. Sacrifices, circumcision, and keeping the Sabbath were absolutely forbidden. Antiochus Epiphanes even went so far as to erect an altar to Zeus on the altar of burnt offering in the temple. Moreover, he set up his own image in the temple, sacrificed a sow on the altar, and sprinkled its blood in the temple. He forced the holy people to worship the idol and eat pork, and he seduced young men to commit fornication in the temple. In all these evils Antiochus Epiphanes typifies Antichrist, who will appear in the last week of the seventy weeks (9:27; Rev. 13:1-7). See note 271 in ch. 9.
According to this book the great human image in 2:31-45 destroys and desecrates the temple of God four times. The first time was by the head, Nebuchadnezzar (1:1-2; 2 Chron. 36:18-19); the second time was by Antiochus Epiphanes, a descendant of one of the four generals of Alexander the Great’s Grecian Empire (8:9-14; 11:31-32); the third time was by Titus, a prince of the Roman Empire, in A.D. 70 (9:26; Matt. 24:2); and the fourth time will be by Antichrist, part of the ten toes of the restored Roman Empire, in the middle of the last seven years of this age (9:27; 12:7, 11). All these instances show that the center, the aim, and the goal of Satan’s struggle against God is related to the temple, which typifies first Christ as God’s embodiment (John 2:19-21) and then the church, the Body of Christ, as the enlargement of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:20-22). God desires to have a place on earth where His people can worship Him, as a testimony that He still has an interest on this earth; but Satan is always struggling to destroy this place (cf. Matt. 16:18; John 2:19). Ultimately, as revealed in the New Testament, Satan will be fully destroyed (Rev. 20:10), and the church as God’s house (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5), the mingling of God with His redeemed people, will be fully built up in Christ’s resurrection and will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the center of the new heaven and the new earth for eternity (Rev. 21 — 22).
Dn 11:31a sacrifice  -   Dan. 8:11; 12:11
Dn 11:312b abomination  -   Dan. 8:13; 9:27; 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14; Rev. 13:4, 14
Cf. note 152 in Matt. 24.
Dn 11:321 people
Referring to Judas Maccabeus and his people, who were encouraged and strengthened by this word in the book of Daniel to take action against Antiochus Epiphanes. The Maccabees defeated him and cleansed the temple. See notes 141 and 142 in ch. 8.
Dn 11:331 those
Or, the teachers of the people. So also until the end of the book. Antiochus Epiphanes persecuted and slew the devoted Jews (vv. 33-35). In this also he typifies Antichrist, who will persecute and kill God’s people at the end of this age (Rev. 13:7 and note).
Dn 11:35a refine  -   Dan. 12:10; 1 Pet. 1:7
Dn 11:351 the
Lit., them.
Dn 11:35b end  -   Dan. 8:17; Matt. 24:6
Dn 11:361a exalt  -   Dan. 7:8, 25; 8:11, 23, 25; 2 Thes. 2:4; Rev. 13:5-6
See note 41 in 2 Thes. 2. Whereas vv. 21-35 refer to Antiochus Epiphanes, the type, vv. 36-45 refer to Antichrist, the fulfillment (cf. 9:26-27). In this chapter there is a gap in the chronicle of history from the ending of the ruling of the four successors of Alexander the Great (from about the second half of the last century B.C., the time when the Roman Empire rose up to take the place of the kingdom of Greece and become the world power that will end the present age) to the last three and a half years of the present age. In this gap is the church age of mystery (Eph. 3:3-11; 5:32).
Dn 11:37a nor  -   Isa. 14:13; 2 Thes. 2:4
Dn 11:411a beautiful  -   Dan. 11:16
I.e., the land of Israel.
Dn 11:41b Edom  -   Isa. 11:14
Dn 11:431 Cushites
I.e., Ethiopians.
Dn 11:451a beautiful  -   Dan. 11:16, 24; Psa. 48:2; cf. 2 Thes. 2:4
Referring to Zion, where Jerusalem is.
Dn 11:452 come
Antichrist will come to his end when Christ as the stone cut out without hands comes with His bride to smash the great human image from the toes to the head (2:34-35 and notes).
Dn 11:45b end  -   2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 19:20
Daniel Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Dn 12:11 time
The time referred to here is the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20b), the last three and a half years of the present age (v. 7; 7:25b). That will be a time of distress, the time of the great tribulation (Jer. 30:7a; Matt. 24:15-26), during which the shattering of the power of the holy people will be completed (v. 7b; 7:25b; Rev. 13:5, 7a; 11:2). The vision in this chapter covers things in the last three and a half years of the present age, things in the kingdom age, and things in eternity.
Dn 12:12a Michael  -   Dan. 10:13, 21; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7
See note 111 in ch. 10.
Dn 12:1b distress  -   Isa. 26:20-21; Jer. 30:7; Matt. 24:21; Mark 13:19; cf. Rev. 3:10
Dn 12:1c never  -   Rev. 16:18
Dn 12:13d book  -   Exo. 32:32; Ezek. 13:9; Luke 10:20; cf. Rev. 7:3
Those of the people of Israel who are found written in God’s book of life will be delivered out of the hand of Antichrist. When Christ comes back to set up the kingdom, the small number of remaining Jews, the remnant of Israel (Zech. 13:8 — 14:2 and notes), will see Christ descending in the air and will repent, receive Him, and be saved and regenerated (Zech. 12:10-14; 14:4-5; Matt. 24:30; Rom. 11:26-27; Rev. 1:7). However, because they will be the later believers, they will not participate in the heavenly section of the kingdom as kings and priests, but rather will be kept on the earth to be the priests of God (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23) in the earthly section of the thousand-year kingdom. See note 22 in Matt. 3.
In the millennial kingdom there will be three groups of people: (1) the overcoming believers in the heavenly section as kings and priests in the heavenlies (see note 64 in Rev. 20); (2) the saved Jews who will be on the earth as the priests teaching the restored nations (see note 201 in Zech. 8); and (3) the restored nations as the citizens under the ruling of the overcoming believers as the co-kings of Christ and also under the teaching and care of the saved Jews (see notes 321 and 341 in Matt. 25). After the thousand years of the age of the kingdom, the old heaven and the old earth will be burned in order to be renewed (2 Pet. 3:12-13 and notes) and become a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1). At that time the Jews who are saved and regenerated by the Lord in His second coming will join all the believing saints of the Old Testament age and the New Testament age to be the New Jerusalem as God’s dwelling place and expression for eternity (Rev. 21:12, 14). The nations who remain at the end of the millennium will be transferred to the land in the new earth to be the citizens forever (Rev. 21:24-26; 22:2b). That will be the eternal kingdom of God, in which God’s chosen, created, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified people, who are one with God for eternity, will rule over and teach the restored (but not regenerated) nations, who will be the citizens in the new heaven and the new earth. Eventually, in eternity in His eternal kingdom God will have His priests, His kings, and His people (Rev. 22:3, 5; 21:3) forever.
Dn 12:2a sleeping  -   Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thes. 4:14-15
Dn 12:2b awake  -   John 5:29; Acts 24:15
Dn 12:21c life  -   Matt. 25:46
At the end of the great tribulation the sleeping (i.e., dead — 1 Cor. 15:51) saints will rise in the resurrection of life to meet with Christ in the air (vv. 2a, 13; John 5:28-29a; 1 Thes. 4:16-17; 2 Thes. 2:1, 3-4, 8; Rev. 14:14-16). After the millennium, the kingdom age, those who died as unbelievers will rise in the resurrection of judgment and will suffer eternal reproach and contempt in eternity forever and ever (v. 2b; John 5:29b; Rev. 20:15).
Dn 12:31a shine  -   Prov. 4:18; Dan. 11:35; Matt. 13:43
The overcomers mentioned in this verse will shine in the kingdom age (Matt. 13:43). Together with those in v. 10 and with Daniel in v. 13, they will participate in the kingdom and will continue their enjoyment of the eternal life in eternity forever.
Dn 12:3b stars  -   Gen. 22:17; 1 Cor. 15:41-42
Dn 12:4a seal  -   Dan. 8:26; Rev. 10:4; 22:10
Dn 12:4b end  -   Dan. 8:17; Matt. 24:6
Dn 12:6a linen  -   Dan. 10:5
Dn 12:7a hand  -   Deut. 32:40
Dn 12:71 a
See note 252 in ch. 7.
Dn 12:7b time  -   Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:14
Dn 12:7c completed  -   Luke 21:24; Rev. 10:7
Dn 12:9a end  -   Dan. 8:17
Dn 12:101 cleansed
Lit., whitened.
Dn 12:10a refined  -   Dan. 11:35; Zech. 13:9
Dn 12:111 daily
See note 271 in ch. 9.
Dn 12:11a sacrifice  -   Dan. 8:11; 11:31
Dn 12:11b abomination  -   Dan. 8:13; 9:27; 11:31; Matt. 24:15
Dn 12:112c thousand  -   cf. Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6
At the end of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days of the great tribulation Antichrist will be fully destroyed by Christ (2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 19:20). At the beginning of the millennium, the kingdom age, thirty more days will be needed to cleanse and clear up the contaminated, devastated, and defiled temple. Just as the Maccabees cleansed the temple after it had been defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes (8:14 and notes), so the saved Jews will cleanse the temple at the beginning of the millennial kingdom.
Dn 12:121 thousand
After the cleansing of the temple mentioned in v. 11, forty-five days will be needed to recover the destroyed system of the worship of God with the daily sacrifices. Thus, from the time that Antichrist causes the offerings to cease to the day the Israelites enjoy the offerings again will be 1335 days. The restoration of the sacrifices will be a great blessing to the people of Israel (Joel 2:14).
Dn 12:13a rest  -   Isa. 57:2; Rev. 14:13
Dn 12:131 rise
Indicating that Daniel will be resurrected to enjoy his lot in the kingdom age. See note 31.
Dn 12:13b end  -   Dan. 8:17
< Daniel • Hosea Outline >
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Hosea Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   A wife of harlotries — 1:2 — 3:5
A.   The prophet Hosea taking a wife of harlotries — 1:2-9
B.   Promise of restoration — 1:10 — 2:1
C.   The harlotries of the wife of the prophet Hosea — 2:2-13
D.   Jehovah’s restoration of the adulterous and apostate Israel — 2:14-23
E.   The confirmation of God’s faithful restoration of Israel — 3:1-5
III.   A people of apostasy — 4:1 — 13:16
A.   The sins of Israel and the punishments of Jehovah — 4:1 — 5:14; 6:4-10
1.   Concerning the people in general — 4:1-3
2.   Concerning the priests — 4:4-10
3.   Concerning fornication, wine, and harlotries — 4:11-14
4.   Concerning Israel’s stubbornness — 4:15-19
5.   Mainly concerning the priests, the house of the king, and the princes — 5:1-14; 6:4-10
B.   The return of the apostate people — 5:15 — 6:3, 11
C.   The sins of Israel in forsaking Jehovah — 7:1-16
D.   Jehovah’s punishments on Israel because of their forsaking of Him — 8:1-14
E.   The idolatry of Israel against Jehovah and the punishments of Jehovah upon Israel — 9:1 — 10:15
F.   Jehovah’s unchanging love subduing Israel’s stubborn unchastity — 11:1 — 13:16
IV.   The restoration of Israel — 14:1-9
Hosea >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Hosea Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 1:11 The
The Minor Prophets are composed of twelve books, from Hosea to Malachi. In ancient times these books might have been considered one book. “The book of the prophets” mentioned by Stephen in Acts 7:42, in his quoting of Amos 5:25-27, might refer to this collective book. These twelve books complete the divine revelation concerning God’s economy in His dealings with His elect (Israel) and the nations, which is covered in detail in the books of the Major Prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. All the books of both the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets were called by the Lord Jesus “the Prophets,” in which things were written concerning Him (Luke 24:44). Thus, the central point of all the Prophets is Christ (cf. Luke 24:27; John 5:39).
Like the Major Prophets, the Minor Prophets unveil that God’s economy in His loving chastisement of Israel, in His governmental dealing with Israel, and in His judgment upon the nations issues in the manifestation of Christ as the centrality and universality in God’s economy to bring in the kingdom, the age of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21), which will usher the old and ruined universe into the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-2).
Ho 1:12 Hosea
Meaning salvation, or deliverance (cf. Num. 13:16). The object of Hosea’s ministry was the adulterous and apostate kingdom of Israel. As to Israel’s condition, they were adulterous; as to their position, they were apostate. This book reveals that regardless of how adulterous Israel is as the wife to Jehovah and how apostate Israel is as the people to Him, He still desires that she would return to Him. If she would return to Him, He would still receive her, bring her back, and restore her.
Ho 1:1a Uzziah  -   2 Chron. 26:1; Isa. 1:1
Ho 1:1b Jotham  -   2 Kings 15:5, 7; Micah 1:1
Ho 1:1c Ahaz  -   2 Kings 16:1
Ho 1:1d Hezekiah  -   2 Kings 18:1
Ho 1:1e Jeroboam  -   2 Kings 14:16
Ho 1:21 wife
The crucial emphasis of the revelation released by all the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi is that God wants to have an organic union with His chosen people. In this union God is His people’s life and they are His expression. In this way God and His chosen people become a universal couple (Rev. 22:17 and note 1, par. 2). Because this is God’s intention in His eternal economy, both the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets speak of God as the Husband and of God’s chosen people as the wife. This thought is fully developed in the New Testament. See note 62, par. 2, in Exo. 20.
Ho 1:22 harlotries
The prophet Hosea took Gomer, a wife of harlotries (vv. 2-3). This symbolized that God took Israel as His wife, one who gave herself to harlotries and who departed from Jehovah. God told Hosea to do what He Himself had done, and Hosea did what God commanded him.
Ho 1:2a harlotry  -   Deut. 31:16; Psa. 73:27; Jer. 2:20
Ho 1:41 Jezreel
Symbolizing that God would avenge the bloodshed at Jezreel (2 Kings 10:1-11) upon the house of Jehu and would bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel (2 Kings 15:10-12).
Ho 1:42 avenge
Or, visit (i.e., in order to avenge).
Ho 1:4a bloodshed  -   2 Kings 10:7-11
Ho 1:4b end  -   2 Kings 15:10, 12
Ho 1:5a bow  -   2 Kings 15:29
Ho 1:61 Lo-ruhamah
Meaning she has not obtained compassion and symbolizing that God would no longer have compassion on the house of Israel.
Ho 1:6a house  -   2 Kings 17:6, 23
Ho 1:7a house  -   2 Kings 19:35
Ho 1:91 Lo-ammi
Meaning not My people and symbolizing that Israel was not God’s people and God would not belong to her.
Ho 1:9a not  -   Rom. 9:25; cf. Exo. 6:7
Ho 1:101 number
The word in 1:10 — 2:1 is God’s promise of restoration to the children of Israel. This promise is a matter of grace. Grace follows sin. Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more (Rom. 5:20).
Ho 1:102a sand  -   Gen. 32:12; Rom. 9:27-28
See note 171 in Gen. 22.
Ho 1:10b And  -   Rom. 9:26; 1 Pet. 2:10
Ho 1:103c sons  -   2 Cor. 6:18; Rev. 21:7; cf. Matt. 16:16; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1
Sons of the living God indicates regeneration. When God fulfills His new covenant with Israel (Jer. 31:31-34 and note 311), He will regenerate them, putting Himself into them as their life to make them the sons of God. Thus, Israel will be not merely the people of God but also the sons of God.
Ho 1:11a gathered  -   Jer. 3:18; Ezek. 34:23; 37:16-25
Ho 1:111 Jezreel
Meaning God sows, or God will sow. The day of Jezreel is the day for the people of Israel to be sown in the Holy Land by God (v. 11; 2:22-23). Today God has sown the children of Israel back in their fathers’ land, and no one can pluck them out again.
Hosea Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 2:11 Ammi
Meaning My people.
Ho 2:12 Ruhamah
Meaning she has obtained compassion. The two names in this verse indicate that ultimately Israel will be perfected by God. Under the victory of God’s love, Israel will become God’s people and obtain His compassion. See note 11 in ch. 11.
Ho 2:2a mother  -   Isa. 50:1
Ho 2:21 not
The harlotries of Gomer, the wife of the prophet Hosea, symbolize the adulteries of Israel as the unchaste wife of Jehovah (vv. 2-13). In a sense, God divorced Israel, but He did this with the strong intention of receiving her back again.
Ho 2:2b harlotries  -   Ezek. 16:20
Ho 2:3a born  -   Ezek. 16:4
Ho 2:5a harlot  -   Isa. 1:21; Jer. 3:1, 6, 8-9; Ezek. 16:15-16
Ho 2:51 lovers
Israel’s lovers were her idols.
Ho 2:61 Her
Following the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, your.
Ho 2:71 I
This indicates that although Israel would stubbornly pursue her lovers (her idols), eventually she would return to God as her first Husband.
Ho 2:7a return  -   Hosea 5:15; 6:1; 14:1; Jer. 3:22; 31:18; Lam. 3:40; Luke 15:18
Ho 2:7b husband  -   Jer. 2:2; 31:32; Ezek. 23:4
Ho 2:8a did  -   Isa. 1:3
Ho 2:81 used
Or, made into Baal.
Ho 2:11a feasts  -   Amos 8:10
Ho 2:14a wilderness  -   Ezek. 20:35
Ho 2:14b speak  -   Isa. 40:2
Ho 2:15a Achor  -   Josh. 7:26; Isa. 65:10
Ho 2:15b youth  -   Jer. 2:2; Ezek. 16:22, 60
Ho 2:16a Husband  -   Isa. 54:5; Jer. 3:14; Rev. 21:2
Ho 2:161 Baali
Meaning my Master. Also the name of a Canaanite god.
Ho 2:181a covenant  -   Isa. 11:6-9; Ezek. 34:25
Just as God made a covenant for us with the living things at Noah’s time (Gen. 9:8-11), so He will make such a covenant for Israel at the time of restoration. Because of this latter covenant, the beasts, the birds, and the creeping things will be in a good order. Also, God will break bow, sword, and battle from the land and will cause Israel to lie down in safety.
Ho 2:18b break  -   Psa. 46:9; Isa. 2:4; Ezek. 39:9-10
Ho 2:18c safety  -   Lev. 26:5; Jer. 23:6
Ho 2:19a betroth  -   Isa. 62:4-5; 2 Cor. 11:2
Ho 2:221 grain
See note 111 in ch. 6 and notes 261 in Isa. 30 and 181 in Joel 3.
Ho 2:231 Lo-ruhamah
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Ho 2:232 Lo-ammi
See note 91 in ch. 1.
Ho 2:23a You  -   Rom. 9:25
Hosea Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 3:11 again
Jehovah told Hosea to love Gomer, a woman of adulteries, again, symbolizing that Jehovah will love the children of Israel again, though they have turned to other gods (other lovers) and loved raisin cakes (pleasures for self). What Hosea did in obedience to God’s command regarding Gomer was a confirmation of what God promised to do regarding Israel.
Ho 3:1a loved  -   Deut. 7:7; Jer. 3:1, 14; Hosea 11:8
Ho 3:31 many
Gomer’s abiding with Hosea many days without going about as a harlot nor being another man’s symbolizes that the children of Israel would abide for many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without pillar (for worship), and without ephod and teraphim (idols in homes) (v. 4). These “many days” began when the Babylonians burned the temple (2 Chron. 36:19). From that time Israel has been without king and without prince; furthermore, from that time until the present the Jews have not worshipped idols.
Ho 3:4a abide  -   2 Kings 15:29; 17:6, 23
Ho 3:5a seek  -   Jer. 50:4-5; Hosea 5:5-6
Ho 3:51b David  -   Isa. 9:7; 16:5; Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-24; 37:22-25
This is Christ in the millennium (Rev. 20:6b). See note 111 in Amos 9.
Ho 3:52c last  -   Isa. 2:2; Jer. 30:24; Ezek. 38:8, 16
I.e., in the age of restoration (Matt. 19:28).
Hosea Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 4:1a controversy  -   Isa. 3:13-14; Jer. 25:31; Hosea 12:2
Ho 4:11 faithfulness
Or, truth. As the unchaste wife of Jehovah, Israel became evil. Once a wife becomes unchaste, all kinds of evils follow. Once we forsake God, we too can do any kind of evil.
Ho 4:1b no  -   Jer. 2:8; 4:22; 5:4; Hosea 5:4
Ho 4:51 you
Referring to the priest (v. 6).
Ho 4:6a lack  -   Isa. 5:13
Ho 4:61 that
Referring back to v. 1.
Ho 4:71 they
Referring again to the priests.
Ho 4:7a shame  -   1 Sam. 2:30; Mal. 2:9; Phil. 3:19
Ho 4:81 their
The priests desired that the people would sin, because the more the people sinned, the more sin offerings there would be for the priests to eat.
Ho 4:91 so
The priests, who had been sanctified, separated, to be a special group among the people, made themselves the same as the people, becoming low and common.
Ho 4:10a not  -   Lev. 26:26; Micah 6:14; Hag. 1:6
Ho 4:111 take
The people of Israel had no heart for anything but fornication, wine, and new wine.
Ho 4:121 wooden
Instead of praying to God and inquiring of Him, God’s people inquired at their wooden post (idol).
Ho 4:12a harlots  -   Deut. 31:16; Judg. 2:17; 1 Chron. 5:25; Psa. 73:27
Ho 4:141 punish
Or, visit (i.e., for punishment). So throughout the book.
Ho 4:142 prostitutes
Technically, cult prostitutes (cf. Deut. 23:17).
Ho 4:151a Gilgal  -   Hosea 9:15; 12:11; Amos 4:4; 5:5; Judg. 3:19
Gilgal was the center of idolatry (9:15; 12:11; Amos 4:4; 5:5).
Ho 4:152b Beth-aven  -   Hosea 5:8; 10:5; cf. 1 Kings 12:28-29
Meaning house of nothingness, or house of idolatry. It was probably applied contemptuously to Bethel, which had become a seat of idolatry (1 Kings 12:26-33; cf. Hosea 5:8; 10:5).
Ho 4:16a stubborn  -   Jer. 5:23; 7:24; 9:14; Zech. 7:11
Ho 4:181 rulers
Lit., shields.
Hosea Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 5:21 into
Others read, in corruption.
Ho 5:3a harlot  -   Ezek. 23:5; Hosea 4:12
Ho 5:6a seek  -   Prov. 1:28; Jer. 11:11
Ho 5:8a Beth-aven  -   Josh. 7:2; Hosea 4:15
Ho 5:10a boundary  -   Deut. 19:14; 27:17
Ho 5:13a wound  -   Jer. 30:12
Ho 5:13b Assyria  -   2 Kings 15:19; Hosea 7:11; 10:6; 12:1
Ho 5:15a Until  -   Hosea 14:1-3; 1 Kings 8:47-48; Jer. 29:13-14
Ho 5:151 earnestly
Eventually, in their affliction Israel will seek God earnestly. Thus, the divine chastisement of Israel will be effective.
Hosea Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 6:1a return  -   Hosea 2:7
Ho 6:1b heal  -   Exo. 15:26; Deut. 32:39; Job 5:18; Jer. 30:17
Ho 6:21 two
With the Lord one day is like a thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8). According to this principle, the two days here may signify the first two periods of a thousand years each, counting from A.D. 70, when the Roman prince Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, cruelly killed thousands of Jews, and scattered the Jews among the nations. From that time the Jews have been without king, without prince, without sacrifice, and without the temple, fulfilling Hosea’s prophecy in 3:4. For two thousand years God has left Israel in a dead condition. After this two thousand-year period, the third thousand years will come. The third day may signify a third period of a thousand years, that is, the millennium, the age of restoration, which will be in the reality of Christ’s resurrection (Rev. 20:6). At that time Israel will be raised up, that is, restored.
Christ was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), and as the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit, in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45), He is the reality of the third day (John 11:25). Whenever we contact such a Christ, we are brought from the desolation of the two days to the resurrection of the third day. Cf. note 21 in Hab. 3.
Ho 6:2a third  -   1 Cor. 15:4; cf. Luke 13:32
See note 21.
Ho 6:31 His
In His second coming Christ will go forth as the dawn and come to Israel as the late rain that waters the earth. At that time, in the restoration, the millennium (Matt. 19:28), the people of Israel will be the earth watered by Christ as the late rain (cf. Psa. 72:6 and note). See notes 21 in Micah 5 and 231 in Joel 2.
Ho 6:3a dawn  -   2 Sam. 23:4
Ho 6:3b waters  -   Psa. 72:6
Ho 6:41 Ephraim
Another term for the northern kingdom of Israel. So also throughout the book.
Ho 6:5a words  -   Jer. 5:14; 23:29; Heb. 4:12
Ho 6:51 My
According to the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, the judgments on you were light that went forth.
Ho 6:6a For  -   Matt. 9:13; 12:7
Ho 6:6b sacrifice  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Prov. 21:3; Eccl. 5:1; Isa. 1:11; Micah 6:6-7; Mark 12:33
Ho 6:111 harvest
In the restoration all the Israelites, including the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, will be very rich in all kinds of produce from the earth. The earth was created by God to produce a rich harvest, but because of the fall of man the earth was cursed to grow thorns, and man has had to labor with sweat for food (Gen. 3:17-19). In the restoration the earth will be restored to its original condition and will be rich, fertile, and productive. Thus, a harvest will be apportioned to Judah for their enjoyment. See notes 261 in Isa. 30 and 181 in Joel 3.
Ho 6:11a turn  -   Psa. 126:1; Zeph. 2:7
Hosea Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 7:1a heal  -   Hosea 6:1
Ho 7:11 iniquity
The sins of Israel were in two categories: sins in their social life among the people and the rulers (vv. 1-7) and evils in their relationship with Jehovah (vv. 8-16). Israel was wrong with man and also with God.
Ho 7:2a remember  -   Jer. 14:10; 17:1; Hosea 9:9; Rev. 18:5
Ho 7:2b face  -   Psa. 90:8
Ho 7:4a leavened  -   1 Cor. 5:6
Ho 7:61 the
Lit., it.
Ho 7:71 judges
I.e., the priests.
Ho 7:7a calls  -   Isa. 64:7
Ho 7:81 Not
This symbolizes that Israel was stubborn, remaining in a “charcoaled” condition and being unwilling to turn to Jehovah.
Ho 7:111 understanding
Israel’s being likened to a silly dove symbolizes that they were lacking the proper knowledge of God in His economy.
Ho 7:11a Egypt  -   cf. 2 Kings 15:19; 17:4; Isa. 30:2-3; Hosea 5:13
Ho 7:161 deceitful
Israel’s being likened to a deceitful bow symbolizes that they were rebellious toward God and were not faithful to fight the battle for God’s kingdom.
Ho 7:16a Egypt  -   Hosea 9:3, 6
Hosea Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 8:1a eagle  -   Deut. 28:49; Jer. 4:13; Hab. 1:8
Ho 8:11b covenant  -   Hosea 6:7
Jehovah’s covenant is His binding of Israel in His holy requirements and righteous terms, and Jehovah’s law is His regulating of Israel according to what He is: love, light, holiness, and righteousness (see note 11 in Exo. 20).
Ho 8:4a kings  -   2 Kings 15:13, 17, 25
Ho 8:51a calf  -   1 Kings 12:28-29; 2 Kings 17:16-18; Acts 7:41
Samaria was a capital of the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 16:29), and her calf was an idol (v. 6), a golden calf image (cf. 1 Kings 12:28; Exo. 32:4).
Ho 8:52 innocence
Here innocence means not making idols.
Ho 8:7a sown  -   Prov. 22:8; Hosea 10:12-13; Gal. 6:8
Ho 8:9a Assyria  -   2 Kings 15:19
Ho 8:9b hired  -   Ezek. 16:33-34
Ho 8:10a gather  -   Ezek. 16:37; 23:22-24; Hosea 10:10
Ho 8:10b king  -   Ezek. 26:7; Dan. 2:37
Ho 8:13a no  -   Jer. 14:10; Hosea 9:4; Amos 5:22
Ho 8:13b remember  -   Hosea 7:2; 9:9; Rev. 18:5
Ho 8:13c Egypt  -   Deut. 28:68; Hosea 9:3, 6
Ho 8:14a Maker  -   Deut. 32:18; Isa. 29:23; 54:5
Ho 8:141 fire
The minor prophets spoke concerning the evils, the rottenness, and the corruption of Israel, but Israel was stubborn and would not listen to them. Eventually, God was forced to send the Assyrians and the Babylonians as the fire to judge, to punish, and to chastise His rebellious and apostate people.
Hosea Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 9:1a harlot  -   Hosea 4:12; 5:4
Ho 9:3a Egypt  -   Hosea 8:13; 11:5
Ho 9:3b what  -   Ezek. 4:13; Dan. 1:8
Ho 9:61 Moph
Probably Memphis, an Egyptian city near the Nile; elsewhere called Noph.
Ho 9:62 things
Idols made of silver.
Ho 9:71 inspired
Lit., man of the spirit. Israel’s considering a prophet as a fool and considering a man of the spirit, an inspired one, as mad indicates that they did not care for God’s interests. On the contrary, they thought that caring for God’s interests was foolishness.
Ho 9:81 watchman
This indicates that in the past the northern kingdom of Israel was quite good.
Ho 9:82 prophet
This may mean that the prophets had become so evil that wherever they went they were a trap to snare the people. In the temple the prophets created enmity; they did not have love or sympathy.
Ho 9:91a Gibeah  -   Hosea 10:9; Judg. 19:22; 20:5
The corruption of Israel was so great that it matched the corruption in the days of Gibeah as described in Judges 19:15-30.
Ho 9:101 found
This refers to the time of the exodus from Egypt, when God considered Israel a young wife (Jer. 2:2). However, when this wife grew up, she left God for Baal and went to Baal-peor (a city named after the idol Baal of Peor — Num. 25:3; Psa. 106:28) and sanctified herself unto the shameful thing (idol) and became an abomination, like the thing (idol) that she loved.
Ho 9:10a Baal-peor  -   Num. 25:3; Psa. 106:28
Ho 9:12a turn  -   Deut. 31:17; Hosea 5:6
Ho 9:15a Gilgal  -   Hosea 4:15; 12:11
Ho 9:17a wanderers  -   Deut. 28:64-65
Hosea Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 10:1a vine  -   Psa. 80:8-11; Isa. 5:1-7
Ho 10:11 himself
The fruit of the vine should have been offered to God as a drink offering (see note 132 in Lev. 23), but Israel used the vines to bring forth fruit for themselves, not for God. They became rich, but they used their produce to build up altars and to make idols.
Ho 10:2a divided  -   1 Kings 18:21; cf. Matt. 6:24
Ho 10:31a no  -   Hosea 3:4; 10:7; 11:5; Micah 4:9
Because they did not fear Jehovah, Israel was not able to be in a proper situation, with God’s deputy authority (a king) among them. This refers to the headship, the leadership, representing God as His authority among His people.
Ho 10:5a calves  -   1 Kings 12:28-29; Hosea 4:15; 8:5-6
Ho 10:51 Beth-aven
See note 152 in ch. 4.
Ho 10:52 will
Others translate, who rejoiced over it.
Ho 10:6a Assyria  -   Hosea 5:13
Ho 10:7a Samaria  -   2 Kings 17:6
Ho 10:8a mountains  -   Isa. 2:19; Luke 23:30; Rev. 6:16
Ho 10:9a Gibeah  -   Hosea 9:9
Ho 10:9b battle  -   Judg. 20:17-48
Ho 10:10a gathered  -   Jer. 16:16; Ezek. 23:46-47; Hosea 8:1, 10
Ho 10:101 double
Referring to Israel’s two evils in forsaking Jehovah and turning to idols (Jer. 2:13 and note).
Ho 10:121a Sow  -   Hosea 8:7; Gal. 6:8
Here to sow means to seek Jehovah. To seek Jehovah rightly is to sow rightly. Thus, Hosea charged the children of Israel to sow unto righteousness. If they did this, they would reap according to lovingkindness. Otherwise, if they plowed wickedness, they would reap injustice. Cf. Gal. 6:7-8.
Ho 10:122 fallow
Fallow ground is ground that has been plowed but has not been sown. The children of Israel were the fallow ground. They had been plowed by God but had not been sown with righteousness. They were to break up the fallow ground; i.e., they were to seek God until Christ came as righteousness to rain righteousness upon them.
Ho 10:141 tumult
Hosea’s prophecy in vv. 14-15 was fully fulfilled by Titus and his Roman army in A.D. 70.
Ho 10:14a Shalman  -   2 Kings 18:9
Ho 10:151 dawn
This word indicates that Israel was in the night, in darkness. They were a people who were altogether lacking in righteousness and justice. They forsook God and they were evil to one another.
Hosea Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 11:1a child  -   Hosea 2:15
Ho 11:11 loved
The last four chapters of this book concern Jehovah’s unchanging love versus Israel’s stubborn unchastity. Israel is depicted as the wife of Jehovah throughout this book (2:7, 19). But when God’s everlasting and unchanging love is touched, Israel is called God’s son (Exo. 4:22-23), indicating that in God’s view Israel has the Father’s life (cf. 1:10 and note 3). God’s everlasting love is not a love in affection, like the love of a husband toward a wife, but a love in life, like the love of a father toward a son. On the one hand, God loves us as His wife, and the Lord Jesus is our Husband (John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2). On the other hand, God is our Father, and we are sons of the Father (Gal. 3:26; 4:6).
Although God is loving, He is also a God of purity and righteousness. He cannot tolerate any kind of uncleanness or unrighteousness. Wherever these things are found among God’s people, God comes in to chastise them. Nevertheless, when God’s people are chastised by Him, they are still loved by Him (cf. Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19). God’s everlasting love (Jer. 31:3) is always victorious. Eventually, in spite of our failures and mistakes, God’s love will gain the victory (cf. Rom. 8:35-39).
Ho 11:1b out  -   Matt. 2:15
Ho 11:12c son  -   Exo. 4:22-23
Implying Christ in His union with Israel as the Son of God, who is loved by God and was called out of Egypt by God (Matt. 2:13-15). This indicates that although Israel became exceedingly evil, Christ still became organically one with Israel through incarnation to be a real Israelite. Christ joined Himself to Israel in the matter of being a son of God.
This verse implies Christ as the Son of God. It also implies that all God’s chosen people become sons of God by virtue of their being organically united with Christ (cf. Rom. 11:17 and notes; Gal. 3:26 and note 2). This is possible because Christ is the Son of God in two aspects: the aspect of His being the only begotten Son of God and the aspect of His being the firstborn Son of God. In eternity Christ was God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9), possessing only divinity without humanity. As such, He was unique. However, one day Christ was incarnated to be a man, taking on human nature and joining Himself with humanity (John 1:14). After dying an all-inclusive, vicarious death on the cross, He entered into resurrection. In resurrection and through resurrection He was begotten of God in His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity and humanity (Acts 13:33 and note; Rom. 1:3-4 and notes). Hence, in addition to His being the unique, only begotten Son of God from eternity, Christ, after His incarnation and through His resurrection, has become the Son of God in another sense, in the sense of being the firstborn Son of God (Heb. 1:5-6). Furthermore, in Christ’s resurrection all His believers were begotten of God, regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3), to be the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10), Christ’s many brothers (Rom. 8:29), to be His members for the constituting of His organic Body. All this is implied in this verse.
Ho 11:21 they
The prophets. God sent the prophets to call Israel again and again, but the more the prophets called them, the farther they went away from the prophets. From the time Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70 until now, God has not raised up any prophets among the Jews. According to the Lord’s word in Matt. 21:43, the kingdom of God has been taken from the Jews and has been given to the church. In the church every regenerated believer is a priest (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6), and every believer should endeavor to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:1, 31, 39; cf. Num. 11:29).
Ho 11:2a Baals  -   2 Kings 17:16; Hosea 2:13; 13:2
Ho 11:3a took  -   Deut. 1:31; 8:2; 32:10-12; Isa. 46:3
Ho 11:3b healed  -   Exo. 15:26
Ho 11:41 with
The phrase with cords of a man, with bands of love indicates that God loves us with His divine love not on the level of divinity but on the level of humanity. God’s love is divine, but it reaches us in the cords of a man, i.e., through Christ’s humanity. The cords through which God draws us include Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It is by all these steps of Christ in His humanity that God’s love in His salvation reaches us (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10). Apart from Christ, God’s everlasting love, His unchanging, subduing love, could not be prevailing in relation to us. God’s unchanging love is prevailing because it is a love in Christ, with Christ, by Christ, and for Christ.
Ho 11:42 yoke
This yoke was Pharaoh’s yoke in Egypt, and this eating was the eating of the manna, a type of Christ as our heavenly food (John 6:31-35), in the wilderness. Pharaoh had put a strong yoke on Israel, but God took off that yoke and gently caused them to eat by bringing them into the wilderness, where God fed them with manna in a gentle way morning by morning (Exo. 16:14-18).
Ho 11:81a Admah  -   Gen. 14:8; Deut. 29:23
Admah and Zeboim were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah (Deut. 29:23). Israel had become even more evil than Sodom and Gomorrah. However, because of His everlasting love, God would not destroy Israel (v. 9).
Ho 11:8b compassions  -   Deut. 32:36; Isa. 63:15; Jer. 31:20
Ho 11:9a not  -   Num. 23:19; cf. Isa. 55:8-9; Mal. 3:6
Ho 11:9b Holy  -   Isa. 12:6
Ho 11:10a roar  -   Isa. 31:4; Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2; Rev. 10:3
Ho 11:10b west  -   Zech. 8:7
Ho 11:11a dove  -   Isa. 60:8; Hosea 7:11
Ho 11:11b dwell  -   Ezek. 28:25-26; 37:25
Hosea Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 12:1a Assyria  -   2 Kings 15:19; 17:4; Hosea 5:13; 7:11
Ho 12:2a controversy  -   Hosea 4:1; Micah 6:2
Ho 12:3a grasped  -   Gen. 25:26
Ho 12:4a contended  -   Gen. 32:28
Ho 12:41 Angel
The Angel with whom Jacob contended was Christ (Gen. 32:24-32 and notes).
Ho 12:4b Bethel  -   Gen. 28:19; 35:15
Ho 12:6a return  -   Hosea 14:1; Micah 6:8
Ho 12:6b wait  -   Psa. 37:7; Isa. 40:31
Ho 12:9a But  -   Hosea 13:4
Ho 12:9b tents  -   Lev. 23:42-43; Neh. 8:17; Zech. 14:16
Ho 12:11a Gilead  -   Hosea 6:8
Ho 12:11b Gilgal  -   Hosea 4:15; 9:15; Amos 4:4; 5:5
Ho 12:121a Aram  -   Gen. 28:5; Deut. 26:5
I.e., Syria.
Ho 12:12b served  -   Gen. 29:20, 27
Ho 12:13a prophet  -   Exo. 12:50-51; 13:3; Deut. 18:15; Psa. 77:20
Ho 12:14a provoked  -   2 Kings 17:11-18
Hosea Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 13:1a Baal  -   2 Kings 17:16; Hosea 11:2
Ho 13:4a savior  -   Isa. 43:11; 45:21
Ho 13:5a wilderness  -   Deut. 8:15; 32:10; Jer. 2:2
Ho 13:6a full  -   Deut. 8:12, 14; 32:15
Ho 13:6b forgotten  -   Hosea 8:14
Ho 13:7a lion  -   Lam. 3:10; Hosea 5:14
Ho 13:10a Give  -   1 Sam. 8:5-6
Ho 13:111a king  -   1 Sam. 8:7; 10:19; Hosea 10:3
The king given by Jehovah in His anger might have been Saul, who was eventually taken away by Jehovah in His overflowing wrath (1 Sam. 8:4-7; 9:17; 10:1; 31:1-13).
Ho 13:11b took  -   1 Sam. 15:22-23; Acts 13:22
Ho 13:13a pains  -   Isa. 13:8; Jer. 30:6
Ho 13:141 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Ho 13:14a death  -   Isa. 25:8; Ezek. 37:12
Ho 13:14b Where  -   1 Cor. 15:55; cf. 1 Cor. 15:26
Ho 13:142 Repentance
God’s love for Israel is everlasting (see note 11 in ch. 11; Jer. 31:3), and He will never repent of this love (cf. Rom. 11:28-29).
Ho 13:16a Samaria  -   2 Kings 17:6
Hosea Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Ho 14:1a Return  -   Hosea 6:1; 12:6; Joel 2:13
Ho 14:21 our
The Septuagint translates, the fruit of our lips (cf. Heb. 13:15).
Ho 14:2a lips  -   Heb. 13:15
Ho 14:41 I
Verses 4-8 portray Israel in the restoration (Matt. 19:28), as revealed in 2:15-23; 3:5; 6:1-3; 10:12. Israel’s transformation as described in vv. 4-7 is based on the factor of love in life (see note 11 in ch. 11). Love in affection does not transform, but love in life transforms people through the growth in life. Our relationship with God is of the divine, eternal life of God (1 John 5:11). This life enlivens us, regenerates us, sanctifies us positionally and dispositionally, renews us, transforms us, conforms us, matures us, and glorifies us, making us the same as God in life, nature, appearance, and glory. At the beginning of this book Israel was a harlot, but at the end of this book, Israel has become a son (11:1). Thus, the outcome of this book is transformation in life by God’s love (cf. Rom. 8:28-39; Heb. 12:5-10).
Ho 14:4a heal  -   Exo. 15:26; Isa. 57:18; Jer. 3:22
Ho 14:5a dew  -   Deut. 32:2
Ho 14:51b lily  -   S.S. 2:1-2; Matt. 6:28
Signifying a pure life that trusts in God (Matt. 6:28).
Ho 14:52 trees
Signifying standing steadily in the uplifted humanity (cf. S.S. 3:9).
Ho 14:61 shoots
Signifying flourishing and spreading.
Ho 14:62 splendor
Signifying glory in fruitfulness.
Ho 14:6a olive  -   Psa. 52:8; 128:3
Ho 14:63b fragrance  -   Gen. 27:27; S.S. 4:11
Signifying the sweet odor of a life in the uplifted humanity.
Ho 14:71 sit
Signifying being overshadowed by the sufficient grace enjoyed by them (2 Cor. 12:9).
Ho 14:72 grain
Signifying being full of life for producing satisfying food.
Ho 14:73 bud
Signifying blossoming for producing cheering drink.
Ho 14:74 renown
Signifying a good name spreading like tasteful wine.
Ho 14:81 green
Symbolizing God’s being living and evergreen.
Ho 14:8a fir  -   Isa. 41:19; 55:13; 60:13
Ho 14:82 From
Ephraim’s bearing fruit from Jehovah indicates Israel’s oneness with Jehovah. This is more than an organic union; it is the oneness of two in one life, in one nature, and in one living.
Ho 14:9a ways  -   Deut. 32:4; Psa. 145:17
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Joel Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   The plague of the locusts (the nations) — 1:2 — 2:11
III.   The turn of Jehovah to His elect, Israel — 2:12-32
IV.   The judgment of Christ upon the nations — the judgment upon the living — 3:1-15
V.   The victory of Christ over the nations and His reign among Israel — 3:16-21
Joel >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Joel Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Jl 1:11 Joel
Meaning Jehovah is God.
Jl 1:21 Hear
Verses 2-4 show the seriousness of the prophecy.
Jl 1:41 cutting
Four words for locust are used in this verse, probably referring to one kind of locust in various stages of growth. The four stages of this one kind of locust refer to the nations that devastated Israel in four consecutive empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, including Antichrist, who will be the last Caesar of the Roman Empire (Rev. 17:8-11). The armies of these empires were like locusts (2:25) coming to devastate and consume Israel totally, devouring her people, land, fields, produce, food, and drink and cutting off her offerings. These empires correspond to the four sections of the great human image in Dan. 2, to the four beasts in Dan. 7, and to the four horns in Zech. 1. They will be overcome and terminated by Christ, who will set up the kingdom and reign among the saved Israel in the age of restoration (ch. 3; Dan. 2:34-35 and notes).
Beginning approximately two hundred years before the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, God sent the prophets to warn Israel, to advise them, and to call them to return to God. However, Israel did not listen to the prophets. This forced God to send the four kinds of locusts to chastise His people. Israel has been suffering the cutting, swarming, licking, and consuming of the locusts for twenty-seven centuries. God’s purpose in allowing Israel to suffer under the locusts was to bring forth a couple, Joseph and Mary, so that God could be born in man, of man, and out of man to become no longer only God but a God-man (cf. Matt. 1). Hence, God used the suffering of the Jews to bring in the incarnation, an unprecedented event that brought God into man and mingled God and man as one. Furthermore, God has used the locusts to afford all the necessary facilities in the environment for the carrying out of His purpose. The Roman Empire, the aggregate of the four empires, afforded everything necessary for the incarnated God to live and move and work on earth. It also provided the means for Christ to be crucified for the accomplishing of God’s redemption (John 18:31-32), the occasion for the pouring out of the Spirit as the processed and consummated Triune God upon all flesh to produce the church as the organic Body of Christ (Acts 2), and the facilities for the spreading of the gospel to the entire inhabited earth (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8).
The Bible is a record of two histories: the history of man, the human history, and the history of God, the divine history. The former is like an outward shell, and the latter, like the kernel within the shell. In the Minor Prophets the human history is clearly defined and is signified by the four kinds of locusts mentioned in this verse. The divine history within the human history is also revealed in considerable detail. The divine history, as the divine mystery of the Triune God in humanity, began in eternity past with the eternal God and His eternal economy (Micah 5:2c; 1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:4-5, 9-11). It continues with Christ’s incarnation (Micah 5:2a); His death, burial, and resurrection for the spreading of God’s redemption and salvation to all the nations on earth (Jonah 1:17; 2:10); His pouring out of the consummated Spirit to produce the church as the corporate expression of the Triune God (2:28-32); His second coming as the Desire of nations (Hag. 2:7a) and as the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2a); His coming with His overcomers as His army to defeat Antichrist and his army (3:1-15); and His reigning in Zion in the thousand-year kingdom (3:16-21; Micah 4:7). Eventually, the kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth for eternity. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate, the consummate, step of God’s history.
Jl 1:4a locust  -   Deut. 28:38; Joel 2:25
Jl 1:61a nation  -   Prov. 30:27; Joel 2:2, 11, 25
The coming of such a nation is likened in v. 4 to one kind of locust in four stages (see note 41).
Jl 1:6b teeth  -   Rev. 9:8
Jl 1:7a vine  -   Isa. 5:1-7
Jl 1:7b fig  -   Matt. 21:19; 24:32; Luke 13:6
Jl 1:9a meal  -   Joel 1:13; 2:14
Jl 1:13a sackcloth  -   1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 19:1; Jer. 4:8; Jonah 3:5; Rev. 11:3
Jl 1:14a fast  -   2 Chron. 20:3-4; Joel 2:15-16
Jl 1:151a day  -   Isa. 13:6; Jer. 30:7; Ezek. 30:3; Joel 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18; Obad. 15; Zeph. 1:7, 14-15; 2:2-3; 2 Pet. 3:12
The day of Jehovah is the day of the Lord in the New Testament (Acts 2:20; 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Thes. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:10), which is also the day of God (2 Pet. 3:12). The final day of Jehovah will begin at the sixth seal (Rev. 6:12-17) and end at the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). It will comprise various calamities, plagues, and woes for the Lord’s punishing judgments and governmental dealings on the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, men, Satan, and the demons to clear up the earth and the entire universe for the coming of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1) for His eternal kingdom. The time from the sixth seal to the beginning of the thousand-year kingdom will be a little more than three and a half years. The main part of that time will be the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). The judgment at the great white throne will take place after the thousand-year kingdom. Thus, the day of the Lord will last for about one thousand three and a half years. See note 123 in 2 Pet. 3.
Jl 1:171 clods
Or, shovels.
Jl 1:19a fire  -   Jer. 9:10; Joel 2:3
Joel Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Jl 2:1a trumpet  -   Joel 2:15; Jer. 4:5; 1 Cor. 14:8
Jl 2:1b day  -   Joel 1:15; Obad. 15; Zeph. 1:14
Jl 2:2a A  -   Zeph. 1:15
Jl 2:2b darkness  -   Amos 5:18, 20
Jl 2:2c people  -   Joel 1:6; 2:5, 11, 25
Jl 2:2d There  -   Exo. 10:14; Dan. 12:1; Mark 13:19
Jl 2:3a fire  -   Joel 1:19-20
Jl 2:3b Eden  -   Gen. 2:8; 13:10; Isa. 51:3
Jl 2:3c wilderness  -   Zech. 7:14
Jl 2:4a horses  -   Rev. 9:7
Jl 2:5a sound  -   Rev. 9:9
Jl 2:6a At  -   Nahum 2:10
Jl 2:10a quakes  -   Psa. 18:7; Rev. 6:12
Jl 2:10b sun  -   Joel 2:31; 3:15; Isa. 13:10; Ezek. 32:7; Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24; Rev. 6:12; 8:12
Jl 2:11a day  -   Joel 1:15
Jl 2:12a Turn  -   Jer. 4:1; Hosea 12:6; 14:1
Jl 2:13a hearts  -   Psa. 34:18; 51:17
Jl 2:13b garments  -   Gen. 37:34; 2 Sam. 1:11; Job 1:20
Jl 2:13c compassionate  -   Exo. 34:6; Psa. 86:15; Jonah 4:2
Jl 2:14a Who  -   2 Sam. 12:22; 2 Kings 19:4; Jonah 3:9
Jl 2:141 meal
The meal offering and the drink offering are blessings to Israel. When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, Israel lost the place appointed by God where they could offer their offerings to God (Deut. 12:5-6). Also, God’s army of locusts (v. 25) destroyed the produce of the land, leaving no grain to make a meal offering and no grapes to make wine for the drink offering. Thus, Israel lost both the ground and the materials to offer the meal offering to feed God and the drink offering to cheer God. Today both God and Israel are still suffering the loss of this blessing.
Jl 2:151 Blow
To blow a trumpet is to make a declaration in a triumphant spirit.
Jl 2:15a trumpet  -   Joel 2:1; Jer. 4:5
Jl 2:152 Sanctify
This fast was not to be common; rather, it was to be sanctified, separated for God.
Jl 2:15b fast  -   Joel 1:14
Jl 2:153 solemn
Such an assembly is a great blessing, something that should not be missed.
Jl 2:17a priests  -   Joel 1:13
Jl 2:17b altar  -   Ezek. 8:16; Matt. 23:35
Jl 2:17c Why  -   Psa. 42:10; 79:10; 115:2; Micah 7:10
Jl 2:181 His
The Holy Land is God’s land. Cf. Isa. 8:8 and note.
Jl 2:19a grain  -   cf. Joel 1:10; Mal. 3:10-12
Jl 2:20a northern  -   Jer. 1:14
Jl 2:20b stench  -   Ezek. 39:12-16
Jl 2:23a early  -   Lev. 26:4; Deut. 11:14; 28:12; James 5:7
Jl 2:231 early
The rain in the Scriptures signifies the Spirit of God sent by Him from the heavens to water His people (cf. Gen. 2:5; Deut. 11:14). The outpourings of the Spirit referred to in vv. 28-29 and in Zech. 12:10 are the fulfillment of the early rain (the autumn rain) and the late rain (the spring rain). See notes 31 in Hosea 6 and 281, par. 1, in this chapter.
Jl 2:25a locust  -   Joel 1:4; Rev. 9:3
Jl 2:26a full  -   Lev. 26:5; Psa. 22:26; Micah 6:14
Jl 2:27a midst  -   Lev. 26:11-12; Ezek. 37:26-28
Jl 2:27b God  -   Isa. 45:5, 21-22; Joel 3:17
Jl 2:28a And  -   vv. 28-32a: Acts 2:17-21
Jl 2:281 pour
This prophecy concerning the pouring out of God’s Spirit as the early rain for Israel’s salvation was fulfilled as a foretaste by the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 16-21), and it will be fulfilled as a full taste by the pouring out of the Spirit a second time, before the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), for the salvation and regeneration of many of the returned Israelites. This second outpouring is different from the pouring out of the Spirit as the late rain on the last day of the tribulation for the salvation of the remnant of the Jews under Antichrist’s besieging (Zech. 12:10).
In the Bible and in the Minor Prophets four things are unveiled: God’s chastisement on His elect people, God’s punishment of the nations, the manifestation of Christ, and the restoration. These four matters are covered in Joel, a short book of three chapters. First, God sent the locusts to consume Israel (1:2 — 2:11). This was God’s chastisement because of Israel’s great evils. Then, this book reveals that God will punish and judge the Gentile nations because in their consuming of Israel they are excessive, acting without regard for justice (3:1-16a, 19). God’s chastising of Israel and His punishing of the nations issue in the manifestation of Christ. Regarding this manifestation, Joel speaks here concerning the outpouring of the processed, consummated, compound Spirit, i.e., the Spirit of God compounded with Christ’s humanity, Christ’s death and its effectiveness, and Christ’s resurrection with its power (see note 251 in Exo. 30). This is the Holy Spirit, who was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 16-21), and this Spirit is the consummated Triune God and the realization of Christ for the manifestation of Christ. This manifestation began with the incarnation of Christ and has been confirmed and strengthened by the outpouring of the Spirit, for through that outpouring the individual Christ became the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13), the church as the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). The church as the manifestation of Christ will bring in the glorious day of restoration, the age of the millennial kingdom (3:16-21), in which Christ will be manifested in a fuller way. The restoration will consummate in the fullest manifestation of Christ in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). See note 41 in ch. 1.
Jl 2:28b Spirit  -   Isa. 32:15; 44:3; Ezek. 39:29; Mark 1:8; Acts 2:4; 1 Cor. 12:13; Titus 3:6
Jl 2:29a Spirit  -   Zech. 12:10
Jl 2:301 show
As revealed in vv. 30-31a, God’s saving of the returned Jews by pouring out His Spirit upon them the second time (see note 281, par. 1) will be accompanied by the supernatural calamities of the sixth seal and the first four trumpets (Rev. 6:12-17; 8:7-12) on the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth as a prelude to the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). It will take place before the fifth trumpet, the first of the three woes (Rev. 8:13 and note), which are the major structure of the great tribulation, in the great and terrible day of Jehovah (v. 31b). See note 121 in Rev. 6.
In spite of such an outpouring of the Spirit, many of the returned Jews will not believe but will continue to be stubborn. Eventually, during the tribulation, Jerusalem will be surrounded by the Gentile armies under Antichrist, whose intention will be to destroy Israel entirely (Zech. 14:2; Rev. 16:13-16). At that juncture the Lord Jesus Christ will descend with His overcomers, His mighty ones (3:11). Furthermore, according to Zech. 12:10, at that time the consummated Spirit will again be poured out, and the remnant of the children of Israel will be saved. Thus, the three outpourings of the Holy Spirit — on the day of Pentecost, just before the great tribulation, and at the Lord’s second coming — work together for the salvation of Israel.
Jl 2:30a wonders  -   Luke 21:11
Jl 2:30b fire  -   Rev. 8:7
Jl 2:30c smoke  -   Rev. 9:2
Jl 2:31a sun  -   Joel 2:10
Jl 2:311b Day  -   Joel 1:15; Mal. 4:5
See note 151 in ch. 1.
Jl 2:321a calls  -   Rom. 10:13; Acts 2:39
This indicates that God’s elect people will be saved through their calling on the name of Jehovah, which in the New Testament is equivalent to calling on the name of the Lord Jesus (see note 211 in Matt. 1). The great outpouring of the Spirit as the consummated Triune God will be upon those Jews who call upon the name of Jehovah and who thus are regenerated to become part of the church for the manifestation of Christ. See notes on Acts 2:21.
Jl 2:32b Zion  -   Isa. 46:13; 59:20; Obad. 17
Jl 2:32c remnant  -   Isa. 10:22; 11:11, 16; Jer. 31:7; Micah 4:7; 5:3, 7, 8
Jl 2:32d calls  -   Acts 2:39
Joel Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Jl 3:1a turn  -   Jer. 30:3; Ezek. 39:25
Jl 3:21a gather  -   Zech. 14:2-4; Rev. 16:14
The gathering of the nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat (vv. 2, 11-12, 14) will be for the treading of the winepress of the fury of God in the war at Armageddon (v. 13; Rev. 14:19-20 and note 191).
Jl 3:2b valley  -   Joel 3:12; 2 Chron. 20:26
Jl 3:22 Jehoshaphat
Meaning Jehovah judges.
Jl 3:23 judgment
This is the judgment of Christ on the nations — the judgment on the living (Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1). The purpose of Christ’s judgment will be to recompense the nations’ mistreatment of Israel during the great tribulation (vv. 2b-8; Rev. 12:17; 13:7, 10; Matt. 25:41-46a). In His judgment on the nations, first Christ with His overcomers as the mighty ones (v. 11; Rev. 17:14; 19:11-14) will defeat Antichrist and his armies (the nations) at Armageddon (v. 16a; Rev. 14:19-20; 16:13-16; 17:14; 19:11-21). After Christ casts Antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire, He will set up His throne in Jerusalem, and all the living persons among the nations, as the goats and the sheep, will be gathered before Him to be judged by Him. The goats will be the evil ones, those who persecuted the Jews during the tribulation, and the sheep will be the good ones, those who helped the persecuted Jews (Matt. 25:31-46 and notes).
Jl 3:61 Javanim
I.e., Greeks.
Jl 3:9a nations  -   Rev. 11:18
Jl 3:9b Rouse  -   Rev. 16:14
Jl 3:10a plowshares  -   cf. Isa. 2:4; Micah 4:3
Jl 3:111 mighty
These are Christ’s overcomers, who will return with Christ as His army to defeat Antichrist at the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 17:14; 19:11-21) and who will be His co-kings in the millennium (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4, 6).
Jl 3:11a descend  -   Psa. 103:20; Isa. 13:3; 2 Thes. 1:7; Rev. 19:14
Jl 3:12a valley  -   Joel 3:2
Jl 3:12b nations  -   Matt. 25:32
Jl 3:13a sickle  -   Matt. 13:39; Mark 4:29; Rev. 14:15, 18
Jl 3:13b winepress  -   Isa. 63:3; Lam. 1:15; Mark 12:1; Rev. 14:19-20
Jl 3:14a day  -   Joel 1:15
Jl 3:15a sun  -   Joel 2:10
Jl 3:16a And  -   Jer. 25:30; Amos 1:2
Jl 3:161b shelter  -   Psa. 27:5
After the defeat of Antichrist at Armageddon, Christ will reign among Israel on the holy mountain of Zion within Jerusalem (vv. 16a, 17, 21b) in the restoration (v. 18). As Christ reigns in Jerusalem, He will be a shelter and a stronghold to the children of Israel. Because of this, no one will be able to damage Israel anymore.
Jl 3:17a Dwelling  -   Psa. 9:11; 76:2; Isa. 12:6; Joel 2:27
Jl 3:17b holy  -   Dan. 11:45; Obad. 16; Zech. 8:3
Jl 3:181 The
This describes the rich situation in the Holy Land during the restoration, which will be brought in by the manifestation of Christ (see note 281, par. 2, in ch. 2). The restoration will include not only Israel but also the whole human race, the earth, and the entire universe. The purpose of the restoration is to restore the God-created and fallen universe, which was defiled and polluted by two rebellions: the rebellion of Satan and the angels who followed him (Isa. 14:12-15; Rev. 12:4a, 9) and the rebellion of man (Gen. 3:1-6). The consummation of the restoration will be the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center (Rev. 21:1-2). See notes 261 in Isa. 30 and 111 in Hosea 6.
Jl 3:18a fresh  -   Amos 9:13
Jl 3:18b flow  -   Exo. 3:8
Jl 3:182c fountain  -   Psa. 46:4; Ezek. 47:1; Rev. 22:1
This points to the situation in the New Jerusalem, where a river will flow out of the throne of God and of the Lamb to water the holy city (Rev. 22:1).
Jl 3:191a Egypt  -   Isa. 19:1
All the enemies surrounding Israel will be punished (vv. 19-21a). Thus, the nations will be punished, Israel will be restored, and Christ will be manifested. This will be a prelude to the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-2).
Jl 3:19b Edom  -   Jer. 49:17; Ezek. 25:12-13; Amos 1:11
Jl 3:21a dwells  -   Joel 3:17; Rev. 21:3
< Joel • Amos Outline >
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Amos Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1-2
II.   Jehovah’s judgments on the surrounding nations — 1:3 — 2:3
A.   On Damascus — 1:3-5
B.   On Gaza — 1:6-8
C.   On Tyre — 1:9-10
D.   On Edom — 1:11-12
E.   On Ammon — 1:13-15
F.   On Moab — 2:1-3
III.   Jehovah’s judgments on Judah and Israel — 2:4-16
A.   On Judah — vv. 4-5
B.   On Israel — vv. 6-16
IV.   Jehovah’s contending with the house of Jacob — 3:1 — 9:10
A.   Jehovah’s three reproofs to Israel — 3:1 — 5:27
1.   The first reproof — 3:1-15
2.   The second reproof — 4:1-13
3.   The third reproof — 5:1-27
B.   The plagues of the five signs seen by Amos — 6:1 — 9:10
1.   The introduction — 6:1-14
2.   The plague of the first sign — locusts to eat the herbage of the land — 7:1-3
3.   The plague of the second sign — fire to devour the great deep and the land — 7:4-6
4.   The plague of the third sign — a plumb line in the Lord’s hand — 7:7-9
5.   The frustration of Amaziah the priest of Bethel — 7:10-17
6.   The plague of the fourth sign — summer fruit, signifying that the time is ripe and the end has come upon Israel — 8:1-14
7.   The plague of the fifth sign — the Lord standing upon the altar, signifying that the Lord is ready to destroy Israel — 9:1-10
V.   The restoration of the house of Israel, with the rebuilding of the fallen tabernacle of David for the kingdom of Christ — 9:11-15
Amos >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Amos Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Am 1:11 Amos
Meaning burden bearer. The central thought of Amos’s prophecy, which is nearly the same as that of Hosea and Joel, is that Jehovah punishes the nations and chastises Israel that the age of restoration (Matt. 19:28) may be brought in for the kingdom of David (9:11-12; Acts 15:15-16) — the kingdom of Christ (Rev. 11:15).
Am 1:1a Uzziah  -   2 Kings 14:21; 2 Chron. 26:1; Isa. 1:1; Hosea 1:1
Am 1:1b Jeroboam  -   2 Kings 14:23; Amos 7:9-11
Am 1:1c earthquake  -   Zech. 14:5
Am 1:2a Jehovah  -   Jer. 25:30; Joel 3:16
Am 1:31 three
The words Because of three transgressions…indeed, because of four indicate repeated transgressions, which were the cause of God’s judgments on Judah and Israel and on the surrounding nations. So throughout chs. 1 — 2.
Am 1:3a Damascus  -   Isa. 8:4; 17:1-14; Jer. 49:23-27; Zech. 9:1
Am 1:32 the
Lit., it. So throughout the book.
Am 1:3b Gilead  -   2 Kings 10:32-33
Am 1:51 Aven
Or, vanity; referring to idols.
Am 1:52 Aram
I.e., Syria.
Am 1:5a captivity  -   2 Kings 16:9; Amos 9:7
Am 1:6a Gaza  -   Jer. 47:4-5
Am 1:6b deliver  -   Ezek. 35:5
Am 1:8a Ashdod  -   Zeph. 2:4; Zech. 9:5-6
Am 1:9a Tyre  -   Isa. 23:1-18; Jer. 47:4; Ezek. 26:1– 28:19
Am 1:9b Edom  -   Amos 1:6
Am 1:11a Edom  -   Isa. 34:5; Jer. 49:7-22; Ezek. 25:12-14
Am 1:11b brother  -   Gen. 27:41; Deut. 23:7; 2 Chron. 28:17; Ezek. 35:5; Obad. 10
Am 1:131a Ammon  -   Jer. 49:1-6; Ezek. 25:2-7; Zeph. 2:9
Ammon and Moab (2:1) were sons of Lot by incest (Gen. 19:30-38).
Am 1:13b border  -   Jer. 49:1
Am 1:15a captivity  -   Jer. 49:3
Amos Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Am 2:11a Moab  -   Isa. 15:1– 16:14; Jer. 48:1-47; Ezek. 25:8-11
See note 131 in ch. 1.
Am 2:5a fire  -   Jer. 17:27; 21:10; 39:8
Am 2:6a needy  -   Amos 8:6
Am 2:9a Amorite  -   Num. 21:25; Deut. 2:24; Josh. 24:8; Judg. 11:21-23
Am 2:9b height  -   Num. 13:32-33
Am 2:10a brought  -   Exo. 12:51; Ezek. 20:10; Micah 6:4
Am 2:10b forty  -   Deut. 2:7; 8:2
Am 2:11a Nazarites  -   Num. 6:2; Judg. 13:5
Am 2:12a not  -   Isa. 30:10; Jer. 11:21; Amos 7:12-13
Amos Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Am 3:2a families  -   Deut. 7:6; 10:15
Am 3:31 Will
Verses 3-8 indicate that the cause of Jehovah’s visitation (punishment) was that Israel was not one with God. They had their own intention, goal, and purpose, and God had His. But God revealed all His secrets to His prophets (v. 7). Israel, therefore, should have listened to the prophets.
Am 3:6a trumpet  -   Jer. 4:5; 6:1; Ezek. 33:3; Hosea 5:8; Zeph. 1:16
Am 3:7a reveals  -   Gen. 6:13; 18:17; Psa. 25:14
Am 3:11a adversary  -   2 Kings 17:3, 6; 18:9-11
Am 3:14a altars  -   2 Kings 23:15; Hosea 10:5-8
Am 3:141 Bethel
Bethel had become a place for the worship of idols (1 Kings 12:25-33).
Am 3:151 winter
The winter house and the summer house were luxurious retreat houses. Here, such houses and the worship of idols are regarded as one thing. Those who went to the retreat houses for enjoyment were also those who worshipped idols at the altars of Bethel.
Amos Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Am 4:4a Bethel  -   Ezek. 20:39; Amos 3:14; 5:5
Am 4:4b Gilgal  -   Hosea 4:15; 12:11
Am 4:4c sacrifices  -   Num. 28:3-4
Am 4:4d tithes  -   Deut. 14:28
Am 4:5a leavened  -   Lev. 7:13; 23:17
Am 4:6a not  -   Jer. 5:3; Hosea 7:10
Am 4:9a locust  -   Joel 1:4; 2:25
Am 4:10a pestilence  -   Exo. 9:3, 6; 12:29; Deut. 28:47, 60; Psa. 78:50
Am 4:11a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24-25; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 49:18
Am 4:11b burning  -   Zech. 3:2; 1 Cor. 3:15; Jude 23
Am 4:121a Prepare  -   cf. Ezek. 13:5; 22:30; Luke 14:31-32
In vv. 6-13 the prophet speaks regarding Jehovah’s punishment with the expectation of Israel’s returning to Jehovah and their preparing to meet Him who is the Creator and Ruler of all things.
Am 4:13a darkness  -   Amos 5:8; 8:9
Am 4:13b high  -   Micah 1:3
Amos Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Am 5:2a virgin  -   Jer. 18:13; 31:4
Am 5:4a Seek  -   Amos 4:6; 2 Chron. 15:2; Isa. 55:6; Jer. 29:13; Zeph. 2:3
Am 5:5a Bethel  -   Amos 4:4
Am 5:5b Gilgal  -   Hosea 4:15
Am 5:8a makes  -   Job 9:9; 38:31
Am 5:8b shadow  -   Job 12:22; Psa. 107:14; Matt. 4:16
Am 5:8c water  -   Gen. 7:11; Amos 9:6
Am 5:101 gate
The place where the leading ones exercised judgment (Deut. 21:19; 22:15; Ruth 4:1-2).
Am 5:11a not  -   Deut. 28:30, 38-39; Micah 6:15; Zeph. 1:13; cf. Luke 12:20
Am 5:121 ransom
I.e., the money paid for a life taken (cf. Num. 35:31).
Am 5:181a day  -   Isa. 5:19; Jer. 17:15-16; Ezek. 12:22, 27
See note 151 in Joel 1.
Am 5:20a darkness  -   Isa. 13:10; Joel 2:31; Mark 13:24; cf. Matt. 22:13
Am 5:211a feasts  -   Prov. 21:27; Isa. 1:11-16; Jer. 6:20
On the one hand, the people of Israel were evil; on the other hand, they still worshipped God with feasts, solemn assemblies, offerings, and singing (vv. 21-23).
Am 5:212 delight
Lit., smell (sweetness).
Am 5:241 justice
Instead of Israel’s hypocritical worship, God wanted Israel to exercise justice and practice righteousness.
Am 5:24a river  -   Isa. 48:18; 66:12
Am 5:25a Did  -   vv. 25-27: Acts 7:42-43
Am 5:261 Sikkuth
Understood by the Septuagint translators to read, tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Raiphan (i.e., Rompha), their images (cf. Acts 7:43).
Am 5:27a Beyond  -   2 Kings 17:6
Amos Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Am 6:1a Woe  -   Luke 6:24
Am 6:2a Calneh  -   Isa. 10:9; 2 Kings 18:34
Am 6:2b Gath  -   2 Chron. 26:6
Am 6:5a instruments  -   1 Chron. 23:5
Am 6:7a captivity  -   Amos 5:5, 27; 7:11
Am 6:8a sworn  -   Jer. 51:14; Heb. 6:13, 17
Am 6:14a nation  -   2 Kings 15:29; 17:6; Isa. 10:5-6; Jer. 5:15-17
Amos Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Am 7:11a locusts  -   Joel 1:4
The locusts symbolize the enemy’s army (Joel 1:4 and note).
Am 7:21 O
Some of the punishments ordained by God have not taken place because some of God’s loving ones, the prophets, prayed for Israel, warning God that Israel might not endure (vv. 2-3, 5-6).
Am 7:2a How  -   Amos 7:5; Isa. 51:19
Am 7:3a repented  -   Amos 7:6; Deut. 32:36; Jonah 3:10
Am 7:4a fire  -   Amos 5:6; Jer. 4:4; 21:12
Am 7:5a How  -   Amos 4:2
Am 7:71a plumb  -   cf. 2 Kings 21:13; Isa. 28:17; 34:11; Lam. 2:8
The Lord was holding a plumb line to measure Israel in order to determine what part had to be destroyed and what part had to be retained (vv. 7b-8).
Am 7:91a high  -   Lev. 26:30-31
The high places were the places where Israel worshipped the idols on the mountains. The expression sanctuaries of Israel refers not to the sanctuary in the city of Jerusalem but mainly to the sanctuaries in Bethel in the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12:31; 13:32).
Am 7:9b Jeroboam  -   2 Kings 14:23-29
Am 7:9c sword  -   2 Kings 15:8-10
Am 7:101 priest
Amaziah the priest of Bethel was a false priest. In Bethel, in the northern kingdom of Israel, the people had built a temple and had their own priests (1 Kings 12:31).
Am 7:11a captivity  -   Amos 6:7
Am 7:13a Bethel  -   1 Kings 12:32
Am 7:14a herdsman  -   Amos 1:1; Zech. 13:5
Amos Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Am 8:11 summer
The summer fruit signifies that the time is ripe and the end has come upon Israel (v. 2).
Am 8:3a songs  -   Amos 5:23; 1 Chron. 25:6
Am 8:6a needy  -   Amos 2:6
Am 8:8a rise  -   Amos 9:5
Am 8:81 River
I.e., the Nile.
Am 8:9a go  -   Job 5:14; Isa. 13:10; 59:9-10; Jer. 15:9
Am 8:9b darken  -   Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44; Rev. 8:12
Am 8:10a only  -   Jer. 6:26; cf. Zech. 12:10
Am 8:111a words  -   1 Sam. 3:1; Psa. 74:9; Ezek. 7:26
The lack of the word of the Lord was a punishment from the Lord. Because of Israel’s sins against the Lord, He would not speak to them. Cf. note 11 in Gen. 17.
Amos Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Am 9:1a saw  -   cf. 2 Chron. 18:18; Isa. 6:1
Am 9:11 standing
The Lord’s standing upon the altar (vv. 1-10) signifies that the Lord was ready to destroy Israel.
Am 9:2a Though  -   vv. 2-3: cf. Psa. 139:8-10
Am 9:21 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Am 9:2b heaven  -   Job 20:6; Isa. 14:13-15; Jer. 51:53; Obad. 4
Am 9:5a rises  -   Amos 8:8
Am 9:51 River
I.e., the Nile.
Am 9:6a upper  -   Psa. 104:3, 13
Am 9:6b water  -   Amos 5:8
Am 9:71 Cushites
I.e., Ethiopians.
Am 9:72 Caphtor
Probably Crete.
Am 9:73 Aram
I.e., Syria.
Am 9:8a not  -   Deut. 4:31; Jer. 30:11; Obad. 16-17
Am 9:81 utterly
In His chastising of Israel the sinful nation, God would cause them to suffer but would not allow them to be utterly destroyed, because He has a purpose. For the purpose of His incarnation God had to preserve a remnant of Israel.
Am 9:9a shake  -   Luke 22:31
Am 9:11a In  -   vv. 11-12: Acts 15:16-17
Am 9:111b tabernacle  -   Isa. 16:5
David is a type of Christ as the King. The tabernacle of David is the kingdom of David and the royal family of David. That kingdom, that royal family, fell when Nebuchadnezzar came to capture the nation of Israel, devastate the land, burn the city, destroy the temple, and carry off the king (2 Kings 25:1-21). In Amos’s prophecy God promised that in a certain day the kingdom of David and the family of David would be restored, and all the nations would be called by the name of Jehovah. This prophecy indicates that Christ will come back to be the real David (Isa. 9:7; 16:5; Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Hosea 3:5) and will rebuild, i.e., restore, the kingdom of His forefather David for the restoration of the entire universe. At that time the kingdom of David will become the kingdom of Christ and of God for eternity (Rev. 11:15). In the restored kingdom all the nations will be called by the name of Jehovah; i.e., all the nations will belong to God. Amos’s prophecy in vv. 11-12 was quoted by James in Acts 15:16-18 to confirm Peter’s and Paul’s going to the Gentiles, because in the restoration all the Gentiles will become God’s people, just as the Jews are.
Am 9:12a remnant  -   Obad. 19
Am 9:13a wine  -   Joel 3:18
Am 9:14a turn  -   Jer. 30:3, 18
Am 9:14b desolated  -   Isa. 61:4; 65:21; Ezek. 36:33-36
Am 9:15a plant  -   Isa. 60:21; Jer. 32:41; 42:10
Am 9:15b not  -   Ezek. 34:28; Joel 3:20
< Amos • Obadiah Outline >
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Obadiah Outline
I.   The introductory word — v. 1a
II.   Jehovah’s dealing with Edom — vv. 1b-9
III.   The evils of Edom — vv. 10-14
IV.   The day of Jehovah upon all the nations — vv. 15-16
V.   The issue of Jehovah’s dealing — vv. 17-21
Obadiah >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Obadiah
Notes and Cross-references
Ob 11 Obadiah
Meaning the servant of Jah; Jah being a shortened form of Jehovah. The central thought of the book of Obadiah is that Jehovah’s dealing with Esau issues in Jacob’s victory and possession for the kingdom of God in the age of restoration.
Ob 12a Edom  -   Jer. 49:7-22; Ezek. 25:12-14; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11-12
Edom refers to Esau (Gen. 36:1). Whereas Esau is the name of a person, the twin brother of Jacob, Edom is the name of a country.
Ob 1b We  -   vv. 1b-4: Jer. 49:14-16
Ob 4a bring  -   Isa. 14:13-15
Ob 5a thieves  -   vv. 5-6: Jer. 49:9
Ob 71 confederacy
Lit., covenant. Some nations formed a confederacy with Edom, but eventually they were unfaithful to Edom.
Ob 10a violence  -   Gen. 27:41; Psa. 137:7; Ezek. 25:12
Ob 101 brother
Jacob and Esau were brothers (Gen. 25:25-26). God’s recompensing Edom for his ill-treatment of his brother Jacob (i.e., Israel) was very human. God judged the nation of Edom concerning a matter of human affection.
Ob 10b forever  -   Ezek. 35:9; Mal. 1:4
Ob 11a cast  -   Joel 3:3; Nahum 3:10
Ob 12a Neither  -   Micah 7:8
Ob 151a day  -   Ezek. 30:3; Joel 3:14
The day of Jehovah is a matter of God’s judgment on all the nations. See note 151 in Joel 1.
Ob 152 As
The principle of God’s judgment on Edom is that as Edom has done to others, it will be done to them. The principle for judging the nations (v. 16) is that because of the profane action of the nations in causing Judah to drink the cup of wrath upon the holy mountain of God’s sanctuary, God would cause the nations to drink the same cup continually. In this way God would recompense the nations who caused Judah to drink at His holy mountain.
Ob 15b will  -   Ezek. 35:15; Hab. 2:8
Ob 16a drunk  -   Isa. 51:22; Jer. 25:28-29; 49:12
Ob 171 But
Verses 17-21 portray the issue of Jehovah’s dealing: Jehovah will save the house of Jacob and sanctify them (v. 17a); the house of Jacob will overcome Edom (v. 18) and will possess Edom’s possessions (vv. 17b, 19-20); and saviors will come up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be Jehovah’s (v. 21). All the aforementioned items were fulfilled at the time of the Maccabees, and they will be much more fulfilled in glory at the time of restoration for the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 11:15). The Maccabees, taking Mount Zion as their ground to judge Edom, gained a victory over Antiochus Epiphanes in about 165 B.C. (Dan. 8:9-14 and notes; Zech. 9:11-17 and notes). The victory of the Maccabees was a type of the victory Israel will gain immediately before the age of restoration.
The Minor Prophets, including Obadiah, reveal that the nations used by God to chastise sinful Israel do things in excess. Therefore, God will come in to judge the nations. This judgment will issue in Israel’s gaining the victory and enlarging their territory for the kingdom of God on earth, especially for God’s kingdom in the time of restoration. Cf. note 181 in Gen. 15.
Ob 17a Zion  -   Joel 2:32
Ob 21a kingdom  -   Psa. 22:28; Dan. 2:44; 7:14, 27; Zech. 14:9; Matt. 6:13; Luke 1:33; Rev. 11:15; 19:6
< Obadiah • Jonah Outline >
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Jonah Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   Jonah’s fleeing from Jehovah’s commission — 1:2-17
III.   Jonah’s repenting — 2:1-10
IV.   Jonah’s preaching — 3:1-10
V.   Jonah’s prejudice — 4:1-11
Jonah >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Jonah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Jnh 1:11a Jonah  -   2 Kings 14:25
Meaning dove. This indicates that God wanted Jonah to go out like a dove to preach the gospel of peace (cf. Eph. 2:17).
Jnh 1:21a Nineveh  -   Gen. 10:11-12; Jonah 3:2-3; 4:11; Nahum 1:1; Zeph. 2:13; Matt. 12:41; Luke 11:32
The capital of Assyria, located on the east bank of the Tigris River, first built by Nimrod (Gen. 10:11; see note 81 there). God intended to judge Nineveh, but He also intended to extend His salvation of love to that evil Gentile city. For this reason He commissioned Jonah to go to Nineveh to cry out against the city.
In his being sent by God to Nineveh, Jonah typifies Christ, who was sent by God to preach the gospel of peace to the Gentiles (Matt. 12:41). Jonah was a prophet who turned from Israel to the Gentiles. In this he was a type of Christ, who turned from Israel to the Gentiles (Matt. 21:43; Luke 4:25-27).
Jnh 1:31 Tarshish
Probably a Phoenician port on the Mediterranean Sea in present-day Spain. Jonah knew that God was “a gracious and compassionate God, long-suffering and abundant in lovingkindness and repentant of evil” (4:2) and that God would change His mind and not judge Nineveh if the city repented. Anticipating this and not agreeing with God, Jonah fled from God’s presence to Tarshish.
Jnh 1:3a Joppa  -   2 Chron. 2:16; Acts 9:36
Jnh 1:3b from  -   Gen. 4:16; Job 1:12; 2:7; Psa. 139:7
Jnh 1:4a wind  -   Psa. 107:25
Jnh 1:5a cast  -   Acts 27:18-19, 38
Jnh 1:5b asleep  -   Mark 4:38
Jnh 1:7a cast  -   Josh. 7:14, 16; 1 Sam. 10:20-21; 14:41-42; Prov. 16:33
Jnh 1:9a Hebrew  -   Gen. 14:13; 39:14
Jnh 1:9b made  -   Psa. 95:5; 146:6; Neh. 9:6; Acts 17:24
Jnh 1:15a ceased  -   Psa. 89:9; Luke 8:24
Jnh 1:17a stomach  -   Matt. 12:40; 16:4; Luke 11:30
Jnh 1:171 three
Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and was vomited out of it (2:10) for the spreading of God’s salvation to the Gentile Ninevites. Jonah is a type of Christ in His death and resurrection for the spreading of God’s salvation to sinners, even to the Gentiles (Matt. 12:39-41). Jonah’s staying in the great fish three days and three nights typifies Christ’s staying in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40 and note). Christ died and entered into Hades in the lower parts of the earth (Acts 2:27a; Eph. 4:9). He came forth from there in resurrection (Acts 2:31-32), and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) for the preaching, the spreading, of the gospel to all the Gentile nations, as seen in the book of Acts.
Jonah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Jnh 2:2a called  -   Psa. 120:1; 130:1; 142:1; Lam. 3:55-56
Jnh 2:21b Sheol  -   Psa. 16:10
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Jnh 2:3a depths  -   Psa. 69:2; 88:6-7; Lam. 3:54
Jnh 2:3b All  -   Psa. 42:7
Jnh 2:4a have  -   Psa. 31:22
Jnh 2:4b Toward  -   1 Kings 8:38
Jnh 2:6a have  -   Psa. 16:10; Isa. 38:17
Jnh 2:61 pit
Or, corruption.
Jnh 2:7a came  -   Psa. 18:6
Jnh 2:9a sacrifice  -   Psa. 50:14, 23; 116:17-18; Hosea 14:2; Heb. 13:15
Jnh 2:9b Salvation  -   Psa. 3:8
Jonah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Jnh 3:31 arose
After Jonah was adjusted, corrected, and subdued, he was willing to go along with God and receive His commission.
Jnh 3:32 exceedingly
Lit., great to God.
Jnh 3:4a forty  -   Gen. 7:4; 8:6; Exo. 24:18; Num. 13:25; 14:34; 1 Sam. 17:16; 1 Kings 19:8; Ezek. 4:6; Matt. 4:2
Jnh 3:5a Nineveh  -   Matt. 12:41; Luke 11:32
Jnh 3:6a sackcloth  -   Esth. 4:1; Jer. 6:26; Dan. 9:3; Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13
Jnh 3:9a Who  -   1 Sam. 12:22; Joel 2:14
Jnh 3:10a repented  -   Jer. 18:8; Joel 2:13; Amos 7:3, 6
Jonah Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Jnh 4:2a gracious  -   Exo. 34:6; Psa. 86:15; 145:8; Joel 2:13
Jnh 4:3a take  -   1 Kings 19:4; Num. 11:15
Jnh 4:61 castor-oil
A tree known for its broad leaves. So throughout this chapter where tree is used.
Jnh 4:111 pity
This book indicates particularly that God is not the God only of a certain people; He is the God of all peoples (Rom. 3:29). The Jews thought that they were the unique people of God. They considered themselves the firstborn son with the right to be the first to enjoy all that is of God (Exo. 4:22; Luke 15:11-32). But because the Jews responded to God wrongly, the Gentiles, not the Jews, became the first to enjoy God in His salvation (Matt. 21:28-32; Acts 13:45-48; Rom. 11:11, 17, 25).
The book of Jonah indicates that while God was angry with Assyria, He would still be gracious and compassionate toward a great and sinful city such as Nineveh. This indicates that God’s economy is to do things through Israel, His suffering people, and the nations, the consuming “locusts” (Joel 1:4 and note), to extend His salvation to all the peoples on earth (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8).
Jnh 4:11a Nineveh  -   Jonah 1:2; 3:2-3
Jnh 4:112 cattle
In having pity on the evil Gentile city of Nineveh, God cared even for their cattle.
< Jonah • Micah Outline >
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Micah Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   Jehovah’s reproof on Israel — 1:2 — 2:11; 3:1-12
III.   Jehovah’s comfort to Israel — 2:12-13; 4:1 — 5:15
IV.   Jehovah’s contention with Israel — 6:1-16
A.   Taking the past history as a base — vv. 1-5
B.   Aspiring after Israel’s genuine worship and sincere service — vv. 6-8
C.   Stating the cause and effect — Israel’s sins and Jehovah’s punishment — vv. 9-16
V.   The prophet’s observation and expectation — 7:1-20
A.   His observation of discouragement — vv. 1-6
B.   His expectation of encouragement — vv. 7-20
Micah >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Micah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 1:11a Micah  -   Jer. 26:18
A shortened form of Micaiah, meaning Who is like Jah? The longer form of the prophet’s name is found in the Hebrew text of Jer. 26:18.
Mi 1:1b Jotham  -   2 Chron. 27:1; Isa. 1:1; Hosea 1:1
Mi 1:21a Hear  -   Deut. 32:1; Isa. 1:2
The central thought of Micah is that Jehovah reproved Israel (the entire nation, including Judah) of her evils and promised her that He would save and gather her remnant for the restoration (Matt. 19:28) in the millennium (Rev. 20:4-7a).
Mi 1:2b temple  -   Psa. 11:4; Jonah 2:7; Hab. 2:20
Mi 1:3a place  -   Psa. 115:3; Isa. 26:21; Ezek. 3:12; Hosea 5:15
Mi 1:3b high  -   Deut. 32:13; 33:29; Amos 4:13
Mi 1:4a melted  -   Judg. 5:5; Psa. 97:5; Isa. 64:1-3; Nahum 1:5; cf. 2 Pet. 3:10
Mi 1:6a heap  -   1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 18:10; 19:25; Micah 3:12
Mi 1:8a barefoot  -   Isa. 20:2-4
Mi 1:9a wound  -   Isa. 1:5-6; Jer. 15:18; 30:12-13
Mi 1:10a Do  -   2 Sam. 1:20
Mi 1:13a Lachish  -   2 Kings 18:14, 17
Mi 1:16a captivity  -   2 Kings 17:6; Isa. 39:6-7
Micah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 2:11 it
Or, their hand is their god.
Mi 2:3a family  -   Jer. 8:3
Mi 2:6a Do  -   Isa. 30:10; Amos 2:12; 7:16
Mi 2:71 hasty
Or, straitened; lit., shortened.
Mi 2:11a prophesy  -   Jer. 14:14; Ezek. 13:3; Luke 6:26
Mi 2:121 gather
Jehovah’s comfort to Israel, found in vv. 12-13 and in 4:1 — 5:15, concerns the restoration of Israel (Matt. 19:28) in the millennium (Rev. 20:4-7a).
Mi 2:12a remnant  -   Isa. 11:11; Micah 4:6-7
Mi 2:12b sheep  -   Jer. 31:10
Mi 2:13a Jehovah  -   Isa. 52:12; Hosea 1:11
Micah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 3:4a hide  -   Deut. 31:17-18; 32:20; Psa. 13:1; cf. 2 Chron. 30:9; Ezek. 39:29
Mi 3:5a prophets  -   Micah 2:11; Matt. 7:15
Mi 3:7a no  -   1 Sam. 28:6; Psa. 74:9; Amos 8:11
Mi 3:8a full  -   Job 32:18; Acts 4:8; cf. Jer. 20:9
Mi 3:10a Who  -   Hab. 2:12; Jer. 22:13
Mi 3:12a Zion  -   Jer. 26:18; cf. Micah 1:6
Mi 3:12b mountain  -   cf. Isa. 2:2; Micah 4:2
Micah Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 4:11a But  -   vv. 1-3: Isa. 2:2-4
See note 121 in ch. 2. For vv. 1-3 in this chapter, see notes in Isa. 2:2-4.
Mi 4:1b mountain  -   Psa. 68:16; Isa. 11:9; Ezek. 17:22-23; Zech. 8:3
Mi 4:3a beat  -   cf. Joel 3:10
Mi 4:3b war  -   Psa. 46:9; Zech. 9:10; cf. Rev. 6:4
Mi 4:4a vine  -   1 Kings 4:25; Zech. 3:10
Mi 4:5a walk  -   Zech. 10:12
Mi 4:7a remnant  -   Micah 2:12; 5:3, 7-8; 7:18; Isa. 10:21
Mi 4:7b reign  -   Psa. 2:6; Isa. 9:6; 24:23; Dan. 7:14, 27; Luke 1:33
Mi 4:9a woman  -   Isa. 13:8; 21:3; Jer. 30:6; 50:43
Mi 4:11a gathered  -   Zech. 12:3
Mi 4:12a thoughts  -   Isa. 55:8; Rom. 11:33
Mi 4:12b threshing  -   Isa. 21:10
Mi 4:13a thresh  -   Isa. 41:15-16; Jer. 51:33
Mi 4:13b crush  -   Dan. 2:44
Mi 4:13c Lord  -   Zech. 4:14; 6:5; Rev. 11:4
Micah Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 5:1a cheek  -   Matt. 26:67; cf. Lam. 3:30; Matt. 5:39; Acts 23:2
Mi 5:2a Bethlehem  -   Matt. 2:6; Luke 2:4; John 7:42
Mi 5:21b come  -   Gen. 49:10; Isa. 9:6
This verse prophesies concerning the incarnation of Christ in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:4-6; Luke 2:4-7). Although Christ came forth from Bethlehem, His goings forth were from ancient times, from the days of eternity. This refers to Christ’s eternal origin and indicates that in eternity, before the creation of the earth, Christ was preparing to come forth. Christ’s appearing, His manifestation, began in eternity. From ancient times, from the days of eternity, the Triune God was preparing to come forth out of eternity into time, to come with His divinity into humanity by being born in Bethlehem as a man. His creating of all things was His preparation for Him to come out of eternity into time. This was the purpose of creation. Then, while the “locusts” were operating to consume Israel (Joel 1:4; 2:25), Christ came forth.
Christ’s going forth, His appearing, is a continuous matter. At the time of His incarnation He began to come forth. After His incarnation, He continued to go forth through His human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His outpouring of the consummated Spirit (who is the reality of Christ Himself), and His spreading through the preaching of the gospel to the whole inhabited earth. All these are great steps in Christ’s going forth. His going forth has not ceased but is continuing today. Christ’s going forth, His manifestation, will consummate when He comes back with the overcomers as the mighty ones (Joel 3:11) to defeat Antichrist and cast him into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:19-20), when Satan is cast into the abyss (Rev. 20:2-3), and when Christ sets up His throne to reign as King (Matt. 25:31, 34, 40). At that time His appearing will be complete.
While Christ is on the way, He is taking care of the scattered Jews. On the one hand, Israel is under God’s chastisement; on the other hand, Israel is also under God’s shepherding care. This shepherding is God’s preservation of Israel.
Mi 5:22 Ruler
In the restoration Christ will be the Ruler, the Shepherd, and the peace to His elect, Israel (vv. 2-5a). Today, as our Ruler, Christ keeps us; as our Shepherd, He nourishes and cherishes us; and as our peace, He controls our environment so that we may enjoy Him.
Mi 5:2c ancient  -   Psa. 90:2; Prov. 8:22-23; John 1:1
Mi 5:4a feed  -   Isa. 40:11; 49:10; Ezek. 34:23; Micah 7:14
Mi 5:5a peace  -   Psa. 72:7; Isa. 9:6; Zech. 9:10
Mi 5:6a Nimrod  -   Gen. 10:8, 10-11
Mi 5:61 He
In this verse the prophet first speaks of the land of Assyria and the land of Nimrod, and then, prophesying concerning Christ, declares, “He will save us from Assyria.” Christ in His coming will take the full responsibility to deal with all human government, represented by Assyria and Nimrod. Human government that was formed in opposition to God began with Nimrod, the first type of Antichrist and the founder of Nineveh (the capital of Assyria) and Babel, which issued in Babylon (Gen. 10:8-11 and note 81). Throughout the centuries human government, including the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, has been used by God to carry out His work of chastising Israel. Eventually, the entire human government — the four kinds of locusts mentioned in Joel 1 and the four sections of the great human image described in Dan. 2 — will be smashed by a single stone, Christ as the stone cut out without hands that will become a great mountain and fill the whole earth (Dan. 2:34-35 and notes). It is in this way that Christ will save Israel from Assyria.
In relation to Christ’s coming and the restoration of Israel, Assyria equals Rome, and Nimrod equals Antichrist. Eventually, Israel will be invaded by Antichrist, the last Caesar of the Roman Empire, and his armies. At this juncture Christ will come to destroy Antichrist and his armies and to save Israel (Zech. 14:2-7; Rev. 19:19-21). At that time, the great human image will be crushed by the stone cut out without hands (Dan. 2:31-35). Assyria, Nimrod, the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and Antichrist will be no more, and the entire earth will become the kingdom of God for eternity (Rev. 11:15). Then all Jehovah’s elect will enjoy Him. This is God’s comfort to Israel, a comfort that is a matter of restoration (Acts 3:20-21).
Mi 5:71a remnant  -   Micah 5:3
After Christ deals with all the enemies, the remnant of Jacob will be blessed by Jehovah, and they also will be victorious among the nations (vv. 7-9).
Mi 5:7b dew  -   Deut. 32:2; Psa. 72:6; 110:3
Mi 5:8a lion  -   cf. Rev. 5:5
Mi 5:101 day
In the day of restoration Jehovah will clear up the armies, cities, strongholds, witchcraft, idols, and idol worship from Israel, and He will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations (vv. 10-15).
Mi 5:13a work  -   Deut. 4:28; Isa. 2:8; Jer. 1:16; Rev. 9:20
Mi 5:15a vengeance  -   Psa. 149:7; 2 Thes. 1:8
Micah Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 6:2a contention  -   Hosea 12:2
Mi 6:4a brought  -   Exo. 12:51; 20:2; Deut. 4:20; Amos 2:10
Mi 6:4b Miriam  -   Exo. 15:20-21
Mi 6:5a Balaam  -   Num. 22:5; 23:7; 24:10-11; Deut. 23:4-5; Josh. 24:9-10
Mi 6:5b Shittim  -   Num. 25:1; 33:49; Josh. 4:19; 5:10
Mi 6:7a pleased  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Psa. 51:16; Isa. 1:11; Hosea 6:6; Matt. 9:13; Mark 12:33
Mi 6:71 firstborn
In vv. 6-8 Jehovah contended with Israel concerning their idol worship and their offering sacrifices to idols. God would never require anyone to offer his children as a sacrifice, but the people of Israel actually did this in order to fulfill the requirements of their idols.
Mi 6:81 But
The prophets are great in their speaking concerning Christ but not in their speaking concerning other things. Micah’s word here concerning what Jehovah requires of His people is not a matter of God’s revelation but a matter of the prophet’s concept (cf. note 11, par. 2, in Psa. 1). The divine concept according to the divine revelation in the New Testament is that Christ has replaced the law (Rom. 10:4), and God’s people should live Christ rather than keep the law (Gal. 2:19-20; Phil. 1:20-21a).
Mi 6:8a justice  -   Gen. 18:19; Isa. 1:17; Jer. 5:1; Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42
Mi 6:121 the
Lit., it. So also in v. 16.
Mi 6:15a sow  -   Deut. 28:38-40; Amos 5:11; Zeph. 1:13
Mi 6:16a Omri  -   1 Kings 16:25-26
Mi 6:16b Ahab  -   1 Kings 21:25-26
Micah Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Mi 7:1a gleanings  -   Isa. 17:6; 24:13
Mi 7:4a brier  -   2 Sam. 23:6-7; Isa. 55:13; Ezek. 2:6
Mi 7:6a father  -   Ezek. 22:7; Matt. 10:21, 35-36; Mark 13:12; Luke 12:53; 2 Tim. 3:2-3
Mi 7:7a look  -   Isa. 8:17
Mi 7:8a fall  -   2 Cor. 4:9
Mi 7:12a Assyria  -   Isa. 11:16; 19:23; 27:13; Hosea 11:11
Mi 7:121 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Mi 7:14a Shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; Isa. 40:11
Mi 7:15a going  -   Exo. 13:17-22; Psa. 68:22; 78:12-13
Mi 7:151 you
Lit., him.
Mi 7:17a lick  -   Psa. 72:9; Isa. 49:23; cf. Gen. 3:14
Mi 7:18a Who  -   Exo. 15:11
Mi 7:181b Pardoning  -   Exo. 34:6-7; Jer. 50:20
God’s pardoning our iniquity and passing over our transgression, treading our iniquities underfoot and casting all our sins into the depths of the sea (vv. 18-19), reveal how willing God is to forgive our iniquities (cf. Psa. 103:12; Isa. 1:18; Heb. 8:12; 1 John 1:9). Micah’s concluding praise, centering not on the virtues of God’s people but on the attributes of God, is a word of comfort.
Mi 7:18c remnant  -   Micah 4:7; 5:7-8
Mi 7:19a cast  -   Psa. 103:12; Isa. 38:17
< Micah • Nahum Outline >
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Nahum Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   Jehovah as the majestic Judge — 1:2-7
III.   Jehovah’s judgment on Nineveh — 1:8 — 3:19
A.   The verdict concerning Nineveh’s destruction and the promise of comfort to Judah — 1:8-15
B.   A vision of the destruction of Nineveh — 2:1-13
C.   The devastation of the people of Nineveh — 3:1-17
D.   The miserable end of the king of Assyria — 3:18-19
Nahum >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Nahum Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Na 1:11a Nineveh  -   Gen. 10:11; Jonah 3:3; Zeph. 2:13
See note 21 in Jonah 1. The prophecies of both Jonah and Nahum relate to the city of Nineveh. Whereas Jonah brought, or extended, God’s salvation to that sinful city, Nahum brought God’s judgment upon it. Jonah reveals that God in His salvation is the God of all the peoples of the earth, not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles (see note 111 in Jonah 4). Nahum reveals that God is also the God of all peoples in His judgment. Thus, God is the God of all peoples both in judgment and in salvation.
Although He extended His salvation to Nineveh, God judged Nineveh because Nineveh was sinful and invaded Israel (2 Kings 15:19-20, 29; 17:3-6; 18:9 — 19:37). Assyria was the first nation to devastate Israel, invading Israel more than one hundred years before the Babylonian invasion under Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:1 — 25:21).
Na 1:12 Nahum
Meaning comfort, and similar in sound to the word for avenge. This name signifies that Jehovah God comforts His elect, Israel, and avenges Israel of her enemy, Nineveh, by judging Assyria.
Na 1:2a jealous  -   Exo. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; Josh. 24:19
Na 1:3a long-suffering  -   Exo. 34:6-7; Neh. 9:17; Psa. 103:8
Na 1:3b clouds  -   2 Sam. 22:12; Job 22:14; Psa. 104:3; Dan. 7:13; Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7
Na 1:4a rebukes  -   Psa. 106:9; Isa. 44:27; 50:2; Matt. 8:26
Na 1:5a quake  -   Psa. 97:5; Micah 1:4
Na 1:5b melt  -   cf. 2 Pet. 3:10
Na 1:6a Who  -   Psa. 76:7; Rev. 6:17
Na 1:7a knows  -   1 Cor. 8:3; 2 Tim. 2:19; Psa. 1:6
Na 1:7b refuge  -   Psa. 2:12
Na 1:81a flood  -   Dan. 9:26; 11:10, 22, 40
In vv. 8-12 and 14a Jehovah, the majestic Judge, pronounces His verdict concerning the destruction of Nineveh by the Medes and the Babylonians in 612 B.C. The remainder of the book gives a full portrait of Jehovah’s judgment on this evil city. See note 61 in ch. 2.
Na 1:82 her
I.e., Nineveh.
Na 1:9a devise  -   Psa. 2:1
Na 1:121 they
Lit., he.
Na 1:12a no  -   Isa. 30:19; 51:22; 60:18-20; Rev. 7:16
Na 1:131 his
I.e., the yoke that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had placed on Israel. First, the Assyrians came to devastate Israel. Then God used Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar to defeat the Assyrians, and this became a deliverance to Israel.
Na 1:13a yoke  -   Isa. 9:4; 10:27; 14:25; Psa. 107:14
Na 1:15a See  -   Isa. 52:7; Rom. 10:15
Na 1:151 glad
This refers to the announcement of Assyria’s defeat by the Babylonians and was a word of comfort to Israel.
Nahum Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Na 2:11 He
Verses 1-4 describe the swift activity of the Babylonian armies in destroying Nineveh. God used the Babylonians with the Medes to invade Assyria and thereby to save Israel from the tyranny of the Assyrians.
Na 2:1a scatters  -   Jer. 50:23
Na 2:2a vine  -   Psa. 80:8, 12; Hosea 10:1
Na 2:51 The
Lit., He.
Na 2:52 of
Lit., of it.
Na 2:61 gates
This is a reference to the overflowing flood mentioned in 1:8. Nineveh was built on the Tigris River. This was a protection to Nineveh. In 612 B.C. the Medes and the Babylonians came together to attack Nineveh; they found a way to open the gates of the river, and they flooded the city.
Na 2:71 She
She refers to the queen, and her maidens refers to the young women in the palace.
Na 2:10a anguish  -   Jer. 30:6; Joel 2:6
Na 2:131 your
Lit., her.
Nahum Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Na 3:81 No-amon
A city in upper Egypt, once the residence of the Pharaohs; called Thebes by the Greeks.
Na 3:82 sea
I.e., the Nile River.
Na 3:91 Cush
I.e., Ethiopia.
Na 3:92 Put
Put refers to Libya in the broader sense, encompassing much of north Africa.
Na 3:93 her
Lit., your.
Na 3:12a fig  -   Rev. 6:13
Na 3:141 ready
Or, strong.
Na 3:15a locust  -   Joel 1:4
Na 3:17a locust  -   Rev. 9:7
Na 3:171 locusts
The mentioning of locusts here is significant, indicating that the Assyrians also were “locusts” that devastated Israel (Joel 1:4 and note). The Assyrian locusts were eventually defeated by the Babylonian locusts.
According to the Minor Prophets, God’s chastising of Israel and His punishing of the nations are for the manifestation of Christ. The main point of Nahum is that while God was chastising Israel and punishing the nations, He always did what was necessary to preserve Israel for the purpose of manifesting Christ. God used one kind of locust to deal with another kind of locust in order to preserve Israel that Christ might have a channel — the reserved and preserved Israel — through which to be brought forth.
Na 3:18a Assyria  -   Jer. 50:18; Ezek. 31:3, 12-17
< Nahum • Habakkuk Outline >
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Habakkuk Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   The first dialogue between the prophet and Jehovah — 1:2-11
A.   The prophet’s inquiring of Jehovah — vv. 2-4
B.   Jehovah’s answer to the prophet — vv. 5-11
III.   The second dialogue between the prophet and Jehovah — 1:12 — 2:20
A.   The prophet’s inquiring of Jehovah — 1:12 — 2:1
B.   Jehovah’s answer to the prophet — 2:2-20
  (Five woes to the Chaldeans — vv. 5-20)
IV.   The prophet’s song to Jehovah in prayer, lauding, and trusting in Him — 3:1-19
A.   In prayer — vv. 1-2
B.   In lauding — vv. 3-15
C.   In trusting in Jehovah — vv. 16-19
Habakkuk >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
Habakkuk Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Hb 1:11 Habakkuk
Meaning embracing, or clinging to. The meaning of the prophet’s name indicates that in order for sinners to receive God’s eternal salvation (2:4), which is actually God Himself (Isa. 12:2; Luke 2:30), God became a man on the earth that He might embrace sinners and sinners might cling to Him (cf. Luke 19:1-10). See note 41 in ch. 2 and note 41 in Hosea 11.
The central thought of Habakkuk is that the righteous God will judge both the evil Israel and the violent Chaldeans, and only the righteous one will live by his faith (2:4b), so that all the earth may know the glory of Jehovah (2:14) and be silent before Jehovah, who is in His holy temple (2:20), and so that His seeker may sing to Him in prayer, in lauding, and in trusting in Him (ch. 3).
Hb 1:2a not  -   Psa. 22:1-2; Lam. 3:8
Hb 1:5a amazed  -   Isa. 29:14; Acts 13:41
Hb 1:6a Chaldeans  -   2 Kings 24:2; 2 Chron. 36:17
Hb 1:61 theirs
Lit., his; the masculine singular is used through the end of the chapter.
Hb 1:8a afar  -   Deut. 28:49-50; Jer. 5:15
Hb 1:8b eagle  -   Jer. 4:13
Hb 1:12a everlasting  -   Psa. 90:2; 93:2
Hb 1:121 them
Referring to the Chaldeans.
Hb 1:12b judgment  -   2 Kings 19:25; Psa. 17:13; Isa. 10:5-7
Hb 1:13a look  -   Jer. 12:1
Hb 1:131 more
According to Habakkuk, the people of Israel were more righteous than the Babylonians, yet they were suffering the violence of the Babylonians. Habakkuk’s word here indicates that he was angry with God.
Hb 1:15a hook  -   Jer. 16:16; Amos 4:2
Hb 1:16a sacrifices  -   cf. Deut. 8:17; Isa. 10:13; 37:24-25
Habakkuk Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Hb 2:1a watch  -   Isa. 21:8
Hb 2:1b speak  -   Psa. 85:8
Hb 2:2a Write  -   Isa. 8:1; 30:8
Hb 2:21 vision
Concerning God’s judgment on the Chaldeans.
Hb 2:22 That
Or, That he who reads it may run.
Hb 2:3a appointed  -   Dan. 10:14; 11:27, 35
Hb 2:3b come  -   Heb. 10:37; 2 Pet. 3:9
Hb 2:41 But
This word, quoted three times in the New Testament by the apostle Paul (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38), unveils God’s eternal salvation given to sinners. According to the background of this book, both Israel (God’s elect) and the Chaldeans (the nations) were under God’s judgment. Under God’s judgment all sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, are destined to die (Rom. 6:23). The unique way for sinners to escape God’s judgment and obtain God’s eternal salvation is to believe in God’s embodiment, Christ, that they may become righteous and be justified in order to have life and live (John 3:16-18). God’s eternal salvation is to save our entire being — spirit, soul, and body — for eternity (1 Thes. 5:23). The way for us to receive such a salvation is to believe in Christ so that we may be justified by God and thus be qualified to have the eternal, divine life, and live by that life (Rom. 3:24; 5:1-2, 10, 17; Eph. 2:8). This is the New Testament gospel in an Old Testament prophetic book.
Christ is the factor that links the books of Micah, Jonah, and Habakkuk. According to Micah 5:2, Christ as the eternal One, whose origin is in eternity, has gone forth by being born as a man in Bethlehem (see note 21 in Micah 5). Then, the type in Jonah 1:17 reveals the continuation of Christ’s going forth in His death and resurrection (see note 171 in Jonah 1). In the book of Jonah, Jehovah’s salvation was brought to Nineveh, an evil city of the Gentiles, through the preaching of the prophet. Today, God’s salvation, which was prepared, completed, and consummated by Christ’s going forth, has come to us through the preaching of the gospel. The way to receive and apply this salvation is by faith, as mentioned in this verse.
Hb 2:4a the  -   Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38
Hb 2:42 live
Here, to live means to have life and live. See note 173 in Rom. 1.
Hb 2:51 Sheol
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Hb 2:8a plundered  -   Isa. 33:1
Hb 2:81 plunder
This plundering of Babylon by the nations, as God’s recompense on Babylon, took place a little more than eighty-five years after Habakkuk’s prophecy (see Dan. 5).
Hb 2:11a stone  -   cf. Luke 19:40
Hb 2:12a Woe  -   Jer. 22:13; Ezek. 24:9; Micah 3:10
Hb 2:13a fire  -   Jer. 51:58
Hb 2:14a earth  -   Isa. 11:9
Hb 2:141 filled
While the peoples were toiling for vanity (v. 13), something particular, something mysterious, was happening on earth: the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as water covers the sea.
Hb 2:151 his
Lit., your.
Hb 2:16a cup  -   Psa. 75:8; Jer. 25:26-29; 51:57
Hb 2:18a idol  -   Isa. 44:9-10; 46:6-7; Acts 17:29; 1 Cor. 12:2
Hb 2:20a temple  -   Psa. 11:4
Hb 2:20b silent  -   Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 2:13; Rev. 8:1; cf. Psa. 46:10; Zech. 1:11
Habakkuk Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Hb 3:11 shigionoth
The meaning of the term is obscure, but the term apparently denotes a musical form or tempo (cf. Psa. 7 title).
Hb 3:21a revive  -   Psa. 80:18; 85:6
In his prayer for revival, Habakkuk represents all God’s elect throughout the generations. Among God’s elect there has always been an aspiration to be revived. Moreover, since the fall of man there has been in all creation an aspiration for revival (Rom. 8:19-23). Adam’s fall brought corruption, slavery, and death into the whole creation (Rom. 5:12); everything is decaying and is under the slavery of corruption. All the things that are under this slavery aspire to be revived.
The universal need for revival, for restoration, can be met only by Christ and in Christ. Only Christ, who was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), is the renewing power. For the whole universe and for all mankind, Christ is the reality of the third day (John 11:25). The reality of the third day is the person of the resurrected Christ with the reality of revival. Christ, therefore, is the element of the revival for which all creation aspires. The corruption and desolation can be swallowed up only by Christ’s resurrection. The way to experience revival is to contact Christ by repenting and confessing our sins, failures, and darkness, thereby entering into Him as the resurrection. Cf. Hosea 6:2 and note.
Hb 3:3a Holy  -   Deut. 33:2; Judg. 5:4; Psa. 68:7
Hb 3:31 Selah
See note 21 in Psa. 3.
Hb 3:5a fire  -   Psa. 18:8
Hb 3:61 measures
Or (as the Septuagint translates), shakes.
Hb 3:6a shattered  -   Nahum 1:5
Hb 3:71 Cushan
I.e., Ethiopia.
Hb 3:8a ride  -   Hab. 3:15; Deut. 33:26-27; Psa. 68:4; Rev. 6:2
Hb 3:10a writhe  -   Exo. 19:16, 18; Judg. 5:4-5; Psa. 68:8; 77:18
Hb 3:11a still  -   Josh. 10:12-13
Hb 3:12a thresh  -   Jer. 51:33; Amos 1:3; Micah 4:13
Hb 3:13a salvation  -   Psa. 68:19-22
Hb 3:161 he
Referring to the Chaldeans.
Hb 3:18a exult  -   Isa. 41:16; 61:10; Luke 1:47
Hb 3:19a strength  -   Psa. 27:1
Hb 3:19b hinds’  -   2 Sam. 22:34; Psa. 18:33; cf. Gen. 49:21
Hb 3:19c high  -   Deut. 32:13; 33:29
Hb 3:191 my
Perhaps indicating that Habakkuk was also qualified to participate in the musical temple worship. He might have been a priest or a Levite.
< Habakkuk • Zephaniah Outline >
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Zephaniah Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   Jehovah’s judgment — 1:2 — 3:8
A.   On Israel — 1:2 — 2:3
B.   On the nations — 2:4-15
1.   On the Philistines — vv. 4-7
2.   On Moab and Ammon — vv. 8-11
3.   On the Cushites — v. 12
4.   On Assyria — vv. 13-15
C.   On Israel — 3:1-7
D.   On all the nations — 3:8
III.   Jehovah’s salvation — 3:9-20
A.   To the Gentiles — v. 9
B.   To Israel — vv. 10-20
Zephaniah >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Zephaniah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Zp 1:11 Zephaniah
Meaning Jah hides, or Jah treasures; Jah being a shortened form of Jehovah. The name probably signifies being hidden by Jehovah as His treasure in the day of His anger (2:3). As the son of Cushi, Zephaniah was a royal descendant who was related to two good kings of Judah, Hezekiah and Josiah.
The central thought of this book is that Jehovah is the judging and saving God both to Israel and to the nations, issuing in His reigning among Israel (3:15b) and in Israel’s singing and rejoicing in their restoration (3:14). Jehovah judges Israel as well as the nations, and He saves the nations as well as Israel. His judgment and His salvation are universal. Jehovah’s judgment on Israel and on the nations and His salvation to the Gentiles and to Israel have a particular order: His judgment is first on Israel and then on the nations (cf. 1 Pet. 4:17a), but His salvation is first to the Gentiles and then to Israel (Rom. 11:11, 25-26).
Zp 1:1a Josiah  -   2 Kings 22:1; 2 Chron. 34:1; Jer. 1:2
Zp 1:3a birds  -   Hosea 4:3
Zp 1:3b stumbling  -   Ezek. 7:19; 14:3-4, 7; Matt. 13:41
Zp 1:4a Baal  -   2 Kings 23:4-5
Zp 1:5a host  -   Jer. 19:13; Acts 7:42
Zp 1:51 Malcam
See note 12 in Jer. 49.
Zp 1:7a silent  -   Hab. 2:20; Zech. 2:13; Rev. 8:1
Zp 1:71b day  -   Isa. 13:6
See note 151 in Joel 1.
Zp 1:72c sacrifice  -   Isa. 34:6; Jer. 46:10; Ezek. 39:17
God had prepared His sinful elect as His sacrifice to offer to the invading army of the Chaldeans (Ezek. 39:19-20; Jer. 25:9), whom He had called and consecrated (sanctified). The Chaldean army, as the locusts (Joel 1:4), would destroy Israel, and this destruction would be their eating of the sacrifice.
Zp 1:73 consecrated
Or, sanctified.
Zp 1:12a settled  -   Jer. 48:11
Zp 1:12b say  -   Psa. 94:7
Zp 1:13a build  -   Deut. 28:30; Amos 5:11
Zp 1:13b vineyards  -   Deut. 28:39
Zp 1:14a great  -   Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11; Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:17; 16:14
Zp 1:15a day  -   Zeph. 1:18; Isa. 22:5; Jer. 30:7
Zp 1:15b darkness  -   Joel 2:2; Mark 13:24
Zp 1:17a blind  -   Deut. 28:29; Isa. 59:10; 2 Pet. 1:9
Zp 1:18a silver  -   Prov. 11:4; Ezek. 7:19; 1 Pet. 1:18
Zp 1:18b fire  -   Deut. 4:24; Psa. 79:5; Ezek. 38:19; Zeph. 3:8; Heb. 10:27
Zephaniah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Zp 2:11a Gather  -   Joel 2:16
Verses 1-3 are the prophet’s admonition to the shameless people of Israel to gather themselves together to repent to Jehovah before His burning anger would come upon them.
Zp 2:3a Seek  -   Psa. 105:4; Amos 5:6; Matt. 6:33
Zp 2:4a Gaza  -   Isa. 14:29-32; Jer. 47:4-5; Ezek. 25:15-17; Amos 1:6-8
Zp 2:7a remnant  -   Zeph. 2:9; Isa. 11:11; Micah 4:7; 5:7-8
Zp 2:8a Moab  -   Isa. 15:1– 16:14; Jer. 48:1-47; Ezek. 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3
Zp 2:8b Ammon  -   Jer. 49:1-6; Ezek. 25:1-7; Amos 1:13-15
Zp 2:11a worship  -   Mal. 1:11
Zp 2:121a Cushites  -   Isa. 18:1-7; 20:4; Jer. 46:9
I.e., Ethiopians.
Zp 2:13a Assyria  -   Isa. 10:12; Ezek. 31:3, 10-14
Zp 2:13b Nineveh  -   Nahum 1:1; 2:10
Zp 2:15a This  -   Isa. 47:8
Zephaniah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Zp 3:11 rebellious
The degradation of Jerusalem mentioned in vv. 1-7 was the cause of God’s coming in to judge, correct, and chastise them.
Zp 3:2a not  -   Jer. 5:3; 22:21
Zp 3:5a midst  -   Zeph. 3:15, 17; Deut. 32:4
Zp 3:5b brings  -   cf. 1 Cor. 4:5
Zp 3:8a wait  -   Psa. 27:14; 37:34; Prov. 20:22
Zp 3:8b fire  -   Zeph. 1:18; Heb. 10:27
Zp 3:91 pure
The changing of the peoples’ language into a pure language refers to Jehovah’s salvation of the Gentiles in the time of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21). To change a people’s language is to change their culture, for culture is wrapped up with language. The original language of any people is dirty and impure. A people’s language becoming pure indicates that they have been thoroughly saved.
Zp 3:9a language  -   cf. Isa. 19:18; Acts 2:7-11
Zp 3:9b serve  -   Psa. 86:9; Zech. 8:20-23; Acts 2:46
Zp 3:92 accord
Lit., shoulder.
Zp 3:101 Cush
I.e., Ethiopia.
Zp 3:14a ringing  -   Isa. 12:5-6; 54:1; Zech. 2:10; 9:9
Zp 3:151 enemy
Some MSS read, enemies.
Zp 3:152 King
Jehovah’s salvation of Israel is for Christ to be the King of Israel in the restoration. In this salvation Jehovah’s deliverance (vv. 10-13, 15-20) issues in Israel’s singing and rejoicing (v. 14).
Zp 3:15a midst  -   Zeph. 3:5, 17; Ezek. 48:35
Zp 3:153 see
Others read, fear.
Zp 3:17a rejoicing  -   Deut. 30:9; Isa. 62:5; 65:19; Jer. 32:41
Zp 3:181 them
Lit., her.
Zp 3:20a turn  -   Isa. 11:12; 27:12; Jer. 29:14; Ezek. 28:25; Amos 9:14
< Zephaniah • Haggai Outline >
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Haggai Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   Jehovah’s rebuke and charge concerning the delay of the building of His house — 1:2-15
A.   Jehovah’s rebuke — vv. 2-6
B.   Jehovah’s charge — vv. 7-8
C.   Jehovah’s further rebuke — vv. 9-11
D.   The people’s response — vv. 12-15
III.   The prophecy concerning the house of Jehovah in the millennium and the promise concerning the Messiah in the coming kingdom — 2:1-23
A.   The prophecy concerning the house of Jehovah in the millennium — vv. 1-9
B.   The people’s uncleanness and Jehovah’s dealing with them and then blessing them — vv. 10-19
C.   The promise concerning the Messiah (typified by Zerubbabel) in the coming kingdom — vv. 20-23
Haggai >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Haggai Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Hg 1:1a second  -   Ezra 4:24; Zech. 1:1
Hg 1:11 Darius
I.e., Darius Hystaspes, who ruled the Medo-Persian empire from 521-486 B.C. See Ezra 4:5, 24; 5:3 — 6:12.
Hg 1:12 Haggai
Meaning My feast, or the feast of Jah; Jah being a shortened form of Jehovah. The name indicates that Haggai the prophet, who had been born in captivity in Babylon, expected earnestly to return from the captivity that the feasts of Jehovah might be restored.
The central thought of Haggai’s prophecy is that the building of the house of Jehovah is related to the welfare of God’s people today and to the coming of the millennial kingdom with its Messiah in the age of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:20-21). In the Old Testament the house of God, or the temple, was first a type of Christ as the house of God individually (John 2:19-21) and then a type of the church, the Body, the enlarged Christ, as God’s house corporately (1 Tim. 3:15). Thus, Haggai’s prophecy refers to us, the New Testament believers, since we are the reality of the type.
Hg 1:13b Zerubbabel  -   1 Chron. 3:17, 19; Ezra 3:2; 5:2; Matt. 1:12
During the years when the rebuilding of the temple was interrupted through the opposition of the adversaries (Ezra 4), the children of Israel began to build houses for themselves and gradually forgot the building of the temple (vv. 2-4). Haggai’s speaking to Zerubbabel the governor, representing the kingship, and Joshua the high priest, representing the priesthood, was to strengthen and encourage them and the people for the rebuilding of the temple as God’s house (Ezra 5:1 and note).
Hg 1:1c Joshua  -   Zech. 3:1; 6:11
Hg 1:3a Haggai  -   Ezra 5:1
Hg 1:4a house  -   2 Sam. 7:2; Psa. 132:3-5
Hg 1:41 Is
The self-serving and God-neglecting returned captives were taking care of their houses but not Jehovah’s house; hence, He came in to ask them concerning His house.
Hg 1:6a have  -   Deut. 28:38; Hosea 4:10; Micah 6:14-15
Hg 1:61 little
This indicates that if we do not have the heart to take care of God’s house for His satisfaction, no matter how much we eat or drink or how well we dress, there will be no satisfaction. If we neglect the church, we will have no real enjoyment or satisfaction.
Hg 1:81 bring
Today our gospel preaching is our gathering of material for the building of God’s house.
Hg 1:91 run
The word run indicates that the people were busy caring for their own houses. It is impossible for us to be neutral. We must be absolute, either taking care of our houses first or taking care of the Lord’s house first (cf. Matt. 6:33; Luke 9:57-62).
Hg 1:10a dew  -   Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23; 1 Kings 8:35
Hg 1:11a drought  -   1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 8:1
Hg 1:12a Zerubbabel  -   Ezra 5:2
Hg 1:14a stirred  -   2 Chron. 36:22; Ezra 1:1
Hg 1:141 spirit
For the recovery of the building of God’s house, God’s elect were stirred up by the Lord in their spirit in the order of God’s authority, beginning with Zerubbabel the governor (cf. Ezra 1:5). In the Minor Prophets both the divine Spirit and the stirred-up human spirit of God’s elect are mentioned. In the New Testament the divine Spirit has been consummated and poured out (Acts 2:17-21; Joel 2:28-32), and our human spirit responds to such a Spirit by being stirred up (cf. Acts 17:16; Rom. 8:16; 2 Cor. 2:13).
Hg 1:142 work
In our response to the Lord’s charge, we all should be occupied by the Lord Jesus in the work of preaching the gospel, feeding the new believers, and taking care of others for the building up of the Lord’s house, the church as the Body of Christ (John 21:15-17).
Hg 1:14b house  -   Ezra 5:2, 8
Haggai Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Hg 2:3a house  -   Ezra 3:12
Hg 2:3b nothing  -   Zech. 4:10
Hg 2:4a be  -   Zech. 8:9; Eph. 6:10
Hg 2:5a Spirit  -   Neh. 9:20; Isa. 63:11
Hg 2:61 Yet
The prophecy in vv. 6-9 concerns the house of Jehovah in the millennium. It was an encouragement to the building of Jehovah’s house at Zerubbabel’s time.
Hg 2:6a shake  -   Joel 3:16; Hag. 2:21; Heb. 12:26; Rev. 6:12
Hg 2:71 Desire
This refers to Christ, who is the Desire of all the nations (Mal. 3:1b). Even though the nations do not know Christ, they still desire Christ. All people desire to have peace and a good life with virtues such as light, love, patience, humility, meekness, endurance, joy, and righteousness. Since Christ is the reality of all these things, for the nations to desire these things means that, unconsciously, they desire Christ.
The coming of Christ as the Desire of all the nations depends on the return of God’s people from their captivity in Babylon and the recovery of the building of God’s house. Christ came the first time, in His incarnation, through the return of a remnant of Israel to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon for the rebuilding of the temple. He will come the second time through the return of a remnant of His New Testament elect from their captivity in the religious Babylon (Rev. 17) to the proper ground of the church for the recovery of the building of the church, God’s spiritual house (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5).
Hg 2:7a come  -   Gen. 49:10; Mal. 3:1
Hg 2:7b fill  -   Acts 2:2
Hg 2:8a Mine  -   cf. Psa. 50:10
Hg 2:9a greater  -   cf. Matt. 12:6
Hg 2:13a corpse  -   Num. 19:11
Hg 2:141 unclean
The uncleanness here was not related to their physical offerings but to their moral and spiritual situation, which involved their relationship with God. Once the uncleanness was removed, they would be blessed by God.
Hg 2:17a blight  -   Deut. 28:22; 1 Kings 8:37; Amos 4:9
Hg 2:18a day  -   Zech. 8:9
Hg 2:211 Zerubbabel
Verses 20-23 are the promise concerning the Messiah (typified by Zerubbabel) in the coming kingdom. Jehovah’s making Zerubbabel as a signet ring (v. 23) indicates that Jehovah regarded him as His representative and that He loved him and trusted him. In this matter Zerubbabel is a type of Christ. He represents God (Matt. 28:18), and He is the One whom God loves and trusts (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; John 3:35; 17:2). As such a person, He is qualified to take care of the building of God’s house, the church (Matt. 16:18).
Hg 2:21a shake  -   Hag. 2:6-7; Heb. 12:26
Hg 2:22a kingdoms  -   Dan. 2:44
Hg 2:23a signet  -   S.S. 8:6; Jer. 22:24
Hg 2:23b chosen  -   Isa. 42:1; 43:10
< Haggai • Zechariah Outline >
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Zechariah Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1-6
II.   The visions of consolation and promise — 1:7 — 6:15
A.   The vision of a man as the Angel of Jehovah riding on a red horse and standing among the myrtle trees — 1:7-17
B.   The vision of the four horns and the four craftsmen — 1:18-21
C.   The vision of a man with a measuring line in His hand — 2:1-13
D.   The vision of Joshua the high priest perfected, established, and strengthened by the Angel of Jehovah with Zerubbabel the governor of Judah — 3:1-10
E.   The vision of the lampstand of gold and two olive trees — 4:1-14
F.   The vision of the flying scroll — 5:1-4
G.   The vision of the ephah vessel — 5:5-11
H.   The vision of the four chariots — 6:1-8
I.   The concluding word to confirm the eight visions by the crowning of Joshua as a type of Christ — 6:9-15
III.   The advice to Israel to turn from the vanity of their ritualistic religion to the reality of a godly life, and the desire of Jehovah to restore Israel — 7:1 — 8:23
IV.   The prophecies of encouragement centered on Christ — 9:1 — 14:21
A.   The prophecy concerning the nations around Judah in relation to Israel — 9:1-17
1.   Concerning the destruction carried out on the nations around Judah by Alexander the Great, the king of the Grecian empire (336-323 B.C., with the influence of his four successors extending to 44 B.C.) — vv. 1-7
2.   The Lord protecting Jerusalem with its temple as His house — v. 8
3.   Christ temporarily welcomed as the King into Jerusalem in a lowly form — vv. 9-10
4.   Concerning the victory of the Jewish Maccabean heroes over Antiochus Epiphanes the king of Syria (175-164 B.C.) — vv. 11-17
B.   The prophecy concerning the Lord’s loving visitation to Israel — 10:1-12
C.   The prophecy concerning the living of Israel under the oppression of the Roman Empire — 11:1-17
1.   The destruction carried out in the neighborhood of Israel by the Roman Empire — vv. 1-3
2.   The children of Israel falling into their neighbor’s hand and into the hand of their neighbor’s king — living under the tyranny of the Roman Empire — vv. 4-6
3.   Jehovah (as Jesus) shepherding the afflicted of the flock of Israel — vv. 7-11, 14
4.   The Messiah, as the proper Shepherd of Israel, detested, attacked, rejected, and sold for the price of a slave — vv. 12-13
5.   The children of Israel left to the foolish and worthless shepherds — vv. 15-17
D.   The prophecy concerning Israel’s destiny in the great war of Armageddon, in their household salvation, and in the millennium — 12:1 — 14:21
1.   In the great war of Armageddon — 12:1-14
2.   The divine provision and the sovereign preparation for the household salvation of Israel — 13:1-9
a.   The divine provision of a Redeemer with His redemption — vv. 1-7a
b.   The sovereign preparation of a people to receive the Redeemer with His redemption — vv. 7b-9
3.   In the millennium — 14:1-21
Zechariah >
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Zechariah Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 1:1a second  -   Ezra 4:24; Hag. 1:1
Zc 1:11 Darius
I.e., Darius Hystaspes, who ruled the Medo-Persian empire from 521-486 B.C. See Ezra 4:5, 24; 5:3 — 6:12. This Darius is different from both the Darius in Dan. 9:1 and 11:1 and the one in Neh. 12:22.
Zc 1:12b Zechariah  -   Ezra 5:1; Matt. 23:35
Meaning Jehovah remembers. Zechariah was born of a priestly family in captivity (Neh. 12:1, 4, 12, 16). He was first a priest, and then he became a prophet. He returned to Judah with Zerubbabel at the time of the prophet Haggai in about 520 B.C. (Ezra 5:1). Zechariah and Haggai encouraged the building of the temple of God under the hands of Zerubbabel and Joshua. Joshua was the high priest, representing the priesthood, and Zerubbabel, a descendant of the royal family, was the governor of Judah, representing the kingship. Thus, the temple of God was built by the kingship with the priesthood. Likewise, in the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, both the priesthood and the kingship are needed (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). See note 11 in Ezra 5.
The central thought of Zechariah’s prophecy is that Jehovah remembers His chastised people and sympathizes with them in their suffering of the nations’ excessive action in carrying out Jehovah’s punishing of Israel. God used the nations to punish Israel, but the nations went too far in carrying out God’s punishing of His elect. For Israel’s suffering of His punishment, God sent Christ as His Angel to be with them and go with them through their captivity (vv. 7-11). He also raised up “craftsmen” to deal with the nations who had dealt with Israel excessively (vv. 20-21). Through Zechariah, a prophet of restoration, God gave His chastised people a hearty word of consolation and promise, saying that He would bring the scattered Israel back to their own country with the expectation of a time of restoration and prosperity (vv. 12-17; 2:1 — 4:14; 6:9-15; 8:1-23).
In Zechariah’s prophecy Christ was sent to Israel as their King in a lowly form (9:9-10) and as their Shepherd to feed them (11:7), but He was detested (11:8), sold (11:12-13), attacked (13:7), and pierced (12:10) and thereby accomplished redemption for them (13:1a; 1:8; 3:9). Eventually, Christ will fight for Israel to deliver them out of the hand of Antichrist for their household salvation (12:1 — 14:21). In the restoration Christ will be King over all the earth (14:8-11, 16, 20-21).
Zc 1:13 Berechiah
Meaning Jehovah blesses.
Zc 1:14 Iddo
Meaning at an appointed time. The total significance of the three names Zechariah, Berechiah, and Iddo is that at an appointed time Jehovah will bless and Jehovah will remember.
Zc 1:31 of
Or, Sabaoth. So throughout the book.
Zc 1:32a Return  -   Neh. 1:9; Jer. 24:7; 25:5; 35:15; Mal. 3:7; Luke 15:20
The exhortation to the children of Israel in vv. 2-6 to return to Jehovah with the promise that Jehovah will return to them indicates that although the children of Israel had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, most of them probably had not returned to the Lord. This establishes the principle that we must return to the Lord first, and then the Lord will return to us.
Zc 1:4a cried  -   2 Chron. 36:15-16
Zc 1:6a thought  -   Lam. 2:17
Zc 1:81 man
This man is the Angel of Jehovah (v. 11), Christ in His humanity. The Angel of Jehovah is Jehovah Himself as the Triune God (Exo. 3:2a, 4-6, 13-15). He is also Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) and as the sent One of God (John 5:36-38; 6:38-39). The Angel of Jehovah is also the Angel of God who escorted and protected Israel on their way from Egypt to the promised land (Exo. 23:20; 32:34; Judg. 6:19-24; Isa. 63:9).
Zc 1:82a red  -   Zech. 6:2-7; Rev. 6:2, 4-5, 8
Here the red horse signifies Christ’s swift move in His redemption, accomplished through the shedding of His blood (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19).
Zc 1:83 myrtle
These myrtle trees signify the humiliated yet precious people of Israel in their captivity. The redeeming Christ, as a man and as the Angel of Jehovah, the embodiment of the Triune God, was sent by God to be with the humiliated people of Israel in their captivity. Christ’s standing among the myrtle trees that were in the bottoms means that He remained strongly among the captured Israel in the lowest part of the valley in their humiliation. As the One on the red horse, Christ, the redeeming One, was Israel’s patron, ready to do anything for them swiftly in order to care for them in their captivity. Christ maintained Israel in their captivity that He might eventually be born into humanity through Israel to accomplish God’s eternal economy.
Zc 1:84 red
The horses of three different colors indicate that Christ’s redemption (the red horse) leads the repentant Israel (the reddish-brown horses) to be justified and accepted by God swiftly (the white horses). This vision of the horses portrays the situation of Israel in their captivity. In the eyes of God, Christ the Redeemer was with them taking the lead, and they, God’s redeemed people, were following Him. Because they were God’s redeemed people, they appear at first sight as red horses. But because they were not pure, they are signified also by the reddish-brown horses (the color reddish-brown indicating a mixture). They need to contact God and to be dealt with by Him in order to gain God and be justified by Him and thus become those signified by the white horses. Once they repent, they will swiftly be accepted by God and justified by Him.
Zc 1:101 sent
The red, reddish-brown, and white horses had been sent by Jehovah to go to and fro on the earth to observe the situation of the nations. As indicated by the movement of the horses, God’s captured people were unsettled and were without peace, rest, and the enjoyment of life. The nations, on the contrary, were sitting still and were quiet (v. 11). This indicates that, in the eyes of God, all the nations around Israel at that time were sitting and enjoying their life in peace and quietness while God’s elect were suffering.
Zc 1:11a still  -   Psa. 46:10; Hab. 2:20; Rev. 8:1
Zc 1:12a seventy  -   Jer. 25:11-12; Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:5
Zc 1:141a jealous  -   Joel 2:18; Zech. 8:2
Because the nations were sitting peacefully while Jerusalem was troubled, Jehovah was very jealous for Jerusalem. He was extremely angry with the nations, who were at ease, sitting still and quiet (vv. 15a, 11). God was only a little angry with Israel, but the nations, in their carrying out of God’s punishment on Israel, dealt with Israel excessively (v. 15b).
Zc 1:15a angry  -   Isa. 47:6
Zc 1:16a compassions  -   Isa. 12:1; 54:8; Zech. 2:10; 8:3
Zc 1:16b house  -   Isa. 44:26-28; Hag. 1:14
Zc 1:161c measuring  -   Zech. 2:1-2
Measuring for the purpose of possessing. For seventy years Jerusalem was given up by God (v. 12; Jer. 25:11). Now He was coming back to repossess the city; thus, He caused a measuring line to be stretched over it (2:1).
Zc 1:17a comfort  -   Isa. 51:3
Zc 1:181 four
The vision of the four horns and the four craftsmen (vv. 18-21) was a comforting and encouraging word of promise to Israel as God’s answer to Christ’s intercession for Zion and Jerusalem in v. 12. The four horns are the four kingdoms with their kings — Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire — also signified by the great human image in Dan. 2:31-33 and by the four beasts in Dan. 7:3-8, that damaged and destroyed the chosen people of God. The four craftsmen (v. 20) are the skills used by God to destroy these four kingdoms with their kings. Each of the first three kingdoms — Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece — was taken over in a skillful way by the kingdom that followed it (cf. Dan. 5; 8:3-7). The fourth Craftsman will be Christ as the stone cut out without hands, who will crush the restored Roman Empire and thereby crush the great human image as the totality of human government at His coming back (Dan. 2:31-35).
Zc 1:19a horns  -   cf. Dan. 2:37-40; 7:3-8
Zc 1:201 four
See note 181.
Zc 1:21a scattered  -   Jer. 50:17-18
Zechariah Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 2:11 man
This man is Christ in His humanity as the Angel of Jehovah, the One speaking with Zechariah (vv. 1a, 2; cf. Ezek. 40:3).
Zc 2:12a measuring  -   Ezek. 40:3; Rev. 21:15
See note 161 in ch. 1. The man with the measuring line intended to measure Jerusalem so that Jehovah might repossess it after the seventy years of Israel’s captivity (vv. 2, 4b). This measuring was not only to know the size but also to know the condition and the situation. The measuring was done by a man, not by an angel. An angel is unqualified to measure anything human, because he does not have the human nature. Only Jesus, who has both the divine nature and the human nature, is qualified to measure Jerusalem.
Zc 2:2a measure  -   Zech. 1:16; Rev. 11:1; 21:15-17
Zc 2:21 Jerusalem
Whereas the temple is the sign of God’s house, the city of Jerusalem is a sign of God’s kingdom for His administration. The city of Jerusalem was measured and was found to be an open region (v. 4), i.e., without limit. This indicates that God’s kingdom is unlimited, the size of God Himself, and that God Himself is the size of His kingdom.
Zc 2:51 wall
That the wall of the city of Jerusalem and the glory within her will be Jehovah Himself indicates that Jehovah as Christ will be the protection of Jerusalem at her circumference and her glory at her center. This shows the centrality and universality of Christ in God’s economy. Today Christ is the glory in the center of the church, and He is also the fire burning around the circumference of the church for her protection. In the New Jerusalem the Triune God in Christ will be the glory at its center (Rev. 21:23; 22:1, 5), and this glory will shine through the transparent wall of the city (Rev. 21:11, 18a, 24) to be its protection of fire.
Zc 2:5a glory  -   Isa. 60:19; Rev. 21:23
See note 51.
Zc 2:6a Flee  -   Isa. 48:20; 52:12; Jer. 1:14; 50:8; 51:6, 45; Rev. 18:4
Zc 2:61 spread
The word spread indicates that God’s scattering the people of Israel when they were taken into captivity was His spreading them for the spreading of His testimony. When the children of Israel were scattered to Babylon, four young people became witnesses of God and a testimony for Him (Dan. 1:6). In this way God’s testimony was spread to Babylon. God is great and sovereign, and He has a broad heart. Therefore, He wanted His testimony to be spread to faraway places. Cf. Acts 1:8; 8:1, 4; 11:19.
Zc 2:6b four  -   Matt. 24:31
Zc 2:81 After
The expression after the glory means after the return of the captives. In the seventy years of Israel’s captivity, the glory was absent from the center of Jerusalem (Ezek. 11:23 and note 1). But when the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem, the glory also returned. In the sight of God the return of the captives was a glory.
Zc 2:82 He
Both He and Me refer to Jehovah of hosts. This means that Jehovah of hosts is the Sender (vv. 9, 11) and the sent One. Jehovah is the Triune God (Exo. 3:15 and note). In this verse One of the three in the Godhead, referred to as He, sent another of the three, referred to as Me. The Sender is surely the Father, and the sent One is the Son (John 5:36b; 6:57a; 8:16). After the glory the Triune God decided that the Father would send the Son against the nations who plundered Israel. Both the Father and the Son are Jehovah.
Zc 2:83a pupil  -   Deut. 32:10; Psa. 17:8; Prov. 7:2
Christ as the One sent by Jehovah of hosts and as the Sender, Jehovah of hosts, will be against the nations who plunder the people of Zion and touch them as the pupil of His eye. God’s people are very dear to Him, and whoever touches them touches the pupil of His eye. This was a word of comfort, encouragement, and consolation to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the other returned ones.
Zc 2:9a know  -   Zech. 2:11; 4:9; 6:15
Zc 2:10a ringing  -   Isa. 12:6; 54:1; Zeph. 3:14
Zc 2:101 I
The I in this verse and the I and Me in v. 11 refer to Jehovah, the same One as the He and Me in vv. 8-9.
Zc 2:10b midst  -   Lev. 26:12; Ezek. 37:27; Zech. 8:3; John 1:14
Zc 2:11a nations  -   Isa. 2:2-3; 49:22; 60:3; Zech. 8:22-23
Zc 2:12a portion  -   Deut. 32:9
Zc 2:131a Hush  -   Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7; Rev. 8:1
Before the glory returned to Jerusalem, Jehovah was silent, but after the glory He was roused up from His holy habitation. All flesh — including the flesh of the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans — must be silent. Only Jehovah has the right to speak, and only He is the deciding factor.
Zc 2:13b holy  -   Psa. 11:4; 68:5; Isa. 57:15; 63:15; Jer. 25:30
Zechariah Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 3:11a Joshua  -   Hag. 1:1
Joshua the high priest typifies Christ as the High Priest sent by God to His people (Heb. 3:1; 4:14-15; 7:26). Joshua also represents and signifies Israel as a nation of priests (Exo. 19:6; Zech. 8:20-23; Isa. 2:2-4a).
Joshua was standing before the Angel of Jehovah to be perfected, established, and strengthened in the priesthood (vv. 1-10). The Angel of Jehovah would do this by measuring Joshua. Christ’s care for Joshua in this chapter is a continuation of His measuring in 2:1-2.
Zc 3:12 Satan
Or, the accuser, the adversary. See notes 101 in Matt. 4 and 102 in Rev. 12. The adversary Satan’s intention was to belittle Joshua in front of his fellows (v. 8) and to frustrate the rebuilding of God’s temple.
In vv. 1-2 there are three parties: Joshua, the Angel of Jehovah, and Satan. This is a repetition of the scene in the garden of Eden, where God put the man He had created in front of the tree of life, denoting God, and the tree of knowledge, denoting Satan (Gen. 2:8-9).
Zc 3:1b right  -   Psa. 109:6; Rev. 12:10
Zc 3:2a rebuke  -   Jude 9; cf. Luke 9:42
Zc 3:2b fire  -   Psa. 66:12; Amos 4:11; Jude 23; cf. 1 Cor. 3:15
Zc 3:31 filthy
In type, garments signify one’s conduct as one’s expression (Isa. 64:6; Rev. 19:8). That Joshua the high priest was clothed with filthy garments indicates that our conduct may still be unclean because we still live in the flesh, which is altogether filthy (Rom. 7:18; 2 Cor. 7:1). Joshua’s filthy garments were the basis of Satan’s accusation.
Zc 3:3a garments  -   Isa. 64:6
Zc 3:41 Remove
The perfection of Christ as the Angel of Jehovah was extended to Joshua by the removing of the filthy garments from him, thus making his iniquity pass from him. Joshua was also clothed with stately robes, with garments befitting his office and status as high priest. These garments signify the expression of Christ in His divine glory and His human beauty (Exo. 28:2 and notes).
Zc 3:4a clothe  -   Isa. 61:10; Luke 15:22; Rev. 3:4; 19:8
Zc 3:51 He
Following some ancient versions; the Hebrew text reads, I.
Zc 3:52 clean
The clean turban signifies that Joshua had been fully cleansed and was now clean in the presence of Christ as the Angel of Jehovah.
Zc 3:5a turban  -   Exo. 29:6; Zech. 6:11
Zc 3:81a servant  -   Isa. 42:1; 52:13; Ezek. 34:23-24
This refers to Zerubbabel, who is a type of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah, the Shoot of David (Jer. 23:5), in His humanity and royal faithfulness (6:12). Although he was not a king but was a governor in the position of a king (Hag. 1:1), Zerubbabel was nevertheless a descendant, a shoot, of the royal family of David. As such, he typifies Christ.
Zc 3:8b shoot  -   Isa. 4:2; Zech. 6:12
Zc 3:91a stone  -   Psa. 118:22; Isa. 28:16
This stone (Zerubbabel) set before Joshua also typifies Christ as the stone for God’s building (Psa. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:42; 1 Pet. 2:4). Zerubbabel was a stone set before Joshua to carry out God’s economy.
Zc 3:92b seven  -   Zech. 4:10; Rev. 5:6
The seven eyes of the stone (Christ) are the seven eyes of Jehovah and the seven eyes of the Lamb, Christ, which are the seven Spirits of God, the sevenfold intensified Spirit (4:10; Rev. 5:6). See note 101 in ch. 4.
Zc 3:93 engrave
Jehovah’s engraving of the stone indicates that God will work on Christ as the stone for the accomplishing of God’s redemption, salvation, and building. To engrave is to cut. When Christ was dying on the cross, He was engraved, cut, by God.
Zc 3:94 remove
This indicates that the Christ on whom God has worked will remove the sin of the land of Israel in one day, the day of His crucifixion (1 Pet. 2:24). Through His death on the cross, Christ, the Lamb of God, took away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Zc 3:101a vine  -   1 Kings 4:25; Isa. 36:16; Micah 4:4
After our sin has been taken away (v. 9) and our situation with God has been appeased, there is peace between us and God, and we can come together to enjoy Christ as the vine (John 15:1, 5), the tree of life (see note 92 in Gen. 2 and notes 21 and 22 in Rev. 22), and as the fig tree, full of the fruit of life (Judg. 9:10-11). Christ came to accomplish redemption, bearing the Spirit and being cut by God on the cross (see notes 92 and 93). This issued in our enjoyment of Him as the vine and as the fig tree. The measuring carried out by Christ as the Angel of Jehovah results in such a wonderful situation.
Zechariah Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 4:11 Then
The visions in chs. 3 and 4 are concerned, respectively, with the priesthood and the kingship, which are both related to the rebuilding of the temple (see note 11 in Ezra 5). The vision in ch. 3 concerning Joshua was to strengthen Joshua the high priest in the priesthood, whereas the vision of the golden lampstand and the two olive trees in this chapter was to strengthen Zerubbabel the governor of Judah in the kingship. In ch. 3 Joshua was measured (see note 11, par. 2, there), resulting in his being strengthened and established through the cleansing. In ch. 4 Zerubbabel was measured so that he might be strengthened and established to continue and complete the rebuilding of the temple.
Zc 4:21a lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31; Rev. 1:12
The priesthood of Joshua signifies the priesthood of the nation of Israel toward the nations for God. The lampstand of gold signifies the shining testimony of the nation of Israel toward the nations for God. God had chosen Israel to be a nation of priests (Exo. 19:6). His intention was to use the nation of Israel as a priesthood to bring the nations to God that they might enter into God’s presence to be enlightened, exposed, dealt with, and transfused by God with the divine riches. Furthermore, the priests were to teach the nations how to worship God and serve God (cf. 8:20-23). In addition to being a nation of priests, Israel was to be a testimony standing for God.
Intrinsically, the lampstand signifies the Triune God embodied and expressed. In Exo. 25 the lampstand signifies Christ as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God. Here the lampstand signifies the nation of Israel as the collective testimony of God, shining out all His virtues. For the details concerning the lampstand, see notes in Exo. 25:31-40.
Zc 4:2b seven  -   Exo. 25:37; Rev. 4:5
Zc 4:22 seven
The supply of the lampstand is the seven pipes for each of the seven lamps, which signify the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God as the bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19b). See notes 51 in Rev. 4 and 45, par. 1, in Rev. 1.
Zc 4:31 two
See note 201 in Exo. 27. The two olive trees here signify Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor at the time, who were the two sons of oil, filled with the Spirit of Jehovah for the rebuilding of God’s temple (vv. 3-6, 12-14; cf. Exo. 31:3 and note). The two sons of oil also typify the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, in the last three and a half years of the present age, who will be witnesses of God in the great tribulation for the strengthening of God’s peoples — the Israelites and the believers in Christ (Rev. 11:3-12; 12:17).
Zc 4:3a olive  -   Zech. 4:11-12; Rev. 11:4
Zc 4:61 This
The word in vv. 5-7 and 9a indicates that Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, who laid the foundation for the rebuilding of the temple, would bring forth the topstone, which means that he would finish the rebuilding of God’s temple by the Spirit of Jehovah, not by might nor by power. The prophet Zechariah spoke this word to Zerubbabel in order to support, encourage, strengthen, and establish the hand of Zerubbabel that he might continue the building of the temple unto its consummation.
Zc 4:6a might  -   Hosea 1:7
Zc 4:62 Spirit
Whereas ch. 3 refers to Christ’s death, which is for redemption (3:9), ch. 4 speaks of the Spirit, who is for the carrying out of God’s economy. According to the New Testament, Christ is the One who was crucified for our redemption, who was raised from among the dead, and who in resurrection has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:3-4, 45b). As the result of Christ’s redemption, God’s people may now enjoy Christ as the Spirit (Gal. 3:13-14), even as the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6). After we believe in the crucified Christ, God supplies to us the all-inclusive Spirit for the accomplishing of His building (Gal. 3:1-2, 5). By this Spirit the building of the church will be consummated.
Zc 4:7a mountain  -   Jer. 51:25; Matt. 21:21
Zc 4:71 bring
To bring forth the topstone is to complete the building. The shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” indicate that the topstone itself is grace. The topstone typifies Christ, who is the grace from God to us to be the covering of God’s building (see note 101 in 1 Cor. 15). Christ is the foundation stone to uphold God’s building (Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11), the cornerstone to join together the Gentile and Jewish members of His Body (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6), and the topstone to consummate God’s building.
Zc 4:7b topstone  -   Psa. 118:22
Zc 4:7c shouts  -   Ezra 3:11, 13
Zc 4:9a foundation  -   Ezra 3:10
Zc 4:9b finish  -   Ezra 6:15
Zc 4:9c know  -   Zech. 2:9
Zc 4:10a small  -   Hag. 2:3
Zc 4:101 seven
“These seven,” which are the eyes of Jehovah, are the seven eyes on the stone in 3:9. The seven eyes of the stone are the seven eyes of Jehovah and also the seven eyes of the Lamb, Christ (Rev. 5:6). Thus, the stone, Jehovah, and the Lamb are one. Christ is the redeeming Lamb and the building stone, and He is also Jehovah. The seven eyes of Christ are the seven Spirits of God (see notes 65 in Rev. 5 and 45 in Rev. 1), indicating that Christ and the Holy Spirit, although distinct, are not separate. Just as a person’s eyes are essentially one with the person, so the Holy Spirit is essentially one with Christ (Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:17). The function of Christ’s seven eyes is to observe and search in order to execute God’s judgment on the universe and to transfuse and infuse all that God is into His chosen people. In His resurrection Christ, as the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 6:63a; 2 Cor. 3:6b), who is also the sevenfold intensified Spirit. This Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Hence, the function of the seven Spirits is to impart the divine life into God’s people for the building up of God’s eternal habitation, the New Jerusalem.
Zc 4:10b eyes  -   2 Chron. 16:9; Prov. 15:3; Zech. 3:9
Zc 4:11a olive  -   Zech. 4:3
Zc 4:121 branches
In chs. 3 and 4 the same person, Zerubbabel, is signified by a shoot (3:8), a tree (vv. 3, 11), and a branch (v. 12). This indicates that Zerubbabel himself is not the source. He is not a tree complete in himself; rather, he is a tree that is actually a branch of another tree, and that tree is the source. Moreover, Zerubbabel is also a shoot from the other tree, which tree is Christ. Christ is the unique olive tree (Rom. 11:17 and note 2), and Zerubbabel and all Christ’s believers are branches, shoots, of Christ (John 15:5a). Thus, all the believers are the many olive trees, not in the sense of being separate trees but in the sense of being branches of Christ, the unique olive tree.
Zc 4:122 which
Which here refers not to the spouts but to the branches. For the shining of the lampstand, oil is needed. The two olive trees supply the olive oil by flowing the oil out through the branches into the spouts, which in turn direct the oil into the bowl, which supplies the lampstand through the pipes (v. 2).
Zc 4:123 gold
Referring to the oil. The oil denotes the Spirit, and the Spirit is God, who in typology is signified by gold. Thus, to supply the oil for the shining of the lampstand is to flow out God to supply others with the sevenfold Spirit that they may be enlivened for God’s testimony through the church.
Zc 4:14a sons  -   Rev. 11:4
Zc 4:14b Lord  -   Micah 4:13; Zech. 6:5
Zechariah Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 5:11 Then
The first five visions in this book (1:7 — 4:14) are positive, as a comforting, consoling, and encouraging word from God to Joshua, Zerubbabel, and the people. In contrast, the last three visions (5:1 — 6:8) are negative, concerning God’s universal judgment on the evil people and the evil on earth.
Zc 5:12 flying
The flying scroll signifies God’s righteous law and its justice (just judgment). This scroll will be the base of God’s thorough judgment over all the sin on earth (cf. Rom. 3:19).
Zc 5:1a scroll  -   Ezek. 2:9
Zc 5:21 length
The length of the flying scroll being twenty cubits and the breadth being ten cubits signifies the testimony of the law by two squares of ten cubits by ten cubits. The number two is the number for testimony (Deut. 17:6), and the number ten signifies completion in fullness (Rev. 2:10 and note 2). Therefore, the law of God is a testimony to the whole world, and the two squares of ten cubits by ten cubits point to the completion in fullness of the law.
Zc 5:31a curse  -   Mal. 4:6
The curse signifies God’s punishment in judging sins according to His righteous law (Gal. 3:13a). The fact that God’s judgment is a curse indicates that it is a very serious matter.
Zc 5:32 steals
Stealing signifies sins toward man, which are the issue of greed and covetousness, whereas swearing falsely by Jehovah’s name signifies sins toward God, which are the issue of a wrong relationship with God. The law of God given to Moses is of two sections, the first concerning the relationship between man and God, and the second concerning the relationships among men (see note 21 in Exo. 20). To be right with God and with man is to be righteous. Those who are not right with both God and man will suffer God’s judgment.
Zc 5:41 it
Referring to God’s judgment. The description in this verse indicates that the exercise of God’s judgment of sins will be most serious and also very thorough.
Zc 5:4a consume  -   cf. Lev. 14:45
Zc 5:61 ephah
An ephah vessel is a measuring vessel, a container able to hold one ephah, used for purchasing and selling in business. The vision of the ephah vessel signifies the wickedness of business, or commerce, on the earth.
Zc 5:62 appearance
Commerce seems to have a proper appearance; actually, it is evil, full of wickedness (vv. 7-8).
Zc 5:71 woman
The woman sitting within the ephah vessel signifies the wickedness contained in commerce (v. 8a), such as covetousness, deceit, and the love of money. The vision here corresponds to that of Babylon the Great in Rev. 18. The two visions show that in the sight of God the wickedness contained in commerce is a form of idolatry and fornication. Business is an adulterous woman desirous of making money.
Zc 5:81 lead
A lead cover (v. 7), a lead weight, being thrown over the opening of the ephah vessel signifies the restriction of the wickedness in commerce by God’s sovereignty.
Zc 5:91 two
The one woman (v. 7) becoming two women signifies a double effect of commerce once it becomes free of the restriction. The vision in this verse of the two women going forth signifies the rapid spreading of wicked commerce.
Zc 5:111 To
This signifies that God’s sovereignty will cause the wickedness in business, which the people of Israel learned from the Babylonians in their captivity, to go back to Babylon (the land of Shinar — Gen. 11:2, 9; 2 Chron. 36:7; cf. Dan. 1:2).
Zc 5:11a Shinar  -   Gen. 10:10
Zechariah Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 6:11 four
The four chariots signify the four winds (vv. 4-8) from the four corners of the earth (Rev. 7:1-3) for God’s judging of sins upon the earth. These four winds are used by God to carry out His administration in the entire universe. In particular, they are used by God to carry out His judgment, not mainly on individual persons but on nations, governments, and kingdoms. God’s sovereign “blowing of the wind” brings in the different craftsmen to judge the nations that damage and destroy Israel (1:20-21). See note 181 in ch. 1.
Zc 6:12 two
The two mountains signify a testimony of God’s judgments on the earth. From between the two mountains the four winds come forth to testify to the whole earth that God is on the throne and that the earth is under His administration (Dan. 7:9-10; Rev. 4:2 and note 2).
Zc 6:13 bronze
Bronze signifies God’s judgment (Num. 21:8-9). Thus, the two mountains of bronze signify mountains of judgment. Although the two mountains of bronze do not signify Christ, they are nevertheless closely related to Christ, for He has been appointed by God to carry out the judgment on the living and the dead (John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1). On the one hand, Christ is the Redeemer and the Savior; on the other hand, He is the Judge. As the Judge, He will carry out God’s judgment. God’s judgment is for the carrying out of His testimony.
Zc 6:2a red  -   Zech. 1:8; Rev. 6:2-5
Zc 6:21 horses
That each chariot was equipped with horses signifies the quick movement of God’s judgment. The horses of different colors, red, black, white, and speckled, signify the different manners of God’s judgment.
Zc 6:5a four  -   Dan. 7:2
Zc 6:61 one
Lit., it.
Zc 6:6a north  -   Jer. 1:14
Zc 6:7a go  -   Zech. 1:10
Zc 6:81a rest  -   Ezek. 5:13; 16:42
This signifies that the judgments on the countries of the north, Assyria and Babylon (Jer. 1:13-15), have given rest to God’s Spirit. The judgment on these countries was a comfort to God.
Zc 6:111 splendid
The previous eight visions of comfort, consolation, and encouragement are confirmed by the crowning of Joshua the high priest — typifying Christ in His priesthood — linked with Zerubbabel the governor of Judah (vv. 12-13), typifying Christ as the Shoot of David in His kingship (see notes 11 and 81 in ch. 3). Christ, typified in vv. 11-13 by two persons, Joshua and Zerubbabel, is the unique One to hold the two offices of the priesthood and the kingship. In all history He is the only person qualified to bear the responsibilities of these two offices in God’s administration. Thus, in Hebrews 7 Christ is both the High Priest and the King, as typified by Melchizedek (cf. Gen. 14:18). Because Melchizedek bore the two offices of the priesthood and the kingship, he was a type of Christ as the One who would bear both the priesthood and the kingship in God’s administration.
Zc 6:11a crown  -   Exo. 28:37; 29:6; Lev. 8:9; Zech. 3:5
Zc 6:12a Shoot  -   Zech. 3:8
Zc 6:121 build
This indicates that the concluding word in this chapter, concerning the crowning of Joshua, was an assurance to the people that God would do something to complete the rebuilding of the temple (v. 15; Ezra 5:1 — 6:15).
Zc 6:12b temple  -   Zech. 4:9; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20-22; Heb. 3:3
Zc 6:13a priest  -   Psa. 110:4; Heb. 3:1
Zc 6:131 between
Between the two means between the priesthood and the kingship. In the Old Testament no king could be a priest, but in the millennium both Christ and the overcomers will be kings to reign and priests to serve God. These two responsibilities will be reconciled in both Christ and the overcomers. In the millennium the overcomers will be priests, drawing near to God and Christ, and they will also be kings, reigning over the nations with Christ (Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4, 6). This will be a reward to the overcomers. The believers who are defeated in this age will forfeit this reward. However, after being dealt with in the millennium, these defeated ones will participate in the blessing of this reward in that they will serve God in the priesthood and represent God in the kingship in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 22:3, 5).
Zc 6:141 reminder
The crown with which Joshua was crowned was removed from his head and put in the temple. It was to be a reminder to the children of Israel to remember the coming Messiah, the One who would come to be the King and the Priest to execute God’s administration for the fulfillment of God’s economy.
Zc 6:15a far  -   Isa. 60:10
Zc 6:15b know  -   Zech. 2:9
Zechariah Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 7:1a Zechariah  -   Ezra 5:1; 6:14
Zc 7:31 weep
According to vv. 3-6 and 8:19a, in their ritualistic religion the people of Israel wept, fasted, and separated themselves in the tenth month to express their grieving for the attacking and besieging of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Jer. 52:4), in the fourth month to express their grieving for the breaking down of the city of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:3-4), in the fifth month to express their grieving for the burning of the temple of God and the city of Jerusalem (Jer. 52:12-13), and in the seventh month to express their grieving for the murder of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:22-26). In vv. 7-14 and in 8:16-17, 19b, Jehovah advised Israel to turn from the vanity of their ritualistic religion to Jehovah and to the reality of a godly life, a life full of righteousness, lovingkindness, compassion, truth, and peace. This would bring in the times of restoration mentioned in 8:2-23.
Zc 7:5a fasted  -   Zech. 8:19
Zc 7:5b seventy  -   Zech. 1:12
Zc 7:71 Negev
I.e., the dry southern desert of Canaan.
Zc 7:14a scattered  -   Deut. 4:27; 28:64; Ezek. 36:19; Zech. 2:6
Zc 7:14b desirable  -   Dan. 8:9
Zechariah Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 8:11 And
This chapter reveals the desire of Jehovah to restore Israel. This restoration will take place in the millennium (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21).
Zc 8:2a jealous  -   Joel 2:18; Zech. 1:14
Zc 8:3a return  -   Zech. 1:16
Zc 8:3b within  -   Zech. 2:10
Zc 8:3c City  -   Isa. 1:21, 26
Zc 8:3d mountain  -   Isa. 2:2-3; 11:9; 66:20; Jer. 31:23
Zc 8:61 wonderful
The situation of Jerusalem in the restoration will be so pleasant that it will be wonderful both in the sight of the remnant of Israel and in the sight of Jehovah.
Zc 8:7a save  -   Isa. 11:11-12; 43:5-6; Ezek. 37:21; Amos 9:14-15
Zc 8:8a people  -   Jer. 30:22; 31:1, 33; Zech. 13:9
Zc 8:8b truth  -   Jer. 4:2
Zc 8:91 Let
This is a word encouraging the children of Israel to be strong and bold and to finish the work of rebuilding God’s house. God wanted His people to see that His interest, desire, and burden were to finish the building of the temple as the center of His interests on earth. Likewise, God’s burden in this age is to gain a people to know His heart, to realize His desire, and to be one with Him to build up the Body of Christ.
Zc 8:9a day  -   Hag. 2:18
Zc 8:10a wages  -   Hag. 1:6, 9-10; 2:16
Zc 8:12a fruit  -   Joel 2:22; Hag. 2:19
Zc 8:16a truth  -   Zech. 7:9; 8:19; Eph. 4:25
Zc 8:19a fifth  -   Jer. 52:12-13
Zc 8:19b seventh  -   2 Kings 25:25; Jer. 41:1; Zech. 7:5
Zc 8:201 Peoples
In the restoration the Gentiles will come to Israel to entreat the favor, the grace, of Jehovah, and the children of Israel will be priests to them (vv. 20-23; Isa. 2:2-3; 61:6). After the Jews are saved at the Lord’s coming back (12:10; Rom. 11:26-27), they will become the priests to teach all the repentant nations. By that time the entire nation of Israel will be a priesthood, thus fulfilling God’s original intention expressed in Exo. 19:6. They will teach the Gentiles, the nations, to know God’s way and God’s person, and they will teach them to worship and serve God. As priests, they will bring the nations into the presence of God that they may be enlightened, corrected, and favored with all the riches of God. The prophecy in vv. 20-23 was an encouraging word spoken to the children of Israel. See note 32 in Isa. 2.
Zc 8:22a seek  -   Isa. 2:3; Micah 4:1-2
Zc 8:231 languages
In the millennium God will reverse the judgment on Babel (Gen. 11:7-9) and deal with the problem caused by the different languages among the nations. What happened at Pentecost (Acts 2:4-11) is a prefigure of what will take place during the age of the millennial kingdom.
Zc 8:23a nations  -   Isa. 60:3; 66:23; Zech. 2:11
Zechariah Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 9:11 The
The visions in chs. 1 — 6 are mainly for consolation to the children of Israel, whereas the prophecies in chs. 9 — 14 are mainly for their encouragement. Both the consolation and the encouragement are Christ (Luke 2:25 and note 2). Chapters 9 — 11 speak of Christ’s lowly first coming, whereas chs. 12 — 14 speak of Christ’s victorious second coming.
Zc 9:12 land
The prophecy in vv. 1-7 concerns the destruction carried out on the nations around Judah by Alexander the Great, king of the Grecian Empire (336-323 B.C., with the influence of his four successors up to 44 B.C.), prophesied by Daniel as the abdomen and the thighs of the great human image in Dan. 2:32, as the third beast in Dan. 7:6, as the male goat in Dan. 8:5, and as a mighty king in Dan. 11:3.
Zc 9:1a Damascus  -   Isa. 17:1-14; Jer. 49:23-27; Amos 1:3-5
Zc 9:3a Tyre  -   Isa. 23:1-18; Ezek. 26:1–28:19; Amos 1:9-10
Zc 9:5a Ashkelon  -   Jer. 47:5-7; Zeph. 2:4-7; Amos 1:7-8
Zc 9:8a encamp  -   Psa. 34:7; Zech. 2:5
Zc 9:81 house
This verse reveals that during the attack of Alexander the Great, the Lord protected Jerusalem with the temple, which was His house. Although Alexander, a mighty king, caused damage to many nations around Judah, he did not cause much damage to Judah and Jerusalem, and he did not damage the temple at all. This was a sign of the restoration that would be brought in by the coming of Christ in vv. 9-10.
Zc 9:91 Exult
The prophecy in vv. 9-10 is an insertion; v. 11 is the continuation of v. 8. The prophecy in v. 9 reveals that Christ would come in a righteous way with salvation for God’s people and that He would come as a King, but as a lowly King, a humiliated King, riding not on a majestic horse but on a donkey, even a colt of a donkey. This was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem the last time (Matt. 21:1-11). At that time Christ was temporarily welcomed by the people of Israel.
The prophecy concerning the coming of Christ in this verse and the prophecy concerning the millennial kingdom in v. 10 are inserted between the first part of the chapter, concerned with Alexander the Great, and the last part, concerned with Antiochus Epiphanes. This entire book indicates that the all-inclusive Christ, who is the center and the circumference, the centrality and the universality, of God’s move to fulfill His economy on the earth, is intimately involved with human history and with the great human empires, especially the empire of Persia (chs. 1 — 6) and the empires of Greece and Rome (chs. 9 — 14).
Zc 9:9a daughter  -   Isa. 62:11; Zech. 2:10; Matt. 21:5; John 12:15
Zc 9:9b daughter  -   2 Kings 19:21; Isa. 37:22; Lam. 2:13; Micah 4:8; Zeph. 3:14; cf. S.S. 1:5; Luke 23:28
Zc 9:9c King  -   Jer. 23:5; 30:9; Matt. 2:2
Zc 9:9d colt  -   Mark 11:7; Luke 19:33
Zc 9:101 And
The prophecy in this verse refers to the millennial kingdom, which will be the time of restoration (Matt. 19:28; Acts 3:21). In the millennium God will cause all warfare to cease (Isa. 2:4) and will bring in peace and His eternal kingdom (Rev. 11:15). This verse, coming immediately after the prophecy concerning Christ’s coming in v. 9, indicates that if the people of Israel had welcomed Christ in His first coming, the kingdom of the heavens would have been set up on earth, and the age of restoration would have come at that time. However, when Christ came the first time, He was welcomed only temporarily and was ultimately rejected, detested to the uttermost, and put to death by being crucified. As a result, the restoration was suspended, and a time of judgment over the children of Israel entered in (Matt. 23:37 — 24:2), a time that has lasted nearly twenty centuries. Therefore, Christ needs to come a second time, this time not riding a donkey but like lightning (Matt. 24:27). Then peace and the eternal kingdom, as God’s dominion, will be on the earth from sea to sea. This is the sequence according to the spiritual significance.
Zc 9:10a dominion  -   Psa. 72:8
Zc 9:102 River
I.e., the Euphrates.
Zc 9:111 As
The prophecy in vv. 11-17 concerns the victory of the Jewish Maccabean heroes over Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria (175-164 B.C.), the kingdom of the north, prophesied by Daniel in Dan. 8:9-14, 23-25 and 11:21-35 (see notes there). Antiochus Epiphanes was a type of the coming Antichrist.
Zc 9:11a blood  -   Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20
Zc 9:11b released  -   Isa. 42:7; 51:14; 61:1; Luke 4:18
Zc 9:12a double  -   Isa. 61:7
Zc 9:13a sons  -   Dan. 11:32-34
Zc 9:131 Javan
I.e., Greece. This is the key to understanding vv. 11-17. The sons of Greece (Javan) are Antiochus and those with him, and the sons of Zion are the Maccabees. Thus, v. 13 prophesies that at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, God would stir up His sons, the sons of Zion, against the sons of Greece.
Zc 9:141 them
In vv. 14-15 them and they refer to the Maccabees, who were to be defended by God.
Zc 9:14a trumpet  -   cf. Isa. 27:13; 1 Cor. 15:52
Zc 9:15a defend  -   Zech. 12:8
Zc 9:161 that
Referring to December 25, 165 B.C., the day when the Maccabees cleansed the temple after defeating Antiochus Epiphanes.
Zc 9:171 great
This word was spoken in congratulations to the Maccabees for their victory.
Zechariah Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 10:11a rain  -   Deut. 11:14; James 5:7
Rain here signifies blessing. Here the Lord encourages His people to ask Him for His abundant blessing at the time when He is favorable toward them.
Zc 10:21 teraphim
Images or false gods kept in the people’s homes.
Zc 10:22 vanity
Or, iniquity.
Zc 10:2a no  -   1 Kings 22:17; Ezek. 34:5; Matt. 9:36
Zc 10:31a male  -   Ezek. 34:17; Matt. 25:33
The male goats are the improper shepherds. The proper shepherds are the prophets, the proper ones who speak for God.
Zc 10:32 visited
Jehovah’s visiting His people was His coming to them in the man Jesus (Matt. 1:23) to be the real Shepherd of His flock (Matt. 2:6; 9:36; John 10:2-4, 11, 14).
Zc 10:33 horse
After being visited by the Lord as the Shepherd, every weak sheep among God’s people becomes a horse of majesty. The situation of God’s people in vv. 3-12 is the result of Jehovah’s loving visitation.
Zc 10:41 him
Him (four times) refers to Judah in v. 3.
Zc 10:4a peg  -   Isa. 22:23
Zc 10:6a bring  -   Jer. 3:18; Ezek. 37:21; 39:25
Zc 10:8a multiply  -   Isa. 49:19; Ezek. 36:37
Zc 10:9a sow  -   Hosea 2:23
Zc 10:9b remember  -   Deut. 30:1
Zc 10:10a Egypt  -   Isa. 11:11, 16; Hosea 11:11
Zc 10:11a dry  -   Isa. 11:15-16
Zc 10:121 I
I here refers to Jehovah, indicating that Jehovah will strengthen His people in Himself. They will then walk about in His name, i.e., in His person as the reality of His name (Matt. 28:19 and note 5). To be in God’s name is to be one with God in our daily walk by our living, walking, and having our being in God’s name (cf. Col. 3:17).
Zc 10:12a walk  -   Micah 4:5
Zechariah Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 11:11 fire
Verses 1-3 reveal the destruction carried out in the neighborhood of Israel by the Roman Empire. The fire here refers to the coming of the Romans to devastate Lebanon and Jordan.
Zc 11:61 neighbor’s
The neighbor here refers to the subordinate kings and governors of the Roman Empire, such as Herod and Pilate, in the region of Palestine, and the king is Caesar.
Zc 11:71 I
I here refers to Jehovah, as indicated by the previous verse. Jehovah as Jesus came to feed His people, who were about to be slaughtered, the afflicted of the flock.
Zc 11:72 Favor
Jehovah as Jesus brought two staffs — Favor and Bonds. Favor refers to grace, and Bonds refers to being bound into oneness. Jesus came as the Shepherd to feed God’s flock with grace so that they might have oneness.
Zc 11:81 three
The three shepherds here are the priests, the elders, and the scribes (Matt. 16:21). Jehovah as Jesus set aside the three shepherds and destroyed them, and their souls detested Him. The Lord Jesus as the proper Shepherd was rejected, leaving the children of Israel as a flock without any shepherd (cf. Matt. 9:36). See note 151.
Zc 11:101 broke
This indicates that the Lord annulled the covenant which God made through Moses, leaving the people without a covenant to cover them. He thus took away the grace (favor).
Zc 11:121 do
Lit., cease.
Zc 11:122a thirty  -   Matt. 26:15; cf. Exo. 21:32
Verses 12-13 reveal that the Messiah, as the proper Shepherd of Israel, was detested, attacked, rejected, and sold for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave (Exo. 21:32). What is prophesied here was fulfilled in the Gospels (Matt. 26:14-15; 27:3-10).
Zc 11:13a potter  -   Matt. 27:9-10
Zc 11:141 broke
This indicates that the binding love among the people of Israel also was taken away (see note 101). As a result, the nation was divided and full of inner fighting (v. 9). From the day of Christ’s crucifixion there has not been any oneness among the Jews. Although those in the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah, were brothers, the brotherhood among them has been broken because the binding love has been broken. This took place while they were living under the oppression of the Roman Empire.
Zc 11:14a between  -   Isa. 9:21; cf. Ezek. 37:16-19
Zc 11:151 foolish
The priests, the elders, and the scribes as the evil shepherds were annulled (v. 8a), and Jesus as the proper Shepherd was crucified, rejected to the uttermost (vv. 8b, 12-13). Therefore, the children of Israel were left to the foolish and worthless shepherds, who would not take care of them (vv. 15-17). After the crucifixion of Christ, there was no proper leadership among the people of Israel, and they were all scattered (Matt. 26:31). They fought with one another, devouring one another. The foolish, worthless shepherds who rose up among them caused them further suffering. This kind of situation allowed Titus, the Roman prince, to devastate the entire country of Judah in A.D. 70 (Matt. 21:33-41 and note 411).
The center of the prophecies in chs. 9 — 11 is Christ as the rejected Messiah. As the coming Savior and Redeemer, Christ came and entered into Jerusalem as the King in a lowly form (9:9-10). At first, He was welcomed by the people, but later, under the influence of the elders, priests, and scribes, they changed their mind and detested Him (v. 8b). The Lord Jesus was sold, judged, sentenced, and put on the cross to die (vv. 12-13). Thus, the Messiah, who was welcomed temporarily, was utterly rejected. As a result, the people of Israel were divided, persecuted by the Roman Empire, and scattered throughout the earth (vv. 14-17).
Zc 11:17a shepherd  -   Jer. 23:1; Ezek. 34:2; John 10:12-13
Zechariah Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 12:11 The
Chapters 12 — 14 of this book unveil Christ as the Messiah returning to be enthroned as the King not only over Israel but also over the whole world. His first coming, described in chs. 9 — 11, was humble and intimate; His coming back, described in chs. 12 — 14, will be with power and authority.
Zc 12:1a stretches  -   Job 9:8; Psa. 104:2; Isa. 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12, 18; 48:13; 51:13
Zc 12:12b spirit  -   Gen. 2:7; Num. 16:22; Eccl. 12:7; 1 Cor. 2:11; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12
In His creation God made three crucial, equally important items — the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man was created by God with a spirit that he may contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God’s purpose for God, and be one with God. In His economy God planned to have Christ as the centrality and universality of His move on earth. For His chosen people, who would care for Him as the Creator and as the Redeemer, there was the need for Him to create a receiving organ so that they would have the capacity to receive all that God had planned for Christ to be. Hence, this book charges us to pay full attention to our human spirit, that we may receive the Christ revealed in this book and may understand all that is revealed therein concerning Him (Eph. 1:17-18a; 3:5). See notes 75 in Gen. 2, 51 in Isa. 42, 244 in John 4, and 232 in Phil. 4.
Zc 12:2a cup  -   Isa. 51:17, 22-23
Zc 12:21 siege
Chapters 12 — 14 prophesy concerning Israel’s destiny in the great war of Armageddon, in their household salvation, and in the millennium. The war of Armageddon will be the greatest war among mankind. This war will take place at the end of the three and a half years of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21; Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2; 13:5). Although this war will be motivated by Antichrist with the intention of destroying Israel, it will be waged by Satan through his human followers as his earthly army, against God with His saints as His heavenly army (14:2-5; Joel 3:11; Rev. 16:13-14; 17:14; 19:14). Antichrist, the embodiment of Satan, will be the commander of Satan’s army, and Christ, the embodiment of God, will be the Commander of God’s army. In this divine war Christ will destroy Antichrist by the breath of His mouth and bring him to nothing by the manifestation of His coming (2 Thes. 2:8). This war will be the great winepress of the fury of God trodden by Christ at His coming back to judge the world (Isa. 63:1-6; Rev. 14:17-20).
Zc 12:3a day  -   Zech. 12:4, 6, 8-9, 11; 13:1; 14:4, 6, 8-9, 13
Zc 12:3b gathered  -   Joel 3:2, 9-12; Zech. 14:2-3; Rev. 16:14; Micah 4:11-13
Zc 12:4a rider  -   Psa. 76:6; Ezek. 38:4; Zech. 10:5
Zc 12:6a fire  -   Obad. 18
Zc 12:8a defend  -   Zech. 2:5; 9:8, 15-16; Joel 3:16-17
Zc 12:81 Angel
Here Angel of Jehovah is in apposition to God earlier in the verse (cf. Exo. 3:2-6 and note 21).
Zc 12:9a come  -   Zech. 12:2; Rev. 16:14
Zc 12:10a pour  -   Ezek. 39:29; Joel 2:28
Zc 12:101b Spirit  -   Heb. 10:29
In Acts 2 God poured out His Spirit upon all flesh, and three thousand were saved (Acts 2:17, 41). But when God pours out the Spirit of grace upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, many thousands of Israel, even the entire race of Israel alive at that time, will be saved (Rom. 11:26-27). The Spirit of grace here is in contrast to the Spirit of power in Acts 1:8 and 2:1-4. The Spirit of power is to strengthen us, but the Spirit of grace is to bring us into the enjoyment of the Triune God. In Acts 2, at the beginning of the age of grace, the church age, the Spirit was mainly the Spirit of power, but in this verse, at the end, the consummation, of the age of grace, the Spirit will be mainly the Spirit of grace for the enjoyment of the Triune God. The Jews on the day of Pentecost were stubborn and hard; hence, the Spirit of power was poured out to inspire them to repent. But the half of the inhabitants of Jerusalem that survive the attack of Antichrist and his armies (14:2) will have lost their taste for everything other than God and will have already repented. Therefore, the Spirit of grace will be poured out upon them so that they can receive the Triune God as their enjoyment.
Zc 12:102 look
At the end of the war of Armageddon, Christ will come to earth, and the remnant of Israel will look on Him whom they have pierced (John 19:34, 37; Rev. 1:7), will repent and wail, and will believe in Christ and receive Him. In this way all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26-27). This will be the household salvation rendered to Israel by God.
Zc 12:103 they
Although it was their forefathers who pierced the Lord Jesus, God counts that as something done by these repentant ones.
Zc 12:104c pierced  -   Psa. 22:16; John 19:34, 37; Rev. 1:7
The piercing of Christ is the foundation of redemption (John 19:34). Apart from Christ’s being pierced, there is no base for our redemption.
Zc 12:105 only
Repentant Israel will wail over Christ as the only Son of God (John 1:18; 3:16) and will cry bitterly over Him as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:6a). Christ’s being the only begotten Son is for us to be redeemed and to receive eternal life (John 3:14-16). Christ’s becoming the firstborn Son through His death and resurrection (Rom. 1:3-4) is for us to become sons of God as heirs to inherit all the riches of what God is, that is, to receive, participate in, and enjoy all the riches of the Triune God (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 3:26, 29). In their repentance Israel will realize that as the only begotten Son Christ has redeemed them and has brought them eternal life and that as the firstborn Son He has made them heirs to inherit the riches of the Triune God as their enjoyment.
Zc 12:10d son  -   Jer. 6:26; Amos 8:10
Zc 12:11a wailing  -   2 Chron. 35:24
Zc 12:11b Megiddon  -   2 Kings 23:29
Zc 12:12a wail  -   Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7
Zc 12:121 family
Zechariah uses three kinds of families — the royal family of David (David and Nathan), the family of the priesthood (Levi), and the family of an evil man (Shimei, who cursed David — 2 Sam. 16:5-8) — as illustrations. All those who look upon Christ, the pierced One, with a repentant spirit, will wail over Him.
Zc 12:12b Nathan  -   2 Sam. 5:14; Luke 3:31
Zechariah Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 13:11 opened
This opened fountain is Christ’s pierced side (John 19:34, 37), which was opened for the accomplishing of redemption.
Zc 13:1a fountain  -   John 19:34
Zc 13:1b for  -   Ezek. 36:25; Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 1:5
Zc 13:4a hairy  -   2 Kings 1:8; Matt. 3:4
Zc 13:51a no  -   Amos 7:14
Verses 2-4 speak of God’s causing the false prophets to pass from the land. This cleared the way for Christ to come in as the real Prophet. However, Christ said that He was not a prophet but a tiller of the ground. This means that He was not the kind of prophet, a false prophet, mentioned in the preceding verses. Christ came to be the real Prophet (Matt. 13:57; Deut. 18:15-19, cf. Acts 3:22) but was rejected and wounded in His side in the house of Israel, His relatives in the flesh (vv. 5-6; 12:10). That wound became the base of their redemption, which Christ accomplished for them in His death.
Zc 13:6a wounds  -   John 19:34, 37; cf. Psa. 22:16
Zc 13:61 love
The children of Israel killed Christ, but in this sweet word Christ counts their action as wounds from those who love Him.
Zc 13:71 Fellow
Christ, the Fellow of Jehovah, came as the God-sent Shepherd to the children of Israel (11:7; Matt. 9:36; John 10:11) but was attacked unto death by them (v. 7a; Matt. 26:31; Acts 2:23). As a man Christ was both a relative of the children of Israel and a Fellow of Jehovah. As He was hanging on the cross, His relatives wounded Him (v. 6), and God called in the sword to strike Him.
Zc 13:7a Strike  -   Matt. 26:31; Mark 14:27
Zc 13:7b scattered  -   John 16:32
Zc 13:72 little
Little ones here refers to the people of Israel. This indicates that God reacted to the rejection of Christ by the children of Israel and turned His hand upon them as the little ones by punishing them through Titus the Roman prince and his army in A.D. 70 and scattering them into the nations to be despised, humiliated, persecuted, and destroyed throughout the age of grace until today (Matt. 21:41a; 23:38; 24:2). This is God’s sovereign preparation of a people to receive the Redeemer with His redemption and His salvation. See notes 101 and 102 in ch. 12.
Zc 13:81 Two
In the great tribulation at the consummation of the present age, in all the land of Israel two-thirds of the people will be cut off, slaughtered, by Antichrist in his persecution of the Jews (Rev. 11:2; 13:7). One-third of the remnant will be left in the land and will be brought through fire and refined like silver and tried like gold by the persecution of Antichrist (vv. 8b-9a). These will be those who are written in the book as the secret record (Dan. 12:1b). They will call on the Lord’s name, and the Lord will answer them. The Lord will say that they are His people, and they will say that the Lord is their God (v. 9b). They will be saved into the enjoyment of the riches of the Triune God, first in the millennium to be the priests to teach the nations (8:20-23; Isa. 2:3) and then in the New Jerusalem to participate in all the blessings God has ordained in eternity and for eternity (see Rev. 21:12b and note 4, par. 2). This is the household salvation to Israel (Rom. 11:26-27). See note 13 in Dan. 12.
Zc 13:9a fire  -   cf. 1 Cor. 3:13
Zc 13:9b refine  -   Isa. 48:10; Mal. 3:2-3
Zc 13:9c people  -   Psa. 144:15; Jer. 30:22; Ezek. 11:20; Hosea 2:23
Zechariah Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Zc 14:2a gather  -   Joel 3:2; Rev. 16:14
Zc 14:21 half
In the great tribulation Antichrist and his armies will slaughter two-thirds of the Jews (13:8 and note). Of the one-third remaining in the land, most will probably be in the area of Jerusalem. Out of this one-third, half the city will be captured by Antichrist. In His mercy God will preserve the remaining half. Antichrist will attempt to destroy them also; however, as revealed in vv. 3-7, Jehovah as Christ will come with His saints (vv. 3, 5) and go forth to fight against and defeat Antichrist and his followers, the nations (Joel 3:11; Rev. 17:14; 19:11-21). This will result in Israel’s household salvation (Rom. 11:26-27). See 12:8-10 and notes.
Zc 14:3a fight  -   Exo. 14:14; Deut. 1:30; cf. Joel 3:16; Hag. 2:21-22
Zc 14:41 feet
In fulfillment of Acts 1:11 the feet of Jehovah as Christ will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives.
Zc 14:4a Mount  -   Ezek. 11:23; Acts 1:11-12; Matt. 21:1
Zc 14:5a earthquake  -   Amos 1:1
Zc 14:5b come  -   Matt. 16:27; 24:30-31; 25:31; Mark 8:38; Jude 14; Rev. 19:11-16
Zc 14:51 Him
Some MSS read, You.
Zc 14:6a no  -   Joel 3:15
Zc 14:61 the
The shining ones here are the sun, the moon, and the stars. The things that take place in vv. 6-7 indicate that God will change a number of things in the universe in order to judge the evil human beings and to save His elect.
Zc 14:7a known  -   Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32
Zc 14:81 living
In the millennium there will be no thirst, for living waters will go forth from Jerusalem. This is similar to the record in Ezek. 47:1-2.
Zc 14:8a waters  -   Ezek. 47:1; Joel 3:18; Rev. 22:1
Zc 14:82 eastern
I.e., the Dead Sea.
Zc 14:83 western
I.e., the Mediterranean Sea.
Zc 14:91a King  -   Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:15
In the millennium Jehovah as Christ will be King over all the earth (9:10b; Psa. 72:8), and He will be the one God and His name the one name.
Zc 14:10a Hananel  -   Neh. 3:1; 12:39; Jer. 31:38
Zc 14:11a no  -   Jer. 31:40; Rev. 22:3
Zc 14:11b dwell  -   Jer. 23:6
Zc 14:16a worship  -   Isa. 60:6-7, 9; 66:23
Zc 14:16b Feast  -   Lev. 23:34, 43; Neh. 8:14; Hosea 12:9; John 7:2
Zc 14:17a not  -   Isa. 60:12
Zc 14:171 no
Because the present age is the age of grace, God sends rain on the just and the unjust alike (Matt. 5:45). However, the coming age will be the age of righteousness. Those who do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles will not receive rain.
Zc 14:20a Holiness  -   Exo. 28:36; Isa. 23:18; Jer. 2:3
Zc 14:201 pots
Pots are small, whereas the basins are large; but in the millennium the pots in the house of God will be as large as the basins before the altar.
Zc 14:211a Canaanite  -   cf. Isa. 35:8; Joel 3:17; Rev. 21:27; 22:15
Or, merchant.
< Zechariah • Malachi Outline >
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Malachi Outline
I.   The introductory word — 1:1
II.   Jehovah’s love for Jacob — 1:2-5
III.   Jehovah’s dealing with the sons of Levi — 1:6 — 3:4
A.   The degradation of the priests — 1:6-14
B.   The priests’ breaking of Jehovah’s commandment and their corrupting of Jehovah’s covenant — 2:1-9
C.   The treachery of Judah (actually the priests) and their profaneness toward Jehovah — 2:10-12
D.   Jehovah’s hatred of the treachery of man (mainly referring to the priests) toward his wife — 2:13-17
E.   To refine and purify the priests by His coming as the messenger of Jehovah — 3:1-4
IV.   Jehovah’s dealing with the sons of Jacob — 3:5 — 4:6
A.   Jehovah’s judgment by His drawing near — 3:5-6
B.   Jehovah’s advice to the sons of Jacob — 3:7-12
C.   Jehovah’s encouragement to those who fear Him and serve Him — 3:13-18
1.   The words of some of the sons of Jacob being strongly against Jehovah — vv. 13-15
2.   The word of encouragement by Jehovah — vv. 16-18
D.   Jehovah’s warning by the day of Jehovah — 4:1-6
Malachi >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Malachi Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ml 1:11 Malachi
Meaning the messenger of Jah (Jah being a shortened form of Jehovah), or My messenger (cf. 3:1). The name indicates that Malachi was a messenger of God to minister the word of God to His people Israel.
The central thought of Malachi’s prophecy is the correcting of the priests among Israel for the coming of Christ as the Messenger of God (3:1a) and the advising of the people of Israel for the appearing of Christ as the Sun of righteousness (4:2).
Ml 1:2a loved  -   Deut. 7:8; 10:15
Ml 1:2b Jacob  -   Rom. 9:13
Ml 1:3a desolation  -   Jer. 49:18; Ezek. 25:13-14; Obad. 10
Ml 1:41 Edom
A nation of the descendants of Esau (Gen. 36:1), the twin brother of Jacob.
Ml 1:51 over
Here over the territory of Israel means outside that territory. Even though the nation of Edom has been condemned and the people of Edom are the object of God’s indignation, even in Edom, outside Israel, Jehovah will be magnified.
Ml 1:6a Father  -   Deut. 32:6; Psa. 89:26; Isa. 63:16; 64:8
Ml 1:6b honor  -   Exo. 20:12
Ml 1:6c Lord  -   Deut. 9:26; 10:17; Psa. 8:1; Hab. 3:19; Luke 6:46
Ml 1:6d fear  -   Deut. 6:13; Job 28:28; Acts 9:31; Rev. 15:4
Ml 1:7a table  -   Mal. 1:12; Ezek. 41:22
Ml 1:11a rising  -   Psa. 113:3; Isa. 59:19
Ml 1:12a table  -   Mal. 1:7
Ml 1:14a blemished  -   Lev. 22:20
Ml 1:14b King  -   Psa. 47:2
Malachi Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ml 2:4a covenant  -   Num. 3:45
Ml 2:5a covenant  -   Num. 25:12; Ezek. 34:25; 37:26
Ml 2:7a messenger  -   cf. Gal. 4:14
Ml 2:8a stumble  -   1 Sam. 2:17; Jer. 18:15; Luke 11:52
Ml 2:10a one  -   1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6
Ml 2:10b one  -   Job 31:15
Ml 2:11a sanctuary  -   Ezra 9:2; 1 Cor. 7:14
Ml 2:141a wife  -   Prov. 5:18
Verses 13-14 indicate that the treachery of a priest toward his wife damages his priesthood. If a servant of the Lord cannot live properly with his wife, his service will be annulled.
Ml 2:14b covenant  -   Prov. 2:17
Ml 2:15a did  -   Matt. 19:4-6
Ml 2:151 seed
In marriage God has made the husband and wife one in order to produce “the seed of God,” i.e., godly children.
Ml 2:152 spirit
Our spirit is the source of our conduct. God cares for our spirit (Zech. 12:1), and we must take heed to it (cf. Acts 24:16; Rom. 8:4-6; 2 Cor. 2:13).
Ml 2:16a divorce  -   Deut. 24:1; Matt. 5:32; 19:8; 1 Cor. 7:11
Ml 2:161 behaves
In the sight of God, divorce is a violent act.
Malachi Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ml 3:1a send  -   Matt. 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27
Ml 3:11 My
Heb. malachi. First, this prophecy concerning the coming of Jehovah’s messenger was fulfilled in the coming of the prophet Malachi, a type of Christ as the coming One. Second, this prophecy was fulfilled in the first coming of Christ with John the Baptist as His forerunner (Isa. 40:3-5; Matt. 11:7-13). In His first coming Christ came as a Messenger and even as the message sent by God. As the Messenger of God, Christ not only brings a word or a message from God to God’s people; He Himself is the living message. This is proven by the four Gospels, which are a complete and perfect record of Christ as the living message sent by God to His chosen people (see note 22 in Heb. 1). As God’s Messenger Christ came to adjust, refine, and purify the priests. In the Gospels the Lord Jesus frequently rebuked the priests. Third, this prophecy will be fulfilled in the second coming of Christ with Elijah as His forerunner (4:5 and note 1).
Ml 3:1b clear  -   Isa. 40:3; Matt. 3:3; Luke 1:76
Ml 3:12c Angel  -   Isa. 63:9
Or, Messenger. Christ’s coming suddenly as the Angel of the covenant will be to execute upon Israel the covenant that He enacted through His death (Matt. 26:28). In His first coming Christ came in the way of an Angel, a serving one (cf. Heb. 1:14), to serve God in forming the new testament (Mark 10:45). When He established His table on the night in which He was betrayed, He enacted the new covenant (Luke 22:20), in which God is obligated to forgive our sins and to dispense Himself into our being to be our life, our law of life, and our everything as our inward content that we may live Him (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12). As the Angel of the covenant, Christ in resurrection executes the new covenant as its surety (Heb. 7:22), making it real to us by assuring us that our sins have been forgiven and by dispensing the riches of the covenanted Triune God into us. See notes 311, 331, and 332 in Jer. 31.
Although the Lord Jesus enacted the new covenant nearly two thousand years ago, generally the Jewish people have not benefited from it. Instead, the benefit has gone to the Gentiles. However, when Christ comes back, He will come as the Angel of the covenant to execute His covenant over the repentant and believing Jews. At that time they will become beneficiaries of the new covenant.
Ml 3:13d desire  -   Hag. 2:7
Cf. Hag. 2:7 and note.
Ml 3:2a day  -   Mal. 4:1
Ml 3:2b stand  -   Rev. 6:17
Ml 3:21 refiner’s
Christ will come also to refine and purify the sons of Levi, mainly the priests, like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap that they may offer to God the proper sacrifice (vv. 2-4). In the millennium the repentant Jews who are regenerated through the new covenant will be the priests to care for all the nations (Isa. 2:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23). For this they will need much refining and purifying. Therefore, in His second coming Christ will renew, sanctify, and transform Israel to be His refined and purified priests.
Ml 3:2c fire  -   cf. Isa. 4:4; Matt. 3:10-12
Ml 3:3a refiner  -   Isa. 1:25; Zech. 13:9
Ml 3:5a oppress  -   James 5:4, 12
Ml 3:51 stranger
Jehovah’s concern for the stranger indicates that as Christ He is very human and that He is not happy when His people ill-treat a stranger instead of giving him hospitality.
Ml 3:6a not  -   Num. 23:19; Rom. 11:29; James 1:17
Ml 3:6b not  -   Lam. 3:22
Ml 3:7a Return  -   Zech. 1:3
Ml 3:81 rob
To rob God is to not give Him what is due to Him. God established the principle that of all the produce from the land, one tenth (the tithe), the top tenth, should go to Him (Lev. 27:30).
Ml 3:8a tithes  -   Neh. 13:10, 12
Ml 3:10a tithe  -   Neh. 10:38; 13:12
Ml 3:101 food
The food in God’s house is not for man but for God. God’s food, the divine food, is the offerings, especially the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering (Num. 28:2; 29:39), all of which typify Christ (see notes in Lev. 1 — 7).
Ml 3:10b windows  -   Gen. 7:11; 2 Kings 7:2
Ml 3:102c blessing  -   2 Chron. 31:10
To be blessed by God here and in v. 12 is to be healed (4:2). To be healed is to be saved, and to be saved is to be made whole.
Ml 3:12a blessed  -   cf. Luke 1:48
Ml 3:12b land  -   Dan. 8:9
Ml 3:13a against  -   Jude 15
Ml 3:141 mournfully
This word indicates that the children of Israel worshipped and served God, but they did it mournfully, not at all happy that they were required to do these things.
Ml 3:161a book  -   Psa. 56:8; Isa. 65:6; Rev. 20:12; cf. Ezek. 9:4
When we consider, love, regard, respect, and sanctify God’s name, God keeps a record of this in His book of remembrance.
Ml 3:17a Mine  -   Exo. 19:5; Deut. 7:6; Psa. 135:4; Titus 2:14
Ml 3:171 day
The day of God’s anger, i.e., the day of Jehovah. See note 151 in Joel 1.
Malachi Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ml 4:11a day  -   Joel 1:15; Mal. 3:2; 2 Pet. 3:7
See note 171 in ch. 3.
Ml 4:1b burning  -   2 Thes. 1:7
Ml 4:1c stubble  -   Obad. 18
Ml 4:21a Sun  -   2 Sam. 23:4; Psa. 84:11; Luke 1:78; Matt. 17:2
The healing Christ, who Himself is the healing of God’s people and of the nations. Christ is the Sun that heals us as it shines upon us. Christ’s being our healing is based on His being the Sun of righteousness. The word Sun indicates life (cf. John 1:4), and the word righteousness indicates justice. The whole earth is filled with death and injustice, but with the healing Christ there is life and justice. Today we, the believers in Christ, enjoy Christ’s shining as the Sun of righteousness for our growth in life in the dispelling of darkness, and also for our healing in life in the effacing of unrighteousness. Our hope, our expectation, is that Christ is coming as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings to heal the nations from darkness and unrighteousness. We are waiting for Him as the Desire of the nations (3:1b; Hag. 2:7b) and as the Sun of righteousness.
In relation to Israel, Christ came the first time to heal the degraded priesthood (3:1-4), but in His second coming, He will heal the remnant of the people of Israel. Then He will be everything to the nations and to His people. This healing Christ will come suddenly. Thus, we need to be alert, ready to receive Him.
Ml 4:22b healing  -   Psa. 103:3; Hosea 6:1; Rev. 22:2
See note 102 in ch. 3.
Ml 4:4a law  -   Exo. 20:3-17
Ml 4:4b Horeb  -   Deut. 4:10
Ml 4:41 statutes
See note 64 in Luke 1.
Ml 4:51a Elijah  -   Matt. 11:14; 17:11; Mark 9:11; Luke 1:17; cf. John 1:21
This refers to the coming of Elijah as one of the two witnesses during the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). See Matt. 17:11 and note; Rev. 11:3 and note 2.
Ml 4:52b day  -   Joel 1:15; 2:31
See note 151 in Joel 1.
Ml 4:6a turn  -   Luke 1:17
Ml 4:6b curse  -   Zech. 5:3; 14:11
< Malachi • Matthew Outline >
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Matthew Outline
I.   The King’s antecedents and status — 1:1 — 2:23
A.   His genealogy and office — called Christ — 1:1-17
B.   His origin and name — born a God-man, named Jesus, called Emmanuel by men — 1:18-25
C.   His youth and growth — called a Nazarene — 2:1-23
1.   Sought and worshipped by the Gentile magi — vv. 1-12
2.   Envied by Herod the king — vv. 7-8
3.   Fleeing to Egypt — vv. 13-15
4.   Sought by Herod the king for destruction — vv. 16-18
5.   Returning to dwell in Nazareth — vv. 19-23
II.   The King’s anointing — 3:1 — 4:11
A.   Recommended — 3:1-12
B.   Anointed — 3:13-17
C.   Tested — 4:1-11
III.   The King’s ministry — 4:12 — 11:30
A.   The beginning of the ministry — 4:12-25
B.   The decree of the kingdom’s constitution — 5:1 — 7:29
1.   Concerning the nature of the kingdom people — 5:1-12
2.   Concerning the influence of the kingdom people — 5:13-16
3.   Concerning the law of the kingdom people — 5:17-48
4.   Concerning the righteous deeds of the kingdom people — 6:1-18
5.   Concerning the material riches of the kingdom people — 6:19-34
6.   Concerning the principles of the kingdom people in dealing with others — 7:1-12
7.   Concerning the ground of the kingdom people’s living and work — 7:13-29
C.   The continuation of the ministry — 8:1 — 9:34
1.   Signs with dispensational significance — 8:1-17
2.   The way to follow the King — 8:18-22
3.   The authority of the King — 8:23 — 9:8
a.   Over the winds and the sea — 8:23-27
b.   Over the demons — 8:28-34
c.   To forgive sins — 9:1-8
4.   Rejoicing with the sinners — 9:9-13
5.   Being incompatible with religion — 9:14-17
6.   Signs with dispensational significance repeated — 9:18-34
D.   The enlargement of the ministry — 9:35 — 11:1
1.   The need of shepherding and reaping — 9:35-38
2.   The selection and sending out of the workers — 10:1-5a
3.   The way to spread the gospel of the kingdom to the house of Israel — 10:5b-15
4.   Persecution and the way to meet it — 10:16-33
5.   The disturbance brought in by the King and the way of the cross to follow Him — 10:34-39
6.   The King’s identification with the sent ones — 10:40 — 11:1
E.   The King’s poise and attitude toward every situation — 11:2-30
1.   Strengthening His imprisoned forerunner — vv. 2-6
2.   Appraising His forerunner — vv. 7-15
3.   Lamenting and reproaching the stubborn and unrepentant generation — vv. 16-24
4.   Acknowledging the Father’s will with extolment — vv. 25-27
5.   Calling the burdened to rest and the way to rest — vv. 28-30
IV.   The King’s being rejected — 12:1 — 27:66
A.   The establishment of rejection — 12:1-50
1.   The cause of rejection — vv. 1-14
2.   Rejection causing the King’s turn to the Gentiles — vv. 15-21
3.   The climax of rejection — vv. 22-37
4.   The sign to the rejecting generation — vv. 38-42
5.   The rejecting generation becoming worse — vv. 43-45
6.   Rejection resulting in the King’s forsaking — vv. 46-50
B.   The unveiling of the kingdom’s mysteries — 13:1-52
1.   The preliminary work of the kingdom — vv. 1-23
2.   The establishment of the kingdom and its false constituents — vv. 24-30
3.   The abnormal development of the outward appearance of the kingdom — vv. 31-32
4.   The inward corruption of the outward appearance of the kingdom — vv. 33-35
5.   The establishment of the kingdom and its false constituents (continued) — vv. 36-43
6.   The kingdom hidden in the God-created earth — v. 44
7.   The church produced out of the Satan-corrupted world — vv. 45-46
8.   The eternal gospel and its result — vv. 47-50
9.   The treasure of things new and old — vv. 51-52
C.   The increase of rejection — 13:53 — 16:12
1.   Rejection by His countrymen — 13:53-58
2.   Rejection by the heathen tetrarch — 14:1-13
3.   The miracle of feeding five thousand — 14:14-21
4.   The miracle of walking on the sea — 14:22-33
5.   Healing by the fringe of the King’s garment — 14:34-36
6.   The accusation by the traditional religionists — 15:1-20
7.   The faith of a Gentile woman — 15:21-28
8.   Healing for the glorification of God — 15:29-31
9.   The miracle of feeding four thousand — 15:32-39
10.   Temptation by the fundamentalists and the modernists — 16:1-12
D.   The path of rejection — 16:13 — 23:39
1.   Before going to Judea — 16:13 — 18:35
a.   The revelation of Christ and the church — 16:13-20
b.   The first unveiling of the crucifixion and resurrection — 16:21-27
c.   Transfiguration in the miniature of the kingdom — 16:28 — 17:13
d.   The casting out of an epileptic demon — 17:14-21
e.   The second unveiling of the crucifixion and resurrection — 17:22-23
f.   The application of the revelation and vision of Christ’s sonship — 17:24-27
g.   Relationships in the kingdom — 18:1-35
2.   After arriving in Judea — 19:1 — 20:16
a.   Healing the following crowd — 19:2
b.   Further temptation by the fundamentalists — 19:3-12
c.   Laying hands on the children — 19:13-15
d.   The way for a rich man to enter into the kingdom — 19:16-26
e.   The reward of the kingdom — 19:27 — 20:16
3.   On the way to Jerusalem — 20:17 — 21:11
a.   The third unveiling of the crucifixion and resurrection — 20:17-19
b.   The throne of the kingdom and the cup of the cross — 20:20-28
c.   The healing of the two blind men — 20:29-34
d.   A warm welcome to the meek King — 21:1-11
4.   In Jerusalem — 21:12 — 23:39
a.   Cleansing the temple — 21:12-16
b.   Lodging in Bethany — 21:17
c.   Cursing the nation of Israel — 21:18-22
d.   Tested — 21:23 — 22:46
(1)   By the chief priests and elders concerning His authority — 21:23 — 22:14
(a)   The shifting of the birthright — 21:28-32
(b)   The transfer of the kingdom of God — 21:33-46
(c)   The kingdom’s wedding feast — 22:1-14
(2)   By the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians concerning giving tribute to Caesar — 22:15-22
(3)   By the Sadducees concerning resurrection — 22:23-33
(4)   By a lawyer concerning the great commandment in the law — 22:34-40
(5)   Muzzling all the testers by the question concerning Christ — 22:41-46
e.   Rebuking the religionists — 23:1-36
(1)   Their hypocrisy — vv. 1-12
(2)   Their eightfold woe — vv. 13-36
f.   Forsaking Jerusalem with its temple — 23:37-39
E.   The prophecy of the kingdom — 24:1 — 25:46
1.   Concerning Israel — 24:1-31
a.   From Christ’s ascension to the consummation of the age — vv. 1-14
b.   At the consummation of the age — vv. 15-31
(1)   The transpiring of the great tribulation — vv. 15-26
(2)   Christ’s coming to the earth — vv. 27-30
(3)   The gathering of Israel — v. 31
2.   Concerning the church — 24:32 — 25:30
a.   Watching and being ready — 24:32-44
b.   Being faithful and prudent — 24:45-51
c.   A parable for watchfulness — 25:1-13
d.   A parable for faithfulness — 25:14-30
3.   Concerning the nations — 25:31-46
a.   Christ coming to be enthroned in glory — v. 31
b.   Gathering all the nations for the exercising of judgment — vv. 32-46
F.   The completion of rejection — 26:1 — 27:66
1.   The fourth unveiling of the crucifixion — 26:1-2
2.   Plotted against by religion — 26:3-5
3.   Loved by the beloved disciples — 26:6-13
4.   Betrayed by the false disciple — 26:14-16
5.   Keeping the last passover — 26:17-25
6.   Establishing the King’s feast — 26:26-30
7.   Warning the disciples — 26:31-35
8.   Pressed in Gethsemane — 26:36-46
9.   Arrested by religion — 26:47-56
10.   Judged by the Sanhedrin — 26:57-68
11.   Denied by Peter — 26:69-75
12.   Judged by Pilate — 27:1-26
13.   Mocked by the heathen soldiers — 27:27-32
14.   Crucified — 27:33-56
a.   Killed and mocked by men — vv. 33-44
b.   Judged and forsaken by God — vv. 45-50
c.   The effect of His crucifixion — vv. 51-56
15.   Buried by a rich man — 27:57-66
V.   The King’s victory — 28:1-20
A.   Resurrected — vv. 1-15
B.   Reigning — vv. 16-20
Matthew >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Matthew Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 1:1a generation  -   Luke 3:23-38; cf. Gen. 5:1
Mt 1:11 Jesus
The first name and the last name (Rev. 22:21) in the New Testament is Jesus, proving that Jesus Christ is the subject and content of the New Testament.
The Bible is a book of life, and this life is a living person, the wonderful and all-inclusive Christ. The Old Testament gives a portrait, in types and prophecies, of this wonderful person as the Coming One. Now, in the New Testament, this wonderful person has come. The first page of the New Testament, in recommending this wonderful person to us, gives us His genealogy. This genealogy can be considered an abstract of the Old Testament, which in itself is the detailed genealogy of Christ. To understand the genealogy in Matthew, we need to trace the origin and history of every incident.
Christ, as the wonderful center of the entire Bible, is all-inclusive, having many aspects. The New Testament at its beginning presents four biographies to portray the four main aspects of this all-inclusive Christ. The Gospel of Matthew testifies that He is the King, the Christ of God prophesied in the Old Testament, who brings the kingdom of the heavens to the earth. The Gospel of Mark tells us that He is the Servant of God, laboring for God faithfully. Mark’s account is most simple, for a servant does not warrant a detailed record. The Gospel of Luke presents a full picture of Him as the only proper and normal man who ever lived on this earth; as such a man, He is the Savior of mankind. The Gospel of John unveils Him as the Son of God, the very God Himself, who is life to God’s people. Among the four Gospels, Matthew and Luke have a record of genealogy; Mark and John do not. To testify that Jesus is the King, the Christ of God prophesied in the Old Testament, Matthew needs to show us the antecedents and status of this King, to prove that He is the proper successor to the throne of David. To prove that Jesus is a proper and normal man, Luke needs to show the generations of this man, to attest that He is qualified to be the Savior of mankind. For the record of a servant, Mark does not need to tell us His origin. To unveil that Jesus is the very God, neither does John need to give us His human genealogy; rather, he declares that, as the Word of God, He is the very God in the beginning.
The kingdom, of which Christ is the King, is composed of Abraham’s descendants, including both his descendants in the flesh and those in faith. Hence, the genealogy of Christ in Matthew begins with Abraham, the father of the called race, not with Adam, the father of the created race. God’s kingdom is not built with the created race of Adam but with the called race of Abraham, which includes both the real Israelites (Rom. 9:6-8) and the believers in Christ (Gal. 3:7, 9, 29). To prove by relating His genealogy that Jesus is a proper man qualified to be the Savior of mankind, Luke traces His genealogy back to Adam, the first generation of mankind.
Mt 1:12b Christ  -   Matt. 1:16-17
In the genealogy of Jesus given by Luke, which proves that He is a proper man, the title Christ is not mentioned (Luke 3:23-38). But in the genealogy of Christ given here by Matthew, which proves that He is the King, the Christ of God, the title Christ is emphasized repeatedly (vv. 1, 16-17).
Mt 1:13c son  -   2 Sam. 7:12-14; Matt. 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30, 31; 21:9, 15; 22:42, 45; Luke 1:32; John 7:42; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16
Solomon is a type of Christ as the son of David, the One who inherits the throne and kingdom of David (2 Sam. 7:12-13; Luke 1:32-33). Solomon, as a type of Christ, did mainly two things: he built the temple of God in the kingdom (1 Kings 6:2) and spoke the word of wisdom (1 Kings 10:23-24; Matt. 12:42). Christ, in fulfilling this type, is now building the real temple of God, the church, in the kingdom of God and has spoken the word of wisdom.
Mt 1:14d son  -   Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16
Isaac is a type of Christ as the son of Abraham, the One who inherits the promise and blessing God gave to Abraham (Gen. 22:17-18; Gal. 3:16, 14). Isaac also, as a type of Christ, did mainly two things: he obeyed his father even unto death and was resurrected from death (Gen. 22:9-10; Heb. 11:19), and he took Rebekah, a Gentile woman, as his wife (Gen. 24:61-67). Christ, in fulfilling this type, was put to death and offered to God and was resurrected from death, and He is taking the church as His bride out of the Gentiles.
Mt 1:21a Isaac  -   Gen. 17:19; 21:3, 12; Rom. 9:7-9
Abraham begot eight sons (Gen. 16:15; 21:2-3; 25:2). Among those eight, only Isaac is counted as the promised seed (Rom. 9:7-8). Hence, Christ is his descendant to fulfill God’s promise given to Abraham and to him (Gen. 22:18; 26:4).
Mt 1:22b Jacob  -   Gen. 25:23-26; Rom. 9:10-13
Isaac begot twin sons, Esau and Jacob (Gen. 25:21-26), but only Jacob was chosen by God (Rom. 9:10-13). Hence, Christ is his descendant to fulfill God’s promise given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to him (Gen. 22:18; 26:4; 28:14).
Mt 1:23c Judah  -   Gen. 29:35; 49:8-10; 1 Chron. 5:2; Heb. 7:14; Rev. 5:5
The birthright of the promised seed consists of the double portion of the land, the priesthood, and the kingship. Reuben, as the firstborn son of Jacob, should have inherited the birthright. But because of his defilement he lost the birthright (Gen. 49:3-4; 1 Chron. 5:1-2). The double portion of the land went to Joseph through his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Josh. 16 — 17); the priesthood went to Levi (Deut. 33:8-10); and the kingship was given to Judah (Gen. 49:10; 1 Chron. 5:2). Hence, Christ, the King of God’s kingdom, is a descendant of Judah (Heb. 7:14); as such, He inherits the kingdom.
Mt 1:24d brothers  -   Gen. 35:22-26; 37:26; 44:14; 49:2, 28; 50:24; 1 Chron. 5:2
Neither the brothers of Isaac nor the brother of Jacob, but only the brothers of Judah, are mentioned in this genealogy, because only Judah’s brothers were chosen by God.
Mt 1:31a Pharez  -   Gen. 38:6-30; 1 Chron. 2:4
Pharez and Zarah were twins. At the time of delivery Zarah put out his hand, and the midwife marked it with a scarlet thread, indicating that he would be the firstborn. However, Pharez preceded him to be the firstborn (Gen. 38:27-30). Pharez was not chosen by man but was sent by God, proving that it was not by man’s choice but by God’s.
Mt 1:32 Tamar
In the genealogy of Adam no woman is recorded (Gen. 5:1-32), but in this genealogy of Christ five women are mentioned. Only one of these five was a chaste virgin — Mary, a descendant of the chosen race. Of her, Christ was directly born (v. 16). Among the rest — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth (v. 5), and Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah (v. 6) — some were Gentiles, some were remarried, and three were even sinful — Tamar committed incest, Rahab was a prostitute, and Bathsheba committed adultery. This indicates that Christ is related not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, even to the sinful people, and is the kingly Savior of typical sinners. Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. Judah begot Pharez and Zarah of her by incest (Gen. 38:6-30). What an evil!
Mt 1:3b Hezron  -   Ruth 4:18-22; 1 Chron. 2:5, 9-12
Mt 1:51a Rahab  -   Josh. 2:1; 6:22-23, 25; Heb. 11:31
Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho (Josh. 2:1), a place cursed by God for eternity (Josh. 6:26). After she turned to God and God’s people (Josh. 6:22-23, 25; Heb. 11:31) and married Salmon, a leader of Judah, the leading tribe (1 Chron. 2:10-11), she brought forth Boaz, a godly man, out of whom Christ came. Regardless of our background, if we turn to God and His people and are joined to the proper person among God’s people, we will bring forth proper fruit and participate in the enjoyment of the birthright of Christ.
Mt 1:52b Boaz  -   Ruth 4:21, 13, 17
Boaz redeemed his kinsman’s inheritance and married the man’s widow (Ruth 4:1-17). By so doing he became a notable forefather of Christ, a great associate of Christ.
Mt 1:53c Ruth  -   Ruth 1:15-17; 2:11-12; 4:10-13; cf. Deut. 23:3
The origin of Ruth was incest, for she belonged to the tribe of Moab (Ruth 1:4), the fruit of Lot’s incestuous union with his daughter (Gen. 19:30-38). Deuteronomy 23:3 forbade the Moabites to enter the assembly of Jehovah, even to the tenth generation. Ruth, however, not only was accepted by the Lord but also became one of the most important ancestors of Christ because she sought God and God’s people (Ruth 1:15-17; 2:11-12). Regardless of who we are and what our background is, as long as we have a heart that seeks God and His people, we are in a position to be accepted into the birthright of Christ.
Boaz’s mother, Rahab, was a Canaanitess and a prostitute, and his wife, Ruth, was a Moabitess of incestuous origin and a widow. Both were Gentiles and of low class, yet they are associated with Christ. Christ is joined not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, even to those of low estate.
Mt 1:54d Jesse  -   Ruth 4:22; 1 Chron. 2:12; Isa. 11:1, 10
Isaiah 11:1 prophesied that Christ would be “a sprout…from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots.” Christ came out of Jesse. However, Isa. 11:10 says that Christ is the root of Jesse, indicating that Jesse came out of Christ. Jesse was one who brought forth Christ, one who branched out Christ by being rooted in Christ.
Mt 1:61a David  -   1 Sam. 16:1, 11-13; 17:12; Matt. 22:42-45; Acts 13:22-23; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16
David was the eighth son of his father and was chosen and anointed by God (1 Sam. 16:10-13). The number eight signifies resurrection. That David as the eighth son was chosen by God indicates that his association with Christ was in resurrection. Furthermore, he was a man after the heart of God (1 Sam. 13:14) and brought in God’s kingdom for Christ.
David was the last of the generations of the fathers. He was also the first of the generations of the kings. He was the conclusion of one age and the beginning of the next. He became the landmark of two ages because he brought in the kingdom of God and was closely associated with Christ.
Mt 1:62b king  -   Psa. 89:20, 27; 1 Chron. 29:1, 9, 29
In this genealogy, only David is called “the king” because it was through him that the kingdom with the kingship was brought in.
Mt 1:63c Solomon  -   2 Sam. 12:24-25; 1 Kings 1:17, 33-35, 39; 1 Chron. 29:22-25; cf. Luke 3:31
When David committed murder and adultery, he was rebuked by the prophet Nathan, whom God had sent purposely to condemn him (2 Sam. 12:1-12). When David was condemned, he repented. Psalm 51 is the record of his repentance. He repented and God forgave him (2 Sam. 12:13). Then he begot Solomon (2 Sam. 12:24). Hence, Solomon is the issue of man’s transgression and repentance plus God’s forgiveness.
The genealogy in Matthew says that David begot Solomon, but the genealogy in Luke says that Nathan was the son of David (Luke 3:31). First Chronicles 3:5 tells us that Nathan and Solomon were two different persons. Luke’s record is the genealogy of David’s son Nathan, who was Mary’s forefather, whereas Matthew’s record is the genealogy of David’s son Solomon, who was Joseph’s forefather. One genealogy is the line of Mary, the line of the wife; the other is the line of Joseph, the line of the husband. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David. Under God’s sovereignty they were joined together by marriage, so that through Mary, Joseph was indirectly associated with Christ. Christ can be counted as a descendant of David through either Solomon or Nathan. Hence, He has two genealogies.
Strictly, Solomon was not a direct forefather of Christ. His relationship with Christ was indirect, through the marriage of Joseph, his descendant, to Mary, of whom Christ was born (v. 16). The Old Testament did not say that Christ would be Solomon’s descendant, but it prophesied repeatedly that Christ would be a descendant of David (2 Sam. 7:13-14; Jer. 23:5). Although Christ was not a direct descendant of Solomon, the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ as a descendant of David were nevertheless fulfilled.
Mt 1:64d wife  -   2 Sam. 11:2-27; 1 Kings 15:5; cf. Psa. 51 title
Uriah was a Hittite, a heathen, and his wife was Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:3). David murdered him and took Bathsheba. Hence, she was remarried as a result of murder and adultery (2 Sam. 11:26-27). David, a man after the heart of God, did right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of his life, except for this one evil (1 Kings 15:5). This genealogy does not say “of Bathsheba” but “of her who had been the wife of Uriah,” to emphasize this great sin of David’s, thus showing that Christ as the kingly Savior is related not only to the heathen but also to sinners.
Mt 1:71a Rehoboam  -   vv. 7-10: 1 Chron. 3:10-14
Beginning with Rehoboam, the kingdom of David was divided (1 Kings 11:9-12; 12:1-17). Of the twelve tribes, one was kept for David’s sake (1 Kings 11:13), that is, for Christ. Christ needed the kingdom that belonged to the house of David, because He had to be born as an heir to David’s throne.
After being divided, the kingdom of David was in two parts. The northern part was called the kingdom of Israel (a universal name) and was composed of ten tribes of Israel; the southern part was called the kingdom of Judah (a local name) and was composed of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Although the kingdom of Israel was more universal than that of Judah, not one of the names of the kings of Israel was included in the genealogy of Christ. The kings of Israel were excluded because they were not associated with Christ. They were for something other than Christ.
Mt 1:81 Joram
The genealogy here records that “Joram begot Uzziah.” However, 1 Chron. 3:11-12 says, “Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son, Azariah” (who is Uzziah — 2 Kings 15:1, 13). Three generations — Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah — were omitted. This must have been because of the evil marriage of Joram and the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, which corrupted Joram’s descendants (2 Chron. 21:5-6; 22:1-4). In accordance with Exo. 20:5, three generations of Joram’s descendants were cut off from the genealogy of Christ.
Mt 1:111 Josiah
The genealogy here records that “Josiah begot Jeconiah.” However, 1 Chron. 3:15-16 says, “The sons of Josiah…the second Jehoiakim…and the son of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son.” One generation — Jehoiakim — was omitted from the genealogy of Christ. This must have been because he was made king by Pharaoh of Egypt and collected taxes for Pharaoh (2 Kings 23:34-35).
Mt 1:112a Jeconiah  -   1 Chron. 3:15-16; Jer. 22:28-30
Jeconiah was not reckoned a king in the genealogy, because he was born during the captivity and was a captive (2 Chron. 36:9-10 — Jehoiachin is Jeconiah). According to the prophecy in Jer. 22:28-30, none of Jeconiah’s descendants would inherit the throne of David. If Christ had been a direct descendant of Jeconiah, He would not have been entitled to the throne of David. Although Jer. 22:28-30 says that all the descendants of Jeconiah are excluded from the throne of David, Jer. 23:5 says that God would raise up a Shoot to David, a King who would reign and prosper. This Shoot is Christ. This prophecy confirms that Christ would be the descendant of David, although not a direct descendant of Jeconiah, and would inherit the throne of David.
Mt 1:113 brothers
In this genealogy there is no mention of the brothers of any kings. However, here the brothers of Jeconiah are mentioned, proving that Jeconiah was not reckoned a king in this genealogy of Christ.
Mt 1:114b deportation  -   2 Kings 24:14-17; 2 Chron. 36:10, 20; Jer. 27:20
Referring to the carrying away of the children of Israel into captivity in Babylon. So in v. 17.
Mt 1:121 deportation
Even those who were carried away as captives to Babylon were included in this sacred record of Christ’s genealogy because they had an indirect relationship with Christ through Mary, the wife of one of their descendants and the mother of Jesus.
Mt 1:12a Salathiel  -   1 Chron. 3:17; Luke 3:27
Mt 1:122b Zerubbabel  -   Ezra 3:2; 5:1-2; Neh. 12:1; Hag. 1:1; Zech. 4:7-10
“Jeconiah begot Salathiel, and Salathiel begot Zerubbabel.” Compare this record with 1 Chron. 3:17-19, which says, “The sons of Jeconiah…Shealtiel [i.e., Salathiel]…and Pedaiah… and the sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel,” showing that Zerubbabel was the son of Pedaiah, Salathiel’s brother. Zerubbabel was not Salathiel’s son but was his nephew, and he became his heir. Perhaps this was a case in accordance with Deut. 25:5-6. Even that word in Deuteronomy is related to the genealogy of Christ.
Zerubbabel was one of the leaders who returned to Jerusalem from the captivity in Babylon (Ezra 5:1-2). He was also a leader in the rebuilding of God’s temple (Zech. 4:7-10). The Old Testament predicted that Christ, as a descendant of David, would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:4-6). Without the return from captivity, it would not have been possible for Christ to be born in Bethlehem. God’s command that the captives return was not only for the rebuilding of the temple of God but also to prepare for Christ to be born in Bethlehem. Christ needed some people to be in the proper place to bring Him to earth the first time. Similarly, for His second coming Christ needs some of His people to return from their captivity to the proper church life.
Mt 1:161 Jacob
Here the genealogy says that “Jacob begot Joseph,” but Luke 3:23 says, “Joseph, the son of Heli.” Luke’s record was “according to law” (a literal translation of “so it was thought” in Luke 3:23), indicating that Joseph was not actually the son of Heli but was reckoned his son according to the law. Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli, Mary’s father. This may be a case according to Num. 27:1-8 and 36:1-12, in which a regulation was made by God that if any parents had only daughters as heirs, the inheritance would go to the daughters, who would then have to marry a man of their own tribe in order to keep their inheritance within that tribe. Even such a regulation in the Old Testament is related to the genealogy of Christ, showing that all Scripture is a record of Christ.
Mt 1:162a Joseph  -   Luke 1:27; 2:4; Matt. 1:18; cf. Luke 3:23
At this point the record of this genealogy does not say, “Joseph begot Jesus,” which is similar to what is said of all the foregoing persons; it says, “Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.” Jesus was born of Mary, and not of Joseph, since it was prophesied that Christ would be the seed of the woman and would be born of a virgin (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14). Christ could not have been born of Joseph because Joseph was a man and a descendant of Jeconiah, none of whose descendants could inherit the throne of David (Jer. 22:28-30). However, Mary was a virgin and a descendant of David (Luke 1:27, 31-32); as such, she was the right person of whom Christ should be born. The marriage of Joseph and Mary brought Joseph into relationship with Christ and united into one the two lines of Christ’s genealogy for the bringing in of Christ, as shown in the chart on p. 9 in the printed edition.
This chart shows that the generation of Jesus Christ begins from God and continues until it reaches Jesus. It proceeds from God to Adam, from Adam to Abraham, from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, and on to David. After David it divides into two lines, the first running from Nathan to Mary and the second from Solomon to Joseph. Eventually, these two lines are brought together by the marriage of Mary and Joseph, to bring in Jesus Christ. In this way Christ was apparently a descendant of Jeconiah, who seemed to be in the line of the royal family; actually, He was not a descendant of Jeconiah, Joseph’s forefather, but a descendant of David, Mary’s forefather, so that He could qualify to inherit the throne of David.
Mt 1:163b Mary  -   Luke 1:27, 31-32, 34-35
This genealogy first mentions four women who were either remarried or sinful. In addition, here it mentions a chaste virgin. This indicates that all the persons named in this genealogy were born in sin, except Christ, who was born in holiness.
Abraham, David, and Mary were the three persons crucial to the bringing in of Christ. Abraham represents a life by faith; David, a life under the dealing of the cross; and Mary, a life of absolute surrender to the Lord. It was through these three kinds of lives that Christ was brought forth into humanity.
Mt 1:16c born  -   Luke 2:4-7
Mt 1:16d Jesus  -   Matt. 1:21, 25
Mt 1:164e Christ  -   Matt. 16:16; 22:42; John 1:41; 7:41-42; 20:31; Acts 2:36
Christ is emphasized here to prove that Jesus is the very Messiah (Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament.
Mt 1:171 all
This genealogy is divided into three ages: (1) from Abraham until David, fourteen generations, the age before the establishing of the kingdom; (2) from David until the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, the age of the kingdom; (3) from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ, again fourteen generations, the age after the fall of the kingdom. According to history, there were actually forty-five generations. By deducting from these generations the three cursed generations and the one improper generation, and then adding one by making David two generations (one, the age before the establishing of the kingdom, and the other, the age of the kingdom), the generations total forty-two, being divided into three ages of fourteen generations each. The number fourteen is composed of ten plus four. Four signifies creatures (Rev. 4:6); ten signifies fullness (25:1). Hence, fourteen signifies the creatures in full. Fourteen generations being multiplied by three indicates that the Triune God mingles Himself with the creatures in full.
This genealogy is of three sections: the section of the fathers, the section of the kings, and the section of the civilians, which includes the captured ones and the recovered ones. God the Father corresponds with the section of the fathers, God the Son with the section of the kings, and God the Spirit with the section of the civilians. This too indicates the mingling of the Triune God with His human creatures.
Three times fourteen is forty-two. Forty is the number for trials, temptations, and sufferings (Heb. 3:9; Matt. 4:2; 1 Kings 19:8). Forty-two signifies rest and satisfaction after trial. The children of Israel traveled through forty-two stations before they entered the good land of rest. The millennial kingdom as a rest will come after the forty-two months of the great tribulation (Rev. 13:5). After all the generations of trials, temptations, and sufferings, Christ came as the forty-second generation to be our rest and satisfaction.
Mt 1:172 until
David is the end of the generations of the fathers and the beginning of the generations of the kings. He was the one person used by God as a landmark to conclude the section of the fathers and to begin the section of the kings.
Mt 1:173 until
At the time of degradation no person was there as a landmark to demarcate the generations as did Abraham and David. Thus, the deportation became a landmark, a landmark of shame.
Mt 1:174 until
Luke’s record begins with Jesus and traces back to God. Matthew’s record proceeds from Abraham to Christ. Luke goes back and up to God; Matthew comes forward and down to Christ. All the generations were directed to Christ and brought in Christ. Christ is the goal, the consummation, the conclusion, the completion, and the perfection of all the generations; as such, He fulfills their prophecies, solves their problems, and meets their needs. When Christ comes, light, life, salvation, satisfaction, healing, freedom, rest, comfort, peace, and joy all come with Him. From this point on, the whole New Testament is a full expounding of this wonderful Christ, who is everything to us. Hallelujah, Christ has come!
Mt 1:18a origin  -   Luke 2:4-7
Mt 1:18b Mary  -   Luke 1:27; 2:5
Mt 1:181 of
Lit., out of. Although Christ was born of Mary (v. 16), He was a child of the Holy Spirit. The birth of Christ was directly of the Holy Spirit (v. 20). His source was the Holy Spirit and His element was divine. Through the virgin Mary He put on flesh and blood, the human nature, taking the likeness of the flesh (Rom. 8:3), the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7).
Mt 1:18c Holy  -   Luke 1:35
Mt 1:191a righteous  -   Phil. 3:6
A righteous man at that time was one walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord (Luke 1:6), i.e., one who was living according to the law of God with the expiation made by the offerings.
Mt 1:19b disgrace  -   cf. Deut. 22:20-21, 23-24
Mt 1:192 send
Lit., release her.
Mt 1:20a angel  -   Luke 1:11, 26; Acts 10:3
Mt 1:20b dream  -   Gen. 20:6; Num. 12:6; Job 33:14-15; Matt. 2:12, 13, 19, 22; 27:19
Mt 1:201 begotten
God was first born into Mary through His Spirit; after the conception was completed, He, with the human nature, was born to be a God-man, possessing both divinity and humanity. This is the origin of Christ.
Mt 1:202 of
Lit., out of.
Mt 1:20c Holy  -   Matt. 1:18
Mt 1:21a son  -   Isa. 9:6
Mt 1:211b Jesus  -   Matt. 1:25; Luke 1:31; 2:21; Acts 4:10, 12; Phil. 2:9-10; 1 Tim. 2:5
Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua (Num. 13:16), which means Jehovah the Savior, or the salvation of Jehovah. Hence, Jesus is not only a man but Jehovah, and not only Jehovah but Jehovah becoming our salvation. Thus, He is our Savior. He is also our Joshua, the One who brings us into rest (Heb. 4:8; Matt. 11:28-29), which is Himself as the good land to us.
Mt 1:21c save  -   Luke 2:11; Acts 13:23; 1 Tim. 1:15; Titus 2:14
Mt 1:221 prophet
One who is commonly considered a foreteller. But in the Scriptures a prophet is one who speaks for God, speaks forth God, and predicts.
Mt 1:22a fulfilled  -   Matt. 2:15, 17, 23; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 26:54, 56; 27:9
Mt 1:23a virgin  -   Isa. 7:14; Gen. 3:15; Gal. 4:4
Mt 1:231 son
This son of the virgin is the seed of the woman prophesied in Gen. 3:15.
Mt 1:232b Emmanuel  -   Isa. 8:8, 10
Jesus was the name given by God, whereas Emmanuel, meaning God with us, was the name by which man called Him. Jesus the Savior is God with us. He is God, and He is also God incarnated to dwell among us (John 1:14). He is not only God but God with us.
Mt 1:23c God  -   John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Matt. 18:20; 28:20
Mt 1:233 with
Christ as the very Emmanuel not only was with us when He was on earth, but also is with us, since His ascension, whenever we are gathered into His name (18:20). Moreover, He will be with us all the days until the consummation of the age (28:20).
Mt 1:251 bore
The birth of Christ was prepared and accomplished by God’s sovereignty. By His sovereignty God brought back to Judea from the captivity in Babylon the ancestors of both Joseph and Mary under the leadership of their forefather Zerubbabel (v. 12; Ezra 5:1-2). Again by His sovereignty God placed both Joseph and Mary in the same city, Nazareth (Luke 1:26; 2:4). Even more, by His sovereignty God brought Joseph and Mary together in marriage so that Christ could be brought in as the legal heir to the throne of David.
Mt 1:25a Jesus  -   Matt. 1:21
Matthew Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 2:1a born  -   Luke 2:4-7
Mt 2:11b Bethlehem  -   Matt. 2:5-6
Meaning house of bread.
Mt 2:1c Herod  -   Luke 1:5
Mt 2:1d magi  -   cf. Dan. 2:48
Mt 2:1e east  -   cf. Isa. 41:2
Mt 2:21a King  -   Jer. 23:5; 30:9; Zech. 9:9; Matt. 27:11; Luke 19:38; 23:38; John 1:49
Luke’s record concerning the youth of Jesus proves that He is a proper man (Luke 2:15-52), whereas Matthew’s record, very different from Luke’s, testifies that Christ is the proper King, the Christ prophesied in the Scriptures.
Mt 2:22b star  -   Num. 24:17; cf. Rev. 22:16
The Jews had the Scriptures concerning Christ. The magi from the east saw Christ’s star (Num. 24:17). The Jews had mental knowledge in dead letters concerning Christ, whereas the magi received a living vision concerning Him. After receiving the living vision, the magi were misled by their human concept and went to Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish nation, where its king was presumed to be. Their being misled caused many young boys to be killed (v. 16). After the magi were corrected by the Scriptures (vv. 4-6), they went to Bethlehem (vv. 8-9), and the star appeared to them again and led them to the place where Christ was (vv. 9-10).
Mt 2:2c worship  -   Matt. 2:11; 4:10; Rev. 19:10
Mt 2:41a priests  -   Mal. 2:7
The priests were those who taught people the law (Mal. 2:7), and the scribes were those who knew the Scriptures (Ezra 7:6). Both the priests and the scribes had knowledge concerning the birth of Christ (vv. 5-6), but, unlike the magi from the east, they did not see the vision, nor did they have the heart to seek after Christ.
Mt 2:4b scribes  -   Ezra 7:6
Mt 2:5a Bethlehem  -   John 7:42
Mt 2:6a And  -   Micah 5:2
Mt 2:61 princes
Signifying cities.
Mt 2:6b Ruler  -   Gen. 49:10; 1 Chron. 5:2
Mt 2:6c shepherd  -   Isa. 40:11; Ezek. 34:15, 23; 37:24; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20
Mt 2:91a star  -   Matt. 2:2
When the magi were corrected by the Scriptures and restored to the right track, the star appeared to them again. Living vision always accompanies the Scriptures.
Mt 2:111 house
The shepherds found the baby Jesus still in a manger (Luke 2:16); after this, the magi from the east saw the child in the house.
Mt 2:11a child  -   Isa. 9:6
Mt 2:11b Mary  -   Matt. 1:18; 12:46; Luke 2:5-7
Mt 2:112 worshipped
They worshipped Him as they would worship God (4:10).
Mt 2:113c gifts  -   Psa. 72:10
The gifts offered to Christ by the magi were gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In figure, gold signifies the divine nature; frankincense, the fragrance of resurrection; and myrrh, the fragrance of death. The offering of these gifts by the magi was undoubtedly under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, to indicate the worth of Christ’s divine nature and the preciousness of His resurrection and death. In the four Gospels, which are the biographies of Jesus, the things signified by these treasures are seen throughout Jesus’ life. Moreover, these precious treasures offered by the magi might have provided for the Lord’s journeys from Judea to Egypt and from Egypt to Nazareth.
Mt 2:11d gold  -   Psa. 72:15; Isa. 60:6
Mt 2:11e frankincense  -   S.S. 3:6; 4:6
Mt 2:11f myrrh  -   Exo. 30:23; Psa. 45:8; John 19:39
Mt 2:12a dream  -   Matt. 1:20
Mt 2:121 return
Lit., turn back.
Mt 2:122 another
Once we have seen Christ, we never take the same way but always take another way.
Mt 2:13a angel  -   Matt. 1:20
Mt 2:13b dream  -   Matt. 1:20
Mt 2:13c Egypt  -   Exo. 1:1
Mt 2:151a fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
This fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Christ in Hosea 11:1 was carried out by God through the magi’s mistake in going to Jerusalem. God is sovereign, even over our mistakes.
Mt 2:15b Out  -   Hosea 11:1; Num. 24:8
Mt 2:152c Son  -   cf. Exo. 4:22
This prophecy joins Christ to Israel.
Mt 2:161 did
This was the first martyrdom in the New Testament related to Christ.
Mt 2:17a fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
Mt 2:18a A  -   Jer. 31:15
Mt 2:181 Rachel
Rachel was buried on the way to Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19; 48:7). Ramah, located in the territory of Benjamin (Josh. 18:21-28), the son of Rachel (Gen. 35:15-18), was not far from the site of Rachel’s tomb. The young boys killed by Herod are considered the children of Rachel in this poetic prophecy.
Mt 2:19a dream  -   Matt. 1:20
Mt 2:201 life
Lit., soul.
Mt 2:20a died  -   cf. Exo. 4:19; Acts 12:23
Mt 2:22a dream  -   Matt. 1:20
Mt 2:221b Galilee  -   Luke 2:39; Matt. 3:13; 4:15; John 7:41, 52
Galilee was of the Gentiles (4:15) and was despised by the people (John 7:41, 52). Christ was born in honored Judea but was raised in despised Galilee.
Mt 2:231a Nazareth  -   Luke 1:26; Mark 1:9; John 1:45-46
Under God’s sovereign arrangement Caesar Augustus ordered the first census of the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1-3). It was through that census that Christ was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7) to fulfill the prophecy concerning His birth (Micah 5:2). He stayed there a short time. Then, because of Herod’s persecution He was taken to Egypt (vv. 13-15), and subsequently He was brought back to the land of Israel (vv. 19-21). Because of Archelaus’s reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, Christ was brought to Nazareth, a despised city of Galilee (vv. 22-23; John 1:45-46), and was raised there. He was born in the esteemed town of Bethlehem but grew up in the despised city of Nazareth. Hence, He was called a Nazarene. To follow Christ requires that we heed not only the Scriptures concerning Him but also the instant leadings, such as those Joseph had in his dreams. Caring only for the Scriptures while neglecting the instant leadings may cause us to miss Christ, as did the Jewish priests and scribes. Heeding the instant leadings requires a seeking heart.
Mt 2:232 prophets
See note 221 in ch. 1.
Mt 2:23b fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
Mt 2:233 Nazarene
The word prophets, in plural, indicates that this is not a particular prophecy but a summary of the significance of several prophecies, such as the one in Psa. 22:6-7. The title Nazarene may refer to the branch in Isa. 11:1, which in Hebrew is netzer. The branch there, signifying Christ, is a sprout from the stump of Jesse, the father of David. By the time Jesus was born, the throne of David had been overthrown. This means that the royal stem of David had been cut off. Now a new sprout came forth from the stump of Jesse and grew out of his roots. The emerging and growing of this sprout were in a situation of humiliation. Jesus was not born in a recognized and honored royal home, nor did He grow up in a renowned city such as Jerusalem. Rather, He was born in a poor home and grew up in a despised town. All this made Him a Nazarene, a branch — not a lofty branch of a stately tree, but a seemingly insignificant sprout from the stump of Jesse.
Matthew Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 3:11a John  -   Mark 1:4; Luke 3:2-3; John 1:6-7, 28; 10:40
The dispensation of law was terminated by the coming of John the Baptist (11:13; Luke 16:16). After the baptism by John, the preaching of the gospel of peace began (Acts 10:36-37). John’s preaching was the beginning of the gospel (Mark 1:1-5). Hence, the dispensation of grace began with John.
Mt 3:12b wilderness  -   Judg. 1:16
John the Baptist’s preaching was the initiation of God’s New Testament economy. He did this preaching not in the holy temple within the holy city, where the religious and cultured people worshipped God according to their scriptural ordinances, but in the wilderness, in a “wild” way, not keeping any old regulations. This indicates that the old way of worshipping God according to the Old Testament had been repudiated and that a new way was about to be brought in. Wilderness here indicates that the new way of God’s New Testament economy is contrary to religion and culture. It indicates further that nothing old was left and that something new was going to be built up.
Mt 3:21a Repent  -   Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 3:3; 15:10; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 20:21; 26:20
To repent is to have a change of mind issuing in regret, to have a turn in purpose.
Mt 3:22b kingdom  -   Matt. 4:17; 10:7; cf. Mark 1:15; Matt. 5:3, 10, 20; 7:21; 11:11; 13:24; 25:1; Dan. 2:44; 4:26
In John the Baptist’s preaching, repentance, as the opening of God’s New Testament economy, involved making a turn for the kingdom of the heavens. This indicates that God’s New Testament economy is focused on His kingdom. For this we should repent, change our mind, make a turn in our life-pursuit. The goal of our pursuing has been other things; now our pursuing must turn toward God and His kingdom, which in Matthew (cf. Mark 1:15) is specifically and purposefully called “the kingdom of the heavens.” According to the Gospel of Matthew as a whole, the kingdom of the heavens is different from the Messianic kingdom. The Messianic kingdom will be the restored kingdom of David (the rebuilt tabernacle of David — Acts 15:16), made up of the children of Israel, and will be earthly and physical in nature, whereas the kingdom of the heavens is constituted of regenerated believers and is heavenly and spiritual. (See note 34 in ch. 5.)
Mt 3:23 drawn
This clearly indicates that before the coming of John the Baptist, the kingdom of the heavens was not there. Even after his appearing, during his preaching, the kingdom of the heavens was still not there; it had only drawn near. At the time the Lord began His ministry, and even at the time He sent His disciples to preach, the kingdom of the heavens had still not come (4:17; 10:7). Hence, in the first parable in ch. 13, the parable of the seed (13:3-9), which indicates the Lord’s preaching, the Lord did not say, “The kingdom of the heavens is (or, has become) like…” Not until the second parable, the parable of the tares (13:24), which indicates the establishing of the church on the day of Pentecost, did the Lord say this. Matthew 16:18-19, in which the terms church and kingdom of the heavens are used interchangeably, proves that the kingdom of the heavens came when the church was established.
Mt 3:3a A  -   Isa. 40:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23
Mt 3:31 wilderness
It was according to prophecy that John the Baptist began his ministry in the wilderness. This indicates that John’s introducing of God’s New Testament economy was not accidental but had been planned by God and foretold by Him through Isaiah the prophet. This implies that God intended His New Testament economy to begin in an absolutely new way.
Mt 3:32b Prepare  -   Mal. 3:1; Mark 1:2; Luke 1:76
The way, similar to a street, and the paths, similar to lanes, are a portrait of man’s heart with all its parts. To repent unto the Lord with our whole being and with our whole heart and to let the Lord come in is to prepare the way of the Lord. To allow the Lord to further occupy every part of our heart, including the mind, the emotion, and the will, is to make straight the paths of the Lord. Hence, to prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight is to change our mind, to turn our mind toward the Lord and make our heart right, that through repentance every part and avenue of our heart may be straightened by the Lord for the kingdom of the heavens (Luke 1:16-17).
Mt 3:41a camel’s  -   Mark 1:6; Lev. 11:4; Deut. 14:7; cf. Zech. 13:4
John was born a priest (Luke 1:5, 13). According to the regulations of the law, he should have worn the priestly garment, which was made mainly of fine linen (Exo. 28:4, 40-41; Lev. 6:10; Ezek. 44:17-18), and he should have eaten the priestly food, which was composed mainly of fine flour and the meat of the sacrifices offered to God by His people (Lev. 2:1-3; 6:16-18, 25-26; 7:31-34). However, John did altogether differently. He wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle, and he ate locusts and wild honey. All these things were uncivilized, uncultured, and not according to the religious regulations. For a priestly person to wear camel’s hair was an especially drastic blow to the religious mind, for the camel was considered unclean according to the Levitical regulations (Lev. 11:4). In addition, John did not live in a civilized place but in the wilderness (Luke 3:2). All this indicates that he had wholly abandoned the Old Testament dispensation, which had degraded into a religion mixed with human culture. His intention was to introduce God’s New Testament economy, which is constituted solely of Christ and the Spirit of life.
Mt 3:4b leather  -   2 Kings 1:8
Mt 3:4c locusts  -   Lev. 11:22
See note 41.
Mt 3:5a Jerusalem  -   Mark 1:5
Mt 3:5b Jordan  -   Luke 3:3
Mt 3:61a baptized  -   Mark 1:5; Luke 3:3; John 1:26
To baptize people is to immerse them, to bury them, in water, which signifies death. John the Baptist did this to indicate that he who repents is good for nothing but burial. Further, this signifies that the old person has been terminated so that a new beginning can be realized in resurrection, to be brought in by Christ as the Life-giver. Hence, after John’s ministry, Christ came. John’s baptism not only terminated those who repented but also ushered them to Christ for life. Baptism in the Bible implies death and resurrection. To be baptized into water is to be put into death and buried. To be raised up from the water means to be resurrected from death.
Mt 3:62b Jordan  -   Josh. 3:15-17; 4:9
The Jordan River was the water in which twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, were buried and from which another twelve stones, again representing the twelve tribes of Israel, were resurrected and brought up (Josh. 4:1-18). Hence, to baptize people in the Jordan River implied the burial of their old being and the resurrection of the new. Just as the crossing of the Jordan River by the children of Israel ushered them into the good land, so baptism brings people into Christ, the reality of the good land.
Mt 3:6c confessed  -   Acts 19:18
Mt 3:71a Pharisees  -   Matt. 16:1, 6, 12; 23:13, 15
The Pharisees were the strictest religious sect of the Jews (Acts 26:5). This sect was formed about 200 B.C. They were proud of their superior religious living, devotion to God, and knowledge of the Scriptures. Actually, they had degraded into pretension and hypocrisy (23:2-33).
Mt 3:72b Sadducees  -   Matt. 22:23; Acts 4:1; 5:17; 23:6-8
The Sadducees were another sect within Judaism (Acts 5:17). They did not believe in the resurrection, in angels, or in spirits (22:23; Acts 23:8). Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees were denounced as a brood of vipers by John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus (v. 7; 12:34; 23:33). The Lord Jesus warned His disciples against their doctrines (16:6, 12). The Pharisees were considered orthodox, whereas the Sadducees were the ancient modernists.
Mt 3:7c baptism  -   Luke 3:7; Acts 19:3-4
Mt 3:7d vipers  -   Matt. 12:34; 23:33; Luke 3:7
Mt 3:7e wrath  -   Rom. 2:5; 5:9; 1 Thes. 1:10
Mt 3:8a worthy  -   Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20
Mt 3:9a Abraham  -   John 8:33, 39; Rom. 9:7
Mt 3:9b stones  -   cf. Luke 19:40
Mt 3:91 raise
Because of the impenitence of the Jews, both this word and the word in v. 10 have been fulfilled. God has cut off the Jews and has raised up the believing Gentiles to be descendants of Abraham in faith (Rom. 11:15a, 19-20, 22; Gal. 3:7, 28-29). John’s word in this verse clearly indicates that the kingdom of the heavens preached by him is constituted not of the children of Abraham by birth but of the children of Abraham by faith; thus, it is a heavenly kingdom, not the earthly kingdom of the Messiah.
Mt 3:9c children  -   Gal. 3:7, 29; Rom. 4:16
Mt 3:10a tree  -   Matt. 7:19; Luke 13:6-9
Mt 3:10b fire  -   Matt. 3:12
Mt 3:11a water  -   Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:26; Acts 1:5; John 3:5
Mt 3:11b repentance  -   Acts 13:24; 19:4
Mt 3:11c He  -   John 1:15, 30; Acts 13:25
Mt 3:11d sandals  -   Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27
Mt 3:11e Spirit  -   Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 2:4; 10:44-45; 11:15-16; 1 Cor. 12:13
Mt 3:111f fire  -   Matt. 3:10, 12; 25:41; Rev. 20:15
According to the context, the fire here is not the fire in Acts 2:3, which is related to the Holy Spirit, but is the same fire as in vv. 10 and 12, the fire in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15), where the unbelievers will suffer eternal perdition. John’s word spoken here to the Pharisees and Sadducees means that if the Pharisees and Sadducees would genuinely repent and believe in the Lord, the Lord would baptize them in the Holy Spirit that they might have eternal life; otherwise, the Lord will baptize them in fire, putting them into the lake of fire for eternal punishment. John’s baptism was only for repentance, to usher people to faith in the Lord. The Lord’s baptism is either for eternal life in the Holy Spirit or for eternal perdition in fire. The Lord’s baptism in the Holy Spirit initiated the kingdom of the heavens, bringing His believers into the kingdom of the heavens, whereas His baptism in fire will terminate the kingdom of the heavens, putting the unbelievers into the lake of fire. Hence, the Lord’s baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is based on His redemption, is the beginning of the kingdom of the heavens, whereas His baptism in fire, which is based on His judgment, is the ending of that kingdom. Thus, in this verse there are three kinds of baptisms: the baptism in water, the baptism in the Spirit, and the baptism in fire. The baptism in water by John introduced people to the kingdom of the heavens. The baptism in the Spirit by the Lord Jesus commenced and established the kingdom of the heavens on the day of Pentecost and will carry it on to its consummation at the end of this age. The baptism in fire by the Lord according to the judgment at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15) will conclude the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 3:12a winnowing  -   Luke 3:17
Mt 3:12b gather  -   Matt. 13:30; Rev. 14:15
Mt 3:121 wheat
Those typified by the wheat have life within. The Lord will baptize them in the Holy Spirit and, by rapture, gather them into the barn in the air. Those typified by the chaff, like the tares in 13:24-30, are without life. The Lord will baptize them in fire, putting them into the lake of fire. The chaff here refers to the impenitent Jews, whereas the tares in ch. 13 refer to the nominal Christians. The eternal destiny of both will be the same — perdition in the lake of fire (13:40-42).
Mt 3:12c fire  -   Isa. 66:24; Matt. 13:49-50; Rev. 20:15
Mt 3:13a Galilee  -   Matt. 2:22
Mt 3:131b baptized  -   vv. 13-17: Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:31-34
As a man, the Lord Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized according to God’s New Testament way. Of the four Gospels, only John’s does not give a record of the Lord’s baptism, because John testifies that the Lord is God.
Mt 3:15a fulfill  -   Matt. 5:17-18
Mt 3:151 righteousness
Righteousness is to be right by living, walking, and doing things in the way God has ordained. In the Old Testament, to be righteous was to keep the law that God had given. Now God sent John the Baptist to institute baptism. To be baptized also is to fulfill righteousness before God, that is, to fulfill the requirement of God. The Lord Jesus came to John not as God but as a typical man, a real Israelite. Hence, He had to be baptized in order to keep this dispensational practice of God; otherwise, He would not have been right with God.
Mt 3:161 having
The Lord was baptized not only to fulfill all righteousness according to God’s ordination, but also to allow Himself to be put into death and resurrection that He might minister not in a natural way but in the way of resurrection. By being baptized, He was able to live and minister in resurrection even before His actual death and resurrection three and a half years later.
Mt 3:162 heavens
The Lord’s being baptized to fulfill God’s righteousness and to be put into death and resurrection brought Him three things: the open heavens, the descending Spirit of God, and the speaking of the Father. It is the same with us today.
Mt 3:16a opened  -   Gen. 28:17; Ezek. 1:1; John 1:51; Acts 7:56; Rev. 4:1
Mt 3:163 Spirit
Before the Spirit of God descended and came upon Him, the Lord Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). This proves that at the time of His baptism He already had the Spirit of God within Him. The Spirit’s being within Him was for His birth. Now for His ministry the Spirit of God descended upon Him. This was the fulfillment of Isa. 61:1; 42:1; and Psa. 45:7, and was carried out to anoint the new King and introduce Him to His people.
Mt 3:164b dove  -   John 1:32; cf. S.S. 1:15; 2:14
A dove is gentle, and its eyes can see only one thing at a time. Hence, it signifies gentleness and singleness in sight and purpose. By the descending of the Spirit of God like a dove upon Him, the Lord Jesus ministered in gentleness and singleness, focusing solely on the will of God.
Mt 3:16c upon  -   Isa. 11:2; 42:1; 61:1; Luke 4:18; cf. Judg. 6:34; 1 Sam. 16:13; Ezek. 11:5; Acts 1:8
Mt 3:17a voice  -   Matt. 17:5; 2 Pet. 1:17; John 12:28
Mt 3:171 This
The Spirit’s descending was the anointing of Christ, whereas the Father’s speaking was a testimony to Him as the beloved Son. This is a picture of the Divine Trinity: the Son rose up from the water, the Spirit descended upon the Son, and the Father spoke concerning the Son. This proves that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit exist simultaneously. This is for the accomplishing of God’s economy.
Mt 3:17b Son  -   Matt. 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35
Mt 3:17c delight  -   Isa. 42:1; Matt. 12:18
Matthew Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 4:11 Jesus
After being baptized in water and anointed with the Spirit of God, Jesus as a man moved according to the leading of the Spirit. This indicates that His kingly ministry in His humanity was according to the Spirit.
Mt 4:1a wilderness  -   vv. 1-11: Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
Mt 4:12b tempted  -   Heb. 2:18; 4:15
First, the Spirit led the anointed King to be tempted by the devil. This temptation was a test to prove that He was qualified to be the King for the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 4:13c devil  -   Rev. 12:9; 20:10
The Greek word means accuser, slanderer (Rev. 12:9-10). The devil, Satan, accuses us before God and slanders us before men.
Mt 4:2a fasted  -   Matt. 9:15; 17:21
Mt 4:21b forty  -   Exo. 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8; cf. Deut. 8:2; 29:5
Forty days and forty nights is a time of testing and suffering (Deut. 9:9, 18; 1 Kings 19:8). The newly anointed King was led by the Spirit to fast for this period of time that He might enter into His kingly ministry.
Mt 4:2c hungry  -   Mark 11:12
Mt 4:31a tempter  -   1 Thes. 3:5
The tempter is the devil (v. 1; 1 Thes. 3:5).
Mt 4:32b Son  -   Matt. 4:6; 27:40, 43; 8:29; 3:17; 14:33; 16:16; 27:54; John 1:49; 20:31
The newly anointed King fasted in His humanity, standing on the ground of man. On the other hand, He was also the Son of God, as God the Father had declared at His baptism (3:17). For Him to accomplish His ministry for the kingdom of the heavens, He had to defeat God’s enemy, the devil, Satan. This He had to do as a man. Hence, He stood as a man to confront the enemy of God. The devil, knowing this, tempted Him to leave the standing of man and assume His position as the Son of God. Forty days before, God the Father had declared from the heavens that He was the beloved Son of the Father. The subtle tempter took that declaration of God the Father as the ground from which to tempt Him. If He had assumed His position as the Son of God before the enemy, He would have lost the standing to defeat him. (See note 42.)
Mt 4:33 stones
To make the stones become loaves of bread would certainly have been a miracle. This was proposed by the devil as a temptation. Many times the thought of having a miracle performed in certain situations is a temptation from the devil. The devil’s temptation of the first man, Adam, concerned the matter of eating (Gen. 3:1-6). His temptation here of the second man, Christ, also concerned the matter of eating. Eating is always a trap used by the devil to ensnare man, causing man to be tempted in a personal way.
Mt 4:41 It
The newly anointed King confronted the enemy’s temptation not by His own word but by the word of the Scriptures.
Mt 4:42a Man  -   Deut. 8:3
The tempter tempted the new King to take His position as the Son of God. But He answered with the word of the Scriptures, “Man…,” indicating that He stood in the position of man to deal with the enemy. The demons address Jesus as the Son of God (8:29), but the evil spirits do not confess that Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:3), because in confessing Jesus as a man they admit that they are defeated. Although the demons confess Jesus as the Son of God, the devil will not allow people to believe that He is the Son of God, because in so doing they would be saved (John 20:31).
Mt 4:43 bread
This word indicates that the Lord Jesus took the word of God in the Scriptures as His bread and lived on it.
Mt 4:44b word  -   Jer. 15:16; John 6:63; 2 Tim. 3:16
Gk. rhema, the instant word, differing from logos, the constant word. In this temptation all the words quoted by the Lord from Deuteronomy were logos, the constant word in the Scriptures. But when He quoted them, they became rhema, the instant word applied to His situation.
Mt 4:45 mouth
All Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). Hence, the words in the Scriptures are the words that proceed out through the mouth of God.
Mt 4:5a holy  -   Matt. 27:53; Neh. 11:1, 18; Isa. 52:1; Dan. 9:24; Rev. 11:2
Mt 4:51 wing
The protruding parts, resembling wings, on the left and right sides of the temple’s front portico; these parts were more elevated than the temple itself.
Mt 4:52b temple  -   Matt. 23:17; Luke 2:37
The devil’s first temptation of the new King was regarding the matter of human living. Defeated in this, he turned in his second temptation to religion, tempting the new King to demonstrate that He was the Son of God by casting Himself down from the wing of the temple.
Mt 4:6a Son  -   Matt. 4:3
Mt 4:61 cast
There was no need for the Lord Jesus to do this. It was simply a temptation enticing Him to show that as the Son of God He was able to act miraculously. Any thought of doing miraculous things in religion is a temptation of the devil.
Mt 4:62 it
Because the Lord Jesus had defeated him by quoting the Scriptures, the tempter imitated His way and tempted Him by quoting the Scriptures, albeit in a subtle way.
Mt 4:6b To  -   Psa. 91:11-12
Mt 4:71 Again
To quote the Scriptures concerning one aspect of something requires us to take into account the other aspects as well, in order to be safeguarded from the deception of the tempter. This was what the new King did here to counter the tempter’s second temptation. Many times we need to tell the tempter, “Again, it is written.”
Mt 4:7a You  -   Deut. 6:16
Mt 4:72 test
The Greek word means try exceedingly, test thoroughly.
Mt 4:81a kingdoms  -   Rev. 11:15
Defeated in his temptation in the religious sphere, the devil presented his third temptation to the new King, this time in the realm of the glory of this world. He showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. The sequence of the subtle one’s temptations — first, in regard to human living; second, in regard to religion; and third, in regard to worldly glory — is especially seductive in relation to the practical affairs of human life.
Mt 4:8b world  -   John 12:31; 14:30
Mt 4:8c glory  -   cf. Dan. 4:30
Mt 4:91 All
Luke 4:6 says that the kingdoms of the world and their glory were delivered to the devil; hence, to whomever he wills he gives them. Before his fall, Satan as the archangel was appointed by God to be the ruler of the world (Ezek. 28:13-14). Hence, he is called “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) and holds all the kingdoms of this world and their glory in his hand. Seeking to be worshipped, he presented all these to tempt the newly anointed King. The heavenly King overcame this temptation, but the coming Antichrist will not (Rev. 13:2, 4).
Mt 4:9a worship  -   Rev. 13:4
Mt 4:101a Satan  -   Matt. 16:23; 1 Chron. 21:1; Job 1:6; Zech. 3:1; Rev. 12:9
Satan, from Hebrew, means adversary. Satan is not only God’s enemy outside God’s kingdom but also God’s adversary within God’s kingdom, where he rebels against God.
Mt 4:10b You  -   Deut. 6:13
Mt 4:102c only  -   1 Sam. 7:3
The new King rebuked the devil for his presentation and defeated him by standing on the ground of man to worship and serve only God. To worship or to serve anything other than God for gain is always a temptation from the devil, that he may secure worship.
Mt 4:111 left
The devil’s temptation of the first man, Adam, was a success; his temptation of the second man, Christ, was an absolute failure. This indicates that he will have no place in the new King’s kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 4:112a angels  -   Luke 22:43; Matt. 26:53; Heb. 1:14
The angels came and ministered to the tempted King, who was here a suffering man (cf. Luke 22:43).
Mt 4:12a John  -   Matt. 14:3; Mark 1:14; Luke 3:20; John 3:24
Mt 4:121 withdrew
John the Baptist ministered in the wilderness, not in the holy temple in the holy city; still, his ministry was in Judea, not far from the “holy” things. Because of the people’s rejection of John, the Lord Jesus withdrew into Galilee to begin His ministry, far away from the holy temple and the holy city. This occurred sovereignly to fulfill the prophecy in Isa. 9:1-2.
Mt 4:12b Galilee  -   Mark 1:14; Luke 4:14; John 1:43; 2:11
Mt 4:13a Nazareth  -   Matt. 2:23; John 1:45-46
Mt 4:13b Capernaum  -   Matt. 8:5; 11:23
Mt 4:13c Zebulun  -   Josh. 19:10-16
Mt 4:13d Naphtali  -   Josh. 19:32-39
Mt 4:15a Land  -   Isa. 9:1-2
Mt 4:151 Galilee
Galilee was a place with a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. Hence, it was called “Galilee of the Gentiles” and was despised by the orthodox Jews (John 7:41, 52). The newly appointed King began His kingly ministry for the kingdom of the heavens in such a despised place, far from the capital of the country, dignified Jerusalem, with its sacred temple, the center of the orthodox religion. This implied that the ministry of the newly anointed King was for a heavenly kingdom that was different from the earthly kingdom of David (the Messianic kingdom).
Mt 4:161 great
The new King’s ministry for the kingdom of the heavens began not with earthly power but with heavenly light, which was the King Himself as the light of life shining in the shadow of death.
Mt 4:16a light  -   Luke 1:78-79; John 1:5, 7-9; 8:12; 9:5; Isa. 60:1-2
Mt 4:171a Repent  -   Matt. 3:2; 10:7; Mark 1:15
The new King continued the preaching of His forerunner, John the Baptist (3:2).
Mt 4:18a beside  -   vv. 18-22: Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11
Mt 4:181 Sea
The new King’s ministry was not in the capital but beside the sea. His forerunner’s ministry began by the riverside and consisted of burying the religious and terminating their religion. The new King’s ministry began by the seashore and consisted of catching men who were not very religious, men who lived around the sea instead of in the holy place, and making them fishers of men for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 4:18b Simon  -   John 1:40-42; Matt. 10:2; 16:16
Mt 4:182 casting
When Peter and Andrew were called by the Lord, they were casting a net into the sea. They were made fishers of men (v. 19). Eventually, Peter became the first great fisher for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-42; 4:4).
Mt 4:183 net
Lit., arc-shaped net.
Mt 4:19a Come  -   Matt. 8:22; 9:9
Mt 4:201a followed  -   Matt. 4:22; Mark 10:28; Luke 18:28
Prior to this time, in the place where John had preached, Andrew, one of the two disciples there of John the Baptist, had brought Peter to the Lord (John 1:35-36, 40-42). That was the first time Andrew and Peter had met the Lord. Here the Lord met them the second time, this time at the Sea of Galilee. They were attracted by the Lord as the great light shining in the darkness of death and followed Him for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens in the light of life.
Mt 4:21a John  -   cf. John 1:35, 37, 40
Mt 4:211 mending
When James and John were called by the Lord, they were in a boat, mending their nets. Eventually, John became a real mender, mending the rents in the church by his ministry of life. (See his three Epistles and chs. 2 and 3 of Revelation.)
Mt 4:21b called  -   Gal. 1:15
Mt 4:221a followed  -   Matt. 4:20
One of the two disciples of John the Baptist in John 1:40 was John the apostle. Thus, he must have met the Lord before, in the place where Peter first met the Lord. Here at the Sea of Galilee was the second meeting. Like Peter and Andrew, John and his brother were attracted by the Lord and followed Him.
Mt 4:231a synagogues  -   Matt. 9:35; 13:54; Mark 1:39; Luke 4:44; John 6:59
A synagogue is a place where the Jews read and learn the Scriptures (Luke 4:16-17; Acts 13:14-15).
Mt 4:232b gospel  -   Matt. 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43; 8:1; 16:16
Or, good news, glad tidings. In this book the gospel is called “the gospel of the kingdom.” It includes not only forgiveness of sins (cf. Luke 24:47) and the imparting of life (cf. John 20:31) but also the kingdom of the heavens (24:14) with the power of the coming age (Heb. 6:5), the power to cast out demons and heal diseases (Isa. 35:5-6; Matt. 10:1). Both forgiveness of sins and the imparting of life are for the kingdom.
Mt 4:23c healing  -   Matt. 8:16, 17; 9:35; Mark 1:34; 6:55-56; Luke 7:21; Acts 10:38
Mt 4:24a possessed  -   Matt. 8:16; 9:32
Mt 4:251a crowds  -   Mark 3:7, 8
Under the shining of the new King as the great light shining in the darkness, great crowds were attracted to follow Him for the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 4:252 Decapolis
A district of ten cities.
Matthew Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 5:1a crowds  -   Matt. 4:25
Mt 5:11 went
The new King called His followers by the seashore, but to give them the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, He went up to the mountain. This indicates that for the realization of the kingdom of the heavens, we need to go higher with Him.
Mt 5:1b mountain  -   Matt. 15:29; 17:1; 24:3; Mark 3:13
Mt 5:12 disciples
When the new King sat down on the mountain, His disciples, not the crowds, came to Him to be His audience. Eventually, not only the believing Jews but also the discipled nations (the Gentiles — 28:19) became His disciples. Later the disciples were called Christians (Acts 11:26). Hence, the word the new King spoke on the mountain in chs. 5 — 7, concerning the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, was spoken to the believers of the New Testament, not to the Jews of the Old Testament.
Mt 5:2a opening  -   Matt. 13:35
Mt 5:31 Blessed
The Greek word implies happy. It may also be rendered blessed and happy. So in succeeding verses. The word spoken by the new King, being the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, is a revelation of the spiritual living and heavenly principles of the kingdom of the heavens. It is composed of seven sections. The first section, vv. 3-12, depicts the nature of the people of the kingdom of the heavens, who are under nine blessings. They are people who are poor in spirit, who mourn for the present situation, who are meek in suffering opposition, who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, who are merciful toward others, who are pure in heart, who make peace, who suffer persecution for righteousness, and who are reproached and evilly spoken of because of the Lord.
Mt 5:32a poor  -   Psa. 51:17; Prov. 16:19; 29:23; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Luke 6:20
To be poor in spirit is not only to be humble but also to be emptied in our spirit, in the depth of our being, not holding on to the old things of the old dispensation but unloaded to receive the new things, the things of the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 5:33 spirit
Spirit here refers not to the Spirit of God but to our human spirit, the deepest part of our being, the organ by which we contact God and realize spiritual things. We need to be poor, emptied, unloaded, in this part of our being that we may realize and possess the kingdom of the heavens. This implies that the kingdom of the heavens is spiritual, not material.
Mt 5:34b kingdom  -   Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 5:10
Kingdom of the heavens is a term used exclusively by Matthew, indicating that the kingdom of the heavens differs from the kingdom of God (see chart on pp. 22-23 in the printed edition), the latter being mentioned in the other three Gospels. The kingdom of God is God’s general reign from eternity past to eternity future. It comprises eternity without beginning before the foundation of the world, the chosen patriarchs (including the paradise of Adam), the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament, the coming millennial kingdom (including its heavenly part, the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, and its earthly part, the Messianic kingdom), and the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem in eternity without end. The kingdom of the heavens is a specific section within the kingdom of God, a section composed only of the church today and the heavenly part of the coming millennial kingdom. Hence, in the New Testament, especially in the other three Gospels, the kingdom of the heavens, a section of the kingdom of God, is also called “the kingdom of God.” In the Old Testament the kingdom of God, generally, already existed with the nation of Israel (21:43); the kingdom of the heavens, specifically, had still not come, and it only drew near when John the Baptist came (3:1-2; 11:11-12).
According to Matthew there are three aspects concerning the kingdom of the heavens: the reality, the appearance, and the manifestation. The reality of the kingdom of the heavens is the inward content of the kingdom of the heavens in its heavenly and spiritual nature, as revealed by the new King on the mountain in chs. 5 — 7. The appearance of the kingdom of the heavens is the outward state of the kingdom of the heavens in name, as revealed by the King on the seashore in ch. 13. The manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens is the practical coming of the kingdom of the heavens in power, as unveiled by the King on the Mount of Olives in chs. 24 — 25. Both the reality and the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens are with the church today. The reality of the kingdom of the heavens is the proper church life (Rom. 14:17), which exists in the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens, known as Christendom. The manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens is the heavenly part of the coming millennial kingdom, which is referred to as the kingdom of the Father in 13:43; the earthly part of the millennial kingdom is the Messianic kingdom, which is referred to as the kingdom of the Son of Man in 13:41, and which is the restored tabernacle of David, the kingdom of David (Acts 15:16). In the heavenly part of the millennial kingdom, which is the kingdom of the heavens manifested in power, the overcoming believers will reign with Christ for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6); in the earthly part of the millennial kingdom, which is the Messianic kingdom on earth, the saved remnant of Israel will be the priests and will teach the nations to worship God (Zech. 8:20-23).
If we are poor in spirit, the kingdom of the heavens is ours: we are in its reality now in the church age, and we will share in its manifestation in the kingdom age.
Mt 5:41a mourn  -   Isa. 61:2-3; Luke 6:21; John 16:20
The entire situation of the world is negative toward God’s economy. Satan, sin, self, darkness, and worldliness predominate among all people on earth. God’s glory is insulted, Christ is rejected, the Holy Spirit is frustrated, the church is desolate, self is corrupt, and the whole world is evil. God wants us to mourn over such a situation.
Mt 5:42b comforted  -   2 Cor. 1:7
If we mourn according to God and His economy, we will be comforted by being rewarded with the kingdom of the heavens. We will see God’s heavenly ruling over the entire negative situation.
Mt 5:51a meek  -   Psa. 37:11; Eph. 4:2; Titus 3:2; James 3:13
To be meek means not to resist the world’s opposition but to suffer it willingly.
Mt 5:52b inherit  -   Psa. 37:9; Rom. 4:13; Heb. 2:5-8
If we are meek, willing to suffer the world’s opposition in this age, we will inherit the earth in the coming age, as revealed in Heb. 2:5-8 and Luke 19:17, 19.
Mt 5:6a thirst  -   Psa. 42:1-2; Isa. 55:1; John 7:37
Mt 5:61b righteousness  -   Matt. 5:10, 20; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22
Righteousness here denotes our being right in our behavior. We need to hunger and thirst for this righteousness, to seek after such righteousness, that we may enter into the kingdom of the heavens (vv. 10, 20).
Mt 5:62c satisfied  -   Psa. 22:26; 36:8
If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God will grant us the very righteousness we seek, that we may be satisfied.
Mt 5:71a merciful  -   Matt. 18:33; James 2:13
To be righteous is to give one what he deserves, whereas to be merciful is to give one what he does not deserve. For the kingdom of the heavens we need to be not only righteous but also merciful.
Mt 5:72 shown
To receive mercy is to receive what we do not deserve. If we are merciful to others, the Lord will give us mercy (2 Tim. 1:16, 18), especially at His judgment seat (James 2:12-13).
Mt 5:81a pure  -   Psa. 24:4; Prov. 22:11; 2 Tim. 2:22
To be pure in heart is to be single in purpose, to have the single goal of accomplishing God’s will for God’s glory (1 Cor. 10:31). This is for the kingdom of the heavens. Our spirit is the organ by which we receive Christ (John 1:12; 3:6), whereas our heart is the ground where Christ as the seed of life grows (13:19). For the kingdom of the heavens we need to be poor in spirit, empty in our spirit, that we may receive Christ. Also, we need to be pure, single, in our heart that Christ may grow in us without frustration.
Mt 5:82b see  -   Job 42:5; Psa. 17:15; 1 John 3:2-3
If we are pure in heart in seeking God, we will see God. Seeing God is a reward to the pure in heart. This blessing is both for today and for the coming age.
Mt 5:91a peacemakers  -   Heb. 12:14; James 3:18
Satan, the rebellious one, is the instigator of all rebellion. For the kingdom of the heavens, under its heavenly ruling, we must be those who make peace among men (Heb. 12:14).
Mt 5:92b sons  -   Rom. 8:14; 1 John 3:1
Our Father is the God of peace (Rom. 15:33; 16:20), having a peaceful life with a peaceful nature. As those born of Him, if we would be peacemakers, we must walk in His divine life and according to His divine nature. In this way we will express His life and nature and be called the sons of God.
Mt 5:101a persecuted  -   1 Pet. 3:14
The whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19) and is filled with unrighteousness. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. For the sake of the kingdom of the heavens, we need to pay a price for the righteousness that we seek.
Mt 5:10b righteousness  -   Matt. 5:6, 20
Mt 5:102 theirs
If we seek for righteousness at a cost, the kingdom of the heavens becomes ours: we are in its reality now, and we will be rewarded with its manifestation in the coming age.
Mt 5:10c kingdom  -   Matt. 5:3
Mt 5:111a reproach  -   Luke 6:22; Heb. 13:13; 1 Pet. 4:14
When we live a life for the kingdom of the heavens, in the spiritual nature of the kingdom and according to the heavenly principles of the kingdom, we are reproached, persecuted, and evilly spoken of, mostly by the religious people, who hold to their traditional religious concepts. The Jewish religionists did all these things to the apostles in the early days of the kingdom of the heavens (Acts 5:41; 13:45, 50; 2 Cor. 6:8; Rom. 3:8).
Mt 5:11b persecute  -   John 15:20
Mt 5:11c evil  -   2 Cor. 6:8; Rom. 3:8
Mt 5:112 because
The persecution in v. 10 is for the sake of righteousness, i.e., is due to our seeking for righteousness, whereas the persecution in v. 11 is directly because of Christ, the new King, i.e., because of our following Him.
Mt 5:12a Rejoice  -   Luke 6:23; Acts 5:41; 1 Pet. 4:13
Mt 5:121b reward  -   Matt. 16:27; Heb. 10:35
This reward of the ninth blessing indicates that the results of the foregoing eight blessings also are rewards. This reward is great and is in the heavens; it is a heavenly reward, not an earthly one.
Mt 5:12c persecuted  -   2 Chron. 36:16; Matt. 23:37; Acts 7:52; 1 Thes. 2:15
Mt 5:122 prophets
See note 221 in ch. 1.
Mt 5:131 You
The second section of the new King’s word given on the mountain, vv. 13-16, concerns the influence of the people of the kingdom of the heavens on the world. They are the salt to the corrupted earth and the light to the darkened world.
Mt 5:132a salt  -   Lev. 2:13; 2 Kings 2:20, 21; Col. 4:6
Salt, by nature, is an element that kills and eliminates the germs of corruption. To the corrupted earth the people of the kingdom of the heavens are such an element, keeping the earth from being fully corrupted.
Mt 5:133b tasteless  -   Mark 9:50; Luke 14:34
For the kingdom people to become tasteless means that they lose their salting function. They become the same as the earthly people and are indistinguishable from the unbelievers.
Mt 5:13c no  -   cf. Gen. 19:26
Mt 5:134d cast  -   Luke 14:35; Matt. 25:30
To be cast out is to be put away from the kingdom of the heavens (Luke 14:35).
Mt 5:135 trampled
To be trampled underfoot by men is to be treated as useless dust.
Mt 5:141a light  -   Phil. 2:15; Eph. 5:8
Light is the shining of a lamp to enlighten those in darkness. To the darkened world the people of the kingdom of the heavens are such a light, effacing the world’s darkness. In nature they are the healing salt, and in behavior they are the shining light.
Mt 5:142b city  -   cf. Rev. 21:10
As the shining light, the kingdom people are like a city situated upon a mountain, a city that cannot be hidden. This will ultimately consummate in the holy city, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10-11, 23-24).
Mt 5:15a lamp  -   Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16; 11:33
Mt 5:151 bushel
A bushel is an instrument for measuring grain. A lighted lamp placed under a bushel cannot shine out its light. The kingdom people as the lighted lamp should not be covered by a bushel, an item pertaining to food, concern for which causes people to be anxious (6:25).
Mt 5:152b lampstand  -   cf. Rev. 1:20
The light as a city on a mountain shines over the outsiders, whereas the lighted lamp on the lampstand shines over those who are in the house. As a city on a mountain, the light cannot be hidden, and as the lamp on the lampstand, the light should not be hidden.
Mt 5:16a shine  -   Isa. 58:8; 60:1, 3
Mt 5:161b good  -   1 Pet. 2:12
Good works constitute the behavior of the kingdom people; through such works men can see God and be brought to Him.
Mt 5:162c glorify  -   Matt. 9:8; John 15:8
To glorify God the Father is to give Him the glory. Glory is God expressed. When the kingdom people express God in their behavior and good works, men see God and give the glory to God.
Mt 5:163 Father
The title your Father proves that the disciples, who were the new King’s audience, were regenerated children of God (John 1:12; Gal. 4:6).
Mt 5:171 Do
The third section of the King’s word on the mountain, vv. 17-48, concerns the law of the people of the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 5:17a law  -   Matt. 7:12
Mt 5:172b fulfill  -   Rom. 10:4; 3:31; cf. Rom. 8:4
Here for Christ to fulfill the law means (1) that, on the positive side, He kept the law, (2) that, on the negative side, through His substitutionary death on the cross He fulfilled the requirement of the law, and (3) that in this section He complemented the old law with His new law, as repeatedly expressed by the word “But I say to (or, tell) you” (vv. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44). Christ’s keeping of the law qualified Him to fulfill the requirement of the law through His substitutionary death on the cross. Christ’s fulfilling of the requirement of the law through His substitutionary death on the cross brought in the resurrection life to complement the law, to fill the law to the full. The old law, the lower law, with the demand that it be kept and the requirement that man be punished, is over. The kingdom people, as the children of the Father, now need to fulfill only the new law, the higher law, by the resurrection life, which is the eternal life of the Father. The old law was given through Moses, whereas the new law was decreed by Christ personally.
Concerning the law there are two aspects: the commandments of the law and the principle of the law. The commandments of the law were fulfilled and complemented by the Lord’s coming, whereas the principle of the law was replaced by the principle of faith according to God’s New Testament economy.
Mt 5:181a heaven  -   Matt. 24:35; Luke 16:17; Heb. 1:11-12; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 21:1
After the millennial kingdom the old heaven and old earth will pass away when the new heaven and new earth come in (Rev. 21:1; Heb. 1:11-12; 2 Pet. 3:10-13). What is covered by the law extends only to the end of the millennial kingdom, whereas what is covered by the prophets extends to the new heaven and new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22). This is why both the law and the prophets are referred to in v. 17, but only the law, not the prophets, is mentioned in v. 18.
Mt 5:182 iota
The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew yod, the smallest Hebrew letter, which is shaped like a comma.
Mt 5:183 serif
Gk. keraia, a horn, a projection; referring to a mark used with the Hebrew letters.
Mt 5:19a least  -   James 2:10
Mt 5:191 commandments
Commandments here refers to the law in v. 18. The kingdom people not only fulfill the law but also complement it. Hence, they actually do not annul any commandments of the law.
Mt 5:19b least  -   Matt. 11:11
Mt 5:19c kingdom  -   Matt. 5:3
Mt 5:19d great  -   Matt. 18:1-4
Mt 5:201a righteousness  -   Matt. 5:6, 10; Rev. 19:8
Righteousness here does not refer only to objective righteousness, which is the Christ whom we receive when we believe in Him and are thus justified before God (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 3:26); it refers even more to subjective righteousness, which is the indwelling Christ lived out of us as our righteousness that we may live in the reality of the kingdom today and enter into its manifestation in the future. This subjective righteousness is obtained not by merely the fulfilling of the old law, but by the complementing of the old law through the fulfilling of the new law of the kingdom of the heavens given by the new King here in this section of the Word. This righteousness of the kingdom people, which is according to the new law of the kingdom, surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, which is according to the old law. It is impossible for our natural life to gain this surpassing righteousness; it can be produced only by a higher life, the resurrection life of Christ. This righteousness, which is likened to the wedding garment (22:11-12), qualifies us to participate in the wedding of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-8) and inherit the kingdom of the heavens in its manifestation, that is, to enter into the kingdom of the heavens in the future.
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is the righteousness of letters, which they practiced by their own life according to the old law of letters; the surpassing righteousness of the kingdom people is the righteousness of life, which they live out by taking Christ as their life according to the new law of life. Both in nature and in standard, the righteousness of life far surpasses the lifeless righteousness practiced by the scribes and Pharisees.
Mt 5:202 scribes
See note 41 in ch. 2.
Mt 5:203b enter  -   Matt. 7:21; 23:13; 25:21, 23; Acts 14:22; cf. John 3:5
Entrance into the kingdom of God requires regeneration as a new beginning of our life (John 3:3, 5), but entrance into the kingdom of the heavens demands surpassing righteousness in our living after regeneration. To enter into the kingdom of the heavens is to live in its reality today and to participate in its manifestation in the future.
Mt 5:21a You  -   Exo. 20:13; Deut. 5:17
Mt 5:21b judgment  -   Deut. 16:18; 2 Chron. 19:5-6
Mt 5:221 I
The words that “you have heard” (vv. 21, 27, 33, 38, 43) are the law of the old dispensation, whereas the words that “I say to (or, tell) you” (vv. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44) are the new law of the kingdom, which complements the law of the old dispensation.
Mt 5:222a angry  -   1 John 3:15; Job 5:2; Psa. 37:8; Prov. 19:19; Eph. 4:26
The law of the old dispensation deals with the act of murder (v. 21), but the new law of the kingdom deals with anger, the motive of murder. Hence, the demand of the new law of the kingdom is deeper than the requirement of the law of the old dispensation. To meet the demand of the new law of the kingdom, the higher life of the new creation is needed.
Mt 5:223 brother
The word brother proves that the King’s word here is spoken to believers.
Mt 5:224b judgment  -   Matt. 5:21
In this verse there are three kinds of judgments. The first is the judgment at the gate of the city, which is the district judgment. The second is the judgment by the Sanhedrin, which is a higher judgment. The third is the judgment by God through the Gehenna of fire, which is the highest judgment. These three kinds of judgments were mentioned here by the new King, who used figures from the Jewish background because His entire audience was Jewish. However, in regard to the kingdom people, the believers of the New Testament, all these judgments refer to the judgment of the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ, as revealed in 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10, 12; 1 Cor. 4:4-5; 3:13-15; Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; and Heb. 10:27, 30. This clearly reveals that the New Testament believers, although forgiven by God forever, are still liable to the Lord’s judgment, a judgment not for perdition but for discipline, if they sin against the new law of the kingdom as given here. However, when we sin against the new law of the kingdom, we will be forgiven and cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus if we repent and confess our sins (1 John 1:7, 9).
Mt 5:225 Raca
I.e., stupid, good-for-nothing. An expression of contempt.
Mt 5:226c Sanhedrin  -   Matt. 10:17; 26:59; Mark 15:1; Acts 4:15; 5:21, 41
The Sanhedrin was a council composed of the chief priests, the elders, the lawyers, and the scribes. It was the highest court of the Jews (Luke 22:66; Acts 4:5-6, 15; 5:27, 34, 41).
Mt 5:227 Moreh
I.e., fool. A Hebrew expression of condemnation indicating a rebel (Num. 20:10). This expression is more serious than “Raca,” an expression of contempt.
Mt 5:228d Gehenna  -   Matt. 5:29-30; 10:28; 18:9; Luke 12:5
Gehenna, valley of Henna, is equivalent to the Hebrew Ge-hinnom, valley of Hinnom. Also called Tophet, or Topheth (2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 19:13), it is a deep valley near Jerusalem and was the refuse-place of the city, where all kinds of filth and the bodies of criminals were cast for burning. Because of its continual fire, it became the symbol of the place of eternal punishment, the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). This word is used also in vv. 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; and James 3:6.
Mt 5:231a gift  -   Matt. 8:4; 23:18-19
A sacrifice, such as the sacrifice for sin, is for dealing with sin, whereas a gift is for fellowship with God.
Mt 5:232b altar  -   Exo. 27:1; Lev. 1:9, 12
The altar was a piece of furniture (Exo. 27:1-8) in the outer court of the temple (1 Kings 8:64). On the altar all the sacrifices and gifts were offered (Lev. 1:9, 12, 17). In decreeing the new law of the kingdom, the King referred here to the gift and altar of the old dispensation because during the period of His ministry on earth, a transitional period, the ritual law of the old dispensation had not yet come to an end.
(In the four Gospels, before His death and resurrection, in matters regarding the outward circumstances, the Lord treated His disciples as Jews according to the old law, whereas in matters concerning spirit and life, He considered them believers, constituents of the church, according to the New Testament economy.)
Mt 5:23c brother  -   Matt. 18:15, 21
Mt 5:233 something
Something against you here must refer to an offense caused by the anger or scolding in v. 22.
Mt 5:241 first
We must first be reconciled to our brother so that our remembrance of the offense can be removed and our conscience can be void of offense. Then we can come and offer our gift to the Lord and fellowship with Him with a pure conscience. The King of the kingdom will never allow two brothers who are not reconciled to each other either to share the kingdom in its reality or to reign in its manifestation.
Mt 5:242 be
Or, placate.
Mt 5:24a reconciled  -   Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13
Mt 5:251 quickly
Be well disposed quickly, lest you die, your opponent die, or the Lord come back, thus leaving you no opportunity to be reconciled to your opponent.
Mt 5:252a opponent  -   Luke 12:58
I.e., a plaintiff.
Mt 5:253 on
On the way signifies that we are still living in this life.
Mt 5:254 deliver
This will take place at the judgment seat of Christ when He comes back (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10). The judge will be the Lord, the officer will be the angel, and the prison will be the place of discipline.
Mt 5:261 come
Come out from there (prison) refers to being forgiven in the coming age, the millennium.
Mt 5:26a pay  -   Luke 12:59; Matt. 18:34
Mt 5:262 quadrans
A Roman quadrans was a small bronze coin equal to a quarter of an assarion, which was equal to one cent. The meaning here is that regarding even the smallest matter we need to make a thorough clearance. This shows the strictness of the new law.
Mt 5:27a You  -   Exo. 20:14; Deut. 5:18
Mt 5:28a looks  -   Job 31:1
Mt 5:28b adultery  -   1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5
Mt 5:281c heart  -   Matt. 15:19
The law of the old dispensation deals with the outward act of adultery, whereas the new law of the kingdom deals with the inward motive of the heart.
Mt 5:29a eye  -   Matt. 18:9; Mark 9:47
Mt 5:291 pluck
The emphasis of the new law of the kingdom in this verse and in v. 30 indicates the seriousness of sin in relation to the kingdom of the heavens and the need to put away the motive of sin at any cost. The actions described in these verses were not meant to be carried out literally; they can be carried out only spiritually, as revealed in Rom. 8:13 and Col. 3:5.
Mt 5:292b Gehenna  -   Matt. 5:22
See note 228. So in the next verse.
Mt 5:30a hand  -   Matt. 18:8; Mark 9:43
Mt 5:301 cut
See note 291.
Mt 5:30b Gehenna  -   Matt. 5:22
Mt 5:31a Whoever  -   Deut. 24:1, 3; Matt. 19:3-9
Mt 5:311 divorces
Lit., releases. So in the next verse.
Mt 5:321 everyone
What the King decreed in vv. 21-30 as the new law of the kingdom complemented the law of the old dispensation, whereas what the King proclaimed in vv. 31-48 as the new law of the kingdom changed the law of the old dispensation. In the old dispensation the law concerning divorce was ordained because of the people’s hardness of heart; that law was not according to God’s design in the beginning (19:7-8). The King’s new decree recovered marriage back to the beginning, back to God’s design for it (19:4-6).
Mt 5:32a divorces  -   Matt. 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18; Rom. 7:3
Mt 5:322 fornication
The marriage tie can be broken only by death (Rom. 7:3) or fornication. Hence, to divorce for any other reason is to commit adultery.
Mt 5:331a You  -   Lev. 19:12; Num. 30:2
Or, You shall not swear falsely.
Mt 5:332b render  -   Deut. 23:21; Eccl. 5:4-5
Lit., repay. An oath includes a vow that needs to be repaid. Hence, to repay what is vowed is to render our oaths.
Mt 5:34a not  -   James 5:12
Mt 5:341b heaven  -   Matt. 23:22; Isa. 66:1; Acts 7:49
The new law of the kingdom forbids the kingdom people to swear in any manner — by heaven, by the earth, unto Jerusalem, or by their head — because heaven, the earth, Jerusalem, and their head are not under their control but under God’s.
Mt 5:35a earth  -   Isa. 66:1
Mt 5:35b city  -   Psa. 48:2
Mt 5:371a Yes  -   James 5:12; 2 Cor. 1:18-20
The word of the kingdom people should be simple and true: “Yes, yes; No, no.” They should not try to convince others with many words; they should be those who are true and of few words.
Mt 5:372 of
Lit., out of.
Mt 5:373 the
Or, evil.
Mt 5:37b evil  -   Matt. 6:13; 13:19; John 17:15; 1 John 2:13; 5:18-19
Mt 5:38a An  -   Exo. 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21
Mt 5:39a not  -   Rom. 12:14, 17; Prov. 20:22
Mt 5:39b slaps  -   Luke 6:29; Isa. 50:6; Lam. 3:30; Matt. 26:67
Mt 5:391 turn
Turning to the striker the other cheek also, yielding to the suer the cloak also (v. 40), and going with the compeller the second mile (v. 41) prove that the kingdom people have the power to suffer instead of resisting, and the power to walk not in the flesh or the soul for their own interests but in the spirit for the kingdom.
Mt 5:40a sue  -   1 Cor. 6:7
Mt 5:401 tunic
A shirt-like undergarment. So throughout the book.
Mt 5:411 mile
An ancient Roman mile, equal to a thousand paces.
Mt 5:421a give  -   Luke 6:30; Deut. 15:7-10
Giving to one who asks and not turning away from a borrower prove that the kingdom people do not care for material things and are not possessed by them.
Mt 5:42b borrow  -   Luke 6:35; Psa. 37:26; 112:5
Mt 5:43a You  -   Lev. 19:18
Mt 5:43b enemy  -   Psa. 41:10-11
Mt 5:44a Love  -   Luke 6:27, 35; Rom. 12:20; Prov. 25:21-22
Mt 5:44b pray  -   Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60
Mt 5:44c persecute  -   Rom. 12:14; 1 Cor. 4:12
Mt 5:451a sons  -   Luke 6:35; Eph. 5:1; Phil. 2:15
The title sons of your Father is a strong proof that the kingdom people, who are the audience here for the new King’s decree on the mountain, are the regenerated believers of the New Testament.
Mt 5:45b rise  -   Job 25:3
Mt 5:452 sends
The sending of rain on the just and the unjust occurs in the age of grace, but in the coming age, the age of the kingdom, no rain will come on the unjust (Zech. 14:17-18).
Mt 5:45c rain  -   Acts 14:17
Mt 5:46a love  -   Luke 6:32-33
Mt 5:461 reward
The kingdom people who observe the new law of the kingdom in the kingdom’s reality will be given a reward in the manifestation of the kingdom. The reward differs from salvation. A person can be saved yet not be rewarded. (See note 351 in Heb. 10.)
Mt 5:462 tax
Those who collected the taxes levied by the Romans. Nearly all of them abused their office by making excessive demands based on false accusation (Luke 3:12-13; 19:2, 8). Paying taxes to the Romans was very bitter to the Jews. Those engaged in collecting taxes were despised by the people and counted unworthy of respect (Luke 18:9-10). Hence, they were classed with sinners (9:10-11).
Mt 5:47a Gentiles  -   Matt. 6:7, 32
Mt 5:481a perfect  -   Matt. 19:21; Phil. 3:12, 15; Col. 1:28; 4:12
For the kingdom people to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect means that they are perfect in His love. They are the Father’s children, having the Father’s divine life and divine nature. Hence, they can be perfect as their Father is. The demand of the new law of the kingdom is much higher than the requirement of the law of the old dispensation. This higher demand can be met only by the Father’s divine life, not by the natural life. The kingdom of the heavens is the highest demand, and the divine life of the Father is the highest supply to meet that demand. First, the gospel presents in the Gospel of Matthew the kingdom of the heavens as the highest demand, and last, it affords us in the Gospel of John the divine life of the heavenly Father as the highest supply, by which we can have the highest living of the kingdom of the heavens. The demand of the new law of the kingdom in chs. 5 — 7 is actually the expression of the new life, the divine life, which is within the regenerated kingdom people. This demand opens up the inner being of the regenerated people, showing them that they are able to attain to such a high level and to have such a high living.
Mt 5:48b as  -   Luke 6:36
Matthew Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 6:11 But
The fourth section of the King’s decree on the mountain, vv. 1-18, concerns the righteous deeds of the kingdom people.
Mt 6:12 righteousness
Righteousness here denotes righteous deeds, such as giving alms (vv. 2-4), praying (vv. 5-15), and fasting (vv. 16-18).
Mt 6:13 before
Man’s flesh, seeking to glorify itself, always wants to do good deeds before men in order to gain men’s praise. But the kingdom people, who live in an emptied and humbled spirit and walk in a pure and single heart under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, are not allowed to do anything in the flesh to gain the praise of men, but must do all things in the spirit to please their heavenly Father.
Mt 6:1a gazed  -   Matt. 6:5, 16; 23:5
Mt 6:14 Father
To the kingdom people God is not only their God but also their Father; they are not only created by God but also regenerated by the Father. They have not only the created, natural human life but also the uncreated, spiritual divine life. Hence, the new law of the kingdom, decreed by the King on the mountain, is given to them with the intention that they should keep it not by their fallen human life but by the Father’s eternal, divine life, not to gain man’s glory but to receive the Father’s reward.
Mt 6:2a give  -   Deut. 15:7-8; Psa. 112:9; Rom. 12:8; 2 Cor. 9:9
Mt 6:21 sound
Surely the heaven-ruled spirit of the kingdom people restricts them from such fleshly boasting.
Mt 6:22b hypocrites  -   Matt. 6:5; 7:5; 23:13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27, 29
A stage actor, an impersonator. It was a custom for Greek and Roman actors to wear large masks with mechanical devices that increased the force of their voice. Hence, a dissembler. So in the succeeding verses.
Mt 6:23 synagogues
See note 231 in ch. 4. So throughout the book.
Mt 6:2c glorified  -   John 5:41, 44; 12:43; 1 Thes. 2:6
Mt 6:31 left
Indicating that, as much as possible, the righteous deeds of the kingdom people should be kept secret. What they do in their spirit under the heavenly rule to please solely their Father must not be interfered with by their flesh in its lusting for man’s glory.
Mt 6:41a secret  -   Matt. 6:6, 18
The kingdom people live by the Father’s divine life and walk according to their spirit. Thus, they are required to do good things in secret, not in public. Public exhibition does not correspond with the mysterious, hidden nature of the divine life.
Mt 6:42 sees
The kingdom people, as children of the heavenly Father, must live in the presence of the Father and care for the Father’s presence. Whatever they do in secret for the Father’s kingdom is seen in secret by the Father, and He will repay them. Their heavenly Father’s seeing in secret must be an incentive to doing their righteous deeds in secret. So in vv. 6 and 18.
Mt 6:43b repay  -   Luke 14:14
This may occur in this age (2 Cor. 9:10-11) or as a reward in the coming age (Luke 14:14).
Mt 6:5a hypocrites  -   Matt. 6:2
Mt 6:5b pray  -   Luke 18:11; 20:47
Mt 6:51 their
Prayer that seeks man’s praise may gain a reward from men, but it will not receive an answer from the Father; thus, it is vain prayer.
Mt 6:61 private
The kingdom people must have some experience of praying in their private room, through which they contact their heavenly Father in secret, experience some secret enjoyment of the Father, and receive some secret answer from Him.
Mt 6:6a shut  -   2 Kings 4:32-33; Isa. 26:20
Mt 6:6b secret  -   Matt. 6:4, 18
Mt 6:71 not
This does not mean that we should not repeat our prayer. The Lord repeated His prayer three times in Gethsemane (26:44), the apostle Paul prayed the same prayer three times (2 Cor. 12:8), and the great multitude in heaven praised God repeatedly with hallelujahs (Rev. 19:1-6). It means that we should not repeat empty words, words spoken in vain.
Mt 6:7a multiplicity  -   1 Kings 18:26-29
Mt 6:8a knows  -   Matt. 6:32
Mt 6:81 ask
Although God our Father knows our need, we still must ask Him, because he who asks receives (7:8).
Mt 6:9a You  -   vv. 9-13: Luke 11:2-4
Mt 6:91 in
In this way does not mean that we should recite this prayer. In the Acts and the Epistles there is no example of such reciting.
Mt 6:9b Father  -   Matt. 6:32
Mt 6:92 Your
In the example of prayer given as a pattern by the Lord, the first three petitions imply the Trinity of the Godhead: “Your name be sanctified” is related mainly to the Father; “Your kingdom come,” to the Son; and “Your will be done,” to the Spirit. This is being fulfilled in this age, and it will be ultimately fulfilled in the coming kingdom age, when the name of God will be excellent in all the earth (Psa. 8:1), the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of Christ (Rev. 11:15), and the will of God will be accomplished.
Mt 6:9c sanctified  -   Isa. 29:23; Ezek. 36:23; 1 Pet. 3:15
Mt 6:10a kingdom  -   Matt. 3:2; 4:17; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:15
Mt 6:10b will  -   Matt. 7:21; 12:50; 26:39, 42; John 6:38; Heb. 10:7, 9
Mt 6:101 earth
After the rebellion of Satan (Ezek. 28:17; Isa. 14:13-15), the earth fell into his usurping hand. Thus, the will of God could not be done on earth as in heaven. Hence, God created man with the intention of recovering the earth for Himself (Gen. 1:26-28). After the fall of man, Christ came to bring the heavenly rule to earth so that the earth could be recovered for God’s interest, so that the will of God could be done on earth as in heaven. This is why the new King established the kingdom of the heavens with His followers. The kingdom people must pray for this until the earth is fully recovered for God’s will in the coming kingdom age.
Mt 6:111 Give
This prayer, as a pattern, cares first for God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, and second, for our need.
Mt 6:112 today
The King does not want His people to worry about tomorrow (v. 34); He wants them to pray only for today’s needs.
Mt 6:113 daily
Or, bread until tomorrow, bread for this day. Daily bread indicates a living that is by faith. The kingdom people should not live on what they have stored; rather, they should live, by faith, on the Father’s daily supply.
Mt 6:121a forgive  -   Matt. 18:21-35
This prayer, as a pattern, cares, third, for the kingdom people’s failures before God and for their relationship with others. The kingdom people should ask the Father to forgive their debts, their failures, their trespasses, as they forgive their debtors to maintain peace.
Mt 6:131 not
The King had been led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil (4:1).
Mt 6:13a temptation  -   Matt. 26:41; Luke 11:4; 1 Cor. 10:13
Mt 6:13b deliver  -   2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 2:18
Mt 6:132 the
Or, evil. This prayer, as a pattern, cares, fourth, for the kingdom people’s deliverance from the evil one and from evil things. The kingdom people should ask the Father not to bring them into temptation but to deliver them from the evil one, the devil, and from the evil that is out of him.
Mt 6:13c evil  -   Matt. 5:37; John 17:15; 2 Thes. 3:3
Mt 6:133 For
This sentence is omitted in the earliest MSS.
Mt 6:134d kingdom  -   1 Chron. 29:11; Rev. 11:15; 12:10
The kingdom is the realm in which God exercises His power so that He can express His glory.
Mt 6:13e power  -   Rev. 12:10
Mt 6:13f glory  -   Rom. 16:27; Rev. 5:13
Mt 6:135g Amen  -   Psa. 41:13; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 3:14
Amen, from Hebrew, means firm, steadfast, or trustworthy.
Mt 6:141 For
For indicates that the word in vv. 14-15 is an explanation of why the kingdom people must forgive their debtors (v. 12). If they do not forgive man’s offenses, neither will their heavenly Father forgive their offenses. In such a case, their prayer will be frustrated.
Mt 6:14a forgive  -   Mark 11:25; Luke 6:37; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13
Mt 6:15a not  -   Matt. 18:35
Mt 6:161a fast  -   Isa. 58:6-7; Matt. 9:14; 17:21; Acts 13:2
To fast is not to refrain from eating; it is to be unable to eat because of a desperate burden to pray for certain things. It is also an expression of self-humbling in seeking God’s mercy. To give alms is to give what we have the right to possess, whereas to fast is to give up what we have the right to enjoy.
Mt 6:16b appear  -   Matt. 6:1, 5
Mt 6:17a anoint  -   Eccl. 9:8
Mt 6:18a secret  -   Matt. 6:4, 6
Mt 6:191 Do
The fifth section of the King’s decree, vv. 19-34, concerns the riches of the kingdom people.
Mt 6:19a not  -   Luke 12:15-21; Heb. 13:5
Mt 6:19b moth  -   James 5:2-3
Mt 6:201 store
To store up treasures in heaven is to give material things to the poor (19:21) and to care for the needy saints (Acts 2:45; 4:34-35; 11:29; Rom. 15:26) and the Lord’s servants (Phil. 4:16-17).
Mt 6:20a treasures  -   Matt. 19:21; Luke 12:33; 18:22
Mt 6:20b dig  -   Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39
Mt 6:211a heart  -   Luke 12:34
The kingdom people must send their treasure to heaven so that their heart also can be in heaven.
Mt 6:22a lamp  -   vv. 22-23: Luke 11:34-36
Mt 6:221 single
Our two eyes can focus on only one thing at a time. If we endeavor to see two things at once, our vision will be blurred. If we focus our eyes on one thing, our vision will be single and our whole body will be full of light. If we store up our treasure both in heaven and on earth, our spiritual vision will be blurred. For our vision to be single, we must store up our treasure in one place.
Mt 6:231 evil
To look at two objects at the same time, not focusing on one object alone, is to make our eye evil (cf. 20:15; Deut. 15:9; Prov. 28:22). In such a case, our whole body will be dark.
Mt 6:232 light
If our heart is fixed on treasure laid up on earth, the light that is in us will become darkness, and great will be the darkness.
Mt 6:23a darkness  -   1 John 1:6-7
Mt 6:241 serve
Lit., serve as a slave.
Mt 6:24a two  -   Luke 16:13
Mt 6:242 hold
In Greek, hold to one and despise the other means to be devoted to one and be against the other.
Mt 6:243b mammon  -   Luke 16:9, 11, 13
An Aramaic word signifying wealth, riches. Mammon stands in opposition to God, indicating that wealth, or riches, is the opponent of God, robbing God’s people of their service to Him.
Mt 6:25a Do  -   vv. 25-33: Luke 12:22-31
Mt 6:25b anxious  -   Matt. 6:27-28, 31, 34; 13:22; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7
Mt 6:251 life
Lit., soul. Referring to the soul-life, where the desire, the appetite, for food and clothing resides (Isa. 29:8).
Mt 6:252 more
Our life is more than food, and our body is more than clothing. Both our life and our body were brought into existence by God, not by our anxiety. Since God created us with a life and a body, surely He will care for their needs. The kingdom people do not need to be anxious about this.
Mt 6:26a birds  -   Matt. 10:29-31; Job 38:41; Psa. 147:9
Mt 6:271 his
Or, the length of his life (similar to lifetime in Psa. 39:5).
Mt 6:28a anxious  -   Matt. 6:25
Mt 6:28b clothing  -   1 Tim. 6:8
Mt 6:281c lilies  -   S.S. 2:1-2
Lilies signify people under the care of God (S.S. 2:1-2).
Mt 6:29a Solomon  -   1 Kings 10:4-7
Mt 6:30a grass  -   Isa. 40:6-8; James 1:10-11
Mt 6:30b clothe  -   Deut. 29:5
Mt 6:30c little  -   Matt. 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20
Mt 6:31a anxious  -   Matt. 6:25, 28
Mt 6:321 heavenly
The kingdom people have the divine life of their heavenly Father as their strength to keep the new law of the kingdom. They also have their heavenly Father as the One who cares for their material need, so that they do not need to be anxious about it. Their heavenly Father is the source of their strength and supply. Hence, they need not be weak or wanting.
Mt 6:32a need  -   Matt. 6:8
Mt 6:331a kingdom  -   Matt. 5:3, 10, 20; 6:10; 7:21; Luke 12:31-32; Acts 14:22; Rom. 14:17
The Father’s kingdom is the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today, the reality of the church life today, and will be the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the coming age. The Father’s righteousness is the righteousness expressed by the keeping of the new law of the kingdom, as mentioned in 5:20. This righteousness is Christ, who is lived out by the kingdom people. Since the kingdom people seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of their heavenly Father, not only will His kingdom and His righteousness be given to them, but also all that they need will be added to them.
Mt 6:33b righteousness  -   Matt. 5:6, 10, 20; Zeph. 2:3; Rev. 19:8
See note 331.
Mt 6:34a anxious  -   Matt. 6:25
Mt 6:341b tomorrow  -   James 4:13-14
The kingdom people should never live in tomorrow but always in today.
Mt 6:342 evil
Not the same Greek word as for evil in note 132. Evil here denotes trouble and affliction. This indicates that the King of the kingdom has made it clear to the kingdom people that their days on earth for the kingdom will be days of trouble and affliction, not of ease and comfort.
Matthew Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 7:11a Do  -   vv. 1-2: Luke 6:37-38; Rom. 14:3-4, 10, 13; 1 Cor. 4:5; James 4:11-12; 5:9; 2:13
The sixth section of the new King’s decree on the mountain, vv. 1-12, concerns the principles of the kingdom people in their dealings with others.
Mt 7:12 not
The kingdom people, living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, always judge themselves, not others.
Mt 7:21 with
Under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, the kingdom people will be judged with what they judge others. If they judge others with righteousness, they will be judged with righteousness by the Lord; if they judge others with mercy, they will be judged with mercy by the Lord. Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13).
Mt 7:2a measure  -   Mark 4:24
Mt 7:3a splinter  -   vv. 3-5: Luke 6:41-42; cf. John 8:7
Mt 7:31 consider
As the kingdom people, living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, we must consider the beam in our own eye whenever we look at the splinter in our brother’s eye. The splinter in our brother’s eye must remind us of the beam in our own eye.
Mt 7:51a Hypocrite  -   Matt. 6:2
See note 22 in ch. 6.
Mt 7:52 see
As long as the beam remains in our eye, our vision is blurred and we cannot see clearly.
Mt 7:61 that
That which is holy must refer to the objective truth, which belongs to God; your pearls must refer to the subjective experiences, which are ours.
Mt 7:6a holy  -   cf. Prov. 23:9; Acts 13:45-46
Mt 7:62b dogs  -   Matt. 15:26; Phil. 3:2; 2 Pet. 2:22; Isa. 56:10-11; Rev. 22:15
Dogs do not have hoofs, nor do they chew the cud; hogs have divided hoofs but do not chew the cud. Thus, both are unclean (Lev. 11:27, 7). According to the revelation in 2 Pet. 2:12, 19-22, and Phil. 3:2, dogs and hogs here refer to people who are religious but not clean.
Mt 7:6c pearls  -   Matt. 13:46; Rev. 21:21
See note 61.
Mt 7:6d hogs  -   Lev. 11:7; 2 Pet. 2:22
See note 62.
Mt 7:71a Ask  -   vv. 7-11: Luke 11:9-13; Matt. 18:19; 21:22; Mark 11:24; John 14:13; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24; James 1:5-6; 1 John 3:22; 5:14-15
First ask, then seek, and last knock. To ask is to pray in a common way, to seek is to supplicate in a specific way, and to knock is to demand in the most intimate and most earnest way.
Mt 7:7b seek  -   1 Chron. 28:9; 2 Chron. 15:2; Prov. 8:17; Jer. 29:13
Mt 7:81 asks
This part of the King’s promise in this verse is applicable to the prayer of the kingdom people concerning their keeping of the new law of the kingdom. They ask for this and will receive it.
Mt 7:82 seeks
This part of the King’s promise is applicable to 6:33. The kingdom people seek the Father’s kingdom and His righteousness and will find them.
Mt 7:83 knocks
This part of the King’s promise can be applied to v. 14. The narrow gate will be opened to the kingdom people as a result of their knocking.
Mt 7:9a loaf  -   Matt. 14:17, 19
Mt 7:10a fish  -   Matt. 14:17, 19; Luke 24:42; John 21:9, 13
Mt 7:11a evil  -   Matt. 12:34
Mt 7:111 how
This is a great promise. Such a promise affirms that the kingdom people are being cared for and supplied by their Father who is in the heavens. Thus, they are well able to fulfill the new law of the kingdom and live in the kingdom’s reality that they may enter into its manifestation.
Mt 7:112b good  -   Psa. 84:11; James 1:17
In the parallel verse, Luke 11:13, it is the Holy Spirit instead of good things, because Luke emphasizes the blessing of the gospel, the center of which is the Spirit (Gal. 3:8, 14). Since Matthew stresses the kingdom of the heavens, good things should refer to the blessings of the reality of the kingdom, as revealed in chs. 5 — 7, blessings to be given as gifts to the kingdom people.
Mt 7:12a do  -   Luke 6:31; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14
Mt 7:121b law  -   Matt. 5:17; 22:40; Gal. 5:14
The new law of the kingdom does not contradict the law and the prophets; rather, it fulfills them and even complements them.
Mt 7:131 Enter
The seventh and last section of the King’s decree, vv. 13-29, concerns the ground of the kingdom people’s living and work.
Mt 7:13a narrow  -   Luke 13:24
Mt 7:132 leads
Lit., leads away. So in the next verse.
Mt 7:133b destruction  -   Heb. 10:39
Destruction here does not refer to the perishing of the person himself, but to the destruction of a person’s deeds and work (1 Cor. 3:15).
Mt 7:141a narrow  -   cf. Matt. 19:24
The gate is narrow and the way is constricted because the new law of the kingdom is stricter and the demand of the kingdom higher than the law and the demand of the old covenant. The narrow gate deals not only with outward conduct but also with inward motive. The old man, the self, the flesh, the human concept, and the world with its glory are all excluded; only that which corresponds with God’s will can enter in. The kingdom people need first to enter in through such a narrow gate, and then to walk on such a constricted way. It is not that they first walk the way and then enter in through the gate. To enter in through the gate is simply to begin walking on the way, a way that is lifelong.
Mt 7:14b gate  -   Psa. 118:19- 20
Mt 7:14c way  -   Psa. 16:11; Jer. 21:8; John 14:6; Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:22
Mt 7:142 life
Life here refers to the ever-blessed condition of the kingdom, which is filled with the eternal life of God. This life is in the reality of the kingdom today and will be in the manifestation of the kingdom in the coming age (19:29; Luke 18:30).
Mt 7:14d few  -   Matt. 22:14
Mt 7:15a false  -   Jer. 14:14; Matt. 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22; Luke 6:26; Acts 13:6; 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 John 4:1; Rev. 16:13; 19:20
Mt 7:151 ravenous
Lit., extortionate.
Mt 7:15b wolves  -   Ezek. 22:27; John 10:12; Acts 20:29
Mt 7:16a fruits  -   Matt. 7:20; 12:33; Luke 6:44
Mt 7:16b figs  -   James 3:12
Mt 7:17a good  -   Matt. 12:33; Luke 6:43
Mt 7:17b good  -   cf. Gal. 5:22-23
Mt 7:17c bad  -   cf. Gal. 5:19-21
Mt 7:19a cast  -   Matt. 3:10; Luke 3:9; John 15:6
Mt 7:20a fruits  -   Matt. 7:16
Mt 7:21a Lord  -   Matt. 25:11; Luke 6:46; 13:25; Rom. 10:13
Mt 7:211b enter  -   Matt. 5:20; Acts 14:22; 2 Pet. 1:11; cf. John 3:5
To enter into the kingdom of the heavens, we need to do two things: call on the Lord and do the will of the heavenly Father. To call on the Lord suffices for us to be saved (Rom. 10:13), but to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, we also need to do the will of the heavenly Father. Hence, not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but those who call on the Lord and do the will of the heavenly Father will enter in.
Since entering into the kingdom of the heavens requires doing the will of the heavenly Father, it is clearly different from entering into the kingdom of God through regeneration (John 3:3, 5). The latter entrance is gained through being born of the divine life; the former, through the living of that life.
Mt 7:21c does  -   1 John 2:17
Mt 7:21d will  -   Matt. 12:50; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9
Mt 7:221 that
That day refers to the day of the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:13; 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10).
Mt 7:22a cast  -   Mark 9:38
Mt 7:22b works  -   Mark 16:17-18
Mt 7:231a knew  -   Matt. 25:12; Luke 13:25
Knew here means approved. The same word in Rom. 7:15 is translated acknowledge. The Lord never approved those who, in His name, prophesied, cast out demons, and did many works of power (v. 22), but did those things not according to the will of the heavenly Father (v. 21). The Lord did not deny that they did those things, but He considered those things lawlessness because they were not done according to the will of the heavenly Father; they were not done in line with the divine will. Thus, those who do such things, even in the Lord’s name, will not enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but will depart from the Lord, that is, be excluded from the manifestation of the kingdom in the coming age.
Mt 7:23b Depart  -   Luke 13:27; cf. Matt. 25:41
Mt 7:23c lawlessness  -   cf. Matt. 13:41; 24:12; Heb. 1:9
Mt 7:24a Everyone  -   vv. 24-27: Luke 6:47-49
Mt 7:24b does  -   James 1:22-25
Mt 7:24c prudent  -   Matt. 25:2; Prov. 24:3
Mt 7:241d rock  -   cf. Matt. 16:18
Rock does not refer to Christ but to His wise word, the word that reveals the will of His Father who is in the heavens. The living and work of the kingdom people must be founded on the word of the new King for the accomplishing of the will of the heavenly Father. This is to enter in through the narrow gate and walk the constricted way that leads to life.
Mt 7:251 rain
The rain, which descends from the heavens, is of God; the rivers, which come from the earth, are of man; and the winds, which blow from the air, are of Satan. All these will test the living and work of the kingdom people.
Mt 7:252 not
The house built on the rock, a house that does not fall, is like the work that is built with gold, silver, and precious stones, a work that can stand the testing fire (1 Cor. 3:12-13).
Mt 7:26a not  -   Ezek. 33:32
Mt 7:261 sand
Sand refers to human concepts and natural ways. If we live and work according to our human concepts and natural ways, our living and work will be founded on sinking sand. This is to enter in through the wide gate and walk the broad way that leads to destruction.
Mt 7:27a rain  -   Ezek. 13:10-14
Mt 7:271 fell
The house built on sand, a house that falls, is like the work that is built with wood, grass, and stubble, a work that will be burned by the testing fire. However, the builder himself will be saved (1 Cor. 3:12-15).
Mt 7:28a astounded  -   Matt. 13:54; 22:33; Mark 1:22; 6:2; 11:18; Luke 4:32
Mt 7:29a as  -   John 7:46
Mt 7:291b authority  -   Matt. 21:23-24; 28:18
Christ, as the new King of the kingdom of the heavens, spoke with authority in decreeing the new law of the kingdom.
Matthew Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 8:11 came
After decreeing the new law of the kingdom, the new King came down from the mountain to carry on His kingly ministry. The first things He did were to cleanse the unclean, heal the sick, and cast the demons out of the possessed that they might become people of the kingdom of the heavens (vv. 2-17).
Mt 8:1a mountain  -   Matt. 5:1
Mt 8:1b crowds  -   Matt. 4:25; 5:1
Mt 8:2a And  -   vv. 2-4: Mark 1:40-44; Luke 5:12-14
Mt 8:21b leper  -   Lev. 13:2, 44-46; Num. 12:10, 14-15; 2 Chron. 26:21
The first class of people saved by the kingly Savior to be the people of the kingdom is represented by a leper. According to the examples in the Scriptures, leprosy results from rebellion and disobedience. Miriam became leprous because of her rebellion against God’s deputy authority (Num. 12:1-10). Naaman’s leprosy was cleansed because of his obedience (2 Kings 5:1, 9-14). All fallen human beings have become leprous in the eyes of God because of their rebellion. The kingly Savior came to save men from their rebellion and to cleanse them from their leprosy that they might become His kingdom people.
Mt 8:22c worshipped  -   Matt. 2:11; 9:18; 15:25; 20:20; John 9:38
The leper worshipped the new King and called Him “Lord,” recognizing that He is the Lord God. In reality the new King is Jehovah the Savior — Jesus. (See note 211 in ch. 1.)
Mt 8:31a touched  -   Matt. 8:15; 9:29; 20:34
According to the law, a leper was to be isolated from the people because of his uncleanness. No one was allowed to touch him (Lev. 13:45-46). But the new King, as a man and as the kingly Savior, touched this leper. What mercy and sympathy! By His one touch, his leprosy was immediately cleansed. What wonderful cleansing!
Mt 8:4a no  -   Matt. 9:30; Mark 7:36
Mt 8:41 show
The new King told the cleansed leper that for his cleansing he should continue to do things according to the regulations of the old law, because the transitional period still remained, the old law having not yet been fulfilled by His redeeming death.
Mt 8:4b priest  -   Lev. 13:49; 14:2-9; Luke 17:14
Mt 8:4c gift  -   Lev. 14:10-32
Mt 8:5a And  -   vv. 5-13: Luke 7:1-10
Mt 8:5b Capernaum  -   John 4:46
Mt 8:51c centurion  -   Matt. 27:54; Acts 10:1
An officer over one hundred soldiers in the Roman army. The leper in vv. 2-4 represents the Jews, whereas the centurion in vv. 5-13 represents the Gentiles. Before God, the Jews had become leprous, unclean, because of their rebellion and disobedience, whereas the Gentiles had become paralyzed, dead in function, because of their sinfulness. The kingly Savior came first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (Acts 3:26; 13:46; Rom. 1:16; 11:11). The believing Jews were saved by His direct touch (v. 3), whereas the believing Gentiles are saved through faith in His word (vv. 8, 10, 13).
Mt 8:8a word  -   Psa. 107:20; Matt. 8:16
Mt 8:91 authority
The centurion, a Gentile, recognized the authority of the kingly Savior and realized that His word had the authority to heal. Thus, he believed not only in the kingly Savior but also in His word, asking Him not to go in person but only to speak the word. This was stronger faith, and it was marveled at by the Savior (v. 10).
Mt 8:101 With
Some ancient MSS read, Not even in Israel have I found such great faith.
Mt 8:111a from  -   Luke 13:29; Rom. 15:9-12; Eph. 3:6
This indicates that the Gentiles will participate in the gospel of the kingdom (Eph. 3:6, 8; Gal. 2:8-9; Rom. 1:13-16).
Mt 8:112 kingdom
This refers to the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. In the manifestation of the kingdom the overcoming Gentile believers will feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Mt 8:121 sons
The sons of the kingdom are the saved Jews, who are the good seed (13:38) but whose faith is not strong enough to enable them to enter in through the narrow gate and walk the constricted way (7:13-14). They will miss the feast in the manifestation of the kingdom (Luke 13:24-30).
Mt 8:12a cast  -   Luke 13:28; Matt. 22:13; 25:30
Mt 8:122 outer
The outer darkness is the darkness outside the bright glory in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens (16:28; 25:30). Being cast out into the outer darkness in the coming kingdom age differs from being cast into the lake of fire after the millennium and for eternity (Rev. 20:15).
Mt 8:123b weeping  -   Matt. 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28
Weeping indicates regret, and gnashing of teeth indicates self blame.
Mt 8:13a done  -   Matt. 9:29
Mt 8:13b hour  -   Matt. 9:22; John 4:53
Mt 8:14a And  -   vv. 14-16: Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41
Mt 8:141 his
Peter’s mother-in-law in vv. 14-15 represents the Jews living at the end of this age, who will be saved by receiving the kingly Savior (Rom. 11:25-26). At that time, during the great tribulation, the Jews in the eyes of God will be “in a fever” (v. 14), “hot” in things other than God. After the fullness of the salvation of the Gentiles, the kingly Savior will come back to this remnant of the Jews that they may be saved (Rom. 11:25-26; Zech. 12:10). Peter’s mother-in-law was healed in Peter’s house. At the end of this age all the remnant of the Jews will be saved in the house of Israel. Furthermore, they will be saved by the kingly Savior’s direct touch (v. 15), as was the Jewish leper (v. 3).
Mt 8:14b mother-in-law  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:5
Mt 8:15a touched  -   Matt. 8:3
Mt 8:161 many
Many who were demon-possessed and all those who were ill represent all the people on earth in the millennium. The millennium is the last dispensation of the old heaven and old earth; thus, it is considered the “evening” of the old heaven and old earth. In the millennium the power to cast out demons and heal illnesses will be manifested to the uttermost. Hence, all the demon-possessed and all the sick will be healed. Such extensive power is the power of the coming age (Heb. 6:5). The casting out of demons and the healing of the sick in this age are only a foretaste of the extensive power of the coming age. The signs recorded in vv. 2-17 bear a dispensational significance and show the coming kingdom in miniature.
The order of the four incidents recorded in vv. 2-16 differs from that in Mark 1:29 — 2:1 and Luke 4:38-41; 5:12-14; and 7:1-10. In Mark’s record, which shows that Jesus is the Servant of God, the order is according to history. In Matthew’s record, which proves that Christ is the King of the kingdom of the heavens, the order is according to doctrine; i.e., Matthew puts certain incidents together to present a doctrine. In Luke’s record, which reveals that Jesus is the proper man to be man’s Savior, the order is according to morality. In John’s record, which testifies that Christ is the Son of God and even God Himself, the order is somewhat according to history.
Mt 8:16a word  -   Matt. 8:8
Mt 8:17a fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
Mt 8:171b He  -   Isa. 53:4
All healings accomplished on fallen people are a result of the Lord’s redemption. On the cross He took away our infirmities, bore our diseases, and accomplished full healing for us. However, in this age the application of this divine healing power can be only a foretaste to us; in the coming age we will experience the full taste.
Mt 8:17c bore  -   cf. 1 Pet. 2:24
Mt 8:181 depart
In His ministry as recorded in the four Gospels, the Lord always withdrew from the crowds; He did not want the curious ones to be with Him. He did not care for crowds but cared only for those who sought Him sincerely.
Mt 8:19a And  -   vv. 19-22: Luke 9:57-60
Mt 8:191 follow
In saying this he did not consider the cost. Hence, the King answered in v. 20 in a way that caused him to consider the cost.
Mt 8:192 go
Lit., depart.
Mt 8:201a Son  -   Matt. 9:6; 11:19; 12:8, 32, 40; 13:37, 41; 16:13, 27, 28; 26:64
In His kingly ministry the new King continually took the standing of the Son of Man, until 16:13-17.
Mt 8:202 nowhere
Even the foxes and the birds have a resting place, but the King of the kingdom did not have a resting place. This proves that the kingdom He was establishing was not material, not of an earthly nature, but was spiritual, of a heavenly nature.
Mt 8:21a permit  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:20
Mt 8:211 go
In so saying, this disciple, who was not a scribe, overly considered the cost of following the King of the heavenly kingdom. Hence, the King answered him by encouraging him to follow Him, to drop his consideration of the cost, and to leave the burial of his father to others.
Mt 8:22a Follow  -   Matt. 4:19, 20, 22; 9:9; John 21:19, 22
Mt 8:221b dead  -   Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13; John 5:25
The first dead refers to those who are dead spiritually, as mentioned in Eph. 2:1, 5; the second dead refers to the disciple’s father, who was dead physically.
Mt 8:22c dead  -   John 5:28
See note 221.
Mt 8:23a And  -   vv. 23-27: Mark 4:36-41; Luke 8:22-25
Mt 8:241a tempest  -   John 6:18
Lit., quaking, or, shaking.
Mt 8:25a save  -   Matt. 14:30
Mt 8:26a cowardly  -   John 14:27
Mt 8:26b little  -   Matt. 6:30; 14:31; 16:8
Mt 8:261 faith
Faith comes from and depends on the word of the Lord (Rom. 10:17). In v. 18 the Lord gave them a word, telling them to depart to the other side. If they had believed that word, they would not have needed to pray as they did in v. 25. They did not have a full realization concerning the Lord’s word; thus, their faith was little.
Mt 8:262c rebuked  -   Psa. 104:7
A rebuke is not given to lifeless things but to things with personality. The King rebuked the winds and the sea because in the winds were the fallen angels of Satan (Eph. 6:12) and in the sea were the demons (v. 32). The fallen angels in the air and the demons in the water collaborated to frustrate the King from going to the other side of the sea because they knew He would cast out the demons there (vv. 28-32).
Mt 8:263 great
Great is in contrast to little in the first part of this verse.
Mt 8:26d calm  -   Psa. 107:29
Mt 8:271 obey
Actually, it was not the winds and the sea that obeyed the King’s authority but the fallen angels above the winds and the demons under the sea.
Mt 8:28a And  -   vv. 28-34: Mark 5:1-17; Luke 8:26-37
Mt 8:291a What  -   Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34
Lit., What to us and to You? (a Hebrew idiom).
Mt 8:292b Son  -   Matt. 4:3, 6
The King called Himself the Son of Man (v. 20), but the demons called Him the Son of God, tempting Him to deviate from His standing as the Son of Man. (See note 32 in ch. 4.)
Mt 8:293 before
Before the time implies that God has appointed a time for the demons to be tormented and that the demons know that time, which will be after the millennium and for eternity. (See note 131 in Rev. 20.)
Mt 8:29c time  -   Rev. 20:13
Mt 8:311 entreated
This indicates that the demons were under the power and authority of the King.
Mt 8:321 Go
This was the King’s authoritative order, and the demons obeyed it. The King complied with the demons’ entreaty and allowed them to enter into the hogs because hogs are unclean in the eyes of God (Lev. 11:7).
Mt 8:322 rushed
The hogs would not tolerate being possessed by the demons, and they rushed into the sea. The demons consented because the water is their lodging place (12:43-44; see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two).
Mt 8:341a depart  -   Acts 16:39
The people of the city, having lost their hogs, rejected the King. They wanted their unclean hogs but did not want the King of the heavenly kingdom. They probably were Gentiles. (Gadara was on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, across from Galilee of the Gentiles — 4:15.) They rejected the heavenly King because of their unclean way of making a living.
Matthew Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 9:11a own  -   Matt. 4:13
Capernaum, where the Lord now dwelt (4:13).
Mt 9:2a And  -   vv. 2-8: Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:18-26
Mt 9:21 seeing
They dug through the roof of the house where the Lord was (Mark 2:4). By this the Lord saw their faith.
Mt 9:2b faith  -   Matt. 8:10; 9:22, 29; 15:28; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; 17:19; Acts 14:9
Mt 9:2c courage  -   Matt. 9:22; 14:27; Mark 6:50; John 16:33
Mt 9:22 sins
This indicates that the paralytic was sick because of his sins.
Mt 9:2d forgiven  -   Luke 7:48
Mt 9:31 scribes
See note 41 in ch. 2.
Mt 9:32a blasphemes  -   Matt. 26:65; John 10:36
The scribes, confident that they knew the Scriptures, thought that only God had authority to forgive sins and that Jesus, who in their eyes was only a man, had blasphemed God when He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” This indicates that they did not realize that the Lord was God. By uttering such a word they rejected the King of the heavenly kingdom. This was the first rejection by the leaders of the Jewish religion.
Mt 9:41a knowing  -   Matt. 12:25; Mark 12:15; Luke 6:8; John 2:25
Some ancient MSS read, seeing. This was the Lord’s perception in His spirit (Mark 2:8).
Mt 9:42 thoughts
Or, cogitations, inward reasonings. Evil surmisings with strong feeling or passion.
Mt 9:4b thinking  -   Gen. 6:5
Mt 9:51 easier
The Lord did not ask, “Which is more difficult?” because to Him nothing is difficult. For Him to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” was easier than to say, “Rise and walk.”
Mt 9:52 Rise
In the Lord’s salvation He not only forgives our sins but also causes us to rise and walk. It is not that we first rise and walk and then are forgiven of our sins; such a salvation would be by works. Rather, we first are forgiven of our sins and then rise and walk; such a salvation is by grace.
Mt 9:6a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 9:61 authority
To forgive sins is a matter of having authority on earth. Only this kingly Savior, who had been authorized by God and who would die to redeem sinners, had such authority (Acts 5:31; 10:43; 13:38). This authority was for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens (16:19).
Mt 9:6b forgive  -   Luke 7:49; Acts 5:31
Mt 9:62c take  -   John 5:8
The Lord enabled the paralytic not only to walk but also to take up his bed and walk. Formerly, the bed had borne him; now he bore it. This is the power of the Lord’s salvation.
Mt 9:63 go
This paralytic was brought to the Lord by others, but he went home by himself. This indicates that it is not that the sinner can go to the Lord, but that the sinner can go from the Lord by the Lord’s salvation.
Mt 9:71 rose
The paralytic’s rising and going proved that he was healed, and his being healed proved that his sins were forgiven.
Mt 9:8a feared  -   Luke 7:16
Mt 9:8b glorified  -   Matt. 15:31
Mt 9:9a And  -   vv. 9-13: Mark 2:14-17; Luke 5:27-32
Mt 9:91b Matthew  -   Matt. 10:3
Matthew was also called Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27). He was a tax collector (10:3) who, after being saved, became an apostle by God’s grace (10:2-3; Acts 1:13). He was the writer of this Gospel.
Mt 9:92c Follow  -   Matt. 4:19
Following the Lord includes believing in Him. No one follows Him unless he believes in Him. To believe in the Lord is to be saved (Acts 16:31), and to follow Him is to enter in through the narrow gate and walk the constricted way to participate in the kingdom of the heavens (7:13-14).
Mt 9:93 followed
According to the record in this verse, it seems that this was the first time the Lord met Matthew. There must have been some attracting power, either in the Lord’s word or in His appearance, that caused Matthew to follow Him.
Mt 9:101 house
This was Matthew’s house (Luke 5:29; Mark 2:15). As the writer of this Gospel, Matthew purposely did not say that it was his house or that it was he who had made a great feast for the Lord. This displayed his humility.
Mt 9:102a tax  -   Matt. 5:46; 11:19
See note 462 in ch. 5.
Mt 9:10b sinners  -   Luke 15:2
Mt 9:111 Pharisees
See note 71 in ch. 3.
Mt 9:112 Why
This question indicates that the self-righteous Pharisees did not know the grace of God. They thought that God deals with man only according to righteousness. By asking this, they were exposed as dissenting from the heavenly King, and thus as those who had rejected Him. This was a continuation of the rejection of the heavenly King, begun in v. 3, by the leaders of the Jewish religion.
Mt 9:121 physician
In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the King of the heavenly kingdom ministered as a Physician, not as a Judge. A judge’s judgment is according to righteousness, whereas a physician’s healing is according to mercy and grace. Those whom He made people of His heavenly kingdom were lepers (8:2-4), paralytics (8:5-13; 9:2-8), the fever-ridden (8:14-15), the demon-possessed (8:16, 28-32), those ill with all kinds of diseases (8:16), despised tax collectors, and sinners (vv. 9-11). If He had visited these pitiful people as a Judge, all would have been condemned and rejected, and none would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of His heavenly kingdom. However, He came to minister as a Physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save them that they might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth.
Mt 9:122 ill
The Lord’s word here implies that the self-righteous Pharisees did not realize that they needed Him as a Physician. They considered themselves strong; hence, blinded by their self-righteousness, they did not know that they were ill.
Mt 9:131 learn
The self-righteous Pharisees were confident that they knew all things concerning God. In order to humble them, the Lord told them to learn more.
Mt 9:13a I  -   Hosea 6:6; Matt. 12:7
Mt 9:132 mercy
Mercy is part of the grace that man receives from God. (See note 162 in Heb. 4.) But self-righteous men do not like to receive mercy or grace from God; they prefer to give something to God. This is contrary to God’s way in His economy. Just as God desires to show mercy to pitiful sinners, so He wants us to show mercy in love to others (Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33).
Mt 9:13b sacrifice  -   Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33; Prov. 21:3; 1 Sam. 15:22
Mt 9:133c righteous  -   Luke 15:7
There is none righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:10). All the “righteous” are self-righteous, as were the Pharisees (Luke 18:9). The kingly Savior did not come to call these, but sinners.
Mt 9:13d sinners  -   1 Tim. 1:15
Mt 9:14a Then  -   vv. 14-17: Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39
Mt 9:14b disciples  -   Matt. 11:2; 14:12; Luke 11:1; John 1:35; 3:25
Mt 9:141 Why
Verses 10-13 record the Lord’s dealing with the question from the Pharisees, who were of the old religion. Here in vv. 14-17 the Lord dealt with the problem of John’s disciples, who were of the new religion. John the Baptist had dropped the old religion and had begun his ministry in the wilderness, outside religion. (See notes 12 and 41 in ch. 3.) However, after a short time his disciples formed a new religion that frustrated people from enjoying Christ, just as the Pharisees of the old religion had done. John the Baptist’s ministry was to introduce people to Christ that Christ might become their Redeemer, their life, and their all. However, some of John’s disciples drifted away from his goal, Christ, to some of his practices, and made those practices a religion. To be religious is to do something for God, without Christ. To do anything, even if it is scriptural and fundamental, without the presence of Christ is to be religious. Both John’s disciples, who were of the new religion, and the Pharisees, who were of the old religion, fasted much, but without Christ. Meanwhile, they condemned the disciples of Christ, who did not fast but had Christ with them and lived in His presence.
Mt 9:142c fast  -   Luke 18:12
See note 161 in ch. 6.
Mt 9:143 much
Some ancient authorities omit, much.
Mt 9:14d disciples  -   Matt. 15:2
Mt 9:144 not
The self-righteous Pharisees, who were of the old religion, were bothered when Christ made Himself a companion of tax collectors and sinners, whom the Pharisees condemned (v. 11). The fasting disciples of John, who were of the new religion, were troubled by the feasting of Christ and His disciples (v. 10).
Mt 9:151 sons
The disciples of the Lord. In the transitional period of the Lord’s ministry on earth, His disciples were the sons of the bridechamber. Later, they will become the bride (John 3:29; Rev. 19:7).
Mt 9:152a bridegroom  -   John 3:29
In dealing with the self-righteous and dissenting Pharisees, who were of the old religion, the kingly Savior indicated that He was a Physician who had come to heal the sick (v. 12). In dealing with the fasting and dissenting disciples of John, who were of the new religion, He revealed Himself as the Bridegroom who had come to take the bride. John the Baptist had told his disciples that Christ was the Bridegroom who had come to take the bride (John 3:25-29). Now Christ, the kingly Savior, reminded some of them of this. Both a physician and a bridegroom are pleasant persons. The kingly Savior first healed His followers, and then made them the sons of the bridechamber; eventually, He will make them His bride. They should have laid hold of Him not only as their Physician, that their life might be recovered, but also as their Bridegroom, that they might have the enjoyment of living in His presence. They were with Him at a joyful wedding, not without Him at a mournful funeral. How then could they fast and not feast before Him? The dissenting question from John’s disciples indicated that some of them had fallen into a new religion and had rejected the kingly Savior.
The question from John’s disciples seemed to relate to doctrine. However, the Lord answered not with a doctrine but with a person, the most pleasant person, the Bridegroom. The religious people always care for their doctrine, asking “why” in a doctrinal way. But Christ cares only for Himself. The living and walk of His followers should be regulated and directed only by Himself and His presence, not by any doctrine.
Mt 9:15b days  -   Luke 17:22
Mt 9:153 taken
This took place when the kingly Savior was taken up from the disciples into heaven (Acts 1:11). After that, they fasted (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23).
Mt 9:15c fast  -   Acts 13:2-3; 14:23
Mt 9:161 unfulled
Or, new, raw, unwrought. The Greek word is formed with not and to card or comb wool. Thus, the word means uncarded, unsteamed and unwashed, unfinished, unfulled, untreated. The unfulled cloth signifies Christ from His incarnation to His crucifixion, as a piece of new cloth, untreated, unfinished, whereas the new garment in Luke 5:36 signifies Christ as a new robe after He was “treated” in His crucifixion. (The Greek word for new in Luke 5:36 is the same as for fresh in Matt. 9:17.) Christ first was the unfulled cloth for making a new garment, and then through His death and resurrection was made a new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God that we might be justified by God and be acceptable to Him (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:30). A patch of unfulled cloth sewn on an old garment pulls away from the garment because of the strength of its shrinking, thus making the tear worse. To sew a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment means to imitate what Christ did in His human life on earth. This is what today’s modernists are attempting to do. They only imitate Jesus’ human deeds to improve their behavior; they do not believe in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer or in the resurrected Christ as their righteousness that they may be justified by God and acceptable to Him. Their imitating of Christ’s human living “pulls away” from their “old garment,” their behavior produced by their old, natural life. The kingdom people would not do this; they take the crucified and resurrected Christ as their new garment to cover them as their righteousness before God.
Mt 9:162 old
The old garment signifies the good behavior, good deeds, and religious practices produced by man’s old, natural life.
Mt 9:171 new
The Greek word for new means new in time, recent, newly possessed. The new wine here signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor, stirring people to excitement. The kingly Savior is not only the Bridegroom to the kingdom people for their enjoyment but also their new garment for them to be equipped outwardly that they may be qualified to attend the wedding. Furthermore, He is their new life to stir them up inwardly to enjoy Him as their Bridegroom. He, as the heavenly King, is the Bridegroom for the kingdom people’s enjoyment, and His heavenly kingdom is His wedding feast (22:2), at which they will enjoy Him. To enjoy Him as the Bridegroom in the kingdom feast, they need Him as their new garment outwardly and their new wine inwardly.
Mt 9:172a old  -   Josh. 9:4
The old wineskins signify religious practices, such as the fasting maintained by the Pharisees, who were of the old religion, and by the disciples of John, who were of the new religion. All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins bursts the wineskins by the power of its fermenting. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. This is what the so-called fundamentalists and Pentecostalists are practicing today. They attempt to squeeze Christ into their different modes of religious ritual, formality, and practice. The kingdom people should never do this. They must put the new wine into fresh wineskins.
Mt 9:173b fresh  -   Job 32:19
The Greek word for fresh means new in nature, quality, or form; unaccustomed, unused; hence, fresh. The fresh wineskins signify the church life in the local churches as the container of the new wine, which is Christ Himself as the exciting life. The kingdom people are built into the church (16:18), and the church is expressed through the local churches in which the kingdom people live (18:15-20). They are regenerated persons who constitute the Body of Christ and become the church (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22-23). The Body of Christ as His fullness is also called “the Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12), referring to the corporate Christ. The individual Christ is the new wine, the inward exciting life, and the corporate Christ is the fresh wineskin, the outward container that holds the new wine. With the kingdom people it is not a matter of fasting or any other religious practice, but a matter of the church life with Christ as their content. Christ came to establish not an earthly religion of rituals but a heavenly kingdom of life. He is establishing such a kingdom not with any dead religious practices but with Himself, the living person, as the Savior, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the unfulled cloth, and the new wine to His followers for their full enjoyment, that they may be the fresh wineskin to contain Him and may become the constituents of His kingdom.
Mt 9:181a As  -   vv. 18-26: Mark 5:22-43; Luke 8:41-56
Verses 18-34 give a brief picture of this age and the coming age. Hence, the record in this section has a dispensational significance, as did the record in 8:1-17. The daughter of the ruler of the synagogue represents the Jews, and the woman with the hemorrhage represents the Gentiles. When the daughter died, the woman was healed. After the woman was healed, the daughter was revived. Subsequently, two blind men and one dumb man were healed. This is a type, showing that when the Jews were cut off, the Gentiles were saved, and that after the fullness of the salvation of the Gentiles, the Jews will be saved (Rom. 11:15, 17, 19, 23-26). After that, the millennium will begin, in which all the blind and dumb will be healed (Isa. 35:5-6).
Mt 9:182 ruler
Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue (Mark 5:22; Luke 8:41). His name means he will enlighten, or enlightened, signifying that the Lord will enlighten the Gentiles (Acts 13:46-48) and that the Jews also will be enlightened.
Mt 9:18b worshipped  -   Matt. 8:2
Mt 9:201a hemorrhage  -   Lev. 15:25
A bloody flux, a flow or issue of blood (Lev. 15:25). The life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). Hence, this disease signifies a life that cannot be retained.
Mt 9:202 twelve
The woman had been sick for twelve years, the age of the ruler’s dead daughter (Luke 8:42).
Mt 9:203 approached
The woman here and the centurion in 8:5-10, both representing the Gentiles, came to contact the Lord in the same way — with faith. The woman was healed while the Lord was on the way to the ruler’s house. This signifies that the Gentiles are saved while Christ is on the way to the house of Israel.
Mt 9:204b fringe  -   Matt. 14:36; Num. 15:38-39; Deut. 22:12
Christ’s garment signifies His righteous deeds, and the fringe signifies the heavenly ruling (Num. 15:38-39). Out of Christ’s heaven-ruled deeds issues the virtue that becomes the healing power (14:36).
Mt 9:21a touch  -   Matt. 14:36; Mark 3:10; Luke 6:19
Mt 9:211 I
This was her faith.
Mt 9:212 healed
Or, saved. So in the next verse.
Mt 9:22a courage  -   Matt. 9:2
Mt 9:22b faith  -   Matt. 9:2
Mt 9:231 house
The daughter here and Peter’s mother-in-law in 8:14-15, both representing the Jews at the end of this age, were healed in a house by the Lord’s coming and His direct touch. This indicates that at the end of this age all the remnant of the Jews will be saved in the house of Israel by the Lord’s coming and His direct touch (Rom. 11:25-26; Zech. 12:10).
Mt 9:24a sleeping  -   John 11:11, 13; 1 Thes. 4:15
Mt 9:251 crowd
In His ministry the Lord never cared to have a crowd. See note 181 in ch. 8.
Mt 9:25a put  -   Acts 9:40
Mt 9:25b took  -   Mark 9:27; Acts 3:7; 9:41
Mt 9:252 rose
Lit., was roused.
Mt 9:26a report  -   Matt. 4:24; Mark 1:28; Luke 5:15
Mt 9:27a And  -   vv. 27-30: cf. Matt. 20:30-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43; John 9:1-7
Mt 9:271 blind
Blindness signifies the lack of inward sight, the inability to see God and the things related to Him (2 Cor. 4:4; Rev. 3:18).
Mt 9:272b Son  -   Matt. 1:1
In the millennial kingdom, that is, in the restored tabernacle of David (Acts 15:16), the Messianic kingdom, the Jews will recognize Christ as the Son of David, and their blindness will be healed. This is typified by the two blind men recognizing Christ as the Son of David.
Mt 9:281 house
Like the ruler’s daughter (v. 23) and Peter’s mother-in-law (8:14), the two blind men were healed in the house by the Lord’s direct touch (v. 29).
Mt 9:29a touched  -   Matt. 8:3
Mt 9:29b faith  -   Matt. 9:2
Mt 9:29c done  -   Matt. 8:13
Mt 9:301a eyes  -   Isa. 35:5; Luke 4:18; Acts 26:18
The opening of the blind men’s eyes signifies the recovery of inward sight, by which we see God and spiritual things (Acts 9:18; 26:18; Eph. 1:18; Rev. 3:18).
Mt 9:30b See  -   Matt. 8:4; 12:16; Mark 5:43; 7:36
Mt 9:31a spread  -   Matt. 9:26; Mark 1:45
Mt 9:321a dumb  -   Matt. 12:22; Luke 11:14
Dumbness caused by demon possession signifies man’s inability to speak for God (Isa. 56:10) and praise God (Isa. 35:6) because of his worshipping of dumb idols (1 Cor. 12:2).
Mt 9:331a spoke  -   Isa. 35:6
The dumb man’s speaking signifies that our speaking and praising ability is recovered by our being filled with the Lord in the spirit (Eph. 5:18-19).
Mt 9:33b seen  -   Mark 2:12
Mt 9:341a ruler  -   Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15
The ruler of the demons is the devil, who was called Beelzebul (12:24). This blaspheming word by the Pharisees was a strong continuation of the rejection of the heavenly King by the leaders of Judaism.
Mt 9:35a villages  -   Mark 6:6; Luke 13:22
Mt 9:35b teaching  -   Matt. 4:23
Mt 9:351 gospel
See note 232 in ch. 4.
Mt 9:352 every
Every disease and every sickness signifies spiritual illness.
Mt 9:36a compassion  -   Matt. 14:14; Mark 6:34
Mt 9:361 harassed
In Greek harassed refers to the sheep’s being skinned by a cruel shepherd and thus suffering pain. Cast away refers to the sheep’s being abandoned by a wicked shepherd and falling into a distressed condition in which they are homeless, wandering from place to place, and helpless. The Lord Jesus’ word here depicts a situation in which the pitiful Israelites were afflicted and in anguish under the hands of the chief priests and scribes, the evil shepherds.
Mt 9:362b sheep  -   Num. 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; Ezek. 34:5; Zech. 10:2
This indicates that the heavenly King considered the Israelites sheep and Himself their Shepherd. When Christ came to the Jews the first time, they were like lepers, paralytics, the demon-possessed, and all manner of pitiful persons because they had no shepherd to care for them. Now in His kingly ministry for the establishing of His heavenly kingdom, He ministered to them not only as a Physician but also as a Shepherd, as prophesied in Isa. 53:6 and 40:11.
Mt 9:371a harvest  -   Luke 10:2; John 4:35
The heavenly King considered the people not only sheep but also the harvest. The sheep needed shepherding and the harvest needed reaping. Although the leaders of the nation of Israel had rejected the heavenly King, there were still a good number among the people who needed reaping.
Mt 9:381 beseech
First, in His economy God has a plan to accomplish; then there is the need for His people to beseech Him, to pray to Him, concerning it. In answering their prayer, He will accomplish what they have prayed concerning His plan.
Mt 9:382 Lord
The King of the heavenly kingdom considered Himself not only the Shepherd of the sheep but also the Lord of the harvest. His kingdom is established with things of life that can grow and multiply. He is the Lord who owns this crop.
Mt 9:38a workers  -   Matt. 20:1-2
Mt 9:383 into
I.e., to participate in His harvest.
Matthew Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 10:1a And  -   Mark 3:13-15; 6:7; Luke 6:13; 9:1
Mt 10:11 twelve
See note 122 in Rev. 21. So also in v. 2.
Mt 10:12 authority
The authority to cast out unclean spirits and heal diseases is a foretaste of the power of the coming age (Heb. 6:5), that is, of the millennium, in which all demons will be cast out and all diseases will be healed (Isa. 35:5-6).
Mt 10:1b heal  -   Matt. 9:35
Mt 10:2a And  -   vv. 2-4: Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13
Mt 10:21 apostles
An apostle is a sent one. Now the twelve disciples (v. 1) were to be sent; thus they became the twelve apostles.
Mt 10:2b Simon  -   Matt. 4:18
Mt 10:2c James  -   Matt. 4:21
Mt 10:3a Philip  -   John 1:43; 14:9
Mt 10:3b Thomas  -   John 11:16; 14:5; 20:24; 21:2
Mt 10:31c Matthew  -   Matt. 9:9
Mark and Luke listed Matthew before Thomas (Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15), but Matthew, the writer of this book, listed himself after Thomas, showing his humility.
Mt 10:32 tax
Here Matthew specifically designated himself “the tax collector,” perhaps remembering his salvation with gratitude. Even a despised and sinful tax collector could become an apostle of the King of the heavenly kingdom. What a salvation!
Mt 10:33 Thaddaeus
Thaddaeus here is Judas (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13; John 14:22).
Mt 10:41 Cananaean
From the Hebrew word kanna, meaning zealous; referring not to the land of Canaan but to a Galilean sect known as the Zealots. (See Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13.)
Mt 10:42a Iscariot  -   John 6:71; 13:2, 26; Luke 22:3; Matt. 26:14
This word, probably from Hebrew, means a man of Kerioth. Kerioth was in Judah (Josh. 15:25). Among the apostles, only Judas was from Judea; all the rest were Galileans.
Mt 10:43 betrayed
Lit., delivered Him up. So throughout the book.
Mt 10:5a sent  -   Mark 6:7; Luke 9:2
Mt 10:51b Gentiles  -   cf. Matt. 4:15; Acts 13:46
The Samaritans were a mixture of Gentile and Jewish blood (2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:10; John 4:9). The twelve apostles were sent to the house of Israel (v. 6) and were charged not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans.
Mt 10:5c Samaritans  -   2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:10; Luke 17:16; John 4:4, 9; Acts 8:25
See note 51.
Mt 10:6a sheep  -   Psa. 119:176; Isa. 53:6; Jer. 50:6; 1 Pet. 2:25
Mt 10:6b Israel  -   Matt. 15:24; Acts 3:26; 13:46; Rom. 1:16
Mt 10:7a kingdom  -   Matt. 3:2; 4:17
Mt 10:71 drawn
Even by that time the kingdom of the heavens had not yet come but had only drawn near.
Mt 10:8a Heal  -   Mark 6:13; Luke 9:2
Mt 10:8b Freely  -   Rev. 21:6; 22:17
Mt 10:9a Do  -   vv. 9-15: Mark 6:8-11; Luke 9:3-5; 10:4-12; cf. Luke 22:35-36
Mt 10:91 not
The twelve apostles (sent to the house of Israel, not to the Gentiles), as workers worthy of their food, did not need to bring their necessities with them. (However, the Lord’s workers sent to the Gentiles should take nothing from the Gentiles — 3 John 7.) This principle was changed after the Lord had been fully rejected by the house of Israel (Luke 22:35-38).
Mt 10:10a worker  -   1 Cor. 9:7-14; 1 Tim. 5:18
Mt 10:14a shake  -   Acts 13:51
Mt 10:151 more
Indicating that the punishment resulting from God’s judgment is in varying degrees. Rejecting the Lord’s apostles and their words (v. 14) will bring more punishment than will the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Mt 10:15a Sodom  -   Matt. 11:23-24; Gen. 18:20; 19:24, 28; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7
Mt 10:16a sheep  -   Luke 10:3
Mt 10:16b wolves  -   Acts 20:29
Mt 10:161 prudent
As sheep in the midst of wolves, the Lord’s apostles, although not serpents, need to be prudent as serpents to escape being hurt by the wolves, and guileless as doves, not mixed with any evil intention and not hurting others.
Mt 10:16c serpents  -   Gen. 3:1
Mt 10:16d doves  -   S.S. 2:14; cf. John 1:32
Mt 10:17a beware  -   Phil. 3:2
Mt 10:171 deliver
The heavenly King’s prediction here concerning the persecution of His apostles by Judaism indicated that the kingdom He was establishing through His apostles’ preaching would be rejected by Judaism. This too proves that His kingdom is not earthly but heavenly.
Mt 10:172b sanhedrins  -   Mark 13:9; Matt. 5:22
See note 226 in ch. 5.
Mt 10:17c scourge  -   Matt. 23:34; Acts 5:40; 22:19; 26:11
Mt 10:181 governors
The same Greek word as for princes in 2:6.
Mt 10:18a kings  -   Luke 21:12; Acts 9:15; 26:1-2
Mt 10:18b testimony  -   Matt. 24:14
Mt 10:19a But  -   vv. 19-22: Mark 13:11-13; Luke 21:12-19
Mt 10:19b anxious  -   Luke 12:11
Mt 10:201a Spirit  -   Luke 12:12; cf. 2 Sam. 23:2
The apostles have not only the authority of the heavenly King (v. 1) but also the Spirit of their Father. The King’s authority deals with unclean spirits and diseases; the Father’s Spirit deals with the opposers’ persecution.
Mt 10:211 brother
Those who would be the heavenly King’s apostles for the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom must suffer the breaking of the closest human ties.
Mt 10:21a children  -   Matt. 10:35; Micah 7:6
Mt 10:22a hated  -   Matt. 24:9; John 15:18-19; 1 John 3:13
Mt 10:22b endured  -   Matt. 24:13; Heb. 10:36
Mt 10:221 saved
Here, to be saved may mean to be saved from those who hate us; eventually, it will mean to be saved into the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, a reward to the overcoming believers. This differs from eternal salvation as revealed in Eph. 2:8.
Mt 10:23a city  -   Matt. 23:34
Mt 10:23b flee  -   Matt. 2:13; Acts 14:6
Mt 10:231 finish
This word was not fulfilled by the twelve apostles’ preaching before Christ’s crucifixion. It will not be fulfilled until the great tribulation (24:21). The prediction in vv. 17-23 is very similar to that in 24:9-13. Here the heavenly King sent the apostles to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the Jews. After His resurrection He sent His apostles to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. After the fullness of the salvation of the Gentiles, He will send His apostles to preach the gospel of the kingdom again to the Jews. At that time, this word will be fulfilled, and He will come.
Mt 10:23c Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 10:24a disciple  -   Luke 6:40
Mt 10:241 above
According to the context, the word here means that in suffering persecution His apostles cannot be above Him, because He was persecuted to the uttermost.
Mt 10:24b slave  -   John 13:16; 15:20
Mt 10:251a Beelzebul  -   Matt. 12:24, 27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15
Beelzebub, meaning the lord of flies, was the name of the god of the Ekronites (2 Kings 1:2). It was changed contemptuously by the Jews to Beelzebul, which means the lord of the dunghill, and was used for the ruler of the demons (12:24, 27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18-19). In 9:34 the Pharisees, the leading ones of the Jewish religion, reviled the heavenly King by saying that He cast out demons by the ruler of demons. In using this most blasphemous name, they expressed their strongest objection and rejection.
Mt 10:26a Therefore  -   vv. 26-33: Luke 12:2-9
Mt 10:26b covered  -   Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17
Mt 10:26c hidden  -   1 Tim. 5:25
Mt 10:27a housetops  -   1 Sam. 9:25; Zeph. 1:5; Matt. 24:17; Acts 10:9
Mt 10:28a fear  -   Psa. 56:4
Mt 10:28b fear  -   Isa. 8:12-13; Heb. 10:31
Mt 10:281 Him
God is the only One who is able to destroy both man’s soul and man’s body in Gehenna. This word implies that if the apostles sent by the Lord fail to suffer persecution, they will be disciplined by God. This discipline will take place in the coming age, after the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ, when the believers will receive reward or punishment (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12).
Mt 10:28c destroy  -   James 4:12
Mt 10:282d Gehenna  -   Matt. 5:22
See note 228 in ch. 5.
Mt 10:291 assarion
An ancient Roman coin equal to one-sixteenth of a denarius. See note 71 in John 6.
Mt 10:30a hairs  -   Luke 21:18
Mt 10:31a more  -   Matt. 6:26; 12:12
Mt 10:32a confess  -   Rom. 10:9-10
Mt 10:321 in
Implying his union with the Lord.
Mt 10:32b confess  -   Rev. 3:5
Mt 10:322 in
Implying the Lord’s union with him.
Mt 10:331a deny  -   2 Tim. 2:12; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26
This word was spoken by the heavenly King to His apostles, who were sent by Him to preach the gospel of the kingdom. He foretold that they would be persecuted (vv. 17, 21-23). If anyone under persecution denies Him, He will deny him at His coming back (16:27). Their being denied or confessed by Him at that time will determine whether His apostles are worthy to enter the kingdom of the heavens as a reward in the coming age.
Mt 10:34a Do  -   vv. 34-36: Luke 12:51-53
Mt 10:341 come
The whole earth is under Satan’s usurpation (1 John 5:19). The heavenly King came to call some out from that usurpation. This certainly aroused Satan’s opposition. He instigated the people under his usurpation to fight against the heavenly King’s called ones. Thus, His coming did not bring peace but a sword.
Mt 10:35a father  -   Matt. 10:21
Mt 10:36a enemies  -   Micah 7:6
Mt 10:361 household
The fighting instigated by the usurping Satan against the heavenly King’s called ones is waged even in their own household. The heavenly called ones are attacked in their homes by their kindred who remain under the evil one’s usurping hand.
Mt 10:37a father  -   Luke 14:26; cf. Deut. 33:9-10
Mt 10:371 above
Our love for the Lord must be absolute. We should love nothing above Him. He is the One most worthy of our love, and we must be worthy of Him.
Mt 10:381 take
Christ took the Father’s will and was crucified (26:39, 42). When He was baptized, He was counted as crucified, and from that time He bore His cross to do the will of God. His called ones were identified with Him. He asked them to take their cross and follow after Him, that is, to take the will of God by putting themselves aside. This demanded that at any cost they first give their love to Him that they might be worthy of Him.
Mt 10:38a cross  -   Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27
Mt 10:38b follow  -   Matt. 4:19
Mt 10:391 finds
To find the soul-life is to allow the soul to have its enjoyment and to escape suffering. To lose the soul-life is to cause the soul to lose its enjoyment and thereby to suffer. If the heavenly King’s followers allow their soul to have its enjoyment in this age, they will cause their soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age. If they allow their soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in this age for the King’s sake, they will enable their soul to have its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age, that is, to share the King’s joy in ruling over the earth (25:21, 23).
Mt 10:39a soul-life  -   Matt. 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25
Mt 10:401a receives  -   Matt. 18:5; John 13:20; Gal. 4:14
The apostles sent by the heavenly King, having been entrusted with His authority (v. 1) and peace (v. 13), and having been indwelt by the Spirit of the Father and identified with the King in His suffering (vv. 22, 24-25) and death (vv. 21, 34-39), were one with Him. Thus, he who received them received Him. To participate in such an identification with the heavenly King requires us to love Him above all, at any cost, and to follow Him by taking the narrow way of the cross, as revealed in vv. 37-39.
Mt 10:40b receives  -   Mark 9:37; Luke 9:48
Mt 10:411a receives  -   1 Kings 17:10-15, 20-24; 2 Kings 4:8-17
One who receives a prophet is joined to the prophet’s word, and one who receives a righteous man is joined to the righteousness of the righteous man. Thus, these two will receive the reward of a prophet and of a righteous man, respectively.
Mt 10:412 prophet
A prophet is one who speaks for God and speaks forth God. A righteous man is one who seeks after righteousness, who practices righteousness, and who is persecuted for the sake of righteousness for the kingdom (5:6, 10, 20; 6:1). The heavenly King was such, a Prophet sent by God (Deut. 18:15) and a righteous man (Acts 3:14). His apostles, sent by Him, were identified with Him and thus also were prophets and righteous men. Hence, whoever received them received Him and will receive a reward.
Mt 10:42a little  -   Matt. 25:40
Mt 10:42b cup  -   Mark 9:41
Mt 10:421 reward
This reward will be given in the coming kingdom age (Luke 14:14).
Matthew Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 11:1a teach  -   Matt. 9:35
Mt 11:2a Now  -   vv. 2-19: Luke 7:18-35
Mt 11:2b prison  -   Matt. 4:12; 14:3; John 3:24
Mt 11:2c works  -   John 10:37-38
Mt 11:31 Are
John the Baptist’s word here does not mean that he was in doubt concerning Christ. He questioned Christ in this way in order to provoke Him to deliver him. He knew that Christ was the Coming One, and he had strongly recommended Him to the people (John 1:26-36). After that, John was put into prison (4:12), where he waited, expecting that Christ would do something to deliver him. However, Christ did nothing for him, although He did much to help others. When John heard of this, it might have been that he was about to be stumbled (v. 6). Hence, he sent his disciples with such a question to provoke Christ.
Mt 11:3a Coming  -   Gen. 49:10; Psa. 118:26; John 4:25; 6:14; 11:27
Mt 11:32 another
The Greek word means a different one.
Mt 11:51a blind  -   Isa. 29:18; 35:5-6; Matt. 9:27-30
The Lord mentioned first the blind’s receiving of sight, because there had been no such miracle in the Old Testament. By this He gave clear evidence to John that none other than the Messiah could have done such a miracle (Isa. 35:5). In the spiritual sense also, the blind’s receiving of sight comes first. In the Lord’s salvation, first He opens our eyes (Acts 26:18); then we can receive Him and walk to follow Him.
Mt 11:52 lame
The lame signify those who cannot walk in God’s way. After being saved, they can walk by a new life (9:5-6; John 5:8-9).
Mt 11:53b lepers  -   Matt. 8:2-3
See note 21 in ch. 8.
Mt 11:54 deaf
The deaf signify those who cannot hear God. After being saved, they can hear the Lord’s voice (John 10:27).
Mt 11:55 dead
The dead signify those who are dead in sins (Eph. 2:1, 5), unable to contact God. After being regenerated, they can fellowship with God by means of their regenerated spirit.
Mt 11:56c poor  -   Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18
The poor signify all who are without Christ and without God and who have no hope in the world (Eph. 2:12). Upon receiving the gospel, they are made rich in Christ (2 Cor. 8:9; Eph. 3:8).
Mt 11:61a stumbled  -   Isa. 8:14-15; Matt. 13:57; 24:10; 26:31; John 6:61; 16:1
This word implies that John the Baptist might have been stumbled because of the Lord, because the Lord did not act on his behalf according to his way. Here the Lord encouraged him to take the way He had ordained for him, that he might be blessed. This blessing is very much related to participation in the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 11:71 say
The Lord’s reply to John implicitly indicated John’s mistake. However, His words to the crowds concerning John explicitly testified for John.
Mt 11:7a wilderness  -   Matt. 3:1; Luke 1:80
Mt 11:72 look
The Greek word means to view attentively.
Mt 11:73b reed  -   Matt. 12:20
A reed signifies a weak and fragile person (12:20; 1 Kings 14:15). When John the Baptist was testifying for Christ in the wilderness, he was not such a weak person.
Mt 11:81 see
The Greek word means perceive. So in the next verse.
Mt 11:82 man
In the wilderness, while he was boldly testifying for Christ, John the Baptist was not a weak person who wore soft clothing. The Lord testified that he was neither a reed shaken by the wind nor a man arrayed in soft clothing.
Mt 11:8a clothing  -   cf. Matt. 3:4
Mt 11:9a prophet  -   Matt. 14:5; 21:26; Luke 1:76
Mt 11:91 much
The Lord testified that John was much more than a prophet.
Mt 11:10a Behold  -   Mal. 3:1; Mark 1:2
Mt 11:111 least
Lit., less. All the prophets prior to John prophesied only that Christ was coming, but John testified that Christ had come. The prophets were looking forward to Christ, but John saw Christ. Hence, John was greater than all the prophets. Although John saw the incarnated Christ and introduced Him to people, he did not have the resurrected Christ indwelling him. The kingdom people do. John could say only, “Here is Christ,” but the kingdom people can say, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Hence, the least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he. Whether a person is greater or lesser depends on his relationship to Christ. Christ is the deciding factor. The closer one is to Christ, the greater one is.
Mt 11:112 in
This word indicates that up to that time the kingdom of the heavens had not come and that John the Baptist was not in it.
Mt 11:121a violence  -   Luke 16:16
From the days of John the Baptist until that time, the Pharisees were violently frustrating people from entering the kingdom of the heavens. Hence, those who desired to enter had to do so “by violence.”
Mt 11:13a prophets  -   Luke 16:16
Mt 11:131 until
This proves that the Old Testament dispensation was terminated by the coming of John.
Mt 11:141 it
Or, him.
Mt 11:142a Elijah  -   Mal. 4:5; Luke 1:17; Matt. 17:10-13
Malachi 4:5 prophesies that Elijah will come. When John the Baptist was conceived, it was said that he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). Hence, in a sense, John may be considered “Elijah, who is to come” (cf. 17:10-13). However, the prophecy of Mal. 4:5 will actually be fulfilled during the great tribulation, when the real Elijah, one of the two witnesses, will come to strengthen God’s people (Rev. 11:3-12).
Mt 11:15a ears  -   Matt. 13:9, 43; Rev. 2:7
Mt 11:16a generation  -   cf. Psa. 78:8; 95:10-11
Mt 11:171 played
Christ and John the Baptist “played the flute” to preach the gospel of the kingdom, but the Jewish religionists did not “dance” for the joy of salvation; John and Christ “sang a dirge” to preach repentance, but the Jewish religionists did not mourn for the grief of sin. The righteousness of God demanded that they repent, but they would not obey; the grace of God afforded them salvation, but they would not receive it.
Mt 11:181 neither
John, coming to bring men to repentance (Mark 1:4) and to cause them to grieve for sin, had no taste for eating and drinking (Luke 1:15-17), whereas Christ, coming to bring salvation to sinners and to cause them to rejoice in it, had the joy of eating and drinking with them (9:10-11). The kingdom people, who are under no regulation, follow the divine wisdom, concentrating on the indwelling Christ, who is their wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30), not on the outward manner of life.
Mt 11:18a eating  -   cf. Matt. 3:4
Mt 11:18b drinking  -   Luke 1:15
Mt 11:182c demon  -   John 8:48
Because John the Baptist lived in a strange and peculiar way, not eating or drinking in the ordinary way, the opposers said, “He has a demon,” i.e., that he was demon-possessed.
Mt 11:19a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 11:191b eating  -   Matt. 9:10; John 2:2
See note 181.
Mt 11:192 friend
Christ is not only the Savior but also the Friend of sinners, who sympathizes with their problems and senses their grief.
Mt 11:19c tax  -   Matt. 9:11
Mt 11:193d wisdom  -   1 Cor. 1:24, 30
Wisdom is Christ (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). Whatever Christ did was done by the wisdom of God, which is Christ Himself. This wisdom was justified, vindicated, by His wise works, His wise deeds.
Mt 11:194 works
Some ancient authorities read, children (see Luke 7:35). The kingdom people are the children of wisdom, who justify Christ and His deeds and follow Him as their wisdom.
Mt 11:20a works  -   Acts 2:22
Mt 11:21a Woe  -   vv. 21-23: Luke 10:13-15
Mt 11:21b Bethsaida  -   Mark 8:22
Mt 11:21c Tyre  -   Isa. 23:1-18; Ezek. 27:32; 28:2-23; Matt. 15:21; Mark 3:8; 7:24
Mt 11:21d sackcloth  -   Jonah 3:5-8
Mt 11:21e ashes  -   Job 42:6
Mt 11:221a more  -   Matt. 11:24; 10:15
See note 151 in ch. 10. So in v. 24.
Mt 11:23a Capernaum  -   Matt. 4:13
Mt 11:23b exalted  -   Isa. 14:13
Mt 11:23c to  -   Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 26:20
Mt 11:231d Hades  -   Matt. 16:18; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27; Rev. 1:18; 20:14
Hades, equal to Sheol in the Old Testament (Gen. 37:35; Psa. 6:5), is the place where the souls and spirits of the dead are kept (Luke 16:22-23; Acts 2:27).
Mt 11:24a Sodom  -   Luke 10:12; Matt. 10:15
Mt 11:25a At  -   vv. 25-27: Luke 10:21-22
Mt 11:251 answered
While the Lord was rebuking the cities, He fellowshipped with the Father. At that time, answering the Father, He spoke to Him the extolment in vv. 25-26.
Mt 11:252 extol
Lit., acknowledge with extolment. The Lord acknowledged with extolment the Father’s way in carrying out His economy. Although people, instead of responding to His ministry, slandered Him (vv. 16-19) and the leading cities rejected Him (vv. 20-24), He extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father’s will. He did not seek prosperity in His work but sought the Father’s will; His satisfaction and rest were not in being understood and welcomed by man but in being known by the Father (vv. 26-27).
Mt 11:253b Lord  -   Gen. 14:19, 22; Acts 17:24
In the Lord’s extolling address, “Father” refers to the Father’s relationship with Him, the Son, whereas “Lord of heaven and of earth” refers to God’s relationship with the universe. When God’s people were defeated by His enemy, God was called “the God of heaven” (Ezra 5:11-12; Dan. 2:18, 37). But when there was a man standing for Him on the earth, God was called the “Possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:19, 22). Now the Lord as the Son of Man called the Father “Lord of heaven and of earth,” indicating that the Lord was standing on the earth for God’s interest.
Mt 11:254 these
The things regarding the knowledge of the Son and of the Father (v. 27).
Mt 11:255 wise
The wise and intelligent refers to the people of the three cities condemned in vv. 20-24, people who were wise and intelligent in their own eyes. The Father’s will was to hide the knowledge of the Son and of the Father from such people.
Mt 11:256 infants
Infants refers to the disciples, who were the children of wisdom (see note 194). The Father was pleased to reveal both the Son and the Father to them.
Mt 11:261 in
Lit., before You.
Mt 11:271a All  -   John 3:35; 13:3; 3:27; 6:37, 44, 65; 18:9
All things refers to the remnant whom the Father has given to the Son (John 3:27; 6:37, 44, 65; 18:9). This word implies that the wise and intelligent rejected the Son because the Father was not pleased to give them to the Son.
Mt 11:272b knows  -   John 10:15; Matt. 16:17; Phil. 3:10
Full knowledge, not mere objective acquaintance. Concerning the Son, only the Father has such knowledge, and concerning the Father, only the Son and he to whom the Son reveals Him have such knowledge. Hence, to know the Son requires that the Father reveal Him (16:17), and to know the Father requires that the Son reveal Him (John 17:6, 26).
Mt 11:27c know  -   John 7:29; 8:55; 17:25
See note 272.
Mt 11:27d reveal  -   John 17:6, 26
Mt 11:28a Come  -   John 6:37; 7:37
Mt 11:281b toil  -   Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10
This refers not only to the toil of striving to keep the commandments of the law and religious regulations but also to the toil of struggling to be successful in any work. Whoever toils thus is always heavily burdened. After the Lord extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father’s way and declaring the divine economy, He called this kind of people to come to Him for rest.
Mt 11:282 rest
Rest refers not only to being set free from the toil and burden under the law or religion or under any work or responsibility, but also to perfect peace and full satisfaction.
Mt 11:291 Take
Lit., lift.
Mt 11:292 yoke
To take the Lord’s yoke is to take the will of the Father. It is not to be regulated or controlled by any obligation of the law or religion or to be enslaved by any work, but to be constrained by the will of the Father. The Lord lived such a life, caring for nothing but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (26:39, 42). Hence, He asks us to learn from Him.
Mt 11:29a learn  -   Eph. 4:20
Mt 11:293b meek  -   Matt. 21:5; 2 Cor. 10:1
To be meek, or gentle, means not to resist opposition, and to be lowly means not to have self-esteem. Throughout all the opposition the Lord was meek, and throughout all the rejection He was lowly in heart. He submitted Himself fully to the will of His Father, not wanting to do anything for Himself or expecting to gain something for Himself. Hence, regardless of the situation He had rest in His heart; He was fully satisfied with His Father’s will.
Mt 11:29c rest  -   Jer. 6:16; Heb. 4:9
Mt 11:294 souls
The rest that we find by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him is for our souls. It is an inward rest; it is not anything merely outward in nature.
Mt 11:301 yoke
The Lord’s yoke is the Father’s will, and His burden is the work of carrying out the Father’s will. Such a yoke is easy, not bitter, and such a burden is light, not heavy.
Mt 11:302a easy  -   1 John 5:3
The Greek word means fit for use; hence, good, kind, mild, gentle, easy, pleasant — in contrast to hard, harsh, sharp, bitter.
Matthew Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 12:11a At  -   vv. 1-8: Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5
At that time joins this chapter to ch. 11. At the time the Lord was calling people to rest from striving to keep the law and religious regulations, He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to pick ears of grain and eat, seemingly breaking the Sabbath.
Mt 12:1b Sabbath  -   Matt. 12:5, 10, 11, 12; Luke 13:14; 14:1, 3; John 5:9-10; 9:14, 16
Mt 12:1c ears  -   Deut. 23:25
Mt 12:21a not  -   Exo. 20:10; Isa. 58:13; John 5:10
The Sabbath was ordained so that the Jews would remember the completion of God’s creation (Gen. 2:2), keep the sign of God’s covenant made with them (Ezek. 20:12), and remember God’s redemption accomplished for them (Deut. 5:15). Hence, to profane the Sabbath was a serious matter in the eyes of the religious Pharisees. To them it was not lawful, not scriptural. But they did not have adequate knowledge of the Scriptures. Based on their meager knowledge, they cared for the ritual of keeping the Sabbath, not for the hunger of the people. What folly to observe a vain ritual!
Mt 12:31a read  -   Matt. 12:5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31
The Pharisees said that it was not lawful for the Lord’s disciples to pick the ears in the grainfields and to eat; thus, they condemned the disciples for acting contrary to the Scriptures. But the Lord answered, “Have you not read…?” pointing out to them another aspect of the Scriptures that justified Him and His disciples. The Pharisees were thus condemned for lacking adequate knowledge of the Scriptures.
Mt 12:32b David  -   1 Sam. 21:1-6
The Lord’s word here implies that He is the real David. In the ancient time David and his followers, when rejected, entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence (v. 4), seemingly breaking the Levitical law. Now the real David and His followers were rejected, and the disciples took action to pick ears of grain and eat, seemingly going against the sabbatical regulation. Just as David and his followers were not held guilty, so Christ and His disciples should not have been condemned.
Furthermore, the Lord’s word here implies the dispensational change from the priesthood to the kingship. In the ancient time the coming of David changed the dispensation from the age of the priests to the age of the kings, in which the kings were above the priests. In the age of the priests the leader of the people had to listen to the priest (Num. 27:21-22). But in the age of the kings the priest had to submit to the king (1 Sam. 2:35-36). Hence, what King David did with his followers was not illegal. Now the coming of Christ changed the dispensation again, this time from the age of the law to the age of grace, in which Christ is above all. Whatever He does is right.
Mt 12:4a bread  -   Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:5-8
Mt 12:4b priests  -   Exo. 29:32-33; Lev. 24:9
Mt 12:51a read  -   Matt. 12:3
Here the Lord pointed out to the Pharisees another case in the Scriptures, exposing how little they knew the Scriptures.
Mt 12:5b Sabbath  -   Num. 28:9-10; cf. John 7:22-23
Mt 12:61a greater  -   Matt. 12:41, 42
The Lord revealed to the Pharisees that He was greater than the temple. This indicated another turn, a type-fulfilling turn from the temple to a person. In the case of David there was a turn from one age to another. In this case, a case concerning the priests, there was a turn from the temple to a person who is greater than the temple. Since the priests were guiltless in acting on the Sabbath in the temple, how could the Lord’s disciples be guilty in acting on the Sabbath in Him who is greater than the temple? In the first case the king broke the Levitical regulation; in the second case the priests broke the sabbatical regulation. According to the Scriptures neither was guilty. Hence, scripturally, what the Lord did here was right.
Mt 12:6b temple  -   1 Kings 8:27; Isa. 66:1; Hag. 2:9
Mt 12:7a I  -   Hosea 6:6; Matt. 9:13
Mt 12:8a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 12:81 Lord
Here the Lord indicated the third turn, a right-asserting turn from the Sabbath to the Lord of the Sabbath. As the Lord of the Sabbath, He had the right to change the regulations concerning the Sabbath. Thus, the Lord gave the condemning Pharisees a threefold verdict. He was the real David, the greater temple, and the Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore, He could do whatever He liked on the Sabbath, and whatever He did was justified by Himself. He was above all rituals and regulations. Since He was there, no attention should have been paid to any ritual or regulation.
Mt 12:9a departing  -   vv. 9-14: Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11
Mt 12:101 hand
This chapter records the Lord’s move on two Sabbaths (Luke 6:1, 6). What He did on the first Sabbath indicates that He cared for Himself as the Head of the Body. As the Head, He is everything — the real David, the greater temple, and the Lord of the Sabbath. What He did on the second Sabbath signifies that He cared for His members. On this Sabbath He healed a man’s withered hand, likening this man to a sheep (vv. 11-12). The hand is a member of the body, and the sheep is a member of the flock. The Lord would do anything for the healing of His members, for the rescue of His fallen sheep. Sabbath or no Sabbath, the Lord is interested in healing the dead members of His Body. To Him, regulations do not matter; the rescue of His fallen sheep means everything.
Mt 12:10a lawful  -   Matt. 12:2, 12; Luke 14:3
Mt 12:10b accuse  -   John 8:6
Mt 12:11a lift  -   Deut. 22:4; Luke 14:5
Mt 12:12a more  -   Matt. 6:26; 10:31
Mt 12:12b lawful  -   Matt. 12:10
Mt 12:131 restored
The Lord gave the man the word, “Stretch out your hand.” In the Lord’s word was the enlivening life. By stretching out his hand the man took the Lord’s life-giving word, and his withered hand was restored by the life in His word.
Mt 12:14a counsel  -   Matt. 22:15; 26:4; 27:1; Mark 3:6; John 11:53
Mt 12:141b destroy  -   John 5:18; 7:1, 25; 8:59
In the eyes of the religious Pharisees, for the Lord to break the Sabbath was to destroy God’s covenant with the nation of Israel, that is, to destroy the relationship between God and Israel. Hence, they took counsel against Him as to how they might destroy Him. The breaking of the Sabbath caused the Jewish religionists to reject the heavenly King.
Mt 12:15a followed  -   Matt. 19:2
Mt 12:16a not  -   Matt. 8:4; 9:30
Mt 12:17a fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
Mt 12:18a Behold  -   vv. 18-21: Isa. 42:1-3
Mt 12:181 Servant
The Greek word means boy attendant.
Mt 12:18b Beloved  -   Matt. 3:17; 17:5
Mt 12:18c Spirit  -   Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18
Mt 12:182 justice
Or, righteousness, (righteous) judgment. So in v. 20.
Mt 12:183 Gentiles
This indicates clearly that because of the Jews’ rejection, the heavenly King with His heavenly kingdom would turn to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles would receive Him and trust in Him (v. 21).
Mt 12:201 bruised
The Jews were accustomed to making flutes of reeds. When a reed was bruised, they broke it. Also, they made torches out of flax, which can burn oil. When the oil ran out, the flax smoked and they quenched it. Some of the Lord’s people are like a bruised reed, which cannot give a musical sound; others are like smoking flax, which cannot produce a shining light. Yet the Lord will not break the bruised ones or quench the smoking ones.
Mt 12:202 flax
The Greek word refers to a torch made with flax.
Mt 12:21a hope  -   Rom. 15:12
Mt 12:22a Then  -   vv. 22, 24: Luke 11:14-15
Mt 12:221b blind  -   Matt. 9:27
A blind and dumb man signifies one who is without spiritual sight, i.e., who is unable to see God and spiritual things, and who, for this reason, is unable to praise God and speak for God. This is the real condition of all fallen people.
Mt 12:22c dumb  -   Matt. 9:32
Mt 12:231a Son  -   Matt. 1:1
This indicates that they recognized Christ as their Messiah, their King.
Mt 12:241a Beelzebul  -   Matt. 10:25
See note 251 in ch. 10. So in v. 27.
Mt 12:24b ruler  -   Matt. 9:34
Mt 12:25a But  -   vv. 25-29: Mark 3:23-27; Luke 11:17-22
Mt 12:25b knowing  -   Matt. 9:4
Mt 12:261a kingdom  -   cf. Eph. 2:2; 6:12; Col. 1:13
Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2). He has his authority (Acts 26:18) and his angels (25:41), who are his subordinates as rulers, authorities, and world-rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). Hence, he has his kingdom, the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13).
Mt 12:27a Beelzebul  -   Matt. 12:24
Mt 12:27b cast  -   Acts 19:13-14
Mt 12:281a Spirit  -   Matt. 12:18; Acts 10:38
The Spirit of God is the power of the kingdom of God. Where the Spirit of God is in power, there the kingdom of God is, and there the demons have no ground.
Mt 12:282b kingdom  -   Matt. 19:24; 21:31, 43; Luke 17:20-21
The kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the heavens, is indicated here. Even at that time the kingdom of the heavens still had not come. The kingdom of God, however, was there already.
Mt 12:291 house
The house here signifies the kingdom of Satan.
Mt 12:292 strong
The strong man is Satan, the evil one.
Mt 12:29a plunder  -   Isa. 49:24-25
Mt 12:293 goods
Or, instruments, apparatus; hence, goods, stuff. The fallen people, who are under Satan, are his vessels, his instruments, and are for his use. They are his goods, kept in his house, his kingdom.
Mt 12:294 binds
This indicates that when the Lord cast out demons, He first bound Satan.
Mt 12:301 He
See note 401 in Mark 9.
Mt 12:30a against  -   Luke 11:23; cf. Mark 9:40; Luke 9:50
Mt 12:31a Therefore  -   vv. 31-32: Mark 3:28-30; Luke 12:10
Mt 12:31b blasphemy  -   1 Tim. 1:13
Mt 12:311 blasphemy
Blaspheming the Spirit differs from insulting the Spirit (Heb. 10:29). To insult the Spirit is to disobey Him willfully. Many believers do this. If they confess this sin, they will be forgiven and cleansed by the Lord’s blood (1 John 1:7, 9). But to blaspheme the Spirit is to slander Him, as the Pharisees did in v. 24. It was by the Spirit that the Lord cast out a demon. But the Pharisees, seeing it, said that the Lord cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. This was blasphemy against the Spirit. By such blasphemy the Pharisees’ rejection of the heavenly King reached its climax.
Mt 12:321 speaks
In the economy of the Triune God, the Father conceived the plan of redemption (Eph. 1:5, 9), the Son accomplished redemption according to the Father’s plan (1 Pet. 2:24; Gal. 1:4), and the Spirit reaches sinners to apply the redemption accomplished by the Son (1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Pet. 1:2). If a sinner blasphemes the Son, as Saul of Tarsus did, the Spirit will still have the ground to work on him and cause him to repent and believe in the Son that he may be forgiven (see 1 Tim. 1:13-16). But if a sinner blasphemes the Spirit, the Spirit will have no ground to work on him, and there will be no one left to cause him to repent and believe. Hence, it is impossible for such a person to be forgiven. This is not only logical according to reason but also governmental according to God’s administrative principle, as revealed here by the Lord’s word.
Mt 12:32a neither  -   cf. 1 John 5:16
Mt 12:322b age  -   Mark 10:30; Eph. 1:21
In God’s governmental administration His forgiveness is dispensational. For His administration He has planned different ages. The period from the first coming of Christ to eternity is divided dispensationally into three ages: (1) this age, the present one, from Christ’s first coming to His second coming; (2) the coming age, the millennium, the one thousand years for restoration and heavenly reigning, from Christ’s second coming to the end of the old heaven and old earth; and (3) eternity, the eternal age of the new heaven and new earth. God’s forgiveness in this age is for sinners’ eternal salvation. This forgiveness is given to both sinners and believers. God’s forgiveness in the coming age is related to the believers’ dispensational reward. If after being saved a believer commits a sin but will not make a clearance through confession and the cleansing of the Lord’s blood (1 John 1:7, 9) before he dies or the Lord comes back, the sin will not be forgiven in this age but will remain and will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). In such a case, the believer will not be rewarded with the kingdom, i.e., will not participate with Christ in the glory and joy in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, but will be disciplined so that the sin is cleared, and will be forgiven in the coming age (18:23-35). This kind of forgiveness will maintain this believer’s eternal salvation but will not qualify him to participate in the glory and joy of the coming kingdom.
Mt 12:33a fruit  -   Matt. 7:16-20; Luke 6:43-44
Mt 12:331 by
Lit., from.
Mt 12:34a vipers  -   Matt. 3:7; 23:33
Mt 12:34b heart  -   Matt. 15:18-19; Luke 6:45
Mt 12:361 idle
The Greek word means not working. An idle word is a non-working word, an inoperative word, a word that has no positive function and is useless, unprofitable, unfruitful, and barren. Those who have spoken such words will render an account concerning every one of them in the day of judgment. Since this is the case, how much more must we account for every wicked word!
Mt 12:36a account  -   1 Pet. 4:5
Mt 12:36b judgment  -   Rom. 2:5, 16; Acts 17:31
Mt 12:371a words  -   James 3:2
What a warning this is! We must learn to control and restrict our speaking.
Mt 12:381a sign  -   Matt. 16:1; Mark 8:11-12; Luke 11:16; John 2:18; 6:30; 1 Cor. 1:22
A sign is a miracle that has some spiritual significance. The Jews always seek signs (1 Cor. 1:22).
Mt 12:39a But  -   vv. 39-42: Luke 11:29-32
Mt 12:39b evil  -   Matt. 16:4; Mark 8:38
Mt 12:391 generation
Age in v. 32 refers to time; generation here refers to people.
Mt 12:40a three  -   Jonah 1:17
Mt 12:40b Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 12:401c heart  -   Eph. 4:9; Acts 2:27; Luke 23:43
The heart of the earth is called “the lower parts of the earth” (Eph. 4:9) and Hades (Acts 2:27), where the Lord went after His death. Hades, equal to Sheol in the Old Testament (see note 231 in ch. 11), has two sections, the section of torment and the section of comfort (Luke 16:23-26). The section of comfort is Paradise, where the Lord went with the saved thief after they died on the cross (Luke 23:43). Hence, heart of the earth, lower parts of the earth, Hades, and Paradise are synonymous terms, referring to the place where the Lord stayed for three days and three nights after His death and before His resurrection.
Mt 12:40d three  -   Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23
Mt 12:41a Ninevite  -   Jonah 1:2
Mt 12:41b repented  -   Jonah 3:5-8
Mt 12:411c more  -   Matt. 12:6, 42
The Greek word for more, occurring also in v. 42, means better in quality and larger in quantity; hence, more. It differs from the word for greater in v. 6, which means greater in external size or measure. Christ, as the Prophet sent by God to His people (Deut. 18:15, 18), is more than Jonah the prophet. Jonah was the prophet who turned from Israel to the Gentiles and was put into the belly of the great fish. After remaining there for three days, he came out to become a sign to that generation for repentance (Jonah 1:2, 17; 3:2-10). This was a type of Christ, who would turn from Israel to the Gentiles and who would be buried in the heart of the earth for three days and then be resurrected, becoming a sign to this generation for salvation.
Mt 12:42a queen  -   1 Kings 10:1; 2 Chron. 9:1
Mt 12:421b more  -   Matt. 12:6, 41
See note 411. Christ, as the Son of David, as the King, is more than Solomon the king. Solomon built the temple of God and spoke the word of wisdom. To him the Gentile queen came (1 Kings 6:2; 10:1-8). This too was a type of Christ, who is building the church, making it the temple of God, and is speaking the word of wisdom. To Him the Gentile seekers turn.
This type, and that in v. 41, indicate that Christ, whether as the Prophet sent by God or as the King anointed by God, would turn from Israel to the Gentiles, as prophesied in vv. 18 and 21.
According to history King Solomon preceded Jonah the prophet. But according to spiritual significance Jonah came first, as recorded in Matthew. This too shows that Matthew’s record is not according to the sequence of history but according to the sequence of doctrine (see note 161, par. 2, in ch. 8). According to doctrine, first Christ had to die and be resurrected; then He would build the church and speak the word of wisdom. Christ’s death and resurrection are the real sign to this generation, to both the Jews and the Gentiles (1 Cor. 1:22, 24).
Mt 12:43a When  -   vv. 43-45: Luke 11:24-26
Mt 12:431 waterless
The unclean spirit, a demon (v. 22), seeks rest but cannot find it in waterless places because the lodging place of demons, after God’s judgment by water in Gen. 1:2, is the sea. (See Life-study of Genesis, Message Two.) Since a demon cannot find rest in dry places, it returns to the human body that it originally possessed and settles down there (vv. 44-45).
Mt 12:451 this
Doctrinally, v. 43 continues v. 22. Between these two verses is a record of the Jews’ rejection of Christ and of Christ’s forsaking of them. Here the Lord likened the evil generation of the rejecting Jews to the demon-possessed man. In the eyes of the Lord the rejecting Jews were like the demon-possessed people. The signs of Jonah and Solomon indicated that the Gentiles would repent, but the case of the demon-possessed man indicated that the rejecting Jews would not repent. They would only sweep away the dirt and decorate by adding good things to beautify themselves. They would not receive Christ and allow Him to fill them. Rather, they would remain empty and unoccupied. This is the actual condition of today’s Jews. Near the end of this age they will be seven times more possessed by demons, and their state will become worse than ever.
Mt 12:45a evil  -   Matt. 12:39
Mt 12:46a While  -   vv. 46-50: Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21
Mt 12:46b mother  -   Matt. 13:55; John 2:12
Mt 12:46c brothers  -   Matt. 13:55; John 2:12; 7:3, 5; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5
Mt 12:481 Who
This indicates that the heavenly King forsook His relationship in the flesh with the Jews. In this chapter the Jews’ rejection of Christ, having reached its climax, caused Christ to forsake them fully. At this point the break between them and Christ began, and they were severed from Christ (Rom. 11:17, 19-20).
Mt 12:501a does  -   Matt. 7:21
After breaking with the Jews, Christ turned to the Gentiles. Thenceforth His relationship with His followers was not in the flesh but in the spirit. Whoever does the will of His Father is a brother who helps Him, a sister who sympathizes with Him, and a mother who tenderly loves Him.
Mt 12:50b brother  -   Matt. 28:10; John 20:17; Heb. 2:11
Matthew Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 13:11a On  -   vv. 1-9: Mark 4:1-9; Luke 8:4-8
At the end of ch. 12 the heavenly King, having been fully rejected by the leaders of the Jewish religion, made a break with them. On that day He went out of the house and sat beside the sea. This is very significant. The house signifies the house of Israel (10:6), and the sea signifies the Gentile world (Dan. 7:3, 17; Rev. 17:15). The King’s going out of the house to sit beside the sea signifies that after His break with the Jews, He forsook the house of Israel and turned to the Gentiles. It was after this, while on the seashore, that He gave the parables concerning the mysteries of the kingdom. This signifies that the mysteries of the kingdom were revealed in the church. Hence, all the parables in this chapter were spoken to His disciples, not to the Jews.
Mt 13:1b house  -   Matt. 13:36; 8:14; 9:28
Mt 13:21a boat  -   Mark 3:9; Luke 5:3
The boat, which was in the sea but not of the sea, signifies the church, which is in the world but not of the world. It was in the boat, in the church, that the King of the heavenly kingdom, after forsaking the Jews and turning to the Gentiles, revealed in parables the mysteries of the kingdom.
Mt 13:31 Behold
In contrast to what He said in the other six parables (vv. 24, 31, 33, 44-45, 47), at the beginning of this parable, the first of the seven parables concerning the mysteries of the kingdom, the Lord did not say, “The kingdom of the heavens is (or, has become) like…,” because the kingdom of the heavens began with the second parable. In this first parable the Lord went out only to sow the seed for the kingdom. At that time the seed had not yet grown to be the crop for the formation of the kingdom. As the Lord said in His preaching at that time, the kingdom had not yet come but had only drawn near (4:17).
Mt 13:32a sower  -   Matt. 13:37
The sower was the Lord Himself (v. 37).
Mt 13:41a seeds  -   Matt. 13:19; Luke 8:11; cf. Matt. 13:38
The seeds are the word of the kingdom (v. 19), the Lord being in this word as life.
Mt 13:42b beside  -   Matt. 13:19
Beside the way refers to a place close to the way. It is hardened by the traffic of the way; thus, it is difficult for the seeds to penetrate it. The wayside signifies the heart that is hardened by worldly traffic and cannot open to understand, to comprehend, the word of the kingdom (v. 19).
Mt 13:43b birds  -   Matt. 13:19
The birds signify the evil one, Satan, who comes and snatches away the word of the kingdom sown in the hardened heart (v. 19).
Mt 13:51a rocky  -   Matt. 13:20
The rocky places that do not have much earth signify the heart that is shallow in receiving the word of the kingdom. Deep within such a heart are rocks — hidden sins, personal desires, self-seeking, and self-pity — which hinder the seed from taking root in the depths of the heart.
Mt 13:5b depth  -   Matt. 13:21
Mt 13:61a sun  -   Matt. 13:21; James 1:11
The sun with its scorching heat signifies affliction or persecution (v. 21). The scorching heat of the sun causes the seed that is not rooted to wither. The heat of the sun is for the growth and ripening of the crop, which take place once the seed has been deeply rooted. But because of the seed’s lack of root, the sun’s heat, which should cause growth and ripening, becomes a deathblow to the seed.
Mt 13:71a thorns  -   Matt. 13:22; Jer. 4:3
The thorns signify the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches, which utterly choke the word, preventing it from growing in the heart and causing it to become unfruitful (v. 22).
Mt 13:81a good  -   Matt. 13:23
The good earth signifies the good heart that is not hardened by worldly traffic, that is without hidden sins, and that is without the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches. Such a heart gives every inch of its ground to receive the word that the word may grow, bear fruit, and produce even a hundredfold (v. 23).
Mt 13:8b hundredfold  -   Gen. 26:12
Mt 13:91a ears  -   Matt. 13:43; 11:15
This word indicates that the opposing and rejecting Jews did not have ears to hear. Hence, they could not hear.
Mt 13:10a And  -   vv. 10-15: Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9-10
Mt 13:111a mysteries  -   Rom. 16:25; Eph. 5:32; 1 Tim. 3:16
The King of the heavenly kingdom used parables to reveal the things of the kingdom (v. 34) in order to make them mysteries to the opposing and rejecting Jews so that they would not understand them. From the time the King came to sow the seed until He comes back to reap the harvest, everything concerning the kingdom is a mystery to the natural mind. Only the enlightened mind of a submissive heart can understand these mysteries.
Mt 13:11b kingdom  -   Matt. 3:2
Mt 13:121a whoever  -   Matt. 25:29; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18; 19:26
This is the receiver and follower of the heavenly King; to such a one the revelation concerning the kingdom will be given in abundance.
Mt 13:122 whoever
This is the opposing and rejecting Jew, from whom what the heavenly King has spoken and done will be taken away. This is the real condition of the Jews today. They have no knowledge whatever concerning the kingdom of the heavens. It is altogether a mystery unknown to them.
Mt 13:13a not  -   Deut. 29:4; Isa. 29:10; Jer. 5:21; Ezek. 12:2; Rom. 11:8
Mt 13:14a In  -   Isa. 6:9-10; John 12:40; Acts 28:26
Mt 13:15a eyes  -   John 9:39, 41
Mt 13:16a blessed  -   Luke 10:23; Matt. 16:17; John 20:29
Mt 13:17a perceive  -   Luke 10:24; John 8:56; Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 1:10-12
Mt 13:171 see
What a blessing it is to see and hear the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom!
Mt 13:18a You  -   vv. 18-23: Mark 4:13-20; Luke 8:11-15
Mt 13:191a evil  -   Matt. 5:37
The evil one is the devil (vv. 38-39).
Mt 13:21a stumbled  -   Matt. 11:6; 13:57; John 6:61
Mt 13:22a anxiety  -   Matt. 6:31; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7
Mt 13:22b age  -   2 Cor. 4:4; Rom. 12:2; Gal. 1:4
Mt 13:22c riches  -   Matt. 19:23-24; Mark 10:23; 1 Tim. 6:9-10, 17
Mt 13:23a fruit  -   Col. 1:5-6
Mt 13:241a kingdom  -   Matt. 13:31, 33, 44, 45, 47; 3:2
In this, the second, parable the Lord began to say, “The kingdom of the heavens is (or, has become) like…,” because the kingdom of the heavens began to be established when this parable began to be fulfilled, i.e., on the day of Pentecost, when the church was built (16:18-19). It was from that time, after the church had been founded, that the tares, the false believers, were sown among the true believers, the wheat, forming the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 13:24b man  -   Matt. 13:37
Mt 13:24c seed  -   Matt. 13:38
Mt 13:251 men
The men were the slaves (v. 27), referring to the Lord’s slaves, mainly the apostles. It was when the Lord’s slaves were sleeping and were not watching that the Lord’s enemy, the devil, came and sowed false believers among the true.
Mt 13:25a enemy  -   Matt. 13:39
Mt 13:252b tares  -   Matt. 13:38; cf. 2 Pet. 2:13-14, 17-22; 2 Tim. 2:16-21
A tare is a kind of darnel, a weed resembling wheat. Its seeds are poisonous and can cause sleepiness, nausea, convulsions, and even death. The sprout and leaves of tares look the same as those of wheat. It is impossible to distinguish wheat from tares until the fruit is produced. The fruit of the wheat is golden yellow, but that of the tares is black.
Mt 13:253 wheat
In the Old Testament the children of Israel, who were in the kingdom of God, were likened to grapes growing in the vineyard (21:33-34), whereas in the New Testament the kingdom people, who are in the kingdom of the heavens, are likened to wheat growing in the field. The vineyard was fenced, limited, and included only the Jews, whereas the field is worldwide, open, unlimited, and includes all peoples.
Mt 13:281 collect
Root out in order to collect. So in the succeeding verses.
Mt 13:291 collecting
Both the tares and the wheat grow in the field, and the field is the world (v. 38). The false believers and the true live in the world. To collect the tares from the field means to take away the false believers from the world. The Lord did not want His slaves to do this, because while taking away the false believers from the world, they might also take the true ones away. The Catholic Church did this very much and by so doing killed many true believers.
Mt 13:301 grow
To grow together in the world, not in the church.
Mt 13:30a harvest  -   Matt. 13:39; Rev. 14:15
Mt 13:30b Collect  -   Matt. 13:40-41
Mt 13:30c burn  -   Matt. 13:40, 42; 3:12
Mt 13:30d wheat  -   Matt. 13:43; 3:12
Mt 13:31a Another  -   vv. 31-32: Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19
Mt 13:311b mustard  -   Matt. 17:20; Luke 17:6
The fruit of the wheat in the first two parables and the fruit of the mustard seed here in the third parable are for food. This indicates that the kingdom people, the constituents of the kingdom and of the church, should be like a crop that produces food for the satisfaction of God and man.
Mt 13:321 tree
The church, which is the embodiment of the kingdom, should be like an herb that produces food. However, its nature and function were changed, so that it became a “tree,” a lodging place for birds. (This is against the law of God’s creation, that is, that every plant must be according to its kind — Gen. 1:11-12.) This change happened in the first part of the fourth century, when Constantine the Great mixed the church with the world. He brought thousands of false believers into Christianity, making it Christendom, no longer the church. Hence, this third parable corresponds with the third of the seven churches in Rev. 2 and 3, the church in Pergamos (Rev. 2:12-17 — see note 121 there). The mustard is an annual herb, whereas the tree is a perennial plant. The church, according to its heavenly and spiritual nature, should be like the mustard, sojourning on the earth. But with its nature changed, the church became deeply rooted and settled as a tree in the earth, flourishing with its enterprises as the branches in which many evil persons and things are lodged. This resulted in the formation of the outward organization of the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 13:322a birds  -   Matt. 13:4; cf. Rev. 18:2
Since the birds in the first parable signify the evil one, Satan (vv. 4, 19), the birds of heaven here must refer to Satan’s evil spirits with the evil persons and things motivated by them. They lodge in the branches of the great tree, that is, in the enterprises of Christendom.
Mt 13:33a Another  -   Luke 13:20-21
Mt 13:331b leaven  -   Matt. 16:6, 11; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9; Lev. 2:5, 11
In the Scriptures leaven signifies evil things (1 Cor. 5:6, 8) and evil doctrines (16:6, 11-12).
Mt 13:332c woman  -   Rev. 2:20; 17:1, 3, 15
The church as the practical kingdom of the heavens, with Christ, the unleavened fine flour, as its content, must be a loaf of unleavened bread (1 Cor. 5:7-8). However, the Catholic Church, which was fully and officially formed in the sixth century and which is signified by the woman here, took in many pagan practices, heretical doctrines, and evil matters and mixed them with the teachings concerning Christ, leavening the whole content of Christianity. This mixture became the corrupted content of the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens. This fourth parable corresponds with the fourth of the seven churches in Rev. 2 and 3, the church in Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-29 — see note 201 there).
Mt 13:33d three  -   Gen. 18:6
Mt 13:333 meal
Meal, for making the meal offering (Lev. 2:1), signifies Christ as food to both God and man. Three measures is the quantity needed to make a full meal (Gen. 18:6). Hence, the hiding of the leaven in three measures of meal signifies that the Catholic Church has fully leavened in a hidden way all the teachings concerning Christ. This is the actual situation in the Roman Catholic Church. Such leavening is absolutely against the Scriptures, which strongly forbid putting any leaven into the meal offering (Lev. 2:4-5, 11).
Mt 13:34a parables  -   Mark 4:33-34
Mt 13:35a I  -   Psa. 78:2
Mt 13:35b hidden  -   Eph. 3:9; Rom. 16:25-26; 1 Cor. 2:7; Col. 1:26
Mt 13:351c from  -   Matt. 25:34; Heb. 4:3; Luke 11:50
The kingdom people were chosen by God before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), but the mysteries of the kingdom were hidden from the foundation of the world.
Mt 13:36a house  -   Matt. 13:1
Mt 13:36b parable  -   Matt. 13:24-30
Mt 13:37a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 13:381 good
This parable discloses that not long after the kingdom was established through the building of the church, the situation of the kingdom of the heavens changed. The kingdom was established with the sons of the kingdom, the wheat. But the sons of the evil one, the tares, grew up to alter the situation. Hence, a difference has arisen between the kingdom of the heavens and its outward appearance. The sons of the kingdom, the wheat, constitute the kingdom, whereas the sons of the evil one, the tares, have formed the outward appearance of the kingdom, which today is called Christendom.
Mt 13:38a sons  -   Matt. 8:12
Mt 13:38b sons  -   cf. John 8:44; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:10
Mt 13:39a devil  -   Matt. 4:1
Mt 13:39b consummation  -   Matt. 13:49; 24:3; 28:20; Dan. 12:13
Mt 13:41a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 13:411 His
The kingdom of the Son of Man, which is the earthly part of the millennium, the Messianic kingdom.
Mt 13:41b kingdom  -   Luke 1:32-33; Dan. 2:44; 7:14; Eph. 5:5; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 11:15; 1 Cor. 15:24
Mt 13:41c stumbling  -   Matt. 18:6-7; Luke 17:1-2
Mt 13:41d lawlessness  -   Matt. 23:28; 2 Thes. 2:7
Mt 13:421a furnace  -   Matt. 13:50
The lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 15).
Mt 13:422b weeping  -   Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30
See note 123 in ch. 8.
Mt 13:431 righteous
The sons of the kingdom (v. 38), who are the overcomers.
Mt 13:43a shine  -   Dan. 12:3; Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:15; Prov. 4:18
Mt 13:432b kingdom  -   Matt. 6:10, 13; 26:29; Luke 12:32
The kingdom of the Father is the heavenly part of the millennium, the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens as a reward to the overcomers.
Mt 13:43c ears  -   Matt. 13:9
Mt 13:441 treasure
The previous three parables, concerning the outward appearance of the kingdom, were spoken publicly by the heavenly King in a boat to the crowds (vv. 2, 34), whereas the three succeeding parables were given privately in a house to the disciples (v. 36). This indicates that the things covered by these latter three parables are more hidden. The first parable concerns a treasure hidden in the field. The treasure hidden in the field must consist of gold or precious stones, the materials for the building of the church and the New Jerusalem (1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18-20). Since the church is the practical kingdom today, and since the New Jerusalem will be the kingdom in manifestation in the coming age, the treasure hidden in the field must signify the kingdom hidden on God’s created earth.
Mt 13:442a field  -   Matt. 13:38
The field is the earth created by God for His kingdom (Gen. 1:26-28).
Mt 13:443 man
The man here is Christ, who found the kingdom of the heavens in 4:12 — 12:23, hid it in 12:24 — 13:43, and in His joy went to the cross in 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; and 26:1 — 27:52 to sell all that He had and to buy the field, i.e., redeem the created and lost earth, for the kingdom.
Mt 13:44b hid  -   Matt. 11:25
Mt 13:44c buys  -   Col. 1:20
Mt 13:451 merchant
The merchant also is Christ, who was seeking the church for His kingdom. After finding it in 16:18 and 18:17, He went to the cross and sold all that He had and bought it for the kingdom.
Mt 13:461a pearl  -   Rev. 21:21; cf. Matt. 7:6
The pearl, produced in the death waters (the world filled with death) by the living oyster (the living Christ) that is wounded by a little rock (the sinner) and secretes its life-juice around the wounding rock (the believer — see note 211 in Rev. 21), is material for the building of the New Jerusalem. Since the pearl comes out of the sea, which signifies the world corrupted by Satan (Isa. 57:20; Rev. 17:15), it must refer to the church, which is constituted mainly of regenerated believers from the Gentile world and which is of great value.
Mt 13:46b bought  -   Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:25
Mt 13:471a net  -   vv. 47-50: Matt. 25:32-46
Lit., dragnet. This parable corresponds with that in 25:32-46. The net here signifies not the gospel of grace, which is preached in the church age, but the eternal gospel, which will be preached to the Gentile world during the great tribulation (Rev. 14:6-7 — see note 61 there).
Mt 13:472 sea
The sea signifies the Gentile world.
Mt 13:473 every
Every species signifies all the nations, all the Gentiles (25:32).
Mt 13:481 good
The good are the “sheep,” who are justified; the foul are the “goats,” who are condemned (25:32).
Mt 13:49a consummation  -   Matt. 13:39
Mt 13:501a furnace  -   Matt. 13:42
The lake of fire (25:41; Rev. 20:10, 15).
Mt 13:502b weeping  -   Matt. 8:12
See note 123 in ch. 8.
Mt 13:52a scribe  -   Matt. 2:4
Mt 13:52b discipled  -   Matt. 28:19; Acts 14:21
Mt 13:521 treasure
After giving the seven parables concerning the mysteries of the kingdom, the Lord likened the discipled scribe to a householder who has a treasure, a rich store of things new and old, signifying not only the new and old knowledge of the Scriptures but also the new and old experiences of life in the kingdom.
Mt 13:52c new  -   S.S. 7:13
Mt 13:54a And  -   vv. 54-58: Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4:16, 22-24
Mt 13:54b synagogue  -   Matt. 4:23
Mt 13:54c astounded  -   Matt. 7:28
Mt 13:54d wisdom  -   Luke 2:52; John 8:28; 1 Cor. 1:24
Mt 13:551 carpenter’s
In 12:24 the Pharisees opposed and rejected Christ to the uttermost. Here the Galileans knew Him according to the flesh, not according to the spirit (2 Cor. 5:16). They were blinded by their natural knowledge.
Mt 13:55a son  -   Luke 3:23; John 6:42
Mt 13:55b mother  -   Matt. 12:46
Mt 13:55c brothers  -   John 7:3; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5
Mt 13:57a stumbled  -   Matt. 13:21
Mt 13:57b prophet  -   John 4:44
Mt 13:581 not
The rejection by the Pharisees caused the heavenly King to forsake them. The unbelief of the Galileans caused the Lord not to do many works of power among them.
Matthew Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 14:1a At  -   vv. 1-12: Mark 6:14-29; Luke 9:7-9
Mt 14:1b Herod  -   Luke 3:1; Acts 13:1
Mt 14:2a John  -   Matt. 16:14
Mt 14:2b works  -   Matt. 13:54
Mt 14:21 are
I.e., are operating and are being manifested.
Mt 14:3a prison  -   Matt. 4:12; Luke 3:20
Mt 14:3b Herodias  -   Luke 3:19
Mt 14:4a not  -   cf. Lev. 18:16; 20:21
Mt 14:5a held  -   Matt. 21:26; Luke 20:6
Mt 14:5b prophet  -   Matt. 11:9
Mt 14:6a birthday  -   cf. Gen. 40:20
Mt 14:101 beheaded
In 12:24 the Jewish religious leaders, representing the entire nation of the Jews, rejected the heavenly King to the uttermost. This forced Him to forsake His natural relationship with them (12:46-50). Then in 13:53-58 He was rejected by the Galileans also. Now in ch. 14, Matthew, in his arranging of events according to doctrine, unveils to us how Gentile politics treated the King’s forerunner. It was evil and full of corruption and darkness. To this point Matthew has given a full picture of the Jews’, the Galileans’, and the Gentiles’ rejection of the ministry of the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 14:12a disciples  -   Matt. 9:14; 11:2
Mt 14:13a And  -   vv. 13-21: Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13
Mt 14:131 withdrew
Because He had been rejected by the people in religious, cultured, and political circles, the heavenly King departed from them and withdrew to a deserted place privately. This indicates that thenceforth He would hide Himself in a deserted place, in a place without culture, away from the religious, cultured, and political circles. He did this by means of a boat, implying that He would do this through the church. Because He has been rejected by the civilized world, the Lord, through the church, has always hidden Himself in a realm without much culture, away from religious and political circles.
Mt 14:132 followed
In spite of the rejection by all kinds of people, there were still a large number of people who followed the heavenly King. They did this by leaving their cities. It was not that the King came to their cities to visit them, but that they left their cultured cities to follow Him in a deserted place. Through all the centuries the true followers of Christ have left cultured spheres to follow their heavenly King outside the cultured world.
Mt 14:14a compassion  -   Matt. 9:36
Mt 14:151 late
Lit., passed.
Mt 14:161a give  -   2 Kings 4:42-44
The disciples asked the Lord to send the crowds away so that the crowds could go to buy food for themselves (v. 15), but the Lord told the disciples to give the crowds something to eat. The disciples’ concept was to ask people to do something; this is the principle of the law. But the Lord’s concept is to give people something to enjoy; this is the principle of grace.
Mt 14:162 eat
In this record of the miracle, the Holy Spirit’s intention in His inspiration is to show that what the followers of the heavenly King actually need is the proper food to satisfy their hunger. The disciples of Christ did not know this, nor did the crowds who followed. The heavenly King knew this and did something in a miraculous way to impress them with their real need and His provision for that need. All that they needed was His resurrection life, which would satisfy their spiritual hunger, as signified in this miracle.
What the heavenly King did indicates strongly and clearly that He provides for the necessities of His followers while they follow Him in this rejecting world. This corresponds with His word in the heavenly constitution saying that the kingdom people need not be anxious about what they will eat (6:31-33).
Mt 14:171 loaves
John 6:9 tells us that these five loaves were barley loaves. Barley is a type of the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10). Thus, the barley loaves signify Christ in resurrection as food to us. Loaves are of the vegetable life, signifying the generating aspect of Christ’s life, whereas fish are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. For our spiritual hunger to be satisfied, we need Christ’s generating life as well as His redeeming life. Both aspects are symbolized by small items — loaves and fish. This indicates that in this age the heavenly King came to His followers not as a great King to reign over them but as small pieces of food to feed them. See note 92 in John 6.
Mt 14:181 Bring
Whatever we have of the Lord should be brought to the Lord that it may become a great blessing to many others. Often the Lord uses what we offer to Him to provide for the need of many others. It is in this way that He provides for His followers’ need today also.
Mt 14:191 recline
This was to put the people into good order and showed the Lord’s wisdom and orderliness.
Mt 14:19a five  -   Matt. 16:9
Mt 14:192b looking  -   Mark 7:34; John 11:41; 17:1
By looking up to heaven the heavenly King indicated that His source was His Father who is in the heavens.
Mt 14:19c blessed  -   Matt. 26:26; Mark 8:7
Mt 14:193d broke  -   Matt. 15:36; 26:26; 1 Cor. 10:16
Whatever we bring to the Lord must be broken that it may become a blessing to others.
Mt 14:194 gave
The loaves were from the disciples, who brought them to the Lord. After being blessed and broken by the Lord, the loaves were given back to the disciples for distribution to the crowds, to whom the loaves became a great satisfaction. This indicates that the disciples were not the source of blessing; they were only the channels used by the Lord, who is the source of the people’s satisfaction.
Mt 14:20a broken  -   cf. Matt. 15:37; 2 Kings 4:44
Mt 14:201 twelve
That there were twelve handbaskets full of broken pieces indicates not only that the resurrected Christ is unlimited and inexhaustible but also that the Lord’s provision for us is abundant, more than sufficient to meet all our need.
Mt 14:22a And  -   vv. 22-33: Mark 6:45-52; John 6:15-21
Mt 14:221 compelled
The Lord compelled the disciples to leave Him in order that He might have more time to pray privately to the Father (v. 23).
Mt 14:231a pray  -   Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28
Standing in the position of man (4:4), the heavenly King, as the beloved Son of the Father (3:17), needed to pray privately to His Father who was in the heavens, that He might be one with the Father and have the Father with Him in whatever He did on earth for the establishing of the kingdom of the heavens. He did this not in the deserted place but on the mountain, leaving all the people, even His disciples, that He might be alone to contact the Father.
Mt 14:232 night
Lit., evening. The time here is later than in v. 15. Thus, the word is rendered night here.
Mt 14:241 in
Some ancient MSS read, was already many stadia away from the land. (A stadion is approximately six hundred feet.)
Mt 14:251 fourth
The Roman guards kept four night watches, each of three hours, from sunset to sunrise. The first watch was the evening watch, the second the midnight watch, the third the cockcrowing watch, and the fourth the morning watch (Mark 13:35). The fourth watch was probably from three to six o’clock in the morning.
Mt 14:25a watch  -   Mark 13:35
Mt 14:252b walking  -   Job 9:8
While His disciples were distressed by the waves, the Lord walked on the sea. This testifies that He is the Creator and the Ruler of the universe (Job 9:8).
Mt 14:26a startled  -   Luke 24:37
Mt 14:27a courage  -   John 16:33
Mt 14:271 It
Or, I am.
Mt 14:27b not  -   Matt. 17:7; 28:10; Isa. 41:13; 43:1-2
Mt 14:301 seeing
Peter came down from the boat and walked on the water by faith in the Lord’s word (v. 29); however, when he saw the strong wind, his faith vanished. He should have walked by faith in the Lord’s word, not by looking at the circumstances (i.e., by sight). In following the Lord we should walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
Mt 14:30a save  -   Matt. 8:25
Mt 14:31a little  -   Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 16:8
Mt 14:311b doubt  -   James 1:6
Since the Lord said to Peter, “Come” (v. 29), Peter should have stood on that word and should not have doubted. Hence, the Lord rebuked him. Faith comes from the Lord’s word and stands on the Lord’s word. As long as we have the Lord’s word, we should simply believe in His word and not doubt.
Mt 14:321 wind
This miracle testifies not only that the Lord is the Ruler of the heavens and the earth but also that He takes care of the hardships endured by His followers as they follow Him on the way. When we have the Lord in our boat, the wind ceases. The record of the two miracles in this chapter implies that during the time that Christ was being rejected by people in the religious and political circles, He and His followers were in a deserted place and on a stormy sea. Whatever the situation, He was able to provide for their need and carry them through the hardships.
Mt 14:33a worshipped  -   Matt. 8:2; 15:25
Mt 14:331b Son  -   Matt. 27:54; 3:17; 16:16; 17:5
To recognize that the Lord is the Son of God is to realize that He is equal to God (John 5:18). This indicates that the disciples acknowledged the Lord’s divinity (1:23; 3:17).
Mt 14:34a And  -   vv. 34-36: Mark 6:53-56
Mt 14:34b Gennesaret  -   Luke 5:1
Mt 14:361a fringe  -   Matt. 9:20
See note 204 in ch. 9.
Mt 14:36b touched  -   Matt. 9:21
Mt 14:362 healed
Lit., saved.
Matthew Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 15:1a Then  -   vv. 1-20: Mark 7:1-23
Mt 15:11 came
Although the Lord forsook the rejecting religionists, they still would not cease troubling Him. They came to Him from their religious center, Jerusalem, in order to find fault with Him. However, their troubling afforded Him another opportunity to reveal the truth concerning genuine cleanness (vv. 10-11, 15-20).
Mt 15:1b Jerusalem  -   Mark 3:22; John 1:19
Mt 15:21 transgress
This reveals that in following the Lord the disciples did not keep traditions. They cared only for the heavenly King’s presence, not for anything else.
Mt 15:2a tradition  -   Gal. 1:14; Col. 2:8
Mt 15:2b not  -   Luke 11:38
Mt 15:31 transgress
The Jewish religionists accused the Lord’s disciples of transgressing their tradition, but the Lord condemned the religionists for transgressing the commandment of God because of their tradition. They cared for their tradition, but they ignored God’s commandment. In principle, the religious people today do the same thing. The Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant denominations make void the word of God because of their traditions.
Mt 15:41a Honor  -   Exo. 20:12; Deut. 5:16; Eph. 6:2
The Lord’s dealing here with the Pharisees and scribes not only condemned them for making void the word of God because of their tradition but also implied that man should honor his parents. God in His government among men has ordained that man should honor his parents. He has made this the first commandment among the Ten Commandments that concerns human relationships (Exo. 20:12). Fallen human nature, however, always prompts man to ignore his parents, that is, to rebel against God’s government. In order to bring man back to God’s government, the Lord as the heavenly King emphasized that man should honor his parents. This corresponds with His word in the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens concerning the fulfillment of the law (5:17-19). Hence, the apostle also emphasized this matter strongly (Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:20). We, the kingdom people, must honor our parents and not excuse ourselves as the Jewish religionists did. To make any excuse indicates that we are not under the heavenly ruling but are following our fallen nature and the rebellious trend of today’s generation.
Mt 15:42b speaks  -   Exo. 21:17; Lev. 20:9; Prov. 20:20
Or, slanders, insults.
Mt 15:43 be
Lit., decease by death; meaning to die by being put to death. The Greek word for decease means come to one’s end. Hence, this phrase means come to one’s end by being put to death. It is quoted from two verses in the Septuagint — Exo. 21:17 and Lev. 20:9. In those two verses it was translated from the Hebrew idiom.
Mt 15:51 gift
An offering to God.
Mt 15:71a Hypocrites  -   Matt. 23:13
See note 22 in ch. 6.
Mt 15:8a This  -   Isa. 29:13
Mt 15:81 heart
The heavenly ruling of the kingdom requires inward reality, not mere outward practice. Such ruling deals with the real condition of the heart, not with the expression of the lips.
Mt 15:91 vain
This reveals that some worship offered to God may be in vain. The main cause of this is to consider as teachings the commandments of men. We must worship God according to His word, which is the truth.
Mt 15:9a commandments  -   Titus 1:14
Mt 15:10a Hear  -   Matt. 13:23, 51
Mt 15:11a defiles  -   cf. Acts 10:14-15; Rom. 14:14, 20; 1 Tim. 4:3-4; Titus 1:15
Mt 15:111 defiles
I.e., makes the man common, unclean (Acts 11:8). So in vv. 18 and 20. In the kingdom life, defilement is not an outward matter but an inward matter.
Mt 15:131 not
This word from the heavenly King indicates that the hypocritical Pharisees had not been planted by the heavenly Father. Because of their rejection of the heavenly King, they were uprooted from the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 15:13a planted  -   Isa. 60:21; 61:3
Mt 15:13b rooted  -   Jude 12
Mt 15:141a blind  -   Matt. 23:16, 24; Isa. 9:16; 56:10; Luke 6:39
The self-righteous and arrogant religionists thought that they were clear concerning the way to serve God, not realizing that they were blind guides of the blind. Their eyes were veiled by their religion with their traditions; hence, they could not see the reality of God’s economy and thus were not able to enter into the kingdom of the heavens. Their blindness led them to “fall into a pit.”
Mt 15:16a without  -   Matt. 16:9
Mt 15:17a stomach  -   1 Cor. 6:13
Mt 15:18a defile  -   James 3:6
Mt 15:19a heart  -   Matt. 12:34; Jer. 17:9
Mt 15:191b evil  -   Matt. 9:4; Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Prov. 6:14
In the kingdom of the heavens, defilement is not related to material things but to moral matters. Material things have nothing to do with the heavenly ruling, but moral matters do. That so many evils issue from our heart proves that we are not under the heavenly ruling.
Mt 15:19c adulteries  -   Matt. 5:27-28
Mt 15:21a And  -   vv. 21-28: Mark 7:24-30
Mt 15:211b Tyre  -   Matt. 11:21
The further troubling by the rejecting religionists caused the heavenly King to depart farther from them, even into the districts of Tyre and Sidon, into a Gentile land.
Mt 15:221a Canaanite  -   Gen. 10:15, 19; Judg. 1:28-33
Because of the rejection by the religious Jews, the opportunity to contact the heavenly King came to the Gentiles, even to a weak Gentile woman.
Mt 15:222 Lord
The title Lord implies Christ’s divinity, and the title Son of David, His humanity. It was proper for this woman, a Gentile, to address Christ as “Lord.” However, she had no right to call Him “Son of David”; only the children of Israel were privileged to do so.
Mt 15:22b Son  -   Matt. 9:27
Mt 15:241 sent
The Lord was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. However, at this time He came to a Gentile region, thus affording the Gentiles an opportunity to participate in His grace. This bears dispensational significance, showing that Christ came to the Jews first and that because of their unbelief, His salvation turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46; Rom. 11:11).
Mt 15:24a house  -   Matt. 10:6
Mt 15:251a worshipped  -   Matt. 8:2
As she would worship God.
Mt 15:252 Lord
This second time she addressed Christ only as “Lord,” not as “Son of David,” because she realized that she was not a child of Israel but a heathen.
Mt 15:261 bread
The heavenly King’s ministry in all His visits created opportunities for Him to reveal Himself further. In the situations created in chs. 9 and 12, He had opportunities to reveal Himself as the Physician, the Bridegroom, the new cloth, the new wine, the Shepherd, the real David, the greater temple, the Lord of the harvest, the One who is more than Jonah, and the One who is more than Solomon. Here another opportunity was created for Him to reveal Himself, this time as the children’s bread. The Canaanite woman considered Him the Lord — a divine person — and the Son of David — a royal descendant, great and high in His reign. But He unveiled Himself to her as small pieces of bread, good for food. This implies that as the heavenly King, He rules over His people by feeding them with Himself as bread. We can be the proper people in His kingdom only by being nourished with Him as our food. To eat Christ as our supply is the way to be the kingdom people in the reality of the kingdom.
Mt 15:262 little
This indicates that in the eyes of the Lord all the heathen are dogs, which are unclean in the eyes of God (Lev. 11:27).
Mt 15:26a dogs  -   Matt. 7:6; Phil. 3:2; 2 Pet. 2:22; Rev. 22:15
Mt 15:271 crumbs
The Canaanite woman, not offended by the Lord’s word but admitting that she was a heathen dog, considered that at that time Christ, after being rejected by the children, the Jews, became crumbs under the table as a portion to the Gentiles. The holy land of Israel was the table on which Christ, the heavenly bread, had come as a portion to the children of Israel. But they threw Him off the table to the ground, the Gentile land, so that He became broken crumbs as a portion to the Gentiles. What a realization this Gentile woman had at that time! No wonder the heavenly King admired her faith (v. 28).
Mt 15:27a table  -   Luke 16:21
Mt 15:28a faith  -   Matt. 8:10; 9:2
Mt 15:28b done  -   Matt. 8:13
Mt 15:28c hour  -   Matt. 9:22; John 4:52-53
Mt 15:29a And  -   vv. 29-31: Mark 7:31-37
Mt 15:29b Sea  -   Matt. 4:18
Mt 15:291 Galilee
Because He had been rejected by the Jewish religion, the Lord remained in Galilee of the Gentiles as the healing light. He would not go to Jerusalem, the Jews’ religious center, to heal the Jews (13:15).
Mt 15:29c mountain  -   Matt. 5:1; John 6:3
Mt 15:301 laid
Lit., cast.
Mt 15:31a dumb  -   Matt. 9:33
Mt 15:31b blind  -   Matt. 11:5; Isa. 35:5-6
Mt 15:31c glorified  -   Matt. 9:8
Mt 15:31d God  -   Isa. 29:23; Luke 1:68
Mt 15:32a And  -   vv. 32-39: Mark 8:1-10
Mt 15:32b compassion  -   Matt. 9:36
Mt 15:321 not
Christ would not allow His followers to hunger and faint on the way while they followed Him.
Mt 15:331 desolate
Even in the barren wilderness the Lord was able to feed His followers and satisfy them, regardless of how many there were. The disciples had experienced this before, in 14:15-21; however, it seems that they had not learned the lesson of faith. Here they set their eyes on the environment instead of on the Lord. Yet the Lord’s presence was better than a rich store.
Mt 15:33a satisfy  -   2 Kings 4:43
Mt 15:341 How
The Lord always wants to use what we have to bless others.
Mt 15:361 took
If we offer all that we have to the Lord, He will take it, break it, and give it back to us for distribution to others, to whom it will become a satisfying and overflowing blessing (v. 37). Whatever we offer to the Lord, however little it is, will be multiplied by His blessing hand to meet the need of a great multitude (v. 38); thereby His desire is fulfilled (v. 32).
Mt 15:36a seven  -   Matt. 16:10
Mt 15:36b thanks  -   Matt. 26:27; John 6:11; Acts 27:35
Mt 15:37a broken  -   cf. Matt. 14:20; 2 Kings 4:44
Matthew Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 16:1a And  -   vv. 1-12: Mark 8:11-21
Mt 16:1b testing  -   Matt. 22:18, 35; Luke 11:16; John 8:6
Mt 16:11c sign  -   Matt. 12:38; 1 Cor. 1:22
See note 381 in ch. 12. So in the succeeding verses.
Mt 16:21 When
The words from this point to the end of v. 3 are omitted by some ancient authorities.
Mt 16:31 face
I.e., appearance.
Mt 16:3a discern  -   Luke 12:54-56
Mt 16:32 discern
See note 565 in Luke 12.
Mt 16:4a evil  -   Matt. 12:39
Mt 16:41 sign
Jonah was the prophet who turned from Israel to the Gentiles and was put into the belly of the great fish. After remaining there for three days, he emerged to become a sign to that generation for repentance (Jonah 1:2, 17; 3:2-10). He was a type of Christ, who, as the Prophet sent by God to His people (Deut. 18:15, 18), would turn from Israel to the Gentiles, would be buried in the heart of the earth for three days, and would then be resurrected, becoming a sign to that generation for salvation. The Lord’s word here implies that for that evil and adulterous Jewish and religious generation, the Lord would do nothing but die and be resurrected as a sign, the greatest sign, to them that they might be saved if they would believe.
Mt 16:4b Jonah  -   Matt. 12:39-40
Mt 16:4c left  -   Matt. 21:17
Mt 16:51 bread
From 15:1 through 16:12 Matthew’s record is very much concerned with the matter of eating. Eating unclean things may defile us. Eating is the way to partake of Christ (15:21-28), and by eating we feed on the unlimited and inexhaustibly rich supply of Christ (15:32-39). But we must beware of eating any leaven (vv. 5-12).
Mt 16:6a leaven  -   Matt. 13:33; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9
Mt 16:8a little  -   Matt. 6:30; 8:26; 14:31
Mt 16:9a five  -   Matt. 14:17-21; John 6:9-13
Mt 16:91 handbaskets
A basket used for a journey.
Mt 16:10a seven  -   Matt. 15:34-38
Mt 16:101 baskets
Larger than the handbaskets in v. 9.
Mt 16:121 teaching
Referring to the things taught. The teaching of the Pharisees was hypocritical (23:13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29), and the teaching of the Sadducees, which denied the resurrection, angels, and spirits (Acts 23:8), was like today’s modernism. Hence, both the teaching of the Pharisees and the teaching of the Sadducees were impure and evil and were likened to leaven, which was not to be seen among God’s people (Exo. 13:7).
Mt 16:13a Now  -   vv. 13-16: Mark 8:27-29; Luke 9:18-20
Mt 16:131 Caesarea
In the northern part of the Holy Land, close to the border, at the foot of Mount Hermon, on which the Lord was transfigured (17:1-2). It was far from the holy city and the holy temple, where the atmosphere of the old Jewish religion filled every man’s thought, leaving no room for Christ, the new King. The Lord brought His disciples purposely to such a place with its clear atmosphere that their thought might be released from the effects of the religious surroundings in the holy city and holy temple and that He might reveal to them something new concerning Himself and the church, which are the pulse of His heavenly kingdom. It was in Caesarea Philippi that the vision concerning Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, came to Peter (vv. 16-17). It was there also that the church was revealed and mentioned for the first time as the means of bringing in the kingdom of the heavens (vv. 18-19).
Mt 16:132b Son  -   Matt. 8:20
As a man, Christ was a mystery to that generation, as He is to people today.
Mt 16:141 Some
Without heavenly revelation people can realize, at most, only that Christ is the greatest among the prophets; no one can know that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God (v. 16).
Mt 16:14a John  -   Matt. 14:2
Mt 16:14b Elijah  -   Mark 9:11; Luke 9:8; John 1:21
Mt 16:161a Christ  -   Matt. 1:16; John 11:27; 20:31; Acts 9:22
The Christ refers to the One concerning whom God prophesied in the Old Testament through the prophets and whom His saints through the ages looked for (John 1:41, 45; Luke 2:25-26; 3:15), the One who would come to accomplish the will of God (Heb. 10:5-7).
The Christ, referring to the anointed One of God, speaks of the Lord’s commission, whereas the Son of the living God, referring to the second of the Triune God, speaks of His person. His commission is to accomplish God’s eternal purpose through His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second coming, whereas His person embodies the Father and consummates in the Spirit for a full expression of the Triune God.
Mt 16:16b Son  -   Matt. 3:17; 17:5; Acts 9:20; 1 John 4:15; 5:5
See note 161.
Mt 16:162c living  -   Deut. 5:26; Acts 14:15; 2 Cor. 3:3; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:12
The living God is in contrast to dead religion. The Lord is the embodiment of the living God, having nothing to do with dead religion.
Mt 16:17a Blessed  -   Matt. 13:16
Mt 16:17b Simon  -   John 1:42; 21:15-17
Mt 16:171 Barjona
I.e., son of Jonah.
Mt 16:172c flesh  -   Gal. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:50; Heb. 2:14
Flesh and blood refers to the natural man, who was created and became fallen.
Mt 16:17d revealed  -   Eph. 1:17; 3:5; Gal. 1:16
Mt 16:173 Father
Only the Father knows the Son (11:27); hence, only He can reveal the Son to us.
Mt 16:181 also
The Father’s revelation concerning Christ is only the first half of the great mystery, which is Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). Hence, the Lord needed to reveal to Peter the second half also, which concerns the church.
Mt 16:182a Peter  -   John 1:42
Or, a stone; material for God’s building (1 Pet. 2:5).
Mt 16:183 this
This rock refers not only to Christ but also to this revelation concerning Christ, a revelation that Peter received from the Father. The church is built on Christ and on this revelation concerning Christ.
Mt 16:18b rock  -   Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:4; 1 Cor. 3:11
Mt 16:184c build  -   Eph. 2:20-22; 4:16
The Lord’s building of His church began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 41-42). Yet the Lord’s prophecy here still has not been fulfilled, even up to the twentieth century. The Lord is not building His church in Christendom, which is composed of the apostate Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations. This prophecy is being fulfilled through the Lord’s recovery, in which the building of the genuine church is being accomplished.
Mt 16:185d church  -   Matt. 18:17; Rom. 16:16
Gk. ekklesia, meaning an out-calling. This word is used in reference to a called-out congregation. My church indicates that the church is of the Lord, not of any other person or thing; it is not like the denominations, which are denominated according to some person’s name or according to some matter.
Mt 16:186e gates  -   Isa. 38:10
Gates of Hades refers to Satan’s authority or power of darkness (Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18), which cannot prevail against the genuine church built by Christ upon this revelation concerning Him as the rock, with stones such as Peter, a transformed human being. This word of the Lord’s indicates also that Satan’s power of darkness will attack the church. Hence, there is spiritual warfare between Satan’s power, which is his kingdom, and the church, which is God’s kingdom.
Mt 16:18f Hades  -   S.S. 8:6; Rev. 1:18
Mt 16:18g against  -   cf. Eph. 6:12
Mt 16:191a keys  -   cf. Isa. 22:22; Rev. 1:18; 3:7
According to history there were two keys. Peter used one on the day of Pentecost to open the gate so that the Jewish believers could enter the kingdom of the heavens (Acts 2:38-42), and he used the other in the house of Cornelius to open the gate so that the Gentile believers could enter (Acts 10:34-48).
Mt 16:192 kingdom
Kingdom of the heavens is used here interchangeably for church, which is used in the previous verse. This is a strong proof that the genuine church is the kingdom of the heavens in this age. This is confirmed by Rom. 14:17, in which the kingdom of God is mentioned in obvious reference to the proper church life.
Mt 16:193b bind  -   Matt. 18:18; cf. John 20:23
This Gospel is concerned with the kingdom of the heavens, which is a matter of authority. The church revealed in this book represents the kingdom with its reign. Hence, the authority to bind and to loose was given not only to Peter, the apostle for the church here, but also to the church itself (18:17-18).
Mt 16:194 have
Whatever the church people bind or loose on earth must be something that has already been bound or loosed in the heavens. We can bind or loose only what has already been bound or loosed in the heavens.
Mt 16:201 not
The revelation concerning Christ with His church is always hidden from religious people.
Mt 16:20a anyone  -   Luke 9:21
Mt 16:21a From  -   vv. 21-28: Mark 8:31–9:1; Luke 9:22-27
Mt 16:211 must
After the revelation of the great mystery concerning Christ and the church, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ were unveiled. In order for Christ to build His church, He had to go to the religious center, pass through crucifixion, and enter into resurrection.
Mt 16:21b Jerusalem  -   Matt. 20:17-18; Luke 13:33
Mt 16:21c killed  -   Matt. 17:23; 20:18-19; Luke 18:33
Mt 16:221 no
The natural man is never willing to take the cross.
Mt 16:231a Satan  -   Matt. 4:10
Christ perceived that it was not Peter but Satan who was frustrating Him from taking the cross. This reveals that our natural man, which is not willing to take the cross, is one with Satan.
Mt 16:232 You
Or, You are a snare to Me.
Mt 16:233 not
When we are setting our mind not on the things of God but on the things of men, we become Satan, a stumbling block to the Lord on His way to fulfill God’s purpose.
Mt 16:23b mind  -   Rom. 8:6
Mt 16:241 deny
To deny our self is to lose our soul-life, the natural life (v. 25; Luke 9:24).
Mt 16:242 himself
Three terms in vv. 23-25 are related to one another: mind, himself, and soul-life. Our mind is the expression of our self, and our self is the embodiment of our soul-life. Our soul-life is embodied in and lived out by our self, and our self is expressed through our mind, our thought, our concept, our opinion. When we set our mind not on the things of God but on the things of men, our mind grasps the opportunity to act and express itself. This was what happened with Peter. Hence, the Lord’s subsequent word indicated that Peter had to deny himself, i.e., not save his soul-life but lose it. Losing the soul-life is the reality of denying the self. This is to take up the cross.
Mt 16:243a cross  -   Matt. 10:38
The cross is not merely a suffering; it is also a killing. It kills and terminates the criminal. Christ first bore the cross and then was crucified. We, His believers, first were crucified with Him and now bear the cross. To us, to bear the cross is to remain under the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self, our natural life, and our old man. In so doing we deny our self that we may follow the Lord.
Mt 16:244 follow
Before the Lord’s crucifixion the disciples followed Him in an outward way. But now, after His resurrection, we follow Him in an inward way. Because in resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) dwelling in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), we follow Him in our spirit (Gal. 5:16-25).
Mt 16:25a soul-life  -   Matt. 10:39; Luke 17:33; John 12:25; Rev. 12:11
Mt 16:251 lose
Or, destroy.
Mt 16:252 loses
See note 391 in ch. 10.
Mt 16:261 soul-life
In Luke 9:24-25 soul-life is replaced with himself, indicating that our soul-life is our self.
Mt 16:271 For
For indicates that the Lord’s rewarding of His followers at His coming back, as mentioned in this verse, will be according to whether they lose or save their soul, as mentioned in vv. 25-26.
Mt 16:27a Son  -   Matt. 26:64; Dan. 7:13; John 1:51
Mt 16:27b come  -   1 Thes. 4:16; Jude 14; Rev. 1:7; 22:7, 12, 20
Mt 16:27c glory  -   2 Thes. 1:9; cf. Matt. 25:31
Mt 16:27d angels  -   Matt. 13:41
Mt 16:272e repay  -   2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:14; Heb. 10:35; Rev. 22:12
This will take place at the judgment seat of Christ when He comes back (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12).
Mt 16:281a coming  -   Luke 23:42
This was fulfilled by the Lord’s transfiguration on the mountain (17:1-2). His transfiguration was His coming in His kingdom. It was seen by His three disciples — Peter, James, and John.
Matthew Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 17:1a And  -   vv. 1-9: Mark 9:2-9; Luke 9:28-36
Mt 17:1b took  -   Mark 5:37; Matt. 26:37
Mt 17:11 brought
The record from 13:53 — 17:8 portrays the way to follow the heavenly King, from His rejection to the entering of the manifestation of the kingdom. His followers not only shared His being rejected by the Jews (13:53-58) but also were persecuted and even martyred by Gentile politics (14:1-12). They were in a deserted place with Him in a situation of poverty, yet they were richly cared for by Him (14:13-21). When they were on the stormy sea under the contrary wind, He walked on the sea, calmed the storm, and brought them through (14:22-34). At that point many sick ones were healed by touching Him (14:35-36), but the hypocritical worshippers of God came to heckle Him because His followers transgressed their tradition (15:1-20). Then His disciples followed Him to a Gentile region, where a demon-possessed Gentile was healed (15:21-28). After that, they followed Him along the sea of Galilee and up the mountain, where all kinds of sick people were healed and the need of His followers and the crowd was again richly provided for in a barren wilderness (15:29-39). After that, both the fundamentalists and the modernists of that day came to tempt Him, and He indicated that He would die to be a unique sign to them (16:1-4). Then He charged His followers to beware of the leaven of both the fundamentalists and the modernists (16:5-12). After all that, He brought His followers to the border of the Holy Land, close to a Gentile land, that they might have a revelation of Him, of the church, and of the cross as the way for them to enter into the kingdom (16:13-28). Finally, He brought them into glory in the manifestation of the kingdom (vv. 1-8).
Mt 17:12c high  -   Rev. 21:10
Since the Lord’s transfiguration occurred six days after the revelations (given at the foot of Mount Hermon) in ch. 16 concerning Christ and the church, the high mountain here must be Mount Hermon. To receive the revelation concerning Christ and the church, we must be far away from the religious environment; but to see the vision of the transfigured Christ, we need to be on a high mountain, far above the earthly level.
Mt 17:21a transfigured  -   cf. 2 Cor. 3:18
Lit., transformed.
Mt 17:2b sun  -   Rev. 1:16; 10:1; Mal. 4:2
Mt 17:2c white  -   Dan. 7:9
Mt 17:31a Moses  -   Deut. 34:5-6
Moses died and God hid his body (Deut. 34:5-6); Elijah was taken by God into heaven (2 Kings 2:11). God purposely did these two things that Moses and Elijah might appear with Christ on the mount of His transfiguration. They were preserved by God so that they could be the two witnesses in the great tribulation (Rev. 11:3-4). Moses represented the law, and Elijah, the prophets; and the law and the prophets were the constituents of the Old Testament as a full testimony of Christ (John 5:39). Now Moses and Elijah appeared and conversed with Christ concerning His death (Luke 9:31), which had been spoken of in the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27, 44; 1 Cor. 15:3).
Mt 17:3b Elijah  -   2 Kings 2:11
Mt 17:41 three
In his absurd proposal, Peter put Moses and Elijah on the same level as Christ; i.e., he made the law and the prophets equal with Christ. This was absolutely against God’s economy. In God’s economy the law and the prophets are only a testimony of Christ; they should not be put on the same level with Him.
Mt 17:4a tents  -   Lev. 23:34, 42; Neh. 8:15
Mt 17:5a cloud  -   Exo. 24:15-16
Mt 17:5b voice  -   Matt. 3:17; 2 Pet. 1:17
Mt 17:51 This
This declaration of the Father, given to vindicate the Son, was first spoken after Christ’s rising from baptism, which signified His resurrection from the dead. This was the second time the Father made this declaration, this time to vindicate the Son in His transfiguration, which prefigures the coming kingdom.
Mt 17:5c Beloved  -   Matt. 12:18
Mt 17:5d Hear  -   Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:22-23
Mt 17:52 Him
In God’s economy, after Christ came, we should hear Him; we should no longer hear the law or the prophets, since the law and the prophets were fulfilled in and by Christ.
Mt 17:6a heard  -   2 Pet. 1:18
Mt 17:6b fell  -   Gen. 17:3; Ezek. 1:28; Rev. 1:17
Mt 17:7a touched  -   Dan. 8:18; 10:18; Rev. 1:17
Mt 17:81 no
Peter proposed to keep Moses and Elijah, i.e., the law and the prophets, with Christ, but God took Moses and Elijah away, leaving no one except Jesus Himself. The law and the prophets were shadows and prophecies, not the reality; the reality is Christ. Now that Christ, the reality, is here, the shadows and prophecies are no longer needed. No one except Jesus Himself should remain in the New Testament. Jesus is today’s Moses; as such, He imparts the law of life into His believers. Jesus is also today’s Elijah; as such, He speaks for God and speaks forth God within His believers. This is God’s New Testament economy.
Mt 17:9a And  -   vv. 9-13: Mark 9:9-13
Mt 17:91 vision
The vision of the transfigured, glorified Jesus can be seen clearly only in the resurrection of Christ.
Mt 17:9b Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 17:9c raised  -   Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19
Mt 17:101a Elijah  -   Mal. 4:5
This was according to Mal. 4:5-6.
Mt 17:111 Elijah
This will be fulfilled at the time of the great tribulation, when Elijah will be one of the two witnesses (Rev. 11:3-4), as prophesied in Mal. 4:5-6.
Mt 17:11a restore  -   Acts 1:6; 3:21
Mt 17:121a Elijah  -   Matt. 11:14; Luke 1:17
This refers to John the Baptist (v. 13), who came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:13-17) and was rejected (11:18) and beheaded (14:3-12).
Mt 17:12b did  -   Matt. 14:3, 10
Mt 17:14a And  -   vv. 14-21: Mark 9:17-29; Luke 9:38-42
Mt 17:151 has
Lit., is moonstruck. Epilepsy indicates the true nature of the disease.
Mt 17:17a unbelieving  -   Rom. 11:20
Mt 17:17b perverted  -   Phil. 2:15
Mt 17:18a rebuked  -   Mark 1:25
Mt 17:20a little  -   Matt. 6:30
Mt 17:20b mustard  -   Luke 17:6; Matt. 13:31
Mt 17:20c mountain  -   Matt. 21:21; 1 Cor. 13:2
Mt 17:20d impossible  -   Matt. 19:26
Mt 17:211 But
Most ancient authorities omit this verse.
Mt 17:22a And  -   vv. 22-23: Mark 9:30-32; Luke 9:44-45
Mt 17:221 were
Some ancient authorities read, abode.
Mt 17:22b Galilee  -   Luke 24:6
Mt 17:23a kill  -   Matt. 16:21; 20:18-19
Mt 17:24a Capernaum  -   Mark 9:33
Mt 17:241b temple  -   Exo. 30:13-16; 38:26
A Jewish poll tax for the temple, equal to a half-shekel (Exo. 30:12-16; 38:26).
Mt 17:251 Yes
On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter heard the voice from heaven, which charged him to hear Christ (17:5). If he had still remembered that word, he would have referred the poll tax gatherers’ question to Christ to hear what He would say. But he answered instead of listening to what Christ would say.
Mt 17:252 anticipated
Peter had spoken presumptuously. Hence, the Lord stopped him and corrected him before he began to speak to Him.
Mt 17:25a think  -   Matt. 18:12; 22:17
Mt 17:261 sons
The sons of kings are always free from paying custom or poll tax. The half-shekel was paid by God’s people for His temple. Since Christ was the Son of God, He was free from paying it. This was contrary to Peter’s answer concerning this matter.
Peter had received the revelation concerning Christ’s being the Son of God (16:16-17) and had seen the vision of the Son of God (v. 5). Now, in application of what he had seen, he was put to the test by the poll tax gatherers’ question. He failed in his answer because he forgot the revelation that he had received and the vision that he had seen. He forgot that the Lord was the Son of God, who, as such, did not need to pay the poll tax for His Father’s house.
Mt 17:27a stumble  -   Matt. 18:7; 1 Cor. 10:32
Mt 17:271 go
After shutting Peter’s mouth, the Lord, as the New Testament Prophet, today’s Elijah, told him to go fishing and that in so doing he would find a stater. This prophecy was fulfilled. Peter was no doubt troubled that he had to go fishing and wait for a fish to appear with a stater.
Mt 17:272 stater
Equal to one shekel.
Mt 17:273 give
After convincing Peter that He did not need to pay the half-shekel, the Lord, as the New Testament Lawgiver, today’s Moses, commanded Peter to pay it for Him. The Lord did this purposely to teach Peter that in God’s New Testament economy He is the unique One; neither Moses nor Elijah nor Peter nor anyone else has the position to speak or to give the command.
Mt 17:274 and
While the Lord was correcting and teaching Peter, He took care of his need. This is always the Lord’s way in dealing with us.
Matthew Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 18:1a In  -   vv. 1-5: Mark 9:33-37; Luke 9:46-48
Mt 18:1b greatest  -   Matt. 20:26; 23:11
Mt 18:11 in
This chapter deals with the way we should live and act in the kingdom of the heavens: (1) we should become like little children (vv. 2-4); (2) we should not stumble others or set up any stumbling block (vv. 5-9); (3) we should not despise even a little believer (vv. 10-14); (4) we should hear the church and not be condemned by it (vv. 15-20); and (5) we should forgive a brother without limit (vv. 21-35). All this indicates that to enter into the kingdom of the heavens we must be humble and not despise any believer, but love our brother and forgive our brother.
Mt 18:3a little  -   Matt. 19:14; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17; Psa. 131:2
Mt 18:3b enter  -   Matt. 5:20; 7:21; cf. John 3:5
Mt 18:4a humble  -   Matt. 23:12; James 4:10
Mt 18:51 because
Lit., upon; i.e., based on, according to.
Mt 18:6a stumbles  -   1 Cor. 8:13
Mt 18:61 more
Or, advantageous, better.
Mt 18:62 great
Lit., millstone (turned) by a donkey.
Mt 18:6b millstone  -   Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2
Mt 18:7a stumbling  -   Matt. 13:41; Luke 17:1
Mt 18:8a hand  -   Matt. 5:30
Mt 18:81 cut
See note 291 in ch. 5.
Mt 18:8b fire  -   Matt. 25:41
Mt 18:9a eye  -   Matt. 5:29
Mt 18:91 pluck
See note 291 in ch. 5.
Mt 18:92 Gehenna
See note 228 in ch. 5.
Mt 18:10a angels  -   Psa. 34:7; 91:11; Acts 12:15; Heb. 1:14
Mt 18:111 For
Many ancient MSS omit this verse.
Mt 18:12a What  -   Matt. 17:25
Mt 18:12b If  -   vv. 12-14: Luke 15:4-7
Mt 18:141 your
Some ancient MSS read, My.
Mt 18:14a perish  -   John 6:39; 17:12
Mt 18:15a sins  -   Luke 17:3
Mt 18:151b reprove  -   Lev. 19:17; cf. Gal. 6:1
That he may know his sin and confess his wrongdoing.
Mt 18:152 between
That no third party may know the wrongdoing of the sinning brother. This is a covering of love.
Mt 18:16a witnesses  -   Deut. 17:6; 19:15; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Heb. 10:28
Mt 18:171 tell
If a brother sins against us, we need to deal with him first in love (v. 15), then by two or three witnesses (v. 16), and finally through the church with authority (v. 17).
Mt 18:172a church  -   Matt. 16:18
The church revealed in 16:18 is the universal church, which is the unique Body of Christ, whereas the church revealed here is the local church, the expression of the unique Body of Christ in a certain locality. Chapter 16 concerns the building of the universal church, whereas this chapter concerns the practice of the local church. In both of its aspects the church represents the kingdom of the heavens, having authority to bind and to loose.
Mt 18:173 just
If any believer refuses to hear the church, he will lose the fellowship of the church and will be like the Gentile (the heathen) and the tax collector (the sinner), who are outside the fellowship of the church.
Mt 18:17b Gentile  -   Matt. 5:47
Mt 18:17c tax  -   Matt. 9:10
Mt 18:181a bind  -   Matt. 16:19; cf. John 20:23
Here to bind means to condemn, and to loose means to forgive.
Mt 18:182 have
See note 194 in ch. 16.
Mt 18:191 in
As musical sounds are in harmony.
Mt 18:192 ask
Strictly, ask here refers to prayer that deals with the brother who refuses to hear the church (v. 17).
Mt 18:193 it
Lit., it will be unto them.
Mt 18:201 two
These two or three are the two or three in v. 16. They are gathered together into the Lord’s name, but they are not the church; for v. 17 says that if there is some problem, they need to tell it to the church.
Mt 18:202 gathered
The meetings of the believers are initiated by the Lord, who calls the believers out of all persons, matters, and things that occupy them and gathers them together into His name to enjoy the riches of His presence.
Such a gathering of a few people, of two or three, implies one of the ways for the church to meet locally. Such meetings of a few people must have been held in the believers’ homes, as mentioned in Acts 2:46 and 5:42, for the purpose of prayer (v. 19; Acts 12:5, 12), fellowship, the breaking of bread, teaching, or the preaching of the gospel (Acts 2:42; 5:42). Many such meetings may be held separately in the same locality, yet they are still the unique church in that locality (v. 17). Otherwise, they are not separate meetings but divisions, and they become sects (Gal. 5:20).
Mt 18:20a midst  -   John 20:19, 26
Mt 18:21a sin  -   Matt. 18:15
Mt 18:21b forgive  -   Matt. 6:14; Luke 6:37; Col. 3:13
Mt 18:21c seven  -   Luke 17:4; cf. Gen. 4:24
Mt 18:231 king
Lit., a man, a king.
Mt 18:232a settle  -   Matt. 25:19
This refers to the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10).
Mt 18:241 ten
Such a large amount indicates that it was impossible for the debtor to pay off the debt. This refers to the heavy debt of our sins against the Lord accumulated after we are saved.
Mt 18:25a repay  -   cf. Luke 7:42
Mt 18:25b sold  -   cf. 2 Kings 4:1; Neh. 5:5
Mt 18:271 forgave
This refers to the forgiveness of our debts incurred after we are saved and become slaves of the Lord.
Mt 18:281 hundred
Less than one ten thousandth of ten thousand talents. It refers to a sin committed against us by a brother after we are saved and become slaves of the Lord.
Mt 18:311 grieved
Our not forgiving the brother who sins against us will grieve the other brothers, and they may bring this matter to the Lord.
Mt 18:32a Evil  -   Matt. 25:26
Mt 18:33a mercy  -   Eph. 4:32; James 2:13
Mt 18:33b as  -   Matt. 6:12; Col. 3:13
Mt 18:341 delivered
This refers to the Lord’s dealing with His believers at His coming back. If we do not forgive the brother who sins against us, we will be disciplined by the Lord until we forgive him from the heart, i.e., until we repay all that is owed. Then the Lord will forgive us. This is forgiveness in the kingdom. This implies that if we do not forgive a brother from our heart today, we will not be allowed to enter into the kingdom in the coming age. See note 322 in ch. 12.
Mt 18:34a repay  -   Matt. 18:30; 5:26
Mt 18:35a not  -   Mark 11:26
Mt 18:35b from  -   Rom. 6:17; 1 Pet. 1:22
Matthew Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 19:1a beyond  -   Mark 10:1
Mt 19:3a And  -   vv. 3-9: Mark 10:2-12
Mt 19:31b testing  -   John 8:6
The religionists did not let the Lord go but came again and again to test Him. However, their testing always afforded the Lord an opportunity to unveil Himself and God’s economy.
Mt 19:32 divorce
Lit., release. So in the succeeding verses.
Mt 19:4a not  -   Matt. 12:3
Mt 19:41 He
From here to the end of v. 6, the Lord’s word not only acknowledged God’s creation of man but also confirmed God’s ordination regarding man’s marriage, that is, that one male and one female are to be joined and yoked together as one flesh and are not to be separated by man.
Mt 19:4b created  -   Gen. 1:27; 5:2
Mt 19:5a joined  -   Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31
Mt 19:6a separate  -   1 Cor. 7:10
Mt 19:71 command
This commandment was not a part of the basic law but was a supplement to the law. It was given by Moses not according to God’s ordination from the beginning but as something temporary, because of the hardness of man’s heart.
Mt 19:7a certificate  -   Deut. 24:1, 3; Matt. 5:31
Mt 19:8a hardness  -   Mark 3:5; 16:14; Heb. 3:8
Mt 19:81 beginning
The commandment given by Moses concerning divorce was a deviation from God’s original ordination concerning marriage, but for the kingdom of the heavens Christ as the heavenly King recovered marriage back to the beginning. This indicates that the kingdom of the heavens, which corresponds with God’s ordination from the beginning, does not allow divorce.
Mt 19:91 fornication
Lit., harlotry, whoredom. This is worse than adultery. The Lord’s word here indicates definitely that nothing but fornication breaks the marriage tie. (Of course, death breaks it spontaneously.) Hence, except for fornication there is no excuse for divorce.
Mt 19:9a adultery  -   Matt. 5:32; Luke 16:18
Mt 19:92 and
The words from here to the end of the verse are omitted by some ancient authorities.
Mt 19:101 like
At that point the disciples realized that according to God’s ordination, marriage is the strictest bond. Once a person is married, he is fully bound, having no way to be released except through the committing of fornication by the spouse (or through the death of the spouse). It was such a realization that caused the disciples to think that it was not profitable to marry. But it was not under their control.
Mt 19:111 Not
Not all men, but only those to whom God has given the gift, are able to refrain from marriage. Without God’s gift, anyone who attempts to remain unmarried will meet with temptations.
Mt 19:112 accept
Lit., have room for.
Mt 19:11a given  -   1 Cor. 7:7, 17
Mt 19:121 who
These are the ones to whom God has given the gift to remain unmarried for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens. Paul was such a one (1 Cor. 7:7-8; 9:5).
Mt 19:12a because  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:32-35
Mt 19:122 kingdom
The religionists’ temptation here afforded the Lord an opportunity to reveal a further matter concerning the kingdom of the heavens. Chapter 18 reveals how we must deal with the brothers so that we can enter into the kingdom of the heavens, whereas this chapter reveals that marriage life (vv. 3-12) and our attitude toward riches (vv. 16-30) are related to the kingdom of the heavens. Marriage life touches the matter of lust, and our attitude toward riches touches the matter of covetousness. The kingdom of the heavens rules out every trace of our lust and covetousness.
Mt 19:13a Then  -   vv. 13-15: Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17
Mt 19:13b rebuked  -   Matt. 20:31
Mt 19:14a of  -   Matt. 18:3-4
Mt 19:141 such
Here the Lord stressed again that to participate in the kingdom of the heavens, we must be like little children.
Mt 19:16a And  -   vv. 16-22: Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23; cf. Luke 10:25-28
Mt 19:161 have
Having eternal life as spoken of in Matthew differs from having eternal life as spoken of in John. Matthew is concerned with the kingdom, whereas John is concerned with life. In John, to have eternal life is to be saved by God’s uncreated life that we may live by that life today and for eternity; but in Matthew, to have eternal life is to participate in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens in this age by God’s eternal life and to share in the kingdom’s manifestation in the coming age, thereby enjoying God’s eternal life in a fuller way.
Mt 19:16b eternal  -   Matt. 25:46; John 3:15
Mt 19:171 One
This One is God. Only God is good. This indicates not only that the young man asking the question was not good but also that the Lord Jesus is God, who is good. If He were not God, He too would not be good.
Mt 19:172a good  -   Psa. 100:5; 135:3
Lit., the good.
Mt 19:173b enter  -   Matt. 18:8-9; 7:14
Here to enter into life means to enter into the kingdom of the heavens (v. 23). The kingdom of the heavens is a realm of God’s eternal life. Hence, when we enter into it, we enter into God’s life. This differs from being saved. To be saved is to have God’s life enter into us to be our life, whereas to enter into the kingdom of the heavens is to enter into God’s life to enjoy the riches of God’s life. The former is to be redeemed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, whereby we receive God’s life; the latter is to live and walk by God’s life. One is a matter of life; the other is a matter of living. See note 161.
Mt 19:174c keep  -   Lev. 18:5
This is not the requirement for salvation; it is related to entering into the kingdom of the heavens. According to the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, to enter into the kingdom of the heavens requires us to meet not only the standard of the old law but also the standard of the complemented new law given by the King (5:17-48). Salvation requires only faith, whereas the kingdom of the heavens requires the surpassing righteousness that issues from the keeping of the old law and the complemented law given by the heavenly King.
Mt 19:18a not  -   Matt. 5:21, 27; Exo. 20:13-16; Deut. 5:17-20
Mt 19:19a Honor  -   Matt. 15:4; Exo. 20:12; Deut. 5:16
Mt 19:19b love  -   Lev. 19:18; Matt. 5:43; 22:39
Mt 19:211a perfect  -   Matt. 5:48
Even though the young man had observed the commandments of the old law — or so he assumed — he still was not perfect, not up to the standard of the requirement of the complemented new law, for he was not willing to sell what he had and store up treasure in heaven, as the constitution of the kingdom required (6:19-21).
Mt 19:21b sell  -   Luke 12:33; Acts 2:45; 4:34
Mt 19:21c treasure  -   Matt. 6:20
Mt 19:212d follow  -   Matt. 4:19; John 21:19, 22
To follow the Lord is to love Him above all things (10:37-38). This is the supreme requirement for entering into the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 19:221 sorrowing
Loving material possessions above the Lord causes one to sorrow, but those who love Christ above all things accept with joy the loss of their possessions (Heb. 10:34).
Mt 19:23a And  -   vv. 23-30: Mark 10:23-31; Luke 18:24-30
Mt 19:23b rich  -   Matt. 13:22
Mt 19:241 easier
The Lord’s word here indicates the impossibility of entering into the kingdom of God by our natural life.
Mt 19:24a kingdom  -   Matt. 12:28; 21:43; John 3:3, 5; Acts 1:3; 14:22; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5
Mt 19:242 God
Verse 23 uses kingdom of the heavens, but here kingdom of God is used. At this point the kingdom of the heavens had not come, but the kingdom of God was there. Hence, the Lord used the term kingdom of God.
Mt 19:251 saved
As most Christians do today, the disciples confused salvation with entering into the kingdom of the heavens. The Lord’s word to the young man concerned entering into the kingdom of the heavens (vv. 23-24), but the disciples thought that it referred to salvation. Their concept of salvation was natural and common. They did not grasp the Lord’s revelation concerning entering into the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 19:261 impossible
By our human life it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but it is possible by God’s divine life, which is Christ Himself imparted into us so that we can live the kingdom life. By Christ, who empowers us to do all things (Phil. 4:13), we can fulfill the requirements of the kingdom.
Mt 19:26a possible  -   Gen. 18:14; Job 42:2; Jer. 32:17; Mark 14:36; Luke 1:37
See note 261.
Mt 19:27a followed  -   Matt. 4:20, 22
Mt 19:281a restoration  -   Matt. 17:11; Acts 3:21
This is the restoration in the coming kingdom age (Acts 3:21), after the Lord’s second coming.
Mt 19:28b Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 19:28c throne  -   Matt. 25:31
Mt 19:28d sit  -   Luke 22:30; Matt. 20:21; cf. Rev. 3:21; 20:4
Mt 19:282e judging  -   1 Cor. 6:2; cf. Rev. 20:4
In the coming kingdom the overcomers will sit on thrones to reign over the earth (Rev. 20:4). The first twelve apostles, including Peter, will judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and the other overcomers will rule over the nations (Rev. 2:26).
Mt 19:29a brothers  -   Luke 14:26
Mt 19:291 receive
To receive a hundred times as many houses, fields, and relatives is to be rewarded in this age (Mark 10:30). This refers to our enjoyment today of brothers and sisters in the Lord, with their possessions.
Mt 19:292 a
Some ancient authorities read, manifold.
Mt 19:293 inherit
To inherit eternal life is to be rewarded in the coming age (Luke 18:29-30), in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, with an enjoyment of the divine life that is fuller than the enjoyment in this age.
Mt 19:29b eternal  -   Matt. 19:16
Mt 19:301a first  -   Matt. 20:16; Luke 13:30
See note 161 in ch. 20.
Matthew Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 20:11 For
For indicates that the parable in vv. 1-16 is an explanation of 19:30.
Mt 20:12 man
Denoting Christ, who is the householder.
Mt 20:13 morning
Morning here is 6:00 a.m., denoting the earliest part of the church age, when Christ came to call His disciples into the kingdom.
Mt 20:14 workmen
The workmen denote the disciples.
Mt 20:15a vineyard  -   Matt. 21:28, 33
The vineyard denotes the kingdom.
Mt 20:21 agreed
Referring to the agreement the Lord made in 19:27-29.
Mt 20:22 denarius
See note 71 in John 6. The denarius here denotes the reward the Lord offered Peter in His agreement with him in 19:27-29.
Mt 20:31 third
Hebrew time; so in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. This is 9:00 a.m., denoting the second part of the church age.
Mt 20:32 idle
This word indicates that whoever does not work in the kingdom of the heavens is standing idle in the world.
Mt 20:33 marketplace
The marketplace denotes the world.
Mt 20:51 sixth
12:00 noon, denoting the middle part of the church age.
Mt 20:52 ninth
3:00 p.m., denoting the fourth part of the church age.
Mt 20:61 eleventh
5:00 p.m., denoting the fifth part of the church age. So in v. 9.
Mt 20:71 no
Outside the kingdom of God, no human beings are employed by God.
Mt 20:72 also
Even near the end of the church age the Lord still calls people.
Mt 20:81 evening
6:00 p.m., denoting the end of the church age.
Mt 20:82 last
This is against the natural and commercial concept. It indicates that the wages paid to the last workmen are not according to their work but according to the gracious wish of the Lord of the vineyard.
Mt 20:101 first
These first workmen included Peter, who made a deal with the Lord in 19:27-29.
Mt 20:121 Saying
They did not know Rom. 9:14-15, 20. There is no unrighteousness with the Lord. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Who were they to reply against the Lord?
Mt 20:122 equal
Peter’s natural concept, representing that of all believers, was commercial; he did not know the Lord’s gracious wish.
Mt 20:131 one
By one of them, the Lord was referring undoubtedly to Peter.
Mt 20:132a Friend  -   Matt. 22:12; 26:50
Lit., comrade, companion, partner.
Mt 20:133 agree
Denoting the agreement the Lord made with Peter in 19:27-29.
Mt 20:141 Take
This was a strong answer to Peter from the Lord, indicating that the Lord had given him what he thought he deserved. But the Lord has the right to give the same wages to the last workmen according to His own wish, in the principle not of work but of grace. This shattered Peter’s natural and commercial mind and corrected his concept.
Mt 20:151 wish
In dealing with the Lord in 19:27, Peter’s concept was altogether commercial, according to the principle of work, not grace. In His answer to Peter, the Lord strongly indicated that His reward to His followers is not a commercial matter but a matter according to His desire and grace. For the disciples to gain the kingdom of the heavens, they needed to leave all and follow the Lord; but what He will give them as a reward is more than they deserve. It is not according to the principle of commerce but according to the Lord’s good pleasure. This is an incentive to His followers.
Mt 20:152 evil
Cf. note 222 in Mark 7.
Mt 20:161a last  -   Matt. 19:30
The last are the latest workmen, and the first are the earliest ones. In working, the earliest come first, but in receiving the reward, the last become the first. It is in this way that the Lord makes the last first and the first last.
Mt 20:17a And  -   vv. 17-19: Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-33
Mt 20:17b Jerusalem  -   Luke 9:51; John 12:12
Mt 20:181a death  -   Matt. 26:66; John 19:7
This was the third time the Lord revealed His death to the disciples. The first was in Caesarea Philippi, before His transfiguration (16:13, 21). The second was in Galilee, after His transfiguration (17:22). This third time was on the way to Jerusalem. This revelation was a prophecy, altogether strange to the natural concept of the disciples; yet it would be fulfilled literally, in every detail.
Mt 20:19a deliver  -   Matt. 17:22
Mt 20:19b mock  -   Matt. 27:27-31
Mt 20:19c crucify  -   Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 26:2
Mt 20:19d third  -   Matt. 27:63
Mt 20:20a Then  -   vv. 20-28: Mark 10:35-45
Mt 20:201 sons
John and James.
Mt 20:20b Zebedee  -   Matt. 4:21; 10:2; 27:56
Mt 20:21a sit  -   Matt. 19:28
Mt 20:221 drink
If we ask to sit on the throne in the kingdom, we must be prepared to drink the cup of suffering. To suffer the cross is the way to enter into the kingdom (Acts 14:22). The selfish entreaty of the mother of John and James afforded the Lord an opportunity to reveal the way to enter into the kingdom.
Mt 20:22a cup  -   Matt. 26:39, 42; John 18:11
Mt 20:23a drink  -   cf. Acts 12:2; Phil. 3:10
Mt 20:231 not
Standing in the position of man, the Lord was fully subject to the Father; He did not assume the right to do anything outside the Father.
Mt 20:25a But  -   vv. 25-28: Luke 22:25-27
Mt 20:26a great  -   Matt. 23:11; Mark 9:34-35; Luke 9:48
Mt 20:261 servant
This is absolutely contrary to the natural, self-seeking mind. The indignation of the ten disciples (v. 24) also afforded the Lord an opportunity to reveal the way to live in the kingdom: to be willing to serve others as a servant, even as a slave (v. 27), rather than rule over others.
Mt 20:271a slave  -   2 Cor. 4:5
See note 261.
Mt 20:28a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Mt 20:281 Man
In this book, the book on the kingdom, the Lord stood always in the position of man. Although the kingdom of the heavens is constituted with the divine life, it is carried out in humanity.
Mt 20:28b serve  -   Phil. 2:7; cf. John 13:4-5, 14-15
Mt 20:282 life
Lit., soul, soul-life.
Mt 20:28c ransom  -   1 Tim. 2:6; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
Mt 20:29a And  -   vv. 29-34: Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43
Mt 20:30a blind  -   Matt. 9:27-31
Mt 20:301b Son  -   Matt. 1:1
The royal title of Christ for the children of Israel. See note 222 in ch. 15.
Mt 20:31a rebuked  -   Matt. 19:13
Mt 20:34a compassion  -   Matt. 9:36; 14:14
Matthew Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 21:1a And  -   vv. 1-9: Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-38
Mt 21:11 drew
They began the journey from Galilee in 19:1. They were on the way in 20:17 and passed through Jericho in 20:29. Now they came to the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem.
Mt 21:1b Olives  -   Matt. 24:3; 26:30; Acts 1:12; Zech. 14:4
Mt 21:21 find
This indicates that the Lord is omniscient.
Mt 21:31 Lord
This indicates that Christ is the Lord of all.
Mt 21:32 and
This clause differs from the corresponding clause in Mark 11:3b.
Mt 21:4a Now  -   vv. 4-9: John 12:12-15
Mt 21:4b fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
Mt 21:5a Say  -   Isa. 62:11; Zech. 9:9; John 12:15
Mt 21:51 daughter
Denoting the people of Jerusalem (cf. Psa. 137:8; 45:12).
Mt 21:5b meek  -   Matt. 11:29
Mt 21:52 foal
Signifying the humble and lowly state in which the King of the heavenly kingdom was willing to remain.
Mt 21:71 garments
Garments signify the human virtues in people’s conduct. The disciples honored the lowly King by putting their garments on the donkey and the colt for Him to ride on, and the crowd honored Him by spreading their garments in the road for Him to pass through (v. 8).
Mt 21:8a garments  -   cf. 2 Kings 9:13
Mt 21:81b branches  -   Lev. 23:40; Rev. 7:9
The branches of the palm tree (John 12:13), which signify the victorious life (Rev. 7:9) and the satisfaction of enjoying the rich produce of that life, as typified by the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15). The crowd used both their garments and the palm tree branches to celebrate the lowly King’s coming.
Mt 21:91 Hosanna
A Hebrew expression meaning do save, we pray (Psa. 118:25).
Mt 21:92a Son  -   Matt. 1:1
The royal title of the lowly King.
Mt 21:9b Blessed  -   Psa. 118:26; Matt. 23:39
Mt 21:9c highest  -   Psa. 148:1; Luke 2:14
Mt 21:10a entered  -   Mark 11:11
Mt 21:11a prophet  -   Matt. 21:46; Luke 7:16; John 6:14; 7:40; 9:17; Deut. 18:15, 18; Acts 3:22-23
Mt 21:11b Nazareth  -   Matt. 2:23
Mt 21:12a And  -   vv. 12-16: Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-47; cf. John 2:14-17
Mt 21:12b money  -   Deut. 14:25-26
Mt 21:12c doves  -   Lev. 1:14; 5:7; 12:8
Mt 21:13a My  -   Isa. 56:7
Mt 21:13b den  -   Jer. 7:11
Mt 21:14a blind  -   Matt. 11:5; 15:30-31
Mt 21:15a Hosanna  -   Matt. 21:9
Mt 21:151 indignant
The stubborn chief priests and scribes were indignant, even after they saw the wonders the lowly King performed. Their indignation was due to their pride and jealousy, which blinded them from seeing any vision concerning the heavenly King.
Mt 21:16a never  -   Matt. 12:3
Mt 21:16b Out  -   Psa. 8:2
Mt 21:16c infants  -   Matt. 11:25
Mt 21:17a out  -   Mark 11:19; Luke 21:37
Mt 21:171b Bethany  -   Mark 11:1, 11; Luke 24:50; John 11:1, 18; 12:1
In His last visit to Jerusalem the Lord remained there only during the day for His ministry. Every evening He departed to lodge in Bethany, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives (Mark 11:19; Luke 21:37), where the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and the house of Simon were (John 11:1; Matt. 26:6). In Jerusalem He was rejected by the leaders of Judaism, but in Bethany He was welcomed by His lovers.
Mt 21:18a Now  -   vv. 18-22: Mark 11:12-14, 20-24
Mt 21:181b hungry  -   Matt. 4:2
This signified that the Lord was hungry for fruit from the children of Israel, that God might be satisfied.
Mt 21:191a fig  -   Luke 13:6-9
The fig tree here is a symbol of the nation of Israel (Jer. 24:2, 5, 8). This tree was full of leaves but fruitless, signifying that at that time the nation of Israel was full of outward show but had nothing that could satisfy God.
Mt 21:192 no
This signifies the curse on the nation of Israel.
Mt 21:193 dried
From that time the nation of Israel was truly dried up.
Mt 21:21a faith  -   Matt. 17:20
Mt 21:21b doubt  -   Rom. 4:20; James 1:6
Mt 21:21c mountain  -   1 Cor. 13:2
Mt 21:22a ask  -   Matt. 7:7; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:22; 5:14-15
Mt 21:23a And  -   vv. 23-27: Mark 11:27-33; Luke 20:1-8
Mt 21:23b teaching  -   Matt. 26:55
Mt 21:23c who  -   cf. Exo. 2:14; Acts 4:7
Mt 21:241 thing
Lit., word.
Mt 21:25a heaven  -   John 3:27
Mt 21:26a prophet  -   Matt. 11:9; 14:5
Mt 21:271 not
This was a lie.
Mt 21:272 Neither
This indicated that the Lord knew that the Jewish leaders would not tell Him what they knew; hence, neither would He tell them what they asked. They lied to the Lord in saying, “We do not know.” But the Lord spoke the truth wisely to them, exposing their lie and avoiding their question.
Mt 21:28a vineyard  -   Matt. 21:33; 20:1
Mt 21:311 first
In Luke 15:1-2, 11-32, the Lord likened the leaders of Judaism to the firstborn son, and the tax collectors and sinners to the second son; but here the Lord likened them in the opposite order. This indicates that the Jews were the firstborn of God (Exo. 4:22) and had the birthright. However, because of their unbelief the birthright was shifted to the church, which has become God’s firstborn (Heb. 12:23).
Mt 21:31a tax  -   Luke 3:12; 7:29
Mt 21:31b harlots  -   cf. Luke 7:37; John 4:17-18
Mt 21:31c God  -   Matt. 12:28
Mt 21:32a way  -   Prov. 8:20; 2 Pet. 2:21
Mt 21:321 righteousness
The Gospel of Matthew, as the book on the kingdom, stresses the matter of righteousness, for the kingdom life is one of strict righteousness, which we must seek (5:20, 6; 6:33). John the Baptist came in the way of such righteousness, and the Lord Jesus was willing to be baptized by John to fulfill such righteousness (3:15).
Mt 21:33a Hear  -   vv. 33-46: Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19
Mt 21:331 householder
The householder is God, the vineyard is the city of Jerusalem (Isa. 5:1), and the vinedressers are the leaders of the Israelites (v. 45).
Mt 21:33b vineyard  -   Matt. 21:28; Isa. 5:1; Jer. 2:21
See note 331.
Mt 21:33c hedge  -   Psa. 80:12
Mt 21:33d winepress  -   Isa. 5:2
Mt 21:33e abroad  -   Matt. 25:14
Mt 21:34a sent  -   2 Chron. 24:19; 36:15
Mt 21:341 slaves
These were the prophets sent by God (2 Chron. 24:19; 36:15).
Mt 21:351a beat  -   Jer. 37:15
This was the persecution suffered by the Old Testament prophets (Jer. 37:15; Neh. 9:26; 2 Chron. 24:21).
Mt 21:35b killed  -   Neh. 9:26; Acts 7:52; cf. Matt. 22:6; 1 Thes. 2:15
Mt 21:35c stoned  -   2 Chron. 24:21; Matt. 23:37; cf. John 10:31-33; Acts 7:59
Mt 21:371a son  -   John 3:17; 1 John 4:14
This is Christ.
Mt 21:381 This
This statement indicates that the Jewish leaders, wanting to maintain their false position, envied Christ because of His rights.
Mt 21:38a heir  -   Heb. 1:2; Psa. 2:8
Mt 21:38b kill  -   Matt. 26:4; John 11:53
Mt 21:39a took  -   Matt. 26:50
Mt 21:391b out  -   Heb. 13:12
Christ was killed outside the city of Jerusalem (Heb. 13:12).
Mt 21:39c killed  -   Acts 2:23; 3:15
Mt 21:411a destroy  -   Matt. 22:7
This was fulfilled when the Roman prince Titus and his army destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Mt 21:412 other
These were the apostles.
Mt 21:41b fruit  -   Matt. 21:43
Mt 21:42a never  -   Matt. 12:3
Mt 21:42b The  -   Psa. 118:22-23; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7
Mt 21:421 stone
The stone is Christ, who is for God’s building (Isa. 28:16; Zech. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:4), and the builders are the Jewish leaders, who should have been working on God’s building.
Mt 21:422c head  -   Isa. 28:16; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6-7
Christ is not only the foundation stone (Isa. 28:16) and the topstone (Zech. 4:7) but also the cornerstone.
Mt 21:431 kingdom
The kingdom of God was already there among the Israelites, but the kingdom of the heavens had only drawn near (3:2; 4:17). This proves that the kingdom of the heavens is different from the kingdom of God. (See note 34 in ch. 5.)
Mt 21:43a God  -   Matt. 12:28
Mt 21:432 nation
This is the church.
Mt 21:43b fruit  -   Matt. 21:41
Mt 21:441 he
This is a person who stumbles on Christ; referring in particular to the unbelieving Israelites (Isa. 8:15; Rom. 9:32).
Mt 21:44a stone  -   Isa. 8:14-15; Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:8
Mt 21:442 whomever
These are the nations, the Gentiles, that Christ will smite and break into pieces at His coming back (Dan. 2:34-35). To the believers Christ is the foundation stone, the One in whom they trust (Isa. 28:16); to the unbelieving Jews He is the stone of stumbling (Isa. 8:14; Rom. 9:33); and to the nations He will be the smiting stone.
Mt 21:44b crush  -   Dan. 2:34-35
Mt 21:46a seize  -   John 7:30, 44
Mt 21:46b prophet  -   Matt. 21:11
Matthew Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 22:1a parables  -   Matt. 13:34
Mt 22:2a The  -   vv. 2-14: Luke 14:16-24
Mt 22:21b kingdom  -   Matt. 13:24
The parable of the vineyard in ch. 21 refers to the Old Testament, in which was the kingdom of God (21:43), whereas the parable of a wedding feast in this chapter refers to the New Testament, in which is the kingdom of the heavens.
In the foregoing parable (21:33-46) the Lord illustrated how the Jews, who were in the kingdom of God, would be punished, and how the kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to the kingdom people. Another parable was needed for Him to illustrate how the kingdom people, who are in the kingdom of the heavens, will be dealt with strictly. Both parables indicate that the kingdom is a serious matter.
Mt 22:22c king  -   Psa. 47:7
The king is God, and the son is Christ.
Mt 22:23d wedding  -   Rev. 19:9
In the foregoing parable the Old Testament was likened to a vineyard, with the focus mainly on the matter of labor under the law; in this parable the New Testament is likened to a wedding feast, with the focus mainly on the matter of enjoyment under grace.
Mt 22:31 slaves
These are the first group of New Testament apostles.
Mt 22:41 other
These are the apostles sent later by the Lord.
Mt 22:42 dinner
Primarily the first meal, taken early in the morning, before work.
Mt 22:43 oxen
Both the oxen and the fatted cattle refer to Christ, who was killed so that God’s chosen people could enjoy Him as a feast.
Mt 22:4a fatted  -   Luke 15:23
See note 43.
Mt 22:6a treated  -   Acts 14:5-6
Mt 22:6b killed  -   Matt. 23:34
Mt 22:71 troops
These were the Roman troops who, under the leadership of Titus, destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Mt 22:7a destroyed  -   Matt. 21:41
Mt 22:81a not  -   Acts 13:46
The rejection by the Jews made them unworthy to enjoy the New Testament (Acts 13:46).
Mt 22:91 crossroads
Because of the rejection by the Jews, the preaching of the New Testament turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46; Rom. 11:11).
Mt 22:11a clothed  -   Rev. 19:8
Mt 22:111 wedding
This wedding garment is typified by the embroidered garment in Psa. 45:14 and is signified by the fine linen in Rev. 19:8 (see note 2 there). This is the surpassing righteousness of the overcoming believers, mentioned in 5:20 (see note 1 there). The man not clothed with a wedding garment is saved, because he has come to the wedding feast. He has received Christ as his righteousness that he might be justified before God (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 3:26), but he has not lived Christ out as his subjective righteousness (Phil. 3:9) that he might participate in the enjoyment of the kingdom of the heavens. He has been called to salvation, but he has not been chosen for the enjoyment of the kingdom of the heavens, which is for the overcoming believers only.
Mt 22:12a Friend  -   Matt. 20:13; 26:50
Mt 22:131 servants
The servants should refer to the angels (cf. 13:41, 49).
Mt 22:132a cast  -   Matt. 8:12
To be cast out into the outer darkness is not to perish; it is to be dealt with dispensationally, to be disqualified from participating in the enjoyment of the kingdom during the millennium, for not having lived by Christ an overcoming life. In the millennium the overcoming believers will be with Christ in the bright glory of the kingdom (Col. 3:4), whereas the defeated believers will suffer discipline in outer darkness (see note 122 in ch. 8).
Mt 22:133 weeping
See note 123 in ch. 8.
Mt 22:141a called  -   Rom. 8:28, 30; 1 Cor. 1:24, 26; Eph. 1:18; 4:1, 4
To be called is to receive salvation (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 4:1), whereas to be chosen is to receive a reward. All believers have been called, but few will be chosen to receive a reward.
Mt 22:14b chosen  -   Rev. 17:14
See note 141.
Mt 22:15a Then  -   vv. 15-22: Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26
Mt 22:151 Pharisees
See note 71 in ch. 3.
Mt 22:15b counsel  -   Matt. 26:4; 27:1
Mt 22:15c words  -   Luke 11:54
Mt 22:161a Herodians  -   Mark 3:6
The Herodians were those who took sides with King Herod’s regime and took part with him in infiltrating Grecian and Roman manners of life into Jewish culture. They sided with the Sadducees but were opposed to the Pharisees. But here they united with the Pharisees to ensnare the Lord Jesus.
Mt 22:162 do
Lit., it does not matter to you concerning anyone.
Mt 22:163 regard
Lit., look into the face of men.
Mt 22:16b person  -   Deut. 1:17; 16:19
Mt 22:171 Is
This was truly an ensnaring question. Giving tribute to Caesar was opposed by all the Jews. If the Lord Jesus had said that it was lawful to do this, He would have offended all the Jews, whose leaders were the Pharisees. If He had said that it was not lawful, the Herodians, who stood with the Roman government, would have had strong ground to accuse Him.
Mt 22:17a Caesar  -   Luke 23:2; John 19:12
Mt 22:18a tempt  -   Matt. 22:35; 16:1; 19:3; John 8:6
Mt 22:181 hypocrites
See note 22 in ch. 6.
Mt 22:191 Show
The Lord Jesus did not show the Roman coin but asked them to show one to Him. Since they possessed one of the Roman coins, they were caught.
Mt 22:192 denarius
See note 71 in John 6.
Mt 22:211 things
This is to pay tribute to Caesar according to his governmental regulations.
Mt 22:21a to  -   cf. Rom. 13:7
Mt 22:212 things
This is to pay the half-shekel to God according to Exo. 30:11-16, and to offer all the tithes to God according to the law of God.
Mt 22:23a On  -   vv. 23-33: Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38
Mt 22:231b Sadducees  -   Acts 23:6-8; 4:1-2
See note 72 in ch. 3.
Mt 22:24a wife  -   Deut. 25:5
Mt 22:29a not  -   John 20:9
Mt 22:291 knowing
Knowing the Scriptures is one thing; knowing the power of God is another. We need to know both. The Scriptures here refer to the Old Testament verses that concern the matter of resurrection, and the power of God refers to the power of resurrection.
Mt 22:31a read  -   Matt. 12:3
Mt 22:32a I  -   Exo. 3:6, 16
Mt 22:321 living
As God is the God of the living and is called “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob,” so the dead Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be resurrected. This is the way the Lord Jesus expounded the Scriptures not only according to the letter but also according to the life and power implied within them.
Mt 22:33a astounded  -   Matt. 7:28
Mt 22:34a But  -   vv. 34-40: Mark 12:28-33; Luke 10:25-28
Mt 22:351a lawyer  -   Luke 7:30; 10:25; 11:46, 52
One who was knowledgeable in the law of Moses, a professional interpreter of the law of the Old Testament.
Mt 22:35b testing  -   Matt. 22:18
Mt 22:37a You  -   Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 30:6
Mt 22:37b love  -   1 John 4:21
Mt 22:371 with
Lit., in.
Mt 22:39a You  -   Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8
Mt 22:401 two
Both commandments, the commandment to love God and the commandment to love man, are a matter of love. Love is the spirit of God’s commandments.
Mt 22:40a the  -   Matt. 7:12; Rom. 13:8-10
Mt 22:41a Now  -   vv. 41-45: Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44
Mt 22:421 Christ
As portrayed in 21:23 — 22:46, during His last visit to Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, Christ was surrounded by the chief priests, elders, Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees, along with a lawyer, all of whom endeavored to ensnare Him by asking puzzling and insidious questions. First, the chief priests, representing the authority of the Jewish religion, and the elders, representing the authority of the Jewish people, asked Him concerning His authority (21:23). Their question was according to their religious concept. Second, the Pharisees, the fundamentalists, and the Herodians, who were zealous in politics, asked Him a question related to politics. Third, the Sadducees, the modernists, questioned Him concerning fundamental belief. Fourth, a self-approved lawyer asked Him a question concerning the law. After answering all their questions wisely, He asked them a question concerning the Christ. This is the question of questions. Their questions were related to religion, politics, belief, and the law. His question was concerning the Christ, who is the center of all things. They knew religion, politics, belief, and the law, but they paid no attention to Christ. Hence, He asked them, “What do you think concerning the Christ?” This question of questions must be answered by everyone.
Mt 22:42a David’s  -   Matt. 1:1
Mt 22:431a spirit  -   Rev. 1:10
Christ can be known by us only in our spirit through God’s revelation (Eph. 3:5).
Mt 22:44a The  -   Psa. 110:1; Acts 2:34-35; Heb. 1:13
Mt 22:44b underneath  -   Psa. 8:6-8; 1 Cor. 15:25
Mt 22:451 Lord
Christ is God; in His divinity He is the Lord of David. He is also a man; in His humanity He is the son of David. The Pharisees had only half the scriptural knowledge concerning Christ’s person, i.e., that He was the son of David according to His humanity. They did not have the other half, i.e., that He was the Son of God according to His divinity.
Mt 22:461a no  -   Luke 14:6
Christ’s question of questions concerning His wonderful person muzzled the mouths of all His opposers.
Matthew Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 23:1a Then  -   vv. 1-7: Mark 12:38-39; Luke 20:45-46
Mt 23:21a scribes  -   Ezra 7:6; Neh. 8:4
See note 41 in ch. 2.
Mt 23:22b Pharisees  -   Matt. 3:7
See note 71 in ch. 3.
Mt 23:2c Moses’  -   John 9:28-29
Mt 23:3a do  -   Deut. 17:10
Mt 23:3b works  -   Matt. 15:3-14; cf. Rom. 2:17-23
Mt 23:4a heavy  -   Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10; cf. Matt. 11:28-30
Mt 23:5a seen  -   Matt. 6:1, 5, 16
Mt 23:51b phylacteries  -   Deut. 6:8; 11:18
Phylacteries are small leather boxes containing parts of the law written on parchment. According to Deut. 6:8 and 11:18, they were worn on the forehead as a frontlet and on the left arm. The scribes and the Pharisees broadened them and considered them a charm.
Mt 23:52c fringes  -   Num. 15:38-39; Deut. 22:12; Matt. 9:20; 14:36
The law required the Israelites to make fringes on the borders of their garments with a band of blue. The fringes signified that their conduct (typified by the garment) was regulated by the heavenly rule (indicated by the band of blue), and they were to be a reminder to them to keep God’s commandments (Num. 15:38-39). The scribes and Pharisees enlarged the fringes, pretending that they were keeping God’s commandments and were being regulated by them to a surpassing degree.
Mt 23:6a place  -   Mark 12:39; Luke 11:43; 20:46; 14:7-8
Mt 23:7a salutations  -   Mark 12:38; Luke 11:43; 20:46
Mt 23:71b Rabbi  -   John 1:38
A title of honor meaning teacher, master.
Mt 23:81 One
Christ alone is our Teacher and Master.
Mt 23:8a Teacher  -   John 13:13
Mt 23:8b brothers  -   Luke 22:32; John 21:23
Mt 23:91 One
God alone is our Father.
Mt 23:9a Father  -   Matt. 6:9; 7:11; John 20:17; Rom. 8:15; Eph. 3:14; 1 Pet. 1:2
Mt 23:92 He
Lit., the Heavenly.
Mt 23:101 instructors
Or, guides, teachers, directors.
Mt 23:102 One
Christ alone is our Instructor, Guide, Teacher, and Director.
Mt 23:11a greatest  -   Matt. 20:26-27
Mt 23:12a exalt  -   Luke 14:11; 18:14; Prov. 29:23
Mt 23:12b humble  -   1 Pet. 5:6; Ezek. 21:26; Job 22:29
Mt 23:131 hypocrites
See note 22 in ch. 6. So throughout this chapter.
Mt 23:13a close  -   cf. Matt. 16:19
Mt 23:132b not  -   Luke 11:52
In today’s Christianity some are just like this.
Mt 23:141 But
This verse is not found in the earliest MSS.
Mt 23:14a devour  -   Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47
Mt 23:142 judgment
Or, condemnation.
Mt 23:15a proselyte  -   Acts 2:10; 6:5; 13:43
Mt 23:15b son  -   cf. John 17:12; 2 Thes. 2:3
Mt 23:151c Gehenna  -   Matt. 5:22
See note 228 in ch. 5. So in v. 33.
Mt 23:16a blind  -   vv. 24, 26: John 9:39; Rev. 3:17
Mt 23:16b guides  -   Matt. 15:14; Rom. 2:19
Mt 23:16c swears  -   Matt. 5:33-36
Mt 23:161 he
Lit., he owes. So in v. 18.
Mt 23:171a sanctifies  -   Exo. 30:26-29
To make the gold holy positionally by changing its position from a common place to a holy place. See note 192 in Rom. 6.
Mt 23:18a gift  -   Matt. 5:23
Mt 23:191a sanctifies  -   Exo. 29:37
This too was a positional sanctification, not a dispositional one, and was accomplished by changing the gift’s location from a common place to a holy place. See note 192 in Rom. 6.
Mt 23:21a dwells  -   1 Kings 8:13; Psa. 26:8
Mt 23:22a heaven  -   Luke 15:18, 21
Mt 23:22b throne  -   Psa. 11:4; Rev. 4:2
Mt 23:23a you  -   Luke 11:42
Mt 23:23b give  -   Deut. 14:22; Luke 18:12
Mt 23:231c justice  -   Jer. 5:1; Micah 6:8
Or, judgment.
Mt 23:23d mercy  -   Prov. 16:6; Zech. 7:9; Rom. 12:8
Mt 23:232 not
Although the Lord stressed the weightier matters, He charged us not to neglect the lighter ones.
Mt 23:24a Blind  -   Matt. 23:16
Mt 23:25a you  -   vv. 25-28: cf. Matt. 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23
Mt 23:25b cleanse  -   Luke 11:39
Mt 23:27a whitewashed  -   cf. Acts 23:3
Mt 23:27b graves  -   Luke 11:44
Mt 23:27c bones  -   Num. 19:16; 2 Kings 23:16
Mt 23:27d uncleanness  -   Eph. 5:3
Mt 23:29a build  -   Luke 11:47-48
Mt 23:31a murdered  -   Acts 7:52; 1 Thes. 2:15
Mt 23:32a fill  -   Dan. 8:23; 1 Thes. 2:16
Mt 23:33a vipers  -   Matt. 3:7
Mt 23:33b Gehenna  -   Matt. 5:22
Mt 23:34a Therefore  -   vv. 34-36: Luke 11:49-51
Mt 23:34b send  -   Acts 13:4
Mt 23:341c prophets  -   Acts 13:1
The New Testament apostles sent out by the Lord.
Mt 23:34d scribes  -   Matt. 13:52
Mt 23:34e kill  -   Matt. 22:6; Acts 9:23-24, 29
Mt 23:34f scourge  -   Matt. 10:17; Mark 13:9
Mt 23:34g persecute  -   Matt. 10:23
Mt 23:34h city  -   Acts 13:50-51; 14:5-6, 19
Mt 23:35a blood  -   cf. Matt. 27:24; Rev. 18:24
Mt 23:35b blood  -   Gen. 4:8, 10-11; Heb. 12:24
Mt 23:35c Zachariah  -   2 Chron. 24:20-22
Mt 23:361 All
Referring to all the sins through which the blood of the righteous was shed on the earth.
Mt 23:36a generation  -   Matt. 24:34
Mt 23:37a Jerusalem  -   vv. 37-39: Luke 13:34-35
Mt 23:37b stones  -   Matt. 21:35; 2 Chron. 24:21
Mt 23:371 I
It was always God Himself who cared for Jerusalem, as a bird flutters over her young (Isa. 31:5; Deut. 32:11-12). Hence, when the Lord Jesus said, “I desired to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her brood under her wings,” He indicated that He was God Himself.
Mt 23:37c children  -   Luke 23:28
Mt 23:37d wings  -   Ruth 2:12; Psa. 91:4
Mt 23:381 house
Since house here is singular, it must denote the house of God, which was the temple (21:12-13). It had been the house of God, but now it was called “your house” because the Jews had made it a den of robbers (21:13).
Mt 23:382a desolate  -   cf. Lev. 26:31-32; Isa. 64:10; Jer. 22:5
This prophecy corresponds with that in 24:2, which was fulfilled when Titus and the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Mt 23:39a Blessed  -   Psa. 118:26; cf. Matt. 21:9
Mt 23:391 comes
This is the Lord’s second coming, when all the remnant of Israel will turn and will believe in Him and be saved (Rom. 11:23, 26).
Matthew Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 24:1a And  -   vv. 1-2: Mark 13:1-2; Luke 21:5-6
Mt 24:11 from
The Lord came out from the temple, indicating that He had left the temple. This was to fulfill His word in 23:38, concerning His leaving the temple to the rejecting Jews as their house of desolation. This was equivalent to God’s glory leaving the temple in the ancient time (Ezek. 10:18).
Mt 24:12 temple
The entire precincts of the temple.
Mt 24:2a no  -   Luke 19:44
Mt 24:21 thrown
This was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when Titus and the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem.
Mt 24:3a And  -   vv. 3-13: Mark 13:3-13; Luke 21:7-19
Mt 24:31b Mount  -   Matt. 21:1; 26:30; Luke 22:39; John 8:1; Acts 1:12
To receive the vision of the Lord’s prophecy concerning this age, we need to climb the high mountain to enter into His presence.
Mt 24:32 When
The disciples’ question concerned three matters: (1) the time when “these things” would take place, including not only the destruction of the temple (v. 2) but also the things mentioned in 23:32-39; (2) the sign of Christ’s coming; and (3) the sign of the consummation of the age. The Lord’s word from 24:4 — 25:46 answered the disciples’ question concerning these three matters.
Mt 24:3c sign  -   Matt. 24:30
Mt 24:33d coming  -   Matt. 24:27, 37, 39
Gk. parousia, which means presence. Christ’s coming will be His presence with His people. This presence (parousia) will begin with the rapture of the man-child (Rev. 12:5) and the rapture of the firstfruits (Rev. 14:1-4) and will end with His appearing on the earth with the saints. During the period of His parousia there will be the great tribulation (v. 21; Rev. 9:1-21; 11:14; 16:1-21), which will begin with supernatural calamities (Rev. 6:12-17; 8:7-12); Christ’s descending to the air (Rev. 14:14); the rapture of the majority of the believers to the air (1 Thes. 4:15-17); the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10); and the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). (See “The Chart of the Seventy Weeks and the Coming of Christ, with the Rapture of the Saints” at the end of the printed edition.)
Mt 24:3e consummation  -   Matt. 13:39, 40
Mt 24:41 answered
The Lord’s answer has three sections: the first section (vv. 4-31) concerns the Jews, who are the chosen; the second (v. 32 — 25:30) concerns the church; and the third (25:31-46) concerns the Gentiles (the nations). The first section, concerning the Jews, should be interpreted literally, whereas the second section, concerning the church, should be interpreted spiritually, because it is spoken in parables for the reason given in 13:11-13. For instance, the winter in v. 20 is the actual winter, but the summer in v. 32 is a symbol signifying the time of restoration. The third section, concerning the Gentiles, also should be interpreted literally.
Mt 24:42 See
Some aspects of the prophecy in vv. 4-14 have been fulfilled, and some are in the process of being fulfilled. At the time of the great tribulation, which will be the consummation, the end, of this age, the prophecy will be fully fulfilled.
Mt 24:4a leads  -   2 John 7
Mt 24:61 wars
Wars here denotes all the wars from the first century to the present. They are signified by the red horse of the second seal in Rev. 6:3-4.
Mt 24:62a end  -   Matt. 24:14; Dan. 8:17, 19; 11:27, 35, 40; 12:4, 9, 6-7
The end denotes the consummation of this age (v. 3; Dan. 12:4, 9, 6-7), which will be the three and a half years of the great tribulation. Although vv. 6-9 and 14 are in the section concerning Israel, the tribulations and the preaching of the gospel mentioned in these verses take place generally, in the whole world, from the time of Christ’s ascension to the end of this age. Verse 15, immediately following v. 14, speaks concerning the beginning of the great tribulation (v. 21), which is the time when Antichrist will set up his image in the temple of God, which image will thereby become the abomination of desolation.
Mt 24:71 nation
Nation denotes the people, the Gentiles; kingdom denotes an empire.
Mt 24:7a against  -   Rev. 6:4
Mt 24:72b famines  -   Rev. 6:8
Famines issue mainly from war. According to history, war has often brought famine, signified by the black horse of the third seal in Rev. 6:5-6.
Mt 24:73 earthquakes
Since Christ’s ascension, earthquakes have been occurring throughout all the centuries and will be intensified at the end of this age (Rev. 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:18).
Mt 24:81 birth
Birth pangs are for the bringing forth of a child. In His New Testament economy, God’s desire and purpose are to bring forth many sons (Gal. 3:26; Heb. 2:10) as His expression. Hence, birth pangs here refers to all the tribulations in the New Testament age, including wars, famines, earthquakes, afflictions, and persecutions, as mentioned in vv. 6-9 and 21. The birth pangs here are suffered only by the New Testament believers for the Lord’s sake, whereas the travailing in birth in Rev. 12:2 refers to all the travailings suffered throughout the generations by God’s people in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. These tribulations, along with the preaching of the gospel (v. 14), are used by God to produce His many sons so that He can constitute the church in this age, accomplish the kingdom in the coming age, and produce the New Jerusalem in eternity as the ultimate consummation of the church and the kingdom that He may have an eternal expression in eternity future. Galatians 4:19 and Rev. 12:2 and 5 confirm this viewpoint.
Mt 24:91 you
Referring to the Jewish disciples, who were the prophets and wise men sent to the Jews (23:34).
Mt 24:9a tribulation  -   Rev. 2:10
Mt 24:9b kill  -   Matt. 23:34; John 16:2
Mt 24:9c hated  -   Matt. 10:22
Mt 24:11a false  -   1 John 4:1
Mt 24:12a love  -   Rev. 2:4
Mt 24:13a endured  -   Matt. 10:22
Mt 24:131 saved
See note 221 in ch. 10.
Mt 24:141a gospel  -   Matt. 4:23; 9:35
The gospel of the kingdom, which includes the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24), brings people not only into God’s salvation but also into the kingdom of the heavens (Rev. 1:9). The gospel of grace emphasizes forgiveness of sin, God’s redemption, and eternal life, whereas the gospel of the kingdom emphasizes the heavenly ruling of God and the authority of the Lord. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole earth for a testimony to all the nations before the end of this age. Hence, that preaching, signified by the white horse of the first seal in Rev. 6:1-2, will be a sign of the consummation of this age.
Mt 24:142 testimony
The gospel of the kingdom is a testimony to all the nations (Gentiles). This testimony must spread to the whole earth before the end of this age, the time of the great tribulation.
Mt 24:143b end  -   Matt. 24:6
See note 62.
Mt 24:151a Therefore  -   vv. 15-26: Mark 13:14-23
No one knows the length of time spanning the events mentioned in vv. 4-14. But the prophecy in vv. 15-31, concerning the remnant of the Jews, definitely will be fulfilled in the last three and a half years of this age, the time of the great tribulation, the second half of the last week prophesied in Dan. 9:27, which will begin with the setting up of Antichrist’s image (the idol) in the temple (v. 15) and will end with Christ’s open coming (v. 30).
Mt 24:152b abomination  -   Deut. 29:17; 1 Kings 11:5-7; Jer. 4:1
Abomination denotes an idol (Deut. 29:17, ASV). Here it refers to Antichrist’s image, which will be set up as an idol in the temple of God (Rev. 13:14-15; 2 Thes. 2:4) at the beginning of the great tribulation (v. 21). Hence, this idol will be another sign of the consummation of this age.
Mt 24:153c desolation  -   Dan. 8:11; Psa. 74:3-7; Isa. 64:10-11; Lam. 4:1
Lit., causing desolation, desolating. The abomination, the image of Antichrist, will cause desolation. Antichrist is called “the destroyer” (Apollyon — Rev. 9:11); he will do much destroying (Dan. 8:13, 23-25; 9:27).
Mt 24:15d Daniel  -   Dan. 9:27; 12:11
Mt 24:154 holy
Holy place here refers to the sanctuaries in God’s temple (Psa. 68:35; Ezek. 7:24; 21:2).
Mt 24:15e understand  -   Dan. 9:23
Mt 24:17a housetop  -   Luke 17:31
Mt 24:191 pregnant
For those who are pregnant or are nursing babies, it will be difficult to escape.
Mt 24:201 winter
Winter is a time when escape is difficult.
Mt 24:202 Sabbath
On the Sabbath one was allowed to walk only a short distance (Acts 1:12), a distance not adequate for escaping. The mentioning of the Sabbath here indicates that the Jews would still keep the Sabbath after the restoration of the nation of Israel. The disciples, the audience for the Lord’s word here, had a twofold status, one as representatives of the remnant of the Jews and the other as the New Testament believers, who constitute the church. In the section of the Lord’s word that concerns the Jews (vv. 4-31), the disciples represent the remnant of the Jews, whereas in the section that concerns the church (24:32 — 25:30), they represent the New Testament believers. In the four Gospels, in matters regarding outward circumstances, the Lord treated His disciples as Jews, but in matters concerning spirit and life, He considered them New Testament believers.
Mt 24:211a great  -   Matt. 24:29; Dan. 12:1; Jer. 30:6-7
The great tribulation will occur in the last three and a half years of this age. See note 24 in Rev. 11. The great tribulation spoken of here will have Jerusalem as its center and Judea as its circumference, whereas the trial mentioned in Rev. 3:10 will have Rome as its center and the whole inhabited earth as its circumference.
Mt 24:221 short
The great tribulation will last only three and a half years. See note 24 in Rev. 11.
Mt 24:222a chosen  -   Matt. 24:24, 31; Deut. 7:6; Isa. 65:9; 45:4
The chosen here refers to the Jews, God’s chosen people (Rom. 11:28). So in the succeeding verses.
Mt 24:23a here  -   Matt. 24:26
Mt 24:231 Christ
The Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah and are expecting a Messiah who is yet to come. They need to be warned that Messiah, the Christ, will not arise here or there on earth but will descend from heaven on the cloud.
Mt 24:241a false  -   2 Thes. 2:9
Antichrist will be the last of the false Christs and will work signs and lying wonders with the power of Satan in order to deceive the perishing (2 Thes. 2:3, 9-10).
Mt 24:242b false  -   Rev. 19:20
Another beast in Rev. 13:11 denotes the last of the false prophets (Rev. 19:20), who will do great signs to deceive those who dwell on earth (Rev. 13:13-14).
Mt 24:243 show
Lit., give.
Mt 24:24c signs  -   2 Thes. 2:9; Rev. 13:13-14
Mt 24:24d chosen  -   Matt. 24:22
Mt 24:26a Therefore  -   vv. 26-27: Luke 17:23-24
Mt 24:261 wilderness
The wilderness is where a person might go in order to separate himself from the world. His doing this might easily cause people to wonder whether he is the Messiah, as happened in the case of John the Baptist (3:1; John 1:19-20).
Mt 24:262 inner
Or, private rooms; a place where a person can make himself appear mystical so as to charm people.
Mt 24:271 lightning
The second coming of Christ has two aspects: one is the secret aspect, related to His watchful believers; the other is the open aspect, related to the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. The lightning here signifies the open aspect, which will take place after the great tribulation (vv. 29-30), whereas the thief’s coming in v. 43 signifies the secret aspect, which will occur before the great tribulation. Lightning may be considered as being concealed in a cloud, waiting for an opportunity to flash forth. In a similar way, Christ will be clothed with a cloud (Rev. 10:1) in the air for a time and then will suddenly appear, like a flash of lightning striking the earth. Hence, the Lord’s coming like a flash of lightning will be a sign of the end of the Lord’s parousia (see note 33). This implies also that the Lord is like electricity.
Mt 24:272a coming  -   Matt. 24:3
See note 33. So in vv. 37 and 39.
Mt 24:281a corpse  -   Luke 17:37
Taken in context, vv. 15 and 21 imply that at the end of this age Antichrist will be the cause of the great tribulation. It is he who will need to be judged and destroyed. All people in Adam are dead (1 Cor. 15:22); thus, the evil Antichrist, who with his evil armies will war against the Lord at Armageddon (Rev. 19:17-21), is in the eyes of the Lord a stinking corpse, good for the vultures’ appetite. Furthermore, in the Scriptures both the Lord and those who trust in Him are likened to an eagle (Exo. 19:4; Deut. 32:11; Isa. 40:31), and the swift, destroying armies are likened to flying eagles (Deut. 28:49; Hosea 8:1). Hence, the vultures here, being predatory birds of the eagle kind, refer undoubtedly to Christ and His overcomers, who will come as a swift, flying army to war against Antichrist and his armies and destroy them at Armageddon, thus executing God’s judgment upon them. This indicates not only that at His appearing, Christ with His overcoming saints will appear in the place where Antichrist is with his armies, but also that Christ with His overcomers will appear swiftly from the air like vultures. This corresponds with the flash of lightning in the foregoing verse.
Mt 24:29a And  -   vv. 29-31: Mark 13:24-27; Luke 21:25-28
Mt 24:291 after
This is strong proof that the open coming of Christ will take place after the great tribulation (v. 21).
Mt 24:292 sun
This supernatural calamity will occur in heaven after the great tribulation, at the close of the end of this age (see note 122 in Rev. 6). This differs from the calamities of the sixth seal and the fourth trumpet (Rev. 6:12-13; 8:12), which will occur at the beginning of the great tribulation.
Mt 24:301a sign  -   Matt. 24:3
We have no way of knowing what this sign is. However, it must be supernatural and clearly visible (perhaps like the lightning in v. 27), appearing in heaven.
Mt 24:302b tribes  -   Zech. 12:10-14; Rev. 1:7
The tribes here are the tribes of the nation of Israel, and the land is the Holy Land. At the Lord’s appearing, all the tribes of Israel will repent and mourn (Zech. 12:10-14; Rev. 1:7).
Mt 24:303 mourn
Lit., beat the breast.
Mt 24:30c Son  -   Matt. 16:27; 26:64
Mt 24:304d on  -   Rev. 14:14
By this time the Lord will no longer be in the cloud but on the cloud, appearing to the people on earth. This is the open aspect of His second coming. See note 12 in Rev. 10 and note 141 in Rev. 14.
Mt 24:305 power
In Christ’s first coming He manifested His authority in acts such as His casting out of demons and His healing of diseases (Mark 6:7; Matt. 8:8-9), to vindicate Himself as the heavenly King, whereas in His second coming He will exercise His power to execute God’s judgment, to destroy Antichrist and his armies, and to bind Satan, for the establishing of His kingdom on earth.
Mt 24:311a gather  -   Deut. 30:3-5; Isa. 43:5-7; 49:9-13, 22-26; 51:11; 56:8; 60:4; 62:10-12; 27:13; Ezek. 34:13; 37:21; 28:25
After the great tribulation, at His coming back to earth, the Lord will gather together to the Holy Land the scattered Jews from all parts of the earth. This will be the fulfillment not only of the Lord’s word in 23:37 but also of God’s promise in the Old Testament (see reference 31a).
Mt 24:31b chosen  -   Matt. 24:22
Mt 24:31c four  -   Zech. 2:6
Mt 24:31d heavens  -   Deut. 4:32
Mt 24:321a But  -   vv. 32-36: Mark 13:28-32; Luke 21:29-33
But indicates that v. 32 begins another section. This section, 24:32 — 25:30, concerns the church.
Mt 24:322b fig  -   Jer. 24:2, 5, 8; Hosea 9:10
The fig tree, signifying the nation of Israel, was cursed in 21:19 (see notes there). It passed through a long winter, from the first century A.D. to 1948, when Israel was restored as a nation. At that time its branch became tender and put forth its leaves. To the believers this fig tree is a sign of the end of this age.
Mt 24:323 become
The branch’s becoming tender signifies that life has come back.
Mt 24:324 puts
The putting forth of leaves signifies engaging in outward activities.
Mt 24:325 summer
Winter signifies the time of being dried up (21:19), the time of tribulation (vv. 7-21); summer signifies the age of the (restored) kingdom (Luke 21:30-31), which will begin at the Lord’s second coming.
Mt 24:331 all
All these things refers to the things predicted in vv. 7-32.
Mt 24:332 it
It refers to the restoration of the kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6), signified by the summer in v. 32.
Mt 24:341a generation  -   Matt. 23:36
Generation here does not refer to a generation defined according to an age or a person, like the generations mentioned in 1:17; it refers to a generation defined by the moral condition of the people, like the generations in 11:16; 12:39, 41-42, 45; and Prov. 30:11-14.
Mt 24:35a pass  -   Matt. 5:18
Mt 24:35b words  -   Isa. 40:8
Mt 24:36a day  -   Matt. 25:13; 1 Thes. 5:1, 2; 2 Pet. 3:10
Mt 24:361 Son
The Son, standing in the position of the Son of Man (v. 37), does not know the day and hour of His coming back.
Mt 24:37a For  -   vv. 37-39: Luke 17:26-27
Mt 24:371 days
The Lord’s coming (parousia) will be like the days of Noah. This indicates that when the Lord’s parousia is about to come, it will be like the days of Noah; that is, the situation before the Lord’s coming will be like that in the days of Noah.
Mt 24:37b coming  -   Matt. 24:3
Mt 24:381 For
For indicates that this verse is the explanation of why and how the Lord’s parousia will be like the days of Noah. In the days of Noah the following conditions existed: (1) people were befuddled by eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, and (2) they did not know that judgment was coming, until the flood came and took them away. When the Lord’s parousia is about to come, people will likewise be befuddled by the necessities of this life and will not know that God’s judgment (signified by the flood) will come upon them by the Lord’s appearing. The believers, however, should be de-drugged and should soberly know that Christ is coming to execute God’s judgment upon this corrupted world.
Mt 24:382 eating
In the beginning, eating, drinking, and marriage were ordained by God for man’s existence. But because of man’s lust Satan utilizes these necessities of human life to occupy man and keep him from God’s interest. At the end of this age, near the coming of the Lord’s parousia, this kind of situation will be intensified.
Mt 24:38a Noah  -   Gen. 7:7, 11-12
Mt 24:39a coming  -   Matt. 24:3
Mt 24:401a At  -   vv. 40-41: Luke 17:34-36
At that time indicates that while the worldly people are befuddled by the material things and have no sense of the coming judgment, some of the sober and watchful believers will be taken. To the befuddled and senseless people, this should be a sign of Christ’s coming.
Mt 24:402 men
These men must be brothers in Christ.
Mt 24:403 in
Both in the field and grinding signify working for a living. Although the believers should not be befuddled by the necessities of this life, they need to work for a living. Any thought of giving up proper work by which one earns a living is another extreme of Satan’s tactics.
Mt 24:404 taken
This is to be raptured before the great tribulation. This rapture is a sign of the Lord’s coming (parousia) and a sign to the Jews.
Mt 24:411 women
These women must be sisters in the Lord.
Mt 24:412 grinding
See note 403.
Mt 24:413 taken
See note 404.
Mt 24:421a Watch  -   Matt. 25:13; Luke 21:36
Both watch therefore and your Lord prove that the two men and two women in vv. 40 and 41 are saved believers. The Lord would not charge unsaved people to watch, nor is He the Lord of the unsaved.
Mt 24:42b therefore  -   vv. 42-51: Luke 12:39-46; cf. Mark 13:33-37
Mt 24:431 householder
Householder refers to the believer, and house to the conduct and work that a believer has built up in his Christian life.
Mt 24:432a thief  -   Rev. 3:3; 16:15; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10
A thief comes at an unknown time to steal precious things. The Lord will come secretly, as a thief, to those who love Him and will take them away as His treasures. Hence, we should watch (v. 42).
Mt 24:44a ready  -   Matt. 25:10
Mt 24:441 coming
This is the Lord’s secret coming to the watchful overcomers.
Mt 24:451a faithful  -   Matt. 25:21, 23; 1 Cor. 4:1-2; Luke 16:10
Faithfulness is shown toward the Lord, whereas prudence is exercised toward the believers. Watchfulness is for being raptured into the Lord’s presence (v. 42); faithfulness is for reigning in the kingdom (v. 47).
Mt 24:452 household
Household refers to the believers (Eph. 2:19), who constitute the church (1 Tim. 3:15).
Mt 24:453 give
Give them food refers to ministering the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the believers in the church.
Mt 24:461 Blessed
Here to be blessed is to be rewarded with the authority to rule in the manifestation of the kingdom.
Mt 24:47a set  -   Matt. 25:21, 23
Mt 24:471 over
In the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, the Lord will set the faithful slave over all His possessions. This will be a reward to him.
Mt 24:481 evil
The evil slave is a saved believer, as seen in the fact that (1) he was appointed by the Lord (v. 45), (2) he called the Lord “my Master,” and (3) he believed that the Lord was coming.
Mt 24:48a delays  -   Matt. 25:5; Heb. 10:37
Mt 24:491 beat
This is to mistreat fellow believers.
Mt 24:492 eats
This is to keep company with worldly people, who are drunk with worldly things.
Mt 24:49a drunken  -   1 Thes. 5:7
Mt 24:50a day  -   Matt. 24:36
Mt 24:511 cut
Referring to being cut off from the glorious Christ, from the glory of His kingdom, and from His glorious presence in His kingdom, unable to participate in Christ and the glory of His kingdom in the manifestation of the kingdom, which the faithful slaves will enjoy (v. 45; 25:21, 23). This corresponds with cast out…into the outer darkness in the conclusion of the parable of the talents (25:14-30), which completes this section, vv. 45-51.
Mt 24:512 portion
This is not to perish eternally but to be chastened dispensationally. See note 281 in Heb. 12.
Mt 24:513 hypocrites
See note 22 in ch. 6.
Mt 24:514a weeping  -   Matt. 25:30; 22:13; 8:12
See note 123 in ch. 8.
Matthew Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 25:11a kingdom  -   Matt. 13:24
See note 34 in ch. 5 and notes 31 and 241 in ch. 13.
Mt 25:12 ten
Ten is the major part of twelve (Gen. 42:3-4; 1 Kings 11:30-31; Matt. 20:24). Hence, the ten virgins represent the majority of the believers, who will have died before the Lord’s coming. The two men or two women in 24:40-41 represent the remaining believers, who will live until the Lord’s coming.
Mt 25:13b virgins  -   2 Cor. 11:2
Virgins signify believers viewed from the aspect of life (2 Cor. 11:2). Believers, who are the kingdom people, are like chaste virgins. As virgins they bear the Lord’s testimony (the lamp) in the dark age and are going out of the world to meet the Lord. For this they need not only the indwelling but also the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Mt 25:14c lamps  -   Luke 12:35; Matt. 5:15-16
Lamps signify the spirit of the believers (Prov. 20:27), which contains the Spirit of God as the oil (Rom. 8:16). The believers shine forth the light of the Spirit of God from within their spirit. Thus, they become the light of the world and shine as a lamp in the darkness of this age (5:14-16; Phil. 2:15-16), bearing the testimony of the Lord for the glorification of God.
Mt 25:15 went
Went forth signifies that the believers are going out of the world to meet the coming Christ.
Mt 25:1d meet  -   cf. Phil. 3:20; Titus 2:13
Mt 25:16e bridegroom  -   John 3:29; Matt. 9:15
The bridegroom signifies Christ as the pleasant and attractive person (John 3:29; Matt. 9:15).
Mt 25:21a five  -   cf. Exo. 26:3, 26-27, 37; 27:1, 18
Five is composed of four plus one, signifying that man (signified by four) with God (signified by one) added to him bears responsibility. The fact that five of the virgins are foolish and five are prudent does not indicate that half the believers are foolish and the other half are prudent. It indicates that all believers bear the responsibility of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Mt 25:22b foolish  -   Matt. 7:26
Being foolish does not make these five virgins false. In nature they are the same as the five prudent ones.
Mt 25:2c prudent  -   Matt. 7:24; 24:45; Luke 16:8
Mt 25:31 oil
Oil signifies the Holy Spirit (Isa. 61:1; Heb. 1:9).
Mt 25:41a vessels  -   Rom. 9:21, 23
Man is a vessel made for God (Rom. 9:21, 23-24), and man’s personality is in his soul. Hence, vessels here signifies the souls of the believers. The five prudent virgins not only have oil in their lamps but also take oil in their vessels. That they have oil in their lamps signifies that they have the Spirit of God dwelling in their spirit (Rom. 8:9, 16), and that they take oil in their vessels signifies that they have the Spirit of God filling and saturating their souls.
Mt 25:5a delayed  -   Matt. 24:48
Mt 25:51b drowsy  -   cf. 1 Cor. 11:30
Becoming drowsy signifies becoming sick (Acts 9:37; 1 Cor. 11:30).
Mt 25:52c slept  -   1 Thes. 4:13-14, 16
Sleep signifies death (1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11:11-13). While the Lord delays His return, a majority of the believers become sick and then die.
Mt 25:61 midnight
Midnight signifies the darkest time of this dark age (night). That time will be the end of this age, the time of the great tribulation.
Mt 25:62a cry  -   1 Thes. 4:16
This cry signifies the voice of the archangel (1 Thes. 4:16).
Mt 25:63 meet
A word different from meet in v. 1. The word in v. 1 refers to meeting someone alone and in secret, whereas the word here refers to meeting someone openly according to plan and ceremony.
Mt 25:71a arose  -   1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16
Arose signifies resurrection from the dead (1 Thes. 4:14). This is the resurrection predicted in 1 Thes. 4:16 and 1 Cor. 15:52.
Mt 25:72 trimmed
Lit., adorned. Trimmed their own lamps signifies the virgins’ dealing with the testimony in their living. This indicates that after we are resurrected, our living for the Lord’s testimony still needs to be dealt with if it has not been perfected before we die.
Mt 25:81 Give
This word implies that even after they are resurrected, the foolish believers will still need the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Mt 25:82 going
Going out proves that the lamps of the foolish virgins were lighted; they contained some oil but did not have an adequate supply. The foolish virgins represent the believers who are regenerated with the Spirit of God and indwelt by the Spirit of God, but who have not been filled with Him sufficiently to have their whole being saturated with Him.
Mt 25:91 not
No one can obtain the filling of the Holy Spirit for others.
Mt 25:92a those  -   cf. Zech. 4:3, 12-14; Rev. 11:4
Here those who sell oil must be the two witnesses who appear during the great tribulation, the two olive trees and the two sons of oil (Rev. 11:3-4 and notes; Zech. 4:11-14).
Mt 25:93b buy  -   cf. Rev. 3:18
Buy indicates that a price must be paid. Having the filling of the Holy Spirit is at a cost, such as giving up the world, dealing with self, loving the Lord above all, and counting all things loss for Christ. If we do not pay this price today, we will have to pay it after we are resurrected.
Mt 25:101a came  -   1 Thes. 4:16
This is the Lord’s coming to the air (1 Thes. 4:16), a part of His coming (parousia).
Mt 25:102 those
They must be those who are invited to the marriage dinner of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9 and note 1).
Mt 25:103b ready  -   Matt. 24:44; cf. Rev. 19:7
We should be ready (24:44), always having oil in our vessel, always being filled with the Spirit of God in our whole being. Watching and being ready should be our daily exercise for the Lord’s coming (parousia).
Mt 25:104 went
This is the rapture of the resurrected believers to the air (1 Thes. 4:17) at the time that the Lord’s coming (parousia) descends to the air.
Mt 25:105c wedding  -   Matt. 22:4; Rev. 19:9
This is the marriage dinner of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9), which will be spread in the air (1 Thes. 4:17) on the path of the Lord’s coming (parousia). It will occur before the manifestation of the kingdom and will be a reward of mutual enjoyment with the Lord, a reward to be given to the believers who are ready, who are equipped with the filling of the Holy Spirit before they die.
Mt 25:106 door
This is not the door of salvation but the door through which one enters into the enjoyment of the Lord’s wedding feast.
Mt 25:10d shut  -   cf. Luke 13:25-27
Mt 25:111 came
This is the resurrected believers’ coming before the Lord at a later time; it occurs later because of their unreadiness.
Mt 25:11a Lord  -   cf. Matt. 7:21-23
Mt 25:121 not
Not know here carries the sense of not recognize, not approve, as in Luke 13:25. The foolish virgins had their lamps lighted, went forth to meet the Lord, died, and were resurrected and raptured, but were late in paying the price for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Because of this the Lord would not recognize them, approve them, for participation in His wedding feast. They miss this dispensational reward but do not lose their eternal salvation.
Mt 25:131a Watch  -   Matt. 24:42; Luke 12:37; Rev. 16:15
This word, the same as in 24:42, indicates that vv. 1-13 are a completion of 24:40-44, a section on the believers’ being watchful that they may be raptured. Verses 40-44 in ch. 24 unveil the rapture of living believers who are ready. Verses 1-13 of this chapter are needed to reveal the rapture of those who have died and are resurrected.
Mt 25:13b day  -   Matt. 24:36
Mt 25:14a For  -   vv. 14-30: cf. Luke 19:12-27
Mt 25:141 kingdom
This parable of the talents, like the parable of the ten virgins, concerns the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 25:142 man
The man here signifies Christ, who was about to go abroad, into the heavens.
Mt 25:14b abroad  -   Matt. 21:33; Mark 13:34
See note 142.
Mt 25:143c slaves  -   1 Cor. 7:22-23; 2 Pet. 1:1; James 1:1; Rom. 1:1
Slaves signify believers viewed from the aspect of service (1 Cor. 7:22-23; 2 Pet. 1:1; James 1:1; Rom. 1:1). The believers’ status in relation to Christ is of two aspects: in life they are virgins living for Him; in service, in work, they are His purchased slaves serving Him.
Mt 25:144 his
His possessions signifies the church (Eph. 1:18) with all the believers, who constitute God’s household (24:45).
Mt 25:14d possessions  -   Eph. 1:18
Mt 25:151a talents  -   Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4; 1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6
A talent, the largest unit of weight, was worth six thousand denarii (see note 71 in John 6). In the parable of the virgins, oil signifies the Spirit of God (vv. 3-4), whereas in this parable, talents signify spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4; 1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6). For life we need oil, the Spirit of God, even His filling, that we may be enabled to live the virgin life for the Lord’s testimony; for service, for work, we need the talent, the spiritual gift, that we may be equipped as a good slave to accomplish what the Lord intends to accomplish. The filling of the Spirit in life enables us to use the spiritual gift in service (work), and the spiritual gift in service matches the filling of the Spirit in life, that we may be a perfect member of Christ.
Mt 25:152 own
Own ability signifies our natural ability, which is constituted of God’s creation and our learning.
Mt 25:161 traded
Traded with them (talents) signifies our using of the gift that the Lord has given us.
Mt 25:162 gained
Gained another five (talents) signifies that the gift we received from the Lord has been used to the fullest extent, without any loss or waste.
Mt 25:181 one
The main emphasis in this parable is on the one-talented one, who received the smallest gift. It is very easy for the least gifted to mistreat or ignore their gift.
Mt 25:182 dug
The earth signifies the world; thus, dug in the earth signifies becoming involved in the world. Any association, any involvement, with the world, even a little worldly talk, will bury the gift we have received from the Lord.
Mt 25:183 hid
Hid his master’s money signifies rendering the Lord’s gift useless, letting it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses. To make any excuse for not using the Lord’s gift is to hide the gift. This is always the danger with the one-talented ones, those who consider their gift to be the smallest.
Mt 25:191 long
A long time signifies the entire church age.
Mt 25:192 came
Came signifies the Lord’s descending to the air (1 Thes. 4:16) in His coming (parousia). After burying the talent in the earth, the evil slave thought that all would be well. Little did he know that his master would come to settle accounts with him.
Mt 25:193a settled  -   Matt. 18:23; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; Matt. 16:27
Settled accounts signifies the Lord’s judging at His judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10) in the air (within His parousia), where the believers’ living, conduct, and work will be judged for reward or punishment (1 Cor. 4:5; Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; 1 Cor. 3:13-15). See note 351 in Heb. 10.
Mt 25:201 came
This is to come to the judgment seat of Christ.
Mt 25:202 another
The gaining of another five talents is the result of the full use of the gift of the five talents.
Mt 25:21a faithful  -   Matt. 25:23; 24:45
Mt 25:211 few
A few things signifies the Lord’s work in this age.
Mt 25:21b set  -   Matt. 24:47; Luke 12:44
Mt 25:212 over
Over signifies the ruling authority in the coming kingdom.
Mt 25:213 many
Many things signifies the responsibilities in the coming kingdom.
Mt 25:214c joy  -   Heb. 12:2
The joy of your master signifies the enjoyment of the Lord in the coming kingdom. This refers to inward satisfaction, not to outward position. To participate in the Lord’s joy is the greatest reward, better than the glory and position in the kingdom.
Mt 25:231 Well
This is the same appraisal the Lord gave to the five-talented one.
Mt 25:232 set
This is the same reward the Lord gave to the five-talented one. Although the gift given to the two-talented one was smaller than that given to the five-talented one, the Lord’s appraisal and reward were the same in both cases. This indicates that the Lord’s appraisal and reward are not related to the size and quantity of our work, but to our faithfulness in using His gift to the fullest extent. The same appraisal and reward would have been given to the one-talented one if he had been as faithful.
Mt 25:241 came
The one-talented one also, who did not gain any profit for the Lord, came to the judgment seat of Christ in the air. This proves that he was not only saved but also raptured to the air. No unsaved person can be raptured and come to the judgment seat of Christ.
Mt 25:242 knew
The Greek word refers to outward, objective knowledge, not to inward, subjective realization.
Mt 25:243 hard
Apparently, the Lord is hard in His strictness. He demands that we use His gift to the fullest extent for His work, which requires our absoluteness.
Mt 25:244 not
Apparently, the Lord’s work always begins from zero. Reaping where He did not sow and gathering where He did not winnow, He seemingly demands that we work for Him with nothing. This should not be an excuse for the one-talented one to neglect the use of his gift; rather, this should force him to exercise his faith so that he can use his gift to the uttermost.
Mt 25:245 winnow
Lit., scatter. So in v. 26.
Mt 25:251 afraid
To be afraid is negative. We should, rather, be positive and aggressive in using the Lord’s gift.
Mt 25:252 went
This is to be too passive. We should be active in the Lord’s work.
Mt 25:253 you
Merely to keep the Lord’s gift and not lose it is not sufficient; we must gain a profit by using it.
Mt 25:26a Evil  -   Matt. 18:32
Mt 25:26b slothful  -   Prov. 20:4; Rom. 12:11
Mt 25:261 I
The Lord admits that He is strict in what He demands of His slaves for His work.
Mt 25:271 deposited
This signifies the use of the Lord’s gift to save people and to minister His riches to them.
Mt 25:272 interest
Interest signifies the profitable result we gain for the Lord’s work by using His gift.
Mt 25:281 Take
This signifies that in the coming kingdom the Lord’s gift will be taken away from slothful believers.
Mt 25:282 give
This signifies that the faithful believers’ gift will be increased.
Mt 25:291a to  -   Matt. 13:12; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18
To everyone who gains profit in the church age, more gifts will be given in the coming kingdom age; but concerning the one who has not gained a profit in the church age, even the gift that he has will be taken away from him in the coming kingdom age.
Mt 25:301a cast  -   Matt. 8:12; 22:13
See note 132 in ch. 22.
Mt 25:302 outer
See note 122 in ch. 8 and note 132 in ch. 22.
Mt 25:303 there
This word, the same as in 24:51, indicates that vv. 14-30 are a completion of 24:45-51. Both sections concern faithfulness for the Lord’s work. Verses 45-51 in ch. 24 deal with the slave’s unfaithfulness in fulfilling the Lord’s commission. Verses 14-30 in this chapter are needed so that the slave’s unfaithfulness in using the Lord’s talent can be dealt with.
Mt 25:304b weeping  -   Matt. 24:51
See note 123 in ch. 8.
Mt 25:311 But
But indicates that what is spoken in vv. 31-46 is another section, the section concerning the Gentiles.
Mt 25:312a Son  -   Matt. 8:20
Son of Man is the title of Christ in relation to His kingdom, the Messianic kingdom (13:41). His judgment here is a preparation for that kingdom.
Mt 25:313b comes  -   Matt. 16:27; Zech. 14:5; Jude 14
This is the open aspect of the Lord’s coming. (See notes 271 and 371 in ch. 24.) It will be the continuation of His coming mentioned in 24:30.
Mt 25:314 glory
The Lord’s glory comprises the glory of His divinity (John 17:22, 24), the glory of His humanity (Psa. 45:3), the glory of His resurrection (John 7:39; Acts 3:13-15), and the glory of His ascension (Heb. 2:9).
Mt 25:315c throne  -   Matt. 19:28; Luke 1:32-33; Jer. 3:17
The throne of David (Luke 1:32-33), which will be in Jerusalem (19:28; Jer. 3:17).
Mt 25:321a nations  -   Joel 3:12
All the nations refers to all the Gentiles who remain at Christ’s coming back to the earth, after He has destroyed those Gentiles who follow Antichrist at Armageddon (Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-15, 19-21). These remaining Gentiles will all be gathered and judged at Christ’s throne of glory. This will be Christ’s judgment of the living before the millennium (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1). It differs from His judgment of the dead at the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15) and will be executed on the earth after His judgment of the believers at His judgment seat in the air (vv. 19-30).
Mt 25:32b before  -   Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1
Mt 25:322c shepherd  -   Psa. 100:1-3
The Lord is the Shepherd not only of the believers (John 10:11; Heb. 13:20) and the Jews (Psa. 80:1; Jer. 31:10) but also of all the Gentiles (Psa. 100:1-3).
Mt 25:331a right  -   cf. Matt. 26:64
The place of honor (1 Kings 2:19; Psa. 45:9).
Mt 25:34a King  -   Luke 19:38; Rev. 17:14; 19:16
Mt 25:34b blessed  -   Psa. 37:22
Mt 25:341 inherit
After the judgment at Christ’s throne of glory, the “sheep” will be transferred into the millennium to be the people living under the kingly ruling of Christ and the overcoming believers (Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5; 20:4-6) and under the priestly ministry of the saved Jews (Zech. 8:20-23). In this way the “sheep” will inherit the (coming) kingdom. In the millennium there will be three sections: (1) the earth, where the blessing of God’s creation will be, as mentioned in Gen. 1:28-30; (2) the nation of Israel in Canaan, from the Nile to the Euphrates, from which the saved Jews will rule over the whole earth (Isa. 60:10-12; Zech. 14:16-18); and (3) the heavenly and spiritual section (1 Cor. 15:50-52), the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, where the overcoming believers will enjoy the kingdom reward (5:20; 7:21). The kingdom that the “sheep” will inherit consists of the first section.
Mt 25:342c from  -   Matt. 13:35
The blessing of the first section in the millennium, the blessing of God’s creation, was prepared for the “sheep” from the foundation of the world, whereas the blessing in the third section, the blessing of the heavenly and spiritual kingdom, was ordained for the believers before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4).
Mt 25:351 hungry
All the sufferings in vv. 35-39 will befall the believers who are left to be tried (Rev. 3:10 and note 2) during the great tribulation (24:21).
Mt 25:35a drink  -   Matt. 10:42
Mt 25:401 done
This will happen in the great tribulation, when the believers suffer the persecution of Antichrist (Rev. 13:6-7; 20:4).
Mt 25:402 these
These should refer to the believers who overcome the persecution of Antichrist (Rev. 15:2 and note 2). They will be with Christ at this judgment.
Mt 25:40a least  -   Matt. 10:42
Mt 25:403b brothers  -   Matt. 28:10; John 20:17; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11-12, 17
Christ’s brothers are His believers (12:49-50).
Mt 25:404c Me  -   Matt. 10:40
Christ is one with the believers, who are His members, as indicated in Acts 9:4.
Mt 25:411a eternal  -   Rev. 20:10, 15; 19:20; 14:10; Matt. 18:8; Mark 9:48
The fire in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14-15). The “goats” will perish in the lake of fire, after Antichrist and the false prophet (Rev. 19:20) and before the devil and the resurrected sinners (Rev. 20:10, 15). This is part of the fulfillment of Rev. 14:10.
Mt 25:412 prepared
The lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, not for man. However, if any man follows the devil in opposing the Lord, he will share the lake of fire with the devil and the fallen angels.
Mt 25:41b angels  -   Rev. 12:7; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6
Mt 25:451 did
This also will occur during Antichrist’s persecution.
Mt 25:45a Me  -   Acts 9:4-5; Luke 10:16
Mt 25:461 punishment
This is to perish in the lake of fire (v. 41).
Mt 25:462 righteous
So that the believers left on earth will be cared for during Antichrist’s persecution, an eternal gospel will be preached to the nations (Rev. 14:6-7 and notes), as illustrated by the parable of the net in 13:47-50. The Lord will then judge the nations not according to the law of Moses or the gospel of Christ, but according to the eternal gospel. This is a matter of God’s dispensation. Those who obey that gospel and treat the suffering believers well will be blessed and reckoned as righteous and will inherit the kingdom (v. 34); but those who do not will be cursed (v. 41) and will perish for eternity.
Mt 25:463a into  -   cf. John 3:15-16; Matt. 19:29
The gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) brings eternal life into the believers (John 3:15-16) that they may live by God’s life, whereas the eternal gospel brings the “sheep” into eternal life that they may live in the sphere of God’s life.
Matthew Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 26:21a Passover  -   Lev. 23:5; John 13:1; 1 Cor. 5:7
The Passover was a type of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7). Christ was made the Lamb of God that God may pass over us, the sinners, as portrayed in type by the passover in Exo. 12. For the fulfillment of the type, Christ as the Passover lamb had to be killed on the day of the Passover.
In the type, during the four days preceding the day of the Passover, the Passover lamb had to be examined in relation to its perfection (Exo. 12:3-6). Before His crucifixion Christ came to Jerusalem for the last time, six days before the Passover (John 12:1), and likewise was examined by the Jewish leaders for a few days (21:23 — 22:46). No blemish was found in Him, and He was proved to be perfect and qualified to be the Passover lamb for us. See note 371 in Mark 12.
Mt 26:2b delivered  -   Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19
Mt 26:3a gathered  -   John 11:47; Acts 4:26-27
Mt 26:3b Caiaphas  -   Matt. 26:57; Luke 3:2; John 11:49; 18:13; Acts 4:6
Mt 26:4a counsel  -   Matt. 22:15
Mt 26:4b seize  -   Matt. 21:46; John 7:30
Mt 26:4c kill  -   Luke 19:47; John 11:53
Mt 26:51 Not
Eventually, under God’s sovereignty they did kill the Lord Jesus at the feast (27:15) for the fulfillment of the type.
Mt 26:5a uproar  -   Matt. 27:24
Mt 26:6a Now  -   vv. 6-13: Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8; cf. Luke 7:36-39
Mt 26:6b Bethany  -   Matt. 21:17; John 11:1, 18
Mt 26:61 leper
A leper signifies a sinner (8:2 and note 1). Simon, a leper, must have been healed by the Lord. Being grateful to the Lord and loving Him, he spread a feast (v. 7) in his house for the Lord and His disciples in order to enjoy His presence. A saved sinner would always do this.
Mt 26:81 waste
The disciples considered Mary’s love offering to the Lord a waste. Throughout the past twenty centuries thousands of precious lives, heart treasures, high positions, and golden futures have been “wasted” upon the Lord Jesus. To those who love Him in such a way He is altogether lovely and worthy of their offering. What they have poured upon Him is not a waste but a fragrant testimony of His sweetness.
Mt 26:9a poor  -   John 13:29
Mt 26:11a poor  -   Deut. 15:11
Mt 26:111 but
We must love the Lord and grasp the opportunity to love Him.
Mt 26:11b not  -   cf. Matt. 18:20; 28:20
Mt 26:121 for
Mary received the revelation of the Lord’s death through the Lord’s words in 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; and v. 2 of this chapter. Hence, she grasped the opportunity to pour upon the Lord the best that she had. To love the Lord with our best requires a revelation concerning Him.
Mt 26:12a burial  -   John 19:40; Matt. 27:59-60
Mt 26:131 this
In the foregoing verse the Lord spoke of His burial, implying His death and resurrection, accomplished for our redemption. Hence, in this verse He called the gospel “this gospel,” referring to the gospel of His death, burial, and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1-4).
Mt 26:13a gospel  -   Matt. 24:14
Mt 26:132 what
The story of the gospel is that the Lord loved us, and the story of Mary is that she loved the Lord. We must preach both — the Lord’s loving us and our loving the Lord. One is for our salvation, and the other is for our consecration.
Mt 26:13b memorial  -   cf. Acts 10:4
Mt 26:141a At  -   vv. 14-16: Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6
At that time indicates that while one of the disciples was expressing her love to the Lord, loving Him to the uttermost, another was about to betray Him. One was treasuring the Lord, and at the same time another was delivering Him up.
Mt 26:14b Judas  -   Matt. 10:4; John 6:71; Matt. 27:3-5
Mt 26:151a thirty  -   Zech. 11:12; Matt. 27:3, 9
I.e., thirty shekels of silver, the worth of a slave (Exo. 21:32).
Mt 26:16a deliver  -   Matt. 20:18-19
Mt 26:17a Now  -   vv. 17-19: Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-13
Mt 26:171b Feast  -   Exo. 12:15-20
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a feast of seven days (Lev. 23:6). It is also called the Passover (Luke 22:1; Mark 14:1). Actually, the Feast of the Passover was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exo. 12:6, 11, 15-20; Lev. 23:5).
Mt 26:18a Teacher  -   Matt. 23:8; John 11:28
Mt 26:18b time  -   Matt. 26:45; John 13:1
Mt 26:20a And  -   vv. 20-25: Mark 14:17-21; Luke 22:14-18, 21-23; John 13:21-30
Mt 26:21a one  -   John 6:70; 13:21
Mt 26:24a written  -   Luke 24:46
Mt 26:25a Rabbi  -   Matt. 26:49; John 1:38
Mt 26:251b You  -   Matt. 26:64; 27:11
The Lord let Judas’s own word condemn him.
Mt 26:26a And  -   vv. 26-29: Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26
Mt 26:261 eating
The Lord and the disciples first ate the passover (vv. 20-25; Luke 22:14-18). Then the Lord established His table with the bread and the cup (vv. 26-28; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26) to replace the Feast of the Passover because He was going to fulfill the type and be the real Passover to us (1 Cor. 5:7). Now we are keeping the real Feast of Unleavened Bread (v. 17; 1 Cor. 5:8).
Mt 26:262 bread
The bread of the Lord’s table is a symbol signifying the Lord’s body, which was broken for us on the cross to release His life that we may participate in it. By participating in this life we become the mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), which also is signified by the bread of the table (1 Cor. 10:17). Hence, by partaking of this bread we have the fellowship of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
Mt 26:26b blessed  -   Matt. 14:19
Mt 26:271a cup  -   1 Cor. 10:21
The Lord’s blood redeemed us from our fallen condition back to God and back to God’s full blessing. Concerning the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 10:21), the bread signifies our participation in life, and the cup, our enjoyment of God’s blessing. Hence, the cup is called “the cup of blessing” (1 Cor. 10:16). In it are all the blessings of God and even God Himself as our portion (Psa. 16:5). In Adam our portion was the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 14:10). Christ drank that cup for us (John 18:11), and His blood constitutes the cup of salvation for us (Psa. 116:13), the cup that runs over (Psa. 23:5). By partaking of this cup we have the fellowship of the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
Mt 26:27b thanks  -   Matt. 15:36
Mt 26:281a blood  -   Heb. 13:20; 9:18; Exo. 24:8; Zech. 9:11
The product of the vine (v. 29) within the cup of the Lord’s table also is a symbol, signifying the Lord’s blood shed on the cross for our sins. His blood was required by God’s righteousness for the forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 9:22).
Mt 26:282b covenant  -   Jer. 31:31
Some MSS insert, new. The Lord’s blood, having satisfied God’s righteousness, enacted the new covenant. In this new covenant God gives us forgiveness, life, salvation, and all spiritual, heavenly, and divine blessings. When this new covenant is given to us, it is a cup (Luke 22:20), a portion for us. The Lord shed His blood, God established the covenant, and we enjoy the cup, in which God and all that is of Him are our portion. The blood is the price that Christ paid for us, the covenant is the title deed that God made for us, and the cup is the portion that we receive from God.
Mt 26:28c many  -   Matt. 20:28
Mt 26:28d forgiveness  -   Heb. 9:22
Mt 26:291 product
Referring to the juice of the grape.
Mt 26:292a kingdom  -   Matt. 13:43
This is the heavenly part of the millennium, the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, in which the Lord will drink with us after His coming back.
Mt 26:30a And  -   vv. 30-35: Mark 14:26-31
Mt 26:301 singing
This was a praise to the Father sung by the Lord with the disciples after the Lord’s table.
Mt 26:30b Mount  -   Matt. 24:3
Mt 26:31a smite  -   Zech. 13:7
Mt 26:31b scattered  -   Matt. 26:56; John 16:32
Mt 26:32a Galilee  -   Matt. 28:7, 10, 16; 4:12, 15
Mt 26:34a rooster  -   John 13:38; Luke 22:34
Mt 26:35a die  -   Luke 22:33
Mt 26:36a Then  -   vv. 36-46: Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46
Mt 26:36b place  -   John 18:2
Mt 26:361 Gethsemane
Gethsemane means oil press. At Gethsemane the Lord was pressed so that the oil, the Holy Spirit, could flow out.
Mt 26:37a sons  -   Matt. 4:21
Mt 26:38a soul  -   John 12:27
Mt 26:39a prayed  -   cf. Heb. 5:7
Mt 26:391b cup  -   Matt. 20:22
Referring to His death on the cross.
Mt 26:39c will  -   John 5:30; 6:38
Mt 26:41a Watch  -   Mark 13:33; Eph. 6:18; 1 Pet. 4:7
Mt 26:411 spirit
In spiritual things we are often like this.
Mt 26:42a will  -   Matt. 6:10
Mt 26:44a third  -   cf. 2 Cor. 12:8
Mt 26:45a hour  -   Matt. 26:18
Mt 26:47a And  -   vv. 47-56: Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:3-11
Mt 26:47b Judas  -   Matt. 26:14
Mt 26:491 Rejoice
A word of greeting, here and in 27:29. Both greetings were false (cf. 28:9).
Mt 26:49a Rabbi  -   Matt. 26:25
Mt 26:49b kissed  -   cf. 2 Sam. 20:9
Mt 26:50a Friend  -   Psa. 41:9; 55:13; cf. Matt. 20:13; 22:12
Mt 26:501b what  -   John 13:27
This word is equivalent to: “What are you doing here? You are betraying Me!” This word was spoken to expose Judas’s evil intention to betray the Lord.
Mt 26:511 one
This was Peter (John 18:10, 26).
Mt 26:51a sword  -   Luke 22:38, 49
Mt 26:51b ear  -   Luke 22:50; John 18:10
Mt 26:52a sword  -   Rev. 13:10; cf. Gen. 9:6
Mt 26:531 beseech
In Greek these three words are military terms.
Mt 26:53a angels  -   Matt. 4:11; Luke 22:43; cf. John 18:36; Dan. 7:10
Mt 26:54a Scriptures  -   Matt. 26:24; Luke 24:27, 46; see Isa. 53:7-9
Mt 26:541 this
This way refers to His death on the cross, which was prophesied in the Scriptures. These prophecies had to be fulfilled.
Mt 26:55a teaching  -   Matt. 4:23; 21:23; John 8:2; 18:20
Mt 26:56a fled  -   Matt. 26:31
Mt 26:57a And  -   vv. 57-68: Mark 14:53-65; Luke 22:54; John 18:12-14, 19-24
Mt 26:57b Caiaphas  -   Matt. 26:3
Mt 26:58a followed  -   Luke 22:54; John 18:15
Mt 26:59a Sanhedrin  -   Matt. 5:22; 10:17
Mt 26:59b false  -   Psa. 27:12; 35:11; Mark 14:55; cf. Acts 6:13
Mt 26:60a two  -   Deut. 19:15
Mt 26:611 I
This was a twisting of the Lord’s word in John 2:19, “[You] destroy this temple.”
Mt 26:61a destroy  -   Matt. 27:40; cf. John 2:19; Acts 6:13-14
Mt 26:621a nothing  -   Matt. 27:12, 14; John 19:9; Isa. 53:7
The Lord, standing before the Sanhedrin like a sheep before its shearers, would not say a word to vindicate Himself, fulfilling Isa. 53:7.
Mt 26:62b against  -   Matt. 27:13
Mt 26:631a silent  -   Matt. 26:62
See note 621.
Mt 26:63b And  -   vv. 63-65: Luke 22:67-71
Mt 26:63c swear  -   Lev. 5:1; 1 Sam. 14:24, 26
Mt 26:632d if  -   Matt. 4:3, 6
This is the same question that the devil asked in tempting the Lord before He began His ministry (4:3, 6).
Mt 26:63e Christ  -   John 10:24; cf. Luke 3:15; John 1:20, 25
Mt 26:64a You  -   Matt. 26:25
Mt 26:641b Son  -   Dan. 7:13; Acts 7:56
The high priest asked the Lord if He was the Son of God, but He answered with “the Son of Man.” In His temptation He had answered the devil in the same way (4:4 and note 2). The Lord was the Son of Man on the earth before His crucifixion, has been the Son of Man in the heavens at the right hand of God since His resurrection (Acts 7:56), and will be the Son of Man even at His coming back on the clouds. To accomplish God’s purpose and to establish the kingdom of the heavens, the Lord had to be a man. Without man, God’s purpose could not be carried out on earth, nor could the kingdom of the heavens be constituted on earth.
Mt 26:64c sitting  -   Psa. 110:1; Mark 16:19; Heb. 1:3
Mt 26:64d coming  -   Matt. 24:30; Luke 21:27; Rev. 1:7
Mt 26:64e clouds  -   Acts 1:9, 11; Rev. 14:14; 1 Thes. 4:17
Mt 26:65a tore  -   Num. 14:6; 2 Kings 18:37; 19:1; Acts 14:14
Mt 26:65b blasphemed  -   Matt. 9:3; John 10:33, 36
Mt 26:66a death  -   John 19:7; Lev. 24:16
Mt 26:67a spat  -   Matt. 27:30; Mark 10:34; Isa. 50:6
Mt 26:67b slapped  -   John 18:22; 19:3; Luke 22:63; cf. Acts 23:2
Mt 26:681 Prophesy
I.e., speak forth miraculously as a prophet. This mocking word implies, “Since You are a prophet of God, prophesy miraculously to identify the one who hit You.”
Mt 26:68a Who  -   Luke 22:64
Mt 26:69a Now  -   vv. 69-75: Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18, 25-27
Mt 26:691 servant
Peter could not withstand even a fragile little female!
Mt 26:71a Nazarene  -   Matt. 2:23
Mt 26:731 those
Under God’s sovereignty the environment would not let Peter go until he had been tested to the uttermost, that he might realize that he was absolutely untrustworthy and should no longer have any confidence in himself.
Mt 26:73a speech  -   Judg. 12:6
Mt 26:741 curse
In his first denial Peter spoke words only (v. 70); in his second denial he replied with an oath (v. 72); in his third denial he cursed and swore.
Mt 26:75a rooster  -   Matt. 26:34; Mark 14:30; John 13:38
Matthew Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 27:1a Now  -   vv. 1-2: Mark 15:1; Luke 23:1; John 18:28
Mt 27:1b counsel  -   Matt. 26:4
Mt 27:21a Pilate  -   Acts 3:13; Luke 13:1
Pilate, an agent of Caesar Tiberius, was a Roman procurator in Judea (Palestine) from A.D. 26-35. Not long after he unjustly delivered up the Lord Jesus to be crucified, his rule ended abruptly. He was banished and committed suicide.
In the evil conspiracy the Jewish religionists convinced the heathen politician to collaborate with them to kill the Lord Jesus.
Mt 27:3a Judas  -   Matt. 26:14-16
Mt 27:31 regretted
Or, repented.
Mt 27:3b thirty  -   Matt. 26:15
Mt 27:4a innocent  -   Matt. 23:35
Mt 27:5a hanged  -   cf. 2 Sam. 17:23
Mt 27:61 chief
They would not take blood money. Actually, what they did to the Lord Jesus was more evil than Judas’s deed (v. 1).
Mt 27:62 temple
A chest or place in the temple where the gifts offered to God were kept.
Mt 27:6a treasury  -   Mark 12:41, 43; John 8:20
Mt 27:8a Field  -   Acts 1:19
Mt 27:91 Jeremiah
The word quoted in vv. 9-10 was spoken by Jeremiah but recorded in Zechariah (Zech. 11:12-13). There was an idea among the Jews that Zechariah had the spirit of Jeremiah.
Mt 27:9a And  -   Zech. 11:12-13
Mt 27:11a And  -   vv. 11-14: Mark 15:2-5; Luke 23:2-3; John 18:29-38
Mt 27:11b King  -   Matt. 27:29, 37; 2:2
Mt 27:11c It  -   Matt. 26:25
Mt 27:121a nothing  -   Matt. 26:63
The Lord would not vindicate Himself.
Mt 27:13a against  -   Matt. 26:62
Mt 27:141a not  -   Matt. 27:12
See note 121.
Mt 27:15a Now  -   vv. 15-26: Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:17-25; John 18:39– 19:16
Mt 27:171 Whom
It was unjust of Pilate to ask this question, for he knew that the Lord was innocent (v. 18) and that Barabbas was guilty.
Mt 27:19a righteous  -   Matt. 27:24; Luke 23:47
Mt 27:191b dream  -   Matt. 1:20
This was sovereign of God.
Mt 27:20a ask  -   Acts 3:14
Mt 27:23a what  -   Luke 23:41
Mt 27:24a uproar  -   Matt. 26:5
Mt 27:241b washed  -   Deut. 21:6-8; Psa. 26:6; 73:13
This was to appease his conscience.
Mt 27:242 I
A timid and irresponsible withdrawal.
Mt 27:243c man’s  -   Matt. 27:19
Some MSS add, righteous.
Mt 27:25a blood  -   Matt. 23:35-36; Acts 5:28
Mt 27:261a scourged  -   Isa. 53:5; Matt. 20:19; 1 Pet. 2:24
This utterly exposed the darkness and injustice of politics! This injustice fulfilled Isa. 53:5, 8.
Mt 27:262 crucified
The Jewish death penalty was carried out by stoning (Lev. 20:2, 27; 24:14; Deut. 13:10; 17:5). Crucifixion was a heathen practice (Ezra 6:11) adopted by the Romans for the execution of slaves and heinous criminals only. The Lord Jesus’ being crucified was a fulfillment not only of the Old Testament prophecies (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13; Num. 21:8-9) but also of the Lord’s word concerning how He would die (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32). These could not have been fulfilled by stoning. See note 321 in John 18.
Mt 27:27a Then  -   vv. 27-31: Mark 15:16-20; John 19:2-3
Mt 27:271b praetorium  -   John 18:28, 33; 19:9; Acts 23:35
I.e., the governor’s official residence.
Mt 27:291a thorns  -   Gen. 3:18
Thorns are a symbol of the curse (Gen. 3:17-18). On the cross the Lord Jesus became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).
Mt 27:29b mocked  -   Matt. 20:19; Luke 23:11
Mt 27:292 Rejoice
A mocking salutation or congratulation. The same Greek word as in 26:49.
Mt 27:30a spat  -   Matt. 26:67
Mt 27:311 led
The Lord, as the Passover lamb to be sacrificed for our sins, was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, fulfilling Isa. 53:7-8.
Mt 27:32a And  -   vv. 32-33: Mark 15:21-22; Luke 23:26; John 19:17
Mt 27:321b Cyrene  -   Acts 2:10; 6:9; 11:20; 13:1
Cyrene was a Greek colonial city, the capital of Cyrenaica in North Africa. It seems that Simon was a Cyrenian Jew.
Mt 27:331 Golgotha
Golgotha is a Hebrew word (John 19:17) that means skull (Mark 15:22). Its equivalent in Latin is Calvaria, anglicized as Calvary (Luke 23:33, KJV). It does not mean a place of dead men’s skulls, but simply skull.
Mt 27:34a They  -   vv. 34-35: Mark 15:23-24; Luke 23:36; John 19:23-24
Mt 27:341 wine
Wine mingled with gall (and also with myrrh — Mark 15:23) was used as a stupefying drink.
Mt 27:34b gall  -   Psa. 69:21
Mt 27:342 not
The Lord would not be stupefied; He would drink the bitter cup to the dregs.
Mt 27:351a divided  -   Psa. 22:18
The Lord was robbed to the uttermost by sinners, fulfilling Psa. 22:18. This too exposed the darkness of Roman politics.
Mt 27:36a guarded  -   Matt. 27:54
Mt 27:37a And  -   Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19-22
Mt 27:38a two  -   Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32-33, 39; John 19:18; Isa. 53:12
Mt 27:381 robbers
This was for the fulfillment of Isa. 53:9a.
Mt 27:39a wagging  -   Mark 15:29; Psa. 22:7; 109:25
Mt 27:40a destroy  -   Matt. 26:61; cf. John 2:19
Mt 27:40b save  -   Luke 23:35
Mt 27:401c If  -   Matt. 26:63
This was a repetition of the devil’s temptation in the wilderness (4:6).
Mt 27:41a Likewise  -   vv. 41-42: Mark 15:31-32; Luke 23:35
Mt 27:421 cannot
If He had saved Himself, He could not save us.
Mt 27:42a King  -   John 1:49
Mt 27:43a rescue  -   Psa. 22:8
Mt 27:44a reproached  -   Mark 15:32; Luke 23:39
Mt 27:45a Now  -   vv. 45-56: Mark 15:33-41; Luke 23:44-49
Mt 27:451 sixth
The sixth hour was 12:00 noon, and the ninth was 3:00 p.m. The Lord was crucified from the third hour, 9:00 a.m. (Mark 15:25), until the ninth hour, 3:00 p.m. He suffered on the cross for six hours. In the first three hours He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will; in the last three hours He was judged by God to accomplish our redemption. It was during this time that God counted Him as our Substitute who suffered for our sin (Isa. 53:10). Darkness fell over all the land (v. 45) because our sin and sins and all negative things were being dealt with there; and because of our sin God forsook Him (v. 46).
Mt 27:461 ninth
See note 451.
Mt 27:46a My  -   Psa. 22:1
Mt 27:462 why
God forsook Christ on the cross because He took the place of sinners (1 Pet. 3:18) — He bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24; Isa. 53:6) and was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).
Mt 27:481a vinegar  -   Psa. 69:21; Luke 23:36; John 19:29
Offered to the Lord in a mocking way (Luke 23:36) for quenching His thirst (John 19:28-30 and note 301).
Mt 27:501a yielded  -   John 19:30
This was His giving up of His spirit (John 19:30); it indicates that the Lord voluntarily yielded up His life (Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46).
Mt 27:511a veil  -   Exo. 26:31-35; 2 Chron. 3:14; Heb. 9:3; 10:20
This signifies that the separation between God and man had been abolished because the flesh of sin (the flesh being signified by the veil) taken by Christ (Rom. 8:3) had been crucified (Heb. 10:20 and note 2).
Mt 27:512 from
From top to bottom indicates that the rending of the veil was God’s doing from above.
Mt 27:513 earth
This signifies that the base of Satan’s rebellion was shaken.
Mt 27:514 rocks
This signifies that the strongholds of Satan’s earthly kingdom were broken.
Mt 27:521 tombs
This signifies that the power of death and Hades was conquered and subdued.
Mt 27:522 bodies
This signifies the releasing power of the death of Christ.
Mt 27:52a asleep  -   1 Cor. 15:6, 20; 1 Thes. 4:13-15; 2 Pet. 3:4
Mt 27:531 came
In the type, the firstfruits of the harvest (Lev. 23:10-11) were not a single stalk of wheat but a sheaf of wheat, typifying not only the resurrected Christ but also the saints who were raised from the dead after His resurrection, as seen here.
All the things listed in vv. 51-53 are different aspects of the excellent effect of the Lord’s death.
Mt 27:532 appeared
Where they went after this we have no way to trace.
Mt 27:54a guarding  -   Matt. 27:36
Mt 27:54b Son  -   Matt. 16:16
Mt 27:55a ministering  -   Luke 8:2-3
Mt 27:56a Mary  -   Luke 8:2; John 19:25; 20:1, 18
Mt 27:561 Mary
The mother of the Lord Jesus (13:55).
Mt 27:56b mother  -   Matt. 20:20
Mt 27:57a And  -   vv. 57-61: Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42
Mt 27:571 evening
See note 381 in John 19.
Mt 27:601 laid
This was for the fulfillment of Isa. 53:9b.
Mt 27:60a new  -   Isa. 53:9
Mt 27:60b hewn  -   cf. Isa. 22:16
Mt 27:60c great  -   Mark 16:4
Mt 27:61a Mary  -   Matt. 28:1
Mt 27:621 preparation
This was the day of preparation, Friday, when the passover was prepared (26:19; John 19:14).
Mt 27:63a deceiver  -   John 7:12
Mt 27:63b After  -   Matt. 16:21; 20:19
Mt 27:64a steal  -   Matt. 28:13
Mt 27:65a guard  -   Matt. 28:11
Mt 27:661a sealing  -   cf. Dan. 6:17
Probably by a cord stretched across the stone and sealed at both ends (see Dan. 6:17). On the negative side, this sealing was intended by the opposing Jewish leaders to be a precaution, but on the positive side, it turned out to be a strong testimony of the Lord’s resurrection.
Matthew Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Mt 28:1a Now  -   vv. 1-8: Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-10; John 20:1
Mt 28:11 dawn
The same Greek word is used in Luke 23:54.
Mt 28:12b first  -   Lev. 23:11, 15
Christ resurrected on the first day of the week. This signifies that His resurrection brought a new start with a new age for the kingdom of the heavens. See note 11 in John 20.
Mt 28:1c Mary  -   Matt. 27:56, 61
Mt 28:21 earthquake
This signifies that the earth, the base of Satan’s rebellion, was shaken by the Lord’s resurrection.
Mt 28:3a lightning  -   cf. Dan. 10:6
Mt 28:3b white  -   John 20:12; Acts 1:10
Mt 28:61 He
This is good news, glad tidings!
Mt 28:6a raised  -   John 20:9
Mt 28:71a Galilee  -   Matt. 28:10, 16; 26:32
The heavenly King began His ministry from Galilee of the Gentiles (4:12-17), not from Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jewish religion; after His resurrection He again went to Galilee, not to Jerusalem. This strongly indicates that the resurrected heavenly King had fully abandoned Judaism and had initiated a new age for God’s New Testament economy.
Mt 28:81 fear
With fear because of the great earthquake (v. 2) and with great joy because of the Lord’s resurrection.
Mt 28:91 met
This took place after the Lord appeared to Mary the Magdalene (John 20:14-18).
Mt 28:92 Rejoice
Implying a greeting.
Mt 28:9a worshipped  -   Matt. 28:17; Luke 24:52
Mt 28:101a brothers  -   John 20:17; Psa. 22:22; Heb. 2:11-12, 17; Rom. 8:29
See note 172 in John 20.
Mt 28:102b Galilee  -   Matt. 28:7
See note 71. So in v. 16.
Mt 28:11a guard  -   Matt. 27:65-66
Mt 28:131 His
This word from the mouth of the religious leaders was a bare lie, indicating the lowest standard and falsehood of their religion.
Mt 28:13a stole  -   Matt. 27:64
Mt 28:14a governor’s  -   Matt. 27:2
Mt 28:141 persuade
Evil religionists always persuade evil politicians to perpetrate falsehood.
Mt 28:151 spread
The lie concerning the Lord’s resurrection was widely spread, as were the rumors concerning His followers and His church after His resurrection (Acts 24:5-9; 25:7).
Mt 28:16a Galilee  -   Matt. 28:7
Mt 28:161 mountain
The constitution of the kingdom was decreed on a mountain (see note 11 in ch. 5), the heavenly King’s transfiguration took place on a high mountain (see note 12 in ch. 17), and the prophecy concerning this age was given on a mountain (see note 31 in ch. 24). Now, for God’s economy of the New Testament the disciples needed to go to the mountain again. Only on the high level of a mountain can we see clearly the New Testament economy.
Mt 28:17a worshipped  -   Matt. 28:9
Mt 28:171 doubted
Or, hesitated, wavered.
Mt 28:181 authority
In His divinity, as the only begotten Son of God, the Lord had authority over all. However, in His humanity, as the Son of Man and the King of the heavenly kingdom, authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him after His resurrection.
Mt 28:191 therefore
Because all authority was given to Him (v. 18), the heavenly King sent His disciples to disciple all the nations. They go with His authority.
Mt 28:192 disciple
This is to make the heathen the kingdom people for the establishing of His kingdom, which is the church, even today, on this earth.
Mt 28:19a nations  -   Matt. 24:14
Mt 28:193 baptizing
Baptism brings the repentant people out of their old state into a new one by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may become the kingdom people. John the Baptist’s recommending ministry began with a preliminary baptism, a baptism by water only. Now, after the heavenly King had accomplished His ministry on earth, had passed through the process of death and resurrection, and had become the life-giving Spirit, He charged His disciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. This baptism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect, whereas the invisible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible baptism by the Spirit, the visible baptism by water is vain, and without the visible baptism by water, the invisible baptism by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. Both are needed. Not long after the Lord charged the disciples with this baptism, He baptized them and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), the Jewish part on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and the Gentile part in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17). Then, based on this, the disciples baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38) not only into water but also into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (v. 19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered a tomb in which the baptized ones’ old history is ended. Since the death of Christ is included in Christ, and since Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) and the Triune God eventually is one with the Body of Christ, to baptize new believers into the death of Christ, into Christ Himself, into the Triune God, and into the Body of Christ is to do just one thing: on the negative side, to terminate their old life, and on the positive side, to germinate them with new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ. Hence, the baptism ordained by the Lord here baptizes people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.
Mt 28:194 into
Into indicates union, as in Rom. 6:3 and Gal. 3:27. The same Greek word is used in Acts 8:16; 19:5; and 1 Cor. 1:13, 15. To baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.
Mt 28:195 name
There is one name for the Divine Trinity. The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize someone into the name of the Triune God is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is.
Mt 28:196 Father
Matthew and John are the two books in which the Divine Trinity is revealed more fully than in all the other books of the Scripture, that God’s chosen people may participate in and enjoy Him. For our experience of life, John unveils the mystery of the Godhead in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, especially in chs. 14 — 16, whereas for the constituting of the kingdom, Matthew discloses the reality of the Divine Trinity by giving one name for all three. In the opening chapter of Matthew, the Holy Spirit (1:18), Christ (the Son 1:18), and God (the Father — 1:23) are present for the producing of the man Jesus (1:21), who, as Jehovah the Savior and God with us, is the very embodiment of the Triune God. In ch. 3 Matthew presents a scene in which the Son was standing in the water of baptism under the opened heaven, the Spirit like a dove descended upon the Son, and the Father spoke out of the heavens to the Son (3:16-17). In ch. 12 the Son, in the person of man, cast out demons by the Spirit to bring in the kingdom of God the Father (12:28). In ch. 16 the Father revealed the Son to the disciples for the building of the church, which is the life pulse of the kingdom (16:16-19). In ch. 17 the Son entered into transfiguration (17:2) and was confirmed by the Father’s word of delight (17:5), bringing about a miniature display of the manifestation of the kingdom (16:28). Eventually, in the closing chapter, after Christ as the last Adam had passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into the realm of resurrection, and become the life-giving Spirit, He came back to His disciples in the atmosphere and reality of His resurrection to charge them to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Divine Trinity. Later, in the Acts and the Epistles it is disclosed that to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is to baptize them into the name of Christ (Acts 8:16; 19:5), and that to baptize them into the name of Christ is to baptize them into Christ the person (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), because Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, and He, having become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), is available at any time and in any place for people to be baptized into. According to Matthew, being baptized into the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is for the constituting of the kingdom of the heavens. Unlike an earthly society, the heavenly kingdom cannot be formed with human beings of flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50); it can be constituted only with people who have been immersed into the union with the Triune God and who have been established and built up with the Triune God, who has been wrought into them.
Mt 28:201 Teaching
Like baptizing people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, which is mentioned in the foregoing verse, teaching the believers to observe all that the Lord has commanded is for the discipling of all the nations (v. 19).
Mt 28:20a observe  -   Acts 2:42
Mt 28:20b commanded  -   Acts 1:2
Mt 28:202c with  -   Matt. 1:23; 18:20; Acts 18:10
The heavenly King is Emmanuel, God with us (1:23). Here He promised that in His resurrection He will be with us all the days, with all authority, until the consummation of the age, that is, until the end of this age. Hence, wherever we are gathered into His name, He is in our midst (18:20).
Among the four Gospels the Lord’s ascension is recorded only in Mark (Mark 16:19) and Luke (Luke 24:51). John testifies that the Lord, as the Son of God, even God Himself, is life to His believers. As such, He can never and would never leave them. Matthew proves that He, as Emmanuel, is the heavenly King who is with His people continuously until He comes back. Hence, in John and Matthew the Lord’s ascension is not mentioned.
Mt 28:203d consummation  -   Matt. 13:39
The end of this age, which is the time of His coming (parousia).
< Matthew • Mark Outline >
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Mark Outline
I.   The beginning of the gospel and the initiation of the Slave-Savior — 1:1-13
A.   The beginning of the gospel — by the ministry of the forerunner — vv. 1-8
1.   As prophesied — vv. 1-3
2.   Preaching the baptism of repentance — vv. 4-6
3.   Introducing the Slave-Savior — vv. 7-8
B.   The initiation of the Slave-Savior — vv. 9-13
1.   Baptized — vv. 9-11
2.   Tested — vv. 12-13
II.   The ministry of the Slave-Savior for the spreading of the gospel — 1:14 — 10:52
A.   The contents of the gospel service — 1:14-45
1.   Proclaiming the gospel — vv. 14-20
2.   Teaching the truth — vv. 21-22
3.   Casting out demons — vv. 23-28
4.   Healing the sick — vv. 29-39
5.   Cleansing the leper — vv. 40-45
B.   The ways of carrying out the gospel service — 2:1 — 3:6
1.   Forgiving the sins of the sick — 2:1-12
2.   Feasting with sinners — 2:13-17
3.   Causing His followers to be merry without fasting — 2:18-22
4.   Caring for His followers’ hunger rather than for religion’s regulation — 2:23-28
5.   Caring for the relief of the suffering one rather than for the ritual of religion — 3:1-6
C.   Auxiliary acts of the gospel service — 3:7-35
1.   Avoiding the crowd — vv. 7-12
2.   Appointing the apostles — vv. 13-19
3.   Not eating because of the need — vv. 20-21
4.   Binding Satan and plundering his house — vv. 22-30
5.   Denying His relatives and acknowledging only those who do the will of God — vv. 31-35
D.   Parables of the kingdom of God — 4:1-34
1.   The parable of the sower — vv. 1-20
2.   The parable of the lamp — vv. 21-25
3.   The parable of the seed — vv. 26-29
4.   The parable of the mustard seed — vv. 30-34
E.   The move of the gospel service — 4:35 — 10:52
1.   Calming the wind and the sea — 4:35-41
2.   Casting out a legion of demons — 5:1-20
3.   Healing the woman with a flow of blood and raising up a dead girl — 5:21-43
4.   Being despised by men — 6:1-6
5.   Sending the disciples — 6:7-13
6.   The martyrdom of the forerunner — 6:14-29
7.   Feeding the five thousand — 6:30-44
8.   Walking on the sea — 6:45-52
9.   Healing everywhere — 6:53-56
10.   Teaching concerning the things that defile from within — 7:1-23
11.   Casting a demon out of a Canaanite daughter — 7:24-30
12.   Healing a deaf and dumb man — 7:31-37
13.   Feeding the four thousand — 8:1-10
14.   Not giving a sign to the Pharisees — 8:11-13
15.   Warning concerning the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod — 8:14-21
16.   Healing a blind man in Bethsaida — 8:22-26
17.   Unveiling His death and resurrection the first time — 8:27 — 9:1
18.   Being transfigured on the mount — 9:2-13
19.   Casting out a dumb spirit — 9:14-29
20.   Unveiling His death and resurrection the second time — 9:30-32
21.   Teaching concerning humility — 9:33-37
22.   Teaching concerning tolerance for unity — 9:38-50
23.   Coming to Judea — 10:1
24.   Teaching against divorce — 10:2-12
25.   Blessing little children — 10:13-16
26.   Teaching concerning the rich and the entrance into the kingdom of God — 10:17-31
27.   Unveiling His death and resurrection the third time — 10:32-34
28.   Teaching concerning the way to the throne — 10:35-45
29.   Healing Bartimaeus — 10:46-52
III.   The preparation of the Slave-Savior for His redemptive service — 11:1 — 14:42
A.   Entering into Jerusalem and lodging in Bethany — 11:1-11
B.   Cursing the fig tree and cleansing the temple — 11:12-26
C.   Being tested and examined — 11:27 — 12:44
1.   By the chief priests, scribes, and elders — 11:27 — 12:12
2.   By the Pharisees and Herodians — 12:13-17
3.   By the Sadducees — 12:18-27
4.   By a scribe — 12:28-34
5.   Muzzling all the mouths — 12:35-37
6.   Warning against the scribes — 12:38-40
7.   Praising the poor widow — 12:41-44
D.   Preparing the disciples for His death — 13:1 — 14:42
1.   Telling them the things to come — 13:1-37
2.   Being conspired against, betrayed, and loved — 14:1-11
3.   Instituting His supper — 14:12-26
4.   Warning the disciples — 14:27-31
5.   Experiencing Gethsemane — charging the disciples to watch and pray — 14:32-42
IV.   The death and resurrection of the Slave-Savior for the accomplishing of God’s redemption — 14:43 — 16:18
A.   His death — 14:43 — 15:47
1.   Arrested — 14:43-52
2.   Judged — 14:53 — 15:15
a.   By the Jewish leaders, representing the Jews — 14:53-72
b.   By the Roman governor, representing the Gentiles — 15:1-15
3.   Crucified — 15:16-41
4.   Buried — 15:42-47
B.   His resurrection — 16:1-18
1.   Discovered by three sisters — vv. 1-8
2.   Appearing to Mary — vv. 9-11
3.   Appearing to two disciples — vv. 12-13
4.   Appearing to the eleven disciples and charging them with the universal spreading of the gospel — vv. 14-18
V.   The ascension of the Slave-Savior for His exaltation — 16:19
VI.   The Slave-Savior’s universal spreading of the gospel through His disciples — 16:20
Mark >
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Mark Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 1:11 beginning
The writer of this Gospel was Mark, also called John (Acts 12:25), the son of one of the Marys (who was close to the apostle Peter in the church at Jerusalem — Acts 12:12) and the cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4:10). He accompanied Barnabas and Saul in their ministry (Acts 12:25) and joined Paul in the first journey of his ministry to the Gentiles; but he left Paul and turned back at Perga (Acts 13:13). Because of his turning back, Paul refused to take him on his second journey. At that time Barnabas separated himself from Paul, and Mark then joined Barnabas in his work (Acts 15:36-40). However, Mark was close to Paul in Paul’s later years (Col. 4:10; Philem. 24) and was useful to him for his ministry until Paul’s martyrdom (2 Tim. 4:11). He was close to Peter and was probably with him continually, as seen in the fact that Peter considered him his son (1 Pet. 5:13). From the early days of the church his Gospel has been considered a written account of the oral presentation of Peter, who accompanied the Savior in His gospel service from its beginning (vv. 16-18) to its end (14:54, 66-72). Mark’s record is according to historical sequence and gives more details concerning the historical facts than the other Gospels. The entire Gospel is summarized in Peter’s word in Acts 10:36-42.
John presents the God-Savior, emphasizing the Savior’s deity in His humanity. Matthew presents the King-Savior; Mark, the Slave-Savior; and Luke, the Man-Savior. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic in portraying the Savior’s humanity in different aspects, with His deity. Since Mark presents the Savior as a slave, he does not tell His genealogy and status, because the ancestry of a slave is not worthy of note. Furthermore, in contrast to Matthew, who presents to us the Savior’s marvelous teachings and parables concerning the heavenly kingdom, and John, who presents His profound revelations of divine truths, Mark’s intention is not to impress us with the Slave’s wonderful words but with His excellent deeds in His gospel service. Mark’s Gospel provides more detail than the other Gospels in order to portray the Slave-Savior’s diligence, faithfulness, and other virtues in the saving service He rendered to sinners for God. In Mark’s Gospel are the fulfillment of the prophecies in Isa. 42:1-4, 6-7; 49:5-7; 50:4-7; 52:13 — 53:12 concerning Christ as the Slave of Jehovah, and the details of the teaching in Phil. 2:5-11 regarding Christ as the Slave of God. His diligence in labor, His need of food and rest (3:20-21; 6:31), His anger (3:5), His groaning (7:34), and His affection (10:21) display beautifully His humanity in its virtue and perfection, while His lordship (2:28), His omniscience (2:8), His miraculous power, and His authority to cast out demons (v. 27; 3:15), to forgive sins (2:7, 10), and to silence the wind and the sea (4:39) manifest in full His deity in its glory and honor. What a Slave of God! How lovely and admirable! Such a Slave served sinners as their Slave-Savior, with His life as their ransom (10:45), for the fulfillment of the eternal purpose of God, whose Slave He was.
Mk 1:12 gospel
I.e., glad tidings, good news (Rom. 10:15). The gospel is the service (ministry) of the Slave-Savior as a Slave of God serving His people. Matthew begins with the kingly generations of Christ the King (Matt. 1:1-17); Luke, with a human genealogy of Jesus the man (Luke 3:23-38); and John, with the eternal origin of the Son of God (John 1:1-2); whereas Mark begins not with the origin of His person but with the beginning of the gospel, the service of Jesus as a lowly Slave of God (Phil. 2:7; Matt. 20:27-28). As a rule, the service, not the person, of a slave is notable. See note 11 in Matt. 1.
Mk 1:13 Jesus
This Gospel is a biography of the Slave-Savior, who was God incarnated as a Slave to save sinners. In this compound title, Jesus Christ denotes His humanity and the Son of God, His deity, both of which were adequately expressed by His human virtues and divine attributes in His ministry and move for His gospel service, as recorded in this Gospel.
Mk 1:14 the
Some MSS omit, the Son of God.
Mk 1:1a Son  -   Matt. 16:16; John 1:34; 20:31; 1 John 5:12, 20
Mk 1:21 Even
The beginning of the gospel of the Slave-Savior was even as it is written in Isaiah concerning the ministry of John the Baptist. This indicates that John’s preaching of the baptism of repentance was also a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It terminated the dispensation of law and replaced it with the dispensation of grace. Hence, the dispensation of grace began with the ministry of John, before the ministry of the Slave-Savior.
Mk 1:2a Behold  -   Mal. 3:1; Matt. 11:10
Mk 1:22 I
Jehovah of hosts (Mal. 3:1).
Mk 1:23 messenger
The same Greek word as for angel. So in Rev. 1:20.
Mk 1:24 Your
Jesus Christ’s.
Mk 1:25 prepare
Lit., furnish. The preaching of the baptism of repentance (v. 4) paved the way for the Slave-Savior to come to sinners (Luke 1:76).
Mk 1:3a A  -   Isa. 40:3; Matt. 3:3
Mk 1:31 voice
The ministry of the gospel of the Slave-Savior began with only a voice, not with a great movement.
Mk 1:32 wilderness
The preaching of the gospel of the Slave-Savior began not in any center of civilization but in the wilderness, beyond the influence of human culture. See notes 31 and 12 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:33 Prepare
Lit., make ready. To prepare the way of the Lord is to change people’s mind, turning their mind toward the Slave-Savior, and to make their heart right, straightening every part of their heart through repentance, that the Slave-Savior may enter into them to be their life and take possession of them (Luke 1:17).
Mk 1:4a John  -   Matt. 3:1; Luke 3:2; John 1:6
Mk 1:41 came
I.e., appeared.
Mk 1:42b wilderness  -   Josh. 15:61; Judg. 1:16
John was born a priest (Luke 1:8-13, 57-63); hence, he should have lived a priestly life in the temple, doing the priestly service. But he came to the wilderness and preached the gospel. This indicates that the age of the priesthood, in which sacrifices were offered to God, had been replaced by the age of the gospel, in which sinners are brought to God that God may gain sinners and that sinners may gain God.
Mk 1:43c baptism  -   Acts 10:37; 19:3-4
Repentance is to change one’s mind, turning it to the Slave-Savior, and baptism is to bury the repenting people, terminating them that the Slave-Savior may germinate them by regeneration (John 3:3, 5-6).
Mk 1:4d repentance  -   Mark 1:15; Luke 24:47
Mk 1:44 for
Or, unto. Repentance with baptism is for, and results in, forgiveness of sins, that the obstacle of man’s fall may be removed and man may be reconciled to God.
Mk 1:4e forgiveness  -   Matt. 26:28; Acts 2:38; 10:43
Mk 1:5a region  -   Matt. 3:5-6
Mk 1:51 Judea
A region with the holy city, the holy temple, and high culture; hence, a region of honor.
Mk 1:52 baptized
When people repented through his preaching, John immersed them into the death water to bury them, to terminate them, thus preparing them to be raised up by the Slave-Savior, who germinated them with the Holy Spirit through the confession of their sins. See note 61 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:53 Jordan
See note 62 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:5b confessed  -   Acts 19:18
Mk 1:61 clothed
The way John lived signifies that his living and work were altogether in a new dispensation and were not according to the way of the old religion, culture, and tradition. See note 41 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:6a hair  -   2 Kings 1:8
Mk 1:6b locusts  -   Lev. 11:22
Mk 1:6c honey  -   Exo. 3:8; 1 Sam. 14:25-27
Mk 1:71a He  -   Matt. 3:11; John 1:15, 27; Acts 13:25; 19:4
Although John preached a baptism of repentance, the goal of his ministry was a wonderful person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He did not make himself the center of his ministry, as a magnet attracting others to himself. He realized that he was only a messenger sent by Jehovah of hosts to bring people to His Son, Jesus Christ, and to exalt Him as the goal of his ministry.
Mk 1:81a water  -   John 1:26; Acts 1:5; 11:16
Water signifies death and burial for the termination of the repenting people; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life and resurrection for the germination of the terminated people. The former was a sign of John’s ministry of repentance; the latter, a sign of the Slave-Savior’s ministry of life. John buried the repenting people in the death water; the Slave-Savior raised them up that they might be regenerated in the Spirit of His resurrection life. The death water, pointing to and signifying the all-inclusive death of Christ, into which His believers are baptized (Rom. 6:3), buried not only the baptized people but also their sins, the world, and their past life and history (just as the Red Sea buried Pharaoh and the Egyptian army for the children of Israel — Exo. 14:26-28; 1 Cor. 10:2) and separated them from the God-forsaking world and its corruption (just as the flood did for Noah and his family — 1 Pet. 3:20-21). The Holy Spirit, into whom the Slave-Savior baptized those who believed in Him, is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9). Hence, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and even into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), which is joined to Christ in the one Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). It is through baptism in such a water and in such a Spirit that the believers in Christ are regenerated into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5, and note 52), into the realm of the divine life and the divine rule, that they may live by the eternal life of God in His eternal kingdom.
Mk 1:8b Spirit  -   Isa. 44:3; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:4; 10:45; 1 Cor. 12:13
See note 81.
Mk 1:9a came  -   vv. 9-11: Matt. 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22
Mk 1:91b Nazareth  -   Matt. 2:23; John 1:45-46; Mark 1:24; 10:47; 14:67; 16:6
Galilee was called “Galilee of the Gentiles” and was a region without honor, hence, a despised region (John 7:52; see note 151 in Matt. 4), and Nazareth was a despised city of that despised region (John 1:46). The lowly Slave of God grew up and came out from that source.
Mk 1:92 baptized
As a Slave of God, the Slave-Savior too was baptized, signifying that He was willing to serve God and that He would serve not in man’s natural way but through death and resurrection (see notes 131 and 161 in Matt. 3). Such a baptism was the initiation of His service.
Mk 1:93 in
Lit., into.
Mk 1:101a immediately  -   Mark 1:12
Mark’s record of a Slave reflects not the splendor of the status of this Slave’s person but the diligence of His service. The word immediately is used in his record forty-two times, and one more time in alternate MSS.
Mk 1:102 heavens
The heavens being opened to the Slave-Savior signifies that His willing offering of Himself as a Slave to God was well accepted by God, and the Spirit’s descending as a dove upon Him signifies that God anointed Him with the Spirit for His service to Him (Luke 4:18-19).
Mk 1:10b parted  -   Gen. 28:17; Ezek. 1:1; John 1:51; Acts 7:56; 10:11; Rev. 4:1
Mk 1:10c Spirit  -   John 1:32; Luke 4:18
Mk 1:103 dove
See note 164 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:104 Him
Some MSS add, and remaining.
Mk 1:11a voice  -   Mark 9:7; John 12:28
Mk 1:111 You
See note 171 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:11b Beloved  -   Eph. 1:6
Mk 1:11c delight  -   Isa. 42:1; Matt. 12:18
Mk 1:12a immediately  -   Mark 1:10, 18
Mk 1:121 thrust
After God’s acceptance and anointing, the first thing the Spirit did with this Slave of God was to thrust Him into a test to prove His integrity.
Mk 1:12b wilderness  -   vv. 12-13: Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13
Mk 1:131 forty
A time of testing and suffering (Deut. 9:9, 18; 1 Kings 19:8).
Mk 1:13a tempted  -   Heb. 2:18; 4:15; 1 Thes. 3:5
Mk 1:132 Satan
Satan, the enemy of God, was used for the testing and proving of God’s Slave. The animals of the earth, in a negative sense, and the angels from heaven, in a positive sense, also were used for this test.
Mk 1:13b angels  -   Luke 22:43; Matt. 26:53; cf. Heb. 1:14; Acts 12:15
Mk 1:14a delivered  -   Mark 6:17; Matt. 4:12; 14:3; Luke 3:20
Mk 1:141 Galilee
John’s imprisonment was a sign of the rejection of the gospel, especially in the region of honor. Hence, the Slave-Savior left that region and returned to the despised region for His service of the gospel. See notes 121 and 151 in Matt. 4.
The gospel service was initiated in Judea, the region of honor, by the ministry of the Slave-Savior’s forerunner (vv. 1-11); but it was continued in Galilee, the despised region, by the ministry of the Slave-Savior for a period of about three years (v. 14 — 9:50). In contrast to John’s record in his Gospel (John 1:29-42; 2:13 — 3:36; 5:1-47; 7:10 — 11:57), Mark recorded nothing of the Slave-Savior’s ministry in Jerusalem and Judea during that period of time. Mark recorded only the Lord’s leaving of Galilee to go to Jerusalem for the last time (10:1) to accomplish His redemptive work. Then the gospel service was continued by His ministry on the way to Jerusalem and in Jerusalem and its vicinity (10:1 — 14:42). It was concluded with His redeeming death, His life-imparting resurrection, His ascension for exaltation, and the continuation of His gospel service, carried out by His disciples’ preaching to all the creation (14:43 — 16:20).
Mk 1:142b proclaiming  -   Matt. 4:17, 23
The Slave-Savior’s proclaiming was to announce God’s glad tidings to the miserable people in bondage; His teaching (vv. 21-22) was to enlighten the ignorant ones in darkness with the divine light of the truth. His proclaiming implied teaching, and His teaching implied proclaiming (Matt. 4:23). This was the first thing He did in His ministry, and it was the all-embracing structure of His evangelistic service (vv. 38-39; 3:14; 6:12; 14:9; 16:15, 20).
Mk 1:14c gospel  -   Rom. 1:1; 15:16
Mk 1:143 of
Some MSS add, of the kingdom. The gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 1) is the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1) and the gospel of the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 4:23).
Mk 1:15a fulfilled  -   cf. Gal. 4:4
Mk 1:151b kingdom  -   Mark 4:26; Luke 10:9, 11
The kingdom of God is the ruling, the reigning, of God with all its blessing and enjoyment. It is the goal of the gospel of God and of Jesus Christ (see notes 32 and 263 in ch. 4). To enter into this kingdom, people need to repent of their sins and believe in the gospel that their sins may be forgiven and that they may be regenerated by God to have the divine life, which matches the divine nature of this kingdom (John 3:3, 5). All the believers in Christ can share the kingdom in the church age for their enjoyment of God in His righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). This kingdom will become the kingdom of Christ and of God for the overcoming believers to inherit and enjoy in the coming kingdom age (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5) that they may reign with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6). Then, as the eternal kingdom it will be an eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14, 17). It was such a kingdom of God that had drawn near and into which the gospel of the Slave-Savior would bring His believers. For this kingdom the Slave-Savior told people to repent and believe in the gospel. See notes 33 in John 3, 281 in Heb. 12, and 34 in Matt. 5.
Mk 1:152c Repent  -   Mark 1:4; Acts 2:38; 5:31
The Greek word means have a change of mind. To repent is to have a change of mind with regret for the past and a turn for the future. On the negative side, to repent before God is not only to repent of sins and wrongdoings but also to repent of the world and its corruption, which usurp and corrupt people whom God created for Himself, and to repent of our God-forsaking life in the past. On the positive side, it is to turn to God in every way and in everything for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man. It is a “repentance unto God,” and is to “repent and turn to God” (Acts 20:21; 26:20). See notes 21 and 22 in Matt. 3.
Mk 1:153d believe  -   John 1:12; 3:16; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 14
Repentance is mainly in the mind; believing is mainly in the heart (Rom. 10:9). To believe in is to believe into the things in which we believe and to receive into us the things in which we believe. To believe in the gospel is mainly to believe in the Slave-Savior (Acts 16:31), and to believe in Him is to believe into Him (John 3:15-16) and to receive Him into us (John 1:12) that we may be organically united with Him. Such a faith in Christ (Gal. 3:22) is given to us by God through our hearing of the word of the truth of the gospel (Rom. 10:17; Eph. 1:13). This faith brings us into all the blessings of the gospel (Gal. 3:14). Hence, it is precious to us (2 Pet. 1:1). Such a precious faith must be preceded by repentance. See note 161 in ch. 16.
Mk 1:154 gospel
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (v. 1), the gospel of God, and the gospel of the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with all the processes He passed through (such as incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension) and all the redemptive work He accomplished, is the content of the gospel (Rom. 1:2-4; Luke 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Tim. 2:8). Hence, the gospel is of Him. The gospel was planned, promised, and accomplished by God (Eph. 1:8-9; Acts 2:23; Rom. 1:2; 2 Cor. 5:21; Acts 3:15), and it is the power of God unto salvation to all the believers (Rom. 1:16) that they may be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:19) and regenerated by Him (1 Pet. 1:3) to be His children (John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16) and to enjoy all His riches and blessings as their inheritance (Eph. 1:14). Hence, it is the gospel of God. It brings the believers into the realm of the divine ruling that they may participate in the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom (1 Thes. 2:12). Hence, it is also the gospel of the kingdom of God. Thus, its full contents are the same as those of the New Testament with all its bequests. When we believe in this gospel, we inherit the Triune God with His redemption, His salvation, and His divine life with its riches as our eternal portion.
Mk 1:16a passing  -   vv. 16-20: Matt. 4:18-22; Luke 5:1-11
Mk 1:161b Sea  -   Mark 2:13; 3:7; 4:1; 5:1; 6:47; 7:31; John 6:1
See note 181 in Matt. 4.
Mk 1:16c Simon  -   John 1:40-42
Mk 1:162 casting
See note 182 in Matt. 4.
Mk 1:163d net  -   Matt. 13:47
Referring to an arc-shaped net.
Mk 1:18a immediately  -   Mark 1:12, 20
Mk 1:181b followed  -   Mark 10:28
See note 201 in Matt. 4.
Mk 1:19a John  -   cf. John 1:35, 37, 40
Mk 1:191 mending
See note 211 in Matt. 4.
Mk 1:20a immediately  -   Mark 1:18, 21
Mk 1:20b called  -   Gal. 1:15
Mk 1:201 went
See note 221 in Matt. 4.
Mk 1:21a went  -   vv. 21-28: Luke 4:31-37
Mk 1:21b Capernaum  -   Matt. 4:13; Mark 2:1
Mk 1:21c immediately  -   Mark 1:20, 23
Mk 1:211d synagogue  -   Mark 1:39; 6:2; Matt. 4:23
A synagogue is a meeting place where the Jews read and learn the Holy Scriptures (Luke 4:16-17; Acts 13:14-15).
Mk 1:212 taught
Man’s fall into sin broke his fellowship with God, making all men ignorant of the knowledge of God. Such ignorance issued first in darkness and then in death. The Slave-Savior, as the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5), came as a great light to Galilee, the land of darkness, to shine on the people who were sitting in the shadow of death (Matt. 4:12-16). His teaching released the word of light to enlighten those in the darkness of death that they might receive the light of life (John 1:4). The second thing that the Slave of God did in His service as the Slave-Savior to fallen men was to carry out such teaching (2:13; 4:1; 6:2, 6, 30, 34; 10:1; 11:17; 12:35; 14:49) to bring people out of the satanic darkness into the divine light (Acts 26:18).
Mk 1:22a astounded  -   Mark 6:2; 11:18; Matt. 7:28-29
Mk 1:22b teaching  -   Mark 4:2
Mk 1:221 authority
The self-appointed scribes, who by themselves were teaching vain knowledge, had no authority and no power, but this God-authorized Slave, who by God was teaching realities, had not only spiritual power to subdue people but also divine authority to subject people to the divine ruling.
Mk 1:23a immediately  -   Mark 1:21, 28
Mk 1:231 spirit
Not a fallen angel but a demon (vv. 32, 34, 39; Luke 4:33), a disembodied spirit of one of the living creatures who lived in the preadamic age and were judged by God when they joined Satan’s rebellion (see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two). The fallen angels work with Satan in the air (Eph. 2:2; 6:11-12), and these unclean spirits, the demons, move with him on the earth. Both act evilly upon man for the kingdom of Satan. The demons’ possession of people signifies Satan’s usurpation of man, whom God created for His purpose. The third thing the Slave-Savior, who came to destroy the works of Satan (1 John 3:8), did as a part of His service to God was to cast out these demons from the possessed people (vv. 34, 39; 3:15; 6:7, 13; 16:17) that they might be delivered from Satan’s bondage (Luke 13:16), out of Satan’s authority of darkness (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13), into God’s kingdom (v. 15). Five cases are recorded in this Gospel to illustrate this (vv. 23-27; 5:2-20; 7:25-30; 9:17-27; 16:9).
Mk 1:241 What
Lit., What to us and to You? (a Hebrew idiom).
Mk 1:24a do  -   Mark 5:7
Mk 1:24b Nazarene  -   Mark 10:47; 14:67; 16:6
Mk 1:24c know  -   Mark 1:34; Acts 19:15
Mk 1:24d Holy  -   Luke 1:35; John 6:69
Mk 1:25a rebuked  -   Mark 9:25; cf. Mark 4:39
Mk 1:25b quiet  -   Mark 1:34; Luke 4:41
Mk 1:26a unclean  -   Mark 1:23
Mk 1:26b convulsing  -   Mark 9:20, 26
Mk 1:26c loud  -   Mark 5:7; Acts 8:7
Mk 1:27a amazed  -   Mark 2:12; 5:42
Mk 1:27b new  -   Acts 17:19
Mk 1:271c authority  -   Mark 3:15
It was not power but authority that cast out the demon. For His service the Slave-Savior had divine authority not only to teach people (v. 22) but also to cast out demons.
Mk 1:27d obey  -   Mark 4:41
Mk 1:28a immediately  -   Mark 1:23, 29
Mk 1:29a house  -   vv. 29-34: Matt. 8:14-16; Luke 4:38-41
Mk 1:30a mother-in-law  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:5
Mk 1:301 fever
This may signify a person’s unbridled temper, which is abnormal and intemperate.
Mk 1:30b immediately  -   Mark 1:28, 29, 42
Mk 1:31a holding  -   Mark 5:41; 9:27; Acts 3:7
Mk 1:311 left
Sickness issues from sin and is a sign of man’s abnormal condition before God because of sin. The fourth thing the Slave-Savior did to rescue the sinners, as another part of His gospel service, was to heal their sick condition physically and spiritually and restore them to normality (v. 34; 3:10; 6:5, 13, 56) that they might serve Him. Nine cases are recorded in this Gospel to illustrate such healing (vv. 30-31, 40-45; 2:3-12; 3:1-5; 5:22-43; 7:32-37; 8:22-26; 10:46-52).
Mk 1:312 served
First she was healed, then she served.
Mk 1:33a gathered  -   Mark 2:2
Mk 1:341 healed
See note 311.
Mk 1:34a diseases  -   Matt. 4:23
Mk 1:342 cast
See note 231. So in v. 39.
Mk 1:34b not  -   Mark 1:25; 3:12
Mk 1:343 they
Some MSS read, they knew Him to be Christ.
Mk 1:34c knew  -   Mark 1:24
Mk 1:35a early  -   Luke 4:42
Mk 1:351b prayed  -   Matt. 14:23; Luke 5:16
To fellowship with God, seeking God’s will and pleasure for His gospel service. The Slave-Savior performed the evangelistic service not by Himself, independent of God and according to His own will, but according to God’s will and pleasure by being one with God to fulfill His purpose (see note 382).
Mk 1:38a elsewhere  -   Luke 4:43
Mk 1:381b preach  -   Isa. 61:1
See note 142.
Mk 1:382 this
As the Slave of God, the Slave-Savior served God in His gospel to carry out not His own will or the people’s proposal but the will of God, who had sent Him (John 6:38; 4:34).
Mk 1:38c came  -   cf. John 16:28
Mk 1:39a synagogues  -   Mark 1:21; 6:2; Luke 4:44
Mk 1:401a leper  -   vv. 40-44: Matt. 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-14
A leper portrays a typical sinner. Leprosy is the most contaminating and damaging disease, much more serious than a fever (v. 30), causing its victim to be isolated from God and from men (see notes 21 and 31 in Matt. 8). The cleansing of the leper signifies the recovering of the sinner to the fellowship with God and with men. This was the consummating part of the Slave-Savior’s gospel service according to the record of this chapter.
The Slave-Savior’s gospel service to God comprised (1) preaching (vv. 14-15, 38-39) to announce the glad tidings to the miserable people in bondage; (2) teaching (vv. 21-22) to enlighten the ignorant ones in darkness with the divine light of the truth; (3) casting out demons (vv. 25-26) to annihilate Satan’s usurpation of man; (4) healing man’s sick condition (vv. 30-31) that man might serve the Slave-Savior; and (5) cleansing the leper (vv. 41-42) to recover the sinner to the fellowship with God and with men. What a wonderful and excellent work!
Mk 1:40b falling  -   Mark 10:17; Matt. 17:14
Mk 1:40c cleanse  -   cf. Lev. 13:45-46; 14:9, 19-20
Mk 1:411 compassion
The Slave-Savior’s compassion and willingness, issuing from His love, were dear and precious to the hopeless leper.
Mk 1:412 stretching
Showing His sympathy and intimacy toward the miserable leper, whom no one dared to touch.
Mk 1:413 cleansed
Not only healed (see note 311) but cleansed. Like other diseases, leprosy requires healing; like sin (1 John 1:7), it also requires cleansing because of its filthy and contaminating nature.
Mk 1:42a immediately  -   Mark 1:29, 30, 43
Mk 1:42b cleansed  -   cf. 2 Kings 5:1, 10, 14; Luke 4:27
Mk 1:43a charging  -   Matt. 9:30
Mk 1:441 say
Such a charge, given throughout the record of the Slave-Savior’s evangelistic service, is quite striking (5:43; 7:36; 9:9). It is similar to what was prophesied in Isa. 42:2 concerning His quiet character. He wanted His work to be done within the limits of a move that was absolutely according to God’s purpose and that was not promoted by man’s excitement and propaganda. See note 261 in ch. 8.
Mk 1:44a priest  -   Lev. 14:2-32; Luke 17:14
Mk 1:45a proclaim  -   Mark 7:36; Matt. 9:31
Mk 1:451 matter
Lit., word.
Mk 1:452 no
Man’s activity, which is according to the natural concept, frustrates the Slave-Savior’s service, which is according to God’s purpose.
Mk 1:45b deserted  -   2 Cor. 11:26
Mk 1:45c came  -   Mark 2:2, 13; 3:7; John 6:2
Mark Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 2:11 He
The five incidents vividly recorded in 2:1 — 3:6 form one particular group, showing how the Slave-Savior as the Slave of God carried out His gospel service to care for the needs of fallen people, who had been captured by Satan and carried away from God and the enjoyment of God, that they might be rescued from their captivity and might be brought back to God as their enjoyment.
(1) As God with divine authority, He forgave the sins of the victim of sickness that He might release him from Satan’s oppression (Acts 10:38) and restore him to God. The scribes considered this to be against the theology of their religion (vv. 1-12).
(2) As a Physician to the sick and miserable people, He feasted with the tax collectors, who were disloyal and unfaithful to their race, and with sinners, who were despised and isolated from society, that they might taste the mercy of God and be recovered to the enjoyment of God. This was condemned by the self-righteous yet merciless scribes of the Pharisees (vv. 13-17).
(3) As a Bridegroom with the sons of the bridechamber, He caused His followers to be merry and happy without fasting. Thus He annulled the practice of the disciples of John (the new religionists) and the Pharisees (the old religionists) so that His followers could be delivered from the practices of their religion into the enjoyment of God’s Christ as their Bridegroom, with His righteousness as their outer clothing and His life as their inner wine in God’s New Testament economy (vv. 18-22).
(4) He allowed His followers to pick the ears of grain in the grainfields on the Sabbath so that they could satisfy their hunger. Thus, apparently they broke God’s commandment concerning the Sabbath, but actually they pleased God because the hunger of Christ’s followers was satisfied through Him, as the hunger of David and his followers had been satisfied with the bread of the Presence in the house of God. This indicates that in God’s New Testament economy, it is a matter not of keeping the regulation of religion but of enjoying satisfaction in and through Christ as the real Sabbath rest (vv. 23-28).
(5) On the Sabbath He healed a man who had a withered hand, caring not for the keeping of the Sabbath but for the health of His sheep. Thus He indicated that in God’s New Testament economy it is a matter not of keeping regulations but of imparting life. For this He was hated by the Pharisees, the religionists (3:1-6).
All five merciful and living ways taken by the Slave-Savior to carry out His gospel service contradicted the formal and traditional religion and were therefore abhorred by the fleshly, stubborn, and lifeless religious leaders.
Mk 2:1a Capernaum  -   Mark 1:21
Mk 2:12 at
Or, in the house.
Mk 2:2a gathered  -   Mark 1:33, 45
Mk 2:31a paralytic  -   vv. 3-12: Matt. 9:2-8; Luke 5:18-26
Signifying a sinner paralyzed by sin, one who is unable to walk and move before God.
Mk 2:41 removed
Their zeal in seeking the Slave-Savior’s healing compelled the seekers to break through the proper barrier — a wild act. See note 21 in Matt. 9.
Mk 2:4a roof  -   1 Sam. 9:25; Neh. 8:16; Acts 10:9
Mk 2:42 mat
A small mattress or pad. So in vv. 9, 11, and 12.
Mk 2:51a faith  -   Mark 10:52; Matt. 8:10, 13; 9:22, 29; 15:28; Luke 7:50; 17:19; 18:42; Acts 14:9
Faith here, which issues from hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17), indicates that the seekers had heard of the Slave-Savior.
Mk 2:52 Child
This loving word spoken by the Slave-Savior implies kindness; in this His human virtue was expressed.
Mk 2:53 sins
Sins are the cause of sickness. The Slave-Savior’s word here touched the cause of sickness so that a healing effect could come. Once the sins had been forgiven, the sickness was healed.
Mk 2:5b forgiven  -   Luke 7:48; James 5:15
Mk 2:61 scribes
The scribes and Pharisees, as the religionists of the old and dead religion, were motivated and used by Satan, the enemy of God, to oppose, resist, and frustrate the gospel service of the Slave of God throughout His ministry (vv. 16, 24; 3:22; 7:5; 8:11; 9:14; 10:2; 11:27; 12:13, 28). They thought that they were worshipping God and were zealous for Him, not knowing that the very God of their forefathers — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — was immediately in front of them in the form of a Slave who desired to serve them. Blinded by their traditional religion from seeing Him in the divine economy, they plotted to kill Him (3:6; 11:18; 14:1); and they actually did kill Him (8:31; 10:33; 14:43, 53; 15:1, 31).
Mk 2:7a blaspheming  -   Mark 14:64; John 10:36
Mk 2:7b sins  -   Psa. 32:5; Isa. 43:25
Mk 2:71 God
The reasoning scribes, who considered themselves to be according to the Scriptures and theology, acknowledged the Slave-Savior merely as a man, even a despised Nazarene (John 1:45-46), not realizing that the One who forgave the sins of the paralytic was the very forgiving God incarnated in the form of a lowly man (see note 32 in Matt. 9), who came as a Slave to serve them with His salvation.
Mk 2:8a immediately  -   Mark 1:42, 43; 2:12
Mk 2:81b knowing  -   John 2:25
The Slave-Savior knew the seekers’ faith, the sick one’s sins (v. 5), and the scribes’ inward reasoning; this indicates that He was omniscient. Such omniscience, which manifested His divine attribute, unveiled His deity, showing that He is the omniscient God. See note 21 in ch. 11.
Mk 2:91 easier
See note 51 in Matt. 9.
Mk 2:10a Son  -   Mark 2:28
Mk 2:101 Man
The Slave-Savior was the very God incarnated. As such, He did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped. Outwardly, He was in the likeness and fashion of man, even in the form of a slave, but inwardly, He was God (Phil. 2:6-7). He was the Slave-Savior, and the God-Savior as well. Hence, He had not only the ability to save sinners but also the authority to forgive their sins. In this incident, although He as God forgave people’s sins, He asserted that He was the Son of Man. This indicates that He was the true God and a real man, possessing deity and humanity. In Him men could see both His divine attributes and His human virtues.
Mk 2:111 Rise
See note 52 in Matt. 9. This was the healing of the paralytic. See note 311 in ch. 1.
Mk 2:11a take  -   John 5:8
Mk 2:121 rose
This is the fulfillment of the Slave-Savior’s word, “Rise, take up your mat.” It was easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” than to say, “Rise and take up your mat and walk.” Since the latter word was fulfilled, surely the former also, the easier one, had been fulfilled. This is strong evidence that the Slave-Savior has authority to forgive sins on earth.
Mk 2:122 took
See note 62 in Matt. 9.
Mk 2:123 went
See note 63 in Matt. 9.
Mk 2:12a amazed  -   Mark 1:27; 5:42
Mk 2:12b glorified  -   Luke 7:16
Mk 2:13a sea  -   Mark 1:16; 3:7
Mk 2:13b crowd  -   Mark 1:45; 3:7-9; 5:24
Mk 2:131 taught
See note 212 in ch. 1.
Mk 2:141 And
For vv. 14-17, see notes in Matt. 9:9-13.
Mk 2:142a tax  -   vv. 14-17: Matt. 9:9-13; Luke 5:27-32
A tollhouse, where taxes for the Romans were collected. Matthew was one of the tax collectors (Matt. 10:3), probably in a high position. Tax collectors were condemned, despised, and abhorred by the Jews (Luke 18:11; Matt. 5:46 and note 2). Yet Matthew was called by the Slave-Savior and was later chosen and appointed as one of the twelve apostles (3:18). What mercy!
Mk 2:143 followed
As an answer to the Slave-Savior’s call, this action implied that he was abandoning his dirty job and his sinful life.
Mk 2:15a tax  -   Matt. 11:19; Luke 15:1-2; 18:10-14
Mk 2:161a scribes  -   Acts 4:5; 23:9
See note 61. The scribes were self-righteous in condemning the Slave-Savior for His feasting with tax collectors and sinners.
Mk 2:171 physician
This indicates that the Slave-Savior considered Himself a Physician to the people who were sick with sins.
Mk 2:17a come  -   Luke 19:10; 1 Tim. 1:15
Mk 2:17b righteous  -   Luke 15:7
Mk 2:172 sinners
This indicates that the Slave-Savior, as the Savior of sinners, came to save only sinners.
Mk 2:181 And
For vv. 18-22, see notes in Matt. 9:14-17.
Mk 2:18a disciples  -   Matt. 11:2; 14:12; Luke 11:1; John 1:35; 3:25
Mk 2:18b fasting  -   Luke 18:12
Mk 2:18c said  -   vv. 18-22: Matt. 9:14-17; Luke 5:33-38
Mk 2:18d Why  -   Mark 2:24; 7:5; Matt. 9:11
Mk 2:19a bridegroom  -   John 3:29; Matt. 25:1
Mk 2:20a days  -   Luke 17:22
Mk 2:22a old  -   Josh. 9:4
Mk 2:231 And
For vv. 23-28, see notes in Matt. 12:1-8.
Mk 2:23a passed  -   vv. 23-28: Matt. 12:1-8; Luke 6:1-5
Mk 2:23b Sabbath  -   Gen. 2:2; Deut. 5:15; Ezek. 20:12; Isa. 58:13-14
Mk 2:23c ears  -   Deut. 23:25
Mk 2:241 Pharisees
See note 61.
Mk 2:24a Sabbath  -   Mark 3:4; Luke 13:14; 14:3; John 5:9-10; 9:14, 16
Mk 2:24b not  -   Exo. 20:10; Deut. 5:14
Mk 2:25a never  -   Matt. 21:16
Mk 2:251b David  -   1 Sam. 21:1-6
Implying that the Slave-Savior is the real David, the King of the coming kingdom of God.
Mk 2:26a Abiathar  -   2 Sam. 8:17; 1 Chron. 24:6
Mk 2:26b bread  -   Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:5-9
Mk 2:26c eat  -   Exo. 29:33
Mk 2:27a Sabbath  -   Exo. 23:12
Mk 2:271 not
Man was not created for the Sabbath; rather, the Sabbath was ordained for man that he might enjoy it with God (Gen. 2:2-3).
Mk 2:27b Sabbath  -   Col. 2:16
Mk 2:28a Son  -   Mark 2:10
Mk 2:281 Lord
This shows the Slave-Savior’s deity in His humanity. He, the Son of Man, was the very God who had ordained the Sabbath, and He had the right to change what He had ordained concerning the Sabbath.
Mark Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 3:11 And
For vv. 1-6, see notes in Matt. 12:9-14.
Mk 3:1a man  -   vv. 1-6: Matt. 12:9-14; Luke 6:6-11
Mk 3:2a watching  -   Luke 14:1; 20:20
Mk 3:2b Sabbath  -   Mark 2:24
Mk 3:2c accuse  -   Mark 14:55-56; 15:3-4
Mk 3:4a lawful  -   Luke 14:3
Mk 3:41 save
This implied that the Slave-Savior was the Emancipator, who set the suffering one free from the bondage of religious ritual.
Mk 3:42 life
Lit., soul.
Mk 3:5a looking  -   Mark 3:34; 5:32; 10:23
Mk 3:51 anger
Toward the opposers the Savior’s anger was exercised, and He was greatly grieved at their hardness; but toward the sick His compassion was exercised, and He restored the withered member. His anger and grief may be considered the expression of the genuineness of His humanity, whereas His compassion and healing were a merging of His human virtue with His divine power, which were manifested simultaneously to men. Thus, His deity in His humanity was again expressed before men. See note 141 in ch. 10.
Mk 3:5b hardness  -   Mark 10:5; Rom. 11:25; Eph. 4:18; Heb. 3:8
Mk 3:5c Stretch  -   cf. 1 Kings 13:4
Mk 3:52 restored
See note 311 in ch. 1. The restoration of the withered hand displayed the power of the Slave-Savior’s deity.
Mk 3:61 Pharisees
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 3:6a immediately  -   Mark 2:12; 4:5
Mk 3:6b counsel  -   Matt. 22:15
Mk 3:6c Herodians  -   Mark 12:13; Matt. 22:16
Mk 3:6d destroy  -   Mark 11:18; 12:7; 14:1
Mk 3:7a sea  -   Mark 2:13; 4:1
Mk 3:7b followed  -   Matt. 12:15
Mk 3:8a Tyre  -   Matt. 11:21
Mk 3:8b multitude  -   Matt. 4:25; Luke 6:17; Mark 2:13
Mk 3:91a boat  -   Mark 4:1; Luke 5:3; John 6:22; 21:8
The Slave-Savior needed first the sea (v. 7) and then a little boat to escape the pressing of the crowd, indicating that the crowd’s thronging Him was a frustration to His gospel service.
Mk 3:9b throng  -   Mark 5:24
Mk 3:101 healed
See note 311 in ch. 1.
Mk 3:102a afflictions  -   Mark 5:29; Matt. 4:23; Luke 7:21
Lit., scourges. A metaphor for afflictions, calamities.
Mk 3:103 pressed
Lit., fell upon.
Mk 3:10b touch  -   Mark 5:27; 6:56; Matt. 9:20-21; 14:36; Luke 6:19
Mk 3:11a unclean  -   Mark 1:23, 26; Luke 4:33
Mk 3:11b cried  -   Luke 4:41; 8:28
Mk 3:11c Son  -   Mark 1:1; Matt. 14:33
Mk 3:121 charged
The demons’ crying out concerning the Slave-Savior was a further frustration to His gospel service. He charged them not to make Him known.
Mk 3:12a not  -   Mark 5:43; Matt. 12:16
Mk 3:13a called  -   Matt. 10:1; Luke 6:13; 9:1; Mark 6:7
Mk 3:141 appointed
This was for the spreading of the Slave-Savior’s gospel service.
Mk 3:142 twelve
See note 122 in Rev. 21.
Mk 3:143 whom
Some MSS omit, whom He also named apostles.
Mk 3:144 preach
See note 142 in ch. 1.
Mk 3:15a authority  -   Mark 1:27; 6:7
Mk 3:151 cast
See note 231 in ch. 1. To preach (v. 14) the gospel was to minister God to people; to cast out demons was to keep Satan away from people. These constituted the main purpose of the Slave-Savior’s gospel service.
Mk 3:161 And
For vv. 16-19, see notes in Matt. 10:2-4.
Mk 3:16a twelve  -   vv. 16-19: Matt. 10:2-4; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13
Mk 3:162 gave
Lit., placed on, or, put on. So in v. 17.
Mk 3:16b Peter  -   John 1:42; Matt. 16:18
Mk 3:17a Zebedee  -   Mark 1:19
Mk 3:17b John  -   Mark 5:37
Mk 3:171 Boanerges
Greek from Aramaic. A name added to James and John because of their impetuosity (cf. Luke 9:54-55; Mark 9:38 and note).
Mk 3:18a Matthew  -   Matt. 9:9
Mk 3:19a Judas  -   John 6:71; 13:26
Mk 3:191 betrayed
Lit., delivered Him up. So throughout the book.
Mk 3:201 He
Some MSS read, they came.
Mk 3:20a house  -   Mark 7:17; 9:28
Mk 3:202b not  -   Mark 6:31
This indicates the busyness, diligence, and faithfulness of the Slave-Savior as the Slave of God in His evangelistic service.
Mk 3:21a relatives  -   Mark 3:31
Mk 3:211 He
“He is beside Himself” was an exclamation expressing the natural concern for the Slave-Savior on the part of His relatives. It opened the way for the scribes to blaspheme Him (v. 22).
Mk 3:21b beside  -   Acts 26:24; 2 Cor. 5:13
Mk 3:221 And
For vv. 22-30, see notes in Matt. 12:24-32.
Mk 3:222 scribes
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 3:22a Jerusalem  -   Mark 7:1; Matt. 15:1
Mk 3:22b said  -   vv. 22-30: Matt. 12:24-32; Luke 11:15-23
Mk 3:22c has  -   John 7:20; 8:48, 52; 10:20
Mk 3:223d Beelzebul  -   Matt. 10:25
This was a word of blasphemy ushered in by the exclamation of natural concern in v. 21.
Mk 3:224e ruler  -   Matt. 9:34; John 12:31; Eph. 2:2
The Slave-Savior cast out demons, the evil workers for the dark kingdom of Satan, yet the opposers said that He did it by the ruler of the demons. What a subtlety of the evil one, who motivated these evil opposers to say this! They were the co-workers of the evil one and even were one with him.
Mk 3:241a kingdom  -   Matt. 12:26; Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13
This indicates that Satan has not only a house but also a kingdom. His house is a house of sin (1 John 3:8, 10), and his kingdom is a kingdom of darkness (Col. 1:13). The sinners belong to both his house and his kingdom. The demons belong to his kingdom and possess people for his kingdom.
Mk 3:27a plunder  -   Isa. 49:24
Mk 3:271 goods
Sinners kept in Satan’s house for his kingdom. The Slave-Savior bound Satan, the strong man, and entered into his house to plunder the sinners so that through regeneration they could be brought into the house of God (Eph. 2:19) for the kingdom of God (John 3:5).
Mk 3:272b binds  -   Matt. 16:19
This indicates that while the Slave-Savior was doing the gospel service, He was binding the strong man, Satan. The gospel service is a warfare to destroy Satan and his kingdom of darkness.
Mk 3:28a forgiven  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31; 10:43
Mk 3:28b blaspheme  -   1 Tim. 1:13
Mk 3:291 Holy
This shows that the Slave-Savior’s gospel service, especially in casting out the demons to destroy the dark kingdom of Satan, was by the Holy Spirit, with whom He was anointed and by whom He was being led continuously in His move (Luke 4:18, 1; Mark 1:12).
Mk 3:29a Spirit  -   Luke 12:10; cf. Heb. 10:29; Acts 7:51
Mk 3:292 everlasting
A sin that will not be forgiven forever.
Mk 3:31a His  -   vv. 31-35: Matt. 12:46-50; Luke 8:19-21
Mk 3:311 mother
After the opposers’ blasphemy, which was instigated by Satan, the relatives of the Slave-Savior came again to trouble Him with their natural concern for Him. Undoubtedly, this too was motivated by the evil one.
Mk 3:31b brothers  -   Mark 6:3; John 2:12; 7:3, 5, 10; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5; Gal. 1:19
Mk 3:31c they  -   Mark 3:21
Mk 3:331 Who
See note 481 in Matt. 12. This indicated the Slave-Savior’s rejection of His relatives’ natural concern. To defeat the evil one’s schemes and to fulfill His gospel service, He refused to remain in any relationship in the natural life. This displayed His absoluteness for God in His humanity.
Mk 3:34a looking  -   Mark 3:5
Mk 3:34b brothers  -   Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11-12
Mk 3:351a does  -   Matt. 7:21
See note 501 in Matt. 12.
Mk 3:352 My
Through His gospel service the Slave-Savior made the believing sinners His spiritual relatives, who became His many brothers (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11) in the house of God (Heb. 3:5) and His many members for the building up of His mystical Body (Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 12:12) to do the will of God.
Mark Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 4:11 And
For vv. 1-12, see notes in Matt. 13:1-15.
Mk 4:12 teach
See note 212 in ch. 1. So for taught in the next verse.
Mk 4:1a beside  -   vv. 1-12: Matt. 13:1-15; Luke 8:4-10
Mk 4:1b sea  -   Mark 3:7; 5:1
Mk 4:1c boat  -   Mark 3:9
Mk 4:2a teaching  -   Mark 1:22; 12:38
Mk 4:31a sower  -   Isa. 55:10
Signifying the Slave-Savior (Matt. 13:37), who was the Son of God coming to sow Himself as the seed of life (see note 263) in His word (v. 14) into men’s hearts that He might grow and live in them and be expressed from within them.
Mk 4:32 sow
This sowing was the Slave-Savior’s proclaiming of the gospel of God, which brought in the kingdom of God (1:14-15). It was, as in v. 26, the sowing of the seed of life in the word (v. 14) spoken by the Slave-Savior, indicating that His gospel service was to sow the divine life into the people whom He served. The growth of this life depends on the condition of the ones served, and its issue differs according to their various conditions, as portrayed in this parable.
Mk 4:5a immediately  -   Mark 3:6; 4:15, 16, 17
Mk 4:6a rose  -   James 1:11
Mk 4:7a thorns  -   Jer. 4:3
Mk 4:8a bore  -   John 15:5, 16; Col. 1:6
Mk 4:8b hundredfold  -   Mark 4:20; Gen. 26:12
Mk 4:9a ears  -   Matt. 11:15; Rev. 2:7
Mk 4:10a alone  -   Mark 4:34
Mk 4:111a mystery  -   Rom. 16:25-26; Eph. 3:3
God’s economy concerning His kingdom was a hidden mystery, which has been unveiled to the Slave-Savior’s disciples. Yet since the nature and character of the kingdom of God are wholly divine, and the elements through which it is brought forth are the divine life and the divine light (see notes 31, 261, and 211), the kingdom of God, especially in its reality as the genuine church in this age (Rom. 14:17), is still entirely a mystery to the natural man. Divine revelation is required to understand it.
Mk 4:11b outside  -   Col. 4:5; 1 Thes. 4:12
Mk 4:112 are
Or, are done, become.
Mk 4:11c parables  -   Matt. 13:34-35
Mk 4:12a seeing  -   Isa. 6:9-10; Ezek. 12:2; Acts 28:26; Rom. 11:8
Mk 4:12b not  -   Mark 8:17, 21; Matt. 13:19
Mk 4:12c turn  -   John 12:40; Acts 3:26; 28:27
Mk 4:131 know
The first know here denotes the inward, subjective understanding; the second denotes the outward, objective knowledge.
Mk 4:13a parable  -   vv. 13-20: Matt. 13:18-23; Luke 8:11-15
Mk 4:14a sower  -   Matt. 13:37
Mk 4:14b word  -   Mark 4:33; Acts 8:4; James 1:21; 1 Pet. 1:23
Mk 4:15a immediately  -   Mark 4:5, 16
Mk 4:16a hear  -   Mark 6:20; Ezek. 33:31-32
Mk 4:17a for  -   John 5:35; cf. Gal. 1:6
Mk 4:17b stumbled  -   Matt. 11:6
Mk 4:19a anxieties  -   Matt. 6:25, 27, 28
Mk 4:19b deceitfulness  -   Heb. 3:13
Mk 4:19c riches  -   Mark 10:23; Matt. 19:23; Luke 18:24; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10, 17
Mk 4:20a bear  -   Mark 4:8
Mk 4:211a lamp  -   Matt. 5:15; Luke 8:16; 11:33
The lamp here, which shines light, indicates that the Slave-Savior’s gospel service not only sows life into the people whom He serves but also brings light to them. Hence, such a divine service issues in the believers as luminaries (Phil. 2:15) and the churches as lampstands (Rev. 1:20) that shine as His testimony in this dark age and consummate in the New Jerusalem, which has the outstanding characteristics of life and light (Rev. 22:1-2; 21:11, 23-24).
Mk 4:212 bushel
See note 151 in Matt. 5.
Mk 4:213 lampstand
See note 152 in Matt. 5.
Mk 4:22a hidden  -   Matt. 10:26; Luke 12:2
Mk 4:23a ears  -   Mark 4:9
Mk 4:241 With
In Matt. 7:2 and Luke 6:38 this word is applied to the way we treat others. Here it is applied to the way we hear the word of the Lord. The measure that can be given to us by the Lord depends on the measure of our hearing. As much as we can hear, that much He will give.
Mk 4:251a has  -   Matt. 25:29; Luke 19:26
The word here, as in Matt. 13:10-13 and Luke 8:18, is concerned with how we hear the word of the Lord.
Mk 4:261a kingdom  -   Mark 1:15; 4:30; John 3:3, 5; Acts 1:3; 14:22; 28:31; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:9-10
The kingdom of God is the reality of the church, which is brought forth by the resurrection life of Christ through the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15). Regeneration is the entrance to the kingdom (John 3:5), and the growth of the divine life within the believers is the kingdom’s development (2 Pet. 1:3-11). See note 151 in ch. 1.
Mk 4:262 man
The Slave-Savior as the sower. See note 31.
Mk 4:263b seed  -   vv. 26-29: cf. Matt. 13:24-26, 30
The seed of the divine life (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23) sown into the Slave-Savior’s believers, indicating that the kingdom of God, which is the issue and goal of the Slave-Savior’s gospel, and the church in this age (Rom. 14:17) are a matter of life, the life of God, which sprouts, grows, bears fruit, matures, and produces a harvest; they are not a matter of lifeless organization produced through man’s wisdom and ability. The apostles’ words in 1 Cor. 3:6-9 and Rev. 14:4, 15-16 confirm this.
Mk 4:271 sleeps
The words sleeps and rises night and day and how, he does not know should not be applied to the Slave-Savior. This verse illustrates the spontaneity of the growth of the seed (cf. v. 28).
Mk 4:272 lengthens
I.e., grows.
Mk 4:281 earth
I.e., the good earth (v. 8), signifying the good heart that was created by God (Gen. 1:31) so that His divine life can grow in man. Such a good heart works together with the seed of the divine life sown into it, allowing the seed to grow and bear fruit spontaneously for the expression of God. The word here enables us to have faith in this spontaneity. Thus, here, in contrast to Matt. 13:24-30, tares are not mentioned, on the negative side.
Mk 4:282 by
Or, spontaneously.
Mk 4:29a immediately  -   Mark 4:17; 5:2
Mk 4:291b sickle  -   Rev. 14:15; Joel 3:13
Signifying the angels sent by the Lord to reap the harvest (Rev. 14:16; Matt. 13:39).
Mk 4:301 And
For vv. 30-32, see notes in Matt. 13:31-32.
Mk 4:30a kingdom  -   Mark 4:26; 9:47
Mk 4:302 present
Some MSS read, compare.
Mk 4:31a mustard  -   vv. 31-32: Matt. 13:31-32; (17:20); Luke 13:18-19
Mk 4:321 greater
What is signified by the seed in vv. 3 and 26 and the lamp in v. 21 discloses the nature and inward reality of the kingdom of God, whereas what is signified by the mustard seed’s becoming great, contrary to its kind, and the birds’ roosting under its shade speaks of the corruption and outward appearance of the kingdom of God.
Mk 4:331 parables
These parables display the Slave-Savior’s divine wisdom and knowledge (Matt. 13:34-35).
Mk 4:33a word  -   Mark 4:14
Mk 4:33b able  -   cf. John 16:12; 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12
Mk 4:34a parable  -   John 16:25
Mk 4:34b privately  -   Mark 4:10
Mk 4:35a go  -   Mark 6:45; Matt. 8:18; 14:22
Mk 4:361 And
For vv. 36-41, see notes in Matt. 8:23-27.
Mk 4:36a boat  -   vv. 36-41: Matt. 8:23-27; Luke 8:22-25
Mk 4:37a windstorm  -   John 6:18
Mk 4:37b boat  -   Mark 6:47
Mk 4:381 sleeping
The Slave-Savior was sleeping and resting in the boat, which was being beaten by the windstorm, while the disciples were threatened by the storm. This indicates that He was above the threatening windstorm and was not bothered by it. As long as the disciples had Him with them in their boat, they should, by faith in Him (v. 40), have shared His rest and enjoyed His peace.
Mk 4:391a rebuked  -   Psa. 104:7; cf. Mark 1:25; Luke 4:39
While the disciples were following Him, the Slave-Savior, as a man with divine authority, controlled the storm that threatened them.
Mk 4:39b ceased  -   Mark 6:51
Mk 4:39c great  -   Psa. 65:7; 89:9; 107:29
Mk 4:40a cowardly  -   John 14:27
Mk 4:40b faith  -   Mark 11:23
Mk 4:411a obey  -   Mark 1:27
This not only displayed the Slave-Savior’s divine authority but also testified that He was the very Creator of the universe (Gen. 1:9; Job 38:8-11). He is the Creator, the One who has the authority!
Mark Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 5:11 And
For vv. 1-20, see notes in Matt. 8:28-34. In Mark the record of these events is much more detailed than in Matthew. This is strong evidence that Mark’s Gospel, as a biography of the Slave of God, stresses His work instead of His word, giving more details than the other Gospels.
Mk 5:1a side  -   Mark 5:21; 1:16; 2:13; 4:1
Mk 5:1b Gerasenes  -   vv. 1-20: Matt. 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39
Mk 5:2a immediately  -   Mark 4:29; 5:29, 30
Mk 5:2b unclean  -   Mark 1:23; Rev. 18:2
Mk 5:31 tombs
Tombs are places connected with death and Hades (Psa. 88:3, 5).
Mk 5:6a worshipped  -   Matt. 8:2
Mk 5:7a loud  -   Mark 1:26; Acts 8:7
Mk 5:71 he
This indicates that the possessed man was usurped by the unclean spirit to the extent that he was being used by the spirit as if he were the spirit himself.
Mk 5:72 What
Lit., What to me and to You? Some versions render it, “What do You have to do with me?”
Mk 5:7b with  -   1 Kings 17:18
Mk 5:7c Most  -   Gen. 14:18-19; Num. 24:16; Psa. 57:2; Dan. 3:26; Luke 1:32; 6:35; Acts 16:17; Heb. 7:1
Mk 5:7d adjure  -   Matt. 26:63
Mk 5:81 spirit
See note 231 in ch. 1.
Mk 5:9a Legion  -   Mark 5:15
Mk 5:121 they
Some MSS read, all the demons.
Mk 5:131 He
Some MSS read, immediately Jesus.
Mk 5:15a legion  -   Mark 5:9
Mk 5:17a depart  -   Acts 16:39
Mk 5:201a Decapolis  -   Mark 7:31; Matt. 4:25
A district of ten cities.
Mk 5:21a crossed  -   Matt. 9:1
Mk 5:21b side  -   Mark 5:1
Mk 5:221 And
For vv. 22-43, see notes in Matt. 9:18-26. In this record of the miraculous deeds of the Slave of God in His gospel service, Mark again gives more details than Matthew. It is a vivid presentation, portraying especially the sufferings of the sick, the Slave-Savior’s tenderness and kindness toward them in His saving service, and Peter’s presence.
Mk 5:22a one  -   vv. 22-43: Matt. 9:18-26; Luke 8:41-56
Mk 5:22b rulers  -   Mark 5:35; Luke 13:14; Acts 13:15; 18:8, 17
Mk 5:23a lay  -   Mark 6:5; 7:32; 8:23, 25; 16:18; Luke 4:40; 13:13; Acts 9:12, 17; 28:8
Mk 5:231 healed
Lit., saved.
Mk 5:24a pressed  -   Mark 5:31; 3:9
Mk 5:251 woman
Since this woman’s case is merged with the case of the ruler’s daughter, and since the twelve years of the woman’s sickness are the age of the girl, and both are females, one older, one younger, these cases can be considered a complete case of one person. In this view the girl was born, so to speak, in the woman’s death-sickness and died of it. When the woman’s death-sickness was healed by the Savior, the dead girl rose up from death. This signifies that every fallen person is born in the death-sickness of sin and is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1). When his death-sickness of sin is dealt with by the Savior’s redeeming death (1 Pet. 2:24), he rises up out of death into life (John 5:24-25).
Mk 5:25a flow  -   Lev. 15:25
Mk 5:25b twelve  -   Mark 5:42
Mk 5:27a touched  -   Mark 5:30; 3:10; 6:56
Mk 5:281 healed
Or, made whole; lit., saved. Sickness is an oppression exercised over the sick by the devil. Hence, the Slave-Savior’s healing was a saving service rendered to the suffering victim that she might enjoy relief and release from the evil one’s oppression (Acts 10:38). See note 311 in ch. 1.
Mk 5:29a immediately  -   Mark 5:2, 42
Mk 5:29b affliction  -   Mark 3:10
Mk 5:301a power  -   Luke 5:17; 6:19; Acts 10:38
The Slave-Savior was God incarnated to be a man (John 1:1, 14). His garments signify His perfect behavior in His humanity — His perfection in His human virtues. To touch His garments was actually to touch Him in His humanity, in which God was embodied (Col. 2:9). By such a touch His divine power was transfused, through the perfection of His humanity, into the one who had touched Him, and it became her healing. The God who dwells in unapproachable light became touchable in the Slave-Savior through His humanity for her salvation and enjoyment. This was the service of the Slave-Savior, as the Slave of God, to the sick sinner.
Mk 5:30b touched  -   Mark 5:27
Mk 5:311a pressing  -   Mark 5:24
The pressing crowd did not receive anything from the Savior, but the one who touched Him did.
Mk 5:331 frightened
Fear is inward, whereas trembling is shown outwardly.
Mk 5:341 Daughter
The Slave-Savior’s power in healing expressed His deity (v. 30 and note); His word, given with love and kindness in sympathy, expressed His humanity. In this case His deity and His humanity again were merged for His expression.
Mk 5:34a faith  -   Mark 10:52; Acts 14:9
Mk 5:342 healed
See note 281.
Mk 5:343 in
Lit., into.
Mk 5:34b peace  -   Luke 7:50
Mk 5:344 well
Or, whole, sound.
Mk 5:35a ruler  -   Mark 5:22
Mk 5:35b bother  -   Luke 7:6
Mk 5:361 overhearing
Or, hearing unintentionally, ignoring. Some MSS read, hearing.
Mk 5:37a Peter  -   Mark 9:2; 14:33
Mk 5:37b John  -   Mark 3:17
Mk 5:39a sleeping  -   John 11:11
Mk 5:40a putting  -   Acts 9:40
Mk 5:41a took  -   Mark 1:31; 9:27
Mk 5:411 Talitha
Aramaic.
Mk 5:41b Arise  -   Luke 7:14; cf. John 11:43
Mk 5:42a immediately  -   Mark 5:2
Mk 5:42b twelve  -   Mark 5:25
Mk 5:42c amazed  -   Mark 1:27
Mk 5:431a no  -   Mark 3:12; 9:9; Matt. 8:4; 9:30; 12:16; 17:9; Luke 5:14
See note 441 in ch. 1.
Mark Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 6:1a came  -   vv. 1-6: Matt. 13:54-58; Luke 4:16-24
Mk 6:21 teach
See note 212 in ch. 1. So for this verb throughout this chapter.
Mk 6:2a synagogue  -   Mark 1:21, 39; Matt. 4:23; Luke 6:6; 13:10; Acts 13:14
Mk 6:2b astounded  -   Mark 6:51; 1:22; Matt. 7:28
Mk 6:31 carpenter
See note 551 in Matt. 13. The blind despisers’ word here may be considered a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isa. 53:2-3 concerning the Slave-Savior: “Like a root out of dry ground. He has no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and forsaken of men.” To know Him in that way was to know Him in His humanity according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16), not in His deity according to the Spirit (Rom. 1:4). In His humanity He was a root out of dry ground, a sprout from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots (Isa. 11:1), a Shoot unto David (Jer. 23:5; 33:15), the Shoot who was a man and the Servant of Jehovah (Zech. 3:8; 6:12), One who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3). In His deity He was the Shoot of Jehovah for beauty and glory (Isa. 4:2), the Son of God marked out in power according to the Spirit (Rom. 1:4).
Mk 6:3a brother  -   Mark 3:31; Matt. 12:46; Gal. 1:19
Mk 6:3b stumbled  -   John 6:61
Mk 6:4a prophet  -   John 4:44
Mk 6:51 not
See note 581 in Matt. 13.
Mk 6:5a lay  -   Mark 5:23
Mk 6:52 heal
See note 311 in ch. 1. So for this verb throughout this chapter.
Mk 6:6a marveled  -   Isa. 59:16
Mk 6:6b villages  -   Mark 6:56; Matt. 9:35; Luke 8:1; 13:22
Mk 6:7a called  -   Mark 3:13-15; Matt. 10:1; Luke 9:1-2
Mk 6:71b authority  -   Mark 3:15
See notes 221 in ch. 1 and 12 in Matt. 10.
Mk 6:8a take  -   vv. 8-11: Matt. 10:9-14; Luke 9:3-5; 10:4-11
Mk 6:81 no
See note 91 in Matt. 10.
Mk 6:91 tunics
A shirt-like undergarment. So throughout the book.
Mk 6:101 depart
Lit., go out from there.
Mk 6:11a shake  -   Acts 13:51; cf. Neh. 5:13; Acts 18:6
Mk 6:111 against
Or, to.
Mk 6:121a proclaimed  -   Matt. 4:17; 10:7; Luke 9:6
See note 142 in ch. 1.
Mk 6:12b repent  -   Mark 1:4, 15
Mk 6:131 cast
See note 231 in ch. 1.
Mk 6:13a anointed  -   James 5:14
Mk 6:14a heard  -   vv. 14-29: Matt. 14:1-12; Luke 9:7-9
Mk 6:14b John  -   Mark 8:28
Mk 6:141 are
I.e., are operating and are being manifested.
Mk 6:15a Elijah  -   Mark 9:11
Mk 6:15b prophet  -   Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22; Matt. 21:11; Luke 24:19
Mk 6:16a beheaded  -   Mark 6:27
Mk 6:17a prison  -   Matt. 11:2; John 3:24
Mk 6:17b Herodias  -   Luke 3:19-20
Mk 6:18a brother  -   Lev. 18:16; 20:21
Mk 6:20a John  -   Matt. 21:26
Mk 6:20b righteous  -   Luke 1:75; Eph. 4:24; Heb. 12:10-11
Mk 6:20c heard  -   Mark 4:16; 12:37
Mk 6:21a birthday  -   cf. Gen. 40:20
Mk 6:21b banquet  -   Esth. 1:3; 2:18
Mk 6:23a half  -   Esth. 5:3, 6; 7:2
Mk 6:25a immediately  -   Mark 5:42; 6:27
Mk 6:27a immediately  -   Mark 6:25, 45
Mk 6:271b beheaded  -   Mark 6:16
This indicates Satan’s hatred, expressed by the darkness and injustice of the worldly power, toward the faithful forerunner of the Slave-Savior. See note 101 in Matt. 14.
Mk 6:29a disciples  -   Matt. 9:14
Mk 6:30a apostles  -   Matt. 10:2; Luke 6:13; 17:5; 22:14; 24:10
Mk 6:30b reported  -   Luke 9:10
Mk 6:31a deserted  -   Matt. 14:13
Mk 6:311 not
See note 202 in ch. 3.
Mk 6:31b eat  -   Mark 3:20
Mk 6:321 And
For vv. 32-44, see notes in Matt. 14:13-21.
Mk 6:32a went  -   vv. 32-44: Matt. 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13
Mk 6:33a recognized  -   Mark 6:54
Mk 6:341 moved
This exhibited the Slave-Savior’s virtue in His humanity. Such virtue was carried out by the power of His deity (cf. note 431). The virtue in His humanity and the power of His deity were mingled as one, showing that He is both man and God.
Mk 6:34a compassion  -   Mark 8:2; Matt. 9:36; 15:32
Mk 6:36a Send  -   Matt. 15:39
Mk 6:37a give  -   2 Kings 4:42-44
Mk 6:371 denarii
See note 71 in John 6.
Mk 6:38a How  -   Mark 8:5
Mk 6:391 by
The Greek phrase denotes dividing into companies at a party. Sitting by companies was equivalent to sitting at tables. This figure implies that the Lord’s feeding of the multitude with bread and fish was like the spreading of a feast to entertain guests.
Mk 6:401 in
Lit., garden plot by garden plot. Here, the arrangement of plots in a garden refers figuratively to a group of people arranged in an orderly way. The groups of people sat down in well-ordered square plots, so that they looked like flowering plants arranged in plots in a garden. This figure implies that those who are fed by the Lord are like fragrant, beautiful flower beds (S.S 5:13; 6:2).
Mk 6:41a looking  -   Mark 7:34; John 11:41
Mk 6:41b blessed  -   Mark 8:7; 14:22
Mk 6:431 twelve
This not only displayed the power of the Slave-Savior’s deity as the Creator, who calls things not being as being (Rom. 4:17), but also signifies the bountiful and inexhaustible supply of His divine life (Eph. 3:8; Phil. 1:19).
Mk 6:451 And
For vv. 45-51, see notes in Matt. 14:22-32.
Mk 6:45a immediately  -   Mark 6:27, 50
Mk 6:45b compelled  -   vv. 45-51: Matt. 14:22-32; John 6:16-21
Mk 6:45c go  -   Mark 4:35; Matt. 8:18
Mk 6:45d Bethsaida  -   Mark 8:22; Luke 9:10
Mk 6:46a mountain  -   Mark 3:13; John 6:15
Mk 6:461b pray  -   Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28
See note 351 in ch. 1.
Mk 6:47a boat  -   Mark 4:37
Mk 6:481 walking
In 4:38 the Slave-Savior was sleeping in a boat that was being beaten by a windstorm that threatened His followers. Here, He was walking on the sea while His followers, as they rowed, were distressed by the waves of the sea. These incidents indicate that the Slave-Savior, as the Creator and Ruler of the universe (Job 9:8), was not distressed by any circumstance and that He would care for His followers in their troubles while they followed Him in their journey.
Mk 6:50a startled  -   Luke 24:37
Mk 6:50b immediately  -   Mark 6:45, 54
Mk 6:50c courage  -   John 16:33
Mk 6:501 It
Lit., I am.
Mk 6:50d afraid  -   Deut. 31:6; Isa. 41:13; 43:1-2; Matt. 17:7
Mk 6:51a ceased  -   Mark 4:39
Mk 6:51b astonished  -   Mark 6:2; 7:37
Mk 6:52a understand  -   Mark 8:17-21
Mk 6:53a crossed  -   vv. 53-56: Matt. 14:34-36
Mk 6:53b Gennesaret  -   Luke 5:1
Mk 6:54a immediately  -   Mark 6:50; 7:25
Mk 6:54b recognized  -   Mark 6:33
Mk 6:55a mats  -   Luke 5:18
Mk 6:56a villages  -   Mark 6:6
Mk 6:56b marketplaces  -   Acts 5:15
Mk 6:561 fringe
See notes 204 in Matt. 9 and 301 in ch. 5.
Mk 6:56c touched  -   Mark 3:10; 5:27-28; Luke 6:19; cf. Acts 19:12
Mk 6:562 healed
Or, made whole. See note 281 in ch. 5.
Mark Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 7:11 And
For vv. 1-23, see notes in Matt. 15:1-20.
Mk 7:1a Pharisees  -   vv. 1-23: Matt. 15:1-20
Mk 7:1b Jerusalem  -   Mark 3:22
Mk 7:21 had
Some MSS read, seeing…unwashed, they found fault.
Mk 7:2a unwashed  -   Luke 11:38
Mk 7:31 carefully
Lit., with the fist.
Mk 7:3a tradition  -   Gal. 1:14; Col. 2:8
Mk 7:32 elders
I.e., ancients, people of the previous generations.
Mk 7:41 wash
Lit., baptize. Some MSS have, sprinkle.
Mk 7:4a many  -   Mark 7:13
Mk 7:4b dipping  -   Heb. 9:10; Matt. 23:25; Luke 11:39
Mk 7:42 vessels
Some MSS add, and couches.
Mk 7:51 Pharisees
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 7:61 hypocrites
See note 22 in Matt. 6.
Mk 7:6a This  -   Isa. 29:13
Mk 7:6b lips  -   cf. Ezek. 33:31
Mk 7:71 worship
Revere. The feeling of awe or devotion is stressed.
Mk 7:7a men  -   Col. 2:22; cf. Titus 1:14
Mk 7:81 men
Some MSS add, the dipping of pitchers and cups and many other such similar things you do.
Mk 7:91a set  -   Luke 7:30
The result of the keeping of tradition is the setting aside of the commandment of God. Furthermore, tradition causes people to set aside the commandment of God “nicely”!
Mk 7:10a Honor  -   Exo. 20:12; Deut. 5:16
Mk 7:10b He  -   Exo. 21:17; Lev. 20:9; Prov. 20:20
Mk 7:101 let
Lit., let him decease by death. See note 43 in Matt. 15.
Mk 7:111 corban
For the Hebrew word qorban, meaning an offering. Signifying anything offered to God.
Mk 7:11a gift  -   Lev. 1:2
Mk 7:13a many  -   Mark 7:4
Mk 7:14a understand  -   Matt. 13:51
Mk 7:151 defile
Make him common, unclean (Acts 11:8). So in the succeeding verses.
Mk 7:161 If
Some MSS omit this verse.
Mk 7:17a house  -   Mark 7:24; 3:20; 9:28
Mk 7:17b parable  -   Matt. 13:36
Mk 7:18a understanding  -   Mark 8:17
Mk 7:19a stomach  -   1 Cor. 6:13
Mk 7:19b clean  -   Luke 11:41; Acts 10:15; 11:9; Rom. 14:20
Mk 7:20a defiles  -   James 3:6
Mk 7:21a heart  -   Gen. 8:21; Matt. 9:4; 12:34
Mk 7:21b murders  -   Exo. 20:13
Mk 7:22a Adulteries  -   Exo. 20:14; Matt. 5:27-28; 1 Cor. 6:9
Mk 7:22b covetousness  -   Exo. 20:17; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10
Mk 7:221 deceit
Or, guile.
Mk 7:222 envy
Lit., a wicked eye. A Semitic expression referring to the eye that intends to do evil and, by extension, to hostility, jealousy, or envy.
Mk 7:22c blasphemy  -   Col. 3:8
Mk 7:231 wicked
The wicked things that proceed from within are the evil issues of man’s fallen and sinful nature (v. 21; Rom. 7:18).
Mk 7:241 And
For vv. 24-30, see notes in Matt. 15:21-28.
Mk 7:24a went  -   vv. 24-30: Matt. 15:21-28
Mk 7:24b Tyre  -   Mark 7:31
Mk 7:242 and
Some MSS omit, and Sidon.
Mk 7:24c house  -   Mark 7:17
Mk 7:243 no
The Lord never wanted publicity for Himself.
Mk 7:25a unclean  -   Mark 1:23
Mk 7:25b immediately  -   Mark 6:54; 7:35
Mk 7:26a Greek  -   John 12:20; 1 Cor. 12:13
Mk 7:261 Syrophoenician
Syrian by tongue, Phoenician by race (cf. Acts 21:2-3). Since the Phoenicians were descendants of the Canaanites, she was a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:22). What made her a Greek — religion, marriage, or some other factor — is difficult to determine.
Mk 7:27a First  -   Acts 3:26; Rom. 1:16
Mk 7:27b children  -   cf. Exo. 4:22; Deut. 32:6; 1 Chron. 29:10; Isa. 63:16; 64:8
Mk 7:27c bread  -   John 6:35, 48
Mk 7:271 little
Pet dogs, house dogs.
Mk 7:27d dogs  -   Matt. 7:6
Mk 7:28a table  -   Luke 16:21
Mk 7:29a go  -   John 4:50
Mk 7:291 demon
See note 231 in ch. 1.
Mk 7:31a came  -   vv. 31-37: Matt. 15:29-31
Mk 7:31b Tyre  -   Mark 7:24
Mk 7:311c Galilee  -   Matt. 4:18; John 6:1
See note 291 in Matt. 15.
Mk 7:312d Decapolis  -   Mark 5:20
A district of ten cities.
Mk 7:321 one
Signifying one who is spiritually deaf and dumb, unable to hear the voice of God and to praise Him (Isa. 35:6) and speak for Him (Isa. 56:10). The dumbness of such a person is due to his deafness. The Slave-Savior’s healing salvation is well able to heal the deafness and dumbness of such a one, first by dealing with his ears and then by touching his tongue.
Mk 7:32a deaf  -   Isa. 35:5-6; 43:8-9
Mk 7:32b spoke  -   cf. Matt. 9:32; Luke 11:14
Mk 7:32c lay  -   Mark 5:23
Mk 7:331 put
Or, thrust. The Slave-Savior’s thrusting of His fingers into the deaf one’s ears signifies His dealing with his hearing organ (cf. Isa. 50:4-5; Job 33:14-16), and His touching of his tongue with His spittle signifies His anointing of the dumb one’s speaking organ with the word that proceeds out of His mouth. This was a healing (see note 311 in ch. 1).
Mk 7:33a spat  -   Mark 8:23; John 9:6
Mk 7:34a looking  -   Mark 6:41
Mk 7:34b groaned  -   Mark 8:12; John 11:33, 38
Mk 7:341 Ephphatha
Aramaic.
Mk 7:35a immediately  -   Mark 7:25; 8:10
Mk 7:361 not
See note 441 in ch. 1.
Mk 7:36a anyone  -   Mark 5:43; 9:9; Matt. 8:4
Mk 7:36b proclaimed  -   Mark 1:45
Mk 7:37a astounded  -   Mark 6:51; 10:26
Mark Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 8:11 In
For vv. 1-10, see notes in Matt. 15:32-39.
Mk 8:1a said  -   vv. 1-10: Matt. 15:32-39; cf. Mark 6:34-44
Mk 8:21 moved
The Slave-Savior’s virtues of compassion, sympathy, and tender care were vividly and sweetly displayed here in His humanity.
Mk 8:31 faint
See note 21.
Mk 8:6a gave  -   Luke 22:19; John 6:11; Acts 27:35
Mk 8:8a surplus  -   2 Kings 4:43-44
Mk 8:81 seven
See note 431 in ch. 6.
Mk 8:91 there
Some MSS read, those who had eaten.
Mk 8:10a immediately  -   Mark 7:35; 9:15
Mk 8:101 Dalmanutha
Dalmanutha was probably a village in the districts of Magadan (Matt. 15:39). It was likely a place west of the Sea of Galilee.
Mk 8:111 And
For vv. 11-21, see notes in Matt. 16:1-12.
Mk 8:112a Pharisees  -   vv. 11-21: Matt. 16:1-12
See note 61 in ch. 2. So in v. 15.
Mk 8:113b sign  -   Matt. 12:38; Luke 11:16; 21:11; John 6:30; 1 Cor. 1:22
A sign is a miracle that has some spiritual significance.
Mk 8:11c tempting  -   Mark 10:2; 12:15; John 8:6
Mk 8:121a groaned  -   Mark 7:34
This too is a virtue of the Lord in His humanity, showing His sentiment toward man.
Mk 8:122 No
Lit., If a sign shall be given. A Hebraism, as in Heb. 3:11.
Mk 8:151a leaven  -   Luke 12:1; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9
See note 331 in Matt. 13. The leaven of the Pharisees was their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1); the leaven of Herod was his corruption and injustice in politics (see note 271 in ch. 6).
Mk 8:15b Herod  -   Luke 13:31-32; Mark 3:6; 12:13
Mk 8:161 saying
Some MSS read, that they had no bread.
Mk 8:17a knowing  -   Matt. 26:10
Mk 8:17b understand  -   Mark 4:12; 7:18
Mk 8:17c hardened  -   Mark 6:52
Mk 8:18a not  -   Isa. 42:18, 20; Jer. 5:21; Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 13:13-14
Mk 8:19a five  -   Mark 6:41
Mk 8:20a seven  -   Mark 8:6
Mk 8:21a understand  -   Mark 6:52
Mk 8:22a Bethsaida  -   Mark 6:45
Mk 8:221 blind
Signifying one who has lost his inner sight, one who is blind spiritually (Acts 26:18; 2 Pet. 1:9).
Mk 8:231a took  -   Mark 5:41; 9:27
The Slave-Savior’s humanity was expressed here in His intimate and loving care for the needy one. See note 361 in ch. 9.
Mk 8:232 led
This may indicate that the Slave-Savior would not allow what He intended to do for this blind man to be seen and known by the crowd, since He charged him not even to enter into the village (v. 26). Spiritually, this may indicate that the Slave-Savior wanted the blind man to have a private and intimate time with Him so that He could infuse him with the element by which his sight could be recovered. All who are spiritually blind need such a time with the Slave-Savior.
Mk 8:233b spat  -   Mark 7:33
Blindness is related to darkness (Acts 26:18). To see, there is the need of light. The Slave-Savior’s spittle may signify the word that proceeds out of His mouth (see note 61 in John 9), a word that conveys the divine light of life to the receiver for the recovery of his sight. Such spitting by the Slave-Savior, accompanied by His laying on of hands, was much richer than His mere touch, which had been requested for the blind man by his helpers.
Mk 8:234c laid  -   Mark 5:23
Indicating that the Slave-Savior identified Himself with the blind man in order to transfuse His healing element into him.
Mk 8:241 see
This may illustrate a person’s spiritual seeing. In the initial stage of his spiritual recovery, a person may see spiritual things as did this blind man, who saw men as trees, walking. After a further recovery, he sees all things clearly.
Mk 8:251 restored
See note 311 in ch. 1.
Mk 8:261 not
Throughout His ministry the Slave-Savior, the Slave of God, did not want publicity. See note 441 in ch. 1. Shunning publicity was one of the virtues that He displayed. Such a virtue was sweet and lovely.
Mk 8:262 village
Some MSS add, nor tell it to anyone in the village.
Mk 8:271 And
For vv. 27-29, see notes in Matt. 16:13-16.
Mk 8:27a Caesarea  -   vv. 27-29: Matt. 16:13-16
Mk 8:27b Who  -   Luke 9:18
Mk 8:28a John  -   Mark 6:14; Matt. 14:2
Mk 8:28b Elijah  -   Mark 9:13; Luke 9:8; John 1:21
Mk 8:29a Christ  -   Matt. 1:17; John 11:27; 20:31
Mk 8:301 not
The Slave-Savior did not want to promote Himself.
Mk 8:30a anyone  -   Matt. 16:20; Luke 9:21
Mk 8:311 And
For 8:31 — 9:1, see notes in Matt. 16:21-28.
Mk 8:31a began  -   8:31–9:1: Matt. 16:21-28; Luke 9:22-27
Mk 8:31b Son  -   Mark 9:12; Matt. 17:22-23; Luke 24:7
Mk 8:31c rejected  -   Mark 12:10; Luke 17:25; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:4
Mk 8:31d killed  -   Mark 9:31; 10:33-34
Mk 8:31e three  -   Matt. 27:63; 12:40; John 2:19; cf. Luke 13:32
Mk 8:31f rise  -   Mark 9:9
Mk 8:32a openly  -   John 16:25
Mk 8:33a Satan  -   Matt. 4:10; cf. John 6:70
Mk 8:33b mind  -   Rom. 8:5-6
Mk 8:34a cross  -   Matt. 10:38-39; Luke 14:27
Mk 8:35a soul-life  -   John 12:25
Mk 8:35b gospel’s  -   Mark 10:29; 1 Cor. 9:23; 2 Tim. 1:8; Philem. 13
Mk 8:36a gain  -   cf. Luke 12:20
Mk 8:37a exchange  -   cf. Psa. 49:7-9
Mk 8:38a ashamed  -   Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:8, 12, 16
Mk 8:38b adulterous  -   Matt. 12:39; James 4:4
Mk 8:38c comes  -   Zech. 14:5; Matt. 25:31; 1 Thes. 4:16; Jude 14; Rev. 1:7
Mk 8:38d holy  -   Acts 10:22; Rev. 14:10
Mark Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 9:1a taste  -   John 8:52; Heb. 2:9
Mk 9:1b kingdom  -   Mark 1:15; 4:26; Luke 22:18
Mk 9:1c power  -   Mark 13:26
Mk 9:21 And
For vv. 2-13, see notes in Matt. 17:1-13.
Mk 9:2a took  -   vv. 2-9: Matt. 17:1-9; Luke 9:28-36
Mk 9:2b Peter  -   Mark 5:37; 14:33
Mk 9:22c transfigured  -   cf. 2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:21
Or, transformed.
Mk 9:3a sparkling  -   Psa. 104:2
Mk 9:3b white  -   Dan. 7:9; Matt. 28:3
Mk 9:5a Rabbi  -   John 1:38
Mk 9:5b tents  -   Lev. 23:42; Neh. 8:15
Mk 9:6a not  -   Mark 14:40
Mk 9:7a cloud  -   Exo. 24:15-16
Mk 9:7b voice  -   2 Pet. 1:17
Mk 9:7c Beloved  -   Mark 1:11; 12:6
Mk 9:7d Hear  -   Acts 3:22
Mk 9:9a coming  -   vv. 9-13: Matt. 17:9-13
Mk 9:91 not
See note 441 in ch. 1.
Mk 9:9b anyone  -   Mark 5:43
Mk 9:9c risen  -   Mark 8:31
Mk 9:11a Elijah  -   Mal. 4:5; Luke 1:17; Mark 6:15
Mk 9:12a restore  -   Acts 1:6; 3:21
Mk 9:12b written  -   Mark 14:21
Mk 9:12c suffer  -   Mark 8:31
Mk 9:12d counted  -   Isa. 53:3
Mk 9:13a Elijah  -   Matt. 11:14
Mk 9:131 indeed
Or, also.
Mk 9:141 they
Some MSS have, He.
Mk 9:142a scribes  -   Mark 2:16; 11:27; 12:28; Acts 23:9
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 9:15a immediately  -   Mark 8:10; 9:20
Mk 9:15b amazed  -   Mark 10:32
Mk 9:171 And
For vv. 17-29, see notes in Matt. 17:14-21.
Mk 9:17a one  -   vv. 17-29: Matt. 17:14-21; Luke 9:38-42
Mk 9:17b Teacher  -   John 11:28; 13:13
Mk 9:17c dumb  -   Mark 9:25; Luke 11:14
Mk 9:181 throws
Or, tears him.
Mk 9:18a cast  -   Mark 3:15
Mk 9:191 O
This is an exclamation uttered by the Slave-Savior because of man’s unbelief.
Mk 9:19a with  -   John 14:9
Mk 9:20a immediately  -   Mark 9:15, 24
Mk 9:20b convulsed  -   Mark 9:26; 1:26
Mk 9:221 have
Or, help us, having compassion on us.
Mk 9:231 You
Or, Concerning this [lit., the] “If You can” (referring to the word spoken in the preceding verse).
Mk 9:23a believes  -   Mark 11:23; John 11:40
Mk 9:24a Immediately  -   Mark 9:20; 10:52
Mk 9:24b help  -   cf. Luke 17:5
Mk 9:25a rebuked  -   Mark 1:25
Mk 9:25b Dumb  -   Mark 9:17
Mk 9:251 come
See note 231 in ch. 1.
Mk 9:26a convulsing  -   Mark 9:20
Mk 9:271a took  -   Mark 1:31
See note 231 in ch. 8.
Mk 9:28a house  -   Mark 3:20
Mk 9:291 prayer
Some MSS add, and fasting.
Mk 9:30a Galilee  -   Luke 24:6
Mk 9:31a teaching  -   vv. 31-32: Matt. 17:22-23; Luke 9:43-45
Mk 9:31b kill  -   Mark 8:31; 10:33-34
Mk 9:32a understand  -   Mark 6:52; Luke 2:50; John 10:6; 12:16; 16:18
Mk 9:33a Capernaum  -   Matt. 17:24
Mk 9:33b questioned  -   vv. 33-37: Matt. 18:1-5; Luke 9:46-48
Mk 9:34a greater  -   vv. 34-35: Mark 10:42-44; Matt. 20:25-27; Luke 22:24-27
Mk 9:36a little  -   Mark 10:13-16
Mk 9:361 taking
The Slave-Savior’s humanity was expressed in His tender love toward the little ones. See notes 231 in ch. 8 and 142 in ch. 10.
Mk 9:37a receives  -   Matt. 10:40-41
Mk 9:371 because
Lit., upon, or, on; i.e., on the basis of, according to.
Mk 9:372 receives
This shows that the Slave-Savior became one with the young children.
Mk 9:38a John  -   vv. 38-40: Luke 9:49-50
Mk 9:38b casting  -   Matt. 12:28
Mk 9:38c name  -   Mark 16:17; Matt. 7:22; Luke 10:17; Acts 19:13
Mk 9:381 forbade
This was an impetuous act by John, the son of thunder; it was contrary to the virtue of the Slave-Savior whom he accompanied (see note 171 in ch. 3). John’s attitude was like that of Joshua in Num. 11:28.
Mk 9:391 not
This displayed the Slave-Savior’s tolerance, in the practice of the gospel service, toward those believers who were different from the ones closer to Him. In this respect the attitude of the apostle Paul in Phil. 1:16-18 and that of Moses in Num. 11:26-29, but not that of the impetuous John, are like His. It is very meaningful that this section, vv. 38-50, continues the previous section, vv. 33-37, in which the Slave-Savior taught His followers humility because they had argued with one another concerning who was greater. In that argument the two sons of thunder, James and John, probably played the leading roles (cf. 10:35-45). Here the same John would not tolerate a differing believer. His impetuous action was probably related to his ambition to be great. It might have been this ambition that caused his intolerance toward the different practice of other believers. This is a basic divisive factor among Christians. The Slave-Savior surely would not go along with John in this matter.
Mk 9:39a no  -   cf. 1 Cor. 12:3
Mk 9:401 he
This word does not contradict that in Matt. 12:30. Both issued from the Slave-Savior’s mouth and can be considered maxims. The maxim here speaks of outward conformity in practice and is in regard to people who are not against Him (v. 39); that in Matthew speaks of the inward unity of purpose and is in regard to people who are against Him (Matt. 12:24). To maintain the inward unity, we need to practice the word in Matthew, and as to the outward conformity, we should practice the word here, tolerating believers who differ from us.
Mk 9:411 you
John behaved as one who acted upon others. The Slave-Savior’s wise word here turned him and the other disciples, making them those acted upon by others. This implied that all — whether the disciples or other believers — were under the Lord’s care because all were His. Whether it was their treatment of other believers or other believers’ treatment of them, anything done in the Lord’s name, even the giving of a cup of water, would be rewarded by Him.
Mk 9:41a cup  -   Matt. 10:42
Mk 9:412b Christ’s  -   Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:23
This indicates that the Slave-Savior recognized that the one forbidden by John was a genuine believer belonging to Him. This should have been a lesson to John.
Mk 9:413 reward
This reward will be given in the coming kingdom age (Luke 14:14). See notes 351 in Heb. 10 and 102 in 2 Cor. 5.
Mk 9:421 these
Here the Slave-Savior turned the subject from John and the other disciples to His believers in general, all of whom He considered little ones (not related to the little children in v. 37), including John, the other disciples, and the one forbidden by them. This may be considered a warning to John and the other disciples not to stumble any one of His believers who followed Him in a different way.
Mk 9:42a little  -   Matt. 18:6; Luke 17:1-2
Mk 9:422 great
Lit., millstone (turned) by a donkey.
Mk 9:431a hand  -   Matt. 5:30; 18:8
Here the one who causes the stumbling is changed from a person to a member of the believer’s fleshly body. The believers should not stumble one another, nor should they be stumbled by their own fleshly members. This indicates the preciousness of the believers in the eyes of the Slave-Savior. They should all be fully preserved for Him. All the factors that could cause the believers to stumble should be dealt with seriously.
Mk 9:432 cut
See note 291 in Matt. 5. So in v. 45.
Mk 9:433 life
Life here refers to eternal life, which the overcoming believers will enjoy in the coming kingdom (10:30; cf. note 293 in Matt. 19). To enter into this enjoyment in the coming age is to enter into the coming kingdom (v. 47) and participate there in the enjoyment of eternal life.
Mk 9:434 Gehenna
See note 228 in Matt. 5. So in the succeeding verses.
Mk 9:435 unquenchable
In apposition to Gehenna and denoting here, according to the context, a dispensational punishment of the defeated believers (such as being hurt of the second death, mentioned in Rev. 2:11); it is not eternal perdition. See note 492.
Mk 9:43b fire  -   Matt. 3:12; 25:41
Mk 9:441 44
Some MSS insert v. 44, Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
Mk 9:451 Gehenna
Some MSS add, into unquenchable fire.
Mk 9:461 46
Some MSS insert v. 46, Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
Mk 9:47a eye  -   Matt. 5:29; 18:9
Mk 9:471b kingdom  -   Mark 1:15; 4:26; 10:14-15; 14:25
This is to enter into the enjoyment of eternal life in the coming age. See note 433.
Mk 9:481 worm
The word given here and in vv. 44 and 46 (which were inserted in some MSS), not found in Matt. 5:29-30; 18:8-9, or in Luke 12:5, is quoted from Isa. 66:24.
Mk 9:491 salted
I.e., to kill and eliminate the germs of corruption that came in through sin, in order to preserve the sinning believers (cf. Lev. 2:13; Ezek. 43:24).
Mk 9:492 fire
This is the refining fire (Mal. 3:2), the purifying, purging fire, as in 1 Cor. 3:13, 15 (cf. Isa. 33:14), which, as a dispensational punishment in the kingdom age, will purge the believers who commit sin and are unrepentant in this age (see note 435). Even in this age God purges the believers through trials as if by fire (1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12, 17). Dispensational punishment by fire in the coming age is in the same principle as God’s chastisement through sufferings as if by fire in this age.
Mk 9:493
Some MSS add, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Mk 9:501 Salt
See note 132 in Matt. 5. The application of the word here differs from that in Matt. 5:13 and Luke 14:34. In Matthew and Luke, salt, portraying the believers’ influence on the world, is for the salting of the corrupted world; salt here, in apposition to the purging fire, is for the salting of sinning believers, even as God’s chastisements are for the sinning believers in this age. Hence, the believers should have salt in themselves that they may be purified not only from sins but also from any divisive element (such as was displayed by the impetuous John in forbidding a differing brother and in arguing for greatness) and may thus be at peace with one another. Such purging salt purges the believers’ speech that they may keep peace with one another (Col. 4:6). The Lord’s word here indicates that John’s speech to the brother who differed from him had not been purged. Thus, the entire section, vv. 38-50, presents the Slave-Savior’s teaching concerning the believers’ being tolerant for the sake of unity.
Mk 9:502 unsalty
See note 133 in Matt. 5.
Mk 9:50a peace  -   Rom. 12:18; 14:19; 2 Cor. 13:11; 1 Thes. 5:13; Heb. 12:14
Mark Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 10:1a from  -   vv. 1-12: Matt. 19:1-9
Mk 10:11 borders
The Slave-Savior ministered in His gospel service for over three years in the despised region of Galilee (see note 141, par. 2, in ch. 1), far from the holy temple and the holy city, the place where He had to die for the accomplishing of God’s eternal plan. As the Lamb of God (John 1:29), He had to be offered to God at Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac and enjoyed God’s provision of a ram as a substitute for his son (Gen. 22:2, 9-14) and where the temple was built in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 3:1). It had to be there that He would be delivered, according to the counsel determined by the Trinity of the Godhead (Acts 2:23), to the Jewish leaders (9:31; 10:33) and be rejected by them as the builders of God’s building (8:31; Acts 4:11). It had to be there that He would be crucified according to the Roman form of capital punishment (John 18:31-32 and note; 19:6, 14-15) to fulfill the type concerning the kind of death He would die (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). Moreover, according to Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 9:24-26), that very year was the year that Messiah (Christ) was to be cut off (killed). Furthermore, as the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), He had to be killed in the month of the Passover (Exo. 12:1-11). Hence, He had to go to Jerusalem (v. 33; 11:1, 11, 15, 27; John 12:12) before the Passover (John 12:1; Mark 14:1) that He might die there on the day of the Passover (14:12-17; John 18:28) at the place and the time foreordained by God.
Mk 10:1b beyond  -   Matt. 4:25
Mk 10:12 taught
See note 212 in ch. 1.
Mk 10:21 And
For vv. 2-12, see notes in Matt. 19:3-9.
Mk 10:22 Pharisees
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 10:23 divorce
Lit., release. So in the succeeding verses.
Mk 10:2a tempt  -   Mark 8:11; 12:15
Mk 10:4a certificate  -   Deut. 24:1, 3; Matt. 5:31
Mk 10:5a hardness  -   Mark 3:5; 16:14; Heb. 3:8
Mk 10:6a beginning  -   Mark 13:19; 2 Pet. 3:4
Mk 10:6b made  -   Gen. 1:27; 5:2
Mk 10:71 and
Some MSS omit, and shall be joined to his wife.
Mk 10:7a joined  -   Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31
Mk 10:8a one  -   1 Cor. 6:16
Mk 10:9a yoked  -   2 Cor. 6:14
Mk 10:9b separate  -   1 Cor. 7:10
Mk 10:11a divorces  -   Mal. 2:16
Mk 10:11b adultery  -   Matt. 5:32; Luke 16:18
Mk 10:12a divorces  -   1 Cor. 7:10-13; Rom. 7:3
Mk 10:13a brought  -   vv. 13-16: Matt. 19:13-15; Luke 18:15-17
Mk 10:13b rebuked  -   Mark 10:48
Mk 10:141 indignant
This expressed the genuineness of the Slave-Savior’s humanity. See note 51 in ch. 3.
Mk 10:142 Allow
The Slave-Savior’s not despising or neglecting the little ones again expressed His humanity. See notes 211 in this chapter and 361 in ch. 9.
Mk 10:14a little  -   Mark 9:36
Mk 10:14b not  -   Mark 9:39
Mk 10:143 such
See note 141 in Matt. 19.
Mk 10:14c kingdom  -   Mark 1:15; 10:23
Mk 10:15a kingdom  -   John 3:3, 5
Mk 10:15b little  -   Matt. 18:3; 1 Cor. 14:20; 1 Pet. 2:2
Mk 10:16a taking  -   Mark 9:36
Mk 10:16b laying  -   Mark 5:23
Mk 10:171 And
For vv. 17-31, see notes in Matt. 19:16-30.
Mk 10:17a kneeling  -   Mark 1:40
Mk 10:17b asked  -   vv. 17-30: Matt. 19:16-29; Luke 18:18-30; cf. Luke 10:25-28
Mk 10:17c eternal  -   Mark 10:30
Mk 10:18a No  -   Rom. 3:12
Mk 10:18b God  -   Psa. 119:68
Mk 10:19a Do  -   Exo. 20:12-16; Deut. 5:16-20; Matt. 5:21, 27; Rom. 13:9
Mk 10:21a looking  -   Mark 10:27; John 1:42; Luke 22:61
Mk 10:211b moved  -   John 11:5; 13:23
This too expressed the Slave-Savior’s humanity. See notes 142 and 491.
Mk 10:21c sell  -   Acts 2:45; 4:34
Mk 10:21d treasure  -   Matt. 6:20; Luke 12:33
Mk 10:21e follow  -   Mark 10:28; 1:18
Mk 10:212 Me
Some MSS add, taking up the cross.
Mk 10:22a had  -   cf. Ezek. 33:31
Mk 10:23a looking  -   Mark 3:5
Mk 10:23b riches  -   Mark 4:19; 1 Tim. 6:9-10, 17; Job 31:24-25
Mk 10:23c kingdom  -   Mark 9:47; 10:14-15; 1 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 5:5
Mk 10:24a amazed  -   Mark 10:32; 1:27; 2:12
Mk 10:24b Children  -   Mark 2:5; John 21:5
Mk 10:241 for
Some MSS omit, for those who trust in riches.
Mk 10:24c enter  -   Mark 9:47
Mk 10:26a astonished  -   Mark 7:37
Mk 10:261 among
Some MSS read, to Him.
Mk 10:27a Looking  -   Mark 10:21
Mk 10:27b possible  -   Mark 14:36; Job 42:2
Mk 10:28a followed  -   Mark 10:21
Mk 10:29a gospel’s  -   Mark 8:35
Mk 10:30a times  -   cf. Job 42:10
Mk 10:30b persecutions  -   John 15:20; 2 Thes. 1:4
Mk 10:30c coming  -   Matt. 12:32; Eph. 1:21
Mk 10:30d eternal  -   Mark 10:17
Mk 10:301 life
See note 433 in ch. 9.
Mk 10:31a first  -   Matt. 20:16; Luke 13:30
Mk 10:32a going  -   vv. 32-34: Matt. 20:17-19; Luke 18:31-33
Mk 10:32b Jerusalem  -   Mark 11:1; Luke 9:51; 19:28
Mk 10:32c amazed  -   Mark 10:24; 16:5
Mk 10:33a Jerusalem  -   Matt. 16:21
Mk 10:331 delivered
The Slave-Savior had predicted His death and resurrection twice already (8:31; 9:31). Since the time for His death was at hand (see note 11), He went to Jerusalem willingly, even going before His followers with a speed and boldness that amazed them (v. 32). This was His obedience to God unto death (Phil. 2:8), according to the counsel of God (Acts 2:23), for the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan (Isa. 53:10). The Slave-Savior knew that through His death He would be glorified in resurrection (Luke 24:25-26) and that His divine life would be released to produce many brothers for His expression (John 12:23-24; Rom. 8:29). For the joy set before Him, He despised the shame (Heb. 12:2) and volunteered to be delivered to the Satan-usurped leaders of the Jews and to be condemned by them to death. For this, God exalted Him to the heavens, seated Him at His right hand (16:19; Acts 2:33-35), bestowed on Him the name which is above every name (Phil. 2:9-10), made Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), and crowned Him with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9).
Mk 10:332 scribes
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 10:333b death  -   Matt. 26:66; John 19:7
See note 181 in Matt. 20.
Mk 10:34a mock  -   Mark 15:20, 31
Mk 10:34b spit  -   Mark 14:65; 15:19
Mk 10:34c scourge  -   Mark 15:15
Mk 10:34d kill  -   Mark 8:31; 9:31
Mk 10:351 And
For vv. 35-45, see notes in Matt. 20:20-28.
Mk 10:35a Zebedee  -   Mark 1:19
Mk 10:35b ask  -   vv. 35-45: Matt. 20:20-28
Mk 10:36a do  -   Mark 10:51
Mk 10:37a sit  -   Matt. 19:28
Mk 10:37b glory  -   Matt. 25:31; Luke 9:26
Mk 10:38a not  -   Luke 9:33
Mk 10:381b cup  -   Mark 14:36
Both the cup and the baptism refer to the Slave-Savior’s death (John 18:11; Luke 12:50). The cup signifies that His death was the portion given to Him by God, the portion He took to redeem sinners for God. Baptism denotes that His death was ordained by God as the way for Him to pass through for the accomplishing of God’s redemption for sinners. For us He willingly drank this cup and was baptized with this baptism.
Mk 10:42a said  -   vv. 42-45: Luke 22:24-27
Mk 10:43a great  -   Matt. 23:11
Mk 10:44a slave  -   2 Cor. 4:5
Mk 10:451 Son
This is the strongest expression stating that the Slave-Savior, as the Son of Man in His humanity, was a Slave of God to serve sinners even by giving His life.
Mk 10:45a serve  -   Phil. 2:7; cf. John 13:4-5
Mk 10:45b give  -   John 10:15; 1 John 3:16
Mk 10:452 life
Or, soul.
Mk 10:453c ransom  -   Isa. 53:10; 1 Tim. 2:6
This indicates that even the Slave-Savior’s redemption was His service rendered to sinners for God’s plan.
Mk 10:45d many  -   Mark 14:24; Heb. 9:28; Isa. 53:11-12
Mk 10:46a came  -   vv. 46-52: Matt. 20:29-34; Luke 18:35-43
Mk 10:46b Jericho  -   Luke 10:30; Josh. 6:26
Mk 10:461c blind  -   John 9:1
See note 221 in ch. 8.
Mk 10:47a Nazarene  -   Mark 1:24; 14:67
Mk 10:471b Son  -   Matt. 15:22
See note 301 in Matt. 20.
Mk 10:47c mercy  -   Matt. 9:13
Mk 10:48a rebuked  -   Mark 10:13
Mk 10:491 Call
Although many were rebuking the pitiful, blind beggar, the Slave-Savior charged them to call him. Again, His humanity was expressed in His pity and sympathy toward the miserable people. See notes 511 and 211.
Mk 10:511 What
What open love toward the needy one! It expressed the Slave-Savior’s humanity to an unimaginable extent. See note 491.
Mk 10:51a do  -   Mark 10:36
Mk 10:51b Rabboni  -   John 20:16
Mk 10:52a faith  -   Mark 5:34; Matt. 9:22; Luke 7:50; 8:48
Mk 10:521 healed
See notes 311 in ch. 1 and 281 in ch. 5.
Mk 10:52b immediately  -   Mark 9:24; 11:2, 3
Mark Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 11:11 And
For vv. 1-11, see notes in Matt. 21:1-10.
Mk 11:1a Jerusalem  -   Mark 10:32-33; 11:11
Mk 11:1b Bethphage  -   vv. 1-10: Matt. 21:1-9; Luke 19:29-38
Mk 11:1c Bethany  -   Mark 11:11; Matt. 21:17; John 11:18; Luke 24:50
Mk 11:1d Mount  -   Matt. 24:3; 26:30; John 8:1; Acts 1:12; Zech. 14:4
Mk 11:1e sent  -   Mark 14:13
Mk 11:2a immediately  -   Mark 10:52; 14:43
Mk 11:21 find
The Slave-Savior’s omniscience spoke forth His deity. See note 81 in ch. 2.
Mk 11:2b no  -   cf. Luke 23:53
Mk 11:71a colt  -   Zech. 9:9; John 12:14-15
Signifying lowliness and meekness (Matt. 21:5 and note 2).
Mk 11:72b garments  -   2 Kings 9:13
Signifying people’s conduct and the virtues expressed in people’s conduct (see Isa. 64:6; Rev. 19:8). The disciples put their garments on the colt for the Lord to ride on, and many spread their garments in the road for Him to pass through (v. 8), signifying, on the one hand, that they revered Him and, on the other hand, that their conduct, which was an expression of their human virtues, was a seat on which He could rest and a way that He could pass through (see Matt. 21:7 and note 1). Our deeds and our conduct should pave the way for the Lord and serve as a seat on which He can rest.
Mk 11:81 layers
This shows not only that the branches were many and thick but also that people could walk on them securely.
Mk 11:82 branches
The Greek word denoted primarily layers of leaves, twigs, reeds, or straw spread for people to walk on or lie on, and, by extension, branches full of tender leaves. Here the crowd spread layers of this kind of branch as a carpet on the road so that the Slave-Savior, whom they revered and loved, could walk on them as He entered the capital.
Mk 11:83 tender
Signifying the abundance and freshness of the human life; the opposite of withering, dry leaves (Psa. 1:3).
Mk 11:9a name  -   Psa. 118:26; Matt. 23:39; John 5:43
Mk 11:10a kingdom  -   2 Sam. 7:16; Acts 1:6
Mk 11:10b David  -   Ezek. 37:24-25; Luke 1:32; Acts 2:29-30
Mk 11:10c highest  -   Luke 2:14; Psa. 148:1
Mk 11:11a Jerusalem  -   Mark 11:1; Matt. 21:10
Mk 11:11b out  -   Mark 11:19
Mk 11:11c Bethany  -   Mark 11:1; Matt. 21:17
Mk 11:121 And
For vv. 12-14, see notes in Matt. 21:18-19.
Mk 11:12a they  -   vv. 12-14: Matt. 21:18-19
Mk 11:12b hungry  -   Matt. 4:2
Mk 11:13a fig  -   Mark 11:20; Luke 13:6-9
Mk 11:13b leaves  -   Mark 13:28
Mk 11:141 no
In this section, vv. 12-26, the record of the Slave-Savior’s cursing of the fig tree and the record of His cleansing of the temple were merged, indicating His dealing simultaneously with different aspects of the corrupted and rebellious nation of Israel. The fig tree was the symbol of the nation of Israel (Jer. 24:2, 5, 8), and the temple was the center of Israel’s relationship with God. As a fig tree planted by God, the nation of Israel did not bear fruit for Him, and as the center of Israel’s relationship with God, the temple was filled with corruption. Hence, the Slave-Savior cursed the fruitless fig tree and cleansed the contaminated temple. Such a dealing can be considered a harbinger of the destruction foretold in 12:9 and 13:2.
Mk 11:142 forever
Lit., for the age.
Mk 11:15a temple  -   vv. 15-18: Matt. 21:12-16; Luke 19:45-48; cf. John 2:13-17
Mk 11:151 cast
In His ministry for the spreading of the gospel in Galilee in 1:14 — 10:52, the Slave-Savior’s work was to proclaim the gospel, teach the truth, cast out demons, and heal the sick. In that work His human virtues with His divine attributes were expressed as His qualification for and beauty in His divine service rendered to sinners for God. In His preparation in Jerusalem for His redemptive work (11:15 — 14:42), His major work was to confront the opposing Jewish leaders, who should have been the builders of God’s building (12:9-10) but had actually been usurped by God’s enemy, Satan, and instigated by him to plot to kill Him. In this confrontation, under their subtle and evil questioning, testing, and examining, His human dignity was expressed in His human genuineness (vv. 15-18), and His divine wisdom and authority were expressed in His human conduct and perfection (11:27 — 12:37), so that eventually His faultfinders became His quality-provers. This paved the way for Him to point out to these blind opposers that He, the Christ, the Son of David, was the Lord of David, that is, the very God (12:35-37), that they might know His deity in His humanity, that is, that He was God living in man.
Mk 11:15b money  -   Exo. 30:13; Deut. 14:25-26
Mk 11:15c doves  -   Lev. 1:14; 5:7; 12:8; Luke 2:24
Mk 11:171 taught
See note 212 in ch. 1.
Mk 11:17a prayer  -   Isa. 56:7
Mk 11:17b den  -   Jer. 7:11
Mk 11:181 scribes
See note 61 in ch. 2. So in v. 27.
Mk 11:18a sought  -   Mark 12:12; Matt. 21:46
Mk 11:18b astounded  -   Mark 1:22; Matt. 7:28; Luke 4:32
Mk 11:19a outside  -   Mark 11:11; Luke 21:37
Mk 11:20a fig  -   Mark 11:13
Mk 11:20b withered  -   vv. 20-24: Matt. 21:20-22
Mk 11:21a Rabbi  -   John 1:38
Mk 11:22a faith  -   John 14:1
Mk 11:23a mountain  -   Matt. 17:20; 1 Cor. 13:2
Mk 11:23b sea  -   Luke 17:6
Mk 11:23c doubt  -   Rom. 4:20; James 1:6
Mk 11:24a ask  -   Matt. 7:7; Luke 11:9; John 14:13; 15:7; 16:24; James 1:5
Mk 11:25a stand  -   Matt. 6:5; Luke 18:11
Mk 11:251b forgive  -   Matt. 6:14; Col. 3:13
Forgiving another’s offense is the ground for our heavenly Father to forgive us. This is true especially in our prayer time. In a strict sense, we cannot pray with a heart that holds anything against anyone, i.e., that feels offended by anyone or is unable to forget another’s offense.
Mk 11:252 anything
Because of another’s offense.
Mk 11:25c against  -   Matt. 5:23
Mk 11:25d Father  -   Matt. 7:11
Mk 11:261 But
Some MSS omit this verse.
Mk 11:27a temple  -   vv. 27-33: Matt. 21:23-27; Luke 20:1-8
Mk 11:28a authority  -   Acts 4:7
Mk 11:30a baptism  -   Mark 1:4
Mk 11:30b heaven  -   John 3:27; Luke 15:18, 21
Mk 11:31a not  -   Matt. 21:32
Mk 11:32a feared  -   Mark 12:12
Mk 11:32b John  -   Mark 6:20; Matt. 3:5; John 5:35
Mk 11:32c prophet  -   Matt. 11:9; 14:5; 21:46
Mk 11:331 not
This was a lie.
Mk 11:332 Neither
See note 272 in Matt. 21.
Mark Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 12:11 And
For vv. 1-12, see notes in Matt. 21:33-46.
Mk 12:1a speak  -   vv. 1-12: Matt. 21:33-46; Luke 20:9-19
Mk 12:1b parables  -   Mark 4:2
Mk 12:1c vineyard  -   Matt. 21:28; Isa. 5:1; Psa. 80:8; Jer. 2:21
Mk 12:1d winepress  -   Isa. 5:2; Joel 3:13
Mk 12:1e vinedressers  -   cf. S.S. 8:11-12
Mk 12:1f abroad  -   Mark 13:34; Matt. 25:14-15
Mk 12:2a slave  -   cf. 2 Chron. 24:19; 36:15-16; Matt. 23:37
Mk 12:3a beat  -   Jer. 37:15
Mk 12:5a killed  -   Neh. 9:26; Matt. 23:37; Acts 7:52
Mk 12:6a beloved  -   Mark 9:7
Mk 12:7a heir  -   Heb. 1:2
Mk 12:8a killed  -   Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; Acts 2:23; 3:15
Mk 12:8b out  -   cf. Heb. 13:12-13
Mk 12:9a master  -   Matt. 25:19
Mk 12:9b destroy  -   Mark 13:2
Mk 12:91c others  -   cf. Acts 13:46
The Jewish leaders, as the builders of God’s building, rejected the Slave-Savior, who was the stone that became the head of the corner of the building of God (v. 10). Because of this, God rejected them and gave His building work to others — the church. In this Gospel this is the only direct indication regarding the church.
Mk 12:10a builders  -   Psa. 118:22- 23; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7
Mk 12:101 corner
The corner of the church as God’s building (Eph. 2:20). This is an indirect reference to the church.
Mk 12:12a sought  -   Mark 11:18; John 7:25, 30
Mk 12:12b feared  -   Mark 11:32
Mk 12:12c leaving  -   Matt. 22:22
Mk 12:131 And
For vv. 13-17, see notes in Matt. 22:15-22.
Mk 12:13a sent  -   vv. 13-17: Matt. 22:15-22; Luke 20:20-26
Mk 12:132 Pharisees
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 12:13b Herodians  -   Mark 3:6; 8:15
Mk 12:13c speech  -   Luke 11:54
Mk 12:141 do
Lit., it does not matter to You concerning anyone.
Mk 12:142a person  -   Deut. 1:17
Lit., face.
Mk 12:14b way  -   Acts 13:10; 18:25-26
Mk 12:14c tribute  -   Matt. 17:25
Mk 12:14d Caesar  -   Luke 2:1; 3:1
Mk 12:15a hypocrisy  -   Matt. 23:28; Luke 12:1
Mk 12:15b tempt  -   Mark 8:11; 10:2; John 8:6
Mk 12:17a render  -   Rom. 13:7
Mk 12:17b things  -   cf. Exo. 30:12-16
Mk 12:17c to  -   cf. Matt. 17:24, 25, 27
Mk 12:181 And
For vv. 18-27, see notes in Matt. 22:23-33.
Mk 12:18a Sadducees  -   Matt. 3:7; Acts 4:1; 5:17
Mk 12:18b no  -   Acts 23:8; cf. Acts 4:2
Mk 12:18c questioned  -   vv. 18-27: Matt. 22:23-33; Luke 20:27-38
Mk 12:19a wife  -   Deut. 25:5
Mk 12:24a not  -   John 20:9
Mk 12:24b power  -   Eph. 1:19-20; Rom. 1:16
Mk 12:25a rise  -   1 Cor. 15:42, 52
Mk 12:26a bush  -   Exo. 3:2-4; Acts 7:30
Mk 12:26b God  -   Exo. 3:6, 16; Acts 7:32
Mk 12:27a living  -   John 14:19
Mk 12:281 one
In Matt. 22:35 he is called a lawyer. Scribes is a wider term that includes the lawyers, who were Mosaic jurists, interpreters of the law.
Mk 12:282 scribes
See note 61 in ch. 2.
Mk 12:283 disputing
Dead knowledge of the Scriptures causes people to dispute with the Lord. How terrible!
Mk 12:28a questioned  -   vv. 28-34: Matt. 22:34-40; Luke 20:39-40
Mk 12:29a one  -   Deut. 6:4; John 5:44; 17:3; 1 Tim. 1:17; Jude 25
Mk 12:30a love  -   Deut. 6:5; Luke 10:27; 1 John 4:21
Mk 12:301 strength
Referring to physical strength. We love the Lord our God with all our being, that is, from our heart, through our soul, our mind, to our body.
Mk 12:31a love  -   Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8
Mk 12:311 these
See note 401 in Matt. 22; James 2:8 and notes.
Mk 12:32a besides  -   Deut. 4:35, 39; Isa. 45:6, 14
Mk 12:33a offerings  -   1 Sam. 15:22; Psa. 40:6; 51:16; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8
Mk 12:34a kingdom  -   Mark 1:15
Mk 12:34b dared  -   Matt. 22:46
Mk 12:351 And
For vv. 35-37, see notes in Matt. 22:41-45.
Mk 12:352a teaching  -   Mark 14:49
See note 212 in ch. 1.
Mk 12:35b said  -   vv. 35-37: Matt. 22:41-45; Luke 20:41-44
Mk 12:353c scribes  -   Ezra 7:6; Neh. 8:4
The scribes spoke according to the letter. Their speaking differed from the speaking in v. 36, which was in the Holy Spirit.
Mk 12:36a Holy  -   2 Sam. 23:2; 1 Cor. 12:3
Mk 12:36b Sit  -   Psa. 110:1; Acts 2:34; Heb. 1:13
Mk 12:36c underneath  -   1 Cor. 15:25
Mk 12:37a his  -   Rom. 1:3-4
Mk 12:371 son
In the type, the passover lamb was examined for four days before it was killed (Exo. 12:3-6). The Slave-Savior also, as the real Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), was examined for four days before He was killed. He came to Bethany six days before the Passover (John 12:1; Mark 11:1). On the next day He came into Jerusalem and went back to Bethany (John 12:12; Mark 11:11). On the third day He came to Jerusalem again (11:12-15) and began to be examined according to the Jewish law by the leaders of the Jews (11:27 — 12:37; 14:53-65; John 18:13, 19-24) and according to the Roman law by Pilate, the Roman governor (John 18:28 — 19:6; see note 12 in Mark 15). He was examined until the day of the Passover, when He was crucified (14:12; John 18:28; see note 122 in Mark 14). This insidious and ensnaring examination, coming from many angles, took exactly four days, and He passed, proving that He was fully qualified to be the Lamb required by God for the accomplishing of His redemption, that He may pass over the sinners, both Jews and Gentiles. See notes 12 in ch. 15, 21 in Matt. 26, and 131 in John 18.
Mk 12:37b heard  -   Mark 6:20
Mk 12:38a teaching  -   Mark 4:2
Mk 12:38b said  -   vv. 38-40: Matt. 23:1-7; Luke 20:45-47
Mk 12:38c scribes  -   Mark 12:28; 2:6
Mk 12:39a chief  -   Luke 11:43
Mk 12:39b places  -   Luke 14:7-8
Mk 12:40a devour  -   Matt. 23:14
Mk 12:40b greater  -   James 3:1
Mk 12:401 judgment
Or, punishment, condemnation.
Mk 12:41a treasury  -   Matt. 27:6; John 8:20
Mk 12:411b watched  -   vv. 41-44: Luke 21:1-4
The Slave-Savior was God living in His humanity. As such, He was concerned to observe how God’s people expressed their loyalty in their offering to Him. By this kind of observation He praised the widow’s loyalty to God. The Slave-Savior’s observation is more penetrating than man’s.
Mk 12:412c money  -   2 Kings 12:9
Lit., copper; referring to copper money.
Mk 12:42a poor  -   2 Cor. 8:2
Mk 12:421 quadrans
Equal to a fourth of a penny.
Mk 12:44a living  -   Luke 8:43
Mark Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 13:11 And
For vv. 1-2, see notes in Matt. 24:1-2.
Mk 13:1a temple  -   vv. 1-2: Matt. 24:1-2; Luke 21:5-6
Mk 13:12 one
In His preparation for His redemptive work (11:15 — 14:42), after confronting the opposers (11:15 — 12:37) the Slave-Savior stayed with His followers to prepare them for His death (13:1 — 14:42), an unexpected event that would shock and disappoint them, by (1) telling them the things that would come (vv. 2-37); (2) enjoying their love, expressed in a feast, and being anointed with costly, pure nard (14:3-9); (3) instituting His supper (1 Cor. 11:20) that they might remember Him (14:12-26); and (4) warning them that they would stumble and charging them to watch and pray (14:27-42). Immediately after such a preparation, He was arrested to be crucified (14:43 — 15:28).
Mk 13:13 what
Or, what manner of stones…
Mk 13:21 There
In preparing the disciples for His death, the Slave-Savior in this chapter told them first the things to come, the things that would take place in the world during the church age, from His resurrection to His coming back. Concerning the days to come, He did not leave them in darkness; rather, He told them (1) concerning the destruction of the temple, which would occur in A.D. 70 (vv. 1-2); (2) concerning the plagues at the beginning of birth pangs, which would begin after His ascension and continue until the great tribulation (vv. 3-8); (3) concerning the preaching of the gospel and the persecutions in the church age (vv. 9-13); (4) concerning the great tribulation and His second coming, both of which will take place in the last three and a half years of this age (vv. 14-27); and (5) concerning watching, praying, and awaiting the Slave-Savior throughout the church age (vv. 28-37). To the Slave-Savior’s suffering followers, such an enlightening word was like “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns” (2 Pet. 1:19).
Mk 13:2a stone  -   Luke 19:44
Mk 13:31 And
For vv. 3-8, see notes in Matt. 24:3-8.
Mk 13:3a Mount  -   Mark 11:1
Mk 13:3b Peter  -   Mark 5:37; 9:2
Mk 13:3c James  -   Mark 1:19-20
Mk 13:3d Andrew  -   Mark 1:16-18; John 1:40
Mk 13:3e asked  -   vv. 3-8: Matt. 24:3-8; Luke 21:7-11
Mk 13:4a when  -   Acts 1:6-7
Mk 13:5a See  -   Mark 13:9, 23, 33; Col. 2:8
Mk 13:5b leads  -   Mark 13:22; James 5:19
Mk 13:6a name  -   Jer. 14:14
Mk 13:7a alarmed  -   2 Thes. 2:2
Mk 13:7b end  -   Matt. 24:14
Mk 13:8a earthquakes  -   Rev. 6:12
Mk 13:8b famines  -   Acts 11:28; Rev. 6:8
Mk 13:91 But
For vv. 9-13, see notes in Matt. 10:17-22 and 24:9-13.
Mk 13:9a deliver  -   vv. 9-13: Matt. 10:17-22; 24:9-13
Mk 13:9b sanhedrins  -   Matt. 5:22; 26:59
Mk 13:9c beaten  -   Matt. 23:34
Mk 13:92 governors
The same Greek word as for princes in Matt. 2:6.
Mk 13:9d kings  -   Acts 27:24
Mk 13:10a nations  -   Matt. 24:14; 28:19; cf. Mark 16:15
Mk 13:11a anxious  -   Luke 12:11
Mk 13:111 speak
Some MSS insert, nor premeditate.
Mk 13:11b whatever  -   cf. Deut. 18:18
Mk 13:11c Spirit  -   Acts 2:4; 6:10; 13:9
Mk 13:12a father  -   Matt. 10:35-36; Micah 7:6
Mk 13:13a name  -   Luke 21:17; John 15:21
Mk 13:13b endured  -   Heb. 10:36, 39; Rev. 2:3; James 5:11
Mk 13:141 But
For vv. 14-23, see notes in Matt. 24:15-26.
Mk 13:14a see  -   vv. 14-23: Matt. 24:15-25
Mk 13:142b desolation  -   Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11
Some MSS add, which is spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
Mk 13:143 where
In the Holy Place, that is, within God’s temple (Matt. 24:15).
Mk 13:14c Judea  -   Luke 21:21
Mk 13:15a housetop  -   Matt. 10:27; Luke 17:31
Mk 13:17a pregnant  -   Luke 21:23; 23:29
Mk 13:181 it
Some MSS read, your flight.
Mk 13:19a tribulation  -   Mark 13:24; Dan. 12:1
Mk 13:19b not  -   Joel 2:2; Rev. 16:18
Mk 13:19c beginning  -   Mark 10:6; Deut. 4:32
Mk 13:20a chosen  -   Isa. 65:9; Luke 18:7
Mk 13:20b shortened  -   cf. Rev. 12:12, 14
Mk 13:21a here  -   Luke 17:23
Mk 13:22a false  -   2 Pet. 2:1; Rev. 19:20
Mk 13:221 show
Lit., give.
Mk 13:22b signs  -   2 Thes. 2:9; Rev. 13:13
Mk 13:22c deceive  -   Mark 13:5-6; Rev. 13:14
Mk 13:23a beware  -   Mark 13:5
Mk 13:231 I
Some MSS add, behold.
Mk 13:23b beforehand  -   John 14:29
Mk 13:24a days  -   Zeph. 1:14-15
Mk 13:24b after  -   vv. 24-27: Matt. 24:29-31; Luke 21:25-28
Mk 13:24c tribulation  -   Mark 13:19
Mk 13:24d darkened  -   Isa. 13:10; Joel 2:31; Amos 5:20; Acts 2:20; cf. Rev. 6:12
Mk 13:25a falling  -   cf. Rev. 6:13
Mk 13:26a Son  -   Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 16:27; 25:31
Mk 13:26b coming  -   1 Thes. 4:16-17; Rev. 1:7
Mk 13:27a gather  -   Deut. 30:4; Neh. 1:9
Mk 13:281 But
For vv. 28-31, see notes in Matt. 24:32-35.
Mk 13:28a fig  -   vv. 28-31: Matt. 24:32-35; Luke 21:29-33
Mk 13:28b leaves  -   Mark 11:13
Mk 13:291 it
Referring to the restoration of the nation of Israel, signified by the summer in v. 28.
Mk 13:29a at  -   James 5:9
Mk 13:31a pass  -   Matt. 5:18; Luke 16:17; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 20:11; 21:1
Mk 13:31b words  -   Psa. 119:89; Isa. 40:8
Mk 13:32a day  -   Matt. 25:13; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10
Mk 13:32b Father  -   Zech. 14:7
Mk 13:33a Beware  -   Mark 13:5, 23; Luke 21:34
Mk 13:331b alert  -   Luke 21:36
Some MSS add, and pray.
Mk 13:34a abroad  -   Matt. 25:14
Mk 13:35a Watch  -   1 Thes. 5:6; Rev. 3:2-3; 16:15
Mk 13:351 evening
Evening, midnight, cockcrowing, and morning are terms used for the four Roman night watches.
Mk 13:36a sleeping  -   1 Thes. 5:6; Rom. 13:11; Eph. 5:14
Mk 13:37a Watch  -   Luke 12:37
Mark Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 14:11 Now
For vv. 1-2, see notes in Matt. 26:2-5.
Mk 14:1a Passover  -   Mark 14:12, 14, 16; Exo. 12:11; Lev. 23:5; John 12:1; 13:1
Mk 14:1b Unleavened  -   Mark 14:12; Exo. 12:15-20; Lev. 23:6
Mk 14:1c two  -   vv. 1-2: Matt. 26:2-5; Luke 22:1-2
Mk 14:1d seize  -   Mark 14:46
Mk 14:1e kill  -   Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34; John 11:53
Mk 14:2a tumult  -   Matt. 27:24
Mk 14:31 And
For vv. 3-9, see notes in Matt. 26:6-13.
Mk 14:3a Bethany  -   Mark 11:1, 11; Matt. 21:17; John 11:18
Mk 14:3b house  -   vv. 3-9: Matt. 26:6-13; John 12:1-8; cf. Luke 7:36-39
Mk 14:3c leper  -   Mark 1:40
Mk 14:41 been
Lit., occurred.
Mk 14:5a three  -   cf. Matt. 26:15; 27:3, 9
Mk 14:51 denarii
See note 71 in John 6.
Mk 14:5b poor  -   John 13:29
Mk 14:7a poor  -   Deut. 15:11
Mk 14:71 Me
The Lord desires that we allow Him to have the first place in all things (Col. 1:18).
Mk 14:81 She
Lit., What she had she did.
Mk 14:82 anointed
Or, anticipated (or, taken occasion) to anoint My body for the burial.
Mk 14:8a burial  -   John 19:40
Mk 14:91 proclaimed
See note 142 in ch. 1.
Mk 14:9a world  -   Mark 16:15; Matt. 24:14
Mk 14:9b memorial  -   Acts 10:4
Mk 14:10a Judas  -   Mark 3:19; John 6:70-71; Mark 14:42-43; Matt. 27:3
Mk 14:10b twelve  -   vv. 10-11: Matt. 26:14-16; Luke 22:3-6
Mk 14:10c deliver  -   Mark 14:18; 9:31; 10:33
Mk 14:111 money
Thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15), the value of a slave (Exo. 21:32).
Mk 14:112 deliver
While one of the Slave-Savior’s followers was expressing her love to Him to the uttermost, another was about to betray Him. One was treasuring Him, and at the same time another was delivering Him up.
Mk 14:121 Feast
See note 171 in Matt. 26.
Mk 14:12a Unleavened  -   Mark 14:1
Mk 14:122 sacrificed
In the Jews’ calendar, which was according to their Scripture, a day began with the evening (Gen. 1:5). During the evening of the last Passover day, first the Slave-Savior ate the passover feast with His disciples and instituted His supper for them (vv. 12-25); then He went with the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives (vv. 26-42). He was arrested there and brought to the high priest, where He was judged by the Sanhedrin late in the night (vv. 43-72). In the morning of the same day, He was delivered to Pilate to be judged by him and was sentenced to death (15:1-15). Then He was brought to Golgotha and was crucified there at 9:00 a.m., remaining on the cross until 3:00 p.m. (15:16-41), for the fulfillment of the type of the Passover (Exo. 12:6-11; see note 371 in Mark 12).
Mk 14:12b passover  -   vv. 12-16: Matt. 26:17-19; Luke 22:7-13
Mk 14:13a sent  -   Mark 11:1
Mk 14:141 master
Or, householder.
Mk 14:14a Teacher  -   Matt. 23:8; John 11:28; 13:13
Mk 14:14b passover  -   Mark 14:1
Mk 14:15a upper  -   Acts 1:13
Mk 14:17a evening  -   vv. 17-21: Matt. 26:20-25; Luke 22:14-18, 21-23; John 13:21-26
Mk 14:181 eating
The eating of the passover feast (v. 16), not the eating of the Slave-Savior’s supper, which is in vv. 22-24.
Mk 14:182 one
Judas Iscariot.
Mk 14:18a betray  -   Mark 14:10, 11
Mk 14:18b eating  -   Psa. 41:9; John 13:18
Mk 14:191 I
Some MSS add, and another, Surely not I?
Mk 14:201 one
After being exposed, Judas left (John 13:21-30) before the Slave-Savior’s supper (Matt. 26:20-26). He did not participate in the Slave-Savior’s body and blood, because he was not a real believer in Him but a son of perdition (John 17:12), considered by the Slave-Savior even a devil (John 6:70-71). Luke 22:21-23 seems to indicate that Judas left after the Lord’s supper, which is mentioned in Luke 22:19-20. However, Mark’s record, like Matthew’s, shows that Judas was identified by the Slave-Savior as His betrayer (vv. 18-21) before He instituted His supper (vv. 22-24). Mark’s record is according to historical sequence, whereas Luke’s sequence is according to morality. See note 161, par. 2, in Matt. 8.
Mk 14:211 going
This refers to His going to die.
Mk 14:21a written  -   Mark 9:12; Luke 24:46
Mk 14:221 And
For vv. 22-26, see notes in Matt. 26:26-30.
Mk 14:222 eating
This was the eating of the Slave-Savior’s supper, after He and His followers had eaten the passover feast in vv. 16-18. He initiated this new feast, which was for His believers’ remembrance of Him, to replace the passover feast, the old testament feast for the elect’s remembrance of Jehovah’s salvation (Exo. 12:14; 13:3). This new feast of the new testament is for the remembering of the Slave-Savior through the eating of the bread, which signifies His body given for His believers (1 Cor. 11:24), and the drinking of the cup, which signifies His blood shed for their sins (Matt. 26:28). The bread denotes life (John 6:35), the life of God, the eternal life, and the cup denotes blessing (1 Cor. 10:16), which is God Himself as the believers’ portion (Psa. 16:5). As sinners, the believers should have had the cup of God’s wrath as their portion (Rev. 14:10). But the Slave-Savior drank that cup for them (John 18:11), and His salvation became their portion, the cup of salvation (Psa. 116:13) that runs over (Psa. 23:5), the content of which is God as the believers’ all-inclusive blessing. Such a bread and such a cup are the constituents of the Slave-Savior’s supper, which is a table (1 Cor. 10:21), a feast, set up by Him that His believers may remember Him by enjoying Him as such a feast. Thus, as His believers remember Him, they display His redeeming and life-imparting death (1 Cor. 11:26 — His blood separated from His body declares His death), testifying to the entire universe of His rich and marvelous salvation.
Mk 14:22a bread  -   vv. 22-25: Matt. 26:26-29; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26
Mk 14:22b blessed  -   Mark 8:7; Matt. 14:19
Mk 14:22c body  -   1 Cor. 10:16
Mk 14:24a blood  -   1 Cor. 10:16; Heb. 13:20; cf. Exo. 24:8; Zech. 9:11
Mk 14:241 covenant
In Exo. 24:3-8 God made a covenant with redeemed Israel (Heb. 9:18-21), which became the old testament, as a base from which He could deal with His redeemed people in the dispensation of law. The Slave-Savior came to accomplish God’s eternal redemption for God’s chosen people by His death, according to God’s will (Heb. 10:7, 9-10), and with His blood He instituted a new covenant, a better covenant (Heb. 8:6-13), which after His resurrection became the new testament (Heb. 9:16-17), as a base from which God can be one with His redeemed and regenerated people in the dispensation of grace. This new covenant replaced the old covenant and at the same time changed God’s old dispensation to His new dispensation. The Slave-Savior wanted His followers to know this and to live a life based on this and according to this after His resurrection.
Mk 14:24b many  -   Mark 10:45
Mk 14:251 product
This refers to the juice of the grape.
Mk 14:25a kingdom  -   Mark 10:14-15
Mk 14:26a singing  -   vv. 26-31: Matt. 26:30-35
Mk 14:26b Mount  -   Luke 22:39; Mark 11:1; 13:3
Mk 14:271a stumbled  -   Matt. 11:6
Some MSS add, because of Me this night.
Mk 14:27b scattered  -   Zech. 13:7; John 16:32; Mark 14:50
Mk 14:28a Galilee  -   Mark 16:7; Matt. 28:7, 10, 16
Mk 14:30a rooster  -   Mark 14:72; Luke 22:34; John 13:38
Mk 14:301 deny
The verb (a compound) in Greek means utterly deny. So in vv. 31 and 72.
Mk 14:31a die  -   Luke 22:33
Mk 14:321 And
For vv. 32-42, see notes in Matt. 26:36-46.
Mk 14:32a said  -   vv. 32-42: Matt. 26:36-46; Luke 22:40-46
Mk 14:33a Peter  -   Mark 5:37; 9:2
Mk 14:331 awestruck
“Being in the grip of a shuddering horror in the face of the dreadful prospect before Him” (Cranfield).
Mk 14:34a sorrowful  -   John 12:27
Mk 14:34b watch  -   Mark 14:38; 13:33, 37; 1 Thes. 5:6
Mk 14:35a prayed  -   Heb. 5:7
Mk 14:351b hour  -   Mark 14:41
The Slave-Savior’s sorrow and His prayer here are the same as in John 12:27. There He said that He had come for this hour; that is, He knew that the Father’s will was that He should die on the cross for the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan.
Mk 14:36a Abba  -   Rom. 8:15; Gal 4:6
Mk 14:36b possible  -   Matt. 19:26
Mk 14:36c cup  -   Mark 10:38
Mk 14:36d will  -   John 5:30; 6:38
Mk 14:361 You
The Triune God determined in His divine plan in eternity past that the second of the Divine Trinity should be incarnated and die on the cross to accomplish His eternal redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:7-9). Hence, before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past (1 Pet. 1:19-20), the second of the Divine Trinity was ordained to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29); and in the eyes of God He was slain as the Lamb of God from the foundation of the world, that is, from the creation of God’s creatures, who became fallen (Rev. 13:8). From the time of man’s fall, lambs, sheep, calves, and bulls were used as types for God’s chosen people (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20; 22:13; Exo. 12:3-8; Lev. 1:2), pointing to Him who was to come as the real Lamb foreordained by God. In the fullness of time the Triune God sent the second of the Divine Trinity, the Son of God, to come in incarnation to take a human body (Heb. 10:5) that He might be offered to God on the cross (Heb. 9:14; 10:12) to do the will of the Triune God (Heb. 10:7), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people (Heb. 10:9-10). In His prayer here, immediately before His crucifixion, He prepared Himself to take the cup of the cross (Matt. 26:39, 42), being willing to do this unique will of the Father for the accomplishing of the eternal plan of the Triune God.
Mk 14:38a Watch  -   Mark 14:34
Mk 14:38b pray  -   Luke 21:36; 1 Pet. 4:7
Mk 14:38c temptation  -   1 Thes. 3:5; James 1:14
Mk 14:38d spirit  -   1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12
Mk 14:38e flesh  -   Gal. 5:16, 17; Rom. 7:18
Mk 14:40a not  -   Mark 9:6
Mk 14:41a hour  -   Mark 14:35; John 13:1
Mk 14:41b delivered  -   Mark 14:18, 44
Mk 14:43a immediately  -   Mark 11:2, 3; 14:45
Mk 14:43b speaking  -   vv. 43-50: Matt. 26:47-56; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:3-11
Mk 14:43c Judas  -   Mark 14:10; Acts 1:16
Mk 14:44a betraying  -   Mark 14:41
Mk 14:45a immediately  -   Mark 14:43, 72
Mk 14:45b Rabbi  -   John 1:38
Mk 14:45c kissed  -   cf. Luke 15:20; Acts 20:37
Mk 14:46a seized  -   Mark 14:1
Mk 14:471 one
This was Peter (John 18:10, 26).
Mk 14:47a sword  -   Luke 22:38
Mk 14:491 temple
The God-forsaking and God-offending opposers, afraid of the people who warmly welcomed the Slave-Savior (11:7-11) and were gladdened by His speaking (12:37), dared not arrest Him in the daytime or in a public place such as the temple. Instead, they arrested Him subtly, deep in the night (v. 1), as though arresting a robber (v. 48).
Mk 14:492a teaching  -   Mark 12:35; Matt. 21:23; John 8:2; 18:20
See note 212 in ch. 1.
Mk 14:49b Scriptures  -   Luke 24:27; 1 Cor. 15:3
Mk 14:49c fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22; Luke 24:44
Mk 14:50a left  -   Mark 14:27
Mk 14:531 And
For vv. 53-65, see notes in Matt. 26:57-68.
Mk 14:532a led  -   vv. 53-65: Matt. 26:57-68; John 18:12-13, 19-24
The Slave-Savior was arrested as a robber (v. 48) and brought to the slaughter as a lamb (Isa. 53:7).
Mk 14:54a followed  -   Luke 22:54-55; John 18:15
Mk 14:54b courtyard  -   Matt. 26:3; John 18:15
Mk 14:54c attendants  -   John 7:32; 18:18
Mk 14:551a Sanhedrin  -   Matt. 5:22; 10:17
See note 226 in Matt. 5.
Mk 14:56a false  -   Psa. 27:12
Mk 14:57a some  -   cf. Deut. 17:6; 19:15
Mk 14:58a destroy  -   Mark 15:29; Acts 6:14; cf. John 2:19
Mk 14:58b hands  -   Acts 7:48; 17:24
Mk 14:581 in
Lit., through.
Mk 14:61a anything  -   Isa. 53:7; Mark 15:5; John 19:9
Mk 14:61b You  -   vv. 61-63: Luke 22:67-71
Mk 14:61c Christ  -   Mark 8:29
Mk 14:611d Blessed  -   Rom. 1:25; 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31
The befuddled high priest of the traditional, God-forsaking and God-forsaken religion called God “the Blessed” in order to show how much he revered and honored God.
Mk 14:621 I
Concerning His behavior the Slave-Savior would not answer His faultfinders’ false accusation, yet concerning His divine person, His deity, He was not silent but answered strongly and definitely, affirming His deity in His humanity by stating that as the Son of Man He would sit at the right hand of God.
Mk 14:62a Son  -   Matt. 16:27; 24:30
Mk 14:62b right  -   Psa. 110:1; Heb. 1:3
Mk 14:63a tearing  -   Num. 14:6; Acts 14:14
Mk 14:631 garments
Lit., tunics. Because the Greek word is plural, garments is a more suitable rendering here.
Mk 14:641a blasphemy  -   Mark 2:7; John 10:36
The blind opposers condemned the Slave-Savior for being blasphemous in affirming His deity, not realizing that actually it was they who were blaspheming God, who was the very One whom they were slandering and mocking at that moment.
Mk 14:64b death  -   Lev. 24:16
Mk 14:651a spit  -   Mark 10:34; 15:19; Isa. 50:6
This was the Jews’ despising and rejecting of the Slave-Savior to the uttermost, as prophesied in Isa. 53:3.
Mk 14:65b blindfold  -   Esth. 7:8
Mk 14:65c beat  -   Luke 22:63, 64
Mk 14:652 Prophesy
This was a mocking and ridiculing word.
Mk 14:653d slapping  -   John 18:22; 19:3; Matt. 5:39
Lit., with slaps, took Him.
Mk 14:661 And
For vv. 66-72, see notes in Matt. 26:69-75.
Mk 14:66a courtyard  -   vv. 66-72: Matt. 26:69-75; Luke 22:55-62
Mk 14:67a Nazarene  -   Mark 1:24; 16:6
Mk 14:70a Galilean  -   Acts 1:11; 2:7
Mk 14:701 well
Some MSS add, and your speech is similar.
Mk 14:711 curse
I.e., to put himself under a curse.
Mk 14:72a immediately  -   Mark 14:45; 15:1
Mk 14:72b rooster  -   Mark 14:30
Mark Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 15:1a immediately  -   Mark 14:72
Mk 15:1b chief  -   Matt. 27:1; Luke 22:66
Mk 15:1c consultation  -   Psa. 2:2; Matt. 26:4; Mark 3:6; cf. Acts 4:26
Mk 15:11 Sanhedrin
See note 226 in Matt. 5.
Mk 15:1d delivered  -   Mark 10:33; 14:18
Mk 15:12e Pilate  -   Luke 23:1; Acts 3:13
See note 21 in Matt. 27. Under God’s sovereignty the Slave-Savior was judged not only by the Jewish leaders, in 14:53-65, like a sheep before the shearers (Isa. 53:7), but also by the Roman governor, in vv. 1-15, as a criminal before the accusers (14:64), that He might die to serve sinners with His life as a ransom (10:45) not only for the Jews, represented by the Jewish leaders, but also for the Gentiles, represented by the Roman governor. See note 371 in ch. 12.
Mk 15:2a questioned  -   vv. 2-5: Matt. 27:11-14; Luke 23:3
Mk 15:2b King  -   Mark 15:9, 12, 18, 26; Matt. 2:2; John 18:33, 37; 19:3
Mk 15:3a accused  -   Luke 23:2
Mk 15:51a no  -   Mark 14:61; Isa. 53:7
The Slave-Savior would not vindicate Himself.
Mk 15:6a feasts  -   vv. 6-15: Matt. 27:15-26; Luke 23:17-25; John 18:39-40
Mk 15:7a insurrectionists  -   cf. Acts 5:36-37
Mk 15:7b murder  -   Acts 3:14
Mk 15:81 came
Some MSS read, cried out.
Mk 15:9a King  -   Mark 15:2
Mk 15:11a release  -   Acts 3:14
Mk 15:131a Crucify  -   John 19:15
This was an unreasonable cry.
Mk 15:151a scourged  -   Mark 10:34; Luke 18:33; John 19:1; Isa. 53:5
This exposed to the uttermost the darkness and injustice of man’s politics. It was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isa. 53:5, 8, concerning the Slave-Savior’s suffering.
Mk 15:152 crucified
See note 262 in Matt. 27.
Mk 15:161 And
For vv. 16-20, see notes in Matt. 27:27-31.
Mk 15:16a soldiers  -   vv. 16-20: Matt. 27:27-31; John 19:2-3
Mk 15:162b praetorium  -   John 18:28, 33; 19:9
The official residence of the governor.
Mk 15:16c cohort  -   Acts 10:1; 21:31
Mk 15:171a purple  -   cf. Luke 16:19; Rev. 18:16
Signifying royalty. The purple robe was used here in a mocking way (v. 20).
Mk 15:17b thorny  -   Gen. 3:18; cf. Gal. 3:13
Mk 15:172 around
Or, upon Him.
Mk 15:181 Rejoice
See note 292 in Matt. 27.
Mk 15:18a King  -   Mark 15:2
Mk 15:19a spat  -   Mark 10:34; 14:65
Mk 15:20a mocked  -   Mark 10:34; 15:31
Mk 15:20b led  -   Isa. 53:7
Mk 15:211 And
For vv. 21-38, see notes in Matt. 27:32-51.
Mk 15:21a compelled  -   Matt. 5:41
Mk 15:21b Simon  -   Matt. 27:32; Luke 23:26
Mk 15:21c Rufus  -   Rom. 16:13
Mk 15:22a Place  -   vv. 22-38: Matt. 27:33-53; Luke 23:33-38, 44-46; John 19:17-19, 28-30
Mk 15:231 tried
Or, offered Him wine.
Mk 15:23a myrrh  -   Matt. 2:11; John 19:39
Mk 15:24a lots  -   Psa. 22:18; John 19:24
Mk 15:251a third  -   Matt. 20:3
I.e., 9:00 a.m.
Mk 15:26a KING  -   Mark 15:2
Mk 15:281 And
Most important MSS omit this verse.
Mk 15:28a And  -   Isa. 53:12; Luke 22:37
Mk 15:29a blasphemed  -   Matt. 12:31-32
Mk 15:29b wagging  -   Psa. 22:7-8; 109:25
Mk 15:29c Aha  -   cf. Psa. 35:25; 40:15
Mk 15:291 You
This was a twisting of the Slave-Savior’s word, “Destroy this temple,” in John 2:19.
Mk 15:29d destroy  -   Mark 14:58; cf. John 2:19
Mk 15:301 Save
If He had saved Himself, He could not save us.
Mk 15:31a mocked  -   Mark 15:20
Mk 15:31b Himself  -   Luke 23:39; cf. Luke 4:23
Mk 15:32a King  -   John 1:49; 12:13
Mk 15:32b reproached  -   Luke 23:39
Mk 15:331 sixth
I.e., 12:00 noon.
Mk 15:33a darkness  -   cf. Amos 8:9
Mk 15:332 ninth
I.e., 3:00 p.m. So in the next verse.
Mk 15:34a cried  -   Heb. 5:7
Mk 15:34b loud  -   Mark 15:37
Mk 15:341 Eloi
Aramaic.
Mk 15:34c My  -   Psa. 22:1
Mk 15:36a vinegar  -   Psa. 69:21
Mk 15:37a loud  -   Mark 15:34
Mk 15:38a veil  -   Exo. 26:31-33; 40:21; 2 Chron. 3:14; Heb. 10:20
Mk 15:39a centurion  -   vv. 39-41: Matt. 27:54-56; Luke 23:47-49
Mk 15:39b Son  -   Matt. 27:40, 43
Mk 15:40a Magdalene  -   Mark 15:47; 16:1, 9; Luke 8:2
Mk 15:401 Mary
The mother of the Slave-Savior (Matt. 13:55).
Mk 15:402 younger
Or, smaller. The Greek word refers to either age or stature.
Mk 15:403 Salome
The wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John (Matt. 27:56).
Mk 15:41a ministered  -   Luke 8:3
Mk 15:421 evening
See note 381 in John 19.
Mk 15:42a preparation  -   Matt. 27:62
Mk 15:43a Joseph  -   vv. 43-47: Matt. 27:57-61; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42
Mk 15:431 the
The definite article indicates a man well known.
Mk 15:43b awaiting  -   cf. Luke 2:25, 38
Mk 15:43c kingdom  -   Mark 1:15
Mk 15:43d Pilate  -   Mark 15:15
Mk 15:44a centurion  -   Mark 15:39
Mk 15:461 laid
This was for the fulfillment of Isa. 53:9a.
Mk 15:46a tomb  -   Isa. 53:9
Mk 15:46b door  -   Mark 16:3-4
Mk 15:47a Magdalene  -   Mark 15:40
Mark Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Mk 16:11 And
For vv. 1-8, see notes in Matt. 28:1-8.
Mk 16:1a Sabbath  -   vv. 1-8: Matt. 28:1-8; Luke 24:1-10; John 20:1
Mk 16:1b Magdalene  -   Mark 15:40, 47; 16:9
Mk 16:12 Mary
See note 401 in ch. 15.
Mk 16:13 Salome
See note 403 in ch. 15.
Mk 16:1c spices  -   Luke 23:56; cf. Matt. 26:12
Mk 16:14 anoint
Different from anointed in Luke 4:18 and anointing in 1 John 2:20. Bought spices so that they might…anoint signifies love, appreciation, and remembrance.
Mk 16:2a tomb  -   Mark 15:46
Mk 16:4a stone  -   Matt. 27:60
Mk 16:5a a  -   cf. John 20:12
Mk 16:5b alarmed  -   Mark 10:32
Mk 16:6a Nazarene  -   Mark 1:24
Mk 16:61 raised
The Slave-Savior’s resurrection is proof that God is satisfied with what He accomplished through His death (see note 251 in Rom. 4); it is also a confirmation of the effectiveness of His redeeming and life-imparting death (Acts 2:24; 3:15). His resurrection became the evidence of our justification (Rom. 4:25) and the power by which we could be freed from sin (1 Cor. 15:17).
Mk 16:71 and
In the angel’s message to the three sisters who discovered the resurrection of the Slave-Savior, the phrase and Peter is inserted only in Mark’s record. This is probably due to Peter’s influence on the contents of this Gospel. In any case, this phrase indicates that Peter’s intimate relationship with the Slave-Savior was particular, so that it was stressed even by the angel.
Mk 16:7a Galilee  -   Mark 14:28
Mk 16:91 Now
Many ancient MSS omit vv. 9-20.
Mk 16:9a appeared  -   John 20:14-15; cf. Matt. 28:9
Mk 16:9b Magdalene  -   Mark 16:1
Mk 16:92 cast
See note 231 in ch. 1. So in v. 17.
Mk 16:9c seven  -   Luke 8:2
Mk 16:10a reported  -   John 20:18; Matt. 28:10
Mk 16:10b weeping  -   John 16:20
Mk 16:11a not  -   Mark 16:14; Luke 24:11
Mk 16:12a appeared  -   cf. John 21:1, 14
Mk 16:12b two  -   vv. 12-13: Luke 24:13-35
Mk 16:14a appeared  -   1 Cor. 15:5
Mk 16:14b hardness  -   Mark 10:5
Mk 16:14c not  -   Mark 16:11; Luke 24:41
Mk 16:15a world  -   Mark 14:9; Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6, 23
Mk 16:151 proclaim
See note 142 in ch. 1.
Mk 16:152b all  -   Matt. 28:19
This reveals that God’s redemption, accomplished by the Slave-Savior through His death and resurrection, is not only for man, the leading one in God’s creation, but also for all the creation. Hence, all things, whether on earth or in the heavens, were reconciled to God, and the gospel should be proclaimed to (in) all creation under heaven (Col. 1:20, 23). Based on this, all the creation expects to be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-22).
Mk 16:161a believes  -   Acts 16:31
To believe (see note 153 in ch. 1) is to receive the Slave-Savior (John 1:12) not only for forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43) but also for regeneration (1 Pet. 1:21, 23). Those who thus believe become the children of God (John 1:12-13) and the members of Christ (Eph. 5:30) in an organic union with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). To be baptized is to affirm this by being buried to terminate the old creation through the death of the Slave-Savior and by being raised up to be the new creation of God through the Slave-Savior’s resurrection. Such a baptism is much more advanced than the baptism of repentance preached by John (1:4; Acts 19:3-5). To believe and to be so baptized are two parts of one complete step for receiving the full salvation of God. To be baptized without believing is merely an empty ritual; to believe without being baptized is to be saved only inwardly without an outward affirmation of the inward salvation. These two should go together. Moreover, water baptism should be accompanied by Spirit baptism, even as the children of Israel were baptized in the sea (water) and in the cloud (the Spirit) — 1 Cor. 10:2; 12:13.
Mk 16:16b baptized  -   Acts 2:38; 8:12, 36
Mk 16:16c saved  -   Rom. 10:9
Mk 16:162d not  -   John 3:18, 36
Here the verse does not say, “He who does not believe and is not baptized.” This indicates that condemnation is related only to not believing; it is not related to not being baptized. Believing, by itself, is sufficient in order to receive salvation from condemnation; yet for the completion of one’s inward salvation, believing needs baptism as an outward affirmation.
Mk 16:17a name  -   Luke 10:17; Acts 16:18
Mk 16:171 speak
Speaking with new tongues is only one of the five signs that accompany saved believers. It is not the unique sign, contrary to what is stressed by some believers. According to the divine revelation in the Acts and the Epistles, what the Lord said here does not mean that every saved believer should have all five signs. It means that each saved believer may have some of these signs but will not necessarily have all.
Mk 16:17b tongues  -   Acts 10:46; 19:6; 1 Cor. 12:10, 28, 30
Mk 16:18a serpents  -   Luke 10:19; Acts 28:3-5
Mk 16:18b lay  -   Mark 5:23; 6:5; Acts 28:8
Mk 16:18c well  -   James 5:14-15; Acts 5:15-16
Mk 16:191 taken
The Slave-Savior’s ascension for His exaltation by God was a sign of God’s acceptance of all He had done for God’s eternal plan according to God’s New Testament economy (Acts 2:33-36). In this exaltation God crowned Him with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9), bestowed on Him the name that is above all names (Phil. 2:9), and made Him the Lord of all (Acts 2:36) and the Head over all things (Eph. 1:22) that He may have all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18) to rule over the heavens, the earth, and the nations so that they can work together for the universal spreading of His gospel service.
Mk 16:19a heaven  -   Luke 24:51; Acts 1:11
Mk 16:19b right  -   Psa. 110:1; Acts 7:55-56; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Pet. 3:22
Mk 16:201 preached
See note 142 in ch. 1. This preaching of God’s gospel to all the creation (v. 15) by the resurrected and ascended Slave-Savior, the Slave of God, through His believers began from Jerusalem and has been proceeding to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8) continuously and universally through the past centuries, and will continue to proceed until He comes to set up the kingdom of God on earth (Luke 19:12; Dan. 7:13-14).
Mk 16:20a signs  -   Acts 5:12; 14:3; Heb. 2:4
< Mark • Luke Outline >
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Luke Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-4
II.   The preparation of the Man-Savior in His humanity with His divinity — 1:5 — 4:13
A.   His forerunner’s conception — 1:5-25
B.   His conception — 1:26-56
C.   His forerunner’s birth and youth — 1:57-80
D.   His birth — 2:1-20
E.   His youth — 2:21-52
1.   Circumcised and named — v. 21
2.   Presented and adored — vv. 22-39
3.   Growing and advancing — vv. 40-52
F.   His inauguration — 3:1 — 4:13
1.   Introduced — 3:1-20
2.   Baptized — 3:21
3.   Anointed — 3:22
4.   His status — 3:23-38
5.   His test — 4:1-13
III.   The ministry of the Man-Savior in His human virtues with His divine attributes — 4:14 — 19:27
A.   In Galilee — 4:14 — 9:50
1.   Proclaiming the jubilee of grace — 4:14-30
2.   Carrying out His fourfold commission — teaching, casting out demons, healing, and preaching — 4:31-44
3.   Attracting the occupied — 5:1-11
4.   Cleansing the contaminated — 5:12-16
5.   Healing the paralytic — 5:17-26
6.   Calling the despised — 5:27-39
7.   Breaking the deformed sabbatical regulation for people’s satisfaction and liberation — 6:1-11
8.   Appointing twelve apostles — 6:12-16
9.   Teaching His disciples the highest morality — 6:17-49
10.   Curing the dying one — 7:1-10
11.   Showing pity to the weeping widow by raising up her only son — 7:11-17
12.   Strengthening His forerunner — 7:18-35
13.   Forgiving sinners — 7:36-50
14.   Ministered to by women — 8:1-3
15.   Teaching with parables — 8:4-18
16.   Identifying His real relatives — 8:19-21
17.   Quelling the storm — 8:22-25
18.   Casting out a legion of demons — 8:26-39
19.   Healing a woman with a flow of blood and raising up a dead girl — 8:40-56
20.   Sending the twelve apostles to spread His ministry — 9:1-9
21.   Feeding the five thousand — 9:10-17
22.   Recognized as the Christ — 9:18-21
23.   Unveiling His death and resurrection the first time — 9:22-26
24.   Transfigured on the mount — 9:27-36
25.   Casting a demon out of a man’s son — 9:37-43a
26.   Unveiling His death the second time — 9:43b-45
27.   Teaching concerning humility and tolerance — 9:46-50
B.   From Galilee to Jerusalem — 9:51 — 19:27
1.   Rejected by the Samaritans — 9:51-56
2.   Instructing people how to follow Him — 9:57-62
3.   Appointing seventy disciples to spread His ministry — 10:1-24
4.   Portraying Himself as the good Samaritan with the highest morality — 10:25-37
5.   Received by Martha — 10:38-42
6.   Teaching concerning prayer — 11:1-13
7.   Rejected by the evil generation — 11:14-32
8.   Warning not to remain in darkness — 11:33-36
9.   Rebuking the Pharisees and lawyers — 11:37-54
10.   Warning to beware of the Pharisees’ hypocrisy and concerning the denial of the Man-Savior — 12:1-12
11.   Warning not to be covetous — 12:13-34
12.   Teaching to be watchful and faithful — 12:35-48
13.   Longing to be released through His death — 12:49-53
14.   Teaching concerning the discernment of time — 12:54-59
15.   Teaching concerning repentance — 13:1-9
16.   Healing a bent-double woman on the Sabbath — 13:10-17
17.   Teaching concerning the kingdom of God as a grain of mustard and as leaven — 13:18-21
18.   Teaching concerning the entrance into the kingdom of God — 13:22-30
19.   Journeying uninterruptedly toward Jerusalem — 13:31-35
20.   Healing a man of dropsy on the Sabbath — 14:1-6
21.   Teaching the invited and the inviting one — 14:7-14
22.   Teaching concerning the acceptance of God’s invitation — 14:15-24
23.   Teaching how to follow the Man-Savior — 14:25-35
24.   Unveiling the saving love of the Triune God toward sinners — 15:1-32
a.   By the parable of a shepherd seeking a sheep — vv. 1-7
b.   By the parable of a woman seeking a coin — vv. 8-10
c.   By the parable of a father receiving his son — vv. 11-32
25.   Teaching to be prudent stewards — 16:1-13
26.   Teaching concerning the entrance into the kingdom of God — 16:14-18
27.   Warning the rich — 16:19-31
28.   Teaching concerning stumbling, forgiveness, and faith — 17:1-6
29.   Teaching concerning service — 17:7-10
30.   Cleansing ten lepers — 17:11-19
31.   Teaching concerning the kingdom of God and the rapture of the overcomers — 17:20-37
32.   Teaching concerning persistent prayer — 18:1-8
33.   Teaching concerning the entrance into the kingdom of God — 18:9-30
a.   Humbling oneself — vv. 9-14
b.   Being like a little child — vv. 15-17
c.   Renouncing all and following the Man-Savior — vv. 18-30
34.   Unveiling His death and resurrection the third time — 18:31-34
35.   Healing a blind man near Jericho — 18:35-43
36.   Saving Zaccheus — 19:1-10
37.   Teaching concerning faithfulness — 19:11-27
IV.   The Man-Savior’s presentation of Himself to death for redemption — 19:28 — 22:46
A.   Entering into Jerusalem triumphantly — 19:28-40
B.   Lamenting over Jerusalem — 19:41-44
C.   Cleansing the temple and teaching in it — 19:45-48
D.   Passing through the final examinations — 20:1 — 21:4
1.   Of the chief priests, scribes, and elders — 20:1-19
2.   Of the Pharisees and Herodians — 20:20-26
3.   Of the Sadducees — 20:27-38
4.   Muzzling all the examiners — 20:39-44
5.   Warning against the scribes — 20:45-47
6.   Praising the poor widow — 21:1-4
E.   Preparing the disciples for His death — 21:5 — 22:46
1.   Telling them of things to come — 21:5-36
a.   The destruction of the temple — vv. 5-6
b.   The plagues between His ascension and the great tribulation — vv. 7-11
c.   The persecution of His disciples in the church age — vv. 12-19
d.   The great tribulation and His coming — vv. 20-27
e.   The disciples’ redemption and the overcomers’ rapture — vv. 28-36
2.   Teaching daily in the temple — 21:37-38
3.   His opposers conspiring to kill Him and a false disciple plotting to betray Him — 22:1-6
4.   Instituting His supper that the disciples might participate in His death — 22:7-23
5.   Teaching the disciples concerning humility and foretelling what will happen to them — 22:24-38
6.   Praying concerning the sufferings of His death and charging the disciples to pray — 22:39-46
V.   The death of the Man-Savior — 22:47 — 23:56
A.   Arrested — 22:47-65
  (Denied by Peter — vv. 54b-62)
B.   Judged — 22:66 — 23:25
1.   By the Jewish Sanhedrin — 22:66-71
2.   By the Roman rulers — 23:1-25
C.   Crucified — 23:26-49
1.   Suffering the persecution of men — vv. 26-43
2.   Suffering the judgment of God for sinners to accomplish a vicarious death for them — vv. 44-49
D.   Buried — 23:50-56
VI.   The resurrection of the Man-Savior — 24:1-49
A.   Discovered by the women — vv. 1-11
B.   Investigated and confirmed by Peter — v. 12
C.   Appearing to two disciples — vv. 13-35
D.   Appearing to the apostles and those with them and commissioning them — vv. 36-49
VII.   The ascension of the Man-Savior — 24:50-53
Luke >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Luke Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 1:11 Inasmuch
Or, Since, as is well known,…
Lk 1:12 many
This indicates that there were more than four who wrote an account of the Savior’s earthly life.
Lk 1:13 draw
Or, set in order.
Lk 1:14 matters
Events of John the Baptist’s birth, ministry, and martyrdom, and of Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, teaching, death, resurrection, and ascension for the accomplishing of God’s redemption that sinners may be saved by grace.
Lk 1:21 those
The first group of New Testament believers, composed of those who were with the Savior during His ministry on earth.
Lk 1:2a eyewitnesses  -   2 Pet. 1:16; 1 John 1:1-3; Acts 1:3; 4:20
Lk 1:22 ministers
Lit., servants; i.e., official servants, apparitors, who attend or serve an officer or authority to carry out his orders. The Greek word is used in 4:20; Matt. 5:25; Mark 14:54; Acts 26:16; and 1 Cor. 4:1.
Lk 1:23 word
The word of the gospel, ministered and preached to people (Acts 6:4; 8:4).
Lk 1:24 delivered
This indicates that the writer of this Gospel was not among those disciples who were with the Savior during His earthly life.
Lk 1:31 me
The early church recognized Luke as the author of both this Gospel and the Acts. Luke’s authorship is evident from the style of composition of the two books. Luke was a Gentile (Col. 4:14; cf. Col. 4:11), probably an Asiatic Greek, and a physician (Col. 4:14). Beginning in Troas, he joined Paul in his ministry and accompanied him in his last three ministry journeys (Acts 16:10-17; 20:5 — 21:18; 27:1 — 28:15). He was a faithful companion of Paul until Paul’s martyrdom (Philem. 24; 2 Tim. 4:11). Hence, his Gospel should represent Paul’s views, as Mark’s represents Peter’s (see note 11, par. 1, in Mark 1).
The Gospels of Luke, Matthew, and Mark are synoptic in regard to the Savior’s humanity (see note 11, par. 2, in Mark 1). Luke’s Gospel reveals God among men in His saving grace given to fallen mankind. Its purpose is to present the Savior as a genuine, normal, and perfect man. It gives a complete genealogy of the man Jesus, from His parents back to Adam, the first generation of mankind, and shows that He is a genuine descendant of man — a son of man (see note 11, pars. 2 and 3, in Matt. 1). Its record of the life of this man impresses us with the completeness and perfection of His humanity. Hence, this Gospel stresses the Lord as the Man-Savior. Based on the moral principles that apply to all men, it presents gospel messages, as in 4:16-21; 7:41-43; 12:14-21; and 13:2-5; gospel parables, as in 10:30-37; 14:16-24; 15:3-32; and 18:9-14; and gospel cases, as in 7:36-50; 13:10-17; 16:19-31; 19:1-10; and 23:39-43. None of these are recorded in the other Gospels. In contrast to Matthew, Luke does not stress the dispensational aspect or the Jewish background. It is the Gospel written to mankind in general, and it announces the good news to all people (2:10). Its characteristic is absolutely not Jewish but Gentile (4:25-28). It is a Gospel to all sinners, both Jewish and Gentile. As such, the sequence of its record is according to morality, not according to historical events. See notes 161, par. 2, in Matt. 8 and 201 in Mark 14.
Lk 1:3a orderly  -   Acts 11:4
Lk 1:3b excellent  -   Acts 23:26; 24:3; 26:25
Lk 1:32c Theophilus  -   Acts 1:1
The Greek word means loved by God, or friend of God. Probably a Gentile believer who occupied some official position under the Roman Empire.
Lk 1:5a Herod  -   Matt. 2:1
Lk 1:51 course
This was the eighth of the twenty-four courses of priestly service ordained by David (1 Chron. 24:10).
Lk 1:5b Aaron  -   Exo. 28:1; Lev. 8:2
Lk 1:61 they
They were among God’s chosen people and had been preserved in the custody of the law in the Old Testament and brought forth by it to be useful to God for the initiation of the gospel in the New Testament.
Lk 1:62a righteous  -   Luke 1:75; 2:25; Gen. 7:1
This does not contradict Rom. 3:20. Here it means to be right, i.e., blameless, in the sight of God according to the Old Testament commandments and ordinances (2:25; Phil. 3:6). It does not mean that these righteous ones were not sinful, without sin and sins. They were blameless, but not without blemish. They still needed the unblemished sin and trespass offerings in type (Lev. 4:28; 5:15) for their expiation that they might have contact with God.
Lk 1:63b walking  -   1 Kings 9:4; Psa. 119:1
I.e., living according to.
Lk 1:64 ordinances
The Old Testament law is generally called “the law”; its contents are divided into three categories: commandments, statutes, and ordinances. Commandments, as God’s basic commands, are the general principles of the law. There are ten commandments (Exo. 20:2-17). Statutes, or laws, regulations, set forth, explain in detail, and supplement the commandments, as recorded in Exo. 20:22-26. Ordinances, like statutes, set forth, explain in detail, and supplement the commandments, and, in addition, include verdicts, as recorded in Exo. 21:1 — 23:19. Ordinances minus the verdicts become statutes. The Greek word for ordinances here is the same as that in Rom. 2:26 and in Heb. 9:1, 10.
Lk 1:6c blameless  -   Phil. 3:6
Lk 1:71 no
This was sovereign of the Lord. It afforded God an opportunity to initiate His gospel not by man’s natural strength but by His divine act.
Lk 1:8a order  -   1 Chron. 24:19; 2 Chron. 8:14
Lk 1:9a temple  -   Luke 1:21-22; Acts 2:46; 3:1
Lk 1:91 burn
On the incense altar within the Holy Place (v. 11; Exo. 30:6-8; 1 Sam. 2:28; 1 Chron. 23:13; 2 Chron. 29:11).
Lk 1:101a praying  -   Psa. 141:2; Rev. 8:3-4
The prayer of God’s people affords Him a way to carry out His plan.
Lk 1:11a altar  -   Exo. 30:1-10
Lk 1:12a fear  -   Luke 2:9; Acts 10:4
Lk 1:13a not  -   Luke 1:30; 2:10; Judg. 6:23; Rev. 1:17
Lk 1:131 bear
This indicates that Zachariah had prayed that his wife would bear him a son. This indicates also that our prayer carries out God’s operation, implying that our natural strength must be brought to an end that God’s operation may begin by His divine act. This was revealed in the case of Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 17:15-19) and in the case of Hannah (1 Sam. 1:5-20).
Lk 1:132b John  -   Luke 1:60, 63
Of Hebrew origin, Jehohanan contracted to Johanan (2 Kings 25:23; 1 Chron. 3:24; 2 Chron. 28:12). The Hebrew word means Jehovah is favorable, Jehovah shows grace, or Jehovah is the gracious Giver.
Lk 1:15a great  -   Matt. 11:11
Lk 1:151b no  -   Luke 7:33; Judg. 13:4
This indicates that John would be a Nazarite (Num. 6:1-4). He would not drink wine but would be filled with the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit replaced the wine (Eph. 5:18).
Lk 1:152c Holy  -   Luke 1:35, 41, 67; Acts 2:4
In the New Testament this is the first divine title ascribed to the Spirit of God. Such a title is not used in the Old Testament. (In Psa. 51:11 and Isa. 63:10-11, Holy Spirit [KJV] should be translated Spirit of holiness.) It was at this time, for the initiation of the gospel of God, to prepare the way for the Savior’s coming and to prepare a human body for Him, that this divine title of God’s Spirit was used. The preparing of the way for the Savior’s coming required that His forerunner be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, so that he could separate the people unto God from all things other than God, making them holy unto Him for His purpose. The preparing of a human body for the Savior required that the Holy Spirit impart the divine nature into humanity, making man holy for the carrying out of God’s plan of redemption.
Lk 1:15d womb  -   cf. Isa. 49:1, 5; Jer. 1:5; Gal. 1:15
Lk 1:17a before  -   Luke 1:76; Mal. 3:1
Lk 1:171 Elijah
This was the fulfillment of Mal. 4:5 (Matt. 11:14 and note 2; Mark 9:11-13).
Lk 1:17b hearts  -   Mal. 4:6
Lk 1:17c disobedient  -   Rom. 10:21
Lk 1:172 to
Lit., in [the sphere of] the prudence of the righteous.
Lk 1:173 prudence
Or, counsel. Wisdom is the inward insight, whereas prudence is the outward practical application of wisdom. Hence, prudence can be rendered counsel.
Lk 1:17d prepare  -   cf. Luke 1:76; 7:27
Lk 1:18a old  -   cf. Gen. 17:17; Rom. 4:19
Lk 1:181 years
Lit., her days.
Lk 1:19a angel  -   Heb. 1:14
Lk 1:19b Gabriel  -   Luke 1:26; Dan. 8:16; 9:21
Lk 1:20a silent  -   Exo. 4:11; Ezek. 3:26
Lk 1:201 not
Believing opens the praising and testifying mouth (2 Cor. 4:13); unbelief keeps our tongue silent.
Lk 1:21a temple  -   Luke 1:9
Lk 1:22a vision  -   Dan. 9:23; Acts 10:3, 17; 16:9
Lk 1:25a reproach  -   Gen. 30:23; Isa. 4:1; 54:4
Lk 1:26a Gabriel  -   Luke 1:19
Lk 1:261 Galilee
Galilee was a region without fame, and Nazareth was a despised city (John 7:52; 1:46).
Lk 1:26b Nazareth  -   Matt. 2:23; John 1:45
Lk 1:27a virgin  -   Isa. 7:14
Lk 1:27b Joseph  -   Luke 3:23; Matt. 1:16, 18
Lk 1:271c David  -   Luke 1:69; Matt. 1:20; Luke 2:4
The virgin Mary lived in a despised city in a region without fame, but she was a descendant of the royal family of King David (vv. 31-32; Matt. 1:16, notes 1 and 2).
Lk 1:28a with  -   Luke 1:66; Judg. 6:12
Lk 1:281 you
Some MSS add, You are blessed among women.
Lk 1:30a not  -   Luke 1:13
Lk 1:30b grace  -   Acts 7:46; Heb. 4:16
Lk 1:31a conceive  -   Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23
Lk 1:311b Jesus  -   Luke 2:21
See note 211 in Matt. 1.
Lk 1:32a great  -   Titus 2:13 and note 4
Lk 1:32b Son  -   Luke 1:35; Rom. 1:4; John 1:34
Lk 1:321c Most  -   Luke 1:35, 76; 6:35; Mark 5:7; Acts 7:48
A divine title, denoting the Supreme (God — Gen. 14:18); hence, in Greek there is no article. Jesus is great because He is the Son of the Most High, the Supreme God.
Lk 1:32d throne  -   2 Sam. 7:13
Lk 1:322e David  -   Luke 1:69; Rom. 1:3
Jesus, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a human virgin, is the Son of the Most High God, and at the same time He is the son of a highly ranked man, David the king (Matt. 1:1; 22:45). His status is both divine and human.
Lk 1:331 reign
Jesus will have the house of Jacob — the nation of Israel — as the center of His reign (Acts 1:6; 15:16), through which He will rule over the entire world as His kingdom (Rev. 11:15), first in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6) and then in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 22:3, 5).
Lk 1:33a forever  -   2 Sam. 7:12-13; Micah 4:7
Lk 1:332 kingdom
The preceding verse unveils the family of Jesus; this verse unveils His kingdom.
Lk 1:33b no  -   Dan. 2:44; 7:14, 18; Heb. 1:8; Rev. 11:15
Lk 1:351 Holy
See note 152.
Lk 1:35a Most  -   Luke 1:32
Lk 1:352 overshadow
Like the overshadowing of the cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:5) and over the tabernacle (Exo. 40:34, 38). According to this verse, it seems that the Holy Spirit would be only upon Mary as the power for her to conceive the holy child. However, Matt. 1:18 and 20 tell us that Mary “was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit,” and that “that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” This indicates that the divine essence out of the Holy Spirit had been begotten in Mary’s womb before she delivered the child Jesus. Such a conception of the Holy Spirit in the human virgin, accomplished with the divine and human essences, constituted a mingling of the divine nature with the human nature, which produced a God-man, One who is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly, without a third nature being produced. This is the most wonderful and most excellent person of Jesus, who is Jehovah the Savior.
The conception of John the Baptist was strikingly different in essence from that of Jesus the Savior. The conception of the Baptist was God’s miracle, accomplished with the overage human essence, merely by the divine power without the involvement of the divine essence. This resulted in the bringing forth of a mere man who was filled with the Spirit of God (v. 15) but who lacked the nature of God. The conception of the Savior was God’s incarnation (John 1:14), constituted not only by the divine power but also of the divine essence added to the human essence, thus producing the God-man of two natures — divinity and humanity. Through this, God joined Himself to humanity that He might be manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16) and might be a Man-Savior (2:11).
Lk 1:353b holy  -   John 6:69
As the conception was of the Holy Spirit, so what was born of that conception was a holy thing, intrinsically holy. This was Jesus our Savior.
Lk 1:35c Son  -   Luke 1:32; Mark 1:1; Matt. 14:33; John 20:31; Acts 8:37
Lk 1:371a impossible  -   Matt. 19:26; Rom. 4:21
Or, powerless.
Lk 1:372 with
Lit., from.
Lk 1:38a angel  -   Acts 12:10
Lk 1:39a hill  -   Luke 1:65; Josh. 20:7; 21:11
Lk 1:411 baby
The forerunner exulted (v. 44) on meeting the Savior even while both of them were still in their mothers’ wombs.
Lk 1:41a Holy  -   Luke 1:15
Lk 1:421a Blessed  -   cf. Judg. 5:24
Elizabeth’s blessing, given through the Holy Spirit (v. 41), revealed the humanity of the Savior as the fruit and the deity of the Savior as the Lord (v. 43) and confirmed Mary’s faith in the Lord’s word (v. 45). Such a blessing indicates that Elizabeth too was a godly woman, fit for God’s use in carrying out His purpose.
Lk 1:422b fruit  -   cf. Deut. 28:4
Here and in Acts 2:30, fruit is used to signify Christ only in the sense of offspring. In Rev. 22:2 the same Greek word is used to signify the fruit of the tree of life. Christ is the Shoot of Jehovah (Isa. 4:2) and of David (Jer. 23:5) and the fruit of Mary and of David (Acts 2:30) that we may eat of Him as the tree of life (Rev. 2:7).
Lk 1:431a Lord  -   Luke 20:42; John 20:28
Elizabeth, being filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 41), recognized the fruit of Mary’s womb as her Lord, acknowledging the deity of the child to be born of Mary (Psa. 110:1; Matt. 22:43-45).
Lk 1:451 And
Or, And blessed is she who believed that there will be a completion of the things spoken to her from the Lord.
Lk 1:452a believed  -   John 20:29
In contrast to unbelieving Zachariah (v. 20).
Lk 1:453 completion
This is a prophecy given by the Holy Spirit (v. 41) to confirm the Lord’s word in vv. 30-37, a word spoken to Mary by the angel Gabriel.
Lk 1:461 My
Mary’s poetic praise was composed of many quotations from the Old Testament, indicating that she was a godly woman qualified to be a channel for the Savior’s incarnation, and that Jesus would grow up in a family that was filled with the knowledge and love of God’s holy Word.
Lk 1:46a soul  -   vv. 46-53: cf. 1 Sam. 2:1-10
Lk 1:462b magnifies  -   Psa. 34:2-3; 69:30; Acts 10:46; 19:17
Mary’s praise magnified the Lord based on her experience of God as her Savior through His everlasting mercy (vv. 47-50) and on her observation of others’ experience of God’s merciful and faithful doings (vv. 51-55). In content and standard, her praise was like some of the Old Testament psalms. However, she did not say anything concerning Christ, unlike Elizabeth in her blessing (vv. 41-43) and Zachariah in his prophecy (vv. 67-71, 76-79) spoken through the Holy Spirit.
Lk 1:47a spirit  -   John 4:24; Rom. 1:9
Lk 1:471 has
First, Mary’s spirit exulted in God; then her soul magnified the Lord. Her praise to God issued from her spirit and was expressed through her soul. Her spirit was filled with joy in God her Savior, and her soul manifested that joy for the magnifying of the Lord. She lived and acted in her spirit, which directed her soul. Her spirit’s exulting in God was due to her enjoyment of God as her Savior, and her soul’s magnifying of the Lord was due to her exalting of the Lord, who is Jehovah, the great To Be.
Lk 1:47b exulted  -   Hab. 3:18
Lk 1:47c Savior  -   Psa. 106:21; 1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4; Jude 25
Lk 1:48a looked  -   1 Sam. 1:11; Psa. 138:6
Lk 1:48b blessed  -   Luke 11:27; Mal. 3:12
Lk 1:491a Mighty  -   Psa. 66:7
Or, Powerful.
Lk 1:49b great  -   Psa. 126:2-3; 71:19
Lk 1:49c holy  -   Psa. 111:9; Isa. 57:15
Lk 1:501a mercy  -   Exo. 34:6; Hosea 6:6
Both Mary and Zachariah stressed God’s mercy (vv. 54, 58, 72, 78; see notes 162 in Heb. 4 and 52 in Titus 3), thus acknowledging their low estate (v. 48) and humbly (v. 52) recognizing that they were not worthy to be favored by God.
Lk 1:50b generations  -   Gen. 17:7; Deut. 7:9
Lk 1:50c fear  -   Psa. 25:14; 111:10; 112:1
Lk 1:51a arm  -   Psa. 89:10; 98:1; Isa. 40:10; 51:9
Lk 1:51b proud  -   Dan. 4:37
Lk 1:52a potentates  -   Dan. 2:21
Lk 1:52b exalted  -   1 Sam. 2:7; Job 5:11; Psa. 75:7; Luke 18:14
Lk 1:52c humble  -   Prov. 3:34
Lk 1:53a hungry  -   1 Sam. 2:5; Psa. 107:9
Lk 1:54a servant  -   Isa. 41:8-9; 44:21; 49:3
Lk 1:54b remember  -   Psa. 98:3; cf. Luke 1:72
Lk 1:551 as
Referring to God’s faithfulness in keeping His word. Both Mary and Zachariah stressed not only God’s mercy (see note 501) but also His faithfulness (vv. 70, 72, and note 722). God’s mercy took care of their condition, and His faithfulness took care of His position so that He could favor them with His gracious doings.
Lk 1:55a Abraham  -   Gal. 3:16
Lk 1:59a circumcise  -   Luke 2:21; Gen. 17:12; Lev. 12:3; Phil. 3:5
Lk 1:60a John  -   Luke 1:13
Lk 1:641 mouth
See note 201.
Lk 1:64a tongue  -   Mark 7:35
Lk 1:65a fear  -   Luke 5:26; Acts 2:43
Lk 1:65b hill  -   Luke 1:39
Lk 1:651 things
Lit., words.
Lk 1:66a heart  -   Luke 2:19, 51
Lk 1:66b with  -   Luke 1:28; Gen. 39:2-3; Acts 11:21
Lk 1:67a Holy  -   Luke 1:15; Joel 2:28
Lk 1:68a Blessed  -   1 Kings 1:48; 1 Chron. 29:10; Psa. 41:13; 106:48
Lk 1:68b Israel  -   Isa. 29:23; Matt. 15:31
Lk 1:68c visited  -   Luke 1:78; 7:16; Exo. 3:16; 4:31
Lk 1:681d redemption  -   Psa. 111:9
Zachariah’s prophecy concerned God’s redemptive move for His people unto their salvation, accomplished by the raising of Christ, in His humanity, as a horn of salvation in the house of David, and, in His divinity, as the rising sun from on high, through God’s rich mercy according to His holy covenant (vv. 68-73, 76-79). Concerning the divine-human person and the saving work of the Man-Savior, his prophecy brings in more light than Elizabeth’s blessing, yet it still bears an Old Testament color in the Old Testament style and flavor, like Mary’s praise and Elizabeth’s blessing.
Lk 1:691a horn  -   Luke 1:77; 1 Sam. 2:10; Psa. 132:17
Jesus the Savior, who came out of the house of David (Jer. 23:5-6).
Lk 1:69b David  -   Luke 1:27
Lk 1:701 as
See note 551.
Lk 1:70a prophets  -   Rom. 1:2; Acts 3:21
Lk 1:702 from
Or, from the foundation of the world.
Lk 1:71a Salvation  -   Luke 1:77
Lk 1:71b hand  -   Luke 1:74; Psa. 106:10
Lk 1:721 mercy
See note 501. So in v. 78.
Lk 1:722a remember  -   Lev. 26:42; cf. Luke 1:54
Referring to God’s faithfulness in keeping His word, which was made His covenant by His oath (v. 73).
Lk 1:72b covenant  -   Gen. 15:18
Lk 1:731a oath  -   Gen. 22:16-18; Heb. 6:13-14
God’s covenant is enacted upon His promise (Heb. 8:6). A promise is a common, ordinary word that has not been confirmed by an oath. In the Old Testament, after God made a promise, He sealed it with an oath. He swore by His Godhead to confirm His promise. Thus His promise was made His covenant.
Lk 1:741 serve
Lit., serve Him as priests.
Lk 1:751a holiness  -   Eph. 4:24
The emphasis of holiness here is godliness and devoutness before God; the Greek word is different from that for holy in Rom. 1:2. Holiness is mainly toward God, and righteousness is mainly toward men. This book stresses the humanity of Jesus; hence, holiness and righteousness are singled out here as the main characteristics of man’s behavior before God, by which man serves Him.
Lk 1:75b righteousness  -   Luke 1:6; Titus 2:12
Lk 1:76a prophet  -   Luke 7:26; 20:6
Lk 1:76b Most  -   Luke 1:32
Lk 1:76c before  -   Luke 1:17
Lk 1:761 Lord
Jesus the Savior (v. 17; Mal. 3:1).
Lk 1:762d prepare  -   Mal. 3:1; Isa. 40:3; Matt. 11:10; cf. Luke 1:17
See note 33 in Mark 1.
Lk 1:77a salvation  -   Luke 1:69; 2:30; 3:6
Lk 1:77b forgiveness  -   Luke 3:3; Acts 2:38; 5:31
Lk 1:78a compassions  -   Phil. 1:8
Lk 1:781b sun  -   Mal. 4:2; Eph. 5:14
Jesus the Savior was the dawning sun to the dark age. His coming ended the night of the Old Testament and began the day of the New Testament. As the fruit in Elizabeth’s blessing (v. 42 and note 2), He is life to us (John 14:6); as the sun in Zachariah’s prophecy, He is light to us (John 9:5; Matt. 4:16). As such a One, He is the Accomplisher and the center of God’s redemption that His people may obtain salvation.
Lk 1:78c visit  -   Luke 1:68
Lk 1:79a darkness  -   Psa. 107:10; Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16; Acts 26:18
Lk 1:79b peace  -   Rom. 3:17; Luke 7:50
Lk 1:80a grew  -   Luke 2:40
Lk 1:801 spirit
The forerunner’s mother and father were filled with the Holy Spirit (vv. 41, 67). It was easy for their child to grow and become strong in his spirit and thereby to live in the wilderness. For him to grow and become strong in spirit means that he was with and for God, and for him to live in the wilderness means that he was apart from man’s culture and religion that God might have a free and clear way to use him as the forerunner of the Savior.
Lk 1:80b wilderness  -   Matt. 3:1; 11:7
Luke Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 2:1a Caesar  -   Luke 3:1
Lk 2:1b census  -   Acts 5:37
Lk 2:21 first
This is sovereign of God, as mentioned in Prov. 21:1. By this census Mary and Joseph were brought from Nazareth to Bethlehem that the Savior might be born there for the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the place of His birth (Micah 5:2; John 7:41-42).
Lk 2:2a governed  -   Luke 3:1
Lk 2:4a Joseph  -   Matt. 1:16; Luke 1:27
Lk 2:4b Nazareth  -   Matt. 2:23
Lk 2:4c Bethlehem  -   1 Sam. 16:1, 4; 20:6; Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:1; John 7:42
Lk 2:41 house
The royal house and family in line to inherit the throne of David (3:23-31; 1:32; cf. Matt. 1:6-16).
Lk 2:5a pregnant  -   Luke 1:35
Lk 2:71a bore  -   Isa. 7:14; Gal. 4:4
Luke presents a Man-Savior. After the narration of the conception of the Man-Savior, Luke gives us in this chapter an excellent record of (1) His genuine human birth, which was according to the law of God’s creation of man, that He might be a Man-Savior for the salvation of man; (2) His physical circumcision, carried out according to the law of God’s ordination (vv. 21-24), that He might be the legal seed of Abraham (Gen. 17:9-14), the One in whom God’s promise to Abraham — “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3) — as the gospel announced to him (Gal. 3:8), could be fulfilled for all the Gentiles (Gal. 3:14); (3) His physical growth, which was according to the law of human life (v. 40), that He might be a perfect man to express God for the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan; and (4) His proper boyhood, during which He grew in His interest concerning the things of God, which interest was related to His deity as the Son of God the Father (vv. 40-52), that He might have the full measure of wisdom, stature, and grace manifested in Him before God and men.
The record here concerning the Savior’s birth and youth is very different from that in Matt. 2. What Matthew recorded of events that occurred at the Savior’s birth and during His youth constitutes striking evidence of Christ’s legitimate kingship. Luke also recorded the Savior’s birth and youth, but what he recorded were events of a different category, events that offer strong proof of Jesus’ genuine humanity. The two records cover only two of the different aspects of the Savior’s wonderful status. See note 21 in Matt. 2.
Lk 2:7b firstborn  -   Exo. 13:2, 12; Matt. 1:25
Lk 2:72 manger
The Man-Savior’s life began in a manger in the lowest estate because the inn was occupied by fallen mankind with his busy activities.
Lk 2:7c inn  -   Luke 10:34
Lk 2:81 shepherds
Their work in shepherding the flock (which provided not only food for man but also offerings to God) and their diligence in keeping the night watches qualified them to be the first to receive the good news of the wonderful birth of the Savior, which was announced by the angel.
Lk 2:9a angel  -   Luke 15:10; Heb. 1:14
Lk 2:9b stood  -   Luke 24:4; Acts 12:7
Lk 2:9c glory  -   Exo. 16:10; 1 Kings 8:11
Lk 2:9d feared  -   Luke 1:12
Lk 2:10a not  -   Luke 1:13
Lk 2:10b announce  -   Luke 3:18; 4:43
Lk 2:10c great  -   Zech. 9:9
Lk 2:10d all  -   John 4:42
Lk 2:11a Savior  -   Matt. 1:21; Acts 5:31; Phil. 3:20
Lk 2:11b born  -   Isa. 9:6
Lk 2:11c David’s  -   Luke 2:4
Lk 2:11d Christ  -   Matt. 1:16
Lk 2:11e Lord  -   Luke 1:43; Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:11
Lk 2:121 sign
A baby in a manger, signifying smallness in lowliness, was a sign of the Man-Savior’s life.
Lk 2:122 baby
This little baby is called the “Mighty God” in the prophecy concerning the Man-Savior (Isa. 9:6).
Lk 2:13a army  -   Gen. 32:2
Lk 2:131b praising  -   Rev. 5:11-12
The exultation of the angels, who were excited by the birth of the Savior for man’s salvation (cf. 15:7), resulted in their praising God.
Lk 2:141a Glory  -   Eph. 1:6; 3:21; Rev. 5:13
The coming of the Savior rendered glory to God in the heavens and brought peace to men on earth.
Lk 2:14b highest  -   Luke 19:38; Psa. 148:1; 1 Kings 8:27
Lk 2:14c earth  -   Matt. 6:10; Eph. 3:15; Col. 1:16
Lk 2:14d peace  -   Luke 1:79; Isa. 9:6; Zech. 6:13; Eph. 2:17
See note 141.
Lk 2:142 men
Men chosen by God according to His good pleasure (Eph. 1:5).
Lk 2:14e good  -   Eph. 1:5, 9
Lk 2:151 thing
Lit., word.
Lk 2:19a heart  -   Luke 2:51; 1:66
Lk 2:20a glorifying  -   Luke 7:16
Lk 2:21a circumcise  -   Gen. 17:10-14; Luke 1:59; Rom. 15:8
Lk 2:21b Jesus  -   Luke 1:31; Matt. 1:21, 25
Lk 2:22a purification  -   Lev. 12:2-6
Lk 2:22b brought  -   1 Sam. 1:22, 24
Lk 2:23a law  -   Luke 2:27, 39
Lk 2:23b Every  -   Exo. 13:2, 12; 22:29; 34:19; Num. 3:13; 8:17
Lk 2:241 law
So that the Man-Savior could be a proper Israelite as a proper man before God and men, whatever was required in the law was fully fulfilled in vv. 21-24 (v. 39).
Lk 2:242 A
This kind of sacrifice indicates the offerers’ poverty (Lev. 12:8). Poverty was another characteristic of the Man-Savior’s life.
Lk 2:251a righteous  -   Luke 1:6, 75; 23:50
Righteous mainly toward men and devout toward God.
Lk 2:25b devout  -   Acts 2:5; 8:2; 22:12
Lk 2:25c waiting  -   Luke 2:38; 23:51
Lk 2:252d consolation  -   Isa. 61:2
The Man-Savior is the consolation of God’s chosen people.
Lk 2:25e Holy  -   Luke 1:41, 67
Lk 2:26a not  -   cf. John 8:51; Heb. 11:5
Lk 2:26b Christ  -   Luke 9:20; 23:35
Lk 2:27a law  -   Luke 2:23
Lk 2:28a blessed  -   Luke 1:64
Lk 2:29a peace  -   Gen. 15:15
Lk 2:301a salvation  -   Luke 3:6; Gen. 49:18; Isa. 52:10
The Man-Savior is God’s salvation given to His people.
Lk 2:321a light  -   Isa. 42:6; 49:6; Acts 13:47
The Man-Savior is a light to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel.
Lk 2:32b glory  -   Jer. 2:11
Lk 2:341 appointed
The Man-Savior was appointed by God to be a test to the children of Israel, so that many of them would be stumbled by Him and many raised up by Him (Rom. 9:33).
Lk 2:34a falling  -   Isa. 8:14-15; Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Pet. 2:8
Lk 2:342 sign
The Man-Savior is also a sign, a token, spoken against, contradicted, and opposed by the people who take sides with His enemy, so that the reasonings of many hearts may be revealed. In Simeon’s word the Man-Savior was revealed as the consolation of Israel, the salvation of God, a light to the Gentiles, the glory of Israel, a test to Israel, and a sign opposed.
Lk 2:34b spoken  -   Acts 28:22; Psa. 69:12; cf. Matt. 11:19; John 9:24
Lk 2:351 sword
While the Man-Savior as a sign is spoken against, the suffering also pierces the inner being of the one who brings Him forth. This is to experience His suffering in our experience of Him.
Lk 2:352 revealed
What is within man’s heart is easily revealed by his attitude toward Christ.
Lk 2:36a prophetess  -   Exo. 15:20
Lk 2:36b Asher  -   Gen. 30:13; Num. 1:40
Lk 2:371 And
Or, And she was a widow for eighty-four years.
Lk 2:37a widow  -   1 Tim. 5:3, 5, 9
Lk 2:372 serving
Lit., serving as a priest.
Lk 2:37b fastings  -   Matt. 6:16-18; Acts 13:2-3
Lk 2:37c night  -   Acts 26:7; 1 Tim. 5:5
Lk 2:38a waiting  -   Luke 2:25
Lk 2:381b redemption  -   Luke 24:21
The Man-Savior as the redemption of God’s people.
Lk 2:382 of
Some MSS read, in.
Lk 2:39a law  -   Luke 2:23
Lk 2:391b Nazareth  -   Luke 2:4
The Man-Savior was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, and remained there only briefly; but He was raised in Nazareth, a despised city, which was in Galilee, a despised region. This was arranged by the sovereignty of God in order to make Him a despised person. Being despised was another characteristic of the Savior’s human life.
Lk 2:401 grew
Grew in stature (v. 52) and became strong in spirit (cf. 1:80).
Lk 2:402a wisdom  -   Luke 2:52
The wisdom of the Savior’s deity (Col. 2:2-3) was revealed in proportion to the measure of His bodily growth. So in v. 52.
Lk 2:403 grace
As a man, even Jesus needed the grace of God for His human life. He was filled with the wisdom of His deity and needed the grace of God in His humanity.
Lk 2:41a Jerusalem  -   John 11:55; Deut. 12:5, 11, 14, 18, 26; 16:16
Lk 2:41b Passover  -   Exo. 12:11; Deut. 16:1-8
Lk 2:421 twelve
At the age of twelve, a boy was called by the Jews “son of the law” and first incurred legal obligation (Alford). The number twelve signifies eternal perfection in God’s administration. Hence, twelve years old indicates that what the Lord did here was altogether related to God’s administration.
Lk 2:422a custom  -   Exo. 12:21-27; Lev. 23:4-5
Ordained by God that one might be legally a male in Israel (Deut. 16:16).
Lk 2:46a temple  -   Matt. 26:55
Lk 2:46b teachers  -   Luke 5:17; John 3:10
Lk 2:47a amazed  -   Luke 4:22, 32; Matt. 7:28; Mark 1:22; John 7:15
Lk 2:481 greatly
Lit., painfully distressed.
Lk 2:491 must
Indicating that the boy Jesus was caring for the interest of God.
Lk 2:492 in
Or, in My Father’s house.
Lk 2:493a My  -   John 2:16; 14:2
Indicating the deity of the boy Jesus (John 5:18). In His humanity He was the son of His parents; in His deity He was the Son of God the Father.
Lk 2:50a not  -   Luke 9:45
Lk 2:511 subject
In His humanity He was subject to His human parents.
Lk 2:51a heart  -   Luke 2:19
Lk 2:521 stature
The Greek word denotes not only stature, as in 19:3, but also age (see note 271 in Matt. 6).
Lk 2:522a grace  -   cf. 1 Sam. 2:26
In grace before God because He was growing in the expression of God according to God’s desire; in grace before men because He was growing in the divine attributes manifested in the human virtues, which were gracious to men. He was growing as a God-man before God and men.
Luke Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 3:1a Caesar  -   Luke 2:1
Lk 3:1b Pontius  -   Acts 4:27; 1 Tim. 6:13
Lk 3:1c governor  -   Luke 2:2
Lk 3:1d Herod  -   Luke 3:19; 9:7; 23:7; Matt. 14:1; Acts 13:1
Lk 3:2a Caiaphas  -   Matt. 26:3; John 11:49; 18:13; Acts 4:6
Lk 3:2b John  -   vv. 2-17: Matt. 3:1-12; Mark 1:2-8
Lk 3:21c wilderness  -   Josh. 15:61
See notes 12 in Matt. 3 and 42 in Mark 1.
Lk 3:31 baptism
See note 43 in Mark 1.
Lk 3:3a repentance  -   Acts 17:30
Lk 3:32 for
See note 44 in Mark 1.
Lk 3:3b forgiveness  -   Luke 1:77; Matt. 26:28
Lk 3:4a Isaiah  -   Luke 4:17; Acts 8:28
Lk 3:41b A  -   Isa. 40:3-5; John 1:23
For the rest of the verse, see notes in Mark 1:3.
Lk 3:4c Prepare  -   Luke 1:76; Isa. 57:14
Lk 3:51 ravine
Ravine, mountain, crooked places, and rough ways are figures of speech describing the condition of men’s hearts toward God and toward one another, and the relationships among men (1:16-17), which needed to be dealt with to prepare the way for the Savior’s coming.
Lk 3:5a mountain  -   Isa. 49:11; Zech. 4:7
Lk 3:5b crooked  -   Isa. 42:16
Lk 3:61 flesh
I.e., fallen men.
Lk 3:62a salvation  -   Luke 2:30; Psa. 98:2-3
The Savior is the salvation of God. When He comes, the salvation of God comes. To see and receive Him is to see and receive the salvation of God.
Lk 3:71 Offspring
The offspring of vipers are the children of the devil (1 John 3:10). The devil is the ancient serpent (Rev. 12:9); hence, his children become serpents with the same life and nature that he has.
Lk 3:7a vipers  -   Matt. 23:33; Psa. 140:3
Lk 3:7b wrath  -   Rom. 2:5, 8; 5:9; 1 Thes. 1:10
Lk 3:8a worthy  -   Acts 26:20
Lk 3:8b Abraham  -   John 8:33, 39; Rom. 9:7
Lk 3:81 raise
See note 91 in Matt. 3.
Lk 3:9a good  -   Matt. 7:19
Lk 3:91 fire
See note 171.
Lk 3:10a What  -   Acts 2:37; 16:30; 22:10
Lk 3:111a tunics  -   Isa. 58:7; Ezek. 18:7, 16
A shirt-like undergarment. So throughout the book.
Lk 3:12a tax  -   Luke 7:29; 18:13-14; Matt. 21:32
Lk 3:13a Exact  -   cf. Luke 19:8
Lk 3:141 take
See note 82 in ch. 19.
Lk 3:151 expectation
Expecting to know whether John might be the Christ, the Messiah (John 1:19-27).
Lk 3:161 baptize
For vv. 16-17, see notes in Matt. 3:11-12 and Mark 1:7-8.
Lk 3:16a water  -   John 1:26; Acts 1:5
Lk 3:16b Holy  -   John 1:33; Acts 11:15-16
Lk 3:17a threshing  -   Micah 4:12
Lk 3:17b barn  -   Matt. 13:30
Lk 3:171c fire  -   Mark 9:48
The fire in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15).
Lk 3:181a announced  -   Luke 2:10; 4:43
See note 431 in ch. 4.
Lk 3:19a Herodias  -   Matt. 14:3-4
Lk 3:20a prison  -   John 3:24
Lk 3:211a baptized  -   vv. 21-22: Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11
For vv. 21-22, see notes in Matt. 3:16-17 and Mark 1:9-11.
Lk 3:221a Holy  -   Luke 4:18; John 1:32; Acts 10:38
The Holy Spirit’s conceiving of Jesus in 1:35 was essential, related to the divine being, the divine person, of Jesus. The essence of the Holy Spirit’s divine element in the conception of Jesus was unchangeable and irremovable. However, the Holy Spirit’s descending upon Jesus here was economical, related to the ministry, the work, of Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit for the ministry of Jesus (4:14, 18; Matt. 12:28) could be removed from Him, depending on the need for it. It was in such an economical way that God forsook and left Jesus while He was carrying the sinners’ sin in dying for them on the cross (Matt. 27:46). The Holy Spirit in power descended upon Him here, but He had the Holy Spirit in essence from His birth; and while the Holy Spirit in power was descending upon Him, He was existing with the Holy Spirit in essence.
Lk 3:22b Beloved  -   Eph. 1:6; Col. 1:13
Lk 3:23a began  -   Acts 1:1
Lk 3:231 thirty
The full age for God’s service (Num. 4:3, 35, 39-40, 43-44, 47-48).
Lk 3:232 so
Lit., according to law.
Lk 3:233 son
See note 11 in Matt. 1. The record of John’s Gospel, the Gospel of the God-Savior, begins from God and comes to man (John 1:1, 14), emphasizing Christ’s divinity to attest to His divine-human status. The genealogy of Luke’s Gospel, the Gospel of the Man-Savior, begins from man and traces back to God (vv. 23, 38), stressing Christ’s humanity to affirm His human-divine status. He was born a man to bring God to man that He might accomplish redemption to bring man to God. In Him God and man are joined together.
Lk 3:234b Joseph  -   Luke 4:22; John 6:42
See notes 161 and 162 in Matt. 1.
Lk 3:271a Zerubbabel  -   Ezra 3:2
See note 122 in Matt. 1.
Lk 3:311a Nathan  -   2 Sam. 5:14; Zech. 12:12
See note 63, pars. 2 and 3, in Matt. 1.
Lk 3:31b David  -   1 Sam. 17:12
Lk 3:32a Jesse  -   vv. 32-34a: Matt. 1:1-5
Lk 3:34a Terah  -   vv. 34b-36a: Gen. 11:10-26
Lk 3:36a Noah  -   vv. 36b-38: Gen. 5:3-32
Lk 3:381 Adam
See note 11, par. 4, in Matt. 1.
Lk 3:382 son
This does not mean that Adam was born of God and possessed the life of God, just as son of Joseph does not mean that Jesus was born of Joseph; rather, He was thought to be the son of Joseph (v. 23). Adam was created by God (Gen. 5:1-2), and God was his origin. Based on this he was considered the son of God, even as the heathen poets considered all mankind to be the offspring of God (Acts 17:28). Mankind was only created by God, not regenerated of Him. This is absolutely and intrinsically different from the believers in Christ being the sons of God. They have been born, regenerated, of God and possess God’s life and nature (John 1:12-13; 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4).
Lk 3:383 God
From Jesus (v. 23) back to God there are seventy-seven generations, in which are seen the history of God’s creation, man’s fall, God’s promise, and man’s salvation: of God, man was created (v. 38; Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7); in Adam, man became fallen (v. 38; Gen. 3); through Abraham, man received God’s promise (v. 34; Gen. 12:1-3); and in Jesus, man is saved (v. 23; 2:10-11).
Luke Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 4:11 Jesus
For vv. 1-13, see notes in Matt. 4:1-11.
Lk 4:12a Holy  -   Luke 4:14, 18
See note 221 in ch. 3.
Lk 4:1b Jordan  -   Matt. 3:13
Lk 4:13 by
Or, in.
Lk 4:1c Spirit  -   Ezek. 11:1; Acts 8:39
Lk 4:1d wilderness  -   vv. 1-13: Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13
Lk 4:4a Man  -   Deut. 8:3
Lk 4:41 alone
Some MSS add, but on every word of God.
Lk 4:6a authority  -   Rev. 13:2, 7
Lk 4:61 has
This must have occurred in the preadamic age. The devil’s word here indicates that when God anointed the archangel to be the head of the preadamic age (Ezek. 28:13-14), the authority and glory of the kingdom of the earth must have been given to him. The Lord’s word in John 12:31 confirms this. After he rebelled against God and became God’s enemy, Satan, he was judged by God (Isa. 14:12-15), but the full execution of God’s judgment upon him will not be completed until the end of the millennium (Rev. 20:7-10). Hence, until that time he has authority over the kingdoms of the earth. He tempted the Lord Jesus by offering this authority and its glory to Him. His evil offer was rejected by God’s Christ, but it will be accepted by the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness (2 Thes. 2:3-4), at the end of this age (Rev. 13:4) for the executing of Satan’s evil strategy against God. Only by Christ, who lives in us, can we reject the evil tempter.
Lk 4:81 him
Some MSS add, Go away, behind Me, Satan.
Lk 4:8a You  -   Deut. 6:13
Lk 4:82 serve
Lit., serve as a priest.
Lk 4:91 wing
See note 51 in Matt. 4.
Lk 4:10a To  -   Psa. 91:11-12
Lk 4:12a You  -   Deut. 6:16; Isa. 7:12
Lk 4:121 test
See note 72 in Matt. 4.
Lk 4:131 until
Indicating that the devil would seek for another time and would come back to tempt Him again and again at any time he saw fit (Matt. 16:22-23; John 8:40; Luke 22:53; John 6:70-71).
Lk 4:141a Spirit  -   Luke 4:1, 18
See note 221 in ch. 3.
Lk 4:14b Galilee  -   Matt. 4:12; John 4:43; Acts 10:37
Lk 4:142c reports  -   Luke 4:37
Or, the fame concerning Him went out.
Lk 4:151a taught  -   Luke 4:31
See note 212 in Mark 1. So in v. 31.
Lk 4:152b synagogues  -   Matt. 4:23; 9:35; John 18:20
See notes 211 in Mark 1 and 21 in James 2.
Lk 4:153 glorified
I.e., praised, extolled.
Lk 4:16a came  -   vv. 16-24: Matt. 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6
Lk 4:16b Nazareth  -   Matt. 2:23; Luke 2:39, 51
Lk 4:16c custom  -   Acts 17:2
Lk 4:16d Sabbath  -   Luke 4:31
Lk 4:16e synagogue  -   Acts 13:14
Lk 4:16f read  -   Acts 13:27; 15:21
Lk 4:17a Isaiah  -   Luke 3:4
Lk 4:18a The  -   Isa. 61:1-2
Lk 4:181b Spirit  -   Luke 4:1, 14; Isa. 42:1
See note 221 in ch. 3.
Lk 4:18c anointed  -   Dan. 9:26; cf. Lev. 8:12; 1 Sam. 16:12-13
Lk 4:182d announce  -   Luke 3:18; 4:43
See note 431. To announce the gospel was the first commission of the Savior as God’s anointed One, Messiah.
Lk 4:183e poor  -   Matt. 11:5; Luke 6:20
Poor in heavenly, spiritual, and divine things (12:21; Rev. 3:17; cf. Matt. 5:3).
Lk 4:18f release  -   Psa. 146:7-8; Zech. 9:11-12; Rom. 6:18, 22
Lk 4:184 captives
Prisoners of war, exiles and prisoners under Satan’s bondage (Isa. 42:7).
Lk 4:185 recovery
Recovery of sight is related to being released from the power of Satan (Acts 26:18).
Lk 4:186g blind  -   Acts 26:18
Those who are blind physically and spiritually (Zeph. 1:17; John 9:39-41; 1 John 2:11; Rev. 3:17).
Lk 4:187h oppressed  -   Isa. 58:6
From a verb meaning to break in pieces (Matt. 12:20). Here it denotes being oppressed under Satan in sickness or in sin (13:11-13; John 8:34).
Lk 4:191 acceptable
The New Testament age, typified by the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8-17). The New Testament age would be the time when God would accept the returned captives of sin (Isa. 49:8; 2 Cor. 6:2) and when those oppressed under the bondage of sin would enjoy the release of God’s salvation and keep the New Testament jubilee.
Lk 4:21a fulfilled  -   Matt. 1:22
Lk 4:22a marveled  -   Luke 4:32; Matt. 7:28; Mark 6:2
Lk 4:221 words
Referring to the words in v. 21, and including the words of the gospel in vv. 18-19.
Lk 4:22b grace  -   Psa. 45:2
Lk 4:222c Joseph’s  -   Luke 3:23
They knew the Savior according to His flesh (2 Cor. 5:16), not according to the Spirit (Rom. 1:4).
Lk 4:23a yourself  -   Matt. 27:42; Luke 23:39
Lk 4:23b Capernaum  -   Luke 4:31; Matt. 4:13; 11:23
Lk 4:25a Elijah  -   1 Kings 17:1; 18:1; James 5:17
Lk 4:261a Sarepta  -   1 Kings 17:9
The Old Testament name is Zarephath (1 Kings 17:9).
Lk 4:26b Sidon  -   Matt. 15:21 and note
Lk 4:262 woman
This was a case of feeding, signifying the Lord’s feeding of the hungry (John 6:33, 35). The case of Naaman in the next verse is a case of cleansing, signifying the Lord’s cleansing of sinners (1 Cor. 6:11). The Savior’s mentioning of these two cases implied that His gospel would turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:45-48; see notes 211 and 221 in Matt. 15) — not because His standard of morality was unable to embrace the Jews but because of the Jews’ hardhearted rejection of Him.
Lk 4:27a lepers  -   2 Kings 7:3
Lk 4:27b Naaman  -   2 Kings 5:1-5
Lk 4:28a anger  -   Luke 6:11; John 7:23; cf. Acts 7:54
Lk 4:29a cast  -   Acts 7:58; cf. Num. 15:35
Lk 4:301 passing
Showing His steadiness under the threatening of His opposers.
Lk 4:30a went  -   John 8:59; 10:39
Lk 4:31a came  -   vv. 31-37: Mark 1:21-28
Lk 4:31b Capernaum  -   Luke 4:23; 7:1; Matt. 4:13; Mark 1:21
Lk 4:31c taught  -   Matt. 4:23; Mark 6:2
Lk 4:31d Sabbath  -   Luke 4:16
Lk 4:32a astounded  -   Luke 4:22
Lk 4:321b authority  -   Matt. 7:28-29; Mark 1:22
See note 221 in Mark 1.
Lk 4:331a spirit  -   Luke 6:18
See note 231 in Mark 1.
Lk 4:341 Ah
An interjection expressing anger or dismay. The Greek word may be translated Let us alone.
Lk 4:342a What  -   Matt. 8:29
Lit., What to us and to You. A Hebrew idiom.
Lk 4:34b Nazarene  -   Luke 4:16; John 1:45
Lk 4:34c know  -   Acts 19:15
Lk 4:34d Holy  -   Psa. 16:10; Luke 1:35
Lk 4:35a quiet  -   Luke 4:41
Lk 4:361a authority  -   Luke 4:32; cf. Matt. 8:27
See note 271 in Mark 1.
Lk 4:36b power  -   Luke 6:19
Lk 4:371a reports  -   Luke 4:14
Or, a sound.
Lk 4:38a entered  -   vv. 38-41: Matt. 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34
Lk 4:381 Simon’s
In vv. 38-41; 5:12-14; and 7:1-10, the order in the narration of the incidents is according to morality; this differs from the order in Matt. 8:2-16 and Mark 1:29 — 2:1. See note 161, par. 2, in Matt. 8.
Lk 4:382 suffering
Lit., constrained.
Lk 4:383 fever
See notes 301 and 311 in Mark 1.
Lk 4:39a rebuked  -   Luke 4:41; 8:24; 9:42
Lk 4:40a laid  -   Mark 5:23; 16:18
Lk 4:41a crying  -   Mark 3:11-12; Acts 16:17-18
Lk 4:41b Son  -   Matt. 14:33
Lk 4:41c not  -   Luke 4:35; Mark 1:25
Lk 4:41d Christ  -   Luke 2:11, 26
Lk 4:42a day  -   Mark 1:35
Lk 4:42b deserted  -   Luke 5:16
Lk 4:42c sought  -   Mark 1:36, 37
Lk 4:431a announce  -   Luke 2:10; 3:18; 8:1; 16:16; Matt. 4:23; 24:14; Acts 8:12
The Greek word means to announce good news, to declare (bring) glad tidings, to preach (the gospel). Hence, to announce the gospel of the kingdom of God is to preach the kingdom of God as the gospel, the good news.
Lk 4:432 kingdom
The kingdom of God is the Savior (see note 211 in ch. 17) as the seed of life sown into His believers, God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3, 26), and developing into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life. The entrance into the kingdom is regeneration (John 3:5), and the development of the kingdom is the believers’ growth in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3-11). The kingdom is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live (Rom. 14:17), and it will develop into the coming kingdom as a reward to be inherited (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5) by the overcoming saints in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6). Eventually, it will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God, an eternal realm of the eternal blessing of God’s eternal life, which all God’s redeemed will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity — Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14 (see notes 151 in Mark 1, and 31, 32, 261, 263 in Mark 4). Such a kingdom, the kingdom of God, is what the Savior announced here as the gospel, the good news, to those who were alienated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18).
Lk 4:433 this
See note 382 in Mark 1.
Lk 4:441 preached
See note 142 in Mark 1.
Lk 4:44a synagogues  -   Matt. 4:23; Mark 1:39
Lk 4:442 Judea
Some MSS read, Galilee; corresponding with Mark 1:39 and Matt. 4:23. Galilee was a part of the country of the Jews, which was commonly called Judea (see notes 171 in ch. 7 and 51 in ch. 23).
Luke Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 5:1a standing  -   vv. 1-11: Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20
Lk 5:11 lake
A common name for the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 4:18; Mark 1:16).
Lk 5:1b Gennesaret  -   Matt. 14:34
Lk 5:21 saw
The events in vv. 2-10a are not in the record in Matt. 4:18-22 or Mark 1:16-20.
Lk 5:3a boats  -   Matt. 13:2
Lk 5:31 Simon’s
Previously, Simon had been brought to the Lord by his brother Andrew (John 1:40-42).
Lk 5:4a nets  -   John 21:6
Lk 5:51 Master
One who exercises any kind of oversight.
Lk 5:5a nothing  -   John 21:3
Lk 5:6a fish  -   John 21:11
Lk 5:8a sinful  -   Isa. 6:5
Lk 5:101 partners
The word here denotes a close association, a common interest.
Lk 5:102a catching  -   Acts 2:41
This was the Lord’s calling of Peter by means of a miracle in fishing. (See note 61, par. 2, in John 21.) The Greek word for catch alive is a compound of living and to catch; hence, to catch alive, to take captive alive (in war), instead of killing. The common fishers catch fish unto death. But Peter was called by the Lord to be a fisher of men (Matt. 4:19) that he might catch men unto life (Acts 2:38; 11:18).
Lk 5:11a left  -   Luke 18:28
Lk 5:11b followed  -   Luke 5:27; 9:57-62
Lk 5:121a man  -   vv. 12-15: Matt. 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45
For vv. 12-15, see notes in Matt. 8:2-4 and Mark 1:40-45.
Lk 5:12b fell  -   Luke 17:16
Lk 5:14a no  -   Matt. 9:30; Mark 5:43; 7:36
Lk 5:14b priest  -   Lev. 13:49; Luke 17:14
Lk 5:14c Moses  -   Lev. 14:1-32
Lk 5:14d testimony  -   Matt. 10:18; Luke 9:5
Lk 5:15a great  -   Matt. 4:25; Mark 3:8; John 6:2
Lk 5:15b healed  -   Mark 1:34; 6:56
Lk 5:16a wilderness  -   Luke 4:42
Lk 5:161b prayed  -   Matt. 14:23
See note 351 in Mark 1.
Lk 5:17a teachers  -   Acts 5:34; 1 Tim. 1:7
Lk 5:17b village  -   Mark 6:56
Lk 5:17c Judea  -   Mark 3:7-8
Lk 5:17d power  -   Luke 6:19; 8:46
Lk 5:171 was
Other MSS read, was there to heal them.
Lk 5:18a brought  -   Mark 6:55
Lk 5:181b man  -   vv. 18-26: Matt. 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12
For vv. 18-26, see notes in Matt. 9:2-8 and Mark 2:3-12.
Lk 5:20a faith  -   Luke 7:9; Mark 10:52; Acts 3:16
Lk 5:20b forgiven  -   Luke 7:48
Lk 5:21a blasphemies  -   Matt. 26:65; John 10:36
Lk 5:21b forgive  -   Psa. 32:5; Isa. 43:25
Lk 5:22a knowing  -   John 2:24-25; 5:42
Lk 5:24a forgive  -   Acts 5:31
Lk 5:25a glorifying  -   Luke 7:16
Lk 5:271a tax  -   Matt. 5:46; 11:19
For vv. 27-32, see notes in Matt. 9:9-13 and Mark 2:13-17.
Lk 5:27b sitting  -   vv. 27-32: Matt. 9:9-13; Mark 2:14-17
Lk 5:28a followed  -   Luke 5:11
Lk 5:291 house
A saved one should open his house for the Lord’s enjoyment.
Lk 5:29a tax  -   Luke 15:1
Lk 5:30a scribes  -   Acts 4:5; 23:9
Lk 5:30b eat  -   Matt. 11:19; Luke 15:2
Lk 5:32a righteous  -   Luke 15:7
Lk 5:32b sinners  -   1 Tim. 1:15
Lk 5:32c repentance  -   Luke 13:3, 5; 15:10; 24:47; Acts 5:31; Matt. 4:17; 11:20; Mark 1:15
Lk 5:33a said  -   vv. 33-39: Matt. 9:14-17; Mark 2:18-22
Lk 5:331b disciples  -   Luke 11:1; John 1:35; 3:25
For vv. 33-39, see notes in Matt. 9:14-17.
Lk 5:33c fast  -   Luke 2:37; 18:12
Lk 5:34a bridegroom  -   John 3:29
Lk 5:35a days  -   Luke 17:22
Lk 5:361 he
Or, the new will tear, and the patch from the new…
Luke Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 6:11 And
For vv. 1-5, see notes in Matt. 12:1-8 and Mark 2:23-28.
Lk 6:12 one
Many MSS read, the second first Sabbath; i.e., the second Sabbath after the first.
Lk 6:1a Sabbath  -   vv. 1-5: Matt. 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28
Lk 6:1b ears  -   Deut. 23:25
Lk 6:2a Pharisees  -   Matt. 9:11
Lk 6:2b not  -   Exo. 20:10
Lk 6:3a David  -   1 Sam. 21:1-6
Lk 6:4a bread  -   Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:5-9
Lk 6:5a Son  -   Luke 5:24
Lk 6:61 on
For vv. 6-11, see notes in Matt. 12:9-14 and Mark 3:1-6.
Lk 6:6a synagogue  -   Luke 4:15; Matt. 4:23; Mark 6:2
Lk 6:62 taught
See note 212 in Mark 1.
Lk 6:6b man  -   vv. 6-11: Matt. 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6
Lk 6:7a watching  -   Luke 14:1
Lk 6:7b accuse  -   John 8:6
Lk 6:8a knew  -   Matt. 9:4
Lk 6:9a lawful  -   Luke 14:3; cf. Luke 13:14
Lk 6:91 life
Lit., soul; referring to the soul-life.
Lk 6:10a looking  -   Mark 3:34; 5:32; 10:23
Lk 6:111a rage  -   Luke 4:28
Or, folly; implying senseless rage. As a sign that tests people, the Man-Savior caused people to be exposed (2:34-35); some were humble and received grace, and others were haughty and became enraged.
Lk 6:11b discussed  -   Matt. 21:46; 26:4; 27:1
Lk 6:121a pray  -   Matt. 14:23
See note 351 in Mark 1.
Lk 6:122 prayer
Lit., the prayer of God.
Lk 6:131a called  -   vv. 13-16: Matt. 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19
For vv. 13-16, see notes in Matt. 10:1-4.
Lk 6:13b disciples  -   Luke 9:1
Lk 6:13c apostles  -   Mark 6:30
Lk 6:14a Simon  -   vv. 14-16: Acts 1:13
Lk 6:14b Peter  -   John 1:42; Matt. 16:18
Lk 6:14c Andrew  -   John 1:40; Matt. 4:18
Lk 6:14d James  -   Luke 5:10
Lk 6:14e Philip  -   John 1:44
Lk 6:15a Matthew  -   Matt. 9:9; Luke 5:27
Lk 6:16a Judas  -   John 14:22
Lk 6:161 brother
Or, son.
Lk 6:17a great  -   vv. 17-19: Mark 3:7-12
Lk 6:17b Tyre  -   Matt. 11:21
Lk 6:18a spirits  -   Luke 4:33
Lk 6:19a touch  -   Matt. 14:36
Lk 6:19b power  -   Luke 8:46; 4:36; 5:17
Lk 6:20a lifted  -   John 6:5
Lk 6:20b said  -   vv. 20-23: Matt. 5:2-12
Lk 6:201 Blessed
Whatever was decreed in Matt. 5 — 7, as the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, constitutes the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. Whatever is cited here in vv. 20-49, as principles of the character of God’s children, governs and measures the behavior of the believers, who have been born of God and possess His life and nature. At the time it was spoken, this entire portion (except vv. 24-26, 39) applied to the believing remnant of the Jews. In terms of the standard of character, the principles contained in this portion far surpassed the law that the Jews received from Moses.
Lk 6:202c poor  -   Matt. 11:5; James 2:5
For vv. 20-23, see notes in Matt. 5:3-12.
Lk 6:203d kingdom  -   Luke 12:32
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 6:21a hunger  -   Luke 1:53
Lk 6:21b weep  -   Isa. 61:2-3; John 16:20
Lk 6:22a hate  -   Matt. 10:22
Lk 6:22b reproach  -   1 Pet. 4:14; Heb. 13:13
Lk 6:22c cast  -   cf. John 9:22; 16:2
Lk 6:23a Rejoice  -   Acts 5:41; 1 Pet. 4:13
Lk 6:23b prophets  -   2 Chron. 36:16; Acts 7:51-52
Lk 6:241 But
At the time they were spoken, vv. 24-26 could have applied to the unbelieving Jews, who hardened their hearts and rejected the Savior.
Lk 6:24a woe  -   Amos 6:1
Lk 6:24b rich  -   Luke 18:23; James 5:1
Lk 6:242c received  -   Luke 6:25
In Greek this word was used in a commercial sense to acknowledge receipt of full payment.
Lk 6:25a hunger  -   Isa. 65:13-14
Lk 6:25b laughing  -   Prov. 14:13
Lk 6:26a prophets  -   Isa. 30:10; Jer. 5:31; Micah 2:11; Matt. 7:15
Lk 6:271 Love
For vv. 27-36, see notes in Matt. 5:38-48.
Lk 6:27a enemies  -   Luke 6:35; Matt. 5:44; Exo. 23:4; Prov. 25:21; Rom. 12:20
Lk 6:28a Bless  -   1 Pet. 3:9; Rom. 12:14
Lk 6:28b pray  -   cf. Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60
Lk 6:29a beats  -   Matt. 5:39; 26:67; Isa. 50:6; Lam. 3:30
Lk 6:30a give  -   Luke 6:38; Matt. 5:42; Deut. 15:10
Lk 6:31a do  -   Matt. 7:12
Lk 6:32a love  -   Matt. 5:46-47
Lk 6:321 thanks
Lit., favor. So in the succeeding verses. Thanks corresponds with a reward, and what refers to the quality of the reward; hence, what thanks means what kind of reward.
Lk 6:34a lend  -   cf. Matt. 5:42
Lk 6:35a enemies  -   Luke 6:27
Lk 6:35b lend  -   Deut. 15:8; Psa. 37:26; 112:5; Prov. 19:17
Lk 6:351 expecting
Or, considering nothing as loss.
Lk 6:35c sons  -   Matt. 5:45
Lk 6:35d Most  -   Luke 1:32
Lk 6:36a as  -   Matt. 5:48; Eph. 5:1
Lk 6:36b compassion  -   James 5:11
Lk 6:371 do
For vv. 37-38, see notes in Matt. 7:1-2.
Lk 6:37a not  -   Matt. 7:1; Rom. 14:13; 1 Cor. 4:5
Lk 6:37b not  -   cf. John 3:17; 8:10-11
Lk 6:37c release  -   Matt. 6:14-15; Eph. 4:32
Lk 6:38a Give  -   Luke 6:30; Deut. 15:10; Prov. 19:17
Lk 6:381 bosom
“The gathered fold of the wide upper garment, bound together with the girdle, and thus forming a pouch” (Vincent).
Lk 6:38b measure  -   Matt. 7:2; cf. Mark 4:24
Lk 6:391 A
At the time it was spoken, this word could have applied to the leaders among the Jews.
Lk 6:392 blind
See note 141 in Matt. 15.
Lk 6:39a guide  -   Matt. 15:14
Lk 6:40a disciple  -   Matt. 10:24
Lk 6:411 look
For vv. 41-42, see notes in Matt. 7:3-5.
Lk 6:41a splinter  -   Matt. 7:3-5
Lk 6:41b own  -   cf. John 8:7-9
Lk 6:421 Hypocrite
See note 22 in Matt. 6.
Lk 6:43a no  -   vv. 43-44: Matt. 7:16-20
Lk 6:44a known  -   Matt. 12:33
Lk 6:45a good  -   Matt. 12:35
Lk 6:45b out  -   Matt. 12:34; 15:18-19
Lk 6:46a Lord  -   Matt. 7:21-23; 25:11; Luke 13:25
Lk 6:471 Everyone
For vv. 47-49, see notes in Matt. 7:24-27.
Lk 6:47a hears  -   vv. 47-49: Matt. 7:24-27
Lk 6:49a collapsed  -   Ezek. 13:10-16
Luke Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 7:11 hearing
Lit., ears.
Lk 7:12a entered  -   vv. 1-10: Matt. 8:5-13
For vv. 1-10, see notes in Matt. 8:5-13.
Lk 7:1b Capernaum  -   Luke 4:23
Lk 7:2a centurion’s  -   Acts 10:1
Lk 7:31 completely
Lit., save his slave thoroughly.
Lk 7:5a synagogue  -   Mark 1:21; James 2:2
Lk 7:6a not  -   Luke 8:49
Lk 7:7a word  -   Matt. 8:16; Psa. 107:20
Lk 7:9a faith  -   Luke 5:20
Lk 7:111 soon
Or, on the next day.
Lk 7:12a only  -   Luke 8:42; 9:38
Lk 7:131 moved
This case is unique in the misery it portrays — a widow’s only son was being carried in a coffin. The Savior’s compassion also was unique in His loving sympathy — in His tender mercy He offered His power of resurrection to raise the widow’s son from death, without being asked to do so. This indicates His unique commission, which was to come to save lost sinners (19:10), and shows the high standard of His morality, as a Man-Savior, in saving sinners.
Lk 7:13a compassion  -   Matt. 20:34; Mark 1:41
Lk 7:13b not  -   Luke 8:52
Lk 7:14a Arise  -   Luke 8:54; Acts 9:40
Lk 7:15a dead  -   Luke 7:22
Lk 7:15b gave  -   Luke 9:42
Lk 7:16a fear  -   Luke 5:26; Matt. 9:8
Lk 7:16b glorified  -   Luke 2:20; 5:25-26; 13:13; 17:15; 23:47; Acts 4:21; 11:18
Lk 7:16c prophet  -   Deut. 18:15; Acts 7:37; Luke 7:39; 24:19; John 4:19; 6:14; 7:40; 9:17
Lk 7:16d visited  -   Exo. 4:31; Luke 1:68; 19:44
Lk 7:171 Judea
A common name of the country of the Jews, including Galilee, where the city of Nain was (see note 442 in ch. 4).
Lk 7:181 John’s
For vv. 18-35, see notes in Matt. 11:2-19.
Lk 7:18a disciples  -   Matt. 9:14
Lk 7:18b reported  -   vv. 18-35: Matt. 11:2-19
Lk 7:191 the
Some MSS read, Jesus.
Lk 7:19a Coming  -   Gen. 49:10; Psa. 118:26; Zech. 9:9; Rom. 5:14
Lk 7:21a healed  -   Matt. 8:16
Lk 7:21b blind  -   Matt. 12:22; 15:31; 21:14; Mark 8:23; 10:52; John 9:6
Lk 7:22a blind  -   Isa. 35:5-6
Lk 7:22b lame  -   Matt. 15:30-31
Lk 7:22c lepers  -   Luke 17:12-14
Lk 7:22d deaf  -   Mark 7:35
Lk 7:22e dead  -   Luke 7:15; John 11:44
Lk 7:22f poor  -   Luke 4:18
Lk 7:221 announced
See note 431 in ch. 4.
Lk 7:231 blessed
When it looks as if the Lord will not act on our behalf, we are blessed if we are not stumbled.
Lk 7:23a stumbled  -   Isa. 8:14-15; Matt. 26:31
Lk 7:24a wilderness  -   Luke 1:80; 3:2
Lk 7:26a prophet  -   Matt. 14:5; Luke 1:76; 20:6
Lk 7:27a Behold  -   Mal. 3:1; Mark 1:2
Lk 7:28a kingdom  -   Luke 6:20
Lk 7:29a acknowledged  -   Psa. 51:4; Rom. 3:4
Lk 7:29b baptized  -   Luke 3:12
Lk 7:29c baptism  -   Acts 18:25; 19:3
Lk 7:30a Pharisees  -   Matt. 23:13
Lk 7:301b lawyers  -   Luke 10:25; 11:45; 14:3; Matt. 22:35
Not practitioners of law but scholars in the Mosaic law.
Lk 7:302 rejected
Or, set aside, nullified.
Lk 7:30c counsel  -   Acts 2:23; 20:27
Lk 7:32a marketplace  -   Luke 11:43
Lk 7:33a eating  -   cf. Matt. 3:4
Lk 7:33b nor  -   Luke 1:15
Lk 7:34a eating  -   Mark 2:16; Luke 15:1-2; 7:36
Lk 7:34b friend  -   Luke 19:7
Lk 7:36a eat  -   Luke 11:37; 14:1
Lk 7:371 brought
Or, provided.
Lk 7:37a ointment  -   Matt. 26:7; Mark 14:3; John 12:3
Lk 7:381a hair  -   John 11:2
The hair is the glory of the woman (1 Cor. 11:15) and is at the top of her body. With her top part she wiped the Savior’s feet, the lowest part of His body, loving Him with her glory.
Lk 7:382 affectionately
In love.
Lk 7:383 ointment
Indicating the woman’s appreciation of the Savior’s great worth and sweetness. Even the Savior’s feet were precious and sweet to her affection.
Lk 7:39a Pharisee  -   Luke 15:2
Lk 7:391 if
A large crowd in Nain, having witnessed the Savior’s power of resurrection, recognized the Savior as a great prophet (v. 16). Yet the Pharisee wondered if He was a prophet. He not only doubted the Savior but also despised the woman as a sinner.
Lk 7:39b prophet  -   Luke 7:16; John 4:19
Lk 7:39c who  -   cf. Luke 22:64
Lk 7:401 answered
Showing the Savior’s omniscience.
Lk 7:411 two
Simon considered only the woman, not himself, a sinner and doubted that the Savior knew that she was a sinner. But the Savior’s parable indicated that both Simon and the woman were sinners — debtors to Him — and that both needed His forgiveness.
Lk 7:41a debtors  -   cf. Matt. 18:24-27
Lk 7:412 denarii
See note 71 in John 6.
Lk 7:421 nothing
Indicating that sinners have nothing with which to repay their debt to God their Savior.
Lk 7:422a forgave  -   Eph. 4:32; Col. 2:13; 3:13
Indicating that the Savior had already forgiven both of them.
Lk 7:423 therefore
Indicating that their love for the Savior was the issue, not the cause, of the Savior’s forgiveness.
Lk 7:441 give
The Savior’s word in vv. 44-46 indicates that Simon should have taken the woman as an example and learned of her.
Lk 7:44a feet  -   Gen. 18:4
Lk 7:45a kiss  -   2 Sam. 19:39; 20:9
Lk 7:46a oil  -   Psa. 23:5; 141:5
Lk 7:47a many  -   Rom. 5:20
Lk 7:471 loved
Her loving much was a proof that her many sins had been forgiven; Simon’s loving little testified that he had been forgiven only a little.
Lk 7:481 Your
This case and the case in Nain of the widow’s only son (vv. 11-17) are found only in this Gospel. These cases display the Savior’s tender care for the dead and sinful and convey the principle of morality as the unique characteristic of this Gospel.
Lk 7:48a forgiven  -   Luke 5:20; 1 John 2:12
Lk 7:491a Who  -   Luke 5:21
Those who were reclining at the table with Him did not realize that this Man-Savior was the very God, who had authority to forgive man’s sins. See note 71 in Mark 2.
Lk 7:501a faith  -   Luke 5:20; 8:48; 18:42
The forgiven woman had not only love toward the Savior but also faith in Him, which operated through love (Gal. 5:6) and issued in peace. The faith that saved her brought her to the Savior in love and resulted in her going forward in peace. Faith, love, and peace are three crucial virtues in experiencing and enjoying the Savior’s salvation. Faith is brought forth by knowing the Savior in His saving power and virtue. Love comes out of this faith and brings in peace; then we follow the Savior. In following the Savior in our living, faith and love bring us peace that we may enjoy the Lord’s life and grow in it.
Lk 7:502 in
Lit., into.
Lk 7:50b peace  -   1 Sam. 1:17; Mark 5:34
Luke Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 8:1a village  -   Mark 6:6
Lk 8:11 preaching
Proclaiming as a herald.
Lk 8:12b announcing  -   Luke 3:18; 4:43; 16:16
See note 431 in ch. 4.
Lk 8:21a women  -   Luke 23:49, 55; Matt. 27:55-56
The twelve called ones were following the Savior (v. 1), and the healed women were ministering to the Savior and His followers out of their own possessions (v. 3). A beautiful picture!
Lk 8:2b seven  -   Mark 16:9
Lk 8:3a Joanna  -   Luke 24:10
Lk 8:31 them
Some MSS read, Him.
Lk 8:4a parable  -   vv. 4-10: Matt. 13:3-15; Mark 4:2-12
Lk 8:51 sower
For vv. 5-15, see notes in Matt. 13:3-23 and Mark 4:2-20.
Lk 8:7a thorns  -   Gen. 3:18; Jer. 4:3
Lk 8:8a hundredfold  -   Gen. 26:12
Lk 8:8b hear  -   Matt. 11:15
Lk 8:10a mysteries  -   1 Cor. 2:6-10; Col. 1:27
Lk 8:101 kingdom
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 8:10b seeing  -   Isa. 6:9
Lk 8:11a parable  -   vv. 11-15: Matt. 13:18-23; Mark 4:13-20
Lk 8:11b word  -   Mark 2:2; 4:33; 16:20; Luke 1:2; Acts 8:4; James 1:21; Rev. 1:2, 9; 1 Pet. 1:23
Lk 8:12a saved  -   Mark 16:16
Lk 8:13a joy  -   Isa. 58:2; John 5:35
Lk 8:13b trial  -   James 1:2, 12; 1 Pet. 1:6
Lk 8:14a anxieties  -   Matt. 6:25
Lk 8:14b riches  -   1 Tim. 6:9
Lk 8:14c pleasures  -   2 Tim. 3:4; Titus 3:3; James 4:1, 3
Lk 8:141 life
Gk. bios, meaning life and referring to one’s material living.
Lk 8:15a noble  -   Acts 17:11
Lk 8:15b bear  -   John 15:5, 16; Col. 1:6
Lk 8:15c endurance  -   Rom. 5:3; 2 Pet. 1:6; Heb. 10:36
Lk 8:16a no  -   vv. 16-18: Mark 4:21-25
Lk 8:161b lamp  -   Luke 11:33; Matt. 5:15
For vv. 16-18, see notes in Mark 4:21-25.
Lk 8:17a hidden  -   Luke 12:2; Matt. 10:26
Lk 8:18a Take  -   Luke 12:15; 17:3; 21:34
Lk 8:18b hear  -   cf. Luke 8:11-15
Lk 8:18c has  -   Luke 19:26; Matt. 13:12; 25:29
Lk 8:191 mother
For vv. 19-21, see notes in Matt. 12:46-50 and Mark 3:31-35.
Lk 8:19a brothers  -   Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3; John 2:12; 7:3; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5; Gal. 1:19
Lk 8:19b came  -   vv. 19-21: Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35
Lk 8:21a hear  -   Luke 11:28; James 1:22
Lk 8:221 got
For vv. 22-25, see notes in Matt. 8:23-27 and Mark 4:36-41.
Lk 8:22a boat  -   vv. 22-25: Matt. 8:23-27; Mark 4:36-41; cf. John 6:16-21
Lk 8:22b other  -   Matt. 8:18; 14:22
Lk 8:22c lake  -   Luke 5:1; 8:33
Lk 8:241 Master
See note 51 in ch. 5.
Lk 8:24a rebuked  -   Psa. 104:7; Luke 4:39
Lk 8:24b ceased  -   Job 38:11; Matt. 14:32
Lk 8:24c calm  -   Psa. 65:7; 89:9; 107:29
Lk 8:25a became  -   Luke 1:65; 5:26; Acts 2:43
Lk 8:261 sailed
For vv. 26-39, see notes in Matt. 8:28-34 and Mark 5:1-20.
Lk 8:26a Gerasenes  -   vv. 26-39: Matt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20
Lk 8:28a cried  -   Luke 4:33-34; Acts 8:7
Lk 8:28b Most  -   Luke 1:32; 6:35; Gen. 14:18; Num. 24:16; Psa. 57:2; Dan. 3:26
Lk 8:29a unclean  -   Luke 4:33; 11:24
Lk 8:31a abyss  -   Rev. 9:1-2; 20:3
Lk 8:32a hogs  -   Lev. 11:7
Lk 8:33a lake  -   Luke 5:1; 8:22
Lk 8:35a sitting  -   Luke 10:39
Lk 8:361 healed
Lit., saved.
Lk 8:37a depart  -   Acts 16:39
Lk 8:37b fear  -   Luke 1:65; 5:26; 7:16
Lk 8:401a returning  -   vv. 40-56: Matt. 9:1, 18-26; Mark 5:21-43
See note 11 in Matt. 9.
Lk 8:411 man
For vv. 41-56, see notes in Matt. 9:18-26 and Mark 5:22-43.
Lk 8:41a ruler  -   Luke 13:14; Acts 13:15; 18:8, 17
Lk 8:42a only  -   Luke 7:12
Lk 8:421 pressed
Or, were stifling Him.
Lk 8:43a flow  -   Lev. 15:25
Lk 8:431 had
Some MSS omit, had spent all her livelihood on physicians and yet.
Lk 8:44a fringe  -   Num. 15:38; Deut. 22:12; Matt. 14:36
Lk 8:451 Peter
Some MSS add, and those with him.
Lk 8:46a power  -   Luke 6:19; Acts 10:38
Lk 8:48a faith  -   Luke 17:19; 7:50
Lk 8:481 healed
Lit., saved. So also in v. 50.
Lk 8:482 in
Lit., into. Before a person is saved, he does not know the way of peace (Rom. 3:17). The Lord’s salvation brings man to the way of peace (1:79).
Lk 8:49a not  -   Luke 7:6
Lk 8:49b Teacher  -   John 11:28
Lk 8:51a Peter  -   Luke 9:28; Mark 14:33
Lk 8:511 John
Some MSS read, James and John.
Lk 8:52a not  -   Luke 7:13
Lk 8:52b sleeping  -   John 11:11, 13
Lk 8:54a took  -   Mark 1:31
Lk 8:54b arise  -   Luke 7:14
Lk 8:55a spirit  -   cf. Judg. 15:19; 1 Sam. 30:12
Lk 8:56a no  -   Luke 5:14
Luke Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 9:1a called  -   Luke 6:13; Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:13; 6:7
Lk 9:11 twelve
Some MSS add, apostles.
Lk 9:12b authority  -   Mark 3:15
See notes 271 in Mark 1 and 12 in Matt. 10.
Lk 9:2a sent  -   Matt. 10:5; Luke 10:1
Lk 9:21b kingdom  -   Luke 9:11, 60, 62
See note 432 in ch. 4. So throughout the chapter.
Lk 9:2c heal  -   Luke 9:11; Matt. 10:8
Lk 9:3a Take  -   vv. 3-5: Matt. 10:9-14; Mark 6:8-11; Luke 10:4-11
Lk 9:31 nor
See note 91 in Matt. 10.
Lk 9:5a shake  -   Acts 13:51; cf. Neh. 5:13; Acts 18:6
Lk 9:5b testimony  -   James 5:3
Lk 9:7a Herod  -   Luke 3:1, 19; Acts 13:1
Lk 9:7b heard  -   vv. 7-9: Matt. 14:1-2; Mark 6:14-16
Lk 9:8a Elijah  -   Luke 9:19
Lk 9:91a beheaded  -   Matt. 14:6-12; Mark 6:21-29
See note 271 in Mark 6.
Lk 9:9b sought  -   Luke 23:8
Lk 9:10a related  -   Mark 6:30
Lk 9:10b taking  -   vv. 10-17: Matt. 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; John 6:1-13; cf. Matt. 15:32-38; Mark 8:1-9
Lk 9:11a crowds  -   Luke 8:40
Lk 9:11b kingdom  -   Luke 9:2, 60
Lk 9:11c healed  -   Luke 9:2
Lk 9:121 day
For vv. 12-17, see notes in Matt. 14:15-21.
Lk 9:12a Send  -   Matt. 15:23
Lk 9:122 countryside
Or, farms.
Lk 9:13a give  -   2 Kings 4:42-44
Lk 9:13b five  -   Matt. 16:9
Lk 9:141 groups
In the same way that people gather for a meal in a home, sitting in groups, table by table.
Lk 9:16a looking  -   Mark 7:34; John 11:41; 17:1
Lk 9:16b blessed  -   Matt. 26:26
Lk 9:171 twelve
See note 431 in Mark 6.
Lk 9:181 questioned
For vv. 18-27, see notes in Matt. 16:13-28.
Lk 9:18a Who  -   vv. 18-20: Matt. 16:13-16; Mark 8:27-29
Lk 9:19a John  -   Matt. 14:2; Mark 6:14; Luke 9:7
Lk 9:19b Elijah  -   Matt. 17:10; Mark 6:15; Luke 9:8
Lk 9:20a Christ  -   Matt. 1:17; Luke 2:26; 23:35; Rev. 11:15; 12:10
Lk 9:21a no  -   Matt. 16:20
Lk 9:22a Saying  -   vv. 22-27: Matt. 16:21-28; Mark 8:31–9:1
Lk 9:22b Son  -   Matt. 17:12, 22-23; Mark 9:31; Luke 18:31; 24:7
Lk 9:221c rejected  -   Luke 17:25; 1 Pet. 2:4
The Greek word means to be rejected on trial, implying deliberate rejection.
Lk 9:22d third  -   Matt. 27:63; Luke 18:33; 24:7, 46
Lk 9:23a cross  -   Matt. 10:38; Luke 14:27
Lk 9:23b daily  -   1 Cor. 15:31
Lk 9:241 lose
Or, destroy…destroys.
Lk 9:251 gains
A word used by merchants.
Lk 9:26a ashamed  -   Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 1:8, 12, 16
Lk 9:26b comes  -   Zech. 14:5; Matt. 24:30; 25:31; 26:64
Lk 9:26c holy  -   Acts 10:22; Rev. 14:10
Lk 9:27a no  -   Matt. 10:23
Lk 9:27b taste  -   John 8:52; Heb. 2:9
Lk 9:281 eight
For vv. 28-36, see notes in Matt. 17:1-9.
Lk 9:28a took  -   vv. 28-36: Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-9
Lk 9:28b Peter  -   Luke 8:51; Mark 14:33
Lk 9:28c pray  -   Matt. 14:23
Lk 9:29a different  -   Mark 16:12
Lk 9:291 dazzling
Lit., flashing like lightning.
Lk 9:29b white  -   Dan. 7:9
Lk 9:31a departure  -   cf. 2 Pet. 1:15
Lk 9:32a sleep  -   cf. Dan. 8:18; Matt. 26:43
Lk 9:32b glory  -   John 1:14
Lk 9:33a tents  -   cf. Neh. 8:15
Lk 9:34a cloud  -   Exo. 24:15-16
Lk 9:35a voice  -   Matt. 3:17; 2 Pet. 1:17
Lk 9:351 saying
This was God’s word of revelation. It interrupted Peter’s nonsensical word in v. 33.
Lk 9:352 Chosen
Some MSS read, Beloved.
Lk 9:35b Hear  -   Acts 3:22
Lk 9:361 had
Lit., occurred.
Lk 9:36a no  -   Matt. 17:9
Lk 9:38a man  -   vv. 38-42: Matt. 17:14-18; Mark 9:17-27
Lk 9:38b only  -   Luke 7:12
Lk 9:39a throws  -   Mark 1:26
Lk 9:40a cast  -   Matt. 10:1
Lk 9:41a perverted  -   Phil. 2:15
Lk 9:41b with  -   John 14:9
Lk 9:42a rebuked  -   Luke 4:35; Zech. 3:2; Jude 9
Lk 9:42b unclean  -   Luke 8:29
Lk 9:42c gave  -   Luke 7:15
Lk 9:43a majesty  -   2 Pet. 1:16
Lk 9:43b said  -   vv. 43b-45: Matt. 17:22-23; Mark 9:31-32
Lk 9:44a Son  -   Luke 9:22
Lk 9:44b delivered  -   Luke 18:32; 22:6; 24:7
Lk 9:45a not  -   Luke 2:50; John 12:16; 16:18
Lk 9:45b concealed  -   Luke 18:34
Lk 9:46a reasoning  -   vv. 46-48: Matt. 18:1-5; Mark 9:33-37
Lk 9:46b greatest  -   Luke 22:24
Lk 9:47a heart  -   Matt. 9:4
Lk 9:48a receives  -   Matt. 10:40; John 13:20
Lk 9:481 because
Lit., upon, or, on; i.e., based on, according to.
Lk 9:48b great  -   Matt. 23:11; Luke 22:26-27
Lk 9:49a John  -   vv. 49-50: Mark 9:38-40
Lk 9:49b in  -   Matt. 7:22; Mark 16:17; Luke 10:17
Lk 9:491c forbade  -   Num. 11:28
See note 381 in Mark 9.
Lk 9:501 not
See note 391 in Mark 9.
Lk 9:502 he
See note 401 in Mark 9.
Lk 9:50a not  -   Luke 11:23
Lk 9:51a taken  -   cf. Acts 1:2, 9
Lk 9:511b Jerusalem  -   Mark 10:1, 32; Luke 13:22; 17:11; 18:31; 19:11, 28
See note 11 in Mark 10.
Lk 9:52a before  -   Luke 10:1
Lk 9:52b Samaritans  -   John 4:4, 9
Lk 9:53a face  -   cf. Ezek. 6:2
Lk 9:541 command
James and John were called “sons of thunder,” indicating their impetuosity (Mark 3:17 and note 1). Their impetuous word here was against the virtue and morality of the Savior whom they accompanied (see note 381 in Mark 9).
Lk 9:54a fire  -   cf. 2 Kings 1:9-14
Lk 9:542 them
Some MSS add, as also Elijah did.
Lk 9:551 and
Most ancient MSS omit, and said…you are.
Lk 9:552 You
This word, “You do not know of what kind of spirit you are,” which shows the high morality of the Man-Savior, is found only in Luke.
Lk 9:561 The
Most ancient MSS omit, The Son…save them.
Lk 9:562 lives
Lit., souls.
Lk 9:571 someone
He was one of the scribes (Matt. 8:19), who usually lived comfortably. He saw crowds being attracted to the Savior (Matt. 8:18) and wanted to follow Him out of curiosity, without counting the cost (see note 191 in Matt. 8). Hence, the Savior cautioned him by pointing out that although crowds were attracted to Him, He had nowhere to rest, indicating to the scribe that to follow Him would cost him considerable suffering.
Lk 9:57a follow  -   vv. 57-60: Matt. 8:19-22
Lk 9:581 not
The Savior’s human life was one of suffering. In the inn, at His birth, there was no room in which He could lie (2:7); and in His marvelous ministry there was no place for Him to rest. Suffering was a sign of His human life (2:12).
Lk 9:591 another
This one was called by the Savior to follow Him. But he considered his duty to his dead father and would not follow Him immediately. Hence, the Savior encouraged him to pay the price (see note 211 in Matt. 8) that he might become a follower in His great commission to announce the kingdom of God.
Lk 9:601 dead
The burying one was spiritually dead (John 5:25; Eph. 2:1), and the one to be buried was physically dead. To engage in such a burial was to do a dead work.
Lk 9:602 announce
To announce the kingdom of God is a living deed, a deed that makes the dead alive so that they can enter into the kingdom of God.
Lk 9:60a kingdom  -   Luke 9:2
Lk 9:611 another
This third one volunteered to follow the Savior, but would not do so before bidding farewell to his family. Hence, the Savior warned him not to let anything hold him back from the kingdom of God.
Lk 9:61a permit  -   cf. 1 Kings 19:20
Lk 9:621 plow
To plow, one must concentrate all his attention on the line being plowed. Being distracted just a little, to say nothing of looking back, may lead the plower off the straight line. To follow the Savior, we must forget everything else and press straight ahead for the kingdom of God.
Lk 9:62a behind  -   Phil. 3:13
Lk 9:62b kingdom  -   Luke 9:2; 4:43; 6:20
Luke Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 10:11 seventy
Some MSS read, seventy-two. (So in v. 17.) The Savior appointed seventy disciples to share His ministry, even as Moses appointed seventy elders to share his burden, as God had charged him to do (Num. 11:16-17; Exo. 24:1, 9).
Lk 10:1a sent  -   Mark 6:7; Luke 9:2
Lk 10:12 two
As witnesses (Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16).
Lk 10:2a harvest  -   Matt. 9:37-38; John 4:35
Lk 10:21 beseech
See note 381 in Matt. 9.
Lk 10:22 into
See note 383 in Matt. 9.
Lk 10:3a lambs  -   Matt. 10:16 and note
Lk 10:41a not  -   vv. 4-12: Matt. 10:9-15; Mark 6:8-11; Luke 9:3-5; cf. Luke 22:35-36
See note 91 in Matt. 10.
Lk 10:4b no  -   2 Kings 4:29
Lk 10:5a Peace  -   1 Sam. 25:6
Lk 10:61 son
The Lord sent the disciples to preach the gospel by going to every city and place and visiting people in their homes. This may serve to confirm our preaching of the gospel today by knocking on doors and visiting people from door to door. The Lord sent the disciples as lambs entering into the midst of wolves (v. 3). However, among the wolves there were sons of peace, that is, sheep that the Lord was concerned about (Matt. 9:36) and the harvest that He desired to reap (v. 2; Matt. 9:37-38). Because these sheep and the harvest, both of which belonged to the Lord, were scattered and mixed with the wolves, it was necessary for the Lord’s disciples to go into the midst of the wolves to seek them out house by house and to reap them. It is the same today. Preaching the gospel by going out to every place to visit people in their homes is ordained by God. It is absolutely different from today’s religious way of holding large gatherings to carry out gospel campaigns.
Lk 10:62 it
Or, him.
Lk 10:6a return  -   Psa. 35:13
Lk 10:7a remain  -   Matt. 10:11
Lk 10:7b eating  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:7-14
Lk 10:7c worker  -   1 Tim. 5:18
Lk 10:8a set  -   1 Cor. 10:27
Lk 10:9a heal  -   Luke 9:1
Lk 10:91b kingdom  -   Luke 10:11; 4:43; 6:20; Mark 1:15
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 10:11a dust  -   Acts 13:51
Lk 10:121 more
See note 151 in Matt. 10.
Lk 10:12a Sodom  -   Matt. 11:24
Lk 10:13a Chorazin  -   vv. 13-15: Matt. 11:21-23
Lk 10:13b works  -   Matt. 7:22
Lk 10:13c Tyre  -   Isa. 23:1-18; Ezek. 28:2-24; Amos 1:9-10
Lk 10:13d sackcloth  -   Jonah 3:6
Lk 10:15a exalted  -   cf. Isa. 14:13-14; Jer. 51:53
Lk 10:151b Hades  -   Luke 16:23; Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:27; Rev. 1:18
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Lk 10:15c brought  -   cf. Isa. 14:15
Lk 10:16a rejects  -   John 12:48; 1 Thes. 4:8; cf. Matt. 10:40 and note
Lk 10:16b sent  -   John 5:23; 13:20
Lk 10:17a in  -   Mark 16:17
Lk 10:181 fall
At the time of his rebellion against God, before the creation of man, Satan was judged and sentenced to be cast into Sheol (Hades), to the recesses (the deepest part) of the pit (Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 28:17). Then God began to execute the sentence He had imposed on him. He has executed, and will execute, this sentence on different occasions and to different degrees, such as through the seventy disciples in this chapter, through Christ on the cross (Heb. 2:14; John 12:31), through the man-child and Michael before the great tribulation, when Satan will be cast down to the earth (Rev. 12:5, 7-10, 13), and through the angel before the millennium, when Satan will be cast into the abyss, the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3). Finally, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire to suffer the punishment of eternal fire after the millennium (Rev. 20:10) for eternity.
Lk 10:191a authority  -   Luke 9:1; Mark 3:15
What the Lord gave to the disciples was authority; what the enemy had was power. Authority subdues power.
Lk 10:192b serpents  -   Psa. 91:13; Mark 16:18; Acts 28:3-5
Serpents may signify Satan and his angels (Eph. 2:2; 6:11-12); scorpions may signify the demons (vv. 17, 20). By the authority of the Lord the disciples subdued their evil power.
Lk 10:20a spirits  -   Luke 4:33
Lk 10:20b recorded  -   Phil. 4:3; Heb. 12:23; Rev. 21:27; cf. Exo. 32:33; Isa. 4:3; Dan. 12:1
Lk 10:211 In
For vv. 21-22, see notes in Matt. 11:25-27.
Lk 10:21a said  -   vv. 21-22: Matt. 11:25-27
Lk 10:21b wise  -   1 Cor. 1:18-29
Lk 10:21c babes  -   Psa. 8:2; Matt. 21:16
Lk 10:21d well  -   Phil. 4:18; Heb. 13:16, 21; Col. 3:20; 1:10; 1 Thes. 2:4
Lk 10:22a All  -   John 3:35; 13:3; 16:15
Lk 10:22b except  -   John 1:18; 6:46
Lk 10:22c reveal  -   John 17:26
Lk 10:23a Blessed  -   vv. 23-24: Matt. 13:16-17
Lk 10:24a prophets  -   1 Pet. 1:10
Lk 10:24b perceive  -   cf. John 8:56; Heb. 11:13
Lk 10:251 test
See note 72 in Matt. 4.
Lk 10:25a saying  -   vv. 25-28: cf. Luke 18:18-20; Matt. 19:16-19; Mark 10:17-19; Matt. 22:35-39
Lk 10:252 what
Lit., having done what, may I inherit eternal life?
Lk 10:253 inherit
See notes 293 and 173 in Matt. 19.
Lk 10:27a You  -   Deut. 6:5
Lk 10:271 with
Lit., in.
Lk 10:27b your  -   Lev. 19:18
Lk 10:28a do  -   Lev. 18:5; Neh. 9:29; Ezek. 20:11; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12
Lk 10:291 justify
He must have been one of the self-justified Pharisees (16:14-15; 18:9-10).
Lk 10:301 certain
This is one of the parables narrated only by Luke. It conveys the principle of high morality in the Savior’s full salvation. The Savior intended the “certain man” to be a figure of the self-justified lawyer (v. 29) as a sinner who had fallen from the foundation of peace (Jerusalem) to the condition of curse (Jericho).
Lk 10:302 down
Indicating a fall from the city of the foundation of peace to the city of curse.
Lk 10:303 Jerusalem
Jerusalem means foundation of peace (cf. Heb. 7:2); Jericho was a city of curse (Josh. 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34).
Lk 10:30a Jericho  -   Josh. 16:1; Luke 18:35
See note 303.
Lk 10:304 robbers
Signifying the legalistic teachers of the Judaic law (John 10:1), who used the law (1 Cor. 15:56) to rob lawkeepers such as the self-justified lawyer.
Lk 10:305 stripped
Signifying the stripping caused by the Judaistic teachers’ misuse of the law.
Lk 10:306 beaten
Lit., laid blows upon; signifying the killing by the law (Rom. 7:9-10).
Lk 10:307 leaving
Signifying that the Judaistic teachers left the lawkeeper in a dead condition (Rom. 7:11, 13).
Lk 10:311 priest
The one who should have cared for God’s people by teaching them the law of God (Deut. 33:10; 2 Chron. 15:3) was going down on the same road and was thus unable to render any help to the beaten one.
Lk 10:321 Levite
One of those who helped God’s people in their worship to God (Num. 1:50; 3:6-7; 8:19) was coming to the same place, and he too was unable to render any help to the dying one.
Lk 10:331a Samaritan  -   Matt. 10:5
Signifying the Man-Savior, who apparently was a layman of low estate. He was despised and slandered as a low and mean Samaritan (John 8:48; 4:9 and note 1) by the self-exalted and self-justified Pharisees, including the one to whom He was speaking here (vv. 25, 29). Such a Man-Savior, in His lost-one-seeking and sinner-saving ministry journey (19:10), came down to the place where the wounded victim of the Judaistic robbers lay in his miserable and dying condition. When He saw him, He was moved with compassion in His humanity with His divinity and rendered him tender healing and saving care, fully meeting his urgent need (vv. 34-35).
Lk 10:33b compassion  -   Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41
Lk 10:341a bound  -   Isa. 1:6
In vv. 34-35 all the aspects of the good Samaritan’s care for the dying one portray the Man-Savior in His merciful, tender, and bountiful care, in His humanity with His divinity, for a sinner condemned under law, showing to the uttermost His high standard of morality in His saving grace: (1) He bound up his wounds — healing him; (2) He poured oil and wine on his wounds — giving him the Holy Spirit and the divine life (Matt. 9:17 and note 1; John 2:9 and note 1); (3) He placed him on his own beast (a donkey) — carrying him by lowly means in a lowly way (Zech. 9:9); (4) He brought him to an inn — bringing him to the church; (5) He took care of him — taking care of him through the church; (6) He paid the inn for him — blessing the church on his behalf; (7) He said that he would repay at his return whatever the inn spent — declaring that whatever the church spends in this age on one who is saved by the Lord will be repaid at the Savior’s coming back.
Lk 10:351a denarii  -   Matt. 18:28
See note 71 in John 6.
Lk 10:361 become
The self-justified lawyer thought that he could love another as his neighbor (v. 29), not knowing, under the blindness of self-justification, that he himself needed a neighbor, the Man-Savior, to love him.
Lk 10:371 The
Or, The one who dealt mercifully with him. The self-justified one was helped to know that he needed a loving neighbor (such as the good Samaritan, who was a figure of the Man-Savior) to love him, not a neighbor for him to love. The Savior intended to unveil to him through this story (1) that he was condemned to death under the law and was unable to take care of himself, much less love others, and (2) that the Man-Savior was the One who would love him and render him full salvation.
Lk 10:381 village
Bethany (John 12:1 and note 1; Mark 11:1; Matt. 21:17 and note 1).
Lk 10:382a Martha  -   John 11:1, 19-20; 12:2
Probably from Aramaic, meaning she was rebellious.
Lk 10:38b received  -   Luke 19:6
Lk 10:391 Mary
Gk. Maria for Heb. Miriam, meaning their rebellion (Num. 12:1, 10-15). The meaning of Martha and Mary conveys the thought of rebellion, perhaps pointing to the natural life of Martha and Mary. The Lord’s salvation can transform the rebellious into the submissive, as portrayed in this story. One like the rebellious Miriam in the Old Testament becomes one like the submissive Mary in the New Testament.
Lk 10:39a feet  -   Deut. 33:3; Luke 8:35
Lk 10:401a being  -   1 Cor. 7:35
Meaning to be drawn around in different directions.
Lk 10:41a anxious  -   Matt. 6:25-34; Phil. 4:6
Lk 10:42a one  -   Psa. 27:4
Lk 10:421b good  -   Psa. 16:5
The Lord prefers that His saved ones who love Him listen to Him (v. 39) that they may know His desire, rather than do things for Him without knowing His will (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Eccl. 5:1).
It is quite significant that this story of Martha and Mary immediately follows the parable of the good Samaritan. The parable shows the compassion and love of the Savior, who is a man and becomes the sinners’ neighbor; the story of Martha and Mary unveils the desire and preference of the Lord, who is God and becomes the believers’ Master. The Savior gives us His compassion and love so that we can be saved by Him; the Lord expresses His desire and preference so that we can serve Him. After receiving salvation from the Savior, we should render service to the Lord. For our salvation we need to realize the Savior’s compassion and love; for our service we need to know the Lord’s desire and preference.
Luke Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 11:2a When  -   vv. 2-4: Matt. 6:9-13
Lk 11:21 pray
For vv. 2-4, see notes in Matt. 6:9-13.
Lk 11:22b Father  -   1 Pet. 1:17
Some MSS read, Our Father who is in the heavens.
Lk 11:2c sanctified  -   Luke 1:49; Psa. 111:9; Isa. 29:23
Lk 11:2d kingdom  -   Luke 4:43; 11:20; 12:31
Lk 11:3a bread  -   Prov. 30:8
Lk 11:4a forgive  -   Luke 7:48
Lk 11:4b indebted  -   cf. Matt. 18:21-35
Lk 11:41c temptation  -   Luke 4:1, 13; 1 Cor. 10:13; James 1:13
Some MSS add, but deliver us from the evil one (or, from evil).
Lk 11:91a And  -   vv. 9-13: Matt. 7:7-11
For vv. 9-13, see notes in Matt. 7:7-11.
Lk 11:9b Ask  -   James 1:5-6
Lk 11:9c seek  -   1 Chron. 28:9; 2 Chron. 15:2; Jer. 29:13
Lk 11:111 whose
Some MSS read, whose son asks for bread, will hand him a stone? Or if also for a fish, will instead…?
Lk 11:13a evil  -   Gen. 8:21; Psa. 14:3
Lk 11:131b Holy  -   Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:14
See note 112 in Matt. 7.
Lk 11:132 ask
Before His death the Lord told the disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit; after His death and resurrection He told them to receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). Regarding the commandments in the Scriptures for which the requirements have not been fulfilled, we must ask; regarding the commandments for which the requirements have been fulfilled, we must receive.
Lk 11:141 And
For vv. 14-15, see notes in Matt. 9:32-34 and 12:22-24.
Lk 11:14a casting  -   vv. 14-15: Matt. 9:32-34; 12:22-24
Lk 11:151a Beelzebul  -   Mark 3:22
See note 251 in Matt. 10.
Lk 11:16a tempting  -   Matt. 16:1; Mark 8:11; John 8:6
Lk 11:16b sought  -   Luke 11:29
Lk 11:171 But
For vv. 17-23, see notes in Matt. 12:25-30 and Mark 3:23-27.
Lk 11:17a He  -   vv. 17-23: Matt. 12:25-30; Mark 3:23-27
Lk 11:17b knowing  -   Matt. 9:4
Lk 11:172 thoughts
In the sense of machinations.
Lk 11:19a cast  -   Acts 19:13
Lk 11:201 finger
A Hebraic expression. The finger (v. 46) is smaller than the hand and the arm. The casting out of demons does not require the hand of God (John 10:28-29) or the arm of God (Isa. 53:1); the finger of God is powerful enough to do it. Still, it is done by the Spirit of God (Matt. 12:28).
Lk 11:20a kingdom  -   Luke 11:2; 17:20-21
Lk 11:21a strong  -   Isa. 49:24-25
Lk 11:211 homestead
Lit., courtyard.
Lk 11:221 stronger
Christ, the Son of God, is much stronger than Satan, the strong man. Thus, He can subdue and overcome Satan for us.
Lk 11:22a overcomes  -   John 16:33
Lk 11:22b distributes  -   Isa. 53:12
Lk 11:231 He
See note 401 in Mark 9.
Lk 11:241 When
For vv. 24-26, see notes in Matt. 12:43-45.
Lk 11:24a spirit  -   vv. 24-26: Matt. 12:43-45
Lk 11:26a worse  -   John 5:14
Lk 11:27a Blessed  -   Luke 1:48
Lk 11:28a hear  -   Luke 8:21
Lk 11:291 And
For vv. 29-32, see notes in Matt. 12:38-42.
Lk 11:29a This  -   vv. 29-32: Matt. 12:38-42
Lk 11:29b seeks  -   Luke 11:16; 1 Cor. 1:22
Lk 11:29c Jonah  -   Jonah 1:17; 2:10
Lk 11:31a queen  -   1 Kings 10:1-13; 2 Chron. 9:1-12
Lk 11:31b condemn  -   Heb. 11:7
Lk 11:31c wisdom  -   1 Kings 3:9, 12; 4:29-34; 10:23-24
Lk 11:31d more  -   cf. Matt. 12:6
Lk 11:32a Ninevite  -   Jonah 1:2
Lk 11:32b repented  -   Jonah 3:5-10
Lk 11:331a lamp  -   Luke 8:16; Matt. 5:15; Mark 4:21
See note 211 in Mark 4.
Lk 11:332 bushel
See note 151 in Matt. 5.
Lk 11:333 lampstand
See note 152 in Matt. 5.
Lk 11:34a lamp  -   Matt. 6:22-23
Lk 11:341 single
See note 221 in Matt. 6.
Lk 11:342 full
Or, illuminated.
Lk 11:343b evil  -   cf. Deut. 15:9; Prov. 28:22; Matt. 20:15
See note 231 in Matt. 6.
Lk 11:351 light
The light in us, with which the eye illuminates the whole body (v. 34), is the light in our heart, which should be kept pure for God (Matt. 5:8). See note 232 in Matt. 6.
Lk 11:371 morning
Primarily, the first meal, taken early in the morning (so in v. 38).
Lk 11:37a meal  -   Luke 7:36; 14:1
Lk 11:381a washed  -   Matt. 15:2; Mark 7:2-5
Lit., baptized (indicating a ceremonial washing).
Lk 11:39a cleanse  -   Matt. 23:25
Lk 11:40a Foolish  -   Luke 12:20
Lk 11:41a give  -   Luke 12:33; 1 Tim. 6:18
Lk 11:411 within
Within refers to the contents of the cup and to the items on the platter (v. 39); these signify what was in the heart of the Pharisees. They had covetousness within their heart; hence, they were full of extortion and wickedness (v. 39). Therefore, the Lord commanded them to give as alms what they were coveting in their heart, that all things might be clean to them.
Lk 11:41b clean  -   Titus 1:15
Lk 11:42a give  -   Deut. 14:22; Luke 18:12
Lk 11:42b mint  -   Matt. 23:23
Lk 11:421c justice  -   Jer. 5:1; Micah 6:8
Or, judgment.
Lk 11:422 not
See note 232 in Matt. 23.
Lk 11:43a chief  -   Luke 20:46; Matt. 23:6-7; Mark 12:38-39
Lk 11:43b marketplaces  -   Luke 7:32; Mark 6:56
Lk 11:44a tombs  -   Psa. 5:9; Matt. 23:27
Lk 11:45a lawyers  -   Luke 11:52; 7:30
Lk 11:451 insult
Or, outrage.
Lk 11:46a hard  -   Matt. 23:4; cf. Matt. 11:28-30
Lk 11:461 touch
A term used by medical writers for gently feeling a sore or tender part of the body.
Lk 11:47a build  -   Matt. 23:29-31
Lk 11:471 tombs
Or, monuments (so in v. 48).
Lk 11:47b killed  -   Acts 7:52
Lk 11:491 wisdom
Referring to Christ as the wisdom of God in God’s New Testament economy (1 Cor. 1:30); He is the “I” in Matt. 23:34. The Lord’s word in Matt. 23:34-36 and Luke 11:49-51 was based on the record in 2 Chron. 24:20-22 concerning the slaying of Zechariah, and it expanded the word in 2 Chron. 24:19, applying it to those who were sent by God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Lk 11:49a send  -   vv. 49-51: Matt. 23:34-36
Lk 11:49b prophets  -   2 Chron. 24:19; cf. Acts 13:1
Lk 11:49c kill  -   Matt. 21:35; 1 Thes. 2:15; cf. Matt. 22:6
Lk 11:50a blood  -   Rev. 6:10; cf. 18:24
Lk 11:50b from  -   Matt. 13:35
Lk 11:50c required  -   cf. Gen. 42:22; Ezek. 3:18
Lk 11:51a Abel  -   Gen. 4:8; Heb. 11:4
Lk 11:51b Zachariah  -   2 Chron. 24:20-22
Lk 11:511 this
Required not only of the individual but also of that generation collectively.
Lk 11:52a lawyers  -   Luke 7:30
Lk 11:52b knowledge  -   cf. Mal. 2:7-8
Lk 11:521c hindered  -   Matt. 23:13
Or, prevented, forbade.
Lk 11:54a Lying  -   cf. Luke 20:20; Mark 3:2
Lk 11:541 catch
I.e., to ensnare in hunting (Matt. 22:15). The religionists, who claimed to be devout, did this to the One who expressed God.
Lk 11:54b something  -   Luke 20:20, 26; Mark 12:13
Luke Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 12:11 Meanwhile
Or, In these circumstances.
Lk 12:1a leaven  -   Matt. 16:6, 11; Mark 8:15; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9
Lk 12:1b hypocrisy  -   Luke 12:56; Matt. 23:28; Mark 12:15
Lk 12:2a covered  -   vv. 2-9: Matt. 10:26-33
Lk 12:2b hidden  -   Mark 4:22; 1 Tim. 5:25
Lk 12:3a housetops  -   Matt. 24:17
Lk 12:4a friends  -   John 15:14
Lk 12:4b fear  -   Isa. 51:12-13; 1 Pet. 3:14
Lk 12:51 show
Lit., show you secretly.
Lk 12:52 Him
See note 281 in Matt. 10.
Lk 12:5a cast  -   Rev. 20:10, 14-15
Lk 12:53 Gehenna
See note 228 in Matt. 5.
Lk 12:61 assaria
The second-smallest coin in the Greco-Roman coinage of Palestine.
Lk 12:7a hairs  -   cf. 1 Sam. 14:45
Lk 12:7b more  -   Luke 12:24; Matt. 6:26; 10:31; 12:12
Lk 12:7c sparrows  -   Psa. 84:3
Lk 12:8a confesses  -   Rom. 10:9-10
Lk 12:81 in
Implying his union with the Lord.
Lk 12:8b Son  -   Luke 19:10
Lk 12:8c confess  -   cf. Rev. 3:5
Lk 12:82 in
Implying the Lord’s union with him.
Lk 12:8d angels  -   Luke 15:10; 1 Tim. 5:21
Lk 12:9a denies  -   2 Tim. 2:12; 1 John 2:23
Lk 12:91b denied  -   Luke 13:25
In Greek this word is stronger than the word translated denies in this verse. See note 331 in Matt. 10.
Lk 12:10a Son  -   Matt. 12:32; cf. Matt. 11:19
Lk 12:101 blasphemes
See notes 311 and 321 in Matt. 12.
Lk 12:10b Holy  -   Matt. 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29
Lk 12:11a synagogues  -   Matt. 23:34
Lk 12:11b rulers  -   Titus 3:1
Lk 12:11c anxious  -   Matt. 10:19-20; Mark 13:11
Lk 12:121 Spirit
See note 201 in Matt. 10.
Lk 12:14a who  -   cf. Exo. 2:14
Lk 12:15a Watch  -   Luke 8:18
Lk 12:15b covetousness  -   1 Tim. 6:10; Heb. 13:5
Lk 12:16a rich  -   cf. Psa. 49:16-20
Lk 12:171 crops
Or, fruits.
Lk 12:19a years  -   cf. Prov. 27:1; James 4:13-14
Lk 12:19b eat  -   Eccl. 2:24; Isa. 22:13; 1 Cor. 15:32
Lk 12:20a Foolish  -   Luke 11:40
Lk 12:201 they
The expression is indefinite, referring probably to the angels, God’s messengers.
Lk 12:20b soul  -   Job 27:8; Matt. 10:28
Lk 12:20c prepared  -   Job 27:16-17
Lk 12:20d whose  -   Psa. 39:6
Lk 12:21a treasure  -   Psa. 52:7; Matt. 6:19-20; James 5:3
Lk 12:211b rich  -   James 2:5-6
How precious it is to be rich toward God! This requires that we not store up treasure for ourselves.
Lk 12:221 And
For vv. 22-31, see notes in Matt. 6:25-33.
Lk 12:22a anxious  -   vv. 22-31: Matt. 6:25-33
Lk 12:222 life
Lit., soul; referring to the soul-life (so in v. 23).
Lk 12:24a ravens  -   Job 38:41; Psa. 147:9
Lk 12:24b more  -   Luke 12:7
Lk 12:27a Solomon  -   1 Kings 10:4-7, 23
Lk 12:28a little  -   Matt. 8:26; 14:31; 16:8
Lk 12:291 be
Or, be anxious.
Lk 12:29a unsettled  -   cf. Phil. 4:6
Lk 12:30a need  -   Matt. 6:8
Lk 12:31a kingdom  -   Luke 11:2
Lk 12:31b added  -   cf. 1 Kings 3:11-13
Lk 12:32a be  -   Luke 12:7; Isa. 41:10, 13
Lk 12:32b flock  -   John 10:16; Acts 20:28-29; 1 Pet. 5:2-3; Isa. 40:11
Lk 12:32c well  -   cf. Luke 10:21; Eph. 1:5, 9; Phil. 2:13
Lk 12:321d kingdom  -   Luke 22:29; Rev. 1:9
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 12:33a Sell  -   Luke 18:22; Matt. 19:21; Acts 2:45
Lk 12:33b give  -   2 Cor. 9:9; Acts 9:36; 10:2, 4
Lk 12:331 treasure
See note 201 in Matt. 6.
Lk 12:341a heart  -   Matt. 6:21
Our heart is attached to our treasure. If we lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, it will be difficult for our heart to be in heaven or to be for our beloved Lord and His interest.
Lk 12:35a girded  -   Exo. 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1; Job 38:3; Jer. 1:17; Eph. 6:14; 1 Pet. 1:13
Lk 12:35b lamps  -   Matt. 25:7
Lk 12:36a knocks  -   Rev. 3:20
Lk 12:37a watching  -   Matt. 24:42-46
Lk 12:37b gird  -   John 13:4-5
Lk 12:37c recline  -   Luke 22:27
Lk 12:371 come
Or, come beside.
Lk 12:37d serve  -   Matt. 20:28
Lk 12:391 But
For vv. 39-46, see notes in Matt. 24:43-51.
Lk 12:392 know
In Greek the first know here is the same as the first know in Heb. 8:11; the second know (here, known) is the same as the second there. See note 111 there.
Lk 12:39a master  -   vv. 39-46: Matt. 24:43-51
Lk 12:39b thief  -   1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 3:3; 16:15
Lk 12:393 would
Some MSS add, have watched and.
Lk 12:394c broken  -   Matt. 6:19
Lit., dug through.
Lk 12:40a ready  -   Luke 12:47; Matt. 25:10
Lk 12:40b coming  -   Matt. 24:42
Lk 12:41a all  -   Mark 13:37
Lk 12:42a faithful  -   Luke 16:10-12; Matt. 25:21, 23; 1 Cor. 4:2; 2 Tim. 2:2; Heb. 3:5
Lk 12:42b prudent  -   Luke 16:8
Lk 12:42c steward  -   Luke 16:1; 1 Pet. 4:10
Lk 12:43a Blessed  -   John 13:17; Rev. 16:15
Lk 12:44a set  -   Matt. 25:21, 23
Lk 12:45a delaying  -   Matt. 25:5; Heb. 10:37
Lk 12:45b drunk  -   1 Thes. 5:7
Lk 12:46a day  -   2 Pet. 3:12
Lk 12:47a lashes  -   Deut. 25:2
Lk 12:48a not  -   Lev. 5:17
Lk 12:48b much  -   cf. Matt. 25:29
Lk 12:481 committed
Or, entrusted, deposited.
Lk 12:491a fire  -   cf. Rom. 12:11; Rev. 1:14; 4:5
The impulse of the spiritual life. This impulse comes from the Lord’s released divine life (see note 502) and causes the divisions mentioned in vv. 51-53.
Lk 12:492 how
Or, what can I desire if it has already been kindled?
Lk 12:501 baptism
See note 381 in Mark 10.
Lk 12:502 pressed
Or, constrained. The Lord was constrained in His flesh, which He put upon Himself in His incarnation. He needed to undergo physical death, to be baptized, that His unlimited and infinite divine being with His divine life might be released from His flesh. His divine life, after being released through His physical death, became the impulse of His believers’ spiritual life in resurrection.
Lk 12:51a come  -   vv. 51-53: Matt. 10:34-36
Lk 12:511b division  -   John 7:43; 10:19; Acts 14:4; 23:7
This is because the satanic life in the unbelievers is struggling against the divine life in the believers — a conflict between the satanic kingdom and the kingdom of God. See note 341 in Matt. 10.
Lk 12:53a son  -   Micah 7:6; Matt. 10:21
Lk 12:54a shower  -   1 Kings 18:44-45
Lk 12:55a south  -   Job 37:17
Lk 12:561a Hypocrites  -   Luke 12:1; 13:15
See note 22 in Matt. 6.
Lk 12:562b discern  -   Matt. 16:3
Or, prove by testing.
Lk 12:563 face
I.e., appearance.
Lk 12:564 How
Or, but this time you do not know how to discern.
Lk 12:565 discern
I.e., discern the signs of the time (Matt. 16:3). The signs were (1) that, as prophesied (3:2-6, 15-17), John the Baptist had come to announce the coming of Messiah, and (2) that Messiah was there, ministering Himself that the people might receive Him and be saved.
Lk 12:57a judge  -   1 Cor. 11:13
Lk 12:571 yourselves
Even without the teaching of the Lord, the Jews had seen enough signs to judge of themselves the right way to follow and the right thing to do at that time, that is, to receive the Lord and follow Him.
Lk 12:581 For
For indicates that vv. 58-59 are a continuation of v. 57. In this continuation the Man-Savior charged the Jews that while they were still on the way (were going), under the law (their opponent — John 5:45), to meet God (the magistrate) and be judged by Christ (the judge — John 5:22; Acts 17:31), they should endeavor to be released from their opponent that they might not be judged by Christ and thrown into the lake of fire (prison — Rev. 20:11-15) by the angel (the officer — cf. Matt. 13:41). If that were to happen, they would by no means come out forever (v. 59). The word in these two verses was spoken to the crowds (v. 54) that they might repent and be saved. But in Matt. 5:25-26 this word was applied to the disciples that they might live the kingdom life (see notes there).
Lk 12:58a opponent  -   Matt. 5:25-26
Lk 12:582 endeavor
Or, take pains.
Lk 12:591a lepton  -   Luke 21:2
The smallest coin in the Greco-Roman coinage of Palestine.
Luke Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 13:11 Now
Now indicates that vv. 1-9, which deal further with the matter of repentance, continue the last verses of ch. 12. The Lord used the two incidents in vv. 1-5 to remind the Jews that now was the time for them to repent and that if they did not, they would all perish like the victims of those two incidents.
Lk 13:1a Galileans  -   Acts 5:37
Lk 13:1b Pilate  -   Luke 3:1
Lk 13:3a repent  -   Luke 3:3, 8; 5:32
Lk 13:3b perish  -   John 3:16
Lk 13:4a Siloam  -   Neh. 3:15; Isa. 8:6; John 9:7, 11
Lk 13:61 And
And indicates that vv. 6-9 are a continuation of the foregoing verses concerning repentance.
Lk 13:62 this
This parable indicates that God as the owner came in the Son to seek fruit from the Jewish people, who were likened to a fig tree (see note 191 in Matt. 21) planted in God’s promised land, the vineyard (cf. Matt. 21:33 and note 1). He had been seeking fruit for three years (v. 7) but had not found any. He wanted to cut the Jews down, but God the Son as the vinedresser prayed for them, asking God the Father to tolerate them until the Son died for them (dug the ground around the fig tree) and gave them fertilizer (threw on manure), at which point, He hoped, they would repent and produce fruit. Otherwise, they would be cut down. Verses 29-32 and 42-52 in ch. 11, two sections that unveil the Jewish people as an evil generation, confirm this interpretation.
Lk 13:6a fig  -   Matt. 21:19
Lk 13:6b vineyard  -   Isa. 5:1-2
Lk 13:7a Cut  -   Luke 3:9; Matt. 7:19
Lk 13:71 make
I.e., deplete the soil, intercept the sun, and take up room (Bengel).
Lk 13:10a synagogues  -   Matt. 4:23; Mark 6:2
Lk 13:111a spirit  -   Acts 16:16
See note 231 in Mark 1.
Lk 13:112 bent
Lit., bending together. This signifies a person’s being oppressed by a demon to an extreme, so that the person is bent toward the satanic world only and is unable to stand erect to look into the heavens.
Lk 13:13a laid  -   Luke 4:40; Mark 5:23; 16:18
Lk 13:13b glorify  -   Luke 5:25; 7:16; 17:15; 18:43
Lk 13:14a ruler  -   Luke 8:41
Lk 13:141 indignant
Satan used not only the evil spirit to possess the woman but also the religious ruler to oppose her being released by the Lord. Religion is much used by the usurper to keep God’s chosen people under his oppression.
Lk 13:14b six  -   Exo. 20:9; Ezek. 46:1
Lk 13:14c not  -   Matt. 12:2
Lk 13:151a Hypocrites  -   Luke 12:56
See note 22 in Matt. 6.
Lk 13:15b Sabbath  -   Luke 14:5; Matt. 12:11
Lk 13:161 daughter
One of God’s chosen people.
Lk 13:16a Abraham  -   Luke 3:8; 19:9
Lk 13:162b Satan  -   1 Cor. 5:5; Acts 10:38
The demon’s possessing of people is Satan’s binding of them. Hence, the casting out of a demon is the defeat of Satan (Matt. 12:29 and note 4).
Lk 13:163 Sabbath
The Sabbath was ordained by God so that man could rest (Gen. 2:3), not so that man would remain under bondage.
Lk 13:17a shame  -   1 Pet. 3:16
Lk 13:17b glorious  -   Luke 13:13
Lk 13:181 He
For vv. 18-21, see notes in Matt. 13:31-33.
Lk 13:18a kingdom  -   Luke 4:43; 17:20-21
Lk 13:19a mustard  -   Matt. 13:31-32; 17:20; Luke 17:6
Lk 13:21a leaven  -   Matt. 13:33
Lk 13:21b three  -   Gen. 18:6
Lk 13:21c whole  -   1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9
Lk 13:22a villages  -   Matt. 9:35; Mark 6:6
Lk 13:22b Jerusalem  -   Luke 13:33; 9:51; Mark 10:32-33
Lk 13:23a saved  -   Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15
Lk 13:24a Struggle  -   Matt. 11:12; Heb. 4:11
Lk 13:241b narrow  -   Matt. 7:13-14
See note 141 in Matt. 7.
Lk 13:242 able
Or, strong enough.
Lk 13:25a shuts  -   cf. Matt. 25:10-12
Lk 13:25b Lord  -   Matt. 7:22-23; Luke 6:46
Lk 13:26a ate  -   cf. Exo. 24:11
Lk 13:27a Go  -   Matt. 7:23; 25:41
Lk 13:281a weeping  -   Matt. 24:51; 13:42, 50
See note 123 in Matt. 8.
Lk 13:282 kingdom
See note 432 in ch. 4. The Jews asked about salvation (v. 23). But the Lord answered concerning participation in the kingdom of God in the millennium (see note 112 in Matt. 8), which will be the most enjoyable part of God’s full salvation before the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-3a, 5-7; 22:1-5).
Lk 13:28b outside  -   Luke 14:35
Lk 13:29a kingdom  -   Luke 14:15; 22:16, 30
Lk 13:301 last
Referring to the saved Gentiles, who will receive the Savior before some of the saved Jews and will participate in the kingdom of God in the millennium (v. 29).
Lk 13:302 first
Referring to the Jews who will believe in the Lord after the Gentiles believe (Rom. 11:25-26). The word in this verse is applied in another sense in Matt. 19:30; 20:16; and Mark 10:31 (see note 161 in Matt. 20).
Lk 13:31a Pharisees  -   Matt. 19:3
Lk 13:31b Herod  -   Luke 3:1; 9:7, 9; Matt. 14:1-13
Lk 13:311 kill
This was a threat made by the opposers.
Lk 13:321 today
This indicates that the Lord had a set schedule to carry out His ministry, to end His course, and to reach His goal through His death and resurrection, and that no one, not even Herod, could prevent Him from accomplishing it.
Lk 13:32a third  -   cf. Hosea 6:2; Luke 9:22; 24:7
Lk 13:322 am
Or, end My course, reach My goal.
Lk 13:32b perfected  -   Heb. 7:27-28; cf. John 17:4
Lk 13:331 must
The threat (v. 31) did not prevent the Lord from journeying to Jerusalem to accomplish His redemptive death. Rather, He was bold to proceed there (Mark 10:33) to reach the goal of His entire ministry.
Lk 13:33a prophet  -   Matt. 21:11
Lk 13:33b Jerusalem  -   Luke 13:22
Lk 13:34a Jerusalem  -   vv. 34-35: Matt. 23:37-39
Lk 13:341 kills
For vv. 34-35, see notes in Matt. 23:37-39.
Lk 13:34b stones  -   Matt. 21:35; Acts 7:59
Lk 13:34c gather  -   Psa. 147:2; cf. Matt. 24:31
Lk 13:34d wings  -   Deut. 32:11; Ruth 2:12; Psa. 17:8; 91:4; cf. Exo. 19:4
Lk 13:34e would  -   John 5:40
Lk 13:351 house
This house (singular in Greek) was God’s house, God’s temple. Because the Jews rejected the Lord, that is, God’s coming in the Son, the Lord rejected the temple, considering it the house of the Jews themselves and leaving it to them that it might suffer the coming destruction and become desolate.
Lk 13:35a Blessed  -   Psa. 118:26; cf. Luke 19:38
Luke Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 14:1a eat  -   Luke 7:36; 11:37
Lk 14:11b watching  -   Luke 20:20
With an evil intention to accuse Him (Mark 3:2).
Lk 14:21 dropsy
A disease that causes the body to swell because of the forming of fluid in the cavities and tissues. This signifies the abnormal inner function of life that causes spiritual death before God.
Lk 14:3a lawyers  -   Luke 7:30
Lk 14:3b Sabbath  -   Matt. 12:10; Mark 3:4
Lk 14:51a donkey  -   Luke 13:15
Some MSS read, son.
Lk 14:6a not  -   Matt. 22:46
Lk 14:7a places  -   Luke 11:43; Matt. 23:6
Lk 14:10a come  -   Prov. 25:6-7
Lk 14:11a humbled  -   Luke 18:14; Matt. 23:12; Psa. 18:27; Prov. 29:23
Lk 14:11b humbles  -   Job 22:29; 1 Pet. 5:5-6
Lk 14:12a repayment  -   cf. Luke 6:34
Lk 14:131 poor
These are the people whom God invited to His salvation (v. 21).
Lk 14:141a resurrection  -   1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thes. 4:16
This refers to the resurrection of life (John 5:29; Rev. 20:4-6), at which time God will reward the saints (Rev. 11:18) at the Lord’s coming back (1 Cor. 4:5).
Lk 14:15a Blessed  -   Rev. 19:9
Lk 14:15b kingdom  -   Luke 13:29; 22:16, 30
Lk 14:161 great
This great dinner is different from the wedding feast in Matt. 22:2-14, which was for the reward of the kingdom. This great dinner is for God’s full salvation. God, as the “certain man,” prepared His full salvation as a great dinner and sent the first apostles as His slaves to invite the Jews (vv. 16-17). But because they were occupied by their riches, such as land, cattle, or a wife, they refused His invitation (vv. 18-20). Then God sent the apostles to invite the people on the streets — the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Because of their poverty and misery, they accepted God’s invitation (vv. 21-22a). Yet God’s salvation still had room for more; so He sent His slaves to go out farther, to the Gentile world, signified by the roads and hedges, to compel the Gentiles to come in and fill up the house of His salvation (vv. 22b-23; Acts 13:46-48; Rom. 11:25).
Lk 14:20a married  -   Deut. 24:5
Lk 14:21a poor  -   Luke 14:13
Lk 14:261 If
In vv. 26-33 the Lord unveiled to the crowds who went along with Him (v. 25) the cost of following Him. To receive salvation is to be saved (13:23); to follow the Lord is to enjoy Him as the blessing of God’s salvation. This requires us to renounce all, even our life, and to carry our own cross (vv. 26-27, 33).
Lk 14:26a comes  -   vv. 26-27: Matt. 10:37-38
Lk 14:26b soul-life  -   Acts 20:24; Phil. 2:30; Rev. 12:11
Lk 14:271a cross  -   Luke 9:23
The aim of the cross is not suffering but the termination of the person. The believers in Christ have been crucified (terminated) with Him (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6). After being organically united with Him through faith, they should remain on the cross, keeping their old man under the termination of the cross (cf. Rom. 6:3; Col. 2:20-21). This is to carry their own cross. Christ first carried the cross and then was crucified (John 19:17-18). But the believers in Him are first crucified and then carry the cross that they may remain in the termination of their old man, thus experiencing and enjoying Christ as their life and life supply.
Lk 14:281 enough
The Lord’s word here and that in v. 31 indicate that to make a career of following the Lord, we must give to it all we have and all we can do; otherwise, we will be a failure, becoming the tasteless salt and being thrown out of the glorious realm into a sphere of shame (vv. 34-35).
Lk 14:33a forsake  -   Luke 18:28
Lk 14:341 Therefore
For vv. 34-35, see notes in Matt. 5:13 and note 501 in Mark 9.
Lk 14:342 salt
The believers in Christ are the salt of the earth used by God to kill and eliminate the earth’s corruption. Their taste depends on their renouncing of earthly things. The more they renounce the things of earth, the more powerful will be their taste. They will lose their taste by not being willing to renounce all the things of the present life. If this happens, they will be fit neither for the land, signifying the church as God’s farm (1 Cor. 3:9), which issues in the coming kingdom (Rev. 11:15), nor for the manure pile, signifying hell, the filthy place in the universe (Rev. 21:8; 22:15). They will be thrown out from the kingdom of God, especially from the glory of the kingdom in the millennium (see note 122 in Matt. 8). They are saved from eternal perdition, but because they have failed to renounce the earthly things, they lose their function in the kingdom of God, thus being unfit for the coming kingdom and needing to be put aside for discipline (see note 321 in ch. 17).
Lk 14:35a out  -   Luke 13:28
Lk 14:35b hear  -   Matt. 11:15; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22
Luke Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 15:1a tax  -   Luke 7:34; Matt. 9:10
Lk 15:2a scribes  -   Luke 5:30; Mark 2:16
Lk 15:2b murmured  -   Luke 19:7
Lk 15:2c sinners  -   Luke 7:39
Lk 15:2d eats  -   cf. Acts 11:3; Gal. 2:12; 1 Cor. 5:11
Lk 15:31 parable
In answering the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes, who condemned Him for eating with sinners, the Savior spoke three parables, unveiling and depicting how the Divine Trinity works to bring sinners back, through the Son by the Spirit, to the Father. The Son came in His humanity as the Shepherd to find the sinner as a lost sheep and bring him back home (vv. 4-7). The Spirit seeks the sinner as a woman carefully seeks a lost coin until she finds it (vv. 8-10). And the Father receives the repenting and returned sinner as the “certain man” here receives his prodigal son (vv. 11-32). The entire Divine Trinity treasures the sinner and participates in bringing him back to God. All three parables stress the love of the Divine Trinity more than the fallen condition and repentance of the penitent sinner. The divine love is fully expressed in the Son’s tender care as the good shepherd, in the Spirit’s fine seeking as the treasure-lover, and in the Father’s warm receiving as a loving father.
Lk 15:4a hundred  -   vv. 4-7: Matt. 18:12-14
Lk 15:41b wilderness  -   Exo. 3:1; 1 Sam. 17:28
Signifying the world. This indicates that the Son has come to the world to be with men (John 1:14).
Lk 15:4c lost  -   Luke 19:10; Matt. 10:6; 15:24
Lk 15:4d finds  -   Ezek. 34:11-12, 16
Lk 15:51 lays
This shows the Savior’s saving strength and His saving love.
Lk 15:5a shoulders  -   cf. Isa. 49:22
Lk 15:6a lost  -   1 Pet. 2:25; Isa. 53:6
Lk 15:7a sinner  -   1 Tim. 1:15
Lk 15:7b righteous  -   Luke 5:32
Lk 15:81 silver
One silver coin was equivalent to a day’s wages (so in v. 9).
Lk 15:82 lamp
Signifying the word of God (Psa. 119:105, 130), which is used by the Spirit to illuminate and expose the sinner’s position and condition that he may repent.
Lk 15:83 sweep
To search and cleanse the sinner’s inward parts.
Lk 15:84 seek
In v. 4 the Son’s finding took place outside the sinner and was completed at the cross through His redemptive death; here the Spirit’s seeking is inward and is carried out by His working within the repenting sinner.
Lk 15:10a angels  -   Luke 12:8
Lk 15:121 share
Referring to the inheritance that was his by birth.
Lk 15:12a distributed  -   Deut. 21:16
Lk 15:122 living
His living refers to the father’s means of support, the father’s livelihood, substance (v. 30). The Greek word for living means life, i.e., the present state of existence, as in 8:14, and, by implication, livelihood, as here and in Mark 12:44.
Lk 15:131 distant
Signifying the satanic world.
Lk 15:132 dissolutely
Lit., unsavingly; indicating a debauched, profligate living.
Lk 15:151 feed
Hogs are unclean (Lev. 11:7). Feeding hogs is a dirty job; it signifies the unclean business in the satanic world.
Lk 15:16a satisfied  -   Luke 16:21
Lk 15:161 carob
The carob is an evergreen tree. Its pod, also called the carob bean, was used as fodder to feed animals and destitute persons. An interesting rabbinical saying is that “when the Israelites are reduced to carob pods, then they repent.” A tradition says that John the Baptist fed on carob pods in the wilderness; hence, they are called “St. John’s bread.”
Lk 15:17a came  -   cf. Acts 12:11
Lk 15:171 How
This was due to the enlightening and searching of the Spirit (v. 8) within him.
Lk 15:181 rise
This is the result of the Spirit’s seeking in v. 8.
Lk 15:18a to  -   cf. 1 Kings 8:47-48; Jer. 31:18-19; Hosea 2:7; 14:1-3
Lk 15:182 I
The Lord’s parable here implies that when a sinner sins, he sins against heaven and before God the Father, who is in heaven.
Lk 15:18b heaven  -   1 Kings 8:27; Matt. 6:9; 21:25; John 3:27
Lk 15:18c before  -   Psa. 51:4
Lk 15:191 no
The prodigal son did not know the father’s love.
Lk 15:192 hired
Once he has repented, a fallen sinner always thinks of working for God or of serving God to obtain His favor, not knowing that this thought is against God’s love and grace and is an insult to His heart and intent.
Lk 15:20a long  -   Eph. 2:13
Lk 15:201 saw
This did not happen by chance; the father went out of the house to look for the prodigal’s return.
Lk 15:202 ran
God the Father ran to receive the returning sinner. What eagerness this shows!
Lk 15:203b fell  -   Gen. 33:4; 45:14; 46:29; Acts 20:37
A warm and loving reception. The prodigal son’s return to the Father was due to the Spirit’s seeking (v. 8); the Father’s receiving of the returned son was based on the Son’s finding in His redemption (v. 4).
Lk 15:221 But
“But”! What a word of love and grace! It countered the prodigal’s own thinking and stopped his nonsensical talk.
Lk 15:222 quickly
To match the father’s running (v. 20).
Lk 15:223 the
The indicates a particular robe prepared for this particular purpose at this particular time.
Lk 15:224 best
Lit., first.
Lk 15:225 robe
Signifying Christ the Son as the God-satisfying righteousness to cover the penitent sinner (Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30; cf. Isa. 61:10; Zech. 3:4). The best robe, which was also the first robe, replaced the rags (Isa. 64:6) of the returned prodigal.
Lk 15:226 ring
Signifying the sealing Spirit as the God-given seal upon the accepted believer (Eph. 1:13; cf. Gen. 24:47; 41:42).
Lk 15:227 sandals
Signifying the power of God’s salvation to separate the believers from the dirty earth. Both the ring and the sandals were signs of a free man. The adornment, consisting of the robe on the body, the ring on the hand, and the sandals on the feet, allowed the poor prodigal to match his rich father and qualified him to enter the father’s house and feast with the father. God’s salvation adorns us with Christ and the Spirit that we may enjoy the riches in His house.
Lk 15:231a fattened  -   1 Sam. 28:24
Signifying the rich Christ (Eph. 3:8), killed on the cross for the believer’s enjoyment. God’s salvation has two aspects: the outward, objective aspect, signified by the best robe, and the inward, subjective aspect, signified by the fattened calf. Christ as our righteousness is our salvation outwardly; Christ as our life for our enjoyment is our salvation inwardly. The best robe enabled the prodigal son to meet his father’s requirements and satisfy his father, and the fattened calf satisfied the son’s hunger. Hence, the father and the son could be merry together.
Lk 15:232 slaughter
Or, sacrifice (so in vv. 27, 30).
Lk 15:241 dead
All lost sinners are dead in the eyes of God (Eph. 2:1, 5). When they are saved, they are made alive (John 5:24-25; Col. 2:13).
Lk 15:24a lives  -   Rom. 6:13; 11:15
Lk 15:251 older
Signifying the Pharisees and scribes (v. 2) and representing the unbelieving Jews, who pursue the law of righteousness (Rom. 9:31-32) by their work, signified by in the field.
Lk 15:291 slaving
Signifying slavery under the law (Gal. 5:1).
Lk 15:292 neglected
Or, transgressed.
Lk 15:301 living
See note 122.
Lk 15:30a harlots  -   Prov. 29:3
Lk 15:321 dead
See note 241.
Luke Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 16:11 And
Indicating continuation. In the preceding chapter the Lord spoke three parables concerning a sinner’s salvation. In this chapter He continued with one more parable, this one concerning the believer’s service. After a sinner becomes a believer, he needs to serve the Lord as a prudent steward.
Lk 16:12 steward
Illustrating how the believers, saved by the love and grace of the Triune God, are the Lord’s stewards (12:42; 1 Cor. 4:1-2; 1 Pet. 4:10), to whom the Lord has committed His possessions.
Lk 16:31 dig
As a farmer, who digs in the field.
Lk 16:32 beg
As a beggar, who begs for help.
Lk 16:41 receive
Signifying being received into the eternal tabernacles (v. 9).
Lk 16:61 measures
Among the Hebrews, a liquid measure of between eight and nine gallons.
Lk 16:71 measures
A dry measure of between ten and twelve bushels.
Lk 16:8a unrighteous  -   cf. Luke 18:6
Lk 16:81 prudently
The praise is not for the steward’s unrighteous act but for his prudence.
Lk 16:82 sons
The unsaved ones, the worldlings.
Lk 16:8b this  -   Luke 20:34
Lk 16:8c prudent  -   Luke 12:42; Matt. 25:2
Lk 16:83 sons
The saved ones, the believers (John 12:36; 1 Thes. 5:5; Eph. 5:8).
Lk 16:8d light  -   Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9
Lk 16:91 Make
To use money to do things to help others according to God’s leading.
Lk 16:92 unrighteousness
Mammon, i.e., money, is of the satanic world. It is unrighteous in its position and existence. The steward in the parable exercised his prudence by his unrighteous act. The Lord teaches us, His believers, to exercise our prudence in the use of unrighteous mammon.
Lk 16:93 fails
After the satanic world is over, mammon will be of no use in the kingdom of God.
Lk 16:94a eternal  -   cf. 2 Cor. 5:1
I.e., eternal habitations. The prudent believers will be received into the eternal habitations by those who shared the benefit of their prudence. This will be fulfilled in the coming kingdom age (cf. 14:13-14; Matt. 10:42).
Lk 16:10a faithful  -   Luke 19:17; Matt. 25:21, 23
Lk 16:101 least
Least refers to mammon, the possessions of this age; much refers to the rich possessions in the next age (cf. Matt. 25:21, 23).
Lk 16:111 true
Referring to the true possessions in the coming kingdom age (cf. Matt. 24:47).
Lk 16:121 another
In His New Testament economy God does not intend that the New Testament believers care for material possessions. Though the material things of this world were created by God and belong to Him (1 Chron. 29:14, 16), they have been corrupted by man’s fall (Rom. 8:20-21) and usurped by Satan, the evil one (1 John 5:19); hence, they belong to fallen man and are unrighteous (v. 9). While God does supply the believers with their daily necessities from the material things of this age (Matt. 6:31-33) and commits to them as His stewards a portion of these material goods for their exercise and learning that He might prove them in this age, none of these goods should be considered theirs until the restitution of all things in the next age (Acts 3:21). Not until then will the believers inherit the world (Rom. 4:13) and have an abiding possession (Heb. 10:34) for themselves. In this age they should exercise to be faithful in the temporary material things God has given them that they may learn to be faithful toward their eternal possession in the coming age.
Lk 16:122 your
Some MSS read, our own.
Lk 16:131 serve
Lit., serve as a slave.
Lk 16:13a two  -   Matt. 6:24
Lk 16:132 love
In Greek, hold to one means cleave to the one as against the other. This indicates that to serve the Lord requires us to love Him, giving our heart to Him, and cleave to Him, giving our entire being to Him. Thus we are released from being occupied and usurped by mammon, that we may serve the Lord wholly and fully. The Lord emphasizes here that to serve Him we must overcome the enticing, deceitful mammon of unrighteousness.
Lk 16:133 mammon
See note 243 in Matt. 6.
Lk 16:14a Pharisees  -   Luke 11:39
Lk 16:14b lovers  -   2 Tim. 3:2; 1 Tim. 6:10
Lk 16:141 were
Lit., were turning up the nose.
Lk 16:14c sneering  -   Luke 23:35
Lk 16:15a justify  -   Luke 10:29; 18:9
Lk 16:15b sight  -   Matt. 23:5
Lk 16:15c hearts  -   1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; Psa. 7:9; Prov. 21:2; Jer. 17:10
Lk 16:151d abomination  -   Prov. 16:5
The self-justifying of the Pharisees was a prideful exalting of self; hence, it was an abomination in the sight of God.
Lk 16:161 law
The law and the prophets refers to the Old Testament.
Lk 16:162 until
Indicating the change of dispensation from the law to the gospel. See note 131 in Matt. 11.
Lk 16:163 kingdom
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 16:164 gospel
To the Pharisees, the money lovers, the Savior preached the kingdom of God as the gospel (v. 14). Money and sexual lust, which is incited by money, held them back from entering into the kingdom of God. Hence, the Savior’s preaching hit these two things purposely and strongly in vv. 18-31.
Lk 16:165a forces  -   Matt. 11:12
For the Pharisees to force their way into the kingdom of God, they needed to humble themselves (cf. v. 15) and to divorce their money (cf. v. 14), not their wives (cf. v. 18), that is, to overcome money and lust, which is incited by money.
Lk 16:17a pass  -   Matt. 5:18; Luke 21:33
Lk 16:171 serif
The minute, horn-like projection that distinguishes various Hebrew letters.
Lk 16:172 fail
Or, fall.
Lk 16:181a divorces  -   Mark 10:11; Mal. 2:16
Lit., releases.
Lk 16:18b adultery  -   Matt. 5:32; 19:9
Lk 16:191 a
This is not a parable, because it mentions names such as Abraham, Lazarus, and Hades. It is a story used by the Savior as an illustrative answer to the money-loving and self-justifying Pharisees (vv. 14-15); it is a warning to them, unveiling that their future will be miserable, like that of the rich man, as a result of their rejecting of the Savior’s gospel because of their love for money.
Lk 16:19a purple  -   Esth. 8:15; Rev. 18:12, 16
Lk 16:21a satisfied  -   Luke 15:16
Lk 16:21b table  -   Matt. 15:27
Lk 16:22a angels  -   Acts 12:15; Heb. 1:13-14
Lk 16:221 Abraham’s
A rabbinical phrase, equivalent to being with Abraham in Paradise. See note 41 in 2 Cor. 12.
Lk 16:22b bosom  -   cf. John 13:23
Lk 16:231a Hades  -   Job 21:13; Matt. 11:23
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Lk 16:23b torment  -   Rev. 14:10-11
Lk 16:24a Father  -   John 8:33, 39, 53
Lk 16:24b tongue  -   cf. Zech. 14:12
Lk 16:24c flame  -   Matt. 25:41; Mark 9:48; Isa. 66:24
Lk 16:261 chasm
A gulf that divides Hades into two sections: the pleasant section, where Abraham, Lazarus, and all the saved saints are (v. 22), and the section of torment, where the rich man and all the perished sinners are (vv. 23a, 28). The two sections are cut off from each other and have no bridge between them for passage. Yet those in the two sections can see and even talk to one another (vv. 23-25).
Lk 16:291a Moses  -   Luke 24:27; John 5:45-47; Acts 15:21; 26:22; 28:23
Referring to the law of Moses and the books of the prophets (cf. v. 16), which are the word of God (Matt. 4:4). Whether one hears the word of God or not determines whether one is saved or perishes. The poor man was saved not because he was poor but because he heard the word of God (John 5:24; Eph. 1:13). The rich man perished not because he was rich but because he rejected the word of God (Acts 13:46).
Lk 16:311 not
If people do not hear what the word of God says, they will not be persuaded even if someone miraculously rises from the dead. The Savior’s word here implied that if the Jews, represented by the Pharisees, did not hear the word of God spoken through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament, they would not be persuaded even though He would rise from the dead. This very tragedy occurred after His resurrection (Matt. 28:11-15; Acts 13:30-40, 44-45).
Luke Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 17:1a stumbling  -   Matt. 18:7
Lk 17:1b woe  -   Luke 22:22
Lk 17:1c whom  -   Matt. 13:41
Lk 17:2a millstone  -   Matt. 18:6; Mark 9:42
Lk 17:3a Take  -   Luke 8:18
Lk 17:3b sins  -   Matt. 18:15
Lk 17:3c rebuke  -   Lev. 19:17
Lk 17:3d forgive  -   Matt. 6:14; 18:35; Eph. 4:32
Lk 17:4a seven  -   Matt. 18:21-22
Lk 17:51a Increase  -   cf. Mark 9:24
Or, Add to us faith.
Lk 17:6a faith  -   Matt. 17:20; 21:21; Mark 11:23-24
Lk 17:6b mustard  -   Matt. 13:31
Lk 17:6c sycamine  -   Luke 19:4
Lk 17:8a gird  -   Luke 12:35, 37
Lk 17:10a unprofitable  -   cf. Matt. 25:30
Lk 17:11a Jerusalem  -   Luke 9:51, 53; 13:22
Lk 17:11b Samaria  -   Luke 9:52; John 4:4
Lk 17:11c Galilee  -   Matt. 19:1; John 4:3; Luke 4:14
Lk 17:121a leprous  -   Lev. 13:45-46; Num. 5:2
See note 401 in Mark 1.
Lk 17:14a priests  -   Lev. 14:2-9; Luke 5:14; Matt. 8:4
Lk 17:141 went
This was their believing and obeying. Hence, they were cleansed.
Lk 17:15a glorifying  -   Luke 7:16; 18:43
Lk 17:16a fell  -   Luke 5:12; Num. 16:22; 1 Cor. 14:25
Lk 17:16b Samaritan  -   Matt. 10:5; John 4:9
Lk 17:18a give  -   John 9:24
Lk 17:19a faith  -   Luke 8:48; 7:50; 18:42; Mark 5:34
Lk 17:191 healed
Lit., saved.
Lk 17:20a Pharisees  -   Luke 5:21; 6:2; 7:30, 39; 11:38, 53; 13:31; 14:1; 15:2; 16:14; 19:39
Lk 17:20b when  -   cf. Acts 1:6
Lk 17:201c kingdom  -   Luke 8:10; 9:27; 10:9, 11; 11:2, 20; 13:18-20; 16:16; 19:11-12, 15; 21:31; 22:16, 18; 23:42; Rom. 14:17
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 17:202 not
Indicating that the kingdom of God is not material but spiritual. It is the Savior in His first coming (vv. 21-22), in His second coming (vv. 23-30), in the rapture of His overcoming believers (vv. 31-36), and in His destroying of the Antichrist (v. 37) to recover the whole earth for His reign there (Rev. 11:15).
Lk 17:21a here  -   Matt. 24:23; Mark 13:21
Lk 17:211 kingdom
Verses 22-24 prove that the kingdom of God is the Savior Himself, who was among the Pharisees when He was questioned by them. Wherever the Savior is, there the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God is with Him, and He brings it to His disciples (v. 22). He is the seed of the kingdom of God to be sown into God’s chosen people to develop into God’s ruling realm (see note 432 in ch. 4). Since His resurrection He has been within His believers (John 14:20; Rom. 8:10). Hence, the kingdom of God is within the church today (Rom. 14:17).
Lk 17:212 you
Referring to the questioning Pharisees (v. 20). The Savior as the kingdom of God was not within them but only in the midst of them.
Lk 17:22a days  -   Luke 5:35
Lk 17:22b days  -   John 8:56
Lk 17:221 not
This indicates the Savior’s absence. During His absence, the world, having rejected Him, will be an evil generation, living in the indulgence of lust (vv. 23-30), and an opponent of His followers, persecuting them because of their testimony concerning Him (18:1-8). Hence, His followers need to overcome the stupefying effect of the world’s indulgent living by losing their soul-life in this age (vv. 31-33). Also, they need to deal with the world’s persecution by being long-suffering and praying persistently in faith (18:7-8), that they may be raptured as overcomers and enter into the enjoyment of the kingdom of God at the Savior’s coming back (vv. 34-37).
Lk 17:241 lightning
See note 271 in Matt. 24.
Lk 17:242 of
Lit., under.
Lk 17:24a day  -   1 Cor. 1:8
Lk 17:25a rejected  -   Luke 9:22
Lk 17:261a And  -   vv. 26-27: Matt. 24:37-39
For vv. 26-27, see notes in Matt. 24:37-39.
Lk 17:262b days  -   Gen. 6:5-9
The conditions of evil living that stupefied the generation of Noah before the deluge and the generation of Lot before the destruction of Sodom portray the perilous condition of man’s living before the Lord’s parousia (presence, coming) and the great tribulation (Matt. 24:3, 21). To participate in the overcomers’ rapture that we may enjoy the Lord’s parousia and escape the great tribulation, we must overcome the stupefying effect of man’s living today.
Lk 17:26c days  -   1 Thes. 5:2-3
Lk 17:27a ark  -   Gen. 7:7; Heb. 11:7; 1 Pet. 3:20
Lk 17:27b flood  -   Gen. 7:10; 2 Pet. 2:5
Lk 17:28a days  -   Gen. 19:1-14
Lk 17:28b Lot  -   Gen. 19:15-16, 23; 2 Pet. 2:7
Lk 17:29a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24-25, 28; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7
Lk 17:29b brimstone  -   Psa. 11:6; Isa. 30:33; Rev. 14:10
Lk 17:30a revealed  -   1 Cor. 1:7; 2 Thes. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13; 4:13
Lk 17:31a housetop  -   Matt. 24:17-18
Lk 17:311 not
To linger in the earthly and material things will cause us to miss the overcomers’ rapture revealed in vv. 34-36.
Lk 17:321 Lot’s
Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt because she took a lingering look backward at Sodom, indicating that she loved and treasured the evil world that God was going to judge and utterly destroy. She was rescued from Sodom, but she did not reach the safe place that Lot reached (Gen. 19:15-30). She did not perish; neither was she fully saved. Like the salt that becomes tasteless (14:34-35 and note 342), she was left in a place of shame. This is a solemn warning to the world-loving believers.
Lk 17:331 preserve
See note 391 in Matt. 10. Preserving our soul-life is related to lingering in the earthly and material things, as mentioned in v. 31. We linger in the earthly things because we care for our soul’s enjoyment in this age. This will cause us to lose our soul; that is, our soul will suffer the loss of its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age.
Lk 17:33a soul-life  -   Luke 9:24
Lk 17:341 I
For vv. 34-36, see notes in Matt. 24:40-41. In these verses the rapture of the overcoming believers is revealed. It will occur secretly and unexpectedly, at night for certain believers who are sleeping, and in the daytime for certain sisters grinding at home and certain brothers working in the field. They are chosen because they have overcome the stupefying effect of the age. In 14:25-35 the Savior charges us to pay the price, insofar as we are able, that we may follow Him. In 16:1-13 He charges us to overcome mammon that we may serve Him prudently as faithful stewards. In vv. 22-37 of this chapter, He charges us to overcome the stupefying effect of self-indulgent living in this age that we may be raptured into the enjoyment of His parousia (presence, coming). All these charges are related to the believers’ overcoming in their practical living.
Lk 17:34a two  -   vv. 34-36: Matt. 24:40-41
Lk 17:342b taken  -   1 Thes. 4:17
This is the rapture of the overcomers (see note 362 in ch. 21), who do not preserve their soul-life by loving the worldly things of this age (vv. 26-32).
Lk 17:35a grinding  -   Exo. 11:5; Isa. 47:2
Lk 17:361 Two
Some MSS omit this verse.
Lk 17:371 body
I.e., corpse. See note 281 in Matt. 24.
Lk 17:37a vultures  -   cf. Job 39:26-30
Luke Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 18:1a parable  -   cf. Luke 11:5-9
Lk 18:1b pray  -   Acts 1:14; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:17
Lk 18:1c not  -   Gal. 6:9
Lk 18:2a not  -   Psa. 36:1; Rom. 3:18
Lk 18:31 widow
In a sense, the believers in Christ are a widow in the present age because their Husband, Christ (2 Cor. 11:2), is absent from them.
Lk 18:32 Avenge
Or, procure justice for.
Lk 18:33 opponent
We believers in Christ have an opponent, Satan the devil, concerning whom we need God’s avenging. We ought to pray persistently for this avenging (cf. Rev. 6:9-10) and should not lose heart.
Lk 18:6a unrighteous  -   Luke 16:8, 9
Lk 18:7a avenging  -   Rev. 6:10; Rom. 12:19
Lk 18:7b chosen  -   Mark 13:20; Col. 3:12; 1 Pet. 1:2
Lk 18:7c day  -   Psa. 88:1
Lk 18:7d long-suffering  -   2 Pet. 3:9; cf. James 5:7-8
Lk 18:81a comes  -   Heb. 10:37
God’s avenging us of our enemy will take place at the Savior’s coming back (2 Thes. 2:6-9).
Lk 18:82 faith
The persistent faith for our persistent prayer, like the faith of the widow. Hence, it is the subjective faith, not the objective faith.
Lk 18:91 He
What is covered in vv. 9-30 may be considered the conditions and requirements for entering into the kingdom of God: (1) to humble oneself as a sinner before God, realizing the need of God’s propitiation (vv. 9-14); (2) to be like a little child, without any preoccupying concept (vv. 15-17); and (3) to follow the Savior by overcoming being occupied by riches and all other material matters (vv. 18-30).
Lk 18:9a trusted  -   Luke 16:15; Prov. 30:12
Lk 18:9b righteous  -   cf. Matt. 5:20
Lk 18:10a went  -   1 Kings 10:5; 2 Kings 20:5, 8; Acts 3:1
Lk 18:10b Pharisee  -   Luke 15:1-2
Lk 18:11a stood  -   Psa. 135:2; Matt. 6:5; Mark 11:25
Lk 18:111 not
This does not sound like a prayer but like an accusing of others.
Lk 18:121a fast  -   Matt. 9:14; Isa. 58:3
This does not sound like a prayer but like an arrogant boast to God. Such boasting is an utterly detestable sin.
Lk 18:122 week
The same Greek word as for Sabbath in Matt. 28:1 and for week in John 20:1. This seven-day week is the week of the Sabbath established by the Jews according to Gen. 2.
Lk 18:12b give  -   Num. 18:21, 24; Luke 11:42
Lk 18:13a not  -   Ezra 9:6; Job 10:15
Lk 18:13b beat  -   Matt. 11:17; Luke 23:48
Lk 18:131 propitiated
The tax collector realized how his sinfulness offended God; hence, he asked God to be propitiated, to be appeased toward him by a propitiatory sacrifice for sins, that God might be merciful and gracious to him (see notes 252 in Rom. 3, 174 in Heb. 2, and 21 in 1 John 2).
Lk 18:13c sinner  -   Luke 5:32; 7:39; 1 Tim. 1:15
Lk 18:14a justified  -   Rom. 3:20-26; 5:9
Lk 18:14b humbled  -   Luke 14:11
Lk 18:15a babies  -   vv. 15-17: Matt. 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16
Lk 18:15b rebuked  -   Luke 18:39
Lk 18:161a forbid  -   Mark 9:39
Or, prevent, hinder.
Lk 18:162b kingdom  -   John 3:3, 5
See note 432 in ch. 4.
Lk 18:17a kingdom  -   James 2:5
Lk 18:171b little  -   Matt. 18:3; 1 Cor. 14:20; 1 Pet. 2:2
A little child, not filled with and occupied by old concepts, can easily receive a new thought. Hence, people need to be like little children and, with an unoccupied heart, receive the kingdom of God as a new thing.
Lk 18:181 certain
For vv. 18-30, see notes in Matt. 19:16-29.
Lk 18:18a saying  -   vv. 18-30: Matt. 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-30; Luke 10:25-28
Lk 18:182 what
See note 252 in ch. 10.
Lk 18:18b inherit  -   1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Heb. 1:14
Lk 18:18c eternal  -   Luke 18:30
Lk 18:20a not  -   Exo. 20:13-16; Deut. 5:17-20
Lk 18:20b honor  -   Exo. 20:12; Deut. 5:16
Lk 18:21a All  -   cf. Phil. 3:6
Lk 18:22a sell  -   Luke 12:33
Lk 18:22b poor  -   Luke 19:8
Lk 18:22c heavens  -   Matt. 6:19-20
Lk 18:22d follow  -   Luke 9:57-62
Lk 18:23a heard  -   cf. Ezek. 33:31
Lk 18:24a riches  -   Prov. 11:28; Matt. 13:22; 1 Tim. 6:17
Lk 18:251 needle
The Greek word here for needle is different from that in Matthew and Mark. This is the word used by surgeons.
Lk 18:261 Then
Lit., And.
Lk 18:27a possible  -   Rom. 4:21; Job 42:2
Lk 18:28a left  -   Luke 14:33
Lk 18:28b followed  -   Matt. 4:20, 22
Lk 18:29a brothers  -   Luke 14:26; Deut. 33:9
Lk 18:291 for
Matthew 19:29 has “for My name’s sake.” This indicates that the Savior is the kingdom of God (see note 211 in ch. 17).
Lk 18:29b kingdom  -   Luke 9:62
Lk 18:301 this
The present age.
Lk 18:30a coming  -   Matt. 12:32; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 6:5
Lk 18:30b eternal  -   Luke 18:18
Lk 18:31a twelve  -   Luke 6:13-16
Lk 18:31b going  -   vv. 31-33: Matt. 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34
Lk 18:31c Jerusalem  -   Luke 9:51; 19:28
Lk 18:31d accomplished  -   Matt. 1:22; 21:4; 26:56
Lk 18:321a delivered  -   Luke 9:44
See notes 181 in Matt. 20 and 331 in Mark 10.
Lk 18:32b mocked  -   Matt. 27:28-31
Lk 18:32c spat  -   Isa. 50:6; Matt. 26:67; Mark 14:65; 15:19
Lk 18:33a scourged  -   Matt. 27:26; Mark 15:15
Lk 18:33b third  -   Luke 9:22
Lk 18:34a hidden  -   Luke 9:45
Lk 18:351a drew  -   vv. 35-43: Matt. 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52
This means that the Savior healed the blind man before He entered Jericho. But according to Matt. 20:29 and Mark 10:46, the healing occurred at His going out from Jericho. Luke’s narrative has a spiritual significance. The blind man’s receiving of sight was followed in 19:1-9 by the salvation of Zaccheus. This indicates that to receive salvation one must first have sight to see the Savior. These two cases, occurring at Jericho one after the other, should be considered, spiritually, as one complete case. A sinner in darkness needs to receive sight that he may realize that he needs salvation (Acts 26:18).
What is covered in 18:35 — 19:10 shows how one can fulfill the conditions revealed in vv. 9-30 for entering the kingdom of God — first, one must receive sight from the Savior (vv. 35-43), and then one must receive the Savior as the dynamic salvation (19:1-10). In this way the blind man could be like the repenting tax collector and the unoccupied little child and receive the Savior, and Zaccheus could renounce all his riches and follow Him. The way to enter into all spiritual things is to receive sight from the Lord and to receive the Lord Himself.
Lk 18:35b Jericho  -   Luke 10:30
Lk 18:35c blind  -   John 9:1, 8
Lk 18:37a Nazarene  -   Matt. 2:23; Mark 1:24
Lk 18:381a Son  -   Matt. 1:1; 9:27
See note 301 in Matt. 20.
Lk 18:39a rebuked  -   Luke 18:15
Lk 18:411 What
See note 511 in Mark 10.
Lk 18:41a do  -   Mark 10:36
Lk 18:42a faith  -   Luke 17:19; Matt. 9:22
Lk 18:421 healed
Lit., saved.
Lk 18:43a glorifying  -   Luke 17:15
Lk 18:43b praise  -   Luke 19:37
Luke Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 19:11a Jericho  -   Luke 18:35; Matt. 20:29
See note 303 in ch. 10.
Lk 19:21 tax
See note 462 in Matt. 5.
Lk 19:3a see  -   cf. John 12:21
Lk 19:41a sycamore  -   1 Kings 10:27; 1 Chron. 27:28; Psa. 78:47; cf. Luke 17:6
Or, fig-mulberry. Its leaves are like those of the mulberry, and its fruit like that of the fig tree.
Lk 19:7a murmured  -   Luke 15:2
Lk 19:81 half
Once a sinner receives the Savior, the issue of his dynamic salvation is that he deals with material possessions and clears his past sinful life.
Lk 19:8a poor  -   Luke 18:22
Lk 19:82 taken
The same Greek word as in 3:14. It is a mild way of saying “extorted.” The tax collectors would put an excessive value on property or income, or increase the tax of those unable to pay, and would then practice usury.
Lk 19:83 four
This was according to the law’s requirements for restoration (Exo. 22:1; 2 Sam. 12:6).
Lk 19:9a salvation  -   Luke 1:69, 77; 2:30; 3:6
Lk 19:91 also
However evil this tax collector was, he nevertheless was a son of Abraham, a chosen heir of God’s promised inheritance (Gal. 3:7, 29).
Lk 19:9b Abraham  -   Luke 3:8; 13:16; 16:24; Gal. 3:7, 29
Lk 19:101a seek  -   Luke 15:4; Ezek. 34:4, 11-12, 16
This indicates that the Savior’s coming to Jericho was not accidental but purposeful; He came to seek this unique lost sinner, just as He sought the sinful woman in Samaria (John 4:4).
Lk 19:10b lost  -   Matt. 10:6; 15:24
Lk 19:111 further
Spiritually, this further parable is a continuation of the preceding case of salvation. It depicts how the saved ones should serve the Lord that they may inherit the coming kingdom.
Lk 19:11a Jerusalem  -   Luke 17:11; 18:31; 19:28
Lk 19:11b kingdom  -   Luke 17:20; Mark 1:15
Lk 19:112 appear
Or, be shown forth, be made to appear.
Lk 19:121 certain
Signifying the Savior, who is of the highest status — the God-man, both honorable in His deity and noble in His humanity.
Lk 19:122 went
Signifying the Savior’s going to heaven after His death and resurrection (24:51; 1 Pet. 3:22).
Lk 19:123 return
Signifying the Savior’s coming back with the kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14; Rev. 11:15; 2 Tim. 4:1).
Lk 19:131a ten  -   Matt. 25:1
In the parable in Matt. 25:14-30, the slaves are given a varying number of talents according to their individual ability; here the parable emphasizes the common portion given equally to each slave based on the common salvation. However, the point of both parables is the same: the faithfulness of the slaves will determine their portion as their reward in the coming kingdom.
Lk 19:132 minas
A mina is equal to one hundred drachmas, or one hundred days’ wages.
Lk 19:133 until
Lit., while I am coming.
Lk 19:141a citizens  -   cf. John 1:11
Signifying the unbelieving Jews.
Lk 19:142 We
This was fulfilled in Acts 2 — 9.
Lk 19:17a faithful  -   Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 16:10; 1 Cor. 4:2
Lk 19:171 have
Signifying the overcomers’ reigning over the nations (Rev. 2:26; 20:4, 6).
Lk 19:17b over  -   cf. Matt. 24:47
Lk 19:191 five
Indicating that the overcoming saints’ reigning in the coming kingdom as a reward will differ in extent.
Lk 19:201 And
For vv. 20-26, see notes in Matt. 25:24-29.
Lk 19:202 kept
Signifying that the unfaithful believers keep their salvation in an idle way instead of using it productively. To keep the Lord’s salvation laid away is to not make use of it. Such idleness toward the Lord will cause the unfaithful believers to be condemned and to suffer loss.
Lk 19:20a handkerchief  -   John 11:44; Acts 19:12
Lk 19:211 harsh
Demanding strictly; not as strong as hard in Matt. 25:24 (see note 3 there).
Lk 19:21a not  -   Matt. 25:24
Lk 19:221 judge
Or, condemn.
Lk 19:22a wicked  -   Matt. 18:32
Lk 19:231 in
Lit., on the table (of the moneychanger).
Lk 19:26a has  -   Luke 8:18; Matt. 13:12; 25:29; Mark 4:25
Lk 19:271a slay  -   cf. Luke 20:16; Matt. 22:7
Signifying that all the unbelieving Jews who reject the Savior will perish.
Lk 19:281 going
In the preceding verse the Savior finished His ministry. Now the time came when He needed to go up to Jerusalem to present Himself to the death ordained by God for the accomplishing of God’s eternal redemption (see notes 11 and 331 in Mark 10). Although He knew that the leaders of Judaism were seeking the opportunity to kill Him, He still went straight ahead boldly.
Lk 19:28a Jerusalem  -   Luke 9:51; 17:11; 18:31; 19:11; Mark 10:32
Lk 19:291 And
For vv. 29-38, see notes in Matt. 21:1-9.
Lk 19:29a Bethphage  -   vv. 29-38: Matt. 21:1-9; Mark 11:1-10
Lk 19:29b Bethany  -   Matt. 21:17; Luke 24:50; John 11:18
Lk 19:29c mount  -   Zech. 14:4; Matt. 24:3; 26:30; John 8:1; Acts 1:12
Lk 19:29d sent  -   cf. Luke 22:8
Lk 19:30a no  -   cf. Luke 23:53
Lk 19:32a found  -   Luke 22:13
Lk 19:33a colt  -   Zech. 9:9; John 12:14-15
Lk 19:361 spread
Lit., were spreading out under.
Lk 19:36a garments  -   cf. 2 Kings 9:13
Lk 19:37a praise  -   Luke 18:43
Lk 19:37b seen  -   cf. John 12:17-18
Lk 19:38a King  -   Matt. 25:34; John 1:49
Lk 19:38b name  -   Luke 13:35; Psa. 118:26
Lk 19:38c highest  -   Luke 2:14; Psa. 148:1
Lk 19:39a said  -   cf. Matt. 21:15-16
Lk 19:40a stones  -   cf. Hab. 2:11
Lk 19:41a wept  -   John 11:35; Heb. 5:7
Lk 19:42a things  -   cf. Deut. 32:29
Lk 19:421 peace
This will be in the restoration of Israel (Acts 1:6) after the Savior’s return.
Lk 19:43a rampart  -   cf. Isa. 29:3; Jer. 6:6; Ezek. 4:2
Lk 19:43b encircle  -   Luke 21:20
Lk 19:441 level
This was fulfilled in A.D. 70 through the Roman prince Titus with his army.
Lk 19:44a stone  -   Luke 21:6; Matt. 24:2; Mark 13:2
Lk 19:442b visitation  -   Luke 1:68; 7:16; Exo. 3:16
The Savior’s first coming, when He visited them in grace in the acceptable year of the Lord (2:10-14; 4:18-22). To miss the Lord’s visitation of grace and thereby lose the opportunity to repent and be saved will cause a person to be judged and to regret forever.
Lk 19:45a entered  -   vv. 45-48: Matt. 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18; cf. John 2:14-17
Lk 19:46a house  -   Isa. 56:7
Lk 19:46b robbers  -   Jer. 7:11
Lk 19:47a taught  -   Luke 20:1
Lk 19:47b destroy  -   Luke 22:2; John 7:19; 8:37
Luke Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 20:11 He
See note 151 in Mark 11.
Lk 20:1a teaching  -   Luke 19:47
Lk 20:1b temple  -   vv. 1-8: Matt. 21:23-27; Mark 11:27-33
Lk 20:1c came  -   Acts 4:1; 6:12
Lk 20:2a authority  -   cf. Acts 4:7
Lk 20:4a baptism  -   Luke 3:3
Lk 20:4b heaven  -   Luke 15:18, 21; John 3:27
Lk 20:5a not  -   Matt. 21:32
Lk 20:6a prophet  -   Matt. 11:9; 14:5
Lk 20:81 Neither
See note 272 in Matt. 21.
Lk 20:91 And
For vv. 9-19, see notes in Matt. 21:33-46 and Mark 12:1-12.
Lk 20:9a parable  -   vv. 9-19: Matt. 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12
Lk 20:9b planted  -   Psa. 80:8
Lk 20:9c vineyard  -   Isa. 5:1-2; Matt. 21:28
Lk 20:9d vinedressers  -   cf. S.S. 8:11-12
Lk 20:9e abroad  -   Matt. 25:14-15
Lk 20:10a sent  -   2 Chron. 24:19; 36:15-16
Lk 20:10b beat  -   Jer. 37:15
Lk 20:13a beloved  -   Matt. 3:17
Lk 20:131 probably
An expression of one’s reasonable hope.
Lk 20:14a heir  -   Heb. 1:2
Lk 20:15a out  -   Heb. 13:12
Lk 20:15b killed  -   Acts 2:23; 3:15; 1 Thes. 2:15
Lk 20:16a destroy  -   cf. Luke 19:44
Lk 20:16b others  -   Acts 13:46
Lk 20:17a The  -   Psa. 118:22; Acts 4:11
Lk 20:18a stone  -   Isa. 8:14-15; Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Pet. 2:8
Lk 20:18b chaff  -   Dan. 2:34-35
Lk 20:201 And
For vv. 20-26, see notes in Matt. 22:15-22.
Lk 20:20a watched  -   Luke 14:1; Mark 3:2
Lk 20:20b sent  -   vv. 20-26: Matt. 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17
Lk 20:20c feigned  -   cf. 1 Kings 14:6
Lk 20:20d word  -   Luke 20:26; 11:54
Lk 20:20e deliver  -   Luke 18:32; Acts 2:23
Lk 20:20f governor  -   Matt. 27:2, 11; 28:14
Lk 20:211 and
Lit., and do not accept a face.
Lk 20:21a person  -   Deut. 1:17; 16:19; James 2:1
Lk 20:21b way  -   Acts 13:10; 18:25-26
Lk 20:22a taxes  -   Matt. 17:25
Lk 20:22b Caesar  -   Luke 2:1; 3:1
Lk 20:23a craftiness  -   2 Cor. 11:3
Lk 20:24a denarius  -   Matt. 18:28
Lk 20:25a render  -   Rom. 13:7
Lk 20:26a saying  -   Luke 20:20
Lk 20:271 And
For vv. 27-38, see notes in Matt. 22:23-32.
Lk 20:27a Sadducees  -   Matt. 3:7; 16:1; 22:34; Acts 4:1; 5:17
Lk 20:27b resurrection  -   Acts 23:8; 4:1-2
Lk 20:27c questioned  -   vv. 27-38: Matt. 22:23-32; Mark 12:18-27
Lk 20:28a wife  -   Deut. 25:5
Lk 20:301 second
Some MSS add, took the wife, and this one died childless.
Lk 20:34a sons  -   Luke 16:8
Lk 20:34b marry  -   Luke 17:27
Lk 20:35a worthy  -   Acts 5:41; 2 Thes. 1:5
Lk 20:351 age
The coming age of the kingdom (13:28-29; 22:18) and the resurrection of life (John 5:29; Luke 14:14; Rev. 20:4, 6) are eternal blessings and enjoyments in the eternal life for the believers who are counted worthy (18:29-30; Matt. 19:28-29).
Lk 20:36a die  -   John 11:25-26; 1 Cor. 15:54-55
Lk 20:36b angels  -   cf. Heb. 2:7, 9
Lk 20:36c sons  -   Rom. 8:14; cf. Psa. 82:6
Lk 20:36d resurrection  -   1 Cor. 15:42, 52; 1 Thes. 4:16
Lk 20:37a bush  -   Exo. 3:2-4
Lk 20:37b Abraham  -   Exo. 3:6, 15-16
Lk 20:38a living  -   Rom. 6:11
Lk 20:39a well  -   Mark 12:28
Lk 20:401a no  -   Matt. 22:46; Mark 12:34
The faultfinding opposers’ insidious questions exposed their evil, subtlety, and meanness, which were the exact opposites of the Man-Savior’s perfection, wisdom, and dignity. This vindicated Him in His human perfection with His divine splendor and muzzled them in their hateful plot and their Satan-instigated conspiracy (see note 461 in Matt. 22). They were trying to find fault with the Man-Savior, but eventually they were subdued by Him, the perfect and blameless One.
Lk 20:411 And
For vv. 41-44, see notes in Matt. 22:41-45.
Lk 20:41a said  -   vv. 41-44: Matt. 22:41-45; Mark 12:35-37
Lk 20:41b David’s  -   Matt. 1:1; John 7:42
Lk 20:42a The  -   Psa. 110:1
Lk 20:42b Sit  -   Heb. 10:12-13
Lk 20:44a his  -   Rom. 1:3
Lk 20:441 son
See note 371 in Mark 12.
Lk 20:45a said  -   vv. 45-47: Matt. 23:1-7, 14; Mark 12:38-40
Lk 20:461 Beware
After muzzling all His opposers, the Savior warned His disciples of the hypocrisy and evils of the scribes, indicating that they were condemned by the One in whom they tried their best to find fault.
Lk 20:46a greetings  -   Luke 11:43
Lk 20:46b marketplaces  -   Luke 7:32; Mark 6:56
Lk 20:46c places  -   Luke 14:7-8
Lk 20:471 pretense
Down through the ages prayer has been offered as a pretense and has been misused by man.
Lk 20:47a greater  -   James 3:1
Lk 20:472 judgment
Or, punishment, condemnation.
Luke Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 21:11 saw
11 See note 411 in Mark 12.
Lk 21:1a rich  -   vv. 1-4: Mark 12:41-44
Lk 21:1b casting  -   2 Kings 12:9
Lk 21:12 gifts
Things offered to God (so in v. 4).
Lk 21:1c treasury  -   Matt. 27:6; John 8:20
Lk 21:21 impoverished
A stronger word than poor, indicating a penniless condition.
Lk 21:2a lepta  -   cf. Luke 12:59
Lk 21:3a poor  -   2 Cor. 8:2
Lk 21:4a living  -   Luke 8:43
Lk 21:51 And
For vv. 5-19, see notes in Matt. 24:1-13 and Mark 13:1-13.
Lk 21:5a temple  -   vv. 5-19: Matt. 24:1-13; Mark 13:1-13
Lk 21:52 beautiful
The things for God that have a beautiful appearance but no reality will be rejected by God.
Lk 21:53 consecrated
Or, votive gifts.
Lk 21:6a stone  -   Luke 19:44
Lk 21:7a when  -   cf. Acts 1:6-7
Lk 21:8a See  -   Mark 13:33; Col. 2:8
Lk 21:8b name  -   Jer. 14:14
Lk 21:11a earthquakes  -   Rev. 6:12
Lk 21:11b famines  -   Acts 11:28; Rev. 6:8
Lk 21:11c signs  -   cf. Luke 11:16
Lk 21:12a delivering  -   vv. 12-17: Matt. 10:17-22
Lk 21:12b prisons  -   Acts 5:18; 12:4; 16:24; 22:19; 26:10
Lk 21:12c bringing  -   Acts 16:19; 18:12
Lk 21:12d kings  -   1 Pet. 2:13-14
Lk 21:14a take  -   Luke 12:11
Lk 21:15a mouth  -   Exo. 4:12; Jer. 1:9
Lk 21:15b resist  -   Acts 6:10
Lk 21:161 delivered
Or, betrayed. So throughout the book.
Lk 21:17a hated  -   Luke 6:22; John 15:18-19
Lk 21:18a hair  -   Matt. 10:30; cf. 1 Sam. 14:45
Lk 21:19a endurance  -   Rom. 5:3; Heb. 10:36; James 1:3
Lk 21:191 possess
Or, acquire, keep intact.
Lk 21:201 But
For vv. 20-28, see notes in Matt. 24:15-31.
Lk 21:20a see  -   vv. 20-28: Matt. 24:15-31; Mark 13:14-27
Lk 21:20b surrounded  -   Luke 19:43
Lk 21:22a vengeance  -   Isa. 34:8
Lk 21:23a pregnant  -   cf. Luke 23:29
Lk 21:231 distress
Or, necessity.
Lk 21:23b wrath  -   1 Thes. 2:16
Lk 21:24a trampled  -   Rev. 11:2
Lk 21:241 Gentiles
Or, nations.
Lk 21:24b fulfilled  -   cf. Rom. 11:25
Lk 21:25a sun  -   Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:12-13
Lk 21:25b roaring  -   Psa. 65:7
Lk 21:261 fainting
Lit., stopping breathing.
Lk 21:262 inhabited
Referring to the earth at the time of the great tribulation, which will come in the last three and a half years of this age (Matt. 24:21; Rev. 3:10).
Lk 21:26a shaken  -   Heb. 12:26
Lk 21:27a Son  -   Matt. 26:64; Dan. 7:13; Rev. 14:14; John 1:51
Lk 21:27b coming  -   Acts 1:9-11; Rev. 1:7
Lk 21:27c glory  -   Matt. 25:31
Lk 21:28a redemption  -   Rom. 8:23; Eph. 4:30
Lk 21:291 And
For vv. 29-33, see notes in Matt. 24:32-35.
Lk 21:29a fig  -   vv. 29-33: Matt. 24:32-35; Mark 13:28-31
Lk 21:32a this  -   Matt. 23:36
Lk 21:33a pass  -   Luke 16:17; Matt. 5:18; Rev. 21:1
Lk 21:33b words  -   Psa. 119:89; Isa. 40:8; 1 Pet. 1:25
Lk 21:34a take  -   Luke 8:18
Lk 21:341 debauchery
Indicating a drunken hangover.
Lk 21:34b drunkenness  -   Rom. 13:13; Matt. 24:49
Lk 21:34c anxieties  -   Matt. 13:22
Lk 21:342 suddenly
Or, unexpectedly.
Lk 21:34d snare  -   Eccl. 9:12; Isa. 24:17; Rom. 11:9; 1 Tim. 3:7; 6:9; 2 Tim. 2:26
Lk 21:351a dwelling  -   Rev. 3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 14; 17:2, 8
Lit., sitting.
Lk 21:36a watchful  -   Matt. 24:42; 25:13; 26:38, 41; Acts 20:31; 1 Cor. 16:13; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:6; 1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 3:2; 16:15
Lk 21:36b beseeching  -   Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; Col. 4:12; 1 Thes. 5:17; 1 Pet. 4:7
Lk 21:361 prevail
Have strength and ability. The strength and ability to escape the great tribulation come from watchfulness and beseeching.
Lk 21:362 escape
To be taken, raptured, before the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21; Luke 17:34-36 and note 342), which will be a severe trial upon the whole inhabited earth (Rev. 3:10). To be thus raptured is to be kept “out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 3:10).
Lk 21:363 all
All the things of the great tribulation.
Lk 21:364c stand  -   cf. Psa. 1:5; Rev. 6:17; Eph. 6:13
Corresponding with standing in Rev. 14:1, indicating that the raptured overcomers will stand before the Savior on Mount Zion in the heavens before the great tribulation (cf. Rev. 12:5-6, 14).
Lk 21:37a teaching  -   Matt. 26:55
Lk 21:37b went  -   Matt. 21:17
Lk 21:37c Olivet  -   Luke 22:39; Matt. 26:30
Lk 21:38a morning  -   John 8:2
Luke Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 22:11 Now
For vv. 1-2, see notes in Matt. 26:2-5.
Lk 22:1a Passover  -   vv. 1-2: Matt. 26:2-5; Mark 14:1-2
Lk 22:1b near  -   cf. John 6:4; 11:55
Lk 22:2a do  -   Luke 19:47; John 11:53
Lk 22:2b feared  -   Matt. 21:46
Lk 22:3a Satan  -   Acts 5:3
Lk 22:3b Judas  -   Luke 6:16; John 6:70-71; 12:4
Lk 22:3c Iscariot  -   vv. 3-6: Matt. 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11
Lk 22:4a officers  -   Luke 22:52; Acts 4:1; 5:24, 26
Lk 22:51a money  -   cf. Zech. 11:12
See note 111 in Mark 14.
Lk 22:6a deliver  -   Luke 22:21; 9:44
Lk 22:71 Unleavened
See note 171 in Matt. 26.
Lk 22:7a passover  -   vv. 7-13: Matt. 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16
Lk 22:72 sacrificed
See note 122 in Mark 14.
Lk 22:11a Teacher  -   Matt. 23:8; John 11:28
Lk 22:12a upper  -   Acts 1:13
Lk 22:13a found  -   Luke 19:32
Lk 22:14a reclined  -   Matt. 26:20; Mark 14:18
Lk 22:151 eat
The eating and drinking in vv. 15-18 were the keeping of the last Feast of the Passover before the instituting of the Lord’s supper in vv. 19-20.
Lk 22:161 it
It, and what is mentioned in v. 18, refer to the last passover in v. 15, which will be fully fulfilled in the coming kingdom of God, when the Savior will feast with the overcoming saints (v. 30; 13:28-29).
Lk 22:16a kingdom  -   Luke 14:15
Lk 22:17a thanks  -   Matt. 15:36
Lk 22:181 product
Referring to the juice of the grape.
Lk 22:18a kingdom  -   Matt. 26:29; Mark 14:25
Lk 22:191 And
For vv. 19-20, see notes in Matt. 26:26-28 and Mark 14:22-24.
Lk 22:19a loaf  -   vv. 19-20: Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; 1 Cor. 11:23-25
Lk 22:19b body  -   1 Cor. 10:16
Lk 22:20a new  -   Jer. 31:31; Heb. 8:8, 13; 2 Cor. 3:6
Lk 22:20b blood  -   John 19:34; Rom. 3:25; cf. Exo. 24:8; Zech. 9:11
Lk 22:21a hand  -   vv. 21-23: Matt. 26:21-25; Mark 14:18-21
Lk 22:211 one
See note 201 in Mark 14.
Lk 22:21b betraying  -   Luke 22:6
Lk 22:21c with  -   John 13:18
Lk 22:22a determined  -   Acts 2:23; 4:28
Lk 22:241 And
In the preceding verse the disciples had a discussion; here they had a contention also.
Lk 22:242 contention
The word shows a love of strife, an eagerness to contend.
Lk 22:24a greatest  -   Luke 9:46; Mark 9:34
Lk 22:25a said  -   vv. 25-27: Matt. 20:25-28; Mark 10:42-45
Lk 22:26a greatest  -   Matt. 23:11
Lk 22:26b leads  -   Heb. 13:7, 17, 24; cf. Mark 9:35
Lk 22:261 serves
See note 261 in Matt. 20.
Lk 22:27a serves  -   cf. Luke 12:37; John 13:4-5
Lk 22:28a trials  -   cf. Heb. 2:18; 4:15
Lk 22:291 appoint
Or, covenant to…covenanted to.
Lk 22:29a kingdom  -   Luke 12:32
Lk 22:301 table
This is the feast in the parable in Matt. 22:1-4 and the marriage feast in Rev. 19:9, which is for the overcoming saints (see note 161).
Lk 22:30a kingdom  -   Luke 22:16, 18; 13:29; 14:15; Matt. 8:11
Lk 22:30b thrones  -   Matt. 19:28; Rev. 3:21
Lk 22:30c judging  -   1 Cor. 6:2
Lk 22:30d tribes  -   Acts 26:7; James 1:1
Lk 22:311 Simon
Some MSS add, And the Lord said.
Lk 22:31a Satan  -   Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; 1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 2:11
Lk 22:31b sift  -   Amos 9:9
Lk 22:32a made  -   John 17:9, 11, 15
Lk 22:32b establish  -   cf. John 21:15-17
Lk 22:33a prison  -   Acts 12:4
Lk 22:33b death  -   John 21:19
Lk 22:34a rooster  -   Luke 22:61; Matt. 26:34; Mark 14:30; John 13:38
Lk 22:35a without  -   cf. Luke 9:3; 10:4; Matt. 10:9-10; Mark 6:8
Lk 22:361 buy
At that time people carried a sword while traveling, just as they carried a purse and a bag. The Savior’s word did not mean that He wanted the disciples to arm themselves to resist the coming arrest (cf. vv. 49-51; Matt. 26:51-54); rather, it indicated that the people’s attitude toward Him had changed.
Lk 22:37a counted  -   Isa. 53:12
Lk 22:371b fulfillment  -   John 19:30
Lit., end.
Lk 22:38a swords  -   Luke 22:49
Lk 22:381 enough
Indicating not that two swords were sufficient but that the disciples had said enough (cf. 1 Kings 19:4).
Lk 22:39a Mount  -   Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26; Luke 21:37
Lk 22:401a place  -   John 18:2
Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36).
Lk 22:40b said  -   vv. 40-46: Matt. 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42
Lk 22:40c Pray  -   1 Pet. 4:7
Lk 22:41a knelt  -   Acts 7:60
Lk 22:41b prayed  -   Heb. 5:7
Lk 22:421a cup  -   Matt. 20:22; John 18:11
Referring to the Savior’s death on the cross.
Lk 22:42b will  -   John 5:30; 6:38
Lk 22:422 Yours
See note 361 in Mark 14.
Lk 22:431 And
Some ancient MSS omit vv. 43 and 44.
Lk 22:43a angel  -   Matt. 4:11; Heb. 1:14
Lk 22:44a agony  -   cf. John 12:27; Heb. 5:7
Lk 22:451 sorrow
Sorrow and lack of prayer resulted in sound sleep. Hence, the Lord said, “Rise up and pray.”
Lk 22:47a While  -   vv. 47-53: Matt. 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-50; John 18:3-11
Lk 22:47b Judas  -   Luke 22:3
Lk 22:49a sword  -   Luke 22:38
Lk 22:50a ear  -   John 18:26
Lk 22:511 Let
This may mean, “Let them arrest Me at this time.” The Lord, realizing the situation, willingly accepted it because God had permitted it.
Lk 22:52a officers  -   Luke 22:4
Lk 22:531a temple  -   John 8:2; 18:20
See note 491 in Mark 14.
Lk 22:53b hour  -   Mark 14:35, 41; John 12:27
Lk 22:53c authority  -   Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18; Eph. 6:12
Lk 22:54a led  -   Matt. 26:57; Mark 14:53
Lk 22:54b followed  -   Matt. 26:58; Mark 14:54; John 18:15
Lk 22:55a courtyard  -   vv. 55-62: Matt. 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; John 18:15-18, 25-27
Lk 22:591 another
See note 731 in Matt. 26.
Lk 22:59a Galilean  -   Acts 2:7
Lk 22:61a rooster  -   Luke 22:34
Lk 22:63a beat  -   Matt. 26:67-68; Mark 14:65; John 18:22-23
Lk 22:641 Prophesy
See note 681 in Matt. 26.
Lk 22:64a Who  -   cf. Luke 7:39
Lk 22:65a blaspheming  -   Mark 15:29
Lk 22:66a chief  -   Matt. 27:1; Mark 15:1
Lk 22:661 Sanhedrin
See note 226 in Matt. 5.
Lk 22:67a If  -   vv. 67-71: Matt. 26:63-65; Mark 14:61-64; cf. John 18:19-21
Lk 22:67b Christ  -   John 10:24-25
Lk 22:691 Son
See note 641 in Matt. 26.
Lk 22:69a right  -   Mark 16:19; Acts 7:56; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 1 Pet. 3:22
Lk 22:701 Son
The devil had used this same matter to tempt the Savior (4:3, 9). In that case and in this one, the attack was aimed at the Lord’s deity.
Lk 22:70a You  -   Luke 23:3; Matt. 27:11; Mark 15:2
Luke Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 23:1a led  -   Matt. 27:2; Mark 15:1; John 18:28
Lk 23:11 Pilate
See notes 21 in Matt. 27 and 12 in Mark 15.
Lk 23:21 perverting
Or, turning away, misleading (cf. v. 14).
Lk 23:2a pay  -   Luke 20:22
Lk 23:2b Caesar  -   Luke 2:1; 3:1
Lk 23:2c King  -   John 18:33, 37; 19:12; Acts 17:7
Lk 23:3a asked  -   Matt. 27:11; Mark 15:2
Lk 23:3b King  -   Matt. 2:2; Luke 23:37-38; John 18:39; 19:3
Lk 23:31 It
This answer is to be understood as a “distinct affirmation” (Alford).
Lk 23:3c say  -   Luke 22:70
Lk 23:4a no  -   Luke 23:14, 22; John 18:38; 19:4, 6; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22
Lk 23:51a Galilee  -   Luke 4:14; Matt. 4:12, 23; Mark 1:14; John 1:43; 2:11
This indicates that the “whole of Judea” comprised Galilee and the region in which Jerusalem was (see note 442 in ch. 4).
Lk 23:6a Galilean  -   Luke 22:59
Lk 23:7a Herod’s  -   Luke 3:1, 19-20; 9:7
Lk 23:8a see  -   Luke 9:9
Lk 23:8b heard  -   Matt. 14:1
Lk 23:8c sign  -   Matt. 12:38
Lk 23:91 many
Or, considerable, sufficient.
Lk 23:92 nothing
This is the fulfillment of Isa. 53:7.
Lk 23:11a despised  -   Isa. 53:3; Mark 9:12
Lk 23:11b mocked  -   Luke 18:32; 23:36
Lk 23:11c threw  -   Matt. 27:28; Mark 15:17
Lk 23:12a Herod  -   Acts 4:27
Lk 23:13a rulers  -   Luke 23:35; 24:20
Lk 23:141a turns  -   Luke 23:2
Implying to turn the people away from their civil and religious allegiance.
Lk 23:14b no  -   Luke 23:4
Lk 23:16a discipline  -   Luke 23:22
Lk 23:16b release  -   Acts 3:13
Lk 23:171a Now  -   vv. 17-25: Matt. 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-15; John 18:39-40
Some ancient authorities omit this verse.
Lk 23:18a away  -   cf. Acts 21:36; 22:22
Lk 23:18b release  -   Acts 3:14
Lk 23:19a insurrection  -   Luke 23:25
Lk 23:22a done  -   Luke 23:41
Lk 23:22b no  -   Luke 23:4, 14
Lk 23:22c discipline  -   Luke 23:16
Lk 23:231a crucified  -   Luke 23:33
See note 262 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:241 gave
See note 151 in Mark 15. The accusations of the Jewish religious leaders exposed their falseness and deceitfulness in their religion, and the judgment made by the Roman rulers exposed their darkness and rottenness in their politics. At the same time, the Man-Savior again was vindicated in His human perfection of the highest standard, with His all-surpassing divine splendor. This was the strongest sign that He was fully qualified to be the Substitute for the sinners for whom He intended to die.
Lk 23:25a insurrection  -   Luke 23:19
Lk 23:25b delivered  -   John 19:16
Lk 23:261a Simon  -   Matt. 27:32; Mark 15:21
See note 321 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:281a Daughters  -   S.S. 1:5; 2:7
Referring to the inhabitants.
Lk 23:28b Jerusalem  -   Luke 13:34
Lk 23:29a days  -   Luke 17:22
Lk 23:29b nourished  -   cf. Luke 21:23
Lk 23:30a mountains  -   Hosea 10:8; Rev. 6:16
Lk 23:311 tree
The tree full of sap signifies the Man-Savior, who is living and full of life. The dry wood signifies the deadened people of Jerusalem, who were void of life sap.
Lk 23:31a dry  -   Ezek. 20:47
Lk 23:32a two  -   Matt. 27:38; Mark 15:27; John 19:18
Lk 23:331a Skull  -   Mark 15:22; John 19:17
See note 331 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:33b crucified  -   Luke 23:23
Lk 23:33c criminals  -   Isa. 53:12
Lk 23:34a forgive  -   Isa. 53:12; cf. Acts 7:60
Lk 23:34b not  -   Acts 3:17
Lk 23:34c lots  -   Psa. 22:18; Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:24; John 19:24
Lk 23:35a looking  -   Psa. 22:17
Lk 23:35b rulers  -   Luke 23:13; 24:20
Lk 23:35c sneered  -   Psa. 22:7; Luke 16:14
Lk 23:35d saved  -   Matt. 27:42; Mark 15:31
Lk 23:35e Himself  -   Luke 4:23
Lk 23:35f Christ  -   Matt. 1:17; Luke 9:20
Lk 23:35g Chosen  -   Luke 9:35; Isa. 42:1; Matt. 12:18; 1 Pet. 2:4
Lk 23:36a mocked  -   Luke 23:11
Lk 23:361b vinegar  -   Psa. 69:21; Mark 15:36; John 19:29
See note 481 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:37a King  -   Luke 23:3
Lk 23:381 Him
Some MSS add, written in Greek and Roman and Hebrew letters.
Lk 23:38a KING  -   Matt. 27:37; Mark 15:26; John 19:19-22; Luke 23:2-3
Lk 23:39a blasphemed  -   Matt. 27:44; Mark 15:32
Lk 23:401 judgment
Or, punishment, condemnation.
Lk 23:411 amiss
Or, out of place.
Lk 23:421 And
For vv. 42-43a, some MSS read, And he said to Jesus, Remember me, Lord, when You come in Your kingdom. And Jesus said to him…
Lk 23:42a come  -   Luke 19:15; Matt. 25:31
Lk 23:431 Truly
This record of salvation, beginning at v. 40, is unique to this Gospel. It displays the effectiveness of the Man-Savior’s vicarious death and the highest standard of morality of His salvation.
Lk 23:432 Paradise
See note 41 in 2 Cor. 12.
Lk 23:441a sixth  -   Mark 15:33
See note 451 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:44b darkness  -   Exo. 10:21-22; Rev. 16:10; Amos 8:9
Lk 23:451 The
Some MSS read, And the sun was darkened.
Lk 23:452a veil  -   Mark 15:38; Exo. 26:31-33
See note 511 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:46a loud  -   Matt. 27:50; Mark 15:37
Lk 23:461 I
See note 501 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:46b commit  -   Psa. 31:5; John 19:30; cf. Acts 7:59
Lk 23:47a centurion  -   vv. 47-49: Matt. 27:54-56; Mark 15:39-41
Lk 23:47b glorified  -   Luke 17:15
Lk 23:47c righteous  -   Acts 3:14; 1 John 2:1
Lk 23:48a breasts  -   Luke 18:13; Matt. 11:17
Lk 23:49a knew  -   Psa. 88:8
Lk 23:49b women  -   Luke 8:2
Lk 23:49c distance  -   Psa. 38:11
Lk 23:501a Joseph  -   vv. 50-56: Matt. 27:57-61; Mark 15:43-47; John 19:38-42
See note 381 in John 19.
Lk 23:51a expecting  -   Luke 2:25, 38
Lk 23:531 laid
This was for the fulfillment of Isa. 53:9b.
Lk 23:53a no  -   cf. Mark 11:2
Lk 23:541 preparation
See note 621 in Matt. 27.
Lk 23:542 coming
Lit., was coming to light.
Lk 23:56a spices  -   Luke 24:1; 2 Chron. 16:14
Lk 23:56b ointment  -   Matt. 26:12; Mark 16:1
Lk 23:56c Sabbath  -   Exo. 20:8, 10; Deut. 5:12, 14
Lk 23:561 rested
This was a real rest for all God’s chosen people and even for the entire universe. Because the Savior had fully accomplished redemption for all, all could rest.
Luke Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Lk 24:1a on  -   vv. 1-10: Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; John 20:1
Lk 24:11 first
See notes 12 in Matt. 28 and 11 in John 20.
Lk 24:12 they
Referring to the women mentioned in v. 10 and 23:55.
Lk 24:13 came
See note 12 in John 20.
Lk 24:1b spices  -   Luke 23:56
Lk 24:2a stone  -   Matt. 27:60; Mark 15:46; cf. John 11:38
Lk 24:3a not  -   Luke 24:23
Lk 24:4a two  -   John 20:12; cf. Acts 1:10
Lk 24:4b men  -   Luke 24:23
Lk 24:41c dazzling  -   Acts 10:30
Or, shining.
Lk 24:5a frightened  -   Luke 24:37
Lk 24:5b living  -   Luke 24:23; Rev. 1:18; Heb. 7:8
Lk 24:61 raised
See note 61 in Mark 16.
Lk 24:6a spoke  -   Luke 24:44
Lk 24:6b Galilee  -   Matt. 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-31
Lk 24:7a third  -   Luke 9:22; Matt. 20:19
Lk 24:8a remembered  -   John 2:22; 12:16
Lk 24:9a reported  -   Mark 16:10; John 20:18
Lk 24:10a Mary  -   Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40
Lk 24:10b Joanna  -   Luke 8:3
Lk 24:101 Mary
The mother of the Man-Savior.
Lk 24:111 to
Lit., in their sight.
Lk 24:112 nonsense
Used in medical language in reference to the wild talk of delirium.
Lk 24:11a not  -   Mark 16:11
Lk 24:12a Peter  -   John 20:3-7
Lk 24:12b linen  -   John 19:40
Lk 24:13a two  -   Mark 16:12-13
Lk 24:131 stadia
One stadion equals about six hundred feet; therefore, sixty stadia would equal about seven miles.
Lk 24:151 went
The Man-Savior was now in resurrection walking with the two disciples. This differed from His walking with His disciples before His death (19:28).
Lk 24:16a kept  -   cf. John 20:14; 21:4
Lk 24:191 said
In their blindness they thought they knew more than the resurrected Savior.
Lk 24:19a Nazarene  -   Matt. 2:23; Mark 1:24; Acts 2:22
Lk 24:192b Prophet  -   Matt. 21:11; Luke 7:16; John 4:19; 6:14; Deut. 18:15
Lit., a man, a Prophet. The two disciples knew the Savior in the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16), not in His resurrection. They knew His power in work and word, not the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
Lk 24:19c powerful  -   cf. Acts 7:22
Lk 24:20a rulers  -   Luke 23:13, 35
Lk 24:20b delivered  -   Luke 23:1
Lk 24:20c sentence  -   Acts 13:27
Lk 24:20d crucified  -   Luke 23:33; Acts 2:23
Lk 24:21a redeem  -   Luke 1:68; 2:38
Lk 24:22a women  -   Luke 24:10
Lk 24:23a not  -   Luke 24:3
Lk 24:23b angels  -   Luke 24:4
Lk 24:23c living  -   Luke 24:5
Lk 24:24a tomb  -   Luke 24:12
Lk 24:251a foolish  -   Luke 12:20
The word in Greek indicates dullness of perception.
Lk 24:26a suffer  -   Luke 24:46; Acts 3:18; 17:3
Lk 24:261 enter
Referring to His resurrection (v. 46), which brought Him into glory (1 Cor. 15:43a; Acts 3:13a, 15a).
Lk 24:26b glory  -   John 7:39; Phil. 3:21
Lk 24:27a Moses  -   Luke 24:44; John 1:45; 5:46
Lk 24:27b prophets  -   Acts 13:27
Lk 24:271 all
Including the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (v. 44) — the entire Old Testament.
Lk 24:27c Scriptures  -   Luke 24:32, 45; Acts 8:35
Lk 24:27d Himself  -   Gen. 3:15; 49:10; Num. 24:17; Deut. 18:15; Psa. 2:1-2, 6; 22:1, 16, 18; 110:1; 118:22-24, 26; 132:11; Isa. 7:14; 9:6; 50:6; 53:1-12; Jer. 33:14-15; Dan. 7:13-14; Micah 5:2; Zech. 9:9; 13:7; Mal. 3:1
Lk 24:29a stay  -   cf. Gen. 19:2-3; Acts 16:15
Lk 24:30a blessed  -   Matt. 26:26
Lk 24:311 opened
The Savior walked with them (v. 15) and stayed with them (v. 29), but it was not until they offered the loaf to Him and He broke it that their eyes were opened to recognize Him. They needed Him to walk and stay with them, but He needed them to offer the loaf to Him so that He could break it that He might open their eyes to see Him.
Lk 24:312 He
Lit., He became invisible from them. The Savior was still with them. He did not leave them but only became invisible.
Lk 24:32a Scriptures  -   Luke 24:27, 45
Lk 24:331 Jerusalem
Jerusalem was the place where the resurrected Savior wanted His disciples to remain before the day of Pentecost (v. 49; Acts 1:4).
Lk 24:33a eleven  -   Mark 16:14
Lk 24:34a appeared  -   1 Cor. 15:5
Lk 24:35a known  -   Luke 24:31
Lk 24:36a Peace  -   John 20:19
Lk 24:37a frightened  -   Luke 24:5
Lk 24:371 spirit
A ghost or specter.
Lk 24:39a hands  -   John 20:27
Lk 24:39b Touch  -   1 John 1:1
Lk 24:391 flesh
This is the Man-Savior’s resurrected body, which is spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44) and which is a body of glory (Phil. 3:21 and note 3).
Lk 24:40a showed  -   John 20:20
Lk 24:411 did
Lit., were disbelieving.
Lk 24:41a joy  -   Luke 24:52; John 16:22
Lk 24:41b eat  -   John 21:5
Lk 24:42a fish  -   John 21:9, 13
Lk 24:43a ate  -   Acts 10:41
Lk 24:44a spoke  -   Luke 24:6
Lk 24:441 Law
The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms are the three sections of the Old Testament, that is, “all the Scriptures” (v. 27). The Savior’s word here unveils that the entire Old Testament is a revelation of Him and that He is its center and content.
Lk 24:44b Moses  -   Luke 24:27
Lk 24:451a opened  -   Psa. 119:18; Acts 16:14
Indicating that to understand the Scriptures requires that our mind be opened by the Lord Spirit through His enlightening (Eph. 1:18).
Lk 24:46a written  -   Matt. 26:24
Lk 24:46b suffer  -   Luke 24:26
Lk 24:46c third  -   Luke 24:7; 9:22
Lk 24:471a forgiveness  -   Jer. 31:34; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 13:38; 1 John 2:12
Forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed only after the Man-Savior’s vicarious death for the sinners’ sins had been accomplished and had been verified by His resurrection (v. 46; cf. Rom. 4:25). The Gospel of John, as the Gospel of the God-Savior, emphasizes life for fruit-bearing (John 15:5). The Gospel of Luke, as the Gospel of the Man-Savior, stresses forgiveness of sins for proclaiming. To bear fruit in life requires the Spirit of life essentially, received through the breathing of the Spirit (John 20:22). To proclaim forgiveness of sins requires the Spirit of power economically, received through the baptism in the Spirit (Acts 1:5, 8). To bear fruit is a matter of life; to proclaim forgiveness of sins is a matter of power.
Lk 24:47b name  -   Mal. 1:11; Matt. 28:19; Acts 4:12
Lk 24:47c nations  -   Gen. 12:3; Psa. 22:27; Gal. 3:8
Lk 24:47d Jerusalem  -   Acts 1:8
Lk 24:48a witnesses  -   John 15:27; Acts 1:8; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39, 41; 13:31; 1 Cor. 15:15; 1 Pet. 5:1
Lk 24:491a promise  -   Acts 2:33; Eph. 1:13
The promise given in Joel 2:28-29, fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-4, 16-18). It concerned the outpouring of the Spirit as the power from on high for the believers’ ministry economically. This is different from the Spirit of life being breathed into the disciples (John 20:22 and note 1, par. 1) by the resurrected Savior on the day of His resurrection for His indwelling that He might be life to them essentially.
Lk 24:492 stay
Lit., sit.
Lk 24:493 put
Regarding the Spirit of life, we need to breathe Him in as the breath (John 20:22); regarding the Spirit of power, we need to put Him on as the uniform, typified by the mantle of Elijah (2 Kings 2:9, 13-15). The former, like the water of life, requires our drinking (John 7:37-39); the latter, like the water of baptism, requires our being immersed (Acts 1:5). These are the two aspects of the one Spirit for our experience (1 Cor. 12:13). The indwelling of the Spirit of life is essential and is for our life and living; the outpouring of the Spirit of power is economical and is for our ministry and work.
Lk 24:49b power  -   Acts 1:8
Lk 24:49c high  -   James 1:17; 3:17
Lk 24:501a Bethany  -   John 11:18; Matt. 21:17
At the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12).
Lk 24:511 carried
In this book Luke displays and presents mainly five crucial and excellent aspects concerning the Man-Savior: His birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension.
(1) His birth was of and with the Spirit of God essentially, making Him a God-man so that He could be the Man-Savior (1:35).
(2) His ministry was by and through the Spirit of God economically for the carrying out of God’s economy in His jubilee (4:18-19).
(3) His death was by His being the God-man to accomplish God’s redemption for man (23:42-43) and to release Himself into man as the fire of life to burn on the earth (12:49-50).
(4) His resurrection was (a) God’s vindication of Him and of His work; (b) His success in all His achievements; and (c) His victory over the universal enemy of God.
(5) His ascension was God’s exaltation of Him, which made Him the Christ of God and the Lord of all (Acts 2:36) that He might carry out His heavenly ministry on the earth as the all-inclusive Spirit poured out from the heavens upon His Body, which is constituted of His believers (Acts 2:4, 17-18), as recorded by Luke in his further writing, the Acts.
Lk 24:51a heaven  -   Mark 16:19; 1 Pet. 3:22; Heb. 9:24; 1 Kings 8:27; 2 Cor. 12:2
Lk 24:52a worshipped  -   Matt. 28:9, 17
Lk 24:52b Jerusalem  -   Acts 1:12; Luke 24:49
Lk 24:52c joy  -   Luke 24:41
Lk 24:53a temple  -   Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:21, 42
Lk 24:53b blessing  -   Luke 1:64; 2:28
Lk 24:531 God
Some MSS add, Amen.
< Luke • John Outline >
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© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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John Outline
I.   The eternal Word incarnated coming to bring God into man — 1:1 — 13:38
A.   Introduction to life and building — 1:1-51
1.   The Word in eternity past, who was God, through creation coming as life and light to bring forth the children of God — vv. 1-13
2.   The Word becoming flesh, with grace in fullness and with reality, to declare God in the only begotten Son of God — vv. 14-18
3.   Jesus as the Lamb of God, with the Holy Spirit as the dove, making the believers stones for the building of the house of God with the Son of Man — vv. 19-51
a.   Religion looking for a great leader — vv. 19-28
b.   Jesus introduced as a Lamb with a dove — vv. 29-34
c.   Bringing forth stones for God’s building — vv. 35-51
B.   Life’s principle and life’s purpose — 2:1-22
1.   Life’s principle — to change death into life — vv. 1-11
a.   Christ coming in resurrection to the people in their enjoyment — vv. 1-2
b.   Their human life running out and their being filled with death — vv. 3-7
c.   Christ changing their death into life eternal — vv. 8-11
2.   Life’s purpose — to build the house of God — vv. 12-22
a.   Christ cleansing the temple — vv. 12-17
b.   The body of Jesus, the temple, destroyed and raised up in resurrection — vv. 18-22
C.   Life meeting the need of man’s every case — 2:23 — 11:57
1.   The need of the moral — life’s regenerating — 2:23 — 3:36
a.   The Lord’s commitment not in miracles but in life — 2:23 — 3:1
b.   Regeneration by the divine Spirit in the human spirit — 3:2-13
c.   Satan’s evil nature in man’s flesh being judged on the cross through the death of Christ in the form of the serpent that the believers may have eternal life — 3:14-21
d.   The regenerated people becoming the bride of Christ as His increase — 3:22-30
e.   The immeasurable Son of God for man’s believing unto eternal life — 3:31-36
2.   The need of the immoral — life’s satisfying — 4:1-42
a.   A thirsty Savior and a thirsty sinner — vv. 1-8
b.   The emptiness of religion’s tradition and the fullness of life’s living water — vv. 9-14
c.   The way to take the living water — vv. 15-26
(1)   To make confession of sins — vv. 15-18
(2)   To contact God the Spirit in the human spirit and in truthfulness — vv. 19-24
(3)   To believe that Jesus is the Christ — vv. 25-26
d.   A living testimony with a marvelous harvest — vv. 27-42
3.   The need of the dying — life’s healing — 4:43-54
a.   Christ coming back to visit the place of weak and fragile people — vv. 43-46a
b.   The weak and fragile people dying — vv. 46b-49
c.   Healing by the life-giving word and through believing — vv. 50-54
4.   The need of the impotent — life’s enlivening — 5:1-47
a.   The inadequacy of religion’s law-keeping and the sufficiency of the Son’s life-giving — vv. 1-9
b.   Religion’s opposition to life — vv. 10-16
c.   The Son equal with the Father in giving life and executing judgment — vv. 17-30
d.   The Son’s fourfold testimony — vv. 31-47
(1)   The testimony of John the Baptist — vv. 32-35
(2)   The testimony of the Son’s work — v. 36
(3)   The testimony of the Father — vv. 37-38
(4)   The testimony of the Scriptures — vv. 39-47
5.   The need of the hungry — life’s feeding — 6:1-71
a.   The hungry world and the feeding Christ — vv. 1-15
b.   The troubled world and the peace-giving Christ — vv. 16-21
c.   The bread of life — vv. 22-71
(1)   Seekers after the perishing food — vv. 22-31
(2)   Food abiding to eternal life — vv. 32-71
(a)   Incarnated — vv. 32-51a
(b)   Slain — vv. 51b-55
(c)   Resurrected to indwell — vv. 56-59
(d)   Ascended — vv. 60-62
(e)   Becoming the life-giving Spirit — vv. 63-65
(f)   Embodied and realized in the word of life — vv. 66-71
6.   The need of the thirsty — life’s quenching — 7:1-52
a.   Life under the persecution of religion — vv. 1-36
(1)   Religion’s plot and religion’s feast — vv. 1-2
(2)   Life’s suffering of man’s unbelief — vv. 3-5
(3)   Life’s limitation in time — vv. 6-9
(4)   Life’s seeking of God’s glory — vv. 10-24
(5)   Life’s source and origin — God the Father — vv. 25-36
b.   Life’s cry to the thirsty ones — vv. 37-39
c.   Division caused by life’s appearance — vv. 40-52
7.   The need of those under the bondage of sin — life’s setting free — 7:53 — 8:59
a.   Who is without sin? — 7:53 — 8:9
b.   Who can condemn and forgive sin? — 8:10-11
c.   Who can set people free from sin? — 8:12-36
(1)   Christ, the light of the world and the Giver of the light of life — vv. 12-20
(2)   Christ, the I Am — vv. 21-27
(3)   Christ, the Son of Man lifted up — vv. 28-30
(4)   Christ, the Son as the reality — vv. 31-36
d.   Who is the source of sin and who is the multiplication of sin? — 8:37-44
(1)   The source of sin — the devil, the liar, the father of liars — v. 44
(2)   The multiplication of sin — the children of the devil, those out of the devil — vv. 37-44
e.   Who is Jesus? — 8:45-59
(1)   The One who is without sin — vv. 45-51
(2)   The One who is the I Am before Abraham — vv. 52-59
8.   The need of the blind in religion — life’s sight and life’s shepherding — 9:1 — 10:42
a.   Life’s sight — for the blind in religion — 9:1-41
(1)   Born blind — vv. 1-3
(2)   Receiving sight by the light and the anointing of life — vv. 4-13
(3)   Persecuted by religion — vv. 14-34
(4)   Believing into the Son of God — vv. 35-38
(5)   Life’s judgment on the blind religionists — vv. 39-41
b.   Life’s shepherding — for the believers outside of religion — 10:1-42
(1)   The sheepfold, the door, and the pasture — for the sheep — vv. 1-9
(2)   The Shepherd, the divine life, and the soulish life — for the flock — vv. 10-21
(3)   The eternal life, the Son’s hand, and the Father’s hand — for the security of the sheep — vv. 22-30
(4)   The persecution of religion — vv. 31-39
(5)   Life’s desertion of religion and life’s new standing — vv. 40-42
9.   The need of the dead — life’s resurrecting — 11:1-57
a.   The dead man and his need — vv. 1-4
b.   The frustration of human opinions — vv. 5-40
c.   Life’s resurrecting — vv. 41-44
d.   The conspiracy of religion and life’s vicarious death for the gathering of God’s children — vv. 45-57
D.   Life’s issue and multiplication — 12:1-50
1.   Life’s issue — a house of feasting (a miniature of the church life) — vv. 1-11
2.   Life’s multiplication for the church through death and resurrection (the glorification of God and the judgment upon the world and Satan implied) — vv. 12-36a
3.   Religion’s unbelief and blindness — vv. 36b-43
4.   Life’s declaration to the unbelieving religion — vv. 44-50
E.   Life’s washing in love to maintain fellowship — 13:1-38
1.   Washing by the Lord Himself — vv. 1-11
2.   Washing by one another among the believers — vv. 12-17
3.   Washed, but not in the fellowship — vv. 18-30
4.   Washed and willing to remain in the fellowship, but failing — vv. 31-38
II.   Jesus crucified and Christ resurrected going to prepare the way to bring man into God, and as the Spirit coming to abide and live in the believers for the building of God’s habitation — 14:1 — 21:25
A.   Life’s indwelling — for the building of God’s habitation — 14:1 — 16:33
1.   The dispensing of the Triune God — for the producing of His abode — 14:1-31
a.   Jesus going through death and Christ coming in resurrection to bring the believers into the Father — vv. 1-6
b.   The Triune God dispensing Himself into the believers — vv. 7-20
(1)   The Father embodied in the Son seen among the believers — vv. 7-14
(2)   The Son realized as the Spirit to abide in the believers — vv. 15-20
c.   The Triune God making an abode with the believers — vv. 21-24
d.   The Comforter’s reminding and life’s peace — vv. 25-31
2.   The organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing — 15:1 — 16:4
a.   The vine and the branches being an organism to glorify the Father by expressing the riches of the divine life — 15:1-11
b.   The branches loving one another to express the divine life in fruit-bearing — 15:12-17
c.   The vine and the branches, separated from the world, being hated and persecuted by the religious world — 15:18 — 16:4
3.   The work of the Spirit consummating in the mingling of divinity with humanity — 16:5-33
a.   The Son’s going for the Spirit’s coming — vv. 5-7
b.   The work of the Spirit — vv. 8-15
(1)   To convict the world — vv. 8-11
(2)   To glorify the Son by revealing Him with the fullness of the Father to the believers — vv. 12-15
(3)   To transmit to the believers all that the Father and the Son have — v. 13
c.   The Son to be born in resurrection as a newborn child — vv. 16-24
d.   The believers having peace in the Son in spite of persecution — vv. 25-33
B.   Life’s prayer — 17:1-26
1.   The Son to be glorified that the Father may be glorified — vv. 1-5
2.   The believers to be built up into one — vv. 6-24
a.   In the Father’s name by the eternal life — vv. 6-13
b.   In the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word — vv. 14-21
c.   In the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God — vv. 22-24
3.   The Father to be shown righteous in loving the Son and His believers — vv. 25-26
C.   Life’s process through death and resurrection for multiplication — 18:1 — 20:13, 17
1.   Delivering Himself in voluntary boldness to be processed — 18:1-11
2.   Examined in His dignity by mankind — 18:12-38a
a.   By the Jews according to God’s law in their religion — vv. 12-27
b.   By the Gentiles according to man’s law in their politics — vv. 28-38a
3.   Sentenced in man’s injustice by blind religion with dark politics — 18:38b — 19:16
4.   Tested in God’s sovereignty by death — 19:17-30
5.   Issuing in blood and water — 19:31-37
6.   Resting in human honor — 19:38-42
7.   Resurrecting in divine glory — 20:1-13, 17
a.   Leaving in the tomb as a testimony the signs of the old creation provided by His appreciators and discovered by His seekers — vv. 1-10
b.   Testified by angels sent by God — vv. 11-13
c.   Bringing forth many brothers and making His Father and God theirs — v. 17
D.   Life in resurrection — 20:14 — 21:25
1.   Appearing to the seekers and ascending to the Father — 20:14-18
2.   Coming as the Spirit to be breathed into the believers — 20:19-25
3.   Meeting with the believers — 20:26-31
4.   Moving and living with the believers — 21:1-14
5.   Working and walking with the believers — 21:15-25
John >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
All rights reserved.
John Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 1:11a In  -   1 John 1:1; cf. Col. 1:17; Gen. 1:1
In the beginning means in eternity past. As the introduction to this Gospel, this chapter begins in eternity past with God, who had divinity but not humanity (v. 1); it then passes through His creation of all things (v. 3), His incarnation (v. 14), His becoming the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (v. 29), and His being the Spirit who causes the believers to be transformed into living stones for His building (vv. 32, 42), and continues all the way to eternity future, in which the Son of Man, who has both divinity and humanity, is the center for the communication between heaven and earth and for the union of God and man in eternity. After this, ch. 2 shows that the principle of the Triune God as life is to change death into life (2:1-11) and that the purpose of life is to build the house, the temple, of God (2:13-22). In chs. 3 — 11, nine cases are given to illustrate how God as life meets the different needs of different kinds of people. As a result, in the beginning of ch. 12 a miniature of the church is produced (12:1-11). From 12:12 to the end of ch. 17 an explanation is given concerning how the church is produced through the multiplication and increase of the incarnated God-man by means of His death and resurrection. Chapters 18 — 20 show the accomplishing of the multiplication and increase, which causes Him to have many brothers (20:17) and enables Him to enter into them (20:22) to be their life and everything that they may be constituted His Body as His increase and expression. Finally, ch. 21 reveals that He will be with them in an invisible way until His coming back (21:22).
Jn 1:12b Word  -   John 1:14; Rev. 19:13; 1 John 1:1
The Word is the definition, explanation, and expression of God; hence, it is God defined, explained, and expressed.
Jn 1:13 with
The Word is not separate from God. It is not that the Word is the Word and God is God, and that they are thus separate from each other. Rather, the two are one; hence, the next clause says that the Word was God.
Jn 1:14 Word
That the Word is God implies that God in His person is not simple; He is triune.
Jn 1:15c God  -   Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:8; 1 John 5:20
Not God the Son only, but the complete Triune God.
Jn 1:21 He
Or, This One.
Jn 1:22 in
In the beginning, that is, from eternity past, the Word was with God. Contrary to what is supposed by some, it is not that Christ was not with God and was not God from eternity past, and that at a certain time Christ became God and was with God. Christ’s deity is eternal and absolute. From eternity past to eternity future, He is with God and He is God. This is why this Gospel, unlike Matthew (ch. 1) and Luke (ch. 3), has no genealogy of Christ (Heb. 7:3).
Jn 1:3a All  -   Col. 1:16
Jn 1:41a life  -   John 5:26; 11:25; 14:6; 1 John 1:2; 5:11-12
Since v. 3 refers to the creation in Gen. 1, life here should refer to the life signified by the tree of life in Gen. 2. This is confirmed by the fact that in Rev. 22 John mentions the tree of life. Since life is in Him, He is life (11:25; 14:6), and He came that man might have life (10:10b). The introduction to this Gospel is composed of this entire chapter; it begins with life (v. 4) and ends with building (vv. 42, 51), that is, with the house of God (see notes 421, 512, and 513). Hence, it is an introduction to life and building.
Jn 1:42b light  -   John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46
The light for the old creation was physical light (Gen. 1:3-5, 14-18). The light for the new creation is the light of life mentioned here.
Jn 1:5a light  -   Matt. 4:16; cf. John 3:19
Jn 1:61 sent
The verb has the sense of being sent as an envoy with a special commission.
Jn 1:71 He
Or, This one.
Jn 1:9a true  -   1 John 2:8
Jn 1:9b enlightens  -   Eph. 1:18; 3:9; Heb. 6:4; 10:32
Jn 1:121a received  -   Col. 2:6
To believe into is to receive.
Jn 1:122 children
For human beings to become children of God is for man to have the divine life and the divine nature.
Jn 1:131 of
Lit., out of.
Jn 1:132 blood
Blood (lit., bloods) here signifies the physical life; will of the flesh denotes the will of fallen man after man became flesh; and will of man refers to the will of the man created by God.
Jn 1:141 Word
For the Word as God to become flesh is for God to have the human life and the human nature.
Jn 1:142a flesh  -   1 Tim. 3:16
Romans 8:3 indicates that although this flesh was the flesh of sin, it had only the likeness of the flesh of sin and did not have the sin of the flesh. It is the Word who became such flesh, and this Word was God, the complete Triune God (v. 1). That the Word became flesh means that the Triune God became a man of flesh in the likeness of a sinful man. By so doing God entered into sinful man and became one with sinful man. However, He had only the likeness of a sinful man and not the sin of a sinful man. Hence, He was a sinless God-man, the complete God and the perfect man, having two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. Although His two natures were mingled to produce a God-man, the individual characteristics of the two natures remained distinct; the two natures did not intermix to form a third nature. Rather, the divine nature existed in the human nature and was expressed through the human nature, full of grace, which is God enjoyed by man, and reality, which is God obtained by man. In this way the invisible God was expressed so that men can obtain and enjoy Him as their life for the fulfillment of His New Testament economy.
God’s becoming flesh was contrary to the teaching of the Gnostics of that time. The Gnostics maintained that since the flesh is an evil substance, God, who is pure, could never be united with the evil flesh. Using the teaching of the Gnostics as a basis, the Docetists denied that Christ had come in the flesh (1 John 4:2). John wrote this Gospel in part to refute the heresy of the Docetists and to prove strongly that Christ, the God-man, is indeed God who became flesh (having only the likeness of the flesh of sin but not the sin of the flesh) that through this flesh, on the one hand, He might destroy the devil (Heb. 2:14) and put away the sins of man (Heb. 9:26), and, on the other hand, God might be united with man and be expressed through humanity for the fulfillment of His glorious purpose, a purpose He planned in eternity past for eternity future.
The deep thought of the Gospel of John is that Christ, the incarnate God, came as the embodiment of God, as illustrated by the tabernacle (v. 14) and the temple (2:21), so that man could contact Him and enter into Him to enjoy the riches contained in God. Both the tabernacle and the temple had an outer court, a Holy Place, and a Holy of Holies. Therefore, John points out first that Christ was the Lamb (who took away sin — v. 29) offered on the altar, which signifies the cross, in the outer court of the tabernacle, and then that He was like the bronze serpent (which caused man to have life) lifted up on the pole (3:14), which signifies the cross. This shows how Christ in His redemption was received by His believers that they might be delivered from sin and obtain life and might enter into Him as the embodiment of God, typified by the tabernacle, to enjoy all the riches that are in God. The foot-washing in ch. 13 may be considered the washing in the laver in the outer court of the tabernacle, which washed away the earthly defilement of those who drew near to God, so that their fellowship with God and with one another could be maintained. In ch. 14 those who receive Christ are brought by Him into the Holy Place to experience Him as the bread of life (6:35), signified by the bread of the Presence, and as the light of life (8:12; 9:5), signified by the lampstand. Eventually, in ch. 17, through the highest and most mysterious prayer, which is typified by the burning incense on the golden incense altar, those who enjoy Christ as life and as light are brought by Him into the Holy of Holies to enter with Him into the deepest enjoyment of God and to enjoy the glory that God has given Him (17:22-24).
Jn 1:143b tabernacled  -   Exo. 25:8-9; Rev. 21:3
The Word, by being incarnated, not only brought God into humanity but also became a tabernacle to God as God’s habitation on earth among men.
Jn 1:144c we  -   Matt. 17:1-2, 5; Luke 9:32; 2 Pet. 1:16-18
This refers to Christ’s transfiguration on the Mount (Matt. 17:1-2, 5; Luke 9:32; 2 Pet. 1:16-18).
Jn 1:145 from
Gk. para, which means by the side of, implying with; hence, it is, literally, from with. The Son not only is from God but also is with God. On the one hand, He is from God, and on the other hand, He is still with God (8:16b, 29; 16:32b).
Jn 1:146d grace  -   John 1:16-17; Rom. 5:2
Grace is God in the Son as our enjoyment; reality is God realized by us in the Son. The Greek word for reality is the same as that for truth in 5:33; 8:32; and 17:17, 19.
Jn 1:14e reality  -   John 14:6; 8:32
See note 146.
Jn 1:15a He  -   John 1:30
Jn 1:161 of
Lit., out of.
Jn 1:16a fullness  -   Col. 1:19; 2:9
Jn 1:171 law
The law makes demands on man according to what God is; grace supplies man with what God is to meet what God demands. The law, at most, was only a testimony of what God is (Exo. 25:21), but reality is the realization of what God is. No man can partake of God through the law, but grace enables man to enjoy God. Reality is God realized by man, and grace is God enjoyed by man.
Jn 1:17a grace  -   John 1:14
See note 171.
Jn 1:172 came
Lit., became.
Jn 1:181 only
The Father’s only begotten Son declared God by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized, apprehended. God is fully declared in the Son through these five things.
Jn 1:182 in
Lit., into.
Jn 1:183a declared  -   Heb. 1:3
Or, explained.
Jn 1:20a Christ  -   Dan. 9:25-26
Jn 1:21a Elijah  -   Mal. 4:5
Jn 1:21b Prophet  -   Deut. 18:15, 18
Jn 1:23a voice  -   Isa. 40:3
Jn 1:26a baptize  -   Matt. 3:11
Jn 1:281 Bethany
Bethany here was a place on the east side of the Jordan and is different from the Bethany in 11:1, which was a village on the west side of the Jordan.
Jn 1:291a Lamb  -   John 1:36; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:6; 7:14; 12:11; 14:1; 21:9-10, 22-23; 22:1, 3; cf. Exo. 12:3-4
Based on the Scriptures, the religious people were looking for a great leader (vv. 19-25) such as Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet (Dan. 9:26; Mal. 4:5; Deut. 18:15, 18). But Jesus was introduced to them as a little lamb with a little dove (vv. 29-33). The Lamb takes sin away from man, and the dove brings God as life to man. The Lamb is for redemption, to redeem fallen man back to God, and the dove is for life-giving, for anointing, to anoint man with what God is, to bring God into man and man into God, and for uniting the believers in God. Both the Lamb and the dove are needed for man to participate in God.
Jn 1:29b sin  -   1 John 2:2; 1 Pet. 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:3; Isa. 53:10a
Jn 1:292 world
The world here refers to mankind, as in 3:16.
Jn 1:30a A  -   John 1:15
Jn 1:321a dove  -   Matt. 3:16
See note 291.
Jn 1:34a Son  -   John 1:49
Jn 1:36a Lamb  -   John 1:29
Jn 1:391 tenth
I.e., 10:00 a.m., Roman time. Roman time is used throughout the book.
Jn 1:411 Messiah
Messiah is a Hebrew word; Christ is the Greek translation. Both mean the anointed. Christ is God’s Anointed, the One appointed by God to accomplish God’s purpose, God’s eternal plan.
Jn 1:421a Peter  -   Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18-20; cf. Gen. 28:18, 22
Meaning a stone. In Matt. 16:18 the Lord mentioned this word when He spoke to Peter about the building of the church. It must have been from this that Peter obtained the concept of living stones for the building of a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5), which is the church. The stone here denotes a work of transformation that brings forth material for God’s building (1 Cor. 3:12).
Jn 1:451 son
The information that Philip passed on to Nathanael in the words son of Joseph and from Nazareth was inaccurate. Jesus was born not of Joseph but of Mary (Matt. 1:16), and not in Nazareth but in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7).
Jn 1:46a Come  -   John 1:39
Jn 1:491a King  -   John 12:13; 19:19
The Messiah.
Jn 1:50a greater  -   John 14:12
Jn 1:511 Truly
In Greek, Amen, amen. So throughout the book.
Jn 1:512a heaven  -   Gen. 28:11-22
This is the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream (Gen. 28:11-22). Christ as the Son of Man, with His humanity, is the ladder set up on the earth and leading to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven for the house of God, Bethel. Jacob poured oil (a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate expression of the Triune God reaching man) upon the stone (a symbol of the transformed man) that it might be the house of God. Here in this chapter are the Spirit (v. 32) and the stone (v. 42) for the house of God with Christ in His humanity. Where this is, there is an open heaven.
Jn 1:513 Son
This chapter, as the introduction to this Gospel, introduces Christ as both the Son of God (vv. 34, 49) and the Son of Man. Nathanael recognized Him as the Son of God and addressed Him as such (v. 49), but Christ said to Nathanael that He was the Son of Man. The Son of God is God; as such, He has the divine nature. The Son of Man is man; as such, He possesses the human nature. For the declaring of God (v. 18) and for the bringing of God to man, He is the only begotten Son of God. But for the building of God’s habitation on earth among men, He is the Son of Man. God’s building needs His humanity. In eternity past Christ was only God, only the Son of God, and had only divinity; but in eternity future Christ, as God and man and as the Son of God and the Son of Man, will have both divinity and humanity forever.
John Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 2:11a third  -   1 Cor. 15:4; cf. John 1:29, 35, 43
The day of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:4).
Jn 2:12 wedding
Marriage signifies the continuation of human life, and a wedding (feast) signifies the pleasure and enjoyment of human life.
Jn 2:13b Cana  -   John 4:46
Cana means reed, and reeds signify weak and fragile people (Isa. 42:3a; Matt. 12:20a; 11:7).
Jn 2:14c Galilee  -   John 7:52
Galilee was a despised place (7:52).
Jn 2:31 wine
Wine, the life juice of the grape, signifies life. Hence, the wine’s running out symbolizes that the human life runs out.
Jn 2:32 ran
Lit., fell short.
Jn 2:33 mother
Here the mother of Jesus symbolizes the natural man, which has nothing to do with life (v. 4) and must be subdued by life (v. 5).
Jn 2:41 Woman
A term of respect and endearment.
Jn 2:42 what
Lit., what is there to Me and to you? (a Hebrew idiom).
Jn 2:4a My  -   John 7:6, 8, 30; 8:20
Jn 2:61 six
The six waterpots signify the created man, for man was created on the sixth day (Gen. 1:27, 31).
Jn 2:62 Jews’
The Jews’ rite of purification with water signifies religion’s attempt to make people clean by certain dead practices. But the Lord changes death into life.
Jn 2:63 two
Two or three measures equal twenty or thirty gallons.
Jn 2:71 water
Water here signifies death, as in Gen. 1:2, 6, Exo. 14:21, and Matt. 3:16.
Jn 2:91a water  -   John 4:46
The changing of water into wine signifies the changing of death into life.
Jn 2:111 beginning
The first mentioning of any matter in the Scriptures sets forth the principle of that matter. Therefore, this first sign sets forth the principle of all the following signs, that is, to change death into life.
In the Scriptures, figuratively, the tree of life is the source of life and the tree of knowledge is the source of death, as revealed in Gen. 2:9, 17. The meaning of all the cases recorded in this Gospel corresponds with the principle that the tree of life results in life and the tree of knowledge results in death.
Jn 2:112a signs  -   John 2:23; 3:2; 4:54; 6:2, 14, 26, 30; 7:31; 9:16; 10:41; 11:47; 12:18, 37; 20:30; Rev. 1:1
In this book all the miracles done by the Lord are called signs (v. 23; 3:2; 4:54; 6:2, 14, 26, 30; 7:31; 9:16; 10:41; 11:47; 12:18, 37; 20:30). They are miracles, but they are used as signs to signify the matter of life.
Jn 2:113 manifested
The Lord’s divinity was manifested here.
Jn 2:13a Passover  -   John 6:4; 11:55
Jn 2:14a He  -   cf. Matt. 21:12
Jn 2:141b temple  -   1 Kings 6:1; Ezra 5:2
The Greek word refers to the entire precincts of the temple. So in the next verse.
Jn 2:151 having
This case of the cleansing of the temple reveals the purpose of life, i.e., that life is for the building of the house of God.
Jn 2:152 cords
Lit., cords made of rushes.
Jn 2:16a My  -   John 14:2
Jn 2:17a The  -   Psa. 69:9
Jn 2:191 temple
The Greek word refers to the inner temple. So in vv. 20, 21.
Jn 2:192 three
In three days signifies in resurrection.
Jn 2:19a raise  -   Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27:63
Jn 2:21a temple  -   cf. 1 Cor. 6:19; 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22
Jn 2:22a Scripture  -   Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:30-32
Jn 2:25a He  -   Psa. 139:1-2
John Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 3:11 But
But indicates that this case, concerning Nicodemus, differs from the case in the foregoing verses, 2:23-25. There the people believed into the Lord because they saw the miracles He performed. The Lord could not commit Himself to such people. But the case in this chapter concerns life in regeneration; it reveals that this book is not for miraculous things but is only for life. This is why in this book even the miracles done by the Lord are called signs, signifying that the Lord came for life so that God might be multiplied (12:24), not for miracles so that man might be benefited.
Jn 3:1a Nicodemus  -   John 7:50; 19:39
Jn 3:21 teacher
Nicodemus considered Christ a teacher who had come from God. This indicates that he might have thought that he needed better teachings so that he could improve himself. But the Lord’s answer in the next verse unveiled to him that his need was to be born anew. To be born anew is to be regenerated with the divine life, a life different from the human life received by natural birth. Hence, his real need was not better teachings by which he could improve himself, but the divine life by which he could be remade. He was seeking for teachings, which belong to the tree of knowledge, but the Lord’s answer turned him to his need for life, which belongs to the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17).
Jn 3:2a signs  -   John 2:11
Jn 3:2b God  -   Acts 10:38
Jn 3:31a born  -   1 Pet. 1:23
Or, born from above. So in v. 7. To be born anew is to be born from above, from heaven, that is, to be born from God, who is in heaven.
Jn 3:32 see
In spiritual things, to see is to enter into (v. 5).
Jn 3:33b kingdom  -   John 3:5
The kingdom of God is the reign of God. It is a divine realm to be entered into, a realm that requires the divine life. Only the divine life can realize the divine things. Hence, for one to see, or to enter into, the kingdom of God requires that he be regenerated with the divine life.
Jn 3:5a born  -   Titus 3:5; Matt. 3:11
Jn 3:51 of
Lit., out of.
Jn 3:52 water
The words of water and the Spirit should have been plain to Nicodemus, without any need of explanation. In Matt. 3:11 John the Baptist spoke the same words to the Pharisees; hence, they should have been fully understood among the Pharisees. Now Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, was conversing with the Lord, and the Lord spoke these familiar words. “Water” was the central concept of the ministry of John the Baptist, that is, to terminate people of the old creation. “Spirit” is the central concept of the ministry of Jesus, that is, to germinate people in the new creation. These two main concepts together constitute the concept of regeneration. Regeneration is the termination of people of the old creation with all their deeds, and the germination of people in the new creation with the divine life.
Jn 3:6a born  -   John 1:13
Jn 3:61 of
Lit., out of.
Jn 3:62 Spirit
The first Spirit mentioned here is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, and the second spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with God’s life, the uncreated eternal life. Thus, to be regenerated is to have the divine, eternal life (in addition to the human, natural life) as the new source and new element of a new person.
Jn 3:71 You
Plural in Greek.
Jn 3:81a wind  -   Eccl. 11:5; Ezek. 37:9
The Greek word for wind is the same as that for spirit. Whether it is rendered wind or spirit depends on the context. This verse refers to something that blows, the sound of which can be heard, indicating that the word should be rendered wind. A regenerated person is like the wind, which can be recognized but which is beyond understanding; even so, it is a fact, a reality.
Jn 3:82 of
Lit., out of.
Jn 3:11a testify  -   John 3:32
Jn 3:121 things
Things on earth here does not mean things of an earthly nature but things that take place on earth, including redemption and regeneration. In the same principle things in heaven in this verse does not mean things of a heavenly nature but things that take place in heaven. In the next verse the Lord said that He was the One who descended out of heaven and who was still in heaven. This indicates that He knew the things that took place in heaven, because He was the One who was in heaven all the time.
Jn 3:13a no  -   Rom. 10:6-7; Eph. 4:9
Jn 3:13b Son  -   John 1:51
Jn 3:131 who
Some ancient MSS omit, who is in heaven.
Jn 3:14a Moses  -   Num. 21:4-9
Jn 3:14b lifted  -   John 12:32, 34; 8:28
Jn 3:141 serpent
This chapter deals with regeneration. Regeneration, on one hand, brings the divine life with the divine nature into us. On the other hand, regeneration terminates the evil nature of Satan in our flesh. In Gen. 3 Satan, the serpent, injected his nature into man’s flesh. When the children of Israel sinned against God, they were bitten by serpents (Num. 21:4-9). God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on their behalf for God’s judgment, that by looking upon that bronze serpent all might live. That was a type. Here, in this verse, the Lord Jesus applied that type to Himself, indicating that when He was in the flesh, He was in “the likeness of the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3), which likeness is equal to the form of the bronze serpent. The bronze serpent had the form of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison. Christ was made in “the likeness of the flesh of sin,” but He did not participate in any way in the sin of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). When He was lifted up in the flesh on the cross, by His death Satan, the old serpent, was dealt with (12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that the serpentine nature within fallen man has been dealt with. When a man is regenerated with the divine life in Christ, his satanic nature is annulled. Because of this, in this portion of the Word, when the Lord revealed the matter of regeneration to Nicodemus, He specifically mentioned this point.
Nicodemus might have considered himself a moral and good man. But the Lord’s word in this verse implied that regardless of how good Nicodemus might have been outwardly, he had the serpentine nature of Satan inwardly. As a descendant of Adam, he had been poisoned by the old serpent, and the serpent’s nature was within him. He needed the Lord not only to be the Lamb of God to take away his sin (1:29) but also to be in the form of the serpent that his serpentine nature might be dealt with on the cross and that he might have eternal life. In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this is the changing of death into life.
Jn 3:151 eternal
This is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which not only is everlasting with respect to time but also is eternal and divine in nature. So in vv. 16, 36.
Jn 3:16a loved  -   Rom. 5:8; Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:4; 1 John 4:10
Jn 3:161 world
The world here refers to sinful, fallen people, who constitute the world. They have not only sin but also the poisonous element of the devil, the ancient serpent; hence, they have become serpents. They need Christ to die for them in the form of a serpent and be judged by God as their Substitute (v. 14); otherwise, they will perish (v. 16). Although men are utterly fallen, God still loves them with His divine love, which is Himself (1 John 4:8, 16), because they are vessels created by God according to His own image to contain Himself (Gen. 1:26; Rom. 9:21a, 23). Moreover, He so loves them that He gave them His only begotten Son, His expression, that they might obtain His eternal life to become His many sons and be His corporate expression for the fulfillment of His eternal New Testament economy. Hence, God first regenerates them by His Spirit (vv. 3-6) that they may have His eternal life (vv. 15-16, 36a). Then He fills them with His unlimited Spirit (v. 34) that they may become the bride of Christ, who is above all and is all-inclusive (vv. 31-35), to be His increase and fullness (vv. 28-30).
Jn 3:16b gave  -   Rom. 8:32; 1 John 4:9
Jn 3:16c only  -   John 1:18; 3:18; 1 John 4:9
Jn 3:162d believes  -   John 3:36; 6:40
Believing into the Lord is not the same as believing Him (6:30). To believe Him is to believe that He is true and real, but to believe into Him is to receive Him and be united with Him as one. The former is to acknowledge a fact objectively; the latter is to receive a life subjectively.
Jn 3:171 condemn
Or, judge.
Jn 3:181 condemned
Or, judged.
Jn 3:18a the  -   John 1:18
Jn 3:191 condemnation
Or, judgment.
Jn 3:19a light  -   John 1:9
Jn 3:201 practices
I.e., does evil habitually. The same word is used in 5:29.
Jn 3:202 reproved
Or, exposed, uncovered.
Jn 3:211 truth
According to the context, truth here denotes uprightness (as opposed to evil — vv. 19-20), which is the reality manifested in a man who lives in God according to what He is, and which corresponds with the divine light, which is God, as the source of the truth, manifested in Christ. See note 66 in 1 John 1.
Jn 3:22a baptized  -   John 4:1-2
Jn 3:24a John  -   Matt. 14:3
Jn 3:25a purification  -   John 2:6
Jn 3:26a across  -   John 1:28-29
Jn 3:26b testified  -   John 1:7, 34
Jn 3:26c baptizing  -   John 4:2
Jn 3:28a I  -   John 1:20, 23
Jn 3:29a He  -   Rev. 19:7
Jn 3:301 increase
The increase in this verse is the bride in v. 29, and the bride there is a living composition of all the regenerated people. This means, in this chapter on regeneration, that regeneration not only brings the divine life into the believers and annuls the satanic nature in their flesh, but it also makes them the corporate bride for Christ’s increase. The last two points, the annulling of the serpentine nature in the believers and the believers’ being made the bride of Christ, are fully developed in John’s Revelation. The book of Revelation reveals mainly how Satan as the old serpent will be fully eliminated (Rev. 20:2, 10) and how Christ’s bride, the New Jerusalem, will be fully produced (Rev. 21:2, 10-27).
Jn 3:311a He  -   John 8:23
Verses 31-36 unveil to us the immeasurableness, the unlimitedness, of Christ. He is such an immeasurable and unlimited One, who comes from above, who is above all, to whom the Father has given all, and who dispenses the Spirit without measure. Such a One needs a universal increase to be His bride to match Him, as revealed in vv. 22-30. He who believes into this immeasurable One has eternal life; he who disobeys this One is under the wrath of God.
Jn 3:312 from
From, of, and out of are the same word in Greek. Since persons, matters, and things on the earth are from the earth, they are of the earth. He who comes from heaven refers to one who is out of heaven; therefore, such a one is of heaven.
Jn 3:31b He  -   John 3:13
Jn 3:32a no  -   John 3:11
Jn 3:341 words
See note 633 in ch. 6.
Jn 3:35a The  -   John 5:20
Jn 3:36a believes  -   John 3:15-16
John Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 4:1a baptizing  -   John 3:22, 26
Jn 4:3a Judea  -   John 3:22
Jn 4:3b again  -   John 2:11
Jn 4:5a near  -   Gen. 33:18-19; 48:22; Josh. 24:32
Jn 4:61 well
Lit., fountain; as in v. 14.
Jn 4:62 sixth
I.e., 6:00 p.m.
Jn 4:9a For  -   Matt. 10:5; John 8:48; Luke 9:52-53
Jn 4:91 Samaritans
Samaria was the leading region of the northern kingdom of Israel and was the site of its capital (1 Kings 16:24, 29). Around 700 B.C., the Assyrians captured Samaria and brought people from Babylon and other heathen countries to the cities of Samaria (2 Kings 17:6, 24). From that time the Samaritans became a people of mixed heathen and Jewish blood. History tells us that they had the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) and worshipped God according to that part of the Old Testament. But they were never recognized by the Jews as being part of the Jewish people.
Jn 4:10a gift  -   Rom. 6:23
Jn 4:10b living  -   John 7:37-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17
Jn 4:131 drinks
This signifies the enjoyment of material things and the amusement obtained from worldly entertainment. These cannot quench the thirst deep within man. However much he drinks of this material and worldly “water,” he will thirst again. The more he drinks of this “water,” the more his thirst increases.
Jn 4:14a drinks  -   Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:8; Psa. 36:8; John 7:37; 1 Cor. 10:4; 12:13; Rev. 21:6; 22:17
Jn 4:14b by  -   John 6:35
Jn 4:141c eternal  -   John 6:27; 3:16; 5:24
See note 151 in ch. 3.
Jn 4:15a give  -   John 6:34
Jn 4:161 call
This word was intended to touch her conscience by referring to her history of immorality, so that she would repent of her sins.
Jn 4:181 five
The woman tried the first husband, drinking of that “water,” and she was not satisfied. Then she tried the second, third, fourth, and fifth husbands. Since none of these satisfied her, she was trying another. Her changing of husbands fully proved that however much she drank of that “water,” she was still thirsty. “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again.” This word of the Lord’s is true!
Jn 4:201a Our  -   Gen. 33:18-20
The woman’s problem, like the questions in 8:3-5 and 9:2-3, was a matter of yes or no, which belongs to the tree of knowledge; but the Lord turned her to the spirit (vv. 21-24), which belongs to the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17).
Jn 4:20b in  -   Deut. 11:29-30; 27:12; Josh. 8:33
Jn 4:20c in  -   Deut. 12:5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26; 16:2, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16
Jn 4:21a an  -   John 4:23
Jn 4:22a You  -   2 Kings 17:33, 41
Jn 4:23a an  -   John 5:25; 4:21
Jn 4:23b in  -   cf. Phil. 3:3
Jn 4:241 God
God here is the complete Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Jn 4:242 Spirit
Spirit here refers to the nature of the complete Triune God; it does not refer merely to the Lord Spirit. To worship God, who is Spirit, we must worship with our spirit, which is of the same nature as He is.
Jn 4:243 worship
This word was given to instruct the Samaritan woman regarding her need to exercise her spirit to contact God the Spirit. To contact God the Spirit with the spirit is to drink of the living water, and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God.
Jn 4:24a in  -   Rom. 1:9
Jn 4:244 spirit
This is our human spirit. According to typology, God should be worshipped (1) in the place chosen by God for His habitation (Deut. 12:5, 11, 13-14, 18), and (2) with the offerings (Lev. 1 — 6). The place chosen by God for His habitation typifies the human spirit, where God’s habitation is today (Eph. 2:22). The offerings typify Christ; Christ is the fulfillment and reality of all the offerings with which the people worshipped God. Hence, when the Lord instructed the woman to worship God the Spirit in spirit and truthfulness, He meant that she should contact God the Spirit in her spirit instead of in a specific location, and through Christ instead of with the offerings. Since Christ, as the reality that issues in the human virtue of truthfulness, has come (vv. 25-26), all the shadows and types are over.
Jn 4:245 truthfulness
According to the context of this chapter and the entire revelation of John’s Gospel, truthfulness here denotes the divine reality becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity (which are the opposite of the hypocrisy of the immoral Samaritan worshipper — vv. 16-18) for the true worship of God. The divine reality is Christ (who is the reality — 14:6) as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament for the worship of God (1:29; 3:14) and as the fountain of the living water, the life-giving Spirit (vv. 7-15), partaken of and drunk by His believers to be the reality within them, which eventually becomes their genuineness and sincerity in which they worship God with the worship that He seeks. See note 66 in 1 John 1; Rom. 3:7; and note 82 in Rom. 15.
Jn 4:25a Messiah  -   John 1:41; Luke 3:15; cf. Deut. 18:15, 18
Jn 4:261 I
By this word Jesus led her to believe that He was the Christ, that she might have eternal life (20:31). She believed (v. 29).
Jn 4:281 left
Whoever drinks the living water and is satisfied with it will drop his preoccupations and testify of it. In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this also is the changing of death into life.
Jn 4:291a Is  -   John 7:26, 31
This indicates that the woman believed that Jesus was the Christ. By thus believing, she received the living water and was satisfied.
Jn 4:321 I
The sinner was satisfied by receiving the Savior’s living water, and the Savior was satisfied by doing God’s will in satisfying the sinner. Doing the will of God to satisfy the sinner is the Savior’s food (v. 34).
Jn 4:34a to  -   John 5:30; 6:38
Jn 4:34b to  -   John 5:36; 17:4
Jn 4:35a harvest  -   Luke 10:2
Jn 4:361 unto
Or, for.
Jn 4:362 eternal
See note 151 in ch. 3.
Jn 4:381 others
Others have labored should mean that some had sown the seed among the Samaritans using the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), which the Samaritans did possess. Here the Lord sent His disciples to reap what the earlier laborers had sown.
Jn 4:42a Savior  -   1 John 4:14; 1 Tim. 4:10; Luke 2:11
Jn 4:44a a  -   Matt. 13:57
Jn 4:441 no
The Lord went to Galilee to avoid gaining fame, which He had gained in Jerusalem (2:23).
Jn 4:461a Cana  -   John 2:1
See note 13 in ch. 2.
Jn 4:462 Galilee
Galilee, a despised place (7:41, 52), signifies the world, which is in a low and mean condition.
Jn 4:46b made  -   John 2:9
Jn 4:48a signs  -   1 Cor. 1:22
Jn 4:501 word
The word of life out of the mouth of the Lord gives life to the dying.
Jn 4:521 seventh
I.e., 7:00 p.m.
Jn 4:541a second  -   John 2:11
The first sign in Cana (2:1-11) signifies the changing of death into life, setting forth the principle of life. The second sign here is a continuation, an application of the principle of the changing of death into life. The source of death is the tree of knowledge, and the source of life is the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17).
John Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 5:21a Sheep  -   Neh. 3:1
The Sheep Gate signifies the door to the sheepfold of the religion of law keeping (10:1).
Jn 5:22 Bethesda
Bethesda means house of mercy, signifying that the people who practiced law keeping needed the mercy of God because they were impotent, weak, and wretched, as portrayed in Rom. 7:7-24.
Jn 5:23 five
Porticoes signify the shelter of the religion of law keeping, a shelter like that provided by a sheepfold. The number five signifies responsibility.
Jn 5:31 In
This signifies that under the shelter of law keeping, in the sheepfold of religion, there are many who are blind, unable to see; many who are lame, unable to walk; and many who are withered, lacking the life supply.
Jn 5:32 waiting
Some MSS omit this last part of v. 3 and all of v. 4.
Jn 5:41 angel
The angel here signifies the agent through which the law, which could not give life, was given (Gal. 3:19, 21).
Jn 5:42 stirred
The stirring up of the water to make people well signifies the attempt to make people perfect by the practice of law keeping.
Jn 5:43 well
Or, whole, sound. So in v. 6.
Jn 5:51 man
With this sick and impotent man there was no happiness, even on the joyful day of a feast (v. 1), and there was no rest, even on the Sabbath day (v. 10).
Jn 5:61 He
This sign signifies that when the practice of law keeping in the Jewish religion became an impossibility because of the impotence of man (Rom. 8:3), the Son of God came to enliven the dead (v. 25). The law could not give life (Gal. 3:21), but the Son of God gives life to the dead (v. 21). “While we were yet weak” (Rom. 5:6), He came to enliven us.
Jn 5:71 Sir
Or, Lord.
Jn 5:72 I
There was a means for healing in the religion of law keeping, but it did not profit the impotent man, because he had no strength to fulfill the law’s requirements. The law keeping in religion depends on man’s effort, man’s doing, man’s self-cultivation. Since man is impotent, the law keeping in religion becomes ineffective. The holy city, the holy temple, the feast, the Sabbath, the angels, Moses, and the Scriptures are all good things of this religion, but they could do nothing for this impotent man. In the eyes of the Lord he was a dead person (v. 25), in need not only of healing but also of enlivening. With the Lord’s enlivening there is no requirement. The impotent man heard His voice and was enlivened (v. 25).
Jn 5:8a Rise  -   Matt. 9:6; Mark 2:11; Luke 5:24
Jn 5:81 mat
A small mattress or pad; so in vv. 9, 10, 11, and 12.
Jn 5:91 became
According to vv. 24-25, this is to pass out of death into life and to live. In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this is the changing of death into life.
Jn 5:92 took
Formerly, the mat carried the impotent man, but now the enlivened man carried the mat.
Jn 5:9a Sabbath  -   John 9:14
Jn 5:10a Sabbath  -   Mark 2:27
Jn 5:101b it  -   Neh. 13:19; Jer. 17:21; John 9:16
Life’s enlivening broke religion’s ritual. Religion was offended by life and began its opposition to life from this point (vv. 16, 18).
The Sabbath is for man (Mark 2:27) and should be a rest to man. Religion’s law keeping did not bring rest to this man who had been sick for thirty-eight years, but life’s enlivening did. Yet the religious cared only for their ritual of Sabbath keeping; they had no concern for the sick man’s rest.
Jn 5:141a sin  -   John 8:11
This indicates that the man’s former sickness was due to his sin.
Jn 5:161 and
Some MSS omit, and sought to kill Him.
Jn 5:16a sought  -   John 5:18; 7:1
Jn 5:171 working
God’s work in creation was finished (Gen. 2:1-3), but the Father and the Son were still working for redemption and building.
Jn 5:181 sought
On one hand, the religious people kept the Sabbath, but on the other hand, they sought to kill Jesus. How could they have had rest? Because of their religious concept, they thought that to kill those who would not keep their religious ritual was to offer service to God (16:2). This is Satan’s poisoning of people with religion, causing them to murder, just as he poisons people with sin.
Jn 5:18a kill  -   John 16:2
Jn 5:182 equal
Actually, the Son and the Father are one (10:30).
Jn 5:18b God  -   Phil. 2:6; John 10:30, 33; 19:7; 1:1; 20:28; 1 John 5:20; Rom. 9:5
Jn 5:19a The  -   John 5:30; 8:28
Jn 5:20a the  -   John 3:35
Jn 5:20b greater  -   John 14:12
Jn 5:21a raises  -   Rom. 4:17; 8:11
Jn 5:22a judgment  -   John 5:27; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1
Jn 5:24a believes  -   John 12:44
Jn 5:241 eternal
See note 151 in ch. 3.
Jn 5:242 judgment
Or, condemnation.
Jn 5:24b passed  -   1 John 3:14
Jn 5:243 death
The source of death is the tree of knowledge, and the source of life is the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17). Hence, to pass out of death into life is to change the source of one’s living.
Jn 5:251a dead  -   Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13
Not those who are dead physically but those who are dead in spirit, in accordance with Eph. 2:1, 5 and Col. 2:13. Hence, in this verse to live means to be alive in spirit. It does not signify resurrection of the physical body, which is mentioned in vv. 28-29.
Jn 5:26a life  -   John 1:4
Jn 5:27a judgment  -   John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1
Jn 5:271 Son
The Lord is the Son of God (v. 25); hence, He can give life (v. 21). He is also the Son of Man; hence, He can execute judgment.
Jn 5:281 all
Referring to those who are dead physically and are buried in a tomb. Hence, their coming forth from the tomb in v. 29 is the resurrection of the physical body.
Jn 5:28a voice  -   cf. 1 Cor. 15:52
Jn 5:29a those  -   Dan. 12:2; Acts 24:15
Jn 5:291b resurrection  -   Rev. 20:4, 6; 1 Cor. 15:23, 52; 1 Thes. 4:16
This is the resurrection of the saved believers, which will take place before the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6; 1 Cor. 15:23, 52; 1 Thes. 4:16). At the Lord Jesus’ coming back, the dead believers will be resurrected to enjoy eternal life. Hence, this resurrection is called the resurrection of life.
Jn 5:292 practiced
See note 201 in ch. 3.
Jn 5:293c resurrection  -   Rev. 20:5, 11-15
This is the resurrection of the unbelievers who have perished; it will take place after the millennium (Rev. 20:5, 12). All the dead unbelievers will be resurrected after the thousand years to be judged at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Hence, this resurrection is called the resurrection of judgment.
In this chapter vv. 24-26 speak concerning the enlivening of the spirit; vv. 28-29, concerning the resurrection of the whole being, including the body.
Jn 5:294 judgment
Or, condemnation.
Jn 5:30a I  -   John 5:19
Jn 5:30b My  -   John 8:16
Jn 5:30c will  -   John 4:34; 6:38
Jn 5:31a I  -   John 8:14
Jn 5:33a he  -   John 1:7
Jn 5:331 truth
The same Greek word as for reality in 1:14, 17. The preceding verse says that John testified concerning Christ; this verse says that John testified to the truth. This proves that truth here is Christ (14:6). According to the entire revelation of this Gospel, truth is the divine reality embodied, revealed, and expressed in Christ, the Son of God. See note 66 in 1 John 1.
Jn 5:36a works  -   John 10:25, 38; 14:11; 15:24
Jn 5:361b sent  -   John 3:17
See note 61 in ch. 1; so in v. 38.
Jn 5:37a Father  -   John 8:18
Jn 5:371 testified
This refers to the Father’s testimony concerning the Lord, given at the time He was baptized (Matt. 3:17). At that time the Jews heard the Father’s voice and saw the form of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22), although prior to that time they had neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.
Jn 5:391 search
To “search the Scriptures” may be separated from “come to Me” (v. 40). The Jewish religionists searched the Scriptures but were not willing to come to the Lord. These two should go together; because the Scriptures testify concerning the Lord, they should not be separated from the Lord. We may contact the Scriptures, yet not contact the Lord. Only the Lord can give life.
Jn 5:401 come
See note 391.
Jn 5:431a in  -   John 10:25
The Son being in the name of the Father is equivalent to the Son being the Father; hence, He is called the Father (Isa. 9:6). This proves that the Son and the Father are one (10:30). See note 262 in ch. 14.
Jn 5:46a he  -   Deut. 18:15, 18-19; Luke 24:27
Jn 5:47a if  -   Luke 16:29, 31
John Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 6:11 Sea
This case is in contrast to the case in ch. 5. There the person was by a pool; here the people are around a sea. The scene of the foregoing case was the holy city with a sacred pool for man’s healing. The scene of this case is the wilderness with a secular sea for man’s livelihood. The person in the previous case was impotent and needed life’s enlivening. The people in this case are hungry and need life’s feeding. In typology the land signifies the earth, which was created by God for man to live on, and the sea signifies the world, which has been corrupted by Satan and in which fallen mankind lives. In this world mankind is hungry and has no satisfaction. In this world mankind is troubled and has no peace, as portrayed in v. 18.
Jn 6:2a signs  -   John 2:11; 4:54
Jn 6:31 mountain
A mountain signifies a transcendent position above the land and the sea. To enjoy Christ’s feeding, people must go with Christ to the mountain.
Jn 6:41a Passover  -   John 2:13; Exo. 12:11, 14
In the Passover, people slay the redeeming lamb, sprinkle its blood, and eat its flesh. This typifies Christ as our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7). He is the redeeming Lamb of God (1:29, 36) slain for us that we may eat His flesh and drink His blood, taking Him in as our life supply that we may live by Him.
Jn 6:5a Jesus  -   vv. 5-13: Matt. 14:14-21; Mark 6:34-44; Luke 9:12-17; cf. Matt. 15:32-37
Jn 6:71 denarii
The denarius was the chief silver coin of the Romans; it was considered good pay for a day’s labor (see Matt. 20:2).
Jn 6:91 five
The number five signifies responsibility, indicating here that Christ bears the responsibility to be our life supply. The number two signifies testimony, testifying here that Christ is our life supply.
Jn 6:92 barley
Loaves are of the vegetable life and signify the generating aspect of Christ’s life. Fish are of the animal life and signify the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. As the generating life, Christ grows in the land, the God-created earth; as the redeeming life, He lives in the sea, the Satan-corrupted world. In order to regenerate us, He grew on the God-created earth that He might reproduce; in order to redeem us, He lived in the satanic and sinful world. But He is not sinful, not affected by the world, just as fish live in salt water but are not salty.
In the Jewish land barley ripens earliest and is the first of the harvest; hence, it typifies the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10). The barley loaves represent Christ in resurrection as food to us.
Barley loaves and fish are small items, signifying Christ’s smallness, through which He can be the life supply to us. Those who sought miracles considered Him the promised Prophet and would have forced Him to be King (vv. 14-15), but He would not seek to be a giant in religion; rather, He preferred to be small loaves and little fish that people might eat Him.
Jn 6:131 twelve
The twelve handbaskets left over signify the overflow of the riches of Christ’s life supply. The five loaves, which represent this supply, not only fed one thousand times that number, that is, five thousand people, but also provided enough for something to be left over.
Jn 6:14a Prophet  -   Deut. 18:15, 18; John 5:46
Jn 6:151 to
I.e., to make Him the Messiah.
Jn 6:15a King  -   John 1:49
Jn 6:15b withdrew  -   vv. 15b-21: Matt. 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-51
Jn 6:181 sea
The churning of the sea signifies the troubles in human life.
Jn 6:191 twenty-five
I.e., about three or four miles.
Jn 6:192 Jesus
This signifies that the Lord can overrule all the troubles of human life. He can walk on the troubling waves of human life, and all the troubles are under His feet.
Jn 6:211 take
We need to take the Lord into our “boat” (our married life, our family, our business, etc.) and enjoy peace with Him on the journey of human life.
Jn 6:27a Work  -   Isa. 55:2
Jn 6:27b food  -   John 6:53-54
Jn 6:271 eternal
See note 151 in ch. 3; so in vv. 40, 47, 54, 68.
Jn 6:281 do
Fallen man’s concept concerning God is that he must do something for God and work for God. This is the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Gen. 2.
Jn 6:291 believe
The Lord’s concept concerning God is that man should believe into Him, that is, receive Him as life and the life supply. This is the principle of the tree of life, which brings in life, as seen in Gen. 2. It is in contrast to the principle of the tree of knowledge, which brings in death.
Jn 6:292 sent
See note 61 in ch. 1; so in v. 57.
Jn 6:30a sign  -   1 Cor. 1:22
Jn 6:31a ate  -   Exo. 16:15-18, 31; 1 Cor. 10:3
Jn 6:31b He  -   Exo. 16:4; Neh. 9:15; Psa. 78:24; 105:40
Jn 6:331 comes
Through incarnation.
Jn 6:351 bread
The bread of life is the life supply in the form of food. It is like the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), which also is the life supply “good for food.”
Jn 6:35a shall  -   John 4:14
Jn 6:352 by
In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this also is the changing of death into life. The source of death is the tree of knowledge, and the source of life is the tree of life.
Jn 6:37a gives  -   John 6:39, 65; 17:2, 24
Jn 6:38a I  -   John 3:13; 6:41, 50, 58
Jn 6:38b not  -   Matt. 26:39
Jn 6:38c will  -   John 4:34; 5:30
Jn 6:39a lose  -   John 17:12; 18:9
Jn 6:39b raise  -   John 6:44, 54
Jn 6:41a came  -   John 6:38, 50, 58; 3:13
Jn 6:42a Is  -   Luke 4:22
Jn 6:421 son
See note 451 in ch. 1.
Jn 6:42b I  -   John 6:38
Jn 6:44a No  -   John 6:65
Jn 6:44b draws  -   Jer. 31:3; John 6:65
Jn 6:44c raise  -   John 6:39, 54
Jn 6:45a And  -   Isa. 54:13
Jn 6:45b taught  -   1 Thes. 4:9
Jn 6:46a Not  -   John 1:18
Jn 6:461b from  -   John 7:29; 16:27; 17:8
See note 145 in ch. 1.
Jn 6:47a has  -   John 3:16; 5:24
Jn 6:50a comes  -   John 6:38, 41
Jn 6:50b eat  -   John 6:57
Jn 6:511 living
Bread of life (v. 35) refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living.
Jn 6:51a he  -   John 6:58
Jn 6:512 flesh
At this point the bread becomes the flesh. Bread is of the vegetable life and is only for feeding; flesh is of the animal life and is not only for feeding but also for redeeming. Before the fall of man, the Lord was the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), which is only for feeding man. After man fell into sin, the Lord became the Lamb (1:29), which is not only for feeding man but also for redeeming him (Exo. 12:4, 7-8).
Jn 6:513 for
The Lord gave His body, that is, His flesh, dying for us that we might have life.
Jn 6:51b world  -   John 1:29
Jn 6:531 blood
At this point blood is added, which is necessary for redemption (19:34; Heb. 9:22; Matt. 26:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rom. 3:25).
Jn 6:541 eats
Lit., masticates; so in vv. 56, 57, 58.
Jn 6:542 flesh
Here flesh and blood are mentioned separately. The separation of blood and flesh indicates death. Here the Lord clearly indicated His death, that is, His being slain. He gave His body and shed His blood for us that we may have eternal life. To eat His flesh is to receive by faith all that He did in giving His body for us; and to drink His blood is to receive by faith all that He accomplished in shedding His blood for us. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive Him, in His redemption, as life and the life supply by believing in what He did for us on the cross. By comparing this verse with v. 47, we see that to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is to believe in Him, because to believe or to believe into is to receive (1:12).
Jn 6:54a raise  -   John 6:39, 44
Jn 6:56a abides  -   John 15:5
Jn 6:561 I
This indicates that the Lord had to be resurrected so that He could abide in us as our life and life supply.
Jn 6:571 eats
To eat is to take food into us that it may be assimilated organically into our body. Hence, to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life. Then we live by Him whom we have received. It is by this that He, the resurrected One, lives in us (14:19-20).
Jn 6:57a live  -   John 14:19; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21
Jn 6:58a shall  -   John 6:51
Jn 6:61a stumble  -   Matt. 11:6
Jn 6:621a ascending  -   John 3:13
In v. 56 the Lord’s resurrection is implied. In this verse His ascension, which followed His resurrection, is clearly mentioned. The Lord’s ascension was the proof that His redemptive work had been completed (Heb. 1:3b).
Jn 6:63a It  -   1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6
Jn 6:631 Spirit
At this point the Spirit who gives life is brought in. After resurrection and through resurrection, the Lord Jesus, who had become flesh (1:14), became the Spirit who gives life, as is clearly mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:45. It is as the life-giving Spirit that He can be life and the life supply to us. When we receive Him as the crucified and resurrected Savior, the Spirit who gives life comes into us to impart eternal life into us. We receive the Lord Jesus, but we get the Spirit who gives life.
Jn 6:632 flesh
Flesh here, according to the context, refers to the meat of the physical body. When the Lord said, “The bread which I will give is My flesh” (v. 51), the Jews thought that He would give them the meat of His physical body to eat (v. 52). They did not understand the Lord’s word rightly. To them it was a hard word (v. 60). Hence, in this verse the Lord explained that what He would give them to eat was not the meat of His physical body; the meat, which is the flesh, profits nothing. What He would give, eventually, was the Spirit who gives life, who is the Lord Himself in resurrection.
Jn 6:633 words
The Greek word for words, here and in v. 68, is rhema, which denotes the instant and present spoken word. It differs from logos (used for Word in 1:1), which denotes the constant word. Here the words follows the Spirit. The Spirit is living and real, yet He is very mysterious, intangible, and difficult for people to apprehend; the words, however, are substantial. First, the Lord indicated that for giving life He would become the Spirit. Then He said that the words He speaks are spirit and life. This shows that His spoken words are the embodiment of the Spirit of life. He is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words. When we receive His words by exercising our spirit, we get the Spirit, who is life.
Jn 6:64a knew  -   John 2:25
Jn 6:64b who  -   John 6:71; 13:11
Jn 6:641 betray
Lit., deliver Him up; so throughout the book.
Jn 6:65a no  -   John 6:44
Jn 6:65b given  -   John 6:37, 39; 17:2, 24
Jn 6:68a words  -   John 6:63; 17:8
Jn 6:70a chose  -   John 15:16
Jn 6:70b a  -   John 13:2, 27; 8:44; 17:12
John Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 7:1a seeking  -   John 5:16, 18
Jn 7:11 kill
Although the Lord is God the Creator, He lived on earth as a man and suffered persecution at the hands of His creatures.
Jn 7:21a Feast  -   Lev. 23:34; Deut. 16:16
In the scene of the case in ch. 6 there was the Feast of the Passover. In the scene of this case in ch. 7 there is the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of the Passover is the first of the Jewish annual feasts, and the Feast of Tabernacles is the last (Lev. 23:5, 34). The Feast of the Passover, being the first feast of the year, implies the beginning of man’s life (cf. Exo. 12:2-3, 6), which involves man’s seeking for satisfaction and results in man’s hunger. The Feast of Tabernacles, being the last feast of the year, implies the completion and success of man’s life (cf. Exo. 23:16), which will end and will result in man’s thirst. In the scene of the Feast of the Passover, the Lord presented Himself as the bread of life, which satisfies man’s hunger. In the scene of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord promised that He would flow forth the living water, which quenches man’s thirst.
After the full harvest of their crops, the Jewish people observed the Feast of Tabernacles to worship God and enjoy what they had reaped (Deut. 16:13-15). Hence, this feast signifies the completion, achievement, and success in man’s career, man’s study, and other matters of human life, including religion, with the joy and enjoyment thereof.
God ordained the Feast of Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their fathers, while wandering in the wilderness, had lived in tents (Lev. 23:39-43), expecting to enter into the rest of the good land. Hence, this feast is a reminder that today people are still in the wilderness and need to enter into the rest of the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal tabernacle (Rev. 21:2-3). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob also lived in tents and looked forward to this eternal tabernacle (Heb. 11:9-10), in which there will be a river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb to quench man’s thirst (Rev. 22:1, 17). At the end of such a feast, which had such a background, Christ cried out the promise of the rivers of living water, which will satisfy man’s expectation for eternity (vv. 37-39).
Jn 7:61a time  -   John 7:8, 30; 2:4; cf. Matt. 26:18
Although the Lord is the eternal, infinite, unlimited God, He lived here on earth as a man, being limited even in the matter of time.
Jn 7:7a world  -   John 17:14
Jn 7:7b its  -   John 3:19
Jn 7:8a time  -   John 7:6, 30
Jn 7:101 not
Although He is the Almighty God, as a man under persecution the Lord was limited also in relation to His activity.
Jn 7:11a sought  -   John 7:1; 11:56
Jn 7:12a some  -   John 7:40-43, 47
Jn 7:13a fear  -   John 9:22; 19:38; 20:19
Jn 7:151 without
Although He is the omniscient God, as a lowly man the Lord appeared to be illiterate.
Jn 7:16a My  -   John 8:28; 12:49-50
Jn 7:18a seeks  -   John 8:50
Jn 7:19a Has  -   John 1:17
Jn 7:19b seek  -   John 7:1; 5:16, 18
Jn 7:20a have  -   John 8:48, 52; 10:20
Jn 7:21a one  -   John 5:2-9
Jn 7:22a Moses  -   Lev. 12:3
Jn 7:23a made  -   John 5:9
Jn 7:241 appearance
Or, countenance, face, sight.
Jn 7:27a know  -   cf. John 9:29
Jn 7:281a know  -   John 6:42
Inward, subjective understanding. So in the next verse.
Jn 7:28b I  -   John 8:42
Jn 7:29a know  -   John 8:55; 17:25
Jn 7:291b from  -   John 6:46; 16:27; 17:8; cf. 15:26
See note 145 in ch. 1.
Jn 7:292 sent
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jn 7:30a seize  -   John 10:39
Jn 7:30b His  -   John 8:20
Jn 7:33a I  -   John 12:35; 13:33
Jn 7:33b I  -   John 16:5, 10, 17, 28
Jn 7:34a You  -   John 8:21; 13:33
Jn 7:371 last
The last day here signifies that all the enjoyment of any success in the human life will end. There is a “last day” to every kind of material thing of the physical life.
Jn 7:37a thirsts  -   Rev. 21:6; 22:17
Jn 7:37b come  -   Rev. 22:17
Jn 7:37c drink  -   John 4:14; 1 Cor. 10:4; Psa. 36:8
Jn 7:38a innermost  -   Dan. 7:15
Jn 7:381 flow
In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this also is the changing of death into life. The source of death is the tree of knowledge, and the source of life is the tree of life. This book shows us that life is in opposition to death (5:24-25; 8:24; 11:25-26).
Jn 7:382b rivers  -   cf. Rev. 22:1, 17; 21:6; 7:17; Gen. 2:10; Psa. 36:8; Ezek. 47:1, 5; Isa. 58:11
The rivers of living water are the many flows of the different aspects of life (cf. Rom. 15:30; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23), originating from the one unique river of water of life (Rev. 22:1), which is God’s Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).
Jn 7:391a Spirit  -   John 14:16-17; 20:22; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19
The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but at the time the Lord spoke this word, the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). After Jesus’ resurrection, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ, who was breathed into the disciples by Christ in the evening of the day on which He was resurrected (20:22). The Spirit is now the “another Comforter,” the Spirit of reality promised by Christ before His death (14:16-17). When the Spirit was the Spirit of God, He had only the divine element. After He became the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Spirit had both the divine element and the human element, with all the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. Hence, the Spirit is now the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ as the living water for us to receive (vv. 38-39).
Jn 7:39b glorified  -   Luke 24:26; John 12:16, 23; 13:31-32; 17:1, 5
Jn 7:40a Prophet  -   John 6:14; Deut. 18:15, 18
Jn 7:41a Christ  -   John 1:41
Jn 7:411b Galilee  -   John 7:52; cf. 1:46
The Lord was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7) but was raised in Nazareth of Galilee, a city that was despised by people at that time. He was the seed of David, but He came as a Nazarene (Matt. 2:23). He grew up “like a root out of dry ground,” having “no attracting form nor majesty,” “nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him,” and “was despised and forsaken of men” (Isa. 53:2-3). Hence, we should know Him not according to the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16) but according to the Spirit.
Jn 7:42a seed  -   Matt. 1:1
Jn 7:42b Bethlehem  -   Matt. 2:5; Micah 5:2
Jn 7:46a Never  -   Matt. 7:28-29
Jn 7:48a rulers  -   John 12:42
Jn 7:50a Nicodemus  -   John 3:1; 19:39
Jn 7:511 condemn
Or, judge.
Jn 7:52a Galilee  -   John 7:41
Jn 7:531 And
Many ancient MSS omit 7:53 — 8:11.
John Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 8:31 woman
In this Gospel nine cases have been selected to prove that the Lord Jesus is the life and the life supply to people. The first six cases, in chs. 3 — 7, form a group of signs signifying that, on the positive side, the Lord is the life and the life supply to us for regenerating, satisfying, healing, enlivening, feeding, and thirst quenching. The last three cases, in chs. 8 — 11, form a group of signs signifying that, on the negative side, the Lord is life to us to deliver us from the three main negative things: sin, blindness, and death.
The case in this chapter reveals all the matters related to the problem of sin: (1) the source of sin — the devil; (2) the three main items of sin — adultery and fornication, murder, and lies (vv. 3, 41, 44); (3) the bondage, or slavery, of sin; (4) the issue, or result, of sin — death; (5) the One who is without sin — the Lord; (6) the One who is qualified to condemn sin — the Lord; (7) the One who is qualified to forgive sin — the Lord; (8) the One who is able to set people free from sin — the Lord. The Lord is the ever-existing God, the great I Am, who became the Son of Man and was lifted up on the cross to bear our sins; hence, He is qualified to forgive our sins. Furthermore, the Lord, being the eternal God, can come into us to be life and light to deliver us from the bondage and darkness of sin.
The case in this chapter shows also that the religion (represented by the temple — vv. 2, 20) of law (vv. 5, 17) cannot set people free from sin and death; but the Lord Jesus, the I Am, who became the Son of Man and was lifted up on the cross for the serpent-poisoned people, can do what religion and law cannot do. This chapter shows us that Christ, the great I Am, not only is versus sin and death but also is versus religion and law.
Jn 8:5a in  -   Lev. 20:10
Jn 8:51 What
Their question here, like those in 4:20-25 and 9:2-3, was a matter of yes or no, which belongs to the tree of knowledge, the result of which is death (Gen. 2:17). But the Lord’s answer in v. 7 pointed them to Himself, the One who is the tree of life, which results in life (Gen. 2:9).
Jn 8:6a tempt  -   Matt. 16:1; 19:3; 22:18, 35
Jn 8:61 stooped
The Lord Jesus’ stooping down was a sign done to humble and calm the proud and self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. It might be that He was writing, “Who among you is without sin?”
Jn 8:7a let  -   Deut. 17:7
Jn 8:111 Lord
Or, Sir.
Jn 8:112a Neither  -   John 3:17
The scribes and Pharisees could not condemn the woman, because they were all sinful. Only the Lord Jesus was without sin, and only He was qualified to condemn the woman; but He would not.
Jn 8:11b sin  -   John 5:14
Jn 8:12a light  -   John 9:5; 11:9-10; 12:35-36, 46
Jn 8:121b light  -   John 1:4
The light of life (1:4) shines within man by the inner sense of life to deliver man from sin.
Jn 8:13a testifying  -   John 5:31
Jn 8:14a where  -   John 8:42
Jn 8:14b you  -   John 9:29
Jn 8:15a You  -   John 7:24
Jn 8:151 judge
Or, condemn.
Jn 8:16a judge  -   John 5:30
Jn 8:161 I
This proves that when the Son was on the earth, the Father was with Him on the earth. The Father can never be separated from the Son, and the Son can never be separated from the Father. When the Son was on the earth, He was still in heaven with the Father (3:13). This proves that when God became flesh (1:14), it was the Son with the Father, the Father with the Son, in the Spirit (that is, the entire God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) who became flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). See also v. 29.
Jn 8:16b and  -   John 8:29; 16:32
Jn 8:17a in  -   Deut. 19:15
Jn 8:19a if  -   John 14:7
Jn 8:20a hour  -   John 7:30
Jn 8:21a you  -   John 7:34, 36; 13:33
Jn 8:21b die  -   John 8:24
Jn 8:23a You  -   John 3:31
Jn 8:231 from
From and of are the same word in Greek.
Jn 8:23b of  -   1 John 4:5
See note 231.
Jn 8:23c I  -   John 17:14, 16
Jn 8:24a die  -   John 8:21
Jn 8:241b I  -   John 8:28, 58; Exo. 3:14
I am (vv. 28, 58) is the meaning of the name Jehovah (Exo. 3:14), and Jehovah is the name of God (Gen. 2:7), the One who is and who was and who is coming, the self-existing and ever-existing One (Rev. 1:4; Exo. 3:14-15). This name is used in speaking of God in His relationship with man. Hence, it indicates that the Lord is the ever-existing God who has a relationship with man. Any man who does not believe that the Lord is this very God will die in his sins.
Jn 8:251 tell
The Lord’s speaking reveals what He is, in particular His eternal divinity, as the I Am spoken of in the foregoing verse. This is the basic element revealed in the Lord’s word.
Jn 8:26a He  -   John 7:28
Jn 8:281a lift  -   John 3:14; 12:32
The phrase lift (or lifted) up is used also in 3:14 and 12:31-34. In 3:14 the Lord as the Son of Man was to be lifted up in the form of the serpent to bear the judgment of God for the serpent-poisoned people. In 12:31-34 the Lord as the Son of Man was to be lifted up for the casting out of the old serpent, Satan, the ruler of the world. Hence, in this chapter the Lord, as the Son of Man lifted up, can deliver the serpent-poisoned people from sin, the serpent’s poison.
Jn 8:28b then  -   Matt. 27:54
Jn 8:28c I  -   John 8:24, 58; Exo. 3:14
Jn 8:28d I  -   John 5:19
Jn 8:29a with  -   John 8:16
Jn 8:31a abide  -   John 15:7; 2 John 9
Jn 8:321a truth  -   John 1:14, 17; 14:6
In Greek the same as reality in 1:14, 17. The truth is not the so-called truth of doctrine but the reality of the divine things, which is the Lord Himself (see note 62 in ch. 14; 1:14, 17). This verse says that “the truth shall set you free,” whereas v. 36 says that “the Son sets you free.” This proves that the Son, the Lord Himself, is the truth. Since the Lord is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), He is the reality of what God is. Hence, reality is the very divine element of God realized by us. When the Lord as the great I Am comes into us as life, He shines within us as light, bringing the divine element as reality into us. This reality, which is the divine element imparted into us and realized by us, sets us free from the bondage of sin by the divine life as the light of man. When the Lord as the Word of God became flesh (1:14), He brought God to us as this reality, that God might be the grace for our enjoyment (1:17).
Jn 8:32b set  -   John 8:36
Jn 8:33a Abraham’s  -   Matt. 3:9
Jn 8:34a slave  -   Rom. 6:16; 2 Pet. 2:19
Jn 8:36a sets  -   John 8:32
Jn 8:37a seek  -   John 7:1
Jn 8:38a I  -   John 12:49
Jn 8:38b your  -   John 8:44; 1 John 3:10
Jn 8:39a Abraham’s  -   Rom. 9:7
Jn 8:40a seeking  -   John 8:37; 7:1
Jn 8:41a your  -   John 8:38, 44
Jn 8:41b one  -   Deut. 32:6; Isa. 63:16
Jn 8:42a I  -   John 16:28
Jn 8:42b I  -   John 7:28
Jn 8:421 sent
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jn 8:44a You  -   John 8:38, 41; 1 John 3:8, 10
Jn 8:441 father
Because the devil is the father of sinners, sinners are the children of the devil (1 John 3:10). The devil is the old serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), and sinners also are serpents, the generation of vipers (Matt. 23:33; 3:7). Hence, they need the Lord in the form of the serpent to be lifted up for them on the cross (3:14) to save them not only from sin but also from the source of sin, the devil (Heb. 2:14).
Jn 8:44b murderer  -   Gen. 4:8; 1 John 3:15
Jn 8:44c truth  -   1 John 2:4
Jn 8:44d he  -   Matt. 12:34
Jn 8:442 possessions
The Lord’s word here revealed that in the devil, the father of lies, there is a particular wicked thing that caused him to become the source of sin. This thing is something of his own, his private possession, and it is something that other creatures do not have.
Jn 8:443 father
Or, father of lies. Since the devil is the father of liars, he is the source of sin. The divine element of God, working as life and light within man, sets man free from the slavery of sin. But the evil element of the devil, working as sin through death and darkness within man, enslaves man to sin. The devil’s nature is a lie and brings in death and darkness. With darkness is falsehood, the opposite of the truth.
Jn 8:45a truth  -   John 18:37
Jn 8:471 words
See note 633 in ch. 6.
Jn 8:48a Samaritan  -   John 4:9; Luke 10:33
Jn 8:48b have  -   John 8:52; 7:20; 10:20
Jn 8:49a dishonor  -   John 5:23
Jn 8:50a I  -   John 7:18; 8:54
Jn 8:51a keeps  -   John 14:23
Jn 8:511b death  -   John 5:24
In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this also is the changing of death into life.
Jn 8:52a have  -   John 8:48; 7:20; 10:20
Jn 8:52b taste  -   Heb. 2:9
Jn 8:54a If  -   John 8:50; 7:18
Jn 8:54b My  -   John 17:1, 5; 13:32
Jn 8:55a you  -   John 8:19
Jn 8:551 known
In this verse two Greek words are used for know: the first denotes the outward, objective knowledge; the second refers to the inward, subjective consciousness. The Lord Jesus told the Pharisees that they had not known God the Father, even in the outward, objective knowledge, but that He knew the Father in the inward, subjective consciousness.
Jn 8:55b I  -   John 7:29
Jn 8:55c a  -   John 8:44
Jn 8:58a Before  -   John 17:5, 24; Col. 1:17
Jn 8:581b I  -   John 8:24, 28; Exo. 3:14
The Lord as the great I Am is the eternal, ever-existing God. Hence, He was before Abraham and is greater than Abraham (v. 53).
Jn 8:59a picked  -   John 10:31; 11:8
John Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 9:11 a
This case is further proof that the religion of law (see note 141) could not in any way help a blind man. But the Lord Jesus, as the light of the world, imparted sight to him in the way of life (10:10b, 28).
Jn 9:12 blind
Blindness, like sin in the previous chapter, is a matter of death. A dead person surely is blind. “The god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers.” Hence, they need “the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ” to shine on them (2 Cor. 4:4) “to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). In the principle set forth in ch. 2, this also is the changing of death into life.
Jn 9:21 who
This question, like those in 4:20-25 and 8:3-5, was a matter of yes or no, which belongs to the tree of knowledge, the result of which is death (Gen. 2:17). But the Lord’s answer in v. 3 pointed them to Himself, the One who is the tree of life, which results in life (Gen. 2:9).
Jn 9:4a day  -   John 11:9; 12:35
Jn 9:5a light  -   John 1:4; 8:12; 11:9-10; 12:35-36, 46
Jn 9:6a spat  -   Mark 7:33; 8:23
Jn 9:61 spittle
Clay here, as in Rom. 9:21, signifies humanity. Spittle here, as something that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord (Matt. 4:4), signifies the Lord’s words, which are Spirit and are life (6:63). The Lord’s making clay of the spittle signifies the mingling of humanity with the Lord’s living word, which is the Spirit. The word anointed proves this, because the Lord’s Spirit is the anointing Spirit (Luke 4:18; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 1 John 2:27). Here the Lord anointed the blind eyes with the clay made of His spittle, that they might have sight. This signifies that by the anointing of the mingling of the Lord’s word (which is His Spirit) with our humanity, our eyes, which were blinded by Satan, can have sight.
Jn 9:71 wash
Here to wash is to cleanse away the clay. This signifies the washing away of our old humanity, as experienced in baptism (Rom. 6:3-4, 6).
Jn 9:7a Siloam  -   Neh. 3:15; Isa. 8:6
Jn 9:72 Sent
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jn 9:73 He
His going and washing indicates that he obeyed the life-giving word of the Lord. So he received sight. If he had not gone to wash off the clay after having been anointed with it, the clay would have blinded him even more. Our obedience to the Lord’s anointing cleanses us and brings us sight.
Jn 9:141a Sabbath  -   John 5:9
It seems that the Lord again purposely did a sign on the Sabbath to expose the vanity of religious ritual. In any case, this strengthened religion’s opposition, for He had already done a sign on the Sabbath (5:10, 16).
Jn 9:15a Again  -   John 9:10
Jn 9:16a not  -   Matt. 12:2; John 5:10, 16
Jn 9:16b signs  -   John 2:11; 4:54
Jn 9:16c a  -   John 6:52; 7:43; 10:19
Jn 9:22a feared  -   John 7:13
Jn 9:22b put  -   John 12:42; 16:2
Jn 9:24a Give  -   Josh. 7:19
Jn 9:27a I  -   John 9:15
Jn 9:28a we  -   John 5:45
Jn 9:29a we  -   John 8:14
Jn 9:31a We  -   Isa. 59:1-2; Psa. 66:18
Jn 9:321 Since
Lit., from the age; i.e., from eternity.
Jn 9:33a If  -   John 3:2; 5:36
Jn 9:331 from
See note 145 in ch. 1.
Jn 9:34a sins  -   John 9:2
Jn 9:341b cast  -   John 9:22, 35
To cast him out was to excommunicate, to ostracize, him from the Jewish synagogue. This was to put him out of the sheepfold, as spoken by the Lord in 10:3-4. Religion’s persecution of the Lord’s called one did nothing but fulfill what the Lord intended for him.
Jn 9:35a cast  -   John 9:22, 34
Jn 9:351 Son
Some ancient authorities read, Son of Man.
Jn 9:36a Lord  -   Rom. 10:13-14
Jn 9:37a He  -   John 4:26
Jn 9:38a worshipped  -   Matt. 8:2; Luke 17:15-16
Jn 9:39a judgment  -   John 5:22, 27
Jn 9:39b those  -   Luke 4:18; Matt. 11:5
Jn 9:39c those  -   Matt. 13:13; 15:14
Jn 9:40a blind  -   Rom. 2:19; Rev. 3:17
Jn 9:41a not  -   John 15:22, 24
John Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 10:11a door  -   John 10:7, 9
See note 91; so in the succeeding verses.
Jn 10:12 sheepfold
The sheepfold signifies the law, or Judaism as the religion of the law, in which God’s chosen people were kept and guarded in custody until Christ came.
Jn 10:13b thief  -   John 10:8
Thieves and robbers (v. 8) signify those who came into Judaism, but not through Christ.
Jn 10:2a door  -   John 10:7, 9
Jn 10:2b shepherd  -   John 10:11
Jn 10:31 sheep
The blind man who received sight in the previous chapter was such a sheep. He was led by the Lord out of the Judaism-fold. Hence, this chapter is a continuation of ch. 9.
Jn 10:3a hear  -   John 10:4, 16, 27
Jn 10:3b out  -   John 10:9
Jn 10:4a follow  -   John 10:27
Jn 10:4b voice  -   John 10:3, 16, 27
Jn 10:6a parable  -   John 16:25, 29
Jn 10:7a door  -   John 10:9
Jn 10:8a thieves  -   John 10:1
Jn 10:91a door  -   John 10:7
Christ is the door not only for God’s elect to enter into the custody of the law, as did Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in the Old Testament time, before Christ came, but also for God’s chosen people, such as Peter, John, James, and Paul, to come out of the fold of the law now that Christ has come. Thus, the Lord indicated here that He is the door not only through which God’s elect may go in but also through which God’s chosen people may go out.
Jn 10:92 pasture
The pasture here signifies Christ as the feeding place for the sheep. When the pasture is not available (e.g., in the wintertime or at night), the sheep must be kept in the fold. When the pasture is ready, there is no further need for the sheep to remain in the fold. To be kept in the fold is transitional and temporary. To be in the pasture enjoying its riches is final and permanent. Before Christ came, the law was a ward, and being under the law was transitional. Now that Christ has come, all God’s chosen people must come out of the law and come into Him to enjoy Him as their pasture (Gal. 3:23-25; 4:3-5). This should be final and permanent. Because they did not have such a revelation, the leaders in Judaism considered the law, on which Judaism was based, as permanent. As a result, they missed Christ and could not participate in Him as their pasture.
Jn 10:10a have  -   John 5:40
Jn 10:101 life
Gk. zoe. This word is used in the New Testament for the eternal, divine life.
Jn 10:11a Shepherd  -   John 10:14; Isa. 40:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 7:17
Jn 10:11b lays  -   John 10:15, 17, 18; 1 John 3:16; John 15:13; Isa. 53:12
Jn 10:111 life
Gk. psuche, soul; i.e., soul-life, and so in the succeeding verses. As a man, the Lord has the psuche life, the human life, and as God, He has the zoe life, the divine life. He laid down His soul, His psuche life, His human life, to accomplish redemption for His sheep (vv. 15, 17-18) that they may share His zoe life, His divine life (v. 10b), the eternal life (v. 28), by which they can be formed into one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd. As the good Shepherd, He feeds His sheep with the divine life in this way and for this purpose.
Jn 10:14a Shepherd  -   John 10:11
Jn 10:14b I  -   John 10:27
Jn 10:14c My  -   John 10:4
Jn 10:15a Father  -   Matt. 11:27
Jn 10:15b lay  -   John 10:11, 17, 18
Jn 10:161a other  -   Acts 11:18; Eph. 2:12; 3:6
The other sheep are the Gentile believers (Acts 11:18).
Jn 10:162b one  -   John 17:21; Eph. 2:13-16
The one flock signifies the one church, the one Body of Christ (Eph. 2:14-16; 3:6), brought forth by the Lord’s eternal, divine life, which He imparted into His members through His death (vv. 10-18). The fold is Judaism, which is of letter and regulation, and the flock is the church, which is of life and spirit.
Jn 10:16c Shepherd  -   John 10:11, 14; 1 Pet. 2:25
Jn 10:17a Father  -   John 3:35; 5:20
Jn 10:17b I  -   John 10:11, 15, 18
Jn 10:18a lay  -   John 10:11, 15, 17
Jn 10:18b take  -   John 2:19
Jn 10:19a A  -   John 7:43; 9:16
Jn 10:20a has  -   John 7:20
Jn 10:20b insane  -   Mark 3:21
Jn 10:21a open  -   John 9:32
Jn 10:221 Feast
From 170 B.C. to 168 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, invaded Jerusalem and looted the temple. Moreover, on December 25, 168 B.C., he sacrificed a sow on the altar and set up an image in the temple, thus defiling and damaging the temple. Three years later, in 165 B.C., Judas Maccabeus, a strong man of Judah, purified and restored the altar and the temple. He set December 25 — the day on which the altar and the temple had been defiled — as the beginning of a sacred feast that was to have eight consecutive days of rejoicing to celebrate the great achievement of the purification and restoration of the altar and the temple. This sacred feast is the Feast of the Dedication mentioned here.
Jn 10:23a portico  -   Acts 3:11; 5:12
Jn 10:24a plainly  -   John 16:25, 29
Jn 10:25a works  -   John 5:36; 10:38
Jn 10:251 in
See note 431 in ch. 5.
Jn 10:27a hear  -   John 10:3, 16
Jn 10:27b I  -   John 10:14
Jn 10:27c follow  -   John 10:4
Jn 10:281a eternal  -   John 17:2; 3:15, 16
Eternal life (see note 151 in ch. 3) is for the believers’ living. The Father’s hand, by which He chooses in His love according to His purpose (17:23; 6:38-39), and the Son’s hand, by which He saves by His grace for the fulfillment of the Father’s purpose (1:14; 6:37), both of which have the keeping power, are for the believers’ protection. Eternal life will never run out, and the hands of the Father and the Son will never fail. Hence, the believers are eternally secure and will never perish.
Jn 10:28b no  -   John 6:39
Jn 10:28c snatch  -   John 10:29
Jn 10:29a snatch  -   John 10:28
Jn 10:291 Father’s
See note 281.
Jn 10:301 I
Here the Lord asserted His deity, that is, that He is God (v. 33; 5:18; 1:1; 20:28; 1 John 5:20; Phil. 2:6).
Jn 10:30a one  -   John 17:22
Jn 10:31a took  -   John 8:59; 11:8
Jn 10:33a God  -   John 5:18; 1:1; 20:28; 19:7; 1 John 5:20; Phil. 2:6
Jn 10:34a You  -   Psa. 82:6
Jn 10:36a has  -   John 6:69
Jn 10:361b sent  -   John 3:17; 1 John 4:9
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jn 10:36c I  -   John 5:17; 10:30
Jn 10:37a works  -   John 5:36; 10:25
Jn 10:38a believe  -   John 10:25; 14:11
Jn 10:38b Father  -   John 14:10, 20; 17:21, 23
Jn 10:39a seize  -   John 7:30
Jn 10:401 He
At this point the Lord left the temple and went to the very place where John the Baptist had given the New Testament testimony concerning Him. This signifies that He abandoned Judaism and came to the new ground, where many believed into Him.
Jn 10:40a across  -   John 1:28
Jn 10:41a all  -   John 1:27, 29, 30, 34; 3:28-30
Jn 10:42a many  -   John 7:31
John Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 11:11 Bethany
The Lord had left Judaism and had come to a place from which He could proceed to Bethany, which was an early miniature of the church.
Jn 11:2a anointed  -   John 12:3; cf. Luke 7:38
Jn 11:4a glory  -   John 11:40
Jn 11:81 said
In the eight foregoing cases, in chs. 3 — 10, religion was the main frustration to and opponent of life. Here, outside religion and on the new ground, life was going to raise a dead person. Here life no longer faced religion with its rituals, but it was frustrated by many human opinions: the disciples’ opinions (vv. 8-16), Martha’s opinion (vv. 21-28), Mary’s opinion (vv. 32-33), the Jews’ opinion (vv. 36-38), and, again, Martha’s opinion (vv. 39-40). Opinions, which come from knowledge, belong to the tree of knowledge, but the Lord here was actually the tree of life for people to enjoy.
Jn 11:8a stone  -   John 8:59; 10:31
Jn 11:9a day  -   John 9:4; 12:35
Jn 11:9b light  -   John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46
Jn 11:11a asleep  -   Matt. 27:52; 1 Thes. 4:13-16
Jn 11:121 recover
Lit., be saved.
Jn 11:141 died
In the Lord’s salvation He does not merely heal the sick; He also gives life to the dead. Hence, He remained two days until the sick one had died (v. 6). The Lord does not reform or regulate people — He regenerates people and raises them out of death. Hence, the first of the nine cases in chs. 3 — 11 was a case of regeneration, and the last was a case of resurrection, revealing that all the aspects of Christ as life to us, as unveiled in the other seven cases, are in the principle of regeneration and resurrection. This last case was the actual changing of death into life.
Jn 11:161 Didymus
I.e., Twin.
Jn 11:17a four  -   John 11:39
Jn 11:181 fifteen
I.e., about two miles.
Jn 11:21a if  -   John 11:32
Jn 11:24a resurrection  -   Dan. 12:2; Acts 24:15
Jn 11:241 in
The Lord told Martha, “Your brother will rise again” (v. 23). This meant that the Lord would raise him immediately; but Martha expounded the Lord’s word so as to postpone the present resurrection to the last day. What an exposition of the divine word! Some of the knowledge of fundamental teaching is truly destructive and frustrates people from enjoying the Lord’s present resurrection life.
Jn 11:25a life  -   John 1:4; 5:26
Jn 11:25b live  -   John 6:39
Jn 11:26a no  -   John 6:50, 51; 8:51
Jn 11:271 believed
The Lord said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and asked her, “Do you believe this?” She answered, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Her reply did not answer the Lord’s question. Her old, preoccupying knowledge covered her, preventing her from understanding the Lord’s new word. Man’s old knowledge and old opinions are coverings that keep him from knowing clearly the Lord’s new revelation.
Jn 11:27a You  -   Matt. 16:16
Jn 11:27b comes  -   John 6:14
Jn 11:281 is
This might have been Martha’s opinion and not the Lord’s command.
Jn 11:311 weep
Lit., wail.
Jn 11:32a if  -   John 11:21
Jn 11:331 weeping
Lit., wailing.
Jn 11:33a Jews  -   John 11:19
Jn 11:33b moved  -   John 11:38; Rom. 8:26
Jn 11:33c troubled  -   John 12:27; 13:21
Jn 11:351 wept
This word differs from the word translated weep and weeping in vv. 31 and 33. Here it means to shed tears, to weep silently. This is the only time the word is used in the New Testament.
Jn 11:36a loved  -   John 11:3
Jn 11:37a opened  -   John 9:7, 32
Jn 11:39a fourth  -   John 11:17
Jn 11:40a glory  -   John 11:4
Jn 11:411 took
Their taking the stone away and loosing Lazarus were their submitting to and cooperating with the resurrection life.
Jn 11:41a lifted  -   John 17:1
Jn 11:41b Father  -   Matt. 11:25
Jn 11:42a believe  -   John 17:8, 21
Jn 11:421 sent
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jn 11:44a bound  -   John 19:40
Jn 11:44b his  -   John 20:7
Jn 11:45a Jews  -   John 11:19
Jn 11:47a signs  -   John 2:11, 23; 3:2; 4:54; 6:2, 14
Jn 11:49a high  -   John 11:51; 18:13
Jn 11:50a it  -   John 18:14
Jn 11:51a high  -   John 11:49; 18:13
Jn 11:521 gather
The phrase gather into one the children of God mentioned in this chapter implies that not only the Lord’s death but also the Lord’s resurrection life are for the building up of God’s children. By His death the Lord released His life so that it could be imparted into those who believe into Him. This life is experienced by us in His resurrection. It is in the Lord’s resurrection that we grow together into one by His life to become His Body.
Jn 11:52a one  -   cf. John 10:16
Jn 11:53a took  -   Matt. 26:4
Jn 11:54a walked  -   John 7:1
Jn 11:55a Passover  -   John 2:13; 6:4
Jn 11:55b purify  -   2 Chron. 30:17-19; John 18:28
John Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 12:1a Passover  -   Lev. 23:5; Exo. 12:3, 6
Jn 12:11b Bethany  -   vv. 1-8: Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9
Bethany means house of affliction. At this point the Lord was outside Judaism. Through His resurrection life He had gained a house in Bethany where He could feast and have rest and satisfaction. This house of feasting was a miniature of the church life and depicted the situation of the church: (1) produced by the resurrection life — Lazarus (11:43-44); (2) composed of cleansed sinners — Simon the leper (Mark 14:3); (3) outwardly afflicted — Bethany; (4) inwardly feasting in and with the presence of the Lord (v. 2); (5) having more sisters than brothers (vv. 2-3); (6) having members with different functions: serving — Martha, testifying — Lazarus, and loving — Mary (vv. 2-3); (7) spotted by the false one — Judas (v. 4); (8) persecuted by religion (v. 10); (9) being a test and exposing people (vv. 6, 10); and (10) bringing in many believers (v. 11).
Jn 12:1c whom  -   John 11:43-44
Jn 12:2a Martha  -   Luke 10:38, 40
Jn 12:3a Mary  -   John 11:2
Jn 12:31 pound
A unit of weight at that time, about twelve ounces.
Jn 12:32 house
This was the house of Simon the leper (Mark 14:3).
Jn 12:4a Judas  -   John 6:71; 13:21, 26
Jn 12:51 denarii
See note 71 in ch. 6.
Jn 12:6a holding  -   John 13:29
Jn 12:71 Jesus
The Lord Jesus was a test to all those around Him. The chief priests and Pharisees conspired to kill Him (11:47, 53, 57), Simon the leper prepared his house for Him (Matt. 26:6), Martha served Him, Lazarus testified concerning Him, Mary loved Him (vv. 2-3), Judas was about to betray Him (v. 4), and many believed into Him (v. 11). The Lord is the center of God’s economy and is a sign set up by God (Luke 2:34). Anyone who contacts Him will inevitably be tested and exposed.
Jn 12:8a For  -   Deut. 15:11
Jn 12:9a whom  -   John 11:43; 12:1, 17
Jn 12:11a many  -   John 11:45
Jn 12:12a the  -   vv. 12-15: Matt. 21:4-9; Mark 11:7-10
Jn 12:12b feast  -   Deut. 16:16
Jn 12:131 Hosanna
A Hebrew expression meaning do save, we pray (Psa. 118:25).
Jn 12:13a Blessed  -   Psa. 118:26
Jn 12:13b King  -   John 1:49
Jn 12:15a Fear  -   Zech. 9:9
Jn 12:16a glorified  -   John 7:39
Jn 12:16b remembered  -   John 14:26
Jn 12:20a worship  -   Acts 8:27
Jn 12:21a Philip  -   John 1:43-46
Jn 12:23a hour  -   John 2:4; 7:30; 13:1
Jn 12:231b glorified  -   John 13:31-32
For Jesus as the Son of Man to be glorified was for Him to be resurrected, that is, to have His divine element, His divine life, released from within the shell of His humanity to produce many believers in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3), just as a grain of wheat (v. 24) has its life element released when it falls into the ground and grows up out of the ground to bear much fruit, that is, to bring forth many grains. See note 11 in ch. 17.
Jn 12:24a Unless  -   1 Cor. 15:36
Jn 12:241 falls
At this point, according to the worldly view, Jesus was in His golden time. A great crowd of the Jews esteemed Him highly and welcomed Him warmly because of the resurrection of Lazarus (vv. 12-19), and even the Greeks were seeking after Him (vv. 20-22). But He preferred to fall as a grain of wheat into the ground and die that He might produce many grains for the church.
Jn 12:242b much  -   cf. John 12:32
This “much fruit” became Christ’s increase in resurrection. This increase is the glory into which Christ entered through His death and resurrection (Luke 24:26). The portion from v. 23 of this chapter to the end of ch. 17 is a discourse on the mystery of this glory. Christ had the glory with God (17:5). His incarnation caused His divine glory to be concealed in His flesh. Through His death and resurrection His glory was released, producing many grains, which become His increase as the expression of His glory. What was spoken in vv. 23, 28; 13:31-32; 14:13; 15:8; 16:14; and 17:1, 4, 5, 10, 22, 24 is related to this glory. In the Lord’s last words to the believers in chs. 14 — 16, there are three concrete, corporate expressions of this glory: the Father’s house (the church) in 14:2, the branches of the vine (the constituents of the Body of Christ) in 15:1-5, and a newborn corporate man (the new man) in 16:21. All three denote the church, showing that the church is the glorious increase produced by the glorious Christ through His death and resurrection. In this glorious increase, Christ, the Son of God, is glorified, causing God the Father also to be glorified in Christ’s glorification, that is, to be fully expressed through the church (Eph. 3:19-21). This expression needs to be maintained in the oneness of the Triune God. Therefore, the Lord prayed in particular for this matter in His concluding prayer in ch. 17 (17:20-23). This glorious increase of Christ is the peak of the mystery revealed in the Gospel of John, and its ultimate consummation is the New Jerusalem in Revelation, also written by John. The new holy city will be the aggregate of Christ’s increase throughout the generations, and in it Christ’s divine glory will be expressed to the uttermost. In the glorifying of God the Son, God the Father also will obtain eternal, matchless glory, which will be His full expression in eternity. Thus His eternal economy will be fulfilled for eternity.
Jn 12:25a He  -   Matt. 10:39
Jn 12:251b soul-life  -   John 10:11, 15, 17, 18
The same Greek word as for life in 10:11, 15, 17. The Lord, as a grain of wheat that fell into the ground, lost His soul-life through death that He might release His eternal life in resurrection to the many grains. As the many grains, we also must lose our soul-life through death that we may enjoy eternal life in resurrection. This is to follow Him that we may serve Him and walk with Him on this way, the way of losing our soul-life and living in His resurrection, as mentioned in v. 26.
Jn 12:25c hates  -   Luke 14:26
Jn 12:252 eternal
See note 151 in ch. 3.
Jn 12:27a My  -   Matt. 26:38
Jn 12:271 soul
As a man, the Lord was troubled in His soul because of the death He was about to suffer. Hence, He prayed, “Father, save Me out of this hour.” However, it must have been that in His spirit He realized that it was for the glorifying of the Father that He had come to that hour.
Jn 12:27b save  -   cf. Matt. 26:39
Jn 12:27c hour  -   John 7:8; 13:1
Jn 12:272 this
This refers to the glorifying of the Father’s name in the next verse.
Jn 12:281a glorify  -   John 13:31, 32; 17:1
To glorify the name of the Father is to cause the Father’s divine element to be expressed. The Father’s divine element, which is the eternal life, was in the incarnated Son. The shell of the Son’s incarnation had to be broken through death that the Father’s divine element, the eternal life, might be released and expressed in resurrection, just as the life element of a grain of wheat is released by the breaking of its shell and is expressed by its blossom. This is the glorification of God the Father in the Son. See note 11 in ch. 17.
Jn 12:28b voice  -   Matt. 3:17; 17:5
Jn 12:29a An  -   Acts 23:9
Jn 12:301 come
Lit., happened.
Jn 12:311a judgment  -   John 16:11
On the cross the Lord as the Son of Man (v. 23) was lifted up in the form of the serpent (3:14), that is, in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3). Satan as the old serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), the ruler of this world, had injected himself into man’s flesh. Through His death on the cross in the likeness of the flesh of sin, the Lord destroyed Satan, who is in man’s flesh (Heb. 2:14). By judging Satan (16:11) in this way, the Lord also judged the world, which is hanging on Satan. Hence, the Lord’s being lifted up caused the world to be judged and its ruler, Satan, to be cast out.
Jn 12:312 world
The Greek word here means arrangement (see note 152 in 1 John 2). The world is an evil system arranged systematically by Satan. All the things on the earth, especially those related to mankind, and all the things in the air have been systematized by Satan into his kingdom of darkness to occupy people and frustrate them from accomplishing the purpose of God, and to distract them from the enjoyment of God. This evil system, the kingdom of darkness, was judged when its ruler, Satan, was cast out by the Lord’s being crucified in the flesh. See note 311.
Jn 12:31b ruler  -   John 14:30; 16:11; Eph. 2:2
Jn 12:321a lifted  -   John 3:14; 8:28
In one aspect, the Lord’s death was His falling into the ground, as revealed in v. 24; in another aspect, it was His being lifted up on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24). His falling into the ground was to produce the many grains; His being lifted up on the tree was to draw all men to Himself. The many grains produced by His falling into the ground are the “all men” drawn by His being lifted up on the tree.
In this chapter the Lord’s death is revealed not as the redeeming death but as the producing, generating death. By this death His incarnation-shell of humanity was broken that He might accomplish His threefold purpose: (1) the producing of many grains, the drawing of all men to Himself (vv. 24, 32); (2) the releasing of the divine element, the eternal life (vv. 23, 28); and (3) the judging of the world and the casting out of its ruler, Satan (v. 31). We must experience the Lord’s death that we may participate in the threefold purpose that He accomplished.
Jn 12:32b draw  -   John 6:44
Jn 12:32c all  -   cf. John 12:24
Jn 12:33a signifying  -   John 18:32
Jn 12:34a Christ  -   Psa. 110:4; Isa. 9:7
Jn 12:35a still  -   John 7:33
Jn 12:35b overcome  -   John 1:5
Jn 12:35c walks  -   John 8:12; 1 John 2:11
Jn 12:36a light  -   John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46
Jn 12:36b sons  -   Eph. 5:8
Jn 12:36c was  -   John 8:59
Jn 12:38a Lord  -   Isa. 53:1
Jn 12:381 arm
The arm of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Himself.
Jn 12:40a He  -   Isa. 6:10
Jn 12:401 blinded
These two, blindness and the hardening of the heart, are related; they are a punishment to the unbelieving ones.
Jn 12:41a saw  -   Isa. 6:1
Jn 12:411 His
His glory here confirms that the Lord Jesus is the very God, Jehovah of hosts, whose glory Isaiah saw (Isa. 6:1, 3). This glory was seen and appreciated by Isaiah but was not loved by the Lord’s weaker believers (vv. 42-43).
Jn 12:42a so  -   John 7:13
Jn 12:42b put  -   John 9:22
Jn 12:43a glory  -   John 5:44
Jn 12:441 cried
This was the Lord’s declaration to the unbelieving religionists. It implied that (1) He was God manifested to man (vv. 44-45); (2) He came as a light into the world so that by believing into Him man would not remain in darkness (vv. 46, 36); and (3) He came to man with the living words; whoever receives His words has eternal life now and forever, and whoever rejects His words will be judged by His words in the last day (vv. 47-50).
Jn 12:44a into  -   John 5:24
Jn 12:45a beholds  -   John 14:9
Jn 12:46a light  -   John 12:36; 1:4; 8:12; 9:5
Jn 12:471 words
See note 633 in ch. 6; so in the next verse.
Jn 12:47a judge  -   John 3:17
Jn 12:48a word  -   Deut. 18:18-19
Jn 12:49a given  -   John 17:8
Jn 12:501 eternal
See note 151 in ch. 3.
Jn 12:50a as  -   John 8:28
John Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 13:11 Now
In this Gospel, the first section, chs. 1 — 13, describes how the Lord as God Himself, as the Son of God, came through His incarnation to bring God into man that He might be man’s life for the producing of the church. The second section, chs. 14 — 21, describes how the Lord as the Son of Man went through His death and resurrection to bring man into God that man and God, God and man, might be built together as a mutual abode. This chapter, coming at the end of the first section, is a dividing line and a turning point.
Jn 13:1a Feast  -   Lev. 23:5
Jn 13:1b hour  -   John 12:23
Jn 13:1c Father  -   John 16:28
Jn 13:2a devil  -   John 6:70-71; 13:27
Jn 13:2b betray  -   John 13:11
Jn 13:3a given  -   John 3:35
Jn 13:3b come  -   John 8:42; 16:27
Jn 13:41 laid
The outer garments here signify the Lord’s virtues and attributes in His expression. Hence, the laying aside of His outer garments signifies the putting off of what He is in His expression.
Jn 13:42 towel
From a Latin word denoting a linen towel.
Jn 13:43 girded
To gird oneself signifies to be bound and restricted with humility (cf. 1 Pet. 5:5).
Jn 13:51 water
Water here signifies the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), the word (Eph. 5:26; John 15:3), and life (19:34).
Jn 13:52 wash
In chs. 1 — 12 life came and brought forth the church, composed of the regenerated ones. In their spirit the regenerated ones are in God and in the heavenlies, but in their body they are still living in the flesh and walking on the earth. Through their contact with earthly things they often become dirty. This frustrates their fellowship with the Lord and with one another. Hence, there is the need for the washing with the Holy Spirit, the word, and life. This is the washing away of their dirtiness that their fellowship with the Lord and with one another may be maintained; it is not the washing away of their sins by the blood (1 John 1:9). This is why, after ch. 12, there is a need for such a sign in this chapter. Since this Gospel is a book of signs, what is recorded in this chapter should be considered a sign, having spiritual significance. Foot-washing should not be taken merely in a physical sense, but rather in a spiritual sense.
Jn 13:53 feet
In ancient times the Jews wore sandals, and since their roads were dusty, their feet easily became dirty. If, when they came to a feast, they sat at the table and stretched out their feet, the dirt and the smell would certainly frustrate the fellowship. Hence, for the feast to be pleasant they needed foot-washing. The Lord washed His disciples’ feet to show them that He loved them to the uttermost (v. 1), and He charged them to do the same to one another in love (vv. 14, 34). Today the world is dirty, and we, the saints, are easily contaminated. For us to maintain pleasant fellowship with the Lord and with one another, we need spiritual foot-washing — with the washing Holy Spirit, the washing word, and the washing life — carried out both by the Lord in His love and by one another in love. This is absolutely necessary in order for us to live in the fellowship of the divine life, which is revealed in John’s first Epistle, a continuation of the Gospel of John.
Jn 13:71 know
In Greek, know in the first instance denotes the inward, subjective consciousness; in the second it refers to the outward, objective knowledge. See note 551 in ch. 8.
Jn 13:101a bathed  -   Titus 3:5
Bathing here signifies the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5; John 3:5).
Jn 13:10b clean  -   John 15:3
Jn 13:11a knew  -   John 6:64
Jn 13:15a example  -   1 Pet. 2:21
Jn 13:16a slave  -   Matt. 10:24
Jn 13:161 one
One who is sent is, literally, an apostle.
Jn 13:17a blessed  -   Luke 11:28; James 1:22, 25
Jn 13:18a all  -   John 13:10, 11
Jn 13:18b chosen  -   John 6:70
Jn 13:18c Scripture  -   John 17:12
Jn 13:18d He  -   Psa. 41:9
Jn 13:181 eats
Lit., masticates.
Jn 13:19a telling  -   John 14:29
Jn 13:191b I  -   John 8:24, 28, 58
See note 241 in ch. 8.
Jn 13:20a He  -   Matt. 10:40
Jn 13:21a spirit  -   John 11:33
Jn 13:21b one  -   Matt. 26:21; Mark 14:18; Luke 22:21
Jn 13:23a whom  -   John 19:26
Jn 13:27a Satan  -   Luke 22:3
Jn 13:311a glorified  -   John 12:23; 17:1
See note 231 in ch. 12.
Jn 13:312b glorified  -   John 17:1
See note 281 in ch. 12.
Jn 13:321 If
Some ancient MSS omit the clause, If God has been glorified in Him.
Jn 13:322a glorified  -   John 12:28
See note 281 in ch. 12.
Jn 13:323b glorify  -   John 17:1
See note 231 in ch. 12.
Jn 13:33a I  -   John 7:33
Jn 13:33b you  -   John 7:34, 36; 8:21
Jn 13:33c Where  -   John 13:36
Jn 13:341a commandment  -   1 John 3:11, 23; John 15:12, 17
The Greek word for commandment here is the same word as in Matt. 5:19 and Rom. 7:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. However, in Matt. 5 and Rom. 7 it refers to the old commandments of the law in the Old Testament; here it refers to the new commandment given to us by the Lord in the New Testament. Also in 14:15, 21; 15:10, 12; 1 John 2:3, 4, 7, 8; 3:22, 23, 24; 4:21; 5:2, 3; 2 John 4, 5, 6, it refers to the new commandment given to us in the New Testament, either by the Lord Jesus or by God. This new commandment is different from the old commandments in the Old Testament.
Jn 13:34b love  -   1 Thes. 4:9; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 4:7
Jn 13:36a Simon  -   vv. 36-38: cf. Matt. 26:31-35; Mark 14:27-31; Luke 22:31-34
Jn 13:36b Where  -   John 13:33; 7:34
Jn 13:36c follow  -   John 21:19
Jn 13:371 life
Lit., soul, soul-life; so in the next verse.
Jn 13:38a rooster  -   John 18:27
John Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 14:1a Do  -   John 14:27
Jn 14:11 God
Here the Lord showed His disciples that He is the same as God. The disciples were troubled upon hearing of His leaving. By this word He made them realize that as God He is omnipresent and is not limited by time and space.
Jn 14:21a My  -   John 2:16, 21; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 2:5; cf. Eph. 2:21-22
According to the interpretation in 2:16, 21, My Father’s house refers to the temple, the body of Christ, as God’s dwelling place. At first the body of Christ was only His individual body. But through Christ’s death and resurrection, the body of Christ has increased to be His corporate Body, which is the church, including all His believers, who have been regenerated through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). In Christ’s resurrection the church is the Body of Christ, which is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6), God’s habitation (Eph. 2:21-22), God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17).
Jn 14:22 many
The many abodes are the many members of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5), which is God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17). This is adequately proven by v. 23, which says that the Lord and the Father will make an abode with the one who loves Him.
Jn 14:2b abodes  -   John 14:23
Jn 14:23c go  -   John 14:12, 28; 7:33; 13:3
This book has two main sections. The first section, chs. 1 — 13, points out how Christ, as the eternal Word, came through incarnation to bring God into man that He might be the life and life supply to man. The second section, chs. 14 — 21, unveils how Christ, as the man Jesus, went through death and resurrection to bring man into God for the building of God’s habitation, which is the building of the church (Matt. 16:18) and which is related to the building of the New Jerusalem (Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:2). In the entire universe God has only one building, that is, the building of His living habitation with His redeemed people.
Jn 14:31 if
If I go…I am coming proves that the Lord’s going (through His death and resurrection) was His coming (to His disciples — vv. 18, 28). He came in the flesh (1:14) and was among His disciples, but He could not enter into them while He was in the flesh. He had to take the further step of passing through death and resurrection in order to be transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit that He might come into the disciples and dwell in them, as revealed in vv. 17-20. After His resurrection He did come to breathe Himself as the Holy Spirit into the disciples (20:19-22).
Jn 14:32 prepare
The Lord’s intention in this chapter was to bring man into God for the building of His dwelling place. But between man and God there were many obstacles, such as sin, sins, death, the world, the flesh, the self, the old man, and Satan. For the Lord to bring man into God, He had to solve all these problems. Therefore, He had to go to the cross to accomplish redemption that He might open the way and make a standing for man, that man might enter into God. This standing in God, being enlarged, becomes the standing in the Body of Christ. Anyone who does not have a standing, a place, in God does not have a place in the Body of Christ, which is God’s dwelling place. Hence, the Lord’s going in order to accomplish redemption was to prepare a place in His Body for the disciples.
Jn 14:3a am  -   John 14:18, 28
Jn 14:33 receive
In receiving the disciples to Himself, the Lord put them into Himself, as indicated in v. 20 by the words you in Me.
Jn 14:34b where  -   John 14:10, 11, 20; 17:21, 24
The Lord is in the Father (vv. 10-11). He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father, as revealed in 17:21. Through His death and resurrection He brought His disciples into Himself. Since He is in the Father, they are in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where He is, the disciples are also.
Jn 14:61 way
The way for man to enter into God is the Lord Himself. Since the way is a living person, the place to which the Lord brings man must also be a person, God the Father Himself. The Lord Himself is the living way by which man is brought into God the Father, the living place. The way needs the reality, and the reality needs the life. The Lord Himself is the life to us. This life brings us the reality, and the reality becomes the way by which we enter into the enjoyment of God the Father.
Jn 14:62a reality  -   John 1:14, 17; 8:32; 14:17
Christ is the reality of the divine things. This reality came through Him and becomes the realization of God to us. See note 146 in ch. 1 and note 66 in 1 John 1.
Jn 14:6b life  -   John 1:4; 11:25; 1 John 5:12; Col. 3:4
Jn 14:71 If
This chapter unveils the way God dispenses Himself into man. In the dispensing of Himself into us, God is triune. He is one, yet He is three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father (vv. 7-11), and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son (vv. 17-20). In the Son (the Son is even called the Father — Isa. 9:6) the Father is expressed and seen, and as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) the Son is revealed and realized. The Father in the Son is expressed among the believers, and the Son as the Spirit is realized in the believers. God the Father is hidden, God the Son is manifested among men, and God the Spirit enters into man to be his life, his life supply, and his everything. Hence, this Triune God — the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit — dispenses Himself into us to be our portion that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His Divine Trinity.
Jn 14:7a known  -   John 8:19
Jn 14:7b know  -   1 John 2:13
Jn 14:9a seen  -   John 12:45
Jn 14:10a in  -   John 14:11, 20; 10:38; 17:21
Jn 14:10b Father  -   cf. John 10:30; Isa. 9:6
Jn 14:101c words  -   John 14:24
See note 633 in ch. 6.
Jn 14:10d from  -   John 16:13
Jn 14:11a in  -   John 14:10
Jn 14:11b works  -   John 5:36
Jn 14:12a greater  -   John 5:20
Jn 14:121b going  -   John 14:2, 28; 7:33
The Lord came from the Father to bring God into man through His incarnation. Here, He is going to the Father to bring man into God through His death and resurrection.
Jn 14:13a ask  -   John 14:14; 15:16; 16:23-24
Jn 14:131 in
To be in the Lord’s name, here and in v. 14, means to be one with the Lord, to live by the Lord, and to let the Lord live in us. The Lord came and did things in the Father’s name (5:43; 10:25), meaning that He was one with the Father (10:30), that He lived because of the Father (6:57), and that the Father worked in Him (v. 10). In the Gospels the Lord as the expression of the Father did things in the Father’s name. In the Acts the disciples as the expression of the Lord did even greater things (v. 12) in the Lord’s name.
Jn 14:132 Father
For the Father to be glorified in the Son means that His divine element is expressed from within the Son. Whatever the Son does expresses the Father’s divine element. This is the glorifying of the Father in the Son.
Jn 14:13b glorified  -   John 13:31; 17:1; 12:28
Jn 14:14a ask  -   John 14:13
Jn 14:15a love  -   John 14:21, 23; 16:27
Jn 14:15b commandments  -   John 14:21; 15:10
Jn 14:161a Comforter  -   John 14:26; 15:26; cf. 1 John 2:1
The Greek word here means advocate, one alongside who takes care of our cause, our affairs. The Greek word for Comforter is the same as that for Advocate in 1 John 2:1. Today we have both the Lord Jesus in the heavens and the Spirit (the Comforter) within us as our Advocate, who takes care of our case.
Jn 14:171a Spirit  -   John 7:39; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6; John 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17
The Spirit promised here was referred to in 7:39. This Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), and this promise of the Lord’s was fulfilled on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, when the Spirit as the breath of life was breathed into the disciples (20:22). The Lord’s promise here is different from the promise of the Father concerning the Spirit of power in Luke 24:49. That promise was fulfilled fifty days after the Lord’s resurrection, on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit as the mighty wind blew upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-4). In this verse the Spirit of life is called “the Spirit of reality.” This Spirit of reality is Christ (v. 6); hence, the Spirit of reality is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). This Spirit is also the reality of Christ (1 John 5:6, 20) that Christ may be realized in those who believe into Him, as their life and life supply.
Jn 14:172 He
The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in this verse becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in v. 18. This means that the Christ who was in the flesh went through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection, that verse says, “The last Adam [Christ in the flesh] became a life-giving Spirit.”
Jn 14:173b in  -   John 14:20; 1 John 2:27; Rom. 8:9, 11
This is the first time that the promise of the Spirit’s indwelling is revealed. It is fulfilled and fully developed in the Epistles. See 1 Cor. 6:19 and Rom. 8:9, 11.
Jn 14:181 I
See note 172.
Jn 14:182a coming  -   John 14:3, 28
This coming was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection (20:19-22). After His resurrection the Lord came back to His disciples to be with them forever, thus not leaving them as orphans.
Jn 14:19a a  -   John 7:33; 12:35; 16:16
Jn 14:191b live  -   Gal. 2:20
It should be after His resurrection that the Lord lives in His disciples and that they live by Him, as mentioned in Gal. 2:20.
Jn 14:19c live  -   Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21; John 6:57
Jn 14:201a day  -   John 16:23, 26; 20:19
This should refer to the day of the Lord’s resurrection (20:19).
Jn 14:20b in  -   John 14:10
Jn 14:20c in  -   John 15:4; 17:21; Rom. 8:1; 1 Cor. 1:30
Jn 14:20d in  -   John 14:17; 17:23; Rom. 8:9; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27
Jn 14:21a loves  -   John 14:15
Jn 14:21b manifest  -   John 21:1
Jn 14:23a loves  -   John 14:15
Jn 14:23b keep  -   1 John 2:5
Jn 14:231c abode  -   John 14:2; Rom. 8:9, 11; Eph. 3:17
This is one of the many abodes mentioned in v. 2. It will be a mutual abode, in which the Triune God abides in the believers and the believers abide in Him.
Jn 14:24a word  -   John 14:10
Jn 14:261a Comforter  -   John 14:16
The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was to be sent by the Father in the Son’s name. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and also by the Son. Thus, the Holy Spirit comes not only from the Father but also from the Son, and He is the reality not only of the Father but also of the Son. Hence, when we call on the name of the Son, we get the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).
Jn 14:262 Father
The Father being in the Son’s name is equivalent to the Father being the Son (see note 431 in ch. 5). Therefore, the Father’s sending of the Holy Spirit in the Son’s name is the Son’s sending of the Holy Spirit from the Father (15:26). The Son and the Father are one (10:30). Hence, the Spirit who is sent comes not only out of the Father (15:26) but also out of the Son. Moreover, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father and the Son (see note 261 in ch. 15). This proves that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one God, the Triune God, who reaches us and is working, that is, dispensing, Himself into us in His Divine Trinity to be our life and everything.
Jn 14:263 My
In 5:43 we are told that the Son came in the Father’s name, and here that the Father sent the Holy Spirit in the Son’s name. This proves not only that the Son and the Father are one (10:30) but also that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father in the Son’s name, is not only the reality that comes from the Father but also the reality that comes from the Son. This is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — who reaches man eventually as the Spirit.
Jn 14:26b teach  -   1 John 2:20, 27
Jn 14:26c all  -   John 16:13
Jn 14:27a Peace  -   John 16:33; Rom. 16:20; Phil. 4:7
Jn 14:27b troubled  -   John 14:1
Jn 14:28a going  -   John 14:2
Jn 14:281 coming
See note 182.
Jn 14:28b I  -   John 14:12
Jn 14:282 going
See note 121.
Jn 14:28c greater  -   John 10:29
Jn 14:29a before  -   John 13:19
Jn 14:30a ruler  -   John 12:31; 16:11; Eph. 2:2
Jn 14:31a commanded  -   John 10:18; 12:49
John Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 15:11 true
This true vine (the Son) with its branches (the believers in the Son) is the organism of the Triune God in God’s economy. This organism grows with His riches and expresses His divine life.
Jn 15:1a vine  -   Psa. 80:8; cf. Isa. 5:2; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 19:10; 15:2
Jn 15:12 husbandman
The Greek word means cultivator of the soil, land-worker, farmer (2 Tim. 2:6; James 5:7; Matt. 21:33). The Father as the husbandman is the source, the author, the planner, the planter, the life, the substance, the soil, the water, the air, the sunshine, and everything to the vine. The Son as the vine is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father. The Father, by cultivating the Son, works Himself with all His riches into the vine, and eventually the vine expresses the Father in a corporate way through its branches. This is the Father’s economy in the universe.
Jn 15:21 prunes
Lit., cleanses.
Jn 15:3a clean  -   John 17:17; Eph. 5:26
Jn 15:4a Abide  -   John 15:5, 6, 7, 9, 10; 6:56; 1 John 2:24, 28
Jn 15:4b in  -   John 14:17, 20; Rom. 8:9; Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 2:27
Jn 15:41 of
Lit., from.
Jn 15:5a much  -   John 15:16
Jn 15:5b nothing  -   John 5:19, 30; cf. Phil. 4:13
Jn 15:61a cast  -   John 15:2
For a branch to be cast out means that it is cut off from participation in the riches of the life of the vine.
Jn 15:6b fire  -   1 Cor. 3:15
Jn 15:6c burned  -   Heb. 6:8
Jn 15:71a words  -   Col. 3:16
See note 633 in ch. 6.
Jn 15:72 ask
When we abide in the Lord and let His words abide in us, we actually are one with Him, and He works within us. Then, when we ask in prayer for whatever we will, it is not only we who are praying; He too is praying, in our praying. This kind of prayer is related to fruit-bearing (v. 8) and will surely be answered. See note 165.
Jn 15:81a glorified  -   John 12:28; 13:31; 14:13; 17:1, 4
In fruit-bearing the Father’s divine life is expressed; hence, He is glorified.
Jn 15:8b disciples  -   John 8:31
Jn 15:9a loved  -   John 17:23, 26; 3:35
Jn 15:101 keep
When we abide in the Lord, He speaks His instant words within us. These words are His commandments to us. If we keep those commandments, it shows that we love Him; it is thus that we will abide in His love.
Jn 15:10a commandments  -   John 14:15, 21, 23
Jn 15:111 joy
Being branches of the divine vine and bearing fruit to express the divine life are matters of joy, and they also issue in a joyful life.
Jn 15:11a joy  -   John 16:24
Jn 15:12a commandment  -   John 15:17; 13:34
Jn 15:12b love  -   John 13:35; Rom. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 John 3:14
Jn 15:13a lay  -   John 10:11
Jn 15:131 life
The Greek word here means soul, soul-life.
Jn 15:14a friends  -   2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23
Jn 15:16a chose  -   John 6:70; 13:18; 15:19
Jn 15:161 set
We were wild branches, and through faith we have been grafted into Christ. Here the Lord said that He set us. This fits the thought of grafting.
Jn 15:162 go
The Greek word for go forth means to depart, implying to leave for another place; hence, it is rendered go forth. It is the same Greek word as that for go in 14:4 and 16:5. The fruit borne by going forth in this way does not denote the virtues of the fruit-bearer’s character, such as the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s living, mentioned in Gal. 5:22-23, but it denotes the believers produced by the fruit-bearer. This corresponds with the subject of this section, 12:20 — 17:26, which is Christ’s multiplication. The virtues we possess through our abiding in the Lord cannot be counted as Christ’s multiplication. Only the believers that we produce in the Lord are the tangible multiplication of Christ. The Father’s house in ch. 14, the true vine in this chapter, and the man-child in ch. 16 are all related to the multiplication of Christ.
Jn 15:16b bear  -   John 15:5
Jn 15:163 that
After we go forth to produce believers in the Lord, we need to care for them. The best way is to set up meetings in their homes to cover and protect them that they may be cared for by being nourished and taught, and may become the remaining fruit, living in the branches of the true vine, that is, in the Body of Christ, to be Christ’s increase.
Jn 15:164 remain
The same Greek word used for abide in this chapter.
Jn 15:165c ask  -   John 14:13, 14; 16:24, 26
To ask in the Lord’s name requires us to abide in the Lord and allow Him and His words to abide in us that we may actually be one with Him. Then when we ask, He asks in our asking. This kind of asking is related to fruit-bearing and will surely be answered by the Father. See note 72.
Jn 15:171a love  -   John 15:12
This is to love one another in the Lord’s life, the divine life, in the Lord’s love, and in His commission of fruit-bearing. Life is the source, love is the condition, and fruit-bearing is the goal. If we all live by the Lord’s life as the source, in the Lord’s love as the condition, and for fruit-bearing as the goal, we surely will love one another. Having different sources of life, different conditions, or different goals will separate us and prevent us from loving one another.
Jn 15:18a hates  -   John 17:14; 1 John 3:13
Jn 15:18b hated  -   John 15:23, 24, 25
Jn 15:191 of
Lit., out of.
Jn 15:19a not  -   John 17:14, 16
Jn 15:20a greater  -   John 13:16
Jn 15:20b persecuted  -   John 5:16; cf. Acts 9:4-5
Jn 15:20c persecute  -   Acts 26:10, 11; Gal. 1:13; 2 Tim. 3:12
Jn 15:21a name  -   Acts 5:41; 9:14
Jn 15:21b not  -   John 16:3
Jn 15:22a sin  -   John 15:24; 9:41
Jn 15:23a hates  -   John 15:18
Jn 15:24a works  -   John 5:36; 10:37
Jn 15:24b sin  -   John 15:22
Jn 15:25a They  -   Psa. 35:19; 69:4
Jn 15:26a Comforter  -   John 14:16, 26; 16:7
Jn 15:26b send  -   John 14:26
Jn 15:261c from  -   John 7:29; 17:8
The sense in Greek is from with (see note 145 in ch. 1). The Spirit of reality, who is sent by the Son from the Father, comes not only from the Father but also with the Father. The Father is the source. When this Spirit comes from the source, He does not leave the source but comes with the source. This Spirit, sent by the Son and coming with the Father, testifies concerning the Son. Therefore, His testimony concerning the Son is a matter of the Triune God.
Jn 15:26d Spirit  -   John 14:17; 16:13
Jn 15:26e testify  -   1 John 5:6
Jn 15:27a you  -   John 19:35; 21:24; Acts 1:8
John Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 16:1a stumbled  -   Matt. 11:6
Jn 16:2a put  -   John 9:22, 34
Jn 16:21b kills  -   Acts 26:10
In this Gospel religion is revealed as the enemy of life. In the Gospels, Judaism opposed and persecuted the Lord Jesus. In the Acts it continued by opposing and persecuting the apostles and the disciples (Acts 4:1-3; 5:17-18, 40; 6:11-14; 7:57-59; 26:9-12). In subsequent history the Catholic Church persecuted the Lord’s followers. All organized religions, of whatever kind, persecute those who seek the Lord in life. All these religions consider their persecuting of the Lord’s seekers a service offered to God.
Jn 16:3a because  -   John 8:19, 55; 15:21
Jn 16:4a when  -   John 14:29
Jn 16:5a going  -   John 16:10, 17, 28; 7:33; 14:12, 28
Jn 16:5b Where  -   John 13:36; 14:5
Jn 16:6a sorrow  -   John 16:20, 21, 22
Jn 16:6b heart  -   John 14:1, 27; 16:22
Jn 16:7a not  -   John 7:39
Jn 16:71b go  -   John 20:17
This “going” was ultimately fulfilled by His ascension in 20:17.
Jn 16:7c send  -   John 15:26
Jn 16:81 convict
To convict means to convince, to condemn, to cause people to rebuke themselves.
Jn 16:82 sin
Sin entered through Adam (Rom. 5:12), righteousness is the resurrected Christ (v. 10; 1 Cor. 1:30), and judgment is for Satan (v. 11), who is the author and source of sin (8:44). In Adam we were born of sin. The only way to be freed from sin is to believe into Christ, the Son of God (v. 9). If we believe into Him, He is righteousness to us, and we are justified in Him (Rom. 3:24; 4:25). If we do not repent of the sin that is in Adam and believe into Christ, the Son of God, we will remain in sin and share the judgment of Satan for eternity (Matt. 25:41). These are the main points of the gospel. The Spirit uses these points to convict the world.
Jn 16:9a sin  -   John 8:34
Jn 16:9b believe  -   John 8:24
Jn 16:10a righteousness  -   1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9
Jn 16:10b I  -   Rom. 4:25; 8:34
Jn 16:11a judged  -   John 12:31
Jn 16:13a Spirit  -   John 14:17; 15:26; 1 John 5:6
Jn 16:131 guide
The work of the Spirit is, first, to convict the world. Second, as the Spirit of reality He guides the believers into all the reality; that is, He makes all that the Son is and has real to the believers. All that the Father is and has is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9), and all that the Son is and has is declared as reality to the believers through the Spirit (vv. 14-15). This declaring is the glorifying of the Son with the Father. Hence, it is a matter of the Triune God being wrought into and mingled with the believers. Third, the Spirit declares the things that are to come, which are revealed mainly in Revelation (Rev. 1:1, 19). The three aspects of the Spirit’s work correspond with the three sections of John’s writings: his Gospel, his Epistles, and his Revelation.
Jn 16:13b reality  -   John 1:14, 17; 8:32; 14:6
Jn 16:13c from  -   John 14:10
Jn 16:13d the  -   Rev. 1:1, 19
Jn 16:14a glorify  -   John 17:5
Jn 16:15a All  -   John 17:10; Col. 2:9
Jn 16:16a A  -   John 7:33
Jn 16:16b see  -   John 20:20
Jn 16:20a weep  -   Mark 16:10
Jn 16:20b joy  -   Matt. 28:8; Luke 24:41
Jn 16:211 brings
The bringing forth here is the begetting in Acts 13:33. The incarnated Christ, including all His believers, was begotten in His resurrection to be the Son of God (1 Pet. 1:3). Thus, He has become the firstborn Son of God, and all His believers have become God’s many sons as His brothers to constitute His church (Rom. 8:29; John 20:17 and note 2; Heb. 2:10-12) as His multiplication (12:24), His increase (3:29-30), and His Body, which is His fullness, His expression (Eph. 1:23).
Jn 16:212 little
In this parable the Lord indicated that the disciples were then like a woman travailing in birth, and that He was the little child to be brought forth in His resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4).
Jn 16:21a child  -   Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:4; Heb. 1:5
Jn 16:221 see
After being born in resurrection, the Lord came to see the disciples in the evening of the day of His resurrection, and the disciples rejoiced at His presence (20:20).
Jn 16:22a again  -   John 14:3
Jn 16:22b rejoice  -   John 20:20
Jn 16:23a day  -   John 16:26; 14:20; 20:19
Jn 16:231 Whatever
Or, Whatever you ask the Father, He will give to you in My name.
Jn 16:241a asked  -   John 16:26; 14:13, 14; 15:16
See note 165 in ch. 15; so in v. 26.
Jn 16:24b joy  -   John 15:11
Jn 16:26a day  -   John 16:23
Jn 16:26b ask  -   John 16:24; 14:13, 14; 15:16
Jn 16:27a came  -   John 16:28, 30; 8:42; 13:3; 17:8
Jn 16:271b from  -   John 6:46; 7:29; 17:8; cf. John 15:26
See note 145 in ch. 1.
Jn 16:281 came
Some MSS read, came forth from the Father. The word from in these MSS is the same as that in v. 27.
Jn 16:28a out  -   John 8:42
Jn 16:28b going  -   John 16:5, 10, 17; 13:1, 3
Jn 16:30a came  -   John 16:27
Jn 16:301 from
The word from used by the disciples here does not have the sense of from with. It is different from the word used by the Lord in v. 27.
Jn 16:32a scattered  -   Matt. 26:31; Zech. 13:7
Jn 16:32b alone  -   John 8:29
Jn 16:321c with  -   John 8:16, 29
See note 161 in ch. 8.
Jn 16:33a peace  -   John 14:27
Jn 16:33b affliction  -   John 15:20
Jn 16:33c overcome  -   1 John 5:4-5
John Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 17:1a lifting  -   John 11:41
Jn 17:1b Father  -   Matt. 11:25, 26; John 11:41
Jn 17:11c glorify  -   John 17:5; 7:39; 12:16, 23; 13:31, 32; Acts 3:13; John 16:14; cf. John 11:4; 17:10
This is the subject of the Lord’s prayer in this chapter. He was God incarnated in the flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory had been concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the mountain of transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory, being seen by the three disciples (Matt. 17:1-4; John 1:14). But then it was concealed again in His flesh. Before this prayer He predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (12:23; 13:31-32). Now He was about to pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken and His divine element, His divine life, might be released. Also, He would resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed, with the result that His entire being, His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified (see note 231 in ch. 12). The Father would thus be glorified in Him (see note 281 in ch. 12). Hence, He prayed for this.
The Lord’s prayer here concerning the divine mystery is fulfilled in three stages. First, it was fulfilled in His resurrection, in that His divine element, His divine life, was released from within His humanity into His many believers (12:23-24), and His whole being, including His humanity, was brought into glory (Luke 24:26), and in that the Father’s divine element was expressed in His resurrection and glorification. In His resurrection God answered and fulfilled His prayer (Acts 3:13-15). Second, it has been fulfilled in the church, in that as His resurrection life has been expressed through His many members, He has been glorified in them, and the Father has been glorified in Him through the church (Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16). Third, it will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, in that He will be fully expressed in glory, and God will be glorified in Him through the holy city for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23-24).
In praying in this way, the Lord unveiled His person, His deity; He is the same as the Father in the divine glory.
Jn 17:1d glorify  -   John 12:28; 13:31, 32; 17:5; cf. John 17:4; 14:13; 15:8; 21:19
Jn 17:21 You
This indicates the Lord’s work. The Lord has the Father’s authority over all mankind that He may give eternal life, not to all mankind but only to those whom the Father has given Him — the Father’s chosen ones.
Jn 17:2a authority  -   Matt. 28:18; cf. John 5:27
Jn 17:22 eternal
See note 151 in ch. 3.
Jn 17:2b life  -   John 10:28
Jn 17:2c given  -   John 17:6, 9, 24; 6:37, 65
Jn 17:31 eternal
Eternal life is the divine life with a special function, that is, to know God and Christ (cf. Matt. 11:27). God and Christ are divine. To know the divine person, we need the divine life. Since the believers are born of the divine life, they know God and Christ (Heb. 8:11; Phil. 3:10).
Jn 17:3a know  -   Heb. 8:11; Matt. 11:27
Jn 17:3b true  -   1 John 5:20
Jn 17:32c sent  -   John 17:8
See note 61 in ch. 1; so in vv. 8, 18, 21, 23, 25.
Jn 17:3d Christ  -   Phil. 3:10
Jn 17:41 glorified
This means that while He was living on earth, the Lord manifested and expressed the Father.
Jn 17:4a work  -   John 4:34; 5:17
Jn 17:51a glorify  -   John 17:1
This word strengthens the indication in v. 1, concerning the deity of the Lord’s person. He had the divine glory along with the Father before the world was, in eternity past; hence, He should be glorified now with that glory along with the Father. The Lord participates in the divine glory not by Himself but along with the Father, for He and the Father are one (10:30).
Jn 17:5b glory  -   John 17:22, 24
Jn 17:5c with  -   John 1:2
Jn 17:5d before  -   John 17:24
Jn 17:61 Your
Your name, here and in v. 26, means the very name Father. The name God and the name Jehovah were adequately revealed to man in the Old Testament, but the name Father was not, though it was mentioned briefly in Isa. 9:6; 63:16; 64:8. The Son came and worked in the Father’s name (5:43; 10:25) to manifest the Father to the men whom the Father gave Him and to make the Father’s name known to them (v. 26). That name reveals the Father as the source of life (5:26) for the propagation and multiplication of life. Many sons would be born of the Father (1:12-13) to express the Father. Hence, the Father’s name is very much related to the divine life.
Jn 17:6a name  -   John 17:11, 12, 26
Jn 17:6b gave  -   John 17:2
Jn 17:6c Yours  -   John 17:9
Jn 17:62 word
The Father’s words are of two kinds: the constant word (v. 6) and the instant words (v. 8). Both are used by the Lord to impart eternal life to the believers who receive both kinds of words.
Jn 17:8a words  -   John 6:63, 68
Jn 17:8b given  -   John 17:14
Jn 17:8c came  -   John 8:42; 16:27, 30
Jn 17:81 from
See note 145 in ch. 1.
Jn 17:8d sent  -   John 17:18, 21, 23, 25
Jn 17:9a ask  -   Luke 22:32
Jn 17:9b given  -   John 17:2
Jn 17:9c Yours  -   John 17:6
Jn 17:10a Yours  -   John 16:15
Jn 17:101 glorified
Since the disciples expressed the Lord, He was glorified in them.
Jn 17:102 in
I.e., because of them.
Jn 17:11a in  -   John 13:1
Jn 17:11b coming  -   John 17:13
Jn 17:111 Holy
The Son’s believers are still in the world. They need to be kept that they may be one even as the Divine Trinity is one, that is, that they may be one in the Divine Trinity. The Son prayed that the holy Father would so keep them.
Jn 17:11c keep  -   John 17:12, 15
Jn 17:112 in
To be kept in the Father’s name is to be kept by His life, because only those who are born of the Father and have the Father’s life can participate in the Father’s name. The Son has given the Father’s life to those whom the Father has given Him (v. 2); hence, they share the Father’s name by being kept in it, and they are one in it. The first aspect of this oneness, that is, the first aspect of the building up of the believers, is the oneness in the Father’s name and by His divine life. In this aspect of oneness the believers, born of the Father’s life, enjoy the Father’s name, that is, the Father Himself, as the factor of their oneness.
Jn 17:11d name  -   John 17:6
Jn 17:11e one  -   John 17:21, 22, 23
Jn 17:12a kept  -   John 17:11
Jn 17:12b name  -   John 17:6
Jn 17:12c not  -   John 18:9; 6:39
Jn 17:121d perished  -   John 3:16; 10:28
Perished (a verb) and perdition (a noun) are from the same Greek root.
Jn 17:12e son  -   John 6:70, 71; cf. 2 Thes. 2:3
Jn 17:12f Scripture  -   Psa. 41:9
Jn 17:13a coming  -   John 17:11
Jn 17:13b joy  -   John 15:11
Jn 17:14a given  -   John 17:8
Jn 17:141 word
The Lord has given the believers two kinds of words: the constant word (vv. 14, 17) and the instant words (v. 8).
Jn 17:142 world
The world is the system of Satan (12:31). The believers are not of the world (vv. 14, 16) but are separated from the world (v. 19), and are not taken out of the world (v. 15) but are sent into the world (v. 18) for the Lord’s commission. (So in vv. 15, 16.)
Jn 17:14b hated  -   John 15:18; 1 John 3:13
Jn 17:14c not  -   John 17:16
Jn 17:143 of
Lit., out of; so in v. 16.
Jn 17:14d I  -   John 8:23
Jn 17:15a keep  -   John 17:11
Jn 17:151 out
Or, out of the evil.
Jn 17:152b evil  -   Matt. 6:13; 13:38; 1 John 2:13-14; 3:12; 5:18-19
The whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19). Hence, the believers need to be kept out of the hands of the evil one, and they need always to be watchful in prayer that they may be delivered from the evil one (Matt. 6:13).
Jn 17:16a not  -   John 17:14
Jn 17:171a Sanctify  -   John 17:19; 1 Thes. 5:23; Eph. 5:26; Heb. 2:11
To be sanctified (Eph. 5:26; 1 Thes. 5:23) is to be separated from the world and its usurpation unto God and His purpose, not only positionally (Matt. 23:17, 19) but also dispositionally (Rom. 6:19, 22). God’s living word works in the believers to separate them from anything worldly. This is to be sanctified in God’s word, which is the truth, the reality.
Jn 17:172 in
Or, in the reality. Reality is the Triune God (1:14, 17; 14:6; 1 John 5:6). Since the Triune God is contained and concealed in His word, His word is reality (see notes 146 in ch. 1 and 66 in 1 John 1). We are sanctified in the reality of this word.
Jn 17:173 word
The Father’s word carries the reality of the Father with it. When God’s word says, “God is light,” it carries God as light in it. Hence, God’s word is reality, the truth, unlike Satan’s word, which is vanity, a lie (8:44).
Jn 17:181a sent  -   John 17:3, 8
The Father sent the Son into the world with Himself as life and everything to the Son. In the same way, the Son sends His believers into the world with Himself as life and everything to the believers. See note 212 in ch. 20.
Jn 17:18b sent  -   John 20:21
See note 181.
Jn 17:191 sanctify
The Son is absolutely holy in Himself. Yet, to set an example of sanctification for His disciples, He still sanctified Himself in His way of living while He was on earth.
Jn 17:19a sanctified  -   John 17:17
Jn 17:20a ask  -   John 17:9
Jn 17:211a one  -   John 17:11
This is the second aspect of the believers’ oneness, the oneness in the Triune God through sanctification, separation from the world by the word of God. In this aspect of oneness the believers, separated from the world unto God, enjoy the Triune God as the factor of their oneness.
Jn 17:21b in  -   John 10:38; 14:10, 11
Jn 17:21c in  -   John 14:20
Jn 17:21d in  -   John 14:20; 1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 8:1; John 14:3
Jn 17:21e world  -   John 17:23
Jn 17:21f sent  -   John 17:8
Jn 17:221a glory  -   John 17:5, 24; 1:14
The glory that the Father gave to the Son is the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (5:26). The sonship was given so that the Son could express the Father in His fullness (1:18; 14:9; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3). The Son has given this glory to His believers that they too may have the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature (v. 2; 2 Pet. 1:4) to express the Father in the Son in the Son’s fullness (1:16).
Jn 17:222b one  -   John 17:11
This is the third aspect of the believers’ oneness, the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God. In this aspect of oneness the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way. This is the oneness of the divine commission; it fulfills the Son’s prayer that He be fully expressed, that is, glorified, in the building up of the believers, and that the Father be fully expressed, glorified, in the Son’s glorification. Hence, the ultimate oneness of the believers is (1) in the eternal life of God (in the Father’s name), (2) by the holy word of God, and (3) in the divine glory to express the Triune God for eternity. That the Son might accomplish this oneness, the Father gave Him six things: the authority (v. 2), the believers (vv. 2, 6, 9, 24), the work (v. 4), the words (v. 8), the Father’s name (vv. 11-12), and the Father’s glory (v. 24). That the believers may participate in this oneness, the Son gave them three things: the eternal life (v. 2), the holy word of God (vv. 8, 14), and the divine glory (v. 22). (So also for one in v. 23.)
Jn 17:22c one  -   John 10:30
Jn 17:23a in  -   John 14:20; Rom. 8:9
Jn 17:23b in  -   John 17:21
Jn 17:23c one  -   John 17:11
Jn 17:23d sent  -   John 17:8
Jn 17:231 loved
The Father loved the Son by giving the Son His life, His nature, His fullness, and His glory that the Son might express Him. In the same way, the Father loved the Son’s believers by giving them His life, His nature, His fullness, and His glory that they might express Him in the Son. This is a story of love as well as glory.
Jn 17:23e loved  -   John 17:24, 26
Jn 17:24a given  -   John 17:2
Jn 17:241 be
The Son is in the divine glory of the Father’s expression. Therefore, for the Son’s believers to be with Him where He is means that they are with Him in the divine glory to express the Father. The fulfillment of this matter began with the Son’s resurrection, when He brought His believers into participation in His resurrection life, and will consummate in the New Jerusalem, when His believers will be brought fully into the divine glory for the ultimate corporate expression of the Triune God in eternity.
Jn 17:24b where  -   John 14:3
Jn 17:24c glory  -   John 17:5, 22
Jn 17:24d loved  -   John 17:23, 26
Jn 17:24e before  -   John 17:5
Jn 17:251 Righteous
The world neither knows nor wants the Father, but the Son and the Son’s believers do. Hence, the Father loves the Son and His believers so that He gives His glory to both the Son and His believers. In this matter He is righteous and just. In sanctifying the Son’s believers, the Father is holy (v. 11). In loving the Son and His believers so that He gives the Son and the believers His glory, the Father is righteous.
Jn 17:25a known  -   John 8:55; Matt. 11:27
Jn 17:25b sent  -   John 17:8
Jn 17:26a name  -   John 17:6
Jn 17:261b love  -   John 17:23, 24
The love here is the love of the Father. In this love the Father gave His life and glory to the Son and His believers so that the Son and His believers can express Him. The Son prayed that this love would be in His believers and that they would always have the sense of this love.
Jn 17:26c in  -   John 14:20; Rom. 8:9
John Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 18:1a He  -   vv. 1-11: Matt. 26:36-56; Mark 14:32-52; Luke 22:39-53
Jn 18:11 went
The Lord delivered Himself of His own accord to the process of death, as He had indicated in 10:17-18. He did it voluntarily and boldly.
Jn 18:1b Kedron  -   2 Sam. 15:23
Jn 18:2a betraying  -   John 6:71; 12:4; 13:2, 21
Jn 18:4a knowing  -   John 13:1
Jn 18:41 went
See note 11.
Jn 18:5a Nazarene  -   Matt. 2:23; cf. John 1:46
Jn 18:51b I  -   John 18:6, 8; 8:24, 28, 58
I Am is the name of Jehovah (so in vv. 6, 8). See note 241 in ch. 8. When the soldiers heard this name, they drew back and fell to the ground.
Jn 18:8a I  -   John 18:5
Jn 18:81 these
While suffering betrayal at the hands of His false disciple and arrest by the soldiers, the Lord still took good care of His disciples. This reveals that He was at ease in passing through the process of death.
Jn 18:9a Of  -   John 17:12
Jn 18:10a sword  -   Luke 22:38
Jn 18:10b cut  -   John 18:26
Jn 18:111 cup
This word, too, shows that the Lord was willing to pass through the process of death.
Jn 18:12a seized  -   vv. 12-27: Matt. 26:57-75; Mark 14:53-72; Luke 22:54-71
Jn 18:131 led
The Lord was the Lamb of God (1:29), and He was killed on the day of the Passover (v. 28). As the passover lamb was examined before it was killed (Exo. 12:3-6), so He was examined by the whole of mankind, represented by the high priest of the Jews and the governor of the Romans, and proved to be without blemish (v. 38b; 19:4, 6). See note 371 in Mark 12.
Jn 18:14a Caiaphas  -   John 11:49-51
Jn 18:17a I  -   John 18:25, 27
Jn 18:211 Why
While judging the Lord, both the high priest of the Jewish religion and the governor of the Roman Empire were judged by Him in His dignity.
Jn 18:22a slapped  -   John 19:3; Matt. 26:67; cf. Matt. 5:39
Jn 18:28a Then  -   vv. 28-40: Matt. 27:1-26a; Mark 15:1-15a; Luke 23:1-25a
Jn 18:281 praetorium
The governor’s official residence.
Jn 18:282 early
A reference to the fourth watch, 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Jn 18:31a law  -   John 19:7; Lev. 24:16
Jn 18:32a word  -   John 12:32-33
Jn 18:321 kind
The Jews’ way to put criminals to death was to stone them (Lev. 24:16). But the Lord Jesus predicted, according to the type in the Old Testament (Num. 21:8-9), that He would be lifted up (3:14; 8:28; 12:32). It was of God’s sovereignty that not long before that time the Roman Empire had made it a law that criminals sentenced to death should be crucified. It was in this way that the Lord was executed. This proves that the Lord’s death was not accidental but was predetermined by God (Acts 2:23).
Jn 18:33a King  -   John 1:49; 12:13, 15; Matt. 2:2
Jn 18:341 Are
See note 211.
Jn 18:36a kingdom  -   2 Sam. 7:12-13; Dan. 2:44; 7:14; Luke 19:12, 15; Heb. 1:8; Rev. 1:9; Eph. 5:5; Rev. 20:4, 6
Jn 18:361 of
Lit., out of; so in v. 37.
Jn 18:362 here
The world.
Jn 18:37a born  -   Matt. 2:2
Jn 18:371b truth  -   John 1:14, 17; 8:32; 14:6; 17:17
In view of the entire revelation of this book, truth here denotes the divine reality embodied, revealed, and expressed in Christ as the Son of God. See notes 146 in ch. 1 and 66 in 1 John 1.
Jn 18:38a no  -   John 19:4, 6; Luke 23:4, 14, 22
John Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 19:1a Therefore  -   vv. 1-16: Matt. 27:26b-31; Mark 15:15b- 20; Luke 23:25b
Jn 19:31 Rejoice
See note 292 in Matt. 27.
Jn 19:3a slapped  -   John 18:22; Matt. 26:67; cf. Matt. 5:39
Jn 19:4a no  -   John 19:6; 18:38; Luke 23:4, 14, 22
Jn 19:6a not  -   John 19:4
Jn 19:7a law  -   Lev. 24:16; John 18:31
Jn 19:7b made  -   John 5:18; 10:33
Jn 19:91 praetorium
The governor’s official residence.
Jn 19:11a given  -   Rom. 13:1
Jn 19:131 Gabbatha
An Aramaic term from Hebrew, meaning a raised place. This must have been an elevated place, like a raised platform, paved with beautiful stones, as indicated by the Greek word for Pavement, mentioned earlier in the verse.
Jn 19:141 preparation
See note 621 in Matt. 27.
Jn 19:142 sixth
I.e., 6:00 a.m.
Jn 19:161 He
This unjust, joint sentence exposed the blindness of religion and the darkness of politics.
Jn 19:16a took  -   Isa. 53:7b
Jn 19:17a bearing  -   vv. 17-37: Matt. 27:32-56; Mark 15:21-41; Luke 23:32-49
Jn 19:18a two  -   Isa. 53:12, 9
Jn 19:19a NAZARENE  -   Matt. 2:23
Jn 19:19b KING  -   Matt. 2:2
Jn 19:201 Hebrew
Hebrew here represents the Hebrew religion, Latin represents Roman politics, and Greek represents Greek culture. These three together represent the entire world, all of mankind. This signifies that the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God was killed by and for all mankind.
Jn 19:221 What
What Pilate wrote was not of himself but of God’s sovereignty.
Jn 19:231a took  -   cf. Matt. 5:40
In His crucifixion, the Lord’s right to be clothed (vv. 23-24) and to drink (vv. 28-30) was stripped from Him, along with His life.
Jn 19:232 tunic
A shirt-like undergarment.
Jn 19:24a They  -   Psa. 22:18
Jn 19:241 did
This was not of the soldiers but of God’s sovereignty.
Jn 19:251 sister
Salome (Mark 15:40), the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John (Matt. 27:56).
Jn 19:25a Mary  -   Matt. 27:61; Luke 8:2; John 20:1
Jn 19:26a Woman  -   John 2:4
Jn 19:261 behold
In Luke 23:43 the Lord said to one of the two thieves crucified with Him, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” That word was in regard to salvation, since Luke’s Gospel proves that the Lord is the sinner’s Savior. Here, in vv. 26-27, the Lord said to His mother, “Behold, your son,” and to the disciple whom He loved, “Behold, your mother.” These words indicate a life union, since this Gospel testifies that the Lord is life imparted into His believers. It is by this life that His beloved disciple could be one with Him and become the son of His mother, and that she could become the mother of His beloved disciple.
Jn 19:271 Behold
See note 261.
Jn 19:28a I  -   Psa. 69:21
Jn 19:281b thirst  -   cf. Luke 16:24; Rev. 21:8; 7:16
Thirst is a taste of death (Luke 16:24; Rev. 21:8). The Lord Jesus suffered this for us on the cross (Heb. 2:9).
Jn 19:301 vinegar
In Matt. 27:34 and Mark 15:23, wine mingled with gall and myrrh was offered to the Lord as a stupefying drink before His crucifixion, but He would not drink it. In this verse vinegar was offered to Him in a mocking way at the end of His crucifixion (Luke 23:36).
Jn 19:302 finished
In His crucifixion the Lord was still working, and through His crucifixion He finished the work of His all-inclusive death, by which He accomplished redemption, terminated the old creation, and released His resurrection life to bring forth the new creation to fulfill God’s purpose. In the process of death He proved to His opposers and His believers, by the way He behaved, that He was life. The dreadful environment of death did not frighten Him in the least; rather, it provided a contrast that proved strongly that He, as life, was versus death and could not be affected by death in any way. Therefore, the work that the Lord finished here included the accomplishing of redemption, the termination of the old creation, the release of His resurrection life, and the displaying of Himself as the life that cannot be affected by death.
Jn 19:31a remain  -   Deut. 21:23
Jn 19:341a blood  -   Exo. 12:7; Heb. 9:14, 22; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5; 12:11; Zech. 13:1; 1 John 5:6
Two substances came out of the Lord’s pierced side: blood and water. Blood is for redemption, to deal with sins (1:29; Heb. 9:22) for the purchasing of the church (Acts 20:28). Water is for imparting life, to deal with death (12:24; 3:14-15) for the producing of the church (Eph. 5:29-30). The Lord’s death, on the negative side, takes away our sins, and on the positive side, imparts life into us. Hence, it has two aspects: the redemptive aspect and the life-imparting aspect. The redemptive aspect is for the life-imparting aspect. The record of the other three Gospels portrays only the redemptive aspect of the Lord’s death; John’s record portrays not only the redemptive aspect but also the life-imparting aspect. In Matt. 27:45, 51, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44-45, darkness, a symbol of sin, appeared, and the veil of the temple, which separated man from God, was rent. These signs are related to the redemptive aspect of the Lord’s death. The words spoken by the Lord on the cross in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them,” and in Matt. 27:46, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (because He bore our sin at that time), also depict the redemptive aspect of His death. But the flowing water and the unbroken bone mentioned by John in vv. 34 and 36 are signs that relate to the life-imparting aspect of the Lord’s death (see note 261). This death that imparts life released the Lord’s divine life from within Him for the producing of the church, which is composed of all His believers, into whom His divine life has been imparted. This life-imparting death of the Lord’s is typified by Adam’s sleep, out from which Eve was produced (Gen. 2:21-23), and is signified by the death of the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground for the bringing forth of many grains (12:24) to make the one bread — the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17). Hence, it is also the life-propagating, life-multiplying death, the generating and reproducing death.
The Lord’s pierced side was prefigured by Adam’s opened side, out from which Eve was produced (Gen. 2:21-23). The blood was typified by the blood of the passover lamb (Exo. 12:7, 22; Rev. 12:11), and the water was typified by the water that flowed out of the smitten rock (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4). The blood formed a fountain for the washing away of sin (Zech. 13:1), and the water became the fountain of life (Psa. 36:9; Rev. 21:6).
Jn 19:34b water  -   Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 4:10, 14; Rev. 22:1; 21:6; Psa. 36:9; Jer. 2:13
See note 341.
Jn 19:361 these
It was absolutely of God’s sovereignty that these things happened in such a meaningful and wonderful way. This is further proof that the Lord’s death was not accidental but had been planned by God before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:19-20).
Jn 19:36a No  -   Exo. 12:46; Num. 9:12; Psa. 34:20
Jn 19:362 bone
In the Scripture the first mention of a bone is in Gen. 2:21-23; there it was a rib taken out of Adam for the producing and building of Eve as a match for Adam. Eve was a type of the church, which is produced and built with the Lord’s resurrection life released out of Him. Hence, the bone is a symbol, a figure, of the Lord’s resurrection life, which nothing can break. The Lord’s side was pierced, but not one of His bones was broken. This signifies that although the Lord’s physical life was terminated, His resurrection life, the very divine life, could not be hurt or damaged by anything. This is the life with which the church is produced and built; it is also the eternal life, which we have obtained by believing into Him (3:36).
Jn 19:37a They  -   Zech. 12:10; Rev. 1:7
Jn 19:37b pierced  -   Zech. 13:6
Jn 19:381a after  -   vv. 38-42: Matt. 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56
After the Lord accomplished His redemptive and life-imparting death, His situation of suffering immediately changed into a situation of honor. Joseph, a rich man (Matt. 27:57), and Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews (3:1), came to take care of His burial, binding His body with myrrh and aloes and burying it in a new tomb with the rich (Isa. 53:9). In human honor of a high standard, the Lord rested on the Sabbath day (Luke 23:55-56), waiting for the time to rise from the dead.
Jn 19:39a Nicodemus  -   John 3:1-2
Jn 19:39b myrrh  -   Exo. 30:23; S.S. 1:13; Psa. 45:8; S.S. 4:14
Jn 19:39c aloes  -   Num. 24:6
Jn 19:391 pounds
See note 31 in ch. 12.
Jn 19:41a tomb  -   Isa. 53:9
John Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 20:1a Now  -   vv. 1-18: Matt. 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-11; Luke 24:1-12
Jn 20:11b first  -   Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10
The first day of the week, or the day after the Sabbath, signifies a new beginning, a new age. In Lev. 23:10-11, 15, a sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest was offered to the Lord as a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath. That sheaf of the firstfruits was a type of Christ as the firstfruits in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). Christ resurrected on precisely the day after the Sabbath. By His all-inclusive death He terminated the old creation, which had been completed in six days, after which was the Sabbath day. In His resurrection He germinated the new creation with the divine life. Hence, the day of His resurrection was the beginning of a new week — a new age. This day of His resurrection was appointed by God (Psa. 118:24), was prophesied as “today” in Psa. 2:7, was predicted by Himself as the third day (Matt. 16:21; John 2:19, 22), and later was called by the early Christians “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). On this day Christ was born in resurrection as the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5) and the Firstborn from the dead to be the Head of the Body, the church (Col. 1:18).
Jn 20:1c day  -   Lev. 23:11, 15; Psa. 118:24; 2:7; Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Matt. 16:21; John 2:19, 22; 1 Cor. 15:4
Jn 20:12 came
The Lord’s resurrection had been accomplished, but the discovery of it required the disciples’ seeking in love toward the Lord. It was thus that Mary the Magdalene discovered it and obtained the fresh manifestation of the Lord and the revelation of the issue of His resurrection: that His Father is the Father of those who believe into Him, and that those who believe into Him are His brothers (v. 17; see notes 172 and 173). Peter and John only knew of the discovery; Mary obtained the experience. The brothers were satisfied with having faith in the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, but the sister went further and sought the resurrected Lord Himself, i.e., the personal experience of the Lord. The Lord was there all the time, but He was not manifested until v. 16.
Jn 20:51 linen
All the things that were cast off from the Lord’s resurrected body and left in His tomb signify the old creation, which He wore into the tomb. He was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. But He rose from within it, leaving it in the tomb and becoming the firstfruits of the new creation. All the things left in the tomb were a testimony to the Lord’s resurrection. If these things had not been left there in good order, it would have been difficult for Peter and John to believe (v. 8) that the Lord had not been taken away by someone but had risen by Himself. These things had been offered to the Lord and wrapped around Him by His two disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus (19:38-42). What they had done toward the Lord in their love to Him became very useful in the Lord’s testimony. (So for linen cloths in v. 6.)
Jn 20:71 handkerchief
See note 51.
Jn 20:9a Scripture  -   Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:25-31; Psa. 2:7; Acts 13:33-37
Jn 20:91b rise  -   1 Cor. 15:4, 20, 23; Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33
The Lord is not only life but also resurrection (11:25). Hence, death cannot hold Him (Acts 2:24). He went into death of His own accord to accomplish His work. When He finished His mission, He came out of death and rose up from it.
Jn 20:111 weeping
Lit., wailing; so in vv. 13, 15.
Jn 20:171 ascended
On the day of His resurrection the Lord ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension, the ultimate fulfillment of the going predicted in 16:7. It occurred forty days prior to His public ascension, which took place before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning He ascended to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples (v. 19). The freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father’s enjoyment, as in the type the firstfruits of the harvest were brought first to God.
Jn 20:172a brothers  -   Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-12
Previously, the most intimate term the Lord had used in reference to His disciples was “friends” (15:14-15). But after His resurrection He began to call them “brothers,” for through His resurrection His disciples were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3) with the divine life, which had been released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in 12:24. He was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up to bring forth many grains for the producing of the one bread, which is His Body (1 Cor. 10:17). He was the Father’s only Son, the Father’s individual expression. Through His death and resurrection the Father’s only Begotten became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). His many brothers are the many sons of God and are the church (Heb. 2:10-12), a corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. This is God’s ultimate intention. The many brothers are the propagation of the Father’s life and the multiplication of the Son in the divine life. Hence, in the Lord’s resurrection God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled.
Jn 20:17b ascend  -   John 16:7
Jn 20:173 Father
Through His life-imparting death and resurrection, the Lord made His disciples one with Him. Therefore, His Father is the Father of His disciples, and His God is the God of His disciples. In His resurrection they have the Father’s life and God’s divine nature, just as He has. In making them His brothers, He has imparted the Father’s life and God’s divine nature into them. By making His Father and His God theirs, He has brought them into His position — the position of the Son — before the Father and God. Thus, in life and nature inwardly and in position outwardly they are the same as the Lord, with whom they have been united.
Jn 20:19a When  -   vv. 19-23: Luke 24:36-49
Jn 20:191 disciples
The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the first meeting of the church before Pentecost. This meeting took place to fulfill Psa. 22:22, according to Heb. 2:10-12, so that the Son could declare the Father’s name to His brothers and praise the Father in the church, which is composed of His brothers.
Jn 20:192 came
Though the doors were shut, the Lord came with His resurrected body (Luke 24:37-40; 1 Cor. 15:44) into the room where the disciples were. How could He have entered, having bones and flesh? Our limited mind cannot comprehend it, but it is a fact! We must receive it according to the divine revelation. This was a fulfillment of His promise in 16:16, 19, 22.
Jn 20:19b Peace  -   John 20:21, 26; 14:27; 16:33
Jn 20:201a rejoiced  -   John 16:22
This was a fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in 16:22. Now they rejoiced because they saw the newborn child (16:21), who was the resurrected Lord, born in His resurrection as the Son of God (Acts 13:33). The Lord fulfilled His promise and came back to His disciples, bringing them five blessings: (1) His presence, (2) His peace, (3) His sending, His commission (v. 21), (4) the Holy Spirit (v. 22), and (5) His authority, with which they could represent Him (v. 23).
Jn 20:20b seeing  -   John 14:19; 16:16, 19
Jn 20:21a Peace  -   John 20:19
Jn 20:211 sent
See note 61 in ch. 1.
Jn 20:212b send  -   John 17:18
The Lord sent His disciples with Himself as life and everything to them. (See note 181 in ch. 17.) This is why, immediately after He said, “I also send you,” He breathed the Holy Spirit into them. By His breathing into them He entered as the Spirit into the disciples to abide in them forever (14:16-17). Hence, wherever His disciples were sent, He was always with them. He was one with them.
Jn 20:22a breathed  -   cf. Gen. 2:7; Ezek. 37:5, 9
Jn 20:22b Receive  -   John 7:39
Jn 20:221c Spirit  -   John 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13
This was the Spirit expected in 7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13. Hence, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs from the one in Acts 2:1-4, which was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise in Luke 24:49. (See note 171 in ch. 14.) In Acts 2 the Spirit as a rushing, violent wind came as power upon the disciples for their work (Acts 1:8). Here the Spirit as breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord imparted Himself into them as life and everything. Thus, all that He had spoken in chs. 14 — 16 could be fulfilled.
As falling into the ground to die and growing out of the ground transform the grain of wheat into another form, one that is new and living, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As the last Adam in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He is received into His believers and flows out of them as rivers of living water (7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that He can live in the disciples and enable them to live by and with Him (14:19). It is as the Spirit that He can abide in the disciples and enable them to abide in Him (14:20; 15:4-5). It is as the Spirit that He can come with the Father to His lover and make an abode with him (14:23). It is as the Spirit that He can cause all that He is and has to be fully realized by the disciples (16:13-16). It is as the Spirit that He came to meet with His brothers as the church to declare the Father’s name to them and to praise the Father in their midst (Heb. 2:11-12). It is as the Spirit that He can send His disciples for His commission, with Himself as life and everything to them, in the same way that the Father sent Him (v. 21). They are thus qualified to represent Him with His authority in the fellowship of His Body (v. 23) for the carrying out of His commission.
The Lord was the Word, and the Word is the eternal God (1:1). For the accomplishing of God’s eternal purpose, He took two steps. First, He took the step of incarnation to become a man in the flesh (1:14), to be the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption for man (1:29), to declare God to man (1:18), and to manifest the Father to His believers (14:9-11). Second, He took the step of death and resurrection to be transfigured into the Spirit that He might impart Himself into His believers as their life and their everything, and that He might bring forth many sons of God, His many brothers, for the building of His Body, the church, the habitation of God, to express the Triune God for eternity. Hence, originally He was the eternal Word; then, through His incarnation He became flesh to accomplish God’s redemption, and through His death and resurrection He became the Spirit to be everything and do everything for the completion of God’s building.
This Gospel testifies that the Lord is (1) God (1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11; 20:28), (2) the life (1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6), and (3) the resurrection (11:25). Chapters 1 — 17 prove that He is God among men. Men are in contrast to Him as God. Chapters 18 — 19 prove that He is life in the environment of death. Death, or the environment of death, is in contrast to Him as life. Chapters 20 — 21 prove that He is the resurrection in the midst of the old creation, the natural life. The old creation, the natural life, is in contrast to Him as the resurrection, of which the Spirit is the reality. As the resurrection, He can be realized only in the Spirit. Hence, eventually He is the Spirit in resurrection. He is God among men (chs. 1 — 17), He is life in death (chs. 18 — 19), and He is the Spirit in resurrection (chs. 20 — 21).
Jn 20:23a Whose  -   cf. Matt. 18:18
Jn 20:241 Didymus
I.e., Twin.
Jn 20:242 was
After His resurrection the Lord came to meet with His disciples, beginning from the evening of this first day. Thus, in the Lord’s resurrection the matter of meeting with the saints is crucial. Mary the Magdalene met the Lord personally in the morning and obtained the blessing (vv. 16-18), but she still needed to be in the meeting with the saints in the evening to meet the Lord in a corporate way to obtain more and greater blessings (vv. 19-23). Thomas missed the first meeting that the Lord held with His disciples after His resurrection, and he missed all the blessings as well. However, he compensated for it by attending the second meeting (vv. 25-28).
Jn 20:25a Lord  -   John 20:28; 21:7
Jn 20:261 after
This was on the second first day of the week, the second Lord’s Day after the Lord’s resurrection.
Jn 20:26a eight  -   cf. John 20:1, 19
Jn 20:262 disciples
The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the second meeting of the church held with the Lord’s presence before Pentecost.
Jn 20:263 came
After the Lord came in v. 19, eight days before, there is no plain word or hint in John’s record that the Lord left the disciples. Actually, He stayed with them, though they were not conscious of His presence. Hence, His coming in v. 26 was actually His manifestation, His appearing (see note 12 in ch. 21). Before His death the Lord was in the flesh, and His presence was visible. After His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit, and His presence was invisible. His manifestations, or appearings, after His resurrection were to train the disciples to realize, to enjoy, and to practice His invisible presence, which is more available, prevailing, precious, rich, and real than His visible presence. In His resurrection this dear presence of His was just the Spirit, whom He had breathed into them and who would be with them all the time.
Jn 20:26b Peace  -   John 20:19
Jn 20:28a Lord  -   John 20:25; Acts 2:36; 10:36; Rom. 14:9; 10:12-13; 1 Cor. 12:3; 2 Cor. 4:5; Phil. 2:11
Jn 20:281b God  -   John 1:1; 5:18; 10:33; Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:6; 1 John 5:20
This Gospel proves strongly and purposely that the man Jesus is the very God (1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11).
Jn 20:30a many  -   John 21:25
Jn 20:311a Christ  -   John 1:41; 4:25, 29; 7:41-42; Matt. 16:16; Luke 2:11
The Christ is the title of the Lord according to His office, His mission. The Son of God is His title according to His person. His person is a matter of God’s life, and His mission is a matter of God’s work. He is the Son of God to be the Christ of God. He works for God by the life of God that man, by believing in Him, may have God’s life to become God’s many sons and work by God’s life to build the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), thus fulfilling God’s purpose concerning His eternal building.
Jn 20:31b Son  -   John 1:34, 49; 9:35; 10:36; Matt. 16:16; Luke 1:35
Jn 20:31c believing  -   John 3:15, 16, 36
John Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Jn 21:11 After
By the end of ch. 20 the Lord had come back as the Spirit, as the pneumatic Christ, to be with the disciples as everything to them. Therefore, this Gospel might be considered closed there (20:30-31). But how could the disciples make a living? What should they do to carry out His commission? How should they follow Him after His resurrection? What would be their future? This additional chapter is needed that these problems might be dealt with.
Jn 21:12a manifested  -   John 21:14; 14:21; cf. Mark 16:12
This proves that His coming to the disciples in 20:26 was actually a manifestation, for here it is said that He manifested Himself again to the disciples. He was again training them to practice His invisible presence. It was a matter not of His coming but of His manifestation. Whether or not they were conscious of His presence, He was with them all the time. Because of their weakness He sometimes manifested His presence in order to strengthen their faith in Him.
Jn 21:2a Thomas  -   John 11:16
Jn 21:21 Didymus
I.e., Twin.
Jn 21:2b Nathanael  -   John 1:45
Jn 21:2c sons  -   Matt. 4:21
Jn 21:31 going
It must have been because of the trial related to their need to make a living that Peter returned to his old occupation, thus backsliding from the Lord’s call (Matt. 4:19-20; Luke 5:3-11).
Jn 21:3a fishing  -   Matt. 4:18
Jn 21:3b got  -   vv. 3-10: cf. Luke 5:3-11
Jn 21:32 nothing
Peter and the sons of Zebedee (John and James) were professional fishermen, the Sea of Tiberias was large and full of fish, and night was the right time for fishing; still, through the entire night they caught nothing. This was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from their net.
Jn 21:4a not  -   John 20:14; Luke 24:16
Jn 21:5a Little  -   1 John 2:13, 18
Jn 21:51b fish  -   Luke 24:41, 42
Fish is not in the Greek text; however, because the Greek word here refers to something prepared for eating, fish is implied.
Jn 21:52 No
When the disciples were in the right position, as in Luke 24:41-43, they had — even in the house — more fish than they needed, so they offered a piece to the Lord. But here they were in a backslidden condition; thus, after fishing the whole night, they had — even on the sea — no fish, not even one piece!
Jn 21:61 abundance
Morning (v. 4) was not the right time for fishing, but when they obeyed the Lord’s word and cast the net, they caught an abundance of fish. This surely was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade the fish to come into their net.
In Luke 5:3-11 the Lord called Peter by a miracle in fishing. Here He recovered him to His call by another miracle in fishing. He is consistent in His purpose.
Jn 21:7a disciple  -   John 21:20; 13:23
Jn 21:71 was
Or, had on his undergarment only.
Jn 21:81 two
I.e., a little over one hundred yards.
Jn 21:91a fish  -   John 6:9
Here the Lord trained Peter to have faith in Him for his living. Peter and those with him had fished the entire night but had caught nothing. Then, according to the Lord’s word they cast the net, and they caught an abundance of fish. But without these fish, and even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord prepared fish and even bread for the disciples. This too was a miracle! By this the Lord trained them to realize that without His leading, even if they should go to the sea, where the fish were, at night, the right time for fishing, they would catch nothing; but if they followed the Lord’s leading, even on land, where there were no fish, the Lord could provide fish for them. Though they caught many fish according to the Lord’s word, the Lord would not use these fish to feed them. This was a real lesson to Peter. For his living he needed to believe in the Lord, who calls things not being as being (Rom. 4:17).
Jn 21:9b bread  -   John 6:11
Jn 21:121 Come
This indicates the Lord’s gracious care for the need of His called ones.
Jn 21:13a took  -   Matt. 14:19; Luke 24:30
Jn 21:131 bread
In the Lord’s provision, bread represents the riches of the land, and fish represent the riches of the sea.
Jn 21:14a third  -   John 20:19, 26
Jn 21:14b raised  -   John 2:22; Acts 2:24; Rom. 4:25; 8:11
Jn 21:151 Simon
Here the Lord was restoring Peter’s love toward Him. Peter did have a heart to love the Lord, but he was too confident in his own strength, his natural strength. His love for the Lord was precious, but his natural strength had to be denied and dealt with. The Lord allowed Peter to fail utterly in denying the Lord to His face three times (18:17, 25, 27), so that his natural strength and his self-confidence could be dealt with. Furthermore, Peter had just taken the lead to backslide from the Lord’s call. His natural confidence in his love toward the Lord also must have been dealt with by this failure; yet he might have been somewhat disappointed. The Lord therefore came to restore his love toward Him, to charge him with the shepherding of His church, and to prepare him for his martyrdom so that he would not follow Him with any confidence in his natural strength.
Jn 21:152 love
The Greek word refers to a higher and nobler love. So for the first love in v. 16.
Jn 21:15a more  -   cf. Matt. 26:33; John 13:37
Jn 21:153 love
The Greek word denotes an intimate love. So for the second love in v. 16, and for all occurrences of love in v. 17.
Jn 21:154b Feed  -   John 21:17
The fruit-bearing in ch. 15 is the outflow of the riches of the inner life. Here, to feed the lambs is to nourish them with the riches of the inner life. To feed others, we need to enjoy the riches of the Lord’s divine life. This requires that we love Him. To believe in the Lord is to receive Him; to love the Lord is to enjoy Him. The Lord came as life and the life supply to us. We need to have faith in Him and love toward Him. This Gospel presents these as the two requirements for us to participate in the Lord.
Jn 21:155 lambs
Lit., little lambs.
Jn 21:161a Shepherd  -   Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2
Shepherding is for the flock (10:14, 16), which is the church (Acts 20:28); hence, it is related to God’s building (Matt. 16:18). Later, Peter in his first Epistle indicated this, saying that growth by feeding on the pure milk of the word is for the building of God’s house (1 Pet. 2:2-5) and charging the elders to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet. 5:1-4).
Jn 21:162 sheep
Some MSS have, little sheep. So in v. 17.
Jn 21:171 third
Perhaps in questioning Peter three times, the Lord was reminding Peter of how he had denied Him three times.
Jn 21:172a know  -   John 2:25
The first know in this verse refers to the inward, subjective consciousness; the second refers to the outward, objective knowledge. See note 551 in ch. 8.
Jn 21:17b all  -   Heb. 4:13
Jn 21:17c Feed  -   John 21:15
Jn 21:181a walked  -   John 21:3
This may refer to his going fishing in v. 3.
Jn 21:19a signifying  -   cf. John 12:33; 18:32
Jn 21:191b kind  -   2 Pet. 1:14
Later, Peter referred to this (2 Pet. 1:14). What the Lord wanted here was to prepare Peter to follow Him unto death, not by anything of himself or according to his own will.
Jn 21:19c Follow  -   John 21:22; Matt. 4:19; John 13:36; 12:26
Jn 21:20a disciple  -   John 21:7
Jn 21:20b reclined  -   John 13:23, 25
Jn 21:22a remain  -   1 Thes. 4:15
Jn 21:221b come  -   1 Cor. 11:26; Rev. 22:12, 20
The Lord was there with the disciples. How then could He say “until I come”? Since He was there, He did not need to come. If He meant that He would leave them and later come back to them, how could He say to them, “Follow Me”? How could they follow Him? The answer to all these questions is related to His invisible presence. In His visible presence He would leave and come back later. But in His invisible presence He would be with them all the time. On one hand, He would be with them, and on the other hand, He would be away from them. So, on one hand, they could follow Him, and on the other hand, they would have to wait for His coming back.
After His resurrection the Lord remained with the disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3-4) in order to train them to realize, practice, and live by His invisible presence. In v. 23 the Lord indicated that some of His believers would follow Him unto death, and that some would remain, i.e., live until He comes.
Jn 21:22c follow  -   John 21:19
See note 221.
Jn 21:231 come
The span of what is covered in the last two chapters of this Gospel is broad. It begins with the discovery of the Lord’s resurrection and ends with His coming back. Between these two events are all the matters related to the Christian life during the church age: seeking the Lord with love toward Him; seeing the Lord in resurrection; receiving the revelation of the issue of the Lord’s resurrection — that His Father is our Father and we are His brothers — by experiencing His manifestation; meeting with the believers to enjoy the Lord’s presence; having the Lord breathe the Holy Spirit into us, and being sent by the Lord with His commission and authority to represent Him; learning how to live by faith in the Lord and trust in Him for our daily living; loving the Lord, the natural strength having been dealt with; shepherding the flock for the building of the church; practicing the Lord’s invisible presence, with some following the Lord even unto death to glorify God, not by self-will but according to His leading, and some living until He comes back.
Jn 21:24a testifies  -   John 15:27; 1 John 1:2; Rev. 1:2
Jn 21:251a many  -   John 20:30
This verse, together with 20:30-31, affirms that this Gospel is the record of selected things that serve the purpose of testifying to the matter of life and building.
In note 202, par. 2, in Matt. 28 it is pointed out that the Lord’s ascension is not mentioned in John or Matthew. The reason it is not mentioned is that today, after His resurrection, the Lord is still on the earth to be with His believers, and He will be with them until the end of this age, when He will be manifested in His visible glory (1 Pet. 1:7; 2 Thes. 1:7), that is, when He will come back to the earth in His visible presence (Matt. 16:27) to establish His visible kingdom. The Gospel of Matthew unveils and testifies that today, after His resurrection, the Lord, who is the spiritual King of the invisible kingdom of the heavens, is still on the earth in His Spirit of resurrection to be with the people of the kingdom of the heavens in His invisible presence; hence, Matthew does not mention His leaving the earth to ascend to the heavens. The Gospel of John reveals and testifies that as the Triune God, the Lord became flesh (1:14) to be the Lamb of God (1:29) and, after accomplishing His redemptive death for man, was transfigured in resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) and to enter into those who believe into Him to be their life for eternity, never to be separated from them; hence, it would have been inappropriate for John to mention His going away in ascension.
Furthermore, the four Gospels are a full revelation of how the Triune God came to complete Christ, that is, to make Christ complete. The record in the Gospel of John is crucial regarding this matter. It shows us that the completing of Christ, who was anointed and commissioned by God to accomplish God’s eternal will, was carried out by the Triune God becoming flesh in order to be united with man. First, through His death in the flesh He accomplished redemption for man, and then through resurrection He was transfigured to become the Spirit that He might enter into the believers (20:22) to be united with them, that they might be united with the Triune God (17:21). Thus He became Christ, the embodiment of God, and is able to take away men’s sins and enter into men to be their life that they may become the sons of God to be His members, constituting His Body as the full expression of the Triune God. Thus, He is in them to be all their reality and to be with them invisibly until their bodies are redeemed and transfigured that they may enter into His visible presence to be completely united with Him and completely like Him, and to become the New Jerusalem, which is about to be completed, as the mutual habitation of the Triune God and His redeemed people for eternity!
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Acts Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-2
II.   The preparation — 1:3-26
A.   Christ’s preparation — vv. 3-8
1.   Speaking to the disciples the things concerning the kingdom of God — v. 3
2.   Charging them to wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit — vv. 4-8
B.   Christ’s ascension — vv. 9-11
C.   The disciples’ preparation — vv. 12-26
1.   Persevering in prayer — vv. 12-14
2.   Choosing Matthias — vv. 15-26
III.   The propagation — 2:1 — 28:31
A.   In the Jewish land through the ministry of Peter’s company — 2:1 — 12:24
1.   The Jewish believers’ baptism in the Holy Spirit — 2:1-13
a.   The economical filling of the Holy Spirit — vv. 1-4
b.   The peoples’ amazement — vv. 5-13
2.   Peter’s first message to the Jews — 2:14-41
a.   Explaining the economical filling of the Holy Spirit — vv. 14-21
b.   Witnessing of Jesus in His work, death, resurrection, and ascension — vv. 22-36
c.   Entreating the Spirit-moved ones to repent, be baptized, and be saved — vv. 37-41
3.   The beginning of the church life — 2:42-47
4.   Peter’s second message to the Jews — 3:1-26
a.   The healing of a lame man — vv. 1-10
b.   The message — vv. 11-26
(1)   Testifying of Jesus in His death and resurrection — vv. 11-18
(2)   Exhorting people to repent and turn that they may partake of the ascended and coming Christ — vv. 19-26
5.   The beginning of the persecution by the Jewish religionists — 4:1-31
a.   The arrest and inquiry by the Sanhedrin — vv. 1-7
b.   Peter’s testimony — vv. 8-12
c.   The Sanhedrin’s prohibition — vv. 13-18
d.   Peter and John’s reply — vv. 19-20
e.   The Sanhedrin’s release — vv. 21-22
f.   The church’s praise and prayer — vv. 23-31
6.   The continuation of the church life — 4:32 — 5:11
a.   The positive scene — 4:32-37
b.   The negative scene — 5:1-11
7.   The signs and wonders done through the apostles — 5:12-16
8.   The continuation of the persecution by the Jewish religionists — 5:17-42
a.   The Sanhedrin’s arrest of the apostles and the Lord’s rescue — vv. 17-28
b.   The apostles’ testimony — vv. 29-32
c.   The Sanhedrin’s prohibition and release — vv. 33-40
d.   The apostles’ rejoicing and faithfulness — vv. 41-42
9.   The appointment of seven deacons — 6:1-6
10.   The growth of the word and the multiplication of the disciples — 6:7
11.   The increase of the persecution by the Jewish religionists — 6:8 — 8:3
a.   The martyrdom of Stephen — 6:8 — 7:60
(1)   Opposed and arrested — 6:8 — 7:1
(2)   Testifying — 7:2-53
(3)   Killed — 7:54-60
b.   The devastation of the church in Jerusalem — 8:1-3
12.   The preaching by Philip — 8:4-40
a.   In Samaria — vv. 4-25
(1)   Proclaiming Christ and the kingdom of God — vv. 4-13
(2)   Confirmed by the apostles — vv. 14-25
b.   To an Ethiopian — vv. 26-39
c.   Unto Caesarea — v. 40
13.   The conversion of Saul — 9:1-30
a.   Appeared to by the Lord — vv. 1-9
b.   Confirmed through Ananias — vv. 10-19
c.   Beginning to preach — vv. 20-30
14.   The building up and multiplication of the church — 9:31
15.   The spreading of Peter’s ministry — 9:32-43
a.   To Lydda — vv. 32-35
b.   To Joppa — vv. 36-43
16.   The spreading to the Gentiles — 10:1 — 11:18
a.   Cornelius’s vision — 10:1-8
b.   Peter’s vision — 10:9-16
c.   Peter’s visit — 10:17-33
d.   Peter’s message — 10:34-43
e.   The Gentile believers’ baptism in the Holy Spirit — 10:44-46
f.   The Gentile believers’ water baptism — 10:47-48
g.   The recognition by the apostles and the brothers in Judea — 11:1-18
17.   The spreading to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch — 11:19-26
18.   The communication between the church in Antioch and the saints in Judea — 11:27-30
19.   The persecution by the Roman politician — 12:1-23
a.   The mistreatment of some believers and the martyrdom of James — vv. 1-2
b.   The arrest of Peter — vv. 3-19a
(1)   Guarded in prison — vv. 3-5a
(2)   Rescued by the Lord — vv. 5b-19a
c.   The fate of the persecutors — vv. 19b-23
20.   The growth and multiplication of the word — 12:24
B.   In the Gentile lands through the ministry of Paul’s company — 12:25 — 28:31
1.   The initiation — 12:25
2.   Set apart and sent by the Holy Spirit — 13:1-4a
3.   The first journey — 13:4b — 14:28
a.   To Paphos of Cyprus — 13:4b-12
b.   To Pisidian Antioch — 13:13-52
(1)   Preaching the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Savior — vv. 13-43
(2)   Rejected by the Jews — vv. 44-52
c.   To Iconium — 14:1-5
d.   To Lystra and Derbe of Lycaonia — 14:6-21a
e.   Establishing the disciples and appointing elders on the way back — 14:21b-25a
f.   Back to Antioch, ending the first journey — 14:25b-28
4.   The trouble concerning circumcision — 15:1-34
a.   A conference of the apostles and elders held in Jerusalem — vv. 1-21
b.   The solution — vv. 22-34
5.   The problem of Barnabas — 15:35-39
6.   The second journey — 15:40 — 18:22
a.   To Syria and Cilicia — 15:40-41
b.   To Derbe and Lystra — 16:1-5
c.   To Philippi of Macedonia — 16:6-40
(1)   The vision of a Macedonian — vv. 6-10
(2)   The preaching and its fruits — vv. 11-18
(3)   The imprisonment and the release — vv. 19-40
d.   To Thessalonica — 17:1-9
e.   To Berea — 17:10-13
f.   To Athens — 17:14-34
(1)   Sent by the brothers — vv. 14-15
(2)   Reasoning with the Jews and confronting the Gentile philosophers — vv. 16-18
(3)   Preaching on the Areopagus — vv. 19-34
g.   To Corinth — 18:1-17
(1)   Meeting Aquila and Priscilla — vv. 1-4
(2)   Preaching to the Jews and encountering their opposition — vv. 5-17
h.   To Ephesus — 18:18-21a
i.   Back to Antioch, ending the second journey — 18:21b-22
7.   The third journey — 18:23 — 21:17
a.   To the country of Galatia and Phrygia — 18:23
b.   To Ephesus again — 18:24 — 19:41
(1)   The ministry of Apollos — 18:24-28
(2)   Filling up the deficiency in the ministry of Apollos — 19:1-7
(3)   The ministry and its fruits — the Lord’s word growing and prevailing — 19:8-20
(4)   Purposing to go to Jerusalem and to Rome — 19:21-22
(5)   The disturbance — 19:23-41
(a)   The cause — vv. 23-34
(b)   The quieting — vv. 35-41
c.   Through Macedonia and Greece to Troas — 20:1-12
d.   To Miletus, meeting with the elders of the church in Ephesus — 20:13-38
e.   To Tyre — 21:1-6
f.   To Ptolemais — 21:7
g.   To Caesarea — 21:8-14
h.   To Jerusalem, ending the third journey — 21:15-17
8.   The negative influence of Judaism — 21:18-26
9.   The ultimate persecution of the Jews — 21:27 — 26:32
a.   An uproar against Paul — 21:27 — 23:15
(1)   Seized by the Jews — 21:27-30
(2)   The intervention of the Roman commander — 21:31-39
(3)   Defending himself before the rioting Jews — 21:40 — 22:21
(4)   Bound by the Romans — 22:22-29
(5)   Defending himself before the Sanhedrin — 22:30 — 23:10
(6)   Encouraged by the Lord — 23:11
(7)   The plot of the Jews — 23:12-15
b.   Transferred by the commander to the Roman governor Felix — 23:16 — 24:27
(1)   The secrecy of the transfer — 23:16-35
(2)   Accused by the Jews’ advocate — 24:1-9
(3)   Defending himself before Felix — 24:10-21
(4)   Kept in the custody of the unjust and corrupt Roman politician — 24:22-27
c.   Left to Festus, the successor of Felix — 25:1 — 26:32
(1)   The request of the leaders of the Jews rejected — 25:1-5
(2)   Defending himself before Festus — 25:6-8
(3)   Appealing to Caesar — 25:9-12
(4)   Referred by Festus to King Agrippa — 25:13-27
(5)   Defending himself before King Agrippa — 26:1-29
(6)   King Agrippa’s judgment — 26:30-32
10.   The fourth journey — 27:1 — 28:31
a.   To Fair Havens — 27:1-12
b.   The storm and Paul’s prediction of safety — 27:13-26
c.   The ascendancy and wisdom of Paul in contrast to the baseness and folly of the sailors and soldiers — 27:27-44
d.   To the island of Malta — 28:1-10
e.   To Rome, ending the fourth journey — 28:11-31
(1)   Through Syracuse to Rome — vv. 11-16
(2)   Contacting the Jewish leaders — vv. 17-22
(3)   Ministering in Rome — vv. 23-31
Acts >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Acts Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 1:11 former
See note 31 in Luke 1.
Ac 1:12 Theophilus
See note 32 in Luke 1.
Ac 1:13 things
See note 14 in Luke 1.
Ac 1:2a taken  -   Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9, 22
Ac 1:2b commandment  -   Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 10:42
Ac 1:21 Spirit
The resurrected Christ had become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), yet in resurrection He still did things through the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).
Ac 1:2c apostles  -   Luke 6:13-16
Ac 1:31 presented
This was to train the disciples to practice and enjoy the Lord’s invisible presence. See note 263 in John 20.
Ac 1:32a appearing  -   Mark 16:14; John 21:1; Acts 10:40-41; 1 Cor. 15:5-8
The resurrected Christ dwelt in the disciples, because He had breathed Himself as the Spirit into them on the day of His resurrection (John 20:22). His appearing does not mean that He had ever left them; it simply means that He made His presence visible to them, training them to realize and enjoy His invisible presence all the time.
Ac 1:33 forty
Forty days is a period of trial and testing (see note 21 in Matt. 4).
Ac 1:34 kingdom
This proves that the kingdom of God would be the main subject of the apostles’ preaching in their commission that was to come after Pentecost (8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31). It is not a material kingdom visible to human sight but a kingdom of the divine life. It is the spreading of Christ as life to His believers to form a realm in which God rules in His life. See notes 151 in Mark 1, 261 in Mark 4, and 432 in Luke 4.
Ac 1:41 met
Or, ate together.
Ac 1:42a promise  -   Acts 2:33
See note 491 in Luke 24; cf. note 171 in John 14.
Ac 1:4b said  -   Luke 24:49
Ac 1:5a baptized  -   Matt. 3:11
Ac 1:51 water
See notes 61 in Matt. 3 and 81 in Mark 1.
Ac 1:52 baptized
This was accomplished in two sections: (1) all the Jewish believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (2:4); and (2) all the Gentile believers were baptized in the house of Cornelius (10:44-47; 11:15-17). In these two sections all genuine believers in Christ were baptized in the Holy Spirit into the one Body of Christ once for all universally (1 Cor. 12:13 and note 1).
Ac 1:6a time  -   cf. Matt. 24:3
Ac 1:6b restoring  -   Matt. 17:11; 19:28; Acts 3:21
Ac 1:61 kingdom
The kingdom of Israel, for which the apostles and other devout Jews were looking, was a material kingdom, unlike God’s kingdom of life, which is mentioned in v. 3 and which Christ is building up through the preaching of His gospel. See note 34.
Ac 1:7a times  -   Matt. 24:36
Ac 1:81 receive
This is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit (v. 5) for the fulfillment of the promise of the Father (v. 4).
Ac 1:8a power  -   Luke 24:49; Acts 4:33
Ac 1:8b Spirit  -   Acts 2:1-4
Ac 1:82 upon
Different from in you (John 14:17). The Holy Spirit was breathed into the disciples on the day of the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:22) to be the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) to them essentially. The same Holy Spirit would come upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost to be the Spirit of power to them economically. See note 493 in Luke 24.
Ac 1:83c witnesses  -   Acts 1:22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39, 41; 13:31; 22:15, 20; 26:16; Luke 24:48; Rev. 2:13
Lit., martyrs; those who bear a living testimony of the resurrected and ascended Christ in life, differing from preachers who merely preach doctrines in letters. In His incarnation Christ carried out His ministry on the earth by Himself, as recorded in the Gospels, to sow Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God only in the Jewish land. In His ascension He would carry out His ministry in the heavens through these martyrs, in His resurrection life and with His ascension power and authority, as recorded in the Acts, to spread Himself as the development of the kingdom of God from Jerusalem, as a beginning, unto the uttermost part of the earth, as the consummation of His ministry in the New Testament. All the apostles and disciples in the Acts were His martyrs, His witnesses, of this kind (reference 8c). See notes 114 in ch. 23 and 161 in ch. 26.
Ac 1:8d Judea  -   Matt. 3:5; Acts 26:20
Ac 1:8e Samaria  -   Acts 8:1, 14; cf. Matt. 10:5
Ac 1:8f uttermost  -   Acts 13:47
Ac 1:9a took  -   Acts 1:2, 22
Ac 1:10a two  -   Luke 24:4; John 20:12
Ac 1:10b white  -   Matt. 28:3; Mark 16:5
Ac 1:111 Men
Lit., Men, Galileans. More dignified and solemn than simply “Galileans.”
Ac 1:11a Galilee  -   Acts 2:7; 13:31; Mark 14:70
Ac 1:112 heaven
Luke’s Gospel ends with the Lord’s ascending into heaven (Luke 24:51), and his Acts begins with it. His Gospel is a narrative of the ministry of the incarnated Jesus on earth; his Acts is a record of the continuing ministry of the resurrected and ascended Christ in heaven, carried out through His believers on earth. In the Gospels His ministry on earth, carried out by Himself, only sowed Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God into His believers, with no church being built up yet. In the Acts His ministry in heaven, carried out through His believers in His resurrection and ascension, spread Him as the development of the kingdom of God for the building up of the church (Matt. 16:18) throughout the entire world to constitute His Body, which is His fullness (Eph. 1:23) for His expression, and which is even the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19) for God’s expression.
Ac 1:113b come  -   Dan. 7:13
The Lord’s ascension points to His coming back. Between these two events is the dispensation of grace that He, as the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), might apply His all-inclusive redemption to God’s chosen people for their full salvation, that He might produce and build up the church as His Body for the establishing of the kingdom of God on earth.
Ac 1:114 same
Christ ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet (v. 12), being taken up by a cloud, in a way that was visible to human sight. He will return to the same mount (Zech. 14:4), coming on a cloud (Matt. 24:30), in the same visible way.
Ac 1:115 beheld
This vision of Christ’s ascension into heaven strengthened the disciples’ faith in Him and in what He had done for them through His death and resurrection. It broadened their view of God’s heavenly economy, which had brought them into cooperation with Christ’s ministry in the heavens for the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy on the earth. The believers should have such a vision concerning Christ’s ascension.
Ac 1:121a Jerusalem  -   Luke 24:52
The disciples returned to Jerusalem to keep the Lord’s words in Luke 24:49 and 1:4 of this book, that they might receive the Spirit of power economically as promised by the Father. They were all Galileans (v. 11). For them to stay in Jerusalem, especially under the Jewish leaders’ threatening, meant that they were risking their lives.
Ac 1:12b Olivet  -   Matt. 21:1
Ac 1:122 Sabbath
According to Jewish tradition, a Sabbath day’s journey equaled about three-quarters of a mile.
Ac 1:13a upper  -   Luke 22:12; Acts 9:37, 39; 20:8
Ac 1:13b Peter  -   Luke 6:14-16
Ac 1:131 Zealot
The Zealots, a Galilean sect, were excessively zealous in striving for their religion, and in particular for the Mosaic law. See note 41 in Matt. 10.
Ac 1:132 brother
Or, son.
Ac 1:141a continued  -   Rom. 12:12; Col. 4:2
Before the Lord’s death the disciples had no interest in praying for spiritual things (Luke 22:40, 45-46); rather, they contended among themselves as to which of them was considered to be greatest (Luke 22:24). But after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, their spiritual condition changed radically. They did not contend among themselves but were burdened to continue steadfastly with one accord in prayer, even before the day of Pentecost, when they would receive the outpoured Spirit of power economically (ch. 2). This is a strong sign and proof that they had received the indwelling Spirit of life essentially on the day of the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:22). This is also evidence that they had been strengthened in God’s New Testament economy by the vision of the Lord’s ascension.
Ac 1:142 with
Or, with one mind.
Ac 1:14b one  -   Acts 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; 15:25; Rom. 15:6
Ac 1:143 prayer
The disciples might have prayed to be clothed with the Spirit of power, the promise of the Father, for which the Lord had charged them to remain in Jerusalem (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4), and might also have prayed for the commission given to them by the Lord in Luke 24:47-48 and 1:8 of this book to bear His testimony to the uttermost part of the earth.
God wanted to pour out His Spirit for the carrying out of His New Testament economy and had promised to do it. Yet He still needed His chosen people to pray for this. As God in heaven, He needs men on earth to cooperate with Him for the carrying out of His plan. The one hundred twenty disciples’ praying for ten days met this need of God’s.
Ac 1:14c women  -   Luke 8:2-3; 23:49, 55; 24:10
Ac 1:144 Mary
Here Mary is mentioned for the last time in the New Testament.
Ac 1:14d mother  -   Matt. 12:46; 13:55
Ac 1:15a Peter  -   Acts 2:14
Ac 1:15b brothers  -   John 21:23
Ac 1:151 said
Before the Lord’s death Peter often spoke nonsensically (Matt. 16:22-23; 17:24-26; 26:33-35). But now, after the Lord’s resurrection, he could expound the Old Testament prophecies properly in their correct significance (vv. 16-20). This too is proof that the disciples, before they received the Spirit of power economically on the day of Pentecost, had received the Spirit of life essentially on the day of the Lord’s resurrection.
Ac 1:161 Men
More dignified and solemn than simply “brothers.”
Ac 1:16a Scripture  -   Psa. 41:9; John 13:18
Ac 1:16b Judas  -   Matt. 26:47; John 13:2
Ac 1:17a numbered  -   Luke 6:16
Ac 1:171 this
Mentioned also in v. 25; referring to the ministry that bears the testimony of Jesus (v. 8). Though the apostles were twelve in number, their ministry was uniquely one — this ministry, a corporate ministry in the principle of the Body of Christ. All the apostles carried out the same ministry to bear the testimony not of any religion, doctrine, or practice but uniquely of the incarnated, resurrected, and ascended Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all.
Ac 1:17b ministry  -   Acts 6:4; 20:24; 21:19; 2 Cor. 3:8-9; 4:1
Ac 1:18a land  -   Matt. 27:7
Ac 1:181b wages  -   2 Pet. 2:13, 15
Or, reward.
Ac 1:191 Akeldamach
Aramaic.
Ac 1:192 Blood
Signifying a bloody death (Matt. 27:5-8).
Ac 1:20a Let  -   Psa. 69:25
Ac 1:20b His  -   Psa. 109:8
Ac 1:21a went  -   Num. 27:17; Deut. 31:2; 1 Sam. 18:13
Ac 1:211 among
Or, before.
Ac 1:22a John  -   Mark 1:4; Acts 13:24
Ac 1:22b taken  -   Acts 1:2, 9
Ac 1:22c witness  -   Acts 1:8; 2:32
Ac 1:221d resurrection  -   Acts 2:31; 4:2, 33; 17:18, 32; 23:6; 24:15, 21; 2:24
The Lord’s resurrection was the focus of the apostles’ testimony. It points back to His incarnation, humanity, human living on the earth, and God-ordained death (2:23), and points forward to His ascension, ministry and administration in heaven, and coming back. Thus, the apostles’ testimony of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, was all-inclusive, as depicted in the whole book of Acts. They preached and ministered the all-inclusive Christ as He is revealed in the entire Scripture.
Ac 1:23a Barsabbas  -   cf. Acts 15:22
Ac 1:23b Justus  -   cf. Acts 18:7; Col. 4:11
Ac 1:24a prayed  -   Acts 6:6
Ac 1:24b hearts  -   Acts 15:8; 1 Sam. 16:7; 1 Chron. 28:9; 29:17; Jer. 17:10; Rom. 8:27
Ac 1:25a apostleship  -   1 Cor. 9:1-2; Gal. 2:8
Ac 1:25b go  -   cf. Matt. 27:5
Ac 1:261 lots
After the Lord’s ascension and before the day of Pentecost the apostles were in a transitional period, as shown by the way they sought the Lord’s guidance. They had received the indwelling Spirit on the day of the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:22) and had been trained by the Lord for forty days before His ascension to practice and become accustomed to His invisible presence (v. 3). Yet it was still difficult for them to drop the old, traditional way of seeking God’s leading by casting lots (Lev. 16:8; Josh. 14:2; 1 Sam. 14:41; Neh. 10:34; 11:1; Prov. 16:33). They were still not accustomed to the leading and guidance of the indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:14), unlike the apostle Paul later, in 16:6-8. They were still in the initial stage of God’s New Testament economy before the day of Pentecost.
Acts Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 2:11a Pentecost  -   Acts 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8
Meaning fiftieth. It was the fiftieth day from the Lord’s resurrection, there being seven weeks in between, counting from the second day (the first day of the week — Luke 23:54 — 24:1) after the Passover on which the Lord was crucified (John 19:14). It was the fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:10), which was also called the Feast of Harvest (Exo. 23:16), and was counted from the day of the offering of a sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest, to the day after the seventh Sabbath (Lev. 23:10-11, 15-16). The sheaf of the firstfruits offered before God was a type of the resurrected Christ offered to God on the day of His resurrection (John 20:17), which was the day after the Sabbath (John 20:1). From that day to the day of Pentecost there were exactly fifty days (cf. 1:3). The Feast of Harvest typifies the enjoyment of the rich produce brought in by the resurrected Christ. This rich produce is the all-inclusive Spirit of the processed Triune God, given by Him to His chosen people as the blessing of the gospel (Gal. 3:14) that they may enjoy the all-inclusive Christ (the very embodiment of the Triune God) as their good land. This signifies that the believers, by receiving the bountiful Spirit on the day of Pentecost, not only have entered into the good land but also have participated in the bountiful riches of the all-inclusive Christ (Eph. 3:8) in His resurrection and ascension, as God’s full allotment in His New Testament economy.
Ac 2:21a wind  -   cf. Ezek. 1:4
In the Lord’s resurrection the Spirit of resurrection life is likened to breath, breathed into the disciples (John 20:22) for their spiritual being and living essentially. In the Lord’s ascension the Spirit of ascension power, poured upon the disciples, is symbolized here by the wind and is for the disciples’ ministry and move economically. The essential Spirit of resurrection life is for the believers to live Christ; the economical Spirit of ascension power is for them to carry out His commission.
Ac 2:22b filled  -   cf. Exo. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10; Hag. 2:7
Gk. pleroo, to fill inwardly, as the wind filled the house.
Ac 2:31 tongues
A symbol of speaking, symbolizing that God’s economical Spirit of power is mainly for speaking. He is the speaking Spirit.
Ac 2:32 fire
Symbolizing burning power for purging and motivating in God’s economical move.
Ac 2:33 sat
The verb is singular, indicating that one tongue sat on each of them.
Ac 2:41 all
All modifies only filled in the first clause, not began to speak in the second clause. It cannot be used as evidence that all the disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit began to speak in tongues.
Ac 2:42 filled
Gk. pletho (used also in 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9; Luke 1:15, 41, 67), to fill outwardly. According to its usage in this book, pleroo denotes the filling of a vessel within, as the wind filled the house inwardly in v. 2, and pletho denotes the filling of persons outwardly, as the Spirit filled the disciples outwardly in this verse. The disciples were filled (pleroo) inwardly and essentially with the Spirit (13:52) for their Christian living, and were filled (pletho) outwardly and economically with the Spirit for their Christian ministry. The inward filling Spirit, the essential Spirit, is in the disciples (John 14:17; Rom. 8:11), whereas the outward filling Spirit, the economical Spirit, is upon them (1:8; 2:17). Every believer in Christ should experience both aspects of the Holy Spirit. Even Christ as a man experienced the same thing: He was born of the Holy Spirit essentially (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20) for His being and living, and He was anointed with the Holy Spirit economically (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18) for His ministry and move. The essential Spirit was within Him and the economical Spirit was upon Him.
The outward filling of the poured out Spirit was the ascended Head’s baptizing of His Body into the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the Jewish believers, the first part of His Body, were baptized; in the house of Cornelius the Gentile believers, the second part of His Body, were baptized in the same way (10:44-47). By these two steps He baptized once for all His entire Body into the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), who is the application and realization of Himself. His baptizing His Body into the Spirit was His baptizing it into Himself. This was the accomplishment of the baptism in the Holy Spirit promised in 1:5 by Christ, the Head of the Body.
Ac 2:4a speak  -   Acts 2:11; 10:46; 19:6; Mark 16:17
Ac 2:43b tongues  -   1 Cor. 12:10, 28, 30; 14:4-6, 19
Dialects (vv. 6, 8). The disciples were Galileans (v. 7), yet they spoke the different foreign dialects of the attendants who came from various parts of the world. This is strong proof that tongue-speaking must be an understandable language, not merely a voice or sound uttered by the tongue.
Ac 2:4c Spirit  -   1 Cor. 12:11
Ac 2:44 speak
“A peculiar word, and purposely chosen to denote the clear, loud utterance” (Vincent).
Ac 2:51 Jews
The devout Jews who came from their dispersion to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Pentecost.
Ac 2:6a speaking  -   Acts 2:4
Ac 2:7a amazed  -   Acts 2:12
Ac 2:7b Galileans  -   Acts 1:11
Ac 2:9a Medes  -   2 Kings 17:6
Ac 2:9b Elamites  -   Gen. 14:1, 9; Dan. 8:2
Ac 2:9c Mesopotamia  -   Gen. 24:10; Judg. 3:8; Acts 7:2
Ac 2:9d Cappadocia  -   1 Pet. 1:1
Ac 2:9e Pontus  -   Acts 18:2
Ac 2:9f Asia  -   Acts 19:10; 1 Cor. 16:19
Ac 2:10a Phrygia  -   Acts 16:6; 18:23
Ac 2:10b Pamphylia  -   Acts 13:13
Ac 2:10c Egypt  -   Gen. 37:28; Exo. 12:51
Ac 2:10d Libya  -   Dan. 11:43
Ac 2:10e Cyrene  -   Matt. 27:32; Acts 11:20
Ac 2:101 proselytes
Gentiles who were converted to Judaism (6:5; 13:43).
Ac 2:11a Cretans  -   Acts 27:7, 12-13; Titus 1:5, 12
Ac 2:11b Arabians  -   Gal. 1:17
Ac 2:111 tongues
Gk. glossa, used for two things in this chapter: the speaking organ in v. 3, and dialects in this verse and v. 4, referring to the dialect in vv. 6 and 8. This evidence leaves no ground for saying that tongue-speaking may be merely a voice or sound uttered by the tongue, the speaking organ; it must be a dialect, because what the disciples spoke in tongues (vv. 4, 11) were all different dialects (vv. 6, 8). In this sense, tongues and dialects are synonymous, used interchangeably in these verses.
Ac 2:12a amazed  -   Acts 2:7
Ac 2:13a jeered  -   Acts 17:32
Ac 2:131 new
Lit., sweet. Since it was sweet wine, it must still have been new wine.
Ac 2:141 eleven
This indicates that Matthias, who was chosen in 1:26, was recognized as one among the twelve apostles.
Ac 2:142 Men
Lit., Men, Jews. More dignified and solemn than simply “Jews.”
Ac 2:15a drunk  -   1 Thes. 5:7
Ac 2:151 third
I.e., 9:00 a.m.
Ac 2:17a And  -   vv. 17-21: Joel 2:28-32
Ac 2:171b last  -   Isa. 2:2
Beginning from Christ’s first coming (1 Pet. 1:20).
Ac 2:172c pour  -   Acts 2:33; 10:45; Isa. 32:15; 44:3; Rom. 5:5; Titus 3:6
This differs from the breathing of the Spirit into the disciples out of the mouth of Christ after His resurrection (John 20:22). The pouring out of God’s Spirit was from the heavens in Christ’s ascension. The former is the essential aspect of the Spirit in His being breathed into the disciples as life for their living; the latter is the economical aspect of the Spirit in His being poured upon them as power for their work. The same Spirit is within them essentially and upon them economically.
The pouring out of the Spirit in Christ’s ascension was the descension of the resurrected and ascended Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit to carry out His heavenly ministry on the earth to build up His church (Matt. 16:18) as His Body (Eph. 1:23) for God’s New Testament economy.
Ac 2:173 of
Or, from (also in v. 18).
Ac 2:174 upon
Upon is economical, different from the essential in in John 14:17. In is related to the intrinsic essence for life; upon is related to the outward element for power.
Ac 2:175 all
All fallen human beings, without distinction of sex, age, or status.
Ac 2:176d prophesy  -   Acts 21:9
Prophecies, visions, and dreams are outward expressions and are not related to the inner life.
Ac 2:17e visions  -   Acts 10:3, 17; 16:10
Ac 2:18a Spirit  -   Acts 11:28; 21:4, 11
Ac 2:191 show
Lit., give. Verses 19 and 20, quoted from Joel’s prophecy, are not related to the things that occurred on the day of Pentecost but to the calamities of the judgment day of the Lord in the future.
Ac 2:20a sun  -   Matt. 24:29
Ac 2:20b great  -   Zeph. 1:14; Rev. 6:17; 16:14
Ac 2:201c day  -   1 Thes. 5:2
See note 123 in 2 Pet. 3.
Ac 2:211 calls
Calling on the name of the Lord is not a new practice that began with the New Testament. Rather, it began with Enosh, the third generation of mankind, in Gen. 4:26. It was continued by Job (Job 12:4; 27:10), Abraham (Gen. 12:8; 13:4; 21:33), Isaac (Gen. 26:25), Moses and the children of Israel (Deut. 4:7), Samson (Judg. 15:18; 16:28), Samuel (1 Sam. 12:18; Psa. 99:6), David (2 Sam. 22:4, 7; 1 Chron. 16:8; 21:26; Psa. 14:4; 17:6; 18:3, 6; 31:17; 55:16; 86:5, 7; 105:1; 116:4, 13, 17; 118:5; 145:18), the psalmist Asaph (Psa. 80:18), the psalmist Heman (Psa. 88:9), Elijah (1 Kings 18:24), Isaiah (Isa. 12:4), Jeremiah (Lam. 3:55, 57), and others (Psa. 99:6), all of whom practiced this in the Old Testament age. Isaiah charged the seekers of God to call upon Him (Isa. 55:6). Even the Gentiles knew that the prophets of Israel had the habit of calling on the name of God (Jonah 1:6; 2 Kings 5:11). The Gentile raised up by God from the north also called upon His name (Isa. 41:25). It is God’s commandment (Psa. 50:15; Jer. 29:12) and desire (Psa. 91:15; Zeph. 3:9; Zech. 13:9) that His people call on Him. This is the joyful way to drink from the fountain of God’s salvation (Isa. 12:3-4) and the enjoyable way to delight oneself in God (Job 27:10), that is, to enjoy Him. Hence, God’s people must call upon Him daily (Psa. 88:9). Such a jubilant practice was prophesied by Joel (Joel 2:32) concerning the New Testament jubilee.
In the New Testament, calling on the name of the Lord was first mentioned by Peter, here, on the day of Pentecost, as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. This fulfillment is related to God’s outpouring of the all-inclusive Spirit economically upon His chosen people that they may participate in His New Testament jubilee. Joel’s prophecy and its fulfillment concerning God’s New Testament jubilee have two aspects: on God’s side, He poured out His Spirit in the ascension of the resurrected Christ; on our side, we call on the name of the ascended Lord, who has accomplished all, attained unto all, and obtained all. Calling on the Lord’s name is vitally necessary in order for us, the believers in Christ, to participate in and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ with all He has accomplished, attained, and obtained (1 Cor. 1:2). It is a major practice in God’s New Testament economy that enables us to enjoy the processed Triune God for our full salvation (Rom. 10:10-13). The early believers practiced this everywhere (1 Cor. 1:2), and to the unbelievers, especially the persecutors, it became a popular sign of Christ’s believers (9:14, 21). When Stephen suffered persecution, he practiced this (7:59), and his practice surely impressed Saul, one of his persecutors (7:58-60; 22:20). Later, the unbelieving Saul persecuted the callers (9:14, 21) by taking their calling as a sign. Immediately after Saul was caught by the Lord, Ananias, who brought Saul into the fellowship of the Body of Christ, charged him to be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord, to show others that he too had become such a caller. By his word to Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:22, Paul indicated that in the early days all the Lord’s seekers practiced such calling. Undoubtedly, he was one who practiced this, since he charged his young co-worker Timothy to do this that Timothy might enjoy the Lord as he did.
The Greek word for call on is composed of on and call (by name); thus, it is to call out audibly, even loudly, as Stephen did (7:59-60).
Ac 2:212 name
The name denotes the person. Jesus is the Lord’s name, and the Spirit is His person. When we call, “Lord Jesus,” we receive the Spirit.
Ac 2:213a saved  -   Acts 2:47; 4:12; 15:11; 16:31
This is the conclusion of the quotation of Joel’s prophecy, which began in v. 17, indicating that the issue of God’s pouring out of His Spirit upon all flesh is their salvation through calling on the name of the Lord. God’s outpouring of His Spirit is the applying of the Lord’s salvation to His chosen people. To be saved is to receive this Spirit, who is the blessing of the gospel in God’s New Testament economy (Gal. 3:2, 5, 14). This Spirit is the Lord Himself as the breath (John 20:22) and the living water (John 4:10, 14) to us. To breathe Him in as our breath and drink Him as our living water, we need to call on Him. Lamentations 3:55-56 indicates that our calling on the Lord is our breathing, and Isa. 12:3-4 indicates that our calling on the Lord is our drinking. After we believe in the Lord, we need to call on Him that we may not only be saved but also enjoy His riches (Rom. 10:12-13). When we exercise our spirit to call on Him, breathe Him in, and drink Him, we enjoy His riches; this is the real worship to God. The Lord connected such worship (John 4:24) to the drinking of the living water given by Him (John 4:14).
Ac 2:221 Men
Lit., Men, Israelites. More dignified and solemn than simply “Israelites.”
Ac 2:22a Nazarene  -   Matt. 2:23; John 1:45; Acts 3:6; 4:10; 10:38
Ac 2:222 man
The first message of the apostles’ preaching of the gospel was focused on a man. In his Gospel, Luke presented to his readers this man, from His conception, through His birth, youth, life on earth, death, and resurrection, to His ascension. Here, in this book, Luke went on to tell us that this man was preached by the apostles as the God-ordained Savior.
Ac 2:223 shown
Lit., pointed out, exhibited, displayed; i.e., proved by showing, thus bringing about an approval.
Ac 2:22b signs  -   John 3:2; 6:14; Acts 2:43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; Rom. 15:19
Ac 2:23a delivered  -   Matt. 20:19; Acts 3:13
Ac 2:231b determined  -   Luke 22:22; Acts 4:28
This counsel must have been determined in a council held by the Divine Trinity before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8), indicating that the Lord’s crucifixion was not an accident in human history but a purposeful fulfillment of the divine counsel determined by the Triune God.
Ac 2:232 foreknowledge
See note 201 in 1 Pet. 1.
Ac 2:233 lawless
Including Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3-6), the chief priests, the officers of the temple, the elders (Luke 22:52-53), the high priest, the Jewish Sanhedrin (Luke 22:54, 66-71), Pilate, Herod, and the Roman soldiers (Luke 23:1-25) — mainly the Jewish religionists with their deputies and the Gentile politicians with their subordinates. This indicates that Jesus was killed by all mankind.
Ac 2:23c nailed  -   Luke 24:20
Ac 2:234 cross
See notes 262 in Matt. 27 and 321 in John 18.
Ac 2:23d killed  -   Matt. 21:39; Acts 3:15; 7:52
Ac 2:241 God
Here and in v. 32 Peter said that God raised up Jesus. In 10:40-41 he said the same thing again but added, “He rose from the dead.” Regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament tells us that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8:11); considering Him as God, it tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (1 Thes. 4:14). This proves His dual status — human and divine.
Ac 2:24a raised  -   Acts 2:32; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 33-34, 37; 17:31; 26:8; 1:22; Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14; 1 Thes. 1:10
Ac 2:24b death  -   1 Cor. 15:54; 2 Tim. 1:10
Ac 2:242 not
The Lord is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Since He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; rather, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it.
Ac 2:251a I  -   vv. 25-28: Psa. 16:8-11
This is the declaration of Christ in His resurrection.
Ac 2:252 Lord
Referring to God.
Ac 2:253 He
When Christ is held by God (as in Isa. 41:13; 42:6), God is on His right hand; when He is exalted by God, He is sitting at the right hand of God (v. 33; Psa. 110:1; Eph. 1:20-21).
Ac 2:261 tongue
This is a quotation from Psa. 16:9 in the Septuagint. But in the original Hebrew text the word for tongue is glory, which is a synonym of soul, according to Gen. 49:6 and Psa. 7:5. Because Christ trusted in God, His heart was made glad and His soul exulted while He was in Hades (v. 27).
Ac 2:262 rest
Or, dwell, reside, pitch its tent. After Christ died on the cross, while His soul was in Hades exulting, His flesh (His body) was in a tomb resting in hope, because He trusted in God.
Ac 2:271a Hades  -   Acts 2:31; Rom. 10:7 and note 1; Rev. 1:18; 20:14
See note 231 in Matt. 11.
Ac 2:272b Holy  -   Acts 3:14; 13:35; Luke 1:35
See note 751 in Luke 1.
Ac 2:273 corruption
Corruption of the body in the tomb (v. 31).
Ac 2:281 ways
The ways to come out of death into resurrection.
Ac 2:282 presence
Indicating that Christ was resurrected into God’s presence, especially in His ascension (v. 34; Heb. 1:3).
Ac 2:291 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 2:29a David  -   1 Kings 2:10; Acts 13:36
Ac 2:29b tomb  -   Neh. 3:16
Ac 2:30a sworn  -   Psa. 89:3-4; 132:11
Ac 2:301b fruit  -   Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8
See note 422 in Luke 1.
Ac 2:302 throne
This was declared also to Mary by the angel at the conception of Christ (Luke 1:32-33).
Ac 2:31a corruption  -   Acts 13:37
Ac 2:321 God
See note 241.
Ac 2:32a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 3:15
Ac 2:322 which
Or, whom. The apostles were witnesses of the resurrected Christ, not only in word but also by their life and action, especially bearing witness of His resurrection (4:33). Bearing witness of Christ’s resurrection is the crucial point, the focus, in carrying out God’s New Testament economy. See note 83 in ch. 1.
Ac 2:32b witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; 3:15
Ac 2:33a exalted  -   Acts 5:31
Ac 2:33b right  -   Mark 16:19; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:13; Exo. 15:6; Psa. 98:1
Ac 2:331 promise
Not the promise given by the Holy Spirit but the promise given by the Father in Joel 2:28, quoted by Peter in v. 17 and referred to by the Lord in Luke 24:49 and in 1:4 of this book, concerning the Holy Spirit. The exalted Christ’s receiving of the promise of the Holy Spirit was actually His receiving of the Holy Spirit Himself. Christ was conceived of the Spirit essentially for His existence in humanity (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20) and was anointed with the Spirit economically for His ministry among men (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18). After His resurrection and ascension, He still needed to receive the Spirit economically again that He might pour Himself out upon His Body to carry out His heavenly ministry on earth for the accomplishing of God’s New Testament economy.
Ac 2:33c Spirit  -   Gal. 3:14
Ac 2:33d poured  -   Acts 2:17-18
Ac 2:341 not
This proves that up to the time of Pentecost, David still had not ascended into the heavens. Furthermore, his tomb was still among the disciples on the day of Pentecost (v. 29). This fact annuls the inaccurate teaching that says, based on Eph. 4:8-10, that when Christ was resurrected, He brought Paradise, with all the Old Testament saints, from Hades into the heavens (see note 41 in 2 Cor. 12).
Ac 2:34a ascend  -   John 3:13
Ac 2:34b The  -   Psa. 110:1
Ac 2:342 Lord
The first Lord refers to God and the second, to Christ, whom David called “my Lord” (Matt. 22:45 and note 1).
Ac 2:343 right
The position of glory, honor, and power (Exo. 15:6; 1 Kings 2:19; Mark 14:62).
Ac 2:351 set
This indicates that after Christ’s ascension God is still working to defeat Christ’s enemies that Christ may come back to reign in the universal kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:25; Rev. 11:15).
Ac 2:361a Lord  -   Acts 10:36; Rom. 14:9; 2 Cor. 4:5; Phil. 2:11
As God, the Lord was the Lord all the time (Luke 1:43; John 11:21; 20:28). But as man, He was made the Lord in His ascension after He brought His humanity into God in His resurrection. And as God’s sent and anointed One, He was Christ from the time that He was born (Luke 2:11; Matt. 1:16; John 1:41; Matt. 16:16). But as such a One, He was also officially made the very Christ of God in His ascension.
The Lord was made Lord, the Lord of all, to possess all; and He was made Christ, God’s Anointed (Heb. 1:9), to carry out God’s commission.
Ac 2:36b Christ  -   Matt. 16:16; John 1:41; 20:31
Ac 2:362 you
You here is emphatic.
Ac 2:36c crucified  -   Acts 2:23
Ac 2:37a pricked  -   cf. Acts 5:33; 7:54
Ac 2:37b What  -   Luke 3:10; Acts 16:30
Ac 2:371 brothers
Lit., men, brothers. See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 2:381a Repent  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31; 20:21
See notes 21 in Matt. 3 and 152 in Mark 1.
Ac 2:382b baptized  -   Acts 2:41; 8:12, 36, 38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15, 33; 19:5
See notes 61 in Matt. 3, 193 in Matt. 28, 52 in Mark 1, and 161 in Mark 16.
Ac 2:383 upon
The New Testament uses three different prepositions to describe baptism’s relationship to the Lord:
(1) En, in (10:48). To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to be baptized in the sphere of the name of Jesus Christ, within which is the reality of the baptism.
(2) Eis, into (Matt. 28:19; Acts 8:16; 19:5; Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27). To be baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, or into the name of the Lord Jesus, is to be baptized into a spiritual union with the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. See notes 162 in ch. 8 and 194 in Matt. 28.
(3) Epi, upon, or on (v. 38). To be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ is to be baptized upon the ground of what the name of Jesus Christ stands for. It stands for all that the person of Jesus Christ is and all that He has accomplished, both of which constitute the belief (the faith) of God’s New Testament economy. It is on this ground that the believers in Christ are baptized.
Ac 2:384 name
The name denotes the person.
Ac 2:385c forgiveness  -   Mark 1:4
Forgiveness of sins is based on the redemption of Christ, which was accomplished through His death (10:43; Eph. 1:7; 1 Cor. 15:3); it is the initial and basic blessing of God’s full salvation. Based on it the blessing of God’s full salvation goes forward and consummates in the receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Ac 2:386d gift  -   Acts 10:45
Not any gift distributed by the Spirit, such as is mentioned in Rom. 12:6, 1 Cor. 12:4, and 1 Pet. 4:10, but the gift that is the Holy Spirit Himself, given by God to the believers in Christ as the unique gift that produces all the gifts mentioned in Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12, and 1 Pet. 4. Those gifts are the abilities and capacities for the service of God, and they come from this unique gift, the Holy Spirit.
Ac 2:387 Spirit
The all-inclusive Spirit of the processed Triune God in His New Testament economy, both essential for life and economical for power, given to the believers at the time of their believing in Christ (Eph. 1:13; Gal. 3:2), as the all-inclusive blessing of God’s full gospel (Gal. 3:14) that they may enjoy all the riches of the Triune God (2 Cor. 13:14).
The apostles preached and ministered Christ, but when their hearers repented and believed in Him, they received this wonderful Spirit of the Triune God. This implies that this Spirit is just the resurrected and ascended Christ Himself. The receiving of the Spirit here is both essential and economical, in a general and all-inclusive sense, differing from the receiving of the Spirit in 8:15-17 and 19:2-6, which is particularly the receiving of the Spirit in His falling upon the believers economically.
Ac 2:391 you
Referring to the Jews.
Ac 2:392 promise
Referring to the Holy Spirit (see note 331).
Ac 2:393 who
Referring to the Gentiles, who are included in all flesh (v. 17).
Ac 2:39a far  -   Eph. 2:17
Ac 2:394 as
Referring to those chosen and predestinated by God in eternity (Eph. 1:4-5) and called by Him in the New Testament age (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2).
Ac 2:39b calls  -   Joel 2:32; Rom. 8:30; 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2
Ac 2:401a testified  -   Acts 4:33; 8:25; 10:42; 14:3; 18:5; 20:21, 24; 22:18; 23:11; 26:22; 28:23; John 15:27
Testifying requires experiences of seeing and enjoyment concerning the Lord or spiritual things. It is different from merely teaching.
Ac 2:402 Be
Be is active, and saved is passive; hence, be saved is in the active-passive voice. Salvation is to be carried out by God, but man needs to be active to receive what God intends to do. At the time of Pentecost, everything concerning God’s full salvation had been prepared, and the Holy Spirit was poured out as the application and full blessing of God’s salvation, ready for man to receive. In this matter God is waiting for man, and man needs to take the initiative. Man, be saved!
Ac 2:40b crooked  -   Deut. 32:5; Phil. 2:15
Ac 2:403 generation
At the conclusion of his message Peter did not say, “Be saved from God’s condemnation,” or “from eternal perdition,” but, “Be saved from this crooked generation.” The crooked generation refers to the perverted Jews in that age, who rejected God’s Christ (v. 36) and were considered by God as the “present evil age” (Gal. 1:4). For the crooked Jews to be saved from their present evil age required a genuine repentance concerning their crookedness toward God and a real turn to God. This indicates that they needed to turn to God not only from their sins but also from their generation, their Jewish society, including their Jewish religion. The result of such a salvation was not their entering into heaven but their entering into a new generation — the church. Thus, the saved ones were separated from the Jewish society into the church. Being saved in this way implies being saved from God’s condemnation and eternal perdition unto God’s eternal purpose and His pleasure (Eph. 3:11; 1:9).
Ac 2:411 baptized
By water (10:47-48). See notes 61 in Matt. 3, 193 in Matt. 28, and 203, 211, and 213 in 1 Pet. 3.
Ac 2:41a added  -   Acts 2:47; 5:14
Ac 2:41b thousand  -   cf. Acts 4:4
Ac 2:421 teaching
The first group of believers produced through the apostles’ preaching and ministering of Christ on the day of Pentecost continued steadfastly in four things: teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Teaching is the unveiling of God’s New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church; fellowship is the communion and communication between the believers in their communion and communication with God the Father and Christ the Son; breaking of bread is the remembrance of the Lord in His accomplishing of God’s full redemption; and prayer is cooperation with the Lord in heaven for the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy on earth. The first two, teaching and fellowship, conjoined by and to be one group, are of the apostles, but breaking of bread and prayers are not, indicating that besides the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, the believers in Christ should not have any other teaching and fellowship. In God’s New Testament economy there is only one category of teaching revealed and recognized by God — the teaching of the apostles — and only one category of fellowship that is of God and is acceptable to Him — the fellowship of the apostles, which is with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3 and note 3), and which is the unique fellowship of the unique church, the Body of Christ. The last two, the breaking of bread and prayer, also conjoined by and to be another group, are practices of the believers in their Christian life and are not related directly to God’s economy for the keeping of the oneness of the church, the Body of Christ. Hence, they are not of the apostles, who brought in God’s New Testament revelation and His fellowship among all the believers in Christ.
Ac 2:42a breaking  -   Acts 2:46; 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:16; cf. Luke 24:35
Ac 2:42b prayers  -   1 Thes. 5:17; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2
Ac 2:43a fear  -   Acts 5:5, 11; 19:17
Ac 2:431 wonders
Wonders and signs are not part of God’s central testimony, which is the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ; neither are they part of His full salvation. They are only evidences that what the apostles preached and ministered and the way they acted were absolutely of God, not of man (Heb. 2:3-4).
Ac 2:43b signs  -   Mark 16:17, 20; Acts 5:12; 6:8
Ac 2:441a common  -   cf. 2 Cor. 8:14-15
Also in 4:32. Having all things common was not a sign of love but of Christ’s dynamic salvation, which saved the believers from greediness and selfishness. It was practiced for only a short time at the initiation of God’s New Testament economy; it did not continue for the long run as a practice of legality (see note 41 in ch. 5) in the church life during Paul’s ministry, as proved by his words in 2 Cor. 9 and other places.
Ac 2:451a sold  -   Acts 4:34, 37; cf. Luke 19:8
This too was an evidence of the Lord’s dynamic salvation, which caused the believers to overcome earthly possessions, which occupy, possess, and usurp all fallen mankind (Matt. 19:21-24; Luke 12:13-19, 33-34; 14:33; 16:13-14; 1 Tim. 6:17).
Ac 2:45b divided  -   Acts 4:35; 6:1; cf. Isa. 58:7
Ac 2:46a one  -   Acts 1:14
Ac 2:461b temple  -   Acts 5:42; Luke 24:53
In the initiation of God’s New Testament economy, the early believers and even the first group of apostles were not clear that God had forsaken Judaism with its practices and facilities, including the temple (see Matt. 23:38 — “your house,” referring to the God-forsaken temple). Hence, according to their tradition and habit, they still went to the temple for their New Testament meeting.
Ac 2:462c breaking  -   Acts 2:42
The early believers remembered the Lord by breaking bread daily in their houses; this showed their love and enthusiasm toward the Lord.
Ac 2:463d house  -   Acts 20:20
Or, at home; in contrast to in the temple. Meeting in homes as the Christian way of meeting together is fitting to God’s New Testament economy. This way differs from the Judaic way of meeting in the synagogues (6:9). It became a continual and general practice in the churches (cf. Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2).
Ac 2:464 simplicity
Or, singleness; describing the heart’s being simple, single, and plain, having one love and desire and one goal in seeking after the Lord.
Ac 2:47a Praising  -   Acts 3:8
Ac 2:471 having
They lived a life that expressed God’s attributes in human virtues, as Jesus, the Man-Savior, did (Luke 2:52).
Ac 2:47b added  -   Acts 2:41
Ac 2:472 together
This indicates that from the very beginning of their Christian life the early believers were brought into the corporate church life; they did not live individualistically as Christians separated from one another.
Ac 2:47c day  -   Acts 16:5
Ac 2:47d saved  -   Acts 2:21
Acts Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 3:11a temple  -   Luke 18:10
See note 461 in ch. 2. It was not only the early believers who were not clear concerning God’s New Testament economy in relation to the Judaic temple; even the early apostles did not have a clear vision concerning God’s abandoning of the Judaic things. Hence, even after God poured out the Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost to initiate a new dispensation, they still would not separate themselves from the Judaic temple. At the initial stage God tolerated their ignorance in this matter. But this led to a mixture of the church with Judaism, which was not condemned by the early church in Jerusalem (cf. 21:20-26). Eventually, the temple was destroyed by Titus with his Roman army in A.D. 70, as prophesied by the Lord in Matt. 23:38 and 24:2. That destruction cleared up the religious mixture.
Ac 3:12b ninth-hour  -   Acts 10:3, 30; Matt. 27:46
I.e., 3:00 p.m.
Ac 3:2a lame  -   Acts 14:8; Luke 7:22; Isa. 35:6
Ac 3:61 Silver
Peter did not possess silver and gold, but St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome was constructed with a superabundance of gold. He did not have silver and gold, but he had the name, the person, of Jesus Christ. He was poor in silver and gold but rich in Christ. The Roman Church is filled with gold but not with the person of Christ. She is rich in gold but poor in Christ.
Ac 3:6a not  -   2 Cor. 6:10
Ac 3:6b name  -   Acts 4:7, 10; Mark 16:17
Ac 3:62c Nazarene  -   Acts 2:22
Indicating the One despised by the Jewish leaders (John 1:45-46; Acts 22:8; 24:5).
Ac 3:63 rise
Some MSS omit, rise up and.
Ac 3:8a leaping  -   Isa. 35:6; Acts 14:10
Ac 3:8b praising  -   Acts 2:47
Ac 3:9a people  -   Acts 4:21; 5:13
Ac 3:11a portico  -   Acts 5:12; John 10:23
Ac 3:121 Men
See note 221 in ch. 2.
Ac 3:131a God  -   Matt. 22:32; Acts 7:32
The Triune God, Jehovah the great I Am (Exo. 3:14-15).
Ac 3:132 Isaac
Some MSS add the God of before Isaac and before Jacob.
Ac 3:133b glorified  -   John 12:23; 13:31-32; 17:1; Isa. 55:5
Through His resurrection and in His ascension (Luke 24:26; Heb. 2:9; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11).
Ac 3:13c Servant  -   Acts 3:26; 4:27; Isa. 42:1, 19; 52:13; 53:11
Ac 3:13d delivered  -   Acts 2:23
Ac 3:13e denied  -   Mark 8:31; Luke 17:25; 23:18, 21, 23
Ac 3:13f Pilate  -   1 Tim. 6:13
Ac 3:13g release  -   Luke 23:16, 20, 22
Ac 3:14a holy  -   Acts 2:27
Ac 3:14b righteous  -   Acts 7:52; 22:14; 1 John 2:1
Ac 3:14c asked  -   Matt. 27:20; Luke 23:18
Ac 3:151 Author
The Greek word here means author, origin, originator, chief leader, captain (see note 104 in Heb. 2). Here it denotes Christ as the origin or Originator of life, hence the Author of life, in contrast to a murderer in the previous verse.
Ac 3:15a life  -   John 1:4; 5:26; 1 John 5:12
Ac 3:15b killed  -   Acts 2:23
Ac 3:152 God
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 3:15c raised  -   Acts 2:24; 4:10
Ac 3:153 which
See note 322 in ch. 2.
Ac 3:15d witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; 5:32
Ac 3:161 upon
I.e., on the ground of faith in His name.
Ac 3:16a name  -   Acts 3:6; 4:10; John 1:12
Ac 3:162 name
Denoting the person. The person is the reality of the name; hence, the name is powerful.
Ac 3:17a ignorance  -   Acts 13:27; Luke 23:34
Ac 3:181 announced
First, the redeeming death of Christ was determined by God in eternity (2:23) and announced beforehand through the prophets in the Old Testament time. This proves again that Christ’s death was not a historical accident but an act planned by God according to the purpose of His good pleasure and announced beforehand through the prophets.
Ac 3:18a His  -   Acts 4:26; Luke 9:20
Ac 3:18b suffer  -   Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 17:3
Ac 3:19a Repent  -   Acts 2:38
Ac 3:19b wiped  -   Psa. 51:1, 9; Isa. 43:25; 44:22
Ac 3:201 refreshing
Lit., cooling, reviving; hence, relieving, refreshing. The seasons of refreshing denote a time of revival of all things with joy and rest, referring to the times of restoration of all things in v. 21, which will be brought in by the coming of the Messiah in His glory, as taught and prophesied by the Savior in Matt. 19:28 (see note 1 there). It seems that Peter’s word skips over the church age and goes directly from the time of Pentecost to the millennium. This may indicate that Peter did not have a clear vision concerning the church age in God’s New Testament economy. The entire New Testament reveals that before the seasons of refreshing, the church occupies a considerable period of time in God’s dispensation.
Ac 3:202 Lord
Referring to God.
Ac 3:20a appointed  -   cf. 1 Pet. 1:20
Ac 3:211 times
The times of restoration in the millennium, as prophesied in Isa. 11:1-10 and 65:18-25, and referred to by Christ in Matt. 17:11 and 19:28. It will be brought in by His coming back.
Ac 3:21a restoration  -   Matt. 17:11; 19:28; Acts 1:6
Ac 3:21b prophets  -   Luke 1:70
Ac 3:212 from
Or, from the foundation of the world.
Ac 3:22a A  -   Deut. 18:15, 18; Acts 7:37
Ac 3:221 Prophet
Referring to the Lord Jesus.
Ac 3:22b raise  -   Acts 3:26
Ac 3:22c hear  -   Matt. 17:5
Ac 3:23a And  -   Deut. 18:19
Ac 3:23b destroyed  -   Lev. 23:29
Ac 3:24a Samuel  -   1 Sam. 3:20; Acts 13:20
Ac 3:25a in  -   Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Gal. 3:8
Ac 3:251 seed
Referring to Christ (Gal. 3:16).
Ac 3:26a first  -   Mark 7:27; Acts 13:46; Rom. 1:16
Ac 3:26b raised  -   Acts 3:22
Ac 3:26c Servant  -   Acts 3:13
Ac 3:261 Him
God sent back the ascended Christ first to the Jews by pouring out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Hence, the very Spirit whom God poured out is the very Christ whom God raised and exalted to the heavens. When the apostles preached and ministered this Christ, the Spirit was ministered to people.
Ac 3:26d turning  -   Matt. 13:15; John 12:40; Acts 28:27
Acts Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 4:11a captain  -   Acts 5:24, 26; Luke 22:52
I.e., the captain of the temple guard.
Ac 4:12b Sadducees  -   Acts 5:17; 23:8; Matt. 22:23
See note 72 in Matt. 3.
Ac 4:21 in
I.e., in the power (with the nature and character) of.
Ac 4:2a resurrection  -   Acts 2:24; 17:18
Ac 4:3a laid  -   Acts 5:18; Luke 21:12
Ac 4:4a thousand  -   cf. Acts 2:41; 5:14; 6:1
Ac 4:51 gathered
This was a gathering of the Jewish Sanhedrin (v. 15). In the four Gospels this Sanhedrin, composed of the Jewish leaders, became the strongest opponent of the Lord Jesus and His ministry and condemned Him to death (Matt. 26:59). Now, in this book, the same Sanhedrin, with the same constituents, began the persecution of the apostles and their ministry (5:21; 6:12; 22:30). This indicates that Judaism had fallen into the hand of God’s enemy, Satan the devil, and was being used by him in his attempt to frustrate and even destroy God’s move in His New Testament economy for the carrying out of His eternal purpose, that is, to bring His kingdom to the earth by establishing and building up the churches through the preaching of the gospel of Christ.
Ac 4:61a Caiaphas  -   Luke 3:2; Matt. 26:3; John 11:49; 18:13-14, 24
A high priest (Luke 3:2).
Ac 4:62 John
John and Alexander might have been the kindred of the high priest. In any case, they must have been dignitaries among the Jews, since they are named with the leaders of the Jewish Sanhedrin (v. 15).
Ac 4:71 By
Lit., By what kind of power or in what kind of name…
Ac 4:81 filled
Filled outwardly and economically (see note 42 in ch. 2).
Ac 4:8a Spirit  -   Matt. 10:20; Luke 12:12
Ac 4:9a sick  -   Acts 3:2, 7-8
Ac 4:91 healed
Lit., saved.
Ac 4:10a name  -   Acts 3:6, 16
Ac 4:101 Nazarene
See note 62 in ch. 3.
Ac 4:102 you
You here is emphatic.
Ac 4:10b crucified  -   Acts 2:23
Ac 4:103 God
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 4:10c raised  -   Acts 2:24; 5:30
Ac 4:111 stone
This word was spoken by the Lord in Matt. 21:42 (see note 1 there), quoted from Psa. 118:22. It unveiled the Jewish leaders’ rejection of Him and God’s honoring of Him for the building of His habitation among His people on the earth. By this word Peter learned to know the Lord as the precious stone held in honor by God, as he expounded concerning Him in his first Epistle (1 Pet. 2:4-7). Peter’s quoting of this word indicates that he preached Christ not only as the Savior for the sinners’ salvation but also as the stone for God’s building. It is such a Christ who is the unique salvation to sinners, and it is in His unique name under heaven, a name despised and rejected by the Jewish leaders but honored and exalted by God (Phil. 2:9-10), that sinners must be saved (v. 12) not only from sin (Matt. 1:21) but also to participate in God’s building (1 Pet. 2:5).
Ac 4:112 considered
Or, rejected. Implying to despise, to consider as nothing (cf. Mark 9:12).
Ac 4:113a head  -   Isa. 28:16; Eph. 2:20
See note 422 in Matt. 21.
Ac 4:12a name  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 10:43
Ac 4:12b saved  -   Matt. 1:21; Acts 2:21
Ac 4:13a boldness  -   Acts 4:29, 31; 9:27, 28; 13:46; 14:3; Eph. 6:19
Ac 4:131b uneducated  -   John 7:15
Lit., unlettered.
Ac 4:132 laymen
Referring to one without professional knowledge.
Ac 4:151a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 5:21, 27, 34; 6:12; 22:30; 23:1; Matt. 10:17; Mark 13:9
See note 226 in Matt. 5.
Ac 4:16a sign  -   John 11:47; 12:18-19
Ac 4:18a not  -   Acts 5:28, 40
Ac 4:19a rather  -   Acts 5:29
Ac 4:20a seen  -   Acts 22:15; 1 John 1:1-3
Ac 4:21a people  -   Acts 5:26; Matt. 21:26; Luke 20:19
Ac 4:231 own
Referring to the church people, who were made distinct and separate from the Jews by calling on the name of Jesus (9:14). All the brothers and sisters in the Lord are the believers’ own people.
Ac 4:24a one  -   Acts 1:14
Ac 4:241 Sovereign
The Greek word for Sovereign Master denotes a master (of a slave), one who has absolute sovereign power, as in Luke 2:29; Jude 4; Rev. 6:10; 1 Tim. 6:1-2.
Ac 4:24b made  -   Exo. 20:11; Psa. 146:6
Ac 4:25a Why  -   Psa. 2:1
Ac 4:251 rage
The Greek word means to snort like a horse; i.e., to be haughty, insolent.
Ac 4:26a His  -   Acts 3:18; Luke 9:20
Ac 4:27a gathered  -   Matt. 27:1-2, 11-12; Luke 23:1-25
Ac 4:27b Servant  -   Acts 4:30; 3:13
Ac 4:27c anointed  -   Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38; Heb. 1:9
Ac 4:27d Pontius  -   Luke 3:1; 1 Tim. 6:13
Ac 4:28a do  -   Isa. 46:10
Ac 4:281 predestined
Cf. determined in 2:23 and note 1.
Ac 4:29a boldness  -   Acts 4:13, 31
Ac 4:30a stretching  -   Psa. 138:7; Prov. 31:20
Ac 4:30b signs  -   Acts 2:22, 43
Ac 4:30c name  -   Acts 3:6; Mark 16:17
Ac 4:30d holy  -   Acts 4:27
Ac 4:31a shaken  -   Acts 16:26; Psa. 77:18
Ac 4:311 filled
See note 42 in ch. 2.
Ac 4:31b boldness  -   Acts 4:13, 29
Ac 4:32a heart  -   2 Chron. 30:12
Ac 4:32b soul  -   Phil. 1:27; 2:2
Ac 4:321 not
See note 451 in ch. 2.
Ac 4:322 common
See note 441 in ch. 2.
Ac 4:33a power  -   Acts 1:8; 6:8
Ac 4:331b testimony  -   Acts 2:40; 8:25
See note 322 in ch. 2.
Ac 4:332c grace  -   Acts 11:23; 13:43; 14:3, 26; 15:11, 40; 18:27; 20:24, 32
See notes 171 in John 1 and 101 in 1 Cor. 15.
Ac 4:34a neither  -   cf. 2 Cor. 8:14-15
Ac 4:341 sold
See note 451 in ch. 2.
Ac 4:35a feet  -   Acts 5:2
Ac 4:35b distributed  -   Acts 2:45
Ac 4:361a Barnabas  -   Acts 11:22, 24, 30
Aramaic, meaning son of prophecy, applied figuratively to one who speaks to encourage, exhort, and console people.
Ac 4:36b Levite  -   Num. 8:19
Ac 4:36c Cyprian  -   Acts 15:39; 27:4
Acts Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 5:2a feet  -   Acts 4:35, 37
Ac 5:3a Satan  -   John 13:2, 27; Luke 22:3
Ac 5:31 Holy
Ananias lied apparently to the apostles but actually to the Holy Spirit, who is God (v. 4). In the apostles’ work for the Lord, the Holy Spirit and the apostles were one. See note 322.
Ac 5:3b Spirit  -   Acts 5:9
Ac 5:41 was
These words indicate that to sell property and distribute the proceeds to others was not considered by the apostles to be a practice of legality.
Ac 5:42 contrived
Or, placed, fixed.
Ac 5:43 God
This proves that the Holy Spirit, mentioned in v. 3, is God.
Ac 5:5a fell  -   Acts 5:10
Ac 5:51 expired
Lit., gave up his soul, or, breathed out his soul (so also in v. 10).
Ac 5:5b fear  -   Acts 2:43
Ac 5:91 agreed
Wives should be subject to their husbands (Eph. 5:24), but they should not agree with their husbands to commit sins.
Ac 5:9a test  -   Acts 15:10; 1 Cor. 10:9
Ac 5:9b Spirit  -   Acts 5:3
Ac 5:92 Lord
The Holy Spirit in v. 3, God in v. 4, and the Lord in this verse are all one, especially in the experience of the believers.
Ac 5:10a fell  -   Acts 5:5
Ac 5:11a fear  -   Acts 5:5
Ac 5:111b church  -   Acts 8:1, 3; 9:31; 11:22, 26; 12:1, 5; 13:1; 14:23, 27; 15:3, 4, 22, 41; 16:5; 18:22; 20:17, 28
Gk. ekklesia, composed of ek, out, and a derivative of kaleo, called; hence, the called out (congregation), the assembly. It is the first time that the church is mentioned here in Acts as a local church (see notes 11 in ch. 8 and 172 in Matt. 18).
Ac 5:121 signs
See note 431 in ch. 2.
Ac 5:12a accord  -   Acts 1:14
Ac 5:12b portico  -   Acts 3:11
Ac 5:13a people  -   Acts 5:26
Ac 5:14a to  -   Acts 9:35; 11:21, 24
Ac 5:14b multitudes  -   Acts 6:1, 7; 9:31
Ac 5:15a streets  -   cf. Mark 6:56
Ac 5:15b overshadow  -   cf. Acts 19:12
Ac 5:16a sick  -   Matt. 14:35-36; Mark 16:18
Ac 5:17a sect  -   cf. Acts 15:5; 26:5; 24:5, 14; 28:22
Ac 5:17b Sadducees  -   Acts 4:1
Ac 5:17c jealousy  -   Acts 13:45; 17:5; James 3:14, 16
Ac 5:18a laid  -   Acts 4:3; Luke 21:12
Ac 5:19a angel  -   Acts 8:26; 10:3; 12:7, 23
Ac 5:19b opened  -   Acts 12:10; 16:26
Ac 5:201a words  -   John 6:63; Phil. 2:16
The Greek word refers to instant words.
Ac 5:202 this
The divine life preached, ministered, and lived by Peter that overcame the Jewish leaders’ persecution, threatening, and imprisonment. This word indicates that Peter’s life and work made the divine life so real and present in his situation that even the angel saw it and pointed it out.
Ac 5:21a high  -   Acts 4:5-6
Ac 5:21b Sanhedrin  -   Acts 4:15
Ac 5:211 even
Or, and.
Ac 5:241a captain  -   Acts 4:1
See note 11 in ch. 4.
Ac 5:26a people  -   Acts 5:13; 4:21
Ac 5:26b stoned  -   Acts 7:58; Deut. 17:5
Ac 5:27a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 4:15
Ac 5:281 strictly
Lit., charged you with a charge.
Ac 5:28a not  -   Acts 5:40; 4:17-18
Ac 5:28b blood  -   Matt. 23:35; 27:25
Ac 5:29a rather  -   Acts 4:19
Ac 5:301 God
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 5:30a fathers  -   Acts 22:14
Ac 5:30b raised  -   Acts 2:24; 10:40
Ac 5:30c tree  -   Acts 10:39; 13:29; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24
Ac 5:311a exalted  -   Acts 2:33
Jesus’ incarnation made Him a man, His human living on earth qualified Him to be man’s Savior, His crucifixion accomplished full redemption for man, His resurrection vindicated His redemptive work, and His exaltation inaugurated Him to be the ruling Leader that He might be the Savior. This exalting of Him was the ultimate step in His being perfected to be the Savior of man (Heb. 2:10; 5:9).
Ac 5:31b right  -   Mark 16:19; Heb. 12:2
Ac 5:312 Leader
Or, Prince; the same Greek word as for Author in 3:15. See note 1 there. God exalted the man Jesus, who had been rejected and killed by the Jewish leaders, as the highest Leader, the Prince, the Ruler of the kings to rule over the world (Rev. 1:5; 19:16), and the Savior to save God’s chosen people. Leader is related to His authority, and Savior to His salvation. He rules sovereignly over the earth with His authority that the environment might be fit for God’s chosen people to receive His salvation (cf. 17:26-27; John 17:2).
Ac 5:31c Savior  -   Luke 2:11
Ac 5:313 give
To give repentance and forgiveness of sins to God’s chosen people requires Christ to be exalted as a ruling Leader and Savior. His sovereign ruling causes and leads God’s chosen people to repent, and His salvation, which is based on His redemption, affords them forgiveness of sins.
Ac 5:314d repentance  -   Acts 11:18
Repentance is for forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). On God’s side, forgiveness of sins is based on Christ’s redemption (Eph. 1:7); on man’s side, forgiveness of sins is through man’s repentance.
Ac 5:31e forgiveness  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 13:38; 10:43
Ac 5:32a witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; 10:39
Ac 5:321 things
Lit., words; referring to instant words.
Ac 5:322b Spirit  -   John 15:26; 1 John 5:6
The Holy Spirit was one with the apostles. See note 31.
Ac 5:323 obey
Obedience is the way and the condition for one to receive and enjoy the Spirit of God.
Ac 5:33a heard  -   Acts 7:54
Ac 5:331 exasperated
Lit., sawn through; a strong figurative expression for being exasperated.
Ac 5:341 Pharisee
See note 71 in Matt. 3.
Ac 5:34a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 4:15
Ac 5:34b Gamaliel  -   Acts 22:3
Ac 5:34c teacher  -   Luke 5:17
Ac 5:37a enrollment  -   Luke 2:1-3
Ac 5:38a counsel  -   Prov. 21:30; Isa. 8:10
Ac 5:39a fighters  -   2 Chron. 13:12
Ac 5:40a beat  -   Acts 22:19; Matt. 10:17; 23:34; Mark 13:9
Ac 5:40b not  -   Acts 5:28
Ac 5:41a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 5:27
Ac 5:41b rejoicing  -   Matt. 5:12; 1 Pet. 4:13
Ac 5:411 to
I.e., to suffer shame. It is a real honor to be dishonored on behalf of the Name, the very name of the man-dishonored but God-honored Jesus. Hence, the dishonored ones rejoiced that they were counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the Name.
Ac 5:41c Name  -   Acts 9:16; John 15:21; 1 Pet. 4:14
Ac 5:421 temple
See note 461 in ch. 2.
Ac 5:422 house
See note 463 in ch. 2.
Ac 5:42a announcing  -   Acts 8:4, 35; 11:20; 13:32; 17:18
Ac 5:423 Jesus
Lit., the Christ Jesus.
Ac 5:42b Christ  -   Acts 18:5
Acts Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 6:1a multiplying  -   Acts 6:7; 5:14
Ac 6:11b Hellenists  -   Acts 9:29
Jews who spoke Greek. At the very beginning of the practice of the church life, trouble was caused by language differences; proper care was taken to solve this.
Ac 6:12 Hebrews
Jews who spoke Hebrew.
Ac 6:1c widows  -   Acts 9:39, 41; 1 Tim. 5:3
Ac 6:1d dispensing  -   Acts 2:45; 4:35
Ac 6:21 fitting
Or, pleasing.
Ac 6:3a well-attested  -   1 Tim. 3:7
Ac 6:31 full
Gk. pleres, an adjective form of pleroo, according to the usage in this book here and in v. 5; 7:55; 11:24; and in Luke 4:1. Being full of the Spirit is the condition after one has been filled with the Spirit inwardly and essentially, as mentioned in 13:52. This refers to life, not to work.
Ac 6:3b Spirit  -   Acts 6:5, 10
Ac 6:32c wisdom  -   Deut. 1:13
This is proof that to be full of the Spirit is for life, as in Luke 2:52.
Ac 6:41a prayer  -   Acts 1:14; 2:42
To pray is not only to entreat the Lord to do things for His move but also to cause our spirit to be exercised and strengthened. Hence, prayer should precede the ministry of the word, just as the apostles practiced. Without such prayer the ministry of the word will not be enlivened and empowered.
Ac 6:4b ministry  -   Acts 1:17; 20:24
Ac 6:5a faith  -   Acts 11:24
Ac 6:5b Spirit  -   Acts 6:3, 10
Ac 6:5c Philip  -   Acts 8:5, 26; 21:8
Ac 6:51 proselyte
See note 101 in ch. 2.
Ac 6:6a prayed  -   Acts 1:24
Ac 6:61b laid  -   Acts 8:17; 9:17; 13:3; 19:6; 2 Tim. 1:6
See note 144 in 1 Tim. 4.
Ac 6:62 them
Since they were chosen to serve tables, they can be considered deacons, like those whom Paul and his co-workers appointed later in the churches (Rom. 16:1; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:8).
Ac 6:71a grew  -   Acts 12:24; 19:20
Grew refers to growth in life, indicating that the word of God is a matter of life that grows as a seed sown into man’s heart (Mark 4:14).
Ac 6:7b multiplied  -   Acts 6:1
Ac 6:7c obeyed  -   Rom. 16:26
Ac 6:72d faith  -   Acts 14:22
The objective faith, referring to what the believers believe in concerning Christ (see note 11, par. 2, in 1 Tim. 1). The entire revelation of the New Testament concerning the person of Christ and His redemptive work is the faith of God’s New Testament economy (Rom. 16:26).
Ac 6:8a power  -   Acts 1:8; 4:33
Ac 6:81 wonders
See note 431 in ch. 2.
Ac 6:91 synagogue
Indicating that in Jerusalem there were a number of synagogues composed of the returned Jews according to the respective languages they had acquired in their dispersion (cf. 2:9-11). See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 6:92 Libertines
I.e., Freedmen; those who were liberated from their status as slaves.
Ac 6:10a withstand  -   Luke 21:15
Ac 6:10b Spirit  -   Acts 6:3, 5
Ac 6:11a say  -   cf. 1 Kings 21:10, 13
Ac 6:121 Sanhedrin
See note 51 in ch. 4.
Ac 6:13a false  -   Matt. 26:59-60
Ac 6:13b witnesses  -   Acts 7:58
Ac 6:13c against  -   Acts 21:28; cf. Acts 25:8
Ac 6:131 place
The temple (Matt. 24:15 and note 4).
Ac 6:141 destroy
This indicates that words must have been circulating among the believers concerning the destruction of the temple, as prophesied by the Lord in Matt. 23:37-39 and 24:2, and concerning the termination of the dispensation of law, as spoken by the Lord in Matt. 11:13. The opposing Jews twisted the believers’ words, just as in Matt. 27:40, when they crucified the Lord, they twisted the word that the Lord spoke in John 2:19. Undoubtedly, the Jews’ opposition was instigated by Satan to frustrate God’s New Testament economy. But the ground used by Satan for his instigation was the change of dispensation, which contradicted the Judaic traditions. God’s New Testament economy is to have a new dispensation absolutely separated from Judaism. This offended the Jews by touching the traditions they had inherited for generations, and it stirred up their opposition, which began with the Lord’s ministry in the Gospels and grew more fierce at the time of the apostles’ ministry in this book, during which the Lord’s New Testament move was passing through a transitional period. According to Luke’s narration in Acts, the church among the Jews, including the early apostles, did not pass through this transition successfully, because of the remaining influence of their Judaic background and the entangling opposition from their Jewish kinsmen. This problem returned to trouble them again and again in this book (11:1-3; 15:1-5; 21:18-26). Even the apostle Paul was in danger of being brought back to the Judaic practices in his last visit to Jerusalem (21:20-26). See notes 101 in James 2 and 111 in James 1.
Ac 6:14a customs  -   Acts 15:1; 21:21; 28:17
Ac 6:151 face
Signifying a heavenly appearance. Stephen was a man on earth, but he bore a heavenly appearance while being persecuted.
Acts Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 7:21 Men
More dignified and solemn than simply “brothers and fathers.”
Ac 7:2a brothers  -   Acts 22:1
Ac 7:22b glory  -   Psa. 29:3
It might have been visible glory (cf. v. 55), as when the cloud and the fire appeared to Israel (Exo. 16:10; 24:16-17; Lev. 9:23; Num. 14:10; 16:19; 20:6; Deut. 5:24) and filled the tabernacle and the temple (Exo. 40:35; 1 Kings 8:11). It was the God of such glory who appeared to Abraham and called him. His glory was a great attraction to him. It separated (sanctified) him from the world unto God (Exo. 29:43) and was a great encouragement and strength that enabled him to follow God (Gen. 12:1, 4). In the same principle, God calls the New Testament believers by His invisible glory (2 Pet. 1:3).
Ac 7:2c Mesopotamia  -   Gen. 24:10; Acts 2:9
Ac 7:2d Haran  -   Gen. 11:31; 12:4-5
Ac 7:3a Come  -   Gen. 12:1
Ac 7:4a came  -   Gen. 11:31
Ac 7:4b Chaldeans  -   Gen. 15:7; Neh. 9:7
Ac 7:4c died  -   Gen. 11:32
Ac 7:41 removed
Apparently Abraham journeyed into Canaan (Gen. 12:4-5), but actually God removed him into the good land.
Ac 7:5a promised  -   Heb. 11:9
Ac 7:5b seed  -   Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3; 48:4
Ac 7:5c no  -   Gen. 15:3
Ac 7:6a sojourner  -   vv. 6-7: Gen. 15:13-14; Exo. 2:22
Ac 7:61 foreign
I.e., Egypt (Exo. 1:1).
Ac 7:62 they
I.e., the Egyptians (Exo. 1:11, 13-14).
Ac 7:6b enslave  -   Exo. 1:11, 14; 5:6-14
Ac 7:63c four  -   Gen. 15:13; cf. Exo. 12:40-41
See note 173 in Gal. 3.
Ac 7:7a serve  -   Exo. 1:13
Ac 7:7b serve  -   Exo. 3:12
Ac 7:8a covenant  -   Gen. 17:9-14
Ac 7:8b Isaac  -   Gen. 21:2-4
Ac 7:8c Jacob  -   Gen. 25:26
Ac 7:8d twelve  -   Gen. 29:31-35; 30:5-24; 35:18, 23-26
Ac 7:9a jealous  -   Gen. 37:11
Ac 7:9b sold  -   Gen. 37:28; 45:4
Ac 7:9c with  -   Gen. 39:2, 21, 23
Ac 7:10a appointed  -   Gen. 41:40
Ac 7:11a famine  -   Gen. 41:54-57; 42:5
Ac 7:111 sustenance
Or, fodder (for their cattle).
Ac 7:12a grain  -   Gen. 42:1-3
Ac 7:13a made  -   Gen. 45:1-4
Ac 7:13b Pharaoh  -   Gen. 45:16
Ac 7:14a father  -   Gen. 45:9, 27
Ac 7:141 seventy-five
Compare with seventy in Gen. 46:27 and Exo. 1:5. Stephen quoted this number from the Septuagint, which mentions five additional descendants of Joseph in Gen. 46:20. Hence, the number he mentioned of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt was seventy-five instead of seventy.
Ac 7:15a Jacob  -   Gen. 46:5
Ac 7:15b ended  -   Gen. 49:33; Exo. 1:6
Ac 7:16a bought  -   Gen. 33:19; Josh. 24:32
Ac 7:17a promise  -   Acts 7:5
Ac 7:17b multiplied  -   Exo. 1:7, 12
Ac 7:181 another
Or, different (in character). Not only another king, but a king of different character.
Ac 7:18a king  -   Exo. 1:8
Ac 7:19a craftily  -   Exo. 1:10
Ac 7:19b babies  -   Exo. 1:16, 22
Ac 7:201 Moses
From v. 20 through v. 44 Stephen purposely gave a long narration in the most positive way concerning Moses. He did this to vindicate himself before his opposers, who had accused him of blaspheming Moses (6:11).
Ac 7:202 lovely
Lit., fair to God. A Hebraism denoting fair in the sight of God; hence, exceedingly fair.
Ac 7:20a three  -   Exo. 2:2
Ac 7:211 thrown
Or, put out (to die).
Ac 7:21a daughter  -   Exo. 2:3-10
Ac 7:221a wisdom  -   cf. Dan. 1:4, 17
I.e., wisdom in learning.
Ac 7:23a brothers  -   Exo. 2:11-12
Ac 7:26a fighting  -   Exo. 2:13
Ac 7:261 Men
A dignified and solemn form of address.
Ac 7:27a Who  -   Exo. 2:14
Ac 7:29a fled  -   Exo. 2:15
Ac 7:29b sons  -   Exo. 4:20; 18:3-4
Ac 7:301 Angel
Here and in vv. 35 and 38 the Angel (Messenger) in the Old Testament was Christ the Lord, who is Jehovah, the Triune God (Exo. 3:2-16; Judg. 6:12-24; Zech. 2:6-11). This is proved by the Lord and God in the following verses.
Ac 7:30a thornbush  -   Exo. 3:2
Ac 7:311 Lord
The Lord and God in vv. 31-35 are the Angel (Messenger) in vv. 30, 35, and 38.
Ac 7:32a I  -   Exo. 3:6
Ac 7:321 examine
Or, take notice of; hence, examine.
Ac 7:33a Untie  -   Exo. 3:5
Ac 7:341a I  -   Exo. 3:7
Lit., Having seen I saw. A Hebraism.
Ac 7:34b heard  -   Exo. 2:23-24
Ac 7:34c rescue  -   Exo. 3:8
Ac 7:35a Who  -   Acts 7:27
Ac 7:35b Angel  -   Exo. 23:20; 32:34; 33:2
Ac 7:351 appeared
Or, was seen by him.
Ac 7:36a out  -   Exo. 12:41
Ac 7:36b wonders  -   Exo. 7:3
Ac 7:36c Red  -   Exo. 14:21-31
Ac 7:36d wilderness  -   Exo. 16:1
Ac 7:36e forty  -   Exo. 16:35; Num. 14:33; Acts 7:42; 13:18
Ac 7:37a A  -   Deut. 18:15, 18; Acts 3:22
Ac 7:38a Angel  -   Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2
Ac 7:38b Mount  -   Exo. 19:19-20
Ac 7:38c oracles  -   Rom. 3:2
Ac 7:39a turned  -   Exo. 14:12; 16:3; Num. 11:5; 14:3-4
Ac 7:40a Make  -   Exo. 32:1, 23
Ac 7:411a calf  -   Exo. 32:4-5, 35
Or, young bull.
Ac 7:42a delivered  -   Psa. 81:12; Ezek. 20:39; Rom. 1:24
Ac 7:421 serve
I.e., star worship.
Ac 7:422b host  -   Deut. 4:19; 2 Kings 23:5; Jer. 19:13; Zeph. 1:5
I.e., heavenly bodies.
Ac 7:423 book
Probably referring to the twelve books of the minor prophets, from Hosea through Malachi, counting them as one book.
Ac 7:42c Did  -   Amos 5:25-27
Ac 7:42d forty  -   Acts 7:36
Ac 7:431 tabernacle
I.e., the portable tent-temple of the god, to be carried in procession (Vincent).
Ac 7:43a Moloch  -   1 Kings 11:7
Ac 7:432 Rompha
The Coptic name for Saturn.
Ac 7:44a Tabernacle  -   Exo. 38:21
Ac 7:44b Testimony  -   cf. Rev. 15:5
Ac 7:44c pattern  -   Exo. 25:9, 40
Ac 7:45a Joshua  -   Josh. 3:14; 18:1
Ac 7:45b possession  -   Neh. 9:23
Ac 7:45c drove  -   Josh. 3:10; 23:9; 24:18
Ac 7:45d David  -   Psa. 89:20; Acts 13:22
Ac 7:46a habitation  -   Psa. 132:5
Ac 7:46b God  -   Gen. 49:24
Ac 7:47a built  -   1 Kings 6:1; 8:13; 2 Chron. 3:1
Ac 7:481 Most
Stephen called God “the God of glory” (v. 2) and “the Most High” to vindicate himself before his opposers, who had accused him of blaspheming God (6:11).
Ac 7:482 not
Implying that God would abandon the material temple of the Old Testament and initiate a new dispensation, that His people might worship Him in the spirit (John 4:24), in which is God’s spiritual habitation, the church (Eph. 2:22).
Ac 7:48a dwell  -   2 Chron. 6:18; Acts 17:24
Ac 7:491 What
This quotation from Isa. 66:1-2 indicates that the Lord was seeking a spiritual habitation in man’s spirit. This is proved by the unquoted part of Isa. 66:2 that says, “But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit.”
Ac 7:51a stiff-necked  -   Exo. 32:9; 33:3; Deut. 10:16; Isa. 48:4
Ac 7:51b hearts  -   Lev. 26:41; Jer. 9:26; Ezek. 44:9
Ac 7:51c ears  -   Jer. 6:10
Ac 7:511 oppose
A very strong expression.
Ac 7:512 Spirit
Since Stephen was full of the Spirit (v. 55) and was one with the Lord the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), to oppose him was to oppose the Holy Spirit. Hence, the Lord indicated to Saul, one of Stephen’s persecutors (v. 58; 8:1), that he was persecuting Him (9:4).
Ac 7:52a prophets  -   Neh. 9:26; Matt. 5:12
Ac 7:52b righteous  -   Acts 3:14; 22:14; 1 John 2:1
Ac 7:53a law  -   Deut. 33:2; John 7:19
Ac 7:531 ordinances
The Greek word is a noun; the verb form of the same word is used in Gal. 3:19 and is rendered ordained there. The law of God was ordained through angels and became ordinances of angels.
Ac 7:53b angels  -   Acts 7:38
Ac 7:54a heard  -   Acts 5:33
Ac 7:541 exasperated
See note 331 in ch. 5.
Ac 7:54b gnashed  -   Psa. 35:16; 37:12; Job 16:9
Ac 7:551 full
See note 31 in ch. 6.
Ac 7:552a glory  -   Acts 7:2; Exo. 24:16; John 12:41
A great vindication and encouragement to the persecuted one.
Ac 7:553 standing
The Lord in ascension is usually referred to as sitting at the right hand of God (Matt. 26:64; Heb. 1:3, 13). But Stephen saw Him standing there. This indicates that the Lord was greatly concerned for His persecuted one.
Ac 7:55b right  -   Psa. 110:1; Mark 16:19
Ac 7:561 heavens
The earth rejected Stephen and was closed to him, but the heavens opened up to him, indicating that the heavens were with him and for him.
Ac 7:56a opened  -   Ezek. 1:1; Matt. 3:16; John 1:51; Acts 10:11; Rev. 4:1
Ac 7:56b Son  -   Matt. 26:64; Dan. 7:13
Ac 7:58a outside  -   1 Kings 21:13; Luke 4:29; Heb. 13:12
Ac 7:58b stoned  -   Matt. 23:37; Heb. 11:37
Ac 7:58c witnesses  -   Acts 6:13; Deut. 17:7
Ac 7:581d Saul  -   Acts 8:3; 9:1
Saul, who later became an apostle (13:9), helped the persecutors in their slaying of Stephen.
Ac 7:591 called
See note 211 in ch. 2.
Ac 7:59a spirit  -   Psa. 31:5; Luke 23:46
Ac 7:60a kneeling  -   Luke 22:41; Acts 9:40; 20:36
Ac 7:601 not
Stephen prayed for his persecutors in the same way that his Lord, whom he loved and lived, had prayed for His (Luke 23:34).
Ac 7:60b asleep  -   Dan. 12:2; Matt. 27:52; 1 Thes. 4:14-15; 1 Cor. 15:51
Acts Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 8:1a approved  -   Acts 22:20; Rom. 1:32
Ac 8:1b persecution  -   Acts 22:4; 1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13
Ac 8:11c church  -   Acts 8:3; 5:11; 9:31
This was the first church established in a locality (see note 111 in ch. 5) within the jurisdiction of a city, the city of Jerusalem. It was a local church in its locality, as indicated by the Lord in Matt. 18:17. It was not the universal church, as revealed by the Lord in Matt. 16:18, but only a part of the universal church, which is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23). The record concerning this matter (the establishing of the church in its locality) is consistent throughout the New Testament (13:1; 14:23; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 8:1; Gal. 1:2; Rev. 1:4, 11).
Ac 8:1d scattered  -   Acts 8:4; 11:19
Ac 8:1e Judea  -   Acts 1:8
Ac 8:3a Saul  -   Acts 7:58; 9:1
Ac 8:3b devastating  -   Acts 9:21; Gal. 1:13, 23
Ac 8:3c church  -   Acts 8:1
Ac 8:3d prison  -   Acts 22:4, 19; Luke 21:12
Ac 8:41a announcing  -   Acts 5:42
It was sovereign of God that the scattering of the believers from Jerusalem to other localities through the persecution should carry out the spreading of the gospel for the fulfillment of the Lord’s word in 1:8 (11:19).
Ac 8:51 Philip
This was not the Philip among the apostles (1:13) but the Philip among the seven appointed by the apostles to serve tables (6:5). Through his ministry in preaching the gospel, as recorded in this chapter, he was manifested to be an evangelist (21:8).
Ac 8:52 went
This was a further step in the Lord’s evangelistic move. By this He spread Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God from the racially pure Jews to the racially mixed Samaritans for the fulfillment of His prophecy in 1:8.
Ac 8:5a Samaria  -   Acts 1:8
Ac 8:6a signs  -   Mark 16:17-18
Ac 8:8a joy  -   Acts 8:39; 13:52
Ac 8:9a magic  -   Acts 8:11; 13:6
Ac 8:9b amazing  -   Acts 8:11, 13
Ac 8:10a God  -   Acts 14:11; 28:6
Ac 8:121 announced
Philip announced the kingdom of God as the gospel just as the Lord had done (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43 and note 1).
Ac 8:12a kingdom  -   Acts 1:3; 14:22
Ac 8:12b Jesus  -   Acts 4:12
Ac 8:12c baptized  -   Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38, 41; 10:48; 16:33
Ac 8:131a signs  -   Acts 8:6-7
See note 431 in ch. 2.
Ac 8:13b amazed  -   Acts 8:9, 11
Ac 8:151 receive
See note 387, par. 2, in ch. 2.
Ac 8:161 not
This does not mean that the believers in Samaria did not receive the Holy Spirit within them essentially when they believed in the Lord. According to the teaching of the New Testament in Eph. 1:13 and Gal. 3:2, they must have received the Holy Spirit essentially when they believed for their regeneration (John 3:6, 36). But they had not yet received the Spirit economically to identify them with the Body of Christ. The reason the Holy Spirit did not fall upon them outwardly and economically was so that the apostles, through whom the practical establishing of the church had been initiated in Jerusalem, might come to bring them into identification with the Body of Christ. This case is different from that of the ones in the house of Cornelius, who, when they believed in the Lord, received the Holy Spirit both essentially within them for regeneration and economically upon them for baptism into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) and identification with the Body of Christ. That was because the gospel was preached then directly by Peter, who played the main role in the initiation of the practical establishing of the church.
Ac 8:16a baptized  -   Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27
Ac 8:162 into
Not in the name but into the name. The name denotes the person. To be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus is to be baptized into the person of the Lord, to be identified with the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, to be put into an organic union with the living Lord. See notes 383 in ch. 2 and 194 in Matt. 28.
In Matt. 28:19 the Lord charged the disciples to baptize the believers into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But later, in practice, the believers were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, here and in 19:5, and into Christ, in Rom. 6:3 and Gal. 3:27. This indicates that (1) to be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus is equivalent to being baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, because the Lord Jesus is the Triune God, the embodiment of God Himself (Col. 2:9), and (2) to be baptized into the name of the Triune God or into the name of the Lord Jesus is equivalent to being baptized into the person of Christ.
Ac 8:163 name
Since the Samaritan believers had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, that is, into the Lord Himself, they surely must have received the Spirit of life essentially within them that they might be not only born of the Lord but also joined to the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), although they had not received the Spirit of power outwardly and economically.
Ac 8:171a laid  -   Acts 9:17; 19:6
See note 144 in 1 Tim. 4. Peter and John were sent to Samaria not only to confirm the preaching of the gospel by Philip, one of the seven appointed to serve tables, but also to bring the church in Samaria, composed of Samaritans, with whom the Jews had no dealings, into identification with the Body of Christ by laying their hands on them. The Holy Spirit honored this laying on of hands and fell upon the Samaritans, signifying their identification with the Body of Christ. In this way the Samaritan believers received the Holy Spirit economically in addition to their having received the Holy Spirit essentially when they believed in the Lord Jesus.
Ac 8:172 received
See notes 42 and 172 in ch. 2.
Ac 8:181 Spirit
Some MSS add, Holy.
Ac 8:182 money
This indicates that Simon’s practice of magic, which amazed people, was for money.
Ac 8:201 destruction
Not eternal perdition but a punishment, as in Heb. 10:39 (see note 2 there) and Matt. 7:13 (see note 3 there). Simon had believed in the gospel and had been baptized (v. 13); hence, he must have experienced salvation in its initial stage, but he had not been saved from his wicked thought and act concerning money. Therefore, he needed to repent of this wickedness that he might receive the Lord’s forgiveness; otherwise, he would go with his silver into punishment.
Ac 8:20a acquire  -   cf. Isa. 55:1
Ac 8:20b gift  -   Acts 2:38; 10:45; 11:17
Ac 8:211 this
The gift of God (v. 20).
Ac 8:21a heart  -   Psa. 78:8, 37
Ac 8:22a Repent  -   Rev. 2:16; 3:19
Ac 8:251a testified  -   Acts 2:40; 10:42
To testify the word of the Lord is to witness according to personal experience of the Lord, and to speak the word of the Lord is to preach and teach according to the revelation of the Lord. See note 401 in ch. 2.
Ac 8:25b announced  -   Acts 8:40; 5:42
Ac 8:26a angel  -   Acts 5:19; 27:23
Ac 8:26b Gaza  -   Gen. 10:19
Ac 8:271 Ethiopian
Ethiopia is Cush (Isa. 18:1), the land of the descendants of Cush, the son of Ham (Gen. 10:6). The gospel had spread from the racially pure Jews to the racially mixed Samaritans through Philip and Peter and John (vv. 5-25). Now the angel of the Lord directed Philip to contact an utter Gentile from Ethiopia. Through this the gospel spread southward to Africa.
Ac 8:27a eunuch  -   Jer. 38:7
Ac 8:27b treasure  -   Ezra 7:21
Ac 8:272c worship  -   John 12:20; Acts 24:11
Proving that the Ethiopian eunuch was seeking God (cf. 17:26-27).
Ac 8:291a Spirit  -   Acts 20:23; 21:11
The mentioning of the Spirit here, as in v. 39; 10:19; 13:2; and 16:6-7, indicates that in this book the Lord’s move in spreading His kingdom through the preaching of the gospel was by the Spirit’s leading and directing, not by man’s device and schedule. Hence, this move was not the act of man but the act of the Spirit. This is altogether different from today’s degraded practice.
Ac 8:31a unless  -   Rom. 10:14
Ac 8:321a He  -   Isa. 53:7-8
Referring to Christ the Redeemer. It must have been sovereignly of the Spirit’s leading that the eunuch opened to the passage concerning Christ as the sinners’ redeeming Lamb, a passage good for gospel preaching.
Ac 8:32b not  -   Matt. 26:63; John 19:9
Ac 8:33a humiliation  -   Phil. 2:8
Ac 8:35a Scripture  -   Luke 24:27; Acts 17:2; 18:28
Ac 8:35b announced  -   Acts 8:25, 40; 5:42
Ac 8:361 water
This indicates that Philip preached water baptism to the eunuch. In this gospel case, water baptism was particularly emphasized, but no mention was made of Spirit baptism. This should give us strong instruction that we must pay attention to water baptism, which signifies the believers’ identification with Christ’s death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12), as well as to Spirit baptism. Spirit baptism produces the reality of the believers’ union with Christ in life essentially and in power economically, whereas water baptism is the believers’ affirmation of the Spirit’s reality. Both are needed (cf. 10:47), and neither can replace the other. All believers in Christ should properly have both, just as the children of Israel were baptized in the cloud (signifying the Spirit) and in the sea (signifying water) — 1 Cor. 10:2. See notes 81 in Mark 1, 52 in John 3, and 61 in 1 John 5.
Ac 8:36a baptized  -   Acts 10:47
Ac 8:371 And
Many ancient MSS omit this verse.
Ac 8:38a baptized  -   Matt. 28:19
Ac 8:39a out  -   Matt. 3:16
Ac 8:39b Spirit  -   1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16; Ezek. 3:14; 8:3
Ac 8:39c caught  -   2 Cor. 12:4
Ac 8:39d rejoicing  -   Acts 8:8; 11:23
Ac 8:40a announced  -   Acts 8:25
Ac 8:40b Caesarea  -   Acts 21:8; 9:30; 10:1, 24
Acts Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 9:1a Saul  -   Acts 7:58; 8:3
Ac 9:2a letters  -   Acts 22:5
Ac 9:2b synagogues  -   Acts 22:19; Luke 12:11; 21:12
Ac 9:21c Way  -   Acts 18:25-26; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22
Denoting the Lord’s full salvation in God’s New Testament economy. It is the way God dispenses Himself into the believers through Christ’s redemption and the Spirit’s anointing; it is the way the believers partake of God and enjoy God; it is the way the believers worship God in their spirit by enjoying Him and follow the persecuted Jesus by being one with Him; and it is the way the believers are brought into the church and built up into the Body of Christ to bear the testimony of Jesus (cf. notes 22, 151, and 211 in 2 Pet. 2).
Ac 9:3a drew  -   vv. 3-8: Acts 22:6-11; 26:12-18
Ac 9:41a Me  -   Matt. 10:40; 25:40
A corporate “Me,” comprising Jesus the Lord and all His believers. Saul did not have this revelation. He thought that he was persecuting Stephen and other Jesus-followers, who were in the Way, which he considered heresy (24:14). He did not know that when he persecuted these he persecuted Jesus, for they were one with Him by being united to Him through their faith in Him. He considered that he was persecuting people on earth, never thinking that he touched anyone in heaven. To his great surprise a voice from heaven told him that He was the One whom he was persecuting and that His name was Jesus. To him this was a unique revelation in the universe! By this he began to see that the Lord Jesus and His believers are one great person — the wonderful “Me.” This must have impressed and affected him for his future ministry concerning Christ and the church as the great mystery of God (Eph. 5:32) and laid a solid foundation for his unique ministry.
Ac 9:51 Lord
Saul called Him “Lord,” even without knowing Him (cf. Rom. 10:13).
Ac 9:6a rise  -   Acts 9:11
Ac 9:61 will
The Lord would not directly tell Saul immediately after his conversion what He wanted him to do. This was because he needed a member of His Body to initiate him into identification with the Body, for he had been saved and brought to the Lord directly by Him, not indirectly through any channel. Unless a member of His Body had been sent by the Lord to contact him, it would have been difficult for any member of the Body to receive Saul (cf. v. 26). This is related to Saul’s knowledge concerning the Body of Christ and to his ministry for the Body of Christ later (Col. 1:24).
Ac 9:6b what  -   Acts 22:10
Ac 9:7a hearing  -   John 12:29
Ac 9:81 nothing
This was the Lord’s dealing with Saul. Before this, Saul would have considered himself marvelously knowledgeable, as one who knew all things concerning man and God. Now the Lord made him blind so that he could see nothing until the Lord opened his eyes, especially his inner eyes, and commissioned him to open the eyes of others (26:18).
Ac 9:10a Ananias  -   Acts 9:17; 22:12
Ac 9:10b I  -   Isa. 6:8
Ac 9:11a Rise  -   Acts 9:6
Ac 9:111 go
The Lord sent Ananias, one member of His Body, to Saul that Saul might be initiated into identification with the Body of Christ. This too must have impressed Saul with the importance of the Body of Christ, helping him to realize that a saved believer needs the members of the Body of Christ.
Ac 9:11b Tarsus  -   Acts 9:30; 21:39; 22:3
Ac 9:12a vision  -   Acts 10:3, 17, 19; 16:9-10
Ac 9:12b laying  -   Acts 9:17
Ac 9:121c receive  -   Acts 9:17, 18; 22:13
Or, regain. The blinded Saul’s receiving of sight was his being saved in full. This was exceedingly important to him. It was especially important that his inner eyes were opened to see the things of God concerning His mysteries and His economy.
Ac 9:13a saints  -   Acts 26:10; 9:32; Rom. 1:7; 15:25-26, 31; 2 Thes. 1:10
Ac 9:14a authority  -   Acts 26:10
Ac 9:141b call  -   Acts 9:21; 22:16; 2:21; Rom. 10:13
Indicating that in the early days calling upon the Lord’s name was a sign of the Lord’s followers (1 Cor. 1:2). This calling must have been audible, so that others could hear; thus it became a sign.
Ac 9:151 chosen
Because of this, Saul had been set apart from his mother’s womb and called by the Lord (Gal. 1:15). The Lord is sovereign and able, according to His choosing in eternity, to make the most fierce among His persecutors a vessel, a leading apostle, to carry out His commission in preaching the gospel and taking the way he had opposed and persecuted. Eventually, the opposing Saul became, in his victorious ministry of the gospel, Christ’s vanquished captive in the triumphal procession celebrating Christ’s victory over all His enemies (2 Cor. 2:14 and notes 1 and 2). The Lord’s perfecting of His chosen vessels in such a way is excellent and glorious.
Ac 9:15a vessel  -   Rom. 9:21-24; 2 Tim. 2:20-21
Ac 9:15b name  -   Acts 5:41
Ac 9:15c Gentiles  -   Acts 22:21; Rom. 11:13; 15:16; Gal. 1:16; 2:2, 8-9; Eph. 3:8; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 4:17
Ac 9:15d kings  -   Acts 25:26; 26:1-2
Ac 9:16a many  -   2 Cor. 6:4; 11:23
Ac 9:17a Ananias  -   Acts 9:10
Ac 9:171b laying  -   Acts 9:12
Saul’s case was a particular one also because, as the most significant persecutor, he had been saved directly by the Lord from heaven while on his way to persecute the believers. Hence, like the Samaritan believers (8:14-17 and note 171) and the twelve disciples in Ephesus (19:1-7), he needed a member of the Body of Christ to initiate him into identification with the Body of Christ by the laying on of hands.
Ac 9:17c receive  -   Acts 9:12, 18; 22:13
Ac 9:172 filled
Filled outwardly (see note 42 in ch. 2). According to the principle of salvation in God’s New Testament economy, Saul must have received the Holy Spirit of life essentially at the time of his conversion, prior to Ananias’s coming and laying his hands on him. Before Ananias came, Saul was praying to the Lord (v. 11), indicating that he had believed in the Lord and was calling on Him (cf. Rom. 10:13-14) like those believers whom he had ravaged and was going to arrest (vv. 21, 14). But since he had not been saved through any member of the Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit did not fall upon him economically (2:17 and note 2) until Ananias came as the representative of the Body to identify him with the Body of Christ.
Ac 9:181 received
See note 121.
Ac 9:182a baptized  -   Acts 22:16
By water (see notes 361 in ch. 8 and 161 in Mark 16).
Ac 9:19a Damascus  -   Acts 26:20
Ac 9:201 synagogues
See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 9:20a Son  -   Matt. 16:16; John 20:31; Rom. 1:3-4
Ac 9:21a ravaged  -   Acts 8:3
Ac 9:21b call  -   Acts 9:14
Ac 9:22a empowered  -   1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:17
Ac 9:22b confounded  -   Acts 18:28
Ac 9:22c Christ  -   Luke 9:20; John 11:27
Ac 9:23a do  -   Acts 9:29; 12:2; 23:12; 25:3
Ac 9:24a plot  -   Acts 20:3, 19; 23:12
Ac 9:24b watched  -   2 Cor. 11:32
Ac 9:24c do  -   Acts 23:15, 21; 25:3
Ac 9:25a let  -   cf. Josh. 2:15; 1 Sam. 19:12
Ac 9:25b lowering  -   2 Cor. 11:33
Ac 9:26a Jerusalem  -   Acts 22:17; 26:20; Gal. 1:17-18
Ac 9:27a Barnabas  -   Acts 4:36; 11:22-26, 30; 13:1-2
Ac 9:27b led  -   Gal. 1:18-19
Ac 9:27c seen  -   Acts 9:3-6
Ac 9:27d boldly  -   Acts 4:13, 29
Ac 9:28a going  -   Acts 1:21
Ac 9:29a Hellenists  -   Acts 6:1; John 7:35
Ac 9:29b do  -   Acts 9:23
Ac 9:30a brothers  -   John 21:23; Acts 11:1
Ac 9:30b Caesarea  -   Acts 8:40
Ac 9:30c Tarsus  -   Acts 9:11
Ac 9:311a church  -   Acts 5:11; 11:22
Since at that time the church had spread only to the regions of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and since the word whole covers all the places where the church existed, church in singular is used here in the universal sense, although there must have been churches in the local sense in a number of the cities of these three regions.
Ac 9:31b Judea  -   Acts1:8
Ac 9:312 peace
They had peace inwardly, although there was persecution outwardly. The church is afraid not of being persecuted outwardly but of not having peace inwardly, for only when there is peace can there be the building up.
Ac 9:313 being
The building up proceeded after the establishing of the church.
Ac 9:314c fear  -   Neh. 5:9
Not in the fear of men, although there were persecutions, but in the fear of the Lord lest the church offend the Lord by being put down or even subdued by the persecution, and lest she offend Him in other things.
Ac 9:315 comfort
Indicating that the church was suffering affliction through the persecutions, in which she feared the Lord and enjoyed the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Ac 9:31d multiplied  -   Acts 5:14
Ac 9:32a saints  -   Acts 9:13
Ac 9:321 Lydda
A town about eleven miles southeast of Joppa, called Lod in the Old Testament (1 Chron. 8:12; Ezra 2:33).
Ac 9:33a paralyzed  -   Matt. 4:24; 9:2
Ac 9:34a Jesus  -   Acts 3:6; 4:10
Ac 9:34b Rise  -   Matt. 9:6
Ac 9:341 make
I.e., put in order.
Ac 9:35a Sharon  -   1 Chron. 5:16; 27:29; S.S. 2:1; Isa. 33:9
Ac 9:35b turned  -   Acts 11:21; 2 Cor. 3:16
Ac 9:36a Joppa  -   Josh. 19:46
Ac 9:361 Dorcas
Meaning gazelle.
Ac 9:36b good  -   Rom. 13:3; 2 Cor. 9:8; Eph. 2:10; 1 Tim. 2:10; Titus 3:1
Ac 9:371 her
Lit., her.
Ac 9:37a upper  -   Acts 1:13; 20:8
Ac 9:381 there
Lit., in it.
Ac 9:39a widows  -   Acts 6:1
Ac 9:391 tunics
A shirt-like undergarment.
Ac 9:40a outside  -   Matt. 9:25
Ac 9:40b kneeling  -   Acts 7:60
Ac 9:40c prayed  -   Acts 28:8; James 5:14-15
Ac 9:40d rise  -   Luke 7:14; 8:54
Ac 9:41a presented  -   cf. Luke 7:15; 1 Kings 17:23
Ac 9:42a believed  -   John 11:45; 12:11
Ac 9:43a tanner  -   Acts 10:6
Acts Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 10:1a Caesarea  -   Acts 9:30; 12:19
Ac 10:11 Italian
Here the Lord took a further step in His evangelistic work. By this He reached another utter Gentile, a man of Italy of the Roman Empire in Europe. Thus the door of the gospel was opened to all the Gentiles. It was difficult for the Jewish apostles and disciples, with their Jewish background and habit, to come near the Gentiles (v. 28). Hence, this was an extraordinary move, needing the participation of an angel of God (v. 3), just as when Philip approached the Ethiopian, a man from Africa, in 8:26. In the two cases the Spirit spoke to Philip and to Peter, respectively, in a particular way (8:29; 10:19).
Ac 10:12 cohort
One of ten divisions of an ancient Roman legion. It was composed of six hundred men.
Ac 10:21a Devout  -   Acts 8:2; 22:12
Like the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, the Roman centurion, was seeking God, as Paul mentioned in 17:27.
Ac 10:2b feared  -   Acts 10:22, 35; 13:16
Ac 10:31a vision  -   Acts 9:12; 10:17, 19
See note 103.
Ac 10:32b ninth  -   Acts 10:30; 3:1
I.e., 3:00 p.m. (so also in v. 30).
Ac 10:3c angel  -   Acts 5:19
Ac 10:4a prayers  -   Acts 10:31; Psa. 141:2; Rev. 8:4
Ac 10:41b memorial  -   Heb. 6:10; cf. Matt. 26:13
Though Cornelius was part of fallen mankind, sinful and condemned before God like all others, God accepted his prayers and his alms, whereas He rejected Cain’s (Gen. 4:3, 5). This must have been because of the fact that God, based on Christ’s eternal redemption and in view of Cornelius’s believing in Christ in the ensuing days, forgave him (v. 43) according to His foreknowledge.
Ac 10:6a tanner  -   Acts 9:43
Ac 10:9a housetop  -   1 Sam. 9:25; Zeph. 1:5
Ac 10:91b pray  -   vv. 9-32: Acts 11:5-14
Cornelius received a vision in prayer (v. 30), and Peter also received a vision (vv. 17, 19) in prayer, through which God’s plan and move were carried out. Man’s prayer is needed as a means of cooperating with God’s move.
Ac 10:92 sixth
I.e., 12:00 noon (cf. Psa. 55:17).
Ac 10:101 hungry
Signifying seeking after the things of God (Matt. 5:6). God fills the hungry with good things (Luke 1:53).
Ac 10:102 eat
A word usually rendered taste.
Ac 10:103a trance  -   Acts 22:17
The Greek word means being put out of its place, referring to a state in which a man senses that he passes out of himself and from which he comes to himself (note 111 in ch. 12), as in a dream but without sleep. It differs from a vision, as in vv. 3, 17, and 19, in which definite objects are visible to human eyes. However, in this ecstasy, or trance, Peter saw a vision (11:5).
Ac 10:111 heaven
Indicating that the Lord’s evangelistic move on earth is under His administration on the throne in heaven (cf. Heb. 8:1; Acts 7:56). All the apostles and evangelists were and still are carrying out the heavenly commission on earth for the spreading of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Ac 10:11a opened  -   Acts 7:56; Matt. 3:16; John 1:51; Rev. 19:11
Ac 10:112 vessel
The vessel that was like a great sheet symbolizes the gospel spreading to the four corners of the inhabited earth to collect all kinds of unclean (sinful) people (Luke 13:29).
Ac 10:121 animals
Symbolizing men of all kinds (vv. 15, 28, and notes).
Ac 10:131 eat
In this sign, to eat is to associate with people (v. 28).
Ac 10:141a never  -   Ezek. 4:14; cf. Dan. 1:8
As taught in Lev. 11. Circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and a particular diet are the three strongest ordinances according to the law of Moses that make the Jews distinct and separate from the Gentiles, whom the Jews consider unclean. All these scriptural ordinances of the Old Testament dispensation became an obstacle to the spreading of the gospel to the Gentiles according to God’s New Testament dispensation (15:1; Col. 2:16).
Ac 10:14b common  -   Acts 10:28
Ac 10:14c unclean  -   Lev. 20:25
Ac 10:151 things
Referring to people whom God has cleansed through the redeeming blood of Christ (Rev. 1:5) and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5; Acts 15:9).
Ac 10:15a cleansed  -   Acts 15:9
Ac 10:171a vision  -   Acts 10:3
See note 103.
Ac 10:19a Spirit  -   Acts 8:29
Ac 10:201 I
This indicates that Cornelius’s sending of the three men was the Spirit’s move and act through him even before his conversion.
Ac 10:22a fears  -   Acts 10:2
Ac 10:22b well  -   Acts 22:12
Ac 10:22c holy  -   Mark 8:38
Ac 10:22d words  -   Acts 11:14
Ac 10:231a some  -   Acts 10:45; 11:12
In this strategic case Peter did not act individualistically but with some of the brothers, in the principle of the Body of Christ, that they might bear witness to the way in which God dealt with the Gentiles, that is, preaching the gospel to them through Peter’s breaking of the Jewish tradition and habit (11:12).
Ac 10:25a falling  -   Dan. 2:46; Acts 16:29
Ac 10:26a man  -   Acts 14:14-15
Ac 10:28a another  -   Acts 11:3; Gal. 2:12
Ac 10:281 man
This indicates that eventually Peter understood the significance of the vision he had seen in the trance (vv. 11, 17, 19), that is, that the animals in the great sheet represented men.
Ac 10:28b common  -   Acts 10:14-15
Ac 10:30a in  -   Luke 24:4
Ac 10:31a heard  -   cf. Dan. 10:12
Ac 10:31b remembered  -   Acts 10:4
Ac 10:34a respecter  -   2 Chron. 19:7; Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; 1 Pet. 1:17
Ac 10:35a every  -   Acts 17:26-27
Ac 10:35b fears  -   Acts 10:2
Ac 10:35c righteousness  -   Isa. 64:5
Ac 10:351 acceptable
Those who fear God and work righteousness in every nation are still a part of fallen mankind. God accepts them in view of the redemption of Christ (see note 41). Outside of Christ, no fallen man is justified by his works (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16).
Ac 10:36a peace  -   Eph. 2:17
Ac 10:36b Lord  -   Rom. 10:12
Ac 10:361 all
Referring to men (1 Tim. 2:4), not only Jews but also Gentiles.
Ac 10:371 the
Lit., the word which has taken place. The Greek word for word here denotes instant words.
Ac 10:37a Galilee  -   Matt. 4:12; Mark 1:14
Ac 10:38a Nazareth  -   Acts 2:22
Ac 10:38b anointed  -   Acts 4:27
Ac 10:38c Spirit  -   Matt. 3:16
Ac 10:38d power  -   Luke 6:19
Ac 10:38e oppressed  -   Luke 4:18
Ac 10:38f with  -   John 3:2; 8:29; 16:32
Ac 10:39a witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; 10:41
Ac 10:39b did  -   Acts 2:23; 3:15; 7:52
Ac 10:39c tree  -   Acts 5:30
Ac 10:401 God
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 10:40a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 13:30
Ac 10:40b third  -   Luke 9:22; 1 Cor. 15:4
Ac 10:402c manifest  -   Acts 1:3; John 14:21-22
Lit., to become visible.
Ac 10:41a witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; 13:31
Ac 10:41b ate  -   Luke 24:43; John 21:12
Ac 10:411 He
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 10:42a charged  -   Matt. 28:20; Acts 1:2
Ac 10:42b testify  -   Acts 2:40; 14:3
Ac 10:421c Judge  -   John 5:22, 27; 1 Pet. 4:5
At His coming back, before the millennium, the resurrected Christ will judge the living on His throne of glory (Matt. 25:31-46). This is related to His second coming (2 Tim. 4:1). After the millennium He will judge the dead on the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). See note 311 in ch. 17. That will be the final clearance of the defiled old creation.
Ac 10:42d living  -   Rom. 14:9
Ac 10:43a prophets  -   Luke 24:27; Acts 3:18, 24; 26:22; Rom. 3:21
Ac 10:43b name  -   Acts 4:12; John 20:31; 1 John 2:12
Ac 10:43c believes  -   John 3:18; Rom. 10:11; Gal. 3:22
Ac 10:431d forgiveness  -   Acts 5:31; Jer. 31:34
This proves that even though Cornelius feared God and worked righteousness and his prayers and alms had been accepted by God, he still needed God’s forgiveness of his sins through his believing into Christ, the Redeemer (see notes 41 and 351).
Ac 10:44a Spirit  -   Acts 11:15; 15:8; 2:17, 38; Gal. 3:14
Ac 10:441 fell
Outwardly and economically (see note 82 in ch. 1). In the case of the house of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit’s entering into the believers essentially for life and falling upon them economically for power occurred simultaneously when they believed in the Lord. However, only His falling upon them economically is noted here, because it was outward and could be realized by others through their speaking in tongues and magnifying God (v. 46). His entering into them occurred silently and invisibly. They received both aspects of the Holy Spirit directly from Christ the Head, without any mediatorial channel, before they were baptized in water by other members of the Body of Christ. This indicates emphatically that the spreading of the gospel of the kingdom of God to the Gentiles was of the Lord, and that the Head of the Body baptized the Gentile believers into His Body directly, without the laying on of hands of any member of His Body, in contrast to the cases of the Samaritan believers and Saul of Tarsus (8:17; 9:17).
Ac 10:442 hearing
This included their believing into the Lord (v. 43; John 5:24; Rom. 10:14; Eph. 1:13).
Ac 10:45a circumcision  -   Acts 11:2
Ac 10:45b as  -   Acts 10:23; 11:12
Ac 10:45c Gentiles  -   Acts 11:18; Gal. 3:14
Ac 10:451d gift  -   Acts 2:38
The Holy Spirit Himself, not anything of the Holy Spirit given to the believers as a gift (see note 386 in ch. 2).
Ac 10:452 poured
By God from the all-inclusive, resurrected, and ascended Christ (see note 172 in ch. 2).
Ac 10:461a speaking  -   Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4, 6, 8
Speaking in tongues was not the unique issue of receiving the Holy Spirit economically, because in this case the magnifying, that is, the praising, of God was also one of its issues, as was prophesying in the case of the twelve believers in Ephesus (19:6). Hence, speaking in tongues is not the only evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit economically; neither is it the necessary evidence, because there is at least one case of the receiving of the Holy Spirit economically, the case of the Samaritan believers (8:15-17), which does not mention speaking in tongues. In the case of Saul of Tarsus (9:17) concerning this matter, there again is no mention of speaking in tongues, although he told us later, in 1 Cor. 14:18, that he spoke in tongues.
Ac 10:462 magnifying
The same expression as in Luke 1:46.
Ac 10:47a baptized  -   Acts 8:36
Ac 10:471b as  -   Acts 11:17; 15:8
Like the early apostles and the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost (2:4), the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius received the Holy Spirit economically directly from the ascended Head. Only these two instances in the New Testament are considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit (1:5; 11:15-16). By these two steps the Head of the Body baptized all His believers, both Jewish and Gentile, once for all into His one Body (1 Cor. 12:13). Hence, the baptism in the Spirit is an accomplished fact carried out by Christ in His ascension, on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. None of the other cases — the Samaritan believers in ch. 8, Saul of Tarsus in ch. 9, and the twelve Ephesian believers in ch. 19 — are considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit according to the revelation of the New Testament. These other cases were merely the believers’ experiences of the once-for-all-accomplished baptism in the Holy Spirit.
In this book, concerning the believers’ receiving of the Holy Spirit economically, that is, the Holy Spirit’s falling upon them, only five cases are mentioned. Two of them are for the accomplishing of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. These are the instances that occurred on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. The other three — the cases of the Samaritan believers, Saul of Tarsus, and the twelve believers in Ephesus — are considered extraordinary, in that some members of the Body of Christ were needed to identify those believers with the Body by the laying on of hands. Besides these five cases, in many cases of conversion, such as the three thousand (2:41), the five thousand (4:4), the Ethiopian eunuch (8:36, 38-39a), the many who believed in Antioch (11:20-21, 24), the many instances in chs. 13 and 14 under Paul’s preaching ministry, Lydia in Philippi (16:14-15), the jailer in Philippi (16:33), the believers in Thessalonica (17:4), the believers in Berea (17:10-12), the believers in Athens (17:34), the ruler of the synagogue and many other believers in Corinth (18:8), and the believers in Ephesus (19:18-19), there is no mention of the believers’ receiving of the Holy Spirit economically — the Holy Spirit’s falling upon the believers — because in all these cases the believers were brought into the Body of Christ in a normal way through their believing and had no particular need for a member of the Body of Christ to bring them into identification with the Body by the laying on of hands. According to the principle of God’s New Testament economy, they all must have received the Holy Spirit essentially for life and economically for power in a normal way through their believing into Christ.
Ac 10:481 baptized
See note 361 in ch. 8.
Ac 10:482 in
Cf. into the name in 8:16.
Ac 10:483 name
The name denotes the person (see note 195 in Matt. 28). To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to be baptized into the person of Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27), which is also to be baptized into the sphere of His person (see note 383 in ch. 2).
Acts Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 11:1a brothers  -   Acts 11:29; 9:30
Ac 11:21a circumcision  -   Acts 10:45; Col. 4:11; Titus 1:10
Circumcision was an outward ordinance inherited by the Jews from their forefathers, beginning from Abraham (Gen. 17:9-14). It made them distinct and separate from the Gentiles. It became a dead, traditional formality, a mere mark on the flesh without any spiritual significance, and became a great obstacle to the spread of God’s gospel according to His New Testament economy (15:1; Gal. 2:3-4; 6:12-13; Phil. 3:2; see note 141 in ch. 10).
Ac 11:3a ate  -   Gal. 2:12; cf. Luke 15:2
Ac 11:3b with  -   Acts 10:28
Ac 11:5a praying  -   vv. 5-14: Acts 10:9-32
Ac 11:121 doubting
Or, making no distinction.
Ac 11:122 these
The six brothers were present while Peter was speaking, as witnesses to his word.
Ac 11:12a six  -   Acts 10:23, 45
Ac 11:141 house
See note 311 in ch. 16.
Ac 11:15a Spirit  -   Acts 10:44
Ac 11:15b in  -   Acts 2:4
Ac 11:16a John  -   Acts 1:5
Ac 11:17a gift  -   Acts 10:45; 8:20
Ac 11:17b as  -   Acts 10:47; 15:8
Ac 11:17c who  -   cf. Rom. 9:20
Ac 11:18a glorified  -   Acts 21:20
Ac 11:18b Gentiles  -   Acts 10:45; 13:46-47; Rom. 15:9-10
Ac 11:18c repentance  -   Acts 5:31
Ac 11:181 life
Gk. zoe, referring to the life of God (Eph. 4:18), the eternal life (1 John 1:2), the uncreated, indestructible life (Heb. 7:16), which is Christ Himself (John 14:6; 11:25; Col. 3:4) as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), of which life the Spirit is (Rom. 8:2). This life is received by the believers through their believing into Christ (John 3:15-16) after repentance, and issues in their full salvation (Rom. 5:10). The gospel preached by Peter comprises the divine blessings not only of forgiveness (5:31; 10:43) and salvation (2:21; 4:12) but also of the Spirit (2:38) and life. Forgiveness deals with people’s sins, and life, with people’s death (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14; 2 Cor. 5:4).
Ac 11:191a scattered  -   Acts 8:1
See note 41 in ch. 8.
Ac 11:192 no
This indicates how strong the Jewish believers were in keeping their traditions. They would not come near the Gentiles (10:28). This condition continued even after Peter’s preaching to Cornelius, an Italian. It surely restricted the Lord’s move in spreading His gospel according to God’s New Testament economy.
Ac 11:201 men
They must have been from among the Jewish believers in dispersion (cf. 1 Pet. 1:1).
Ac 11:202 spoke
This was a further step of the Lord’s move in spreading His gospel to the Gentiles after what happened in the house of Cornelius (ch. 10) and before Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, which began in ch. 13.
Ac 11:20a Greeks  -   John 7:35
Ac 11:20b announcing  -   Acts 5:42
Ac 11:21a hand  -   Luke 1:66
Ac 11:21b great  -   Acts 11:24
Ac 11:21c turned  -   Acts 9:35
Ac 11:22a church  -   Acts 5:11; 11:26
Ac 11:221 sent
The Greek word denotes being sent out (on a mission) as an authoritative representative. Barnabas was sent out from Jerusalem to visit the believers in other places; he was sent with authority from the apostles, not from the church, because the apostles were there in Jerusalem.
Ac 11:222 Barnabas
Saul was saved by the Lord directly without any preaching channel (9:3-6) and was brought into identification with the Body of Christ through Ananias, a member of the Body of Christ (9:10-19). However, he was introduced to practical fellowship with the disciples in Jerusalem through Barnabas (9:26-28). Now Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to go as far as Antioch to encourage the believers, and he went to Tarsus to bring Saul to Antioch (vv. 25-26). This was a great step. It initiated Saul into the Lord’s move in spreading the gospel of His kingdom to the Gentile world (13:1-3; see note 251 in ch. 12).
Ac 11:231a grace  -   Acts 4:33; 13:43; 2 Cor. 6:1; Col. 1:6
See notes 146 in John 1 and 101 in 1 Cor. 15. The grace that was seen by Barnabas must have been the Triune God received and enjoyed by the believers and expressed in their salvation, change in life, holy living, and the gifts they exercised in their meetings, all of which could be seen by others.
Ac 11:23b rejoiced  -   Acts 8:39
Ac 11:232 remain
I.e., be persistently faithful to the Lord, cleave to Him, and live in close fellowship with Him.
Ac 11:23c purpose  -   2 Tim. 3:10
Ac 11:241 full
See note 31 in ch. 6.
Ac 11:24a considerable  -   Acts 11:21
Ac 11:242 number
Or, crowd (also in v. 26).
Ac 11:24b added  -   Acts 5:14
Ac 11:25a Tarsus  -   Acts 9:30
Ac 11:26a Antioch  -   Acts 13:1
Ac 11:26b church  -   Acts 11:22; 12:1
Ac 11:261c Christians  -   Acts 26:28
See note 161 in 1 Pet. 4. That the disciples in Antioch were given such a nickname, a term of reproach, indicates that they must have borne a strong testimony for the Lord, a testimony that made them distinct and peculiar in the eyes of the unbelievers.
Ac 11:271a prophets  -   Acts 13:1; 15:32
See note 283 in 1 Cor. 12.
Ac 11:28a Agabus  -   Acts 21:10
Ac 11:28b Spirit  -   Acts 2:18; 8:29; 10:19; 21:4, 11
Ac 11:28c famine  -   Matt. 24:7
Ac 11:281d Claudius  -   Acts 18:2
A Caesar of the Roman Empire. In the fourth year of his reign, about A.D. 44, there was a famine in Judea and the neighboring countries.
Ac 11:291 disciples
This verse shows that the believers’ having all things in common (2:44-45; 4:32), which was practiced at the time of Pentecost, had become a thing of the past at the time the matter here was mentioned, no more than ten years after Pentecost, long before Paul began his ministry to the Gentiles (13:2-4). This word indicates further that there was no uniformly prescribed way in the early days of the church concerning the believers’ giving of material things; rather, it was left to each believer to give out of his own will and his own initiation.
Ac 11:292 prospered
The Greek word here means to progress favorably, or to go on smoothly; hence, it denotes to thrive smoothly, to prosper, in an enterprise, an occupation, or other activities. Prosperity is given by God, and it issues in surplus and abundance.
Ac 11:29a send  -   Acts 24:17; Rom. 15:26; 1 Cor. 16:1
Ac 11:293 for
Lit., for a service. Derived from the same Greek word as the word for ministered in Matt. 4:11.
Ac 11:29b dispensing  -   Acts 12:25
Ac 11:29c brothers  -   Acts 11:1
Ac 11:301a elders  -   Acts 14:23; 15:2, 4, 6; 20:17; 21:18; 1 Tim. 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14
This indicates that in the early days the finances of the church were under the management of the elders (see note 35 in 1 Tim. 3).
Ac 11:30b Barnabas  -   Acts 13:1
Ac 11:302 Saul
Now Saul, through Barnabas, was brought into the service among the churches.
Acts Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 12:11 Herod
Herod, Agrippa I, whose successor was King Agrippa (II) in 25:13. Both were different from Herod the tetrarch in 13:1. Thus far the church had suffered persecution only from the Jewish religion. Now Gentile politics began to participate in the persecution in cooperation with the Jewish religion (v. 11).
Ac 12:1a church  -   Acts 12:5; 5:11; 13:1
Ac 12:1b mistreat  -   Acts 9:13
Ac 12:2a did  -   Acts 9:23
Ac 12:2b James  -   Matt. 4:21
Ac 12:2c sword  -   Heb. 11:37
Ac 12:3a pleasing  -   Acts 24:27; 25:9
Ac 12:3b Unleavened  -   Acts 20:6; Exo. 12:15-20; 23:15
Ac 12:4a seized  -   cf. John 21:18
Ac 12:4b prison  -   Luke 21:12; Acts 16:23
Ac 12:41 quaternions
A quaternion was a group of four soldiers.
Ac 12:4c Passover  -   Exo. 12:11, 21; John 18:28
Ac 12:5a prayer  -   Acts 12:12; Eph. 6:18
Ac 12:5b church  -   Acts 12:1
Ac 12:6a bound  -   Acts 21:33
Ac 12:7a angel  -   Acts 5:19
Ac 12:7b stood  -   Luke 2:9; 24:4
Ac 12:7c struck  -   1 Kings 19:7
Ac 12:7d chains  -   Acts 16:26
Ac 12:8a sandals  -   Mark 6:9
Ac 12:9a vision  -   Acts 10:3, 17; 11:5; 16:9-10
Ac 12:10a opened  -   Acts 5:19; 16:26
Ac 12:111 came
Perhaps Peter felt that he had gone out of himself as in a trance; now he came to himself, that is, became sober. Cf. note 103 in ch. 10.
Ac 12:11a angel  -   Gen. 48:16; Psa. 34:7; 91:11; Dan. 3:28; 6:22
Ac 12:11b rescued  -   Psa. 33:18-19; 97:10; 2 Cor. 1:10; 2 Pet. 2:9
Ac 12:12a John  -   Acts 12:25; 13:5, 13; 15:37, 39; Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11; Philem. 24; 1 Pet. 5:13
Ac 12:12b praying  -   Acts 12:5
Ac 12:151 his
Not only the apostle Peter had an angel; even the little ones among the believers have their angels (Matt. 18:10). Angels are servants to the believers who inherit God’s salvation (see note 141 in Heb. 1). This is an arrangement in God’s eternal economy.
Ac 12:17a motioning  -   Acts 19:33; 21:40
Ac 12:171b James  -   James 1:1
This indicates that James was a leader among the apostles and among the elders of Jerusalem (cf. 15:13; 21:18; Gal. 1:19; 2:9, 12).
Ac 12:17c brothers  -   Acts 11:1
Ac 12:19a Caesarea  -   Acts 10:1, 24
Ac 12:201 chamberlain
One who takes care of the bed chamber.
Ac 12:20a fed  -   Ezra 3:7
Ac 12:23a angel  -   2 Sam. 24:17; 2 Kings 19:35
Ac 12:23b glory  -   cf. Psa. 115:1
Ac 12:23c worms  -   Jonah 4:7
Ac 12:231 expired
See note 51 in ch. 5.
Ac 12:241 God
Some MSS read, the Lord.
Ac 12:24a grew  -   Acts 6:7
Ac 12:251 Barnabas
Verses 1-24 are a parenthetical section, a record of Peter’s persecution. This verse is a continuation of 11:30, which, with the preceding verses from 11:22, is a narration of Paul’s initiation into his apostolic ministry (see note 222 in ch. 11). The passage from 11:19 — 12:25 is a transitional record between Peter’s apostolic ministry to the Jews in chs. 2 — 11 and Paul’s apostolic ministry to the Gentiles in chs. 13 — 28 (cf. Gal. 2:7-8).
Ac 12:25a dispensing  -   Acts 11:29
Ac 12:25b John  -   Acts 12:12; 13:5, 13
Acts Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 13:1a Antioch  -   Acts 11:26
Ac 13:11b church  -   Acts 5:11; 14:23
See note 11 in ch. 8.
Ac 13:12c prophets  -   Acts 11:27
See note 283 in 1 Cor. 12.
Ac 13:13 teachers
See note 284 in 1 Cor. 12.
Ac 13:14d Barnabas  -   Acts 11:22, 24
A Levite, a Cyprian by birth (4:36).
Ac 13:15 Niger
Meaning black and denoting a Negro, probably of African origin.
Ac 13:16 Lucius
A Cyrenian from Cyrene in North Africa. He was a Jew if he was the Lucius in Rom. 16:21, a kinsman of Paul.
Ac 13:17 Manaen
Herod was governmentally related to the Romans; hence, Manaen, Herod’s foster brother, must have been Europeanized.
Ac 13:18e Herod  -   Luke 3:1
The one who killed John the Baptist (Luke 9:7-9). It was the Lord’s sovereign doing that the foster brother of John the Baptist’s murderer became one of the leading functioning members in the church.
Ac 13:19f Saul  -   Acts 11:25
A Jew born in Tarsus and taught by Gamaliel according to the law of Moses (22:3). The five prophets and teachers recorded here were composed of Jews and Gentiles, each having a different background, education, and status. This indicates that the church is composed of all races and classes of people regardless of their background, and that the spiritual gifts and functions given to the members of the Body of Christ are not based on their natural status.
Ac 13:21 ministering
Not conferring with men and organizing.
Ac 13:22 Holy
As the pneumatic Christ, the Head of the Body.
Ac 13:2a Spirit  -   Acts 8:29; 10:19; 16:6-7; 20:28
Ac 13:23b Set  -   1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11
This was a great step taken by the Lord for the spread of the gospel of His kingdom to the Gentile world. It was begun from Antioch, a Gentile center in Syria, without the organizing of a mission, without the raising of funds, without human ordination, and without any human plan or method. It was initiated by five faithful and seeking members of the Body of Christ, who gave the Head of the Body an opportunity through their ministering and fasting, that He, as the Spirit, might set them apart to carry out His great commission to spread His kingdom for the establishing of His church in the Gentile world through the preaching of His gospel. This major step had nothing to do with the church in Jerusalem organizationally, and it was not under the authority and direction of Peter and the other eleven apostles in Jerusalem. It was begun solely and purely from a Gentile center, far away from the atmosphere and influence of any Judaic background and practice and even from the practice and influence of the church in Jerusalem. It was absolutely a move by the Spirit, in the Spirit, and with the Spirit through the coordination of the faithful and seeking members of the Body of Christ on the earth with the Head in the heavens. Hence, this was not a religious movement with a human schedule. From Antioch the Lord’s move on the earth for God’s New Testament economy had an entirely new start. Although the flow of the Lord’s move began from Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and later came to Antioch and went on from Antioch to the Gentile world, it had a purified start by the Spirit at its turn in Antioch.
Ac 13:2c work  -   Acts 9:15; 22:21
Ac 13:2d called  -   Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:15
Ac 13:31a fasted  -   Acts 14:23
Not discussed and decided.
Ac 13:32b laid  -   Acts 6:6
See note 144 in 1 Tim. 4. Here the laying on of hands denotes identification, signifying that they who laid their hands were one with those on whom they laid hands. By this they declared to all that they were one with the sent ones in their going to carry out the Lord’s great commission.
Ac 13:41 Spirit
In v. 3 Barnabas and Saul were sent by the other three. But here it says that they were sent out by the Spirit. This proves that the three were one with the Spirit in the Lord’s move, and the Spirit honored their sending as His.
Ac 13:42 went
This was the start of Paul’s first ministry journey, which ended in 14:27.
Ac 13:4a Cyprus  -   Acts 4:36
Ac 13:5a word  -   Acts 13:26, 46
Ac 13:51 in
Barnabas and Saul did not go to attend the Jewish synagogue gathering but to take advantage of that gathering to announce the word of God, just as the Lord did in His ministry on the earth (Matt. 4:23; Luke 4:16). See note 141.
Ac 13:52b synagogues  -   Acts 13:14; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:15-16
See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 13:5c John  -   Acts 12:12, 25; 13:13; 15:37
Ac 13:5d attendant  -   Acts 19:22
Ac 13:6a magician  -   Acts 8:9, 11
Ac 13:6b false  -   Matt. 7:15
Ac 13:71a proconsul  -   Acts 18:12; 19:38
At that time Cyprus was a senatorial province of the Roman Empire, and the head of its local government was the proconsul.
Ac 13:8a magician  -   cf. Exo. 7:11
Ac 13:8b opposed  -   2 Tim. 3:8
Ac 13:81 faith
The objective faith, referring to the contents of the gospel, in which the believers in Christ believe (see note 11, par. 2, in 1 Tim. 1).
Ac 13:91 Paul
The change of name may indicate a change in life. In any case, after Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit here, he took the lead in the apostolic ministry all the way.
Ac 13:92 filled
The outward filling for power. See note 42 in ch. 2.
Ac 13:10a devil  -   John 8:44; 1 John 3:8, 10
Ac 13:101 straight
See note 151 in 2 Pet. 2.
Ac 13:11a hand  -   Exo. 9:3; Psa. 32:4
Ac 13:13a Perga  -   Acts 14:25
Ac 13:13b Pamphylia  -   Acts 2:10; 14:24
Ac 13:13c John  -   Acts 13:5
Ac 13:131 departed
Based on 15:38, the reason for John’s departing must have been negative and hence a discouragement to Paul and his companions. However, he was recovered to Paul in Paul’s later ministry (Col. 4:10-11; 2 Tim. 4:11).
Ac 13:14a Antioch  -   Acts 14:21
Ac 13:14b synagogue  -   Acts 13:5
Ac 13:141 on
The purpose of the apostles’ going to the synagogue on the Sabbath day was not to keep the Sabbath but to grasp the opportunity for preaching the gospel (see note 51).
Ac 13:14c Sabbath  -   Acts 13:42, 44; 16:13
Ac 13:15a reading  -   Acts 13:27; 15:21
Ac 13:15b Law  -   Matt. 5:17; 7:12; Luke 16:16
Ac 13:15c rulers  -   Mark 5:22
Ac 13:151 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 13:161 Men
See note 261 in ch. 7.
Ac 13:162 those
The Gentiles who were seeking God.
Ac 13:16a fear  -   Acts 13:26; 10:2, 22, 35
Ac 13:17a Israel  -   Matt. 15:31; Luke 1:68
Ac 13:17b chose  -   Deut. 7:6-7
Ac 13:17c Egypt  -   Psa. 105:23; Acts 7:17
Ac 13:171 high
I.e., uplifted.
Ac 13:17d led  -   Exo. 12:51; 13:14, 16
Ac 13:18a forty  -   Exo. 16:35; Acts 7:36
Ac 13:181 He
Other MSS read, He put up with them.
Ac 13:18b nurse  -   cf. Deut. 1:31
Ac 13:19a seven  -   Deut. 7:1
Ac 13:19b inheritance  -   Josh. 14:1– 19:51; Psa. 78:55; Acts 7:45
Ac 13:201 four
The four hundred and fifty years extends from the people’s exodus from Egypt (v. 17) to the time of Samuel the prophet (v. 20), when David reigned completely, ruling over the whole nation of Israel (2 Sam. 5:3-5; cf. Judg. 11:26; 1 Kings 6:1).
Ac 13:20a judges  -   Judg. 2:16, 18
Ac 13:20b Samuel  -   1 Sam. 3:20; Acts 3:24
Ac 13:21a king  -   1 Sam. 8:5-22
Ac 13:21b Saul  -   1 Sam. 9:1-2; 10:1
Ac 13:22a deposed  -   Hosea 13:11
Ac 13:22b David  -   2 Sam. 2:4; 5:3
Ac 13:22c found  -   1 Sam. 13:14; Psa. 89:20
Ac 13:221 heart
David was a man according to God’s heart, that is, according to God’s heart’s desire, not only according to God’s words. Such a man will do all God’s will.
Ac 13:22d will  -   Acts 13:36
Ac 13:23a seed  -   Acts 2:30; Rom. 1:3
Ac 13:23b promise  -   2 Sam. 7:12; Psa. 132:11
Ac 13:23c Savior  -   Luke 2:11; Rom. 11:26
Ac 13:24a John  -   Matt. 3:1; Mark 1:4; Acts 1:22
Ac 13:241 prior
Lit., before the face of His entrance. A Hebraism.
Ac 13:242 baptism
See note 43 in Mark 1.
Ac 13:24b repentance  -   Luke 3:3; Acts 19:4
Ac 13:251 suppose
To think secretly or conjecture.
Ac 13:25a not  -   John 1:20
Ac 13:25b sandals  -   Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27
Ac 13:261 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 13:262 those
See note 162.
Ac 13:26a fear  -   Acts 13:16
Ac 13:26b word  -   Acts 13:46
Ac 13:27a ignorant  -   Acts 3:17
Ac 13:271 words
Lit., voices.
Ac 13:27b read  -   Acts 13:15
Ac 13:272 judging
I.e., sentencing Him to death (Luke 24:20).
Ac 13:28a not  -   Luke 23:4, 22; John 19:6
Ac 13:28b Pilate  -   Luke 23:23-24; Acts 3:13-14
Ac 13:29a tree  -   Acts 5:30
Ac 13:29b tomb  -   Matt. 27:60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53; John 19:41-42
Ac 13:301 God
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 13:30a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 13:33-34, 37
Ac 13:31a appeared  -   Acts 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:5-7
Ac 13:31b Galilee  -   Acts 1:11; 2:7
Ac 13:31c witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; 22:15
Ac 13:32a announce  -   Acts 5:42
Ac 13:32b promise  -   Acts 13:23; 26:6
Ac 13:33a You  -   Psa. 2:7; Heb. 1:5; 5:5
Ac 13:331 begotten
Resurrection was a birth to the man Jesus. He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). He was the only begotten Son of God from eternity (John 1:18; 3:16). After incarnation, through resurrection He was begotten by God in His humanity to be God’s firstborn Son.
Ac 13:34a raised  -   Rom. 6:9; 8:11
Ac 13:341 the
The Greek word for the holy things here is in the plural. The same Greek word is used for Holy One in the next verse, but in the singular. However, it is not the regular word for holy; it is a Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word chesed, which is translated sure mercies in Isa. 55:3, and mercies in 2 Chron. 6:42 and Psa. 89:1 in both the Septuagint and the KJV. In Psa. 89 the word for mercies in plural in v. 1 and the word for Holy One in singular in v. 19 are from the same root. This Holy One is Christ, the Son of David, in whom God’s mercies are centered and conveyed. Hence, the holy things of David, the faithful things refers to the resurrected Christ. This is fully proved by the context, especially by Your Holy One in the next verse, and by the verse following Isa. 55:3.
Ac 13:342 holy
See note 751 in Luke 1. So also for Holy in the next verse.
Ac 13:35a You  -   Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31
Ac 13:351 allow
Lit., give.
Ac 13:361 served
This indicates that David’s reigning as king was a service rendered to his generation by the counsel of God.
Ac 13:36a counsel  -   Acts 13:22; 20:27
Ac 13:36b asleep  -   2 Sam. 7:12; 1 Kings 2:10
Ac 13:362 buried
Lit., added to.
Ac 13:371 God
See note 241 in ch. 2.
Ac 13:37a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 17:31
Ac 13:381 men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 13:38a forgiveness  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31
Ac 13:39a not  -   Rom. 2:13; Gal. 2:16; 3:11
Ac 13:391 by
Lit., in.
Ac 13:39b believes  -   Acts 10:43; Rom. 3:28; Gal. 3:8
Ac 13:392c justified  -   Isa. 53:11
To be forgiven of sins is on the negative side (v. 38) and is for our release from condemnation. To be justified is on the positive side and is for our reconciliation to God and our being accepted by Him.
Ac 13:41a Look  -   Hab. 1:5
Ac 13:41b marvel  -   Isa. 29:14
Ac 13:42a Sabbath  -   Acts 13:14
Ac 13:43a devout  -   Acts 13:50; 16:14; 17:4, 17; 18:7
Ac 13:431b proselytes  -   Matt. 23:15; Acts 6:5
See note 101 in ch. 2.
Ac 13:43c continue  -   Acts 14:22
Ac 13:432d grace  -   Acts 4:33; 14:3; Titus 2:11; Gal. 5:4; Heb. 12:15; 1 Pet. 5:12
See note 231 in ch. 11.
Ac 13:45a Jews  -   Acts 13:50; 14:19; 18:12; 20:3; 21:27; 23:12, 20
Ac 13:45b jealousy  -   Acts 5:17
Ac 13:45c blasphemed  -   Acts 19:9; 1 Pet. 4:4
Ac 13:46a boldly  -   Acts 4:13
Ac 13:46b word  -   Acts 13:5
Ac 13:46c first  -   Acts 3:26
Ac 13:461 not
One’s thrusting away the word of God is proof that he, by his own judgment, is unworthy of eternal life. See note 481.
Ac 13:46d worthy  -   Matt. 22:8
Ac 13:46e Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; 11:18; 18:6; 22:21; 28:28; Rom. 11:11
Ac 13:471 you
This word is a quotation from Isa. 49:6, which refers to Christ as God’s Servant, whom God made a light to the Gentiles that His salvation might reach to the end of the earth. Because he was one with Christ in carrying out God’s salvation in Christ, the apostle Paul applied this prophetic word to himself in his ministry of gospel preaching for the turning of the gospel from the Jews, because of their rejection, to the Gentiles. In His ministry on earth the Lord expressed the same thing to the stubborn Jews in Luke 4:24-27.
Ac 13:47a light  -   Isa. 42:6; Luke 2:32
Ac 13:47b uttermost  -   Acts 1:8
Ac 13:481 appointed
Or, ordained. One’s rejecting the gospel is evidence that he is unworthy of eternal life (v. 46); one’s believing it is proof that he was appointed or ordained by God to eternal life. God’s ordination, or predestination, for man’s salvation is sovereignly of Himself. However, He still leaves man to his own free will. Whether man would believe or reject His salvation is up to man’s own decision.
Ac 13:48a believed  -   John 3:15-16, 36
Ac 13:50a incited  -   Acts 14:19; Matt. 27:20
Ac 13:50b women  -   Acts 17:4, 12
Ac 13:50c worshipped  -   Acts 13:43
Ac 13:50d raised  -   Acts 14:2
Ac 13:50e persecution  -   2 Tim. 3:11
Ac 13:50f cast  -   1 Thes. 2:15; cf. Luke 4:29
Ac 13:51a shook  -   Matt. 10:14
Ac 13:51b Iconium  -   Acts 14:1, 21
Ac 13:521 filled
Gk. pleroo, filled inwardly. See note 42 in ch. 2. This infilling by the Holy Spirit is essential, being for life, not for power. Joy, being a matter of life, not of power, proves this.
Ac 13:52a joy  -   Matt. 5:12
Acts Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 14:1a Iconium  -   Acts 14:21; 16:2
Ac 14:11 into
See note 51 in ch. 13.
Ac 14:12b synagogue  -   Acts 13:5
See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 14:2a disobedient  -   Rom. 15:31
Ac 14:2b stirred  -   Acts 13:50; 17:5, 13; 21:27
Ac 14:21 minds
Lit., souls.
Ac 14:2c brothers  -   Acts 12:17
Ac 14:3a boldness  -   Acts 4:13
Ac 14:3b testified  -   Acts 2:40; 18:5
Ac 14:31c grace  -   Acts 4:33; 14:26; 15:11
See note 231 in ch. 11.
Ac 14:32d signs  -   Acts 15:12; Mark 16:17; Heb. 2:4
See note 431 in ch. 2.
Ac 14:4a divided  -   Acts 23:7
Ac 14:4b some  -   Acts 17:4; 28:24
Ac 14:5a outrageously  -   2 Cor. 12:10
Ac 14:5b stone  -   Acts 14:19; 2 Cor. 11:25; Acts 7:58
Ac 14:6a fled  -   Matt. 10:23
Ac 14:6b Lystra  -   Acts 14:21; 16:1, 2; 2 Tim. 3:11
Ac 14:6c Derbe  -   Acts 14:20; 16:1; 20:4
Ac 14:7a announced  -   Acts 13:32; 14:15, 21
Ac 14:8a lame  -   Acts 3:2
Ac 14:9a faith  -   Matt. 9:2, 22, 29
Ac 14:91 healed
Or, saved.
Ac 14:10a leaped  -   Acts 3:8; Isa. 35:6
Ac 14:11a gods  -   Acts 8:10; 28:6
Ac 14:121 Zeus
Jupiter in Roman mythology. (See note 111 in ch. 28.) So also in 19:35.
Ac 14:122 Hermes
Mercury in Roman mythology.
Ac 14:14a tore  -   cf. Gen. 37:29; Matt. 26:65
Ac 14:151 Men
See note 261 in ch. 7.
Ac 14:15a men  -   Acts 10:26
Ac 14:15b like  -   James 5:17
Ac 14:15c announce  -   Acts 14:7
Ac 14:152d vain  -   Deut. 32:21; 1 Sam. 12:21; Jer. 14:22
Referring to idols and idolatry.
Ac 14:15e to  -   Luke 1:16; Acts 15:19; 26:18, 20; 1 Thes. 1:9
Ac 14:15f living  -   Matt. 16:16; Heb. 3:12; 1 Tim. 3:15
Ac 14:15g made  -   Acts 17:24; Exo. 20:11; Rev. 14:7
Ac 14:16a gone  -   cf. Acts 17:30; 1 Pet. 4:3
Ac 14:16b allowed  -   Psa. 81:12
Ac 14:17a not  -   cf. Rom. 1:19-20; Acts 17:27
Ac 14:17b rain  -   Lev. 26:4; Deut. 28:12; Psa. 68:9; Matt. 5:45
Ac 14:17c hearts  -   Psa. 104:15
Ac 14:17d food  -   Psa. 104:27
Ac 14:19a Jews  -   Acts 13:45
Ac 14:19b persuaded  -   Acts 13:50
Ac 14:19c stoned  -   Acts 14:5
Ac 14:20a Derbe  -   Acts 14:6
Ac 14:21a announced  -   Acts 14:7
Ac 14:21b disciples  -   Matt. 28:19
Ac 14:21c Lystra  -   Acts 14:6
Ac 14:21d Iconium  -   Acts 13:51; 14:1
Ac 14:21e Antioch  -   Acts 13:14
Ac 14:22a Establishing  -   Acts 15:32, 41; 18:23
Ac 14:221 souls
Man’s soul is composed of his mind, emotion, and will. To establish the souls of the disciples is to establish them (1) in their mind, that they may know and understand the Lord and the things concerning Him (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 3:10); (2) in their emotion, that they may love the Lord and have a heart for the Lord’s interest (Mark 12:30; Rom. 16:4); and (3) in their will, that they may be strong to remain with the Lord and do the things that please the Lord (11:23; Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 4:1).
Ac 14:222b continue  -   Acts 13:43; Col. 1:23
Lit., remain, persevere; i.e., stand firm and not depart from the faith, into which they had entered.
Ac 14:223c faith  -   Acts 16:5
See note 72 in ch. 6.
Ac 14:22d tribulations  -   2 Cor. 6:4
Ac 14:224e kingdom  -   Acts 1:3; 19:8; 2 Thes. 1:5; John 3:3, 5
See note 34 in ch. 1.
Ac 14:231a elders  -   Acts 11:30
All the churches here in which elders were appointed by the apostles had been established within less than one year. Hence, the elders appointed in these churches could not have been fully mature. They must have been considered elders because they were comparatively the most mature among the believers. They were not voted in by their congregations but were appointed by the apostles according to their maturity of life in Christ. They were charged by the apostles to care for the leadership and shepherding in their churches (see notes 21 in 1 Tim. 3 and 33 in 1 Pet. 5).
Ac 14:232 in
In every church equals in every city in Titus 1:5 (see note 51 there).
Ac 14:23b church  -   Acts 14:27; 5:11
Ac 14:23c fastings  -   Acts 13:3
Ac 14:23d committed  -   Acts 20:32
Ac 14:24a Pamphylia  -   Acts 13:13
Ac 14:251 word
Some MSS add, of the Lord.
Ac 14:26a Antioch  -   Acts 13:1
Ac 14:261 grace
See notes 101 and 102 in 1 Cor. 15.
Ac 14:271 arrived
This was the end of Paul’s first ministry journey, which began in 13:4.
Ac 14:272 gathered
For fellowship regarding God’s move in the spreading of His gospel, not for a report concerning their mission.
Ac 14:27a church  -   Acts 14:23; 15:3, 4
Ac 14:27b declared  -   Acts 15:4, 12; 21:19
Ac 14:27c opened  -   1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3; Rev. 3:8
Ac 14:27d Gentiles  -   Acts 11:18; 13:46
Acts Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 15:11 came
With a strong purpose to exercise the Judaic influence on the Gentile believers.
Ac 15:1a Judea  -   Acts 11:1
Ac 15:1b brothers  -   Acts 15:3, 22-23; John 21:23
Ac 15:12c Unless  -   Acts 15:5
This is an annulling of the faith in God’s New Testament economy, and it is a real heresy. Hence, the “certain men” who taught the Christian brothers this heresy might have been those whom Paul in Gal. 2:4 considered false brothers.
Ac 15:13d circumcised  -   Lev. 12:3; John 7:22; 1 Cor. 7:18; Gal. 5:2; Col. 2:11
See notes 21 in ch. 11 and 141 in ch. 10. In God’s New Testament economy, to be circumcised is to make Christ of no profit to the believers.
Ac 15:14e custom  -   Acts 6:14; 21:21
To keep the custom of Moses, that is, to practice the outward ordinances of the law, is not only to nullify the grace of God and make Christ’s death of no effect (Gal. 2:21) but also to bring the believers, whom Christ has set free, back to the slavery of law (Gal. 5:1; 2:4).
Ac 15:21 dissension
This was Paul and Barnabas’s contending for the faith (Jude 3) against one of the greatest heresies, that the truth of the gospel might remain with the believers (Gal. 2:5).
Ac 15:2a elders  -   Acts 15:4, 6, 22-23; 11:30; 16:4
Ac 15:22b Jerusalem  -   Gal. 2:1
It was not because Jerusalem was the headquarters of God’s move, or because the church in Jerusalem was the head church controlling other churches, that Paul, Barnabas, and certain others went to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. It was because Jerusalem was the source from which the heretical teaching concerning circumcision came. In order to solve the problem and uproot the trouble, they needed to go to the source. Unlike the situation with the Roman Catholic Church, according to God’s New Testament economy there is no headquarters for God’s move on earth and no head church that controls other churches. The headquarters of God’s move in His New Testament economy is in the heavens (Rev. 4:2-3; 5:1), and the One who rules over all the churches is Christ, the Head of the church (Col. 1:18; Rev. 2:1).
Ac 15:3a sent  -   Acts 21:5; 1 Cor. 16:6, 11; 2 Cor. 1:16; Titus 3:13
Ac 15:31b church  -   Acts 15:4, 22, 41; 5:11
The going up to Jerusalem by Paul, Barnabas, and certain others was the move of the church, not the move of themselves as individuals. They did not act individualistically apart from the church, but corporately in and with the church. This was the move of the Body of Christ.
Ac 15:3c Gentiles  -   Acts 15:12; 11:18
Ac 15:3d brothers  -   Acts 15:7, 13, 22-23
Ac 15:4a received  -   Acts 21:17
Ac 15:4b church  -   Acts 15:3, 22
Ac 15:4c declared  -   Acts 15:12; 14:27; 21:19
Ac 15:5a sect  -   Acts 26:5; cf. Acts 5:17; 24:5, 14; 28:22
Ac 15:51 Pharisees
See note 71 in Matt. 3.
Ac 15:5b necessary  -   Acts 15:1
Ac 15:52 circumcise
See note 13.
Ac 15:53 keep
See note 14.
Ac 15:5c law  -   Gal. 5:3
Ac 15:61 gathered
This was a unique conference held by the apostles of the universal church and the elders of the local church in Jerusalem. These two groups were the leading ones in the Lord’s New Testament move on earth. The conference had no chairman; the presiding One was the Spirit (v. 28), the pneumatic Christ, the Head of the church (Col. 1:18) and the Lord of all (10:36). Much discussion had taken place (v. 7) indicates that everyone in the conference had the freedom to speak. The decision was made based on (1) the testimony shared by Peter (vv. 7-11), (2) the facts related by Barnabas and Paul (v. 12), and (3) the concluding word given by James (vv. 13-21), who was the leading one among the apostles and elders in Jerusalem (12:17; 21:18; Gal. 1:19; 2:9) because of the influence he exercised over the believers by his piety (see note 41 in James 1).
Ac 15:71 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 15:72 early
Lit., ancient, old.
Ac 15:7a chose  -   Acts 22:14
Ac 15:7b Gentiles  -   Acts 11:18; 15:17
Ac 15:7c gospel  -   Acts 20:24; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5; 1 Thes. 1:5
Ac 15:8a hearts  -   1 Chron. 28:9; Acts 1:24
Ac 15:8b Spirit  -   Acts 10:44; Gal. 3:2
Ac 15:8c as  -   Acts 10:47; 11:15, 17
Ac 15:9a no  -   Acts 11:12; Rom. 3:22; 10:12
Ac 15:9b cleansing  -   Acts 10:15; Psa. 51:10; 1 Pet. 1:22
Ac 15:91 hearts
Indicating that God does not care for outward legalistic ordinances, which cannot cleanse man’s inward being; He cares for the inward cleansing of man’s heart. This corresponds with the Lord’s emphasis in Mark 7:1-23. The cleansing of man’s heart can be accomplished only by the Holy Spirit with the divine life, not by outward ordinances of dead letters.
Ac 15:10a testing  -   Acts 5:9
Ac 15:101b yoke  -   Matt. 11:29-30
The yoke of the law, which was a bondage under slavery (Gal. 5:1 and note 4). To require people to keep the law of slavery not only enslaves people but also tests God. Even God could not and would not make man keep the law of dead letters.
Ac 15:111a grace  -   Acts 15:40; 4:33; Eph. 2:5; Titus 3:7; John 1:14, 17; 2 Cor. 13:14
This grace comprises the Lord’s person (see note 211 in Gal. 2) and His redemptive work (Rom. 3:24). Peter and the Jewish believers were saved by this grace, not by keeping the law of Moses. As far as God’s salvation is concerned, to keep the law means nothing to either the Jews or the Gentiles.
Ac 15:11b saved  -   Acts 2:21; 16:31
Ac 15:12a relating  -   Acts 15:4; 14:27
Ac 15:12b signs  -   Acts 14:3
Ac 15:12c Gentiles  -   Acts 15:3
Ac 15:131 finished
Lit., became silent.
Ac 15:13a James  -   Acts 12:17; Gal. 1:19; 2:9, 12; Acts 21:18
Ac 15:132 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 15:141 Simeon
I.e., Simon (John 1:40, 42).
Ac 15:14a people  -   Acts 18:10
Ac 15:16a After  -   Amos 9:11-12
Ac 15:161 tabernacle
The kingdom of Israel. To rebuild the tabernacle of David is to restore the kingdom of Israel (1:6).
Ac 15:17a seek  -   Acts 17:27
Ac 15:171 upon
Or, who have been called by My name.
Ac 15:17b name  -   Isa. 43:7; Jer. 14:9; Dan. 9:19; James 2:7
Ac 15:181a from  -   Isa. 45:21
Or, from the foundation of the world.
Ac 15:19a turning  -   Acts 14:15; 1 Thes. 1:9
Ac 15:20a contaminations  -   Ezek. 4:14; Dan. 1:8; Mal. 1:7
Ac 15:20b idols  -   Acts 15:29; 21:25; 1 Cor. 8:1; Rev. 2:14, 20
Ac 15:20c fornication  -   1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19
Ac 15:20d blood  -   Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3:17; 17:14; Deut. 12:16, 23-25
Ac 15:211 Moses
This indicates that the concluding word given by James was still under the influence of the Mosaic law because of James’s heavy Judaic background (see notes 261 in James 1 and 101 in James 2). The influence of this background remained, even at the time Paul paid his last visit to Jerusalem (21:20-26).
Ac 15:212 synagogues
See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 15:21a read  -   Acts 13:15, 27; 2 Cor. 3:14-15
Ac 15:22a church  -   Acts 15:3, 4, 41
Ac 15:22b Barsabbas  -   cf. Acts 1:23
Ac 15:22c Silas  -   Acts 16:19; 1 Pet. 5:12
Ac 15:23a brothers  -   Acts 15:1
Ac 15:23b Syria  -   Acts 15:41
Ac 15:24a troubled  -   Gal. 1:7; 2:4; 5:10, 12; cf. Titus 1:10-11
Ac 15:25a one  -   Acts 1:14
Ac 15:25b beloved  -   2 Pet. 3:15
Ac 15:261 risked
Lit., given over, given up.
Ac 15:262a lives  -   Acts 20:24; 21:13
Lit., souls. Referring not only to their lives but also to their very beings, which they had given up for the name of the Lord.
Ac 15:26b name  -   Acts 21:13
Ac 15:27a Silas  -   Acts 15:22, 32
Ac 15:28a Spirit  -   John 16:13; Acts 5:32; 8:29; 10:19; 13:2; 1 Cor. 7:40
Ac 15:28b burden  -   Matt. 11:28, 30; 23:4; Luke 11:46; Rev. 2:24
Ac 15:29a idols  -   Acts 15:20; 21:25
Ac 15:321a prophets  -   Acts 11:27; 13:1
See note 283 in 1 Cor. 12.
Ac 15:32b confirmed  -   Acts 14:22; 15:41
Ac 15:33a peace  -   1 Cor. 16:11; Gen. 26:29
Ac 15:341 But
Some MSS omit this verse.
Ac 15:35a Antioch  -   Acts 13:1
Ac 15:35b announcing  -   Acts 14:15
Ac 15:36a every  -   Acts 13:4, 13-14, 51; 14:1, 6, 24-25
Ac 15:37a John  -   Acts 13:5
Ac 15:38a withdrew  -   Acts 13:13
Ac 15:391 sharp
Barnabas and Paul were men who had given up their lives for the name of the Lord (v. 26), yet immediately after their victory in contending for the faith against the heresy concerning circumcision, there arose such a sharp contention between them concerning a relative of one of them that they separated from each other. The responsibility for the problem should rest with Barnabas, because after this incident he no longer appears in the divine record in Acts concerning the Lord’s move in God’s New Testament economy. The reason for his failure might have been his natural relationship with Mark, his cousin (Col. 4:10), who left Barnabas and Paul in a negative way in their first ministry journey (13:13 and note 1). Mark was later recovered to Paul’s ministry (2 Tim. 4:11; Philem. 24), but Barnabas was not. Disputes that arise among the co-workers because of personal relationships are terrible! Remember this well!
Ac 15:39a Cyprus  -   Acts 4:36
Ac 15:40a Silas  -   Acts 15:22; 16:19
Ac 15:401 went
This was the start of Paul’s second ministry journey, which ended in 18:22.
Ac 15:40b grace  -   Acts 15:11; 18:27; Rom. 16:20
Ac 15:41a Syria  -   Acts 15:23; 21:3
Ac 15:41b confirming  -   Acts 15:32
Ac 15:41c churches  -   Acts 15:3, 4, 22; 16:5; 14:23; Rom. 16:4, 16; 1 Cor. 7:17; 11:16; 14:34; 16:1, 19; 2 Cor. 8:1, 18, 19, 23, 24; 11:8, 28; 12:13; Gal. 1:2, 22; 1 Thes. 2:14; 2 Thes. 1:4; Rev. 1:4, 11, 20; 2:7, 11, 17, 23, 29; 3:6; 22:16
Acts Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 16:1a Derbe  -   Acts 14:6
Ac 16:1b Timothy  -   Acts 17:14; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4; Rom. 16:21; 1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Thes. 3:2; 1 Tim. 1:2, 18; Heb. 13:23
Ac 16:1c Jewish  -   2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15
Ac 16:2a brothers  -   Acts 16:40
Ac 16:2b Lystra  -   Acts 14:6
Ac 16:2c Iconium  -   Acts 14:1
Ac 16:31a circumcised  -   Gal. 2:3
See note 21 in ch. 11.
Ac 16:32 because
This indicates that the strong influence of the Judaic background remained among the Jewish believers. It disturbed and frustrated the move of the Lord’s gospel (see note 141 in ch. 10).
Ac 16:3b Jews  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:20
Ac 16:4a decrees  -   Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25
Ac 16:51a churches  -   Acts 5:11; 18:22
See notes 11 in ch. 8 and 311 in ch. 9.
Ac 16:5b faith  -   Acts 14:22
Ac 16:5c increased  -   Acts 5:14; 6:7; 9:31
Ac 16:5d daily  -   Acts 2:47
Ac 16:6a Phrygia  -   Acts 18:23
Ac 16:61 by
As in the evangelistic work of Philip (8:29, 39), the move of the apostle Paul and his co-workers for the spread of the gospel was not according to their decision and preference or according to any schedule made by human council, but by the Holy Spirit according to God’s counsel. They intended to speak the word in Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade them. Forbidding is a part of the Holy Spirit’s leading.
Ac 16:6b Spirit  -   Acts 13:2, 4
Ac 16:71a Spirit  -   Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 4:6
The Spirit of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the preceding verse are used interchangeably, revealing that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a general title of the Spirit of God in the New Testament; the Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. This indicates that in the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well. Such an all-inclusive Spirit was needed for the apostle’s preaching ministry, a ministry of suffering carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life.
Ac 16:72 not
The Holy Spirit’s forbidding them to go to the left, to Asia (v. 6), and the Spirit of Jesus’ not allowing them to go to the right, to Bithynia, indicated a straightforward direction for the apostle and his co-workers. Thus, they went in a direct course to Macedonia through Mysia and Troas (v. 8).
Ac 16:8a Troas  -   Acts 20:5-6; 2 Cor. 2:12; 2 Tim. 4:13
Ac 16:91a vision  -   Acts 9:12; 10:3, 17
Not a dream or a trance. See note 103 in ch. 10.
Ac 16:92b Macedonia  -   2 Cor. 2:13
A province of the Roman Empire in southeastern Europe by the Aegean Sea between Thrace and Achaia.
Ac 16:101 we
We is used here for the first time to include the writer, Luke. This indicates that from Troas, Luke joined the apostle Paul in his ministry journey.
Ac 16:102 endeavored
Lit., sought. This was a major step in the Lord’s move for the spreading of His kingdom to another continent, Europe. It explains the intention of the Holy Spirit’s forbidding, the Spirit of Jesus’ not allowing, and the coming of the vision in the night. To carry out this particular leading in the Lord’s strategic move required the endeavoring of the apostle and his co-workers. This they did immediately.
Ac 16:103 concluding
After seeing the vision from God, they needed to conclude, that is, to understand what it meant, by exercising the mind — a mind saturated and directed by the spirit (Eph. 4:23) — according to the actual situation and environment.
Ac 16:111 Troas
A seaport on the Aegean Sea at the northwest corner of Asia Minor, opposite Macedonia.
Ac 16:112 Samothrace
An island in the Aegean Sea between Troas and Philippi.
Ac 16:113 Neapolis
The seaport of Philippi.
Ac 16:12a Philippi  -   Phil. 1:1; 1 Thes. 2:2
Ac 16:121 colony
A fortified outpost of the Roman Empire in a foreign country, where the citizens had equal rights with those in the capital, Rome. Hence, Philippi was a strategic point for the spread of the gospel at its beginning in Europe.
Ac 16:131a Sabbath  -   Acts 13:14
Indicating how widespread Judaism and its influence were, even in Europe.
Ac 16:13b river  -   Ezra 8:15, 21; Psa. 137:1
Ac 16:132 prayer
Man’s prayer to God affords Him an opportunity for His move among men on the earth.
Ac 16:14a Thyatira  -   Rev. 2:18
Ac 16:14b worshipped  -   Acts 13:43
Ac 16:141 Lord
The Lord here, who opened the heart of Lydia to give heed to the preaching of the gospel, must be the Spirit, who is the Lord Himself (2 Cor. 3:17).
Ac 16:14c opened  -   Luke 24:45
Ac 16:151 baptized
Baptism immediately followed their believing, as the Lord commanded in Mark 16:16.
Ac 16:15a household  -   Acts 16:31; 11:14
Ac 16:152 come
Lydia, after believing and being baptized, entered into fellowship with the apostle and his co-workers — the fellowship of the Body of Christ — as evidence of her salvation. This is truly an expression of the fact that she had received grace.
Ac 16:153 house
The first house that the Lord gained in Europe through His gospel and for His gospel (v. 40).
Ac 16:161a spirit  -   Luke 13:11
See note 231 in Mark 1.
Ac 16:162 Python
Used in reference to a prophesying demon, and also in reference to a fortuneteller.
Ac 16:163b divining  -   Lev. 19:31; 1 Sam. 28:8
The art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by the aid of supernatural powers.
Ac 16:17a cried  -   Luke 4:33-34, 41
Ac 16:17b slaves  -   Dan. 3:26
Ac 16:17c Most  -   Mark 5:7
Ac 16:18a name  -   Mark 16:17
Ac 16:18b came  -   Matt. 17:18; Mark 1:25-26
Ac 16:19a profit  -   cf. Acts 19:25
Ac 16:19b Silas  -   Acts 15:22
Ac 16:19c dragged  -   Acts 8:3; 17:6; 18:12; 21:30
Ac 16:201a magistrates  -   Matt. 10:18
The Roman praetors.
Ac 16:20b throwing  -   Acts 17:6
Ac 16:21a customs  -   cf. Esth. 3:8
Ac 16:21b Romans  -   Acts 16:37
Ac 16:22a beat  -   2 Cor. 11:25
Ac 16:23a prison  -   Acts 12:4; Luke 21:12
Ac 16:241a stocks  -   Job 13:27; 33:11; Jer. 20:2-3; 29:26
Lit., timber; an instrument of torture with holes to hold the prisoner’s wrists, ankles, and neck. The same word is used in reference to the cross in 5:30; 10:39; Gal. 3:13; and 1 Pet. 2:24.
Ac 16:25a midnight  -   Job 35:10; Psa. 42:8; 77:6; 119:62
Ac 16:26a shaken  -   Acts 4:31
Ac 16:26b opened  -   Acts 5:19; 12:10
Ac 16:26c bonds  -   Acts 12:7
Ac 16:27a do  -   cf. Acts 12:19
Ac 16:29a fell  -   Acts 10:25
Ac 16:30a what  -   Luke 3:10, 12, 14; John 6:28; Acts 2:37; 22:10
Ac 16:31a Believe  -   Mark 16:16; John 3:16, 36; 6:47; Acts 13:39; 1 John 5:10
Ac 16:31b saved  -   Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11
Ac 16:311 household
Indicating that the family of the believer is a complete unit for God’s salvation, like the family of Noah (Gen. 7:1), the families partaking of the passover (Exo. 12:3-4), the family of the harlot Rahab (Josh. 2:18-19), the family of Zaccheus (Luke 19:9), the family of Cornelius (11:14), the family of Lydia (v. 15), the family of the jailer here, and the family of Crispus in 18:8.
Ac 16:331a baptized  -   Acts 2:38; 8:12; 10:47-48
Again baptism was practiced immediately after someone believed. See note 151. This must have been done in the bathing pool at the place where they were, which, according to the word up in the next verse, must have been downstairs. This shows and testifies to us that the believers in the early days did not have any regulation or ritual; rather, they took appropriate measures in accordance with local conditions.
Ac 16:341 up
See note 331.
Ac 16:342 into
After believing and being baptized, the jailer did not care for the officials who were his superiors or for the criminals. He too came into fellowship with the apostles, the fellowship of the Body of Christ, as a token of his salvation. See note 152.
Ac 16:34a set  -   Psa. 23:5; Luke 5:29
Ac 16:34b exulted  -   Psa. 9:14; 13:5; Isa. 25:9; Luke 1:47; 1 Pet. 1:6, 8
Ac 16:351 lictors
The Roman lictors, those who held the rod to clear the way for the magistrates and to execute punishment on the criminals.
Ac 16:37a Romans  -   Acts 22:25
Ac 16:38a frightened  -   Acts 22:29
Ac 16:39a depart  -   Matt. 8:34
Ac 16:40a house  -   Acts 16:14-15
Ac 16:40b brothers  -   Acts 16:2; 17:10
Acts Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 17:11a Thessalonica  -   Acts 20:4; Phil. 4:16; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1
Another leading city, situated on a gulf in the province of Macedonia.
Ac 17:12b synagogue  -   Acts 9:20; 13:5, 14; 14:1; 18:4; 19:8
See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 17:2a custom  -   Luke 4:16
Ac 17:21 went
See note 141 in ch. 13 (so also in v. 10).
Ac 17:2b Scriptures  -   Acts 8:35; 18:28
Ac 17:3a suffer  -   Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 3:18
Ac 17:3b rise  -   John 20:9
Ac 17:3c Christ  -   John 20:31
Ac 17:4a some  -   Acts 17:34; 14:4; 28:24
Ac 17:41 were
Lit., were allotted to.
Ac 17:4b Silas  -   Acts 15:22, 27, 32, 40
Ac 17:4c devout  -   Acts 13:43
Ac 17:4d Greeks  -   John 7:35
Ac 17:4e women  -   Acts 17:12; 13:50
Ac 17:5a jealous  -   Acts 5:17; 13:45; James 3:14, 16
Ac 17:5b set  -   Acts 17:13; 14:2
Ac 17:5c Jason  -   Rom. 16:21
Ac 17:6a dragged  -   Acts 16:19
Ac 17:6b upset  -   Acts 16:20
Ac 17:61 world
Lit., the inhabited earth.
Ac 17:7a Caesar  -   Luke 2:1; John 19:12
Ac 17:7b king  -   Luke 23:2; John 18:33, 37
Ac 17:10a brothers  -   Acts 17:14; 16:40
Ac 17:10b synagogue  -   Acts 17:1
Ac 17:111 noble
I.e., open-minded.
Ac 17:11a examining  -   Isa. 34:16; John 5:39
Ac 17:12a women  -   Acts 17:4; 13:50
Ac 17:13a agitating  -   Acts 17:5
Ac 17:14a brothers  -   Acts 17:10
Ac 17:14b go  -   cf. Matt. 10:23
Ac 17:14c Timothy  -   Acts 16:1
Ac 17:151a Athens  -   Acts 18:1; 1 Thes. 3:1
The capital of Achaia, a province of the Roman Empire. It was the center of enlightenment in science, literature, and art for the ancient world. Through the apostle Paul’s visit to such a center, the gospel of the kingdom of God reached the people of the highest culture.
Ac 17:15b Timothy  -   Acts 18:5
Ac 17:16a his  -   Acts 19:21
Ac 17:161 spirit
Paul’s human spirit (Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8; Prov. 20:27), regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), indwelt by the Lord the Spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:10-11), and acting with the Spirit (Rom. 8:16), in which spirit he worshipped and served God (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9). Such a spirit was provoked by the many idols in Athens.
Ac 17:162b full  -   Isa. 2:8
Even the highest culture did not prevent these people from worshipping idols. Within them, as within all mankind, was a God-worshipping spirit created by God for man to seek and worship Him (cf. v. 22). However, because of their blindness and ignorance, they took the wrong objects for their worship (v. 23). Now the very true God, who created the universe and them, sent His apostle to announce the true object whom they should worship (vv. 23-29).
Ac 17:17a synagogue  -   Acts 13:5
Ac 17:17b devout  -   Acts 17:4; 13:43
Ac 17:181 Epicurean
The Epicurean philosophers were the followers of the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341- 270 B.C.), whose philosophy was materialism. They did not recognize the Creator and His providence over the world but sought sensuous pleasures, especially in eating and drinking. Some of Paul’s words to the Philippians (Phil. 3:18 and note 1) and the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:32 and note 3) referred to the Epicureans.
Ac 17:182 Stoic
The Stoic philosophers were members of a school of philosophy founded by Zeno (340-265 B.C.). They were pantheists who believed that everything was governed by fate and that all happenings were the result of the divine will, and therefore that man should calmly accept them, free from all passion, grief, or joy. They emphasized that the highest good is virtue and that virtue is the reward given to the soul. Some of the words in Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians referred to the Stoics (Phil. 4:11 and note 1).
Ac 17:183 babbler
The Greek word means “seed-picker: a bird which picks up seeds in the streets and markets; hence one who picks up and retails scraps of news” (Vincent).
Ac 17:184 deities
Lit., demons.
Ac 17:18a announcing  -   Acts 5:42
Ac 17:18b resurrection  -   Acts 4:2; 17:31-32
Ac 17:191a Areopagus  -   Acts 17:22, 34
Mars’ Hill (in Athens), the seat of the ancient and venerable Athenian Court, which judged the most solemn problems of religion.
Ac 17:19b new  -   Mark 1:27
Ac 17:20a strange  -   1 Pet. 4:4
Ac 17:201 what
Lit., what these things want to be.
Ac 17:221 Men
Lit., Men, Athenians. More dignified and solemn than simply “Athenians.”
Ac 17:222 very
The Greek word here means fearing a demon, a supernatural spirit; hence, given up to demon worship, very much revering the deities. The same word is used in noun form in 25:19.
Ac 17:23a worship  -   John 4:22; 2 Thes. 2:4
Ac 17:23b without  -   1 Cor. 15:34
Ac 17:241 God
The apostle’s word in vv. 24-25 was a very strong inoculation to both the atheistic Epicureans, who did not recognize the Creator and His providence over the world, and the pantheistic Stoics, who submitted themselves to the will of many gods concerning their fate (cf. v. 18).
Ac 17:24a made  -   Acts 14:15; Isa. 42:5
Ac 17:24b Lord  -   Matt. 11:25
Ac 17:24c not  -   Acts 7:48; 1 Kings 8:27
Ac 17:25a breath  -   Gen. 2:7; Job 12:10; 27:3; 33:4; Isa. 42:5; Dan. 5:23
Ac 17:261 one
Adam. Some ancient MSS read, one blood.
Ac 17:26a every  -   Acts 10:35
Ac 17:26b face  -   Gen. 11:8; Luke 21:35
Ac 17:262 appointed
The migrations to America in their times and with their boundaries are strong proof of this word and the first part of the succeeding verse.
Ac 17:26c boundaries  -   Job 14:5; Deut. 32:8; Psa. 74:17
Ac 17:27a seek  -   Acts 15:17; Job 23:3
Ac 17:271b not  -   Deut. 4:7
Because God is the omnipresent Spirit.
Ac 17:281 in
Denoting that man’s life and existence and even his actions are in God. This does not mean that unbelievers have God’s life and live, exist, and act in God like the believers in Christ, who are born of God, possess His divine life and nature, and live, exist, and act in His divine person.
Ac 17:282 poets
Probably referring to Aratus (about 270 B.C.) and Cleanthes (about 300 B.C.), both of whom uttered these same words in their poems to Zeus (Jupiter), whom they considered the supreme God.
Ac 17:283 His
In the writings of the two poets His refers to Zeus as the supreme God.
Ac 17:284 race
Just as Adam was thought to be the son of God (Luke 3:38 and note 2). Since God is the Creator, the source, of all men, He is the Father of them all (Mal. 2:10) in a natural sense, not in the spiritual sense in which He is the Father of all the believers (Gal. 4:6), who are regenerated by Him in their spirit (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:5-6).
Ac 17:291 what
Gk. theion, meaning that which is divine. It is not the same as theiotes in Rom. 1:20, which denotes the characteristics of divinity, nor is it the same as theotes in Col. 2:9, which denotes the Godhead, God Himself. Theion is a more vague and abstract word than theiotes and is not as definite as theotes, which is definite in denoting the Godhead, God Himself. Cf. note 201 in Rom. 1.
Ac 17:29a gold  -   Isa. 40:18-19; 46:5-6; Hab. 2:18-19
Ac 17:292 thought
Or, imagination, device.
Ac 17:30a times  -   cf. Acts 14:16
Ac 17:30b ignorance  -   Eph. 4:18; 1 Pet. 1:14
Ac 17:301 charges
Some MSS read, declares to.
Ac 17:30c repent  -   Mark 6:12; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 11:18; 26:20
Ac 17:311a day  -   Rom. 2:5, 16; 2 Pet. 2:9; Matt. 12:36
The day when Christ will judge living men, i.e., the nations on the earth at His coming back, on the throne of His glory before the millennium (Matt. 25:31-46). This probably does not include the day when He will judge dead men at the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15), as in 10:42 (see note there), 2 Tim. 4:1, and 1 Pet. 4:5, because on the day mentioned here He will judge the world, which should refer only to living men. This day of Christ’s judgment on earth will be brought in by His coming back. He was designated by God to execute this judgment, and God’s raising Him from the dead is strong proof of this. In their preaching to the Gentiles, both Peter in 10:42 and Paul here and in 24:25 stressed the coming judgment of God.
Ac 17:31b judge  -   Psa. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; John 5:22, 27
Ac 17:312 proof
Or, faith, assurance, guarantee. The resurrection of Christ is proof and assurance that He is coming back to judge all the inhabitants of the earth. This is guaranteed that we may have faith in it and that it may lead us to repent (v. 30).
Ac 17:31c raising  -   Acts 2:24; 26:8
Ac 17:32a resurrection  -   Acts 17:18; 23:6, 8; Heb. 6:2
Ac 17:32b scoffed  -   Acts 2:13
Ac 17:32c again  -   Acts 24:25
Ac 17:34a joined  -   Acts 17:4
Ac 17:34b Areopagite  -   Acts 17:19, 22
Acts Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 18:1a Athens  -   Acts 17:15-16; 1 Thes. 3:1
Ac 18:1b Corinth  -   Acts 19:1; 1 Cor. 1:2
Ac 18:2a Aquila  -   Acts 18:18, 26; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19
Ac 18:2b Pontus  -   Acts 2:9
Ac 18:2c Italy  -   Acts 27:1, 6; Heb. 13:24
Ac 18:21d Claudius  -   Acts 11:28
A Caesar of the Roman Empire. What he did here was used by the Lord for the carrying out of His ministry of the building up of His church, just as what Caesar Augustus did was used by God for the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the birthplace of Christ (Luke 2:1-7).
Ac 18:2e Rome  -   Acts 2:10
Ac 18:3a worked  -   Acts 20:34-35; 1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thes. 2:9; 2 Thes. 3:8
Ac 18:41 in
See note 51 in ch. 13.
Ac 18:42a synagogue  -   Acts 18:19; 13:14; 17:1, 17
See note 21 in James 2 (so also in vv. 19, 26).
Ac 18:43 Sabbath
See note 141 in ch. 13.
Ac 18:44b Greeks  -   Acts 19:10; 20:21
Indicating that some Greeks were attending the Jewish synagogues (Mark 1:21 and note 1) to listen to the word of God.
Ac 18:51 when
It was at this time in Corinth that Paul wrote his first Epistle to the church in Thessalonica (1 Thes. 1:1), after Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia with information concerning the church there (1 Thes. 3:6 and note 1).
Ac 18:5a Timothy  -   Acts 17:14-15; 1 Thes. 3:6
Ac 18:52 constrained
Or, pressed by.
Ac 18:5b testifying  -   Acts 2:40; 20:21
Ac 18:5c Christ  -   Acts 18:28; 5:42; 9:22
Ac 18:6a blasphemed  -   Acts 13:45; 1 Pet. 4:4
Ac 18:6b shook  -   Neh. 5:13
Ac 18:6c blood  -   2 Sam. 1:16; Ezek. 33:4; Lev. 20:9-16
Ac 18:61 go
See note 471 in ch. 13.
Ac 18:6d Gentiles  -   Acts 13:46; 28:28
Ac 18:7a worshipped  -   Acts 16:14
Ac 18:8a Crispus  -   1 Cor. 1:14
Ac 18:81b household  -   Acts 11:14
See note 311 in ch. 16.
Ac 18:9a night  -   Acts 23:11; 27:23
Ac 18:91 vision
See note 103 in ch. 10.
Ac 18:9b not  -   Acts 27:24; Jer. 1:8
Ac 18:10a with  -   John 14:17; Matt. 28:20; Josh. 1:5
Ac 18:10b people  -   Acts 15:14
Ac 18:111 remained
Lit., sat.
Ac 18:12a proconsul  -   Acts 13:7
Ac 18:12b Jews  -   Acts 13:45
Ac 18:12c brought  -   Acts 16:19
Ac 18:15a questions  -   1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Tim. 2:14
Ac 18:15b law  -   Acts 23:29
Ac 18:171 Sosthenes
See note 13 in 1 Cor. 1.
Ac 18:18a Aquila  -   Acts 18:2
Ac 18:18b shorn  -   cf. Acts 21:23-24
Ac 18:18c Cenchrea  -   Rom. 16:1
Ac 18:181 vow
A private vow for thanksgiving performed in any place by the Jews, with the shearing of the hair. It differed from the Nazarite vow, which had to be carried out in Jerusalem with the shaving of the head (21:24 and note 3; Num. 6:1-5, 18; cf. 1 Cor. 11:6, where it is shown that there is a difference between shearing and shaving). Paul was a Jew and kept the vow, but he would not and did not impose it on the Gentiles. According to the principle of his teaching concerning God’s New Testament economy, Paul should have given up all the Jewish practices, which belonged to the Old Testament dispensation. However, he still had this vow, and it seems that God tolerated it, probably because it was a vow carried out in private outside Jerusalem and would not have had much effect on the believers.
Ac 18:19a Ephesus  -   Acts 19:1; 1 Cor. 15:32; 2 Tim. 1:18; Rev. 1:11
Ac 18:191 entered
See note 51 in ch. 13.
Ac 18:19b synagogue  -   Acts 18:4
Ac 18:21a willing  -   1 Cor. 4:19; 16:7; cf. James 4:15
Ac 18:22a church  -   Acts 5:11; 20:17
Ac 18:221 went
This was the end of Paul’s second ministry journey, which began in 15:40.
Ac 18:22b Antioch  -   Acts 15:35
Ac 18:231 went
This was the start of Paul’s third ministry journey, which ended in 21:17.
Ac 18:23a Galatia  -   Acts 16:6
Ac 18:23b confirming  -   Acts 14:22
Ac 18:24a Apollos  -   Acts 19:1; 1 Cor. 1:12; 4:6; 16:12; Titus 3:13
Ac 18:251 way
Not the doctrine concerning the Lord but the practical way in which the New Testament believers should walk. See note 21 in ch. 9.
Ac 18:25a fervent  -   Rom. 12:11
Ac 18:252 only
This indicates that Apollos did not have a complete revelation of God’s New Testament economy, although he had been instructed in the way of the Lord. Hence, there was a deficiency in the result of his ministry (19:2 and note 2).
Ac 18:25b baptism  -   Acts 19:3; Luke 3:3, 16; 7:29
Ac 18:26a Aquila  -   Acts 18:2, 18
Ac 18:26b way  -   Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14; Matt. 22:16
Ac 18:27a wrote  -   2 Cor. 3:1
Ac 18:271b grace  -   Acts 4:33; 20:24
Lit., the grace; indicating the particular grace which Apollos enjoyed in the Lord. This grace is just God Himself in Christ as the portion to the believers in Christ (see notes 146 in John 1 and 101 in 1 Cor. 15).
Ac 18:28a Scriptures  -   Acts 18:24; 8:35; 17:2
Ac 18:28b Christ  -   Acts 18:5
Acts Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 19:1a Apollos  -   Acts 18:24
Ac 19:1b Ephesus  -   Acts 18:19
Ac 19:21 receive
See note 387, par. 2, in ch. 2.
Ac 19:22a not  -   cf. Acts 8:16
This was the deficiency in the result of Apollos’s ministry, a ministry which lacked a complete revelation of God’s New Testament economy. See note 252 in ch. 18.
Ac 19:31a John’s  -   Acts 18:25
This is the last mention of John the Baptist in the New Testament. “Here at last, he wholly gives place to Christ” (Bengel). There was in John’s disciples a thought of rivalry between John and Christ (John 3:26). John’s ministry was to introduce Christ (v. 4). Once Christ had been introduced, John’s ministry should have ceased and been replaced by Christ. John should have decreased, and Christ should have increased (John 3:30).
Ac 19:4a baptism  -   Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24
Ac 19:4b after  -   Matt. 3:11; John 1:15
Ac 19:51 into
See notes 383, point 2, in ch. 2 and 162 in ch. 8.
Ac 19:61a laid  -   Acts 6:6
See notes 171 in ch. 8 and 471 in ch. 10.
Ac 19:6b Spirit  -   Acts 10:44; 11:15
Ac 19:62 upon
See note 174 in ch. 2.
Ac 19:63 spoke
See note 461 in ch. 10.
Ac 19:6c tongues  -   Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4
Ac 19:6d prophesied  -   Acts 2:17-18; 21:9
Ac 19:81 entered
See note 51 in ch. 13.
Ac 19:82a synagogue  -   Acts 13:5; 17:1, 10; 18:4
See note 21 in James 2.
Ac 19:8b persuading  -   Acts 28:23
Ac 19:83c kingdom  -   Acts 1:3; 20:25
See note 34 in ch. 1.
Ac 19:9a speaking  -   Acts 13:45
Ac 19:91b Way  -   Acts 19:23; 18:26
See note 21 in ch. 9.
Ac 19:92 Tyrannus
He might have been a teacher, and Paul might have rented his school and used it as a meeting hall, apart from the opposing Jews’ synagogue, to preach and teach the word of the Lord to both Jews and Greeks for two years (v. 10).
Ac 19:10a two  -   cf. Acts 20:31
Ac 19:10b Asia  -   Acts 20:18; 2 Cor. 1:8; 2 Tim. 1:15
Ac 19:10c Greeks  -   Acts 18:4
Ac 19:111 works
See note 431 in ch. 2.
Ac 19:11a hands  -   Acts 5:12; 14:3
Ac 19:121a body  -   cf. 2 Kings 4:29; Acts 5:15
Referring to the surface, the skin, of the body. A medical term used at that time. Luke, the author, was a medical doctor.
Ac 19:122 spirits
See note 231 in Mark 1.
Ac 19:12b went  -   Acts 8:7; 16:18
Ac 19:13a exorcists  -   Matt. 12:27
Ac 19:13b name  -   Mark 9:38
Ac 19:17a fear  -   Acts 2:43; 5:5, 11; Luke 1:65
Ac 19:17b name  -   2 Thes. 1:12
Ac 19:181a confessing  -   Matt. 3:6
Confessing and making known denotes the most thorough and most open confession.
Ac 19:182 practices
This word has also the technical meaning of magic spells, and that may be the meaning here.
Ac 19:191 burned
This was to clear up their past life, which was sinful and demonic.
Ac 19:192 pieces
Each piece was approximately a day’s wage.
Ac 19:201 Thus
Or, Thus, by the might of the Lord the word grew and was strong.
Ac 19:20a grew  -   Acts 6:7
Ac 19:211a purposed  -   Rom. 1:13
The purpose was to carry out Paul’s loving concern for the need of the poor saints in Jerusalem. At that time Paul was in Ephesus on his third ministry journey, busy with a heavy burden to carry out his ministry in Asia (1 Cor. 16:8-9) and in Macedonia and Achaia (1 Cor. 16:5-7; Acts 20:1-3). Nonetheless, he still had a burden to spare part of his time for the needy saints in Jerusalem. When he arrived in Corinth, he wrote his Epistle to the saints in Rome, expressing the purpose of his trip and begging them to pray for him concerning this purpose (Rom. 15:25-31). Although he was an apostle set apart by God for the Gentiles (22:21; Gal. 2:8), Paul was still concerned for the Lord’s interest among the Jews. His primary concern was for the Body of Christ universally, not merely for his part of the New Testament ministry among the Gentiles.
Besides this, his purpose in going to Jerusalem at this juncture might also have been to fellowship with James and the other apostles and elders in Jerusalem regarding the Judaic influence on the church there. According to Paul’s teachings in the Epistles to the Galatians and the Romans, the decision made by the conference of the apostles and elders in ch. 15 to resolve the problem concerning circumcision must not have been fully satisfactory to him. This undoubtedly troubled him because of his concern for God’s New Testament economy, which is to build up the Body of Christ. James’s word in 21:20-22, after Paul had arrived in Jerusalem (21:17-18), and his proposal that Paul participate in the four Jewish believers’ Nazarite vow (21:23-24) seem to confirm this view.
Ac 19:212 spirit
Since the Lord the Spirit dwelt in Paul’s spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:10-11), Paul must have purposed according to the leading of the Lord the Spirit. See note 161 in ch. 17.
Ac 19:21b Macedonia  -   Acts 20:1; Rom. 15:26; 1 Cor. 16:5; 2 Cor. 1:16; 8:1; 9:2
Ac 19:213 go
Paul did go to Jerusalem (21:17), and he did see Rome (28:14, 16).
Ac 19:21c Jerusalem  -   Acts 20:16, 22; Rom. 15:25; 1 Cor. 16:3
Ac 19:214d see  -   Rom. 1:13; 15:24, 28
This desire of Paul’s was fulfilled by the Lord when He brought Paul to Rome through his appeal to Caesar (23:11; note 111 in ch. 25).
Ac 19:22a served  -   Acts 13:5
Ac 19:22b Timothy  -   1 Cor. 16:10; Acts 18:5; 20:4; Rom. 16:21; 2 Cor. 1:1
Ac 19:221 Erastus
A city treasurer of Corinth (Rom. 16:23; cf. 2 Tim. 4:20), of high rank, who probably had been converted by Paul’s preaching in Corinth (cf. 18:8) and had become an attendant to Paul.
Ac 19:222 stayed
It was at this time, in Ephesus, that the apostle wrote his first Epistle to the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 16:3-10, 19, and note 81; 4:17; cf. Acts 19:20-23, 8-10, 17; 20:1).
Ac 19:23a disturbance  -   Acts 19:40
Ac 19:231b Way  -   Acts 19:9
See note 21 in ch. 9.
Ac 19:241 Demetrius
Not the Demetrius in 3 John 12.
Ac 19:242 made
A dirty and demonic trade. Those who practiced such a trade cooperated with the demons to possess and usurp people for Satan’s evil kingdom (Matt. 12:26).
Ac 19:243 Artemis
Artemis was the Ephesian goddess. To the Romans she was the goddess Diana (Latin).
Ac 19:251 assembled
Behind the idol worship were demons, who instigated the uproar against the apostle to disturb and frustrate the preaching of the gospel. This was Satan’s fighting against God’s spreading of His kingdom on the earth.
Ac 19:252 Men
See note 261 in ch. 7.
Ac 19:25a prosperity  -   cf. Acts 16:19
Ac 19:26a hands  -   Deut. 4:28; 2 Kings 19:18; Psa. 115:4; Rev. 9:20; Isa. 44:10-17; Jer. 10:3-5
Ac 19:27a great  -   Acts 19:28, 34; cf. Acts 8:9-10
Ac 19:291 Gaius
See note 12 in 3 John.
Ac 19:29a Aristarchus  -   Acts 20:4; 27:2; Col. 4:10; Philem. 24
Ac 19:29b companions  -   2 Cor. 8:19
Ac 19:311 Asiarchs
Principal persons of the province of Asia.
Ac 19:32a crying  -   Acts 21:34
Ac 19:331 Alexander
Probably not because Alexander was a convert of Paul’s preaching. (This Alexander was not the one in 1 Tim. 1:20 and 2 Tim. 4:14.)
Ac 19:33a motioning  -   Acts 12:17
Ac 19:34a Great  -   Acts 19:27-28
Ac 19:351 Men
Lit., Men, Ephesians. More dignified and solemn than simply “Ephesians.”
Ac 19:352 fallen
I.e., fallen from heaven.
Ac 19:35a Zeus  -   Acts 14:12; 28:11
Ac 19:37a robbers  -   Rom. 2:22
Ac 19:38a proconsuls  -   Acts 13:7
Ac 19:391 legal
Or, regular assembly.
Ac 19:40a insurrection  -   Acts 19:23
Ac 19:411 dismissed
This was the sovereignty of the Lord; it preserved His apostle from the demonic uproar.
Acts Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 20:11a Macedonia  -   Acts 19:21; 1 Cor. 16:5; cf. 1 Tim. 1:3
It was there that Paul wrote his second Epistle to the church in Corinth (2 Cor. 2:13 and note 2; 7:5-6; 8:1; 9:2, 4).
Ac 20:31 three
During that time, in Corinth, the apostle wrote his Epistle to the saints in Rome (Rom. 15:22-32; cf. Acts 19:21; 20:1-3; 1 Cor. 16:3-7).
Ac 20:3a plot  -   Acts 9:24; 20:19; 23:12
Ac 20:3b Jews  -   Acts 13:45
Ac 20:32 resolved
Paul had originally intended to go to Jerusalem through Syria from Achaia in Greece (19:21; 1 Cor. 16:3-7). Because of the Jews’ plot against him, he changed his route, going northward to Macedonia. From there he returned to Jerusalem. He knew that the Jews were plotting against him and that he would suffer because of this (v. 19). Therefore, he begged the saints in Rome to pray for him concerning his return to Jerusalem (Rom. 15:25-26, 30-31). This might also have been the reason that he was bound in his spirit to go to Jerusalem (v. 22). Eventually, after returning to Jerusalem, he was seized by the Jews (21:27-30), who sought to kill him (21:31; 23:12-15).
Ac 20:4a Aristarchus  -   Acts 19:29
Ac 20:41 Gaius
See note 12 in 3 John.
Ac 20:4b Derbe  -   Acts 14:6, 20
Ac 20:4c Timothy  -   Acts 19:22
Ac 20:4d Tychicus  -   Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12
Ac 20:4e Trophimus  -   Acts 21:29; 2 Tim. 4:20
Ac 20:6a Philippi  -   Acts 16:12
Ac 20:6b Unleavened  -   Exo. 23:15; Acts 12:3
Ac 20:6c Troas  -   Acts 16:8, 11; 2 Cor. 2:12; 2 Tim. 4:13
Ac 20:71a first  -   Luke 24:1; 1 Cor. 16:2
The Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10). Paul stayed in Troas for seven days (v. 6), but it was only on the first day of the week that they gathered together to break bread in remembrance of the Lord. This indicates that at that time the apostle and the church considered the first day of the week a day to meet together for the Lord.
Ac 20:72 we
Including the writer, Luke.
Ac 20:7b break  -   Acts 20:11; 2:42, 46; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:23-24
Ac 20:8a upper  -   Acts 1:13
Ac 20:10a upon  -   1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 4:34
Ac 20:11a broken  -   Acts 20:7
Ac 20:111 eaten
Or, tasted.
Ac 20:16a Jerusalem  -   Acts 20:22; 19:21; 24:11
Ac 20:161 day
Probably to meet people from different countries who came to Jerusalem on that day (cf. 2:1, 5).
Ac 20:16b Pentecost  -   1 Cor. 16:8
Ac 20:17a elders  -   Acts 11:30; 14:23; 1 Tim. 4:14
Ac 20:17b church  -   Acts 20:28; 5:11
Ac 20:18a Asia  -   Acts 19:10
Ac 20:18b how  -   2 Cor. 1:12; 1 Thes. 1:5
Ac 20:19a Serving  -   Rom. 12:11; Col. 3:24
Ac 20:19b humility  -   Phil. 2:3; 1 Pet. 3:8; 5:5
Ac 20:19c tears  -   Acts 20:31; 2 Cor. 2:4; Phil. 3:18
Ac 20:19d trials  -   James 1:2; 1 Pet. 4:12
Ac 20:19e plots  -   Acts 20:3
Ac 20:20a withhold  -   Acts 20:27
Ac 20:20b house  -   Acts 2:46
Ac 20:21a testifying  -   Acts 2:40; 20:24
Ac 20:21b Greeks  -   Acts 18:4
Ac 20:21c repentance  -   Mark 1:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 19:4
Ac 20:21d faith  -   John 3:16, 36
Ac 20:211 in
Lit., into. The same word for unto in this verse.
Ac 20:212 Jesus
Some MSS add, Christ.
Ac 20:221 bound
See note 32.
Ac 20:222 spirit
Paul’s regenerated spirit, in which he served God (see note 161 in ch. 17). In his spirit, a spirit joined to the Lord the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), Paul sensed beforehand that something would happen to him in Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit testified this to him (v. 23).
Ac 20:22a Jerusalem  -   Acts 20:16; 21:15
Ac 20:223 there
Lit., in it.
Ac 20:231 Except
Paul did not know what he would encounter in Jerusalem (v. 22), but he did know one thing: the Holy Spirit was solemnly testifying to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him. The Holy Spirit’s testifying was only a prophecy, a foretelling, not a charge. Hence, he must not have taken it as a command but as a warning. See notes 41 and 111 in ch. 21.
Ac 20:23a Spirit  -   Acts 21:4, 11
Ac 20:23b bonds  -   Acts 21:33
Ac 20:23c afflictions  -   Rom. 8:35; 1 Thes. 3:3
Ac 20:241 consider
Implying that Paul sensed he was going to be martyred.
Ac 20:242a life  -   Acts 15:26; 21:13
Or, soul.
Ac 20:24b course  -   2 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 12:1
Ac 20:24c ministry  -   Acts 1:17; 21:19; Rom. 11:13; 2 Cor. 4:1
Ac 20:24d testify  -   Acts 2:40; 22:18
Ac 20:24e gospel  -   Acts 15:7
Ac 20:24f grace  -   Acts 20:32; 4:33; Gal. 2:21
Ac 20:251a kingdom  -   Acts 1:3; 28:23
The kingdom of God. See note 34 in ch. 1.
Ac 20:25b face  -   Acts 20:38
Ac 20:252 no
Indicating that Paul realized beforehand that he would be martyred.
Ac 20:261 on
Lit., on today’s day. A very forceful expression.
Ac 20:26a this  -   Deut. 8:19
Ac 20:262 I
I.e., I am free from blame if any of you should suffer death.
Ac 20:26b blood  -   Ezek. 3:18-19; 33:5, 9
Ac 20:27a shrink  -   Acts 20:20
Ac 20:27b counsel  -   Luke 7:30; Acts 13:36; Eph. 1:11; Heb. 6:17
Ac 20:28a Take  -   1 Tim. 4:16
Ac 20:281b flock  -   Luke 12:32; John 10:16
See note 22 in 1 Pet. 5.
Ac 20:282c Spirit  -   Acts 13:2; 1 Cor. 12:8-9
The apostles appointed the elders in every church (14:23). But here Paul, the leading one, who did the appointing, said that the Holy Spirit did it, indicating that the Holy Spirit was one with the apostles in their appointing of the elders, and that the apostles did it according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Ac 20:28d placed  -   1 Cor. 12:28
Ac 20:283e overseers  -   Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:7; cf. 1 Pet. 2:25
I.e., the elders of the church (v. 17), proving that overseer and elder are synonymous terms denoting the same person. To make an overseer a bishop of a district to rule over the elders of various localities in that district is grossly erroneous. That is what Ignatius did. His erroneous teaching became the basis for the establishing of rank and brought in the hierarchy (see note 21 in 1 Tim. 3).
Ac 20:284f shepherd  -   John 21:16
The main responsibility of the elders as overseers is not to rule over but to shepherd, to take all-inclusive tender care of the flock, the church of God (see notes 21 and 31 in 1 Pet. 5).
Ac 20:28g church  -   Acts 20:17; 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; Gal. 1:13
Ac 20:28h obtained  -   cf. 2 Pet. 2:1; Rev. 5:9
Ac 20:285 His
Indicating the precious love of God for the church and the preciousness, the exceeding worth, of the church in the eyes of God. Here the apostle did not touch the divine life and nature of the church as in Eph. 5:23-32, but the value of the church as a treasure to God, a treasure which He acquired with His own precious blood. Paul expected that the elders as overseers would treasure the church as God did.
Both the Holy Spirit and God’s own blood are divine provisions for the church that He treasures. The Holy Spirit is God Himself, and God’s own blood denotes God’s work. God’s redemptive work acquired the church; now God Himself, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), cares for the church through the overseers.
God’s own blood is the blood of Jesus Christ. This implies that the Lord Jesus is God.
Ac 20:28i blood  -   Luke 22:20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Heb. 9:12, 14
Ac 20:29a wolves  -   Matt. 7:15; 10:16; John 10:12
Ac 20:291 sparing
The apostle did not care for his own life, but he was very concerned for the future of the church, which was a treasure to him as well as to God.
Ac 20:301a draw  -   cf. Rom. 16:17-18
The perverted ones among the believers in the church are always used by the devil, who hates the church, to draw the sheep away to form another flock.
Ac 20:31a watch  -   Matt. 24:42; 13:17
Ac 20:31b three  -   cf. Acts 19:10; 24:17
Ac 20:31c tears  -   Acts 20:19
Ac 20:32a commit  -   Acts 14:23
Ac 20:321 God
Some MSS read, the Lord.
Ac 20:322b grace  -   Acts 20:24
See note 231 in ch. 11.
Ac 20:32c build  -   Acts 9:31
Ac 20:323d inheritance  -   Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14; 1 Pet. 1:4
The Greek word here refers to the legal inheritance of a share of an estate. Cf. note 186 in ch. 26.
Ac 20:324e sanctified  -   Heb. 13:12; 10:29; 1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 6:19, 22; 1 Thes. 5:23; 3:13
To participate in God’s inheritance requires us to be sanctified, and to be sanctified requires the word of God’s grace (John 17:17 and note 1).
Ac 20:33a coveted  -   1 Thes. 2:5; cf. 2 Cor. 7:2; 12:17
Ac 20:341a hands  -   1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thes. 4:11
Making tents (18:3).
Ac 20:35a toiling  -   1 Thes. 2:9; 2 Thes. 3:8; Acts 18:3
Ac 20:351 the
Or, the infirm. Referring to those who were weak physically (1 Cor. 11:30); hence, the poor ones.
Ac 20:35b weak  -   Rom. 15:1; 1 Thes. 5:14
Ac 20:352 It
This word is not recorded in the Gospels; it must have been received by oral communication.
Ac 20:35c give  -   Luke 6:38
Ac 20:36a knelt  -   Acts 7:60; 21:5
Ac 20:37a falling  -   Gen. 33:4; 45:14; 46:29; Luke 15:20
Ac 20:38a face  -   Acts 20:25
Ac 20:38b escorted  -   Acts 21:5
Acts Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 21:3a Cyprus  -   Acts 13:4
Ac 21:3b Syria  -   Acts 20:3; 15:23, 41
Ac 21:41 told
In 20:23 the Holy Spirit made known to Paul that bonds and afflictions awaited him in Jerusalem (see note 1 there). Now the Spirit took a further step to tell him, through some members of the Body of Christ, not to go to Jerusalem. Since Paul practiced the Body life, he should have taken this word and obeyed it as a word from the Head.
Ac 21:4a Spirit  -   Acts 21:11; 20:23
Ac 21:4b not  -   Acts 21:12
Ac 21:4c Jerusalem  -   Acts 19:21; 20:16, 22
Ac 21:5a escorting  -   Acts 20:38
Ac 21:5b knelt  -   Acts 20:36
Ac 21:7a brothers  -   Acts 21:17; 28:14
Ac 21:8a Caesarea  -   Acts 21:16; 9:30; 10:1
Ac 21:81 house
Wherever Paul went, he visited the brothers and stayed with them (vv. 4, 7). He was actually practicing the Body life of the church, living according to what he taught concerning the Body of Christ.
Ac 21:8b Philip  -   Acts 6:5; 8:5, 26, 40
Ac 21:8c evangelist  -   Eph. 4:11
Ac 21:8d seven  -   Acts 6:3
Ac 21:9a prophesied  -   Acts 2:17-18; 19:6
Ac 21:10a Agabus  -   Acts 11:28
Ac 21:11a belt  -   cf. Jer. 13:1-11
Ac 21:111 says
Again, the Holy Spirit told Paul beforehand, indirectly through a member of the Body of Christ, what would befall Paul in Jerusalem (see note 231 in ch. 20). This was again a warning in the nature of a prophecy, not a charge. It was again the Head speaking through His Body (see note 41). Since Paul practiced the Body life, he should have listened to this speaking.
Ac 21:11b bind  -   Acts 21:33; 22:29
Ac 21:11c deliver  -   Acts 21:31-33; cf. Luke 18:32
Ac 21:121 we
Including Luke, the writer. Here the Body of Christ, through many members, expressed its feeling, entreating Paul not to go to Jerusalem. But because of his strong will, manifested in his readiness even to sacrifice his life for the Lord (v. 13), he would not be persuaded, forcing the members of the Body of Christ to leave this matter to the will of the Lord (v. 14).
Ac 21:12a not  -   Acts 21:4
Ac 21:12b go  -   cf. Matt. 16:21
Ac 21:13a die  -   Acts 15:26; 20:24; Rom. 8:36; Phil. 2:17
Ac 21:13b name  -   Acts 5:41
Ac 21:14a will  -   Matt. 6:10; 26:42
Ac 21:15a Jerusalem  -   Acts 19:21; 20:22
Ac 21:16a Caesarea  -   Acts 21:8
Ac 21:16b Cyprus  -   Acts 13:4
Ac 21:161 lodge
In Jerusalem.
Ac 21:171 come
This was the end of Paul’s third ministry journey, which began in 18:23.
Ac 21:17a Jerusalem  -   Acts 19:21; 20:16, 22
Ac 21:17b brothers  -   Acts 21:7
Ac 21:17c welcomed  -   Acts 15:4
Ac 21:181a James  -   Acts 15:13; Gal. 2:9, 12; James 1:1
See notes 171 in ch. 12 and 191 in Gal. 1.
Ac 21:18b elders  -   Acts 11:30; 15:2, 4, 6
Ac 21:19a related  -   Acts 14:27; 15:4, 12
Ac 21:19b ministry  -   Acts 20:24
Ac 21:20a glorified  -   Acts 11:18
Ac 21:201 thousands
Or, myriads, ten thousands.
Ac 21:202b zealous  -   Acts 22:3; Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:6; Rom. 10:2
Indicating that the Jewish believers in Jerusalem still kept the law of Moses, remained in the Old Testament dispensation, and were strongly under the Judaic influence, mixing God’s New Testament economy with the outdated Old Testament economy (see notes 13 in James 1 and 101 in James 2).
Ac 21:20c law  -   Acts 21:24
Ac 21:21a teaching  -   Acts 21:28
Ac 21:211 apostasy
To forsake the law of Moses, not to circumcise, and not to walk according to the customs of dead letters are actually according to God’s New Testament economy. But these were considered by the unbelieving Jews, and even by the Jewish believers in Christ, to be apostasy from God’s Old Testament dispensation.
Ac 21:21b not  -   Gal. 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19; Rom. 2:28-29
Ac 21:21c customs  -   Acts 6:14
Ac 21:221 They
Some MSS read, A multitude must certainly gather, for they will hear that you have come.
Ac 21:231 vow
Referring to the Nazarite vow (Num. 6:2-5).
Ac 21:241a purified  -   Acts 24:18
To be purified with the Nazarites was to become a Nazarite with them, joining them in the fulfilling of their vow. The same word is used in the Septuagint in Num. 6:3 in describing the Nazarite’s duties. To take the Nazarite vow was a purification before God.
Ac 21:242 expenses
The cost of the offerings, which a Nazarite had to pay for the completion of his purification (Num. 6:13-17). This was very expensive for the poor Nazarites. It was a custom among the Jews, and was considered proof of great piety, that a rich person would pay for the poor the expenses of the offerings.
Ac 21:243 shave
To be done at the completion of the Nazarite vow (Num. 6:18). This shaving differed from the shearing in 18:18 (see note 1 there), which was for a private vow.
Ac 21:24b law  -   Acts 21:20; James 4:11
Ac 21:25a idol  -   Acts 15:20, 29
Ac 21:261 being
I.e., participating in their Nazarite vow (see note 241). To do this Paul had to enter into the temple and remain there with the Nazarites until the completion of the seven days of the vow; then the priest would offer the offerings for each one of them, including him. Surely he was clear that such a practice was of the outdated dispensation, which, according to the principle of his teaching in the New Testament ministry, should be repudiated in God’s New Testament economy. Yet he went through with it, probably because of his Jewish background, which had also been manifested earlier in his private vow in 18:18, and probably because he was practicing his word in 1 Cor. 9:20. However, his toleration jeopardized God’s New Testament economy; this God would not tolerate. At this point he must have felt that he was in a predicament, and he must have been deeply troubled, longing to be delivered from it. Just at the time when their vow was to be concluded, God allowed an uproar to rise up against him, and what they intended to accomplish was blown away (v. 27). Moreover, by God’s sovereignty Paul was rescued out of his predicament.
The mixing of Judaic practices with God’s New Testament economy was not only erroneous in relation to God’s dispensation but also abominable in the eyes of God. This gross mixture was terminated by Him a mere ten years or so later with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the center of Judaism, through Titus and his Roman army. This rescued and absolutely separated the church from the devastation of Judaism.
God might have tolerated Paul’s carrying out of a private vow in 18:18, but He would not allow Paul, a vessel chosen by Him not only for the completing of His New Testament revelation (Col. 1:25) but also for the carrying out of His New Testament economy (Eph. 3:2, 7-8), to participate in the Nazarite vow, a strict Judaic practice. In going to Jerusalem, Paul’s intention might have been to clear up the Judaic influence on the church there (see note 211, par. 2, in ch. 19), but God knew that the church there was incurable. Hence, in His sovereignty God allowed Paul to be arrested by the Jews and imprisoned by the Romans that he might write his last eight Epistles (see note 111 in ch. 25), which completed the divine revelation (Col. 1:25) and gave the church a clearer and deeper view concerning God’s New Testament economy (Eph. 3:3-4). Thus, God left the Judaism-influenced church in Jerusalem to remain as it was until the devastating mixture was terminated with the destruction of Jerusalem. For Paul to write his last eight Epistles to complete God’s New Testament revelation was far more important and necessary than for him to accomplish some outward works for the church.
Ac 21:262 completion
I.e., the completion of the Nazarite vow (Num. 6:13).
Ac 21:26a offering  -   Num. 6:13-17
Ac 21:27a Jews  -   Acts 23:12, 20; 13:45
Ac 21:27b Asia  -   Acts 24:18
Ac 21:27c threw  -   Acts 14:2
Ac 21:27d laid  -   Acts 21:30; 26:21
Ac 21:281 Men
See note 221 in ch. 2.
Ac 21:28a teaches  -   Acts 21:21
Ac 21:28b against  -   Acts 6:13
Ac 21:282 people
God’s New Testament teaching according to His New Testament economy was indeed against the Jews, who opposed God’s New Testament economy (Matt. 21:41, 43-45; 22:7; 23:32-36; Acts 7:51; 13:40-41), against the law of dead letters (Rom. 3:20, 28; 6:14; 7:4, 6; Gal. 2:19, 21; 5:4), and against the holy place, the temple (Matt. 23:38 and note 1; 24:2; Acts 7:48). Since Paul’s ministry was to carry out God’s New Testament economy, it could not please the Jews, who were possessed and usurped by Satan, the enemy of God, and were instigated by him to oppose and ravage God’s New Testament move. Hence, it offended the Jews and was opposed to the law and the temple, for which they were zealous, and it stirred up their jealousy and hatred to the uttermost, so that they made a plot (20:3) to do away with Paul (vv. 31, 36).
Ac 21:283 this
The holy place, the temple.
Ac 21:284c profaned  -   Acts 24:6
Lit., made common.
Ac 21:285 holy
The temple. See note 154 in Matt. 24.
Ac 21:29a Trophimus  -   Acts 20:4
Ac 21:30a laid  -   Acts 21:27
Ac 21:30b dragged  -   Acts 16:19
Ac 21:30c outside  -   cf. 2 Kings 11:15
Ac 21:31a kill  -   Acts 23:12; John 16:2
Ac 21:311b commander  -   Acts 21:32-33, 37; 22:24; 23:17
A chiliarch, in command of one thousand troops or a cohort.
Ac 21:312 cohort
See note 12 in ch. 10.
Ac 21:33a bound  -   Acts 20:23; 21:11; 22:29; 26:29
Ac 21:33b chains  -   Acts 28:20; Eph. 6:20; Phil. 1:7, 13; 2 Tim. 1:16; Acts 12:6
Ac 21:34a shouting  -   Acts 19:32
Ac 21:34b barracks  -   Acts 22:24; 23:10
Ac 21:36a Away  -   Acts 22:22; Luke 23:18
Ac 21:39a Jewish  -   Acts 22:3
Ac 21:39b Tarsus  -   Acts 9:11
Ac 21:40a motioned  -   Acts 19:33; 12:17
Ac 21:40b Hebrew  -   Acts 22:2; 26:14
Ac 21:401 dialect
I.e., Aramaic, the language then used in Palestine.
Acts Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 22:11 Men
See note 21 in ch. 7.
Ac 22:1a brothers  -   Acts 7:2
Ac 22:12b defense  -   Acts 24:10; 25:8
Paul faced his opponents in a way different from Christ’s way. For the accomplishing of His redemption, Christ was like a lamb brought to the slaughter; and like a sheep dumb before its shearer, He did not open His mouth when judged by men (Isa. 53:7; Matt. 26:62-63; 27:12, 14). But as a faithful and bold apostle sent by the Lord, Paul needed to make a defense and exercise his wisdom to save his life from his persecutors that he might fulfill the course of his ministry. Although he was willing and ready to sacrifice his life for the Lord (20:24; note 121 in ch. 21; 21:13), he still endeavored to live longer that he might carry out the Lord’s ministry as much as possible. See notes 252 in this chapter and 31 and 63 in ch. 23.
Ac 22:21 dialect
See note 401 in ch. 21.
Ac 22:31 a
Lit., a man, a Jew.
Ac 22:3a Jew  -   Acts 21:39
Ac 22:3b Gamaliel  -   Acts 5:34
Ac 22:3c strictness  -   Acts 26:5
Ac 22:3d zealous  -   Acts 21:20
Ac 22:3e for  -   John 16:2
Ac 22:4a persecuted  -   Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13
Ac 22:41 Way
See note 21 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:4b prisons  -   Acts 22:19; 8:3; 26:10
Ac 22:5a high  -   Acts 4:6
Ac 22:51 assembly
Referring to the presbytery, the eldership (of the Sanhedrin). Hence, the Sanhedrin. See note 226 in Matt. 5.
Ac 22:5b letters  -   Acts 9:2; 28:21
Ac 22:5c Damascus  -   Acts 9:3; 26:12
Ac 22:6a drew  -   vv. 6-11: Acts 9:3-8; 26:12-18
Ac 22:71 Me
See note 41 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:81 Lord
See note 51 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:8a Nazarene  -   Acts 26:9; 3:6
Ac 22:91 hear
I.e., understand, as in Mark 4:33; 1 Cor. 14:2. They heard the voice but did not understand it, just as they beheld the light but saw no one (9:7).
Ac 22:10a What  -   Acts 16:30
Ac 22:101 will
See note 61 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:111 not
See note 81 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:121a Ananias  -   Acts 9:12, 15
See note 111 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:12b well  -   Acts 10:22
Ac 22:131a receive  -   Acts 9:12, 17, 18
See note 121 in ch. 9.
Ac 22:14a God  -   Acts 5:30; 24:14
Ac 22:14b appointed  -   Acts 9:15; 26:16
Ac 22:14c will  -   Rom. 12:2; Eph. 1:9; 5:17; Col. 1:9
Ac 22:14d righteous  -   Acts 3:14
Ac 22:15a witness  -   Acts 1:8; 22:20
Ac 22:15b seen  -   Acts 4:20
Ac 22:161 be
See notes 361 in ch. 8 and 161 in Mark 16.
Ac 22:16a baptized  -   Acts 9:18
Ac 22:162b calling  -   Rom. 10:13
See note 211 in ch. 2. Calling on the Lord’s name here was a means for Paul to wash away his sins committed in arresting so many of the believers who called on the Lord’s name. All the believers knew that he had considered calling on the Lord’s name a sign of those whom he should arrest (9:14, 21). Now he had turned to the Lord. In order for Paul to wash away, before God and before all the believers, the sins that he had committed in persecuting and arresting the Lord’s callers, he was charged by Ananias to call on the name that he had formerly abhorred. He had to do this — an act contrary to his former practice — at his baptism, in which he made a public confession of the Lord whom he had persecuted.
Ac 22:163 His
His is significant here, pointing particularly to the name of the One whom Paul had hated and persecuted (v. 8).
Ac 22:16c name  -   Acts 2:38
Ac 22:17a Jerusalem  -   Acts 9:26; 26:20; Gal. 1:18
Ac 22:17b temple  -   Luke 18:10; Acts 3:1
Ac 22:171 trance
See note 103 in ch. 10.
Ac 22:18a testimony  -   Acts 2:40; 23:11
Ac 22:19a imprisoning  -   Acts 22:4
Ac 22:19b synagogue  -   Acts 26:11; Matt. 10:17
Ac 22:20a blood  -   Matt. 23:35
Ac 22:20b witness  -   Acts 1:8; 26:16
Ac 22:20c shed  -   cf. Acts 7:57-58
Ac 22:20d approving  -   Acts 8:1; cf. Luke 11:48
Ac 22:21a far  -   Acts 2:39
Ac 22:21b Gentiles  -   Acts 13:46-47; 18:6
Ac 22:22a Away  -   Acts 21:36
Ac 22:22b not  -   Acts 25:24
Ac 22:241 commander
See note 311 in ch. 21.
Ac 22:24a barracks  -   Acts 21:34
Ac 22:24b examined  -   Acts 22:29
Ac 22:24c ascertain  -   Acts 23:28; 24:8
Ac 22:251 with
Or, for the lashes.
Ac 22:252 said
This was Paul’s wisdom, to utilize his Roman citizenship to save himself from suffering persecution. See note 12.
Ac 22:25a Roman  -   Acts 22:29; 16:37; 23:27
Ac 22:29a examine  -   Acts 22:24
Ac 22:29b commander  -   Acts 21:31
Ac 22:29c afraid  -   Acts 16:38
Ac 22:29d Roman  -   Acts 22:25
Ac 22:29e bound  -   Acts 21:11, 33
Ac 22:301a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 4:15
See note 51.
Acts Chapter 23
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 23:11a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 4:15
See note 51 in ch. 22.
Ac 23:12 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 23:13b conscience  -   2 Cor. 1:12; 1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 13:18
After man’s fall and his being sent out of the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:23), God in His dispensation wanted man to be responsible to his own conscience. But man failed to live and walk according to his conscience and fell further into wickedness (Gen. 6:5). After the judgment of the flood, God ordained that man should be under human government (Gen. 9:6). Man failed in this also. Then, before fulfilling His promise to Abraham concerning the blessing of the nations in his seed, Christ (Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:8), God put man under the test of the law (Rom. 3:20; 5:20). Man failed this test utterly. All these failures indicate that man has fallen from God to his conscience, from his conscience to human government, and from human government to lawlessness; that is, man has fallen to the uttermost. Hence, to conduct oneself in all good conscience before God, as Paul did, was a great return to God from man’s fall. Paul spoke this word to vindicate himself before those who accused him of being a lawless and even reckless person. In his defense he referred again to his conscience in 24:16. This showed his high standard of morality, in contrast to the hypocrisy of the Jewish religionists and the crookedness of the Roman (Gentile) politicians. See notes 121 in this chapter, 21, 241, 261, and 273 in ch. 24, and 91 and 132 in ch. 25.
Ac 23:2a Ananias  -   Acts 24:1
Ac 23:2b strike  -   1 Kings 22:24; Lam. 3:30; Micah 5:1; Matt. 26:67; 2 Cor. 11:20
Ac 23:31 said
This was Paul’s straightforwardness and boldness in dealing with his persecutors. See note 12 in ch. 22.
Ac 23:3a whitewashed  -   Matt. 23:27
Ac 23:3b wall  -   Isa. 30:13; Ezek. 13:10-16
Ac 23:32c judge  -   Lev. 19:35; Deut. 25:1-2
Or, condemn.
Ac 23:4a high  -   John 18:22
Ac 23:5a You  -   Exo. 22:28
Ac 23:5b speak  -   cf. 2 Pet. 2:10; Jude 8
Ac 23:61a Sadducees  -   Matt. 22:23
See note 72 in Matt. 3.
Ac 23:62 Pharisees
See note 71 in Matt. 3.
Ac 23:63 cried
Here again Paul exercised his wisdom to avoid suffering persecution. See note 12 in ch. 22.
Ac 23:6b Sanhedrin  -   Acts 23:1, 20, 28
Ac 23:64 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 23:6c Pharisee  -   Acts 26:5; Phil. 3:5
Ac 23:6d hope  -   Acts 24:15; 26:6-7
Ac 23:6e resurrection  -   Acts 24:21; 26:8
Ac 23:65 judged
Or, condemned.
Ac 23:8a no  -   Matt. 22:23; 1 Cor. 15:12
Ac 23:9a scribes  -   Mark 2:16; Acts 4:5
Ac 23:9b nothing  -   Acts 25:10
Ac 23:9c angel  -   John 12:29
Ac 23:10a dissension  -   Acts 23:7
Ac 23:101 commander
See note 311 in ch. 21.
Ac 23:102 ordered
This was the Lord’s sovereignty exercised to rescue Paul from the hand of the Jews. Through the riot of the Jews in Jerusalem, God delivered Paul out of the predicament into which he fell when he took James’s compromising proposal and participated in the Nazarite vow. Now, through the commander of the Roman cohort, God in His sovereignty again rescued Paul, this time from the hand of the rioting Jews, who had attempted to kill him, that He might separate him from all the dangerous situations and entrapments and send him to a quiet prison. This was to afford him a quiet environment and give him time, whether in Caesarea (24:27) or in the city of Rome (28:16, 23, 30), that through his last Epistles he might release exhaustively to the church throughout the generations the revelation of the mystery of God’s New Testament economy that he received from the Lord. The benefit and profit that the church throughout the generations has received from these Epistles will take eternity to measure.
Ac 23:10b barracks  -   Acts 23:16, 32; 21:34; 22:24
Ac 23:11a night  -   Acts 18:9; 27:23
Ac 23:111 following
According to the Jewish calendar, sundown is the beginning of the next day.
Ac 23:112b stood  -   2 Tim. 4:17; 1 Sam. 3:10
The Lord was living all the time in Paul essentially (Gal. 2:20). Now, to strengthen and encourage him, the Lord stood by him economically. This showed the Lord’s faithfulness and good care for His servant.
Ac 23:11c courage  -   Matt. 14:27; John 16:33
Ac 23:113 solemnly
The Lord admitted that the apostle did bear a solemn testimony concerning Him in Jerusalem. A testimony differs from mere teaching (see note 401 in ch. 2).
Ac 23:11d testified  -   Acts 2:40; 26:22
Ac 23:114 testify
To carry out His heavenly ministry for the propagating of Himself that the kingdom of God might be established for the building up of the churches as His fullness, the ascended Christ wanted to use not a group of preachers trained by man’s teaching to do a preaching work, but a body of His witnesses, martyrs, who bore a living testimony of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ (see notes 83 in ch. 1 and 161 in ch. 26). Satan could instigate the Jewish religionists and utilize the Gentile politicians to bind the apostles and their evangelistic ministry, but he could not bind Christ’s living witnesses and their living testimonies. The more they bound the apostles and their evangelistic ministry, the stronger and brighter these martyrs of Christ and their living testimonies became. In His appearing to the apostle, the Lord indicated that He would not rescue him immediately from his bonds but would leave him in bonds and bring him to Rome that he might testify concerning Him, as he had done in Jerusalem. The Lord encouraged Paul to do this.
Ac 23:115 Rome
This was to fulfill Paul’s desire in 19:21. See note 241 in ch. 27.
Ac 23:12a Jews  -   Acts 23:20; 21:27; 13:45
Ac 23:121b plot  -   Acts 9:24; 20:3; 23:30, 16
The plot in vv. 12-15 manifested the falsehood and satanic hatred (John 8:44; Matt. 23:34) in the hypocritical Jewish religionists. See note 13.
Ac 23:122 put
To put themselves under a curse means that they would keep their vow, and that if they were to break the vow, they were willing to be cursed. (So also in v. 21.)
Ac 23:12c killed  -   Acts 23:14-15, 21, 27; 25:3; 21:31
Ac 23:141 We
Lit., We have cursed ourselves with a curse. This means that they were bound under a curse and could not break their vow. It is a very strong expression.
Ac 23:151 determine
I.e., determine by thorough investigation (see also 24:22).
Ac 23:15a do  -   Acts 23:21; 9:24; 25:3
Ac 23:161 heard
This too was the Lord’s sovereignty exercised to secretly rescue Paul’s life.
Ac 23:16a ambush  -   Acts 25:3; 23:12
Ac 23:16b barracks  -   Acts 23:10, 32
Ac 23:17a commander  -   Acts 21:31
Ac 23:18a prisoner  -   Eph. 3:1
Ac 23:20a agreed  -   Acts 23:14-15
Ac 23:20b Sanhedrin  -   Acts 23:6
Ac 23:21a done  -   Acts 23:12, 15; 9:24; 25:3
Ac 23:231 spearmen
Or, slingers; lightly armed soldiers.
Ac 23:232 third
I.e., 9:00 p.m.
Ac 23:241a Felix  -   Acts 24:3; 25:14
The Roman governor of the province of Judea.
Ac 23:24b governor  -   Acts 23:33; 24:1, 10; 26:30; Luke 3:1; 20:20
Ac 23:26a Excellency  -   Acts 24:3
Ac 23:26b rejoice  -   Acts 15:23
Ac 23:27a seized  -   Acts 21:27
Ac 23:27b done  -   Acts 23:21
Ac 23:27c Roman  -   Acts 22:25
Ac 23:28a ascertain  -   Acts 22:24
Ac 23:29a questions  -   Acts 25:19
Ac 23:29b law  -   Acts 18:13, 15
Ac 23:29c worthy  -   Acts 25:25; 26:31; 28:18
Ac 23:30a disclosed  -   Acts 23:16-21
Ac 23:30b plot  -   Acts 23:12
Ac 23:30c accusers  -   Acts 23:35; 24:19; 25:16
Ac 23:311 Antipatris
A place about forty Roman miles from Jerusalem and about twenty-six from Caesarea.
Ac 23:32a barracks  -   Acts 23:10
Ac 23:33a Caesarea  -   Acts 25:1
Ac 23:34a Cilicia  -   Acts 21:39
Ac 23:35a accusers  -   Acts 23:30
Ac 23:351b praetorium  -   Matt. 27:27; John 18:28, 33; 19:9
The palace of the former kings, built by Herod the Great. It became the official residence of the governor of the Roman province of Judea. Paul was guarded there leniently, not confined in the common prison.
Acts Chapter 24
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 24:1a Ananias  -   Acts 23:2
Ac 24:11 orator
I.e., a spokesman, one who knew Roman legal procedure.
Ac 24:1b governor  -   Acts 23:24
Ac 24:21 Since
Tertullus’s word from here to the end of v. 3 displayed his baseness, his lack of any ethical standard. See note 13 in ch. 23.
Ac 24:3a excellent  -   Acts 23:26; 26:25; Luke 1:3
Ac 24:3b Felix  -   Acts 23:24
Ac 24:5a agitator  -   cf. Luke 23:2
Ac 24:5b insurrections  -   Acts 17:6
Ac 24:5c sect  -   Acts 24:14; 28:22; cf. Acts 5:17; 15:5; 26:5
Ac 24:5d Nazarenes  -   Acts 22:8
Ac 24:6a profane  -   Acts 21:28
Ac 24:61 and
Many ancient MSS omit the section from this word through come to you in v. 8.
Ac 24:8a ascertain  -   Acts 22:24
Ac 24:101a defense  -   Acts 25:8
See note 12 in ch. 22.
Ac 24:11a worship  -   Acts 8:27
Ac 24:11b Jerusalem  -   Acts 21:12, 17
Ac 24:12a neither  -   Acts 25:8; 28:17
Ac 24:12b temple  -   Acts 21:26-30
Ac 24:13a Neither  -   Acts 25:7
Ac 24:141a Way  -   Acts 24:22
See note 21 in ch. 9.
Ac 24:14b sect  -   Acts 24:5
Ac 24:142c serve  -   Acts 27:23; Rom. 1:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 9:14; 12:28
Lit., serve as a priest.
Ac 24:14d God  -   Acts 5:30; 22:14
Ac 24:14e Law  -   Acts 26:22; 28:23; Matt. 11:13; Rom. 3:21
Ac 24:15a hope  -   Acts 23:6
Ac 24:151 resurrection
The resurrection of the righteous will occur before the millennium at the Lord’s coming back (1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thes. 4:16). This will be the resurrection of life (John 5:28-29a and notes; Dan. 12:2a) and the resurrection of reward (Luke 14:14), which includes the first, or the best, resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6 and notes 52 and 62), the out-resurrection (Phil. 3:11 and note 2). The resurrection of the unrighteous will occur after the millennium (Rev. 20:5). This will be the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29b and notes) and of shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2b), and will be for the judgment of eternal perdition upon the unrighteous (Rev. 20:12-15 and note 121). It was concerning this judgment that the apostle warned the unrighteous Felix in v. 25 (see note 2 there).
Ac 24:16a exercise  -   1 Tim. 4:7
Ac 24:161b conscience  -   2 Cor. 1:12; 1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 13:18
See note 13 in ch. 23.
Ac 24:17a many  -   cf. Acts 19:10; 20:31
Ac 24:17b alms  -   Rom. 15:26, 31; 1 Cor. 16:1-3; 2 Cor. 8:2-3; 9:5, 7, 13; Acts 11:29-30
Ac 24:17c nation  -   Acts 26:4; 28:19
Ac 24:181 purified
See note 241 in ch. 21.
Ac 24:18a Asia  -   Acts 21:27
Ac 24:19a accusation  -   Acts 23:30
Ac 24:20a Sanhedrin  -   Acts 23:1
Ac 24:21a resurrection  -   Acts 24:15; 23:6
Ac 24:22a Way  -   Acts 24:14
Ac 24:22b commander  -   Acts 21:31
Ac 24:23a keep  -   Acts 28:16
Ac 24:23b liberty  -   Acts 27:3
Ac 24:241 Drusilla
A daughter of King Herod Agrippa. She was persuaded by Felix, who became enamored of her, to forsake her husband and marry him. This showed the intemperance and corruption of Felix, a Roman politician. See note 13 in ch. 23.
Ac 24:24a faith  -   Acts 20:21; Gal. 2:16
Ac 24:251 reasoning
Lit., saying thoroughly, discussing (in argument or exhortation), disputing. The same as in 17:2; 18:4, 19.
Ac 24:252a righteousness  -   Titus 2:12
Realizing Felix’s unrighteousness (vv. 26-27) and intemperance (see note 241), the apostle reasoned with Felix regarding righteousness and self-control, the control of passions and desires, especially, here, sexual desires. The coming judgment is related to the resurrection of the unrighteous, which the apostle preached in v. 15 (see note 1 there). The apostle reasoned with Felix regarding the coming judgment also; this was a warning to Felix. Through this, Felix became afraid. See notes 421 in ch. 10 and 311 in ch. 17.
Ac 24:25b self-control  -   1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Pet. 1:6
Ac 24:25c judgment  -   Rom. 2:2-3, 5, 16; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5; Rev. 20:12
Ac 24:25d will  -   Acts 17:32
Ac 24:261a money  -   cf. Exo. 23:8
This indicated the Roman politician’s corruption. See note 13 in ch. 23.
Ac 24:271 two
Luke does not disclose what the apostle did during these two years. He might have used the time to be with the Lord for His move on earth. If so, this might have influenced the Epistles he wrote during the time of his appeal in Rome — Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians — which are the most mysterious, most profound, and richest in the divine revelation. The supply that they have brought to the church throughout the generations cannot be fully told.
Ac 24:272a Festus  -   Acts 25:1; 26:24-25
Felix’s successor as the governor of Judea.
Ac 24:273 gain
Lit., grant favor to; i.e., grant favor to gain favor. This again showed the corruption of Roman politics.
Ac 24:27b favor  -   Acts 25:9; 12:3; Mark 15:15
Ac 24:27c left  -   Acts 25:14
Ac 24:27d bound  -   Acts 22:29
Acts Chapter 25
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 25:1a Festus  -   Acts 24:27
Ac 25:1b Caesarea  -   Acts 23:33
Ac 25:2a chief  -   Acts 25:15; 24:1
Ac 25:3a ambush  -   Acts 23:16, 12
Ac 25:3b do  -   Acts 23:15, 21
Ac 25:51 influential
Lit., powerful.
Ac 25:52 wrong
Or, out of place, amiss.
Ac 25:5a accuse  -   Acts 25:11
Ac 25:6a judgment  -   Acts 25:10, 17; Matt. 27:19
Ac 25:7a charges  -   Acts 25:18, 11; cf. Luke 23:2, 10
Ac 25:7b not  -   Acts 24:13
Ac 25:81a defense  -   Acts 24:10; 25:16
See note 12 in ch. 22.
Ac 25:8b Neither  -   Acts 24:12; 28:17
Ac 25:8c law  -   Acts 6:13
Ac 25:8d temple  -   Acts 24:6
Ac 25:8e Caesar  -   John 19:12
Ac 25:91 gain
This exposed the corruption of another Roman politician. See notes 13 in ch. 23 and 273 in ch. 24.
Ac 25:9a favor  -   Acts 24:27
Ac 25:9b Jerusalem  -   Acts 25:20
Ac 25:10a judgment  -   Acts 25:6, 17
Ac 25:10b nothing  -   Acts 23:9
Ac 25:11a worthy  -   Acts 25:25; 23:29; 26:31; 28:18
Ac 25:11b accuse  -   Acts 25:5, 7, 16; 24:19
Ac 25:111c appeal  -   Acts 25:21, 25; 26:32; 28:19
For his defense Paul wanted to appeal to Caesar (see notes 12 in ch. 22 and 322 in ch. 26). This would allow him to fulfill his desire to see Rome for the furtherance of the Lord’s testimony (19:21) and was according to the Lord’s indication to him (23:11). Without this appeal he would have been killed by the Jews who plotted against him (cf. 23:12-15; 25:1-3, 9) and would not have been able to write his last eight Epistles. Before his appeal to Rome, he had written only six Epistles: 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, and 1 and 2 Corinthians. During his first imprisonment in Rome he wrote Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. After that imprisonment he wrote 1 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews. Then, during his second imprisonment he wrote 2 Timothy. Without these last eight Epistles, what a lack the divine revelation would have and what a loss the church would have suffered! His appeal did render great profit and benefit to the Lord’s interest.
Ac 25:112 Caesar
Caesar Nero.
Ac 25:121 council
The council of a Roman province, composed of the councilors or assessors chosen by the governor of the province, with whom the governor usually consulted concerning an appeal like Paul’s.
Ac 25:131a Agrippa  -   Acts 25:23; 26:30-31
Herod Agrippa II, who reigned over the region north and east of Galilee, a Jew by religion, the son of the Herod in ch. 12.
Ac 25:132 Bernice
The sister of Drusilla, Felix’s wife (24:24). She was also a sister of Agrippa, with whom she lived incestuously. This again showed the corruption of the politicians in the circle of Roman politics. See note 13 in ch. 23.
Ac 25:13b Caesarea  -   Acts 25:1
Ac 25:14a left  -   Acts 24:27
Ac 25:14b prisoner  -   Acts 25:27
Ac 25:14c Felix  -   Acts 23:24
Ac 25:15a chief  -   Acts 25:2
Ac 25:16a custom  -   John 7:51
Ac 25:16b accused  -   Acts 25:11
Ac 25:16c accusers  -   Acts 23:30
Ac 25:16d defense  -   Acts 25:8
Ac 25:17a judgment  -   Acts 25:6, 10
Ac 25:18a charge  -   Acts 25:7
Ac 25:19a questions  -   Acts 23:9, 29
Ac 25:191 religion
See note 222 in ch. 17.
Ac 25:19b alive  -   Acts 17:18
Ac 25:201 being
Or, being perplexed; i.e., not knowing what to do.
Ac 25:20a Jerusalem  -   Acts 25:9
Ac 25:211 the
Lit., the Augustus; a title of the Roman emperor. So also in v. 25.
Ac 25:21a Emperor  -   Acts 25:25
Ac 25:23a Agrippa  -   Acts 25:13; 26:32
Ac 25:231 commanders
See note 311 in ch. 21.
Ac 25:24a Jews  -   Acts 25:2, 7
Ac 25:24b not  -   Acts 22:22
Ac 25:25a worthy  -   Acts 25:11
Ac 25:25b appealed  -   Acts 25:11
Ac 25:251 decided
This was the sovereignty of the Lord.
Ac 25:261 you
Plural, referring to the commanders and prominent men who were present (v. 23).
Ac 25:27a prisoner  -   Acts 25:14
Acts Chapter 26
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 26:1a defense  -   Acts 24:10; 25:8
Ac 26:2a accused  -   Acts 26:7; 25:16
Ac 26:2b King  -   Acts 9:15
Ac 26:21 defense
See note 12 in ch. 22.
Ac 26:31 Especially
Or, Since you are especially expert in.
Ac 26:32 familiar
Lit., a knower of, one who is acquainted with.
Ac 26:3a customs  -   Acts 6:14
Ac 26:3b questions  -   Acts 25:19
Ac 26:4a nation  -   Acts 24:17; 28:19
Ac 26:5a strictest  -   Acts 22:3
Ac 26:5b sect  -   Acts 15:5
Ac 26:51 religion
Or, zealous worship to God. See note 261 in James 1.
Ac 26:5c Pharisee  -   Acts 23:6
Ac 26:6a hope  -   Acts 23:6; 24:15; 28:20
Ac 26:7a twelve  -   Matt. 19:28; James 1:1
Ac 26:7b night  -   Luke 2:37
Ac 26:7c accused  -   Acts 26:2
Ac 26:8a raises  -   Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:12
Ac 26:9a contrary  -   1 Tim. 1:13
Ac 26:9b Nazarene  -   Acts 22:8
Ac 26:10a prison  -   Acts 8:3; 22:19
Ac 26:10b authority  -   Acts 9:14
Ac 26:10c cast  -   cf. Acts 8:1; 22:20
Ac 26:11a synagogues  -   Acts 22:19
Ac 26:11b persecuted  -   Acts 8:1; Gal. 1:13
Ac 26:111 foreign
Lit., outside.
Ac 26:12a journeyed  -   vv. 12-18: Acts 9:3-8; 22:6-11
Ac 26:14a Hebrew  -   Acts 21:40; 22:2
Ac 26:141 Me
See note 41 in ch. 9.
Ac 26:142 goads
A goad on a plow is a sharp-pointed stick used to subdue and prod an ox yoked to the plow. The Lord’s word here signifies that Saul was already yoked to the plow and had no choice but to take the Lord’s yoke obediently for the carrying out of the Lord’s commission. It was hard for him to kick against the goads on the Lord’s plow.
Ac 26:151 Lord
See note 51 in ch. 9.
Ac 26:16a appoint  -   Acts 22:14
Ac 26:161b witness  -   Acts 1:8
Not only a minister but also a witness. A minister is for the ministry; a witness, for the testimony. The ministry is related mainly to the work, to what a minister does; a testimony is related to the person, to what a witness is (see notes 83 in ch. 1 and 114 in ch. 23).
Ac 26:16c seen  -   Acts 22:15
Ac 26:17a from  -   Acts 12:11
Ac 26:17b Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; Rom. 11:13
Ac 26:181 open
This was to carry out the fulfillment of God’s jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, proclaimed by the Lord Jesus in Luke 4:18-21 (see note 191 in Luke 4) according to God’s New Testament economy. The first item of the spiritual and divine blessings of the New Testament jubilee, which are the blessings of the gospel of God, is to open the eyes of those who are fallen and turn them from darkness to light, that they may see the divine things in the spiritual realm. To see these things requires spiritual sight and divine light.
Ac 26:18a eyes  -   Luke 4:18; Eph. 1:18
Ac 26:182b darkness  -   Isa. 9:2; Luke 1:79; John 8:12; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 2:8, 11
Darkness is a sign of sin and death; light, a sign of righteousness and life (John 1:4; 8:12).
Ac 26:18c light  -   Acts 26:23; Eph. 5:8; Col. 1:12; John 1:4; 9:5
Ac 26:183 authority
The authority of Satan is Satan’s kingdom, which belongs to darkness (Matt. 12:26 and note 1).
Ac 26:184 to
I.e., to the authority of God, to God’s kingdom, which belongs to light.
Ac 26:185d forgiveness  -   Acts 5:31; Luke 24:47
The base of all the blessings of the New Testament jubilee.
Ac 26:186 an
Lit., a portion; referring to a portion of an inheritance. This inheritance is the Triune God Himself with all He has, all He has done, and all He will do for His redeemed people. The Triune God is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9), who is the portion allotted to the saints as their inheritance (Col. 1:12). The Holy Spirit, who has been given to the saints, is the foretaste, the pledge, and the guarantee of this divine inheritance (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14), which we are sharing and enjoying today as a foretaste in God’s New Testament jubilee, and which we will enjoy in full in the coming age and for eternity (1 Pet. 1:4). In the type of the jubilee in Lev. 25:8-13, the main blessings are the liberty proclaimed and the returning of every man to his own possession. In the fulfillment of the jubilee here, liberation from the authority of darkness and the receiving of the divine inheritance are the primary blessings (cf. note 323 in ch. 20).
Ac 26:18e inheritance  -   Acts 20:32
Ac 26:187 sanctified
Not only positionally but also dispositionally (Rom. 6:19 and note 2, 22). To be sanctified positionally is only to have a change in position and purpose; to be sanctified dispositionally is to be transformed in nature by and with the holy nature of God (2 Cor. 3:18). To be sanctified is to be saturated with God as our possession for our enjoyment today. Our sanctification will consummate in our maturity in the divine life that we may resemble God and be qualified to fully possess and enjoy Him as our inheritance in the coming age and for eternity.
Ac 26:191 vision
Not a doctrine, a theory, a religious creed, or any theology, but a heavenly vision, in which the apostle saw the divine things concerning the dispensing of the Triune God into His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people. All his preaching in this book and his writing in his fourteen Epistles, from Romans through Hebrews, are a detailed description of this heavenly vision seen by Paul.
Ac 26:20a Damascus  -   Acts 9:19-20
Ac 26:20b Jerusalem  -   Acts 9:26-29; 22:17-18
Ac 26:20c all  -   Matt. 3:5; Acts 1:8
Ac 26:20d Gentiles  -   Acts 13:46
Ac 26:20e repent  -   Acts 2:38; 17:30
Ac 26:20f turn  -   Acts 14:15; 1 Thes. 1:9
Ac 26:20g worthy  -   Matt. 3:8
Ac 26:21a seized  -   Acts 21:27, 30
Ac 26:221a help  -   Heb. 13:6
Or, assistance. The Greek word originally meant alliance. This implies that the apostle was allied with God and realized God’s assistance in this alliance.
Ac 26:22b stood  -   Eph. 6:13
Ac 26:22c testifying  -   Acts 2:40; 28:23
Ac 26:22d prophets  -   Acts 10:43; 24:14
Ac 26:22e Moses  -   Luke 24:27, 44; Acts 28:23
Ac 26:23a suffer  -   Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 3:18
Ac 26:231 to
Lit., out of the resurrection of the dead.
Ac 26:23b rise  -   Acts 2:24; 3:15
Ac 26:232c light  -   Acts 26:18
Indicating the enlightenment of God, who is light (1 John 1:5), shining in Christ, who is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5), through the preaching of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4, 6).
Ac 26:241a insane  -   Mark 3:21; 2 Cor. 5:13
Or, raving mad (so also in the next verse).
Ac 26:25a excellent  -   Acts 24:3
Ac 26:25b Festus  -   Acts 24:27
Ac 26:25c truth  -   2 Cor. 6:7; 7:14; 12:6
Ac 26:25d soberness  -   2 Tim. 1:7; Titus 2:6
Ac 26:261 knows
Agrippa, a Jew by religion, knew the things of the Old Testament and of resurrection.
Ac 26:262 freely
Or, boldly, plainly.
Ac 26:28a Christian  -   Acts 11:26; 1 Pet. 4:16
Ac 26:29a as  -   1 Cor. 7:7
Ac 26:29b bonds  -   Acts 21:33
Ac 26:30a governor  -   Acts 25:14
Ac 26:30b Bernice  -   Acts 25:13, 23
Ac 26:30c those  -   Acts 25:24
Ac 26:31a worthy  -   Acts 23:29; 25:25
Ac 26:32a Agrippa  -   Acts 25:23
Ac 26:321 This
In this section, 21:27 — 26:32, a long narration of the Jews’ final persecution of the apostle, the genuine characteristics of all the involved parties were made manifest: (1) the darkness, blindness, hatred, and hypocrisy of the Jewish religion; (2) the injustice and corruption of Roman politics; (3) the transparency, brightness, faithfulness, and courage of the apostle; and (4) the Lord’s encouraging care for His witness and His sovereignty over the entire situation for the carrying out of His divine purpose.
Ac 26:32b released  -   Acts 28:18
Ac 26:322 not
But without his appeal to Caesar, the apostle might have been killed by the Jews through Festus’s unjust handling of him (25:9), and thus his life might not have been preserved to that day. See note 111 in ch. 25.
Ac 26:32c appealed  -   Acts 25:11; 28:19
Acts Chapter 27
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 27:11 we
Including the writer, Luke.
Ac 27:1a Italy  -   Acts 18:2
Ac 27:12 Augustan
Perhaps an imperial cohort named by Caesar Augustus (cf. Luke 2:1).
Ac 27:13 cohort
See note 12 in ch. 10.
Ac 27:21 put
This was the beginning of the apostle’s fourth ministry journey, which ended in 28:31.
Ac 27:2a Aristarchus  -   Acts 19:29
Ac 27:3a kindly  -   Acts 24:23
Ac 27:6a Alexandrian  -   Acts 28:11
Ac 27:91 Fast
I.e., the Day of Expiation (Lev. 16:29-31; 23:27-29; Num. 29:7).
Ac 27:101 Men
See note 261 in ch. 7.
Ac 27:11a owner  -   Rev. 18:17
Ac 27:121 facing
Or, down the southwest wind and down the northwest wind.
Ac 27:141 the
Lit., it.
Ac 27:14a wind  -   Mark 4:37
Ac 27:142 Euraquilo
I.e., the Northeasterner.
Ac 27:161 get
I.e., to secure on deck the small boat, which in calm weather was attached by a rope to the vessel’s stern (Vincent).
Ac 27:16a small  -   Acts 27:30
Ac 27:171 used
I.e., passed cables around the body of the ship.
Ac 27:17a feared  -   Acts 27:29
Ac 27:172 Syrtis
A shoal by this name, southwest of the island of Crete.
Ac 27:173 lowered
Or, dropped the sea anchor.
Ac 27:18a jettison  -   Acts 27:38; Jonah 1:5
Ac 27:191 gear
Or, furniture.
Ac 27:211 men
See note 261 in ch. 7.
Ac 27:212 should
Although Paul was a prisoner in bonds, his behavior displayed much ascendancy with dignity. Luke’s narration, as an account of the Lord’s move on earth, stresses not doctrine but the testimony of the Lord’s witnesses (1:8). Hence, in his narration there are no details related to doctrine; rather, there are details regarding the things that happened to His witnesses, in order to portray the testimonies in their lives. This is especially so with Paul’s voyage in the last two chapters of this book.
Ac 27:22a cheer  -   Acts 27:25, 36
Ac 27:22b no  -   Acts 27:44
Ac 27:23a night  -   Acts 18:9; 23:11
Ac 27:23b angel  -   Acts 8:26
Ac 27:23c am  -   Psa. 119:94
Ac 27:231d serve  -   Acts 24:14; Rom. 1:9; Dan. 6:16
Lit., serve as a priest.
Ac 27:23e stood  -   2 Tim. 4:17
Ac 27:24a not  -   Acts 18:9; John 16:33; Isa. 41:10
Ac 27:241 stand
This was to fulfill the Lord’s promise in 23:11 and the apostle’s desire in 19:21.
Ac 27:24b granted  -   cf. Gen. 18:26; 19:21, 29
Ac 27:25a cheer  -   Acts 27:22, 36
Ac 27:251 men
See note 261 in ch. 7.
Ac 27:25b believe  -   2 Tim. 1:12
Ac 27:25c spoken  -   Luke 1:45
Ac 27:26a aground  -   Acts 27:29
Ac 27:26b island  -   Acts 28:1
Ac 27:281 took
To let down a lead into the sea to determine the depth.
Ac 27:282 fathoms
One fathom is about six feet.
Ac 27:29a fearing  -   Acts 27:17
Ac 27:29b aground  -   Acts 27:26
Ac 27:291 rocky
Lit., rough.
Ac 27:30a small  -   Acts 27:16
Ac 27:34a hair  -   1 Sam. 14:45; 2 Sam. 14:11; 1 Kings 1:52; Matt. 10:30; Luke 21:18
Ac 27:35a thanks  -   Matt. 15:36
Ac 27:35b eat  -   1 Cor. 10:30-31
Ac 27:36a cheerful  -   Acts 27:22, 25
Ac 27:38a throwing  -   Acts 27:18
Ac 27:41a broken  -   2 Cor. 11:25
Ac 27:42a kill  -   cf. Acts 12:19
Ac 27:431 intending
This was again the sovereignty of the Lord exercised to save His servant’s life.
Ac 27:44a safely  -   Acts 27:22
Acts Chapter 28
Notes and Cross-references
Ac 28:1a island  -   Acts 27:26
Ac 28:11 Malta
Or, Melita.
Ac 28:21 natives
Or, barbarians (so also in v. 4); those who spoke neither Greek nor Latin but were not necessarily uncivilized.
Ac 28:2a kindness  -   Acts 28:7
Ac 28:3a viper  -   Amos 5:19; 9:3
Ac 28:41 snake
Lit., beast. Medical writers used this term to denote poisonous snakes. (The same word is used in v. 5.)
Ac 28:42 Justice
Gk. Dike, perhaps a reference to the goddess in Greek mythology, who was in charge of meting out justice.
Ac 28:5a snake  -   Mark 16:18; Luke 10:19
Ac 28:61a god  -   Acts 14:11
The apostle was not a god, in contrast to what the curious natives believed in their superstition. Rather, in his living and ministry he expressed the very true God, who in Jesus Christ had gone through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and who, as the all-inclusive Spirit, was then living in him and through him.
Ac 28:7a friendly  -   Acts 28:2
Ac 28:8a fever  -   Matt. 8:14
Ac 28:8b prayed  -   Acts 9:40
Ac 28:8c laid  -   Mark 5:23; 16:18; Luke 13:13; Acts 9:12
Ac 28:91 healed
On the sea in the storm, the Lord had made the apostle not only the owner of his fellow voyagers (27:24) but also their life-guarantor and comforter (27:22, 25). Now, on the land in peace, the Lord made him furthermore not only a magical attraction in the eyes of the superstitious people (vv. 3-6) but also a healer and a joy to them (vv. 8-9). All during the apostle’s long and unfortunate imprisonment-voyage, the Lord kept the apostle in His ascendancy and enabled him to live a life far beyond the realm of anxiety. This life was fully dignified, with the highest standard of human virtues expressing the most excellent divine attributes, a life that resembled the one that the Lord Himself had lived on the earth years before. This was Jesus living again on the earth in His divinely enriched humanity! This was the wonderful, excellent, and mysterious God-man, who lived in the Gospels, continuing to live in the Acts through one of His many members! This was a living witness of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and God-exalted Christ! Paul in his voyage lived and magnified Christ (Phil. 1:20-21). It is no wonder that the people honored him and his companions with many honors (v. 10), that is, with the greatest respect and highest regard! An ambassador sent by God should be treated by men with such respect and regard.
Ac 28:11a Alexandrian  -   Acts 27:6
Ac 28:111 twin
Gk. Dioskouroi, the twin sons of Zeus, Castor and Pollux, the guardian deities of sailors. A figure of these two was affixed to the stern.
Ac 28:11b Zeus  -   Acts 14:12; 19:35
Ac 28:14a brothers  -   Acts 21:7
Ac 28:151 there
I.e., Rome.
Ac 28:152 brothers
The warm welcome of the brothers from Rome and the loving care of those in Puteoli (vv. 13-14) show the beautiful Body life that existed in the early days among the churches and apostles. This life was a part of the heavenly kingdom life on the Satan-darkened and man-inhabited earth. Apparently, the apostle, as a prisoner in bonds, had entered the region of the dark capital of the Satan-usurped empire; actually, as the ambassador of Christ with His authority (Eph. 6:20; Matt. 28:18-19), he had come into another part of the participation in the Body life of Christ’s church in the kingdom of God on earth. While he was suffering the persecution of religion in the empire of Satan, he was enjoying the church life in the kingdom of God. This was a comfort and an encouragement to him.
Ac 28:153 Market
A place more than forty miles from Rome.
Ac 28:154 Three
A place more than thirty miles from Rome.
Ac 28:155 took
This indicates that the apostle was quite human. Although he had been encouraged by the Lord directly (23:11) and was very courageous throughout his voyage (27:22-25, 33-36), he still took courage at the brothers’ warm welcome. It was in his uplifted humanity with its human virtues that Christ with His divine attributes was expressed during his voyage. He magnified Christ continually in his adverse situation (Phil. 1:20).
Ac 28:16a guarding  -   Acts 24:23
Ac 28:171 Men
See note 161 in ch. 1.
Ac 28:17a nothing  -   Acts 24:12-13; 25:8
Ac 28:17b customs  -   Acts 6:14; 15:1
Ac 28:18a release  -   Acts 26:32
Ac 28:18b cause  -   Acts 23:29; 25:25; 26:31
Ac 28:19a appeal  -   Acts 25:11
Ac 28:19b nation  -   Acts 24:17; 26:4
Ac 28:20a hope  -   Acts 26:6-7
Ac 28:20b chain  -   Acts 21:33; 26:29; Eph. 6:20; Phil. 1:7, 13-14; 2 Tim. 1:16
Ac 28:21a letters  -   Acts 22:5
Ac 28:22a sect  -   Acts 24:5, 14
Ac 28:22b spoken  -   Luke 2:34; 1 Pet. 2:12; 3:16
Ac 28:23a expounded  -   Luke 24:27; Acts 17:3
Ac 28:23b testifying  -   Acts 2:40
Ac 28:231c kingdom  -   Acts 28:31; 1:3
See note 34 in ch. 1.
Ac 28:23d persuading  -   Acts 19:8
Ac 28:23e Moses  -   Acts 26:22
Ac 28:23f Prophets  -   Acts 24:14
Ac 28:24a some  -   Acts 14:4; 17:4
Ac 28:261 Go
God the Father spoke this word to the stubborn children of Israel in Isa. 6:9-10. God the Son quoted this word to the rejecting Jews in Matt. 13:14-15. And now God the Spirit through the apostle repeated this word as He spoke to the hardhearted people. This indicates that in all the moves of the Divine Trinity the children of Israel were disobedient to the God of grace. Thus, He turned to the Gentiles for the carrying out of His New Testament economy in the spreading of His kingdom for the building up of the churches through the propagation of the resurrected and ascended Christ (v. 28).
Ac 28:27a heart  -   Mark 6:52; John 12:40
Ac 28:271 fat
I.e., dull.
Ac 28:27b eyes  -   Rom. 11:8
Ac 28:28a salvation  -   Rom. 11:11; Isa. 49:6
Ac 28:28b Gentiles  -   Acts 13:46
Ac 28:28c hear  -   Acts 13:48; John 10:16
Ac 28:291 And
Many MSS omit this verse.
Ac 28:301 two
During this time the apostle wrote the Epistles to the Colossians (cf. Col. 4:3, 10, 18), Ephesians (cf. Eph. 3:1; 4:1; 6:20), and Philippians (cf. Phil. 1:7, 14, 17), and the Epistle to Philemon (cf. Philem. 1, 9). In Phil. 1:25; 2:24; and Philem. 22, he was expecting to be released from imprisonment. Probably after these two years he was released and visited Ephesus and Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3). In addition, he visited Crete (Titus 1:5), Nicopolis (Titus 3:12), Troas, and Miletus (2 Tim. 4:13, 20). See note 62 in 2 Tim. 4.
Ac 28:302 welcomed
I.e., received by welcoming, as in Luke 8:40.
Ac 28:311 Proclaiming
This was the end of the apostle’s fourth ministry journey, which began in 27:2.
Ac 28:312a kingdom  -   Acts 28:23
The kingdom of God is one of the matters emphasized in this book. Luke’s writing here both begins (1:3) and ends with the kingdom of God.
This book was not actually ended; rather, it was left open that more may be added. The reason for this must have been that the work of the Holy Spirit in preaching Christ for His propagation, multiplication, and spread through the believers of Christ was not yet completed and needed to be continued for a long period of time. Such an evangelistic work for Christ’s propagation, multiplication, and spread is according to God’s New Testament economy for the producing of many sons for God (Rom. 8:29) that they might be the members of Christ to constitute His Body (Rom. 12:5) for the carrying out of God’s eternal plan and the fulfillment of His eternal will. This is revealed in detail in the twenty-one Epistles and the book of Revelation, which follow this book. The church produced by Christ’s propagation and multiplication is the sphere in which God is expressed and in which He reigns in Christ; hence, the church becomes the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, along with Christ’s propagation and multiplication, grows out of and spreads from God’s life. Acts is a record of the spreading of Christ; it is also a record of the kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God is the expansion of Christ. The gospel that is widely preached in this book is the very Christ as the gospel (5:42), the gospel of Christ, and it is also the kingdom of God as the gospel (8:12), the gospel of the kingdom of God. The preaching of such a gospel will continue and advance until the whole earth becomes the kingdom of Christ (Rev. 11:15).
In the four Gospels God was incarnated, passed through human living, died, and resurrected, thus completing Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9). In Acts this embodiment of God, as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), spreads Christ into His believers, i.e., works the processed Triune God into His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people to make them the constituents of the church, through which God may be expressed. The ultimate issue of the church will be the New Jerusalem in eternity future as God’s full and eternal expression, which will also be God’s eternal kingdom as the sphere in which He reigns in His divine life in eternity forever and ever. This should be the reality and goal of all gospel preaching today.
Ac 28:31b boldness  -   Acts 4:29
< Acts • Romans Outline >
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Romans Outline
I.   Introduction — the gospel of God — 1:1-17
A.   Promised in the Holy Scriptures — vv. 1-2
B.   Concerning Christ — vv. 3-4
C.   Received by the called ones — vv. 5-7
D.   Proclaimed with eagerness and partaken of by faith — vv. 8-15
E.   The power of God’s salvation — vv. 16-17
II.   Condemnation — 1:18 — 3:20
A.   On mankind generally — 1:18-32
B.   On the self-righteous particularly — 2:1-16
C.   On the religious specifically — 2:17 — 3:8
D.   On all the world totally — 3:9-20
III.   Justification — 3:21 — 5:11
A.   The definition — 3:21-31
B.   The example — 4:1-25
C.   The result — 5:1-11
IV.   Sanctification — 5:12 — 8:13
A.   The gift in Christ surpassing the heritage in Adam — two men, two acts, and two results with four reigning things — 5:12-21
B.   Identification with Christ — 6:1-23
1.   Identified — vv. 1-5
2.   Knowing — vv. 6-10
3.   Reckoning — v. 11
4.   Presenting — vv. 12-23
C.   Bondage in the flesh by the indwelling sin — 7:1-25
1.   Two husbands — vv. 1-6
2.   Three laws — vv. 7-25
D.   Freedom in the Spirit by the indwelling Christ — 8:1-13
1.   The law of the Spirit of life — vv. 1-6
2.   The indwelling Christ — vv. 7-13
V.   Glorification — 8:14-39
A.   Heirs of glory — vv. 14-27
B.   Heirs conformed — vv. 28-30
C.   Heirs inseparable from God’s love — vv. 31-39
VI.   Selection — 9:1 — 11:36
A.   God’s selection, our destiny — 9:1 — 10:21
1.   Of God who calls — 9:1-13
2.   Of God’s mercy — 9:14-18
3.   Of God’s sovereignty — 9:19-29
4.   Through the righteousness which is out of faith — 9:30 — 10:3
5.   Through Christ — 10:4-21
a.   Christ, the end of the law — v. 4
b.   Christ, incarnated and resurrected — vv. 5-7
c.   Christ, who is near — v. 8
d.   Christ, believed in and called upon — vv. 9-13
e.   Christ, proclaimed and heard — vv. 14-15
f.   Christ, received or rejected — vv. 16-21
B.   The economy in God’s selection — 11:1-32
1.   A remnant reserved by grace — vv. 1-10
2.   The Gentiles saved through Israel’s stumbling — vv. 11-22
3.   Israel restored through the Gentiles’ receiving mercy — vv. 23-32
C.   The praise for God’s selection — 11:33-36
VII.   Transformation — 12:1 — 15:13
A.   In practicing the Body life — 12:1-21
1.   By the presenting of our bodies — v. 1
2.   By the renewing of the mind — vv. 2-3
3.   By the exercising of the gifts — vv. 4-8
4.   By the living of a life of the highest virtues — vv. 9-21
B.   In being subject to authorities — 13:1-7
C.   In practicing love — 13:8-10
D.   In waging the warfare — 13:11-14
E.   In receiving the believers — 14:1 — 15:13
1.   According to God’s receiving — 14:1-9
2.   In the light of the judgment seat — 14:10-12
3.   In the principle of love — 14:13-15
4.   For the kingdom life — 14:16-23
5.   According to Christ — 15:1-13
VIII.   Conclusion — the consummation of the gospel — 15:14 — 16:27
A.   The Gentiles offered — 15:14-24
B.   The communication between the Gentile and Jewish saints — 15:25-33
C.   The concern among the churches — 16:1-24
D.   The concluding praise — 16:25-27
Romans >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Romans Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 1:11 Paul
Formerly Saul, who persecuted the believers and devastated the church (Acts 7:58 — 8:1a; 8:3; 9:1). After he was saved, when he went forth to preach the gospel, his name was changed to Paul (Acts 13:9).
Rm 1:12 slave
A slave, according to ancient custom and law, was one who was purchased by his master and over whom his master had absolute rights, even to the extent of terminating his life. Paul was such a slave of Christ. Verbs formed from this word are used several times throughout this book. One is translated serve as a slave in 6:6 and serve in 7:6, 25; 9:12; 12:11; 14:18; and 16:18. Another is translated enslaved in 6:18, 22. The noun slavery, from the same root as slave, is used in 8:15, 21.
Paul’s use of this term indicates that he was not a self-appointed apostle or one hired by the Lord; rather, he was one purchased to serve God and minister to His people, not in the natural life but in the regenerated life (see Exo. 12:44; 21:6; note 261 in Matt. 20; note 143 in Matt. 25; and note 171 in Gal. 6).
Rm 1:13 Christ
Christ, equal to Messiah in Hebrew, means the anointed One (John 1:41; Dan. 9:26). This book explains how the individual Christ revealed in the four Gospels could become the corporate Christ revealed in Acts, collectively composed of Himself with all the believers. By means of the facts in the Scriptures and the experience in the Holy Spirit, Paul shows us that God’s New Testament economy is to make sinners sons of God and members of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ to express Him. This book offers a full definition of this, God’s goal, unfolding a general sketch and details of both the Christian life and the church life.
This book may be divided into eight sections: introduction, condemnation, justification, sanctification, glorification, selection, transformation, and conclusion. In these eight sections three major structures can be seen: salvation (1:1 — 5:11; 9:1 — 11:36), life (5:12 — 8:39), and building (12:1 — 16:27).
Rm 1:14 Jesus
Jesus, equal to Joshua in Hebrew, means the salvation of Jehovah, or Jehovah the Savior (Matt. 1:21; Num. 13:16; Heb. 4:8).
Rm 1:15 called
Called includes the thought of being appointed (cf. 1 Cor. 12:28).
Rm 1:16 apostle
I.e., a sent one (see note 13, par. 2, in 1 Cor. 9).
Rm 1:17 separated
Being separated includes being chosen (Acts 9:15), being appointed (1 Tim. 2:7), and being sent (Acts 13:2-4).
Rm 1:18 unto
Or, for the gospel; including the proclamation (1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11) and the defense and confirmation (Phil. 1:7) of the gospel.
Rm 1:19 gospel
Lit., glad tidings, good news (vv. 9, 16; 2:16; 10:16; 11:28; 15:16, 19; 16:25). The gospel of God, as the subject of this book, concerns Christ as the Spirit living within the believers after His resurrection. This is higher and more subjective than what was presented in the Gospels, which concern Christ only in the flesh as He lived among His disciples after His incarnation but before His death and resurrection. This book, however, reveals that Christ has resurrected and has become the life-giving Spirit (8:9-10). He is no longer merely the Christ outside the believers, but He is now the Christ within them. Hence, the gospel in this book is the gospel of the One who is now indwelling His believers as their subjective Savior.
Rm 1:21 Which
Verses 2-6 may be considered a parenthetical word explaining the gospel of God.
Rm 1:22 beforehand
The gospel of God was not something added along the way by accident; it was planned and prepared by God in eternity past and promised by God through His prophets in many ways (Gen. 3:15; 22:18; Gal. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2).
Rm 1:23 holy
The Greek words hagios, hagiosune, hagiazo, and hagiasmos, used in this book, are of the same root, which fundamentally means separated, set apart. Hagios is translated holy in v. 2; 5:5; 7:12; 9:1; 11:16; 12:1; 14:17; 15:13, 16; 16:16, and saints in v. 7; 8:27; 12:13; 15:25, 26, 31; 16:15. Hagiosune is translated holiness in v. 4. Hagiazo is a verb used as a participle and is translated sanctified in 15:16. Hagiasmos is translated sanctification in 6:19, 22. Hence, to be holy is to be separated, set apart (to God). The saints are the separated ones, the ones set apart (to God). Holiness is the nature and quality of being holy. Sanctification (to God) is the practical effect, the character in activity, and the consummate state produced by being sanctified.
Rm 1:31 His
The gospel of God concerns the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. This wonderful person has two natures — the divine nature (v. 4) and the human nature (v. 3), divinity and humanity.
Rm 1:32 came
Lit., became.
Rm 1:33 out
Out of, a literal translation of the Greek ek, is used here and again in the next verse, referring to the two sources of Christ’s being: one, the seed of David, the other, the resurrection of the dead.
Rm 1:34a seed  -   Matt. 1:1; 22:42
The seed of David implies Christ’s human nature. By incarnation, the first step of Christ’s process, God was brought into humanity.
Rm 1:35 flesh
In the Bible flesh is not a positive word. Nevertheless, the Bible declares that the Word became flesh (John 1:14). The gospel of God concerns God who became flesh; according to the flesh He became the seed of a man (see note 33 in ch. 8).
Rm 1:41 designated
Or, marked out. Before His incarnation Christ, the divine One, already was the Son of God (John 1:18; Rom. 8:3). By incarnation He put on an element, the human flesh, which had nothing to do with divinity; that part of Him needed to be sanctified and uplifted by passing through death and resurrection. By resurrection His human nature was sanctified, uplifted, and transformed. Hence, by resurrection He was designated the Son of God with His humanity (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5). His resurrection was His designation. Now, as the Son of God, He possesses humanity as well as divinity. By incarnation He brought God into man; by resurrection He brought man into God, that is, He brought His humanity into the divine sonship. In this way the only begotten Son of God was made the firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity and humanity. God is using such a Christ, the firstborn Son, who possesses both divinity and humanity, as the producer and as the prototype, the model, to produce His many sons (8:29-30) — we who have believed in and received His Son. We too will be designated and revealed as the sons of God, as He was in the glory of His resurrection (8:19, 21), and with Him we will express God.
Rm 1:42a Son  -   Acts 13:33
This book tells us that God’s full salvation is to make sinners (3:23), even His enemies (5:10), the sons of God (8:14). Through resurrection God designated Christ, who became flesh to be the seed of David, as His Son, that His Son, who is the mingling of divinity and humanity, might be the base and pattern for His making sinners His many sons. It is in the resurrection of His Son, i.e., in the resurrected Son, that God is producing many sons (1 Pet. 1:3) as the many brothers of the Firstborn (8:29), who was resurrected from the dead, and as the members of His Firstborn to constitute the Body of His Firstborn (12:5), which is His fullness (Eph. 1:23), His corporate expression.
Rm 1:43 power
The reality of the power of Christ’s resurrection is the Spirit (see notes in Eph. 1:19-22 and note 102 in Phil. 3).
Rm 1:44 Spirit
The Spirit of holiness here is in contrast to the flesh in v. 3. As the flesh in v. 3 refers to the human nature of Christ in the flesh, so the Spirit in this verse does not refer to the person of the Holy Spirit of God but to the divine essence of Christ. This divine essence of Christ, being God the Spirit Himself (John 4:24), the divinity of Christ, is of holiness, full of the nature and quality of being holy.
Rm 1:45 holiness
See note 23.
Rm 1:46 out
See note 33. Out of here should be linked to designated in the first part of this verse. Christ was designated the Son of God out of the resurrection of the dead.
Rm 1:51 grace
Grace is God in Christ as life and the life supply (see note 146 in John 1). It affords the apostles salvation and life and becomes the capacity and supply for their apostleship (1 Cor. 15:9-10).
Rm 1:52 apostleship
I.e., sending forth, or mission.
Rm 1:53a obedience  -   Rom. 16:26; 10:16; cf. John 16:9
God’s unique commandment in this age, the age of grace, is that man should believe into His Son, the Lord Jesus. Whoever believes into Him will be saved; whoever does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed into Him (John 3:18). The Holy Spirit convicts the world of the sin of not believing into the Lord (John 16:8-9), of not obeying God’s unique commandment. When we believe into the Lord, we have the obedience of faith, and the result is grace and peace (v. 7).
Rm 1:54b faith  -   Rom. 16:26; Acts 6:7; Gal. 3:2; 1 Tim. 1:4
In the New Testament the complete gospel according to God’s New Testament revelation is the content of the faith, with the two natures of Christ, who is both God and man, and the redemptive work accomplished through His death and resurrection as its center (see note 11, par. 2, in 1 Tim. 1). To obey this faith is to turn from all pagan religions and philosophies unto this faith, believing and receiving it.
Rm 1:55 on
Christ’s name denotes His person, Himself. On behalf of His name denotes for Him, for His sake, for His interests.
Rm 1:61 called
God calls us for the purpose of bringing us into Christ that we may belong to Him. All the fullness of God is in Christ (Col. 2:9; 1:19). When we are brought into Him and belong to Him, we partake of all the fullness of God. Of His fullness we have received all that is of God, even grace upon grace (John 1:16). This matter is covered in detail in the first eight chapters of this book (cf. 8:9).
Rm 1:7a called  -   Rom. 8:28; 9:11, 24
Rm 1:71 saints
See note 23.
Rm 1:72 Grace
Grace is God in Christ as our enjoyment (see John 1:14, 16-17; notes 22 and 171 in Rom. 5); it is the source. Peace is the result of our enjoyment of God in Christ (John 16:33); it is the issue.
Rm 1:7b peace  -   Rom. 15:33; 16:20
Rm 1:8a faith  -   Rom. 1:12, 17; 3:26
Rm 1:91 serve
The Greek word means serve in worship; it is used in Matt. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:3; Phil. 3:3; and Luke 2:37. Paul considered his preaching of the gospel a worship and service to God, not merely a work.
Rm 1:92 spirit
Not the Spirit of God but Paul’s regenerated spirit. The spirit is different from the heart, soul, mind, emotion, will, or natural life. Christ and the Spirit are with the believers in their regenerated human spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). In this book Paul stressed that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (8:10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (v. 9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in this spirit. Paul served God in his regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, the life-giving Spirit, not in his soul by the power and ability of the soul. This is the first important item in his preaching of the gospel.
Rm 1:11a established  -   Rom. 16:25; 1 Thes. 3:13; 2 Thes. 3:3; 1 Pet. 5:10
Rm 1:121 encouraged
Or, comforted.
Rm 1:13a purposed  -   Acts 19:21
Rm 1:141 barbarians
See note 112 in 1 Cor. 14.
Rm 1:161 power
Denoting a powerful force that can break through any obstacle. This power is the resurrected Christ Himself, who is the life-giving Spirit, and it is unto salvation to everyone who believes.
Rm 1:162 salvation
To save the believing ones not only from God’s condemnation and from eternal perdition but also from their natural life and their self, that they may be sanctified, transformed, and built up with others as the one Body of Christ to be His fullness and expression (Eph. 1:23).
Rm 1:171a righteousness  -   Rom. 3:21; 10:3
In John 3:16 God’s love is the source and motive of God’s salvation. In Eph. 2:5, 8 God’s grace is the means of God’s salvation. Here God’s righteousness is the power of God’s salvation. God’s righteousness, which is solid and steadfast, is the foundation of His throne (Psa. 89:14) and the base on which His kingdom is built (14:17). Legally, both love and grace can fluctuate, but righteousness cannot. It is even more so with God’s righteousness. It is God’s righteousness, not ours, that is revealed in the gospel of God. Hence, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
Rm 1:172 out
Out of faith indicates that faith is the source and the foundation of the revelation of God’s righteousness; to faith indicates that faith is the receiver and container that receives and retains God’s righteousness. If we have this faith, God’s righteousness will be made visible to us and will be laid hold of by us.
Rm 1:17b But  -   Hab. 2:4; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38
Rm 1:173 have
The righteousness of God justifies us that we may have God’s life (5:18) and live by it. In this way this life will sanctify and transform us thoroughly. This book covers mainly our being justified (1:1 — 5:11; 9:1 — 11:36), our having life (5:12 — 8:39), and our living properly by this life (12:1 — 16:27). Since this verse also stresses these three points, it may be considered an abstract of the entire book.
Rm 1:174 faith
See note 205 in Gal. 2.
Rm 1:181 For
This book begins with man’s fall (in contrast to Ephesians, which begins with God’s selection and predestination in eternity past); continues through Christ’s redemption, God’s justification, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification; and, finally, touches the mystery of God in eternity past (16:25).
Rm 1:182a wrath  -   Rom. 2:5, 8; 5:9; 9:22
In the preceding verse the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel to faith; here, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. This shows a contrast between the revelation of God’s righteousness and the revelation of God’s wrath. Originally, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. However, since the gospel of God has come, the scene has changed. Now the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel to our faith.
Rm 1:183 upon
Implying against, or in opposition to.
Rm 1:184 hold
To hold down means to suppress. From the beginning mankind did not respect the truth of God but suppressed it unrighteously.
Rm 1:185 the
The truth here refers to the first true thing, the first reality, concerning man and God in the universe. This reality is the sure fact that God and His existence are proved by the creation, and it is the definite fact that men, being without excuse, can know God by the creation. This great reality, this great truth, should cause men to know God and thereby to glorify Him and thank Him (v. 21). However, instead of dealing properly with this reality, this truth, according to righteousness, in which God delights, men held down the truth in unrighteousness, which God hates, and did not approve of knowing God (v. 28). Therefore, they despised and rejected God, changing the glory of God into idols (vv. 21-23) and casting off self-restraint to fall without limit (vv. 24-32), so that they were given up, abandoned, by God (vv. 24, 26, 28).
Rm 1:191 within
Or, among.
Rm 1:201 divine
Gk. theiotes, denoting God’s attributes, which are the special features, the characteristics, as the outward manifestations of God’s nature or substance. It is different from theotes in Col. 2:9, which denotes God’s Godhead and person. The characteristics of God’s nature can be verified through the created things; however, the created things cannot manifest God’s Godhead and person. Only the living person of Jesus Christ, the Word who is God and who declares God (John 1:1, 18), can express God’s Godhead and person, that is, the very God, God Himself. Here, in this chapter, the apostle Paul speaks of the created things verifying God’s existence, but what is verified are only the attributes and characteristics of God. In Col. 2:9 he speaks of Christ as the embodiment of God, and what is expressed is the Godhead and God’s person, that is, God Himself.
Rm 1:202a being  -   Psa. 19:1-4; Job 12:7-9; Acts 14:17
Man can perceive the invisible things of God by observing the visible things created by Him. Both the eternal power of God and the divine characteristics that express God’s intrinsic nature are manifested in God’s creation. For example, the abundance of light in the universe shows that light is a divine characteristic, a divine attribute of the divine nature (James 1:17). The same is true of beauty and life.
Rm 1:211 they
In this chapter Paul’s presentation of God’s creation and man’s step-by-step fall is undoubtedly based on the historical facts as recorded in Gen. 1 — 19 and in subsequent books of the Old Testament. First, vv. 19-20 speak concerning God’s creation; then vv. 21-25 cover the fall of Adam and progress through the age of the flood to the worshipping of idols at Babel. Verses 26-27 progress further, from Babel to the shameful lusts of Sodom, and vv. 28-32 go on from Sodom to every kind of wickedness in the Old Testament time.
Rm 1:212 vain
Vain reasonings are the basic element in the daily life of fallen mankind. See note 173 in Eph. 4.
Rm 1:231a changed  -   Jer. 2:11
To change the glory of God into anything else is to forsake Him and to make an idol.
Rm 1:241 gave
The same expression is used also in vv. 26 and 28. The result of man’s giving up God is man’s being given up by Him. Those who give up God force God to give them up. According to this chapter God gives people up to three things: uncleanness (v. 24), passions of dishonor (v. 26), and a disapproved mind (v. 28). The consequence of such a giving up is fornication (vv. 24, 26-27), which violates a governing and controlling principle and brings in confusion. Every kind of evil issues from this fornication (vv. 29-32).
Rm 1:251 truth
The truth of God is the reality of God. God is true and real. What He is, is a reality. But the idols are false. Whatever they are is a lie.
Rm 1:25a blessed  -   Rom. 9:5
Rm 1:321 righteous
Or, righteous requirement, as in 8:4; that is, the requirement of God’s righteous will. Hence, this phrase also refers to the judgment that is out of God’s will (Rev. 15:4), or to statutes with judgments, that is, ordinances (2:26; Luke 1:6), or to the righteous act that meets God’s requirement (5:18).
Romans Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 2:11 judges
Meaning to pass judgment, to criticize. So in subsequent verses.
Rm 2:21 judgment
Referring to God’s eternal judgment, which will be carried out mainly at the great white throne, as revealed in Rev. 20:11-15. See note 101 in ch. 14.
Rm 2:22 truth
Truth here and in vv. 8, 20 denotes the reality revealed through the creation and through the Bible concerning God, the universe, man, the relationship between man and God, the relationships among men, and man’s obligation to God. It also refers to the actual situation and condition of man, and it may be the terms of God’s judgment upon man, as indicated in vv. 6-15. According to these terms God will execute His judgment righteously.
Rm 2:31 judgment
See note 21. So in vv. 5, 16.
Rm 2:5a righteous  -   Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:11-12
Rm 2:71 To
Verses 7-10 give the basic terms of God’s eternal judgment.
Rm 2:81 truth
See note 22.
Rm 2:121 under
Lit., in law; i.e., in the sphere of law.
Rm 2:141 by
The nature of man, as created by God, was originally good and corresponded with God and with His law. Although it was poisoned by the fall, this good nature remains within man. Hence, if anyone lives according to his nature and does by his nature the things of the law, the evil in him will be restricted.
Rm 2:151 conscience
Man’s conscience corresponds with the God-created human nature and enables man to know what God justifies and what He condemns.
Rm 2:16a through  -   John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1
Rm 2:171 But
In this section, which specifically deals with God’s condemnation on the religious, Paul first points out the pitiful condition of the Jews, who represent the religious people. They have only the vanity of their religious rituals, letters, and knowledge; they do not have God as their reality.
Rm 2:172 boast
In the Jewish religion God is known only outwardly and objectively, not inwardly and subjectively. This shows the vanity of human religion.
Rm 2:181 approve
Or, prove the things that differ.
Rm 2:201 babes
The same Greek word as for little children in Eph. 4:14 and child in Gal. 4:1.
Rm 2:211 You
That the religious people practice the same evils as the unreligious exposes the vanity of their religion. See note 171.
Rm 2:24a the  -   Isa. 52:5
Rm 2:261 ordinances
Or, requirements.
Rm 2:281 For
Lit., For the Jew in what is manifest is not a Jew; neither is the circumcision in what is manifest in the flesh circumcision.
Rm 2:28a not  -   Rom. 9:6; John 8:39-40
Rm 2:282 outwardly
Any religious practice, such as circumcision, that is merely an outward form is not real. See note 171.
Rm 2:28b circumcision  -   Gal. 6:15
Rm 2:291 But
Lit., But the Jew in what is hidden is a Jew.
Rm 2:292a in  -   Rom. 7:6; 2 Cor. 3:6
I.e., based on. Whatever we are, whatever we do, and whatever we have must be in spirit. This will keep us from the vanity of religion. See note 92 in ch. 1. The reality of all spiritual things depends on the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is in our spirit. Hence, the reality of all spiritual matters depends on our spirit, not on anything apart from our spirit. Whatever is in us is vanity unless it is in our spirit. Everything that God is to us is in our spirit.
Rm 2:293 from
Lit., out of.
Romans Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 3:41 Absolutely
Lit., May it not happen. So throughout this Epistle.
Rm 3:4a That  -   Psa. 51:4
Rm 3:42 declared
God must first convince us of His righteousness before we can repent and believe into Him. Thus, He is declared righteous by us before we are declared righteous by Him.
Rm 3:71a truthfulness  -   Rom. 15:8
In Greek the same word as for truth (reality). The word here and in 15:8 denotes genuineness, sincerity, honesty, faithfulness, and trustworthiness as one of God’s virtues (see note 66, item 7, in 1 John 1).
Rm 3:81 judgment
The eternal judgment. See note 21 in ch. 2.
Rm 3:10a There  -   Psa. 14:1-3; 53:1-3
Rm 3:121 good
Or, kindness.
Rm 3:13a Their  -   Psa. 5:9
Rm 3:13b the  -   Psa. 140:3
Rm 3:14a Whose  -   Psa. 10:7
Rm 3:15a Swift  -   Isa. 59:7-8
Rm 3:171 way
When we were sinners, we did not know the way of peace. Now, however, we have peace toward God (5:1); that is, we are at peace with God.
Rm 3:18a There  -   Psa. 36:1
Rm 3:191 that
God’s purpose in giving the law was to expose man, to subdue man, and to guard or keep God’s chosen ones for Christ that they may be led to Christ (see notes on Gal. 3:23-24).
Rm 3:20a out  -   Gal. 2:16
Rm 3:20b through  -   Rom. 7:7; 5:13, 20
Rm 3:211 apart
God’s righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel (1:17), is the basis and foundation of His dispensing Himself into man in His New Testament economy. This righteousness has nothing to do with the law in His Old Testament economy (see Phil. 3:9 and notes there).
Rm 3:212 righteousness
See note 171 in ch. 1. So in the next verse.
Rm 3:213 manifested
The Jews sought the righteousness of God by keeping the law. However, they did not attain to it, for out of the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before God (v. 20). But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested to us through faith in Christ (1:17).
Rm 3:221 faith
Or, faith in Jesus Christ. This faith refers to the faith of Jesus Christ in us, which has become the faith by which we believe in Him, as in v. 26; Gal. 2:16, 20; 3:22; Eph. 3:12; and Phil. 3:9.
Faith has an object, and it issues from its object. This object is Jesus, who is God incarnate. When man hears Him, knows Him, appreciates Him, and treasures Him, He causes faith to be generated in man, enabling man to believe in Him. Thus, He becomes the faith in man by which man believes in Him. Hence, this faith becomes the faith in Him, and it is also the faith that belongs to Him.
In God’s New Testament economy, God desires that man believe in Jesus, who is God incarnate. If man does not believe in Him, he commits the unique sin before God (John 16:9). However, if man believes in Him, he is righteous to the uttermost before God, and God reckons this faith as his righteousness. At the same time, this faith brings its object, that is, this One who is God incarnate, into those who believe in Him. He is God’s righteousness, and God has given Him as righteousness to those who are indwelt by Him (Jer. 23:6). All this is out of, and depends on, the faith that is in Him and of Him (Heb. 12:2).
Rm 3:23a all  -   1 Kings 8:46
Rm 3:231 glory
God’s glory is God expressed. Whenever God is expressed, His glory is seen. Man was made by God in His image that man might express Him for His glory. But man has sinned and has contradicted the holiness and righteousness of God. Instead of expressing God, man expresses sin and his sinful self. Hence, man falls short of God’s glory. This falling short of God’s glory and expression is sin. Sinners are not only under the requirements of God’s holiness and righteousness but also under the demand of God’s glory. All have offended God’s holy being and have broken God’s righteous law, and all are short of God’s glory. Therefore, all are under God’s condemnation.
Rm 3:241 justified
Justification is God’s action whereby He approves people according to His standard of righteousness. God can do this on the basis of the redemption of Christ.
Rm 3:242 freely
Since Christ has paid the price for our sins and in His redemption has fulfilled all God’s requirements on us, God, because He is just, must justify us freely. Such justification is by the grace of God, not by our works.
Rm 3:243 redemption
To redeem is to purchase back at a cost. We originally belonged to God but became lost through sin. The requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory were so great upon us that it was impossible for us to fulfill them. However, God paid the price for us through Christ, repossessing us at a tremendous cost. Christ died on the cross to redeem us (Gal. 3:13; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18); His blood obtained eternal redemption for us (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
Rm 3:251 set
In the Old Testament, the expiation cover, the lid of the Ark, as a type, was hidden in the Holy of Holies; in the New Testament, Christ as the propitiation place, the reality of the expiation cover, is openly set forth before all men.
Rm 3:252a propitiation  -   Exo. 25:16-22; Lev. 16:12-16; Heb. 9:4-5
The propitiation place is typified in Exo. 25:17 by the sin-covering lid on the Ark. The Ark was the place where God met with people. In the Ark was the law of the Ten Commandments, which by its holy and righteous requirement exposed and condemned the sins of the people who came to contact God. However, by the lid of the Ark, with the expiating blood sprinkled on it on the Day of Expiation, the entire situation on the sinner’s side was fully covered. Therefore, upon this sin-covering lid God could meet with the people who broke His righteous law, and He could do this without, governmentally, any contradiction to His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim that bore His glory and overshadowed the lid of the Ark. Thus, the problem between man and God was appeased, enabling God to forgive and be merciful to man and thereby to give His grace to man. This is a prefigure of Christ as the Lamb of God taking away the sin that caused man to have a problem with God (John 1:29), thus satisfying all the requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory and appeasing the relationship between man and God. Hence, God could pass over the people’s sins that had previously occurred. And, in order to show forth His righteousness, He had to do this. This is what this verse refers to.
The Hebrew word for the lid of the Ark is kapporeth, from a root meaning to cover. In the Septuagint this word is translated hilasterion, which means the place of propitiation (implying to forgive and to give mercy — the word rendered propitious in Heb. 8:12 is the root of hilasterion, and the word rendered propitiated in Luke 18:13 is derived from this root). The King James Version adopts the rendering “mercy seat,” referring to the place where God grants mercy to man. In Heb. 9:5 Paul also used hilasterion for the lid of the Ark. Here, in Rom. 3:25, the same word, hilasterion, is used to show that the lid of the Ark signifies Christ as the propitiation place set forth by God.
In addition to hilasterion, two other words derived from the same Greek word as hilasterion are used in the New Testament to show how Christ took away man’s sin to appease the relationship between man and God. One is hilaskomai (Heb. 2:17), which means to propitiate, that is, to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand; the other is hilasmos (1 John 2:2; 4:10), which means that which propitiates, that is, a propitiatory sacrifice. Christ made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17); hence, He has become that which propitiates, the propitiatory sacrifice, between us and God (1 John 2:2; 4:10), and He has also become the place, as typified by the lid of the Ark (Heb. 9:5), where we enjoy propitiation before God and where God gives grace to us.
Rm 3:253 passed
During the Old Testament time, the sins of the people were not taken away but were only covered with the blood of the animal sacrifices, which were types of Christ. God passed over these covered sins until Christ came. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). By His death on the cross and the shedding of His blood for redemption, He carried away all the sins that had been previously covered and passed over. In passing over their sins, God demonstrated His righteousness to the Old Testament saints.
Rm 3:261 justifies
God’s justifying the believers is with a view to the demonstrating of His righteousness to those in the New Testament time who are of the faith of Jesus.
Rm 3:262 faith
Or, faith in Jesus. See note 221.
Rm 3:271 It
Lit., It is completely shut out.
Rm 3:28a a  -   Gal. 2:16
Rm 3:301 out
Faith is the source out of which the circumcision, who already have the position as God’s people, may be justified by God; hence, their justification is out of faith. But as to the uncircumcision, who are positionally far away and are not God’s people, faith is the way for them to reach the position where they can be justified by God; hence, their justification is through faith.
Rm 3:30a uncircumcision  -   Gal. 3:8
Romans Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 4:11 What
After dealing in ch. 3 with the objective, positional justification accomplished by the death of Christ, Paul in this chapter shows the subjective, dispositional justification carried out by the resurrection of Christ. He uses Abraham as the example to show that adequate, living justification is God’s deeper work in calling fallen people out of everything other than God and bringing them back to Himself, so that they place their full trust in Him rather than in themselves. In Gen. 15 Abraham’s being justified by God was not related to sin; rather, it was for the gaining of a seed to produce a kingdom that will inherit the world (v. 13). Likewise, this chapter indicates that justification is not merely for man to be delivered out of God’s condemnation, but even more for God to gain many sons (8:29-30) to constitute the one Body of Christ (ch. 12) as the kingdom of God (14:17) for the fulfillment of His purpose. The objective, positional justification covered in ch. 3 is related to redemption, through which man may be reconciled to God; the subjective, dispositional justification covered in ch. 4 is related to life, through which men may become heirs for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. This requires that man’s flesh and his natural ability be cut off, circumcised.
Rm 4:12 forefather
Abraham is the forefather of all believers, of both the uncircumcision who have the same faith and the circumcision who walk in the steps of the same faith.
Rm 4:21 works
This refers to Abraham’s doing something for God by himself, as seen in his attempts to have God accept the fruit of his efforts (first Lot, then Eliezer, then Ishmael, who was born through Hagar) as God’s promised seed. The result of Abraham’s being justified, however, was that he eventually stopped his own work for God. This was signified by circumcision (v. 11), which is the cutting off of the flesh. Hence, circumcision became God’s constant reminder to Abraham to stop his own doing and live by faith in God. Justification has nothing to do with the works and accomplishments of the flesh.
Rm 4:3a And  -   Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:9, 22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23
Rm 4:31 believed
Believing God was Abraham’s spontaneous reaction to God’s repeated appearing to him. God appeared to Abraham a number of times (Gen. 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17; 15:1-7; ch. 18; Acts 7:2), each time transfusing something of His glory, something of Himself, into Abraham. Hence, Abraham’s believing was actually the springing up within him of the very element that God had transfused into him. God’s reaction to Abraham’s believing was to justify him, that is, to account him righteous. This accounting was not out of works but was based on his believing God.
Rm 4:41 one
The natural man always works for God in order to receive compensation (wages). With the natural man there is no grace, faith, or enjoyment (see Exo. 12:45).
Rm 4:4a works  -   Rom. 11:6
Rm 4:42 wages
God’s justification is not a reward (wages) for our good works (labor); it is grace freely given to us through Christ’s redemption. If God’s justification were based on our good works, or if it required our good works, then it would be the wages we earn for our good works; that is, it would be something owed to us, not something freely given by God. Since God’s justification is reckoned according to His grace, it is no longer out of works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace (11:6). Our works can by no means replace God’s grace; God’s grace must be absolute.
Rm 4:7a Blessed  -   Psa. 32:1
Rm 4:8a Blessed  -   Psa. 32:2
Rm 4:11a received  -   Gen. 17:10, 23
Rm 4:111 sign
Circumcision was not the reason that Abraham was justified; rather, it was the outward sign and confirmation that God had already justified him. It denoted the cutting off of the natural strength by which he had produced Ishmael in his effort to please God. Abraham was already justified before he was circumcised, and God had already confirmed His covenant with him in Gen. 15. Circumcision was to confirm the covenant from Abraham’s side, to serve as a constant reminder to him that he should no longer use his natural strength and energy to please God.
Rm 4:112 righteousness
See note 132.
Rm 4:121a walk  -   Gal. 6:16; Phil. 3:16
The Greek word means to walk in a regulated, definite way (see notes 252 in Gal. 5 and 164 in Phil. 3). Here it refers to walking in the steps by observing the elements of the faith. If one walks in the steps of Abraham’s faith, Abraham becomes the father of circumcision to him, and this one enters into a life in which he does not trust in himself but in God, with the result that he is justified subjectively and thus becomes His genuine heir.
Rm 4:13a the  -   Rom. 9:8; Gal. 3:16
Rm 4:13b that  -   Gen. 17:4-7; 22:17
Rm 4:131 heir
Justification is for God’s chosen ones to inherit the world that they may exercise God’s dominion on earth (Gen. 1:26).
Rm 4:132 righteousness
The law was God’s temporary economy (dispensation) for man in the Old Testament, since it was added temporarily because of man’s transgressions (Gal. 3:19); the faith is God’s eternal economy (dispensation) for man in the New Testament, because it is based on God’s eternal plan (cf. note 44 in 1 Tim. 1). In the Old Testament God dealt with man according to the law. If, according to that dispensation of God, man would have done what God commanded in the law, he would have obtained righteousness, that is, the righteousness of the law (9:31), the righteousness which is out of the law (10:5; Phil. 3:9). In the New Testament God deals with man according to the faith. If, according to this dispensation of God, man believes in Christ, the One in whom God has ordained that man should believe (1 John 3:23), he will obtain righteousness, that is, the righteousness of faith (v. 11), the righteousness which is out of faith (9:30; 10:6). The faith, which is ordained by God in the New Testament economy and which replaces the law of the Old Testament, did not come until the New Testament time (Gal. 3:23, 25). This faith, which replaces the law, is objective to us. When according to this objective faith we believe subjectively in Christ, in whom God intended that we believe, we receive the righteousness of faith. This righteousness is the Christ whom we possess — whom we receive by our subjective believing according to the objective faith ordained by God — as God’s righteousness received by us (1 Cor. 1:30).
Rm 4:14a if  -   Gal. 3:18
Rm 4:15a the  -   1 Cor. 15:56
Rm 4:15b where  -   Rom. 3:20; 5:20; 7:7
Rm 4:16a grace  -   Rom. 3:24
Rm 4:161 father
As the father of all those called by God, Abraham was the first of a new race chosen by God. We were born into the fallen Adamic race, but we have been reborn into the called-out Abrahamic race. Whoever is of faith, as Abraham was, is a member of this new race and a son of Abraham (Gal. 3:7).
Rm 4:17a I  -   Gen. 17:5
Rm 4:171 believed
Abraham believed God regarding two things: (1) the birth of Isaac, which is related to the God who “calls the things not being as being,” and (2) the offering up and the gaining back of Isaac, which is related to the God who “gives life to the dead.” Abraham believed such a God and applied Him to his situation. Because Abraham had such faith, he believed God’s seemingly impossible word concerning the birth of Isaac, and he also immediately obeyed God’s commandment to offer Isaac, believing that God would raise him from the dead (Heb. 11:17-19).
Rm 4:17b who  -   Heb. 11:19
Rm 4:172 gives
This is God’s great power of resurrection. This great power enables us to eliminate death and overcome all that belongs to death. Abraham experienced this great power of resurrection when he offered Isaac according to God’s command.
Rm 4:173 calls
This is God’s mighty power of creation. As the creating God, He needs no material to work with; He can create something out of nothing simply by speaking: “For He spoke, and it was” (Psa. 33:9).
Rm 4:181 in
Lit., on. Abraham, as the example of one who is justified out of faith, lived by the things hoped for (see note 13 in Heb. 11).
Rm 4:18a So  -   Gen. 15:5
Rm 4:191a already  -   Heb. 11:12
This indicates the termination of Abraham’s natural strength. This termination is related to God’s justifying him subjectively.
Rm 4:19b being  -   Gen. 17:17
Rm 4:19c deadening  -   Gen. 18:11; Heb. 11:11
Rm 4:21a what  -   Gen. 18:14
Rm 4:241 Him
The faith that is accounted to us as righteousness is our believing on God, who righteously judged Christ for our sins, righteously put Him to death in our place, and righteously raised Him from the dead.
Rm 4:251 raised
The death of Christ has fulfilled and fully satisfied God’s righteous requirements; hence, we are justified by God through His death (3:24). His resurrection proves that God’s requirements were satisfied by His death for us, that we are justified by God because of His death, and that in Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God. Furthermore, as the resurrected One, He is in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God.
Rm 4:25a for  -   John 16:10
Romans Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 5:1a justified  -   Rom. 3:28
Rm 5:1b peace  -   Rom. 1:7; 8:6; 14:17; 15:13; 16:20
Rm 5:11 toward
Our journey into God through our being justified out of faith has not yet been completed; thus, Paul used the word toward, not with. Grace is for our standing (v. 2), and peace is for our walk.
Rm 5:21 faith
The very faith that justifies us and cuts off the flesh with its natural energy and effort also gives us access into God’s grace. If we remain in the flesh with its natural effort, we will neither know nor enjoy the grace of God; but if we live by faith, we will enter into the full enjoyment of God’s grace.
Rm 5:22a grace  -   Rom. 1:7; 3:24; 5:15, 17, 20, 21; 6:14; 16:20; John 1:14, 16; Eph. 1:6, 7; 2:5, 7, 8; 1 Tim. 1:14; Phil. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:2; 3:7; 4:10; 2 Pet. 3:18; 2 Tim. 2:1; 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14; Gal. 5:4; 6:18
Grace is the Triune God Himself, processed that we may enter into Him and enjoy Him. Grace here, in the deepest sense, is the Triune God as our enjoyment. It is more than unmerited favor and more than mere outward blessing. We are not merely under God’s blessing; we are in His grace (see note 23).
Rm 5:23 stand
Faith first gives us access into grace, then, a solid standing in grace.
Rm 5:24 boast
Boast in Greek also has the meaning of exult. This indicates our enjoyment of God. (So in the next verse.)
Rm 5:25b hope  -   Rom. 8:24-25; Col. 1:27; Titus 2:13
Our hope is that we will be brought into the glory of God, that is, into His expression. This will be fully realized in the coming millennial kingdom, where Christ will be revealed as our glory. Today we are in the hope of this coming glory (see note 13 in Heb. 11).
Rm 5:2c glory  -   Rom. 8:17-18; 9:23; 1 Cor. 2:7; Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10
Rm 5:31 tribulations
Tribulations are part of the “all things” in 8:28 that God causes to work together for good that we might be sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of His Son, who has entered into glory. Because of this, we can receive tribulations as the sweet visitation and incarnation of grace and thereby boast in them. Through tribulations the killing effect of the cross of Christ on our natural being is applied in us by the Holy Spirit, making the way for the God of resurrection to add Himself to us (see 2 Cor. 4:16-18).
Rm 5:32 endurance
Meaning persistence. Persistence is the product of patience plus suffering.
Rm 5:41 approvedness
Approvedness is an approved quality or attribute resulting from the enduring and experiencing of tribulation and testing.
Rm 5:4a hope  -   Rom. 15:4, 13
Rm 5:51a love  -   Rom. 8:39; 2 Cor. 13:14
The love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16). God has poured out this love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations (see note 371 in ch. 8). Therefore, when we endure any kind of tribulation, we are not put to shame.
Rm 5:5b poured  -   Titus 3:6
Rm 5:5c hearts  -   Gal. 4:6
Rm 5:61 weak
I.e., impotent; unable to please God.
Rm 5:6a died  -   1 Cor. 15:3
Rm 5:8a love  -   See 5a
Rm 5:8b died  -   See 6a
Rm 5:9a blood  -   Rom. 3:25
Rm 5:9b wrath  -   Rom. 1:18
Rm 5:101a reconciled  -   2 Cor. 5:19-20
Propitiation and forgiveness of sins are adequate for a sinner but not for an enemy. An enemy needs reconciliation, which includes propitiation and forgiveness but goes further, even to resolving the conflict between two parties. Our being reconciled to God is based on Christ’s redemption and was accomplished through God’s justification (3:24; 2 Cor. 5:18-19). Reconciliation is the result of being justified out of faith.
Rm 5:102 much
Verse 10 of this chapter points out that God’s full salvation revealed in this book consists of two sections: one section is the redemption accomplished for us by Christ’s death, and the other section is the saving afforded us by Christ’s life. The first four chapters of this book discourse comprehensively regarding the redemption accomplished by Christ’s death, whereas the last twelve chapters speak in detail concerning the saving afforded by Christ’s life. Before 5:11, Paul shows us that we are saved because we have been redeemed, justified, and reconciled to God. However, we have not yet been saved to the extent of being sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of God’s Son. Redemption, justification, and reconciliation, which are accomplished outside of us by the death of Christ, redeem us objectively; sanctification, transformation, and conformation, which are accomplished within us by the working of Christ’s life, save us subjectively. Objective redemption redeems us positionally from condemnation and eternal punishment; subjective salvation saves us dispositionally from our old man, our self, and our natural life.
Rm 5:103 saved
Being reconciled to God through Christ’s death is an accomplished matter, but being saved in His life from so many negative things unto glorification is a daily matter.
Rm 5:104 in
To be saved in Christ’s life is to be saved in Christ Himself as life. He dwells in us, and we are organically one with Him. By the growth of His life in us, we will enjoy His full salvation to the uttermost. Redemption, justification, and reconciliation are for the purpose of bringing us into union with Christ so that He can save us in His life unto glorification (8:30).
Rm 5:105b life  -   Rom. 5:17, 18, 21; 6:4; 8:2, 6, 10; John 10:10
Implying resurrection. After death is spoken of in the first part of this verse, life is mentioned. Christ died that He might be our life in resurrection. We have been saved by Christ’s death from God’s eternal judgment and eternal punishment, but we are still being saved by Christ’s life in His resurrection. The life here, the power in 1:16, and the Spirit in ch. 8 refer to different aspects of the processed Triune God.
Rm 5:111 boasting
To boast in God means to have God as our boast and our exultation, indicating that God is our enjoyment and our rejoicing. See note 24. It is in boasting, in exulting, and in enjoying in this way that we are being saved in the life of Christ.
Rm 5:11a reconciliation  -   See 10a
Rm 5:121a one  -   1 Cor. 15:21
I.e., Adam, the first man, the father of the entire human race, who brought in death through sin. In contrast to Adam is Christ, the second man (1 Cor. 15:47), who brought in life through righteousness (vv. 17-18).
Rm 5:122b sin  -   Rom. 5:13, 20; 6:1, 2, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23; 7:7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23; 8:2, 3, 10
Up to v. 11 sins (plural) have been dealt with. From v. 12 sin (singular) is dealt with. It seems that in chs. 5 — 8 sin is personified. Sin is not merely an action; it is like a person who can enter (v. 12), reign (v. 21), lord it over people (6:14), deceive and kill people (7:11), and dwell in people and cause them to do things against their will (7:17, 20). It is quite alive (7:9) and exceedingly active; hence, it must be the evil nature of Satan, the evil one, who, having injected himself into man through Adam’s fall, has now become the very sinful nature dwelling, acting, and working in fallen man. This indwelling, personified sinful nature is the root of all the outward sinful acts.
Rm 5:123 world
Or, people of the world; referring to mankind (John 1:29; 3:16).
Rm 5:12c through  -   James 1:15; 1 Cor. 15:55, 56; Heb. 2:14; Rom. 5:14, 17, 21; 6:9, 16, 21, 23; 7:5, 10, 13, 24; 8:2, 6; Heb. 2:9, 15; 1 Cor. 15:54, 26; Rev. 20:14
Rm 5:124 death
Death is the ultimate result of man’s fall. Man’s spirit was deadened first, and eventually his body also died. Death and sin cannot be separated; where one is, the other will be found. Furthermore, death is not only a physical suffering in the future; it is something in which man is involved daily.
Rm 5:12d death  -   1 Cor. 15:22
See note 124.
Rm 5:131 charged
Sin existed before the law was given, but it was not manifested to man or charged to his account by God before that time.
Rm 5:13a law  -   Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:20; 7:7, 13
Rm 5:141a death  -   Rom. 5:17; 6:9
Death is mentioned many times in chs. 5 — 8 (vv. 12, 14, 17, 21; 6:9, 16, 21, 23; 7:5, 10, 13, 24; 8:2, 6, 38). Life also is mentioned repeatedly in these chapters (vv. 10, 17-18, 21; 6:4, 22-23; 7:10; 8:2, 6, 10-11, 38). These two key words form two contrasting lines through chs. 5 — 8, the line of life and the line of death, showing that man is at the center of a triangular situation between God and Satan, life and death. Thus, chs. 5 — 8 of Romans can be called the kernel of the Bible, showing its entire theme in a concrete and detailed way.
Rm 5:142 Adam
From Adam to Moses was the dispensation before law (without law); from Moses to Christ (John 1:17) was the dispensation of law; from Christ’s first coming to the restoration of all things (Acts 3:20-21) is the dispensation of grace; and from Christ’s second coming to the end of the millennium (Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6) is the dispensation of the kingdom. These dispensations are used by God to accomplish His work of the new creation in the old creation.
Rm 5:143 transgression
In this chapter the words transgression, offense, and disobedience all refer to the fall of Adam, which consisted in his leaving life and choosing death. Adam forsook the tree of life, which denotes God as life, to pursue the tree of knowledge, which signifies Satan as the source of death (Gen. 2:8-9, 17; 3:1-7).
Rm 5:14b who  -   1 Cor. 15:45
Rm 5:144 type
Adam was the head of the old collective man (mankind). Whatever he did and whatever happened to him is participated in by all mankind. In this respect he is a type of Christ, who is the Head of the new corporate man, the church (Eph. 2:15-16). Whatever He did and whatever happened to Him is participated in by all the members of His Body, the church (Eph. 1:22-23).
Rm 5:15a one  -   1 Cor. 15:22
Rm 5:151b man  -   1 Cor. 15:47
Christ our Redeemer was fully a man and was fully God as well (see 9:5). Grace with all its gifts abounded in the humanity of Christ.
Rm 5:152 abounded
Grace not only abounds (v. 17) and multiplies (superabounds — v. 20) but also reigns (v. 21). Only a living person can reign.
Rm 5:161 gift
Referring to the gift of righteousness, which we have received (v. 17). This indicates that the righteousness given to us by God is a gift.
Rm 5:16a justification  -   Rom. 4:25
Rm 5:171 abundance
Those who receive the abundant grace are able to reign in life, for life issues out of the abundance of grace.
Rm 5:172 righteousness
The gift of righteousness erases judgment. Judgment comes from sin, but righteousness comes from grace. Righteousness always accompanies grace and is its result. Subjective righteousness (4:25b) comes from grace (vv. 17, 19), and grace comes from objective righteousness (vv. 1-2).
Rm 5:173 reign
The life we have received does not merely save us from a few things; rather, it enthrones us as kings to reign over all things. This is much higher than being saved in life. We have received righteousness objectively, but we still need to continually receive the abundance of grace so that we can reign in life subjectively. This reigning is defined in chs. 6 — 16; all the matters expounded there are the issue not of our endeavoring but of our receiving the abundance of grace.
Rm 5:174 life
Life here, and in vv. 10, 18, 21; 6:4; and 8:2, 6, 10, refers to the eternal, divine, uncreated life of God (zoe), which is Christ Himself as life to us (John 11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4). It is different from both our physical life (bios — Luke 8:14) and our soulish life (psuche — Matt. 16:25-26; John 12:25). This eternal life of God is the main element of the divine grace that has been given to us, and in this eternal life we can reign.
Rm 5:181 righteous
Christ’s righteous act of dying on the cross resulted in justification of life. Verse 21 says that grace reigns through righteousness unto life. These two verses show that life comes as the result of righteousness (see 8:10).
Rm 5:182 life
Life is the goal of God’s salvation; thus, justification is “of life.” Justification is not an end in itself; it is for life. Through justification we have come up to the standard of God’s righteousness and correspond with it, so that now He can impart His life to us. Justification changes our outward position; life changes our inward disposition. Justification unto life indicates that life is the focus of this chapter and that the organic union of life is an issue of justification.
Rm 5:191 constituted
Whether we are sinners or are righteous depends not on our actions but on our inward constitution. Through his fall Adam received an element that was not created by God. This was the satanic nature, which became the constituting essence and main element of fallen man. It is this constituting essence and element that constituted all men sinners. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. Whether we do good or evil, in Adam we have been constituted sinners. This is due to our inward element, not our outward actions.
In contrast, Christ constitutes us righteous. When He, the living God, comes into our being as grace, we are constituted righteous. He becomes the constituting essence and element in us that can transform us from sinners into sons of God. He alone is able to accomplish such a reconstituting work.
Rm 5:192 obedience
Christ’s death on the cross was the highest expression of His obedience and was regarded by God a righteous act (v. 18; see Phil. 2:8).
Rm 5:20a law  -   Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 7:7
Rm 5:201 abound
The law causes sin to abound, that is, to become evident and recognizable to man. In this way man’s sinfulness is fully exposed.
Rm 5:211a sin  -   Rom. 6:14
Sin reigns by the authority of death and brings in death by its reign. Thus, a sinner must die.
Rm 5:212 righteousness
Righteousness is the footing, the base, and the means for God to dispense Himself to us as grace. This righteousness gives us the ground to claim Christ as our grace. By giving grace to us, God manifests His righteousness (see 1:17). Furthermore, the power of this grace operates in us and produces subjective righteousness, making us right with God, with others, and even with ourselves; and it not only subdues sin but also overcomes Satan and death in our being. Thus grace reigns through righteousness, resulting in eternal life.
Rm 5:21b eternal  -   Rom. 6:22, 23; John 3:16; 17:2, 3; 1 John 5:11, 20
Romans Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 6:1a Should  -   Rom. 6:15
Rm 6:1b grace  -   Rom. 5:20
Rm 6:2a died  -   Rom. 6:11; 1 Pet. 2:24
Rm 6:31a baptized  -   Gal. 3:27
Baptism is not a form or a ritual; it signifies our identification with Christ. Through baptism we are immersed into Christ, taking Him as our realm, that we may be united with Him as one in His death and resurrection.
Rm 6:32 Christ
We were born in the sphere of Adam, the first man (1 Cor. 15:45, 47), but through baptism we have been transferred into the sphere of Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:27), the second man (1 Cor. 15:47).
Rm 6:33 His
When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death. His death has separated us from the world and the satanic power of darkness and has terminated our natural life, our old nature, our self, our flesh, and even our entire history.
Rm 6:41a buried  -   Col. 2:12
Our old man has been crucified with Christ (v. 6), and it has been buried with Him through baptism into death. In the natural realm, a person first dies and then is buried; but Paul’s word indicates that in the spiritual realm, we are first buried and then die. We do not die directly; we enter into Christ’s death through baptism.
Rm 6:42 baptism
Christ and His death are one. Apart from Him we could never be baptized into His death, for the element of His effective death is found only in Him, the resurrected, all-inclusive One.
Rm 6:4b raised  -   Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1
Rm 6:43c glory  -   Matt. 16:27; John 11:40
Referring to the manifestation of divinity.
Rm 6:44 walk
After baptism we become a new person in resurrection. Resurrection is not only a future state; it is also a present process. To walk in newness of life means to live today in the realm of resurrection and to reign in life. This kind of living deals with all that is of Adam in us until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ (8:29).
Rm 6:4d newness  -   Rom. 7:6; 2 Cor. 5:17
Rm 6:4e life  -   Rom. 5:10, 17, 18, 21; 8:2, 6
Rm 6:51 grown
This denotes an organic union in which growth takes place, so that one partakes of the life and characteristics of the other. In the organic union with Christ, whatever Christ passed through has become our history. His death and resurrection are now ours because we are in Him and are organically joined to Him. This is grafting (11:24). Such a grafting (1) discharges all our negative elements, (2) resurrects our God-created faculties, (3) uplifts our faculties, (4) enriches our faculties, and (5) saturates our entire being to transform us.
Rm 6:52 likeness
The likeness of Christ’s death is the baptism mentioned in v. 4; the likeness of Christ’s resurrection is the newness of life mentioned in v. 4.
Rm 6:53 in
This does not refer to a future, objective resurrection but to the present process of growth. When we were baptized, we grew together with Christ in the likeness of His death; now, through His death we are growing into His resurrection. Just as the element of Christ’s death is found only in Him, so the element of Christ’s resurrection is found only in Christ Himself. He Himself is resurrection (John 11:25). After experiencing a proper baptism, we continue to grow in and with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, to walk in newness of life.
Rm 6:61 Knowing
In Greek, knowing here refers to the outward, objective knowledge; knowing in v. 9 and know in v. 16 refer to the inward, subjective consciousness.
Rm 6:62 old
Referring to the natural life in our soul. The old man is our very being, which was created by God but became fallen through sin, and it is the same as the “I” in Gal. 2:20. It is not the soul itself but the life of the soul, which has been counted by God as hopeless and has been put on the cross and crucified with Christ. Formerly, our soul acted as an independent person, with the old man as its life and personality; now, since the old man has been crucified, our soul should act only as an organ of Christ and should be under the control of our spirit, having Christ as its life.
Rm 6:63a crucified  -   Gal. 2:20
See note 242 in Gal. 5.
Rm 6:64b body  -   cf. Rom. 7:24
The body indwelt, occupied, corrupted, possessed, utilized, and enslaved by sin, so that it does sinful things. This body of sin is very active and full of strength to commit sins; it differs from “the body of this death” mentioned in 7:24, which is weak and powerless in the things of God. The body of sin is not the sinning person but the sinning instrument utilized by the old man to express himself by committing sins, thereby causing the body of sin to become the flesh. Hence, the body of sin in this verse and the flesh of sin in 8:3 refer to the same thing.
Rm 6:65 annulled
Or, unemployed, jobless, inactive. Because the old man has been crucified with Christ, the body that had been utilized by him as the instrument for sinning now has nothing to do; it is unemployed, jobless. Thus, we have been freed from sin (vv. 18-22) and no longer need to be under the bondage of sin to serve sin as slaves.
Rm 6:71 sin
Both the nature of sin with its power and its pain, and the sinful acts with their history and their judgment.
Rm 6:8a died  -   Col. 3:3
Rm 6:81 with
This again shows our organic union with Christ in His death and His resurrection.
Rm 6:8b live  -   John 14:19; Gal. 2:20
Rm 6:9a dies  -   Rev. 1:18
Rm 6:91 no
In His resurrection Christ is transcendent over corruption and death. Since we are one with Him in this resurrection, we also are transcendent over corruption and death.
Rm 6:111 reckon
Or, consider. Reckoning is not a technique but a spontaneous believing, a spontaneous considering, produced by seeing the facts that are revealed in this chapter. We must see and believe the facts, recognize them, and, according to them, reckon ourselves dead to sin and living to God.
Reckoning, however, is not the cause of death and cannot by itself execute the death of Christ within us. Only by the enjoyment of the Spirit, who is revealed in ch. 8, will we experience Christ’s all-inclusive and effective death and His resurrection and its power, which are revealed here in this chapter. This chapter shows the objective facts accomplished by Christ for us; these need our believing and reckoning. Chapter 8 shows the subjective work of the Spirit in making the facts accomplished by Christ real in our practical experience; this needs our fellowship with and enjoyment of Him. The facts spoken of in this chapter can become our experience only in the Spirit revealed in ch. 8.
Rm 6:11a dead  -   Rom. 6:2
Rm 6:121 Do
This is to reject sin and to cooperate with the Spirit of God.
Rm 6:12a sin  -   Rom. 6:14; 5:21
Rm 6:122 the
Lit., its (referring to body).
Rm 6:12b lusts  -   Gal. 5:16
Rm 6:13a present  -   Rom. 12:1
Rm 6:13b members  -   Rom. 6:19
Rm 6:13c weapons  -   2 Cor. 6:7; Rom. 13:12; cf. Rom. 7:23
Rm 6:131 present
Presenting ourselves and our members to God is the result of seeing the facts of our having been crucified and resurrected with Christ and of reckoning ourselves dead and living according to these facts.
Rm 6:132 weapons
Or, instruments. Our members are not merely instruments but are weapons of righteousness to fight the battle in the war between righteousness and unrighteousness.
Rm 6:14a sin  -   Rom. 6:12; 5:21
Rm 6:141 lord
Sin, here personified, lords it over us through the lusts of our body (v. 12).
Rm 6:142 for
That we are not under the law but under grace is the reason sin cannot lord it over us. This gives us the position to reject sin. Sin no longer has any right to make claims upon us, but we have the full right to reject sin and its power. By rejecting sin and taking sides with the resurrected Christ, we present ourselves and our members as slaves to righteousness that the divine life may work within us to sanctify us, not only positionally but also dispositionally, with the holy nature of God.
Rm 6:143 not
This does not make us lawless, as some were during the time of the church’s degradation (Jude 4). The law referred to in this verse is the law given by Moses, which has been replaced by the inward laws in the new covenant (Heb. 10:16). Just as chs. 5 and 6 explain that we are now under grace, chs. 7 and 8 explain how it can be that we are not under the law.
Rm 6:14b grace  -   Rom. 5:2, 15, 17, 20, 21
Rm 6:15a Should  -   Rom. 6:1
Rm 6:161 unto
Unto may be interpreted resulting in, and so in the succeeding verses.
Rm 6:17a slaves  -   Rom. 6:20
Rm 6:181a freed  -   Rom. 6:22; 8:2
This occurred as a result of the crucifixion of the old man (v. 6).
Rm 6:19a present  -   Rom. 6:13
Rm 6:191 unto
Righteousness ushers us into sanctification. If we present ourselves as slaves to righteousness and our members as weapons of righteousness, Christ as the eternal life within us will have the ground to work in us and saturate our inward parts with Himself. Thus we will be sanctified spontaneously; we will be made holy spontaneously in our inward parts by Christ’s saturating.
Rm 6:192b sanctification  -   Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; 1 Thes. 4:7
Sanctification (see note 23 in ch. 1) involves not only a change in position, that is, a separation from a common, worldly position to a position for God, as illustrated in Matt. 23:17, 19 and in 1 Tim. 4:3-5; it involves also a transformation in disposition, that is, a transformation from the natural disposition to a spiritual one by Christ as the life-giving Spirit saturating all the inward parts of our being with God’s nature of holiness, as mentioned in 12:2 and 2 Cor. 3:18.
Rm 6:20a slaves  -   Rom. 6:17
Rm 6:22a freed  -   Rom. 6:18
Rm 6:221b sanctification  -   See 19b
See note 192.
Rm 6:22c eternal  -   Rom. 5:21; John 3:16; 1 John 5:11
Rm 6:222 life
The dispositional sanctification spoken of in this chapter not only comes out of life (vv. 4, 23) but also results in life and brings more life to us that we may enjoy the riches of the divine life.
Rm 6:231 wages
Wages are a payment according to righteousness, based on the work that a person performs. In the eyes of God, all man’s behavior apart from God is sin and is man’s work, and the wages it earns is death.
Rm 6:232a death  -   Rom. 5:12; 6:16, 21; 1:32
Death comes from sin and is its result. The death mentioned here, however, is not only physical death and eternal death, but the death in which man is entangled daily. See note 124 in ch. 5.
Rm 6:233b eternal  -   See 22c
Eternal life is the very life of the Triune God Himself. This life has been imparted into us on the basis of our having been justified by God, and it is now spreading throughout our being through sanctification and transformation. This will result in our being conformed to the Lord’s image and our being brought into the Lord’s glory, that we may be made suitable to have a part in the manifestation of His glory (Col. 3:4).
Romans Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 7:11 law
Verses 1-6 continue 6:14 to explain how it is that we are not under the law. On one hand, the law continues to exist, for God has not recalled, annulled, or abolished it. On the other hand, because of the crucifixion of our old man (6:6), who is the first husband mentioned in these verses, we are no longer under the law and no longer have anything to do with it. Instead, we have become the wife of Christ; that is, we have become those who depend on Christ.
Rm 7:21 law
Because fallen man left his proper position as God’s wife and desired to be the husband (see note 41), God gave him the law, which he cannot possibly keep. The law is intended not for the wife but for the husband, and the law was given not that it might be kept but that the old man might be exposed (v. 5; 3:20; 5:20). Accordingly, this verse refers to the law as “the law regarding the husband.”
Rm 7:22 husband
The husband here (the first husband) is not the flesh or the law but the old man mentioned in 6:6, who has been crucified with Christ. Thus, vv. 1-6 correspond with 6:6.
Rm 7:31 another
Referring to the second husband mentioned in these verses, who is Christ.
Rm 7:41 you
Since our old man, who was the old husband, has been crucified with Christ (6:6), we are freed from his law and are joined to the new Husband, Christ, the ever-living One. As believers, we have two statuses. The first you in this verse refers to us in our old status as the fallen old man, who left the original position of a wife dependent on God and took the self-assuming position of husband and head, independent of God. The second you in this verse refers to us in our new status as the regenerated new man, restored to our original and proper position as the genuine wife to God (Isa. 54:5; 1 Cor. 11:3), dependent on Him and taking Him as our Head. We no longer have the old status of the husband, for we have been crucified. We now have only the new status of the proper wife, in which we take Christ as our Husband, and should no longer live according to the old man, i.e., no longer take the old man as our husband.
Rm 7:4a have  -   Rom. 6:6; Col. 2:20
Rm 7:42 joined
This joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection.
Rm 7:4b another  -   2 Cor. 11:2
Rm 7:43 bear
As the regenerated new man and the wife to Christ, everything we are and do is now related to God, and God is brought forth by us as the fruit, the overflow, of our life. This is in contrast to the fruit born to death (v. 5), which was previously brought forth by us as the old man, the old husband.
Rm 7:61 discharged
Since the old man has been crucified, the regenerated new man is now free from the law of the old man (vv. 2-3; Gal. 2:19). Since the law was given to the old husband, the old man, not to the wife, and since the old husband, the old man, died on the cross, the new man, the wife, has been discharged from his law.
Rm 7:62 serve
Lit., serve as slaves.
Rm 7:63 newness
In 6:4, newness of life issues from our being identified with Christ’s resurrection and is for our walk in our daily life. Here, newness of spirit issues from our being discharged from the law and being joined to the resurrected Christ, and is for our service to God. Thus, both newness of spirit and newness of life are results of the crucifixion of the old man.
Rm 7:64 spirit
Referring to our regenerated human spirit, in which the Lord as the Spirit dwells (2 Tim. 4:22). Everything that is related to our regenerated spirit is new, and everything that comes out of our spirit is new. Our regenerated spirit is a source of newness because the Lord, the life of God, and the Holy Spirit are there (see note 92 in ch. 1).
Rm 7:71 I
In vv. 7-25 Paul used his own experience, which he had before he believed in the Lord, to illustrate the wretchedness of trying to do good under the law in order to please God. Neither the human spirit nor the Spirit of God is mentioned in this section; rather, the will and the mind of the human soul (vv. 19, 23), which attempt to please God with the good of the natural life (vv. 18-19, 21), are referred to. Although this is the situation of an unsaved person, nearly all Christians pass through this kind of experience after they are saved.
Rm 7:7a know  -   Rom. 7:13; 3:20; 5:13, 20
Rm 7:72 law
The law portrays God and defines Him (Lev. 19:2). Accordingly, it places many demands and requirements on fallen man, and in so doing it identifies sin as sin and leads man to the knowledge of sin (3:20; 4:15; 5:20). In this way man is both exposed and subdued by the law (3:19).
Rm 7:73b You  -   Exo. 20:17; Deut. 5:21
The tenth commandment, “You shall not covet,” is not related to outward conduct, but rather to the sin within man, mainly in his thoughts. This shows that man’s problem is with the sin that indwells him, not just with outward sinful acts.
Rm 7:81 sin
This chapter, especially in this verse and in vv. 11, 17, 20, indicates that sin is a person, the embodiment of Satan, and is living and acting within us.
Rm 7:101 death
Referring to our being put to death by the curse and condemnation brought to us, both in our conscience and before God, by sin through the law (4:15; 5:13, 20).
Rm 7:111 through
The law is the instrument through which sin deceives and kills men. The power of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56). This fact should warn us not to turn to the law to try to keep it, for in so doing we give sin the opportunity to deceive and kill us.
Rm 7:11a deceived  -   Rom. 7:8
Rm 7:11b through  -   1 Cor. 15:56
Rm 7:131 be
Lit., appear.
Rm 7:141 know
The inward, subjective consciousness. See note 61 in ch. 6.
Rm 7:142 spiritual
I.e., the same in essence, nature, and substance as God, who is Spirit (John 4:24).
Rm 7:143 fleshy
Paul saw that he was contrary to all that is portrayed by the law. It is spiritual, holy, righteous, and good; he was fleshy, common and defiled, unjust, and evil. See note 12 in 1 Cor. 3.
Rm 7:151 do
Lit., do not know; i.e., do not acknowledge, do not approve of. Paul did not allow, approve of, or acknowledge his wrong action, for it issued from his flesh, which served the law of sin against his mind and against his will.
Rm 7:17a no  -   cf. Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 15:10
Rm 7:171 dwells
Lit., houses itself. Sin does not merely abide or remain within us for a time; it makes its home in us.
Rm 7:181 know
The inward, subjective consciousness. See note 61 in ch. 6.
Rm 7:182 flesh
The flesh here is the fallen and corrupted human body with all its lusts. This flesh was not created by God but is a mixture of God’s creature and sin, which is the life of Satan, the evil one. God created man’s body a pure vessel, but this vessel was corrupted and transmuted into the flesh by Satan’s injecting himself into it at the time of the fall. Now Satan as sin personified is in man’s flesh, making his home there and ruling as an illegal master, overruling man and forcing him to do things that he dislikes. It is this indwelling sin, which is the unchangeable evil nature, that constitutes all men sinners (5:19).
Rm 7:183 nothing
Here Paul was careful to say that it is in the flesh, not in man’s whole being, that nothing good dwells. Good does exist in other parts of man’s being. The will desires to please God (vv. 18-21) according to the good law in the mind (vv. 22-23), but it is impossible to perform this good through the body, for the body has become the flesh, where sin dwells.
Rm 7:184 to
To will to do good is to turn to the law. The law of good in our mind (vv. 22-23) corresponds with the law of God and responds to its demands by trying to keep it.
Rm 7:20a no  -   See 17a
Rm 7:211 the
According to the fact mentioned in v. 20, Paul discovered that the law of sin was the sin that dwelt in him and the evil that was present with him. In v. 23 he realized that this law was the law of sin in his members.
Rm 7:212 evil
The Greek word means that which is evil in character. This must be the evil life, nature, and character of Satan himself, who is the indwelling sin in us. When sin is dormant within us, it is merely sin, but when it is aroused in us by our willing to do the good, it becomes “the evil.”
Rm 7:221 law
Referring to the written law of God.
Rm 7:231 law
There are three different laws in the three different parts of the believer’s being. As revealed in chs. 7 and 8, these three laws derive from the three parties in the universe. The law of sin and death in the believer’s members (v. 23), that is, in his body, derives from Satan, who as sin dwells in the believer’s flesh. The law of good in the believer’s mind (v. 23), that is, in his soul, derives from the natural human life, that is, from man himself. The law of the Spirit of life in the believer’s spirit derives from God, who as the Spirit dwells in his spirit (8:2, 16). These three parties with the three laws are now present in the believer in much the same way that they (God, man, and Satan) were present in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3). In addition to the three laws within the believer, there is the law of God outside of him (vv. 22, 25).
Rm 7:232 warring
The warfare here is between the law of sin in the members of our body and the law of good in the mind of our soul. It is absolutely a matter of sin in our flesh fighting against good in our natural being; it is not at all related to our spirit or the Spirit of God. Hence, it is different from the warfare in Gal. 5:16-25, between our spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of God, and the flesh.
Rm 7:233 captive
A person who is independent of God cannot deal with the law of sin in the flesh, for this law is the powerful person of Satan himself.
Rm 7:23a law  -   Rom. 7:25; 8:2
Rm 7:241 Wretched
To attempt to keep the law by the flesh results in death and wretchedness. Man has become fleshy, sold under sin (v. 14). In man’s flesh nothing good dwells (v. 18), and man is unable to master sin (vv. 15-20). If man in such a condition tries to fulfill the law of God, he will surely fail.
Rm 7:242 the
In 6:6 our fallen body is called “the body of sin.” Here it is termed “the body of this death.” The body of sin is strong in sinning against God, but the body of this death is weak in acting to please God. Sin energizes the fallen body to sin, whereas death utterly weakens and disables the corrupted body, so that it cannot keep God’s commandments.
Rm 7:243 this
The death caused by sin through the weapon of the law, the death of being defeated, the death of trying to keep the law to please God but instead being made a captive by the law of sin in our members. This is the death that is working in our flesh this very moment.
Rm 7:25a Thanks  -   1 Cor. 15:57
Rm 7:251 with
The phrase with the mind I myself indicates that the mind, representing the self, is independently attempting to do good. Although the law of good in the mind (v. 23) gives us the inclination to do good, the mind will be defeated because the law of sin in our members is stronger than the independent mind.
Rm 7:252 serve
Lit., serve as a slave.
Rm 7:253 law
The law of sin, sin, and the evil are synonymous terms, denoting Satan, who dwells in man’s fallen body.
Romans Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 8:11 now
The phrase now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus is a strong proof that the experience illustrated in ch. 7 is that of a person who is without Christ.
Rm 8:12 condemnation
The condemnation implied in 1:18 — 3:20 and mentioned in 5:16, 18 is objective, under God’s righteous law, and is the result of our outward sins. The condemnation mentioned here is subjective, in our conscience, and is the result of our being inwardly defeated by the evil law of the indwelling sin, as described in 7:17-18, 20-24. The blood of the crucified Christ is the remedy for objective condemnation (3:25). The Spirit of life, who is Christ processed to be the life-giving Spirit and who is in our spirit, is the remedy for subjective condemnation.
Rm 8:13 in
In this chapter the phrase in Christ refers not only to our standing, our position, in Christ, as mentioned in ch. 6, but also to the reality of our daily walk in our regenerated spirit. Thus, this chapter speaks of being in Christ as a term or a condition. This corresponds with being saved in His life in 5:10.
Rm 8:21 law
The law of the Spirit of life is the subject of this chapter. The Spirit and life are mentioned in this verse, but only in connection with the working of this law. Life is the content and issue of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the ultimate and consummate manifestation of the Triune God after His being processed through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection and becoming the indwelling, life-giving Spirit, who is life to all the believers in Christ. The law that has freed us from the law of sin, which is of Satan, who dwells in the members of our fallen body (7:23, 17), is of this Spirit of life. It is this law, not God nor the Spirit, that works in us to deliver us from the working of the law of sin in our flesh and to enable us to know God and gain God and thereby live Him out. This law of the Spirit of life is the spontaneous power of the Spirit of life. Such a spontaneous law works automatically under the condition that fulfills its requirements (see note 42).
Both Satan and God, after entering into our being and dwelling in us, work within us not by outward, objective activities but by an inward, subjective law. The working of the law of the Spirit of life is the working of the processed Triune God in our spirit; this is also the working of the Triune God in us in His life.
Rm 8:22 Spirit
Here law, the Spirit, and life are in contrast to law, sin, and death. The two laws are in opposition to each other, the Spirit is in opposition to sin, and life is in opposition to death. In ch. 5 grace, which is God embodied in us, is in opposition to sin, which is Satan embodied in us (5:21). In ch. 8 the Spirit, who is God living in us, is in opposition to sin. Thus, the grace in ch. 5 is the Spirit in ch. 8, the very God embodied in us as grace, living and acting in us.
In the previous chapters life is mentioned a number of times (1:17; 2:7; 5:10, 17-18, 21; 6:4, 22-23). In this chapter life is joined with the Spirit in the phrase the Spirit of life, showing that everything regarding life in the preceding chapters is included in the Spirit in this chapter. Life belongs to the Spirit, and the Spirit is of life. These two are actually one (John 6:63). The way to experience the divine, eternal, uncreated life is by the Spirit of life.
Rm 8:23 life
The spiritual life revealed in this chapter is fourfold. First, it was the divine life in the Spirit (v. 2). Second, it became life in our spirit through regeneration (v. 10). Then from our spirit it saturates our mind for the transformation of our soul, to which our mind belongs, and becomes the life in our soul (v. 6). Eventually, it will permeate our body and become the life in our body (v. 11), ultimately issuing in the transfiguration of our body (Phil. 3:21), that is, the redemption of our body (v. 23).
Rm 8:24 freed
The major function of the processed Triune God in indwelling our spirit as the law of the Spirit of life is to free us completely from Satan, who dwells in our fallen nature as the law of sin and of death (7:23-25). This freeing is not only for our subjective justification but even more for our dispositional sanctification.
Rm 8:25 me
Some ancient MSS read, you.
Rm 8:26a law  -   Rom. 7:23, 25
The law of sin, the power to commit sin that arises spontaneously in man, causes man to become a slave of sin (John 8:34). Thus, man is helpless, is controlled and manipulated by sin, and does many things against his will. The law of death, the natural power that causes man to become weak, to wither up, and to age and die, dwells in man and causes every part of man to enter into decay and death. On one hand, death disables man; on the other hand, it desensitizes man. It causes man to be disabled when he attempts to do good, and to be insensitive when he commits sins.
Rm 8:31 law
In the flesh nothing good dwells (7:18); only sin dwells in the flesh (7:17). Furthermore, the flesh is of death (7:24). Hence, no man can be justified before God out of the works of the law through the flesh (3:20). Because of such a weak and impotent flesh, there is something that the law could not do.
Rm 8:32 not
On one hand, the law of God outside man is a law in letters, is dead, and lacks the power of life to supply man to meet its demands. On the other hand, man’s body has been corrupted by Satan to become the flesh of death, and as such is incapable of keeping the law. It is because of these two factors that there is “that which the law could not do”; that is, the law is incapable of pleasing God through man’s keeping of it.
Rm 8:3a weak  -   Heb. 7:18; Rom. 7:18
Rm 8:33 likeness
The flesh is of sin, yet the Son of God became flesh (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). However, He was only in the likeness of the flesh and did not have the sin of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). This was typified by the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses for the sinful Israelites (Num. 21:9; John 3:14). The bronze serpent was in the form, the likeness, of the actual serpent but did not have its poison. It was such a bronze serpent that bore God’s judgment for the poisoned Israelites and dealt with the serpents that poisoned them.
Although Christ did not have the sin of the flesh, He was crucified in the flesh (Col. 1:22; 1 Pet. 3:18). Thus, on the cross He judged Satan, who is related to the flesh, and the world, which hangs on him (John 12:31; 16:11), thereby destroying Satan (Heb. 2:14). At the same time, through Christ’s crucifixion in the flesh, God condemned sin, which was brought by Satan into man’s flesh. As a result, it is possible for us to walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us (v. 4).
Rm 8:41 fulfilled
Not consciously kept by us through our outward endeavoring but spontaneously and unconsciously fulfilled in us by the inward working of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life is the Spirit of Christ, and Christ corresponds with the law of God. This Spirit within us spontaneously fulfills all the righteous requirements of the law through us when we walk according to Him.
Rm 8:42a walk  -   Gal. 5:16, 25
The Greek word denotes the general walk in our living. See note 161 in Gal. 5. The requirements that we must fulfill in order that the law of the Spirit of life (which has already been installed in us) may work are (1) to walk according to the spirit (v. 4); (2) to mind the things of the Spirit — to set the mind on the spirit (vv. 5-6); (3) to put to death by the Spirit the practices of the body (v. 13); (4) to be led by the Spirit as sons of God (v. 14); (5) to cry to the Father in the spirit of sonship (v. 15); (6) to witness that we are the children of God (v. 16); and (7) to groan for the full sonship, the redemption of our body (v. 23).
Rm 8:43 spirit
It is difficult to discern the word spirit used in this chapter, in Gal. 5, and in other places in the New Testament, unless it is clearly designated to denote God’s Holy Spirit or our regenerated human spirit, as in v. 9 and v. 16 of this chapter. According to the usage in the New Testament, the word spirit, as used in this verse, denotes our regenerated human spirit indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God (v. 9). This corresponds with 1 Cor. 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord [who is the Spirit — 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45] is one spirit” — one mingled spirit.
Rm 8:51 things
The things of the flesh include anything that is in the realm of the flesh, whether evil or good.
Rm 8:52 according
Not only to walk and have our activities according to the spirit, but to have our entire being according to the spirit. When we are according to the spirit, our walk also is according to the spirit. In this spirit the indwelling law of the Spirit of life, that is, the processed Triune God Himself, works within us spontaneously and frees us from the law of sin and of death.
Rm 8:53 things
The things of the Spirit are the things concerning Christ, which the Spirit receives and declares to us (John 16:14-15). As we exercise ourselves to mind these things, eventually our whole being will be according to the spirit.
Rm 8:61 the
Lit., the mind of the flesh. In vv. 6-8 the crucial item is the mind. The mind is the leading part of the soul, which is man’s personality, his person. The mind thus represents the soul, that is, the person himself. In this chapter the mind is neutral, being between the regenerated mingled spirit and the fallen body, the flesh. Chapters 7 and 8 show that the mind may have two different actions, by which it can cause us to be either in the spirit or in the flesh. If it relies on and attaches itself to the regenerated spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of God, the mind will bring us into the spirit and into the enjoyment of the divine Spirit as the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2). If the mind attaches itself to the flesh and acts independently, it will bring us into the flesh, causing us to be at enmity with God and to be unable to please Him (vv. 7-8).
Rm 8:62 death
Life and peace result from setting our mind on the spirit. When our mind is set on the spirit, our outward actions are in agreement with our inner man and there is no discrepancy between us and God. He and we are at peace, not at enmity (v. 7). The result is that we feel peaceful within.
When our mind is set on the flesh and the things of the flesh, the result is death, which causes us to feel separated from the enjoyment of God. We feel uneasy and deadened instead of peaceful and living. When we are minding the flesh and setting our mind on the things of the flesh, the sense of death should serve as a warning to us, urging us to be delivered from the flesh and to live in the spirit.
Rm 8:63 the
Lit., the mind of the spirit. Setting the mind on the spirit is the same as minding the things of the Spirit in v. 5. Verse 6 and vv. 7-13 show that Christ today is the life of God in the divine Spirit (v. 2) and also the indwelling life of God in God’s people, because God’s Spirit of life has become the indwelling Spirit in us, the Spirit in both aspects being Christ.
Rm 8:6a life  -   Rom. 5:10, 17, 18, 21
See note 62.
Rm 8:6b peace  -   Rom. 1:7; 5:1; 14:17; 16:20
Rm 8:81 those
If we mind the flesh, or set our mind on the flesh, we become those who are in the flesh.
Rm 8:82 in
Verses 8 and 9 emphasize the word in, showing that the stress here is on the condition and experience more than on the source and position.
Rm 8:91 Spirit
This chapter unveils to us how the Triune God — the Father (v. 15), the Son (vv. 3, 29, 32), and the Spirit (vv. 9, 11, 13-14, 16, 23, 26) — dispenses Himself as life (vv. 2, 6, 10, 11) into us, the tripartite men — spirit, soul, and body — to make us His sons (vv. 14-15, 19, 23, 29, 17) for the constituting of the Body of Christ (12:4-5).
Rm 8:92 dwells
I.e., makes home, resides (cf. Eph. 3:17). If we allow the Spirit of the Triune God to make His home in us, that is, to settle Himself in us with adequate room, then in our experience we are in the spirit and are no longer in the flesh. If we are so, the Triune God as the Spirit will be able to spread from our spirit (v. 10) into our soul, represented by our mind (v. 6), and eventually He will even give life to our mortal body (v. 11).
Rm 8:93 if
This shows that our being of Christ depends on His Spirit. If there were no Spirit of Christ, or if Christ were not the Spirit, there would be no way for us to be joined to Him and to belong to Him. However, Christ is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and He is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) and is one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17).
Rm 8:94a Spirit  -   1 Pet. 1:11; cf. Acts 16:7, 6; Phil. 1:19
The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are not two Spirits but one. Paul used these titles interchangeably, indicating that the indwelling Spirit of life in v. 2 is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of the entire Triune God. God, the Spirit, and Christ — the three of the Godhead — are all mentioned in this verse. However, there are not three in us; there is only one, the triune Spirit of the Triune God (John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:11). The Spirit of God implies that this Spirit is of the One who was from eternity past, who created the universe and is the origin of all things. The Spirit of Christ implies that this Spirit is the embodiment and reality of Christ, the incarnated One. This Christ accomplished everything necessary to fulfill God’s plan. He includes not only divinity, which He possessed from eternity, but also humanity, which He obtained through incarnation. He also includes human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This is the Spirit of Christ in resurrection, that is, Christ Himself dwelling in our spirit (v. 10) to impart Himself, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, into us as resurrection life and power to deal with the death that is in our nature (v. 2). Thus, we may live today in Christ’s resurrection, in Christ Himself, by living in the mingled spirit.
Rm 8:95 of
Referring to the unchangeable source and position rather than to the changeable condition and experience. We have the Spirit of Christ according to the source, the new birth; hence, we are of Christ and belong to Him. In our present experience and spiritual condition, however, we need to be not only of Him but also in Him.
Rm 8:101a Christ  -   2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27
In this verse the Spirit is not mentioned, for here the emphasis is that Christ today is the Spirit and that the Spirit of Christ is the very Christ in us. According to the fact, it is Christ; according to experience, it is the Spirit. In our experience of Him, He is the Spirit; in our worshipping Him, calling on Him, and speaking of Him, He is Christ. We receive Him as our Savior and Redeemer, but He enters into us as the Spirit. As the Redeemer, He has the title Christ; as the Indweller, He has the title the Spirit. These are not two who dwell in us but one Dweller in two aspects.
Rm 8:102 in
“Christ…in you” is the crucial point of the book of Romans. In ch. 3 Christ is on the cross, shedding His blood for our redemption; in ch. 4 He is in resurrection; in ch. 6 we are in Him; now, in ch. 8 He is the Spirit in us.
Rm 8:103 body
Before we believed in the Lord, our spirit within was dead and our body without was alive. Now that we have Christ in us, though our body without is dead because of sin, our spirit within is life because of righteousness. Christ’s coming into us as life exposes the death situation of our body. In our spirit is Christ the Spirit as righteousness, resulting in life; but in our flesh is Satan as sin, resulting in death.
Rm 8:104 dead
Through the fall of man, sin, bringing death with it, entered the human body, causing it to become dead and impotent in the things of God. Although God condemned sin in the flesh (v. 3), this sin has not been uprooted or eradicated from man’s fallen body. Hence, our body is still dead.
Rm 8:105 spirit
The regenerated human spirit, in contrast to the fallen human body. This spirit is not the Spirit of God, for the spirit mentioned here is life only under the condition that Christ is in us. For the Spirit of God to be life, no particular condition is required. Hence, the spirit’s being life because of righteousness can refer only to our human spirit, not to the Spirit of God.
Rm 8:106 life
Our spirit has not only been regenerated and made living; it has become life. When we believed in Christ, He as the divine Spirit of life came into our spirit and mingled Himself with it; the two spirits thereby have become one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Now our spirit is not merely living but is life.
Rm 8:107 righteousness
In God’s justification we have received righteousness, which is the Triune God Himself entering into our being, into our spirit. This righteousness results in life (5:18, 21); hence, our spirit has now become life.
Rm 8:111 Spirit
The objective facts revealed in ch. 6 concerning our death and resurrection in Christ become our subjective experience only when we are in the indwelling Spirit, who is revealed in ch. 8.
Rm 8:112 the
In this verse we have (1) the entire Triune God — “the One who raised Jesus from the dead,” “Christ,” and “His Spirit who indwells you”; (2) the process required for His dispensing, as implied in the words Jesus (emphasizing incarnation), Christ (emphasizing crucifixion and resurrection), and raised (emphasizing resurrection); and (3) His dispensing of Himself into the believers, as shown by the words give life to your mortal bodies, which indicate that the dispensing not only occurs at the center of our being but also reaches to the circumference, to our whole being.
Rm 8:113a dwells  -   1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; John 14:17
See note 92.
Rm 8:114b give  -   John 6:63; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6
This does not refer to divine healing but to the result of our allowing the Spirit of God to make His home in us and saturate our entire being with the divine life. In this way He gives His life to our mortal, dying body, not merely to heal it but also that it may be enlivened to carry out His will.
Rm 8:121 live
After we are saved, it is still possible for us to live according to the flesh by setting the mind on the flesh. But when we are in spirit and walk according to the spirit, we are freed from the flesh and are no longer obligated to it as debtors.
Rm 8:131 die
In this verse, to die, to put to death, and to live are spiritual matters, not physical.
Rm 8:132a put  -   Col. 3:5
We must put to death the practices of the body, but we must do it by the Spirit. On one hand, we must take the initiative to put to death the practices of the body; the Spirit does not do it for us. On the other hand, we should not attempt to deal with our body by relying on our own effort without the power of the Holy Spirit.
The putting to death here is actually our coordinating with the Spirit who indwells us. Inwardly, we must allow Him to make His home in us that He may give life to our mortal body (v. 11). Outwardly, we must put to death the practices of our body that we may live. When we take the initiative to put to death the practices of our body, the Spirit comes in to apply the effectiveness of Christ’s death to those practices, thus killing them.
Rm 8:133 practices
It is not the body itself but its practices that we must put to death. The body needs to be redeemed (v. 23), but its practices need to be put to death. These practices include not only sinful things but also all things practiced by our body apart from the Spirit.
Rm 8:141 led
The leading by the Spirit is not outward but inward, and is composed of the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2), the Spirit (vv. 9-13), and life (vv. 6-11). This verse speaks of our being led by the Spirit rather than of the Spirit’s leading us, indicating that although the Spirit is ready to lead us, we must take the initiative to be led by Him. This means that we must take Him as our life and everything and that we must put to death everything of the old creation in us. We do not need to seek after the Spirit’s leading, since it is already present within us, dwelling in our regenerated spirit. If we live under this leading, we will walk and behave in a way that proves that we are God’s sons.
Rm 8:142 Spirit
The leading here is not merely an action of the Spirit. It is the Triune God Himself becoming the leading in our spirit. If we would care for Him as a person who indwells us, we will spontaneously be led by Him.
Rm 8:143a sons  -   Gal. 3:26; 4:7
The central thought of the book of Romans is that God’s salvation makes sinners His sons, who have His life and nature so that they can express Him, that they may become members of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ for His expression. Hence, sonship is stressed in this chapter (vv. 15, 23). Sons here indicates a more advanced stage of growth in the divine life than does children in v. 16, yet not as advanced as heirs in v. 17. Children refers to the initial stage of sonship, the stage of regeneration in the human spirit. Sons are the children of God who are in the stage of the transformation of their souls. They not only have been regenerated in their spirit and are growing in the divine life, but they also are living and walking by being led by the Spirit. Heirs are the sons of God who, through the transfiguration of their body in the stage of glorification, will be fully matured in every part of their being. Hence, they will be qualified as the legal heirs to claim the divine inheritance (vv. 17, 23).
Rm 8:151a spirit  -   cf. Gal. 4:6
Our regenerated human spirit, mingled with the Spirit of the Son of God (see note 63 in Gal. 4). Sonship in this spirit includes the life, the position, the living, the enjoyment, the birthright, the inheritance, and the manifestation of a son. Such an all-inclusive sonship is now in our spirit.
Rm 8:15b cry  -   Gal. 4:6
Rm 8:152 Abba
An Aramaic word that means father. After being regenerated, we are no longer merely God’s creatures; we are His children. Because we have now been born of God and are related to Him in life, it is very normal and sweet for us to call Him “Father” (see note 64 in Gal. 4).
Rm 8:16a witnesses  -   Rom. 9:1
Rm 8:161 with
It is not only that the Spirit witnesses and our spirit witnesses also. Rather, it is that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. This indicates that our spirit must take the initiative to witness first; then the Spirit will witness with our spirit.
Rm 8:162 our
This reveals that the Spirit of God today, the all-inclusive Spirit of the Triune God, dwells in our regenerated human spirit and works in our spirit. These two spirits are one; they live together, work together, and exist together as one mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). See John 3:6; 4:24; and notes there.
Rm 8:16b spirit  -   Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8; Prov. 20:27; John 4:24; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12; Rom. 1:9; 1 Cor. 5:4; 16:18; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 6:18
Rm 8:163 we
This is the witnessing of the Spirit when we cry “Abba, Father” (v. 15). Such a witnessing testifies to us and assures us that we are the children of God, who possess His life; it also limits us and restricts us to a living and walk that are according to this life, in keeping with our being children of God. The Spirit witnesses to our most basic and elementary relationship with God, namely, that we are His children; He does not witness that we are His sons or His heirs. Therefore, this witnessing of the Spirit begins from the time of our spiritual birth, our regeneration.
Rm 8:16c children  -   Rom. 8:21; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; Rom. 9:8
Rm 8:17a heirs  -   Gal. 4:7; Titus 3:7
Rm 8:171 if
This shows that there is a condition for us to be heirs. It is not that we are heirs simply because we are children of God. Rather, after being born as children, we must grow in life to become sons, and then we must pass through suffering that we may be glorified to become legal heirs.
Rm 8:17b suffer  -   Phil. 3:10; Rev. 1:9
Rm 8:17c glorified  -   Rom. 8:30
Rm 8:181 consider
I.e., consider after calculating.
Rm 8:18a glory  -   Rom. 5:2; 8:21; 9:23; 1 Cor. 2:7; 2 Cor. 4:17; Eph. 1:18; Col. 1:27; 3:4; 1 Thes. 2:12; 2 Tim. 2:10; Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 1:7; 5:10
Rm 8:182 upon
Lit., into, to.
Rm 8:191 anxious
Lit., watching with head outstretched, with full concentration.
Rm 8:192 revelation
An unveiling or appearing of something previously covered or hidden. Although we are the sons of God, we are veiled, not yet revealed. At the Lord’s second coming, when we will be glorified and our bodies will be fully redeemed, the veil will be lifted. The creation is eagerly awaiting this. This revelation will be the consummation of the process of designation that we are now passing through (see note 41 in ch. 1).
Rm 8:20a vanity  -   Eccl. 1:2
Rm 8:211 freed
At present the creation is enslaved under the law of decay and corruption. Its only hope is to be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God when the sons of God are revealed.
Rm 8:21a glory  -   Rom. 8:18
Rm 8:231 the
The firstfruits of the Spirit are simply the Spirit Himself as the firstfruits. The Triune God is our enjoyment; He is everything to us. There will be a harvest of this blessing at the redemption of our body; that will be the full enjoyment. Today the Spirit is the firstfruits of the coming harvest, the foretaste of our full enjoyment of God.
Rm 8:232 groan
Although we have the divine Spirit as the firstfruits in our spirit, our body has not yet been saturated with the divine life. Our body is still the flesh, linked to the old creation, and it is still a body of sin and death that is impotent in the things of God. Hence, we groan together with the creation (vv. 19, 22) and eagerly await the glorious day when we will obtain the full sonship, the redemption and transfiguration of our body, and will be freed from the slavery of corruption.
Rm 8:233a sonship  -   Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5
This sonship began with the regeneration of our spirit, is continuing with the transformation of our soul, and will be consummated with the redemption of our body.
Rm 8:23b redemption  -   Luke 21:28; Eph. 1:14; 4:30; 1 Cor. 1:30
Rm 8:24a hope  -   Rom. 5:2; Eph. 1:12; Col. 1:5, 27; 1 Thes. 5:8; 2 Thes. 2:16; Titus 2:13; 3:7; 1 Pet. 1:3
Rm 8:261 in
In like manner indicates that prior to the help of the Spirit mentioned in this verse, there was already another help of the Spirit, which must be the help rendered to us by the Spirit as the firstfruits mentioned in v. 23. This is confirmed by the fact that both v. 23 and this verse speak of our groaning.
Rm 8:262 weakness
The weakness here is our ignorance of how we should pray. We do not know the kind of prayer God desires, and we are not clear how to pray, according to the burden we feel, for our being conformed to the image of God’s Son; hence, we groan (v. 23). In our groaning the Spirit groans also, interceding for us. His interceding is mainly that we may experience the transformation in life for growth into the maturity of sonship that we may be fully conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Rm 8:26a intercedes  -   Rom. 8:34
Rm 8:271 mind
This is not the mind of the Spirit that is independent of us. It is the mind of the Spirit that has been mingled with our mind (v. 6) and has become a part of our heart. The Spirit not only has mingled Himself with our spirit; He has also mingled His mind with our mind.
Rm 8:272 according
The interceding Spirit prays for us not according to something of God but according to God Himself, that we may be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Rm 8:281 all
Including all persons, all matters, and all things.
Rm 8:282 work
God the Father answers when the Spirit intercedes for us, and He arranges our circumstances, causing all things to work together for good to us.
Rm 8:283 good
According to the context, the good here is not related to physical persons, matters, or things. It refers to our gaining more of Christ, to our having Him wrought into our being, that we may be transformed metabolically and may eventually be conformed to His image, the image of the Son of God (v. 29), that is, that we may be brought into the full sonship.
Rm 8:284 love
Loving God causes us to care for His desire and to be willing to coordinate with Him. God’s working needs our coordination, and our coordinating with God confirms that we are called by God according to His purpose.
Rm 8:28a called  -   Rom. 1:6, 7; 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:2, 24
Rm 8:285 purpose
Referring to the purposeful determination in God’s plan. This is God’s purpose to produce many brothers of His firstborn Son.
Rm 8:291 foreknew
In vv. 29-30 all the steps of God’s work are described using the past tense, indicating that in His eyes all the work has been completed. Because God is the God of eternity, there is no element of time with Him.
Rm 8:292a predestinated  -   Eph. 1:5
God has predestinated us not simply that we may be sanctified, spiritual, and victorious but that we may be fully conformed to the image of His Son. This is our destiny, determined by God in eternity past.
Rm 8:293 conformed
Conformation is the end result of transformation. It includes the changing of our inward essence and nature, and it also includes the changing of our outward form, that we may match the glorified image of Christ, the God-man. He is the prototype and we are the mass production. Both the inward and the outward changes in us, the product, are the result of the operation of the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2) in our being.
Rm 8:29b image  -   2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2
Rm 8:294c Firstborn  -   Heb. 1:6; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5
Christ was the only begotten Son of God from eternity (John 1:18). When He was sent by God into the world, He was still the only begotten Son of God (1 John 4:9; John 1:14; 3:16). By His passing through death and entering into resurrection, His humanity was uplifted into His divinity. Thus, in His divinity with His humanity that passed through death and resurrection, He was born in resurrection as God’s firstborn Son (Acts 13:33). At the same time, all His believers were raised together with Him in His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3) and were begotten together with Him as the many sons of God. Thus they became His many brothers to constitute His Body and be God’s corporate expression in Him.
As the only begotten Son of God, Christ had divinity but not humanity; He was self-existing and ever-existing, as God is. His being the firstborn Son of God, having both divinity and humanity, began with His resurrection. With His firstborn Son as the base, pattern, element, and means, God is producing many sons, and the many sons who are produced are the many believers who believe into God’s firstborn Son and are joined to Him as one. They are exactly like Him in life and nature, and, like Him, they have both humanity and divinity. They are His increase and expression in order that they may express the eternal Triune God for eternity. The church today is a miniature of this expression (Eph. 1:23), and the New Jerusalem in eternity will be the ultimate manifestation of this expression (Rev. 21:11). This book reveals that God’s making sinners His sons is for this expression (12:5) and points to the ultimate manifestation of this expression (Eph. 3:19).
Rm 8:295 many
The purpose of God’s foreknowledge, predestination, and calling is to prepare and produce many brothers for His firstborn Son (see note 172 in John 20) that, on the one hand, they, together with God’s firstborn Son, may be the many sons of God with the divine life and nature for the expression of God, and that, on the other hand, they may be the many members who constitute the Body of God’s firstborn Son as the corporate expression of God in His firstborn Son, which is the fullness of God’s firstborn Son, that is, the fullness of God in His firstborn Son (Eph. 1:23; 3:19).
Rm 8:29d brothers  -   John 20:17; Matt. 28:10; Heb. 2:11-12, cf. Heb. 2:10
Rm 8:301a justified  -   Rom. 3:24
Justification is a bridge that brings sinners, who are redeemed by Christ, from the law’s condemnation (3:19) into God’s acceptance (5:1-2). In this acceptance God works to conform them to the image of His Son until He brings them into His glory (Heb. 2:10).
Rm 8:302b glorified  -   Rom. 8:17; 2 Thes. 1:10
Glorification is the step in God’s complete salvation in which God will completely saturate our body of sin, which is of death and is mortal (7:24; 8:11; 6:6), with the glory of His life and nature according to the principle of His regenerating our spirit through the Spirit. In this way He will transfigure our body, conforming it to the resurrected, glorious body of His Son (Phil. 3:21). This is the ultimate step in God’s complete salvation, wherein God obtains a full expression, which will ultimately be manifested in the New Jerusalem in the coming age.
Rm 8:32a delivered  -   Rom. 4:25
Rm 8:32b all  -   1 Cor. 3:21-22
Rm 8:33a charge  -   Rev. 12:10
Rm 8:331 It
Or, Shall God, who justifies?
Rm 8:33b justifies  -   Rom. 3:26, 30
Rm 8:341 It
Or, Shall Christ Jesus, who died…for us?
Rm 8:34a died  -   Rom. 5:8
Rm 8:34b was  -   Rom. 4:25
Rm 8:342c at  -   1 John 2:1
This verse states that Christ today is at the right hand of God, in the heavens; v. 10, however, states that He is now in us, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). As the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), He is omnipresent, being both at the right hand of God and in our spirit, both in heaven and on earth.
Rm 8:343d intercedes  -   Rom. 8:26
In this verse it is Christ who intercedes for us, yet in v. 26 it is the Spirit who intercedes for us. These are not two Intercessors but one, the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). He is interceding for us at two ends. At one end it is the Spirit in us, probably initiating the intercession for us; at the other end it is the Lord Christ at the right hand of God, probably completing the intercession for us, which must be mainly that we will be conformed to His image and brought into His glory.
Rm 8:35a love  -   2 Cor. 5:14
Rm 8:36a For  -   Psa. 44:22
Rm 8:36b put  -   2 Cor. 4:10
Rm 8:371 more
Because of God’s unchanging love for us and the fact that Christ has accomplished everything on our behalf, neither tribulation nor persecution can suppress or defeat us; rather, in all these things we more than overcome and conquer through Him who loved us.
Rm 8:391a love  -   Rom. 5:5, 8; 2 Cor. 13:14
The love of God is the source of His eternal salvation. This love is in Christ and has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (5:5). Nothing can separate us from this love of God (vv. 38-39). In God’s salvation this love to us has become the love of Christ (v. 35), which does many marvelous things for us through the grace of Christ until God’s complete salvation is accomplished in us. These marvelous things provoke God’s enemy to attack us with all kinds of sufferings and calamities (vv. 35-36). However, because of our response to the love of God in Christ, these attacks have become benefits to us (v. 28). Hence, we more than conquer in all our afflictions and calamities (v. 37).
By the end of ch. 8 this book has covered the first half of God’s salvation in Christ. This salvation has saved us to the extent that, on the one hand, we are in God’s acceptance enjoying the source of this salvation, which is God’s love in Christ, from which we cannot be separated by any person, matter, or thing; and, on the other hand, we are in God’s life being conformed by the Lord Spirit to reach the ultimate goal of this salvation, that is, to enter into the incomparable divine glory and be glorified together with God (vv. 18, 30).
Romans Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 9:11 I
After covering the first half of God’s salvation in Christ, and before going on to the second half, the section from chs. 9 — 11 is inserted to explain in detail the selection of God’s chosen people, which was of God Himself.
Rm 9:12 conscience
In 8:16 the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit, whereas in this verse our conscience bears witness with us in the Holy Spirit. This proves that our conscience is in our human spirit.
Rm 9:31 curse
For Paul to wish that Israel would be saved was necessary, but to wish that he himself would be a curse and would be separated from Christ would have been extreme. Paul could wish in this way out of a desperation produced by his intense desire for Israel’s salvation.
Rm 9:41a sonship  -   Exo. 4:22
Sonship here is the right of inheritance.
Rm 9:4b glory  -   Exo. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:11
Rm 9:4c covenants  -   Gen. 17:2; Deut. 29:14; Acts 3:25; Eph. 2:12
Rm 9:4d giving  -   Deut. 4:13; Psa. 147:19
Rm 9:42e service  -   Heb. 9:1, 6
The service in the tabernacle or in the temple, instituted according to the law of Moses.
Rm 9:4f promises  -   Rom. 15:8; Deut. 29:13; Acts 13:32; Eph. 2:12
Rm 9:51a God  -   John 1:1; Heb. 1:8; 1 John 5:20
It is clearly stated here that Christ is God, proving that although Christ was a man (5:15) with flesh who came out of the tribe of Judah, a tribe of Israel, He is also God, who is over all and blessed forever. He is both man and God. He is God the Son, and He is the Triune God.
Rm 9:5b over  -   Col. 1:15-18
Rm 9:5c blessed  -   Rom. 1:25
Rm 9:61a not  -   Rom. 2:28
This shows God’s economy in His selection. All Jews are born of Israel, but not all of them have been selected by God. Only Isaac and a part of his descendants have been selected by God and reckoned as the children of God (vv. 7-8). This selection is not of man’s works but of the Lord who calls and of His mercy (vv. 11, 16).
Rm 9:7a Abraham  -   John 8:39-40; Matt. 3:9
Rm 9:7b In  -   Gen. 21:12
Rm 9:8a children  -   John 1:12; 1 John 3:1
Rm 9:8b children  -   Gal. 3:29; 4:28
Rm 9:9a At  -   Gen. 18:10
Rm 9:10a Rebecca  -   Gen. 25:21
Rm 9:111 purpose
See note 285 in ch. 8.
Rm 9:11a selection  -   Rom. 11:5, 28
Rm 9:11b calls  -   1 Cor. 1:9; Rom. 11:29
Rm 9:12a The  -   Gen. 25:23
Rm 9:121 serve
Lit., serve as a slave.
Rm 9:13a Jacob  -   Mal. 1:2-3
Rm 9:151a I  -   Exo. 33:19
This is God’s sovereign authority, which allows Him to have mercy on man according to His desire.
Rm 9:152b mercy  -   Matt. 9:13; Eph. 2:4
Mercy refers mainly to an action taken in response to man’s wretched condition; hence, God’s showing mercy to man is outward. Compassion, however, refers mainly to an inward feeling that is expressed by groanings and tears; hence, God’s having compassion on man is inward. Therefore, compassion is deeper than mercy.
Rm 9:15c compassion  -   Rom. 12:1
See note 152.
Rm 9:17a For  -   Exo. 9:16
Rm 9:20a O  -   Isa. 29:16; 45:9
Rm 9:21a potter  -   Isa. 64:8; Jer. 18:6
Rm 9:211b vessel  -   2 Tim. 2:20
This indicates that God chose us that we might be vessels of honor to contain Him. God created man as a vessel to contain Him, and out of the many vessels He chose us to contain Him, the God of honor, that we might be vessels of honor. Finally, He makes known His glory upon us, the vessels, that we might become vessels of His glory (v. 23). All this is out of His mercy and according to His mercy; it cannot be obtained by our efforts. For this reason we must worship Him, and we must worship Him for His mercy!
Rm 9:22a wrath  -   Rom. 1:18; 2:5, 8
Rm 9:23a riches  -   Eph. 3:16
Rm 9:23b vessels  -   2 Cor. 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:20
Rm 9:23c mercy  -   Rom. 9:15, 16, 18; 11:31, 32; 15:9
Rm 9:231d glory  -   Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12; Col. 3:4; 1 Pet. 5:10; Heb. 2:10
This is the glory in the manifestation of the coming kingdom, in which we, the revealed sons of God, will participate (8:17-23).
Rm 9:24a called  -   1 Cor. 1:9
Rm 9:25a I  -   Hosea 2:23
Rm 9:26a You  -   Hosea 1:10
Rm 9:27a Though  -   Isa. 10:22-23
Rm 9:29a Unless  -   Isa. 1:9
Rm 9:29b Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24-25; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7
Rm 9:31a Israel  -   Rom. 11:7
Rm 9:32a out  -   Rom. 1:17
Rm 9:32b stone  -   Isa. 8:14; 1 Pet. 2:8
Rm 9:33a Behold  -   Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:6
Romans Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 10:1a salvation  -   Rom. 11:26
Rm 10:31 establish
The Israelites seek to establish their own righteousness by trying to keep the law, and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself. This is an insult to God, and it causes them to miss the way of God’s salvation.
Rm 10:3a righteousness  -   Rom. 1:17; 3:21
Rm 10:41a end  -   Matt. 5:17
Christ came to fulfill the law (Matt. 5:17) that He might terminate the law and replace it (8:3-4). Thus, everyone who believes in Him receives God’s righteousness, which is Christ Himself.
Rm 10:5a The  -   Lev. 18:5
Rm 10:6a Do  -   Deut. 30:12
Rm 10:6b heaven  -   John 3:13; 6:38
Rm 10:61 bring
This refers to Christ’s incarnation.
Rm 10:71 abyss
The Greek word is used in Luke 8:31 in reference to the dwelling place of the demons; in Rev. 9:1, 2, 11 to denote the place out of which the locusts, whose king is Apollyon (Antichrist), will come; in Rev. 11:7 and 17:8 to signify the place out of which the beast, the Antichrist, will ascend; and in Rev. 20:1, 3 to specify the place into which Satan will be cast and imprisoned during the millennium. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses this word for deep in Gen. 1:2. Here, in this verse, it points to the place Christ visited after His death and before His resurrection, which place, according to Acts 2:24, 27, is Hades; for Acts 2:24, 27 reveals that Christ went into Hades after He died, and rose from that place in His resurrection. Hence, according to biblical usage, the word abyss always refers to the region of death and of Satan’s power of darkness, which is the lower parts of the earth (Eph. 4:9), into which Christ descended after His death, which He conquered, and from which He ascended in His resurrection.
Rm 10:72 bring
This refers to Christ’s resurrection.
Rm 10:81a The  -   Deut. 30:14
Here the word is used interchangeably with Christ (vv. 6-7), indicating that this word is Christ. Christ was incarnated by coming down from heaven and was resurrected by coming up from Hades. Thus, He has become the living Word, the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), to be in our mouth and in our heart, just like the air, the breath, that can be taken into our being. He is near and He is available.
Rm 10:9a confess  -   Phil. 2:11
Rm 10:91 mouth
Christ needs our participation in Him. Since we have been made vessels to contain Him, we need to believe with our heart to receive Him, and to call on Him continually with our mouth to take Him in, thus allowing His riches to fill our empty vessel (9:21-23).
Rm 10:9b Jesus  -   1 Cor. 12:3; Acts 2:36
Rm 10:92c raised  -   Acts 2:32; Rom. 8:11
Christ’s being raised from the dead was invisible; hence, it requires our believing. Moreover, although Christ’s death has redeemed us, it is His life in resurrection alone that can save us. Therefore, only when we believe in the great miracle that God performed in Him in raising Him from the dead can we be both redeemed and saved.
Rm 10:101 with
To believe with the heart is toward God; to confess with the mouth is toward man. To believe with the heart is to believe in Christ, who was glorified and raised by God from the dead; to confess with the mouth is to confess that Jesus, who was despised and rejected by man, is Lord. Both are conditions for our being justified and saved.
Rm 10:102 unto
I.e., resulting in.
Rm 10:11a Everyone  -   Isa. 28:16
Rm 10:12a Jew  -   Rom. 3:29; 2:10-11
Rm 10:12b Lord  -   Acts 10:36
Rm 10:121c rich  -   Eph. 3:8
This shows that God selects us, redeems us, justifies us, sanctifies us, conforms us, and glorifies us in Christ in order that we may enjoy His unsearchable riches in Christ (Eph. 3:8). The secret to this enjoyment is to call on His name.
Rm 10:12d call  -   Acts 7:59; 9:14; 22:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Tim. 2:22; Gen. 4:26; 12:8; Deut. 4:7; Psa. 99:6; 116:17; 145:18; Isa. 12:2-4; 55:6; 64:7; Lam. 3:55-57
Rm 10:13a whoever  -   Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21
Rm 10:131 calls
Calling on the name of the Lord is the secret not only to our salvation but also to our enjoyment of the Lord’s riches. Beginning with Enosh, the third generation of mankind, and continuing all the way down to the New Testament believers, God’s chosen and redeemed ones enjoyed Christ’s redemption and salvation and all His riches by means of this secret (see note 211 in Acts 2).
Rm 10:132b saved  -   Acts 16:31; Eph. 2:5, 8
To be saved here means to be brought into the enjoyment of the riches of the Lord. The Lord is rich to both Jews and Greeks. All who call on the Lord’s name enjoy this rich Lord; as a result, they are filled with Him and express Him.
Rm 10:141 believed
One who believes into the Lord will surely call on the Lord’s name. Calling on the Lord results in immediate salvation (vv. 10, 13).
Rm 10:142 heard
This implies that believing is through the word and is due to the word (v. 17).
Rm 10:15a How  -   Isa. 52:7
Rm 10:15b feet  -   Eph. 6:15
Rm 10:161a obeyed  -   Rom. 1:5; 16:26
To our human feeling, obeying the gospel is deeper than believing the gospel. Before we believe the gospel, we are first subdued by the Holy Spirit so that we will obey the gospel. Those who do not obey the gospel may become enemies of God’s gospel (11:28), enemies of God Himself.
Rm 10:16b Lord  -   Isa. 53:1
Rm 10:17a hearing  -   John 5:24; Gal. 3:2; Eph. 1:13
Rm 10:17b word  -   Col. 3:16
Rm 10:18a Their  -   Psa. 19:4
Rm 10:19a I  -   Deut. 32:21
Rm 10:19b provoke  -   Rom. 11:11
Rm 10:20a I  -   Isa. 65:1
Rm 10:21a All  -   Isa. 65:2
Romans Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 11:11 cast
Chapters 9 and 10 may seem to indicate that God, having originally chosen Israel, has now given them up. Here, however, the apostle, using himself and Elijah as examples, proves that this is not the case.
Rm 11:1a I  -   Phil. 3:5
Rm 11:3a Lord  -   1 Kings 19:10
Rm 11:31 life
Lit., soul.
Rm 11:4a I  -   1 Kings 19:18
Rm 11:41b Baal  -   Jer. 19:5; 32:29
Baal, which in Hebrew means master, possessor, was the name of a chief idol of the Phoenicians and Canaanites.
Rm 11:5a selection  -   Rom. 11:28; 9:11
Rm 11:6a grace  -   Rom. 4:4
Rm 11:7a Israel  -   Rom. 9:31
Rm 11:7b hardened  -   Rom. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:14
Rm 11:8a God  -   Deut. 29:4; Isa. 29:10; Matt. 13:13-15
Rm 11:9a Let  -   Psa. 69:22
Rm 11:10a Let  -   Psa. 69:23
Rm 11:111 stumbled
Israel stumbled on the stone of stumbling, Christ (9:32), but did not fall. Rather, they only misstepped in order that God’s salvation might come to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). This is God’s economy in His selection.
Rm 11:16a dough  -   Num. 15:18-21
Rm 11:161 firstfruits
The three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, referred to in v. 28 as “the fathers,” are the firstfruits of the dough, which were offered to God for His satisfaction. They are also the root that supports the branches of God’s cultivated olive tree, Israel.
Rm 11:171 grafted
Grafting produces an organic union (see note 51 in ch. 6). It is not the exchanging of a poor life for a better life. Rather, it is the uniting of two lives as one so that they may share one mingled life and one living. Such a mingling of life takes place when two similar yet different lives pass through death (cutting) and resurrection (growth). This depicts our union with Christ.
Rm 11:172a olive  -   Jer. 11:16
According to the word in Matt. 2:15, “Out of Egypt I called My Son,” a quotation from Hosea 11:1, Christ and the real Israel are one entity. When the Gentile believers are grafted into Christ, they are grafted into Israel, the cultivated olive tree, to become fellow partakers of the fatness (Christ) of the root (the patriarchs — v. 16), the unsearchable riches of God in Christ (Eph. 3:8). They and Israel have become the branches of Christ, the true vine (John 15:1, 5), and with Him the two have become the organism that expresses the Triune God.
Rm 11:20a unbelief  -   Rom. 11:23
Rm 11:22a kindness  -   Rom. 2:4
Rm 11:22b cut  -   cf. John 15:2, 6 and note 1
Rm 11:23a unbelief  -   Rom. 11:20
Rm 11:231 to
This will occur at the Lord’s second coming, when all the remnant of the nation of Israel will repent and turn to believe in Him as their Messiah and be saved (Zech. 12:10; Rom. 11:26).
Rm 11:24a olive  -   Jer. 11:16
Rm 11:25a hardness  -   Rom. 11:7
Rm 11:251 Gentiles
Referring to the repentant and believing Gentiles. The completion of the fullness of the believing Gentiles is different from the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24). The latter denotes the termination of the time of Gentile power.
Rm 11:26a The  -   vv. 26-27: Isa. 59:20-21; 27:9
Rm 11:281 for
This shows clearly God’s economy in His selection. Israel’s unbelief affects their relationship with God. Nevertheless, since the calling that issues out of God’s selection is irrevocable (v. 29), they are still the beloved people of God positionally.
Rm 11:28a selection  -   Rom. 11:5; 9:11
Rm 11:29a gracious  -   Rom. 5:15; 6:23
Rm 11:29b calling  -   Rom. 8:30; 9:11; 1 Cor. 1:9, 24; Eph. 1:18
Rm 11:30a mercy  -   Rom. 9:15, 16, 18, 23; 15:9
Rm 11:32a shut  -   cf. Gal. 3:22
Rm 11:321 show
Man’s disobedience even fulfills God’s mercy.
Rm 11:32b mercy  -   Eph. 2:4; Matt. 9:13
Rm 11:331 Oh
This is a praise to God for His riches, wisdom, and knowledge, which are beyond what man can search and trace, and which God exercised in creating all things and in arranging all things for the fulfillment of the selection of His chosen people. This praise and that in 16:25-27, at the end of this book, are of different sources and have different goals. The former comes out of God’s selection and has the accomplishing of God’s selection as the goal; the latter comes out of God’s mystery in the times of the ages and has the fulfillment of that mystery as the goal. Both result in the giving of glory to God.
Rm 11:33a depth  -   1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 3:18
Rm 11:33b riches  -   Rom. 2:4; 9:23; Eph. 1:7; 2:4, 7; 3:8, 16; Col. 1:27; Phil. 4:19
Rm 11:332c wisdom  -   Eph. 3:10; 1 Cor. 1:21
Wisdom is deeper and higher than knowledge. Wisdom is seen in the initiation of something, whereas knowledge is seen in the practical application of the thing that was initiated by wisdom. God is the unique Initiator, as seen especially here in the matter of His selection. His wisdom in initiating His selection and His knowledge in carrying it out, as described in these chapters, deserve our highest praise!
Rm 11:33d knowledge  -   Psa. 139:1-6; 1 Sam. 2:3
Rm 11:33e unsearchable  -   Job 5:9; 11:7
Rm 11:34a For  -   1 Cor. 2:16; Isa. 40:13
Rm 11:36a out  -   1 Cor. 8:6; 11:12; Heb. 2:10
Rm 11:36b through  -   John 1:3; Col. 1:16
Rm 11:36c to  -   Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2
Rm 11:36d To  -   Rom. 16:27; Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18; 2 Pet. 3:18; Rev. 1:6; 5:13; 7:12
Romans Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 12:11 I
After the parenthetical word that explains in detail God’s selection, this book, continuing ch. 8, speaks concerning the latter half of God’s complete salvation in Christ. In this latter half, those who enjoy the first half of God’s complete salvation are members one of another as the Body of Christ (v. 5). Furthermore, they have the living of the Body of Christ on the earth to express Christ in different localities (such as those enumerated in ch. 16) that the Triune God may be expressed in such a living, as taught in the five chapters of the holy Word in this section, which concern the various aspects of this living. The first half of God’s complete salvation, revealed in chs. 1 — 8, is the procedure by which God achieves His purpose; the second half of God’s complete salvation, revealed in chs. 12 — 16, is the purpose of God’s complete salvation.
Rm 12:12a exhort  -   Rom. 15:30; 16:17
Or, beg.
Rm 12:13b compassions  -   Rom. 9:15; Lam. 3:22-23
See note 152 in ch. 9. In Greek the compassions referred to here are plural. God has had many kinds of compassion on us, as shown in His selecting us, calling us, saving us, and bringing us into His life that we may enjoy His riches and become His expression. Through these many compassions as the means and the motivating power, the apostle exhorted us to present our bodies to God for the fulfillment of His purpose.
Rm 12:14c present  -   Rom. 6:13, 19
For the church life, the life of the Body of Christ, to be realized, our entire being is needed. Thus, this chapter speaks concerning our body (v. 1), our soul (v. 2), and our spirit (v. 11). Our body must be presented to God for the Body of Christ.
Rm 12:15 living
In ch. 6 the members of our body are to be presented as weapons of righteousness (6:13) for warfare and service. In this chapter, however, our bodies are to be presented as a living sacrifice for the church life. This sacrifice is living because it has life through resurrection; it is not like the sacrifices in the Old Testament, which were all slain. This sacrifice is also holy because, positionally, it has been separated unto God by the blood of Christ from the world and from all persons, matters, and things that are common; and because, dispositionally, the natural life and the old creation have been sanctified and transformed by the Holy Spirit with God’s life and God’s holy nature for God’s satisfaction. Thus, this sacrifice is well pleasing to God.
In Greek, bodies here is plural and sacrifice is singular. This indicates that, although many bodies are presented, they become one sacrifice, implying that, although we are many, our service in the Body of Christ should not be many individual services, separated and unrelated. All our service should constitute one whole service, and this service must be unique because it is the service of the one Body of Christ.
Rm 12:1d sacrifice  -   1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 13:15-16
Rm 12:1e well  -   Rom. 12:2; 14:18
Rm 12:16 reasonable
Or, intelligent, logical, rational, in harmony with the highest reason.
Rm 12:17f service  -   Rom. 9:4
Service in worship of God. See note 91 in ch. 1. Before this chapter such a service is not mentioned with reference to believers other than the apostle. This indicates that the service of the believers is an issue of the growth in life described in the foregoing chapters. It indicates further that this service must be in the Body, the church. This corresponds with the types in Exodus and Leviticus, which show that the service of the priesthood rendered to God was not established until after the Tent of Meeting was built.
Rm 12:21 not
This means that we should not be assimilated by the world to the extent that we who have been separated from the world unto God have the same image as this age, not caring for the transformation of the Lord Spirit in us with God’s essence to conform us to the Lord’s glorious image (2 Cor. 3:18), which the Spirit carries out by moving and working in us through the divine life and the divine nature.
Rm 12:2a fashioned  -   1 Pet. 1:14; cf. Rom. 8:29
Rm 12:22 this
This age denotes the present, practical part of the world (see note 42 in Gal. 1), that part which we contact and in which we live, whereas the world, the evil system of Satan (see note 21 in Eph. 2), is the composition of all people, matters, and things outside of God, including religious as well as secular things, as in Gal. 6:14, where the world mentioned is the religious world of Paul’s time. This satanic world is composed of many different ages, each having its own particular pattern, characteristics, fashions, styles, and trends. We cannot forsake the world without forsaking the present age that appears before us.
Rm 12:2b age  -   Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4; Titus 2:12
Rm 12:23c transformed  -   2 Cor. 3:18
Transformation is the inward, metabolic process in which God works to spread His divine life and nature throughout every part of our being, particularly our soul, bringing Christ and His riches into our being as our new element and causing our old, natural element to be gradually discharged. As a result, we will be transformed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18), that is, conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God as His many brothers (8:29). Thus we will be suitable for the building up of His Body.
Rm 12:24d renewing  -   Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5
After presenting our body, we need to have our mind renewed. The renewing of the mind, which results from setting the mind on the spirit (8:6), is the base for the transformation of our soul. Our mind is the leading part of our soul, and as it is renewed, our will and emotion automatically follow to be renewed also. To be renewed means that a new element is wrought into our being. This produces an inward metabolic transformation, making us suitable for the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the practice of the church life. All the virtues and the overcoming in chs. 12 — 16 also are the results of this transformation.
Rm 12:2e mind  -   Rom. 8:6-7; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 4:2; Rom. 15:5; 1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5
Rm 12:25f prove  -   Eph. 5:10; 1 Thes. 5:21; 2 Cor. 8:8, 22; 13:5
I.e., see and discern. Based on the presenting of our bodies and the renewing of our minds, we will see, discern, and prove by testing that the will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness and expression.
Rm 12:26g will  -   Eph. 1:9, 11; 5:17; Col. 1:9; Matt. 6:10; 7:21; Heb. 13:21
In this chapter the will of God is that we whom God has chosen, called, redeemed, justified, sanctified, and conformed unto glorification in the preceding eleven chapters may be members one of another to have the living of the Body of Christ (vv. 3-5). The Body of Christ is the peak of God’s divine revelation. The living of the Body is the issue and goal of the presenting of our bodies, the renewing of our mind, and all the life practices in the foregoing chapters.
Rm 12:2h well  -   Rom. 12:1
Rm 12:3a grace  -   Rom. 1:5; 15:15; Eph. 3:7; 1 Cor. 3:10; 15:10; Gal. 2:9
Rm 12:31 think
I.e., esteem himself. If we are to have the proper church life, the first thing that must be torn down is the high esteem that we have for ourselves, that we may think so as to be sober-minded. This requires that our mind be renewed by having all the negative elements within it swallowed up by the life of Christ. Then we will esteem ourselves according to the faith that God has apportioned to us, that is, according to the measure of God’s element that has been transfused into us.
Rm 12:3b highly  -   Rom. 12:16; Phil. 2:3
Rm 12:3c sober-minded  -   2 Tim. 1:7
Rm 12:3d measure  -   Eph. 4:7, 16
Rm 12:4a one  -   Eph. 2:16; 4:4; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13
Rm 12:4b many  -   1 Cor. 12:12,14, 20
Rm 12:4c same  -   1 Cor. 12:15-17, 21-22
Rm 12:41 function
Function is for service in the Body of Christ (v. 1). In order to function, we must have life, the divine life for the divine expression.
Rm 12:51 in
We are one Body in Christ, having an organic union with Him. This union makes us one in life with Him and with all the other members of His Body. The Body is not an organization or a society but is altogether an organism produced by the union in life that we have with Christ.
Rm 12:52a members  -   Eph. 4:25
The purpose of God’s salvation is to have Christ reproduced in millions of saints that they may become the members of His Body, not separate and complete individual units but parts of a living, functioning, coordinated, corporate whole. Although these parts have different functions, they are not detached from one another. Rather, they are “individually members one of another.” Each member is organically joined to all the others, and each needs the function of all the others. All the members must be coordinated together to practice the Body life that is revealed in this chapter.
Rm 12:61a gifts  -   1 Cor. 12:4; Eph. 4:7; 1 Pet. 4:10
The gifts are received according to the grace given to us and are a result of our experience of the grace of Christ. This grace is God in Christ as the divine element coming into our being to be our life for our enjoyment. When this grace comes into us, it brings with it the element of certain spiritual skills and abilities, which, accompanying our growth in life, develop into the gifts in life that we may function in the Body of Christ to serve God. The gifts in life here are different from the gifts mentioned in Eph. 4:8, which refer to the gifted persons given by Christ in His ascension to His Body for its building up. The gifts in life here are also different from the miraculous gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 12 and 14. The gifts in life are developed by the growth in life and by the transformation in life mentioned in v. 2, out of the inward, initial gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 1:7.
Rm 12:6b grace  -   1 Pet. 4:10; cf. Eph. 4:7
Rm 12:62c prophecy  -   1 Cor. 12:10; 14:3, 4
To prophesy is to speak for God and to speak forth God under His direct revelation. Prediction may be included in prophecy, but it is not the main aspect of the prophecy mentioned here. Prophesying brings in God’s revelation for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:4b). These three — prophecy, teaching (v. 7), and exhortation (v. 8) — are related and coordinate with one another. The one who prophesies speaks what he has received as a direct revelation from God. The one who teaches instructs others, not based on direct revelation but based on what the prophets have spoken. He who exhorts does so according to both the direct speaking under God’s revelation and the teaching that is according to this revelation. These three kinds of speaking are for the building up of the Body. They minister the life supply to the saints that they may grow together by God’s word.
Rm 12:6d proportion  -   Rom. 12:3
Rm 12:71 service
The service of the deacons and deaconesses in the local churches. See 16:1, 1 Tim. 3:8-13, and Phil. 1:1.
Rm 12:7a teaches  -   2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Tim. 5:17
Rm 12:8a exhorts  -   Acts 11:23
Rm 12:81b gives  -   2 Cor. 9:7
Denoting those who give to supply the needy ones in the church and to take care of the church’s practical needs.
Rm 12:82c leads  -   1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17
Referring to the leading brothers in the church. In taking the lead the first quality needed is diligence.
Rm 12:83 shows
This refers to those who show mercy by sympathizing and rendering help. The showing of mercy is not a natural generosity but a quality formed by transformation.
Rm 12:8d mercy  -   Matt. 5:7
Rm 12:91 Let
Verses 9-21 and ch. 13 show the normal Christian life that is the necessary base for the practice of the church life and that matches the church life. This life is described in five aspects: (1) toward others (vv. 9-10, 13, 15-16); (2) toward God (v. 11); (3) toward ourselves (v. 12); (4) toward the persecutor and enemy (vv. 14, 17- 21); and (5) in general, before all men (v. 17). A life that is complete and proper in these five aspects is a life of surpassing quality with an excellent issue.
Rm 12:9a love  -   2 Cor. 6:6; 1 Pet. 1:22
Rm 12:9b cling  -   1 Thes. 5:21-22
Rm 12:10a Love  -   1 Thes. 4:9; Heb. 13:1; 2 Pet. 1:7; John 13:34; 15:12; 1 Pet. 1:22
Rm 12:111a burning  -   Acts 18:25
A presented body, a transformed soul, and a burning spirit — all three are indispensable to a proper church life. After we have presented our body for the church life, it is very easy for us to fall into the opinions of our mind in our soul, which results in our being damaged in the church life; therefore, our soul, and particularly the mind of our soul, needs to be transformed. However, once our mind is transformed, we may easily fall into a negative and dormant state. At that time we must be burning in spirit that we may be stirred up and encouraged to go on in the church life in a positive way.
Rm 12:112b serving  -   Rom. 14:18; Acts 20:19
Lit., serving as a slave. See note 12 in ch. 1.
Rm 12:12a endure  -   Rom. 5:3
Rm 12:12b persevere  -   Eph. 6:18
Rm 12:131a Contribute  -   Rom. 15:25; Heb. 6:10
Lit., Have fellowship with. This is to care willingly for the needs of the saints according to our ability. The apostle termed this kind of material care “fellowship,” because in the sharing of material things the grace of the Lord’s life flows among the members of the Body of Christ and is infused into them.
Rm 12:13b hospitality  -   1 Pet. 4:9; Heb. 13:2
Rm 12:141a Bless  -   Matt. 5:44; 1 Cor. 4:12
As Christians, we are under a blessing. Thus, we should not curse anyone but only bless. The Lord blessed us when we were His enemies (5:10). In the same way, we should bless our enemies and persecutors.
Rm 12:151 Rejoice
To live a normal Christian life for the church life, we need a proper emotion that can rejoice or weep with others. Such an emotion is not a part of our natural life; it is the issue of life through transformation.
Rm 12:16a same  -   Rom. 15:5; Phil. 2:2; 2 Cor. 13:11; 1 Pet. 3:8
Rm 12:16b setting  -   Rom. 12:3
Rm 12:161 lowly
Or, lowly things.
Rm 12:16c wise  -   Prov. 3:7
Rm 12:17a Repay  -   Matt. 5:39
Rm 12:171b take  -   2 Cor. 8:21
Since we are living not only before God but also before men, we need to take forethought for things honorable in the sight of all men.
Rm 12:18a peace  -   Rom. 14:17, 19; Heb. 12:14; Mark 9:50; Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:15
Rm 12:191 avenge
God is sovereign. We should not avenge ourselves in any way but should leave the whole situation in the sovereign hand of the Lord, giving Him the ground to do whatever He likes.
Rm 12:19a Vengeance  -   Deut. 32:35; Heb. 10:30
Rm 12:20a But  -   Prov. 25:21-22
Romans Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 13:11 person
Lit., soul.
Rm 13:12a subject  -   Titus 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:13
The transformation mentioned in 12:2 also governs the Christian life taught in this chapter. Man’s natural character is rebellious, but a transformed character is submissive. Subjection to authority requires transformation, which results from the growth in life.
Rm 13:1b there  -   Dan. 4:17
Rm 13:13 from
Lit., by. After man’s fall, God authorized man to act as His deputy authority in ruling over man (Gen. 9:6). To be subject to the authorities is to recognize God’s authority and to respect His government over man. Paul’s word here implies that he recognized even those officials appointed by Caesar as rulers ordained by God to be God’s deputy authorities.
Rm 13:14 ordained
God ordains the authorities over man in order to maintain peace and security in human society so that He may have the time and the opportunity to preach the gospel, to save sinners, and to build the church for the spread of His kingdom.
Rm 13:21 judgment
Or, punishment, condemnation.
Rm 13:3a rulers  -   1 Pet. 2:14
Rm 13:41 servant
The same Greek word as for deacon in 16:1 (there rendered deaconess) and 1 Tim. 3:8.
Rm 13:61 officers
Lit., public servants.
Rm 13:7a Render  -   Matt. 22:21
Rm 13:8a love  -   Rom. 12:10; John 13:34; 15:12
Rm 13:81 loves
Love is not merely an outward behavior but is the expression of the inward life. In order to love people and thus spontaneously fulfill the law, we need the transformation in life and the life supply. We need God’s life and God’s nature of love to transform us and supply us in life, so that in love we may live out this God, who is love, and express His love.
Rm 13:8b fulfilled  -   Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8
Rm 13:9a You  -   Exo. 20:13-15, 17; Deut. 5:17-19, 21
Rm 13:9b You  -   Matt. 22:39; Gal. 5:14
Rm 13:10a Love  -   1 Cor. 13:4-7, 13
Rm 13:10b fulfillment  -   Gal. 5:14; James 2:8
Rm 13:11a time  -   1 Thes. 5:1; 1 Pet. 4:7
Rm 13:11b raised  -   Eph. 5:14; 1 Thes. 5:6; Mark 13:33
Rm 13:111 salvation
Referring to the final step of salvation, the redemption of our body, the full sonship revealed in 8:19, 21, and 23.
Rm 13:11c nearer  -   Luke 21:28; James 5:8
Rm 13:121 night
The present age is the nighttime. When the Lord Jesus returns, day will dawn. The next age, the kingdom age, will be the daytime.
Rm 13:12a day  -   Heb. 10:25; Rev. 22:10
Rm 13:12b works  -   Eph. 5:11
Rm 13:12c weapons  -   Rom. 6:13; 2 Cor. 6:7; 10:4; Eph. 6:11, 13; 1 Thes. 5:8
Rm 13:13a day  -   1 Thes. 5:5
Rm 13:13b reveling  -   1 Pet. 4:3
Rm 13:13c drunkenness  -   Eph. 5:18; Luke 21:34
Rm 13:13d strife  -   Phil. 2:3
Rm 13:13e jealousy  -   Gal. 5:26
Rm 13:141a put  -   Gal. 3:27
Although we have been baptized into Christ and are already in Christ (6:3; Gal. 3:27), we must still put Him on. To put on Christ is to live by Christ (Gal. 2:20) and to live out Christ (Phil. 1:21), thus magnifying Christ (Phil. 1:20). Putting on Christ is the same as putting on the weapons of light (v. 12), indicating that Christ is the weapons of light for the warfare between the Spirit and the lusts. The warfare here is the same as the conflict between the Spirit and the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:17). However, it is different from our wrestling against the devil and his evil forces (Eph. 6:12) and from the warfare between the law of sin and the law of good in us (7:23).
Rm 13:142 provision
Or, arrangement. This word has the same root as the Greek word for take forethought in 12:17. To take forethought includes the meaning to provide. To make no provision for the flesh is to not take any forethought for the flesh or provide the flesh with anything that will support it and make it convenient for it to fulfill its lusts.
Rm 13:14b flesh  -   Gal. 5:16; 1 Pet. 2:11
Romans Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 14:11 Now
This chapter can be considered a supplement to the constitution of the church life. In setting forth every article, the author’s heart was tolerant, his attitude was broad, and his view was noble. In order to practice the church life that he instituted in ch. 12, we must strictly observe the supplement set forth in this chapter. Many saints who love the Lord and seek to live the church life have failed because they were either negligent or mistaken in this matter.
Rm 14:1a weak  -   Rom. 15:1; 1 Cor. 8:9; 9:22
Rm 14:12b receive  -   Rom. 14:3; 15:7
To practice the Body life revealed in ch. 12, we must learn the practical lessons of receiving the believers, as revealed particularly in 14:1 — 15:13, that the church life may be all-inclusive, able to include all kinds of genuine Christians. Such receiving requires the transformation mentioned in ch. 12; if we remain natural, we will be unable to receive those whose views are different from ours in doctrine or in practice.
Rm 14:13 considerations
I.e., doctrinal considerations. Except in the matters of idol worship (1 John 5:21; 1 Cor. 8:4-7), fornication, rapaciousness, reviling, and other such gross sins (1 Cor. 5:9-11; 6:9-10), division (16:17; Titus 3:10), and the denial of the incarnation of Christ (2 John 7-11), we must learn not to pass judgments on the doctrinal views of others. As long as one is a genuine Christian and has the fundamental faith of the New Testament, we should not exclude him, even though he may differ from us with respect to doctrine; rather, we should receive him in the same one Lord.
Rm 14:2a eats  -   Col. 2:16
Rm 14:31 not
Concerning the receiving of the believers, Paul used eating (vv. 2-3) and the keeping of days (vv. 5-6) as examples. God’s receiving has nothing to do with what we eat or with our keeping of certain days. These are minor, secondary matters that have nothing to do with our salvation and basic faith. Therefore, we should not despise or judge others in these things.
Rm 14:32 God
The basis on which we receive the believers is that God has received them. God receives people according to His Son. When a person receives God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as his Savior, God receives that person immediately and ushers him into the enjoyment of the Triune God and of all He has prepared and accomplished in Christ for us. We should receive people in the same way and should not be more narrow than God. Regardless of how much they differ from us in doctrinal concepts or religious practices, we must receive them. When we receive people according to God and not according to doctrine or practice, we demonstrate and maintain the oneness of the Body of Christ.
Rm 14:5a day  -   Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16
Rm 14:5b persuaded  -   Rom. 14:23
Rm 14:6a eats  -   1 Cor. 10:31
Rm 14:6b thanks  -   1 Cor. 10:30; 1 Tim. 4:3-4
Rm 14:7a lives  -   2 Cor. 5:15
Rm 14:8a live  -   1 Thes. 5:10; Luke 20:38
Rm 14:8b Lord’s  -   Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:23
Rm 14:9a died  -   Rev. 1:18; 2:8
Rm 14:9b Lord  -   Phil. 2:11; Acts 2:36
Rm 14:101a judgment  -   2 Cor. 5:10
The judgment at the judgment seat of God is different from the eternal judgment of God mentioned in 2:2, 3, 5, 16, and 3:8, which will be carried out mainly at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). The eternal judgment at the great white throne will be (1) after the millennium, (2) to judge all the dead unbelievers, and (3) for eternal punishment in the lake of fire. Since this judgment will be executed upon all the condemned sinners, it is mentioned in this book in the section on condemnation. However, the judgment at the judgment seat of God, or the judgment seat of Christ, will be (1) before the millennium, immediately after Christ’s coming back, (2) to judge all the resurrected and raptured believers, and (3) for reward or punishment in the millennial kingdom. This judgment will take account of the believers’ life and work after they were saved. Since this judgment is very much related to the transformation of the believers, it is mentioned here in this section on transformation.
Rm 14:11a As  -   Isa. 45:23
Rm 14:12a give  -   cf. Matt. 12:36; 1 Pet. 4:5
Rm 14:13a judge  -   Rom. 14:3
Rm 14:13b not  -   1 Cor. 8:13
Rm 14:14a nothing  -   Rom. 14:20; 1 Tim. 4:3-4
Rm 14:141 unclean
Lit., common.
Rm 14:151 wounded
Or, grieved.
Rm 14:15a walk  -   Eph. 5:2
Rm 14:15b destroy  -   Rom. 14:20; 1 Cor. 8:11
Rm 14:16a good  -   1 Cor. 10:30
Rm 14:171a kingdom  -   John 3:5; Acts 1:3; 8:12; 14:22; 20:25; 28:23, 31; 1 Cor. 4:20; 6:10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Col. 4:11; Matt. 16:18-19; Rev. 1:9
This verse is a strong proof that the church in the church age is the kingdom of God, because the context here deals with the church life in the present age. The church is a matter of grace and life, whereas the kingdom is a matter of exercise and discipline.
Rm 14:172b righteousness  -   Matt. 5:20
The kingdom of God is the sphere in which God exercises His authority so that He may express His glory for the fulfillment of His purpose. In such a kingdom, what matters is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness denotes that which is right and proper. Those who live in the kingdom of God should be right and proper toward others, toward things, and toward God; with them there should be nothing erroneous, improper, crooked, slanted, or biased. This requires that they be strict in dealing with themselves. Peace is the fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:11 and note). It characterizes the relationship that those who live in the kingdom of God should have with others and with God. If we are righteous, right, and proper toward others, toward things, and toward God, we will have a peaceful relationship with others and with God. Thus, we will have joy in the Holy Spirit and, in particular, before God. In this way we will be filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52) and will live out righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which are the reality of the kingdom of God.
According to the context of this chapter, this verse was written for our receiving of the believers. If we receive the believers according to the apostle’s instruction in this chapter, we will be right and proper toward those whom we receive and will have peace with them; thus, we will have joy in the Holy Spirit, proving that we are living in the reality of God’s kingdom and are under God’s rule. Otherwise, we will not be right or proper toward those whom we do not receive and will not have peace with them; thus, we will not have joy in the Holy Spirit before God, proving that we are not subject to God’s authority in the kingdom of God.
Rm 14:17c peace  -   Rom. 15:13, 33
Rm 14:17d joy  -   Gal. 5:22; 1 Thes. 1:6
Rm 14:181a serves  -   Rom. 12:11; Acts 20:19
Lit., serves as a slave. See note 12 in ch. 1. To live in the kingdom of God in the way of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit is to serve Christ as a slave. This is well pleasing to God and approved by men, and it preserves the oneness of the church for the practical Body life.
Rm 14:191a pursue  -   Heb. 12:14; 2 Tim. 2:22; Rom. 12:18
For the proper church life we must pursue the things of peace, the things that keep the oneness of the Body, and we must pursue also the things that build up one another, the things that minister life to our fellow members for mutual building up.
Rm 14:19b building  -   Rom. 15:2; 1 Cor. 10:23; 8:1
Rm 14:20a break  -   Rom. 14:15
Rm 14:201 work
In all saved persons there is a measure of God’s work. If we cause any one of the believers to stumble because of our doctrinal concepts, we break down, destroy, God’s work of grace in him.
Rm 14:20b All  -   Rom. 14:14; 1 Tim. 4:3-4
Rm 14:20c stumbling  -   Rom. 14:13; 1 Cor. 8:9
Rm 14:21a not  -   1 Cor. 8:13
Rm 14:23a doubts  -   Rom. 14:5
Romans Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 15:1a weak  -   Rom. 14:1; 1 Thes. 5:14
Rm 15:2a building  -   Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 10:23; 8:1
Rm 15:3a The  -   Psa. 69:9
Rm 15:4a written  -   1 Cor. 10:11
Rm 15:41 encouragement
Or, comfort. So also in v. 5.
Rm 15:4b hope  -   Rom. 5:4-5; 15:13
Rm 15:5a God  -   2 Cor. 1:3
Rm 15:5b same  -   Rom. 12:16; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2; 4:2
Rm 15:51c Christ  -   1 Cor. 1:13
The preceding verse mentions the Scriptures and the instructions contained in them. However, in the concluding word in this verse, God sets up Christ Jesus as the standard for the church life that we may do everything in the church life according to Him, not taking any doctrine or knowledge as the standard. This will issue in the one accord mentioned in v. 6.
Rm 15:61 with
The Greek word means with the same mind, will, and purpose. This is to be one in our whole being and results in our being one in our outward speaking. Whenever we are in one accord, we speak the same thing; we speak with one mouth. This oneness is the reverse of Babel, where the division among mankind caused their language to become confused and divided into many different speakings (Gen. 11:7, 9). The only way to be with one accord and one mouth is to allow Christ the room to be everything in our heart and in our mouth that God may be glorified.
Rm 15:6a one  -   Acts 1:14; 4:24
Rm 15:6b one  -   1 Cor. 1:10
Rm 15:6c glorify  -   1 Cor. 10:31
Rm 15:7a receive  -   Rom. 14:1, 3; 16:2
Rm 15:71 Christ
Verse 3 of ch. 14 says that we should receive people according to God’s receiving, but here we are told that we should receive people according to Christ’s receiving. Christ’s receiving is God’s receiving. What Christ has received, God has received. Those whom God and Christ have received we must receive, regardless of how they differ from us in doctrine or practice. This will be to the glory of God.
Rm 15:81 servant
The same Greek word as for deacon in 16:1 (there rendered deaconess) and 1 Tim. 3:8. In vv. 8-9 Christ is shown to be the servant of both the circumcision (the Jews) and the nations (the Gentiles). For the Jews, Christ is a servant for the sake of God’s truthfulness, to fulfill and confirm all the promises God gave to their fathers. For the Gentiles, Christ is a servant so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy.
Rm 15:82a truthfulness  -   Rom. 3:7
See note 71 in ch. 3. Christ has become a servant of the circumcision to confirm the promises God gave to the fathers. This is to prove God’s truthfulness.
Rm 15:8b promises  -   Rom. 4:16; 9:4; Gal. 3:18
Rm 15:9a mercy  -   Rom. 9:23; 11:31-32
Rm 15:9b Therefore  -   2 Sam. 22:50; Psa. 18:49
Rm 15:91 extol
Or, confess.
Rm 15:10a Rejoice  -   Deut. 32:43
Rm 15:11a Praise  -   Psa. 117:1
Rm 15:12a There  -   Isa. 11:10
Rm 15:121b root  -   cf. Rev. 5:5; 22:16
Although Christ is the root of Jesse (David’s father, signifying the Jewish people), He will also be the ruler of the Gentiles. The apostle quoted this word and the word in vv. 9-11 to prove that Christ brings together the Gentiles and the Jews. Since Christ is such an all-embracing Lord (Acts 10:36), bringing together the Jews and the Gentiles, we must receive all the different believers according to Him.
Rm 15:12c on  -   Matt. 12:21
Rm 15:13a peace  -   Rom. 14:17; 12:18; 16:20
Rm 15:13b hope  -   Rom. 5:2, 4-5
Rm 15:13c power  -   Rom. 15:19
Rm 15:15a grace  -   Rom. 12:3
Rm 15:161 minister
Lit., public servant; as in 13:6.
Rm 15:162 laboring
In Greek, from the same root as energizing.
Rm 15:163a priest  -   1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; Phil. 2:17
Paul’s being a priest of the gospel of God to minister Christ to the Gentiles was a priestly service to God, and the Gentiles whom he gained through his gospel preaching were an offering presented to God. By this priestly service many Gentiles, who were unclean and defiled, were sanctified in the Holy Spirit and became such an offering, acceptable to God. They were set apart from things common and were saturated with God’s nature and element, and were thus sanctified both positionally and dispositionally (see note 192 in ch. 6). Such a sanctification is in the Holy Spirit. This means that, based on Christ’s redemption, the Holy Spirit renews, transforms, and separates unto holiness those who have been regenerated by believing into Christ.
Rm 15:16b offering  -   1 Pet. 2:5
Rm 15:16c sanctified  -   1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11
Rm 15:171a boasting  -   2 Cor. 11:16-18
See note 24 in ch. 5.
Rm 15:17b in  -   Heb. 2:17; 5:1
Rm 15:18a Christ  -   Acts 15:12; 21:19
Rm 15:18b obedience  -   Rom. 1:5; 16:26
Rm 15:19a signs  -   Acts 4:30; Heb. 2:4
Rm 15:19b power  -   Rom. 15:13
Rm 15:19c from  -   Acts 22:17-21
Rm 15:191 Illyricum
A region in southeast Europe adjacent to Macedonia. This shows Paul’s widespread preaching of the gospel. He desired to travel even farther, all the way to Spain (v. 24).
Rm 15:192d fully  -   Rom. 1:14
Lit., fulfilled.
Rm 15:20a another’s  -   2 Cor. 10:15-16
Rm 15:21a They  -   Isa. 52:15
Rm 15:22a hindered  -   Rom. 1:13
Rm 15:23a come  -   Rom. 1:10, 13
Rm 15:241a Spain  -   Rom. 15:28
At that time Paul probably considered Spain the uttermost part of the earth, as mentioned in Acts 1:8.
Rm 15:24b sent  -   Acts 15:3
Rm 15:24c filled  -   Rom. 1:12
Rm 15:25a going  -   Acts 19:21; 20:2-3
Rm 15:251b ministering  -   Acts 24:17
The Greek word means serving as a deacon.
Rm 15:26a Macedonia  -   2 Cor. 8:1-4
Rm 15:26b Achaia  -   2 Cor. 9:2
Rm 15:261 contribution
Lit., fellowship. The Greek word denotes participation and fellowship. The same word is translated fellowship in Phil. 1:5 and sharing in Heb. 13:16, and is from the same root as contribute in 12:13 of this book. The fellowship of love, the fellowship in love between the Gentile and the Jewish saints, developed out of the ministering of Christ to the Gentiles and the offering of the Gentiles as a sacrifice to God. Paul went to the Gentiles with Christ; now he was returning to the Jews with the fellowship of the Gentile saints in material things. This fellowship of love was the practical result of Paul’s ministry.
Rm 15:27a spiritual  -   1 Cor. 9:11
Rm 15:271 do
The Greek word denotes the service performed by priests and Levites in the temple. It is the same word as for ministering in Heb. 10:11. In v. 16 Paul’s thought was that he was a priest. Here he might have had the thought that the Gentiles were serving as Levites.
Rm 15:28a Spain  -   Rom. 15:24
Rm 15:29a come  -   Rom. 15:32; 1:13
Rm 15:291 fullness
Paul went to the Gentiles with Christ, returned to the Jewish brothers with material possessions, and expected to visit Rome in the fullness of the blessing of Christ to minister the riches of Christ to the people there. This shows us the proper church life. Through the apostle, the church life was being filled with Christ, filled with love in the fellowship of material possessions, and filled with the mutual participation in the blessing of Christ’s fullness.
Rm 15:30a exhort  -   Rom. 12:1; 16:17
Rm 15:30b love  -   Gal. 5:22; Col. 1:8
Rm 15:30c strive  -   2 Cor. 1:11
Rm 15:311a service  -   Rom. 15:25
The Greek word denotes the service of a deacon. In v. 25 and in this verse Paul might have had the thought that he was serving as a deacon.
Rm 15:32a will  -   Rom. 1:10
Rm 15:32b refresh  -   1 Cor. 16:18; 2 Cor. 7:13
Rm 15:33a God  -   Rom. 16:20; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 13:20
Romans Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Rm 16:11 commend
As the conclusion of this book, this chapter consists entirely of recommendations and greetings. It speaks not only of the concern among the saints but also of the fellowship among the churches (vv. 1, 4-5, 16, 23), showing some of the conditions that should exist in the local churches as the fourth station revealed in this book (see note 12, par. 2) and as the conclusion of the revelation in this book. This strengthens the content and significance of this chapter, which not only contains recommendations and greetings but, even more, presents a display of the local churches.
Rm 16:1a deaconess  -   Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:8, 11
Rm 16:12 church
The term church is not used in this book until 16:1. In this chapter the church and the churches are mentioned five times (vv. 1, 4-5, 16, 23). This is a strong indication that many matters covered in chs. 1 — 15 concerning God’s complete salvation are for the producing and building up of the church. These matters include the Triune God Himself (8:31), as the Father (1:7; 8:15), as the Son (1:4; 8:3) (the Son being the Lord — 1:4, 7; 10:12; 14:9; being Jesus — 3:26; 4:24; being Christ — 5:6; 6:4; 8:34; 6:3; 8:10; 13:14; being the man — 5:15; and being the root of Jesse — 15:12), and as the Spirit (5:5; 8:16, 26) (the Spirit being the firstfruits — 8:23); His mercy (9:23; 11:32), His compassion (9:15; 12:1), His love (5:5; 8:35, 39), His kindness (2:4; 11:22), His grace (5:2, 15), His free gifts (5:15-16; 11:29), His gifts (12:6), His righteousness (1:17; 3:21), His Spirit of holiness (1:4), His faithfulness (3:3), His peace (15:33; 16:20), His hope (15:13), His joy (15:13), His endurance (15:5), His encouragement (15:5), His riches (10:12; 11:33), His wisdom (11:33), His knowledge (11:33), His power (1:16), His authority (9:21), His life (5:21), His law of life (8:2), His sonship (8:15), His glory (5:2; 9:23), and His kingdom (14:17); His foreknowing (8:29), His selection (9:11; 11:5), His predestination (8:29), His preparation (9:23), His reserving (11:4-5), His calling (8:30; 11:29), His grafting (11:17), His redemption (3:24), His propitiation (3:25), His salvation (1:16), His justification (3:26, 30), His reconciliation (5:10-11), His freedom (8:2), His sanctification (6:19, 22), His transformation (12:2), His renewing (12:2), His conformation (8:29), His redemption of our body (8:23), and His glorification (8:30); His receiving (14:3; 15:7), His indwelling (8:11), His life giving (8:11), His leading (8:14), His witnessing (8:16), His helping (8:26), His interceding within us (8:26), His interceding in the heavens (8:34), His giving all things to us (8:32), and His causing all things to work for us (8:28); plus His incarnation (1:3; 10:6), His crucifixion (5:8; 6:6), His blood (3:25), His ending of the law (10:4), His resurrection (4:25; 10:7), and His ascension (8:34). All have been made available, and most of these have been applied to the producing and building up of the church for the fulfillment of God’s purpose according to His will (12:2).
Four stations are revealed in this book: the matters covered in chs. 1 — 4 bring us in ch. 4 to the first station, the station of justification; chs. 5 — 8 lead us in ch. 8 to the second station, the station of sanctification; chs. 9 — 12 lead us in ch. 12 to the third station, the station of the Body of Christ; and chs. 13 — 16 take us in ch. 16 to the fourth station, the station of the churches expressed in different localities, the station of the practical living of the Body of Christ in different localities. The churches are the ultimate consummation of the complete salvation of the gospel of God revealed in this book, which was written not in the way of doctrine but in the way of practicality. In the first station we are regenerated and saved, in the second station we are sanctified, in the third station we are renewed and transformed, and in the fourth station, in the practical church life, Satan is crushed under our feet and we are able to fully enjoy the Lord’s grace and God’s peace (v. 20).
Rm 16:1b Cenchrea  -   Acts 18:18
Rm 16:2a receive  -   Rom. 15:7
Rm 16:21 worthy
I.e., worthy of her status as a saint. Verse 7 of ch. 1 says that the saints are called by God and separated from all things other than God to be a special people sanctified unto God, and as such they are noble and not common. Therefore, the apostle asked the saints in Rome to receive Phoebe as a noble saint, to receive her in a manner worthy of her noble status.
Rm 16:22 patroness
Or, protectress. It is a word of dignity, denoting one who helps, sustains, and supplies. It indicates the high esteem with which Phoebe was regarded because of her service in the church life in Cenchrea.
Rm 16:3a Prisca  -   Acts 18:2, 18, 26
Rm 16:3b fellow  -   Rom. 16:9, 21; Col. 4:11; Phil. 2:25
Rm 16:41 risked
Prisca and Aquila were absolute for the local churches. Their only interest was the church, and they were willing to risk their necks, to be martyred, for the apostles.
Rm 16:42 life
Lit., soul.
Rm 16:43a churches  -   Rom. 16:16
The Body of Christ as the universal church is unique (Eph. 1:23; 4:3). When this universal church appears in many localities on earth, it becomes the many churches. Therefore, this verse refers to the churches. The churches exist in various localities that all the saints may live the church life and have the practice of the church in the locality where they are.
Rm 16:51a church  -   1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2
The church in Prisca and Aquila’s house must have been the church in Rome. When they were living in Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19), the church in Ephesus was in their house (1 Cor. 16:19). Wherever they were, they were willing to bear the burden of the practice of the church by opening their home.
Rm 16:52 house
Showing that the early saints met primarily in their houses. Such a practice corresponds with Acts 2:46 (see note 3 there) and 5:42.
Rm 16:7a kinsmen  -   Rom. 16:11, 21; 9:3
Rm 16:7b fellow  -   Col. 4:10; Philem. 23
Rm 16:9a fellow  -   Rom. 16:3
Rm 16:101 approved
Lit., approved by testing.
Rm 16:102 those
According to the structure and the tone of these expressions, those of the households of Aristobulus and Narcissus could not be members of the families of the two men; they were most likely the slaves of the two men, respectively. According to the ancient custom, slaves were considered the property of their buyers. It is unlikely that the two masters, Aristobulus and Narcissus, were believers, because they were not greeted here. At that time a number of those who had been sold as slaves and had lost their freedom believed in Christ and became saints, but the masters who bought them were not yet believers.
Rm 16:11a kinsman  -   Rom. 16:7, 21
Rm 16:111 those
See note 102.
Rm 16:13a Rufus  -   Mark 15:21
Rm 16:13b chosen  -   Rom. 8:33
Rm 16:131 mine
Rufus was a brother in Rome, and his mother also was in Rome. Paul’s referring to her as his own mother was a sign of respect and intimacy.
Rm 16:161a churches  -   Rom. 16:4
The churches are not the personal possession or private work of anyone. They are the churches of Christ.
Rm 16:17a exhort  -   Rom. 12:1; 15:30
Rm 16:17b mark  -   Acts 20:31
Rm 16:17c divisions  -   Titus 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 1:10-11; Acts 20:30
Rm 16:171 stumbling
Referring to being stumbled and leaving the church life. This must be the result of different opinions and teachings.
Rm 16:17d teaching  -   1 Tim. 1:3; 6:3-4
Rm 16:172e turn  -   cf. 2 John 9-10; Titus 3:10; 2 Thes. 3:6, 14
In ch. 14 Paul was liberal and gracious regarding the receiving of those who differ in doctrine or practice. Here, however, he is unyielding and resolute in saying that we must turn away from those who are dissenting, who make divisions, and who make causes of stumbling. The purpose in both cases is the preserving of the oneness of the Body of Christ that we may have the normal church life.
Rm 16:181a serve  -   Rom. 12:11; 14:18
Lit., serve as slaves.
Rm 16:182b stomach  -   Phil. 3:19
The Greek word is a derivative of the word meaning hollow. It refers to the stomach or to the entire abdominal cavity.
Rm 16:18c smooth  -   Col. 2:4
Rm 16:183 simple
Or, unsuspecting, innocent.
Rm 16:19a obedience  -   Rom. 15:18; 1:5; 16:26
Rm 16:20a God  -   Rom. 15:33; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 13:20
Rm 16:201b crush  -   cf. Gen. 3:15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8
Here God promises that He will crush Satan under the feet of those who live the church life, showing that the crushing of Satan is related to the church life. Dealing with Satan is a Body matter, not an individual matter. It is only when we have a proper local church as the practical expression of the Body that Satan is crushed under our feet.
Rm 16:20c under  -   Luke 10:19
Rm 16:202d grace  -   1 Cor. 16:23; Gal. 6:18; 2 Tim. 4:22
The church life enables us not only to crush Satan under our feet and to experience the God of peace but also to enjoy the rich grace of the Lord.
Rm 16:21a Timothy  -   Acts 16:1; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4
Rm 16:21b fellow  -   Rom. 16:3, 9
Rm 16:21c kinsmen  -   Rom. 16:7, 11
Rm 16:23a Gaius  -   1 Cor. 1:14
Rm 16:23b Erastus  -   Acts 19:22; 2 Tim. 4:20
Rm 16:241 24
Some ancient MSS add v. 24, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Rm 16:25a Now  -   Eph. 3:20
Rm 16:251b establish  -   Rom. 1:11; 1 Thes. 3:13; 2 Thes. 3:3; 1 Pet. 5:10
See note 107 in 1 Pet. 5. In ch. 16 our need is no longer to be saved or to be sanctified but to be established. Since everything has been accomplished, we need only to be established. This establishing is according to the pure and full gospel of God, that is, the proclaiming and ministering of the all-inclusive Christ, and according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages. Only the pure gospel, the living Christ, and God’s revealed mystery can establish us and keep us in oneness for the church life.
Rm 16:252c my  -   Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 2:8
I.e., the full gospel, including the teaching concerning Christ and the church and consummating in the local churches, as fully disclosed in this book. See note 19 in ch. 1.
Rm 16:25d proclamation  -   Phil. 1:18
Rm 16:253e mystery  -   1 Cor. 2:1, 7; 4:1; Eph. 1:9; 3:3, 9; 6:19; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3
The mystery of God, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages, is mainly of two aspects: the mystery of God, which is Christ (Col. 2:2), who is in the believers (Col. 1:26-27) as their life and their everything that they may become the members of His Body; and the mystery of Christ, which is the church as His Body (Eph. 3:4-6) to express His fullness (Eph. 1:22-23). Therefore, Christ and the church are the great mystery (Eph. 5:32).
Rm 16:254 times
Referring to the time since the beginning of the world.
Rm 16:26a prophetic  -   Rom. 1:2
Rm 16:261b eternal  -   Psa. 90:2
In chs. 15 and 16 God is called “the God of endurance and encouragement” (15:5), “the God of hope” (15:13), “the God of peace” (v. 20), “the eternal God” (v. 26), and “the only wise God” (v. 27). Our God is rich in all these aspects, and the gospel in this book is the gospel of such a rich God. This gospel consummates in the practical church life.
Rm 16:26c obedience  -   Rom. 1:5
Rm 16:27a only  -   1 Tim. 1:17; 6:15; Jude 25
Rm 16:271 wise
See note 332 in ch. 11. In its conclusion this book, which gives a general discussion concerning the Christian life and the church life, gives glory to the wise God. This unveils that all the matters discussed in this book, such as how God selects us, how He saves us from sin and death, how He redeems us and justifies us, how He makes us, sinners who were dead through and through, His divine sons, how He transfers us out of Adam into Christ, how He sanctifies and transforms us in Christ, how He makes us the members of Christ for the constituting of the Body of Christ, and how He causes us to be the local churches appearing in different localities as the expressions of the Body of Christ on the earth in this age — all these matters are planned, managed, and accomplished by God’s wisdom, in order that He, the unlimitedly rich Triune God, may be glorified, that is, that His incomparable glory may be completely and fully expressed through us who have been perfected eternally by Him and who have become His Body and have been joined to Him as one. The focus of God’s wisdom is the working of His Divine Trinity into the three parts — spirit, soul, and body — of our redeemed being that in His redemption, sanctification, and transformation we may have a full union in the divine life with Him, that His desire for the mingling of divinity and humanity, the joining of humanity to divinity, may be fulfilled for eternity. This truly is worthy of our appreciation and worship! How blessed and how glorious it is that we can participate in this! This is worthy of our unceasing singing and praise for eternity! Both our Christian life and our church life should have this as our center and goal. May God bless in this way everyone who has been chosen and perfected by Him.
Through God’s divine dispensing in us and His divine union with us, we can experience and enjoy the saving in Christ’s life in God’s full salvation (see note 102 in ch. 5), as conveyed to us in this book, in the following aspects:
(1) By the abundance of grace (God Himself) and of the gift of righteousness (Christ Himself) which we received, we are able to reign in Christ’s divine life (5:17) over sin, death, the old man, the flesh, Satan, the world, and all persons, matters, and things that do not submit to God.
(2) God’s holy nature sanctifies our worldly disposition (6:19, 22; 15:16). God sanctifies us dispositionally out of His divine life and unto His divine life that we may enjoy more of His divine life.
(3) The indwelling law of the Spirit of life, that is, the automatic and spontaneous working of the Triune God as life in us, frees us from the law of sin and of death, the slavery and bondage of sin (8:2, 11). The operation of this law comes out of God’s divine life, and it also causes the increase of the divine life in us.
(4) The Divine Trinity’s divine dispensing in our spirit, soul, and body causes these three parts to be saturated with the processed divine life (8:5-11), with the result that our entire being is completely united with the processed Triune God and mingled with Him as one.
(5) The renewing of our mind by the Spirit results in the transformation of our soul, which saves us from being conformed to the modern style of the world (12:2) and issues in all the virtues and the overcoming, mentioned in chs. 12 — 16, as our daily life, a life of the highest standard, and as our church life, a life that is all-overcoming.
(6) By the renewing of our mind and the transformation of our soul, we become members one of another with all believers in the Body of Christ and are built up together as the Body of Christ and thereby have the service of the Body (12:1, 3-8). This is the crystallization of our experience of the saving in Christ’s life.
(7) Based on the revelation and teaching in chs. 14 — 16 of this book, we live the life of the local church in different localities as the appearance of the Body of Christ, the universal church, in different localities.
(8) By becoming the built-up church, a church against which the gates of Hades cannot prevail, in different localities, we afford God the opportunity to crush Satan under our feet that we may enjoy Christ as our rich grace and the God of peace as our surpassing peace (16:20).
(9) In our experience of the various aspects of the saving in the divine life, as mentioned above, we are being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God (8:28-29) through the “all things” arranged under God’s sovereignty, so that we have His divine attributes and His human virtues and thereby express the glory and beauty of Him, the God-man.
(10) In the process of our experience of the saving in the divine life, the splendor of the divine life gradually saturates us until it saturates our body, issuing in the redemption of our body (8:23), that our spirit, soul, and body may all enter into the glory of God (8:30, 17). This glorification is the peak attained in us by the saving in the divine life, and it is the climax of God’s full salvation.
Rm 16:27b glory  -   Eph. 3:21; Phil. 4:20; 2 Tim. 4:18; 1 Pet. 5:11; 2 Pet. 3:18; Rev. 1:6; 5:13; 7:12
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1 Corinthians Outline
I.   Introduction — the initial gifts and the participation in Christ — 1:1-9
II.   Dealing with divisions — 1:10 — 4:21
A.   Christ and His cross, the unique solution to all problems in the church — 1:10-31
1.   Christ not divided — vv. 10-17
2.   Christ crucified, God’s power and God’s wisdom — vv. 18-25
3.   Christ, our wisdom: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption — vv. 26-31
B.   Christ crucified, the center of the apostle’s ministry — 2:1-16
1.   The way of the apostle’s ministry — vv. 1-5
2.   God’s wisdom in a mystery — Christ as the deep things of God — vv. 6-10
3.   Interpreting spiritual things with spiritual words to spiritual men — vv. 11-16
C.   The church, God’s cultivated land and God’s building — 3:1-23
1.   Growth in life needed — vv. 1-9
2.   Built with transformed materials, not with natural things — vv. 10-17
3.   All things for the church and the church for Christ — vv. 18-23
D.   Stewards of the mysteries of God — 4:1-21
1.   Faithful servants of Christ — vv. 1-5
2.   A spectacle both to angels and to men — vv. 6-9
3.   The offscouring of the world and the scum of all things — vv. 10-13
4.   The begetting father — vv. 14-21
III.   Dealing with an evil brother — 5:1-13
A.   The evil one judged — vv. 1-5
B.   Keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread — vv. 6-8
C.   Removing the evil one from the church — vv. 9-13
IV.   Dealing with lawsuits among believers — 6:1-11
A.   The judgment of the church — vv. 1-8
B.   Those not qualified to inherit the kingdom of God — vv. 9-11
V.   Dealing with the abuse of freedom — 6:12-20
A.   A basic principle — v. 12
B.   The use of the body — vv. 13-20
VI.   Dealing with marriage life — 7:1-40
A.   Concerning the gift not to marry — vv. 1-7
B.   Concerning the unmarried and the widows — vv. 8-9
C.   Concerning the married — vv. 10-16
D.   Remaining in the status of one’s calling — vv. 17-24
E.   Concerning keeping virginity — vv. 25-38
F.   Concerning remarriage — vv. 39-40
VII.   Dealing with the eating of things sacrificed to idols — 8:1 — 11:1
A.   An inadvisable eating — 8:1-13
1.   Not according to love, which builds up — vv. 1-3
2.   Idols being nothing — vv. 4-7
3.   Food not commending us to God — v. 8
4.   Stumbling weak brothers — vv. 9-13
B.   The apostle’s vindication — 9:1-27
1.   His qualifications — vv. 1-3
2.   His rights — vv. 4-15
3.   His faithfulness — vv. 16-23
4.   His endeavor — vv. 24-27
C.   The type of Israel — 10:1-13
1.   Baptized unto Moses — vv. 1-2
2.   Eating the same spiritual food and drinking the same spiritual drink — vv. 3-4
3.   Most of them strewn along in the wilderness — vv. 5-13
D.   Keeping the Lord’s table from idolatry — 10:14-22
1.   The fellowship of the Lord’s blood and body — vv. 14-18
2.   The separation of the Lord’s table from the demons’ table — vv. 19-22
E.   The proper eating — 10:23 — 11:1
1.   Building up others, seeking their advantage — 10:23-30, 32-33
2.   To the glory of God — 10:31
3.   Imitating the apostle — 11:1
VIII.   Dealing with head covering — 11:2-16
A.   The headship in the universe — vv. 2-3
B.   The head covering — vv. 4-6
C.   The reasons — vv. 7-15
D.   No contention — v. 16
IX.   Dealing with the Lord’s supper — 11:17-34
A.   The rebuking of the disorder — vv. 17-22
B.   The review of the definition — vv. 23-26
C.   The need of proving and discerning — vv. 27-29
D.   The discipline of the Lord — vv. 30-34
X.   Dealing with the gifts — 12:1 — 14:40
A.   The governing principle — 12:1-3
B.   The manifestation of the Spirit — 12:4-11
C.   One Body with many members — 12:12-27
1.   The constitution of the Body — vv. 12-13
2.   The indispensability of the members — vv. 14-22
3.   The blending together of the members — vv. 23-27
D.   The placing of the gifts — 12:28-31
E.   The excellent way for exercising the gifts — 13:1-13
1.   The need of love — vv. 1-3
2.   The definition of love — vv. 4-7
3.   The excelling of love — vv. 8-13
F.   The excelling of prophesying — 14:1-25
1.   Building up the church more — vv. 1-19
2.   Convicting people more — vv. 20-25
G.   Functioning in the church — 14:26-40
1.   Concerning each one — v. 26
2.   Concerning speaking in tongues — vv. 27-28
3.   Concerning prophesying — vv. 29-33a
4.   Concerning women — vv. 33b-38
5.   Conclusion — vv. 39-40
XI.   Dealing with the matter of resurrection — 15:1-58
A.   Christ’s resurrection — vv. 1-11
1.   Preached — vv. 1-4
2.   Witnessed — vv. 5-11
B.   The rebuttal to “No resurrection” — vv. 12-19
C.   The history of resurrection — vv. 20-28
D.   The moral influence of resurrection — vv. 29-34
E.   The definition of resurrection — vv. 35-49
1.   The body of resurrection — vv. 35-44
2.   A spiritual body — vv. 45-49
F.   The victory of resurrection — vv. 50-58
1.   Incorruption over corruption — vv. 50-53
2.   Life over death — vv. 54-57
3.   A motive for the work of the Lord — v. 58
XII.   Dealing with the collection of the gift — 16:1-9
A.   The apostle’s direction — vv. 1-3
B.   The apostle’s desire — vv. 4-9
XIII.   Conclusion — 16:10-24
A.   Intimate charges — vv. 10-18
B.   Greetings and warning — vv. 19-24
1 Corinthians >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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1 Corinthians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 1:11a called  -   Rom. 1:1
An apostle is a sent one. Paul was such a one, not self-appointed but called by the Lord. His apostleship was authentic (9:1-5; 2 Cor. 12:11-12; cf. 2 Cor. 11:13; Rev. 2:2), having the authority of God’s New Testament administration (2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10). Based on this position with this authority the apostle wrote this Epistle, not only to nourish and build up the saints in Corinth but also to regulate and adjust the church there.
1Co 1:12b will  -   2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:1
The will of God is His determination for the carrying out of His purpose. Through this will Paul was called to be an apostle of Christ. Paul’s assertion here strengthened his apostolic position and authority.
1Co 1:13 Sosthenes
Sosthenes here was probably not the same Sosthenes as in Acts 18:17, because this Epistle was written in Ephesus (16:8) not long after the apostle left Corinth, where the other Sosthenes was a ruler of the synagogue when Paul was persecuted there. This Sosthenes, as a brother in the Lord, must have gone out together with the apostle for the ministry. The mentioning of him here strengthened Paul’s apostleship and points out the principle of the Body.
1Co 1:21a church  -   1 Cor. 4:17; 6:4; 7:17; 10:32; 11:16, 18, 22; 12:28; 14:4, 5, 12, 19, 23, 28, 33, 34, 35; 15:9; 16:1, 19; 2 Cor. 1:1; Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11
The church of God! Not the church of Cephas, of Apollos, of Paul, or of any practice or doctrine, but of God. In spite of all the division, sin, confusion, abusing of gifts, and heretical teaching in the church in Corinth, the apostle still called it “the church of God” because the divine and spiritual essence which makes the assembled believers the church of God was actually there. Such a spiritual address by the apostle was based on his spiritual view in looking upon the church in Christ. Such a simple address alone should have eliminated all the division and confusion in both practice and doctrine.
1Co 1:22 in
The church is constituted of the universal God, but it exists on earth in many localities, one of which was Corinth. In nature the church is universal in God, but in practice the church is local in a definite place. Hence, the church has two aspects: the universal and the local. Without the universal aspect, the church is void of content; without the local aspect, it is impossible for the church to have any expression and practice. Hence, the New Testament stresses the local aspect of the church also (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11; etc.).
1Co 1:2b Corinth  -   Acts 18:1; 19:1
1Co 1:23 to
To the church of God equals to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. This strongly indicates that the church is a composition of the saints and that the saints are the constituents of the church. The two should not be considered separate entities. Individually, we are the saints; corporately, we are the church.
1Co 1:24c sanctified  -   1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11; 1 Pet. 1:2
I.e., made holy, separated unto God for the fulfillment of His purpose. See note 23 in Rom. 1.
1Co 1:25 in
In Christ means in the element and sphere of Christ. Christ is the element and sphere that separated us, made us holy, unto God when we believed into Him, that is, when we were brought into an organic union with Him through our faith in Him.
1Co 1:26d called  -   1 Cor. 1:9, 24; Rom. 1:7; 2 Tim. 1:9
The believers in Christ are the called saints, not called to be saints. This is a positional matter, a sanctification in position with a view to sanctification in disposition. See note 192 in Rom. 6.
1Co 1:27 with
Not and but with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place. This indicates (1) that a local church, such as the church in Corinth, is composed only of those believers in that locality, not of all believers in every place, and (2) that this Epistle was intended not only for the believers in that one church in Corinth but for all believers in every place. This Epistle is for all believers of whatever place or time.
1Co 1:28e call  -   Acts 2:21; 9:14, 21; Rom. 10:12-13; 2 Tim. 2:22
To call upon the name of the Lord implies to believe into Him (Rom. 10:14). All believers in the Lord should be His callers (Acts 9:14, 21; 22:16). We have been called to call, called by God to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 1:29f theirs  -   Col. 1:12; S.S. 2:16; 6:3; cf. Gal. 3:28
Christ as the all-inclusive One belongs to all believers. He is our allotted portion given to us by God (Col. 1:12). The apostle added this special phrase at the end of this verse to stress the crucial fact that Christ is the unique center of all believers in whatever place or situation. In this Epistle the apostle’s intention was to solve the problems among the saints in Corinth. For all the problems, especially the matter of division, the only solution is the all-inclusive Christ. We have all been called into the fellowship of, the participation in, Him (v. 9). All believers should be focused on Him, not being distracted by any gifted person, any overstressed doctrine, or any particular practice.
1Co 1:3a Grace  -   Eph. 1:2
1Co 1:4a thank  -   Rom. 1:8
1Co 1:41 based
The apostle’s giving of thanks to God for the Corinthian believers was based on the grace of God given to them in Christ, not on their condition in themselves.
1Co 1:4b grace  -   1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; Rom. 5:2, 15, 17, 20, 21; Titus 2:11-12
1Co 1:5a enriched  -   cf. 2 Cor. 9:11
1Co 1:51 utterance
Gk. logos, i.e., word; the word that gives utterance to the thought formed in the mind. The word of the gospel preached by the apostle conveys the thought of God to our understanding. Hence, the word is the expression, the utterance, of the divine thought. Knowledge is the apprehension, the realization, of what is conveyed and uttered in the word. The Corinthian believers were enriched by the grace of God in all utterance of the divine thought concerning Christ and in all apprehension and realization in knowing Christ.
1Co 1:5b knowledge  -   2 Cor. 8:7; Rom. 15:14
1Co 1:61a testimony  -   1 Tim. 2:6; 2 Tim. 1:8; 2 Thes. 1:10; Rev. 1:2, 9
This was the preaching of Christ by the apostle, not merely with objective doctrines but with subjective experiences, as a witness bearing a living testimony of Christ. Such a testimony of Christ was confirmed within and among the Corinthian believers by their being enriched in Christ, as mentioned in vv. 4 and 5.
1Co 1:62 in
Or, among.
1Co 1:71a gift  -   Acts 2:38; 10:45; 11:17; Rom. 1:11; 5:15, 17; 6:23; 11:29; cf. 1 Cor. 12:4, 9, 28; Rom. 12:6; 2 Cor. 9:15
Gift here refers to the inward gifts issuing from grace, such as the free gift of eternal life (Rom. 6:23) and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) as the heavenly gift (Heb. 6:4). It does not refer to the outward, miraculous gifts, such as healing, speaking in tongues, etc., mentioned in chs. 12 and 14. All the inward gifts are constituents of grace. They are the initial things of the divine life that are received of grace. All these need to grow (3:6-7) to their full development and maturity. The Corinthian believers were not lacking in the initial gifts in life, but they were desperately short of the growth in life. Hence, however much they had been initially enriched in grace, they were still infants in Christ, soulish, fleshly, and even fleshy (2:14; 3:1, 3).
1Co 1:72b revelation  -   Luke 17:30; Heb. 9:28; 2 Tim. 4:1; Titus 2:13
Referring to the Lord’s second coming. To await the appearing of the Lord is a normal sign of true believers.
1Co 1:81 Who
Referring to God in v. 4. The very God who has initially given us grace will also confirm us until the end.
1Co 1:82a confirm  -   Rom. 16:25; 1 Pet. 5:10
This indicates that after the initial receiving of grace, we the believers need to grow in life.
1Co 1:8b unreprovable  -   1 Thes. 3:13; Col. 1:22
1Co 1:83c day  -   1 Cor. 3:13; 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14; Phil. 1:6
See note 164 in Phil. 2.
1Co 1:91 God
This word is a continuation of v. 8, strengthening the thought with the assurance of God’s faithfulness. In His faithfulness God will confirm the believers until the end, making them unreprovable in the day of the Lord’s return.
1Co 1:9a faithful  -   1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Thes. 5:24; 2 Thes. 3:3; Heb. 10:23; Deut. 7:9; Isa. 49:7
1Co 1:9b called  -   Rom. 8:28; Heb. 3:1; Eph. 1:18; 4:4; 1 Pet. 5:10
1Co 1:92 into
I.e., to partake of the fellowship of the union with God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and of the participation in Him. God has called us into such a fellowship that we may enjoy Christ as our God-given portion. This word, like the word in v. 2 concerning Christ’s being theirs and ours, stresses again the crucial fact that Christ is the unique center of the believers for the solving of the problems among them, especially the problem of division.
This book unveils to us that the very Christ, into whom we all have been called, is all-inclusive. He is the portion given to us by God (v. 2). He is God’s power and God’s wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (vv. 24, 30). He is the Lord of glory (2:8) for our glorification (2:7; Rom. 8:30). He is the depths (deep things) of God (2:10). He is the unique foundation of God’s building (3:11). He is our Passover (5:7), the unleavened bread (5:8), the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock (10:3-4). He is the Head (11:3) and the Body (12:12). He is the firstfruits (15:20, 23), the second man (15:47), and the last Adam (15:45); and as such He became the life-giving Spirit (15:45) that we may receive Him into us as our everything. This all-inclusive One, with the riches of at least twenty items, God has given to us as our portion for our enjoyment. We should concentrate on Him, not on any persons, things, or matters other than Him. We should focus on Him as our unique center appointed by God, that all the problems among the believers may be solved. It is into the fellowship of such a One that we have been called by God. This fellowship of God’s Son became the fellowship that the apostles shared with the believers (Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3) in His Body, the church, and should be the fellowship that we enjoy in partaking of His blood and His body at His table (10:16, 21). Such a fellowship, which is carried out by the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14), must be unique because He is unique; it forbids any division among the members of His unique Body.
1Co 1:9c fellowship  -   1 John 1:3, 7; 2 Cor. 13:14; Acts 2:42; cf. 1 Cor. 10:16
1Co 1:101a name  -   Acts 2:38; 8:16; 19:5; cf. 1 Cor. 1:13, 15
With this verse the apostle began to deal with the divisions among the Corinthians. First, he besought them through the name of our Lord, which is the name above all names (Phil. 2:9) and should be the unique name among all His believers. However, the divisive Corinthians ranked the names of Paul, Apollos, and Cephas with the name of Christ, just as Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration ranked Moses and Elijah with Christ (Matt. 17:1-8). To keep the oneness in the Lord and to avoid divisions, we need to uplift and exalt the unique name of our Lord by dropping all names other than this highest name.
1Co 1:102b speak  -   Rom. 15:6
Because of their different speakings in their strife, which were condemned by the apostle in vv. 11-12.
1Co 1:103c divisions  -   1 Cor. 11:18-19; Gal. 5:20; Titus 3:10; 1 Cor. 1:11; 3:3
In this Epistle the apostle dealt with eleven problems among the believers in Corinth. The first was the matter of division. Division is nearly always the leading problem, bringing in all other problems among believers. It may be considered the root of the problems among believers. Hence, in dealing with all the problems in the church at Corinth, the apostle’s axe first touched the root, that is, the divisions among the believers there. The first virtue of the believers’ walk that is worthy of God’s calling is the keeping of the oneness of the Spirit in the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:1-6).
1Co 1:104 attuned
The same word in Greek that is translated mending in Matt. 4:21. It means to repair, to restore, to adjust, to mend, making a broken thing thoroughly complete, joined perfectly together. The Corinthian believers as a whole were divided, broken. They needed to be mended in order to be joined perfectly together that they might be in harmony, having the same mind and the same opinion to speak the same thing, that is, Christ and His cross (vv. 17-18, 22-24; 2:2).
1Co 1:10d same  -   Rom. 15:5; Phil. 2:2; 4:2
1Co 1:105e opinion  -   1 Cor. 7:25, 40
Or, judgment.
1Co 1:111 Chloe
A female name; hence, a sister in the Lord.
1Co 1:11a strifes  -   1 Cor. 3:3; Phil. 1:15; Gal. 5:20; 1 Cor. 1:10
1Co 1:121a I  -   1 Cor. 3:4
This is exactly the same as saying “I am a Lutheran,” “I am a Wesleyan,” “I am a Presbyterian,” “I am an Episcopalian,” “I am a Baptist,” etc. All such designations should be condemned and rejected. They can be eliminated and terminated only by taking Christ as the unique center among all the believers.
1Co 1:12b Paul  -   1 Cor. 3:5
1Co 1:12c Apollos  -   1 Cor. 3:5, 6; Acts 18:24; 19:1; Titus 3:13
1Co 1:12d Cephas  -   1 Cor. 3:22; 9:5; 15:5; John 1:42; Gal. 2:8-9, 11, 14
1Co 1:122 Christ
To say “I am of Christ” in the way of excluding the apostles and their teachings or of excluding other believers is as divisive as to say “I am of” this or that.
1Co 1:131 Christ
Christ is unique and is not divided. This unique and undivided Christ, taken as the unique center among all the believers, should be the termination of all divisions.
1Co 1:13a divided  -   cf. Eph. 4:4-6; Gal. 3:28
1Co 1:132 crucified
The One who was crucified for us should be the One to whom all the believers belong. This surely is Christ, not anyone else. All believers were baptized into the name, that is, into the person, of the crucified and resurrected Christ, issuing in an organic union with Him. His unique name and unique person cannot be replaced by the name and person of any of His servants.
1Co 1:13b baptized  -   cf. Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; 8:16; 19:5
1Co 1:14a Crispus  -   Acts 18:8
1Co 1:14b Gaius  -   Rom. 16:23; cf. Acts 19:29; 20:4; 3 John 1
1Co 1:16a Stephanas  -   1 Cor. 16:15, 17
1Co 1:171 send
The apostle Paul was sent not to baptize people in a formal way but to preach the gospel, ministering Christ to others for the producing of the church as an expression of Christ to be the fullness of God (Eph. 1:23; 3:19).
1Co 1:172a wisdom  -   1 Cor. 2:1, 4, 13
Referring to philosophical speculations.
1Co 1:173b cross  -   1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 3:1; 5:11; 6:12, 14
The cross of Christ is the center in the accomplishment of God’s New Testament economy, which is to have a church produced through the redemption of Christ. Paul preached Christ crucified (v. 23; 2:2; Gal. 3:1) and boasted in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14). He did not preach the law with circumcision, which the Jews and some of the Jewish believers fought for (Gal. 3:11; 5:11; 6:12-13), nor the philosophy that was promoted by the Greeks and some of the Gentile believers (Col. 2:8, 20). The cross of Christ abolished the ordinances of the law (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14), and we the believers have died to philosophy, an element of the world (Col. 2:20). But Satan instigated the Judaizers and the Greek philosophers to preach their “isms” of worldly wisdom that the cross of Christ might be made void. The apostle Paul was alert in this matter. In dealing with the divisions among the Corinthian believers, which came mainly from the background of Jewish religion and Greek philosophy, the apostle stressed Christ and His cross. When Christ is taken to replace religious opinions and philosophical wisdom, and when His cross is working to deal with the flesh attached to any background, divisions will be terminated. The exaltation of natural preference and human wisdom cannot stand before Christ and His cross.
1Co 1:181a word  -   1 Cor. 1:23
The same word in Greek that is translated utterance in v. 5 (see note there). The word of the cross is the utterance, the speaking, the preaching, of the cross. Such preaching is despised and considered foolishness by those who are perishing, but it is honored and received as the power of God by us who are being saved. In his ministry Paul stressed the cross as the center of God’s salvation (Gal. 2:20; 3:1; 5:11, 24; 6:14; Eph. 2:16; Phil. 2:8; 3:18; Col. 2:14).
1Co 1:18b perishing  -   2 Cor. 2:15; 4:3
1Co 1:18c foolishness  -   1 Cor. 1:21, 23, 25; 2:14; 4:10
1Co 1:18d saved  -   1 Cor. 15:2; Acts 2:47
1Co 1:18e power  -   1 Cor. 1:24; 2:5; Rom. 1:16
1Co 1:19a I  -   Isa. 29:14
1Co 1:191b wise  -   Job 5:12-13; Jer. 8:9; 49:7; Matt. 11:25
Referring in particular to the philosophical Greeks in Corinth, who considered themselves wise and prudent in holding to their philosophical wisdom. The apostle desired that they leave their philosophy and take the crucified Christ instead.
1Co 1:20a wise  -   Isa. 19:12; 1 Cor. 1:26
1Co 1:201b scribe  -   Matt. 23:2, 13
Like the wisdom of the scribes in Isa. 33:18, the wisdom of the Jewish scribes, who rejected the word of the cross, was considered futile by Paul.
1Co 1:20c this  -   1 Cor. 2:6, 8; 3:18-19
1Co 1:20d foolish  -   Isa. 44:25; Rom. 1:22; 1 Cor. 3:18-19
1Co 1:211 was
Or, thought well.
1Co 1:21a foolishness  -   1 Cor. 1:18
1Co 1:212 preaching
I.e., the thing preached.
1Co 1:21b save  -   Acts 16:31
1Co 1:221a signs  -   Matt. 12:38; 16:1
A sign is a miraculous token (Matt. 12:38-39) given to substantiate what is preached. Religion needs signs, and the Jews continually required them. Wisdom pertains to philosophy and was constantly sought by the Greeks.
1Co 1:23a preach  -   1 Cor. 1:18
1Co 1:231 Christ
Christ crucified — weak, despised, and rejected — was a stumbling block to the miracle- seeking religious Jews and foolishness to the wisdom-seeking philosophical Greeks, yet this Christ was just the One they both needed to solve all their problems dealt with in this book.
1Co 1:23b crucified  -   1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 3:1
1Co 1:23c stumbling  -   Isa. 8:14; Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Pet. 2:8; Luke 2:34
1Co 1:23d foolishness  -   1 Cor. 1:18
1Co 1:241 those
Referring to those who were chosen by God in eternity (Eph. 1:4) and who believed in Christ in time (Acts 13:48).
1Co 1:24a called  -   1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 8:28
1Co 1:24b Jews  -   Rom. 1:16
1Co 1:242c power  -   1 Cor. 1:18
The crucified Christ preached by the apostles is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Wisdom is for planning, purposing; power is for carrying out, accomplishing, what is planned and purposed. In God’s economy Christ is both.
1Co 1:24d wisdom  -   1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:3; Matt. 11:19
1Co 1:25a foolishness  -   1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 23; 2:14
1Co 1:26a wise  -   Matt. 11:25
1Co 1:261 wellborn
Or, highborn, noble; i.e., born of a noble or royal family. The church of God is composed not mainly of the upper class but of the lowborn of the world and the despised. To appreciate the upper class is against God’s mind and is a shame to the church.
1Co 1:271a chosen  -   Eph. 1:4; Rom. 9:11; James 2:5
God’s calling (vv. 24-26) is based on God’s choosing, God’s selection. Both are according to His purpose (Rom. 9:11; 2 Tim. 1:9). God’s choosing was ordained before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4); His calling is accomplished in time, to carry out His choosing. God’s calling and choosing are the initiation of the salvation of His predestinated people. We did not choose Him; He chose us. We did not call upon Him until He called us. He is the Initiator. All the glory should be to Him!
1Co 1:27b world  -   1 Cor. 1:20
1Co 1:281 lowborn
I.e., born of common people; in contrast to the wellborn in v. 26.
1Co 1:282 despised
Or, contemptible. The Greek word is of the same root as the word for counted as nothing in Mark 9:12.
1Co 1:283a are  -   Rom. 4:17
I.e., are as if they have no existence. The lowborn and the despised are of no account in the world.
1Co 1:28b bring  -   1 Cor. 2:6
1Co 1:284 things
The repetition of God has chosen three times in vv. 27 and 28 unveils to us God’s sovereign dealing with the three kinds of people of the world mentioned in v. 26 — the wise, the strong (the powerful), and the wellborn. The wellborn, “things which are,” are counted much in the world but are brought to nought by God in His economy.
1Co 1:291 So
This declares the reason for God’s particular favor in His choosing us, that is, that no flesh, no human being, may have any boast, any glory, before Him.
1Co 1:29a boast  -   Jer. 9:23; Rom. 3:27; Eph. 2:9
1Co 1:301a of  -   Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; 11:12
What we believers, as the new creation, are and have in Christ is of God, not of ourselves. It is God who put us in Christ, transferring us from Adam into Christ. It is God who made Christ wisdom to us.
1Co 1:30b in  -   1 Cor. 4:15; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 8:1
1Co 1:30c wisdom  -   1 Cor. 1:24; 2:7; Col. 2:3
1Co 1:302d righteousness  -   Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16; Phil. 3:9; Rom. 3:22; 2 Cor. 5:21
Christ became wisdom to us from God as three vital things in God’s salvation: (1) righteousness (for our past), by which we have been justified by God, that we might be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life (Rom. 5:18); (2) sanctification (for our present), by which we are being sanctified in our soul, i.e., transformed in our mind, emotion, and will, with His divine life (Rom. 6:19, 22); and (3) redemption (for our future), i.e., the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), by which we will be transfigured in our body with His divine life to have His glorious likeness (Phil. 3:21). It is of God that we participate in such a complete and perfect salvation, which makes our entire being — spirit, soul, and body — organically one with Christ and makes Christ everything to us. This is altogether of God, not of ourselves, that we may boast and glory in Him, not in ourselves.
1Co 1:30e sanctification  -   John 17:17, 19; Heb. 2:11
1Co 1:30f redemption  -   Rom. 8:23; Eph. 4:30
1Co 1:31a He  -   Jer. 9:23-24
1Co 1:31b boast  -   2 Cor. 10:17
1 Corinthians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 2:1a came  -   Acts 18:1
1Co 2:11 excellence
Or, superiority. Paul came to Corinth not to display his excellent, superior speech or philosophical wisdom in announcing the mystery of God.
1Co 2:1b speech  -   1 Cor. 1:17; 2:4, 13
1Co 2:12c mystery  -   Col. 1:26-27
Some ancient authorities read, testimony. What the apostle testified was the mystery of God, which is Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the expression of Christ (Rom. 16:25-26; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3; Eph. 3:4-6, 9).
1Co 2:21 not
The crucified Christ was the unique subject, the center, the content, and the substance of the apostle’s ministry. For this he did not determine to know anything but the all-inclusive Christ, and this One crucified, when he was going to minister the word of the testimony of God to the excellent-speech-exalting and wisdom-worshipping Greeks. What a determination! It should be a pattern to us all.
1Co 2:22 Jesus
Jesus Christ denotes the Lord’s person. This One crucified speaks of the example of the Lord’s living, action, work, and way, indicating His humiliation and abasement. In order to overturn the pride of the Greeks in their elevated wisdom, Paul did not refer here to the Lord’s resurrection in glory (Luke 24:26) and His ascension in exaltation (Acts 2:33, 36).
1Co 2:2a Christ  -   Phil. 3:7-8
1Co 2:2b crucified  -   1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 3:1; 6:14
1Co 2:31a weakness  -   1 Cor. 4:10; 2 Cor. 11:30; 12:5, 9, 10; 13:4, 9
Referring to the apostle’s physical weakness, which was due, perhaps, to his physical sufferings in his persecutions for the gospel. He did not display himself as a physically strong man while among the Greeks, who sought to be strong not only psychologically in their philosophies but also physically in their gymnastics.
1Co 2:32b fear  -   2 Cor. 7:15; Phil. 2:12; Eph. 6:5
Fear is the inward feeling; trembling is the outward appearance. The apostle was inwardly in fear of missing Christ in his ministry to the wisdom-seeking Greeks, and outwardly in trembling lest he be influenced by their prevailing aspiration for wisdom. By such fear and trembling he stood faithfully and steadfastly in his God-appointed ministry, according to the heavenly vision, avoiding any deviation. The religious Jews were proud of their traditional religion, and the philosophical Greeks were haughty in their worldly wisdom. In ministering Christ to both, the apostle was in fear and in much trembling. What a contrast between him and them!
1Co 2:4a speech  -   1 Cor. 1:17; 2:1, 13
1Co 2:41 persuasive
Persuasive words of wisdom issue from the human mind; demonstration of the Spirit comes forth from the spirit. The apostle’s speech and preaching were not from his mind with words of speculation but from his spirit with the release and exhibition of the Spirit and, hence, of power.
1Co 2:4b Spirit  -   Rom. 15:19
1Co 2:4c power  -   Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 4:20; 2 Cor. 6:7; 1 Thes. 1:5
1Co 2:51 stand
Lit., be.
1Co 2:52 wisdom
The wisdom of men is the elementary philosophy; the power of God is the all-inclusive Christ (1:24).
1Co 2:5a power  -   2 Cor. 4:7; 13:4
1Co 2:6a full-grown  -   Phil. 3:15; Heb. 5:14; 6:1; Eph. 4:13
1Co 2:6b wisdom  -   1 Cor. 1:20; 3:19; James 3:15
1Co 2:61c brought  -   1 Cor. 1:28
I.e., destroyed (the same word as in 1:28).
1Co 2:71 God’s
God’s wisdom is Christ (1:24), who is the hidden mystery (Col. 1:26-27), predestined, predesignated, and foreordained before the ages for our glory.
1Co 2:7a mystery  -   Rom. 16:25-26; Eph. 1:9; 3:4, 5, 9; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3
1Co 2:7b predestined  -   Rom. 8:29-30; 9:23; Eph. 1:5, 11
1Co 2:72 before
I.e., in eternity.
1Co 2:7c ages  -   Heb. 1:2 and note 5; 11:3
1Co 2:73d glory  -   Rom. 8:21, 30; Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10; Heb. 2:10
Christ, who is the Lord of glory (v. 8). Christ is our life today (Col. 3:4) and our glory in the future (Col. 1:27). To this glory God has called us (1 Pet. 5:10), and into it He will bring us (Heb. 2:10). This is the goal of God’s salvation.
1Co 2:8a rulers  -   Acts 3:17
1Co 2:8b crucified  -   1 Cor. 2:2; Luke 24:20; Acts 2:23
1Co 2:8c Lord  -   James 2:1; Psa. 24:7-10
1Co 2:9a Things  -   Isa. 64:4; 52:15
1Co 2:91 eye
The sphere of what the eye can see is narrow; the sphere of what the ear can hear is broader; and the sphere of what the heart can realize is without limitation. God in His wisdom (that is, in Christ) has ordained and prepared for us many deep and hidden things, such as justification, sanctification, and glorification. All these the human eye has never seen, the human ear has never heard, and the human heart has never realized.
1Co 2:9b come  -   Isa. 65:17
1Co 2:92 in
Lit., on, or upon.
1Co 2:9c prepared  -   cf. Matt. 25:34
1Co 2:93d love  -   James 1:12; 2:5; 1 Cor. 8:3; Exo. 20:6; Matt. 22:37; 1 John 4:21
To realize and participate in the deep and hidden things God has ordained and prepared for us requires us not only to believe in Him but also to love Him. To fear God, to worship God, and to believe in God (that is, to receive God) are all inadequate; to love Him is the indispensable requirement. To love God means to set our entire being — spirit, soul, and body, with the heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30) — absolutely on Him, that is, to let our entire being be occupied by Him and lost in Him, so that He becomes everything to us and we are one with Him practically in our daily life. In this way we have the closest and most intimate fellowship with God, and we are able to enter into His heart and apprehend all its secrets (Psa. 73:25; 25:14). Thus, we not only realize but also experience, enjoy, and fully participate in these deep and hidden things of God.
1Co 2:101a revealed  -   Matt. 11:25; 13:11; 16:17; Gal. 1:12; Eph. 3:3, 5; Rev. 1:1
Different from taught. To be taught is related to our mind; to have something revealed to us is related to our spirit. To realize the deep and hidden things God has prepared for us, our spirit is more necessary than our mind. When our entire being becomes one with God through loving Him in intimate fellowship, He shows us, in our spirit through His Spirit, all the secrets of Christ as our portion. This is to reveal the hidden things planned by His wisdom concerning Christ, which have never come up in man’s heart.
1Co 2:10b Spirit  -   1 Cor. 2:11; John 14:26
1Co 2:102 searches
The Greek word is used in reference to active research, implying accurate knowledge gained not by discovering but by exploring. The Spirit of God explores the depths of God concerning Christ and shows them to us in our spirit for our realization and participation.
1Co 2:103c depths  -   Rom. 11:33
Referring to the deep things of God, which are Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion, foreordained, prepared, and given to us freely by God. These have never arisen in man’s heart but are revealed to us in our spirit by God’s Spirit. Hence, in order to partake of them, we must be spiritual. We must move, act, and live in our spirit that we may enjoy Christ as everything to us.
1Co 2:111a spirit  -   1 Thes. 5:23; Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8; Prov. 20:27; Rom. 8:16
The spirit of man is the deepest part of man’s being. It has the faculty to penetrate the innermost region of the things of man, whereas the mind of man is capable of knowing only superficial things. So also, only the Spirit of God can know the deep things of God. The Corinthian believers had neglected the spirit of man and the Spirit of God, having turned instead to live in their mind by philosophy. Hence, this book shows that the proper experience of these two spirits is essential for the practice of the church life.
1Co 2:121a received  -   Gal. 3:2, 14
Praise the Lord that we, those who have been born of God by His Spirit, have received the Spirit of God. Hence, we are well able to know the deep things of God, which He has graciously given to us for our enjoyment.
1Co 2:12b world  -   1 Cor. 1:27-28
1Co 2:12c Spirit  -   1 Cor. 6:19; John 14:26
1Co 2:12d know  -   1 John 2:20, 27; John 16:13-15
1Co 2:12e things  -   Philem. 6
1Co 2:13a words  -   1 Cor. 1:17; 2:1, 4
1Co 2:13b taught  -   John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-15
1Co 2:131 interpreting
The Greek word means mixing or putting together, as in interpreting or expounding. It is common in the Septuagint: Gen. 40:8; 41:12, 15.
1Co 2:132 with
The thought here is to speak spiritual things with spiritual words. The stress is not on the person to whom the speaking is done but on the means by which the spiritual things are spoken. The apostle spoke the spiritual things, which are the deep things of God concerning Christ, with spiritual words, which are the spiritual words taught by the Spirit.
1Co 2:141 But
Verse 13 stresses the spiritual means, that is, the spiritual words with which the spiritual things are spoken. Verses 14 and 15 stress the spiritual object, that is, a spiritual man (not a soulish man), who is able to discern the spiritual things. Both the means and the object need to be spiritual. The spiritual things must be spoken with spiritual words to the spiritual man.
1Co 2:142a soulish  -   Jude 19; 1 Cor. 15:44, 46; James 3:15; cf. Heb. 4:12
A soulish man is a natural man, one who allows his soul (including the mind, the emotion, and the will) to dominate his entire being and who lives by his soul, ignoring his spirit, not using his spirit, and even behaving as if he did not have a spirit (Jude 19). Such a man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, and he is not able to know them. Rather, he rejects them. The religious Jews, who required signs, and the philosophical Greeks, who sought wisdom (1:22), were such natural men, to whom the things of the Spirit of God were foolishness (1:23).
1Co 2:14b not  -   cf. John 14:17
1Co 2:143c things  -   1 Cor. 2:11
Referring to the deep things of God concerning Christ as our portion.
1Co 2:14d foolishness  -   1 Cor. 1:18
1Co 2:144 not
A soulish man does not have the constitutional capacity for spiritual perception. Hence, he is not able to know spiritual things.
1Co 2:145e discerned  -   Heb. 4:12
Or, examined, investigated; and thus made clear as to the truth of the matter.
1Co 2:146 spiritually
Spiritually here refers to the spirit of man that is moved by the Spirit of God to fully exercise its function and thereby replace the human soul’s rule and control over man. It is only by such a spirit that man can discern the things of the Spirit of God. A man who is ruled and controlled by his spirit is a spiritual man, as mentioned in the next verse. Since God is Spirit, all the things of the Spirit of God are spiritual. Therefore, to discern, to know, the things of the Spirit of God, man must use the human spirit (John 4:24).
1Co 2:151a spiritual  -   1 Cor. 3:1; 14:37; Gal. 6:1
A spiritual man is one who denies his soul and does not live by his soul but allows his spirit, that is, his regenerated spirit, which is occupied and energized by the Spirit of God, to dominate his entire being. Furthermore, he lives by such a spirit, moving and acting according to it (Rom. 8:4). Such a spiritual person is able to discern the things of the Spirit of God because his constitutional capacity for spiritual perception is able to manifest its function.
1Co 2:16a mind  -   Rom. 11:34
1Co 2:16b instruct  -   Isa. 40:13
1Co 2:161 have
Because we are organically one with Christ, we have all the faculties that He has. The mind is the faculty of intelligence, the understanding organ. We have such an organ, the mind of Christ; hence, we can know what He knows. We have not only the life of Christ but also the mind of Christ. Christ must saturate our mind from our spirit, making our mind one with His.
1Co 2:16c mind  -   Phil. 2:5
1 Corinthians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 3:11a spiritual  -   1 Cor. 2:15; 14:37
A spiritual man is one who does not behave according to the flesh or act according to the soulish life but lives according to the spirit, that is, his spirit mingled with the Spirit of God. Such a man is dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by such a mingled spirit.
1Co 3:12b fleshy  -   1 Cor. 3:3; Rom. 7:14, 5; Eph. 2:3
This is a stronger and more gross expression than fleshly in v. 3. Fleshy denotes being made of flesh; fleshly denotes being influenced by the nature of the flesh and partaking of the character of the flesh. In this verse the apostle considered the Corinthian believers to be totally of the flesh, to be made of the flesh, and to be just the flesh. What a strong word! Then in v. 3 the apostle condemned their behaving in jealousy and strife as fleshly, as being under the influence of their fleshly nature and partaking of the character of the flesh.
This book reveals clearly that a believer may be one of three kinds of men: (1) a spiritual man, living in his spirit under the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:25); (2) a soulish man, living in his soul under the direction of the soul, the natural life (2:14); or (3) a fleshy and fleshly man, being of the flesh and living in the flesh under the influence of the nature of the flesh. The Lord desires that all His believers take His grace to be the first kind of man — a spiritual man. This was the goal of this book: to motivate the Corinthian believers who were soulish, fleshy, and fleshly to aspire to the growth in life that they might become spiritual (2:15; 3:1; 14:37). As we have been called by God into the fellowship of Christ (1:9), who is now the life-giving Spirit (15:45), and as we are one spirit with Him (6:17), we can experience and enjoy Him only when we live in our spirit under the leading of the Holy Spirit. When we live in the soul or in the flesh, we cannot participate in Him or enjoy Him.
1Co 3:13c infants  -   Heb. 5:13; 1 Pet. 2:2; Eph. 4:14
Although the Corinthian believers had received all the initial gifts in life and were lacking in none of them (1:7), they did not grow in life after receiving them but remained infants in Christ, those who were not spiritual but fleshy. The apostle here pointed out their deficiency and their need, which was to grow in life to maturity, to be full-grown (2:6; Col. 1:28).
1Co 3:21 gave
To give milk to drink or food to eat is to feed others. Feeding is a matter of life; it differs from teaching, which is a matter of knowledge. What the apostle ministered to the Corinthian believers seemed to be knowledge; actually, it was milk (not yet solid food), and it should have nourished them.
1Co 3:22a milk  -   1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-13; Isa. 28:9
Milk is mainly for infants; solid food is for the mature. See notes 123 and 131 in Heb. 5.
1Co 3:2b food  -   Heb. 5:14; Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4
1Co 3:2c not  -   Mark 4:33; John 16:12
1Co 3:23 neither
This indicates that the Corinthian believers were not growing in life; they were still not able to receive solid food.
1Co 3:3a fleshly  -   1 Cor. 3:1
1Co 3:31b jealousy  -   Rom. 13:13; Gal. 5:20
Jealousy and strife are expressions, characteristics, of the nature of the flesh. Hence, they show that those who are in the flesh are fleshly and that they walk according to the manner of man.
1Co 3:3c strife  -   1 Cor. 1:11
1Co 3:32 according
Every fallen man is just the flesh (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16 and note 2). Hence, to be according to the manner of man is to be according to the flesh. The jealousy and strife among the Corinthian believers show that they walked according to the flesh of the fallen man and not according to the human spirit regenerated by God. Hence, they were not spiritual but fleshly, and they walked not according to God but according to the manner of man.
1Co 3:4a I  -   1 Cor. 1:12
1Co 3:5a Ministers  -   2 Cor. 3:6; Eph. 3:7; Col. 1:23, 25; 1 Tim. 4:6; cf. 1 Cor. 4:1
1Co 3:5b each  -   Rom. 12:3, 6
1Co 3:6a I  -   Acts 18:1-11
1Co 3:61 planted
To plant, to water, and to cause to grow are all related to the matter of life. This indicates that the believers are God’s cultivated land (v. 9) to grow Christ. The ministers of Christ can only plant and water. Only God can cause the growth. The Corinthian believers overesteemed the planter and the waterer and neglected the One who causes the growth. Hence, they did not grow in Christ as their life.
The Corinthian believers, under the prevailing influence of Greek philosophical wisdom, paid too much attention to knowledge, neglecting life. In this chapter Paul’s intention was to turn their attention from knowledge to life, pointing out that to them he was a feeder and a planter; Apollos, a waterer; and God, the One who causes the growth. In 4:15 he even told them that he was their spiritual father, who begot them in Christ through the gospel. From the view of life, the divine view, they were God’s cultivated land to grow Christ. This was entirely a matter of life, a matter utterly missed by believers who are dominated by their soulish, natural life under the influence of their natural wisdom.
1Co 3:6b Apollos  -   Acts 18:24-28
1Co 3:6c God  -   cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 3:5
1Co 3:71 neither
As far as the growth in life is concerned, all the ministers of Christ, whether planters or waterers, are nothing; God is everything. We must turn our eyes from them to God alone. This delivers us from the divisiveness that results from appreciating one minister of Christ above another.
1Co 3:7a anything  -   2 Cor. 12:11
1Co 3:8a each  -   Rom. 14:12
1Co 3:81b reward  -   1 Cor. 3:14; 9:17; 2 John 8; cf. Matt. 25:21, 23
The reward is an incentive to the ministers of Christ who labor by planting or watering on God’s cultivated land.
1Co 3:8c labor  -   1 Cor. 15:58
1Co 3:91 God’s
God too is a worker. While the ministers of Christ, His fellow workers, are working on His cultivated land, He too is working. What a privilege and glory that men can be God’s fellow workers, working together with God on His cultivated land to grow Christ!
1Co 3:9a fellow  -   2 Cor. 6:1; Mark 16:20
1Co 3:92b cultivated  -   cf. Matt. 13:3, 8; Rev. 14:4, 15-16
I.e., farm. The believers, who have been regenerated in Christ with God’s life, are God’s cultivated land, a farm in God’s new creation to grow Christ that precious materials may be produced for God’s building. Hence, we are not only God’s cultivated land but also God’s building. Corporately, we as the church of God have Christ planted in us. Christ must grow in us and, in the sense of this chapter, produce out of us not fruit but the precious materials of gold, silver, and precious stones for the building of God’s habitation on earth. Thus, the building of God, the house of God, the church, is the increase of Christ, the enlargement of Christ in His unlimitedness.
1Co 3:9c building  -   1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 2:20-22; Col. 2:7; Matt. 16:18; cf. Psa. 127:1
1Co 3:10a grace  -   Rom. 1:5; 12:3; 1 Cor. 15:10
1Co 3:101 master
The Greek word means chief craftsman. In Matt. 16:18 the Lord said that He would build His church; yet here the apostle said that he was a builder, even a wise master builder. This indicates that the Lord builds the church not directly but through His ministers, even through every member of His Body, as revealed in Eph. 4:16. Although in vv. 5-7 the apostle admitted that he was nothing, here he frankly and faithfully made clear that by the grace of God he was a wise master builder who had laid the unique foundation, Christ, for others to build upon.
1Co 3:10b laid  -   cf. 1 Cor. 3:6a
1Co 3:10c foundation  -   Eph. 2:20
1Co 3:10d another  -   1 Thes. 3:2
1Co 3:10e builds  -   cf. 1 Cor. 3:6b
1Co 3:102 take
The church, the house of God, must be built with gold, silver, and precious stones, precious materials produced from Christ’s growing in us. Yet there is a great possibility that we may build with wood, grass, and stubble produced by us in the flesh. Hence, each of us, every member of the Body, must take heed how he builds, that is, with what material he builds.
1Co 3:10f builds  -   1 Cor. 14:4, 5, 12
1Co 3:111a another  -   cf. Acts 4:12; 2 Cor. 11:4; Gal. 1:6-7
As the Christ and the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus is the unique foundation laid by God for the building of the church (Matt. 16:16-18). No one can lay another foundation.
1Co 3:11b that  -   Isa. 28:16; Matt. 16:18
1Co 3:11c Christ  -   Matt. 16:16; Acts 2:36
1Co 3:121 But
The foundation is unique, but the building may differ because different builders may use different materials. All the Corinthian believers had accepted Christ as the foundation. However, some Jewish believers among them attempted to build the church with their Judaistic attainments, and some Greek believers attempted to use their philosophical wisdom. They were not like the apostles, who built with their excellent knowledge and rich experiences of Christ. The intention of the apostle in this Epistle was to warn the believers not to build the church with the things of their natural background. They must learn to build with Christ, both in objective knowledge and in subjective experience, as Paul did.
1Co 3:122 gold
Gold, silver, and precious stones signify the various experiences of Christ in the virtues and attributes of the Triune God. It is with these that the apostles and all spiritual believers build the church on the unique foundation of Christ. Gold may signify the divine nature of the Father with all its attributes, silver may signify the redeeming Christ with all the virtues and attributes of His person and work, and precious stones may signify the transforming work of the Spirit with all its attributes. All these precious materials are the products of our participation in and enjoyment of Christ in our spirit through the Holy Spirit. Only these are good for God’s building.
As God’s cultivated land with planting, watering, and growing, the church should produce plants; but the proper materials for the building of the church are gold, silver, and precious stones, all of which are minerals. Hence, the thought of transformation is implied here. We need not only to grow in life but also to be transformed in life, as revealed in 2 Cor. 3:18 and Rom. 12:2. This corresponds with the thought in the Lord’s parables in Matt. 13 concerning wheat, mustard seed, and meal (all of which are botanical) and the treasure hidden in the earth — gold and precious stones (minerals). See notes 311, 333, and 441 in Matt. 13.
1Co 3:123 wood
Wood, grass, and stubble signify the knowledge, realization, and attainments that come from the believers’ natural background (such as Judaism or other religions, philosophy, or culture) and the natural way of living (which is mainly in the soul and is the natural life). Wood, in contrast to gold, signifies the nature of the natural man; grass, in contrast to silver, signifies the fallen man, the man of the flesh (1 Pet. 1:24), who has not been redeemed or regenerated by Christ; and stubble, in contrast to precious stones, signifies the work and living that issue from an earthen source and have not been transformed by the Holy Spirit. All these worthless materials are the product of the believers’ natural man together with what they have collected from their background. In God’s economy these materials are fit only to be burned (v. 13).
1Co 3:13a manifest  -   1 Cor. 4:5
1Co 3:131b the  -   1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Thes. 1:10; 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:8
The day of Christ’s second coming, when He will judge all His believers (4:5; Matt. 25:19-30; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12).
1Co 3:132c fire  -   1 Cor. 3:15
The fire of the Lord’s judgment (Mal. 3:2; 4:1; 2 Thes. 1:7b-8; Heb. 6:8), which will cause each believer’s work to be manifest and will try and test his work. All the work of wood, grass, and stubble will be unable to stand that test and will be burned.
1Co 3:13d prove  -   cf. Zech. 13:9; 1 Pet. 1:7; Psa. 66:12; Job 23:10
1Co 3:141 work
The work that remains must be of gold, silver, and precious stones, the product of faithful ministers of Christ. Such a work will be rewarded by the coming and judging Lord.
1Co 3:142a reward  -   1 Cor. 3:8
The reward is based on the believer’s work after he is saved. It differs from salvation, which is based on faith in the Lord and His redemptive work. See note 351 in Heb. 10.
1Co 3:151 work
The work of wood, grass, and stubble, which is fit only to be burned.
1Co 3:152 loss
Loss of reward, not of salvation. To suffer loss here does not mean to perish.
1Co 3:153a saved  -   1 Cor. 5:5
The salvation that we have received in Christ is not by our works (Titus 3:5) and is eternal, unchangeable in nature (Heb. 5:9; John 10:28- 29). Hence, those believers whose Christian works are not approved by the judging Lord and who suffer the loss of reward will still be saved. God’s salvation as a free gift to all believers is for eternity, whereas the Lord’s reward to those (not all) believers whose Christian works are approved by Him is for the kingdom age. The reward is an incentive for their Christian work. See note 281 in Heb. 12.
1Co 3:154 through
Although those believers whose Christian works are not approved by the Lord at His coming back will be saved, they will be saved so as through fire. Through fire surely indicates punishment. However, this is altogether not the purgatory heretically taught by Catholicism in its superstitious twisting of this verse. Nevertheless, this word should be a solemn warning to us today concerning our Christian works.
1Co 3:15b fire  -   cf. Psa. 66:10; Amos 4:11; Zech. 3:2; Jude 23
1Co 3:161a temple  -   1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21-22
The Greek word denotes the inner temple. The temple of God here refers to the believers collectively in a certain locality, such as Corinth, whereas the temple of God in v. 17 refers to all the believers universally. The unique spiritual temple of God in the universe has its expression in many localities on earth. Each expression is the temple of God in that locality.
The temple of God is the explanation of God’s building in v. 9. God’s building is not an ordinary building; it is the sanctuary of the holy God, the temple in which the Spirit of God dwells. We, the builders of such a holy temple, should realize this, that we may be careful to build not with the worthless materials of wood, grass, and stubble but with the precious materials of gold, silver, and precious stones, which correspond with God’s nature and economy.
1Co 3:16b Spirit  -   Rom. 8:9, 11
1Co 3:171a destroys  -   cf. John 2:19
Or, ruins, corrupts, defiles, mars. To destroy the temple of God is to build with the worthless materials of wood, grass, and stubble, as described in v. 12. This refers to certain Jewish believers who attempted to build the church with elements of Judaism, and to certain Greek believers who endeavored to bring philosophical elements into the building. All this tended to corrupt, ruin, defile, and mar the temple of God, that is, to destroy it. Using any doctrine that differs from the fundamental teachings of the apostles (Acts 2:42) or any ways and efforts that contradict God’s nature, Christ’s redemptive work, and the Spirit’s transforming work is to corrupt, ruin, defile, mar, and destroy the church of God.
1Co 3:172 destroy
This implies at least the punishment unveiled in v. 15. All those who have corrupted, ruined, defiled, and marred the church of God by their heretical doctrines, divisive teachings, worldly ways, and natural efforts in building will suffer God’s punishment.
1Co 3:173 holy
Since the temple of God, the church, is holy, the materials, the ways, and the efforts by which we build it also must be holy, corresponding with God’s nature, Christ’s redemption, and the Spirit’s transformation.
1Co 3:174 such
Such refers to the holy temple. The emphasis here is on holy, not on temple. Verse 16 stresses the temple, whereas v. 17 emphasizes the holy characteristic of the temple, as a reminder to the common Corinthian believers that they should be holy, having the holy characteristic of the temple of God.
1Co 3:181a deceive  -   Gal. 6:3
Both the Judaizing believers and the philosophizing Greek believers deceived themselves by bringing the elements of Judaism and Greek philosophy into the building up of the church.
1Co 3:182b thinks  -   1 Cor. 8:2
The apostle’s thought here centered mainly on those Greek believers who highly esteemed the wisdom of their philosophy (1:22).
1Co 3:18c wise  -   Isa. 5:21
1Co 3:183 become
To become foolish here is to forsake the wisdom of philosophy and receive the simple word concerning Christ and His cross (1:21, 23).
1Co 3:184 become
To become wise here is to take the wisdom of God in making Christ everything to us (1:24, 30; 2:6-8).
1Co 3:19a foolishness  -   1 Cor. 1:20
1Co 3:19b He  -   Job 5:13
1Co 3:20a The  -   Psa. 94:11
1Co 3:201 vain
Meaning aimless.
1Co 3:21a boast  -   Jer. 9:23-24
1Co 3:21b all  -   Rom. 8:32, 28
1Co 3:22a life  -   Phil. 1:20; Rom. 8:38
1Co 3:221 all
All things, including the world and death, are ours and work for good to us (Rom. 8:28). The Corinthian believers said that they were of Paul or Apollos or Cephas (1:12), but Paul said that he, Apollos, and Cephas were of them; all were theirs. They were the church, and all these things are for the church. The church is for Christ, and Christ is for God.
1Co 3:23a Christ’s  -   1 Cor. 15:23; 2 Cor. 10:7; Gal. 3:29
1Co 3:23b God’s  -   1 Cor. 11:3
1 Corinthians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 4:11 account
Or, reckon, measure, and classify.
1Co 4:12 in
The way described in 3:21-23.
1Co 4:13a servants  -   cf. 1 Cor. 3:5
An attendant or appointed servant, an official servant appointed specifically for a certain purpose (Acts 26:16).
1Co 4:14b stewards  -   1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25; Titus 1:7; 1 Pet. 4:10
The Greek word is of the same root as the word for economy in 1 Tim. 1:4 and Eph. 1:10. It means a dispensing steward, a household administrator, who dispenses the household supply to its members. The apostles were appointed by the Lord to be such stewards, dispensing God’s mysteries, which are Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ (Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4), to the believers. This dispensing service, the stewardship, is the ministry of the apostles.
1Co 4:1c mysteries  -   1 Cor. 2:7; Rom. 16:25; Eph. 1:9; 3:3, 4, 9; 6:19; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3
1Co 4:21 Here
I.e., in the stewardship, the dispensing ministry.
1Co 4:2a faithful  -   1 Cor. 7:25; 1 Tim. 1:12; Matt. 24:45; 25:21, 23; Luke 16:10
1Co 4:31a examined  -   Rom. 14:4, 10, 13
Examined for judgment or in judgment.
1Co 4:32 man’s
Man’s day of judgment is the present age, in which man judges (this judgment refers to man’s examination). It is in contrast to the Lord’s day (3:13), which is the coming age, the kingdom age, in which the Lord will judge and in which the judgment will be the Lord’s judgment.
1Co 4:51a judge  -   Matt. 7:1
Or, condemn.
1Co 4:52 before
I.e., before the Lord’s day (3:13).
1Co 4:5b comes  -   1 Cor. 11:26; Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12
1Co 4:5c hidden  -   cf. Rom. 2:16
1Co 4:5d manifest  -   1 Cor. 3:13
1Co 4:5e praise  -   Rom. 2:29; cf. 1 Cor. 3:8; 2 Cor. 10:18
1Co 4:61 these
Referring to the things mentioned in the preceding passage, from ch. 1 to this chapter.
1Co 4:62 transferred
A term used for metaphoric expressions. The things written by the apostle in the preceding chapters, chs. 1 — 3, were applicable to all those who served the Lord, especially to the proud and divisive Corinthians. But for their sake, that is, according to their condition and for their benefit, Paul transferred these things to himself and Apollos, using himself and Apollos as figures, as he had said in 3:5-8. By doing so, he expected the puffed up Corinthians to understand and apply to themselves the comparison that he made.
1Co 4:6a Apollos  -   1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4, 22
1Co 4:63 what
This must refer to what had been written in the preceding chapters, such as “Was Paul crucified for you?” (1:13) and “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul?” (3:5). They were simply ministers of Christ, a planter and a waterer (3:5-7). They were not Christ, who was crucified for the believers. They were not God, who causes the believers to grow. They should not be appraised beyond what they were. Otherwise, their appraisers, like the fleshly Corinthian believers, might be puffed up on behalf of one, against the other.
1Co 4:6b puffed  -   1 Cor. 4:18, 19; 5:2; 8:1; 13:4
1Co 4:6c one  -   1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4
1Co 4:71 who
It is God who distinguishes us from others. And what we have we received from God. Hence, all the glory should be ascribed to God, and we should boast in Him, not in ourselves or in any servants, such as Paul or Apollos, whom He has used.
1Co 4:7a receive  -   1 Cor. 2:12; John 3:27; 1 Pet. 4:10
1Co 4:81 Already
The Corinthian believers, proud of what they had obtained, became satisfied with what they had. They became self-sufficient and reigned independently of the apostles. This was altogether in themselves and in their flesh.
1Co 4:8a rich  -   Rev. 3:17
1Co 4:91 last
In Paul’s time, when criminals fought with wild beasts in the amphitheater for the entertainment of the populace, they were exhibited last of all. Paul applied this figure to the apostles, who were set forth by God as last of all in His spectacle.
1Co 4:92 doomed
The apostles considered themselves criminals doomed to death before the world, unlike the Corinthians, who considered themselves kings destined to reign.
1Co 4:9a death  -   2 Cor. 4:10-12; 11:23; Rom. 8:36; Phil. 1:20; 1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 6:9
1Co 4:93b spectacle  -   Heb. 10:33
A metaphor, referring to the fights between criminals and wild beasts in the Roman amphitheater. The apostles became such a spectacle to the world, seen not only by men but also by angels. See note 331 in Heb. 10.
1Co 4:101a fools  -   1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 11:17, 19; cf. Acts 17:18; 26:24
The apostles were willing to be foolish by forsaking their human wisdom for the sake of Christ. But the fleshly Corinthian believers remained prudent in their natural wisdom, while claiming that they were in Christ.
1Co 4:10b prudent  -   1 Cor. 1:19; 2 Cor. 11:19
1Co 4:102c weak  -   1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 13:4, 9
The apostles, while ministering Christ, appeared to be weak, for they used no strength or power of their natural being (2:3). But the fleshly Corinthian believers were strong, seeking to be recognized as prominent among the believers by exercising their natural ability.
1Co 4:103 glorious
The Corinthian believers were glorious, or honorable, in a display of splendor. But the apostles were dishonored and despised by the glory-seeking Corinthians.
1Co 4:10d dishonored  -   2 Cor. 6:8
1Co 4:11a hunger  -   Rom. 8:35; 2 Cor. 11:27; Phil. 4:12
1Co 4:11b buffeted  -   Acts 23:2
1Co 4:12a working  -   Acts 18:3; 1 Thes. 2:9
1Co 4:12b hands  -   Acts 20:34
1Co 4:12c bless  -   Rom. 12:14; 1 Pet. 3:9
1Co 4:12d persecuted  -   John 15:20; Rom. 8:35
1Co 4:131 Defamed
Or, insulted, spoken to injuriously.
1Co 4:132 exhort
I.e., entreat with exhortation, consolation, and encouragement in order to appease.
1Co 4:133a offscouring  -   Lam. 3:45
Offscouring and scum are synonyms. Offscouring denotes that which is thrown away in cleansing; hence, refuse, filth. Scum denotes that which is wiped off; hence, rubbish, refuse. Both terms are used metaphorically, especially regarding condemned criminals of the lowest class, who were cast into the sea or to the wild beasts in the amphitheater.
1Co 4:14a shame  -   1 Cor. 6:5; 15:34
1Co 4:14b children  -   2 Cor. 6:13; 12:14; 1 Thes. 2:11; 1 John 2:1; 3 John 4
1Co 4:151 guides
Lit., child-conductors; as in Gal. 3:24-25.
1Co 4:152a fathers  -   1 Thes. 2:11; cf. Num. 11:12
Guides, child-conductors, give instructions and directions to the children who are under their guardianship; fathers impart life to their children whom they beget. The apostle was such a father; he had begotten the Corinthian believers in Christ through the gospel, imparting the divine life into them so that they became children of God and members of Christ.
1Co 4:15b in  -   1 Cor. 1:30
1Co 4:15c begotten  -   Gal. 4:19; Philem. 10; cf. James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23, 25; John 3:3, 5
1Co 4:15d gospel  -   1 Cor. 9:12, 14, 18, 23; 15:1
1Co 4:161 exhort
See note 132.
1Co 4:16a imitators  -   1 Cor. 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 3:7, 9
1Co 4:17a Timothy  -   1 Cor. 16:10; Phil. 2:19
1Co 4:17b child  -   1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2
1Co 4:171 ways
These were the ways in which the apostle conducted himself as he taught the saints in every church.
1Co 4:172 everywhere
This expression indicates two things: (1) that the apostle’s teaching was the same universally, not varying from place to place; and (2) that everywhere equals every church, and every church, everywhere.
1Co 4:17c church  -   1 Cor. 7:17; 11:16; 14:33; 16:1
1Co 4:18a puffed  -   1 Cor. 4:6
1Co 4:19a come  -   1 Cor. 4:21; 11:34; 16:5; 2 Cor. 1:15; 10:2; Acts 19:21; 20:2
1Co 4:19b wills  -   Acts 18:21; cf. 1 Cor. 16:7; Heb. 6:3
1Co 4:201a kingdom  -   1 Cor. 6:9; 15:50; Rom. 14:17
This refers to the church life, implying that in the sense of authority the church in this age is the kingdom of God.
1Co 4:20b power  -   1 Cor. 5:4; 2:4
1Co 4:21a come  -   2 Cor. 1:23; 2:1-3; 12:20; 13:2, 10
1Co 4:211 rod
This word was spoken to the Corinthian believers on the basis of the consideration that the apostle was their spiritual father. As such, he had the position and responsibility to chastise his children.
1Co 4:212b spirit  -   Gal. 6:1
The apostle’s regenerated spirit indwelt by and mingled with the Holy Spirit. The spirit of meekness is one that is saturated with the meekness of Christ (2 Cor. 10:1) and, hence, expresses the virtue of Christ.
1Co 4:21c meekness  -   2 Cor. 10:1; Eph. 4:2
1 Corinthians Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 5:11a fornication  -   1 Cor. 5:11; 6:13, 15
The first problem, dealt with in chs. 1 — 4, is the matter of division, which is related mainly to the natural life of the soul. The second problem, dealt with in ch. 5, the second section of the book, is the sin of fornication, which is related to the lust of the flesh. This problem, involving incest with one’s stepmother, is morally more gross than the former. The former pertains to the strife that comes from pride; the latter is a gross sin that comes from lust.
1Co 5:12b stepmother  -   Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:30; 27:20
Lit., father’s wife.
1Co 5:2a puffed  -   1 Cor. 4:6
1Co 5:2b mourned  -   cf. 2 Cor. 7:7-10; Matt. 5:4
1Co 5:21c removed  -   1 Cor. 5:13
See note 131.
1Co 5:31 in
The apostle, as a spiritual person, behaved in his spirit, in contrast to the Corinthians, who behaved either in the soul or in the flesh. Although he was absent from them in the body, he was still present with them in the spirit, exercising his spirit to judge the evil person among them.
1Co 5:3a spirit  -   Col. 2:5
1Co 5:41 In
Both in the name of our Lord Jesus and with the power of our Lord Jesus modify deliver in v. 5. The apostle, in his spirit, applied the mighty name of the Lord with His power to deliver the evil person to Satan.
1Co 5:4a name  -   Acts 16:18; 2 Thes. 3:6
1Co 5:42 my
The apostle’s spirit was so strong that it attended the meeting of the Corinthian believers. His spirit was assembled with them to carry out his judgment upon the evil person.
1Co 5:4b spirit  -   1 Cor. 16:18; Rom. 1:9
1Co 5:4c power  -   1 Cor. 4:20; 2:4
1Co 5:51 To
To deliver a sinful person to Satan is for discipline.
1Co 5:5a deliver  -   1 Tim. 1:20
1Co 5:5b Satan  -   cf. Job 2:6; Luke 22:31; Acts 26:18
1Co 5:52 destruction
This refers mainly to the affliction of a certain disease (2 Cor. 12:7; Luke 13:16).
1Co 5:53 flesh
Flesh here refers to the lustful body, which should be destroyed.
1Co 5:54 that
This sinful one among the Corinthian believers was a brother who had been saved once for eternity (John 10:28-29). He could never perish because of any sin. However, because of his sinfulness he needed to be disciplined by the destruction of his sinful flesh, that he might be kept in a condition in which his spirit could be saved in the day of the Lord.
1Co 5:55c day  -   1 Cor. 1:8
See note 131 in ch. 3.
1Co 5:61a boasting  -   1 Cor. 13:4; James 4:16
Or, glorying. In spite of the confusion and the presence of the gross sin of incest among them, the Corinthian believers were boasting and glorying. The apostle’s Epistle should have humbled them by pointing out the sinful things among them, thus making them realize that their boasting was not good.
1Co 5:62 little
The apostle’s thought here might have been that there was no need to have a sin as gross as that which existed among them; just a little leaven, a little sin, leavens and corrupts the whole lump, the whole church.
1Co 5:63b leaven  -   Gal. 5:9; Matt. 13:33; Hosea 7:4; cf. 1 Cor. 15:33; Heb. 12:15
See note 331 in Matt. 13.
1Co 5:71 new
Lit., young, new in time. See note 102 in Col. 3. The new lump refers to the church, composed of the believers in their new nature.
1Co 5:72a Passover  -   Exo. 12:3, 11; Mark 14:12; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19
This indicates that the apostle considered the believers God’s chosen people, who have had their Passover, as typified by the one in Exo. 12. In this Passover, Christ is not only the Passover lamb but also the entire Passover. To be our Passover, He was sacrificed on the cross that we might be redeemed and reconciled to God. Thus, we may enjoy Him as a feast before God. In this feast no leaven is allowed to be present. Sin and the redeeming Christ cannot go together.
1Co 5:8a keep  -   cf. Exo. 12:17-20; 13:6-7; 23:15
1Co 5:81 feast
The feast here refers to the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the continuation of the Passover (Exo. 12:15-20). It lasted for seven days, a period of completion, signifying the entire period of our Christian life, from the day of our conversion to the day of rapture. This is a long feast, which we must keep not with the sin of our old nature, the old leaven, but with unleavened bread, which is the Christ of our new nature as our nourishment and enjoyment. Only He is the life supply of sincerity and truth, absolutely pure, without mixture, and full of reality. The feast is a time for the enjoyment of the banquet. The entire Christian life should be such a feast, such an enjoyment of Christ as our banquet, the rich supply of life.
1Co 5:8b leaven  -   Matt. 16:6, 11, 12
1Co 5:8c malice  -   1 Pet. 2:1; Eph. 4:31; Col. 3:8
1Co 5:8d unleavened  -   Exo. 12:15
1Co 5:9a not  -   2 Thes. 3:6, 14; cf. Eph. 5:11
1Co 5:91 mingle
Or, mix, associate. So also in v. 11.
1Co 5:10a fornicators  -   1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5
1Co 5:10b out  -   John 17:15
1Co 5:11a brother  -   1 Cor. 6:5; Acts 1:15; 2 Thes. 3:6
1Co 5:111 fornicator
The evil persons mentioned in this verse are not those who have simply committed a certain sin, but those who live in that sin and remain in it, refusing to repent. To remove such a one is not just to remove a sin from the church but to judge and remove a sinful person so that the church will not be leavened by his presence.
1Co 5:11b idolater  -   1 Cor. 10:7, 14
1Co 5:11c not  -   cf. 2 John 10-11
1Co 5:12a outside  -   Mark 4:11
1Co 5:12b judge  -   1 Cor. 6:1-5
1Co 5:131a Remove  -   cf. Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7; Judg. 20:13; Matt. 18:17; Rom. 16:17-18; Titus 3:10
I.e., cut him off from the fellowship of the church, as typified by the separating of a leper from the people of God (Lev. 13:45-46).
1 Corinthians Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 6:11 case
The third problem dealt with by this Epistle is the matter of one brother going to law against another (vv. 1-11). This is not a sin like division, initiated by the soul, nor a gross sin like incest, carried out by the lustful body. This is a case of one claiming his legal rights, being unwilling to suffer wrong, unwilling to learn the lesson of the cross.
1Co 6:12 unrighteous
The unbelievers, who are unrighteous, unjust, before God.
1Co 6:21a judge  -   Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:30; Rev. 20:4
In the coming kingdom age the overcoming saints will rule over the nations of the world (Heb. 2:5-6; Rev. 2:26-27).
1Co 6:22 smallest
Judgments carried out by a number of saints who judge cases among themselves. The judging of such cases is trifling compared to the ruling of the world.
1Co 6:23 judgments
Lit., tribunals.
1Co 6:31 judge
Things of this life indicates that judgment over the angels by the saints will be in the future, not in this age. This probably refers to the judgment over the angels that is revealed in 2 Pet. 2:4 and Jude 6. The angels mentioned in these verses and those referred to in Eph. 2:2; 6:12; and Matt. 25:41 must be the evil angels. Thus, in the future we, the believers of Christ, will judge not only the human world but also the angelic world.
1Co 6:4a judgments  -   1 Cor. 5:12
1Co 6:41 those
The unbelievers, who are of no account in the church.
1Co 6:5a shame  -   1 Cor. 4:14
1Co 6:5b brothers  -   1 Cor. 5:11
1Co 6:61 goes
The Greek word for goes to court is the same as the word for to be judged in v. 1.
1Co 6:6a unbelievers  -   2 Cor. 6:14; 1 Tim. 5:8
1Co 6:71 defeat
Implying a defect, fault, loss, falling short (in the inheriting of the kingdom of God — v. 9).
1Co 6:72 lawsuits
The Greek word has the same root as the word for goes to court in the preceding verse.
1Co 6:73a rather  -   Matt. 5:39; Rom. 12:17-19
Willingness to be wronged or defrauded is willingness to suffer loss, to learn the lesson of the cross, to keep the virtue of Christ at some cost.
1Co 6:8a defraud  -   1 Thes. 4:6
1Co 6:91a inherit  -   1 Cor. 15:50; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Matt. 5:20
To inherit the kingdom in the next age is a reward to the saints who seek righteousness (Matt. 5:10, 20; 6:33). See notes 102 in Matt. 5, 212 in Gal. 5, 53 in Eph. 5, and 281 in Heb. 12.
1Co 6:9b led  -   1 Cor. 15:33; Gal. 6:7; James 1:16; 1 John 3:7; Luke 21:8
1Co 6:9c fornicators  -   1 Cor. 5:10
1Co 6:9d homosexuals  -   1 Tim. 1:10
1Co 6:111a washed  -   cf. Acts 22:16; Heb. 10:22; Rev. 7:14; 22:14; Eph. 5:26
In contrast to the washing, sanctifying, and justifying in 1 John 1:7, Heb. 10:29, and Rom. 3:24-25, the washing, sanctifying, and justifying here are not by the blood in an objective way. They are the subjective washing of regeneration as in Titus 3:5, the subjective sanctifying by the Spirit as in Rom. 15:16, and the subjective justifying in the Spirit as in this verse. All these items of God’s salvation were accomplished in us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e., in the person of the Lord, in an organic union with the Lord through faith) and in the Spirit of God (i.e., in the power and realization of the Holy Spirit). First, we were washed from the sinful things; second, we were sanctified, separated unto God, transformed by God; and third, we were justified, accepted, by God.
1Co 6:11b sanctified  -   1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 6:19, 22
See note 111.
1Co 6:11c justified  -   Rom. 8:30
See note 111.
1Co 6:121a All  -   1 Cor. 10:23
The fourth matter dealt with by this Epistle is the abuse of freedom in foods and in the body (vv. 12-20). Foods for man to exist and sex (pertaining to the body) for man to propagate are both necessary and ordained by God. Man has the right to use them. However, he should not abuse them, nor should he be under their power, controlled and enslaved by them. Abusive eating, such as the eating of things sacrificed to idols, stumbles the weak brothers (8:9-13; 10:28-30, 32), and excessive eating damages our body. Both foods and our stomach will be done away with; God will bring both to nothing. The abuse of sex is fornication. Not only is it condemned by God; it also destroys our body (v. 18), which is for the Lord.
1Co 6:122 lawful
Lit., under my authority (of choice to do); hence, permissible, allowable, lawful.
1Co 6:123 profitable
Advantageous (not merely convenient), good, worthwhile.
1Co 6:124 brought
Lit., brought under the authority. This means that all things were under Paul’s authority, but he would not be brought under the authority of anything, and that all things were permissible, allowable, lawful to him, but he would not be ruled (enslaved) or brought under the authority, the control, of any. Verse 12 may be considered a proverb that governed the apostle’s dealings with some problems mentioned in the following section, 6:13 — 11:1.
1Co 6:131 Foods
Foods and the stomach are for the existence of the body. By themselves they do not mean anything; God will bring them to nothing.
1Co 6:13a stomach  -   Matt. 15:17
1Co 6:13b nought  -   Col. 2:22
1Co 6:132 body
Our body was created for the Lord, and the Lord within us is for our body. He feeds it with material food (Psa. 103:5) and gives it His resurrection life (Rom. 8:11), which swallows its death element along with its weakness and sickness. Eventually, He will transfigure it, conforming it to His glorious body. We should not abuse it by committing fornication.
1Co 6:13c for  -   1 Cor. 6:15, 19
1Co 6:13d for  -   Rom. 8:11
1Co 6:14a raised  -   Acts 2:24; Rom. 6:9; 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:14
1Co 6:141b raise  -   John 6:39-40; 1 Cor. 15:22-23
God raised up the Lord bodily. Our body is destined to participate in the Lord’s glorious body in resurrection (Phil. 3:21) and to be raised incorruptible (15:52). This will be the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23). Even now the Spirit of the resurrected Christ, who dwells in us, gives life to our body (Rom. 8:11), making it a member of Christ (v. 15) and a temple of God indwelt by His Holy Spirit (v. 19).
1Co 6:14c power  -   Matt. 22:29; Eph. 1:19-20
1Co 6:151a members  -   Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30
Because we are organically united with Christ (v. 17), and because Christ dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) and makes His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17), our entire being, including our purified body, becomes a member of Him. Hence, to practice such membership we need to offer our body to Him (Rom. 12:1, 4-5).
1Co 6:152b Absolutely  -   Rom. 3:4
Lit., May it not happen!
1Co 6:16a The  -   Gen. 2:24
1Co 6:171a joined  -   Rom. 11:17, 19; 6:5; John 15:4-5
This refers to the believers’ organic union with the Lord through believing into Him (John 3:15-16). This union is illustrated by that of the branches with the vine (John 15:4-5). It is a matter not only of life but in life (the divine life). Such a union with the resurrected Lord can only be in our spirit.
1Co 6:172b one  -   cf. John 17:21, 23
This indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. Our spirit has been regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), who is now in us (v. 19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). This is the realization of the Lord, who became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection (15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) and who is now with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This mingled spirit is often referred to in Paul’s Epistles, e.g., in Rom. 8:4-6.
1Co 6:18a Flee  -   2 Tim. 2:22
1Co 6:18b fornication  -   1 Cor. 5:1; 2 Cor. 12:21; Prov. 6:32; Heb. 13:4
1Co 6:181 sin
Lit., result of sinning; the same word as for sins in Mark 3:28 and Rom. 3:25.
1Co 6:19a body  -   1 Cor. 6:13, 15
1Co 6:19b temple  -   1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21; cf. John 2:21
1Co 6:191 Holy
The Holy Spirit is in our spirit (Rom. 8:16), and our spirit is within our body. Hence, our body becomes a temple, a dwelling place, of the Holy Spirit.
1Co 6:19c within  -   John 14:17; Rom. 8:9, 11
1Co 6:19d from  -   1 Cor. 2:12; John 15:26
1Co 6:19e not  -   Rom. 14:7-8
1Co 6:20a bought  -   1 Cor. 7:23; Acts 20:28; 2 Pet. 2:1; Rev. 5:9
1Co 6:201b price  -   Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
The precious blood of Christ (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 5:9).
1Co 6:202c glorify  -   1 Cor. 10:31; cf. John 17:1
This is to allow God, who dwells in us (1 John 4:13), to occupy and saturate our body and express Himself through our body as His temple, especially in the two matters of eating and marriage, according to the context of this section, 6:13 — 11:1. For this we need to exercise a severe and strict control over our body, bringing it into subjection (9:27) and presenting it to God as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1).
1Co 6:20d body  -   Phil. 1:20; Rom. 12:1
1 Corinthians Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 7:11 things
The fifth problem in this Epistle — the matter of marriage — is dealt with here. It is treated according to the principles established in the preceding section (6:12-20).
1Co 7:1a good  -   1 Cor. 7:8, 26
1Co 7:21a fornication  -   1 Cor. 5:1; 6:18
Lit., fornications.
1Co 7:3a husband  -   Eph. 5:25, 28; 1 Pet. 3:7
1Co 7:4a wife  -   Eph. 5:22; 1 Pet. 3:1
1Co 7:5a except  -   cf. Zech. 12:12-14
1Co 7:51 devote
Lit., have leisure for, be free for; hence, give oneself to. Prayer requires us to be free from persons, matters, and things. The prayer that requires staying away from the spouse for a time must be special and of great importance.
1Co 7:52b Satan  -   Matt. 4:10; 1 Tim. 5:15
The tempter, Satan, is crouching to capture the believers.
1Co 7:5c tempt  -   1 Thes. 3:5
1Co 7:53 lack
The same Greek word is translated self-indulgence in Matt. 23:25.
1Co 7:5d self-control  -   1 Cor. 7:9
1Co 7:61 concession
This implies that the apostle in his teaching had authority to give commands to the believers.
1Co 7:6a command  -   1 Cor. 7:12, 25; 2 Cor. 8:8
See note 61.
1Co 7:71 wish
Since the apostle Paul was absolute for the Lord and His economy, he wished that all men would be like him. He desired that they not marry but remain as he was (v. 8) so that they also might be absolute for the Lord’s interests without any distraction (vv. 33-34a). In this wish he expressed the Lord’s aspiration concerning His called ones.
1Co 7:72 gift
For a believer in Christ to be able not to marry is a gift from God (Matt. 19:10-12). For those who have not received such a gift, it is better to marry (v. 9).
1Co 7:81a good  -   1 Cor. 7:1
This was the apostle’s wish and opinion in his earlier ministry (vv. 7, 25, 40). Later, after witnessing the actual outcome, he charged young widows to marry (1 Tim. 5:11-15 and note 141).
1Co 7:91a self-control  -   1 Cor. 7:5
Or, continency. The same Greek word is used in 9:25 regarding athletes’ abstaining from sensual indulgences during preparation for the games.
1Co 7:9b marry  -   1 Tim. 5:14
1Co 7:101 I
The Old Testament principle of speaking for God (prophesying) is, “Thus says the Lord” (Isa. 10:24; 50:1; Jer. 2:2; Ezek. 2:4). But the New Testament principle of incarnation is, “I [the speaker] charge.” The speaker and the Lord are one. Hence, Paul also said, “Not I but the Lord.” The Greek word for charge may be translated enjoin or command.
1Co 7:102a not  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:6, 12
This indicates two things: (1) that the apostle was one with the Lord; hence, what he commanded, the Lord commanded; and (2) that his commands were the Lord’s. The Lord had commanded in Matt. 5:31-32 and 19:3-9 what the apostle commanded here. Divorce is altogether not allowed by the Lord.
1Co 7:10b wife  -   cf. Mark 10:12
1Co 7:10c separated  -   Matt. 19:3-9
1Co 7:111 remain
Whether separated or divorced, one should not remarry but should expect reconciliation and wait for it.
1Co 7:11a husband  -   Matt. 5:32; Luke 16:18; Mal. 2:14-16
1Co 7:121 I
Again, this is based on the New Testament principle of incarnation. Although he followed to say, “I, not the Lord,” whatever the apostle said in the succeeding verses is part of the divine revelation of the New Testament. It was his opinion in the Lord, not the Lord’s commandment, yet it still expressed the Lord’s mind.
1Co 7:12a not  -   1 Cor. 7:6, 25; 2 Cor. 11:17
1Co 7:12b leave  -   cf. Ezra 10:11
1Co 7:141a sanctified  -   cf. Ezra 9:2; Mal. 2:11
To be sanctified is to be made holy, separated unto God for His purpose. As the believing wife is of the Lord and for the Lord, so her unbelieving husband is made holy, sanctified, separated unto God, because he is for his wife, who is of and for God. It is similar to the situation in which the temple and the altar make the common things holy when the latter are attached to them (Matt. 23:17, 19). The same principle applies to the unbelieving wife and the children. For the unbeliever to be sanctified in this way does not mean that he is saved, just as the sanctification of food through the saints’ prayer has nothing to do with salvation (1 Tim. 4:5). A saved person is a sanctified person, a saint. Anyone who is attached to him and is for him is made holy because of him.
1Co 7:151 not
Not under bondage but freed from his or her marriage to an unbeliever, when the unbeliever leaves the believer.
1Co 7:152 but
God in His salvation has called us to Him in the sphere and element of peace. Hence, we should live in this peace. If the unbelieving party in our marriage desires to leave, we should allow it. But that we may live in the peace in which God has called us, God does not want us to initiate any separation as long as the other party consents to remain (v. 13). The succeeding verses (through v. 24) are based on this: that God has called us in peace.
1Co 7:15a peace  -   Rom. 12:18; 14:19
1Co 7:161 For
For indicates that vv. 16-24 are an explanation of the preceding word, that is, that God has called us in peace. To remain in this peace we must keep the word in vv. 16-24.
1Co 7:162 how
Since we do not know whether we will save our unbelieving husband or wife, we should not insist that he or she remain with us or that he or she leave. God wants us to remain in the status in which He called us (vv. 20, 24), not to initiate any change. Therefore, we should leave the entire matter to the unbelieving party.
1Co 7:16a wife  -   1 Pet. 3:1-2
1Co 7:16b save  -   Rom. 11:14
1Co 7:171 However
This word strongly charges us to remain in the status of marriage in which God called us (vv. 20, 24).
1Co 7:17a called  -   1 Cor. 1:2
1Co 7:17b churches  -   1 Cor. 4:17; 11:16; 16:1; 2 Cor. 8:18; 11:28; 1 Thes. 2:14; 2 Thes. 1:4
1Co 7:181 efface
This is to efface the mark of circumcision so that the body may be restored to its original condition.
1Co 7:18a circumcised  -   Acts 15:1, 5; Gal. 5:2
1Co 7:191a Circumcision  -   Rom. 2:25-29; Gal. 5:6; 6:15; Col. 3:11
Both circumcision and uncircumcision are outward matters and do not count in reality; only the keeping of God’s commandments is what counts (Gal. 5:6; 6:15; Rom. 2:25-29).
1Co 7:19b keeping  -   1 John 2:3
1Co 7:20a calling  -   1 Cor. 7:24
1Co 7:21a slave  -   Philem. 16
1Co 7:211 Let
Or, do not care for it, let it not trouble you. Since the believers have the Lord as the sufficient grace (2 Cor. 12:9), they should not be troubled by anything.
1Co 7:212 but
But here conjoins Let it not concern you and use your status as a slave rather. It means that a slave who has been called by the Lord should not care for or be troubled by his slavery, but rather should use this status, that is, remain in this status with God (v. 24) for God’s glory. Even if he is able to become free, he should remain in his status as a slave. This corresponds with the basic concept of the apostle’s instruction, as explicitly expressed in vv. 20 and 24. However, this part of the verse may be rendered as follows: “but, even if you are able to become free, take advantage of it rather.” The apostle’s point in this passage is that the believers should not be influenced by their outward status. Either to remain in slavery or to have freedom is all right, as long as it is with God.
1Co 7:21b free  -   Exo. 21:2
1Co 7:21c use  -   Exo. 21:5
1Co 7:221 Lord’s
The Lord’s calling does not change the outward status of His believers, but it does change their inward reality: one who is a slave outwardly is changed to a freedman inwardly, and one who is a free man outwardly is changed to a slave inwardly.
1Co 7:22a slave  -   Rom. 6:18, 22; Titus 1:1; Eph. 6:6; 1 Pet. 2:16; Lev. 25:42, 55; cf. Psa. 116:16
1Co 7:23a bought  -   1 Cor. 6:20
1Co 7:231 price
See note 201 in ch. 6.
1Co 7:232b slaves  -   cf. Lev. 25:42
Believers inwardly should be slaves only of Christ; they should not become slaves of men.
1Co 7:24a called  -   1 Cor. 7:20
1Co 7:241 with
After being called, the believers do not need to change their outward status, but they do need to have a change in their inward condition, that is, from being without God to being with God, in order to be one with God and have God with them in their status, whatever it may be.
1Co 7:25a virgins  -   cf. Matt. 19:12
1Co 7:25b no  -   1 Cor. 7:6, 12; 2 Cor. 8:8; 11:17
1Co 7:251 commandment
A wife should not be separated from her husband. This, the apostle said, is the Lord’s commandment (v. 10). Concerning virgins’ not marrying, he said that he had no commandment of the Lord, but he gave his opinion in the succeeding verses. He dared to do this because he had been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful to the Lord’s interests, and he was truly one with the Lord. His opinion expressed the Lord’s desire. This again is based on the New Testament principle of incarnation.
1Co 7:25c opinion  -   1 Cor. 7:40
1Co 7:25d mercy  -   2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:13, 16
1Co 7:25e faithful  -   1 Cor. 4:2
1Co 7:261 present
The Greek word for present may mean also that the presence of a certain thing foreshadows and inaugurates something to come. Here the present necessity, or distress, indicates that more anguish is to come, as prophesied by the Lord in Matt. 24:8, 19, 21.
1Co 7:262 necessity
Or, pressure, constraint; hence, distress, anguish. The word refers to the necessities of life in the present age, the demand of which constrains and presses people and becomes a distress and anguish to them. See note 103 in 2 Cor. 12.
1Co 7:26a good  -   1 Cor. 7:1
1Co 7:28a marry  -   1 Cor. 7:38
1Co 7:28b not  -   1 Cor. 7:36
1Co 7:291a shortened  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:31; Rom. 13:11; 1 Pet. 4:7
The concept that at Paul’s time the time was shortened was due to the fact that the long period between the latter part of the first century and Christ’s second coming was not revealed to the earlier apostles (Matt. 24:36). They expected the Lord to return in their generation.
1Co 7:31a passing  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:29; Eccl. 1:4; James 1:10; 1 John 2:17
1Co 7:32a care  -   Matt. 6:25; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7
1Co 7:32b cares  -   cf. 1 Tim. 5:5
1Co 7:33a cares  -   Matt. 13:22
1Co 7:341 distracted
Lit., divided. A man who would please his wife is distracted, divided, from the things of the Lord (v. 35).
1Co 7:34a cares  -   Luke 10:41
1Co 7:351 put
I.e., entangle you with a snare, constrain you to obey my word.
1Co 7:35a distraction  -   1 Cor. 7:33; Luke 10:40
1Co 7:36a not  -   1 Cor. 7:28
1Co 7:371 being
Lit., not having necessity.
1Co 7:372 decided
Or, judged.
1Co 7:38a marriage  -   1 Cor. 7:28
1Co 7:39a bound  -   Rom. 7:2
1Co 7:39b only  -   2 Cor. 6:14-15; cf. Deut. 7:3-4
1Co 7:401 more
See note 81.
1Co 7:40a opinion  -   1 Cor. 7:25
1Co 7:402 also
In v. 10 the apostle said, “I charge, not I but the Lord.” In v. 12 he said, “I say, I, not the Lord.” In v. 25 he said, “I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my opinion.” Here he says, “according to my opinion; but I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” All these words indicate the New Testament principle of incarnation (that is, that God and man, man and God, become one). This differs drastically from the principle of Old Testament prophecy (that is, that man speaks for God). In the Old Testament the word of Jehovah came upon a prophet (Jer. 1:2; Ezek. 1:3), the prophet being simply the mouthpiece of God. But in the New Testament the Lord becomes one with His apostles, and they become one with Him; thus, the two speak together. His word becomes their word, and whatever they utter is His word. Hence, the apostle’s charge was the Lord’s charge (v. 10). What he said, though it was not spoken by the Lord, still became part of the divine revelation in the New Testament (v. 12). He was one with the Lord to such a degree that even when he gave his own opinion, not the commandment of the Lord (v. 25), he thought that he also had the Spirit of God. He did not claim definitely to have the Spirit of God, but he thought that he also had the Spirit of God. This is the highest spirituality; it is based on the principle of incarnation.
1Co 7:40b Spirit  -   1 Cor. 3:16; Rom. 8:9; 1 John 3:24; 4:13
1 Corinthians Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 8:11 things
The sixth problem dealt with by this Epistle is the matter of eating things sacrificed to idols (8:1 — 11:1).
1Co 8:1a idols  -   1 Cor. 8:4, 7, 10; 10:14; Acts 15:20, 29
1Co 8:12 know
Referring to the inward, subjective consciousness.
1Co 8:13b knowledge  -   Rom. 15:14
Knowledge in this verse and in vv. 7, 10 refers to the outward, objective knowledge, which is common and general.
1Co 8:14 Knowledge
The outward, objective knowledge that puffs up comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the source of death. Spiritual (not fleshly) love, which is an expression of life as described in ch. 13, builds up. It comes from the tree of life, the source of life. This is the love of God (1 John 4:16) infused into us by faith, which has brought us into the organic union with God. By this love we love God (v. 3) and the brothers (1 John 4:21), and according to this love we should walk (Rom. 14:15). Thus, our walk builds up (10:23).
1Co 8:1c puffs  -   1 Cor. 4:6
1Co 8:1d love  -   1 Cor. 13:1– 14:1; Rom. 13:10
See note 14.
1Co 8:15e builds  -   1 Cor. 3:10; 10:23; 14:4, 5, 12; Rom. 14:19; Eph. 4:16
Referring not only to the edification of individual believers but also to the building up of the corporate Body of Christ (14:4-5, 12; Eph. 4:16). This book stresses the matter of building up (3:9-10, 12; 10:23).
1Co 8:2a thinks  -   1 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 6:3
1Co 8:21 knows
Referring to the outward, objective knowledge. So for known in v. 3.
1Co 8:2b not  -   1 Cor. 13:9, 12
1Co 8:31a loves  -   1 John 4:20-21
The highest and noblest love. It must be spiritual, not fleshly, although it requires the exercise of man’s entire being (Mark 12:30).
1Co 8:3b known  -   Nahum 1:7; Psa. 1:6; Rom. 8:29; Gal. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:19
1Co 8:4a sacrificed  -   1 Cor. 8:1, 7, 10
1Co 8:41 know
Referring to the inward, subjective consciousness. To realize that an idol is nothing and that there is no God but one requires our inward, subjective consciousness derived from our spirit through our mind. This consciousness is much deeper than the outward, objective knowledge, which is merely in our mind.
1Co 8:4b idol  -   1 Cor. 10:19; Psa. 115:4-8; Gal. 4:8
1Co 8:4c nothing  -   Acts 14:15
1Co 8:4d one  -   1 Cor. 8:6; Rom. 3:30; 1 Tim. 2:5; Deut. 4:35, 39
1Co 8:5a gods  -   2 Thes. 2:4; Psa. 96:5; Dan. 5:4
1Co 8:61 us
The believers in Christ, the Christians.
1Co 8:62a one  -   1 Cor. 8:4; Eph. 4:6; Mal. 2:10
In contrast to many gods in v. 5. Our God is uniquely one.
1Co 8:63b Father  -   Eph. 3:14-15
A designation of our God, who is the source of all things. This designation makes our God utterly distinct from the many false gods.
1Co 8:64 out
The Father is the source of all things; thus, all things are out from Him. However, only we as believers will turn to Him; hence, we are unto Him. Similarly, all things that the Father created came into being through Jesus Christ as the means, and it is through the means of the Lord’s regeneration that we as believers turn to the Father and are unto Him. Hence, both we and all things are through Christ.
1Co 8:6c all  -   Rom. 11:36; Heb. 2:10
1Co 8:65d one  -   Eph. 4:5; Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:11
In contrast to many lords in v. 5. Our Lord also is uniquely one.
1Co 8:66 Jesus
The divine and human title of our Lord that distinguishes Him from the many lords. Our God, the Father, is the unique source of all things, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the unique means through whom all things came into being.
1Co 8:6e through  -   John 1:3; Col. 1:16
See note 64.
1Co 8:7a this  -   1 Cor. 8:4
1Co 8:7b eat  -   Rom. 14:23
1Co 8:7c idol  -   1 Cor. 8:1
1Co 8:71d conscience  -   1 Cor. 8:10, 12; 10:25, 28, 29
A weak conscience is due to the lack of proper and adequate knowledge. This indicates that our knowledge has much to do with our conscience. The ex-idol worshippers who are now believers in Christ, being accustomed to the idol until now, lack the knowledge that an idol is nothing (v. 4). Thus, their conscience is weak concerning the matter of idols.
1Co 8:72 defiled
The weak conscience is defiled when it is touched by any matter about which it lacks adequate knowledge.
1Co 8:8a food  -   Rom. 14:17
1Co 8:81 abound
The Greek word means to abound so that one becomes full and excelling; hence, become full and excelling. Here it denotes that eating things sacrificed to idols cannot cause us to become full and excelling in any respect before God; therefore, neither can not eating cause us to be lacking, which is in contrast to being full and excelling.
1Co 8:91 right
Or, liberty. Lit., authority. So also in 9:4-5.
1Co 8:9a stumbling  -   1 Cor. 8:13; 10:32; Rom. 14:13, 20, 21; 2 Cor. 6:3; 11:29; Matt. 18:6
1Co 8:92b weak  -   1 Cor. 8:7, 10; Rom. 14:1, 2; 15:1
Those whose conscience is weakened by a lack of knowledge.
1Co 8:10a knowledge  -   1 Cor. 8:4
1Co 8:10b idol  -   1 Cor. 8:1
1Co 8:10c conscience  -   1 Cor. 8:7
1Co 8:101 emboldened
Lit., built up. The conscience of the weak believers will be built up with boldness to do what it formerly dared not do. This is a sudden building up without a logical and solid foundation. Hence, it is an improper building up that actually ruins. Although the conscience of the weak believers is emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols, such a practice will eventually ruin them because they do not have adequate knowledge to support their emboldened yet still weak conscience.
1Co 8:10d sacrificed  -   1 Cor. 8:1, 4, 7
1Co 8:11a weak  -   1 Cor. 8:9
1Co 8:111b destroyed  -   Rom. 14:15, 20
This denotes perishing, not perishing for eternity but perishing in the Christian life. The weak believer is destroyed by the carelessness of the stronger one who has knowledge.
1Co 8:11c knowledge  -   1 Cor. 8:1, 4
1Co 8:11d died  -   2 Cor. 5:14-15
1Co 8:121 wounding
Lit., smiting (unto damage).
1Co 8:12a conscience  -   1 Cor. 8:7
1Co 8:131a stumbles  -   1 Cor. 8:9
The Greek word means to snare, to entrap. Cf. note 321 in ch. 10.
1Co 8:132 meat
I.e., animal flesh, referring to the meat offered to idols. Since meat is more tempting than other kinds of food, the apostle mentioned it specifically.
1 Corinthians Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 9:11 Am
This chapter is an insertion in this section on eating idol sacrifices. In this insertion the apostle presented himself to the Corinthian believers as a pattern, that they might not stumble others but build them up by practicing the principle of considerate love set forth in 8:13.
1Co 9:12a free  -   1 Cor. 9:19
The apostle Paul was free from all men, being enslaved to no one (v. 19). As all believers in Christ should be, he was free also from the bondage of any particular way of eating, although he practiced the principle of considerate love.
1Co 9:13b apostle  -   1 Cor. 1:1; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11; 2 Cor. 12:12; 1 Thes. 2:6; cf. Rev. 2:2
As he presented himself a pattern to the believers, the apostle came to the matter of his apostleship, which gave him authority to deal with all the problems covered in this book, serious problems concerning the church life and its fellowship. His handling of these problems was based not only on his teaching but also on the authority inherent in his apostleship. To deal with the situation, he had to take this standing and make this matter clear to the Corinthian believers. They had questioned his apostleship and were in a chaotic situation, mainly because of the foolishness of their worldly wisdom, self-confidence, and pride.
The Greek word for apostle means one who is sent. An apostle of the Lord is a believer who is sent out by Him with His authority to preach the gospel of God, to teach the divine truth, and to establish churches. In the first section of Acts, Peter and John were such apostles among the Jews, and in the second section of Acts, Paul and Barnabas were such apostles among the Gentiles. After them, others also became apostles, such as Silas (i.e., Silvanus) and Timothy (1 Thes. 1:1; 2:6). As long as one has the power to preach the gospel, the gift to teach the divine truth, and the ability to establish churches, he is qualified and confirmed to be an apostle sent by the Lord with His commission and authority.
1Co 9:14c seen  -   Acts 9:3-5, 17; cf. Acts 18:9; 22:18; 23:11
This refers to Paul’s having seen the Lord in His glorious resurrected body (15:5-8). This is a special privilege; it constitutes some dignity and glory to the seer, but it is not a requirement or qualification for being the Lord’s apostle. This is fully proven by the case of Barnabas, who was one of the apostles (Acts 14:14) yet did not see the Lord in this way. However, to know the Lord in spirit by spiritual revelation is definitely needed for one to be an apostle.
1Co 9:15d work  -   1 Cor. 3:6, 4:15
The fruitful result of his work in the Lord was a proof of, not a qualification for, Paul’s apostleship.
1Co 9:21 you
Because he had begotten them in the Lord through the gospel (4:15). The fruit of his labor was the evidence of his apostleship.
1Co 9:22a seal  -   cf. John 3:33; Rom. 4:11
The sufficient result of the apostle’s effective work was not only an evidence, a proof, but also a seal of his apostleship. It put a distinctive mark on his apostolic labor that authenticated and certified his apostleship.
1Co 9:2b apostleship  -   Acts 1:25
1Co 9:31 this
Referring to the defense in vv. 1-2.
1Co 9:41 Do
The apostle’s bold, frank, strong, and direct defense in vv. 4-15 reveals that he was a person with a pure heart and spirit, and that in the Lord’s work he had no intention other than Christ and His Body.
1Co 9:42 right
Or, liberty.
1Co 9:43a eat  -   1 Cor. 9:13-14; Luke 10:7-8
To eat and drink for the gospel (v. 14) at the expense of the saints and the churches.
1Co 9:5a even  -   Matt. 8:14
1Co 9:5b brothers  -   Matt. 12:46; Acts 1:14
1Co 9:5c Cephas  -   1 Cor. 1:12
1Co 9:6a Barnabas  -   Acts 13:2; Gal. 2:1, 9
1Co 9:6b right  -   2 Thes. 3:9
1Co 9:7a serves  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 2:3-4
1Co 9:7b plants  -   1 Cor. 3:6-8
1Co 9:7c vineyard  -   Deut. 20:6; S.S. 8:11-12
1Co 9:7d partake  -   Prov. 27:18; cf. 1 Cor. 9:13
1Co 9:8a according  -   Rom. 3:5
1Co 9:9a You  -   Deut. 25:4; 1 Tim. 5:18
1Co 9:91 while
Or, that is treading out the grain.
1Co 9:10a plowman  -   2 Tim. 2:6
1Co 9:11a spiritual  -   Rom. 15:27
1Co 9:12a not  -   1 Cor. 9:15, 18; 2 Cor. 11:9
1Co 9:121 bear
Or, endure. Lit., contain (as a vessel), conceal; hence, cover (as a roof).
1Co 9:12b not  -   1 Cor. 9:18; 2 Cor. 6:3; 1 Thes. 2:9; 2 Thes. 3:8
1Co 9:131 sacred
The word for sacred here is different from the word for holy in Rom. 1:2 and the word for holiness in Luke 1:75, and is the same as the word for sacred in 2 Tim. 3:15. It denotes the sacredness of the things that are related to the worship of God.
1Co 9:13a eat  -   Lev. 6:16, 26; Num. 18:8-20, 31; Deut. 18:1
1Co 9:14a live  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:4; Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7-8
1Co 9:15a any  -   1 Cor. 9:12
1Co 9:151 rather
The apostle was desperately absolute for the Lord’s interests. He was willing not only to sacrifice all his rights (vv. 12, 15a, 18) but also to pay the price even of his life.
1Co 9:152 than
Than what? Paul did not finish the sentence. Perhaps he was referring to the things mentioned in the first half of this verse.
1Co 9:15b boast  -   2 Cor. 11:10
1Co 9:16a necessity  -   cf. Jer. 20:9; Acts 4:20
1Co 9:171a reward  -   1 Cor. 3:8, 14
This book was written not to help lost sinners to be saved but to help saved believers to grow (3:6-7), to build with the precious materials (3:10, 12-14), to care for the Lord’s members (8:9-13), and to run the race (v. 24). Hence, a reward is mentioned repeatedly as an incentive to the believers for their progress (3:14; 9:18, 24-25). See note 351 in Heb. 10.
1Co 9:17b entrusted  -   Gal. 2:7
1Co 9:172c stewardship  -   Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25
Or, household administration, household dispensation. The apostle was not only a preacher but also a steward in God’s house, a household administrator, dispensing Christ’s salvation, life, and riches to His believers. Such a ministry was the stewardship with which he had been entrusted and commissioned (Eph. 3:2; 2 Cor. 4:1).
1Co 9:18a without  -   2 Cor. 11:7; 12:13
1Co 9:18b not  -   1 Cor. 9:12, 15; cf. 1 Cor. 7:31
1Co 9:19a free  -   1 Cor. 9:1; 10:29; Gal. 5:13
1Co 9:191 all
I.e., all men.
1Co 9:19b enslaved  -   2 Cor. 4:5
1Co 9:20a as  -   Acts 16:3; 21:21-28
1Co 9:20b gain  -   Rom. 11:14
1Co 9:20c under  -   Rom. 3:19
1Co 9:20d not  -   Gal. 2:19; Rom. 6:14
1Co 9:21a without  -   Rom. 2:12, 14
1Co 9:21b as  -   Gal. 2:3
1Co 9:211 without
I.e., outside the sphere, the limit, of law; hence, without law.
1Co 9:212 within
I.e., within the sphere, the limit, of law; hence, subject to law. Paul took Christ as his life and lived by Christ. This Christ, who lived in him as life and who has the law of life and is the very law of life (Rom. 8:2), ruled and regulated him that he might be legitimately, legally, rightfully, and duly subject to Christ. Therefore, Paul was within a higher and better law, being subject to the law of life. Hence, he was not outside law and was not without law to God.
1Co 9:21c law  -   Gal. 6:2
1Co 9:22a became  -   Rom. 15:1; 2 Cor. 11:29
1Co 9:221 become
This means that the apostle adapted himself to all things, that is, to different ways of eating and practice (v. 23), for the sake of all men.
1Co 9:22b all  -   1 Cor. 10:33
1Co 9:22c save  -   Rom. 11:14; 1 Cor. 7:16
1Co 9:231 fellow
Or, joint participant, cooperator, copartner. The apostle was not only a fellow partaker, a joint participant, enjoying the gospel but also a cooperator, a copartner, laboring for the gospel. However, here he referred to the enjoyment of the gospel. Hence, this word is rendered fellow partaker in the text.
1Co 9:23a partaker  -   Phil. 1:7
1Co 9:241 run
This reveals that the Christian life is a race that we must run successfully.
1Co 9:24a racecourse  -   Acts 20:24; 2 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 12:1
1Co 9:242b prize  -   Phil. 3:14; Col. 2:18
I.e., a reward as an incentive. See note 171.
1Co 9:24c Run  -   Gal. 2:2; 5:7
1Co 9:243 lay
I.e., obtain.
1Co 9:25a contends  -   2 Tim. 2:5
1Co 9:251 crown
A chaplet made of leaves for the athletic contests at that time. The incorruptible crown, which the Lord will award to His overcoming saints who win the race, is a reward in addition to salvation (see note 351 in Heb. 10). We, His believers, have all received His salvation through faith in Him. This has been settled once for all. But whether we will be rewarded by Him depends on how we run the race. Here, in this chapter, the apostle was running the course (v. 26). In Philippians, one of his last Epistles, he was still running (Phil. 3:14). It was not until the last moment of his running, in 2 Tim. 4:6-8, that he had the assurance that he would be rewarded by the Lord at His appearing. In view of this prize the apostle charged the Corinthian believers to run the race that they might obtain the reward (v. 24).
1Co 9:25b an  -   2 Tim. 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 2:10; 3:11
1Co 9:25c incorruptible  -   1 Pet. 1:4
1Co 9:26a run  -   Gal. 2:2; 2 Tim. 4:7
1Co 9:26b air  -   1 Cor. 14:9
1Co 9:271 buffet
The Greek word means to beat the face under the eye black and blue. This is not to ill-treat the body, as in asceticism, nor to consider the body evil, as in Gnosticism. This is to subdue the body and make it a conquered captive to serve us as a slave for fulfilling our holy purpose. This is equivalent to putting to death our earthly members (Col. 3:5) and putting to death the practices of the body (Rom. 8:13), not allowing our body to be used for the indulgence of lust or doing anything on our own except what is holy to God. The Corinthians misused their body by indulgence in fornication, not caring for God’s temple (6:19), and in the unrestrained eating of things sacrificed to idols, not caring for weak believers (8:9-13).
1Co 9:272 make
A metaphor meaning to lead the vanquished as a captive and a slave, to bring the captive into slavery, making him a slave to serve the conqueror’s purpose.
1Co 9:273 lest
The Greek word implies possibility.
1Co 9:274 preached
According to the context of vv. 24-27, this refers to the preaching of the reward as an incentive to the Christian runners. This is related to the kingdom, the manifestation of which will be a reward to the overcoming saints who have won the Christian race. See note 281 in Heb. 12.
1Co 9:275a disapproved  -   Heb. 6:8; cf. 2 Cor. 13:5-6
Or, disqualified, rejected; i.e., unworthy of the prize. The apostle was surely saved by grace through faith in Christ. Not only so, he was called to be an apostle to carry out God’s New Testament economy. Nonetheless, here he was very much on the alert to run his course (Acts 20:24) by subduing his body to serve his holy purpose, that he might not be disapproved and rejected at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) and be found unworthy of the reward of the coming kingdom. See Matt. 7:21-23; 25:11-12.
1 Corinthians Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 10:11 For
For indicates that ch. 10 is not only a continuation of ch. 9 but also a further definition of running the race covered in 9:24-27, using as an illustration the children of Israel running on the racecourse in the wilderness to enter into the promised land.
1Co 10:12a ignorant  -   Rom. 6:3
This refers to the word Do you not know in 9:24.
1Co 10:13 all
This indicates that all the children of Israel who had enjoyed the passover entered into the race and began to run the race from the time they left the land of Rameses (Exo. 12:37).
1Co 10:14b cloud  -   Exo. 13:21-22; 14:19-20
The cloud that covered the children of Israel typifies the Spirit of God, who is with the New Testament believers. Immediately after the New Testament believers take Christ as their Passover (5:7), the Spirit of God comes to be with them and lead them to run the Christian race, just as the pillar of cloud led the children of Israel (Exo. 13:21-22; 14:19-20).
1Co 10:1c sea  -   Exo. 14:21, 22, 29
1Co 10:21a baptized  -   cf. Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27
The passing of the children of Israel through the Red Sea (Exo. 14:21-30) typifies the baptism of the New Testament believers (Rom. 6:4).
1Co 10:22 unto
The children of Israel were baptized unto Moses to begin the holy race for the fulfilling of God’s purpose, that is, to enter into the good land and build the temple, that God might have a kingdom with an expression of Himself on the earth. This typifies the baptizing of the New Testament believers into Christ (Gal. 3:27) that God may have His kingdom with the church as His expression on the earth.
1Co 10:23 in
In the cloud signifies in the Spirit, and in the sea denotes in the water. The New Testament believers were baptized in the water and in the Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Acts 1:5; 1 Cor. 12:13).
1Co 10:31 spiritual
Referring to manna (Exo. 16:14-18), typifying Christ as our daily life supply (John 6:31-35) for the Christian journey. We believers should all eat the same spiritual food and should not eat anything other than Christ.
1Co 10:3a food  -   Exo. 16:4, 14-15, 35; Num. 11:6-9; Psa. 78:24-25; John 6:31
1Co 10:41 spiritual
Referring to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6), typifying the Spirit, who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ, as our all-inclusive drink (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13). For our running of the race we should all drink the same spiritual drink and should not drink anything other than the all-inclusive Spirit.
1Co 10:4a drink  -   Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:10; Psa. 78:15, 16
1Co 10:42 spiritual
The rock that was smitten and cleft to flow out the living water for God’s chosen people (Exo. 17:6) was a physical rock. Yet the apostle called it a spiritual rock because it typified Christ, who was smitten and cleft by God to flow out the water of life (John 19:34) to satisfy the thirst of His believers. Hence, the apostle said that the rock was Christ. Since it was a spiritual rock signifying Christ, it was able to follow the children of Israel. This indicates that Christ as the real rock is following His believers.
1Co 10:51a strewn  -   1 Cor. 10:8-10; Num. 14:29, 35; 26:65; Psa. 106:26; Heb. 3:17; Jude 5
I.e., laid low on the ground by being slain. This refers to Num. 14:16, 29.
1Co 10:61a examples  -   1 Cor. 10:11
Lit., types (so also in v. 11); i.e., figures of facts or of spiritual truths. This book takes the history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament as a type of the New Testament believers. In 5:7-8 the believers experienced Christ as their Passover and began to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Here in this chapter they are baptized unto their Moses (Christ), passing through their Red Sea (the death of Christ). They are now eating the spiritual food and drinking the spiritual drink that they might take their journey (the Christian race) toward their good land (the all-inclusive Christ). Also, they are warned here (v. 11) not to repeat the history of the children of Israel in doing evil against God, as illustrated in vv. 6-11.
The goal of God’s calling of the children of Israel was that they would enter into the promised land to enjoy its riches so that they might establish God’s kingdom and be God’s expression on earth. However, although all Israel was redeemed through the passover, delivered out of the Egyptian tyranny, and brought to the mountain of God to receive the revelation of God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle, nearly all fell and died in the wilderness, failing to reach this goal (Heb. 3:7-19) because of their evildoings and unbelief. Only Caleb and Joshua reached the goal and entered into the good land (Num. 14:27-30). This signifies that although we have been redeemed through Christ, delivered out of Satan’s bondage, and brought into the revelation of God’s economy, we may yet fail to reach the goal of God’s calling, that is, to enter into the possession of our good land, Christ (Phil. 3:12-14), and enjoy His riches for the kingdom of God that we may be His expression in the present age and participate in the fullest enjoyment of Christ in the kingdom age (Matt. 25:21, 23). This should be a solemn warning to all New Testament believers. It was especially applicable to the Corinthians, who were in danger of repeating the failure of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
1Co 10:62 us
The apostle included himself with all believers in the matter of running the Christian race.
1Co 10:6b lusted  -   Num. 11:4, 33, 34; Psa. 106:14
1Co 10:71a idolaters  -   1 Cor. 5:11; 10:14
The abusive eating by the children of Israel was related to their idolatry in worshipping the golden calf (Exo. 32:1-6). The apostle’s word here implies that the Corinthians’ inconsiderate eating of idol sacrifices was also somewhat related to idolatry.
1Co 10:7b some  -   Exo. 32:4, 8
1Co 10:7c The  -   Exo. 32:6
1Co 10:7d play  -   Exo. 32:19
1Co 10:81a fornication  -   1 Cor. 5:1
Fornication accompanies idolatry (Num. 25:1-2). Hence, these two things are referred to together, as also in Acts 15:20, 29. Undoubtedly, the implication here is that these two evils existed among the Corinthian believers. Hence, these are the main things dealt with in chs. 5 — 10.
1Co 10:8b committed  -   Num. 25:1; Rev. 2:14
1Co 10:82 fell
This is to be laid low on the ground by being slain.
1Co 10:8c twenty-three  -   cf. Num. 25:9
1Co 10:91a test  -   Matt. 4:7
Lit., try to the utmost, tempt thoroughly. Tested, later in this verse, does not carry the meaning of to the utmost and thoroughly.
1Co 10:9b tested  -   Exo. 17:2, 7; Psa. 78:18
1Co 10:9c serpents  -   Num. 21:6
1Co 10:101a murmur  -   Phil. 2:14
The murmuring of the children of Israel (Num. 16:41) typified the negative speaking of the Corinthian believers against the apostle (4:3; 9:3).
1Co 10:10b murmured  -   Num. 14:2, 27-29; 16:41; 17:5, 10; 21:5
1Co 10:10c perished  -   Num. 16:49
1Co 10:102 destroyer
God’s executing angel (Exo. 12:23; 2 Sam. 24:16-17).
1Co 10:111 happened
Lit., were happening.
1Co 10:11a example  -   1 Cor. 10:6
1Co 10:11b written  -   Rom. 4:23, 24
1Co 10:112 ends
The ages refers to all the past ages. The ends of the ages refers to the fact that all the past ages were consummated at the beginning of the New Testament age; hence, the ends of the ages had come to the people of that time. Those people could, in the New Testament age, take the admonition from the history of the children of Israel. After the New Testament age is the kingdom age, during which these examples in the Old Testament age will no longer serve for the running of the Christian race.
1Co 10:113 have
Lit., have come down, have arrived.
1Co 10:121 So
Based on the admonition in vv. 5-11, the apostle warned the Corinthians not to think that they were standing steadfast, with no danger of falling dead as the children of Israel had.
1Co 10:12a thinks  -   1 Cor. 3:18
1Co 10:12b stands  -   2 Cor. 1:24; Rom. 5:2; 11:20
1Co 10:122 fall
As the failing children of Israel fell and died in the wilderness (vv. 5, 8). Some Corinthian believers did fall and die because they offended the Lord’s Body (11:27-30).
1Co 10:131 No
This verse is a continuation of the warning given in v. 12, indicating, on the one hand, that we should take heed not to be tempted lest we fall and die, and, on the other hand, that God in His faithfulness will not allow any temptation to befall us beyond what we are able to endure, but will, with the temptation, always make the way out for us.
1Co 10:132 temptation
Or, trial (2 Pet. 2:9; cf. Dan. 3:17-18).
1Co 10:133 that
Lit., that which is human.
1Co 10:13a faithful  -   1 Cor. 1:9
1Co 10:134b tempted  -   Matt. 6:13; James 1:13
Or, tried.
1Co 10:13c endure  -   Rom. 5:3-4; James 5:11
1Co 10:141 Therefore
This indicates that the following section, to v. 30, is a conclusion to the preceding section, from 8:1, concerning eating things sacrificed to idols.
1Co 10:142a idolatry  -   1 Cor. 10:7; 1 John 5:21
Referring to the idolatry involved in eating things sacrificed to idols.
1Co 10:15a judge  -   1 Cor. 11:13
1Co 10:16a cup  -   1 Cor. 10:21; 11:25-28; Matt. 26:27; cf. Psa. 16:5; 23:5; 116:13; Matt. 20:22; John 18:11; Rev. 14:10
1Co 10:16b bless  -   Matt. 26:26
1Co 10:161 fellowship
Or, joint participation in. Fellowship here refers to the believers’ communion in the joint participation in the blood and body of Christ. This makes us, the participants in the Lord’s blood and body, not only one with one another but also one with the Lord. We, the participants, make ourselves identified with the Lord in the fellowship of His blood and body. The apostle’s thought here was to illustrate how eating and drinking make the eaters and drinkers one with what they eat and drink. The Corinthians should have realized that their abusive eating of idol sacrifices actually made them one with the demons behind the sacrifices.
1Co 10:16c blood  -   1 Pet. 1:19; Heb. 9:14
1Co 10:16d bread  -   1 Cor. 11:23-24; Matt. 26:26; Acts 2:42; 20:7; cf. John 6:35, 48, 51
1Co 10:16e body  -   Heb. 10:5, 10; 1 Pet. 2:24
1Co 10:171 one
The one bread signifies the one Body of Christ. We all are one Body because we all partake of the one bread. Our joint partaking of the one bread makes us all one. This indicates that our partaking of Christ makes us all His one Body. The very Christ of whom we all partake constitutes us His one Body.
1Co 10:17a one  -   Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 20; Eph. 2:16; 4:4, 16
1Co 10:172 partake
Partaking of (that is, eating — vv. 28-30) the one bread identifies us with it. This indicates that our partaking of Christ, our enjoying of Christ, identifies us with Him, making us one with Him.
1Co 10:18a according  -   Rom. 1:3; 4:1; 9:5
1Co 10:18b eat  -   Lev. 7:6, 15; cf. Heb. 13:10
1Co 10:181 have
Or, participate jointly in. Those who eat the sacrifices of the altar not only have fellowship with one another and with the altar but also participate jointly in what they eat. Their participation in what they eat makes them one with the sacrifices of the altar. This too illustrates how eating makes the eater one with what he eats. Eating things sacrificed to idols does the same: it identifies the eaters with the demons behind the sacrifices.
1Co 10:182c altar  -   Exo. 27:1-8; Lev. 3:5; 4:7, 25
Since the altar is the base of the sacrifices offered to God, eating the sacrifices of the altar makes the eaters those who have fellowship with, those who participate jointly in, the altar.
1Co 10:19a sacrificed  -   1 Cor. 8:4
1Co 10:201a demons  -   Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; 2 Chron. 11:15; Psa. 106:37; Rev. 9:20
An idol and the things sacrificed to an idol are nothing (v. 19; 8:4). But behind them are the demons, who are abominable and hateful to God. The believers, who worship God, should abstain from identifying themselves with demons and becoming those who have fellowship with demons through the eating of things sacrificed to idols. Since demons are the reality of idols, the eating of things sacrificed to idols makes the eaters those who have fellowship with, those who participate jointly in, demons.
1Co 10:202b those  -   cf. Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:10-12; 2 Cor. 6:15-16
See note 181. The eaters of things sacrificed to idols become not only those who fellowship with demons but also those who participate jointly in demons, making themselves one with demons.
1Co 10:211 drink
To drink the Lord’s cup and partake of the Lord’s table is to identify ourselves with the Lord. To drink the demons’ cup and partake of the demons’ table is to make ourselves one with demons.
1Co 10:21a cup  -   1 Cor. 10:16
1Co 10:21b table  -   cf. Psa. 23:5; 78:19; Prov. 9:2; 2 Sam. 9:7, 10, 11, 13
1Co 10:21c demons’  -   Isa. 65:11
1Co 10:221a provoke  -   Deut. 32:21
The Lord is the jealous God (Exo. 20:5). Idolatry is utterly abominable and hateful to Him. If we participate in fellowship with demons, making ourselves one with them, we will provoke the Lord to jealousy. Hence, we must flee from idolatry (v. 14).
1Co 10:22b jealousy  -   Exo. 20:5; 2 Cor. 11:2
1Co 10:22c stronger  -   Deut. 10:17; Psa. 24:8; 50:1
1Co 10:231a All  -   1 Cor. 6:12
Verses 14-22 deal with the eating of idol sacrifices from the aspect of making oneself one with demons. From v. 23 through 11:1 this matter is dealt with from the view of building up others to the glory of God (v. 31).
1Co 10:232 lawful
See note 122 in ch. 6.
1Co 10:233 profitable
See note 123 in ch. 6.
1Co 10:234b build  -   1 Cor. 8:1; Rom. 15:2
The parallel verse, 6:12, ends with I will not be brought under the power of anything. This verse ends with not all things build up. The former concerns ourselves; the latter, others.
1Co 10:24a seek  -   1 Cor. 10:33; 13:5
1Co 10:251 meat
At the apostles’ time, usually only a part of what had been sacrificed to idols was consumed. The rest was given to the priests or to the poor, or was sold again in the market. Buyers might unknowingly purchase meat offered to idols.
1Co 10:25a eat  -   1 Cor. 10:27; Acts 10:13; 1 Tim. 4:3-5
1Co 10:25b conscience’  -   1 Cor. 10:27
1Co 10:26a earth  -   Deut. 10:14; Psa. 24:1; 50:12
1Co 10:27a eat  -   1 Cor. 10:25; Luke 10:8
1Co 10:27b conscience’  -   1 Cor. 10:25
1Co 10:28a not  -   Rom. 14:15, 21
1Co 10:28b conscience’  -   1 Cor. 8:7, 10, 12
1Co 10:29a freedom  -   1 Cor. 9:19
1Co 10:301 partake
I.e., eat. This indicates that eating is partaking (v. 17).
1Co 10:30a thankfulness  -   1 Tim. 4:3-4; Rom. 14:6
1Co 10:30b evil  -   Rom. 14:16
1Co 10:311 Therefore
This indicates that 10:31 — 11:1 is a conclusion to this subsection (from v. 23).
1Co 10:312 whether
Verses 23, 31, and 6:12 give us four basic principles for regulating the New Testament believers’ conduct. All things are lawful, but whatever we do, (1) as to the thing itself, must be profitable, (2) as to ourselves, must not bring us under the power of anything, (3) as to others, must build them up, and (4) as to God, must glorify Him. Otherwise, nothing is permissible.
1Co 10:31a eat  -   Rom. 14:17-18
1Co 10:31b whatever  -   Col. 3:17
1Co 10:31c glory  -   1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 4:11
1Co 10:321 Do
The Greek expression rendered do not become a stumbling block is based on the same root as the word for stumbling block in 8:9; it is different from the word for stumble in 8:13.
1Co 10:32a stumbling  -   1 Cor. 8:9, 13; Rom. 14:13, 20, 21
1Co 10:322 Jews
In New Testament times people are of three categories: (1) the Jews — God’s chosen people; (2) the Greeks — the unbelieving Gentiles; and (3) the church — a composition of the believers in Christ. We should not be an offense, a stumbling block, to anyone in these three categories, that they might be saved (v. 33).
1Co 10:32b church  -   1 Cor. 1:2; Acts 20:28
1Co 10:331 I
What an example the apostle has set for us!
1Co 10:33a please  -   Rom. 15:2
1Co 10:33b all  -   1 Cor. 9:22
1Co 10:33c seeking  -   1 Cor. 10:24; 13:5
1Co 10:33d saved  -   1 Cor. 9:22; 1 Thes. 2:16; Rom. 11:14
1 Corinthians Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 11:11 Be
This verse is the last sentence of the conclusion of ch. 10.
1Co 11:1a imitators  -   1 Cor. 4:16; 1 Thes. 1:6
1Co 11:12 me
If one is an imitator of Christ, we should be imitators of him. This makes us also imitators of Christ. Otherwise, we should be imitators of no man.
1Co 11:1b of  -   cf. John 13:15; Matt. 11:29; Rom. 15:1-3; Eph. 5:2; 1 Pet. 2:21
1Co 11:2a praise  -   1 Cor. 11:17, 22
1Co 11:2b remembered  -   1 Thes. 3:6
1Co 11:21c things  -   2 Thes. 2:15; 3:6
Instructions handed down by word of mouth or writing (2 Thes. 2:15).
1Co 11:31 Christ
Verses 3-16 deal with the seventh problem, the problem concerning head covering. The first six problems, dealt with in chs. 1 — 10, may be considered one group. They are concerned with matters in the realm of human life. The last five problems, dealt with in chs. 11 — 16, constitute another group. They are concerned with matters in the realm of God’s administration. The first problem in this latter group concerns the headship of Christ and of God in the divine government. In Eph. 1:22-23 the headship of Christ over all things is to His Body, the church. Here the headship of Christ over every man is related to individuals. Christ is the Head of the Body, the church (Eph. 5:23), corporately, and of the believers individually. He is the Head of every one of us directly. In the apostle’s dealing with the Corinthians’ problems related to God’s administration, the headship of Christ and of God was his first concern.
1Co 11:3a head  -   cf. Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18
1Co 11:32 man
In the divine governmental ordination, woman is under the headship of man. God created the female in this way (Gen. 2:18-24; 1 Tim. 2:13). According to the nature (v. 14) created by God, woman is subordinate to man.
1Co 11:3b head  -   Eph. 5:23; cf. Gen. 3:16
1Co 11:33 God
Christ is God’s anointed One, the One appointed by God. Hence, He is under God, and God as the Originator is His Head. This refers to the relationship between Christ and God in the divine government.
In dealing with the problem of head covering, the apostle took the headship of God, the headship of Christ, and the headship of man as strong ground for his instruction. His instruction concerning head covering was based not on any religious practice or human custom but on the headship in God’s governmental administration. Such a strong base leaves no ground for argument over the matter of head covering.
1Co 11:3c head  -   cf. 1 Cor. 15:28; 3:23
1Co 11:41a prophesying  -   1 Cor. 14:1, 31, 39
I.e., speaking for God. See note 102 in ch. 12.
1Co 11:42 disgraces
Since man has the headship over woman and is God’s image and glory (v. 7), he should keep his head manifested, unconcealed, uncovered, when he touches the throne of God’s administration by praying to God or speaking for Him. Otherwise, he dishonors or shames his head.
1Co 11:5a praying  -   Luke 2:36-37
1Co 11:5b prophesying  -   Acts 21:9; cf. 1 Cor. 14:34
1Co 11:51 uncovered
Since woman is under the headship of man, she should keep her head covered, not exposed, when she touches the divine administration by praying to God or speaking for God. Otherwise, she disgraces or shames her head, as if her head were shaved, because she denies the divine governmental ordination by exposing her head to the observing angels (v. 10) while touching the authority of God.
1Co 11:52c shaved  -   Deut. 21:12
This is a strong indication that for a woman to have her head shaved or her hair cut off is shameful (v. 6).
1Co 11:61 let
This indicates that the head covering is a covering in addition to long hair. For a woman to keep her hair long, not having her head shaved, means that she does not reject God’s governmental ordination; and for a woman to have a head covering in addition to her long hair indicates that she says amen to the divine ordination.
1Co 11:71 God’s
Man was made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26) to express God and glorify Him. Since man bears God’s image and glory and represents God, he should not have his head covered. If he does, God’s image and glory will be concealed.
1Co 11:7a image  -   Gen. 1:26-27; 9:6; cf. Gen. 5:1; James 3:9
1Co 11:72b glory  -   cf. Prov. 12:4
Since the woman is the glory of the man, she should not have her head exposed but should have it covered. She should not express herself but the man, under whom she is. The apostle took this too as ground for his teaching concerning head covering.
1Co 11:81 woman
As a rib taken out of man, woman was made out of man (Gen. 2:21-23).
1Co 11:8a out  -   Gen. 2:21-23
1Co 11:91 created
Here the apostle took God’s purpose in the creation of man and woman as further strong ground for his teaching concerning head covering. That teaching is not based on any man-made custom but on the divine purpose in creation.
1Co 11:92a woman  -   Gen. 2:18; 1 Tim. 2:13
Woman was made for the purpose of matching man (Gen. 2:18, 24).
1Co 11:101 sign
I.e., the head covering, which signifies man’s headship over the woman.
1Co 11:10a authority  -   cf. Gen. 3:16; 24:65; 1 Tim. 2:11
1Co 11:102 sake
This was further ground for the teaching concerning head covering. Head covering is closely related to God’s headship, God’s authority. The archangel with his subordinates rebelled against God’s headship (Ezek. 28:13-18; Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 25:41), establishing his kingdom of darkness (Matt. 12:26; Col. 1:13), and became Satan, God’s adversary. After God created man, Satan seduced man to follow him and rebel against God. Then God sent His Son to destroy Satan and rescue man out of his authority back to God’s kingdom (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14; Col. 1:13). Now, when the believers worship God in praying to Him or in speaking for Him, they should bear some signs that they are under God’s headship, the divine authority, showing the observing angels (cf. 4:9), who are concerned with this matter, that they (the believers) are keeping God’s ordained order in His administration. For this, the sisters should have a sign, a covering, on their head.
1Co 11:10b angels  -   1 Cor. 4:9; Eph. 6:12
1Co 11:111 in
I.e., in the Lord’s plan, in the Lord’s arrangement.
1Co 11:121 out
Man is the source of the woman’s existence. Hence, the woman is out of the man. Woman is the means through which the man is born. Hence, the man is through the woman (Gen. 2:21-23).
1Co 11:12a all  -   1 Cor. 8:6; Rom. 11:36
1Co 11:13a Judge  -   1 Cor. 10:15
1Co 11:141 nature
I.e., our natural constitution according to God’s creation. Nature itself tells us that man should not have long hair, but that the woman should. The woman realizes by her female constitution that to have long hair to cover her head is a glory. This too is strong ground for the apostle’s teaching concerning head covering. His teaching is not according to customs or practices established by man but according to man’s nature, which was created by God.
1Co 11:161 such
The custom of contention, disputation, and debating. Neither the apostles nor the churches tolerated any disputation concerning the apostles’ teaching.
1Co 11:162a churches  -   1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 14:33; 16:1
That churches here is plural indicates that all the local churches are independent of one another, yet they all act in the same way according to the apostles’ teaching.
1Co 11:171 But
But here indicates a contrast between I… do not praise you in this verse and I praise you in v. 2.
1Co 11:172 this
From this verse to the end of the chapter the apostle dealt with the eighth problem, the problem concerning the Lord’s supper.
1Co 11:17a praise  -   1 Cor. 11:22, 2
1Co 11:17b come  -   1 Cor. 14:23; Matt. 18:20; Heb. 10:25
1Co 11:181a in  -   1 Cor. 14:28, 34, 35
I.e., in the assembly of the church (14:34-35).
1Co 11:18b divisions  -   1 Cor. 1:10
1Co 11:191 parties
Sects, schools of different opinions, as in Gal. 5:20.
1Co 11:192 approved
Tested and found to have met the specifications.
1Co 11:193 manifest
Sects are useful for manifesting the approved ones, who are not sectarian.
1Co 11:201 Lord’s
In 10:21 the Lord’s supper is called “the Lord’s table.” The emphasis of the Lord’s table is on the fellowship of the Lord’s blood and of His body (10:16-17), the participation in the Lord, the enjoyment of the Lord in mutuality, in fellowship, whereas the stress of the Lord’s supper is on the remembrance of the Lord (vv. 24-25). At the Lord’s table we receive His body and blood for our enjoyment; at the Lord’s supper we give Him our remembrance for His enjoyment.
1Co 11:211 supper
In the apostle’s time the believers had a custom of coming together for supper, the main meal of the day, with the rich bringing more and better food for the mutual enjoyment and the poor, less food. This was called a love feast (2 Pet. 2:13; Jude 12), and it came from the background of the passover feast (Luke 22:13-20). At the end of their love feast they ate the Lord’s supper with the bread and the cup to remember the Lord (vv. 23-25). The Corinthians did not do it properly. They did not wait for one another (cf. v. 33). Each took his own supper first. The rich became drunken and the poor were hungry (v. 21). This caused divisions and parties among them (v. 18) and spoiled the Lord’s supper. Thus, their eating was not the eating of the Lord’s supper (v. 20).
1Co 11:22a church  -   1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 15:9; Acts 20:28
1Co 11:22b put  -   James 2:6; cf. Prov. 17:5
1Co 11:22c praise  -   1 Cor. 11:17
1Co 11:23a received  -   1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 1:12
1Co 11:23b in  -   Matt. 26:20-25; Mark 14:17-21
1Co 11:231c betrayed  -   Luke 22:21-22; John 13:21-30
Lit., delivered up.
1Co 11:23d took  -   vv. 23-26: Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20
1Co 11:241 broke
The bread is broken that we may eat it (Matt. 26:26).
1Co 11:242 unto
The word unto, here and in the next verse, implies not only a purpose but also a result. Participation in the Lord’s supper will surely produce a result — a continual remembrance of the Lord for His satisfaction.
1Co 11:243 remembrance
To take the Lord’s supper is for the remembrance of the Lord Himself, not for anything else.
1Co 11:251 cup
The bread is of life (John 6:35) and the cup is of blessing (10:16). This cup is the new covenant, comprising all the rich blessings of the New Testament, including God Himself. The new covenant was established by the Lord’s blood, which He shed on the cross for our redemption (Matt. 26:28).
1Co 11:25a new  -   Jer. 31:31; Heb. 8:13, 6; 7:22
1Co 11:252 drink
The real remembrance of the Lord is to eat the bread and drink the cup (v. 26), that is, to participate in, to enjoy, the Lord, who has given Himself to us through His redeeming death. To eat the bread and drink the cup is to take in the redeeming Lord as our portion, as our life and blessing. This is to remember Him in a genuine way.
1Co 11:261 declare
Or, proclaim, display. To take the Lord’s supper is not to remember the Lord’s death but to declare and display it. We remember the Lord Himself by declaring and displaying His death.
1Co 11:262 until
We should take the Lord’s supper unto the remembrance of Him by declaring His redeeming death without ceasing until He comes back to set up God’s kingdom (Matt. 26:29). By His first coming the Lord accomplished His death to carry out an all-inclusive redemption for the producing of the church. After His death He went away to receive the kingdom, and He will come again with the kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14; Luke 19:12). The period between His first and second comings is the church age. The church thus bridges the gap between the Lord’s first coming and His second coming and connects His death in the past with God’s kingdom in the future. Hence, to declare the Lord’s death until He comes may imply the declaring of the existence of the church for the bringing in of the kingdom. When we eat the Lord’s supper in this way, with a view to a continual remembrance of Him in His first and second comings, that supper becomes a satisfaction to Him in relation to the kingdom, God’s administration.
1Co 11:26a comes  -   John 21:22; Acts 1:11; 1 Cor. 4:5
1Co 11:27a eats  -   John 6:51-56
1Co 11:27b bread  -   1 Cor. 10:16
1Co 11:271 unworthy
I.e., not respecting the significance of the bread and the cup of the Lord, which signify His body broken for us and His blood shed for our sins through His death, accomplished for our redemption.
1Co 11:272 be
I.e., bring judgment to himself (vv. 29-30).
1Co 11:27c blood  -   1 Pet. 1:19; Heb. 9:14; 10:29
1Co 11:281a prove  -   2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 6:4
I.e., examine himself, put himself to the test and have himself approved, meeting the prescribed specifications.
1Co 11:291 judgment
Eating the bread or drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner brings judgment to us. This judgment is not a condemnation but the Lord’s temporary discipline (v. 32).
1Co 11:292 discern
Lit., to distinguish, separate, discriminate, make a distinction. To fail to discern the Lord’s body is to fail to make a distinction between the bread, which signifies the Lord’s body, and common food. It is to fail to evaluate the significance of the bread that we take at the Lord’s supper. This brings judgment, the Lord’s discipline, to us.
1Co 11:293 the
The apostle used the expression the body instead of the body of the Lord. This may imply the fact that, in addition to the physical body of the Lord (v. 24), there is the mystical Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4). Therefore, when we participate in the Lord’s table, we must discern whether the bread on the table signifies the one Body of Christ or any division of man (any denomination). In discerning the Body of Christ, we should not partake of the bread in any division or with any divisive spirit. Our participation in the Lord’s table must be the unique fellowship of His unique Body without any division in practice or in spirit.
The apostle’s dealing with head covering concerns the Head (v. 3); his dealing with the Lord’s supper (the Lord’s table) concerns the Body. Regarding the headship of Christ, which represents God and is represented by man, we must keep the divine governmental order ordained by God, without any disorder. Regarding the Body of Christ, we must be properly regulated by the apostle’s instruction, without any confusion and division. The Head is Christ, and the Body is the church. Christ and the church — these two — are the controlling and directing factors of the apostle’s dealings with the confused and disorderly church. In chs. 1 — 10 he dealt with the church’s problems first by stressing Christ as God’s center and our portion. After this, in chs. 11 — 16 he emphasized the church as God’s goal and our concern. In chs. 1 — 10 he began with Christ as the antibiotic to heal the sick church’s diseases. Then from ch. 11 he went on to the church and used the church, the Body, as the inoculation against the church’s disorder. Both Christ and the church are crucial to the carrying out of God’s administration in His New Testament economy.
1Co 11:301 this
I.e., not discerning the body.
1Co 11:302 weak
This is the discipline, the temporary judgment of the Lord, on those who participate unworthily in the Lord’s body. The Lord first disciplined them, so that they became weak physically. Then, since they would not repent of their offense, they were further disciplined and became sick. Because they still would not repent, the Lord judged them by death. To die in this way is equivalent to being strewn along in the wilderness in 10:5.
1Co 11:303a sleep  -   1 Cor. 15:51; Matt. 27:52; John 11:11-13
I.e., have died (1 Thes. 4:13-16).
1Co 11:311 discerned
I.e., discriminated ourselves, formed a right estimate of ourselves.
1Co 11:321 judged
Temporarily.
1Co 11:32a disciplined  -   Heb. 12:5-7, 11
1Co 11:322b condemned  -   Rom. 5:16
Forever.
1Co 11:331 wait
This charge is due to the condition described in v. 21.
1Co 11:34a home  -   1 Cor. 11:22
1Co 11:341 rest
This indicates that the apostle did not give instructions for everything related to the practice of the church. For “the rest” we need to seek the Lord’s leading, based on and governed by the principles set forth in the New Testament.
1Co 11:34b come  -   1 Cor. 4:19; 16:5
1 Corinthians Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 12:11a spiritual  -   1 Cor. 14:1, 12
In chs. 12 — 14 Paul dealt with the ninth problem among the Corinthians, the problem of spiritual gifts in relation to God’s administration and operation.
1Co 12:1b ignorant  -   1 Cor. 10:1; 14:38; 2 Cor. 1:8; 2:11; Rom. 1:13; 6:3
1Co 12:2a Gentiles  -   Eph. 2:11
1Co 12:2b dumb  -   Hab. 2:18-19
1Co 12:21 led
Like a violent wind, the frenzied promoting by the promoters of idolatry among the Greeks in those days was leading people away to idols. Here the apostle referred to the leading of this kind that the Corinthian believers received in the days when they were Gentiles. They were led away to different kinds of idols to worship and serve them, at whatever time and in whatever way they were led by the frenzied ones.
1Co 12:31 speaking
The apostle’s thought here was that the dumb, voiceless idols in v. 2 make their worshippers dumb and voiceless. But the living God causes His worshippers to speak in His Spirit. This kind of speaking is related to the spiritual gifts. No one who speaks in the Spirit of God would say, “Jesus is accursed”; he would like to say, and he is able to say, “Jesus is Lord!” No worshippers of God should be silent; all should use their voices to speak forth “Jesus is Lord!” in the Spirit of God. This — to speak “Jesus is Lord!” — is the main function of all the spiritual gifts.
1Co 12:3a Spirit  -   1 John 4:2-3
1Co 12:32 accursed
See note 221 in ch. 16.
1Co 12:33 no
This indicates that when we say with a proper spirit, “Jesus is Lord!” we are in the Holy Spirit. Hence, to call on the Lord Jesus is the way to participate in, to enjoy, and to experience the Holy Spirit.
1Co 12:3b Jesus  -   Rom. 10:9; John 21:7; Acts 2:36; 2 Cor. 4:5
1Co 12:3c Holy  -   Luke 11:13; Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 1 Thes. 4:8
1Co 12:41 But
But here indicates a contrast between v. 3 and v. 4. Verse 3 says that when we minister by speaking in the Spirit of God, we all say “Jesus is Lord!” exalting Jesus as the Lord. But the gifts for the manifestation of the Spirit are different, diverse.
1Co 12:42 distinctions
Or, diversities, varieties, distributions. So also in vv. 5-6.
1Co 12:43a gifts  -   1 Cor. 12:31; 1:7; Rom. 12:6
Gifts here refers to the outward gifts, the abilities or capacities for service. Some of them are miraculous, and some are developed out of the initial gifts mentioned in 1:7 (see note 1 there). All are different from the initial gifts.
1Co 12:4b same  -   1 Cor. 12:8, 9, 11, 13; Eph. 4:4
1Co 12:51a ministries  -   cf. Rom. 12:6-8
I.e., services. The gifts in v. 4 are for these ministries, in which the operations in v. 6 are manifested.
1Co 12:5b same  -   1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:5
1Co 12:61 operations
Lit., effects of operations. Referring to the result produced by the divine power’s energizing of the gifts in their activities. This result is the operation (Eph. 4:16) manifested by the gifts.
1Co 12:6a same  -   1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6; 1 Tim. 2:5
1Co 12:62 God
The gifts are by the Spirit; the ministries, the services, are initiated by the Lord and are for the Lord; and the operations are of God. Here the Triune God is involved in these three matters — the gifts, the ministries, and the operations. The gifts by the Spirit are to carry out the ministries for the Lord, and in the ministries for the Lord are manifested the operations of the gifts, produced by God’s operating, God’s working. This is the Triune God moving in the believers for the accomplishing of His eternal purpose to build up the church, the Body of Christ, for the expression of God.
1Co 12:6b operates  -   1 Cor. 12:11; Phil. 2:13
1Co 12:7a each  -   1 Cor. 14:26; Rom. 12:3; 1 Pet. 4:10, 11
1Co 12:71 manifestation
All the different gifts are the manifestation of the Spirit, in that the Spirit is manifested in the believers who have received the gifts. Such manifestation of the Spirit is for the profit of the church, the Body of Christ.
1Co 12:72 for
I.e., for the growth in life of the members of the Body of Christ and for the building up of Christ’s Body.
1Co 12:7b what  -   1 Cor. 14:6
1Co 12:81 word
According to the context of this book, the word of wisdom is the word concerning Christ as the deeper things of God, predestined by God to be our portion (1:24, 30; 2:6-10). The word of knowledge is the word that imparts a general knowledge of things concerning God and the Lord (8:1-7). The word of wisdom is mainly out of our spirit through revelation; the word of knowledge is mainly out of our understanding through teaching. The former is deeper than the latter. However, both of these, not speaking in tongues nor any other miraculous gift, are listed as the first gifts and the topmost manifestation of the Spirit because both are the most profitable ministries, or services, for the edification of the saints and the building up of the church to carry out God’s operation.
1Co 12:8a wisdom  -   1 Cor. 2:6-8; 1:21, 24, 30; Eph. 1:17
1Co 12:8b knowledge  -   1 Cor. 1:5; 8:1, 7; 2 Cor. 8:7; Rom. 15:14
1Co 12:91a faith  -   1 Cor. 13:2; Matt. 17:20; Mark 11:22-23; Luke 17:6
Such as the faith that can remove mountains, as mentioned in 13:2 and Mark 11:22-24.
1Co 12:92 gifts
Miraculous power for healing different diseases.
1Co 12:9b healing  -   1 Cor. 12:28, 30; Mark 16:18; James 5:14-15; Exo. 15:26
1Co 12:101a works  -   1 Cor. 12:28-29; Acts 2:22; Gal. 3:5; Heb. 2:4
Works of miraculous power, miracles, other than healing, such as Peter’s raising of Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-42).
1Co 12:102b prophecy  -   1 Cor. 12:28-29; 13:2, 8-9; 14:1, 3-6, 39
Speaking for God and speaking forth God, including foretelling and predicting. To speak for God and to speak forth God are gifts out of life, gifts developed by the growth in life; foretelling and predicting are miraculous gifts and have nothing to do with life (see second half of note 105).
1Co 12:103c discerning  -   1 Cor. 14:29; cf. 1 John 4:1-3
To distinguish the Spirit that is out of God from those spirits that are not out of God (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 4:1-3).
1Co 12:104d tongues  -   Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4, 6, 8, 11; 10:46; 19:6; 1 Cor. 12:28, 30; 13:1, 8
A proper language or dialect (Acts 2:4, 6, 8, 11) either of men or of angels (13:1), not meaningless voices or sounds. The genuine and proper speaking in tongues is one of the many gifts of the Spirit (v. 4), one of the many aspects of the manifestation of the Spirit (v. 7). Some say that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the baptism in the Spirit, and that later it becomes a gift of the Spirit. They say that every believer must speak in tongues as the initial evidence, but that not every believer needs to have the gift of speaking in tongues. This kind of teaching has no ground in the New Testament. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that speaking in tongues is only one of the many gifts of the Spirit and that not all the believers have this gift.
1Co 12:105e interpretation  -   1 Cor. 12:30; 14:26, 27
To make the unknown tongues known, understandable (14:13). This is the ninth item of the manifestation of the Spirit listed here. However, the manifestation of the Spirit by the believers consists of more than nine items. The apostleship, helps, and administrations by the Spirit listed in v. 28, the seeing of visions and the dreaming of dreams by the Spirit mentioned in Acts 2:17, the signs and wonders referred to in Heb. 2:4, and three of the five miraculous acts prophesied in Mark 16:17-18 are not listed here. The apostle listed here only nine items of the Spirit’s manifestation as an illustration. Of these nine, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are listed as the last two because they are not as profitable as the other items for the building up of the church (14:2-6, 18-19). Of these nine gifts and those listed in vv. 28-30, prophecy as prediction, faith, gifts of healing, works of power, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues are miraculous. The rest — a word of wisdom (such as the word of the apostles), a word of knowledge (such as the word of the teachers), and speaking for God and speaking forth God in prophecy by the prophets, discerning of spirits, helps, and administrations — are gifts developed by the growth in life (3:6-7), like those listed in Rom. 12:6-8, out of the inward, initial gifts mentioned in 1:7 (see note 1 there). The miraculous gifts, especially speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues, do not require any growth in life. The Corinthians did much speaking in tongues, yet they still remained infants in Christ (3:1-3). However, the gifts developed in life require growth in life, even maturity, for the building up of the church. It was for this purpose that this Epistle was written to the Corinthians.
1Co 12:11a distributing  -   1 Cor. 12:4
1Co 12:11b purposes  -   John 3:8
1Co 12:121 For
For indicates that this verse is an explanation of v. 11, which says that the one Spirit operates all the various aspects of His manifestation, distributing them to many believers individually. This is just like our physical body in its being one and having many members.
1Co 12:12a one  -   1 Cor. 10:17; Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:4
1Co 12:12b members  -   1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30
1Co 12:122 the
Referring to the corporate Christ, composed of Christ Himself as the Head and the church as His Body with all the believers as members. All the believers of Christ are organically united with Him and constituted with His life and element and have thus become His Body, an organism, to express Him. Hence, He is not only the Head but also the Body. As our physical body has many members yet is one, so is this Christ.
1Co 12:131a one  -   1 Cor. 12:4, 9, 11
As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism, and as in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our race, nationality, and social rank, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. It is in this one Spirit that we were all baptized into this one living Body to express Christ.
1Co 12:13b baptized  -   Matt. 3:11; Acts 1:5; Matt. 28:19; Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27
1Co 12:132c one  -   Eph. 4:4
The believers of Christ are baptized through water and in the Spirit into (1) Christ, (2) the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3), (3) the name — the person — of the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and (4) the Body of Christ. Baptism ushers the believers into an organic union with Christ and the Triune God, making them living members of the Body of Christ. All the gifts, as the manifestation of the Spirit distributed to the individual believers by the Spirit, are for the profit, the building up, of this Body. The apostle was very conscious of this. He was Body-conscious, Body-centered, unlike the Corinthians and so many other believers through the centuries who are self-centered concerning spiritual gifts. Hence, after this verse he gave the Corinthians a long discourse concerning the Body. His intention was to rescue them from self-seeking back to a concern for the Body, that they might no longer be for their individual profit but for the building up of the Body.
1Co 12:133d Jews  -   Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11
Referring to races and nationalities.
1Co 12:134 slaves
Referring to social ranks.
1Co 12:135e drink  -   John 7:37-39; 4:10, 14; Rev. 21:6; 22:17; 1 Cor. 10:4
To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and to be lost in Him; to drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and to have our being saturated with Him. By these two procedures we are mingled with the Spirit. To be baptized in the Spirit is the initiation of the mingling and is once for all. To drink the Spirit is the continuation and accomplishment of the mingling and is perpetual, forever. This requires us to call on the Lord continually and draw water with joy from Him as the fountain of living water (Isa. 12:3-4; John 4:10, 14).
1Co 12:13f Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7; 3:22; 22:17
1Co 12:14a many  -   Rom. 12:5
1Co 12:18a placed  -   1 Cor. 12:28
1Co 12:18b willed  -   cf. 1 Cor. 12:11
1Co 12:20a one  -   1 Cor. 12:12
1Co 12:241 blended
Implying to be mutually adjusted. God has blended all the different members of Christ together into one Body. For this we need much transformation (Rom. 12:2); that is, we need to be transformed from the natural life to the spiritual by the same Spirit for the practical Body life.
1Co 12:25a division  -   1 Cor. 1:10; 11:18
1Co 12:251 same
In the Body life the same care should be given to all the different members. A difference in care causes division.
1Co 12:26a suffers  -   Rom. 8:17
1Co 12:26b rejoice  -   Rom. 12:15
1Co 12:27a members  -   1 Cor. 12:12; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 5:30
1Co 12:28a placed  -   1 Cor. 12:18
1Co 12:281b church  -   Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18
The church here refers to the church in both its universal and local aspects. In vv. 12-27 the church is the Body of Christ. The Body is an organism for Christ as the believers’ life to grow and express Himself. The church is an assembly for God to operate His administration.
1Co 12:282c apostles  -   Acts 1:25; 2:42; Eph. 2:20; 4:11
Those who are called and sent by God (1:1; Rom. 1:1) (1) to preach the gospel that sinners may be saved to be the materials for the building of the church, (2) to establish the churches (Acts 14:21-23), and (3) to teach the divine truth (see note 13 in ch. 9). Their ministry is universal for all the churches.
1Co 12:283d prophets  -   Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 12:10; 14:1, 3-6, 24, 29-32; Eph. 2:20; 3:5; 4:11
Those who speak for God and speak forth God by God’s revelation, and who speak sometimes with inspired prediction (Acts 11:27-28). For the edifying of the saints and the establishing of the churches, they are second only to the apostles.
1Co 12:284e teachers  -   Rom. 12:7; 2 Tim. 2:2
Those who teach the truths according to the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42) and the prophets’ revelation. Both prophets and teachers are universal as well as local (Eph. 4:11; Acts 13:1).
1Co 12:285f works  -   1 Cor. 12:10
See note 101.
1Co 12:286 gifts
See note 92.
1Co 12:28g healing  -   1 Cor. 12:9
1Co 12:287 helps
Or, helpers, helpings. These must refer to the services of the deacons and deaconesses (1 Tim. 3:8-13).
1Co 12:288h administrations  -   Rom. 12:8; 1 Thes. 5:12; 1 Tim. 3:5; Heb. 13:17
Or, administrators, governings; referring to the eldership in the church.
1Co 12:289i tongues  -   1 Cor. 12:10
See note 104. This is the second time that speaking in tongues is listed as the last of the aspects of God’s operation in the church.
1Co 12:301 speak
Speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are again, for the third time, listed last in Paul’s writing because they render the least profit to the church (14:4-6, 19).
1Co 12:302 Do
Of course, the answer to this question and the other six is no.
1Co 12:30a interpret  -   1 Cor. 12:10
See note 301.
1Co 12:311 earnestly
Or, be zealous for, delight in.
1Co 12:31a desire  -   1 Cor. 14:1
1Co 12:312b greater  -   1 Cor. 14:5, 12, 19
This indicates that some gifts, such as speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues, are smaller because they are less profitable to the church, and that we should desire earnestly the greater gifts, such as prophesying and teaching, which are more profitable for the building up of the church (14:1-6). To have these greater gifts, we need to grow in life unto maturity. The greater gifts are developed, by growth in life, out of the initial gifts (1:7) that we received when we were regenerated.
1Co 12:313 most
The most excellent way to have the greater gifts is love, which is fully defined in the following chapter.
1 Corinthians Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 13:1a tongues  -   1 Cor. 12:10
1Co 13:1b love  -   John 13:34; 15:12; 1 John 4:7, 11, 16, 20-21
1Co 13:11 sounding
Sounding brass and a clanging cymbal give sounds without life. This is a genuine illustration of tongue-speaking.
1Co 13:2a prophecy  -   1 Cor. 12:10; Matt. 7:22
1Co 13:2b mysteries  -   1 Cor. 2:7; 14:2
1Co 13:2c knowledge  -   1 Cor. 12:8
1Co 13:2d faith  -   1 Cor. 12:9
1Co 13:2e remove  -   Matt. 17:20; Mark 11:23
1Co 13:3a dole  -   2 Cor. 9:9
1Co 13:31 deliver
As a martyr.
1Co 13:3b body  -   Dan. 3:28
1Co 13:32 that
Some MSS read, that I may be burned.
1Co 13:41a Love  -   Prov. 10:12; 17:9; Rom. 13:8-10; 1 Pet. 4:8
Life is the element of God; love is the expression of God as life. Hence, God is love (1 John 4:16). God as life is expressed in love. All the fifteen virtues of love listed in vv. 4-7 are the divine virtues of God’s life. Such a life differs from the outward gifts listed in ch. 12. The Corinthians were pursuing the outward gifts, but they neglected love, the expression of God’s life. Hence, they were still fleshy, fleshly, or soulish (3:1, 3; 2:14). They needed to grow in life (expressed by their love in caring for the Body of Christ), pursuing love, not the outward gifts, that they might be spiritual (2:15).
1Co 13:4b suffers  -   2 Cor. 6:6; Gal. 5:22; Col. 3:12; Eph. 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:14
1Co 13:4c jealous  -   1 Cor. 3:3
1Co 13:4d brag  -   1 Cor. 5:6
1Co 13:4e puffed  -   1 Cor. 4:6; 8:1
1Co 13:5a seek  -   1 Cor. 10:24, 33
1Co 13:6a not  -   Prov. 24:17; 2 Thes. 2:12; cf. Rom. 1:32
1Co 13:61 unrighteousness
The totality of unrighteousness is Satan, and the totality of truth is God. Love as the expression of the divine life does not rejoice over Satan’s unrighteousness but rejoices with God’s truth.
1Co 13:6b rejoices  -   2 John 4; 3 John 3-4
1Co 13:6c truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See note 61.
1Co 13:71a covers  -   cf. James 5:20; 1 Pet. 4:8
The same Greek word as for bear in 9:12 (see note there). This word means not only (1) to contain, to hold (as a vessel), and (2) to cover (as a roof) others’ mistakes, but also (3) to shelter and protect by covering (as a roof).
1Co 13:8a Love  -   John 15:9
1Co 13:81 never
I.e., survives everything, holds its place. Love survives everything and holds its place forever. It never fails, never fades out or comes to an end. It is like the eternal life of God. All the gifts, whether prophecies, or tongues, or knowledge, are means for God’s operation; they are not life, which expresses God. Hence, they will cease and be rendered useless. They are all dispensational. Only life, which love expresses, is eternal. According to the succeeding verses, all gifts are for the immature child in this age. They will all be rendered useless in the next age. Only love is characteristic of a mature man and will last for eternity. Hence, when we live and act by love, we have a foretaste of the next age and of eternity.
1Co 13:8b prophecies  -   1 Cor. 14:1, 39
1Co 13:8c tongues  -   1 Cor. 12:10
1Co 13:8d knowledge  -   1 Cor. 12:8
1Co 13:9a know  -   1 Cor. 13:12; 8:2
1Co 13:101 when
In the next age — the kingdom age.
1Co 13:102 complete
Or, mature; in contrast to being a child in the next verse.
1Co 13:103 that
I.e., prophecies, knowledge, etc., as mentioned in v. 8.
1Co 13:111 When
In this age the believers are children, having all the childish gifts.
1Co 13:112a child  -   1 Cor. 3:1
I.e., immature.
1Co 13:11b child  -   1 Cor. 14:20; Eph. 4:14
1Co 13:113 reasoned
Lit., reckoned.
1Co 13:114 since
In the next age the mature believers will become men, and all the childish gifts, especially those that are least — tongue-speaking and its interpretation — will be rendered useless. However, we can have a foretaste of the next age by living a life of love in this age. Love matures us in life; gifts keep us in childhood.
1Co 13:121 now
In this age.
1Co 13:122 in
Some sources say that this is to see through a window. “That is, through some medium which, in degree, hinders vision. The word means also ‘a mirror,’ but it is used for window, made, not of clear transparent glass, as now, but of semi-transparent materials” — J. N. Darby in his New Translation.
1Co 13:12a mirror  -   cf. James 1:23
1Co 13:123 obscurely
Lit., in a riddle.
1Co 13:124 that
In the next age.
1Co 13:12b face  -   Gen. 32:30; Exo. 33:11
1Co 13:12c know  -   1 Cor. 13:9
1Co 13:12d know  -   1 John 3:2
1Co 13:131a faith  -   1 Thes. 1:3; Col. 1:4-5; Eph. 6:23; Gal. 5:6
Faith receives the divine things (John 1:12) and substantiates the spiritual and unseen things (Heb. 11:1). Hope reaps and partakes of the things substantiated by faith (Rom. 8:24-25). Love enjoys the things received and substantiated by faith and partaken of by hope, for nourishing ourselves, building up others (8:1), and expressing God, thus fulfilling the entire law (Rom. 13:8-10). Such love causes us to grow in life for the development and use of the spiritual gifts, and it is the most excellent way to have the greater gifts. Hence, it is the greatest of the three abiding virtues. So we must pursue it (14:1).
1Co 13:13b hope  -   Eph. 1:18; 4:4; Rom. 8:24; Col. 1:27
1Co 13:13c love  -   1 Cor. 13:1
1Co 13:13d love  -   Matt. 22:39-40; Col. 3:14
1 Corinthians Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 14:11a Pursue  -   1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22
This charge is based on the revelation in 12:31 — 13:13. To pursue love is to seek after growth in life for the development of the gifts in life. Hence, it must be matched with an earnest desire for the most profitable gift, the gift of prophecy.
1Co 14:1b love  -   1 Cor. 13:1, 13; 16:14; 2 Pet. 1:7
1Co 14:12c desire  -   1 Cor. 12:31
See note 311 in ch. 12 (so also in v. 39).
1Co 14:1d spiritual  -   1 Cor. 14:12; 12:1
1Co 14:13e prophesy  -   1 Cor. 11:4; 12:10; 13:2; 14:3-6, 39
Since to prophesy is to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord, that is, to minister Christ to people, which is the main element in the church meeting, prophesying requires the divine life to fill it as its content. Love is the most excellent way to experience the divine life and make it the content of the gift of prophecy for the building up of the church. Hence, we must pursue love and desire earnestly this greater gift.
1Co 14:21 For
The apostle’s word in vv. 2-6 gives a clear and definite view that speaking in tongues is much less important than prophesying. The apostle strongly belittled the gift of tongues and exalted the gift of prophecy because his main concern was the church, not the individual believers. Speaking in tongues, even if it is genuine and proper, edifies only the speaker himself, but prophesying builds up the church. To prophesy in revelation or to teach in knowledge with clear, understandable words is more profitable to the church than to speak in tongues with unknown words (v. 19).
1Co 14:2a tongue  -   1 Cor. 12:10; 14:18-19, 22-23
1Co 14:2b spirit  -   1 Cor. 14:14-16
1Co 14:2c mysteries  -   1 Cor. 13:2
1Co 14:31a building  -   1 Cor. 14:26; 8:1; 10:23
Or, edification. Since prophesying, speaking forth the Lord, ministers Christ to people, it builds up people and gives them encouragement and consolation.
1Co 14:41a builds  -   1 Cor. 14:12; 3:10
Prophesying, speaking forth the Lord, builds up not only the individual saints but also the church.
1Co 14:4b church  -   1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32
1Co 14:5a prophesy  -   1 Cor. 14:1
1Co 14:5b greater  -   1 Cor. 14:19; 12:31
1Co 14:5c interprets  -   1 Cor. 14:13, 26-28
1Co 14:6a tongues  -   1 Cor. 14:19
1Co 14:6b profit  -   1 Cor. 12:7
1Co 14:6c revelation  -   1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 1:17; 3:3, 5
1Co 14:6d knowledge  -   1 Cor. 1:5; 12:8; Rom. 15:14
1Co 14:6e prophecy  -   1 Cor. 12:10; Acts 2:17-18; 21:9
1Co 14:6f teaching  -   1 Cor. 14:26; Acts 2:42
1Co 14:71 lifeless
Lit., without soul.
1Co 14:72 no
The apostle’s illustrations in vv. 7-11 indicate that the Corinthian believers abused speaking in tongues by doing it in a nonsensical way, uttering sounds with no distinction in the tones (v. 7) and giving forth uncertain sounds (v. 8). They also overused it by practicing it in any place, in any way, and in any situation. Hence, the apostle corrected them and restricted them from abusing and using excessively such a small gift of the least profit, that they might seek the greater gifts and abound in the edifying of the saints and the building up of the church.
1Co 14:8a trumpet  -   Num. 10:9; cf. Isa. 58:1; Jer. 4:19; Ezek. 33:3-6; Joel 2:1
1Co 14:8b battle  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7
1Co 14:9a air  -   1 Cor. 9:26
1Co 14:101 voices
In Greek the same as sound in vv. 7-8. Here it denotes voices, that is, languages (so also in v. 11).
1Co 14:102 without
Lit., voiceless.
1Co 14:111 meaning
Lit., effect. The same Greek word as for power.
1Co 14:112 barbarian
The Greek word means a foreigner, i.e., a non-Greek, one who does not speak Greek. “Supposed to be originally a descriptive word of those who uttered harsh, rude accents.…Later, the word took the sense of outlandish or rude” (Vincent).
1Co 14:11a barbarian  -   Rom. 1:14; Col. 3:11; Acts 28:2, 4
See note 112.
1Co 14:121a spirits  -   1 Cor. 14:1
Here the apostle said, “So also you, since you are zealous of spirits.” This shows that in their spiritual pursuings in those days, because of their background the Corinthian believers, who were Gentiles by birth, confused the unique Holy Spirit with the various evil spirits; they were not clear about nor did they adequately hold the uniqueness of the Holy Spirit. This is proved by the words but the same Spirit in 12:4. The apostle’s word here did not sanction their confused pursuings; rather, based on the fact of their confusion, he exhorted them to seek to transcend and thereby to excel in the midst of their confusion.
1Co 14:122 excel
The Greek word denotes to become full, to abound, to overflow; it also denotes to excel. See note 81 in ch. 8. According to the context of this verse, the word here does not denote to abound, to increase, but to excel and be extraordinary. The words since you are zealous of spirits in the first part of this verse indicate already that in their pursuing of spiritual gifts, the Corinthian believers were confusing the Holy Spirit with the evil spirits. The apostle considered that kind of confused pursuing very demeaning, to the extent that the Corinthian believers might even have been considered barbarians. Therefore, the apostle exhorted them not to pursue some indiscernible, intermixed spiritual things for their own enjoyment and display, but to pursue so as to excel, that is, go beyond the low pursuing, for the building up of the church.
1Co 14:123b building  -   1 Cor. 14:4, 5
The apostle was fully occupied with the consideration of building up the church. He was fully church-conscious and church-centered, altogether different from the self-centered Corinthians. Their problem with spiritual gifts was due to their self-seeking, their not caring for the building up of the church. In dealing with the first six problems, which were in the realm of human life, the apostle stressed Christ as God’s unique portion to us; in dealing with the last five problems, which were in the realm of the divine administration, he emphasized the church as God’s unique goal for us. The Corinthians were not only void of Christ but also ignorant of the church. The apostle’s completing ministry (Col. 1:25) is composed of Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). However, the Corinthians missed both, even though they were under the apostle’s ministry. They were pitifully in themselves, blind and ignorant.
1Co 14:13a interpret  -   1 Cor. 14:5, 26-28
1Co 14:141a spirit  -   1 Cor. 14:2; 16:18; Rom. 1:9
For our spirit to be used and exercised in prayer is surely healthy for our spiritual life. But for our mind to be unfruitful and unused is absolutely unhealthy. In praying to the Lord, we must exercise our regenerated spirit and our renewed mind. Our mind should be set on our spirit (Rom. 8:6) and should never be detached from it, even in our daily walk, needless to say in our prayer. Our prayer must be from our God-contacted and God-contacting spirit and through our sober and understanding mind, with clear and understandable words, that our prayer may touch God, nourish and strengthen ourselves, and build up others.
1Co 14:14b mind  -   1 Cor. 1:10; 2:16; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2; 14:5; Rev. 17:9
See note 141.
1Co 14:15a spirit  -   John 4:23-24
1Co 14:151 also
This implies that the apostle encouraged the receivers of his letter to pray not only in an unknown tongue but also with clear and understandable words.
1Co 14:152 with
This does not mean to pray with the mind only and not at all with the spirit. In Eph. 6:18 the apostle charged us to pray at every time in spirit. Prayer is worship, which should be in spirit (John 4:24). When we pray with the spirit, not in an unknown tongue but in understandable words, our mind is automatically used to interpret and express the thought of the spirit. What the apostle meant here is that in the church meeting, for the profit of all the attendants, we should pray with our mind in intelligible words (v. 19) to express the burden in our spirit. In a church meeting our prayer not only should be heard by the Lord for His answer but also should be intelligible to all the attendants for their profit. For this purpose we should learn to use our mind in public prayer just as we use our spirit, training our mind to cooperate with our spirit, even to be one with our spirit, that the spirit may become the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23).
1Co 14:15b sing  -   Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16
1Co 14:15c sing  -   Psa. 47:7; James 5:13
1Co 14:16a bless  -   1 Cor. 10:16
1Co 14:161 unlearned
Lit., layman; i.e., one who is brought into a certain matter untaught, uninstructed (so also in vv. 23-24).
1Co 14:162b Amen  -   1 Chron. 16:36; Neh. 5:13; 8:6; Psa. 106:48; Jer. 28:6; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 5:14; 7:12; 19:4; Deut. 27:15-26
This reveals that in the church meetings during the apostle’s time, when one prayed, all the others said Amen, even “the Amen” with emphasis.
1Co 14:16c thanks  -   1 Cor. 11:24
1Co 14:171a built  -   1 Cor. 14:3-5
This indicates that not only our prophesying and teaching in the church meetings but also our prayers and thanks to the Lord should build up others. This shows how much the apostle was concerned with the building up of the church and the saints. His word in this verse is not only a correction but a charge.
1Co 14:19a speak  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:5, 12; 12:31
1Co 14:191 five
This shows how much speaking in intelligible words is needed in the church meeting for the building up of the church, and that speaking in tongues is not needed at all.
1Co 14:192 with
See note 152.
1Co 14:201a children  -   1 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:14; Heb. 5:12-13
The Corinthian believers were not only infants in life (3:1) but also children in understanding. They needed to grow both in life and in their mind’s understanding. All the apostle’s efforts to deal with their problems were for this purpose, that they might mature in every way.
1Co 14:202 understanding
Or, thinking, reasoning, mind. In Greek the word is different from the word for mind in vv. 15 and 19, which “emphasizes the distinction from ecstasy” (Vincent). This is in regard to the Corinthian believers’ understanding and thinking concerning speaking in tongues. They were ecstatic in this practice and thus were childish in their understanding concerning it, not using their mind properly as a mature believer should. The apostle advised them to grow and become full-grown in their understanding, that is, in the proper use of their mind, as he had done (v. 19), in the matter of tongue-speaking.
1Co 14:20b malice  -   Rom. 16:19
1Co 14:20c babes  -   Psa. 131:2; Matt. 11:25; 18:3; 1 Pet. 2:2
1Co 14:203d full-grown  -   Eph. 4:13; Heb. 5:14; Col. 1:28
The childish Corinthian believers needed to become full-grown in their understanding that they might be able to know the things that are mentioned in vv. 21-25.
1Co 14:211a law  -   1 Cor. 14:34; John 10:34; 12:34; 15:25
Referring to the Old Testament. See note 343.
1Co 14:212b By  -   Isa. 28:11-12
This word in Isa. 28:9-13 indicates that the speaking in strange tongues was a chastisement to the children of Israel because they did not believe the intelligible word of God. Hence, the apostle’s quoting of this word implies that the Corinthians had not properly received the intelligible revelation of God through the apostles.
1Co 14:221 sign
So then at the beginning of this verse indicates that according to the word in v. 21 quoted from Isa. 28, tongues are for a negative sign to the unbelievers, signifying their poor condition of unbelief. It implies that wherever a strange tongue is spoken, people’s unbelief is there. The apostle’s intention here was to hold the Corinthians back from their excessive practice of speaking in tongues. But prophecy is for a positive sign to those who believe, signifying their proper condition of belief. This is an encouragement to the practice of prophesying.
1Co 14:23a comes  -   1 Cor. 11:17, 18, 20
1Co 14:231 all
If in a meeting of the whole church all speak in tongues, an observer might consider that all the attendants are insane. Hence, to encourage all to speak in tongues in the church meeting is not right; it is against the apostle Paul’s word.
1Co 14:232b insane  -   Jer. 29:26; Mark 3:21; Acts 26:24; John 10:20; Acts 12:15
Or, mad, raving mad. This word is a strong discouragement to the excessive speaking in tongues.
1Co 14:241a all  -   1 Cor. 14:31
This implies that all the attendants have not only the obligation but also the capacity to prophesy. If all prophesy in the church meeting, people will be convicted. This kind of prophesying must not be mainly to predict but to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord.
1Co 14:242 convicted
This would not result from the prophecy of prediction but from the prophecy of speaking for the Lord and speaking forth the Lord. This latter kind of prophecy requires some amount of growth in life. This word also is an encouragement to the practice of prophesying.
1Co 14:25a heart  -   Heb. 4:12
1Co 14:25b falling  -   Luke 17:16
1Co 14:251 God
This implies that prophesying, speaking for God and speaking forth God with God as the content, ministers God to the hearers and brings them to God. This also indicates that the church meeting should be filled with God, and that all its activities should convey and transmit God to people that they may be infused with God.
1Co 14:25c among  -   Isa. 45:14; Zech. 8:23
1Co 14:26a come  -   1 Cor. 14:23
1Co 14:261 has
Has, occurring five times in this verse, is a widely used Greek word, a word with many meanings, of which the following three are the main ones: (1) to hold, to possess, to keep (a certain thing); (2) to have (a certain thing) for enjoyment; (3) to have the means or power to do a certain thing. The first two meanings should be applied to the first three of the five items listed in this verse, and the third to the last two — a tongue and an interpretation of a tongue. This indicates that when we come to the church meeting, we should have something of the Lord to share with others, whether a psalm to praise the Lord, a teaching (of the teacher) to minister the riches of Christ to edify and nourish others, a revelation (of the prophet, v. 30) to give visions of God’s eternal purpose concerning Christ as God’s mystery and the church as Christ’s mystery, a tongue for a sign to the unbelievers (v. 22) that they may know and accept Christ, or an interpretation to make a tongue concerning Christ and His Body understandable. Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with such things from the Lord and of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and fellowship with Him in prayer. After coming into the meeting, we need not wait, and should not wait, for inspiration; we should exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have prepared to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the attendants for their benefit — their enlightenment, nourishment, and building up.
This is like the Feast of Tabernacles in ancient times. The children of Israel brought the produce of the good land, which they had reaped from their labor on the land, to the feast and offered it to the Lord for His enjoyment and for their mutual participation in fellowship with the Lord and with one another. We must labor on Christ, our good land, that we may reap some produce of His riches to bring to the church meeting and offer. Thus the meeting will be an exhibition of Christ in His riches and will be a mutual enjoyment of Christ shared by all the attendants before God and with God for the building up of the saints and the church.
According to the stress and emphasis of this Epistle, all five items listed in this verse should focus on Christ as God’s center for our portion and the church as God’s goal for our aim. The psalm should be the praise to God for giving Christ as wisdom and power to us for our daily life and church life. The teaching from a teacher and the revelation from a prophet should teach and minister Christ and the church, which is the Body of Christ, to people. A tongue and its interpretation also should have Christ and the church as their center and content. Any stress on things other than Christ and the church will bring confusion to the church and distract it from the central lane of God’s New Testament economy, making it like the church in Corinth.
1Co 14:26b psalm  -   Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; James 5:13
1Co 14:26c teaching  -   1 Cor. 14:6
1Co 14:26d revelation  -   1 Cor. 14:6
1Co 14:26e tongue  -   1 Cor. 12:10
1Co 14:26f interpretation  -   1 Cor. 12:10; 14:5, 13, 27
1Co 14:262g building  -   1 Cor. 8:1; 10:23; 2 Cor. 12:19; 13:10; Eph. 4:29
Or, edification. Whatever we do in the church meeting must be for the building up of the saints and the church. To exhibit Christ and enjoy Him in the meetings for the building up of His Body must be our unique purpose and goal.
1Co 14:27a two  -   1 Cor. 14:29; cf. Matt. 18:16
1Co 14:28a in  -   1 Cor. 14:34-35
1Co 14:281 church
This indicates that the church meeting is the church itself.
1Co 14:29a two  -   1 Cor. 14:27
1Co 14:291b discern  -   1 Cor. 12:10; cf. Job 12:11; 1 John 4:1
Or, judge. Lit., discriminate. This is to judge or discern whether what is prophesied is of God or not, discriminating the right from the wrong. This indicates that some prophesying may not be of God.
1Co 14:311 you
God desires that each of the believers prophesy, that is, speak for and speak forth Him (v. 1b; cf. Num. 11:29).
1Co 14:31a all  -   1 Cor. 14:24
1Co 14:312 encouraged
Or, comforted.
1Co 14:321a spirits  -   Rev. 22:6
This means that the prophets are not under the control of their spirits, but their spirits are under their direction. Thus, they can determine when to prophesy and when to cease prophesying, to maintain good order in the church meeting. Their spirits are not their master but their means to function. They should learn how to exercise and use their spirits at their discretion.
1Co 14:32b subject  -   cf. Prov. 16:32
1Co 14:33a confusion  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:40
1Co 14:331 peace
The principle of the charges in vv. 26-32, mainly concerning speaking in tongues and prophesying, is that a peaceful and becoming order, according to what God Himself is, should be kept.
1Co 14:332 As
This indicates that all the local churches should be the same in practice.
1Co 14:33b all  -   1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16
1Co 14:333 churches
Verses 1:2 and 10:32 use the term the church of God. But here we read the churches of the saints. The church of God points to the element that constitutes the church: the church is constituted with the element of God. The churches of the saints points to the components of the churches: the churches are composed of the saints.
1Co 14:33c saints  -   1 Cor. 1:2
1Co 14:34a women  -   1 Tim. 2:11-12; cf. 1 Cor. 11:5
1Co 14:341b in  -   1 Cor. 14:28; 11:18
This means in the church meetings. See note 281. So also in v. 35.
1Co 14:342 speak
According to 11:5, women may prophesy (of course, in public) with their head covered, and Acts 2:17-18 and 21:9 confirm that women did prophesy. But 1 Tim. 2:12 says that women are not permitted to teach, that is, teach as authorities (there, teaching is related to the exercising of authority), so as to define doctrine. Hence, according to the New Testament principle, for women not to be permitted to speak in the church meetings means that women are not permitted to teach with authority in relation to the defining of doctrine. In this sense they should be silent in the church meetings. They are not permitted to speak, because they should be subject to men. This is related to the matter of authority ordained by God in His government. In God’s governmental ordination, women are not permitted to speak with authority over men. They may pray and prophesy, that is, (mainly) speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord. However, they must do this under the covering of the brothers, because they are charged here to be subject.
1Co 14:34c subject  -   Eph. 5:22; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1
1Co 14:343d law  -   1 Cor. 14:21
Referring to the books written by Moses (Matt. 5:17; 7:12; 11:13). In Moses’ writings, Gen. 3:16 charges the woman to be subject to man’s rule. This is God’s ordination.
1Co 14:361 did
This too indicates that a local church should follow the other churches in its practice. All the local churches should submit to the universal order of the Spirit according to the word of the apostles, from whom the word of God goes forth.
1Co 14:371a prophet  -   1 Cor. 12:28-29
This too indicates that to be a prophet or to be a spiritual person is highly esteemed in the church for the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy. A prophet is second to an apostle in God’s administration in the church (12:28). He is one who speaks for God and speaks forth God, and who has received revelation of the mysteries concerning Christ and the church (Eph. 3:5), which revelation is the foundation for the building of the church (Eph. 2:20). A spiritual person is one who lives according to his spirit, which is mingled with God’s Spirit, and who is able to discern all the spiritual things (3:1 and notes; 2:15 and note). Such spiritually knowledgeable persons should fully know that the apostle Paul’s teachings are the commandment of the Lord, and their speaking should correspond with his teachings. Paul’s spirit was strong and his word was frank in dealing with the disorderly Corinthians. He charged them to know definitely that his teachings were a commandment of the Lord, having the authentic authority of the Lord.
1Co 14:37b spiritual  -   1 Cor. 2:15; 3:1
1Co 14:372c commandment  -   1 Cor. 7:10, 25
Since the apostle’s teachings are according to God’s ordination (v. 34), they are the commandment of the Lord.
1Co 14:38a ignores  -   1 Cor. 10:1; 12:1
1Co 14:391a desire  -   1 Cor. 12:31
Actually, this entire chapter deals with prophesying and speaking in tongues. Since prophesying is the most profitable gift for building up both the saints and the church with the rich ministry of Christ, it was highly esteemed and promoted by the apostle. Since speaking in tongues affords no profit for building up, the apostle was faithful to expose its lesser value. Both the apostle’s esteeming and his exposing were according to his concern for the fulfilling of God’s purpose in building up the church with the riches of Christ. At the conclusion of this chapter he still charged us to desire earnestly to prophesy for God’s building. However, in order to keep the all-inclusiveness and oneness of the church, he also charged us not to forbid speaking in tongues.
1Co 14:39b prophesying  -   1 Cor. 13:2; 14:1, 3-6
1Co 14:401 becomingly
The apostle’s concern for the church was that Christ as God’s center and the church as God’s goal might be carried on and carried out, with all things done becomingly and in good order before men and the angels (4:9; 11:10). Our natural life is useless in fulfilling such a high purpose. The experience of Christ crucified (1:23; 2:2) for the termination of our self and the experience of Christ in resurrection as our daily sanctification and redemption (1:30) are needed for a proper church life.
1Co 14:40a order  -   Col. 2:5; cf. 1 Cor. 14:33
See note 401.
1 Corinthians Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 15:11a gospel  -   Gal. 1:11; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rom. 1:1; 2:16; 16:25
The full gospel, including the teachings concerning Christ and the church, as fully disclosed in the book of Romans (Rom. 1:1; 16:25).
1Co 15:12b stand  -   Phil. 1:27; 2 Cor. 1:24; Rom. 5:2; 1 Pet. 5:12
We should stand in the full gospel, that is, in the entire New Testament, not just in certain teachings or doctrines.
1Co 15:21 being
Or, in the way of salvation (Conybeare). Having been justified in Christ and regenerated by the Spirit, we are in the process of being saved in the life of Christ (Rom. 5:10), and will be until we are mature and conformed to Him in full (Rom. 8:29).
1Co 15:2a saved  -   1 Cor. 1:18; Rom. 1:16
1Co 15:2b hold  -   Heb. 3:6, 14
1Co 15:2c in  -   1 Cor. 15:14; Gal. 3:4
1Co 15:3a received  -   Gal. 1:12; 1 Cor. 11:23
1Co 15:31 Christ
Christ’s death for our sins, His burial for our termination, and His resurrection for our germination with life, which were according to the prophecies of the Old Testament (Isa. 53:5-8, 10-12; Psa. 22:14-18; Dan. 9:26; Isa. 53:9; Psa. 16:9-10; Hosea 6:2), are the basic items among the first things of the gospel. The last of these items is the most vital in the gospel, for it is the positive aspect of the gospel in that it imparts life to us that we may obtain life and live Christ.
1Co 15:3b died  -   Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:14-15
1Co 15:3c sins  -   1 Pet. 2:24; Gal. 1:4; Heb. 9:28
1Co 15:32d Scriptures  -   Luke 24:27; Isa. 53:5-6, 8, 10-12; Dan. 9:26; Zech. 13:7
The Old Testament, that is, the Law and the Prophets.
1Co 15:4a buried  -   Matt. 27:57-60; Mark 15:43-46; Luke 23:50-55; John 19:38-41
1Co 15:4b raised  -   Matt. 28:6-7; Mark 16:6, 9; Luke 24:6-7; John 20:9
1Co 15:4c third  -   Hosea 6:2; Matt. 12:40; 16:21; Luke 24:21; John 2:19; Acts 10:40
1Co 15:4d Scriptures  -   Psa. 16:10; Luke 24:44, 46; John 2:22; Acts 2:25, 32; 13:33-35; 26:22-23
1Co 15:51 appeared
Or, was seen by. The earlier apostles and disciples were eyewitnesses of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1:22), and their preaching stressed their testimony to this (Acts 2:32; 4:33). They witnessed to the resurrected Christ not only by their teaching but also by their living. They lived with Him by His living in resurrection (John 14:19).
1Co 15:5a Cephas  -   Luke 24:34
1Co 15:5b twelve  -   Matt. 28:11-17; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36; John 20:19, 26; Acts 1:3; 10:41
1Co 15:8a me  -   Acts 9:3-8, 17; 22:6-11; 26:12-18
1Co 15:9a least  -   Eph. 3:8; cf. 2 Cor. 12:11
1Co 15:9b persecuted  -   Acts 8:1-3; Gal. 1:13; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13
1Co 15:9c church  -   1 Cor. 10:32
1Co 15:101a grace  -   Rom. 12:3; 1 Cor. 3:10
Grace, mentioned three times in this verse, is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit (v. 45) to bring the processed Triune God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may live in resurrection. Thus, grace is the Triune God becoming life and everything to us. (See notes 171 in John 1 and 211 in Gal. 2.) It is by this grace that Saul of Tarsus, the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15-16), became the foremost apostle, laboring more abundantly than all the apostles. His ministry and living by this grace are an undeniable testimony to Christ’s resurrection.
1Co 15:10b grace  -   2 Cor. 12:9
1Co 15:10c in  -   2 Cor. 6:1
1Co 15:10d labored  -   2 Cor. 11:23; Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:58
1Co 15:102 not
Not I but the grace of God equals no longer I…but…Christ in Gal. 2:20. The grace that motivated the apostle and operated in him was not some matter or some thing but a living person, the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God the Father who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who dwelt in the apostle as his everything.
1Co 15:12a raised  -   1 Cor. 15:4
1Co 15:121 no
In this chapter the apostle dealt with the Corinthians’ heretical saying that there is no resurrection of the dead. The Corinthians were like the Sadducees (Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8). This was the tenth problem among them. It is the most damaging and destructive to God’s New Testament economy, worse than the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus concerning resurrection (2 Tim. 2:17-18). Resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy. If there were no resurrection, God would be the God of the dead, not of the living (Matt. 22:32). If there were no resurrection, Christ would not have been raised from the dead. He would be a dead Savior, not a living One who lives forever (Rev. 1:18) and is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). If there were no resurrection, there would be no living proof of our being justified by His death (Rom. 4:25 and note), no imparting of life (John 12:24), no regeneration (John 3:5), no renewing (Titus 3:5), no transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and no conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). If there were no resurrection, there would be no members of Christ (Rom. 12:5), no Body of Christ as His fullness (Eph. 1:20-23), and no church as Christ’s bride (John 3:29), and therefore no new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). If there were no resurrection, God’s New Testament economy would altogether collapse and God’s eternal purpose would be nullified.
1Co 15:141a vain  -   1 Cor. 15:58; Gal. 4:11; Phil. 2:16
I.e., empty, void. Without the living Christ in resurrection, both the proclamation of the gospel and our faith in the gospel would be empty and void, having no reality.
1Co 15:14b vain  -   1 Cor. 15:2
See note 141.
1Co 15:15a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 4:10; 13:30, 34
1Co 15:171 futile
I.e., fruitless, worthless. If Christ had not been resurrected to live in us as our life and everything, our faith in Him would be fruitless, worthless, and without any issue, such as the impartation of life, freedom from sin, victory over Satan, and growth in life.
1Co 15:172 still
Christ’s death saves us from being condemned because of our sins, not from the power of sin. It is His resurrection life that delivers us from the power of sin (Rom. 8:2). If Christ had not been resurrected, we would still remain in sins and under the power of sin.
1Co 15:17a sins  -   1 Cor. 15:3
1Co 15:181a fallen  -   1 Thes. 4:15; Rev. 14:13
I.e., died (1 Thes. 4:13-16).
1Co 15:182 perished
I.e., not to be resurrected but to remain in death forever.
1Co 15:191 only
If there were no resurrection, we would have no future and no hope for the future, such as Christ as our hope of glory (Col. 1:27), the lot of our eternal blessing (Dan. 12:13), the reign with Christ in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6), and the reward of the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14). All these hopes are connected to our resurrection.
1Co 15:19a hoped  -   Eph. 1:12
1Co 15:201 But
Verses 20-28 are a parenthetical word verifying the truth of resurrection by setting forth Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection.
1Co 15:20a raised  -   2 Tim. 2:8; 1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; Rom. 6:4
1Co 15:202b firstfruits  -   1 Cor. 15:23
Christ was the first One raised from among the dead, becoming the firstfruits of resurrection. This was typified by the firstfruits (a sheaf of the firstfruits, including Christ with some of the dead Old Testament saints, was raised at the Lord’s resurrection — Matt. 27:52-53) in Lev. 23:10-11, which were offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, the day of resurrection (Matt. 28:1). Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection is the Firstborn from among the dead that He might be the Head of the Body (Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:20-23). Since He, the Head of the Body, has been resurrected, we, the Body, also will be resurrected.
1Co 15:211a man  -   Rom. 5:12, 15, 17
I.e., Adam, the first man (v. 45).
1Co 15:212b man  -   Rom. 5:18, 21
I.e., Christ, the second man (v. 47). Adam brought in death through sin (Rom. 5:12); Christ brought in the life of resurrection through righteousness (Rom. 5:17-18). The death brought in by Adam works in us from our birth by our parents until the death of our body. The life of resurrection brought in by Christ operates in us, as signified by baptism (Rom. 6:4), from our regeneration by the Spirit of God (John 3:5) until the transfiguration of our body (Phil. 3:21).
1Co 15:21c resurrection  -   John 5:28-29; 11:25
1Co 15:22a Adam  -   Rom. 5:14
1Co 15:221 die
In Adam we were born in death and were born to die; we are dead in him (Eph. 2:1, 5).
1Co 15:22b Christ  -   John 6:39-40, 54
1Co 15:222c made  -   John 5:25; Rom. 5:18, 21; Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13
In Christ we have been reborn in life and resurrected to live; we have been enlivened, made alive, in Him (Eph. 2:5-6).
1Co 15:231a firstfruits  -   1 Cor. 15:20; Acts 26:23
See note 202. Christ as the firstfruits is first in order in the resurrection from the dead.
1Co 15:232b those  -   John 5:29a; Dan. 12:13; Luke 14:14; 1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52; Rev. 20:4, 6
The believers in Christ, the righteous, who will be resurrected unto life at the Lord’s coming back before the millennium (John 5:29; Luke 14:14; 1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52; Rev. 20:4-6). They will be second in order in the resurrection from the dead.
1Co 15:23c coming  -   1 Thes. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thes. 2:1
1Co 15:241 end
In the preceding verse the order of resurrection is mentioned: the first, Christ; then those who are Christ’s. Accordingly, in this verse, after then, one would expect a group of people to be named. However, here it does not tell us who, but it says “the end,” because those who will be resurrected at the end in their own order are not in Christ.
The end here is the end of all the ages and dispensations of the old creation. It is also the end of the millennium before the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1). In all the ages and dispensations God, on one hand, has been dealing with His enemy Satan and all the negative things in the universe; on the other hand, He has been accomplishing all things for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. The last of the ages and dispensations will be the millennium, the kingdom age, after which all God’s dealings and accomplishments will be fully completed. That completion will be the end, the conclusion, of all God’s work. At this end all the dead unbelievers, the unrighteous, will be resurrected unto judgment for eternal perdition (John 5:29; Rev. 20:5, 11-15). They will be third in order in the resurrection.
1Co 15:242 when
When Christ annuls the satanic authority, subdues all His enemies (v. 25), abolishes death (v. 26), and delivers up the kingdom to God the Father, that is, when all the negative things are done away with and the entire purpose of God is fulfilled, the old creation will be concluded.
1Co 15:243 delivers
After accomplishing redemption, Christ went to receive the kingdom from the Father (Luke 19:12, 15). Before the millennium He as the Son of Man will have received the kingdom from God, the Ancient of Days, to rule all the nations for one thousand years (Dan. 7:13-14; Rev. 20:4, 6). At the end of the millennium, after He has defeated Satan, the devil, and his evil angels (as all rule, authority, and power), and even death and Hades, putting all His enemies under His feet (vv. 25-26) and casting all of them, including death and Hades, into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-10, 14), He will deliver the kingdom back to God the Father.
1Co 15:24a kingdom  -   1 Cor. 15:50; Acts 1:3; 14:22; 28:23, 31; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 1:9
1Co 15:24b rule  -   Eph. 1:21
1Co 15:251a reign  -   2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6
In the millennium, the last age of the old creation.
1Co 15:25b puts  -   Matt. 22:44
1Co 15:26a Death  -   Rev. 20:14; 21:4; cf. Hosea 13:14; 2 Tim. 1:10
1Co 15:261 being
Immediately after the fall of man, God began His work to abolish sin and death. This work has been progressing through the Old and New Testament ages and is still in progress today. When sin is done away with at the end of the old creation, and when its source, Satan, is cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-10), death will be abolished. It will be cast into the lake of fire with Hades, its power, after the final judgment at the white throne (Rev. 20:11-15).
1Co 15:271 He
Referring to God, who has subjected all things under Christ’s feet. This is a reference to Psa. 8:6-8 concerning Christ as the man whom God caused to have dominion over all things. This will be fulfilled when all the things mentioned in vv. 24-26 have taken place. For at the beginning of the verse indicates this.
1Co 15:27a subjected  -   Psa. 8:6-8; Eph. 1:22
1Co 15:272 His
Referring to Christ as the man prophesied in Psa. 8:4-8. To Him — the resurrected, glorified, and exalted man — God has subjected all things (Heb. 2:7-9; Eph. 1:20-22).
1Co 15:28a subjected  -   Phil. 3:21; 1 Pet. 3:22
1Co 15:281 Him
Christ, according to v. 27, to whom God has subjected all things.
1Co 15:282 Son
Christ, the Son of God, as the head of mankind in His humanity, is under the headship of God the Father (11:3). This is for the government of God’s kingdom. After God the Father has subjected all things under the feet of Christ as a resurrected man in glory (Eph. 1:22; Heb. 2:7-8), and after Christ as such a resurrected man has put all enemies under His feet to execute God the Father’s subjection of all things to Him, He as the Son of God, along with His delivering of the kingdom back to God the Father (v. 24), will also subject Himself in His divinity to God, who has subjected all things to Him, the Son in His humanity. This indicates the Son’s absolute subjection and subordination to the Father, which exalts the Father that God the Father may be all in all.
1Co 15:283 Him
God, according to v. 27, who has subjected all things to Christ.
1Co 15:28b God  -   cf. 1 Cor. 3:23; 11:3
1Co 15:284c all  -   Eph. 1:23
The same Greek word as for all things at the beginning of this verse.
1Co 15:291 Otherwise
Considering vv. 20-28 a parenthesis, this verse should be connected with v. 18, and vv. 30-32 with v. 19.
1Co 15:292 baptized
This should not have been an official matter generally practiced by the early churches but a personal activity of some individual believers on behalf of dead persons for whom they were concerned, who might have believed in the Lord but not been baptized before they died. They did this in hope of the dead ones’ being resurrected from the dead at the Lord’s coming back (1 Thes. 4:16), since in baptism resurrection is strongly signified (Col. 2:12). The apostle used what they did to confirm the truth of resurrection. This does not mean, however, that he sanctioned some believers’ being baptized for the dead.
1Co 15:29a not  -   1 Cor. 15:12, 14, 16, 17, 32
1Co 15:30a danger  -   2 Cor. 11:26
1Co 15:311a boasting  -   2 Cor. 1:14; 9:3; Phil. 2:16; 1 Thes. 2:19
The Corinthian believers were the fruit of the apostle’s labor, a labor in which he risked his life. In them the apostle could boast of this. By this boasting he protested that daily he died, that is, daily he risked death, faced death, and died to self (2 Cor. 11:23; 4:11; 1:8-9; Rom. 8:36).
1Co 15:312 in
At this point, in his word concerning resurrection the apostle used his experience in the Lord’s work to confirm the matter of resurrection, especially the effect of Christ’s resurrection on him. The apostle’s boasting in the Corinthians, who were the fruit of his risking of his life, was in the resurrected Christ, not in himself, because his risking of death in his labor for them was not by himself but by the resurrected Christ.
1Co 15:31b die  -   Luke 9:23
See note 311.
1Co 15:321 after
In those days men fought against evil persons or matters in order to receive a temporal reward. But the apostle did not fight after that manner when he fought with evil persons and matters for the gospel’s sake. Rather, he fought according to a higher hope in order to be rewarded at the resurrection in the future (Luke 14:14; 2 Tim. 4:8).
1Co 15:322 wild
A figure of speech denoting evil persons or matters (2 Tim. 4:17).
1Co 15:32a Ephesus  -   Acts 19:23-32; 1 Cor. 16:8; 2 Cor. 1:8
1Co 15:32b not  -   1 Cor. 15:29
1Co 15:323 let
This appears to be a quotation of a saying of that day, a maxim of the Epicureans. If there is no resurrection, we believers have no hope for the future and have become the most miserable of all men (v. 19). If so, we had better enjoy our life today, forgetting the future, as the Epicureans did.
1Co 15:32c eat  -   Isa. 22:13; cf. Luke 12:19
1Co 15:33a deceived  -   1 Cor. 3:18; 6:9
1Co 15:331 Evil
This appears to be a quotation of a saying of that day, a fragment of a Greek poem. By this word the apostle warned the Corinthian believers not to have any companionship with those heretics who said that there is no resurrection. Such evil companionship would corrupt their faith and their Christian virtues.
1Co 15:332b companionships  -   Prov. 13:20
Or, company.
1Co 15:33c corrupt  -   cf. 1 Cor. 5:6
1Co 15:341a Awake  -   Rom. 13:11; Eph. 5:14
Or, Cease, righteously, to be drunken. Righteously means being right with God and with man. To say that there is no resurrection offends God and man. This is to commit sin and thereby be unrighteous. Hence, the apostle advised the misled Corinthians to awake soberly from this sin and restore a right relationship with God and man. They were drunken unrighteously in the stupor of the no-resurrection heresy. They needed to cease being in that stupor.
1Co 15:342 are
To be heretical in saying that there is no resurrection is to be ignorant of God, not knowing God’s power and economy (Matt. 22:29-32). This is a shame to the believers.
1Co 15:34b ignorant  -   1 Thes. 4:5
1Co 15:34c shame  -   1 Cor. 4:14; 6:5
1Co 15:361 what
The reality of resurrection is contained and concealed in nature, especially in the plant life. A seed sown into the earth dies and is made alive. This is resurrection. This answered the foolish Corinthians’ first question, “How are the dead raised?” (v. 35).
1Co 15:36a dies  -   John 12:24
1Co 15:381 body
Not the body sown to die (v. 37) but the resurrected body given by God, in a different shape and on a higher level. This answered the Corinthians’ foolish question, “With what kind of body do they come?” (v. 35).
1Co 15:391 All
In vv. 39-41 the apostle proved to the foolish Corinthians that God is able to give a body to all resurrected lives, just as He gave a body to all created things: to men and animals on the earth, to birds in the air, and to fish in the water — the earthly bodies with their different glories; and to the sun, the moon, and the stars — heavenly bodies with heavenly glory in varying degrees.
1Co 15:39a flesh  -   Gen. 2:24; 6:19-20; 7:21
1Co 15:39b men  -   Gen. 2:7
1Co 15:39c cattle  -   Gen. 1:24-25
1Co 15:39d birds  -   Gen. 1:20-21
1Co 15:41a sun  -   Matt. 17:2
1Co 15:41b moon  -   Rev. 12:1
1Co 15:41c stars  -   Dan. 12:3; Rev. 1:16, 20
1Co 15:42a also  -   Matt. 13:43
1Co 15:42b resurrection  -   Luke 14:14; Dan. 12:13
1Co 15:42c corruption  -   1 Cor. 15:50
1Co 15:42d raised  -   1 Cor. 15:52-54
1Co 15:43a glory  -   Phil. 3:21; Col. 3:4
1Co 15:441a soulish  -   1 Cor. 2:14
A soulish body is a natural body animated by the soul, a body in which the soul predominates. A spiritual body is a resurrected body saturated by the spirit, a body in which the spirit predominates. When we die, our natural body, being soulish, will be sown, i.e., buried, in corruption, in dishonor, and in weakness. When it is resurrected, it will become spiritual in incorruption, in glory, and in power (vv. 42-43).
1Co 15:44b spiritual  -   1 Cor. 2:15
See note 441.
1Co 15:44c body  -   Phil. 3:21
1Co 15:45a Adam  -   1 Cor. 15:22
1Co 15:45b living  -   Gen. 2:7
1Co 15:451 soul
Through creation Adam became a living soul with a soulish body. Through resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit with a spiritual body. Adam as a living soul is natural; Christ as a life-giving Spirit is resurrected. First, in incarnation He became flesh for redemption (John 1:14, 29); then, in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit for the imparting of life (John 10:10b). Through incarnation He had a soulish body, as Adam had; through resurrection He has a spiritual body. His soulish body has become a spiritual one through resurrection. Now He is a life-giving Spirit in resurrection, with a spiritual body, ready to be received by His believers. When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit. Hence, we become one spirit with Him (6:17). Our spirit is made alive and is resurrected with Him. Eventually, our present soulish body will become a spiritual body in resurrection, just like His (vv. 52-54; Phil. 3:21).
1Co 15:45c life-giving  -   2 Cor. 3:6; John 6:63; 5:21; Rom. 8:2, 11
1Co 15:461 the
Christ, the second man (v. 47).
1Co 15:462 the
Adam, the first man (v. 47).
1Co 15:471 out
Out of the earth denotes the origin of the first man, Adam, and earthy, his nature.
1Co 15:47a earth  -   Gen. 2:7; 3:19; John 3:31
1Co 15:472 second
Christ is not only the last Adam (v. 45) but also the second man. The first Adam (v. 45) is the beginning of mankind; the last Adam is the ending. As the first man, Adam is the head of the old creation, representing it in creation. As the second man, Christ is the Head of the new creation, representing it in resurrection. In the entire universe there are only two men: the first man, Adam, including all his descendants, and the second man, Christ, comprising all His believers. We believers were included in the first man by birth and became a part of the second man by regeneration. Our believing has transferred us out of the first man into the second. In regard to our being part of the first man, our origin is the earth and our nature is earthy. In regard to our being part of the second man, our origin is God and our nature is heavenly.
1Co 15:473 out
Out of heaven denotes both the divine origin and the heavenly nature of the second man, Christ.
1Co 15:47b heaven  -   John 3:13, 31
1Co 15:481 the
The first man, Adam, who is earthy.
1Co 15:482 they
All of Adam’s descendants, who are earthy, like Adam.
1Co 15:483 the
The second man, Christ, who is heavenly.
1Co 15:484 they
All the believers in Christ, who are heavenly, like Christ.
1Co 15:48a heavenly  -   Phil. 3:20
1Co 15:491a image  -   Gen. 5:3
As a part of Adam, we have borne the earthy man’s image through birth; as a part of Christ, we will bear the heavenly man’s image in resurrection. This indicates that just as in Adam we have been born as those who are earthy, so in Christ we will be resurrected as those who are heavenly. Such a resurrection is our destiny. It is as sure as our birth and should never be questioned.
1Co 15:49b image  -   2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2
See note 491.
1Co 15:501a flesh  -   Matt. 16:17; Gal. 1:16
Flesh and blood are the components of the soulish body, which is corruptible and is not qualified to inherit the kingdom of God, which is incorruptible. Corruption cannot inherit incorruption. Our corruptible body must be resurrected into an incorruptible one that we may be able to inherit the incorruptible kingdom of God in resurrection.
1Co 15:50b kingdom  -   John 3:3, 5; 1 Cor. 15:24
1Co 15:50c corruption  -   1 Cor. 15:42, 53-54; Acts 2:27, 31; 13:34-37; Rom. 8:21
1Co 15:50d incorruption  -   1 Cor. 15:52-54; 1 Pet. 1:23; cf. Rom. 2:7; 1 Pet. 1:4; 1 Cor. 9:25
1Co 15:51a a  -   1 Thes. 4:15-17
1Co 15:511 mystery
The transfiguration, including the resurrection, of our corruptible body into an incorruptible one (Phil. 3:21). This is mysterious to human understanding.
1Co 15:512b sleep  -   1 Cor. 11:30
I.e., die (11:30; John 11:11-13; 1 Thes. 4:13-16).
1Co 15:513c changed  -   Phil. 3:21
I.e., transfigured from corruption, dishonor, and weakness to incorruption, glory, and power (vv. 42-43). This is to have the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of Christ’s glory (Phil. 3:21).
1Co 15:521 last
The seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15), the trumpet of God (1 Thes. 4:16).
1Co 15:52a trumpet  -   1 Thes. 4:16; cf. Isa. 27:13; Zech. 9:14
1Co 15:522 dead
The dead in Christ, the dead believers (1 Thes. 4:16).
1Co 15:52b raised  -   1 Cor. 15:23; Luke 20:36
1Co 15:523 we
We believers who are living at the time of the Lord’s return. The dead saints will be resurrected first; then the living ones will be changed, transfigured, in rapture (1 Thes. 4:15-17).
1Co 15:531 this
Referring to our corruptible and mortal body, which must put on incorruption and immortality either through our being resurrected from the dead or through our being transfigured while still alive. This is mysterious and incomprehensible to the natural sight.
1Co 15:53a corruptible  -   1 Cor. 15:50
1Co 15:53b mortal  -   2 Cor. 5:4; 4:11; Rom. 6:12; 8:11
1Co 15:541 when
I.e., when our corrupted and mortal body is resurrected or transfigured from corruption and death into glory and life. Then death will be swallowed up unto victory. This is the consummation of the resurrection we share in God’s economy through the redemption and salvation in Christ. This resurrection begins with the enlivening of our dead spirit and is completed with the transfiguration of our corruptible body. Between these two ends is the process in which our fallen soul is metabolically transformed by the life-giving Spirit, who is the reality of resurrection (2 Cor. 3:18).
1Co 15:54a Death  -   Isa. 25:8; 1 Cor. 15:26; Heb. 2:14
1Co 15:54b swallowed  -   2 Cor. 5:4
1Co 15:542 unto
Death is a defeat to man. Through Christ’s salvation in the resurrection life, death will be swallowed up unto victory to us, the beneficiaries of Christ’s resurrection life.
1Co 15:543c victory  -   1 Cor. 15:57
This chapter is on resurrection. Christ’s resurrection was His victory over Satan, God’s enemy, over the world, over sin, and over death. After His triumphal ascension to the height (Eph. 4:8) in His resurrection, God subdued all the enemies for Him (v. 25). Then, as One who is in resurrection, He will come to the earth with the kingdom of God (Dan. 7:13-14) to exercise God’s power and subdue everything on earth. This will continue for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6). The last enemy to be abolished is death. The swallowing up of death will result in the ultimate victory of the Lord’s resurrection, that is, in the ultimate and complete victory that He has accomplished in resurrection for us who believe in Him and participate in His resurrection. This is the ultimate issue of His resurrection for His and God’s eternal kingdom and for the eternal enjoyment of His resurrection life in eternity by those who believe in Him.
1Co 15:551 Where
This is the apostle’s triumphant exclamation concerning the victory of resurrection life over death.
1Co 15:55a O  -   Hosea 13:14
1Co 15:55b sting  -   cf. Rev. 9:10; Luke 10:19
1Co 15:561 sting
Death is of the devil (Heb. 2:14), and through sin it stings us to death (Rom. 5:12). In God’s redemption Christ was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) in order that God might condemn sin through Christ’s death (Rom. 8:3), thus abolishing the sting of death. Then, through Christ’s resurrection death is swallowed up by the resurrection life.
1Co 15:56a death  -   Rom. 5:12, 14
1Co 15:562 power
Sin brings to us a curse and condemnation, both in our conscience and before God, through the law (Rom. 4:15; 5:13, 20; 7:7-8). Hence, the law becomes the power of sin to kill us (Rom. 7:10-11). Since Christ’s death has fulfilled the law’s requirements on us (1 Pet. 3:18; 2:24), the power of sin has been annulled. Through the death of Christ sin has been condemned and the law has been annulled, and through His resurrection death has been swallowed up. Therefore, we must give thanks to God, who gives us such a victory over sin and death through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 57).
1Co 15:56b sin  -   Rom. 7:17, 20
1Co 15:56c law  -   Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:13; 7:5, 8
1Co 15:57a thanks  -   2 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 7:25
1Co 15:571b victory  -   1 Cor. 15:54; cf. 2 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 8:37; 1 John 5:4-5
This victory over sin and death through Christ’s death and resurrection should not be merely an accomplished fact for our acceptance; it must become our daily experience in life through the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit (v. 45), who is one with our spirit (6:17). Hence, we should live by and walk according to this mingled spirit. Thus thanks will be given continuously to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:581a steadfast  -   1 Cor. 16:13; Phil. 1:27
To question the truth of resurrection is to be shaken. To be assured and remain in the reality of resurrection is to be steadfast, immovable.
1Co 15:582b work  -   1 Cor. 16:10
Not believing in the truth of resurrection causes us to be disappointed concerning our future, thus making us discouraged in the work of the Lord. Faith gives us a strong aspiration to abound in the work of the Lord with the expectation of pleasing the Lord in resurrection at His coming back.
1Co 15:583c labor  -   1 Cor. 3:8; 15:10
Not by our natural life and natural ability but by the Lord’s resurrection life and power. Our labor for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power will never be in vain, but will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose through the preaching of Christ to sinners, the ministering of life to the saints, and the building up of the church with the experiences of the processed Triune God as gold, silver, and precious stones (3:12). This labor will be rewarded by the returning Lord in the day of the resurrection of the righteous (3:14; Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 14:14).
1Co 15:58d in  -   1 Cor. 15:14; 1 Thes. 3:5
1 Corinthians Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
1Co 16:11a collection  -   Acts 11:29-30; 24:17; Rom. 15:26
This is the eleventh matter dealt with by the apostle in this Epistle, a matter concerned with money, mammon, and material possessions. All of fallen mankind is under the domination of mammon and material possessions (Matt. 6:19-21, 24-25, 30; 19:21-22; Luke 12:13-19). On the day of Pentecost, under the power of the Holy Spirit, all the believers overthrew this domination and had all their possessions in common for distribution to the needy ones (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32, 34-37). Because of the weakness of the believers’ fallen nature (cf. Acts 5:1-11; 6:1), that practice did not last long. It had already ended by the apostle Paul’s time. Hence, the believers needed grace to overcome the power of mammon and material things and to release these things from Satan’s domination that they might be offered to the Lord for the fulfillment of His purpose. Resurrection life is the supply for the believers to live such a life, a life trusting in God, not in material possessions, a life not for today but for the future, not for this age but for the coming age (Luke 12:16-21; 1 Tim. 6:17-19), a life that overthrows the usurpation of temporal and uncertain riches. This may be the reason that the dealing with this matter comes after the dealing concerning the reality of resurrection life. In any case, this dealing is related to God’s administration among the churches.
1Co 16:12 just
Again, this strongly indicates that all the local churches should be the same in their practice (7:17; 11:16; 14:33).
1Co 16:1b directed  -   1 Cor. 7:17
1Co 16:1c churches  -   Gal. 1:2
1Co 16:21a first  -   Acts 20:7; John 20:1; cf. Rev. 1:10
The seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, was a memorial of God’s creation (Gen. 2:1-3; Exo. 20:8, 11). The first day of the week is a symbol of the Lord’s resurrection; it is the day on which the Lord resurrected from the dead (John 20:1 and note 1) and is called “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). The New Testament saints meet and offer their possessions on this day (Acts 20:7), the day of the Lord’s resurrection, signifying that they have been resurrected with the Lord (Eph. 2:6) through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3) and that they meet in resurrection by the resurrection life, not by their natural life, to remember the Lord and worship God with their offerings.
1Co 16:3a send  -   2 Cor. 8:18-19
1Co 16:31 gift
Lit., grace. This was a kind of fellowship, under the apostle’s direction, of the churches in the Gentile world with the church in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:1-2; Rom. 15:25-27).
1Co 16:3b Jerusalem  -   Rom. 15:25
1Co 16:5a come  -   1 Cor. 4:19; 2 Cor. 1:15; Acts 20:2
1Co 16:5b Macedonia  -   Acts 19:21; 20:1; 2 Cor. 1:16; 8:1
1Co 16:6a winter  -   cf. Titus 3:12
1Co 16:6b send  -   1 Cor. 16:11; Acts 15:3; Rom. 15:24; 3 John 6
1Co 16:7a passing  -   2 Cor. 1:15-16
1Co 16:7b permits  -   Heb. 6:3; cf. 1 Cor. 4:19; Acts 18:21; James 4:15
1Co 16:81a Ephesus  -   1 Cor. 15:32; Acts 19:1, 26; 20:16-17
This Epistle was written in Ephesus, where the apostle stayed for three years on the third journey of his ministry (Acts 19:21-22; 20:1, 31).
1Co 16:8b Pentecost  -   cf. Acts 2:1
1Co 16:9a door  -   2 Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3; Acts 14:27; Rev. 3:8
1Co 16:9b opposers  -   Acts 19:9, 23, 29
1Co 16:10a Timothy  -   Acts 19:22; 1 Cor. 4:17; 2 Cor. 1:1
1Co 16:10b work  -   1 Cor. 15:58
1Co 16:11a despise  -   1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:15
1Co 16:11b send  -   1 Cor. 16:6
1Co 16:11c peace  -   Acts 15:33
1Co 16:121 concerning
By this the Corinthians should have realized that Paul’s attitude toward Apollos and his relationship with him were in sharp contrast to their preferences (1:11-12). His attitude and relationship kept the oneness; their preferences caused division.
1Co 16:12a Apollos  -   Acts 18:24; 1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4, 22; 4:6
1Co 16:122 I
Both Paul and Apollos were persons living in the Spirit. Yet, one urged the other to visit the church, but the other did not have the desire to do so. This shows that both had freedom in the Spirit and that the Spirit had freedom in them. This shows also that no one exercised any control over the work of the Lord.
1Co 16:12b will  -   see Acts 18:18–19:1
1Co 16:13a Watch  -   Matt. 24:42; 1 Pet. 5:8
1Co 16:131b stand  -   1 Cor. 15:1; 2 Cor. 1:24; Gal. 5:1; Phil. 1:27; 4:1; 1 Thes. 3:8; 2 Thes. 2:15
I.e., do not be shaken by any heresy, especially the one that says there is no resurrection.
1Co 16:132c faith  -   1 Tim. 3:9; 4:1; 2 Tim. 4:7
The objective faith; referring to what we believe.
1Co 16:133d full-grown  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:20
I.e., those who are strong in the faith and firm in their standing, not like a child in understanding (14:20) or like little children tossed by waves and carried about by the winds of teaching (Eph. 4:14). To be such men, growth in life is needed (3:1, 6). The Corinthian believers neglected the growth in life and were short of it.
1Co 16:13e strong  -   Heb. 11:34; Eph. 6:10; 2 Tim. 2:1
1Co 16:141a love  -   1 Cor. 8:1; 13:1-3, 13; 14:1; Rom. 13:8, 10
As defined in ch. 13.
1Co 16:15a Stephanas  -   1 Cor. 1:16
1Co 16:15b firstfruits  -   cf. Rom. 16:5
1Co 16:15c Achaia  -   2 Cor. 1:1
1Co 16:15d saints  -   Philem. 5
1Co 16:16a subject  -   Heb. 13:17
1Co 16:16b laboring  -   1 Thes. 5:12; 1 Tim. 5:17
1Co 16:17a filled  -   Phil. 2:30; 2 Cor. 11:9
1Co 16:181a refreshed  -   2 Cor. 7:13; Rom. 15:32; Philem. 7, 20
This must have been by the riches of Christ ministered by one’s spirit, which can touch others’ spirits.
1Co 16:182b spirit  -   2 Cor. 2:13; 1 Cor. 5:4; 14:14
Our contact and relationship with the saints must be in and by our spirit, not our soulish emotion.
1Co 16:18c Acknowledge  -   cf. Phil. 2:29; 1 Thes. 5:12
1Co 16:19a churches  -   Rev. 1:4, 11
1Co 16:19b Asia  -   Acts 16:6; 19:10, 22, 26, 27; 20:18; 2 Cor. 1:8; 1 Pet. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:15
1Co 16:19c Aquila  -   Acts 18:2; Rom. 16:3
1Co 16:191 church
This means that when Aquila and Prisca lived in Ephesus, the church there met in their home (Acts 18:18-19, 26). When they lived in Rome, the church in Rome met in their home (Rom. 16:5; cf. Col. 4:15-16; Philem. 2).
1Co 16:19d house  -   Rom. 16:5
1Co 16:20a kiss  -   Rom. 16:16; 1 Pet. 5:14
1Co 16:211 The
Verses 10-21 present a picture of the actual practice of the Body life in a beautiful harmony, not only among the apostle and his co-workers but also between them and the churches for the building up of the Body, which is so strongly stressed in chs. 12 — 14.
1Co 16:21a hand  -   Col. 4:18; 2 Thes. 3:17; Philem. 19; cf. Rom. 16:22
1Co 16:22a love  -   John 21:15-17; Eph. 6:24; Rev. 2:4
1Co 16:221b accursed  -   Rom. 9:3; Gal. 1:8-9; cf. 1 Cor. 12:3
Gk. anathema, meaning a thing or person accursed; i.e., set apart, devoted, to woe. Our loving God makes us those who are blessed of God to share the divine blessings that He has ordained and prepared for us, which are beyond our apprehension (2:9). Our not loving the Lord makes us those who are accursed, set apart to a curse. What a warning!
1Co 16:222 The
Maranatha, from Aramaic, meaning The Lord comes! or Our Lord come! It is an exclamation reminding us that the Lord’s second coming is with judgment.
1Co 16:22c Lord  -   Rev. 22:12, 20; Jude 14; 2 Tim. 4:1
1Co 16:231a grace  -   Rom. 16:20; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 6:18
See note 101 in ch. 15.
1Co 16:241a love  -   1 Cor. 4:21; 2 Cor. 2:4; 11:11; 12:15
Not a natural love but love in Christ, love in resurrection (4:21), the love of God that becomes ours through the grace of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Of Paul’s fourteen Epistles, only this one ends with such a word of the assurance of love. This is because the apostle had been dealing with them with strong rebukes (1:13; 3:3; 4:7-8; 5:2, 5; 6:5-8; 11:17). He was faithful, honest, and frank toward them in the love of God in Christ (2 Cor. 2:4), without being political. Hence, the Lord honored his dealings, and the Corinthians accepted his rebukes and repented, resulting in their being benefited (2 Cor. 7:8-13).
< 1 Corinthians • 2 Corinthians Outline >
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© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Corinthians Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1 — 2:11
A.   Greeting — 1:1-2
B.   The comfort of God — 1:3-11
1.   Comforted to comfort — vv. 3-4
2.   Pressed down unto despair — vv. 5-11
C.   The apostles’ boasting — 1:12-14
D.   Concerning the apostle’s coming — 1:15 — 2:11
1.   Being one with Christ — 1:15-22
2.   The reasons for the delay — 1:23 — 2:11
a.   To spare the Corinthians — 1:23-24
b.   Not to come in sorrow — 2:1-11
II.   The ministry of the new covenant — 2:12 — 3:11
A.   Its triumph and effect — 2:12-17
B.   Its function and competency — 3:1-6
C.   Its glory and superiority — 3:7-11
III.   The ministers of the new covenant — 3:12 — 7:16
A.   Constituted by and with the Lord as the life-giving and transforming Spirit — 3:12-18
B.   Conducting themselves for the shining of the gospel of Christ — 4:1-6
C.   Living a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life by the power of the treasure in the earthen vessels — 4:7-18
D.   Longing to be clothed upon with the transfigured body — 5:1-8
E.   Making it their aim to please the Lord by living to Him — 5:9-15
F.   Commissioned with the ministry of reconciliation for the Lord’s new creation — 5:16-21
G.   Working together with God by an all-fitting life — 6:1 — 7:16
1.   The work of the reconciling ministry — 6:1-2
2.   The adequate life of the reconciling ministry — 6:3-13
3.   A frank exhortation of the reconciling ministry — 6:14 — 7:1
4.   The intimate concern of the apostles’ ministering life — 7:2-16
IV.   The apostle’s fellowship concerning the ministry to the needy saints — 8:1 — 9:15
A.   The grace from four parties — 8:1-15
B.   Exercising foresight for what is honorable — 8:16-24
C.   Giving as a blessing, not as covetousness — 9:1-5
D.   Sowing for reaping the fruits of righteousness — 9:6-15
V.   Paul’s vindication of his apostolic authority — 10:1 — 13:10
A.   By the way of his warring — 10:1-6
B.   By the measure of God’s rule — 10:7-18
C.   By his jealousy for Christ — 11:1-15
D.   By his compelled boasting — 11:16 — 12:18
1.   Of his status, labor, and afflictions — 11:16-33
2.   Of the Lord’s vision and revelation to him — 12:1-10
3.   Of the signs of his apostleship — 12:11-18
E.   By the authority given to him — 12:19 — 13:10
VI.   Conclusion — 13:11-14
A.   Final exhortations — vv. 11-12
B.   Greeting — v. 13
C.   Blessing — v. 14
2 Corinthians >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Corinthians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 1:1a apostle  -   1 Cor. 1:1
2Co 1:11 will
See note 12 in 1 Cor. 1.
2Co 1:1b Timothy  -   1 Cor. 16:10
2Co 1:12c church  -   1 Cor. 1:2
See note 21 in 1 Cor. 1.
2Co 1:13 in
See note 22 in 1 Cor. 1.
2Co 1:14 with
See note 27 in 1 Cor. 1.
2Co 1:15d Achaia  -   Acts 18:27; 19:21; Rom. 15:26; 1 Cor. 16:15; 2 Cor. 9:2; 11:10; 1 Thes. 1:7-8
A province of the Roman Empire south of Macedonia. It constituted the greater part of today’s Greece, where the city of Corinth is.
2Co 1:2a Grace  -   Rom. 1:7
2Co 1:3a Blessed  -   Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3
2Co 1:3b God  -   Rom. 15:6
2Co 1:31 compassions
Or, mercies, pity, sympathy.
2Co 1:32c comfort  -   Rom. 15:5
Comfort implies being cheered. A title such as the Father of compassions and God of all comfort is ascribed here to God because this Epistle is one of comfort and encouragement, written by the apostle after he had been comforted and encouraged by the repentance of the Corinthian believers. The rebuking and condemning in the first Epistle to the Corinthians were intended to cause the Corinthian believers to turn back to and stress Christ; the comfort and encouragement in this Epistle were intended to bring them to experience and enjoy Christ.
2Co 1:4a comforts  -   2 Cor. 7:6-7
2Co 1:4b affliction  -   2 Cor. 1:8; 4:8, 17
2Co 1:41 able
We must first experience God’s comforting; then we are able to comfort others with the comfort from God that we have experienced.
The first Epistle to the Corinthians was the apostle’s argument, an argument that defeated and subdued the distracted and confused Corinthians. Now the second Epistle brought them back into the experience of Christ, who was the subject of his argument in the first Epistle. Hence, the second Epistle is more experiential, more subjective, and deeper than the first. In the first, Christ, the Spirit with our spirit, the church, and the gifts are covered as the major subjects. In the second, Christ, the Spirit with our spirit, and the church are developed further, but the gifts are not even mentioned. The gifts are replaced in this book by the ministry, which is constituted with, and produced and formed by, the experiences of the riches of Christ gained through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross. This Epistle gives us a pattern, an example, of how the killing of the cross works, how Christ is wrought into our being, and how we become the expression of Christ. These processes constitute the ministers of Christ and produce the ministry for God’s new covenant. The first Epistle deals negatively with the gifts; the second speaks positively about the ministry. The church needs the ministry much more than the gifts. The ministry is for ministering the Christ whom we have experienced, whereas the gifts are just for teaching the doctrines concerning Christ. Not the gifts but the ministry produced and formed by the experience of the sufferings, the afflictions, of Christ is the proof that the apostles are ministers of Christ.
2Co 1:4c comforting  -   2 Cor. 7:4
2Co 1:51a sufferings  -   Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24
Not sufferings for Christ but Christ’s own sufferings as shared by His disciples (Matt. 20:22; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24; 1 Pet. 4:13).
2Co 1:52 the
The Christ here is a designation of the condition of Christ; it is not a name (Darby). Here it refers to the suffering Christ, who suffered afflictions for His Body according to God’s will. The apostles participated in the sufferings of such a Christ, and through such a Christ they received comfort.
2Co 1:6a afflicted  -   Eph. 3:13
2Co 1:7a sufferings  -   Rom. 8:17; Phil. 1:29
2Co 1:8a ignorant  -   1 Cor. 12:1
2Co 1:8b Asia  -   Acts 19:23-32; 1 Cor. 15:32
2Co 1:81c burdened  -   2 Cor. 5:4
I.e., weighed down, pressed down. The same Greek word as in 5:4.
2Co 1:82d despaired  -   2 Cor. 4:8
In Greek the same word as for utterly without a way out in 4:8.
2Co 1:83 living
Or, life.
2Co 1:91 Indeed
In this book the apostle is presented as a pattern of a person living Christ in five aspects for the church: (1) not basing his confidence on himself but on God, who raises the dead (v. 9), which includes related matters such as conducting himself in the world not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God (v. 12) and being one with the unchanging Christ of the faithful God (vv. 18-20); (2) being attached to Christ, anointed and sealed by His Spirit, and captured, subdued, and led by Him to scatter His savor (vv. 21-22; 2:14-16); (3) being sufficient of Christ as the spiritual alphabet to write living letters with the life-giving Spirit of the living God (3:3-6); (4) having the shining of the glory of the new covenant (3:7-11); and (5) being transformed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit, by beholding and reflecting like a mirror His glory with unveiled face (3:16-18).
2Co 1:92 response
Or, answer. When the apostles were under the pressure of affliction, despairing even of life, they might have asked themselves what the issue of their suffering would be. The answer or response was “death.” This led them to the vital decision not to base their confidence on themselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2Co 1:9a death  -   1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 4:11-12
2Co 1:9b not  -   Luke 9:23
2Co 1:9c confidence  -   Phil. 3:3
2Co 1:9d on  -   Psa. 25:2; 26:1; Jer. 17:5, 7
2Co 1:93 God
The experience of death ushers us into the experience of resurrection. Resurrection is the very God, who resurrects the dead. The working of the cross terminates our self that we may experience God in resurrection. The experience of the cross always issues in the enjoyment of the God of resurrection. Such experience produces and forms the ministry (vv. 4-6). This is further described in 4:7-12.
2Co 1:9e raises  -   2 Cor. 4:14
2Co 1:10a delivered  -   Rom. 15:31; 2 Pet. 2:9
2Co 1:101 will
Referring to the immediate future (indicating continuity).
2Co 1:10b hoped  -   1 Tim. 4:10
2Co 1:111 help
Or, work together. This must refer to the believers’ coordinating with and rendering help in God’s deliverance and the apostles’ hope mentioned in the preceding verse.
2Co 1:11a petition  -   Phil. 1:19; Philem. 22
2Co 1:112 gift
Referring to the grace given (v. 12), the resurrected Christ Himself, who is the grace that the apostles enjoyed in the experience of resurrection out of death (vv. 9-10). This is the gift of grace, which is different from the gifts of abilities mentioned in 1 Cor. 12 and 14. The gift of grace is inward for life, and the gifts of abilities are outward for function.
2Co 1:11b thanks  -   2 Cor. 4:15; 9:11-12
2Co 1:113 persons
Lit., faces; implying that thanks are given by cheerful countenances.
2Co 1:121a conscience  -   Acts 23:1; 2 Tim. 1:3; Rom. 9:1
We must have a pure conscience (2 Tim. 1:3), a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16), that can bear a testimony to what we are and do.
2Co 1:122 singleness
Or, simplicity. Some MSS read, holiness. The apostles’ situation of death forced them to be simple, that is, not to base their confidence on themselves or on their natural human ability to work out a solution to their difficult situation. This was the testimony of their conscience and was their confidence (v. 15).
2Co 1:123b sincerity  -   2 Cor. 2:17
A divine virtue, a virtue of what God is. To conduct ourselves in such a virtue means to experience God Himself. Hence, to conduct ourselves in such a virtue is to be in the grace of God (later in the verse).
2Co 1:124 fleshly
I.e., human wisdom in the flesh. This equals ourselves, just as the grace of God equals God Himself.
2Co 1:12c wisdom  -   1 Cor. 2:4, 5, 13; James 3:15
2Co 1:125d grace  -   1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9
God for our enjoyment (see note 101 in 1 Cor. 15). Grace here is the gift in v. 11, which the apostles received for the experience of resurrection in their sufferings.
2Co 1:14a in  -   2 Cor. 2:5
2Co 1:14b boast  -   2 Cor. 5:12
2Co 1:14c ours  -   2 Cor. 9:3; 1 Cor. 15:31; Phil. 2:16; 1 Thes. 2:19
2Co 1:141d day  -   1 Cor. 1:8
See note 131 in 1 Cor. 3.
2Co 1:15a come  -   1 Cor. 4:19
2Co 1:151 double
Lit., second; referring to the double grace bestowed by the apostle’s coming to Corinth twice, once in this verse and again in the next verse. Through the apostle’s coming, the grace of God, that is, the imparting of God as the life supply and spiritual enjoyment, was bestowed on the believers. His two comings would bring them a double portion of such grace.
2Co 1:15b grace  -   Rom. 1:11; Philem. 22
2Co 1:161a Macedonia  -   Acts 19:21; 20:1; 1 Cor. 16:5
A province of the Roman Empire, north of Achaia. The cities of Philippi and Thessalonica were in Macedonia.
2Co 1:16b Judea  -   Acts 19:21
2Co 1:17a according  -   2 Cor. 10:2-3
2Co 1:181 But
But gives a contrast. In the preceding verse the apostle referred to the charge that he was a man of yes and no. In this verse he defended himself by saying that because God is faithful, the word of their preaching was not yes and no. Hence, they were not fickle persons of yes and no. Their being was according to their preaching. They lived according to what they preached.
2Co 1:18a faithful  -   1 Cor. 1:9
2Co 1:182b word  -   2 Cor. 2:17
The word of the apostles’ preaching (1 Cor. 1:18), their message concerning Christ (v. 19).
2Co 1:191 For
For introduces the reason for what is mentioned in the preceding verse. God is faithful, never changing, especially in His promises concerning Christ. Hence, the word the apostles preached concerning Christ was likewise never changing, because the very Christ whom God promised in His faithful word and whom they preached in their gospel did not become yes and no. Rather, in Him is yes. Since the Christ whom they preached according to God’s promises did not become yes and no, the word they preached concerning Him was not yes and no. Not only their preaching but also their living was according to what Christ is. They preached Christ and lived Him. They were not men of yes and no but men who were the same as Christ.
2Co 1:192 Silvanus
I.e., Silas. See Acts 15:22; 18:5.
2Co 1:19a yes  -   Heb. 13:8
2Co 1:201 For
Again, for introduces the reason for what is mentioned in the preceding verse. Christ, whom the faithful God promised and whom the sincere apostles preached, did not become yes and no, did not change, because in Him is the Yes of all the promises of God, and through Him is the apostles’ and the believers’ Amen to God for His glory.
2Co 1:20a promises  -   Rom. 15:8; Gal. 3:17; Eph. 2:12; Heb. 6:13; 10:23
2Co 1:202 Him
Christ.
2Co 1:203 Yes
Christ is the Yes, the incarnate answer, the fulfillment of all the promises of God to us.
2Co 1:204 the
The Amen given by us through Christ to God (cf. 1 Cor. 14:16). Christ is the Yes, and we say Amen to this Yes before God.
2Co 1:20b Amen  -   Rev. 3:14; 1 Cor. 14:16
2Co 1:205 for
When we say Amen before God to the fact that Christ is the Yes, the fulfillment, of all the promises of God, God is glorified through us.
2Co 1:20c glory  -   Eph. 3:21
2Co 1:206 us
Referring not only to the apostles, who preached Christ according to God’s promises, but also to the believers, who received Christ according to the apostles’ preaching. Through us there is glory unto God when we say Amen to Christ as the great Yes of all God’s promises.
2Co 1:211 But
The apostles, who preached Christ according to God’s promises and lived Christ according to their preaching, and the believers, who received Christ according to the apostles’ preaching, are joined to Christ, becoming one with Him, through whom they say Amen before God to the great Yes of God’s promises, which is Christ Himself. But it is not they but God who attaches them all together unto Christ. Their being one with Christ is of God and by God, not of themselves and by themselves.
2Co 1:212 firmly
Lit., establishes. God establishes the apostles with the believers in Christ. This means that God firmly attaches the apostles together with the believers unto Christ, the anointed One. Hence, the apostles and the believers are one not only with Christ, the anointed One, but also with one another, sharing the anointing that Christ has received of God.
2Co 1:213 us
I.e., the apostles with the believers have been attached to Christ, the anointed One. This shows that the apostles ranked themselves with the believers in being attached to Christ by the anointing Spirit, not considering themselves a special group separate from the believers in God’s all-inclusive salvation.
2Co 1:214 with
I.e., together with.
2Co 1:215 Christ
I.e., the anointed One (Dan. 9:26, lit.).
2Co 1:216a anointed  -   1 John 2:20, 27; Luke 4:18; Psa. 133:2; Exo. 30:25, 30
Since we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God.
2Co 1:221a sealed  -   Eph. 1:13; 4:30
The anointing in the preceding verse is the sealing. Since God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him. See note 131 in Eph. 1.
2Co 1:222 hearts
The Spirit, the earnest of God as our portion, is a foretaste to us; thus, here it says that He is in our hearts. Romans 5:5 and Gal. 4:6 refer to the matter of love and, hence, speak of the Spirit in our heart. But Rom. 8:16 refers to the work of the Spirit, since it says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. Our heart is a loving organ, but our spirit is a working one.
2Co 1:223b pledge  -   2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:14
The seal is a mark that marks us out as God’s inheritance, God’s possession, as those who belong to God. The pledge is an earnest, guaranteeing that God is our inheritance, or possession, and belongs to us (see note 141 in Eph. 1). The Spirit within us is the pledge, an earnest, of God as our portion in Christ.
God’s attaching us to Christ issues in three things: (1) an anointing that imparts God’s elements into us; (2) a sealing that forms the divine elements into an impression to express God’s image; and (3) a pledging that gives us a foretaste as a sample and guarantee of the full taste of God. Through these three experiences of the anointing Spirit, with the experience of the cross, the ministry of Christ is produced.
2Co 1:23a witness  -   Rom. 1:9; Phil. 1:8
2Co 1:231 against
Lit., upon. The apostle called on, or asked, God to be a witness against his soul, that is, against himself, should he speak falsely.
2Co 1:23b soul  -   Heb. 4:12; 1 Cor. 2:14
2Co 1:232c spare  -   2 Cor. 13:2
The apostle would not come to visit the Corinthian believers with a rod for discipline, but in love and a spirit of meekness for building (1 Cor. 4:21). In order to avoid any unpleasant feeling, he refrained from coming. He treated them leniently and would not come to them in sorrow (2:1). He did not like to lord it over their faith but wished to be a fellow worker with them for their joy (v. 24). This was the truth. He called on God to witness to this for him.
2Co 1:23d come  -   2 Cor. 1:15
2Co 1:24a lord  -   1 Pet. 5:3
2Co 1:241 faith
For the believers to stand in the objective faith (1 Cor. 16:13 and note 2), subjective faith is needed. Lording it over their subjective faith weakens it, but being a fellow worker with them for their joy strengthens it.
2Co 1:24b stand  -   1 Cor. 15:1; 16:13
2 Corinthians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 2:11 determined
The same Greek word as for judged.
2Co 2:1a come  -   1 Cor. 4:21
2Co 2:1b sorrow  -   2 Cor. 2:5; 7:8-10
2Co 2:31a wrote  -   2 Cor. 2:9
In the first Epistle.
2Co 2:3b not  -   2 Cor. 12:20-21
2Co 2:3c confidence  -   2 Cor. 8:22; Gal. 5:10; 2 Thes. 3:4
2Co 2:4a wrote  -   2 Cor. 7:8, 12
2Co 2:4b tears  -   Acts 20:19
2Co 2:4c love  -   2 Cor. 11:11; 12:15
2Co 2:5a sorrow  -   2 Cor. 2:2
2Co 2:5b in  -   2 Cor. 1:14
2Co 2:51 lay
I.e., apply pressure too heavily, press too heavily, say too much. The apostle said here that the offender caused in part all the church to sorrow. He said “in part” lest he press too heavily, lest he say too much. This indicates that he was a tender, cautious, and considerate person.
2Co 2:6a punishment  -   1 Tim. 5:20
2Co 2:71a forgive  -   2 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13
Or, deal graciously with.
2Co 2:81 confirm
I.e., formally prove by sure evidence.
2Co 2:8a love  -   Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:14
2Co 2:9a wrote  -   2 Cor. 2:3, 4
2Co 2:91 know
Know your approvedness means put you to the test.
2Co 2:92 approvedness
Or, tested character.
2Co 2:9b obedient  -   2 Cor. 7:15; 10:6
2Co 2:101a forgive  -   cf. John 20:23
Or, deal graciously with.
2Co 2:102 forgiven
Or, dealt graciously with.
2Co 2:103 person
Lit., face; as in 4:6. The part around the eyes; the look as the index of the inward thoughts and feelings, which shows forth and manifests the whole person. This indicates that the apostle was one who lived and acted in the presence of Christ, according to the index of His whole person, expressed in His eyes. The first section, 1:1 — 2:11, is a long introduction to this Epistle, which follows the apostle’s first Epistle to the disorderly believers in Corinth. After receiving information that they had repented (7:6-13) through their accepting of his rebukes in the first Epistle, he was comforted and encouraged. Thus, he wrote this Epistle to comfort and encourage them in a very personal, tender, and affectionate way, in such a way that this Epistle can be considered to some extent his autobiography. In it we see a person who lived Christ according to what he wrote concerning Him in his first Epistle, in the closest and most intimate contact with Him, acting according to the index of His eyes; a person who was one with Christ, full of Christ, and saturated with Christ; a person who was broken and even terminated in his natural life, softened and flexible in his will, affectionate yet restricted in his emotion, considerate and sober in his mind, and pure and genuine in his spirit toward the believers for their benefit, that they might experience and enjoy Christ as he did for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose in the building up of Christ’s Body.
2Co 2:111a Satan  -   Luke 22:31; 1 Pet. 5:8
This discloses that the evil one, Satan, is behind the scenes in everything and works in everything.
2Co 2:11b ignorant  -   cf. Matt. 13:25, 28
2Co 2:112c schemes  -   Eph. 6:11
I.e., plans, plots, devices, designs, wiles, intentions, purposes.
2Co 2:121 Furthermore
In addition to what he mentioned in vv. 10-11, the apostle also told the Corinthian believers of his concern for them. Although in Troas a door had been opened to him, even in the Lord, he had no rest in his spirit when he did not find Titus, whom he was anxious to meet to gain information concerning the effect of his first Epistle among the Corinthians. Then he left Troas and went forth to Macedonia (v. 13), being anxious to meet Titus to obtain the information. This showed his great affection for the Corinthians. His concern for the church was much greater than his concern for the preaching of the gospel.
2Co 2:12a Troas  -   Acts 16:8; 20:6; 2 Tim. 4:13
2Co 2:12b door  -   1 Cor. 16:9
2Co 2:122 in
Or, by the Lord; i.e., not by human effort.
2Co 2:131a spirit  -   1 Cor. 16:18; Rom. 1:9; Psa. 77:3, 6; Dan. 7:15; Ezek. 3:14
This indicates that the apostle was one who lived and acted in his spirit, as indicated in 1 Cor. 16:18.
2Co 2:13b Titus  -   2 Cor. 7:6
2Co 2:132c Macedonia  -   2 Cor. 1:16; 7:5; 8:1; 9:2, 4
This Epistle was written in Macedonia after Paul’s stay in Ephesus on the third journey of his ministry (8:1; Acts 20:1).
2Co 2:14a thanks  -   1 Cor. 15:57; 2 Cor. 8:16; 9:15
2Co 2:141 leads
“The verb here used…means to lead a man as a captive in a triumphal procession; the full phrase means to lead captive in a triumph over the enemies of Christ.…God is celebrating His triumph over His enemies; Paul (who had been so great an opponent of the gospel) is a captive following in the train of the triumphal procession, yet (at the same time, by a characteristic change of metaphor) an incense-bearer, scattering incense (which was always done on these occasions) as the procession moves on. Some of the conquered enemies were put to death when the procession reached the Capitol; to them the smell of the incense was ‘an odor of death unto death’; to the rest who were spared, ‘an odor of life unto life’” (Conybeare). (The same metaphor is used in Col. 2:15.) God always leads the apostles in such a triumphant way for their ministry.
In the second section of this Epistle, 2:12 — 7:16, the apostle spoke about his and his co-workers’ ministry. He first likened their ministry to a celebration of Christ’s victory. Their move in their ministry for Christ was like a triumphal procession going from one place to another under God’s leading. He and his co-workers were Christ’s captives, bearing the fragrant incense of Christ, for His triumphant glory. They had been conquered by Christ and had become His captives in the train of His triumph, scattering the fragrance of Christ from place to place. This was their ministry for Him.
2Co 2:142 us
As conquered and captured captives in the train of Christ’s triumph, celebrating and participating in Christ’s triumph. The apostles were such captives; their move as captives of Christ in their ministry for Him was God’s celebration of Christ’s victory over His enemies.
2Co 2:14b triumph  -   Col. 2:15
2Co 2:143 the
See note 52 in ch. 1.
2Co 2:144c savor  -   Psa. 45:8; S.S. 1:3; Eph. 5:2; cf. Phil. 4:18
“According to the Greek usage, savor and knowledge are in apposition, so that the knowledge of Christ is symbolized as an odor communicating its nature and efficacy through the apostle’s work” (Vincent).
2Co 2:14d knowledge  -   Phil. 3:8
2Co 2:145 us
As incense-bearers, scattering the savor of the knowledge of Christ in His triumphant ministry as in a triumphal procession. The apostles were incense-bearers in the ministry of Christ as well as captives in the train of His triumph.
2Co 2:151 are
The apostles, being permeated with Christ, became a fragrance of Christ. They were not merely a sweet savor produced by Christ, but Christ Himself was the savor being exhaled in their life and work to God, both in those who were being saved, as a savor out of life unto life, and in those who were perishing, as a savor out of death unto death.
2Co 2:15a fragrance  -   cf. S.S. 4:10, 11, 13-14, 16
2Co 2:15b saved  -   Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 15:2
2Co 2:15c perishing  -   2 Cor. 4:3; 1 Cor. 1:18
2Co 2:16a savor  -   cf. 1 Pet. 2:7-8
2Co 2:161 unto
I.e., resulting in death…resulting in life. Referring to the effect of the apostles’ ministry in two different aspects on different persons. It is a matter of life and death! Only the captives of God in Christ, who are saturated with Christ by the Spirit, are sufficient and qualified for this (3:5-6).
2Co 2:16b death  -   Acts 13:46
2Co 2:16c life  -   Acts 13:48
2Co 2:162d sufficient  -   2 Cor. 3:5-6
Or, competent, qualified, fit, worthy. The same Greek word as in 3:5.
2Co 2:171a adulterating  -   cf. 2 Cor. 4:2
The Greek word means retailing, hawking. Originally, it referred to the selling of inferior items at high prices in a tricky way by peddlers who were of low class. Many engaged in this kind of hawking, adulterating the word of God for their profit, but the apostles did not. Out of sincerity and out of God in their ministry, they spoke in Christ the word of God in the sight of God. How sincere and genuine were the apostles in their ministry!
2Co 2:17b sincerity  -   2 Cor. 1:12
2Co 2:172 speak
I.e., minister the word of God.
2 Corinthians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 3:1a commend  -   2 Cor. 4:2; 5:12; 10:12
2Co 3:1b letters  -   Acts 18:27; 1 Cor. 16:3
2Co 3:21 our
The believers were the fruit of the apostles’ labor, commending the apostles and their ministry to others. Thus, they became the apostles’ living letter of commendation, written by the apostles with the indwelling Christ as the content in every part of their inner being.
2Co 3:2a letter  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:2
2Co 3:22 our
The Corinthian believers, as the apostles’ living letter of commendation, were inscribed in the apostles’ hearts; thus, they were carried by the apostles and could not possibly be severed from the apostles. They were in the apostles’ hearts (7:3), brought by them everywhere as their living commendation.
2Co 3:31 letter
A letter of Christ is written with Christ as the content to convey and express Christ. All Christ’s believers should be such a living letter of Christ, that others may read and know Christ in their beings.
2Co 3:32 ministered
I.e., written by the ministry of the apostles. The apostles were filled with Christ, so that their ministry spontaneously ministered Christ to those whom they contacted, inscribing Christ in their hearts and making them living letters that conveyed Christ. That the letters were inscribed both in the apostles’ hearts (v. 2) and in the believers’ hearts (v. 3) shows that the proper new covenant ministry, described in this book, always writes something both in the hearts of those who receive the ministry and in the hearts of those who minister. This kind of ministry is in the way of life, with the life-giving Spirit as the essence of the writing (see v. 6 and note 33).
2Co 3:33 with
The Spirit of the living God, who is the living God Himself, is not the instrument, like a pen, but the element, like ink used in writing, with which the apostles minister Christ as the content for the writing of living letters that convey Christ.
2Co 3:3a Spirit  -   2 Cor. 3:6, 17, 18
2Co 3:3b living  -   Matt. 16:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:12
2Co 3:3c tablets  -   Exo. 24:12; Deut. 4:13
2Co 3:34d hearts  -   Heb. 8:10; Prov. 3:3; 7:3
Our heart, composed of our conscience (the leading part of our spirit), our mind, our emotion, and our will, is the tablet in which the living letters of Christ are written with the living Spirit of God. This implies that Christ is written into every part of our inner being with the Spirit of the living God to make us His living letters, that He may be expressed and read by others in us.
2Co 3:4a confidence  -   Eph. 3:12
2Co 3:51a sufficient  -   2 Cor. 2:16
See note 162 in ch. 2.
2Co 3:52 account
Or, reckon, evaluate.
2Co 3:53 sufficiency
Or, competency, qualification. The living God Himself is the sufficiency, competency, and qualification of the apostles’ ministry for God’s New Testament economy, which is to dispense Christ into God’s chosen people for the building up of Christ’s Body.
2Co 3:5b from  -   cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; Matt. 10:20
2Co 3:6a sufficient  -   2 Cor. 2:16
2Co 3:6b ministers  -   Eph. 3:7; Col. 1:23, 25
2Co 3:6c new  -   Jer. 31:31; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 8:8, 13; 9:15
2Co 3:61 letter
The written code of the law.
2Co 3:62d Spirit  -   Rom. 2:29; 7:6
The Spirit of the living God, with whom the apostles ministered Christ into the believers to make them the living letters of Christ (v. 3). Unlike the Mosaic ministry for the Old Testament, the apostolic ministry for the New Testament is not of dead letters but of the living Spirit, who gives life.
2Co 3:63 letter
The letter of the law, which only requires of man. It is unable to supply man with life (Gal. 3:21). Because of man’s inability to fulfill the requirements of the law, the law kills man (Rom. 7:9-11).
2Co 3:64e Spirit  -   1 Cor. 15:45; John 6:63
The Spirit, the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, who became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), imparts the divine life, even God Himself, into the believers and the apostles, making them ministers of a new covenant, the covenant of life. Hence, their ministry is one constituted with the Triune God of life by His life-giving Spirit.
2Co 3:71 ministry
The ministry of the old covenant, a covenant of the dead letter, which kills.
2Co 3:7a death  -   Rom. 7:9, 11, 13
2Co 3:7b stone  -   Exo. 34:1; Deut. 10:1-3
2Co 3:72c glory  -   Exo. 34:29-35; cf. 2 Cor. 4:6
The glory that shone temporarily and only on Moses’ face (Exo. 34:29, 35).
2Co 3:81a ministry  -   2 Cor. 4:1; 5:18
The apostolic ministry of the new covenant, a covenant of the living Spirit, who gives life.
2Co 3:8b Spirit  -   Gal. 3:5
2Co 3:82 glory
The glory of God manifested in the face of Christ, which is God Himself shining forever in the hearts of the apostles (4:6), surpassing the glory of the Mosaic ministry of the old covenant (v. 10).
2Co 3:91a condemnation  -   Rom. 3:20; 5:13, 20; 7:7
The ministry of the old covenant became one of death (v. 7) because the old covenant brought in condemnation unto death (Rom. 5:13, 18, 20-21). Hence, it was also the ministry of condemnation.
2Co 3:92b righteousness  -   Rom. 1:17; 3:21-22; 5:17, 19, 21
The ministry of the new covenant is a ministry of the Spirit who gives life (vv. 8, 6), because the new covenant brings in God’s righteousness unto life (Rom. 5:18, 21). Hence, it is also the ministry of righteousness, the ministry of justification. The focus of the ministry of the new covenant is thus both the Spirit as the life supply, and righteousness, the living out and genuine expression of Christ (the image of God), who as the Spirit is our life (v. 17).
2Co 3:93 abounds
The apostolic ministry of the new covenant not only has glory but also abounds with the glory of God, which surpasses the glory of the Mosaic ministry of the old covenant (v. 10).
2Co 3:101 glorified
Temporarily in the shining of Moses’ face.
2Co 3:102 in
I.e., in the fact that the glory of the ministry of the law was a temporary glory shining on Moses’ face. In this respect it was being done away with on account of the surpassing glory. Because of the glory of the new covenant ministry (which is the glory of God, even God Himself, manifested in the face of Christ forever, surpassing the temporary glory of the old covenant ministry, which was shining on Moses’ face), the temporary glory of the ministry of the law disappeared and no longer exists.
2Co 3:103 has
I.e., was being done away with (v. 7).
2Co 3:111 being
I.e., in the process of being abolished through the spreading of the new covenant ministry.
2Co 3:112 through
Verses 7-11 show the inferiority of the glory of the Mosaic ministry, the ministry of the law, a ministry of condemnation and death, and the superiority of the apostolic ministry, the ministry of grace, a ministry of righteousness and the Spirit. The former was through glory in a temporary way; the latter remains in glory forever.
In 2:12-17 the apostle spoke of the triumph and effect of the apostolic ministry. In vv. 1-6 of this chapter he spoke of its function and competency, and in vv. 7-11, of its glory and superiority.
2Co 3:11a glory  -   2 Cor. 3:7, 9
2Co 3:11b glory  -   2 Cor. 3:8-10
2Co 3:121 hope
I.e., the hope that the shining glory of the new covenant ministry will remain forever. The apostles’ having hope was in contrast to Moses’ lacking hope because of the fading glory of his old covenant ministry of the law, which was being done away with (v. 13).
2Co 3:122a boldness  -   2 Cor. 7:4; Eph. 6:19
The Greek word implies speaking. In contrast to Moses, who covered his face with a veil (v. 13), the apostles had the boldness to speak openly and freely concerning their ministry, not hiding, not dissembling.
2Co 3:13a veil  -   Exo. 34:33, 35
2Co 3:131 at
While Moses spoke the word of God to the sons of Israel, he kept his glorified face unveiled. But after speaking, he veiled his face (Exo. 34:29-33) lest they see the end of his ministry, which was passing away. He did not want them to behold the termination of his ministry of the law, which was being done away with.
2Co 3:141a thoughts  -   2 Cor. 4:4; Isa. 6:9-10
“Originally, things which proceed out of the mind.…Phil. 4:7…2 Cor. 2:11. Hence, derivatively, the minds themselves” (Vincent).
2Co 3:14b hardened  -   Mark 6:52; Rom. 11:7-8, 25
2Co 3:14c reading  -   Acts 13:15; 15:21
2Co 3:142 it
It refers to the fact that the veil is being done away with in Christ. Since this fact had not been unveiled to the sons of Israel, their thoughts were hardened and their minds were blinded. The veil is being done away with in Christ through the new covenant economy, yet it still remains on their heart when they read the old covenant (v. 15).
2Co 3:151 Moses
Referring to Moses’ writings, the Pentateuch (John 5:47).
2Co 3:161 their
This indicates that when their heart is away from the Lord, the veil lies on their heart. When their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Actually, their turned-away heart is the veil. To turn their heart to the Lord is to take away the veil.
2Co 3:16a veil  -   Isa. 25:7
2Co 3:171 And
Or, furthermore, in addition. When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. In addition to this, furthermore, the Lord is the Spirit, who would give us freedom. Since the Lord is the Spirit, when the heart turns to Him, the veil is taken away and the heart is freed from the bondage of the letter of the law.
2Co 3:172 Lord
According to the context of this section, which begins at 2:12, the Lord here must refer to Christ the Lord (2:12, 14-15, 17; 3:3-4, 14, 16; 4:5). This then is a strong word in the Bible, telling us emphatically that Christ is the Spirit. “The Lord Christ of v. 16 is the Spirit who pervades and animates the new covenant of which we are ministers (v. 6), and the ministration of which is with glory (v. 8). Compare Rom. 8:9-11; John 14:16, 18” (Vincent). “The Lord of v. 16, is the Spirit…which giveth life, v. 6: meaning, ‘the Lord,’ as here spoken of, ‘Christ,’ ‘is the Spirit,’ is identical with the Holy Spirit…Christ, here, is the Spirit of Christ” (Alford). “All that transforming and indwelling Spirit is Christ Himself. ‘The Lord is the Spirit’” (Williston Walker).
2Co 3:173a Spirit  -   1 Cor. 15:45; John 7:39; Rev. 2:7; 22:17
The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, was not yet in John 7:39, because at that time Jesus had not yet been glorified. He had not yet finished the process that He, as the embodiment of God, had to pass through. After His resurrection, that is, after the finishing of all the processes, such as incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, that the Triune God had to pass through in man for His redemptive economy, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In the New Testament, this life-giving Spirit is called “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:16, 23, 26-27; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 6:8; Rev. 2:7; 3:22; 14:13; 22:17), the Spirit who gives us the divine life (v. 6; John 6:63) and frees us from the bondage of the law.
2Co 3:174b Spirit  -   Gal. 4:6
The Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself, with whom is freedom.
2Co 3:175c freedom  -   John 8:32; Gal. 5:1
Freedom from the letter of the law under the veil (Gal. 2:4; 5:1).
2Co 3:181 But
But indicates that we believers are different from the children of Israel. They were veiled, but we with unveiled face behold and reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord and are thus being transformed into the same image as the Lord from glory to glory.
2Co 3:182 we
The apostles, who, as the examples and representatives of all believers, are the ministers of Christ. In vv. 8-9 the glory is related to the ministry of the new covenant. Here the glory is related to the apostles, the ministers of the new covenant. This shows that the ministry of the new covenant is not merely an activity carried out by the new covenant ministers; rather, it is what the new covenant ministers are. They are one with their ministry, for the same invisible glory saturates and pervades both their work and their being, so that there is no difference between the two.
2Co 3:183 unveiled
In contrast to the veiled mind, the veiled heart (vv. 14-15). That our face is unveiled means that our heart has turned to the Lord, so that the veil has been taken away, and the Lord as the Spirit has freed us from the bondage, the veiling, of the law, so that there is no more insulation between us and the Lord.
2Co 3:184a beholding  -   Psa. 27:4
To behold the glory of the Lord is to see the Lord ourselves; to reflect the glory of the Lord is to enable others to see Him through us.
2Co 3:185b mirror  -   1 Cor. 13:12
We are like mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord. This being the case, our face should be fully unveiled that we may see well and reflect properly.
2Co 3:186c glory  -   2 Cor. 3:7; 4:4, 6; John 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:17; Heb. 2:9
I.e., the glory of the Lord, the resurrected and ascended One, who as both God and man passed through incarnation, human living on the earth, and crucifixion, entered into resurrection, accomplished full redemption, and became a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, He dwells in us to make Himself and all that He has accomplished, obtained, and attained real to us, that we may be one with Him and be transformed into the same image as the Lord from glory to glory.
2Co 3:187 being
When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. Being transformed indicates that we are in the process of transformation.
2Co 3:18d transformed  -   Rom. 12:2
2Co 3:188 same
The image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. To be transformed into the same image is to be conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).
2Co 3:18e image  -   Col. 3:10; Heb. 1:3; 1 Cor. 15:49
2Co 3:189 from
I.e., from one degree of glory to another. This indicates an ongoing process in life in resurrection.
2Co 3:18f glory  -   Heb. 2:10
2Co 3:1810 from
From indicates that the transformation is proceeding from the Spirit rather than being caused by Him.
2Co 3:1811 Lord
The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. Again, this expression strongly proves and confirms that the Lord Christ is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Lord Christ. In this chapter, this Spirit is revealed as the inscribing Spirit (v. 3), the Spirit who gives life (v. 6), the ministering Spirit (v. 8), the freeing Spirit (v. 17), and the transforming Spirit (v. 18). Such an all-inclusive Spirit is crucial to the ministers of Christ and to their ministry for God’s new covenant economy.
After speaking about the ministry of the new covenant, the apostle spoke about the ministers of the new covenant. From v. 12 through v. 18 he depicted the new covenant ministers as persons whose hearts have turned to the Lord, whose faces are unveiled, who are enjoying the Lord as the Spirit, freeing them from the bondage of the law, and who are being transformed into the image of the Lord by beholding and reflecting Him. Through such a process of transformation they are constituted ministers of Christ by the Spirit with the elements of Christ’s person and work. Hence, their person is constituted of and with Christ, and their ministry is to minister Christ to others, infusing them with the all-inclusive Christ as the indwelling, life-giving Spirit. All believers should imitate such ministers to be the same kind of person and to accomplish the same kind of ministry.
2 Corinthians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 4:11 Therefore
In 3:12-18 the apostle depicted how the ministers of the new covenant are constituted. In this chapter, from v. 1 through v. 6 he went on to tell how they as the ministers of the new covenant conducted themselves for the carrying out of their ministry; from v. 7 through v. 18 he described the kind of life they lived, a life that made them one with their ministry. This chapter mentions several aspects of their experience that correspond with and confirm what was spoken in ch. 3 concerning the ministry of the new covenant: (1) the peace the apostle experienced as a result of the manifestation of life in the midst of turmoil in vv. 8-9 corresponds with the righteousness as the fruit of peace (James 3:18), i.e., the expression of the image of God in a proper and orderly way, mentioned in 3:9; (2) the life in vv. 10-12 corresponds with the Spirit in 3:6, 8, 17-18; (3) being renewed in v. 16 corresponds with being transformed in 3:18; and (4) the eternal weight of glory in v. 17 corresponds with the degrees of glory in 3:18.
2Co 4:12 this
The ministry described in 2:12 — 3:18, that is, the unique ministry common to all the apostles of Christ. Although they are many, they have only one ministry — the ministry of the new covenant for the accomplishing of God’s New Testament economy. All the apostles’ works are to carry out this unique ministry, the ministering of Christ to people for the building up of His Body.
2Co 4:1a ministry  -   2 Cor. 3:8; 5:18; Acts 20:24; Rom. 11:13; 1 Tim. 1:12; Eph. 4:12
2Co 4:13b mercy  -   1 Cor. 7:25; 1 Tim. 1:13
See note 133 in 1 Tim. 1.
2Co 4:1c not  -   2 Cor. 4:16
2Co 4:2a shame  -   Rom. 6:21
2Co 4:2b craftiness  -   Eph. 4:14
2Co 4:21c adulterating  -   cf. 2 Cor. 2:17
The original meaning of the Greek word was to ensnare; later, to corrupt, as in the adulterating of gold or wine. The meaning is narrower than adulterating in 2:17, which adds the sense for gain’s sake.
2Co 4:22d truth  -   John 1:14, 17; 8:32; 14:6; 17:17; Col. 1:5; 1 Tim. 2:4; 3:15; Eph. 4:24
The truth is another expression for the word of God (John 17:17 and notes). It means the reality, denoting all the real things revealed in God’s word, which are mainly Christ as the reality of all the things of God. The manifestation of the truth refers to the apostles’ living of Christ. When they lived Christ, who is the truth (John 14:6), they manifested the truth. As Christ was lived out of them, the truth was manifested in them. By this, they commended themselves to every conscience of men before God. The apostles behaved themselves not in the way of adulterating the word of God but in the way of manifesting the truth for the shining of the gospel of the glory of Christ, by the excellent power of the priceless treasure, the very Christ who entered into them and became their content (v. 7) through the enlightenment of God’s shining (v. 6).
2Co 4:2e commending  -   2 Cor. 3:1
2Co 4:2f conscience  -   2 Cor. 5:11-12
2Co 4:31 veiled
Veiled by old concepts, especially the concept concerning the law (3:14-15). In principle, anything such as philosophy, religion, or cultural traditions that hinders people from apprehending the gospel of Christ is a veil. Hence, the preaching of Christ must unveil them, just as in photography the cover is removed from the lens that it might take in the view.
2Co 4:3a veiled  -   2 Cor. 3:14, 15; cf. Matt. 13:15
2Co 4:3b perishing  -   1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15
2Co 4:41a god  -   John 12:31; Eph. 2:2
Satan, the deceiver, the ruler of the present age, who dominates today’s world and hunts for man’s worship by blinding his mind and his thoughts.
2Co 4:4b this  -   Rom. 12:2; Gal. 1:4
2Co 4:42c blinded  -   Matt. 15:14; 23:16, 17, 19, 24; John 9:40; 12:40; Isa. 6:10
I.e., has veiled men’s understanding.
2Co 4:43d thoughts  -   2 Cor. 3:14
Or, minds. See note 141 in ch. 3.
2Co 4:44e illumination  -   2 Cor. 4:6
Christ as the image of God is the effulgence of His glory (Heb. 1:3). Hence, the gospel of Christ is the gospel of His glory that illuminates and shines forth. Satan, the god of this age, has blinded the thoughts and the minds of the unbelievers so that the illumination of the gospel of Christ’s glory might not shine into their hearts. This is similar to a camera lens’s being covered so that the light cannot shine into the camera to bring in the image. It is also like a blind man, or a man with his eyes veiled, into whom the light of the sun is unable to shine.
2Co 4:4f glory  -   2 Cor. 3:8-11, 18
2Co 4:4g image  -   Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3
2Co 4:45 shine
The Greek word means (1) to see distinctly, to discern, and (2) to shine.
2Co 4:51 For
This explains why the apostles’ gospel, which is the gospel of the glory of Christ, should not have been veiled: they did not preach, exalt, themselves but Christ Jesus as Lord of all, and they conducted themselves as the believers’ slaves for Jesus’ sake.
2Co 4:5a preach  -   1 Cor. 1:23
2Co 4:52b Lord  -   1 Cor. 8:6; 12:3
Christ Jesus as Lord comprises Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever (Rom. 9:5), the eternal Word incarnated to be a man (John 1:14), Jesus crucified as a man to be our Savior (Acts 4:10-12) and resurrected to be the Son of God (Acts 13:33), and Christ exalted to be the Lord (Acts 2:36), even the Lord of all men (Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:12; John 20:28; 1 Cor. 12:3), who is the image of God, the effulgence of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3). This is the very content of the gospel. Hence, the gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ, which illuminates, radiates, and shines in the heart of man (v. 6). If man’s heart is not veiled with anything or blinded by Satan, the god of this age, man can see the illumination of the gospel (v. 4).
2Co 4:53c slaves  -   1 Cor. 9:19
In contrast to Lord. The apostles exalted Christ as Lord but considered themselves merely slaves to serve the believers.
2Co 4:61 Because
This explains what is mentioned in the preceding verse. The apostles preached Christ as Lord and themselves as the believers’ slaves because the very God who commanded light to shine out of darkness had shined in their hearts. His shining in the universe produced the old creation. Now His shining in their hearts made them a new creation. Therefore, in their preaching they were able to exalt Christ as the Lord, and in their ministry, to conduct themselves as slaves of the believers. What they did for Christ and what they were to the believers were the issue of God’s shining. God’s shining produces the new covenant ministers and their ministry.
2Co 4:6a darkness  -   Matt. 4:16; 6:23; John 1:5; 8:12; 12:35, 46; Acts 26:18; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 5:8; 6:12; Col. 1:13; 1 Thes. 5:5; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 1:5; 2:8
2Co 4:6b light  -   Gen. 1:3
2Co 4:62 in
In our hearts is much deeper than on the skin of Moses’ face (3:7; Exo. 34:29-30). This presents a comparison between the glory of the apostolic ministry of the gospel and that of the Mosaic ministry of the law. In the heart is related to the inner life, whereas on the skin of the face has nothing to do with the inner life. The glory of the old covenant is on the surface, but the glory of the new covenant has great depth.
2Co 4:63 our
The apostles’ hearts. The apostles represent all the believers of the new covenant.
2Co 4:6c hearts  -   cf. 2 Pet. 1:19
2Co 4:64d illuminate  -   2 Cor. 4:4
The illumination here, which refers to the shining of God’s light on others out from those whose hearts have been enlightened by God, corresponds with the manifestation in v. 2 and is the same as the shining in Matt. 5:16 and Phil. 2:15. God shines in our hearts that we may shine on others so that they may have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that is, the knowledge of Christ, who expresses and declares God (John 1:18).
2Co 4:6e glory  -   2 Cor. 3:8-11, 18; cf. 2 Cor. 3:7
2Co 4:65 face
The face of Jesus Christ is in comparison with the face of Moses (3:7). The glory of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ is much superior to the glory of the law in the face of Moses. The former shines in the face of One through whom grace and reality came, issuing in righteousness and the Spirit — life (3:8-9); the latter shone in the face of one through whom the law was given (John 1:17), resulting in condemnation and death (3:7, 9). The shining of God in our hearts is to illumine us that we may know not the glory on Moses’ face but the glory in Christ’s face; it is to enlighten us that we may know not the law of Moses of the old covenant but the gospel of Christ of the new covenant. The glory of God manifested in the face of Jesus Christ is the God of glory expressed through Jesus Christ, and it is Jesus Christ, who is the effulgence of the glory of God (Heb. 1:3); to know Him is to know the God of glory.
2Co 4:71 But
God’s shining in our hearts brings into us a treasure, the Christ of glory, who is the embodiment of God to be our life and our everything. But we who contain this treasure are earthen vessels, worthless and fragile. A priceless treasure is contained in worthless vessels! This has made the worthless vessels ministers of the new covenant with a priceless ministry. This has been accomplished by the divine power in resurrection. The excellency of the power is surely of God and not out of us.
In the apostles’ speaking concerning their ministry for God’s new covenant, five very significant and expressive metaphors were used to illustrate how they, as the ministers of the new covenant, and their ministry were constituted, how they behaved and lived, and how their ministry was carried out:
(1) Captives in a triumphal procession for the celebration of Christ’s victory (2:14a);
(2) Incense-bearers to scatter the fragrance of Christ (2:14b-16);
(3) Letters written with Christ as the content (3:1-3);
(4) Mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of Christ in order to be transformed into His glorious image (3:18);
(5) Earthen vessels to contain the Christ of glory as the excellent treasure (v. 7). These vessels are like today’s camera, into which Christ the figure enters through the flash of God’s shining (vv. 4, 6).
2Co 4:72a treasure  -   cf. Matt. 6:21; 13:44
This treasure, the indwelling Christ, in us, the earthen vessels, is the divine source of the supply for the Christian life. It is by the excellent power of this treasure that the apostles as the ministers of the new covenant were capable of living a crucified life that the resurrection life of Christ, whom they ministered, might be manifested. Thus, they manifested the truth (v. 2) for the shining of the gospel.
2Co 4:7b vessels  -   Rom. 9:21, 23; cf. Lam. 4:2; 2 Tim. 2:20
2Co 4:73c excellency  -   cf. Phil. 3:8
Or, transcendence, surpassing greatness, exceeding greatness.
2Co 4:7d power  -   1 Cor. 2:4; Eph. 1:19; 3:7, 20; Col. 1:29
2Co 4:81 pressed
Or, afflicted. The description of their life, from this verse through v. 18, shows that the apostles lived a crucified life in resurrection, or lived the resurrection life under the killing of the cross, for the carrying out of their ministry.
2Co 4:8a every  -   2 Cor. 7:5
2Co 4:82 constricted
Or, restricted.
2Co 4:8b utterly  -   2 Cor. 1:8
2Co 4:91a Persecuted  -   2 Tim. 3:11-12; Matt. 5:10-12; cf. Acts 8:1, 3; Gal. 1:13, 23; 1 Tim. 1:13
Or, pursued (by enemies).
2Co 4:92b abandoned  -   Heb. 13:5
Or, deserted, forsaken; lit., left behind (in some terrible plight).
2Co 4:93 cast
Or, struck down.
2Co 4:9c not  -   cf. Prov. 24:16; Micah 7:8
2Co 4:94 destroyed
I.e., killed. The same Greek word as for perishing in v. 3.
2Co 4:10a in  -   Phil. 1:20
2Co 4:101b putting  -   Rom. 8:36
I.e., the killing, the deadening; referring to the working of death, the working of the cross, which the Lord Jesus suffered and went through. In our experience this is a kind of suffering, persecution, or dealing that comes upon us for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of the Body of Christ, and for the sake of the new covenant ministry. This does not refer to sufferings and troubles that are common to all human beings in the old creation, such as illness or calamity, or to punishment, correction, or discipline suffered because of sins, mistakes, or failure to fulfill one’s responsibility. This putting to death of Jesus consumes our natural man, our outward man, our flesh, so that our inward man may have the opportunity to develop and be renewed (v. 16).
2Co 4:10c death  -   Rom. 6:5, 8; Phil. 3:10
2Co 4:102 that
In order that, with the result that. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life. This daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection.
2Co 4:103 life
The resurrection life, which the Lord Jesus lived and expressed through the working of the cross.
2Co 4:11a death  -   1 Cor. 4:9; 15:31; 2 Cor. 1:9; 6:9; 2 Tim. 2:11
2Co 4:11b life  -   Acts 3:15; 5:20; Col. 3:4; Rom. 5:10; 6:4; 1 John 1:2
2Co 4:111 Jesus
The title Jesus in these two verses implies that the apostles lived a life like the one the Lord Jesus lived on earth. The Lord’s life was a life under the killing of the cross for the manifestation of the resurrection life, a life lived in such a way that His person was one with His ministry and His life was His ministry (John 6:14-15; 12:13, 19, 23-24).
2Co 4:11c mortal  -   Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 5:4; 1 Cor. 15:53-54
2Co 4:112 flesh
The use of flesh and body interchangeably in vv. 10 and 11 indicates that our mortal flesh is our fallen body.
2Co 4:12a death  -   John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:36; John 2:19
2Co 4:121 life
When we are under the killing of the Lord’s death, His resurrection life is imparted through us into others. The impartation of life into others is always the issue of our suffering the killing of the cross.
2Co 4:131 same
The same spirit as set forth in the words quoted later in this verse.
2Co 4:132a spirit  -   Rom. 8:4-6
“Not distinctly the Holy Spirit, — but still not merely a human disposition: the indwelling Holy Spirit penetrates and characterizes the whole renewed man” (Alford). “Spirit of faith: not distinctly the Holy Spirit, nor, on the other hand, a human faculty or disposition, but blending both” (Vincent). The spirit of faith is the Holy Spirit mingled with our human spirit. We must exercise such a spirit to believe and to speak, like the psalmist, the things we have experienced of the Lord, especially His death and resurrection. Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit, not in our mind. Doubts are in our mind. Here spirit indicates that it is by the mingled spirit that the apostles lived a crucified life in resurrection for the carrying out of their ministry.
2Co 4:13b faith  -   2 Cor. 1:24; 5:7
2Co 4:13c I  -   Psa. 116:10
2Co 4:14a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 6:14
2Co 4:141b raise  -   2 Cor. 1:9; 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:14, 16
This indicates that the apostles considered themselves dead persons (1:9), for they were always being delivered unto death for the Lord’s purpose (v. 11).
2Co 4:14c make  -   Col. 1:22, 28; Jude 24
2Co 4:15a all  -   Rom. 8:28
2Co 4:15b for  -   2 Cor. 1:6; 5:13
2Co 4:151c grace  -   2 Cor. 1:11; 1 Cor. 15:10
Grace, according to the context, is the very Christ, who lived in the apostles as their life and life supply for them to live a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life that they might carry out their ministry for God’s new covenant. See note 101 in 1 Cor. 15.
2Co 4:15d thanksgiving  -   2 Cor. 9:11-12
2Co 4:15e glory  -   2 Cor. 1:20; 8:19
2Co 4:16a not  -   2 Cor. 4:1
2Co 4:161b outer  -   cf. Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9
The outer man consists of the body as its organ with the soul as its life and person. The inner man consists of the regenerated spirit as its life and person with the renewed soul as its organ. The life of the soul must be denied (Matt. 16:24-25), but the faculties of the soul — the mind, will, and emotion — must be renewed and uplifted by being subdued (10:4-5) so that they can be used by the spirit, the person of the inner man.
2Co 4:162 decaying
Or, being consumed, being wasted away, being worn out. By the continued killing, the working of death, our outer man, that is, our material body with its animating soul (1 Cor. 15:44 and note), is being consumed and worn out.
2Co 4:16c inner  -   Eph. 3:16; cf. Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10
See note 161.
2Co 4:163d renewed  -   Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10; Titus 3:5
By being nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life. As our mortal body, our outer man, is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man, that is, our regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 7:22, 25), is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of the resurrection life.
2Co 4:17a momentary  -   1 Pet. 1:6; 5:10
2Co 4:171 affliction
Referring to the putting to death, the working of the cross (v. 10).
2Co 4:172 more
Lit., excessively unto excess.
2Co 4:173 eternal
In contrast to momentary lightness.
2Co 4:174b glory  -   Rom. 8:18; 2 Tim. 2:10; Heb. 2:10
The expression of God as resurrection life. Glory is in contrast to affliction.
2Co 4:181 things
Things of the temporary affliction.
2Co 4:18a seen  -   2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 8:24
2Co 4:182 things
Things of the eternal glory.
2Co 4:18b not  -   Heb. 11:1, 13
2Co 4:18c eternal  -   2 Cor. 5:1
2 Corinthians Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 5:11 For
For indicates that what is to be mentioned is an explanation of what was spoken in 4:13-18. In this chapter the apostle tells us of the apostles’ aspiration for the redemption of their bodies (vv. 1-8; Rom. 8:23), their ambition, their determination, to please the Lord (vv. 9-15), and their commission from the Lord for His new creation (vv. 16-21).
2Co 5:12 earthly
Not made of earth but on the earth.
2Co 5:13a tabernacle  -   Isa. 38:12; 2 Pet. 1:13-14
I.e., our physical body, in which our person dwells and which is not only for our living but also for our worshipping God (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19).
2Co 5:14 building
A building with a foundation, in contrast to the tabernacle, which had no foundation. This building is our resurrected, transfigured body, the spiritual body mentioned in 1 Cor. 15, and is in contrast to the dying, physical, natural body that we have today.
2Co 5:15 from
Lit., out of.
2Co 5:16 dwelling
Our spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44).
2Co 5:1b not  -   Mark 14:58
2Co 5:1c eternal  -   2 Cor. 4:18
2Co 5:17d in  -   1 Pet. 1:4
In contrast to earthly, i.e., on the earth.
2Co 5:21 this
Referring to tabernacle in v. 1.
2Co 5:2a groan  -   Rom. 8:23
2Co 5:22 clothed
I.e., to have our body transfigured and conformed to the body of Christ’s glory. The apostles were longing for this.
2Co 5:23 dwelling
Referring to the dwelling in the heavens in the preceding verse.
2Co 5:24 from
Lit., out of.
2Co 5:31a naked  -   cf. Gen. 3:7, 10; Rev. 3:18; 16:15
I.e., without a body. A dead person, being disembodied, is naked, without a body as a covering before God. The apostles were expecting to be transfigured in their bodies, to be clothed with a spiritual body to meet the Lord before they died and were disembodied, that they might not be found naked.
2Co 5:41a burdened  -   2 Cor. 1:8
I.e., Weighed down, depressed, oppressed.
2Co 5:42 in
The apostles groaned in the desire not to be unclothed, disembodied, that is, in the desire not to die but to be clothed, to put on the spiritual body, that is, to have their body transfigured (Phil. 3:21), to have their body redeemed (Rom. 8:23).
2Co 5:43 what
Our mortal body (4:11; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:53).
2Co 5:4b mortal  -   2 Cor. 4:11
2Co 5:44c swallowed  -   Isa. 25:8; 1 Cor. 15:53-54
The death in our mortal body is swallowed up by resurrection life. Through this our body will be transfigured (1 Cor. 15:54).
2Co 5:51 wrought
Or, fashioned, shaped, prepared, made fit. God has wrought us, fashioned us, shaped us, prepared us, made us fit, for the very purpose that our mortal body might be swallowed up by His resurrection life. Thus our entire being will be saturated with Christ. God has given us the Spirit as the pledge, the earnest, the foretaste, the guarantee, of this wonderful and marvelous part of His complete salvation, which He has prepared for us in Christ.
2Co 5:52a pledge  -   2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:14
See note 223 in ch. 1.
2Co 5:61 at
Our body is in the material realm; the Lord is in the spiritual realm. In this sense we are abroad from the Lord when we are at home in our body.
2Co 5:71 walk
The apostles regulated their lives and conducted themselves by faith, as mentioned in Heb. 11, not by that which was seen. It was in this way that they realized they were away from the Lord while they were in their physical body. This corresponds with the word in 4:18.
2Co 5:7a faith  -   2 Cor. 4:13; John 20:29; 1 Pet. 1:8
2Co 5:72b appearance  -   2 Cor. 4:18
I.e., that which is seen; hence, sight.
2Co 5:81 to
I.e., to die, thus being released from the material realm to be with the Lord in the spiritual realm. The apostles, who were always being persecuted unto death (1:8-9; 4:11; 11:23; 1 Cor. 15:31), were well pleased rather to die that they might be released from their confining body to be at home with the Lord in a better realm (Phil. 1:23).
2Co 5:8a abroad  -   Phil. 1:23
2Co 5:91 determined
Zealous with a strong aim, striving earnestly to be well pleasing to the Lord.
2Co 5:92 at
I.e., living and thus remaining in the body, or dying and thus being with the Lord.
2Co 5:9a well  -   Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 4:1; Rom. 12:1-2
2Co 5:101 For
For points to the reason for the determination mentioned in v. 9.
2Co 5:10a manifested  -   1 Cor. 3:13; cf. 2 Cor. 5:11
2Co 5:102b judgment  -   Rom. 14:10
Where Christ will judge His believers at His coming back, not concerning their eternal salvation but concerning their dispensational reward (1 Cor. 4:4-5; 3:13-15). See note 101 in Rom. 14.
2Co 5:103c receive  -   Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12
“The technical word for receiving wages” (Alford).
2Co 5:104 through
While we are still at home in the body, we should do things through it to please the Lord that we may be rewarded by the Lord at His coming.
2Co 5:105 bad
Or, worthless.
2Co 5:111 Knowing
I.e., being conscious of fearing the Lord. Therefore indicates that this consciousness is due to the judgment seat of Christ mentioned in v. 10.
2Co 5:112a fear  -   Psa. 2:11; Acts 9:31; Heb. 12:28; Phil. 2:12
Not the Lord’s being fearsome but our fearing the Lord.
2Co 5:113 persuade
The apostles, conscious of fearing the Lord, persuaded men concerning their integrity, concerning what kind of persons they were, toward both God and men. They did not need to persuade God, for what they were had already been made manifest to God; yet, the apostles hoped that they had been made manifest also in the believers’ consciences.
2Co 5:11b consciences  -   2 Cor. 4:2
2Co 5:12a commending  -   2 Cor. 3:1; 4:2
2Co 5:12b boast  -   2 Cor. 1:14
2Co 5:121 have
I.e., have words to answer those who are boasting.
2Co 5:12c boasting  -   2 Cor. 11:18
2Co 5:12d outward  -   Gal. 6:12
2Co 5:122 appearance
Lit., face. The outward appearance of the Judaizers.
2Co 5:123e heart  -   Rom. 2:29
Where the sincerity and reality of the virtues are.
2Co 5:131a beside  -   Mark 3:21; Acts 26:24-25
I.e., mad, as a fool, for God’s glory (Acts 26:24-25). The apostles’ ecstasy was not an excitement out of folly, but it was to God and with God for His glory.
2Co 5:132b sober-minded  -   1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Tim. 1:7
Self-controlled in love for others’ good.
2Co 5:13c for  -   2 Cor. 4:15
2Co 5:141a love  -   Rom. 8:35
The love of Christ toward us, which was manifested on the cross through His dying for us (Gal. 2:20).
2Co 5:142 constrains
The Greek word means to press on…from all sides, to hold…to one end, to forcibly limit, to confine to one object within certain bounds, to shut up to one line and purpose (as in a narrow, walled road). (The same Greek word is used in Luke 4:38; 12:50; Acts 18:5; Phil. 1:23.) In such a way the apostles were constrained by the love of Christ to live to Him.
2Co 5:143 have
I.e., have concluded (probably at the time of conversion).
2Co 5:144b One  -   Rom. 5:19
Christ’s loving death is the motivating factor in the apostles’ being constrained to live a loving life for Him.
2Co 5:145 therefore
Since Christ died as our Substitute, suffering the sentence of death on behalf of us all, in the eyes of God we all died. Hence, we do not need to die as has been reserved for men (Heb. 9:27).
2Co 5:14c all  -   Col. 2:20; 3:3; Gal. 2:20
2Co 5:15a died  -   1 Thes. 5:10
2Co 5:15b live  -   John 14:19; 6:57; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21
2Co 5:151 no
Christ’s death not only saves us from death so that we do not need to die, but also causes us, through His resurrection, to live no longer to ourselves but to Him.
2Co 5:152c to  -   Rom. 14:7-8; Gal. 2:19
Living to the Lord is deeper in significance than living for the Lord. Living for the Lord implies that I and the Lord are still two; living to the Lord indicates that I am one with the Lord, as the wife is one with the husband in married life.
2Co 5:161 So
Since the apostles judged that Christ’s death made us all, through His resurrection, a new man, a man not according to the flesh, they would no longer know anyone according to the flesh. They had known Christ in that way, but now they knew Him so no longer.
2Co 5:162 know
The first know refers to the inward, subjective consciousness; known and the second know refer to the outward, objective knowledge. See note 61 in Rom. 6.
2Co 5:16a flesh  -   Col. 2:11; Phil. 3:3; Rom. 8:4-8
2Co 5:16b according  -   Rom. 1:3; John 1:14; Matt. 13:54-57; John 1:45-46; 6:42; 7:41, 52
2Co 5:171 So
This confirms what is mentioned in the preceding verse. The apostles would no longer know anyone according to the flesh, because anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; the old things of the flesh have passed away through the death of Christ, and all has become new in Christ’s resurrection.
2Co 5:172a in  -   1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27-28; 2 Cor. 12:2
To be in Christ is to be one with Him in life and nature. This is of God through our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:26-28).
2Co 5:173b new  -   Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10
The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, constituted of the believers, who are born again of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, the believers are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
2Co 5:174c old  -   cf. Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9; 2 Cor. 3:14; Heb. 8:13; Matt. 9:16-17; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; 2 Pet. 1:9; Heb. 1:11
Or, ancient.
2Co 5:17d passed  -   2 Cor. 3:11, 13, 14; Matt. 5:18; Rev. 21:1
2Co 5:175 behold
A call to watch the marvelous change of the new creation.
2Co 5:176 they
Referring to the old things.
2Co 5:17e new  -   Titus 3:5; Rom. 6:4; cf. Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 3:6; John 13:34; Acts 2:13; 1 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 10:20; Rev. 21:1-2, 5
2Co 5:181 all
Referring to all the positive things mentioned in vv. 14-21, of which God is the Originator and Initiator. It is of God that Christ died to save us from death that we might live to Him. It is of God that we have become a new creation in Christ. It is of God that Christ was made sin for us that we might become God’s righteousness in Him. It is of God that He reconciled the world to Himself. And it is of God that the apostles are made ambassadors of Christ, commissioned to represent Him for the reconciling of men to God, that men may become God’s righteousness and a new creation for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
2Co 5:18a reconciled  -   Rom. 5:10-11; Col. 1:20
2Co 5:18b ministry  -   2 Cor. 3:8; 4:1
2Co 5:19a in  -   Col. 2:9
2Co 5:19b world  -   John 3:16; 1:29
2Co 5:19c not  -   Rom. 4:8
2Co 5:191 word
The word is for the ministry (v. 18).
2Co 5:201a ambassadors  -   Eph. 6:20; Gal. 4:14
The apostles were commissioned with a definite ministry, to represent Christ to accomplish God’s purpose.
2Co 5:20b entreats  -   2 Cor. 6:1
2Co 5:202 reconciled
In the preceding verse it was the world that was reconciled to God; in this verse it is the believers, who have already been reconciled to God and are to be reconciled further to God. This clearly indicates that two steps are required for men to be fully reconciled to God. The first step is to reconcile sinners to God from sin. For this purpose Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) that they might be forgiven by God. This is the objective aspect of Christ’s death. In this aspect He bore our sins on the cross that they might be judged by God upon Him for us. The second step is to reconcile believers living in the natural life to God from the flesh. For this purpose Christ died for us — the persons — that we might live to Him in the resurrection life (vv. 14-15). This is the subjective aspect of Christ’s death. In this aspect He was made sin for us to be judged and done away with by God that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. By the two aspects of His death He has fully reconciled God’s chosen people to God. These two steps of reconciliation are clearly portrayed by the two veils of the tabernacle. The first veil is called “the screen” (Exo. 26:37). A sinner who was brought to God through the reconciliation of the propitiating blood entered into the Holy Place by passing this screen. This typifies the first step of reconciliation. The second veil (Exo. 26:31-35; Heb. 9:3) still separated him from God, who was in the Holy of Holies. This veil needed to be rent that the sinner might be brought to God in the Holy of Holies. This is the second step of reconciliation. The Corinthian believers had been reconciled to God, having passed through the first veil and having entered into the Holy Place. Yet they still lived in the flesh. They needed to pass the second veil, which had been rent already (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:20), to enter into the Holy of Holies to live with God in their spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The goal of this Epistle was to bring them there that they might be persons in the spirit (1 Cor. 2:15), in the Holy of Holies. This was what the apostle meant by saying, “Be reconciled to God.” This was to present them full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28).
2Co 5:211 not
Christ did not know sin in an experiential way by contact or personal experience (cf. John 8:46; 1 Pet. 2:22; Heb. 4:15; 7:26).
2Co 5:212a sin  -   Rom. 8:3; Isa. 53:10; John 1:29; Heb. 9:26
Sin came from Satan, who rebelled against God (Isa. 14:12-14). This sin, which came out of the evil one, entered into man (Rom. 5:12) and made man not only a sinner but sin itself under God’s judgment. Hence, when Christ became a man in the flesh (John 1:14), He was made sin (not sinful) on our behalf to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3) that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.
2Co 5:213b righteousness  -   Rom. 1:17; 3:21; 10:3-4; Phil. 3:9; Rom. 4:25
Righteousness issues from God for His administration (Psa. 89:14; 97:2; Isa. 32:1). This righteousness is Christ to be our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), making us God’s righteousness in Him (not making us righteous before God). Through Christ’s redemption, man, who is a sinner and is even sin, is made God’s righteousness, being reconciled to the righteous God, and is made a new creation living to God for His eternal purpose. The apostles are commissioned to minister such a Christ, with all the glorious issues of His marvelous achievement, to His believers, who are the members that form His Body. Praise and glory be to Him forever!
2Co 5:214 in
In union with Him, not only positionally but also organically in resurrection. We were enemies of God (Col. 1:21) by becoming sin, which came from Satan, who rebelled against God. Christ was made sin for us by becoming one with us through being incarnated in the flesh. Through His death He was condemned in the flesh as sin for us by God that we might be one with Him in His resurrection to be God’s righteousness. By this righteousness we, the enemies of God, could be and have been reconciled to God (vv. 18-20; Rom. 5:10).
2 Corinthians Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 6:11 And
And here indicates a continuation. In the last part of ch. 5 (5:16-21) the apostle told us that they, the ministers of the new covenant, had been commissioned with the ministry of reconciliation for the Lord’s new creation. From this verse to the end of ch. 7 he continued by telling us how they worked. They worked together with God by a life (not by any gift) that was all-sufficient and all-mature, able to fit all situations, that is, able to endure any kind of treatment, to accept any kind of environment, to work in any kind of condition, and to take any kind of opportunity, for the carrying out of their ministry.
2Co 6:12 together
The apostles not only were commissioned by God with their ministry but also were working together with Him. They were God’s co-workers (1 Cor. 3:9).
2Co 6:13a entreat  -   2 Cor. 5:20
This is the work of reconciliation, as mentioned in 5:20.
2Co 6:14b grace  -   Heb. 12:15
See note 101 in 1 Cor. 15. The grace of God always brings us back to Him. Not to receive the grace of God in vain, according to the context, means not to remain in any condition that is a distraction from God, but to be brought back to Him.
2Co 6:2a In  -   Isa. 49:8
2Co 6:2b acceptable  -   Luke 4:19
2Co 6:21c well-acceptable  -   Psa. 69:13
This refers to the time of our being reconciled to God, when He well accepts us.
2Co 6:2d day  -   Heb. 3:13
2Co 6:22 salvation
Referring to reconciliation, according to the context, which is continued from the end of ch. 5.
2Co 6:31 We
From here to the end of ch. 7 the apostle depicted a life that was all-fitting for the carrying out of their ministry.
2Co 6:32 ministry
The ministry of the new covenant (3:8-9; 4:1).
2Co 6:4a commend  -   2 Cor. 4:2
2Co 6:4b ministers  -   cf. 1 Cor. 4:1
2Co 6:41c endurance  -   2 Cor. 12:12; 2 Tim. 3:10
Endurance is the first qualification for the all-fitting life of the new covenant ministers. This refers not merely to a kind of patience but to the ability to endure suffering in tribulation, whether pressure, oppression, persecution, poverty, or any kind of trial.
2Co 6:4d afflictions  -   2 Cor. 2:4; Col. 1:24
2Co 6:42e necessities  -   2 Cor. 12:10
The Greek word denotes constraints, urgent needs that press heavily, indicating a shortage of daily necessities such as food, lodging, or clothing.
2Co 6:4f distresses  -   2 Cor. 12:10
2Co 6:5a stripes  -   2 Cor. 11:23-24; Acts 16:23
2Co 6:5b imprisonments  -   2 Cor. 11:23
2Co 6:5c tumults  -   Acts 17:5; 19:23
2Co 6:5d labors  -   2 Cor. 11:23, 27; 1 Cor. 4:12
2Co 6:51e watchings  -   2 Cor. 11:27
I.e., sleeplessnesses, as occurred in Acts 16:25; 20:7-11, 31; and 2 Thes. 3:8.
2Co 6:52 fastings
Because of the lack of food. See note 272 in ch. 11.
2Co 6:61a knowledge  -   2 Cor. 11:6
Knowledge is a matter of the mind; love, a matter of the heart.
2Co 6:6b holy  -   2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thes. 5:23
2Co 6:62 spirit
Referring to the apostles’ regenerated spirit. With stripes on the body (v. 5), knowledge in the mind, and love in the heart, the entire being of the apostles, including body, soul, and spirit, was exercised in their living for the carrying out of their ministry.
2Co 6:6c unfeigned  -   Rom. 12:9
2Co 6:7a word  -   2 Cor. 4:2; Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:15
2Co 6:7b power  -   1 Cor. 2:4-5
2Co 6:71c weapons  -   2 Cor. 10:4; Rom. 13:12; cf. Eph. 6:11-17; 1 Thes. 5:8
This indicates that the apostles’ life for their ministry was a life in the battle, fighting for God’s kingdom. Weapons of righteousness are used for fighting that we may be right with God and men according to the righteousness of God (Matt. 6:33; 5:6, 10, 20).
2Co 6:72 on
Weapons on the right hand, such as the sword, are offensive; those on the left hand, such as the shield, are defensive.
2Co 6:81 glory
Glory is from God and those who love Him; dishonor is from the devil and those who follow him.
2Co 6:8a dishonor  -   1 Cor. 4:10
2Co 6:82b evil  -   2 Cor. 12:16; 1 Cor. 4:13; Rom. 3:8
An evil report comes from the opposers and persecutors (Matt. 5:11); a good report comes from the believers and those who receive the truth preached and taught by the apostles.
2Co 6:83c deceivers  -   cf. Matt. 27:63
As deceivers in the eyes of the Judaizers and the people of other religions and philosophies, but true in the eyes of those who love the truth of God.
2Co 6:8d true  -   cf. 2 Cor. 4:2; 1 Thes. 2:3
2Co 6:91 unknown
As unknown in the sense of not displaying themselves, but well known in the sense of witnessing to the truth of God.
2Co 6:92a dying  -   2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:10-12; 1 Cor. 15:31; Rom. 8:36
As dying in suffering persecutions (1:8-10; 4:11; 1 Cor. 15:31), but living in the Lord’s resurrection (4:10-11).
2Co 6:9b live  -   2 Cor. 4:10-11; John 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:11
2Co 6:93 being
As being disciplined in the opposers’ superficial realization, but not being put to death in the sovereign care of the Lord.
2Co 6:9c not  -   cf. Psa. 118:18
2Co 6:101 made
As made sorrowful by the negative conditions of the churches (11:28), yet always rejoicing in the sufficient grace and resurrection life of Christ (12:9-10).
2Co 6:10a sorrowful  -   John 16:22
2Co 6:10b rejoicing  -   2 Cor. 7:7; Phil. 1:18
2Co 6:102 poor
As poor in material things, yet enriching many in spiritual riches (Eph. 3:8).
2Co 6:10c enriching  -   Prov. 13:7; 2 Cor. 8:9
2Co 6:103d having  -   Acts 3:6
As having nothing in a human way, but possessing all things in the divine economy.
2Co 6:10e all  -   1 Cor. 3:21; Rom. 8:32
2Co 6:111a opened  -   Eph. 6:19; Ezek. 33:22
The apostles, all-mature and all-fitting, as depicted in vv. 3-10, had their mouths opened and their hearts enlarged to the believers. With an enlarged heart they were able to embrace all believers regardless of their condition, and with an opened mouth they were free to speak to all believers frankly concerning the real situation into which they had been misled. This kind of openness and enlargement is needed to reconcile, to bring back, the misled or distracted believers to God.
2Co 6:11b enlarged  -   2 Cor. 7:2; Psa. 119:32
See note 111.
2Co 6:121 constricted
The Corinthian believers, being childish (v. 13), were constricted, contracted, in their inward parts toward the apostles. All children are very narrow in their affection and easily offended by those who correct them.
2Co 6:122a inward  -   Philem. 7, 20
The same Greek word as for affections in 7:15. See note 81 in Phil. 1.
2Co 6:131 recompense
The apostle wanted the Corinthian believers to give him a recompense — the same kind of enlarged heart, that they might receive him in their love.
2Co 6:132a children  -   1 Cor. 4:14
This indicates (1) that the apostle considered the Corinthian believers childish, and (2) that in dealing with them he spoke as a father to his children.
2Co 6:133 be
To be enlarged requires growth and maturity in life, which the Corinthian believers lacked (1 Cor. 3:1, 6; 14:20). The apostle was laboring on them to make up the shortage. According to the context, which is continued from the end of ch. 5, to be enlarged by growing and maturing in life is equivalent to being fully reconciled to God. Writing in this way, the apostle was carrying out his ministry of reconciling the believers, who were but halfway in being reconciled to God.
2Co 6:141 Do
This word was spoken by the apostle based on his mouth being opened and his heart being enlarged to the believers in v. 11.
2Co 6:142a dissimilarly  -   cf. 1 Cor. 7:39; Deut. 7:3; Josh. 23:12; Ezra 9:2
Dissimilarly means diversely, implying a difference in kind. This refers to Deut. 22:10, which forbids the yoking together of two dissimilar animals. Believers and unbelievers are diverse peoples. Because of their divine nature and holy standing, the believers should not be yoked together with the unbelievers. This should be applied to all intimate relationships between believers and unbelievers, not only to marriage and business.
This word indicates that the Corinthian believers were dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers, not separated unto God from worldly people. This means that they were not fully reconciled to God. Hence, the apostle exhorted them not to be dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers but to be separated that they might be fully reconciled, brought back, to God.
2Co 6:143b partnership  -   Eph. 5:7, 11
The apostle used five illustrations to depict the difference between believers and unbelievers: (1) no partnership, no sharing together, between righteousness and lawlessness; (2) no fellowship, no communion, between light and darkness; (3) no concord, no harmony, between Christ and Belial; (4) no part, no portion, held by a believer with an unbeliever; and (5) no agreement, no consent, between the temple of God and idols. These illustrations also unveil the fact that the believers are righteousness, light, Christ, and the temple of God, and the unbelievers are lawlessness, darkness, Belial (Satan, the devil), and idols.
2Co 6:14c fellowship  -   1 John 1:6
2Co 6:14d light  -   Eph. 5:8-9; 1 John 1:7
2Co 6:144 with
Lit., toward.
2Co 6:14e darkness  -   Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 1:6; Rom. 13:12
2Co 6:15a Christ  -   cf. 1 Cor. 10:20-21
2Co 6:151 with
Lit., toward.
2Co 6:15b unbeliever  -   1 Cor. 6:6
2Co 6:16a temple  -   1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19
2Co 6:161b living  -   Heb. 3:12
As the living God, God dwells among us and walks among us to be our God in a subjective way that we may partake of Him (see note 153 in 1 Tim. 3) and be His people, experiencing Him in a living way.
2Co 6:16c I  -   Lev. 26:12; Exo. 25:8; 29:45-46
2Co 6:16d I  -   Ezek. 37:27; Jer. 31:1
2Co 6:17a come  -   Isa. 52:11; Ezek. 20:34, 41; Rev. 18:4
2Co 6:171 separated
This is to be brought back, to be reconciled, to God in a practical way (5:20). To be brought back to God, to be reconciled to God, in a practical way requires us to be separated from all persons, things, and matters that do not belong to God.
2Co 6:172 what
Things that belong to lawlessness, darkness, Belial, and idols, as listed in vv. 14-16.
2Co 6:17b unclean  -   2 Cor. 7:1
2Co 6:173 welcome
This is God’s glad receiving of the believers who are brought back, fully reconciled, to Him.
2Co 6:181 a
God’s being a Father to us and our being sons and daughters to Him are matters of life. They are deeper than His being our God and our being His people (v. 16).
2Co 6:18a Father  -   cf. 2 Sam. 7:14
2Co 6:182b sons  -   Hosea 1:10; Isa. 43:6
This is the only instance in which the New Testament indicates that God has daughters. For the most part it tells us that the believers are sons of God.
2 Corinthians Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 7:11 Therefore
This indicates that this verse is a conclusion to the last part of ch. 6, vv. 14-18.
2Co 7:12 these
The promises mentioned in 6:16-18.
2Co 7:1a cleanse  -   1 John 3:3
2Co 7:13 defilement
Defilement of flesh is related to being defiled by material things; defilement of spirit, to being defiled by things in the spiritual world, such as idols.
2Co 7:1b spirit  -   1 Thes. 5:23
2Co 7:14 perfecting
Holiness is separation unto God from all things other than Him (see notes 23 in Rom. 1 and 43 in Eph. 1). To perfect holiness is to make this separation full and perfect, to have our entire being — spirit, soul, and body — fully and perfectly separated, sanctified, unto God (1 Thes. 5:23). This is to be fully reconciled to God.
2Co 7:1c holiness  -   1 Pet. 1:15
2Co 7:15d fear  -   Heb. 12:28
Not daring to touch things that do not belong to God or are not related to Him (6:17).
2Co 7:21a Make  -   2 Cor. 6:11, 13
The frank exhortation from 6:14 — 7:1 is given parenthetically to bring the distracted believers back to their holy God from their touching of defiling things that they might be fully reconciled to Him. Hence, this verse is actually a continuation of 6:11-13, entreating the believers to have their heart enlarged toward the apostles, to make room for the apostles. From this verse to the end of this chapter, the apostle in his entreating expressed his intimate concern for the believers, that they might be consoled and encouraged to go on positively with the Lord after being fully reconciled to Him.
2Co 7:22b wronged  -   cf. Acts 20:33; 1 Sam. 12:3-4
First, have wronged no one; then, have corrupted no one; and last, have taken advantage of no one.
2Co 7:2c advantage  -   2 Cor. 12:17
2Co 7:31 in
The expression of an intimate relationship.
2Co 7:4a boldness  -   2 Cor. 3:12
2Co 7:4b boasting  -   2 Cor. 1:12, 14; 8:24; 9:2; 2 Thes. 1:4
2Co 7:41c comfort  -   2 Cor. 7:6-7, 13; 1:4; 1 Thes. 3:7
Lit., the comfort, the joy; pointing to the particular comfort, the particular joy, brought by Titus.
2Co 7:4d joy  -   2 Cor. 6:10
See note 41.
2Co 7:4e affliction  -   2 Cor. 1:4; 4:8; Col. 1:24
2Co 7:5a Macedonia  -   2 Cor. 2:13
2Co 7:51 flesh
Referring to the outer man, which includes the body and the soul (see note 161 in ch. 4) — the fightings without and the fears within involve the body and the soul. Having no rest in the flesh differs from having no rest in the spirit (2:13).
2Co 7:5b afflicted  -   2 Cor. 4:8
2Co 7:5c fightings  -   2 Cor. 10:3; 1 Cor. 15:32; 2 Tim. 4:7
2Co 7:6a comforts  -   2 Cor. 1:4
2Co 7:61 downcast
Lit., humble; derivatively, downcast (because of oppressive circumstances).
2Co 7:62b comforted  -   2 Cor. 7:4, 13
Because of his deep concern for the Corinthian believers’ response to his first Epistle, the apostle, having had no rest in his spirit (2:13) and even being heavily downcast, was anxious to see Titus to obtain information concerning the Corinthians’ response. Now Titus not only came but also brought glad news of their positive response. This was a great comfort to the apostle.
2Co 7:63 coming
Lit., presence. So also in the next verse.
2Co 7:6c Titus  -   2 Cor. 2:13; 7:13
2Co 7:7a longing  -   2 Cor. 7:11
2Co 7:7b zeal  -   2 Cor. 7:11
2Co 7:7c rejoiced  -   2 Cor. 7:9, 13, 16; 6:10
2Co 7:8a sorrow  -   2 Cor. 7:11; 2:2, 4
2Co 7:81 letter
Referring to the apostle’s first Epistle to the Corinthians.
2Co 7:82 did
This indicates that the apostle was not only bold and frank in rebuking the believers in his first Epistle, but was also tender and soft toward them.
2Co 7:83 caused
This shows that the apostle’s first Epistle to the believers had an effect on them.
2Co 7:91 repentance
This was the result the apostle sought in writing his first Epistle.
2Co 7:92a sorrowful  -   Psa. 38:18
The apostle’s first Epistle made the Corinthians sorrowful according to God, not sorrowful for anything else. This indicates that they had been brought back, reconciled, to God.
2Co 7:10a repentance  -   Rev. 2:5, 16; 3:3, 19
2Co 7:101 salvation
Referring to being reconciled to God (5:20), resulting in more life, which is versus death. Through this the apostle saw the fruit of his first Epistle to the believers.
2Co 7:10b sorrow  -   cf. Prov. 17:22
2Co 7:111a earnestness  -   2 Cor. 8:7, 8, 16
Or, diligence. Referring to the earnest care of the repentant Corinthian believers toward the apostle, which arose because of his loving concern for their relationship with God and their condition before God. Formerly, they had been careless with regard to the apostle’s concern; now in repentance they became careful and earnest regarding it. So also in v. 12.
2Co 7:112 worked
Or, produced. All seven results produced by the repentant sorrow of the Corinthian believers, as listed in this verse, were a rich reaping from the apostle’s first Epistle to them.
2Co 7:113 indeed
Occurring six times in this verse and meaning not only that, but also.
2Co 7:114 defense
Or, vindication, clearing of yourselves; referring to the Corinthian believers’ vindicating of themselves to Paul through Titus, proving their innocence regarding the offense.
2Co 7:115 indignation
Indignation at the offense and against the offender.
2Co 7:116 fear
Fear of the apostle, who might come with a rod (1 Cor. 4:21).
2Co 7:117b longing  -   2 Cor. 7:7
Longing for the apostle. The repentant believers feared the apostle, yet they also had a longing for him.
2Co 7:118c zeal  -   2 Cor. 7:7
Zeal to mete out a just punishment to the offender.
2Co 7:119d punishment  -   2 Cor. 10:6
I.e., the meting out of justice, the doing of justice to all parties as disciplinary punishment (2:6).
The last six results of the repentant sorrow that is according to God fall into three pairs, the first relating to the Corinthian believers’ feelings of shame, the second to the apostle, and the third to the offender (Bengel). Wuest’s translation also indicates this by the expression “Yes,…in fact,” which is used three times as follows: “Yes, verbal defense of yourselves, in fact, indignation, yes, fear, in fact, longing, yes, zeal, in fact, the meting out of disciplinary punishment.”
2Co 7:1110 the
Referring to the matter of incest, which was condemned by the apostle in ch. 5 of the first Epistle.
2Co 7:12a wrote  -   2 Cor. 2:4
2Co 7:121 him
The incestuous brother (1 Cor. 5:1).
2Co 7:122 him
The father of the incestuous brother.
2Co 7:123 manifesting
The Corinthian believers did love the apostles and did have earnest care toward them, but they had been turned aside by false teachers. Hence, the apostle wrote the first Epistle to bring them back, that their love and earnest care toward the apostles might be made manifest to them.
2Co 7:13a comforted  -   2 Cor. 7:6
2Co 7:13b rejoiced  -   2 Cor. 7:7
2Co 7:131 more
This indicates that the apostle was very human and emotional in his ministering of life.
2Co 7:132 Titus
This major section, from 2:12 — 7:16, concerning the apostles’ ministry of the new covenant and concerning themselves as the ministers of the new covenant, begins with the apostle’s being anxious to meet Titus because of his loving concern for the Corinthian believers (2:13), and ends with his being comforted and cheered by Titus’s coming with positive news concerning the Corinthians.
2Co 7:133 spirit
This proves that even though the apostles were human and emotional, they still remained in their spirit in their ministering of life.
2Co 7:13c refreshed  -   1 Cor. 16:18
2Co 7:14a boasted  -   2 Cor. 7:4
2Co 7:151 affections
Lit., bowels. The same Greek word as for inward parts in 6:12. See note 81 in Phil. 1.
2Co 7:15a obedience  -   2 Cor. 2:9; 10:6
2Co 7:15b fear  -   1 Cor. 2:3; Phil. 2:12
2Co 7:16a rejoice  -   2 Cor. 7:7
2Co 7:161 have
Or, am confident in you. Now the apostle was encouraged by the Corinthian believers and could have confidence in them.
2 Corinthians Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 8:11a grace  -   2 Cor. 1:12; 9:14; 13:14
See note 101 in 1 Cor. 15. By this grace, which is the resurrection life of Christ, the Macedonian believers overcame the usurpation of temporal and uncertain riches (see note 11 in 1 Cor. 16) and became generous in ministering to the needy saints.
2Co 8:1b Macedonia  -   Acts 16:9; 2 Cor. 1:16; 2:13
2Co 8:21 proving
See 2:9 and note 2 there, and note 131 in ch. 9.
2Co 8:2a poverty  -   cf. Mark 12:43-44
2Co 8:22b liberality  -   2 Cor. 9:13
The same Greek word is used for singleness and simplicity. See 1:12 and Rom. 12:8.
2Co 8:3a of  -   2 Cor. 8:17
2Co 8:41 grace
The Macedonian believers besought of the apostles the grace that they might participate (have fellowship) in the ministry to the needy saints. They were not asked to have a share in this matter; rather, they begged for it. They considered it a grace that the apostles would allow them such a share.
2Co 8:4a ministry  -   2 Cor. 9:1; Rom. 15:25-26
2Co 8:5a gave  -   cf. Rom. 12:1
2Co 8:51 first
The Lord wants the believers themselves much more than He wants what they have.
2Co 8:52 and
They gave themselves not only to the Lord but also to the apostles to be one with the apostles in the accomplishing of their ministry.
2Co 8:53 through
It was through the will of God, through the sovereign divine agent, that the believers gave themselves first to the Lord, and to the apostles.
2Co 8:6a Titus  -   2 Cor. 8:16, 23; 12:18
2Co 8:61b grace  -   2 Cor. 8:7, 19; 1 Cor. 16:3 and note
The act of giving.
2Co 8:62 as
This indicates that besides this grace, the grace of giving, Titus completed other things among the Corinthian believers.
2Co 8:7a abound  -   2 Cor. 9:8
2Co 8:71 word
Or, utterance.
2Co 8:7b knowledge  -   1 Cor. 1:5
2Co 8:72c earnestness  -   2 Cor. 7:11
See note 111 in ch. 7.
2Co 8:73 the
Some MSS read, the love from you in us.
2Co 8:74 from
The love that was in the believers was infused into them from the apostles.
2Co 8:75 grace
The act of love shown in the giving of material things to the needy saints. The believers’ grace was the issue of God’s grace, which was motivating them. In the fellowship concerning the ministry to the saints, the apostle referred to the grace of four parties: (1) the grace of God, which was given to the Macedonian believers to motivate them and enable them to give with liberality (vv. 1-2); (2) the grace of the apostles, which allowed the believers to participate in the ministry to the needy saints (v. 4); (3) the grace of the believers, which was their ministering of material things to the needy ones (vv. 6-7); and (4) the grace of Christ, that He became poor that we might become rich (v. 9). This indicates that the believers’ offering of material possessions to the Lord for any purpose should be absolutely a matter of grace, not of human maneuvering.
2Co 8:8a not  -   1 Cor. 7:6
2Co 8:91a grace  -   2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14
It is grace to us that the Lord Jesus, being rich, became poor for our sakes. In the same principle, it is grace to others that we would sacrifice our material riches for their sakes.
2Co 8:9b rich  -   2 Cor. 6:10
2Co 8:101a opinion  -   1 Cor. 7:25, 40
The apostle’s opinion expressed the Lord’s will and desire. See note 251 in 1 Cor. 7.
2Co 8:10b a  -   2 Cor. 9:2
2Co 8:11a eagerness  -   2 Cor. 8:19; 9:2
2Co 8:11b have  -   Mark 12:44
2Co 8:14a lack  -   2 Cor. 9:12; Acts 4:34-35
2Co 8:151a He  -   Exo. 16:18
This quotation from Exo. 16 refers to God’s heavenly way of balancing the supply of manna among His people, and is applied here to the ministering of material things to the needy saints. Manna was gathered for the daily supply of God’s people; they had a sufficient supply no matter how much or how little they gathered. Gathering manna was their duty, and they were to do their duty without being greedy. In like manner, as children of God we should not be greedy or try to preserve our money for ourselves, for whether or not we give, the outcome will be the same, for God in His sovereignty is active to practice a heavenly balancing of the wealth among His people. The result is that He takes care of our daily needs, so that he who preserves much for himself has no excess and he who preserves little for himself has no lack.
2Co 8:16a thanks  -   2 Cor. 2:14
2Co 8:161b earnestness  -   2 Cor. 7:11
Or, diligence. Referring to Paul’s diligence, earnestness, toward the believers.
2Co 8:16c Titus  -   2 Cor. 8:6; 7:6
2Co 8:171a entreaty  -   2 Cor. 8:6
The entreaty of the apostle.
2Co 8:17b of  -   2 Cor. 8:3
2Co 8:18a brother  -   2 Cor. 12:18
2Co 8:18b all  -   1 Cor. 7:17
2Co 8:191a grace  -   2 Cor. 8:6, 7
See notes 62 and 75.
2Co 8:19b glory  -   2 Cor. 4:15
2Co 8:19c eagerness  -   2 Cor. 8:11
2Co 8:201 Avoiding
Money, which is used very much by the devil to seduce man into dishonesty, is involved in the ministry of material things to the saints. In order to avoid being blamed through man’s suspiciousness in this matter, the apostles sent with Titus a reputable brother as a witness.
2Co 8:202 abundance
The abundance of material gifts.
2Co 8:211 exercise
Or, take forethought for, consider in advance (as in Rom. 12:17). This must be quoted from Prov. 3:4, where the Septuagint reads, “And exercise foresight for what is honorable in the sight of the Lord, and of men.”
2Co 8:221 our
Another faithful brother was sent with the two, that by the mouth of three witnesses a strong testimony might be established (Matt. 18:16). This displayed the apostle Paul’s carefulness in doing things.
2Co 8:222 diligent
Or, earnest.
2Co 8:22a confidence  -   2 Cor. 2:3
2Co 8:23a Titus  -   2 Cor. 8:6, 16
2Co 8:23b partner  -   Philem. 17
2Co 8:23c fellow  -   Phil. 2:25
2Co 8:231 apostles
Sent ones, those sent by the churches.
2Co 8:24a boasting  -   2 Cor. 7:4, 14; 9:2-3
2 Corinthians Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 9:1a ministry  -   2 Cor. 8:4; 9:12, 13; Rom. 15:25-26
2Co 9:1b write  -   cf. 1 Cor. 16:1-3
2Co 9:2a eagerness  -   2 Cor. 8:11, 19
2Co 9:2b boast  -   2 Cor. 8:24
2Co 9:21 Achaia
See note 15 in ch. 1.
2Co 9:2c last  -   2 Cor. 8:10
2Co 9:3a brothers  -   2 Cor. 8:18, 22
2Co 9:4a Macedonians  -   2 Cor. 8:1; Rom. 15:26
2Co 9:41b confidence  -   2 Cor. 11:17
The Greek word denotes the groundwork on which some superstructure is founded; hence, foundation, ground; thence, confidence. The same Greek word as in 11:17.
2Co 9:51a blessing  -   cf. 2 Cor. 9:13; 8:2
Or, bounty; a willing gift of generosity given as a blessing to others (Gen. 33:11; Judg. 1:15; Ezek. 34:26; Prov. 11:25).
2Co 9:52 as
Willing and generous giving makes the gift a blessing to the receiver; unwilling and grudging giving, withheld by a covetous heart, makes the gift a matter of covetousness to the giver.
2Co 9:6a sows  -   cf. Gal. 6:7-9; Luke 6:38
2Co 9:61 blessings
Bountiful givings as blessings to the receivers.
2Co 9:62 blessings
Bountiful harvests as blessings from God to the givers.
2Co 9:7a not  -   Deut. 15:10
2Co 9:71 necessity
I.e., by being forced or pressed.
2Co 9:72 God
From Prov. 22:8, where the Septuagint reads, “God blesses a cheerful and liberal man.”
2Co 9:73 cheerful
Or, hilarious, gleeful.
2Co 9:81 all
Every kind of grace. See note 62 in ch. 8.
2Co 9:8a abound  -   2 Cor. 8:7
2Co 9:9a He  -   Psa. 112:9
2Co 9:91b scattered  -   Prov. 11:24-25; 1 Tim. 6:18-19
As in sowing (v. 6).
2Co 9:92c poor  -   Deut. 15:7, 9, 11; Prov. 19:17; 22:9; 28:27
The Greek word denotes one who is obliged to do menial work to eke out a living. It is not the common word for poor.
2Co 9:93 righteousness
Generous giving is, on the one hand, a blessing to the receivers, and, on the other hand, righteousness in the eyes of both God and man.
2Co 9:101 He
God cares for His children and feeds them in two ways: in the way of miracles, as shown by the manna, and in the way of natural law, as shown by sowing and reaping. Concerning both of these means of supply, God is the source. He is the One who sends the manna, and He is the One who supplies the seed for sowing and the bread for food. Having a deep realization of these facts and possessing a thorough knowledge of God’s economy, the apostle had the assurance and the peace to encourage the impoverished saints in Macedonia (8:2; 9:2) to give of what they had to meet the needs of others.
2Co 9:10a seed  -   Isa. 55:10
2Co 9:11a enriched  -   cf. 1 Cor. 1:5
2Co 9:111 liberality
See note 22 in ch. 8. So also in v. 13.
2Co 9:11b thanksgiving  -   2 Cor. 1:11
2Co 9:12a ministry  -   2 Cor. 9:1
2Co 9:121 service
Priestly service. See note 253 in Phil. 2.
2Co 9:12b lack  -   2 Cor. 8:14
2Co 9:131 approving
The approving by the needy saints in Judea of the Gentile believers’ ministry to them. The Greek word for approving means test, trial, experiment (see 2:9 and note 1); hence, approving, proof. This indicates that the ministry to the saints will be tested, tried, and approved by the saints to prove the generous character of the ministry.
2Co 9:13a glorifying  -   Matt. 5:16; 1 Pet. 2:12
2Co 9:13b confession  -   Rom. 10:10; Heb. 3:1; 4:14; 10:23
2Co 9:13c liberality  -   2 Cor. 8:2; cf. 2 Cor. 9:5
2Co 9:132d fellowship  -   Heb. 13:16
Or, communication (cf. contribute in Rom. 12:13, and had fellowship in Phil. 4:15). Referring to the ministry of supply, which was a fellowship between the Gentile believers and those in Judea.
2Co 9:141 surpassing
I.e., immeasurable.
2Co 9:142 grace
See notes 11 and 62 in ch. 8.
2Co 9:15a Thanks  -   2 Cor. 2:14; 8:16
2Co 9:151 indescribable
Lit., not to be told thoroughly.
2Co 9:152b gift  -   James 1:17
I.e., the grace given to the believers.
2 Corinthians Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 10:11 But
But here indicates a contrast. In chs. 8 and 9 the apostle spoke pleasantly to the dear saints in Corinth, encouraging them to have fellowship in the ministry to the needy saints in Judea. Immediately after that, he desired to make himself more clear to them by vindicating, with a severe and unpleasant word, his apostleship, even his apostolic authority. This was needed because of the vague and clouded situation caused by the false, Judaistic apostles (11:11-15), whose teaching and assertion of what they were had distracted the Corinthian believers from the fundamental teachings of the authentic apostles, and especially from the proper realization of Paul’s standing as an apostle.
2Co 10:1a entreat  -   2 Cor. 8:6; 9:5; Rom. 12:1
2Co 10:12b meekness  -   Matt. 11:29; 21:5; 1 Cor. 4:21
To be meek is to be mild toward men, without resisting or disputing. This indicates that the apostle, being firmly attached to Christ (1:21) and being one with Him, lived by Him, behaving in His virtues.
2Co 10:13 gentleness
Denoting humility, yieldingness, approachableness. See notes 52 in Phil. 4 and 33 in 1 Tim. 3.
2Co 10:1c person  -   2 Cor. 10:10
2Co 10:14d base  -   Matt. 11:29; Zech. 9:9
A word used in ancient times by pagans to express contempt for the Christian virtue of humility.
2Co 10:15e bold  -   2 Cor. 7:16; cf. 2 Cor. 11:21
Or, of good courage. The apostle was bold, having courage to speak out in his Epistle the real situation.
2Co 10:2a present  -   2 Cor. 13:2, 10
2Co 10:2b bold  -   2 Cor. 10:12; 11:21
2Co 10:2c according  -   Rom. 8:4
2Co 10:31 in
Being human, the apostles were still in flesh; hence, they walked in flesh. But, especially in spiritual warfare, they did not walk according to the flesh; they walked according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4).
2Co 10:3a war  -   1 Tim. 1:18; Eph. 6:12
2Co 10:4a weapons  -   2 Cor. 6:7; Rom. 13:12; cf. Eph. 6:11-17; 1 Thes. 5:8
2Co 10:4b warfare  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 4:7
2Co 10:41 not
Since spiritual warfare is not against flesh but against spiritual forces (Eph. 6:12), the weapons should not be fleshly but spiritual. Such weapons are powerful to overthrow the strongholds of the enemy.
2Co 10:42c powerful  -   2 Cor. 4:7; 13:3-4; 1 Cor. 2:5; Rom. 15:19
I.e., powerful in God’s view, divinely powerful; hence, exceedingly powerful.
2Co 10:4d overthrowing  -   Jer. 1:10; cf. 2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10
2Co 10:51a reasonings  -   Phil. 2:14
Reasonings and thoughts are in and of the mind. These are the strongholds of Satan, God’s adversary, within the minds of those who are disobedient to God. Through the spiritual warfare, reasonings must be overthrown and every thought must be taken captive to obey Christ.
2Co 10:52b high  -   Isa. 2:11-12
The haughty things within the reprobate mentality that are against the knowledge of God. These too must be overthrown by the spiritual weapons that they might no longer rise up against the knowledge of God.
2Co 10:5c captive  -   cf. Eph. 4:8
2Co 10:5d thought  -   2 Cor. 11:3
See note 51.
2Co 10:5e obedience  -   2 Cor. 9:13
2Co 10:61a punish  -   2 Cor. 7:11
This is a bold and severe word with a rebuke.
2Co 10:62b obedience  -   2 Cor. 2:9; 7:15
Our obedience affords a base from which the Lord can deal with others’ disobedience.
2Co 10:7a according  -   cf. 2 Cor. 5:16
2Co 10:71 has
This indicates that to be of Christ is an important matter. It is vital to the Christian life and ministry.
2Co 10:7b of  -   1 Cor. 1:12
2Co 10:7c of  -   2 Cor. 11:23
2Co 10:7d so  -   1 Cor. 3:23
2Co 10:8a boast  -   2 Cor. 10:13, 15; 11:16-18; 12:1
2Co 10:8b authority  -   2 Cor. 13:10
2Co 10:81c building  -   2 Cor. 12:19
Apostolic authority, in contrast to people’s consideration in their natural concept, is not for ruling over the believers but for building them up.
2Co 10:10a bodily  -   2 Cor. 10:1
2Co 10:101b weak  -   2 Cor. 13:4
See note 31 in 1 Cor. 2.
2Co 10:10c speech  -   2 Cor. 11:6; 1 Cor. 1:17; 2:1, 4
2Co 10:102 contemptible
Or, of no account. Lit., made nothing of.
2Co 10:12a dare  -   2 Cor. 10:2
2Co 10:12b commend  -   2 Cor. 10:18; 3:1; 5:12
2Co 10:131 not
The apostle was bold, but not without limit. This shows that he was under the restriction of the Lord. His boasting was according to the measure of the rule which the God of measure, the ruling God, had apportioned to him.
2Co 10:13a boast  -   2 Cor. 10:8, 15
2Co 10:132 according
Paul’s ministry to the Gentile world, including Corinth, was according to the measure of God (Eph. 3:1-2, 8; Gal. 2:8). Hence, his boast was within this limit and, in contrast to that of the Judaizers, was not without measure.
2Co 10:133 rule
Lit., measuring rod. Like the rule of a carpenter.
2Co 10:13b apportioned  -   cf. Rom. 12:3
2Co 10:141 extending
As the Judaizers did.
2Co 10:14a come  -   Acts 18:1
2Co 10:14b gospel  -   1 Cor. 4:15; 15:1
2Co 10:15a not  -   2 Cor. 10:13
2Co 10:15b others’  -   Rom. 15:20
2Co 10:151 magnified
By being enlarged, increased. The apostles had the hope that through the growth of the Corinthian believers’ faith, the apostles’ ministry would be magnified (in the sense of being praised) by being enlarged and increased abundantly, yet still according to the rule, the measure, that God had apportioned to them.
2Co 10:17a boasts  -   1 Cor. 1:31
2Co 10:18a commends  -   2 Cor. 10:12
2Co 10:18b approved  -   1 Cor. 11:19; 2 Tim. 2:15; cf. 1 Cor. 9:27
2 Corinthians Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 11:1a bear  -   2 Cor. 11:4, 19-20
2Co 11:11b foolishness  -   2 Cor. 11:16-17, 21; 12:11
Referring ironically to the apostle’s forced self-vindication and boasting.
2Co 11:21a jealousy  -   Exo. 20:5
Like the jealousy of a husband over his wife.
2Co 11:2b betrothed  -   Hosea 2:19-20
2Co 11:2c present  -   Eph. 5:27
2Co 11:22d virgin  -   Rev. 14:4
To be the bride for the Bridegroom (John 3:29), the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7).
2Co 11:3a serpent  -   Gen. 3:1-6; Rev. 12:9, 15
2Co 11:3b deceived  -   1 Thes. 3:5; 1 Tim. 2:14; 4:1; 2 Pet. 3:17
2Co 11:3c Eve  -   Gen. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:13
2Co 11:3d craftiness  -   Eph. 4:14
2Co 11:31e thoughts  -   2 Cor. 10:5
See note 141 in ch. 3.
2Co 11:32f simplicity  -   2 Cor. 1:12; Eph. 6:5; Matt. 6:22
Or, singleness. Referring to the believers’ single-hearted loyalty, single-minded faithfulness, toward Christ. In the garden of Eden, Eve, the wife of Adam, was deceived by the serpent, Satan, through his questioning and undermining of God’s word, and was thus carried away to the tree of knowledge and distracted from the simplicity of eating the tree of life (Gen. 3:1-6). Here the church in Corinth, the pure virgin betrothed to Christ, was being deceived by the Judaizers, the ministers of Satan (v. 15), who were undermining God’s word by preaching another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel (v. 4). Because of this undermining preaching, the apostle was fearful that the Corinthians would be distracted by the teachings of the Judaizers and would be separated from the genuine appreciation, love, and enjoyment of the precious person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as their life and their everything. The above-mentioned three things preached by the Judaizers, who intermingled with the believers, were of Satan.
2Co 11:3g purity  -   Matt. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:22
2Co 11:41a another  -   cf. 1 Cor. 3:11; Acts 4:12
Another Jesus means another person; a different spirit means a spirit of a different nature; and a different gospel means a gospel of a different kind.
2Co 11:4b different  -   Rom. 8:15; 1 John 4:1, 3, 6
See note 41.
2Co 11:4c different  -   Gal. 1:6-9
See note 41.
2Co 11:4d bear  -   2 Cor. 11:1
2Co 11:42 well
Or, beautifully, ideally. Used here ironically. In v. 1 the apostle expressed his desire that the Corinthian believers, who were bearing with him, would bear more with him. Now in this verse he referred them to the fact that they were bearing beautifully with the false apostles. His idea here was, “Since you bear with the false apostles so well, so beautifully, so ideally, please bear more with me.”
2Co 11:51a super-apostles  -   2 Cor. 12:11; 11:13; Rev. 2:2; cf. 1 Cor. 15:9-10
I.e., apostles in surpassing degree. An ironic reference to the false apostles, mentioned in v. 13 and in 12:11, who surpassed the degree of the genuineness of the apostles. The false apostles were the Judaizers who came to Corinth to preach another Jesus with a different spirit in a different gospel.
2Co 11:61 layman
One who is unlearned, not having the utterance derived from special training.
2Co 11:6a speech  -   2 Cor. 10:10
2Co 11:6b knowledge  -   1 Cor. 12:8
2Co 11:6c manifest  -   2 Cor. 5:11
2Co 11:7a free  -   1 Cor. 9:18; 1 Thes. 2:9
2Co 11:9a lacked  -   Phil. 4:12
2Co 11:9b burden  -   2 Cor. 12:13-14
2Co 11:9c Macedonia  -   Acts 18:5; Phil. 4:15-16
2Co 11:9d filled  -   1 Cor. 16:17
2Co 11:9e burdensome  -   2 Cor. 12:16
2Co 11:101 truthfulness
As in Rom. 3:7 and 15:8, truthfulness is an attribute of Christ, as are meekness and gentleness in 10:1. Since the apostle lived by Christ, whatever Christ is became his virtue in his behavior.
2Co 11:10a boasting  -   1 Cor. 9:15; 2 Cor. 11:16-18; 12:1
2Co 11:10b Achaia  -   Acts 18:12, 27; 19:21
2Co 11:11a love  -   2 Cor. 12:15
2Co 11:11b knows  -   2 Cor. 11:31; 12:2-3; Rev. 2:2
2Co 11:131a false  -   Rev. 2:2
The super-apostles (v. 5; 12:11).
2Co 11:13b workers  -   Phil. 3:2
2Co 11:132 transfiguring
Or, fashioning, disguising (and so in vv. 14-15). The false apostles, being deceitful, fashioned themselves into the appearance of the real apostles, who were true in every way.
2Co 11:141a Satan  -   Job 1:6; 2:1
This indicates that Satan is the source of the false apostles. They followed him in his deceitfulness to frustrate God’s economy.
2Co 11:142b angel  -   Gal. 1:8
God is light, and His angels are of light. In contrast, Satan is darkness, and all his followers are in darkness. There is no fellowship between light and darkness (6:14).
2Co 11:151 ministers
These are the true apostles, who carry the ministry of righteousness (3:9). Whatever the ministers of Satan do is altogether unrighteous. Righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness (6:14).
2Co 11:15a end  -   Phil. 3:19
2Co 11:16a foolish  -   2 Cor. 11:1; 12:11
2Co 11:16b boast  -   2 Cor. 11:10
2Co 11:17a foolishness  -   2 Cor. 11:1
2Co 11:171b confidence  -   2 Cor. 9:4
See note 41 in ch. 9.
2Co 11:18a boast  -   2 Cor. 5:12
2Co 11:18b flesh  -   Gal. 6:12-13; 2 Cor. 5:16
2Co 11:18c boast  -   cf. Phil. 3:3-4; 1 Cor. 1:31; Gal. 6:13-14
2Co 11:19a bear  -   2 Cor. 11:4
2Co 11:19b fools  -   2 Cor. 11:16; 1 Cor. 4:10
2Co 11:191 wise
An ironic expression applied to the Corinthians.
2Co 11:20a enslaves  -   Gal. 2:4; 4:1, 9; 5:1
2Co 11:20b devours  -   Mark 12:40
2Co 11:201 takes
I.e., takes you as a prey (the same word as for caught in Luke 5:5).
2Co 11:20c lifts  -   2 Cor. 12:7
2Co 11:211 By
This is ironic.
2Co 11:212 Supposedly
Lit., As though.
2Co 11:21a weak  -   2 Cor. 11:30; 12:5, 9, 10; 13:4, 9; 1 Cor. 2:3
2Co 11:21b foolishness  -   2 Cor. 11:1, 16-17
2Co 11:21c daring  -   2 Cor. 10:2
2Co 11:221a Hebrews  -   Phil. 3:5; Exo. 3:18; cf. Acts 22:3
Verses 22-23 give a comparison between the apostle and the Judaizers, pointing out clearly that in addition to his needing to enjoy Christ as his life supply, implied in all the preceding chapters, a genuine minister of Christ needs to suffer in following the Lord. Anyone, like the Judaizers, who lacks these two qualifications must be recognized as a false apostle, a minister of Satan, regardless of his claims of apostolic authority (vv. 13-15).
2Co 11:22b Israelites  -   Exo. 9:7; Lev. 23:42
See note 221.
2Co 11:22c seed  -   Gen. 12:7; Rom. 9:7; Gal. 3:16
See note 221.
2Co 11:23a Ministers  -   Rom. 15:16; Col. 1:7; 1 Tim. 4:6
2Co 11:231b beside  -   Acts 26:24; 2 Cor. 5:13
Lit., out of my mind.
2Co 11:23c labors  -   2 Cor. 11:27; 6:5; 1 Cor. 15:10
2Co 11:23d imprisonments  -   2 Cor. 6:5; Acts 16:23; Eph. 3:1; 2 Tim. 1:8; Philem. 1, 9, 23; cf. Eph. 6:20; Phil. 1:7; Col. 4:3
2Co 11:23e stripes  -   2 Cor. 6:5
2Co 11:232 excessively
Lit., above measure.
2Co 11:23f deaths  -   2 Cor. 6:9; 1 Cor. 15:31
2Co 11:24a forty  -   Deut. 25:3
2Co 11:251 rods
While the stripes in v. 24 were meted out by the Jews, rods here were used by the Romans (Acts 16:22-23).
2Co 11:25a stoned  -   Acts 14:19; cf. Acts 7:58; Matt. 23:37; John 8:59; 10:31-33; 11:8
2Co 11:252 three
These three instances, which do not include the shipwreck at Melita (universally recognized as Malta), are not recorded in the Acts.
2Co 11:25b shipwrecked  -   Acts 27:41
2Co 11:261 rivers
Rivers that are subject to violent and sudden changes from the sudden swelling of mountain streams or the flooding of dry watercourses.
2Co 11:262 robbers
“The tribes inhabiting the mountains between the table-land of Asia Minor and the coast were notorious for robbery” (Vincent).
2Co 11:26a race  -   Acts 9:23; 13:50; 17:5; 18:12; 21:27; 23:12; 25:2-3; 1 Thes. 2:14-15
2Co 11:26b city  -   2 Cor. 11:32; Acts 21:31
2Co 11:263c false  -   Gal. 2:4
Mainly the Judaizing Christians.
2Co 11:27a labor  -   2 Cor. 11:23; 1 Thes. 2:9; 2 Thes. 3:8
2Co 11:271 watchings
See note 51 in ch. 6.
2Co 11:272b hunger  -   1 Cor. 4:11; Phil. 4:12
Since fastings is listed here with hardship, it must refer to involuntary fasting because of a lack of food. Such fasting differs from hunger. Hunger here may refer to a situation in which there is no way to obtain food; involuntary fasting may refer to a situation of poverty.
2Co 11:27c fastings  -   2 Cor. 6:5
See note 272.
2Co 11:273 cold
Because of the weather and insufficient clothing.
2Co 11:274d nakedness  -   1 Cor. 4:11
Referring to a state of being insufficiently clothed or naked because of scourging or shipwreck.
2Co 11:281 not
Have not been mentioned in vv. 23-27.
2Co 11:282 anxious
Anxious care, or care. The same Greek word as for anxiety in Matt. 13:22 and in 1 Pet. 5:7.
2Co 11:28a all  -   2 Cor. 8:18
2Co 11:29a weak  -   1 Cor. 9:22
2Co 11:29b stumbled  -   1 Cor. 8:13
2Co 11:291 I
Or, I myself am not burned.
2Co 11:292 burn
Burn in sorrow and indignation over the cause of the stumbling.
2Co 11:30a boast  -   2 Cor. 11:16-17
2Co 11:301 things
Referring to the apostle’s sufferings and hardships, which made him appear low, weak, and contemptible in the eyes of his adversaries. These things, not the strength of which his adversaries boasted, attested that he was a true apostle.
2Co 11:30b weakness  -   2 Cor. 11:21
2Co 11:31a God  -   Rom. 15:6; Eph. 1:3; John 20:17
2Co 11:31b blessed  -   Rom. 9:5; Rev. 5:13
2Co 11:31c knows  -   2 Cor. 11:11
2Co 11:31d not  -   Rom. 9:1
2Co 11:32a Damascus  -   Acts 9:2
2Co 11:321 governor
Lit., ethnarch.
2Co 11:32b guarded  -   Acts 9:24
2Co 11:33a lowered  -   Acts 9:25
2 Corinthians Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 12:1a boast  -   2 Cor. 11:10, 16-18
2Co 12:11 necessary
The apostle was forced to boast, because of the Corinthians’ folly. Though it was not expedient for him, it was necessary for their profit. For their building up, he had to boast, that they might be brought back to a sober and proper understanding concerning their relationship with the apostle.
2Co 12:1b expedient  -   1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23
2Co 12:12 come
Meaning that Paul would now come to boast of the visions and revelations that he had received from the Lord.
2Co 12:13c visions  -   Dan. 2:19; 7:2; Matt. 17:9; Luke 1:22; 24:23; Acts 2:17; 9:10, 12; 10:3; 11:5; 16:9; 18:9; 26:19; Rev. 9:17
Revelation is the putting aside of the veil, the unveiling of hidden things; vision is the scene, the view, seen at the unveiling. Many things concerning God’s economy and administration in the universe were hidden. The Lord revealed, unveiled, these to the apostle, and he received visions of these hidden things.
2Co 12:1d revelations  -   2 Cor. 12:7; Dan. 2:19; 1 Pet. 1:12; Luke 2:26; Matt. 16:17; Rom. 16:25; 1 Cor. 2:10; 14:6, 26; Gal. 1:12, 16; Eph. 3:3; Rev. 1:1
2Co 12:21 man
The apostle (v. 7), not as the old creation but as the new creation (5:17). In this section the apostle desired to boast of the new creation in Christ by boasting of his weaknesses in the flesh, the old creation (vv. 5, 9).
2Co 12:2a in  -   2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:27-28; Rom. 16:7
2Co 12:2b knows  -   2 Cor. 11:11
2Co 12:22 caught
The same Greek word as in v. 4, Acts 8:39, and 1 Thes. 4:17.
2Co 12:23 to
Lit., until within; i.e., as far as.
2Co 12:24 third
The visible clouds may be considered the first heaven, and the sky, the second heaven. The third heaven must be the heaven above the heavens, the highest heaven (Deut. 10:14; Psa. 148:4), where the Lord Jesus and God are today (Eph. 4:10; Heb. 4:14; 1:3).
2Co 12:31 And
The conjunction and is an important word here. It indicates that what is mentioned in vv. 3 and 4 and what is mentioned in the preceding verse are two different matters. Verse 2 tells us that the apostle was caught away to the third heaven. Now, vv. 3 and 4 tell us something further, that the apostle was caught away also to another place, into Paradise. This indicates strongly that Paradise is not the same as the third heaven in v. 2; it refers to a place other than the third heaven.
2Co 12:32 outside
Some MSS read, apart from.
2Co 12:41 Paradise
The pleasant section of Hades, where the spirits of Abraham and all the just are, awaiting the resurrection (Luke 16:22-23, 25-26), and where the Lord Jesus went after His death and stayed until His resurrection (Luke 23:43; Acts 2:24, 27, 31; Eph. 4:9; Matt. 12:40). This Paradise differs from the Paradise in Rev. 2:7, which will be the New Jerusalem in the millennium. In this section the apostle told of the exceeding greatness of the revelations he had received. In the universe there are mainly three sections: the heavens, the earth, and Hades, which is underneath the earth (Eph. 4:9). As a man living on earth, the apostle knew the things of the earth. But men do not know the things either in the heavens or in Hades. The apostle, however, was brought away to both of these unknown places. Hence, he received visions and revelations of these hidden regions. For this reason he mentioned these two uttermost parts of the universe.
2Co 12:4a not  -   cf. Rev. 10:4; Dan. 8:26; 12:4, 9
2Co 12:5a boast  -   2 Cor. 5:12; 10:8
2Co 12:5b boast  -   2 Cor. 12:9; 11:30
2Co 12:5c weaknesses  -   2 Cor. 12:10; 11:30; 1 Cor. 2:3
2Co 12:6a boast  -   2 Cor. 11:16-17
2Co 12:6b speak  -   2 Cor. 7:14; Rom. 9:1
2Co 12:6c sees  -   Phil. 4:9
2Co 12:6d hears  -   2 Tim. 1:13; 2:2
2Co 12:71 transcendence
Or, superabundance, exceeding greatness, excess.
2Co 12:7a lifted  -   2 Cor. 11:20
2Co 12:72b thorn  -   cf. Num. 33:55; Ezek. 28:24
“Frequent in classical Greek in the sense of a pale or stake” (Vincent), or a “sharp pointed staff” (Alford). Here it might refer to a kind of physical suffering, such as the trouble with his eyes (see note 152 in Gal. 4).
2Co 12:7c Satan  -   Job 2:6-7; Luke 13:16; 1 Cor. 5:5
2Co 12:73 buffet
To beat with clenched fist, differing from buffet in 1 Cor. 9:27, which means to beat under the eye.
2Co 12:8a three  -   Matt. 26:44
2Co 12:91a grace  -   2 Cor. 8:9; 13:14; John 1:17
See note 101 in 1 Cor. 15. Sufferings and trials are often ordained by the Lord for us that we may experience Christ as grace and power. Hence, in spite of the apostle’s entreaty, the Lord would not remove the thorn from the apostle.
2Co 12:92b power  -   Eph. 1:19-20; Phil. 3:10; 4:13; Isa. 40:29
For the sufficiency of the Lord’s grace to be magnified, our sufferings are required; for the perfectness of the Lord’s power to be shown forth, our weakness is needed. Hence, the apostle would most gladly boast in his weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over him. Grace is the supply, and power is the strength, the ability, of grace. Both are the resurrected Christ, who is now the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor. 15:45; Gal. 2:20) for our enjoyment.
2Co 12:9c weakness  -   2 Cor. 12:5; 11:30
2Co 12:9d power  -   1 Cor. 2:4-5
2Co 12:93e tabernacle  -   Rev. 7:15
The Greek word for tabernacle over is a compound verb composed of two words. The first word means upon, and the second, to dwell in a tent, as in John 1:14 and Rev. 21:3. The compound verb here means to fix a tent or a habitation upon. It portrays how the power of Christ, even Christ Himself, dwells upon us as a tent spread over us, overshadowing us in our weaknesses.
2Co 12:101 well
Or, well content; the same Greek word as in Matt. 3:17.
2Co 12:10a weaknesses  -   1 Cor. 2:3; 9:22
2Co 12:102 insults
Or, mistreatments.
2Co 12:103b necessities  -   2 Cor. 6:4
Or, constraints; i.e., urgent needs that press much. See note 262 in 1 Cor. 7.
2Co 12:10c persecutions  -   Gal. 5:11; 6:12; 2 Tim. 3:11
2Co 12:104d distresses  -   2 Cor. 6:4
Lit., narrowness of room; hence, straits, difficulties, distresses.
2Co 12:105e weak  -   2 Cor. 13:4
Weak in his old being; powerful in the overshadowing Christ.
2Co 12:11a foolish  -   2 Cor. 11:1, 16-17
2Co 12:11b commended  -   2 Cor. 3:1-2
2Co 12:111c super-apostles  -   2 Cor. 11:5
See note 51 in ch. 11.
2Co 12:11d nothing  -   1 Cor. 3:7
2Co 12:121 signs
The attesting miracles that furnish credentials of apostleship.
2Co 12:12a apostle  -   1 Cor. 9:1-2
2Co 12:12b endurance  -   2 Cor. 6:4
2Co 12:122c signs  -   Rom. 15:18-19; Heb. 2:4
Attesting miracles.
2Co 12:123 wonders
Startling and awakening miracles.
2Co 12:124 works
Miracles that demonstrate God’s power.
2Co 12:131 treated
Or, inferior to, weaker than.
2Co 12:13a burden  -   2 Cor. 11:9
2Co 12:132 Graciously
These are ironic expressions.
2Co 12:14a third  -   2 Cor. 13:1
2Co 12:14b not  -   1 Cor. 10:24, 33
2Co 12:14c children  -   1 Cor. 4:14-15
2Co 12:14d parents  -   Prov. 19:14
2Co 12:151 spend
Meaning to spend what he has, referring to his possessions.
2Co 12:152a be  -   cf. 1 Thes. 2:8
Meaning to spend what he is, referring to his being.
2Co 12:15b love  -   2 Cor. 11:11
2Co 12:161 let
I.e., let the former matter go.
2Co 12:16a not  -   2 Cor. 11:9
2Co 12:162 crafty
Some Corinthians charged the apostle with this. They said that he was crafty in making gain, that he was indemnifying himself by sending Titus to receive the collection for the poor saints.
2Co 12:17a advantage  -   2 Cor. 7:2
2Co 12:17b to  -   2 Cor. 9:5
2Co 12:18a Titus  -   2 Cor. 8:6, 16, 23
2Co 12:18b brother  -   2 Cor. 8:18, 22
2Co 12:181c spirit  -   Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 2:13; 1 Cor. 5:4
Our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This spirit governs, rules, directs, regulates, and leads us in our Christian walk (Rom. 8:4). The apostles walked in such a spirit.
2Co 12:18d steps  -   cf. Rom. 4:12
2Co 12:191a Before  -   2 Cor. 2:17
In Christ points to the life by which the apostles spoke, and refers to the means and substance of their speaking. Before God points to the atmosphere in which the apostles spoke and refers to the sphere of their speaking.
2Co 12:19b in  -   Rom. 9:1
2Co 12:19c building  -   2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10
2Co 12:20a fear  -   2 Cor. 2:3
2Co 12:201b strife  -   1 Cor. 1:11; 3:3; Gal. 5:20
Or, debate, contention, quarrel.
2Co 12:20c selfish  -   Phil. 2:3
2Co 12:202 slanders
Or, detractions, evil speakings.
2Co 12:203 whisperings
Secret slanders.
2Co 12:204 demonstrations
Inflated arrogance.
2Co 12:205d tumults  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:40
Or, disturbances.
2Co 12:21a sinned  -   2 Cor. 13:2
2Co 12:21b repented  -   cf. 2 Cor. 7:9-10
2Co 12:21c uncleanness  -   2 Cor. 7:1
2Co 12:21d fornication  -   1 Cor. 5:1
2 Corinthians Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
2Co 13:1a third  -   2 Cor. 12:14
2Co 13:1b witnesses  -   Matt. 18:16
2Co 13:2a absent  -   2 Cor. 13:10
2Co 13:2b sinned  -   2 Cor. 12:21
2Co 13:2c not  -   cf. 2 Cor. 1:23; 1 Cor. 4:21
2Co 13:31a powerful  -   Eph. 1:19
Christ was powerful in the believers while He was speaking in the apostle. This was indeed a strong and subjective proof to the believers that Christ was speaking in the apostle.
2Co 13:4a crucified  -   Phil. 2:7-8
2Co 13:41 weakness
Weakness of the body; the same as in 10:10. For Himself, Christ did not need to be weak in any way, but for accomplishing redemption on our behalf, He was willing to be weak in His body that He might be crucified. However, after being resurrected, He now lives by the power of God.
2Co 13:4b lives  -   1 Cor. 6:14; 1 Pet. 3:18; Rom. 1:4; Rev. 1:18
2Co 13:42 by
Lit., out of.
2Co 13:43 we
The apostles followed the pattern of Christ and were willing to be weak in the organic union with Him that they might live with Him a crucified life. Thus they would live together with Him by the power of God directed toward the believers. Apparently, they were weak toward the believers; actually they were powerful.
2Co 13:4c weak  -   2 Cor. 12:10
2Co 13:4d live  -   Rom. 6:4-5, 8; John 14:19; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21
2Co 13:4e power  -   1 Cor. 2:4-5
2Co 13:51 faith
The objective faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19 and note 3). If one is in the objective faith, he surely has the subjective faith, believing in Christ and the entire content of God’s New Testament economy. This is what the apostle asked the Corinthians to test.
2Co 13:52 prove
To test is to determine one’s condition; to prove is to verify that one meets the qualifications for a particular status.
2Co 13:53 Jesus
As long as a believer realizes that Jesus Christ is in him, he is qualified, approved, as a genuine member of Christ.
2Co 13:5a in  -   Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27; John 14:20; Gal. 2:20; 4:19
2Co 13:54b disapproved  -   cf. 1 Cor. 9:27
I.e., disqualified.
2Co 13:61 we
By this word the apostle turned to himself and the other apostles, indicating that they, having Christ living and speaking in them, were fully qualified and not disapproved, especially among the troublesome Corinthians. The apostle earnestly hoped that they might recognize this and have no further questions about him.
2Co 13:71 not
This indicates that the believers’ doing good proved the qualifications and teaching of the apostles. However, the apostle did not care to use this as a ground for exercising his apostolic authority to discipline them; he cared for their doing good that they might be established and built up.
2Co 13:81 For
For indicates that v. 8 is an explanation of what is mentioned in the preceding verse. The apostle expected the Corinthian believers to do good, but not so that the apostles would appear approved. To edify the believers to do good is for the truth, but for the apostles to cause themselves to appear approved and to defend themselves to the believers (12:19) is against the truth. The Lord would not enable the apostles to do this; hence, they were not able to do it.
2Co 13:82 truth
The reality of the contents of the faith. See note 42 in 1 Tim. 2.
2Co 13:91a weak  -   2 Cor. 12:5, 9-10; 1 Cor. 4:10
To be weak here is the same as to appear disapproved. When the apostles appeared disapproved, they were weak in administering discipline to the believers. When the believers did good, they were powerful and made the apostles powerless to discipline them. The apostles rejoiced over this and prayed for this, i.e., for the believers’ perfecting.
2Co 13:92b perfecting  -   2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:12
Or, restoring. Implying repairing, adjusting, putting in order again, mending; perfectly joining together (cf. 1 Cor. 1:10 and note 4), thoroughly equipping, well furnishing; thus, perfecting, completing, educating. The apostles prayed for the Corinthians that they might be restored, put in order again, and thoroughly equipped and edified to grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ.
2Co 13:10a absent  -   2 Cor. 13:2
2Co 13:10b present  -   2 Cor. 2:3
2Co 13:10c severity  -   Titus 1:13; cf. 1 Cor. 4:21
2Co 13:10d authority  -   2 Cor. 10:8
2Co 13:10e building  -   2 Cor. 10:8; 12:19
2Co 13:111a rejoice  -   Phil. 3:1
Since the apostles were rejoicing (v. 9), they were able to exhort the believers also to rejoice. This was not to be done in their natural life but in the Lord (Phil. 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thes. 5:16).
2Co 13:112 perfected
Or, completed thoroughly. I.e., repaired or adjusted, put in order again, mended, perfectly joined together; thus, restored. In Greek this word is the root of the word for perfecting in v. 9 and in Eph. 4:12.
2Co 13:113 comforted
The apostles were comforted by the God of all comfort (1:3-6). The Corinthians were very discouraged by the apostle’s first Epistle to them. Now, in the second Epistle, he comforted them with the comfort of God (7:8-13).
2Co 13:114b think  -   Phil. 2:2; Rom. 12:16; 15:5
Thinking the same thing must have been the main thing in which the distracted and confused Corinthians needed to be perfected, adjusted, put in order, and restored, as the apostle had exhorted in his first Epistle (1 Cor. 1:10).
2Co 13:115 at
At peace with one another, and probably with God also.
2Co 13:11c peace  -   Mark 9:50; Rom. 12:18
2Co 13:11d God  -   1 John 4:8, 16; Rom. 15:33; Phil. 4:9
2Co 13:116 love
The Corinthians were lacking in love (1 Cor. 8:1; 13:1-3, 13; 14:1) and were short of peace because they were disturbed by the distracting teachings and confusing concepts. Hence, the apostle wished that the God of love and peace would be with them for their adjusting and perfecting. They needed to be filled with the love and peace of God that they might walk according to love (Rom. 14:15; Eph. 5:2) and have peace with one another (Rom. 14:19; Heb. 12:14).
2Co 13:121a holy  -   Rom. 16:16
A kiss of pure love without any contaminating mixture.
2Co 13:13a All  -   Phil. 4:22
2Co 13:141a grace  -   Rom. 16:20; 1 Cor. 16:23; Gal. 6:18; Rev. 22:21
The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17 and note 1; 1 Cor. 15:10 and note 1), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation. These are not three separate matters but three aspects of one thing, just as the Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods but three “hypostases…of the one same undivided and indivisible” God (Philip Schaff). The Greek word for hypostasis (used in Heb. 11:1 — see note 2 there), the singular form of hypostases, refers to a support under, a support beneath, i.e., something underneath that supports, a supporting substance. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the hypostases, the supporting substances, that compose the one Godhead.
The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues. Here the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because this book is on the grace of Christ (1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9). Such a divine attribute of three virtues — love, grace, and fellowship — and such a Triune God of the three divine hypostases — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — were needed by the distracted and confused yet comforted and restored Corinthian believers. Hence, the apostle used all these divine and precious things in one sentence to conclude his lovely and dear Epistle.
This verse is strong proof that the trinity of the Godhead is not for the doctrinal understanding of systematic theology but for the dispensing of God Himself in His Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people. In the Bible the Trinity is never revealed merely as a doctrine. It is always revealed or mentioned in regard to the relationship of God with His creatures, especially with man, who was created by Him, and more particularly with His chosen and redeemed people. The first divine title used in the divine revelation, Elohim in Hebrew, a title used in relation to God’s creation, is plural in number (Gen. 1:1), implying that God, as the Creator of the heavens and the earth for man, is triune. Concerning His creation of man in His own image, after His own likeness, He used the plural pronouns Us and Our, referring to His Trinity (Gen. 1:26) and implying that He would be one with man and express Himself through man in His Trinity. Later, in Gen. 3:22 and 11:7 and Isa. 6:8, He referred to Himself again and again as Us in regard to His relationship with man and with His chosen people.
In order to redeem fallen man that He might again have the position to be one with man, He became incarnated (John 1:1, 14) in the Son and through the Spirit (Luke 1:31-35) to be a man, and lived a human life on the earth, also in the Son (Luke 2:49) and by the Spirit (Luke 4:1; Matt. 12:28). At the beginning of the Son’s ministry on the earth, the Father anointed the Son with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18) in order that He might reach men and bring them back to Him. Just before He was crucified in the flesh and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), He unveiled His mysterious Trinity to His disciples in plain words (John 14 — 17), stating that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son (John 14:9-11), that the Spirit is the transfiguration of the Son (John 14:16-20), that the three, coexisting and coinhering simultaneously, are abiding with the believers for their enjoyment (John 14:23; 17:21-23), and that all that the Father has is the Son’s and all that the Son possesses is received by the Spirit to be declared to the believers (John 16:13-15). Such a Trinity is altogether related to the dispensing of the processed God into His believers (John 14:17, 20; 15:4-5) that they may be one in and with the Triune God (John 17:21-23).
After His resurrection He charged His disciples to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19); that is, He charged the disciples to bring the believing ones into the Triune God, into an organic union with the processed God, who had passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and had entered into resurrection. Based on such an organic union, the apostle, at the conclusion of this divine Epistle to the Corinthians, blessed them with the blessed Divine Trinity in the participation in the Son’s grace with the Father’s love through the Spirit’s fellowship. In this Divine Trinity, God the Father operates all things in all the members in the church, which is the Body of Christ, through the ministries of the Lord, God the Son, by the gifts of God the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-6).
The entire divine revelation in the book of Ephesians concerning the producing, existing, growing, building up, and fighting of the church as the Body of Christ is composed of the divine economy, the dispensing of the Triune God into the members of the Body of Christ. Chapter 1 of Ephesians unveils that God the Father chose and predestinated these members in eternity (Eph. 1:4-5), that God the Son redeemed them (Eph. 1:6-12), and that God the Spirit, as a pledge, sealed them (Eph. 1:13-14), thus imparting Himself into His believers for the formation of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:18-23). Chapter 2 shows us that in the Divine Trinity all the believers, both Jewish and Gentile, have access unto God the Father, through God the Son, in God the Spirit (Eph. 2:18). This indicates that the three coexist and coinhere simultaneously, even after all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. In ch. 3 the apostle prayed that God the Father would grant the believers to be strengthened through God the Spirit into their inner man, that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that is, occupy their entire being, that they may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14-19). This is the climax of the believers’ experience of and participation in God in His Trinity. Chapter 4 portrays how the processed God as the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father is mingled with the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4-6) so that all the members of the Body may experience the Divine Trinity. Chapter 5 exhorts the believers to praise the Lord, God the Son, with the songs of God the Spirit, and give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, to God the Father (Eph. 5:19-20). This is to praise and thank the processed God in His Divine Trinity for our enjoyment of Him as the Triune God. Chapter 6 instructs us to fight the spiritual warfare by being empowered in the Lord, God the Son, putting on the whole armor of God the Father, and wielding the sword of God the Spirit (Eph. 6:10, 11, 17). This is the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the Triune God even in the spiritual warfare.
The apostle Peter, in his writing, confirmed that God is triune for the believers’ enjoyment, referring the believers to the election of God the Father, the sanctification of God the Spirit, and the redemption of Jesus Christ, God the Son, accomplished by His blood (1 Pet. 1:2). And John the apostle strengthened the revelation that the Divine Trinity is for the believers’ participation in the processed Triune God. In the book of Revelation he blessed the churches in different localities with grace and peace from God the Father, Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from God the Spirit, the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from God the Son, Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:4-5). John’s blessing given to the churches indicated also that the processed Triune God, in all He is as the eternal Father, in all He is able to do as the sevenfold intensified Spirit, and in all He has attained and obtained as the anointed Son, is for the believers’ enjoyment, that they may be His corporate testimony as the golden lampstands (Rev. 1:9, 11, 20).
Thus, it is evident that the divine revelation of the trinity of the Godhead in the holy Word, from Genesis through Revelation, is not for theological study but for the apprehending of how God in His mysterious and marvelous Trinity dispenses Himself into His chosen people, that we as His chosen and redeemed people may, as indicated in the apostle’s blessing to the Corinthian believers, participate in, experience, enjoy, and possess the processed Triune God now and for eternity. Amen.
2Co 13:14b love  -   Rom. 5:5; Jude 21
2Co 13:14c fellowship  -   1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:3, 6
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Galatians Outline
I.   Introduction — the will of God to rescue us out of the evil religious age — 1:1-5
II.   The revelation of the apostle’s gospel — 1:6 — 4:31
A.   God’s Son versus man’s religion — 1:6 — 2:10
B.   Christ replacing the law — 2:11-21
C.   The Spirit by faith in Christ versus the flesh by works of law — 3:1 — 4:31
1.   The Spirit being the blessing of the promise by faith in Christ — 3:1-14
2.   The law being the custodian of the heirs of the promise — 3:15-29
3.   The Spirit of sonship replacing the custody of the law — 4:1-7
4.   Christ needing to be formed in the heirs of promise — 4:8-20
5.   The children born according to the Spirit versus the children born according to the flesh — 4:21-31
III.   The walk of God’s children — 5:1 — 6:17
A.   Not entangled by the yoke of slavery under law — 5:1
B.   Not separated from Christ — 5:2-12
C.   Not indulging the flesh but serving through love — 5:13-15
D.   Walking by the Spirit, not by the flesh — 5:16-26
E.   Restoring the fallen one in a spirit of meekness — 6:1
F.   Completely fulfilling the law of Christ — 6:2-6
G.   Sowing not unto the flesh but unto the Spirit — 6:7-10
H.   Having been crucified to the religious world to live a new creation — 6:11-16
I.   Bearing the brands of Jesus — 6:17
IV.   Conclusion — the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ being with our spirit — 6:18
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Galatians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ga 1:11a Paul  -   Acts 7:58; 8:1, 3; 9:1-30; 11:25, 30; 13:1-4, 7, 9, 13; 15:2
The books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians form a cluster of Epistles that make up the heart of the divine revelation in the New Testament. The essential subject of these four books is Christ and the church. Galatians reveals that Christ is versus religion with its law; Ephesians reveals the church as the Body of Christ; Philippians concerns the experience, the living out, of Christ; and Colossians unveils the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ as the Head of the Body.
Ga 1:1b apostle  -   Gal. 2:9; Rom. 1:5; 1 Cor. 9:1-2, 5; 15:9; 2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11
Ga 1:12c not  -   Gal. 1:11-12
The purpose of this book is to cause its receivers to know that the gospel preached by the apostle Paul was not from man’s teaching (vv. 11-12) but from God’s revelation. Hence, in the very opening of this book Paul emphasized that he became an apostle not from men nor through man but through Christ and God.
Ga 1:1d through  -   Acts 9:15; 20:24; 26:16
Ga 1:13e raised  -   Acts 2:24
The law dealt with man as the old creation, whereas the gospel makes man the new creation in resurrection. God made Paul an apostle not by the law according to his natural man in the old creation but through the resurrection of Christ according to his regenerated man in the new creation. Hence, Paul did not say here, “God the Father, who gave the law through Moses,” but “God the Father, who raised Him [Christ] from the dead.” God’s New Testament economy is not with men in the old creation but with men in the new creation through the resurrection of Christ.
Ga 1:21a brothers  -   Phil. 4:21; Acts 11:12
The apostle considered all the brothers who were with him co-writers that they might be a testimony and a confirmation of what he wrote in this Epistle.
Ga 1:22b churches  -   1 Cor. 7:17; 11:16
Galatia was a province of the ancient Roman Empire. Through Paul’s preaching ministry, churches were established in a number of cities in that province. Hence, churches, not church, was used when the apostle referred to the churches in Galatia collectively.
Ga 1:2c Galatia  -   Acts 16:6; 1 Cor. 16:1; Gal. 3:1
Ga 1:31a Grace  -   Gal. 1:6, 15; 2:9, 21; 5:4; 6:18; John 1:14; Rom. 5:2
See notes 21 in Eph. 1 and 72 in Rom. 1.
Ga 1:32b peace  -   Gal. 6:16; John 14:27; 16:33; 20:19, 21, 26; Phil. 4:7
See note 22 in Eph. 1.
Ga 1:3c our  -   John 20:17; Eph. 1:2
Ga 1:4a gave  -   Gal. 2:20; Matt. 20:28; Eph. 5:2, 25; Titus 2:14
Ga 1:4b sins  -   1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24
Ga 1:41 rescue
Lit., pluck us out of, draw us out of, extricate us from.
Ga 1:42c age  -   Eph. 2:2; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 4:4
An age is a part of the world, which is the satanic system (see note 21 in Eph. 2). According to the context of this book, the present evil age here refers to the religious world, the religious course of the world, the Jewish religion. This is confirmed by 6:14-15, where circumcision is considered a part of the world — the religious world, which to the apostle Paul was crucified. Here the apostle emphasized that the purpose of Christ’s giving Himself for our sins was to rescue us, to pluck us, out of the Jewish religion, the present evil age. This is to release God’s chosen people from the custody of the law (3:23), to bring them out of the sheepfold (John 10:1, 3), according to the will of God. Thus, in his opening word Paul indicated what he was going to deal with: he wanted to rescue the churches, which were distracted by Judaism with its law, and bring them back to the grace of the gospel.
Ga 1:4d will  -   Rom. 12:2; Eph. 1:5
Ga 1:5a glory  -   Rom. 11:36
Ga 1:61 removing
Here Paul came to his subject. Because the churches in Galatia were deserting the grace of Christ and backsliding to the observance of the law, Paul was burdened to write this Epistle.
Ga 1:6a called  -   Eph. 1:18; Rom. 8:30
Ga 1:62 in
Or, by.
Ga 1:63b grace  -   Gal. 2:21; 5:4
The grace of Christ is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — processed to become our enjoyment. This grace is versus the law of Moses (John 1:17 and note 1).
Ga 1:64c different  -   Gal. 1:8, 9; 2 Cor. 11:4
This was the Judaic observance of the law. Paul’s gospel, which is outside the Judaic law, includes all the major items of the four Gospels. Moreover, it covers many more items so that the revelation of the word of God in the New Testament might be completed (Col. 1:25) with crucial items such as Christ in the believers as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27); the Spirit of God as a seal and a pledge (Eph. 1:13-14); God’s Son being revealed in us (v. 16), being formed in us (4:19), making His home in us (Eph. 3:17), and filling us unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19); and Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and as the One in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9). The focal point of Paul’s gospel is that the Son of God, God’s anointed One (the Christ), has entered into our being to be our life today (Col. 3:4) and our glory in the future (Col. 1:27) that we may be the members (Rom. 12:5) of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:16), of which Christ is the Head (Eph. 4:15).
Ga 1:71 not
The observance of the law could never be a gospel that could set sinners free from the bondage of the law and bring them into the enjoyment of God; it could only keep them as slaves under the bondage of the law, entangling them with the yoke of slavery of the law (5:1).
Ga 1:72 some
The Judaizers, whom the apostle Paul considered false brothers (2:4).
Ga 1:7a trouble  -   Gal. 5:10, 12; Acts 15:24
Ga 1:73 pervert
The Judaizers troubled the churches by perverting, distorting, the gospel of Christ, thus misleading the believers into going back to the law of Moses.
Ga 1:8a angel  -   2 Cor. 11:14
Ga 1:8b accursed  -   Rom. 9:3; 1 Cor. 16:22
Ga 1:101 trying
Or, persuading men or God; seeking to conciliate, to satisfy, men or God.
Ga 1:10a please  -   1 Thes. 2:4
Ga 1:10b slave  -   Rom. 1:1
Ga 1:11a brothers  -   Gal. 3:15; 4:12, 28, 31; 5:11, 13; 6:1, 18
Ga 1:11b gospel  -   Rom. 2:16; 16:25; 1 Cor. 15:1-2
Ga 1:11c not  -   Gal. 1:1
Ga 1:121 neither
Neither…from man corresponds with not from men in v. 1.
Ga 1:12a received  -   1 Cor. 15:3
Ga 1:122b revelation  -   Gal. 1:16; 2:2; 2 Cor. 12:1; Eph. 3:3; Rev. 1:1
The revelation given to the apostle Paul by the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the gospel.
Ga 1:13a formerly  -   Acts 26:9-11
Ga 1:131 Judaism
I.e., the Jewish religion, which is in contrast to the Son of God and the church (vv. 13-16).
Ga 1:13b persecuted  -   Acts 22:4; 1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13
Ga 1:13c church  -   Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 10:32
Ga 1:13d ravaged  -   Gal. 1:23; Acts 8:3; 9:21
Ga 1:14a advanced  -   cf. Acts 22:3
Ga 1:14b zealot  -   Acts 22:3; Phil. 3:6
Ga 1:141c traditions  -   Matt. 15:2-6; Col. 2:8
Traditions in the sect of the Pharisees, of which Paul was a member. He called himself “a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6). The Jewish religion was composed not only of the God-given law and its rituals but also of manmade traditions.
Ga 1:14d fathers  -   2 Tim. 1:3
Ga 1:15a pleased  -   1 Cor. 1:21; Eph. 1:5, 9
Ga 1:151 set
I.e., designated or distinguished for a purpose.
Ga 1:152 from
I.e., before he was born.
Ga 1:15b womb  -   Isa. 49:1, 5; Jer. 1:5; Luke 1:15
Ga 1:153c called  -   Rom. 1:1
After he was born, at his conversion.
Ga 1:154d grace  -   Eph. 3:2, 8; 1 Tim. 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:10; 3:10; Rom. 12:3
Paul was called to be an apostle through the grace of Christ, not through the law announced by Moses.
Ga 1:161a reveal  -   Gal. 1:12; Matt. 16:17
Not to teach but to unveil, to give a vision of, to show.
Ga 1:162b Son  -   Gal. 2:20; 4:6
The Son of God, as the embodiment and expression of God the Father (John 1:18; 14:9-11; Heb. 1:3), is life to us (John 10:10; 1 John 5:12; Col. 3:4). God’s heart’s desire is to reveal His Son in us that we may know Him, receive Him as our life (John 17:3; 3:16), and become the sons of God (John 1:12; Gal. 4:5-6). As the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), He is far superior to Judaism and its traditions (vv. 13-14). The Judaizers had bewitched the Galatians into considering that the ordinances of the law were above the Son of the living God. Hence, in the opening of this Epistle the apostle testified that he had been deeply involved and had become far advanced in the realm of Judaism, but that God had rescued him out of that course of the world, which was evil in God’s eyes, by revealing His Son in him. In his experience he realized that there was no comparison between the Son of the living God and Judaism with its dead traditions handed down from his forefathers.
Ga 1:163 in
God’s revealing of His Son to us is in us; it is not outward but inward, not by an outward vision but by an inward seeing. It is not an objective revelation but a subjective one.
God made the apostle Paul a minister of Christ by setting him apart, calling him (v. 15), and revealing His Son in him.
Ga 1:164 Him
The apostle Paul did not preach the law but announced Christ, the Son of God, as the gospel; he announced not merely the doctrine concerning Him but the living person Himself.
Ga 1:165c Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; 22:21; 26:17-18; Eph. 3:8; Gal. 2:8-9
The heathen Gentiles.
Ga 1:166 not
This confirms that the apostle did not receive the gospel from man (v. 12).
Ga 1:167d flesh  -   Matt. 16:17; Eph. 6:12
I.e., man, composed of flesh and blood.
Ga 1:17a Neither  -   Acts 9:19-22
Ga 1:171b Arabia  -   Gal. 4:25
It is difficult to trace where in Arabia Paul went and how long he stayed there after his conversion. However, the place must have been away from the Christians, and the time of his stay there must not have been short. His purpose in referring to his stay in Arabia was to testify that he did not receive the gospel from man (v. 12). In Arabia he must have received some revelation concerning the gospel directly from the Lord.
Ga 1:17c Damascus  -   Acts 9:2, 3, 19, 22
Ga 1:18a Jerusalem  -   Acts 9:26, 28; 22:17
Ga 1:181 visit
The Greek word implies to visit in order to become acquainted with.
Ga 1:18b Cephas  -   John 1:42; Gal. 2:9, 11, 14; 1 Cor. 1:12
Ga 1:191 except
This indicates that James, the brother of the Lord, and Cephas (v. 18), who was Peter, were at that time the leading ones among the apostles.
Ga 1:19a James  -   Gal. 2:9, 12; Matt. 13:55; Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1 Cor. 15:7; James 1:1
Ga 1:20a not  -   Rom. 9:1; 1 Tim. 2:7
Ga 1:211a Syria  -   Acts 15:23, 41
Arabia (v. 17), Syria, and Cilicia were all regions of the Gentile world. By mentioning his journeys to all these places, Paul testified that the revelation he received concerning the gospel was not from any men, that is, from any Christians, who at that time were mainly in Judea (v. 22).
Ga 1:21b Cilicia  -   Acts 6:9; 21:39; 22:3; 23:34; 27:5
Ga 1:221 unknown
Paul said this to strengthen the point that he did not receive the gospel from any who were believers in Christ before him.
Ga 1:22a churches  -   1 Thes. 2:14; Acts 9:31
Ga 1:22b in  -   1 Cor. 1:2
Ga 1:231 only
The churches, which included all the believers in Christ in Judea, only heard the news of Paul’s conversion and glorified God because of him. They had nothing to do with his receiving the revelation concerning the gospel.
Ga 1:23a persecuting  -   Gal. 1:13
Ga 1:232b faith  -   Gal. 3:2, 5, 7, 9, 23, 25; 6:10; Acts 6:7; 13:8; 14:22; Rom. 16:26; 1 Cor. 16:13; Eph. 4:13; 1 Tim. 1:19b; 3:9, 13; 4:1, 6; 5:8; 6:10, 12, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13; Jude 3, 20; Rev. 14:12
The faith here and in all the verses of reference 23b implies our believing in Christ, taking His person and His redemptive work as the object of our faith. The faith, replacing the law, by which God dealt with people in the Old Testament, became the principle by which God deals with people in the New Testament. This faith characterizes the believers in Christ and distinguishes them from the keepers of law. This is the main emphasis of this book. The law of the Old Testament stresses letters and ordinances, whereas the faith of the New Testament emphasizes the Spirit and life.
Ga 1:23c ravaged  -   Gal. 1:13
Ga 1:24a glorified  -   Matt. 9:8; Acts 21:19-20
Galatians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ga 2:11 after
As recorded in Acts 15, this was after a number of churches had been raised up in the Gentile world through Paul’s ministry (see Acts 13 — 14). This indicates that Paul’s preaching of the gospel to raise up the Gentile churches had nothing to do with the believers in Jerusalem and Judea.
Ga 2:1a went  -   Acts 15:2
Ga 2:1b Barnabas  -   Gal. 2:9, 13; Acts 4:36; 9:27; 11:22, 24-26, 30; 12:25; 13:1, 7; 14:20; 15:12, 22; 1 Cor. 9:6
Ga 2:1c Titus  -   2 Cor. 2:13; Titus 1:4
Ga 2:21a revelation  -   Gal. 1:12
Not only Paul’s gospel but even his going up to Jerusalem were according to the Lord’s revelation, not according to any organization or system. Paul’s move and activity were according to the Lord’s instant leading. This again indicates that his preaching of the gospel was not according to man’s teaching but according to the Lord’s direct revelation.
Ga 2:2b Gentiles  -   Acts 15:12
Ga 2:2c repute  -   Gal. 2:6, 9
Ga 2:2d lest  -   Gal. 4:11; 1 Thes. 3:5
Ga 2:2e running  -   Phil. 2:16; 1 Cor. 9:24, 26; Heb. 12:1; Gal. 5:7
Ga 2:31 not
This indicates that in his move for the Lord’s testimony, Paul did not care for the observance of the law.
Ga 2:32a circumcised  -   cf. Acts 16:3
Judaism was built upon the God-given law with its three pillars: circumcision, the Sabbath, and the holy dietary regulations. All three were ordained by God (Gen. 17:9-14; Exo. 20:8-11; Lev. 11) as shadows of things to come (Col. 2:16-17). Circumcision was a shadow of the crucifixion of Christ in its putting off of the flesh, as signified in baptism (Col. 2:11-12). The Sabbath was a type of Christ as the rest for His people (Matt. 11:28-30). The holy diet symbolized persons who are clean and persons who are unclean, those whom God’s holy people should contact and those they should not contact (Acts 10:11-16, 34-35). Once Christ had come, all these shadows should have been terminated. Hence, the observance of the Sabbath was abolished by the Lord Jesus in His ministry (Matt. 12:1-12), the holy dietary regulations were annulled by the Spirit in Peter’s ministry (Acts 10:9-20), and circumcision was counted as nothing in the revelation received by Paul in his ministry (5:6; 6:15). Furthermore, the law, the base of Judaism, has been terminated and replaced by Christ (Rom. 10:4; Gal. 2:16). Thus, Judaism in its entirety is finished.
Ga 2:41a false  -   2 Cor. 11:26
The Judaizers, who perverted the gospel of Christ by secretly bringing the observances of the law into the church and troubled the genuine brothers in Christ (1:7).
Ga 2:4b secretly  -   2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 4
Ga 2:42c freedom  -   Gal. 5:1, 13
Freedom from the bondage of the law. This freedom in Christ Jesus includes (1) release from the bondage of the law, implying liberation from obligation to the law and its ordinances, practices, and regulations; (2) full satisfaction, with a rich, supporting supply; (3) the enjoyment of true rest, without being under the heavy burden to keep the law; and (4) the full enjoyment of the living Christ.
Ga 2:43d slavery  -   Gal. 4:1, 9; Rom. 8:15
Slavery under the law.
Ga 2:51a truth  -   Gal. 2:14; 4:16; 5:7; Col. 1:5
Not the doctrine or the teaching of the gospel but the reality of the gospel.
Ga 2:6a reputed  -   Gal. 2:2
Ga 2:6b not  -   Deut. 10:17; Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11
Ga 2:7a entrusted  -   1 Cor. 9:17; 1 Thes. 2:4; 1 Tim. 1:11; Titus 1:3
Ga 2:7b uncircumcision  -   Gal. 1:16
Ga 2:7c Peter  -   Matt. 4:18-19; John 1:42; Matt. 16:16-19; Acts 1:15; 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:1
Ga 2:8a apostleship  -   Acts 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:1-2, 5
Ga 2:8b Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; 22:21; 26:17-18; Rom. 11:13
Ga 2:9a grace  -   Gal. 1:15; Rom. 1:5; 1 Cor. 15:10
Ga 2:91b James  -   Gal. 1:19
When the apostles were listed, Peter was usually mentioned first (Matt. 10:2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13). Here, however, James was mentioned first. This indicates that at that time Peter was not the foremost leading one in the church; rather, it was James, the brother of the Lord (1:19). This is confirmed by Acts 15:13-21, where James, not Peter, was the authority who gave the final, decisive word in the conference held in Jerusalem. It must have been because of Peter’s weakness in not holding the truth of the gospel, as illustrated by Paul in vv. 11-14, that James came to the forefront to take the lead among the apostles. Hence, both in v. 12 and in Acts 21:18 James was considered the representative of the church in Jerusalem and of the apostles. This is strong proof that Peter was not always the foremost leader in the church. Furthermore, this implies that leadership in the church is not organizational and perpetual; rather, it is spiritual and fluctuates according to the spiritual condition of the leading ones. This strongly rebuts Catholicism in its assertion that Peter was the only successor of Christ in the administration of the church.
Ga 2:9c Cephas  -   Gal. 1:18
Ga 2:9d John  -   Matt. 4:21; Acts 3:1; 4:19; 2 John 1
Ga 2:9e reputed  -   Gal. 2:2, 6
Ga 2:9f pillars  -   1 Kings 7:21; Rev. 3:12; 1 Tim. 3:15
Ga 2:9g Barnabas  -   Gal. 2:1
Ga 2:9h hand  -   cf. 2 Kings 10:15; Ezra 10:19
Ga 2:9i fellowship  -   1 John 1:3, 7; Phil. 2:1
Ga 2:10a poor  -   Deut. 15:7-8, 11; Esth. 9:22; Matt. 26:11
Ga 2:10b was  -   Acts 11:29-30; 24:17; Rom. 12:13; 1 Cor. 16:1; 2 Cor. 9:1, 12
Ga 2:11a Cephas  -   Gal. 1:18
Ga 2:11b Antioch  -   Acts 11:19; 13:1; 15:30, 35
Ga 2:121 from
I.e., from the church in Jerusalem. This is another indication that at that time James, not Peter, was the first among the apostles in Jerusalem.
Ga 2:12a James  -   Gal. 1:19
Ga 2:122 continually
This was contrary to the customary practice of the Jews in their keeping of the observances of the law.
Ga 2:12b ate  -   Acts 11:3; 10:28
Ga 2:123 fearing
This proves that at that time Peter was very weak in the pure Christian faith. In Acts 10 he had received an exceedingly clear vision from the heavens concerning fellowship with the Gentiles, and he took the lead to practice it. What weakness and backsliding to shrink from eating with Gentile believers out of fear of those of the circumcision! It is no wonder that he lost the leadership among the apostles.
Ga 2:12c circumcision  -   Acts 11:2
Ga 2:131 rest
When the leading one backslid, the rest easily followed.
Ga 2:132 hypocrisy
That Peter, the leading apostle, practiced hypocrisy in relation to the truth of the gospel is almost incredible.
Ga 2:133a Barnabas  -   Gal. 2:1
Barnabas participated in Paul’s first ministry journey to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and to raise up the Gentile churches. Even one who had so much fellowship with the Gentile believers was carried away in Peter’s hypocrisy. What a negative influence Peter exerted on others! Surely he deserved to lose his leadership.
Ga 2:141 walking
Lit., walking straight-footedly.
Ga 2:14a straightforward  -   Heb. 12:13
Ga 2:14b truth  -   Gal. 2:5
Ga 2:14c Cephas  -   Gal. 1:18
Ga 2:14d before  -   1 Tim. 5:20
Ga 2:142e live  -   Gal. 2:12
I.e., eat, live, and fellowship with the Gentiles.
Ga 2:143f live  -   Acts 10:28
Lit., Judaize; i.e., live like the Jews, not eating or fellowshipping with the Gentiles.
Ga 2:15a Jews  -   Acts 22:3
Ga 2:15b sinners  -   Gal. 2:17
Ga 2:16a law  -   Acts 13:39
Ga 2:161b faith  -   Rom. 5:1; 9:30; Phil. 3:9
Lit., faith of Jesus Christ. See note 221 in Rom. 3. Faith in Jesus Christ denotes an organic union with Him through believing. This is related to the believers’ appreciation of the person of the Son of God as the most precious One. The believers are infused with the preciousness of Christ through the gospel preached to them. This Christ becomes in them the faith by which they believe and the capacity to believe through their appreciation of Him. This faith creates an organic union in which they and Christ are one.
Ga 2:16c no  -   Gal. 3:11; Rom. 3:20
Ga 2:162 flesh
Flesh here denotes fallen man, who has become flesh (Gen. 6:3). No fallen man will be justified out of the works of law.
Ga 2:17a sinners  -   Gal. 2:15
Ga 2:171 minister
One who ministers sin to people, or who serves sin to people.
Ga 2:172b Absolutely  -   Gal. 3:21; Rom. 3:4, 6, 31
Lit., May it not happen! So throughout the Epistle.
Ga 2:181 build
I.e., return to Judaism. This refers to Peter’s returning to the Judaic observance of not eating with Gentiles.
Ga 2:182 destroyed
I.e., counted loss, counted as dung (Phil. 3:7-8). Referring to Peter’s abandoning of the Judaistic practice of not eating with the Gentiles.
Ga 2:191 through
The law requires us, as sinners, to die, and according to that requirement Christ died for us and with us. Hence, through law we have died in Christ and with Christ.
Ga 2:192a died  -   Rom. 7:4, 6
I.e., the obligation under the law, the relationship to the law, was terminated.
Ga 2:193b live  -   Rom. 6:11
I.e., be obligated to God in the divine life. In Christ’s death our relationship with the law has been terminated; in His resurrection we are responsible to God in the resurrection life.
Ga 2:201a crucified  -   Gal. 6:14; Rom. 6:6
This explains how it is that through law we have died to law. When Christ was crucified, according to God’s economy we were included in Him. This is an accomplished fact.
Ga 2:202 no
No longer I does not indicate an exchanged life, a life in which Christ comes in and we go out, for later in this verse Paul said, “I live.” As regenerated people, we have both the old “I,” which has been crucified (Rom. 6:6), concerning which Paul said, “No longer I,” and a new “I,” concerning which Paul said, “I live.” The old, terminated “I” was without divinity; the new “I” has God as life added to it. The new “I” came into being when the old “I” was resurrected and God was added to it. On the one hand, Paul had been terminated, but on the other hand, a resurrected Paul, one who was regenerated with God as his life, still lived. Furthermore, although Paul said, “No longer I,” he also said, “It is Christ who lives in me,” for it was Christ who lived, but it was in Paul that He lived. The two, Christ and Paul, had one life and one living.
Ga 2:203b Christ  -   John 14:20; 15:4-5; 17:23, 26; Rom. 8:10
We have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in us through His resurrection. His living in us is entirely by His being the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This point is fully developed in all the following chapters, where the Spirit is presented and emphasized as the very One whom we have received as life and in whom we should live.
The “I,” the natural person, inclines to keep the law that it might be perfect (Phil. 3:6), but God wants us to live Christ that God might be expressed in us through Him (Phil. 1:20-21). Hence, God’s economy is that the “I” be crucified in Christ’s death and that Christ live in us in His resurrection. To keep the law is to exalt it above all things in our life; to live Christ is to make Him the center and everything in our life. The law was used by God for a period of time to keep His chosen people in custody for Christ (3:23) and eventually to conduct them to Christ (3:24) that they might receive Him as life and live Him to be God’s expression. Because Christ has come, the function of the law has been terminated, and Christ must replace the law in our lives for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Ga 2:204 life
Not the physical life nor the soulish life but the spiritual and divine life.
Ga 2:20c live  -   John 6:57; 14:19
Ga 2:205 faith
In contrast to the way we live the physical and soulish life, we live the divine life not by sight nor by feeling. The divine life, the spiritual life in our spirit, is lived by the exercise of faith, which is stimulated by the presence of the life-giving Spirit.
Ga 2:20d faith  -   Gal. 2:16; 3:22, 26
Ga 2:206 of
Cf. note 161.
Ga 2:207 Son
The title Christ denotes mainly Christ’s mission, which is to carry out God’s plan; the Son of God denotes Christ’s person, which is for the imparting of God’s life into us. Hence, the faith in which we live God’s life is of the Son of God, the life-imparting One.
Ga 2:208e loved  -   Rom. 8:37; Eph. 5:25; 2 Cor. 5:14
The Son of God loved us and purposely gave Himself up for us that He might impart the divine life into us.
Ga 2:20f gave  -   Gal. 1:4
Ga 2:211a grace  -   Gal. 5:4
The grace of God is that Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, has imparted the divine life into us through the life-giving Spirit. Not to live by this Spirit is to nullify the grace of God.
Ga 2:212b righteousness  -   Gal. 3:21; Rom. 9:31
Christ died for us that in Him we may have righteousness, through which we may receive the divine life (Rom. 5:18, 21). This righteousness is not through law but through the death of Christ.
Ga 2:21c Christ  -   2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18
Ga 2:213 for
Or, without cause. If righteousness is through law, Christ has died without cause. However, righteousness is through Christ’s death, and Christ’s death has separated us from law.
Galatians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ga 3:1a Galatians  -   Gal. 1:2
Ga 3:1b who  -   Gal. 5:7
Ga 3:11c crucified  -   1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2; Gal. 5:11
The cross is the center of God’s operation in His economy. In this Epistle Paul was bringing the believers who had been distracted to the law back to the cross and encouraging them to behold Christ crucified, that they would never again be distracted to the law. This Epistle provides a thorough view of Christ crucified (1:4; 2:19-21; 3:13; 5:24; 6:14).
The crucifixion of Christ indicates that all the requirements of the law have been fulfilled by the death of Christ, and that Christ through His death has released His life that it may be imparted into us in His resurrection to free us from bondage under the law. This was fully portrayed before the eyes of the Galatians in the word of the gospel. How could they neglect this and be bewitched, drifting back to the law? How foolish!
Ga 3:21 receive
When the believers believe into Christ, they receive the Spirit. It is a serious misunderstanding to consider Christ as separate from the Spirit. At the time of regeneration we believed into Christ, and we also received the Spirit and were sealed with the Spirit (Eph. 1:13). At that very moment an organic union took place — we were grafted into the Triune God (Rom. 11:17), and the Spirit as the pledge (Eph. 1:14) became the ultimate blessing of the gospel to us (v. 14). After this, receiving the Spirit is a lifelong, continuous matter. God is supplying the Spirit to us continuously (v. 5).
Ga 3:22a Spirit  -   Acts 2:38; 10:47; 15:8; Eph. 1:13; Heb. 6:4; Gal. 3:3, 5, 14; 4:6, 29; 5:5, 16, 17, 18, 22, 25; 6:8
The Galatians, through the hearing of the gospel, believed in the crucified Christ, but they received the Spirit. The One who was crucified on the cross was Christ, but the One who entered into the believers was the Spirit. In His being crucified for the believers’ redemption He was Christ, but in His indwelling the believers to be their life He is the Spirit. This is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is the all-inclusive and ultimate blessing of the gospel. The believers receive such a divine Spirit by the hearing of faith, not by the works of law. He enters into the believers and lives in them not by their keeping of the law but by their faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ.
In the first two chapters of this Epistle there is Christ in the divine revelation as the focal point of God’s economy, but in the last four chapters there is the Spirit in our experience for us to have the divine life (ch. 3), to be born of God (ch. 4), to live and walk by the regenerated life (ch. 5), and to take the divine purpose as our goal (ch. 6). Thus, we enjoy Christ continually as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (v. 5a).
Ga 3:23b works  -   Gal. 2:16; 3:5, 10; Rom. 3:20, 28
The law was the basic condition for the relationship between man and God in God’s Old Testament economy (v. 23); faith is the unique way for God to carry out His New Testament economy with man (1 Tim. 1:4). The law is related to the flesh (Rom. 7:5) and depends on the effort of the flesh, the very flesh that is the expression of the “I.” Faith is related to the Spirit and trusts in the operation of the Spirit, the very Spirit who is the realization of Christ. In the Old Testament the “I” and the flesh played an important role in the keeping of the law. In the New Testament Christ and the Spirit take over the position of the “I” and the flesh, and faith replaces the law, that we may live Christ by the Spirit. To keep the law by the flesh is man’s natural way; it is in the darkness of man’s concept and results in death and wretchedness (Rom. 7:10-11, 24). To receive the Spirit out of the hearing of faith is God’s revealed way; it is in the light of God’s revelation and issues in life and glory (Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11, 30). Hence, we must treasure the hearing of faith, not the works of law. It is by the hearing of faith that we received the Spirit so that we might participate in God’s promised blessing and live Christ. The faith mentioned in vv. 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 23, 24, and 25 of this chapter is this faith. (See note 232 in ch. 1.)
Ga 3:2c hearing  -   Gal. 3:5; Rom. 10:16-17; John 5:24
See note 23.
Ga 3:2d faith  -   Gal. 1:23; 3:5, 7, 9, 23, 25
Ga 3:31 begun
To begin by the Spirit is to begin by faith in Christ; to be perfected by the flesh is to be perfected by works of law (v. 2).
Ga 3:32 Spirit
The Spirit, who is the resurrected Christ, is of life; the flesh, which is our fallen man, is of sin and death. We should not begin by the Spirit and attempt to be perfected by the flesh. Since we have begun by the Spirit, we should be perfected by the Spirit and have nothing to do with the flesh. In 2:20 the contrast is between Christ and the “I”; here the contrast is between the Spirit and the flesh. This indicates that the Spirit is Christ and the flesh is the “I” in our experience. From ch. 3 to the end of the Epistle, the Spirit is Christ in our life experience. In revelation, it is Christ; in experience, it is the Spirit.
The flesh is condemned and repudiated throughout this book (1:16; 2:16; 3:3; 4:23, 29; 5:13, 16-17, 19, 24; 6:8, 12-13), and from ch. 3 every chapter gives a contrast between the flesh and the Spirit (v. 3; 4:29; 5:16-17, 19, 22; 6:8). The flesh is the uttermost expression of the fallen tripartite man, and the Spirit is the ultimate realization of the processed Triune God. The flesh inclines to keep the law and is tested by the law; the Spirit is received and enjoyed out of faith. God’s economy delivers us from the flesh to the Spirit that we may participate in the blessing of the riches of the Triune God. This cannot take place by the flesh keeping the law but by the Spirit being received out of faith and experienced through faith.
Ga 3:3a flesh  -   Gal. 4:23, 29; 5:13, 16, 17, 19, 24; 6:8, 12, 13
See note 32.
Ga 3:41a suffered  -   Heb. 10:32
The Galatians suffered persecution because of their faith in Christ, which had turned them to Christ from the Jewish religion and heathen customs.
Ga 3:4b in  -   1 Cor. 15:2
Ga 3:51 bountifully
The Greek word means supplies fully, bountifully, and liberally. See Phil. 1:19. On God’s side, He supplies the Spirit bountifully; on our side, we receive the Spirit. Day by day a marvelous divine transmission takes place: God supplies and we receive. The way to open ourselves to this heavenly transmission to receive the supply of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is to exercise our spirit to pray and call on the Lord.
Ga 3:5a supplies  -   Phil. 1:19
Ga 3:52b Spirit  -   Gal. 3:2
The all-inclusive compound Spirit, typified by the compound ointment in Exo. 30:23-25. This is the Spirit mentioned in John 7:39, who is the life-imparting Christ in resurrection. To the believers in God’s New Testament economy, this Spirit is the bountiful supply. The supplying of this Spirit is altogether not out of the works of law but out of faith in the crucified and glorified Christ.
Ga 3:53c does  -   1 Cor. 12:10
Lit., operates.
Ga 3:54d works  -   Gal. 3:2
In an attempt to frustrate God’s economy, Satan, the enemy of God, uses the law — which was given by God to serve His purpose temporarily — to keep God’s chosen people from His economy and to distract them from it. The law is misused when it is used to stir up man’s fallen desire to exalt himself by keeping the law that he might have a self-made righteousness.
Ga 3:61a Abraham  -   Gal. 3:7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 18, 29; 4:22; Rom. 4:2
In drifting back to the law, the bewitched Galatians clung to Moses, through whom the law was given; but Paul referred them to Abraham, who was the father of faith. Faith was of God’s original economy; the law was added later because of the transgressions (v. 19). After Christ fulfilled the law through His death, God wanted His people to return to His original economy. With Abraham it was not a matter of keeping the law but of believing God. It should be so with all the New Testament believers.
Ga 3:6b believed  -   Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3; James 2:23
Ga 3:71a faith  -   Gal. 3:2
I.e., the faith.
Ga 3:72b sons  -   Gal. 3:29; Luke 19:9; John 8:39
Works of law make people disciples of Moses (John 9:28), a relationship that has nothing whatever to do with life. Faith in Christ makes the New Testament believers sons of God, a relationship altogether of life. We, the New Testament believers, were born sons of the fallen Adam, and in Adam, because of transgressions, we were under the law of Moses. But we have been reborn sons of Abraham and have been freed from the law of Moses by faith in Christ.
Ga 3:8a justify  -   Gal. 3:24; Rom. 3:30
Ga 3:81 gospel
The promise God gave to Abraham, “In you shall all the nations be blessed,” was the gospel. It was preached to Abraham not only before the accomplishing of redemption by Christ but also before the giving of the law through Moses. What God promised to Abraham corresponds with what God accomplished through Christ, which is the fulfillment of His promise to Abraham. The New Testament economy is a continuation of God’s dealing with Abraham, having nothing to do with the law of Moses. All the New Testament believers should be in this continuation and should have nothing to do with the law given through Moses.
Ga 3:8b In  -   Gen. 12:3; Acts 3:25
Ga 3:8c blessed  -   Gal. 3:9, 14
Ga 3:91a faith  -   Gal. 3:7
I.e., the faith.
Ga 3:92 blessed
Faith in Christ brings us into the blessing that God promised to Abraham, which is the promise of the Spirit (v. 14).
Ga 3:93 believing
Under God’s dealing, Abraham was not working to please God but was believing Him.
Ga 3:10a works  -   Gal. 3:2
Ga 3:101b curse  -   Gal. 3:13
Faith in Christ had brought the Galatian believers into the blessing in Christ, causing them to enjoy the grace of life in the Spirit; but the Judaizers bewitched them and caused them to come under the curse of the law, thus depriving them of the enjoyment of Christ and causing them to fall from grace (5:4).
Ga 3:10c Cursed  -   Deut. 27:26
Ga 3:111 by
Lit., in; meaning “in the power of, in virtue of” (Darby’s New Translation).
Ga 3:11a no  -   Gal. 2:16
Ga 3:11b The  -   Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38
Ga 3:11c live  -   Gal. 2:20; 5:25
Ga 3:112 by
Lit., out of faith; in contrast to by law.
Ga 3:12a He  -   Lev. 18:5; Rom. 10:5
Ga 3:121 because
Lit., in; meaning in virtue of.
Ga 3:13a redeemed  -   Gal. 4:5; Rom. 3:24
Ga 3:13b curse  -   Gal. 3:10; Gen. 3:17
Ga 3:131 become
As our Substitute on the cross, Christ not only bore the curse for us but also became a curse for us. The curse of the law issued from the sin of man (Gen. 3:17). When Christ took away our sin on the cross, He redeemed us out of the curse of the law.
Ga 3:13c Cursed  -   Deut. 21:23
Ga 3:132d tree  -   Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 1 Pet. 2:24
I.e., the cross.
Ga 3:141a blessing  -   Gal. 3:8, 9; Rom. 4:9
The blessing promised by God to Abraham (Gen. 12:3) for all the nations of the earth. The promise was fulfilled, and the blessing has come to the nations in Christ through His redemption by the cross.
Ga 3:14b in  -   Gal. 3:28
Ga 3:142c receive  -   Gal. 3:2
In the gospel we have received not only the blessing of forgiveness, washing, and cleansing; even more, we have received the greatest blessing, which is the Triune God — the Father, Son, and Spirit — as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment. Oh, what a blessing that we can enjoy such an all-inclusive One as our daily portion!
Ga 3:14d promise  -   Acts 2:33, 39; Eph. 1:13
Ga 3:143e Spirit  -   Gal. 3:2
This verse indicates that the Spirit is the blessing that God promised to Abraham for all the nations and that has been received by the believers through faith in Christ. The Spirit is the compound Spirit, as mentioned in note 52, and actually is God Himself processed in His Trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension that we may receive Him as our life and our everything. This is the focus of the gospel of God.
The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see Col. 1:12 and note 2). Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy.
Ga 3:14f faith  -   Gal. 3:22, 26
Ga 3:15a according  -   Rom. 3:5
Ga 3:16a to  -   Luke 1:55; Rom. 4:13, 16
Ga 3:16b promises  -   Acts 13:32; 26:6; Rom. 9:4
Ga 3:16c to  -   Gen. 13:15; 17:7-8
Ga 3:16d seed  -   Gen. 22:18; Acts 3:25
Ga 3:161e Christ  -   Gal. 3:27-29
Christ is the seed, and the seed is the heir who inherits the promises. Here, Christ is the unique seed who inherits the promises. Hence, in order to inherit the promised blessing, we must be one with Christ. Outside of Him we cannot inherit the promises given by God to Abraham. In God’s eyes Abraham has only one seed, that is, Christ. We must be in Him that we may participate in the promises given to Abraham. He is not only the seed who inherits the promises but also the blessing of the promises to be inherited by us. For the Galatian believers to turn back from Christ to the law meant that they would forfeit both the Heir and the inheritance of the promises.
Ga 3:171 covenant
This indicates that the promise God gave to Abraham became a covenant, which is more firm than a promise. The word, the promise, and the covenant are the gospel that was preached to Abraham. The gospel is the covenant, the covenant is the promise, and the promise is the word spoken by God. Although the gospel is a matter of the new testament, it is important to realize that the new testament is a continuation, or repetition, of God’s promise to Abraham.
Ga 3:172 law
God’s promise to Abraham was given first. The law came 430 years later. The promise was permanent, but the law was temporary. The law, which came later and was temporary, cannot annul the promise, which was given first and was permanent. The Galatians left the first and permanent promise and went back to the later and temporary law.
Ga 3:173a four  -   Exo. 12:40-41; cf. Gen. 15:13; Acts 7:6
Counted from the time God gave Abraham the promise in Gen. 12 to the time He gave the law through Moses in Exo. 20. This period was considered by God as the time of the children of Israel’s dwelling in Egypt (Exo. 12:40-41). The four hundred years mentioned in Gen. 15:13 and Acts 7:6 is counted from the time Ishmael mocked Isaac in Gen. 21 to the time the children of Israel came out of the Egyptian tyranny in Exo. 12. This is the period during which Abraham’s descendants suffered persecution from the Gentiles.
Ga 3:17b promise  -   Rom. 4:14
Ga 3:181a inheritance  -   Gal. 3:29; 4:1
The law does not give; it only requires. Inheritance is not of law but of promise. Hence, the inheritance was graciously given to Abraham through promise.
Ga 3:18b promise  -   Heb. 6:13-17
Ga 3:19a law  -   Rom. 3:20; 7:7
Ga 3:191 added
The law was not there in the origination of God’s economy. It was added because of man’s transgressions, while God’s economy was proceeding, and was to be in effect until the seed, Christ, should come, to whom God’s promise was made. Since it was added because of man’s transgressions, it should have been deducted when those transgressions were taken away. And since Christ, the seed, has come, the law must be terminated.
Ga 3:19b transgressions  -   Rom. 4:15; 5:20
Ga 3:19c seed  -   Gal. 3:16
Ga 3:192 ordained
Because the law was ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator and, unlike the promise, was not given by God directly to the people, it is not primary but secondary in God’s economy.
Ga 3:19d angels  -   Acts 7:38, 53; Heb. 2:2
Ga 3:193e mediator  -   Exo. 20:19; Deut. 5:5
The man Moses.
Ga 3:201a mediator  -   1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24
With the law there is a mediator between two parties, God and the children of Israel. With the promise there is only God, who is directly related to the one who receives the promise, without a go-between. The responsibility with respect to the law depends not on one party but on two, whereas the responsibility with regard to the promise depends only on the giver, God. Hence, the law is inferior to the promise. The Galatians gave up the superior and went back to the inferior.
Ga 3:20b one  -   Deut. 6:4; Rom. 3:30
Ga 3:21a Absolutely  -   Gal. 2:17
Ga 3:211 give
The law was able only to demand and condemn; it could not give life. (See note 101 in Rom. 7.) There is no life in the law; there are only commandments. Life is in Christ (John 1:4). He is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the only One who is able to give life. The giving of life is the focal point of the apostle’s revelation. We should take only the One who gives life.
Ga 3:212b righteousness  -   Gal. 2:21
There must be righteousness in order for life to be given. Righteousness, however, is not of law but in Christ (Rom. 5:17-18). Hence, the law is not able to give life. Furthermore, since the law cannot give life, it has no power to fulfill its requirements so that righteousness may be produced. Hence, in this sense also, righteousness is not of law.
Ga 3:221a shut  -   cf. Rom. 11:32; Gal. 3:23
As a jailer shuts up prisoners. The Scripture, personified here, has shut up all mankind under sin, not that the law might be kept by the imprisoned sinners but that God’s promise might be given to the believers by faith in Christ. To be shut up under sin is to be shut up under law, as revealed in v. 23.
Ga 3:222 all
Lit., all things; i.e., all mankind.
Ga 3:22b sin  -   Rom. 3:9, 23
Ga 3:22c promise  -   Rom. 4:13, 16
Ga 3:223d faith  -   Gal. 3:26
Or, faith of Jesus Christ. See note 221 in Rom. 3.
Ga 3:22e believe  -   Acts 10:43
Ga 3:231a faith  -   Gal. 3:2, 25
See notes 232 in ch. 1 and 23 in ch. 3. So also in v. 25. Faith was not revealed until Christ came (cf. John 1:12; 3:16, 18).
Ga 3:232b guarded  -   Gal. 4:2
Kept in custody, kept in ward.
Ga 3:23c under  -   cf. Rom. 6:14
Ga 3:233d shut  -   cf. Gal. 3:22
To be guarded under law by being shut up under law is to be like sheep enclosed in a fold (John 10:1, 16). In God’s economy the law was used as a fold to keep God’s chosen people until Christ came (see note 12 in John 10). Since Christ has come, God’s people should no longer be kept under the law (see note 92 in John 10).
Ga 3:234 unto
Or, with a view to. Indicating that shutting up has an object; i.e., it consummates in the faith, it brings the guarded people to the faith.
Ga 3:24a law  -   Matt. 5:17
Ga 3:241 child-conductor
Or, escort, guardian, custodian; one who cares for a child who is under age and conducts him to the schoolmaster. The law was used by God as a custodian, a guardian, a child-conductor, to watch over His chosen people before Christ came, and to escort and bring them to Christ when He did come, that they might be justified by faith and participate in the blessing promised and covenanted by God.
Ga 3:24b Christ  -   Rom. 10:4
Ga 3:24c faith  -   Gal. 2:16; Acts 13:39
Ga 3:25a faith  -   Gal. 3:2, 23
Ga 3:251 no
Since faith in Christ has come, we do not need to be under the guarding law any longer.
Ga 3:25b under  -   Gal. 4:2
Ga 3:261a sons  -   Gal. 4:6-7; Rom. 8:14
Sons of full age, who have outgrown the custody of the slave guardian. Under the old testament, God’s chosen people were considered infants. Now, under the new testament, they are considered sons of full age, who will inherit the promised blessing — the all-inclusive Spirit of Christ.
Ga 3:262b faith  -   Gal. 3:22
Faith in Christ brings us into Christ, making us one with Christ, in whom is the sonship. We must be identified with Christ through faith so that in Him we may be sons of God.
Ga 3:26c in  -   Gal. 3:14, 28; 5:6
Ga 3:27a baptized  -   Rom. 6:3; Matt. 28:19
Ga 3:271 into
To believe is to believe into Christ (John 3:16), and to be baptized is to be baptized into Christ. By both faith and baptism we have entered into Christ, having thus put on Christ and become identified with Christ. Baptism practiced in a proper, genuine, and living way puts the believers into the name of the Triune God, the divine name (Matt. 28:19); into Christ, a living person (v. 27); into the death of Christ, an effective death (Rom. 6:3); and into the Body of Christ, a living organism (1 Cor. 12:13), that the believers may enter into an organic union not only with Christ but also with His Body. Furthermore, baptism brings the believers out of their old state into a new one, terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may live in the Body of Christ, an organism, by the elements of the Triune God.
Ga 3:27b put  -   Rom. 13:14; cf. Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10
Ga 3:281 cannot
See note 112 in Col. 3.
Ga 3:282a Jew  -   1 Cor. 12:13; Col. 3:11
Differences among races and nationalities.
Ga 3:283 slave
Differences in social rank.
Ga 3:284b male  -   cf. 1 Cor. 11:11
Differences between the sexes.
Ga 3:285c one  -   John 10:16; 17:11, 21-23; Eph. 2:14-16; 4:4
The believers are one in Christ by His resurrection life and His divine nature to be the one new man, as mentioned in Eph. 2:15. This one new man is absolutely in Christ. There is no room for our natural being, our natural disposition, and our natural character; in this one new man Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11). This oneness in Christ is achieved through baptism, which terminates all the divisive distinctions and ushers the believers into the divine organic union with the processed Triune God, resulting in the believers’ subjective assurance that they are one with one another.
Ga 3:28d in  -   Gal. 3:14, 26; 5:6; Eph. 3:6; 1 Cor. 1:30
Ga 3:29a Christ  -   1 Cor. 3:23
Ga 3:291 Abraham’s
Abraham has only one seed, Christ (v. 16). Hence, to be Abraham’s seed we must be of Christ, be a part of Christ. Because we are one with Christ, we too are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise, inheriting God’s promised blessing, which is the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed God, who is our portion. Under the new testament, the believers as God’s chosen people, being sons of full age, are such heirs, not under law but in Christ. Like Ishmael (4:23), the Judaizers, who remained under law and kept themselves apart from Christ, were Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh; they were not like Isaac (4:28), who was Abraham’s heir according to promise. But the believers in Christ are such heirs, inheriting the promised blessing. Hence, we should remain in Christ and not turn to the law.
Since the law is unable to give us life (v. 21), it cannot produce the sons of God; but the Spirit, who is received out of faith (v. 2) and who gives us life (2 Cor. 3:6), can. The law kept God’s chosen people under its custody until faith came (v. 23). Faith in Christ, who is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, makes God’s chosen people Abraham’s seed as “the stars of the heavens” (Gen. 22:17) according to God’s promise.
Ga 3:29b seed  -   Gal. 3:7; Gen. 21:12; Rom. 9:7-8; Gen. 22:17
Ga 3:29c heirs  -   Gal. 4:1, 7; Rom. 8:16, 17; Eph. 3:6; Titus 3:7
Ga 3:292d promise  -   Gal. 4:28
This chapter reveals that God gave the promise to Abraham according to His eternal purpose. Before this promise was fulfilled, the law was given to serve as the custodian of God’s chosen people. Then, at the appointed time Christ, the promised seed, came to fulfill the promise and brought in the promised blessing. This is grace. Hence, grace came with Christ and with the fulfillment of the promise. All this is on God’s side. On our side, we need a way to apprehend, realize, and enjoy all that Christ, the seed, is and has accomplished. Therefore, there is grace on God’s side, and there is faith on our side. Now, since we have grace, faith, and the seed that has fulfilled the promise, we no longer need the law to serve as our custodian. Hence, we must set aside the law and turn from the custodian to stay with Christ that we may enjoy the promised blessing by remaining in grace and faith. This blessing is nothing less than the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
Galatians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ga 4:1a heir  -   Gal. 3:29
Ga 4:11 child
The same Greek word as for little children in Eph. 4:14, referring to a minor. So also in v. 3.
Ga 4:1b slave  -   Gal. 4:3, 7, 8, 9, 24; 2:4; 5:1
Ga 4:2a under  -   Gal. 3:25
Ga 4:21b guardians  -   Gal. 3:23
Guardians are wardens, and stewards are administrators. These describe the functions of the law in God’s economy.
Ga 4:2c stewards  -   Luke 12:42; 16:1
Ga 4:22d time  -   Gal. 4:4
The time appointed by the father refers to the time of the New Testament, beginning with the first coming of Christ.
Ga 4:3a slavery  -   Gal. 4:9, 24, 25; 2:4; 5:1
Ga 4:31b elements  -   Gal. 4:9; Col. 2:8, 20
The same Greek word as for rudiments in Heb. 5:12. I.e., elementary principles, referring to the rudimentary teachings of the law (see note 83 in Col. 2). So also in v. 9.
Ga 4:41 fullness
The completion of the Old Testament time, which occurred at the time appointed by the Father (v. 2).
Ga 4:4a time  -   Gal. 4:2; Mark 1:15
Ga 4:4b sent  -   cf. Gal. 4:6
Ga 4:4c Son  -   Rom. 8:3
Ga 4:42d woman  -   Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23
The virgin Mary (Luke 1:27-35). The Son of God was born of her to be the seed of woman, as promised in Gen. 3:15.
Ga 4:43e law  -   Luke 2:21-24, 27
Christ was born under law, as revealed in Luke 2:21-24, 27, and kept the law, as revealed in the four Gospels.
Ga 4:51a redeem  -   Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
God’s chosen people were shut up by the law under its custody (3:23). Christ was born under law in order to redeem God’s chosen people from the custody of the law that they might receive the sonship and become the sons of God. Hence, they should not return to the custody of the law to be under its slavery, as the Galatians were seduced to do, but should remain in the sonship of God to enjoy the life supply of the Spirit in Christ.
Ga 4:52b sonship  -   Rom. 8:15; Eph. 1:5
Christ’s redemption brings us into the sonship of God that we may enjoy the divine life. God’s economy is not to make us keepers of the law, obeying the commandments and ordinances of the law, which was given only for a temporary purpose. God’s economy is to make us sons of God, who inherit the blessing of God’s promise, which was given for His eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose is to have many sons for His corporate expression (Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29). Hence, He predestinated us unto sonship (Eph. 1:5) and regenerated us to be His sons (John 1:12-13). We should remain in His sonship that we may become His heirs to inherit all that He has planned for His eternal expression, and should not appreciate the law and thereby be distracted to Judaism.
Ga 4:6a sons  -   Gal. 3:26; Rom. 8:14
Ga 4:6b sent  -   cf. Gal. 4:4
Ga 4:61c Spirit  -   Gal. 3:2; Rom. 5:5; 8:9, 14, 16; 2 Cor. 3:17
God’s Son is the embodiment of the divine life (1 John 5:12). Hence, the Spirit of God’s Son is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). God gives us His Spirit of life not because we are law keepers but because we are His sons. As law keepers, we have no right to enjoy God’s Spirit of life; as the sons of God, we have the position with the full right to participate in the Spirit of God, who has the bountiful supply of life. Such a Spirit, the Spirit of the Son of God, is the focus of the blessing of God’s promise to Abraham (3:14).
Verses 4-6 of this chapter speak of the Triune God’s producing of many sons for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. God the Father sent forth God the Son to redeem us from the law that we might receive the sonship. He also sent forth God the Spirit to impart His life into us that we might become His sons in reality.
Ga 4:62 hearts
Actually, the Spirit of God came into our spirit at the time of our regeneration (John 3:6; Rom. 8:16). Because our spirit is hidden in our heart (1 Pet. 3:4), and because the word here refers to a matter that is related to our feeling and understanding, both of which belong to our heart, this verse says that the Spirit of God’s Son was sent into our hearts.
Ga 4:63 crying
The parallel verse, Rom. 8:15, says that we who have received a spirit of sonship cry in this spirit, “Abba, Father!” whereas here it says that the Spirit of God’s Son is crying in our hearts, “Abba, Father!” This indicates that our regenerated spirit and the Spirit of God are mingled as one, and that our spirit is in our heart. This indicates also that the sonship of God is realized by us through our subjective experience in the depth of our being. In this verse, Paul appealed to such an experience of the Galatian believers for the supporting of his revelation. This appeal was quite convincing and subduing because it contained not only objective doctrines but also subjective, experiential facts.
Ga 4:64d Abba  -   Rom. 8:15; Mark 14:36
Abba is an Aramaic word, and Father is the translation of the Greek word Pater. Such a term was used first by the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane while He was praying to the Father (Mark 14:36). The combining of the Aramaic title with the Greek title expresses a stronger affection in crying to the Father. Such an affectionate cry implies an intimate relationship in life between a genuine son and a begetting father.
Ga 4:71 no
The New Testament believer is no longer a slave to works under law but is a son in life under grace.
Ga 4:7a slave  -   Gal. 4:1
Ga 4:72 son
See note 261 in ch. 3.
Ga 4:73b heir  -   Rom. 8:17; Titus 3:7
One who is of full age according to the law (the Roman law is used for illustration) and who is qualified to inherit the father’s estate.
Ga 4:74 through
The New Testament believers become heirs of God not through the law nor through their fleshly father but through God, even the Triune God — the Father, who sent forth the Son and the Spirit (vv. 4, 6); the Son, who accomplished redemption for sonship (v. 5); and the Spirit, who carries out the sonship within us (v. 6).
Ga 4:8a not  -   1 Cor. 1:21; 1 Thes. 4:5; 2 Thes. 1:8
Ga 4:8b slaves  -   Gal. 4:1
Ga 4:8c gods  -   Isa. 37:19; Jer. 2:11; 5:7; 16:20
Ga 4:81 nature
The gods, the idols, do not have the divine nature. They were considered gods by their superstitious worshippers, but by nature they are not gods.
Ga 4:9a know  -   Heb. 8:11
Ga 4:9b known  -   2 Tim. 2:19; 1 Cor. 8:3
Ga 4:9c weak  -   Heb. 7:18
Ga 4:9d elements  -   Gal. 4:3
Ga 4:91 be
Lit., serve as a slave.
Ga 4:9e enslaved  -   Gal. 4:3
Ga 4:101a days  -   Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16
Sabbaths, new moons (Isa. 66:23).
Ga 4:102 months
Sacred months, such as the first, Abib, the ear month (Exo. 13:4); the second, Ziv, the flower month (1 Kings 6:1, 37); the seventh, Ethanim, the month of streaming rivers (1 Kings 8:2); and the eighth, Bul, the month of rain (1 Kings 6:38).
Ga 4:103 seasons
Festal seasons, such as the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles (2 Chron. 8:13).
Ga 4:104 years
Perhaps sabbatical years (Lev. 25:4).
Ga 4:11a lest  -   Gal. 2:2
Ga 4:111 vain
Paul labored upon the Galatians to bring them into Christ under grace. Their turning to the Jewish religious observances could have caused Paul’s labor upon them to be in vain.
Ga 4:121 as
Paul was free from the bondage of Jewish observances. He besought the Galatians to become as he was.
Ga 4:122 as
Paul became as a Gentile was, for the truth of the gospel.
Ga 4:123 not
The Galatians had not wronged Paul in the past. Paul expected that they would not wrong him now.
Ga 4:131 because
In his first ministry journey Paul was detained in Galatia because of physical weakness. While there, he preached the gospel to the Galatians.
Ga 4:13a announced  -   Gal. 1:11
Ga 4:141 loathe
Lit., spit out.
Ga 4:14a received  -   Matt. 10:40; Luke 9:48; John 13:20
Ga 4:14b angel  -   1 Sam. 29:9; Zech. 12:8; Mal. 2:7; 2 Cor. 5:20
Ga 4:151 your
The Galatians formerly considered it a blessing that Paul was detained in their place and preached the gospel to them. They were happy about this and boasted of it. That became their felicitation. However, now that they had departed from Paul’s preaching of the gospel, the apostle questioned them, “Where then is your felicitation, your happiness, your blessedness?”
Ga 4:152 eyes
The Galatians appreciated Paul’s preaching and loved him to such an extent that they would have plucked out their eyes and given them to him. This may indicate that Paul’s physical weakness (v. 13) was in his eyes. This can perhaps be confirmed by his use of large letters in his writing to them (6:11). This weakness may also have been the thorn in his flesh, a physical weakness, which he prayed would be removed from him (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
Ga 4:16a truth  -   Gal. 2:5, 14
Ga 4:171a zealous  -   Rom. 10:2
I.e., zealously court you.
Ga 4:172 not
Not in an honorable, commendable way.
Ga 4:173 shut
I.e., exclude you from the proper preaching of the gospel, the gospel of grace.
Ga 4:174 zealous
I.e., zealously court them.
Ga 4:181 not
It is always good to zealously court someone in a good thing or in the proper preaching of the gospel. However, this should have taken place not only when Paul was present with them. By this word Paul indicated that he was not narrow, i.e., he did not prohibit others from preaching the gospel to the Galatians; rather, he rejoiced in others’ preaching (Phil. 1:18).
Ga 4:18a when  -   Gal. 4:13-14
Ga 4:191a children  -   1 John 2:1
Paul considered himself the begetting father and the Galatian believers his children begotten of him in Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 4:15; Philem. 10).
Ga 4:192b travail  -   1 Cor. 4:15; Philem. 10
Painful toil in childbirth. In this metaphor Paul likened himself to a mother who gives birth to a child. He had labored in this way to regenerate the Galatians when he first preached the gospel to them. Because they deviated from the gospel that he had preached to them, he was toiling again in travail until Christ would be formed in them.
Ga 4:193c Christ  -   Gal. 2:20; 3:27-29; 5:2, 4, 6
Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul’s gospel. Paul’s preaching, which differed greatly from the teaching of the law in letters, was to bring forth Christ, the Son of the living God, in the believers. Hence, this book is emphatically Christ-centered. Christ was crucified (3:1) to redeem us out of the curse of the law (3:13) and rescue us out of the evil religious course of the world (1:4), and He was resurrected from the dead (1:1) that He might live in us (2:20). We were baptized into Him, being identified with Him, and have put Him on, clothing ourselves with Him (3:27). Thus, we are in Him (3:28) and have become of Him (3:29; 5:24). On the other hand, He has been revealed in us (1:16), He is now living in us (2:20), and He will be formed in us (v. 19). To Him the law has conducted us (3:24), and in Him we are all sons of God (3:26). It is in Him that we inherit God’s promised blessing and enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit (3:14). Furthermore, it is in Him that we are all one (3:28). We should not be deprived of all profit from Him and thus be severed from Him (5:4). We need Him to supply us with His grace in our spirit (6:18) that we may live Him.
Ga 4:194 formed
When the Galatian believers were regenerated through Paul’s preaching of the gospel to them the first time, Christ was born into them but not formed in them. Here the apostle was travailing again that Christ might be formed in them. To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ fully grown in us. First, Christ was born into us at the time we repented and believed in Him, then He lives in us in our Christian life (2:20), and, finally, He will be formed in us at our maturity. Christ’s being formed in us is needed that we may be sons of full age and heirs to inherit God’s promised blessing, and that we may mature in the divine sonship.
Ga 4:19d in  -   Gal. 1:16; 2:20; John 14:20; 15:4; Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27
Ga 4:201 change
The apostle wished to change his tone from one of severity to one of affection, like the tone of a mother speaking lovingly to her children.
Ga 4:202 tone
Lit., voice.
Ga 4:203 perplexed
Paul was puzzled in dealing with the Galatians. He was searching for the best way to recover them from their deviation from Christ.
Ga 4:211 Tell
In vv. 21-31 there are two women, Hagar and Sarah; two Jerusalems, one earthly and the other heavenly; two covenants, one of the law and the other of promise; and two sons, one according to the flesh and the other according to the Spirit. The apostle wanted the Galatians to know that they were children of the Jerusalem above, children of the free woman, and he wanted them to appropriate the covenant of promise and, according to the Spirit, enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit as the blessing of the gospel (3:14). In this section Sarah, the free woman, symbolizes the covenant of promise, which is symbolized also by the Jerusalem above, who is our mother; the mother symbolizes grace, by which we are born to be the children of God, who is the very source of grace. Hence, the free woman, the covenant of promise, the Jerusalem above, and the mother all refer to God’s grace, which is the very means of our spiritual birth. It was from this grace — Christ — that the Galatians who had been distracted by Judaism fell away (5:4).
Ga 4:212a under  -   cf. Gal. 3:23; Rom. 6:14
This book deals strongly with the matter of deviating from Christ by being under the law. Such deviation shuts the believers out from the enjoyment of Christ as their life and their everything.
Ga 4:213 law
According to the succeeding verses, the law here includes the book of Genesis. The entire Old Testament is called the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 22:40). The first part is the Law, and the second, the Prophets.
Ga 4:22a one  -   Gen. 16:15
Ga 4:22b maidservant  -   Gal. 4:30-31
Ga 4:22c one  -   Gen. 21:2
Ga 4:22d free  -   Gal. 4:30-31
Ga 4:231 according
According to the flesh means by man’s fleshly effort; through promise means through God’s power in grace, which is implied in God’s promise. Ishmael was born in the former way, but Isaac in the latter.
Ga 4:23a flesh  -   Gal. 4:29; cf. John 1:13
Ga 4:23b promise  -   Gal. 4:28; Rom. 9:8; Gen. 17:15-19; 18:10, 14; 21:1-2; Heb. 11:11
Ga 4:241 these
Referring to the two women in v. 22.
Ga 4:242 two
One is the covenant of promise given to Abraham, which is related to the new testament, the covenant of grace, and the other is the covenant of law given to Moses, which has nothing to do with the new testament. Sarah, the free woman, symbolizes the covenant of promise, and Hagar, the maidservant, the covenant of law.
Ga 4:24a covenants  -   Rom. 9:4
Ga 4:243b Mount  -   Exo. 19:11, 20; Deut. 33:2
Where the law was given (Exo. 19:20; 24:12).
Ga 4:244c slavery  -   Gal. 4:3
Slavery under law.
Ga 4:245d Hagar  -   Gen. 16:1, 3-5, 15; 21:9-10
Hagar, the concubine of Abraham, signifies the law. Hence, the position of the law is like that of a concubine. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, symbolizes the grace of God (John 1:17), which has the rightful position in God’s economy. Like Hagar, the law brought forth children unto slavery, such as the Judaizers. Like Sarah, grace brings forth children unto sonship; these are the New Testament believers. They are no longer under law but under grace (Rom. 6:14). They should stand in grace (Rom. 5:2) and not fall from it (5:4).
Ga 4:25a Arabia  -   Gal. 1:17
Ga 4:251b Jerusalem  -   Luke 13:33-34
Jerusalem, as God’s choice (1 Kings 14:21; Psa. 48:2, 8), should belong to the covenant of promise, symbolized by Sarah. However, because it brings God’s chosen people into the bondage of the law, it corresponds with Mount Sinai, which belongs to the covenant of the law, symbolized by Hagar.
Ga 4:252 is
Lit., serves as a slave.
Ga 4:253c slavery  -   Gal. 4:3
A slave under law. At the apostle’s time Jerusalem and her children were slaves under law.
Ga 4:261a Jerusalem  -   Heb. 12:22; Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10
The Jerusalem above eventually will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2), which is related to the covenant of promise. She is the mother of the New Testament believers, who are not slaves under law but sons under grace. We, the New Testament believers, are all born of her from above and will all be in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
Ga 4:27a Rejoice  -   Isa. 54:1
Ga 4:271 many
This indicates that Abraham’s spiritual descendants, who belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the covenant of promise under the freedom of grace, are far more numerous than his natural descendants, who belong to the earthly Jerusalem, to the covenant of law under the slavery of the law.
Ga 4:272 desolate
Denoting a woman without a husband; hence, a desolate one.
Ga 4:28a Isaac  -   Gen. 17:19; 21:1-3, 12; Rom. 9:7
Ga 4:281 children
Children of promise are children born of the heavenly Jerusalem through grace under the covenant of promise.
Ga 4:28b promise  -   Gal. 4:23; 3:29; Rom. 9:8
Ga 4:291 according
The two kinds of children brought forth by the two covenants are different in their natures. Those brought forth by the covenant of law are born according to the flesh; those brought forth by the covenant of promise are born according to the Spirit. The children born according to the flesh have no right to participate in God’s promised blessing, but the children born according to the Spirit have the full right. The Judaizers were children of the former kind; the believers in Christ are of the latter kind. For flesh and Spirit, see notes 32 in ch. 3 and 191 and 221 in ch. 5.
Ga 4:29a flesh  -   Gal. 4:23
Ga 4:292b persecuted  -   Gen. 21:9
This indicates that Ishmael persecuted Isaac (Gen. 21:9).
Ga 4:293c Spirit  -   John 3:6
The children of promise (v. 28) are born according to the Spirit, God’s Spirit of life, who is the very blessing of God’s promise to Abraham (3:14).
Ga 4:29d so  -   Gal. 5:11; 6:12; 1:13
Ga 4:294 also
The Judaizers, the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, persecuted the believers, the descendants of Abraham according to the Spirit, as Ishmael persecuted Isaac.
Ga 4:30a Cast  -   Gen. 21:10
Ga 4:30b maidservant  -   Gal. 4:22
Ga 4:301 son
The Judaizers, who are under the slavery of the law, are the sons of the maidservant. They shall by no means inherit God’s promised blessing — the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God.
Ga 4:30c no  -   cf. John 8:35
Ga 4:302 son
The New Testament believers, who are under the freedom of grace, are the sons of the free woman. They shall inherit the promised blessing of the Spirit.
Ga 4:30d free  -   Gal. 4:22
Ga 4:311 not
We, the believers in Christ, are not children of the law under the slavery of the law but children of grace under the freedom of grace to enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit with all the riches of Christ.
Ga 4:31a of  -   Gal. 4:26-27
Galatians Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ga 5:11a freedom  -   Gal. 5:13; 2:4; John 8:32, 36; 2 Cor. 3:17
Freedom from the slavery of the law. Christ has set us free through His redeeming death and life-imparting resurrection that we may enjoy this freedom in grace.
Ga 5:12b stand  -   Rom. 5:2; 1 Cor. 16:13
I.e., stand fast in the freedom from the slavery of the law, not deviating from Christ, not falling from grace.
Ga 5:13 entangled
Or, held in a snare. To deviate from Christ to the law is to be entangled or held in a snare.
Ga 5:14c yoke  -   Acts 15:10
The yoke of slavery is the bondage of the law, which makes the law keepers slaves under a binding yoke.
Ga 5:1d slavery  -   Gal. 2:4; 4:3
Ga 5:21a circumcised  -   Gal. 5:6, 11; 2:3; 6:13, 15; Acts 15:1
The Judaizers, the false brothers, made circumcision a condition of salvation (2:3-5; Acts 15:1). See note 32 in ch. 2.
Ga 5:22 nothing
If the Galatian believers had received circumcision, making it a condition of salvation, Christ would have profited them nothing, because by going back to the law they would have spontaneously relinquished Christ.
Ga 5:3a circumcised  -   Gal. 6:13; Rom. 2:25
Ga 5:41 brought
I.e., reduced to nothing, separated from Christ; deprived of all profit from Christ and so separated from Him (Darby’s New Translation), making Him of no effect. To go back to the law is to be severed from Christ, to be brought to nought, separated from Christ.
Ga 5:4a law  -   Gal. 2:21; 3:10-11; Rom. 9:31
Ga 5:42b fallen  -   Heb. 12:15; 2 Pet. 3:17
To be brought to nought, separated from Christ, is to fall from grace. This implies that the grace in which we believers are is just Christ.
Ga 5:4c grace  -   Gal. 2:21; 6:18
Ga 5:51a by  -   Gal. 3:3
In contrast to by the flesh (3:3).
Ga 5:52b out  -   Gal. 3:8, 11, 22, 24
In contrast to out of the works of law (3:2).
Ga 5:5c eagerly  -   Rom. 8:23-25
Ga 5:53d hope  -   Col. 1:27; Titus 1:2; 2:13
The righteousness we hope for, which is Christ Himself (1 Cor. 1:30). It is not in the flesh out of the works of law but in the Spirit out of faith.
Ga 5:5e righteousness  -   1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9
Ga 5:6a in  -   Gal. 3:14, 28
Ga 5:6b circumcision  -   Gal. 5:2; 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19; Rom. 2:28-29
Ga 5:61 avails
I.e., has any force, any practical power.
Ga 5:6c faith  -   Eph. 6:23; 1 Thes. 1:3; James 2:20, 22
Ga 5:62 operating
Living faith is active. It operates through love to work out the fulfillment of the law (v. 14). Circumcision is simply an outward ordinance, having no power of life. Hence, it avails nothing. Faith receives the Spirit of life (3:2); thus, it is full of power. It operates through love to fulfill not only the law but also God’s purpose, that is, to complete the sonship of God for His corporate expression — the Body of Christ.
Ga 5:63 love
Love is related to our appreciation of Christ. Without such an appreciation, faith cannot operate. The hearing of faith awakens our loving appreciation, and the more we love the Lord, the more faith operates to bring us into the riches, the profit, of the all-inclusive Spirit.
Ga 5:7a running  -   Gal. 2:2; 1 Cor. 9:24
Ga 5:7b Who  -   Gal. 3:1
Ga 5:71c truth  -   Gal. 2:5
Not the doctrine but the reality in Christ, as preached to the Galatians by the apostle.
Ga 5:81a persuasion  -   Col. 2:4
The Judaizers’ persuasive teaching, which distracted the Galatians away from Christ to the observances of the law.
Ga 5:8b calls  -   Gal. 1:6; Rom. 8:28
Ga 5:91a leaven  -   1 Cor. 5:6; Matt. 13:33; 16:6, 12
Leaven refers to the false teachings of the Judaizers (cf. Matt. 16:12), and the whole lump, to all the believers collectively, the church.
Ga 5:10a confident  -   2 Cor. 2:3
Ga 5:10b of  -   Phil. 3:15
Ga 5:10c troubling  -   Gal. 1:7; 5:12; Acts 15:24
Ga 5:111a circumcision  -   Gal. 5:2
Circumcision foreshadowed the dealing with man’s flesh; the cross is the reality of that dealing (Col. 2:11-12). The Judaizers endeavored to bring the Galatians back to the shadow; the apostle Paul struggled to keep them in the reality.
Ga 5:11b persecuted  -   Gal. 4:29; 6:12
Ga 5:11c stumbling  -   1 Cor. 1:23
Ga 5:12a upsetting  -   Gal. 5:10; 2:4
Ga 5:121 cut
The apostle Paul wished that the Judaizers who upset the Galatians by insisting on circumcision would cut off not only their own foreskin but even themselves. Their upsetting, disturbing self needed to be amputated.
Ga 5:13a called  -   Gal. 5:8
Ga 5:131b freedom  -   Gal. 5:1
Freedom without limitation always results in the indulgence of the flesh. Freedom with limitation leads us to love others and, through love, to serve them as slaves (cf. v. 14).
Ga 5:13c turn  -   Jude 4
Ga 5:13d freedom  -   1 Pet. 2:16; 1 Cor. 8:9
Ga 5:132 flesh
See note 32 in ch. 3.
Ga 5:13e love  -   Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:14
Ga 5:133f serve  -   1 Cor. 9:19
Lit., serve as a slave.
Ga 5:14a law  -   Matt. 7:12; 22:40; Rom. 13:8, 10
Ga 5:14b You  -   Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19
Ga 5:161a Walk  -   Rom. 8:4; Gal. 6:16
The Greek word here means to tread all around, to walk at large; hence, to deport oneself, move, and act in ordinary daily life, implying a common, habitual daily walk (cf. Rom. 6:4; 8:4; Phil. 3:17-18).
Ga 5:16b by  -   Gal. 5:25, 18; 3:3; Rom. 8:13
Ga 5:162 Spirit
According to the context of the chapter, the Spirit here must be the Holy Spirit, who dwells in and mingles with our regenerated spirit. To walk by the Spirit is to have our walk regulated by the Holy Spirit from within our spirit. This is in contrast to having our walk regulated by the law in the realm of our flesh. See note 32 in ch. 3.
The flesh is the uttermost expression of the fallen tripartite man (Gen. 6:3), and the Spirit is the ultimate realization of the processed Triune God (John 7:39). Because of Christ’s redemption and the Spirit’s work of regeneration, we who have received God’s dispensing can walk by the Spirit, by the processed Triune God, instead of by the flesh, by our fallen being. Paul wrote this book not only to rescue the distracted Galatian believers from the law, on the negative side, but also, on the positive side, to bring them into the realization that the believers have the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit in their spirit that they may live, walk, and have their being in this Spirit.
Ga 5:16c fulfill  -   Rom. 13:14; Eph. 2:3
Ga 5:16d lust  -   Gal. 5:24
Ga 5:171 flesh
For the flesh and the Spirit, see notes 32 in ch. 3 and 191 and 221 in this chapter.
Ga 5:17a against  -   cf. Rom. 7:23; 1 Pet. 2:11; James 4:1
Ga 5:172 Spirit
See note 162.
Ga 5:173 oppose
See note 232 in Rom. 7.
Ga 5:17b desire  -   Rom. 7:15, 19-21
Ga 5:18a led  -   Rom. 8:14
Ga 5:181 Spirit
The law is related to our flesh (Rom. 7:5), and our flesh is against the Spirit (v. 17). Hence, the Spirit is in contrast to the law. When we walk by the Spirit, who is in our regenerated spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh (v. 16); when we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law. The Spirit of life, not the law of letters, is our guiding principle, regulating our Christian walk in our regenerated spirit.
Ga 5:18b not  -   Rom. 6:14
Ga 5:191 works
The flesh is the expression of the old Adam. The fallen life of the old Adam is expressed practically in the flesh, and the works of the flesh, such as those listed in vv. 19-21, are different aspects of such a fleshly expression. Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, bouts of drunkenness, and carousings are related to the lust of the corrupted body. Enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, sects, and envyings are related to the fallen soul, which is very closely related to the corrupted body. Idolatry and sorcery are related to the deadened spirit. This proves that the three parts of our fallen being — body, soul, and spirit — are all involved with the corrupted, evil flesh.
Ga 5:192 fornication
Fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness are of one group, concerning evil passions.
Ga 5:201 Idolatry
Idolatry and sorcery are of one group, concerning demonic worship.
Ga 5:20a sorcery  -   Rev. 21:8; 22:15
Ga 5:202 enmities
Enmities, strife, jealousy, and outbursts of anger are of one group, concerning evil moods.
Ga 5:20b strife  -   1 Cor. 3:3
Ga 5:203 factions
Factions, divisions, sects, and envyings are of one group, concerning parties.
Ga 5:20c divisions  -   1 Cor. 1:10-13
Ga 5:204d sects  -   Titus 3:10
The same Greek word as for heresies in 2 Pet. 2:1. Here it refers to schools of opinion (Darby’s New Translation), or sects.
Ga 5:21a Envyings  -   Gal. 5:26; 1 Cor. 3:3
Ga 5:211 bouts
Bouts of drunkenness and carousings are of one group, concerning dissipation.
Ga 5:21b not  -   1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5
Ga 5:212 inherit
The inheritance of the kingdom of God refers to the enjoyment of the coming kingdom as a reward to the overcoming believers. It is not the same as a believer’s salvation; rather, it is a reward in addition to the believer’s salvation. See notes 53 in Eph. 5 and 281 in Heb. 12.
Ga 5:221a fruit  -   Matt. 7:16; Rom. 7:4; Eph. 5:9
What the flesh does is works without life (v. 19); what the Spirit brings forth is fruit full of life. Only nine items of the fruit of the Spirit, as different expressions of the Spirit, who is life within us, are listed as illustrations here. The fruit of the Spirit includes additional items, such as lowliness (Eph. 4:2; Phil. 2:3), compassion (Phil. 2:1), godliness (2 Pet. 1:6), righteousness (Rom. 14:17; Eph. 5:9), holiness (Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22), and purity (Matt. 5:8). In both Eph. 4:2 and Col. 3:12, lowliness is mentioned as a virtue in addition to meekness, which is listed here. In Rom. 14:17 righteousness, peace, and joy are all aspects of the kingdom of God today. But only peace and joy, not righteousness, are listed here. In 2 Pet. 1:5-7 godliness and endurance are counted with self-control and love as characteristics of spiritual growth, but they are not listed here. In Matt. 5:5-9 righteousness, mercy, and purity are reckoned with meekness and peace as the requirement of the reality of the kingdom today. However, none of the three virtues is named here.
As the flesh is the expression of the old Adam, so the Spirit is the realization of Christ. Christ is actually lived out as the Spirit. The items of the fruit of the Spirit listed here are the very characteristics of Christ.
Ga 5:22b love  -   1 Cor. 8:1; 13:4, 13; 14:1
Ga 5:22c joy  -   Rom. 14:17
Ga 5:22d peace  -   Rom. 16:20; Col. 3:15
Ga 5:23a self-control  -   Acts 24:25; 2 Pet. 1:6
Ga 5:23b no  -   Gal. 5:18; 1 Tim. 1:9
Ga 5:241 But
But in v. 22 introduces a contrast between the fruit of the Spirit in that verse and the works of the flesh in v. 19, whereas but in this verse introduces a contrast between the crucifying of the flesh here and the works of the flesh in v. 19.
Ga 5:24a of  -   Gal. 3:29; 1 Cor. 3:23; 2 Cor. 10:7
Ga 5:242 have
The crucifixion of the old man in Rom. 6:6 and the crucifixion of the “I” in Gal. 2:20 were not accomplished by us. But here it says that we have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts. The old man and the “I” are our being; the flesh is the expression of our being in our practical living. The crucifixion of our old man and the “I” is a fact accomplished by Christ on the cross, whereas the crucifying of our flesh with its passions and its lusts is our practical experience of the fact. This practical experience must be carried out through the Spirit by our executing of the crucifixion that Christ accomplished. This is to put to death by the Spirit the practices of our lustful body with its evil members (Rom. 8:13b; Col. 3:5).
There are three aspects of the experience of the cross: (1) the fact accomplished by Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20); (2) our application of the accomplished fact (v. 24); and (3) our experience of what we have applied, by bearing the cross daily (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23).
Ga 5:243b crucified  -   Gal. 2:20; 6:14; Rom. 6:6
This book unveils that the law misused is in opposition to Christ (2:16) and that the flesh lusts against the Spirit (v. 17). The cross has nullified the “I,” which inclines to keep the law (2:20), and the flesh, which lusts against the Spirit, that Christ may replace the law and the Spirit may replace the flesh. God does not want us to keep the law by the flesh; He wants us to live Christ by the Spirit.
Ga 5:24c flesh  -   Gal. 5:16, 17, 18
Ga 5:251 live
To live by the Spirit is to have our life dependent on and regulated by the Spirit, not by the law. This equals the walk by the Spirit in v. 16 but differs from the walk by the Spirit in this verse (see note 2).
Ga 5:252a walk  -   Gal. 5:16
Lit., walk according to rules. The Greek word means to observe the elements, to walk according to the elements, e.g., to walk in line, to march in military rank, to keep in step; and, derivatively, to walk in an orderly, regulated manner (cf. 6:16; Acts 21:24; Rom. 4:12 and note; Phil. 3:16 and note 4).
Both the walk in v. 16 and the walk in this verse are by the Spirit and are regulated by the Spirit. The former refers to a general, daily walk; the latter, to a walk that takes God’s unique goal as the direction and purpose of life, and a walk that follows the Spirit as the elementary rule, the basic principle. Such a walk is cultivated by living in the new creation (6:16 and note 2), by pursuing Christ in order to gain Him (Phil. 3:12 and notes), and by practicing the church life (Rom. 12:1-5; Eph. 4:1-16), thus fulfilling God’s intention in Christ for the church.
Ga 5:261 not
This is the result of the walk by the Spirit in v. 25. Vainglory, provoking, and envying are all of the flesh (cf. v. 24). Vainglory gives rise to provoking and envying. If we by the Spirit slay vainglory, provoking and envying will be terminated automatically, resulting in peace. These three matters test in a very practical way whether we are walking by the Spirit.
Ga 5:26a vainglorious  -   Phil. 2:3
Ga 5:26b envying  -   Gal. 5:21
Galatians Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ga 6:11a spiritual  -   1 Cor. 2:15; 3:1
I.e., living and walking by the Spirit (5:25).
Ga 6:1b restore  -   James 5:19-20
Ga 6:12c spirit  -   1 Cor. 4:21
Our regenerated spirit, indwelt by and mingled with the Holy Spirit. A spirit of meekness is the issue of living and walking by the Spirit, as mentioned in 5:16, 25.
Ga 6:1d meekness  -   2 Tim. 2:25
Ga 6:1e tempted  -   1 Cor. 7:5; 1 Thes. 3:5
Ga 6:21a law  -   John 13:34; James 2:8; Gal. 5:14
The higher and better law of life, which works through love (Rom. 8:2; John 13:34). Love is the issue and expression of the divine life (cf. 1 Cor. 13) and is an item of the fruit of the Spirit (5:22). The law of Christ, which is the law of love, must be substantiated by the law of the Spirit of life that we may be able to bear one another’s burdens.
Ga 6:31a thinks  -   1 Cor. 8:2
Those who think of themselves as something will not bear the burdens of others. Only those who do not regard themselves as anything will bear others’ burdens as a spontaneous result of walking in and by the Spirit.
Ga 6:3b deceives  -   1 Cor. 3:18
Ga 6:4a prove  -   2 Cor. 13:5
Ga 6:6a share  -   1 Cor. 9:11; 1 Tim. 5:17-18
Ga 6:61 good
Things that are good for this life, the necessities of daily living.
Ga 6:71a deceived  -   1 Cor. 6:9; 15:33
This refers again to the Judaizers’ false teachings, which caused the Galatians to deviate from the Spirit in their spirit to the keeping of the law by their flesh.
Ga 6:7b mocked  -   Job 13:9
Ga 6:7c sows  -   2 Cor. 9:6
Ga 6:81 unto
With a view to, or, for. To sow unto one’s own flesh is to sow for one’s own flesh, with the desire and purpose of the flesh in view, to fulfill what the flesh covets. To sow unto the Spirit is to sow for the Spirit, with the desire and aim of the Spirit in view, to accomplish what the Spirit desires. Everything we do is a sowing either unto our own flesh or unto the Spirit, and all our sowing issues in a reaping either of corruption out of the flesh or of eternal life out of the Spirit.
Ga 6:82a flesh  -   Gal. 5:16, 17
See notes 32 in ch. 3, and 191 and 221 in ch. 5.
Ga 6:8b reap  -   Job 4:8; Prov. 22:8; Hosea 8:7
Ga 6:83c corruption  -   Gal. 5:19
To sow for the fulfilling of the purpose of the flesh issues in corruption; to sow for the accomplishing of the aim of the Spirit issues in life, even eternal life. Corruption is of the flesh, indicating that the flesh is corrupted; eternal life is of the Spirit and is the Spirit Himself.
Ga 6:8d sows  -   Prov. 11:18; Hosea 10:12; James 3:18
Ga 6:8e Spirit  -   Gal. 5:16, 25
See note 82.
Ga 6:8f of  -   Gal. 5:22
Ga 6:8g eternal  -   Rom. 6:22
See note 83.
Ga 6:9a not  -   2 Thes. 3:13
Ga 6:91 do
Lit., are not relaxed.
Ga 6:9b faint  -   Heb. 12:3, 5
Ga 6:101a good  -   Prov. 3:27; 1 Tim. 6:18
This refers mainly to the ministering of material things to the needy (2 Cor. 9:6-9).
Ga 6:102b household  -   Eph. 2:19; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 4:17
The household of the faith refers to the children of promise (4:28), all who are sons of God through faith in Christ (3:26). All the believers in Christ together constitute a universal household, the great family of God. This is through faith in Christ, not through the works of law. This household, as the new man (Col. 3:10-11), is composed of all the members of Christ, with Christ as their constituent. Hence, we should do good, especially toward those of this household, regardless of their race and social rank (3:28).
Ga 6:103c faith  -   Gal. 1:23
See note 232 in ch. 1.
Ga 6:111 large
Perhaps this was because of the disease in Paul’s eyes (4:13-15 and note 152 there).
Ga 6:11a own  -   1 Cor. 16:21
Ga 6:121 good
Lit., good countenance; hence, good appearance for making a good show, a fair display. It is used here in a negative sense.
Circumcision, like the cross, is not a good show but an abasement. However, the Judaizers made it a good show as a boast in the flesh (v. 13).
Ga 6:122 in
I.e., outwardly in the sphere of the flesh, which is condemned and repudiated by God. To be in the flesh is to be in our natural and external being without the inward reality and spiritual value that are in our regenerated spirit.
Ga 6:12a circumcised  -   Gal. 2:3; Acts 15:1
Ga 6:12b persecuted  -   Gal. 5:11
Ga 6:12c cross  -   Phil. 3:18
Ga 6:13a keep  -   Rom. 2:25
Ga 6:13b in  -   cf. Phil. 3:3
Ga 6:14a boast  -   cf. 2 Cor. 10:17; Phil. 3:3
Ga 6:141b cross  -   1 Cor. 2:2
The cross was truly an abasement, but the apostle made it his boast.
Ga 6:142 whom
The world has been crucified to us and we to the world. This has taken place not directly but through Christ, who was crucified.
Ga 6:143 world
The next verse, being an explanation of this verse, proves that the world here is mainly the religious world. In this book Paul dealt with religious people who were concerned for the things of God but who were misguided and were in error and whose religion had become a world. By the cross we are separated from the religious world and are thus qualified to live in the new creation.
Ga 6:14c crucified  -   Gal. 2:20; 5:24
Ga 6:151a circumcision  -   Gal. 5:6; Col. 3:11
The old creation is our old man in Adam (Eph. 4:22), our natural being by birth, without God’s life and the divine nature. The new creation is the new man in Christ (Eph. 4:24), our being that is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God’s life and the divine nature wrought into it (John 3:36; 2 Pet. 1:4), having Christ as its constituent (Col. 3:10-11), and having become a new constitution. This refers to the nature, the inward and intrinsic organic constituent, of the church. Thus, the new creation is composed of sons; it is a corporate, divine sonship (3:26; 4:5, 7) brought forth through Christ’s redemption, the Spirit’s regeneration, and God’s dispensing of Himself into us, and through our entering collectively as this new man into an organic union with the Triune God.
The old creation was old because it did not have God’s element; the new creation is new because it has God as its element. Although we are still the old creation, we experience the reality of the new creation when we walk according to the Spirit (5:16, 25). The main issue in this book is that we are the new creation and that we should live by the new creation through an organic union with the Triune God. This new creation fulfills God’s eternal purpose, which is to express Himself in His sonship.
Circumcision is an ordinance of the law; the new creation is the masterpiece of life with the divine nature. The former is of dead letters; the latter is of the living Spirit. Hence, the new creation is what matters. This book exposes the impotence of both the law and circumcision. The law cannot impart life (3:21) to regenerate us, and circumcision cannot energize us (5:6) to live a new creation. But the Son of God, who has been revealed in us (1:16), can enliven us and make us a new creation, and Christ, who lives in us (2:20), can afford us the riches of His life that we may live the new creation. The law has been replaced by Christ (2:19-20), and circumcision has been fulfilled by Christ’s crucifixion (v. 14). Hence, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation with Christ as its life is what matters. To be the new creation is the reason for and result of sowing unto the Spirit (v. 8). The keeping of the law and the practicing of circumcision are a sowing unto the flesh; they do not change the old creation. But sowing unto the Spirit makes us a new creation, which is re-created by the Spirit, transformed by the divine life, and constituted with the rich element of the processed Triune God by His mingling of Himself with us.
Ga 6:15b new  -   2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10
See note 151.
Ga 6:161 walk
See note 252 in ch. 5.
Ga 6:162a rule  -   Phil. 3:16
The rule of being a new creation, of living by the Spirit through faith, having the Triune God as our life and living, in contrast to keeping the law by observing ordinances. To walk by this rule is to walk by the Spirit (5:25).
Ga 6:163b peace  -   Psa. 125:5; 128:6
Paul opened this book with grace and peace (1:3), but he ended it with the mentioning of peace before mercy and grace (v. 18). Peace is the condition that results from grace. As we abide in a peaceful condition, we need to continue receiving mercy and grace.
Ga 6:164c Israel  -   Rom. 9:6; Gal. 3:7, 29; Phil. 3:3
I.e., the real Israel (Rom. 9:6b; 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3), including all the Gentile and Jewish believers in Christ, who are the true sons of Abraham (3:7, 29), who are the household of the faith (v. 10), and who are those in the new creation. They walk by “this rule,” express God’s image, and execute God’s authority, and are typified by Jacob, who was transformed into Israel, a prince of God and a victor (Gen. 32:27-28).
Ga 6:171a brands  -   cf. 2 Cor. 4:10; 11:23-27
The marks branded on slaves to indicate their owners. With Paul, a slave of Christ (Rom. 1:1), the brands were physically the scars of his wounds received in his faithful service to his Master (2 Cor. 11:23-27). Spiritually, they signify the characteristics of the life that he lived, a life like the one the Lord Jesus lived on this earth. Such a life is continually crucified (John 12:24), does the will of God (John 6:38), does not seek its own glory but the glory of God (John 7:18), and is submissive and obedient to God, even unto the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). The apostle followed the pattern of the Lord Jesus, bearing the brands, the characteristics of His life. In this he was absolutely different from the Judaizers.
Ga 6:181a grace  -   Phil. 4:23; Philem. 25; 2 Tim. 4:22
The grace of Jesus Christ is the bountiful supply of the Triune God (who is embodied in the Son and realized as the life-giving Spirit) enjoyed by us through the exercise of our human spirit.
Ga 6:182 spirit
Our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit, who is the focus of God’s promised blessing stressed so much throughout this book. It is in this spirit of ours that we experience and enjoy the Spirit as the central blessing of the New Testament. Hence, we need the grace of the Lord, which is the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit (Phil. 1:19), to be with our spirit.
Christ, the Spirit, the new creation, and our spirit are the four basic items revealed in this book as the underlying thought of God’s economy. Christ is the center of God’s economy, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. When Christ is realized through the Spirit in our spirit, we become the new creation. Hence, our spirit is vital for us to live the life of the new creation for the fulfilling of God’s purpose.
This book places strong emphasis on the cross and the experience of crucifixion, in order to deal with the negative items, such as the law, the flesh, the “I,” the religious world, slavery, and the curse, thereby bringing in the positive items that are revealed in this book: Christ, the Spirit, the sons of God, the heirs of promise, the household of the faith, the new creation, and the Israel of God. The summarizing thought in this book is that through the cross of Christ the law, the flesh, and religion are terminated that we may obtain the Spirit, the new creation, and our spirit, that through the Spirit, who is the realization of Christ, we may be the new creation in our spirit, bearing the brands of Jesus, and that we may enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in our spirit.
Ga 6:183b brothers  -   Philem. 7
The rebuked foolish Galatians(3:1) had already been addressed with this intimate term a number of times (1:11; 3:15; 4:12, 28, 31; 5:11, 13; 6:1). At the close of such a severe, rebuking, and warning Epistle, the apostle used this loving term again, placing it particularly at the end of the sentence, to express his unchanging love toward them, assuring them that they were still his brothers in the household of the faith (v. 10).
< Galatians • Ephesians Outline >
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Ephesians Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-2
II.   The blessings and position received by the church in Christ — 1:3 — 3:21
A.   God’s blessings to the church — 1:3-14
1.   The Father’s selection and predestination, speaking forth God’s eternal purpose — vv. 3-6
2.   The Son’s redemption, speaking forth the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose — vv. 7-12
3.   The Spirit’s sealing and pledging, speaking forth the application of God’s accomplished purpose — vv. 13-14
B.   The apostle’s prayer for the church regarding revelation — 1:15-23
1.   His thanks for the church — vv. 15-16
2.   His supplication for the church that the saints may see — vv. 17-23
a.   The hope of God’s calling — vv. 17-18a
b.   The glory of God’s inheritance in the saints — v. 18b
c.   God’s power toward us — vv. 19-21
d.   The church — the Body, the fullness of Christ — vv. 22-23
C.   The producing and building of the church — 2:1-22
1.   The producing of the church — vv. 1-10
2.   The building of the church — vv. 11-22
D.   The stewardship of the grace and the revelation of the mystery concerning the church — 3:1-13
1.   The stewardship — vv. 1-2, 7-8, 13
2.   The revelation of the mystery — vv. 3-6, 9-12
E.   The apostle’s prayer for the church regarding experience — 3:14-19
1.   That the saints may be strengthened into the inner man — vv. 14-16
2.   That Christ may make His home in the saints’ hearts — v. 17a
3.   That the saints may apprehend the dimensions of Christ — vv. 17b-18
4.   That the saints may know the love of Christ — v. 19a
5.   That the saints may be filled unto the fullness of God — v. 19b
F.   The apostle’s praise to God for His glory in the church and in Christ — 3:20-21
III.   The living and responsibility needed for the church in the Holy Spirit — 4:1 — 6:20
A.   The living and responsibility needed in the Body of Christ — 4:1-16
1.   The keeping of the oneness of the Spirit — vv. 1-6
2.   The functioning of the gifts and the growth and building up of the Body of Christ — vv. 7-16
B.   The living needed in the daily walk — 4:17 — 5:21
1.   Basic principles — 4:17-24
2.   The details of this living — 4:25 — 5:21
C.   The living needed in ethical relationships — 5:22 — 6:9
1.   Between wife and husband — 5:22-33
2.   Between children and parents — 6:1-4
3.   Between slaves and masters — 6:5-9
D.   The warfare required for dealing with the spiritual enemy — 6:10-20
IV.   Conclusion — 6:21-24
A.   Recommendation — vv. 21-22
B.   Blessing — vv. 23-24
Ephesians >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Ephesians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ep 1:11 Paul
This book speaks particularly of the church and unveils the church in its seven aspects as (1) the Body of Christ, the fullness, the expression, of the One who fills all in all (v. 23; 4:13); (2) the new man (2:15), a corporate man, having not only the life of Christ but also His person; (3) the kingdom of God (2:19), with the saints as citizens possessing its rights and bearing its responsibilities; (4) the household of God (2:19), a family full of life and enjoyment; (5) the dwelling place of God, in which He may live (2:21-22) — universally, a holy temple in the Lord, and locally, the dwelling place of God in our spirit; (6) the bride, the wife, of Christ (5:24-25) for Christ’s rest and satisfaction; and (7) the warrior (6:11-12), a corporate fighter, who deals with and defeats God’s enemy to accomplish God’s eternal purpose.
A particular characteristic of this book is that it speaks from the viewpoint of God’s eternal purpose, from eternity, and from the heavenlies. It is positioned in the New Testament immediately after the revelation concerning Christ versus religion (Galatians). It is followed by a book on the practical experience of Christ (Philippians), and it leads to Christ, the Head (Colossians). Thus, these four books are the heart of the New Testament revelation concerning God’s eternal economy.
Ep 1:1a apostle  -   1 Cor. 1:1; Col. 1:1
Ep 1:12 will
Paul was made an apostle of Christ not by man but through the will of God, according to God’s economy. This standing gave him authority to put forth in this Epistle the revelation of God’s eternal purpose concerning the church. The church is built on this revelation (2:20).
Ep 1:13b saints  -   Rom. 1:7; Phil. 1:1
The saints are those who are made holy, who are sanctified, separated unto God from everything that is common.
Ep 1:14 in
In Ephesus is not found in the earliest MSS.
Ep 1:1c Ephesus  -   Acts 19:1; 20:17; Rev. 2:1
Ep 1:15d faithful  -   Col. 1:2
The faithful are those who are faithful in the faith, which is referred to in 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:7; and Jude 3.
Ep 1:21a Grace  -   Rom. 1:7
Grace is God as our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10).
Ep 1:22 peace
Peace is a condition that issues from grace, from the enjoyment of God our Father.
Ep 1:23 God
We are God’s creatures and God’s sons. To us as God’s creatures, God is our God; to us as God’s sons, He is our Father.
Ep 1:2b Father  -   Eph. 1:17; 2:18; 3:14; 4:6; 5:20; 6:23; Matt. 6:9
Ep 1:24c Lord  -   Acts 2:36
We are also the Lord’s redeemed ones. As the Lord’s redeemed ones, we have Him as our Lord. Grace and peace come to us from God our Creator, from our Father, and from the Lord our Redeemer. Since we are His created ones, redeemed ones, and regenerated ones, we are positioned to receive grace and peace from Him.
Ep 1:31a Blessed  -   2 Cor. 1:3
Lit., well spoken of; i.e., praised with adoration. In this section the Triune God is well spoken of, praised with adoration: the Father in His selection and predestination for God’s eternal purpose (vv. 3-6), the Son in His redemption for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose (vv. 7-12), and the Spirit in His sealing and pledging for the application of God’s accomplished purpose (vv. 13-14). Through all the virtues of the Divine Trinity, we, the fallen sinners, become the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness, the expression, of the One who fills all in all.
Ep 1:32b God  -   Eph. 1:17; John 20:17; Rom. 15:6
God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, and God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. According to the Lord’s humanity, God is His God, and according to the Lord’s divinity, God is His Father.
Ep 1:33 our
Since the Lord Jesus is ours, whatever God is to Him also is ours. Lord refers to His lordship (Acts 2:36), Jesus to Him as a man (1 Tim. 2:5), and Christ to Him as God’s anointed One (John 20:31).
Ep 1:34 blessed
Lit., praised, or, spoken well of. When God blesses us, He praises us, speaks well of us.
Ep 1:35 with
Lit., in.
Ep 1:36 spiritual
All the blessings with which God has blessed us, being spiritual, are related to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is not only the channel but also the reality of God’s blessings. In this verse God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are all related to the blessings bestowed on us. God’s blessing us is actually His dispensing Himself into us.
Ep 1:37 blessing
Lit., good speech, or, utterance, well-speaking, fair speech; implying bounty and benefit. God has blessed us with His good, fine, and fair speakings. Every such speaking is a blessing to us. Verses 4-14 are an account of such speakings, such blessings. All these blessings are spiritual, in the heavenlies, and in Christ.
Ep 1:38c heavenlies  -   Eph. 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12
Heavenlies here indicates not only the heavenly place but also the heavenly nature, state, characteristic, and atmosphere of the spiritual blessings with which God has blessed us. These blessings are from the heavens, having a heavenly nature, heavenly state, heavenly characteristic, and heavenly atmosphere. The believers in Christ are enjoying on earth these heavenly blessings, which are spiritual as well as heavenly. They are different from the blessings with which God blessed Israel. Those blessings were physical and earthly. The blessings bestowed on us are of God the Father, in God the Son, through God the Spirit, and in the heavenlies. They are the spiritual blessings bestowed by the Triune God on us, the believers in Christ. They are the blessings in the heavenlies, having a heavenly nature, state, character, and atmosphere.
Ep 1:39 in
Christ is the virtue, the instrument, and the sphere in which God has blessed us. Outside of Christ, apart from Christ, God has nothing to do with us; but in Christ He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
Ep 1:41a chose  -   2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2
After v. 3, vv. 4-14 present a list of all the spiritual blessings with which God has blessed us, beginning from His choosing us in eternity and reaching to the producing of the Body of Christ to express Himself for eternity. Hence, God’s choosing is the first blessing that He bestowed on us. His choosing is His selection. From among numberless people He selected us, and this He did in Christ. Christ was the sphere in which we were selected by God. Outside of Christ we are not God’s choice.
Ep 1:42b before  -   1 Pet. 1:20; cf. Rev. 13:8; 17:8; Matt. 25:34
This was in eternity past. Before He created us, God chose us according to His infinite foresight. This implies that the world, which is the universe, was founded for man’s existence to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
The book of Romans begins with fallen men on earth; Ephesians begins with God’s chosen ones in the heavenlies.
Ep 1:43c holy  -   Eph. 5:27; Col. 1:22; 1 Thes. 5:23
Holy means not only sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common. Only God is different, distinct, from all things. Hence, He is holy; holiness is His nature. He chose us that we should be holy. He makes us holy by imparting Himself, the Holy One, into our being, that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. For us, God’s chosen ones, to be holy is to partake of God’s divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our whole being permeated with God Himself. This is different from mere sinless perfection or sinless purity. This makes our being holy in God’s nature and character, just like God Himself.
Ep 1:44 without
A blemish is like a foreign particle in a precious gem. God’s chosen ones should be saturated with only God Himself, having no foreign particles, such as the fallen natural human element, the flesh, the self, or worldly things. This is to be without blemish, without any mixture, without any element other than God’s holy nature. The church, after being thoroughly washed by the water in the word, will be sanctified in such a way (5:26-27).
Ep 1:45 before
Before Him indicates that we are holy and without blemish in the eyes of God according to His divine standard. This qualifies us to remain in and enjoy His presence.
Ep 1:46 in
In love could be joined with the first phrase of v. 5.
Ep 1:47d love  -   Eph. 3:17; 4:2, 15, 16; 5:2
Love here refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and His chosen ones love Him. It is in this love, in such a love, that God’s chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him. First, God loved us; then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return. In such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish, just as He is.
Ep 1:51a Predestinating  -   Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:29
Or, marking us out beforehand. Marking out beforehand is the process, whereas predestination is the purpose, which is to determine a destiny beforehand. God selected us before the foundation of the world, marking us out beforehand unto a certain destiny.
Ep 1:52b sonship  -   Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5
God’s marking us out beforehand was to destine us unto sonship. We were predestinated to be sons of God even before we were created. Hence, as God’s creatures we need to be regenerated by Him that we may participate in His life to be His sons. Sonship implies having not only the life but also the position of a son. God’s marked-out ones have the life to be His sons and the position to inherit Him. To be made holy — to be sanctified by God by His putting Himself into us and then mingling His nature with us — is the process, the procedure, whereas to be sons of God is the aim, the goal, and is a matter of our being joined to the Son of God and conformed to a particular form or shape, the very image of the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15), that our whole being, including our body (Rom. 8:23), may be “sonized” by God.
Ep 1:53 through
Through Jesus Christ means through the Son of God, the Redeemer. Through Him we were redeemed to be the sons of God, having the life and position of God’s sons.
Ep 1:54c good  -   Eph. 1:9; Phil. 2:13
This reveals that God has a will, in which is His good pleasure. God predestinated us to be His sons according to His pleasure, according to His heart’s delight. Unlike the book of Romans, the book of Ephesians does not speak from the standpoint of man’s sinful condition; rather, it speaks from the standpoint of the good pleasure of God’s heart. Hence, Ephesians is deeper and higher.
Ep 1:5d will  -   Eph. 1:9, 11; 5:17; Col. 1:9; Rom. 12:2; Rev. 4:11
Ep 1:61a praise  -   Eph. 1:12, 14
The praise of the glory of God’s grace is the result, the issue, of sonship (v. 5). God’s predestinating us unto sonship is for the praise of His expression in His grace, that is, for the praise of the glory of His grace. Eventually, every positive thing in the universe will praise God for sonship (Rom. 8:19), thus fulfilling what is spoken in this verse.
Ep 1:62b glory  -   Eph. 1:18; 3:21; Col. 1:27
Glory is God expressed (Exo. 40:34). The glory of His grace indicates that God’s grace, which is Himself as our enjoyment, expresses Him. As we receive grace and enjoy God, we have the sense of glory.
Ep 1:6c grace  -   Eph. 1:7; 2:7
Ep 1:63 graced
This puts us into the position of grace that we may be the object of God’s grace and favor, that is, that we may enjoy all that God is to us.
Ep 1:64d Beloved  -   Matt. 3:17
The Beloved is God’s beloved Son, in whom He delights (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). Hence, in gracing us God makes us an object in whom He delights. This is altogether a pleasure to God. In Christ we have been blessed by God with every blessing. In the Beloved we were graced, made the object of God’s favor and pleasure. As such an object we enjoy God, and God enjoys us in His grace in His Beloved, who is His delight. In His Beloved we too become His delight.
Ep 1:71a redemption  -   Col. 1:14; Rom. 3:24
We were chosen and predestinated. But after being created, we became fallen. Hence, we need redemption, which God accomplished for us in Christ through His blood. This is another item of God’s blessings that He has bestowed on us.
Ep 1:7b blood  -   Eph. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
Ep 1:72c forgiveness  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 10:43
The forgiveness of our offenses is the redemption through the blood of Christ. Apart from the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). Redemption is what Christ accomplished for our offenses; forgiveness is the application of Christ’s accomplishment to our offenses.
Ep 1:7d offenses  -   Eph. 2:1
Ep 1:7e riches  -   Eph. 2:7
Ep 1:81 abound
God’s grace is not only rich (v. 7) but also abounding. Such grace makes us an inheritance to God (v. 11) and qualifies us to inherit all that God is (v. 14).
Ep 1:82a wisdom  -   Eph. 3:10; Rom. 11:33
Wisdom is what is within God for planning and purposing a will concerning us; prudence is the application of God’s wisdom. First, God planned and purposed in His wisdom, and then He applied with prudence what He had planned and purposed for us. Wisdom was mainly for God’s plan in eternity, and prudence is mainly for God’s execution of His plan in time. What God planned in eternity in His wisdom, He is now executing in time in His prudence.
Ep 1:91 Making
To make known to us the mystery of His will is one item of God’s wisdom and prudence.
Ep 1:92a mystery  -   Eph. 3:3, 4, 9; 5:32; 6:19; Col. 1:26, 27; 2:2; 4:3; Rom. 16:25
In eternity God planned a will. This will was hidden in Him; hence, it was a mystery. In His wisdom and prudence He has made this hidden mystery known to us through His revelation in Christ, that is, through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
Ep 1:9b will  -   Eph. 1:5
Ep 1:93 according
It was the pleasure of God’s heart to make the mystery of His will known to us.
Ep 1:9c good  -   Eph. 1:5
Ep 1:94d purposed  -   Eph. 1:11; 3:11; Rom. 8:28
God’s good pleasure was what He purposed in Himself unto the economy of the fullness of the times (v. 10), indicating that God Himself is the initiation, the origination, and the sphere of His eternal purpose, which nothing can overthrow, for which everything is working, and regarding which He did not take counsel with anyone.
Ep 1:101a economy  -   Eph. 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4
Or, plan. The Greek word, oikonomia, means house law, household management or administration, and derivatively, administrative dispensation, plan, economy (see note 43 in 1 Tim. 1). The economy that God, according to His desire, planned and purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times. This is accomplished through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God as the life factor into all the members of the church that they may rise up from the death situation and be attached to the Body.
Ep 1:102 fullness
The times refers to the ages. The fullness of the times will be when the new heaven and new earth appear after all the dispensations of God in all the ages have been completed. Altogether there are four ages: the age of sin (Adam), the age of the law (Moses), the age of grace (Christ), and the age of the kingdom (the millennium).
Ep 1:103b head  -   Eph. 1:22; cf. Col. 1:16-18
God made Christ the Head over all things (v. 22). Through all the dispensations of God in all the ages, all things will be headed up in Christ in the new heaven and new earth. That will be God’s eternal administration and economy. Thus, the heading up of all things is the issue of all the items covered in vv. 3-9. Verse 22 reveals further that this heading up is to the church so that the Body of Christ may share in all that is of Christ as the Head, having been rescued from the heap of the universal collapse in death and darkness, which was caused by the rebellion of the angels and the rebellion of man. The believers participate in this heading up by being willing to be headed up in the church life, by growing in life, and by living under Christ’s light (John 1:4; Rev. 21:23-25). When everything is headed up in Christ, there will be absolute peace and harmony (Isa. 2:4; 11:6; 55:12; Psa. 96:12-13), a full rescue out of the collapse. This will begin from the time of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21).
Ep 1:104 Christ
Lit., the Christ. Referring to the One mentioned in v. 1 and v. 3, the One in whom are the spiritual blessings of God and in whom are the faithful saints, who participate in the blessings. He is a particular One; hence, He is called “the Christ.” So also in vv. 12 and 20.
Ep 1:10c things  -   Phil. 2:10
Ep 1:111 were
Or, have obtained an inheritance. The Greek verb means to choose or assign by lot. Hence, this clause literally means that in Christ we were designated as a chosen inheritance. We were designated as an inheritance to inherit God as our inheritance. On the one hand, we have become God’s inheritance (v. 18) for God’s enjoyment; on the other hand, we inherit God as our inheritance (v. 14) for our enjoyment.
Ep 1:11a inheritance  -   Eph. 1:18
Ep 1:112b predestinated  -   Eph. 1:5
Or, marked out beforehand. See note 51.
Ep 1:113c purpose  -   Eph. 1:9; 3:11
I.e., plan.
Ep 1:114 counsel
God’s will is His intention; God’s counsel is His consideration of the way to accomplish His will, or intention.
Ep 1:11d will  -   Eph. 1:5
See note 114.
Ep 1:121a praise  -   Eph. 1:6, 14
So much will be worked out by God’s abounding grace for and in the believers, the sons of God, who are the center of God’s work in the universe, that all the angels and positive things in the universe will praise God and appreciate God’s expression (glory). This will take place mainly in the millennium and ultimately in the new heaven and new earth.
Ep 1:122 first
Or, before. We, the New Testament believers, are those who have first hoped in Christ, that is, in this age. The Jews will have their hope in Christ in the next age. We have hoped in Christ before He comes back to set up His Messianic kingdom.
Ep 1:13a word  -   Col. 1:5
Ep 1:131b sealed  -   Eph. 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:22
To be sealed with the Holy Spirit is to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. We have been designated as God’s inheritance (v. 11). At the time we were saved, God put His Holy Spirit into us as a seal to mark us out, indicating that we belong to God. The Holy Spirit, who is God Himself entering into us, causes us to bear God’s image, signified by the seal, thus making us like God.
Ep 1:13c Holy  -   Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4; 2:33; Gal. 3:14
Ep 1:132 promise
Of the promise indicates that God planned according to His pleasure to seal us with His Spirit.
Ep 1:141a pledge  -   2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5
Or, foretaste, guarantee. I.e., token payment; a partial payment in advance, guaranteeing the full payment. Since we are God’s inheritance, the Holy Spirit is a seal upon us. Since God is our inheritance, the Holy Spirit is a pledge to us of this inheritance. God gives His Holy Spirit to us not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our heritage, but also as a foretaste of what we will inherit of God, affording us a taste beforehand of the full inheritance. In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchasing of land. The seller gave the purchaser some soil as a sample from the land. Hence, a pledge, according to ancient Greek usage, is also a sample. The Holy Spirit is the sample of what we will inherit of God in full.
Ep 1:142b inheritance  -   Acts 26:18; Col. 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:4
See note 323 in Acts 20. So also in v. 18.
Ep 1:143 unto
Unto the redemption of the acquired possession gives the purpose of the sealing in v. 13. The seal of the Holy Spirit is living, and it works within us to permeate and transform us with God’s divine element until we are mature in God’s life and eventually fully redeemed, even in our body.
Ep 1:144c redemption  -   Rom. 8:23
Redemption here refers to the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), that is, the transfiguration of our body of humiliation into a glorious body (Phil. 3:21). The Holy Spirit today is a guarantee, a foretaste, and a sample of our divine inheritance, until our body is transfigured in glory, at which time we will inherit God in full. The span of God’s blessings bestowed on us covers all the crucial points from God’s selection in eternity past (v. 4) to the redemption of our body for eternity future.
Ep 1:145 acquired
We, God’s redeemed ones, the church, are God’s possession, which He acquired with the precious blood of Christ (Acts 20:28). In God’s economy, God becomes our inheritance and we become God’s possession. How marvelous! We give nothing and we get everything! God acquired us at a cost, but we inherit God at no cost. This is to the praise of God’s glory.
Ep 1:14d possession  -   1 Pet. 2:9
Ep 1:146e praise  -   Eph. 1:6, 12
This is the third time a phrase like this is used, this time as an ending to this section (vv. 3-14) concerning God’s blessings given to us. Verses 3-6 disclose what God the Father planned for us, that is, to choose us and predestinate us unto sonship to the praise of the glory of His grace. Verses 7-12 reveal how God the Son accomplished what God the Father planned, that is, to redeem us and make us God’s inheritance to the praise of His glory. Verses 13-14 tell us how God the Spirit applies to us what God the Son accomplished, that is, to seal us and be the guarantee and foretaste of our eternal, divine inheritance to the praise of God’s glory. In the blessings God bestows on us, the glory of the Triune God deserves the threefold praise.
Ep 1:15a heard  -   Col. 1:4
Ep 1:151 the
Many ancient MSS read, the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and which you have toward all the saints.
Ep 1:16a giving  -   Phil. 1:3-4
Ep 1:171a God  -   Eph. 1:3
In incarnation the Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself (Phil. 2:6), became a man. As a man He is related to God’s creation; therefore, God the Creator is His God. His incarnation brought God the Creator into man, God’s creature. He is a man in whom God is incarnated.
Ep 1:172 Father
The title Father implies regeneration, and glory is God expressed. Hence, the Father of glory is the regenerating God expressed through His many sons. We have already been regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3), and we will be glorified in the expression of God’s glory (Rom. 8:30).
Ep 1:173b spirit  -   Eph. 2:22; 3:5; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18
The spirit here must be our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. Such a spirit is given to us by God that we may have wisdom and revelation to know Him and His economy.
Ep 1:174c wisdom  -   Eph. 1:8; Col. 1:9
Wisdom is in our spirit that we may know the mystery of God, and revelation is of God’s Spirit that He may show us the vision by opening the veil. First, we have wisdom, the ability to understand, which enables us to know spiritual things; then the Spirit of God reveals the spiritual things to our spiritual understanding.
Ep 1:17d revelation  -   Eph. 3:5; Gal. 1:15-16
Ep 1:17e full  -   Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:9, 10; 2:2
Ep 1:181a eyes  -   Acts 26:18
Eyes to see the spiritual things. We have wisdom, the ability to know, and revelation, the revealing of spiritual things. However, we still need eyes, the spiritual faculty of sight (Acts 26:18; Rev. 3:18).
To have the eyes of our heart enlightened requires that our conscience, mind, emotion, and will, which are the components of our heart, be thoroughly dealt with (cf. note 171 in ch. 3). First, we need an open spirit with a conscience purified by our confessing and dealing with our sins and by the sprinkling of the redeeming blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14; 10:22). Next, we need a sober mind (2 Tim. 1:7 and note 2), a loving emotion (John 14:21), and a submissive will (John 7:17) in order to have a pure heart. When we have such a spirit and heart, the eyes of our heart will be able to see.
Ep 1:182b enlightened  -   2 Cor. 4:6
We not only need wisdom, revelation, and eyes to see, but we also need light for the illumination of the things which are unveiled to us, that we may have a vision.
Ep 1:183c hope  -   Eph. 4:4; Col. 1:27
The hope of God’s calling includes (1) Christ Himself and the salvation He will bring to us when He comes back (Col. 1:27; 1 Pet. 1:5, 9); (2) the rapturous transfer from the earthly and physical realm to the heavenly and spiritual sphere, plus glorification (Rom. 8:23-25, 30; Phil. 3:21); (3) the kingly enjoyment with Christ in the millennium (Rev. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:18); and (4) the consummate enjoyment of Christ in the New Jerusalem, with the universal and eternal blessings in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-7; 22:1-5).
Ep 1:184d calling  -   Eph. 4:1, 4; Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 24
God’s calling is the sum total of all the blessings listed in vv. 3-14: God the Father’s selection and predestination, God the Son’s redemption, and God the Spirit’s sealing and pledging. When we were called, we participated in the Father’s selection and predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging.
Ep 1:185e riches  -   Eph. 3:8; Phil. 4:19
God’s glory has its riches, which are the many different items that constitute God’s divine attributes, such as light, life, power, love, righteousness, and holiness, expressed to different degrees.
Ep 1:186f inheritance  -   Eph. 1:11
First, God made us His inheritance (v. 11a) as His acquired possession (v. 14b) and caused us to participate in all that He is, all that He has, and all that He has accomplished, as our inheritance (v. 14a). Ultimately, all these will become His inheritance in the saints for eternity. This will be His eternal expression, His glory with all His riches, which will express Him to the uttermost universally and eternally.
Ep 1:191a power  -   Eph. 3:7, 16, 20; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:11, 29; 2 Tim. 1:8
According to the apostle’s prayer, the third thing we need to know is the surpassing greatness of God’s power toward us. This is very subjective and experiential to us today. God’s power toward us is surpassingly great. We need to know it and experience it.
Ep 1:192 according
The surpassingly great power of God toward us is according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ. God’s power toward us is the same as the power that He caused to operate in Christ. Christ is the Head and we are the Body. The Body participates in the power that operates in the Head.
Ep 1:19b operation  -   Eph. 3:7; Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 12:6
Ep 1:19c might  -   Eph. 6:10; Col. 1:11
Ep 1:201a raising  -   Acts 2:32
First, the power that God caused to operate in Christ raised Christ from the dead. This power has overcome death, the grave, and Hades, where the dead are held. Death and Hades could not hold Christ (Acts 2:24) because of God’s resurrection power.
Ep 1:202b seating  -   Psa. 110:1; Mark 16:19; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3
Second, the power that God caused to operate in Christ seated Christ at God’s right hand in the heavenlies, far above all (v. 21).
Ep 1:203 right
God’s right hand, where Christ was seated by the surpassingly great power of God, is the most honorable place, the place with supreme authority.
Ep 1:204c heavenlies  -   Eph. 1:3
The heavenlies refers not only to the third heaven, the highest place in the universe, where God dwells, but also to the state and atmosphere of the heavens, in which Christ was seated by God’s power.
Ep 1:211a rule  -   Eph. 3:10; 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:15
Rule refers to the highest office, authority to every kind of official power (Matt. 8:9), power to the mere might of authority, and lordship to the preeminence that power establishes. Subsequently, we see that what is listed here includes not only the angelic, heavenly authorities, whether good or evil, but also the human, earthly ones. The ascended Christ was seated by the great power of God far above all rule, authority, power, and lordship in the universe.
Ep 1:212 every
Every name that is named refers not only to titles of honor but also to every name. Christ was seated far above every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Ep 1:21b name  -   Phil. 2:9
Ep 1:21c age  -   Mark 10:30
Ep 1:221a subjected  -   Psa. 8:6-8; 1 Cor. 15:27; Heb. 2:8
Third, the power that God caused to operate in Christ subjected all things under His feet. Christ’s being far above all is one thing; His having all things subjected under His feet is another. The former is Christ’s transcendency; the latter, the subjection of all things to Him.
Ep 1:222 gave
Fourth, God’s power that He caused to operate in Christ gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Christ’s headship over all things is a gift from God to Him. It was through God’s surpassingly great power that Christ received the headship in the universe.
It was as a man, in His humanity with His divinity, that Christ was raised from the dead, was seated in the heavenlies, had all things subjected to Him, and was given to be Head over all things.
Thus, there are four aspects of the power that operated in Christ: resurrection power (v. 20a), ascending power (v. 20b), subjecting power (v. 22a), and heading-up power (v. 22b). This fourfold power is transmitted to the church, the Body of the Head.
Ep 1:22b Head  -   Eph. 1:10; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:10, 19; 1 Cor. 11:3
Ep 1:223 to
To the church implies a kind of transmission. Whatever Christ, the Head, has attained and obtained is transmitted to the church, His Body. In this transmission the church shares with Christ in all His attainments: the resurrection from the dead, His being seated in His transcendency, the subjection of all things under His feet, and the headship over all things.
Toward us who believe (v. 19) and to the church indicate that the divine power, which includes all that the Triune God has passed through, has been installed into us once for all and is being transmitted into us continually, causing us to enjoy Christ richly and to have the proper church life as His Body, His fullness, the issue of God’s blessing mentioned previously.
Ep 1:224c church  -   Eph. 3:10, 21; 5:23-27, 29, 32; Matt. 16:18; Acts 5:11; 8:1
Here this book uses the term church for the first time, pointing out the main subject of this book. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, meaning the called-out congregation. This indicates that the church is a gathering of those who have been called out of the world by God. As such, the church is composed of all the believers in Christ.
Ep 1:231a Body  -   Eph. 4:12, 16; 5:30; Col. 1:18, 24; 2:19; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12
The Body of Christ is not an organization but an organism constituted of all the regenerated believers for the expression and activities of the Head. The Body of Christ is the issue of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, who has come into the church. By means of the ascended Christ’s heavenly transmission, we are made one with Him, and thus His Body is produced.
Ep 1:232b fullness  -   Eph. 4:13
The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness of Christ issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him.
Ep 1:233c fills  -   Eph. 4:10; cf. 1 Cor. 15:28
Christ, who is the infinite God without any limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.
In this chapter there are seven crucial things requiring the same basic factor for their accomplishment: God’s selection that we should be made holy and without blemish (v. 4); God’s predestination that we may become His sons (v. 5); the sealing of the Holy Spirit that we may be fully redeemed (vv. 13-14); the hope of God’s calling; the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints (v. 18); God’s power that causes us to participate in Christ’s attainment (vv. 19-22); and the Body of Christ, the fullness of the all-filling Christ. All these are accomplished by the Triune God being dispensed and wrought into our being. The issue of such a divine dispensing into our humanity is the fullness of the One who fills all in all and the praise of God’s expressed glory. Actually, this chapter is a revelation of God’s marvelous and excellent economy, from His choosing of us in eternity to the producing of the Body of Christ to express Himself for eternity.
Ephesians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ep 2:11 And
Grammatically, and indicates that the thought in the last sentence of ch. 1 is incomplete. The last verse of ch. 1 reveals that the church, the Body of Christ, was produced by Christ through His attainment. Now this chapter unveils to us the background — the realm of death — from which the church was brought forth. In ch. 1 the church is the issue of the transmission of the heavenly divinity into us. In this chapter the church comes out of the earthly humanity.
Ep 2:12a dead  -   Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13
Dead refers to the deadness of our spirit, which pervaded our entire being and caused us to lose the function that enables us to contact God.
Ep 2:13 offenses
Offenses are acts that overstep the limit of one’s rights. Sins are evil doings. Before we were saved, we were dead in offenses and sins. It was from this background of death that we were saved to be the church, the Body of Christ. The dead have been made alive to be a living organism to express Christ.
Ep 2:2a walked  -   Col. 3:7
Ep 2:21b age  -   Rom. 12:2; Gal. 1:4
This world refers to the satanic system, which is composed of many ages. Hence, the age here refers to a part, a section, an aspect, the present and modern appearance, of the system of Satan, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. When we were dead in offenses and sins, we walked according to the age, the modern appearance, the present course, of the world, the satanic system.
Ep 2:22c ruler  -   Eph. 6:12
Referring to Satan, the prince of the rulers and authorities in the air mentioned in 6:12.
Ep 2:23 spirit
The spirit, in apposition to the authority of the air, refers to the aggregate power, the aggregate of all the evil angelic authorities, over which Satan is the ruler. This aggregate spirit is now operating in the sons of disobedience. When we were dead in offenses and sins, we walked not only according to the age of this world but also according to Satan, the ruler of the aerial authority, the evil spiritual power.
Ep 2:24d sons  -   Eph. 5:6
We, the sons of disobedience, have been saved to be the church.
Ep 2:31 whom
Referring to the sons of disobedience in v. 2.
Ep 2:32 we
Referring to all believers, both Jewish and Gentile.
Ep 2:33a lusts  -   Gal. 5:16
When we were dead in offenses and sins, we conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires not only of the flesh but also of the thoughts. Three evil things — the age of this world, which is outside of us; the ruler of the aerial authority, which is above and within us; and the lusts of our flesh in our fallen nature — dominated our lives. From these evil things we have been saved to be the Body of Christ.
Ep 2:34 children
As the sons of disobedience, we were also the children of wrath. In the realm of death we were under God’s wrath because of our disobedience. We have been saved from both our disobedience and God’s wrath.
Ep 2:3b wrath  -   Rom. 2:5
Ep 2:41 But
But God points to the factor that changed our position.
Ep 2:4a rich  -   Rom. 2:4
Ep 2:42 mercy
The object of love should be in a lovable condition, but the object of mercy is always in a pitiful situation. Hence, God’s mercy reaches farther than His love. God loves us because we are the object of His selection. But because of our fall we became pitiful, even dead in our offenses and sins; therefore, we need God’s mercy. Because of His great love, God is rich in mercy to save us out of our wretched position into a condition that is suitable for His love.
Ep 2:43 great
Or, abundant love — abundantly great love.
Ep 2:4b love  -   1 John 4:10
Ep 2:5a dead  -   Eph. 2:1
Ep 2:51b alive  -   Col. 2:13
In comparison with the book of Romans, the book of Ephesians does not consider us sinners; it considers us dead persons. As sinners, we need God’s forgiveness and justification, as revealed in the book of Romans. But as dead persons, we need to be made alive. Forgiveness and justification bring us back to God’s presence to enjoy His grace and participate in His life, whereas being made alive causes us, the living members of the Body of Christ, to express Him. God made us alive by imparting His eternal life, which is Christ Himself (Col. 3:4), into our dead spirit through His Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). He has enlivened us together with Christ.
Ep 2:52 together
God enlivened us together when He enlivened the crucified Jesus. Therefore, He made us alive together with Christ.
Ep 2:53 Christ
See note 104 in ch. 1.
Ep 2:54c grace  -   Eph. 2:8
Grace is free. Here it denotes not only God freely dispensed into us for our enjoyment but also God’s action in freely saving us. By such grace we have been saved out of our wretched position of death into the marvelous realm of life.
Ep 2:55 saved
We were saved not only as sinners but also as dead persons, and not only by Christ’s death with its redemption but also by His resurrection with its resurrection life, and even by His ascension with its transcendency. This is the transcending salvation given to the dead sinners by the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, the very embodiment of the processed Triune God. Such a salvation produces the church as the issue of the processed Divine Trinity for His expression.
Ep 2:61a raised  -   Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12
To make us alive is the initial step of God’s salvation in life. After this, God raised us up from the position of death.
Ep 2:62 together
From our standpoint we have been raised up from our position of death one by one. But in God’s view we were all raised up together, just as all the Israelites were raised up together from the death waters of the Red Sea (Exo. 14).
Ep 2:63b seated  -   Eph. 1:20
The third step of God’s salvation in life is to seat us together in the heavenlies. God not only raised us up from the position of death, but He also seated us in the highest place in the universe.
Ep 2:64c heavenlies  -   Eph. 1:3
The heavenlies are the highest position, into which we have been saved in Christ. In the book of Romans, Christ as our righteousness brought us into a state in which we are acceptable to God. In the book of Ephesians, Christ as our life has saved us into a position in which we are above all God’s enemies. Here in the heavenly atmosphere, with a heavenly nature and a heavenly characteristic, we are a heavenly people.
Ep 2:65 in
It was in Christ that God seated us all together, once for all, in the heavenlies. This was accomplished when Christ ascended to the heavens, and it has been applied to us by the Spirit of Christ ever since we believed in Him. Today we realize and experience this reality in our spirit through faith in the accomplished fact.
Ep 2:71 display
I.e., exhibit to the whole universe publicly.
Ep 2:72 ages
The ages of the millennium and eternity future. These come after the present age, in which the church is produced.
Ep 2:73a riches  -   Eph. 1:7
The riches of God’s grace surpass every limit. These are the riches of God Himself for our enjoyment. They will be publicly displayed for eternity.
Ep 2:74b kindness  -   Rom. 2:4
Kindness is a benevolent goodness that issues out of mercy and love. It is in such kindness that the grace of God is given to us.
Ep 2:81 For
For introduces the reason that God displays His grace (v. 7). Because we have been saved by His grace, God can display it.
Ep 2:82a grace  -   Eph. 2:5; Acts 15:11; Rom. 3:24
Grace is God dispensed into us. Therefore, to be saved by grace means to be saved by having the processed Triune God dispensed into us.
Ep 2:83b faith  -   Rom. 5:1; 2 Pet. 1:1
Faith is the substantiation of invisible things (Heb. 11:1). It is by faith that we substantiate all the things Christ has accomplished for us. Through such a substantiating ability, we have been saved by grace. The free action of God’s grace saved us through our substantiating faith. This faith of ours is the faith by which we believe in Christ, and it is Christ in us as our faith (see note 221 in Rom. 3).
Ep 2:84 this
This does not refer to faith but to the matter that “by grace you have been saved through faith.”
Ep 2:8c gift  -   cf. 1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:1
Ep 2:9a works  -   cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5
Ep 2:9b boast  -   1 Cor. 1:29; Rom. 3:27
Ep 2:101 masterpiece
The Greek word, poiema, means something that has been made, a handiwork, or something that has been written or composed as a poem. Not only a poetic writing may be considered a poem, but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are a poem expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design.
The heavens, the earth, and man, created by God, are not God’s masterpiece; but the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (1:23), the corporate and universal new man (v. 15), is a masterpiece. We have been saved by grace to be God’s masterpiece that we may walk in the good works prepared beforehand by God.
Ep 2:102a created  -   Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15
We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention of God. We were created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
Ep 2:10b good  -   Titus 2:14
Ep 2:103 beforehand
The good works for which God created us are not the good things that are according to our general concept but the definite good doings that God preplanned and preordained for us to walk in. These good things must be the doing of His will that we may live the church life and bear the testimony of Jesus, as revealed in the succeeding chapters of this book.
Ep 2:10c walk  -   Eph. 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15
Ep 2:11a Gentiles  -   Eph. 4:17
Ep 2:111b uncircumcision  -   Acts 11:3
The man whom God created to fulfill His purpose was pure, without sin or any kind of negative mixture. However, sin, the evil nature of Satan, entered into man through the fall. First, it caused man’s body to become the flesh, full of lusts, and eventually, it made the whole being of man the flesh. Hence, man was damaged and was thus prevented from fulfilling God’s purpose. Then God came in to call a race — Abraham and his descendants — out of fallen mankind. For the accomplishing of His purpose, God commanded them to be circumcised, that is, to put away their flesh. This meant that they were separated from fallen mankind and delivered out of the fallen condition. Circumcision made a tremendous distinction between them and the rest of mankind. The circumcised people were called “the circumcision,” those who were separated from the fallen situation. The rest of mankind was called “the uncircumcision,” those who remained in the fallen state. These were the Gentiles in the flesh. We were in this category before we were in Christ.
Ep 2:11c circumcision  -   Rom. 2:28; Phil. 3:5
Ep 2:121 apart
Christ, in whom all God’s blessings to His chosen people are embodied, came out of Israel, the circumcised people. Since we, the uncircumcised Gentiles, were separated from Israel, we were apart from Christ, having nothing to do with Christ.
Ep 2:12a alienated  -   Col. 1:21
Ep 2:122 commonwealth
That is, the citizenship, the civil rights, of God’s chosen people, such as God’s ruling, blessing, and presence. Through the fall, mankind lost all the rights that God intended for man in His creation. God called Abraham and through circumcision brought His chosen people back to all these rights. We, as uncircumcised Gentiles, remained alienated from such rights.
Ep 2:12b Israel  -   Rom. 9:4
Ep 2:123c covenants  -   Rom. 9:4
God’s covenants are His promises. His promise is His word that He will freely do certain things for His chosen people. When His promise is made into law by the necessary procedures, it becomes a binding covenant. All the words God spoke to His chosen people, from Abraham to Malachi, were His promises made into law to be His covenants. We, the Gentiles, not only are alienated from the commonwealth of Israel but also are strangers to the covenants of God’s promise.
Ep 2:124d no  -   1 Thes. 4:13; cf. Eph. 1:18; 4:4; Rom. 15:13
All God’s blessings are contained in Christ, all the civil rights are related to the nation of Israel, and all good things are promised in God’s covenants. Since we were apart from Christ, were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and were strangers to the covenants of God’s promise, we had no hope whatever.
Ep 2:125 without
God is in Christ; He rules and moves in the commonwealth of Israel; and He bestows His blessings according to His covenants. When we were apart from Christ, the commonwealth of Israel, and the covenants of God’s promise, we were without God; we did not have God as our enjoyment.
Ep 2:126 world
The world, which is the system of Satan, is in contrast to the commonwealth of Israel. The commonwealth of Israel was the kingdom of God, whereas the world is the kingdom of Satan. Before we were saved, we lived in the world, where we had no hope as our expectation and no God as our enjoyment; we were empty both in the present age and in relation to the coming age.
Ep 2:131 But
But now is a precious phrase, indicating that now in Christ we have hope and that we also have God.
Ep 2:132a far  -   Eph. 2:17; Acts 2:39
I.e., far off from Christ, from the commonwealth of Israel, and from the covenants of God’s promise. This equals being far off from God and all His blessings.
Ep 2:133 near
I.e., near to Christ, to Israel, and to God’s promise. This equals being near to God and all His blessings.
Ep 2:134b blood  -   Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:20
We were far off because we were fallen. But the redeeming blood of Christ brought us back. Hence, in this blood we have become near both to Israel and to God.
Ep 2:141 our
Our refers to the Jewish and the Gentile believers.
Ep 2:142a peace  -   Col. 3:15
Christ, who accomplished full redemption for both the Jewish and the Gentile believers, is Himself our peace, our harmony, making both one. Because of the fall of mankind and the calling of the chosen race, there was a separation between Israel and the Gentiles. Through Christ’s redemption this separation has been removed. Now, in the redeeming Christ, who is the bond of oneness, both are one.
Ep 2:143 both
Both refers to the Jewish and the Gentile believers.
Ep 2:14b one  -   Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13
Ep 2:144 wall
The middle wall of partition is the law of the commandments in ordinances in v. 15, which was instituted because of man’s flesh. The first ordinance was circumcision, the cutting off of man’s flesh. This became the middle wall of partition between the circumcision and the uncircumcision.
Ep 2:145 enmity
The middle wall of partition, which is the distinction (made mainly by circumcision) between the circumcision and the uncircumcision, became the enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles.
Ep 2:151a Abolishing  -   Col. 2:14
Christ broke down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles by abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances. When He was crucified on the cross, all the ordinances were nailed there (Col. 2:14).
Ep 2:152 flesh
Because mankind became flesh (Gen. 6:3) and was therefore kept from God and His purpose, God ordained that His chosen people be circumcised, that they put away the flesh. The ordinance of circumcision was instituted because of man’s flesh. It was in the flesh that Christ was crucified. When He was crucified, His flesh, which was typified by the veil separating the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the temple, was rent (Heb. 10:20).
Ep 2:153 law
This is not the law of the moral commandments but the law of the ritual commandments, composed principally of the practice of circumcision, the observance of dietary regulations, and the keeping of the Sabbath. These ordinances were the main “columns” of Judaism. The moral commandments will never be abolished, but the ritual commandments were in force only during a particular time dispensationally and are therefore not permanent.
Ep 2:154 ordinances
I.e., rituals, the forms or ways of living and worship, which create enmity and division. To practice the proper church life, all ordinances should be repudiated and dropped.
Ep 2:155 create
Christ created the one new man, the church, by working God’s divine nature into humanity. The working of the divine nature into humanity was something new. Hence, it was a creating. In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man. In the creating of the one new man, however, God’s nature was wrought into man to make His divine nature one entity with humanity.
Ep 2:156 in
Christ is not only the Creator of the one new man, the church, but also the sphere in which and the means by which the one new man was created. He is the very element of the new man, making God’s divine nature one entity with humanity. The Greek word rendered in here can also have an elemental significance, meaning also with, implying that the new man was created with Christ as its divine essence.
Ep 2:157 into
The Jews and the Gentiles were separated to the uttermost by the separating ordinances. But both were created in Christ with the divine essence into one new entity, which is a corporate man, the church.
Ep 2:158 one
The church is not only the church of God, the Body of Christ (the fullness, the expression, of the all-filling One — 1:23), and the household or family, the house, the temple, and the dwelling place of God (2:19, 21-22); it is also the one new man, which is corporate and universal, created of two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, and composed of all the believers, who, though they are many, are one new man in the universe.
God created man as a collective entity (Gen. 1:26). The corporate man created by God was damaged through man’s fall; hence, there was the need for God to produce a new man. This was accomplished through Christ’s abolishing in His flesh the ordinances and through His creating of the new man in Himself.
Ep 2:15b new  -   Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10
Ep 2:159c making  -   Col. 1:20
By Christ’s abolishing in His flesh the separating ordinances, that is, His slaying the enmity, and by His creating the Jewish and the Gentile believers into one new man, peace was made between all believers.
Ep 2:16a reconcile  -   Col. 1:20, 22; 2 Cor. 5:18; Rom. 5:10
Ep 2:161 both
Both refers to the Jews and the Gentiles. Not only the uncircumcised Gentiles but also the circumcised Jews needed to be reconciled to God through the redemption of Christ, accomplished on His cross.
Ep 2:162b one  -   1 Cor. 12:13; 10:17; Eph. 4:4
This one Body, the church (1:23), is the one new man mentioned in the previous verse. It was in this one Body that both the Jews and the Gentiles were reconciled to God through the cross. We, the believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, were reconciled not only for the Body of Christ but also in the Body of Christ. What a revelation here! We were reconciled to God; we were saved in the Body of Christ.
Ep 2:163 God
We were without God and we had lost God (v. 12). But through the cross, with the blood of Christ, we have been brought back to God in the one Body.
Ep 2:164 cross
On the one hand, the cross of Christ slew the enmity caused by the ordinances, which were instituted because of the flesh, and on the other hand, it redeemed us with the blood of Christ, which was shed upon it. It was through the cross that both the Jews and the Gentiles were reconciled in one Body to God.
Ep 2:165 slain
This is the breaking down of the middle wall of partition and the abolishing of the ordinances that bring in discord between the Jews and the Gentiles, as mentioned in vv. 14-15.
Ep 2:166 by
Or, in Him.
Ep 2:171 coming
This is the coming of Christ as the Spirit to preach peace as the gospel, which peace He made through His cross.
Ep 2:17a announced  -   Acts 10:36
Ep 2:17b gospel  -   Eph. 6:15
Ep 2:172c far  -   Eph. 2:13; Isa. 57:19
Referring to the Gentiles, who were uncircumcised and were far off, separated by their flesh.
Ep 2:173d near  -   Psa. 148:14
Referring to the Jews, who were circumcised and were near, made nigh by God’s choosing.
Ep 2:181 through
Both the Jewish and the Gentile believers have access to the Father through Christ, who abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances, broke down the middle wall of partition, slew the enmity to reconcile the Gentiles to the Jews, and shed His blood to redeem the Jews and the Gentiles to God.
Ep 2:182a access  -   Eph. 3:12; Rom. 5:2
The access is constituted of Christ’s cross and His blood (Heb. 10:19).
Ep 2:183 in
First, both the Jewish and the Gentile believers were reconciled in one Body to God (v. 16). That was a positional matter. Then they both have access in one Spirit unto the Father. This is experiential. In order to enjoy experientially what we possess positionally, we need to be in the Spirit.
Ep 2:18b one  -   Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 12:13
Ep 2:184c Father  -   John 14:6
Positionally, we were reconciled to God; experientially, we have access unto the Father. To be reconciled to God is to be saved; to have access unto the Father is to enjoy God, who, as the source of life, regenerated us to be His sons.
Here the trinity of the Godhead is implied. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, the application, we have access unto God the Father, who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment.
Ep 2:191 you
Referring to the Gentile believers.
Ep 2:192a strangers  -   Eph. 2:12
Strangers are aliens, and sojourners are foreigners sojourning among Israel without rights of citizenship. Here both refer to the Gentiles.
Ep 2:193b fellow  -   Phil. 3:20
Fellow citizens with the saints indicates the kingdom of God. All the believers, Jewish and Gentile, are citizens in God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is a sphere in which He exercises His authority.
Ep 2:194 members
Members of the household of God indicates the house of God. Both the Jewish and the Gentile believers are members of God’s house. God’s house is a matter of life and enjoyment; all believers are born of God into His house to enjoy His riches. God’s kingdom is a matter of right and responsibility; all believers born into the house of God have the civil rights of and obligations in the kingdom of God. The saints are individuals; the house of God is corporate and issues in the kingdom of God.
Ep 2:19c household  -   Gal. 6:10; Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5; 4:17
Ep 2:201a built  -   Eph. 2:22; 4:12, 16; Col. 2:7; 1 Cor. 3:12
As the Body of Christ, the church has been regenerated and needs the growth in life; as the house of God, the church is being built. Growth and building are not separate things, for the growth of the Body is the building of the house.
Ep 2:202b foundation  -   Rev. 21:14; cf. 1 Cor. 3:10-11
The foundation of the church is Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). Because the mystery of Christ was revealed to the apostles (3:4-5), the revelation they received is considered the foundation on which the church is built. This corresponds with the rock in Matt. 16:18, which is not only Christ but also the revelation concerning Christ, on which Christ will build His church. Therefore, the foundation of the apostles and prophets is the revelation they received for the building of the church.
Ep 2:20c apostles  -   Eph. 3:5
Ep 2:203d cornerstone  -   Psa. 118:22; Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:6
Here, Christ is referred to not as the foundation (Isa. 28:16) but as the cornerstone, because the main concern here is not the foundation but the cornerstone that joins together the two walls, one wall being the Jewish believers, and the other, the Gentile believers. Here, not Christ but the apostles and prophets who received the revelation concerning Christ are stressed as the foundation. When the Jewish builders rejected Christ, they rejected Him as the cornerstone (Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7), the One who would join the Gentiles to them for the building of God’s house.
Ep 2:211 whom
In Christ, who is the cornerstone, all the building, including both the Jewish and the Gentile believers, is fitted together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.
Ep 2:212 all
Or, every building.
Ep 2:213a fitted  -   Eph. 4:16
I.e., made suitable for the condition and situation of the building.
Ep 2:214b growing  -   Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19
Since the building is living (1 Pet. 2:5), it is growing. It grows into a holy temple. The actual building of the church as the house of God is by the believers’ growth in life.
Ep 2:215c temple  -   1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:16
Or, sanctuary; the inner part of the temple.
Ep 2:216 in
The entire building of God’s house, God’s sanctuary, is in Christ the Lord.
Ep 2:221 you
Referring to the local saints.
Ep 2:222 also
Also indicates that the building in v. 21 is universal and that the building in this verse is local. Universally, the church is uniquely one and is growing universally; locally, the church in a particular locality also is one, and the local saints are being built together in their particular locality.
Ep 2:223a dwelling  -   2 Cor. 6:16; Rev. 21:3
According to the context, in v. 21 the holy temple is universal; in this verse the dwelling place of God is local.
Ep 2:22b in  -   Eph. 3:5; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18; John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; Rev. 1:10
Ep 2:224 spirit
The believers’ human spirit, which is indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is the Dweller, not the dwelling place. The dwelling place is the believers’ spirit. God’s Spirit dwells in our spirit. Therefore, the dwelling place of God is in our spirit. Verse 21 says that the holy temple is in the Lord, and this verse, that the dwelling place of God is in spirit. This indicates that for the building of God’s dwelling place, the Lord is one with our spirit, and our spirit is one with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). Our spirit is where the building of the church, the dwelling place of God, takes place.
Ephesians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ep 3:11 For
Chapters 1 and 2 cover the revelation of the church, and this chapter covers the constituting of the church. After unveiling in chs. 1 and 2 God’s blessings to the church and what the church is and how it is produced, the apostle began, from this chapter, to beseech the saints to walk according to his revelation in a way worthy of God’s calling. In order that the church might be constituted and realized in a practical, experiential way, he presented himself as a steward (v. 2), as one who had received grace (v. 2) and revelation (vv. 3, 5) and had become a minister of the high gospel, announcing the riches of Christ as the gospel for the producing of the church.
Ep 3:12a prisoner  -   Eph. 4:1; 2 Tim. 1:8; Philem. 1, 9
The apostle Paul considered himself a prisoner of Christ. Apparently, he was confined in prison; actually, he was imprisoned in Christ. On the basis of such a status, the status in which he actually lived, he besought the saints. In releasing in chs. 1 and 2 the revelation of God’s mystery concerning the church, Paul assumed his status as an apostle of Christ through the will of God. That status was the basis of the authority of his revelation concerning the church. In beseeching the saints to walk worthily of God’s calling, he used his status as a prisoner of the Lord. His status as an apostle of Christ qualified him to release God’s revelation, whereas his status as a prisoner of the Lord spoke forth his walk in the Lord, by which he could inspire and beseech the saints to walk in the Lord as he did. If we enjoy Christ as our prison, we too will walk in the Lord for the constituting of the church.
Ep 3:21 If
Verses 2-21 are a parenthesis, and 4:1 is a continuation of 3:1. In this parenthetical, beseeching word, the apostle described to the Gentile believers his ministry for them, a ministry that he received in the stewardship of grace through the revelation of the mystery of Christ. Also, he prayed in this parenthesis that the church would experience Christ to the fullest extent.
Ep 3:22a stewardship  -   Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17; 1 Pet. 4:10; cf. Luke 16:2, 3, 4
In Greek, the same word as economy in v. 9 and in 1:10. In relation to God, this word denotes God’s economy, God’s administration; in relation to the apostle, it denotes the stewardship (stewardship is used also in 1 Cor. 9:17). The stewardship of the grace is for the dispensing of the grace of God to His chosen people for the producing and building up of the church. Out of this stewardship comes the ministry of the apostle, who is a steward in God’s house, ministering Christ as God’s grace to God’s household.
Ep 3:23b grace  -   Eph. 3:8; 4:7; Rom. 12:3
Grace refers to the riches of Christ (v. 8), which God has given to us in Christ for us to gain and enjoy. Paul’s ministry was to dispense the riches of Christ as grace to the believers for their enjoyment.
Ep 3:31a revelation  -   Eph. 3:5; Rom. 16:25; Gal. 1:12
God’s hidden purpose is the mystery, and the unveiling of this mystery is revelation. The apostle’s ministry was to carry out this revelation for the producing of the church.
Ep 3:3b mystery  -   Eph. 1:9
Ep 3:3c made  -   Col. 1:26-27
Ep 3:3d written  -   Eph. 1:9-10
Ep 3:41a mystery  -   Eph. 1:9; Col. 4:3
The mystery of God in Col. 2:2 is Christ; the mystery of Christ here is the church. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him, is the mystery of God. Christ also is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ to express Him, is the mystery of Christ. This mystery is God’s economy, which is to dispense Christ, as the embodiment of God, into God’s chosen people in order to produce a Body to be the increase of God’s embodiment in Christ, that God may have a corporate expression.
Ep 3:51a not  -   Col. 1:26
The mystery of Christ, the church, was hidden in other generations but has been revealed in the New Testament age.
Ep 3:5b revealed  -   Eph. 3:3
Ep 3:52c apostles  -   Eph. 2:20
Apostles in Greek means sent ones. The apostles are the ones sent by Christ, representing Him to carry out His commission in God’s New Testament economy. The prophets are God’s spokesmen, not primarily predicting the future but speaking for God and speaking forth God in the revelation of God’s eternal economy.
Ep 3:53 spirit
The human spirit of the apostles and prophets, a spirit regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. It can be considered the mingled spirit, the human spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. Such a mingled spirit is the means by which the New Testament revelation concerning Christ and the church is revealed to the apostles and prophets. We need the same kind of spirit to see such a revelation.
Ep 3:61a fellow  -   Rom. 8:17; Gal. 3:29
In God’s New Testament economy the chosen, redeemed, and regenerated Gentiles and the believing Jews are fellow heirs of God, inheriting God.
Ep 3:62b fellow  -   Eph. 2:16
The saved Gentiles and the saved Jews are fellow members of the one Body of Christ as His unique expression.
Ep 3:63c fellow  -   Col. 1:12; Heb. 3:1; 6:4; 12:10; 2 Pet. 1:4
The Gentile believers and the Jewish believers are fellow partakers of God’s promise given in the Old Testament, concerning all the blessings of God’s New Testament economy.
Being fellow heirs is related to the blessing of the household of God; being fellow members of the Body, to the blessing of the Body of Christ; and being fellow partakers of the promise, to the blessing of the promise of God, such as in Gen. 3:15; 12:3; 22:18; 28:14; and Isa. 9:6. Both the blessing of God’s household and the blessing of Christ’s Body are particular, whereas the blessing of God’s promise is general, all-inclusive.
Ep 3:6d promise  -   Gal. 3:29; 2 Pet. 1:4
Ep 3:71a minister  -   Col. 1:23, 25
A minister is one who serves. A minister of the gospel serves the gospel to people.
Ep 3:72b gift  -   Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4
The grace of God is God Himself, especially as life, partaken of and enjoyed by us; the gift of grace is the ability and function produced out of the enjoyment of the grace of God. Grace implies life, and the gift is the ability that comes out of life.
Ep 3:7c grace  -   Eph. 3:2
Ep 3:7d operation  -   Eph. 1:19; 3:20; Col. 1:29
Ep 3:73 power
The power of the resurrection life (Phil. 3:10), which operated within the apostle and operates within all the believers (1:19; 3:20). By such an inward, operating power of life the gift of grace was given to the apostle, that is, produced in him.
Ep 3:81 less
This indicates that all the saints can receive the same grace as that given to the apostle Paul. As to the person of Paul, he was the least among the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9); but as to his ministry, he was not behind the super-apostles (2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11). Yet, as to the grace he received, he was less than the least of all saints. This implies that all the saints can receive the grace that he received. This is similar to the receiving of the same lifeblood by all the members of our physical body, however small they may be. But the ability (gift) that comes out of the lifeblood differs among the members. All the members of the Body of Christ can have the same grace of life that Paul had, but their gifts are not the same as Paul’s.
Ep 3:8a least  -   cf. 1 Cor. 15:9
Ep 3:8b grace  -   Eph. 3:2
Ep 3:8c Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; Rom. 15:16; 1 Tim. 2:7
Ep 3:82 unsearchable
Lit., untraceable.
Ep 3:83d riches  -   Eph. 1:7; 2:7
The apostle announced not doctrines but the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ are what Christ is to us, such as light, life, righteousness, and holiness, what He has for us, and what He accomplished, attained, and obtained for us. These riches of Christ are unsearchable and untraceable.
Ep 3:91a economy  -   Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 1:4
See notes 101 in ch. 1 and 43 in 1 Tim. 1.
Ep 3:92b mystery  -   Eph. 1:9
God’s mystery is His hidden purpose, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people. Hence, there is the economy of the mystery of God. This mystery was hidden in God throughout the ages, but now the New Testament believers, having been enlightened, are able to see it.
Ep 3:93 throughout
Lit., from.
Ep 3:9c hidden  -   Col. 1:26; Rom. 16:25
Ep 3:101a rulers  -   Eph. 2:2; 6:12; Col. 2:15
The angelic rulers and authorities, both good and evil. The passage here refers particularly to the evil ones — Satan and his angels.
Ep 3:10b heavenlies  -   Eph. 1:3
Ep 3:102c wisdom  -   Rom. 11:33; Col. 2:3; 1 Cor. 1:24; 2:6-8
Chapter 1 speaks of the power of God (1:19-20), ch. 2 of the grace of God (2:5-8), and this chapter of the wisdom of God.
Ep 3:103d church  -   Eph. 1:22
As revealed in v. 8, the church is produced from the unsearchable riches of Christ. When God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, they are constituted with those riches to be the church, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. Hence, the church is God’s wise exhibition of all that Christ is.
Ep 3:111 eternal
Lit., the purpose of the ages. The eternal purpose is the eternal plan that God made in eternity past.
Ep 3:11a purpose  -   Eph. 1:9
Ep 3:112 made
Or, carried out, fulfilled, accomplished.
Ep 3:113 Christ
Lit., the Christ, our Lord Jesus. For the Christ, see note 104 in ch. 1.
Ep 3:12a boldness  -   Heb. 4:16; 10:19
Ep 3:121b access  -   Eph. 2:18
In Christ we have access, entry, not only that we may approach God but also that we may partake of His New Testament economy. Through faith in Christ we have such access — with boldness and in confidence — that we may enjoy God and His eternal plan (economy).
Ep 3:122c faith  -   Gal. 2:20
Or, the faith of Him. See note 221 in Rom. 3.
Ep 3:13a afflictions  -   Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 1:6
Ep 3:141a Father  -   Eph. 4:6
Not God but the Father. Father is used here in a broad sense, signifying not only the Father of the household of the faith (Gal. 6:10) but also the Father of every family in the heavens and on earth (v. 15). The Father is the source not only of us, the regenerated believers, but also of the God-created mankind (Luke 3:38), the God-created Israel (Isa. 63:16; 64:8), and the God-created angels (Job 1:6). The Jews’ concept was that God was Father only to them. So the apostle, in keeping with his revelation, prayed to the Father of all the families in the heavens and on earth. In contrast, the Jews, in keeping with the Jewish concept, prayed only to the Father of Israel.
Ep 3:151 family
The Greek word means the lineage from a father, implying a family.
Ep 3:15a in  -   Eph. 1:10; Phil. 2:10
Ep 3:152 named
As God is the source of the angelic family in the heavens and of all the human families on earth, so it is of Him that every family is named, just as producers give names to their products and fathers give names to their children.
Ep 3:161 That
In vv. 16-19 the word that is used four times in the apostle’s prayer: the apostle prayed that the Father would grant us to be strengthened; the result of such a strengthening is that Christ makes His home in our hearts; the result of Christ’s making His home in our hearts is that we are full of strength to apprehend the dimensions of Christ — the breadth, length, height, and depth — and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; and the result of this apprehending and this knowing is that we are filled unto all the fullness of God. These steps make up a metabolic process by which the Body of Christ is constituted with the riches of Christ through our enjoyment of those riches.
Ep 3:162a riches  -   Eph. 1:18
Glory is the expression of God. All the families in the heavens and on earth express God to some extent. As they express God, there are the riches of His glory. The apostle prayed that the Gentile believers might experience the fullness of God according to the riches of His glory, that He might be expressed thereby.
Ep 3:163b strengthened  -   Phil. 4:13; Col. 1:11
The apostle’s prayer in 1:15-23 was that the saints would receive revelation concerning the church. Here in vv. 14-21 his prayer is that the saints would experience Christ for the church. This requires us to be strengthened into our spirit.
Ep 3:164c power  -   Eph. 3:20; 1:19
The power that is referred to in 1:19-22 and that raised Christ from the dead, seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, subjected all things under Christ’s feet, and gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Such power operates in us (v. 20), and with such power God strengthens us for the church.
Ep 3:165 Spirit
The Father strengthens us from within through the indwelling Spirit, who has been with us and in us since our regeneration.
Ep 3:166 into
The inner man is our regenerated spirit, which has God’s life as its life. In order that we may experience Christ unto all the fullness of God, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. This implies that we need to be strengthened into our spirit through the Holy Spirit.
Ep 3:16d inner  -   2 Cor. 4:16
Ep 3:17a home  -   John 14:23
Ep 3:171 hearts
Our heart is composed of all the parts of our soul — mind, emotion, and will — plus our conscience, the main part of our spirit. These parts are the inward parts of our being. Through regeneration Christ came into our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). After this, we should allow Him to spread into every part of our heart. Since our heart is the totality of all our inward parts and the center of our inward being, when Christ makes His home in our heart, He controls our entire inward being and supplies and strengthens every inward part with Himself.
Ep 3:172 faith
Faith is the substantiation of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Christ’s indwelling is mysterious and abstract. We apprehend it not by our physical senses but by the sense of faith.
Ep 3:173b rooted  -   Col. 2:7
We are God’s cultivated land and God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). As God’s cultivated land, we need to be rooted for our growth, and as God’s building, we need to be grounded for our building up.
Ep 3:174c love  -   Eph. 1:4
To experience Christ we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to apprehend Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Neither faith nor love are ours; they are His. His faith becomes our faith, by which we believe in Him, and His love becomes our love, by which we love Him. When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we grow and are built up in His life.
Ep 3:181 apprehend
Or, grasp, lay hold of intensively.
Ep 3:182a all  -   Eph. 1:15
To apprehend the dimensions of Christ, we need all the saints, not individually but corporately.
Ep 3:183 breadth
The breadth, length, height, and depth are the dimensions of Christ. In our experience of Christ, we first experience the breadth of what He is, and then the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical. Our experience of Christ must become three-dimensional, like a cube, and must not be one-dimensional, like a line. In our experience of Christ we must go back and forth and up and down, that eventually our experience of Him may be a solid “cube.” When our experience is like this, we cannot fall or be broken.
Ep 3:191 knowledge-surpassing
The love of Christ is Christ Himself. Just as Christ is immeasurable, so also is His love; hence, it is knowledge-surpassing. Yet, we can know it by experiencing it.
Ep 3:19a love  -   Rom. 8:35, 39; 2 Cor. 5:14
Ep 3:19b filled  -   Eph. 5:18
Ep 3:192 unto
When Christ makes His home in our hearts, and when we are full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ and to know by experience His knowledge-surpassing love, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God, which is the church, the corporate expression of God for the fulfillment of His intention.
The fullness of God implies that the riches of all that God is have become His expression. When the riches of God are in God Himself, they are His riches. But when the riches of God are expressed, they become His fullness (John 1:16). All the fullness of God dwells in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Through His indwelling, Christ imparts the fullness of God into our being that we may be filled even unto the fullness of God to be the practical manifestation of the church, in which God may be glorified in His expression (v. 21).
Ep 3:193c fullness  -   Col. 1:19; 2:9; John 1:16
In the New Testament the fullness is the expression through the completeness of the riches. This is the reason that in v. 8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ and that in 1:23 and then in 4:13 he speaks of the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are all that Christ is and has and all that He has accomplished, attained, and obtained. The fullness of Christ is the result and issue of our enjoyment of these riches. When the riches of Christ are assimilated into our being metabolically, they constitute us to be the fullness of Christ, the Body of Christ, the church, as His expression. First, in 1:23 this expression is the fullness of Christ, and then in this verse it is the fullness of God, for the fullness of Christ, the embodiment of God, is the very fullness of the Triune God.
Ep 3:194 God
The Father (v. 14) answers and fulfills the apostle’s prayer through the Spirit (v. 16) that Christ, the Son (v. 17), may make His home in our hearts. Thus we are filled unto the fullness of God — the Triune God. This is the issue of the dispensing of the Triune God into our entire being.
Ep 3:201 But
Verses 16-19 are the apostle’s prayer. The word but makes vv. 20-21 a doxology. In his prayer the apostle prayed that the Father would strengthen the saints according to the riches of His glory. This implies that the glory of God can be wrought into the saints. In the doxology he said, “To Him be the glory” (v. 21), implying that the glory of God, which has been wrought into the saints, returns to God. First, the glory of God is wrought into us; then it returns to God for His glorification. Isaac’s wealth was first given to Rebekah for her beautification; then all the wealth came back to Isaac, with Rebekah, for his glorification (Gen. 24:47, 53, 61-67). The apostle prayed that God would strengthen the saints according to His glory, “but” eventually God’s glory, after being wrought into them, returns to Him along with the strengthened saints. This is the way in which God is glorified in the church.
Ep 3:20a to  -   Rom. 16:25
Ep 3:20b able  -   2 Cor. 9:8
Ep 3:202 ask
Strictly, ask or think here is in regard to the spiritual things related to the church, not in regard to material things. Concerning these spiritual things, we need to think as well as to ask. We might think more than we ask. God fulfills not only what we ask for the church but also what we think concerning the church, and God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that operates in us.
Ep 3:203c power  -   Eph. 3:7; 1:19
The inward power, referred to in 1:19-20, is God’s resurrection power, not His creating power. God’s creating power produces the material things in our environment (Rom. 8:28), whereas God’s resurrection power accomplishes within our inward being the spiritual things for the church.
Ep 3:21a To  -   Rom. 11:36
Ep 3:211 glory
See note 62 in ch. 1. We are being strengthened into our inner man according to the riches of God’s glory (v. 16). This glory comes to us with God and, after being worked into us, will return to God with us. By means of this two-way traffic the church, as the firstfruits in the universe (James 1:18), takes the lead to give glory to God. All the other families both in heaven and on earth will follow the church to glorify Him.
Ep 3:212b church  -   Eph. 3:10
God’s glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed in the church. Hence, to God is the glory in the church; that is, God is glorified in the church.
Ep 3:213 and
God is glorified not only in the church but also in Christ. The word and is used here to stress this point emphatically.
Ep 3:214 Christ
In the church the sphere of God’s glorification is narrow, being limited to the household of the faith. But in Christ the sphere is much broader because Christ is the Head of all the families in the heavens and on earth (1:22; 3:15). Hence, God’s glorification in Christ is in the realm of all the families created by God, not only on earth but also in the heavens. This is in accord with unto all the generations forever and ever, which means for eternity.
Ep 3:215 all
All the generations forever and ever constitute eternity. God’s glorification in the church is mainly in this age, whereas God’s glorification in Christ is for eternity.
Ephesians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ep 4:11 I
This verse in part repeats 3:1, where the apostle’s exhortation in chs. 4 — 6 begins. This indicates that 3:2-21 is parenthetical. See note 21 in ch. 3.
Ep 4:12a prisoner  -   Eph. 3:1
See note 12 in ch. 3. In 3:1 Paul speaks of himself as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus,” but here he says that he is “the prisoner in the Lord.” To be a prisoner in the Lord is deeper than to be a prisoner of the Lord. As such a prisoner, Paul is a pattern for those who would walk worthily of God’s calling.
Ep 4:1b in  -   Eph. 4:17; 5:8; 6:1, 10, 21
Ep 4:13c walk  -   Eph. 4:17; 5:2, 8; Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 2:12
This book is divided into two main sections. The first, composed of chs. 1 — 3, reveals the blessings and the position the church has obtained in Christ in the heavenlies. The second, comprising chs. 4 — 6, charges us concerning the living and responsibility the church should have in the Spirit on the earth. The basic charge is that we should walk worthily of God’s calling, which is the totality of the blessings bestowed on the church, as revealed in 1:3-14. In the church, under the Triune God’s abundant blessing, the saints should walk worthily of the Father’s selection and predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging. Hence, in chs. 4 — 6 we see, on the one hand, the living that the church should have, and, on the other hand, the responsibility that the church should bear.
Ep 4:1d calling  -   Eph. 4:4; 1:18; 2 Tim. 1:9
Ep 4:1e called  -   Rom. 8:28; Col. 3:15; 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 24
Ep 4:21a lowliness  -   Matt. 11:29
To be lowly is to remain in a low estate, and to be meek is to not fight for oneself. We should exercise these two virtues in dealing with ourselves. To be long-suffering is to endure mistreatment. We should exercise this virtue in dealing with others. By these virtues we bear (not just tolerate) one another; that is, we do not forsake the troublesome ones but bear them in love. This is the expression of life.
These virtues are not found in our natural humanity but are in the humanity of Jesus. The fact that the virtues are mentioned here, before the oneness of the Spirit in v. 3, indicates that we must have these virtues in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit. This implies that in the uniting Spirit there is the transformed humanity, the humanity transformed by the resurrection life of Christ.
Ep 4:2b meekness  -   Matt. 5:5
Ep 4:2c long-suffering  -   Col. 1:11
Ep 4:2d love  -   Eph. 1:4
Ep 4:31 keep
Or, safeguard, preserve by guarding. The oneness of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself. To keep the oneness of the Spirit is to keep the life-giving Spirit. If we act apart from the Spirit, we are divisive and lose the oneness. If we stay in the life-giving Spirit, we keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Ep 4:32a oneness  -   Eph. 4:13; John 17:11, 21, 22, 23
To walk worthily of God’s calling, to have the proper Body life, we first need to care for the oneness. This is crucial and vital to the Body of Christ. Strictly, oneness differs from unity. Unity is the state in which many people are united together, whereas oneness is the one entity of the Spirit within the believers, which makes them all one. This oneness is a person, Christ Himself, who is the Spirit dwelling within us. It is similar to the electricity flowing within many lamps, making them all one in the shining. In themselves, the lamps are separate, but in the electricity they are one.
Ep 4:33b bond  -   cf. Col. 3:14
Christ abolished on the cross all the differences that were due to ordinances. In so doing He made peace for His Body. This peace should bind all believers together and should thus become the uniting bond. The uniting bond of peace is the issue of the working of the cross. When we remain on the cross, we have peace with others. This peace becomes the uniting bond in which we keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Ep 4:3c peace  -   Eph. 2:14, 15, 17; Col. 3:15; Heb. 12:14; Rom. 12:18
Ep 4:41 One
In exhorting us to safeguard the oneness, the apostle pointed out seven things that form the base of our oneness: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. These seven “ones” are of three groups. The first three form the first group, that of the Spirit with the Body as His expression. This Body, having been regenerated and being saturated with the Spirit as its essence, has the hope of being transfigured into the full likeness of Christ. The next three form the second group, that of the Lord with faith and baptism that we may be joined to Him. The last of the seven forms the third group, the one God and Father, who is the Originator and source of all. The Spirit as the Executor of the Body, the Son as the Creator of the Body, and God the Father as the Originator of the Body — all the three of the Triune God — are related to the Body. The third of the Trinity is the first mentioned in vv. 4-6 because the main concern here is the Body, of which the Spirit is the essence and the life and life supply. The course is then traced back to the Son and to the Father.
Ep 4:4a Body  -   Eph. 2:16; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13
Ep 4:42b hope  -   Eph. 1:18; Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:23-25
The hope of glory (Col. 1:27), which is the transfiguration of our body (Phil. 3:21) and the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19, 23-25).
Ep 4:4c calling  -   Eph. 4:1
Ep 4:51a Lord  -   1 Cor. 8:6; 12:5
This verse does not say “one Son,” but “one Lord.” In the Gospel of John it is the Son into whom we believe (John 3:16), but in the Acts it is the Lord into whom we believe (Acts 16:31). In the Epistles of John, the Son is for the imparting of life (1 John 5:12), whereas in the Acts, the Lord, after His ascension, is for the exercising of authority (Acts 2:36), a matter which concerns His headship. Hence, our believing in Him is related to both life and authority, for He is both our life and our Head. As the Head of the Body (1:22), He is the Lord. Christians are divided because they neglect the Head; that is, they neglect the Lord’s headship and authority.
Ep 4:52b faith  -   Eph. 4:13; Titus 1:4; 2 Tim. 4:7
Through faith we believe into the Lord (John 3:36), and through baptism we are baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3) and terminated in Adam (Rom. 6:4). Through faith and baptism we have been transferred out of Adam into Christ, thereby being joined to the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). Immediately after believing in Christ, we should be baptized to complete the transfer.
Ep 4:5c baptism  -   Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27-28; 1 Cor. 12:13
Ep 4:61a God  -   Mal. 2:10; Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6; 12:6; Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:5
God is the Originator of all things, and the Father is the source of life for the Body of Christ.
Ep 4:6b Father  -   Eph. 3:14
Ep 4:62 all
Referring to all believers.
Ep 4:63 over
The Trinity is implied even here. Over all refers mainly to the Father, through all to the Son, and in all to the Spirit. The Triune God eventually enters into us all by reaching us as the Spirit. The oneness of the Body of Christ is constituted of the Trinity of the Godhead — the Father as the source and origin being the Originator, the Son as the Lord and Head being the Accomplisher, and the Spirit as the life-giving Spirit being the Executor. The Triune God Himself, when realized and experienced by us in our daily life, is the fundamental basis and very foundation of our oneness.
Ep 4:71 But
Concerning the Body of Christ, all the basic elements are one, but the gifts (the functions) are many and varied.
Ep 4:72a grace  -   Eph. 3:8; cf. Rom. 12:6
Here grace was given according to the gift; in Rom. 12:6 the gifts differ according to grace. Grace actually is the divine life that produces and supplies the gifts. In Rom. 12 it is the grace that produces the gift. Hence, the gift is according to grace. Here the grace is according to the gift, according to the measure of the gift. This is similar to our blood supplying the members of our body according to their size.
Ep 4:73b measure  -   Eph. 4:16
The measure of the gift of Christ is the size of a member of His Body.
Ep 4:7c gift  -   Eph. 4:8, 11
Ep 4:8a ascended  -   Psa. 68:18
Ep 4:81 height
Height in the quotation from Psa. 68:18 refers to Mount Zion (Psa. 68:15-16), which symbolizes the third heaven, where God dwells (1 Kings 8:30). Psalm 68 implies that it was in the Ark that God ascended to Mount Zion after the Ark had won the victory. Verse 1 of Psa. 68 is taken from Num. 10:35. This indicates that the background of Psa. 68 is God’s move in the tabernacle with the Ark as its center. Wherever the Ark, a type of Christ, went, the victory was won. Eventually, this Ark ascended triumphantly to the top of Mount Zion. This portrays how Christ won the victory and ascended triumphantly to the heavens.
Ep 4:82 those
Those refers to the redeemed saints, who were taken captive by Satan before being saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. In His ascension Christ led them captive; that is, He rescued them from Satan’s captivity and took them to Himself. This indicates that He conquered and overcame Satan, who had captured them by sin and death.
The Amplified New Testament renders “He led captive those taken captive” as “He led a train of vanquished foes.” Vanquished foes may refer to Satan, to his angels, and to us the sinners, again indicating Christ’s victory over Satan, sin, and death. In Christ’s ascension there was a procession of these vanquished foes, led as captives from a war, for a celebration of Christ’s victory.
Ep 4:83b gifts  -   Eph. 4:7
Gifts here does not refer to the abilities or capacities for various services but to the gifted persons in v. 11 — apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. After conquering Satan and death and rescuing the sinners from Satan and death through His death and resurrection, Christ in His ascension made the rescued sinners themselves such gifts by means of His resurrection life and gave them to His Body for its building up.
Ep 4:9a ascended  -   John 3:13; Heb. 4:14
Ep 4:91b lower  -   Psa. 63:9; Isa. 44:23; Matt. 12:40; Phil. 2:10
Referring to Hades, which is under the earth. Christ went there after His death (Acts 2:27).
Ep 4:10a far  -   Eph. 1:21; Heb. 7:26
Ep 4:101b fill  -   Eph. 1:23
First, in His incarnation Christ descended from heaven to earth. Then, in His death He descended farther, from earth to Hades. Eventually, in His resurrection He ascended from Hades to earth, and in His ascension, from earth to heaven. Through such a journey He cut the way that He might fill all things.
Ep 4:111 some
Each one in v. 7 includes every member of the Body of Christ, each of whom has received a general gift, whereas the four kinds of gifted persons mentioned here are those who have been endued with a special gift.
Ep 4:11a apostles  -   Eph. 2:20; 3:5; 1 Cor. 12:28
Ep 4:11b prophets  -   Acts 11:27; 13:1
Ep 4:11c evangelists  -   Acts 21:8; 2 Tim. 4:5
Ep 4:112 shepherds
According to the grammatical construction, shepherds and teachers refers to a single class of gifted persons. A shepherd should know how to teach, and a teacher should be able to shepherd.
Ep 4:11d teachers  -   Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 12:28
Ep 4:121a perfecting  -   2 Cor. 13:9
Or, equipping, supplying the functions.
Ep 4:122 unto
Unto here means resulting in, for the purpose of, or with a view to.
Ep 4:123b ministry  -   2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12
The many gifted persons in the preceding verse have only one ministry, that is, to minister Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church. This is the unique ministry in the New Testament economy (2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12).
Ep 4:124c building  -   cf. Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:16; 1 Cor. 14:4, 12
According to the grammatical construction, the building up of the Body of Christ is the work of the ministry. Whatever the gifted persons in v. 11 do as the work of the ministry must be for the building up of the Body of Christ. However, this building up is not accomplished directly by the gifted ones but by the saints who have been perfected by the gifted ones.
Ep 4:12d Body  -   Eph. 1:23; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 17
Ep 4:131 arrive
Or, attain to. This indicates that a process is required for us to attain to or arrive at the practical oneness.
Ep 4:132a oneness  -   Eph. 4:3
In v. 3 the oneness of the Spirit is the oneness of the divine life in reality; in this verse the oneness is the oneness of our living in practicality. We already have the oneness of the divine life in reality. We need only to keep it. But we need to go on until we arrive at the oneness of our living in practicality. This aspect of oneness is of two things: the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God. As revealed in Jude 3, 2 Tim. 4:7, and 1 Tim. 6:21, the faith does not refer to the act of our believing but to the things in which we believe, such as the divine person of Christ and His redemptive work accomplished for our salvation. The full knowledge of the Son of God is the apprehension of the revelation concerning the Son of God for our experience. The more we grow in life, the more we will cleave to the faith and to the apprehension of Christ, and the more we will drop all the minor and meaner doctrinal concepts that cause divisions. Then we will arrive at, or attain to, the practical oneness; that is, we will arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ep 4:13b faith  -   Eph. 4:5
Ep 4:13c knowledge  -   Matt. 11:27; Phil. 3:10
Ep 4:133d Son  -   Matt. 16:16; John 20:31
The Son of God refers to the Lord’s person as life to us, whereas Christ refers to His commission to minister life to us that we, the members of His Body, may have gifts for functioning. See note 161 in Matt. 16.
Ep 4:134e full-grown  -   Heb. 5:14; 1 Cor. 14:20; Col. 1:28
A full-grown man is a mature man. Maturity in life is needed for the practical oneness.
Ep 4:135f fullness  -   Eph. 1:23
The fullness of Christ is the Body of Christ (1:23), which has a stature with a measure. To arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is necessary for the practical oneness. Hence, from the oneness in reality we need to proceed to the oneness in practicality until we arrive at the three things mentioned in this verse — the oneness, a full-grown man, and the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ep 4:141a little  -   1 Cor. 3:1; 13:11
Lit., infants. The same Greek word as for child in Gal. 4:1, referring to those believers who are young in Christ, lacking maturity in life (1 Cor. 3:1).
Ep 4:142 waves
The waves stirred up by the winds of different teachings (1 Tim. 1:3-4), doctrines, concepts, and opinions are sent by Satan to entice the believers in order to carry them away from Christ and the church. It is difficult for the infants in Christ to discern these. The only way to escape from the waves that are stirred up by the winds is to grow in life, and the safe way to grow in life is to stay in the proper church life with Christ and the church as the safeguard.
Ep 4:143 wind
Any teaching, even a scriptural one, that distracts believers from Christ and the church is a wind that carries believers away from God’s central purpose.
Ep 4:14b teaching  -   1 Tim. 1:3; 6:3
Ep 4:144 sleight
The Greek word for sleight refers to the cheating of dice players. The word for craftiness denotes the trickery employed by gamblers. The teachings that become winds, carrying believers away from the central lane of Christ and the church, are deceptions instigated by Satan in his subtlety, with the sleight of men, in order to frustrate God’s eternal purpose, which is to build up the Body of Christ.
Ep 4:14c craftiness  -   2 Cor. 4:2; 11:3
Ep 4:145 system
The dividing teachings are organized and systematized by Satan to cause serious error and thus damage the practical oneness of the Body life. The sleight is of men, but the system of error is of Satan and is related to the deceitful teachings that are designed by the evil one to distract the saints from Christ and the church life.
Ep 4:151 holding
Or, truthing it. This is in contrast to the sleight and the error in v. 14. To be carried away by the winds of teaching in the sleight of men unto a system of error is to not hold to truth. Truth here means things that are true. According to the context, it must refer to Christ and His Body: both are true things. We should hold in love to these true things that we may grow up into Christ.
Ep 4:152a love  -   Eph. 1:4
This is not our own love but the love of God in Christ, which becomes the love of Christ in us, by which we love Christ and the fellow members of His Body. It is in such a love that we hold to truth, that is, to Christ with His Body, and are kept from being influenced by the winds of teaching and from bringing in elements that are foreign to the Body.
Ep 4:153b grow  -   Eph. 4:16; 2:21; Col. 2:19; 1 Cor. 3:6
To be no longer little children (v. 14), we need to grow up into Christ. This is to have Christ increase in us in all things until we attain to a full-grown man (v. 13).
Ep 4:154c Head  -   Col. 1:18; 2:19
Head here indicates that our growth in life by the increase of Christ should be the growth of the members in the Body under the Head.
Ep 4:161 Out
To grow in life is to grow into the Head, Christ, but to operate in the Body of Christ is to operate out from Him. First, we grow up into the Head; then we have something that is out from the Head for the building up of the Body.
Ep 4:16a all  -   Col. 2:19
Ep 4:162b joined  -   Eph. 2:21
Joined implies the thought of joining by fitting; knit implies the thought of interweaving.
Ep 4:163c joint  -   Col. 2:19
Every joint of the rich supply refers to the specially gifted persons, such as those mentioned in v. 11.
Ep 4:164 the
In Greek the article here is emphatic. Hence, the rich supply must be the particular supply, the supply of Christ.
Ep 4:165 and
Most of the ancient MSS read, according to the operation.
Ep 4:166 operation
Or, functioning. The same Greek word as in 3:7 and Col. 1:29, and of the same origin as operations in 1 Cor. 12:6.
Ep 4:16d measure  -   Eph. 4:7
Ep 4:167 each
Each one part refers to each member of the Body. Through the growth in life and the development of gifts, each member of the Body of Christ has its own measure, which operates for the growth of the Body.
Ep 4:168 causes
The Body of Christ causes the growth of itself through the supplying joints and the operating parts.
Ep 4:169e growth  -   Eph. 4:15
The growth of the Body of Christ is the increase of Christ in the church, which results in the building up of the Body by the Body itself.
Ep 4:16f building  -   cf. Eph. 4:12; 2:20
Ep 4:1610g love  -   Eph. 1:4
See note 152.
Ep 4:171 testify
The apostle’s word here was not only his exhortation but also his testimony. His exhortation was his living.
Ep 4:17a in  -   Eph. 4:1
Ep 4:172b walk  -   Eph. 4:1
Verses 1-16 deal with the living and the function of the Body of Christ. Now, in vv. 17-32 our daily life is touched. Verses 17-24 give us the principles of our daily walk, and vv. 25-32 give us the details.
Ep 4:17c Gentiles  -   1 Thes. 4:5; 1 Pet. 4:3
Ep 4:17d walk  -   Eph. 2:2
Ep 4:173e vanity  -   Rom. 1:21; Col. 2:18; cf. 1 Pet. 1:18; 2 Pet. 2:18
The Gentiles are the fallen people, who become vain in their reasonings (Rom. 1:21). They walk without God in the vanity of their mind, being controlled and directed by their vain thoughts. Whatever they do according to their fallen mind is vanity, void of reality.
Ep 4:181a darkened  -   Rom. 1:21
When the mind of fallen people is filled with vanity, their understanding is darkened regarding the things of God. Thus, they are alienated, separated, from the life of God.
Ep 4:182b life  -   1 John 5:12
This is the uncreated, eternal life of God, which man did not have at the time of creation. After being created, man with the created human life was placed before the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9) that he might receive the uncreated divine life. But man fell into the vanity of his mind and became darkened in his understanding. Now, in such a fallen condition man is unable to touch the life of God until he repents (has his mind turned to God) and believes in the Lord Jesus to receive God’s eternal life (Acts 11:18; John 3:16).
Ep 4:183c ignorance  -   Acts 3:17; 17:30; 1 Pet. 1:14
Ignorance denotes not only a lack of knowledge but also an unwillingness to know. Because of the hardness of his heart, fallen man does not approve of knowing the things of God (Rom. 1:28). Therefore, his understanding is darkened so that he does not know God.
Ep 4:184d hardness  -   Mark 3:5; Rom. 11:7, 25; 2 Cor. 3:14
The hardness of fallen man’s heart is the source of the darkness in his understanding and the vanity of his mind.
Ep 4:191a being  -   1 Tim. 4:2
Feeling here refers mainly to the consciousness of one’s conscience. Hence, being past feeling means not caring for one’s conscience. After man fell, God ordained that man should be under the ruling of his conscience. But instead of regarding his conscience, fallen man gave himself over to lasciviousness and greedy lust.
Ep 4:19b given  -   Rom. 1:24
Ep 4:201a learn  -   Matt. 11:29
Christ is not only life to us but also an example (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21). In His life on earth He set up a pattern, as revealed in the Gospels. Then He was crucified and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit that He might enter into us to be our life. We learn from Him (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection. To learn Christ is simply to be molded into the pattern of Christ, that is, to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).
Ep 4:21a taught  -   Col. 2:7
Ep 4:211b reality  -   Eph. 4:15, 24, 25
The reality is in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In the godless walk of the nations, the fallen people, there is vanity. But in the godly life of Jesus there is truth, reality. Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God. God was in His living, and He was one with God. This is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus. We, the believers, who are regenerated with Christ as our life and are taught in Him, learn from Him as the reality is in Jesus.
Ep 4:221 That
Verses 22 and 24 show us what we have been taught: that we put off the old man and put on the new man. Our putting off of the old man and putting on of the new man is a manifestation of our having learned Christ.
Ep 4:222a put  -   Eph. 4:25; Col. 2:11; 3:8
In baptism we put off the old man. Our old man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6) and was buried in baptism (Rom. 6:4a).
Ep 4:223 former
The former manner of life is a walk in the vanity of the mind (v. 17).
Ep 4:224b old  -   Rom. 6:6; Col. 3:9
The old man is of Adam, who was created by God but became fallen through sin.
Ep 4:225 the
The article here is emphatic, and the deceit is personified. Hence, the deceit refers to the deceiver, Satan, from whom come the lusts of the corrupted old man.
Ep 4:231a renewed  -   Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10; Titus 3:5
Our being renewed is for our transformation into the image of Christ (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).
Ep 4:232b spirit  -   cf. Rom. 8:6
This is the regenerated spirit of the believers, which is mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation.
Ep 4:241a put  -   Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14; Eph. 6:11
It was in baptism that we put on the new man (Rom. 6:4b).
Ep 4:242b new  -   Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 5:17; cf. Rom. 6:4
The new man is of Christ. It is His Body, created in Him on the cross (2:15-16). It is not individual but corporate (Col. 3:10-11). In this corporate new man Christ is all and in all — He is all the people and in all the people. See note 119 in Col. 3.
This book reveals first that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the kingdom of God, the household of God (2:19), and the temple, the dwelling place of God (2:21-22). Here it reveals in addition that the church is the new man. This is the highest aspect of the church. The church is an assembly of the called-out ones. This is the initial aspect of the church. From here, the apostle went on to mention the fellow citizens of the kingdom of God and the members of the household of God. These are higher than the initial aspect, but not as high as the church as the Body of Christ. Yet the new man is higher still than the Body of Christ. Thus, the church is not just an assembly of believers, a kingdom of heavenly citizens, a household of God’s children, or even a Body for Christ. It is in its ultimate, uttermost aspect a new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. As the Body of Christ, the church needs Christ as its life, whereas as the new man, the church needs Christ as its person. This new corporate person should live a life like that which Jesus lived on earth, that is, a life of reality that expresses God and causes God to be realized as the reality by man. Hence, the new man is the focus of the apostle’s exhortation in this section (vv. 17-32).
Ep 4:24c created  -   Eph. 2:10, 15
Ep 4:243 God
The old man was created outwardly according to the image of God but without God’s life and nature (Gen. 1:26-27), whereas the new man was created inwardly according to God Himself and with God’s life and nature (Col. 3:10).
Ep 4:244d righteousness  -   Eph. 5:9
Righteousness is to be right with God and with man according to God’s righteous way, while holiness is godliness and devoutness before God (see note 751 in Luke 1). Righteousness is mainly toward men, and holiness is mainly toward God.
Ep 4:24e holiness  -   Titus 1:8
See note 244.
Ep 4:245 the
The article here is emphatic. As the deceit in v. 22, related to the old man, is the personification of Satan, so the reality here, related to the new man, is the personification of God. The deceit is the devil, and the reality is God. This reality was exhibited in the life of Jesus, as mentioned in v. 21. In the life of Jesus, righteousness and holiness of the reality were continuously manifested. It was in the righteousness and holiness of this reality, which is God realized and expressed, that the new man was created.
Ep 4:24f reality  -   Eph. 4:15, 21, 25
Ep 4:251 Therefore
Verses 25-32 give a description of our practical daily living in learning Christ.
Ep 4:25a put  -   Eph. 4:22
Ep 4:252b lie  -   Col. 3:9
The lie refers to anything that is false in nature. Because we put off the old man, we also put off everything that is false in nature. Hence, we speak truth, that is, we speak the things that are true.
Ep 4:25c truth  -   Zech. 8:16
See note 252.
Ep 4:25d members  -   Rom. 12:5
Ep 4:261a angry  -   Mark 3:5
To be angry is not a sin, but with it there is the possibility of committing sin. We should not continue in anger but should relinquish it before the sun sets.
Ep 4:26b not  -   Psa. 4:4
Ep 4:26c sun  -   Deut. 24:15
Ep 4:262d indignation  -   Psa. 37:8
Or, vexation.
Ep 4:271 give
According to the context, to continue in anger is to give place to the devil. In nothing should we give any place to him.
Ep 4:27a devil  -   James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8-9
Ep 4:281a steal  -   Exo. 20:15
Even in a book of such high revelation, the apostle still touched certain low, practical things, such as stealing and anger.
Ep 4:282b labor  -   Acts 20:35; 2 Thes. 3:8
Stealing is due mainly to slothfulness and greed. Hence, the apostle charged him who steals to labor instead of being slothful, and to share with others what he gains instead of being greedy.
Ep 4:28c hands  -   1 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thes. 4:11
Ep 4:283 that
Or, that which is good. See Titus 3:8, 14.
Ep 4:28d share  -   Luke 3:11
See note 282.
Ep 4:291a corrupt  -   Eph. 5:4; Col. 3:8
Lit., rotten; signifying what is noxious, offensive, or worthless.
Ep 4:292b building  -   Rom. 14:19
Our conversation should not corrupt others but should build them up.
Ep 4:293c grace  -   Col. 4:6
Grace is Christ as our enjoyment and supply. Our word should convey such grace to others. The word that builds up others always ministers Christ as grace to the hearer.
The apostle’s exhortation in vv. 17-32 took grace and reality (vv. 21, 24, 29) as its basic elements. The apostle wanted us to live, as Jesus did, a life full of grace and reality (John 1:14, 17). Grace is God given to us for our enjoyment, and reality is God revealed to us as our reality. When we live and speak reality (vv. 21, 24), we express God as our reality, and others receive God as grace for their enjoyment (v. 29).
Ep 4:301a grieve  -   Psa. 78:40; Isa. 63:10; cf. 1 Thes. 5:19
To grieve the Holy Spirit is to displease Him. The Holy Spirit abides in us forever (John 14:16-17), never leaving us. Hence, He is grieved when we do not walk according to Him (Rom. 8:4), that is, when we do not live according to the principle of reality with grace in the details of our daily walk.
Ep 4:302 Spirit
The apostle’s exhortation in vv. 17-32 not only takes grace and reality as the basic elements but also takes the life of God (v. 18) and the Spirit of God as the basic factors on the positive side, and the devil (v. 27) as a factor on the negative side. It is by the life of God in the Spirit of God, and by not giving place to the devil, that we can live a life full of grace and reality, as the Lord Jesus did.
Ep 4:303 in
I.e., in the Holy Spirit as the element. We were sealed in the element of the Holy Spirit. This shows that God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit as the sealing element.
Ep 4:304b sealed  -   Eph. 1:13
See note 131 in ch. 1.
Ep 4:305 unto
From the time that we are saved, the Holy Spirit as the seal in us seals us continually with the element of God that we may be transformed in nature until our body is completely transfigured and redeemed. Hence, this verse says that we were sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of the redemption of our body.
Ep 4:306c redemption  -   Eph. 1:14
See note 144 in ch. 1.
Ep 4:31a removed  -   Col. 3:8
Ep 4:32a kind  -   Col. 3:12; 1 Cor. 13:4
Ep 4:321b tenderhearted  -   Phil. 1:8; 2:1
The Greek word has the same origin as moved with compassion in Matt. 9:36 and inward parts in Phil. 1:8. Only by enjoying Christ as grace and reality can we be tenderhearted and thus be able to forgive one another.
Ep 4:322c forgiving  -   Matt. 6:14; Col. 3:13
Or, showing grace to.
Ep 4:323 God
In his exhortation in this section (vv. 17-32), the apostle presented God as the pattern of our daily life. In the Spirit and by His life, we can forgive as God forgives.
Ep 4:324 forgave
Or, showed grace to.
Ephesians Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ep 5:11a imitators  -   Matt. 5:48
What a glorious fact that since we are God’s beloved children, we can be imitators of God! As the children of God, we have His life and nature. We imitate Him not by our natural life but by His divine life. It is by our Father’s divine life that we, His children, can be perfect, as He is (Matt. 5:48).
Ep 5:2a walk  -   Eph. 4:1; Rom. 14:15
Ep 5:21b love  -   Eph. 1:4
As grace and reality (truth) are the basic elements in 4:17-32, so love and light (vv. 8-9, 13) are the basic elements in the apostle’s exhortation in 5:1-33. Grace is the expression of love, and love is the source of grace. Truth is the revelation of light, and light is the origin of truth. God is love and God is light (1 John 4:8; 1:5). When God is expressed and revealed in the Lord Jesus, His love becomes grace and His light becomes truth. After we have, in the Lord, received God as grace and realized Him as truth, we come to Him and enjoy His love and light. Love and light are deeper than grace and truth. Hence, the apostle first took grace and truth as the basic elements for his exhortation, and then love and light. This implies that he wanted our daily walk to grow deeper, to progress from the outward elements to the inward.
Love is the inner substance of God, whereas light is the expressed element of God. The inward love of God is sensible, and the outward light of God is visible. Our walk in love should be constituted of both the loving substance and the shining element of God. These should be the inner source of our walk. They are deeper than grace and truth.
Ep 5:22 Christ
In 4:32 the apostle presented God as the pattern of our daily walk. Here he set forth Christ as the example of our living. In 4:32 God in Christ is our pattern, since in that section God’s grace and reality (truth) expressed in the life of Jesus are taken as the basic elements. But here Christ Himself is our example, since in this section love expressed by Christ to us (vv. 2, 25) and light shined by Christ upon us (v. 14) are taken as the basic elements.
Ep 5:2c loved  -   Eph. 5:25; Gal. 2:20
Ep 5:23 us
Some ancient authorities read, you.
Ep 5:24 offering
An offering is for fellowship with God, whereas a sacrifice is for redemption from sin. Christ gave Himself up for us as both an offering, that we might have fellowship with God, and a sacrifice, that He might redeem us from sin.
Ep 5:2d sacrifice  -   Heb. 7:27; 10:10-12
See note 24.
Ep 5:25e sweet-smelling  -   Gen. 8:21; Exo. 29:18, 25; Lev. 1:9
In loving us, Christ gave Himself up for us. This was for us, but it was a sweet-smelling savor to God. In following His example, our walk in love should be not only something for others but also a sweet-smelling savor to God.
Ep 5:31a fornication  -   Col. 3:5
Nothing is more damaging to mankind than fornication. It is especially damaging to God’s purpose and intention in creating man and to the believers’ church life in the Body of Christ. This is based on 1 Cor. 5.
Ep 5:32 saints
Persons who are separated unto God and saturated with God and who live a life according to God’s holy nature.
Ep 5:4a obscenity  -   Eph. 4:29
Ep 5:41b giving  -   Eph. 5:20; 1 Thes. 5:18
To give thanks to God is to speak God as truth, whereas to talk foolishly or to jest filthily is to speak Satan as falsehood.
Ep 5:51 realize
The Greek word denotes subjective knowledge.
Ep 5:52 knowing
The Greek word denotes objective knowledge.
Ep 5:53a kingdom  -   1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19-21
The kingdom of Christ is the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 16:28) and also the kingdom of God (Matt. 13:41, 43 and notes). The believers have been regenerated into the kingdom of God (John 3:5), and they are in the church life, living in the kingdom of God today (Rom. 14:17). Not all believers, only the overcoming ones, will participate in the millennium. In the coming age the unclean, defeated ones will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, the millennium. See notes 203 in Matt. 5 and 281 in Heb. 12.
Ep 5:6a vain  -   Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 1:6
Ep 5:6b wrath  -   Rom. 1:18; Col. 3:6
Ep 5:6c sons  -   Eph. 2:2
Ep 5:7a partakers  -   Eph. 5:11
Ep 5:8a once  -   Eph. 2:2
Ep 5:81b darkness  -   Acts 26:18
We were once not only dark but darkness itself. Now we are not only the children of light but light itself (Matt. 5:14). As light is God, so darkness is Satan. We were darkness because we were one with Satan. Now we are light because we are one with God in the Lord.
Ep 5:8c light  -   Matt. 5:14; Phil. 2:15
See note 81.
Ep 5:8d in  -   Eph. 4:1
Ep 5:82e walk  -   Eph. 4:1
Verse 2 tells us to walk in love, and this verse tells us to walk as children of light.
Ep 5:83f children  -   Luke 16:8; John 12:36
As God is light, so we, the children of God, are the children of light.
Ep 5:9a fruit  -   cf. Gal. 5:22
Ep 5:91 goodness
Goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light; righteousness is the way or the procedure by which the fruit of the light is produced; and truth is the reality, the real expression (God Himself), of the fruit of the light. The fruit of the light must be good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression, that God may be expressed as the reality of our daily walk.
The fruit of the light in goodness, righteousness, and truth is related to the Triune God. Goodness denotes God the Father, for the only one who is good is God (Matt. 19:17). Righteousness denotes God the Son, for Christ came to accomplish God’s purpose according to God’s righteous procedure (Rom. 5:17-18, 21). Truth denotes God the Spirit, for He is the Spirit of reality (John 14:17). Truth also denotes the expression of the fruit in the light.
Ep 5:9b righteousness  -   Eph. 4:24; 6:14
Ep 5:9c truth  -   Eph. 4:15
Ep 5:10a Proving  -   Rom. 12:2; 1 Thes. 5:21
Ep 5:11a participate  -   Eph. 5:7
Ep 5:111 unfruitful
The unfruitful works of darkness are vanity, whereas the fruit of the light is truth, reality (v. 9).
Ep 5:11b works  -   Rom. 13:12
Ep 5:112c reprove  -   Eph. 5:13; 1 Tim. 5:20
Or, expose, uncover.
Ep 5:131a reproved  -   Eph. 5:11; John 3:20
Or, exposed, uncovered.
Ep 5:13b manifest  -   John 3:21
Ep 5:14a Awake  -   Rom. 13:11
Ep 5:141 sleeper
The sleeping one who needs the reproving mentioned in vv. 11 and 13 is also a dead one. He needs to awake from sleep and arise from the dead.
Ep 5:14b arise  -   Isa. 60:1
Ep 5:14c dead  -   Eph. 2:1
Ep 5:142 Christ
When we reprove or expose anyone who is sleeping and dead in darkness, Christ will shine on him. Our reproving or exposing in light is Christ’s shining.
Ep 5:14d shine  -   Luke 1:78-79
Ep 5:151 Look
To live by being filled in spirit (vv. 15-21) is the fifth aspect of a walk that is worthy of God’s calling. The first four aspects of such a worthy walk are keeping the oneness, growing up into the Head, learning Christ, and living in love and light. The issue of having these four aspects of a worthy walk is that we are spontaneously filled in our spirit. Out of this inward filling will come submission, love, obedience, care, and all the other virtues of a proper Christian life, church life, family life, and community life. What a life we have when we demonstrate the five aspects of a walk that is worthy of God’s calling!
Ep 5:15a walk  -   Eph. 4:1
Ep 5:15b wise  -   Matt. 25:2; Col. 4:5
Ep 5:161a Redeeming  -   Col. 4:5
I.e., seizing every favorable opportunity. This is to be wise in our walk (v. 15).
Ep 5:162b days  -   Eph. 6:13
In this evil age (Gal. 1:4) every day is an evil day full of pernicious things that cause our time to be used ineffectively, to be reduced, and to be taken away. Therefore, we must walk wisely that we may redeem the time, seizing every available opportunity.
Ep 5:171a understand  -   Col. 1:9
To understand the will of the Lord is the best way to redeem our time (v. 16). Most of our time is wasted because we do not know the will of the Lord.
Ep 5:17b will  -   Eph. 1:5; Rom. 12:2
Ep 5:181 drunk
To be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body, whereas to be filled in the spirit (our regenerated spirit, not God’s Spirit) is to be filled with Christ (1:23) unto the fullness of God (3:19). To be drunk with wine in our physical body causes us to become dissolute, but to be filled in our spirit with Christ, with the fullness of God, causes us to overflow with Christ in speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God (vv. 19-20) and also causes us to subject ourselves to one another (v. 21).
Ep 5:18a wine  -   Prov. 20:1
Ep 5:18b filled  -   Eph. 3:19
See note 181.
Ep 5:18c spirit  -   Eph. 1:17
Ep 5:191 Speaking
Verses 19-21 modify be filled in spirit in v. 18. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are not only for singing and psalming but also for speaking to one another. Such speaking, singing, psalming, giving of thanks to God (v. 20), and subjecting of ourselves to one another (v. 21) are not only the outflow of being filled in spirit but also the way to be filled in spirit.
Ep 5:192a psalms  -   Col. 3:16
Psalms are long poems, hymns are shorter poems, and spiritual songs are poems that are shorter still. All are needed in order for us to be filled with the Lord and to overflow with Him in our Christian life.
Ep 5:20a Giving  -   Eph. 5:4; Col. 3:17
Ep 5:201 at
We should give thanks to God the Father not only in good times but at all times, and not only for good things but for all things. Even in bad times we should give thanks to God our Father for the bad things.
Ep 5:202 in
The reality of the name of the Lord is His person. To be in the Lord’s name is to be in His person, in Himself. This implies that we should be one with the Lord in giving thanks to God.
Ep 5:211a subject  -   1 Pet. 5:5
Being subject to one another also is a way to be filled in spirit with the Lord (v. 18) and is the overflow of being filled. This is to live in the way of being filled in spirit with all the riches of Christ unto the fullness of God.
Ep 5:212 one
Our subjection should be to one another — the younger ones to the older ones, and also the older ones to the younger ones (1 Pet. 5:5).
Ep 5:213 fear
According to the context of the succeeding verses, to be in the fear of Christ is to fear offending Him as the Head. This is related to His headship (v. 23) and involves our being subject to one another. See note 332.
Ep 5:221a Wives  -   vv. 22-23: Col. 3:18-19
The relationship between wives and husbands is connected to the matter of being filled in spirit. Only by being filled in our spirit can we have a proper married life, a figure of the relationship between Christ and the church.
Ep 5:22b subject  -   Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1
Ep 5:222 to
This is one kind of subjection implied in v. 21. In his exhortation concerning married life, the apostle dealt first with wives, since wives, like Eve in Gen. 3, deviate from the right way more easily than husbands. First Peter 3:7 says that the wife is the weaker vessel. In his exhortations concerning wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters, Paul took care of first the weaker side and then the stronger side.
Ep 5:223 own
Most wives appreciate and respect others’ husbands; hence, the apostle exhorted wives to be subject to their own husbands as to the Lord, regardless of what kind of husbands they have. In the same principle, when Paul addressed husbands, he exhorted them to love their own wives (vv. 28, 33). If we desire to live according to reality, by grace, and in love and light, we must not compare our wife or husband with others’.
Ep 5:231a head  -   1 Cor. 11:3
The husband as the head of the wife typifies Christ as the Head of the church.
Ep 5:23b Head  -   Eph. 4:15
Ep 5:232 Savior
Christ is not only the Head of the church but also the Savior of the Body. His being the Head is a matter of authority, whereas His being the Savior is a matter of love. We must be subject to Him as our Head, and we must love Him as our Savior.
Ep 5:241 But
The thought here is this: although husbands are not the saviors of their wives in the way that Christ is the Savior of the church, wives still need to be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ.
Ep 5:242 everything
According to the divine ordination, the subjection of wives to their husbands should be absolute, without any choice. This does not mean that they should obey their husbands in everything. Obeying is different from being subject. With obedience, the emphasis is on compliance, whereas with subjection, the emphasis is on subordination. In sinful things, things against God and the Lord, wives should not obey their husbands. However, they should still be in subjection to them. In a similar situation, Daniel’s three friends disobeyed the Babylonian king’s order to worship the idol, yet still subjected themselves to the king’s authority (Dan. 3:13-23).
Ep 5:251a love  -   Eph. 5:28, 33
The opposite of being subject is to rule; however, the apostle did not exhort husbands to rule over their wives but to love them. In married life, the wife’s obligation is to be subject and the husband’s is to love. The wife’s subjection plus the husband’s love constitutes a proper married life and typifies the normal church life, in which the church is subject to Christ and Christ loves the church. Love is the very element, the inner substance, of God (1 John 4:8, 16). The goal of this book is to bring us into God’s inner substance that we may enjoy God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love, and thereby love others as Christ did.
Ep 5:252 as
A husband’s love for his wife must be like Christ’s love for the church; he must be willing to pay a price, even to die for his wife.
Ep 5:25b loved  -   Eph. 5:2
Ep 5:261a sanctify  -   Heb. 10:10, 14; 13:12; John 17:17
Christ’s purpose in giving Himself up for the church is to sanctify her, not only separating her to Himself from everything common but also saturating her with His element that she may be His counterpart. He accomplishes this by cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.
Ep 5:262b washing  -   1 Cor. 6:11
Lit., laver. In Greek the definite article is used before this word, causing it to refer to the laver, the laver that was known to all the Jews. In the Old Testament the priests used the laver to wash away their earthly defilement (Exo. 30:18-21). Now the laver, the washing of the water, washes us from defilement.
Ep 5:263 water
According to the divine concept, water here refers to the flowing life of God, which is typified by flowing water (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 7:38-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17). The washing of the water here is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ. The redeeming blood washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), whereas the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as the “spot or wrinkle or any such things” mentioned in v. 27. In separating and sanctifying the church, the Lord first washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process, that the church may be holy and without blemish (v. 27).
Ep 5:264c word  -   John 15:3; 17:17
The Greek word denotes an instant word. The indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit is always speaking an instant, present, living word to metabolically cleanse away the old and replace it with the new, causing an inward transformation. The cleansing by the washing of the water of life is in the word of Christ. This indicates that in the word of Christ there is the water of life. This is typified by the laver situated between the altar and the tabernacle (Exo. 38:8; 40:7).
Ep 5:271a present  -   2 Cor. 11:2; Col. 1:22; cf. Gen. 2:22
In the past, Christ as the Redeemer gave Himself up for the church (v. 25) for redemption and the impartation of life (John 19:34); in the present, He as the life-giving Spirit is sanctifying the church through separation, saturation, transformation, growth, and building up; and in the future, He as the Bridegroom will present the church to Himself as His counterpart for His satisfaction. Therefore, Christ’s loving the church is to separate and sanctify her, and His separating and sanctifying the church are to present her to Himself.
Ep 5:272b church  -   Matt. 16:18
In this section of exhortation the apostle presented another aspect of the church, that of the bride. This aspect reveals that the church comes out of Christ, as Eve came out of Adam (Gen. 2:21-22), that it has the same life and nature as Christ, and that it becomes one with Him as His counterpart, as Eve became one flesh with Adam (Gen. 2:24). The church as the new man is a matter of grace and reality, whereas the church as the bride of Christ is a matter of love and light. The apostle’s exhortation in ch. 4 is focused on the new man, which has grace and reality as its basic elements, whereas his exhortation in this chapter is focused on the bride of Christ, which has love and light as its basic substances. In grace and reality we should walk as the new man, and in love and light we should live as the bride of Christ.
Ep 5:273 glorious
Glory is God expressed. Hence, to be glorious is to be God-expressing. Eventually, the church presented to Christ will be a God-expressing church.
Ep 5:274 spot
The spot here signifies something of the natural life, and wrinkles are related to oldness. Only the water of life can metabolically wash away such defects by the transformation of life.
Ep 5:275c holy  -   Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22
To be holy is to be saturated with Christ and transformed by Christ, and to be without blemish is to be spotless and without wrinkle, having nothing of the natural life of our old man.
Ep 5:27d without  -   S.S. 4:7
Ep 5:28a love  -   Eph. 5:25
Ep 5:291a nourishes  -   John 21:15, 17; 1 Cor. 3:2
To nourish is to feed us with the living word of the Lord. To cherish is to nurture us with tender love and foster us with tender care, outwardly softening us through tender warmth that we may have soothing, comfortable rest inwardly. This is the way Christ cares for the church, His Body.
Ep 5:29b cherishes  -   1 Thes. 2:7
Ep 5:30a members  -   Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 18-20
Ep 5:30b Body  -   Eph. 1:23; 1 Cor. 12:27
Ep 5:31a For  -   Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5
Ep 5:311 leave
This is God’s ordination according to His economy (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5).
Ep 5:312b one  -   1 Cor. 6:16
Lit., into one flesh.
Ep 5:32a mystery  -   Eph. 3:3; 1 Tim. 3:16
Ep 5:321 Christ
Christ and the church as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), typified by a husband and wife as one flesh, are the great mystery.
Ep 5:32b and  -   1 Cor. 6:17
Ep 5:33a love  -   Eph. 5:25
Ep 5:331 your
Lit., his own wife as himself.
Ep 5:332b fear  -   1 Pet. 3:2
Because a wife should respect her husband as the head, the one who typifies Christ as the Head of the church, she should fear her husband in the fear of Christ (v. 21).
Ephesians Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Ep 6:11a Children  -   vv. 1-4: Col. 3:20-21
In exhorting the children and the parents, the apostle dealt with the children first, since trouble comes mostly from the children.
Verses 1-9, which deal with the relationship between children and fathers and between slaves and masters, are inserted between the section on the church as the bride (5:22-33) and the section on the church as the warrior (vv. 10-20). If we neglect the points dealt with in vv. 1-9, we cannot be a proper bride or a proper warrior. In the exhortations in these verses, Paul made one key point, which is a very important lesson for us to learn: for the sake of the church life, we need to have a proper human living in this present age.
Ep 6:12b in  -   Eph. 4:1
In the Lord indicates that children need to obey their parents (1) by being one with the Lord, (2) not by themselves but by the Lord, and (3) not according to their natural concept but according to the Lord’s word.
Ep 6:13 right
Or, just, reasonable. For children to obey their parents is not only right but also just.
Ep 6:21a Honor  -   Exo. 20:12; Deut. 5:16
Honoring is different from obeying. Obeying is an action, whereas honoring is an attitude. It is possible for children to obey their parents without honoring them. In order to honor their parents, children need an honoring attitude, an honoring spirit. All children need to learn to obey their parents and, at the same time, honor them.
Ep 6:22 first
This is not only the first commandment with a promise but also the first commandment concerning man’s relationship with man (Exo. 20:12).
Ep 6:3a That  -   Deut. 5:16; Exo. 20:12
Ep 6:31 well
To have it well with ourselves is to be prosperous in material blessings, and to live long is to have longevity. Prosperity and longevity are God’s blessings in this life to those who honor their parents. If we wish to prolong our days and enjoy blessings, we must learn to obey and honor our parents. The commandment to honor our parents is the first commandment with a promise.
Ep 6:41 provoke
Provoking children to anger damages them by stirring up their flesh. Not to provoke his children to anger requires that a father deal with his anger by leaving it on the cross. In this way he is able to render suitable discipline to his children.
Ep 6:4a nurture  -   cf. Gen. 18:19; 2 Tim. 3:15
Ep 6:42 admonition
Admonition includes instruction. Parents should instruct their children with the Word of God (Deut. 6:6-7), teaching them to know the Bible. However, how the children develop depends on God’s mercy.
Ep 6:51a Slaves  -   vv. 5-9: Col. 3:22 4:1; 1 Tim. 6:1; Titus 2:9-10
Concerning the relationship between slaves and masters, the apostle exhorted the slaves first, because the source of trouble was mostly with them.
Ep 6:52 be
In the apostle’s time slaves were purchased by their masters, and the masters had the right over their lives. Some slaves and masters became brothers in the church. As brothers in the church, they were equal and without distinction (see Col. 3:11), but at home those who were slaves still were obligated to obey the brothers who were their masters according to flesh.
Ep 6:53b fear  -   1 Cor. 2:3; Phil. 2:12
Fear is the inward motive for service, and trembling the outward attitude.
Ep 6:54c singleness  -   Acts 2:46
To be single is to be pure in motive, without a mixed purpose.
Ep 6:55d as  -   Eph. 5:22
The relationship between slaves and masters also is a type of our relationship with Christ, who is our Master. We should be like slaves, obeying Him in singleness of heart.
Ep 6:6a men-pleasers  -   Gal. 1:10
Ep 6:61 as
If a brother who is a slave stands in his position and obeys his master, he is in the eyes of the Lord a slave of Christ, doing the will of God, and he serves as serving the Lord and not men (v. 7).
Ep 6:6b slaves  -   Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10
Ep 6:6c will  -   Eph. 5:17
Ep 6:62 from
From the soul here equals from the heart. This means to serve not only with the physical body but also with the heart.
Ep 6:6d soul  -   Phil. 1:27; 2:2
Ep 6:7a serving  -   Rom. 12:11
Ep 6:71b as  -   Eph. 6:5
See note 61.
Ep 6:81 this
Whatever good thing we do, we will receive back the same from the Lord, and it will become a reward to us.
Ep 6:8a slave  -   1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11
Ep 6:91a giving  -   Lev. 25:43
The masters, who had the right over the lives of their purchased slaves, needed to give up their threatening, because the Lord in the heavens was the real Master of both them and the slaves.
Ep 6:9b no  -   Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11
Ep 6:101 Finally
The passage from 1:1 — 6:9 completes the revelation on the positive side concerning the church’s fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose; yet on the negative side, concerning the church’s dealing with God’s enemy, there is more to be covered.
Ep 6:102 be
This implies that we need to exercise our will strongly.
Ep 6:103a empowered  -   1 Cor. 16:13; Phil. 4:13; 2 Tim. 2:1; cf. Josh. 1:6-7; Hag. 2:4
This word in Greek has the same root as the word for power in 1:19. To deal with God’s enemy, to fight against the evil forces of darkness, we need to be empowered with the greatness of the power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the heavens, far above all the evil spirits in the air.
Ep 6:104b in  -   Eph. 4:1
In the spiritual warfare against Satan and his evil kingdom, we can fight only in the Lord, not in ourselves. Whenever we are in ourselves, we are defeated.
Ep 6:10c might  -   Eph. 1:19
Ep 6:111a Put  -   cf. Rom. 13:14; Eph. 4:24
On the positive side, in the first five chapters the church is portrayed in many ways for the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose. On the negative side, the church is seen here as a warrior for the defeating of God’s enemy, the devil. To defeat God’s enemy, we need to put on the whole armor of God. “Put on” is an imperative, a command. God has provided the armor for us, but He does not put it on for us. Rather, we ourselves must put it on, exercising our will to cooperate with Him.
Ep 6:112 whole
To fight the spiritual warfare, we need not only the power of the Lord but also the armor of God. Our weapons do not avail, but God’s armor, even the whole armor of God, does avail.
The whole armor of God is for the entire Body of Christ, not for any individual member of the Body. The church is a corporate warrior, and the believers are parts of this unique warrior. Only the corporate warrior, not any individual believer, can wear the whole armor of God. We must fight the spiritual warfare in the Body, not as individuals.
Ep 6:11b armor  -   Eph. 6:13; Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:7
Ep 6:113c stand  -   Eph. 6:13, 14; Rom. 5:2; 11:20; 1 Cor. 15:1; 2 Cor. 1:24; Gal. 5:1; Col. 4:12; 1 Pet. 5:12
In ch. 2 we sit with Christ in the heavenlies (2:6), and in chs. 4 and 5 we walk (4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15) in His Body on the earth. Then in ch. 6 we stand in His power in the heavenlies. To sit with Christ is to participate in all His accomplishments; to walk in His Body is to fulfill God’s eternal purpose; and to stand in His power is to fight against God’s enemy.
Ep 6:114d stratagems  -   2 Cor. 2:11
The evil plan of the devil.
Ep 6:11e devil  -   James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8-9
Ep 6:121a blood  -   Matt. 16:17; Gal. 1:16
Blood and flesh refers to men. Behind men of blood and flesh are the evil forces of the devil, which are against God’s purpose. Hence, our wrestling, our fighting, must not be against men but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.
Ep 6:122 the
The rulers, the authorities, and the world-rulers of this darkness are the rebellious angels, who followed Satan in his rebellion against God and who now rule in the heavenlies over the nations of the world — such as the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece in Dan. 10:20. This indicates that the devil, Satan, has his kingdom of darkness (Matt. 12:26; Col. 1:13), in which he occupies the highest position and in which the rebellious angels are under him.
Ep 6:12b rulers  -   Eph. 1:21; 2:2; 3:10; Col. 1:16; 2:15
Ep 6:12c world-rulers  -   John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11
Ep 6:123 this
This darkness refers to today’s world, which is fully under the dark ruling of the devil, who rules through his evil angels.
Ep 6:12d darkness  -   Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13
Ep 6:124e heavenlies  -   Eph.1:3; 2:2
Heavenlies here refers to the air (2:2). Satan and his spiritual forces of evil are in the air. But we are seated in the third heaven above them (2:6). In fighting a battle, the position above the enemy is very important strategically. Satan and his evil forces are under us, and they are destined to be defeated by us.
Ep 6:131 take
It is the whole armor of God, not just a part or some parts of it, that we need for the spiritual warfare. To take up the whole armor, the Body of Christ is needed; individual believers are not sufficient for this.
Ep 6:13a armor  -   Eph. 6:11
Ep 6:132b withstand  -   James 4:7
To withstand is to stand against. To stand is crucial in fighting.
Ep 6:133c evil  -   Eph. 5:16
Verse 16 in ch. 5 says that the days are evil. In this evil age every day is an evil day because Satan, the evil one, is at work every day.
Ep 6:134d stand  -   Eph. 6:11
In fighting we need to stand to the end. Having done all, we still must stand.
Ep 6:141 having
From this point to the end of v. 16 we are given a description of how to stand.
Ep 6:142a girded  -   Luke 12:35; 1 Pet. 1:13; cf. Isa. 11:5
The girding of our loins is for the strengthening of our entire being.
Ep 6:143b truth  -   John 8:32; 17:17
According to the usage of this word in ch. 4 — see notes 151 (on truth), 211 (on reality), and 245 (on reality) in ch. 4 — truth here refers to God in Christ as reality in our living, that is, God becoming our reality and experience in our living. This is actually Christ Himself lived out by us (John 14:6). Such truth, such reality, is the girdle that strengthens our whole being for the spiritual warfare.
Ep 6:144 put
To put on the breastplate of righteousness is to cover our conscience, signified by the breast. Satan is the one who accuses us. In fighting against him we need a conscience void of offense. Regardless of how clear we feel our conscience is, it needs to be covered with the breastplate of righteousness. To be righteous is to be right with both God and man. If we are just a little wrong with either God or man, Satan will accuse us, and there will be holes in our conscience through which all our faith and boldness will leak out. Hence, we need the covering of righteousness to protect us from the enemy’s accusation. Such righteousness is Christ (1 Cor. 1:30).
Ep 6:14c breastplate  -   Isa. 59:17; cf. 1 Thes. 5:8
Ep 6:14d righteousness  -   Eph. 4:24; 5:9
Ep 6:151 shod
We shoe our feet to strengthen our stand in the battle. It is not for walking a way or running a course but for fighting the battle.
Ep 6:15a feet  -   Isa. 52:7; Rom. 10:15
Ep 6:152 firm
Firm foundation may also be rendered readiness. Here it means the establishing of the gospel of peace. Christ made peace for us, with both God and man, on the cross, and this peace has become our gospel (2:13-17). This gospel of peace has been established as a firm foundation, as a readiness with which our feet may be shod. Being thus shod, we will have a firm footing that we may stand to fight the spiritual warfare. The peace for such a firm foundation also is Christ (2:14).
Ep 6:15b gospel  -   Eph. 2:17
Ep 6:15c peace  -   Eph. 2:15-17
Ep 6:161 taken
The shield of faith is taken up to protect ourselves against the attacks of the enemy.
Ep 6:16a shield  -   cf. 1 Thes. 5:8
Ep 6:162 faith
We need to have our loins girded with truth, our conscience covered with righteousness, our feet shod with peace, and our entire being protected with the shield of faith. If we live by God as reality (truth), we have righteousness (4:24), and righteousness issues in peace (Heb. 12:11; Isa. 32:17). Having all these, we can easily have faith as a shield against the evil one’s flaming darts. Christ is the Author and Perfecter of such faith (Heb. 12:2). For us to stand firmly in the battle, we need to be equipped with all these four items of God’s armor.
Ep 6:163 darts
The flaming darts are Satan’s temptations, proposals, doubts, questions, lies, and attacks. Flaming darts were used by fighters in the apostle’s time. The apostle used this term to illustrate Satan’s attacks on us.
Ep 6:16b evil  -   Matt. 5:37; 6:13; John 17:15; 1 John 5:19
Ep 6:171a helmet  -   Isa. 59:17; 1 Thes. 5:8
Receiving the helmet of salvation is for covering our mind, our mentality, against the negative thoughts shot in by the evil one. Such a helmet, such a covering, is God’s salvation. Satan injects threats, worries, anxieties, and other weakening thoughts into our mind. God’s salvation is the covering that we take up against all these. Such a salvation is the saving Christ whom we experience in our daily life (John 16:33).
Ep 6:172b sword  -   Heb. 4:12; cf. Rev. 1:16; 19:15
Among the six items of God’s armor, this is the only one that is used for attacking the enemy.
Ep 6:173 which
The antecedent of which is Spirit, not sword, indicating that the Spirit is the word of God. Both the Spirit and the word are Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 19:13). Christ as the Spirit and the word furnishes us with a sword as an offensive weapon to defeat and slay the enemy.
Ep 6:174c word  -   Eph. 5:26
The instant word spoken at the moment by the Spirit in any situation. The sword, the Spirit, and the word are one. When the constant word in the Bible becomes the instant word, that word is the Spirit as the sword that kills the enemy.
Ep 6:181 By
This phrase modifies the verb receive in v. 17, which tells us to receive not only the helmet of salvation but also the word of God. This indicates that we need to receive the word of God by means of all prayer and petition. We need to pray to receive the word of God.
The whole armor of God is composed of six items. Prayer may be considered the seventh. It is the unique, crucial, and vital means by which we apply the other items, making the armor available to us in a practical way.
Ep 6:182a prayer  -   cf. Psa. 119:147
Prayer is general and petition is particular; both are needed that we might have a proper, overcoming church life.
Ep 6:18b every  -   1 Thes. 5:17; Luke 18:1; Col. 4:2
Ep 6:183c spirit  -   Eph. 1:17
This is our regenerated spirit, indwelt by the Spirit of God. It may be considered the mingled spirit — the spirit that is our spirit mingled with God’s Spirit. In praying, the main faculty that we should use is this spirit.
Ep 6:184d watching  -   Isa. 62:6; Matt. 26:41
We need to be watchful, on the alert, for the maintaining of this prayer life.
Ep 6:185 all
To maintain a life of prayer, we need all perseverance, a constant, persistent care.
Ep 6:186 petition
This indicates that we need to pray in a particular way for all the saints.
Ep 6:19a for  -   Col. 4:3; 1 Thes. 5:25; 2 Thes. 3:1
Ep 6:191 utterance
Or, word, speech, expression.
Ep 6:19b boldness  -   Phil. 1:20; 2 Cor. 3:12
Ep 6:192c mystery  -   Eph. 1:9
The mystery of the gospel is Christ and the church for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose (5:32). See Rom. 16:25 and note 3.
Ep 6:201a ambassador  -   2 Cor. 5:20
An ambassador is one sent by a particular authority to contact certain people. Here this word implies that the apostle was one who was sent by God, the highest authority in the universe, to contact certain people.
Ep 6:202b chain  -   Col. 4:3; Phil. 1:13; 2 Tim. 1:16; Acts 21:33; 26:29; 28:20
A coupling chain, a chain that bound the prisoner to his guard.
Ep 6:20c boldly  -   Eph. 6:19
Ep 6:20d ought  -   Col. 4:4
Ep 6:21a that  -   Col. 4:7-9
Ep 6:21b Tychicus  -   Acts 20:4; Col. 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12
Ep 6:211 minister
A ministering servant.
Ep 6:21c in  -   Eph. 4:1
Ep 6:212 make
This kind of fellowship is necessary and beautiful. Today such a loving concern between the apostles and the churches needs to be restored.
Ep 6:22a comfort  -   Col. 2:2
Ep 6:231a Peace  -   Eph. 1:2; Gal. 6:16; 2 Thes. 3:16; 1 Pet. 5:14
In the beginning of the book the apostle’s greeting is first with grace as the enjoyment and then with peace as the result of the enjoyment (1:2). But in the conclusion the elements are presented vice versa, progressing from the result, peace, to the enjoyment, grace. After we have come into peace, we still need grace, indicating that our experience is from grace to grace.
Ep 6:232b love  -   Gal. 5:6
The reason the apostle inserted love between peace and grace is that the only way we can be kept in a situation of peace is by continually enjoying the Lord in love. Paul realized that love is crucial. He spoke of love in relation to peace and grace, indicating thereby that love is needed to preserve us in a condition of peace.
Love with faith is the means by which we partake of and experience Christ (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith is for receiving Him (John 1:12), and love is for enjoying Him (John 14:23). Here it is not faith and love nor love and faith, but love with faith. This indicates that we need faith as a match and support for our love. Love with faith is needed. This is the conclusion of the book on the church. The church needs to enjoy Christ in love with faith, which operates through love (Gal. 5:6). Love comes from God to us, and faith goes from us to God. By means of this traffic of love and faith, peace remains our portion. We are kept in peace by the coming of God’s love to us and by the going of our faith to Him. This traffic also keeps us in the continual supply of grace, in the enjoyment of the Lord (v. 24).
Ep 6:233 from
Love is from God; it originates with God, not with us. Eventually, however, God’s love becomes our love. God’s love for us becomes our love for Him.
Ep 6:241a Grace  -   Eph. 1:2; 2:5
Grace is needed for us to live a church life that fulfills God’s eternal purpose and solves God’s problem with His enemy.
Ep 6:242b love  -   cf. 1 Cor. 16:22
The enjoyment of the Lord as grace is with those who love Him. In this book the phrase in love, which is rich in feeling, is used repeatedly (1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2). Later, the church in Ephesus was rebuked by the Lord because she had lost her first love toward Him (Rev. 2:4). One of the main points revealed in this book is that the church, which is the Body of Christ, is also the bride of Christ, Christ’s wife. With the Body, the emphasis is on taking Christ as life; with the wife, the emphasis is on loving Christ. Therefore, this book emphasizes and also concludes with our love toward the Lord. The church in Ephesus, the recipient of this Epistle, failed in the matter of loving the Lord. Such a failure became the source of and main reason for the failure of the church throughout the ages (Rev. 2 — 3).
Ep 6:243c incorruptibility  -   cf. 2 Tim. 1:10
For the proper church life we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility, that is, in and according to all the crucial things revealed and taught in the six chapters of this book, such as the church as the Body of Christ, the new man, the economy of God’s mystery, the oneness of the Spirit, reality and grace, light and love, and the items of God’s armor, all of which are incorruptible. For the sake of the church, our love toward the Lord must be in these incorruptible things.
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Philippians Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-2
II.   Living Christ to magnify Him — 1:3-30
A.   Fellowship for the furtherance of the gospel — vv. 3-18
B.   Magnifying Christ by living Him — vv. 19-26
C.   Striving along with the gospel with one soul — vv. 27-30
III.   Taking Christ as the pattern and holding Him forth — 2:1-30
A.   Joined in soul, thinking the one thing — vv. 1-4
B.   Taking Christ as the pattern — vv. 5-11
C.   Working out our salvation to hold forth Christ — vv. 12-16
D.   A drink offering upon the sacrifice of faith — vv. 17-18
E.   The apostle’s concern for the believers — vv. 19-30
IV.   Pursuing Christ to gain Him — 3:1-21
A.   Serving by the Spirit and not trusting in the flesh — vv. 1-6
B.   Counting all things loss on account of Christ — vv. 7-11
C.   Gaining Christ by pursuing Him — vv. 12-16
D.   Awaiting Christ for the transfiguration of the body — vv. 17-21
V.   Having Christ as the secret of sufficiency — 4:1-20
A.   Thinking the same thing and rejoicing in the Lord — vv. 1-4
B.   Excellent characteristics in living — vv. 5-9
C.   The believers’ fellowship with the apostle and the apostle’s secret of sufficiency — vv. 10-20
VI.   Conclusion — 4:21-23
Philippians >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Philippians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Pp 1:1a slaves  -   Rom. 1:1
Pp 1:1b saints  -   1 Cor. 1:2
Pp 1:11c Philippi  -   Acts 16:12
Philippi was the chief city in the province of Macedonia of the ancient Roman Empire (Acts 16:12). Through Paul’s first ministry journey to Europe (Acts 16:10-12), the first church in Europe was raised up in that city.
Pp 1:12 with
Here it is not “the saints…and the overseers and deacons”; rather, it is “the saints…with the overseers and deacons.” This is highly significant in that it indicates that in the local church the saints, the overseers, and the deacons are not three groups. The church has only one group, composed of all the saints (including the overseers and deacons), who are the components of a local church. This indicates further that in any locality there should be just one church with one group of people, comprising all the saints in that locality.
Pp 1:13d overseers  -   Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 3:1-2
Overseers are the elders in a local church (Acts 20:17, 28). Elder denotes the person, and overseer the function. An overseer is an elder in function. Here overseers are mentioned instead of elders, indicating that the elders were fulfilling their responsibility.
Pp 1:14e deacons  -   1 Tim. 3:8, 12
The Greek word means serving ones. The deacons are the serving ones in a local church and are under the direction of the overseers (1 Tim. 3:8). This verse, showing that a local church is composed of the saints, with overseers to take the lead and deacons to serve, indicates that the church in Philippi was in good order.
Pp 1:21a Grace  -   Rom. 1:7
See note 21 in Eph. 1.
Pp 1:22 peace
See note 22 in Eph. 1.
Pp 1:3a thank  -   Rom. 1:8
Pp 1:4a petition  -   Phil. 4:6
Pp 1:4b joy  -   Phil. 1:25; 2:2, 17, 18; 4:1; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2:19, 20; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:4
Pp 1:51a fellowship  -   Phil. 2:1; Gal. 2:9
Fellowship here means participation, communication. See note 261 in Rom. 15. The saints in Philippi had fellowship unto the gospel, participating in the furtherance of the gospel through the apostle Paul’s ministry. This participation included their financial contributions to the apostle (4:10, 15-16), which issued in the furtherance of the gospel. This kind of fellowship, which kept them from being individualistic and diversely minded, implies that they were one with the apostle Paul and with one another. This gave them the ground for their experience and enjoyment of Christ, which is the main point of this book. The Christ-experiencing and -enjoying life is a life in the furtherance of the gospel, a gospel-preaching life, not individualistic but corporate. Hence, there is the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel. The more fellowship we have in the furtherance of the gospel, the more Christ we experience and enjoy. This kills our self, ambition, preference, and choice.
Pp 1:52b gospel  -   Phil. 1:7, 12, 16, 27; 2:22; 4:3, 15
Concerning the gospel, in this book Paul used several significant terms: fellowship unto… the gospel, the defense and confirmation of the gospel (v. 7), the advancement of the gospel (v. 12), and the faith of the gospel (v. 27). Paul’s preaching of Christ as the gospel included fellowship, defense, confirmation, advancement, and the faith. In contrast, the Judaistic believers preached Christ out of rivalry, factiousness, selfish ambition, envy, and strife, and did not cause the gospel to advance.
Pp 1:6a day  -   Phil. 1:10; 2:16; 1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Tim. 1:12, 18; 4:8
Pp 1:7a bonds  -   Phil. 1:13, 14, 17; Acts 20:23; Col. 4:3, 18; 2 Tim. 2:9; Philem. 10, 13
Pp 1:71b defense  -   Phil. 1:16
On the negative side, the defense of the gospel is for the resisting of perverting and distorting heresies, such as Judaism, dealt with in Galatians, and Gnosticism, dealt with in Colossians. On the positive side, the confirmation of the gospel is for the announcing of the revelations of God’s mysteries concerning Christ and the church as unveiled in the apostle’s Epistles. In preaching such a gospel according to God’s economy, Paul renounced religion, law, culture, ordinances, customs, habits, and every kind of “ism” — everything that was apart from God’s economy. Because Paul preached such a gospel, he was regarded as a troublemaker, a pest (Acts 24:5).
Pp 1:72 fellow
Fellow partakers of grace are those who share and enjoy the processed Triune God as grace. The apostle was such in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, and the saints in Philippi were fellow partakers with him in this grace.
Pp 1:73 with
Or, of my grace. Paul’s grace was the grace that he enjoyed and that surpassed his sufferings in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. This grace was not God objectively; it was the Triune God processed to be his portion subjectively and experientially.
Pp 1:8a witness  -   Rom. 1:9
Pp 1:8b long  -   Phil. 2:26; 4:1; 2 Tim. 1:4
Pp 1:81c inward  -   Phil. 2:1; Luke 1:78
Lit., bowels; signifying inward affection, then, tender mercy and sympathy. In longing after the saints, the apostle was one with Christ even in the bowels, the tender inward parts, of Christ. This indicates that for Paul to enjoy Christ meant that he was one with Christ’s inward parts, in which he enjoyed Christ as the supply of grace.
Pp 1:9a love  -   1 Thes. 3:12; 2 Thes. 1:3
Pp 1:91b full  -   Col. 1:9; 3:10
The Philippian believers had much love. Yet their love needed to abound, to overflow more and more, not foolishly but in full knowledge, not in ignorance but in all discernment, that they might approve by testing the things that differ and are more excellent. This should include the discerning of the differing preachings of the gospel in vv. 15-18 and of the different kinds of people in 3:2-3.
Pp 1:92 discernment
Sensitive perception, moral tact. Paul’s desire was that the Philippians, some of whom had been distracted from God’s economy by the preaching of the Judaistic believers, would not love the Judaistic believers foolishly but would love them soberly with love that abounded in full knowledge and sensitive perception.
Pp 1:10a approve  -   Rom. 2:18
Pp 1:101 pure
The Greek word means judged by sunlight. I.e., tested as genuine; hence, pure, sincere.
Pp 1:102 without
Or, unoffending; not stumbling others.
Pp 1:10b day  -   Phil. 1:6
Pp 1:111a fruit  -   Col. 1:6, 10; James 3:18
The fruit of righteousness is the living product of the believers’ living a proper life by the element of righteousness, with a righteous standing before God and man. Such a life could be lived not by the believers’ natural man for their boast but through Jesus Christ as the believers’ life, experienced by them to the glory and praise of God.
Pp 1:11b through  -   John 15:5
Pp 1:11c glory  -   John 15:8; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14
Pp 1:121 advancement
Advancement made by the pioneers who cut the way before an army to further its march. Paul’s sufferings made such an advancement for the gospel.
Pp 1:12a gospel  -   Phil. 1:5
Pp 1:13a bonds  -   Phil. 1:7
Pp 1:131 in
I.e., for Christ’s sake.
Pp 1:132 Praetorian
The imperial guard of Caesar.
Pp 1:151 Some
Those Christians who were opposing Paul and his ministry (2 Cor. 10:7; 11:22-23). Even at the apostle’s time there were some who preached the gospel out of envy of Paul and in strife with him.
Pp 1:15a envy  -   James 3:14, 16
Pp 1:152 strife
Factiousness, partisanship.
Pp 1:153 some
Those who had fellowship with Paul and participated with him in the preaching of the gospel.
Pp 1:16a defense  -   Phil. 1:7
Pp 1:171 selfish
Self-seeking, rivalry, faction.
Pp 1:172 affliction
Lit., pressure. Those who announced Christ out of selfish ambition endeavored to make Paul’s bonds press him more heavily by depreciating him and his ministry while he was outwardly laid aside from his preaching. Paul’s affliction in bonds was due not to his preaching of the gospel but to his defense of the gospel. The Judaizers mixed the gospel with the law and circumcision. Paul defended it. This caused the riot which put him into bonds (Acts 21:27-36).
Pp 1:17a bonds  -   Phil. 1:7
Pp 1:181a rejoice  -   Phil. 2:17, 18, 28; 3:1; 4:4; Col. 1:24
The apostle’s heart was so broadened by grace that he even rejoiced in his opposers’ preaching of Christ in pretense. What an upright spirit this is! This was the outworking of the life, nature, and mind of Christ, who lived in the apostle. His experience of Christ was an enjoyment. Such a life rejoices no matter what the circumstances may be.
Pp 1:191a salvation  -   Phil. 1:28; 2:12
The same Greek word as in 2:12. The salvation here is the working out of the salvation in 2:12; it means to be sustained and strengthened to live and magnify Christ (see note 124 in ch. 2). This requires the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Pp 1:192 your
This is the supply of the Body of Christ, the church. Imprisonment did not isolate Paul from the Body of Christ or cut him off from the supply of the Body.
Pp 1:19b petition  -   Phil. 1:4
Pp 1:193 bountiful
The Greek word refers to the supplying of all the needs of the chorus by the choragus, the leader of the chorus. The bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit enabled Paul to live and magnify Christ in his sufferings for Him.
Pp 1:19c supply  -   Gal. 3:5
Pp 1:194d Spirit  -   Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11
The revelation in the Bible concerning God, Christ, and the Spirit is progressive. The Spirit is mentioned first as the Spirit of God, in relation to creation (Gen. 1:2). Then, He is mentioned as the Spirit of Jehovah, in the context of God’s relationship with man (Judg. 3:10; 1 Sam. 10:6); as the Holy Spirit, in relation to the conception and birth of Christ (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20); as the Spirit of Jesus, in relation to the Lord’s human living (Acts 16:7); as the Spirit of Christ, in relation to the Lord’s resurrection (Rom. 8:9); and here as the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is “the Spirit” mentioned in John 7:39. This is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation but the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit with divinity, after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with the Lord’s incarnation (humanity), human living under the cross, crucifixion, and resurrection. The holy anointing ointment in Exo. 30:23-25, a compound of olive oil and four kinds of spices, is a full type of this compound Spirit of God, who is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Here it is not the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7) or the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) but the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is related mainly to the Lord’s humanity and human living; the Spirit of Christ is related mainly to the Lord’s resurrection. To experience the Lord’s humanity, as illustrated in 2:5-8, we need the Spirit of Jesus. To experience the power of the Lord’s resurrection, as mentioned in 3:10, we need the Spirit of Christ. In his suffering the apostle experienced both the Lord’s suffering in His humanity and the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, the Spirit to him was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God. Such a Spirit has, and even is, the bountiful supply for a person like the apostle, who was experiencing and enjoying Christ in His human living and resurrection. Eventually, this compound Spirit of Jesus Christ becomes the seven Spirits of God, who are the seven lamps of fire before God’s throne to carry out His administration on earth for the accomplishing of His economy concerning the church, and who are the seven eyes of the Lamb for the transfusing of all that He is into the church (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6).
Pp 1:20a shame  -   Rom. 5:5
Pp 1:201 magnified
In the apostle’s suffering in his body, Christ was magnified, i.e., shown or declared to be great (without limitation), exalted, and extolled. The apostle’s sufferings afforded him opportunity to express Christ in His unlimited greatness. The apostle would have only Christ magnified in him, not the law or circumcision. This book is concerned with the experience of Christ. To magnify Christ under any circumstances is to experience Him with the topmost enjoyment.
Pp 1:20b in  -   1 Cor. 6:20
Pp 1:20c death  -   Rom. 14:8
Pp 1:211a live  -   Gal. 2:20
Paul’s life was to live Christ. To him, to live was Christ, not the law or circumcision. He would not live the law but would live Christ, not be found in the law but be found in Christ (3:9). Christ was not only his life but also his living. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He was one with Christ in both life and living. He and Christ had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within Paul as Paul’s life, and Paul lived Christ without as Christ’s living. The normal experience of Christ is to live Him, and to live Him is to magnify Him always, regardless of the circumstances.
Pp 1:212 gain
Gain here refers to being with Christ in a higher degree. But in fulfilling God’s eternal purpose, being with Christ cannot compare with living Christ for His Body’s sake. Hence, Paul chose to live Christ.
Pp 1:22a fruit  -   Rom. 1:13
Pp 1:23a depart  -   2 Cor. 5:8; 2 Tim. 4:6
Pp 1:231 with
To be with Christ is a matter of degree, not place. Paul desired to be with Christ in a higher degree, although he was already with Him constantly. Through his physical death he would be with Christ to a fuller extent than he enjoyed in this earthly life.
Pp 1:241 your
The apostle’s consideration was not selfish but was for the saints’ sake. He was absolutely occupied by the Lord and the church.
Pp 1:251 progress
Progress refers to the growth in life, and joy, to the enjoyment of Christ.
Pp 1:25a joy  -   Phil. 4:4; Rom. 14:17; 15:13
Pp 1:252 the
The faith here refers to what the saints believe in (Jude 3; 2 Tim. 4:7).
Pp 1:25b faith  -   Gal. 1:23; Phil. 1:27
Pp 1:261 boast
The Greek word means boasting, glorying, and rejoicing.
Pp 1:27a worthy  -   Eph. 4:1
Pp 1:27b gospel  -   Phil. 1:5
Pp 1:27c stand  -   Phil. 4:1; 1 Cor. 16:13
Pp 1:271d one  -   Acts 4:32; Phil. 2:2
We need not only to stand firm in one spirit in order to experience Christ but also to strive together with one soul along with the faith of the gospel. To be of one soul for the gospel work is more difficult than to be in one spirit for the experience of Christ (see 2:20). To be of one soul requires that, after having been regenerated in our spirit, we go further and be transformed in our soul, especially in our mind, which is the main and leading part of our soul.
Pp 1:272e striving  -   Jude 3
Like athletes.
Pp 1:273 the
The faith here is personified. The believers should strive together with one soul along with the personified faith (cf. note 83 in 2 Tim. 1).
Pp 1:28a proof  -   2 Thes. 1:5
Pp 1:281b destruction  -   Phil. 3:19
Destruction of all that they are and do.
Pp 1:282 salvation
Salvation of all that you are and do. See notes 191 in ch. 1 and 124 in ch. 2.
Pp 1:291 into
This implies that the believer has an organic union with Christ through believing into Him. To believe into Christ is to have our being merged into His that we two may be one organically.
Pp 1:292a suffer  -   Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 1:7
To suffer on behalf of Christ, after receiving Him and being made one with Him through believing, is to participate in, to have the fellowship of, His sufferings (3:10) that we may experience and enjoy Him in His sufferings. This is to live Him and magnify Him in a situation in which He is rejected and opposed.
Pp 1:30a struggle  -   Col. 1:29; 2:1; 1 Thes. 2:2; Heb. 10:32
Pp 1:301 me
Paul was a pattern set up by God’s grace for His New Testament economy (1 Tim. 1:14-16). The New Testament believers should experience and enjoy Christ by living and magnifying Him as Paul did in his sufferings for Christ, that they may be fellow partakers with Paul of grace.
Philippians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Pp 2:11 If
In ch. 1 Paul, being rich in the experience of Christ, presented to the believers an account of his experience. Now in this chapter he asked the believers to have fellowship with him. Such a mutual fellowship of the believers and the apostle is needed for the experience of Christ.
Pp 2:12a consolation  -   2 Thes. 2:16-17
Or, exhortation, encouragement.
Pp 2:1b fellowship  -   Phil. 1:5; cf. 2 Cor. 13:14
Pp 2:13c tenderheartedness  -   Eph. 4:32
I.e., inward affection. Lit., bowels. The same word as in 1:8.
Pp 2:1d compassions  -   Col. 3:12
Pp 2:21 Make
In vv. 1-2 the apostle appealed to the Philippians for their encouragement and consolation. He begged them to make his joy full if they had any encouragement in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of spirit, any tenderheartedness and compassions toward him.
Pp 2:22a joy  -   Phil. 1:4
Since this book is concerned with the experience and enjoyment of Christ, which issue in joy, it is a book filled with joy and rejoicing (1:4, 18, 25; 2:17-18, 28-29; 3:1; 4:1, 4).
Pp 2:23b think  -   Phil. 4:2; Rom. 12:16; 2 Cor. 13:11
Among the Philippians there was dissension in their thinking (4:2), which troubled the apostle. Hence, he asked them to think the same thing, even the same one thing, that they might make his joy full.
Pp 2:24 same
This indicates that because of the dissension in their thinking, the Philippian believers had different levels of love. They did not have the same love toward all the saints for the keeping of oneness.
Pp 2:25c joined  -   Phil. 1:27; 2:20; Acts 4:32
This indicates that the dissension among the Philippians was due to their not being joined in soul, to their not thinking the one thing in their mind, the leading part of their soul. The Philippians’ problem was not with their spirit but with their soul, that is, with their mind. They had Christ in their spirit through regeneration, but they did not have Christ in their soul through transformation. Only by having Christ saturate and occupy their entire soul could they be made one in soul.
Pp 2:26 the
According to the context of this book, the one thing here must refer to the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ (1:20-21; 2:5; 3:7-9; 4:13). Christ, and Christ alone, should be the centrality and universality of our entire being. Our thinking should be focused on the excellency of the knowledge and experience of Christ. Focusing on anything else causes us to think differently, thus creating dissensions among us.
Pp 2:31 Doing
This may indicate that the dissenting Philippians were doing things out of selfish ambition or vainglory, both of which cause dissensions among believers.
Pp 2:32a selfish  -   Phil. 1:17
See note 171 in ch. 1.
Pp 2:3b vainglory  -   Gal. 5:26
Pp 2:33c lowliness  -   1 Pet. 5:5
Lowliness is in contrast to both selfish ambition and vainglory. This must be not our natural lowliness but the lowliness of Christ, as illustrated in vv. 7-8.
Pp 2:34 mind
This indicates again that the problem of dissension among the Philippians was a matter of their untransformed mind. They needed to have the mind that was in Christ (see v. 5).
Pp 2:41 virtues
Lit., things; referring to virtues and qualities. We should regard not only our own virtues and qualities but also those of others.
Pp 2:51 Let
Lit., think this in you. This refers to the considering in v. 3 and the regarding in v. 4. This kind of thinking, this kind of mind, was also in Christ when He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, and humbled Himself, being found in fashion as a man (vv. 7-8). To have such a mind requires us to be one with Christ in His inward parts (1:8). To experience Christ, we need to be one with Him to this extent, that is, in His tender inward feeling and in His thinking.
Pp 2:5a this  -   Matt. 11:29
Pp 2:52 Christ
In ch. 1 the central point is to magnify Christ, to live Christ (vv. 20-21). In ch. 2 it is to take Christ as our pattern, our model. This pattern is the standard of our salvation (v. 12). In vv. 5-16 there are four basic elements: Christ (v. 5), salvation (v. 12), God (v. 13), and the word of life (v. 16). The word of life works out the pattern by the operating God to apply salvation to our daily living. In this way we enjoy Christ and live Him, taking Him as our pattern.
Pp 2:61a existing  -   John 1:1
The Greek word denotes existing from the beginning, implying the Lord’s eternal preexistence.
Pp 2:62b form  -   cf. 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3
The expression, not the fashion, of God’s being (Heb. 1:3), identified with the essence and nature of God’s person and, hence, expressing them. This refers to Christ’s deity.
Pp 2:63 not
Although the Lord was equal with God, He did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped and retained; rather, He laid aside the form of God (not the nature of God) and emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave.
Pp 2:6c equal  -   John 5:18; 10:33
Pp 2:71a emptied  -   cf. 2 Cor. 8:9
I.e., laid aside what He possessed — the form of God.
Pp 2:72 form
The same word as that in v. 6. In His incarnation the Lord did not alter His divine nature; He changed only His outward expression, from the form of God, the highest form, to that of a slave, the lowest form. This was not a change of essence but of state.
Pp 2:7b slave  -   Matt. 20:27-28
Pp 2:73c becoming  -   John 1:14; Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:14
I.e., entering into a new state.
Pp 2:74 likeness
The form of God implies the inward reality of Christ’s deity; the likeness of men denotes the outward appearance of His humanity. He appeared to men as a man outwardly, but as God He had the reality of deity inwardly.
Pp 2:81 being
When Christ became in the likeness of men, entering into the condition of humanity, He was found in fashion as a man.
Pp 2:82 fashion
I.e., the outward guise, the semblance. This is a repetition, in a more particular sense, of the thought of likeness in v. 7. What Christ looked like in His humanity was found by men to be in fashion as a man.
Pp 2:83 humbled
Humbling Himself was a further step in emptying Himself. Christ’s self-humbling manifested His self-emptying.
Pp 2:8a obedient  -   Rom. 5:19; Heb. 5:8; Matt. 26:39; John 10:18
Pp 2:84 death
The death of a cross is the climax of Christ’s humiliation. To the Jews it was a curse (Deut. 21:22-23). To the Gentiles it was a death sentence imposed on malefactors and slaves (Matt. 27:16-17, 20-23). Hence, it was a shameful thing (Heb. 12:2).
The Lord’s humiliation involved seven steps: (1) emptying Himself; (2) taking the form of a slave; (3) becoming in the likeness of men; (4) humbling Himself; (5) becoming obedient; (6) being obedient even unto death; and (7) being obedient unto the death of the cross.
Pp 2:8b cross  -   Heb. 12:2
Pp 2:91a exalted  -   Isa. 52:13; Acts 2:33; Eph. 1:20
The Lord humbled Himself to the uttermost, but God exalted Him to the highest peak.
Pp 2:92 bestowed
Lit., graciously bestowed; i.e., freely bestowed.
Pp 2:93 name
I.e., the name of Jesus, mentioned in the following verse. See Acts 9:5. Since the Lord’s ascension, there has not been a name on this earth above the name of Jesus.
Pp 2:9b above  -   Eph. 1:21; Heb. 1:4
Pp 2:101 in
The name is the expression of the sum total of what the Lord Jesus is in His person and work. In the name of Jesus means in the sphere and element of all that the Lord is. It is in this way that we worship the Lord and pray to Him.
Pp 2:10a every  -   Isa. 45:23; Rom. 14:11
Pp 2:102 bow
Lit., bend.
Pp 2:103 in
Those who are in heaven are angels.
Pp 2:10b heaven  -   Rev. 5:3, 13; cf. Eph. 1:10
Pp 2:104 on
Those who are on earth are men.
Pp 2:105 under
Those who are under the earth are the dead.
Pp 2:111 openly
This is to call on the Lord or on the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:9-10, 12-13).
Pp 2:112a Lord  -   John 13:13; Acts 2:36; 10:36; Rom. 10:9; 14:9
God made the Lord Jesus, as a man, the Lord in His ascension (Acts 2:36). Thus, every tongue should confess that He is Lord.
Pp 2:113 to
I.e., resulting in. The result of our confessing that Jesus is Lord is that God the Father is glorified. This is the great end of all that Christ is and has done in His person and work (1 Cor. 15:24-28).
Pp 2:11b glory  -   John 12:28; 17:1; Rom. 16:27; Eph. 3:21
Pp 2:121 So
I.e., as a consequence of taking Christ as a pattern of obedience in the preceding verses.
Pp 2:122 obeyed
This answers to becoming obedient in v. 8.
Pp 2:123 work
I.e., carry out, bring to the ultimate conclusion. We have received God’s salvation, which has as its climax our being exalted by God in glory as the Lord Jesus was (v. 9). We need to carry out this salvation, to bring it to its ultimate conclusion, by our constant and absolute obedience with fear and trembling. We have received this salvation by faith; now we must carry it out by obedience, which includes our being genuinely one in our soul (v. 2). To receive this salvation by faith is once for all; to carry it out is lifelong.
Pp 2:124a salvation  -   Phil. 1:19
Not eternal salvation from God’s condemnation and from the lake of fire but the daily salvation that is a living Person. This daily salvation results from taking the very Christ whom we live, experience, and enjoy as our inward as well as outward pattern. The main elements of this salvation are Christ as the crucified life (vv. 5-8) and Christ in His exaltation (vv. 9-11). When this pattern becomes the believers’ inward life, the pattern becomes their salvation. Only this would make the apostle’s joy full.
In ch. 1 salvation comes through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, but here salvation comes from the operating God within us. The operating God is actually the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In both these cases salvation is a practical, daily, moment-by-moment salvation. The constant salvation in 1:19 is one in which a particular believer is saved from a specific encounter in a particular situation, whereas the constant salvation in 2:12 is one in which any believer is saved from ordinary things in common situations in his daily living.
Pp 2:125b fear  -   2 Cor. 7:15; Eph. 6:5
Fear is the inward motive; trembling is the outward attitude.
Pp 2:131 For
For introduces the reason we need to obey always. The reason is that God operates in us. In God’s economy we have the Lord Jesus as our pattern (vv. 6-11), as the standard of our salvation (v. 12), and we also have God operating in us both the willing and the working that our salvation may be carried out, brought to its ultimate conclusion. It is not that we by ourselves carry it out, but that God operates in us to do it. The only thing we need to do is to obey the inner operating God.
Pp 2:132 God
The God who operates in us is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the very God who is Christ in us (2 Cor. 13:3a, 5) and the Spirit in us (Rom. 8:11). The three — the Spirit, God, and Christ — are one.
Pp 2:133a operates  -   1 Cor. 12:6; Heb. 13:21
Or, energizes.
Pp 2:134 willing
The willing is within; the working is without. The willing takes place in our will, indicating that God’s operation begins from our spirit (cf. 4:23) and spreads into our mind, emotion, and will. This corresponds with Rom. 8, where we see that God works from our spirit (Rom. 8:4), through our mind (Rom. 8:6), and eventually into our physical body (Rom. 8:11).
Pp 2:135 working
Or, acting. The same Greek word as for operates in this verse.
Pp 2:136b good  -   Eph. 1:5, 9
I.e., the good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:5). God’s good pleasure is that we may reach the climax of His supreme salvation.
Pp 2:141a murmurings  -   1 Cor. 10:10; 1 Pet. 4:9
Murmurings are of our emotion and come mainly from the sisters; reasonings are of our mind and come mainly from the brothers. Both frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent and from experiencing and enjoying Christ to the uttermost. The context here indicates that murmurings and reasonings are due to disobedience to God. Obedience to God slays all murmurings and reasonings.
Pp 2:14b reasonings  -   1 Tim. 2:8
Pp 2:15a blameless  -   Phil. 3:6; 1 Thes. 2:10; 5:23
Pp 2:151 guileless
Or, simple, artless (not political), innocent (Matt. 10:16). The Greek root means unmixed. Blameless describes our outward behavior, and guileless our inward character.
Pp 2:152 children
As children of God, we have God’s life and the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
Pp 2:153b without  -   Eph. 1:4
To be without blemish is the total quality of being blameless and guileless.
Pp 2:15c crooked  -   Deut. 32:5; Acts 2:40
Pp 2:154 perverted
Lit., warped, twisted.
Pp 2:155d luminaries  -   Gen. 1:16; Mark 4:21; Matt. 5:14, 16; Eph. 5:8
The Greek word refers to luminaries that reflect the light of the sun. As such luminaries, the believers shine in the world. They do not possess any light in themselves but have a heavenly ability to reflect the light of Christ. Christ is the sun, with the church as the moon and the believers as the planets to reflect Him by holding forth the word of life (v. 16).
Pp 2:156 world
The dark, corrupt world, which is usurped by Satan (1 John 5:19; 2:15-17). In the world can be rendered in the universe.
Pp 2:161 Holding
Lit., applying, presenting, offering. To hold forth the word of life is to apply it, to present it, and to offer it to the world by living out Christ.
Pp 2:162a word  -   Acts 5:20
Different from the doctrine of dead letters. The word of life is the living breath of God (2 Tim. 3:16), the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63). We have the Lord Jesus as our pattern (vv. 6-11), we have God operating in us (v. 13), we are God’s children, having God’s life and the divine nature (v. 15), we are luminaries qualified to reflect the divine light of Christ (v. 15), and we have the word of life to hold forth, to present, to others. What a divine and rich provision! By such we are well able to carry out God’s salvation to its climax.
Pp 2:163b boast  -   2 Cor. 1:14; 1 Thes. 2:19
The way to make the apostle’s joy full (v. 2) is to live a life that takes Christ as the pattern and carries out God’s salvation fully, that the apostle may be able to boast, glory, and rejoice in the believers in the day of Christ.
Pp 2:164c day  -   Phil. 1:6
The day of the Lord’s second coming, which is called “the day of the Lord” (1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Thes. 2:2; 1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Cor. 1:14) and “that day” (2 Tim. 1:18; 4:8). In that day all believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the reward each deserves (2 Cor. 5:10; Matt. 25:19-30).
Pp 2:16d run  -   1 Cor. 9:26; Gal. 2:2; 2 Tim. 4:7
Pp 2:16e labor  -   Gal. 4:11; 1 Thes. 3:5
Pp 2:17a poured  -   2 Tim. 4:6
Pp 2:171b drink  -   Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10
The drink offering was in addition to the basic offerings revealed in Lev. 1 — 6 (Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10). The basic offerings are types of various aspects of Christ. The drink offering is a type of Christ as enjoyed by the offerer. Christ as the heavenly wine fills the offerer and even causes him to become wine to God. The apostle Paul became such a drink offering (2 Tim. 4:6) by enjoying Christ in this way, so that he could be poured out as a sacrifice to God upon the believers’ faith through the shedding of his blood.
Pp 2:172c sacrifice  -   Rom. 15:16
The sacrifice and service of your faith means that the faith of the Philippian believers was a sacrifice offered to God and also became their service to God.
Pp 2:173 service
Like the priestly service. Cf. note 253.
Pp 2:174 faith
Faith here is all-inclusive and includes much more than the act of believing. It is the constitution and total expression of all that the believers have received, experienced, and enjoyed of Christ, including Christ as the basic offerings. Paul’s ministry resulted in the all-inclusive faith of the believers. Such a faith was offered as a sacrifice to God by the believers, and Paul rejoiced even to be poured out as a drink offering upon such a sacrifice.
Pp 2:175d rejoice  -   Phil. 1:18
This means that the apostle rejoiced to have his blood shed as a drink offering upon the sacrifice of the believers’ faith.
Pp 2:176 rejoice
To rejoice together with means to share joy with. The apostle shared his joy with the Philippians in his being martyred for their faith. Hence, the phrase implies that he was congratulating them.
Pp 2:181 rejoice
The apostle expected that the Philippians would share their joy with him by congratulating him in his being martyred for their faith’s sake.
Pp 2:19a Timothy  -   Phil. 1:1; 1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Thes. 3:2
Pp 2:191 encouraged
Or, of good comfort, of good cheer, refreshed.
Pp 2:201a like-souled  -   Phil. 1:27; 2:2
This book deals very much with the believers’ soul. We must strive together with one soul along with the personified faith of the gospel (1:27); we must be joined in soul, thinking the one thing (v. 2); and we must be like-souled, genuinely caring for the things of Christ Jesus (vv. 20-21). In the gospel work, in the fellowship among the believers, and in the pursuing of the Lord’s interests, our soul is always a problem. Hence, it must be transformed, especially in its leading part, the mind (Rom. 12:2), that we may be of one soul, joined in soul, and like-souled in the Body life.
Pp 2:21a seek  -   1 Cor. 10:24
Pp 2:211 Christ
According to the context of this book, the things of Christ Jesus are the things concerning the church with all the saints.
Pp 2:221 approvedness
I.e., approved worth, proof of having been tested.
Pp 2:22a child  -   1 Cor. 4:17; 2 Tim. 1:2
Pp 2:222b served  -   1 Cor. 16:10
Lit., served as a slave.
Pp 2:22c gospel  -   Phil. 1:5
Pp 2:24a come  -   Phil. 1:25
Pp 2:25a Epaphroditus  -   Phil. 4:18
Pp 2:251 brother
First a brother, then a fellow worker, and then a fellow soldier.
Pp 2:25b fellow  -   Phil. 4:3; Rom. 16:3, 9, 21; Philem. 1, 24
Pp 2:25c fellow  -   Philem. 2
Pp 2:252d apostle  -   2 Cor. 8:23; John 13:16
One sent with a commission.
Pp 2:253 minister
Derived from the same Greek word as that for service in v. 17 and referring to a minister whose ministry is like that of a priest. All New Testament believers are priests to God (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6). Hence, our ministry to the Lord, in whatever aspect, is a priestly service (vv. 17, 30).
Pp 2:25e need  -   Phil. 4:16
Pp 2:26a longed  -   Phil. 1:8
Pp 2:27a sick  -   1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Tim. 4:20
Pp 2:28a rejoice  -   Phil. 1:18
Pp 2:29a Receive  -   Rom. 16:2
Pp 2:29b joy  -   Phil. 1:4
Pp 2:29c hold  -   cf. 1 Cor. 16:18
Pp 2:301a risking  -   Acts 20:24
Venturing, recklessly exposing his life, like a gambler throwing down a stake.
Pp 2:302 life
Lit., soul. Epaphroditus was willing to risk his life for the churches and the saints.
Pp 2:30b fill  -   1 Cor. 16:17
Pp 2:303 service
See note 173; cf. note 253 in this chapter and note 32 in ch. 3.
Philippians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Pp 3:1a rejoice  -   Phil. 1:18; 2 Cor. 13:11; 1 Thes. 5:16
Pp 3:11 irksome
Or, wearisome, tedious, troublesome.
Pp 3:12 safe
To rejoice in the Lord is a safeguard, a security.
Pp 3:21 Beware
I.e., ever keep a watchful eye on. On the one hand, the apostle advised the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord; on the other hand, he warned them to ever keep a watchful eye on the Judaizers.
Pp 3:22a dogs  -   Psa. 22:16, 20; Matt. 7:6; 2 Pet. 2:22; Rev. 22:15
Since no conjunction is used between any of these three clauses, they must refer to the same class of people. Dogs are unclean (Lev. 11:27), the evil workers are evil, and the concision are those deserving of contempt. (Concision, meaning mutilation, is a contemptuous term for circumcision. See note 121 in Gal. 5.) The dogs here are the Judaizers. In nature the Judaizers are unclean dogs, in behavior they are evil workers, and in religion they are the concision, people of shame. In such a book concerning the experience and enjoyment of Christ, the apostle warned the Gentile believers to be wary of such unclean, evil, and contemptible people.
Pp 3:2b workers  -   2 Cor. 11:13
Pp 3:2c concision  -   Rom. 2:28; Gal. 5:2; 6:12-13, 15
See note 22.
Pp 3:31a circumcision  -   Rom. 2:29; 4:11-12; Col. 2:11
New Testament believers, genuinely circumcised by Christ’s crucifixion (see note 111 in Gal. 5 and note 111 in Col. 2). They are absolutely different from the Judaizers. They serve as priests by the Spirit of God, not by the ordinances of law; they boast in Christ, not in the law; and they do not have confidence in the flesh but in the Spirit.
Pp 3:32 serve
The Greek word for serve here and the word for service in 2:17 refer to the priestly service.
Pp 3:3b boast  -   Rom. 15:17; 1 Cor. 1:31
Pp 3:33 have
In vv. 2 and 3 there is a threefold contrast: believers who serve by the Spirit of God, in contrast to the dogs; believers who boast in Christ, in contrast to evil workers; and believers who have no confidence in the flesh, in contrast to the concision.
Pp 3:34c flesh  -   Rom. 8:4-9
The flesh here comprises all that we are and have in our natural being. The fact that the Judaizers had confidence in their circumcision was a sign that their confidence was in their flesh, not in the Spirit.
Pp 3:4a flesh  -   2 Cor. 11:18; 5:16
Pp 3:51a eighth  -   Gen. 17:12; Luke 1:59
The day for a genuine Israelite to be circumcised (Gen. 17:12). Being circumcised on that day distinguished him from the Ishmaelites (Ishmael was circumcised thirteen years after his birth — Gen. 17:25) and proselytes, who were circumcised on a later day.
Pp 3:52b race  -   Rom. 11:1
God’s called race, the genuine seed of Abraham (Rom. 11:1; 2 Cor. 11:22). Paul was not a descendant of the proselytes, who were grafted into the race of God’s covenant.
Pp 3:53 tribe
A lovely and faithful tribe, among whom was the royal city of Jerusalem with the temple of God (Deut. 33:12).
Pp 3:54c Hebrew  -   2 Cor. 11:22
A Hebrew born of Hebrew parents with Hebrew ancestry on both sides.
Pp 3:55d law  -   Acts 22:3
The law of Moses, which is respected by all orthodox Jews.
Pp 3:56e Pharisee  -   Acts 23:6; 26:5
The Pharisees were the strictest sect of the Jewish religion (Acts 26:5; 23:6), a sect exceedingly zealous for the law of Moses. See note 71 in Matt. 3.
Pp 3:61a zeal  -   Acts 22:3; Gal. 1:14
Zeal for the law of Moses and for the Jewish religion (Gal. 1:14 and note 1).
Pp 3:6b persecuting  -   Acts 8:1, 3; 22:4; 1 Cor. 15:9; 1 Tim. 1:13
Pp 3:6c righteousness  -   Phil. 3:9; Rom. 10:5
Pp 3:62d blameless  -   Luke 1:6
I.e., found or proven blameless. This was in the eyes of man, according to man’s judgment. In the eyes of God, according to His righteous law, no flesh is blameless (Gal. 2:16b).
Pp 3:71 But
Verses 7 and 8 are the heart of this book. Here we are initiated into the experience of Christ.
Pp 3:72 things
The things mentioned in vv. 5-6.
Pp 3:73 loss
All the different gains were counted as one loss by Paul because they all issued in one thing, that is, the loss of Christ, as indicated by on account of Christ.
Pp 3:74 on
All the things that were once gains to Paul hindered him and held him back from participating in and enjoying Christ. Hence, on account of Christ all the gains were a loss to him.
Pp 3:81 But
Verses 8-11, being one long sentence, are like the ascending steps of a staircase, bringing us higher and higher until we reach the peak in v. 11.
Pp 3:82 also
Paul counted as loss on account of Christ not only the things of his former religion listed in vv. 5 and 6 but all other things as well.
Pp 3:8a all  -   Luke 14:33
Pp 3:83 excellency
The excellency of the knowledge of Christ is derived from the excellency of His person. The Jews consider the law of God given through Moses the most excellent thing in human history; hence, they are zealous for the law. Paul participated in that zeal. But when Christ was revealed to him by God (Gal. 1:15-16), he saw that the excellency, the supereminence, the supreme preciousness, the surpassing worth, of Christ far exceeded the excellency of the law. His knowledge of Christ issued in the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. On account of this, he counted as loss not only the law and the religion founded according to the law, but all things.
Pp 3:8b knowledge  -   Phil. 3:10; John 17:3; Eph. 4:13; 2 Pet. 1:2
Pp 3:84 on
The phrase as to, which may be rendered according to, is used three times in vv. 5-6, with the law, zeal, and righteousness. The phrase on account of, which may be rendered because of, is used three times in vv. 7-8, with Christ (twice) and with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Christ stands in contrast to the law, the zeal for it, and the righteousness in it. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ and Christ Himself are in contrast to all things and to the law. On account of Christ and the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, Paul gave up the law, his zeal for it, the righteousness in it, and all other things. This indicates that Christ and the excellency of the knowledge of Christ are far superior to the law and all things.
Pp 3:85 refuse
Referring to dregs, rubbish, filth, that which is thrown to the dogs; hence, dog food, dung. There is no comparison between such things and Christ.
Pp 3:86c gain  -   Phil. 3:12
To know Christ is not merely to have the knowledge concerning Him but to gain His very person. Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9) and the reality of the shadows of all positive things (Col. 2:16-17). To gain something requires the paying of a price. To gain Christ is to experience, enjoy, and take possession of all His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8) by paying a price.
Pp 3:91 found
Paul had been altogether in the Jewish religion under the law and had always been found by others in the law. But at his conversion he was transferred from the law and his former religion into Christ and became “a man in Christ” (2 Cor. 12:2). Now he expected to be found in Christ by all who observed him — the Jews, the angels, and the demons. This indicates that he aspired to have his whole being immersed in and saturated with Christ that all who observed him might find him fully in Christ. Only when we are found in Christ will Christ be expressed and magnified (1:20).
Pp 3:92 not
“Not having my own righteousness…but… the righteousness which is out of God” was the condition in which Paul desired to be found in Christ. He wanted to live not in his own righteousness but in the righteousness of God, and to be found in such a transcendent condition, expressing God by living Christ, not by keeping the law.
Pp 3:9a righteousness  -   Phil. 3:6; Rom. 10:5
Pp 3:93 out
The righteousness that comes from man’s own effort to keep the law, as mentioned in v. 6.
Pp 3:94b faith  -   Rom. 9:30; 10:6; Gal. 2:16
Lit., faith of Christ. See note 221 in Rom. 3. The faith with which we believe in Christ issues from our knowing and appreciating Christ. It is Christ Himself, infused into us through our appreciation of Him, who becomes our faith — the faith in Him. Hence, it is the faith of Christ that brings us into an organic union with Him.
Pp 3:95c righteousness  -   1 Cor. 1:30
The righteousness that is God Himself lived out of us to be our righteousness through our faith in Christ. Such righteousness is the expression of God, who lives in us.
Pp 3:96 based
I.e., on the basis or condition of faith. Faith is the basis, the condition, on which we receive and possess the righteousness that is out of God, the highest righteousness, which is Christ (1 Cor. 1:30).
Pp 3:101a know  -   Phil. 3:8
Paul lived in a condition of having not his own righteousness but the righteousness that is out of God, in order to know (to experience) Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. In v. 8 to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ is by revelation. But to know Him here is by experience — to have the experiential knowledge of Him, to experience Him in the full knowledge of Him. Paul first received the revelation of Christ, then sought the experience of Christ — to know and enjoy Christ in an experiential way.
Pp 3:102b power  -   Rom. 1:4; Eph. 1:19
The power of Christ’s resurrection is His resurrection life, which raised Him from the dead (Eph. 1:19-20). The reality of the power of Christ’s resurrection is the Spirit (Rom. 1:4). To know, to experience, this power requires identification with Christ’s death and conformity to it. Death is the base of resurrection. To experience the power of Christ’s resurrection, we need to live a crucified life, as He did. Our conformity to His death affords the power of His resurrection a base from which to rise up that His divine life may be expressed in us.
Pp 3:103c fellowship  -   Matt. 20:23; Rom. 8:17; Col. 1:24
The participation in Christ’s sufferings (Matt. 20:22-23; Col. 1:24), a necessary condition for the experience of the power of His resurrection (2 Tim. 2:11) by being conformed to His death. Paul was pursuing to know and experience not only the excellency of Christ Himself but also the life power of His resurrection and the participation in His sufferings. With Christ, the sufferings and death came first, followed by the resurrection; with us, the power of His resurrection comes first, followed by the participation in His sufferings and conformity to His death. We first receive the power of His resurrection; then by this power we are enabled to participate in His sufferings and live a crucified life in conformity to His death. Such sufferings are mainly for producing and building up the Body of Christ (Col. 1:24).
Pp 3:104d conformed  -   Rom. 6:3, 5; 2 Cor. 4:10-12
To take Christ’s death as the mold of one’s life. Paul lived a crucified life continually, a life under the cross, just as Christ did in His human living. Through such a life the resurrection power of Christ is experienced and expressed. The mold of Christ’s death refers to Christ’s experience of continually putting to death His human life that He might live by the life of God (John 6:57). Our life should be conformed to such a mold by our dying to our human life to live the divine life. Being conformed to the death of Christ is the condition for knowing and experiencing Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.
Pp 3:111 attain
I.e., arrive at. This requires us to triumphantly run the race for the prize (1 Cor. 9:24-26; 2 Tim. 4:7-8).
Pp 3:112a out  -   Heb. 11:35
I.e., the outstanding resurrection, the extra-resurrection, which will be a prize to the overcoming saints. All believers who are dead in Christ will participate in the resurrection from the dead at the Lord’s coming back (1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52). But the overcoming saints will enjoy an extra, outstanding portion of that resurrection. See note 352 in Heb. 11.
To arrive at the out-resurrection indicates that our entire being has been gradually and continually resurrected. God first resurrected our deadened spirit (Eph. 2:5-6); then from our spirit He proceeds to resurrect our soul (Rom. 8:6) and our mortal body (Rom. 8:11), until our entire being — spirit, soul, and body — is fully resurrected out of our old being by and with His life. This is a process in life through which we must pass and a race that we must run until we arrive at the out-resurrection as the prize. Hence, the out-resurrection should be the goal and destination of our Christian life. We can reach this goal only by being conformed to the death of Christ, by living a crucified life. In the death of Christ we are processed in resurrection from the old creation to the new.
Pp 3:11b resurrection  -   John 5:29; 1 Cor. 15:21, 23; Rev. 20:5
Pp 3:121 Not
Paul had already obtained the believers’ common salvation by the believers’ common faith (1 Tim. 1:14-16), but he had not obtained the extra portion of resurrection. To obtain that portion he had to pursue, to run, and to finish his course triumphantly.
Pp 3:122 have
At his conversion.
Pp 3:12a obtained  -   1 Cor. 9:24
Pp 3:123 am
In his present seeking.
Pp 3:124b perfected  -   Phil. 3:15; Heb. 6:1
Or, completed, mature (in life).
Pp 3:125c pursue  -   Phil. 3:14
The same Greek word as for persecute, meaning also to press toward, to follow after. In such a way Paul ran the race to obtain the prize and reach maturity. Before he was saved, he persecuted Christ. After he was saved, he pursued Christ to such an extent that he persecuted Christ, but in a positive way.
Pp 3:126 lay
Gain, grasp, take possession of, seize.
Pp 3:127 that
At his conversion Paul was grasped, taken possession of, by Christ in order that he might grasp, take possession of, Christ. Christ gained him that he might gain Christ (v. 8).
Pp 3:12d I  -   Acts 9:4-5
Pp 3:128 laid
Gained, grasped, taken possession of, seized. So in v. 13.
Pp 3:131 not
Paul had experienced and gained Christ tremendously, yet he did not account of himself to have experienced Christ in full or gained Him to the uttermost. He still endeavored to pursue toward the goal — the gaining of Christ to the fullest extent.
Pp 3:132 Forgetting
In order to gain Christ to the fullest extent, Paul not only forsook his experiences in Judaism but also would not linger in his past experiences of Christ. He forgot the past. Not to forget but to linger in our past experiences, however genuine they were, frustrates our further pursuing of Christ.
Pp 3:13a behind  -   Luke 9:62
Pp 3:133 stretching
Christ is unsearchably rich. There is a vast territory of His riches to be possessed. Paul was stretching out to reach the farthest extent of this territory.
Pp 3:141a pursue  -   Phil. 3:12; 1 Cor. 9:24, 26; 2 Tim. 4:7
See note 125.
Pp 3:142 goal
The fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ.
Pp 3:143b prize  -   1 Cor. 9:24; Heb. 10:35; 11:26
The uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom as a reward to the victorious runners of the New Testament race.
Pp 3:144c called  -   Rom. 8:28; Heb. 3:1; 2 Tim. 1:9
To be called upward is for the obtaining of the prize to which God has called us from above, from the heavens. This heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1) corresponds with the heavenly commonwealth in v. 20. It is not an earthly calling like that given to the children of Israel in the flesh. This upward calling is to take possession of Christ, whereas the earthly calling to the children of Israel was to take possession of the physical land.
Pp 3:151a full-grown  -   Phil. 3:12; 1 Cor. 2:6
I.e., mature, perfect. Maturity is a stage. We may be mature but not mature in full. Full-grown here is used in a relative sense — relatively mature, neither childish nor fully mature. Hence, further pursuing, further growth, is needed.
Pp 3:152b this  -   Phil. 2:2, 5; 4:2
In this book the dealing with the Philippian believers is focused on the mind, the leading part of the soul. This book charges them to strive together with one soul along with the personified gospel (1:27), to think the same thing, to be joined in soul, even to think the one thing (2:2; 4:2), to let the mind that was in Christ be in them (2:5), and to have this one mind, a mind focused on the pursuing and gaining of Christ to the uttermost. When our mind is thus occupied, we have the same mind, thinking the same thing, even thinking the one thing — the fullest gaining of Christ — being joined in soul, like-souled (2:20), and made one soul.
Pp 3:15c otherwise  -   Gal. 5:10
Pp 3:153d reveal  -   Gal. 1:16
The pursuing of Christ must be our goal. We should not be otherwise minded. God reveals to us that we need such a mind, a mind focused on the pursuing of Christ. He desires to continually adjust our mind, turning it toward Christ as the center.
Pp 3:161 Nevertheless
This word concludes the preceding verses, charging us with only this one thing: to walk by the same rule.
Pp 3:162 whereunto
Whereunto we have attained modifies walk.
Pp 3:163 same
Same line, same path, same steps. Paul’s use of this word indicates that by the same path we should walk according to the elementary principle.
Pp 3:164a walk  -   Gal. 6:16; 5:25; Acts 21:24
Gk. stoicheo, meaning to walk orderly, derived from steicho, which means to range in regular line, to march in military rank, to keep step, to conform to virtue and piety. The word is also used in Rom. 4:12 and Gal. 5:25; 6:16. It is different from the word walk in vv. 17 and 18, which means to live, to deport oneself, to be occupied with, to walk about, as used in Rom. 6:4; 8:4; 13:13; 1 Cor. 3:3; Gal. 5:16; and Eph. 4:1, 17. By this word the apostle charged us to walk and to order our lives — whereunto we have attained, at the state to which we have attained — by the same rule, in the same line, in the same path, in the same footsteps. Whatever state we have attained to in our spiritual life, we all must walk, as the apostle did, by the same rule, in the same path; that is, we must pursue Christ toward the goal that we may gain Christ to the fullest extent as the prize of the upward calling of God. See note 252 in Gal. 5.
Pp 3:17a imitators  -   1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1
Pp 3:17b pattern  -   2 Thes. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7; 1 Pet. 5:3
Pp 3:181 many
Probably those who practiced the Epicurean philosophy, which promoted indulgence in the pleasure of eating and drinking and encouraged self-gratification in other things, all of which are contrary to the cross of Christ. Verse 2 shows that the Judaizers were a damage to the Philippian believers, and this verse, that the Epicureans were another kind of damage to them. The former was of Jewish origin; the latter, of a heathen source.
Basically, the exhortation in this chapter was prompted by these two groups of people. In speaking of the Judaizers, it edified the Philippians concerning the matter of dealing with the soul (vv. 1-16), especially with the mind; and in alluding to the Epicureans, it instructed the believers concerning the matter of dealing with the body (vv. 17-21). To deal with the soul we must count as refuse all religious, philosophical, and cultural things. In dealing with the body, we should take care of our physical need but should not indulge in excessive physical enjoyment.
Pp 3:18a weeping  -   Acts 20:31
Pp 3:182b cross  -   Gal. 6:12
The cross of Christ terminated the indulgence of the lusts of the physical body (Gal. 5:24).
Pp 3:191 Whose
The Epicureans, who worshipped their belly and served their stomach. In promoting the enjoyment of eating and drinking, they were more concerned with physical indulgence and enjoyment than with ethics or morality. Their stomach was their god.
Pp 3:19a destruction  -   Phil. 1:28
Pp 3:19b stomach  -   Rom. 16:18
Pp 3:19c shame  -   Jude 13; Hosea 4:7
Pp 3:19d set  -   Col. 3:2
Pp 3:192 earthly
Physical things, material things, matters of eating and drinking. We need things such as food and clothing; however, we should not indulge ourselves in these things.
Pp 3:201a commonwealth  -   Eph. 2:19
Or, citizenship. The Greek word denotes commonwealth, associations of life.
Pp 3:202b heavens  -   Eph. 2:6; Heb. 12:22
In contrast to earthly in the preceding verse. Those who practiced the Epicurean philosophy set their mind on earthly things, but our commonwealth is in the heavens.
Pp 3:20c await  -   1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Thes. 1:10
Pp 3:211a transfigure  -   1 Cor. 15:51-54
The transfiguration of our body is the ultimate consummation of God’s salvation. In His salvation God first regenerated our spirit (John 3:6), now is transforming our soul (Rom. 12:2), and consummately will transfigure our body, making us the same as Christ in all three parts of our being.
Pp 3:212b body  -   Rom. 8:23
Our natural body, made of worthless dust (Gen. 2:7) and damaged by sin, weakness, sickness, and death (Rom. 6:6; 7:24; 8:11).
Pp 3:21c conformed  -   Rom. 8:29
Pp 3:213 body
Christ’s resurrected body, saturated with God’s glory (Luke 24:26) and transcendent over corruption and death (Rom. 6:9).
Pp 3:21d glory  -   1 Cor. 15:43; Col. 3:4
Pp 3:214 according
The transfiguring of our body is accomplished by the Lord’s great power, which subjects all things to Himself (Eph. 1:19-22). This is the almighty power in the universe.
Pp 3:21e subject  -   1 Cor. 15:27-28; 1 Pet. 3:22
Philippians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Pp 4:1a longed  -   Phil. 1:8
Pp 4:11b joy  -   Phil. 1:4; 1 Thes. 2:19-20
Joy is inward; a crown is manifested outwardly. The believers were the apostle’s inward happiness and outward glory.
Pp 4:1c crown  -   cf. Prov. 17:6
Pp 4:12 in
In the way presented by the apostle in the foregoing chapter.
Pp 4:1d stand  -   Phil. 1:27; 1 Cor. 16:13
Pp 4:21a think  -   Phil. 2:2; 1 Cor. 1:10
This indicates that the two sisters were dissenting from each other; they were not of the same mind. Hence, there was the exhortation in this book to strive together with one soul along with the personified gospel (1:27), to be joined in soul, thinking the one thing (2:2), and to have the same mind to pursue Christ (3:14-15).
Pp 4:31 yokefellow
Referring to two oxen pulling a plow; used as a metaphor. Yokefellow refers to being yoked together with another to bear a common burden.
Pp 4:32 assist
Assist them to think the same thing in the Lord, and thereby to be one.
Pp 4:33 contended
Labored with, strove together with, wrestled in company with, as a team of athletes.
Pp 4:3a fellow  -   Phil. 2:25
Pp 4:3b names  -   Luke 10:20; Heb. 12:23
Pp 4:34c book  -   Rev. 3:5; 17:8; 20:15
A heavenly record of the redeemed in Christ.
Pp 4:41a Rejoice  -   Phil. 3:1; 1 Thes. 5:16
Rejoicing affords us the strength for the oneness spoken of in vv. 2 and 3. Furthermore, rejoicing in the Lord is the secret of having the excellent virtues listed in vv. 5-9.
Pp 4:51 Let
The apostle’s charge in vv. 5-9 should be the outward expression of the inner reality of the experience of Christ spoken of by him in chs. 1 — 3.
Pp 4:52 forbearance
I.e., reasonableness, considerateness, and consideration in dealing with others, not being strict in claiming one’s legal rights. It is in contrast to selfish ambition and vainglory (2:3) and to murmurings and reasonings (2:14). It is Christ Himself as an excellent virtue lived out of the believers.
Pp 4:53a near  -   James 5:8; Heb. 10:37
Near in space and time. With respect to space, the Lord is near us, ready to help. With regard to time, the Lord is at hand, coming soon.
Pp 4:61 be
I.e., worry. Anxiety, coming from Satan, is the sum total of human life and disturbs the believers’ life of living Christ; forbearance, coming from God, is the sum total of a life that lives Christ. The two are opposites.
Pp 4:6a anxious  -   Matt. 6:25; 1 Pet. 5:7
Pp 4:62b prayer  -   Eph. 6:18; 1 Tim. 2:1
Prayer is general, having worship and fellowship as its essence; petition is special, being for particular needs.
Pp 4:63 with
Not and but with. Both our prayer and our petition should be accompanied by our giving thanks to the Lord.
Pp 4:6c thanksgiving  -   Eph. 5:20; Col. 3:17; 1 Thes. 5:18
Pp 4:64 to
The Greek word is often translated with (John 1:1; Mark 9:19; 2 Cor. 5:8; 1 John 1:2). It denotes motion toward, in the sense of a living union and communion, implying fellowship. Hence, the sense of to God here is in the fellowship with God.
Pp 4:71a peace  -   Phil. 4:9; Isa. 26:3; John 14:27; Col. 3:15
The result of practicing fellowship with God in prayer is that we enjoy the peace of God. The peace of God is actually God as peace (v. 9) infused into us through our fellowship with Him by prayer, as the counterpoise to troubles and the antidote to anxiety (John 16:33).
Pp 4:7b surpasses  -   Eph. 3:19
Pp 4:72c guard  -   1 Pet. 1:5; Jude 1
Or, mount guard over. The God of peace patrols before our hearts and thoughts in Christ, keeping us calm and tranquil.
Pp 4:73 hearts
The heart is the source; the thoughts are the issue.
Pp 4:81 true
Truthful ethically. It does not mean true in matter of fact.
Pp 4:82 dignified
I.e., venerable, worthy of reverence, noble, grave; implying the idea of dignity, which inspires and invites reverence.
Pp 4:83 righteous
Right, not just, before God and man.
Pp 4:84a pure  -   1 Tim. 4:12; 5:22
I.e., single in intention and action, without any mixture.
Pp 4:85 lovely
I.e., lovable, agreeable, endearing.
Pp 4:86b well  -   2 Cor. 6:8
I.e., of good repute, attractive, winning, gracious.
Pp 4:87c virtue  -   2 Pet. 1:5
Meaning excellence, that is, ethical energy exhibited in vigorous action. See notes 311 and 54 in 2 Pet. 1.
Pp 4:88 praise
I.e., things worthy of praise, as the companion of virtue. The first six items are categorized under what things are; the last two, under if any. This indicates that the last two items are a summing up of the first six, in all of which are some virtue or excellence and something worthy of praise.
Pp 4:89 take
Think about, ponder, consider.
Pp 4:91a received  -   1 Thes. 1:6
Not only learned but also received.
Pp 4:92 seen
Not only heard but also seen.
Pp 4:93 practice
Not only should the believers think about the things mentioned in v. 8; they should also practice the things they have learned, received, heard, and seen in the apostle.
Pp 4:94b God  -   Rom. 15:33; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 13:20
The God of peace is the source of all the things mentioned in vv. 8 and 9. By our fellowshipping with Him and having Him with us, all these virtues will issue forth in our life.
Pp 4:10a rejoiced  -   Phil. 1:18
Pp 4:101 blossom
The Greek word means to sprout and bloom, implying that the Philippian believers’ thinking toward the apostle was a matter of life. For some time their thinking for Paul had been dormant. But when Paul wrote this Epistle, their thinking for him had begun to blossom anew, just like a plant’s sprouting and blooming.
Pp 4:11a lack  -   2 Cor. 11:9
Pp 4:111b content  -   1 Tim. 6:6, 8; Heb. 13:5
Self-sufficient, satisfied in oneself. This is a word used by the Stoics, who taught that a person should be content in all circumstances. Being content is the opposite of the Epicurean practice referred to in 3:18-19.
Pp 4:121 abased
Humbled, in lowly circumstances.
Pp 4:122 abound
To live in abundance.
Pp 4:123 in
In everything means in each matter; in all things means in all matters. Together, these two phrases encompass all the things in the course of human life. Paul learned the secret of experiencing Christ — to experience Him in everything and in every place.
Pp 4:124 I
Lit., I have been initiated. The metaphor here refers to a person’s being initiated into a secret society with instruction in its rudimentary principles. After Paul was converted to Christ, he was initiated into Christ and the Body of Christ. He then learned the secret of how to take Christ as life, how to live Christ, how to magnify Christ, how to gain Christ, and how to have the church life, all of which things are rudimentary principles.
Pp 4:125 filled
Satisfied.
Pp 4:12a hunger  -   1 Cor. 4:11; 2 Cor. 11:27
Pp 4:126 abound
To have abundance, sufficiency, more than enough.
Pp 4:127b lack  -   2 Cor. 11:9
To be in want, to suffer privation.
Pp 4:131 in
Paul was a person in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2), and he desired to be found in Christ by others. Now he declared that he was able to do all things in Him, the very Christ who empowered him. This is an all-inclusive and concluding word on his experience of Christ. It is the converse of the Lord’s word in John 15:5 concerning our organic relationship with Him, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Pp 4:132a empowers  -   2 Cor. 12:9; Eph. 3:16; 1 Tim. 1:12; Col. 1:11
The Greek word means makes dynamic inwardly. Christ dwells in us (Col. 1:27). He empowers us, makes us dynamic from within, not from without. By such inward empowering Paul was able to do all things in Christ.
Pp 4:141a fellowship  -   Heb. 10:33; Rev. 1:9
This was the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel (1:5), by their supplying of material things to the apostle (v. 18).
Pp 4:142 affliction
Referring to Paul’s imprisonment (1:17).
Pp 4:15a gospel  -   Phil. 1:5
Pp 4:15b went  -   Acts 17:14-15
Pp 4:15c Macedonia  -   2 Cor. 11:9
Pp 4:151 fellowship
This fellowshipping (sharing) is the fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel mentioned in 1:5 and 4:14.
Pp 4:152d account  -   Phil. 4:17
The Philippian believers’ supplying of material things to the apostle opened an account with the apostle.
Pp 4:153 giving
The supplying and receiving of material things to meet the apostle’s need in his gospel work.
Pp 4:154 you
The church in Philippi was a unique example in the supplying of the sent one’s needs for the furtherance of the gospel.
Pp 4:16a Thessalonica  -   Acts 17:1
Pp 4:16b need  -   Phil. 2:25
Pp 4:171 gift
The material things given to the Lord’s servant for the Lord’s interests.
Pp 4:172a fruit  -   Rom. 15:28; Titus 3:14
The result of their fellowship, participation, in the apostle’s gospel work. This will be a reward in the day of the Lord.
Pp 4:173b account  -   Phil. 4:15
The account opened in v. 15. We should follow the Philippians’ example by opening such an account and keeping its credit side continually increasing in the fruit of our giving.
Pp 4:181 filled
Fully supplied.
Pp 4:18a Epaphroditus  -   Phil. 2:25
Pp 4:182 things
The material things given as a supply to the apostle.
Pp 4:183 sweet-smelling
The same Greek phrase as in Eph. 5:2. A sweet-smelling odor of sacrifices offered to God (Gen. 8:21).
Pp 4:184b sacrifice  -   Heb. 13:16
The Philippians’ material gift, given to supply the apostle’s need, was considered by him a sacrifice to God, acceptable and well pleasing (Heb. 13:16). Paul indicated in his appreciation that what the Philippians did toward him was done toward God. This implies that he had the assurance that he was one with God and that his work was by God and for God.
Pp 4:191 my
The apostle in his experience had the conviction and assurance that he was one with God and that God was his God. Since he considered the Philippians’ material gift to him a sacrifice to God, he believed with assurance that God, who was one with him and who was his God, would richly repay the Philippians.
Pp 4:192a fill  -   2 Cor. 9:8
Fully supply, satisfy to the full.
Pp 4:193 your
Since the Philippians cared for God’s sent one, God would care for their every need.
Pp 4:194 according
God supplies us according to His riches, not according to our needs. His riches exceed our needs.
Pp 4:195 in
In glory modifies fill. Glory is the expression of God; it is God expressed in splendor. God’s rich supply to the believers, who are His children, expresses God and bears the glory of God. The apostle assured the Philippians that God would abundantly supply all their needs in a way that would bring them into His glory.
Pp 4:196 in
In Christ Jesus also modifies fill. Christ, the all-inclusive One, is the base, the element, the sphere, and the channel in and by which God cares for His people according to His riches and in glory. This indicates that even the believers’ giving and receiving of material things are intimately related to the experience of Christ.
Pp 4:201 our
God is not only the apostle’s God but also the believers’.
Pp 4:202a glory  -   Rom. 11:36
Glory is God expressed in His splendor and excellency for our appreciation. For glory to be to God means that God is expressed in this way. Our giving in Christ, which is to God for God’s interests, brings in God’s glory, not only for our enjoyment but also for God’s glorification.
Pp 4:203 Amen
See note 135 in Matt. 6.
Pp 4:22a saints  -   Phil. 1:1; Rom. 1:7
Pp 4:221 those
Caesar’s household comprised all who were attached to the palace of Nero. Some of these were converted through contact with Paul and became believers in Christ in Rome.
Pp 4:231a grace  -   2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14
God in Christ as our supply and enjoyment, conveyed to us and realized through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (1:19). To experience Christ as Paul did, we need this grace.
Pp 4:232b spirit  -   Gal. 6:18; 2 Tim. 4:22
Our regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. It is in this spirit of ours that we experience and enjoy Christ as Paul did.
This book, which is concerned with the experience of Christ, points out to us at the beginning, in ch. 1, that it is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that enables us to live Christ, even to magnify Christ under any circumstances, that we may enjoy Him as the uttermost salvation. Here, at the end of the book, we are told that our experience and enjoyment of Christ must take place in our spirit, which has been regenerated to be the dwelling place and vessel of the Triune God. Therefore, this is altogether a matter of the union and mingling of the processed Triune God, who has become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, and the spirit of us, the tripartite men, who are being transformed by such a Spirit. We must live and act in our wonderful spirit by the Triune God as the wonderful Spirit. Only then can we experience and enjoy the Triune God, who was processed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, as the inexhaustibly sufficient grace and thus become His fullness, His expression.
< Philippians • Colossians Outline >
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Colossians Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-8
A.   The apostle’s greeting — vv. 1-2
B.   The apostle’s thanksgiving — vv. 3-8
II.   The preeminent and all-inclusive One, the centrality and universality of God — 1:9 — 3:11
A.   The portion of the saints — 1:9-14
B.   The image of God and the Firstborn both in creation and in resurrection — 1:15-23
C.   The mystery of God’s economy — 1:24-29
D.   The mystery of God — 2:1-7
E.   The body of all the shadows — 2:8-23
F.   The life of the saints — 3:1-4
G.   The constituents of the new man — 3:5-11
III.   A living in union with Christ — 3:12 — 4:6
A.   The arbitrating peace of Christ — 3:12-15
B.   The indwelling word of Christ — 3:16-17
C.   The expression of Christ in ethical relationships — 3:18 — 4:1
D.   Praying with perseverance and walking in wisdom — 4:2-6
IV.   Conclusion — 4:7-18
A.   The apostle’s fellowship — vv. 7-17
B.   The apostle’s greeting — v. 18
Colossians >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Colossians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Co 1:11 Paul
The background of this book is that culture had been mixed into the church life in Colossae. Originally, Christ was the unique element in the church life, yet at that time a disturbance was created because Christ was being replaced by culture. The constituent of the church should be Christ and Christ alone, yet the church had been invaded by certain elements of culture — especially religion, in the form of asceticism related to Judaic ordinances and observances (2:16, 20-21), and philosophy, in the form of mysticism related to Gnosticism and the worship of angels (2:8, 18). Hence, the central concept of this book is that nothing should be allowed to replace Christ.
This book concentrates on Christ as the Head of the Body. It reveals the profoundness, all-inclusiveness, and unlimitedness of Christ to a fuller extent than any other book in the Bible.
Co 1:12a will  -   1 Cor. 1:1
See note 12 in Eph. 1.
Co 1:1b Timothy  -   2 Cor. 1:1; 1 Thes. 3:2; Heb. 13:23
Co 1:21a saints  -   Eph. 1:1
I.e., the holy ones, those separated and sanctified unto God. They were living in Colossae, but they were separated from the world.
Co 1:2b Grace  -   John 1:17; Eph. 1:2
Co 1:2c Father  -   Eph. 1:2
Co 1:31 Father
See note 32 in Eph. 1.
Co 1:41a faith  -   Col. 2:5, 7; 1 Thes. 1:3; 1 Cor. 13:13
To have faith is to substantiate and receive what is in Christ, to love is to experience and enjoy what we have received of Christ, and to hope (v. 5) is to expect and wait for the glorification in Christ.
Co 1:4b love  -   Col. 1:8
See note 41.
Co 1:51a hope  -   Col. 1:23, 27; Eph. 1:18; 4:4
Hope, faith, and love, mentioned in vv. 4 and 5, are the three things that the apostle stressed in 1 Cor. 13:13. The emphasis there was on love because of the Corinthians’ situation; the emphasis here is on hope, which, strictly speaking, is Christ Himself (v. 27), that Christ may be revealed as everything to us.
Co 1:52 laid
It is by living and experiencing Christ that we lay up hope in the heavens. The more we live and experience Christ, the more we lay up hope in the heavens. Hence, hope is being laid up now in our daily life.
Co 1:5b word  -   Eph. 1:13
Co 1:53 truth
The truth of the gospel is the reality, the real facts, not the doctrine, of the gospel. “The word” may be considered the doctrine of the gospel, but “the truth” must refer to reality. Christ, in His all-inclusive person and His multifaceted redemptive work, is the reality of the gospel.
Co 1:61a grace  -   Acts 4:33; 11:23; Rom. 5:2
The grace of God is what God is to us and what God gives to us in Christ (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10).
Co 1:62b truth  -   Rom. 1:25; John 16:7; Mark 5:33; 12:32; Luke 4:25
Truth here means reality (see point 8 of note 66 in 1 John 1). To know the grace of God in truth is to know it experientially in its reality, not just mentally in vain words or doctrines.
Co 1:7a Epaphras  -   Col. 4:12; Philem. 23
Co 1:71b minister  -   Col. 4:7
A minister of Christ is not only a servant of Christ, one who serves Christ, but a serving one who serves others with Christ by ministering Christ to them.
Co 1:8a love  -   Rom. 15:30; Gal. 5:22
Co 1:9a praying  -   Eph. 1:16
Co 1:91 His
Here God’s will is His will regarding His eternal purpose, regarding His economy concerning Christ (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11), not His will regarding minor things.
Co 1:9b will  -   Eph. 1:9; Rom. 12:2
Co 1:92 spiritual
Spiritual wisdom and understanding are of the Spirit of God in our spirit, in contrast to Gnostic philosophy, which is merely in the darkened human mind. Wisdom is in our spirit and is for us to perceive God’s eternal will; spiritual understanding is in our mind, renewed by the Spirit, and is for us to understand and interpret what we perceive in our spirit.
Co 1:9c wisdom  -   Eph. 1:17
Co 1:101 walk
Walking worthily of the Lord issues from having the full knowledge of God’s will. Such a worthy walk is a walk in which we live Christ.
Co 1:102 in
I.e., in all ways.
Co 1:103 bearing
Here bearing fruit refers to living Christ, growing Christ, expressing Christ, and propagating Christ in every respect. This is the real essence of every Christian good work.
Co 1:104 knowledge
Not knowledge in letters in the mind but the living knowledge of God in spirit, by means of which we grow in life.
Co 1:11a empowered  -   Eph. 6:10; Phil. 4:13; 2 Tim. 2:1
Co 1:111 power
This power is not only the power of Christ’s resurrection (Phil. 3:10) but Christ Himself as a dynamo that empowers us in all things (Phil. 4:13) unto all endurance and long-suffering with joy that we may have a living in which we experience and live Christ.
Co 1:112b might  -   Eph. 1:19
The might that expresses God’s glory, glorifying God in His might.
Co 1:121 qualified
God the Father has qualified us by the redemption of God the Son and through the sanctification of God the Spirit for a share of the all-inclusive Christ, the very embodiment of the processed Triune God, as the allotted portion of the saints.
Co 1:122 allotted
This refers to the lot of the inheritance, as illustrated by the allotment of the good land of Canaan given to the children of Israel for their inheritance (Josh. 14:1). The New Testament believers’ inheritance, their allotted portion, is not a physical land; it is the all-inclusive Christ. He is the allotted portion of the saints as their divine inheritance for their enjoyment.
Co 1:12a portion  -   cf. Acts 20:32
Co 1:123b light  -   Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9
Light here is in contrast to darkness in the next verse. When we were under Satan’s authority, we were in darkness. But now we are in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, enjoying Him in light.
Co 1:131 delivered
For Christ to be the Head of the Body, and for us, His believers, to be the members of His Body, God needed to deliver us out of the authority of darkness, the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26b), and transfer us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. This is to qualify us to partake of the all-inclusive Christ as our allotted portion.
Co 1:132a darkness  -   Acts 26:18; Eph. 6:12; Luke 22:53; 1 Pet. 2:9
Lit., the darkness.
Co 1:13b kingdom  -   Eph. 5:5
Co 1:133c Son  -   Matt. 3:17; Eph. 1:6
The Son is the expression of the Father as the source of life (John 1:4, 18; 1 John 1:2). The beloved Son as the object of the Father’s love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love.
Co 1:141a redemption  -   Eph. 1:7; Rom. 3:24
Deliverance, mentioned in the preceding verse, deals with Satan’s authority over us by destroying his evil power, whereas redemption, mentioned in this verse, deals with our sins by fulfilling God’s righteous requirement.
Co 1:142b forgiveness  -   Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 10:43
The forgiveness of sins is the redemption that we have in Christ. Christ’s death accomplished redemption unto the forgiveness of our sins.
Co 1:151a image  -   Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gen. 1:26; Heb. 1:3; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29
God is invisible. But the Son of His love, who is the effulgence of His glory and the impress of His substance (Heb. 1:3), is His image, expressing what He is. The image here is not a physical form but an expression of God’s being in all His attributes and virtues (see note 62 in Phil. 2). This interpretation is confirmed by 3:10 and 2 Cor. 3:18.
Co 1:15b invisible  -   1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 11:27
Co 1:152c Firstborn  -   cf. Rev. 3:14
Christ as God is the Creator. However, as man, sharing the created blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14a), He is part of the creation. Firstborn of all creation refers to Christ’s preeminence in all creation, because from this verse through v. 18 the apostle stresses the first place that Christ has in all things.
Co 1:161 in
In Him here means in the power of Christ’s person. All things were created in the power of what Christ is. All creation bears the characteristics of Christ’s intrinsic power.
Co 1:162 thrones
Thrones refers to those who are in authority on the throne.
Co 1:163a lordships  -   Eph. 1:21
See note 211 in Eph. 1.
Co 1:164b through  -   John 1:3
Through Him indicates that Christ is the active instrument through which the creation of all things was accomplished in sequence.
Co 1:165 unto
Or, for Him. This indicates that Christ is the end of all creation. All things were created unto Him for His possession. In, through, and unto indicate that creation is subjectively related to Christ. The creation was created in Him, through Him, and unto Him.
Co 1:171 before
This indicates Christ’s eternal preexistence.
Co 1:172a cohere  -   cf. Heb. 1:3
Or, subsist together in Him. To cohere in Christ is to exist together by Christ as the holding center, just as the spokes of a wheel are held together by the hub at their center.
Co 1:18a Head  -   Eph. 1:22-23; 4:15
Co 1:18b Body  -   1 Cor. 12:12; Rom. 12:5
Co 1:18c beginning  -   Rev. 21:6; 22:13
Co 1:181d Firstborn  -   1 Cor. 15:20, 23
Verses 15-17 unveil Christ as the first in creation, as the One who has preeminence among all creatures. Verse 18 shows that Christ is the first in resurrection as the Head of the Body. As such, He has the first place in the church, God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
Co 1:191 all
All the fullness refers to the fullness in both the old creation and the new creation.
Co 1:192a fullness  -   Col. 2:9; John 1:16; Eph. 3:19
The word fullness has no modifier, indicating that this fullness is the unique fullness. It denotes not the riches of what God is but the expression of those riches. The full expression of the rich being of God, in both creation and the church, dwells in Christ. All creation and the whole church are filled with Christ as the expression of God’s riches. Such a fullness is pleased with this. This is pleasant to Christ.
The fullness in this verse refers to the image of God in v. 15, who is Christ, a living person. Such a fullness is pleased to dwell in the expression of God and to reconcile all things to the expression of God.
Co 1:201 through
Through Him means through Christ as the active instrument through which the reconciliation was accomplished.
Co 1:20a reconcile  -   2 Cor. 5:18; Eph. 2:16
Co 1:202b all  -   Heb. 2:9
Not “all people” but “all things,” referring not only to human beings but also to all creatures, which were created in Christ and now subsist, cohere, in Him (vv. 16-17) and are reconciled to God through Him.
Co 1:203 Himself
Himself here refers to the fullness in v. 19.
Co 1:204c having  -   Eph. 2:15
To reconcile all things to Himself is to make peace with Himself for all things. This was accomplished through the blood of the cross of Christ.
Co 1:20d blood  -   Eph. 2:13; 1:7
Co 1:20e things  -   Eph. 1:10
Co 1:205 heavens
Not only things on the earth but also things in the heavens needed to be reconciled to God. This indicates that things in the heavens also are wrong with God because of the rebellion of Satan, the archangel, and the angels who followed him. His rebellion has contaminated the heavens.
Co 1:21a alienated  -   Eph. 2:12
Co 1:211b enemies  -   Rom. 5:10
Because we were sinners, we needed redemption. Because we were also enemies of God, we needed reconciliation.
Co 1:212c mind  -   Eph. 4:17
Our enmity toward God was mainly in our corrupted mind.
Co 1:221 He
Both He and Him refer to the fullness in v. 19. It is the fullness that dwells in Christ (v. 19), it is the fullness that reconciles us to Himself (v. 20), and it is to the fullness that we will be presented. This fullness is God Himself expressed in Christ.
Co 1:22a holy  -   Eph. 1:4; 5:27
Co 1:231 faith
Not our act of believing but the object of our belief.
Co 1:23a grounded  -   Eph. 3:17
Co 1:232b hope  -   Col. 1:5, 27; Eph. 1:18; 4:4
Christ in us the hope of glory (v. 27), from whom we should not be moved away.
Co 1:23c all  -   Mark 16:15
Co 1:23d minister  -   Col. 1:25; Eph. 3:7; 2 Cor. 3:6
Co 1:24a rejoice  -   Phil. 2:17
Co 1:241 fill
The afflictions of Christ are of two categories: those for accomplishing redemption, which were completed by Christ Himself, and those for producing and building the church, which need to be filled up by the apostles and the believers.
Co 1:24b afflictions  -   2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10; Rev. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:10
Co 1:24c Body  -   Eph. 4:12
Co 1:251 which
Referring to the church in the preceding verse, indicating that Paul became a minister not of a certain teaching, preaching, or mission work but of the church, the Body of Christ, for its building up.
Co 1:252a minister  -   Col. 1:23
In Greek, the same word as that for deacon, meaning one who serves.
Co 1:253b stewardship  -   Eph. 3:2
See note 22 in Eph. 3.
Co 1:254 complete
The word of God is the divine revelation, which had not been completed before the New Testament was written. In the New Testament the apostles, especially the apostle Paul, completed the word of God in regard to the mystery of God, which is Christ, and the mystery of Christ, which is the church, to give us a full revelation of God’s economy.
Co 1:25c word  -   Col. 3:16; 4:3
Co 1:261a mystery  -   Eph. 3:3-5, 9; Rom. 16:25-26
According to Greek grammar, the mystery in this verse is in apposition to the word of God in v. 25, showing that the mystery is the word of God. This mystery concerns Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32), the Head and the Body. The unveiling of this mystery through the apostle Paul is the completing of the word of God as the divine revelation.
Co 1:262 from
From the ages means from eternity, and from the generations means from the times. The mystery concerning Christ and the church was hidden from eternity and from all the times until the New Testament age, when it was manifested to the saints, including all of us, the believers in Christ.
Co 1:271a riches  -   Rom. 9:23; Eph. 1:18; 3:16
The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles are the riches of all that Christ is to the Gentile believers (Eph. 3:8).
Co 1:27b mystery  -   Col. 2:2
Co 1:272 which
Which refers to this mystery. This mystery, full of glory among the Gentiles, is Christ in us. Christ as life in us is mysterious as well as glorious.
Co 1:273c Christ  -   Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 2:20; 4:19
Christ, who dwells in our spirit to be our life and person, is our hope of glory. When He comes, we will be glorified in Him. This indicates that the indwelling Christ will saturate our entire being that our physical body may be transfigured and conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21).
Co 1:274 in
In this book a number of important phrases point to our experience of Christ: Christ in you (v. 27), full-grown in Christ (v. 28), walk in Him (2:6), according to Christ (2:8), made alive together with Him (2:13), died with Christ (2:20), holding the Head (2:19), out from whom (2:19), and grows with the growth of God (2:19). These expressions give us a complete picture of the proper experience of Christ.
Co 1:27d hope  -   1 Tim. 1:1
Co 1:275e glory  -   Col. 3:4
Christ is the mystery that is full of glory now. This glory will be manifested to its fullest extent when Christ returns to glorify His saints (Rom. 8:30). Hence, it is a hope, the hope of glory. Christ Himself is also this hope of glory.
Co 1:281a full-grown  -   Eph. 4:13; Heb. 6:1
Or, perfect, complete, mature. Perfect denotes full in quality, whereas complete denotes full in quantity. The apostle’s ministry, whether in announcing Christ or in admonishing and teaching men in all wisdom, was altogether to minister Christ to men that they might become perfect and complete by maturing with Christ as the element of the divine life unto full growth.
Co 1:282 in
The preceding verse says that Christ is in us; this verse, that we are in Christ. First, we are put into Christ; then Christ is in us. The more we get into Christ, the more He comes into us, and the more He comes into us, the more we get into Him. It is by this cycle that we grow in life.
Co 1:291a struggling  -   Col. 2:1; 4:12
Or, contending (as in wrestling). So also in 4:12.
Co 1:29b operation  -   Eph. 1:19; 3:7, 20
Co 1:292 power
See notes 73 and 203 in Eph. 3.
Colossians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Co 2:1a struggle  -   Col. 1:29
Co 2:1b Laodicea  -   Col. 4:13, 15, 16
Co 2:21a comforted  -   Col. 4:8
To comfort people’s hearts is to cherish people and lovingly warm them up, that they may be knit together unto the full assurance of understanding of the mystery of God.
Co 2:22 love
The divine love that we have enjoyed and by which we love God’s beloved. This love is the factor and element that knits the saints together.
Co 2:23 riches
The riches of the full assurance of understanding equal the full knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ.
Co 2:24b full  -   Col. 4:12
To be knit together in love involves the emotion, whereas to have the riches of the full assurance of understanding involves the mind. When our hearts have been comforted, we being knit together in love, and our minds function properly, we will have the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God.
Co 2:25c mystery  -   Col. 1:26, 27; Eph. 3:3, 9
The book of Ephesians concerns the mystery of Christ, which is the church, the Body (Eph. 3:4). This book concerns the mystery of God, which is Christ, the Head.
Co 2:31a wisdom  -   1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 2:6-7
According to history, the influence of Gnostic teaching, which included Greek philosophy, invaded the Gentile churches in Paul’s time. Hence, the apostle told the Colossians that all the treasures of genuine wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. This is the spiritual wisdom and knowledge of the divine economy concerning Christ and the church. Wisdom is related to our spirit, and knowledge is related to our mind (Eph. 1:8, 17).
Co 2:41 delude
In order for believers to be deluded, or carried off as spoil, something close to the truth, such as philosophy, must be used to deceive them. If we have a clear vision of Christ as the center of God’s economy, no one will be able to delude us (v. 8). If we take Christ as life (3:4), hold Him as the Head of the Body (v. 19), know Him as the mystery of God (v. 2), experience Him as the hope of glory (1:27), and walk in Him as the all-inclusive Spirit (2:6), we will not be deceived by anything or anyone.
Co 2:42a persuasive  -   Rom. 16:18
We should beware of persuasive speech and of eloquence. A speaker may be very persuasive and very eloquent, but the reality of Christ may not be in his persuasive and eloquent speech.
Co 2:51a spirit  -   1 Cor. 5:3-4
The human spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Co 2:52 in
Lit., into.
Co 2:61a received  -   John 1:12
Christ is the allotted portion of the saints (1:12) for their enjoyment. To believe into Him is to receive Him. As the all-inclusive Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), He enters into us and dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) to be everything to us.
Co 2:62b walk  -   Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16
As we have received Christ, we should walk in Him. Here to walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being. We should walk, live, and act in Christ that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. The good land today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 3:14), who dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16) to be our enjoyment. To walk according to this Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16) is the central and crucial point in the New Testament.
Co 2:71a rooted  -   Eph. 3:17
Like plants, we are living organisms. As such, we have been rooted in Christ, our soil, our earth, that we may absorb all His riches as nourishment. These riches become the element and substance with which we grow and are built up. To be rooted is for the growth in life. This rooting has been completed already. To be built up is for the building of the Body of Christ. This is still going on. Both these matters are in Christ.
Co 2:7b built  -   Eph. 2:22
Co 2:72 in
In the faith here means in our faith, the subjective faith by which we believe.
Co 2:81 philosophy
This refers to Gnostic teaching, a mixture of Jewish, oriental, and Greek philosophies, which is an empty deceit.
Co 2:8a empty  -   1 Tim. 6:20
Co 2:82b tradition  -   Matt. 15:2; Gal. 1:14
Tradition is related to culture and has its source in culture. The source of the Gnostic teaching at Colossae was the tradition of men; it was based not on the revealed writings of God but on the traditional practices of men.
Co 2:83c elements  -   Col. 2:20; Gal. 4:3, 9
The same expression, elements of the world, is used in Gal. 4:3 (see note there). Here it refers to the rudimentary teachings of both Jews and Gentiles, consisting of ritualistic observances regarding the eating of meats, drinking, washings, asceticism, and other matters.
Co 2:84d Christ  -   Col. 1:27; 2:2, 6, 17; 3:4, 11
Christ is the governing principle of all genuine wisdom and knowledge, the reality of all genuine teaching, and the only measure of all concepts acceptable to God. This book focuses on Christ as our everything.
Co 2:91a fullness  -   Col. 1:19
Fullness refers not to the riches of God but to the expression of the riches of God. What dwells in Christ is not only the riches of the Godhead but the expression of the riches of what God is. See note 193 in Eph. 3.
Co 2:92 Godhead
This refers to deity, which is different from the divine characteristics manifested by the created things (Rom. 1:20). This strongly indicates the deity of Christ. The fullness of the Godhead is versus the tradition of men and the elements of the world. The world’s tradition and elements simply cannot be compared with the fullness of the Godhead.
Co 2:93 bodily
This points to the physical body that Christ put on in His humanity, indicating that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ as One who has a human body. Before Christ’s incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but not bodily. From the time that Christ became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in Him in a bodily way; and in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) now and forever it dwells.
Co 2:101 full
The Greek word implies completion, perfection. Because all the fullness dwells in Him, after we have been put into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), we are made full, filled up, with all the divine riches. Hence, we need no other source. Because Christ is our perfection and completion, we do not need other rules and authorities as objects of adoration, for He is the Head of all these. This is versus angel worship (v. 18).
Co 2:10a Head  -   Eph. 1:21-22
Co 2:102 rule
The rule and authority here are the fallen angels occupying positions of power in the air in subordination to Satan. See note 152.
Co 2:11a circumcised  -   Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3
Co 2:111 circumcision
This is spiritual circumcision, the circumcision of Christ, referring to the proper baptism, which puts off the body of the flesh by the effectual virtue of the death of Christ. This is contrary to asceticism (vv. 20-22).
Co 2:112 not
The circumcision that is the putting off of the body of the flesh was not made with hands; it was accomplished by the death of Christ, and it is applied, executed, and carried out by the powerful Spirit.
Co 2:11b made  -   Eph. 2:11
Co 2:113 putting
Putting off here means to strip off something, as one would strip off clothes.
Co 2:121a Buried  -   Rom. 6:4
To be buried in baptism is to put off, to strip off, the body of the flesh.
Co 2:122b raised  -   Col. 3:1; Eph. 2:6; Rom. 6:5
In baptism there is the aspect of burial, which is the termination of our flesh, and the aspect of raising, which is the germination of our spirit. In the aspect of raising, we are made alive in Christ with the divine life.
Co 2:123 faith
Faith is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (2 Pet. 1:1). The more we turn to God and contact Him, the more faith we have. The Lord is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). The more we abide in Him, the more we are infused with Him as our faith. It is through this living faith produced by the operation of the living God that we experience the resurrection life, signified by the raising aspect of baptism.
Co 2:12c raised  -   Rom. 8:11
Co 2:131a dead  -   Eph. 2:1, 5
Dead in spirit because of sin.
Co 2:132b made  -   Eph. 2:5
In Christ’s resurrection, God enlivened us together by His divine life. This was accomplished in Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3) and is experienced through our faith.
Co 2:141a Wiping  -   Eph. 2:15
Or, blotting out, obliterating, erasing, annulling (a decree of law).
Co 2:142 handwriting
A legal document, a bond. Here it refers to the written law.
Co 2:143 ordinances
Referring to the ordinances of the ceremonial law with its rituals, which are the forms or ways of living and worship. So also in vv. 20 and 21.
Co 2:144 nailing
This is to abolish the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15). It kills the heresy of keeping the Judaic rituals.
Co 2:151 Stripping
Or, putting off, as in 3:9. Verses 13-15 unveil the economy of God’s salvation: (1) to make us alive with Christ, (2) to abolish the ordinances of the ceremonial law, and (3) to strip off the evil angelic powers.
God was busy while Christ’s crucifixion was going on: He nailed the law on the cross and stripped off the rulers and authorities, that the way and the atmosphere might be cleared for us to enter into the participation in Christ.
Co 2:152a rulers  -   Eph. 2:2; 6:12; Heb. 2:14
These are the angelic rulers and authorities. Because at Colossae there was the heretical teaching of angel worship, the passage here must refer to the evil angels. The law was ordained through angels and was even considered to be ordinances of angels (Gal. 3:19; Acts 7:53). Based on this, the heresy at Colossae taught people to worship angels (v. 18) as mediators between God and man. The apostle dealt with this heresy by unveiling the fact that the law, consisting of ordinances, had been nailed to the cross (v. 14), and that the leading evil angels had been stripped off from God. This left Christ as the sole Mediator, who is the Head of all rule and authority (v. 10). This killed the heresy of angel worship.
Co 2:153 He
Here and throughout vv. 13 and 14, He refers to God (v. 12).
Co 2:154 display
Or, show, exhibit in the sense of an open shame. God openly shamed the evil angelic rulers and authorities on the cross and triumphed over them in it.
Co 2:155 it
Or, in Him; referring to Christ. It refers to the cross.
Co 2:161 in
Or, in food and in drink. Food and drink signify satisfaction and strengthening.
Co 2:16a eating  -   cf. Lev. 11:2; Rom. 14:2-3
Co 2:162b feast  -   Lev. 23:2
Referring to the annual Jewish festivals, which signify joy and enjoyment.
Co 2:163c new  -   Num. 28:11
Signifying a new beginning with light in the darkness.
Co 2:164d Sabbath  -   Lev. 23:3; Mark 2:27
Signifying completion and rest. Feasts are yearly, new moons monthly, Sabbaths weekly, and eating and drinking daily. Daily we eat and drink Christ, weekly we have completion and rest in Him, monthly we experience a new beginning in Him, and throughout the year He is our joy and enjoyment. Therefore, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly Christ is to us the reality of every positive thing, implying the universal extensiveness of the all-inclusive Christ.
Co 2:171a shadow  -   Heb. 8:5; 10:1
All the aforementioned items of the ceremonial law are a shadow of the spiritual things in Christ, which are the things to come. But the body belongs to Christ and is Christ.
Co 2:172 body
As with a man’s physical body, the body here is the substance. And like the shadow of a man’s body, the rituals in the law are a shadow of the real things in the gospel.
Co 2:173b Christ  -   Col. 1:27; 2:2, 8; 3:4, 11
Christ is the reality of the gospel. All the good things in the gospel belong to Him and are Him. This book unveils such an all-inclusive Christ as the focus of God’s economy.
Co 2:181 defraud
The heretical teachers judged the saints unworthy to worship God directly and maintained that they had to approach Him through the mediation of angels. This was to defraud the saints of their prize, depriving them of the enjoyment of Christ. In Christ, our sole Mediator, we can worship God directly.
Co 2:18a prize  -   Phil. 3:14; 1 Cor. 9:24
Co 2:18b self-chosen  -   Col. 2:23
Co 2:182 lowliness
The heretical teachers of angel worship taught the saints to show lowliness in realizing that they were not worthy to worship God directly. They defrauded the saints of their prize in Christ in the element and sphere of such self-chosen lowliness and angel worship.
Co 2:183 dwelling
Or, looking into, investigating (secret things).
Co 2:184 seen
The heretical teachers lived in the realm of sight, in contrast to the faith mentioned in v. 12. They liked to have curious visions. Such insistence on visual experience resulted in fleshly pride, the vain puffing up by the mind set on the flesh.
Co 2:18c puffed  -   1 Cor. 8:1
Co 2:185 his
Lit., the mind of his flesh.
Co 2:191 not
The heresy of angel worship distracted the saints from holding Christ as the Head. God’s economy is to head up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10) through His Body, the church, making Christ the center of all things. The subtle one’s device is to carry the saints away and thus cause the Body of Christ to collapse.
Co 2:19a holding  -   Eph. 4:15
Co 2:192b out  -   Eph. 4:16
The phrase out from whom indicates that the Body of Christ grows out from the Head, for all the supply comes from the Head.
Co 2:193 Body
The heresy caused the saints to be severed from the Head, and thus it damaged the Body. The apostle’s revelation uplifted Christ and caused the Body to be safeguarded and built up.
Co 2:194 joints
Joints are for the supply of the Body.
Co 2:195 sinews
Sinews are for the knitting together of the members of the Body.
Co 2:196 grows
Growing is a matter of life, which is God Himself. As the Body of Christ, the church should not be deprived of Christ, who is the embodiment of God as the source of life. By holding Christ, the church grows with the growth of God, with the increase of God as life.
Co 2:197 growth
The growth of the Body of Christ has nothing to do with doctrinal knowledge of the Bible, the way of worship, or any such matter. Rather, the growth of the Body depends on the growth of God, the increase of God’s element, in the Body.
Co 2:201 If
Or, since.
Co 2:202a died  -   Rom. 6:2-4, 6-8
In baptism (Rom. 6:3).
Co 2:203b elements  -   Col. 2:8
The elements of the world are the elementary principles of outward, material things, the childish teachings of externalism, such as asceticism. This is altogether different from God’s way, the way of the cross. See note 83.
Co 2:20c ordinances  -   Col. 2:14
Co 2:211 Do
These are ordinances, rules, and regulations concerning material things and deal with, respectively, things that move, things that are edible, and things that are tangible. Handling, tasting, and touching include virtually every kind of action, and the ordinances concerning them are related to the practice of asceticism.
Co 2:221a perish  -   1 Cor. 6:13
Or, become corrupted. All material things are destined to decompose and perish through corruption when used (1 Cor. 6:13; Matt. 15:17).
Co 2:222 used
Or, consumed.
Co 2:22b commandments  -   Matt. 15:9; Titus 1:14
Co 2:231 Such
Such things refers to the commandments and teachings of men (v. 22) and ordinances (v. 20).
Co 2:232 reputation
The Greek word denotes a word or a saying; hence, expression, show of reason, and, therefore, a reputation.
Co 2:23a worship  -   Col. 2:18
Co 2:233b severe  -   1 Tim. 4:3
This is asceticism.
Co 2:234 not
The ordinances, rules, and regulations of the elementary teachings of externalism and asceticism are of no value in restraining the indulgence of the flesh.
Co 2:23c indulgence  -   Rom. 13:14; Gal. 5:16
Colossians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Co 3:11 If
Verses 1-4 imply that with Christ we have one position, one life, one living, one destiny, and one glory.
Co 3:12a raised  -   Col. 2:12; Eph. 2:6
This is the raising aspect of baptism, which is altogether contrary to asceticism. We were raised together with Christ. We are now where Christ is, sitting in the heavens. Hence, in contrast to the ascetics, we should not practice the things on the earth. We should seek the things that are in the heavens, such as knowing Christ as everything to us, so that we take Him as life and thereby walk in Him.
Co 3:13 above
I.e., in the heavens; in contrast to on the earth in v. 2. The heavens are linked to Christ and joined to the church. The things above include the ascended Christ and all things pertaining to Him. Therefore, to seek the things above is to seek to live Christ in and with the church.
Co 3:1b right  -   Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 10:12
Co 3:2a mind  -   Rom. 8:5-6
Co 3:21 things
The things on the earth include culture, religion, philosophy, and improvement in behavior, as spoken of in the preceding two chapters.
Co 3:31a died  -   Col. 2:20
We died with Christ and so were set free from the things on the earth, especially things related to asceticism. We were baptized into His death (Rom. 6:3).
Co 3:32 life
Because our life (not our natural life, but our spiritual life, which is Christ) is hidden with Christ in God, who is in the heavens, we should no longer be concerned for things on the earth. God in the heavens should be the sphere of our living. With Christ we should live in God.
Co 3:33 hidden
That our life is hidden with Christ in God means that it is hidden with Christ in the heavens.
Co 3:41 Christ
That Christ is our life is a strong indication that we are to take Him as life and live by Him, that we are to live Him in our daily life in order to experience the universally extensive Christ revealed in this book, so that all He is and has attained and obtained will not remain objective but will become our subjective experience.
Co 3:42a life  -   John 11:25
In God, Christ is our life. This life is now hidden but will be manifested. Then we will be manifested with this life in glory.
In 2:20 — 3:4 the unique way and the unique person are revealed to us. The unique way is the cross, the center of God’s government, and the unique person is Christ, the preeminent, all-inclusive One, the center of the universe. By the cross, not by asceticism, we were saved from the negative things. By Christ, not by philosophy, we live the life hidden in God.
Christ, who is our life, is the allotted portion of the saints (1:12), the image of the invisible God (1:15), the Firstborn of all creation (1:15), the Firstborn from the dead (1:18), the One in whom God’s fullness dwells (1:19; 2:9), the mystery of God’s economy (1:26), the mystery of God (2:2), the reality of all positive things (2:16-17), and the constituent of the new man (vv. 10-11). By taking such an all-inclusive Christ as life and thus living Him, we experience and enjoy all His riches.
Co 3:4b manifested  -   1 John 3:2; 1 Pet. 1:7; Heb. 9:28
Co 3:4c glory  -   Rom. 8:17; 1 Cor. 15:43; Phil. 3:21
Co 3:51a Put  -   Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24
This is based on the fact that we have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20a) and baptized into His death (Rom. 6:3). We execute Christ’s death upon our sinful members by crucifying them, by faith, through the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:13). This corresponds with Gal. 5:24. Christ accomplished the all-inclusive crucifixion. Now we apply it to our lustful flesh. This is absolutely different from asceticism.
Co 3:52b members  -   Rom. 6:13; 7:5, 23
In our sinful members is the law of sin, making us captives of sin and causing our corrupted body to become the body of death (Rom. 7:23-24). Hence, our members, which are sinful, are identified with sinful things, such as fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greediness.
Co 3:5c greediness  -   Eph. 4:19; 5:3
Co 3:6a wrath  -   Rom. 1:18
Co 3:6b sons  -   Eph. 5:6; 2:2
Co 3:8a foul  -   Eph. 4:29
Co 3:9a lie  -   Eph. 4:25
Co 3:91b put  -   Eph. 4:22; Col. 2:11
Putting off the old man is like putting off an old garment. First, we put to death the physical lusts, then we put away the psychological evils, and last, we put off the entire old man with his practices. This is not by our own energy but by the power of the all-inclusive Spirit.
Co 3:92c old  -   Rom. 6:6
See note 224 in Eph. 4.
Co 3:101a put  -   Eph. 4:24
Putting on the new man is like putting on a new garment.
Co 3:102b new  -   Eph. 2:15
The Greek word here means new in relation to time, whereas the word in Eph. 4:24 means new in nature, quality, or form. Concerning the new man, see note 242, par. 1, in Eph. 4. Since Christ is the constituent of the new man, we, who are the new man, are one with Christ. This is the most basic and crucial point in this book.
Co 3:103c renewed  -   Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5
Because the new man was created with us, who belong to the old creation (Eph. 2:15), as his constituents, he needs to be renewed. This renewing takes place mainly in our mind, as indicated by the phrase unto full knowledge. The new man was created in our spirit and is being renewed in our mind unto full knowledge according to the image of Christ.
Co 3:104d image  -   Col. 1:15
Referring to the image of Christ as the very expression of God (1:15; Heb. 1:3a).
Co 3:105 who
Referring to Christ the Creator, who created the new man in Himself (Eph. 2:15).
Co 3:10e created  -   Eph. 2:10
Co 3:111 Where
Where, referring to the new man in v. 10, means in the new man.
Co 3:112 cannot
Not only is there no natural person in the new man, but there is no possibility and no room for any natural person to exist.
Co 3:113 Greek
The Greeks favored philosophical wisdom; the Jews, miraculous signs (1 Cor. 1:22).
Co 3:11a Jew  -   Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13
Co 3:114b circumcision  -   1 Cor. 7:19; Gal. 5:6; 6:15
Circumcision here refers to those who observed the Jewish religious rituals; uncircumcision, to those who did not care for the Jewish religion.
Co 3:115c barbarian  -   Rom. 1:14; 1 Cor. 14:11
A barbarian is an uncultured person.
Co 3:116 Scythian
Scythians were considered the most barbarous.
Co 3:117 slave
One who has been sold into slavery.
Co 3:118 free
One who has been freed from slavery.
Co 3:119d Christ  -   Col. 2:2, 17; 3:4
In the new man there is room only for Christ. He is all the members of the new man and in all the members. He is everything in the new man. Actually, He is the new man, His Body (1 Cor. 12:12). In the new man He is the centrality and universality. He is the constituent of the new man, and He is all in all in the new man.
Co 3:1110 all
All refers to all the members who constitute the new man.
Co 3:121 Put
Put on here is in the sense of putting on a garment.
Co 3:12a chosen  -   Eph. 1:4; Titus 1:1; 1 Pet. 2:9
Co 3:122 holy
To be holy means to be not common or worldly but separated unto God. See note 21 in ch. 1.
Co 3:12b inward  -   Luke 1:78; Phil. 1:8
Co 3:13a forgiving  -   Mark 11:25; Eph. 4:32
Co 3:131 one
Lit., yourselves.
Co 3:132 Lord
The forgiving Lord is our life and lives within us; forgiving is a virtue of His life. When we take Him as our life and person and live by Him, our forgiving of others will be spontaneous — it will become a virtue of our Christian life.
Co 3:141a love  -   Col. 2:2; 1 Cor. 13:4, 13; Eph. 4:2
God is love (1 John 4:16). Love is the very essence of God’s being, the very substance of the divine life. Hence, to put on love is to clothe ourselves with the element of God’s life. Such a love is the uniting bond in the combination of perfectness, completeness, and mature virtues. We need to put on not only the new man (v. 10) but also the virtues of the new man (v. 12), and to put on love over all the virtues (v. 14).
Co 3:142 perfectness
Or, completeness.
Co 3:151a peace  -   John 14:27
The peace of Christ is Christ Himself. By this peace Christ has made the two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, one new man, and this peace has become a part of the gospel (Eph. 2:14-18). We should let this peace arbitrate in our hearts for the Body life.
Co 3:152 arbitrate
Or, umpire, preside, be enthroned as a ruler and decider of everything. The arbitrating peace of Christ in our hearts dissolves the complaint mentioned in v. 13.
Co 3:153 which
Which refers to the peace of Christ. We were called to this peace in the one Body of Christ. For the proper Body life we need the peace of Christ to arbitrate, to adjust, and to decide all things in our heart in our relationship with the members of His Body.
Co 3:154 also
That we were called to the peace of Christ should also be a motive for our letting this peace arbitrate in our hearts.
Co 3:15b one  -   Eph. 4:4
Co 3:155c thankful  -   Col. 2:7; 3:17
We not only should let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts, but we also should be thankful to the Lord. In the Body life our heart should always be in a peaceful condition toward the members and should be thankful to the Lord.
Co 3:161a word  -   Rom. 10:17; 1 Thes. 1:8
The word spoken by Christ. In His New Testament economy God speaks in the Son, and the Son speaks not only by Himself in the Gospels but also through His members, the apostles and prophets, in Acts, in the Epistles, and in Revelation. All these speakings can be considered His word.
In this passage the infilling of spiritual life that overflows in praising and singing is related to the word, whereas in the parallel passage, Eph. 5:18-20, the infilling of spiritual life is related to the Spirit. This indicates that the word is the Spirit (John 6:63b). A normal Christian life should be one that is filled with the word, that the Spirit may bubble over with praise and lauding melodies from within the believers.
This book is focused on Christ as our Head and life. The way for Him to exercise His Headship and minister His riches to us is through His word. Hence, the emphasis is on the word of Christ. Ephesians is concerned with the church as the Body of Christ. The way for us to live a normal church life is to be filled in our spirit unto all the fullness of God. Hence, the Spirit is emphasized. In Ephesians both the Holy Spirit and our spirit are emphasized again and again; the word is even considered to be the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). However, in this book each of the two spirits is mentioned only once (1:8; 2:5). In Ephesians the word is for washing away our natural life (Eph. 5:26) and fighting against the enemy (Eph. 6:17), whereas in this book the word is for revealing Christ (1:25-27) in His preeminence, centrality, and universality.
Co 3:162b dwell  -   John 15:7
Lit., to be in a house, to indwell, to inhabit. The word of the Lord must have adequate room within us that it may operate and minister the riches of Christ into our inner being.
Co 3:163 richly
The riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) are in His word. Such a rich word must inhabit us richly.
Co 3:164 in
The phrase in all wisdom may also be placed so as to modify teaching and admonishing.
Co 3:165 teaching
Teaching and admonishing and singing modify the verb dwell. This indicates that the way to let the Lord’s word dwell in us richly is by teaching, admonishing, and singing.
Co 3:166 one
Lit., yourselves.
Co 3:167c psalms  -   Eph. 5:19
We should teach and admonish not only with words but also with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
Co 3:16d spiritual  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:15
Co 3:168 grace
See notes 146 and 171 in John 1.
Co 3:171 name
The name denotes the person. The Lord’s person is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17a). To do things in the name of the Lord is to act in the Spirit. This is to live Christ.
Co 3:17a thanks  -   Eph. 5:20
Co 3:181a Wives  -   3:18–4:1: Eph. 5:22–6:9
The section from this verse through 4:1 is a sister passage to Eph. 5:22 — 6:9, regarding the believers’ ethical relationships. In Ephesians the emphasis is on the need of having spirit-filled ethical relationships for the expression of the Body of Christ in the normal church life. In Colossians the emphasis is on our holding Christ as our Head and taking Him as our life by having His rich word dwell in us, that the highest ethical relationships, issuing not from our natural life but from Christ as our life, may be realized for His expression.
For each point in this passage, see the appropriate note in Ephesians.
Co 3:241 inheritance
This point is not made as clear in Eph. 6:8 as it is here. The inheritance here is what the believers will inherit (Rom. 8:17; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:4). The inheritance as recompense indicates that the Lord uses the inheritance that He will give to His believers as an incentive for them to be faithful in their service to Him. The unfaithful ones will surely miss this recompense (Matt. 24:45-51; 25:20-29).
Co 3:24a recompense  -   Matt. 5:12; 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:8, 14; Rev. 22:12
Co 3:242 serve
Lit., serve as a slave.
Co 3:25a receive  -   2 Cor. 5:10
Co 3:25b respect  -   Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11
Colossians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Co 4:21a Persevere  -   Eph. 6:18; Acts 1:14
I.e., continue persistently, steadfastly, and earnestly.
Co 4:22 prayer
Prayer preserves the grace that we received in chs. 1 — 3.
Co 4:23 watching
In prayer we need to be watchful and alert, not negligent. Such watchfulness should be accompanied by thanksgiving. A lack of thanksgiving is an indication of prayerlessness. The prayer life is kept by watching with thanksgiving.
Co 4:3a us  -   Eph. 6:19-20; 2 Thes. 3:1
Co 4:31 door
This implies that we need to keep ourselves open to the word of God.
Co 4:3b mystery  -   Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; Eph. 3:4
Co 4:3c bound  -   Col. 4:18; Phil. 1:7
Co 4:5a wisdom  -   Eph. 5:15
Co 4:5b without  -   1 Thes. 4:12; Mark 4:11
Co 4:51c redeeming  -   Eph. 5:16
See note 161 in Eph. 5.
Co 4:61a grace  -   Eph. 4:29
See note 293 in Eph. 4. Every word proceeding out of our mouth must be with Christ and must be the uttering of Christ, who is grace.
Co 4:62b salt  -   Mark 9:50
Salt makes food agreeable and pleasant to the taste. Speech seasoned with salt keeps us at peace with one another (Mark 9:50).
Co 4:6c answer  -   1 Pet. 3:15
Co 4:71 All
In vv. 7-17 the apostle’s fellowship shows us that the new man as practiced at the apostle’s time was an issue of the apostle’s work, which encouraged the believers to seek after Christ, the very constituent of the new man, as their enjoyment. By means of the traffic among the churches, we experience in a practical way the living of the new man. Such a living has Christ as its reality.
Co 4:7a Tychicus  -   Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21; 2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12
Co 4:7b minister  -   Col. 1:7
Co 4:8a comfort  -   Col. 2:2; Eph. 6:22
Co 4:9a Onesimus  -   Philem. 10
Co 4:9b brother  -   Philem. 16
Co 4:10a Aristarchus  -   Acts 19:29; 20:4; 27:2; Philem. 24
Co 4:10b Mark  -   Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37, 39; 2 Tim. 4:11
Co 4:10c Barnabas  -   Acts 4:36; 9:27; 11:22, 24-26; 13:1, 7; 15:36-39
Co 4:11a Justus  -   cf. Acts 1:23; 18:7
Co 4:11b circumcision  -   Acts 11:2
Co 4:11c kingdom  -   John 3:3, 5; Acts 1:3; 28:31; Rom. 14:17
Co 4:11d consolation  -   Philem. 7
Co 4:12a Epaphras  -   Col. 1:7
Co 4:12b struggling  -   Col. 1:29
Co 4:121 stand
In the Greek, stand here is in the passive voice. Hence, it implies being placed, being presented, and corresponds with present in 1:28.
Co 4:122c mature  -   Col. 1:28; Phil. 3:15
Or, complete.
Co 4:12d fully  -   Col. 2:2
Co 4:123e will  -   Col. 1:9
See note 91 in ch. 1.
Co 4:13a Laodicea  -   Col. 2:1
Co 4:14a Luke  -   Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1; 2 Tim. 4:11; Philem. 24
Co 4:14b Demas  -   2 Tim. 4:10; Philem. 24
Co 4:15a Laodicea  -   Col. 2:1
Co 4:151 church
The church in the house of Nymphas was the local church in Laodicea, which met in Nymphas’s house. Such meetings in the saints’ homes afford every attending believer the opportunity to function, and they also strengthen the mutual fellowship among the saints.
Co 4:152 his
Some MSS read, her; others, their.
Co 4:15b house  -   Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Philem. 2
Co 4:16a read  -   1 Thes. 5:27
Co 4:16b Laodiceans  -   Rev. 3:14
Co 4:17a Archippus  -   Philem. 2
Co 4:17b ministry  -   2 Tim. 4:5
Co 4:18a my  -   1 Cor. 16:21; 2 Thes. 3:17
Co 4:18b Remember  -   Heb. 13:3
Co 4:18c bonds  -   Col. 4:3
Co 4:18d Grace  -   1 Tim. 6:21; 2 Tim. 4:22; Titus 3:15; Philem. 25; Heb. 13:25
< Colossians • 1 Thessalonians Outline >
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© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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1 Thessalonians Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1
II.   The content — a holy life for the church — 1:2 — 5:24
A.   Its structure — 1:2-3
B.   Its origination — 1:4-10
C.   Its fostering — 2:1-20
1.   The care of a nursing mother and an exhorting father — vv. 1-12
2.   The reward of such care — vv. 13-20
D.   Its establishing — 3:1-13
1.   Encouragement for faith and love — vv. 1-12
2.   Encouragement with hope — v. 13
E.   Its exhortation — 4:1-12
1.   Sanctification versus fornication — vv. 1-8
2.   Brotherly love — vv. 9-10
3.   A becoming walk — vv. 11-12
F.   Its hope — 4:13-18
1.   For the dead believers — vv. 13-14
2.   For the living and remaining believers — vv. 15-18
G.   Its watchfulness and soberness — 5:1-11
1.   The day of the Lord coming like a thief — vv. 1-3
2.   The safeguard of faith, love, and hope — vv. 4-11
H.   Its cooperation — 5:12-24
1.   The believers’ cooperation — living a spiritual and holy life — vv. 12-22
2.   God’s operation — sanctifying and preserving the believers — vv. 23-24
III.   Conclusion — 5:25-28
1 Thessalonians >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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1 Thessalonians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1Th 1:1a Silvanus  -   2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Pet. 5:12
1Th 1:1b Timothy  -   1 Thes. 3:2, 6; 1 Tim. 1:2
1Th 1:11c church  -   2 Thes. 1:1; cf. 2 Cor. 8:1
This Epistle and 2 Thessalonians were addressed to the local church in Thessalonica, composed of all the believers in Christ in that city. Such a local church is of the believers and is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This indicates that a local church is born of God the Father with His life and nature and is united with the Lord Jesus Christ organically in all that He is and has done. Hence, it is of men (such as the Thessalonians), yet is in God and in the Lord organically. This organic union in the divine life and nature is the vital base for the believers to live a holy life for the church life. Such a living is the theme of the two Epistles.
1Th 1:12 Thessalonians
Thessalonica was a city of the Roman Empire, in the province of Macedonia, which was north of the province of Achaia. It was the next city the apostle Paul and his co-worker Silvanus visited after Philippi, after the Macedonian call he received on his second ministry journey (Acts 16:9-12; 17:1-4). The apostle stayed and worked in Thessalonica for only a short time, probably less than one month (Acts 17:2).
1Th 1:13 God
In this chapter the Triune God is revealed in His triune work upon us — the Father selected us (vv. 1, 3-4), the Son delivers us (v. 10), and the Holy Spirit propagates, imparts, and transmits the Triune God into us (vv. 5-6). Such a triune work is for our enjoyment of His salvation.
1Th 1:1d Grace  -   Rom. 1:7; Eph. 1:2
1Th 1:2a thank  -   1 Thes. 2:13; 3:9; 2 Thes. 1:3; 2:13; Rom. 1:8; Eph. 1:16
1Th 1:2b mention  -   Rom. 1:9; Eph. 1:16
1Th 1:31 work
The Greek word denotes acts, actions, activities.
1Th 1:32a faith  -   1 Thes. 1:8; 3:2, 5, 6, 7, 10; 5:8; 2 Thes. 1:3, 4, 11; 3:2; 1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:6; Col. 1:4; 1 Tim. 1:14; Eph. 6:23; James 2:22
Here faith indicates the nature and strength of the work; love, the motivation for and characteristic of labor; and hope, the source of endurance. These depict the structure of the genuine Christian life, a life constructed with faith, love, and hope (see note 131 in 1 Cor. 13). Such a life originates not from the ability of the believers’ natural being but from the infusion of what God, in whom they believe, is. It is carried out by their sacrificial love toward their loving Lord, who loved them and gave Himself for them, and toward His members, whom He has redeemed through His death in love. This life lasts and stands unchanging by the sustaining power of the hope in which the believers look for their beloved Lord, who promised that He would come to take them to Himself. Such a life is the content of this Epistle.
How marvelous that the Thessalonian believers could live such a life through the apostle’s short ministry of less than one month! This encourages us to preach the complete gospel to typical unbelievers in full assurance of faith, and to minister the deeper truths concerning the Christian life to new converts.
In the two Epistles to the young church in Thessalonica, the genuine Christian life for the proper church life is revealed in a simple and brief way. It is a life of three dimensions in the light of the Lord’s coming back, having faith as the beginning, the foundation, love as the process, the construction, and hope as the consummation, the completion. Faith is toward God (v. 8), love is toward the saints (3:12; 4:9-10), and hope is in the Lord’s coming (2:19). The first Epistle is for encouragement and comfort; the second is for correction and balance. The believers should live, walk, and work by faith and love in the hope of the Lord’s coming back; but they should not have the erroneous concept that the Lord will come immediately and, thus, that they need not make any long-range plans. The apostle Paul’s writings concerning the Christian life for the church life begin with the book of Romans and conclude with these two Epistles.
1Th 1:33 labor
Or, toil, endeavoring, striving, working.
1Th 1:3b love  -   1 Thes. 3:6, 12; 4:9; 5:8, 13; 2 Thes. 3:5
1Th 1:34 endurance
I.e., endurance issuing from hoping in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 1:3c hope  -   1 Thes. 2:19; 4:13; 5:8; 2 Thes. 2:16; Rom. 5:4; 8:24-25; 15:4
1Th 1:4a beloved  -   2 Thes. 2:13
1Th 1:41b selection  -   2 Thes. 2:13; 2 Pet. 1:10; Eph. 1:4
God’s choosing before the foundation of the world for His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:4). The apostles knew that the brothers, beloved of God, were chosen by God in such a manner for the fulfillment of His heart’s desire.
1Th 1:5a gospel  -   2 Thes. 2:14
1Th 1:5b power  -   1 Cor. 2:4; 4:20
1Th 1:5c Holy  -   Acts 1:8
1Th 1:51d what  -   Acts 20:18
The apostles not only preached the gospel; they lived it. Their ministering of the gospel was not only by word but also by a life that displayed the power of God, a life in the Holy Spirit and in the assurance of their faith. They were the pattern of the glad tidings that they spread.
1Th 1:61a imitators  -   2 Thes. 3:7, 9; 1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; Phil. 3:17; cf. 1 Thes. 2:14
Since the preachers were the pattern of the gospel, the believers became imitators of them. This, then, led the believers to follow the Lord, to take Him as their pattern (Matt. 11:29).
1Th 1:62 word
The word preached by Paul was the embodiment of the Triune God, conveying and transmitting Him — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — into the believers in Christ. This word as the divine gospel was received by the Thessalonians, who were typical Gentile unbelievers.
1Th 1:6b joy  -   Rom. 14:17; Acts 13:52; Gal. 5:22
1Th 1:6c Holy  -   1 Thes. 4:8
1Th 1:71a pattern  -   cf. 2 Thes. 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:16
The imitators of the apostles (v. 6) became a pattern to all other believers.
1Th 1:7b Macedonia  -   1 Thes. 4:10; 2 Cor. 8:1; 11:9
1Th 1:7c Achaia  -   Acts 18:27; 2 Cor. 9:2; 11:10
1Th 1:81a faith  -   Rom. 1:8
This means that the believers’ faith toward God sounded out together with the word of the Lord. Not only the Lord’s objective word but also the believers’ subjective faith went out.
1Th 1:91 what
Implying a receptive welcome.
1Th 1:92a turned  -   Acts 14:15
To turn to God from the idols, to serve a living and true God, and to await His Son from the heavens are the three basic substances of the Christian life as viewed from another angle. To turn to God from the idols is to turn away not only from the false gods, together with the devil and the demons behind them, but also from all things other than God. This is accomplished by faith infused into the new converts through their hearing of the word of the gospel. To serve a living and true God is to serve the very God who is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — who has been processed to be the believers’ life and life supply for their enjoyment. They should experience Him not only as the object of worship but also as the all-inclusive Supplier who lives in them. This experience is brought about by love produced within the believers by the sweet taste of the rich supply of the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. To await the Son of God from the heavens is to look for the One who passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and entered into resurrection and ascended to the heavens, and who will come back to receive His believers into glory. This is the hope that strengthens the believers to stand steadfastly in their faith.
1Th 1:9b idols  -   1 Cor. 12:2; Gal. 4:8
1Th 1:93c serve  -   Heb. 9:14
Lit., serve as a slave.
1Th 1:94d living  -   Dan. 6:20, 26; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:12
The living and true God is in contrast to the dead and false idols. God must be living and true to us and in us in our daily life, so that our present living will testify that the God whom we serve is living and true.
1Th 1:9e true  -   Jer. 10:10
1Th 1:101a await  -   1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20; Titus 2:13
Because we are awaiting the Son of God from the heavens, our future is focused on Him. Our life declares that we have no hope on this earth and no positive destiny in this age, and that our hope is the coming Lord, who is our destiny forever. This governs, holds, and keeps our Christian life for the church life.
1Th 1:10b heavens  -   1 Thes. 4:16; 2 Thes. 1:7; Acts 1:11
1Th 1:10c raised  -   Acts 2:24
1Th 1:10d delivers  -   1 Thes. 5:9
1Th 1:102e wrath  -   1 Thes. 5:9; Matt. 3:7; Rom. 2:5; 5:9; John 3:36; Rev. 6:16-17
The wrath of the coming judgment of God (Rom. 2:5-6, 8-9).
1 Thessalonians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1Th 2:11 entrance
The apostle stressed repeatedly their entrance toward the believers (1:5, 9). This shows that their manner of life played a great role in infusing the gospel into the new converts. It was not only what they said but what they were.
1Th 2:1a in  -   1 Thes. 3:5; 1 Cor. 15:58; Gal. 4:11
1Th 2:21a Philippi  -   Acts 16:12
See note 11 in Phil. 1.
1Th 2:2b bold  -   Acts 4:13
1Th 2:22 in
This was the apostles’ experience of God in enjoying Him as their boldness in the struggle for the gospel.
1Th 2:2c struggle  -   Phil. 1:30
1Th 2:3a exhortation  -   1 Thes. 4:1
1Th 2:31b deception  -   cf. 2 Thes. 2:10
Deception refers to the goal, uncleanness to the motive, and guile to the means. All three are of and by the subtle and deceiving devil.
1Th 2:3c uncleanness  -   1 Thes. 4:7
1Th 2:3d guile  -   2 Cor. 12:16; 4:2
1Th 2:41a approved  -   2 Tim. 2:15
God’s entrusting depends on His approval, which comes out of His testing. The apostles were first tested and approved by God and then were entrusted by Him with the gospel. Hence, their speaking, the preaching of the gospel, was not of themselves to please men but of God to please Him. He proved, examined, and tested their hearts continually (Psa. 26:2; 139:23-24).
1Th 2:4b entrusted  -   Gal. 2:7; 1 Tim. 1:11; Titus 1:3; 1 Cor. 9:17
1Th 2:4c pleasing  -   Gal. 1:10
1Th 2:4d proves  -   Psa. 17:3
1Th 2:5a flattering  -   Rom. 16:18; Jude 16
1Th 2:51 pretext
Or, pretense, cloak. To have any pretext for covetousness is to peddle or adulterate the word of God (2 Cor. 2:17; 4:2). It is also to pretend to be godly for the sake of gain (1 Tim. 6:5; Titus 1:11; 2 Pet. 2:3).
1Th 2:5b covetousness  -   Acts 20:33
1Th 2:5c witness  -   1 Thes. 2:10; Rom. 1:9
1Th 2:61 seek
To seek glory from men is a real temptation to every Christian worker. Many have been devoured and spoiled by this matter.
1Th 2:6a glory  -   John 5:41, 44
1Th 2:62 stood
Or, asserted authority. Lit., been able to be in weight; i.e., been burdensome (cf. v. 9; 1 Cor. 9:4-12). To assert authority, dignity, or right in Christian work damages that work. The Lord Jesus, while on earth, gave up His dignity (John 13:4-5), and the apostle preferred not to use his right (1 Cor. 9:12).
1Th 2:6b apostles  -   1 Cor. 9:1, 2, 5; 2 Cor. 12:12; 1 Tim. 2:7
1Th 2:7a gentle  -   2 Tim. 2:24
1Th 2:71b nursing  -   cf. Isa. 49:23
In some instances the Greek word means a mother; hence, a nursing mother (cf. Gal. 4:19).
1Th 2:72c cherish  -   Eph. 5:29
Cherishing, which includes nourishing, indicates care that is more tender than mere nourishing. See note 291 in Eph. 5.
1Th 2:7d children  -   1 Thes. 2:11
1Th 2:81a Yearning  -   1 Thes. 2:17
Being affectionately fond of, affectionately desirous of, like a nursing mother affectionately interested in her child, whom she nourishes and cherishes. This was what the apostles did with new believers. See note 173.
1Th 2:82b our  -   cf. 2 Cor. 12:15
To live a clean and upright life, as portrayed in vv. 3-6 and 10, and to love the new converts, even by giving our own souls to them, as described in vv. 7-9 and 11, are the prerequisites for infusing them with the salvation conveyed in the gospel that we preach.
1Th 2:9a working  -   2 Thes. 3:8; Acts 18:3; 1 Cor. 4:12
1Th 2:9b burdensome  -   2 Cor. 11:9; 12:13, 14, 16
1Th 2:10a God  -   1 Thes. 2:5
1Th 2:101 holy
See note 751 in Luke 1. Holy refers to conduct toward God, righteous to conduct toward men, and blameless to conduct toward all — God, men, and Satan.
1Th 2:111 how
The apostle was strong in stressing what or how they were (1:5), because what they were opened the way to bring their new converts into God’s full salvation.
1Th 2:112a father  -   1 Cor. 4:15
In cherishing the believers as their own children, the apostles considered themselves a nursing mother; in exhorting the believers, a father.
1Th 2:11b children  -   1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Cor. 4:14
1Th 2:113c exhorting  -   1 Thes. 4:1; 5:14
Or, entreating.
1Th 2:12a walk  -   Eph. 4:1, 17; Phil. 1:27
1Th 2:121b calls  -   1 Thes. 5:24; 2 Thes. 2:14; 1 Pet. 5:10
God’s calling is according to His selection and follows His selection (1:4).
1Th 2:122c kingdom  -   2 Thes. 1:5; Matt. 3:2; John 3:5; Acts 14:22; 2 Pet. 1:11
As worshippers of idols (1:9), the believers were in the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26). Now, through the salvation in Christ they were called, and they have believed into the kingdom of God, which is the sphere in which they can worship and enjoy God under the divine ruling with the view of entering into God’s glory.
1Th 2:123d glory  -   Rom. 8:17, 18; 2 Cor. 4:17
God’s glory goes with His kingdom. See note 134 in Matt. 6.
1Th 2:13a thank  -   1 Thes. 1:2
1Th 2:131 the
Lit., the word of hearing of God from us.
1Th 2:132 from
The word received by the believers was from the apostles, but it was of God. Its source, its origin, was God and not the apostles.
1Th 2:133 operates
Since the word of God is living and operative (Heb. 4:12), it operates in the believing ones.
1Th 2:141a imitators  -   cf. 1 Thes. 1:6
The apostle taught the same thing in all the churches (1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16), indicating that all the churches should bear the same testimony of Jesus. Hence, the churches are all lampstands of the same kind (Rev. 1:9, 20).
1Th 2:14b churches  -   Acts 9:31; Gal. 1:22
1Th 2:15a killed  -   Acts 2:23; 3:15; 7:52
1Th 2:15b prophets  -   Matt. 23:31; Jer. 2:30
1Th 2:15c drove  -   Acts 13:50
1Th 2:16a fill  -   Matt. 23:32
1Th 2:161 uttermost
Lit., to the end; hence, to the uttermost.
1Th 2:171 bereaved
This word implies that the apostles considered the new converts precious and dear to them. Paul likened their departure from them to a bereavement, a loss that they suffered through missing them.
1Th 2:172 a
Lit., the season of an hour.
1Th 2:17a not  -   cf. 1 Cor. 5:3; Col. 2:5
1Th 2:173 eager
This is the apostles’ yearning over the new converts (v. 8).
1Th 2:17b desire  -   1 Thes. 2:8; 3:10
1Th 2:181 Satan
Because the apostles were carrying out the will of God, Satan frustrated them.
1Th 2:18a hindered  -   Rom. 1:13; 15:22
1Th 2:19a hope  -   cf. 1 Thes. 1:3; 2 Thes. 2:16
1Th 2:19b joy  -   Phil. 4:1
1Th 2:19c boasting  -   2 Thes. 1:4; 1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 1:14
1Th 2:191d coming  -   1 Thes. 3:13; James 5:7; 1 John 2:28
Gk. parousia, meaning presence, as in 3:13 and 4:15. The Lord’s coming is His presence. In this light these two early Epistles were written. Every chapter of the first Epistle ends with the Lord’s coming back.
1Th 2:201 glory
Since the apostles were the believers’ nursing mother and exhorting father (vv. 7, 11), the believers, as the apostles’ children, were their glory and joy.
1 Thessalonians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1Th 3:1a bear  -   1 Thes. 3:5
1Th 3:11b Athens  -   Acts 17:15-16
The chief city of the province of Achaia of the Roman Empire, where the apostle Paul preached the gospel to the philosophical Greeks (Acts 17:15-34).
1Th 3:2a Timothy  -   1 Thes. 3:6; 1:1; 1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10; 2 Cor. 1:1, 19; Phil. 2:19; Col. 1:1; Philem. 1; Heb. 13:23
1Th 3:21 God’s
Some MSS read, minister of God. A minister of God is God’s fellow worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1). What a privilege! What a blessing!
1Th 3:2b establish  -   1 Thes. 3:13
1Th 3:22 encourage
Or, exhort, comfort.
1Th 3:2c faith  -   1 Thes. 3:5, 7, 10; 1:3
1Th 3:31 shaken
If we are established in the faith (v. 2), afflictions will work out for our good (Rom. 8:28) according to God’s purpose in His appointment. Otherwise, we may be shaken by the tempter (v. 5) through the afflictions.
1Th 3:3a afflictions  -   Eph. 3:13
1Th 3:32b appointed  -   cf. Acts 9:16; 14:22
Or, destined, set, located. God has destined, appointed, that we should pass through afflictions. Hence, afflictions are God’s allotted portion to us, and He has set us, located us, in a situation of afflictions.
1Th 3:41 told
Imperfect tense, indicating repeated action.
1Th 3:5a bear  -   1 Thes. 3:1
1Th 3:5b faith  -   1 Thes. 3:2
1Th 3:51c tempter  -   Matt. 4:3; 1 Cor. 7:5; 2 Cor. 11:3
The subtle devil, the old serpent, who tempted Eve (Gen. 3:1-6; 1 Tim. 2:14).
1Th 3:52d in  -   1 Thes. 2:1; Gal. 2:2; Phil. 2:16
The aim of the subtle tempter is to destroy the gospel work accomplished through God’s fellow workers, so that it would be in vain.
1Th 3:6a Timothy  -   1 Thes. 3:2; Acts 18:5
1Th 3:61 to
The apostle was in Corinth after leaving Athens (Acts 17:15-16; 18:1, 5). It was in Corinth that he wrote this lovely letter to the dear saints in Thessalonica for their encouragement.
1Th 3:6b faith  -   1 Thes. 1:3; 3:2, 5, 7, 10
1Th 3:6c remembrance  -   1 Cor. 11:2
1Th 3:6d long  -   Rom. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:4
1Th 3:71a comforted  -   2 Cor. 1:4; 7:6, 7, 13
The sound condition of the believers is always a comfort to God’s fellow workers, who work on them and bear them as a burden.
1Th 3:72 necessity
Or, distress. See notes 262 in 1 Cor. 7 and 103 in 2 Cor. 12.
1Th 3:7b faith  -   1 Thes. 3:2
1Th 3:81 live
The believers’ standing firm in the Lord ministers life to the apostles.
1Th 3:82a stand  -   1 Cor. 16:13; Eph. 6:13-14; Phil. 1:27; 4:1
Standing firm in the Lord is in contrast to being shaken from the faith (v. 3).
1Th 3:9a thanks  -   1 Thes. 1:2
1Th 3:10a see  -   1 Thes. 2:17; Rom. 1:11
1Th 3:101 complete
Or, perfect. The verb form of the Greek word in 2 Cor. 13:9 (see note 2 there). The believers in Thessalonica, being young in the Lord, were still lacking in their new faith. The apostle realized this with much loving concern for them. This was his reason for writing this Epistle.
1Th 3:10b faith  -   1 Thes. 3:2
1Th 3:111a make  -   2 Thes. 3:5
In Greek, make straight here is singular. This indicates that the apostle considered that God the Father and the Lord Jesus are one. How good to have our way in the ministry made straight by such a One! And how beautiful are the footsteps of the apostles in their carrying out of this One’s ministry for the fulfilling of His purpose!
1Th 3:12a abound  -   1 Thes. 4:1, 10
1Th 3:121b love  -   1 Thes. 4:9; 2 Thes. 1:3; 1 John 4:7-12; 1 Thes. 1:3; Phil. 1:9
The apostle’s concern for the young believers was first in regard to their faith (vv. 2-10) and then in regard to their love, which issues from faith and works together with faith (Gal. 5:6; 1 Tim. 1:14 and note 2). Such love is an indication of growth in life (1:3).
1Th 3:12c one  -   1 Thes. 4:18; 5:11, 15
1Th 3:131 So
The establishing of the believers’ hearts blameless issues from faith and love, as mentioned in the preceding verses. This spontaneously produces the hope of the coming back of our dear Lord, in whom we believe and whom we love. Hence, again we see that faith, love, and hope are the implied factors in the construction of this Epistle.
1Th 3:13a establish  -   1 Thes. 3:2; James 5:8; 1 Pet. 5:10
1Th 3:132 hearts
Inwardly, our heart must be established in holiness; outwardly, our body must be preserved in sanctification (4:4; 5:23). This is so that we may have a holy life, and this holy life is for the church life.
1Th 3:13b blameless  -   1 Thes. 5:23; Col. 1:22
1Th 3:133c holiness  -   1 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 12:14; cf. 1 Thes. 4:3, 4, 7; 5:23
See note 23 in Rom. 1.
1Th 3:134d coming  -   1 Thes. 2:19; 4:15; 2 Thes. 2:1
See note 191 in ch. 2.
1Th 3:13e with  -   1 Thes. 4:14, 17
1Th 3:135 saints
Believers in Christ (see notes 23 in Rom. 1 and 26 in 1 Cor. 1), including the Old Testament saints (Dan. 7:18, 21-22, 25, 27; Zech. 14:5).
1Th 3:136.
Some MSS add, Amen.
1 Thessalonians Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1Th 4:1a exhort  -   1 Thes. 4:10; 2:3, 11; 5:14; 2 Thes. 3:12
1Th 4:1b please  -   Col. 1:10
1Th 4:1c abound  -   1 Thes. 4:10; 3:12
1Th 4:2a charges  -   1 Thes. 4:11
1Th 4:3a will  -   1 Thes. 5:18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17
1Th 4:31b sanctification  -   1 Thes. 4:4, 7; 5:23; 2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Cor. 1:30; cf. 1 Thes. 3:13
See note 192 in Rom. 6. God’s will is that His redeemed people, the believers in Christ, live a life of holiness according to His holy nature, a life wholly separated unto Him from anything other than Him. For this He is sanctifying us wholly (5:23).
1Th 4:3c abstain  -   1 Thes. 5:22
1Th 4:32d fornication  -   1 Cor. 6:18; Heb. 13:4
At Paul’s time, in both Corinth and Thessalonica sensuality and immorality were rife in the pagan religions and even were fostered by pagan worship. Man was made to express God (Gen. 1:26). Concerning this purpose, nothing ruins man more than fornication. This prevents man from being holy, separated unto God, and contaminates man to the uttermost in fulfilling God’s holy purpose. Hence, the apostle strongly charged the newly converted Gentile believers to be sanctified unto God, to abstain from fornication, the most gross sin in the eyes of God, that they might avoid its damage and contamination.
1Th 4:41 possess
Implying to keep, to preserve.
1Th 4:4a own  -   cf. 1 Cor. 6:18
1Th 4:42 vessel
Concerning the interpretation of vessel here, there are two schools: one holds that the vessel is man’s body, as in 2 Cor. 4:7; the other, that it is a man’s wife, as in 1 Pet. 3:7. The context of this verse and the next verse, which include phrases such as each one of you, in sanctification and honor, and especially not in the passion of lust, justifies the interpretation of the first school but not that of the second. Here the apostle considered man’s body his vessel, just as David did in 1 Sam. 21:5. In the same matter concerning the use of the body, both Paul and David considered man’s body his vessel. To keep, or preserve, man’s vessel in sanctification and honor, not allowing it to indulge in the passion of lust, is the safeguard against committing fornication.
1Th 4:43 sanctification
Sanctification refers more to a holy condition before God; honor, to a respectable standing before man. Man was created for God’s purpose with a high standing, and marriage was ordained by God for the propagation of man to fulfill God’s purpose. Hence, marriage should be held in honor (Heb. 13:4). To abstain from fornication is not only to remain in a sanctified condition before God but also to hold and keep a standing of honor before man.
1Th 4:4b honor  -   Heb. 13:4; cf. Rom. 1:24
1Th 4:5a passion  -   Rom. 1:24, 26; Col. 3:5
1Th 4:5b Gentiles  -   Eph. 4:17
1Th 4:51c not  -   2 Thes. 1:8; Psa. 79:6; Jer. 9:3; 10:25; Gal. 4:8
That they do not know God is the basic reason that people indulge in the passion of lust.
1Th 4:61 overstep
I.e., overpass (limits), overreach, transgress, go beyond. Overstep and take advantage of his brother refers to the committing of adultery with a brother’s wife.
1Th 4:62 take
Or, make a gain of; hence, defraud.
1Th 4:63 the
The matter of fornication, mentioned in v. 3.
1Th 4:64a avenger  -   cf. Heb. 13:4
The Lord judges fornicators and adulterers as an avenger, as a punisher, meting out justice.
1Th 4:65 these
Things such as overstepping and taking advantage of others.
1Th 4:7a called  -   1 Thes. 2:12; 2 Thes. 2:14
1Th 4:71 for
Lit., based on.
1Th 4:72b uncleanness  -   1 Thes. 2:3; Rom. 1:24; 6:19; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 4:19; 5:3; Col. 3:5
The uncleanness of things such as fornication and adultery. Some teach that uncleanness here refers to unfair gain in business, and that v. 6 speaks of taking advantage of a brother in doing business. However, such a teaching is not acceptable in light of the context of this section, which begins at v. 3 with the charge to abstain from fornication. Actually, v. 7 is the concluding word of this charge.
1Th 4:73 in
I.e., in the element of sanctification, in the sphere of God’s holy nature.
1Th 4:74c sanctification  -   1 Thes. 4:3; Lev. 11:44; cf. 1 Pet. 1:15
The apostle’s charge to abstain from fornication is based on sanctification (v. 3), strengthened by sanctification (v. 4), and concluded here with sanctification, because fornication, the most unclean thing, destroys the holy standing and character of God’s called saints.
1Th 4:81 Consequently
This verse is the conclusion of the section that begins with v. 3.
1Th 4:82 rejects
I.e., rejects the charge in the preceding verses.
1Th 4:83a Holy  -   1 Thes. 1:6; 1 John 4:13
The Holy Spirit given to us by God is the Holy One who sanctifies us, making us holy before God (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11). The will (v. 3), the call (v. 7), and the Spirit of God are all for our sanctification. First, God had His will, then He called us, and then He gave us His Holy Spirit. By His Spirit we can be sanctified to answer His call and fulfill His will.
1Th 4:91 brotherly
Gk. philadelphia, composed of phileo, to love (referring to love in general, as to have affection for), and adelphos, brother.
1Th 4:9a love  -   1 Thes. 3:12; Heb. 13:1
1Th 4:9b write  -   1 Thes. 5:1
1Th 4:9c taught  -   Isa. 54:13; John 6:45
1Th 4:92d love  -   John 13:34; 15:12, 17; 1 John 3:11, 23
Gk. agapao, referring to noble love.
1Th 4:10a Macedonia  -   1 Thes. 1:7
1Th 4:10b exhort  -   1 Thes. 4:1
1Th 4:10c abound  -   1 Thes. 4:1
1Th 4:11a quiet  -   2 Thes. 3:12
1Th 4:11b hands  -   Acts 20:34; Eph. 4:28
1Th 4:11c charged  -   1 Thes. 4:2
1Th 4:12a becomingly  -   Rom. 13:13
1Th 4:12b outside  -   Col. 4:5
1Th 4:12c need  -   Titus 3:14
1Th 4:13a ignorant  -   Rom. 1:13; 6:3
1Th 4:131 sleeping
I.e., dead (v. 16; John 11:11-14; 1 Cor. 11:30). For believers to die was considered by both the Lord and the apostle as going to sleep.
1Th 4:13b no  -   Eph. 2:12
1Th 4:14a rose  -   1 Cor. 15:13; Rom. 10:9
1Th 4:14b those  -   1 Cor. 15:18, 23
1Th 4:14c with  -   1 Thes. 3:13
1Th 4:151a coming  -   1 Thes. 2:19; 3:13; 2 Thes. 2:1
Gk. parousia, meaning presence. See note 33 in Matt. 24.
1Th 4:161a shout  -   Matt. 25:6
A signal for assembling.
1Th 4:16b archangel  -   Jude 9
1Th 4:162c trumpet  -   cf. Matt. 24:31
The last trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52), a trumpet for assembling God’s redeemed people (cf. Num. 10:2).
1Th 4:16d heaven  -   1 Thes. 1:10
1Th 4:16e dead  -   Rev. 14:13
1Th 4:16f rise  -   John 5:28-29a; 1 Cor. 15:23; Rev. 20:4, 6
1Th 4:171a caught  -   2 Thes. 2:1; cf. Rev. 12:5; Matt. 24:40-41
I.e., snatched up speedily and in a way that cannot be resisted. It is the same Greek word as in Acts 8:39 and 2 Cor. 12:2, 4. The mentioning here of the rapture of the believers at the Lord’s coming is in a general way, as a word of comfort. Details concerning this matter are revealed in other books of the New Testament, such as Matthew and Revelation.
1Th 4:17b with  -   1 Thes. 4:14; 3:13
1Th 4:17c clouds  -   Acts 1:9, 11; Rev. 10:1; cf. Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Rev. 14:14
1Th 4:172 in
In Rev. 12 the man-child, i.e., the overcomers, is caught up, raptured, to the throne of God in the third heaven before the great tribulation, the last three and a half years of the present age (Rev. 12:5-6, 14). Here, the majority of the believers, including those who are resurrected from the dead and those who are living at that time, are raptured to the air at the end of the great tribulation, at the time of the Lord’s coming (parousia).
1Th 4:18a one  -   1 Thes. 3:12
1 Thessalonians Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1Th 5:11a times  -   Matt. 24:36; Acts 1:7
These are the times and the seasons with regard to the Lord’s coming. This is confirmed by the day of the Lord in v. 2.
1Th 5:1b written  -   1 Thes. 4:9
1Th 5:21 like
This indicates that the day of the Lord’s coming is kept secret and will come suddenly, being known beforehand by no one (Matt. 24:42-43; Rev. 3:3; 16:15).
1Th 5:2a thief  -   Matt. 24:43; Rev. 3:3; 16:15
1Th 5:2b night  -   1 Thes. 5:5, 7
1Th 5:22c day  -   2 Thes. 2:2-3
In the preceding chapter the coming of the Lord is mainly for comfort and encouragement. In this chapter the day of the Lord is mainly for warning (vv. 3-6), since it is mentioned in the Word mainly in relation to the Lord’s judgment (1 Cor. 1:8; 3:13; 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14; 2 Tim. 4:8).
1Th 5:3a Peace  -   cf. Jer. 6:14
1Th 5:31 sudden
This is the result of men’s intense rebellion against God under Satan’s instigation near the time of the Lord’s coming (v. 2).
1Th 5:3b destruction  -   cf. Psa. 35:8
1Th 5:3c pangs  -   cf. Isa. 13:8; Jer. 13:21
1Th 5:4a darkness  -   Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 2:8
1Th 5:5a light  -   Luke 16:8; Eph. 5:8
1Th 5:5b day  -   1 Thes. 5:8
1Th 5:61a sleep  -   Mark 13:36; Rom. 13:11
I.e., be unwatchful. So in the next verse.
1Th 5:62b watch  -   Matt. 24:42; 1 Pet. 5:8
Watch is in contrast to sleep in the next verse; sober, in contrast to drunk.
1Th 5:6c sober  -   1 Thes. 5:8; 1 Pet. 1:13
1Th 5:7a night  -   1 Thes. 5:2; Rom. 13:12
1Th 5:71b drunk  -   Luke 21:34; Matt. 24:49
In a stupor.
1Th 5:8a day  -   1 Thes. 5:5; Rom. 13:12-13
1Th 5:8b sober  -   1 Thes. 5:6
1Th 5:81 breastplate
The breastplate and the helmet here point to spiritual warfare. The breastplate, which covers and protects our heart and spirit according to God’s righteousness (Eph. 6:14), is of faith and love; the helmet, which covers and protects our mentality, our mind, is the hope of salvation (Eph. 6:17). Faith, love, and hope are the three basic constructing elements of the genuine Christian life, as depicted in 1:3. Faith is related to our will, a part of our heart (Rom. 10:9), and to our conscience, a part of our spirit (1 Tim. 1:19); love is related to our emotion, another part of our heart (Matt. 22:37); and hope is related to our understanding, the function of our mind. All these need to be protected so that a genuine Christian life can be maintained. Such a life is watchful and sober (vv. 6-7). At the beginning of the Epistle, the apostle praised the believers’ work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope (1:3). Here, at the conclusion of the Epistle, he exhorted them to keep these spiritual virtues covered and protected by fighting for them.
1Th 5:8c faith  -   1 Thes. 1:3
1Th 5:8d helmet  -   Isa. 59:17
See note 81.
1Th 5:82 hope
The hope of our Lord’s coming back (1:3), which will be our salvation from both the coming destruction (v. 3) and the slavery of corruption of the old creation (Rom. 8:21-25).
1Th 5:83 salvation
Not salvation from eternal perdition through the Lord’s death, but salvation from the coming destruction (v. 3) through the Lord’s coming back.
1Th 5:91 not
Since God did not appoint us to wrath, we should watch, be sober, and fight (vv. 6, 8) to cooperate with God that we may obtain His salvation through the Lord Jesus.
1Th 5:9a appoint  -   1 Pet. 2:8; cf. 1 Thes. 3:3
1Th 5:9b wrath  -   1 Thes. 1:10
1Th 5:92c salvation  -   2 Thes. 2:13
See note 83.
1Th 5:101a died  -   2 Cor. 5:15
The Lord died for us not only that we might be saved from eternal perdition but also that we may live together with Him through His resurrection. Such a living can save us from the coming destruction.
1Th 5:102 watch
Or, are awake. I.e., are alive.
1Th 5:103 sleep
I.e., are dead (4:13-15).
1Th 5:10b live  -   2 Tim. 2:11
1Th 5:104 with
On the one hand, the Lord is away from us and we are awaiting His coming back; on the other hand, He is with us (Matt. 28:20) and we can live together with Him (Rom. 6:8).
1Th 5:11a one  -   1 Thes. 3:12; 4:18
1Th 5:11b build  -   Rom. 14:19
1Th 5:121a acknowledge  -   cf. 1 Cor. 16:18
Recognize and then render respect and regard for.
1Th 5:122 those
The apostle was probably referring here to the elders who labor in teaching and take the lead among the believers (1 Tim. 5:17).
1Th 5:123 take
To take the lead is not mainly to rule but to set an example in doing things first, that others may follow. The elders not only should labor in teaching but also should do things as an example. The example may become a ground for their admonishing.
1Th 5:12b lead  -   Rom. 12:8; Heb. 13:17
1Th 5:131a regard  -   Phil. 2:29
“To lead the mind through a reasoning process to a conclusion” (Vincent); hence, to think of, to consider, to estimate, to esteem, to regard.
1Th 5:13b love  -   1 Thes. 1:3
1Th 5:132 at
To regard the leading ones and to be at peace with one another is the proper condition of a local church.
1Th 5:13c peace  -   Mark 9:50
1Th 5:14a exhort  -   1 Thes. 2:11; 4:1
1Th 5:141b disorderly  -   2 Thes. 3:6, 7, 11
Referring, perhaps, mainly to those who are idle and are unwilling to work, being busybodies (2 Thes. 3:11), undisciplined, unruled, rebellious.
1Th 5:142c fainthearted  -   Heb. 12:3, 5
Lit., little-souled; i.e., narrow and feeble in the capacity of mind, will, and emotion.
1Th 5:143d weak  -   Acts 20:35; 1 Pet. 3:7
Probably referring generally to the weak ones, who are weak either in their spirit or soul or body, or are weak in faith (Rom. 14:1; 15:1).
1Th 5:144e long-suffering  -   1 Cor. 13:4; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12; 2 Tim. 4:2
This implies that in a local church, besides those who are disorderly and need admonishing, those who are little-souled and need consoling, and those who are weak and need sustaining, all the members may be a problem in some way and need us to be long-suffering toward them.
1Th 5:15a evil  -   Rom. 12:17; 1 Pet. 3:9; Matt. 5:39
1Th 5:151 always
This means that regardless of how others treat us, even if their treatment is evil, we should pursue what is good for them.
1Th 5:15b good  -   1 Thes. 5:21; Rom. 15:14; Gal. 5:22
1Th 5:15c one  -   1 Thes. 5:11; 3:12
1Th 5:161 Always
This is based on the conditions mentioned in vv. 14-15.
1Th 5:16a rejoice  -   Phil. 4:4; 2 Cor. 13:11
1Th 5:171 Unceasingly
This is to have uninterrupted fellowship with God in our spirit. It requires perseverance (Rom. 12:12; Col. 4:2) with a strong spirit (Eph. 6:18).
1Th 5:17a pray  -   Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; 1 Pet. 4:7
1Th 5:181 In
Because all things work together for our good that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:28-29).
1Th 5:18a thanks  -   Eph. 5:20; Col. 3:17
1Th 5:182 for
This clause modifies the three preceding exhortations. God wants us to live a rejoicing, praying, and thanking life. Such a life is a glory to God and a shame to His enemy.
1Th 5:18b will  -   1 Thes. 4:3
1Th 5:191 not
The Spirit causes our spirit to be burning (Rom. 12:11) and our gifts to be flaming (2 Tim. 1:6). Hence, we should not quench Him.
1Th 5:19a Spirit  -   cf. Eph. 4:30; Isa. 63:10
1Th 5:201 despise
Count as nothing, lightly esteem.
1Th 5:202 prophecies
I.e., prophesying, the prophetic speech that issues from a revelation. It does not need to be a prediction (see 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-4 and notes there).
1Th 5:211 prove
Including to discern prophecies (1 Cor. 14:29), to discern the spirits (1 Cor. 12:10), to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), to prove what is the will of God (Rom. 12:2), and to prove what is well pleasing to the Lord (Eph. 5:10).
1Th 5:21a good  -   1 Thes. 5:15; Job 34:4
1Th 5:22a Abstain  -   1 Thes. 4:3
1Th 5:221 kind
The Greek word means species. It denotes anything in view, anything in perception; hence, a sight. It refers not to the appearance of evil but to the kind, the form, the shape, the sight, of evil. The believers, who live a holy life in faith, love, and hope, should abstain from evil of any kind.
1Th 5:231 And
And conjoins the blessing of God’s sanctifying of our entire being, given in this verse, and the charge to abstain from every kind of evil, given in the preceding verse. On the one hand, we abstain from every kind of evil; on the other hand, God sanctifies us wholly. We cooperate with God that we may have a holy living.
1Th 5:232 God
The God of peace is the Sanctifier; His sanctification brings in peace. When we are wholly sanctified by Him from within, we have peace with Him and with man in every way (v. 13).
1Th 5:23a peace  -   2 Cor. 13:11
1Th 5:233b sanctify  -   1 Thes. 4:3, 4, 7; 2 Thes. 2:13; John 17:17; Rom. 6:19, 22
To set apart, separate unto God, from things common or profane. See notes 23 in Rom. 1 and 192 in Rom. 6.
1Th 5:234 wholly
Or, entirely, thoroughly, to the consummation. God sanctifies us wholly, so that no part of our being, of either our spirit or soul or body, will be left common or profane.
1Th 5:235c spirit  -   Luke 1:46-47; Heb. 4:12; Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8; Prov. 20:27; John 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 1:9; 1 Cor. 14:14-16; 16:18; 2 Cor. 7:13
This word strongly indicates that man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. The spirit as our inmost part is the inner organ, possessing God-consciousness, that we may contact God (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9). The soul is our very self (cf. Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:25), a medium between our spirit and our body, possessing self-consciousness, that we may have our personality. The body as our external part is the outer organ, possessing world-consciousness, that we may contact the material world. The body contains the soul, and the soul is the vessel that contains the spirit. In the spirit, God as the Spirit dwells; in the soul, our self dwells; and in the body, the physical senses dwell. God sanctifies us, first, by taking possession of our spirit through regeneration (John 3:5-6); second, by spreading Himself as the life-giving Spirit from our spirit into our soul to saturate and transform our soul (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18); and last, by enlivening our mortal body through our soul (Rom. 8:11, 13) and transfiguring our body by His life power (Phil. 3:21). See notes 122 and 123 in Heb. 4.
1Th 5:23d soul  -   Luke 17:33; John 12:25 and note 1; Heb. 10:39 and note 3; 1 Pet. 1:9
1Th 5:23e body  -   Rom. 8:11, 13; 12:1; 1 Cor. 6:13, 15, 19
1Th 5:23f preserved  -   Jude 1
1Th 5:236 complete
God not only sanctifies us wholly but also preserves our spirit, soul, and body complete. Wholly is quantitative; complete is qualitative. Quantitatively, God sanctifies us wholly; qualitatively, God preserves us complete, i.e., He keeps our spirit, soul, and body perfect. Through the fall our body was ruined, our soul was contaminated, and our spirit was deadened. In God’s full salvation our entire being is saved and made complete and perfect. For this, God is preserving our spirit from any deadening element (Heb. 9:14), our soul from remaining natural and old (Matt. 16:24-26), and our body from the ruin of sin (4:4; Rom. 6:6). Such a preservation by God and His thorough sanctification sustain us to live a holy life unto maturity that we may meet the Lord in His parousia.
1Th 5:23g without  -   Phil. 2:15; 2 Pet. 3:14
1Th 5:237 at
Or, in the presence (parousia).
1Th 5:238h coming  -   1 Thes. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15-16; 2 Thes. 2:1, 8
Every chapter of this book ends with the coming of the Lord. This shows that the writer, Paul, lived and worked with the Lord’s coming before him, taking it as an attraction, an incentive, a goal, and a warning. He not only did this himself but also encouraged the believers under his care to do the same.
1Th 5:24a Faithful  -   2 Thes. 3:3; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13
1Th 5:24b calls  -   1 Thes. 2:12
1Th 5:241 also
The faithful God who called us will also sanctify us wholly and preserve our entire being complete.
1Th 5:24c do  -   Phil. 1:6
1Th 5:25a pray  -   2 Thes. 3:1; Col. 4:3; Heb. 13:18
1Th 5:26a kiss  -   Rom. 16:16
1Th 5:27a read  -   Col. 4:16
1Th 5:271 brothers
Some MSS insert, holy. This would mean that, since this Epistle is concerned with the holy life of the believers, the apostle in his concluding charge called the believers “the holy brothers.”
1Th 5:281a grace  -   2 Thes. 3:18; Rom. 16:20; Gal. 6:18
See notes 146 and 171 in John 1 and 101 in 1 Cor. 15. It is only when we enjoy the Lord as grace that we can live a holy life for the church life, a life that is genuine and proper for the church, lived by our having the Lord as the life supply.
In this book the holy life for the church life is developed. To be sanctified is to be holy. In the universe, only God is holy; only He is distinct and different from all other things. He is not common and therefore is undefiled. Holiness is God’s nature; it is an intrinsic characteristic of God’s attributes. Therefore, to be holy completely and entirely, to be holy not only in outward position but also in inward disposition, we must have the holy nature that is characteristic of God. To have this divine nature of God, we must possess God, having Him as our life and nature. Only God can sanctify us wholly and can preserve our entire being, our spirit and soul and body, complete, keeping it from being common or defiled. God desires to sanctify us, and He Himself will do it, as long as we are willing to pursue Him as holiness (Heb. 12:14a) and cooperate with Him in this matter. In this way we can be holy as He is holy (1 Pet. 1:15-16). Without holiness we cannot see Him (Heb. 12:14b).
God not only has made us holy in position by the redeeming blood of Christ (Heb. 13:12; 10:29) but also is sanctifying us in disposition by His own holy nature. By thus sanctifying us, He transforms us in the essence of our spirit, soul, and body, making us wholly like Him in nature. In this way He preserves our spirit, soul, and body wholly complete. His making us holy in position is outside of us, whereas His sanctifying us in disposition is within us, beginning from our spirit, the deepest part, passing through our soul, the intermediate part, and reaching to our body, the outer part. This work, which penetrates us deeply, is accomplished through the regeneration of our spirit (John 3:6), the transformation of our soul (Rom. 12:2), and the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 4:30) by God’s life-giving Spirit. Such a holy and sanctified life is necessary for us to have a church life that is pleasing to God and that expresses Him.
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2 Thessalonians Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-2
II.   The content — encouragement and correction concerning the holy life for the church — 1:3 — 3:15
A.   Encouragement — a life worthy of the kingdom of God — 1:3-12
B.   Correction — the misconception concerning the day of the Lord’s coming — 2:1-12
C.   Further encouragement — 2:13 — 3:5
D.   Correction concerning those walking disorderly — 3:6-15
III.   Conclusion — 3:16-18
2 Thessalonians >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Thessalonians Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2Th 1:1a Paul  -   1 Thes. 1:1
2Th 1:11 church
See note 11 in 1 Thes. 1.
2Th 1:12 Thessalonians
See note 12 in 1 Thes. 1.
2Th 1:3a thank  -   1 Thes. 1:2; 2 Thes. 2:13
2Th 1:31b faith  -   1 Thes. 1:3; 3:6; 5:8
See note 32 in 1 Thes. 1. In the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, faith and love were considered constructing elements of the believers’ life for the church. Here, in this Epistle, faith and love are growing and increasing in the Thessalonians’ Christian life.
2Th 1:4a boast  -   2 Cor. 7:4, 14; 9:2-3
2Th 1:41 endurance
The endurance issued from and was supported by the hope of the Lord’s coming back (1 Thes. 1:3). Such endurance resulting from hope is always accompanied by faith. Hence, the phrase endurance and faith is used here. Both endurance and faith are needed in persecutions and afflictions.
2Th 1:4b persecutions  -   Mark 10:30; 2 Cor. 12:10
2Th 1:5a indication  -   Phil. 1:28
2Th 1:51 righteous
God’s judgment is righteous and just upon all men. It will be finalized in the future (Rom. 2:5-9; Rev. 20:11-15). The way God deals with different people in this age is an indication, a token, a proof, of the future execution of His righteous judgment.
2Th 1:5b worthy  -   2 Thes. 1:11; Luke 20:35; Rev. 3:4
2Th 1:52c kingdom  -   1 Cor. 6:9, 10; James 2:5
The believers have been called into God’s kingdom and glory (1 Thes. 2:12). To enter into this kingdom, we need to pass through afflictions (Acts 14:22). Hence, the persecutions and afflictions are a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment, showing that we may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God.
2Th 1:71 rest
Or, relief, ease, repose, liberty. In this age the believers suffer persecutions and troubles for the Lord. At the Lord’s coming back they will be relieved of their sufferings and will enter into the Lord’s rest and enjoy its liberty.
2Th 1:7a revelation  -   Luke 17:30; 1 Pet. 1:7
2Th 1:7b heaven  -   1 Thes. 4:16; Acts 1:11
2Th 1:7c angels  -   Matt. 16:27
2Th 1:7d fire  -   Isa. 66:15; Mal. 4:1; Rev. 10:1; 1 Cor. 3:13; Heb. 10:27; 12:29
2Th 1:8a not  -   1 Thes. 4:5
2Th 1:8b obey  -   Rom. 16:26
2Th 1:81 Christ
Some MSS omit, Christ.
2Th 1:9a destruction  -   Phil. 3:19; 2 Pet. 3:7
2Th 1:91 presence
Lit., face.
2Th 1:9b glory  -   Matt. 25:31
2Th 1:10a comes  -   1 Thes. 1:10
2Th 1:101b glorified  -   John 17:10
The Lord is the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8); He was glorified in His resurrection and ascension (John 17:1; Luke 24:26; Heb. 2:9). Now He is in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) to bring us into glory (Heb. 2:10). At His coming back, on the one hand He will come from the heavens with glory (Rev. 10:1; Matt. 25:31), and on the other hand He will be glorified in His saints; that is, His glory will be manifested from within His members, causing their body of humiliation to be transfigured into His glory, conforming it to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). Thus, the unbelievers will marvel at Him, admire Him, wonder at Him, in us, His believers.
2Th 1:10c testimony  -   1 Cor. 1:6
2Th 1:10d that  -   2 Tim. 1:12, 18; 1 Cor. 3:13
2Th 1:11a pray  -   Col. 1:9
2Th 1:11b worthy  -   2 Thes. 1:5
2Th 1:11c power  -   Col. 1:29
2Th 1:111 good
Or, delight. The apostles prayed that God might fulfill the good intention, the delight, of the Thessalonians for goodness.
2Th 1:11d work  -   1 Thes. 1:3
2Th 1:12a name  -   2 Thes. 3:6
2Th 1:121 grace
The grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord Himself within us as our life and life supply that we may live a life that will glorify the Lord and cause us to be glorified in Him. See notes 171 in John 1, 101 in 1 Cor. 15, and 141 in 2 Cor. 13.
2 Thessalonians Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2Th 2:11 with
Or, on behalf of.
2Th 2:12a coming  -   2 Thes. 2:8; 1 Thes. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15
Gk. parousia, meaning presence. See notes 191 in 1 Thes. 2 and 33 in Matt. 24. Two matters are covered here: the Lord’s parousia (presence) and our gathering together (rapture) to Him. The Lord’s parousia will begin with the rapture of the overcomers to the throne of God in heaven (Rev. 12:5-6); at the end of the great tribulation, which will occur in the last three and a half years of this age, the second half of the last week in Dan. 9:27 (Matt. 24:21 and note; Rev. 11:2 and note 4), it will come to the air (Rev. 10:1 and note 2) and last for a time; and it will end with its manifestation, “the manifestation of His parousia” (v. 8; Matt. 24:30 and note 4). During the time in which the Lord’s parousia remains in the air, the majority of the believers will be raptured to meet the Lord there (1 Thes. 4:17). According to the context, the day of the Lord in v. 2 refers to the day of the Lord’s parousia (coming), in which the rapture of the majority of the believers will occur. Verse 3 tells us affirmatively that before that day Antichrist will be revealed to play the major role in the great tribulation (v. 4; Rev. 13:1-8, 12-15). This reveals clearly and definitely that the Lord’s coming (parousia) to the air and the rapture of the majority of the believers cannot take place before the great tribulation.
2Th 2:1b gathering  -   1 Thes. 4:17
2Th 2:13 to
Lit., toward.
2Th 2:21 in
Lit., from the mind; i.e., “from a steady and soberly judging mind” (Darby).
2Th 2:22a spirit  -   1 Cor. 12:10; 1 John 4:1
Referring to a speaking spirit that pretends and claims to have the authority of divine revelation.
2Th 2:23 day
See note 22 in 1 Thes. 5.
2Th 2:31 deceive
Or, beguile; “not only making a false impression, but actually leading astray” (Vincent).
2Th 2:32a apostasy  -   1 Tim. 4:1
I.e., falling away (from the straight way of God’s economy as revealed in the Scriptures).
2Th 2:33 man
Antichrist, as prophesied in Dan. 7:20-21, 24-26; 9:27; 11:36-37; Rev. 13:1-8, 12-18; 19:19-20. He will be the man of lawlessness and will change laws, destroy and corrupt many to an extraordinary degree, blaspheme God, and deceive men. Hence, the Lord will utterly destroy him, and he will become the son of perdition.
2Th 2:3b lawlessness  -   2 Thes. 2:7-8; Matt. 7:23; Rom. 6:19
2Th 2:3c son  -   cf. John 17:12
2Th 2:3d perdition  -   2 Thes. 2:8; Dan. 7:26; 8:25; Rev. 19:20
2Th 2:41a exalts  -   cf. Isa. 14:13
This fulfills the prophecy concerning Antichrist in Dan. 11:36-37. This will take place in the second half of the last week, as prophesied in Dan. 9:27. See note 151 in Matt. 24.
2Th 2:4b God  -   1 Cor. 8:5
2Th 2:4c sits  -   cf. Isa. 14:13-14; Ezek. 28:2
2Th 2:42d temple  -   cf. Matt. 24:15
This is “the holy place” in Matt. 24:15, indicating that the temple of God will be rebuilt before the Lord comes back.
2Th 2:4e he  -   cf. Rev. 13:8, 12
2Th 2:61 restrains
This refers to some power that hinders the revelation of the man of lawlessness, Antichrist.
2Th 2:62 time
The time appointed by God, which will be the last of the seventy weeks, as prophesied in Dan. 9:27; 7:24-26; Rev. 13:1-8.
2Th 2:71 mystery
The lawlessness that will characterize Antichrist (v. 3) is already operating in this age mysteriously. It is the mystery of lawlessness working today among the nations and in human society.
2Th 2:7a lawlessness  -   2 Thes. 2:3
2Th 2:72 goes
This probably means that the restraining one is taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8a lawless  -   2 Thes. 2:3
2Th 2:81 slay
This will be fulfilled in Rev. 19:19-20.
2Th 2:82b breath  -   Job 4:9; Isa. 11:4
The same Greek word as for spirit.
2Th 2:8c mouth  -   Rev. 2:16; 19:15, 21
2Th 2:8d bring  -   2 Thes. 2:3
2Th 2:83 manifestation
Or, shining forth. This indicates that the Lord’s coming (parousia) will be hidden before it is manifested openly (see note 271 in Matt. 24). This indicates also that the Lord’s coming will last a period of time (see note 12). First, it will be in secret, and then it will be manifested to the public.
2Th 2:84e coming  -   2 Thes. 2:1
See note 12.
2Th 2:91 according
As prophesied in Rev. 13:2, 4, 7.
2Th 2:9a power  -   Rev. 13:2; Dan. 8:24
2Th 2:9b signs  -   Rev. 13:13-14; Matt. 24:24
2Th 2:92 lie
The entire operation of Satan to deceive people (v. 10) is in its totality a lie, just as he is a liar and the father of liars (John 8:44).
2Th 2:10a perishing  -   1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15; 4:3
2Th 2:111 because
Because the perishing ones did not receive the love of the truth, which God intended to give them that they might be saved (v. 10), God sends to them an operation of error, an active power of misleading, that they might believe the lie.
2Th 2:11a sends  -   cf. Rom. 1:24, 26, 28
2Th 2:11b lie  -   1 Tim. 4:2; Rom. 1:25
2Th 2:12a truth  -   Rom. 1:18; 2:8
2Th 2:121 pleasure
The believers have a good intention for goodness (1:11); the perishing ones (v. 10), who reject the truth of God, take pleasure in unrighteousness. To sin is a delight to them (Rom. 1:32).
2Th 2:13a thank  -   2 Thes. 1:3
2Th 2:13b beloved  -   1 Thes. 1:4
2Th 2:131c chose  -   1 Thes. 1:4
God loved us (v. 16), chose us from the beginning, and called us through the gospel (v. 14). He chose us unto His salvation, which is by sanctification of the Spirit, and He called us to the obtaining of the Lord’s glory. Now He is taking us on with eternal comfort and good hope in grace.
2Th 2:132 from
I.e., from eternity past (cf. Eph. 1:4). Some ancient MSS read, as firstfruits.
2Th 2:13d beginning  -   John 1:1
2Th 2:13e salvation  -   1 Thes. 5:9
2Th 2:133f sanctification  -   1 Thes. 4:3; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 1:2
Sanctification of the Spirit consists of three steps: (1) the Spirit’s seeking us and convicting us at the time that He caused us to repent and believe (1 Pet. 1:2; John 16:8); (2) His sanctifying us both positionally and dispositionally (Heb. 13:12; 1 Cor. 6:11) at the time we were saved; and (3) His sanctifying us dispositionally as we pursue the growth in life (Rom. 6:19, 22). By these three steps of the Spirit’s sanctification, God’s salvation is applied to us that we may obtain and enjoy it fully. The three steps of the Spirit’s sanctification not only separate us from all old and negative things, making us holy unto God, but also sanctify us, making us a new creation full of the Lord’s essence and element, that we may obtain the Lord’s glory.
2Th 2:134 belief
Or, faith. By the Spirit’s sanctification God’s salvation is revealed and brought to us; by our believing we receive all that is revealed and brought to us by the Spirit, so that we obtain God’s salvation.
2Th 2:13g truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
2Th 2:141 which
Referring to salvation in sanctification… and belief… in the preceding verse. God chose us unto salvation in eternity, and then in time He called us unto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord. Salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth is the procedure; the obtaining of the glory of our Lord is the goal.
2Th 2:14a called  -   1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10
2Th 2:14b gospel  -   1 Thes. 1:5
2Th 2:142c glory  -   Matt. 25:31
The glory of the Lord is that He, as the Son of God the Father, possesses the Father’s life and nature that He may express the Father. To obtain the Lord’s glory is to be in the same position as the Son of God that we may express the Father (John 17:22 and note 1).
2Th 2:15a stand  -   1 Cor. 16:13; Phil. 4:1
2Th 2:151b things  -   2 Thes. 3:6; 1 Cor. 11:2
See note 21 in 1 Cor. 11.
2Th 2:161 Lord
Our Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father work together to comfort and establish the believers (v. 17).
2Th 2:16a loved  -   John 3:16; 1 John 4:10
2Th 2:162 eternal
Not temporary and transitory comfort and strengthening but eternal comfort by the divine life. This comfort is sufficient for any kind of environment and situation; thus, it is with good hope.
2Th 2:163 good
The hope of glory (Col. 1:27), which is the hope of the Lord’s coming (1 Thes. 1:3), when we will be either resurrected or transfigured into glory (1 Thes. 4:13-14; Phil. 3:21; Heb. 2:10).
2Th 2:16b hope  -   1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 1:18; 4:4
2Th 2:164 grace
God Himself in Christ for us to enjoy (see note 171 in John 1) that we may be sanctified by His Spirit (v. 13) and comforted and established (v. 17) with eternal comfort and good hope.
2Th 2:17a establish  -   2 Thes. 3:3; 1 Thes. 3:2, 13; 1 Pet. 5:10
2 Thessalonians Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2Th 3:1a pray  -   1 Thes. 5:25; Eph. 6:18-19; Col. 4:3
2Th 3:1b run  -   Psa. 147:15
2Th 3:11 glorified
To have the divine riches contained in the word of the Lord released and expressed in the believers’ living.
2Th 3:12 with
Lit., toward.
2Th 3:2a delivered  -   Rom. 15:31
2Th 3:2b faith  -   Acts 28:24
2Th 3:3a faithful  -   1 Thes. 5:24; 1 Cor. 1:9
2Th 3:31b establish  -   2 Thes. 2:17
By eternal comfort and good hope (2:16-17).
2Th 3:32 guard
The entire world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19), but the divine life, which we have by being born of God, keeps and guards us from him (1 John 5:18, 4; 3:8-9).
2Th 3:3c evil  -   John 17:15; Matt. 6:13
2Th 3:4a confidence  -   Gal. 5:10
2Th 3:41b charge  -   2 Thes. 3:6, 10, 12; 1 Thes. 4:2, 11
Such as the charges in 1 Thes. 4:2-4, 9-12; 5:11-22; 2 Thes. 2:2, 15; 3:6, 10, 12-15.
2Th 3:51a direct  -   1 Thes. 3:11
By the leading of the Spirit, through whom the love of God has been poured out into our hearts (Rom. 8:14; 5:5).
2Th 3:5b hearts  -   1 Chron. 29:18
2Th 3:52 into
I.e., to love God with the love of God that we have enjoyed and experienced.
2Th 3:53c love  -   Mark 12:30
Our love toward God, issuing from the love of God (1 John 4:19) that has been poured out into our hearts.
2Th 3:54 into
I.e., to endure with the endurance of Christ that we have enjoyed and experienced.
2Th 3:55 endurance
On the positive side, we need to enjoy the love of God that we may love Him in order to live for Him, and on the negative side, we need to participate in the endurance of Christ that we may endure sufferings, as He did, to stand against Satan, the enemy of God. Loving God and enduring sufferings are excellent characteristics of a Christian living.
2Th 3:6a name  -   2 Thes. 1:12; 1 Cor. 5:4
2Th 3:6b keep  -   2 Thes. 3:14
2Th 3:61 walking
See note 141 in 1 Thes. 5. Cf. vv. 7, 11. To walk disorderly not only is according to the flesh (Rom. 8:4) but also is against the building up of the church life (1 Thes. 5:11; Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 10:23).
2Th 3:6c disorderly  -   2 Thes. 3:11; 1 Thes. 5:14
2Th 3:62d things  -   2 Thes. 2:15
See note 21 in 1 Cor. 11.
2Th 3:7a imitate  -   2 Thes. 3:9; 1 Thes. 1:6; 1 Cor. 4:16
2Th 3:71 not
The apostles were for the building up of the church in all things (2 Cor. 12:19); they were absolutely not disorderly among the believers but were a pattern for the believers to imitate (v. 9).
2Th 3:8a labor  -   Acts 20:35; Eph. 4:28
2Th 3:8b worked  -   2 Thes. 3:12; 1 Thes. 2:9; Acts 18:3
2Th 3:8c burdensome  -   2 Cor. 11:7, 9; 12:13-14, 16
2Th 3:9a right  -   1 Cor. 9:4, 6, 12
2Th 3:9b pattern  -   Phil. 3:17; 1 Pet. 5:3; cf. 1 Thes. 1:7
2Th 3:9c imitate  -   2 Thes. 3:7
2Th 3:10a charge  -   2 Thes. 3:4
2Th 3:10b eat  -   Gen. 3:19
2Th 3:11a disorderly  -   2 Thes. 3:6
2Th 3:111b busybodies  -   1 Tim. 5:13; 1 Pet. 4:15
They were busy but were doing no work at all; i.e., they were busy with only what was not their own business.
2Th 3:12a charge  -   2 Thes. 3:4
2Th 3:12b exhort  -   1 Thes. 2:3; 4:1
2Th 3:12c work  -   2 Thes. 3:8
2Th 3:12d quietness  -   1 Thes. 4:11
2Th 3:12e eat  -   cf. 2 Thes. 3:8
2Th 3:13a lose  -   Gal. 6:9
2Th 3:14a not  -   Matt. 18:17
2Th 3:141b not  -   1 Cor. 5:9, 11
I.e., not to have company, not to keep company.
2Th 3:15a admonish  -   1 Thes. 5:12, 14; cf. Matt.18:15; Lev. 19:17
2Th 3:16a peace  -   1 Thes. 5:23; Rom. 15:33
2Th 3:161b peace  -   Num. 6:26
By keeping the charge in vv. 12-15, the believers receive peace from the Lord continually in every way.
2Th 3:16c with  -   Matt. 28:20; Ruth 2:4
2Th 3:17a my  -   1 Cor. 16:21; Col. 4:18
2Th 3:181a grace  -   1 Thes. 5:28
It is only when the Lord is enjoyed by us as grace that we can guard the church life from any kind of misleading and disorderliness. To live a proper church life and to keep the church life in order, we need to enjoy the Lord as the supplying grace. See note 281 in 1 Thes. 5.
< 2 Thessalonians • 1 Timothy Outline >
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1 Timothy Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-2
II.   God’s economy versus different teachings — 1:3-17
III.   Faith and a good conscience needed for the keeping of the faith — 1:18-20
IV.   Prayer for man’s salvation — 2:1-7
V.   The normal life in the church — 2:8-15
VI.   Overseers and deacons for the church’s administration — 3:1-13
VII.   The function of the church — the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth — 3:14-16
VIII.   The prediction of the decline of the church — 4:1-5
IX.   A good minister of Christ — 4:6-16
X.   Concerning the saints of different ages — 5:1-16
XI.   Concerning the elders — 5:17-25
XII.   Concerning slaves and money lovers — 6:1-10
XIII.   A man of God — 6:11-21a
XIV.   Conclusion — 6:21b
1 Timothy >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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1 Timothy Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1Ti 1:11 Paul
First Timothy unveils to us God’s economy concerning the church, 2 Timothy inoculates us against the decline of the church, and Titus is concerned with maintaining the order of the church. These are three aspects of one purpose, that is, to preserve the church as the proper expression of the Triune God, as symbolized by the golden lampstands in the ultimate portion of the divine revelation (Rev. 1:12, 20). For the accomplishing of this purpose, the following basic and crucial matters are stressed repeatedly in these three books:
(1) The faith, the contents of the complete gospel according to God’s New Testament economy. It is objective and is mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:4, 19; 2:7; 3:9, 13; 4:1, 6; 5:8; 6:10, 12, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; and Titus 1:1, 4, 13.
(2) The truth, the reality of the contents of the faith, mentioned in 1 Tim. 2:4, 7; 3:15; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8; 4:4; and Titus 1:1, 14.
(3) Healthy teaching, in 1 Tim. 1:10, 2 Tim. 4:3, and Titus 1:9; 2:1; healthy words, in 1 Tim. 6:3 and 2 Tim. 1:13; healthy speech, in Titus 2:8; and healthy in the faith, in Titus 1:13; 2:2. All these are related to the condition of life.
(4) Life, the eternal life of God, in 1 Tim. 1:16; 6:12, 19; 2 Tim. 1:1, 10; and Titus 1:2; 3:7.
(5) Godliness, a living that is the expression of God, mentioned in 1 Tim. 2:2, 10 (godly); 3:16; 4:7, 8; 5:4 (respect); 6:3, 5, 6, 11; 2 Tim. 3:5, 12 (godly); and Titus 1:1; 2:12 (godly). The opposite, ungodliness, is mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:9 (ungodly), 2 Tim. 2:16, and Titus 2:12.
(6) Faith, our act of believing in the gospel, in God, and in His word and deeds. It is subjective and is mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:2, 5, 14, 19; 2:15; 4:12; 6:11; 2 Tim. 1:5, 13; 2:22; 3:10, 15; and Titus 2:2; 3:15.
(7) The conscience, the leading part of our spirit, which justifies or condemns our relationships with God and with man. It is mentioned in 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; and Titus 1:15.
The faith equals the contents of the economy, the household administration, the dispensation, of God. The truth is the contents, the reality, of the faith according to God’s economy. Healthy teaching, healthy words, and healthy speech are the ministry of the truth, ministering to people the reality of the divine truths. Eternal life is the means and power to carry out the divine realities of the faith. Godliness is a living that expresses the divine reality, an expression of God in all His riches. Faith (subjective) is the response to the truth of the faith (objective); such faith receives and participates in the divine realities. The conscience is a test and a check to preserve us in the faith.
1Ti 1:1a apostle  -   Acts 14:14; 1 Cor. 9:1-2, 5; 2 Cor. 11:5
1Ti 1:1b according  -   Titus 1:3; cf. 2 Tim. 1:1; Titus 1:1
1Ti 1:12c command  -   John 13:34; Acts 1:2; Rom. 16:26; Titus 1:3; 1 John 2:3; 3:23-24
It was according to the command of God and of Christ that Paul became an apostle. In his earlier Epistles he told us that he was an apostle through the will of God (1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:1). The command of God is a definite expression, a further direction, of the will of God.
1Ti 1:13d God  -   1 Tim. 4:10; Titus 2:13; 1 Tim. 2:3; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4; Jude 25; Psa. 65:5
God our Savior here and like titles in 2:3; 4:10 and Titus 1:3; 2:10, 13; 3:4 are particular titles ascribed to God in the three books of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, which take God’s salvation as a strong base for the teachings concerning God’s New Testament economy (1:15-16; 2:4-6; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; 2:10; 3:15; Titus 2:14; 3:5-7). It was according to the command of such a saving God, a Savior God, not according to the command of the law-giving God, a demanding God, that Paul became an apostle.
1Ti 1:14e hope  -   Col. 1:27; Titus 1:2; 2:13; 3:7
Christ Jesus is not only God’s Anointed (Christ) to be our Savior (Jesus) that we might be saved to gain the eternal life of God, but also our hope to bring us into the full blessing and enjoyment of this eternal life. The hope of eternal life revealed in Titus 1:2, which was the base and condition of Paul’s apostleship, and the blessed hope revealed in Titus 2:13, which we are awaiting as the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior, are intimately related to the person of God’s Messiah, our Savior. Hence, He Himself is our hope, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). It was according to the command not only of our Savior God but also of the One who saved us with eternal life and will bring us into the glory of this life that Paul became an apostle. His command is of the eternal life and is to be fulfilled by the eternal life, in contrast to the command of the law-giving God, which was of letters and was to be fulfilled by human effort, without the supply of eternal life.
1Ti 1:21a Timothy  -   Acts 16:1-3; 1 Cor. 4:17
The Greek word is composed of honor and God. Thus, the name means to honor God.
1Ti 1:2b child  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 1:2; 2:1; 1 Cor. 4:17, 15; cf. Titus 1:4; Philem. 10
1Ti 1:22 faith
Timothy became a genuine child of Paul not by natural birth but in faith (i.e., in the sphere and element of faith), not physically but spiritually.
1Ti 1:2c mercy  -   1 Tim. 1:13, 16; 2 Tim. 1:2, 16, 18; Titus 3:5; Rom. 9:15, 18
1Ti 1:31 going
This must have been after the apostle was liberated from his first imprisonment in Rome (see note 62 in 2 Tim. 4). He probably wrote this Epistle from Macedonia (today’s northern Greece and southern Bulgaria).
1Ti 1:3a Macedonia  -   Acts 16:9, 12; 20:1, 3
1Ti 1:3b Ephesus  -   Acts 18:19, 24; 19:1
1Ti 1:32 certain
Certain dissenting ones, such as those mentioned in v. 6 and Gal. 1:7; 2:12.
1Ti 1:33c different  -   1 Tim. 6:3
To teach different things was to teach myths, unending genealogies (v. 4), and the law (vv. 7-8). All such teaching was vain talking (v. 6), differing from the apostles’ teaching, which was centered on Christ and the church, that is, on the economy of God.
Paul’s Epistles are the completion of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal purpose and economy (Col. 1:25). His ministry completes the revelation concerning the all-inclusive Christ and His universal Body, the church as His fullness to express Him. Concerning the church as the Body of Christ there are two sides: life and practice. From Romans through 2 Thessalonians a full revelation is given concerning the life of the church, including the nature, responsibility, and function of the church. Now, from 1 Timothy through Philemon a detailed revelation concerning the practice of the church is presented. This pertains to the administration and shepherding of a local church. For this, the first thing needed is to terminate the different teachings of the dissenters, which distract the saints from the central line and ultimate goal of God’s New Testament economy (vv. 4-6). The different teachings in vv. 3-4, 6-7; 6:3-5, 20-21 and the heresies in 4:1-3 are the seed, the source, of the church’s decline, degradation, and deterioration dealt with in 2 Timothy.
1Ti 1:41a myths  -   Titus 1:14
The same word is used in 4:7 and 2 Tim. 4:4. It refers to words, speeches, and conversations concerning such things as rumors, reports, true or false stories, and fictions. It might include Jewish stories of miracles, rabbinical fabrications, etc. These were profane and old-womanish myths (4:7) and Jewish myths (Titus 1:14).
1Ti 1:42b genealogies  -   Titus 3:9
Probably referring to Old Testament genealogies adorned with fables (Titus 3:9).
1Ti 1:4c questionings  -   1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Tim. 2:23; Titus 3:9
1Ti 1:43d economy  -   Eph. 1:10; 3:9; Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17
The Greek word means household law, implying distribution (the base of this word is of the same origin as that for pasture in John 10:9, implying a distribution of the pasture to the flock). It denotes a household management, a household administration, a household government, and, derivatively, a dispensation, a plan, or an economy for administration (distribution); hence, it is also a household economy. God’s economy in faith is His household economy, His household administration (cf. note 101 in Eph. 1; Eph. 3:9), which is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church (3:15), the Body of Christ. The apostle’s ministry was centered on this economy of God (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17), whereas the different teachings of the dissenting ones were used by God’s enemy to distract His people from this economy. In the administration and shepherding of a local church, this divine economy must be made fully clear to the saints.
In the first chapter of this book the apostle Paul presented God’s economy in opposition to different teachings. God’s economy is in faith (v. 4), whereas the different teachings are based on the principle of the law and centered on the law (vv. 7-10). Hence, faith is versus the law, as dealt with in Gal. 3 (vv. 2, 5, 23-25). Any teaching that is based on the principle of the law and centered on the law is unhealthy (v. 10). Only God’s economy, which is in faith, in opposition to the teachings that are based on the principle of the law and centered on the law, is healthy and can make it possible for people to believe on Christ unto eternal life (v. 16) and to thus participate in God’s eternal plan, God’s economy, which is in faith. This is the gospel of glory with which the blessed God entrusted the apostle Paul (v. 11). If anyone thrusts away such faith and a good conscience, regarding the faith he becomes shipwrecked on a deep sea (v. 19).
1Ti 1:44e faith  -   1 Tim. 2:7; 3:9; 4:1, 6; 5:8; 6:10, 12, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13; Gal. 1:23
The economy of God is a matter in faith, i.e., a matter that is initiated and developed in the sphere and element of the faith. God’s economy, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people, is not in the natural realm nor in the work of law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:23-26). By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. By faith we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. This is God’s plan (dispensation), which is carried out in faith, according to His New Testament economy.
1Ti 1:51 charge
Referring to the charge in v. 3.
1Ti 1:52a love  -   John 13:34; Gal. 5:13-14
The different teachings of the dissenting ones, mentioned in v. 3, caused envy and discord among the believers, which are contrary to love, the end of the apostle’s charge. To carry out the apostle’s charge, love, which is out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith, is needed.
1Ti 1:53b pure  -   2 Tim. 2:22; Matt. 5:8; 1 Pet. 1:22; Psa. 24:4; 73:1
A pure heart is a single heart without mixture, a heart that seeks only the Lord and takes the Lord as the unique goal. A good conscience is a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16). Unfeigned faith, related to the faith mentioned in v. 4, is faith without pretense or hypocrisy, faith that purifies the heart (Acts 15:9) and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). In the trend of the church’s decline and in dealing with the different teachings, all these attributes are required for us to have a pure, true, and genuine love.
1Ti 1:5c conscience  -   1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim. 1:3; Titus 1:15; Acts 23:1; 24:16; Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 3:16, 21
1Ti 1:5d faith  -   2 Tim. 1:5; Gal. 5:6
1Ti 1:61a misaimed  -   1 Tim. 6:21; 2 Tim. 2:18
I.e., missed the mark, swerved, deviated.
1Ti 1:62b vain  -   Titus 1:10; Eph. 5:6
Composed of myths and genealogies (v. 4) and the law (vv. 7-8).
1Ti 1:71a teachers  -   Luke 5:17; Acts 5:34
Teachers of the law, who teach people what to do and what not to do, are different from ministers of Christ (4:6), who minister His riches to others.
1Ti 1:72b confidently  -   Titus 3:8
Or, strongly affirm, emphatically affirm. The same word is used in Titus 3:8. See note 3 there.
1Ti 1:8a law  -   Rom. 7:12, 16; Titus 3:9
1Ti 1:9a law  -   Gal. 5:23
1Ti 1:9b unruly  -   Titus 1:6, 10
1Ti 1:9c ungodly  -   2 Tim. 2:16; Titus 2:12; 1 Pet. 4:18; Jude 15
1Ti 1:9d unholy  -   2 Tim. 3:2
1Ti 1:9e profane  -   1 Tim. 4:7; 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:16
1Ti 1:91 strike
Or, kill.
1Ti 1:10a homosexuals  -   Lev. 18:22; 1 Cor. 6:9
1Ti 1:101b healthy  -   2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1; 1 Tim. 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 2:8; 1:13; 2:2
Healthy implies the matter of life. The sound teaching of the apostles, which is according to the gospel of the glory of God, ministers the healthy teaching as the supply of life to people, either nourishing them or healing them; in contrast, the different teachings of the dissenting ones (v. 3) sow the seeds of death and poison into others. Any teaching that distracts people from the center and goal of God’s New Testament economy is not healthy.
1Ti 1:11a According  -   Rom. 2:16
1Ti 1:111b gospel  -   2 Cor. 4:4
The gospel of the glory of the blessed God is an excellent expression. It refers to God’s economy, mentioned in v. 4. The gospel with which the apostle Paul was entrusted is the effulgence of the glory of the blessed God. By dispensing God’s life and nature in Christ into God’s chosen people, this gospel shines forth God’s glory, in which God is blessed among His people. This is the commission and ministry the apostle received of the Lord (v. 12). This gospel should be commonly taught and preached in a local church.
1Ti 1:11c blessed  -   1 Tim. 6:15; Rom. 9:5
1Ti 1:11d entrusted  -   Gal. 2:7; Titus 1:3
1Ti 1:121a empowers  -   2 Tim. 4:17; Phil. 4:13
The Lord not only appointed the apostle to the ministry and commissioned him with God’s economy outwardly but also empowered him inwardly to carry out His ministry and fulfill His commission. This is altogether a matter of life in the Spirit.
1Ti 1:12b faithful  -   Matt. 24:45; 25:21, 23
1Ti 1:12c appointing  -   1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11
1Ti 1:12d ministry  -   Acts 20:24; 2 Cor. 4:1
1Ti 1:131 blasphemer
A blasphemer is one who blasphemes God, and a persecutor is one who persecutes man. Saul of Tarsus, a strict Pharisee (Acts 22:3; Phil. 3:4-5), could never have blasphemed God. But he did speak evilly of the Lord Jesus. Here he confessed that this was blasphemy. This indicates that he believed in the deity of Christ.
1Ti 1:13a persecutor  -   1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6
1Ti 1:132 insulting
Saul of Tarsus persecuted the church in an insulting, destructive way (Acts 22:4; Gal. 1:13, 23), just as the insulting Jews persecuted the Lord Jesus (Matt. 26:59, 67).
1Ti 1:133b mercy  -   1 Tim. 1:2; 1 Cor. 7:25; 2 Cor. 4:1
Saul, a blasphemer and a persecutor, first was shown mercy and then received grace (v. 14). Mercy reaches farther toward the unworthy one than grace does. Because Saul was one who blasphemed God and persecuted man, God’s mercy reached him before the Lord’s grace did.
1Ti 1:134c ignorant  -   Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17
To be ignorant is to be in darkness, and unbelief comes from blindness. Saul of Tarsus was in darkness and acted in blindness when he opposed God’s New Testament economy.
1Ti 1:13d unbelief  -   Matt. 13:58; Mark 6:6; Rom. 11:20, 23
See note 134.
1Ti 1:141a grace  -   2 Tim. 1:9; 2:1; Titus 2:11; 3:7; John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14
The Lord’s grace, coming after God’s mercy, visited Saul of Tarsus and not only abounded but superabounded in him with faith and love in Christ. Faith and love are products of the Lord’s grace. Mercy and grace come to us from the Lord; faith and love return to the Lord from us. This is a spiritual traffic between the Lord and us.
1Ti 1:14b superabounded  -   Rom. 5:20
1Ti 1:142c faith  -   1 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 1:13; 1 Thes. 5:8; 3:6; 1:3
Through faith we receive the Lord (John 1:12), and through love we enjoy the Lord whom we have received (John 14:21, 23; 21:15-17).
1Ti 1:15a Faithful  -   1 Tim. 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:11; Titus 3:8; Rev. 21:5
1Ti 1:151 came
Christ came into the world by incarnation to be our Savior (John 1:14). He was God incarnated to be a man that He might save us through His death and resurrection in His human body. In a local church this should be constantly announced as the glad tidings.
1Ti 1:15b sinners  -   Matt. 9:13
1Ti 1:16a mercy  -   1 Tim. 1:2, 13
1Ti 1:161 pattern
Saul of Tarsus, the foremost among sinners, became a pattern to sinners, showing that sinners can be visited by God’s mercy and saved by the Lord’s grace.
1Ti 1:16b believe  -   John 3:15-16
1Ti 1:162c eternal  -   1 Tim. 6:12, 19; 2 Tim. 1:1, 10; Titus 1:2; 3:7
The uncreated life of God, the ultimate gift and topmost blessing given by God to those who believe on Christ.
1Ti 1:171 Now
Paul’s praise to God in this verse is related to the decline of the church. The church may decline, deteriorate, and become degraded, but God is incorruptible. He remains the same. He is the King of eternity. In spite of the church’s decline, Paul had a strong faith with an absolute assurance that the very God in whom he believed, the One who had entrusted him with the gospel, is the King of the ages, incorruptible, unchangeable, and worthy of honor and glory.
1Ti 1:17a King  -   1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 15:3; Psa. 10:16
1Ti 1:17b incorruptible  -   Rom. 1:23
1Ti 1:17c invisible  -   John 1:18; Col. 1:15; Heb. 11:27; 1 John 4:12
1Ti 1:17d only  -   Rom. 16:27; Jude 25
1Ti 1:172e honor  -   1 Tim. 6:16; Rev. 4:11; 7:12
See note 92 in Heb. 2.
1Ti 1:17f glory  -   1 Chron. 29:11
1Ti 1:181a charge  -   1 Tim. 5:21; 6:13; 2 Tim. 4:1
To war the good warfare by the prophecies previously given.
1Ti 1:18b child  -   1 Tim. 1:2
1Ti 1:182c prophecies  -   1 Tim. 4:14
It might be that some prophetic intimations were made concerning Timothy when he was admitted into the ministry (Acts 16:1-3).
1Ti 1:183d war  -   1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7
To war the good warfare is to war against the different teachings of the dissenters and to carry out God’s economy (v. 4) according to the apostle’s ministry concerning the gospel of grace and eternal life, that the blessed God may be glorified (vv. 11-16).
1Ti 1:19a Holding  -   1 Tim. 3:9; 6:12, 19; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 1:9; Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19
1Ti 1:191b faith  -   1 Tim. 1:14
Faith and a good conscience (see note 53) go together. Whenever there is an offense in our conscience, there will be a leakage, and our faith will leak away. A good conscience accompanying faith is needed for warring the good warfare (v. 18) against the different teachings (v. 3) in a troubled local church.
1Ti 1:19c conscience  -   1 Tim. 1:5
1Ti 1:192 shipwrecked
This shows the seriousness of thrusting away faith and a good conscience. To hold faith and a good conscience is a safeguard for our Christian faith and life. The word shipwrecked implies that the Christian life and the church life are like a ship sailing on a stormy sea, needing to be safeguarded by faith and a good conscience.
1Ti 1:193d faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
The faith here is objective, referring to the things in which we believe (see note 232 in Gal. 1), whereas faith at the beginning of this verse is subjective, referring to the act of our believing.
1Ti 1:201a Hymenaeus  -   2 Tim. 2:17
A heretical teacher (2 Tim. 2:17).
1Ti 1:202b Alexander  -   2 Tim. 4:14; cf. Acts 19:33
An opposer and attacker of the apostle (2 Tim. 4:14-15).
1Ti 1:20c delivered  -   1 Cor. 5:5
1Ti 1:203 disciplined
I.e., punished. It may refer to the destruction of their physical body (cf. 1 Cor. 5:5). To deliver persons like Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan was to exercise the authority that the Lord had given to the apostle and the church (Matt. 16:19; 18:18) for the administrating of the church to counter Satan’s evil plot.
1Ti 1:20d blaspheme  -   1 Tim. 1:13; Acts 13:45; 18:6
1 Timothy Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1Ti 2:11a petitions  -   Eph. 6:18; Phil. 4:6
A prayer ministry is the prerequisite for the administrating and shepherding of a local church. Concerning the difference between petitions and prayers, see note 62 in Phil. 4.
1Ti 2:12 intercessions
The Greek word denotes an approaching of God in a personal and confiding manner, i.e., an intervening, an interfering, before God in others’ affairs for their benefit.
1Ti 2:1b all  -   1 Tim. 2:4, 6
1Ti 2:2a kings  -   Ezra 6:10
1Ti 2:21 quiet
A quiet and tranquil life is one that is peaceable, still, and without disturbance, not only outwardly in circumstances but also inwardly in our heart and spirit. Such a life enables us to have an enjoyable church life in godliness and gravity.
1Ti 2:22b godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:10; 3:16; 4:7, 8; 5:4; 6:3, 5, 6, 11; 2 Tim. 3:5, 12; Titus 1:1; 2:12; cf. 1 Tim. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:16; Titus 2:12
Godlikeness, being like God, expressing God. The Christian life should be a life that expresses God and bears God’s likeness in all things.
1Ti 2:23c gravity  -   1 Tim. 3:4; Titus 2:7
A quality of human character that is worthy of reverence; it implies dignity and inspires and invites honor (see note 82 in Phil. 4). Godliness is the expression of God; gravity is toward man. Our Christian life should express God toward man with an honorable character that invites man’s reverence.
1Ti 2:3a acceptable  -   1 Tim. 5:4
1Ti 2:3b Savior  -   1 Tim. 1:1
1Ti 2:41a all  -   1 Tim. 2:1, 6; 4:10
We should pray on behalf of all men (v. 1) because God our Savior desires all men to be saved and know the truth. Our prayer is required for the carrying out of God’s desire.
1Ti 2:4b saved  -   John 3:17
1Ti 2:42c full  -   2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1
God desires all the saved ones to have the full knowledge of the truth. Truth means reality, denoting all the real things revealed in God’s Word, which are mainly Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the Body of Christ. Every saved person should have a full knowledge, a complete realization, of these things.
The object of the two Epistles to Timothy is to deal with the church’s decline. In the first Epistle the decline crept in subtly through different teachings (1:3), and in the second it had developed openly and was worsening through heresies (2 Tim. 2:16-18). To deal with such a decline, the truth must be maintained. The first Epistle emphasizes that God desires all His saved ones to have the full knowledge of the truth and that the church is the pillar and base of the truth (3:15). The second Epistle stresses that the word of the truth should be rightly unfolded (2 Tim. 2:15) and that the ones who have deviated should return to the truth (2 Tim. 2:25).
1Ti 2:4d truth  -   1 Tim. 2:7; 3:15; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8; 4:4; Titus 1:1, 14
1Ti 2:51a one  -   Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6; Isa. 45:5, 6, 21
Although God is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — He is still the one God, not three Gods, contrary to what is mistakenly recognized and believed by many Christians.
1Ti 2:52b Mediator  -   Heb. 8:6; 9:15; cf. 1 John 2:1
A go-between.
1Ti 2:53c man  -   Zech. 6:12; John 19:5
The Lord Jesus was God from eternity (John 1:1). In time He became a man through incarnation (John 1:14). While He was living on earth as a man, He was also God (3:16). After His resurrection He is still man, as well as God (Acts 7:56; John 20:28). Hence, He is the only One qualified to be the Mediator, the go-between, of God and men.
1Ti 2:61 gave
Christ gave Himself for the accomplishing of redemption for all men. This was necessary in order that He might be our Mediator. He is qualified to be the Mediator between God and man, not only in His divine and human person but also in His redemptive work. Both His person and His work are unique.
1Ti 2:62a ransom  -   Matt. 20:28; Titus 2:14
The Greek word means ransom paid in recompense.
1Ti 2:6b all  -   1 Tim. 2:1, 4
1Ti 2:63c testimony  -   1 Cor. 1:6; 2 Thes. 1:10
The fact that Christ gave Himself a ransom for all men becomes the testimony to be borne in its own times. Whenever this fact is proclaimed, it is borne to men as a testimony in its own times.
1Ti 2:6d its  -   1 Tim. 6:15; Titus 1:3
1Ti 2:7a appointed  -   1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:11
1Ti 2:71 herald
A herald is a proclaimer of the gospel of Christ, an official reporter of God’s New Testament economy; an apostle is one sent by God with a divine commission to set up churches for God, an ambassador from God to the world for the carrying out of His purpose; and a teacher is a tutor who teaches, defines, and explains the contents of God’s eternal purpose and His New Testament economy. Paul had such a triple status and commission for the Gentiles. See note 112 in 2 Tim. 1.
1Ti 2:7b lie  -   Rom. 9:1
1Ti 2:72 teacher
I.e., one who teaches the Gentiles how to receive the faith and know the truth.
1Ti 2:7c Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; Rom. 11:13; Eph. 3:8
1Ti 2:73d faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
The faith here refers to the faith in Christ (3:13; Gal. 3:23-25), and truth refers to the reality of all the things in the economy of God revealed in the New Testament (see note 42). This corresponds with 4:3. It was in the sphere and element of this faith and truth, not in that of the law, types, and prophecies of the Old Testament, that Paul was appointed a herald, an apostle, and a teacher of the New Testament.
1Ti 2:7e truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
1Ti 2:81 pray
In a local church the leading ones must have a prayer life, as charged in vv. 1-2, to set an example of prayer for all the members to follow by praying always in every place.
1Ti 2:8a lifting  -   Psa. 63:4; Isa. 1:15
1Ti 2:82 holy
See note 751 in Luke 1.
1Ti 2:83b hands  -   Job 17:9; Psa. 24:4
Hands symbolize our doings. Hence, holy hands signify a holy living, a living that is pious and that belongs to God. Such a holy life strengthens our prayer life. If our hands are not holy, our living is not holy and is not for God; we then have no supporting strength to pray, no holy hands to lift up in prayer.
1Ti 2:84 wrath
Wrath and reasoning kill our prayer. Wrath is of our emotion, and reasoning is of our mind. To have a prayer life and pray unceasingly, our emotion and mind must be regulated to be in a normal condition, under the control of the Spirit in our spirit.
1Ti 2:85c reasoning  -   Phil. 2:14
Disputatious reasoning.
1Ti 2:9a adorn  -   1 Pet. 3:3; cf. Isa. 3:18-23
1Ti 2:91 proper
Proper denotes fitting to the sisters’ nature and position as saints of God. In Greek the word for clothing implies deportment, demeanor. A sister’s demeanor, of which clothing is the main sign, must befit her saintly position.
1Ti 2:92 modesty
Lit., shamefastness; i.e., bound or made fast by an honorable shame (Vincent), implying not forward or overbold but moderate, observing the proprieties of womanhood.
1Ti 2:93b sobriety  -   1 Tim. 2:15
Sobermindedness, self-restraint; the restricting of oneself soberly and discreetly. The sisters in a local church should clothe themselves with these two virtues — shamefastness and self-restraint — as their demeanor. So also in v. 15.
1Ti 2:10a befits  -   Titus 2:3
1Ti 2:101b godly  -   1 Tim. 2:2
The Greek word has the same base as the word for godliness. It denotes reverence toward God, a revering and honoring of God, as is fitting for one who worships God.
1Ti 2:111a quietness  -   1 Cor. 14:34
Silence. For sisters to learn in silence and to be in all subjection is for them to realize their position as women. This safeguards the sisters from the presumption of overstepping their position in the local church.
1Ti 2:112b subjection  -   Eph. 5:24; Titus 2:5
The Greek word denotes mainly submission. So also in 3:4.
1Ti 2:12a woman  -   1 Cor. 14:34
1Ti 2:121 teach
To teach here means to teach with authority, to define and decide the meaning of doctrines concerning divine truth. For a woman to teach in this way or to exercise authority over a man is to leave her position. In God’s creation man was ordained to be the head, and woman to be in subjection to man (1 Cor. 11:3). In the church this ordination should be kept.
1Ti 2:122 quietness
I.e., silence, abstention from speaking.
1Ti 2:131 Adam
This brings us to the beginning. God always wants to bring us back to His beginning (Matt. 19:8).
1Ti 2:132 formed
Lit., molded; the verb means to mold (the dust) into a shape (Gen. 2:7).
1Ti 2:141 Adam
Verse 13 gives the first reason that woman should subject herself to man. Here the second is presented.
1Ti 2:142 woman
Eve was deceived by the serpent (Gen. 3:1-6) because she did not remain in subjection under the headship of Adam but overstepped her position to contact the evil tempter directly without her head being covered. This is the strong ground for the apostle not to permit the sisters in a local church to teach with authority and to assert authority over men. Rather, the apostle directed them to learn in silence and to remain in all subjection. Man’s headship is woman’s protection.
1Ti 2:14a deceived  -   Gen. 3:13; 2 Cor. 11:3
1Ti 2:151 childbearing
Childbearing is a suffering. Suffering restricts and protects the fallen one from transgression.
1Ti 2:152a faith  -   1 Tim. 1:14
Faith is for receiving the Lord (John 1:12), love is for enjoying Him (John 14:21, 23), and holiness is for expressing Him through sanctification. By faith we receive the Lord and thereby please God (Heb. 11:6); by love we enjoy the Lord and thereby keep His word (John 14:23); and by holiness we express the Lord and thereby see Him (Heb. 12:14).
The first two chapters of this book give the practical instructions for having a proper local church: (1) terminate the distraction of different teachings (1:3-11); (2) emphasize God’s economy, making it the central line and goal of the Christian life (1:4-6); (3) preach Christ to save sinners (1:12-17); (4) war a good warfare for God’s New Testament economy by holding faith and a good conscience (1:18-19); (5) deal with the heretical teachers and the opposers of the apostle (1:20); (6) let the leading ones take the lead to have a prayer life, interceding for all men that Christ’s redemption may be testified in due time (vv. 1-7); (7) let the brothers follow the pattern of prayer, praying at all times (v. 8); and (8) let the sisters adorn themselves in proper deportment and subject themselves to the brothers, remaining in quietness, faith, love, and holiness with sobriety (vv. 9-15).
1Ti 2:15b holiness  -   1 Thes. 4:3-4
1Ti 2:15c sobriety  -   1 Tim. 2:9
1 Timothy Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1Ti 3:1a Faithful  -   1 Tim. 1:15
1Ti 3:11 aspires
Aspiration with a pure motive differs from ambition with an impure motive.
1Ti 3:12 overseership
A Greek word composed of over and sight; hence, overseership, denoting the function of an overseer.
1Ti 3:2a The  -   vv. 2-7: Titus 1:5-9
1Ti 3:21b overseer  -   Acts 20:28; Phil. 1:1
The Greek word is composed of over and seer; hence, overseer. An overseer in a local church is an elder (Acts 20:17, 28). The two titles refer to the same person, elder denoting a person of maturity, and overseer denoting the function of an elder. It was Ignatius in the second century who taught that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder. From this erroneous teaching came the hierarchy of bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. Also, this teaching was the source of the episcopal system of ecclesiastical government. Both the hierarchy and the system are abominable in the eyes of God.
1Ti 3:22 without
This does not denote being perfect in the eyes of God, but being in an irreproachable condition in the eyes of man.
1Ti 3:23 husband
This implies the restraining of the flesh, which is highly required of an elder. It keeps an elder in a simple and pure married life, free from the tangle of a complicated and confused marriage.
1Ti 3:2c one  -   1 Tim. 3:12; cf. 1 Tim. 5:9
1Ti 3:24d temperate  -   1 Tim. 3:11; Titus 2:2
Self-controlled, moderate.
1Ti 3:25 of
Not only keen but also discreet in the understanding of matters.
1Ti 3:2e sober  -   2 Tim. 1:7; Titus 1:8; 2:2, 5-6; 1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7
1Ti 3:26 orderly
Decorous; meaning fitting the situation.
1Ti 3:27f hospitable  -   1 Tim. 5:10
Hospitality requires love, care for people, and endurance. All these virtues are required for an elder to be qualified.
1Ti 3:28 apt
Teaching here is similar to parents’ teaching of their children. An elder must be apt to render this kind of home teaching to the members of a local church.
1Ti 3:2g teach  -   1 Tim. 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:24
1Ti 3:31 Not
This requires strong self-control.
1Ti 3:3a excessive  -   1 Tim. 3:8; Titus 2:3
1Ti 3:32 not
This demands a strong restraining of the temper.
1Ti 3:33b forbearing  -   Titus 3:2; Phil. 4:5
Yielding, approachable, mild, reasonable, and considerate in dealing with others, without strictness.
1Ti 3:34c not  -   2 Tim. 2:24; Titus 3:2
Not quarrelsome; peaceable.
1Ti 3:35 not
Money is a test to all men. An elder must be pure in matters related to money, especially since the church fund is under the elders’ management (Acts 11:30).
1Ti 3:3d fond  -   1 Tim. 6:10; 1 Pet. 5:2; Heb. 13:5
1Ti 3:41a manages  -   1 Tim. 3:12
This is proof that one is qualified to take the oversight of a local church.
1Ti 3:42b gravity  -   1 Tim. 2:2
See note 23 in ch. 2. So also for grave in vv. 8 and 11.
1Ti 3:5a church  -   Acts 20:28
1Ti 3:61 new
Lit., newly planted one; denoting a person who has recently received the Lord’s life but has not yet grown and developed in it.
1Ti 3:62a blinded  -   1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Tim. 3:4
Lit., beclouded with smoke. Pride here is likened to smoke that beclouds the mind, making it blind, besotted with the self-conceit of pride.
1Ti 3:63 judgment
The judgment suffered by Satan because he was proud of his high position (Ezek. 28:13-17).
1Ti 3:71a good  -   Acts 6:3
A walk and living that issue from living out Christ and expressing Christ and are appreciated and praised by others.
1Ti 3:72 those
An elder must be right with himself, with his family, with the church, and with those outside — the society. And, according to the context, an elder must be right in intention, in motive, in character, in attitude, in word, and in deed.
1Ti 3:73b snare  -   2 Tim. 2:26; 1 Tim. 6:9
Falling into the judgment suffered by the devil is due to the pride of the elder himself; falling into the snare of the devil is occasioned by the reproach from the outsiders. An elder should be alert not to be proud, on the one hand, and not to be reproachable, on the other, that he may avoid the devil’s entanglement.
1Ti 3:74 devil
See note 101 in Rev. 2.
1Ti 3:81a Deacons  -   Phil. 1:1
I.e., the serving ones. The overseers take care of the church; the deacons serve the church under the direction of the elders. These two are the only offices in a local church.
1Ti 3:82 not
A serpent is double-tongued. A deacon in a local church, rendering service to all the saints, may easily be double-tongued in contacting the saints. In being such, he lives out the nature of the devil and brings death into the church life.
1Ti 3:83 not
Being addicted to much wine is a sign of being unable to control oneself. A deacon in the local church service must exercise self-control in a full way.
1Ti 3:8b addicted  -   1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 2:3; Lev. 10:9; Ezek. 44:21
1Ti 3:84 not
A deacon should not seek gain from his rendering of service to the saints. To seek such gain is to be greedy for base gain (cf. 6:5b).
1Ti 3:8c greedy  -   1 Tim. 3:3
1Ti 3:9a Holding  -   1 Tim. 1:19
1Ti 3:91b mystery  -   1 Tim. 3:16
The faith here, as in 1:19 and 2 Tim. 4:7, is objective, referring to the things we believe in, the things that constitute the gospel. The mystery of the faith is mainly Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). A deacon in a local church should hold the mystery of the faith with full understanding in a pure conscience for the Lord’s testimony.
1Ti 3:9c faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
1Ti 3:92d pure  -   2 Tim. 1:3; cf. 1 Tim. 1:5
A pure conscience is a conscience purified from any mixture. To hold the mystery of the faith for the Lord’s testimony, a deacon needs such a purified conscience.
1Ti 3:101 be
This may imply some apprenticeship.
1Ti 3:10a proved  -   2 Cor. 8:22
1Ti 3:102 minister
I.e., serve; service is the function of a deacon.
1Ti 3:103b unreprovable  -   Titus 1:6-7
Or, blameless.
1Ti 3:111 Women
Referring to deaconesses (Rom. 16:1).
1Ti 3:112 not
Corresponding with not double-tongued in v. 8. The devil is a slanderer (Rev. 12:10). To slander is to live out the nature of the evil slanderer. A sister who is a deaconess, a serving one in a local church among many other sisters, should flee slander, the evil act of the devil.
1Ti 3:11a slanderers  -   2 Tim. 3:3; Titus 2:3
1Ti 3:113b temperate  -   1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 2:2
See note 24.
1Ti 3:114 faithful
Corresponding with not greedy for base gain in v. 8. A sister who is a deaconess needs to be faithful, trustworthy, in all things, especially in things concerning gain.
1Ti 3:121 husbands
See note 23.
1Ti 3:12a one  -   1 Tim. 3:2
1Ti 3:122b managing  -   1 Tim. 3:4
For a brother to manage his children and his own house well proves that he is capable of serving the church.
1Ti 3:131 ministered
I.e., served.
1Ti 3:132 good
Referring to a firm and steadfast standing as a believer and a saint before God and man. To serve the church well as a deacon strengthens one’s Christian standing.
1Ti 3:133 much
Or, much confidence. To serve the church well also strengthens the boldness, the confidence, of one’s Christian faith.
1Ti 3:13a faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
1Ti 3:151 how
This indicates that this book gives instructions concerning the way to take care of a local church.
1Ti 3:152a house  -   Eph. 2:19; Heb. 3:6
Or, household; the same word as in vv. 4, 5, and 12 (houses). The household, the family, of God is the house of God. The house and the household are one thing — the assembly that is composed of the believers (Eph. 2:19; Heb. 3:6). The reality of this house as the dwelling place of the living God is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22). We must live and act in our spirit so that in this house God can be manifested as the living God.
1Ti 3:15b church  -   1 Tim. 3:5; 1 Cor. 10:32
1Ti 3:153c living  -   Matt. 16:16; 1 Tim. 4:10
The living God, who lives in the church, must be subjective to the church rather than objective. The idol in the heathen temple is lifeless. The God who not only lives but also acts, moves, and works in His living temple, the church, is living. Because He is living, the church too is living in Him, by Him, and with Him. A living God and a living church live, move, and work together. The living church is the house and the household of the living God. Hence, it becomes the manifestation of God in the flesh.
1Ti 3:154d pillar  -   1 Kings 7:21; Gal. 2:9; Rev. 3:12
This is metaphoric speaking. The pillar supports the building, and the base holds the pillar. The church is such a supporting pillar and holding base of the truth.
1Ti 3:155e truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
The truth here refers to the real things revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church according to God’s New Testament economy. The church is the supporting pillar and holding base of all these realities. A local church should be such a building that holds, bears, and testifies the truth, the reality, of Christ and the church.
1Ti 3:161 confessedly
Or, by common acknowledgment, beyond reasoning, without controversy.
1Ti 3:162a mystery  -   1 Tim. 3:9
According to the context, godliness here refers not only to piety but also to the living of God in the church, i.e., to God as life lived out in the church. This is the great mystery confessed universally by believers in Christ.
1Ti 3:16b godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
1Ti 3:163 He
According to unconfirmed historical accounts, these six lines of poetry made up a song that the saints in the early church loved to sing. He refers to Christ, who was God manifested in the flesh as the mystery of godliness. The transition from the mystery of godliness to He implies that Christ as the manifestation of God in the flesh is the mystery of godliness (Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20). This mystery of godliness is the living of a proper church, and such a living also is the manifestation of God in the flesh.
1Ti 3:164c manifested  -   1 John 1:2; 3:5, 8
Through incarnation and human living (John 1:1, 14). In the flesh means in the likeness, in the fashion, of man (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7-8). Christ appeared to people in the form of man (2 Cor. 5:16), yet He was God manifested in man.
1Ti 3:16d flesh  -   John 1:14; Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:14
1Ti 3:165 Justified
Or, vindicated. The incarnated Christ in His human living was not only vindicated as the Son of God by the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Rom. 1:3-4) but also justified, proved, and approved as right and righteous by the Spirit (Matt. 3:15-16; 4:1). He was manifested in the flesh but was vindicated and justified in the Spirit. He appeared in the flesh, but He lived in the Spirit (Luke 4:1, 14; Matt. 12:28) and offered Himself to God through the Spirit (Heb. 9:14). His transfiguration (Matt. 17:2) and His resurrection are both justifications in the Spirit. Furthermore, in resurrection He even became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) to dwell and live in us (Rom. 8:9-10) for the manifestation of God in the flesh as the mystery of godliness. Hence, now we know Him and His members no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (2 Cor. 5:16). Since the manifestation of God in the flesh is justified in the Spirit, and the Spirit is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16), we must live and behave in our spirit that this justification may be accomplished.
1Ti 3:166 Seen
Angels saw the incarnation, human living, and ascension of Christ (Luke 2:9-14; Matt. 4:11; Acts 1:10-11; Rev. 5:6, 11-12).
1Ti 3:167 Preached
Christ as God’s manifestation in the flesh has been preached as the gospel among the nations, including the nation of Israel, from the day of Pentecost (Rom. 16:26; Eph. 3:8).
1Ti 3:168 Believed
Christ as the embodiment of God in the flesh has been believed on, received as Savior and life, by people in the world (Acts 13:48).
1Ti 3:169 Taken
This refers to Christ’s ascension into glory (Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11; 2:33; Phil. 2:9). According to the sequence of historical events, Christ’s ascension preceded His being preached among the nations. However, it is listed here as the last step in Christ’s being the manifestation of God in the flesh. This must indicate that the church too is taken up in glory. Hence, it implies that not only Christ Himself as the Head but also the church as the Body are the manifestation of God in the flesh. When a church is well taken care of according to the instructions given in the first two chapters, with the oversight of the episcopate and the service of the deacons fully established, as revealed in ch. 3, the church will function as the house and household of the living God for His move on the earth, and as the supporting pillar and holding base of the truth, bearing the divine reality of Christ and His Body as a testimony to the world. Then the church becomes the continuation of Christ as the manifestation of God in the flesh. This is the great mystery of godliness — Christ lived out of the church as the manifestation of God in the flesh!
1 Timothy Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1Ti 4:11 But
What follows is in contrast to what is mentioned in 3:16.
1Ti 4:12a Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
This is the Spirit who dwells in our spirit and speaks to us there (Rom. 8:9-11, 16). In order to listen to the Spirit’s speaking and be kept from the deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, we need to exercise our spirit that it may become keen and clear.
1Ti 4:13 later
Referring to times after the writing of this book, differing from the last days in 2 Tim. 3:1, which denotes the closing period of this age.
1Ti 4:1b depart  -   1 Tim. 6:10; 2 Thes. 2:3
1Ti 4:14c faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
Objective faith, the contents of our belief. See notes 193 in ch. 1 and 91 in ch. 3.
1Ti 4:15 deceiving
The deceiving spirits are in contrast to the Spirit, as mentioned in 1 John 4:2, 6. These are the fallen angels, who followed Satan in his rebellion and became his subordinates who work for his kingdom of darkness (Matt. 25:41; Eph. 6:12 and note 2).
1Ti 4:1d spirits  -   1 John 4:6; Rev. 16:14
1Ti 4:16e demons  -   James 3:15; Rev. 9:20
These are the unclean and evil spirits (Matt. 12:22, 43; Luke 8:2) of the races that lived on earth in the preadamic age and that joined Satan’s rebellion and were judged by God (see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two). After being judged, they became demons, who work on earth for Satan’s kingdom. They are different from the deceiving spirits.
1Ti 4:21 By
This phrase modifies teachings of demons in v. 1. The teachings of demons are carried out by means of the hypocrisy of men who speak lies. This indicates that demons and those who speak lies collaborate to deceive people.
1Ti 4:2a hypocrisy  -   Matt. 23:13, 15
1Ti 4:2b lies  -   2 Thes. 2:11
1Ti 4:22c branded  -   Eph. 4:19
The conscience of hypocritical liars has lost its sense, as if branded with a hot iron. This book strongly stresses the conscience. In the church life the love that is contrary to envy and discord is out of a good conscience (1:5). Those who thrust away a good conscience become shipwrecked regarding the faith (1:19). The serving ones in the church must hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience (3:9). To keep a good and pure conscience is to keep the conscience sensitive in its function. This will safeguard us from the demonic and hypocritical teachings of deceiving liars.
1Ti 4:23 hot
A hot iron that brands the slaves and cattle of a certain owner.
1Ti 4:31a marriage  -   cf. Heb. 13:4
Marriage and eating were ordained by God. Eating is for the existence of mankind, and marriage is for the continuation and multiplication of mankind. On the one hand, Satan causes men to abuse these two things in the indulgence of their lustful flesh; on the other hand, he overstresses asceticism in forbidding men to marry and in commanding men to abstain from certain foods. This is a demonic teaching!
1Ti 4:3b abstaining  -   Col. 2:20-23
1Ti 4:3c foods  -   Gen. 1:29; 9:3; 1 Cor. 8:8; Col. 2:16
See note 31.
1Ti 4:32 God
All edible things were created by God for men to live on. We should partake of them with thanksgiving to God out of a grateful heart.
1Ti 4:3d thanksgiving  -   Rom. 14:6; 1 Cor. 10:30
1Ti 4:33e believe  -   John 20:31
To believe is to be saved and thus begin the spiritual life; to have full knowledge of the truth is to realize God’s purpose in His economy and to grow unto maturity in the spiritual life.
1Ti 4:34f full  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See note 42 in ch. 2.
1Ti 4:41 every
This is contrary to Gnosticism, which teaches that some created things are evil, and to certain ascetic teachings that command men to abstain from certain foods.
1Ti 4:4a good  -   Gen. 1:25, 31; Rom. 14:2, 14, 20; Titus 1:15
1Ti 4:51a sanctified  -   cf. Acts 10:15
Separated unto God for His purpose.
1Ti 4:52 word
The word of our prayer addressed to God, of which part could be quotations from the Scriptures, and part could be messages we hear and read.
1Ti 4:53b intercession  -   1 Sam. 9:13; Matt. 14:19; 15:36; Acts 27:35
See note 12 in ch. 2. Here intercession refers to our prayer to God for the food we eat, which separates our food from being common and sanctifies it unto God for His purpose, i.e., to nourish us so that we may live for Him.
1Ti 4:61a minister  -   2 Cor. 11:23
A minister of Christ is one who serves people with Christ, ministering Christ as Savior, life, life supply, and every positive thing to people. He differs from the teacher of the law and of other things (1:7, 3).
1Ti 4:62 being
Or, nourishing yourself. Being nourished is for growth in life, which is a matter of life; it differs from being merely taught, which is a matter of knowledge. To minister Christ to others requires that first we ourselves be nourished with the words of life concerning Christ.
1Ti 4:63b faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
See note 14. The words of the faith are the words of the full gospel concerning God’s New Testament economy.
1Ti 4:64 good
The words of the good teaching are the sweet words that contain and convey the riches of Christ to nourish, edify, and strengthen His believers.
1Ti 4:65 have
We must first closely follow the words which we would teach others.
1Ti 4:6c closely  -   2 Tim. 3:10
1Ti 4:71a profane  -   1 Tim. 1:9; 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:16
Touching and being touched by worldliness; contrary to being holy.
1Ti 4:72b myths  -   1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Tim. 4:4; Titus 1:14
See note 41 in ch. 1.
1Ti 4:73 refuse
Or, reject, avoid.
1Ti 4:74 exercise
As in gymnastics. Unto godliness means with a view to godliness. Godliness is Christ lived out of us to be the manifestation of God (see notes 162 and 163 in ch. 3). Today this very Christ is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Tim. 4:22). Hence, to exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life.
1Ti 4:7c godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
1Ti 4:81 a
In contrast to all things. Denoting a few things, to a small part of our being.
1Ti 4:8a godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2; 6:6
1Ti 4:82b all  -   Rom. 8:28
Things that are not only of one part of our being but of all parts — physical, psychological, and spiritual, temporal and eternal.
1Ti 4:83 promise
The promise of the present life, a life that is in this age, is like the promises in Matt. 6:33; John 16:33; Phil. 4:6-7; 1 Pet. 5:8-10; etc. The promise of the coming life, a life that is in the next age and in eternity, is like those in 2 Pet. 1:10-11; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:7, 17; 21:6-7; etc. A promise like that in Mark 10:29-30 is of both the present life and the coming life.
1Ti 4:9a Faithful  -   1 Tim. 1:15
1Ti 4:10a labor  -   Col. 1:29
1Ti 4:10b hope  -   1 Tim. 5:5; 6:17
1Ti 4:101c living  -   Dan. 6:20, 26; Matt. 16:16; 1 Tim. 3:15
Because our God is living, we can set our hope on Him.
1Ti 4:10d Savior  -   1 Tim. 1:1; John 4:42
1Ti 4:10e all  -   1 Tim. 2:4
1Ti 4:10f especially  -   cf. Gal. 6:10
1Ti 4:11a Charge  -   1 Tim. 5:7; 6:17; 2 Tim. 2:14
1Ti 4:11b teach  -   1 Tim. 4:13
1Ti 4:12a despise  -   Titus 2:15; 1 Cor. 16:11
1Ti 4:121b youth  -   2 Tim. 2:22
Although Timothy was young, he was charged by the apostle to bear the responsibility of caring for the building up of a local church and appointing elders and deacons. For the carrying out of such a responsibility, he was charged not to be childish but to be a pattern to the believers.
1Ti 4:12c pattern  -   Titus 2:7; 1 Pet. 5:3
1Ti 4:122 word
Or, utterance.
1Ti 4:123d purity  -   Phil. 4:8
Pure in motive and action, without mixture.
1Ti 4:131a reading  -   Acts 13:15; 2 Cor. 3:14
Reading not in the sense of study but aloud in public. According to the context, this kind of public reading may be for exhortation and teaching.
1Ti 4:13b exhortation  -   1 Tim. 6:2; 2 Tim. 4:2
1Ti 4:13c teaching  -   1 Tim. 4:11; 6:2
1Ti 4:141a gift  -   2 Tim. 1:6
Probably a teaching gift, according to the context of vv. 11, 13, and 16. The following verses also may confirm this: 1 Tim. 1:3; 4:6; 5:7; 6:2, 12, 20; 2 Tim. 1:13-14; 2:2, 14-15, 24-25; 4:2, 5.
1Ti 4:142 in
This indicates that the gift mentioned here is not an outward endowment but the inward ability of life that enables one to minister to others. It is not a miraculous gift, such as speaking in tongues and healing (1 Cor. 12:28), but a gift of grace, such as teaching and exhorting (Rom. 12:7-8).
1Ti 4:143b prophecy  -   1 Tim. 1:18
See note 182 in ch. 1.
1Ti 4:144c laying  -   2 Tim. 1:6; 1 Tim. 5:22; Acts 6:6; 8:17; 19:6
The laying on of hands has two functions: one for identification, as in Lev. 1:4, and the other for impartation, as here. Impartation is based on identification; without identification, there is no basis for imparting something. Through identification, signified by the laying on of the hands of the elders and the apostle Paul (2 Tim. 1:6), the gift of grace was imparted to Timothy.
1Ti 4:145d presbytery  -   Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1
Meaning not merely the elders but the body of elders, the elderhood, implying that they were in one accord, all acting as one. The elders, who are the overseers (3:2), represent a local church, which is the expression of the Body of Christ. The laying on of the hands of the presbytery signifies that the Body of Christ participated with God in imparting the gift of grace to Timothy. This was not a personal matter but a Body matter.
1Ti 4:151 be
I.e., be immersed in.
1Ti 4:152 progress
Or, advancement.
1Ti 4:161a Take  -   Acts 20:28
Or, pay close attention to.
1Ti 4:16b yourself  -   Ezek. 33:9
1Ti 4:16c those  -   Rom. 11:14; 1 Cor. 9:22; James 5:20
1 Timothy Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1Ti 5:11 upbraid
Rebuke sharply.
1Ti 5:1a elderly  -   Titus 2:2; Lev. 19:32
1Ti 5:1b younger  -   Titus 2:6
1Ti 5:2a Elderly  -   Titus 2:3
1Ti 5:31 Honor
The stress is on the supplying of material things.
1Ti 5:3a widows  -   1 Tim. 5:5, 9, 16; Acts 6:1
1Ti 5:41 show
The verb form of the Greek word for godliness. See note 162 in ch. 3.
1Ti 5:4a respect  -   1 Tim. 2:2
1Ti 5:42 return
Requital, recompense, offered to show gratitude to one’s parents.
1Ti 5:4b parents  -   Eph. 6:1-3
1Ti 5:4c acceptable  -   1 Tim. 2:3
1Ti 5:5a hope  -   1 Tim. 4:10
1Ti 5:5b prayers  -   Luke 2:37
1Ti 5:6a pleasure  -   James 5:5
1Ti 5:6b dead  -   Rev. 3:1
1Ti 5:7a charge  -   1 Tim. 4:11
1Ti 5:81 his
I.e., his relatives. All the instructions in this chapter are very human, normal, and ordinary; nothing is special, miraculous, or supernatural, including even the matter of healing. The whole book is written in the same principle. This is necessary for the church life.
1Ti 5:8a denied  -   Titus 1:16; 2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 4
1Ti 5:82 faith
See notes 193 in ch. 1 and 91 in ch. 3.
1Ti 5:9a wife  -   1 Tim. 3:2, 12
1Ti 5:101 Well
See note 71 in ch. 3.
1Ti 5:10a hospitality  -   1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8
1Ti 5:10b washed  -   Gen. 18:4; 19:2; Luke 7:44; John 13:14
1Ti 5:10c assisted  -   1 Tim. 5:16
1Ti 5:10d good  -   1 Tim. 6:18
1Ti 5:121 pledge
Lit., faith; denoting a pledge, a promise. This indicates that some promised, pledged, to devote themselves in their widowhood to some service of the church.
1Ti 5:13a busybodies  -   2 Thes. 3:11; 1 Pet. 4:15
1Ti 5:13b things  -   Titus 1:11
1Ti 5:141 younger
The word in 1 Cor. 7:8 was the apostle’s wish in his earlier ministry. In this verse is the apostle’s advice in his later ministry, given according to his experiences concerning young widows.
1Ti 5:14a marry  -   1 Cor. 7:9
1Ti 5:142 bear
Childbearing and housekeeping are a rescue and safeguard to the idle busybodies (v. 13). This is God’s ordination in order to restrict and protect fallen women (Gen. 3:16).
1Ti 5:14b keep  -   Titus 2:5
1Ti 5:15a Satan  -   1 Tim. 1:20
1Ti 5:16a widows  -   1 Tim. 5:3, 5
1Ti 5:17a elders  -   Acts 11:30
1Ti 5:17b take  -   Rom. 12:8; 1 Thes. 5:12; Heb. 13:7
1Ti 5:171 honor
The noun form of honor in v. 3. According to v. 18, the emphasis here is on material supply.
1Ti 5:172 especially
All elders should be able to take the lead in a local church, but some, not all, have a special capacity for teaching.
1Ti 5:173 word
Word here denotes the general speaking of doctrines; teaching denotes special instruction concerning particular things.
1Ti 5:18a You  -   Deut. 25:4; 1 Cor. 9:9
1Ti 5:18b The  -   Lev. 19:13; Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7
1Ti 5:191 receive
Timothy was charged by the apostle Paul to receive an accusation against an elder. This indicates that after they have appointed men as elders, the apostles still have the authority to deal with the elders.
1Ti 5:19a witnesses  -   Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16
1Ti 5:201a reprove  -   Titus 2:15
This too indicates the apostles’ authority over the elders.
1Ti 5:20b before  -   Gal. 2:14
1Ti 5:202 all
Referring to the whole church. A sinning elder should receive public reproof because of his public position.
1Ti 5:21a charge  -   1 Tim. 1:18
1Ti 5:211 angels
The elders in a local church are God’s deputy authority. Dealing with the elders is a solemn thing before God. Hence, the apostle solemnly charged Timothy before God, Christ, and the angels to carry out such a dealing, that the chosen angels, the good angels with God’s authority, might see that His authority was established and was being maintained among His redeemed people on earth.
1Ti 5:212 prejudice
Prejudgment, condemnation, formed or applied before hearing the case.
1Ti 5:213 partiality
Inclination, favor, bias. Without prejudice implies that no prejudgment should be made to the credit of the accuser; nothing by way of partiality implies that no perverted favor should be shown to the accused (elder).
1Ti 5:221a Lay  -   1 Tim. 4:14
See note 144 in ch. 4. According to the context of the previous verses, the laying on of hands here refers primarily to the laying of hands on the elders.
1Ti 5:222 quickly
Or, hastily.
1Ti 5:22b participate  -   2 John 11
1Ti 5:22c keep  -   James 1:27; 1 John 5:18
1Ti 5:231 No
According to the context, this verse implies that the state of one’s physical health may affect his dealing with others spiritually.
1Ti 5:232 illnesses
Or, weaknesses.
1Ti 5:241 sins
This word indicates that v. 24 is a continuation of v. 22. It explains that the sins of some people are openly manifest earlier, and the sins of others, later. Hence, one should not lay hands on people in haste.
1Ti 5:242 manifest
What is mentioned here concerning the judging of sins is a principle that is applicable to both man’s judgment and God’s.
1Ti 5:243 they
Referring to sins.
1Ti 5:244 also
The sins of others also will be manifest, going to judgment later.
1Ti 5:251 good
The implication of the apostle’s charge to Timothy in these two verses is that one should not approve a person hastily because his sins are not openly manifest, nor condemn a person in haste because his good works are not manifest.
1Ti 5:25a hidden  -   Matt. 10:26
1 Timothy Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
1Ti 6:1a slaves  -   Titus 2:9; 1 Pet. 2:18; Eph. 6:5
1Ti 6:1b name  -   Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24
1Ti 6:11 our
Lit., the teaching; referring to the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42).
1Ti 6:1c teaching  -   Titus 2:5
1Ti 6:12 blasphemed
Ill spoken of, reproached.
1Ti 6:2a brothers  -   Philem. 16; Matt. 23:8
1Ti 6:21 serve
Lit., serve as slaves.
1Ti 6:2b teach  -   1 Tim. 4:11, 13
1Ti 6:2c exhort  -   2 Tim. 4:2
1Ti 6:31a different  -   1 Tim. 1:3
See note 33 in ch. 1.
1Ti 6:32b healthy  -   2 Tim. 1:13; 1 Tim. 1:10
See note 101 in ch. 1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are words of life (John 6:63); hence, they are healthy words.
1Ti 6:33c godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
See notes 22 in ch. 2, 162 and 163 in ch. 3, and 74 in ch. 4. The healthy words of the Lord are the source of the teaching that is according to godliness. When the Lord’s words of life are taught, particularly in certain aspects, they become the teaching that is according to godliness. The living words of the Lord always bring forth godliness — a life that lives Christ and expresses God in Christ.
1Ti 6:41a blinded  -   1 Tim. 3:6; 2 Tim. 3:4
See note 62 in ch. 3. Teachings that differ from the healthy words of the Lord always issue from people’s pride and self-conceit, which blind them.
1Ti 6:4b nothing  -   1 Cor. 8:2
1Ti 6:42 diseased
To question and contend about words is a disease. Diseased here is in contrast to healthy in v. 3.
1Ti 6:4c questionings  -   1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Tim. 2:23; Titus 3:9
1Ti 6:4d contentions  -   2 Tim. 2:14, 23; Titus 3:9
1Ti 6:4e envy  -   Titus 3:3; Gal. 5:21
1Ti 6:4f strife  -   Titus 3:9; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:20
1Ti 6:43 slanders
Lit., blasphemies; referring here, as in Col. 3:8, to slanders and railings toward man, not blasphemies toward God.
1Ti 6:51 Perpetual
Or, incessant quarrels.
1Ti 6:5a corrupted  -   2 Tim. 3:8; Eph. 4:22
1Ti 6:52 deprived
Or, bereft, destitute. The Greek here implies that they had once possessed the truth, but that now it was put away from them. Hence, they were destitute of the truth.
1Ti 6:53 truth
See note 155 in ch. 3.
1Ti 6:54 supposing
Making godliness a way to gain (material profit), a gain-making trade.
1Ti 6:5b godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
1Ti 6:5c gain  -   Titus 1:11; 2 Pet. 2:3
1Ti 6:6a godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
1Ti 6:61b contentment  -   Phil. 4:11; Heb. 13:5
“An inward self-sufficiency, as opposed to the lack or the desire of outward things. It was a favorite Stoic word” (Vincent).
1Ti 6:62c great  -   1 Tim. 4:8
I.e., the best way to gain. The word gain here refers mainly to the blessings in this age — godliness plus self-sufficiency and the ability to dispense with greediness and the cares of this age.
1Ti 6:71 we
This is wisely ordained by God that we may trust in Him for our needs and live by Him in order to express Him, without preoccupation or distraction.
1Ti 6:7a nothing  -   Job 1:21; Eccl. 5:15
1Ti 6:7b neither  -   Psa. 49:17
1Ti 6:8a food  -   Gen. 28:20; Prov. 30:8
1Ti 6:81 covering
Although this refers to clothing, it may include a dwelling.
1Ti 6:82b content  -   1 Tim. 6:6; Heb. 13:5
Sufficiently provided for.
1Ti 6:91 intend
With a strong desire to be rich. This is the love, not the possession, of riches, which leads the avaricious into temptation. Some are actually rich; some desire to be rich. This evil desire ruins and destroys them.
1Ti 6:9a rich  -   Prov. 15:27; 28:20; Matt. 13:22; James 5:1-3
1Ti 6:9b snare  -   1 Tim. 3:7; 2 Tim. 2:26
1Ti 6:92 desires
Lustful desires, lusts.
1Ti 6:93 plunge
Or, drown, sink.
1Ti 6:94 destruction
Destruction implies ruin, and ruin implies temporal and eternal perdition.
1Ti 6:10a love  -   1 Tim. 3:3; Col. 3:5
1Ti 6:101 a
Not the only root.
1Ti 6:102 aspiring
Craving for, longing for.
1Ti 6:103 been
Or, wandered.
1Ti 6:10b led  -   1 Tim. 4:1
1Ti 6:104c faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
See note 91 in ch. 3. So also in vv. 12, 21.
1Ti 6:111a man  -   2 Tim. 3:17
One who partakes of God’s life and nature (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4), thus being one with God in His life and nature (1 Cor. 6:17) and thereby expressing Him. This corresponds with the mystery of godliness, which is God manifested in the flesh (3:16).
1Ti 6:11b flee  -   2 Tim. 2:22; cf. 2 Tim. 2:16; Titus 3:9; 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 3:5
1Ti 6:11c pursue  -   2 Tim. 2:22; Rom. 14:19; Heb. 12:14; Phil. 3:12, 14
1Ti 6:112d righteousness  -   Prov. 15:9
To be right with people before God according to His righteous and strict requirements.
1Ti 6:113e godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
To live a daily life that manifests God. See note 162 in ch. 3.
1Ti 6:114f faith  -   2 Tim. 3:10
To believe in God and His word and to trust in Him and His word.
1Ti 6:115 love
To love others by the love of God (1 John 4:7-8, 19-21).
1Ti 6:116 endurance
To endure sufferings and persecutions.
1Ti 6:117 meekness
A proper attitude in facing opposition. See note 51 in Matt. 5.
1Ti 6:121a Fight  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 4:7
Lit., Struggle the good struggle of the faith.
1Ti 6:12b faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
1Ti 6:12c hold  -   1 Tim. 6:19; 1:19
1Ti 6:122 eternal
I.e., the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which is eternal. Eternal denotes the nature more than the time element of the divine life. To fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, and especially in the Christian ministry, we need to lay hold on this divine life, not trusting in our human life. Hence, in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, eternal life is stressed again and again (1:16; 6:19; 2 Tim. 1:1, 10; Titus 1:2; 3:7). To carry out God’s economy concerning the church, as seen in 1 Timothy, to confront the downward trend of the church’s decline, as seen in 2 Timothy, and to maintain good order in the church, as seen in Titus, this life is a prerequisite.
1Ti 6:123 to
Lit., into; i.e., to participate in, to enjoy. We have been called into the eternal life of God. We were born of the human natural life, but we were reborn of the divine eternal life when we were called by God in Christ.
1Ti 6:12d called  -   2 Tim. 1:9; Rom. 8:30; Eph. 1:18; 1 Cor. 1:9; Col. 3:15; 1 Pet. 5:10
1Ti 6:124e confessed  -   2 Cor. 9:13
The good confession refers to the good faith, the full gospel that Christians believe. Probably at his baptism, Timothy confessed the good confession, confessing to the eternal life before many witnesses, believing and being assured that he had received the life of God. We all should confess such a good confession.
1Ti 6:12f witnesses  -   2 Tim. 2:2
1Ti 6:13a charge  -   1 Tim. 1:18
1Ti 6:13b testified  -   Rev. 1:5; 3:14
1Ti 6:13c Pontius  -   Luke 3:1; Acts 4:27
1Ti 6:141 the
This commandment should refer to the charge in vv. 11-12.
1Ti 6:14a without  -   Col. 1:22
1Ti 6:142b appearing  -   2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13; 2 Thes. 2:8; Heb. 9:28; cf. 2 Tim. 1:10
I.e., the Lord’s second coming.
1Ti 6:151 Which
Referring to appearing in v. 14.
1Ti 6:15a its  -   1 Tim. 2:6; Titus 1:3
1Ti 6:152 the
Referring to God the Father, according to Acts 1:7.
1Ti 6:15b blessed  -   1 Tim. 1:11
1Ti 6:15c only  -   1 Tim. 1:17
1Ti 6:15d King  -   Rev. 17:14; 19:16
1Ti 6:15e Lord  -   Deut. 10:17; Psa. 136:3
1Ti 6:16a immortality  -   1 Cor. 15:53-54
1Ti 6:16b light  -   Psa. 104:2; James 1:17; 1 John 1:5
1Ti 6:16c no  -   Exo. 33:20; John 1:18
1Ti 6:16d honor  -   1 Tim. 1:17
1Ti 6:16e might  -   1 Pet. 4:11; 5:11; Rev. 1:6
1Ti 6:17a Charge  -   1 Tim. 4:11
1Ti 6:17b present  -   2 Tim. 4:10; Titus 2:12; Matt. 12:32
1Ti 6:17c high-minded  -   Rom. 11:20; 12:16
1Ti 6:17d hope  -   Job 31:24; Psa. 52:7; Mark 10:24; cf. 1 Tim. 4:10
1Ti 6:17e uncertainty  -   Prov. 23:5; Matt. 13:22
1Ti 6:17f affords  -   Eccl. 5:18-19; Acts 17:25
1Ti 6:17g richly  -   Titus 3:6
1Ti 6:181a good  -   1 Tim. 5:10; Heb. 13:16
Referring to the distributing of material things readily to the needy, and to the sharing of riches willingly with them.
1Ti 6:182b rich  -   Luke 12:21; James 2:5
Not merely rich in material things but rich in good works according to God’s pleasure (Eph. 2:10).
1Ti 6:18c distribute  -   Rom. 12:8
1Ti 6:19a Laying  -   Matt. 6:19-20; Luke 16:9
1Ti 6:19b foundation  -   Luke 6:48
1Ti 6:19c treasure  -   Matt. 19:21
1Ti 6:191 future
The future here refers to the next age (as compared with the present age in v. 17), the kingdom age, when the overcoming saints will enjoy the Lord’s reward. For this we all need to lay a good foundation in the present age as a treasure for us to enjoy in the future.
1Ti 6:19d hold  -   1 Tim. 6:12
1Ti 6:192 that
I.e., the eternal life referred to in v. 12. Material riches are for the human natural life in this age, a life that is temporal and, hence, not real. If we do good with material things, we will accomplish something for the real life, laying away a treasure for our enjoyment in the eternal life in the next age. This requires that we lay hold on God’s eternal life, which is the real life. Otherwise, we will lay hold on our human natural life in laying away a treasure of material riches in this age for a life that is not real. We should care for the eternal life rather than the natural life. Both v. 12 and this verse stress the eternal life of God. This indicates that the divine life is a factor that is crucial and vital to our Christian life.
1Ti 6:20a guard  -   2 Tim. 1:14; cf. 2 Tim. 1:12
1Ti 6:201 deposit
That which was committed and entrusted to Timothy, the healthy words that he received from Paul, not only for himself but also for others. See note 141 in 2 Tim. 1.
1Ti 6:20b turning  -   2 Tim. 3:5; Rom. 16:17
1Ti 6:20c profane  -   1 Tim. 4:7
1Ti 6:20d vain  -   2 Tim. 2:16; 1 Tim. 1:6; Titus 1:10; Col. 2:8
1Ti 6:202 what
The teaching of the false teachers, which they called knowledge (probably related to Gnostic knowledge). Such teaching replaced the genuine knowledge of the healthy word of God that was entrusted to Timothy.
1Ti 6:211a misaimed  -   1 Tim. 1:6; 2 Tim. 2:18
Missed the mark, as in shooting.
1Ti 6:21b faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
1Ti 6:21c Grace  -   2 Tim. 4:22
< 1 Timothy • 2 Timothy Outline >
Back to the Table of Contents
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Timothy Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-2
II.   The divine provisions for the inoculation — a pure conscience, unfeigned faith, the divine gift, a strong spirit, eternal grace, incorruptible life, the healthy word, and the indwelling Spirit — 1:3-14
III.   The basic factor of the decline — forsaking the apostle and his ministry — 1:15-18
IV.   The inoculator — a teacher, a soldier, a contender, a farmer, and a workman — 2:1-15
V.   The spreading of the decline — like that of gangrene — 2:16-26
VI.   The worsening of the decline — becoming grievous times of deceiving — 3:1-13
VII.   The antidote of the inoculation — the divine word — 3:14-17
VIII.   The incentive to the inoculator — the coming reward — 4:1-8
IX.   The issue of the decline — loving the present age and doing many evils — 4:9-18
X.   Conclusion — 4:19-22
2 Timothy >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Timothy Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2Ti 1:1a will  -   1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:1
2Ti 1:1b according  -   cf. 1 Tim. 1:1; Titus 1:1
2Ti 1:11c promise  -   Titus 1:2; Rom. 1:2; Eph. 3:6; Heb. 9:15; Acts 13:23; Gal. 3:29
This book was written at a time when the churches established through the apostle’s ministry in the Gentile world were in a trend of degradation and the apostle himself was confined in a remote prison. Many had turned away from him and forsaken him (v. 15; 4:16), including even some of his co-workers (4:10). It was a discouraging and disappointing scene, especially to his young fellow worker and spiritual child, Timothy. Because of this, in the opening of this encouraging, strengthening, and establishing Epistle, he confirmed to Timothy that he was an apostle of Christ not only through the will of God but also according to the promise of life, which is in Christ. This implies that though the churches may become degraded and many of the saints may backslide in unfaithfulness, the eternal life, the divine life, the uncreated life of God, promised by God in His holy writings and given to the apostle and all the believers, remains forever the same. With and upon this unchanging life the firm foundation of God was laid and stands unshaken through all the tide of degradation (2:19). By such a life those who seek the Lord out of a pure heart are able to stand the test of the church’s decline. This life, which the apostle in 1 Timothy charged Timothy and others to lay hold on (1 Tim. 6:12, 19), must have been an encouragement and strengthening to the apostle in perilous times.
2Ti 1:1d life  -   2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Tim. 1:16; 6:12, 19; Titus 1:2; 3:7
2Ti 1:2a child  -   1 Tim. 1:2
2Ti 1:21b mercy  -   1 Tim. 1:2
Only in 1 and 2 Timothy, among all his Epistles, did the apostle include God’s mercy in the opening greeting. God’s mercy reaches farther than His grace. In the degraded situation of the churches, God’s mercy is needed. This mercy brings in God’s rich grace, which is sufficient to deal with any degradation.
2Ti 1:31a serve  -   Acts 24:14; Rom. 1:9
To serve God in worship to Him (Acts 24:14; Phil. 3:3).
2Ti 1:32 from
Following in the footsteps of his forefathers to serve God in a pure conscience.
2Ti 1:3b forefathers  -   Gal. 1:14
2Ti 1:33c pure  -   1 Tim. 3:9
See note 92 in 1 Tim. 3. In a time of degradation a pure conscience is needed for one to serve God.
2Ti 1:3d night  -   1 Thes. 3:10; Acts 26:7
2Ti 1:4a Longing  -   Phil. 1:8
2Ti 1:4b tears  -   Luke 19:41; John 11:35; Heb. 5:7; Acts 20:19, 37; 2 Cor. 2:4
2Ti 1:4c filled  -   Phil. 2:2
2Ti 1:5a unfeigned  -   1 Tim. 1:5
2Ti 1:51 dwelt
Lit., indwelt.
2Ti 1:5b mother  -   Acts 16:1; cf. 2 Tim. 3:15
2Ti 1:61 fan
This was written to encourage and strengthen Timothy in his ministry for the Lord, which might have been enfeebled by Paul’s imprisonment and the degraded situation of the churches.
2Ti 1:6a gift  -   1 Tim. 4:14
2Ti 1:62b laying  -   1 Tim. 4:14
See note 144 in 1 Tim. 4.
2Ti 1:71a spirit  -   2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:15, 16; 12:11; John 3:6; 4:24
The spirit here denotes our human spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 3:6; Rom. 8:16). To fan into flame the gift of God (v. 6) is related to our regenerated spirit.
2Ti 1:7b cowardice  -   John 14:27; Rev. 21:8
2Ti 1:72 of
Of power refers to our will, of love to our emotion, and of sobermindedness to our mind. This indicates that having a strong will, a loving emotion, and a sober mind has very much to do with having a strong spirit for the exercise of the gift of God that is in us.
2Ti 1:7c power  -   Eph. 3:16; 6:10
2Ti 1:7d love  -   Gal. 5:13-14; Col. 3:14
2Ti 1:7e sobermindedness  -   1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8; 2:2, 6
2Ti 1:81 Therefore
This was the reason Paul charged Timothy in vv. 6-7 to fan into flame by a strong spirit the gift of God that was in him.
2Ti 1:82 not
Not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord is to stand against the downward current in the declining churches.
2Ti 1:8a ashamed  -   2 Tim. 1:12, 16; Mark 8:38; Rom. 1:16
2Ti 1:8b testimony  -   1 Cor. 1:6
2Ti 1:8c His  -   Philem. 1, 9; Eph. 3:1
2Ti 1:8d suffer  -   2 Tim. 2:3, 9; 4:5
2Ti 1:83e gospel  -   Mark 8:35; 10:29
Since the gospel, personified here (cf. note 22 in Rev. 6), was suffering persecution, Timothy needed to suffer evil along with the gospel.
2Ti 1:84 according
Our suffering of persecution along with the gospel must be to the extent that the power of God, not our natural strength, can endure.
2Ti 1:8f power  -   Eph. 3:7, 20; Col. 1:29
2Ti 1:91a called  -   1 Tim. 6:12; Heb. 3:1
God not only saved us to enjoy His blessing but also called us with a holy calling, a calling for a particular goal, in order to fulfill His purpose.
2Ti 1:9b works  -   Rom. 9:11; Eph. 2:9; Titus 3:5
2Ti 1:92c purpose  -   Eph. 1:9, 11
God’s purpose is His plan according to His will to put us into Christ and make us one with Him to share His life and position that we may be His testimony. Grace is God’s provision in life given to us that we may live out His purpose.
2Ti 1:9d grace  -   1 Tim. 1:14
2Ti 1:93 before
I.e., before the world began. The grace given to us in Christ was bestowed on us before the world began. This is a sure and unshakable foundation that stands firm against the downward current and exposes the utter powerlessness of the enemy’s efforts to counter the eternal purpose of God. In order to strengthen Timothy, the apostle identified their ministry with this.
2Ti 1:9e times  -   Titus 1:2; Rom. 16:25
2Ti 1:101a manifested  -   Titus 2:11; Rom. 16:26; Col. 1:26; Titus 1:3
God’s grace was given to us in eternity, but it was manifested and applied to us through our Lord’s first coming, in which He nullified death and brought life to us.
2Ti 1:10b appearing  -   Heb. 9:26
2Ti 1:102 nullified
Christ nullified death, making it of none effect, through His devil-destroying death (Heb. 2:14) and death-swallowing resurrection (1 Cor. 15:52-54).
2Ti 1:10c death  -   1 Cor. 15:26, 54; Heb. 2:14, 15
2Ti 1:103d life  -   2 Tim. 1:1; 1 Tim. 1:16
The eternal life of God, which is given to all believers in Christ (1 Tim. 1:16) and which is the main element of the divine grace given to us (Rom. 5:17, 21). This life has conquered death (Acts 2:24) and will swallow up death (2 Cor. 5:4). It was according to the promise of such a life that Paul was an apostle (v. 1). This life and the incorruption that is its consequence have been brought to light and made visible to men through the preaching of the gospel.
2Ti 1:104e incorruption  -   Rom. 2:7
Life is the divine element, even God Himself, imparted into our spirit; incorruption is the consequence of life’s saturating of our body (Rom. 8:11). This life and incorruption are able to counter the death and corruption brought in by the decline among the churches.
2Ti 1:111 which
Referring to the gospel of divine grace and eternal life, corresponding with the gospel in grace and life presented by the apostle John (John 1:4, 16-17). For such a gospel Paul was appointed a herald, an apostle, and a teacher.
2Ti 1:11a appointed  -   1 Tim. 1:12; 2:7
2Ti 1:112 herald
A herald announces and proclaims the gospel, an apostle sets up and establishes the churches for God’s administration, and a teacher gives instructions to the churches with all the saints. See note 71 in 1 Tim. 2.
2Ti 1:121 cause
The apostle suffered for a cause, a cause on the highest plane — the proclaiming of the glad tidings of the gospel of grace and life to establish the churches, and the directing of the saints. Such a cause must have been an encouragement and strengthening to Timothy as he faced the deterioration of the declining churches.
2Ti 1:12a suffer  -   2 Tim. 2:9
2Ti 1:122 not
So Timothy should not have been ashamed either (v. 8).
2Ti 1:12b ashamed  -   2 Tim. 1:8, 16
2Ti 1:123 whom
The apostle believed not a thing or a matter but a living person, Christ, the Son of the living God, who is the embodiment of divine grace and eternal life. The eternal life in Him is powerful; it is more than able to sustain to the end the one who suffers for His sake, and to preserve him for the inheritance of the coming glory. The grace in Him was more than sufficient to provide His sent one with all he needed for finishing the course of his ministry unto a reward in glory (4:7-8). Hence, He was able to guard that which the apostle had committed unto Him for the day of His return. Such an assurance must also have been an encouragement and strengthening to the enfeebled and sorrowful Timothy.
2Ti 1:12c believed  -   Titus 3:8
2Ti 1:12d guard  -   cf. 2 Tim. 1:14; 1 Tim. 6:20
2Ti 1:124 my
Or, that which I have committed unto Him. The apostle committed his entire being with his glorious future unto the One who was able, through His life and grace, to guard his deposit for the day of His second appearing.
2Ti 1:12e deposit  -   1 Pet. 4:19; Psa. 10:14
2Ti 1:125f that  -   2 Tim. 1:18; 4:8; 1 Cor. 1:8; 3:13
The day of Christ’s second appearing.
2Ti 1:13a Hold  -   Titus 1:9; 1 Tim. 1:19
2Ti 1:131 pattern
Or, example. The word in v. 12 is a pattern, an example, of healthy words.
2Ti 1:132b healthy  -   1 Tim. 6:3; 1:10
See note 32 in 1 Tim. 6.
2Ti 1:13c heard  -   2 Tim. 2:2; Rev. 3:3
2Ti 1:133d faith  -   1 Tim. 1:14; 2:15
See note 142 in 1 Tim. 1.
2Ti 1:14a Guard  -   1 Tim. 6:20; cf. 2 Tim. 1:12
2Ti 1:141 deposit
This is the deposit the Lord entrusted to us, in contrast to the deposit we entrusted to Him, mentioned in v. 12. According to v. 13, the deposit here must refer to the deposit of healthy words, including the riches of life in His word, which the Lord has stored in us. See note 201 in 1 Tim. 6.
2Ti 1:14b Spirit  -   Titus 3:5; Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19
2Ti 1:142 dwells
Lit., is indwelling. The Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:16). Hence, for us to guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit requires that we exercise our spirit.
2Ti 1:151a Asia  -   Acts 2:9; 19:10; 20:18; 2 Cor. 1:8; Rev. 1:4
I.e., the province of Asia. The phrase all who are in Asia points to the general situation among the believers in Asia and does not include every particular believer; for Onesiphorus is mentioned as one from Asia who often refreshed Paul and sought him out (vv. 16-18).
2Ti 1:152b turned  -   2 Tim. 4:10, 16
This indicates that the believers in Asia who had formerly received the apostle’s ministry now forsook him. In spite of such desertion, the apostle grew stronger in the grace that was in Christ, who is the same and will never change. Not being discouraged, he exhorted his son in faith to persevere steadily in the ministry in the midst of the failure and ruin of the churches.
2Ti 1:153 Phygelus
These two must be the ones who took the lead to desert the apostle because of his imprisonment (cf. v. 8).
2Ti 1:16a mercy  -   2 Tim. 1:18, 2; 1 Tim. 1:13
2Ti 1:161b Onesiphorus  -   2 Tim. 4:19
He was an overcomer who surmounted the general trend and stood against the downward current to refresh the Lord’s ambassador in spirit, soul, and body, not being ashamed of the apostle’s imprisonment on behalf of the Lord’s commission.
2Ti 1:16c refreshed  -   Philem. 7, 20; Rom. 15:32; 1 Cor. 16:18; 2 Cor. 7:13
2Ti 1:16d ashamed  -   2 Tim. 1:8, 12
2Ti 1:16e chain  -   Acts 28:20; Phil. 1:7
2Ti 1:17a Rome  -   Acts 28:14, 16, 17
2Ti 1:18a mercy  -   2 Tim. 1:16
2Ti 1:181b that  -   2 Tim. 1:12
The day of the Lord’s victorious appearing to reward His overcomers (4:8; Rev. 22:12).
2Ti 1:18c Ephesus  -   Acts 18:19; 19:1, 26; 1 Tim. 1:3
2 Timothy Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2Ti 2:1a child  -   2 Tim. 1:2
2Ti 2:11b empowered  -   2 Tim. 1:7; 4:17; Eph. 6:10; Phil. 4:13
The apostle himself had experienced the empowering of grace in life (1:9-12). Now he exhorted Timothy to be empowered in the same grace.
2Ti 2:12c grace  -   2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Tim. 1:14
See note 92 in ch. 1.
2Ti 2:21 things
I.e., the healthy words (1:13).
2Ti 2:2a heard  -   2 Tim. 1:13
2Ti 2:2b witnesses  -   1 Tim. 6:12
2Ti 2:22c commit  -   1 Tim. 1:18
The healthy words, after being committed to faithful men, become the good deposit in them (1:14). This word indicates that if someone in a local church has a deposit of the Lord’s healthy words, he should train the faithful ones that they too may have a good deposit from the Lord and be competent to teach others.
2Ti 2:23d faithful  -   Matt. 24:45
Trustworthy.
2Ti 2:2e teach  -   2 Tim. 2:24; 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17
2Ti 2:3a Suffer  -   2 Tim. 1:8; 4:5
2Ti 2:31b soldier  -   1 Tim. 1:18
The apostle considered their ministry a warfare for Christ, just as the priestly service was considered a military service, a warfare, in Num. 4:23, 30, 35 (lit.).
2Ti 2:41a entangles  -   Heb. 12:1; 2 Pet. 2:20
To fight a good fight (4:7) for the Lord’s interests on this earth, we must clear away all earthly entanglements.
2Ti 2:4b affairs  -   cf. Luke 14:18-20; Matt. 13:22
2Ti 2:42 life
The Greek word (bios) denotes the physical life in this age.
2Ti 2:51a contends  -   1 Cor. 9:25
Here Timothy is likened to an athlete contending in the games.
2Ti 2:52b crowned  -   2 Tim. 4:8
See note 251 in 1 Cor. 9.
2Ti 2:61a farmer  -   1 Cor. 9:10
Here the apostle likened Timothy to a farmer. A soldier must win the victory, an athlete must receive the crown, and a farmer must partake of the fruits, the food.
2Ti 2:81a raised  -   Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:4, 20
Indicating Christ’s victory over death by His divine life with its resurrection power.
2Ti 2:82b seed  -   Matt. 1:1; 22:42, 45; John 7:42; Rom. 1:3
Indicating Christ’s dignified human nature, which was exalted and glorified along with His divine nature.
2Ti 2:83c my  -   Rom. 2:16; 16:25; Gal. 1:11; 1 Tim. 1:11
The apostle’s gospel is the glad tidings of the living person, Christ, who possesses both the divine nature and the human nature, who was incarnated to be the Son of Man and resurrected to be the Son of God, as related in the parallel portion, Rom. 1:1-4.
2Ti 2:9a suffer  -   2 Tim. 1:8, 12; Acts 9:16
2Ti 2:9b bonds  -   Phil. 1:7; Col. 4:3, 18
2Ti 2:9c criminal  -   Luke 22:37; 23:32
2Ti 2:9d word  -   1 Thes. 1:8
2Ti 2:91 not
In spite of all the opposition by human efforts that were instigated by the enemy, Satan, the bonds of the apostle caused the word of God to be released, to be preached by men freely and to become more prevailing.
2Ti 2:10a endure  -   1 Cor. 13:7; Heb. 10:36
2Ti 2:101b chosen  -   Titus 1:1; Col. 3:12
The believers in Christ, who were chosen by God the Father before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) and selected from among mankind for salvation. The apostle endured all sufferings for the sake of us, the chosen ones, that we too may obtain salvation, as he did.
2Ti 2:10c salvation  -   1 Thes. 5:9
2Ti 2:102 with
It is not salvation and eternal glory but salvation with eternal glory. Eternal glory is the ultimate goal of God’s salvation (Rom. 8:21); God’s salvation leads us into His glory (Heb. 2:10). This encourages us to endure sufferings for the gospel (Rom. 8:17).
2Ti 2:10d eternal  -   1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Cor. 4:17; Heb. 2:10
2Ti 2:11a Faithful  -   1 Tim. 1:15
2Ti 2:111 For
The portion from here to the end of v. 13 might have been a hymn. This passage corresponds with Rom. 6:8 and 8:17.
2Ti 2:112b died  -   Rom. 6:8; 2 Cor. 4:10
In Christ’s crucifixion, as symbolized by baptism (Rom. 6:3-8).
2Ti 2:113c live  -   1 Thes. 5:10; John 14:19
In Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:5, 8; John 14:19).
2Ti 2:121a endure  -   2 Thes. 1:4
In this age.
2Ti 2:122b reign  -   Rev. 20:4, 6
In the coming age.
2Ti 2:12c deny  -   Matt. 10:33; Luke 12:9
2Ti 2:123 deny
Not acknowledge us (Matt. 10:33; Luke 12:9).
2Ti 2:13a faithless  -   cf. Rom. 3:3
2Ti 2:131 faithful
Faithful to His own word.
2Ti 2:132b cannot  -   Titus 1:2; Num. 23:19
If we become faithless toward Him, though He remains faithful, He cannot accept us as faithful by making Himself unfaithful, i.e., by denying Himself (His nature and His being).
2Ti 2:14a charging  -   1 Tim. 4:11
2Ti 2:14b contentions  -   1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Tim. 2:23; Titus 3:9
2Ti 2:14c useful  -   Titus 3:9
2Ti 2:141 ruin
Or, overthrowing. Lit., catastrophe.
2Ti 2:15a present  -   Rom. 6:13; 12:1
2Ti 2:15b approved  -   Phil. 2:22; 1 Cor. 11:19; Rom. 5:4; cf. 2 Tim. 3:8; 1 Cor. 9:27; 2 Cor. 13:5, 6; Heb. 6:8
2Ti 2:151 cutting
As in carpentry. It means to unfold the word of God in its various parts rightly and straightly without distortion.
2Ti 2:15c word  -   Eph. 1:13; James 1:18
2Ti 2:152d truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See notes 42 in 1 Tim. 2 and 155 in 1 Tim. 3. Contentions of words (v. 14), profane, vain babblings (v. 16), the word that eats away like gangrene (v. 17), and foolish questionings and those arising from an untrained mind (v. 23) are often used by the devil (v. 26) in the downward current among the churches to beget contentions (v. 23), to ruin the hearers (v. 14), to promote ungodliness (v. 16), and to overthrow people’s faith (v. 18). Hence, there is the need of the word of the truth, rightly unfolded, to enlighten the darkened people, inoculate against the poison, swallow up the death, and bring the distracted back to the proper track.
2Ti 2:16a avoid  -   Titus 3:9; cf. 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 3:5; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22
2Ti 2:161b profane  -   1 Tim. 4:7
See note 71 in 1 Tim. 4.
2Ti 2:16c vain  -   1 Tim. 6:20
2Ti 2:162d ungodliness  -   1 Tim. 1:9; Titus 2:12
Contrary to godliness. See note 22 in 1 Tim. 2.
2Ti 2:171 spread
Or, feed, eat. Lit., have pasture; cf. John 10:9. The word for pasture in Greek is the medical term for the consuming progress of a mortifying disease (Alford). Hence, here the Greek phrase is rendered spread.
2Ti 2:172 gangrene
An eating sore, a cancer.
2Ti 2:17a Hymenaeus  -   1 Tim. 1:20
2Ti 2:181a truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See note 155 in 1 Tim. 3.
2Ti 2:182b misaimed  -   1 Tim. 1:6
I.e., missed the mark, swerved, deviated.
2Ti 2:18c resurrection  -   1 Cor. 15:12
2Ti 2:183 already
I.e., that there will be no resurrection. This is a serious heresy that denies the divine power in life (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16; Rev. 20:4, 6).
2Ti 2:184d faith  -   1 Tim. 1:14, 19a
This is the subjective faith, i.e., the act of believing; it is very much related to the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 10:9).
2Ti 2:191a foundation  -   1 Tim. 3:15; cf. Isa. 28:16
Verses 14-18 give instruction concerning how to deal with heresies, on the negative side, and handle the truth, on the positive side. According to the context of vv. 15, 18, and 25, the foundation here does not refer to Christ as the foundation of the church (1 Cor. 3:11) but to the church as the foundation of the truth. This corresponds with the base of the truth, which holds the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), especially the truth of the resurrection of Christ (Acts 4:33).
The church is built with the divine life in Christ, a life that is indestructible, unconquerable (Heb. 7:16; Acts 2:24), and able to withstand decline into death originating from any source. Hence, the church is the firm foundation of God that stands forever against any heresy.
2Ti 2:192b seal  -   Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:22
The seal has two sides. On the Lord’s side it is: “The Lord knows those who are His.” This is based on the Lord’s divine life, which He has given to all His believers and which has brought them into an organic union with Him, making them one with Him and causing them to become His. On our side it is: “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.” This is the issue of the divine life — it enables us to depart from unrighteousness and keeps us blameless in His holy name. The church as the firm foundation in the divine life bears such a two-sided seal, testifying that the Lord’s divine life has made us His and has kept us from things that are contrary to His righteous way.
Verse 19 indicates definitely that the ones exposed in vv. 16-18 are not the Lord’s. Their evildoings are a strong proof of this.
2Ti 2:19c knows  -   Num. 16:5; Nahum 1:7; John 10:14, 27
2Ti 2:19d names  -   Isa. 26:13
2Ti 2:201 But
In contrast to the definition in v. 19 concerning genuine believers.
2Ti 2:202 great
The house of God defined in 1 Tim. 3:15-16 is the genuine church in its divine nature and essential character as the foundation of the truth, whereas the great house here refers to the deteriorated church in its mixed character, as illustrated by the abnormally large tree in Matt. 13:31-32 (see note 321 in Matt. 13). In this great house there are not only precious vessels but also base ones.
2Ti 2:203 gold
Honorable vessels are constituted of both the divine nature (gold) and the redeemed and regenerated human nature (silver). These, like Timothy and other genuine believers, constitute the sure foundation that holds the truth.
2Ti 2:204 wooden
Dishonorable vessels are constituted of the fallen human nature (wood and earth). Hymenaeus, Philetus, and other false believers belong to this category.
2Ti 2:20a honor  -   Rom. 9:21
2Ti 2:211 cleanses
This is to depart from unrighteousness (v. 19), as an outward evidence of the inward divine nature.
2Ti 2:212a these  -   2 Tim. 2:16-18
Referring to vessels unto dishonor, including those mentioned in vv. 16-18.
2Ti 2:21b vessel  -   Rom. 9:21, 23-24
2Ti 2:213 unto
Unto honor is a matter of nature, sanctified a matter of position, useful a matter of practice, and prepared a matter of training.
2Ti 2:21c sanctified  -   Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16; 1 Pet. 1:2
2Ti 2:21d useful  -   Philem. 11
2Ti 2:21e prepared  -   2 Tim. 3:17; Titus 3:1, 8, 14; Heb. 13:21; Eph. 2:10
2Ti 2:22a flee  -   1 Tim. 6:11
2Ti 2:221 lusts
Timothy had to be wary not only of outward corruption among the churches but also of inward lusts within himself. He had to avoid the outward corruption and flee the inward lusts.
2Ti 2:22b pursue  -   1 Tim. 6:11
2Ti 2:222 righteousness
Righteousness is toward oneself, faith is toward God, and love is toward others; peace is the issue of these three virtues.
2Ti 2:223c call  -   Rom. 10:12; Acts 9:14; 1 Cor. 1:2
This is to name the name of the Lord (v. 19) in our prayer and praise to Him. The Lord’s seekers must be His callers.
2Ti 2:224d pure  -   1 Tim. 1:5
See note 53 in 1 Tim. 1.
2Ti 2:231a foolish  -   Titus 3:9
Or, stupid.
2Ti 2:23b questionings  -   1 Tim. 1:4; 6:4
2Ti 2:232 untrained
Uneducated, undisciplined, unlearned, i.e., not subject to God but following one’s own mind and will (Darby).
2Ti 2:24a slave  -   Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10
2Ti 2:24b not  -   1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 3:2; Matt. 12:19
2Ti 2:24c teach  -   2 Tim. 2:2
2Ti 2:25a meekness  -   Titus 3:2; Gal. 6:1; 1 Pet. 3:16
2Ti 2:25b oppose  -   2 Tim. 3:8; Titus 1:9; 2:8
2Ti 2:251c repentance  -   Acts 5:31
This indicates that with the opposers of the truth it is the heart and conscience that are in question. The truth is the revelation of the living God and His economy, His heart’s desire. To receive the divine revelation, the heart and conscience need to be rightly exercised toward God. The heart should be turned to Him, directed solely to Him, and the conscience must be pure and void of offense before Him. Otherwise, one may be carried away as a captive by the devil and thus fall into his snare (v. 26).
2Ti 2:252d full  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See note 42 in 1 Tim. 2. This word proves that the opposers lack adequate knowledge of the divine revelation.
2Ti 2:261a return  -   1 Cor. 15:34
Become sober again, awake out of a drunken stupor (Vincent).
2Ti 2:262b snare  -   1 Tim. 3:7; 6:9
This indicates that the opposers of the truth have been captured and kept in a snare by the devil. The enemy of God occupies their reprobate mind with error and shuts God out, just as he did with the Pharisees (John 8:42-45). Such opposers need to turn to God in their heart and have a thorough dealing in their conscience.
2Ti 2:263 devil
See note 101 in Rev. 2.
2Ti 2:264c His  -   Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9
I.e., for God’s will, to do God’s will.
2 Timothy Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2Ti 3:11 But
In contrast to the hope expressed at the end of the preceding chapter.
2Ti 3:12 last
Denoting the present age (2 Pet. 3:3; Jude 18), which began with Christ’s first coming (1 Pet. 1:20) and will last until His second appearing. That this period was to be lengthy was not revealed to the apostles (Matt. 24:36); they expected the Lord to return in their generation.
2Ti 3:13 difficult
Or, hard times, grievous times, perilous times.
2Ti 3:1a times  -   2 Tim. 4:3
2Ti 3:21 men
The prophetic picture presented in vv. 2-5 portrays not the evil condition of the non-Christian society but the corrupted situation of the great house mentioned in 2:20, which is Christianity in decline. This is proved by the phrase having an outward form of godliness in v. 5. Non-Christians do not have even the outward form of godliness.
2Ti 3:22 lovers
In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus seven kinds of lovers are mentioned: (1) lovers of self, (2) lovers of money (v. 2; 1 Tim. 6:10), (3) lovers of pleasure, (4) lovers of God (v. 4), (5) lovers of good (Titus 1:8), (6) lovers of husbands, and (7) lovers of children (Titus 2:4). Also, two kinds of nonlovers are mentioned: (1) nonlovers of good, and (2) nonlovers of God (vv. 3-4). Whatever one loves, his whole heart, even his entire being, is set on and occupied and possessed by. This is crucial! Whether there would be a day of glory in the church’s victory or grievous days of the church’s decline depends altogether on what kind of lovers we are. History tells us that the root of the church’s decline was the loss of her first love toward the Lord (Rev. 2:4). To maintain the victorious standard of the church, we must be lovers of God and lovers of the good that pertains to God’s economy.
2Ti 3:2a lovers  -   1 Tim. 6:10; Heb. 13:5
2Ti 3:2b boasters  -   Rom. 1:30
2Ti 3:23 arrogant
Or, haughty.
2Ti 3:24c revilers  -   2 Pet. 2:10-12
Lit., blasphemers; as in 1 Tim. 1:13. Here, however, it does not refer to blasphemers of God but to revilers or railers, those who speak evilly and injuriously against men.
2Ti 3:25 unthankful
Or, ungrateful.
2Ti 3:2d unholy  -   1 Tim. 1:9
2Ti 3:3a Without  -   Rom. 1:31
2Ti 3:31 implacable
Or, irreconcilable.
2Ti 3:3b slanderers  -   1 Tim. 3:11; Titus 2:3
2Ti 3:3c without  -   cf. Titus 1:8
2Ti 3:41a Traitors  -   John 6:71; Acts 7:52
Or, betrayers.
2Ti 3:42 reckless
Or, headstrong.
2Ti 3:43b blinded  -   1 Tim. 3:6; 6:4
See note 62 in 1 Tim. 3.
2Ti 3:44 lovers
In this picture there are three kinds of lovers — lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure — and two kinds of nonlovers — nonlovers of good and nonlovers of God.
2Ti 3:4c pleasure  -   Titus 3:3; James 5:5; 2 Pet. 2:13
2Ti 3:4d lovers  -   Mark 12:30; 1 John 4:21
2Ti 3:51 outward
Merely an outward semblance without the essential reality.
2Ti 3:5a form  -   Rom. 2:20; cf. Matt. 7:15
2Ti 3:5b godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2
2Ti 3:5c denying  -   1 Tim. 5:8; Titus 1:16
2Ti 3:52 power
The real and practical virtue with a living influence to express God.
2Ti 3:5d turn  -   1 Tim. 6:20; cf. 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22, 16; Titus 3:9
2Ti 3:6a creep  -   Jude 4
2Ti 3:6b houses  -   Titus 1:11
2Ti 3:6c various  -   Titus 3:3
2Ti 3:71a full  -   2 Tim. 2:25; 1 Tim. 2:4
See note 42 in 1 Tim. 2.
2Ti 3:81 Jannes
According to Jewish tradition, these two were the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses in Exo. 7:11, 22.
2Ti 3:8a oppose  -   2 Tim. 2:25
2Ti 3:82b truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See note 155 in 1 Tim. 3. In the decline among the churches, truth is the target of the enemy’s attack. Hence, truth is also the remedy for and the rescue from the diseased and ruined situation.
2Ti 3:8c corrupted  -   1 Tim. 6:5
2Ti 3:83d disapproved  -   Titus 1:16; cf. 1 Cor. 9:27; 2 Cor. 13:5
Or, reprobate.
2Ti 3:84e faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
See note 14 in 1 Tim. 4.
2Ti 3:9a advance  -   cf. 2 Tim. 2:16
2Ti 3:91 folly
The lack of intelligence and the senselessness in their doings.
2Ti 3:92 those
Jannes and Jambres, who were defeated and brought to nothing (Exo. 8:18; 9:11).
2Ti 3:10a closely  -   1 Tim. 4:6
2Ti 3:101 conduct
I.e., manner of life.
2Ti 3:102b purpose  -   Acts 11:23
This Greek word is used in Paul’s Epistles in relation to the purpose of God (Rom. 9:11).
2Ti 3:11a Persecutions  -   Acts 13:50; 14:2, 5; 2 Cor. 12:10
2Ti 3:11b Antioch  -   Acts 13:14
2Ti 3:11c Iconium  -   Acts 14:1-2
2Ti 3:111d Lystra  -   Acts 14:6
The city where Timothy lived (Acts 16:1-2), near Iconium and Pisidian Antioch.
2Ti 3:11e delivered  -   2 Tim. 4:17-18
2Ti 3:121 desire
Or, determine.
2Ti 3:122 live
I.e., live a life of godliness. See notes 22 in 1 Tim. 2, and 162, 163 in 1 Tim. 3.
2Ti 3:12a godly  -   Titus 2:12; 1 Tim. 2:10
2Ti 3:12b persecuted  -   John 15:20; 1 Cor. 4:12
2Ti 3:131 impostors
Juggling impostors. This verse indicates that the decline of the church will become worse.
2Ti 3:13a deceiving  -   Titus 1:10; 3:3
2Ti 3:141 continue
Or, abide.
2Ti 3:142 things
The things that Timothy learned from the apostle and was assured of constituted the vital portion of the content of the New Testament, a portion that completed the divine revelation (Col. 1:25). Hence, he had practical apprehension of a great part of the New Testament.
2Ti 3:151 And
In addition to his knowledge of the New Testament, Timothy had, from his childhood, a good foundation in the knowledge of the Old Testament. He was one who was fully perfected and equipped to minister the word of God, not only in caring for a local church but also in confronting the worsening decline of the church.
2Ti 3:15a from  -   2 Tim. 1:5
2Ti 3:15b sacred  -   Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11; John 5:39, 47
2Ti 3:15c wise  -   Psa. 19:7; 119:98
2Ti 3:15d salvation  -   1 Cor. 1:21; Acts 16:31
2Ti 3:152 faith
Cf. note 221 in Rom. 3.
2Ti 3:161 All
Or, Every Scripture God-breathed is also profitable. To confront the death, corruption, and confusion in the church’s decline, the eternal life, on which ch. 1 is based (1:1, 10), the divine truth, emphasized in ch. 2 (2:15, 18, 25), and the Holy Scripture, highly regarded in ch. 3 (3:14-17), are all needed. The eternal life not only swallows up death but also renders the life supply; the divine truth replaces the vanity of corruption with the reality of all the divine riches; and the Holy Scripture not only dispels the confusion but also furnishes divine light and revelation. Hence, in this book the apostle stressed these three things.
2Ti 3:16a Scripture  -   2 Pet. 1:20-21
2Ti 3:162 God-breathed
This indicates that the Scripture, the word of God, is the breathing out of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing out. Hence, His word is spirit (John 6:63), or breath. Thus, the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit. The Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture, just as phosphorus is the essential substance in matches. We must strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire.
As the embodiment of God the Spirit, the Scripture (God’s word) is also the embodiment of Christ. Christ is God’s living Word (Rev. 19:13), and the Scripture is God’s written word (Matt. 4:4).
2Ti 3:16b teaching  -   Rom. 15:4; Eph. 6:4
2Ti 3:163 conviction
Reproof, confutation.
2Ti 3:164 correction
Setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, restoring to an upright state.
2Ti 3:165 instruction
Discipline or chastisement according to righteousness; to discipline or chastise by the element and condition of righteousness.
2Ti 3:171a man  -   1 Tim. 6:11
See note 111 in 1 Tim. 6.
2Ti 3:172 complete
Complete and perfect in qualifications.
2Ti 3:173b equipped  -   Heb. 13:21; 2 Tim. 2:21
Or, fitted out, furnished, made ready.
2 Timothy Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
2Ti 4:1a charge  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 6:13
2Ti 4:11b judge  -   Acts 10:42; 17:31
God has given all judgment to Christ because He is a man (John 5:22, 27; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 2:16). As the righteous Judge (v. 8), Christ will judge the living on His throne of glory at His second appearing (Matt. 25:31-46), and He will judge the dead on the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15).
2Ti 4:12 His
This word proves that, in his life and work, Paul took the Lord’s appearing and His kingdom as the incentive and goal. The Lord’s appearing will be for judgment, to reward each one of us (Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12), and His kingdom will be for His reigning with His overcomers (Rev. 20:4, 6). The apostle not only took these two matters as the incentive and goal for himself but also by these two matters charged Timothy, who was under his leading, to faithfully fulfill his ministry of the word.
2Ti 4:1c appearing  -   2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; Titus 2:13
2Ti 4:1d kingdom  -   2 Tim. 4:18; Matt. 13:41; Luke 1:33; Eph. 5:5; Col. 1:13; Heb. 1:8; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 1:9; 11:15
2Ti 4:21a word  -   Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; Col. 4:3; Rev. 1:2, 9; 6:9
Composed of what Timothy learned of both Paul and the Old Testament (3:14-15). This proves that vv. 1-2 are a continuation of 3:14-17. In caring for a local church, especially in a time of the church’s decline, the proclaiming of the word is vital.
2Ti 4:22 be
Be urgent, stand by.
2Ti 4:23 in
Opportunely or inopportunely, whether the opportunity is convenient or inconvenient, whether you are welcome or unwelcome.
2Ti 4:2b convict  -   1 Tim. 5:20; Titus 1:13; 2:15
2Ti 4:24 rebuke
Implying to condemn severely.
2Ti 4:2c exhort  -   1 Tim. 4:13; 6:2
2Ti 4:25 all
All also modifies teaching — teaching in many aspects and directions. The carrying out of such teaching requires long-suffering.
2Ti 4:2d long-suffering  -   2 Tim. 3:10; 1 Thes. 5:14
2Ti 4:2e teaching  -   2 Tim. 2:24; 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17
2Ti 4:31a time  -   2 Tim. 3:1
When the decline of the church worsens.
2Ti 4:32b healthy  -   1 Tim. 1:10; Titus 1:9; 2:1; 2 Tim. 1:13
See note 101 in 1 Tim. 1.
2Ti 4:33 itching
Ears that seek pleasant speaking for their own pleasure.
2Ti 4:41a turn  -   Titus 1:14
The itching and turned-away ear is the main factor in the worsening decline in the churches.
2Ti 4:42 truth
See notes 42 in 1 Tim. 2 and 155 in 1 Tim. 3.
2Ti 4:43b myths  -   1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; Titus 1:14
See note 41 in 1 Tim. 1.
2Ti 4:5a sober  -   2 Tim. 1:7; Titus 2:12; 1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7
2Ti 4:5b suffer  -   2 Tim. 1:8; 2:3
2Ti 4:5c evangelist  -   Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11
2Ti 4:51 fully
Fill up the full measure of your ministry.
2Ti 4:52d ministry  -   2 Tim. 4:11; 1 Tim. 1:12; Col. 4:17
The ministry of the word, which is to minister Christ in all His riches (Eph. 3:8) to both sinners and believers for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). Such a ministry is desperately needed to counter the trend of decline, as prophesied in vv. 3-4.
2Ti 4:61a poured  -   Phil. 2:17
As a drink offering (see note 171 in Phil. 2). To be poured out is to shed one’s blood. Already being poured out indicates that the process had begun.
2Ti 4:62b departure  -   Phil. 1:23; cf. 2 Pet. 1:14
From the world to be with the Lord (Phil. 1:23), through martyrdom. Paul was imprisoned in Rome twice. The first imprisonment was from about A.D. 62-64 and was due to the Jews’ accusation (Acts 28:17-20). During that time Paul wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians, and the Epistle to Philemon. After his release from the first imprisonment (a release that he expected in Phil. 1:25; 2:24; and Philem. 22), he must have visited Ephesus and Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3), where he probably wrote the first Epistle to Timothy. Then he visited Crete (Titus 1:5); Nicopolis (Titus 3:12), where he wrote the Epistle to Titus; Troas; and Miletus (vv. 13, 20), where he probably wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. During his second imprisonment, which occurred in about A.D. 67 and was due to Caesar Nero’s sudden persecution, he wrote the second Epistle to Timothy while expecting his imminent martyrdom for his Master.
2Ti 4:71a fought  -   1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12
Lit., struggled the good struggle. A proper Christian life has three aspects: fighting the good fight against Satan and his kingdom of darkness for the interests of God’s kingdom (1 Tim. 6:12); running the course for the carrying out of God’s economy according to His eternal purpose (Heb. 12:1); and keeping the faith for participation in the divine riches in God’s economy (1 Tim. 3:9). In this Paul set up an adequate pattern for us.
2Ti 4:72b finished  -   1 Cor. 9:26; Heb. 12:1
Paul began to run the heavenly race after the Lord took possession of him, and he continually ran (1 Cor. 9:24-26; Phil. 3:12-14) that he might finish it (Acts 20:24). Now at the end he triumphantly proclaimed, “I have finished the course.” For this he will receive from the Lord a reward — the crown of righteousness.
2Ti 4:7c faith  -   1 Tim. 1:4
2Ti 4:81 laid
Reserved.
2Ti 4:82a crown  -   2 Tim. 2:5; 1 Cor. 9:25; 1 Pet. 5:4
The crown, a symbol of glory, is given as a prize, in addition to the Lord’s salvation, to the triumphant runner of the race (1 Cor. 9:25). In contrast to salvation, which is of grace and by faith (Eph. 2:5, 8-9), this prize is not of grace nor by faith, but is of righteousness through works (Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; 2 Cor. 5:10). The believers will be recompensed with such a reward, not according to the Lord’s grace but according to His righteousness. Hence, it is the crown of righteousness. The Recompenser is the Lord as the righteous Judge. Paul was assured that such a prize was reserved for him and that he would be recompensed with it at the day of the Lord’s second appearing.
2Ti 4:8b righteousness  -   2 Cor. 5:10
2Ti 4:83c righteous  -   Acts 17:31
Not the merciful God or the gracious Redeemer.
2Ti 4:8d recompense  -   Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12
2Ti 4:84e that  -   2 Tim. 1:12, 18; 1 Cor. 3:13
See note 125 in ch. 1.
2Ti 4:8f loved  -   Titus 2:13; Rev. 22:20
2Ti 4:85g appearing  -   2 Tim. 4:1
The Lord’s appearing, His coming back, is a warning, an encouragement, and an incentive to us. We should love it and look forward to it with earnest expectation and joy. By that appearing the apostle charged Timothy to fulfill his ministry (vv. 1-2, 5).
2Ti 4:9a come  -   cf. Titus 3:12
2Ti 4:10a Demas  -   Col. 4:14; Philem. 24
2Ti 4:10b abandoned  -   2 Tim. 1:15
2Ti 4:101c loved  -   1 John 2:15
In contrast to loved His appearing in v. 8.
2Ti 4:10d present  -   1 Tim. 6:17
2Ti 4:10e Thessalonica  -   Acts 17:1
2Ti 4:10f Galatia  -   Acts 16:6; 18:23; Gal. 1:2
2Ti 4:10g Titus  -   Titus 1:4
2Ti 4:102 Dalmatia
A region in southeast Europe adjacent to Macedonia.
2Ti 4:11a Luke  -   Col. 4:14; Philem. 24
2Ti 4:11b Mark  -   Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37; 1 Pet. 5:13
2Ti 4:11c ministry  -   1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 4:1
2Ti 4:12a Tychicus  -   Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21; Titus 3:12
2Ti 4:12b Ephesus  -   Acts 18:19; 19:1; Rev. 1:11
2Ti 4:131 cloak
Probably a cloak or case for traveling.
2Ti 4:132a Troas  -   Acts 16:8; 20:5-6; 2 Cor. 2:12
A seaport in northwest Asia Minor, where Paul received the Macedonian call (Acts 16:8-11).
2Ti 4:133 scrolls
Rolls made of papyrus.
2Ti 4:14a Alexander  -   1 Tim. 1:20; cf. Acts 19:33
2Ti 4:14b recompense  -   Rom. 2:6
2Ti 4:16a abandoned  -   2 Tim. 1:15
2Ti 4:17a stood  -   Acts 23:11; cf. Acts 27:23
2Ti 4:17b empowered  -   1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 2:1
2Ti 4:17c proclamation  -   Titus 1:3; Rom. 15:19
2Ti 4:17d Gentiles  -   Acts 9:15; Eph. 3:8
2Ti 4:17e delivered  -   2 Tim. 3:11
2Ti 4:171f lion’s  -   Psa. 22:21; 1 Sam. 17:37
A figure of speech for any evil matter (v. 18) or evil person (1 Cor. 15:32 and note 2).
2Ti 4:18a deliver  -   Matt. 6:13
2Ti 4:18b His  -   2 Tim. 4:1
2Ti 4:181 heavenly
This is “the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43), “the kingdom of My Father” (Matt. 26:29), “the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph. 5:5), and “the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:11), which will be a reward to the overcoming saints. It equals the crown of righteousness in v. 8 and is an incentive to the believers to run the heavenly race. (See notes 34 in Matt. 5 and 281 in Heb. 12.) The apostle Paul’s word here and in v. 8 proves that this reward was an incentive to him.
2Ti 4:18c glory  -   Rom. 11:36; 16:27; Heb. 13:21
2Ti 4:19a Aquila  -   Acts 18:2, 26; Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19
2Ti 4:19b Onesiphorus  -   2 Tim. 1:16
2Ti 4:20a Erastus  -   Acts 19:22; Rom. 16:23
2Ti 4:20b Corinth  -   Acts 18:1; 19:1; 1 Cor. 1:2
2Ti 4:20c Trophimus  -   Acts 20:4; 21:29
2Ti 4:201d Miletus  -   Acts 20:15, 17
A city in Asia Minor near Ephesus (Acts 20:15, 17).
2Ti 4:202 sick
Why did the apostle leave in sickness one who was so intimate to him, without exercising healing prayer for him? Why did he not exercise his healing gift (Acts 19:11-12) to cure Timothy of his stomach sickness rather than instruct him to take the natural way for healing (1 Tim. 5:23)? The answer to both questions is that he and his co-workers were under the discipline of the inner life in that time of suffering rather than under the power of the outward gift. The former is a matter of grace in life; the latter is a matter of gift in power — miraculous power. In the decline of the church and in one’s suffering for the church, the gift of power is not needed as much as the grace in life.
2Ti 4:21a winter  -   Titus 3:12
2Ti 4:221a spirit  -   Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; Philem. 25
This book, which gives instructions on how to confront the degradation of the church, strongly stresses our spirit. In the beginning it emphasizes that a strong, loving, and sound spirit was given to us, a spirit by which we can fan the gift of God into flame and suffer evil with the gospel according to the power of God and the Lord’s life-imparting grace (1:6-10). In the conclusion it blesses us by emphasizing the Lord’s being with our spirit that we may enjoy Him as grace in order to stand against the downward current of the church’s decline and carry out God’s economy through His indwelling Spirit (1:14) and equipping word (3:16-17).
2Ti 4:222b Grace  -   1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2:1; Titus 2:11; 3:7; Col. 4:18
In the grievous days of the worsening of the church’s degradation, what is needed is the eternal grace of God, which was given to us in eternity (1:9) and is to be appropriated by us in this age. This grace, which is in the indestructible life, is nothing less than Christ, the Son of God, who is the very embodiment of the divine life, dwelling and living in our spirit. We need to exercise our spirit to enjoy the riches of this Christ (Eph. 3:8) as the sufficient grace (2 Cor. 12:9). Thus we may live Him as our godliness (1 Tim. 4:7-8) for the building up of the church as His testimony, bearing all the divine realities (truths) according to God’s economy.
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Titus Outline
I.   Introduction — 1:1-4
II.   Establishing the authority in the church — 1:5-9
III.   Dealing with the influence of Judaism and Gnosticism — 1:10-16
IV.   Bringing the saints of different ages into an orderly life — 2:1-8
V.   Charging the slaves to behave well in the social system of slavery — 2:9-15
VI.   Charging the saints to keep a good relationship with the government — 3:1-8
VII.   Dealing with a factious one — 3:9-11
VIII.   Conclusion — 3:12-15
Titus >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Titus Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Tt 1:1a slave  -   Rom. 1:1
Tt 1:1b according  -   Titus 1:4; cf. 1 Tim. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:1
Tt 1:11c faith  -   Titus 1:4; 1 Tim. 1:4
Paul was an apostle according to four things: (1) the command of God (1 Tim. 1:1), (2) the promise of life (2 Tim. 1:1), (3) the faith of God’s chosen ones, and (4) the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness. The command, on God’s side, speaks for Him and requires something of us for Him. Faith, on our side, responds to God’s requirements and receives His life. Faith is a proclamation that we are unable to fulfill God’s requirements but that God has done everything for us and that we receive what He has done. The life promised by God is what we have received of Him for the carrying out of His demand. It was in this way that Paul was an apostle to administrate God’s New Testament economy.
Tt 1:12d chosen  -   2 Tim. 2:10
See note 101 in 2 Tim. 2.
Tt 1:13e full  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See note 42 in 1 Tim. 2. Paul was an apostle not only according to the faith but also according to the full knowledge of the truth. Faith is to receive all God has planned for us, all God has done for us, and all God has given to us. The full knowledge of the truth is a thorough apprehension of the truth, a full acknowledgment and appreciation of the reality of all the spiritual and divine things that we have received through faith. Apostleship is according to such an apprehension and appreciation of the reality of God’s eternal economy.
Tt 1:14f according  -   1 Tim. 6:3
The truth, the reality, of God’s eternal economy is according to godliness, which is God manifested in man (see notes 162 and 163 in 1 Tim. 3). Apostleship is the dispensing of this reality to God’s believing elect and the carrying out of such a godliness among them through preaching, teaching, and administrating in the Word and in the Spirit (1 Tim. 6:3).
Tt 1:21a hope  -   Titus 3:7
Paul was an apostle not only according to the faith and the knowledge of the truth but also in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised in eternity. This corresponds with according to the promise of life in 2 Tim. 1:1. In the hope of eternal life means on the basis of, on the condition of, relying on the hope of, eternal life. Eternal life, the uncreated life of God, is not only for us to partake of and enjoy today but also for us to inherit (Matt. 19:29) in its full extent for eternity. Today’s experience of eternal life qualifies us to inherit it in the future. The enjoyment of eternal life today is a foretaste; the inheritance of eternal life in the coming age and in eternity will be the full taste. This inheritance is the hope of eternal life (see note 73 in ch. 3). This is the blessed hope revealed in 2:13, composed of the freedom of the glory of full sonship, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:21-25), the salvation to be revealed at the last time (1 Pet. 1:5), and the living hope of the incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance kept in the heavens for us (1 Pet. 1:3-4). This is the full, spiritual, divine, and heavenly blessing and enjoyment of eternal life, both in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 1:11; 3:13; Rev. 21:6-7), referred to in 1 Tim. 4:8. Paul assumed his apostleship and accomplished his apostolic ministry not based on any benefit in the present life, nor taking the privilege of the law as a condition, but based on this hope as a condition, indicating that for his apostleship he relied on and trusted in the divine life with all its hope, which God promised in eternity and which was brought to us through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10).
This Epistle concerns the maintaining of order in the churches. For this, the faith of God’s chosen ones, the truth according to godliness, and eternal life are indispensable. Hence, in the very opening word these three things are set forth.
Tt 1:22b eternal  -   1 Tim. 1:16
The divine life, the uncreated life of God, which not only lasts forever timewise but also is eternal and divine in its nature. See note 103 in 2 Tim. 1.
Tt 1:2c cannot  -   Num. 23:19; Heb. 6:18
Tt 1:23d promised  -   2 Tim. 1:1
This must be the promise of the Father to the Son in eternity. The Father chose us in the Son and predestinated us unto sonship through Him (Eph. 1:5) before the foundation of the world. It must have been in eternity that the Father promised the Son that He would give His eternal life to His believers. By this life the believers, who were given to the Son in eternity (John 17:2), would become His brothers (Heb. 2:11).
Tt 1:24 before
Before the world began.
Tt 1:2e times  -   2 Tim. 1:9
Tt 1:31a its  -   1 Tim. 2:6; 6:15
The proper time for the eternal life to be manifested.
Tt 1:3b manifested  -   2 Tim. 1:10
Tt 1:32 His
Equal to eternal life in v. 2. This corresponds with 1 John 1:1-2.
Tt 1:3c word  -   John 6:63; Acts 5:20; Phil. 2:16
Tt 1:3d proclamation  -   2 Tim. 4:17; Rom. 10:14; Eph. 2:17
Tt 1:3e entrusted  -   1 Tim. 1:11
Tt 1:3f according  -   1 Tim. 1:1
Tt 1:33 command
See note 12 in 1 Tim. 1.
Tt 1:4a Titus  -   2 Tim. 4:10
Tt 1:4b child  -   cf. 1 Tim. 1:2
Tt 1:4c according  -   Titus 1:1
Tt 1:41 common
The faith that is common to all believers (cf. 2 Pet. 1:1).
Tt 1:5a Crete  -   Titus 1:12; Acts 2:11; 27:7
Tt 1:5b elders  -   Acts 14:23
Tt 1:51c every  -   Rev. 1:11
These words, compared with every church in Acts 14:23, indicate not only that the jurisdiction of a local church is the city in which it is located but also that in one city there should be only one church. The eldership of a local church should cover the entire city in which that church is located. Such a unique presbytery in a city preserves the unique oneness of the Body of Christ from damage. One city should have only one church with one presbytery. This practice is illustrated, beyond any question or doubt, by the clear pattern in the New Testament (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rom. 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Rev. 1:11) and is an absolute prerequisite for the maintaining of proper order in a local church. Because of this, the first thing the apostle charged Titus to do in setting things in order was to appoint elders in every city.
Tt 1:5d directed  -   1 Tim. 1:18
Tt 1:6a If  -   vv. 6-9: 1 Tim. 3:2-7
Tt 1:6b unreprovable  -   1 Tim. 3:10
Tt 1:61 husband
See note 23 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:6c dissoluteness  -   Eph. 5:18; 1 Pet. 4:4
Tt 1:6d unruly  -   Titus 1:10; 1 Tim. 1:9
Tt 1:71a overseer  -   1 Tim. 3:2
Referring to the elders in v. 5. See note 21 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:7b steward  -   Luke 12:42; 1 Cor. 4:1-2
Tt 1:7c self-willed  -   2 Pet. 2:10
Tt 1:72 not
Not easily provoked.
Tt 1:73 not
See note 31 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:74 not
See note 32 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:75 not
See note 84 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:81 hospitable
See note 27 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:8a lover  -   cf. 2 Tim. 3:3
Tt 1:82 of
See note 25 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:83 holy
See note 751 in Luke 1.
Tt 1:91a Holding  -   2 Tim. 1:13; 2 Thes. 2:15
The elders are appointed to administrate God’s government in a local church that good order may be maintained in the church. To accomplish this, the elders need to hold to the faithful word, which is according to the apostles’ teaching, that they may be able to stop troublesome talkers and calm a tumultuous situation (vv. 9-14).
Tt 1:92b faithful  -   1 Tim. 1:15
The trustworthy, reliable, and true word that was taught in the churches according to the apostles’ teaching. The elders in a local church should hold to this kind of healthy word that they may fulfill their duty in teaching (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17).
Tt 1:93 teaching
The teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42) eventually became the New Testament. This indicates that (1) the churches were established according to the apostles’ teaching and followed their teaching, and (2) the order of the churches was maintained by the faithful word, which was given according to the apostles’ teaching. The disorder in the church was due mainly to deviation from the apostles’ teaching. To counter this, we must hold to the faithful word taught in the churches according to the apostles’ teaching. In a darkened and confused situation, we must cleave to the enlightening and ordering word in the New Testament — the apostles’ teaching. To maintain order in the church, the apostles’ word according to God’s revelation is needed in addition to the eldership.
Tt 1:94c healthy  -   Titus 2:1; 1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3
See note 101 in 1 Tim. 1.
Tt 1:95 convict
To disclose the true character of anything so as to convict and, hence, reprove someone by exposing his fault. It is translated reprove in Eph. 5:11, 13.
Tt 1:96 those
Or, the gainsayers.
Tt 1:9d oppose  -   2 Tim. 2:25
Tt 1:10a unruly  -   Titus 1:6
Tt 1:10b vain  -   1 Tim. 1:6
Tt 1:10c deceivers  -   2 Tim. 3:13
Tt 1:101d those  -   Acts 11:2
The Jewish believers who were seducers within the church.
Tt 1:111 stopped
Stopped by severe reproof (v. 13) with the faithful word, which is according to the apostles’ teaching (v. 9).
Tt 1:11a households  -   2 Tim. 3:6
Tt 1:11b things  -   1 Tim. 5:13
Tt 1:112c for  -   1 Tim. 6:5; 2 Pet. 2:3
Similar to what the reprobate prophet Balaam did (2 Pet. 2:15-16; Jude 11).
Tt 1:121 themselves
The Cretans. All those mentioned in vv. 9b-10 were such.
Tt 1:122a prophet  -   cf. Acts 17:28
A heathen prophet, probably referring to Epimenides, a native of Crete who lived about 600 B.C., according to a legend.
Tt 1:12b Cretans  -   Titus 1:5
Tt 1:123 gluttons
Lit., bellies.
Tt 1:131a reprove  -   Titus 2:15; 1 Tim. 5:20; 2 Tim. 4:2
The same word is translated convict in v. 9. See note 5 there.
Tt 1:132b severely  -   2 Cor. 13:10
Or, sharply.
Tt 1:133c healthy  -   Titus 2:2, 1; 1:9; 1 Tim. 1:10
The gainsayers (v. 9) and vain talkers (v. 10) were infected with doctrinal diseases and became unhealthy in the faith. They needed the inoculation of the healthy teaching and the healthy word (1 Tim. 1:10; 6:3, and notes), which the elders should provide (v. 9) for their healing.
Tt 1:134 faith
Objective faith. See notes 193 in 1 Tim. 1 and 91 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 1:141a myths  -   1 Tim. 1:4
See note 41 in 1 Tim. 1. The Jewish myths might have been the seed of the Gnostic mythologies.
Tt 1:142b commandments  -   Col. 2:22; Matt. 15:9
According to the next verse, these commandments of the heretics must have been precepts concerning abstinence from meats and other things ordained by God for man’s use (cf. 1 Tim. 4:3; Col. 2:20-22). These were the commandments not of the ascetics but of the early Gnostics. What the Gnostics adopted was theosophy, which concerned God and the universe and was based on mystical concepts. It was a theory on understanding the things of God and spirits; that is, it was a philosophy or a form of mysticism that employed physical means to communicate with God and spirits. It came from Jewish sources, and some of it was probably derived from the Mosaic law.
Tt 1:143c turn  -   2 Tim. 4:4
Probably referring to those of the circumcision (v. 10).
Tt 1:144d truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4
See notes 42 in 1 Tim. 2 and 155 in 1 Tim. 3. The truth here and the faith in the preceding verse prove that those who were dealt with here were not unbelievers. They were those in the church who had turned away from the truth concerning God’s economy. It is possible that most of them were Jewish Christians who still held to their Jewish myths and traditions and thereby became a great disturbance to the church. They had to be stopped by the word of the truth according to the faith, that the order in the church might be maintained under the established eldership.
Tt 1:151 All
This must have been a Christian maxim. The apostle quoted it to refute the commandments of men (v. 14), i.e., the precepts of abstinence, which forbade certain actions and the eating of certain foods (1 Tim. 4:3-5; Rom. 14:20).
Tt 1:15a pure  -   Luke 11:41; Acts 10:15; Rom. 14:20
Tt 1:152 defiled
Or, polluted.
Tt 1:15b nothing  -   Rom. 14:14
Tt 1:153c mind  -   2 Tim. 3:8
The mind is the leading part of our soul, and the conscience is the main part of our spirit. If our mind is polluted, our soul is spontaneously polluted; and if our conscience is defiled, our spirit is unavoidably defiled. This is all due to unbelief. Our faith purifies us (Acts 15:9).
Tt 1:161 profess
Or, confess.
Tt 1:16a deny  -   1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Tim. 3:5
Tt 1:16b abominable  -   Rev. 21:8
Tt 1:16c disobedient  -   Titus 3:3
Tt 1:162d disapproved  -   2 Tim. 3:8
Or, reprobate, worthless, disqualified. The Greek word means unable to stand the test.
Titus Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Tt 2:11a healthy  -   Titus 1:9
See note 101 in 1 Tim. 1. The healthy teaching is always according to the truth (1:14) of the faith (1:13). It is the content of the apostles’ teaching, the content of God’s New Testament economy. It not only ministers the life supply to the believers and heals the spiritual diseases, but in so doing it also brings the church into a sound condition with a good order. Hence, it is very much stressed in these three books, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, books dealing with the disorder and decline of the church.
Tt 2:2a older  -   1 Tim. 5:1
Tt 2:21b temperate  -   1 Tim. 3:2, 11
See note 24 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 2:22c grave  -   Titus 2:7; 1 Tim. 3:4, 8, 11
See note 23 in 1 Tim. 2.
Tt 2:23 of
See note 25 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 2:2d sober  -   Titus 2:5-6; 1 Tim. 3:2
Tt 2:24e healthy  -   Titus 1:13
See note 133 in ch. 1.
Tt 2:2f faith  -   1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 1:13
Tt 2:2g endurance  -   Rom. 5:3-4
Tt 2:3a Older  -   1 Tim. 5:2
Tt 2:31 demeanor
Or, deportment, including gesture and habit.
Tt 2:3b befits  -   1 Tim. 2:10
Tt 2:32 sacred
The same in Greek as sacred things in 1 Cor. 9:13. See note 1 there.
Tt 2:33 not
See note 112 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 2:3c slanderers  -   1 Tim. 3:11; 2 Tim. 3:3
Tt 2:34d enslaved  -   1 Tim. 3:3, 8
Compare with addicted in 1 Tim. 3:8. To be enslaved may be worse than to be addicted.
Tt 2:35 teachers
Giving good instruction.
Tt 2:3e good  -   Titus 1:8
Tt 2:41 train
The Greek word means to cause to be of sober mind, of sound mind; to restore one to one’s senses. Hence, it is to train, to develop sound judgment and prudence.
Tt 2:42 to
Lit., to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children.
Tt 2:5a sober  -   Titus 2:2
Tt 2:5b pure  -   1 Pet. 3:2; 2 Cor. 11:2
Tt 2:5c home  -   1 Tim. 5:14
Tt 2:51 good
I.e., kind.
Tt 2:5d subject  -   Eph. 5:22, 24; 1 Tim. 2:11
Tt 2:52e word  -   1 Tim. 6:1
The word of God properly and adequately taught in a local church should be testified to by the sisters’ submission to their own husbands; otherwise, it may be ill spoken of.
Tt 2:53 blasphemed
Ill spoken of, reproached.
Tt 2:6a younger  -   1 Tim. 5:1
Tt 2:6b sober  -   Titus 2:2
Tt 2:71 presenting
The apostle charged Titus to speak things fitting to the healthy teaching (v. 1). Now he charged him further to present himself as a pattern of good works. In his teaching, which had to be healthy, he needed to show three things: (1) incorruption, with nothing corrupted or corrupting but with everything pure, genuine, and sincere in content, presentation, and motive; (2) gravity, dignity worthy of reverence; and (3) healthy speech, discourse given with healthy words (1 Tim. 6:3) to minister healthy things, speech that is not censurable, not reprehensible (v. 8).
Tt 2:7a pattern  -   1 Tim. 4:12; 1 Pet. 5:3
Tt 2:72b gravity  -   Titus 2:2
See note 23 in 1 Tim. 2.
Tt 2:8a Healthy  -   1 Tim. 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13
Tt 2:81 condemned
Censured, reprehended.
Tt 2:82 he
Lit., the one of the opposite, contrary, side; i.e., the heathen or Jewish opposer.
Tt 2:8b opposes  -   Titus 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:8
Tt 2:8c shame  -   2 Thes. 3:14; 1 Pet. 3:16
Tt 2:83 nothing
The healthy teaching with the healthy speech composed of healthy words is the most effective antidote to the opposer’s slanderous speaking. Such light-shedding and life-imparting teaching of the word of the truth always stops the mouth of doctrinal opinion instigated by the old serpent.
Tt 2:91a slaves  -   1 Tim. 6:1-2; Eph. 6:5; 1 Pet. 2:18
Not servants but bondslaves bought in the market like oxen and horses. Certainly Paul did not agree with the system of slavery. However, as a teacher appointed by God and as one with spiritual sight, he did not touch the existing social system. To have done so would have given his readers the impression that he was a social reformer, not a teacher of God’s economy, and would have obscured his teaching concerning the living out of Christ’s divine life in our human living in the midst of any kind of social system.
Tt 2:101 faithfulness
Fidelity, trustworthiness.
Tt 2:102 adorn
Or, ornament. The same word is used in 1 Tim. 2:9. The faithfulness of a bondslave can be the ornament that adorns the teachings of God our Savior. The teachings of God could be adorned even through the conduct of bondslaves!
Tt 2:103a Savior  -   Titus 3:4; 1 Tim. 1:1
Our Savior is not only Christ but the Triune God embodied in Christ, as indicated in v. 13. Our Savior God desires not only to save us but also to teach us the full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Hence, it mentions here the teachings of our Savior God, which can be beautified, adorned, by the transformed character of the most vile persons saved by His grace.
Tt 2:111 For
Verses 11-14 give us a remarkable summary of the economy of God’s salvation. The apostle used this as a reason for his exhortations in vv. 1-10.
Tt 2:112a grace  -   Titus 3:7; 2 Tim. 1:9
The grace of God is actually God Himself in Christ as everything to us for our enjoyment. See note 171 in John 1. This grace plays the most important role in the economy of God’s salvation.
Tt 2:113 bringing
The eternal grace of God, the saving grace, was destined in Christ to bring to us God’s salvation, the complete salvation that comprises forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, redemption, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, and conformation; to redeem us back to God; to impart God’s life to us; and to bring us into an organic union with God for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
Tt 2:11b all  -   1 Tim. 2:4
Tt 2:114c appeared  -   Titus 3:4; 2 Tim. 1:10
Grace came through Christ (John 1:17). It was given to us in eternity (2 Tim. 1:9), but in the Old Testament it was hidden. In the New Testament it appeared through the first appearing of Christ (2 Tim. 1:10), bringing salvation to all men, both Jews and Gentiles.
Tt 2:121a ungodliness  -   2 Tim. 2:16
See note 162 in 2 Tim. 2.
Tt 2:122b worldly  -   Titus 3:3; 1 Tim. 6:9; 1 John 2:16; 1 Pet. 4:2
Lusts that find their gratification in this world. Ungodliness is the absence of the expression of God; worldly lusts are the expressions of our flesh. Both ungodliness and worldly lusts should be denied that we may live a God-expressing and flesh-restricting life.
Tt 2:123c soberly  -   2 Tim. 4:5
Discreetly, self-restrictingly. Soberly is toward ourselves; righteously, toward others; and godly, toward God.
Tt 2:124d righteously  -   Rom. 14:17
I.e., justly.
Tt 2:12e godly  -   2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Tim. 2:10
Tt 2:12f present  -   1 Tim. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:10
Tt 2:131a Awaiting  -   1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thes. 1:10; Heb. 9:28
Awaiting expectantly what is accepted by faith.
Tt 2:132 blessed
The blessed hope is the appearing of Christ in His glory. The appearing of Christ will bring us into full sonship, i.e., the redemption of our body, that we may enjoy the freedom of the glory of the children of God, for which we were saved (Rom. 8:21-25). This is the hope of eternal life (1:2), a hope of eternal blessing, a blessed hope in the eternal life of the Triune God, based on which Paul became an apostle.
Tt 2:13b appearing  -   1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; 2 Thes. 2:8
Tt 2:133c glory  -   Matt. 16:27; 25:31; 1 Pet. 4:13
The glory of the Father (Matt. 16:27), which has been given to the Son (John 17:24) and into which we, as the many sons of God, will be brought (Heb. 2:10). By His wisdom God ordained us before the ages unto this glory (1 Cor. 2:7), and the God of all grace called us and saved us into this eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:10). The weight of this glory is exceedingly surpassing and eternal (2 Cor. 4:17), and with this glory we will be glorified (Rom. 8:17, 30). The appearing of this glory of Christ, our great God and Savior, is the blessed hope that we are awaiting.
Tt 2:134 great
Through the centuries there have been two schools of interpretation regarding this remarkable, marvelous, and excellent sacred and divine title: (1) that two persons are indicated, God and Christ; (2) that there is but one person, Jesus Christ being our great God and Savior, the deity of Christ thus being asserted. We prefer the second interpretation, with a comma after Savior. This corresponds with the two sacred titles revealed at the birth of Christ: Jesus — Jehovah the Savior — and Emmanuel — God with us (Matt. 1:21-23). Our Lord not only is our Savior but also is God, and not merely God but the great God, the God who is great in nature, in glory, in authority, in power, in deed, in love, in grace, and in every divine attribute. In 1 Tim. 2:5 our Lord is revealed as a man; here, as the great God. He is both man and God. His appearing in His divine glory will be not only for saving His people into His eternal kingdom, but also for bringing them into God’s eternal glory (Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10). Hence, His appearing in His glory is our blessed hope.
Tt 2:13d God  -   1 Tim. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1
Tt 2:14a gave  -   1 Tim. 2:6; Eph. 5:2
Tt 2:141 for
On our behalf, not instead of us.
Tt 2:142b redeem  -   Gal. 3:13; 4:5
Buy with a price (1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 Tim. 2:6).
Tt 2:14c from  -   1 Pet. 1:18
Tt 2:14d purify  -   Heb. 1:3; 9:14; Ezek. 37:23
Tt 2:143 particular
An expression borrowed from the Old Testament (Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:18), denoting a people possessed by God as His unique, peculiar treasure (Exo. 19:5), His own possession (1 Pet. 2:9).
Tt 2:14e people  -   Exo. 19:5; Deut. 14:2; 1 Pet. 2:9
Tt 2:14f zealous  -   Titus 3:1, 8; 2 Tim. 3:17; Eph. 2:10; 1 Pet. 3:13
Tt 2:151 These
All the things in vv. 1-14.
Tt 2:15a exhort  -   1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2
Tt 2:152b convict  -   Titus 1:13; 1 Tim. 5:20
See notes 131 and 95 in ch. 1.
Tt 2:153c authority  -   Matt. 7:29; Mark 1:22
Lit., command. With all authority modifies both exhort and convict. To exhort and convict with all authority is to advise and convict imperatively in every way with words of authority, as if one were giving commands.
Tt 2:154 Let
This exhortation, connected with the matter of authority in the preceding sentence, is the conclusion of all the charges given to Titus in this chapter. It concerns mainly his teaching (vv. 1, 7-8, 15). The healthy teaching with the healthy words according to godliness kept him in gravity, which invites respect and reverence.
Tt 2:15d despise  -   1 Tim. 4:12
Titus Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Tt 3:11a subject  -   Rom. 13:1; 1 Pet. 2:13
This is to recognize God’s authority and respect His government over men (Rom. 13:1-2).
Tt 3:1b ready  -   Titus 3:8, 14; 2 Tim. 2:21; 3:17
Tt 3:2a slander  -   2 Tim. 3:2
Tt 3:21b uncontentious  -   1 Tim. 3:3; 2 Tim. 2:24
Not quarrelsome; peaceable.
Tt 3:22c forbearing  -   1 Tim. 3:3; Phil. 4:5
See note 33 in 1 Tim. 3.
Tt 3:2d meekness  -   2 Tim. 2:25
Tt 3:31 were
We should remember that in nature we were the same as others, living in the fallen condition; therefore, we should sympathize with their pitiful life and pray for their salvation (1 Tim. 2:1, 4).
Tt 3:3a once  -   Rom. 11:30; Eph. 2:3; Col. 1:21
Tt 3:3b disobedient  -   Titus 1:16
Tt 3:3c deceived  -   Titus 1:10; 2 Tim. 3:13
Tt 3:3d slaves  -   Rom. 6:17
Tt 3:3e various  -   2 Tim. 3:6; Titus 2:12
Tt 3:32 lusts
Or, desires and gratifications.
Tt 3:3f pleasures  -   2 Tim. 3:4
Tt 3:3g malice  -   Rom. 1:29; Eph. 4:31
Tt 3:3h envy  -   1 Tim. 6:4; Gal. 5:21
Tt 3:41a kindness  -   Rom. 2:4; Eph. 2:7
It is the kindness and the love of our Savior God that saved us and made us different from others.
Tt 3:4b love  -   John 3:16; 1 John 4:9; Eph. 2:4
Tt 3:4c Savior  -   Titus 2:10; 1 Tim. 1:1
Tt 3:4d appeared  -   Titus 2:11
Tt 3:51a works  -   2 Tim. 1:9; Rom. 9:11; 11:6; Eph. 2:9
I.e., works of righteousness done in the element and sphere of righteousness, denoting genuine works of righteousness. Even such genuine works of righteousness are not sufficient to be the basis and condition of our salvation. Only the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, brought to us by God’s mercy, are sufficient to cause us to be saved.
Tt 3:5b righteousness  -   Phil. 3:9
Tt 3:52c mercy  -   Eph. 2:4; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 9:16, 18
Verse 11 of ch. 2 says that the grace of God brings salvation to man, and v. 7 of this chapter says that we are justified by the grace of the Lord. But this verse says that according to His mercy God saved us. God’s mercy reaches farther than His grace. Our pitiful condition created a wide gap between us and God’s grace. It was God’s mercy that bridged this gap and brought us to His salvation of grace. See notes 162 in Heb. 4 and 132 in Matt. 9.
Tt 3:5d saved  -   2 Tim. 1:9
Tt 3:53e washing  -   Eph. 5:26; 1 Cor. 6:11; cf. Ezek. 36:25-27
Lit., laver; for the washing away of uncleanness.
Tt 3:54f regeneration  -   John 3:3
The Greek word for regeneration is different from that for regenerated in 1 Pet. 1:23. The only other place the word is used is Matt. 19:28, where it is used for the restoration in the millennium (see note 1 there). Here it refers to a change from one state to another. Being born again is the commencing of this change. The washing of regeneration begins with our being born again and continues with the renewing of the Holy Spirit as the process of God’s new creation, a process that makes us a new man. It is a kind of reconditioning, remaking, or remodeling, with life. Baptism (Rom. 6:3-5), the putting off of the old man, the putting on of the new man (Eph. 4:22, 24; Col. 3:9-11), and transformation by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) are all related to this wonderful process. The washing of regeneration purges away all the things of the old nature of our old man, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit imparts something new — the divine essence of the new man — into our being. In this is a passing from our old state into a wholly new one, from the old creation into the status of a new creation. Hence, both the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are working in us continually throughout our life until the completion of the new creation.
Tt 3:5g renewing  -   Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10; Rom. 6:4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Ezek. 36:26
Tt 3:55 Holy
In 1 Timothy the church is stressed (1 Tim. 3:15-16), in 2 Timothy the Scripture (2 Tim. 3:15-16), and in Titus the Holy Spirit. The church is the house of the living God, expressing God in the flesh, and is the pillar and base of the truth, the divine reality of the great mystery — God manifested in the flesh. The Scripture is the breath of God, containing and conveying His divine essence for our nourishing and equipping to make us perfect and complete for His use. The Holy Spirit is the divine person, washing and renewing us in the divine element to make us a new creation with the divine nature, that we might be heirs of God in His eternal life, inheriting all the riches of the Triune God.
Tt 3:5h Spirit  -   2 Tim. 1:14; Eph. 1:13; Gal. 3:5; 4:6; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Rom. 8:9, 11; Ezek. 36:27
Tt 3:61a poured  -   Joel 2:28; Acts 2:33; 10:45; Rom. 5:5
The Holy Spirit, who is the Triune God reaching man, has been not only given to us but poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, to impart to us all the divine riches in Christ, including God’s eternal life and His divine nature, as an eternal portion for us to enjoy.
Tt 3:6b richly  -   1 Tim. 6:17; Rom. 10:12
Tt 3:71 In
This verse speaks forth the issue and goal of God’s salvation (v. 5) and justification (v. 7), which include the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (vv. 5-6). This issue and goal are to make us heirs of God according to the hope of eternal life.
Tt 3:7a justified  -   Rom. 3:24; Gal. 2:16
Tt 3:72 His
The grace of the Savior God, who is mentioned in v. 4 (cf. Rom. 3:24; 5:2, 15).
Tt 3:7b grace  -   Titus 2:11; Rom. 5:15, 17, 21
Tt 3:73c heirs  -   Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:7; 3:29
Not merely sons but heirs who are qualified to inherit the Father’s estate (Rom. 4:14; 8:17; Gal. 3:29; 4:7). Such heirs are born (John 1:12-13) of God’s eternal life (John 3:16). This eternal life enables them not only to live and enjoy God in this age but also to inherit in the coming age and in eternity all the riches of what God is to them. Hence, there is the hope of eternal life. God’s eternal life is our enjoyment today and our hope for tomorrow (see note 21 in ch. 1). According to this hope we become heirs of God to inherit all His riches for eternity. This is the climax, the eternal goal, of His eternal salvation with His eternal life, which has been given to us by grace in Christ.
Tt 3:7d hope  -   Titus 1:2
Tt 3:7e eternal  -   1 Tim. 1:16
Tt 3:8a Faithful  -   1 Tim. 1:15
Tt 3:81 the
The word in vv. 3-7.
Tt 3:82 these
The things mentioned in vv. 1-7.
Tt 3:83b confidently  -   1 Tim. 1:7
Or, consistently, steadfastly, positively affirm (with persistence and thoroughness). The same Greek word is used in 1 Tim. 1:7. See note 2 there.
Tt 3:8c respectable  -   Titus 3:1
Tt 3:91a avoid  -   2 Tim. 2:16
The positive things stressed in vv. 4-8 should be affirmed strongly and consistently, such as our Savior God, Jesus Christ our Savior, the Holy Spirit, God’s kindness, love, mercy, grace, and eternal life, with His acts of justifying, saving, washing, regenerating, and renewing. These are the Triune God with His attributes and virtues, plus His divine actions in His eternal salvation; they are things of life, which belong to the tree of life (Gen. 2:9) and produce heirs who will inherit all that God is to them. The negative things dealt with in vv. 9-11 should be avoided, such as foolish questionings, genealogies, strifes, contentions about the law, and factious, opinionated men. These are matters of (deadening) knowledge, which belong to the tree of knowledge and kill their victims. The things of life, which belong to the tree of life, should be stressed, whereas the matters of knowledge, which belong to the tree of knowledge, should be avoided.
Tt 3:92b questionings  -   2 Tim. 2:23; 1 Tim. 6:4
Questions stirred up by genealogies (1 Tim. 1:4).
Tt 3:93c genealogies  -   1 Tim. 1:4
See note 42 in 1 Tim. 1.
Tt 3:94d strifes  -   1 Tim. 6:4; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:20
Issuing out of the questionings and genealogies.
Tt 3:95e contentions  -   2 Tim. 2:14, 23; 1 Tim. 6:4; Acts 18:15
Or, fightings. These are due to different opinions that issue from the deviant and mythological studies of the law.
Tt 3:96f law  -   1 Tim. 1:7, 8, 9
Referring to the Jewish law. That law was used by Gnostic Judaism, which was set up to oppose the simplicity of the gospel.
Tt 3:9g unprofitable  -   2 Tim. 2:14
Tt 3:97h vain  -   Titus 1:10; 1 Tim. 1:6
Aimless, without result.
Tt 3:101a factious  -   1 Cor. 11:19; Gal. 5:20; Rom. 16:17
A heretical, sectarian man who causes divisions by forming parties in the church according to his own opinions (see note 13 in 2 Pet. 2). The Gnostic Judaism referred to in the preceding verse must be related to this.
Tt 3:10b admonition  -   1 Cor. 10:11; Eph. 6:4; cf. Matt. 18:15, 17
Tt 3:102c refuse  -   cf. Rom. 16:17; 2 Thes. 3:6, 14; 2 John 10
In order to maintain good order in the church, a factious, divisive person should be refused, rejected, after a first and second admonition. This is done to stop intercourse with a contagiously divisive person for the church’s profit.
Tt 3:111 perverted
Lit., turned out of the way. It is more extreme than being turned away from the right path (1:14).
Tt 3:11a sinning  -   2 Cor. 12:21; 13:2
Tt 3:12a Tychicus  -   2 Tim. 4:12; Acts 20:4
Tt 3:12b come  -   cf. 2 Tim. 4:9
Tt 3:121c Nicopolis  -   cf. 2 Tim. 4:10
A city in the southwestern corner of Macedonia, where this Epistle was written. See note 62 in 2 Tim. 4.
Tt 3:12d winter  -   2 Tim. 4:21
Tt 3:131 Zenas
Artemas and Tychicus were intimate fellow workers of Paul; Zenas and Apollos worked independently of him. Yet Paul still charged Titus to care for the latter two, showing that there was no jealousy between the two groups of co-workers.
Tt 3:132a lawyer  -   Matt. 22:35
See note 351 in Matt. 22.
Tt 3:13b Apollos  -   Acts 18:24; 19:1; 1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4-6, 22
Tt 3:13c send  -   Acts 15:3; 1 Cor. 16:6; 2 Cor. 1:16
Tt 3:14a respectable  -   Titus 3:1, 8
Tt 3:14b needs  -   Acts 20:34; Rom. 12:13; Phil. 2:25; 4:16
Tt 3:14c unfruitful  -   2 Pet. 1:8; cf. Phil. 1:11; 4:17; Col. 1:6, 10
Tt 3:15a with  -   Acts 20:34
Tt 3:15b love  -   Gal. 5:6; Eph. 6:23; Philem. 5
Tt 3:151c faith  -   James 2:20, 22
Referring to subjective faith, the act of our believing, which brings us into an organic union with the Lord (John 3:15; Gal. 3:26) and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). It is in the element and operation of this faith that the saints who were one with the Lord in His concern loved the suffering and faithful apostle.
Faith and love are two inseparable, excellent virtues of the believers in Christ. Faith is given to us by God (note 15 in 2 Pet. 1) that by it we may receive Christ (John 1:12), the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), and thereby enter into the Triune God and be joined to Him as one, having Him as our life, life supply, and everything. Love issues out of such a wonderful faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ with those who have believed into Christ with us, that the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — may have a glorious expression. Faith is for appreciating, substantiating, and receiving the unlimited riches of the Triune God; love is for experiencing, enjoying, and living out the immeasurably rich Triune God. Faith is for the believers to be joined to the Triune God, who is everything to them; love is for the believers to minister and transmit the Triune God to their fellow believers so that, in such a wonderful and powerful faith, all the believers may love one another with divine, transcendent love and live a corporate life in Christ. In this way the Body of Christ is realized and the processed Triune God is expressed today on the earth in the all-inclusive Christ through the immeasurable life-giving Spirit.
The Epistle to Titus is the conclusion of the three books, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, and it concludes with the wonderful faith and the super-excellent love. This implies that, in the current of the church’s degradation, in order to be able to effectively stand firm and overcome the downward trend and factor in the church, this wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are indispensable. We should not walk by sight or care for the outward situation. Rather, in this wonderful faith we should enjoy its source, which is the Triune God, to whom we have been joined through this faith, and by this super-excellent love of the Triune God we should love Him and all those who belong to Him. Only in this way can we become, in the current of the church’s degradation, the overcomers whom the Lord is calling and is desiring to obtain in Revelation 2 and 3.
This wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are out of the Triune God, who earnestly desires to be joined to us to be our everything. This Triune God passed through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and ascension to the heavens on high and was ultimately consummated as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), who includes divinity, humanity, and Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and is the reality of the all-inclusive Christ (John 14:16-20), dwells in our regenerated spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). When we contact this Triune God through prayer and by looking to Him, by means of our spirit, which was once dead and was made alive, He infuses Himself into us in many ways to become the faith within us toward Him and the love outside of us toward those who belong to Him. Such faith and such love are the reality and expression (1 John 4:8, 16) of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — in whom we believe and whom we worship and receive. Also, they are the rich grace given to us in Christ by the Triune God (1 Tim. 1:14), not only to be the motivating power and expression of our spiritual life but also to become our breastplate (1 Thes. 5:8), which covers and protects the vital parts of our being. It is by such faith that we receive and enjoy the divine life that is revealed and ministered to us in the entire Gospel of John (John 3:16, 36), and it is by such love that we love the Lord and those who belong to Him (John 21:15-17; 13:34-35). Such faith and love are connected and go together: love comes from faith, and faith operates and works through love (Gal. 5:6). Love with faith enables us to love our Lord in incorruptibility so that we may have an overcoming church life (Eph. 6:23-24) for the fulfillment of God’s New Testament economy in Christ for the church. Therefore, it is in this faith that we are well pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6) and in this love that we are blessed of the Lord (1 Cor. 16:22). May this love with this faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 6:23).
Tt 3:15d Grace  -   1 Tim. 6:21; 2 Tim. 4:22
< Titus • Philemon Outline >
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Philemon Outline
I.   Introduction — vv. 1-3
II.   A slave reborn to be a brother — vv. 4-16
III.   A brother recommended for the new man’s acceptance — vv. 17-22
IV.   Conclusion — vv. 23-25
Philemon >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Philemon
Notes and Cross-references
Pm 1a prisoner  -   Philem. 9; Eph. 3:1
Pm 1b Timothy  -   1 Tim. 1:2; 1 Thes. 1:1; 3:2
Pm 1c fellow  -   Philem. 24; Rom. 16:3, 21
Pm 21 Apphia
According to the familial nature of this Epistle, Apphia must have been Philemon’s wife, and Archippus, his son.
Pm 2a sister  -   Rom. 16:1
Pm 2b Archippus  -   Col. 4:17
See note 21.
Pm 2c fellow  -   Phil. 2:25
Pm 22d church  -   Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15
Philemon lived in Colossae (v. 2 cf. Col. 4:17; v. 10 cf. Col. 1:2; 4:9) and according to history was an elder of the church there. It must have been that the church in Colossae met in his house. Hence, it was the church in his house.
Pm 4a thank  -   Rom. 1:8
Pm 4b mention  -   Eph. 1:16
Pm 51 love
In the initial stage of the life of a believer, faith comes first, and then, out of faith, love is produced (Gal. 5:6; Eph. 1:15; Col. 1:4; see notes 142 in 1 Tim. 1 and 232 in Eph. 6). But here love is mentioned first and then faith, because the matter of the equal status of the believers, dealt with in this Epistle, is a matter of love, which comes out of faith. In the new man the members love one another in faith (Titus 3:15). Their relationship is of love through faith. The apostle appreciated the fellowship of Philemon’s faith (v. 6) and was encouraged by his love (v. 7); thus, he entreated Philemon to receive Onesimus because of this love (v. 9). These two virtues are referred to in combination here; Philemon had both of them, not only toward the Lord but also to all the saints.
Pm 61 full
I.e., full acknowledgment, full appreciation, and full recognition through experience.
Pm 6a knowledge  -   Phil. 1:9; Col. 1:9; 3:10
Pm 62 every
Not natural things (cf. Rom. 7:18) but spiritual and divinely good things, such as the love and the faith that Philemon had toward the Lord Jesus. These good things are in us, the regenerated believers, but are not in natural men.
Pm 63 you
Some ancient MSS read, us.
Pm 64 for
Lit., unto, toward. All the spiritual and divinely good things in us are unto Christ, toward Christ, for Christ. The apostle prayed that the fellowship, the communication, the sharing of Philemon’s faith toward all the saints might become effective in them in the element and sphere of the full knowledge, the full realization, of all the good things in us for Christ, causing them to acknowledge, appreciate, and recognize all the spiritual and divinely good things that are in the believers for Christ.
Pm 71 For
For introduces the reason that the apostle prayed for Philemon’s faith to become effective in the saints (v. 6), the reason being that Philemon’s love had refreshed the inward parts of the saints and, hence, had rendered the apostle much joy and encouragement.
Pm 7a joy  -   Phil. 2:2
Pm 7b encouragement  -   2 Cor. 7:4, 13; Col. 4:11
Pm 72c inward  -   Philem. 12, 20
Lit., bowels.
Pm 73d refreshed  -   Philem. 20; 2 Tim. 1:16
Soothed, cheered.
Pm 7e brother  -   Philem. 20, 16; Matt. 23:8; Luke 22:32; John 21:23; Gal. 6:18; Rev. 1:9
Pm 8a boldness  -   2 Cor. 3:12
Pm 8b charge  -   1 Tim. 1:18
Pm 8c fitting  -   Eph. 5:4
Pm 9a entreat  -   Rom. 12:1
Pm 91 the
Or, an ambassador (Eph. 6:20).
Pm 92b prisoner  -   Philem. 1
Prisoner here, fellow prisoner in v. 23, and bonds in v. 13 indicate that this Epistle was written during the apostle’s first imprisonment in Rome. See note 62 in 2 Tim. 4.
Pm 10a child  -   1 Tim. 1:2
Pm 101b begotten  -   1 Cor. 4:14-15; Gal. 4:19
Through the Spirit with the eternal life of God (John 3:3; 1:13).
Pm 10c bonds  -   Philem. 13; Phil. 1:7
Pm 102d Onesimus  -   Col. 4:9
The name in Greek means profitable, useful, helpful; it was a common name for slaves. He was Philemon’s purchased bondslave, who, according to Roman law, had no human rights. He ran away from his master, thus committing a crime punishable by death. While he was in prison at Rome with the apostle, he was saved through him. Now the apostle sent him back with this Epistle to his master.
Pm 111 useless
Or, unserviceable. Referring to Onesimus’s running away from Philemon.
Pm 112 useful
Or, serviceable. Because Onesimus had been converted and was willing to return to Philemon.
Pm 121 very
Lit., bowels; as in vv. 7, 20 (inward parts), Phil. 1:8 (inward parts), Phil. 2:1 (tenderheartedness), and Col. 3:12 (inward parts), signifying inward affection, tenderheartedness, compassions. Paul’s inward affection and compassions went with Onesimus to Philemon.
Pm 13a bonds  -   Philem. 10
Pm 141 without
Just as the Lord would not do anything without our consent.
Pm 14a not  -   2 Cor. 9:7; 1 Pet. 5:2
Pm 14b voluntary  -   cf. Rom. 12:8
Pm 151 For
For introduces the reason for the sending in v. 12.
Pm 152 perhaps
Perhaps is not only an expression of humility but also an expression that shows no prejudice.
Pm 153 fully
Possess him entirely.
Pm 161 No
This short Epistle serves the special purpose of showing us the equality, in God’s eternal life and divine love, of all the members in the Body of Christ. In the semisavage age of Paul, the life of Christ had annulled, among the believers, the strong institution of slavery. Since the sentiment of the love of the Christian fellowship was so powerful and prevailing that the evil social order among fallen mankind was spontaneously ignored, any need for institutional emancipation was obviated. Because of the divine birth and because they were living by the divine life, all the believers in Christ had equal status in the church, which was the new man in Christ and in which there was no discrimination between free and bond (Col. 3:10-11). This was based on three facts: (1) Christ’s death on the cross abolished the ordinances of the different ways of life, for the creating of the one new man (Eph. 2:15); (2) we all were baptized into Christ and were made one in Him without any differences (Gal. 3:27-28); and (3) in the new man Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). Such a life with such a love in equal fellowship is well able to maintain good order in the church (in Titus), carry out God’s economy concerning the church (in 1 Timothy), and stand against the tide of the church’s decline (in 2 Timothy). It is of the Lord’s sovereignty that in the arrangement of the New Testament this Epistle was positioned after the three preceding books.
Pm 16a slave  -   1 Cor. 7:22
Pm 162 above
Or, more than a slave. Onesimus was even more than a free man — he was a beloved brother.
Pm 163 beloved
A beloved brother here, the sister (v. 2), our beloved and fellow worker (v. 1), our fellow soldier (v. 2), my fellow workers (v. 24), my fellow prisoner (v. 23), and a partner (v. 17) are all intimate terms, indicating the apostle’s intimate sentiment concerning his relationship with the members in the new man.
Pm 16b brother  -   Philem. 7; Col. 4:9; 1 Tim. 6:2
Pm 164 both
I.e., in the flesh as a slave and in the Lord as a brother. In the flesh Onesimus was a brother as a slave, and in the Lord he was a slave as a brother.
Pm 16c in  -   Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22
Pm 171 you
Just as a local church with its elders is in partnership with the Lord, and the Lord entrusts to them the newly saved ones, as the good Samaritan did with the healed one (Luke 10:33-35).
Pm 172a partner  -   2 Cor. 8:23
This indicates the deep relationship of fellowship in the Lord.
Pm 181 wronged
This indicates that Onesimus had defrauded his master.
Pm 182 my
In caring for Onesimus, Paul did exactly what the Lord does for us.
Pm 19a own  -   1 Cor. 16:21; Gal. 6:11
Pm 191 repay
Just as the Lord pays everything for His redeemed.
Pm 192 your
This indicates that Philemon had been saved through Paul himself.
Pm 20a brother  -   Philem. 7
Pm 201 profit
Gk. onaimen, similar in sound to Onesimus (both words meaning profitable). Here, this word is an allusion to the name Onesimus. This is a play on words, implying that since “you owe me even your own self, you are an Onesimus to me — hence, you should be profitable to me, i.e., should let me have profit from you in the Lord.”
Pm 202b refresh  -   Philem. 7
Soothe, cheer.
Pm 203 inward
Lit., bowels, as in v. 7. Since Philemon had refreshed the inward parts of the saints, his partner now asked him to do the same for him in the Lord.
Pm 21a confidence  -   2 Cor. 2:3
Pm 22a lodging  -   Acts 28:23
Pm 221 hope
This expectation, that he would be liberated from his imprisonment and visit the churches again, is expressed also in Phil. 1:25 and 2:24.
Pm 22b prayers  -   2 Cor. 1:11; Phil. 1:19
Pm 222 graciously
Paul considered that his visit would be a gracious gift to the church.
Pm 22c given  -   Heb. 13:19
Pm 231a Epaphras  -   Col. 1:7; 4:12
A contraction of Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25; 4:18).
Pm 23b fellow  -   Rom. 16:7; Col. 4:10
Pm 24a Mark  -   Acts 12:12, 25; Col. 4:10
Pm 24b Aristarchus  -   Acts 19:29; Col. 4:10
Pm 24c Demas  -   Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:10
Pm 24d Luke  -   Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11
Pm 24e fellow  -   Philem. 1
Pm 251a grace  -   Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23
The apostle always greeted the recipients of his Epistles, in both the opening and the conclusion, with the grace of the Lord. This shows that he trusted in the Lord’s grace, being confident that this grace would enable them, as well as himself (1 Cor. 15:10), to accomplish what he wrote to them. No human effort avails for the accomplishing of a revelation as high as the completing revelation of the apostle Paul — for this the Lord’s grace is needed.
Pm 252b spirit  -   2 Tim. 4:22
See note 182 in Gal. 6.
Pm 253.
Some ancient MSS add, Amen.
< Philemon • Hebrews Outline >
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Hebrews Outline
I.   Introduction — God speaking in the Son — 1:1-3
II.   The superiority of Christ — 1:4 — 10:39
A.   Superior to the angels — 1:4 — 2:18
1.   As the Son of God — as God — 1:4-14
(The First Warning — Give Heed to What Is Spoken concerning the Son — 2:1-4)
2.   As the Son of Man — as man — 2:5-18
B.   Superior to Moses — as an Apostle worthy of more glory and honor — 3:1-6
(The Second Warning — Do Not Come Short of the Promised Rest — 3:7 — 4:13)
C.   Superior to Aaron — 4:14 — 7:28
1.   A High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek — 4:14 — 5:10
(The Third Warning — Be Brought On to Maturity — 5:11 — 6:20)
2.   A High Priest, perpetual, great, living, and able to save to the uttermost — 7:1-28
D.   Christ’s new covenant superior to the old — 8:1 — 10:18
1.   A better covenant of better promises with a more excellent ministry — 8:1-13
2.   Better sacrifices and better blood with the greater and more perfect tabernacle — 9:1 — 10:18
(The Fourth Warning — Come Forward to the Holy of Holies and Do Not Shrink Back to Judaism — 10:19-39)
III.   The unique way of faith — 11:1-40
A.   The definition of faith — v. 1
B.   The witnesses of faith — vv. 2-40
(The Fifth Warning — Run the Race and Do Not Fall Away from Grace — 12:1-29)
IV.   Virtues for the church life — 13:1-19
A.   Six practical items — vv. 1-7
B.   Experiences of Christ — vv. 8-15
C.   Another four items needed — vv. 16-19
V.   Conclusion — 13:20-25
Hebrews >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Hebrews Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
He 1:11 God
God has spoken! Praise Him! Without His speaking, God is mysterious. But He has revealed Himself in His speaking. He is no longer mysterious. Now He is the revealed God.
The emphasis of this book is that God, not man, has spoken. Therefore, it does not identify its writer, nor in any of its quotations from the Old Testament does it mention the speaker’s name. According to the concept of this book, the entire Scripture is the speaking of God. Hence, in referring to the Old Testament, this book always says that it is the Holy Spirit’s speaking (3:7; 9:8; 10:15-17).
He 1:1a spoken  -   Acts 3:21
He 1:12 many
In the Old Testament, God spoke to the people not once for all and in only one way but in many portions and in many ways: in one portion to the Patriarchs in one way, in another portion through Moses in another way; in one portion through David in one way, in other portions through a number of prophets in several different ways.
It is most fitting and meaningful that this book, a book of God’s speaking, is entitled The Epistle to the Hebrews. The first Hebrew was Abraham (Gen. 14:13), the father of all those who contact God by faith (Rom. 4:11-12). Therefore, God is called “the God of the Hebrews” (Exo. 9:1, 13). The root of the word Hebrew means to pass over. It can mean specifically to pass over a river, that is, to pass over from this side of the river to the other side, to pass over from one side to another. Therefore, a Hebrew is a river crosser. Abraham was such a one. From Chaldea, the land of idolatry, which was on the other side of the great river Euphrates, he crossed over to Canaan, the land of the worship of God, which was on this side of the Euphrates (Josh. 24:2-3). The intention of God’s speaking in this book was that the Jews who believed in the Lord but still lingered in Judaism would leave the law and cross over to grace (4:16; 7:18-19; 12:28; 13:9), that they would leave the old covenant and cross over to the new covenant (8:6-7, 13), and that they would leave the ritualistic service of the Old Testament and cross over to the spiritual reality of the New Testament (8:5; 9:9-14); that is, that they would leave Judaism and cross over to the church (13:13; 10:25), that they would leave the earthly things and cross over to the heavenly things (12:18-24), that they would leave the outer court, where the altar is, and cross over to the Holiest of all, where God is (13:9-10; 10:19-20), that they would leave the soul and cross over to the spirit (4:12), and that they would leave the beginning of truth and life and cross over to the maturity of life in the truth (5:11 — 6:1). Not only the Jews who believed in the Lord but all who contact God by faith should be such river crossers. This is the purpose of God’s speaking in this book.
He 1:21 last
A Hebrew expression indicating the end of the dispensation of the law, when Messiah was to be introduced. See Isa. 2:2; Micah 4:1.
He 1:22a Son  -   Matt. 17:5
In the Old Testament, God spoke in the prophets, in men borne by His Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). In the New Testament, He speaks in the Son, in the person of the Son. The Son is God Himself (v. 8), God expressed. God the Father is hidden; God the Son is expressed. No one has ever seen God; the Son, as the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13) and the speaking of God, has declared Him with a full expression, explanation, and definition of Him (John 1:18).
The Son is the center, the focus, of this book. In the Godhead He is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance. In creation He is (1) the means through which the universe was made (v. 2); (2) the power that upholds and bears all things (v. 3); and (3) the Heir appointed to inherit all things. In redemption He accomplished the purification of man’s sins and is now sitting on the right hand of God in the heavens (v. 3).
This book reveals to us the contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was of the law in letters and forms, of man, earthly, temporary, and by sight and issued in a religion called Judaism. The New Testament is of life, spiritual, heavenly, permanent, and by faith and is focused in a person who is the Son of God.
He 1:23 whom
This short recommendation of the Son in vv. 2-3 unfolds to us both the person and work of the Son. In His person He is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance. In His work He created the universe and upholds and bears all things, and made purification of our sins.
He 1:24b Heir  -   Psa. 2:8
I.e., the legal Heir, inheriting all things in God’s economy. Since He is not only the Son of God but also the Heir of God, all that God the Father is and has is His possession (John 16:15). In the past the Son was the Creator (vv. 2, 10; John 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6); in the present He is the Upholder of all things and the One who bears all things (v. 3); in the future He will be the Heir, inheriting all things (cf. Rom. 11:36).
He 1:2c through  -   John 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6
He 1:25d universe  -   Heb. 11:3
Lit., ages. The ages is a Jewish expression that means the universe. Ages here does not refer to the matter of time but to creation (the universe) unfolded in time through successive ages.
He 1:31 effulgence
The effulgence of God’s glory is like the shining or the brightness of the light of the sun. The Son is the shining, the brightness, of the Father’s glory. This refers to God’s glory. The impress of God’s substance is like the impress of a seal. The Son is the expression of what God the Father is. This refers to God’s substance.
He 1:3a impress  -   2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; cf. John 1:18
He 1:3b upholding  -   Col. 1:17
He 1:32 word
The Greek word denotes the instant word. The Son upholds and bears all things not by His work but by His instant word, the word of His power. In creation all things came into being through Him as the Word (John 1:1-3). The universe has been framed by the word of God (11:3): “He spoke, and it was; He commanded, and it stood” (Psa. 33:9). In salvation we are saved through His word (John 5:24; Rom. 10:8, 17). It is through His word that His authority with power is exercised (Matt. 8:8-9). It is by His word that His healing power is realized (John 4:50-51). Here, this book says that God speaks in the Son and the Son upholds and bears all things by His word. It is altogether a matter of speaking. When the Lord speaks, everything is in order.
He 1:33 purification
In the Old Testament type the expiation was able only to cover sins (Psa. 32:1); it was unable to take away sins. So the expiating priests stood daily, offering the same sacrifices (10:11), and could never sit down. But the Son took away sin (John 1:29) and accomplished the purification of sins once for all. So He sat down forever (10:10, 12).
He 1:34c sat  -   Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2
This book, having the concept that all positive things are heavenly, points us to the very Christ who is in the heavens. In the Gospels is the Christ who lived on the earth and died on the cross for the accomplishing of redemption. In the Acts is the resurrected and ascended Christ propagated and ministered to men. In Romans is the Christ who is our righteousness for justification and our life for sanctification, transformation, conformation, glorification, and building up. In Galatians is the Christ who enables us to live a life that is versus the law, religion, tradition, and forms. In Philippians is the Christ who is lived out of His members. In Ephesians and Colossians is the Christ who is the life, the content, and the Head of the Body, the church. In 1 and 2 Corinthians is the Christ who is everything in the practical church life. In 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the Christ who is our holiness for His coming back. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus is the Christ who is God’s economy, enabling us to know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God. In the Epistles of Peter is the Christ who enables us to take God’s governmental dealings administered through sufferings. In the Epistles of John is the Christ who is the life and fellowship of the children of God in God’s family. In Revelation is the Christ who is walking among the churches in this age, ruling over the world in the kingdom in the coming age, and expressing God in full glory in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. In this book is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our Minister (8:2) and our High Priest (4:14-15; 7:26), ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth. He is the Christ now, the Christ today, and the Christ on the throne in the heavens, who is our daily salvation and moment-by-moment supply.
He 1:35d Majesty  -   Heb. 8:1; Jude 25
Or, Greatness; denoting God as the greatest One with His dignity.
He 1:36 high
The high place, the third heaven, the highest place in the universe.
He 1:41 more
This more distinguished name is “the Son,” a name that is fully defined in the succeeding verses.
He 1:5a You  -   Psa. 2:7; Heb. 5:5; Acts 13:33
He 1:51 this
This day refers to the day of resurrection (Acts 13:33). This chapter gives us an account of Christ from eternity past to eternity future. He was the very God in eternity past (v. 8); He was the Creator of the earth and the heavens (vv. 10, 2); He is the Upholder of all things and the One who bears all things (v. 3); He is the Heir of all things (v. 2); He was incarnated to accomplish redemption by being crucified (v. 3); He was begotten as the Son of God in resurrection for the imparting of life to the many sons of God (v. 5); He is the firstborn Son of God who will come again (v. 6); He will be the King on the throne with the scepter in the kingdom (vv. 8-9); and He will remain forever and ever in eternity future (vv. 11-12).
He 1:5b I  -   2 Sam. 7:14
He 1:61a Firstborn  -   Rom. 8:29
This verse refers to the Son’s second coming. In His first coming He was God’s only begotten Son (John 1:14). Through the process of resurrection the only begotten Son became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). Thus, in His second coming He will be the Firstborn.
He 1:6b And  -   Psa. 97:7
He 1:7a Who  -   Psa. 104:4
He 1:71 winds
In Greek, the same word as for spirits. Here it denotes winds, to match flame of fire. The angels are like winds and a flame of fire. They are simply creatures, while the Son is the Creator. As creatures, the angels are much inferior to the Son, and as the Creator, the Son is much superior to the angels.
He 1:8a Your  -   Psa. 45:6-7
He 1:8b throne  -   2 Sam. 7:13; Luke 1:32
He 1:81 O
O God here and Your God in v. 9 refer to the Son. Since the Son is God Himself, He is God; therefore, here it says, “O God.” Since the Son is also man, God is His God; therefore, in v. 9 it says, “Your God.”
The intention of this book is to show the Hebrew believers that God’s salvation is superior to Judaism. In Judaism the boast was in God, angels, Moses, Aaron the high priest, and the Old Testament with its services. Initially, the writer points out that in God’s salvation the first superior thing is not only God but God expressed, i.e., God the Son (vv. 2-3, 5, 8-12). Then he goes on to unfold that Christ is superior to angels (1:4 — 2:18), to Moses (3:1-6), and to Aaron (4:14 — 7:28) and that the new covenant of life made by Him is superior to the old covenant of letters (8:1 — 10:18).
He 1:8c kingdom  -   2 Sam. 7:12; Dan. 7:14; Luke 1:33
He 1:91 Your
See note 81.
He 1:9a anointed  -   Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18
He 1:92b partners  -   Heb. 3:14
In God’s economy Christ is the One appointed by God to accomplish God’s plan, and we are Christ’s partners in the divine interest. He was anointed by God, and we share with Him this anointing for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. See note 141 in ch. 3.
He 1:10a You  -   Psa. 102:25- 27
He 1:101 Lord
Since the Son is God (v. 8), He is the eternal Lord, who remains perpetually (v. 11).
He 1:11a old  -   cf. Rev. 21:1
He 1:11b garment  -   Isa. 51:6
He 1:12a same  -   Heb. 13:8
He 1:13a Sit  -   Psa. 110:1; Matt. 22:44
He 1:131 until
This book stresses the fact that Christ has accomplished everything for God and us, leaving nothing for us to do. His sitting at the right hand of God signifies that His work has been accomplished and that He is resting there, waiting for only one thing — for God to set His enemies as a footstool for His feet. He is sitting there in the heavens waiting for a footstool that He may have complete rest.
He 1:13b footstool  -   Heb. 10:13
He 1:14a ministering  -   Psa. 34:7; Matt. 18:10; Acts 10:3; 12:7-11, 15
He 1:141 those
The Son is the appointed Heir of all things (v. 2). We, His believers, are His partners (v. 9). Thus, we are His joint heirs (Rom. 8:17), not only inheriting salvation but also inheriting all things with Him (1 Cor. 3:21-22). Hence, we with Him are joint owners of the universe, while the angels are merely our servants, inferior not only to Him but also to us.
The Son was appointed to be the Heir. We are saved to be His joint heirs, sharing in His inheritance. The “so great a salvation” mentioned in 2:3 is able to save us to such an extent that it brings us into partnership with Him in His appointment. Thus we share in whatever He inherits.
As the partners of the Son, we are the house of God, the real Bethel, the gate of heaven, where the Son is the heavenly ladder, joining earth to heaven and bringing heaven to earth. On this ladder the angels of God are ascending and descending (Gen. 28:12, 16-19; John 1:51) as the ministering spirits to serve us, those who inherit so great a salvation. What is spoken of in this book is like the gate of heaven. Here we enjoy Christ as the heavenly One who joins us to heaven and brings heaven to us that we may be a heavenly people, living a heavenly life on earth and inheriting all the heavenly things. How could the Hebrew believers withdraw from this and return to their old religion and boast in the angels? The angels are simply our ministering servants.
Hebrews Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
He 2:11 Therefore
Along with every major point in this book there is a warning. There are five such warnings in the book. Along with the first major point, that Christ is superior to angels, unfolded in 1:4 — 2:18, there is the first warning in vv. 1-4.
He 2:12 drift
Or, drift by them, drift past them.
He 2:2a angels  -   Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19
He 2:31a escape  -   Heb. 12:25
In principle, to escape here is to escape some recompense, as mentioned in v. 2. If we neglect so great a salvation, it is right and just that we receive a certain recompense.
He 2:32b salvation  -   Heb. 1:14; 2:10; 5:9
Salvation here refers back to what is mentioned in 1:14. It is God’s full salvation, from the forgiveness of sins to the sharing of the coming kingdom with glory. It refers not only to what Christ has done and will do for us but also to Himself, the One who is able to save us to the uttermost (7:25). As the Son of God — as God — and as the Son of Man — as man — He is our salvation. His wonderful person plus His splendid work constitute so great a salvation, a salvation that none of us should neglect. Our negligence will cause us to miss this great salvation’s (1) most precious part — the enjoying of Christ as our saving life and rest in this age; and (2) most glorious part — the inheriting of Christ’s kingdom with glory in the coming age. These two points are fully developed and dealt with in the succeeding chapters of this book.
He 2:4a witness  -   Mark 16:20; Acts 14:3
He 2:41 distributions
Distributions of the Holy Spirit, which include the Holy Spirit Himself, are the things that the Holy Spirit distributes to those who receive salvation by believing.
He 2:51 inhabited
I.e., the earth that will become the Lord’s kingdom in the next age (Psa. 2:8; Dan. 2:35; Rev. 11:15).
He 2:61a What  -   Psa. 8:4-8
The first man, Adam, created by God in Gen. 1, failed to accomplish God’s purpose for man. Psalm 8 then alludes, through prophecy, to another man, a man who would replace the first man and would fulfill God’s purpose. This chapter tells us that this other man, the second man, who is Jesus, has come and has accomplished so much for the fulfilling of God’s desire in man as revealed in Gen. 1:26, 28 and alluded to in Psa. 8:4-8. Hence, in whatever the first man, Adam, failed, the second man, Christ, succeeded, by replacing the first man.
This chapter is the fulfillment of the prophecies in Psa. 8 and 22 concerning the major steps taken by Christ, as a man, to fulfill God’s purpose. In incarnation He partook of human nature (v. 14). In crucifixion He suffered death for everything (v. 9) and destroyed the devil (v. 14). In resurrection He brought forth many sons of God, His brothers, to form the church (vv. 10-12). In exaltation He was crowned with glory and honor. All these steps are the qualifications that qualify Him to be our High Priest (v. 17).
He 2:71 a
Or, for a little while inferior. So also in v. 9.
He 2:7a over  -   Gen. 1:26, 28
He 2:8a subjected  -   1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22
He 2:91 inferior
In eternity Christ was the Creator, unlimited and omnipresent, but when He became a man in time, He was limited so that one day He could go to the cross to deal with the universal problem — death. In order to suffer death and thus destroy and nullify death, Christ had to become a man and lose His freedom temporarily, for thirty-three and a half years. In that sense, He was inferior to the angels during that period. However, three days after His death He resurrected out of that inferiority and is now much superior to all the angels.
He 2:9a death  -   Phil. 2:8
He 2:9b crowned  -   Rev. 19:12
He 2:92c glory  -   2 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 5:12, 13
Glory is the splendor related to Jesus’ person; honor is the preciousness related to Jesus’ worth, value, and dignity, which is related to His position (2 Pet. 1:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:17; Rom. 13:7). In 1 Pet. 2:7 the Greek word for preciousness is the same as that for honor here.
He 2:93d everything  -   Col. 1:20
Or, everyone. The Lord Jesus’ redemption was accomplished not only for people but for everything created by God. Thus, God can reconcile all things to Himself through Christ (Col. 1:20). This is clearly typified by the redemption accomplished through Noah’s ark, in which not only eight persons but all living things created by God were saved (Gen. 7:13-23).
He 2:101 Him
Referring to God, who created all things.
He 2:10a for  -   Rom. 11:36
He 2:102b many  -   Rom. 8:29
The many sons here are the many brothers in Rom. 8:29 and the many grains in John 12:24.
He 2:103c glory  -   Rom. 8:21, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Col. 3:4; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Pet. 5:10
The last step of God’s great salvation is to bring His many sons into glory. Romans 8 tells us that God’s work of grace upon us began with His foreknowing, passed through His predestination, calling, and justification, and will end with His glorification (Rom. 8:29-30). Also, Rom. 8 tells us that the whole creation eagerly awaits the revelation (glorification) of the sons of God, in hope that the creation itself will enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-21). This will be accomplished by the Lord’s coming back (Phil. 3:21), at which time we will be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4); this is our hope (Col. 1:27). This glorification of the sons of God, as the goal of God’s salvation, will last through the millennial kingdom and will be manifested in full in the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:11, 23).
He 2:104d Author  -   Heb. 12:2; Acts 3:15; 5:31
Or, Captain, Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, Pioneer. The salvation mentioned in this verse and referred to in v. 3 and 1:14 saves us from our fallen state into glory. Jesus, as the Pioneer, the Forerunner (6:20), took the lead to enter into glory, and we, His followers, are taking the same way to be brought into the same glory, which was ordained by God for us (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12). He cut the way, and we are now taking the way. Hence, He is not only the Savior who saved us from our fallen state but also the Author who, as the Pioneer, entered into glory that we may be brought into the same estate.
He 2:10e salvation  -   Heb. 1:14; 2:3; 5:9
He 2:105f perfect  -   Heb. 5:9; 7:19, 28; 9:9; 10:1, 14; 11:40; 12:23
To make Jesus perfect was to make Him perfect in terms of qualification. It does not imply that there was any imperfection of virtue or attribute in Jesus, but only that the completing of His experience of human sufferings was needed to make Him fit to become the Author, the Leader, of His followers’ salvation.
As the self-existing and ever-existing God, the Lord Jesus is complete from eternity to eternity. But He needed to be perfected through the processes of incarnation, the partaking of human nature, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, that He might be qualified to be God’s Christ and our Savior.
He 2:111 He
He who sanctifies is Christ as the firstborn Son of God, and those who are being sanctified are the believers of Christ as the many sons of God. Both the firstborn Son and the many sons of God are born of the same Father God in resurrection (Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3) and have the same divine life and nature. Hence, He is not ashamed to call them brothers.
He 2:11a sanctifies  -   Heb. 13:12
He 2:11b sanctified  -   Heb. 10:10, 14
He 2:112 of
Lit., out of. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all out of one source, one Father.
He 2:11c brothers  -   John 20:17; Rom. 8:29
He 2:12a I  -   Psa. 22:22
He 2:121 declare
The firstborn Son declared the Father’s name to His brothers after He resurrected from the dead, when He met with the Father’s many sons (John 20:17, 19-23).
He 2:122 church
The church is mentioned only twice in this book, here and in 12:23. Here it is referred to as a corporate composition of the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God.
He 2:123 I
This is the firstborn Son’s praising of the Father within the Father’s many sons in the church meetings. When we, the many sons of God, meet as the church and praise the Father, the firstborn Son praises the Father in our praising. It is not that He praises the Father apart from us and alone; rather, He praises within us and with us through our praising. In our singing He sings hymns of praise to the Father. If then we do not sing, how can He sing? The more we sing to the Father, the more we enjoy His presence, His moving, His anointing, and His life-imparting within us. Thus we will grow in Him and be brought into His glorification above all.
He 2:13a I  -   Psa. 18:2
He 2:13b Behold  -   Isa. 8:18
He 2:14a blood  -   Matt. 16:17; Eph. 6:12
He 2:14b partook  -   John 1:14; Rom. 8:3
He 2:14c death  -   John 12:31, 33
He 2:141d destroy  -   Gen. 3:15; 1 John 3:8; cf. John 3:14
Or, bring to nought, make of none effect, do away with, abolish, annul, discard. After the devil, the serpent, seduced man into the fall, God promised that the seed of woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). In the fullness of the time the Son of God came to become flesh (John 1:14; Rom. 8:3) by being born of a virgin (Gal. 4:4), that He might destroy the devil in man’s flesh through His death in the flesh on the cross. (See notes 141 in John 3, 311 in John 12, and 33 in Rom. 8.) This was to abolish Satan, to bring him to nought. Hallelujah, Satan has been abolished and done away with!
He 2:14e death  -   Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:55-56; 2 Tim. 1:10
He 2:14f devil  -   Rev. 12:9; 20:2
He 2:151 release
Since the Lord destroyed the devil, who has the might of death, we who were held in slavery through the fear of death have been released by Him. Death reigned over us (Rom. 5:14), and we were under its slavery, continually fearing death. Since the Lord destroyed the devil and nullified death (2 Tim. 1:10), we now have no more fear of death and are released from its slavery.
He 2:161 gives
Jesus has rendered us — human beings, not the angels — help to succor us, to release us from the slavery of death under the devil’s might, which is in our nature. He did this by partaking of our nature, in which the devil dwells, and then annulling it on the cross through His all-inclusive death.
He 2:171 made
The Son of God was made like us, His brothers, in that He partook of blood and flesh (v. 14). This was done for two purposes, one negative and the other positive. The negative purpose was to destroy for us the devil, who is in the flesh. The positive purpose is to be our merciful and faithful High Priest who has the human nature, that He may sympathize with us in all things.
He 2:17a like  -   Phil. 2:7
He 2:172b High  -   Heb. 3:1; 4:14; 5:5, 10; 6:20; 7:26, 28; 8:1, 3; 10:21
As the High Priest, Christ ministers God Himself and the riches of the divine life to us. As the God-man, He is more than fully qualified to be our High Priest. Here, merciful corresponds with His being a man; faithful corresponds with His being God.
He 2:173 things
Lit., things toward God.
He 2:17c pertaining  -   Heb. 5:1
He 2:174d propitiation  -   Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10
Jesus made propitiation for our sins, thereby satisfying the demand of God’s righteousness and appeasing the relationship between God and us, that God may be peacefully gracious to us. See note 252 in Rom. 3. Cf. Luke 18:13 and note 1.
He 2:18a tempted  -   Heb. 4:15
Hebrews Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
He 3:11 holy
To be holy is to be separated to God for a definite purpose. (See note 23 in Rom. 1.) Here, by calling the receivers of the book “holy brothers,” the writer intended to remind them that they should not remain common in Judaism but should be separated to God for His purpose.
He 3:12a partakers  -   Heb. 6:4; 12:8
See note 141.
He 3:13 heavenly
The concept of this book is focused on the heavenly nature of the positive things. First, it points out to us that Christ today is sitting in the heavens (1:3). He entered into the heavens (9:24). He passed through the heavens (4:14) and became higher than the heavens (7:26). Then this book unfolds to us the heavenly calling (v. 1), the heavenly gift (6:4), the heavenly things (8:5), the heavenly country (11:16), and the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22). Also, it tells us that we are enrolled in the heavens (12:23) and that God warns us today from the heavens (12:25). All the things in the Old Testament that were held by Judaism were of an earthly nature. In this book the writer’s intention was to show the Hebrew Christians the contrast between the heavenly nature of the New Testament and the earthly nature of the Old Testament that they might forsake the earthly things and attach themselves to the heavenly.
He 3:1b calling  -   1 Cor. 1:9; Phil. 3:14; Eph. 1:18; 4:1
He 3:14c Apostle  -   Acts 3:26
The Apostle is the One who was sent to us from God and with God (John 6:46; 8:16, 29). The High Priest is the One who went back to God from us and with us (Eph. 2:6). As the Apostle, Christ came to us with God to share God with us that we may partake of His divine life, nature, and fullness. As the High Priest, Christ went to God with us to present us to God that we and all our case may be fully cared for by Him. As the Apostle, He is typified by Moses, who came from God to serve the house of God (vv. 2-6), and as the High Priest, He is typified by Aaron, who went to God with the house of Israel and their cases (4:14 — 7:28).
He 3:1d High  -   Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:26
He 3:2a Moses  -   Num. 12:7; Heb. 3:5
He 3:2b house  -   Lev. 22:18
He 3:31a glory  -   Heb. 2:9
See note 92 in ch. 2.
He 3:32b built  -   Zech. 6:12-13; Matt. 16:18
Moses had the human nature, which is fit for God’s building, but he did not have the divine nature, which is suitable for being the builder. In contrast, Christ in His humanity is the good material for God’s building (the foundation stone — Isa. 28:16; the cornerstone — Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; the topstone — Zech. 4:7; and the living stone that produces us as living stones — 1 Pet. 2:4-5). Moreover, in His divinity He is the Builder.
He 3:33 the
Lit., it.
He 3:5a Moses  -   Heb. 3:2
He 3:51 servant
Servant here is a designation that implies dignity and freedom.
He 3:52 testimony
Or, prefigure; a type of the real, typical, and genuine Apostle sent from God.
He 3:61a house  -   1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17
In Old Testament times the house of God was the house of Israel (Lev. 22:18; Num. 12:7), symbolized by the tabernacle or the temple, which was in Israel’s midst (Exo. 25:8; Ezek. 37:26-27). Today, the house of God is actually the church (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17). The children of Israel, as people of God, are a type of us, the New Testament believers (1 Cor. 9:24 — 10:11). Their entire history is a prefigure of the church.
He 3:6b hope  -   Heb. 6:11
He 3:6c firm  -   Heb. 3:14
He 3:71 Therefore
This word connects the house of God in v. 6 with the Sabbath rest in 4:9, indicating that these two are the same. The house of God is our church life today, our Sabbath rest.
He 3:7a Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22
He 3:7b Today  -   vv. 7-11: Psa. 95:7-11
He 3:9a tried  -   Exo. 17:2, 7; Deut. 6:16; Psa. 78:18, 41
He 3:10a displeased  -   Heb. 3:17
He 3:10b generation  -   cf. Acts 2:40
He 3:101 go
Or, err, are deceived.
He 3:102 ways
God’s ways are different from His acts. His acts are His activities; His ways are the principles by which He acts. The children of Israel knew only His acts, but Moses knew His ways (Psa. 103:7).
He 3:111a They  -   Heb. 4:3, 5
The Hebrew is idiomatic and conveys a strong negative. So also in 4:3, 5.
He 3:121 falling
Or, turning away, deserting, departing, standing aloof.
He 3:12a living  -   Heb. 9:14; 10:31; 12:22; 1 Tim. 3:15
He 3:13a exhort  -   Heb. 10:25
He 3:13b deceitfulness  -   Rom. 7:11
He 3:141a partners  -   Heb. 1:9
In Greek, the same word as that for partakers in 3:1; 6:4; and 12:8. In those three places the meaning is that we share in the heavenly calling, the Holy Spirit, and the discipline; thus, the word is rendered partakers. Here and in 1:9 the meaning is that we share with Christ; hence, the word is rendered partners. We are partakers of heavenly, holy, and spiritual things, sharing in the heavenly calling, the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual discipline. We are partners of Christ, sharing with Him the spiritual anointing (1:9), as the members share the Spirit with the Head, and sharing with Him the heavenly rest, as Caleb shared with Joshua the rest of the good land (Num. 14:30).
He 3:14b firm  -   Heb. 3:6
He 3:15a Today  -   Psa. 95:7, 8
He 3:16a provoked  -   Deut. 9:7
He 3:16b not  -   Num. 26:64, 65; 1 Cor. 10:5
He 3:161 Moses
Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, but he did not bring them into the good land of Canaan. It was his successor, Joshua, who did this (4:8).
He 3:17a displeased  -   Heb. 3:10
He 3:17b fell  -   Num. 14:29, 32; 1 Cor. 10:8
He 3:18a not  -   Num. 14:30
He 3:181b disobedient  -   Heb. 4:6, 11
Or, unpersuadable, obstinate, unbelieving.
Hebrews Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
He 4:11 rest
See note 91.
He 4:12 seem
Or, think that he has come too late for it.
He 4:13 come
See note 111.
He 4:21 not
Only the Codex Sinaiticus can be rendered in this way. All other ancient MSS read, they [referring to those who heard the word] not being mixed together by faith with those who heard [referring to Caleb and Joshua].
He 4:3a As  -   Psa. 95:11; Heb. 3:11
He 4:3b foundation  -   Zech. 12:1; Rev. 13:8; cf. Eph. 1:4
He 4:4a And  -   Gen. 2:2
He 4:5a They  -   Psa. 95:11; Heb. 3:11
He 4:61a disobedience  -   Heb. 3:18; 4:11
Or, obstinacy, rebellion, stubbornness, unbelief.
He 4:7a Today  -   Psa. 95:7-8; Heb. 3:15
He 4:81 Joshua
Joshua, which means Jehovah the Savior or the salvation of Jehovah (Num. 13:16), is a Hebrew name, of which the equivalent in Greek is Jesus. Hence, Joshua was a type of the Lord Jesus, who brought the people of God into rest.
He 4:82 another
This “another day” is “today” (3:7, 13, 15; 4:7). This is the promised Sabbath rest that remains for us (v. 9).
He 4:91 Sabbath
This Sabbath rest is Christ as our rest, typified by the good land of Canaan (Deut. 12:9; Heb. 4:8). Christ is rest to the saints in three stages: (1) in the church age, as the heavenly Christ, the One who rests from His work and sits on the right hand of God in the heavens, He is the rest to us in our spirit (Matt. 11:28-29); (2) in the millennial kingdom, after Satan is removed from this earth (Rev. 20:1-3), Christ with the kingdom will be the rest in a fuller way to the overcoming saints, who will be His co-kings (Rev. 20:4, 6), sharing and enjoying His rest; (3) in the new heaven and new earth, after all the enemies, including death, the last enemy, have been made subject to Him (1 Cor. 15:24-27), Christ, as the all-conquering One, will be the rest in the fullest way to all God’s redeemed for eternity. But the Sabbath rest mentioned here and typified by the rest of the good land of Canaan covers only the first two stages of Christ’s being our rest; it does not include the third stage. The rest in the first two stages is a prize to His diligent seekers, who not only are redeemed but also have enjoyed Him in a full way, thus becoming the overcomers, whereas the rest in the third stage is not a prize but the full portion allotted to all the redeemed ones. Therefore, in the first two stages, and especially in the second, Christ as our rest is the Sabbath rest mentioned here, the rest that remains for us to seek after and enter into diligently. It is in the second stage of His being our rest that Christ will take possession of the whole earth as His inheritance (Psa. 2:8; Heb. 2:5-6), making it His kingdom for a thousand years (Rev. 11:15). All His overcoming followers who seek and enjoy Him as their rest in the first stage will participate in His reign in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6; 2 Tim. 2:12). Moreover, they will inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5; Psa. 37:11), some having authority over ten cities, some over five (Luke 19:17, 19), and will partake of the joy of their Lord (Matt. 25:21, 23). That will be the kingdom rest, which is typified by the rest of entering into the good land of Canaan. The rest of the good land was the goal of all the children of Israel, who had been redeemed and delivered from Egypt; likewise, the rest of the coming kingdom is the goal of the New Testament believers, who have been redeemed and saved from the world. We are now all on the way toward this goal.
God’s full salvation, which He intended for the children of Israel, included redemption through the passover lamb, the exodus from Egypt, feeding on the heavenly manna, having their thirst quenched by the living water from the cleft rock, and partaking of the good land of Canaan. All the children of Israel shared in the passover lamb, the heavenly manna, and the living water, but only Joshua and Caleb, out of those who shared the exodus from Egypt, entered into the good land and partook of it; all the rest fell in the wilderness (Num. 14:30; 1 Cor. 10:1-11). Though all were redeemed, only the two overcomers, Joshua and Caleb, received the prize of the good land.
The passover lamb, the heavenly manna, the living water, and the good land of Canaan are all types of different aspects of Christ. According to what is depicted by the experiences of the children of Israel, not all believers who have been redeemed through Christ will partake of Christ as a prize, as their rest, their satisfaction, in both the church age and the coming kingdom; only those who, after being redeemed, seek Christ diligently will partake of Him in such a way. This is why the apostle Paul, though fully redeemed, was still pursuing toward the goal that he might gain Christ as the prize (Phil. 3:10-14). In Phil. 3 Paul told us that he had been in Judaism but that for Christ’s sake he had given it up (Phil. 3:4-9). Here, in this book, the writer held the same concept, encouraging the Hebrew believers to forsake Judaism and press toward Christ so that they would not miss the prize.
He 4:10a God  -   Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:4
He 4:111 fall
Since the rest that is covered in this portion of the word is the all-inclusive Christ, to fall from it is to fall from Christ, to be brought to nought from Christ (Gal. 5:4). In Galatians the danger was that the Galatian believers would drift into the bondage of law from the freedom of grace (Gal. 5:1-4). Paul advised them to stand fast in the freedom of grace, that is, not to be brought to nought from Christ. Here, in this book, the danger was that the Hebrew believers would not forsake their old religion, which was according to the law, and press on into the enjoyment of Christ as their rest. If they continued to stagger in their old religion, i.e., in Judaism, they would come short of Christ, who was their rest. The writer of this book earnestly encouraged them, as Christ’s partners, to press on with Christ and enter into the rest, that they, as His partakers, might enjoy Christ as their rest.
He 4:112 after
Lit., in.
He 4:113a disobedience  -   Heb. 3:18; 4:6
See note 61.
He 4:121a word  -   1 Pet. 1:23
The Greek word denotes the constant word of God. Here it refers to the word in 3:7 — 4:11 that is quoted from the Old Testament (as indicated by the word for at the beginning of this verse). That word is living, operative, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
He 4:12b living  -   Acts 7:38
He 4:12c sword  -   Eph. 6:17
He 4:122d soul  -   1 Thes. 5:23; Luke 1:46-47
According to the Bible, man is a tripartite being — spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). Here, in this verse, are the joints and marrow — which are parts of the body — and the soul and spirit.
The foregoing verses describe the children of Israel as falling away from entering into the rest of the good land. With them there were three places: (1) Egypt, from which they were delivered; (2) the wilderness, in which they wandered; and (3) Canaan, into which they entered. Their history in these three places signifies the three stages of their participation in God’s full salvation. This is a type of us, the New Testament believers, in our participation in the full salvation of God. In the first stage we receive Christ and are redeemed and delivered from the world. In the second stage we become wanderers in following the Lord; our wandering always takes place in our soul. In the third stage we partake of and enjoy Christ in a full way; this is experienced in our spirit. When we pursue the pleasures of material and sinful things, we are in the world, typified by Egypt. When we wander in our soul, we are in the wilderness. When we enjoy Christ in our spirit, we are in Canaan. When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, they were always murmuring, reasoning, and chiding. This surely took place in their soul, not in their spirit. But Caleb and Joshua believed in the word of God, obeyed the Lord, and pressed toward the goal. This surely took place not in their soul but in their spirit. At that time the receivers of this book, the Hebrew believers, were wondering what they should do with their old Hebrew religion. This wondering in their mind was a wandering in their soul, not an experience of Christ in their spirit. So the writer of this book said that the word of God, i.e., what was quoted from the Old Testament, could pierce into their wondering like a sharp two-edged sword and divide their soul from their spirit. As the marrow is concealed deep in the joints, so the spirit is deep in the soul. The dividing of the marrow from the joints requires mainly the breaking of the joints. In the same principle, the dividing of the spirit from the soul requires the breaking of the soul. The Hebrew believers’ soul, with its wondering mind, its doubting concerning God’s way of salvation, and its considering of its own interests, had to be broken by the living, operative, and piercing word of God that their spirit might be divided from their soul.
Our soul is our very self (Matt. 16:25; cf. Luke 9:25). In following the Lord we must deny our soul, our very self (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23). Our spirit is the deepest part of our being, a spiritual organ with which we contact God (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9). It is in our spirit that we are regenerated (John 3:6). It is in our spirit that the Holy Spirit dwells and works (Rom. 8:16). It is in our spirit that we enjoy Christ and His grace (2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 6:18). Hence, the writer of this book advised the Hebrew believers not to stagger in the wandering of their soul, which soul they had to deny, but to press on into their spirit to partake of and enjoy the heavenly Christ that they might participate in the kingdom rest of His reign in the millennium. If they staggered in the wandering of their soul, they would miss God’s goal and suffer the loss of the full enjoyment of Christ and the kingdom rest.
He 4:12e spirit  -   Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8; Prov. 20:27; John 3:6; 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 5:4; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Pet. 3:4
He 4:123 thoughts
Our spirit is the organ with which we contact God (John 4:24), while our heart is the organ with which we love God (Mark 12:30). Our spirit contacts, receives, contains, and experiences God. However, this requires that our heart love God first. Our soul is of three parts — mind, will, and emotion; and our spirit too is of three parts — conscience, fellowship, and intuition. Our heart is not separate from our soul and spirit but is a composition of all the parts of our soul, plus the conscience, a part of our spirit. Hence, in our heart is the mind, with the thoughts, and the will, with the intentions. The thoughts affect the intentions, and the intentions carry out the thoughts. The living word of God is able to discern the thoughts in our mind and the intentions in our will. What was quoted from the word of God by the writer in the foregoing verses was able to expose what and where the thoughts and intentions of the Hebrew believers were while they were staggering in the process of their salvation.
He 4:141 great
I.e., excellent, wonderful, glorious, and most honorable. Christ is great in His person (1:5, 8; 2:6), work (1:3; 2:17, 9, 14-15, 10; 3:5-6; 4:8-9; Acts 2:24, 27), and attainment (6:20; 9:24; 2:9).
He 4:142a High  -   Heb. 2:17; 7:26
The Lord Jesus first was sent from God to us through incarnation (2:14) to be our Apostle (3:1), our Author, our Leader (2:10), the One superior to Moses (3:3), and our real Joshua (4:8) to bring us, His partners (1:9; 3:14), into glory and rest (2:10; 4:11). He then went back from us to God through resurrection and ascension (5:5-6) to be our High Priest to bear us in the presence of God and to care for all our needs (2:17-18; 4:15).
He 4:143 passed
Having had the principalities and powers stripped off (Col. 2:15), having risen from Hades (Acts 2:24, 27), and having passed through the heavens, our High Priest is now sitting on the throne at the right hand of God.
He 4:14b heavens  -   Eph. 4:10; Heb. 8:1; 9:24
He 4:14c Son  -   Heb. 7:3
He 4:144d confession  -   Heb. 3:1
Referring to the faith.
He 4:15a tempted  -   Heb. 2:18
He 4:15b without  -   Heb. 7:26; 2 Cor. 5:21
He 4:16a come  -   Heb. 10:22; 7:25
He 4:161 throne
Undoubtedly, the throne mentioned here is the throne of God, which is in heaven (Rev. 4:2). The throne of God is the throne of authority toward all the universe (Dan. 7:9; Rev. 5:1). But toward us, the believers, it becomes the throne of grace, signified by the expiation cover (the mercy seat) within the Holy of Holies (Exo. 25:17, 21). This throne is the throne of both God and the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). How can we come to the throne of God and the Lamb, Christ, in heaven while we still live on earth? The secret is our spirit, referred to in v. 12. The very Christ who is sitting on the throne in heaven (Rom. 8:34) is also now in us (Rom. 8:10), that is, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), where the habitation of God is (Eph. 2:22). At Bethel, the house of God, the habitation of God, which is the gate of heaven, Christ is the ladder that joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth (Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51). Since today our spirit is the place of God’s habitation, it is now the gate of heaven, where Christ is the ladder that joins us, the people on earth, to heaven, and brings heaven to us. Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter through the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace in heaven through Christ as the heavenly ladder.
He 4:162b mercy  -   Rom. 9:15, 18, 23
Both God’s mercy and God’s grace are the expression of His love. When we are in a pitiful condition, first God’s mercy reaches us and brings us into a situation in which He is able to favor us with His grace. Luke 15:20-24 tells us that when the father saw the prodigal son returning, he had compassion on him. That was mercy, which expressed the father’s love. Then the father clothed him with the best robe and fed him with the fattened calf. That was grace, which again manifested the father’s love. God’s mercy reaches farther and bridges the gap between us and God’s grace.
God’s mercy and grace are always available to us. However, we need to receive and find them by exercising our spirit to come to the throne of grace and contact our High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of all our weaknesses. By this word the writer of this book encouraged the wearied Hebrew believers to receive mercy and find grace for timely help, that they might be set upright (12:12).
He 4:16c grace  -   John 1:14, 16, 17; Rom. 5:2; 2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14; Gal. 6:18
Hebrews Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
He 5:1a established  -   Heb. 7:28
He 5:1b pertaining  -   Heb. 2:17
He 5:1c offer  -   Heb. 7:27; 8:3; 10:11
He 5:11 gifts
Gifts are for God’s pleasure; sacrifices are for our sins.
He 5:2a able  -   Heb. 2:18
He 5:21 compassion
The Greek here implies a feeling toward the ignorant and erring that is neither too severe nor too tolerant. To exercise compassion is to be moderate or tender in judging their situation. The thought in this verse is a continuation of the thought in 4:15. Though not encompassed with weakness like the high priest taken from among men, Christ as our High Priest was tempted in all respects like us. Hence, being touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, He is able to exercise compassion toward us, the ignorant and erring ones.
He 5:2b ignorant  -   Heb. 9:7
He 5:2c erring  -   James 5:19; 1 Pet. 2:25
He 5:2d weakness  -   Heb. 4:15
He 5:3a for  -   Heb. 7:27
He 5:4a no  -   Num. 18:7
He 5:4b Aaron  -   Exo. 28:1; 1 Chron. 23:13
He 5:51 glorify
In this verse the word glorify replaces honor used in the foregoing verse. With the high priest taken from among men, there is only honor, a matter of position. With Christ as the High Priest, there is not only honor but also glory, not only the preciousness of His position but also the splendor of His person. See note 92 in ch. 2.
He 5:5a High  -   Heb. 2:17; 4:15; 5:10; 7:26
He 5:5b You  -   Heb. 1:5; Psa. 2:7; Acts 13:33
He 5:52 begotten
This refers to Christ’s resurrection (Acts 13:33), which qualifies Him to be our High Priest. For Christ to be our High Priest, He had to partake of our humanity, as mentioned in 2:14-18, and enter with this humanity into resurrection. In His humanity He can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and be merciful to us (4:15; 2:17). In resurrection, in His divinity He can do everything for us and be faithful to us (7:24-25; 2:17).
He 5:61a You  -   Psa. 110:4
This refers to the ascension and enthronement of Christ (Psa. 110:1-4), which are in addition to His resurrection and further qualify Him to be our High Priest (7:26).
He 5:62b order  -   Heb. 5:10; 6:20; 7:11, 17
The order of Melchizedek is higher than the order of Aaron. The order of Aaron was for the priesthood that was only in humanity, whereas the order of Melchizedek is for the priesthood that is in both humanity and divinity. This is fully delineated in ch. 7.
He 5:7a flesh  -   John 1:14; Heb. 2:14
He 5:7b petitions  -   Matt. 26:39, 42, 44
He 5:71 out
Out of death here does not mean that Christ did not enter into death and suffer death. It means that He resurrected out of death. Before He died, Christ prayed for this, and God answered by raising Him from the dead.
He 5:81a obedience  -   Phil. 2:8
God ordained that Christ should die, and Christ obeyed (Phil. 2:8). He learned this obedience through the suffering of death.
He 5:8b suffered  -   Luke 24:26
He 5:91a perfected  -   Heb. 2:10
See note 105 in ch. 2.
He 5:92 source
The Greek word implies the thought of author and cause.
He 5:93 eternal
Not everlasting salvation but eternal salvation, of which all the effects, benefits, and issues are of an eternal nature, transcending the conditions and limitations of time.
He 5:9b salvation  -   Heb. 2:3, 10
He 5:101 addressed
This word also conveys the sense of designated, hailed.
He 5:10a High  -   Heb. 5:5
He 5:10b order  -   Heb. 5:6
He 5:121 rudiments
Or, primary elements.
He 5:12a beginning  -   Heb. 6:1
He 5:122 oracles
I.e., divine utterances.
He 5:123b milk  -   1 Cor. 3:2; 1 Pet. 2:2
Though this verse mentions teachers and teach, it likens the word of God to milk and solid food, which are for nourishment. This corresponds with the Lord’s word in Matt. 4:4 and the prophet’s word in Jer. 15:16. Paul and Peter held this same concept concerning the divine word (1 Cor. 3:2; 1 Pet. 2:2).
He 5:12c food  -   Matt. 4:4; Jer. 15:16
He 5:131 milk
Milk here refers to the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God mentioned in v. 12, whereas the word of righteousness refers to solid food. The good word mentioned in 6:5 is the word of the beginning of Christ (6:1). But the word of righteousness is deeper than the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God because it embodies the deeper thought of God’s justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people. This word is more difficult to discriminate than the word of grace (Acts 14:3; 20:32) and the word of life (Phil. 2:16).
He 5:13a word  -   cf. Heb. 6:1, 5; Acts 14:3; 20:32; Phil. 2:16
See note 131.
He 5:13b infant  -   1 Cor. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:2
He 5:14a full-grown  -   Heb. 6:1; 1 Cor. 2:6; Phil. 3:15
He 5:141 faculties
Or, senses; implying powers of perception that depend not only on our mental capability but also on our spiritual apprehension.
He 5:142 good
Good and evil here refers to what is superior in contrast to what is inferior, e.g., the superiority of Christ in contrast to the inferiority of the angels, Moses, and Aaron, or the superiority of the new covenant in contrast to the inferiority of the old covenant. According to the context of this verse, the discriminating mentioned here is similar to discriminating between different foods and has nothing to do with the moral nature of things.
Hebrews Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
He 6:11 word
Or, primary word. The word of the beginning of Christ refers to the six items mentioned in this verse and the next verse, items that constitute the foundation of the Christian life: (1) repentance from dead works, (2) faith in God, (3) the teaching of baptisms, (4) the laying on of hands, (5) the resurrection of the dead, and (6) eternal judgment. These six items form three pairs. The first item of each pair refers to our emergence from a negative situation, and the second speaks of our entering into the positive things. Repentance is a turning away from dead works; faith is the entry into God. Baptisms are separations from and terminations of the negative things; the laying on of hands is the identification and fellowship with the divine things. The resurrection of the dead is the emergence from death; eternal judgment is the entry into eternity and the eternal destiny.
He 6:12a beginning  -   Heb. 5:12
The beginning of Christ includes not only the beginning of the believers’ experience of Christ, e.g., the six items enumerated in the latter half of this verse and the next verse, but also the early ministry of Christ, i.e., all His work on earth, recorded in the four Gospels. All saved believers have already experienced, as had the Hebrew believers, the beginning of Christ; henceforth they must pursue unto perfection, unto maturity. The Lord intends to complete this perfecting in His later heavenly ministry, as revealed in this book.
He 6:13 be
In the experience of our spiritual life, there is always the Lord’s doing, on the one side, and our pursuing in cooperation with Him, on the other side. The Lord wants to bring us on to maturity, but we still need to cooperate with Him by being brought on to perfection, to maturity.
The Lord wants to bring us on, but we must let Him do it. This is our willing cooperation with His gracious work. In order to be brought on to perfection, to maturity, we need to share with Christ in His attainments (1:9; 3:14), to be diligent to enter into the remaining Sabbath rest (4:9, 11), to come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace (4:16), and to feed on the solid food to enjoy Christ as our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (5:9-10, 14).
He 6:14b maturity  -   Heb. 5:14
Or, perfection.
He 6:1c repentance  -   Mark 1:15; Acts 5:31; 20:21
He 6:1d dead  -   Heb. 9:14
He 6:1e faith  -   Rom. 1:17; Eph. 2:8
He 6:21a baptisms  -   Heb. 9:10; Lev. 6:27; Mark 7:4
Baptisms, the same word in Greek as for washings in 9:10 and dipping in Mark 7:4, refers to the washing of the utensils and vessels used for God’s service in the tabernacle or temple (Lev. 6:28) and also, probably, to the washing of the priests (Exo. 30:18-21; Lev. 16:4). This matter is, of course, related to the background of the Hebrew believers. However, it is the same in principle as the New Testament baptism — both are the washing away and terminating of the negative things.
He 6:2b laying  -   Acts 6:6; 8:17; 9:17; 13:3; 19:6; 28:8; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6
He 6:2c resurrection  -   Matt. 22:31; Acts 4:2; 23:6
He 6:2d judgment  -   Heb. 9:27; Rom. 2:5; Rev. 20:12, 13
He 6:31 this
I.e., we will do what is mentioned in v. 1: be brought on to perfection, to maturity, not laying again the foundation.
He 6:41 impossible
Those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come have already laid the foundation, at the time they believed. If they fall away and turn back, there is no need for them to lay the foundation again (v. 1); there is only the need to go on, to be brought on to perfection, to maturity. There is no need for them to repeat repentance, for it is impossible for them to renew themselves unto repentance. Verse 1 indicates that it is not needed; v. 4 says that it is not possible; and vv. 7-8 show that it is not right.
He 6:4a enlightened  -   Heb. 10:32; John 1:9; 2 Cor. 4:6
He 6:42 heavenly
The heavenly gift here refers to God’s giving of the heavenly things, such as His forgiveness, righteousness, divine life, peace, and joy, at the time we repented and believed in the Lord.
He 6:4b gift  -   Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:23
He 6:43c partakers  -   Heb. 3:1; 12:8
The Holy Spirit is what God in His gospel promised to give man (Gal. 3:14). God called us from the heavens to the heavenly things that we might become partakers of His Holy Spirit and share in His Holy Spirit. It is by God’s Holy Spirit that we can live a heavenly life on earth and partake of the divine holiness. As partakers of the Holy Spirit, we partake of God as our enjoyment. See note 141 in ch. 3.
He 6:4d Spirit  -   2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; Eph. 1:13; 1 John 3:24; 4:13
He 6:5a tasted  -   1 Pet. 2:3
He 6:5b good  -   Heb. 6:1; cf. 5:13
He 6:51 word
The Greek word denotes the instant word of God. The good word of God here refers to the word of the beginning of Christ, which was mentioned in v. 1 and which was the milk the Hebrew believers tasted when they believed in the Lord. Now they had to go on to the deeper word, the word of righteousness (5:13), which is concerned not mainly with God’s redemption but with the way of His economy, and which was the solid food by which they could reach perfection, maturity (v. 1).
He 6:52 powers
Powers here refers to the divine power, and the age to come refers to the age of the coming kingdom. The divine power of the coming kingdom restores, renews, and revives the things that have become old (Matt. 19:28). At the time of their regeneration (Titus 3:5) the believers all tasted this divine power and were restored, renewed, and revived.
He 6:5c to  -   Heb. 2:5
He 6:61 fallen
Fallen away refers to the fact that the Hebrew Christians deviated from the pure Christian faith by returning to their old, traditional, Judaic religion. In principle, this could be applied to any Christians who fall away from the right track of God’s way.
He 6:62a crucifying  -   cf. Heb. 10:29
Crucifying and putting modify the predicate renew. To renew unto repentance means to repeat the repentance that has been made already; this is not needed. To do this is to crucify again the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
He 6:71 rain
The rain here refers back to the five categories of good things mentioned in vv. 4-5.
He 6:72 produces
Produces vegetation is an illustration of being brought on to perfection, to maturity (v. 1). The believers, as the earth, are tilled for God’s sake that they may bring forth Christ, as the vegetation, to perfection, to maturity. By bringing forth Christ they partake of blessing from God.
He 6:81a thorns  -   Gen. 3:18
Strictly, the thorns and thistles here refer to the traditional things of the Hebrew believers’ old religion.
He 6:82 disapproved
Or, rejected, disqualified, counted worthless. The same word is used in 1 Cor. 9:27. If a believer would not be brought on to perfection, to maturity, but rather falls back to the old things, he will be disapproved, be counted worthless, by God.
He 6:83 near
Once saved, the believers can never be a real curse. However, if they do not go on to grow Christ but rather hold on to things that displease God, they are near the curse of suffering the punishment of God’s governmental dealing. (This should be considered with the discipline or chastisement in 12:7-8.) Being near a curse is absolutely different from the suffering of eternal perdition, which is the real curse.
He 6:84b burned  -   1 Cor. 3:13, 15
The earth could never be burned, but what it brings forth could be burned. The believers could never be burned, but all they bring forth that is not according to God’s economy will be burned. The believers are God’s cultivated land. Whatever they grow as wood, grass, and stubble will be burned (1 Cor. 3:9, 12).
He 6:91 things
To bring forth thorns and thistles (v. 8) is not a thing that belongs to salvation. To give heed to the things that we have heard (2:1), to be diligent to enter into the promised rest (4:11), to come forward to the throne of grace (4:16), and to be brought on to perfection, to maturity (v. 1) are things that belong to salvation.
He 6:92 salvation
Salvation here refers to God’s full salvation, the “so great a salvation” mentioned in 2:3, including the saving mentioned in 7:25, the salvation mentioned in Phil. 1:19 and 2:12, and the salvation of the soul mentioned in 1 Pet. 1:9. To be so saved is to be saved from being near the curse of suffering the punishment of God’s governmental dealing, mentioned in v. 8.
He 6:10a work  -   1 Thes. 1:3
He 6:10b name  -   Mark 9:41
He 6:101c ministered  -   Heb. 13:16; Rom. 12:13; 2 Cor. 8:4; Phil. 4:15, 16
Referring to the ministering of material things to the needy saints.
He 6:11a assurance  -   Heb. 3:14; 10:22
He 6:11b hope  -   Heb. 3:6; 6:18; 7:19; 1 Pet. 1:13
He 6:11c until  -   Heb. 3:6, 14
He 6:121 sluggish
Or, dull; as in 5:11.
He 6:12a imitators  -   Heb. 13:7; 1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2:14
He 6:12b faith  -   2 Thes. 1:4; Rev. 13:10
He 6:12c inheriting  -   Heb. 11:9
He 6:13a swore  -   Gen. 22:16; Luke 1:73
He 6:14a Surely  -   Gen. 22:17
He 6:15a endured  -   Rom. 4:17-21
He 6:15b promise  -   Gal. 3:16-18
He 6:17a heirs  -   Heb. 11:9
He 6:17b unchangeableness  -   Psa. 33:11; 110:4
He 6:181 two
These two things are God’s promise and oath (v. 17).
He 6:18a lie  -   Num. 23:19; Titus 1:2
He 6:182 fled
Lit., fled intensively; implying to flee to a safeguard. Cf. Acts 14:6.
He 6:183 refuge
The Lord Jesus entered the heavens, the Holy of Holies within the veil, as mentioned in v. 20, and with Him is the heavenly haven for our refuge, which we can now enter in our spirit (10:19).
He 6:18b hope  -   Heb. 6:11
He 6:191 anchor
Anchor signifies that we are on a stormy sea and that without the anchor of hope we may shipwreck (1 Tim. 1:19).
He 6:192 enters
The heavens, into which the Lord Jesus entered, are today the Holy of Holies within the veil. Our hope, as a secure and firm anchor, has entered there, and we may now enter there in our spirit (10:19-20).
He 6:201a Forerunner  -   cf. Heb. 2:10
As the Forerunner, the Lord Jesus took the lead to pass through the stormy sea and enter the heavenly haven to be the High Priest for us according to the order of Melchizedek. As such a Forerunner, He is the Author of our salvation (2:10). As the Forerunner, He cut the way to glory, and as the Author, He entered into glory.
He 6:20b order  -   Heb. 5:6
Hebrews Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
He 7:11 For
According to the work and ministry of Christ, this book has a turn at this verse, a turn from earth to heaven. To the end of ch. 6, what is revealed is mainly Christ’s work on earth, typified by the priesthood of Aaron. That section is the word of foundation. From this verse, Christ’s ministry in heaven according to the order of Melchizedek is unveiled. This section is the word of perfection, which shows us how the heavenly Christ ministers in the heavenly tabernacle. His purifying of sins is typified by the work of Aaron, while His sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (1:3) is according to the order of Melchizedek (Psa. 110:1, 4). His work on the cross on earth, typified by the work of Aaron, affords us forgiveness of sins. His ministry on the throne in heaven ministers to us the overcoming of sin. His cross delivered us out of Egypt; His throne brings us into Canaan. The Hebrew believers participated in His work on the cross. Now they had to press on to enter into the enjoyment of His ministry on the throne.
He 7:12a Melchizedek  -   Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:20; Gen. 14:18-20
Melchizedek means king of righteousness, and king of Salem means king of peace (v. 2). As the King of righteousness (Isa. 32:1), Christ made all things right with God and made all things right with one another. Righteousness issues in peace (Isa. 32:17). As the King of peace (Isa. 9:6), Christ, through righteousness, brings in peace between God and us, and in such a peace He fulfills the ministry of His priesthood. He is the King who becomes the Priest; thus, His priesthood is kingly, royal (1 Pet. 2:9).
He 7:1b slaughter  -   Gen. 14:17
He 7:2a tenth  -   Gen. 14:20
He 7:21b king  -   Psa. 72:2; Isa. 32:1
At the beginning of this chapter we have the King, and at the end we have the Son of God (v. 28), indicating that Christ as our High Priest is both kingly and divine. His kingship maintains a condition that is full of righteousness and peace that He may minister the processed Triune God to us for our enjoyment; His divinity as the Son of God constitutes Him a High Priest who is living and full of life that He may be able to continue His priesthood perpetually.
He 7:2c king  -   Isa. 9:6; Eph. 2:14; Isa. 32:17; Psa. 72:3; 85:10
See note 21.
He 7:31 without
For all the important persons in Genesis, except Melchizedek, there is a genealogy. In the divine writing, the Holy Spirit sovereignly gave no account of the beginning of Melchizedek’s days or of the end of his life, that he might be a proper type of Christ as the eternal One, as our perpetual High Priest. This corresponds with the presentation of the Son of God in the Gospel of John. Being eternal, the Son of God has no genealogy (John 1:1). But as the Son of Man, Christ does have a genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38).
He 7:3a beginning  -   cf. John 1:1; 8:58
He 7:3b end  -   Heb. 1:12
He 7:3c perpetually  -   Heb. 7:24
He 7:41a great  -   Heb. 10:21
The fact that Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils testifies to the greatness of Melchizedek, who is a type of Christ. Christ, as a Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, is greater than the priests of the tribe of Levi, who offered tithes to Melchizedek through their father Abraham (v. 9), since they were in Abraham’s loins when he met Melchizedek (v. 10).
He 7:5a tithes  -   Num. 18:21
He 7:61a blessed  -   Gen. 14:19
The fact that Melchizedek blessed Abraham testifies again that he is greater than Abraham (v. 7).
He 7:71 lesser
Or, inferior.
He 7:72 greater
Or, superior, better.
He 7:8a of  -   Psa. 110:4; Heb. 5:6
He 7:8b lives  -   John 14:19; Rev. 1:18
He 7:91 Levi
This corresponds with the fact that all the human race sinned in Adam, since all the human race was in the loins of Adam when he sinned (Rom. 5:12).
He 7:111 Priest
This book is focused on the heavenly Christ, and the chief point concerning this Christ is that He is a Priest not according to the order of Aaron but according to the order of Melchizedek. All the other aspects of Christ in the foregoing chapters, such as His being the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Author of salvation, the Apostle, and the real Joshua, are the necessary qualifications for Him to be such a Priest, a Priest who can minister to us whatever we need and save us to the uttermost.
He 7:11a Melchizedek  -   Heb. 5:6
He 7:12a priesthood  -   cf. Heb. 7:24
He 7:121 transferred
I.e., transferred from the order of Aaron to the order of Melchizedek (v. 11), from the priestly tribe of Levi to the kingly tribe of Judah (v. 14), and from men to the Son of God (v. 28), who is both the only begotten Son and the firstborn Son.
He 7:122b transfer  -   Heb. 8:7, 8, 13
This was a transfer from the law of letters to the law of life, according to which Christ has been appointed a living and perpetual High Priest (v. 16).
He 7:131 belongs
Lit., has partaken of.
He 7:13a no  -   Num. 16:40
He 7:141 risen
The Greek word carries the sense of sprung up, sprouted.
He 7:142a Judah  -   Matt. 2:6; Rev. 5:5
In the Old Testament, Levi was the tribe of the priests, and Judah was the tribe of the kings. The Lord descended from the tribe of Judah, causing a transfer in the priesthood and combining in one tribe the priesthood and the kingship (Zech. 6:13), as manifested in Melchizedek, who was both high priest and king (v. 1).
He 7:15a likeness  -   Heb. 7:3
He 7:16a fleshy  -   Heb. 9:10
He 7:16b power  -   Rom. 1:4; Phil. 3:10
He 7:161 indestructible
Or, indissoluble. Christ was appointed the High Priest not according to the powerless letters of law but according to the powerful element of an indestructible life, which nothing can dissolve. This life is endless, being the eternal, divine, uncreated life, and the resurrection life, which passed through the test of death and Hades (Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18). It is by such a life that Christ ministers today as our High Priest. Hence, He is able to save us to the uttermost (v. 25).
He 7:16c life  -   2 Tim. 1:10
He 7:17a order  -   Heb. 5:6
He 7:181a setting  -   Col. 2:14
The commandment, or the regulations, of the law concerning the Levitical priesthood was set aside because it was merely in letters and thus was weak. It was not a matter of life but was a dead commandment in letters; thus, it was unprofitable.
He 7:18b weakness  -   Rom. 8:3
He 7:19a law  -   Rom. 8:3
He 7:191b perfected  -   Heb. 9:9; 10:1; Rom. 8:3
Because of the weakness of man, the law perfected nothing (Rom. 8:3).
He 7:192 thereupon
Upon the position occupied by the commandment.
He 7:193 better
This better hope is the priesthood in an indestructible life (v. 16).
He 7:19c hope  -   Heb. 6:18; 10:23
He 7:19d draw  -   Heb. 7:25; cf. Heb. 4:16; 10:22
He 7:21a The  -   Psa. 110:4
He 7:221 surety
The Greek word means a guarantee, bondsman, sponsor, and is from the root word meaning a hand into which something is placed as a pledge, implying that the guarantee, the surety, cannot be unbound. Christ is not only the consummator of the new covenant; He is also the surety, the pledge that everything in that covenant will be fulfilled. That Christ has become the surety of a better covenant is based on the fact that He is the living and perpetual High Priest.
He 7:22a better  -   Heb. 8:6
He 7:22b covenant  -   Heb. 8:8; 9:15; 12:24
He 7:24a abides  -   Rom. 6:9; Rev. 1:18
He 7:25a able  -   Heb. 2:18
He 7:251 to
Or, completely, entirely, perfectly, to the end, and for eternity.
He 7:25b come  -   Heb. 4:16; 11:6; 10:22; 7:19
He 7:25c lives  -   Heb. 7:8; Rev. 1:18
He 7:252d intercede  -   Rom. 8:34
Christ as our High Priest undertakes our case by interceding for us. He appears before God on our behalf and prays for us that we may be saved and brought fully into God’s eternal purpose.
He 7:26a High  -   Heb. 2:17
He 7:26b guileless  -   Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22
He 7:261 higher
In His ascension Christ passed through the heavens (4:14), so that now He not only is in heaven (9:24) but also is higher than the heavens, far above all the heavens (Eph. 4:10).
He 7:26c heavens  -   Heb. 4:14
He 7:27a offer  -   Heb. 5:1
He 7:27b own  -   Heb. 5:3
He 7:27c once  -   Heb. 9:12, 28; 10:10
He 7:27d offered  -   Heb. 9:14
He 7:28a weakness  -   Heb. 5:2
He 7:28b Son  -   Heb. 5:5-6
He 7:281c perfected  -   Heb. 5:9
Perfected means brought to an end by being completed, implying to be made qualified. The Son of God here must be not just the only begotten Son but also the firstborn Son, who has been perfected forever through His incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. Now He is completely perfected, equipped, and qualified to be our divine High Priest.
Hebrews Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
He 8:1a High  -   Heb. 2:17
He 8:1b right  -   Heb. 1:13; Mark 16:19; Col. 3:1
He 8:1c throne  -   Rev. 3:21
He 8:1d Majesty  -   Heb. 1:3
He 8:11 heavens
Christ, as the High Priest in the heavens, brings us into heaven, from the earthly outer court into the heavenly Holy of Holies, which is joined to our spirit by Him as the heavenly ladder (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51).
He 8:21a Minister  -   cf. Rom. 15:8
One who ministers as a priest. As a minister of the true (heavenly) tabernacle, Christ ministers heaven (which is not only a place but also a condition of life) into us that we may have the heavenly life and power to live a heavenly life on earth, as He did while He was here.
He 8:22b holy  -   Heb. 9:24
The Greek word for holy places, used as a noun, is plural here. It refers to all the holy places in the tabernacle; strictly, it refers to the Holy of Holies, the holiest of all the holy places (9:8, 12, 25; 10:19; 13:11).
He 8:3a offering  -   Heb. 5:1
He 8:31 gifts
See note 11 in ch. 5.
He 8:3b offer  -   Heb. 9:14; Eph. 5:2
He 8:51a example  -   Heb. 9:23
Or, copy, representation.
He 8:5b shadow  -   Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1
He 8:5c See  -   Exo. 25:40
He 8:61 ministry
Referring to the ministry of a priest; derived from the same Greek word as minister in v. 2.
He 8:62a Mediator  -   Heb. 9:15; 12:24
In His heavenly ministry Christ, as the Mediator, is the Executor of the new covenant, the new testament, which He bequeathed to us by His death.
He 8:63b better  -   Heb. 7:22
This better covenant not only was enacted upon better promises of a better law, the inner law of life (vv. 10-12), but also was consummated with Christ’s better sacrifices (9:23), which accomplished for us an eternal redemption (9:12), and the better blood of Christ, which purifies our conscience (9:14). Even more, the High Priest of this better covenant, the eternal Son of the living God, ministers with a more excellent ministry (v. 6) and in the greater and more perfect tabernacle (9:11).
He 8:6c covenant  -   Heb. 8:8; 9:15; 12:24
He 8:64 enacted
Just as the old covenant was the old law enacted by God, so the new covenant is the new law enacted by God, as mentioned in vv. 10-12.
He 8:65 better
The better promises are given in Jer. 31:31-34 and are quoted in vv. 8-12 of this chapter and vv. 16-17 of ch. 10.
He 8:6d promises  -   Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34
He 8:71a first  -   Heb. 8:13; 9:1
The first covenant is the old covenant, and the second is the new covenant.
He 8:72 place
Or, space; metaphorically, occasion, condition.
He 8:7b sought  -   Heb. 7:12, 18
He 8:8a Behold  -   vv. 8-12: Jer. 31:31-34
He 8:8b new  -   Heb. 8:13; 9:15; 12:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25
He 8:10a this  -   Heb. 10:16
He 8:101 laws
In Jer. 31:33, the source of this quotation, the word used is law (singular), whereas in this verse it is laws (plural). This proves that it is one law that spreads to become a number of laws. This one law is the law of life (see the law of the Spirit of life — Rom. 8:2). Every life has a law. The higher the life, the higher is its law. The divine life that we receive of God is the highest life; therefore, it has the highest law, the law referred to here. By imparting His divine life into us, God puts this highest law into our spirit, whence it spreads into our inward parts, such as our mind, emotion, and will, and becomes several laws.
The law of life differs from the law of letters. The law of life regulates us from within by and according to its life element, whereas the law of letters regulates us from without by and according to its dead letters. The law of dead letters depends on outward teachings, but the law of life depends on the inward consciousness. Since we all, great or small, have the law of life, we do not need outward teachings that are according to the law of letters (v. 11).
He 8:102 mind
Here, mind corresponds with inward parts in Jer. 31:33. This proves that the mind is one of the inward parts and that it is the interpretation of the term inward parts. The inward parts consist of not only the mind but also the emotion and the will. These three are components of the heart, mentioned in the succeeding clause.
He 8:103 inscribe
First, God imparts His laws into us; then He inscribes them on us. He does the inscribing while we are experiencing the law of life.
He 8:104 I
Lit., I will be to them for God.
He 8:105 they
Lit., they will be to Me for a people. It is according to the law of life that we are a people to God and that He is God to us. God’s relationship with us today is based fully on the law of life, so that today we do not need to walk according to the knowledge of the law of letters but should walk according to the consciousness of the law of life.
He 8:11a teach  -   1 John 2:27
He 8:111 Know
In this verse two Greek words are used for know: the first is ginosko, which signifies the outward, objective knowledge; the second is oida, which refers to the inward, subjective consciousness. In John 8:55 the Lord Jesus told the Pharisees that they did not know (ginosko) God the Father (even in the outward, objective knowledge), and that He did know (oida) the Father (in the inward, subjective consciousness). Both words are used in 1 John 2:29.
He 8:12a I  -   Heb. 10:17
He 8:121 propitious
The word is the root of the Greek word for make propitiation in 2:17. To be propitious is to make propitiation for our sins (see note 174 in ch. 2). In the new covenant four blessings are promised: (1) propitiation for our unrighteousnesses and the forgetting (forgiveness) of our sins (v. 12); (2) the imparting of the law of life by the imparting of the divine life into us (v. 10a); (3) the privilege of having God as our God and of being His people — the divine life’s enabling us to participate in the enjoyment of God in fellowship with Him (v. 10b); and (4) the function of life that enables us to know Him in the inward way of life (v. 11). According to the covenant that God consummated, these four blessings are His promise. But according to the testament that the Lord bequeathed to us, they are His bequests. See note 161 in ch. 9.
He 8:13a new  -   Heb. 8:8; 9:15
He 8:131 first
I.e., the old covenant. So also in 9:1.
He 8:13b disappearing  -   Heb. 7:12, 18
Hebrews Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
He 9:1a first  -   Heb. 8:7, 13; 9:15, 18
He 9:1b ordinances  -   Heb. 9:10
He 9:11c sanctuary  -   Heb. 9:24; Exo. 25:8
The same Greek word as for holy places in 8:2. Here, however, it is singular and, hence, is rendered sanctuary. The sanctuary is the entire tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9), including the first tabernacle, which is called the Holy Place (v. 2), and the second tabernacle, which is called the Holy of Holies (v. 3). See note 22 in ch. 8.
He 9:1d this  -   Heb. 9:11
He 9:2a tabernacle  -   Heb. 9:6; Exo. 26:35
He 9:2b lampstand  -   Exo. 25:31-39
He 9:2c table  -   Exo. 25:23-29
He 9:2d loaves  -   Exo. 25:30
He 9:2e Holy  -   Exo. 26:33
He 9:3a veil  -   Exo. 26:31-33
He 9:3b tabernacle  -   Exo. 40:21
He 9:3c Holy  -   Exo. 26:33-34; Heb. 9:8, 12, 25; 10:19; 13:11
He 9:41 Having
Regarding the place where the incense altar stood, there is apparently a discrepancy between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Exodus 30:6 says that the incense altar was put before the veil, i.e., outside the veil. This indicates clearly that the incense altar was put in the Holy Place, which is outside the veil, not in the Holy of Holies, which is within the veil. But here it says that the Holy of Holies has the incense altar. Therefore, most Christian teachers and Bible readers have thought that some error or misconstruction must somehow have occurred. But this is not so! The apparent discrepancy has great spiritual significance, as shown by the following points:
(1) The Old Testament record of the incense altar’s location implies the closest relationship between the incense altar and the Ark of the Testimony, over which was the expiation cover, where God met with His people (Exo. 30:6). The record even says that the incense altar was set before the Ark of the Testimony, with no mention being made of the separating veil that stood between them (Exo. 40:5).
(2) First Kings 6:22 (ASV) says that the incense “altar…belonged to the oracle.” The Hebrew word for oracle includes the meaning the speaking place of God. The oracle denotes the Holy of Holies, in which was the Ark of the Testimony with the expiation cover, where God spoke to His people. Thus, the Old Testament indicated beforehand that the incense altar belonged to the Holy of Holies. (Though the incense altar was in the Holy Place, its function was for the Ark of the Testimony in the Holy of Holies. On the Day of Expiation, both the incense altar and the expiation cover of the Ark of the Testimony were sprinkled with the same blood for expiation — Exo. 30:10; Lev. 16:15-16.) Hence, in Exo. 26:35 only the table of the bread of the Presence and the lampstand are mentioned as being in the Holy Place; the incense altar is not mentioned.
(3) The incense altar is related to prayer (Luke 1:10-11), and in this book we are shown that to pray is to enter the Holy of Holies (10:19) and to come to the throne of grace, which is signified by the expiation cover over the Ark of the Testimony in the Holy of Holies. Our prayer often begins with our mind, which is a part of our soul, signified by the Holy Place. But our prayer always ushers us into our spirit, signified by the Holy of Holies.
(4) On account of all the above points, the writer of this book had to consider the incense altar as belonging to the Holy of Holies. Verse 4 does not say that a golden altar was in the Holy of Holies, as the lampstand and the table were in the Holy Place (v. 2). It says that the Holy of Holies had a golden altar, because the altar belonged to the Holy of Holies. This concept fits the entire emphasis of the book of Hebrews, i.e., that we should press on from the soul (signified by the Holy Place) to the spirit (signified by the Holy of Holies).
The incense altar belongs to the oracle — the speaking place of God, i.e., the Holy of Holies. The incense altar typifies Christ in His resurrection as the sweet and fragrant incense, in which God extends to us His well-pleased acceptance. We pray with such a Christ in order to contact God that God may be pleased to speak to us. We speak to God in our prayer with Christ as the sweet incense, and God speaks to us in the sweet savor of this incense. This is the dialogue in the sweet fellowship between us and God through Christ as the sweet incense.
He 9:4a golden  -   Exo. 30:1-4, 6; 40:5; 1 Kings 6:22
He 9:42 altar
The Greek word here for altar can be translated censer. But here it refers to the incense altar, not the censer; according to the record of the Old Testament, there was no incense censer in the Holy Place or in the Holy of Holies.
He 9:4b Ark  -   Exo. 25:10-22; 26:34; 40:21
He 9:43c pot  -   Exo. 16:33-34
The arrangement of the furniture of the tabernacle portrays our experience of Christ. In the outer court were the bronze altar and the bronze laver (Exo. 40:29-32). This signifies that our experience of Christ begins, in an outward sense, with His redemption, which was accomplished on the cross, and the cleansing of the Holy Spirit, which is based on Christ’s redemption. In the Holy Place were the table of the bread of the Presence and the lampstand, with the incense altar located close to the Holy of Holies, in front of the Ark of the Testimony. The table signifies our experience of Christ as our life supply, and the lampstand, our experience of Christ as the shining light. These experiences are rather inward, in the intellect and consciousness of our being. The incense altar signifies our experience of Christ as the sweet incense ascending to God. This experience is deeper and more inward, leading to the deepest and most inward experiences, in the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Testimony, in which were the golden pot containing the hidden manna; Aaron’s budding rod; and the tablets of the covenant. The hidden manna in the golden pot signifies our experience of Christ as our life supply in the deepest way, an experience much deeper than that signified by the table of the bread of the Presence in the Holy Place. The budding rod signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry. This is deeper than the experience of Christ as the incense for our acceptance by God. The tablets of the covenant, which are the tablets of the Ten Commandments, signify our experience of Christ as the enlightening inner law, which regulates us according to God’s divine nature. This is deeper than the experience of Christ as the shining lampstand in the Holy Place. All these deepest experiences of Christ take place in our spirit, signified by the Holy of Holies.
He 9:4d rod  -   Num. 17:3, 5, 8, 10
He 9:4e tablets  -   Deut. 10:4-5; Exo. 34:1, 29; 25:21; 40:20
He 9:5a cherubim  -   Exo. 25:18-20
He 9:51b expiation  -   Exo. 25:17, 21; Rom. 3:25
Lit., propitiation place. See note 252 in Rom. 3.
He 9:6a into  -   Lev. 4:5-7; Exo. 27:21
He 9:6b first  -   Heb. 9:2
He 9:6c continually  -   Heb. 10:11
He 9:7a second  -   Heb. 9:3
He 9:7b high  -   Lev. 16:15-17
He 9:7c once  -   Exo. 30:10; Lev. 16:34; Heb. 10:3
He 9:7d blood  -   Lev. 16:14, 15
He 9:7e himself  -   Lev. 16:6, 11; Heb. 5:3
He 9:71 sins
Lit., ignorances. The word refers to those sins that are committed in ignorance of God’s law; hence, they are sins of ignorance (Lev. 4:2, 13, 22, 27; 5:17-18).
He 9:7f people  -   Lev. 16:15
He 9:8a Holy  -   Heb. 3:7; 10:15
He 9:81b way  -   Heb. 10:20
The first tabernacle, the Holy Place, signifies the old covenant, and the second tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, signifies the new covenant. The veil that closed off the Holy of Holies was rent (Matt. 27:51) by the death of Christ, which crucified the flesh (10:20; Gal. 5:24), and now the way of the Holy of Holies has been manifested. Hence, we do not need to remain in the Holy Place, i.e., the old covenant, the soul; we must enter into the Holy of Holies, i.e., the new covenant, the spirit. That is the goal of this book.
He 9:8c Holy  -   Heb. 9:3, 12, 25; 10:19
He 9:8d first  -   Heb. 9:2, 6
He 9:91a figure  -   cf. Heb. 9:23, 24; 8:5
Or, symbol, type; lit., parable.
He 9:92b gifts  -   Heb. 5:1
See note 11 in ch. 5.
He 9:9c unable  -   Heb. 10:1
He 9:9d conscience  -   Heb. 10:2, 22; 9:14
He 9:10a foods  -   Col. 2:16
He 9:101b washings  -   Heb. 6:2
Lit., baptisms; as in 6:2 (see note 1 there).
He 9:102 setting
Or, reformation, putting in order, setting things straight. The time of setting things right occurred at Christ’s first coming, when He fulfilled all the shadows of the Old Testament that a new covenant might replace the old. This is a right arrangement, a right ordering. Hence, it is a reformation. This is different from the restoration in Acts 3:21, which will occur at Christ’s second coming.
He 9:11a High  -   Heb. 2:17
He 9:111 the
Some ancient MSS read, the good things to come.
He 9:11b good  -   Heb. 10:1
He 9:11c tabernacle  -   Heb. 8:2; 9:24
He 9:11d made  -   Mark 14:58; 2 Cor. 5:1
He 9:11e this  -   Heb. 9:1
He 9:12a blood  -   Lev. 16:14, 15
He 9:12b own  -   Heb. 9:14; 12:24; 13:12; Matt. 26:28; Rom. 3:25; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 1:5
He 9:12c entered  -   Heb. 6:19, 20; 9:24
He 9:12d once  -   Heb. 7:27; 10:10
He 9:12e Holy  -   Heb. 9:3
He 9:121 obtaining
Christ accomplished redemption on the cross (Col. 1:20), but it was not until He entered into the heavenly Holy of Holies through the redeeming blood, i.e., when He brought His redeeming blood to offer it before God, that He obtained the redemption that has an eternal effect.
He 9:12f eternal  -   Heb. 5:9; 9:15
He 9:122 redemption
In the old covenant the blood of goats and calves only made expiation for people’s sins (Lev. 16:15-18); it never accomplished redemption for their sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (10:4). In Hebrew the root of the word for expiation means to cover. Thus, to make expiation means to cover sins; it does not mean to take away sins. Since Christ as the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world (John 1:29) by offering Himself once for all on the cross as the sacrifice for sins (v. 14; 10:12), His blood, which He sprinkled in the heavenly tabernacle (12:24), has accomplished an eternal redemption for us, even the redemption of the transgressions under the first (old) covenant (v. 15), transgressions that were only covered by animal blood. Thus, we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). See note 11 in Lev. 16.
He 9:13a blood  -   Heb. 9:19; Lev. 16:18
He 9:13b ashes  -   Num. 19:9
He 9:13c sprinkling  -   Num. 19:18, 19
He 9:131 defiled
Lit., made common.
He 9:141a blood  -   Heb. 9:12
The blood of Christ was shed for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:28), and the new covenant was consummated with it (10:29; Luke 22:20). It accomplished an eternal redemption for us (v. 12; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19) and purchased the church for God (Acts 20:28). It washes us from our sins (1 John 1:7), purifies our conscience (v. 14), sanctifies us (13:12), and speaks something better for us (12:24). By this blood we enter the Holy of Holies (10:19) and overcome Satan the accuser (Rev. 12:10-11). Therefore, it is precious and better than the blood of goats and bulls (vv. 12-13). We must value it highly and should not regard it a common thing, like animal blood. If we do, we will suffer God’s punishment (10:29-31).
He 9:142 eternal
On the cross Christ offered Himself to God in the human body (10:5, 10), which was under the limitation of time. But He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, who is of eternity and is not under the limitation of time. Hence, in the eyes of God, Christ as the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). His offering of Himself was once for all (7:27), and the redemption consummated through His death is eternal (v. 12), having an eternal effect. The span of His redemption fully covers the span of sin. See note 261, par. 2.
He 9:14b offered  -   Heb. 7:27; 9:28; 10:10, 12, 14; Eph. 5:2
He 9:14c without  -   1 Pet. 1:19
He 9:143d conscience  -   Heb. 10:2, 22
The blood of Christ purifies our conscience to serve the living God. To serve the living God requires a blood-purified conscience. To worship in dead religion or to serve any dead thing, anything that is outside God, does not require our conscience to be purified. The conscience is the leading part of our spirit. The living God whom we desire to serve always comes to our spirit (John 4:24) by touching our conscience. He is righteous, holy, and living. Our defiled conscience needs to be purified that we may serve Him in a living way. To worship God in our mind in a religious way does not require this.
He 9:144e dead  -   Heb. 6:1
Since we were dead (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13), whatever we did, whether bad or good, was dead works before the living God.
He 9:14f serve  -   1 Thes. 1:9
He 9:145g living  -   Heb. 3:12; 10:31; Acts 14:15; 1 Tim. 3:15
This book does not teach religion; rather, it reveals the living God (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22). To touch this living God we need to exercise our spirit (4:12) and have a blood-purified conscience in our spirit.
He 9:15a Mediator  -   Heb. 8:6; 12:24
He 9:15b new  -   Heb. 8:8, 13, 6; 7:22
He 9:151 transgressions
I.e., transgressions reckoned as sins according to the standard of the provisions of the first covenant.
He 9:15c first  -   Heb. 9:1
He 9:15d called  -   Heb. 3:1; Rom. 8:30; Eph. 4:1, 4
He 9:152 promise
The promise of the eternal inheritance is based on Christ’s eternal redemption, not on our work, and is different from the promise in 10:36, which is conditioned on our endurance and our doing the will of God. (See note 362 in ch. 10.) The eternal inheritance in the promise here is through the eternal redemption of Christ, whereas the great reward (10:35) in the promise in 10:36 is given by virtue of our endurance and our doing the will of God.
He 9:153 eternal
See note 341 in ch. 10.
He 9:15e inheritance  -   Acts 20:32; 26:18; Eph. 1:14; 1 Pet. 1:4
He 9:161 testament
In Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament. A covenant is an agreement containing some promises to accomplish certain things for the covenanted people, while a testament is a will containing certain accomplished things that are bequeathed to the inheritor. The new covenant consummated with the blood of Christ is not merely a covenant but a testament in which all the things that were accomplished by the death of Christ have been bequeathed to us. First, God gave the promise that He would make a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). Then Christ shed His blood to enact the covenant (Luke 22:20). Since accomplished facts are promised in this covenant, it is also a testament. This testament, this will, was confirmed and validated by Christ’s death and is being executed and enforced by Christ in His resurrection. The promise of God’s covenant is insured by God’s faithfulness; God’s covenant is guaranteed by God’s righteousness; and the testament is enforced by Christ’s resurrection power.
He 9:171 testament
See note 161.
He 9:172 in
Lit., over the dead.
He 9:18a first  -   Heb. 9:1
He 9:181 initiated
The word implies the sense of newly enacted, inaugurated.
He 9:18b blood  -   Exo. 24:6-8
He 9:19a took  -   Exo. 24:6-8
He 9:19b scarlet  -   Lev. 14:6, 49-52
He 9:21a tabernacle  -   Lev. 16:14-19, 33
He 9:221 without
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Without forgiveness of sins there is no way for the requirement of God’s righteousness to be fulfilled that the covenant may be enacted. But Christ’s blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins, and the covenant was enacted with His blood (Matt. 26:28).
He 9:22a blood  -   Lev. 17:11
He 9:23a examples  -   Heb. 9:9
He 9:231 heavenly
The tabernacle and all things pertaining to it were sprinkled with and purified by the blood of goats and bulls (vv. 21-23). That was a figure showing that the heavenly things needed to be purified by the blood of better sacrifices, which are the sacrifices of Christ (7:27; 9:14, 28; 10:10, 12, 14). Heaven and all things in heaven were defiled by the rebellion of Satan and the fallen angels, who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. So all the heavenly things needed to be purified. Christ accomplished this purification with His own blood when He entered into heaven itself (v. 24).
He 9:232b better  -   Heb. 9:26; 10:10, 12, 14
Christ offered Himself as the one sacrifice (v. 14; 10:12). This one sacrifice, viewed from its various aspects, can be considered many sacrifices. As Christ is the eternal Son of the living God incarnated to be the Son of Man, and as He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit, so His sacrifices, which are Himself, are better than the animal sacrifices. Those were shadows that could never remove sins (10:11), but His sacrifices are real and have put away sin once for all (v. 26). Thus He obtained an eternal redemption for us (v. 12).
He 9:24a enter  -   Heb. 9:12
He 9:241 holy
See note 22 in ch. 8.
He 9:242b figure  -   Heb. 9:9
Or, copy.
He 9:24c true  -   Heb. 8:2; 9:11
He 9:24d heaven  -   Heb. 4:14; 7:26
He 9:25a high  -   Heb. 9:7
He 9:25b Holy  -   Heb. 9:3
He 9:26a since  -   Rev. 13:8; cf. 1 Pet. 1:20
He 9:26b once  -   Heb. 9:12; 7:27; 10:10
He 9:261c consummation  -   Heb. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:20
Or, completion of the ages, end of the ages. Here it means the end of the Old Testament age, whereas the consummation of the age in Matt. 28:20 refers to the close of the church age.
Christ was foreordained for us before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20), and He was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Actually, His being slain occurred once for all at the consummation of the ages, when He offered Himself to God, in His first manifestation, for the putting away of sin. See note 142.
He 9:26d manifested  -   1 John 3:5, 8
He 9:26e putting  -   John 1:29
He 9:26f sacrifice  -   Heb. 9:23
He 9:271 reserved
Or, laid up.
He 9:27a die  -   Rom. 5:12; 6:23
He 9:272 once
As man has to die once and be judged after dying, so Christ died once to bear man’s sins (v. 28; 1 Pet. 2:24) and on the cross suffered judgment for man (Isa. 53:5, 11).
He 9:27b judgment  -   Acts 10:42; Rom. 2:16; Rev. 20:11-13
He 9:28a once  -   Heb. 7:27; 1 Pet. 3:18
He 9:28b bear  -   Isa. 53:11, 12; 1 Pet. 2:24
He 9:28c appear  -   Col. 3:4; 1 Pet. 1:7; 1 John 2:28; 3:2
He 9:28d eagerly  -   1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thes. 1:10
He 9:281 apart
Since in His first appearing Christ put away sin (v. 26; 1 John 3:5), His second appearing will be apart from sin, having nothing to do with sin.
He 9:282e salvation  -   Rom. 8:23, 24; Phil. 3:20-21
Salvation here means the redemption of our body and deliverance from the vanity and slavery of corruption of the old creation into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:18-23; Phil. 3:20-21). This is to be glorified (Rom. 8:17, 30).
Hebrews Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
He 10:1a shadow  -   Heb. 8:5; Col. 2:17
He 10:1b good  -   Heb. 9:11
He 10:1c never  -   Heb. 9:9
He 10:1d perfect  -   cf. Heb. 10:14
He 10:2a ceased  -   Heb. 10:18, 26
He 10:2b consciousness  -   Heb. 9:9
He 10:3a year  -   Exo. 30:10; Lev. 16:34; Heb. 9:7
He 10:4a impossible  -   Heb. 10:11
He 10:4b blood  -   Heb. 9:12
He 10:4c take  -   cf. John 1:29
He 10:5a Sacrifice  -   vv. 5-7: Psa. 40:6-8
He 10:5b body  -   Heb. 10:10
He 10:6a burnt  -   Lev. 1:3, 4
He 10:6b sacrifices  -   Lev. 4:3, 14, 29; Heb. 10:26
He 10:7a in  -   Luke 24:27, 44, 46; John 5:39, 46
He 10:71 roll
The Old Testament gives us a full record of Christ, either by plain words or by types (Luke 24:27, 44, 46; John 5:39, 46).
He 10:72b will  -   Heb. 10:10
The will of God here was to take away the first, the animal sacrifices of the old covenant, that the second, the sacrifice of Christ of the new testament, might be established. So in vv. 9-10.
He 10:91 first
The first here refers to the sacrifices of the first covenant, the old covenant; the second refers to the sacrifice of the second covenant, the new covenant, which sacrifice is Christ. Christ came into the world that He might, according to the will of God, put away the animal sacrifices of the old covenant and establish Himself as the sacrifice of the new covenant.
He 10:10a will  -   Heb. 10:7
He 10:10b sanctified  -   Heb. 2:11; 10:14, 29; 13:12
He 10:10c offering  -   Heb. 10:12; 7:27; 9:14
He 10:10d body  -   Heb. 10:5; 1 Pet. 2:24
He 10:101e once  -   Heb. 9:28
The main thought in vv. 1-18 is that Christ has removed sins, accomplishing what all the Levitical sacrifices were unable to do. Having put away sin once for all, Christ has now imparted Himself into us as the divine life so that through the working of this divine life we may become the corporate reproduction of Himself.
He 10:111 stands
The priests in the old covenant stood daily and offered the same sacrifices again and again, because what they offered could never remove sins. But Christ put away sin (9:26) by offering Himself to God as the one sacrifice for sins, whereupon He sat down forever on the right hand of God (v. 12). His sitting in heaven is a sign and proof that the removing of sins has been accomplished. His sitting there is forever. Hence, He no longer needs to do anything for sin. He did it once for all. His sitting down forever after having offered one sacrifice for sins is in contrast to the priests’ standing daily to offer often the same sacrifices.
He 10:11a never  -   Heb. 10:4
He 10:11b remove  -   cf. John 1:29
He 10:12a offered  -   Heb. 10:10
He 10:12b sacrifice  -   Heb. 9:26
He 10:121c sat  -   Heb.1:3, 13; 8:1; 12:2; Eph. 1:20
See note 111.
He 10:122 forever
Lit., unto perpetuity. So in v. 14.
He 10:13a enemies  -   Psa. 110:1; Matt. 22:44; Acts 2:35
He 10:14a one  -   Heb. 10:12
He 10:141b perfected  -   cf. Heb. 7:19; 9:9; 10:1
Or, completed. Christ has already perfected and completed us through His one offering.
He 10:14c sanctified  -   Heb. 10:10
He 10:15a Holy  -   Heb. 3:7; 9:8
He 10:16a This  -   Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10
He 10:17a their  -   Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12
He 10:18a no  -   Heb. 10:26, 2
He 10:19a boldness  -   Heb. 4:16
He 10:191b entering  -   Heb. 9:25; cf. Heb. 9:7
The Holy of Holies today is in heaven, where the Lord Jesus is (9:12, 24). How, then, can we enter the Holy of Holies while we are still on earth? The secret is our spirit, referred to in 4:12. The very Christ who is in heaven is now also in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). As the heavenly ladder (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51), He joins our spirit to heaven and brings heaven into our spirit. Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. There we meet with God, who is on the throne of grace. See note 161 in ch. 4.
He 10:19c Holy  -   Heb. 9:3
He 10:19d blood  -   Heb. 9:12
He 10:201 new
Lit., recently opened.
He 10:20a way  -   Heb. 9:8
He 10:202b veil  -   Exo. 26:33; Heb. 9:3; Matt. 27:51
This is the second veil (9:3) within the tabernacle, which veil typifies the flesh of Christ. When Christ’s flesh was crucified, this veil was rent (Matt. 27:51), thus opening the way for us, those who were alienated from God, who is signified by the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24), to enter into the Holy of Holies to contact Him and take Him as the tree of life for our enjoyment. This implies that because our old man was crucified with Christ, we have an open way to contact and enjoy God in our spirit as our life and life supply.
He 10:20c flesh  -   John 1:14; Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:14; Eph. 2:15
He 10:21a great  -   Heb. 7:4
He 10:21b Priest  -   Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:26
He 10:21c house  -   Heb. 3:6
He 10:221a come  -   Heb. 4:16; 7:25; cf. Heb. 7:19
Come forward (to the Holy of Holies) is in contrast to shrink back (to Judaism) in vv. 38-39.
He 10:22b Holy  -   Heb. 9:8
He 10:22c assurance  -   Heb. 6:11
He 10:22d sprinkled  -   Heb. 9:14
He 10:222 bodies
Both the bodies and the pure water here are figurative, like the spot, the wrinkle, and the water in Eph. 5:26-27. The body refers to our visible outward being, just as the heart refers to our invisible inward being. The pure water refers to the Lord’s living word that cleanses our outward conduct and walk (cf. John 15:3).
He 10:22e washed  -   cf. Exo. 29:4; 40:12; Lev. 8:6
He 10:23a hold  -   Heb. 3:6, 14; 4:14
He 10:23b confession  -   Heb. 3:1; 4:14
He 10:23c hope  -   Heb. 3:6; 6:11, 18; 7:19
He 10:23d faithful  -   1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 1 Thes. 5:24; 2 Tim. 2:13
He 10:251 abandoning
For the Hebrew believers, at their time and in their situation, to abandon their own assembling together would have been to abandon the new covenant way of contacting God, to abandon the church and return to their old religion — Judaism. This would have broken God’s administration of grace, thus constituting a serious sin before God (v. 26).
He 10:252 assembling
Our assembling together as Christians. In those days the Hebrews who believed in the Lord had come out of Judaism and had formerly gone to the gatherings in Judaism. When they believed in Christ and became Christians, they attended Christian gatherings; this equaled their being separated from Judaism. Therefore, if any of them had gone back to the gatherings in Judaism, that would have been equivalent to their being separated from the proper Christian assemblings, which are according to God’s New Testament economy. Hence, Paul exhorted them not to abandon their own assembling together as Christians.
He 10:25a exhorting  -   Heb. 3:13
He 10:25b day  -   1 Cor. 3:13; 2 Pet. 3:10
He 10:25c near  -   Rom. 13:12; James 5:8
He 10:261 sin
To sin willfully here means to abandon one’s own assembling together with the church. The Hebrew believers had been instructed to abandon Judaism and remain under the new covenant. If they had still returned to Judaism, they would have abandoned their own assembling with the church. This would have constituted a willful sin in the eyes of God, in that it would have been committed after they had received the knowledge of the truth, after they had come to know that God had abandoned Judaism, which was formed according to the old covenant, and had initiated the new and living way of contacting God according to the new covenant.
He 10:262 truth
Truth here refers to the things disclosed in the foregoing chapters and verses; those things afforded the Hebrew believers the full knowledge that God had annulled the old covenant and had established the new.
He 10:263a no  -   Heb. 10:18, 2
If the Hebrew believers had abandoned the church and returned to Judaism, there would have remained no sacrifice for sins in the economy of God, for all the sacrifices of the old covenant had been altogether replaced by the one sacrifice of Christ. Since Christ offered Himself once for all as the sacrifice for our sins (7:27; 10:10, 12), the sacrifice for sins ceased (v. 2). It was taken away by Christ (v. 9), who offered Himself to God as the real sacrifice for our sins.
He 10:26b sacrifice  -   Heb. 10:6
He 10:27a fearful  -   Heb. 10:31
He 10:27b judgment  -   Heb. 10:30
He 10:27c fervor  -   Psa. 79:5; Ezek. 38:19; Zeph. 1:18; 3:8
He 10:27d consume  -   Isa. 26:11
He 10:28a Anyone  -   Deut. 17:2-7; Heb. 2:2
He 10:28b two  -   Num. 35:30; Deut. 19:15
He 10:29a By  -   Heb. 12:25
He 10:29b how  -   Heb. 2:3
He 10:291 worse
This is different from suffering the second death, which is to perish in the lake of fire for eternity (Rev. 20:6, 14; 21:8). Although believers cannot be lost, they may suffer some dispensational punishment for their failures. This punishment will be worse than that received by those who broke the law of letters.
He 10:292c trampled  -   cf. Heb. 6:6
In the new covenant the Son of God replaces all the sacrifices of the old covenant. If the Hebrew believers had returned to Judaism to offer any of the old sacrifices, they would have been, in effect, trampling underfoot the Son of God.
He 10:293 considered
If the Hebrew believers had returned to Judaism to offer the old sacrifices and thus rely on the blood of slain animals, they would have been, in effect, considering the precious blood of Christ a common thing. This would have been to seriously disregard the unique redemptive work of Christ.
He 10:29d the  -   Heb. 13:20; Matt. 26:28
He 10:29e sanctified  -   Heb. 10:14; cf. Heb. 9:13
He 10:294 insulted
Under the new covenant, through the redeeming blood of Christ, the Hebrew believers became partakers of the Holy Spirit (6:4), the Spirit of grace. If they had returned to Judaism, the Spirit of grace, who dwelled in them and worked in them, would have been insulted by their willful sin.
He 10:29f Spirit  -   Zech. 12:10
He 10:301a Vengeance  -   Deut. 32:35; Rom. 12:19
The Greek word conveys no thought of vindictiveness; rather, it implies a full meting out of justice to all parties.
He 10:30b The  -   Deut. 32:36
He 10:30c judge  -   Heb. 10:27
He 10:31a fearful  -   Heb. 10:27; 2 Cor. 5:11
He 10:31b living  -   Heb. 3:12; 9:14; 12:22
He 10:32a enlightened  -   Heb. 6:4
He 10:32b conflict  -   Phil. 1:29-30
He 10:32c sufferings  -   Rev. 1:9
He 10:331a spectacle  -   1 Cor. 4:9
A show exposed to the public, a gazingstock. The same thing happened to the apostles (1 Cor. 4:9).
He 10:33b reproaches  -   Heb. 11:26; 13:13; Rom. 15:3; 2 Cor. 12:10; 1 Pet. 4:14
He 10:33c partakers  -   1 Thes. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:8; Phil. 4:14; 3:10
He 10:34a bonds  -   Heb. 13:3
He 10:34b joy  -   Matt. 5:11-12; Acts 5:41; 1 Pet. 4:13
He 10:341 better
This better and abiding possession is the eternal inheritance (9:15) and the incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance that is kept in the heavens (1 Pet. 1:4). Under the old covenant the Jewish people inherited earthly things as their possession; but under the new covenant the believers inherit the heavenly riches as their possession. This better and abiding possession was a great incentive to the Hebrew believers to suffer the loss of earthly things.
He 10:34c possession  -   Heb. 9:15
He 10:35a boldness  -   Acts 4:13; Phil. 1:20; 1 Tim. 3:13
He 10:351b reward  -   Matt. 5:12; 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:8, 14; Heb. 11:26; Rev. 22:12
The reward is something in addition to eternal salvation. Eternal salvation is obtained through faith, having nothing to do with our works (Eph. 2:8-9), whereas the reward is given for the work that we do after we are saved (1 Cor. 3:8, 14). We may not receive a reward but may suffer loss, even though we are saved, because we are void of the work that the Lord approves (1 Cor. 3:15). The reward will be given to us at the Lord’s coming back, according to our works (Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; 1 Cor. 4:5). What we receive will be decided at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) and will be enjoyed in the coming kingdom (Matt. 25:21, 23). The apostle Paul strived to gain the reward (1 Cor. 9:24-27; Phil. 3:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:7-8). Even Moses looked away to the reward (11:26; see note 3 there). Here the Hebrew believers were charged not to miss the reward — the coming Sabbath rest (4:9), the enjoyment of Christ and the reigning with Christ in the coming kingdom.
He 10:36a endurance  -   Heb. 12:1
He 10:361 will
The will of God here for the Hebrew believers was that they take the new covenant way (vv. 19-23) and remain with the church (v. 25), not shrinking back to Judaism (vv. 38-39) but suffering persecution from Judaism (vv. 32-34). For this they would receive the promise of a great reward (v. 35) at the Lord’s coming back (v. 37).
He 10:362b promise  -   Heb. 4:1, 9
The promise here is the promise of the Sabbath rest mentioned in 4:9, a rest in which we will reign with Christ in the coming kingdom. That will be the great reward mentioned in v. 35, which is the gaining of the soul mentioned in v. 39. This promise is conditioned on our endurance and our doing the will of God. It differs from the promise in 9:15. See note 2 there.
He 10:37a come  -   Hab. 2:3; Rev. 22:20
He 10:38a righteous  -   Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11
He 10:38b by  -   2 Cor. 5:7
He 10:381 faith
After this verse and the next, ch. 11 gives a full definition of faith.
He 10:391 shrink
For the Hebrew believers to shrink back to Judaism was for them to shrink back to ruin, which is not eternal perdition but punishment meted out by the living God (vv. 29-31). See next note.
He 10:392 ruin
The ruin here is the punishment mentioned in vv. 27-31, which will come upon those who forsake the new covenant and return to Judaism, thus trampling underfoot the Son of God, regarding Christ’s precious blood a common thing, like animal blood, and insulting the Spirit of grace.
He 10:393a gaining  -   Matt. 16:25; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25; 1 Pet. 1:9
Or, saving, preserving, possessing. Our being is of three parts — spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23), and our soul is different from our spirit. At the time that we believed in the Lord Jesus and were saved, our spirit was regenerated with the Spirit of God (John 3:6). But we must wait until the Lord Jesus comes back for our body to be redeemed, saved, and transfigured (Rom. 8:23-25; Phil. 3:21). Concerning the saving, or gaining, of our soul, it depends on how we deal with our soul in following the Lord after we are saved and regenerated. If we lose our soul now for the Lord’s sake, we will save it (Matt. 16:25; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25; 1 Pet. 1:9), and it will be saved, or gained, at the Lord’s coming back (v. 37). This gaining of the soul will be the reward (v. 35) of the kingdom to the overcoming followers of the Lord (Matt. 16:22-28).
Hebrews Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
He 11:11a faith  -   Heb. 10:38, 39
After presenting in the first ten chapters a thorough comparison of Judaism and God’s economy, this book charges the Hebrew believers, who were in danger of shrinking back, to live, to walk, to go on, by faith (10:38-39), that is, not by appearance (2 Cor. 5:7). Then, in ch. 11 it goes on to define faith according to the history of faith. Both the eternal inheritance (9:15) and the great reward (10:35) promised by God are things hoped for and things not seen. Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for. Hence, it is the assurance, the confidence, the confirmation, the reality, the essence, the supporting ground, of things hoped for, the foundation that supports the things hoped for. Faith is also the conviction of things not seen. It convinces us of what we do not see. Hence, it is the evidence, the proof, of things not seen.
He 11:12 substantiation
The same Greek word is used for substance in 1:3, assurance in 3:14, and confidence (in which one knows that he has a sure foundation) in 2 Cor. 11:17. Moreover, it can be translated confirmation, reality, essence (which denotes the real nature of things, as opposed to the appearance), foundation, or supporting ground. The word means, primarily, substance, but here it denotes the substantiating of the substance (of the things hoped for); hence, it is translated substantiation. The word substantiate is substance in verb form; to substantiate is to give substance to the reality of the substance not seen. This is the action of faith. Therefore, it says here that faith is the substantiation of things hoped for.
He 11:13b hoped  -   Heb. 3:6; 6:11; 7:19; 10:23; 1 Pet. 1:3
The unbelievers, being without Christ, have no hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thes. 4:13). But we, the believers in Christ, are a people of hope. The calling that we receive from God brings us hope (Eph. 1:18; 4:4). We have been regenerated unto a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3). Our Christ, who is in us, is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27; 1 Tim. 1:1), which will issue in the redemption, the transfiguration, of our body in glory (Rom. 8:23-25). This is the hope of salvation (1 Thes. 5:8), a blessed hope (Titus 2:13), a good hope (2 Thes. 2:16), the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2; 3:7); it is also the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2), the hope of the gospel (Col. 1:23), the hope laid up for us in the heavens (Col. 1:5). We should keep this hope always (1 John 3:3) and boast in it (Rom. 5:2). Our God is the God of hope (Rom. 15:13), and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we can have hope (Rom. 15:4) all the time in God (1 Pet. 1:21) and can rejoice in it (Rom. 12:12). This book charges us to hold fast the boast of hope firm to the end (3:6), to show diligence unto the full assurance of our hope until the end (6:11), and to lay hold of the hope set before us (6:18). It also tells us that the new covenant brings in a better hope, through which we draw near to God (7:19). Our life should be a life of hope, which accompanies and abides with faith (1 Pet. 1:21; 1 Cor. 13:13). We should follow Abraham, who beyond hope believed in hope (Rom. 4:18).
He 11:14 conviction
The conviction of truth. The Greek word can be translated evidence, or proof.
He 11:15c not  -   Heb. 11:7; 2 Cor. 4:18
All things hoped for are things not seen (Rom. 8:24-25). As people of hope, we should aim our life not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Hence, we walk by faith, not by appearance (2 Cor. 5:7).
He 11:2a testimony  -   Heb. 11:4, 5, 39
He 11:31 By
From v. 3 this chapter presents to us a brief history of faith — from God’s creation, through all the generations of God’s chosen people, to the New Testament believers (v. 40) — to prove that faith is the unique pathway by which God’s seekers receive His promise and take His way.
He 11:32a universe  -   Heb. 1:2
Lit., ages. See note 25 in ch. 1.
He 11:33b word  -   Psa. 33:6, 9; John 1:1, 3; 2 Pet. 3:5
The Greek word denotes the instant word.
He 11:3c being  -   Rom. 4:17; John 1:3
He 11:4a Abel  -   Gen. 4:4
He 11:41 more
This more excellent sacrifice was a type of Christ, who is the real “better sacrifices” (9:23).
He 11:4b Cain  -   Gen. 4:3, 5
He 11:4c testimony  -   Heb. 11:2, 5, 39
He 11:4d testifying  -   Gen. 4:4
He 11:42 faith
Lit., it.
He 11:4e speaks  -   Gen. 4:10; Heb. 12:24
He 11:5a Enoch  -   Gen. 5:21-24
He 11:5b testimony  -   Heb. 11:2, 4, 39
He 11:61 be
Or, please Him.
He 11:6a comes  -   Heb. 4:16; 7:25, 19; 10:22
He 11:62b diligently  -   Psa. 24:6; 27:8; 105:4; 119:2
Lit., seek Him out.
He 11:7a Noah  -   Gen. 6:8, 9, 13-22
He 11:7b prepared  -   1 Pet. 3:20
He 11:7c heir  -   Heb. 1:14; 6:17; 1 Pet. 3:7; James 2:5
He 11:8a Abraham  -   Gen. 12:1-5
He 11:8b go  -   Acts 7:3-4
He 11:8c receive  -   Gen. 12:7; 17:8
He 11:81 not
This afforded Abraham constant opportunity to exercise his faith to trust in God for His instant leading, taking God’s presence as the map for his traveling.
He 11:9a land  -   Acts 7:5
He 11:9b tents  -   Gen. 12:8; 13:3, 18; 18:1; 24:67; 26:17, 25; 25:27; 31:25; 33:19; 35:21
He 11:9c heirs  -   Heb. 6:17
He 11:101a city  -   Heb. 11:16; 12:22; 13:14; Rev. 21:2, 10
This is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22), the Jerusalem above (Gal. 4:26), the holy city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2; 3:12), which God has prepared for His people (v. 16), and the tabernacle of God, in which God will dwell with men for eternity (Rev. 21:3). As the patriarchs waited for this city, so we also seek it (13:14).
He 11:10b foundations  -   Rev. 21:14, 19
He 11:10c God  -   Heb. 11:16
He 11:11a Sarah  -   Gen. 17:19, 21; 18:12-14; 21:2
He 11:11b faithful  -   Heb. 10:23; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Tim. 2:13
He 11:12a dead  -   Rom. 4:19
He 11:121b stars  -   Gen. 15:5; 22:17
The stars of heaven signify Abraham’s heavenly descendants, the descendants who are of faith (Gal. 3:7, 29), whereas the sand by the seashore signifies Abraham’s earthly descendants, the descendants in the flesh.
He 11:12c sand  -   Gen. 22:17; 32:12; cf. Gen. 13:16
See note 121.
He 11:122 seashore
Lit., the lip of the sea.
He 11:13a these  -   Matt. 13:17
He 11:131 in
Lit., according to.
He 11:13b not  -   Heb. 11:39
He 11:13c seeing  -   John 8:56
He 11:13d strangers  -   Gen. 17:8; 23:4; 47:9; 1 Chron. 29:15; cf. 1 Pet. 2:11
He 11:132 sojourners
Or, pilgrims, exiles, expatriates. Abraham was the first Hebrew (Gen. 14:13), a river crosser. He left Chaldea, the idolatrous land of curse, crossed the flood, the river Perath, or Euphrates (Josh. 24:2-3), and came to Canaan, the good land of blessing. Yet he did not settle there; rather, he sojourned in the land of promise as a pilgrim, even as an exile, an expatriate, longing after a better country, a heavenly one (v. 16), seeking a country of his own (v. 14). This might imply that he was ready to cross another river, from the earthly side to the heavenly side. Isaac and Jacob followed him in the same steps, living on the earth as strangers and sojourners and waiting for the God-built city that has the foundations (v. 10). The word in vv. 9-16 may imply that the writer of this book intended to impress on the memory of the believing Hebrews the fact that they, as the real Hebrews, should follow their forefathers, considering themselves strangers and sojourners on the earth and looking forward to the heavenly country, which is better than the earthly one.
He 11:14a country  -   Heb. 11:16
He 11:16a country  -   Heb. 11:14
He 11:16b heavenly  -   Heb. 12:22
He 11:16c not  -   Heb. 2:11
He 11:16d their  -   Exo. 3:6, 15; 4:5
He 11:16e city  -   Heb. 11:10
He 11:17a offered  -   Gen. 22:1-10; James 2:21
He 11:17b promises  -   Gen. 12:2, 7; 13:15-16; 21:12
He 11:18a In  -   Gen. 21:12; Rom. 9:7
He 11:19a able  -   Rom. 4:21
He 11:19b raise  -   Rom. 4:17
He 11:191 figure
Lit., a parable.
He 11:20a Isaac  -   Gen. 27:26-29, 39-40
He 11:21a Jacob  -   Gen. 48:9, 14-16, 20
He 11:21b worshipped  -   Gen. 47:31
He 11:211 leaning
This signifies that Jacob confessed that he was a sojourner, a traveler, on the earth (v. 13), and that God had shepherded him all his life long (Gen. 48:15).
He 11:22a Joseph  -   Gen. 50:24, 25
He 11:22b gave  -   Exo. 13:19
He 11:23a Moses  -   Exo. 2:2
He 11:23b lovely  -   Acts 7:20
He 11:23c king’s  -   Exo. 1:15, 16, 22
He 11:24a grown  -   Exo. 2:11
He 11:24b son  -   Exo. 2:10
He 11:25a ill-treated  -   Heb. 11:37
He 11:251 temporary
Or, for a while, fleeting, passing.
He 11:252 enjoyment
The enjoyment in Egypt, i.e., the enjoyment in the world, is sinful in the eyes of God. It is the enjoyment of sin, of a sinful life, and is temporary, fleeting, and passing.
He 11:261a Considering  -   Phil. 3:7-8
Or, accounting, esteeming.
He 11:262b reproach  -   Heb. 13:13; Rom. 15:3; Heb. 10:33; 1 Pet. 4:14
Christ, as the Angel of the Lord, was always with the children of Israel in their afflictions (Exo. 3:2, 7-9; 14:19; Num. 20:16; Isa. 63:9). Furthermore, the Scripture identifies Him with them (Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15). Hence, the reproach falling on them was considered His reproach, and the reproaches of those who reproached God fell also on Him (Rom. 15:3). The New Testament believers, as His followers, bear His reproach (13:13) and are reproached for His name (1 Pet. 4:14). Moses, choosing to be ill treated with the people of God (v. 25), considered this kind of reproach, the reproach of the Christ of God, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt in Pharaoh’s palace; for Moses looked away to the reward.
He 11:26c treasures  -   Exo. 1:11
He 11:26d looked  -   Heb. 12:2
He 11:263e reward  -   Heb. 10:35; Rev. 22:12
Because he was willing to suffer the reproach of the Christ, Moses will receive the reward of the kingdom. He was not allowed to enter into the rest of the good land because of his failure at Meribah (Num. 20:12-13; Deut. 4:21-22; 32:50-52), but he will be with Christ in the kingdom (Matt. 16:28 — 17:3). In referring to this, surely the writer intended to encourage his readers who were suffering persecution for Christ’s sake to follow Moses by considering the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the things they had lost, and by looking away to the reward. See note 351 in ch. 10.
He 11:27a left  -   Exo. 12:50-51
He 11:27b wrath  -   Exo. 10:28
He 11:271 persevered
Or, was steadfast.
He 11:27c seeing  -   Exo. 3:2, 16; 4:5
He 11:27d unseen  -   Col. 1:15; John 1:18
He 11:28a Passover  -   Exo. 12:21-27
He 11:28b one  -   Exo. 12:23, 12, 29
He 11:29a passed  -   Exo. 14:21-30
He 11:301 By
Nothing is mentioned here regarding the forty years during which the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, since they did nothing by faith there to please God, but rather provoked God by their unbelief during those years (3:16-18). Even their crossing of the Jordan River is not mentioned here, because that crossing was due to the delay caused by their unbelief. That crossing would not have been needed if they had not had the unbelief that disqualified them from entering the good land at Kadesh-barnea (Deut. 1:19-46) just a short time after they left Mount Sinai (Deut. 1:2).
He 11:30a walls  -   Josh. 6:20
He 11:30b encircled  -   Josh. 6:3-4, 12-15
He 11:31a Rahab  -   Josh. 6:22-25
He 11:31b received  -   Josh. 2:4, 6; James 2:25
He 11:32a Gideon  -   Judg. 6–8
He 11:32b Barak  -   Judg. 4–5
He 11:32c Samson  -   Judg. 13–16
He 11:32d Jephthah  -   Judg. 11–12
He 11:32e David  -   1 Sam. 16– 2 Sam. 24
He 11:32f Samuel  -   1 Sam. 7–16
He 11:33a overcame  -   Judg. 4:7, 14; 2 Sam. 5:19; 8:2; 10:12-19
He 11:33b worked  -   1 Sam. 12:3-5; 2 Sam. 8:15
He 11:33c obtained  -   2 Sam. 7:10-16
He 11:33d stopped  -   Dan. 6:22; Judg. 14:5-6; 1 Sam. 17:34-37
He 11:34a Quenched  -   Dan. 3:23; Isa. 43:2
He 11:34b escaped  -   Exo. 18:4; 1 Sam. 19:10; Psa. 144:10
He 11:34c mighty  -   Judg. 7:19-21; 1 Sam. 17:51; 2 Sam. 8:1-6
He 11:35a received  -   1 Kings 17:23, 24; 2 Kings 4:36
He 11:351 deliverance
Or, release. The Greek word means redemption (offered at a price).
He 11:352b better  -   Rev. 20:5; Phil. 3:11
The better resurrection is not only the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6), the resurrection of life (John 5:28-29), but also the out-resurrection (Phil. 3:11), the extra-resurrection, the resurrection in which the Lord’s overcomers will receive the reward (v. 26) of the kingdom. This is what the apostle Paul sought after.
He 11:36a mockings  -   Judg. 16:25; Jer. 20:7
He 11:36b imprisonment  -   Gen. 39:20; Jer. 37:15
He 11:37a stoned  -   1 Kings 21:13; 2 Chron. 24:21
He 11:37b murder  -   1 Kings 19:10; Jer. 26:23
He 11:37c ill-treated  -   Heb. 11:25
He 11:381 whom
These faith-people are an extra-people, a people on the highest plane, of whom the corrupted world is not worthy. Only the holy city of God, New Jerusalem, is worthy to have them.
He 11:38a deserts  -   1 Sam. 23:15; 24:1
He 11:38b mountains  -   1 Sam. 23:19
He 11:38c caves  -   1 Sam. 22:1; 1 Kings 18:4, 13
He 11:39a testimony  -   Heb. 11:2, 4, 5
He 11:39b not  -   Heb. 11:13
He 11:401 provided
Or, foreseen.
He 11:402a better  -   Heb. 7:19, 22; 8:6; 9:23; 11:35
The Greek word means superior, nobler, greater; hence, better. It is used thirteen times in this book: the better Christ (1:4), better things (6:9), a better hope (7:19), a better covenant (twice — 7:22; 8:6), better promises (8:6), better sacrifices (9:23), a better possession (10:34), a better country (11:16), a better resurrection (11:35), something better (11:40), and better speaking (12:24). (The other instance is in 7:7, where it is translated greater.) All these better things are the fulfillment and reality of the things that the Old Testament saints had in types, figures, and shadows. What God provided at that time was a picture of the things concerning us, the things that were to come in the new covenant and that are the true and real things, better, stronger, more powerful, nobler, and greater than their types, figures, and shadows. The Old Testament saints, who had only the shadows, need us for their perfection that they may share with us in the real things of the new covenant. Why, then, should we leave the real things of the new covenant and turn to the shadows of the old covenant?
He 11:403 apart
Both the participation in the kingdom for one thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6) and the sharing in the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:2-3; 22:1-5) are corporate matters. The kingdom feast will be for the overcomers of both the Old and New Testaments (Matt. 8:11). The blessed New Jerusalem will be composed of both the Old Testament saints and the New Testament believers (Rev. 21:12-14). Hence, apart from the New Testament believers, the Old Testament believers cannot obtain what God promised. To obtain and enjoy the good things of God’s promise, they need the New Testament believers to perfect them. Now they are waiting for us to go on that they may be made perfect.
Hebrews Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
He 12:11a cloud  -   Exo. 13:21, 22; Num. 9:15-22
The cloud is for leading people to follow the Lord (Num. 9:15-22), and the Lord is in the cloud to be with the people (Exo. 13:21-22).
He 12:12 witnesses
In Greek witnesses implies the sense of martyrs.
He 12:13 encumbrance
Or, weight, burden, impediment. The runners of the race strip off every unnecessary weight, every encumbering burden, that nothing may impede them from winning the race.
He 12:14b sin  -   Heb. 10:26
Sin here refers mainly to the thing that entangles us and prevents us from running the race, just as the willful sin mentioned in 10:26 would have kept the Hebrew believers away from the new covenant way in God’s economy. (See note 261 in ch. 10.) Both the encumbering weight and the entangling sin would have frustrated the Hebrew believers and restrained them from running the heavenly race in the new covenant way of following Jesus, who was rejected by Judaism.
He 12:1c run  -   1 Cor. 9:24, 26; Phil. 3:14; 2 Tim. 4:7; Gal. 2:2; 5:7
He 12:1d endurance  -   Heb. 10:36
He 12:15 race
The Christian life is a race. All the saved Christians must run the race to win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24), not salvation in the common sense (Eph. 2:8; 1 Cor. 3:15) but a reward in a special sense (10:35; 1 Cor. 3:14). The apostle Paul ran the race and won the prize (1 Cor. 9:26-27; Phil. 3:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:7-8).
He 12:21 Looking
The Greek word translated looking away unto denotes looking with undivided attention by turning away from every other object. The Hebrew believers had to look away from all the things in their environment, away from their old religion, Judaism, and its persecution, and away from all earthly things, that they might look unto Jesus, who is now seated on the right hand of the throne of God in the heavens.
He 12:2a unto  -   Heb. 13:13
He 12:22 Jesus
The wonderful Jesus, who is enthroned in heaven and crowned with glory and honor (2:9), is the greatest attraction in the universe. He is like an immense magnet, drawing all His seekers to Him. It is by being attracted by His charming beauty that we look away from all things other than Him. Without such a charming object, how could we look away from so many distracting things on this earth?
He 12:23b Author  -   Heb. 2:10
Or, Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, Pioneer, Forerunner. The same Greek word as in 2:10. All the overcoming saints in the Old Testament are only witnesses of faith, whereas Jesus is the Author of faith. He is the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith. In our natural man we have no believing ability. We do not have faith by ourselves. The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord (2 Pet. 1:1). When we look unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element. Then, spontaneously, a kind of believing arises in our being, and we have the faith to believe in Him. This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who imparts Himself as the believing element into us that He may believe for us. Hence, He Himself is our faith. We live by Him as our faith; i.e., we live by His faith (Gal. 2:20), not by our own.
As the Author and the source of faith, Jesus is also the Leader, the Pioneer, and the Forerunner of faith. He cut the way of faith and, as the Forerunner, took the lead to pioneer it. Hence, He can carry us in His footsteps through the pathway of faith. As we look to Him as the Originator of faith in His life and in His path on earth, and as the Perfecter of faith in His glory and on His throne in heaven, He transfuses and even infuses us with the faith that He originated and perfected.
He 12:24 Perfecter
Or, Finisher, Completer. Jesus is also the Finisher, the Completer, of faith. He will finish what He originated. He will complete what He inaugurated. If we look to Him continually, He will finish and complete the faith that we need for the running of the heavenly race.
He 12:2c cross  -   Phil. 2:8
He 12:2d shame  -   Psa. 69:19
He 12:25e sat  -   Heb. 1:3
From 1:3 this book points us continually to the Christ seated in heaven. In all his other Epistles Paul presents to us mainly the Christ who dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:10; 2 Tim. 4:22) as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to be our life and our everything. But in this book he points us particularly to the Christ who has sat down in heaven and who is of so many aspects, that He may care for us in every way. In Paul’s other Epistles the indwelling Christ is versus our flesh, self, and natural man. In this book the heavenly Christ is contrasted to the earthly religion and all earthly things. To experience the indwelling Christ, we need to turn to our spirit and contact Him. To enjoy the heavenly Christ, we need to look away from all things on earth unto Him, who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. By His death and resurrection He accomplished everything that is needed by both God and man. Now in His ascension He is sitting in the heavens, in the person of the Son of God (1:5) and the Son of Man (2:6), in the person of God (1:8) and man (2:6), as the appointed Heir of all things (1:2), the anointed One of God (1:9), the Author of our salvation (2:10), the Sanctifier (2:11), the constant Succor (2:16), the instant Helper (4:16), the Apostle from God (3:1), the High Priest (2:17; 4:14; 7:26), the Minister of the true tabernacle (8:2) with a more excellent ministry (8:6), the surety and the Mediator of a better covenant (7:22; 8:6; 12:24), the Executor of the new testament (9:16-17), the Forerunner (6:20), the Author and Perfecter of faith (v. 2), and the great Shepherd of the sheep (13:20). If we look to Him as such a wonderful and all-inclusive One, He will minister heaven, life, and strength to us, transfusing and infusing us with all that He is, that we may be able to run the heavenly race and live the heavenly life on earth. In this way He will carry us through all the lifelong pathway and lead and bring us into glory (2:10).
He 12:2f throne  -   Heb. 4:16
He 12:3a compare  -   Heb. 3:1
He 12:3b contradiction  -   John 5:16, 18; 7:30; 10:31; 11:53; 19:1-3, 5, 6; Matt. 27:39-44
He 12:31 fainting
Lit., becoming loosened.
He 12:41 sin
Sin here must refer to something evil in the sight of God that frustrates the believers and holds them back from the new covenant way, for it needs to be resisted, even unto blood.
He 12:5a My  -   Prov. 3:11, 12
He 12:51 discipline
Or, chastening. So in vv. 7, 8, and 11.
He 12:61a disciplines  -   Rev. 3:19
Or, chastens. So in vv. 7 and 10.
He 12:6b scourges  -   2 Sam. 7:14
He 12:71 discipline
From the viewpoint of God, the persecution from Judaism that the Hebrew believers suffered was a discipline, a chastening.
He 12:7a sons  -   Deut. 8:5; Prov. 13:24; 19:18
He 12:91 discipliners
Or, chasteners.
He 12:9a respected  -   Exo. 20:12; Eph. 6:2; cf. Deut. 21:18-21
He 12:92b Father  -   John 1:13; 3:6
Father of spirits is contrasted with fathers of our flesh. In regeneration we are born of God (John 1:13) in our spirit (John 3:6). Hence, God is the Father of (our) spirits.
He 12:9c live  -   Eph. 6:3
He 12:101a holiness  -   Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:15, 16; Lev. 11:45
Holiness is God’s nature. To partake of God’s holiness is to partake of His holy nature. It was common, unholy, for the Hebrew believers to remain in Judaism. They needed to be sanctified unto God’s new covenant so that they could partake of God’s holy nature. For that purpose, persecution was aroused to discipline them that they might be sanctified from the common.
He 12:111a peaceable  -   Heb. 12:14; Isa. 32:17; James 3:18
Peace is the fruit of righteousness (Isa. 32:17). Holiness is the inward nature, whereas righteousness is the outward behavior. God’s discipline helps the believers not only to partake of His holiness but also to be right with both God and man, that in such a situation of righteousness they may enjoy peace as a sweet fruit, a peaceable fruit of righteousness.
He 12:121 set
Lit., set upright.
He 12:12a hands  -   Isa. 35:3; Job 4:3, 4
He 12:13a straight  -   Isa. 40:3
He 12:131 paths
The Christian life is not a matter of theoretical doctrines for the mind to think about. It must consist of practical paths for our feet to walk on. All the sound, healthy doctrines in the Bible are paths that can be walked on. This is especially true with the book of Hebrews. First, this book ministers to us the highest and healthiest doctrines concerning Christ and His new covenant. Then, based on the proper doctrines that it shows us, it charges us to run the race and make straight paths for our feet. The first section of this book (1:1 — 10:18) deals with doctrines, and the second (10:19 — 13:25) deals with the race and the paths.
He 12:132 put
Or, dislocated, wrenched. An alternate meaning, turned aside, as in 1 Tim. 1:6; 5:15; and 2 Tim. 4:4, does not match the antithesis that follows, “but rather may be healed,” nor does it fit the context like the first meaning. The implication of the context is that the staggering Hebrew believers should abandon all appearance of the practices of Judaism (i.e., make straight paths) that they, the lame members (limbs) of the Body, might not fall into apostasy (i.e., not be put out of joint) but rather be brought fully into the new covenant way (i.e., be healed).
He 12:13b healed  -   Isa. 6:10; Matt. 13:15
He 12:14a Pursue  -   Rom. 12:18; 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:22
He 12:141b sanctification  -   Heb. 12:10; 2 Cor. 7:1
With God, holiness is His holy nature; with us, holiness is our sanctification, our being separated unto God. (See note 23 in Rom. 1.) The implication here is that while we are pursuing peace with all men, we must pay attention to the matter of sanctification before God. Our pursuing of peace with all men must be balanced by our sanctification before God, our being separated unto God, without which no one will see the Lord and have fellowship with Him.
He 12:151a fall  -   Gal. 5:4
The grace of God came to us through Christ (John 1:14, 17). Hence, it is also the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9). In our experience this grace is just Christ Himself (Gal. 6:18, cf. 2 Tim. 4:22). When we fall from grace we are brought to nought, separated from Christ (Gal. 5:4). Regarding this matter, Paul warned the churches of Galatia, which were in the same danger as the Hebrew believers, not to be separated from Christ by being turned aside to the law of the Jewish religion, lest they fall away from the grace of God, which is Christ Himself. We should not fall away from grace but should have grace (v. 28), be confirmed by grace (13:9), and stand in grace (Rom. 5:2). Both Galatians and Hebrews close with the blessing of grace (Gal. 6:18; Heb. 13:25).
He 12:15b grace  -   John 1:17; Rom. 5:2; 6:14; Heb. 4:16; 12:28; 13:9, 25
He 12:152c root  -   Deut. 29:18
According to the implication of the context, the root of bitterness must be a Judaizer who would have caused the Hebrew believers to be turned aside from the grace of God to the rituals of Judaism and thus to defile themselves in the sight of God, neglecting the holiness of God.
He 12:15d defiled  -   2 Cor. 7:1; Lev. 11:44; Neh. 13:29
He 12:16a fornicator  -   Heb. 13:4; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19, 21; Eph. 5:5
He 12:16b Esau  -   Gen. 25:29-34
He 12:161 birthright
Esau’s birthright as the firstborn son of Isaac was the double portion of land, the priesthood, and the kingship. Because of Esau’s profaneness in giving up his birthright, the double portion of land was given to Joseph (1 Chron. 5:1-2), the priesthood was passed to Levi (Deut. 33:8-10), and the kingship was assigned to Judah (Gen. 49:10; 1 Chron. 5:2).
We Christians, born of God, are the firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18) that He has reaped in His creation. In that sense we are the firstborn sons of God. Hence, the church, composed of us, is called the church of the firstborn (v. 23). As the firstborn sons of God, we have the birthright. This includes the inheritance of the earth (2:5-6), the priesthood (Rev. 20:6), and the kingship (Rev. 20:4), which will be the main blessings in the coming kingdom and which the profane, world-loving-and-seeking Christians will lose at the Lord’s coming back. Eventually, this birthright will be a reward given to the overcoming Christians in the millennial kingdom. Any worldly enjoyment, even one meal, could cause us to forfeit this birthright of ours. After such a serious warning, if the Hebrew believers had still preferred to indulge in “one meal” of their old religion, they would have missed the full enjoyment of Christ and would have lost the kingdom rest with all its blessings.
Esau was not the only one who lost his birthright (Gen. 25:29-34); Reuben was another who lost the blessing of the birthright (Gen. 49:3-4; 1 Chron. 5:1). Esau lost it because of his lust in eating. Reuben lost it because of the defilement of his lust. Both cases should be warnings to us. The word lest there be any fornicator in this verse might have been written with Reuben as the background.
Actually, what we are privileged to enjoy in Christ is the foretaste of the blessings in the coming kingdom. The proper enjoyment of this foretaste will usher us into the full taste of the kingdom blessings. If we do not enjoy Christ today as our good land, as defined in note 91 of ch. 4, how can we enter into His rest in the kingdom and inherit the earth with Him? If we do not exercise our priesthood today to contact Him and prayerfully minister to Him, how can we fulfill our priestly duty in the kingdom? If we do not exercise our spirit with the God-given authority to rule our self, our flesh, our entire being, and the enemy with all his power of darkness today, how can we be Christ’s co-kings and rule the nations with Him in His kingdom (Rev. 2:26-27)? Our enjoyment of Christ and the practice of the priesthood and kingship today are the preparation and qualification for our participating in Christ’s kingdom tomorrow!
He 12:17a desired  -   Gen. 27:30-40
He 12:171 no
No place for repentance does not mean that Esau had no ground to repent; it means that he had no ground, no way, to reverse by repentance the result of what he had done.
He 12:181a mountain  -   Exo. 19:11
The things mentioned in vv. 18-19 are earthly and physical, signifying the side of the law, where everyone, including Moses, was in fear and trembling (vv. 19-21).
He 12:18b touched  -   Exo. 19:12
He 12:18c fire  -   Exo. 19:18; Deut. 4:11
He 12:18d darkness  -   Deut. 5:23
He 12:18e gloom  -   Exo. 20:21; Deut. 5:22
He 12:19a sound  -   Exo. 19:13, 16, 19; 20:18
He 12:19b voice  -   Deut. 4:12; Exo. 19:19
He 12:19c entreated  -   Exo. 20:19; Deut. 18:16
He 12:20a If  -   Exo. 19:12, 13
He 12:21a full  -   Deut. 9:19
He 12:221 Mount
The things mentioned in vv. 22-24 are heavenly and spiritual, in contrast to the earthly and physical things listed in vv. 18-19. These things signify the side of grace, where both the firstborn and the spirits of righteous men are saved by grace. The people under the old covenant came to the side of the law, whereas we Christians, who are under the new covenant, come to the side of grace. Hence, we are not under the law but under grace (Rom. 6:14). This portion of the word (vv. 18-24), like Gal. 4:21-31, shows us that we are not under the bondage of the law but under the freedom of grace to be the heirs of the inheritance. This is our birthright! We should not give this up by falling away from grace (v. 15), but should have grace (v. 28). The things on the side of grace are heavenly, but not all are in heaven yet. A great number of the firstborn of the church are still on earth, while the spirits of righteous men, who are the Old Testament saints, are in Paradise, where Abraham is (Luke 16:22-23, 25-26) and where the Lord Jesus and the saved robber went after they died on the cross (Luke 23:43).
None of the six items listed on the side of the law is pleasant. First, there is a mountain set on fire. Who would approach such a place? Then there are the darkness, the gloom, and the stormy whirlwind. Last, there are the terrifying sound of a trumpet and the solemn, warning voice of words. All these present a fearsome sight. On the side of grace, however, everything is pleasant. The eight items here can be considered four pairs. The elevated Mount Zion and the beautiful heavenly Jerusalem are the first pair, denoting God’s habitation and the center of His universal administration. What a lovely place! The celebrating, jubilant angels, so closely related to the heirs of salvation to whom they minister (1:14), and the blessed firstborn of the church form the second pair in the scene. What a joyful demonstration of an angelic gathering! They celebrate the participation by the human heirs of salvation, the church of the firstborn, in the blessings of the new covenant. God, the Judge of all, and the spirits of righteous men, the Old Testament saints (their bodies, not resurrected, were not worthy to be listed in this portion) are linked as the third pair, showing that God, being righteous, justifies the righteous saints of old because of their faith. The dear Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, which is a better covenant, and His precious sprinkled blood, which speaks something better, compose the last pair, indicating that a better covenant was enacted with Jesus’ better blood, that Jesus died and bequeathed this new covenant as a new testament to His believers, and that He is now the Mediator, the Executor, of this new testament, bringing about the full realization of all the blessed facts contained within it. What a pleasant scene! What a contrast to the scene on the side of the law, where no God, no Savior, and even no angels are mentioned! It is no wonder that not one saved person is seen there. In the scene of grace there is the justifying God, the Savior, who is the Mediator of His new testament, with His speaking blood, the ministering angels with the assembly (the church) of the saved ones, and the spirits of the justified saints. On the side of the law the scene ends with the terrifying sound of a trumpet and the warning words. On the side of grace the scene ends with a sympathizing Mediator and a vindicating speaking. After seeing such a contrast, who would be so foolish as to leave the side of grace and turn to the side of the law? All eight items on the side of grace are not only heavenly and spiritual but also eternal. Hence, even when heaven is shaken (v. 26), these eight items that are eternal will still remain (v. 27).
He 12:22a Zion  -   Psa. 2:6; Rev. 14:1
He 12:222b city  -   Heb. 11:10, 16; 13:14; Rev. 21:2
See note 101 in ch. 11.
He 12:22c living  -   Heb. 3:12; 9:14; 10:31
He 12:22d heavenly  -   Gal. 4:26; Heb. 11:16; Rev. 21:2
He 12:22e myriads  -   Rev. 5:11
He 12:223 universal
Or, festal gathering. The Greek word means universal gathering, whole or full assembly, and is used to denote a group of people gathered to celebrate a public festival, such as the Olympic games. The entire new covenant age is a festival, and the myriads of angels, who are the ministering spirits rendering service to the heirs of salvation (1:14) under the new covenant, are a universal gathering celebrating the marvelous festival of “so great a salvation” (2:3), the greatest and most exciting “game” in the universe! The Lord’s word in Luke 15:7, 10, and 1 Pet. 1:12 may indicate this.
He 12:23a church  -   Heb. 2:12
He 12:231b firstborn  -   James 1:18
See note 161, par. 2.
He 12:232c enrolled  -   Luke 10:20
Though the firstborn of the church are not yet in heaven, they are enrolled in the heavens.
He 12:23d Judge  -   Gen. 18:25; Psa. 50:6; 94:2
He 12:24a Mediator  -   Heb. 8:6; 9:15
He 12:241b new  -   Heb. 8:8; 9:15
The Greek word for new here means fresh, youthful, with respect to age, while the word for new in 8:8, 13, and 9:15 means new, fresh, with respect to quality.
He 12:242c blood  -   Heb. 9:12, 14; 10:19; 13:12
In this book the blood of Christ is particularly prominent and crucial. It is the blood of the eternal covenant (13:20), with which the new and better covenant was enacted (10:29). Through this blood Christ entered once for all into the Holy of Holies and obtained an eternal redemption for us (9:12). By this blood Christ cleansed the heavens and all things in the heavens (9:22-24). This blood sanctifies us (13:12; 10:29), purifies our conscience to serve the living God (9:14), and speaks something better for us than the blood of Abel (v. 24). It is in this blood that we have boldness for entering the Holy of Holies (10:19). We should not regard this blood common, like animal blood; if we do, we will suffer God’s punishment (10:29).
He 12:24d sprinkling  -   Exo. 24:8; Lev. 4:6, 7, 17, 18; 16:14, 15, 18, 19; 1 Pet. 1:2
He 12:243 speaks
The blood of Christ not only redeems, sanctifies, and purifies; it also speaks. It is the speaking blood, speaking something better than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood speaks to God for accusation and vengeance (Gen. 4:10-15), whereas Christ’s blood speaks to God for forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, and redemption. Moreover, this precious blood speaks to God on our behalf, saying that by the blood (as unveiled in this book) the new covenant, which is eternal, has been enacted, and that in this new covenant God must give Himself and all His blessings to the believers in Christ who receive this covenant out of faith.
He 12:24e Abel  -   Gen. 4:10
He 12:25a speaks  -   Heb. 1:2; 2:3
He 12:25b escape  -   Deut. 17:2-6; Heb. 10:28; 2:2
He 12:25c escape  -   Heb. 10:29; 2:3
He 12:26a shook  -   Exo. 19:18
He 12:26b Yet  -   Hag. 2:6
He 12:27a removal  -   Heb. 1:10-12; Matt. 24:35; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 21:1
He 12:27b remain  -   Heb. 1:11-12; 13:8
He 12:281a kingdom  -   John 3:5; Rom. 14:17; Rev. 1:9
The gospel that the New Testament has preached to us is the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 3:1-2; 4:17, 23; 10:7; 24:14). We were regenerated into the kingdom (John 3:5) and were transferred into the kingdom (Col. 1:13). Now we are in the kingdom (Rev. 1:9), which today is the proper church life (Rom. 14:17). However, what we are in now and what is in the church today is the kingdom in its reality, whereas what will come with Christ’s return in the future will be the kingdom in its manifestation.
The kingdom in its reality, or the reality of the kingdom, is an exercise and a discipline to us (Matt. 5:3, 10, 20; 7:21) in the church today, whereas the kingdom in its manifestation, or the manifestation of the kingdom, will be a reward and an enjoyment to us (Matt. 16:27; 25:21, 23) in the millennial kingdom in the coming age. If we take the Spirit’s exercise and God’s discipline in the reality of the kingdom today, we will receive the Lord’s reward and enter into the enjoyment of the coming Sabbath rest (4:9) in the manifestation of the kingdom in the coming age; otherwise, we will miss the coming kingdom, we will not be rewarded with the manifestation of the kingdom at the Lord’s coming back, we will have no right to enter into the glory of the kingdom to participate in Christ’s reign in the millennial kingdom, and we will lose our birthright and therefore will be unable to inherit the earth in the coming age, to be the royal priests serving God and Christ in His manifested glory, and to be Christ’s co-kings ruling all the nations with His divine authority (Rev. 20:4, 6). To miss the coming kingdom and to forfeit our birthright does not mean that we will perish. It means that we will lose the reward but not our salvation. (See note 351 in ch. 10.) We will suffer loss but still will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:14-15). This is the basic concept on which all five warnings in this book are given and with which they are all pervaded. All the negative points of these warnings are related to the suffering of the loss of the reward in the coming kingdom, whereas all the positive points are related to the reward and enjoyment of the kingdom. All seven epistles in Rev. 2 and 3 conclude with this same concept — the reward of the kingdom or the loss of it. Only in light of this concept can we rightly understand and properly apply the word in Matt. 5:20; 7:21-23; 16:24-27; 19:23-30; 24:46-51; 25:11-13, 21, 23, 26-30; Luke 12:42-48; 19:17, 19, 22-27; Rom. 14:10, 12; 1 Cor. 3:8, 13-15; 4:5; 9:24-27; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:7-8; Heb. 2:3; 4:1, 9, 11; 6:4-8; 10:26-31, 35-39; 12:16-17, 28-29; and Rev. 2:7, 10-11, 17, 26-27; 3:4-5, 11-12, 20; 22:12. If we do not have this concept, the interpretation of these verses falls into either the extreme objectiveness of the Calvinist school or the extreme subjectiveness of the Arminian school. Neither of these schools recognizes the reward of the kingdom; even more, they do not see the suffering of the loss of the kingdom reward. Hence, both consider all the negative points in these verses as referring to perdition. The Calvinist school, believing in eternal salvation (i.e., that once a person is saved, he will never perish), regards all these negative points as applying to the perdition of false believers; while the Arminian school, believing that a saved person will perish if he falls, regards these points as applying to the perdition of believers who have fallen. But the complete revelation of the Bible shows that these negative points refer to the suffering of the loss of the kingdom reward. God’s salvation is eternal; once we obtain it, we will never lose it (John 10:28-29). But we may suffer the loss of the kingdom reward, even though we still will be saved (1 Cor. 3:8, 14-15). The warnings in Hebrews do not refer to the loss of eternal salvation but to the loss of the kingdom reward. The Hebrew believers had received the kingdom, but they risked losing the reward in the manifestation of the kingdom if they shrank back from the grace of God, from God’s new covenant way. This was the writer’s main concern in warning the staggering Hebrew believers.
He 12:282 have
Or, take. To have grace, especially for the Hebrew believers, was to remain in the new covenant to enjoy Christ.
He 12:28b grace  -   Heb. 4:16; 12:15; 13:9, 25
He 12:28c serve  -   Heb. 9:14
He 12:28d well-pleasingly  -   Heb. 13:21
He 12:28e fear  -   2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Pet. 1:17; 3:2
He 12:291 consuming
God is holy; holiness is His nature. Whatever does not correspond with His holy nature, He, as the consuming fire, will consume. If the Hebrew believers had turned aside to Judaism, which was common (unholy) in the sight of God, they would have become unholy, and the holy God as the consuming fire would consume them. God is not only righteous but also holy. To satisfy God’s righteousness we need to be justified through the redemption of Christ. To meet the demands of His holiness we need to be sanctified, to be made holy by the heavenly, present, and living Christ. Romans stresses more the matter of justification (Rom. 3:24) for God’s righteousness (Rom. 3:25-26), whereas Hebrews emphasizes more the matter of sanctification (2:11; 10:10, 14, 29; 13:12) for God’s holiness (v. 14). For their sanctification, it was necessary that the Hebrew believers separate themselves from the unholy Judaism unto the holy God, who has fully expressed Himself in the Son under the new covenant; otherwise, they would have defiled themselves with their old, profane religion and would be dealt with by the holy God as the consuming fire. That would be fearsome (10:31)! It is no wonder that Paul was very concerned about the fear of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:11).
He 12:29a fire  -   Deut. 4:24; 9:3
Hebrews Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
He 13:11a brotherly  -   Rom. 12:10; 1 Thes. 4:9
As indicated by its content, this chapter was written with a view to a proper church life. Nearly everything mentioned here, such as brotherly love and hospitality, is for the church life, not only for the Christian life.
He 13:12 continue
Or, remain.
He 13:2a hospitality  -   Rom. 12:13; 1 Pet. 4:9
He 13:2b entertained  -   Gen. 18:2-8; 19:1-3
He 13:31 Remember
This is to suffer with the suffering members of the Body of Christ, the church (1 Cor. 12:26).
He 13:3a ill-treated  -   Heb. 11:25, 37
He 13:41 marriage
In the church life, contact between brothers and sisters is unavoidable. Hence, to be protected from falling into defilement, we must hold marriage in honor and not behave loosely. This is a matter that seriously affects our birthright in God’s economy. Reuben lost the birthright because of his defilement (Gen. 49:3-4; 1 Chron. 5:1), and Joseph received it because of his purity (1 Chron. 5:1; Gen. 39:7-12; see note 161 in ch. 12). God will judge fornicators and adulterers, and the church too must judge them (1 Cor. 5:1-2, 11-13). Nothing damages the saints and the church life as much as this defilement.
He 13:42 among
Or, in every way.
He 13:4a fornicators  -   Heb. 12:16; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:9, 10; Gal. 5:19, 21; Eph. 5:5
He 13:43b judge  -   cf. 1 Thes. 4:6
This book concerns God’s holiness. The holy God will not tolerate any defilement among us. He will judge His people (10:30; 12:23).
He 13:51a love  -   2 Tim. 3:2
Surely money lovers cannot enter into the reality of the church life. We should always be satisfied with what we have so that we cannot be distracted from the church life by mammon. Since we have the Lord as our Helper, we should be content and at peace that we may be kept fully in the enjoyment of the church life.
He 13:5b satisfied  -   Phil. 4:11; 1 Tim. 6:8
He 13:5c I  -   Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5
He 13:6a The  -   Psa. 118:6
He 13:71 Remember
This is essential in the church life. The ministers of the word of God should have a manner of life that issues in an example of faith for the church members, the receivers of the word of God, to imitate. Then the church members not only will receive the word that the ministers minister but also will imitate the ministers’ faith, which is expressed in their manner of life.
Verse 7 is a continuation of vv. 5-6. Manner of life must refer to the living and behavior pursued by those ministers of the word of God, in which they had no love of money and were satisfied with what they had (v. 5a). Their faith must refer to the fact that they trusted in the Lord, their Helper, for their living (vv. 5b-6). The word that they ministered and the life that they lived must have been entirely Christ, and their faith must have been the faith in Christ, of which Christ is both the Author and the Perfecter (12:2). Such a manner of life and such a faith were surely worthy to be imitated by the believers, who received the word of God that the ministers ministered and who considered the issue of their manner of life.
He 13:7a leading  -   Heb. 13:17, 24; 1 Thes. 5:12
He 13:7b spoken  -   Acts 4:31
He 13:7c manner  -   1 Thes. 1:5
He 13:7d imitate  -   Heb. 6:12; 1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; 1 Thes. 1:6
He 13:81 Jesus
Christ, who is the word that the ministers of the word of God in v. 7 preached and taught, who is the life that they lived, and who is the Author and Perfecter of their faith, is perpetual, unchangeable, and unchanging. He remains the same forever (1:11-12). There must not be another Jesus and another gospel preached in the church (2 Cor. 11:4; Gal. 1:8-9). For a true and steadfast church life, we must hold on to the Christ who is the same yesterday and today, and even forever, and must not be carried away by various strange teachings (v. 9).
He 13:8a same  -   Heb. 1:12; Rev. 1:18; 22:13
He 13:9a carried  -   Eph. 4:14; cf. Acts 20:30
He 13:91b various  -   1 Tim. 1:3; Gal. 1:6-9; 2 Cor. 11:4
Various strange teachings are always used by Satan to cause dissension and even division in the church. Because of this, the apostle charged people not to teach different things (1 Tim. 1:3). The various strange teachings must have been taught at that time by the Judaizers. The writer warned the Hebrew believers not to let the teachings of the Judaizers carry them away from the church life under the new covenant.
He 13:92 confirmed
At that time, to be confirmed by grace was to remain in the new covenant to enjoy Christ as grace (Gal. 5:4) and not to be carried away back to Judaism to participate in the eating of food (sacrifices) in the Jews’ religious ceremonies.
He 13:9c grace  -   Heb. 12:15
He 13:93d food  -   Heb. 9:9-10; Col. 2:16
The food mentioned here, being in contrast to grace, is the food used in the ceremonial observances of the old covenant (9:10; Col. 2:16). The Judaizers attempted to use such food to carry away the Hebrew believers from the enjoyment of grace, which is the participation in Christ in the new covenant.
He 13:101 altar
This altar must be the cross on which the Lord Jesus offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins (10:12). According to the regulations concerning the offerings in the Old Testament, the sacrifice for sin, or the sin offering, the blood of which was brought into the Holy of Holies or the Holy Place to make expiation, afforded the offering priest or the offerer nothing to eat; the entire offering had to be burned up (Lev. 4:2-12; 16:27; 6:30). Hence, those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat from the altar of the sin offering (which in the New Testament fulfillment is the Lord’s cross). Verse 10 is a strong argument against the Judaizers’ using of food in their strange teachings to attempt to carry away the new covenant believers from the enjoyment of Christ. The Judaizers’ emphasis was on the food that they enjoyed in their religious services. But the writer of this book argued that in the sin offering, the basic offering for yearly expiation (Lev. 16), there was nothing for anyone to eat. With the sin offering, it is not a matter of eating it but a matter of receiving its efficacy. Now the real sin offering is Christ, who offered Himself to God for our sin and accomplished full redemption (better than expiation — see note 122 in ch. 9) for us that we may be brought into the enjoyment of God’s grace in Him under the new covenant. What we need today is not to eat the food of the old covenant services but to receive the efficacy of Christ’s offering and follow Him in the new covenant grace outside the camp, outside the Jewish religion.
He 13:10a eat  -   cf. 1 Cor. 10:18
He 13:111a bodies  -   Lev. 16:27; 4:21
The blood of the sin offering being brought into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Expiation to make expiation for the people and the bodies of the animals being burned up outside the camp (Lev. 16:14-16, 27) typify the blood of Christ, who is the real sin offering, being brought into the true Holy of Holies to accomplish redemption for us and the body of Christ being sacrificed for us outside the gate of the city of Jerusalem (v. 12).
He 13:11b blood  -   Lev. 16:14-16
He 13:121a sanctify  -   Heb. 2:11; 10:14, 29
This book unveils to us that God’s heavenly calling is to make us a holy people (3:1), a people sanctified unto God. Christ is the Sanctifier (2:11). He suffered death on the cross, shedding His blood, and entered the Holy of Holies with His blood (9:12) that by the heavenly ministry (8:2, 6) of His heavenly priesthood (7:26) He might be able to do the sanctifying work, and that we might enter within the veil by His blood to participate in Him as the heavenly Sanctifier. By participating in Him in this way, we are enabled to follow Him outside the camp by the sanctifying pathway of the cross. See notes 122 and 131.
He 13:122b blood  -   Heb. 9:12, 14; 10:19; 12:24
The Lord’s blood, through which He entered into the Holy of Holies (9:12), opened the new and living way, enabling us to enter within the veil to enjoy Him in the heavens as the glorified One (10:19-20); and His body, which was sacrificed for us on the cross, cut the narrow way of the cross, enabling us to go outside the camp to follow Him on earth as the suffering One (v. 13).
He 13:12c outside  -   John 19:17-18, 20
He 13:123 gate
This is the gate of the city of Jerusalem. The city signifies the earthly realm, while the camp signifies human organization. Together, the two signify one thing, the Jewish religion with its two aspects, the earthly and the human. Judaism is both earthly and human.
He 13:13a unto  -   Heb. 12:2
He 13:131b outside  -   Heb. 13:11; Exo. 33:7-11
Outside the camp and within the veil (6:19) are two very striking points in this book. To enter within the veil means to enter into the Holy of Holies, where the Lord is enthroned in glory, and to go outside the camp means to come out of religion, whence the Lord was cast in rejection. This signifies that we must be in our spirit, where experientially the practical Holy of Holies is today, and outside religion, where the practical camp is today. The more we are in our spirit, enjoying the heavenly Christ, the more we will come outside the camp of religion, following the suffering Jesus. Being in our spirit to enjoy the glorified Christ enables us to come outside the camp of religion to follow the rejected Jesus. The more we remain in our spirit to contact the heavenly Christ, who is in glory, the more we will go forth outside the camp of religion unto the lowly Jesus to suffer with Him. By contacting Christ in the heavens and enjoying His glorification, we are energized to take the narrow pathway of the cross on earth and bear the reproach of Jesus. First, this book gives us a clear vision of the heavenly Christ and the heavenly Holy of Holies, and then it shows us how to walk on the earth in the pathway of the cross, i.e., how to go forth unto Jesus outside the camp, outside religion, bearing His reproach. Even Moses, after the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf (Exo. 32), moved to a place outside the camp, where everyone who sought the Lord went to meet with him; for both the Lord’s presence and the Lord’s speaking were there (Exo. 33:7-11). We must go outside the camp that we may enjoy the Lord’s presence and hear His speaking. All these things are necessary for the practical and proper church life.
The Holy of Holies, the pathway of the cross (signified by the going forth unto Jesus outside the camp, bearing His reproach), and the kingdom are three crucial matters set forth in this book. The Holy of Holies with its rich supply enables us to take the narrow, difficult pathway of the cross, and the pathway of the cross ushers us into the kingdom in its manifestation that we may obtain the reward of glory.
He 13:132 camp
See note 123.
He 13:13c reproach  -   Heb. 11:26; Rom. 15:3; 1 Pet. 4:14; 2 Cor. 12:10
He 13:141a remaining  -   cf. Heb. 10:34
Or, permanent.
He 13:142 we
The writer of this book considered himself and his readers real river-crossing Hebrews, like the Patriarchs (11:9-10, 13-16).
He 13:14b seek  -   Heb. 11:10, 14, 16
He 13:14c one  -   Rev. 21:2
He 13:151 Through
Verse 15 is a continuation of vv. 8-14. Since in the church life we enjoy the unchanging Christ as grace and follow Him outside religion, we should offer through Him spiritual sacrifices to God. First, in the church we should offer up through Him a sacrifice of praise to God continually. In the church He sings in us hymns of praise unto God the Father (2:12). In the church we too should praise God the Father through Him. Eventually, in the church He and we, we and He, praise the Father together in the mingled spirit. He, as the life-giving Spirit, praises the Father in our spirit, and we, by our spirit, praise the Father in His Spirit. This is the best and highest sacrifice that we can offer to God through Him. This is greatly needed in the church meetings.
He 13:15a offer  -   1 Pet. 2:5
He 13:15b praise  -   Heb. 2:12; Eph. 5:19-20; Col. 3:16
He 13:15c fruit  -   Hosea 14:2
He 13:15d confessing  -   Phil. 2:11
He 13:161a sharing  -   Heb. 6:10; Rom. 12:13; Phil. 4:15-16; 2 Cor. 8:4
Lit., fellowshipping. Doing good refers to giving, and fellowshipping refers to sharing, i.e., having fellowship in the needs of the saints. This kind of doing good and fellowshipping with others also are sacrifices that we should offer to God. These too are necessary for a proper church life. It is truly improper if in the church some needy saints are not well cared for and ministered to. This means that the fellowshipping with others is absent or inadequate.
He 13:16b sacrifices  -   Phil. 4:18
He 13:171 Obey
This is vitally necessary in the church life.
He 13:17a leading  -   Heb. 13:7, 24
He 13:17b submit  -   1 Cor. 16:16; 1 Pet. 5:5
He 13:17c watch  -   Acts 20:28-31; 1 Pet. 5:2
He 13:181a Pray  -   Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3; 1 Thes. 5:25; 2 Thes. 3:1
Praying for the apostles is another aspect of the church life.
He 13:18b good  -   Acts 23:1; 24:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 1 Pet. 3:16
He 13:20a God  -   Rom. 15:33; 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thes. 5:23
He 13:20b brought  -   Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10
He 13:20c Shepherd  -   John 10:11, 14; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4
He 13:201d sheep  -   John 10:16
The sheep here are the flock, which is the church. This confirms the view that the things covered in this chapter, with the experience of the unchanging Christ as our sin offering, through whom we were redeemed, and as our great Shepherd, by whom we are now being fed, are all for the church life.
He 13:20e blood  -   Heb. 9:12
He 13:202 eternal
This book does not concern temporal things, such as the things of the old covenant, but eternal things, things that are beyond the limit of time and space, such as eternal salvation (5:9), eternal judgment (6:2), eternal redemption (9:12), the eternal Spirit (9:14), the eternal inheritance (9:15), and the eternal covenant (13:20).
The new covenant is not only a better covenant (7:22; 8:6) but also an eternal covenant. It is eternally effective because of the eternal efficacy of Christ’s blood, with which it was enacted (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20).
He 13:20f covenant  -   Heb. 8:6, 8; 9:15
He 13:21a Perfect  -   Eph. 4:12; 1 Thes. 3:10; 1 Pet. 5:10
He 13:21b good  -   Eph. 2:10; Col. 1:10
He 13:21c will  -   Rom. 12:2; Col. 1:9
He 13:211 doing
God is doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ that we may be able to do His will. God works in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). From beginning to end this book presents to us a heavenly Christ. Only here, with the word “God…doing in us…through Jesus Christ,” does this book imply the indwelling of Christ. It is through the indwelling Christ that God works in us so that we can do His will.
He 13:21d in  -   Phil. 2:13
He 13:21e pleasing  -   Heb. 12:28; 1 John 3:22
He 13:21f glory  -   Rom. 16:27; Eph. 3:21; 2 Pet. 3:18; Rev. 5:13
He 13:221 bear
I.e., endure and receive. To bear with the word of the apostle also is needed in the church life (Acts 2:42).
He 13:22a exhortation  -   1 Pet. 5:12
He 13:231a Timothy  -   Acts 16:1; Rom. 16:21; 1 Cor. 16:10; 1 Thes. 3:2, 6
The mentioning of Timothy in such an intimate way is a strong proof that this book was written by the apostle Paul. See 1 Tim. 1:2 and 2 Tim. 1:2.
He 13:241 Greet
The greetings in this verse are a form of fellowship in the church and among the churches.
He 13:24a leading  -   Heb. 13:7, 17
He 13:251a Grace  -   Rom. 16:20; Gal. 6:18; Eph. 6:24; 2 Tim. 4:22; Titus 3:15
To realize and participate in all the things unveiled in this book, we need grace. To have grace (12:28) we need to come forward to the throne of grace that we may find grace for timely help (4:16). It is when we touch the throne of grace in the Holy of Holies through the exercise of our spirit that we enjoy the Spirit of grace (10:29) and that our heart is confirmed by grace (v. 9). By such an enjoyment of grace we run the race set before us (12:1) that we may reach the goal of God’s economy.
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James Outline
I.   Introduction — to the twelve tribes in dispersion — 1:1
II.   Practical virtues of Christian perfection — 1:2 — 5:20
A.   Enduring trials by faith — 1:2-12
B.   Resisting temptation as God-born ones — 1:13-18
C.   Living a God-fearing life by the implanted word according to the perfect law of freedom — 1:19-27
D.   Having no respect of persons among the brothers — 2:1-13
E.   Being justified by works in relations with the believers — 2:14-26
F.   Bridling the tongue — 3:1-12
G.   Behaving in wisdom — 3:13-18
H.   Dealing with pleasures, the world, and the devil — 4:1-10
I.   Not speaking against the brothers — 4:11-12
J.   Confiding not in self-will but in the Lord — 4:13-17
K.   Awaiting the Lord’s coming with long-suffering — 5:7-11
L.   Speaking honestly without swearing — 5:12
M.   Healthy practices in the church life — 5:13-20
James >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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James Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Ja 1:11 James
A flesh brother of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 13:55) and of Jude (Jude 1). He was not one of the twelve apostles chosen by the Lord while He was on earth, but he became an apostle after the Lord’s resurrection (Gal. 1:19), and he became the leading elder in the church at Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:2, 13; 21:18). Reputed to be, with Peter and John, a pillar of the church, he was mentioned by Paul as the first among the three pillars (Gal. 2:9).
Ja 1:1a slave  -   Rom. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1; Jude 1
Ja 1:12 Lord
James ranked the Lord Jesus as equal with God. This was contrary to Judaism, which did not recognize the deity of the Lord (John 5:18).
Ja 1:13 twelve
The tribes of Israel. This indicates that this Epistle was written to the Jewish Christians, who had the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory (2:1) and were justified by faith (2:24), regenerated by the word of truth (v. 18), and indwelt by the Spirit of God (4:5), and who were members of the church (5:14), awaiting the Lord’s coming back (5:7-8). However, for the writer to call these believers in Christ “the twelve tribes,” as God’s chosen people were called in His Old Testament economy, indicates that he lacked a clear view concerning the distinction between Christians and Jews, between God’s New Testament economy and the Old Testament dispensation. Apparently, he did not see that in the New Testament God had delivered and separated the Jewish believers in Christ from the Jewish people, who were then considered by God a perverse generation (Acts 2:40). In His New Testament economy, God does not consider the Jewish believers to be Jews set apart for Judaism but Christians set apart for the church. As members of the church of God, they should be as distinct and separate from the Jews as they are from the Gentiles (1 Cor. 10:32). Yet James, a pillar of the church, in his Epistle to the Christian brothers still called them “the twelve tribes.” (This might have been the reason that he addressed the word in 5:1-6 to the rich class in general among the Jews.) This was contrary to God’s New Testament economy. See note 21 in ch. 2.
Ja 1:1b tribes  -   Acts 26:7; Luke 22:30
Ja 1:14c dispersion  -   Deut. 32:26; Ezek. 20:23; John 7:35
See note 14 in 1 Pet. 1. This dispersion must have included the scattering of the Jewish believers from Jerusalem caused by the persecution after Pentecost (Acts 8:1, 4).
Ja 1:15 Rejoice
See note 103 in 2 John.
Ja 1:2a joy  -   Matt. 5:12; 1 Pet. 4:13
Ja 1:2b brothers  -   James 1:16, 19; 2:1, 5, 14; 3:1, 10, 12; 4:11; 5:7, 9, 10, 12, 19
Ja 1:21c trials  -   James 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:6
See note 121.
Ja 1:3a proving  -   James 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:7
Ja 1:31 faith
The Christian faith, given by God in Christ (2 Pet. 1:1; James 2:1).
Ja 1:3b endurance  -   Rom. 5:3; 2 Pet. 1:6
Ja 1:4a endurance  -   Rom. 5:4
Ja 1:41b perfect  -   James 3:2; Matt. 5:48; 1 Thes. 5:23
Although James did not have a clear view concerning the distinction between grace and law, his Epistle is distinguished and remarkable in its presentation of Christian conduct, emphasizing practical Christian perfection that the believers might be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing. This may be considered the main subject of this Epistle. Such perfection in Christian behavior requires the trials of God’s governmental dealing and the believers’ endurance by the virtue of the divine birth through regeneration by the implanted word (vv. 18, 21).
Ja 1:51a wisdom  -   James 3:13, 17; 1 Kings 3:9-12; Prov. 2:2, 6
It was by His wisdom that God, in Christ, made His eternal plan and carried it out (1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 3:9-11; Prov. 8:12, 22-31). And in His New Testament economy God made Christ first our wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). The wisdom of God is needed for practical Christian perfection. Hence, we need to ask God for it.
In light of the content of this Epistle, it is apparent that James did not have a clear vision concerning God’s New Testament economy. However, he did have the wisdom to portray matters that concern the practical Christian life.
Ja 1:52b ask  -   Prov. 28:5; Mark 11:24
James was reputed to be a man of prayer. Here he charged the recipients of his Epistle to pray for wisdom, implying that his wisdom was given to him by God through prayer. In his Epistle he stressed prayer (5:14-18). Prayer is a virtue of practical Christian perfection.
Ja 1:53 liberally
Or, with simplicity, generously, without reserve (Rom. 12:8; 2 Cor. 8:2).
Ja 1:54 not
A stingy man would not give; if he were to give, he would give with reproaches, with stinging words. God, who gives to all liberally, is not like such a man.
Ja 1:6a faith  -   Mark 11:24; Matt. 9:29; 15:28; Heb. 11:6
Ja 1:61b doubting  -   Matt. 21:21; Rom. 4:20
Or, wavering…wavers.
Ja 1:6c sea  -   cf. Isa. 57:20; Jude 13
Ja 1:6d wind  -   cf. Eph. 4:14; Jude 12
Ja 1:81a double-souled  -   James 4:8
God made man only one soul, with one mind and one will. When a believer doubts in prayer, he makes himself double-souled, like a boat with two rudders, uncertain in direction. Faith in prayer also is a virtue of practical Christian perfection.
Ja 1:91 boast
Or, glory, rejoice. When a lowly brother boasts and rejoices in exaltation, spontaneously he is led to praise the Lord (5:13). He should not boast in the secular way, i.e., without praising the Lord.
Ja 1:92a exaltation  -   James 4:10; Luke 1:52; 14:11
Or, elevation, high estate.
Ja 1:101 rich
It is easy for a lowly brother to boast, rejoice, and praise the Lord in his exaltation. It is not easy for a rich one to do so in his being brought low. Whether in exaltation or in being brought low, to rejoice and praise is a virtue of practical Christian perfection.
Ja 1:10a flower  -   Job 14:2; Psa. 103:15
Ja 1:10b pass  -   1 Cor. 7:31
Ja 1:111 sun
In v. 6 James used the surge of the sea to illustrate a doubting heart, and in v. 10 he used the flower of the land to portray the fading rich man. Here he used the sun in the heavens with its scorching heat to illustrate the factor that causes man’s riches to fade under God’s governmental dealing. In v. 17 he used even the turning of the planets to illustrate variableness, which is in contrast to the invariableness of God the Father. In dealing with the problem of our tongue in 3:3-12, he used twenty kinds of things for illustrations. Moreover, in 4:14 he used vapor to portray the brief appearing of our life, and in 5:7-8 he used the farmer’s long-suffering to teach us how to await the Lord’s coming. James was a wise and experienced man, having not only the experience of human life but also wisdom from the divine source through his seeking by prayer (v. 5; 3:13, 17). Yet his sympathy for and compromise with Judaism frustrated him from seeing a thorough vision of the wisdom concerning God’s New Testament economy, a vision that Paul saw and unveiled in his Epistles. See notes 121 and 171 in ch. 3.
Ja 1:112 scorching
Or, hot wind.
Ja 1:11a grass  -   Psa. 37:2; 90:5-6; 102:11; Isa. 40:6-8; 1 Pet. 1:24
Ja 1:11b beauty  -   cf. Matt. 6:28-30
Ja 1:113c rich  -   Luke 12:16-20; 1 Tim. 6:17
What a sobering word to those who pursue riches! Yet it is a soothing word to the rich who are being brought low through the loss of their riches.
Ja 1:12a Blessed  -   James 5:11; Job 5:17; Psa. 94:12; Matt. 5:10-11; Luke 6:22
Ja 1:121 trial
Verses 2-12 deal with trials (see note 131). Trials come from the believers’ environment to prove their faith (vv. 2-3) through suffering (vv. 9-11). The believers should endure the trials with all joy (v. 2) because of their love for the Lord, that they may receive the blessing of the crown of life.
Ja 1:122 approved
I.e., the approving of the believers’ faith (v. 3).
Ja 1:123b crown  -   Rev. 2:10; cf. 1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 3:11
The glory, the expression, of life. The believers endure trials by means of the divine life, and this will become their glory, their expression, the crown of life, as a reward to them at the Lord’s appearing, for their enjoyment in the coming kingdom (2:5).
Ja 1:124 life
The crown of life in this verse, the begetting Father and His begetting us, His making us the firstfruits of His creatures (vv. 17-18, 27), and the implanted word (v. 21), all point to the believers’ need for the divine life.
Ja 1:12c promised  -   James 2:5
Ja 1:125d love  -   1 Cor. 2:9; 8:3; Mark 12:30
To believe in the Lord is to receive the divine life for our salvation; to love the Lord is to grow in the divine life for our maturity that we may be qualified for a reward — the crown of life — and enjoy the glory of the divine life in the kingdom.
Ja 1:131a tempted  -   Matt. 6:13; 1 Cor. 10:13
Or, tried, tested. The Greek word for trials and trial in vv. 2 and 12 is the noun form of the word for tempted here and in v. 14. The two words are very similar in form; both refer to being tried, tested, proved. To be tried, tested, proved, by outward suffering in the environment is a trial (v. 2). To be tried, tested, proved, by the inward enticing of lust is a temptation (v. 14). The trial is dealt with in vv. 2-12; the temptation is dealt with in vv. 13-21. As for the trial, we should endure it by loving the Lord that we may obtain the blessing — the crown of life. As for the temptation, we should resist it by receiving the implanted word that we may obtain salvation — the salvation of our souls (v. 21).
Ja 1:132 of
Lit., from.
Ja 1:133 cannot
The Greek word means both is untried and is untriable; hence, not temptable, not to be tempted, incapable of being tempted.
Ja 1:134 tempts
The devil, not God, is the tempter (Matt. 4:3; 1 Thes. 3:5).
Ja 1:14a lusts  -   Eph. 2:3
Ja 1:151 gives
The tempter, the devil, is the begetting father of sin (1 John 3:8, 10), having the might of death (Heb. 2:14) through sin (1 Cor. 15:56). He injected sin into Adam, and through sin death passed on to all men (Rom. 5:12).
Ja 1:15a death  -   Rom. 5:12; 6:21, 23
Ja 1:171 giving
Giving refers to the act of giving; gift refers to the thing given.
Ja 1:17a gift  -   Psa. 85:12; John 3:27
See note 171.
Ja 1:17b above  -   James 3:15; John 8:23
Ja 1:172 Father
Lights here refers to the heavenly luminaries. The Father is the Creator, the source, of these shining bodies. With Him there is no shadow cast by turning (in contrast to the situation with the heavenly orbs, where the moon waxes and wanes by its revolving, and the sun can be eclipsed by the moon), for He is not variable, not changeable. As such, He is incapable of being tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
Ja 1:173c variation  -   Psa. 102:27; Mal. 3:6
Or, variableness.
Ja 1:181a brought  -   1 Pet. 1:3, 23; John 1:13; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 5:1, 18
Sin, the source of darkness, brings forth death (v. 15). But the Father of lights brought us forth to be the firstfruits of His creatures, full of the vigorous life that matures first. This refers to the divine birth, our regeneration (John 3:5, 6), which is carried out according to God’s eternal purpose.
Ja 1:182 word
The word of the divine reality, of what the Triune God is (John 1:14, 17). This word is the seed of life, by which we have been regenerated (1 Pet. 1:23).
Ja 1:18b truth  -   James 3:14; 5:19
Ja 1:183 purposing
Of His own will, by His intention, to carry out His purpose by begetting us that we may become the firstfruits of His creatures.
Ja 1:184c firstfruits  -   cf. Jer. 2:3; Rev. 14:4
God will renew His entire creation to have a new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center (Rev. 21:1-2). He first regenerated us to be the firstfruits of His new creation by imparting His divine life into our being that we might live a life of perfection. This must be the seed of practical Christian perfection. This life will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the living center of God’s eternal new universe.
Ja 1:191 You
Or, Know this.
Ja 1:192 slow
Hearing tempts us to speak, and speaking is the fire that kindles wrath (cf. 3:6). If we bridle our speaking (cf. v. 26), we will quench our wrath. James’s word here, given to strengthen his view of practical Christian perfection, has the tone of the Old Testament proverbs (Prov. 10:19; 14:17).
Ja 1:19a speak  -   Eccl. 5:2
Ja 1:19b wrath  -   Prov. 14:17, 29; 16:32; Eccl. 7:9
Ja 1:201 wrath
The righteousness of God does not need the help of man’s wrath, which is of no use in the carrying out of God’s righteousness.
Ja 1:21a putting  -   Eph. 4:22; Heb. 12:1
Ja 1:21b filthiness  -   2 Cor. 7:1
Ja 1:21c meekness  -   James 3:13; Matt. 5:5
Ja 1:211 implanted
This likens the word of God to a living plant that is planted into our being and grows in us to bring forth fruit for the salvation of our souls. We need to receive such a word in meekness, in all submission, without any resistance.
Ja 1:21d word  -   1 Pet. 1:23; Matt. 13:19, 23
Ja 1:212 save
The salvation of our souls, according to the context of this chapter, implies the enduring of trials raised up by the environment (vv. 2-12) and the resisting of the temptation of lust (vv. 13-21). James’s view concerning the salvation of our souls was somewhat negative and was not as positive as that of Paul, who said that our soul can be transformed by the renewing Spirit, even into the image of the Lord from glory to glory (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 3:18). See notes 55 in 1 Pet. 1 and 393 in Heb. 10.
Ja 1:22a doers  -   James 2:14-20; Luke 8:21; John 13:17
Ja 1:22b hearers  -   Luke 11:28
Ja 1:22c delude  -   James 1:26
Ja 1:23a doer  -   James 4:11
Ja 1:23b mirror  -   1 Cor. 13:12
Ja 1:251 looks
The same word as in 1 Pet. 1:12.
Ja 1:252 perfect
Here James refers to the Mosaic law as “the perfect law, the law of freedom (or liberty)” (cf. 2:12). His use of this expression might have been based on Psa. 19:7-8, which says that the law is perfect, that it restores the soul, i.e., gives people freedom, and that it makes the heart joyous, implying release and freedom, and on Psa. 119:11, which says that keeping the law in our hearts frees us from sin. James uplifted the Old Testament law of letters to the uttermost, mixing God’s New Testament economy with the outdated Old Testament economy (Acts 21:18-20). In his consideration the law was a primary means of Christian perfection. In contrast, the apostle Paul said that the law can do nothing to perfect us (Heb. 7:19; cf. Gal. 3:3). Cf. note 122 in ch. 2.
In God’s New Testament dispensation Christ has ended the law (Rom. 10:4; Heb. 10:9), and the believers have been freed by Christ from the yoke of slavery of the law (Gal. 5:1), have died to the law (Gal. 2:19), and are no longer under the law but under grace (Rom. 6:14; cf. John 1:17). Moreover, the law of letters written on tablets of stone outside us has been replaced by the law of life inscribed on our hearts (Heb. 8:10), the moral standard of which corresponds with that of the kingdom’s constitution, decreed by the Lord on the mount (Matt. 5 — 7). Since the law of letters was not able to give man life (Gal. 3:21) but was able only to expose man’s weakness and failure and keep him in slavery (Gal. 5:1 and note 4), it was a law of bondage. Since the law of life is the function of the divine life, which was imparted into our being at regeneration and supplies us throughout our Christian life with the unsearchable riches of the divine life to free us from the law of sin and death and fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law of letters (Rom. 8:2, 4), it should be considered the law of freedom. This law is the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21), even Christ Himself, who lives within us to regulate us by imparting the divine nature into our being, that we may live a life that expresses God’s image. It is this law that should be considered the basic rule of the Christian life for practical Christian perfection.
Ja 1:25a law  -   James 2:12
Ja 1:25b freedom  -   John 8:32
Ja 1:25c blessed  -   John 13:17; Luke 11:28
Ja 1:261 religious
In Greek, religious (adjective) and religion (noun) refer to ceremonial service and worship to God (implying the fear of God). The adjective is used only here. The noun is used in a positive sense here and in v. 27, in a negative sense in Col. 2:18 (for worship), and in a general sense in Acts 26:5. James’s writing concerning God’s New Testament economy is not as striking as Paul’s, Peter’s, and John’s. Paul focuses on Christ living and being formed in us (Gal. 2:20; 4:19) and Christ being magnified in us and lived out of us (Phil. 1:20-21) that we as the church, His Body, may become His fullness, His expression (Eph. 1:22-23). Peter stresses the fact that God regenerated us through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), making us partakers of His divine nature, that we may live a life of godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-7) and be built up as a spiritual house to express His virtues (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). John emphasizes the eternal life, given to us for our fellowship with the Triune God (1 John 1:2-3), and the divine birth, which brings into us the divine life as the divine seed that we may live out a life that is like God (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:17) and be the church, a lampstand, which bears the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:9, 11-12) and which will consummate in the New Jerusalem for God’s expression unto eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 10-11). Of the matters that are characteristic of the New Testament, James stresses only God’s begetting of us (v. 18), the indwelling Spirit (4:5), and a minor aspect of the church (5:14). He does not speak of Christ as our life or of the church as the expression of Christ, the two most outstanding and dispensational characteristics of the New Testament. This Epistle shows that James must have been very religious. It might have been because of this and his practical Christian perfection that he was reputed to be, along with Peter and John, a pillar, even the first, in the church at Jerusalem (Gal. 2:9). However, he was not strong in the revelation of God’s New Testament economy in Christ but was still under the influence of the background of the old Judaic religion, the primary elements of which were to worship God by ceremonies and to live a life in the fear of God. This is proved by the words in Acts 21:20-24 and in 2:2-11 of this Epistle. Because his spiritual sight was covered by Judaism, he could not fully enter into the revelation of God’s New Testament economy as Paul, Peter, and John were able to do.
Ja 1:262 not
Not to bridle the tongue is to speak quickly (cf. v. 19) and loosely without restriction. This always deceives the speaking one’s own heart, deceiving his conscience — the consciousness of his heart.
Ja 1:26a tongue  -   Psa. 34:13; 39:1; 1 Pet. 3:10
Ja 1:26b deceives  -   James 1:22; 2 Tim. 3:13; Titus 1:10
Ja 1:271a orphans  -   Isa. 1:17
In this word of James’s, given to strengthen his view of practical Christian perfection, an element of the Old Testament charges is implied (Deut. 14:29; 24:19-21, 12-13).
Ja 1:272 unspotted
Not to be worldly, not to be stained by worldliness. This too is a part of James’s God-fearing view of practical Christian perfection. To visit orphans and widows is to act according to God’s loving heart, a characteristic of perfection on the positive side, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world is to be separated from the world according to God’s holy nature, a characteristic of perfection on the negative side.
Ja 1:273 world
See note 43 in ch. 4.
James Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Ja 2:1a brothers  -   James 2:5, 14; 1:2
Ja 2:11b faith  -   Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:15-16; 3:22, 26
Or, faith in our Lord…; cf. note 221 in Rom. 3. This indicates that this Epistle, and especially this chapter, was written to the New Testament believers in the Lord Jesus Christ of glory.
Ja 2:12 of
Most translators add, the Lord.
Ja 2:1c glory  -   1 Cor. 2:8
Ja 2:1d respect  -   James 2:9; Deut. 1:17; 16:19; Matt. 22:16; Rom. 2:11; Job 34:19
Ja 2:21 synagogue
The Greek word is composed of together and to bring; hence, a collecting, gathering, congregating; and thence, the place of gathering. It was used in the New Testament to denote the congregation of the Jews (Acts 13:43; 9:2; Luke 12:11) and their congregating place (Luke 7:5), where they sought the knowledge of God by studying the Holy Scriptures (Luke 4:16-17; Acts 13:14-15). In Jerusalem there were numerous synagogues for different groups of Jews (Acts 6:9). James’s use of this word here may indicate that the Jewish believers considered their assembly and assembling place as another of the synagogues among the Jews. If so, this bears, as does the whole Epistle, a Jewish character and may indicate that the Jewish Christians regarded themselves as still a part of the Jewish people, the chosen people of God according to the Old Testament, and that they lacked a clear vision concerning the distinction between God’s chosen people of the Old Testament and the believers in Christ of the New Testament. See note 13 in ch. 1.
Ja 2:2a gold  -   1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:3
Ja 2:2b poor  -   Gal. 2:10; Prov. 18:23; 19:17; 22:9
Ja 2:41a distinctions  -   cf. James 3:17
The distinctions that existed between the rich and the poor among the Christian brothers and that resulted in discrimination were a shame to the Lord and to the salvation of His divine life.
Ja 2:42 among
Or, in.
Ja 2:5a choose  -   1 Cor. 1:27-28
Ja 2:51 in
Or, to; i.e., in the world’s esteem.
Ja 2:5b rich  -   Luke 12:21; 2 Cor. 8:9; 1 Tim. 6:18; Rev. 2:9
Ja 2:52c kingdom  -   Luke 12:32
The kingdom of God here is also the kingdom of Christ, which will be inherited by the overcoming believers in the coming age (Eph. 5:5; Gal. 5:21; 1 Cor. 6:10; Rev. 20:4, 6). The reality of this kingdom (see note 34 in Matt. 5) should be practiced not in the Jewish synagogue but in the Christian church, which is the Body of Christ (Rom. 14:17).
Ja 2:5d promised  -   James 1:12
Ja 2:53e love  -   1 Cor. 2:9
We believe in the Lord for our salvation (Acts 16:31); we love God (1 John 2:5, 15) for our overcoming, that we may receive the promised kingdom as a reward (see notes 281 in Heb. 12 and 351 in Heb. 10).
Ja 2:6a dishonored  -   1 Cor. 11:22
Ja 2:6b rich  -   James 5:1
Ja 2:6c drag  -   Acts 8:3; 16:19; 18:12
Ja 2:61 courts
Or, tribunals.
Ja 2:71 honorable
Lit., good. This is the honorable name of Jesus Christ.
Ja 2:7a name  -   Isa. 63:19; 65:1; Amos 9:12; Acts 15:17
Ja 2:72 by
Lit., which is called upon you. See Acts 15:17 and note.
Ja 2:81 royal
The royal law is the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the king of all laws, and it covers and fulfills all laws (Gal. 5:14; Rom. 13:8-10).
Ja 2:82a love  -   Lev. 19:18
Loving God (v. 5) and loving one’s neighbor are the greatest requirements of the law. All the law hangs on these (Matt. 22:36-40).
Ja 2:9a respect  -   James 2:1
Ja 2:91 commit
Lit., work.
Ja 2:101 keeps
The word in vv. 8-11 indicates that the Jewish believers at James’s time were still practicing the keeping of the Old Testament law. This corresponds with the word in Acts 21:20 spoken to Paul by James and the elders in Jerusalem. James, the elders in Jerusalem, and many thousands of Jewish believers were still in a mixture of the Christian faith and the Mosaic law. They even advised Paul to practice such a semi-Judaic mixture (Acts 21:17-26). They were unaware that the dispensation of law was altogether over and that the dispensation of grace should be fully honored, and that any disregard of the distinction between these two dispensations would be against God’s dispensational administration and would be a great damage to God’s economical plan for the building up of the church as the expression of Christ. Thus, this Epistle was written under the cloud of a semi-Judaic mixture, under a background that was obscured. Many who practice religion according to their natural concept neglect the background seen in this book.
Ja 2:10a law  -   Deut. 27:26; Gal. 3:10
Ja 2:10b one  -   Matt. 5:19
Ja 2:11a adultery  -   Exo. 20:13-14; Deut. 5:17-18
Ja 2:121 So
So refers to what follows, not to what has gone before.
Ja 2:12a judged  -   James 3:1
Ja 2:122b law  -   James 1:25
Based on vv. 8-11, which refer to the keeping of the law of letters, the law of freedom here and in 1:25 refers to the same law, the law of Moses. According to the context the royal law (v. 8), the Mosaic law, and the law of freedom are the same law. Thus, James taught the Jewish believers to keep the law of the Old Testament (4:11; cf. Acts 15:21; 21:20-25). However, according to God’s New Testament economy the believers should speak and do things according to the law of life, which transcends the law of letters. They should live according to the law of life. This kind of living surpasses the keeping of the law of letters. The unbelievers will be judged at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15) by the law of letters, which is the law of Moses; the believers will be judged at Christ’s judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10) by the law of life, which is the law of Christ.
Ja 2:13a mercy  -   James 3:17; cf. Job 22:6-11; Psa. 18:25-26; Prov. 21:13; Ezek. 25:12-14; Matt. 18:32-35
Ja 2:131 triumphs
Or, boasts over, boasts against.
Ja 2:141 save
According to the context, this is to be saved from the judgment at Christ’s judgment seat that is without mercy (v. 13). We must have works of mercy and love toward the believers. Only then can we be saved from the judgment that is without mercy.
Ja 2:151 is
The verb indicates that they have been in this condition for some time.
Ja 2:15a without  -   Job 31:19-20
Ja 2:161 Go
Lit., Go away.
Ja 2:16a not  -   1 John 3:17-18
Ja 2:162 necessities
It is shameful for the necessities of the poor saints to be neglected in the church life. However, James’s word here, given to strengthen his view of practical Christian perfection, carries the flavor of the Old Testament concern for needy people (Deut. 15:7-8).
Ja 2:171 faith
Faith is of life; it is living and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). Otherwise, it is a dead faith and is not genuine (vv. 20, 26).
Ja 2:17a dead  -   James 2:26
Ja 2:172 in
Lit., according to.
Ja 2:18a works  -   James 3:13
Ja 2:19a one  -   Deut. 6:4; Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:6
Ja 2:19b demons  -   Matt. 8:28-29
Ja 2:201 useless
Or, barren. Some MSS read, dead.
Ja 2:21a Isaac  -   Gen. 22:9; Heb. 11:17
Ja 2:22a faith  -   1 Thes. 1:3; Gal. 5:6
Ja 2:23a believed  -   Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6
Ja 2:23b accounted  -   cf. Psa. 106:31
Ja 2:23c friend  -   2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8
Ja 2:241 justified
To be justified by faith is for the receiving of the divine life (Rom. 5:18); to be justified by works is through living the divine life. Since the living is the issue of life, to be justified by works is the issue of being justified by faith. Abraham’s offering of Isaac and Rahab’s receiving of the messengers and sending them out are works that issued from their living faith. A living tree surely brings forth fruit. Being justified by works is not inconsistent with being justified by faith. The latter is the cause, bringing forth the former; the former is the effect, the outcome and proof, of the latter.
This chapter begins with the matter of having no respect of persons (vv. 1-13) and arrives at the practical care for the necessities of the poor saints, which is the justifying work of faith (vv. 14-26). These virtues, according to James’s view, can be considered characteristics of practical Christian perfection.
Ja 2:24a works  -   cf. Rom. 3:20, 28; Gal. 2:16
Ja 2:24b faith  -   Rom. 3:30-31
Ja 2:25a Rahab  -   Josh. 2:1-21; 6:23; Heb. 11:31
Ja 2:251 sent
Lit., thrust them out.
Ja 2:261 spirit
The spirit gives life to the body (Gen. 2:7); the works indicate and express the life that is in the faith.
Ja 2:26a dead  -   James 2:17
James Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Ja 3:11a teachers  -   Rom. 2:20-21
Teachers tend to bring in different teachings, producing different opinions and causing trouble and division (cf. 2 Tim. 4:3; 1 Tim. 1:3-4, 7; Eph. 4:14).
Ja 3:1b brothers  -   James 1:2
Ja 3:12c judgment  -   James 2:12, 13; 5:9, 12
Whatever we say will be judged, and we will be judged by our word (Matt. 12:36-37).
Ja 3:2a word  -   Matt. 12:37
Ja 3:2b perfect  -   James 1:4
Ja 3:2c bridle  -   James 1:26
Ja 3:3a bridles  -   Psa. 32:9; Prov. 26:3
Ja 3:5a tongue  -   Psa. 12:3-4; 73:8-9; 120:2-4
Ja 3:51 fire
A wildfire with the power to spread.
Ja 3:61a fire  -   Prov. 16:27
An evil fire from Gehenna that contaminates us. Like the wildfire, the tongue spreads its destruction, and like the evil fire, it contaminates our whole body with evils from Gehenna.
Ja 3:6b contaminates  -   Matt. 15:18, 20
Ja 3:62 course
The Greek word for course refers generally to anything round or circular that runs or rolls like a wheel. Used figuratively, it indicates a circuit of physical effects, a course, like an orbit around the sun. The word for life means origin, birth, generation. Hence, the phrase can be rendered the wheel of birth, referring figuratively to our human life, which is set in motion at its birth and runs on to its close. The tongue as an evil fire from Gehenna sets on fire our human life, which rolls like a wheel from our birth to our death, with the result that the course of our entire life is wholly under the tongue’s evil contamination and corruption.
Ja 3:63 Gehenna
Signifying the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). See note 228 in Matt. 5.
Ja 3:71 nature
The natures of beasts on the land, birds in the air, reptiles in the dust, and creatures in the water have been tamed by the nature of man, which is stronger than all the animal natures. However, even the stronger human nature is not able to tame the tongue.
Ja 3:81 restless
As a restless evil, the tongue never ceases to do evil. It is full of deadly poison. Evil and death go together with the tongue, which spreads evil and death to contaminate and poison all human beings. It is the same even among Christians.
Ja 3:8a poison  -   Psa. 140:3; Rom. 3:13
Ja 3:9a likeness  -   Gen. 1:26; cf. 1 Cor. 11:7
Ja 3:111 opening
Referring to a hole, a cave.
Ja 3:12a figs  -   Matt. 7:16
Ja 3:121 salt
In vv. 3-12, in dealing with the problem of the tongue, James, in his wisdom concerning human life, used twenty different items as illustrations: bridles of horses, rudders of ships, a wildfire, the world of unrighteousness, fire from Gehenna, the wheel of birth, beasts, birds, reptiles, creatures of the sea, the human nature, a restless evil, a deadly poison, a spring, a fig tree, olives, a vine, figs, salt (bitter) water, and sweet water. James was rich in wisdom concerning human life, somewhat like Solomon, the wise king of the Old Testament (1 Kings 4:29-34), but not so in wisdom concerning the divine economy. See note 111 in ch. 1.
Ja 3:13a wise  -   Psa. 107:43
Ja 3:131 by
Lit., out of.
Ja 3:13b good  -   1 Pet. 3:13, 16
Ja 3:132c works  -   James 2:18, 22, 24, 26
Conduct (Phil. 1:27).
Ja 3:133d meekness  -   James 1:21; Gal. 6:1
According to the context, meekness of wisdom should refer here to restraint in speaking. This corresponds with Prov. 10:19. Such meekness equals forbearance and compliance (v. 17), which are in contrast to bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in boasting and lying (v. 14).
Ja 3:13e wisdom  -   James 3:17; 1:5
Ja 3:14a jealousy  -   James 4:2; Rom. 13:13; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:20; Phil. 1:15
Ja 3:14b truth  -   James 1:18; 5:19; 1 Tim. 2:4 and note 2
Ja 3:151 This
The wisdom of having bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in boasting and lying against the truth (v. 14).
Ja 3:15a above  -   James 1:17
Ja 3:152 earthly
Earthly refers to the world, soulish to the natural man, and demonic to the devil and his demons. These three are always linked to one another.
Ja 3:15b soulish  -   1 Cor. 2:14; Jude 19
Ja 3:15c demonic  -   1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 16:14
Ja 3:16a disorder  -   cf. 1 Cor. 14:40
Ja 3:171a wisdom  -   James 3:13; 1:5
This wisdom includes meekness (v. 13) and the human virtues mentioned in the rest of this verse. All these are characteristics of practical Christian perfection according to James’s view, which was under the influence of Old Testament precepts concerning man’s behavior, morality, and ethics (Prov. 4:5-8). Such wisdom does not attain to the height of the wisdom concerning the hidden mystery of God’s New Testament economy regarding Christ and the church (1 Cor. 2:6-8; Eph. 3:9-11). See note 111 in ch. 1.
Ja 3:17b pure  -   Phil. 4:8; 1 Tim. 3:9
Ja 3:17c peaceable  -   Gal. 5:22
Ja 3:172 forbearing
Or, gentle, lenient, sweetly reasonable (Phil. 4:5 and note 2). I.e., amiable.
Ja 3:173 compliant
Or, yielding; i.e., willing to yield, satisfied with less than is due, easily entreated. Being forbearing and compliant equals being meek (v. 13).
Ja 3:17d mercy  -   James 2:13; Matt. 9:13
Ja 3:17e fruit  -   Heb. 12:11
Ja 3:17f impartial  -   cf. James 2:4
Ja 3:17g without  -   2 Cor. 6:6; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:5; 1 Pet. 1:22
Ja 3:181a fruit  -   Phil. 1:11; Heb. 12:11; Isa. 32:17
See note 111 in Heb. 12.
Ja 3:18b sown  -   Prov. 11:18; Hosea 10:12; Gal. 6:7-8
Ja 3:18c peace  -   Heb. 12:14; Rom. 12:18; Gal. 5:22
Ja 3:182 by
Or, for.
Ja 3:18d make  -   Matt. 5:9
James Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Ja 4:11a pleasures  -   James 4:3; 2 Tim. 3:4; Titus 3:3; 2 Pet. 2:13
The same Greek word as in v. 3. Here it refers to the lusts of the pleasures of the flesh (members), whereas in v. 3 it refers to the pleasures that satisfy the lusts of the flesh.
Ja 4:1b war  -   Rom. 7:23; 1 Pet. 2:11
Ja 4:21a lust  -   Eph. 2:3
Or, covet.
Ja 4:2b murder  -   Isa. 1:15
Ja 4:2c jealous  -   James 3:14
Ja 4:3a ask  -   Zech. 7:13; cf. 1 John 5:14-15
Ja 4:3b pleasures  -   James 4:1
Ja 4:41a Adulteresses  -   Hosea 1:2; 2:2; 3:1, 3; 4:12
God and Christ are our Husband (Isa. 54:5; 2 Cor. 11:2). We should be chaste and love Him alone with our entire being (Mark 12:30). If our heart is divided by loving the world, we become adulteresses.
Ja 4:42 friendship
I.e., love of the world for the pleasures of the flesh (vv. 1, 4).
Ja 4:43b world  -   John 15:19
The satanic system, which is enmity with God. See note 152 in 1 John 2.
Ja 4:4c friend  -   cf. James 2:23
Ja 4:44 enemy
Loving the world constitutes God’s lover an enemy of God.
Ja 4:51 Spirit
When God acquired us to be His spouse, He put His Spirit into us to make us one with Him (1 Cor. 6:19, 16-17). He is a jealous God (Exo. 20:5), and His Spirit is jealous over us with the jealousy of God (2 Cor. 11:2), longing, jealously desiring, that we not make friends with His enemy and be His lover at the same time. This is the only time James mentioned God’s indwelling Spirit, and it was from the negative side, concerning the abolishing of the friendship of the world, not from the positive side, concerning the building up of the Body of Christ.
Ja 4:52a dwell  -   1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:9, 11
Or, make His home. The indwelling Spirit makes His home in us that He may occupy our entire being (cf. Eph. 3:17) for God, causing us to be wholly for our Husband.
Ja 4:6a greater  -   Acts 4:33
Ja 4:61 it
Referring to the Scripture in v. 5.
Ja 4:62 God
A quotation of Prov. 3:34 from the Septuagint.
Ja 4:63b proud  -   1 Pet. 5:5; Psa. 138:6
According to the context, this refers to our being proud toward God, which causes Him to resist us. Our being humble also is toward God and causes Him to give us grace, which He desires to do.
Ja 4:6c humble  -   Job 22:29; Prov. 29:23; Isa. 57:15
Ja 4:71 Be
I.e., be humble toward God (v. 10; 1 Pet. 5:6).
Ja 4:72a withstand  -   Eph. 6:13
To be proud toward God is to side with God’s enemy, the devil; to be humble toward God, i.e., to be subject to God, is to withstand, i.e., to stand against, the devil. This is the best strategy for fighting God’s enemy; it always causes him to flee from us.
Ja 4:73b devil  -   Eph. 4:27; 6:11; 1 Pet. 5:8-9
The flesh implied in v. 1, the world in v. 4, and the devil here are the three major enemies of the believers. They are related to one another: the flesh is against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17), the world is against God (1 John 2:15), and the devil is against Christ (1 John 3:8). The flesh indulges in pleasures by loving the world, and the world usurps us for the devil. This annihilates God’s eternal purpose in us.
Ja 4:8a Draw  -   cf. 2 Chron. 15:2; Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7
Ja 4:8b draw  -   Lam. 3:57
Ja 4:8c Cleanse  -   2 Cor. 7:1
Ja 4:8d purify  -   1 John 3:3; Jer. 4:14
Ja 4:81 double-souled
I.e., double-minded (see note 81 in ch. 1), having the heart divided between two parties — God and the world. This makes people adulteresses (v. 4) and sinners, those who need their hearts purified and their hands cleansed that they may draw near to God and God may then draw near to them.
Ja 4:91 Endure
This verse is a solemn admonition to God’s adulterous spouse, who indulges herself in fleshly pleasures by loving the world under the usurpation of the devil.
Ja 4:9a misery  -   Rev. 3:17
Ja 4:9b mourn  -   Matt. 5:4; Luke 6:25; Job 5:11
Ja 4:9c weep  -   James 5:1
Ja 4:101 Be
This word, as a conclusion to this section (vv. 1-10), is an exhortation against the fightings and desires mentioned in vv. 1-3.
Ja 4:10a humbled  -   1 Pet. 5:6; cf. James 4:7
Ja 4:10b exalt  -   James 1:9; Matt. 23:12; Luke 1:52; 14:11
Ja 4:11a one  -   James 5:9
Ja 4:11b judges  -   Matt. 7:1; 1 Cor. 4:5
Ja 4:111c doer  -   James 1:23, 25
James’s words here and in 1:25 and 2:8-12 regarding the Old Testament law indicate that, in his view, the New Testament believers should keep the Old Testament law that they might be perfect according to the law. But according to the divine revelation in the entire New Testament, there is a definite, clear distinction between keeping the law and living by the inner law of life. Keeping the Old Testament law merely makes us right with God and men that we may be justified by the law. But living by the inner law of life (Heb. 8:10-11; Rom. 8:2) is to live and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:20-21) for the building up of His Body to express Him (Eph. 1:22-23) and for the building up of God’s house to satisfy Him (1 Tim. 3:15). This is for the accomplishing of God’s eternal goal according to His New Testament economy. Though we become perfect by keeping the Old Testament law, we still cannot reach God’s eternal goal. Only our living by the inner law of life avails for this. Such a living spontaneously and automatically fulfills more than is required under the Old Testament law (Rom. 8:4), even to the standard of the constitution of the kingdom, as revealed in Matt. 5 — 7.
Ja 4:12a Lawgiver  -   Isa. 33:22
Ja 4:12b Judge  -   Psa. 58:11; 1 Cor. 4:4
Ja 4:12c destroy  -   Matt. 10:28
Ja 4:12d judge  -   Rom. 14:4, 13
Ja 4:131 will
Fighting for fleshly pleasures (v. 1), having a friendship with the world (v. 4), speaking against a brother, i.e., judging the law (v. 11), going to do business according to one’s own will, and boasting in arrogance (v. 16) are all signs of the ungodly and presumptuous confidence of a God-forgetting person. James’s teaching on all these matters was based, probably, on his view concerning practical Christian perfection.
Ja 4:14a tomorrow  -   Prov. 27:1; Matt. 6:30, 34
Ja 4:14b life  -   Job 7:7
Ja 4:141c vapor  -   Job 7:9; 30:15; Psa. 102:3; Hosea 6:4
The tone of James’s word here also is like the tone of the Old Testament (cf. Psa. 90:3-10). In any case, his word arouses a fear of one’s self-will and instills a confidence in God, as expressed in v. 15. This kind of word always comes out of the mouth of a God-fearing person.
Ja 4:15a wills  -   Acts 18:21; 1 Cor. 4:19; 16:7; Heb. 6:3
Ja 4:16a boast  -   1 Cor. 5:6
Ja 4:161 arrogance
Or, pretentiousness, vainglory.
Ja 4:171 Therefore
A concluding word to all the charges in the preceding verses. It says that if the recipients of this Epistle are helped by James’s writing and yet will not do as he wrote, to them it is sin.
Ja 4:17a knows  -   Luke 12:47-48
Ja 4:17b sin  -   John 9:41
James Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Ja 5:11a rich  -   James 2:6; Luke 6:24; 1 Tim. 6:9
Verses 1-6 could be considered a parenthetical section, and it might have been addressed, in light of its contents, to the rich class in general among the Jews, since James considered the recipients of his Epistle to be the twelve tribes of the Jews (1:1). See notes 13 in ch. 1 and 21 in ch. 2.
Ja 5:1b weep  -   James 4:9
Ja 5:1c howling  -   Isa. 13:6
Ja 5:2a riches  -   Prov. 11:28
Ja 5:2b moth-eaten  -   Job 13:28; Isa. 50:9
Ja 5:3a rusted  -   Matt. 6:19-20
Ja 5:3b treasure  -   Luke 12:21
Ja 5:4a wages  -   Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:15; Jer. 22:13; Mal. 3:5
Ja 5:41 cries
Or, imploring.
Ja 5:42 Lord
As in Rom. 9:29, this is equivalent to the divine title in Hebrew, Jehovah-Sabaoth (Jehovah of hosts, Jehovah of armies — 1 Sam. 1:3). Such a title bears a Jewish character.
Ja 5:5a luxuriously  -   Luke 16:19; 2 Pet. 2:13
Ja 5:5b given  -   1 Tim. 5:6
Ja 5:51 nourished
I.e., satiated their gluttonous desire in indulgence, even in a day of slaughter (Jer. 12:3), i.e., in a day of judgment, when they were to be slaughtered like animals by God’s judgment. This implies that they were in a stupor, unaware of their coming miseries, their miserable destiny (v. 1).
Ja 5:61 righteous
The collective singular, with the article used to indicate the class. It does not refer directly to any individual but portrays the death of the Lord Jesus, who is the Righteous (Acts 7:52; 3:14).
Ja 5:6a resist  -   Matt. 5:39
Ja 5:71 long-suffering
See note 102.
Ja 5:7a brothers  -   James 1:2
Ja 5:72b coming  -   John 21:22; 1 Cor. 11:26; 1 Thes. 2:19
The Greek word means presence (see note 33 in Matt. 24).
Ja 5:7c awaits  -   cf. Titus 2:13
Ja 5:7d rain  -   Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24; Joel 2:23; Zech. 10:1
Ja 5:81 long-suffering
See note 102. While we are awaiting with long-suffering the Lord’s coming, He, as the real Farmer (Matt. 13:3), is awaiting with patience our maturity in life as the firstfruits and harvest of His field (Rev. 14:4, 14-15). Our maturing in life can shorten the period of our long-suffering and His patience.
Ja 5:8a establish  -   1 Thes. 3:13
Ja 5:82b coming  -   Rev. 22:12, 20
See note 72.
Ja 5:8c near  -   Rom. 13:11; Heb. 10:25; 1 Pet. 4:7
Ja 5:91 complain
Lit., groan.
Ja 5:9a one  -   James 4:11
Ja 5:9b judged  -   James 5:12; 3:1
Ja 5:92c Judge  -   John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5
The Lord will come back not only as the Bridegroom to meet the bride (Matt. 25:1, 6; Rev. 19:7-8) but also as the Judge to judge all peoples, judging first His believers at His judgment seat (1 Cor. 4:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:10). We need to pursue maturity in life in order to meet the Lord and be prepared to be judged by Him.
Ja 5:9d doors  -   Matt. 24:33; Mark 13:29
Ja 5:101 suffering
This is a further development of vv. 7-8, which concern the suffering and long-suffering of the faithful believers.
Ja 5:102 long-suffering
The Greek word — in noun form here and in Heb. 6:12; Rom. 2:4; 2 Tim. 4:2; 1 Pet. 3:20, and in verb form in vv. 7-8 — connotes patience toward persons, such as the patience the prophets had toward those who persecuted them.
Ja 5:10a prophets  -   Matt. 5:12; 23:34; Acts 7:52
Ja 5:103 in
Speaking in the name of the Lord indicates that the prophets were one with the Lord. Hence, their suffering and long-suffering were with the Lord and for the Lord. The faithful believers’ suffering and long-suffering should be the same.
Ja 5:10b name  -   Jer. 11:21; 14:15; 26:9, 20; 44:16
Ja 5:111 endured
The Greek word — in verb form here and in noun form in Rom. 5:3 and 2 Cor. 1:6 — connotes patience toward things, such as the patience that Job had toward the things that afflicted him.
Ja 5:11a blessed  -   James 1:12
Ja 5:11b Job  -   Job 1:20-22; 2:10
Ja 5:11c end  -   Job 42:10, 12
Ja 5:11d compassionate  -   Exo. 34:6; Psa. 103:8
Ja 5:121 above
Lit., before.
Ja 5:122 not
We should not swear, because we are nothing, and nothing is under our control or up to us (Matt. 5:34-36). Swearing displays the acting of our self-will and our forgetting of God. But to let our yes be yes and our no be no is to act according to our divine nature, in the consciousness of the presence of God, denying our self-will and sinful nature.
Ja 5:123 yes
See note 371 in Matt. 5.
Ja 5:124 lest
Our being genuinely faithful and sincere in our words according to the divine nature, of which we partake, will keep us from God’s judgment (cf. Matt. 12:36).
Ja 5:12a judgment  -   James 5:9
Ja 5:131 pray
Praying brings us the strength of the Lord to endure suffering, and singing praise keeps us in the joy of the Lord.
Ja 5:132a sing  -   1 Cor. 14:15, 26; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16
The Greek word means primarily play on a stringed instrument, and thence, make melody. Hence, it denotes to sing a hymn, to sing praise. Whether we pray or sing praise, we contact God. In any environment and under any circumstance, humble or exalted, grievous or joyful, we need to contact the Lord.
Ja 5:141 ill
Ill because of weakness. Weakness leads to illness (1 Cor. 11:30), and illness causes more weakness.
Ja 5:142 call
To call the elders of the church to pray regarding one’s illness implies (1) that there is no problem between the calling one and the church, represented by the elders; (2) that a normal relationship has been restored between the calling one and the church, if the illness is due to the calling one’s having offended the church (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29-32); and (3) that the sick one and the elders have thoroughly confessed to one another their sins (v. 16). The barriers in the church must be cleared away before the elders can represent the church in praying for the sick ones.
Ja 5:14a elders  -   Acts 14:23; 15:2, 6, 22; 20:17, 28; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5; 1 Pet. 5:1-2
Ja 5:14b church  -   Matt. 18:17; Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rom. 16:1, 4, 5; 1 Cor. 14:34; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 1:11, 20
Ja 5:143c anointing  -   Mark 6:13; cf. Exo. 30:25-26, 30; 1 John 2:20, 27
Two Greek words are translated anoint: aleipho, the word used here and in John 12:3, is the common term used for applying oil; chrio means to anoint officially for office, as a priest (Acts 10:38), king (Heb. 1:9), or prophet (Luke 4:18). Chrio, related to Christos (Christ), is used for the anointing of the Son by the Father (Acts 10:38). To anoint with oil signifies to impart the Spirit of life, who has been poured upon the Body of Christ as the anointing oil (Psa. 133:2), to the sick member of the Body through the elders as representatives of the church, for the healing of the sick one (cf. 1 John 5:16 and notes 3 and 4).
Ja 5:144 in
In the name of the Lord signifies oneness with the Lord. The elders do not do the anointing alone; rather, by being one with the Lord, they represent both the Body and the Head to do the anointing.
Ja 5:14d name  -   John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24, 26; Mark 16:17; Luke 10:17; Acts 16:18
Ja 5:151 prayer
Not the usual form of the word for prayer. It is translated vow in Acts 18:18 and 21:23.
Ja 5:15a faith  -   James 1:6; Luke 5:20
Ja 5:152b sick  -   Mark 16:18
Or, weary.
Ja 5:153 committed
The committing of sins is often the cause of illness (John 5:14). In such cases forgiveness is always the cause of healing (Matt. 9:2, 5-7; Mark 2:5).
Ja 5:15c forgiven  -   Isa. 33:24
Ja 5:16a confess  -   1 John 1:9; cf. Matt. 3:6; Acts 19:18
Ja 5:16b healed  -   1 Cor. 12:9
Ja 5:16c petition  -   cf. Gen. 20:17; 1 Kings 13:6; 2 Kings 20:2-5; Job 42:8; Prov. 15:29
Ja 5:161 avails
Or, is very effective.
Ja 5:17a Elijah  -   1 Kings 17:1; Luke 4:25
Ja 5:17b like  -   Acts 14:15
Ja 5:171 earnestly
Lit., prayed in prayer. This indicates that a prayer from the Lord was given to Elijah, in which he prayed. He did not pray in his feeling, thought, intention, or mood, or in any kind of motivation, arising from circumstances or situations, to fulfill his own purpose. He prayed in the prayer given to him by the Lord for the accomplishing of His will.
Ja 5:18a rain  -   1 Kings 18:42-45
Ja 5:19a brothers  -   James 5:12; 1:2
Ja 5:191b led  -   Mark 13:5
This may imply that the ill one in v. 14 had been led astray from the truth and needed to be turned back.
Ja 5:19c truth  -   James 1:18; 3:14
Ja 5:19d turns  -   Gal. 6:1; cf. Mal. 2:6; Luke 1:16
Ja 5:201 sinner
According to the context of these two verses, this is not an unbelieving sinner but a believing brother who has been led astray from the truth and is turned back from his error to the truth. Hence, the salvation of his soul does not refer to the eternal salvation of the person but to the dispensational salvation of his soul from the suffering of physical death under God’s discipline. James may also have considered all the virtues covered in vv. 7-20 to be aspects of practical Christian perfection.
Ja 5:202a save  -   1 Tim. 4:16
See notes 212 in ch. 1, 55 in 1 Pet. 1, and 393 in Heb. 10.
Ja 5:203 death
Not eternal perdition but dispensational discipline by physical death (see note 165 in 1 John 5). From death here should equal raise…up in v. 15.
Ja 5:204b cover  -   1 Pet. 4:8
This is an Old Testament expression (Psa. 32:1; 85:2; Prov. 10:12) used by James to indicate that turning an erring brother back is to cover his sins so that he is not condemned. Cover…sins here should equal sins…forgiven in v. 15, as in Psa. 32:1; 85:2.
Ja 5:205 sins
Sins committed by the sinning brother, which brought forth death to him (1:15).
< James • 1 Peter Outline >
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1 Peter Outline
I.   Introduction — to the sojourning believers under the operation of the Triune God — 1:1-2
II.   The full salvation of the Triune God and its issues — 1:3-25
A.   The Father’s regeneration — unto a living hope, an inheritance kept in the heavens and ready to be revealed at the last time — vv. 3-9
B.   The Spirit’s application — through the prophets’ prophesying and the apostles’ preaching — vv. 10-12
C.   Christ’s redemption — unto a holy life by the holy nature and unto brotherly love through purification by the sanctifying truth, based on regeneration by the incorruptible seed through the living word of God — vv. 13-25
III.   Growth in life and its results — 2:1-10
A.   Growing by feeding on the milk of the word unto full salvation — vv. 1-3
B.   Transformed unto the building up of a spiritual house for God’s dwelling, a holy priesthood for God’s service — vv. 4-8
C.   To tell out the virtues of the calling One — vv. 9-10
IV.   The Christian life and its sufferings — 2:11 — 4:19
A.   A life in an excellent manner toward all men in all concerns — 2:11 — 3:13
1.   As sojourners among the Gentiles — 2:11-12
2.   Toward human institutions — 2:13-17
3.   Servants toward masters — 2:18-20
4.   The model of Christ — 2:21-25
5.   In marriage life — 3:1-7
6.   In common life — 3:8-13
B.   Suffering for righteousness by the will of God as Christ did — 3:14-22
C.   Arming themselves with the mind of Christ for suffering — 4:1-6
D.   As good stewards of the varied grace of God — 4:7-11
E.   Rejoicing in sharing the sufferings of Christ — 4:12-19
V.   The elders’ shepherding and its reward — 5:1-4
A.   The shepherding patterns — vv. 1-3
B.   The Chief Shepherd’s reward — v. 4
VI.   The mighty hand of God and its goal — 5:5-11
A.   Humbled under God’s mighty hand — vv. 5-9
B.   Perfected and grounded by the God of all grace — vv. 10-11
VII.   Conclusion — 5:12-14
A.   The testimony of the true grace of God — v. 12
B.   Greetings — vv. 13-14
1 Peter >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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1 Peter Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1P 1:11a Peter  -   Matt. 4:18; 10:2; Acts 1:13; 2:14
The name Peter denotes Peter’s regenerated and spiritual man, whereas the name Simon denotes his natural man by birth (John 1:42; Matt. 16:17-18).
1P 1:12b apostle  -   Rom. 1:1
An apostle to the Jews (Gal. 2:8).
1P 1:13c sojourners  -   1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13
Or, pilgrims. Strictly, in this book this term refers to the Jewish believers who were pilgrims, foreigners, dispersed in the Gentile world (2:11-12). However, the principle of being sojourners could be applied to all believers, both Jewish and Gentile, because all are heavenly sojourners, sojourning as foreigners on this earth. These sojourners are God’s elect, chosen by God out of the human race, out of all the nations (Rev. 5:9-10), according to His foreknowledge (v. 2).
1P 1:14d dispersion  -   John 7:35; James 1:1
A term familiar to all the Jews scattered among the nations, indicating that this Epistle was written to the Jewish believers. It is from the Greek word that means to scatter or spread abroad; its root means to sow. This implies that the scattered Jews were sown as seeds among the Gentiles.
1P 1:15e Pontus  -   Acts 2:9; 18:2
All five provinces mentioned here were in Asia Minor, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
1P 1:1f Galatia  -   Acts 16:6; Gal. 1:2
1P 1:1g Asia  -   Rev. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:15
1P 1:1h Bithynia  -   Acts 16:7
1P 1:21a Chosen  -   1 Pet. 2:9; 5:13; 2 Pet. 1:10; Eph. 1:4; 1 Thes. 1:4; 2 Thes. 2:13; cf. Rom. 11:28
Both of Peter’s Epistles (2 Pet. 3:1) are concerned with the government of God. God’s government is universal and deals with all His creatures that He may have a clean and pure universe (2 Pet. 3:13) in order to express Himself. In the New Testament age this dealing begins from His chosen people, His elect, His own household (4:17), and especially from His chosen sojourners who are dispersed and are sojourning among the nations, the Gentiles, as His testimony. Hence, these two books emphasize the believers’ being chosen (2:9; 5:13; 2 Pet. 1:10). As God’s chosen race, God’s choice, God’s particular possession, the dispersed and chosen sojourners need to see that they are under God’s governmental dealing for a positive purpose, regardless of the situation and environment they are in. Anything and everything that happens to them, whether persecution or any other kind of trial or suffering (v. 6; 5:9), is just a part of God’s precious governmental dealing. Such a vision will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground them (5:10) that they may grow in grace (2 Pet. 3:18).
1P 1:22 according
Here, the divine economy through the operation of the Trinity of the Godhead for the believers’ participation in the Triune God is unveiled. God the Father’s selection is the initiation; God the Spirit’s sanctification carries out the selection of God the Father; and God the Son’s redemption, signified by the sprinkling of His blood, is the completion. Through these steps the believers have been selected, sanctified, and redeemed to enter into the enjoyment of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into whom they have been baptized (Matt. 28:19) and whose virtues they are enjoying (2 Cor. 13:14).
1P 1:23b foreknowledge  -   Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:20
God chose us before the foundation of the world, in eternity past (Eph. 1:4). Hence, the divine foreknowledge was exercised.
1P 1:24 in
I.e., by the sanctification of the Spirit. This denotes that God the Father’s selection is applied to and carried out in God’s chosen ones in and by the sanctification of the Spirit, which means that the Spirit sanctifies man by causing him to repent unto God, thus making him a chosen one of God.
1P 1:25c sanctification  -   2 Thes. 2:13; Rom. 15:16
Here the sanctification of the Spirit is not the sanctification of the Spirit that comes after justification through the redemption of Christ (the latter sanctification is revealed in Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16). Here the sanctification of the Spirit, as the main emphasis in this chapter, an emphasis on holiness (vv. 15-16), comes before obedience to Christ and faith in His redemption, i.e., before justification through Christ’s redemption (1 Cor. 6:11), indicating that the believers’ obedience unto faith in Christ results from the Spirit’s sanctifying work. The Spirit’s sanctification in its various aspects is revealed in an all-inclusive way in 2 Thes. 2:13, and its goal is that God’s chosen people may obtain God’s full salvation. God’s full salvation is carried out in the sphere of the Spirit’s sanctification.
1P 1:26 unto
Three different prepositions are used in relation to the three steps taken by the Triune God to bring His elect into participation in His full salvation: according to denotes the ground, the base; in, the sphere; and unto, the end, the result. The believers’ obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5; 16:26) in the redemption of Christ and the applying to them of the sprinkling of the blood are the result of the Spirit’s sanctification, which is based on God the Father’s selection.
1P 1:27d obedience  -   1 Pet. 1:14
The New Testament dispensation has the blood of Jesus Christ. That blood is in contrast to the blood of animals, which the Old Testament dispensation had. The Jewish believers were familiar with the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of animals under the Old Testament dispensation, but now they had to realize that the dispensation had been changed and that under the New Testament dispensation the law of Moses and the blood of animals had been replaced by the person of Christ and the blood of Christ. The result of such a realization is that the believers obey Jesus Christ and are sprinkled by His blood.
1P 1:28e sprinkling  -   Heb. 9:19-21; 10:22; 12:24
In typology the sprinkling of the expiating blood ushered the sprinkled people into the old covenant (Exo. 24:6-8). Likewise, the sprinkling of Christ’s redeeming blood brings the sprinkled believers into the blessing of the new covenant, that is, into the full enjoyment of the Triune God (Heb. 9:13-14). This is a striking mark that separates the sprinkled people from the common people, who are without God.
1P 1:29 blood
The blood for sprinkling denotes redemption. See vv. 18-19.
1P 1:210 Grace
See note 21 in Eph. 1.
1P 1:211 peace
See note 22 in Eph. 1.
1P 1:212f multiplied  -   2 Pet. 1:2; Jude 2; Dan. 4:1; 6:25
Multiplied grace corresponds with varied grace (4:10) and all grace (5:10). The believers have received the initial grace, yet this grace needs to be multiplied in them that they may participate in all grace.
1P 1:31a Blessed  -   2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3
See note 31 in Eph. 1.
1P 1:32 God
See notes 32 and 171 in Eph. 1.
1P 1:33b mercy  -   Titus 3:5; Rom. 9:16, 23
See note 133 in 1 Tim. 1.
1P 1:34c regenerated  -   1 Pet. 1:23; James 1:18; Titus 3:5; John 3:3
Regeneration, like redemption and justification, is an aspect of God’s full salvation. Redemption and justification solve our problem with God and reconcile us to God; regeneration enlivens us with God’s life, bringing us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with God. Hence, regeneration issues and results in a living hope. Such regeneration is accomplished through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. “The resurrection of Christ, bringing in life and the gift of the life-giving Spirit, is that which potentiates the new birth unto a living hope” (Alford).
1P 1:35 unto
Issuing in, resulting in, with a view to.
1P 1:36 living
A hope for the future in our sojourning today — not a hope of objective things but a hope of life, even eternal life, with all the endless divine blessings. Such a hope should cause us to set our hope perfectly on the coming grace (v. 13).
The living hope, the hope of life, brought to the regenerated believers through regeneration, can be likened to the various expectations for the future brought to parents through the birth of a newborn babe; all such expectations hinge on the life of the newborn child. Likewise, the life that we, the believers, have received through regeneration enables us to have a hope, with numerous aspects, for this age, for the coming age, and for eternity. In this age we have the hope of growing in life, of maturing, of manifesting our gifts, of exercising our functions, of being transformed, of overcoming, of being redeemed in our body, and of entering into glory. In the coming age we have the hope of entering into the kingdom, of reigning with the Lord, and of enjoying the blessings of the eternal life in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. In eternity we have the hope of being in the New Jerusalem, where we will participate fully in the consummated blessings of the eternal life in its ultimate manifestation in eternity. This living hope, the hope of life, hinges on the eternal life, which we received through regeneration. Only the divine life can enable us to grow in the divine life until we grow into the reality of the hope that is brought to us by that life. Thus we will obtain the various blessings mentioned above as our inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading and is kept for eternity (vv. 3-4).
1P 1:3d hope  -   1 Pet. 1:21; 3:15; Eph. 1:18; 4:4; Col. 1:5, 27; 2 Thes. 2:16; Titus 2:13
1P 1:37 through
When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. Hence, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is (see note 173 in John 20). This is the basic factor of our regeneration.
1P 1:3e resurrection  -   1 Pet. 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:20; Eph. 2:6
1P 1:41 Unto
Unto an inheritance here is in apposition to unto a living hope in v. 3. The living hope, resulting from regeneration, is our expectation of the coming blessing; the inheritance is the fulfillment of our hope in the coming age and in eternity.
1P 1:42a inheritance  -   Acts 20:32; 26:18; Eph. 1:14; Col. 3:24
See notes 323 in Acts 20 and 186 in Acts 26. The inheritance here comprises the coming salvation of our souls (vv. 5, 9), the grace to be received at the revelation of the Lord (v. 13), the glory to be revealed (5:1), the unfading crown of glory (5:4), and the eternal glory (5:10). All these items of our eternal inheritance are related to the divine life, which we received through regeneration and which we are experiencing and enjoying throughout our entire Christian life. “This inheritance is the full possession of that, which was promised to Abraham and all believers (Gen. 12:3; see Gal. 3:6 ff.), an inheritance, as much higher than that which fell to the children of Israel in the possession of Canaan, as the sonship of the regenerate, who have already received the promise of the Spirit through faith as a pledge of their inheritance, is higher than the sonship of Israel: compare Gal. 3:18, 29; 1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5; Heb. 9:15” (Wiesinger, quoted by Alford).
1P 1:43 incorruptible
Incorruptible in substance, indestructible, not decaying; undefiled in purity, unstained; unfading in beauty and glory, not withering. These are the excelling qualities of our eternal inheritance in life. These qualities should be related to the Divine Trinity: incorruptible relates to the nature of the Father, which is like gold; undefiled, to the condition preserved by the Spirit’s sanctifying work; and unfading, to the glorious expression of the Son.
1P 1:4b unfading  -   1 Pet. 5:4
1P 1:44c kept  -   Col. 1:5
Kept as the result of being guarded.
1P 1:51a guarded  -   Jude 24; cf. Phil. 4:7
A military term; lit., garrisoned.
1P 1:52 by
Lit., in. In virtue of; hence, by.
1P 1:53 through
The power of God is the cause of our being guarded. Secondarily, faith is the means through which the power of God becomes effective in guarding us.
1P 1:54 unto
Three prepositions are used here concerning our coming salvation: by, through, and unto. By refers to the cause, through to the means, and unto to the result.
1P 1:55 salvation
Not salvation from eternal perdition but the salvation of our souls from the dispensational punishment of the Lord’s governmental dealing (v. 9 and note 2). The full salvation of the Triune God is in three stages and comprises many items:
(1) The initial stage, the stage of regeneration, which is composed of redemption, sanctification (positional — v. 2; 1 Cor. 6:11), justification, reconciliation, and regeneration. In this stage God justified us through the redemption of Christ (Rom. 3:24-26) and regenerated us in our spirit with His life by His Spirit (John 3:3-6). Thus we received God’s eternal salvation (Heb. 5:9) and His eternal life (John 3:15) and became His children (John 1:12-13), who shall not perish forever (John 10:28-29). This initial salvation has saved us from God’s condemnation and from eternal perdition (John 3:18, 16).
(2) The progressing stage, the stage of transformation, which is composed of freedom from sin, sanctification (mainly dispositional — Rom. 6:19, 22), growth in life, transformation, building up, and maturing. In this stage God is freeing us from the dominion of indwelling sin — the law of sin and of death — by the law of the Spirit of life, through the subjective working of the effectiveness of the death of Christ in us (Rom. 6:6-7; 7:16-20; 8:2); sanctifying us by His Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16), with His holy nature, through His discipline (Heb. 12:10) and His judgment in His own house (4:17); causing us to grow in His life (1 Cor. 3:6-7); transforming us by renewing the inward parts of our soul by the life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6, 17-18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) through the working of all things (Rom. 8:28); building us together into a spiritual house for His dwelling (2:5; Eph. 2:22); and maturing us in His life (Rev. 14:15 and notes) for the completion of His full salvation. In this way we are being delivered from the power of sin, the world, the flesh, self, the soul (the natural life), and individualism into maturity in the divine life for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
(3) The completing stage, the stage of glorification, which is composed of the redemption (transfiguration) of our body, conformity to the Lord, glorification, the inheritance of God’s kingdom, participation in Christ’s kingship, and the topmost enjoyment of the Lord. In this stage God will redeem our fallen and corrupted body (Rom. 8:23) by transfiguring it into the body of Christ’s glory (Phil. 3:21); conform us to the glorious image of His firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29), making us wholly and absolutely like Him in our regenerated spirit, transformed soul, and transfigured body; and glorify us (Rom. 8:30), immersing us in His glory (Heb. 2:10) that we may enter into His heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:11), into which He has called us (1 Thes. 2:12), and inherit it as the topmost portion of His blessing (James 2:5; Gal. 5:21) — even that we may reign with Christ as His co-kings, participating in His kingship over the nations (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6; 2:26-27; 12:5) and sharing His royal, kingly joy in His divine government (Matt. 25:21, 23). In this way our body will be freed from the slavery of corruption of the old creation into the freedom of the glory of God’s new creation (Rom. 8:21), and our soul will be delivered out of the realm of trials and sufferings (v. 6; 4:12; 3:14; 5:9) into a new realm, one that is full of glory (4:13; 5:10), and will share in and enjoy all that the Triune God is, has, and has accomplished, attained, and obtained. This is the salvation of our souls, the salvation that is ready to be revealed to us at the last time, the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Christ in glory (v. 13; Matt. 16:27; 25:31). This is the end of our faith. The power of God is able to guard us unto this that we may obtain it (v. 9). We should eagerly expect such a marvelous salvation (Rom. 8:23) and prepare ourselves for its splendid revelation (Rom. 8:19).
1P 1:5b revealed  -   1 Pet. 1:7; 4:13; Rom. 8:18-19
1P 1:56c last  -   2 Pet. 3:3; Jude 18; 2 Tim. 3:1
The time of the Lord’s coming (v. 7).
1P 1:61 time
Referring to the last time, mentioned in v. 5.
1P 1:6a exult  -   1 Pet. 1:8; 4:13; Jude 24
1P 1:6b little  -   1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Cor. 4:17
1P 1:62c trials  -   James 1:2; Acts 20:19
Sufferings that become trials to test the quality. The purpose of this book is to establish and strengthen the suffering believers, who have been chosen by God, sanctified from the world unto God by the Spirit, sprinkled by the redeeming blood of Christ, and regenerated by God the Father unto a living hope, unto an inheritance kept in the heavens for them (vv. 1-4), yet are sojourners still sojourning on this earth (vv. 1, 17; 2:11). In their sojourn, sufferings are unavoidable. These are used by God to prove and try the believers’ faith (v. 7), to see whether they will follow Christ in suffering for doing good (2:19-23; 3:14-18). The sufferings are used to arm them with a mind against the flesh that they may live not in the lusts of men but in the will of God (4:1-2), that they may share the sufferings of Christ and rejoice at the revelation of His glory (4:12-19), that they may be witnesses of the sufferings of Christ (5:1), and that they may be perfected, established, strengthened, and grounded for the eternal glory into which God has called them (5:8-10). This is wholly under God’s government, that He may judge His chosen people (v. 17), beginning His judgment from His own house (4:17). Hence, this book can also be considered a book concerning God’s government.
1P 1:71a proving  -   1 Pet. 4:12; James 1:3, 12; Psa. 17:3; 26:2
I.e., testing for approval. It is the trying, the proving, of faith, not the faith itself, that may be found unto praise. (This is like the school’s examination of the student’s studying: what is found to be approved is the examination, not the student’s studying itself.) Of course, the approval of faith comes out of the proper faith. The stress here is not on faith but on the proving of faith by trials that come through sufferings.
1P 1:72 much
Much more precious than of gold…by fire modifies not your faith but proving.
1P 1:73 precious
In his two Epistles Peter presents to us five precious things: (1) the precious stone, which is the Lord Himself (2:4, 6-7); (2) the precious blood (v. 19); (3) the precious promises (2 Pet. 1:4); (4) the precious faith (2 Pet. 1:1); and (5) the precious proving (v. 7).
1P 1:7b proved  -   1 Pet. 4:12; Psa. 66:10; cf. 1 Cor. 3:13
1P 1:74 unto
The various trials in v. 6 come upon us so that the proving of our faith will result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of the Lord.
1P 1:7c praise  -   1 Cor. 4:5
1P 1:7d glory  -   Rom. 2:7, 10
1P 1:75e revelation  -   1 Pet. 1:13; 4:13; Luke 17:30; 1 Cor. 1:7; 2 Thes. 1:7; 2 Tim. 4:8
The Lord is with us today (Matt. 28:20), but in a hidden, veiled way. His coming back will be His revelation, when He will be seen openly by all. At that time not only He but also the proving of our faith will be revealed.
1P 1:8a seen  -   Heb. 11:1, 27; 1 John 4:20
1P 1:81b love  -   John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 8:3; Mark 12:30
It is a wonder and a mystery that the believers love One whom they have not seen.
1P 1:82 into
Into whom modifies believing.
1P 1:83c believing  -   John 20:29; 2 Cor. 5:7
We love Him whom we have not seen because of believing, because of the very faith that has been infused into us through our hearing of the living word (Gal. 3:2). Hence, this faith is under the proving, the trying, mentioned in v. 7.
1P 1:8d exult  -   1 Pet. 1:6
1P 1:84 joy
Joy full of glory is joy immersed in glory; hence, joy that is full of the Lord expressed.
1P 1:91 Receiving
According to grammar, this word continues v. 8, but according to fact, it is connected with v. 7. The proving of our faith being found unto praise, glory, and honor results in the receiving of the end of our faith, that is, the salvation of our souls.
1P 1:9a salvation  -   1 Pet. 1:5; 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:15
1P 1:92b souls  -   1 Pet. 1:22; 2:11, 25
We are of three parts: spirit, soul, and body (see notes 235 in 1 Thes. 5 and 122 in Heb. 4). Our spirit was saved through regeneration (John 3:5-6). Our body will be saved, redeemed, through the coming transfiguration (Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23). Our soul will be saved from sufferings into the full enjoyment of the Lord at His revelation, His coming back. For this we must deny our soul, our soulish life, with all its pleasures in this age, that we may gain it in the enjoyment of the Lord in the coming age (Matt. 10:37-39; 16:24-27; Luke 17:30-33; John 12:25). At the Lord’s revelation, through His judgment seat, some believers will enter into the joy of the Lord (Matt. 25:21, 23; 24:45-46) and some will suffer in weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30; 24:51). To enter into the Lord’s joy is the salvation of our souls (Heb. 10:39 and note 3). This salvation is more precious than the salvation of the body, which the children of Israel expect to receive.
1P 1:101a prophets  -   Luke 10:24; 2 Pet. 1:19-21
Like the Lord (Luke 24:25-27, 44-46), Peter used the Old Testament prophets to confirm his teaching concerning the New Testament salvation.
1P 1:102 grace
A synonym for salvation in this verse. See note 134. For grace, see notes 146 in John 1 and 101 in 1 Cor. 15.
1P 1:111 Searching
The searching of the prophets was the Spirit’s pre-application of God’s salvation in the Old Testament.
1P 1:112 what
The Old Testament prophets were searching into what time and what manner of time the Spirit in them was making clear concerning Christ’s marvelous accomplishment through His sufferings and glories. Eventually, it was revealed to them that they ministered those marvelous things not to themselves but to the New Testament believers (v. 12).
1P 1:113 of
The highly respected Vaticanus MS omits, of Christ. This omission fits into the New Testament revelation concerning the Spirit. However, the other authoritative MSS have of Christ in their text. In the New Testament revelation the Spirit of Christ denotes the Spirit after Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 8:9-11). Before Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit who is not only the Spirit of God but the Spirit of Christ was not yet (John 7:39). The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God constituted through and with the death and resurrection of Christ for the application and impartation of Christ’s death and resurrection to His believers. Although the constituting of the Spirit of Christ is dispensational — i.e., the Spirit of Christ was constituted dispensationally through and with Christ’s death and resurrection in the New Testament time — the function of the Spirit of Christ is eternal, because He is the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14). This is like the cross of Christ: as an event, it was accomplished at the time of Christ’s death, yet its function is eternal; hence, in the eternal sight of God, Christ was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). In Old Testament times the Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Christ, made the time and the manner of time concerning Christ’s death and resurrection clear to the prophets who were seeking and searching diligently concerning the sufferings and glories of Christ.
1P 1:114 sufferings
Christ first suffered and then entered into glory (Luke 24:26). We should follow Him in the same steps (4:13; Rom. 8:17). The sufferings of Christ, as revealed to the prophets and prophesied by them in Psa. 22:1, 6-8, 12-18; Isa. 53:2-10a, 12b; Dan. 9:26; and Zech. 12:10m; 13:6-7, are for the accomplishing of God’s redemption, which, on the negative side, has solved all the problems between man and God and terminated the old creation, and, on the positive side, has released the eternal life of God for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.
The glories of Christ (see note 6) are for His glorification, which He asked of the Father before His crucifixion (John 17:1) and which is for the executing of God’s New Testament economy for the carrying out of God’s eternal purpose. The sufferings of Christ and the glorification of Christ with the glories in different steps — the factors of God’s full redemption and salvation — being applied to and experienced by us equal the salvation mentioned in vv. 5, 9, and 10. This is what the prophets in the Old Testament sought and searched for diligently, what the Spirit of Christ revealed to them, what the apostles preached in the New Testament by the Holy Spirit, and what the angels long to look into (v. 12).
1P 1:115 of
Lit., unto. The sufferings that Christ endured were sufferings assigned to Him by God (Isa. 53:10); hence, they are of Him, belonging to Him.
1P 1:116 glories
The glories in different steps: the glory in His resurrection (Luke 24:26; Acts 3:13), the glory in His ascension (Acts 2:33; Heb. 2:9), the glory in His second coming (Rev. 18:1; Matt. 25:31), and the glory in His reign (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6), as revealed in Psa. 16:8-10; 22:21-22; 118:22-24; 110:1, 4; 118:26; Zech. 14:4-5; Dan. 7:13-14; and Psa. 24:7-10; 72:8-11.
1P 1:121 these
Referring to the sufferings of Christ and His glories, mentioned in v. 11.
1P 1:122 preached
The preaching of the apostles is the Spirit’s practical application of God’s salvation in the New Testament.
1P 1:12a Spirit  -   Acts 2:2-4; Heb. 2:4
1P 1:123 look
The Greek word portrays one who is stooping and stretching his neck to look at some wonderful sight. This shows how interested the angels are in observing the things concerning Christ for God’s salvation. They declared and celebrated the Savior’s birth (Luke 2:8-14), they rejoice over the sinners’ repenting to receive salvation (Luke 15:10), and they are happy to serve those who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14; Acts 12:15; Matt. 18:10).
1P 1:131 Therefore
Verses 3-12 are a long sentence of blessing (well-speaking) concerning God the Father, disclosing to us His marvelous and excellent salvation, beginning from the regeneration of our spirit (v. 3) and consummating in the salvation of our soul (v. 9), accomplished through the sufferings and glories of Christ (v. 11) and applied to us by the Holy Spirit (v. 12). Based on this, v. 13 begins an exhortation to those who are participating in the full salvation carried out by the Triune God according to His economy.
1P 1:13a girding  -   1 Pet. 5:5; Luke 12:35; Eph. 6:14
1P 1:132b sober  -   1 Pet. 4:7; 5:8; 1 Thes. 5:6, 8; 2 Tim. 4:5; 1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Tim. 1:7
Calm and clear in mind, able to realize God’s economy in His salvation, as revealed in vv. 3-12, without being disturbed by fear, anxiety, or any care.
1P 1:133 hope
The living hope obtained through regeneration (v. 3).
1P 1:134c grace  -   1 Pet. 1:10
I.e., the salvation of the soul (vv. 5, 9-10), which will be the consummation of God’s full salvation. Grace was brought to us by the Lord’s first coming (John 1:17). It will be consummated by His second coming. On such grace we should set our hope.
1P 1:13d revelation  -   1 Pet. 1:7
1P 1:14a obedience  -   1 Pet. 1:2
1P 1:141 fashioned
As in Rom. 12:2. Do not be fashioned denotes a state that is a path on which God’s elect, as sojourners, walk.
1P 1:14b lusts  -   1 Pet. 4:2
1P 1:14c ignorance  -   Acts 17:30; 1 Pet. 2:15
1P 1:151 Holy
The Holy One is the Triune God — the choosing Father, the redeeming Son, and the sanctifying Spirit (vv. 1-2). The Father regenerates His elect, imparting His holy nature into them (v. 3); the Son redeemed them with His blood from the vain manner of life (vv. 18-19); and the Spirit sanctifies them according to the Father’s holy nature, separating them from anything other than God (v. 2) that they, by the holy nature of the Father, may be holy in all their manner of life, even as holy as God Himself (vv. 15-16).
1P 1:15a called  -   1 Thes. 4:7; 1 Pet. 2:21; 3:9; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3
1P 1:152 be
Through the sanctification of the Spirit (v. 2), based on regeneration (v. 3), which brings us the holy nature of God and issues in a holy life.
1P 1:15b holy  -   2 Pet. 3:11; Heb. 12:14
1P 1:15c manner  -   1 Pet. 2:12; 3:1, 2, 16; cf. 1 Pet. 1:18; 2 Pet. 2:7
1P 1:16a holy  -   Lev. 11:44; 19:2; 20:7
1P 1:171a Father  -   Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6; 2 Cor. 6:18
The Holy One, who as the Father has called us, has regenerated us to produce a holy family — a holy Father with holy children. As holy children, we should walk in a holy manner of life. Otherwise, the Father will become the Judge (4:17) and will deal with our unholiness. He begot us with life inwardly that we might have His holy nature; He disciplines us with judgment outwardly that we may partake of His holiness (Heb. 12:9-10). His judgment is according to our work, our conduct, without respect of persons. Hence, we should pass the time of our sojourning in fear. If we call Him our Father, we also should fear Him as our Judge and live a holy life in fear.
1P 1:17b without  -   Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; Acts 10:34
1P 1:172c judges  -   1 Pet. 2:23; 4:6, 17
Peter “is not speaking of the final judgment of the soul. In that sense ‘the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son’ [John 5:22]. The thing spoken of here is the daily judgment of God’s government in this world, exercised with regard to His children. Accordingly it says, ‘the time of your sojourn[ing]’ here” (Darby). This is God’s judgment on His own household (4:17).
Since these two Epistles are concerned with the government of God, the judgment of God and of the Lord is referred to repeatedly (2:23; 4:5-6, 17; 2 Pet. 2:3-4, 9; 3:7) as one of the main items. God’s judgment began from the angels (2 Pet. 2:3-4) and passed through the generations of man in the Old Testament (2 Pet. 2:5-9). In the New Testament age it begins from the house of God (v. 17; 2:23; 4:6, 17) and continues until the coming of the day of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:10), which will be a day of judgment on the Jews, the believers, and the Gentiles before the millennium (see note 123 in 2 Pet. 3). After the millennium all the dead, including men and demons, will be judged and will perish (4:5; 2 Pet. 3:7), and the heavens and the earth will be consumed by fire (2 Pet. 3:10b, 12). The results of the various judgments are not the same. Some judgments result in a disciplinary dealing, some in a dispensational punishment, and some in eternal perdition (see note 15, point 2, in 2 Pet. 2). However, by all these judgments the Lord God will clear up and purify the entire universe that He may have a new heaven and a new earth for a new universe filled with His righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13) for His delight.
1P 1:173 work
I.e., conduct, behavior; as in Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16.
1P 1:17d sojourning  -   1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13
1P 1:174e fear  -   1 Pet. 2:17, 18; 3:2, 16; 2 Cor. 7:1; Heb. 12:28; Jude 23
A holy fear, as in Phil. 2:12; i.e., a healthy, serious caution that leads us to behave holily. Such fear is mentioned a number of times in this book (see reference 17e) because this book’s teaching concerns the government of God.
1P 1:181a silver  -   Ezek. 7:19; Isa. 52:3; Zeph. 1:18
Lit., something silver or something gold (e.g., a coin).
1P 1:18b redeemed  -   Titus 2:14; Rom. 3:24; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14
1P 1:18c from  -   cf. Psa. 130:8
1P 1:182d vain  -   Eph. 4:17; Rom. 1:21; 2 Pet. 2:18
The vain manner of life is in contrast to the holy manner of life in v. 15. As a general principle, the blood of Christ has redeemed us from sins, transgressions, lawlessness, and all sinful things (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:15; Titus 2:14). Here is an exception: Christ’s blood has redeemed us from our old, vain manner of life, because the emphasis here is not on sinfulness but on the manner of life. The whole chapter emphasizes the holy manner of life that God’s chosen people should have in their sojourn. Not only is the Spirit’s sanctification for this; even Christ’s redemption is for this — to separate us from our vain manner of life handed down from our fathers. Knowing that this was accomplished with the highest price, the precious blood of Christ, we should pass the days of our sojourning in fear (v. 17).
Our old manner of life, a life in lusts (v. 14), had no meaning and no goal; hence, it was vain. But now our goal is to live a holy life that we may express God in His holiness (vv. 15-16).
1P 1:191 precious
The blood of Christ, by which we are sprinkled and thus marked out from the common people, is more precious than silver and gold. The highest price was paid for our redemption that we might be redeemed from a vain manner of life to a holy life (vv. 18, 15). For this we should have a holy fear, a healthy, serious caution before God, so that, as God’s elect, redeemed with such a high price, we will not miss the purpose of this most high redemption of Christ.
1P 1:19a blood  -   1 Pet. 1:2; Acts 20:28; Heb. 9:12-14; Rev. 1:5
1P 1:19b Lamb  -   Exo. 12:5; Isa. 53:7; John 1:29, 36; Rev. 5:6, 13
1P 1:19c without  -   Lev. 4:3; 6:6
1P 1:201a foreknown  -   1 Pet. 1:2
Christ was foreordained, prepared, by God to be the redeeming Lamb (John 1:29) for His elect according to His foreknowledge before the foundation of the world. This was done according to God’s eternal purpose and plan; it did not happen accidentally. Hence, in the eternal view of God, from the foundation of the world, that is, from the fall of man as part of the world, Christ was slain (Rev. 13:8).
1P 1:20b before  -   John 17:24; Eph. 1:4
1P 1:20c manifested  -   Heb. 9:26; 1 John 3:5, 8
1P 1:202d last  -   Heb. 1:2
Referring to the end of the Old Testament times. See note 21 in Heb. 1.
1P 1:211 through
Our believing into Christ brought us into an organic union with Him (Gal. 3:26-27). Then through Him we believe into God to be one with Him and participate in all His riches.
1P 1:21a raised  -   Acts 2:24; Rom. 10:9
1P 1:212 gave
This is to glorify Him with glory (v. 11) and is the Father’s answer to His prayer (John 17:1).
1P 1:21b glory  -   John 7:39; Acts 3:13; Heb. 2:9
1P 1:213 faith
See note 131 in 1 Cor. 13.
1P 1:21c hope  -   1 Pet. 1:3
1P 1:221 purified
The purifying of our souls is the Spirit’s sanctifying of our disposition that we may live a holy life in God’s holy nature (vv. 15-16). It is deeper than the purifying of our sins (Heb. 1:3) and the cleansing of sin (1 John 1:7). The latter two are the purifying of our outward doing; the former is the purifying of our inward being — the soul. This purifying is like the washing of the water in the word in Eph. 5:26 (see note 3 there).
1P 1:222a souls  -   1 Pet. 1:9
Our soul is composed of our mind, emotion, and will, which are also parts of our heart. To have our soul purified is to have our mind, emotion, and will, as parts of our heart, purified from any kind of defilement or contamination (Acts 15:9; James 4:8). Actually, this means to have our mind, emotion, and will delivered from all things other than God and fixed on God as the sole object and unique goal. This kind of purification is accomplished by our obedience to the truth, which is the content and reality of our faith (see note 11, point 2, in 1 Tim. 1). When we obey the truth, the content and reality of our faith in Christ, our entire soul is concentrated on God and is thus purified from all things other than God. This is to have our souls saved from all filthiness by our receiving the implanted word (James 1:21), which is the sanctifying truth (John 17:17).
1P 1:223 truth
The sanctifying truth, which is God’s word of reality, i.e., of truth (John 17:17 and notes).
1P 1:224b brotherly  -   1 Pet. 2:17; 3:8; 2 Pet. 1:7; Rom. 12:9-10; Heb. 13:1; 1 John 4:21
Since the purifying of our souls causes our entire being to be concentrated on God that we may love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind (Mark 12:30), such purifying issues in unfeigned brotherly love, our loving from the heart fervently those whom God loves. First, God’s regeneration issues in a holy living (vv. 15-16); then God’s sanctification (purification) issues in brotherly love.
1P 1:225 from
Some MSS read, from the heart fervently.
1P 1:231 Having
This verse modifies v. 22. Having been regenerated, we have purified our souls unto brotherly love. Regeneration with the divine life is the base, the ground, for the purifying, sanctifying, of our souls unto unfeigned brotherly love. This section of the Word begins and ends with regeneration, which issues in a holy living toward God and brotherly love toward the saints.
1P 1:23a regenerated  -   1 Pet. 1:3
1P 1:232b seed  -   Matt. 13:4; 1 John 3:9
A seed is a container of life. The word of God, as the incorruptible seed, contains God’s life. Hence, it is living and abiding. Through this word we were regenerated. It is God’s living and abiding word of life that conveys God’s life into our spirit for our regeneration.
1P 1:23c living  -   Heb. 4:12
1P 1:241 flesh
Referring to fallen man. The entire fallen human race is like withering grass, and its glory like the falling flower of grass. The believers were once like that, but the living and abiding word of the Lord, as the seed sown into them through regeneration, has changed their nature, making them living and abiding forever.
1P 1:24a grass  -   Isa. 40:6-8; 51:12; Psa. 102:11; James 1:10-11
1P 1:251 word
Word in v. 23 refers to the constant word; word here (used twice) refers to the instant word. When the constant word is spoken to us, it becomes the instant word.
1P 1:252 Lord
Referring to God in v. 23, indicating that the Lord Jesus is God.
1P 1:25a word  -   Eph. 1:13
1P 1:253b gospel  -   Rom. 1:15-17
The word announced by the apostles is the gospel that regenerates the believers.
1 Peter Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1P 2:11 Therefore
The exhortation in vv. 1-10 is based on what is unveiled in ch. 1. Three main things accomplished in the believers by the Triune God are stressed in ch. 1: the Father’s regeneration (1:3, 23), the Son’s redemption (1:2, 18-19), and the Spirit’s sanctification (1:2). These make the believers a holy people, who live a holy life (1:15-16). Based on this, Peter charged the believers to grow in life (v. 2) for the building up of a spiritual house (v. 5).
1P 2:12a malice  -   1 Cor. 5:8; Eph. 4:31; Col. 3:8
The five negative things mentioned here constitute a sequence. Malice is the root, the source, and evil speaking is the expression. Guile, hypocrisies, and envyings are the downward steps of the development from the source toward the expression.
1P 2:1b hypocrisies  -   Matt. 23:13-15, 23, 25, 27, 29
1P 2:21 newborn
Born through regeneration (1:3, 23), the believers become babes who can grow in life unto further salvation, and that for God’s building, by being nourished with the spiritual milk.
1P 2:2a babes  -   Heb. 5:13; 1 Cor. 3:1
1P 2:22 guileless
In contrast to guile in v. 1. I.e., without false purpose, without any goal other than to nourish the soul.
1P 2:2b milk  -   1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12-13; Isa. 55:1; 28:9
1P 2:23 of
The Greek word, translated reasonable in Rom. 12:1, is an adjective, derived from the noun word; hence, of the word; having the sense of pertaining to the mind (in contrast to the body), to the rational faculties; hence, rational, logical, reasonable. The milk of the word is not milk for the body but milk for the soul, the inner being. It is conveyed in the word of God to nourish our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind and is assimilated by our mental faculties.
1P 2:24c grow  -   2 Pet. 3:18; Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19
To grow is a matter of life and in life. We received the divine life through regeneration, and we need to grow in this life and with this life by being nourished with the milk conveyed in the word of God.
1P 2:25 unto
I.e., resulting in. Growth in life results in salvation. Salvation here, as the result of growth in life, is not initial salvation. God’s full and complete salvation has a long span — from regeneration, including justification, to glorification (Rom. 8:30). At regeneration we receive initial salvation (see note 55 in ch. 1). Then we need to grow by feeding on Christ as the nourishing milk in the word of God, unto full salvation, unto maturity for glorification. This will be the salvation of our soul, which will be revealed to us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus (1:5 and note 5; 1:9-10, 13). However, according to the context, unto salvation here refers directly to being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices in v. 5, and to tell out the virtues of Him in v. 9.
1P 2:2d salvation  -   1 Pet. 1:5, 9-10
1P 2:31a tasted  -   Psa. 34:8; Heb. 6:4-5
The Lord can be tasted, and His taste is pleasant and good. If we have tasted Him, we will long for the nourishing milk in His word (v. 2).
1P 2:32 good
Or, pleasant, kind.
1P 2:41 living
A living stone is one that not only possesses life but also grows in life. This is Christ for God’s building. Here Peter changed his metaphor from a seed, which is of the vegetable life (1:23-24), to a stone, which is of the minerals. The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (v. 5). Peter’s thought went on from life-planting to God’s building. As life to us, Christ is the seed; for God’s building, He is the stone. After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us. Thus He will make us also living stones, transformed with His stone nature, that we may be built together with others as a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16).
1P 2:4a stone  -   Dan. 2:34-35; Matt. 21:42; 16:18
1P 2:4b rejected  -   1 Pet. 2:7; Acts 4:11
1P 2:4c chosen  -   1 Pet. 2:6; Matt. 12:18
1P 2:42 precious
Or, held in honor; differing from the word used in 1:19. There the word denotes preciousness in essence; here it indicates preciousness that is recognized and held in honor by men.
1P 2:51 living
We, the believers in Christ, are living stones, like Christ, through regeneration and transformation. We were created of clay (Rom. 9:21). But at regeneration we received the seed of the divine life, which by its growing in us transforms us into living stones. At Peter’s conversion the Lord gave him a new name, Peter — a stone (John 1:42); and when Peter received the revelation concerning Christ, the Lord revealed further that He was the rock — a stone (Matt. 16:16-18). By these two incidents Peter received the impression that both Christ and His believers are stones for God’s building.
1P 2:5a stones  -   Gen. 28:22; 1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:11, 19
1P 2:52b built  -   1 Cor. 3:9; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:16; Col. 2:7
Feeding on Christ by taking in the nourishing milk in the word of God is not only for growing in life but also for building up. Growing is for building up.
1P 2:53 spiritual
Although the nourishing milk of the word is for the soul through the mind, it eventually nourishes our spirit, making us not soulish but spiritual, suitable for being built up as a spiritual house of God.
1P 2:54c house  -   Gen. 28:19, 22; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17
God’s goal in the believers is to have a house built up with living stones — not separated and scattered stones, nor even stones merely gathered and piled up together, but stones built up one with another.
1P 2:55 into
Some ancient MSS omit, into.
1P 2:56 holy
Spiritual denotes the capacity of the divine life to live and grow; holy, the capacity of the divine nature to separate and sanctify. The house of God subsists mainly by the divine life; hence, it is spiritual. The priesthood subsists mainly by the divine nature; hence, it is holy.
1P 2:57 priesthood
The holy priesthood is the spiritual house. In the New Testament three Greek words are used in relation to the priests: hierosune, referring to the priestly office, as in Heb. 7:12; hierateia, referring to the priestly service, as in Heb. 7:5; and hierateuma, referring to the assembly of priests, a body of priests, a priesthood, as in this verse and v. 9. The coordinated body of priests is the built-up spiritual house. Although Peter did not address his two Epistles to the church or use the term church in this verse in stressing the corporate life of the believers, he did use the terms spiritual house and holy priesthood to indicate the church life. It is not the spiritual life lived in an individualistic way, but the spiritual life lived in a corporate way, that can fulfill God’s purpose and satisfy His desire. He wants a spiritual house for His dwelling, a priestly body, a priesthood, for His service. Peter’s view concerning the believers’ corporate service in coordination is the same as Paul’s in Rom. 12. This service issues from the three vital steps in the spiritual life: being born anew (v. 2a), growing in life by being nourished with Christ (v. 2b), and being built up with the believers.
1P 2:58 spiritual
The spiritual sacrifices that the believers offer in the New Testament age according to God’s economy are: (1) Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament types, such as the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering (Lev. 1 — 5); (2) the sinners saved by our gospel preaching, offered as members of Christ (Rom. 15:16); and (3) our body, our praises, and the things that we do for God (Rom. 12:1; Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18).
1P 2:5d acceptable  -   Isa. 56:7; Rom. 12:1; 15:16
1P 2:6a Behold  -   Isa. 28:16
1P 2:61 cornerstone
See note 203 in Eph. 2.
1P 2:62b chosen  -   1 Pet. 2:4
Christ is a stone chosen by God to be the cornerstone for His building (Eph. 2:20).
1P 2:63 precious
See note 42.
1P 2:6c believes  -   Rom. 9:33; 10:11
1P 2:71 preciousness
In Greek, a word kindred to precious in vv. 4, 6. The very Christ chosen by God as a stone, even a cornerstone that is precious to God, is the preciousness to His believers; but to the unbelievers He is a rejected, despised stone.
1P 2:7a The  -   Psa. 118:22
1P 2:72 builders
The Jewish leaders in Judaism (Acts 4:11), who should have been building the house of God. They rejected Christ to the uttermost. The Lord predicted that they would do this (Matt. 21:38-42).
1P 2:7b rejected  -   1 Pet. 2:4
1P 2:73 become
In resurrection Christ became the head of the corner. In his early preaching Peter had already declared this to the Jews (Acts 4:10-11).
1P 2:8a A  -   Isa. 8:14; Rom. 9:33
1P 2:81b stumbling  -   Luke 2:34
The reliable Christ (v. 6), being rejected, became a stumbling stone, on which the rejecting Judaizers stumbled (Matt. 21:44a).
1P 2:8c offense  -   1 Cor. 1:23
1P 2:8d stumble  -   2 Pet. 1:10
1P 2:82 the
I.e., the word quoted in vv. 6-8.
1P 2:83 which
Referring to the Jews’ disobedience, which resulted in their stumbling.
1P 2:8e appointed  -   cf. 1 Thes. 3:3; 5:9
1P 2:9a chosen  -   1 Pet. 1:2; cf. Deut. 7:6; 10:15; 14:2
1P 2:91 race
Race, priesthood, nation, and people are all collective nouns, referring to the believers corporately. As a race, we, the believers, are chosen; as a priesthood, a body of priests, we are royal, kingly; as a nation, we are holy; as a people, we are God’s possession, a possession particularly acquired and owned by God as His treasure (Titus 2:14 and note 3). Chosen race denotes our descent from God; royal priesthood, our service to God; holy nation, our being a community for God; and people acquired for a possession, our preciousness to God. These are all in a corporate sense. Hence, we need to be built together (v. 5).
1P 2:92 royal
See notes 56 and 57. Royal denotes the status of our priesthood, which is kingly, like that of Christ the King, our High Priest, typified by Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1-2, 26, and note 12; Gen. 14:18).
1P 2:9b priesthood  -   Rev. 1:6; 5:10; cf. Exo. 19:6; Isa. 61:6
1P 2:93 holy
See note 23 in Rom. 1. Holy denotes the nature of the nation.
1P 2:94 tell
Or, proclaim abroad. First, we must be born anew and grow in life (v. 2), and then we must be built up and serve corporately (v. 5). Now we need to proclaim abroad, to tell out. To serve corporately is to satisfy God by offering up Christ as spiritual sacrifices; to tell out is to benefit others by proclaiming abroad as the gospel the virtues of the One who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1P 2:95c virtues  -   2 Pet. 1:3
Or, excellencies, excellent and glorious virtues (2 Pet. 1:3 and note 11); referring to what God is and has, and to the marvelous light of God, which consummates in His glory. To and by His virtue and glory God has called us (2 Pet. 1:3).
1P 2:9d called  -   1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3; 1 Thes. 2:12
1P 2:96e darkness  -   Isa. 42:16; 1 Thes. 5:4
Darkness is the expression and sphere of Satan in death; light is the expression and sphere of God in life. God has called us, delivered us, out of Satan’s death-realm of darkness into His life-realm of light (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13).
1P 2:9f light  -   1 John 1:5; John 8:12; Eph. 5:8; Psa. 36:9
See note 96.
1P 2:101 Who
This word from Hosea 2:23 was quoted by Paul in Rom. 9:24-27, in reference first to the Gentiles and then to the remnant of Israel, “for not all who are out of Israel are Israel” (Rom. 9:6). Here Peter, quoting this word, referred to the recipients of his letter, the scattered Jewish believers. At one time they were out of Israel but were not Israel. Hence, they were not God’s people in the New Testament sense. Now, after being called by God, they became God’s people, God’s particular possession, as a treasure to God. They were shown God’s mercy, which they had never been shown before.
1P 2:10a not  -   Hosea 1:9-10
1P 2:11a strangers  -   Lev. 25:23; Psa. 119:19
1P 2:11b sojourners  -   1 Pet. 1:1, 17
1P 2:11c abstain  -   1 Pet. 4:2; 1 Thes. 4:3; 5:22
1P 2:111d fleshly  -   Rom. 13:14; Gal. 5:16, 24
The fleshly lusts are in man’s fallen body (Rom. 7:18, 23-24) and are warring against man’s soul — man’s inner being, composed of his mind, will, and emotion (Rom. 7:19-23).
1P 2:11e war  -   James 4:1
1P 2:11f soul  -   1 Pet. 1:9
See note 111.
1P 2:121a manner  -   1 Pet. 1:15
This must be the holy manner of life (1:15) and the good manner of life in Christ (3:16), a life not only for God but filled and saturated with God. This manner of life is versus the vain manner of life of the unbelievers (1:18).
1P 2:122b excellent  -   James 3:13
I.e., beautiful in its virtues.
1P 2:12c speak  -   1 Pet. 3:16; 4:4; Matt. 5:11
1P 2:12d good  -   Matt. 5:16
1P 2:12e glorify  -   1 Pet. 4:11; 2 Cor. 9:13; Gal. 1:24
1P 2:123f visitation  -   Luke 1:68, 78; 19:44; Acts 15:14
The basic meaning of the Greek word is observation, inspection, oversight, a looking upon. The day of visitation is the day on which God will look upon His sojourning people, as a shepherd watches over his wandering sheep, and will become the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls (v. 25). Hence, the day of God’s visitation is the time of God’s overseeing care.
1P 2:131 Be
All the items from this verse through v. 20 are details showing the good works of the excellent manner of life (v. 12).
1P 2:13a subject  -   Rom. 13:1; Titus 3:1
1P 2:132 institution
Lit., creation; as in Col. 1:15. Referring to anything made, such as a creature, a building, a regulation, or an ordinance.
1P 2:133 for
For the expression and glorification of the Lord (v. 12).
1P 2:13b king  -   1 Pet. 2:17
1P 2:14a vengeance  -   Rom. 13:3-4
1P 2:14b good  -   1 Pet. 3:13; 4:19
1P 2:15a will  -   1 Pet. 3:17; 4:2, 19
1P 2:15b ignorance  -   1 Pet. 1:14; Titus 3:3
1P 2:151 foolish
The slanderers (v. 12).
1P 2:16a free  -   John 8:32, 36; Gal. 5:1
1P 2:16b not  -   Gal. 5:13; cf. 2 Pet. 2:19
1P 2:16c slaves  -   Rom. 6:22; 1 Cor. 7:22
1P 2:17a Honor  -   1 Pet. 3:7; Rom. 12:10; 13:7
1P 2:17b Love  -   1 Pet. 1:22
1P 2:171 brotherhood
The aggregate of the brothers, the family of the brothers, the brothers in the feeling of brotherliness (also in 5:9).
1P 2:17c Fear  -   1 Pet. 1:17; Psa. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 24:21
1P 2:17d king  -   1 Pet. 2:13
1P 2:18a servants  -   Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22; Titus 2:9
1P 2:181b fear  -   1 Pet. 1:17
See note 174 in ch. 1.
1P 2:191 grace
Grace here refers to the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our living, which becomes in our behavior gracious and acceptable in the eyes of both man and God (v. 20). The same Greek word is used in Luke 6:33-34 and Rom. 7:25 for thanks. So in the next verse.
1P 2:192 because
Or, for conscience toward God. The consciousness of God is the consciousness of one’s relation to God, indicating that one is living in an intimate fellowship with God, having and keeping a good and pure conscience toward God (3:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3).
1P 2:19a consciousness  -   Rom. 13:5; 1 Pet. 3:21
1P 2:193 unjustly
According to the context (vv. 20-21), this must be the mistreatment inflicted by the unbelieving masters, who opposed and persecuted their believing servants because of their Christian testimony (3:14-18; 4:12-16).
1P 2:201 glory
Or, boast.
1P 2:20a suffering  -   1 Pet. 3:14, 17; 4:13, 15-16, 19
1P 2:211 this
We have been called to enjoy grace and express God in the midst of our suffering unjustly (vv. 18-20).
1P 2:21a called  -   1 Pet. 3:9; 1:15
1P 2:21b suffered  -   1 Pet. 3:18; 4:1, 13
1P 2:212c model  -   John 13:15; Matt. 11:29
Lit., a writing copy, an underwriting (used by students to trace letters and thereby learn to draw them). The Lord has set His suffering life before us so that we can copy it by tracing and following His steps. This does not refer to a mere imitation of Him and His life but to a reproduction of Him that comes from enjoying Him as grace in our sufferings (see note 191), so that He Himself as the indwelling Spirit, with all the riches of His life, reproduces Himself in us. We become the reproduction of the original writing copy, not a mere imitation of Him produced by taking Him as our outward model.
1P 2:22a sin  -   2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 John 3:5; John 8:46; Luke 23:4, 14, 22, 41
1P 2:22b mouth  -   Isa. 53:7; cf. Luke 4:22; Psa. 45:2
1P 2:23a not  -   cf. 1 Pet. 3:9
1P 2:231 all
All, inserted here, refers to all the sufferings of the Lord. The Lord kept committing all His insults and injuries to Him who judges righteously in His government, the righteous God, to whom He submitted Himself. This indicates that the Lord recognized God’s government while He was living a human life on earth.
1P 2:232b judges  -   1 Pet. 1:17; 4:6, 17
See note 172, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1P 2:241a bore  -   Isa. 53:11-12; Heb. 9:28
This points out that when the Lord offered up Himself as a sacrifice (Heb. 7:27) on the cross, He bore up our sins in His body on the cross, the true altar for propitiation.
1P 2:24b body  -   Col. 1:22; Rom. 8:3
1P 2:242c tree  -   Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29
The cross made of wood, a Roman instrument of capital punishment used for the execution of malefactors, as prophesied in the Old Testament (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13).
1P 2:243 having
Lit., being away from; hence, having died to. In the death of Christ we have died to sins (Rom. 6:8, 10-11, 18).
1P 2:24d died  -   Rom. 6:2; Col. 2:20; 3:3
1P 2:244e live  -   Rom. 6:13; Gal. 2:19
In the resurrection of Christ (Eph. 2:6; John 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:11).
1P 2:245 to
Righteousness is a matter of God’s government. We were saved so that we might live rightly under the government of God, that is, in a way that matches the righteous requirements of His government.
1P 2:246f bruise  -   Isa. 53:5
A suffering that resulted in death.
1P 2:247 healed
The healing of death. We were dead (Eph. 2:1), but Christ’s suffering of death healed our death that we might live in His resurrection.
1P 2:25a sheep  -   Isa. 53:6; Psa. 119:176; Jer. 50:6
1P 2:251 returned
Or, turned back.
1P 2:252b Shepherd  -   1 Pet. 5:4; John 10:11, 14, 16; Ezek. 34:23; Heb. 13:20
Christ was our Redeemer in His death on the tree (v. 24). Now He is our soul’s Shepherd and Overseer in the resurrection life within us. As such, He is able to guide us and supply us with life that we may follow in His steps according to the model of His suffering (v. 21).
1P 2:25c Overseer  -   1 Pet. 5:2; Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 3:1-2; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:7
1P 2:253d souls  -   1 Pet. 1:9
Our soul is our inner being, our real person. Our Lord, as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person.
1 Peter Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1P 3:11 like
Referring to 2:18.
1P 3:1a wives  -   1 Pet. 3:5; Eph. 5:22, 24; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; Gen. 3:16
1P 3:12 word
The word of God (1 Pet. 1:23, 25; Rom. 10:8; Eph. 1:13).
1P 3:1b wives  -   1 Cor. 7:16
1P 3:21 pure
Or, chaste; in Greek, a derivative from the same root as holy in v. 5 and 1:15. The pure and chaste manner of life must be the holy manner of life (1:15), the excellent manner of life (2:12), and the good manner of life (v. 16).
1P 3:22 in
In fear modifies pure manner of life.
1P 3:23a fear  -   1 Pet. 1:17
See note 174 in ch. 1.
1P 3:3a adorning  -   1 Tim. 2:9
1P 3:31 plaiting
Women’s hair is intended by God for their glory and as a sign of their submission (1 Cor. 11:15; S.S. 4:1; 6:5; 7:5). But it was misused by many, especially by those who lived in the luxurious and corrupt life of the Roman Empire at the time of this Epistle, to beautify their lustful flesh by adorning it extravagantly with gold and other costly things. Christian wives, as holy women, should absolutely abstain from this God-condemned practice.
1P 3:3b gold  -   Rev. 17:4
1P 3:41 hidden
That the hidden man of the heart has the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit indicates that the meek and quiet spirit in us is the hidden man of our heart. Our heart is composed of all the parts of our soul — mind, emotion, and will — along with the main part of our spirit — the conscience (Heb. 4:12). Among all these, our spirit is at the center; hence, our spirit is the hidden man of our heart. As wives, the sisters in the Lord should have as their adornment before God their inner being — the hidden man of their heart, which is adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. This spiritual adornment is very costly in the sight of God, and it is incorruptible, not like the material adornment of the plaiting of hair or the putting on of gold and garments, which is corruptible.
1P 3:4a heart  -   Rom. 2:29
1P 3:4b spirit  -   1 Cor. 4:21
1P 3:4c costly  -   1 Tim. 2:9
1P 3:5a hoped  -   1 Tim. 5:5
1P 3:5b subject  -   1 Pet. 3:1
1P 3:6a lord  -   Gen. 18:12
1P 3:6b fear  -   1 Pet. 3:14; Prov. 3:25
1P 3:61 terror
Lit., fright, or, nervous excitement.
1P 3:7a Husbands  -   1 Cor. 7:3; Eph. 5:25, 28; Col. 3:19
1P 3:71 according
I.e., in an intelligent and reasonable way, governed by human and spiritual knowledge that recognizes the nature of the marriage relationship and the weakness of the female, and not governed by any passion or emotion.
1P 3:72 weaker
The female, according to nature in God’s creation, is weaker than the male, physically and psychologically.
1P 3:73 vessel
Man, including woman, was made a vessel to contain God (Rom. 9:21, 23), and the believers in Christ are vessels to contain Christ as the treasure (2 Cor. 4:7). Although the wives, as female vessels, are weaker, they are still vessels of the Lord and can be vessels unto honor (2 Tim. 2:21).
1P 3:74 assigning
The Greek word for assigning means to apportion, to portion out; hence, to assign to. The word for honor means preciousness, valuable worth. The husbands should appreciate the preciousness, the valuable worth, of the wives and apportion it, assign it, as honor to them, duly and reasonably, as also to fellow heirs of the grace of life.
1P 3:7b honor  -   1 Pet. 2:17
1P 3:7c fellow  -   Eph. 3:6; Rom. 8:17
1P 3:75 grace
The grace of life is God as life and life supply to us in His Trinity — the Father as the source of life, the Son as the course of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life, who flows within us, with the Son and the Father, as grace to us (1 John 5:11-12; John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:1). All believers are heirs of this grace. See note 42 in ch. 1.
1P 3:8a same  -   Rom. 12:16; 15:5; 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 2:2
1P 3:8b loving  -   1 Pet. 1:22
1P 3:8c tenderhearted  -   Eph. 4:32
1P 3:8d humble-minded  -   1 Pet. 5:5; Eph. 4:2
1P 3:9a evil  -   Rom. 12:17; 1 Thes. 5:15
1P 3:9b reviling  -   1 Pet. 2:23; 2 Pet. 2:2
1P 3:91c blessing  -   Luke 6:28; Rom. 12:14; 1 Cor. 4:12
The tense of the Greek participle means be always blessing.
1P 3:9d called  -   1 Pet. 1:15; 2 Thes. 2:14; 1 Cor. 1:9
1P 3:92 to
We have been called to bless others, so we, as a blessed people, should always bless others that we may inherit blessing. What we bless others with, we will inherit ourselves (Matt. 10:13).
1P 3:9e blessing  -   1 Pet. 3:14; 4:14
1P 3:10a he  -   Psa. 34:12-16
1P 3:101 good
Good days are days of good, referring to good things as blessings.
1P 3:10b tongue  -   James 1:26
1P 3:11a turn  -   Psa. 37:27; Isa. 1:16-17
1P 3:11b seek  -   Rom. 12:18; Heb. 12:14; 2 Pet. 3:14
1P 3:12a eyes  -   Psa. 33:18; 2 Chron. 16:9
1P 3:12b ears  -   2 Chron. 7:15
1P 3:12c face  -   Jer. 44:11; cf. Num. 6:25
1P 3:13a good  -   1 Pet. 2:14
1P 3:14a suffer  -   1 Pet. 3:17; 2:19-20; 4:13-16
1P 3:14b righteousness  -   Matt. 5:10
1P 3:14c blessed  -   1 Pet. 3:9; 4:14
1P 3:14d afraid  -   Isa. 8:12; 1 Pet. 3:6; Matt. 10:28
1P 3:14e troubled  -   John 14:27
1P 3:151a sanctify  -   Isa. 8:13; 29:23; Matt. 6:9
If we are terrified and troubled by the persecutors (vv. 13-14), it will appear that we do not have the Lord in our hearts. So, in suffering persecution we should show others that we have Christ as Lord within us. This is to sanctify Him, to separate Him, from the other gods, not degrading Him so that He appears to be like the lifeless idols.
1P 3:15b Lord  -   Acts 2:36; 10:36
1P 3:152c hope  -   1 Pet. 1:3
The living hope of the inheritance of eternal life. See notes 36 and 42 in ch. 1.
1P 3:16a meekness  -   2 Tim. 2:25
1P 3:161b fear  -   1 Pet. 1:17
A pious fear. See note 174 in ch. 1.
1P 3:162c conscience  -   1 Tim. 1:5; Heb. 13:18
Since the conscience is a part of our human spirit (Rom. 9:1; 8:16), to care for our conscience is to care for our spirit before God.
1P 3:16d spoken  -   1 Pet. 2:12
1P 3:16e revile  -   1 Pet. 3:9
1P 3:16f manner  -   1 Pet. 1:15; James 3:13
1P 3:163g in  -   1 Pet. 5:10, 14
The Christian’s good manner of life should be one that is in Christ. It is a living, a daily life, in the Spirit. This is higher than a living that is merely ethical and moral.
1P 3:16h shame  -   Titus 2:8
1P 3:17a will  -   1 Pet. 2:15; 4:19
1P 3:17b suffer  -   1 Pet. 3:14
1P 3:181 sins
Sins here and in 2:24, 1 Cor. 15:3, and Heb. 9:28 refers to the sins we commit in our outward conduct, whereas sin in 2 Cor. 5:21 and Heb. 9:26 refers to sin that is in our nature by birth. Christ died for our sins, bearing up our sins on the cross, that our sins might be forgiven by God. But He was made sin and took away the sin of the world that the problem of our sin might be solved. Peter did not deal first with sin in our nature but with sins in our conduct, in our manner of life (v. 16). The emphasis of this book is that Christ’s death redeemed us from our inherited vain manner of life (1:18-19).
1P 3:182a on  -   1 Pet. 2:21
This indicates that Christ’s death was for redemption, not for martyrdom. On the cross He was our Substitute and bore our sins; He, the righteous One, was judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous, by the righteous God according to His righteousness, that He might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God. This was to redeem us from our sins back to God, from our unrighteous manner of life back to the righteous God.
1P 3:18b to  -   Eph. 2:18; John 14:3, 16
1P 3:183 Spirit
Not the Holy Spirit but the Spirit as the essence of Christ’s divinity (Rom. 1:4; cf. John 4:24a). The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh — which He received through His incarnation (John 1:14) — not in His Spirit as His divinity. His Spirit as His divinity did not die at the cross when His flesh died; rather, His Spirit as His divinity was made alive, enlivened, with new power of life, so that in this empowered Spirit as His divinity He made a proclamation to the fallen angels after His death in the flesh and before His resurrection.
1P 3:191 which
This refers to the Spirit in v. 18, indicating and proving that Christ, after dying in His flesh, was still active in this Spirit.
1P 3:192 proclaimed
Not to preach the good news but to proclaim the victory achieved by God, that is, that through Christ’s death on the cross God destroyed Satan and his power of darkness (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15).
1P 3:193 spirits
Throughout the centuries great teachers of different schools have had varying interpretations concerning the spirits in prison. The most acceptable according to the Scriptures is as follows: the spirits here refer not to the disembodied spirits of dead human beings held in Hades but to the angels (angels are spirits — Heb. 1:14) who fell through disobedience at Noah’s time (v. 20 and Life-study of Genesis, Message Twenty-seven, pp. 363-4) and are imprisoned in pits of gloom, awaiting the judgment of the great day (2 Pet. 2:4-5; Jude 6). After His death in the flesh, Christ in His living Spirit as His divinity went (probably to the abyss — Rom. 10:7) to these rebellious angels to proclaim, perhaps, God’s victory, accomplished through His incarnation in Christ and Christ’s death in the flesh, over Satan’s scheme to derange the divine plan.
1P 3:194 prison
Referring to Tartarus, the deep and gloomy pits (2 Pet. 2:4 and Jude 6), where the fallen angels are kept.
1P 3:201 Who
Not human but angelic beings, different from the eight souls.
1P 3:20a Noah  -   Gen. 6:13-14; 7:1, 7, 23; Heb. 11:7; 2 Pet. 2:5
1P 3:202 brought
“The Greek means ‘arrive safe into a place of security through difficulty or danger,’ as Acts 27:44” (Darby).
1P 3:203 by
Water was the medium through which the saving was accomplished. The ark saved Noah and his family from God’s judgment, the destruction of the world by the flood. But the water saved them from the corrupted generation and separated them unto a new age, just as the water of the Red Sea did for the children of Israel (Exo. 14:22, 29; 1 Cor. 10:1-2) and the water of baptism for the New Testament believers (v. 21).
1P 3:20b water  -   Matt. 3:11; John 3:5
1P 3:211 Which
Referring to the water mentioned in the preceding verse, of which the water of baptism is the antitype. This indicates that Noah and his family’s passing through the flood within the ark was a type of our passing through baptism. The water of the flood delivered them out of the old manner of life into a new environment; in like manner the water of baptism delivers us out of the inherited vain manner of life into a manner of life of resurrection in Christ. This is the main emphasis of this book. Christ redeemed us for this (1:18-19). Christ’s redemption was accomplished by Christ’s death and was accepted and applied to us, in baptism, by the Spirit through Christ’s resurrection. Now our daily walk should be in the Spirit of the resurrected Christ; it should be a walk in which we live Christ in resurrection through the life power of His Spirit (Rom. 6:4-5). This is a new and excellent manner of life that glorifies God (2:12).
1P 3:212 baptism
In apposition to antitype.
1P 3:213 not
Baptism itself does not and cannot put away the filth of our flesh — the dirt of our fallen nature and the defilement of fleshly lust. The erroneous teaching concerning baptismal salvation, a teaching based on this verse and Mark 16:16 and Acts 22:16, is corrected here. Baptism is only a figure; its reality is Christ in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit, who applies to us all that Christ passed through in His crucifixion and resurrection, making these things real in our daily life.
1P 3:214 appeal
The Greek word denotes a question, an inquiry. Its meaning is very much disputed. The right meaning seems to be as indicated by Alford — “the seeking after God in a good and pure conscience.” It is this that governs the proper Christian life. This kind of question, which asks for something, can be considered an appeal or demand. Peter’s thought here may be that baptism is the baptized one’s appeal to God for a good conscience toward God. Baptism, as a symbol, a counterpart of our belief in all the accomplishments of Christ, testifies that all the problems we have before God and with God have been solved. Hence, it is also a testimony, witnessing that in our conscience there is no more accusation and that instead we are full of peace and are confident that we have been baptized into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19) and have been organically united with Him through the resurrection of Christ, that is, by Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of life. Without the Spirit of Christ as its reality, baptism by water immediately becomes an empty and dead ritual.
1P 3:21a conscience  -   1 Pet. 2:19; 3:16
1P 3:21b resurrection  -   1 Pet. 1:3; Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:5
1P 3:221 Who
This additional word not only unveils to us, further, the glorious result of the suffering of Christ — His exaltation after His resurrection and the high and honorable position He now holds in the heavens at the right hand of God — but also indicates how glorious and honorable is the organic union we have entered into with Him through baptism, for we were baptized into Him (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27).
1P 3:22a right  -   Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1
1P 3:22b heaven  -   Mark 16:19; Acts 1:11; Eph. 1:20
1P 3:22c angels  -   Rom. 8:38
1P 3:22d authorities  -   1 Cor. 15:24
1P 3:22e subjected  -   Eph. 1:21-22
1 Peter Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1P 4:11a suffered  -   1 Pet. 2:21; 3:18
Some MSS add, for us.
1P 4:12b arm  -   Rom. 13:12; Eph. 6:11, 13
This indicates that the Christian life is a battle.
1P 4:13 same
One main purpose of this book is to encourage and exhort the believers to follow the footsteps of Christ in their suffering of persecution (1:6-7; 2:18-25; 3:8-17; 4:12-19). They should have the same mind that Christ had in His suffering (3:18-22). The main function of our mind is to understand and realize. To live a life that follows the footsteps of Christ, we need a renewed mind (Rom. 12:2) to understand and realize the way Christ lived to fulfill God’s purpose.
1P 4:14 suffered
Pleasure heats up the lusts of our flesh (v. 2); suffering cools them down. The purpose of Christ’s redemption is to deliver us from our inherited vain manner of life (1:18-19). Suffering responds to Christ’s redemption in fulfilling this purpose, preserving us from a sinful manner of life, from the flood of dissoluteness (vv. 3-4). Such suffering, mainly from persecution, is God’s discipline in His governmental dealing. To undergo such suffering is to be judged, dealt with, and disciplined in the flesh by God (v. 6). Hence, we should arm ourselves with a sober mind to endure such suffering.
1P 4:1c sin  -   Rom. 6:2, 6-7
1P 4:21a No  -   1 Pet. 2:11
I.e., no longer to live in the vain manner of life handed down from our fathers (1:18), but in a holy and excellent manner of life (1:15; 2:12), pure in holy fear and good in Christ (3:2, 16). This is the will of God.
1P 4:2b live  -   2 Pet. 2:6
1P 4:2c lusts  -   2 Pet. 1:4; 2:10, 18; Titus 2:12; 1 John 2:16
1P 4:2d will  -   1 Pet. 4:19; 2:15
1P 4:3a sufficient  -   Ezek. 44:6
1P 4:31 desire
Lit., purpose, will. I.e., intention, inclination; hence, desire.
1P 4:3b Gentiles  -   Eph. 4:17-19; 1 Thes. 4:5
1P 4:32 in
I.e., in the vain manner of life (1:18).
1P 4:41 strange
The Greek word means to be a host or a guest, to be foreign, alien; to entertain, to lodge; to think it strange. To live in the flesh in the lusts of men (v. 2) is common among the unbelieving Gentiles, who are running together into the flood of dissoluteness. But to live a holy life in the will of God, not running together in the indulgence of lusts, is strange to them. It is a foreign thing, alien to them. They are surprised and astonished at it (cf. v. 12).
1P 4:42 running
Rushing on in a crowd like a band of revelers. This is to live in the flesh in the lusts of men (v. 2), to carry out the desire of the Gentiles (v. 3) in the vain manner of life (1:18).
1P 4:43 flood
The Greek word means a pouring forth, a pouring out upon (as in a tide); hence, a flood. It denotes here the overflowing indulgence of lusts, the excess of moral corruption and degradation, which is like a flood, into which one sinks when one runs into it.
1P 4:4a dissoluteness  -   Eph. 5:18; Titus 1:6
1P 4:44 slandering
I.e., speaking evilly of (you), speaking injuriously of (you) (Acts 13:45; 1 Pet. 2:12; 3:16). The believers, whose behavior was thought strange, were slandered unjustly and accused of all manner of crimes.
1P 4:51 Who
Referring to the Gentiles (v. 3), who are astonished at the believers’ different manner of life and speak evilly of them (v. 4).
1P 4:52a render  -   Matt. 12:36
I.e., to relate to God all that one has done and spoken in his entire life. This reveals the government of God over all men. He is ready to judge all, both the living and the dead. His judgment is His governmental administration by which He deals with the situation among men.
1P 4:5b Him  -   Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1
1P 4:53 judge
This must be to judge first the living among the nations (the Gentiles) at Christ’s throne of glory before the millennium (Matt. 25:31-46) and then the dead at the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). This too will be God’s governmental judgment, but it differs from the judgment on the believers in v. 6, which begins from the house of God in this age (v. 17). See note 172, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1P 4:61 those
Those who are now dead refers to the dead believers in Christ, who suffered persecution because of their Christian testimony, as referred to in 1:6; 2:18-21; 3:16-17; and 4:12-19. This kind of persecution was considered by Peter in this book as God’s judgment, which is according to the government of God and which begins from the house of God (v. 17). The gospel was preached to these dead believers while they were living, that they might, on the one hand, be judged, dealt with, by God in the flesh according to men through the opposers’ persecution, but, on the other hand, live in the spirit according to God by believing in Christ. This shows how strict and serious is the judgment of God in His governmental administration. If the believers, who have been obedient to the gospel, are dealt with by God’s governmental judgment, how much more will those who oppose the gospel and slander the believers be judged by God’s dealing (vv. 17-18)!
1P 4:62a judged  -   1 Pet. 4:17; 1:17; 2:23
See note 172, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1P 4:63 spirit
The believers’ spirit, regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit of God (John 3:6; Rom. 8:10-11). Thus it has become a mingled spirit, in which the believers live and walk (Rom. 8:4).
1P 4:71 end
All things on which the flesh rests will pass away, and the end of them, the apostle tells us here, has drawn near. This warns us that a life lived in the flesh in the lusts of men (v. 2) will soon be ended, for it is related to all things that will shortly pass away. Therefore, we should be sober-minded and be sober unto prayers.
1P 4:7a near  -   cf. Rom. 13:12; James 5:8
1P 4:72 be
The Greek word means be of a sound mind, have a mind of sobriety, be able to understand things properly and thoroughly without being disturbed.
1P 4:73 be
I.e., be sober to watch, be vigilant. This is to be on guard; hence, to be sober unto prayers. This equals the Lord’s word, “Watch and pray” (Matt. 26:41; Luke 21:36). See note 81 in ch. 5.
1P 4:7b sober  -   1 Pet. 1:13; 5:8
1P 4:7c prayers  -   Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2
1P 4:8a fervent  -   1 Pet. 1:22
1P 4:8b love  -   1 Cor. 13:4-7
1P 4:8c covers  -   Prov. 10:12; James 5:20
1P 4:9a hospitable  -   Rom. 12:13
1P 4:9b murmuring  -   Phil. 2:14
1P 4:10a Each  -   Matt. 25:15; Rom. 12:6-8
1P 4:101 ministering
Or, serving.
1P 4:10b stewards  -   Luke 12:42; 1 Cor. 4:1-2; Titus 1:7
1P 4:102 varied
See notes 212 in ch. 1 and 102 in ch. 5. The varied grace of God, like the “all grace” in ch. 5, is the rich supply of life, which is the Triune God ministered into us in many aspects (2 Cor. 13:14; 12:9). As good stewards, we should minister such grace, not merely doctrine nor any vain thing, to the church and the saints by the gift we have received.
1P 4:10c grace  -   Eph. 4:7; Rom. 12:3
1P 4:111a oracles  -   Acts 7:38; Rom. 3:2; Heb. 5:12
The divine speakings or utterances as revelations. In the ministry of grace, as mentioned in v. 10, our speaking should be God’s speaking, God’s utterance, which conveys divine revelation.
1P 4:112b supplies  -   Rom. 12:3, 6
Through the Spirit of Christ, God supplies to us the serving strength of Christ’s resurrection life (Phil. 1:19; 4:13).
1P 4:11c glorified  -   1 Pet. 4:16; 2:12; 1 Cor. 10:31
1P 4:113 through
This indicates that all our ministry of grace, whether in speaking or in serving, should be full of Christ, that God may be glorified through Christ in all things.
1P 4:11d to  -   1 Pet. 5:11; Rom. 11:36; Jude 25; Rev. 1:6
1P 4:114 glory
Glory is without and might is within. Might supplies the strength within us; glory is God glorified upon us. Hence, glory corresponds with glorified, and might with strength.
1P 4:121a fiery  -   1 Pet. 1:7
The Greek word for fiery ordeal means burning, signifying the burning of a smelting furnace for the purifying of gold and silver (Prov. 27:21; Psa. 66:10); this is similar to the metaphor used in 1:7. Peter considered the persecution that the believers suffered as such a burning furnace used by God to purify their life. This is God’s way to deal with the believers in the judgment of His governmental administration, which begins from His own house (vv. 17-19).
1P 4:122b trial  -   2 Pet. 2:9
Or, testing.
1P 4:123 strange
See note 41. Fiery persecution is common to the believers; they should not think that it is strange or alien to them, and they should not be surprised and astonished by it.
1P 4:13a sufferings  -   1 Pet. 2:21; 5:1; Rom. 8:17-18; Phil. 3:10-11
1P 4:13b rejoice  -   Acts 5:41; James 1:2
1P 4:13c revelation  -   1 Pet. 1:5-7
1P 4:13d exultingly  -   1 Pet. 1:6, 8; Jude 24
1P 4:14a reproached  -   Matt. 5:11; Luke 6:22; Heb. 13:13; 11:26
1P 4:141 name
The name denotes the person. To be in the name of Christ is actually to be in the person of Christ, in Christ Himself. The believers, having believed into Christ (John 3:15) and having been baptized into His name (Acts 19:5), that is, into Himself (Gal. 3:27), are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30) and are one with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). When they are reproached in His name, they are reproached with Him, sharing in His sufferings (v. 13), in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
1P 4:14b Christ  -   2 Cor. 12:10
1P 4:14c blessed  -   1 Pet. 3:14
1P 4:142 the
Lit., the Spirit of glory and that of God. The Spirit of glory is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of glory is the One through whom Christ was glorified in His resurrection (Rom. 1:4). This very Spirit of glory, being the Spirit of God Himself, rests upon the suffering believers in their persecution, for the glorifying of the resurrected and exalted Christ, who is now in glory (v. 13).
1P 4:143 rests
The same word as in Matt. 11:28. The sense here is to remain.
1P 4:15a suffer  -   1 Pet. 2:19-20; 3:14, 17
1P 4:151b meddler  -   cf. 2 Thes. 3:11; 1 Tim. 5:13
Lit., an overseer of others’ affairs; denoting one who makes trouble by interfering in others’ business.
1P 4:161a Christian  -   Acts 11:26; 26:28
Gk. Christianos, a word formed from Latin. The ending ianos, denoting an adherent of someone, was applied to slaves belonging to the great families in the Roman Empire. One who worshipped the emperor, the Caesar, or Kaisar, was called Kaisarianos, which means an adherent of Kaisar, a person who belongs to Kaisar. When people believed in Christ and became His followers, some in the Empire came to consider Christ a rival of their Kaisar. Then, at Antioch (Acts 11:26) they began to call the followers of Christ Christianoi (Christians), adherents of Christ, as a nickname, a term of reproach. Hence, this verse says, “As a Christian, let him not be ashamed”; that is, if any believer suffers at the hands of the persecutors who contemptuously call him a Christian, he should not feel ashamed but should glorify God in this name.
Today the term Christian should bear a positive meaning, that is, a man of Christ, one who is one with Christ, not only belonging to Him but also having His life and nature in an organic union with Him, and who is living by Him, even living Him, in his daily life. If we suffer for being such a person, we should not feel ashamed but should be bold to magnify Christ in our confession by our holy and excellent manner of life to glorify (express) God in this name.
1P 4:16b ashamed  -   Mark 8:38; 2 Tim. 1:8, 12
1P 4:162c glorify  -   1 Pet. 4:11
To glorify God is to express Him in glory.
1P 4:171a judgment  -   1 Pet. 4:6; 1:17; 2:23
This book shows the government of God, especially in relation to His dealings with His chosen people. The sufferings they undergo in fiery persecution are used by Him as a means to judge them that they may be disciplined, purified, and separated from the unbelievers and not have the same destiny as they. Hence, such disciplinary judgment begins from His own household, and it is not exercised just once or twice but is being carried out continuously until the Lord’s coming. See note 172, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1P 4:17b begin  -   cf. Jer. 25:29
1P 4:172 house
Or, household; that is, the church, composed of the believers (2:5; Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19). From this house, as His own house, God begins His governmental administration by God’s disciplinary judgment over His own children, that He may have strong ground to judge, in His universal kingdom, those who are disobedient to His gospel and rebellious toward His government. This is for the establishing of His kingdom, which is covered in Peter’s second Epistle (2 Pet. 1:11).
1P 4:17c first  -   Rom. 2:9
1P 4:173 what
This indicates that the unbelievers, who disobey the gospel of God, will undergo a judgment more severe than that which the believers undergo.
1P 4:174d disobey  -   2 Thes. 1:8
This refers mainly to the disobedience of the unbelieving Jews, who rebelled against and opposed the change of dispensation, a turn from the Old Testament law of Moses to the New Testament gospel of Jesus Christ. This Epistle was written to Jewish believers (the chosen sojourners of the dispersion — 1:1), who were suffering persecution. The persecution they were suffering did not come mainly from the Gentiles; it came mainly from the opposing Jews, the unbelieving Jews, those who disobeyed the gospel.
1P 4:181 righteous
Referring to the believers, who become righteous by being justified through their faith in Christ (Rom. 5:1) and by living a righteous life in Christ (Phil. 3:9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rev. 19:8).
1P 4:182 saved
Not saved (through the Lord’s death) from eternal perdition but saved (through the trials of persecution as God’s disciplinary judgment) from the coming destruction (1 Thes. 5:3, 8 and note 83). The believer, who is disciplined by God through the suffering of persecution that his life may be purified, is saved through the difficulty of persecution from the destruction by God’s wrath toward the world, especially toward the unbelieving Jews, and from the coming destruction of Jerusalem.
1P 4:18a ungodly  -   Jude 15; 1 Tim. 1:9
1P 4:183 appear
I.e., stand. Among the early apostles there was a strong belief that the Lord Jesus would come back soon to judge the unbelieving sinners, who are ungodly and disobey His gospel (2 Thes. 1:6-9). Peter’s word here should refer to this. In God’s government, if the righteous, who has obeyed God’s gospel and lives a righteous life before God, is saved with difficulty, suffering persecution as the means of God’s disciplinary punishment that his life may be purified, where will the ungodly, who disobeys God’s gospel and lives a sinful life against His government, stand when the destruction by His wrath comes?
1P 4:191 also
Those also who suffer according to the will of God should trust in the Lord as others do.
1P 4:19a suffer  -   1 Pet. 2:20
1P 4:192b will  -   1 Pet. 4:2; 3:17
According to His will, God wants us and has appointed us to suffer for Christ’s sake (3:17; 2:15; 1 Thes. 3:3).
1P 4:193c commit  -   Psa. 31:5; Acts 7:59
Lit., to give in charge as a deposit; as in Luke 12:48; Acts 20:32; 1 Tim. 1:18; and 2 Tim. 2:2. When the believers suffer persecution in their body, especially as in martyrdom, they should commit their souls as a deposit to God, the faithful Creator, as the Lord committed His spirit to the Father (Luke 23:46).
1P 4:194 souls
Persecution can damage only the bodies of the suffering believers, not their souls (Matt. 10:28). Their souls are kept by the Lord as the faithful Creator. They should cooperate with the Lord by their commitment in faith.
1P 4:195d well-doing  -   1 Pet. 2:14
Or, doing right, good, and noble deeds.
1P 4:196e Creator  -   Gen. 1:1; Eccl. 12:1; Isa. 40:28; 43:15; Rom. 1:25
The Creator not of the new creation in the new birth but of the old creation. Persecution is a suffering in the old creation. God as our Creator can preserve our soul, which He created for us. He has even numbered our hairs (Matt. 10:30). He is loving and faithful. His loving and faithful care (5:7) accompanies His justice in His governmental administration. While He is judging us, His household, in His government, His love cares for us faithfully. In suffering His just disciplinary judgment in our bodies, we should commit our souls to His faithful care.
1 Peter Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1P 5:11 Therefore
This indicates that vv. 1-11 are a concluding word to the preceding section (4:12-19), concerning suffering for Christ in nobly doing right. The exhortation is spread over the elders in the church in vv. 1-4, over the younger members in v. 5, and over all in common in vv. 6-11.
1P 5:12a elders  -   Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2; 20:17; 1 Tim. 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14
Elders are the overseers of the church (see note 21 in 1 Tim. 3), those who take the lead among the believers in spiritual things (Heb. 13:17). The apostle exhorts them first, expecting that they will take the lead to suffer nobly for Christ.
1P 5:13 fellow
Peter was the first of the initial twelve apostles (Matt. 10:1-4; Acts 1:13), and, while he was an apostle, he was also one of the elders in the church at Jerusalem, as was the apostle John (2 John 1; 3 John 1; Acts 15:6; 21:17-18). Here, in exhorting the elders in the other churches, Peter used not his apostleship but his eldership that he might speak with them on their level in an intimate way.
1P 5:14b witness  -   Luke 24:48
Peter and the early apostles were witnesses of Christ (Acts 1:8), not only as eyewitnesses testifying of what they had seen of Christ’s suffering (Acts 5:32; 10:39) but also as martyrs vindicating their testimony by suffering martyrdom for Him (Acts 22:20; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:10-11; 11:23; 1 Cor. 15:31). This is to share in the sufferings of Christ (4:13), to participate in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
1P 5:15 partaker
Peter was first a witness, a martyr, a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, then a partaker of His glory (Rom. 8:17). Christ Himself had gone the same way (1:11; Luke 24:26).
1P 5:1c glory  -   1 Pet. 4:13; Titus 2:13; Luke 9:26; Jude 24
1P 5:21a Shepherd  -   John 21:16
To shepherd the flock of God requires suffering for the Body of Christ as Christ suffered (Col. 1:24). This will be rewarded with the unfading crown of glory (v. 4).
1P 5:22b flock  -   cf. Isa. 40:11
Lit., little flock; i.e., the church of God (Acts 20:28), which is little in number (Luke 12:32) compared with the world. The church as the little flock is a little herb for the supply of life, not a big tree for birds to lodge in (Matt. 13:31-32 and notes), not a huge religion like Christendom.
1P 5:23c overseeing  -   Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 3:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:25
Taking the oversight, looking diligently to be aware of the situation.
1P 5:2d willingly  -   1 Cor. 9:17; Philem. 14
1P 5:24 according
I.e., according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory, not according to man’s preference, interest, and purpose.
1P 5:2e seeking  -   1 Tim. 3:3, 8; Titus 1:7; 2 Pet. 2:15
1P 5:31a lording  -   Ezek. 34:4; 2 Cor. 1:24; Mark 10:42-44
I.e., exercising lordship over the ruled (Matt. 20:25). Among the believers, besides Christ there should be no other lord; all should be servants, even slaves (Matt. 20:26-27; 23:10-11). The elders in the church can exercise only leadership (not lordship), which all the believers should honor and follow (1 Thes. 5:12; 1 Tim. 5:17).
1P 5:32 allotments
Lit., lots, portions; hence, allotments, portions entrusted, referring here to the flock mentioned in the following clause. The churches are God’s possession, allotted to the elders as their allotment, their portion, entrusted to them by God for their care.
1P 5:33 becoming
I.e., taking the lead to serve and care for the church, that the believers may follow.
1P 5:3b patterns  -   2 Thes. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7; Phil. 3:17
1P 5:34 flock
See note 22.
1P 5:4a Shepherd  -   1 Pet. 2:25; Heb. 13:20; John 10:11, 14
1P 5:41b unfading  -   1 Pet. 1:4
At the apostle’s time crowns were given to victors in athletic games (1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Tim. 4:8). Those were corruptible crowns, whose glory faded. The crown given by the Lord to the faithful elders will be a reward for their loyal service. The glory of this crown will never fade. It will be a portion of the glory for the overcomers’ enjoyment in the manifestation of the kingdom of God and Christ (2 Pet. 1:11).
1P 5:4c crown  -   1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Tim. 4:8; James 1:12; Rev. 2:10; 3:11
1P 5:5a younger  -   1 Tim. 5:1; Titus 2:6; 1 John 2:13-14
1P 5:5b subject  -   Eph. 5:21
1P 5:51 elders
Although the Greek word is the same as in v. 1, it should, in principle, refer to all older men.
1P 5:52 gird
The Greek word is derived from a noun meaning a slave’s apron; such an apron girded up the slave’s loose garments in the service. It is used here as a figure of speech, signifying the putting on of humility as a virtue in service. This figure came evidently from Peter’s impression of how the Lord girded Himself with a towel when He humbled Himself to wash the disciples’ feet, especially Peter’s (John 13:4-7). The thought of girding up had already been introduced by Peter in 1:13.
1P 5:53c humility  -   1 Pet. 3:8; Phil. 2:3; Eph. 4:2
Or, lowliness; as in Eph. 4:2.
1P 5:54d resists  -   James 4:6
A strong word used for an army preparing to resist the enemy.
1P 5:55e proud  -   Psa. 138:6
Lit., those having a show above (others).
1P 5:5f gives  -   Prov. 3:34
1P 5:56g grace  -   1 Pet. 1:2; 4:10; 5:10
Referring, strictly, to the Triune God Himself as the life supply, which is multiplied in the humble believer. See notes 212 in ch. 1 and 102 in ch. 4.
1P 5:57h humble  -   Isa. 57:15
Or, lowly; as in Matt. 11:29.
1P 5:6a be  -   James 4:7
1P 5:61b humbled  -   Prov. 29:23
In Greek the word is in the passive voice, indicating being made humble by God, mainly through sufferings in persecution (v. 10). This, however, requires that we cooperate with God’s operation; we must be willing to be made humble, lowly, under the mighty hand of God. Hence, be humbled. Humbled is passive, but be is active. While God is acting to operate on us, we need to take the initiative to be operated on by Him. To take the initiative is active; to be operated on is passive. This is our willingness to be under the hand of God, which is mighty to do everything for us.
1P 5:6c hand  -   Psa. 89:13; 136:12; Isa. 5:25; 40:10
1P 5:62d exalt  -   Luke 14:11; 18:14
To be submissive to God’s mighty hand, to be willing to be made lowly, is to take the God-honoring way that gives Him the ground to exalt us in His time. To be willing to be made low by God’s humbling hand in His discipline is a prerequisite to being made high by God’s exalting hand in His glorification.
1P 5:71a Casting  -   Psa. 55:22
Or, throwing…upon; i.e., committing… to, giving up…to. The tense of the verb indicates a once-for-all act.
1P 5:72 all
I.e., the whole lot of your anxiety throughout your entire life, the whole life with all its anxiety.
1P 5:73b anxiety  -   Matt. 6:25; Phil. 4:6
Or, worry, care. The sufferings experienced by the believers in their persecution cause them to worry and be anxious. They need not only to be humbled, to be brought low from their pride, their haughtiness, but also to throw their life with its care upon God; for He is not only mighty and just but also loving and faithful concerning them.
1P 5:74 it
Or, He cares for you. The disciplining and judging God has a loving concern for the believers, especially the persecuted ones. He cares for them faithfully. They can throw their care on Him, especially in their persecution.
1P 5:81a sober  -   1 Pet. 1:13; 1 Thes. 5:6, 8
To be sober is to have a clear mind of sobriety and self-control that we may know, especially as disclosed in this chapter, God’s purpose in disciplining us and His enemy’s scheme to destroy us. See note 73 in ch. 4.
1P 5:82b watch  -   Matt. 24:42; 26:41; Luke 21:36; Eph. 6:18
To watch is to be vigilant as in warfare, as with soldiers on the frontier. Here it refers especially to the suffering believers’ being watchful against the anxiety that the enemy brings in while they suffer persecution.
1P 5:83c adversary  -   Matt. 13:25
Lit., an opponent (in a lawsuit); referring here to Satan, who is our accuser (Rev. 12:9-10 and note 94).
1P 5:84d devil  -   Eph. 4:27; 6:11; James 4:7; Rev. 12:9, 12; cf. Job 1:9-12; Luke 22:31; 2 Cor. 2:11
See note 13 in Matt. 4.
1P 5:85 roaring
Howling in hunger.
1P 5:8e lion  -   Psa. 22:13, 21
1P 5:86f walks  -   Job 1:7; 2:2
This indicates the devil’s constant and aggressive activity in seeking prey.
1P 5:87 seeking
Peter here warned the believers who were suffering in persecution. If they would not be humbled under God’s mighty hand (v. 6) and cast their anxiety on God (v. 7), they would be devoured by the roaring lion, the devil, their adversary. This teaches us that pride and anxiety make us delicious prey to satisfy the hunger of the roaring lion. In this matter Peter no doubt could not forget the Lord’s warning to him regarding the devil’s desire (Luke 22:31).
1P 5:91a withstand  -   James 4:7; Eph. 6:11, 13
Not to resist nor to struggle against but to stand firmly, like a rock, on the ground of our faith before the roaring devil.
1P 5:9b firm  -   Col. 2:5
1P 5:92 faith
Your faith refers to the believers’ subjective faith, their faith in God’s protecting power and loving concern.
1P 5:93c sufferings  -   1 Pet. 4:19; Acts 14:22; 1 Thes. 3:3
I.e., sufferings in persecution, according to the context of this chapter and the preceding one.
1P 5:94 brotherhood
See note 171 in ch. 2.
1P 5:101a But  -   Jude 24
Here but, indicating a contrast, brings in a word of comfort and encouragement to the suffering believers: You and your brotherhood are suffering your adversary’s threatening, the devil’s lion-roar, for only a little while, but the God of all grace, of the bountiful and gracious supply of life that exceeds all your need, will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.
1P 5:102 all
All grace refers to the riches of the bountiful supply of the divine life in many aspects ministered to us in many steps of the divine operation on and in us in God’s economy. The initial step is to call us, and the consummate step is to glorify us, as mentioned here in who has called you into His eternal glory. Between these two steps are God’s loving care while He is disciplining us, and His perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and grounding work in us. In all these divine acts, the bountiful supply of the divine life is ministered to us as grace in varied experiences (see notes 212 in ch. 1 and 102 in ch. 4). The God of such grace will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground the persecuted believers after they have suffered a little while.
1P 5:10b called  -   1 Pet. 1:15; 2 Pet. 1:3; 1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Tim. 6:12
1P 5:103 into
I.e., to partake of, to participate in.
1P 5:10c eternal  -   2 Tim. 2:10
1P 5:104d in  -   1 Pet. 5:14; 3:16
In Christ Jesus indicates that the God of all grace went through all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish the complete and full redemption that He may bring His redeemed people into an organic union with Himself. Thus they can participate in the riches of the Triune God as their enjoyment. All the steps of the divine operation are in Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God and who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the bountiful life supply to us. It is in this Christ, through His all-inclusive redemption and based on all His achievements, that God can be the God of all grace to call us into His eternal glory and to perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us in the Triune God (1:1-2) as the solid foundation, thus enabling us to attain His glorious goal. What a miracle that fallen sinners could be brought into God’s eternal glory! And how excellent is His perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and grounding work in us! This is all accomplished through His “all grace,” which is the “true grace” (v. 12).
1P 5:10e little  -   1 Pet. 1:6
1P 5:105 Himself
Indicating that God is personally active in the work of grace.
1P 5:106f perfect  -   Heb. 13:21
See note 92 in 2 Cor. 13.
1P 5:107g establish  -   Rom. 16:25; 1 Thes. 3:2, 13; 2 Thes. 2:17
Lit., to set fast, to confirm. The same word was used by the Lord in His charge to Peter in Luke 22:32.
1P 5:108h strengthen  -   Eph. 3:16
Its meaning is very close to establish.
1P 5:109i ground  -   Eph. 3:17
Derived from the word that means foundation. Hence, it means to ground solidly, as in Matt. 7:25, Eph. 3:17, and Heb. 1:10. There is a progression in the four divine acts of grace. Perfecting leads to establishing, establishing to strengthening, and strengthening to grounding in the God of all grace — the Triune God in His dispensing (1:2) as the solid foundation.
1P 5:11a To  -   1 Pet. 4:11
1P 5:111 the
Some MSS omit, the glory and.
1P 5:12a Silvanus  -   Acts 15:22; 2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1
1P 5:12b exhorting  -   Heb. 13:22
1P 5:121c testifying  -   1 Thes. 2:11
Peter was an eyewitness (v. 1), testifying of what he had seen and experienced. He testified that what he wrote in his Epistle as an account of God’s grace is true.
1P 5:122 true
Referring to the “all grace” in v. 10. The apostle charged the believers to enter into this grace and stand in it. This book was written mainly to show the persecuted believers God’s governmental purpose in their sufferings. That they may pass through those sufferings, God supplies them with all the multiplied, varied, and true grace (v. 10; 1:2; 4:10), which is sufficient to enable them to participate in the sufferings of and for Christ (2:21; 3:14-17; 4:12-16) and which will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground them in the Triune God and bring them into His eternal glory (v. 10).
1P 5:12d stand  -   Rom. 5:2; 1 Cor. 15:1
1P 5:131a co-chosen  -   1 Pet. 1:2; 2:9; 2 John 1, 13; Rom. 16:13; 8:33; Eph. 1:4
The Greek word and its definite article are feminine. It may refer to Peter’s wife, who traveled with him (1 Cor. 9:5), or to a prominent sister in the Lord, who was chosen by God not only with the recipients of this Epistle but also with Peter and all other believers. Some suppose that it refers to the church.
1P 5:132 Babylon
Through the centuries the great teachers have held two different interpretations of this name: that it is figurative, referring to Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, or that it is literal, referring to Babylon, a large city on the Euphrates (Perath). The reasons for the latter interpretation are more logical than those for the former. First, it seems that Peter had no reason to use a figurative name to hide the name of the city he was in at the time. Second, all the names he used for the places in the address of his Epistle (1:1) were literal. Third, in the New Testament the name Rome is always clearly mentioned (Acts 19:21; 28:14, 16; Rom. 1:7, 15), even up to the time of the writing of Paul’s last Epistle, 2 Timothy (2 Tim. 1:17), which was written probably after 1 Peter. It was when John’s Revelation, a book of figures, was written, about A.D. 90, that the figurative name Babylon the Great was used for the city of Rome (Rev. 17:5; 18:2).
1P 5:133 Mark
John Mark (Acts 12:12, 25), the writer of the Gospel of Mark. As Peter’s spiritual son, he was there with Peter. Later he was taken to Paul by Timothy (2 Tim. 4:11).
1P 5:14a kiss  -   Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thes. 5:26
1P 5:141b Peace  -   1 Pet. 1:2; Eph. 6:23
Peace results from grace and issues from the enjoyment of the Triune God. Such enjoyment of God as the multiplying and multiplied grace (1:2), the varied grace (4:10), the all grace (5:10), and the true grace (5:12), as the reality of the contents of the Christian life under the government of God, issues and results in a condition of peace with both God and man.
1P 5:142c in  -   1 Pet. 5:10; 3:16
Peter stressed the fact that the believers are in Christ (3:16; 5:10). It is of God and through our faith and baptism that we are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; John 3:5; Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3). This results in an organic union with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19) and makes us one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).
< 1 Peter • 2 Peter Outline >
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2 Peter Outline
I.   Introduction — to the believers, who have been allotted equally precious faith — 1:1-2
II.   The divine provision — 1:3-21
A.   The impartation of the divine power — vv. 3-11
1.   All things which relate to life and godliness, with the divine nature — vv. 3-4
2.   Growth and development by life unto the rich entrance into the eternal kingdom — vv. 5-11
B.   The shining of the divine truth — vv. 12-21
1.   By the glory of the apostles’ witnessing — vv. 12-18
2.   By the light of the prophetic word — vv. 19-21
III.   The divine government — 2:1 — 3:16
A.   God’s judgment on the false teachers — 2:1-3
B.   God’s judgment on both angels and men — 2:4-9
C.   The evils of the false teachers and their punishment under God’s judgment — 2:10-22
D.   God’s judgment on the heretical mockers — 3:1-9
E.   God’s judgment on the heavens and the earth — 3:10-12
F.   Expectation of the new heavens and the new earth filled with God’s righteousness — 3:13
G.   Preparation for the coming judgment — 3:14-16
1.   To be found by Him in peace — v. 14
2.   To be saved from destruction — vv. 15-16
IV.   Conclusion — be on guard and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord — 3:17-18
2 Peter >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 Peter Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
2P 1:11a Simon  -   Acts 15:14; Luke 5:8; John 13:6; 20:2; 21:15
Simon, Peter’s old name, refers to his old man by birth; Peter, his new name given by the Lord (John 1:41-42), refers to his new man by regeneration. Here the two names are combined as one, signifying that the old man Simon had become the new man Peter.
2P 1:12b slave  -   Rom. 1:1
Slave indicates Peter’s submission to the Lord, and apostle, the Lord’s commission to him.
2P 1:1c apostle  -   2 Pet. 3:2
2P 1:13 those
Referring to the Jewish believers in dispersion in the Gentile world (1 Pet. 1:1).
2P 1:14 allotted
As the children of Israel were allotted a piece of the good land (Josh. 13:6; 14:1-5; 19:51). This implies that the “all things which relate to life and godliness” (v. 3), including the divine nature (v. 4) partaken of by the believers through the equally precious faith according to the precious and exceedingly great promises, are the real inheritance given to the believers by God in the New Testament.
2P 1:15d faith  -   2 Pet. 1:5; 1 Pet. 1:7, 9
Faith is the substantiation of the substance of the truth (Heb. 11:1), which is the reality of the contents of God’s New Testament economy. The contents of God’s New Testament economy are composed of the “all things which relate to life and godliness” (v. 3), that is, the Triune God dispensing Himself into us as life within and godliness without (see points 1, 2, 4, and 5 and the last paragraph of note 11 in 1 Tim. 1). The equally precious faith, allotted to us by God through the word of God’s New Testament economy and the Spirit, responds to the reality of such contents and ushers us into the reality, making its substance the very element of our Christian life and experience. Such a faith is allotted to all the believers in Christ as their portion, which is equally precious to all who have received it. As such a portion from God, this faith is objective to us in the divine truth. But it brings all the contents of its substantiation into us, thus making them all, with itself (faith), subjective to us in our experience. This can be compared to the scenery (truth) and the seeing (faith) being objective to the camera (us). But when the light (the Spirit) brings the scenery to the film (our spirit) within the camera, both the seeing and the scenery become subjective to the camera.
2P 1:16 equally
The Greek word means of equal value or honor; hence, equally precious. Equal not in measure but in value and honor to all those who receive it.
2P 1:17 ours
Referring to the apostle Peter and all the other believers in the Jewish land. All the believers in the Gentile world share with all those in the Jewish land the same precious faith, which enables them to substantiate the blessing of life of the New Testament as their common portion allotted to them by God.
2P 1:18 in
In the sphere of.
2P 1:19 righteousness
Our God is righteous. Through His righteousness He has allotted the precious faith as a divine portion equally to all believers in Christ, both Jewish and Gentile, without respect of persons. And now He is not only our God but also our Savior. Thus, His righteousness now is not the righteousness only of God nor only of Christ, but the righteousness of both our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. In that the Lord is our Savior, His righteousness is His righteous act, His death on the cross in absolute obedience (Phil. 2:8), by which He accomplished redemption for us (Heb. 9:12), enabling us to be justified by God (Rom. 5:18). In that the Lord is our God, His righteousness is His justice, since, based on the righteous act, the redemption of our Savior Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:24-25), He justifies all the believers in Christ (Rom. 3:26), both Jewish and Gentile (Rom. 3:30). In and by such a twofold righteousness, the righteousness of both our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, the precious faith, the precious substantiation of the New Testament blessing, has been allotted equally to all believers among all nations.
2P 1:110 God
Jesus Christ is both our God and our Savior. This indicates that Jesus Christ is God being our Savior. He is the very God whom we worship, and He became our Savior to save us. At Peter’s time this designated the believers in Christ and separated them from the Jews, who did not believe that Jesus Christ was God, and from the Romans, who believed that Caesar, not Jesus Christ, was God.
2P 1:21 Grace
Or, Grace and peace be multiplied to you.
2P 1:22a multiplied  -   1 Pet. 1:2; Jude 2
Grace and peace came to us through the God-allotted faith, which substantiates the life-blessing of the New Testament (v. 1). This faith was infused into us through the word of God, which conveys to us the real knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. In the sphere of the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, and by means of this increasing and increased knowledge, the grace and peace that we have received will be multiplied.
2P 1:23 in
In the sphere of, by means of.
2P 1:24b knowledge  -   2 Pet. 1:3, 8; 2:20; 3:18; John 17:3; Phil. 3:8
This refers to a thorough, experiential knowledge. The full knowledge of the Triune God is for our participation in and enjoyment of His divine life and divine nature. It is in contrast to the killing knowledge of the human logic of philosophy, which invaded the church in its apostasy.
2P 1:25 Jesus
Some MSS read, Jesus Christ our Lord.
2P 1:31a divine  -   cf. Rom. 1:20
Chapter two shows that this Epistle, like 2 Timothy, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude, was written in the time of the church’s degradation and apostasy. Hence, apostasy was the background of this book. The burden of the writer was to inoculate the believers against the poison of apostasy. God’s salvation is to impart Himself in His Trinity into the believers that He may be their life and life supply. This is God’s economy, God’s plan. The apostasy distracted the believers from the economy of God by leading them into the human logic of puzzling philosophies. This did not lead them to partake of the tree of life, which gives life, but to participate in the tree of knowledge, which brings in death (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). Thus the serpent deceived and seduced Eve (Gen. 3:1-6). In order to inoculate against this death-poison, in his healing Epistle the apostle first prescribed the divine power as the strongest and most effective antidote. This provides the believers with all things related to the generating and supplying divine life (not the killing knowledge) and the God-expressing godliness (not the show of human wisdom). This rich divine provision, which is covered in detail in the succeeding verses (to v. 11), is more than sufficient to enable the believers to live a proper Christian life and overcome the satanic apostasy.
Divine denotes the eternal, unlimited, and almighty divinity of God. Hence, divine power is the power of the divine life, which is related to the divine nature.
2P 1:32 granted
I.e., imparted, infused, and planted into us by the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who regenerates us and indwells us (2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 3:6; Rom. 8:11).
2P 1:33 all
“All things which relate to life and godliness” are the various aspects of the divine life, typified by the riches of the produce of the good land in the Old Testament. They are the substance of our faith’s substantiation allotted to us by God as our portion for our inheritance.
2P 1:34b life  -   Gen. 2:9; Psa. 36:9; John 1:4; 3:16; 10:10; 14:6; 1 John 1:2; 5:12; Titus 1:2; Acts 11:18; Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 6:4; Col. 3:4; 1 Tim. 6:12, 19; Rev. 2:7, 10; 22:1-2, 14, 19
Life is within, enabling us to live, and godliness is without as the outward expression of the inward life. Life is the inward energy, the inward strength, to bring forth the outward godliness, which leads to and results in glory.
2P 1:35c godliness  -   2 Pet. 1:6; 1 Tim. 2:2; 3:16; 4:6-7; 6:3; 2 Tim. 3:12; Titus 1:1; 2:12
See note 22 in 1 Tim. 2.
2P 1:36 through
The imparting into us of all the things of life is through the full knowledge of God, which is conveyed and revealed to us through His word. This becomes the faith (objective), in which our faith (subjective) is produced.
2P 1:37 full
This refers to a thorough, experiential knowledge.
2P 1:38 Him
Referring to God, who is our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 1-2). He called us to His glory and virtue by His glory and virtue. His disciples saw His glory and virtue (v. 16; John 1:14) and were attracted by them. Then by this glory and virtue He called them to this glory and virtue. It is the same with all believers in Christ.
2P 1:3d called  -   1 Pet. 2:9; 3:9; 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12; 2 Thes. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2 Pet. 1:10
2P 1:39 by
Or, to.
2P 1:310e glory  -   Rom. 1:23; 3:23; 5:2; 6:4; 8:18; 9:23; John 17:22, 24; Eph. 1:17; 3:16; 1 Cor. 2:7; 2 Cor. 4:17; Col. 1:27; 3:4; Heb. 2:10
I.e., the expression of God, God expressed in splendor.
2P 1:311f virtue  -   1 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2 Pet. 1:5; Phil. 4:8
Lit., excellency (see note 87 in Phil. 4), denoting the energy of life that enables us to overcome all obstacles and to carry out all excellent attributes. Glory is the divine goal; virtue is the energy and strength of life that enable us to reach the goal. This virtue, with all things relating to life, has been given to us by the divine power, but it needs to be developed on the way to glory.
2P 1:41 Through
Or, on account of, on the basis of. The Greek word has an instrumental sense, but it also denotes cause here.
2P 1:42 which
Referring to glory and virtue in v. 3. Through and on the basis of the Lord’s glory and virtue, by and to which we have been called, He has given us His precious and exceedingly great promises, such as in Matt. 28:20; John 6:57; 7:38-39; 10:28-29; 14:19-20, 23; 15:5; and 16:13-15. All these promises are being carried out in His believers by His life-power as the excellent virtue, unto His glory.
2P 1:43 exceedingly
Lit., greatest.
2P 1:4a promises  -   2 Cor. 7:1; cf. 2 Pet. 3:13
2P 1:44 these
Through the precious and exceedingly great promises we, the believers in Christ, who is our God and Savior, have become partakers of His divine nature in an organic union with Him, into which we have entered through faith and baptism (John 3:15; Gal. 3:27; Matt. 28:19). The virtue (energy of life) of this divine nature carries us into His glory (godliness becoming the full expression of the Triune God).
2P 1:4b partakers  -   Heb. 12:10; 6:4; 3:1
2P 1:45 having
In his first Epistle the apostle told the believers that Christ had redeemed them from their vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18-19) and that they should, thus, abstain from fleshly lusts (1 Pet. 2:11) and no longer live in the flesh in the lusts of men (1 Pet. 4:2). Here, in his second Epistle, he unveiled to them the energy, the strength, by which they were enabled to escape the corruption in lust, and the result of that escape. The energy is the virtue of the divine life, and the result is that the believers partake of the divine nature of God and thus enjoy all the riches of what the Triune God is. In our partaking of the divine nature and in our enjoying of all that God is, all the riches of the divine nature will be fully developed, as described in vv. 5-7. Having escaped the corruption of lust in the world and having thus removed the barriers to the growth of the divine life in us, we are freed to become partakers of the divine nature and to enjoy its riches to the fullest extent in its development by the virtue of God unto His glory.
2P 1:4c escaped  -   2 Pet. 2:18, 20
2P 1:46 corruption
See note 15, point 3, in ch. 2.
2P 1:4d world  -   2 Pet. 2:20; 1 John 2:15-17; 5:4, 19; James 4:4
2P 1:47 by
Or, in.
2P 1:4e lust  -   2 Pet. 2:10, 18; 1 Pet. 4:2
2P 1:51 adding
Lit., bringing in beside. Beside, along with, the precious and exceedingly great promises given to us by God, we should bring in all diligence to cooperate with the enabling of the dynamic divine nature for the carrying out of God’s promises.
2P 1:5a diligence  -   2 Pet. 1:10
2P 1:52 supply
See note 193 in Phil. 1. What the divine power has given us in vv. 3-4 is developed in vv. 5-7. To supply virtue in faith is to develop virtue in the exercise of faith. This applies to all the other items.
2P 1:53b faith  -   2 Pet. 1:1; Gal. 5:6; James 2:22
This is the equally precious faith allotted to us by God (v. 1) as the common portion of the New Testament blessing of life for the initiation of the Christian life. This faith needs to be exercised that the virtue of the divine life may be developed in the succeeding steps and reach maturity.
2P 1:54c virtue  -   Phil. 4:8; cf. 2 Pet. 1:3
Lit., excellency (see note 87 in Phil. 4); denoting the energy of the divine life, which issues in vigorous action (cf. note 311).
2P 1:55d knowledge  -   2 Pet. 1:2, 3, 8; 3:18; Phil. 1:9; 3:8
Virtue, the vigorous action, needs the bountiful supply of the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord (vv. 2-3, 8) regarding all things that relate to the divine life and godliness and the partaking of the divine nature (vv. 3-4) for our enjoyment in the subsequent development.
2P 1:61a self-control  -   Acts 24:25; Gal. 5:23; 1 Tim. 3:2, 11; Titus 2:2
Or, temperance; the exercise of control and restraint over one’s self in its passions, desires, and habits. This needs to be supplied and developed in knowledge for the proper growth in life.
2P 1:62b endurance  -   Rom. 5:3; Heb. 10:36; James 1:3
To exercise self-control is to deal with ourselves; to exercise endurance is to bear with others and with circumstances.
2P 1:63c godliness  -   2 Pet. 1:3
A living that is like God and that expresses God. As we exercise control over our self and bear with others and with circumstances, godliness needs to be developed in our spiritual life, that we may be like God and express Him.
2P 1:71a brotherly  -   1 Pet. 1:22
The Greek word is composed of to have affection for and a brother; hence, a brotherly affection, a love characterized by delight and pleasure. In godliness, which is the expression of God, this love needs to be supplied for the brotherhood (1 Pet. 2:17; 3:8; Gal. 6:10), for our testimony to the world (John 13:34-35), and for the bearing of fruit (John 15:16-17).
2P 1:72b love  -   1 Thes. 3:12
The Greek word is used in the New Testament for the divine love, which God is in His nature (1 John 4:8, 16). It is nobler than human love. It adorns all the qualities of the Christian life (1 Cor. 13; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:13-14). It is stronger in ability and greater in capacity than human love (Matt. 5:44, 46), yet a believer who lives by the divine life (v. 3) and partakes of the divine nature (v. 4) can be saturated with it and express it in full. Such a love needs to be developed in brotherly love to govern it and flow in it for the full expression of God, who is this love. Faith can be considered the seed of life, and this nobler love, the fruit (v. 8) in its full development. The six steps of development in between are the stages of its growth unto maturity.
2P 1:81 these
All the virtues covered in vv. 5-7, from faith to love.
2P 1:82 existing
The Greek word denotes that certain things exist in and belong to a person from the beginning, thus becoming his rightful possession to the present. This indicates that all the virtues mentioned above are the possession of the believers and exist in them forever through their experience of partaking of the divine nature in all its riches.
2P 1:83 abounding
The divine virtues not only exist in and are possessed by the believers but also abound and multiply in them in the development and growth of the divine life.
2P 1:84 constitute
This indicates that the virtues of the divine life and divine nature are the constituents of our spiritual constitution, our spiritual being, making us persons who do not have the elements of idleness and unfruitfulness.
2P 1:85 idle
Lit., unworking; hence, idle. One who is not idle may still be unfruitful. To be fruitful requires more growth in life and more supply of life. Idleness and unfruitfulness are constituents of our fallen being; working, the energizing of life, and fruitfulness are the constituents of our being that is growing in the divine life.
2P 1:86a unfruitful  -   Titus 3:14; John 15:2-5; Jude 12; cf. 2 Cor. 9:10; Rom. 1:13; 6:22; 7:4; 15:28; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 1:22; 4:17; Col. 1:6, 10; Heb. 12:11; 13:15; James 3:18; Rev. 22:2
This indicates that what is covered in vv. 5-7 is the development of the growth of the divine life unto its maturity.
2P 1:87 unto
The constitution that has the spiritual virtues as its constituents advances in many steps toward the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, with a view to the full realization of the all-inclusive embodiment of the Triune God. In this section of the Word, three prepositions are used regarding the relationship between the experience of life and spiritual knowledge: in, in v. 2, referring to the sphere of the knowledge; through, in v. 3, referring to the channel of the knowledge; and unto, in v. 8, referring to the knowledge in view as a goal.
2P 1:88b knowledge  -   2 Pet. 1:2
See note 24.
2P 1:91 these
See note 81.
2P 1:9a blind  -   Deut. 28:28-29; Isa. 59:10; Zeph. 1:17; 1 John 2:11; Rev. 3:17
2P 1:92 shortsighted
From the root word that means to close the eyes (because of strong light); hence, to be shortsighted. To be thus shortsighted is to be spiritually blind, unable to see something further in the divine life and divine nature of the Triune God dispensed into the believers as their bountiful supply.
2P 1:93 having
The Greek phrase has the sense of willing to forget, i.e., willing to forget the experience of the cleansing of our past sins. That cleansing took place so that we could go on in the divine life by partaking of the divine nature to reach the maturity of life. This is not to deny the faithful profession we made when we believed in Christ and were baptized into Him, or to lose the assurance of salvation that we received at that time, but to neglect what the initiation of salvation meant to us.
2P 1:9b cleansing  -   Titus 2:14
2P 1:101 Therefore
Or, Therefore rather, brothers, be diligent…
2P 1:10a diligent  -   2 Pet. 1:5
2P 1:102 make
I.e., to develop the spiritual virtues in the divine life, to advance in the growth of the divine life. This makes God’s calling and selection of us firm.
2P 1:10b calling  -   2 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 1:18; 4:1, 4; Heb. 3:1
2P 1:10c selection  -   1 Pet. 1:2
2P 1:10d firm  -   2 Pet. 1:19; 3:17; Heb. 3:6, 14
2P 1:103 these
See note 81.
2P 1:10e stumble  -   1 Pet. 2:8; Jude 24
2P 1:11a entrance  -   Matt. 5:20; 7:21; 25:21, 23
2P 1:111 eternal
Referring to the kingdom of God, which was given to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Dan. 7:13-14) and which will be manifested at His coming back (Luke 19:11-12). It will be a reward to His faithful believers, who pursue the growth in His life unto maturity and the development of the virtues of His nature that in the millennium they may participate in His kingship in God’s glory (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6). To enter thus into the eternal kingdom of the Lord is related to entering into God’s eternal glory, to which God has called us in Christ (1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12 and notes 2 and 3).
2P 1:11b kingdom  -   Acts 14:22; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5
2P 1:11c bountifully  -   Phil. 1:19
2P 1:112 supplied
The bountiful supply that we enjoy in the development of the divine life and divine nature (vv. 3-7) will bountifully supply us a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord. It will enable and qualify us to enter into the coming kingdom by all the riches of the divine life and divine nature as our excellent virtues (energy) unto the splendid glory of God. This is not merely to be saved but, after being saved, to pursue the growth and maturity in the divine life and thereby receive the kingdom reward. See note 281 in Heb. 12.
2P 1:12a remind  -   2 Pet. 3:1; Jude 5; Rom. 15:15
2P 1:12b established  -   1 Thes. 3:2; Rom. 1:11-12
2P 1:121 present
I.e., the truth that is present with the believers, which they have already received and now possess. In the first section of this chapter, vv. 3-11, Peter used the provision of the divine life for the proper Christian life to inoculate against the apostasy. In the second section, vv. 12-21, he used the revelation of the divine truth, as the second antidote, to inoculate against the heresy in the apostasy, a heresy similar to today’s modernism. The provision of life and the revelation of truth are the antidotes used by Peter in dealing with the apostasy.
2P 1:12c truth  -   1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:18; Titus 1:1, 14
2P 1:13a right  -   Phil. 1:7
2P 1:131b tabernacle  -   2 Cor. 5:1-4
The temporal body (2 Cor. 5:1).
2P 1:13c stir  -   2 Pet. 3:1
2P 1:141a putting  -   cf. 2 Tim. 4:6
I.e., to put off the body, to be unclothed of the body (2 Cor. 5:4), to leave the body, to die physically. Peter, like Paul (2 Tim. 4:6), knew that he would leave the world by martyrdom, and he was now ready for it.
2P 1:142 also
Peter remembered the Lord’s word to him concerning his death, given at the time the Lord charged him to feed His sheep (John 21:15-19).
2P 1:151a exodus  -   cf. Luke 9:31
Or, departure; i.e., to leave the world. The same word is used in Luke 9:31.
2P 1:15b bring  -   Jude 17
2P 1:161 follow
Lit., follow out.
2P 1:16a cleverly  -   2 Pet. 2:3
2P 1:162b myths  -   1 Tim. 1:4 and note 1; Titus 1:14
Myths were the superstitious stories cleverly devised in Greek philosophy, which was related to the apostasy.
2P 1:16c power  -   Mark 5:30; Luke 6:19; 8:46; 24:19
2P 1:163d coming  -   2 Pet. 3:4; Matt. 24:3 and note 3
The Greek word means presence.
2P 1:164e eyewitnesses  -   1 John 1:1
“‘Admitted into immediate vision of the glory,’ a word used for full initiation into the mysteries” (Darby). Peter realized that he, James, and John had been admitted into the highest degree of initiation at the Lord’s transfiguration, admitted to be the initiated spectators of His majesty. He considered the transfiguration of the Lord a figure of His second coming, even as the Lord did in Luke 9:26-36. The Lord’s transfiguration in glory was a fact, and he was in it. The Lord’s coming back in glory also will be a fact, as real as the Lord’s transfiguration, and he will be in it as well. This was not a cleverly devised myth told to the believers by the apostles.
2P 1:165 majesty
I.e., magnificence, greatness in splendor, honor, and glory, even magnificent glory (v. 17), as that which appeared to the eyes of Peter and the other two disciples in the Lord’s transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-2; Luke 9:32).
2P 1:17a voice  -   Matt. 17:5; 3:17; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35
2P 1:171 borne
Or, carried along. So also in vv. 18 and 21.
2P 1:172 magnificent
The overshadowing cloud at the Lord’s transfiguration (Luke 9:34-35), like the shekinah glory that overshadowed the expiation cover (Exo. 25:20; 40:34).
2P 1:18a holy  -   Exo. 3:5; Josh. 5:15
2P 1:18b mountain  -   Matt. 17:1; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28
2P 1:191 And
And indicates that in addition to the truth of the Lord’s transfiguration, covered in the preceding verses as the inoculation against superstitious myths, the truth of the prophetic word is used for a more sure confirmation.
2P 1:19a prophetic  -   1 Pet. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:2; Luke 1:70
2P 1:19b firm  -   2 Pet. 1:10
2P 1:192c lamp  -   Psa. 119:105; John 5:35
Peter likened the word of prophecy in the Scripture to a lamp shining in a dark place. This indicates that (1) this age is a dark place in the dark night (Rom. 13:12), and all the people of this world are moving and acting in darkness; and (2) the prophetic word of the Scripture, as the shining lamp to the believers, conveys spiritual light that shines in their darkness (not merely knowledge in letters for their mental apprehension), guiding them to enter into a bright day, even to pass through the dark night until the day of the Lord’s appearing dawns. Before the Lord as the sunlight appears, we need this word as light to shine over our footsteps.
2P 1:193 dark
Or, murky place, a place that is squalid, dry, and neglected. This is a metaphor illustrating the darkness in the apostasy.
2P 1:194d day  -   cf. Rom. 13:12; 1 Thes. 5:4-5, 8
A metaphor illustrating a coming time that will be full of light, as a bright day dawning, with the morning star rising, before its dawning, in the hearts of the believers, who are illuminated and enlightened by giving heed to the shining word of prophecy in the Scripture. In the time of apostasy the believers do well to give heed in this matter, that the prophetic word, as a lamp, may shine through the darkness of apostasy until such a day dawns upon them. This will cause and encourage them to earnestly seek the Lord’s presence and be watchful so that they will not miss the Lord in the secret part of His coming (parousia), when He will come as a thief (see notes 271 in Matt. 24 and 83 in 2 Thes. 2). Hence, this metaphor must allude to the coming age, the age of the kingdom, as a day that will dawn at the appearing (the coming) of the Lord (v. 16) as the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), whose light will shine to break through the gloom of the dark night of this age. Preceding this, in the darkest hour of the night the Lord will appear as the morning star (Rev. 2:28; 22:16) to those who are watchful and looking for His dear appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). They have been enlightened by the shining of the prophetic word, which is able to lead them to the dawning day.
If we give heed to the word in the Bible, which shines as a lamp in a dark place, we will have His rising in our hearts to shine in the darkness of apostasy where we are today, before His actual appearing as the morning star.
2P 1:19e morning  -   Rev. 2:28; 22:16
2P 1:20a Scripture  -   2 Pet. 3:16; Acts 1:16; 2 Tim. 3:16
2P 1:201 one’s
Referring to the prophet who spoke the prophecy or to the writer who wrote the prophecy.
2P 1:202 interpretation
Lit., loosening, untying; hence, disclosure, explanation, exposition. One’s own interpretation means the prophet’s or writer’s own explanation or exposition, which would not be inspired by God through the Holy Spirit. The thought here is that no prophecy of Scripture is of the prophet’s or writer’s own concept, idea, or understanding; no prophecy comes from that source, the source of man; no prophecy originates from any prophet’s or writer’s private and personal thought. This is confirmed and explained by the succeeding verse.
2P 1:211 For
For introduces an explanation of the preceding verse. No prophecy of Scripture is of the prophet’s or writer’s exposition, for no prophecy was ever borne, or carried along, by the will of man. Rather, men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit.
2P 1:212 borne
In Greek the same word as in vv. 17, 18. No prophecy was ever borne by the will of man. Man’s will, desire, and wish, with his thought and exposition, were not the source from which any prophecy came; the source was God, by whose Holy Spirit men were borne, as a ship is borne by the wind, to speak out the will, desire, and wish of God.
2P 1:21a Spirit  -   2 Sam. 23:2; Ezek. 3:12, 14; 8:3
2 Peter Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
2P 2:11 But
After presenting to the believers (in ch. 1) the rich provision of the divine life and the shining enlightenment of the divine truth, thus providing for the maintenance of life and inoculating against the poison of the apostasy, in this chapter the apostle faithfully indicated as a warning to the believers the awful contents of the apostasy and its dreadful result. This warning is a close parallel to the warning given in Jude 4-19.
2P 2:1a false  -   Deut. 13:1; 1 Kings 18:19, 22, 40; 22:6, 10, 20-23; Jer. 14:14; 27:9-10, 16; Matt. 7:15; 24:11; 1 John 4:1
2P 2:1b false  -   cf. 2 Cor. 11:13, 26
2P 2:12c secretly  -   Gal. 2:4; Jude 4
Or, bring in by smuggling. Lit., to bring in alongside, to bring in sideways. It means to introduce a new subject for which the hearers are not prepared. Here it denotes the false teachers’ bringing in and introducing their false teachings alongside the true ones.
2P 2:13 heresies
The Greek word means choices of opinion (of doctrine) different from that usually accepted, “self-chosen doctrines, alien from the truth” (Alford). Such doctrines cause division and produce sects. This word is used also in Acts 5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14; 26:5; 28:22; 1 Cor. 11:19; and Gal. 5:20; and in Titus 3:10 in the adjective form, heretical (there rendered factious). Here it denotes the false and heretical doctrines brought in by the false teachers, the heretics. Such doctrines are like those of today’s modernism.
2P 2:1d denying  -   Matt. 10:33; 26:34-35, 69-75; Luke 12:9; 2 Tim. 2:12; 1 John 2:22-23
2P 2:14e Master  -   Jude 4; 2 Tim. 2:21; Rev. 6:10
This implies the Lord’s person and His redemptive work. The false teachers at Peter’s time, like today’s modernists in their apostasy, denied both the person of the Lord as the Master and His redemption, by which the Lord purchased the believers.
2P 2:1f bought  -   Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Rev. 5:9; 14:3-4
2P 2:15 destruction
In this Epistle, Peter used three different Greek words concerning the consequence of the apostasy under God’s governmental judgment:
(1) Apollumi signifies to destroy utterly; in the middle voice, to perish, as in 3:6. The thought is not extinction but ruin, loss (not of being but of well-being). In Matt. 10:28; 22:7; Mark 12:9; Luke 17:27, 29; John 3:16; 10:28; 17:12; 1 Cor. 10:9-10; 2 Cor. 2:15; 4:3; 2 Thes. 2:10; and Jude 5, 11, this word unveils more concerning God’s governmental judgment. In 3:9 it denotes the punishment of God’s governmental discipline.
(2) Apoleia, akin to apollumi, indicates loss (of well-being, not of being), ruin, destruction, or (physical, spiritual, or eternal) perdition. It is rendered destructive and destruction in 2:1, and destruction in 2:3; 3:7, 16. The same word is used to denote the different results of God’s varied judgments (see note 172, par. 2, in 1 Pet. 1). In cases such as those described in 2:1, 3; 3:7; John 17:12; Rom. 9:22; Phil. 1:28; 3:19; 2 Thes. 2:3; and Rev. 17:8, 11, it denotes eternal perdition. In cases such as those described in 3:16 (see note 4) and Heb. 10:39 (see note 2), it denotes the punishment of God’s governmental discipline, not eternal perdition. In Matt. 7:13 and 1 Tim. 6:9 it denotes a principle used for any case.
(3) Phthora, denoting corruption unto destruction, the destruction that comes with corruption, a destroying by means of corrupting (in reference to morality, soul, and body). It is rendered corruption in 1:4 and 2:19, and destruction and corrupting in 2:12; its verb form is used in the future passive voice and is rendered will be destroyed in 2:12, and in the present passive voice, rendered are being corrupted, in Jude 10. Its significance can be further seen in Rom. 8:21; 1 Cor. 3:17 and notes 1 and 2; 15:33; 2 Cor. 7:2; 11:3; Gal. 6:8; Rev. 11:18; and 19:2.
2P 2:21 follow
Lit., follow out.
2P 2:2a licentiousness  -   2 Pet. 2:7, 18; Jude 4
2P 2:22 way
I.e., the path of the Christian life according to the truth, which is the reality of the contents of the New Testament (1 Tim. 2:4; 3:15; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:15, 18; Titus 1:1). It is designated by other titles according to its various virtues, such as the straight way (v. 15 and note 1; cf. Heb. 12:13), the way of righteousness (v. 21 and note; Matt. 21:32), the way of peace (Luke 1:79; Rom. 3:17), the way of salvation (Acts 16:17), the way of God (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26), the way of the Lord (John 1:23; Acts 18:25), and the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22). It is slandered as the way of heresy (Acts 24:14).
2P 2:2b reviled  -   1 Pet. 3:9
2P 2:3a covetousness  -   2 Pet. 2:14; Acts 20:33; 1 Thes. 2:5; Titus 1:11
2P 2:3b fabricated  -   2 Pet. 1:16
2P 2:3c words  -   Rom. 16:18; Col. 2:4
2P 2:3d make  -   Jude 16
2P 2:31e judgment  -   Jude 4
First Peter stresses God’s governmental judgment (1 Pet. 4:17-18). This is continued in 2 Peter. Under God’s government the fallen angels were caught and are being kept for judgment (v. 4), and the age of the deluge and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were all judged (vv. 5-9). But God will mete out especially serious judgment to the New Testament heretics (v. 10). And all the ungodly will be judged and destroyed in the day when the heavens and the earth are burned by fire (3:7). Because of this, the God of justice and holiness has begun His governmental judgment from His own household — the believers. See note 172, par. 2, in 1 Pet. 1.
2P 2:32 of
I.e., from ancient times, as illustrated in vv. 4-9.
2P 2:33 destruction
See note 15, point 2.
2P 2:41a angels  -   Jude 6; Matt. 25:41
The fallen angels (see notes 193 in 1 Pet. 3 and 41 in Rev. 12), who, according to the sequence of historical facts recorded in this chapter, were the first fallen ones in the universe.
2P 2:4b pits  -   cf. Luke 8:31; Rev. 9:1, 2, 11; 20:1, 3; Rom. 10:7 and note 1
2P 2:42 Tartarus
A deep and gloomy pit, where the fallen angels are detained as in a prison. See note 194 in 1 Pet. 3.
2P 2:4c kept  -   2 Pet. 2:9; 3:7
2P 2:43 for
Or, until.
2P 2:44 judgment
The judgment of the great day (Jude 6), which probably will be the judgment of the great white throne, executed upon all the dead and the demons, and probably also upon the fallen angels (Rev. 20:11-15). It is logical that all the angels, demons, and men who have joined Satan in his rebellion will be judged at the same time, in the same way, and with the same result, immediately after their evil leader is judged and cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10), into which they also will be cast. See note 172, par. 2, in 1 Pet. 1.
2P 2:5a world  -   2 Pet. 3:6
2P 2:5b Noah  -   Gen. 7:1, 7, 23; 1 Pet. 3:20; Heb. 11:7
2P 2:51c righteousness  -   Gen. 6:9; 7:1
Whether one is righteous and godly or unrighteous and ungodly is crucial in regard to God’s governmental judgment (vv. 5-9). To be righteous is to be right with man before God, and to be godly is to express God before man. This was the manner of life that Noah and Lot lived, a manner of life that spared them from God’s governmental judgment according to His righteousness.
2P 2:5d ungodly  -   2 Pet. 3:7; 1 Tim. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:16; Titus 2:12
2P 2:6a Sodom  -   Gen. 19:24; Deut. 29:23; Jude 7
2P 2:61 ruin
Or, overthrow.
2P 2:6b example  -   cf. Num. 26:10
2P 2:62 live
I.e., to live in the flesh in the lusts of men, not in the will of God; to carry out the desire of the Gentiles (1 Pet. 4:2-3) and to have a vain, ungodly manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18).
2P 2:7a Lot  -   Gen. 19:15-23, 29
2P 2:7b licentious  -   2 Pet. 2:2
2P 2:71 manner
See note 62.
2P 2:72 lawless
Unprincipled; a Greek word different from that for lawless in v. 8. Lawless here denotes especially those who violate the law of nature and conscience.
2P 2:8a tormented  -   cf. Psa. 119:136; Ezek. 9:4
2P 2:91 godly
Those who, like Noah and Lot (vv. 5, 7), live a godly life, in contrast to those who live an ungodly life (v. 6).
2P 2:9a trial  -   1 Pet. 4:12; Dan. 3:17
2P 2:9b keep  -   2 Pet. 2:4; 3:7
2P 2:92 unrighteous
People who, like those in Noah’s time and those in Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 5-7), live an unrighteous life, in the licentious manner of the lawless.
2P 2:93 for
Or, until.
2P 2:94c day  -   Jude 6
The day of the final judgment, the judgment at the great white throne (see notes 74 in ch. 3, 44 in ch. 2, and 64 in Jude).
2P 2:95 judgment
See note 172, par. 2, in 1 Pet. 1.
2P 2:101 those
From here to the end of the chapter the exposure returns to the false teachers and their followers, who were exposed initially in vv. 1-3. In God’s governmental dealing they, especially, will be kept under punishment for the day of judgment because they go after the flesh, indulging for pleasure in the lust for defilement and in corrupting luxury, and despise the Lord’s government, rebelling against the Lord’s authority (vv. 10, 13-14, 18). Thus, they become persons who are like (1) animals without reason (v. 12); (2) spots and blemishes among the believers, who are God’s treasure (v. 13); (3) Balaam, forsaking the straight way for unrighteous gain (v. 15); (4) springs without water and mists driven by a storm (vv. 17-19); and (5) dogs and sows, becoming defiled both inwardly and outwardly (vv. 20-22).
2P 2:10a lust  -   1 Pet. 4:2; Jude 16; 1 John 2:16
2P 2:10b defilement  -   Jude 8; 2 Pet. 2:20; 2 Cor. 7:1
2P 2:102 lordship
Referring, in general, to all those who have authority to rule, including, of course, the Lord Christ, who was anointed and set up by God and who is the center of the divine government, dominion, and authority (Acts 2:36; Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16).
2P 2:103c self-willed  -   Titus 1:7
Self-pleasing, seeking pleasure for self.
2P 2:104 dignities
Lit., glories; referring generally to both angels and men in power and authority (v. 11; Jude 9; Titus 3:1-2).
2P 2:111 angels
Angels and them, referring to dignities in v. 10, are mentioned here in a general way; but in Jude 9, regarding the same case, the archangel Michael and the devil are singled out.
2P 2:112 do
This is to keep the order of authority in God’s government.
2P 2:12a these  -   Jude 10
2P 2:121 animals
Lit., living creatures (including man); indicating men who are living like animals.
2P 2:122 without
Or, irrational, having no sense regarding moral issues. The highest sense within man is his spirit, of which the conscience is the leading part. Since man’s fall, the conscience has governed man under God’s government. Some men are past feeling (Eph. 4:19 and note), having given up the consciousness of their conscience through their denial of God (Rom. 1:23-32). The first century heretics, such as the Sadducees in ancient Judaism (Acts 23:8), and the modernists in today’s Christianity are all in this category. They have denied the Lord to the uttermost so that their conscience is seared and has lost its consciousness (1 Tim. 4:2 and note 2), as if they do not even have a spirit (Jude 10, cf. 19). Thus, they become like animals without reason, like creatures of instinct, born natural to be captured, through their lust, by Satan, the destroyer of man, that they may be corrupted unto destruction. The portrayal here shows us that fallen men can be like animals without reason!
2P 2:123 for
Lit., unto; indicating that they are destined to be captured for destruction, to be made slaves of corruption (v. 19). By the supply of life through the divine provision (1:3-4) we are able to escape this corruption that brings in destruction. See note 15, point 3.
2P 2:124 destruction
The same Greek word as for corruption.
2P 2:125 destroyed
The same Greek word as for corrupted, referring to destruction caused by corruption.
2P 2:131 Suffering
Some MSS read, Receiving the wages of unrighteousness.
2P 2:132a wages  -   2 Pet. 2:15; Acts 1:18
I.e., wages of unrighteous doing.
2P 2:13b pleasure  -   Luke 8:14; Titus 3:3; James 4:3; 5:5
2P 2:133c spots  -   2 Pet. 3:14; Eph. 5:27
The lust-indulging heretics are to genuine believers, who are God’s treasure, as spots and blemishes are to precious gems.
2P 2:13d feasting  -   Jude 12
2P 2:141a adultery  -   James 4:4
Lit., an adulteress.
2P 2:14b ceasing  -   1 Pet. 4:1; cf. Rom. 6:2
2P 2:14c enticing  -   2 Pet. 2:18; James 1:14
2P 2:14d unstable  -   2 Pet. 3:16
2P 2:14e covetousness  -   2 Pet. 2:3
2P 2:14f children  -   Eph. 2:3
2P 2:14g curse  -   Rom. 9:3; 1 Cor. 16:22; Gal. 1:8-9
2P 2:151 straight
To take the straight way, such as the way of the truth (v. 2 and note 2) and the way of righteousness (v. 21 and note 1), is to live an upright life without crookedness and bias, without unrighteousness.
2P 2:15a gone  -   Ezek. 14:11
2P 2:152 following
Lit., following out.
2P 2:153b Balaam  -   Num. 22:5, 7; Deut. 23:4; Neh. 13:2; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14
Balaam was a genuine Gentile prophet, not a false one, but he loved the wages of unrighteousness (Num. 22:5, 7; Deut. 23:4; Neh. 13:2; Rev. 2:14).
2P 2:15c wages  -   2 Pet. 2:13
2P 2:161a beast  -   Num. 22:21-30
I.e., donkey.
2P 2:171 springs
The dried up heretical teachers are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, that is, waterless clouds being carried off by winds (Jude 12), having nothing of life to meet the need of the thirsty ones.
2P 2:17a without  -   Jude 12
2P 2:172b gloom  -   Jude 13
This also is God’s governmental dealing.
2P 2:18a swelling  -   Jude 16
2P 2:18b vanity  -   1 Pet. 1:18; Rom. 1:21
2P 2:18c entice  -   2 Pet. 2:14
2P 2:18d lusts  -   1 Pet. 2:11; 4:2; 2 Pet. 2:10
2P 2:18e escaping  -   2 Pet. 2:20; 1:4
2P 2:181 live
Or, behave, conduct themselves.
2P 2:19a freedom  -   1 Pet. 2:16; Gal. 5:1, 13; James 1:25
2P 2:19b slaves  -   John 8:34; Rom. 6:16
2P 2:191 corruption
See note 15, point 3.
2P 2:192 by
Or, to.
2P 2:20a escaped  -   2 Pet. 2:18
2P 2:20b defilements  -   2 Pet. 2:10
2P 2:20c world  -   2 Pet. 1:4; 1 John 2:15-17; 5:19; James 4:4
2P 2:20d knowledge  -   2 Pet. 1:2
2P 2:20e entangled  -   2 Tim. 2:4; Heb. 12:1
2P 2:20f worse  -   Matt. 12:45
2P 2:211 way
To take the way of righteousness is to live a life that is right with both God and man; it is another aspect of the way of the truth (v. 2 and note 2) and the straight way (v. 15 and note 1). This is the way of living a life according to God’s righteousness, a way that can receive His governmental judgment (vv. 3, 9) for His kingdom of righteousness (Rom. 14:17; Matt. 5:20). Peter in his Epistles stressed both the manner of life and the way of life because his writings are based on the governmental point of view of God’s administration. To correspond with the government of Him who is holy and righteous, God’s people need to have a manner of life that is holy, pure, good, and excellent (1 Pet. 1:15; 3:16, 2; 2:12; 2 Pet. 3:11), not licentious and vain (v. 7; 1 Pet. 1:18), in His straight way of righteousness and truth.
2P 2:21a turn  -   cf. Ezek. 18:24
2P 2:21b holy  -   Rom. 7:12
2P 2:221a dog  -   Prov. 26:11
Dogs and sows are unclean animals according to the ordinances of God’s holiness (Lev. 11:27, 7; Matt. 7:6 and note 2). Dogs are accustomed to eating filthy things. They vomit what they eat and turn to their own vomit, becoming filthy inwardly. Sows wallow in the mud, making themselves filthy outwardly. The God-denying heretics eventually become like these dirty animals, making themselves filthy both inwardly and outwardly. (What serious judgment they deserve according to God’s righteousness in His governmental administration!) Hence, they are very contagious, and the believers are prohibited from having contact with them (2 John 9-11).
2P 2:222 to
Lit., upon.
2 Peter Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
2P 3:1a stir  -   2 Pet. 1:13
2P 3:1b reminder  -   2 Pet. 1:12; Jude 5; Rom. 15:15
2P 3:2a remember  -   Jude 17; 2 Pet. 1:15
2P 3:21b words  -   2 Pet. 3:5, 7
The words spoken by the prophets are the contents of the Old Testament, the Scriptures (v. 16; 1:20), and the commandments preached by the apostles are the contents of the New Testament, the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42). Peter used both to confirm and strengthen his writings as an inoculation against the heretical teachings in the apostasy. In his first Epistle, concerning the full salvation of God, he referred to both the prophets and the apostles (1 Pet. 1:9-12). Then in the second Epistle, concerning the shining of the divine truth, he again referred to both (1:12-21). Here, for the third time, he did the same.
2P 3:2c prophets  -   Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21; Heb. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:10; 2 Pet. 1:19-21
2P 3:2d apostles  -   2 Pet. 1:1; Jude 17
2P 3:31a last  -   1 Pet. 1:5
See note 12 in 2 Tim. 3.
2P 3:32b mockers  -   Jude 18
They may be the false teachers mentioned in 2:1. Their mocking was a part of the apostasy.
2P 3:3c lusts  -   1 Pet. 4:2; 2 Pet. 1:4; James 1:14-15; 4:1
2P 3:4a Where  -   cf. Jer. 17:15
2P 3:41b promise  -   2 Pet. 3:9, 13; 1:4
The promise of the Lord’s coming was given to the fathers by the holy prophets (v. 2) in the Old Testament (Psa. 72:6-17; 110:1-3; 118:26; Dan. 7:13-14; Zech. 14:3-9; Mal. 4:1-3).
2P 3:42c coming  -   2 Pet. 1:16
The Greek word means presence.
2P 3:4d fathers  -   Rom. 15:8; 9:5; Acts 13:32; 26:6; Heb. 1:1
2P 3:4e asleep  -   Acts 7:60
2P 3:4f beginning  -   Mark 10:6
2P 3:4g creation  -   Gen. 1:1
2P 3:51 this
Or, this is hidden from them by their own willfulness. I.e., they are willfully ignorant of this; hence, this escapes their notice. The heretical mockers ignore willfully and deny purposely the word of God spoken by the prophets in the Scriptures. So Peter reminded the believers to remember the holy words spoken by both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles (vv. 1-2).
2P 3:52a word  -   2 Pet. 3:2, 7
The promise concerning the Lord’s coming (v. 4) is the word of God. The mockers should not ignore that it was by the word of God that the heavens and the earth came into existence (Heb. 11:3) and that it is by the same word that the heavens and the earth are being kept (Heb. 1:3) for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (v. 7). So the mockers should be assured that by the word of God all the material universe, which includes them, will be judged by the coming of the Lord.
2P 3:53b heavens  -   Zech. 12:1
In the beginning, that is, of old, the heavens and the earth were created by God (Gen. 1:1). By the word of God (Psa. 33:6) first the heavens came into existence and then the earth (Job 38:4-7).
2P 3:5c were  -   John 1:3
2P 3:54 compacted
Lit., standing together, standing with (in juxtaposition, side by side). First, in Gen. 1:1 the earth came into existence, and then, in Gen. 1:9, also by the word (the speaking) of God (Psa. 33:9), the earth began to be compacted out of water and through water, that is, to stand together with water in juxtaposition, emerging partly from the water and remaining partly submerged under water.
2P 3:5d water  -   Psa. 24:2; 136:6
2P 3:61 which
Referring to water in v. 5. The earth was compacted out of water and through water in an orderly condition. But through the same water it was judged and destroyed by the flood at Noah’s time (Gen. 7:17-24), indicating that all things did not continue in the same way from the beginning of creation.
2P 3:62a world  -   2 Pet. 2:5
The Greek word means order, a system, referring here to the world with its inhabitants. The earth in the preceding verse became the world in this verse — not merely the earth, but the earth with its inhabitants in a system. This refers to the world in Noah’s age, which was judged by God with the flood because of the sinfulness and ungodliness of that age (Gen. 6:5-7, 11-13, 17). This book is concerned mainly with the divine government and all its judgments. The first judgment on the world was the one executed by the flood in Noah’s day, which cleared up that ungodly world. This must have been Peter’s thought while he was writing this verse, implying that this age of apostasy will also be judged on the day of the Lord’s appearing, as in the day of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39).
2P 3:63 then
Then refers to the age of Noah.
2P 3:64b flooded  -   Gen. 7:18-19
Referring to the flood of Noah’s time (2:5), which caused the earth to be destroyed (Gen. 6:13, 17; 9:11). The earth then did not remain the same but experienced a cataclysm by being flooded with water, and was destroyed. Here Peter argued strongly with the heretical mockers. They said that “all things continue in this way from the beginning of creation” (v. 4). But actually a cataclysm did come upon the earth because of the ungodliness of its inhabitants. This implies that the present world will not continue in the same way but will experience another cataclysm through the Lord’s coming with His judgment upon the rebellious, including the false teachers and the heretical mockers in the apostasy.
2P 3:65c perished  -   2 Pet. 3:9; Jude 11; cf. 1 Pet. 1:7
I.e., was destroyed, demolished, laid waste (Gen. 6:13, 17). See note 15, point 1, in ch. 2.
2P 3:7a heavens  -   Rev. 20:11; 21:1; Heb. 1:10-12; Matt. 24:35
2P 3:71 now
In contrast to then in v. 6 and referring to the present heavens and earth, which remain by the word of God (Gen. 8:22) and will not be destroyed again by water, according to the covenant God made with Noah (Gen. 9:11), but will be burned by fire on the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
2P 3:72 same
The same word refers to the word of God mentioned in v. 5, which is included in the words of the prophets in the Old Testament. The false and heretical teachings in the apostasy are a deviation from the word of God spoken by the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament. Hence, the antidote administered through Peter’s inoculation against the poison of the apostate teachings was the holy word with the divine revelation, which Peter stressed repeatedly.
2P 3:7b word  -   2 Pet. 3:2, 5
2P 3:7c stored  -   2 Pet. 2:4, 9
2P 3:73d fire  -   2 Pet. 3:10, 12
The fire that will burn up the heavens and the earth (v. 10) at the end of the millennium when the judgment of the great white throne comes (Rev. 20:11). God’s initial judgment upon the universe was by water (v. 6), but His consummate judgment will be by fire. Water only washes away the filthiness from the surface, but fire changes the nature of the entire substance. This is another indication that the heavens and the earth will not remain the same as they are but will be cleared up by fire, and that the ungodly false teachers (2:1) and mockers (v. 3) will be judged and destroyed under the divine government.
2P 3:7e kept  -   2 Pet. 2:4, 9
2P 3:7f day  -   2 Pet. 2:9
2P 3:74 judgment
The judgment of the great white throne, which will take place after the millennium and will precede the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 20:11 — 21:1). Through that judgment all the ungodly will be cast into the lake of fire for destruction (see note 31 in ch. 2). Since it will be the final judgment upon men and the demons (Rev. 20:13 and note), it is of the greatest relevance to the government of God in the universe. See note 172, par. 2, in 1 Pet. 1.
Here Peter skipped over the millennium of one thousand years, going directly from the Lord’s coming to the judgment of the great white throne. To him, as to the Lord, that one thousand years will be like one day (v. 8), a short time. He was dealing here with God’s governmental judgment. In God’s economy the millennium is not for that purpose.
2P 3:75g destruction  -   1 Thes. 5:3; 2 Thes. 1:9
See note 15, point 2, in ch. 2.
2P 3:76h ungodly  -   2 Pet. 2:5
Including the false teachers (2:1) and the heretical mockers (v. 3).
2P 3:81 escape
Or, be hidden from you; i.e., escape your notice.
2P 3:82 one
With the Lord God, who is eternal, the sense of time is compressed a thousandfold compared with man’s sense of time. Hence, for the fulfillment of His word, especially the word of His promise, the crucial matter is not the time but the fact. Whatever He has promised will sooner or later become a fact. We should not be troubled by the sense of delay according to our reckoning of time.
2P 3:8a thousand  -   Psa. 90:4; Rev. 20:4, 6
2P 3:91 does
Or, is not tardy.
2P 3:9a delay  -   Hab. 2:3; Heb. 10:37
2P 3:9b promise  -   2 Pet. 3:4, 13
2P 3:92 some
These must be the mockers (v. 3).
2P 3:93c delay  -   Ezek. 12:22
Or, tardiness.
2P 3:94d long-suffering  -   2 Pet. 3:15
The Lord’s heart is set not on the time of the fulfillment of His promise but on His people, whom He possesses peculiarly as a treasure (1 Pet. 2:9; Titus 2:14 and note 3). His desire is that none of us, His precious redeemed ones, would be punished by His governmental judgment but would have a prolonged season to repent that we may be spared from His punishment.
2P 3:95e perish  -   2 Pet. 3:6; Jude 5, 11
Or, be destroyed. See note 15, point 1, in ch. 2. Since you in this verse refers to the believers in Christ, perish refers not to the eternal perdition of the unbelievers but to the punishment of God’s governmental disciplining of the believers (1 Pet. 4:17-18 and note 182; 1 Thes. 5:3, 8 and note 3).
2P 3:96f all  -   cf. 1 Tim. 2:4
Referring to the believers.
2P 3:97g repentance  -   Rev. 2:5, 16, 22; 3:3, 19; cf. Ezek. 18:23, 32; 33:11
Repentance unto salvation (v. 15), which is to repent for not being watchful for the day of the Lord’s coming (v. 10) and not living a life in a holy manner and godliness (v. 11).
2P 3:101a day  -   1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Cor. 1:14; Phil. 1:6, 10; 2:16; 2 Tim. 1:12, 18; 4:8
Mainly in the sense of judgment (1 Thes. 5:2 and note 2) for God’s government.
2P 3:102 come
The day of the Lord for His judgment (1 Thes. 5:3-4) will come before the millennium (Rev. 18:1; 19:11; 20:4-6).
2P 3:10b thief  -   Matt. 24:43; 1 Thes. 5:2; Rev. 3:3; 16:15
2P 3:103 which
Referring to the day of the Lord.
2P 3:104c heavens  -   Psa. 102:26; Isa. 34:4; 51:6; Matt. 24:35; Heb. 1:11; Rev. 6:14; 20:11; 21:1
This will take place after the millennium (Rev. 20:7, 11). This indicates again that Peter skipped over the one thousand years of the millennium (see note 74).
2P 3:105 roar
I.e., a rushing sound or noise. It may be a proclamation of a great change in the universe from the old to the new.
2P 3:106 elements
The physical elements that compose the heavens.
2P 3:107d dissolved  -   cf. Micah 1:4
Compare dissolved and burned up with roll them up and changed in Heb. 1:12, fled away and no place was found for them in Rev. 20:11, and passed away in Rev. 21:1. The burning with intense heat to dissolve the heavens and the earth is the procedure God will use to roll up the heavens and the earth and put them away that they may be changed from the old to the new (v. 13; Rev. 21:1). This will be God’s final and consummate dealing with His creation in His government. In God’s final dealing all the material things will pass away, but His eternal word will abide forever (Matt. 24:35; 1 Pet. 1:25). The word of His prophecy will remain and be fulfilled at His appointed time for the accomplishing of His eternal will, regardless of the change that will occur in the physical universe.
2P 3:10e earth  -   cf. Nahum 1:5
2P 3:108 works
This may refer to both God’s works of nature and man’s works of art.
2P 3:111 all
All things, both in the heavens and on the earth, have been defiled by the rebellion of Satan and the fall of man. Although all things, whether on the earth or in the heavens, have been reconciled to God through Christ by His blood (Col. 1:20 and note 4) — even the heavenly things having been purified by the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:23 and note 1) — they will still need to be cleared up by being burned up in God’s governmental dealing, that they may become new in nature and appearance in God’s new universe (v. 13). Thus, what kind of persons ought we, the children of the holy God, to be in holy manner of life and godliness; that is, what kind of transformation ought we to experience in order to live a life in the manner of God’s holy nature and godliness to express Him, that we may be qualified to match His holy government?
2P 3:112 are
Some MSS read, therefore are to be dissolved.
2P 3:113 in
The divine power has provided us with all things that are needed to live a life in a holy manner and godliness (1:3).
2P 3:11a holy  -   1 Pet. 1:15; Heb. 12:14
2P 3:11b godliness  -   1 Tim. 2:2; 4:7-8
2P 3:121a Expecting  -   Rom. 8:19
While we live a transformed life in a holy and godly manner, we are expecting, awaiting, and hastening the coming of the day of God.
2P 3:122 coming
The Greek word means presence.
2P 3:123 day
The day of God is the day of the Lord (v. 10), and to the children of Israel in the Old Testament, the day of the Lord is the day of Jehovah (Isa. 2:12; Joel 1:15; 2:11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18, 20; Obad. 15; Zeph. 1:7, 14, 18; 2:2-3; Zech. 14:1; Mal. 4:1, 5). In such expressions, day is used mainly in the sense of judgment for governmental dealing. Before the Lord comes, it is “man’s day,” in which man judges until the Lord comes (1 Cor. 4:3-5). Then, it will be “the day of the Lord,” which will begin with the Lord’s parousia (presence — Matt. 24:3 and note 3) with all its judgments and will end with the judgment upon men and the demons at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15 and notes). The Lord’s parousia (presence) will begin when the overcoming saints are raptured to the throne of God in the heavens before the great tribulation of three and a half years (Rev. 12:5-6; 14:1). Then, all the supernatural calamities of the sixth seal and the first four trumpets will be meted out to smite the earth with the things on it and the heavens with their heavenly bodies (Rev. 6:12-17; 8:7-12). This will be the beginning of the great tribulation. The great tribulation, which will consist mainly of the woes of the last three trumpets, including the plagues of the seven bowls, will last for three and a half years (Matt. 24:21-22, 29; Rev. 8:13 — 9:21; 11:14; 15:5 — 16:21). That will be a time of trial for the inhabitants of the whole earth (Rev. 3:10), including the Jews (Isa. 2:12; Zech. 14:1-2; Mal. 4:1, 5; Joel 1:15-20; 2:1, 11, 31) and the believers in Christ who are left in the tribulation (Rev. 12:17). At the end of the great tribulation, Christ’s parousia (presence), with the overcomers, will come to the air (Rev. 10:1), and the dead saints will be resurrected and raptured together with the majority of the living believers, who will have passed through the great tribulation, to meet with the Lord in the air (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16-17; Rev. 14:14-16). After this, all the believers will be judged by the Lord at His judgment seat in the air (2 Cor. 5:10). Then the Lord will have His wedding feast with the overcoming saints (Rev. 19:7-8). Immediately after this, the Lord with His bride, composed of the overcoming saints as His army, will come to the earth (Zech. 14:4-5; Jude 14; 1 Thes. 3:13) to fight and defeat Antichrist and his army; they will seize Antichrist and his false prophet and cast them alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:11-21). At approximately that time, Babylon the Great will be destroyed (Rev. 17:1 — 19:3). At the same time, the Lord will deliver, gather, and restore the children of Israel (Zech. 12:2-14; Rom. 11:26; Matt. 24:31; Acts 1:6). Following this, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss, the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3). Then the Lord will judge the nations (the living — Matt. 25:31-46; Joel 3:2). After this, the millennial kingdom will come (Rev. 20:4-6). After the thousand years, Satan will be loosed from the abyss and will instigate certain of the nations, Gog and Magog in the north of the eastern hemisphere, to carry out the last rebellion against God. They will be subdued and burned, and the deceiving devil will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-10). Following this, the heavens and the earth will be fully cleared up by being burned up (vv. 7, 10). Then will come the final judgment upon men (the dead) and the demons, and probably also upon the fallen angels (2:4 and note 4), at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). That will be God’s consummate dealing with His old creation in His universal government and will be in addition to so many judgments and dealings executed within the day of the Lord to clear up the old universe. Then a new universe will begin with the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1), in which there will be no more judgment related to God’s governmental dealing, for no unrighteousness will dwell there. Therefore, not counting the one thousand years, the day of the Lord will be very short, probably not more than seven years. This will be the main part of the last week (seven years) of the seventy weeks in Dan. 9:24-27. It is unscriptural to consider the day of God and the day of the Lord two different days: the day of the Lord ends with the millennial kingdom, and the day of God begins with the burning of the heavens and the earth, followed by the judgment of the great white throne. Actually, since the judgment of the great white throne will be executed by the Lord Jesus (Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1), it too will be in the day of the Lord. God does not judge anyone; He has given all judgment to the Lord (John 5:22).
2P 3:124 which
Referring to the coming of the day of God, which is for executing judgment upon every part of the old creation to clear it up. On account of the coming of such a day, the heavens will no longer be able to stand and remain as they have been, but will be dissolved, their elements melting away in the intense heat of the burning fire.
2P 3:12b fire  -   2 Pet. 3:7, 10
2P 3:131a promise  -   2 Pet. 3:4, 9
After all the material things are dissolved, God’s promise as His everlasting word will still exist for His redeemed people to trust in and stand upon with the expectation of a new universe. We should set our hope not on the visible elements but on what the word of God promises for our destiny, that is, the new heavens and new earth, which have not yet come into our view.
2P 3:132b new  -   Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21:1
The new heavens and new earth are the old heavens and old earth renewed and transformed through the burning of God’s judging fire, just as the new man is our old man renewed and transformed (Col. 3:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:18).
2P 3:133 righteousness
Righteousness is the main factor based on which God’s governmental judgment is meted out to all creatures in His old creation. Hence, in these two books concerning God’s government, this matter is stressed repeatedly (1 Pet. 2:23-24; 3:12, 14; 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:1; 2:5, 7-8, 21; 3:13). The main matter seen in John’s writings is the love of God expressed in His life; in Paul’s writings, the grace of God distributed in His economy; and in Peter’s writings, the righteousness of God maintained in His government. God’s life, economy, and government are the basic structures of the ministry of the three apostles. Life is of love, economy is through grace, and government is based on righteousness. This righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and new earth, saturating God’s new universe prevailingly and thus maintaining it absolutely under God’s righteous order, so that no further judgment will ever be needed.
2P 3:134 dwells
Or, makes its home.
2P 3:14a beloved  -   2 Pet. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:58
2P 3:141b found  -   Phil. 3:9
To be found by the Lord in peace is to be found righteous, right, having no problem in His eyes with either God or man at His coming. Since this book stresses righteousness for God’s governmental dealing (see note 133), it charges the believers, who are walking in the ways of righteousness (cf. 2:21), to pursue a living that is in peace, that they may be prepared for the Lord’s coming with judgment.
2P 3:14c peace  -   1 Pet. 3:11; 5:14
2P 3:142 without
The heretics, who forsake the straight way and follow the way of unrighteousness (2:15), are spots and blemishes among the believers (see note 133 in ch. 2); but the believers, who are pursuing to live in peace in God’s government, should be without spot and without blemish, like the Lord, who is the Lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Pet. 1:19).
2P 3:14d without  -   Eph. 5:27; Phil. 2:15
2P 3:151 count
The mockers count the Lord’s long-suffering toward the believers as delay, tardiness, or slackness (v. 9). This is their twisting of the Lord’s word spoken by the prophets in the Scriptures and by the apostles in their teachings (v. 16). Hence, Peter charged the believers to count the Lord’s long-suffering as salvation instead of delay, and not to twist the prophets’ prophecies or the apostles’ teachings, including his own and also Paul’s, that they might not be judged unto destruction as the heretics will be at the Lord’s coming. It is by doing this and being diligent to be found by the Lord in peace, without spot and without blemish (v. 14), that the believers prepare themselves for the Lord’s coming with judgment.
2P 3:152a long-suffering  -   2 Pet. 3:9; Rom. 2:4
The Lord’s long-suffering in the delay regarding His promise should be counted as a prolonged opportunity for the believers to repent unto salvation (v. 9 and note 4).
2P 3:153b salvation  -   1 Pet. 1:5, 9; 2:2
Not salvation in its initial stage but salvation in its completing stage (see note 55 in 1 Pet. 1). The Lord’s intention in delaying His coming is to prevent many of His elect from missing the topmost portion of His full salvation.
2P 3:154 also
It was not only Peter, as one of the apostles (v. 2), who taught, with the confirmation of the prophets’ prophecy (v. 2), that the Lord’s long-suffering should be counted as salvation instead of delay. Paul, as another of the apostles, taught the same thing in his writings, based on the prophetic word of the Old Testament. Peter referred to this fact to strengthen his writing.
2P 3:15c Paul  -   Acts 15:2, 12, 25
2P 3:15d wisdom  -   1 Cor. 2:6-8
2P 3:161 all
Since Peter’s antidote to inoculate against the heretical teachings of the apostasy is the holy word spoken by the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles, he could not omit the writings of the apostle Paul, which are the greatest part of the apostles’ teaching for the constituting of the New Testament. In both his Epistles, which also are a part of the apostles’ teaching and are constituents of the New Testament, Peter referred repeatedly to the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles (1 Pet. 1:10-12; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; 3:2). Here he referred to the apostle Paul in the strongest way, saying that Paul in all his writings spoke some things that are hard to understand, concerning the things of which Peter spoke in his writing, and that to twist Paul’s writings is equivalent to twisting the Scriptures as the heretics do, which results in destruction, that is, in being judged by the Lord at His coming back. This is a strong warning to both the believers and the heretics in the apostasy.
2P 3:162 these
In his two Epistles, comprising only eight chapters, Peter covered the entire economy of God, from eternity past before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:2, 20) to the new heavens and new earth in eternity future (2 Pet. 3:13). He unveiled the crucial things related to God’s economy, concerning which things the prophets prophesied and the apostles preached (1 Pet. 1:10-12), from four sides:
(1) From the side of the Triune God:
God the Father chose a people in eternity according to His foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2:9) and called them into His glory (1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3). Christ, foreknown by God before the foundation of the world but manifested in the last times (1 Pet. 1:20), has redeemed and saved God’s chosen people (1 Pet. 1:18-19, 2) by His vicarious death (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18) through His resurrection in life and ascension in power (1 Pet. 1:3; 3:21-22). The Spirit, sent from heaven, has sanctified and purified those whom Christ has redeemed and saved (1 Pet. 1:2, 12, 22; 4:14). (The angels long to look into these things — 1 Pet. 1:12.) The Triune God’s divine power has provided the redeemed ones with all things that relate to life and godliness (1:3-4) to guard them unto full salvation (1 Pet. 1:5). God also disciplines them (1 Pet. 5:6) by some of His varied governmental judgments (1 Pet. 1:17; 2:23; 4:5-6, 17; 2 Pet. 2:3-4, 9; 3:7), and He will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground them by His all grace (1 Pet. 5:10). The Lord is long-suffering toward them that they all may have opportunity to repent unto salvation (vv. 9, 15). Then, Christ will appear in glory with His full salvation for His lovers (1 Pet. 1:5, 7-9, 13; 4:13; 5:4).
(2) From the side of the believers:
The believers, as God’s possession, were chosen by God (1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2:9), called by His glory and virtue (1 Pet. 2:9; 3:9; 2 Pet. 1:3, 10), redeemed by Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19), regenerated by God through His living word (1 Pet. 1:3, 23), and saved through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 3:21). They now are being guarded by the power of God (1 Pet. 1:5), are being purified to love one another (1 Pet. 1:22), are growing by feeding on the milk of the word (1 Pet. 2:2), are developing in life the spiritual virtues (2 Pet. 1:5-8), and are being transformed and built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to serve God (1 Pet. 2:4-5, 9). They are God’s chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, and peculiar people for His private possession to express His virtues (1 Pet. 2:9). They are being disciplined by His governmental judgment (1 Pet. 1:17; 2:19-21; 3:9, 14, 17; 4:6, 12-19; 5:6, 9), are living a holy life in an excellent manner and in godliness to glorify Him (1 Pet. 1:15; 2:12; 3:1-2), are ministering as good stewards of His varied grace for His glorification through Christ (1 Pet. 4:10-11) (under the elders’ exemplary shepherding — 1 Pet. 5:1-4), and are expecting and hastening the coming of the Lord (1 Pet. 1:13; 2 Pet. 3:12) in order to be richly supplied with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord (1:11). Further, they are expecting the new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells, in eternity (v. 13), and they are growing continually in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (v. 18).
(3) From the side of Satan:
Satan is the believers’ adversary, the devil, who as a roaring lion is walking about, seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).
(4) From the side of the universe:
The fallen angels were condemned and are awaiting eternal judgment (2:4); the ancient ungodly world was destroyed by a flood (2:5; 3:6); the ungodly cities were reduced to ashes (2:6); the false teachers and heretical mockers in the apostasy and mankind in his evil living will all be judged unto destruction (2:1, 3, 9-10, 12; 3:3-4, 7; 1 Pet. 4:5); the heavens and the earth will be burned up (vv. 7, 10-11); and all the dead men and the demons will be judged (1 Pet. 4:5). Then the new heavens and new earth will come as a new universe, in which God’s righteousness will dwell for eternity (v. 13).
Paul in his writings also spoke concerning “these things” (except for the new heavens and new earth). Hence, Peter referred to Paul’s writings to strengthen his own writings, especially concerning God’s governmental and disciplinary judgment upon the believers. Paul strongly and repeatedly emphasized this matter in his writings (1 Cor. 11:30-32; Heb. 12:5-11; 2:3; 4:1; 6:8; 10:27-31, 39; 12:29; 1 Cor. 3:13-15; 4:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10). This must be the reason Peter highly commended Paul’s writings.
What beauty and excellency are in this commendation! Although the Corinthians attempted to divide Peter and Paul according to their divisive preferences (1 Cor. 1:11-12), Peter commended Paul, saying that Paul, like him, taught “these things” and that Paul’s writings should not be twisted but should be regarded like “the rest of the Scriptures” and should receive the same respect as the Old Testament. For Peter to make such a commendation was not a small thing, for it was he who was rebuked to his face by Paul regarding the New Testament faith (Gal. 2:11-21). This indicates that Peter was bold in admitting that the early apostles, such as John, Paul, and himself, although their style, terminology, utterance, certain aspects of their views, and the way they presented their teachings differed, participated in the same, unique ministry, the ministry of the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:8-9; 4:1). Such a ministry ministers to people, as its focus, the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, who, after passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, dispenses Himself through the redemption of Christ and by the operation of the Holy Spirit into His redeemed people as their unique portion of life and as their life supply and everything, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the full expression, the fullness, of the Triune God, according to the eternal purpose of the Father.
2P 3:16a hard  -   Heb. 5:11
2P 3:16b unstable  -   2 Pet. 2:14
2P 3:163 twist
This indicates that the mockers (v. 3) and their followers must have twisted, not merely ignored (v. 5), the Scriptures and the apostles’ teaching.
2P 3:16c Scriptures  -   2 Pet. 1:20; 2 Tim. 3:16
2P 3:164 destruction
See note 15, point 2, in ch. 2. According to the context, destruction here refers not to eternal perdition but to the punishment of the divine governmental discipline. See notes 182 in 1 Pet. 4 and 95 in this chapter.
2P 3:171 be
Be on your guard because of the apostasy, the heretical teachings, which may carry you away to destruction by twisting the apostles’ writings or the Scriptures (v. 16).
2P 3:172 carried
The same word as that used in Gal. 2:13 concerning Peter, Barnabas, and other Jewish believers.
2P 3:173 lawless
See note 72 in ch. 2. The lawless must refer to the false teachers and mockers (2:1; 3:3), who were the early heretics.
2P 3:174a fall  -   Gal. 5:4
This is to become unstable (v. 16).
2P 3:17b steadfastness  -   2 Pet. 1:10
2P 3:181a grow  -   1 Pet. 2:2; Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19
This indicates that what Peter wrote in his two Epistles is a matter of life. To grow in grace is to grow by the bountiful supply of eternal life provided by the divine power (1:3-4), and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord is to grow by the realization of what Christ is. This is to grow by the enjoyment of grace and the realization of truth (John 1:14 and note 6, 17 and note 1).
2P 3:182 grace
See notes 146 in John 1, 101 in 1 Cor. 15, and 141 in 2 Cor. 13.
2P 3:183b knowledge  -   2 Pet. 1:2, 3, 5, 8
The realization of the knowledge of our Lord equals truth, the reality of all that He is, as in John 1:14, 17 (see note 171 there). Peter charged the believers to grow not only in grace but also in this truth.
2P 3:184 To
Referring to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Since such a praise is one that is rendered to our God (Rom. 11:36; 16:27), it indicates that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is God.
2P 3:18c glory  -   2 Tim. 4:18; Rev. 1:6
< 2 Peter • 1 John Outline >
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1 John Outline
I.   The fellowship of the divine life — 1:1 — 2:11
A.   The manifestation of the divine life — 1:1-2
B.   The divine fellowship — 1:3-4
C.   The condition of the divine fellowship — 1:5 — 2:11
1.   Confessing our sins — 1:5 — 2:2
2.   Loving God and the brothers — 2:3-11
II.   The teaching of the divine anointing — 2:12-27
A.   Concerning the Divine Trinity according to the growth in life — vv. 12-19
B.   For the abiding in the Triune God — vv. 20-27
III.   The virtues of the divine birth — 2:28 — 5:21
A.   To practice the divine righteousness — 2:28 — 3:10a
B.   To practice the divine love — 3:10b — 5:3
1.   By the divine life (as the divine seed) and the divine Spirit — 3:10b-24
2.   By the proving of the spirits — 4:1-6
3.   By God (as the supreme love) and the bountiful Spirit — 4:7 — 5:3
C.   To overcome the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols — 5:4-21
1.   By the eternal life in the Son — vv. 4-13
2.   By the life-giving petition — vv. 14-17
3.   By the true God as the eternal life — vv. 18-21
1 John >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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1 John Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
1J 1:11 That
Paul’s ministry was to complete the divine revelation (Col. 1:25-27) of God’s New Testament economy, that is, the Triune God in Christ as the life-giving Spirit producing the members of Christ for the constituting and the building up of the Body of Christ, that the Triune God may have a full expression — the fullness of God (Eph. 1:23; 3:19) — in the universe. Paul’s writings were completed around A.D. 67. Paul’s completing ministry was damaged by the apostasy preceding and following his death. Then after a quarter of a century, around A.D. 90, John’s writings came forth. John’s ministry was not only to mend the broken ministry of Paul but also to consummate the entire divine revelation of both the Old Testament and the New Testament, of both the Gospels and the Epistles. In such a ministry, the focus is the mysteries of the divine life. John’s Gospel, as the consummation of the Gospels, unveils the mysteries of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. John’s Epistles (especially the first), as the consummation of the Epistles, unfold the mystery of the fellowship of the divine life, which is the fellowship of God’s children with God the Father and with one another. Then John’s Revelation, as the consummation of the New Testament and the Old Testament, reveals the mystery of Christ as the life supply to God’s children for His expression and as the center of the universal administration of the Triune God. Here John used the expression that which to open his Epistle and unfold the mystery of the fellowship in the divine life. That he did not use personal pronouns in reference to the Lord implies that what he was about to unfold is mysterious.
1J 1:12 from
This differs from in the beginning in John’s Gospel (John 1:1). In the beginning traces back to eternity past before creation; from the beginning proceeds forward from the creation. This indicates that John’s Epistle is a continuation of his Gospel, which concerns the believers’ experience of the divine life. In his Gospel, John revealed the way for sinners to receive the eternal life — to believe in the Son of God. In his Epistle he pointed out the way for the believers, who have received the divine life, to enjoy that life in its fellowship — to abide in the Son of God. And in his Revelation he unveiled the consummation of the eternal life as the believers’ full enjoyment in eternity.
The phrase from the beginning is used four times in the Gospel of John, eight times in this Epistle, and twice in 2 John. In John 8:44; 1 John 1:1; 2:13-14; and 3:8, it is used in the absolute sense, whereas in John 6:64; 15:27; 16:4; 1 John 2:7, 24 (twice); 3:11; and 2 John 5-6, it is used in the relative sense.
1J 1:1a seen  -   1 John 4:14; John 19:35
1J 1:1b eyes  -   2 Pet. 1:16
1J 1:13 beheld
Gazed at with a purpose.
1J 1:14c handled  -   Luke 24:39; John 20:27
First, have heard, then have seen; after having seen, beheld, gazed at with a purpose, and handled, touched with hands. These expressions indicate that the Word of life is not only mysterious but also tangible, because He was incarnated. The mysterious Word of life was touched by man, not only in His humanity before His resurrection (Mark 3:10; 5:31) but also in His spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44) after His resurrection (John 20:17, 27). At that time there was a heresy that denied the incarnation of the Son of God (4:1-3). Hence, such strong expressions to indicate the Lord’s solid substance in His touchable humanity were needed.
1J 1:15 Word
This is the Word mentioned in John 1:1-4, 14, who was with God and was God in eternity before creation, who became flesh in time, and in whom is life. This Word is the divine person of Christ as an account, a definition, and an expression of all that God is. In Him is life, and He is life (John 11:25; 14:6). The phrase the Word of life in Greek indicates that the Word is life. The person is the divine life, the eternal life, which we can touch. The mentioning of the Word here indicates that this Epistle is a continuation and development of John’s Gospel (cf. John 1:1-2, 14).
1J 1:16 life
The writings of John are books of mysteries. In this Epistle, life, that is, the divine life, the eternal life, the life of God, which is imparted into the believers in Christ and is abiding in them, is the first mystery (v. 2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11, 13, 20). Issuing out of this mystery is another mystery, the mystery of the fellowship of the divine life (vv. 3-7). After that is the mystery of the anointing of the Triune God (2:20-27). Then there is the mystery of abiding in the Lord (2:27-28; 3:6, 24). The fifth mystery is the mystery of the divine birth (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18). The sixth is the divine seed (3:9). And the last is the water, the blood, and the Spirit (5:6-12).
1J 1:21a life  -   John 11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4
This indicates that life is a synonym for Word of life in the preceding verse. Both denote the divine person of Christ, who was with the Father in eternity and was manifested in time through incarnation, and whom the apostles saw and testified and reported to the believers.
1J 1:22b manifested  -   1 John 3:5, 8; 1 Tim. 3:16
This manifestation of the eternal life was through Christ’s incarnation, which John stressed strongly in his Gospel (John 1:14) as an antidote to inoculate the believers against the heresy that said that Christ did not come in the flesh. Such a manifestation, corresponding with being touchable, indicates again the substantial nature of the Lord’s humanity, which is the manifestation of the divine life in the New Testament economy.
1J 1:2c testify  -   1 John 4:14; John 15:27
1J 1:23 the
Lit., the life the eternal. This life denotes the divine spiritual life, not the human soulish life or the physical life (see note 174 in Rom. 5). Eternal denotes not only duration of time, which is everlasting, without end, but also quality, which is absolutely perfect and complete, without any shortage or defect. Such an expression emphasizes the eternal nature of the divine life, the life of the eternal God. The apostles saw this eternal life and testified and reported it to people. Their experience was not of any doctrine but of Christ, the Son of God, as the eternal life, and their testimony and preaching were not of theology or biblical knowledge but of such a solid life.
1J 1:2d eternal  -   1 John 2:25; 3:15; 5:11, 13, 20; John 3:15-16, 36; 5:24; 10:28; 17:2-3
1J 1:24e with  -   John 1:1-2
The Greek word implies living and acting in union and communion with. The eternal life, which is the Son, not only was with the Father but also was living and acting in union and communion with the Father in eternity. This word corresponds with John 1:1-2.
1J 1:25 Father
The Father is the source of the eternal life; from Him and with Him the Son was manifested as the expression of the eternal life for the people of the Father’s choice to partake of and enjoy.
1J 1:26 manifested
The manifestation of the eternal life includes the revelation and impartation of life to men, with a view to bringing man into the eternal life, into its union and communion with the Father.
1J 1:31 seen
In v. 1 it was first have heard and then have seen; here it is vice versa. In our receiving of revelation, hearing is the basic thing; in our preaching, in our reporting, seeing should be the base. What we preach should be our apprehension and experience of the things we have heard.
1J 1:32 also
The apostles heard and saw the eternal life. Then they reported it to the believers that the believers also might hear and see it. By virtue of the eternal life, the apostles enjoyed fellowship with the Father and with His Son, the Lord Jesus. They desired that the believers also enjoy this fellowship.
1J 1:33a fellowship  -   1 John 1:6-7; 1 Cor. 1:9
The Greek word means joint participation, common participation. Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life and is actually the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life. It is illustrated by the flow of the water of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1). All genuine believers are in this fellowship (Acts 2:42). It is carried on by the Spirit in our regenerated spirit. Hence, it is called “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14) and “fellowship of [our] spirit” (Phil. 2:1). It is in this fellowship of the eternal life that we, the believers, participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us; that is, we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Such a fellowship was first the apostles’ portion in their enjoyment of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Hence, in Acts 2:42 it is called “the fellowship of the apostles,” and in this verse “our [the apostles’] fellowship,” a fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. It is a divine mystery. This mysterious fellowship of the eternal life should be considered the subject of this Epistle.
Fellowship here indicates a putting away of private interests and a joining with others for a certain common purpose. Hence, to have fellowship with the apostles, to be in the fellowship of the apostles, and to have fellowship with the Triune God in the apostles’ fellowship is to put aside our private interests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose. This purpose, according to John’s subsequent writings, is twofold: (1) that the believers grow in the divine life by abiding in the Triune God (2:12-27) and, based on the divine birth, live a life of the divine righteousness and the divine love (2:28 — 5:3) to overcome the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols (5:4-21); and (2) that the local churches be built up as the lampstands for the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1 — 3) and consummate in the New Jerusalem as the full expression of God for eternity (Rev. 21 — 22). Our participation in the apostles’ enjoyment of the Triune God is our joining with them and with the Triune God for His divine purpose, which is common to God, the apostles, and all the believers.
1J 1:34 Father
Only the Father and the Son are mentioned here, not the Spirit, because the Spirit is implied in the fellowship. Actually, the fellowship of the eternal life is the imparting of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into the believers as their unique portion for them to enjoy today and for eternity.
1J 1:41 our
Some MSS read, your. The apostles’ joy is also the believers’ joy, because the believers are in the fellowship of the apostles.
1J 1:42a joy  -   2 John 12; John 15:11; 16:24; 17:13
Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life, and joy, that is, the enjoyment of the Triune God, is the issue of this fellowship, the issue of participation in the Father’s love and the Son’s grace through the Spirit. By such a spiritual enjoyment of the divine life, our joy in our Triune God can be made full.
1J 1:51 And
In addition to the three main things — life, fellowship, and joy — presented in the preceding verses, a further message, which the apostles heard from the Lord, is to announce to the believers that God is light.
1J 1:5a message  -   1 John 3:11
1J 1:52 God
In the preceding verses the Father and the Son are mentioned in plain words, and the Spirit is implied in the fellowship of the eternal life. Here God is mentioned for the first time in this Epistle, and He is mentioned as the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This God, as revealed in the light of the gospel, is light.
The message that John and the other early disciples heard was, undoubtedly, the word spoken by the Lord Jesus in John 8:12 and 9:5 — that He is the light. However, John said here that the message was that God is light. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is God, implying the essence of the Divine Trinity.
1J 1:53b light  -   1 John 2:8; John 1:4-5, 9; 3:19-21; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36; 1 Tim. 6:16; James 1:17
Expressions such as God is light, God is love (4:8, 16), and God is Spirit (John 4:24) are used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. They denote and describe the nature of God. In His nature, God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit and Spirit is life. Within this life are love and light. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines on us, it becomes truth. John’s Gospel reveals that the Lord Jesus brought grace and truth to us (John 1:14, 17) that we might have the divine life (John 3:14-16), whereas John’s Epistle unveils that the fellowship of the divine life brings us to the very source of grace and truth, which are the divine love and the divine light. John’s Epistle is the continuation of his Gospel. In John’s Gospel it is God in the Son coming to us as grace and truth that we may become His children (John 1:12-13); in John’s Epistle it is we, the children, in the fellowship of the Father’s life, going to the Father to participate in His love and light (see note 82 in ch. 4). The former was God’s coming out to the outer court to meet our need at the altar (Lev. 4:28-31); the latter is our entering into the Holy of Holies to contact Him at the Ark (Exo. 25:22). This is further and deeper in the experience of the divine life. After receiving the divine life by believing into the Son in John’s Gospel, we should go on to enjoy this life through the fellowship of this life in John’s Epistle. The entire Epistle discloses to us this one thing, that is, the enjoyment of the divine life through our abiding in its fellowship.
1J 1:54 darkness
As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works (3:8). Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). The divine light is the divine life in the Son operating in us. This light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5). When we follow this light, we shall by no means walk in darkness (John 8:12), which, according to the context, is the darkness of sin (vv. 7-10).
1J 1:61 have
To have fellowship with God is to have intimate and living contact with Him in the flow of the divine life according to the Spirit’s anointing in our spirit (2:27). This keeps us in the participation and enjoyment of the divine light and the divine love.
1J 1:62 with
According to the context, with Him denotes with God and equals with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (v. 3). Here again the Divine Trinity is implied.
1J 1:63 walk
Referring to our walk in general in our living; i.e., live, behave, and have our being. So in the next verse. See note 161 in Gal. 5. To walk in the darkness, that is, to walk habitually in the darkness, is to live, behave, and have one’s being in the nature of Satan’s evil works. According to 2:11, walking in the darkness equals practicing sin (3:4, 8).
1J 1:6a darkness  -   1 John 2:11; John 1:5; 12:35; Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:9
1J 1:64b lie  -   1 John 2:4; 4:20
Lying is of Satan; he is the father of liars (John 8:44 and note 3). The satanic darkness is versus the divine light, and the satanic lie is versus the divine truth. As the divine truth is the expression of the divine light, so the satanic lie is the expression of the satanic darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with God, who is light, and walk in the darkness, we lie in the expression of the satanic darkness and do not practice the truth in the expression of the divine light. This verse inoculates against the heretical teaching of the Antinomians, who taught that one is free from the obligation of the moral law and said that one can live in sin and at the same time have fellowship with God.
1J 1:65 practicing
This Greek verb denotes doing (things) habitually and continually by abiding (in the things); hence, it has the sense of practice. It is used also in 2:17, 29; 3:4 (twice), 7, 8, 9, 10, 22; 5:2; Rom. 1:32; and elsewhere. To practice the truth is to live the truth habitually, not merely to do it occasionally.
1J 1:66 truth
The Greek word means reality (the opposite of vanity), verity, veracity, genuineness, sincerity. It is John’s highly individual terminology, and it is one of the profound words in the New Testament, denoting all the realities of the divine economy as the content of the divine revelation, conveyed and disclosed by the holy Word as follows:
(1) God, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things, such as the divine life, the divine nature, the divine power, and the divine glory, for us to possess, that we may enjoy Him as grace, as revealed in John’s Gospel (John 1:1, 4, 14-17).
(2) Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9), as the reality of (a) God and man (John 1:18, 51; 1 Tim. 2:5); (b) all the types, figures, and shadows of the Old Testament (Col. 2:16-17; John 4:23, 24 and notes 4 and 5); and (c) all the divine and spiritual things, such as the divine life and resurrection (John 11:25; 14:6), the divine light (John 8:12; 9:5), the divine way (John 14:6), wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Hence, Christ is the reality (John 14:6; Eph. 4:21).
(3) The Spirit, who is Christ transfigured (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), as the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 15:26) and of the divine revelation (John 16:13-15). Hence, the Spirit is the reality (5:6).
(4) The Word of God as the divine revelation, which not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and Christ and of all the divine and spiritual things. Hence, the Word of God also is reality (John 17:17 and note 3).
(5) The contents of the faith (belief), which are the substantial elements of what we believe, as the reality of the full gospel (Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5); these are revealed throughout the New Testament (2 Cor. 4:2; 13:8; Gal. 5:7; 1 Tim. 1:1 and note 1, points 1 and 2; 2:4 and note 2; 2:7b; 3:15 and note 5; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim. 2:15, 18, 25; 3:7, 8; 4:4; Titus 1:1, 14; 2 Thes. 2:10, 12; Heb. 10:26; James 5:19; 1 Pet. 1:22; 2 Pet. 1:12).
(6) The reality concerning God, the universe, man, man’s relationship with God and with his fellow man, and man’s obligation to God, as revealed through creation and the Scriptures (Rom. 1:18-20; 2:2, 8, 20).
(7) The genuineness, truthfulness, sincerity, honesty, trustworthiness, and faithfulness of God as a divine virtue (Rom. 3:7; 15:8) and of man as a human virtue (Mark 12:14; 2 Cor. 11:10; Phil. 1:18; 1 John 3:18), and as an issue of the divine reality (John 4:23-24; 2 John 1a; 3 John 1).
(8) Things that are true or real, the true or real state of affairs (facts), reality, veracity, as the opposite of falsehood, deception, dissimulation, hypocrisy, and error (Mark 5:33; 12:32; Luke 4:25; John 16:7; Acts 4:27; 10:34; 26:25; Rom. 1:25; 9:1; 2 Cor. 6:7; 7:14; 12:6; Col. 1:6; 1 Tim. 2:7a).
Of the eight points listed above, the first five refer to the same reality in essence. God, Christ, and the Spirit — the Divine Trinity — are essentially one. Hence, these three, being the basic elements of the substance of the divine reality, are actually one reality. This one divine reality is the substance of the Word of God as the divine revelation. Hence, it becomes the revealed divine reality in the divine Word and makes the divine Word the reality. The divine Word conveys this one divine reality as the contents of the faith, and the contents of the faith are the substance of the gospel revealed in the entire New Testament as its reality, which is just the divine reality of the Divine Trinity. When this divine reality is partaken of and enjoyed by us, it becomes our genuineness, sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness as an excellent virtue in our behavior that enables us to express God, the God of reality, by whom we live; and we become persons living a life of truth, without any falsehood or hypocrisy, a life that corresponds with the truth revealed through creation and the Scripture.
The word truth is used in the New Testament more than one hundred times. Its denotation in each occurrence is determined by its context. For instance, in John 3:21, according to the context, it denotes uprightness (the opposite of evil — John 3:19-20), which is the reality manifested in a man who lives in God according to what He is and which corresponds with the divine light, which is God, as the source of the truth, manifested in Christ. In John 4:23-24, according to the context of that chapter and also according to the entire revelation of John’s Gospel, it denotes the divine reality becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity (the opposite of the hypocrisy of the immoral Samaritan worshipper — John 4:16-18) for the true worship of God. The divine reality is Christ, who is the reality (John 14:6), as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament for the worship of God (John 1:29; 3:14) and as the fountain of living water, the life-giving Spirit (John 4:7-15), partaken of and drunk by His believers to be the reality within them, which eventually becomes their genuineness and sincerity, in which they worship God with the worship that He seeks. In John 5:33 and 18:37, according to the entire revelation of the Gospel of John, truth denotes the divine reality embodied, revealed, and expressed in Christ as the Son of God. In John 8:32, 40, 44-46, according to the context of that chapter, it denotes the reality of God revealed in His word (John 8:47) and embodied in Christ, the Son of God (John 8:36), which sets us free from the bondage of sin (see note 321 in John 8).
Here in v. 6, truth denotes the revealed reality of God in its aspect of the divine light. It is the issue and realization of the divine light mentioned in v. 5. The divine light is the source in God; truth is the issue and realization of the divine light in us (see note 82 in ch. 4; cf. John 3:19-21). When we abide in the divine light, which we enjoy in the fellowship of the divine life, we practice the truth — what we have realized in the divine light. When we abide in the source, its issue becomes our practice.
1J 1:7a walk  -   1 John 2:6; 2 John 4, 6; 3 John 3, 4; Isa. 2:5
1J 1:71 is
We walk in the light, but God is in the light because He is light. “The light is the element in which God dwells: compare 1 Tim. 6:16.…this walking in the light, as He is in the light, is no mere imitation of God, but is an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the essential element of God’s eternal being: not imitation, but coincidence and identity of the very atmosphere of life” (Alford).
1J 1:72 have
When we walk and live in the light of God, we have the joint enjoyment of the Triune God and the joint participation in His divine purpose. The fellowship of the divine life brings us the divine light, and the divine light keeps us in the fellowship, that is, in the joint enjoyment of God and the joint participation in His purpose.
1J 1:73b blood  -   John 19:34; Matt. 26:28; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 1:5; 7:14
When we live in the divine light, we are under its enlightenment, and it exposes, according to God’s divine nature and through God’s nature in us, all our sins, trespasses, failures, and defects, which contradict His pure light, perfect love, absolute holiness, and excelling righteousness. At such a time we sense in our enlightened conscience the need of the cleansing of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus, and it cleanses us in our conscience from all sins that our fellowship with God and with one another may be maintained. Our relationship with God is unbreakable, yet our fellowship with Him can be interrupted. The former is of life, whereas the latter is based on our living, though it also is of life. One is unconditional; the other is conditional. Our fellowship, which is conditional, needs to be maintained by the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood.
In this section of the Word there is a cycle in our spiritual life, a cycle formed of four crucial things — the eternal life, the fellowship of the eternal life, the divine light, and the blood of Jesus the Son of God. Eternal life issues in its fellowship, the fellowship of eternal life brings in the divine light, and the divine light increases the need for the blood of Jesus the Son of God that we may have more eternal life. The more we have of eternal life, the more of its fellowship it brings to us. The more fellowship of the divine life we enjoy, the more divine light we receive. The more divine light we receive, the more we participate in the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Such a cycle brings us onward in the growth of the divine life until we reach the maturity of life.
1J 1:74 Jesus
The name Jesus denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of the redeeming blood, and the title His Son denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus His Son indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man shed for the redeeming of God’s fallen creatures, with the divine surety as its eternal efficacy, an efficacy that is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.
The title Jesus His Son is also used by John as an inoculation against the heresies concerning the Lord’s person. One of the heresies insisted on the divinity of the Lord by denying His humanity. The title Jesus as the name of a man inoculates against this heresy. Another heresy insisted on the humanity of the Lord by denying His divinity. The title His Son as a name of the Deity is an antidote to this heresy.
1J 1:75 cleanses
The tense of this verb in Greek is present and denotes continuous action, indicating that the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us all the time, continuously and constantly. Cleansing here refers to the instant cleansing of the Lord’s blood in our conscience. Before God, the redeeming blood of the Lord has cleansed us once for all eternally (Heb. 9:12, 14), and the efficacy of that cleansing lasts forever before God, so that that cleansing need not be repeated. However, in our conscience we need the instant application of the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood again and again whenever our conscience is enlightened by the divine light in our fellowship with God. This instant cleansing is typified by the purification with the water of impurity mixed with the ashes of the heifer (Num. 19:2-10).
1J 1:76 sin
The New Testament deals with the problem of sin by using both the word sin (singular) and the word sins (plural). Sin refers to the indwelling sin, which came through Adam into mankind from Satan (Rom. 5:12). It is dealt with in the second section of Romans, 5:12 — 8:13 (with the exception of 7:5, where sins is mentioned). Sins refers to the sinful deeds, the fruits of the indwelling sin, which are dealt with in the first section of Romans, 1:18 — 5:11. However, in this verse sin in the singular, used with the adjective every, does not denote the indwelling sin but every single sin we commit (v. 10) after we are regenerated; each such sin defiles our purged conscience and needs to be cleansed away by the blood of the Lord in our fellowship with God.
Our sin, the indwelling sin in our nature (Rom. 7:17), has been dealt with by Christ as our sin offering (Lev. 4; Isa. 53:10; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26). Our sins, our trespasses, have been dealt with by Christ as our trespass offering (Lev. 5; Isa. 53:11; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28). However, after our regeneration we still need to take Christ as our sin offering for the sin in our nature as indicated in v. 8, and as our trespass offering for the sins in our conduct as indicated in v. 9.
1J 1:81 do
I.e., do not have the indwelling sin (Rom. 7:17) within our nature. This was what the Gnostic heresy taught. The apostle was inoculating the believers against this false teaching. This section, 1:7 — 2:2, deals with the believers’ sinning after their regeneration. Such sinning interrupts their fellowship with God. If after regeneration the believers do not have sin in their nature, how could they sin in their conduct? Even if they sin only occasionally, not habitually, their sinning is adequate proof that they still have sin working within them. Otherwise, there would be no interruption in their fellowship with God. The apostle’s teaching here also condemns today’s teaching of perfectionism, which says that a state of freedom from sin is attainable or has been attained in this earthly life; and it annuls today’s erroneous teaching of the eradication of the sinful nature, which, misinterpreting the word in 3:9 and 5:18, says that regenerated persons cannot sin because their sinful nature has been totally eradicated.
1J 1:82 we
Or, we are leading ourselves astray. To say that because we have been regenerated we do not have sin is to deceive ourselves and to deny the actual fact of our own experience; thus we lead ourselves astray.
1J 1:83a truth  -   1 John 2:4; John 8:44
Truth denotes the revealed reality of God, the real facts, conveyed in the gospel, such as the reality of God and all the divine things, which are all Christ (John 1:14, 17; 14:6); the reality of Christ and all the spiritual things, which are all the Spirit (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6); and the reality of man’s condition (John 16:8-11). See note 66. Here, it denotes especially the reality of our sinful condition after regeneration, exposed under the enlightening of the divine light in our fellowship with God. If we say that we do not have sin after being regenerated, such a reality, the truth, does not remain in us; that is, we deny the true condition after our regeneration.
1J 1:91a confess  -   Psa. 32:5; Prov. 28:13
This denotes the confessing of our sins, our failures, after regeneration, not the confessing of our sins before regeneration.
1J 1:92b faithful  -   Heb. 10:23; Deut. 7:9; Psa. 143:1
God is faithful in His word (v. 10) and righteous in the blood of Jesus His Son (v. 7). His word is the word of the truth of His gospel (Eph. 1:13), which tells us that He will forgive us our sins because of Christ (Acts 10:43); and the blood of Christ has fulfilled His righteous requirements that He might forgive us our sins (Matt. 26:28). If we confess our sins, He, according to His word and based on the redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgives us because He must be faithful in His word and righteous in the blood of Jesus; otherwise, He would be unfaithful and unrighteous. Our confession is needed for His forgiveness. Such forgiveness of God, which is for the restoration of our fellowship with Him, is conditional; it depends on our confession.
1J 1:9c righteous  -   1 John 2:29; Rom. 1:17; 3:21-22, 25-26; Psa. 92:15
1J 1:9d forgive  -   Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:22; cf. 1 John 2:12
1J 1:9e sins  -   1 John 2:2; 1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 1:4; Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet. 2:24
1J 1:93f cleanse  -   Psa. 51:2
To forgive us is to release us from the offense of our sins, whereas to cleanse us is to wash us from the stain of our unrighteousness.
1J 1:94g unrighteousness  -   1 John 5:17; Rom. 6:13; Heb. 8:12
Unrighteousness and sins are synonyms. All unrighteousness is sin (5:17). Both refer to our wrongdoings. Sins indicates the offense of our wrongdoings against God and men; unrighteousness indicates the stain of our wrongdoings, which causes us not to be right with either God or men. The offense needs God’s forgiveness, and the stain requires His cleansing. Both God’s forgiveness and God’s cleansing are needed for the restoration of our broken fellowship with God, that we may enjoy Him in uninterrupted fellowship with a good conscience, a conscience void of offense (1 Tim. 1:5; Acts 24:16).
1J 1:101 have
Verse 8 proves that after our regeneration we still have sin inwardly. Verse 10 proves further that we even still sin outwardly, though not habitually. We still sin outwardly in our conduct because we still have sin inwardly in our nature. Both confirm our sinful condition after regeneration. In speaking of such a condition, the apostle used the pronoun we, not excluding himself.
1J 1:10a not  -   cf. 1 John 2:1
1J 1:10b liar  -   1 John 5:10; cf. Num. 23:19; Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2; 1 John 1:6; 2:4; 4:20
1J 1:102c word  -   John 5:38; 8:37; cf. 1 John 2:14; Col. 3:16
The word of God’s revelation, which is the word of truth (Eph. 1:13; John 17:17) and which conveys the contents of God’s New Testament economy. It is synonymous with truth in v. 8. In this word God exposes our true condition, which is sinful both before and after regeneration. If we say that after regeneration we have not sinned, we make God a liar and deny the word of His revelation.
1 John Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
1J 2:11 little
The Greek word for little children was often used by older persons in addressing younger ones. “It is a term of parental affection. It applies to Christians irrespective of growth. Used in vv. 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21; John 13:33; Gal. 4:19” (Darby). The aged apostle considered all the recipients of his Epistle his dear little children in the Lord. In vv. 13-27 he classified them into three groups: young children, young men, and fathers. Verses 1-12 and 28-29 are addressed to all the recipients in general, and vv. 13-27 to the three groups respectively, according to their growth in the divine life.
1J 2:12 these
The things mentioned in 1:5-10 regarding the committing of sin by the children of God, the regenerated believers, who have the divine life and participate in its fellowship (1:1-4).
1J 2:13 may
This word and if anyone sins in the succeeding sentence indicate that the regenerated believers can still sin. Though they possess the divine life, it is still possible for them to sin if they do not live by the divine life and abide in its fellowship.
1J 2:14 sins
Aorist subjunctive, denoting a single act, not habitual action.
1J 2:15a Advocate  -   cf. 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8:6; 9:15
The Greek word refers to one who is called to another’s side to aid him; hence, a helper. It refers also to one who offers legal aid or one who intercedes on behalf of someone else; hence, an advocate, counsel, or intercessor. The word carries the sense of consoling and consolation; hence, a consoler, a comforter. It is used in the Gospel of John (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) for the Spirit of reality as our Comforter within us, the One who takes care of our case or our affairs (see note 161 in John 14). It is used here in reference to the Lord Jesus as our Advocate with the Father. When we sin, He, based on the propitiation that He accomplished, takes care of our case by interceding (Rom. 8:34) and pleading for us.
1J 2:16 with
See note 24 in ch. 1. The Lord Jesus as our Advocate is living in communion with the Father.
1J 2:17 Father
Here this divine title indicates that our case, which the Lord Jesus as our Advocate undertakes for us, is a family affair, a case between children and the Father. Through regeneration we have been born children of God. After regeneration, if we sin, it is a matter of children sinning against their Father. Our Advocate, who is the sacrifice for our propitiation, undertakes for us to restore our interrupted fellowship with the Father that we may abide in the enjoyment of the divine fellowship.
1J 2:18b Righteous  -   1 John 3:7; Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14; 1 Pet. 3:18
Our Lord Jesus is the only righteous man among all men. His righteous act (Rom. 5:18) on the cross fulfilled the righteous requirement of the righteous God for us and all sinners. Only He is qualified to be our Advocate, to care for us in our sinning condition and restore us to a righteous condition that the relationship between us and our Father, who is righteous, may be appeased.
1J 2:21a propitiation  -   1 John 4:10; Heb. 2:17; cf. Heb. 8:12
I.e., the sacrifice for propitiation. See note 252 in Rom. 3. The Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 9:28), not only for our redemption but also for the satisfying of God’s demand, thus appeasing the relationship between us and God. Hence, He is the sacrifice for our propitiation before God.
1J 2:2b sins  -   1 John 1:9
1J 2:22 whole
The Lord Jesus is a sacrifice for propitiation, not only for our sins but also for those of the whole world. However, this propitiation is conditioned on man’s receiving the Lord by believing in Him. The unbelievers do not experience its efficacy, not because it has any fault but because they do not believe.
1J 2:2c world  -   John 1:29; 3:16
1J 2:31 And
Verses 1-2 are a conclusion to the word in 1:5-10 regarding our confessing and God’s forgiving of our sins, which interrupt our fellowship with Him. That is the first condition of — the first requirement for — our enjoyment of the fellowship of the divine life. Verses 3-11 deal with the second condition of — the second requirement for — our fellowship with God: that we keep the Lord’s word and love the brothers.
1J 2:32 know
Or, perceive; not doctrinally but experientially by keeping His commandments.
1J 2:33a know  -   1 John 2:13; John 17:3; Heb. 8:11; Phil. 3:8, 10; cf. Matt. 11:27
Lit., have come to know Him; denoting that we have begun to know Him and that we continue to know Him until the present time. This refers to our experiential knowledge of God in our daily walk and is related to our intimate fellowship with Him.
1J 2:3b keep  -   1 John 3:22, 24; 5:3; John 14:15, 21, 23; 15:10
1J 2:34 commandments
See note 341 in John 13. So throughout the book.
1J 2:41a liar  -   1 John 1:6; 4:20
See note 64 in ch. 1.
1J 2:42b truth  -   1 John 1:8
Denoting the revealed reality of God as conveyed in the divine word (see note 66 in ch. 1), which reveals that our keeping the Lord’s commandments should follow our knowing Him. If we say that we have known the Lord, yet we are not keeping His commandments, the truth (reality) is not in us, and we become liars.
1J 2:5a keeps  -   John 14:23
1J 2:51b word  -   Col. 3:16; cf. 1 John 1:10
Word is synonymous with commandments in vv. 3-4. The word here comprises all the commandments. Commandments emphasizes injunction; word implies spirit and life as a supply to us (John 6:63).
1J 2:52c love  -   1 John 2:15; 3:17; 4:7
The Greek word denotes the love that is higher and nobler than human affection (see notes 71 and 72 in 2 Pet. 1). Only this word with its verb forms is used in this Epistle for love. Here the love of God denotes our love toward God, which is generated by His love within us. The love of God, the word of the Lord, and God Himself are all related to one another. If we keep the Lord’s word, God’s love has been perfected in us. It is altogether a matter of the divine life, which is God Himself. God’s love is His inward essence, and the Lord’s word supplies us with this divine essence, with which we love the brothers. Hence, when we keep the divine word, the divine love is perfected through the divine life, by which we live.
1J 2:53d perfected  -   1 John 4:12, 17, 18
See note 124 in ch. 4.
1J 2:54e in  -   John 14:20; 1 Cor. 1:30; cf. 1 John 3:24; 4:13
I.e., in the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 1). This is a strong expression, stressing that we are one with the Lord. Since we are one with the Lord, who is God, the loving essence of God becomes ours. It is supplied to us by the Lord’s word of life for our walk of love that we may enjoy the fellowship of the divine life and abide in the divine light (v. 10).
1J 2:61a abides  -   1 John 2:24, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 4:13, 15, 16; John 6:56; 15:4, 5, 7; cf. 1 John 2:10; 3:14; 2 John 9
To be in Christ is the beginning of the Christian life. Our being put in Christ was God’s doing once for all (1 Cor. 1:30). To abide in Christ is the continuation of the Christian life. This is our responsibility in our daily walk, a walk that is a copy of Christ’s walk on earth. See note 278.
1J 2:6b walk  -   1 John 1:7
1J 2:6c as  -   John 13:15
1J 2:62d He  -   1 John 3:3, 5, 7; 4:17
Lit., that One; referring to Jesus Christ.
1J 2:7a new  -   John 13:34; 2 John 5
1J 2:71 old
The commandment given by the Lord in John 13:34, which is the word the believers heard and had from the beginning.
1J 2:72 from
This phrase is in the relative sense. See note 12, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1J 2:7b heard  -   1 John 2:24; 3:11
1J 2:81 new
The commandment regarding brotherly love is both old and new: old, because the believers have had it from the beginning of their Christian life; new, because in their Christian walk it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again.
1J 2:82 which
This relative pronoun, in the neuter gender, does not refer to commandment, which is in the feminine gender. It should refer to the fact that the old commandment regarding brotherly love is new in the believers’ Christian walk. That the old commandment is new is true in the Lord, since He not only gave it to His believers but also renews it in their daily walk continually. It is true also in the believers, since they not only have received it once for all but also are enlightened and refreshed by it repeatedly.
1J 2:83a darkness  -   1 John 1:6; 1 Thes. 5:4, 5
The passing away of the darkness is its vanishing in the shining of the true light. The true light is the light of the Lord’s commandment. Because this light shines, the commandment regarding brotherly love dawns in the darkness, making the old commandment always new and fresh in our entire Christian living.
1J 2:8b light  -   1 John 1:5
1J 2:9a in  -   1 John 1:7
1J 2:91 light
Light is the expression of God’s essence and the source of truth (see note 53 in ch. 1). The divine love is related to the divine light. It is versus the satanic hatred, which is related to the satanic darkness. Hating a brother in the Lord is a sign of being in darkness (v. 11). Likewise, loving a brother is a sign of abiding in the light (v. 10). Love causes us to abide in the light, and light causes us to love the brothers.
1J 2:9b hates  -   1 John 2:11; 3:15; 4:20
1J 2:10a loves  -   1 John 3:10, 11, 14, 18, 23; 4:7, 11, 20, 21; 1 Pet. 1:22; 2 Pet. 1:7
1J 2:101b abides  -   cf. 1 John 2:6
Abiding in the light depends on abiding in the Lord (v. 6), from which issues love toward the brothers.
1J 2:102 light
See note 91.
1J 2:10c stumbling  -   John 11:10; Prov. 4:19
1J 2:111a hates  -   1 John 2:9
See note 91.
1J 2:11b darkness  -   1 John 1:6; John 12:35
1J 2:112 going
The Greek word means to go away.
1J 2:113c blinded  -   John 12:40; 2 Pet. 1:9
In John 12:35, 40 darkness is the issue of blinding; here it is vice versa.
1J 2:121 little
See note 11.
1J 2:122a forgiven  -   cf. 1 John 1:9
The forgiveness of sins is the basic element of God’s gospel (Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31; 10:43; 13:38). Through this, the believers who receive Christ are regenerated and become the children of God (John 1:12-13).
1J 2:12b name  -   Acts 4:12; 10:43; Psa. 25:11
1J 2:131 fathers
The believers who are mature in the divine life. They are classified by the apostle as the first group among his recipients.
1J 2:132a know  -   1 John 2:3
The Greek verb is in the perfect tense, denoting that the state produced continues: you have known; therefore, you know all the time. Such living knowledge is the fruit of the experience of life.
1J 2:133 Him
The eternal, preexisting Christ, who is the Word of life from the beginning (1:1; John 1:1). Knowing in the way of life such an eternal Christ is the characteristic of the mature and experienced fathers, who were not and could not be deceived by the heresies that said that Christ was not eternal as the Father is. Knowing Christ as the eternal One who is from the beginning will cause us to mature and not be deceived by the heresies of modernism.
1J 2:134 from
In the absolute sense. See note 12, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1J 2:135 young
The believers who are grown up in the divine life. They are classified by the apostle as the second group of his recipients.
1J 2:136b overcome  -   1 John 4:4; 5:4-5; Rev. 12:11
Overcoming the evil one is the characteristic of the grown-up and strong young believers, who are nourished, strengthened, and sustained by the word of God, which is abiding and operating in them against the devil, the world, and the lust of the world (vv. 14b-17).
1J 2:137c evil  -   1 John 3:12; 5:18; Matt. 6:13; John 17:15
Satan, the devil. See note 194 in ch. 5.
1J 2:138 write
The Greek word denotes have written; in other MSS, write. Although have written is more authentic according to a more recent discovery of MSS, write, which is used by the KJV and J. N. Darby’s New Translation, is more logical according to the context. The apostle in this verse addressed his writing to each of the three classes of his recipients, always in the present tense. In the succeeding verses, 14-27, he addressed each of the three classes again, but always in the aorist tense (v. 14, to the fathers and young men; v. 26, cf. v. 18, to the young children).
1J 2:139 young
The believers who have just received the divine life. They are classified by the apostle as the third group of recipients.
1J 2:13d know  -   John 14:7; cf. Matt. 11:27
1J 2:1310 Father
The Father is the source of the divine life; of Him the believers have been reborn (John 1:12-13). To know the Father is the initial issue of being regenerated (John 17:3, 6). Hence, such an experiential knowledge in the youth of the divine life is the basic qualification of the young children, who are the youngest in John’s classification.
1J 2:141 written
Although the Greek here is in the aorist tense, it does not indicate that any previous Epistle was written by the apostle to these same recipients. It means that he was repeating what he wrote to them in the preceding verse to strengthen and develop what he said. Hence, it indicates have written.
1J 2:142 you
This word, ending with abides in you, strengthens the word you have overcome, which was written in the previous verse to the young men.
1J 2:14a strong  -   Eph. 6:10; 2 Tim. 2:1
1J 2:14b abides  -   Col. 3:16; cf. 1 John 3:9
1J 2:143 evil
See note 194 in ch. 5.
1J 2:151 Do
Verses 15-17 are the development of the word written in v. 13 to the young men.
1J 2:152a world  -   John 17:16; Gal. 6:14; Rom. 12:2
The Greek word is used for different things, as follows: In Matt. 25:34; John 17:5; Acts 17:24; Eph. 1:4; and Rev. 13:8, it denotes the material universe as a system created by God. In John 1:29; 3:16; and Rom. 5:12, it denotes the fallen human race, corrupted and usurped by Satan to be the components of his evil world system. In 1 Pet. 3:3 it denotes adorning, ornaments. Here, as in John 15:19; 17:14; and James 4:4, it denotes an order, a set form, an orderly arrangement, hence, an ordered system (set up by Satan, the adversary of God), not the earth. God created man to live on the earth for the fulfillment of His purpose. But His enemy, Satan, in order to usurp the God-created man, formed an anti-God world system on this earth by systematizing men with religion, culture, education, industry, commerce, entertainment, etc., through men’s fallen nature, in their lusts, pleasures, and pursuits, and even in their indulgence in necessities for their living, such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation (see note 312 in John 12). The whole of such a satanic system lies in the evil one (5:19). Not loving such a world is the ground for overcoming the evil one. Loving it just a little gives the evil one the ground to defeat and occupy us.
1J 2:15b loves  -   2 Tim. 4:10
1J 2:15c world  -   James 4:4
1J 2:153d love  -   1 John 2:5
Lit., the love of the Father; referring to the Father’s love within us, which becomes our love toward Him. To love Him with such a love is to love Him with the love with which He has loved us and which is enjoyed by us.
1J 2:154 Father
The world is against the Father, the devil is against the Son (3:8), and the flesh is against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17).
1J 2:161a lust  -   Rom. 13:14; 1 Pet. 2:11; 2 Pet. 1:4; Mark 4:19
The lust of the flesh is the passionate desire of the body; the lust of the eyes is the passionate desire of the soul through the eyes; and the vainglory of life is the empty pride, boast, and display of material things, of the present life. These are the components of the world.
1J 2:16b eyes  -   Prov. 27:20; Eccl. 4:8; 5:11
1J 2:162c life  -   Luke 21:34; 1 Cor. 6:3
The Greek word denotes physical life, referring here to the present life; it differs from the word for life in 1:1-2, which refers to the divine life.
1J 2:17a passing  -   1 Cor. 7:31; James 1:10
1J 2:171 lust
As the world is against God the Father, so the things in the world (v. 15), which constitute its lust, are against the will of God. The lust of the world, along with him who loves the world, is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever.
1J 2:172b does  -   Matt. 7:21
See note 65 in ch. 1. I.e., does the will of God habitually and continually, not just occasionally.
1J 2:17c will  -   Rom. 12:2
See note 171.
1J 2:181 Young
Referring to the young children in v. 13 as the third class of recipients. Verses 18-27, stressing the knowledge in life (vv. 20-21), strengthen the word “because you know the Father,” spoken to this class in v. 13.
1J 2:18a last  -   2 Tim. 3:1; Jude 18
1J 2:182b antichrist  -   1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7; cf. 2 Thes. 2:7
An antichrist differs from a false Christ (Matt. 24:5, 24). A false Christ is one who pretends, deceivingly, to be the Christ, whereas an antichrist is one who denies Christ’s deity, denying that Jesus is the Christ, that is, denying the Father and the Son by denying that Jesus is the Son of God (v. 22 and note 2; v. 23), not confessing that He has come in the flesh through the divine conception of the Holy Spirit (4:2-3).
1J 2:183 many
At the apostle’s time many heretics, such as the Gnostics, the Cerinthians, and the Docetists, taught heresies concerning the person of Christ, that is, concerning His divinity and humanity.
1J 2:18c come  -   1 John 4:1; 2 John 7; cf. Matt. 24:5, 24
1J 2:19a went  -   Acts 20:29, 30; cf. Deut. 13:13
1J 2:191 not
These antichrists were not born of God and were not in the fellowship of the apostles and the believers (1:3; Acts 2:42); hence, they were not of the church, that is, of the Body of Christ.
1J 2:192 remained
To remain with the apostles and the believers is to remain in the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
1J 2:19b manifested  -   cf. 1 Cor. 11:19
1J 2:201a anointing  -   2 Cor. 1:21; Heb. 1:9
The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit, who is fully typified by the anointing oil, the compound ointment, in Exo. 30:23-25 (see Life-study of Exodus, Messages 157-166, and note 194 in Phil. 1). This all-inclusive life-giving Spirit from the Holy One entered into us at the time of our regeneration and abides in us forever (v. 27); by Him the young children know the Father (v. 13) and know the truth (v. 21).
1J 2:20b Holy  -   Luke 1:35; Mark 1:24; Acts 2:27; 3:14
1J 2:202c all  -   John 14:26; 16:13
Some MSS read, you know all things.
1J 2:20d know  -   1 Cor. 2:12
1J 2:211 truth
Denoting the reality of the Divine Trinity, especially of the person of Christ (vv. 22-25), as taught by the divine anointing (vv. 20, 27). See note 66 in ch. 1.
1J 2:212 know
This knowing is by the anointing of the indwelling and life-giving Spirit. It is a knowledge in the divine life under the divine light, an inner knowledge that originates with our regenerated spirit, indwelt by the compound Spirit; it is not mental knowledge produced by outward stimulation.
1J 2:21a lie  -   1 John 2:27; 1:6
1J 2:22a liar  -   1 John 2:4; 4:20
1J 2:221b denies  -   1 John 4:3; 2 John 7
This is the heresy of Cerinthus, a first century Syrian heresiarch of Jewish descent educated at Alexandria. His heresy was a mixture of Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity. He separated the maker (creator) of the world from God and represented that maker as a subordinate power. He taught adoptionism, saying that Jesus was merely God’s adopted Son and had become the Son of God by being exalted to a status that was not His by birth; thus he denied that Jesus had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. In his heresy he separated the earthly man Jesus, regarded as the son of Joseph and Mary, from the heavenly Christ and taught that after Jesus was baptized, Christ as a dove descended upon Him, and then He announced the unknown Father and did miracles. Further, he taught that at the end of His ministry Christ departed from Jesus, and Jesus suffered death on the cross and rose from the dead, while Christ remained separate as a spiritual being, and, finally, that Christ will rejoin the man Jesus at the coming of the Messianic kingdom of glory.
1J 2:222c Jesus  -   1 John 5:1; 4:15
To confess that Jesus is the Christ is to confess that He is the Son of God (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31). Hence, to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny the Father and the Son. Whoever so denies the divine person of Christ is the antichrist.
The fact that denying that Jesus is the Christ equals denying the Father and the Son implies the thought that Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son are all one. They all are the elements, the ingredients, of the all-inclusive compound indwelling Spirit, who is now anointing the believers all the time (vv. 20, 27). In this anointing, Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son are all anointed into our inner being.
1J 2:22d antichrist  -   1 John 2:18
1J 2:231 denies
Since the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30; Isa. 9:6), to deny the Son is to be without the Father, and to confess the Son is to have the Father. Here to deny the Son is to deny the deity of Christ, to deny that the man Jesus is God. This is a great heresy.
1J 2:23a Father  -   John 15:23
1J 2:23b Son  -   2 John 9; cf. John 8:19; 14:7
1J 2:241 that
The Word of life, i.e., the Word of the eternal life that the believers heard from the beginning (1:1-2). Not to deny but to confess that the man Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (v. 22), is to let the Word of the eternal life abide in us. In so doing we abide in the Son and in the Father and are not led astray by the heretical teachings concerning Christ’s person (v. 26). This indicates that the Son and the Father are the eternal life for our regeneration and enjoyment. In this eternal life we have fellowship with God and with one another (1:2-3, 6-7) and have our being in our daily walk (v. 6; 1:7).
1J 2:242 from
In the relative sense (see note 12, par. 2, in ch. 1).
1J 2:24a heard  -   1 John 2:7; 3:11
1J 2:24b abides  -   1 John 2:27; 2 John 2
1J 2:243c abide  -   1 John 2:6
See note 278.
1J 2:24d Son  -   John 14:23
1J 2:251 He
The singular pronoun He, referring to both the Son and the Father in the preceding verse, indicates that the Son and the Father are one. As far as our experience of the divine life is concerned, the Son, the Father, Jesus, and Christ are all one. It is not that only the Son, and not the Father, is the eternal life to us. It is that Jesus, being the Christ as the Son and the Father, is the eternal, divine life to us for our portion.
1J 2:252 promised
In the Gospel of John, such as in 3:15; 4:14; 6:40, 47; 10:10; 11:25; and 17:2-3.
1J 2:253a eternal  -   1 John 1:2
According to the context of vv. 22-25, the eternal life is just Jesus, Christ, the Son, and the Father; all these are a composition of the eternal life. Hence, the eternal life also is an element of the all-inclusive, compound indwelling Spirit, who moves within us.
1J 2:261 concerning
This indicates that this section of the Word was written to inoculate the believers with the truth of the Divine Trinity against the heresies concerning Christ’s person.
1J 2:262a lead  -   1 John 3:7
Or, deceive you. To lead the believers astray is to distract them from the truth concerning Christ’s deity and humanity by means of heretical teachings concerning the mysteries of what Christ is.
1J 2:271 anointing
See note 201.
1J 2:272 Him
See note 251.
1J 2:273 abides
This is the indwelling of the all-inclusive, compound life-giving Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 11).
1J 2:274 no
Concerning the indwelling of the Divine Trinity (John 14:17, 23), we do not need anyone to teach us; by the anointing of the all-inclusive, compound Spirit, who is the composition of the Divine Trinity, we know and enjoy the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as our life and life supply.
1J 2:275a teaches  -   Heb. 8:11; John 6:45; 1 Thes. 4:9
It is not an outward teaching by words but an inward teaching by anointing, through our inner spiritual consciousness. This teaching by anointing adds the divine elements of the Trinity, which are the elements of the anointing compound Spirit, into our inner being. It is like the repeated painting of some article: the paint not only indicates the color, but also by coat upon coat being added, the elements of the paint are added to the thing painted. It is in this way that the Triune God is transfused, infused, and added into all the inward parts of our being that our inner man may grow in the divine life with the divine elements.
1J 2:276 all
According to the context, all things refers to all things concerning the person of Christ, which are related to the Divine Trinity. The teaching of the anointing concerning these things keeps us that we may abide in Him (the Divine Trinity), that is, in the Son and in the Father (v. 24).
1J 2:277 true
The anointing within us of the compound Spirit as the composition of the Triune God, who is true (5:20), is a reality, not a falsehood. It can be proven by our actual and practical experience in our Christian life.
1J 2:27b lie  -   1 John 2:21
1J 2:278 abide
The Greek word means to stay (in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy); hence, to abide, remain, and dwell. To abide in Him is to abide in the Son and in the Father (v. 24). This is to remain and dwell in the Lord (John 15:4-5). It is also to abide in the fellowship of the divine life and to walk in the divine light (1:2-3, 6-7), i.e., abide in the divine light (v. 10). We should practice this abiding according to the teaching of the all-inclusive anointing, that our fellowship with God (1:3, 6) may be maintained.
1J 2:281 little
See note 11. The word that begins in v. 13, written to the three different classes of recipients, ends in v. 27. Verse 28 turns back to all the recipients. Hence, the address is again to the little children, as in vv. 1 and 12.
1J 2:282 abide
The word addressed to the three groups of recipients in vv. 13-27 concludes in the charge to abide in Him as the anointing has taught. In this section, 2:28 — 3:24, the apostle continued to describe the life that abides in the Lord. The section begins (v. 28), continues (3:6), and ends (3:24) with abide(s) in Him.
1J 2:283 He
Here the pronoun He refers definitely to Christ the Son, who is coming. This, with the preceding clause abide in Him, which is a repetition of the clause in the preceding verse involving the Trinity, indicates that the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, inseparable from the Father or the Spirit.
1J 2:28a manifested  -   1 John 3:2; Col. 3:4
1J 2:28b boldness  -   1 John 3:21; 4:17; 5:14
1J 2:284 put
This indicates that some believers, those who do not abide in the Lord (i.e., remain in the fellowship of the divine life according to pure faith in Christ’s person) but are led astray by the heretical teachings concerning Christ (v. 26), will be punished by being put to shame from Him, from His glorious parousia.
1J 2:28c shame  -   Mark 8:38
1J 2:285 from
See Matt. 7:23, note 511 in Matt. 24, and Matt. 22:13 and note 2.
1J 2:286 at
Lit., in His presence (parousia).
1J 2:28d coming  -   1 Thes. 2:19; 3:13
1J 2:291 know
The Greek word denotes perception with a conscious knowledge, a deeper inward seeing. This is for knowing the Lord.
1J 2:292 He
Here He denotes the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — all-inclusively, because it refers to He and Him in the preceding verse, which denote the coming Son; it also refers to Him in this verse, denoting the Father, who has begotten us. This indicates strongly that the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30).
1J 2:293a righteous  -   1 John 1:9
This refers to the righteous God in 1:9 and Jesus Christ the Righteous in v. 1 of this chapter. In this word to all the recipients, beginning from v. 28, the apostle turned his emphasis from the fellowship of the divine life (1:3 — 2:11) and the anointing of the Divine Trinity (vv. 12-27) to the righteousness of God. The fellowship of the divine life and the anointing of the Divine Trinity should have an issue, that is, the expression of the righteous God.
1J 2:294 you
Or, know that…(imperative).
1J 2:295 know
The Greek word denotes outward, objective knowledge (see notes 551 in John 8, 172 in John 21, and 111 in Heb. 8). This is for knowing man.
1J 2:296b practices  -   1 John 3:7
See note 65 in ch. 1. This is not to do righteousness occasionally and purposely as some particular act but to practice righteousness habitually and unintentionally as a common daily living. It is the same in 3:7. This is a spontaneous living that issues from the divine life within us, with which we have been begotten of the righteous God. Hence, it is a living expression of God, who is righteous in all His deeds and acts. It is not just an outward behavior but the manifestation of the inward life; not just an act of purpose but the flow of life from within the divine nature, of which we partake. This is the first condition of the life that abides in the Lord. It is all due to the divine birth, which is indicated by the word has been begotten of Him and the title children of God in the succeeding verse (3:1).
1J 2:29c righteousness  -   Phil. 4:8
1J 2:297 begotten
John’s writings on the mysteries of the eternal divine life stress very much the divine birth (3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; John 1:12-13), which is our regeneration (John 3:3, 5). It is the greatest wonder in the entire universe that human beings could be begotten of God and sinners could be made children of God! Through such an amazing divine birth we have received the divine life, which is the eternal life (1:2), as the divine seed sown into our being (3:9). Out of this seed all the riches of the divine life grow from within us. It is by this that we abide in the Triune God and live out the divine life in our human living, i.e., live out the life that does not practice sin (3:9) but practices righteousness (2:29), loves the brothers (5:1), overcomes the world (5:4), and is not touched by the evil one (5:18).
1 John Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
1J 3:11 Behold
The passage from 2:28 — 3:3 is a single paragraph on the righteous living of God’s children.
1J 3:12a love  -   1 John 4:9-10; John 3:16
See note 52 in ch. 2.
1J 3:13 Father
Of the Triune God implied in the preceding verse (see 2:29 and note 2), here the Father is mentioned particularly. He is the source of the divine life, the One of whom we have been born with this life. The love of God was manifested by His sending of His Son to die for us (4:9; John 3:16) in order that we might have His life and thus become His children (John 1:12-13). God’s sending of His Son was that He might beget us. Hence, the love of God is a begetting love, particularly in the Father.
1J 3:14b children  -   1 John 3:10; John 1:12; Rom. 8:16
This word corresponds with begotten of Him in the preceding verse. We have been begotten of the Father, the source of life, to be the children of God — God being the Owner of the children. We partake of the Father’s life to express the Triune God.
1J 3:15 Because
Or, on this account, for this reason. Because we are the children of God by a mysterious birth with the divine life, the world does not know us.
1J 3:16 know
See note 295 in ch. 2.
1J 3:17 because
The world is ignorant of our being regenerated by God; it does not know us, because it did not know God Himself. It was ignorant of God, so it is also ignorant of our divine birth.
1J 3:1c know  -   John 16:3; 17:25
1J 3:21 it
Since we are the children of God, we will be like Him in the maturity of life when He is manifested. To be like Him is “what we will be.” This has not yet been manifested. This indicates that the children of God have a great future with a more splendid blessing: we will not only have the divine nature but will also bear the divine likeness. To partake of the divine nature is already a great blessing and enjoyment, yet to be like God, bearing His likeness, will be a greater blessing and enjoyment.
1J 3:22 know
See note 291 in ch. 2.
1J 3:23 He
He refers to God in the previous sentence and denotes Christ, who is to be manifested. This not only indicates that Christ is God but also implies the Divine Trinity. When Christ is manifested, the Triune God will be manifested; when we see Him, we will see the Triune God; and when we are like Him, we will be like the Triune God.
1J 3:2a manifested  -   1 John 2:28; cf. 1 John 3:5, 8
1J 3:2b like  -   Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 3:21
1J 3:24c see  -   cf. John 17:24; 1 Cor. 13:12
By seeing Him we will reflect His likeness (2 Cor. 3:18), which will cause us to be as He is.
1J 3:31 this
The hope of being like the Lord, of bearing the likeness of the Triune God.
1J 3:3a hope  -   Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:23-25; 1 Pet. 1:3
1J 3:32b purifies  -   2 Cor. 7:1; James 4:8; Isa. 1:16
According to the context of this section, 2:28 — 3:24, to purify ourselves is to practice righteousness (v. 7; 2:29), to live a righteous life that is the expression of the righteous God (1:9), the righteous One (2:1). This is to be pure without any stain of unrighteousness, even as He is perfectly pure. This also describes the life that abides in the Lord.
1J 3:33c He  -   1 John 3:5, 7; 2:6; 4:17
Lit., that One; referring to Jesus Christ. So in vv. 5 (first time) and 7.
1J 3:41a practices  -   1 John 3:8-9
See note 65 in ch. 1. To practice sin is not merely to commit sin in occasional acts but to live in sin (Rom. 6:2), to live a life that is not under the principle of God’s ruling over man.
1J 3:42 lawlessness
I.e., having no law, being without law. This does not denote being without the Mosaic law (cf. Rom. 5:13), because sin was already in the world before the Mosaic law was given. To be without law here denotes being without, or not under, the principle of God’s ruling over man. To practice lawlessness is to live a life outside of and not under the principle of God’s ruling over man. Hence, lawlessness is sin, or, reciprocally, sin is lawlessness.
1J 3:4b sin  -   1 John 5:17
1J 3:5a manifested  -   1 John 1:2; Heb. 9:26; cf. 1 John 3:2
1J 3:51 take
The same Greek word as in John 1:29. There Christ as the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, which came into the world through Adam (Rom. 5:12). Here He takes away sins, which are committed by all men. John 1 deals with the totality of sin, including the sinful nature and sinful deeds. This chapter deals only with the fruits of sin, that is, the sins committed in man’s daily life. Both are taken away by Christ.
1J 3:5b sins  -   Isa. 53:5, 6, 11, 12; 1 Pet. 2:24
1J 3:52 Him
In that One who takes away both sin (the sinful nature) and sins (sinful deeds), sin is not. Hence, He did not know sin (2 Cor. 5:21), He committed no sin (1 Pet. 2:22), and He was without sin (Heb. 4:15). This qualified Him to take away both the indwelling sin and the sins committed in man’s daily life.
1J 3:61a abides  -   1 John 2:6
I.e., remains in the fellowship of the divine life and walks in the divine light (1:2-3, 6-7). See note 278 in ch. 2.
1J 3:62b does  -   1 John 5:18
I.e., does not sin habitually. This too is a condition of the life that abides in the Lord. It does not mean that the children of God do not commit sin at all; they may commit sin occasionally. It means that the regenerated believers who have the divine life and live by it do not practice sin. Their character and habit are not to sin but to abide in the Lord. Abiding in the Lord is a believer’s living; sinning is a sinner’s life.
1J 3:63 sins
I.e., practices sin, lives a sinful life.
1J 3:64 has
I.e., has not received any vision of the Lord and has no realization of Him. Such a condition is like that of an unbeliever.
1J 3:6c not  -   3 John 11; cf. Matt. 5:8
1J 3:6d known  -   1 John 2:4; 4:8
1J 3:71 Little
See note 11 in ch. 2.
1J 3:72a lead  -   1 John 2:26
Or, deceive you.
1J 3:73b practices  -   1 John 2:29
See note 65 in ch. 1. To practice righteousness is to live a righteous life (see note 296 in ch. 2), to live rightly under the principle of God’s ruling. This is, according to the next verse, not to practice sin and, according to v. 4, not to practice lawlessness. All these are the purifying of ourselves (v. 3).
1J 3:74c righteous  -   1 John 3:12; Rom. 2:13; Ezek. 18:5-9; 2 Pet. 2:7
According to the context, righteous here equals pure in v. 3. To be righteous is to be pure, without any stain of sin, lawlessness, and unrighteousness, even as Christ is.
1J 3:7d righteous  -   1 John 2:1
1J 3:81a practices  -   1 John 3:4
See note 65 in ch. 1. This verse indicates that to practice sin (see note 41) and to sin in this book are synonymous, denoting living in sin, committing sin habitually. Such a life is of the devil, whose life is one of sin and who has sinned continually from the beginning. Sin is his nature, and sinning is his character.
1J 3:82b devil  -   1 John 3:10; Matt. 13:39; John 8:44; Rev. 2:10; 12:9-10
See note 101 in Rev. 2.
1J 3:83 from
In the absolute sense, that is, from the time the devil began to rebel against God and attempted to overthrow God’s rule. See note 12, par. 2, in ch. 1.
1J 3:84 For
Lit., unto this; i.e., to this end. The devil has sinned continually from ancient times and begets sinners that they might practice sin with him. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might undo and destroy the sinful deeds of the devil, that is, condemn, through His death on the cross in the flesh (Rom. 8:3), sin initiated by him, the evil one; destroy the power of sin, the sinful nature of the devil (Heb. 2:14); and take away both sin and sins (note 51).
1J 3:8c manifested  -   1 John 3:5
1J 3:85d destroy  -   Heb. 2:14; cf. Gen. 3:15
Or, dissolve, undo.
1J 3:91 begotten
See note 297 in ch. 2.
1J 3:92 not
Not to practice sin does not mean that we do not commit sin in occasional acts, but that we do not live in sin. See note 41.
1J 3:93a seed  -   cf. Matt. 13:4; 1 Pet. 1:23
Denoting God’s life, which we received of God when we were begotten of Him. This life, as the divine seed, abides in every regenerated believer. Hence, such a one does not practice sin and cannot sin.
1J 3:9b abides  -   cf. 1 John 2:14
1J 3:94 cannot
I.e., cannot live in sin habitually. A regenerated believer may fall into sin occasionally, but the divine life as the divine seed in his regenerated nature will not allow him to live in sin. This is similar to a sheep: it may fall into the mud, but its clean life will not allow it to remain and wallow in the mud as a swine would.
1J 3:101 In
To practice or not practice sin, that is, to live in or not live in sin, is not a matter of behavior but of whose children we are, the children of God or the children of the devil. Hence, it is a matter of life and nature. Men, as fallen descendants of Adam, are born children of the devil, the evil one (John 8:44), and possess his life, partake of his nature, and live in sin automatically and habitually. Practicing sin is their life. But the believers, who are redeemed from their fallen state and are reborn in their spirit, are the children of God, who possess His life, partake of His nature, and do not live in sin. Practicing righteousness is their life. Whether one is a child of God or a child of the devil is manifested by what he practices, righteousness or sin. A reborn believer may commit sin, and an unsaved man may do righteousness. Both are their outward behavior, not their outward living, and thus do not manifest what they are in their inward life and nature.
1J 3:10a children  -   1 John 3:1
1J 3:10b children  -   Matt. 13:38; cf. John 8:44
1J 3:10c practice  -   1 John 3:7
1J 3:10d does  -   1 John 3:14; 4:8, 20
1J 3:102 love
Righteousness is the nature of God’s acts; love is the nature of God’s essence. What God is, is love; what God does is righteousness. Love is inward; righteousness is outward. Hence, love is a stronger manifestation that we are the children of God than righteousness. Therefore, from this verse through v. 24 the apostle proceeds from righteousness to love in the manifestation of the children of God, as a further condition of the life that abides in the Lord.
1J 3:111 message
See note 71 in ch. 2.
1J 3:11a heard  -   1 John 1:5; 2:7, 24
1J 3:112 from
In the relative sense (see note 12, par. 2, in ch. 1).
1J 3:113b love  -   1 John 3:14, 18, 23; 2:10; John 13:34; 15:12
This is a higher condition of the life that abides in the Lord.
1J 3:12a Cain  -   Gen. 4:3; Heb. 11:4; Jude 11
1J 3:121 of
Cain’s being of the evil one equals his being a child of the devil; Cain’s brother Abel was of God, i.e., was a child of God (v. 10).
1J 3:122b evil  -   1 John 2:13
See note 194 in ch. 5.
1J 3:12c slew  -   Gen. 4:8; cf. John 8:44
1J 3:12d righteous  -   1 John 3:7
1J 3:131 world
That is, the people of the world, who, like Cain, are the children of the devil (v. 10) and the components of Satan’s cosmic system (the world — John 12:31). If the people of the world, who lie in the evil one, the devil (5:19), hate the believers (the children of God), we need not marvel; it is natural for them to do so.
1J 3:13a hates  -   John 15:18-19; 17:14
1J 3:14a passed  -   John 5:24
1J 3:141 death
Death is of the devil, God’s enemy, Satan, signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings death; life is of God, the source of life, signified by the tree of life, which issues in life (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). Death and life are not only of two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death into life is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of death into the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of life. This took place in us at our regeneration. We know this, i.e., have the inner consciousness of it, because we love the brothers. Love (the love of God) toward the brothers is strong evidence of this. Faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it.
1J 3:14b love  -   1 John 3:11
1J 3:14c does  -   1 John 3:10
1J 3:142 not
Not loving the brothers is evidence that one is not living by the essence and element of the divine love and is not remaining in the sphere of that love; rather, this one is living in the essence and element of the satanic death and abiding in its sphere.
1J 3:151a hates  -   1 John 2:9, 11; cf. Matt. 5:22-23
In relation to the divine attributes, hatred is versus love, death is versus life, darkness is versus light, and lies (falsehoods) are versus truth. All the opposites of these divine virtues are of the evil one, the devil.
1J 3:152b murderer  -   John 8:44; Rev. 21:8; 22:15
Murderer here does not denote an actual murderer but indicates that in spiritual ethics hating equals murdering. No actual murderer (an unsaved person), as Cain was (v. 12), has eternal life abiding in him. Since we know this, we, who have passed out of death into life and have eternal life abiding in us, should not behave like an unsaved murderer by hating our brothers in the Lord. This section concerns the life that abides in the Lord. A believer who has eternal life but does not abide in the Lord and let the Lord, who is the eternal life, abide and work in him might hate a brother and commit other sins occasionally. But this would not be habitual.
1J 3:15c eternal  -   1 John 1:2
1J 3:16a He  -   1 John 2:6
1J 3:16b laid  -   John 10:11, 17, 18; 15:13; Eph. 5:2
1J 3:161 life
Lit., soul.
1J 3:16c lay  -   Phil. 2:17; 1 Thes. 2:8
1J 3:162 lives
Lit., souls.
1J 3:17a need  -   James 2:15-16
1J 3:17b shuts  -   Deut. 15:7
1J 3:171 affections
Lit., bowels.
1J 3:172c love  -   1 John 4:20
See note 52 in ch. 2.
1J 3:181 Little
See note 11 in ch. 2.
1J 3:18a love  -   Rom. 12:9; 1 Pet. 1:22
1J 3:182 deed
Deed is versus word, and truthfulness is versus tongue. Tongue denotes the play of vain talk, and truthfulness, the reality of love.
1J 3:183b truthfulness  -   2 John 1; 3 John 1
See note 66, point 7, in ch. 1.
1J 3:191 truth
Denoting the reality of the eternal life, which we received of God in our divine birth, enabling us to love the brothers by the divine love (vv. 14-18). By loving the brothers with the divine love, we know that we are of this reality. See note 66 in ch. 1.
1J 3:192 persuade
Or, conciliate, convince, assure, tranquilize. To persuade our heart before God is to have a good conscience, void of offense (1 Tim. 1:5, 19; Acts 24:16), that our heart may be conciliated, convinced, assured, and tranquilized. This too is a condition of the life that abides in the Lord. To abide in the Lord requires a tranquil heart with a conscience void of offense. This is also vital to our fellowship with God, which was covered in the first section of this Epistle. A heart disturbed by an offended conscience frustrates our abiding in the Lord and breaks our fellowship with God.
1J 3:201 heart
Actually, it is our conscience, which is a part not only of our spirit but also of our heart, that blames (condemns) us. The conscience in our heart is the representative of God’s ruling within us. If our conscience condemns us, surely God, who is greater than His representative and knows all things, will condemn us. The consciousness of such condemnation in our conscience alerts us to the danger of breaking our fellowship with God. If we attend to this, it will be a help to our fellowship with God and will keep us abiding in the Lord.
1J 3:20a blames  -   cf. 1 Cor. 4:4
1J 3:20b greater  -   1 John 4:4
1J 3:20c knows  -   Psa. 139:1-6, 23-24; cf. John 2:24-25
1J 3:21a heart  -   cf. Heb. 10:22
1J 3:211b boldness  -   1 John 2:28; Job 11:13-15
The Greek word means boldness of speech, confidence. We have such boldness in tranquility to contact God, to fellowship with Him, and to ask of Him, because there is no condemnation of the conscience in our heart. This preserves us in the abiding in the Lord.
1J 3:21c toward  -   Job 22:26
1J 3:221 whatever
Offenses in the conscience of a condemning heart are obstacles to our prayer. A conscience void of offense in a tranquil heart straightens and clears the way for our petition to God.
1J 3:22a ask  -   John 14:13-15; 15:16; 16:24
1J 3:222b keep  -   1 John 2:3
This is not the keeping of the commandments of the Mosaic law by one’s own endeavor and strength; rather, it is a part of the believers’ living as the issue of the divine life that abides in them, by the habitual keeping of the Lord’s New Testament commandments through the inner operation of the power of the divine life. The keeping of the Lord’s commandments accompanies the practicing, the habitual doing, of the things that are pleasing in His sight, and it becomes the prerequisite for God’s answering our prayers and constitutes a condition of the life that abides in the Lord (v. 24).
1J 3:223 do
Lit., practice. See note 65 in ch. 1.
1J 3:22c pleasing  -   John 8:29; Heb. 13:21
1J 3:231a commandment  -   Rom. 16:26
This is a summary of the commandments in the preceding and succeeding verses. All the commandments are summarized in two: to believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another. The first concerns faith; the second, love. To have faith is to receive the divine life in our relationship with the Lord; to love is to live the divine life in our relationship with the brothers. Faith touches the source of the divine life; love expresses the essence of the divine life. Both are needed for the believers to live a life that abides in the Lord.
1J 3:23b believe  -   John 1:12; 2:23; 20:31
1J 3:23c love  -   1 John 3:11; John 13:34; 15:12, 17; Rom. 13:8
1J 3:24a keeps  -   1 John 2:5
1J 3:241b abides  -   1 John 2:6
This verse is the conclusion of this section, which begins in 2:28, on our abiding in the Lord according to the teaching of the divine anointing, as unfolded in the preceding section (2:20-27). This section reveals that abiding in the Lord is the living of the children of God by His eternal life as the divine seed (vv. 15, 9, and note 297 in ch. 2), which grows in the practicing of the righteousness of their begetting God (2:29; 3:7, 10) and the love of their begetting Father (vv. 10-11, 14-23). Such an abiding and its bases — the divine birth and the divine life as the divine seed — are mysterious yet real in the Spirit.
1J 3:24c in  -   John 14:20; 17:21
1J 3:242 He
We abide in the Lord; then He abides in us. Our abiding in Him is a condition for His abiding in us (John 15:4). We enjoy His abiding in us by our abiding in Him.
1J 3:243 by
Lit., out of. The phrase by the Spirit… modifies we know.
1J 3:244d Spirit  -   Rom. 8:9, 11
Thus far in this Epistle the Spirit has not been referred to, though the Spirit is anonymously implied in the anointing in 2:20 and 27. Actually, the Spirit, that is, the all-inclusive compound life-giving Spirit (see note 194 in Phil. 1), is the vital and crucial factor of all the mysteries unveiled in this Epistle: the divine life, the fellowship of the divine life, the divine anointing, the abiding in the Lord, the divine birth, and the divine seed. It is by this Spirit that we are born of God, we receive the divine life as the divine seed in us, we have the fellowship of the divine life, we are anointed with the Triune God, and we abide in the Lord. This wonderful Spirit is given to us as the promised blessing of the New Testament (Gal. 3:14); He is given without measure by the Christ who is above all, who inherits all, and who is to be increased universally (John 3:31-35). This Spirit and the eternal life (v. 15) are the basic elements by which we live the life that abides in the Lord continuously. Hence, it is by this Spirit, who witnesses assuringly with our spirit, that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16) and that we know that the Lord of all abides in us (4:13). It is through this Spirit that we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). And it is by this Spirit that we enjoy the riches of the Triune God (2 Cor. 13:14).
1 John Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
1J 4:1a not  -   cf. Jer. 29:8-9
1J 4:11 every
Verses 1-6 are parenthetical and are a warning to the believers to discern the spirits (since the Spirit, whereby we know that the Lord abides in us, is mentioned in the preceding verse, 3:24) that they may know the false prophets. A similar warning was given in 2:18-23. The expressions every spirit and the spirits refer to the spirits of the prophets (1 Cor. 14:32), which are motivated by the Spirit of truth, and the spirits of the false prophets, which are actuated by the spirit of deception. Hence, there is the need to discern the spirits by proving them to determine whether they are of God.
1J 4:1b spirit  -   2 Thes. 2:2
1J 4:12c prove  -   Rev. 2:2; cf. 1 Cor. 14:29
I.e., discern the spirits (1 Cor. 12:10) by putting them on trial.
1J 4:13 of
Lit., out of. So also in succeeding verses.
1J 4:14d false  -   Matt. 24:24; 2 Pet. 2:1
In Matt. 24:24 the false prophets differ from the false Christs. But here the false prophets are the antichrists (v. 3), those who teach heretically concerning the person of Christ (2:18 and note 2; 2:22-23).
1J 4:1e gone  -   1 John 2:18; 2 John 7
1J 4:2a Spirit  -   1 Cor. 12:3
1J 4:21 spirit
The spirit of a genuine prophet, which is motivated by the Holy Spirit of truth; such a spirit confesses the divine conception of Jesus, affirming that He was born as the Son of God. Every such spirit is surely of God. In this we know the Spirit of God.
1J 4:22 in
Jesus was conceived of the Spirit (Matt. 1:18). To confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is to confess that He was divinely conceived to be born as the Son of God (Luke 1:31-35). Since He was conceived of the Spirit to be born in the flesh, the Spirit would never deny that He has come in the flesh through divine conception.
1J 4:2b flesh  -   John 1:14; Rom. 8:3; 1 Tim. 3:16
1J 4:31 spirit
The spirit of a false prophet, which is actuated by the spirit of deception; such a spirit does not confess that Jesus came in the flesh. This is the spirit of the errors of the Docetists (or, Docetes). This name was derived from the Greek word meaning to seem, to appear to be. The heretical view of the Docetists was that Jesus Christ was not a real man but simply appeared to be; to them He was merely a phantasm. Docetism was intermixed with Gnosticism, which taught that all matter was essentially evil. Hence, the Docetists taught that since Christ is holy, He could never have had the defilement of human flesh. They taught that His body was not real flesh and blood but was merely a deceptive, transient phantom, and thus that He did not suffer, die, and resurrect. Such a heresy undermines not only the Lord’s incarnation but also His redemption and resurrection. Docetism was a characteristic feature of the first antichristian errorists, whom John had in view here and in 2 John 7. The spirit of such errorists is surely not of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.
1J 4:3a not  -   1 John 2:22-23; 2 John 7
1J 4:32 antichrist
See note 182 in ch. 2.
1J 4:41 of
The believers are of God because they have been begotten of God (v. 7; 2:29; 3:9).
1J 4:42 little
See note 11 in ch. 2.
1J 4:4a overcome  -   1 John 2:13
1J 4:43 them
The false prophets (v. 1), the antichrists (v. 3), who taught heretically concerning Christ’s person. The believers have overcome them by abiding in the truth concerning Christ’s deity and concerning His humanity through divine conception, according to the teaching of the divine anointing (2:27).
1J 4:4b greater  -   1 John 3:20; Titus 2:13; Psa. 48:1; 77:13; 95:3; 96:4; 99:2; 135:5; 145:3; 147:5
1J 4:44 He
The Triune God, who dwells in the believers as the all-inclusive, life-giving, anointing Spirit and who strengthens them from within with all the rich elements of the Triune God (Eph. 3:16-19). Such a One is much greater and stronger than Satan, the evil spirit.
1J 4:4c in  -   1 John 4:13; 3:24; Eph. 4:6
1J 4:45 he
Satan, the fallen angel, who as the evil spirit usurps fallen mankind and who operates in evil persons, the components of his world system. This one is lesser and weaker than the Triune God.
1J 4:4d world  -   1 John 5:19; John 12:31; 17:15; 1 Cor. 2:12
1J 4:51 of
Both the heretics and the heresies concerning Christ’s person are of the satanic world system. Hence, the people who are the components of this evil system listen to them and follow them.
1J 4:5a world  -   John 8:23; 15:19
1J 4:61a of  -   1 John 4:1, 4
The apostles, the believers, and the truth that they believe and teach concerning Christ are of God. Hence, the God-knowing people, who have been begotten of God (v. 7), listen to them and stay with them.
1J 4:6b hears  -   cf. John 8:47; 10:3, 16; 18:37
1J 4:62 not
The worldlings are not of God, because they have not been begotten of God. Hence, they do not listen to the believers.
1J 4:63 From
Lit., out of this. This refers to what was mentioned in vv. 5 and 6. From the fact that the heretics and what they speak out of their spirit, actuated by the spirit of deception, are of the world, and we and what we speak out of our spirit, motivated by the Spirit of truth, are of God, we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. This implies that the Holy Spirit of truth is one with our truth-speaking spirit and that the evil spirit of deception is one with the heretics’ deception-speaking spirit.
1J 4:64 Spirit
The Spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13); the spirit of deception is Satan, the evil spirit, the spirit of falsehood (Eph. 2:2).
1J 4:65 truth
Denoting the divine reality revealed in the New Testament (see note 66 in ch. 1), especially, as seen here, concerning the divine incarnation of the Lord Jesus, to which the Spirit of God testifies (v. 2). This reality is in contrast to the deception of the evil spirit, the spirit of the antichrist, which denies the divine incarnation of Jesus (v. 3).
1J 4:6c spirit  -   1 Tim. 4:1; 1 Cor. 2:12
See note 64.
1J 4:71a love  -   1 John 4:11; 3:11, 23; 2:10; 1 Pet. 4:8
Verses 7-21 are an extension of the section from 2:28 — 3:24 and further stress brotherly love, already covered in 3:10-24, as a higher condition of the life that abides in the Lord.
1J 4:72 love
See note 52 in ch. 2.
1J 4:73 loves
The believers, who have been begotten of God and know God, love one another habitually with the love that is out of God and is the expression of God.
1J 4:74b begotten  -   1 John 2:29
The apostle’s emphasis here is still the divine birth, through which the divine life has been imparted into the believers, the life that affords them the life ability to know God. This divine birth is the basic factor of brotherly love, which is a higher condition of the life that abides in the Lord. See note 297 in ch. 2.
1J 4:75 knows
A knowing by the divine life (John 17:3) received from the divine birth.
1J 4:8a does  -   1 John 4:20; 3:10
1J 4:81 not
He who has not known God does not have the knowing ability of the divine life received from the divine birth. Such a one, who has not been begotten of God and does not have God as his life, does not love with God as love, since he does not know God as love.
1J 4:8b known  -   1 John 3:6
1J 4:82c love  -   1 John 4:16
See note 52 in ch. 2. This Epistle says first that God is light (1:5) and then that God is love. Love, as the nature of God’s essence, is the source of grace, and light, as the nature of God’s expression, is the source of truth. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth (see note 66, final par., in ch. 1). Both of these were manifested in this way in John’s Gospel. We received both grace and truth there through the manifestation of the Son (John 1:14, 16-17). Now in John’s Epistle we come in the Son to the Father and touch the sources of both grace and truth. These sources, love and light, are God the Father Himself for our deeper and finer enjoyment in the fellowship of the divine life with the Father in the Son (1:3-7) through our abiding in Him (2:5, 27-28; 3:6, 24). See note 53 in ch. 1.
1J 4:9a love  -   Rom. 5:8; cf. 1 John 2:5; 3:17
1J 4:91 among
Lit., in us; i.e., in our case, or, in regard to us. In God’s sending of His Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him, the higher and nobler love of God was manifested among us.
1J 4:9b sent  -   1 John 4:10, 14; John 3:17; Rom. 8:3
1J 4:9c only  -   John 3:16; 1:18
1J 4:92 world
As in 1 Tim. 1:15, the place where fallen mankind is.
1J 4:93 have
We, the fallen people, are not only sinful in nature and conduct (Rom. 7:17-18; 1:28-32) but also dead in our spirit (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13). God sent His Son into the world not only to be a propitiation for our sins that we might be forgiven (v. 10) but also to be life to us that we might have life and live through Him. In the love of God, the Son of God saves us not only from our sins by His blood (Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5) but also from our death by His life (3:14-15; John 5:24). He is not only the Lamb of God who takes away our sin (John 1:29); He is also the Son of God who gives us eternal life (John 3:36). He died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) that we might have eternal life in Him (John 3:14-16) and live through Him (John 6:57; 14:19). In this the love of God, which is God’s essence, has been manifested.
1J 4:9d live  -   Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21
1J 4:101 Herein
Referring to the following fact: it is not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins. In this fact is the higher and nobler love of God.
1J 4:10a love  -   1 John 3:1
1J 4:10b loved  -   1 John 4:20-21
1J 4:10c loved  -   1 John 4:19; cf. John 15:16
1J 4:102 propitiation
See note 21 in ch. 2.
1J 4:111a love  -   1 John 4:7
To love with the love of God, as He loved us.
1J 4:121a beheld  -   1 John 4:20; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; cf. 1 Pet. 1:8
This indicates that if we love one another with the love of God, as He loved us, we express Him in His essence, so that others can behold in us what He is essentially.
1J 4:122 love
To love one another is a condition of our abiding in God (v. 13), and our abiding in God is a condition of His abiding in us (John 15:4). Hence, when we love one another, God abides in us and His love is manifested perfectly in us.
1J 4:123 His
The love of God in 2:5 denotes God’s love within us that becomes our love toward Him, and it is with this love that we love Him. His love here denotes God’s love within us that becomes our love toward one another, and it is with this love that we love one another. This indicates that we should take God’s love as our love with which we love Him and love one another.
1J 4:124b perfected  -   1 John 2:5
The Greek word means to complete, to accomplish, to finish. In God Himself the love of God itself is perfect and complete. However, in us it needs to be perfected and completed in its manifestation. It was manifested to us in God’s sending of His Son to be both a propitiatory sacrifice and life to us (vv. 9-10). Yet if we do not love one another with this love as it was manifested to us, that is, if we do not express it by loving one another with the love with which God loved us, it is not manifested perfectly and completely. This love is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it. Our living in which we love one another in the love of God is the perfection and completion of this love in its manifestation in us. Thus, in our living in God’s love, others can behold God manifested in His essence, which is love.
1J 4:131 this
In that God has given to us of His Spirit, we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit, whom God has given to dwell in us (James 4:5; Rom. 8:9, 11), is the witness in our spirit (Rom. 8:16), witnessing that we dwell in God and God in us. The abiding Spirit, that is, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, that we abide in each other, indwelling each other mutually. This is evidenced by our living, a living in which we love one another habitually with His love (v. 12).
1J 4:132a abide  -   1 John 2:6
To abide in God is to dwell in Him, to remain in our fellowship with Him, that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. This is to practice our oneness with God according to the divine anointing (2:27) by living a life that practices His righteousness and His love. It is all carried out by the operation of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, who dwells in our spirit and who is the basic element of the divine anointing.
1J 4:133 of
Lit., out of. God has given us out of His Spirit. This closely resembles, and almost repeats, the word in 3:24, which proves that this does not mean that God has given us something of His Spirit, such as the various gifts in 1 Cor. 12:4, but that He has given the Spirit Himself as the all-inclusive gift (Acts 2:38). Out of His Spirit is an expression that implies that the Spirit of God, whom God has given to us, is bountiful and without measure (Phil. 1:19; John 3:34). By such a bountiful, immeasurable Spirit we know with full assurance that we and God are one and that we abide in each other.
1J 4:14a beheld  -   1 John 1:1-2; John 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:16
1J 4:14b testify  -   John 15:27
1J 4:141c sent  -   1 John 4:9
The Father’s sending of the Son to be our Savior is an external act, so that through our confessing of the Son He can abide in us and we in Him (v. 15). The apostles have beheld and testify this. This is the outward testimony. In addition to this, God’s internal act toward us is the sending of His Spirit to dwell in us as inward evidence that we abide in Him and He in us (v. 13).
1J 4:14d Savior  -   Luke 2:11; John 4:42
1J 4:142 world
Fallen mankind, as in John 3:16.
1J 4:151a confesses  -   1 John 4:2 (cf. 3); 2:23 (cf. 22); Rom. 10:9
God the Father sent His Son as the Savior of the world (v. 14) that men may believe in Him by confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, so that God may abide in them and they in God. But the heretical Cerinthians did not confess this; hence, they did not have God abiding in them, nor did they abide in God. Whoever confesses this, God abides in him and he in God. He becomes one with God in the divine life and nature.
1J 4:15b Son  -   1 John 5:5; Matt. 14:33
1J 4:15c abides  -   1 John 4:13; 3:24; 2:6
1J 4:16a believed  -   John 6:69
1J 4:161 love
In sending the Son to be our Savior (v. 14).
1J 4:162 in
See note 91.
1J 4:163 love
See note 82. That God is love was manifested in His sending of His Son to be our Savior and life (vv. 9-10, 14).
1J 4:164 abides
To abide in love is to live a life in which we love others habitually with the love that is God Himself, that He may be expressed in us.
1J 4:165 abides
To abide in God is to live a life that is God Himself as our inward content and outward expression, that we may be absolutely one with Him.
1J 4:166 God
God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus He can be one with us practically.
1J 4:171 this
I.e., our abiding in the love that is God Himself (v. 16). In this the love of God is perfected in us, that is, perfectly manifested in us, that we may have boldness without fear (v. 18) in the day of judgment.
1J 4:172 perfected
See note 124.
1J 4:173 boldness
See note 211 in ch. 3. There the boldness is for us to contact God in fellowship with Him. Here the boldness is for us to face the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ.
1J 4:174 judgment
The judgment at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) at His coming back (1 Cor. 3:13; 4:5; 2 Tim. 4:8).
1J 4:175 He
As in 3:3, 7, this refers to Christ, who lived in this world a life of God as love and who is now our life that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is.
1J 4:181a fear  -   Rom. 8:15
Fear does not refer to the fear that we will offend God and be judged by Him (1 Pet. 1:17; Heb. 12:28) but to the fear that we have offended God and will be judged by Him. Love refers to the perfected love mentioned in the preceding verse, the love of God with which we love others.
1J 4:182 perfect
Perfect love is the love that has been perfected (v. 17) in us by our loving others with the love of God. Such love casts out fear and has no fear of being punished by the Lord at His coming back (Luke 12:46-47).
1J 4:183 not
I.e., not lived in the love of God that it might be perfectly manifested in him. See note 124.
1J 4:191 first
God first loved us in that He infused us with His love and generated within us the love with which we love Him and the brothers (vv. 20-21).
1J 4:19a loved  -   1 John 4:10
1J 4:201a hates  -   1 John 2:9
He who hates a brother habitually proves that he is not abiding in the divine love or in the divine light (2:9-11). When we abide in the Lord, we abide in both the divine love and the divine light; we do not hate the brothers but love them habitually, living the divine life in the divine light and the divine love.
1J 4:20b liar  -   1 John 2:4
1J 4:20c does  -   1 John 4:8
1J 4:20d not  -   1 John 4:12
1J 4:21a commandment  -   1 John 2:7-11; John 13:34
1J 4:21b loves  -   1 John 4:10; 5:1-2; Mark 12:30; cf. John 14:21, 23; 21:15-17
1J 4:21c love  -   1 John 2:10
1 John Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
1J 5:11a believes  -   John 20:31
The Gnostics and the Cerinthians did not believe that Jesus and the Christ were identical (see notes 221 in ch. 2 and 31 in ch. 4). Hence, they were not the children of God, were not begotten of God. But whoever believes that the man Jesus is the Christ, God incarnate (John 1:1, 14; 20:31), has been begotten of God and has become a child of God (John 1:12-13). Such a one loves God the Father, who has begotten him, and also loves the brother, who has been begotten of the same Father. This explains, confirms, and strengthens the word in the preceding verses (4:20-21).
1J 5:1b Jesus  -   1 John 5:5; 2:22; 4:15; Matt. 16:16
1J 5:1c loves  -   1 John 4:21
1J 5:1d begotten  -   James 1:18; cf. 1 Cor. 4:15
1J 5:1e loves  -   1 John 4:21
1J 5:2a know  -   1 John 2:5; 3:24; 4:13
1J 5:2b children  -   John 1:12; Rom. 8:16
1J 5:21 love
Loving God and practicing His commandments are the prerequisites for our loving the children of God. This is based on the divine birth and the divine life.
1J 5:22 do
Lit., practice. See note 65 in ch. 1.
1J 5:2c commandments  -   2 John 4, 6
1J 5:31 love
See notes 52 and 153 in ch. 2.
1J 5:32a keep  -   1 John 2:3
Keeping the commandments of God constitutes our love toward Him and is an evidence that we love Him.
1J 5:33b burdensome  -   cf. Matt. 11:30
Lit., heavy. To the divine life with its capability, the commandments of God are not heavy.
1J 5:41 everything
Referring to every person who has been begotten of God. Yet such an expression should refer especially to that part, i.e., the spirit of the regenerated person, that has been regenerated with the divine life (John 3:6). The regenerated spirit of the regenerated believer does not practice sin (3:9) and overcomes the world. The believer’s divine birth with the divine life is the basic factor for such victorious living.
1J 5:42 begotten
Both in his Gospel and in this Epistle John stressed the divine birth (John 1:13; 3:3, 5; 1 John 2:29 and note 7; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18), through which the divine life is imparted into the believers in Christ (John 3:15-16, 36; 1 John 5:11-12). This divine birth, which brings in the divine life, is the basic factor of all the mysteries concerning the divine life, such as the fellowship of the divine life (1:3-7), the anointing of the Divine Trinity (2:20-27), the abiding in the Lord (2:28 — 3:24), and the divine living that practices the divine truth (1:6), the divine will (2:17), the divine righteousness (2:29; 3:7), and the divine love (3:11, 22-23; 5:1-3) to express the divine Person (4:12). The divine birth with the divine life is also the basic factor in this section, vv. 4-21. It assures the God-begotten believers, giving them confidence in the ability and virtue of the divine life.
1J 5:43a overcomes  -   1 John 2:13; John 16:33; Rom. 8:37
Since regenerated believers have the capability of the divine life to overcome the world, the powerful satanic world system, the commandments of God are not heavy or burdensome to them (v. 3).
1J 5:44 world
See note 152 in ch. 2.
1J 5:4b victory  -   1 Cor. 15:54, 57
1J 5:45 faith
The faith that brings us into the organic union with the Triune God and that believes that Jesus is the Son of God (v. 5) that we may be begotten of God and have His divine life, by which we are enabled to overcome the Satan-organized-and-usurped world.
1J 5:51 believes
Such a believer is one who has been begotten of God and has received the divine life (John 1:12-13; 3:16). The divine life empowers him to overcome the evil world energized by Satan. The Gnostics and the Cerinthians, who were not believers of this kind, remained pitiful victims of the evil satanic system.
1J 5:5a Jesus  -   1 John 5:1
1J 5:61 He
He, Jesus Christ, came as the Son of God that we might be born of God and have the divine life (John 10:10; 20:31). It is in His Son that God gives us eternal life (vv. 11-13). Jesus, the man of Nazareth, was attested to be the Son of God by the water He went through in His baptism (Matt. 3:16-17; John 1:31), by the blood He shed on the cross (John 19:31-35; Matt. 27:50-54), and also by the Spirit He gave not by measure (John 1:32-34; 3:34). By these three God has testified that Jesus is His Son given to us (vv. 7-10), that in Him we may receive His eternal life by believing into His name (vv. 11-13; John 3:16, 36; 20:31). The water of baptism terminates people of the old creation by burying them; the blood shed on the cross redeems those whom God has chosen from among the old creation; and the Spirit, who is the truth, the reality in life (Rom. 8:2), germinates those whom God has redeemed out of the old creation, by regenerating them with the divine life. Thus they are born of God and become His children (John 3:5, 15; 1:12-13) and live a life that practices the truth (1:6), the will of God (2:17), the righteousness of God (2:29), and the love of God (3:10-11) for His expression.
1J 5:6a water  -   Matt. 3:11
1J 5:62b blood  -   Matt. 26:28; John 6:53-55
Some MSS add, and Spirit.
1J 5:63 in
Or, by.
1J 5:6c Spirit  -   Matt. 3:16; Acts 5:32
1J 5:64 testifies
The Spirit, who is the truth, the reality (John 14:16-17; 15:26), testifies that Jesus is the Son of God, in whom is the eternal life. By thus testifying, He imparts the Son of God into us to be our life (Col. 3:4).
1J 5:65 reality
Denoting the reality of all that Christ as the Son of God is (John 16:12-15). See note 66 in ch. 1.
1J 5:81 unto
I.e., unto the one point or purpose in their testimony.
1J 5:9a testimony  -   John 1:6-7; 5:33
1J 5:91b testimony  -   John 3:33; 5:34, 36-37; 8:18
The testimony by the water, the blood, and the Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God is the testimony of God, which is greater than that of men.
1J 5:9c Son  -   Matt. 3:17; 17:5; 2 Pet. 1:17-18
1J 5:101a believes  -   John 3:36
God testified concerning His Son so that we might believe into His Son and have His divine life. If we believe into His Son, we receive and have His testimony in ourselves; otherwise, we do not believe what He has testified, and we make Him a liar.
1J 5:10b testimony  -   Rom. 8:16
1J 5:10c liar  -   1 John 1:10
1J 5:10d not  -   John 5:38
1J 5:11a testimony  -   1 John 5:9; 3 John 12
1J 5:111 gave
The testimony of God is not only that Jesus is His Son but also that He gives to us eternal life, which is in His Son. His Son is the means through which He gives us His eternal life, which is His goal for us.
1J 5:11b eternal  -   1 John 5:13, 20; 1:2
1J 5:11c life  -   John 1:4; 5:24, 26; 11:25; 14:6
1J 5:121 has
Because the life is in the Son (John 1:4) and the Son is the life (John 11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4), the Son and the life are one, inseparable. Hence, he who has the Son has the life, and he who does not have the Son does not have the life.
1J 5:12a life  -   John 3:36; 10:10; Col. 3:4
1J 5:131 these
The written words of the Scriptures are the assurance to the believers, who believe into the name of the Son of God, that they have eternal life. Our believing to receive eternal life is the fact; the words of the Holy Writings are the assurance concerning this fact — they are the title deed to our eternal salvation. By them we are assured and have the pledge that as long as we believe into the name of the Son of God, we have eternal life.
1J 5:13a believe  -   John 1:12; 20:31; 1 John 3:23
1J 5:141 this
Verses 4-13 show us how we have received eternal life, which is mentioned in 1:1-2. Then vv. 14-17 tell us how we should pray in the fellowship of eternal life, which is mentioned in 1:3-7.
1J 5:142 boldness
Referring to the boldness that we have for our prayer in fellowship with God. See note 211 in ch. 3.
1J 5:143a ask  -   1 John 3:22
Based on the fact that we have received eternal life through the divine birth by believing into the Son of God, we can pray, in the fellowship of eternal life, by contacting God in the boldness of a conscience void of offense (Acts 24:16), according to His will, assured that He will hear us.
1J 5:151 know
This knowing is based on the fact that after receiving the divine life we abide in the Lord and are one with Him in our praying to God in His name (John 15:7, 16; 16:23-24).
1J 5:152 ask
Not in ourselves according to our mind but in the Lord according to God’s will.
1J 5:161 unto
Lit., toward.
1J 5:162a ask  -   Job 42:8
This must be a prayer made while we are abiding in fellowship with God.
1J 5:163 will
The subject is still he, the subject of the first predicate shall ask, indicating that the asker will give life to the one for whom he is asking. This does not mean that the asker has life of himself and can give life by himself to others. It means that such an asker, who is abiding in the Lord, who is one with the Lord, and who is asking in one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), becomes the means by which God’s life-giving Spirit can give life to the ones for whom he is asking. This is a matter of life-imparting in the fellowship of the divine life. To be one who can give life to others, we must abide in the divine life and walk, live, and have our being in the divine life. In James 5:14-16 the prayer is for healing; here the prayer is for life-imparting.
1J 5:164b life  -   Rom. 8:11
Undoubtedly, this refers to spiritual life imparted, through the prayer of the asker, into the one for whom he is asking. However, according to the context, this spiritual life will also rescue the physical body of the one for whom the asker is asking, from the danger of suffering death because of his sinning (cf. James 5:15).
1J 5:165 sin
Concerning sin unto death, Bible teachers have different interpretations. Some say that it refers to the sin of the antichrists in denying that Jesus is the Christ (2:22), which keeps them in death forever. But according to the context of this verse, sin unto death is related to a sinning brother, not to an antichrist or any other unbeliever. Since this section, vv. 14-17, is related to prayer in the fellowship of eternal life (covered in 1:3 — 2:11), whatever it deals with must be related to the matter of the fellowship of the divine life. In the fellowship of the divine life there is the governmental dealing of God according to the spiritual condition of each of His children. In God’s governmental dealing, some of His children may be destined to physical death in this age because of a certain sin, and others may be destined to physical death because of other sins. The situation is like that of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, who were dealt with by physical death because they lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11), and like that of the Corinthian believers, who were dealt with by the same judgment because they did not discern the Body (1 Cor. 11:29-30). This was typified by God’s dealing with the children of Israel in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:5-11). All the Israelites except Caleb and Joshua were judged by God with physical death because of certain sins. God’s governmental dealing is severe. Miriam, Aaron, and even Moses were not spared from this kind of dealing, which came because of certain of their failures (Num. 12:1-15; 20:1, 12, 22-29; Deut. 1:37; 3:26-27; 32:48-52). The punishment of God’s governmental dealing with His children is not at all related to eternal perdition; it is a dispensational dealing according to the divine government, a dealing that is related to our fellowship with God and with one another. Whether or not a sin is unto death depends on God’s judgment according to the sinning believer’s position and condition in the house of God. In any case, for the children of God to sin is a serious matter. It may be judged by God with physical death in this age! The apostle did not say that we should make request concerning a sin that is unto death.
1J 5:16c death  -   cf. Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10; Heb. 10:28-29
1J 5:16d make  -   cf. Deut. 3:26; Jer. 7:16; 14:11
1J 5:171a unrighteousness  -   1 John 1:9; John 7:18
Every wrongdoing, everything that is not just or righteous, is sin (cf. 3:4 and note 2).
1J 5:181 begotten
That we might avoid sinning, which not only interrupts the fellowship of the divine life (1:6-10) but may even bring in physical death (vv. 16-17), here the apostle again stressed, by the assurance of the capability of the divine life, our divine birth, which is the basis of the victorious life. The basic fact of our divine birth prevents us, the regenerated ones, from practicing sin (3:9 and note 2), that is, from living in sin (Rom. 6:2). See note 297 in ch. 2.
1J 5:18a does  -   1 John 3:6
1J 5:182 he
Some teachers say, based on John 17:15, that he here refers to Christ, who was begotten of God and keeps the regenerated one. But the phrase begotten of God in this clause, a repetition of the phrase in the preceding clause, is the factor that, according to logic, determines that he refers still to the regenerated believer. A regenerated believer (especially his regenerated spirit, which is born of the Spirit of God — John 3:6) keeps himself from living in sin, and the evil one does not touch him (especially his regenerated spirit). His divine birth with the divine life in his spirit is the basic factor of such a safeguard (see note 41).
1J 5:183b keeps  -   James 1:27; cf. John 17:11, 12, 15
I.e., guards himself by watchful care.
1J 5:184 evil
See note 194.
1J 5:185 touch
I.e., grasp, lay hold of, for doing harm and fulfilling evil purposes.
1J 5:191 of
Lit., out of. Since we have been begotten of God, we are out of Him and thus possess His life and partake of His nature. By this we are separated unto God from the satanic world, which lies in the evil one.
1J 5:192 whole
“The whole world” comprises the satanic world system (2:15 and note 2) and the people of the world, the fallen human race.
1J 5:19a world  -   1 John 4:4; John 12:31; 17:15; cf. Luke 4:6
1J 5:193 lies
I.e., remains passively in the sphere of the evil one’s influence, under the evil one’s usurpation and manipulation. While the believers are living and moving actively by the life of God, the whole world (and especially the people of the world) is lying passively under the usurping and manipulating hand of Satan, the evil one.
1J 5:194b evil  -   1 John 2:13
The Greek word does not refer to an essentially worthless and wicked character, nor does it indicate worthlessness and corruption, degeneracy from original virtue. It refers to one who is pernicious, harmfully evil, one who affects others, influencing them to be evil and vicious. Such an evil one is Satan, the devil, in whom the whole world lies.
1J 5:201a come  -   1 John 5:6; John 10:10
I.e., come through incarnation to bring God to us as grace and reality (John 1:14) that we may have the divine life, as revealed in John’s Gospel, to partake of God as love and light, as unveiled in this Epistle.
1J 5:202b understanding  -   Luke 24:45
The faculty of our mind enlightened and empowered by the Spirit of reality (John 16:12-15) to apprehend the divine reality in our regenerated spirit.
1J 5:203 know
This is the ability of the divine life to know the true God (John 17:3) in our regenerated spirit (Eph. 1:17) through our renewed mind, enlightened by the Spirit of reality.
1J 5:204 Him
The genuine and real God.
1J 5:205c true  -   John 7:18; 8:26; Rev. 3:7
The Greek word (an adjective akin to the word reality in John 1:14; 14:6, 17) means genuine, real, as opposed to false and counterfeit.
1J 5:206 in
We not only know the true God; we are also in Him. We not only have the knowledge of Him; we are in an organic union with Him. We are one with Him organically.
1J 5:207 in
To be in the true God is to be in His Son Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the very embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), to be in Him is to be in the true God. This indicates that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the true God.
1J 5:208 This
This refers to the God who has come through incarnation and has given us the ability to know Him as the genuine God and be one with Him organically in His Son Jesus Christ. All this is the genuine and real God and eternal life to us. All that this genuine and real God is to us is eternal life to us, that we may partake of Him as everything to our regenerated being.
1J 5:20d true  -   John 17:3
1J 5:20e eternal  -   1 John 5:11, 13; 1:2
1J 5:211 Little
See note 11 in ch. 2.
1J 5:212 guard
I.e., garrison yourselves against attacks from without, such as the assaults of the heresies.
1J 5:213a idols  -   1 Cor. 10:7, 14; 1 Thes. 1:9
Referring to the heretical substitutes for the true God that were brought in by the Gnostics and the Cerinthians, as revealed in this Epistle and in John’s Gospel and as referred to in the preceding verse. The idols here also refer to anything that replaces the real God. As genuine children of the genuine God, we should be on the alert to guard ourselves from these heretical substitutes and from all vain replacements for our genuine and real God, with whom we are organically one and who is eternal life to us. This is the aged apostle’s word of warning to all his little children as a conclusion to his Epistle.
The center of this Epistle’s revelation is the divine fellowship of the divine life, the fellowship between the children of God and their Father God, who is not only the source of the divine life but is also light and love as the source of the enjoyment of the divine life (1:1-7; 4:8, 16). To enjoy the divine life we need to abide in its fellowship according to the divine anointing (2:12-28; 3:24), based on the divine birth with the divine seed for the development of the divine birth (2:29 — 3:10). This divine birth was carried out by three means: the terminating water, the redeeming blood, and the germinating Spirit (vv. 1-13). By these we have been born of God to be His children, possessing His divine life and partaking of His divine nature (2:29 — 3:1). He is now indwelling us through His Spirit (3:24; 4:4, 13) to be our life and life supply that we may grow with His divine element unto His likeness at His manifestation (3:1-2). To abide in the divine fellowship of the divine life, that is, to abide in the Lord (2:6; 3:6), is to enjoy all His divine riches. By such abiding we walk in the divine light (1:5-7) and practice the truth, righteousness, love, the will of God, and the commandments of God (1:6; 2:29, 5; 3:10-11; 2:17; 5:2) by the divine life received through the divine birth (2:29; 4:7). To preserve ourselves in this abiding in the divine fellowship, three main negative things need to be dealt with. The first is sin, which is lawlessness and unrighteousness (1:7 — 2:6; 3:4-10; 5:16-18); the second is the world, which is composed of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of this life (2:15-17; 4:3-5; 5:4-5, 19); and the last is idols, which are the heretical substitutes for the genuine God and the vain replacements for the real God (v. 21). These three categories of exceedingly evil things are weapons used by the evil one, the devil, to frustrate, harm, and, if possible, even annihilate our abiding in the divine fellowship. The safeguard against his evildoings is our divine birth with the divine life (v. 18); and, based on the fact that through His death on the cross the Son of God destroyed the works of the devil (3:8), we overcome him by the word of God that abides in us (2:14). By virtue of our divine birth we also overcome his evil world by our faith in the Son of God (vv. 4-5). Moreover, our divine birth with the divine seed that was sown into our inner being enables us not to live habitually in sin (3:9; 5:18), because Christ has taken away sins through His death in the flesh (3:5). In case we sin occasionally, we have our Advocate as our propitiatory sacrifice to take care of our case before our Father God (2:1-2), and His everlasting efficacious blood cleanses us (1:7). Such a revelation is the basic and substantial element of the apostle’s mending ministry.
< 1 John • 2 John Outline >
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2 John Outline
I.   Introduction — vv. 1-3
A.   Loving in truthfulness for the truth — vv. 1-2
B.   Grace, mercy, and peace in truth and love — v. 3
II.   The walk in truth and love — vv. 4-6
A.   In truth — v. 4
B.   In love — vv. 5-6
III.   Not participating in heresy — vv. 7-11
A.   The heretics — vv. 7-9
B.   Not sharing in the heretical works — vv. 10-11
IV.   Conclusion — vv. 12-13
A.   The hope for closer fellowship for more joy — v. 12
B.   Greeting in the endearing care — v. 13
2 John >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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2 John
Notes and Cross-references
2J 11a elder  -   3 John 1; Acts 11:30; 14:23; 20:17, 28; 1 Tim. 5:17
The apostle John, like Peter, was an elder in the church at Jerusalem before its destruction in A.D. 70 (Gal. 2:9, and note 13 in 1 Pet. 5). According to history, after returning from his exile, John stayed in Ephesus to care for the churches in Asia. Thus, he was probably also an elder in the church at Ephesus, where he wrote this Epistle.
2J 1b chosen  -   2 John 13
2J 12 lady
Gk. kuria, the feminine form of kurios, which means lord, master. There are different interpretations of the word here. The most preferred is as follows: it refers to a Christian sister of some prominence in the church, as does co-chosen in 1 Pet. 5:13. Kuria might have been her name, since it was a common name at that time. Some mention that according to history she lived near Ephesus and that her sister (v. 13) lived in Ephesus, where the church was under John’s care. There was a church in her locality, and it met in her home.
2J 1c love  -   3 John 1
2J 13d truthfulness  -   1 John 3:18
The same as the Greek word for truth. According to John’s usage of this word, especially in his Gospel, here it denotes the revealed divine reality — the Triune God dispensed into man in the Son, Jesus Christ — becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity, that man may live a life that corresponds with the divine light (John 3:19-21) and worship God, as God seeks, according to what He is (John 4:23-24). This is the virtue of God (Rom. 3:7; 15:8) becoming our virtue, by which we love the believers (see note 66, point 7, in 1 John 1). In such genuineness the apostle John, who lived in the divine reality of the Trinity, loved the one to whom he wrote.
2J 14 those
Those who not only have received Christ by believing that He is both God and man but also fully know the truth concerning the person of Christ.
2J 15 truth
Denoting the divine reality of the gospel (see note 66 in 1 John 1), especially concerning the person of Christ as revealed in John’s Gospel and first Epistle, that is, that Christ is both God and man, having both deity and humanity, possessing both the divine nature and the human nature, to express God in human life and to accomplish redemption with divine power in human flesh for fallen human beings that He may impart the divine life into them and bring them into an organic union with God. The second and third Epistles of John stress this truth. The second warns the faithful believers against receiving those who do not abide in this truth — in the teaching concerning Christ. The third encourages the believers to receive and help those who work for this truth.
2J 21 For
With his mending ministry concerning the revelation of the person of Christ, the apostle John, in his Gospel and first Epistle, inoculated the believers against the heresies regarding Christ’s divinity and humanity. Because of such an inoculating truth, he and all those who knew this truth loved those who were faithful to this truth (v. 1).
2J 22 truth
The divine reality, defined in note 15. This divine reality, which is actually the Triune God, abides in us now and will be with us for eternity.
2J 2a abides  -   1 John 2:24, 27
2J 2b with  -   John 14:16; cf. Matt. 1:23; 28:20
2J 3a Grace  -   1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; John 1:14, 16, 17; 2 Cor. 13:14
2J 3b peace  -   1 Pet. 1:2; Jude 2
2J 31 us
Some MSS read, you.
2J 32 truth
Truth here denotes the divine reality of the gospel, as defined in note 15, especially concerning the person of Christ, who expressed God and accomplished God’s purpose; love is the believers’ expression in loving one another through receiving and knowing the truth. These two matters are the basic structure of this Epistle. In them grace, mercy, and peace will be with us. The apostle greeted and blessed the believers with grace, mercy, and peace, based on the fact that these two crucial things existed among the believers. When we walk in the truth (v. 4) and love one another (v. 5), we will enjoy the divine grace, mercy, and peace.
2J 41 rejoiced
The truth concerning the person of Christ is the basic and central element of John’s mending ministry. When he found the children of the faithful believer walking in truth, he rejoiced greatly (3 John 3-4).
2J 4a walking  -   3 John 3, 4
2J 42 truth
The divine reality, especially concerning the person of Christ, as defined in note 15. The Father commands us to walk in this reality, that is, in the realization of the divine fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (cf. Matt. 17:5), that we may honor the Son as the Father desires (John 5:23).
2J 43b commandment  -   2 John 6; 1 John 5:2
See note 341 in John 13. So in the succeeding verses.
2J 5a new  -   1 John 2:7-8
2J 51 that
The commandment given by the Son that we love one another (John 13:34). The Father commands us to walk in the truth that we may honor the Son, and the Son commands us to love one another that we may express Him.
2J 52 from
See note 12, par. 2, in 1 John 1.
2J 5b love  -   2 John 3; 1 John 3:23
2J 6a love  -   1 John 5:3
2J 6b walk  -   2 John 4
2J 61 love
Lit., it.
2J 71 deceivers
Heretics, such as the Cerinthians, the false prophets (1 John 4:1).
2J 7a went  -   1 John 2:18; 4:1
2J 72 do
That is, do not confess that Jesus is God incarnate, thus denying the deity of Christ.
2J 7b not  -   1 John 2:22; 4:3
2J 73 in
See note 22 in 1 John 4.
2J 74 antichrist
See notes 182 and 222 in 1 John 2.
2J 81a Look  -   Mark 13:9
I.e., watch yourselves, watch for yourselves.
2J 82 lose
Or, destroy, ruin.
2J 83 things
The things that the apostles wrought were the things of the truth concerning Christ, which the apostles ministered and imparted to the believers. To be influenced by the heresies regarding the person of Christ was to lose, destroy, and ruin the precious things concerning the person of Christ that the apostles had wrought into the believers. The apostle warned the believers to watch for themselves lest they be influenced by the heresies and lose the things of the truth.
2J 84 reward
According to the context, especially v. 9, the full reward must be the Father and the Son as the full enjoyment to the faithful believers, who abide in the truth concerning the person of Christ and do not deviate from it under the influence of the heresies regarding Christ. This interpretation is justified by the fact that there is no indication that this reward will be given in the future, as will the rewards mentioned in Matt. 5:12; 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:8, 13-14; Heb. 10:35-36; and Rev. 11:18; 22:12. If we would not be led astray by the heresies but would abide faithfully in the truth concerning the wonderful and all-inclusive Christ, who is both God and man, both our Creator and our Redeemer, we will enjoy in Him the Triune God to the fullest extent as our full reward, even today on earth.
2J 91 goes
Lit., leads forward (in a negative sense); i.e., goes further than what is right, advances beyond the limit of orthodox teaching concerning Christ. This is in contrast to abiding in the teaching of Christ. The Cerinthian Gnostics, who boasted of their advanced thinking concerning the teaching of Christ, practiced this. They went beyond the teaching of the divine conception of Christ, thus denying the deity of Christ. Consequently, they could not have God in salvation and in life.
2J 92 teaching
Not the teaching by Christ but the teaching concerning Christ, that is, the truth concerning the deity of Christ, especially regarding His incarnation by divine conception.
2J 9a not  -   1 John 2:23
2J 93 has
To have God is to have both the Father and the Son. It is through the process of incarnation that God has been dispensed to us in the Son with the Father (1 John 2:23) to be our enjoyment and reality (John 1:1, 14). In the incarnated God we have the Son in His redemption and the Father in His life. We are thus redeemed and regenerated to be one with God organically that we may partake of and enjoy Him in salvation and in life. Hence, to deny the incarnation is to reject this divine enjoyment; but to abide in the truth of incarnation is to have God, as the Father and the Son, for our portion in the eternal salvation and in the divine life.
2J 10a not  -   Gal. 1:8-9
2J 101 bring
Not only teach it as a theory but bring it as a reality.
2J 10b not  -   cf. Rom. 16:17; 2 Thes. 3:14; Titus 3:10; 1 Cor. 5:11
2J 102 him
A heretic, an antichrist (v. 7; 1 John 2:22), a false prophet (1 John 4:1), one who denies the divine conception and deity of Christ, as today’s modernists do. Such a one we must reject, not receiving him into our house nor greeting him. Thus we will not have any contact with him or any share in his heresy, heresy that is blasphemous to God and contagious like leprosy.
2J 103 Rejoice
The Greek word means be happy, rejoice, hail; it is used for greeting or bidding farewell.
2J 11a shares  -   cf. 1 Tim. 5:22; 1 Cor. 5:6; Lev. 13:45-46
2J 111 evil
Just as bringing to others the divine truth of the wonderful Christ is an excellent deed (Rom. 10:15), so spreading the satanic heresy, which defiles the glorious deity of Christ, is an evil work. It is a blasphemy and abomination to God. It is also a damage and curse to men. No one who is a believer in Christ and a child of God should have any share in this evil! Even to greet such an evil one is prohibited! A severe and clear separation from this evil should be maintained!
2J 12a many  -   3 John 13
2J 121b hoping  -   3 John 14
The apostle expressed his desire for a deeper and richer fellowship with the church member for fullness of joy in the enjoyment of the divine life (1 John 1:2-4).
2J 122 face
Lit., mouth to mouth.
2J 123 our
Some MSS read, your.
2J 12c joy  -   1 John 1:4
2J 131 children
This indicates what an intimate fellowship with the church members and what an endearing care for them the aged elder had.
In carrying out his mending ministry with the divine life of the Triune God, the aged apostle John’s endearing care for the believers was that the believers would walk in God’s truth. God’s truth is that the Triune God was incarnated to be the God-man, Christ, who had both divinity and humanity, who through crucifixion accomplished eternal redemption and through resurrection became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, to be received by those who repent and believe in Him, as their life and as their everything. The aged apostle’s desire was that the believers would love one another in this truth by the divine love of the Triune God to express Him. This truth, this reality, became the genuineness in the apostle’s walk, the divine virtue expressed in his redeemed humanity. He loved the believers whom he cared for, in the genuineness of the divine virtue. His love toward the believers was his living, in which the reality, the truth, of the Triune God was joined to the love of the Triune God. Based on this love, he also earnestly hoped that the believers whom he cared for would be the same as he, that they would love one another and have nothing to do with the heretics, those who went beyond the truth concerning the Trinity. The aged apostle’s desire was that the believers whom he cared for would remain continually in the divine truth to enjoy the Father and the Son by the Spirit unto eternity.
2J 13a chosen  -   2 John 1; 1 Pet. 5:13
2J 132 sister
That she did not join in the greeting may indicate that she had died.
< 2 John • 3 John Outline >
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3 John Outline
I.   Introduction — vv. 1-4
A.   Loving in truthfulness — v. 1
B.   Prospering in all things and in health — v. 2
C.   Walking in the truth — vv. 3-4
II.   Hospitality to the traveling workers — vv. 5-8
A.   Given faithfully, in love, and in a manner worthy of God — vv. 5-6
B.   By the fellow workers in the truth — vv. 7-8
III.   Imitation not of the evil but of the good — vv. 9-12
A.   The self-exalting and domineering Diotrephes — an evil pattern — vv. 9-11
B.   The well-reported Demetrius — a good example — v. 12
IV.   Conclusion — vv. 13-14
A.   The hope for closer fellowship — vv. 13-14a
B.   Mutual greetings — v. 14b
3 John >
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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3 John
Notes and Cross-references
3J 11 elder
See note 11 in 2 John.
3J 12 Gaius
Not the Gaius of Macedonia in Acts 19:29, nor the Gaius of Derbe in Acts 20:4, nor the Gaius of Corinth in 1 Cor. 1:14 and Rom. 16:23, but another named Gaius (the name was very common at that time). According to the contents of this Epistle, he must have been an outstanding brother in the church.
3J 1a beloved  -   3 John 2, 5, 11
3J 1b love  -   2 John 1
3J 13c truthfulness  -   1 John 3:18
See note 13 in 2 John.
3J 21 all
According to the context of the verse, this refers to external and material things.
3J 22 wish
Probably in the sense of prayer.
3J 23 prosper
The Greek word means to go on well, as in a journey (Rom. 1:10). I.e., to succeed in reaching a desired end; thus, to prosper.
3J 24 health
Bodily health, as in Luke 5:31; 7:10; and 15:27.
3J 25 soul
Man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23 and note 5). The soul is the organ that mediates between the body and the spirit; it possesses self-consciousness, that man may have his personality. It is contained in the body and is the vessel to contain the spirit. As to the believer, God as the Spirit dwells in his regenerated spirit (Rom. 8:9, 16) and spreads from his spirit to saturate his soul that it may be transformed to express Him (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). This is the prosperity of the believer’s soul. When our soul is occupied and directed by the Spirit of God through our spirit so that it directs and uses our body for God’s purposes, it prospers. The apostle wished that the recipient, who was a beloved brother, outstanding in such a prosperity of his soul, might prosper in all things and in bodily health, just as his soul prospered in the divine life.
3J 31 rejoiced
See note 41 in 2 John.
3J 3a testifying  -   3 John 6, 12
3J 32 your
Lit., your truth. This is the truth concerning Christ, especially His deity (see note 15 in 2 John). By the revelation of this truth the recipient’s way of life was determined, and the recipient held to this truth as his fundamental belief. It is the objective truth that had become subjective in the recipient’s daily walk.
3J 33 walk
The recipient not only held to the truth but also walked and lived in the truth. The truth concerning the person of Christ should be not only our belief but also our living, a living that testifies to our belief.
3J 34 truth
See note 42 in v. 4.
3J 4a children  -   1 Cor. 4:14-15; 1 Thes. 2:11; 1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philem. 10
3J 4b truth  -   cf. Prov. 23:23
3J 5a Beloved  -   3 John 1
3J 5b faithfully  -   1 Cor. 4:2
3J 51 whatever
Referring to the providing of hospitality (as taught by Paul in Rom. 12:13 and Heb. 13:2), the receiving of the brothers (vv. 7-8) who traveled for the gospel and the ministry of the word.
3J 52c strangers  -   cf. Matt. 25:35
Most of the recipients of the hospitality were strangers, unacquainted with Gaius.
3J 6a testified  -   3 John 3, 12
3J 61 love
In the past.
3J 62 church
The church where the apostle was.
3J 63 will
In the future. On one hand, the apostle praised Gaius for what he had done in receiving the traveling brothers in the past; on the other hand, he encouraged him to send them forward in the future.
3J 6b send  -   1 Cor. 16:6, 11
3J 64c worthy  -   Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 2:12; cf. Eph. 4:1; 2 Thes. 1:5, 11
The sending forward should be in a manner that matches God, who is generous, indicating that the sending forward must be with generosity.
3J 71a Name  -   John 15:21; Acts 4:10; 9:28; 16:18; 19:17
The exalted and glorious name of the wonderful Christ (Phil. 2:9 and note 3; Acts 5:41; James 2:7).
3J 72 Gentiles
The pagans, who have nothing to do with God’s move on this earth to carry out His economy. If anyone who works for God’s New Testament economy receives help for God’s work, especially financial support, from the unbelievers, this is a shame and even an insult to God. In the apostle’s time, the brothers who worked for God took nothing from the pagans.
3J 81 support
The Greek word is made up of two words: under and to take; thus, to take up (from underneath), that is, to undertake, to sustain, to support. We, the believers, including the apostle, ought to support and undertake for the needs of the brothers who work for God in His divine truth and who take nothing from the Gentiles.
3J 8a fellow  -   Phil. 2:25; 4:3
3J 82 truth
Denoting the revealed divine reality as the contents of the New Testament, according to the apostles’ teaching concerning the Divine Trinity, especially the person of the Lord Jesus, for God’s economy. All the apostles and faithful brothers worked for this.
3J 91 church
Of which Gaius was a member.
3J 92 Diotrephes
The Greek word is made up of of Zeus (Zeus was the chief of the gods in the Greek pantheon) and to nourish; hence, Zeus-nourished. This indicates that Diotrephes, a professing Christian, never dropped his pagan name, contrary to the practice of the early believers, who took a Christian name at their baptism. According to history, he advocated the Gnostic heresy, which blasphemed the person of Christ. It is no wonder that he mingled with the believers as one who loved to be first among them.
3J 93 to
This is against the words of the Lord in Matt. 20:25-27 and 23:8-11, which keep all His believers on the same level, that of brothers. In 2 John 9 the Cerinthian Gnostics took the lead to advance in doctrine beyond the teaching concerning Christ. Here in 3 John 9 is one who was under the influence of Gnostic heretical doctrine and loved to be first in the church. The former was a matter of intellectual arrogance; the latter, of self-exaltation in one’s actions. These two evils are sharp weapons used by God’s enemy, Satan, to execute his evil plot against God’s economy. One damages the believers’ faith in the divine reality; the other frustrates the believers’ work in God’s move.
3J 9a first  -   cf. Matt. 23:6; Mark 12:38-39; Luke 11:43; 20:46
3J 94 receive
I.e., receive hospitably.
3J 101 babbling
The Greek word is derived from a word meaning to boil over, to overflow with words, to talk idly; hence, to babble, to speak folly or nonsense.
3J 102 evil
The Greek word means pernicious, as in 1 John 5:19 (see note 4 there).
3J 10a casts  -   cf. John 9:22, 34
3J 11a imitate  -   1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1
3J 111b evil  -   1 Pet. 3:11; Psa. 34:14; 37:27; Isa. 1:16-17
The Greek word means worthless, wicked, depraved.
3J 112 does
The Greek word means to be a well-doer (as a favor or a duty), practicing good; hence, to do good.
3J 11c good  -   John 5:29
3J 113 of
Lit., out of (see note 191 in 1 John 5). God is the source of good. A well-doer, a doer of good, is one who is out of God and who belongs to God (cf. 1 John 3:8).
3J 114 does
The Greek word means to be an evildoer, practicing evil; hence, to do evil.
3J 115d not  -   1 John 3:6
An evildoer not only is not out of God but has not even seen God.
3J 121 Demetrius
Demetrius, who might have been one of the brothers who traveled in working for the Lord (vv. 5-8), perhaps was the one who bore this Epistle to Gaius. Hence, it was necessary that he receive a favorable and strong commendation from the writer.
3J 12a testimony  -   3 John 3, 6
3J 122 all
This indicates that Demetrius must have been a brother working among the churches, and thus was well known.
3J 123 truth
The revealed truth of God as the reality of the essence of the Christian faith (see note 66 in 1 John 1). This truth is the divine rule for the walk of all believers, and by it the believers’ walk is determined. Thus, it gives good testimony to him who walks in it, as it did to Demetrius.
3J 124 we
The apostle John and his associates.
3J 125b true  -   John 19:35; 21:24
The Greek word (an adjective akin to truth (reality) — cf. note 205 in 1 John 5) means genuine, real; hence, true.
3J 13a many  -   2 John 12
3J 141a hope  -   2 John 12
See note 121 in 2 John.
3J 142 face
Lit., mouth to mouth.
3J 14b friends  -   John 11:11
3J 14c name  -   cf. John 10:3
< 3 John • Jude Outline >
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Jude Outline
I.   Introduction — to those called, beloved, and kept — vv. 1-2
II.   Contending for the faith — v. 3
III.   Heresies of the apostates — v. 4
IV.   Historical examples of the Lord’s judgment upon apostasy — vv. 5-7
V.   The evils of the apostates and their punishment under the Lord’s judgment — vv. 8-19
VI.   Charges to the believers — vv. 20-23
A.   To build up themselves upon the most holy faith and to live in the Triune God — vv. 20-21
B.   To care for others with mercy in fear — vv. 22-23
VII.   Conclusion — praise to Him who is able to guard and set the believers before His glory — vv. 24-25
Jude >
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Jude
Notes and Cross-references
Jd 11 Jude
Both Jude and James, who wrote the Epistle of James (James 1:1), were brothers of the Lord Jesus in the flesh (Matt. 13:55).
Jd 1a called  -   Rom. 1:6; 1 Cor. 1:24; 1 Pet. 1:15
Jd 1b beloved  -   Rom. 1:7; 1 Thes. 1:4
Jd 1c kept  -   Jude 24; 1 Pet. 1:5; John 17:12, 15; 1 Thes. 5:23
Jd 12 by
Or, for. By points to the strength for and means of keeping; for points to the purpose for and object of keeping. All the believers have been given to the Lord by the Father (John 17:6). They are being kept for Him and by Him.
Jd 21a Mercy  -   Matt. 9:13; Rom. 9:15-16, 18, 23; 2 Tim. 1:16
That mercy is mentioned instead of grace in the greeting may be due to the church’s degradation and apostasy (cf. vv. 21-22). See note 21 in 2 Tim. 1.
Jd 2b peace  -   1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:2; 2 John 3
Jd 2c love  -   Eph. 6:23
Jd 31 common
General salvation, common to and held by all believers, like the common faith (Titus 1:4).
Jd 32a contend  -   1 Tim. 6:12
Lit., struggle.
Jd 33 faith
Not subjective faith as our believing but objective faith as our belief, referring to the things we believe in, the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints. For this faith we should earnestly contend (1 Tim. 6:12).
Jd 3b saints  -   Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2
Jd 41 For
Verses 4-19 closely parallel 2 Pet. 2. This indicates that this Epistle was written in the time of the church’s apostasy and degradation.
Jd 42a crept  -   Gal. 2:4
Lit., gotten in by the side, or, slipped in by a side door (cf. secretly bring in in 2 Pet. 2:1, and note 2 there).
Jd 43 written
I.e., in the prophecies.
Jd 44 this
The judgment, unfolded in the succeeding verses, on the apostates’ creeping in unnoticed. Judgment here is condemnation for punishment; it refers to being condemned to be punished.
Jd 4b ungodly  -   Jude 15, 18; 2 Pet. 2:5-6; 3:7
Jd 45 perverting
The evil of the heretical apostates was (1) their perverting of the grace of God into wantonness, into the abusing of freedom (cf. Gal. 5:13; 1 Pet. 2:16), and (2) their denying of the headship and lordship of the Lord. These two go together. Turning the grace of God into an abuse of freedom for the purpose of wantonness requires denying the Lord’s rule and authority.
Jd 4c grace  -   1 Pet. 1:10, 13; 2 Pet. 3:18; Acts 11:23; Heb. 12:15
Jd 46d licentiousness  -   2 Pet. 2:2, 7, 18
Or, wantonness; the same Greek word as for licentiousness in 1 Pet. 4:3 and 2 Pet. 2:2.
Jd 4e denying  -   2 Pet. 2:1
See note 45.
Jd 47 our
Or, the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jd 5a remind  -   2 Pet. 1:12-13; 3:1
Jd 51 the
Some MSS read, Jesus.
Jd 5b out  -   Exo. 13:3, 9
Jd 52 afterward
Lit., secondly.
Jd 53c destroyed  -   1 Cor. 10:5-11; Heb. 3:16-18; Jude 11
See note 15, point 1, in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 6a angels  -   2 Pet. 2:4
Jd 61 principality
The Greek word means beginning (of power), first place (of authority); hence, original dignity in a high position. The fallen angels did not keep their original dignity and position but abandoned their own dwelling place, which is in heaven, to come to earth at Noah’s time to commit fornication with the daughters of men (Gen. 6:2; 1 Pet. 3:19 and note 3).
Jd 62 own
I.e., heaven.
Jd 6b bonds  -   cf. Rev. 20:2
Jd 63 gloom
In the gloomy pits of Tartarus (2 Pet. 2:4).
Jd 64c judgment  -   2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 20:12-13
Probably the final judgment of the great white throne (see note 44 in 2 Pet. 2).
Jd 7a Sodom  -   2 Pet. 2:6; Gen. 19:24
Jd 71 in
I.e., in the same manner as the fallen angels mentioned in the preceding verse. This proves that the angels in the preceding verse were the sons of God in Gen. 6:2, who, putting on human bodies, took humans as wives and committed fornication with different flesh, i.e., with human beings, who are different from angels. The males of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities indulged their lust with males (Rom. 1:27; Lev. 18:22), with flesh that was different from what God had ordained, according to the nature of His creation, for human marriage (Gen. 2:18-24). By committing fornication with different flesh in this way, they acted in the same manner as the angels in the preceding verse and, consequently, underwent the penalty of eternal fire.
Jd 7b different  -   Rom. 1:27; Lev. 18:22-23
Jd 7c example  -   cf. Num. 26:10
Jd 7d penalty  -   2 Thes. 1:9
Jd 81 these
The ungodly men spoken of in v. 4 were dreamers, bearing the name of Christian yet doing things as in dreams, such as perverting the grace of God into licentiousness to defile their flesh, and denying Jesus Christ as our only Master and Lord, despising His lordship and reviling the authorities in His heavenly government.
Jd 8a defile  -   2 Pet. 2:10, 20
Jd 82 lordship
See note 102 in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 83 dignities
See note 104 in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 91a Michael  -   Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Rev. 12:7
See note 111 in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 9b archangel  -   1 Thes. 4:16
Jd 9c devil  -   Matt. 4:1; Rev. 12:9
Jd 92 body
Moses’ body was buried by the Lord in a valley in the land of Moab, in a place known by no man (Deut. 34:6). It must have been done purposely in this manner by the Lord. When Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3), Moses must have been manifested in his body, which had been kept by the Lord and resurrected. In view of this, probably, the devil attempted to do something to Moses’ body, and the archangel argued with him concerning this. The reference in 2 Pet. 2:11 is general, but this is a definite case, concerning the body of Moses.
Jd 93 did
See note 112 in 2 Pet. 2. This indicates that in the Lord’s heavenly government the devil, Satan, was even higher than the archangel Michael. God appointed him and set him so (Ezek. 28:14). In any case, Satan was under the Lord, so Michael said to him, “The Lord rebuke you.” Michael kept his position in the order of divine authority.
Jd 9d reviling  -   2 Pet. 2:11
Jd 9e rebuke  -   Zech. 3:2
Jd 101 these
Referring to the dreamers in v. 8.
Jd 102 know
Know denotes a deeper sensing of invisible things, and understand denotes a superficial realization of visible objects.
Jd 103 naturally
Or, instinctively. These dreamers revile what they do not know but should know; and what they understand they understand naturally, instinctively, without reason, like animals of instinct. They do not use reason to exercise man’s deeper and higher knowledge, which includes the consciousness of man’s conscience. What they practice is shallow and base instinctive understanding, like that of animals, which are without human reason. By behaving in this way, they are being corrupted, or destroyed.
Jd 104a animals  -   2 Pet. 2:12
Lit., living creatures (including men); indicating men who live like animals.
Jd 105 without
See note 122 in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 106 in
Or, by.
Jd 107 corrupted
See note 15, point 3, in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 11a Woe  -   Matt. 23:13; Rev. 8:13; 12:12
Jd 111 way
The way of religiously serving God according to one’s own will, heretically rejecting the redemption by blood required and ordained by God, and according to the flesh envying God’s true people because of their faithful testimony to God (Gen. 4:2-8).
Jd 11b Cain  -   1 John 3:12
Jd 112 rushed
Lit., been poured out. I.e., gave themselves up to, rushed headlong into, ran riotously in.
Jd 113 error
The error of teaching wrong doctrine for reward, while knowing it to be contrary to the truth and against the people of God, and abusively using the influence of certain gifts to lead the people of God astray from the pure worship of the Lord to idolatrous worship (Num. 22:7, 21; 31:16; Rev. 2:14). Coveting for reward will cause the coveting ones to rush headlong into the error of Balaam.
Jd 11c Balaam  -   2 Pet. 2:15
Jd 114d perished  -   2 Pet. 3:6, 9
I.e., were destroyed (v. 5). See note 15, point 1, in 2 Pet. 2.
Jd 115 rebellion
Lit., contradiction, speaking against. This is rebellion against God’s deputy authority in His government and against His word spoken by His deputy (such as Moses). This brings in destruction (Num. 16:1-40).
Jd 121 hidden
The Greek word means a rock. It “may allude here to a sunken rock with the sea over it” (Darby); hence, hidden reefs. The Greek word for spots in 2 Pet. 2:13 is very similar to the word here for hidden reefs; hence, some translations render this word spots. Actually, these two words refer to two different things. The spots are defects on the surface of precious stones; the hidden reefs are at the bottom of the water. The early heretics were not only spots on the surface but also hidden reefs at the bottom, both of which were a damage to the believers in Christ.
Jd 122 love
Feasts of love motivated by God’s love (the higher love — 1 John 4:10-11, 21). In early days the believers often ate together in love for fellowship and worship (Acts 2:46). This kind of feasting was joined to the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11:20-21, 33) and was called a love feast.
Jd 12a feasting  -   2 Pet. 2:13
Jd 123b shepherding  -   Ezek. 34:2, 8, 10
The pleasure-seeking heretics (2 Pet. 2:13) pretended to be shepherds, but at the love feasts they fed only themselves, having no concern for others. Toward others, they were waterless clouds, having no life supply to render.
Jd 124c waterless  -   Prov. 25:14
Cf. 2 Pet. 2:17 and note 1.
Jd 12d winds  -   Eph. 4:14
Jd 125 autumn
Autumn is a season for reaping fruit. The self-seeking apostates seemed to be fruit trees in season, but they had no fruit to satisfy others. They had died twice, not only outwardly, in appearance, as most trees do in autumn, but also inwardly, in nature. They were thoroughly dead; hence, it was right that they were uprooted.
Jd 12e without  -   Matt. 21:19
Jd 12f rooted  -   Matt. 15:13; cf. Luke 13:6-9
Jd 131 Wild
Shepherds, clouds, trees, and stars are positive figures in biblical metaphor, but hidden reefs, waves, and the sea are negative. These apostates were false shepherds, empty clouds, dead trees, and wandering stars; they were also hidden reefs and wild, raging waves of the sea, foaming out, without restraint, their own shames.
Jd 13a waves  -   Isa. 57:20; James 1:6
Jd 13b shames  -   Rom. 6:21; 2 Cor. 4:2
Jd 132 wandering
The metaphor of wandering stars indicates that the erratic teachers, the apostates, were not solidly fixed in the unchanging truths of the heavenly revelation but were wandering about among God’s starlike people (Dan. 12:3; Rev. 1:20). Their destiny is the gloom of darkness, which has been kept for them for eternity. The erratic apostates are wandering stars today, but they will be imprisoned in the gloom of darkness.
Jd 13c gloom  -   2 Pet. 2:17
Jd 14a Enoch  -   Gen. 5:18
Jd 14b prophesied  -   1 Pet. 1:10; 2 Pet. 1:19; 3:2
Jd 141c came  -   cf. Deut. 33:2
This must be the manifestation of the Lord’s parousia (coming) as mentioned in 2 Thes. 2:8 and note 3, Matt. 24:27, 30, and Zech. 14:4-5.
Jd 142 with
Lit., in, or, among.
Jd 143 myriads
Probably including, as in Zech. 14:5, the saints (1 Thes. 3:13) and the angels (Matt. 16:27; 25:31; Mark 8:38).
Jd 151 judgment
The Lord’s coming is for the carrying out of God’s governmental judgment, which will deal with all the ungodly ones. See note 172, par. 2, in 1 Pet. 1.
Jd 15a ungodly  -   Jude 4; 1 Tim. 1:9
Jd 15b spoken  -   Mal. 3:13
Jd 16a murmurers  -   Exo. 15:24; 17:3; Num. 16:11, 41; Psa. 106:25
Jd 16b lusts  -   Jude 18; 1 Pet. 4:2; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2:10
Jd 16c great  -   2 Pet. 2:18
Jd 16d flattering  -   cf. Psa. 5:9; 1 Thes. 2:5
Jd 161 persons
Lit., faces.
Jd 16e advantage  -   2 Pet. 2:3, 15
Jd 17a remember  -   2 Pet. 1:15; 3:2
Jd 17b apostles  -   2 Pet. 3:2; 1 Pet. 1:1
Jd 181a last  -   1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Tim. 3:1
See note 12 in 2 Tim. 3.
Jd 18b mockers  -   2 Pet. 3:3
Jd 18c lusts  -   Jude 16; James 1:14-15; 4:1
Jd 18d ungodliness  -   Jude 4, 15
Jd 19a divisions  -   Rom. 16:17; 2:8; cf. 1 Cor. 11:19
Jd 191b soulish  -   1 Cor. 2:14
The adjective form of soul. “The psyche [soul] is the center of the personal being, the ‘I’ of each individual. It is in each man bound to the spirit, man’s higher part, and to the body, man’s lower part; drawn upwards by the one, downwards by the other. He who gives himself up to the lower appetites, is fleshly: he who by communion of his spirit with God’s Spirit is employed in the higher aims of his being, is spiritual. He who rests midway, thinking only of self and self’s interests, whether animal or intellectual, is the psychikos, the selfish man, the man in whom the spirit is sunk and degraded into subordination to the subordinate psyche [soul]” (Alford).
Jd 192 spirit
The human spirit, not the Spirit of God. The apostates are devoid of spirit. They “have not indeed ceased to have a spirit, as a part of their own tripartite nature [1 Thes. 5:23]: but they have ceased to possess it in any worthy sense: it is degraded beneath and under the power of the psyche [soul], the personal life, so as to have no real vitality of its own” (Alford). They do not care for their spirit or use it. They do not contact God by their spirit in communion with the Spirit of God; neither do they live and walk in their spirit. They have been drawn downward by their flesh and have become fleshy, so that they have lost the consciousness of their conscience (see note 122 in 2 Pet. 2) and have become like animals without reason (v. 10).
Jd 20a building  -   Col. 2:7; 1 Thes. 5:11
Jd 201 upon
Or, in.
Jd 202 faith
Objective faith, referring to the precious things of the New Testament in which we believe for our salvation in Christ (see note 33). On the foundation of this holy faith, and in the sphere of it, by praying in the Holy Spirit, we build up ourselves. The truth of the faith in our apprehension and the Holy Spirit enjoyed through our prayer are necessary for our building up. Both the faith and the Spirit are holy.
Jd 20b Spirit  -   Rom. 8:26; cf. Eph. 6:18
Jd 211 Keep
We should keep ourselves in the love of God by building up ourselves upon our holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit (v. 20); thus we await and look for the mercy of our Lord that we may not only enjoy eternal life in this age but also inherit it for eternity (Matt. 19:29).
Jd 21a love  -   John 15:10; Rom. 5:5; 8:39; 2 Cor. 13:14
Jd 21b awaiting  -   2 Pet. 3:12
Jd 212 mercy
See note 21.
Jd 213 Lord
The entire Blessed Trinity is employed and enjoyed by the believers in their praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping themselves in the love of God, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord unto eternal life.
Jd 214 unto
Referring to the inheritance and enjoyment of eternal life, the life of God, which is the goal of our spiritual seeking. Because we aim at this goal, we desire to be kept in the love of God and await the mercy of our Lord.
Jd 21c eternal  -   John 3:15, 36; 1 Tim. 6:12, 19
Jd 221 on
Some MSS read, some convince, those who are wavering.
Jd 222 wavering
Or, disputing.
Jd 23a Save  -   cf. James 5:20
Jd 231b snatching  -   Zech. 3:2; Amos 4:11
This metaphor is probably adopted from Zech. 3:2.
Jd 232 fire
The fire of God’s holiness for His judgment (Matt. 3:10, 12; 5:22).
Jd 233 in
While we are having mercy on others, we should be in fear of the awful contagion of sin, hating even the things spotted by the lust of the flesh. On fear, see note 174 in 1 Pet. 1.
Jd 23c fear  -   1 Pet. 3:2, 15; Psa. 2:11
Jd 23d spotted  -   cf. Rev. 3:4
Jd 23e flesh  -   Jude 8; 2 Pet. 2:10
Jd 241a But  -   1 Pet. 5:10
In this concluding praise the writer indicated clearly that although he had charged the believers to endeavor in the things mentioned in vv. 20-23, only God our Savior was able to guard them from stumbling and set them before His glory without blemish in exultation. To Him be glory…!
Jd 24b able  -   Rom. 16:25
Jd 24c guard  -   1 Pet. 1:5; John 17:11-12, 15
Jd 24d stumbling  -   2 Pet. 1:10
Jd 242 glory
The glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, which will be manifested at His appearing (Titus 2:13; 1 Pet. 4:13) and in which He will come (Luke 9:26).
Jd 24e without  -   2 Pet. 3:14; Eph. 1:4; 5:27; Phil. 2:15; Rev. 14:5; cf. 1 Pet. 1:19
Jd 243 in
In the element of.
Jd 244f exultation  -   1 Pet. 1:6; 4:13
“The word signifies the exuberance of triumphant joy” (Alford).
Jd 25a only  -   John 5:44; Rom. 16:27; 1 Tim. 1:17
Jd 251 God
The only God is our Savior, and the man Jesus Christ is our Lord. To such a Savior, through such a Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority throughout all ages.
Jd 25b Savior  -   Luke 1:47; 1 Tim. 1:1; 2:3; Titus 2:13
Jd 252c glory  -   Rom. 11:36; 1 Pet. 4:11
Glory is the expression in splendor; majesty, the greatness in honor; might, the strength in power; and authority, the power in ruling.
Jd 253 before
Before all time refers to eternity past; now, to the present age; and unto all eternity, to eternity future. Thus, this is from eternity past, through time, unto eternity future.
< Jude • Revelation Outline >
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Revelation Outline
I.   Introduction — the revelation of Christ and the testimony of Jesus — 1:1-8
II.   “The things which you have seen” — 1:9-20
A.   Seven golden lampstands — the shining churches
B.   The Son of Man — the living Christ
C.   Seven stars — the bright messengers of the churches
III.   “The things which are” — the seven local churches — 2:1 — 3:22
A.   The church in Ephesus — the church at the close of the initial stage — 2:1-7
B.   The church in Smyrna — the church under persecution — 2:8-11
C.   The church in Pergamos — the church married to the world — 2:12-17
D.   The church in Thyatira — the church in apostasy — 2:18-29
E.   The church in Sardis — the church in reformation — 3:1-6
F.   The church in Philadelphia — the church in recovery — 3:7-13
G.   The church in Laodicea — the church in degradation — 3:14-22
IV.   “The things which are about to take place” — 4:1 — 22:5
A.   The first section, giving a general view of the things to come, from Christ’s ascension to eternity future — 4:1 — 11:19
1.   The scene around the throne in the heavens — only the Lion-Lamb (the victorious and redeeming Christ) being worthy to open the mystery of God’s economy — 4:1 — 5:14
2.   The seven seals — the mystery of God’s economy — 6:1 — 8:5
a.   The first seal: a white horse and its rider — the preaching of the gospel — 6:1-2
b.   The second seal: a red horse and its rider — the spread of war — 6:3-4
c.   The third seal: a black horse and its rider — the increase of famine — 6:5-6
d.   The fourth seal: a pale horse and its rider — rampant death — 6:7-8
e.   The fifth seal: the cry of the souls underneath the altar — the prayer of the martyred saints from Paradise for vengeance — 6:9-11
f.   The sixth seal: the shaking of the earth and heaven, the beginning of the great tribulation — a warning to earth’s dwellers — 6:12-17
g.   The visions inserted between the sixth and seventh seals — 7:1-17
(1)   144,000 of the twelve tribes sealed — the chosen Israelites preserved on earth — vv. 1-8
(2)   A great multitude serving God in the heavenly temple — the redeemed saints raptured to heaven to enjoy God’s care and the Lamb’s shepherding — vv. 9-17
h.   The seventh seal: seven trumpets brought in — the answer to the martyred saints’ prayer in the fifth seal — 8:1-2
i.   The scene in heaven after the opening of the seventh seal — Christ as the High Priest offering the prayers of the saints to God — 8:3-5
3.   The seven trumpets — the execution of God’s economy — 8:6 — 11:19
a.   The first trumpet: judgment on the earth — 8:7
b.   The second trumpet: judgment on the sea — 8:8-9
c.   The third trumpet: judgment on the rivers — 8:10-11
d.   The fourth trumpet: judgment on the sun, moon, and stars — 8:12
e.   The fifth trumpet — the first woe: judgment on men — Satan and Antichrist collaborating to torment men — 8:13 — 9:11
f.   The sixth trumpet — the second woe: further judgment on men — two hundred million horsemen killing the third part of men — 9:12-21
g.   The visions inserted between the sixth and seventh trumpets — 10:1 — 11:13
(1)   Christ coming to possess the earth — 10:1-7
(2)   John charged to prophesy again — 10:8-11
(3)   The temple measured and the court cast out — the heavenly temple sanctified and preserved and the earthly one given to the Gentiles — 11:1-2
(4)   The two witnesses — Moses and Elijah — 11:3-12
(5)   A great earthquake — the third earthquake predicted in this book — 11:13
h.   The seventh trumpet — the eternal kingdom of Christ, the third woe comprising the seven bowls, the judgment of the dead, the giving of the reward to the prophets, to the saints, and to the God-fearing people, and the destruction of the destroyers of the earth — 11:14-18
i.   The scene in heaven after the trumpeting of the seventh trumpet — the temple opened and the Ark seen — 11:19
B.   The second section, giving details of the important things and the crucial matters covered in the first section — 12:1 — 22:5
1.   A woman who brings forth a man-child, and a great red dragon — Satan — 12:1-18
a.   The woman in travail — vv. 1-2
b.   The great red dragon against the woman — vv. 3-4
c.   The man-child born and caught up to God and to His throne — v. 5
d.   The woman fleeing — v. 6
e.   War in heaven — vv. 7-9
f.   The triumphant shout in heaven — vv. 10-12
g.   The dragon persecuting the woman — vv. 13-16
h.   The dragon making war with the rest of the woman’s seed — vv. 17-18
2.   The two beasts — 13:1-18
a.   The beast out of the sea — Antichrist — vv. 1-10
b.   The beast out of the earth — the false prophet — vv. 11-18
3.   Three reapings — 14:1-20
a.   The firstfruits of the believers before the great tribulation — vv. 1-5
b.   The eternal gospel in the great tribulation — vv. 6-7
c.   The fall of religious Babylon in the great tribulation — v. 8
d.   The warning against the worship of Antichrist in the great tribulation — vv. 9-12
e.   The blessing of the martyrs in the great tribulation — v. 13
f.   The harvest of the believers near the end of the great tribulation — vv. 14-16
g.   The gathering of the grapes (the evildoers) at the end of the great tribulation — vv. 17-20
4.   The outpouring of the seven bowls — 15:1 — 16:21
a.   The last seven plagues — 15:1
b.   The praise of the late overcomers — 15:2-4
c.   The scene in heaven before the outpouring of the seven bowls — 15:5-8
d.   The first bowl: a malignant sore upon the worshippers of Antichrist — 16:1-2
e.   The second bowl: the sea becoming blood — 16:3
f.   The third bowl: the rivers and springs becoming blood — 16:4-7
g.   The fourth bowl: the sun burning men with fire — 16:8-9
h.   The fifth bowl: the kingdom of Antichrist becoming darkened — 16:10-11
i.   The sixth bowl: the Euphrates dried up — 16:12
j.   The vision inserted between the sixth and seventh bowls: the gathering at Armageddon — 16:13-16
k.   The seventh bowl: the greatest earthquake and the great hail — 16:17-21
5.   Babylon the Great and her destruction — 17:1 — 19:4
a.   The religious aspect — 17:1-18
(1)   The great harlot — vv. 1-6
(2)   The interpretation of the woman and the beast — vv. 7-15, 18
(3)   The destruction of the harlot by the beast — vv. 16-17
b.   The material aspect — 18:1-24
(1)   The shout of Christ: “Babylon the Great is fallen” — vv. 1-3
(2)   The call for separation: “Come out of her” — vv. 4-5
(3)   Babylon’s pride and destruction — vv. 6-8
(4)   The weeping over Babylon — vv. 9-19
(5)   The rejoicing in heaven — v. 20
(6)   The declaration of Babylon’s absolute destruction — vv. 21-24
c.   The praise in heaven — 19:1-4
6.   The marriage of the Lamb — 19:5-10
a.   The praise of a great multitude — vv. 5-6
b.   The Lamb’s marriage and His marriage dinner — vv. 7-9
c.   The spirit of the prophecy — v. 10
7.   The war at Armageddon — 19:11-21
a.   Christ coming to tread the great winepress — vv. 11-16
b.   A great dinner — vv. 17-18
c.   The defeat and perdition of Antichrist and the false prophet — vv. 19-21
8.   The imprisonment of Satan — 20:1-3
a.   For one thousand years — vv. 1-2
b.   In the abyss — v. 3
9.   The millennial kingdom — 20:4-6
a.   In the best resurrection — vv. 4-5
b.   With the priesthood and the kingship for one thousand years — v. 6
10.   The last rebellion — 20:7-10
a.   The release of Satan — v. 7
b.   The rebellion of the nations and their destruction — vv. 8-9
c.   Satan’s perdition in the lake of fire — v. 10
11.   The judgment of the great white throne — 20:11-15
a.   Earth and heaven fleeing away — v. 11
b.   The unbelieving dead being judged — v. 12
c.   The demons being judged — v. 13
d.   Death and Hades being cast into the lake of fire — v. 14
e.   The perdition of the unbelievers and demons in the lake of fire — v. 15
12.   The new heaven and the new earth — 21:1-8
a.   The first heaven and the first earth having passed away and the sea being no more — v. 1
b.   New Jerusalem coming down to the new earth — v. 2
c.   The peoples on the new earth — vv. 3-4
d.   The sons of God in eternity — vv. 5-7
e.   The perished in the lake of fire — v. 8
13.   New Jerusalem — 21:9-27
a.   The bride, the wife of the Lamb — v. 9
b.   The holy city — v. 10
c.   Her glory and appearance — v. 11
d.   Her structure and measurement — vv. 12-21
e.   The enlarged temple — v. 22
f.   Her light and lamp — v. 23
g.   The nations around her — vv. 24-27
14.   The river of water of life and the tree of life — 22:1-2
a.   The river of water of life — v. 1
b.   The tree of life — v. 2
15.   The blessings of God’s redeemed in eternity — 22:3-5
a.   No more curse
b.   Having the throne of God and of the Lamb
c.   Serving God and the Lamb — v. 3
d.   Seeing the face of God and of the Lamb
e.   The name of God and of the Lamb being on their foreheads — v. 4
f.   Being under the illumination of the Lord God
g.   Reigning forever — v. 5
V.   Conclusion — the Lord’s last warning and the apostle’s last prayer — 22:6-21
Revelation >
© 2010 Living Stream Ministry
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© 2005 Living Stream Ministry
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Revelation Chapter 1
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 1:11a revelation  -   Gal. 1:12, 16; Eph. 3:3; 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13
As the last book of the Bible, Revelation is the conclusion, completion, and consummation of the entire divine revelation, the whole Bible. The seeds of most of the truths of the divine revelation were sown in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The growth of all these seeds is progressively developed in the succeeding books, especially in the books of the New Testament, and the harvest is reaped in the book of Revelation. Hence, most of the things covered in this book are not absolutely new but are in the preceding books and are perfected in this book, the focus of which is the unique, ultimate revelation of Christ, the particular, consummate testimony of Jesus, and the universal, eternal economy of God.
This book is a book of prophecy — not prophecy merely in words but in visions revealed to the seer. In the eyes of God, all the things prophesied in this book have already taken place. Thus, all were shown to the seer, vision after vision. Therefore, most of the verbs used in this book are in the past tense.
The whole Bible reveals Christ; the book of Revelation especially, as the conclusion, completion, and consummation of the whole Bible, is “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Although this book also reveals many other things, the focus of its revelation is Christ. Several aspects concerning Christ, such as the vision of Christ as the High Priest in the midst of the churches, caring for them in love yet with a judging attitude (vv. 13-16), the vision of Him as the Lion-Lamb in the midst of God’s throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the twenty-four elders of the universe, opening the seven seals of God’s universal administration (5:1 — 6:1), and the vision of Him as “another strong Angel” coming down out of heaven to take possession of the earth (10:1-8; 18:1), etc., were never unveiled as they are in this book.
Rv 1:1b show  -   Rev. 4:1; 17:1; 21:9-10; 22:1, 6, 8
Rv 1:1c slaves  -   Phil. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1
Rv 1:12d signs  -   John 2:11, 23; Rev. 12:1, 3; 15:1
The revelation of this book is composed mainly of signs, i.e., symbols with spiritual significance, such as the seven lampstands, signifying the churches; the seven stars, signifying the messengers of the churches (v. 20), etc. Even the New Jerusalem is a sign, signifying the ultimate consummation of God’s economy (chs. 21 — 22). This book, then, is a book of signs through which the revelation is made known to us.
John’s Gospel is a book of signs signifying how Christ came to be our life to produce the church, His bride. John’s Revelation is a book of signs showing how Christ is now caring for the church and how He is coming to judge and possess the earth and bring the church, His bride, into God’s full economy.
Rv 1:1e angel  -   Rev. 17:7; 19:9-10; 21:9; 22:6, 16
Rv 1:2a testified  -   John 1:7
Rv 1:2b word  -   Rev. 1:9; 6:9; 20:4; 19:13
Rv 1:21c testimony  -   Rev. 1:9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4
On one hand, this book gives us the revelation of Christ, and on the other hand, it shows us the testimony of Jesus, which is the church. It presents to us the revealed Christ and the testifying church. The lampstands in ch. 1, the great multitude of the redeemed in ch. 7, the bright woman with her man-child in ch. 12, the harvest with its firstfruits in ch. 14, the overcomers on the sea of glass in ch. 15, the bride ready for marriage in ch. 19, and the New Jerusalem in chs. 21 and 22 are all the testimony of Jesus. This testimony of Jesus is the spirit — the substance, the disposition, and the characteristic — of the prophecy (19:10).
Christ is the Witness of God (1:5), the testimony and the expression of God. The church is the testimony and the expression of Christ. As such, the church is the reproduction of the testimony and the expression of God in Christ.
Rv 1:2d saw  -   Rev. 1:11, 12, 19; 4:1; 5:1, 6; 6:1; 7:1, 9; 8:2; 9:1; 10:1; 13:1, 11; 14:1, 6, 14; 15:1-2; 17:3, 6; 18:1; 19:11, 19; 20:1, 4; 21:1-2; 22:8
Rv 1:3a Blessed  -   Rev. 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14
Rv 1:3b hear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 1:3c words  -   Rev. 22:7, 10, 18-19
Rv 1:31 prophecy
The revelation in this book is in the nature of prophecy. Most of the visions refer to things to come. Even the seven epistles to the seven churches in chs. 2 and 3, in the sense of their being signs, are prophecies concerning the church on earth in the period until the Lord’s coming back.
Rv 1:3d keep  -   Rev. 3:8, 10; 22:7; John 14:21, 23-24; 17:6
Rv 1:3e near  -   Rev. 22:10
Rv 1:41a seven  -   Rev. 1:11, 20
Seven is the number for completion in God’s operation — e.g., the seven days for God’s creation (Gen. 1:31 — 2:3) and the seven seals (5:5), seven trumpets (8:2), and seven bowls (15:7) for God’s move on the earth. Hence, the seven churches are for God’s move in completion.
Rv 1:4b churches  -   Acts 15:41; Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 11:16; 16:19; 2 Cor. 8:1, 18, 23; 11:28; Gal. 1:2
Rv 1:42 Asia
Asia was a province of the ancient Roman Empire, and in that province were the seven cities mentioned in v. 11. The seven churches were in those seven cities, respectively; they were not all in one city. This book does not deal with the one universal church but with the local churches in many cities. First, in Matt. 16:18 the church is revealed as universal, and then in Matt. 18:17 it is revealed as local. In Acts the church was practiced in the way of local churches, such as the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1), the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:17), and the churches in the provinces of Syria and Cilicia (Acts 15:41). The Epistles were written to the local churches, except for a few written to individuals. Not one was written to the universal church. Without the local churches, the universal church has no practicality or actuality. The universal church is realized in the local churches. Knowing the church in its universal aspect must be consummated in knowing the church in its local aspect. It is a great advance for us to know and practice the local churches. Concerning the church, the book of Revelation is in the advanced stage. To know this book, we must advance from the understanding of the universal church to the realization and practice of the local churches, because this book is written to the local churches. Only those who are in the local churches are positioned rightly, with the right angle and the proper perspective, to see the visions in this book.
The Triune God is expressed in Christ (John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9); Christ is realized and experienced as the Spirit (John 14:16-18; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19) and is expressed in His Body, the universal church (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:4); and the universal church is expressed in the local churches. Therefore, to know and experience God, we need to know and experience Christ; to know and experience Christ, we need to participate in the universal church through the Spirit; and to participate in the universal church, we need to participate in the local churches.
Rv 1:4c Grace  -   Rom. 1:7; 5:2; Rev. 22:21
Rv 1:4d peace  -   Rom. 5:1
Rv 1:43e Him  -   Rev. 1:8; 4:8; Exo. 3:14
He who is and who was and who is coming is God the eternal Father. The seven Spirits who are before God’s throne are the operating Spirit of God, God the Spirit. Jesus Christ, to God the faithful Witness, to the church the Firstborn of the dead, and to the world the Ruler of the kings of the earth (v. 5), is God the Son. This is the Triune God. As God the eternal Father, He was in the past, He is in the present, and He is coming in the future. As God the Spirit, He is the sevenfold intensified Spirit for God’s operation (see note 5). As God the Son, He is (1) the Witness, the testimony, the expression of God; (2) the Firstborn of the dead for the church, the new creation; and (3) the Ruler of the kings of the earth for the world. From such a Triune God, grace and peace are imparted to the churches.
Rv 1:44 who
Him…who is coming may imply Christ’s coming again, indicating that to His creatures, especially His redeemed, what the Triune God is will be more real at that time than in the past or in the present.
Rv 1:45f seven  -   Rev. 3:1; 4:5; 5:6
The seven Spirits are undoubtedly the Spirit of God because They are ranked among the Triune God in vv. 4 and 5. As seven is the number for completion in God’s operation, so the seven Spirits must be for God’s move on the earth. In essence and existence, God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation, God’s Spirit is sevenfold. This is similar to the lampstand in Zech. 4:2. In its existence it is one lampstand, but in its function it is seven lamps. At the time this book was written, the church had become degraded; the age was dark. Therefore, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God was needed for God’s move and work on the earth.
In Matt. 28:19 the sequence of the Triune God is: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here the sequence is changed. The seven Spirits of God are listed in the second place instead of the third. This reveals the importance of the intensified function of the sevenfold Spirit of God. This point is confirmed by the repeated emphasis on the Spirit’s speaking in 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13; 22:17.
At the opening of the other Epistles, only the Father and the Son are mentioned; from Them grace and peace are given to the receivers. Here, however, the Spirit is included; from Him grace and peace are imparted to the churches. This too indicates the crucial need of the Spirit to counteract the degradation of the church for God’s move.
Rv 1:5a Witness  -   Rev. 3:14
Rv 1:5b Firstborn  -   Col. 1:18; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:6
Rv 1:5c Ruler  -   Rev. 17:14; 19:16; 1 Tim. 6:15
Rv 1:5d loves  -   John 15:9; Eph. 5:25
Rv 1:51 released
To be released from sins is more significant than to be washed from sins.
Rv 1:52 by
Lit., in.
Rv 1:5e blood  -   1 John 1:7; Rev. 5:9; 12:11
Rv 1:61a kingdom  -   Rev. 5:10; Matt. 16:19; Rev. 1:9; Rom. 14:17; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:6; 22:5
The believers, redeemed by the blood of Christ, not only have been born of God into His kingdom (John 3:5) but also have been made a kingdom for God’s economy. This kingdom is the church (Matt. 16:18-19). John, the writer of the book, was in this kingdom (v. 9), and all redeemed and reborn believers also are a part of this kingdom (Rom. 14:17).
One of the main aspects of this book is that God is recovering His right over the earth in order to make the whole earth His kingdom (11:15). When Christ came, He brought the kingdom of God with Him (Luke 17:21; Matt. 12:28). This kingdom has been enlarged into the church (Matt. 16:18-19), which will accomplish the establishing of the kingdom of God on the whole earth. On one hand, the kingdom of God today is in the church, but on the other hand, the kingdom of God is coming through the overcoming believers (12:10). Then Christ and the overcoming believers will reign over all the nations in the millennial kingdom (2:26-27; 12:5; 20:4, 6).
Rv 1:62b priests  -   Rev. 5:10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 20:6; 22:3
The redemption accomplished through Christ’s blood made us not only a kingdom to God but also priests to God (1 Pet. 2:5). The kingdom is for God’s dominion, whereas priests are for the expression of God’s image. This is the kingly, royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9), which is for the fulfillment of God’s original purpose in creating man (Gen. 1:26-28). This kingly priesthood is being exercised in today’s church life (5:10). It will be practiced intensively in the millennial kingdom (20:6) and will be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem (22:3, 5).
Rv 1:6c to  -   Rev. 5:13; Rom. 11:36; 16:27; Eph. 3:20-21; 1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 13:21; 2 Pet. 3:18
Rv 1:71a comes  -   Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Acts 1:9-11; Rev. 14:14
In this book, Christ’s coming back is revealed in two aspects. In one aspect Christ will come secretly as a thief (3:3; 16:15), and in another aspect He will come openly on the cloud (v. 7; 14:14). This corresponds with Matt. 24:43, 30. The day and hour of His coming in the first aspect are unknown (Matt. 24:36), whereas the day of His coming in the second aspect is clearly revealed — it will be at the last trumpet (the seventh trumpet), at the end of the great tribulation (1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52; 2 Thes. 2:1-3).
Rv 1:72b clouds  -   Dan. 7:13
Christ went to heaven on a cloud. He will come back to earth in the same way (Acts 1:9, 11; Matt. 26:64; Rev. 14:14).
Rv 1:7c pierced  -   Zech. 12:10; John 19:34, 37
Rv 1:73 tribes
Referring to the tribes of the land of Israel, those who had pierced Christ. See reference 7c.
Rv 1:74 land
Or, earth. The same Greek word as in 6:8, 10, and 8:13.
Rv 1:75d mourn  -   Matt. 24:30; Zech. 12:10-12
Lit., beat (the breasts).
Rv 1:81a Alpha  -   Rev. 21:6; 22:13
The eternal and Almighty God is the Alpha, the beginning for the origination, and the Omega, the ending for the completion of God’s eternal purpose. He was the Alpha in the book of Genesis. Now, in this book, He is the Omega. Whatever He originated He will complete. Governmentally, He continues His universal operation, which He originated from ancient times and will bring to completion (21:6).
Rv 1:8b He  -   Rev. 1:4
Rv 1:8c Almighty  -   Rev. 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:15; 21:22; Gen. 17:1; Exo. 6:3; Psa. 68:14; 91:1
Rv 1:9a partaker  -   2 Cor. 1:7; Heb. 10:33
Rv 1:9b tribulation  -   Acts 14:22; John 16:33; Phil. 3:10
Rv 1:9c kingdom  -   Rev. 1:6
Rv 1:91d endurance  -   Rev. 3:10; 2 Thes. 3:5; Rom. 5:3
For the tribulation and kingdom, endurance is needed.
Rv 1:92 Jesus
Jesus denotes the suffering and sorrowing Savior (Isa. 53:3).
Rv 1:93 Patmos
The island of Patmos was the place where John had been exiled for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus when he received the revelation of this book.
Rv 1:9e word  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 1:9f testimony  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 1:101a spirit  -   Rev. 4:2; 17:3; 21:10; Eph. 1:17; John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; 8:16
This book stresses not only the Spirit of God as the sevenfold intensified Spirit for God’s intensified move, but also our human spirit as the organ for us to realize and respond to God’s move. Only spirit (our spirit) can respond to Spirit (God’s Spirit). This book is composed of four major visions: (1) the vision of the churches (chs. 1 — 3), (2) the vision of the destiny of the world (chs. 4 — 16), (3) the vision of Babylon the Great (chs. 17 — 20), and (4) the vision of the New Jerusalem (chs. 21 — 22). John was in his spirit when he saw these four visions (v. 10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10); that is, he received the revelation of the mystery of Christ in his spirit, according to what is mentioned in Eph. 3:5. We too need to be in our spirit to see the visions in this book. It is a matter not merely of mental understanding in our mind but of spiritual realization in our spirit.
Rv 1:102 Lord’s
Here the Lord’s Day should be the first day of the week, the day the Lord was resurrected (John 20:1). The early church met regularly on this day (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). It was on this day that John was in spirit and saw the visions of God’s economy.
Rv 1:10b trumpet  -   Rev. 4:1; cf. Exo. 19:16; Isa. 58:1
Rv 1:11a see  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 1:11b write  -   Rev. 1:19
Rv 1:111 send
This book’s being sent to the seven churches equals its being sent to the seven cities. This shows clearly that the practice of the church life in the early days was the practice of having one church for one city, one city with only one church. In no city was there more than one church. This is the local church, with the city, not the street or the area, as the unit. The jurisdiction of a local church should cover the whole city in which the church is located; it should not be greater or lesser than the boundary of the city. All the believers within that boundary should constitute the one unique local church within that city.
Rv 1:11c seven  -   Rev. 1:4, 20
Rv 1:11d churches  -   Rev. 1:4
Rv 1:121 turned
To see anything requires the right position with the right angle. First, the apostle John heard the voice (v. 10), and then, when he turned to see the voice, he saw the golden lampstands. He was rightly positioned, but he still needed the right angle to see the vision concerning the churches; so he turned. It is the same with us today. Many Christians need to be adjusted in their position and to be turned that they may see the vision of the churches.
Rv 1:12a seven  -   Rev. 1:20; 2:1
Rv 1:122 golden
In figure, gold signifies the divine nature. Here the lampstands are golden, signifying that the churches are constituted with the divine nature.
Rv 1:123b lampstands  -   Exo. 25:31-39; Zech. 4:2-6
In the Bible the lampstand is always related to God’s building. The first time the lampstand was mentioned was in Exo. 25:31-40, when the tabernacle was built. The second instance was in regard to the building of the temple in 1 Kings 7:49. The third instance was closely related to the rebuilding of God’s temple in Zech. 4:2-10. Here in Revelation the lampstand is related to the building of the churches. In Exo. 25 the emphasis is on Christ being the lampstand as the divine light, shining as seven lamps with the Spirit (the oil). In Zech. 4 the emphasis is on the Spirit (Zech. 4:6) as seven lamps shining, these seven lamps being the seven eyes of God (Zech. 4:2, 10). The seven eyes of God are the seven Spirits of God (5:6) for God’s intensified move. This indicates that the lampstand in Zechariah is the reality of the lampstand in Exodus, and that the lampstands in Revelation are the reproduction of the lampstand in Zechariah. Christ is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is expressed as the churches. The shining Spirit is the reality of the shining Christ, and the shining churches are the reproduction and expression of the shining Spirit to accomplish God’s eternal purpose that the New Jerusalem as the shining city may be consummated. Christ, the Spirit, and the churches are all of the same divine nature.
Rv 1:131 in
Christ today is in the midst of the churches. On one hand, as the High Priest, He is interceding in the heavens for the churches (Heb. 9:24; 7:25- 26; Rom. 8:34), and on the other hand, He is walking in the midst of the churches to care for them. To participate in His move and enjoy His care, we must be in the churches.
Rv 1:13a midst  -   Rev. 2:1
Rv 1:132b Son  -   Acts 7:56; Rev. 14:14; Matt. 24:30; John 1:51
Christ not only is depicted here as the High Priest, as shown by His garment, but also is unveiled as being like the Son of Man. He is both divine and human. As our High Priest, He is caring for the churches in His humanity.
Christ as the Son of Man is not only for the accomplishing of redemption but also for the church life, because the church is composed of human beings. That the Lord is still the Son of Man after His ascension indicates that He has not put off His human nature after resurrection. His dealings here with the churches are based on His humanity. In His humanity He was altogether victorious and successful in bearing the testimony of God. The churches also, being in humanity, surely can be victorious and successful in bearing the testimony of God.
Rv 1:133c garment  -   Exo. 28:4, 31-35
The garment reaching to the feet is the priestly robe (Exo. 28:33-35) and signifies the fullness of Christ’s divine attributes and human virtues (cf. Isa. 6:1, 3).
Rv 1:134d girded  -   cf. Dan. 10:5
The priests in the Old Testament were girded at the loins for their ministry (Exo. 28:4). In Dan. 10:5 Christ also is girded at His loins, with fine gold. But here Christ as our High Priest is girded about at the breasts. The breasts signify love. To be girded at the loins is to be strengthened for the work, whereas to be girded about at the breasts signifies care in love. Christ’s work in producing the churches has been accomplished. He no longer needs to be girded at His loins for the work. What He is doing now in the midst of the churches is to care for them in love. This requires that He be girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle. The golden girdle signifies the divine strength. Christ is moving in the churches to care for them in His humanity and with His divine strength.
Rv 1:13e girdle  -   Exo. 28:39
Rv 1:141a hair  -   Dan. 7:9; cf. S.S. 5:11
White hair signifies great age (Job 15:10). Here it indicates the ancientness of the Lord. In S.S. 5:11 He is depicted as having black hair, which signifies His unfading and everlasting strength.
Rv 1:142b white  -   Isa. 1:18
White wool issues from the nature of life, and white snow comes from the sky, from heaven. Hence, white wool here and in Dan. 7:9 signifies that the ancientness of Christ is out of His nature, not out of His becoming old, while white snow signifies that His ancientness is heavenly, not earthly.
Rv 1:143c eyes  -   Dan. 10:6; Rev. 2:18; 19:12; 5:6
In S.S. 5:12 the eyes of Christ are like doves. That is for the expression of His love. Here His eyes are like a flame of fire. This is for Him to observe and search that He may exercise judgment by enlightening. In this book His eyes are not two but seven (5:6). Seven is the number of completion in God’s move. Hence, Christ’s eyes in this book are for God’s operation. These seven eyes of His are the seven lamps of fire (cf. Dan. 10:6) burning before the throne, and the seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God (4:5). The “fire burning” equals the “flame of fire” and is for observing and searching. The seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth (5:6) also are for God’s move on the earth. Thus, the eyes of Christ in this book are the seven Spirits of God for God’s move and operation on earth today.
Rv 1:144d fire  -   Heb. 12:29; Dan. 7:10
This book has a judging nature. Fire is for divine judgment (1 Cor. 3:13; Heb. 6:8; 10:27). “Our God is also a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29); His throne is a fiery flame and its wheels are burning fire, and a fiery stream issues and comes forth from before Him (Dan. 7:9-10). All this is for judgment. The Lord’s eyes being like a flame of fire is mainly for His judgment (2:18-23; 19:11-12). When He comes to take possession of the earth by exercising judgment over it, even His feet will be like pillars of fire (10:1).
Rv 1:151a feet  -   Rev. 2:18; Ezek. 1:7; Dan. 10:6
Feet signify the walk. In typology bronze signifies divine judgment (Exo. 27:1-6). The feet of Christ are like shining bronze, as mentioned also in Dan. 10:6, signifying that His perfect and bright walk qualifies Him to exercise divine judgment. Hence, when He comes to possess the earth by judging it, His feet will be like pillars of fire (10:1).
Rv 1:152 fired
To be fired in a furnace is to be tried by being burned. Christ’s walk was tried by His sufferings, even by His death on the cross. Hence, His walk is bright, like shining bronze, which qualifies Him to judge the unrighteous.
Rv 1:153b sound  -   Dan. 10:6; Rev. 14:2; 19:6; Ezek. 43:2; 1:24
The sound of many waters, a tumultuous sound, is the sound of the voice of the Almighty God (Ezek. 1:24; 43:2). It signifies the seriousness and solemnity of His speaking (cf. 10:3).
Rv 1:16a seven  -   Rev. 1:20; 2:1; 3:1
Rv 1:161 stars
Both lampstands and stars are for shining in the night. A lampstand, representing a local church, is a collective unit, whereas a star, representing a messenger of a local church, is an individual entity. In the dark night of the church’s degradation, the shining of both the collective churches and the individual messengers is needed.
Rv 1:162b mouth  -   Rev. 19:15; 2 Thes. 2:8; cf. Luke 4:22; S.S. 5:16
In S.S. 5:16, “His mouth is sweetness itself,” and in the Gospels “words of grace [proceeded] out of His mouth” (Luke 4:22); but here, “out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.” This is Christ’s discerning, judging, and slaying word (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17). The words of grace are for His supply of grace to His favored ones, whereas the sharp two-edged sword is for His dealing with negative persons and things.
Rv 1:16c sword  -   Rev. 2:12, 16; 19:15; Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17
Rv 1:163d face  -   Rev. 10:1; Dan. 10:6; Matt. 17:2
In S.S. 5:10, 13, Christ’s face appears lovely for His seeker’s appreciation of Him, and in the Epistles His face reflects God’s glory (2 Cor. 4:6) for the imparting of life into His believers. Here, however, His face shone as the sun shines in its power (cf. Dan. 10:6); this shining is the judging enlightenment for bringing in the kingdom. When He was transfigured and His face shone like the sun, that was His coming in the kingdom (Matt. 16:28 — 17:2). When He comes to take over the earth for the kingdom, His face will be like the sun (10:1).
Rv 1:17a fell  -   Gen. 17:3; Dan. 8:17; Matt. 17:6
Rv 1:17b placed  -   Dan. 10:10; Matt. 17:7
Rv 1:17c Do  -   Matt. 14:27; 17:7; 28:10
Rv 1:171d First  -   Rev. 2:8; 22:13; Isa. 44:6; 48:12
Christ’s being the First and the Last implies that He will accomplish what He has begun. See note 132 in ch. 22.
Rv 1:181a living  -   Luke 24:5; John 14:19; Rom. 6:9-10
The very Christ who walks in the midst of the churches, who is the Head of the churches and to whom the churches belong, is the living One. Hence, the churches also, as the expression of His Body, should be living, fresh, and strong.
Rv 1:18b dead  -   Rev. 2:8
Rv 1:18c keys  -   Rev. 20:1; cf. Isa. 22:22; Matt. 16:19; Rev. 3:7
Rv 1:182 death
Because of the fall and sin of man, death came in and is now working on earth to gather all the sinful people into Hades. Thus, death is a collector and Hades is a keeper. However, the keys of death and of Hades are in the hand of our Savior, who died and was resurrected.
Rv 1:19a Write  -   Rev. 1:11
Rv 1:19b after  -   Rev. 4:1
Rv 1:201 mystery
When John saw the seven stars upon the right hand of Christ and the seven golden lampstands in the midst of which was Christ, it was a mystery to him. He did not realize the significance of the seven heavenly stars and the seven golden lampstands. Hence, the Lord unveiled the mystery to him, saying that “the seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The significance of this not only was a mystery to John but also is a mystery to believers today. All believers need the unveiling of this mystery that they may see the churches and their messengers.
The churches, signified by the seven golden lampstands, are the testimony of Jesus (vv. 2, 9) in the divine nature, shining in the dark night locally yet collectively. The churches should be of the divine nature — golden. They should be the stands, even the lampstands, that bear the lamp with the oil (Christ as the life-giving Spirit) and shine in the darkness individually and collectively. They are individual lampstands locally, yet at the same time they are a group, a collection, of lampstands universally. They not only are shining locally but also are bearing universally the same testimony both to the localities and to the universe. They are of the same nature and in the same shape. They bear the same lamp for the same purpose and are fully identified with one another, not having any individual distinctiveness. The differences among the seven churches recorded in chs. 2 and 3 are all of a negative nature, not a positive one. Negatively, in their failures, the churches are different and separate from one another; but positively, in their nature, shape, and purpose, they are absolutely identical and are connected to one another.
It is easy for believers to see the universal church, but it is difficult for them to see the churches. The revelation of the local churches is the Lord’s ultimate unveiling concerning the church, and it is recorded in the last book of the divine Word. To fully know the church, believers must follow the Lord from the Gospels through the Epistles to the book of Revelation until they are enabled to see the local churches as unveiled here. In Revelation the first vision is concerning the churches. The churches with Christ as their one center are the focus in the divine administration for the accomplishing of God’s eternal purpose.
The messengers are the spiritual ones in the churches, the ones who bear the responsibility for the testimony of Jesus. They should be of the heavenly nature and should be in a heavenly position like stars. In the Acts and the Epistles the elders were the leading ones in the managing of the local churches (Acts 14:23; 20:17; Titus 1:5). The eldership is somewhat official, and at the time this book was written the offices in the churches had deteriorated because of the degradation of the church. In this book the Lord calls our attention back to the spiritual reality. Hence, this book emphasizes the messengers of the churches rather than the elders. The office of the elders is easily perceived, but the believers need to see the importance of the spiritual and heavenly reality of the messengers for the proper church life to bear the testimony of Jesus in the darkness of the church’s degradation. In the first vision of this book, the vision concerning the churches, both Christ and the messengers of the churches are unveiled with the churches as never before, and this in a most particular way. For this the believers need to see a particular vision in their spirits.
Rv 1:20a seven  -   Rev. 1:16
Rv 1:20b seven  -   Rev. 1:12
Rv 1:202 messengers
The same Greek word as for angels. The same word as in v. 1.
Rv 1:20c seven  -   Rev. 1:4
Rv 1:20d lampstands  -   Matt. 5:15
Revelation Chapter 2
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 2:11 To
The seven epistles in chs. 2 and 3 are the record of the actual situation existing in the seven churches at the time these epistles were written. However, since this book is a book of signs with a prophetic nature, the situations of the seven churches also are signs, signifying prophetically the progress of the church in seven stages. The first epistle, to the church in Ephesus, provides a picture of the end of the initial church, the church in the first stage, during the latter part of the first century. The second epistle, to the church in Smyrna, prefigures the suffering church under the persecution of the Roman Empire, from the latter part of the first century to the early part of the fourth century, when Constantine the Great, the Caesar of the Roman Empire, brought the church into imperial favor. The third epistle, to the church in Pergamos, pre-symbolizes the worldly church, the church married to the world, from the day Constantine accepted Christianity to the time the papal system was established in the latter part of the sixth century. The fourth epistle, to the church in Thyatira, depicts prophetically the apostate church, from the ordaining of the papal system in the latter part of the sixth century to the end of this age, when Christ comes back. The fifth epistle, to the church in Sardis, prefigures the Protestant Church, from the Reformation in the early part of the sixteenth century to Christ’s coming back. The sixth epistle, to the church in Philadelphia, predicts the church of brotherly love, the recovery of the proper church life, from the early part of the nineteenth century, when the brothers were raised up in England to practice the church outside all denominational and divisive systems, to the second appearing of the Lord. The seventh epistle, to the church in Laodicea, foreshadows the degraded church life of the brothers in the nineteenth century, from the latter part of the nineteenth century until the Lord’s return.
Rv 2:12a Ephesus  -   Eph. 1:1
In Greek the names of the seven cities are full of significance, each name exactly matching the spiritual condition of the church in that particular city. Ephesus in Greek means desirable. This signifies that the initial church at its end was still desirable to the Lord; the Lord still had much expectation in her.
Rv 2:13 He
At the beginning of each of these seven epistles the Lord told us what kind of person He is, according to the condition of the church revealed in that particular epistle.
Rv 2:14 holds
The messengers of the churches, the spiritual ones, signified by the shining stars, who bear the testimony of Jesus, are held in the right hand of the Lord, and the Lord is walking in the midst of the churches, signified by the seven golden lampstands. What a wonderful scene! On one hand, the Lord is sitting at the right hand of God, as our High Priest interceding for us, the churches (Heb. 7:25); on the other hand, He is holding the messengers of the churches and is walking in the midst of the churches to care for them.
Rv 2:1b seven  -   Rev. 1:16, 20
Rv 2:1c midst  -   Rev. 1:13
Rv 2:1d seven  -   Rev. 1:12
Rv 2:2a know  -   Rev. 2:9, 13, 19; 3:1, 8, 15
Rv 2:2b works  -   Rev. 2:5, 19; 3:1-2, 8, 15
Rv 2:2c endurance  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 2:2d tried  -   1 John 4:1
Rv 2:2e apostles  -   2 Cor. 11:13
Rv 2:3a name  -   John 15:21
Rv 2:4a against  -   Rev. 2:14, 20
Rv 2:41 first
The Greek word for first is the same as that translated best in Luke 15:22. Our first love toward the Lord must be the best love for Him.
Rv 2:42b love  -   Jer. 2:2; Matt. 24:12; cf. Eph. 3:17; 6:24
As the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23), the church is a matter of life; as the new man (Eph. 2:15), it is a matter of the person of Christ; and as the bride of Christ (John 3:29), it is a matter of love. The first Epistle to the Ephesians tells us that for the church life we need to be strengthened into our inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts, that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19); and it is for the church life that grace is with all those who love the Lord Jesus (Eph. 6:24). Now this second epistle to the Ephesians reveals that the degradation of the church begins with our leaving the first love toward the Lord. Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord. The church in Ephesus had good works, labored for the Lord, endured suffering, and tried the false apostles (vv. 2-3), but she left her first love toward the Lord. The leaving of the first love is the source of all the degradation in the succeeding stages of the church.
Rv 2:5a Remember  -   Rev. 3:3
Rv 2:5b repent  -   Rev. 2:16, 21; 3:3, 19; 2 Pet. 3:9
Rv 2:5c coming  -   Rev. 2:16
Rv 2:51 remove
If we have left our first love toward the Lord and do not repent, we will lose the testimony of the Lord, and the lampstand will be removed from us.
Rv 2:61a Nicolaitans  -   Rev. 2:15
The Greek word is composed of two words, one meaning conquer or be victorious over and another meaning common people, secular people, or laity. Thus, it means conquering the common people, being victorious over the laity. Nicolaitans, then, must refer to a group of people who esteem themselves higher than common believers. This was undoubtedly the hierarchy adopted and established by Catholicism and Protestantism. The Lord hates the works, the behavior, of these Nicolaitans, and we must hate what the Lord hates.
God in His economy intended that all His people be priests serving Him directly. In Exo. 19:6, God ordained the children of Israel to be a kingdom of priests. This means that God wanted them all to be priests. However, because they worshipped the golden calf (Exo. 32:1-6), they lost the priesthood, and only the tribe of Levi, because of its faithfulness to God, was chosen to replace the whole nation of Israel as priests to God (Exo. 32:25-29; Deut. 33:8-10). Hence, there was a mediatorial class between God and the children of Israel. This became a strong system in Judaism. In the New Testament, God has returned to His original intention according to His economy, in that He has made all believers in Christ priests (1:6; 5:10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). But at the end of the initial church, even in the first century, the Nicolaitans intervened as the mediatorial class to spoil God’s economy. According to church history, this became a system that was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and has been retained by the Protestant churches. Today in the Roman Catholic Church there is the priestly system, in the state churches there is the clerical system, and in the independent churches there is the pastoral system. All these are a mediatorial class, spoiling the universal priesthood of all believers. Thus, there are two distinct classes — the clergy and the laity. But in the proper church life there should be neither clergy nor laity; all believers should be priests of God. Because the mediatorial class destroys the universal priesthood in God’s economy, the Lord hates it.
Among the seven serving ones in Acts 6:5, one was named Nikolaos (Gk.). There is nothing in church history to indicate that this Nikolaos was the first of the Nicolaitans.
Rv 2:6b hate  -   Rom. 9:13; cf. Luke 14:26
Rv 2:71a ear  -   Rev. 2:11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:9; Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 16-17; Exo. 21:6; Job 33:14-16; Isa. 50:4; Jer. 6:10; Acts 7:51; Isa. 6:10; Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 13:14-15; Acts 28:27; Exo. 29:20; Lev. 8:23-24; 14:14, 17, 28
Although our angle and position may be right, we still may not have the proper ear to hear. Chapter 1 emphasizes seeing and chs. 2 and 3 emphasize hearing. In spiritual things, seeing depends on hearing. The writer of this book first heard the voice (1:10) and then saw the vision (1:12). If our ears are dull and cannot hear, then we cannot see (Isa. 6:9-10). The Jews would not hear the word of the Lord, so they could not see what the Lord was doing according to the new testament (Matt. 13:15; Acts 28:27). The Lord always wants to open our ears to hear His voice (Job 33:14-16; Isa. 50:4-5; Exo. 21:6) that we may see things according to His economy. The dull ears need to be circumcised (Jer. 6:10; Acts 7:51). The sinners’ ears need to be cleansed with the redeeming blood and anointed with the Spirit (Lev. 14:14, 17, 28). To serve the Lord as priests, we must have our ears cleansed with the redeeming blood (Exo. 29:20; Lev. 8:23-24). According to this book, as the Spirit is speaking to the churches, we all need an opened, circumcised, cleansed, and anointed ear to hear the Spirit’s speaking.
Rv 2:72b Spirit  -   Rev. 14:13; 22:17; Heb. 3:7; 9:8; 10:15
At the beginning of each of the seven epistles recorded in chs. 2 and 3, it is the Lord who speaks (vv. 1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). But at the end of each epistle, it is the Spirit who speaks to the churches (vv. 7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). This not only indicates that the Spirit is the Lord and the Lord is the Spirit, but it also emphasizes that in the darkness of the church’s degradation the Spirit is vitally important, as indicated by the sevenfold intensified Spirit in 1:4. The same emphasis is seen also in 14:13 and 22:17.
Rv 2:73 churches
On one hand, each of the seven epistles is the Lord’s word to a particular church, but on the other hand, it is the Spirit’s word to all the churches. Every church needed to give heed not only to the epistle written to her particularly but also to all the epistles written to the other churches. This implies that all the churches, as the Lord’s testimony in the Spirit, should be the same.
Since the Spirit today is speaking to the churches, we must be in the churches to be rightly positioned to hear the Spirit’s speaking. Otherwise, how could we hear?
Rv 2:74c overcomes  -   Rev. 2:11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21; 21:7
In these seven epistles, to overcome is to overcome the degraded situation of the churches. In this epistle, to overcome is to recover our first love toward the Lord and to hate the works of the Nicolaitans, the hierarchy that the Lord hates.
Rv 2:75d eat  -   Rev. 2:17; John 6:57; 1 Cor. 10:3
Religion always teaches, but the Lord feeds (John 6:35). The apostle Paul did the same thing; that is, he fed the believers (1 Cor. 3:2). For the proper church life and the recovery of the church life, that is, for the proper growth in the Christian life, what we need is not merely the mental apprehension of teachings but the eating of the Lord as our bread of life in our spirit (John 6:57). Even the words of the Scripture should not be considered merely as doctrines to teach our mind but as food to nourish our spirit (Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14). Here in this epistle the Lord promised to give the overcomer to eat of the tree of life. This points back to Gen. 2:8-9, 16, which concerns the matter of eating ordained by God. In the epistle to the church in Pergamos, the Lord promised the overcomer that he would eat of the hidden manna (v. 17), which refers to the eating of manna by the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31). And in the epistle to the church in Laodicea, the Lord promised to dine with the one who opens the door to Him. To dine is to eat not merely one kind of food but the riches of a feast. This may refer to the eating of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan by the children of Israel (Josh. 5:10-12). This indicates that the Lord desires to recover the eating of the proper food by God’s people, the food ordained by God and typified by the tree of life, the manna, and the produce of the good land, all of which are types of the various aspects of Christ as food to us. The degradation of the church distracts God’s people from the eating of Christ as their food and turns them to the teaching of doctrines for knowledge. In the church’s degradation there are the teaching of Balaam (v. 14), the teaching of the Nicolaitans (v. 15), the teaching by Jezebel (v. 20), and the teaching of the deep things of Satan (v. 24). Now in these epistles the Lord came to recover the proper eating of Himself as our food supply. We must eat Him not only as the tree of life and the hidden manna but also as a feast full of His riches.
Rv 2:76e tree  -   Gen. 2:9; 3:24; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19
In Greek the word for tree here, as in 1 Pet. 2:24, means wood; it is not the word usually used for tree. In the Bible the tree of life always signifies Christ as the embodiment of all the riches of God (Col. 2:9) for our food (Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19). Here it signifies the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood — 1 Pet. 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the life of God — John 11:25) Christ, who today is in the church, the consummation of which will be the New Jerusalem, in which the crucified and resurrected Christ will be the tree of life for the nourishment of all God’s redeemed people for eternity (22:2, 14).
God’s original intention was that man should eat of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, 16). Because of the fall, the way to the tree of life was closed to man (Gen. 3:22-24). Through the redemption of Christ, the way by which man could touch the tree of life, which is God Himself in Christ as life to man, was opened again (Heb. 10:19-20). But in the church’s degradation, religion crept in with its knowledge to distract the believers in Christ from eating Him as the tree of life. Hence, the Lord promised to grant the overcomers to eat of Himself as the tree of life in the Paradise of God, as a reward. This is an incentive for them to leave religion with its knowledge and return to the enjoyment of Himself. This promise of the Lord restores the church to God’s original intention according to His economy. What the Lord wants the overcomers to do is what the whole church should do in God’s economy. Because of the church’s degradation, the Lord came to call the overcomers to replace the church in the accomplishing of God’s economy.
The eating of the tree of life not only was God’s original intention concerning man but also will be the eternal issue of God’s redemption. All God’s redeemed people will enjoy the tree of life, which is Christ with all the divine riches as the redeemed’s eternal portion for eternity (22:2, 14, 19). Because of religion’s distraction and the church’s degradation, the Lord in His wisdom made the enjoyment of Himself in the coming kingdom a reward in order to encourage His believers to overcome religion’s distracting knowledge in teachings and return to the enjoyment of Himself as the life supply in the church life today for the accomplishing of God’s economy.
Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life. The content of the church life depends on the enjoyment of Christ. The more we enjoy Him, the richer the content will be. But to enjoy Christ requires us to love Him with the first love. If we leave our first love toward the Lord, we will miss the enjoyment of Christ and lose the testimony of Jesus; consequently, the lampstand will be removed from us. These three things — loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the testimony of the Lord — go together.
Rv 2:77f Paradise  -   Luke 23:43; cf. 2 Cor. 12:4
The Paradise in Luke 23:43 is the pleasant and restful place where Abraham and all the dead saints are (Luke 16:23-26). But the Paradise of God in this verse is the New Jerusalem (3:12; 21:2, 10; 22:1-2, 14, 19), of which the church is a foretaste today. We are enjoying the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life, the food supply in our spirit, as a foretaste today in the church. This enjoyment of the foretaste will usher us into the full taste of the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life, our nourishment of life in the New Jerusalem for eternity.
Strictly, to eat of the tree of life…in the Paradise of God in this verse refers to the particular enjoyment of Christ as our life supply in the New Jerusalem in the coming millennial kingdom, because this is a promise of reward made by the Lord to His overcomers. The enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth will be the common portion of all God’s redeemed people, whereas the particular enjoyment of Him as the tree of life in the New Jerusalem in the coming millennial kingdom is a reward given only to the overcoming believers. If we overcome all the distractions in the church’s degradation to enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the church today, we will be thus rewarded. Otherwise, we will miss this particular enjoyment in the coming kingdom, though we will still enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. The Lord’s promises concerning the reward and the Lord’s predictions concerning the loss, at the end of each of the seven epistles, refer to His dealing with His believers in the coming millennial kingdom. They have nothing to do with the believers’ eternal destiny — eternal salvation or eternal perdition.
Rv 2:81 Smyrna
The Greek word means myrrh, and myrrh in figure signifies suffering. Thus, the church in Smyrna was a suffering church. It signifies the church under the persecution of the Roman Empire from the latter part of the first century to the early part of the fourth century.
Rv 2:82a First  -   Rev. 1:17
In suffering, the church must know that the Lord is the First and the Last, the ever-existing, unchanging One. Whatever the persecuting environment may be, the Lord remains the same; nothing can precede Him, nor can anything exist after Him. All things are within the limits of His control.
Rv 2:8b dead  -   Rev. 1:18
Rv 2:83 lived
Lived again refers to resurrection. The Lord suffered death and lived again. He entered into death, but death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24) because He is the resurrection (John 11:25). The suffering church needs to know Him as such a One also, so that she can endure any kind of suffering. However severe the suffering, the church will still be alive. The resurrection life of Christ can endure death.
Rv 2:91a tribulation  -   Rev. 1:9
Tribulation is precious to the church because it tests the life of the church. The Lord’s purpose in allowing the church to suffer tribulation is not only to testify that His resurrection life overcomes death but also to enable the church to enjoy the riches of His life.
Rv 2:92b poverty  -   James 2:5; 2 Cor. 6:10; 8:9; cf. Rev. 3:17
The suffering church was poor in material things but rich in the Lord with the riches of His life.
Rv 2:93c slander  -   Matt. 5:11; 2 Cor. 6:8
The Judaizers slandered the suffering church by evilly criticizing her. They stubbornly insisted on keeping their Judaistic system, consisting of the Levitical priesthood, the sacrificial rituals, and the material temple, which were all types that had been fulfilled and replaced by Christ. Since the church under the new covenant in God’s economy had no part in their religious practice, the Judaizers slanderously criticized her. In principle, it is the same today, in that religious people slander the churches in the Lord’s recovery, which seek the Lord and follow Him in spirit and in life and do not care for any religious system or practice.
Rv 2:9d Jews  -   Rev. 3:9; Rom. 2:28
Rv 2:94 not
The Judaizers were Jews in the flesh but not Jews in spirit (Rom. 2:28-29). Merely being the seed of Abraham did not constitute them true Jews. Those who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God (Rom. 9:7-8).
Rv 2:95e synagogue  -   Rev. 3:9; Matt. 10:17; Luke 21:12; John 16:2; Acts 6:9; 9:2; 22:19
The goal of God’s economy is to have a unique temple on earth to testify of God and of the oneness of God’s people. In the Old Testament, the place that God chose for the establishing of His unique temple was Jerusalem. Because God’s people became fallen, divided, and scattered, numerous fallen, divided centers of worship were raised up; these became the synagogues. These synagogues were the places in which the Jews worshipped God mainly by studying their Scriptures, the Old Testament. However, because of their stubbornness in clinging to their traditional religious concepts, the Jews became one with Satan in opposing God’s way of life, by which He fulfills His purpose. Under the manipulating, maneuvering hand of Satan, their synagogues opposed the Lord Jesus (Matt. 12:9-14; Luke 4:28-29; John 9:22), then the apostles (Acts 13:43, 45-46, 50; 14:1-2, 19; 17:1, 5-6), and then the churches. Therefore, the Lord called them “a synagogue of Satan.” Even when He was on earth, He considered the synagogues to be of Satan, as implied in Matt. 12:25-29 and John 8:44. Apparently, those in the synagogues were worshipping God; actually, they were opposing God. They persecuted and killed God’s true worshippers, yet they considered that they were offering service to God (John 16:2). Through all the centuries since then, religious people have followed in their steps, persecuting those who genuinely seek and follow the Lord in spirit and life, while still considering that they are defending the interests of God. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as Judaism, all fall into this category, having become an organization of Satan as his tool to damage God’s economy.
Rv 2:96f Satan  -   Rev. 2:13, 24; 3:9; 12:9; 20:2
Satan, from Hebrew, means adversary. Satan is not only the enemy of God from without but also His adversary from within.
Rv 2:10a fear  -   Matt. 10:28
Rv 2:10b suffer  -   John 16:33; Acts 14:22
Rv 2:101c devil  -   Rev. 12:9, 12; 20:2, 10
The Greek word means accuser, slanderer (12:9-10). The devil, who is Satan, the adversary of God, accuses us before God and slanders us before men.
Rv 2:10d prison  -   Luke 21:12; Acts 5:25; 8:3; 12:4-5; 16:23-24; 22:4; 26:10; 2 Cor. 11:23; Heb. 13:3
Rv 2:10e tried  -   Heb. 2:18
Rv 2:10f tribulation  -   Rev. 1:9
Rv 2:102g ten  -   Gen. 24:55; Jer. 42:7; Dan. 1:12-14
The number ten signifies fullness; e.g., the Ten Commandments, which express God’s demand in full. Ten days signifies a period of time that is full, yet brief (Gen. 24:55; Jer. 42:7; Dan. 1:12-14). Here it signifies that the affliction of the suffering church was full, yet short-lived. As a sign, the ten days here indicate prophetically the ten periods of persecution that the church suffered under the Roman emperors, beginning with Caesar Nero in the second half of the first century and ending with Constantine the Great in the first part of the fourth century. However severe were the persecutions instigated by the devil, Satan, through the Roman Caesars, who did their utmost to destroy and eliminate the church, they could not subdue and terminate the church. History demonstrates that the church of the living Christ, who became dead and lived again, withstood the persecutions victoriously and multiplied flourishingly by the indestructible resurrection life.
Rv 2:10h faithful  -   Rev. 2:13; 17:14
Rv 2:10i unto  -   Rev. 12:11; Phil. 2:8
Rv 2:103j crown  -   Rev. 3:11; James 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4; 1 Cor. 9:25
A crown in New Testament usage always denotes a prize that is in addition to salvation (see reference 10j). The crown of life, as a prize to those who are faithful unto death in overcoming persecution, denotes the overcoming strength that is the power of the resurrection life (Phil. 3:10); it also denotes that these overcomers have attained to the out-resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:11), i.e., the outstanding resurrection.
Rv 2:11a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 2:11b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 2:111c overcomes  -   Rev. 2:7
In this epistle to overcome is to overcome persecution by being faithful unto death.
Rv 2:112d second  -   Rev. 20:6, 14; 21:8
Because of the fall and the entering in of sin, every man must die once (Heb. 9:27). This first death, however, is not the final settlement. All the dead, except those who through faith in the Lord Jesus have been recorded in the book of life, will be resurrected and will pass through the judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, i.e., at the conclusion of the old heaven and old earth. As a result of this judgment, the condemned ones will all be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death as the final settlement (20:11-15). Hence, the second death is God’s dealing with man after man’s death and resurrection. Since the overcomers will have overcome death through their faithfulness unto death under persecution and will require no further dealing by God after their resurrection, they will be rewarded with the crown of life and will no longer be touched by death after their resurrection; i.e., they will not be hurt by the second death.
Rv 2:121 Pergamos
The Greek word means marriage (implying union) and fortified tower. As a sign, the church in Pergamos prefigures the church that entered into a marriage union with the world and became a high fortified tower, equivalent to the great tree prophesied by the Lord in the parable of the mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32). When Satan failed to destroy the church through the persecution of the Roman Empire in the first three centuries, he changed his strategy. He sought instead to corrupt her through Constantine’s welcoming of Christianity as the state religion in the first part of the fourth century. Through Constantine’s encouragement and political influence, multitudes of unbelievers were baptized into the “church,” and the “church” became monstrously great. Since the church as a chaste bride is espoused to Christ, her union with the world is considered spiritual fornication in the eyes of God.
Rv 2:12a sharp  -   Rev. 2:16; 1:16
Rv 2:131a Satan’s  -   Rev. 2:9
Satan’s throne is in the world, the place where he dwells and the sphere of his reign. Since the worldly church entered into union with the world, she dwells where Satan dwells.
Rv 2:132b name  -   Rev. 3:8
The Lord’s name denotes the Lord’s person; the person is the reality of the name. The Lord’s faith denotes all that we must believe in concerning the Lord’s person and work. It does not denote the subjective faith within us, i.e., our believing, but the objective faith, i.e., the things in which we believe. Because the church entered into union with the world, she began to disregard the Lord’s name and deny the proper Christian faith.
Rv 2:13c not  -   Rev. 3:8
Rv 2:13d My  -   Rev. 14:12
Rv 2:133 Antipas
In Greek Antipas means against all. Antipas, a faithful witness of the Lord, stood against all that the worldly church brought in and practiced. Hence, he became a martyr of the Lord. In Greek the word for martyr is the same as that for witness. Antipas, as an anti-witness, bore an anti-testimony, a testimony against anything that deviated from the testimony of Jesus. It must have been through his anti-testimony that in his days the church in Pergamos still held fast the Lord’s name and did not deny the proper Christian faith.
Rv 2:13e witness  -   Rev. 1:5; 11:3; 17:6; Acts 1:8; 22:20
Rv 2:13f faithful  -   Rev. 2:10
Rv 2:13g killed  -   Matt. 24:9; John 16:2
Rv 2:13h Satan  -   Rev. 2:9
Rv 2:14a against  -   Rev. 2:4
Rv 2:141b teaching  -   Rev. 2:15, 20
In these epistles the Lord desired, according to God’s economy, that we eat Him as the tree of life (v. 7), the hidden manna (v. 17), and the rich produce of the good land (3:20; see note 75 in this chapter); but the worldly church turned from life to mere teachings, thus distracting the believers from enjoying Christ as their life supply for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. The enjoyment of Christ builds up the church, whereas teachings issue in a religion.
Rv 2:142c Balaam  -   Deut. 23:4; Num. 31:16; 25:1-3; 2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11
Balaam was a Gentile prophet who for wages enticed God’s people into fornication and idolatry (Num. 25:1-3; 31:16). In the worldly church some began to teach such things.
Rv 2:143d idol  -   Rev. 2:20; Num. 25:2; Acts 15:29
Idolatry always brings in fornication (Num. 25:1-3; Acts 15:29). When the worldly church disregarded the name, the person, of the Lord, she turned to idolatry, which issued in fornication.
Rv 2:14e fornication  -   Rev. 2:20; Num. 25:1; Rev. 21:8; 22:15; 1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3; Heb. 13:4
See note 143.
Rv 2:151a teaching  -   Rev. 2:14
The worldly and degraded church holds not only the teaching of Balaam but also the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The teaching of Balaam distracts believers from the person of Christ to idolatry and from the enjoyment of Christ to spiritual fornication, whereas the teaching of the Nicolaitans destroys the function of believers as members of the Body of Christ, thus annulling the Lord’s Body as His expression. The former teaching disregards the Head, and the latter destroys the Body. This is the subtle intention of the enemy in all religious teachings.
In the church in Ephesus only the works of the Nicolaitans were found (v. 6), whereas in the church in Pergamos their works had progressed to become a teaching. First, the Nicolaitans practiced the hierarchy in the initial church; then they taught it in the degraded church. Today, in both Catholicism and Protestantism, this Nicolaitan hierarchy prevails in both practice and teaching.
Rv 2:152b Nicolaitans  -   Rev. 2:6
See note 61.
Rv 2:16a Repent  -   Rev. 2:5
Rv 2:161b coming  -   Rev. 2:5
This should refer not to the Lord’s coming back but to His coming to war with the Nicolaitan teachers in the degraded church, when He will judge the degraded church with the slaying word out of His mouth. However, the worldly church, signified by the church in Pergamos, issued in the Roman Catholic Church, signified by the church in Thyatira, and the worldliness and evil brought in by that degraded church will continue in the Roman Catholic Church until the Lord comes back to exercise His full judgment.
Rv 2:16c sword  -   Rev. 2:12; 1:16
Rv 2:17a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 2:17b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 2:171c overcomes  -   Rev. 2:7
Here to overcome is specifically to overcome the church’s union with the world, the teaching of idolatry and fornication, and the teaching of hierarchy.
Rv 2:172d hidden  -   Heb. 9:4; Exo. 16:31-34
Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food that enables God’s people to go His way. A portion of manna was preserved in a golden pot concealed in the Ark (Exo. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4). The open manna was for the Lord’s people to enjoy in a public way; the hidden manna, signifying the hidden Christ, is a special portion reserved for His overcoming seekers, who overcome the degradation of the worldly church. While the church goes the way of the world, these overcomers come forward to abide in the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, where they enjoy the hidden Christ as a special portion for their daily supply. This promise is being fulfilled today in the proper church life and will be fulfilled in full in the coming kingdom. If we seek the Lord, overcome the degradation of the worldly church, and enjoy a special portion of the Lord today, He as the hidden manna will be a reward to us in the coming kingdom. If we miss Him as our special portion today in the church life, we will surely lose the enjoyment of Him as a reward in the coming kingdom.
Rv 2:17e manna  -   Exo. 16:4-36; Num. 11:5-9; John 6:31-33, 35, 57
Rv 2:173f stone  -   Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12; Rev. 21:18-20
In the Bible a stone signifies material for God’s building (Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12). In our natural being we are not stones but clay. Because we received the divine life with its divine nature through regeneration, we can be transformed into stones, even precious stones, by enjoying Christ as our life supply (2 Cor. 3:18). If we do not follow the worldly church but enjoy the Lord in the proper church life, we will be transformed into stones for the building of God. These stones will be justified and approved by the Lord, as indicated by the color white, while the worldly church will be condemned and rejected by Him. God’s work of building the church depends on our transformation, and our transformation issues from the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply.
Rv 2:174g new  -   Rev. 3:12; Isa. 62:2; cf. Rev. 14:1; 22:4
A name designates a person; a new name designates a transformed person. Every transformed believer, as a white stone, bears “a new name…which no one knows except him who receives it.” Such a new name is the interpretation of the experience of the one who has been transformed. Hence, only he himself knows the meaning of that name.
Rv 2:17h no  -   cf. Rev. 19:12
Rv 2:181a Thyatira  -   Acts 16:14
The Greek word means sacrifice of perfume, or unceasing sacrifice. As a sign, the church in Thyatira prefigures the Roman Catholic Church, which was fully formed as the apostate church by the establishing of the universal papal system in the latter part of the sixth century. This apostate church is full of sacrifices, as demonstrated in her continual Masses.
Rv 2:182b Son  -   John 1:34; 5:25; Heb. 1:2
The apostate Roman Catholic Church strongly emphasizes Christ as the son of Mary. Thus, here the Lord, protesting against the apostate heresy, said that He is the Son of God.
Rv 2:183c eyes  -   Rev. 1:14
Lit., His eyes. In dealing with the worldly church, the church in Pergamos, the Lord referred to Himself as the One who has the sharp two-edged sword. In dealing with the apostate church, the church in Thyatira, He referred to Himself as the One who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like shining bronze. The worldly church requires the dealing of His smiting and killing word, whereas the apostate church needs the judging of His searching eyes and treading feet.
Rv 2:18d feet  -   Rev. 1:15
Rv 2:19a know  -   Rev. 2:2
Rv 2:191b works  -   Rev. 2:2
The apostate Catholic Church has many works and services. Her works in the last days are more than those in the past.
Rv 2:20a against  -   Rev. 2:4
Rv 2:201 woman
The woman here is the same as the one prophesied by the Lord in Matt. 13:33. There the woman added leaven (signifying evil, heretical, and pagan things) into the fine flour (signifying Christ as the meal offering for the satisfaction of God and man). This woman is the great harlot of Rev. 17, who mixes abominations with the divine things. Jezebel, the pagan wife of Ahab, is a type of this apostate church (see reference 20b).
Rv 2:20b Jezebel  -   1 Kings 16:31; 19:1-2; 21:23, 25-26; 2 Kings 9:7
Rv 2:202 prophetess
A prophet is one who speaks for God with God’s authority. Here the Lord used Jezebel as a type, indicating that the apostate Roman Catholic Church is a self-appointed prophetess, one who presumes to be authorized by God to speak for God.
Rv 2:20c teaches  -   Rev. 2:14-15
Rv 2:203 leads
The church in Pergamos had the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, and these are continued in this apostate church. Furthermore, the Catholic Church herself teaches, causing her people to listen to her rather than to the holy Word of God. Her adherents are all drugged by her heretical, religious teaching and thus do not care for Christ as their life and life supply, indicated by the tree of life and the hidden manna, which the Lord promised to the churches in Ephesus and Pergamos (vv. 7, 17).
Rv 2:204d fornication  -   Rev. 2:14; 14:8; 17:1-2, 4; 18:3, 9
The apostate church is filled with all manner of fornication and idolatry, both spiritual and physical. In ch. 17 she is even called “the great harlot.”
Rv 2:20e idol  -   Rev. 2:14; 1 Kings 16:31-33; 18:19; 21:26
See note 204.
Rv 2:21a repent  -   Rev. 2:5
Rv 2:21b not  -   Rev. 9:20-21; 16:9, 11
Rv 2:221 bed
A bed is normally used for sleep and rest, and abnormally, for sickness. The Lord indicated here that the apostate church is incurably sick and will remain so until her final judgment.
Rv 2:22a adultery  -   Rev. 17:2; 18:3, 9
Rv 2:222 great
Not the tribulation that the church has suffered throughout the centuries of persecution (7:14) nor the great tribulation in the last three and a half years of this age, which will fall upon all those who dwell on the earth (Matt. 24:21), but the particular portion of affliction that the Lord will cause the apostate Roman Catholic Church to suffer when He judges her. See note 231.
Rv 2:231 kill
This may refer to God’s destroying of the Roman Catholic Church through Antichrist and his followers (17:16-17).
Rv 2:23a searches  -   Psa. 7:9; 139:1-4; Jer. 17:10; Rom. 8:27
Rv 2:232 inward
Lit., kidneys.
Rv 2:23b works  -   1 Pet. 1:17
Rv 2:24a teaching  -   Rev. 2:20
Rv 2:241b deep  -   cf. 1 Cor. 2:10
In Greek the word for deep things means depths, as in Eph. 3:18. It is used figuratively here and denotes mysterious things. The Roman Catholic Church has many mysteries or deep doctrines. The synagogue of Satan (v. 9) was against the suffering church; the throne of Satan (v. 13) was with the worldly church; and the deep things of Satan are within the apostate church. The religion of the synagogue, the world under Satan’s throne, and the philosophy of the satanic mysteries are all used by Satan to damage and corrupt the church.
Rv 2:24c Satan  -   Rev. 2:9, 13; 3:9
Rv 2:25a hold  -   Rev. 3:11
Rv 2:251 until
This indicates that the apostate Roman Catholic Church will remain until the Lord comes back.
Rv 2:25b come  -   Rev. 3:3, 11; 16:15; 22:20
Rv 2:261a overcomes  -   Rev. 2:7
To overcome here is to overcome Roman Catholicism.
Rv 2:262b My  -   John 5:36; 9:4; 14:12
My works refers to the things the Lord has accomplished and is doing. These works are in contrast to the works of the apostate church, which are carried out under the influence of Satan.
Rv 2:26c until  -   Heb. 3:6
Rv 2:263d authority  -   Rev. 12:5; 20:4; 1 Cor. 6:2
To reign with Christ over the nations in the millennial kingdom is a prize to the overcomers (20:4, 6). This promise of the Lord strongly implies that those who do not answer His call to overcome degraded Christianity will not participate in the reign of the millennial kingdom.
Rv 2:271 shepherd
In the millennial kingdom, the ruler is a shepherd.
Rv 2:27a iron  -   Rev. 12:5; 19:15; Psa. 2:9
Rv 2:27b vessels  -   Psa. 2:9; Isa. 30:14; Jer. 19:11
Rv 2:272c I  -   Rev. 11:15; 12:10; Dan. 7:13-14; Luke 22:29
In Psa. 2:9 God gave Christ authority to rule over the nations; here Christ gives the same authority to His overcomers.
Rv 2:281a morning  -   Rev. 22:16; 2 Pet. 1:19; cf. Num. 24:17; Matt. 2:2, 9-10
At Christ’s first appearing the magi, not the Jewish religionists, saw Christ’s star (Matt. 2:2, 9-10). At His second appearing Christ will be the morning star to His overcomers who watch for His coming. To all the others He will appear only as the sun (Mal. 4:2).
Rv 2:291a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
The number seven in the Bible is composed either of six plus one, e.g., six days plus one day equals one week; or of three plus four, as in these two chapters, in which the seven churches are divided into one group of three and another group of four. At the end of each of the first three epistles, the ear for hearing is mentioned first, and then the call for overcoming. At the end of each of the last four epistles, the order is reversed. This proves that the first three epistles form one group, and the last four another. Six plus one is seen in God’s creation, whereas three plus four is seen in God’s new creation, the church. Since all things were created in six days, the number six signifies the creation, especially man, who was created on the sixth day; and since the seventh day, as the conclusion of the six days, was the one day of God’s rest, the number one signifies the unique Creator. Hence, six plus one signifies that all things were created unto God for the accomplishing of His purpose. The unique Creator, God, is triune, signified by the number three. Since the creation is represented before God by four living creatures (4:6-9), the number four signifies the creatures, especially man. Hence, three plus four means that God is added to the created man, and thus His purpose is being accomplished. The church is not only the creature but the creature with the Creator as the Triune God dispensed into her. She is the real number seven: the real three, the Triune God, added to the real four, created man. Therefore, the number seven denotes completion in God’s move, first in the old creation and then in the new creation, the church.
Rv 2:29b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
Revelation Chapter 3
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 3:11 Sardis
The Greek word means the remains, the remainder, or the restoration. As a sign, the church in Sardis prefigures the Protestant church, from the time of the Reformation to the second coming of Christ. The Reformation was God’s reaction to the apostate Roman Catholic Church, which is signified by the degraded church in Thyatira. It was accomplished by a minority of the believers, the remainder. Hence, it was a restoration by the remainder.
Rv 3:12a seven  -   Rev. 1:4
The seven Spirits of God enable the church to be intensely living, and the seven stars enable her to be intensely shining. To the church in Ephesus, Christ was the One who held the seven stars and walked in the midst of the seven lampstands. The initial church needed the care of Christ, and her leaders needed His keeping grace. To the church in Smyrna, He was the One who became dead and lived again. The suffering church needed the resurrection life of Christ. To the church in Pergamos, Christ was the One who has the sharp two-edged sword. The degraded, worldly church needed His judging and slaying word. To the church in Thyatira, He was the One who has eyes like flaming fire and feet like shining bronze. The apostate church needed His searching and judging. Here, to the church in Sardis, He was the One who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. The dead, reformed church needed the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God and the shining leaders. The sevenfold intensified Spirit is living and can never be replaced by the dead letters of knowledge (2 Cor. 3:6).
Rv 3:1b seven  -   Rev. 1:16
See note 12.
Rv 3:1c know  -   Rev. 2:2
Rv 3:13 name
Many have considered the reformed Protestant Church to be living, but the Lord says that she is dead. Hence, she needs the living Spirits and the shining stars.
Rv 3:1d living  -   cf. John 14:19; 6:57; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21
Rv 3:1e dead  -   Rom. 8:6, 13
Rv 3:2a watchful  -   Rev. 16:15; Matt. 24:42-43; Mark 13:33-37; 1 Pet. 5:8
Rv 3:21 things
“The things which remain” are the things that had been lost and were restored by the Reformation, such as justification by faith, the open Bible, etc. Though these things had been restored, they were about to die. Hence, they needed to be revived. This is the actual situation of the Protestant churches.
Rv 3:22b completed  -   cf. John 17:4; 2 Tim. 4:7
Nothing begun in the Reformation has ever been completed. Therefore, the church in Philadelphia is needed for the completion.
Rv 3:3a Remember  -   Rev. 2:5
Rv 3:3b repent  -   Rev. 2:5
Rv 3:3c come  -   Rev. 2:25
Rv 3:31d thief  -   Rev. 16:15; Matt. 24:43; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10
A thief comes to steal precious things at an unknown time. Since the reformed Protestant churches are dead, they will be unaware of the Lord’s coming as a thief in His secret appearing to His seekers. Hence, there is the need of watchfulness.
Rv 3:3e hour  -   Matt. 24:36, 44, 50
Rv 3:41a defiled  -   Jude 23; Zech. 3:3-5; cf. Rev. 19:8
Garments in the Bible signify what we are in our walk and living. To defile one’s garments means particularly to stain them with deadness. Death is more defiling before God than sin (Lev. 11:24-25; Num. 6:6-7, 9).
Rv 3:42b white  -   Rev. 3:5, 18; 6:11; 7:9, 13; 19:8, 14; Eccl. 9:8; cf. Rev. 4:4
White signifies not only purity but also approvedness. White garments here signify the walk and living that are unspotted by death and that will be approved by the Lord. This is a qualification for walking with the Lord, especially in the coming kingdom.
Rv 3:51a overcomes  -   Rev. 2:7
To overcome here is to overcome the deadness of the Protestant churches, i.e., to overcome dead Protestantism.
Rv 3:52 clothed
Being clothed in white garments, as promised here, will be a prize to the overcomers in the millennial kingdom. What they have been walking in in this age will be a prize to them in the coming age. Every Christian needs two garments. The first is the garment of justification for our salvation, signifying Christ, the Christ whom we received, as our objective righteousness (Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30). The second is the garment of approvedness for our acceptance, signifying Christ, the Christ whom we live out, as our subjective righteousness (Phil. 1:21; 3:9). The white garments mentioned here refer to the second garment, which is needed for us to receive the reward and enter into the kingdom to walk with the Lord, that is, to reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:11-12). See note 82 in ch. 19.
Rv 3:5b white  -   Rev. 3:4
Rv 3:53c erase  -   cf. Exo. 32:32
The entire verse is the Lord’s promise to the overcomers. It will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom after the Lord comes back. That a name is erased out of the book of life indicates that that name has already been written in the book of life. The book of life is a divine record of the names of those who partake of the blessings that God has prepared for them. The names of all the saints chosen by God and predestinated to partake of these blessings are written in this book (Luke 10:20). These blessings are in three stages: (1) in the church, (2) in the millennial kingdom, and (3) in eternity. The blessings in the stage of the church, such as forgiveness, redemption, regeneration, eternal life, the divine nature, etc., are the initial portions. All God’s chosen ones whose names are written in the book of life have a share in these initial portions to begin their spiritual life. If they cooperate with God’s supplying grace, they will mature in life in the church age, and this earlier maturity in life will constitute a prize with which the Lord will reward them at His coming back. That prize will be the entrance into the millennial kingdom and participation in the divine blessings in that stage, such as the joy and rest of the Lord (Matt. 25:21, 23; Heb. 4:9-11), the reign over the nations (2:26-27; 20:4, 6), etc., which God has prepared as an incentive for His chosen ones to go on with Him in the church age. However, many of His chosen ones, after receiving His forgiveness, redemption, eternal life, divine nature, etc., will not cooperate with His grace and will not go on with Him. Hence, they are unable to mature in life in the church age and thus will not be ready at the Lord’s coming back to enter into the millennial kingdom and share in the divine blessings of that age as a prize. Therefore, during the millennial kingdom their names will be erased from the book of life. After being disciplined by the Lord and growing in life unto maturity during the millennial kingdom, they will share in the divine blessings in the stage of eternity, such as the eternal priesthood with God’s eternal presence, the eternal kingship (22:3-5), the New Jerusalem, the tree of life (22:14), the water of life (22:17), etc. At that time their names should again be written in the book of life. This means that all God’s chosen ones whose names are written in the book of life and who have been brought into the participation of the divine blessings in the stage of the church “shall by no means perish forever” (John 10:28); that is, they shall by no means lose the divine blessings of eternity. But some, those who do not cooperate with the Lord in the church age, will be dispensationally disciplined by the Lord during the millennial kingdom and will miss the divine blessings in that stage.
Rv 3:54d book  -   Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; Luke 10:20
Lit., scroll.
Rv 3:55e confess  -   Matt. 10:32; Luke 12:8
In the kingdom age the Lord will confess the name of the overcomer because the overcomer’s name will not have been erased out of the book of life but will still be written in it. This implies that if the believers are not overcomers, in the kingdom age their names will be erased out of the book of life (see note 53) and therefore will not be confessed by the Lord.
Rv 3:6a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 3:6b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 3:71 Philadelphia
The Greek word means brotherly love. As a sign, the church in Philadelphia prefigures the proper church life recovered by the brothers raised up by the Lord in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. Just as the reformed church, prefigured by the church in Sardis, was a reaction to the apostate Catholic Church, prefigured by the church in Thyatira, so the church of brotherly love was a reaction to the dead reformed church. This reaction will continue as an anti-testimony to both apostate Catholicism and degraded Protestantism until the Lord comes back.
Rv 3:72a Holy  -   Rev. 6:10; 16:5; 4:8; Isa. 6:3
To the church of brotherly love, the Lord is the Holy One, the true One, by whom and with whom the recovered church can be holy, separated from the world, and true, faithful, to God.
Rv 3:7b true  -   Rev. 3:14; 6:10; 19:11; 1 John 5:20; John 14:6
Rv 3:73c key  -   Isa. 22:22; cf. Matt. 16:19; Rev. 1:18
To the recovered church, the Lord is also the One who has the key of David, the key of the kingdom, with authority to open and to shut. The Lord uses this key to deal with the recovered church.
Rv 3:8a know  -   Rev. 2:2
Rv 3:81b opened  -   Acts 14:27; 2 Cor. 2:12; 1 Cor. 16:9; Col. 4:3
As the One who has the key of David and who opens and no one will shut, the Lord has given the recovered church an opened door, which no one can shut. Since the recovery of the proper church life began, in the early part of the nineteenth century, until now, a door has always been opened wide to the Lord’s recovery. The more organized Christianity tries to shut the door, the wider it is opened. In spite of much opposition, today the door is open worldwide. The key is in the hand of the Head of the church; it is not in the hand of the opposers.
Rv 3:8c no  -   Rev. 3:7
Rv 3:82 little
This indicates that what pleases the Lord is not our doing much for Him but our doing our best for Him with what we have.
Rv 3:8d kept  -   Rev. 3:10; 1:3
Rv 3:83 word
The Lord’s word is the Lord’s expression, and the Lord’s name is the Lord Himself. The apostate church has deviated from the Lord’s word and become heretical. The reformed church, though recovered to the Lord’s word to some extent, has denied the Lord’s name by denominating herself, taking many other names, such as Lutheran, Wesleyan, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc. The recovered church not only has returned in a full way to the Lord’s word but also has abandoned all names other than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. The recovered church belongs to the Lord absolutely, having nothing to do with any denominations (any names). To deviate from the Lord’s word is apostasy, and to denominate the church by taking any name other than the Lord’s is spiritual fornication. The church, as the pure virgin espoused to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2), should have no name other than her Husband’s. All other names are an abomination in the eyes of God. In the recovered church life there are no teachings of Balaam (2:14), no teachings of the Nicolaitans (2:15), no teachings of Jezebel (2:20), and no mysterious doctrines of Satan (2:24); there is only the pure word of the Lord. The recovered church has no denominations (names); it has only the unique name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The deviation from the word to heresies and the exalting of many names other than that of Christ are the most striking signs of degraded Christianity. The return to the pure word from all heresies and traditions and the exalting of the Lord’s name by abandoning every other name constitute the most inspiring testimony in the recovered church. This is why the church in the Lord’s recovery has the revelation and presence of the Lord and expresses the Lord in a living way, full of light and with the riches of life.
Rv 3:8e denied  -   Matt. 10:33; Rev. 2:13; Luke 12:9; 2 Tim. 2:12
Rv 3:91a synagogue  -   Rev. 2:9
See note 95 in ch. 2.
Rv 3:9b Satan  -   Rev. 2:9
Rv 3:9c Jews  -   Rev. 2:9
Rv 3:92 not
See note 94 in ch. 2.
Rv 3:9d fall  -   Isa. 60:14
Rv 3:93 prostrate
The Jewish synagogue holds on to Judaism, which comprises the mediatorial priests, the ordinances of letters, the material temple, and the earthly promises. The recovered church has subdued Judaism by exposing its error and stubbornness in holding on to the above four things and has caused the Jews to know that the Lord has loved her.
Rv 3:9e loved  -   John 15:9
Rv 3:10a kept  -   Rev. 3:8; 1:3
Rv 3:101 word
The word of the Lord’s endurance is the word of the Lord’s suffering. The Lord today is still bearing rejection and persecution by His endurance. We are the joint partakers not only of His kingdom but also of His endurance (1:9). Hence, His word to us today is the word of endurance. To keep the word of His endurance, we must bear His rejection and persecution.
Rv 3:10b endurance  -   Rev. 1:9
Rv 3:102c keep  -   Luke 21:36; cf. 2 Pet. 2:9
Trial here undoubtedly denotes the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, as indicated by the fifth trumpet, the sixth trumpet, and the seven bowls of the seventh trumpet (8:13 — 9:21; 11:14-15; 15:1; 16:1-21). The trial also includes the supernatural calamities of the sixth seal and the first four trumpets at the beginning of the great tribulation. The Lord promised the recovered church that He would keep her out of the hour of trial (not only out of the trial, but out of the hour of trial) because she has kept the word of the Lord’s endurance. This promise of the Lord, like His promise in Luke 21:36, indicates that the saints who keep the word of the Lord’s endurance will be raptured before the great trial, implying that those who do not keep the word of the Lord’s endurance will be left in the trial.
Rv 3:10d trial  -   Matt. 24:21; cf. Dan. 12:1
Rv 3:10e dwell  -   Rev. 6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 14; 17:8
Rv 3:111a come  -   Rev. 22:7, 12, 20; 2:25
In this epistle the Lord brings the church in His recovery into the sensation of His coming, because she loves Him.
Rv 3:11b hold  -   Rev. 2:25
Rv 3:112c crown  -   Rev. 2:10
The recovered church has gained the crown already. However, if she does not hold fast what she has in the Lord’s recovery until the Lord comes back, her crown may be taken away by someone.
Rv 3:121a overcomes  -   Rev. 2:7
To overcome here is to hold fast what we have in the recovered church.
Rv 3:122b pillar  -   1 Kings 7:21; Gal. 2:9
In 2:17 the overcomer will become a transformed stone for God’s building. Here the overcomer will be made a pillar built into the temple of God. Because he is built into God’s building, he shall by no means go out anymore. This promise, as a prize to the overcomer, will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom.
Rv 3:12c temple  -   Rev. 7:15; 11:1-2, 19; 14:15, 17; 15:5, 6, 8; 16:1, 17; 21:22
Rv 3:123d name  -   Rev. 14:1; 22:4
That the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the Lord’s new name are written upon the overcomer indicates that the overcomer is possessed by God, by the New Jerusalem, and by the Lord; that God Himself, His city (the New Jerusalem), and the Lord Himself all belong to him; and that he is one with God, with the New Jerusalem, and with the Lord. The name of God denotes God Himself, the name of the New Jerusalem denotes the city itself, and the name of the Lord denotes the Lord Himself. That the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord are written upon the overcomer indicates that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the person of the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer. The mentioning of the New Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom. The New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom will be a prize only to the overcoming saints, whereas the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth will be the common portion of all the redeemed for eternity.
Rv 3:12e New  -   Rev. 21:2, 10; Gal. 4:26; Heb. 11:10; 12:22
Rv 3:12f new  -   cf. Rev. 2:17
Rv 3:13a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 3:13b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 3:141a Laodicea  -   Col. 2:1; 4:16
The Greek word means opinion, judgment, of the people or of the laymen. As a sign, the church in Laodicea prefigures the degraded recovered church. Less than one century after the Lord recovered the proper church in the early part of the nineteenth century, some of the recovered “assemblies” (called such by the Brethren) became degraded. The degraded recovered church differs from the reformed church, signified by the church in Sardis, and from the proper recovered church, signified by the church in Philadelphia. It will exist until the Lord comes back.
Rv 3:142b Amen  -   Isa. 65:16 (the God of faithfulness; lit., the God of Amen); 2 Cor. 1:20
In addressing each of the seven churches, the Lord referred to what He is and what He does, respectively, according to the situation and condition of each. Here, in addressing the church in Laodicea, He referred to Himself as “the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” Amen, from Hebrew, means firm, steadfast, or trustworthy. The Lord is the firm, steadfast, and trustworthy One. Hence, He is the faithful and true Witness. This indicates that the degraded church in Laodicea is not firm, steadfast, trustworthy, or faithful and true as the Lord’s witness. The beginning of the creation of God refers to the Lord as the origin or source of God’s creation, implying that the Lord is the unchanging and ever-existing source of God’s work. This indicates that the degraded recovered church has changed by leaving the Lord as the source.
Rv 3:14c Witness  -   Rev. 1:5
Rv 3:143d beginning  -   cf. Col. 1:15
Or, origin, source; that is, the originating source.
Rv 3:15a know  -   Rev. 2:2
Rv 3:151 hot
Lit., boiling. So in the next verse.
Rv 3:15b hot  -   Rom. 12:11
See note 151.
Rv 3:161 spew
To be spewed out of the Lord’s mouth is to be rejected by the Lord and to lose the enjoyment of all that the Lord is to His church.
Rv 3:171 say
The degraded recovered church boasts of her riches (which are mainly in the knowledge of doctrines). She does not realize that she is poor in life, blind in sight, and naked in conduct. Therefore, she needs to buy gold to make herself rich, white garments to cover her nakedness, and eyesalve to cure her blindness, as mentioned in the next verse.
Rv 3:17a wealthy  -   1 Cor. 4:8; cf. Matt. 5:3; Rev. 2:9
Rv 3:172b wretched  -   cf. Rom. 7:24
In the eyes of the Lord the degraded recovered church is (1) wretched because she is proud of being rich in the vain knowledge of doctrine, but in reality is sorely poor in the experience of the riches of Christ; (2) miserable because she is naked, blind, and full of shame and darkness; (3) poor because she is poor in the experience of Christ and in the spiritual reality of God’s economy; (4) blind because she lacks true spiritual insight in the genuine spiritual things; and (5) naked because she does not live by Christ or live Christ as her subjective righteousness, as the second garment in her daily walk.
Rv 3:17c blind  -   2 Pet. 1:9; Matt. 15:14; 23:16, 17, 19, 24, 26
Rv 3:17d naked  -   Rev. 16:15
Rv 3:181a buy  -   Isa. 55:1; Matt. 25:9
Buying requires the paying of a price. The degraded recovered church must pay a price for gold, white garments, and eyesalve, which she desperately needs.
Rv 3:182b gold  -   1 Pet. 1:7; 1 Cor. 3:12-13
In the Bible our operating, working faith (Gal. 5:6) is likened to gold (1 Pet. 1:7), and the divine nature of God, which is the divinity of Christ, is typified by gold (Exo. 25:11). By faith we partake of the divine nature of God (2 Pet. 1:1, 4-5). The degraded recovered church has the knowledge of the doctrines concerning Christ but not much living faith to partake of the divine element of Christ. She needs to pay the price to gain the golden faith through the fiery trials that she may participate in the real gold, which is Christ Himself as the life element to His Body. Thus she can become a pure golden lampstand (1:20) for the building of the golden New Jerusalem (21:18).
Rv 3:18c refined  -   Mal. 3:3
Rv 3:18d fire  -   Rev. 1:14; Heb. 12:29
Rv 3:18e rich  -   Rev. 2:9
Rv 3:183f white  -   Rev. 3:5
In figure, garments signify conduct. White garments here signify conduct that can be approved by the Lord. Such conduct is the Lord Himself lived out of the church, and it is required by the degraded recovered church for the covering of her nakedness.
Rv 3:18g nakedness  -   Rev. 16:15
Rv 3:184 eyesalve
The eyesalve needed to anoint their eyes must be the anointing Spirit (1 John 2:27), who is the Lord Himself as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The degraded recovered church needs this kind of eyesalve also for the healing of her blindness. For the three items mentioned in this verse, she must pay the price.
Rv 3:18h anoint  -   John 9:6-11; 1 John 2:20, 27
Rv 3:19a love  -   Rev. 1:5; Heb. 12:6
Rv 3:19b discipline  -   Heb. 12:5-11
Rv 3:191 zealous
Lit., boiling. Dead, vain knowledge and doctrinal forms have made the degraded recovered church lukewarm. She needs to repent of her lukewarmness and be zealous, boiling, burning, that thereby she may regain the enjoyment of the reality of Christ.
Rv 3:19c repent  -   Rev. 2:5
Rv 3:201a door  -   James 5:9
This door is not the door of the hearts of individuals but the door of the church. The Lord as the Head of the church is standing outside the degraded church, knocking at her door. The degraded recovered church must realize this!
Rv 3:20b knock  -   Luke 12:36
Rv 3:20c hears  -   Rev. 2:7; John 10:27
Rv 3:20d voice  -   Rev. 1:15
Rv 3:202 opens
The door is the door of the church, but the door is opened by individual believers. The church in Laodicea has knowledge but does not have the Lord’s presence. The Lord is dealing with the whole church, but the acceptance of the Lord’s dealing must be a personal matter. The Lord’s dealing is objective, but the believers’ acceptance must be subjective.
Rv 3:20e come  -   John 14:23
Rv 3:203 dine
The Greek word denotes taking the principal meal of the day at evening. See note 75 in ch. 2.
Rv 3:211a overcomes  -   Rev. 2:7
Here to overcome is to overcome the lukewarmness and pride of the degraded recovered church, to pay the price to buy the needed items, and to open the door so that the Lord can come in.
Rv 3:212 sit
To sit with the Lord on His throne will be a prize to the overcomer, that he may participate in the Lord’s authority and be a co-king with Him in ruling over the whole earth in the coming millennial kingdom.
Rv 3:21b throne  -   cf. Rev. 20:4; Matt. 19:28
Rv 3:21c overcame  -   Rev. 5:5; 17:14; John 16:33
Rv 3:21d sat  -   Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2
Rv 3:21e with  -   Rev. 22:1, 3
Rv 3:22a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 3:22b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 3:221 churches
The seven churches not only signify prophetically the progress of the church in seven ages, as we have seen, but also symbolize the seven kinds of churches in church history: the initial church, the suffering church, the worldly church, the apostate church, the reformed church, the recovered church, and the degraded recovered church. The initial church had its continuation in the suffering church; the suffering church became the worldly church; and the worldly church became the apostate church. Hence, the first four churches issued eventually in one kind of church, that is, the apostate church, the Roman Catholic Church. Then the reformed church, as a reaction to the apostate church, came into existence as another kind of church, a church not fully recovered. Hence, after this, the recovered church was raised up as a full recovery of the proper church life. This can be considered the third kind of church. Through the degradation of the recovered church, the degraded recovered church came into being. This can be counted as the fourth kind of church. These four kinds of churches will all remain until the Lord comes back. Undoubtedly, only the recovered church can fulfill God’s eternal purpose, and only she is what the Lord is after. We must take the Lord’s choice.
Revelation Chapter 4
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 4:1a door  -   Gen. 28:17
Rv 4:11b opened  -   Rev. 19:11; Ezek. 1:1; Matt. 3:16; Acts 7:56; 10:11; John 1:51; cf. Rev. 11:19
God’s plan is hidden in heaven. When God finds a man on earth after His heart, heaven is opened to him. It was opened to Jacob (Gen. 28:12-17), to Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:1), to Jesus (Matt. 3:16), to Stephen (Acts 7:56), and to Peter (Acts 10:11). Here and in 19:11 it was opened to John, the writer of this book, and it will be opened to all believers in the Lord in eternity (John 1:51).
Rv 4:12c voice  -   Rev. 1:10
The voice heard in 1:10.
Rv 4:1d Come  -   Rev. 17:1; 21:9
Rv 4:1e things  -   Rev. 1:19
Rv 4:21a spirit  -   Rev. 1:10; 17:3; 21:10
See note 101 in ch. 1.
Rv 4:22b throne  -   Rev. 5:1; 6:16; 7:9; 8:3; 12:5; 16:17; 19:5; 20:11; 21:5; 22:1; 1 Kings 22:19; Isa. 6:1; Ezek. 1:26; Dan. 7:9
In this book the throne of God is the center of God’s administration. In the Epistles the throne is the throne of grace, from which we receive mercy and find grace (Heb. 4:16). In this book the throne is the throne of judgment, from which the world receives judgment. Eventually, after all God’s judgments have been executed, the throne of God will be the throne of the supply of eternal life, out of which will proceed the living water of life, in which the tree of life grows, as the supply of God’s redeemed in eternity.
Rv 4:2c One  -   Psa. 47:8; Isa. 6:1
Rv 4:31a jasper  -   Rev. 21:11, 19
According to 21:11, the jasper is “a most precious stone…as clear as crystal.” Its color must be dark green, which signifies life in its richness. Jasper here, as indicated in 21:11, signifies God’s communicable glory in His rich life (John 17:22, 2). God’s appearance is like jasper, as also the appearance of the holy city, New Jerusalem, will be (21:11). The city’s wall and first foundation are built with jasper (21:18-19).
Rv 4:32b sardius  -   Rev. 21:20
The sardius too is a most precious stone, and its red color signifies redemption. While jasper signifies God as the God of glory in His rich life, sardius signifies God as the God of redemption. On the breastplate of the high priest in the Old Testament, the first stone was a sardius and the last a jasper (Exo. 28:17, 20). This signifies that God’s redeemed people have their beginning in God’s redemption and their consummation in God’s glory of life.
Rv 4:33c rainbow  -   Rev. 10:1; Ezek. 1:28; Gen. 9:12-17
The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with man and all living creatures that He will not destroy them again with a flood (Gen. 9:8-17). This book shows that God will judge the earth with all its inhabitants. The rainbow around His throne signifies that God is the covenanting God, the faithful God, who will keep His covenant while executing His judgment upon the earth. He will not judge mankind again with a flood nor destroy all mankind, but will keep a part of mankind to be the nations on the new earth for His glory (21:24, 26).
Rv 4:34d emerald  -   Rev. 21:19; Exo. 28:17
The rainbow around God’s throne is like an emerald in appearance. An emerald is a precious stone whose grass-green color signifies the lives on earth. This indicates that as God is executing His judgment upon the earth, He will remember His covenant and will spare some of the lives on earth, as indicated in Gen. 9:11.
Rv 4:4a around  -   Rev. 4:6; 5:11; 7:11
Rv 4:41b twenty-four  -   Rev. 11:16
Twenty-four is formed by multiplying twelve by two. Twelve indicates the completion of God’s administration (Matt. 19:28). David divided both the priests and the Levites into twenty-four groups to carry out God’s administrative service. Therefore, before they are replaced by the church, the twenty-four angelic elders are the ones who carry out God’s administration. Twelve multiplied by two signifies strengthening by doubling, indicating that the divine administration carried out by the twenty-four angelic elders is strong.
Rv 4:4c twenty-four  -   Rev. 4:10; 5:6, 8, 14; 19:4
See note 41.
Rv 4:42 elders
The elders here are not the elders of the church but the elders of the angels, because here, before the Lord’s second coming, they are sitting on thrones already (cf. Matt. 19:28; Rev. 20:4). Among God’s creation the angels are the most ancient ones. Their elders are the elders of the whole creation of God. That they sit on thrones with golden crowns on their heads indicates that they must be the ones who rule the universe until the millennial kingdom, when the authority to rule the earth will be given to the overcoming saints (Heb. 2:5-9; Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4). That they are clothed in white garments and have a harp and golden bowls full of incense (5:8) indicates that now they are also priests before God; in the millennial kingdom, however, the reigning overcomers will be the priests of God and of Christ (20:6). The elders’ golden crowns indicate that they are also ruling ones. Therefore, they are priests serving God and kings reigning over His creation.
Rv 4:43d white  -   Rev. 3:4
The white garments here indicate that these angelic elders are sinless and, unlike the redeemed saints, have no need to be washed by the blood of the Lamb (7:14).
Rv 4:4e crowns  -   Rev. 4:10
Rv 4:5a lightnings  -   Rev. 8:5; 11:19; 16:18; Exo. 19:16
Rv 4:51b seven  -   Exo. 25:37; Zech. 4:2
The seven lamps here are based upon the seven lamps of the lampstand in Exo. 25:37 and Zech. 4:2. The seven lamps of fire, which are the seven Spirits of God, signify the enlightening and searching of the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God. In Exo. 25 and Zech. 4 the seven lamps, signifying the enlightening of the Spirit of God in God’s move, are for God’s building, either for the building of the tabernacle or for the rebuilding of the temple. Here the seven lamps are for God’s judgment, which will issue also in God’s building — the building of the New Jerusalem.
Rv 4:52c seven  -   Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 5:6
See note 45 in ch. 1.
Rv 4:61a glassy  -   Rev. 15:2
This glassy sea is not of water but of fire (15:2). Since the deluge, God, in accordance with His promise that He would not judge the earth and all living creatures again with water (Gen. 9:15), always exercises His judgment upon man with fire (Gen. 19:24; Lev. 10:2; Num. 11:1; 16:35; Dan. 7:11; Rev. 14:10; 18:8; 19:20; 20:9-10; 21:8). God’s throne of judgment is like the fiery flame out of which a fiery stream issues (Dan. 7:9-10). The flame of God’s judging fire sweeps all negative things in the entire universe into this glassy sea, which eventually becomes the lake of fire (20:14). The glassy sea, being the aggregate of all God’s fiery judgment, is like crystal, signifying that every negative thing under God’s judgment is crystal clear. Here we have the rainbow around the throne of God, signifying that God will keep His promise recorded in Gen. 9:8-17. We also have the glassy sea of fire, indicating that God will judge all negative things still with fire.
Rv 4:6b crystal  -   Ezek. 1:22; Rev. 21:11; 22:1
Rv 4:62c four  -   Rev. 4:7-11; 5:6; 6:1, 6; 7:11; 14:3; 15:7; 19:4; Ezek. 1:5-25
The twenty-four elders around the throne of God represent all the angels, whereas the four living creatures represent all other living creatures. The first, which is like a lion, represents the beasts; the second, which is like a calf, represents the cattle; the third, which is like a man, represents mankind; and the fourth, which is like an eagle, represents the fowl (v. 7). Of the six categories of living things created by God (Gen. 1:20-28), two are not represented here — the creeping things on the earth and the living things in the water. The head of the creeping things is the serpent, a symbol of God’s enemy, Satan, who will be cast into the lake of fire and will have no place in the new heaven and new earth. The living things in the water are in the water of God’s judgment, which will no longer exist in the new heaven and new earth (21:1). Hence, for eternity these two categories are not represented before God.
Among the four living creatures, the calf is clean, but the lion and the eagle are unclean (Lev. 11:3, 27, 13-19). After being redeemed, they all became clean (Acts 10:11-16). Among them the calf and the man are meek and gentle, but the lion and eagle are wild and fierce. Through redemption they can all dwell together (Isa. 11:6-9). Christ’s redemption is not only for man but for all things (Col. 1:20), for He died on behalf of everything (Heb. 2:9).
Rv 4:63d full  -   Ezek. 1:18; 10:12
Eyes enable living things to receive light and vision. The four living creatures are full of eyes, not only in front and behind but also around and within (v. 8), indicating that they are absolutely not opaque but are crystal clear in every aspect. In the presence of God we, the redeemed people, should be like this.
Rv 4:71 like
In appearance, the four living creatures resemble the cherubim in Ezek. 1:5-10 and 10:14-15. In that they each have six wings (v. 8), they are like the seraphim in Isa. 6:2. (The cherubim in Exo. 25:20 and 1 Kings 6:27 have two wings, and the cherubim in Ezek. 1:6 have four wings.) They must be a combination of the cherubim and the seraphim. As the seraphim, they are for God’s holiness (Isa. 6:3), referring to God’s nature, and as the cherubim, they are for God’s glory (Ezek. 10:18-19; Heb. 9:5), referring to God’s expression. Hence, they stand for God’s nature and expression.
Rv 4:7a lion  -   Ezek. 1:10; 10:14
Rv 4:8a six  -   Isa. 6:2
Rv 4:81b Holy  -   Isa. 6:3; Rev. 3:7
The mentioning of holy three times, as in Isa. 6:3, implies that God is triune.
Rv 4:8c Lord  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 4:82d who  -   Rev. 1:4
The use of three tenses in speaking of God’s existence also implies that God is triune. See note 43 in ch. 1.
Rv 4:91a glory  -   Rev. 5:12-13
The praises of both the four living creatures in this verse and the twenty-four elders in v. 11 are composed of three items, implying that both the living creatures and the elders are praising the Triune God. The first two items, glory and honor, are the same in both places, but the last item is different: In the praises of the four living creatures the last item is thanks — they are redeemed and are grateful for the redemption of God’s grace, whereas in the praises of the twenty-four elders the last item is power — as the rulers of the universe (they are not the redeemed creatures), they appreciate the power of God, by which they rule.
Rv 4:9b lives  -   Rev. 10:6; 15:7; Dan. 4:34; 12:7; Deut. 32:40; 2 Sam. 22:47; Ezek. 5:11
Rv 4:10a fall  -   Rev. 5:8, 14; 7:11; 11:16; 19:4
Rv 4:101 cast
According to the preceding verses, this section of the holy Word implies that when the redeemed saints — represented by the man among the four living creatures, who are redeemed — have been perfected and glorified to be the proper priests and kings (20:6), the temporary priests and kings, the twenty-four angelic elders, will resign from their offices. This is implied by the fact that they will cast their crowns before the throne.
Rv 4:11a worthy  -   Rev. 5:2, 9, 12
Rv 4:111b glory  -   Rev. 5:12-13
See note 91.
Rv 4:11c created  -   Rev. 10:6; Eph. 3:9; Rom. 11:36
Rv 4:112d will  -   Eph. 1:11
God is a God of purpose, having a will of His own pleasure. He created all things for His will that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose. This book, which unveils God’s universal administration, shows us the purpose of God. Hence, in the twenty-four elders’ praise to God concerning His creation, His creation is related to His will.
Revelation Chapter 5
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 5:11a scroll  -   Rev. 10:1-2
This scroll must be the new covenant, the grand title deed in the universe, enacted with the blood of the Lamb for God’s redemption of the church, Israel, the world, and the universe. This book is a record of God’s thought concerning the church, Israel, the world, and the universe.
Rv 5:12 seven
The seven seals with which the scroll is sealed up are actually the contents of the scroll and the contents of the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is just the opening, the unveiling, of the seven seals.
Rv 5:2a worthy  -   Rev. 5:9
Rv 5:3a in  -   Rev. 5:13; Phil. 2:10
Rv 5:41 no
If actually no one in the whole universe was found worthy to open the scroll, we would surely need to weep, for the whole universe would be vanity, with none qualified to unveil its secret.
Rv 5:51a Lion  -   Gen. 49:9-10; cf. Num. 24:9; Micah 5:8
The lion is a symbol of Christ, portraying Him as a strong fighter against the enemy, as prophesied in Gen. 49:8-9. Christ’s overcoming qualifies Him to open the scroll and its seven seals.
Rv 5:5b Judah  -   Gen. 49:8; Matt. 1:3; Heb. 7:14
Rv 5:52c Root  -   Rev. 22:16; cf. Isa. 11:1, 10; Rom. 15:12
The title Root of David (He is also the Root of David’s father, Jesse — Isa. 11:10) signifies that Christ is the source of David. Therefore, David, His forefather, called Him “Lord” (Matt. 22:42-45).
Rv 5:53d overcome  -   John 16:33; Rev. 17:14
As the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Christ overcame and defeated the rebellious Satan, the enemy of God, and as the redeeming Lamb, He took away the sin of fallen man. By so doing, He removed the hindrances to the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Therefore, He is worthy to open the scroll concerning God’s economy.
Rv 5:61a Lamb  -   Rev. 5:8, 12, 13; 6:1, 16; 7:9-10, 14, 17; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1, 4, 10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7, 9; 21:9, 14, 22, 23, 27; 22:1, 3; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Isa. 53:7
In ch. 4 is the scene in the heavens, its center being the throne of God, on which God sits, ready to execute His universal administration for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Here in ch. 5 is the same scene in the heavens after Christ ascended there. He was recommended to the apostle John as the Lion of the tribe of Judah by one of the elders, but He appeared to John as a Lamb. As the Lion, He is the Fighter against the enemy; as the Lamb, He is the Redeemer for us. He fought to redeem us, and He won the battle over the enemy and accomplished redemption for us. To the enemy He is a Lion; to us He is a Lamb. Hence, He is the Lion-Lamb.
Rv 5:62 standing
As far as redemption is concerned, Christ sat down at the right hand of God in the heavens after His ascension (Heb. 1:3; 10:12), whereas regarding the carrying out of God’s administration, He is still standing in His ascension.
Rv 5:63 having
Having just been slain indicates that the Lamb had just been slain and also that the scene in the heavens that is depicted in this chapter took place immediately after Christ’s ascension into the heavens.
Rv 5:6b slain  -   Rev. 5:9, 12; 13:8
Rv 5:64 seven
Horns signify strength in fighting (Deut. 33:17). Christ is the redeeming Lamb, yet He has horns for fighting. He is the fighting Redeemer. His fighting is complete (perfect and complete) in God’s move, as signified by the number seven.
Rv 5:6c horns  -   cf. Deut. 33:17; Psa. 132:17
Rv 5:65d seven  -   Zech. 3:9; 4:10
Eyes are for observing and searching. Christ as the redeeming Lamb has seven observing and searching eyes for executing God’s judgment upon the universe to fulfill God’s eternal purpose, which will consummate in the building up of the New Jerusalem. Therefore, in Zech. 3:9 He is prophesied as the stone, the topstone (Zech. 4:7) with seven eyes for God’s building. These seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth, and they run to and fro through the whole earth (Zech. 4:10). See note 143 in ch. 1.
Rv 5:6e eyes  -   Rev. 1:14
Rv 5:66 which
According to Greek grammar, the antecedent of which is seven eyes. Hence, the seven Spirits of God refer only to the seven eyes of the Lamb, and not to His seven horns.
Rv 5:6f seven  -   Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5
Rv 5:6g all  -   Zech. 4:10
Rv 5:8a four  -   Rev. 4:6-9
Rv 5:8b twenty-four  -   Rev. 4:4, 10-11
Rv 5:8c harp  -   Rev. 14:2
Rv 5:8d golden  -   Rev. 8:3, 5
Rv 5:81 bowls
The bowls are the saints’ prayers brought to God by the angelic elders (cf. 8:3-4), whereas the incense is Christ added to the saints’ prayers. See note 34 in ch. 8. That in their worship to God the twenty-four angelic elders are holding the golden bowls full of incense shows that they, as priests, are ministering to God by bringing the saints’ prayers to Him.
Rv 5:82e incense  -   Rev. 8:3; cf. Exo. 30:34-38
Lit., incenses.
Rv 5:8f prayers  -   Rev. 8:3, 4; Luke 1:10
Rv 5:91a new  -   Rev. 14:3; Psa. 40:3
The song here is new because the Lamb whom it praises had just been slain.
Rv 5:92b worthy  -   Rev. 5:2; 4:11
In the whole universe no one is worthy to open the mystery of God’s economy but Christ, the overcoming Lion and the redeeming Lamb. As the overcoming Lion, He defeated Satan for God, and as the redeeming Lamb, He put sin away for us. He is the only One qualified to unveil and carry out the mystery of God’s economy.
Rv 5:9c slain  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 5:9d purchased  -   Rev. 14:3; 1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19
Rv 5:93 by
Lit., in.
Rv 5:9e blood  -   Rev. 1:5
Rv 5:9f every  -   Rev. 7:9
Rv 5:101 them
Them refers to the redeemed ones (v. 9). That the twenty-four elders referred to these redeemed ones as them in their praise proves that the praising elders are not of the church but of the angels.
Rv 5:102a kingdom  -   Rev. 1:6
The kingdom is for kingship, for the exercising of God’s authority, and the priests are for the priesthood, for the accomplishing of the divine ministry.
Rv 5:10b reign  -   Rev. 20:4; 22:5; 2:26, 27; 12:5; 2 Tim. 2:12
Rv 5:103 on
Or, over.
Rv 5:111 many
The many angels, represented by the twenty-four elders, follow the elders to render to the Lamb the angelic praise.
Rv 5:11a ten  -   Dan. 7:10; Heb. 12:22
Rv 5:12a Worthy  -   Rev. 4:11; 5:9
Rv 5:12b Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 5:12c slain  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 5:12d power  -   Rev. 4:11
Rv 5:12e riches  -   Rom. 11:33
Rv 5:12f glory  -   Rev. 1:6
Rv 5:12g blessing  -   Rev. 7:12
Rv 5:131 every
All the creatures, who are represented by the four living creatures, follow the living creatures to give the Lamb the universal praise of all creatures other than the angels.
Rv 5:13a in  -   Phil. 2:10
Rv 5:13b Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 5:14a Amen  -   Rev. 7:12; 19:4
Revelation Chapter 6
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 6:1a Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 6:11 opened
The opening of the seven seals by the Lamb occurred immediately after Christ ascended to the heavens. Through His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ became fully qualified in His ascension to open the mystery of God’s economy, which is contained in the seven seals.
Rv 6:1b seven  -   Rev. 5:1
Rv 6:1c four  -   Rev. 4:6-9
Rv 6:12 living
Because God’s economy concerning the creatures is contained in the seven seals, the four living creatures are interested in announcing, respectively, the opening of the first four seals.
Rv 6:1d sound  -   Rev. 10:3; 14:2; 19:6
Rv 6:1e Come  -   Rev. 6:3, 5, 7
Rv 6:21a white  -   cf. Rev. 19:11, 14; Zech. 1:8; 6:3
White signifies clean, pure, just, and approvable. The white horse is a symbol of the preaching of the gospel, which is clean, pure, just, and approvable in the eyes of both man and God.
Rv 6:22 he
The first four seals consist of four horses with their riders, as in a four-horse race. The four riders are not persons but personified things. It is evident that the rider of the second horse, the red horse, is war (v. 4), that the rider of the third horse, the black horse, is famine (v. 5), and that the rider of the fourth horse, the pale horse, is death (v. 8). According to historical facts, the rider of the first horse, the white horse, must be the gospel, not Christ or Antichrist as some interpret. Immediately after Christ’s ascension, these four things — the gospel, war, famine, and death — began to run like riders on four horses, and they will continue until Christ comes back. Beginning from the first century the gospel has been spreading throughout all these twenty centuries. Simultaneously, war among the human race has been proceeding. War has always caused famine, and famine issues in death. All these will continue until the end of this age.
Rv 6:23 bow
A bow with an arrow is for fighting. But here there is a bow without an arrow. This indicates that the arrow has already been shot to destroy the enemy and that the victory has been won for the constituting of the gospel of peace. Now the fighting is over, and the gospel of peace is being proclaimed in a peaceful way.
Rv 6:24b crown  -   cf. Rev. 14:14; 19:12
A crown is a sign of glory. The gospel has been crowned with the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4).
Rv 6:2c went  -   cf. Matt. 24:14; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8; Rom. 10:18; 15:19-21
Rv 6:25d conquering  -   cf. 2 Cor. 2:14
Or, overcoming and to overcome. Throughout all the centuries, wherever the gospel has been proclaimed, it has conquered and overcome all kinds of opposition and attack.
Rv 6:41 I
Some ancient MSS omit, I saw, and behold.
Rv 6:42a red  -   cf. Zech. 1:8; 6:2
Red here signifies the shedding of blood. The red horse is a symbol of the raging of war, which is altogether a matter of shedding blood.
Rv 6:43b take  -   Matt. 24:6; cf. Isa. 2:4; Micah 4:3
To take peace from the earth, men should slay one another, and to him a great sword was given all clearly indicate war.
Rv 6:4c sword  -   Isa. 34:5-6; 66:16
Rv 6:51a black  -   Lam. 4:8-9; 5:9-10; cf. Zech. 6:2, 6
Black here, indicating dearth (Jer. 14:1-4), signifies the color of the visage of famished people (Lam. 4:8-9; 5:9-10). The black horse is a symbol of the spreading of famine, which causes people to have a black visage.
Rv 6:52b balance  -   Lev. 26:26
A balance is a scale used to weigh precious things. But here it is used to weigh food (see v. 6), thus showing that food is scarce (cf. Lev. 26:26; Ezek. 4:16).
Rv 6:61 choenix
A dry measure almost equal to a quart.
Rv 6:62 denarius
A denarius (singular for denarii) was the chief silver coin of the Romans; it was considered good pay for a day’s labor (cf. Matt. 20:2).
Rv 6:63a oil  -   Jer. 40:10
Oil and wine are for man’s pleasure (Psa. 104:15). They are always in short supply and become precious in a famine. During the famine, oil and wine should be preserved and not harmed.
Rv 6:81 pale
Or, pale green; signifying the facial color of those stricken with the plague. The pale horse is a symbol of the killing of death, which causes a pale appearance.
Rv 6:8a Death  -   Rev. 20:14; 21:4; Heb. 2:14
Rv 6:82b Hades  -   Rev. 1:18; Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:31
Hades is the place under the earth where the souls of the unsaved dead are kept before the dead are resurrected for the judgment of the great white throne (20:11-15). After this judgment the unsaved will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity. Hades can be likened to a temporary jail, and the lake of fire to a permanent prison. Here Hades follows death to receive those whom death kills.
Rv 6:8c kill  -   Jer. 15:2-3; 24:10; 29:17; Ezek. 5:12, 17; 14:21
Rv 6:83 death
Or, pestilence.
Rv 6:84 beasts
To be killed by beasts is God’s judgment (2 Kings 2:24; 17:25; Num. 21:6).
Rv 6:91 fifth
The seven seals are divided, first, into groups of four and three and, second, into groups of six and one. The number four signifies the creatures, symbolized by the four living creatures, and the number six signifies creation (creation was completed in six days). The number three signifies the Triune God, and the number one signifies the unique God. Hence, both four plus three and six plus one indicate that the seven seals, through God’s judgment, bring God’s creation, with all the creatures, to God.
The fifth seal discloses Christian martyrdom from the first century to the time near the end of this age. (This may include the martyrdom of the Old Testament saints — Matt. 23:34-36.) While the preaching of the gospel, as indicated by the first seal, is progressing, the faithful saints are continually being martyred.
Rv 6:92 underneath
In figure, the altar is in the outer court of the tabernacle and the temple, and the outer court signifies the earth. Hence, the area underneath the altar is the region underneath the earth, where the souls of the martyred saints are. It is the Paradise to which the Lord Jesus went after His death (Luke 23:43). It is in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40) and is a section of Hades (Acts 2:27), the comfortable section, where Abraham is (Luke 16:22-26).
Rv 6:9a altar  -   Rev. 8:3, 5; 14:18; 16:7; Exo. 40:6; 20:26; 29:12
Rv 6:9b souls  -   Rev. 20:4
Rv 6:9c slain  -   Rev. 2:13; Matt. 23:34; John 16:2; Acts 7:59-60; 12:2
Rv 6:9d word  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 6:9e testimony  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 6:101 cried
According to the word “yet a little while, until also the number…is completed” (v. 11), this cry of the martyred saints must occur near the end of this age.
Rv 6:10a holy  -   Rev. 3:7
Rv 6:10b judge  -   Rev. 16:5-7; 19:2
Rv 6:10c avenge  -   Rev. 19:2; Deut. 32:43; 2 Kings 9:7; Psa. 79:10; Matt. 23:35; Luke 18:7
Rv 6:10d dwell  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 6:111a white  -   Rev. 3:4-5
The white robes here signify that their martyrdom was approved by God.
Rv 6:11b rest  -   Rev. 14:13
Rv 6:11c about  -   Rev. 20:4
Rv 6:112 killed
This will be the martyrdom during the great tribulation (20:4).
Rv 6:121 sixth
The sixth seal, which marks the beginning of supernatural calamities, is God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal and is a warning to those who dwell on the earth. According to Joel 2:30-31, there will not be much difference in time between the sixth seal and the first five trumpets (9:1-11). Joel 2:30-31 first mentions the blood of the first and second trumpets, the fire of the first, second, and third trumpets (8:7-10), and the smoke of the fifth trumpet (9:1-3), and then mentions the sun and moon of the sixth seal. A comparison of 9:4 and 7:3 indicates that the fifth trumpet occurs very close to the time of the sixth seal.
Rv 6:122a earthquake  -   Rev. 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:18; Hag. 2:6; Matt. 24:7
There will be two calamities of the shaking and changing of the earth and the hosts in heaven. The first will occur at the beginning of the great tribulation (Joel 2:30-31), and the second will occur after the great tribulation (Joel 3:11-16; Matt. 24:29-30; Luke 21:25-26). What is covered in the sixth seal is the first calamity. It can be considered not only a warning but also an initiation of the coming great tribulation.
Rv 6:12b sun  -   Rev. 8:12; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15
Rv 6:12c sackcloth  -   Isa. 50:3
Rv 6:13a stars  -   cf. Rev. 8:10; 9:1; Matt. 24:29
Rv 6:13b fig  -   Isa. 34:4
Rv 6:14a heaven  -   Isa. 34:4; Heb. 1:12
Rv 6:14b mountain  -   Isa. 54:10; cf. Rev. 16:20
Rv 6:15a kings  -   Psa. 2:10-12; Isa. 24:21
Rv 6:151 generals
Lit., captains over one thousand men.
Rv 6:15b hid  -   Isa. 2:10, 19, 21
Rv 6:161a say  -   Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:30
They say this according to the feeling of their conscience, fearing the coming of the judgment of God. It is not a proclamation of God concerning the coming of His judgment.
Rv 6:16b face  -   Psa. 68:2
Rv 6:16c wrath  -   Psa. 2:12
Rv 6:16d Lamb  -   see Rev. 5:6
Rv 6:17a great  -   Zeph. 1:14; cf. Rev. 16:14; Jer. 30:7
Rv 6:17b who  -   Psa. 76:7; Nahum 1:6
Revelation Chapter 7
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 7:11 After
This chapter is an insertion between the sixth seal (6:12-17) and the seventh seal (8:1), showing how God cares for His people while He is about to execute His judgment on the earth.
Rv 7:1a four  -   Rev. 20:8; Isa. 11:12
Rv 7:1b four  -   Jer. 49:36; Dan. 7:2; Zech. 6:5; Matt. 24:31
Rv 7:12 winds
The winds here are for God’s judgment (Jonah 1:4; Isa. 11:15; Jer. 22:22; 49:36; 51:1).
Rv 7:13 no
The opening of the seventh seal will bring in the seven trumpets (8:1-2). At the first trumpet, the third part of the earth and the third part of the trees will be burned up (8:7). At the second trumpet, the third part of the sea will be destroyed (8:8-9). Before all this takes place, God will seal all the Israelites whom He intends to preserve (v. 3).
Rv 7:21 another
This Angel, as well as the One in 8:3, 10:1, and 18:1, is Christ. In the Old Testament, Christ was called “the Angel of Jehovah”; that Angel was God Himself (Gen. 22:11-12; Exo. 3:2-6; Judg. 6:11-24; Zech. 1:11-12; 2:8-11; 3:1-7). Here in the New Testament He is again referred to as an Angel (a messenger). The expression another Angel indicates that Christ is not a common angel but a special Angel sent by God.
Rv 7:2a rising  -   Rev. 16:12
Rv 7:2b living  -   Jer. 10:10; Dan. 6:20; Matt. 16:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:12; 9:14
Rv 7:3a seal  -   Rev. 9:4
Rv 7:3b their  -   Rev. 13:16; 14:1, 9; 20:4; 22:4; Ezek. 9:4
Rv 7:41 those
These are the Israelites who will keep the commandments of God during the great tribulation (12:17; 14:12).
Rv 7:4a hundred  -   cf. Rev. 14:1, 3
Rv 7:51 Judah
Reuben was the firstborn of Israel, but because of his sinfulness he lost his birthright, and Judah prevailed above his brothers (1 Chron. 5:1-2). Hence, here the tribe of Judah is mentioned first.
Rv 7:61a Manasseh  -   Gen. 48:13-14
Because Joseph (v. 8) and Manasseh, one of Joseph’s two sons (Gen. 48:5), represent two different tribes, Joseph will still have the double portion of the birthright (1 Chron. 5:1-2) during the millennium (Ezek. 48:4-5).
In the account here, as in 1 Chron. 2 — 9, the tribe of Dan was omitted because of its idolatry (Judg. 18:30-31; 1 Kings 12:29-30; 2 Kings 10:29; cf. Gen. 49:17). However, Dan will still be counted during the millennium (Ezek. 48:1) because Jacob’s blessing was upon him, so that through the Lord’s salvation Dan will still be included as one of the tribes (Gen. 49:16-18).
Rv 7:91 great
The great multitude consists of the redeemed ones from the nations, throughout all generations. These constitute the church (5:9; Rom. 11:25; Acts 15:14, 19).
Rv 7:9a every  -   Rev. 5:9
Rv 7:92 standing
Standing before the throne indicates that the great multitude of the redeemed must have been raptured to the heavens, to the presence of God. Standing…before the Lamb corresponds with stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:36), which clearly indicates the rapture. That this is mentioned immediately after the opening of the sixth seal implies that the rapture of the believers must begin before the sixth seal. The record in vv. 9-17 describes in a general way the scene from the time of the rapture of the believers to their enjoyment in eternity.
Rv 7:9b Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 7:93c white  -   Rev. 7:14; 3:4
Robes (plural) signify the righteousness of the believers’ conduct. White indicates that the conduct of the believers is pure and has been approved by God through having been washed in the blood of the Lamb (v. 14).
Rv 7:94d palm  -   Lev. 23:40; Psa. 92:12; Ezek. 40:16, 22; John 12:13
Palm branches signify the victory of the saints over tribulation, which they have undergone for the Lord’s sake (v. 14; cf. John 12:13). Palm trees are also a sign of satisfaction gained through being watered (Exo. 15:27). Palm branches were used for the Feast of Tabernacles, in which the people of God rejoiced because of the satisfaction of their enjoyment (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15). The Feast of Tabernacles was a type that will be fulfilled by this great multitude of God’s redeemed enjoying the eternal Feast of Tabernacles. In the temple of God this multitude will flourish like the palm tree (Psa. 92:12-13).
Rv 7:101a Salvation  -   Rev. 12:10; 19:1; Psa. 3:8; 27:1
The loud praise in which only salvation is mentioned indicates that the praisers are the saved ones. The great multitude, those who are saved, are grateful for God’s salvation.
Rv 7:10b Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 7:11a elders  -   Rev. 4:4
Rv 7:11b four  -   Rev. 4:6
Rv 7:121a Amen  -   Rev. 5:14
This is similar to the word in Luke 15:7, which says that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Here the angels say Amen to the redeemed ones’ praise of salvation.
Rv 7:12b blessing  -   Rev. 5:12-13
Rv 7:12c glory  -   Rev. 1:6; 4:11; 19:1
Rv 7:12d thanks  -   Rev. 4:9
Rv 7:141 great
The great tribulation here is different from the great tribulation mentioned in Matt. 24:21. The great tribulation here refers to the tribulations, sufferings, persecutions, and afflictions experienced by God’s redeemed people throughout the ages.
Rv 7:14a tribulation  -   Rev. 1:9; 2:9, 10; John 16:33; Acts 14:22
Rv 7:14b washed  -   Rev. 22:14
Rv 7:14c white  -   Rev. 7:9
Rv 7:14d blood  -   Rev. 1:5; 1 John 1:7
Rv 7:14e Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 7:151 they
What is depicted in vv. 15-17, similar to what is depicted in 21:3-4 and 22:3-5, is a portrait of eternity.
Rv 7:152a serve  -   Rev. 22:3
This great multitude of redeemed ones has come out of the great tribulation into a heavenly state, into the temple of God, where they serve Him day and night. Their service to God is the issue of God’s salvation.
Rv 7:15b temple  -   Rev. 3:12
Rv 7:153 will
Christ is the tabernacle of God (John 1:14), and the New Jerusalem, as the ultimate enlargement of Christ, will be God’s eternal tabernacle (21:2-3), in which all God’s redeemed ones will dwell with Him forever. God will overshadow them with Himself as the One who is embodied in Christ. Christ, as the embodiment of God, will be their tabernacle. The record in vv. 15-17 very much resembles that in 21:3-7.
Rv 7:15c tabernacle  -   John 1:14; Rev. 21:3
Rv 7:16a hunger  -   Isa. 49:10
Rv 7:16b thirst  -   John 4:14
Rv 7:16c sun  -   Psa. 121:5-6
Rv 7:161 beat
Lit., fall.
Rv 7:17a Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 7:171b shepherd  -   Psa. 23:1; Isa. 40:11; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4
Shepherding includes feeding. Under the shepherding of Christ, “I shall not want” (Psa. 23:1, KJV).
Rv 7:17c guide  -   Psa. 23:2
Rv 7:17d springs  -   Rev. 21:6; Psa. 36:9; Isa. 49:10; Jer. 2:13; cf. John 4:14
Rv 7:172e waters  -   Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17
The tear in the eyes of the saved ones is a sign of their dissatisfaction. The waters of life are for their satisfaction. Because the Lamb will supply them with waters of life for their satisfaction, they will have no tears of dissatisfaction. The waters of life will be supplied, and the water of tears will be wiped away.
Rv 7:17f wipe  -   Rev. 21:4; Isa. 25:8
Revelation Chapter 8
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 8:1a silence  -   Hab. 2:20; Zech. 2:13; Zeph. 1:7; cf. Psa. 46:10; Zech. 1:11
Rv 8:11 heaven
Silence in heaven indicates solemnity. At the opening of the seventh seal, all heaven becomes silent because the age is about to be changed from the age of God’s toleration to the age of God’s wrath.
Rv 8:2a seven  -   Rev. 8:6
Rv 8:21b seven  -   Rev. 8:6
The seventh seal brings in the seven trumpets, which are the contents of the seventh seal. The seven seals are opened secretly, whereas the seven trumpets are sounded openly.
Rv 8:31a another  -   Rev. 7:2; 10:1; 18:1
See note 21 in ch. 7.
Rv 8:32b altar  -   Rev. 6:9
The altar of burnt offering (cf. Exo. 27:1-8).
Rv 8:33 golden
The golden censer signifies the prayers of the saints (5:8), which are brought to God by Christ as “another Angel.”
Rv 8:3c censer  -   Rev. 8:5; 5:8
Rv 8:34d incense  -   Rev. 5:8; cf. Exo. 30:34-38
Incense signifies Christ with all His merit to be added to the prayers of the saints that the saints’ prayers offered upon the golden altar might be acceptable to God.
Rv 8:35 offer
Lit., give.
Rv 8:3e prayers  -   Rev. 5:8
Rv 8:36 saints
At the opening of the seventh seal, there still will be saints praying on the earth.
Rv 8:37f golden  -   Exo. 30:1-10; Luke 1:11
The golden altar is the incense altar (cf. Exo. 30:1-9).
Rv 8:41a smoke  -   Exo. 30:8-9; Lev. 16:13; Luke 1:9-10
The smoke of the incense indicates that the incense is burned and ascends to God with the prayers of the saints. This implies that the prayers of the saints become effective and are acceptable to God.
Rv 8:42 incense
Lit., incenses.
Rv 8:4b prayers  -   Rev. 6:9-10
Rv 8:51 filled
The implication here is that this is the answer to the prayers of the saints, especially the prayer in the fifth seal, mentioned in 6:9-11, and the prayer mentioned in Luke 18:7-8. The prayer of the saints in this chapter must be for the judgment of the earth, which opposes God’s economy. The answer to the saints’ prayers is the executing of God’s judgment upon the earth through the succeeding seven trumpets.
Rv 8:5a fire  -   Lev. 16:12; Num. 16:46; Isa. 6:6; cf. Lev. 10:1
Rv 8:52b cast  -   cf. Gen. 19:24; Ezek. 10:2
To cast fire to the earth is to execute God’s judgment upon the earth. Therefore, the thunders, voices, lightnings, and an earthquake came as signs of God’s judgment.
Rv 8:5c thunders  -   Rev. 4:5
Rv 8:5d earthquake  -   Rev. 6:12
Rv 8:6a seven  -   Rev. 8:2
Rv 8:61 to
The seven trumpets were given to the seven angels (v. 2). But it is after the prayers of the saints (vv. 3-5) are answered that the seven angels are prepared to trumpet. For God’s will in heaven to be carried out on earth, the saints’ prayer is required.
Rv 8:7a hail  -   Exo. 9:18-19, 23-26; Isa. 28:2; Ezek. 38:22; Psa. 18:12-13
Rv 8:7b fire  -   Joel 2:30
Rv 8:71c third  -   Rev. 8:8-12; 9:15, 18; cf. Zech. 13:8-9
The third part of the earth refers probably to certain regions of the earth that are most evil and sinful.
Rv 8:7d earth  -   Rev. 7:1-3
Rv 8:8a mountain  -   cf. Psa. 46:2
Rv 8:81 sea
Referring probably to the sea that adjoins the regions that commit evil against God. This part of the sea also will be damaged by God’s judgment.
Rv 8:8b blood  -   cf. Rev. 16:4; Exo. 7:17-21
Rv 8:91 life
Lit., souls.
Rv 8:10a star  -   Rev. 6:13
Rv 8:10b springs  -   Rev. 14:7; 16:4
Rv 8:111 Wormwood
A bitter plant.
Rv 8:112 third
Today those who oppose God and those who practice evil against Him still enjoy God’s creation. Because of man’s evil opposition against God, the water of God’s creation, which is crucial to human life, will probably be damaged in a limited way by God’s judgment.
Rv 8:11a wormwood  -   Jer. 9:15; 23:15
Rv 8:121 fourth
The first four trumpets, which are not yet the direct judgment on men, form one group, like the first four seals. The first trumpet is a judgment on the earth, including the trees and all the grass, as occurred in Egypt (Exo. 9:18-25); the second, a judgment on the sea, including the living creatures and ships; the third, a judgment on the rivers and springs of waters, as occurred in Egypt (Exo. 7:17-21); the fourth, a judgment on the sun, the moon, and the stars that they may be darkened, as also occurred in Egypt (Exo. 10:21-23). By the judgments of these four trumpets, the third part of the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the hosts in the heavens are damaged and are thus caused to be no longer good for man’s living. At the sixth seal, before the seven trumpets, there was already a judgment on the earth and on the hosts of the heavens (6:12-14). The extent of the damage caused by that judgment was not as definite as the extent of the damage caused by the first four trumpets. At the seventh trumpet, through the seven bowls there will be further judgments on the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun (16:1-21). Those will be God’s most severe judgments on the earth and heaven.
Rv 8:122 third
Referring probably to that part of the sun that shines upon the evil regions of the earth (cf. Matt. 5:45). God knows which part this is, and it will be damaged by God’s judgment.
Rv 8:12a sun  -   cf. Rev. 6:12-13; 16:8
Rv 8:12b darkened  -   cf. Rev. 6:12; 16:10; Exo. 10:21-22; Isa. 13:10; Ezek. 32:7-8; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15; Amos 8:9; Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24
Rv 8:13a eagle  -   cf. Rev. 12:14
Rv 8:13b mid-heaven  -   Rev. 14:6
Rv 8:131c Woe  -   Rev. 9:12; 11:14; 12:12
The last three trumpets will be the last three woes (9:12; 11:14) of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), which will occur in the last half of the seventieth week (Dan. 9:27), a period of three and a half years (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 12:14), that is, forty-two months (11:2; 13:5), or twelve hundred and sixty days (11:3; 12:6).
Rv 8:13d dwell  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 8:13e three  -   Rev. 9:1, 13; 11:15
Revelation Chapter 9
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 9:11a star  -   Isa. 14:12; cf. Rev. 12:4; Job 38:7
The star here refers to Satan, who will be cast down from heaven to earth. The angels are likened to stars (Job 38:7; Rev. 12:4). Satan, as the archangel, was the Daystar (Isa. 14:12). In Luke 10:18 the judgment upon him was mentioned. Here, and in 12:9-10, is the execution of that judgment.
Rv 9:1b fallen  -   Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:9-10
Rv 9:1c key  -   Rev. 20:1; cf. Rev. 1:18
Rv 9:12d abyss  -   Rev. 9:2, 11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3; Luke 8:31; Rom. 10:7
The abyss is the dwelling place of the demons (Luke 8:31).
Rv 9:2a smoke  -   Joel 2:30; cf. Rev. 18:8-9, 18; 19:3; Gen. 19:28; Deut. 29:23
Rv 9:2b sun  -   Rev. 8:12
Rv 9:31a locusts  -   Rev. 9:7; cf. Exo. 10:12-15; Joel 2:25, 2-11
The locusts here are not like the locusts in Exo. 10:12-15, in that these have tails like scorpions, and stings, and they harm men (v. 10). They must be demon-possessed, because they come out of the smoke that issues from the pit of the abyss, the dwelling place of the demons (v. 2).
Rv 9:32 power
Lit., authority. So in vv. 10, 19.
Rv 9:3b scorpions  -   Rev. 9:5, 10; cf. 2 Chron. 10:11, 14; Luke 10:19
Rv 9:41 men
The plagues of the first four trumpets are not directly upon man, whereas the woes of the last three trumpets are. Only the Israelites who have the seal of God on their foreheads will not be harmed by the demon-possessed locusts (7:3-8).
Rv 9:4a seal  -   Rev. 7:3
Rv 9:5a five  -   Rev. 9:10
Rv 9:6a seek  -   cf. Jer. 8:3
Rv 9:71 the
Lit., the likenesses of the locusts were like.
Rv 9:72a locusts  -   Joel 2:4
Verses 7 through 9 are very similar to Joel 2:4-5, 25, and 1:6, which are words spoken concerning Israel. This, along with the fact that the Israelites need to be sealed by God (7:3-8) to escape the harm of the locusts, may indicate that the woe of the fifth trumpet will come especially upon the Israelites.
Rv 9:7b war  -   Joel 2:4-11
Rv 9:8a teeth  -   Joel 1:6
Rv 9:9a sound  -   Joel 2:5
Rv 9:10a tails  -   cf. Rev. 9:19
Rv 9:10b five  -   Rev. 9:5
Rv 9:11a king  -   Rev. 17:12b
Rv 9:111 angel
The angel of the abyss is the beast, Antichrist, who will come out of the pit of the abyss (11:7; 17:8).
Rv 9:11b abyss  -   Rev. 9:1; 11:7; 17:8
Rv 9:112 Abaddon
The Hebrew word means destruction; it is used also in Job 26:6; 28:22; Prov. 15:11.
Rv 9:113 Apollyon
The Greek word means destroyer. As the destroyer, Antichrist will do much destroying (Dan. 8:23-25).
Rv 9:121a first  -   Rev. 8:13
In the first woe, the woe of the fifth trumpet, Satan falls from heaven to earth and Antichrist comes up from the abyss, and the two work together to torment man. Since it is at the fifth trumpet that Satan falls from heaven to damage the earth and persecute the people of God for three and a half years (12:10, 12-17, 6); and since it is at the same time (the last three and a half years) that Antichrist comes up out of the abyss to collaborate with Satan to torment people, persecute the saints, and blaspheme God (13:5-7; 11:7); and since it is in the same three and a half years that the holy city, Jerusalem, is given over to the Gentiles for destruction (11:2), the woe of the fifth trumpet must be the beginning of the most severe woes of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21; see note 24 in ch. 11). The second woe, the woe of the sixth trumpet, and the third woe, the woe of the seventh trumpet (8:13; 9:12; 11:14), must also be two parts of the most severe woes of the great tribulation. These three woes, with the damage from the sixth seal and the first four trumpets, will be a trial upon all those who dwell on the earth (3:10).
Rv 9:122b two  -   Rev. 11:14
The two woes are the sixth trumpet itself and the woe of the seventh trumpet (vv. 13-21; 11:14-15), that is, the seven bowls (ch. 16).
Rv 9:131a golden  -   Rev. 8:3
The blood of expiation was put on the four horns of the golden altar, the incense altar, for expiation (Exo. 30:10), i.e., for redemption. The voice that comes out of the four horns of the golden altar indicates that God’s judgment on man is based on the redemption of Christ; i.e., it comes because men do not believe in Christ’s redemption.
Rv 9:14a Euphrates  -   Rev. 16:12; Gen. 2:14; 15:18; Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4
Rv 9:151 for
For the hour and day and month and year indicates that the four angels had been prepared unto the hour, plus the day, plus the month, and plus the year — altogether thirteen months, one day, and one hour — for the killing of men. The killing will last first one hour, then one day, then one month, and finally one year.
Rv 9:15a third  -   Rev. 8:7
Rv 9:161 horsemen
The two hundred million horsemen from the rising of the sun will join the war at Armageddon (16:12-16; 19:17-21).
Rv 9:17a fire  -   Rev. 20:15; 21:8
Rv 9:17b brimstone  -   Rev. 9:18; 14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8
Rv 9:17c smoke  -   Rev. 9:2
Rv 9:18a plagues  -   cf. Rev. 15:1
Rv 9:19a tails  -   cf. Rev. 9:10
Rv 9:191b serpents  -   cf. Num. 21:6; Rev. 12:9; 20:2; Gen. 3:1; Luke 10:19
The horses’ tails here, which are like serpents, are more poisonous than the locusts’ tails, which are like scorpions (v. 10). The locusts only torment men for five months (vv. 5, 10), whereas the horses kill the third part of men (vv. 15, 18). This means that the woe of the sixth trumpet is more severe than that of the fifth.
Rv 9:20a not  -   cf. Rev. 2:21
Rv 9:201 repent
The goal of God’s judgment is that men would repent.
Rv 9:20b works  -   Deut. 4:28; Jer. 1:16; Micah 5:13; Acts 7:41
Rv 9:20c worship  -   1 Cor. 10:20-21
Rv 9:20d idols  -   Psa. 115:4-7; 135:15-17; Dan. 5:23
Rv 9:202 neither
In contrast to Psa. 115:5; 135:16, this verse does not say that the idols cannot speak, because the image of Antichrist does speak (13:15).
Rv 9:21a not  -   cf. Jer. 8:6
Rv 9:21b sorceries  -   Rev. 18:23; 21:8; 22:15; Exo. 22:18; Lev. 20:27; Deut. 18:10-12; Isa. 47:9, 12; Gal. 5:20
Rv 9:21c fornication  -   Rev. 2:21; Heb. 13:4
Revelation Chapter 10
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 10:11 And
The section from 10:1 — 11:13 is an insertion between the sixth and seventh trumpets.
Rv 10:12a another  -   Rev. 7:2
“Another strong Angel” here, as well as the One in 7:2, 8:3, and 18:1, is Christ. At this point He is coming down out of heaven. This vision, part of the insertion between the sixth and seventh trumpets, is a hint that before the seventh trumpet, Christ is on the way to earth. At this time He is clothed with a cloud and is not yet on the cloud, in contrast to 14:14 and Matt. 24:30; 26:64. To be on the cloud is to come openly, whereas to be clothed with a cloud is to come secretly. This indicates that even after the sixth trumpet, Christ still is coming secretly, not openly. He will come secretly until He is seen by all the tribes of the earth, as mentioned in 1:7 and Matt. 24:30, at which time He will come openly.
Rv 10:1b coming  -   Rev. 18:1; 1 Thes. 4:16
Rv 10:1c cloud  -   Rev. 1:7; 14:14; Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Acts 1:9; 1 Thes. 4:17
Rv 10:13d rainbow  -   Rev. 4:3
The rainbow here indicates that Christ in His judgment upon the earth will keep the covenant that God made with Noah concerning the earth (Gen. 9:8-17). It indicates also that Christ will execute judgment according to the God who sits on the throne with the rainbow around it (4:2-3), the faithful and covenant-keeping God.
Rv 10:1e face  -   Rev. 1:16; Matt. 17:2
Rv 10:14 sun
Near the time of His coming to the people on the earth openly, Christ will be like the sun, not like the morning star, which appears before the darkest time, prior to dawn, to those who love Him and wait for Him (see 2:28 and note 1; 2 Pet. 1:19 and note 4).
Rv 10:1f feet  -   Rev. 1:15
Rv 10:15 pillars
Pillars here indicate steadfastness (Jer. 1:18; Gal. 2:9).
Rv 10:16 fire
Fire here signifies the holiness of God (Exo. 19:18; Heb. 12:29), according to which Christ will execute His judgment upon the earth.
Rv 10:21 little
This little opened scroll is the scroll in 5:1, which only Christ is worthy to open and which He took out of the hand of God (5:5, 7). Now it is in His hand. In 5:1 it was sealed; here it is open. Being only a part of the scroll, it is called here “a little… scroll.” The main part of the scroll has already been revealed.
Rv 10:2a scroll  -   Rev. 10:8-10; 5:1
Rv 10:22 right
Christ’s placing His feet on the sea and on the land is His treading on them, and to tread on them is to take possession of them (Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:3; Psa. 8:6-8). This indicates that Christ is coming down to take possession of the earth. Only He is worthy to open the scroll of God’s economy, and only He is qualified to possess the earth.
Rv 10:31a lion  -   Rev. 5:5
A lion’s roaring is likened to a king’s wrath (Prov. 19:12; 20:2). This indicates that Christ, as the King of the earth, is provoked to wrath.
Rv 10:3b roars  -   Isa. 31:4; Hosea 11:10
Rv 10:32 seven
The seven thunders must be the ultimate utterances of God’s full wrath.
Rv 10:3c thunders  -   Rev. 4:5; Psa. 29:3-9
Rv 10:4a voice  -   Rev. 10:8
Rv 10:4b Seal  -   cf. Rev. 22:10; Dan. 8:26; 12:4, 9
Rv 10:5a standing  -   Rev. 10:2, 8
Rv 10:5b lifted  -   Gen. 14:22; Exo. 6:8; Num. 14:30; Deut. 32:40; Ezek. 20:5; Dan. 12:7
Rv 10:61 swore
To swear is the practice of the Old Testament, not of the New (Matt. 5:34-36).
Rv 10:6a lives  -   Rev. 4:9
Rv 10:6b created  -   Rev. 4:11
Rv 10:62 things
The main item of the things in heaven is the angels.
Rv 10:63 things
The main item of the things in the earth is men.
Rv 10:64 things
The main item of the things in the sea is the demons.
Rv 10:65c delay  -   Rev. 6:10-11
Lit., space of time. After the sixth trumpet, there will be no more time of toleration in God’s judgment upon the earth. Hence, the seventh trumpet is the most serious of God’s judgments. It is God’s answer in full to the martyred saints’ prayer in 6:10.
Rv 10:71 days
The trumpeting voice of the seventh trumpet will last a period of days.
Rv 10:7a seventh  -   Rev. 11:15
Rv 10:72 mystery
In the dispensations from Adam to Moses and from Moses to Christ, everything was unveiled, manifested, and there was no mystery. It will be the same in the dispensation of the millennial kingdom and in the new heaven and new earth — everything will be unveiled and there will be no more mystery. But in the dispensation from Christ to the millennial kingdom, everything is a mystery. The incarnation of Christ, as the beginning of this dispensation of mystery, is a mystery (1 Tim. 3:16). Christ Himself (Col. 2:2), the church (Eph. 3:4-6), the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 13:11), the gospel (Eph. 6:19), the indwelling of Christ (Col. 1:26-27), and the coming resurrection and transfiguration of the saints as the end of this dispensation of mystery (1 Cor. 15:51-52) are all mysteries that were hidden in the times of the ages (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:5; Col. 1:26). All these mysteries will be completed, finished, and will be over at the trumpeting of the seventh trumpet.
Rv 10:73 is
At the trumpeting of the seventh trumpet, not only God’s judgment of wrath upon the earth but also the mystery of God are finished.
Rv 10:74 finished
Or, completed.
Rv 10:7b announced  -   Acts 3:21; Isa. 2:2-4; 11:1-10; 65:17-20; 66:22
Rv 10:75 good
In the seventh trumpet the good news that God announced to His own slaves the prophets, as in Isa. 2:2-4; 11:1-10; 65:17-20; 66:22, will be fulfilled; that is, the kingdom in its manifestation will come (11:15), and the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem will follow (21:1-3).
Rv 10:8a voice  -   Rev. 10:4
Rv 10:8b scroll  -   Rev. 10:2
Rv 10:8c standing  -   Rev. 10:2, 5
Rv 10:9a devour  -   Ezek. 2:8-9; 3:1-3; Jer. 15:16
Rv 10:9b sweet  -   Ezek. 3:3; Psa. 119:103
Rv 10:101 devoured
The writer of this book not only received but also devoured the scroll. To devour anything is to receive it into one’s being. We must receive the divine revelation, especially the book of Revelation, in this way. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel did this (Jer. 15:16; Ezek. 2:8; 3:1-3).
Rv 10:102 sweet
When we receive the divine revelation by devouring it, it is sweet as we eat it, but it becomes bitter as we digest it, that is, as we experience it.
Rv 10:111 they
Referring to the angels.
Rv 10:112 again
The prophecy of this book is composed of two sections. From the first seal to the sixth trumpet (chs. 6 — 10) is the first section; it is in secret. From the seventh trumpet to the new heaven and new earth (chs. 11 — 22) is the second section; it is openly manifested. John prophesied in the first section. He must prophesy again, that is, prophesy in the second section of the prophecy of this book, the section that concerns Christ’s coming to possess the earth as His kingdom (11:15). This is the content of the little scroll, the last part of God’s economy.
Rv 10:11a peoples  -   Rev. 11:9; 17:15
Revelation Chapter 11
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 11:11a reed  -   Rev. 21:15; Ezek. 40:3
A reed, as in 21:15 and Ezek. 40:3; 42:16-19, is for measuring, which is for taking possession, whereas a rod implies punishment (Prov. 10:13; Isa. 10:5; 11:4). Hence, a reed like a rod indicates measuring with punishment in order to possess.
Rv 11:12b measure  -   Rev. 21:15; Ezek. 40:5; 42:15-20; Zech. 2:2
I.e., sanctify, preserve, and possess (Num. 35:2, 5; Ezek. 45:1-3; 42:15, 20; 48:8, 12, 15). The measuring of the temple of God and the incense altar in the heavens indicates that during the great tribulation the heavens will be preserved from being damaged, because in that three and a half years Satan will be cast out of heaven and down to earth.
Rv 11:13c temple  -   Rev. 11:19; 3:12; 7:15; 14:15, 17; 15:5, 6, 8; 16:1; 21:22
The Greek word refers to the inner temple.
Rv 11:14d altar  -   Rev. 8:3; 9:13
The altar here is the golden altar of incense, because it is with the temple; it is not the bronze altar of sacrifice in the court that is outside the temple (v. 2).
Rv 11:1e worship  -   Rev. 7:9-10
Rv 11:21a court  -   Exo. 27:9, 18; Ezek. 40:17
The court is on earth. The earthly temple and Jerusalem on earth will be given over to be trampled by Antichrist and the Gentiles.
Rv 11:22 temple
See note 13.
Rv 11:2b Gentiles  -   Luke 21:24
Rv 11:23c holy  -   Isa. 52:1; Matt. 27:53
The holy city here is the earthly Jerusalem (Isa. 52:1; Matt. 27:53).
Rv 11:24d forty-two  -   Rev. 13:5; Dan. 7:25; 12:7
At the end of this age Antichrist will make a firm covenant with the Jews for one week (seven years), which will be the last week of the seventy weeks that God appointed for the Jewish nation in Dan. 9:24-27. In the middle of the last week (that is, after the first half of the seven years) Antichrist will break the covenant and destroy the worship of God (Dan. 9:27). Then he will blaspheme God and persecute His people for three and a half years (13:5-7; Dan. 7:25; 12:7), which is the forty-two months mentioned here and the last half of the last week in Dan. 9:27, during which Antichrist will also destroy the holy city, Jerusalem. According to Matt. 24:15 and 21, these last three and a half years must be the time of the great tribulation, which comes as a trial on the inhabitants of the earth (3:10).
Rv 11:31 cause
Lit., give.
Rv 11:32 two
Two witnesses give an adequate testimony (Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16). The two witnesses here are Moses and Elijah. What they do in vv. 5-6 is the same as what Moses and Elijah did (Exo. 7:17, 19; 9:14; 11:1; 2 Kings 1:10-12; 1 Kings 17:1). Moses and Elijah appeared before the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). Moses, representing the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets (Luke 16:16), both testified for God. Elijah’s mission was predicted (Mal. 4:5; Matt. 17:11). They are the two olive trees, the two sons of oil, in Zech. 4:3, 11-14 (see note 92 in Matt. 25).
Rv 11:3a witnesses  -   cf. Rev. 1:5; 2:13
Rv 11:33b thousand  -   Rev. 12:6; cf. Dan. 12:11-12
This is the forty-two months mentioned in v. 2, the period of time during which Antichrist will blaspheme God (13:5-6) and persecute His people (12:6, 14). Under Antichrist’s evil power and persecution, the two witnesses will prophesy, speak for God, and testify against the evildoings of Antichrist.
Rv 11:34c sackcloth  -   2 Sam. 3:31; 2 Kings 19:1; Joel 1:13
Sackcloth is a symbol of mourning (2 Sam. 3:31). The two witnesses will wear funeral clothes as a warning to the inhabitants of the earth, telling them to stay away from the worship of Antichrist that they may escape God’s judgment.
Rv 11:4a two  -   Zech. 4:3, 11, 14
Rv 11:41 olive
The olive trees produce oil for the lamps. Oil signifies the Holy Spirit. In Zech. 4:14 the two witnesses here are called “the two sons of oil,” indicating that they are full of the Holy Spirit.
Rv 11:42b lampstands  -   Zech. 4:2; cf. Rev. 1:20
The lampstands give light by means of the oil of the olive trees. In the church age, the churches are the lampstands for God’s testimony (1:20), whereas in the last three and a half years of this age, the two witnesses will be the lampstands for God’s testimony.
Rv 11:4c Lord  -   Zech. 4:14; Micah 4:13
Rv 11:5a fire  -   2 Kings 1:10-12; Luke 9:54
Rv 11:6a shut  -   Luke 4:25
Rv 11:6b rain  -   1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17
Rv 11:6c blood  -   Exo. 7:17, 19
Rv 11:6d plague  -   Exo. 9:14; 11:1
Rv 11:71a testimony  -   Rev. 1:2, 9; 6:9; 12:11
During the great tribulation the two witnesses will give an adequate testimony for God (v. 4) and against Antichrist.
Rv 11:72b beast  -   Rev. 13:1
The beast here is Antichrist, who will come up out of the abyss (17:8) and out of the sea (13:1) and who will make war with the two witnesses and with the saints (13:7).
Rv 11:7c abyss  -   Rev. 17:8; 9:11
Rv 11:7d war  -   Rev. 13:7; Dan. 7:21
Rv 11:81 great
The great city is the holy city mentioned in v. 2, the earthly Jerusalem.
Rv 11:8a city  -   Rev. 11:2
Rv 11:82b Sodom  -   Gen. 18:20; Isa. 1:9-10; 3:9; Jer. 23:14; Rom. 9:29
After the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1948, the Jews who returned to their fathers’ land were still in unbelief. They will be as sinful as Sodom (cf. Isa. 1:9-10; 3:9; Jer. 23:14) and as worldly as Egypt (cf. Ezek. 23:3, 8, 19, 27) until the return of Christ, their Messiah, at which time all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26).
Rv 11:8c Egypt  -   Ezek. 23:3, 8, 19, 27
Rv 11:8d where  -   John 19:17-18; Heb. 13:12
Rv 11:9a peoples  -   Rev. 17:15
Rv 11:9b corpses  -   cf. Psa. 79:2-3
Rv 11:10a dwell  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 11:111 three
The three and a half days must be included in the one thousand two hundred and sixty days in which they prophesy and bear testimony for the Lord; otherwise, those days would extend beyond the great tribulation.
Rv 11:112a breath  -   Gen. 2:7; Ezek. 37:5, 9, 10, 14
Or, Spirit of life.
Rv 11:113 stood
That they stood on their feet indicates that they had been resurrected. Their resurrection is separate from the one predicted in 1 Thes. 4:16.
Rv 11:121a went  -   cf. 2 Kings 2:11; Acts 1:9
Indicating that they are raptured. Their being killed, resurrected, and raptured are a part of their testimony and must all be within the one thousand two hundred and sixty days of their ministry. Thus, their rapture must take place on the last day of their ministry, which is also the last day of the great tribulation. It will be on the same day as the rapture predicted in 1 Thes. 4:17, and it may even be at the same time, or it may be later.
Rv 11:13a earthquake  -   Rev. 6:12
Rv 11:131b city  -   Rev. 11:2, 8
The city here is the great city in v. 8, Jerusalem. A tenth part of the city of Jerusalem fell because of the earthquake mentioned in this verse. In the last earthquake the city will be divided into three parts, as mentioned in 16:19.
Rv 11:132 men
Lit., names of men; implying people of renown.
Rv 11:13c glory  -   Rev. 14:7
Rv 11:13d God  -   Rev. 16:11; Ezra 5:11; Psa. 136:26; Dan. 2:19, 44
Rv 11:14a woe  -   Rev. 8:13; 9:12
Rv 11:141b third  -   Rev. 11:15; 16:1
The third woe is a part of the negative contents of the seventh trumpet (see note 151), which consists of the seven bowls of God’s wrath (ch. 16). Since the trumpeting of the seventh trumpet is recorded after the vision concerning the destruction of Jerusalem during the last three and a half years (v. 2), and since the seven bowls are the last plagues at the consummation of God’s wrath (15:1; 16:1), the woe of the seventh trumpet must mark the end of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). See note 121 in ch. 9 and note 24 in this chapter.
Rv 11:151a seventh  -   Rev. 10:7
The seventh trumpet, the last one (1 Cor. 15:52), has two aspects, the negative and the positive.
The negative aspect includes (1) the last plagues, the plagues of the seven bowls, in which the wrath of God is finished (15:1; 16:1-21), as the last woe to those who dwell on the earth (8:13; 9:12; 11:14) — v. 18; and (2) the destruction of the destroyers of the earth immediately upon the Lord’s coming back to the earth (17:14; 18:1-2; 19:19 — 20:3) — v. 18.
The positive aspect includes (1) the coming of the eternal kingdom of Christ, which is the kingdom in its manifestation — vv. 15, 17; (2) the judgment of the dead (see note 182) before the resurrection of the saints — v. 18; and (3) the giving of the reward, at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10), to the prophets and the saints after the resurrection and rapture of the saints (1 Cor. 15:23, 52; 1 Thes. 4:16-17), and the giving of the reward, at the throne of God’s glory (Matt. 25:31-34), to those who fear God’s name (14:6-7) — v. 18.
Hence, the seventh trumpet comprises all the things from the end of the great tribulation to eternity future, such as the last plagues, i.e., the seven bowls (ch. 16); the resurrection and rapture of the saints (including the two witnesses); the rewarding of the saints; the marriage of the Lamb (19:7-9); the coming back of Christ to the earth; the destruction of Antichrist, the false prophet, their followers, the material Babylon the Great, and Satan (18:1 — 19:4; 19:11 — 20:3); the reigning in the millennial kingdom (20:4-6); the final judgment upon the earth and Satan (20:7-10); the final judgment of the dead (20:11-15); and the ultimate consummation in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem for eternity (21:1 — 22:5).
Rv 11:152b trumpeted  -   1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16
At the sounding of the seventh trumpet, not only will the great tribulation end, but also this age will close, the mystery of God will be finished (10:7), and another age, the age of the kingdom, the millennium, will begin.
Rv 11:15c voices  -   cf. Rev. 16:17; 19:1
Rv 11:153d kingdom  -   Matt. 4:8
The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ at His coming back after He executes His judgment upon the nations (Dan. 7:13-14; 2:44-45).
Rv 11:15e kingdom  -   Rev. 12:10; Dan. 2:44
Rv 11:15f His  -   Acts 4:26
Rv 11:154g reign  -   Rev. 19:6; 20:4, 6; Psa. 146:10; Luke 1:33
Here the Lord’s reigning forever and ever is the Lord’s reigning in the millennial kingdom and in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (22:5). This indicates that the seventh trumpet includes the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem.
Rv 11:16a twenty-four  -   Rev. 4:4
Rv 11:17a Lord  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 11:17b power  -   Psa. 66:7; Matt. 6:13
Rv 11:18a nations  -   Psa. 2:1; Joel 3:9-13
Rv 11:181b wrath  -   Rev. 16:1; Psa. 2:5; 110:5
The wrath here refers to the wrath contained in the seven bowls in ch. 16, which are a part of the negative contents of the seventh trumpet.
Rv 11:182c dead  -   Rev. 20:12; Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1
Since for the dead to be judged is mentioned before to give the reward to Your slaves…, the former must not refer to the judgment of the dead at the great white throne after the millennium (20:11-15). Rather, it refers to the fact that at the close of this age, before the millennium, according to John 5:27-29, the dead will be judged concerning who should share in the resurrection of life before the millennium (1 Cor. 15:23; Rev. 20:4-6) and who should be left to the resurrection of condemnation after the millennium (20:11-12).
Rv 11:183d reward  -   Rev. 22:12; Matt. 16:27; 1 Cor. 3:14; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 10:35
The reward will be given by the Lord to His faithful ones at His coming back (22:12; Matt. 16:27). After the resurrection and rapture of the saints (1 Cor. 15:23, 52; 1 Thes. 4:16-17), Christ at His judgment seat will judge the prophets and the saints (2 Cor. 5:10) to determine who among the saved persons is worthy of a reward and who needs further discipline.
Rv 11:184e fear  -   Rev. 15:4; 19:5; Psa. 115:13
Those who fear God’s name are the “sheep” mentioned in Matt. 25:33-40. They are those who will heed the eternal gospel, fearing God and worshipping Him and not worshipping Antichrist and his image (14:6-7). During the great tribulation they will care for the Lord’s needy people, His little brothers (the believers who suffer persecution and the Jews who fear God). Hence, they will be transferred into the millennial kingdom to become there the nations on the earth (2:26; 12:5).
Rv 11:185 those
Those who destroy the earth are Babylon the Great (18:2-3), Antichrist (13:3), the false prophet (13:14), and Satan (20:7-10), and the people who follow them (17:12-14; 19:19; 20:8-9). All of them will be destroyed in the seventh trumpet.
Rv 11:191a temple  -   Rev. 11:1; 15:5
The Greek word refers to the inner temple. This verse is continued by 15:5. On the negative side, the throne with the rainbow (4:2-3) is the center of all the judgments executed over the earth in chs. 6 — 11, whereas, on the positive side, the temple with the Ark is the center of all God’s accomplishments in the universe carried out in chs. 12 — 22.
Rv 11:19b Ark  -   Exo. 40:3; Heb. 9:4
Rv 11:19c lightnings  -   Rev. 4:5; 8:5; 16:18
Rv 11:192 earthquake
Four earthquakes are predicted in this book. The first, in 6:12, occurs at the time of the sixth seal; the second, in 8:5, before the seven trumpets; the third, in 11:13, at the time of the rapture of the two witnesses, which should be on the day of the beginning of the seventh trumpet, before the pouring out of the seven bowls; and the fourth, in this verse, still at the time of the seventh trumpet, that is, in 16:17-20, at the time of the seventh bowl, which constitutes the most severe calamity of the negative contents of the seventh trumpet.
Rv 11:19d hail  -   Rev. 16:21
Revelation Chapter 12
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 12:1a sign  -   Rev. 1:1
Rv 12:11b woman  -   Gen. 3:15; Rev. 21:2; cf. Rev. 17:3
The first section of this book, composed of the first eleven chapters, covers all things that occur from Christ’s ascension to eternity. The second section, composed of the last eleven chapters, gives details of the important things and crucial matters occurring from the last three and a half years of the present age, which will be the period of the great tribulation, to the eternal age of the new heaven and new earth. The first of the important things and crucial matters revealed in this section is a woman who brought forth a man-child.
This woman is “clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” In Gen. 37:9, Joseph in his dream saw the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, signifying his father, his mother, and his eleven brothers. There the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, plus Joseph himself, signified the totality of God’s people on the earth. Based on the principle of that dream, the sun, the moon, and the twelve stars here must signify the totality of God’s people on earth, which is symbolized here by a woman. Most of her being is clothed with the sun. The sun signifies God’s people in the New Testament age. Before Christ came to the world, it was the dark night of the Old Testament age. When Christ as the rising sun came from on high (Luke 1:78), the age of the sun came. Before that, it was the age of the moon, which signifies God’s people in the Old Testament time. The moon is underneath the feet of the woman, for the age of the moon was the age of the law, which should not be exalted as the stars are. The stars, which signify the patriarchs, God’s people before the law was given, are on her head as a crown. All God’s people in these three ages, who together constitute this woman, are lights-bearers. Hence, she is the bright woman shining throughout all generations.
Rv 12:1c sun  -   Gen. 37:9
Rv 12:21 child
The child here, being a man-child (v. 5), signifies the stronger part of God’s people. Throughout all generations there are some stronger ones among God’s people. These are considered in the Bible a collective unit fighting the battle for God and bringing God’s kingdom down to earth.
Rv 12:22 cried
To cry out here is to pray.
Rv 12:23a travailing  -   Gal. 4:19
Travailing in birth and being in pain to bring forth signifies that throughout all generations God’s people have been suffering the travail of delivery (Isa. 26:17-18; Jer. 6:24; 13:21; 30:6; Micah 4:9-10; 5:3; Gal. 4:19) to bring forth the man-child that he may fight for God’s kingdom.
Rv 12:2b pain  -   Col. 1:24
Rv 12:31a dragon  -   Rev. 13:2; 16:13; 20:2
The dragon signifies Satan (v. 9). In Gen. 3 Satan was a serpent, a smaller creature, a subtle one. Here he has become a dragon, much larger than a serpent and cruel. Hence, he is called “a great red dragon.” Red here signifies the shedding of blood caused by Satan’s murders (John 8:44).
Rv 12:32b seven  -   Rev. 13:1; 17:3, 7, 9, 12
The seven heads and ten horns are those of the beast, Antichrist (13:1). This indicates that the dragon and the beast are one and shows that Antichrist is the embodiment of Satan.
Rv 12:33 seven
The seven diadems indicate the glory of the seven Caesars’ extraordinary kingship. Since each of these seven Caesars was one with Satan, each assumed deity, claimed to be God, and forced the people to worship him as God.
Rv 12:3c diadems  -   cf. Rev. 13:1
Rv 12:41a stars  -   Job 38:7; Isa. 14:12
The stars of heaven here signify the angels (Job 38:7; Isa. 14:12). The third part of the stars of heaven must be the fallen angels, who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. Satan drags all of them away, and as the angels of Satan they will be cast to the earth with Satan (v. 9). Hence, at that time the earth will be filled with these fallen angels, who will damage the dwelling place of the people who rebel against God. The earth will thus become a dreadful place.
Rv 12:42 dragon
That the dragon stood before the woman signifies that Satan is always against the people of God, opposing them. From the time of Gen. 3:15 to this day, Satan, the ancient serpent, has been fighting continually against the woman with the intention of devouring her child.
Rv 12:4b devour  -   1 Pet. 5:8
Rv 12:51 brought
Brought forth here signifies resurrection, as in Acts 13:33-34. The man-child is composed of the overcoming saints who have died and been resurrected. This is proved by the words unto death in v. 11.
Rv 12:52 man-child
In the Bible, woman signifies the weaker one and man the stronger one (1 Pet. 3:7). Hence, the man-child here signifies the stronger part of God’s people. That the man-child is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod indicates that the man-child consists of the overcomers, as mentioned in 2:26-27.
Rv 12:5a shepherd  -   Rev. 2:27
Rv 12:53 caught
See note 171 in 1 Thes. 4. To be caught up is to be raptured. The rapture of the man-child differs from that of the majority of the believers, which is mentioned in 1 Thes. 4:17. There, the majority of the believers are raptured (1) to the air, and (2) at the last trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thes. 4:16), which is the seventh trumpet (11:15). But here, the man-child is raptured (1) to the throne of God, and (2) before the one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is the time of the great tribulation of three and a half years (forty-two months, v. 14; 13:5; 11:2), beginning from the sixth seal, before the fifth trumpet (9:1).
Rv 12:61 wilderness
After the rapture of the man-child, the woman is left on earth to suffer persecution (v. 13). During the time of the great tribulation, God will prepare a place where she can be nourished for a thousand two hundred and sixty days before He brings His people into the millennial kingdom. (This is similar to the time when Pharaoh persecuted the children of Israel and God brought His people to the wilderness, where He nourished them before bringing them into the good land.) That the woman (the remaining and living majority of the believers) will be preserved and nourished by God for a thousand two hundred and sixty days during the great tribulation is a strong proof that their rapture will take place on the last day of the three and a half years of the great tribulation, that is, the last day of the one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Rv 12:6a thousand  -   Rev. 11:3
Rv 12:71 war
Immediately after the man-child is raptured to heaven, Michael and his angels begin to war against Satan. This indicates that the man-child, the stronger part of God’s people, is always engaged in fighting God’s enemy, Satan. They have been fighting Satan continually on earth. Heaven is waiting for them to arrive that a war may be waged to cast Satan out of heaven.
Rv 12:72a Michael  -   Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9
The Bible reveals the names of two angels — Michael and Gabriel. Gabriel is a reporter bringing news to God’s people (Dan. 8:16; 9:21-22; Luke 1:19, 26), whereas Michael is a fighter contending for God’s people (Dan. 10:13, 21; 11:1; 12:1; Jude 9).
Rv 12:73b his  -   Matt. 25:41
These angels must be the fallen angels, who follow Satan to rebel against God (Matt. 25:41). See note 41.
Rv 12:91 cast
Satan, the enemy of God, was judged by the Lord Jesus on the cross (John 12:31; 16:11). After that, the overcoming believers are needed for the carrying out of that judgment, for the executing of that sentence. The war waged by the overcoming believers against Satan is actually the executing of the Lord’s judgment upon him. Eventually, through their fighting, he is cast out of heaven. See note 11 in ch. 9.
Rv 12:92 ancient
By the time of Rev. 12, Satan has become old; hence, he becomes the ancient serpent.
Rv 12:9a serpent  -   Gen. 3:1; 2 Cor. 11:3; Rev. 20:2
Rv 12:93b Devil  -   Rev. 2:10
See note 101 in ch. 2.
Rv 12:94c Satan  -   Rev. 2:9
The word Satan means adversary. Satan is not only God’s enemy outside God’s kingdom but also God’s adversary from within God’s kingdom, rebelling against God.
Rv 12:9d deceives  -   2 Cor. 11:3
Rv 12:9e cast  -   Rev. 9:1; Luke 10:18
Rv 12:101a kingdom  -   Rev. 11:15
The overcoming believers fight against Satan to usher in God’s kingdom. The Lord taught us to pray for the coming of the kingdom (Matt. 6:10). Along with our praying for the kingdom’s coming, we need to fight for it. The coming of the kingdom has two aspects: the reality of the kingdom (Matt. 5:3), which is in the proper church life today (Rom. 14:17), and the manifestation of the kingdom in the millennium, which will be brought in through the overcoming believers.
When the manifestation of the kingdom comes, the salvation of God will come in full with the kingdom. God’s salvation has already been manifested to us today, but it will come in full in the kingdom age. It is the same with the power of God and the authority of His Christ. We have participated in God’s power and Christ’s authority today, but our full enjoyment of them will be in the kingdom age.
Rv 12:102 accuser
The accuser is the devil, who accused Job (Job 1:9; 2:4-5) and Joshua (Zech. 3:1-2) and who is now accusing the believers before God, even day and night.
Rv 12:10b accuses  -   Job 1:9-10; 2:4; Zech. 3:1
Rv 12:111 they
Referring to the overcoming believers who constitute the man-child in v. 5. These have been opposed and slandered by God’s enemy, Satan, whom they overcame.
Rv 12:11a overcame  -   1 John 2:13
Rv 12:112b blood  -   Rev. 1:5; 5:9; 7:14
The blood of the Lamb, which is for our redemption, answers before God all the accusations of the devil against us and gives us the victory over him. We need to apply this blood whenever we sense the accusation of the devil.
Rv 12:11c Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 12:113 word
The word of their testimony is their word that testifies that the devil has been judged by the Lord. Whenever we sense the devil’s accusation, we should verbally testify how the Lord has already dealt with him. We must declare with the uttered word the Lord’s victory over him.
Rv 12:114d loved  -   Luke 14:26
Because of Adam’s fall, Satan joined himself to man’s soul-life — man’s self (Matt. 16:23-24). Hence, to overcome Satan we must not love our soul-life; rather, we must hate it and deny it (Luke 14:26; 9:23).
Rv 12:115e unto  -   Rev. 2:10
Unto death indicates martyrdom. The overcoming believers who constitute the man-child do not love their soul-life even unto death.
Rv 12:12a those  -   Rev. 13:6
Rv 12:121 dwell
Lit., tabernacle.
Rv 12:12b Woe  -   Rev. 8:13
Rv 12:122 great
The dragon is angry because he has been cast down and limited to the earth, thereby losing his territory in the heavens and in the air.
Rv 12:123 short
The short time here will be the three and a half years of the great tribulation (v. 14; 13:5; 11:2).
Rv 12:131 persecuted
Satan, the angry dragon, will concentrate his hatred upon God’s people.
Rv 12:141 great
The great eagle signifies God, and the two wings signify His strength to rescue (Exo. 19:4; Deut. 32:11-12). As He brought the children of Israel out from Pharaoh’s persecution, so He will bring His people away from Satan’s persecution in the great tribulation.
Rv 12:14a eagle  -   Exo. 19:4; Deut. 32:11
Rv 12:14b fly  -   Isa. 40:31
Rv 12:142 a
A time and times and half a time denotes three and a half years, that is, one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Rv 12:14c time  -   Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2-3; 13:5
Rv 12:151a water  -   Isa. 8:7-8; 17:12-13; Jer. 46:7-9; 47:2-3
Water here signifies the armies (see marginal references) that will be sent by Satan to destroy the people of God.
Rv 12:161 opened
The earth will open, just as in Num. 16:31-33, and swallow the armies sent by Satan.
Rv 12:17a war  -   cf. Rev. 13:7
Rv 12:171 rest
The rest of her seed signifies the people of God other than the man-child; those people constitute the weaker part of the woman. Among them, some are the Jews, who keep the commandments of God, and some are the believers, who have the testimony of Jesus. Both will pass through the great tribulation and suffer the dragon’s persecution and attack.
Rv 12:17b keep  -   Rev. 14:12
Rv 12:17c testimony  -   Rev. 1:9
Rv 12:181 he
He denotes the dragon.
Rv 12:182a sea  -   Rev. 13:1
The sea here is the same as that in 13:1, the Mediterranean Sea. The sand of the sea here should be the seashore of the Holy Land, where the nation of Israel is. That the dragon will stand on the sand of the sea and that the holy city, Jerusalem, will be trampled for forty-two months (11:2) indicate that Satan’s persecution during the great tribulation will be carried out mainly in the land of Israel.
Revelation Chapter 13
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 13:11a beast  -   Rev. 11:7; 16:13; 17:8, 11-13, 17; 19:19, 20; Dan. 7:3, 7, 19-20, 23-24
This beast, the fourth beast mentioned in Dan. 7:7, is Antichrist. In 9:11 he is the king of the locusts.
Rv 13:12b sea  -   Rev. 12:18; Dan. 7:3; cf. Isa. 57:20; Rev. 17:15
The sea here is the Mediterranean Sea, out of which Antichrist will come. In 9:11, 11:7, and 17:8 we are told that Antichrist will come up out of the abyss. Here we are told that he will come up out of the sea, as is mentioned also in Dan. 7:3. This indicates that Antichrist will come from two sources. His spirit, which exists in the abyss before he is born, will come up out of the abyss. (See notes 81, 101, and 111 in ch. 17.) His body will come from one of the Gentile nations around the Mediterranean Sea. In biblical figure, the land signifies the nation of Israel and the sea signifies the Gentile nations (17:15; Isa. 57:20).
That Antichrist will come up out of both the abyss and the sea may indicate also that the sea is the mouth of the abyss, because the abyss is in the heart of the earth (Rom. 10:7; Matt. 12:40) and the sea is above the earth.
Rv 13:13c ten  -   Rev. 12:3; 17:3, 7, 12, 16; Dan. 7:7, 20, 24
The ten horns and seven heads of the beast are those of the dragon (12:3). This indicates that the beast is one with the dragon. The ten horns are the ten coming kings (17:12; Dan. 7:24); the seven heads are the seven Caesars (17:10). The ten horns correspond with the ten toes of the great image mentioned in Dan. 2:42-44. The word here indicates that the Roman Empire, Antichrist, and the ten kings are one with Satan.
Rv 13:1d seven  -   Rev. 17:9-10
Rv 13:1e names  -   Rev. 17:3
Rv 13:14 blasphemy
The seven Caesars symbolized by the seven heads of the beast claimed deity and called for their people to worship them as gods. That was truly a blasphemy against God.
Rv 13:21 like
The beast, Antichrist, is “like a leopard, and his feet like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.” According to Dan. 7:4-6, the leopard, which is characterized by swift and cruel movement, was the symbol of Alexander the Great, the king of Greece. The bear, characterized by its destroying feet, was the symbol of the monarchy of Medo-Persia. The lion, characterized by its devouring mouth, was a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. Since Antichrist, the beast, is like these three, he will have all their characteristics, as mentioned in Dan. 7:4-7. He is the totality of all the evil powers in human history.
Rv 13:2a leopard  -   Dan. 7:6
Rv 13:2b bear  -   Dan. 7:5
Rv 13:2c lion  -   Dan. 7:4
Rv 13:2d dragon  -   Rev. 12:3
Rv 13:2e gave  -   Luke 4:5-6
Rv 13:22 power
That the dragon gives his power, his throne, and great authority to the beast indicates that he makes the beast one with him so that on behalf of the dragon the beast can resist God and persecute God’s people on the earth.
Rv 13:2f throne  -   Rev. 2:13
Rv 13:2g authority  -   Dan. 8:24, 9-10
Rv 13:31 one
One of his heads refers to one of the Caesars, who will be slain and resuscitated. His death stroke was healed means that the Caesar will be resuscitated from death. (See note 111 in ch. 17.) Because of this the whole earth will marvel and follow after him.
Rv 13:3a marveled  -   Rev. 17:8
Rv 13:4a worshipped  -   Rev. 13:12; 14:9; 16:2; 15:2; 20:4; 2 Thes. 2:4; Dan. 9:27; 11:31; Matt. 24:15
Rv 13:5a speaking  -   Dan. 7:8, 11, 20, 25; 11:36-37; 8:11, 23, 25
Rv 13:51b forty-two  -   Rev. 11:2; cf. Rev. 11:3; 12:6, 14; Dan. 7:25; 12:7; 9:27
The forty-two months here and in 11:2 are the three and a half years in 12:14, and are also the one thousand two hundred and sixty days in 11:3 and 12:6, the time of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). At the end of this age Antichrist will make a seven-year covenant with the nation of Israel. Three and a half years after the covenant is made, he will break it, terminate all the Jewish worship and service to God (Dan. 9:27), persecute the saints (v. 7), and destroy the holy city (11:2) for three and a half years.
Rv 13:6a tabernacle  -   Heb. 8:2; 9:11
Rv 13:7a war  -   Dan. 7:21, 25; 8:24; Rev. 11:7
Rv 13:71 saints
The saints here constitute the rest of the woman’s seed mentioned in 12:17, which consists of the Jews, who keep God’s commandments, and the believers, who bear the testimony for Christ. This proves that in the great tribulation there will still be believers on the earth who are not yet raptured.
Rv 13:8a dwelling  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 13:81b written  -   Rev. 17:8; Luke 10:20
Or, written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Rv 13:82c book  -   Rev. 3:5
Lit., scroll.
Rv 13:8d Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 13:8e from  -   Matt. 25:34; cf. Eph. 1:4
Rv 13:9a ear  -   Rev. 2:7
Rv 13:10a kills  -   Gen. 9:6
Rv 13:10b endurance  -   Rev. 14:12; 1:9
Rv 13:10c faith  -   Heb. 6:12
Rv 13:101 saints
See note 71.
Rv 13:111a another  -   Rev. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10
This other beast is the false prophet (16:13; 19:20; 20:10).
Rv 13:112 earth
This other beast will come up out of the earth. Since the earth, the land, signifies the nation of Israel, as mentioned in note 12, this other beast, the false prophet, will come out of the Jews. This one may be Judas Iscariot (John 6:70-71), because after Judas died, he went to “his own place” (Acts 1:25), not to his people as others did (Gen. 25:17; 35:29). Geographically, this false prophet will come up out of the earth, and figuratively, he will come out of the Jews.
Rv 13:113 like
The false prophet looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. That he appears to be a lamb but speaks like the dragon, Satan, indicates his falsity.
Rv 13:11b dragon  -   Rev. 12:9
Rv 13:12a in  -   Rev. 19:20
Rv 13:12b worship  -   Rev. 13:4
Rv 13:12c death  -   Rev. 13:3
Rv 13:131a signs  -   Rev. 16:14; 19:20; Matt. 24:24
The false prophet will employ satanic power to perform great signs, such as calling down fire out of heaven as Elijah did (1 Kings 18:36-38); thus, it will be difficult for people to distinguish the real prophets from the false prophet (cf. 11:5).
Rv 13:13b fire  -   cf. Rev. 11:5; 20:9
Rv 13:14a deceives  -   Rev. 19:20; cf. Rev. 12:9; 20:10
Rv 13:141 commanding
Lit., telling.
Rv 13:14b image  -   Rev. 14:9; 15:2; 19:20; Dan. 9:27; 11:31; Matt. 24:15
Rv 13:14c stroke  -   Rev. 13:3
Rv 13:151 breath
Or, spirit.
Rv 13:152a speak  -   cf. Psa. 115:5
No idol made by man has ever been able to speak (Psa. 115:5), but this last idol will be enabled to speak as a living image. This surely will be a marvelous sign to those who dwell on the earth, and will cause them all to worship the idol.
Rv 13:15b not  -   cf. Dan. 3:14, 18
Rv 13:16a mark  -   Rev. 14:9; 20:4
Rv 13:16b forehead  -   cf. Rev. 7:3; 22:4
Rv 13:17a number  -   Rev. 15:2
Rv 13:181 understanding
Lit., mind.
Rv 13:182 number
The number of the beast is the number of a man. This man is Caesar Nero, who is the coming Antichrist. (See notes 81, 101, and 111 in ch. 17.) The number represented by the Hebrew letters of the name Caesar Nero is 666, as follows:


Because the book of Revelation was written during the time of the Roman Empire, John did not mention the name of Nero but indicated it with a number. Therefore, wisdom is needed to understand.
Revelation Chapter 14
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 14:1a Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 14:11b Zion  -   Heb. 12:22
Zion here is not the Zion on the earth but the one in the heavens (Heb. 12:22).
Rv 14:12c hundred  -   cf. Rev. 7:4
This must be an actual number with a symbolic meaning. One hundred forty-four thousand is one thousand times twelve times twelve. Twelve is the number of completion in God’s eternal administration. One hundred forty-four (21:17) is twelve times twelve, which signifies the completion of completions, the ultimate completion in the fullest way. The number here is one thousand times this ultimate completion.
Rv 14:13 His
That these early overcomers have the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father written on their foreheads signifies that they are one with the Lamb and with the Father and that they belong to the Lamb and to the Father. They are in contrast to those who worship the beast and have the name of the beast written on their foreheads (13:16-17).
Rv 14:1d name  -   Rev. 3:12
Rv 14:1e name  -   Rev. 3:12; 22:4
Rv 14:21 many
Many waters signifies the tumultuousness of the sound.
Rv 14:2a waters  -   Rev. 19:6; 1:15
Rv 14:22 loud
Loud thunder signifies the solemnity of the sound.
Rv 14:2b thunder  -   Rev. 19:6; 6:1
Rv 14:23 harp-singers
Harp-singers signifies the pleasantness of the sound.
Rv 14:2c harps  -   Rev. 15:2; 5:8
Rv 14:3a sing  -   Rev. 15:3
Rv 14:3b new  -   Rev. 5:9; Psa. 33:3; 40:3; 98:1
Rv 14:3c four  -   Rev. 4:6
Rv 14:3d elders  -   Rev. 4:4
Rv 14:31 no
No one can learn the new song sung by these first overcomers, a song that must be in accord with their experiences of the Lamb, because no one else has their specific and particular experiences of Christ.
Rv 14:3e purchased  -   Rev. 5:9; Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:20
Rv 14:32 from
From the earth proves that they are no longer on the earth but have been raptured to the heavens.
Rv 14:41a virgins  -   Matt. 19:12; cf. 1 Cor. 7:37; 2 Cor. 11:2
This should be the virginity mentioned by the Lord in Matt. 19:11-12. However, the same principle could be applied to the sisters (1 Cor. 7:7, 37).
Rv 14:4b follow  -   Matt. 4:19-22; 10:38; 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:27; John 21:19, 22
Rv 14:42c firstfruits  -   Exo. 23:19; 34:26; Lev. 23:10; cf. James 1:18
These early overcomers will be the first-ripe ones in God’s field. Hence, they will be reaped before the harvest as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. The harvest will be reaped later, in vv. 14-16. This means that the overcomers will be raptured to the heavens before the harvest, just as the firstfruits of the good land were reaped and brought into the temple of God before the harvest (Lev. 23:10-11; Exo. 23:19). The events recorded in vv. 6-13, all of which will take place during the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), indicate clearly and prove strongly that the first overcomers, the firstfruits in vv. 1-5, will be raptured before the great tribulation, and that the harvest in vv. 14-16, composed of the majority of the believers, will be raptured at the end of the great tribulation. See note 61 in ch. 12.
Rv 14:51a no  -   Eph. 4:25; Col. 3:9
The devil is the father of all liars, and lies come out of him (John 8:44). That no lie was found in the mouth of the overcomers indicates that there is nothing of Satan in their expression.
Rv 14:52b without  -   Eph. 1:4; 5:27; 1 Thes. 3:13; 5:23
Without blemish indicates that they are without spot or wrinkle and are perfect in the holiness of God (Eph. 5:27), absolutely sanctified to God and fully saturated with God (1 Thes. 5:23).
Rv 14:6a mid-heaven  -   Rev. 8:13
Rv 14:61 eternal
The eternal gospel, which will be preached during the time of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), differs from the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) preached in the church age. The basic contents of the gospel of grace are repentance unto God and faith in the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:21) that men may be forgiven of their sins and be born again as the children of God (Luke 24:47; John 1:12), whereas the basic content of the eternal gospel is that men should fear God and worship God that they may not be deceived and follow Antichrist but may be brought back to the genuine worship of God, who made heaven and earth (v. 7). Only man is privileged to preach the gospel of grace on the earth today (Acts 10:3-6). But the eternal gospel will be preached by the angel in the air at the close of this age.
Rv 14:62b dwelling  -   Rev. 13:8
Lit., sitting.
Rv 14:71a Fear  -   Rev. 11:18; 15:4
“Fear God and give Him glory” is a commandment given to those who dwell on the earth. It counters the false prophet’s deceit that says that men should follow Antichrist and neutralizes the death threat against those who refuse to worship Antichrist during the great tribulation (13:14-15).
Rv 14:7b give  -   Rev. 11:13
Rv 14:72c judgment  -   Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1
The judgment here is the judgment that Christ will execute over all the nations at His coming back to earth, as He predicted in Matt. 25:31-46. This judgment will be executed on the living. It differs from the judgment on the dead, which will take place after the millennium, as mentioned in Rev. 20:11-15. All the people of the nations who remain at the Lord’s coming back to earth will be judged according to the eternal gospel preached by the angel during the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21). If in fearing and worshipping God they have treated well the Christians and Jews, the Lord’s brothers suffering poverty and imprisonment under Antichrist’s persecution during the great tribulation, they will be justified by the Lord so that they can enter into the earthly part of the millennium to partake of the kingdom prepared by God for them from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:34). If in following Antichrist and worshipping his image they have ill-treated the Christians and Jews, they will be condemned and cast into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).
Rv 14:73d worship  -   Exo. 20:5; Matt. 4:10
The worship of Him who has made heaven and earth is in contrast to the worship of Antichrist and his image in v. 9.
Rv 14:7e made  -   Rev. 4:11
Rv 14:7f springs  -   Rev. 8:10
Rv 14:8a Fallen  -   Rev. 18:2; Isa. 21:9; Jer. 51:8
Rv 14:81b Babylon  -   Rev. 17:5
The modifying clause who has made all the nations drink… indicates that Babylon here is the religious, mysterious Babylon, which is the Roman Catholic Church, as in 17:2-6, not the material Babylon, as in 18:2. Antichrist will destroy all religions when he breaks the covenant with Israel in the middle of the last week (seven years — Dan. 9:27; 11:31). This will be the beginning of the great tribulation (Matt. 24:21), which will last for three and a half years. Antichrist will exalt himself above all gods and force people to worship him (Dan. 8:9-11; 11:36-37; 2 Thes. 2:3-4; Rev. 13:4-6, 12, 14-15). At that time, he will destroy the religious Babylon, the apostate Roman Catholic Church (17:16). Hence, the religious Babylon will fall at the beginning of the great tribulation, whereas the material Babylon will fall at the end of the great tribulation (18:2).
Rv 14:8c drink  -   Rev. 17:2
Rv 14:82 wine
Wine of…her fornication refers to the spiritual fornication of the Roman Catholic Church, of which she has made all the nations drink (17:2-6). While she commits her fornication, she is furious with the saints who do not consent to her fornication. This is the fury of her fornication. Hence, the wine of her fornication is also called “the wine of the fury of her fornication.”
Rv 14:9a worships  -   Rev. 13:15; 19:20
Rv 14:9b image  -   Rev. 13:14; 15:2
Rv 14:9c mark  -   Rev. 13:16-17
Rv 14:10a wine  -   Rev. 14:19; 16:19
Rv 14:10b cup  -   Rev. 16:19; Psa. 75:8; cf. Rev. 18:6
Rv 14:101c fire  -   Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14
This is the fire and brimstone in the lake of fire (19:20; 20:10, 14).
Rv 14:11a smoke  -   cf. Rev. 18:9, 18; 19:3
Rv 14:11b image  -   Rev. 13:14-15
Rv 14:121a endurance  -   Rev. 1:9; 3:10
The endurance to suffer Antichrist’s persecution will be needed by the saints who remain in the great tribulation.
Rv 14:122 saints
The saints who remain in the great tribulation are of two peoples: the Jews, who keep the commandments of God, and the believers, who keep the faith of Jesus.
Rv 14:12b keep  -   Rev. 12:17
Rv 14:12c faith  -   Rev. 2:13; 2 Tim. 4:7; 1 Tim. 1:4
Rv 14:131 dead
The dead here are those who are martyred under the persecution of Antichrist during the great tribulation. This is proved by 20:4.
Rv 14:13a die  -   Phil. 1:21
Rv 14:132 the
This book, written in the time of the degradation of the church, stresses the Spirit. It does not say here “says the Scripture,” but “says the Spirit.”
Rv 14:13b Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7; 22:17
Rv 14:13c rest  -   Rev. 6:11
Rv 14:141 on
In 10:1 Christ is still clothed with a cloud, whereas here He is on the cloud. His being on the cloud corresponds with 1 Thes. 4:17 and indicates that at this point the Lord’s coming back is made public in the air.
Rv 14:14a cloud  -   Matt. 24:30; 26:64
Rv 14:142b Son  -   Rev. 1:13; John 1:51; Acts 7:56
At His coming back, the Lord Jesus will still be the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, He is qualified to execute God’s judgment on everyone (John 5:27).
Rv 14:143 golden
The golden crown on the Lord’s head indicates that the Lord is the One crowned with glory (Heb. 2:9).
Rv 14:14c crown  -   Heb. 2:9
Rv 14:144 sharp
The sharp sickle in the Lord’s hand indicates that the Lord is the One who reaps God’s field.
Rv 14:15a came  -   Rev. 15:6
Rv 14:15b temple  -   Rev. 14:17; 11:19; 15:5-6, 8; 16:1, 17
Rv 14:151c harvest  -   Matt. 13:30, 39; Joel 3:13
The harvest of the earth is God’s people on earth, the believers in Christ (1 Cor. 3:9). At His first coming to the earth, the Lord sowed Himself into His believers (Matt. 13:3-8, 24). All the believers since that time, who have received Him as the seed of life, have become God’s crop on the earth. The first-ripe ones will be reaped as the firstfruits to God before the great tribulation, as indicated in vv. 1-5. The majority will ripen with the help of the sufferings in the great tribulation and will be reaped, raptured, at the end of the great tribulation.
Rv 14:152 ripe
Lit., dried. To be ripe is to be “dried” of all the earthly water. The suffering of the great tribulation, like the parching sun, will dry up the earthly waters from the believers who are left on the earth in the great tribulation, enabling the believers to ripen.
Rv 14:161 sickle
The sickle here signifies the angels sent by the Lord to reap the harvest (Matt. 13:39).
Rv 14:162 reaped
The reaping here will take place after Antichrist forces people to worship him and his image (v. 9). Hence, it refers to the rapture of the majority of the believers, who are left on the earth to pass through the great tribulation.
Rv 14:18a altar  -   Rev. 6:9; 16:7
Rv 14:181 him
Him refers not to the Lord but to the angel in v. 17.
Rv 14:182 vine
In the Bible the Jews are likened to the fig tree (Matt. 24:32), the believers are likened to wheat (Matt. 13:25, 30), and the wicked Gentiles are likened to the grapevine (v. 19), which is a counterfeit of the true vine composed of Christ and His members (John 15:1-6). The wheat is ripe when its water content is dried up, whereas the grapes are ripe when the water has filled them up. Fully ripened indicates that the Gentiles as the grapevine are filled to the brim with their sin and that the time of their judgment has come.
Rv 14:191a winepress  -   Rev. 19:15; Isa. 63:2-3; Joel 3:13
The great winepress of the fury of God is the war at Armageddon (16:12-16), which is in the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:9-16). All the Gentile evil worldly forces will be gathered there, and the Lord with His overcoming saints will fight against them and destroy them there (19:11-21; Joel 3:9-13; Isa. 63:1-6).
Rv 14:201a city  -   Rev. 11:8; 16:19; Heb. 13:12
The city here is the city of Jerusalem.
Rv 14:20b blood  -   Isa. 63:3
Rv 14:202c horses  -   Rev. 19:18
The horses here correspond with the horses in 19:18.
Rv 14:203 thousand
A thousand six hundred stadia, 182 miles, is the distance from Bozrah (Isa. 63:1) to Armageddon (16:16).
Rv 14:204 stadia
A stadion equals about six hundred feet.
Revelation Chapter 15
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 15:1a sign  -   Rev. 1:1
Rv 15:1b seven  -   Rev. 16:1; 17:1; 21:9
Rv 15:11 seven
The seven plagues are the fury of God contained in the seven bowls (16:1). These plagues constitute the third woe (11:14), which comes at the sounding of the seventh trumpet (11:15, 18).
Rv 15:1c plagues  -   Rev. 15:6, 8; 16:21; 21:9; cf. Rev. 11:6, 8; 18:4, 8
Rv 15:1d fury  -   Rev. 15:7; 16:1
Rv 15:21a glassy  -   Rev. 4:6
See note 61 in ch. 4.
Rv 15:22b those  -   Rev. 20:4
These are the late overcomers who will pass through the great tribulation and overcome Antichrist and the worshipping of Antichrist. They will be martyred under the persecution of Antichrist and then resurrected to reign with Christ in the millennium (20:4).
Rv 15:2c beast  -   Rev. 13:1
Rv 15:2d image  -   Rev. 13:14-15; 14:9, 11
Rv 15:2e number  -   Rev. 13:17-18
Rv 15:23 standing
Standing on the glassy sea signifies that these ones have been (1) resurrected from the dead and (2) raptured to be above the lake of fire (which the glassy sea refers to and which is the second death — note 61 in ch. 4; 20:14), that is, to be above God’s eternal, fiery judgment (14:9-11).
Rv 15:2f harps  -   Rev. 5:8; 14:2
Rv 15:31a song  -   Exo. 15:1-18
The song of Moses, recorded in Exo. 15:1-18, praises God for the victory over the forces of Pharaoh gained by God’s triumphant deliverance through the judging waters of the Red Sea. Moses and the children of Israel sang that song on the shore of the Red Sea. Now these late overcomers sing the song again, on the glassy sea, indicating that they are victorious over the power of Antichrist, who will be judged by God with the fire of the glassy sea (19:20).
Rv 15:3b slave  -   Rev. 1:1; 22:6
Rv 15:32c song  -   cf. Rev. 5:9-10
The song of Moses, indicating God’s triumphant judgment over the enemy of His people, praises God for His judgment, which is on the negative side, whereas the song of the Lamb, indicating Christ’s redemption experienced by God’s people in the presence of their enemy, praises God for Christ’s redemption, which is on the positive side. The late overcomers are positioned to stand on the glassy sea because of two facts: (1) God’s judgment over the enemy and (2) Christ’s redemption for God’s people.
Rv 15:3d Great  -   Psa. 111:2
Rv 15:3e wonderful  -   Psa. 139:14
Rv 15:33 works
God’s ways are His governing principles, while God’s works are His judgments (v. 4). Moses knew God’s ways (principles), but the children of Israel knew only His works (acts) (Psa. 103:7). God’s ways are righteous in His principles and true in His promises, while His works are great in manifestation and wonderful in nature. Your works here refers mainly to God’s judgment, God’s verdict, upon Antichrist (14:17-20).
Rv 15:3f Lord  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 15:3g Righteous  -   Rev. 16:7
Rv 15:3h ways  -   Psa. 103:7
See note 33.
Rv 15:3i King  -   Rev. 17:14; 19:16; Psa. 47:2; 89:27
Rv 15:34 nations
Some MSS read, ages.
Rv 15:4a fear  -   Rev. 14:7; Acts 10:2; 1 Pet. 2:17
Rv 15:41b holy  -   Lev. 11:44; 1 Sam. 2:2
The Greek word refers to the sum of the qualities that fit and form the divine character. Hence, holy refers to God’s nature, while righteous refers to God’s principles.
Rv 15:4c all  -   Psa. 86:9
Rv 15:42d righteous  -   Rev. 16:5, 7; 19:2
Judgments that are made according to righteousness.
Rv 15:51a temple  -   Rev. 11:19
See note 191 in ch. 11.
Rv 15:5b Tabernacle  -   Rev. 13:6; Heb. 8:2; 9:11; cf. Exo. 38:21; Num. 1:50
Rv 15:52 Testimony
The testimony is the law of God, which testifies God and was put into the Ark (Exo. 25:16). Because the Ark was put in the tabernacle, the tabernacle was called “the Tabernacle of the Testimony.” The tabernacle here is the one in heaven.
Rv 15:6a came  -   Rev. 14:15
Rv 15:61 clothed
The seven angels are clothed like priests (Ezek. 44:17).
Rv 15:6b linen  -   cf. Rev. 19:8
Rv 15:6c girded  -   cf. Rev. 1:13
Rv 15:7a four  -   Rev. 4:6
Rv 15:7b bowls  -   Rev. 16:1
Rv 15:7c lives  -   Rev. 4:9; 10:6
Rv 15:8a temple  -   Rev. 11:19
Rv 15:8b smoke  -   Isa. 6:4
Rv 15:8c glory  -   Exo. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10-11
Rv 15:81d no  -   Exo. 40:35
This means that no one can enter the temple to pray in order to appease the fury of God until it is fully poured out upon the rebellious people instigated by Satan and influenced by Antichrist.
Revelation Chapter 16
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 16:1a temple  -   Rev. 11:19
Rv 16:1b seven  -   Rev. 15:1
Rv 16:11 bowls
The bowls here signify that though the seven last plagues, the plagues of the seven bowls, are the ultimate fury of God, His fury is limited; otherwise, the entire earth with its inhabitants would be destroyed. For the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, God, in His judgment upon the earth, still places a limit on His ultimate fury.
Rv 16:1c fury  -   Rev. 15:1
Rv 16:2a earth  -   Rev. 8:7
Rv 16:21b sore  -   Exo. 9:9-11; Deut. 28:27, 35
In His ultimate fury God will mark the rebellious ones with a sore on their skin because they bear the mark of the beast. This shows that what God does in His ultimate fury toward the rebellious ones is a reaction to what Antichrist does.
Rv 16:2c mark  -   Rev. 13:14-17; 14:9, 11; 20:4
Rv 16:3a sea  -   Rev. 8:8-9
Rv 16:3b blood  -   Rev. 16:4; 11:6; Exo. 7:17-20
Rv 16:31 every
Or, every soul of life; referring to every animal that has a soul.
Rv 16:4a rivers  -   Rev. 8:10
Rv 16:51a righteous  -   Rev. 16:7; 15:3, 4; 19:2
See note 41 in ch. 15.
Rv 16:52b who  -   Rev. 1:4
Unlike 1:8 and 4:8, neither this verse nor 11:17 says “who is coming.” This proves that the Lord’s coming back must be after 4:8 and before 11:17. See note 44 in ch. 1.
Rv 16:5c Holy  -   Rev. 15:4
See note 51.
Rv 16:5d judged  -   Rev. 6:10; 15:4
Rv 16:6a blood  -   Rev. 6:10; 17:6; 18:24; Matt. 23:35
Rv 16:7a altar  -   Rev. 6:9; 14:18
Rv 16:71 Yes
This is the praise from the altar concerning God’s judgments over Antichrist’s territory.
Rv 16:7b Lord  -   Rev. 15:3
Rv 16:72c true  -   Rev. 15:3; 19:2
See note 33 in ch. 15.
Rv 16:8a sun  -   Rev. 6:12; 8:12
Rv 16:9a blasphemed  -   Rev. 13:6; 16:11, 21
Rv 16:9b not  -   Rev. 2:21; 9:20-21; Jer. 8:6
Rv 16:9c give  -   Rev. 11:13; 14:7
Rv 16:101a throne  -   Rev. 13:2
The throne here indicates that the seven bowls are for the judging of the beast and of his kingdom and territory.
Rv 16:10b kingdom  -   Rev. 17:17; Dan. 7:23-24
Rv 16:10c darkened  -   Rev. 8:12; Exo. 10:21-22
Rv 16:11a blasphemed  -   Rev. 16:9
Rv 16:11b God  -   Rev. 11:13
Rv 16:11c sores  -   Rev. 16:2
Rv 16:11d not  -   Rev. 16:9
Rv 16:121 sixth
The plague of the second bowl is more severe than that of the second trumpet (8:8-9); the plague of the third bowl is more severe than that of the third trumpet (8:10-11); and the plague of the fourth bowl is more severe than that of the fourth trumpet (8:12). The plague of the fifth bowl, the judgment upon the throne of Antichrist and his kingdom, is related to the fifth trumpet, in which Antichrist, as the king of the demon-possessed locusts, torments men (9:7-11); and the plague of the sixth bowl is related to the sixth trumpet (9:14), because the plagues of both the sixth bowl and the sixth trumpet are related to the same river, the Euphrates.
Rv 16:12a Euphrates  -   Rev. 9:14
Rv 16:12b dried  -   Isa. 11:15
Rv 16:12c rising  -   Rev. 7:2; Isa. 41:25
Rv 16:13a dragon  -   Rev. 12:3
Rv 16:13b beast  -   Rev. 13:1
Rv 16:13c false  -   Rev. 13:11-14; 19:20; 20:10
Rv 16:131d unclean  -   Rev. 18:2; Matt. 10:1; Mark 1:26
The unclean spirits will stir up the rebellious kings (v. 14) to send forth their forces to persecute God’s people. Being spirits, the unclean spirits should be in the heavenlies, but having become frogs, they can move about only on the earth. This indicates that Satan and his power to act will be confined to the earth.
Rv 16:13e frogs  -   Exo. 8:6
Rv 16:14a spirits  -   Luke 4:33; 1 Tim. 4:1
Rv 16:14b signs  -   Rev. 13:13; 19:20; Matt. 24:24
Rv 16:14c whole  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 16:14d war  -   Rev. 17:14; 19:19; Joel 3:2, 9-12; Zech. 12:3, 9; 14:2-3
Rv 16:14e great  -   Rev. 6:17; Zeph. 1:14
Rv 16:151 come
According to the context, this word must be spoken by the Lord at the end of the great tribulation, before the war at Armageddon. This proves that at that time there will still be believers (the remaining, living majority of the believers) left on the earth. To them, the appearing of the Lord in His coming back will still be like the coming of a thief, at an hour unknown to them.
Rv 16:15a thief  -   Rev. 3:3; Matt. 24:43; 1 Thes. 5:4
Rv 16:15b watches  -   Matt. 24:42; Mark 13:33, 35-37; Luke 21:36
Rv 16:15c garments  -   Rev. 3:4, 18; 19:8
Rv 16:15d naked  -   Rev. 3:17
Rv 16:161a gathered  -   Rev. 16:14; 19:19
At the end of the great tribulation three unclean spirits out of the mouths of Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet will go forth to stir up the kings of the whole inhabited earth and to gather their forces (vv. 13-14) — including the two hundred million horsemen mentioned in 9:14-16 (see note 121) — to the war at Armageddon, which will be the last war among mankind before the millennium. In that war Satan’s intention will be to destroy Israel (Zech. 14:2) and fight against Christ and His army. For this he will use all of rebellious mankind (17:12-14; 19:11-19). Christ and His chosen overcomers will defeat and destroy them all (19:20-21; Micah 4:11-13; Zeph. 3:8; Zech. 14:3, 12-15; 12:4, 9) and will save the nation of Israel (Zech. 12:3-8; 14:4-5; Joel 3:14-17). This is the treading of the winepress, which is recorded in 14:17-20, Isa. 63:1-6, and Joel 3:9-13.
Rv 16:162 Armageddon
The word is a Hebrew compound of Har, meaning mountain, and Megiddon, i.e., Megiddo (Judg. 5:19; 2 Kings 23:29; Zech. 12:11), meaning slaughter; hence, the mountain of slaughter.
Rv 16:171a temple  -   Rev. 11:19
The temple is for God’s testimony, whereas the throne is for God’s judgment. Out of the temple from the throne indicates that God’s judgment comes out of God’s testimony and is for God’s testimony. Once the last bowl has been poured out, marking the end of the great tribulation, every negative thing will have been eradicated, and then the bride will appear (19:7-9).
Rv 16:17b throne  -   Rev. 4:2
Rv 16:172c done  -   cf. Rev. 21:6
Or, over, passed, accomplished. This refers to the fact that everything has been accomplished for God’s judgment and for God’s expression, God’s testimony.
Rv 16:18a lightnings  -   Rev. 4:5
Rv 16:181b earthquake  -   Rev. 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19
This earthquake is the same as that associated with the seventh trumpet (11:19). See note 192 in ch. 11.
Rv 16:18c not  -   Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21
Rv 16:191a great  -   Rev. 11:8
The great city is the city of Jerusalem. See note 81 in ch. 11.
Rv 16:192b Babylon  -   Rev. 18:2; cf. Rev. 14:8; 17:5
The religious, mysterious Babylon mentioned in 14:8 will be destroyed at the beginning of the great tribulation (see note 81 in ch. 14); therefore, Babylon the Great here, which will be destroyed immediately after the war at Armageddon at the end of the great tribulation, must be the material Babylon, the city of Rome. The Babylon in 14:8 corresponds with the one in ch. 17, while the Babylon here corresponds with the one in ch. 18. The sketches of the two Babylons are recorded in 14:8 and this verse; the details are given in chs. 17 and 18.
Rv 16:19c remembered  -   Rev. 18:5
Rv 16:19d cup  -   Rev. 14:10; cf. Rev. 18:6
Rv 16:193 wine
Rome gave the wine of the fury of her fornication to the nations (18:3). Now God in His vengeance gives her the wine of the fury of His wrath.
Rv 16:20a island  -   Rev. 6:14
Rv 16:21a hail  -   Rev. 8:7; 11:19; Exo. 9:18-25
Rv 16:211 talent
A talent equals about one hundred pounds.
Rv 16:212b blasphemed  -   Rev. 16:9
This proves that the people have no intention of repenting; rather, they will oppose God to the end.
Revelation Chapter 17
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 17:1a seven  -   Rev. 15:1; 21:9
Rv 17:1b seven  -   Rev. 16:1
Rv 17:1c Come  -   Rev. 4:1; 21:9
Rv 17:11d judgment  -   Rev. 19:2
Or, sentence, condemnation.
Rv 17:12 great
Great here corresponds with greater in Matt. 13:32.
Rv 17:13 harlot
Harlot here refers to the apostate Roman Catholic Church. A harlot does not have a husband. This indicates that God never admitted having any relationship with the apostate Roman Church.
Rv 17:1e many  -   Rev. 17:15; cf. Jer. 51:13
Rv 17:21a fornication  -   Rev. 2:20, 22; 18:3, 9
What the apostate church commits is not adultery, the sin of an unfaithful spouse, but fornication, the sin of a harlot. This is more sinful than adultery. The fornication of the apostate church consists of her having sinful relationships with the kings of the earth for her profit, just as a harlot commits sin for gain. Hers is spiritual fornication. The kings of the earth commit fornication with her directly.
Rv 17:2b dwell  -   Rev. 8:13
Rv 17:2c drunk  -   Rev. 14:8
Rv 17:22 wine
Wine here signifies the heretical doctrines of the apostate church in her fornicating relationships with the governments on the earth. These heretical doctrines confound, as wine does, those who become involved in her religion. This is the wine of her fornication. It is in an indirect manner that those who dwell on the earth are made drunk with this wine.
Rv 17:3a carried  -   Rev. 21:10
Rv 17:31b spirit  -   Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 21:10; 22:6
See note 101 in ch. 1.
Rv 17:32 wilderness
A wilderness is a desert place. This indicates that the apostate church is in a desert, where there are no springs of water prepared by God. In order to show the apostle John that the apostate church is in such a desolate place, the angel carried him there.
Rv 17:3c woman  -   Rev. 2:20; Matt. 13:33
Rv 17:33 scarlet
Scarlet is dark red, and red is the color of the great dragon (see note 31 in ch. 12). This indicates that Antichrist will be one with Satan in appearance.
Rv 17:34d beast  -   Rev. 13:1
The beast here is both the Roman Empire and Antichrist.
Rv 17:3e names  -   Rev. 13:1
Rv 17:35 blasphemy
Nearly all the Caesars called themselves god. This was sheer blasphemy against God.
Rv 17:36f seven  -   Rev. 13:1; 17:9-10
See note 13 in ch. 13 and notes 91 and 101 in this chapter.
Rv 17:3g ten  -   Rev. 17:12, 16; Dan. 7:7, 20, 24
Rv 17:4a clothed  -   Rev. 18:16
Rv 17:41 purple
Purple signifies dignity with authority (John 19:2-3). The color purple is a blend of blue and red; it signifies the blending of heavenly things with earthly. This is the appearance of the apostate church.
Rv 17:42 scarlet
Scarlet, dark red, is characteristic of the apostate Roman Church. It is found in many places in the Vatican; the most striking use of it is in the garb of the cardinals.
Rv 17:43 gold
Gold, precious stone, and pearls are the materials with which the New Jerusalem is built (21:18-19, 21). But the woman here, the apostate church, is not built in a solid way with these precious things; she is only gilded with these treasures as ornaments for outward display. This is a deception intended to entice people. It is the harlot’s false appearance.
Rv 17:44b golden  -   Jer. 51:7; Rev. 18:6
In figure, gold signifies the divine nature of God. Hence, the golden cup here indicates that in outward appearance the apostate church does have something of God. But within, her “golden cup” is full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication, full of idolatry, pagan practices, and satanic things in a heretical religious relationship. Therefore, although the apostate Roman Catholic Church has certain holy things, she has mixed in many evil and unclean things.
Rv 17:4c abominations  -   Deut. 7:25-26
Rv 17:45 and
Or, even.
Rv 17:4d unclean  -   Rev. 18:2
Rv 17:5a forehead  -   cf. Rev. 7:3; 13:16; 14:1; 22:4
Rv 17:51b MYSTERY  -   Rev. 17:7; cf. Eph. 5:32
Mystery here indicates that Babylon the Great in this chapter is not the material Babylon in ch. 18 but the religious one. The religious Babylon, the apostate church, is truly mysterious in what she is, in what she practices, and in what she teaches.
Rv 17:5c BABYLON  -   Rev. 14:8; cf. Rev. 16:19; 18:2
Rv 17:52 MOTHER
Since the mother of the harlots is the apostate church, the harlots, the daughters of the apostate church, must be all the different sects and groups in Christianity that hold to some extent the teaching, practices, and traditions of the apostate Roman Church. The pure church life has no evil that has been transmitted from the apostate church.
Rv 17:53 ABOMINATIONS
Abominations are idols (Deut. 7:25-26), with which the apostate Roman Church is filled.
Rv 17:61 drunk
The Roman Church does not kill the saints directly but does so indirectly through the Roman Empire. She is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.
Rv 17:6a blood  -   Rev. 16:6
Rv 17:62b witnesses  -   Acts 1:8; Rev. 2:13
Or, martyrs. The saints are those who are separated, sanctified, unto God and who live a holy life for God, even unto death. The witnesses are those who are a living testimony of the Lord Jesus and who are faithful unto death. The witnesses of Jesus are also saints; however, the saints may just live a separated and holy life, not complying with the apostate church, and may not come forward to testify against the apostasy of the Roman Church as did witnesses such as Antipas in 2:13.
Rv 17:81 beast
The beast, who is Antichrist, “was” in the person of Caesar Nero before John wrote this book. He “is not” at the time of John’s writing, because Nero had died by that time. That he “is about to come up out of the abyss” implies that Nero’s spirit is now in the abyss and is about to emerge from it to take possession of the body of the slain and resuscitated Antichrist, as indicated in 13:3.
Rv 17:8a come  -   Rev. 11:7; cf. Rev. 13:1
Rv 17:8b abyss  -   Rev. 9:1-2; 11:7; 20:1, 3
Rv 17:82 go
This indicates that Antichrist will perish, as described in 19:20 and 20:10; that is, he will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Rv 17:8c perdition  -   Rev. 19:20; 20:10
Rv 17:8d dwell  -   Rev. 3:10
Rv 17:8e written  -   Rev. 13:8
Rv 17:83f book  -   Rev. 3:5
Lit., scroll.
Rv 17:8g marvel  -   Rev. 13:3
Rv 17:9a wisdom  -   Rev. 13:18
Rv 17:9b seven  -   Rev. 17:3
Rv 17:91 seven
The city of Rome is built on seven mountains. These are signified by the seven heads of the beast on which the harlot sits.
Rv 17:101 seven
The seven kings are seven Caesars of the Roman Empire. The first five “have fallen”; i.e., they died unnaturally (Judg. 3:25; 2 Sam. 1:10, 25, 27). Those five are Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, all of whom either were murdered or committed suicide before John wrote this book. The sixth, Domitian, who was also murdered, was living when this book was written; therefore, it is said of him that he “is.” “The other,” the seventh, is Antichrist; he had “not yet come” at that time. When he comes, he will remain only a short time and then will be slain and will be resuscitated by the spirit of the fifth, who is Nero, to become the eighth.
Rv 17:111 also
Antichrist will be the coming seventh Caesar. But he is also the eighth. According to 13:3, Antichrist will be slain and resuscitated. In that resuscitation the spirit of Nero (the fifth Caesar), which will come up out of the abyss (when Satan is cast down to the earth — 12:10, 13), will animate and resuscitate the dead body of the seventh Caesar, Antichrist, thereby imitating the resurrection of Christ. This one, composed of the fifth and seventh Caesars, is the eighth. Hence, he is “out of the seven,” having the body of the seventh and the spirit of the fifth. Therefore, he will be all the more capable, all the more intelligent, and all the more powerful to charm, deceive, and allure people, capturing those who do not believe in Christ. It is no wonder that people will marvel at the sight of such an extraordinary person and will follow him (v. 8; 13:3).
Rv 17:12a ten  -   Rev. 17:3
Rv 17:121 ten
Ten kings will be raised up in the revived Roman Empire before the great tribulation. They will be one with Antichrist in opposing God and persecuting His people — the Jews and the believers. These ten kings are likened to the ten toes of the great image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream (Dan. 2:42). They will submit themselves and their kingdoms to Antichrist (v. 17).
Rv 17:12b kingdom  -   Rev. 17:17
Rv 17:12c one  -   Rev. 18:10, 17, 19
Rv 17:131a mind  -   Rev. 17:17
The mind expressed as opinion.
Rv 17:141a war  -   Rev. 19:19
The war here is the same as that mentioned in 19:11-21; it is the war at Armageddon (16:14, 16).
Rv 17:14b Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6
Rv 17:14c overcome  -   Rev. 3:21; 5:5
Rv 17:14d Lord  -   Rev. 19:16; 1 Tim. 6:15
Rv 17:14e with  -   Rev. 19:14
Rv 17:142f chosen  -   Matt. 22:14
Chosen is mentioned after called. To be called is to be saved, whereas to be chosen is to be approved by the Lord by virtue of an overcoming life. Today many are called, but in the future few will be chosen (Matt. 22:14).
Rv 17:14g faithful  -   Rev. 2:10, 13
Rv 17:151a waters  -   Rev. 17:1
The harlot’s sitting on the waters, which are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, is fulfilled by the historical fact of the apostate Roman Church’s riding on peoples and nations throughout the world.
Rv 17:15b peoples  -   Rev. 5:9
Rv 17:16a ten  -   Rev. 17:3, 12
Rv 17:161 hate
That the ten horns and the beast will hate the harlot and make her desolate means that Antichrist and the ten kings will persecute the apostate Roman Church. This will take place at the beginning of the great tribulation. (See note 81 in ch. 14.) They will make the Roman Church “desolate and naked,” meaning that they will destroy her, rob her of her riches, and expose her; they will “eat her flesh,” meaning that they will kill her members; and they will “burn her utterly with fire,” meaning that they will annihilate her altogether. This too indicates that Babylon the Great in this chapter is the religious Babylon.
Rv 17:16b desolate  -   Rev. 18:17, 19; Jer. 50:13; 51:26
Rv 17:16c burn  -   Rev. 18:8; 19:3
Rv 17:171 God
It is of God that Antichrist and his ten kings destroy the apostate Roman Church. This kind of destruction should not be considered martyrdom but the avenging judgment of God.
Rv 17:172 mind
See note 131.
Rv 17:17a mind  -   Rev. 17:13
Rv 17:17b kingdom  -   Rev. 16:10
Rv 17:17c words  -   Rom. 9:28
Rv 17:181 woman
While the harlot in v. 16 denotes the religious Babylon, signifying the Roman Church, the woman here denotes the material Babylon, signifying the city of Rome. This city is called “the great city, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.” When John wrote this book, Rome was the city that had a kingdom over the kings of the earth. What Antichrist and his ten kings will hate is the harlot, the Roman Church, not the woman, the city of Rome, where their administration will be based.
Rv 17:18a great  -   Rev. 18:10, 16, 18-19
Revelation Chapter 18
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 18:11a another  -   Rev. 7:2; 8:3; 10:1
This Angel with great authority is Christ. As He comes down out of heaven, the earth is illumined with His glory. In 10:1 Christ is still clothed with a cloud, and in 14:14 He is sitting on the cloud, whereas here His glory shines over the earth, indicating that His coming back to earth is nearer at hand than the coming mentioned in 10:1 and 14:14. He will come out of heaven, first in the cloud secretly, then on the cloud openly; eventually, He will shine over the earth to destroy Babylon the Great, the city of Rome, with His great authority.
Rv 18:12 coming
This is Christ’s coming (parousia) reaching the earth at the end of the great tribulation for Him to take full possession of the earth as His kingdom. At this time the material Babylon the Great will suffer judgment and fall.
Rv 18:1b illumined  -   Ezek. 43:2
Rv 18:21a Fallen  -   Rev. 14:8
This is the fall of the material Babylon, the city of Rome, at the end of the great tribulation (see notes 81 in ch. 14, 192 in ch. 16, and 51 and 181 in ch. 17). The Bible reveals three aspects of Babylon: (1) the literal aspect, referring to ancient Babel or Babylon (Gen. 11:9), today’s Iraq; (2) the religious aspect, referring to the Roman Catholic Church, spoken of in ch. 17; and (3) the material aspect, referring to the city of Rome, mentioned in this chapter.
Rv 18:2b dwelling  -   Isa. 13:21-22; Jer. 50:39; 51:37
Rv 18:22 hold
Or, prison.
Rv 18:2c unclean  -   Rev. 16:13
Rv 18:31 have
Some MSS read, have fallen by.
Rv 18:32a drunk  -   Rev. 14:8
Rome, signified by Babylon the Great in a twofold way, has both religious and material aspects. The nations have drunk of the wine…and the kings of the earth have committed… refers to the religious aspect (14:8; 17:2), while the merchants of the earth have become… refers to the material aspect.
Rv 18:3b committed  -   Rev. 18:9; 17:2
Rv 18:3c merchants  -   Rev. 18:11, 15, 23
Rv 18:3d rich  -   Rev. 18:15, 19
Rv 18:3e luxury  -   Rev. 18:7, 9
Rv 18:41a Come  -   Isa. 52:11; Jer. 50:8; 51:6, 9, 45; 2 Cor. 6:17
Since Babylon the Great has two aspects, to come out of her is to come out of both the religious Babylon and the material Babylon. God’s people should come out of these two aspects of Babylon.
Rv 18:51 accumulated
Lit., joined together.
Rv 18:5a to  -   cf. Jer. 51:9
Rv 18:5b remembered  -   Rev. 16:19; Hosea 7:2; 8:13; 9:9
Rv 18:52 unrighteousnesses
Or, crimes, misdeeds.
Rv 18:6a Pay  -   Psa. 137:8; Jer. 50:15, 29
Rv 18:61 double
Double recompense was required according to the Levitical law (Exo. 22:4, 7, 9). Here, that double recompense is doubled.
Rv 18:6b cup  -   Rev. 17:4
Rv 18:7a glorified  -   Isa. 13:19
Rv 18:7b luxuriously  -   Rev. 18:3, 9
Rv 18:7c queen  -   Isa. 47:7
Rv 18:7d widow  -   Isa. 47:8
Rv 18:8a one  -   Isa. 47:9
Rv 18:81b burned  -   Rev. 17:16
In 17:16 the religious Babylon is utterly burned. Here, the material Babylon is utterly burned. Chapter 17 records the destruction of the religious Babylon; ch. 18, the destruction of the material Babylon.
Rv 18:8c judges  -   Rev. 19:2
Rv 18:9a committed  -   Rev. 18:3; 17:2
Rv 18:9b weep  -   Rev. 18:11, 19
Rv 18:9c smoke  -   Rev. 14:11; 19:3
Rv 18:10a Standing  -   Rev. 18:15, 17
Rv 18:10b Woe  -   Rev. 18:16, 19
Rv 18:10c great  -   Rev. 18:16, 18, 19, 21
Rv 18:10d Babylon  -   Rev. 16:19
Rv 18:10e one  -   Rev. 17:12; 18:17, 19
Rv 18:10f judgment  -   Rev. 19:2
Rv 18:121 Cargo
That the cargo listed in vv. 12-13 consists of various material things proves that Babylon the Great in this chapter is the material Babylon. The cargo is of seven categories: (1) ornaments, from gold to pearls; (2) clothing, from fine linen to scarlet; (3) furniture and decorations, from thyine wood to marble; (4) spices, from cinnamon to frankincense; (5) food, from wine to sheep; (6) transportation, horses and chariots; and (7) employment, slaves and souls of men.
Rv 18:122 thyine
An aromatic and coniferous tree.
Rv 18:131 amomum
A spice plant.
Rv 18:132a slaves  -   cf. Rom. 12:1
Lit., bodies; referring to the bodies of those who are in slavery.
Rv 18:133b souls  -   cf. Matt. 16:26
Of the cargo sold by Babylon, the first item is gold and the last is the souls of men. Souls of men refers to men who sell themselves for employment. This depicts not only the coming Babylon but also today’s world. People sell their soul, their life, i.e., themselves, to their occupation, neglecting God and their eternal destiny.
Rv 18:16a clothed  -   Rev. 17:4
Rv 18:17a desolate  -   Rev. 17:16
Rv 18:18a smoke  -   Rev. 18:9
Rv 18:191 wealth
Lit., costliness.
Rv 18:192 one
Antichrist and his armies will be destroyed by Christ in one hour (17:12-14; 19:19-21), and the material Babylon the Great also will be destroyed by the Lord in one hour. Perhaps both of them will be destroyed by the Lord in the same hour of His coming to the earth in His shining glory (18:1; 2 Thes. 2:8).
Rv 18:20a Be  -   Rev. 12:12; 19:7; Deut. 32:43; Jer. 51:48; Isa. 14:7
Rv 18:20b apostles  -   Luke 11:49
Rv 18:201 judged
This is a part of the answer to the martyrs’ prayer in 6:9-10.
Rv 18:20c judgment  -   Rev. 6:10; 19:2
Rv 18:21a stone  -   Jer. 51:63-64
Rv 18:211 thrown
This will probably occur through the earthquake mentioned in 16:18-20.
Rv 18:22a harp-singers  -   Isa. 24:8
Rv 18:22b sound  -   Jer. 25:10
Rv 18:23a light  -   Jer. 25:10
Rv 18:23b great  -   Rev. 6:15
Rv 18:231c sorcery  -   Rev. 9:21
Or, enchantment, poisonous charm.
Rv 18:24a blood  -   Rev. 16:6; 17:6; Matt. 23:35
Revelation Chapter 19
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 19:1a loud  -   Jer. 51:48
Rv 19:1b great  -   Rev. 19:6; 7:9
Rv 19:11c Hallelujah  -   Rev. 19:3, 4, 6
The word, from Hebrew, is a compound of hallelu, praise, and jah, a shortened form of the name Jehovah; hence, it means praise Jehovah. It is used in Psa. 104:35 and at the beginning and end of Psa. 146 — 150.
Rv 19:1d salvation  -   Rev. 7:10; 12:10
Rv 19:1e glory  -   Rev. 4:11
Rv 19:2a true  -   Rev. 16:7; Psa. 19:9
Rv 19:21b great  -   Rev. 17:1
Babylon the Great, in both its religious aspect and its material aspect. See note 41 in ch. 18.
Rv 19:2c fornication  -   Rev. 17:2; 18:3
Rv 19:2d blood  -   Rev. 6:10; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24
Rv 19:22 at
Lit., from her hand.
Rv 19:3a smoke  -   Rev. 14:11
Rv 19:4a twenty-four  -   Rev. 4:4
Rv 19:4b four  -   Rev. 4:6
Rv 19:4c fell  -   Rev. 4:10
Rv 19:4d who  -   Rev. 4:2
Rv 19:41e Amen  -   Rev. 1:6-7; 5:14; 22:21; Psa. 106:48
The “Hallelujah” in vv. 1 and 3 is the praise of the great multitude of saints. Here, the twenty-four angelic elders and the four living creatures say “Amen” to the praise of the saints, and then, like the saints, they praise by saying “Hallelujah!” Hence, taken together, this is the praise of the saints, angels, and all creatures; it is their praise to the Triune God from the past to the present and for eternity.
Rv 19:51a voice  -   Rev. 16:17
This may be the voice of Christ as the Angel of God (7:2; 8:3; 10:1).
Rv 19:5b Praise  -   Psa. 150:1
Rv 19:5c fear  -   Rev. 11:18; Psa. 115:13
Rv 19:6a voice  -   Rev. 11:15; 12:10
Rv 19:61b many  -   Rev. 1:15; 14:2
Like the sound of many waters, the praise of the great multitude of saints proceeds continually, and like the sound of mighty thunders, it displays solemnity.
Rv 19:6c thunders  -   Rev. 6:1
Rv 19:6d Lord  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 19:6e reigns  -   Rev. 11:15
Rv 19:7a rejoice  -   Rev. 18:20
Rv 19:71b marriage  -   Matt. 25:10
After the rapture of the majority of the saints (14:16; 1 Thes. 4:15-17) and the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ for the giving of the reward (11:18; 2 Cor. 5:10), the events that immediately follow should be the marriage of the Lamb, and then the destruction of Antichrist and Babylon the Great (19:19-21; 18:1 — 19:4), which bring in the reign of God — the kingdom of God (v. 6). For this reason, the great multitude of the saved rejoice and praise with hallelujahs (vv. 1, 3, 6), and the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures join them in praising God (v. 4).
The reign of God, the kingdom, is related to the marriage of the Lamb, and the marriage of the Lamb is the issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy. God’s economy in the New Testament is to obtain for Christ a bride, the church, through His redemption and divine life. By the continual working of the Holy Spirit through all the centuries, this goal will be attained at the end of this age. Then the bride, the overcoming believers, will be ready, and the kingdom of God will come. This corresponds with the Lord’s prophecy in Matt. 26:29.
Rv 19:72c wife  -   Rev. 21:2, 9; John 3:29; Eph. 5:23-25
His wife refers to the church (Eph. 5:24-25, 31-32), the bride of Christ (John 3:29). However, according to vv. 8-9, the wife, the bride of Christ, here consists only of the overcoming believers during the millennium, whereas the bride, the wife, in 21:2 is composed of all the saved saints after the millennium for eternity. The readiness of the bride depends on the maturity in life of the overcomers. Furthermore, the overcomers are not separate individuals but a corporate bride. For this aspect, building is needed. The overcomers not only are mature in life but also are built together as one bride.
Rv 19:7d ready  -   Matt. 24:44; 25:10
Rv 19:8a clothed  -   Rev. 19:14; Matt. 22:11-12; Rev. 3:4-5, 18; Psa. 45:13-14; cf. Rev. 17:4
Rv 19:81 clean
Or, pure. Clean refers to the nature, whereas bright refers to the expression.
Rv 19:82b righteousnesses  -   Matt. 5:20; Job 29:14; cf. Isa. 64:6
Or, righteous acts. The righteousnesses (plural) here are not the righteousness (i.e., Christ) that we received for our salvation (1 Cor. 1:30). The righteousness we received for our salvation is objective and enables us to meet the requirement of the righteous God, whereas here the righteousnesses of the overcoming saints are subjective (Phil. 3:9) and enable them to meet the requirement of the overcoming Christ. In Psa. 45:13-14 the queen has two garments: one corresponds with the objective righteousness, which is for our salvation, and the other with the subjective righteousnesses, which are for our victory. The second garment is equivalent to the wedding garment in Matt. 22:11-12.
Rv 19:9a Blessed  -   Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 20:6; 22:7, 14
Rv 19:91b marriage  -   Matt. 22:2; 8:11; Luke 14:15; 22:16
The marriage dinner of the Lamb here is the wedding feast in Matt. 22:2. It will be a reward to the overcoming believers. Only the overcomers will be called to it; not all the saved ones will participate in it. The five foolish virgins in Matt. 25:8-13 will miss it. However, after being dealt with by the Lord in the kingdom age, they will participate in the New Jerusalem for eternity. Hence, to be called to the marriage dinner of Christ, which will usher the overcoming believers into the enjoyment of the millennium, is to be blessed. The overcoming believers, who will be called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb, will also be the bride of the Lamb.
Rv 19:92 dinner
The chief meal, taken usually in the evening.
Rv 19:9c true  -   Rev. 21:5; 22:6
Rv 19:10a fell  -   Rev. 22:8-9
Rv 19:10b testimony  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 19:10c Worship  -   Rev. 14:7
Rv 19:101 spirit
The spirit of the prophecy is the reality, substance, disposition, and characteristic of the prophecy. Thus, the testimony of Jesus is the reality, substance, disposition, and characteristic of the prophecy of this book.
Rv 19:10d prophecy  -   Rev. 1:3; 10:11; 22:7, 10, 18-19
Rv 19:11a heaven  -   Rev. 4:1; Matt. 3:16; John 1:51
Rv 19:11b white  -   Rev. 19:14; cf. Rev. 6:2
Rv 19:111 He
After the marriage dinner, Christ will come as a fighting General with His bride (the overcoming believers called to the marriage dinner) as His army to fight against Antichrist and the kings under him with their armies at Armageddon.
Rv 19:112c Faithful  -   Rev. 3:14
Christ is faithful both to God and to those who believe in Him. In His faithfulness He defeats and destroys those who oppose God and persecute the believers. He is also true in carrying out God’s economy and in caring for those who believe in Him.
Rv 19:113d righteousness  -   Rev. 19:2
Christ is faithful and true both to God and to His believers, and He is righteous to those who oppose and rebel against God. In righteousness He will defeat Antichrist and judge the rebels who follow him.
Rv 19:11e war  -   Rev. 17:14
Rv 19:121a eyes  -   Rev. 1:14
Christ’s flaming eyes are for the carrying out of His judgment.
Rv 19:122 many
Because Christ has been crowned with many kinds of glory (Heb. 2:9; 1 Pet. 1:11 and note 6), He wears many diadems. Every kind of glory is a diadem. These crowns of glory are the issues of the things that Christ accomplished. In the glorious issues of His accomplishments He will fight for God and destroy all those who rebel against God, putting them to shame for eternity.
Rv 19:12b diadems  -   Heb. 2:9
Rv 19:12c name  -   Rev. 3:12; cf. Rev. 2:17
Rv 19:123 which
This indicates that there are certain aspects of Christ that we have not experienced and that only He Himself knows. It also indicates that the Christ whom we experience is inexhaustible.
Rv 19:13a garment  -   Isa. 63:1-3
Rv 19:131 dipped
Christ’s being clothed with a garment dipped in blood is related to His treading the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God (v. 15; Isa. 63:1-3) at Armageddon (16:14, 16), where the blood will rise up to the bridles of the horses (14:20).
Rv 19:132b Word  -   John 1:1-2
The Word of God is the definition, explanation, and expression of God. As the Word of God, Christ imparts life as grace to God’s chosen people in the Gospel of John (John 1:1, 4, 14), but He executes God’s judgment upon the rebellious people in the Revelation of John.
Rv 19:141a armies  -   Rev. 17:14
The armies here are the called and chosen believers in 17:14 and those who are called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb in v. 9, that is, those who constitute the bride of Christ.
Rv 19:14b followed  -   Rev. 14:4
Rv 19:142c dressed  -   Rev. 19:8
The garment of the overcoming believers qualifies them both to attend the marriage dinner of the Lamb (vv. 8-9) and to fight with the Lord against His enemy.
Rv 19:15a mouth  -   Rev. 19:21; 1:16; 2 Thes. 2:8
Rv 19:151b sword  -   Rev. 1:16
The sword, which proceeds out of the mouth of Christ, who is the Word of God, is the word that will judge the rebellious (John 12:48).
Rv 19:15c smite  -   Isa. 11:4
Rv 19:152d shepherd  -   Rev. 2:27
To shepherd here is to rule; the iron rod signifies strong power. First, with His judging word Christ will smite the nations; then, with His strong power He will shepherd those who remain. His ruling with strong power is His shepherding. He will rule over the nations by shepherding them.
Rv 19:153e winepress  -   Rev. 14:19-20
See note 191 in ch. 14.
Rv 19:15f Almighty  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 19:161 garment
Christ’s garment signifies Christ’s attributes, His character, especially His righteousness in His humanity, whereas His thigh signifies His standing strength, His stability. His title King of kings and Lord of lords is exhibited in His righteousness and stability.
Rv 19:16a name  -   Rev. 19:12
Rv 19:16b KING  -   Rev. 17:14
Rv 19:17a birds  -   Ezek. 39:17
Rv 19:17b mid-heaven  -   Rev. 8:13
Rv 19:171 great
The great dinner of God is in contrast to the marriage dinner of the Lamb. The latter is for the called overcomers; the former is for the invited birds.
Rv 19:18a eat  -   Ezek. 39:18-20
Rv 19:181 generals
Lit., captains over one thousand men.
Rv 19:18b free  -   Rev. 6:15
Rv 19:19a beast  -   Rev. 13:1
Rv 19:191b kings  -   Rev. 16:12, 14, 16
The kings of the earth (16:12-14) include especially the ten kings under Antichrist (17:12-14).
Rv 19:192c armies  -   Rev. 9:16
The armies include the two hundred million horsemen from the rising of the sun (9:14-16; 16:12).
Rv 19:19d gathered  -   Rev. 16:16
Rv 19:193e war  -   Rev. 17:14; 19:11
This war will take place at Armageddon (16:14, 16), at the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:9-16; Zech. 14:2-3, 12-15), which is very close to Jerusalem. This war will be the treading of the great winepress of the fury of God (see 14:17-20 and note 191 there).
Rv 19:19f army  -   Rev. 19:14
Rv 19:20a false  -   Rev. 13:11
Rv 19:20b signs  -   Rev. 13:13-14
Rv 19:20c mark  -   Rev. 13:16-17
Rv 19:20d worshipped  -   Rev. 13:15
Rv 19:201e cast  -   2 Thes. 2:8; Dan. 7:11; 8:25
Antichrist and the false prophet will be the first to be cast into the lake of fire (cf. 20:10, 15). Unlike all the others who perish, they will be cast alive into the lake of fire, without passing through death and resurrection.
At this point we can see that once the seventh trumpet is sounded, on the same day, the last day of the great tribulation, the following events will all take place: (1) the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of Christ; (2) the dead saints will be resurrected and will be raptured with the living saints; (3) the two witnesses will be resurrected and raptured; (4) Christ will execute the judgment at His judgment seat for the rewarding of the overcomers; (5) the marriage of the Lamb and the overcomers will take place; (6) Christ and His newly-wed overcomers will come to the earth to defeat Antichrist and destroy those who destroy the earth in the war at Armageddon, and to cast Antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire; (7) by the war at Armageddon Christ will rescue Israel from Antichrist’s besieging, and the whole house of Israel will repent and be saved; (8) the material Babylon the Great will be destroyed; and (9) at the same time the seven bowls will be poured out. The war at Armageddon will occur at the time of the sixth bowl. The various plagues of the seven bowls will be executed by God on the same day, perhaps at the time when the few positive events mentioned previously will occur.
Rv 19:20f lake  -   Rev. 20:10, 14-15; 21:8
Rv 19:20g brimstone  -   Rev. 14:10
Rv 19:21a sword  -   Rev. 19:15
Revelation Chapter 20
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 20:1a key  -   Rev. 1:18; 9:1
Rv 20:1b abyss  -   Rev. 9:1
Rv 20:1c chain  -   Jude 6
Rv 20:2a dragon  -   Rev. 12:3
Rv 20:2b serpent  -   Rev. 12:9
Rv 20:21c bound  -   Jude 6
After the defeat of Antichrist, Satan is bound and imprisoned that the rebellious earth may be cleared up and the kingdom of Christ may come (vv. 4-6).
Rv 20:3a cast  -   Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 28:8; cf. 2 Pet. 2:4
Rv 20:3b shut  -   cf. Num. 16:33
Rv 20:3c deceive  -   Rev. 20:8, 10; 12:9
Rv 20:3d loosed  -   Rev. 20:7
Rv 20:4a thrones  -   Matt. 19:28; Rev. 3:21
Rv 20:41 they
They refers to the overcomers. They are now sitting upon thrones, and authority to judge has been given to them. Having authority to judge means having the kingdom (cf. Dan. 7:10, 18, 22). This indicates that they have received the kingdom and are enjoying it.
Rv 20:4b souls  -   Rev. 6:9
Rv 20:42 those
These are the ones who are martyred throughout the church age, as mentioned in 6:9.
Rv 20:4c testimony  -   Rev. 1:2
Rv 20:43 those
These are the ones who are martyred during the great tribulation (13:7, 15).
Rv 20:4d worshipped  -   Rev. 13:15
Rv 20:4e mark  -   Rev. 13:16-17
Rv 20:44 lived
I.e., were resurrected.
Rv 20:4f reigned  -   Rev. 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:12; Heb. 2:5-8; Psa. 2:8-9; cf. Rev. 22:5
Rv 20:51a rest  -   1 Cor. 15:23-24
These are the unsaved who will participate in the resurrection of judgment after the millennium (John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:23-24; Rev. 20:12).
Rv 20:52b first  -   Luke 14:14; 20:35-36; John 5:29; Phil. 3:11
Or, best. The first resurrection is the best one. It is not only the resurrection of life (John 5:29; 1 Cor. 15:23b; 1 Thes. 4:16) but also the resurrection of reward (Luke 14:14), the out-resurrection, i.e., the outstanding resurrection, which the apostle Paul sought (Phil. 3:11), the resurrection of kingship as a reward to the overcomers, which enables them to reign as co-kings with Christ in the millennial kingdom (vv. 4, 6). Hence, blessed is he who has part in the first resurrection (v. 6).
Rv 20:61a Blessed  -   Rev. 1:3
Or, happy. The highest blessing is to inherit the kingdom of God manifested on earth and even to be the co-kings of Christ within the kingdom.
Rv 20:6b holy  -   Rev. 3:7; 22:11
Rv 20:62 first
Not only the resurrected overcomers, such as the man-child in 12:5 and the later martyrs in 15:2, but also the raptured living overcomers, such as the firstfruits in 14:1-5, have part in the issue of the first resurrection.
Rv 20:63c second  -   Rev. 2:11; 20:14
See note 112 in ch. 2.
Rv 20:64d priests  -   Rev. 1:6
The overcomers will be priests, drawing near to God and Christ, and kings, reigning over the nations with Christ in the millennium (2:26-27; 12:5). As priests, they satisfy God and Christ, who enjoy their service, and as kings they reign for God and represent God, shepherding man for man’s enjoyment and satisfaction. This is a reward to the overcomers. The believers who are defeated in this age will forfeit this reward. However, after being dealt with by the Lord in the millennium, these defeated ones will participate in the blessing of this reward, which will be to serve God and represent God in the kingship in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (22:3, 5).
Rv 20:65 a
Some ancient authorities have the definite article the.
Rv 20:71 prison
The abyss (v. 3) will be a temporary prison for the devil. After the thousand years, he will be released from his prison to be God’s tool to test mankind for the last time.
Rv 20:8a deceive  -   Rev. 20:3
Rv 20:8b four  -   Rev. 7:1
Rv 20:81 Gog
Gog and Magog, according to Ezek. 38:2-3 and 39:1-2, must be Russia. Ezekiel 38:2 indicates that Gog and Magog are of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, which correspond with Russia, Moscow, and Tobolsk. Ezekiel 39:2 refers to these places as “the remotest parts of the north.” What is mentioned concerning Gog and Magog in Ezek. 38 and 39 will occur before the millennium, whereas what is recorded concerning them in this chapter will take place after the millennium. This verse shows that Satan’s deceiving of the nations that are in the four corners of the earth is his deceiving of Gog and Magog. This may indicate that in mankind’s last rebellion against God, which will be instigated by Satan, Gog and Magog will take the lead and the nations will follow.
Rv 20:8c Magog  -   Gen. 10:2; Ezek. 38:2; 39:1, 6
Rv 20:8d gather  -   cf. Ezek. 38:15; 39:2
Rv 20:82 war
This will be the last war on earth. It will be caused by mankind’s last rebellion, which will be instigated by Satan, God’s enemy, after the millennium. Although mankind will be in a restored state for one thousand years, man’s rebellious nature will still remain. It will be exposed by Satan’s last instigation and will be purged away by the Lord’s final judgment on mankind.
Rv 20:9a went  -   Ezek. 38:9, 16
Rv 20:91 camp
The camp of the saints is the lodging place of the overcoming believers, who compose the heavenly armies (19:14) camping on earth. The beloved city is the city of Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the remnant of Israel. The overcoming believers and the remnant of Israel are God’s faithful people on earth in the millennium, who stand with God and for God. At the end of the millennium, Satan will instigate rebellious mankind from the uttermost parts of the north to attack God’s people.
Rv 20:9b beloved  -   Psa. 87:2-3
See note 91.
Rv 20:9c fire  -   Rev. 11:5; Ezek. 38:22; 39:6
Rv 20:92 out
Some ancient authorities insert, from God.
Rv 20:10a devil  -   Rev. 2:10
Rv 20:101b lake  -   Rev. 19:20; Matt. 25:41
The lake of fire has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). However, the beast and the false prophet, as well as the “goats” in Matt. 25:32-33, 41, are cast into it a thousand years earlier than the devil (19:20). After the thousand years, the devil also is thrown into it.
Rv 20:10c tormented  -   Rev. 14:10
Rv 20:111 white
White here signifies righteous, indicating that the Lord’s great throne, which is for His judgment, is righteous.
Rv 20:112 Him
Him must refer to the Lord Jesus. God the Father has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22) and has ordained Him to be the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1; Rom. 2:16). Matthew 25:31-46 speaks of the Lord as the One who will judge the living before the millennium. Here, the Lord is the One who will judge the dead after the millennium.
Rv 20:113a earth  -   Matt. 5:18; Heb. 1:11-12; 2 Pet. 3:10
The old heavens and the old earth will be changed (Heb. 1:11-12). The old heavens will pass away, their elements being burned and dissolved, and the old earth will be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10). Out of this change will issue the new heaven and new earth (21:1) as the universe of the new creation, which will serve as the location for the New Jerusalem in eternity.
Rv 20:12a dead  -   Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1
Rv 20:121 standing
Standing here indicates that the dead have been resurrected. This is the resurrection of the unbelievers, the resurrection of judgment, after the millennium (John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:23-24).
Rv 20:122b scrolls  -   Dan. 7:10
These scrolls are the record of the unbelievers’ works and deeds; the unbelievers will be judged according to what is recorded in the scrolls.
Rv 20:123 scroll
This is the record of the names of the believers (13:8; 17:8; Luke 10:20).
Rv 20:12c the  -   Rev. 3:5
Rv 20:12d according  -   Rom. 2:6
Rv 20:131a sea  -   Rev. 21:1
Since the dead unbelievers who were drowned in the sea are included among those in Hades, the dead given up by the sea must not include any unbelieving human beings; they may be the spirits (the demons today — Matt. 8:31-32; 12:43) of the living beings of the preadamic age (see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two). This may indicate that today’s demons will be judged at the great white throne along with the unbelieving human beings.
Rv 20:13b Hades  -   Rev. 6:8; Luke 16:23; Prov. 23:14; 27:20
Rv 20:141a death  -   1 Cor. 15:26; Rev. 21:4
The lake of fire is the “trash can” for the entire universe, into which all negative things, including death and Hades, will be cast. Death will be the last enemy destroyed by the Lord (1 Cor. 15:26).
Rv 20:14b lake  -   Rev. 19:20
Rv 20:142c second  -   Rev. 20:6
In the first death, the soul and spirit of fallen men are separated from their body and perish in the section of suffering in Hades (Luke 16:22-24). In the second death, their soul and spirit, after being rejoined to their body in resurrection, are cast with their body into the lake of fire. This means that the unbelievers’ whole being — spirit, soul, and body — will perish in eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Rv 20:151 anyone
The perishing unbelievers will be judged according to the scrolls, which are a record of their works (vv. 12-13), but they will be cast into the lake of fire according to the book of life. This indicates that they are condemned by the Lord because of their evil deeds but perish because of their unbelief, which issues in their not having their names written in the book of life. Not believing in the Lord Jesus is the unique sin that causes people to perish (John 16:9).
Rv 20:15a written  -   Rev. 13:8
Rv 20:152 book
Lit., scroll.
Rv 20:153 lake
The lake of fire has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Since the unbelievers have followed the devil, they will share the devil’s judgment (John 16:11) and will become joint partakers of the devil’s eternal torment. The demons, also having followed the devil, will share the same destiny.
Revelation Chapter 21
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 21:11a new  -   Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13
In eternity past God purposed to have a corporate expression that He might be fully expressed and glorified (Eph. 3:9-11; 1:9-12). For this, He created the heavens, the earth, and mankind. After the creation of the world, there are four dispensations: the dispensation of the patriarchs, from Adam to Moses (Rom. 5:14); the dispensation of law, from Moses to Christ (John 1:17); the dispensation of grace, from Christ’s first coming to the restoration of all things at Christ’s second coming (Acts 3:20-21); and the dispensation of the kingdom, from Christ’s second coming to the end of the millennium (11:15; 20:4, 6). God uses these four dispensations to perfect and complete His chosen people that they may be His eternal corporate expression for the accomplishing of His purpose. All four dispensations belong to the old heaven and old earth. Although the dispensation of the kingdom is the dispensation of restoration, it still will take place in the old heaven and old earth, because God’s perfecting and completing work in His chosen people will not be finished until the end of that dispensation. When God finishes this work through the dispensation of the kingdom, the old heaven and old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed to become the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13), into which the New Jerusalem will come to be God’s eternal expression.
Rv 21:12b first  -   Rev. 20:11
According to the principle revealed in the Bible, God does not want the first, whether man or thing (Exo. 12:12), but the second. Hence, whatever is the first, whether heaven, earth, man, or thing, will be annulled (v. 4; cf. 1 Cor. 15:47; Heb. 8:7, 13). If the Greek word for first is rendered former, the spiritual significance is missed.
Rv 21:13 sea
The sea is a result of the waters of judgment, which God used to judge the preadamic world (see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two). The work of God’s re-creation was to recover the land by restricting the result of the waters of judgment (Gen. 1:9-10; Jer. 5:22). The living creatures of the preadamic world, after being judged by the waters, became the sea’s inhabitants, the demons. After they have been dealt with by Christ and His believers (Matt. 8:29-32; Luke 10:17; Acts 16:16-18; 19:12) and the sea has given them up to the judgment of the great white throne (20:13), the sea will not be needed. Since the work of God’s re-creation, God’s intention has been to abolish the sea by dealing with Satan and his demons. Hence, the sea is no more indicates that Satan and his evil followers will all be dealt with and will not be found in the new heaven and new earth.
Rv 21:2a holy  -   Rev. 21:10; 22:19; Heb. 11:10, 16
Rv 21:21b New  -   Rev. 3:12; 21:10; Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22
The revelation of this book is composed of signs (see note 12 in ch. 1). Because of the profundity of the great and important matters in this book, it is difficult for man to speak of them exhaustively in plain words. Thus, all these matters are symbolized and depicted by signs, such as the lampstands, signifying the churches, and stars, signifying the messengers of the churches (ch. 1); Jezebel, signifying the degraded, fornicating Roman Church (ch. 2b); jasper and precious stones, signifying life and the redeeming God (4:3); the Lion and the Lamb, signifying the overcoming and redeeming Christ (ch. 5); the four horses, signifying the gospel, war, famine, and the spreading abroad of death (ch. 6a); the universal woman, signifying God’s redeemed throughout the generations, her child, signifying the strong, overcoming ones among God’s redeemed, and the dragon, the serpent, signifying the cruel and subtle Satan, the devil (ch. 12); the beast out of the sea, signifying Antichrist, and the beast out of the earth, signifying the false prophet (ch. 13); the harvest, signifying the people growing under God’s cultivation, and the firstfruits, signifying the ones who ripen early among those who are growing under God’s cultivation (ch. 14); Babylon the Great, signifying Rome, in both its religious aspect and its material aspect (chs. 17 — 18); and the bride, signifying the saints who are mature and are prepared to be Christ’s counterpart (ch. 19a). Besides these, there are many other signs. The final sign, which is also the greatest, is the New Jerusalem, signifying the composition of the totality of God’s redeemed saints throughout the generations, who have been regenerated, transformed, and glorified. It is not a material, lifeless city but a corporate living person as the bride, having Christ, such a wonderful person, as her husband (v. 2).
The New Jerusalem is a living composition of all the saints redeemed by God throughout all generations. It is the bride of Christ as His counterpart (John 3:29) and the holy city of God as His habitation, His tabernacle (v. 3). This is the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22), which God has prepared for us and which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long after (Heb. 11:10, 16). This is also the Jerusalem which is above and which is our mother (Gal. 4:26). As the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem comes out of Christ, her Husband, and becomes His counterpart, just as Eve came out of Adam, her husband, and became his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24). She is prepared by participating in the riches of the life and nature of Christ. As the holy city of God, she is wholly sanctified unto God and fully saturated with God’s holy nature to be His habitation.
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God likens His chosen people to a spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32) and a dwelling place for Himself (Exo. 29:45-46; Num. 5:3; Ezek. 43:7, 9; Psa. 68:18; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15). The spouse is for His satisfaction in love, and the dwelling place is for His rest in expression. Both of these aspects will be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem. In her, God will have the fullest satisfaction in love and the utmost rest in expression for eternity.
Rv 21:22 coming
After all God’s redeemed saints are raptured to the heavens, they will constitute the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God. This indicates that our dwelling place for eternity will not be heaven but the New Jerusalem on the new earth.
Rv 21:2c prepared  -   cf. Rev. 19:7
Rv 21:23d bride  -   Rev. 21:9; 22:17; Isa. 61:10; John 3:29
The New Jerusalem is a bride, indicating that she is not a material city but a corporate person. To Christ she is a bride for His satisfaction; to God she is a tabernacle in which He can rest and through which He can express Himself.
Rv 21:2e husband  -   Isa. 54:5; 62:5; Jer. 3:14; 31:32; Hosea 2:16
Rv 21:3a loud  -   Rev. 19:5
Rv 21:31b tabernacle  -   Exo. 25:9; 40:2; Rev. 7:15; 13:6
As God’s habitation, the New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle of God with men for eternity. The tabernacle made by Moses was a type of this tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; Lev. 26:11). That type was first fulfilled in Christ as God’s tabernacle among men (John 1:14) and will eventually be fulfilled in the fullest way in the New Jerusalem, which will be the enlargement of Christ as God’s dwelling place. This tabernacle will also be the eternal dwelling place of God’s redeemed people. God will overshadow us with Christ. (See note 153 in ch. 7.) Hence, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual habitation for both God and us.
Rv 21:3c tabernacle  -   Exo. 29:45; Lev. 26:11; Ezek. 37:27; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 6:16
Rv 21:3d they  -   Jer. 24:7; 31:1; Ezek. 11:20
Rv 21:41a wipe  -   Rev. 7:17
In the new heaven and new earth there will be full satisfaction and rest; there will be no more cause for tears.
Rv 21:42b death  -   Isa. 25:8; 2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Cor. 15:54; Rev. 20:14
Since death will be wholly swallowed up by life (1 Cor. 15:54) and will be cast into the lake of fire (20:14), in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more death.
Rv 21:4c sorrow  -   Isa. 35:10; 51:11; 65:19
Rv 21:43d former  -   Isa. 65:17; Heb. 12:27
Lit., first.
Rv 21:5a who  -   Rev. 4:2, 9
Rv 21:5b new  -   Isa. 42:9; 43:19; 2 Cor. 5:17
Rv 21:5c faithful  -   Rev. 22:6
Rv 21:61 They
They refers to these words in v. 5.
Rv 21:6a Alpha  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 21:6b Beginning  -   Rev. 22:13
Rv 21:6c thirsts  -   Rev. 22:17; John 4:10; Isa. 55:1
Rv 21:6d spring  -   Rev. 7:17; cf. John 4:14
Rv 21:6e water  -   Rev. 22:1, 17; John 4:10; 7:38
Rv 21:71a overcomes  -   1 John 5:4-5
The meaning of overcomes here is different from that in chs. 2 and 3, where the word is used seven times. Here it means to overcome by believing, as in 1 John 5:4-5. The overcoming in chs. 2 and 3 qualifies the overcoming believers to participate in the enjoyment of the millennial kingdom as a particular reward in God’s dispensational administration, whereas the overcoming here qualifies all believers to participate in the New Jerusalem with all its enjoyment as the common portion of God’s eternal salvation.
Rv 21:7b I  -   Jer. 7:23; 24:7; Ezek. 37:27; Heb. 8:10
Rv 21:72c son  -   Hosea 1:10; 2 Cor. 6:18; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; Rom. 8:14-16; Heb. 2:10
The peoples in v. 3 will be the nations in v. 24. In the new heaven and new earth they will be God’s people and not God’s sons. They will live on the new earth outside the New Jerusalem and will enjoy the common blessings in the new heaven and new earth. (See note 241.) Son in this verse does not refer to God’s people but to God’s redeemed saints throughout the generations. The sons of God will dwell in the New Jerusalem, participate in all its enjoyment, serve God and the Lamb, and reign for eternity (22:3-5).
Rv 21:8a abominable  -   Rev. 21:27; 22:15
Rv 21:8b fornicators  -   Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5
Rv 21:81 false
I.e., liars.
Rv 21:82c lake  -   Rev. 20:14-15
In the old heaven and old earth there is the sea of water to hold the result of God’s judgment, whereas in the new heaven and new earth there will be the lake of fire to replace the sea. All negative and filthy things, after being judged by God, will be cast into the lake of fire, where they will suffer the second death and be tormented by being burned in fire and brimstone for eternity (14:10-11). According to 22:15, the lake of fire will be outside the New Jerusalem, as Gehenna (which signifies the lake of fire — Matt. 5:22 and note 8), that is, as Topheth, a place for filthy things (Jer. 19:11-13), was outside the old Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33). The lake of fire is much more restricted than the sea of water.
Rv 21:8d second  -   Rev. 2:11
Rv 21:91 one
It was one of the seven angels who executed the seven last plagues who showed the New Jerusalem to John. This signifies that the judgment of the seven bowls is for the New Jerusalem.
Rv 21:9a seven  -   Rev. 15:1
Rv 21:9b Come  -   Rev. 17:1
Rv 21:92c bride  -   Rev. 21:2
A bride is mainly for the wedding day, while a wife is for the entire life. The New Jerusalem will be the bride in the millennium for one thousand years, which is like one day (2 Pet. 3:8), and will be the wife in the new heaven and new earth for eternity, to the ages of the ages without end.
Rv 21:9d wife  -   Rev. 19:7
Rv 21:10a carried  -   Rev. 17:3
Rv 21:10b in  -   Rev. 1:10
Rv 21:101 great
The great and high mountain is in contrast to the wilderness in 17:3. That he might see Babylon, the great harlot, John was carried to the wilderness. That he might see the bride, the New Jerusalem, John was carried to a great and high mountain. We need to be lifted up to a “high mountain” that we may see God’s dwelling place for the fulfilling of His eternal purpose.
Rv 21:10c holy  -   Rev. 21:2
Rv 21:111a glory  -   Rev. 21:23; Isa. 60:1, 19; John 1:14; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:17-18, 30; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 2:7; Heb. 2:10
The glory of God is the expression of God, God expressed. We have been predestined for this glory and called to this glory (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12). We are being transformed into this glory (2 Cor. 3:18) and will be brought into it (Heb. 2:10). Eventually, we will be glorified with Christ (Rom. 8:17, 30) and bear the glory of God for God’s expression in the New Jerusalem.
Rv 21:112b light  -   Rev. 22:5; Matt. 5:14-16; Eph. 5:8; Phil. 2:15
Lit., luminary, or, light-bearer. Today the believers, as children of light (Eph. 5:8), are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14), shining in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation (Phil. 2:15). Eventually, the New Jerusalem, as a composition of all the saints, will be the light-bearer, shining forth God as light over the nations around her (v. 24).
Rv 21:113c precious  -   Rev. 21:19
The precious stone is not the light but the light-bearer. It does not have light in itself, but the light, which is God, has been wrought into it and shines out through it. This indicates that since we are part of the coming New Jerusalem, we must be transformed into precious stones, with God being wrought into our being as the shining light, that we may be the light-bearer shining as God’s expression.
Rv 21:114d jasper  -   Rev. 21:18, 19; 4:3
God’s appearance is like jasper (4:3 and note 1). The light of the New Jerusalem is like jasper stone. The New Jerusalem bears the appearance of God and expresses God by her shining.
Rv 21:11e crystal  -   Rev. 22:1; 4:6; Ezek. 1:22
Rv 21:121 great
The wall is for separation and protection. New Jerusalem will be absolutely separated unto God and will fully protect the interests of God. Its wall will be great and high. Today all believers need such a great and high wall for their separation and protection.
Rv 21:12a wall  -   cf. Psa. 51:18; Neh. 4:6; 6:1, 6, 15; Isa. 60:18; Psa. 122:7
Rv 21:122b twelve  -   cf. Ezek. 48:31-34
The gates are for communication, for coming in and going out. Twelve is the number of absolute perfection and eternal completion in God’s administration. Hence, twelve gates indicates that the communication in the New Jerusalem is absolutely perfect and eternally complete for God’s administration.
Rv 21:12c gates  -   Rev. 21:25; 22:14; cf. Psa. 87:2; 122:2
Rv 21:123 angels
In God’s eternal economy, angels are ministering spirits (Heb. 1:14). They serve those who inherit salvation and who participate in the eternal blessing of the New Jerusalem, the center of the new heaven and new earth. They will be the gatekeepers of our possession, while we will be the enjoyers of the rich inheritance in God’s eternal economy.
Rv 21:124 Israel
Israel here represents the law of the Old Testament, indicating that the law is represented at the gates of the New Jerusalem. The law watches and observes to insure that all the communications, the comings in and goings out, of the holy city meet the law’s requirements. That the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed on the twelve gates signifies that the twelve tribes of Israel are the entrance into the holy city; as such, they lead people, through the preaching of the gospel, into the riches of the Triune God to enjoy the supply in the city.
The mentioning of Israel here also indicates that the New Jerusalem includes all the redeemed saints of the Old Testament.
Rv 21:131 east
The city lies square (v. 16), with three gates on each of the four sides. The east side, at the front, toward the glory of the sunrise, ranks first; the north side, at the top, ranks second; the south side, at the bottom, ranks third; and the west side, at the rear, ranks fourth. The gates on the four sides face the four directions of the earth, signifying that the entrance into the holy city is available to all the peoples on earth. (Cf. the four heads of the river in Gen. 2:10-14.) That there are three gates on each side signifies that the three of the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — work together to bring people into the holy city. This is indicated in the three parables in Luke 15 and implied in the Lord’s word in Matt. 28:19. To be baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is the real entrance into the holy city. That there are three gates on each of the four sides, three times four being twelve, also implies that the Triune God is mingled with man, the creature. (The number four signifies the creatures — 4:6.)
Rv 21:141a foundations  -   Rev. 21:19; Heb. 11:10; Eph. 2:20
The foundations here are not the foundation that is Christ, mentioned in 1 Cor. 3:10-11. Rather, they are the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Today the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20). Since in eternity there will be no more need for the prophets, the foundations of the holy city will consist only of the apostles.
Rv 21:14b twelve  -   Matt. 10:2-4a; Acts 1:26
Rv 21:142 apostles
The apostles here represent the grace of the New Testament, signifying that the New Jerusalem is built upon the grace of God. While entrance into the holy city is according to the law of God, the city is built upon the grace of God. Apostles here implies that the New Jerusalem is composed not only of the Old Testament saints, represented by Israel, but also of the New Testament saints, represented by the apostles.
Rv 21:151 golden
A reed is for measuring, and measuring is for taking possession (Ezek. 40:5; Zech. 2:1-2; Rev. 11:1). Since gold signifies the divine nature of God, golden here indicates that the city, its gates, and its wall are measured according to God’s divine nature. Anything that does not match the divine nature of God does not belong to the New Jerusalem. The entire city, with its gates and wall, can pass the measuring and testing of the divine nature of God; hence, it is fit to be God’s possession.
Rv 21:15a measure  -   Rev. 11:1; Ezek. 40:3; Zech. 2:1-2
Rv 21:161a square  -   cf. Ezek. 42:16-20
Square here indicates that the New Jerusalem is perfect and complete in every way, absolutely straight, and not in the least oblique.
Rv 21:162 twelve
Twelve thousand is one thousand times twelve. Since twelve signifies absolute perfection and eternal completion in God’s administration, twelve thousand signifies a thousand times this.
Rv 21:163 stadia
A stadion equals about six hundred feet.
Rv 21:164 length
The dimensions of the Holy of Holies, in both the tabernacle and the temple, were equal in length, breadth, and height (Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20). Hence, that the length and the breadth and the height of New Jerusalem are equal signifies that the entire New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies. In it, all God’s redeemed ones will serve and worship God, will see and touch God’s presence, and will live and dwell in God’s presence for eternity.
Rv 21:16b equal  -   cf. 1 Kings 6:19-20
Rv 21:171 hundred
A hundred and forty-four is twelve times twelve. Twelve times twelve signifies the absolute perfection and eternal completion of absolute perfections and eternal completions. How perfect and complete is the wall of the holy city in God’s eternal administration!
The city proper is like a mountain with a height of twelve thousand stadia, whereas the wall itself, from the foundation to the top, has a height of a hundred and forty-four cubits.
Rv 21:172 man
It is in resurrection that man will be like the angels (Matt. 22:30). Hence, the measure of a man, that is, of an angel indicates that the wall of the city is not natural but is in resurrection.
Rv 21:17a angel  -   Matt. 22:30
See note 172.
Rv 21:181a jasper  -   Rev. 21:11, 19; 4:3
Jasper is a transformed precious stone (1 Cor. 3:12). God’s appearance is like jasper (4:3 and note 1 there). The jasper wall signifies that the whole city, as the corporate expression of God in eternity, bears the appearance of God.
Rv 21:182 pure
Or, clear, clean.
Rv 21:183b gold  -   Rev. 21:21; 1:12; 1 Cor. 3:12
Since gold signifies the divine nature of God, the city’s being of pure gold signifies that New Jerusalem is altogether of God’s divine nature and takes God’s divine nature as its element. Pure gold, like clear glass indicates that the whole city is transparent and is not in the least opaque.
Rv 21:184 clear
Or, pure, clean.
Rv 21:191a foundations  -   Rev. 21:14
The New Jerusalem is a city of foundations (Heb. 11:10). These are the twelve apostles of the Lamb (v. 14), each of whom is signified by a precious stone. Peter, the first of the twelve apostles, was originally named Simon. When Simon was brought to the Lord, the Lord changed his name to Peter, meaning a stone (John 1:42). Later, the Lord called him by that name when He spoke concerning the building of His church (Matt. 16:18). Precious stones are not created but are produced by the transforming of things created. All the apostles were created as clay, but they were regenerated and were transformed into precious stones for God’s eternal building. Every believer needs to be thus regenerated and transformed that he may be a part of the New Jerusalem.
The colors of the foundation’s twelve precious stones, which signify the twelve apostles, are as follows: the first stone is green, the second and third are blue, the fourth is green, the fifth and sixth are red, the seventh is yellow, the eighth is bluish green, the ninth is yellow, the tenth is apple-green, the eleventh and twelfth are purple. The twelve layers of the foundation in the above colors have the appearance of a rainbow, signifying that the city is built upon and secured by God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant (Gen. 9:8-17) and that the foundation of the city is trustworthy and reliable.
Rv 21:19b precious  -   1 Cor. 3:12; cf. Exo. 25:7; 28:17-20; Isa. 54:11-12
Rv 21:192 jasper
The first layer of the wall’s foundation, as well as the entire wall of New Jerusalem, is built with jasper (v. 18). This indicates that the main material in the building of the holy city is jasper. Since jasper signifies God expressed in His transmittable glory (4:3), the main function of the holy city is to express God in bearing His glory (v. 11).
Rv 21:20a sardonyx  -   Gen. 2:12
Rv 21:21a twelve  -   Rev. 21:12
Rv 21:211b pearls  -   Gen. 2:12; Num. 11:7
Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death. When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand and makes it into a precious pearl. This depicts Christ as the living One coming into the death waters, being wounded by us, and secreting His life over us to make us into precious pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression. That the twelve gates of the holy city are twelve pearls signifies that regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ is the entrance into the city. This meets the requirement of the law, which is represented by Israel and is under the observing of the guarding angels (v. 12).
The New Jerusalem is built of three kinds of precious materials, signifying that she is built with the Triune God. First, the city proper, with its street, is of pure gold (vv. 18, 21). Gold, the symbol of the divine nature of God, signifies the Father as the source, from whom the element for the substantial existence of the city is produced. Second, the twelve gates of the city are pearls, which signify the Son’s overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection, through which entrance to the city is gained. Third, the wall of the city and its foundation are built of precious stones, signifying the Spirit’s work of transforming the redeemed and regenerated saints into precious stones for the building of God’s eternal habitation that they may express God corporately in His all-permeating glory. In the garden of Eden these three kinds of treasures merely existed as materials (Gen. 2:11-12), whereas in the city of New Jerusalem these precious materials become a builded city for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, which is to have a corporate expression.
Rv 21:212 one
Each gate of the holy city is one pearl, signifying that the entrance to the city is unique and is once for all; that is, we can enter the city only through the once-for-all regeneration accomplished by Christ’s overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection.
Rv 21:213 street
The gates are for the entrance into the city, whereas the street is for the daily walk, the daily living, in the city. The entrance into the city is through Christ’s death and resurrection, whereas the daily walk, the daily living, in the city is according to the divine nature of God, signified by the street being of pure gold. After the saints enter through regeneration, they must daily live and walk in God’s divine nature as the way. The divine nature of God is their pathway.
Rv 21:21c gold  -   Rev. 21:18
Rv 21:214 transparent
The pure gold, which symbolizes the street and the city proper of the New Jerusalem, is like clear glass (v. 18), signifying that the whole city is transparent. Although the pearls may be opaque, every one of them is a great open gate, which will not be shut by day or by night (v. 25).
Rv 21:221 no
In the Old Testament the tabernacle of God was a precursor of the temple of God. New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God (v. 3) will be the temple of God. This indicates that in the new heaven and new earth the temple of God will be enlarged into a city. That the three dimensions of the city are equal (v. 16) indicates that the city as a whole will be the Holy of Holies, the inner temple. Hence, there will be no temple in it.
Rv 21:222a temple  -   cf. Rev. 3:12; 7:15; 11:1, 19; 15:8
The Greek word denotes the inner temple. This inner temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb, signifying that God and the Lamb Themselves will be the place in which we serve God. The holy city as the tabernacle of God is for God to dwell in, and God and the Lamb as the temple are for the redeemed saints to dwell in. In the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place for God and man for eternity.
Rv 21:22b Lord  -   Rev. 1:8
Rv 21:22c Lamb  -   Rev. 5:6; 7:17
Rv 21:22d temple  -   Psa. 90:1; Isa. 8:14; Ezek. 11:16; Rev. 7:15
See note 222.
Rv 21:231a no  -   Rev. 22:5; Isa. 60:19; cf. Isa. 24:23
In the millennium the light of the sun and the moon will be intensified (Isa. 30:26). But in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth there will be no need of the shining of the sun or of the moon. The sun and moon will be present in the new heaven and new earth, but their shining will not be needed in the New Jerusalem, for God, the divine light, will shine much more brightly there.
Rv 21:23b glory  -   Rev. 21:11
Rv 21:232c lamp  -   Rev. 4:5
The Lamb as the lamp will shine with God as the light to illumine the city with the glory of God, the expression of the divine light. Since the holy city will be illumined by such a divine light, it will need no other light, whether created by God or made by man (22:5).
Rv 21:241a nations  -   Rev. 22:2; Isa. 60:3; Matt. 25:32-34
At the end of this age a great part of the inhabitants of the earth will be killed as a result of the sixth and seventh trumpets. The rest will be judged by Christ at the throne of His glory when He comes back to earth. The condemned ones, the “goats,” will be cursed and will perish in the lake of fire, while the justified ones, the “sheep,” will be blessed and will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:31-46). Unlike the New Testament believers, the “sheep” will not be saved and regenerated; they will only be restored to the original state of man as he was created by God. They will be the nations as citizens of the millennial kingdom, in which the overcoming believers will be the kings (20:4, 6) and the saved remnant of Israel will be the priests (Zech. 8:20-23). After the millennial kingdom, a part of these nations, deceived by the devil, will rebel against the Lord and will be consumed by fire from heaven (20:7-9). The rest will be transferred to the new earth to be the nations, which will live around the New Jerusalem and walk by its light. They will be the peoples mentioned in vv. 3 and 4. They, as created but unregenerated men, will be maintained to live forever in their created state through the healing of the leaves of the tree of life (22:2). Even for them there will be no more death (v. 4). Under the shining of the New Jerusalem with the divine glory, neither will they be in darkness.
Rv 21:242 light
Cf. Isa. 2:5.
Rv 21:243b kings  -   Psa. 72:10-11; Isa. 60:11, 16
The kings of the earth here are the kings of the nations in the new earth. The redeemed and regenerated saints will be kings over these kings (22:5), and Christ will be the King of kings for eternity.
Rv 21:244 glory
Glory here refers to splendor (Matt. 5:16; see note 92 in Heb. 2).
Rv 21:251a no  -   Isa. 60:11
The wall of the city will separate the city from the nations, but the gates will keep the city continually open to them.
Rv 21:252b night  -   Rev. 22:5; 1 John 1:5
In the new heaven and new earth there will still be the distinction between day and night, but in the New Jerusalem there will be no such distinction, for there, God Himself as the brighter light will shine continuously day and night.
Rv 21:261a glory  -   Isa. 60:5
See note 244.
Rv 21:262 honor
Honor refers to preciousness in status and dignity in position (cf. Esth. 1:4).
Rv 21:27a common  -   Isa. 52:1; 35:8
Rv 21:27b abomination  -   Rev. 21:8
Rv 21:27c lie  -   Rev. 22:15
Rv 21:27d enter  -   Rev. 22:14
Rv 21:271 those
Since the nations living on the new earth outside the New Jerusalem will bring their glory and honor into the city, they surely are included among those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Rv 21:27e written  -   Rev. 13:8
Rv 21:272 book
Lit., scroll.
Revelation Chapter 22
Notes and Cross-references
Rv 22:11 he
He refers to the angel in 21:9.
Rv 22:1a showed  -   Rev. 21:9
Rv 22:12b river  -   Gen. 2:10; Psa. 36:8; 46:4; 65:9; Ezek. 47:5, 9; John 7:38
The river here, typified by the rivers in Gen. 2:10-14, Psa. 46:4, and Ezek. 47:5-9, signifies the abundance of life in its flow. It is one river, flowing to the four corners of the holy city, like the one river in Gen. 2:10-14, which parts into four heads. As indicated in John 7:38, this one river with its riches becomes many rivers in our experience of the different aspects of the riches of God’s Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2; 15:30; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23).
Rv 22:13c water  -   Rev. 22:17; 21:6; 7:17; John 4:14
The water of life is a symbol of God in Christ as the Spirit flowing Himself into His redeemed people to be their life and life supply. It is typified by the water that came out of the riven rock (Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:11) and symbolized by the water that flowed out of the pierced side of the Lord Jesus (John 19:34). Here, the water of life becomes a river, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb to supply and saturate the entire New Jerusalem. Thus this city is filled with the divine life that it may express God in His glory of life.
Rv 22:14d crystal  -   Rev. 21:11
The water of life is bright as crystal, having no dimness or opaqueness. When this water of life flows in us, it purifies us and makes us as transparent as crystal.
Rv 22:1e proceeding  -   Ezek. 47:12
Rv 22:15f throne  -   Rev. 4:2; Heb. 4:16; cf. Dan. 7:9-10
The throne of God and of the Lamb, showing that there is one throne for both God and the Lamb, indicates that God and the Lamb are one — the Lamb-God, the redeeming God, God the Redeemer. In eternity the very God who sits on the throne is our redeeming God, from whose throne proceeds the river of water of life for our supply and satisfaction. This depicts how the Triune God — God, the Lamb, and the Spirit, who is symbolized by the water of life — dispenses Himself to His redeemed under His headship (implied in the authority of the throne) for eternity.
Rv 22:16g street  -   Rev. 21:21
The street of the holy city is pure gold (21:21). Gold symbolizes the divine nature. That the river of water of life proceeds “in the middle of its street” signifies that the divine life flows in the divine nature as the unique way for the daily life of God’s redeemed people. Where the divine life flows, there the divine nature is as the holy way by which God’s people walk; and where the holy way of the divine nature is, there the divine life is flowing. The divine life and the divine nature as the holy way always go together. Thus, God’s river of water of life is available along this divine way, and we enjoy the river by walking in this way of life.
Rv 22:2a side  -   Ezek. 47:7, 12
Rv 22:21b tree  -   Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24; Rev. 22:14, 19; 2:7
That the one tree of life grows on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine that spreads and proceeds along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. This tree fulfills for eternity what God intended from the beginning (Gen. 2:9). The tree of life was closed to man because of his fall (Gen. 3:22-24), but it was opened to the believers through the redemption of Christ (Heb. 10:19-20). Today the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life is the believers’ common portion (John 6:35, 57). In the millennial kingdom the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life will be a dispensational reward to the overcoming believers (2:7). Eventually, in the new heaven and new earth for eternity, the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life will be the eternal portion of all God’s redeemed (vv. 14, 19). Christ as the tree of life is the life supply available along the flow of the Spirit as the water of life. Where the Spirit flows, there the life supply of Christ is found. This is all in and with the divine nature as our holy way, signified by the street. This is the supply of the holy city, and this is the way the city is supplied.
Rv 22:22c fruits  -   Ezek. 47:12
The fruits of the tree of life will be the food of God’s redeemed for eternity. They will be continually fresh, being produced every month, twelve fruits yearly. That the tree of life bears twelve fruits means that the fruit of the tree of life is rich and is sufficient for the carrying out of God’s eternal administration.
Rv 22:23 each
Lit., according to each month.
Rv 22:24 month
Month indicates that in the new heaven and new earth the moon still will be there to divide the twelve months. The sun also will be there to separate day and night into periods of twelve hours each. While the number that represents the church is seven, signifying that God in His present dispensation is added to His creature, man, the number that represents the New Jerusalem is twelve, signifying that God in His eternal administration is mingled with His creature, man. In the New Jerusalem are the twelve foundations, inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles; the twelve gates, which are twelve pearls, inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes; and the twelve fruits of the tree of life. With regard to space, the city proper is twelve thousand stadia, one thousand times twelve, in each of its three dimensions, and its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, twelve times twelve, in height. With regard to time, in the new heaven and new earth there are twelve months yearly, twelve hours daily, and twelve hours nightly.
Rv 22:25d leaves  -   Ezek. 47:12
The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. In the Bible, leaves are a symbol of man’s deeds (Gen. 3:7). The leaves of the tree of life symbolize the deeds of Christ. The regenerated believers eat the fruit of the tree of life, receiving Christ as their inward life and life supply, that they may enjoy the divine life for eternity, whereas the restored nations are healed by the leaves of the tree of life, taking the deeds of Christ as their outward guide and regulation, that they may live the human life forever.
Rv 22:2e healing  -   Mal. 4:2
Rv 22:2f nations  -   Rev. 21:24
Rv 22:31 a
Or, anything accursed.
Rv 22:32a curse  -   Gen. 3:17; Gal. 3:13; Zech. 14:11
The curse came in through Adam’s fall (Gen. 3:17) and was dealt with by Christ’s redemption (Gal. 3:13). Since in the new heaven and new earth the fall will be no more, there will no longer be a curse.
Rv 22:33 throne
The throne of God and of the Lamb is one of the blessings that God’s redeemed will enjoy in eternity. They will no longer suffer any curse; the throne of God and of the Lamb will be their eternal portion.
Rv 22:3b slaves  -   Rev. 1:1
Rv 22:34c serve  -   Rev. 7:15; 1:6; 5:10
The Greek word denotes serving as priests. To serve God and the Lamb also will be a blessing to God’s redeemed in eternity.
Rv 22:35 Him
Him, like His in v. 4, refers to God and the Lamb; God and the Lamb are one in eternity.
Rv 22:41a see  -   Matt. 5:8; Psa. 42:2
To see the face of God and of the Lamb and to have His name on their foreheads also will be blessings of the Triune God enjoyed by God’s redeemed in eternity.
Rv 22:4b face  -   Num. 6:25-26; Psa. 17:15; 42:5; 44:3
Rv 22:4c name  -   Rev. 3:12; 14:1
Rv 22:51a night  -   Rev. 21:25
See note 252 in ch. 21.
Rv 22:5b no  -   Rev. 21:23
Rv 22:52 light
The light of a lamp is made by man, and the light of the sun is created by God.
Rv 22:53 Lord
To be shined upon by the Lord God will be another blessing to God’s redeemed in eternity.
Rv 22:54c reign  -   Rev. 5:10; 20:4
To reign forever will be the final blessing to God’s redeemed in eternity.
Rv 22:61 he
He refers to the angel in 21:9.
Rv 22:6a faithful  -   Rev. 21:5
Rv 22:62 Lord
“The Lord, the God,” who sent His angel to show the things in this book is the Lord Jesus (1:1; 22:16).
Rv 22:6b God  -   Num. 16:22; 27:16
Rv 22:63c spirits  -   1 Cor. 14:32
In this book the Lord God is the God of the spirits of the prophets. This indicates that all the prophecies in this book are inspired by the very God who inspired the spirits of the prophets in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It also indicates that these prophecies are related to those in the Old Testament and the New Testament, all of which were spoken by the prophets in their spirit, which was under the inspiration of God. Hence, to comprehend these prophecies, we too need to be in our spirit under God’s anointing.
Rv 22:6d prophets  -   Rev. 22:9; 10:7; 11:18; 16:6; 18:20, 24; Eph. 2:20; 4:11
Rv 22:6e show  -   Rev. 1:1
Rv 22:71 I
“I come quickly” is the Lord’s warning. If we heed this warning, we will be blessed; otherwise, we will forfeit the blessing.
Rv 22:7a come  -   Rev. 22:12, 20; 3:11
Rv 22:7b Blessed  -   Rev. 22:14; 1:3
Rv 22:8a John  -   Rev. 1:9-12
Rv 22:8b fell  -   Rev. 19:10
Rv 22:9a Do  -   Rev. 19:10
Rv 22:9b prophets  -   Rev. 22:6
Rv 22:9c keep  -   Rev. 22:7; 1:3
Rv 22:9d Worship  -   Rev. 14:7; Matt. 4:10
Rv 22:101 not
Daniel’s prophecies were sealed because they were given long before the time of the end, whereas the prophecies of this book should not be sealed, for the time is near.
Rv 22:10a seal  -   cf. Rev. 5:1, 5; Dan. 8:26; 12:4, 9
Rv 22:10b prophecy  -   Rev. 22:7, 18, 19; 1:3; 10:11; 19:10
Rv 22:10c time  -   Rev. 1:3
Rv 22:111 Let
In the age of this book, whatever one is, whether unrighteous or righteous, whether filthy or holy, is a serious matter. To be righteous is to walk outwardly according to the righteous ways of God, whereas to be holy is to live inwardly according to the holy nature of God. In the age of this book we must walk and live in this way that we may receive the reward; otherwise, we will be condemned as unrighteous and filthy and will receive punishment at the Lord’s coming back (v. 12).
Rv 22:11a him  -   Dan. 12:10
Rv 22:121 I
The Lord repeats His warning, “I come quickly,” so that we will consider His reward, to be rendered at His coming back.
Rv 22:12a come  -   Rev. 22:7
Rv 22:122b reward  -   Rev. 11:18
Lit., wages. At the Lord’s coming, this reward will be rendered to each one of the believers, after their rapture, at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; Rom. 14:10; Matt. 16:27).
Rv 22:131 I
This is the Lord’s declaration at the close of this book; it corresponds with what God declared in the opening of this book (1:8). This indicates that the Lord Jesus is the very God.
Rv 22:13a Alpha  -   Rev. 1:8; 21:6
Rv 22:132b First  -   Rev. 1:17
The Lord Jesus is not only the First but also the Beginning, and not only the Last but also the End. The First indicates that none is before Him, and the Last that none is after Him, whereas the Beginning indicates that He is the origination of all things, and the End that He is the consummation of all things. Hence, the indication here is not only that there is nothing before or after the Lord Jesus but also that there is no origination or consummation without Him.
Rv 22:13c Beginning  -   Rev. 21:6
Rv 22:141a Blessed  -   Rev. 22:7; 1:3
This verse can be considered a promise of the enjoyment of the tree of life, which is Christ with all the riches of life; and the second half of v. 17 can be considered a call to take the water of life, which is the life-giving Spirit. Thus this book ends in a promise and a call, both of which are for eating and drinking the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
Rv 22:142b wash  -   Rev. 7:14; 1 John 1:7, 9
The robes here symbolize the conduct of the believers. To wash their robes is to keep their conduct clean through the washing of the blood of the Lamb (7:14; 1 John 1:7). This gives them the right to participate in the tree of life and to enter into the city. Both the tree of life and the city will be an enjoyment to them in eternity.
Rv 22:14c robes  -   Rev. 3:4-5, 18; 6:11; 19:8, 14
Rv 22:143 they
Lit., their authority will be over the tree of life and they may enter…
Rv 22:144d right  -   cf. Gen. 3:24
After being created, man was put before the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9), indicating that he was privileged to partake of it. But because of the fall of man, the way to the tree of life was closed to man by God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness (Gen. 3:24). Through Christ’s redemption, which fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, the way to the tree of life was opened again to believers (Heb. 10:19-20). Hence, those who wash their robes in the redeeming blood of Christ have the right to enjoy the tree of life as their eternal portion in the holy city, the Paradise of God, in eternity (2:7).
Rv 22:14e tree  -   Rev. 22:2; 2:7
Rv 22:14f enter  -   Rev. 21:27
Rv 22:145 by
To enter by the gates into the city is to enter the New Jerusalem, as a realm of God’s eternal blessing, by regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-imparting Christ. (See note 212 in ch. 21.)
Rv 22:14g gates  -   Rev. 21:12
Rv 22:151a Outside  -   Rev. 21:8, 27
Outside means outside the city, where the lake of fire, which holds all the sinners who have perished, will be located. (See note 82 in ch. 21.)
Rv 22:15b dogs  -   Phil. 3:2; Matt. 7:6; 2 Pet. 2:22; Deut. 23:18
Rv 22:15c makes  -   John 8:44
Rv 22:16a sent  -   Rev. 1:1; 22:6
Rv 22:161 for
Lit., upon, or, over.
Rv 22:162b churches  -   Rev. 1:4, 11
The testimony of this book was made by the Lord Jesus for the churches. Hence, to comprehend and keep this testimony, we need to be in the churches and for the churches.
Rv 22:163c Root  -   Rev. 5:5; Isa. 11:10
In His divinity, Christ is the Root, the source, of David; in His humanity, Christ is the Offspring, the issue, of David. Hence, He is the Lord as the Root of David, and He is also the son, the shoot, of David as the Offspring of David (Matt. 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Jer. 23:5).
Rv 22:16d Offspring  -   Matt. 1:1; 22:42; John 7:42; Rom. 1:3; Jer. 23:5
Rv 22:164e morning  -   Rev. 2:28; cf. Matt. 2:2; Num. 24:17
At His coming back Christ will be the rising sun to His people generally (Mal. 4:2) but the morning star to His watching lovers particularly. The latter will be a reward to the overcomers (2:28). Christ’s being the Root and Offspring of David is related to Israel and the kingdom, whereas Christ’s being the bright morning star is related to the church and the rapture. The morning star appears before the darkest hour, prior to the dawn. The great tribulation will be this darkest time, after which the day of the kingdom will dawn. In the kingdom the Lord will appear publicly to His people as the sun, but before the great tribulation He will appear privately to His overcomers as the morning star.
Rv 22:171a Spirit  -   Rev. 2:7
In chs. 2 and 3 it was the Spirit speaking to the churches; here, at the end of the book, it is the Spirit and the bride, the church, speaking together as one. This indicates that the church’s experience of the Spirit has improved to the extent that she has become one with the Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God.
The entire revelation of the Bible shows us the love story of a universal couple. That is, the sovereign Lord, who created the universe and all things, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — who went through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and who ultimately became the life-giving Spirit, is joined in marriage to the created, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man — composed of spirit, soul, and body — who ultimately constitutes the church, the expression of God. In the eternity that is without end, by the divine, eternal, and surpassingly glorious life, they will live a life that is the mingling of God and man as one spirit, a life that is superexcellent and that overflows with blessings and joy.
Rv 22:17b bride  -   Rev. 21:2, 9
Rv 22:172c Come  -   Rev. 22:20; 2 Tim. 4:8
“Come!” is the response of the Spirit and the bride to the Lord’s word in v. 16 and to His repeated warning in vv. 7 and 12. It expresses the desire for the Lord’s coming. Whoever hears this response also should say, “Come!” thus expressing a joint desire for the Lord’s coming. All believers who love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8) should express such a joint desire.
Rv 22:17d thirsty  -   Rev. 21:6; John 4:14; Isa. 44:3
Rv 22:173e come  -   John 7:37; Isa. 55:1; Matt. 11:28
The Spirit and the bride, on one hand, desire that the Lord will come, and, on the other hand, yearn that the thirsty sinner also will come to take the water of life for his satisfaction. When we have a sincere desire for the Lord’s coming, we also have an earnest concern for the sinner’s salvation.
Rv 22:174 him
See note 141.
Rv 22:17f water  -   Rev. 22:1
Rv 22:181 I
The “I” here should be the Lord Jesus, in accordance with vv. 16 and 20; it may, however, refer to John, in accordance with 1:2. In any case, John was one in spirit with the Lord in this solemn warning.
Rv 22:18a prophecy  -   Rev. 22:10
Rv 22:18b adds  -   Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6
Rv 22:182c plagues  -   Rev. 15:1, 6-8; 16:9, 21
The main items of the plagues unveiled in this book are the three woes of the great tribulation, and the second death, that is, the perishing of the whole man — spirit, soul, and body — in the lake of fire. The outstanding features of the blessing revealed in this book are the tree of life and the holy city. Whether one will suffer the plagues or share in the blessing depends on how one deals with the prophecy of this book. We should not add to the prophecy, nor should we take away anything from it. We must receive it as it is written.
Rv 22:19a takes  -   Deut. 4:2; 12:32
Rv 22:191b tree  -   Rev. 22:2, 14
See note 182.
Rv 22:19c holy  -   Rev. 21:2, 10
Rv 22:201 I
This is the third time in this chapter that the Lord warns us that He is coming quickly.
Rv 22:20a come  -   Rev. 22:7, 12
Rv 22:20b Amen  -   Rev. 1:6, 7; 3:14
Rv 22:202c Come  -   Rev. 22:17; 1 Cor. 16:22
This is the apostle John’s prayer and his response to the Lord’s warning. It is also the last prayer in the Bible. After hearing this book, we should all pray such a prayer and have such a response — “Come, Lord Jesus!” The entire Bible concludes with the desire for the Lord’s coming expressed as a prayer.
Rv 22:211a grace  -   Rev. 1:4; 2 Cor. 13:14; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 6:18
After seeing all the visions and hearing all the prophecies in this book, we still need the Lord’s grace. Only the grace of the Lord Jesus can enable us to live and walk according to these visions and prophecies. Not only this book but also the entire Bible closes with this grace, the grace that enables us to experience the all-inclusive Christ and participate in the Triune God that we may become His eternal corporate expression for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, that He and we may enjoy absolute satisfaction and complete rest mutually for eternity.
Rv 22:212 Jesus
Some ancient authorities add, Christ.
Rv 22:213 the
Some ancient authorities omit, the saints. Amen.
The New Jerusalem, the last major item revealed in this book, is not only the conclusion of the entire Bible but also the ultimate consummation of all the important items revealed in the Bible. The Triune God, the Triune God’s economy, Christ’s redemption, God’s salvation, the believers, the church, and the kingdom are all consummated in the New Jerusalem as the consummating item. Thus, to say that the New Jerusalem is a physical city is not logical; it does not correspond with this book’s principle of using signs for the revelation of the mysterious things. According to the entire revelation of the complete Bible, the New Jerusalem, the conclusion of the complete Bible, is a divine mingling of the processed Triune God with the redeemed and transformed tripartite man, a mingling of divinity with humanity, issuing in a universal, corporate, mysterious person. This person is:
(1) The wife of the Lamb (21:9);
(2) The ultimate consummation of God’s tabernacle and temple, as the eternal mutual habitation of both God and man (21:3, 22);
(3) The ultimate consummation of God’s work of the new creation in the old creation throughout the generations (Acts 4:11; John 2:19; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:9-12; 1 Pet. 2:4-5); and
(4) The ultimate consummation of God’s eternal economy and God’s divine accomplishments.
Rv 22:21b saints  -   Rev. 5:8; 8:3; 11:18; 13:7, 10; 14:12; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24; 19:8; 20:9
Rv 22:21c Amen  -   1 Chron. 16:36; Psa. 89:52; Neh. 8:6
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